Two-Year Warranty on Lava Smartphones and Feature Phones in India

LAVA International Limited, a leading Indian multi-national company in the mobile handset industry, today launched 2-Year Warranty on all its major models in the product portfolio - across smartphones and feature phones. The company also announced 2-Year Warranty on all its future product launches as well. The 2-Year warranty promise is a first-of-its-kind in the Indian mobile handset industry covering such a wide range of product portfolio. With this promise, LAVA re-affirms its focus on product quality and reliability backed by robust investments in research & development and product manufacturing.

The company announced that on the purchase of a LAVA mobile handset, from August 26, 2017, the customers will have 2-Year warranty activated on their phones. LAVA’s wide reach of over 1000 service centres spread across the country will further facilitate in getting mobile handsets serviced in consumers’ close vicinity - as per the 2-Year Warranty policy. LAVA’s service centres mark its presence even in the remotest parts of the country such as Leh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Commenting on the launch of the 2-Year Warranty, Gaurav Nigam, Senior VP, Head of Product, LAVA International said, “These are exciting times for us as we continue to gain a stronger foothold in the Indian mobile handset industry. We are presumably the first Indian mobile phone brand to launch 2-Year Warranty offer on such a wide portfolio of devices. This offer exhibits the confidence we have in the reliability of our products and the focus that we put in quality control at every stage of product development.”

The standard warranty clause of 6 months validity on accessories and 1-year on Touch Panel + LCD will apply on both LAVA’s Feature and Smartphones. Details about the mobile handsets covered under the 

2-Year Warranty can be accessed at www.lavamobiles.com.

Committed to Government of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, LAVA is working towards establishing the very 1st Mobile Phone Design Center in India. LAVA has an in-house R&D and product-testing set-up in China and India, with over 700 professionals involved in product design and development. LAVA is also working towards ramping up its existing manufacturing units and is in the process of setting up new manufacturing facilities. 

Lava International Limited is an Indian multi-national company in the mobile handset industry.  The company is headquartered in Noida and has overseas operations in Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mexico, Middle East, and Russia. The company has also marked its foray into the African continent recently. 

Lava is committed to bring valuable technologies accessible.  Lava has been declared the most trusted smartphone brand in product quality and after sales service amongst all Indian brands by Silicon India.  It also won the “Best Customer experience team of the year award” in consumer goods category of 9th Loyalty Awards & Customer Experience Awards conducted by Kamikaze B2B media. Lava bagged the ‘Best Customer Service in Mobile Handset Company’ Award at the Golden Star Six Sigma Awards 2016-2017.

ICMR; MOHFW Sign MoU with International Vaccine Institute to Support Vaccine Development in India

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the Department of Health Research and the Department of Health and Family Welfare of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), GOIsigned a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today with theInternational Vaccine Institute (IVI), South Korea to collaborate on vaccine research and development.  The MOU will also strengthen the relationship between IVI and India. 

The MOU was signed between  Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of ICMR & Secretary, Department of Health Research;  Manoj Jhalani, Additional Secretary & Managing Director, National Health Mission and   Jerome H. Kim, Director General of IVI.

With a long history of scientific collaboration with IVI, India officially became a signatory to the treaty of the Seoul-based international organization in 2012.  IVI has 35 signatory countries.  With this partnership, India is committing an annual contribution of US $5,00,000 to IVI and joins Sweden and South Korea as financially contributing signatories to IVI.

IVI has been partnering with Indian vaccine manufacturers, research institutes, government, and public health agencies on vaccine development, research, and training. One of the most successful collaborations was with Shantha Biotech on the development of Shanchol, the world’s first low-cost oral cholera vaccine.  The vaccine was licensed in India in 2009 and WHO-prequalified in 2011.  IVI successfully collaborated with health authorities in Odisha State to introduce the oral cholera vaccine for the first time in India in 2011. In addition, IVI has collaborated with the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata on research and training projects, including the establishment of a vaccine evaluation lab at NICED.

