Honeywell has announced that its not-for-profit entity Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF) has received the India Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award for its safe drinking water program in Telangana. The award was presented to Honeywell at the annual India CSR Leadership Summit & Awards in New Delhi, which honors outstanding and innovative CSR, sustainability and social enterprise projects.
Honeywell is funding 130 safe water stations in Telangana via its not-for-profit partner Safe Water Network. These stations provide access to safe drinking water for 420,000 people in areas that suffer from groundwater contamination due to factors such as salinity, nitrates and fluorides. Fluoride contamination can cause skeletal fluorosis, stunting and teeth mottling among youth, and spinal bending, joint pain and difficulty in mobility among the elderly.
“Together with Honeywell, we are converting the traditional mindset and centuries-old behavior of treating water as a freely available resource,” said Ravi Sewak, Country Director, Safe Water Network India. “Communities are accessing safe water conveniently from water ATMs (similar to automated teller machines) using their precharged radio-frequency indentification (RFID) cards. Now, we see more men collecting water instead of women who traditionally had to walk miles to fetch and carry water to their homes. We are poised to replicate and scale this model in other clusters.”
“We are honored to receive this prestigious recognition. This initiative is one of our flagship CSR programs that is transforming health, increasing productivity and improving the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in the state – all of which are the imperatives that help drive the Prime Minister’s ‘ease of living’ vision,” said Vikas Chadha, President, Honeywell India.
“Honeywell is committed to improving the world we live in by creating, supporting and nurturing outstanding CSR programs that make real, sustainable and measurable impact on the communities that Honeywell serves,” Chadha added.
Through this award-winning program, Honeywell and Safe Water Network set up locally-owned and operated safe water stations that deliver safe, affordable, and reliable water adhering to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS-10500) for potable water quality to those in need. Community engagement is key to promoting safe water adoption, which begins with door-to-door consumer outreach. Local stakeholders are mobilized to ensure people understand that investing in safe water will help reduce healthcare expenses and increase productivity.
Over the last two years, Safe Water Network and Honeywell India have already set up more than 100 safe water stations across the Karimnagar, Adilabad, Warangal Rural, Warangal Urban, Jayashankar, Mahabubabad, Jagtiyal, Peddapalli, Badradri, Mancherial, Suryapet, Khammam, Medak, and Nalgonda districts.
Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, has announced it has completed its acquisition of MuleSoft, the provider of one of the world's leading platforms for building application networks. With MuleSoft, Salesforce will accelerate customers’ digital transformations, enabling them to unlock data across legacy systems, cloud apps and devices to make smarter, faster decisions and create highly differentiated, connected experiences for their customers.
Comments on the News:
“Every company is undergoing a digital transformation and integration has never been more strategic,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce. “Now with MuleSoft, Salesforce will enable customers to connect all of the information throughout their enterprise across all public and private clouds and data sources—radically enhancing innovation. I am thrilled to welcome MuleSoft to the Salesforce Ohana.”
“By joining Salesforce, we have a tremendous opportunity to realize our vision for the application network,” said Greg Schott, CEO of MuleSoft, a Salesforce company. “Our team is excited about accelerating MuleSoft’s mission to connect any application, data and device by building innovative products that enable our customers’ continued success.”
“Pilot Flying J is transforming its guest experience across its network of more than 750 travel centers throughout North America to make life easier for drivers on the road,” said Mike Rogers, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Information Officer, Pilot Flying J. “By creating an application network that connects any app, data source or device, we were able to quickly deploy our myPilot mobile app. With MuleSoft and Salesforce, we have been able to deliver new features to our guests, including mobile payment and real-time parking availability data to professional drivers. We are excited about the collaboration between MuleSoft and Salesforce and how it will further benefit our guests by enabling us to deliver intelligent, connected experiences.”
“Deloitte has long-standing relationships with Salesforce and MuleSoft and looks forward to exploring the innovative ways to harness this combined technology to help clients meet their toughest business challenges,” said Jason Girzadas, Deloitte Global Managing Principal, Consulting.
“Salesforce's purchase of MuleSoft puts the customer right at the heart of digital transformation. Many companies are still lagging due to the difficulty in integrating legacy infrastructure, automating manual and paper-based processes, and managing data growth. MuleSoft will play a starring role in projects for the businesses that still have not formalized digital transformation strategies,” said Sheryl Kingstone, Research Director, 451 Research.
MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform and Salesforce Integration Cloud: Connect Every Experience
Companies of every size and industry need to transform how they do business in the digital age to innovate faster, deliver differentiated customer experiences and increase operational efficiency.
MuleSoft will continue to build toward its vision for the application network with Anypoint Platform, connecting any application, data source and device—whether it touches Salesforce or not. Anypoint Platform will also be available as part of the Salesforce Integration Cloud, which—along with other complementary tools—will make it easy for customers to surface any data regardless of where it resides to deliver intelligent, connected customer experiences across all channels and touchpoints.
MathWorks, the leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists, successfully concluded the 8th edition of its annual conference, MATLAB EXPO. The EXPO, one of India’s premier events for research and engineering communities, was hosted in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad on the 19th, 24th and 26th of April 2018 respectively.
The EXPO featured presentations and workshops by MathWorks technical professionals and customers on a broad range of topics and applications of MATLAB and Simulink. Engineers from Honda, NXP, L&T Technology Services and Tata Steel presented their success stories about how MATLAB and Simulink are helping them innovate and address today’s most difficult engineering challenges. Michelle Hirsch from MathWorks presented the keynote address entitled ‘Are You Ready for AI? Is AI Ready for You?’ The EXPO brought together engineers, scientists, and researchers to learn more about MATLAB and Simulink. The exhibition area showcased solutions from MathWorks partners.
Commenting on the event, Sunil Motwani, industry manager at MathWorks, said, “We see MATLAB EXPO as a platform where engineers get a glimpse into how leading companies are using MATLAB and Simulink to constantly improve and innovate their services. In this year’s Expo, participants showed more interest in ‘Data Analytics’ and ‘Robotics and Autonomous Systems’ tracks. Customer presentations demonstrated pioneering usage of MATLAB and Simulink to develop complex systems for a range of commercial and defense applications. Through our solutions, we look forward to enabling more customers to showcase their success stories in the coming years.”
Added Hirsch, “We are happy about the success of MATLAB EXPO 2018 in all three cities. Today, when enterprises are gearing themselves up for Industry 4.0, events like our EXPO serve as a venue for innovators, scientists and industry experts to come together and explore the latest in technology solutions. This year, more than 2,500 MATLAB and Simulink users gathered at the EXPO which signifies the growing customer base in India. This is the third year we are hosting the EXPO in three cities across the country and we are very pleased by the response from our users.”
Mahindra Presents BAJA SAEINDIA announced the launch of registrations for BAJA SAEINDIA 2019. This marks the 12th season of the competition that offers a platform for young engineering talent to showcase their skills and transform their theoretical knowledge into practical experience as they compete to build an ideal all-terrain vehicle.
The theme for this season is “Adventure Reloaded”. It is based on the challenging nature of the competition and through this season, BAJA SAEINDIA would like the teams to experience this journey of adventure comprising designing, manufacturing, driving, teamwork and a lifetime opportunity to live the foremost level of difficulty.
The teams will be judged on six main parameters in the Virtual BAJA event which are – their knowledge of the rulebook, the design of the vehicle, the project plan, the design methodology, the design evaluation plain and viva sessions. This will be followed by two main events to prove their mettle.
To promote electric mobility in India, eBAJA teams who are new, will receive a financial support of up to INR 1.5 Lakhs from BAJA SAEINDIA.
In order to encourage diversification in the upcoming BAJA SAEINDIA 2019, the teams will benefit with additional points during the Virtual BAJA rounds if they comprise of students from non-mechanical background.
The Registrations will be open until the 20th May 2018 and the competition is scheduled to be kicked off on the 13th July 2018 at Chitkara University, Punjab.
Registration portal link - http://www.bajasaeindia.co.in/
Tata Motors Ltd (TML), a leading global automotive company providing smart mobility solutions across commercial and passenger vehicles, announced today that its Board has approved, subject to the requisite regulatory and other approvals, the following:
1. The sale of its defense business to Group entity Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL). This will not include the pure civilian vehicles which will continue to be with TML. TML will receive an upfront consideration of Rs 100 Crs, adjusted for capex incurred and changes in working capital in the intervening period until closure date, and a deferred consideration of 3% of the revenue generated from identified Specialized Defence Projects for upto 15 years from FY20 subject to a maximum of Rs 1750 Crs.
