Bangalore Candidates to Represent India at the WorldSkills Competition in Abu Dhabi

Team India gears up to participate at the biggest exhibition for skills, WorldSkills Competition popularly known as “Skill Olympics” in the world, which will be organized in Abu Dhabi from October 14 to 19, 2017.  More than 1200 competitors from 70+ countries will compete across 50 skills at this biennial competition.

Varun Hanumanth Gowda hails from a small town near Bangalore and is one of the brightest candidates. After his bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics, he was fortunate to get a maintenance job in Toyota, a leading automobile company. An agile and friendly worker, Varun is known as a ‘problem solver’ amongst his team members and is recognized for finding unique solutions for technical issues in the line machines. He says that he is ever-ready to learn and challenge himself for the most difficult tasks. This passion encouraged him to participate in the World Skills selection rounds. After winning a gold medal at IndiaSkills 2016, he is now aiming to win a medal at WorldSkills 2017 with his team mate.

Thathimakula Arumugam Anand Kumar is passionate about his studies and is known amongst his peers for his creative thinking. He has always been applauded for his efficient problem-solving skills during his three-year Mechatronics course at the Toyota Institute. After joining as a maintenance member in Toyota, Anand was very passionate to make his mark and kept practicing Kaizen in various areas and gained the ‘Best Kaizen Mind’ title in his department. He participated in Asia Pacific Skill Contest 2015 where he won a Bronze. At the IndiaSkills 2016 his team won a Gold medal. Anand believes in learning and sharing his knowledge with everyone around him. Presently his team is preparing vigorously for the WorldSkills competition.

Marshal Lazar Wilson is a professionally qualified tool and die making engineer from NTTF, a technical training institute in Bangalore. A creative boy from his childhood, he enjoyed drawing, do-it-yourself concepts and was always interested in using different computer softwares to hone his creative skills. After finishing high school, he developed a deeper interest in design and wanted to turn his passion into his career. His degree in Mechanical Engineering Design-CAD from NTTF offered him that special training which gave him direction for his future. Marshal has participated in various boot camps of AUTODESK and his presentation was amongst the top five design concept presentations.

Mohit Dudeja who is 20 year old, holds the position of an Assistant Pastry Chef at India’s first specialised baking school, Lavonne Academy of Baking Science & Pastry Arts. An alumnus of Lavonne, he graduated with a diploma in Patisserie offered by the institute in affiliation with City & Guilds, London in 2016. Following his training, he interned at the Trident Hotel, Mumbai for three months before returning to his alma mater to serve as a team member of pastry chefs. A stellar feat for a professional as young and as talented as Mohit, he has been to Korea to enhance his skills in Sugar Art, for his participation at WorldSkills 2017. Mohit has also competed in various national and international competitions such as JPC, India and WorldSkills UK. He loves practicing yoga and likes participating in marathons.

Kiran Sudhakar is an ITI Electrician from Karkala, Karnataka. He is a 19-year-old technocrat who loves to play cricket and listen to music. His aim has always been to work hard and do whatever it takes to perfect his skill and thus, he participated in the IndiaSkills competition where he succeeded by winning a Gold medal. His next aim is to compete at the international level and bring a gold medal for the country.

Nitish Kumar who is 20-year old, studying Fashion & Apparel Design at the Army Institute of Fashion & Design (AIFD), Bangalore. He is born with a painter's brush in his hand. Adept at using both physical and digital paint, Nitish has a keen eye for detail and a flair for balanced art and design. His nimble fingers and neat execution have earned him the sobriquet of a "Magician". Nitish has designed and executed several murals in various media at his college. He has won an international gold medal, two national gold medals and one bronze in painting during his school days. He has also been a part of the design team that won the national level fashion competition at IIT, Mumbai in 2015 and was fortunate enough to present a portrait of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to the late President himself. His journey to the World Skills competition, Abu Dhabi has been exciting which motivates him to improvise his skills every day.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been spearheading India’s participation under WorldSkills since 2011. For the upcoming competition, WorldSkills India has selected a team of 28 competitors, who will compete in 26 skills ranging from car painting, brick laying, hair styling, beauty therapy, proto-type modeling, auto body repair, visual merchandizing, mobile robotics, CNC Turing, welding among others.

Congratulating the candidates representing India at WorldSkills 2017,  Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, “On behalf of NSDC, we would like to congratulate the candidates for being selected as one of the finalists to represent India at the WordSkills competition. Representing India on a global platform is a matter of great pride and honour for all our competitors, many of whom come from very humble background. We are elated to see them develop and utilize their skills with dedication, enthusiasm and passion. We are confident that Bangalore candidates and all others will perform their best at the competition and make India proud.”

“Our competitors are great ambassadors for skills in India and will motivate many in the society to hone a skill and contribute positively towards nation building”, he further added.