The partnership will promote further collaborative research activities and training programs between India and IVI and will ensure IVI achieves its goal of improving health outcomes for the world’s poor by improving vaccine access. It will also accelerate capacity-building initiatives that will synergize with and benefit India’s vaccine industry, public health and immunization programs.

IVI has successful partnerships with international organizations like WHO andGavi, the Vaccine Alliance. These partnerships are used to ensure adequate production of vaccines, stockpile and prequalification of vaccines.

On the occasion, Dr. Jerome H. Kim, Director General of IVI, said, “India is a vaccine industry powerhouse that supplies 60% of the world's vaccines for vaccine preventable diseases and 60-80% of annual UN vaccine purchases(2012). The signing of the MoU is a continuation of our partnership with India to provide safe, effective and affordable vaccines for people around the world. With this agreement, India once again shows its capacity for leadership in global health, and we hope this action will add significant momentum to IVI's drive for greater support in the world community. We look forward to having India’s representation on the IVI Board of Trustees which will increase engagement with Indian academia and industry even further.”

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of ICMR, said, “We have been working closely with IVI in India for more than a decade now. We are confident that this collaboration will elevate the vaccine R&D capacity at IVI as well as Indian labs and further benefit India’s vaccine industry."

“We are pleased to make some financial contribution to help IVI achieve its mission. This partnership will help us better address the vaccine needs of our children in the country and ultimately contribute to protecting people from infectious diseases,” said Manoj Jhalani, Additional Secretary and Managing Director of the National Health Mission (NHM), MOHFW.

Telenor India and Huawei Conduct Trials of Lean-BCCH Technology

Telenor India and Huawei Telecommunications India has announced successful trials and tests of revolutionary Lean BCCH solutions in India. A technology standard designed to address spectrum scarcity and broaden the future of NB-IoT eco-system, Lean BCCH can enable Telenor India to offer affordable mobile broadband (MBB) services to customers without any additional investment.

The trial was conducted in Barauch town of Gujarat. The observation reveals that spectrum efficiency improved up to 30% after LEAN BCCH trial and the GSM KPIs are comparable even after re-farming of 1.4MHz spectrum out of 5MHz. The solution is supported by advanced technologies and features which helped to control interference and ensured the best utilization of frequency channels in GSM. Lean BCCH along with LEAN GSM technology uses GPS-based synchronization and advanced intelligent interference control management based on real time network conditions.

This solution can help Telecom Industry in preparing their spectrum re-farming strategies and on ground implementation. It can in turn help Telecom operators in shifting to the new technologies further and meet increasing demand for data and multimedia services. This solution can enable operators to deploy NB-IoT applications like smart parking, smart metering, water meter, gas meter, electric meter, or even tracking kids or path tracking among others which are one of the milestone of smart city projects.

Speaking on Telenor India’s achievements, Tanveer Mohammad, COO, Telenor India, said, “At Telenor we are committed to extend benefits of affordable mobile connectivity to our customers enable them to be part of the digitization journey India is going through. Telenor has consciously calibrated its network to launch relevant services that offer more value to our customers. By adopting industry leading technologies and encouraging innovation, we along with our partners are extracting higher efficiencies from existing resources without compromising on the quality of service.”

Speaking on the new innovation,  Jay Chen, CEO of Huawei India said, “Lean BCCH is an industry defining innovation which takes us one step further to affordable broadband and the vision of Digital India” .

“Huawei Telecommunications India is committed to driving technological innovation and we have many firsts to our name which are also industry’s first.  The successful deployment of Huawei’s Lean BCCH solution is an important milestone in the progress towards digitization and will fully release network potential that provides assurance for accelerating carrier service provisioning and improving user experience,” he further added.

Gionee’s XI is Equipped with Finger Print Sensor and a 3000 mAh Battery Priced Rs 8,999

Gionee India, leading smartphone company with its innovative and cutting-edge technology plans to introduce a new line of products with spectacular product quality at really attractive prices in the times to come. The company has made a beginning by launching ‘Gionee X1’, equipped with finger print sensor and a 3000 mAh battery at an attractive price of Rs 8,999.