2. The sale of its shareholding in its wholly owned subsidiary, TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd (TAL) to TASL at an enterprise value of Rs 625 crores. As a condition precedent, Tata Motors will acquire the non-aerospace business from TAL at a value of Rs.10 lakhs.
This is in line with Tata Motor’s plan to drive Turnaround 2.0, take necessary steps to further its defense business by leveraging the scale and strengths of the unified aerospace and defense entity at the Group level, while monetizing its non-core assets to reduce net-debt.
Speaking on the two strategic deals, Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors said, “Tata Motors has been a strategic partner to the Indian Ministry of Defence in defence mobility solutions for several decades. We will continue providing civilian logistics vehicles to the Defence customers. On our transition to a full range combat vehicle player, we realized that our current portfolio is small and we need scale to unlock its true potential. We believe Tata Advanced Systems Limited will be better equipped to execute larger and more complex projects and be more globally competitive as part of the larger Tata Group. Therefore we have decided that it is in our best interests to sell this part of the business to Tata Advanced Systems Limited and participate in the future growth of this business through a revenue share agreement.’
“Also, TAL Aerospace Solutions is a non-core business to Tata Motors. We have been working on charting our next phase of growth and would like to use the opportunity of consolidation at Group level to monetize our investment in this area.” added Guenter.
Tata Motors Defence
Tata Motors has been associated with the country’s off-road defence and security forces, since 1958 and has supplied over 1,50,000 vehicles to the Indian Military and Paramilitary forces, so far. The company offers products and services that not only meet the needs of the domestic market, but are also positioned to meet most stringent requirements across the world. Tata Motors exports its range of specialized defence vehicles to the SAARC, ASEAN and African regions. With Tata Motors’ rich portfolio in multi-axle range like 12×12, 8×8 & 6×6, the company has started supplying to leading Missile OEMs across the world. The company has also established itself as a supplier of specialist vehicles for UN peacekeeping missions. Tata Motors’ range of off-road vehicles are also being procured by the agencies involved in AID & Development, across the world like GSA, KBR, Oxfam, RONCO, RA International & Riders.
TAL Aerospace Solutions
TAL, a TATA Enterprise, is a wholly owned subsidiary of TATA Motors and is one of the leading companies in India, wherein its automotive and heavy engine range business has been successfully delivering manufacturing solutions for over 40 years to customers and more recently, to Robotics, Aerospace and Defence sectors. TAL has been structured to deliver solutions through its three business units: a) Aerospace Business Unit – with a focus on manufacture of precision components including exotic materials and composites and assemblies for aero-structures, b) Robotics And Automation – Robots and cost effective automation solutions and c) Manufacturing Solutions – Integrated Manufacturing Systems Division, Machine Tool Division and Hydraulic Solutions (b & c collectively – the non aerospace business). Telco Automation Limited (TAL) was formed in 2000, by merging two mother divisions of TATA Motors – Machine Tools and Growth. The ones that designed and built the machines, equipment and automation requirements of TATA Motors, during its setup of manufacturing facilities. This model was followed by TATA Motors in the 1960’s and 70’s, to ensure lower cost of capital acquisition by minimizing imports of such machines and equipment and thereby build vehicles at prices that were affordable to Indian customers.
Setting an example on how grassroot level innovation propelled by disruptive technologies in the traditional banking space, can simplify complex financial procedures for the entire nation, Rubique Technologies PVT LTD, India’s largest online financial matchmaking platform has today announced the start of its new journey with Rubique 2.0; unveiling its new brand identity. Currently, clocking $7.2 Mn (Rs 47 Cr) revenue in March 2018, with a monthly revenue of INR 3.5 Cr, the company aims to reach an Rs 100 crore month on month revenue by 2021 and plans to breakeven by 2019.
Laying out its 2.0 vision, as initial steps, Rubique will sharpen its focus on creating a robust technology based financial ecosystem in the markets, earlier untouched by Fintech and further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities to expand its credit product offerings to deepen its reach to small enterprises and underserved micro enterprises. As a part of its ambitious growth targets, the company has planned to heavily invest in newer products and partnerships under its Insurance segments, and further expand its product distribution into 100 more cities in India this year.
