Godrej Provides ‘Freedom of Living’ Through Launch of ‘Script’, a Premium Furniture Brand

Godrej has announced the launch of its first premium furniture store, ‘Script’, in India’s Garden City, Bengaluru. Located in the posh neighborhood of Indira Nagar, The Script store is spread over 14,000 sq.ft of inspirational and design led home interior solutions. The premium furniture brand is inspired by contemporary lifestyle that promises to offer ‘freedom of living’, that uplifts every experience and assist consumers from Bengaluru to balance their daily activities with great ease and joy.

Conceptualized and designed by globally acclaimed design firm Gensler, the store seamlessly combines beauty and intelligence. It offers home solutions that are crafted for new age, contemporary consumers that like to chart their own path be unique; live beyond the traditional. The store offers furniture and interior solutions that reflects the consumers persona.

Script, the first attainable premium furniture brand from the house of Godrej has launched their first store in Bangalore owing to a perfect blend of consumer profiling and existing infrastructure. The IT capital is known to have consumers that are well-informed with a lot of global exposure and enjoys a finer lifestyle. Being well-traveled, consumers in the metropolis are conscious about of the latest designs and innovations. These consumers are design and technology savvy. Furthermore owing to a large working population, the contemporary consumers also prefer living space ecosystems that are multi functional while being aesthetically designed.

Through ‘Script’, Godrej has once again spurred the furniture segment by launching India’s first attainable premium home furniture brand. The brand plans to launch 18 stores across 3 cities(Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai) and eyes total revenue of 320cr by the end of the 3^rd fiscal year.

Anil Mathur, COO Godrej & Boyce said, “We have always believed in going beyond the mundane and therefore consistently provided extraordinarily innovative products to our customers. Script is an earnest endeavor in the same direction. It doesn’t merely attempt to satisfy customers but delight them through finest design and technological features. The brand is premium and niche but endeavors to reach the mass market wherein aspiration for cutting-edge products exists but prevailing range remains non-existent.”

Commenting on the launch, Rajat Mathur, Business Head Script said, “Script is a new perspective on furniture and accessory design that is inspired by contemporary living. Currently there is limited number of international and national branded furniture players in the market. In addition, there is also a vacuum in the attainable premium segment in furniture retail. With Script, we see a huge opportunity to bridge this gap across the metropolis and state. Bangalore is an evolved market with well-informed new age consumers and we would like to tap on this opportunity”.

As a brand offering, Script facilitates a fluid living experience and disrupts consumer behavior in this segment with ‘Freedom of living’. The brand innovates using design thinking and furniture to be a part of the new way of living. 

Zapyle.com Unveils its First in-House Private Label - ISU

Following the success of Zapyle.com, the online marketplace has unveiled its private label, ISU, at an event in Bengaluru. Pronounced ‘is YOU’, this label aims to offer the latest in fashion and be the new go-to brand for millennial women.

Inspired by the bright lights of London, this collection consists of the latest edgy and downtown styles and has everything one needs to keep one’s wardrobe looking fresh all year round. From party-ready bodycon dresses, to ripped skinny jeans, embellished jumpsuits and comfortable day dresses - ISU is the obvious go-to collection for the girl who is young, wild and free.

To kick of the launch, a press conference was held addressing the media and several bloggers followed by a keynote speech by the founder, Rashi Menda. The event also featured a fashion show, which highlighted select pieces across three lines, party, casuals and denims. The crowd cheered as blogger, Sridevi, took to the ramp in the ‘Blake’ dress. The LBD with an embellished sheer back draws inspiration from Blake Lively’s style and is the perfect outfit for a fun night out with the girls. The brand packs a promise of style and versatility.

Rashi Menda, Founder & CEO of Zapyle.com & ISU, at the event said, “With a vision to understand Indian customers, ISU aims to empower buyers giving them a choice to pick the best trends suiting their taste. With the knowledge of Indian consumer behaviour and current market trends, we bring in a total co-ordinated solution for clothing and accessories to make wardrobe a platform of self expression and status quo. ISU brings in an unconv

Boston Bangalore Biosciences Beginnings Program was held at IBAB

B4 (Boston Bangalore Biosciences Beginnings) Program was held at IBAB (Institute of BioInformatics and Applied Biotechnology) Bangalore centre in association with the Harvard University (Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute).This year the theme of the SAI-B4 program is based on Genomic Applications in Healthcare & Translational Research.

