Explore the Diverse Landscapes of Karnataka in One Night at The Serai Resorts

Break from the monotony of mundane life and gear up to add a dash of adventure to your life as The Serai Resorts introduces their One Night at The Serai package.  This package has been thoughtfully designed for those who live life on the fast lane and want to experience the finest destinations offerings in Karnataka. Wander into the lush green lands or enjoy the luxurious & rustic settings of The Serai Resorts at its Chikmagalur, Kabini and Bandipur properties.

The Serai Resorts believe that each of the property destinations are lands of immense inspirational value and showcases the destinations in its entirety by creating unique experiences based on these inspirations. So experience the coffee splendor of Chikmagalur, marvel by the waterfront in Kabini or unravel the verdant lush forests of Bandipur with The Serai Resorts. From complimentary cocktails and mocktails, lazy breakfast in the room, early check-in and late check-out timings, guests at The Serai Resorts can enjoy the best of uncompromised luxury if they book the rooms on The Serai’s official website.

Make each day count! Take that small break to rejuvenate and celebrate the traveler in you. Enhance your experience with the special One Night at The Serai package. (Valid till December 20, 2017)

~        Stay at The Serai Resorts, Bandipur
Prices start from Rs. 12,500

~        Stay at The Serai Resorts, Chikmagalur
Prices start from Rs. 17,500

~        Stay at The Serai Resorts, Kabini
Prices start from Rs. 14,000

Sula’s Karnataka Vineyards Unveils Kādu Wines Towards Tiger Conservation

Kādu, (pronounced Kaa-du) is the first premium wine offering from the Sula’s Karnataka vineyards, India’s leading wine producer.

Kādu, meaning “wild” in Kannada – the regional language of Karnataka – is India’s first “Wine for a Cause”. The beautiful label, handiwork of renowned label designer Simon Frouws, depicts a tiger in all its glory in the wild jungle.

Karnataka is home to the most wild tigers on the planet in its many reserves. But the majestic beast – India’s national animal – is endangered, with its habitat under threat.

Sula has decided to take up the cause of the magnificent tiger with Kādu. With each bottle sold, Kādu will contribute towards tiger conservation in Karnataka. To ensure the optimum end-use of the funds contributed, Sula is collaborating with Mud on Boots, the pioneering initiative by the Sanctuary Nature Foundation that is designed to empower and support grassroots conservationists across India

Kādu was launched by Rajeev Samant, Founder and CEO, Sula Vineyards Bengaluru on 6^th November. In a bid to mark the grand occasion, Rajeev presented the first Kādu cheque to Sanctuary Nature Foundation. Their Mud on Boots project leader Nagaraj will spearhead the project.

Speaking of the launch, Rajeev Samant, Founder and CEO, Sula Vineyards, stated, “The Kādu wines are the most significant launch for Sula in the past 10 years. Kādu is our first wholly ‘Made in Karnataka’ wine and we thought it was also the perfect occasion to give something back to a cause we hold very dear – that of wildlife conservation. It made total sense to choose the tiger as the focus of Kādu and it’s our way of giving a little something back one sip and one glass at a time. Kādu is Sula’s homage to Karnataka as one of India’s most important wine regions and is the fruit of Sula’s efforts to bring the best from Karnataka’s terroir to your glass.”

Bittu Sahgal, Founder, Sanctuary Nature Foundation, speaking on the association with Kādu, said, “Through the Mud on Boots project, Sanctuary is empowering a network of grassroots conservationists across the country who are doing critical but unsung work. With Sula’s support this network now extends to Bhadra landscape of Karnataka where Project Leader Nagaraj is spearheading diverse conservation efforts through collaborations with the forest department, NGOs and local communities.”

Winemaker Gorakh Gaikwad has crafted Kādu from the choicest premium Karnataka wine grapes to produce this wonderful “wine for a cause”! Kādu comes in 4 different wine varietals – Kādu Chenin Blanc, Kādu Sauvignon Blanc, Kādu Shiraz Rosé and Kādu Cabernet Shiraz.

Excited about the launch, Gorakh Gaikwad, Head Winemaker, Kādu said, “Karnataka has a perfect climate for growing a wide variety of international grapes. It has taken the viticulture and winemaking teams a lot of efforts and hard work to get to this! I am really looking forward to the Kannadigas tasting our very first vintage wines Kādu and us raising a toast for a good cause!”

Four delicious Kādu wines in both 750 ml and 375 ml are available in Karnataka.