NSDC had identified all the competitors through a series of competitions organized at regional and national levels over the past two years. Post which all the candidates have undergone extensive training with Industry partners, which has helped them improve their skills before the competition. Many candidates have also travelled overseas to get trained under the guidance of some of the best trainers and experts available internationally.

Uber Launches uberPOOL in Chandigarh, Jaipur and Ahmedabad

Uber, the ridesharing app that connects riders with drivers to provide convenient, reliable and affordable rides at the push of a button, strengthened its commitment to decongest Indian cities and reduce emissions over time by expanding uberPOOL, an innovative offering, in 3 cities - Chandigarh, Jaipur and Ahmedabad this week, taking the national tally to 12 cities. The expansion strategy is an effort to promote shared mobility in India with uberPOOL allowing people heading in the same direction to take the same ride.

Post the successful adoption of the product in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Guwahati, Chennai and Kochi, uberPOOL went live in Chandigarh (3rd October) and Jaipur (5th October) followed by Ahmedabad, which will go livetomorrow. Designed to offer first and last mile connectivity, and improved reliability,uberPOOL will also help contribute towards reducing congestion in cities. With more people in fewer cars, uberPOOL aims to decongest roads and reduce emissions and pollution over time. As of March 2017, with 48,259,398 kms of travel saved, uberPOOL has helped in reducing Co2 emissions of 5,352, 000 Kgs.

 Speaking on the launch,  Prabhjeet Singh, General Manager, North, Uber India, said, “At Uber, we are constantly working towards redefining the urban mobility landscape in Indian cities which involves initiatives towards reducing congestion and pollution. We believe that uberPOOL is the future of urban mobility that allows ridesharing using technology, and in the process helps decongest cities by getting more people into fewer cars, letting riders move around their city more affordably and enables first/last mile connectivity. We have received positive feedback from other cities and are confident that as Chandigarh, Jaipur and Ahmedabad embark on their uberPOOL journey, the same will help contribute to the future that we have envisioned - smarter cities.”

According to Uber’s Green Index 30% of rides in Mumbai are on UberPOOL, 28% in Delhi, 29% in Hyderabad, 25% in Bangalore, 18% in Chennai and Pune and 15% in Kolkata. Uber’s ridesharing product has been able to deliver a significant impact in reducing congestion and pollution in several cities.  However, we are yet to reach the fullest potential of this innovation. Therefore, to highlight several such examples from across India and advocate the merits of ridesharing, Uber launched a nationwide initiative, Decongest India, which aims to draw the attention of policymakers on how utilising cars for ride-sharing can complement stressed and overburdened public transport to be part of the solution - rather than the problem.

How does it work:

Selecting the uberPOOL option connects the rider real-time with 1-2 passengers heading in the same direction.

1.     Set your pickup location and destination

2.     Select uberPOOL for the carpooling option and get a fixed fare upfront, so you know exactly what you’re going to pay

3.     Click on “Confirm Uberpool”

4.     Click on “Confirm Pickup”

5.     Select how many seats you need 1 / 2

6.     Confirm seats! You might get matched with other passengers heading in the same direction

7.     Regardless of whether you’re matched or not, the fare will be less than traveling solo

8.     You can choose to use Cash, PayTM, Credit or even a Debit card

Tata Capital and Capital Float Join Hands to Fund Small Businesses

Tata Capital has entered into an agreement with Capital Float to provide Working Capital Loans to financially under-served Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India.

Tata Capital will be co-lending on Capital Float’s digital lending platform and through this relationship, both the companies have collaborated to offer a unique “Pay Later” product to SMEs. Developed in-house by Capital Float, this product provides the borrower with a credit limit of up to Rs. 50 lakhs for a period of 1 year, pre-defined on the basis of the information shared by the borrower. The uniqueness stems from the fact that the borrower can make multiple drawdowns within the approved limit, which is reinstated from time to time upon repayment by the borrower.

Speaking about this tie-up, Sarosh Amaria, Chief Operating Officer – Commercial Finance at Tata Capital said, “SMEs are integral to the fabric of our economy contributing around 38% of our country’s National GDP. Tata Capital is deeply invested in providing access to credit to small merchants & entrepreneurs through our Supply Chain Finance Business, in which we are one of the market leaders. Our alliance with Capital Float is another step towards strengthening our market position. Providing customized products like ‘Pay Later’ will not only help speed up the loan process and business is Chain Finance business is a superior experience to our customers, but it will also help boost our pan-India presence.”.