The aim of this intensive workshop is to introduce highly talented Indian students to the emerging area of genomics and enable them to explore the power and excitement of Next Generation Sequencing technologies to address clinically relevant research questions. The workshop will train the participants on both the experimental aspects of genomic sequencing & computational analysis of sequencing data through didactic research lectures and hands-on sessions. The workshop is sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

Themes:

·         Cancer Genomics and Translational Medicine

·         Infectious and Rare Disease Genomics

·         Genomics of Non-Coding RNA

·         Population Genomic

·         Nutri Geniomic

·         Epigenomics

 This program is open to:

·         Pre-doctoral, doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in Life Sciences / Biotechnology / Bioinformatics / Computer Science

·         Currently engaged in relevant areas of research Students currently enrolled in MBBS / M.Pharm programmes

·         Exceptionally talented undergraduate student

This year the applications received from universities across India in the field of Life Sciences, Biotechnology, Bioinformatics and Computer Science were around 218 and the complete applications were 177. Out of which the shortlisted candidates were 25, who will be a part of a residential workshop for 2 weeks under the tutelage of a distinguished panel of professors from the Harvard and various Indian and American institutes in the field of Genomics and Medical Sciences.

Dr.Cynthia Casson Morton spoke about SeQ-a-Boo, under which she spoke abouthistory of the process in the US to assess implement genomic sequencing in to NBS and Next gen diagnostics and newborn screening for hearing loss.

Followed by discussion with Prof Cynthia Morton and Prof Marc Lenburg,  Prof. Yathindra (Director of IBAB) and Gaurav Gupta, IAS, Principal Secretary at Govt of Karnataka, IT-BT department.

Dr. Cynthia Casson Morton - Director of Cytogenetics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and is associate with Brigham and Women's Hospital from the last 30 years.  She is William Lambert Richardson Professor of Ob/Gyn and Reproductive Biology and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. As Director of Cytogenetics, Dr. Morton has implemented the use of next-generation sequencing to provide nucleotide resolution of balanced chromosomal rearrangements detected in the prenatal setting.  Her laboratory has been a major site for training laboratory geneticists in clinical cytogenetics.

Also present was Marc Lenburg (Boston University) - Professor of Medicine, Section of Computational Biomedicine at Boston University School of Medicine, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Boston University, School of Medicine, Professor, Bioinformatics Program at Boston University, School of Medicine and co-Director, Microarray Core Lab, at Boston University School of Medicine.

He is a scientist with experience in computational analysis of large scale genomics data and development of bioinformatics software.  His lab is currently involved in understanding lung disease through comprehensive genome-wide gene-expression profiling (whether using microarray-based technology or now RNAseq) together with rigorous computational data analysis methods to discover unexpected distinctions between disease states that provide them not only with clues as to how disease develops, but also sensitive tools for detecting disease.

Information from a patient’s genome is increasingly useful for diagnosis and therapy as a critical part of clinical care today.

Organizations such as The Human Genome Project, ENCODE (Encyclopedia of Human Elements), the Human Epigenome Consortium have advanced our understanding of the etiology of disease and its progression. This has spurred a great deal of excitement in personalized medicine, which uses genomic and epigeneomic information to guide diagnosis and therapy. Gene panel-based diagnosis, genomic markers for disease screening and newborn screening have created avenues for therapy and early diagnosis.

Genomics and Next-generation Sequencing technologies have influenced scientific research and medicine significantly, which has made a striking impact on healthcare and translational medicine over the last decade. The capability to sequence DNA at higher speeds with precision and resolution unravels several dimensions of the complex genome and enhances the applicability of genomic information in personalized medicine. 

The South Asia Initiative (SAI) continues the long tradition of collaboration between Harvard and South Asia’s nations. Learning from South Asia, and contributing to its development, has become vital given the salience of the region in contemporary times. Harvard University became the first in the nation to offer Sanskrit courses in 1872. Today, professors and students from across Harvard conduct research on scientific, strategic, social, economic, environmental, and political issues, in collaboration with colleagues in South Asia and elsewhere, in service of the community-at-large. The purpose of SAI is to be a nexus for interdisciplinary intellectual activities at the University, with the shared aspiration to build the leading center of expertise on South Asia. SAI seeks to expand knowledge of a vital region through faculty and student engagement across disciplines. We do so in an environment of compassion, tolerance, humility, and awareness, which qualifies us to become informed decision-makers and change agents.