Truly transformative, the all new X1 crams the best of Gionee with an intuitive fingerprint sensor that is not only responsible for the security and privacy protection of your phone but also serves to take a selfie stably and conveniently; a whopping 3000mAh battery to last all day of usage; and three individual slots that can be simultaneously connected to two different networks while running an external SD card of up to 256 GB. Available in two eye catching color variants, the powerful Gionee X1 offers more bang for the buck with a premium design at a pocket friendly price.

Commenting on the launch, Alok Shrivastava, Director – Business Intelligence and Planning, Gionee India said, “Gionee has always been committed to amaze its customers with premium quality products at attractive prices. Continuing this philosophy, we are delighted to introduce the all new X1 which will surely be a delight for the users. We are confident that the new line of products which we plan to launch soon will not only impress our customers in terms of the prices but also with their striking features and premium quality”.

Built for the young and raring to go, Gionee X1 has everything to make every user’s smartphone experience seamless and enjoyable. For the selfie addicts, Gionee X1 comes with an 8.0 MP HD front camera with ¼ inch sensor, which delivers stunning selfies even in the night with its 1.12μm pixel. The accompanying true front flash guarantees brighter and clearer selfies in the lowest of low-light conditions. For the photo enthusiasts, Gionee X1 packs an incredible 8.0MP rear camera, which lets users capture memories in true-to-life colors, anytime and anywhere. Further, the phone’s highly intuitive back fingerprint scanner doubles up as the camera shutter button which enables you to click selfies easier than ever.

Handing over more power to the users, Gionee X1 can be simultaneously connected to two different networks while running an external SD card of up to 256 GB, over and above the in-built 16 GB memory. With dual card slots and a dedicated SD card slot, Gionee X1 lets users balance work and personal needs effortlessly.

A device that works hard so that users can work smart, Gionee X1 comes equipped with the celebrated Amigo 4.0 UI based on Android 7.0. The brilliant combination of Amigo and Nougat gives users all the personalization they want, and then some more. With quick switch between apps, multi-window viewing, and many other such features, Gionee X1 ensures users get the most out of their smartphone. All of this is packaged in a stunning design that takes users style quotient to the next level in two attractive colors – Black and Gold               

                                                                                                                    

Celebrating the launch of X1, Gionee has partnered with Airtel and PayTm to announce two exciting offers. New or existing Airtel Customers who purchase X1 will get additional 10 GB data per month for 6 successive recharges. Also, every purchase of Gionee X1 will be accompanied with 2 PayTM Cashback Vouchers Codes entitling customers with Rs 250 cashback on a minimum purchase of Rs 350 on PayTM Mall.

The Gionee X1 is now available for purchase at all leading smartphone retailers.

Bullish Outlook on Stock Market Lifts Consumer Confidence in Asia Pacific: Mastercard Index

Across Asia Pacific, overall consumer confidence stays buoyed in optimistic territory at 66.9 points, a slight improvement from 62.7 points six months ago, according to the Mastercard Index of Consumer Confidence released today. The 4.2 point increase in confidence was driven mainly by a bullish outlook on the Stock Market (+7.3) and Employment (+5.1). Consumer sentiment remains stable in 11 out of the 18 Asia Pacific markets (within +/- 5 points from the last survey). The Index and its accompanying reports should not be interpreted as indicators of Mastercard’s financial performance.

Boosted by heightened expectations in its economic performance, South Korea has recorded the largest improvement in consumer confidence in Asia Pacific. Optimism in South Korea at its highest level since 1995, and the market’s meteoric leap in sentiment has propelled it from pessimistic territory to very optimistic territory over the last six months. Likewise, Singapore and Malaysia also saw significant leaps in confidence.

Meanwhile, India continues to stay in very optimistic territory at 86.0 points, despite posting the region's largest decline of 9.3 points. Consumer sentiment also saw a slight deterioration of 6 points in Myanmar. According to the Index, pessimism towards Quality of Life was the key driver of decline for both India and Myanmar.