·         Kādu Chenin Blanc – delicious, slightly sweet, floral and fruity. 750ml: ₹ 625 | 375ml: ₹ 340

·         Kādu Sauvignon Blanc – delicate aromas and flavours of passion fruit, cut grass and green peppers.  750ml: ₹ 675 | 375ml: ₹ 365

·         Kādu Shiraz Rose – light, fruity and full of luscious berry flavours. 750ml: ₹ 650 | 375ml: ₹ 350

·         Kādu Cabernet Shiraz – lush, medium bodied and peppery with subtle oak. | 750ml: ₹ 695 | 375ml: ₹375

CFSI’s Globally Acclaimed Little Directors Programme Goes Rural

Children’s Film Society, India’s ‘Little Directors’ programme, which was initially started in International Children’s Film Festival in 2013 has now gone rural in the country, where workshops are being planned for the rural children from the age groups of 7-16 enabling them to make their own films.

To begin with CFSI would hold Little Directors programme in the Rural areas of Bihar and Rajasthan, slowly entering other states including Maharashtra.

In the pilot programme,which concluded last week, CFSI, in partnership with World Bank-DIME and Asian Centre for Entertainment Education (ACEE)conducted workshops under ‘Little Directors’ programme for the rural and underprivileged children in Bihar.

The next leg of this programme would cover rural areas cities like Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur and others from Rajasthan in the month of December. This will be followed in rural areas of Maharashtra too.

Dr. Shravan Kumar, CEO, Children’s Film Society, India said, “Our concept ‘Little Directors’ has been one of the most unique experiments anywhere in the world being conducted in a professional environment through trained experts. Since we launched this concept in the 18^th International Film Festival in 2013, it has become a star attraction in our Festivals, and we now received 100s of entries from dozens of countries every year for ‘Little Directors’. We are extremely happy that this programme was supported by World Bank and they will be undertaking an impact evaluation study based on this programme.”

As a part of this programme, children will make a 3 to 5 minutes short film on the issues concerning Water & Sanitation and Gender, specifically related to Swachh Bharat Mission. Children will only produce, create, act and develop these films after leaning these nuances from the workshops. As a part of training the creators CFSI films like Pinti Ka Sabun (a film on hygiene), Bandu Boxer (a film on rural development) and Pani Re Pani (a film on water sanitation)were shown to children audience.

Introduction and discussion on eight important issues related to water and sanitation and gender with respect to Bihar was undertaken with children. Besides this, the children were also provided a training on storyboarding, budgeting, shooting and editing (post production) etc. during the workshop.

“Our biennial event 20^th International Children’s Film Festival 2017, which is scheduled to be held Hyderabad from 8^th to 14^th of November will be showcasing these films to the International audience. Moreover, the children ages 13 to 18 have made films on khadi, local weave & fabric and on the rapidly growing textiles mission in Bihar, where they have spoken about how they see careers as entrepreneurs in the industry of fashion today.” said Dr. Shravan Kumar, CEO, CFSI.

“During the 19th ICFFI, we had received 187 entries from eight countries in the Little Directors Section as against 123 entries during the 18th ICFFI. This time, we have received 179 entries so far, out of which 101 are from India and the remaining from over 30 countries. This clearly indicates that the festival has gained popularity world over,” added Dr. Kumar.

CFSI is a nodal organisation of the Government of India that produces children's films and TV programmes in various Indian languages. Established in 1955, CFSI comes under the aegis of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the Union Government and is headquartered in Mumbai.

With an enviable catalogue of 260 plus films in 15 different languages, CFSI remains the prime producer of Children's films in South Asia.

CFSI also organises films screening across the country, reaching out to approximately four million children annually. Its marketing division, based in Mumbai, with two branch offices in Chennai and Delhi, is engaged in the promotion of children's films through free exhibitions as well as through sales.

India's 2nd International Cancer Congress 2017 from November 8-12, 2017 in Bengaluru

The second chapter of Indian Cancer Congress (ICC) 2017 will be held from November 8-12, 2017 at the Clarks Convention Centre in Bengaluru.  Cancer being a non-communicable, conquerable lifestyle disease and rapidly changing scenario of cancer worldwide is providing new insights into the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of cancer. The aim of the conference, its four major national oncology partners and Karnataka government is to provide a platform and spread cancer awareness through various initiatives. Bengaluru, known as the silicon valley of India attracts a large number of tourists every year and is one of the most advanced destinations for healthcare in India.