Sashank Rishyasringa, Co-Founder, Capital Float, said, “Tata Capital is a great fit for us, both in terms of vision and focus on delivering great digital experiences to borrowers. Tata Capital’s extensive expertise in Supply Chain Finance along with our proficiency in developing products customized for SME segments makes this partnership particularly potent from a scalability perspective. We believe new age Fintech companies and established financial institutions need not compete, but can collaborate to widen the financing options available for SMEs. By co-lending with Tata Capital, we can leverage their balance sheet, while they can diversify their portfolio by lending to newer sets of SMEs.”

The unique ‘Pay Later’ product showcases Capital Float’s technological expertise and competency designing innovative working capital solutions for SMEs. Coupled with Tata Capital’s superior digital framework, wide reach and rich experience in this segment, especially while offering customized solutions, this partnership will enhance the customer’s digital journey by delivering a seamless online experience for SMEs in India. Additionally, small enterprises like Distributors and B2B buyers stand to benefit by being able to make quick, hassle-free payments to their suppliers or partners while procuring inventory, thereby facilitating the unhindered growth of their business.

Intas Pharmaceuticals Brings Down Cancer Treatment Cost by 60%

Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited, India’s one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical company, is pleased to announce a big step which will bring relief to large number of cancer patients in the country for whom the drug - Bevacizumab was out of reach till today. Intas’s bevacizumab therapy is priced at Rs. 39995 for the dose strength of 400 mg variant which makes it 60% less than the currently available options.

Every year over 7 lakh patients die due to various types of cancer in India. At Intas we believe in the philosophy of “Patient First”. Hence, in order to relieve the patients from the financial burden associated with the treatment, this cost effective measure is implemented by the organisation. The step is entirely focussed in making the drug treatment accessible to cancer patients in India thus, providing them with a beacon of hope in their fight against the disease.

Bevacizumab is a drug which works by slowing the growth of new blood vessels and is used in treating multiple-cancers like colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer and recurrent glioblastoma (a type of brain tumour). The drug has been available in India since 2004 but the cost has been so prohibitive that as per eminent clinicians of the country they have been able to give this drug to very few eligible patients.

Intas is a leading, vertically integrated global pharmaceutical company from India, having end-to-end capabilities of formulation development, manufacturing and marketing along with backward integration of APIs. Intas’ success and incessant growth focus lies in its clinical execution of successful and strategic moves made in the areas of manufacturing, R&D, Biotechnology and Global operations over the past three decades. Intas has been growing at 27% CAGR over the last 5 years with an even stronger profit growth. Ranked 10^th in the domestic market, the company is one of the top 5 corporates in the Indian Chronic Therapy category. Intas is also present in more than 70 countries worldwide with robust sales, marketing and distribution infrastructure in markets like North America, Europe, Central and Latin America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asia-Pacific as well as CIS and MENA countries.

Happy Loans Successfully Disburses 4000 Loans Worth Rs 100 Million in Six Months

Happy Loans, a fast-growing digital microlending venture announced the disbursement of 4000 micro loans worth Rs 10 crore (USD 1.7 million) within six months of launch. With borrowers in 167 cities and 25 states, Happy Loans partners with merchant acquirers, money transfer networks and other partners to offer instant, short-term business loans for small enterprises (SMEs). Happy Loans has successfully partnered with MSwipe, EKO, Itzcash, Payworld, Ongo, InstantPay, Wapo, Farmart and others, creating a total addressable base of over one million SMEs.

Happy Loans enables on-tap borrowing for underserved small merchants through an easy and completely paperless process. Offering loans as small as INR 2000 (USD 30) and for as short as 30 days, Happy Loans helps merchants meet short term cash flow mismatches without drawing on savings or existing capital. Customers can access funds right from their phone, with options such as flexible tenure and daily repayment to reduce the burden of a lump sum repayment.

Commenting on the success of Happy Loans, Manish Khera, Co-founder and CEO, said, “We’ve built a model to give our customers a Happy borrowing experience, unlike traditional methods that require visits to branches, extensive documentation, and signing endless forms. We’ve seen very strong uptake of our loans and with the support of current and upcoming partners, we aim to achieve the Rs 100 crore (USD 15 million) disbursement mark and a prospect base of over 5.5 million merchants by FY 18.”

“Moreover, we are working with both machine learning and blockchain technologies -- emerging pillars of the new banking paradigm -- to offer a Happy experience to our customers.”

Part of the ArthImpact group, Happy Loans was founded by Manish Khera and Gautam Ivatury, recognized pioneers with decades of experience in digital finance. Happy Loans leverages technology to create a new-age, fairer way of banking – fun, accessible by all, and available anytime and anywhere. The company’s loans for India’s 50 million-plus small merchants are less costly and more reliable than informal borrowing.