Tata Hitachi: Chalo Desh Banaye: Building the India Of Tomorrow

This year, Tata Hitachi‘s stall theme showcased the company’s commitment to the theme of Chalo Desh Banaye.

Sandeep Singh, MD Tata Hitachi mentioned, “As an organization, we continue to create new milestones and strive towards building a brighter, better tomorrow. In this edition of EXCON the star attraction at our booth was the unveiling of our all new backhoe loader –TATA HITACHI SHINRAI. Designed and manufactured on the key pillars of capability, reliability and trustworthiness, SHINRAI is an engineering masterpiece built in collaboration with Tata Technologies and Hitachi Construction Machinery, Japan. This all new backhoe loader with its new and advanced features stands true to its name- SHINRAI: a Japanese word that means trust, reliability and confidence.”

The launches at the Tata Hitachi booth included:-

·         ZAXIS140H: the latest addition to the GI series, promising unbeatable performance

·         The quarry variant of EX210 Super – with a heavy duty track chain, rollers, idler and re enforced bucket and front attachment links

·         EX210 Super with an indigenous super long front attachment, re designed and strengthened to suit Indian conditions.

·         Keeping pace with technology, Tata Hitachi launched INSITE – a new telematics suite for the EX series of hydraulic excavators and wheeled products. Armed with a GPRS based remote machine monitoring application, INSITE helps the customer view machine location and operation through alerts.

Launches apart, the high point of the Tata Hitachi stall was the display of theZH200 – a revolutionary hydraulic excavator armed with hybrid technology. A testimony to the technological prowess of Hitachi, Japan, this excavator from Hitachi is the first to introduce the revolutionary hybrid technology into Hydraulic Excavators. This excavator incorporates advanced technologies adopted from hydraulic, electric and battery-powered excavators.

Also on display wasEX70H: an excavator custom built for quarry and heavy duty applications, EX110 shovel variant: a first one of its kind in the 10T category, ZAXIS370LCH: custom made for quarry and granite applications, the super productive and fuel efficient ZAXIS470H, enabled with ConSite. Also displayed wasTL340H, the first hydrostatic wheel loader manufactured in India and the compact and power packed duo of ZAXIS20U and ZAXIS33U.  

Added attractions were Tata Hitachi’s Service Vehicle, the operator training simulator, the display of a wide range of customized attachments addressing specific customer needs and genuine Tata Hitachi spare parts.

TELEHOUSE America Selects Juniper Networks for Advanced Automation across its Multicloud Data Center Environment

Juniper Networks, an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, today announced that TELEHOUSE America, a KDDI group company that provides robust and carrier-neutral data center services in the US, has deployed Juniper Networks to build a multi-tenant infrastructure that bridges its data centers across multiple US locations, while providing high-performing and secure connectivity within and outside its facilities.

One of TELEHOUSE America’s missions is to provide strong connectivity and stable network services for its customers. To this end, the company was seeking for a system to provision connectivity promptly, accurately and reliably; and to allow monitoring and management with minimum time and resources. With Juniper Networks QFX5100 line of Switches supporting the multi-tenant architecture that uses EVPN-VXLAN technology, TELEHOUSE America has drastically reduced its operational workload and simplified software configuration using SDN technology.

After an extensive review process, the QFX5100 line was identified as the only product line capable of successfully implementing EVPN-VXLAN technology across TELEHOUSE America’s remote data centers.

In addition to supporting the required multi-tenant architecture, Juniper’s Virtual Chassis fabric technology and the Junos OS API enabled new levels of automation for TELEHOUSE America, while also significantly reducing total cost of ownership and increasing long-term return on investments.

News Highlights:

·  TELEHOUSE America picked Juniper’s QFX5100 Ethernet Switch as the basis of a new multi-tenant architecture utilizing EVPN-VXLAN technology across two locations in New York City.

·  The company also replaced its conventional three-layered network architecture with Juniper’s Virtual Chassis fabric technology and the open standards-based Junos OS API to automate many work streams. This has resulted in being able to execute software configuration in as little as five minutes.

·  Featuring versatile integration capabilities, the Junos OS also assures long-term network scalability, especially as TELEHOUSE America considers expansion across the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim.