The conference will see prominent national and International delegates in multidisciplinary specialties such as surgical, medical, radiation oncology, oncopath, genomics, radiology, scientists and research come together in Bangalore. Karnataka government understands the implication of cancer and hence, is one of the first to announce it as a “Notifiable Disease”. Along with that, Karnataka government will take various initiatives for oncology awareness and treatment at district and its plans to open super-specialty hospitals.Other highlights of the conference include a major step by National Centre for Disease Informatics (NCDI), the launch of electronic mortality death certificates. Along with that, a full day programme on generic drugs has been organized to explore the possibility of biosimilar drugs.

A critical session on clinical trials will be held on 9^TH NOV in ICC for exploring ideas in cancer research. Indo-US and Indo-UK networking session on collaboration of cancer research in India will be the key highlight of the conference. Apart from these, original research papers will be presented during the event and to encourage young oncologists in research various awards, national and overseas fellowship has been sponsored. 

During the press conference, Prof. K S Gopinath, Chairman, and Prof. Ramesh.S.Bilimagga, ICC 2017, said, “We are very excited to announce the second Indian Cancer Congress 2017 in Bengaluru this year with tremendous support from the Government of Karnataka and Health Ministry. India being the most progressive country in cancer research is a testimony to the hardwork demonstrated by cancer specialist in the country and ICC 2017 is the biggest oncology event showcasing it on the world map. The second congress will further strengthen cancer research and development in the country.”

The four major oncology associations (Association of Radiation Oncologists of India, Association of Surgical Oncologists, Indian Society of Medical and Pediatric Oncology and the Indian Society of Oncology) of the country come together to organize  Indian Cancer congress (ICC) once every four years. ICC 2017 also enjoys support of over 4 professional bodies, 6 leading international associations involved in cancer care. With a confirmed faculty of over 230 global thought leaders, ICC has already received 3500+ delegate registration for the conference Kiran Mazumdar Shaw chairman and MD of  Biocon, the leading biopharmaceutical  company is the patron of this conference.

The conference will benefit the cancer care society and aid in further research and development. There are around 3,300,000 cancer patients in India and each year around 600,000 patients die and doctors diagnose 1,000,000 new cancer cases. India bears a disproportionate amount of cancer cases and possesses 50% of the world’s oral cancer cases. On the other hand, Bengaluru has seen a massive growth of cancer cases with approximately 113 cases for every one lakh male and 139 cases for every one lakh female according to population based cancer registry.

Four days of program as well as a day of pre-conference workshop will be held. The program will consist of presentations, panel, round table discussions, and lectures with an emphasis on audience participation. The ICC will help care providers implement new ideas and research into their practice as well as further the discussion of best practices to curtail the rapid growth of cancer cases and provide quality care to patients.

Indore Based Start-Up Indian Threads Sold their Shirts in Atlanta, USA

Indore based start-up Indian Threads is changing the fashion industry for men.  Starting from a small city in Indore, Indian Threads is presented and sold in USA (Atlanta) as well.

In offline market, they are majorly working in 3 states Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and in online, they have been selling their shirts nationwide. Few months back they have shifted down to bigger & better office in the heart of the city in Indore.

Abhishek Rawal, founder of Indian Threads said that “Recently we have received a lot of enquires of our brand presence in Pakistan and in UAE. We do plan to start shipping services in UAE and in Pakistan. We have been offered an investment of Rs 10 cr in Sep, 2017 but we are looking for the right investor to join our team and not just the numbers are putting on table”.

“It all started with a simple idea – to design fresh high-quality items at nominal price range we wanted ourselves. What started as an online webstore for our passion and entrepreneurial experiment quickly grew into much more than just selling a few shirts.” said Vishi Porwal.

Founders of Indian Threads, Abhishek Rawal & Vishi Porwal, further said that currently fashion industry has more than a 50 percent share of the B2C e-commerce market, which is likely to come up with online retail gaining prominence. They believe that the online retail sector in India is here to stay. This confidence comes from the much better eco-system that prevails in terms of consumer acceptance and the infrastructure to deliver. And there are successful examples of Myntra, Jabong & Koovs, where online shopping has permeated across socio-economic strata.

Abhishek & Vishi, also point out that with the huge mobile subscriber base and fast increasing base of mobile internet users, the Indian online retail market could potentially take a non-linear growth in the years to come, which will surely help us to push Indian Threads in market.

METRO Cash and Carry Announces Their Strategic Alliance with Uber

India’s leading player in cash and carry segment, METRO Cash and Carry and Uber, the world’s largest ridesharing company, announced their strategic alliance today at Bangalore. Starting from Bangalore, this alliance will soon be extended PAN India to all METRO and Uber driver partners.

As part of this partnership, commercially licensed Uber driver partners in Bangalore will be offered a membership at METRO Cash and Carry which will eventually be extended to all driver partners across India. This membership will include special offers and discounts that will be made exclusively available to all Uber driver partners. Also, existing customers of METRO will be benefitted by this alliance with special offers and promos from Uber exclusively for METRO.