Between April and June 2017, 9153 respondents, aged 18 to 64 in 18 Asia Pacific markets, were asked to give a six-month outlook on five economic factors, namely, the Economy, Employment prospects, Regular Income prospects, Stock Market and Quality of Life. The Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as the most optimistic and between 40 and 60 as neutral.

Additional country-level detail

·  Cambodia (93.1) leads the region as the most optimistic market, with Vietnam (90.8), Bangladesh(89.4), Philippines (88.8), and China (88.2) rounding off the top five.

·  South Korea (78.0), which experienced a small improvement in consumer confidence in the previous survey, recorded the largest increase in the region compared to the last survey six months ago with significant improvement across all five components – Employment (+47.2), Economy (+59.0), Regular Income (+24.0), Stock Market (+54.2) and Quality of Life (+49.4).

·         Singapore (45.4, +15.4) and Malaysia (42.3, +11.1) moved from pessimistic into neutral territory, with significant improvements of more than 10 points. Both markets saw more than 15 point improvements in the Stock Market component.

·         China (88.2, +7.4) and Bangladesh (89.4, +6.6) moved further into very optimistic territory, with some improvement in all five components, particularly Employment (+12.1) for China and Stock Market (+15.0) for Bangladesh.

·         India (86.0, -9.3) has shown the largest deterioration in confidence levels in the region, but still remains in very optimistic territory. While all five components saw declines, consumer outlook on the Economy (-11.0) and Quality of Life (-11.6) registered particularly large drops.

·         Indonesia stays in optimistic territory, with an increase of 4.0 points to 74.8 points driven by a large bump (+16.8) in the Employment component.

·         Philippines (88.8, -2.7) and Myanmar (86.8, -6.0) saw a slight deterioration in confidence levels, but remain in very optimistic territory.

·         Thailand (63.9, -4.4) and New Zealand (60.5, -1.7) remain in optimistic territory, despite observing declines in all of the components, barring Regular Income.

·         Australia (49.2, +2.7), Hong Kong (47.0, +4.8) and Japan (44.4, +1.4) posted slight increases, remaining in neutral territory. Hong Kong and Japan observed slight deterioration in the Regular Income component (-5.8 and -8.9, respectively), while Australia recorded an increase in all five components.

·         Taiwan (38.3, +4.1) and Sri Lanka, (38.2, -2.0), the lowest ranked in the region, saw slight movements in overall consumer confidence, remaining in pessimistic territory.

India Mobile Congress to Showcase India’s Telecom Prowess from Sept 27-29, 2017 in New Delhi

India is all set to host for the first time its own mobile mega show ‘India Mobile Congress’ (IMC) from September 27-29 to showcase the country’s growing prowess in the global telecom market. The event, to be held in New Delhi, is being billed as India’s answer to high profile and marquee mobile shows that are held annually in markets like Shanghai and Barcelona.

“We have been feeling the need to hold such an event in India for a long time. We hope that like the Mobile World Congress, this event too will establish its significance in the coming days,” COAI director general Rajan Mathews said at an event in Bengaluru.

The Department of Telecom and the Ministry of Electronics and IT have thrown their weight behind the event, which is being organised by the industry association COAI, and K AND D Communications.

The ‘India Mobile Congress’ with special focus on reaching out to the Asian markets will see technology titans converge to offer a peek into the digital future. Terming the Indian telecom sector as a “success story”, he said the time has come for the country to exhibit its prowess in the global arena.

The Indian telecom market is the second-largest in the world after China and has a total subscriber base (mobile and landline combined) of over  1.18 billion.”We need to take the latest in the world of technology and leverage it for our flagship programmes including Skill India, Digital India, Smart Cities and Make in India,” he adds.

The government is aware of the issues surrounding the industry’s financial health and asserted that all efforts will be made to ensure that India’s success story in the telecom sector is taken forward. The growth is happening. There are certain concerns around the balancesheet of some companies…The government is aware of it and has constituted an inter-ministerial panel to debate all issues.