“We looked to improve our service quality by aggressively employing the latest cutting-edge technology. There were many technologies that looked promising, but standardization takes a long time. Juniper Networks was among the first to adopt advanced open technologies and is working aggressively to achieve standardization. Juniper Networks will support both the proven network OS and advanced open technologies,” Akio Sugeno, vice president of internet engineering and operations/business development, TELEHOUSE America

“The Junos API is extremely user-friendly. It enables users to create a monitoring tool to reduce operation costs. We chose it as we can flexibly configure the network in accordance with detailed technical requirements. We intend to acquire new knowledge by data-basing management information, and to utilize the information dynamically across functions, such as sales and marketing,” Gregory Grant, senior manager of operations, TELEHOUSE America

“We pride ourselves on building more than just a network. By offering cutting-edge networking solutions, such as the QFX5100, that are automated, highly-scalable and easy to deploy, we are not only helping our customers increase operational efficiencies, but we are also helping them reduce total cost of ownership while increasing their return on investment. We look forward to an evolving partnership with TELEHOUSE America and will continue to work closely with them to deliver on innovative networking solutions that can future-proof their business and, ultimately, achieve their customers’ goals,” says Tomohiro Furuya, country manager, Juniper Networks Japan

REC and ALIMCO Sign MoU on Dec 15 Valued Rs. 10 Crore for Distribution of Aids and Assistive Devices

Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) and Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) signed MoU on December15^, 2017 at New Delhi valuing Rs. 10 Crores for Distribution of Aids and Assistive Devices to Divyangjan at 25 various locations in India under the CSR initiative of REC in the presence of Shri Sanjiv Garg, CEO, REC Foundation & Shri D.R. Sarin, CMD, ALIMCO and other senior officials of both the organizations.

Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC), A Govt. of India Navratna Enterprise, committed financial assistance under CSR initiative to Artificial Limbs Manufacturing  Corporation of India (ALIMCO) for the project, distribution of aids & assistive devices to approx. 8000- 9000 numbers of Divyangjan in various states of India through its CSR arm, REC Foundation.

ALIMCO is a “Not ForProfit” Central Public Sector Undertaking working under the administrative control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India and has been manufacturing various types of aids & appliances on mass scale to meet the requirements of the Divyangjan, across the country.

The main objective of the project is distribution of aids and assistive devices to the persons with disabilities (PWDs), aimed at empowering this section of society to restore their confidence and bring them up to a reasonable level.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) in this regard was executed between REC Foundation and ALIMCO in New Delhi for free of cost Distribution of artificial limbs, aids & appliances such as Motorized Tricycles, Tricycles, Wheel Chairs, BTE Hearing Aids, Crutch Axilla Adjustable, Braille Cane, MSIED Kit, Braille Kit etc.

Hyatt Appoints Sunjae Sharma as VP, Operations India from Dec 15

Hyatt hotels in India today announced the appointment of Sunjae Sharma as Vice President of Operations for India. A seasoned hospitality professional, Sharma will lead Hyatt’s India operations and will be responsible for executing the company's operational and growth strategy in his new role. He will assume his new position at Hyatt's Gurgaon headquarters effective December 15, 2017, and will report to Peter Fulton, Group President, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Southwest Asia for Hyatt.

Commenting on the appointment, Peter Fulton said, "Sunjae has been an integral part of Hyatt’s 34-year journey in India. His leadership skills, business acumen, industry foresight, and strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders speak volumes about his professional capabilities. He has been with Hyatt for over a decade, and we believe that with his operational skills and vision he is the ideal choice to lead Hyatt’s quest to be the most preferred hotel brand in India.”

"I am looking forward to this role in these exciting times for Hyatt globally and in India, as we celebrate 60 spectacular years in 2017. I have been very fortunate to grow within an organisation whose purpose is to “care for people so that they can be their best”; and one that has been my second home for more than a decade.  As I take on this wonderful opportunity, I look forward to making a difference and growing with intent towards an exciting future for Hyatt in India” said Sharma.

Prior to being appointed vice president of operations for India, Sharma was the Area Vice President for South & West India and General Manager of Grand Hyatt Mumbai, where he oversaw the strategic and financial performance of 16 hotels.

With diversified hospitality experience of close to 28 years, spanning a number of hospitality brands, Sharma is a graduate of the prestigious Institute of Hotel Management. He started his Hyatt career with the Grand Hyatt in Delhi as Director Food & Beverage in 2001; later moving on to Hyatt Regency Kolkata as Director of Operations. Apart from being an avid hotelier, Sunjae loves to travel, enjoys football and playing golf.