Amazon Introduces Alexa and the All-New Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot to India

Amazon announced that Alexa, the brain that powers Amazon Echo, is coming to India, along with three Alexa-enabled devices: Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot. Customers who want to help further the development of Alexa and the Echo family of devices may request an invitation to purchase devices beginning today at www.amazon.in. As a thank you, for a limited time, eligible customers will receive an introductory discount of 30% off the purchase price of Echo devices and one year of Prime membership. Devices will ship beginning the week of October 30.

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Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot are voice-controlled speakers designed entirely around your voice—they are always ready, hands-free, and fast. Alexa is the brain behind Echo—since Alexa runs in the cloud, the service is always getting smarter. Just ask, and Alexa will answer questions, play music, read the news, set timers and alarms, check the calendar, provide sports scores, control lights at home, and much more. With Echo’s far-field voice control, you can do all this from across the room using just your voice.

In India, Alexa delivers a customised Indian experience, including an all-new English voice with local pronunciations and intonation; support for music titles, names, and places in additional non-English languages; local knowledge; and local skills from Indian developers. Third party developers in India are already building new, localised skills for Alexa, and over 10,000 skills will be available for customers in India, including skills from Saavn, Times of India, ESPNcricinfo, Ola, Freshmenu, and more.

“Tens of millions of customers are already using Alexa, and today we’re excited to bring her to India with an all-new experience designed from the ground up for our customers in India,” said Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Amazon Devices and Services. “The combination of Alexa and Echo provides customers with hands-free access to music, weather, news, information, and more—just ask.”

Customers in the US, UK and Germany have left more than 100,000 5-star reviews for Echo and Echo Dot—here’s what they’re saying:

·         “I love, love, love Alexa. I use it every single day. I can't even count how many people I have recommended Echo to.”

·         “Echo is easy to setup and easy to use. I love it. Five stars out of five.”

·         “An ingenious device. Already firmly integrated into the family. Become indispensable. Great sound and beautiful design. A must have for every technology freak.”

Amazon Echo—The Hands-Free, Always On Speaker for just ₹9,999

Echo is a hands-free, voice-controlled speaker that allows you to access Alexa from anywhere in the room with far-field voice control. It uses on-device software to detect the wake word, “Alexa.” When Echo detects the wake word, the device’s light ring turns blue and begins streaming the request to the cloud where Alexa processes the request. Since Alexa is built in the cloud and leverages Amazon Web Services, the Alexa Voice Service is always getting smarter and adding more functionality.

2^nd Generation Far-Field Voice Recognition with Beam Forming Technology

Amazon Echo has an array of seven microphones that use beam-forming technology and noise cancellation so it can clearly hear you from across the room. This advanced beam-forming technology combines the signals from the individual microphones to suppress noise, reverberation, the music currently playing, and even competing speech to make sure Alexa clearly hears your request, even when in a noisy room.

Omnidirectional, Room-Filling Sound

Amazon Echo has been fine-tuned to deliver crisp vocals with dynamic bass response. Its 2.5” down-firing woofer, dedicated tweeter, Dolby processing, and 360° omni-directional audio deliver crisp vocals and dynamic bass throughout the room. Echo can stream music directly from popular music services such as Amazon Prime Music, Saavn, TuneIn, and more. Echo is also Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream music directly from your phone or tablet.

Designed to Disappear

Amazon Echo is designed to disappear into your home. Pick from a variety of shell colors and finishes to fit into your home’s décor—choices include charcoal, sandstone, and heather gray.

Manipal Institute of Technology Wins Accolades at AICTE’s Most Clean Campus Awards

Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University won accolades at the first “Most Clean Campus Award 2017” instituted for Engineering Institutions by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). MIT bagged the third place for the Most Clean Campus in India and the first for Most Clean Campus in South Western Region.    The awards were given away by Dr. Anil. D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of AICTE at a function held on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi in the College of Engineering, Pune. Dr. B. H. V. Pai, Joint Director and Mr. H. S. Bhat, Executive Manager received the awards on behalf of MIT. AICTE has also planted a tree for each of the awardees at its Head Quarters in New Delhi.

Reacting to the achievement, Dr G.K. Prabhu, Director MIT, also the Pro Vice Chancellor of Manipal University said he was happy that the institute won laurels in the inaugural year of the competition. “We’ll strive to do better the next time,” he said and added, “It is a good initiative started by the AICTE, as it will encourage campuses across the country to be spick and span all the time. 

AICTE, under Swachh Bharath Mission, had invited nominations from about ten thousand institutions across the country to participate in the Clean Campus Award 2017 contest in September 2017. Data on infrastructure, cleanliness, green initiatives, water conservation initiatives, solid and liquid waste management, e-waste management, environment consciousness and development programmes, contributions to the society, student and workforce safety, hygiene and other parameters were submitted. Institutions from 20 states took part and following evaluation the reports were examined by a Jury appointed by the AICTE to select the award winners.