The panel has already held its first meeting and the conference will have special emphasis on topics like Internet governance, 5G, sustainable wi-fi, smart cities and smart governance and Internet of Things and Machine to Machine Communication.

India Mobile Congress is expected to see the participation of telecom giants like Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, as well as telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

The three-day event is expected to draw 5,000 paid participants and 800 exhibitors. Countries like the US, the UK, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Korea, the Philippines, Bhutan and Japan have evinced interest in participating and creating awareness around the upcoming event, Mathews said. ”We have GSMA Barcelona that focuses primarily on the West…We never had a marquee event here that showcases the opportunities in India. The South East Asia region has much to learn from what is happening in India on the policy front and manufacturing…how we share infrastructure and how we provide affordable services,” Mathews said.

India’s experiences with regard to mobile payment, e-health and e-education have a global relevance, he said adding that the event would also highlight the country’s innovation, skill base and the startup ecosystem.

Cuemath Hosts the Biggest Mathematics Carnival for Kids in Bangalore

Namma Bengaluru witnessed the biggest ever mathematics carnival hosted by Cuemath - India's leading home-based, after-school learning program for mathematics. From math learning tools to intuitive puzzles and games, this mathematics carnival was thoughtfully designed to make sure that every child (from KG – 8^thgrade) enjoyed the process of math learning at the event. The event took place at Elaan Convention Centre, JP Nagar and was attended by over 5000 people. ( 3000+ Children along with their parents).

In the spirit of Independence Day, Cuemath has found a reason to also celebrate 'freedom from the fear of math'. This year, our Independence Day, 15^th August, is also a special date that comes only once in 100 years. It is a Pythagorean Triplet. So how does August 15^th 2017 really become a Pythagorean triplet? Pythagorean triplet is sum of the square of the first two sides equivalent to the square if the third side. So, 15² + 8² = 17²   

Organized against the backdrop of a mathematical coincidence, which was observed on 15^thAugust 2017, this mathematics carnival by Cuemath was one of a kind. To build the enthusiasm and excitement, Cuemath curated some brain cracking math learning tools and puzzles for children between KG and 8^th grade that challenged their creativity, imagination, thinking skills, and social skills. Some of the Key activities included, Fraction Hopscotch, Arithmetic Spinner, Go Bananas, Play with Geometry, Code Decode and Math Jigsaw.

Manan Khurma, Founder and CEO at Cuemath said, “This is a first of its kind math carnival that Bangalore has ever witnessed. There's mathematics in everything around us. And as people who celebrate math, we're only too pleased to note that this year our independence day also has an interesting mathematical coincidence. In the spirit of our Independence Day, we wanted to showcase the many ways in which the fear of mathematics can be conquered and what better way than organizing a fun filled carnival; bringing kids under one roof with interesting games and puzzles and helping them experience the fascinating side of math in an engaging and non-competitive environment”.

Commenting on Cuemath Pythagoras Fest 2017, Shereena, Principal, Sunshine School,said, “Cuemath has a lot of scope for kids because kids learn best when they are having fun. At Cuemath its about engaging children to learn mathematics the right way. 26 of my students accompanied me all the way from Kanakapura to be a part of this engaging carnival. I’m sure my students learnt a lot and I hope to use some of these activities in my school as well. This result is proof of the efficiencies that active learning can bring and thereby help children experience the engaging side of mathematics”.

Started in 2013, Cuemath is a home-based, active math learning program for kids between KG to 8^th Grade. Combining the power of technology and personal teaching, Cuemath offers a unique curriculum that ensures a holistic learning experience through workbooks, math boxes, puzzle cards and a tablet. Cuemath’s self-paced program is setting a unique precedence for math teaching and learning as it challenges its traditional means of rote learning formulas, restricting curriculum to a fixed syllabus and focusing purely on scoring.

The future ahead is driven by technology. In just a decade from now, the skill that will truly matter is one’s ability to solve complex problems where math will surely play a huge role. Thus, one needs to begin now and empower children to go beyond the mark/score system and enable them with the ability to think logically and apply an analytical approach to arrive at answers.