To mark the commencement of the initiative, 15 Uber driver partners were handed over their very own METRO card by Pieter Boone, COO, METRO AG along with Christoph Winterer, Operating Partner, Asia Region, METRO Cash and Carry and Arvind Mediratta, CEO & MD, METRO Cash and Carry, India. Christian Freese, General Manager - South, Uber India were present to grace the occasion.

Says, Pieter Boone, COO, METRO AG, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Uber to the METRO family. India is a very important market for METRO and we are glad to kick-off this prestigious initiative from here. Uber has a growing base of commercially licensed drivers across top cities in India, each of whom is a successful entrepreneur. Through this partnership we aim at providing them access to the wide range of car accessories, oils, lubricants, confectionery and beverages at our wholesale outlets which will be instrumental towards making their business more profitable. This alliance benefits our customers too. They can enjoy the ease of carrying the usual bulk purchase made at our store in an Uber, at a discounted price.”

“At Uber, we are committed to building partnerships that will enhance the lives of our driver partners. We understand how important it is to have the required resources available when driver partners need them the most and we aim to make it easily accessible through our partnership with Metro Cash and Carry. Whether its accessories for their cars or other daily needs, we believe driver partners will benefit a great deal from this membership,” added Christian Freese, GM - South, Uber India. 

Accenture’s Connected Digital Hackathon with Expo 2020 Dubai to Develop Digital Solutions that Improve Urban Living

Accenture, in collaboration with Expo 2020 Dubai, is challenging participants from 11 cities around the world to develop prototypes of human-centered digital solutions that help improve the quality of urban living through its first global digital hackathon.

·  24-hour global hackathon will tap best thinking from 11 cities across four continents

·  Teams challenged to find innovative solutions that improve urban living conditions, support more inclusive populations, promote sustainable urban practices

·  Expo will shortlist its favourite project for the Expo Live “Innovation Impact Grant Programme

The 24-hour hackathon will take place simultaneously in Chicago, Bangalore, Dubai, Istanbul, London, Manila, Mexico City, Monterrey, Rome, Shanghai and Singapore on November 11 and 12, 2017.Registrations are open to recent graduates, undergraduates, entrepreneurs and individuals from start-ups with expertise in technology development, design and marketing, at accenture.com/digital by November 06.

Inspired by Expo 2020 Dubai’s theme of “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” participants will compete on finding digital solutions that organizations can use to address urbanization challenges. Over half of the world’s population currently lives in cities and urban areas.² This trend, which is expected to continue, is raising challenges such as creating truly inclusive environments, improving work and travel conditions in cities areas, and adopting a more sustainable approach to urbanization.
 
The proposed solutions need to meet two requirements:

·  Putting human beings at the heart of the experience;

·  Using latest digital technologies including wearables, artificial intelligence, analytics, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain and the Internet of Things.

Mike Sutcliff, group chief executive, Accenture Digital, said: “We are asking people with digital talents to apply their creativity and ingenuity to two game-changing trends – urbanization and digitization. With both, it is people who should come first. Accenture strongly believes that digital experiences have the power to make cities more livable for customers, patients, workers, students, and citizens, but these experiences can only be successful if they are truly human.”
 
Gillian Hamburger, Senior Vice President of Commercial at Expo 2020 Dubai said: “World Expos have always been a showcase for innovation. This hackathon, with our Official Digital Services Partner Accenture, is another example of Expo 2020 encouraging innovation and connecting people from around the world to exchange ideas and contribute to the future.”
 
Accenture was named Digital Services Premier Partner and Systems Integrator of Expo 2020 Dubai earlier this year to provide technologically advanced and innovative experiences to participants and visitors.
 
Why participate in the Accenture Global Digital Hackathon?

·  Accenture will award prizes worth up to a total of US$ 80,000 to the top teams in each city, region (Europe & Middle East, North America & Latin America, Asia), and globally. The best works will be determined by a panel of judges of experienced practitioners from Accenture, Expo 2020 Dubai and local sponsors.³

·  Expo will select its favorite project from among the three regional winners and shortlist it for the Expo Live “Innovation Impact Grant Programme.” The program is expected to provide winning projects with grants of up to US$ 100,000 and a chance to showcase their innovations at the next World Expo.⁴

·  Individual participants demonstrating exceptional teamwork, problem-solving and goal orientation skills whose profiles are in line with Accenture’s recruitment plans, may be interviewed for roles in Accenture Digital, or elsewhere in the company.