Bringing alive its renewed brand identity, Rubique Technology has unveiled its new logo which enshrines its core values and mission statement, to fulfil every financial aspiration in the Simplest, Shortest & Speediest way possible. The new logo represents the three pillars of the company- FIs, Customers and influences: integrating deep technology and domain expertise, applying insights from across industries, and consistently delivering world-class integrated, end-to-end solutions for all financial services. It also highlights Rubique’s strong technology heritage, signifying a higher level of engagement and brand permission that helps all stakeholders leverage its technology expertise to address their business and financial requirements and drive future opportunities in this digital era.
Speaking on the occasion, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique, said “Almost around four years back we started a journey with a vision to disrupt Indian banking sector with cutting edge technology and frugal innovation to simplify finances for individual and MSMEs. We stumbled, learned and grown into one of the foremost success stories driving India’s rapidly-growing digital financial services sector. We now introduce, the second leg of our journey, Rubique 2.0, leapfrogging into the future of banking with a renewed and re-imagined focus; delving deeper into newer and underserved markets with the power of technology enabled financial inclusion. Rubique2.0 encapsulates what we do and mean, for our partners – FIs, Customers and Business Associates - and these values find expression in our new brand identity.”
In its constant endeavour to stay ahead of the technology innovation curve and bring a symbiotic relationship between traditional lending institutions and technology, the fintech major plans to develop technology products for the ecosystem to add push for digital adoption & facilitate new technologies into banking ex. TAB solution facilitating finance for SME customers, alternate data based credit scoring mechanism to facilitate underwriting for first time borrowers using machine learning and big data analytics; create infrastructure to mitigate fraud with deepen security and data privacy and leverage alternate data, image recognition and video analytics on SPOT to automate data filling and verification thus making customer on boarding seamless and hassle free.
Established in the year 2014, Rubique with its technology thinking of financial services, has proven itself as one of the fastest growing Fintech companies in India, witnessing 4X growth year on year. Currently, serving more than 2 lakh customers with offerings varying from Loans, Credit Cards to Insurance, the company has helped facilitate a massive disbursement of Rs 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups, till date through its platform, almost 65% of which is targeted to SMEs in India. Growing at a rapid pace year on year, Rubique has witnessed an exponential growth of 6x in loan disbursement from FY 16 A – FY18E as of March 2018, 8.9X growth in Credit Card set ups and 7.8 X growth in Revenue.
Speaking on the renewed brand identity, Sheetal Mayekar, Founding Member and Strategic & Commercial Intelligence, said, “The new brand identity marks our journey of transformation in the digital world. Our brand refresh signals an even closer engagement with customers, focusing on millennials with greater innovation in bringing advanced technologies to access deeper markets and ease credit access to the country and focus on entire ecosystem growth working as a collaborator.”
With constantly innovating & evolving industry, the futuristic technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data and AI used by Rubique analyses multiple data points to assess the creditworthiness of the customers and provide them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system.
Suraj Agarwal, CTO Rubique added, “The digital access to finance will continue to massively impact all individuals and businesses in the country. Undoubtedly technology will play a vital role in uplifting the Indian economy over the next five years, and therefore Rubique has taken a holistic approach to introduce tech intervention at all possible touch points. Implementation of disruptive technologies blockchain. Smart KYC & Paperless loan process is nothing but one step towards creating a unified flow of information to make the transactions simpler, and reduce the processing time for customers”
With the recent close of its new funds led by two of the world’s largest corporate and investment firms, the investment subsidiary RSP India Fund, LLC of Japan’s Recruit Co. Ltd. and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital, along with Blacksoil and existing investor Kalaari Capital, Rubique is planning to invest heavily in Data Science methodologies and leverage insights generated to build stronger business propositions. The company has recently built a data science team which leverages its rich customer data and bank credit policies to build a proprietary AI based Matchmaking and ranking algorithm that provides a customized list to each consumer based on his/her needs and profile.
Focusing on maintaining a tech-led asset-light model, while remaining unit economics positive at the transaction level, Rubique 2.0 to have a renewed focus on innovation, marketing and strategic partnerships, particularly in the B2C segment, bring advanced technology features at every stage of loan processing cycle through its Online Plus Model, Improving operational efficiency & reducing cost of acquisition, creating easy access to finance with a focus on bridging financing gap and make finance easy & accessible to the customers.
Muthoot Pappachan Group has announced the launch of Muthoot Pappachan Chits business in Bengaluru to financially support the MSMEs and people at the bottom-of –the-pyramid. The aim is to financially empower these segments who are already accustomed to the concept of chit especially in the southern region while maintaining the highest level of ethical standards, best practices, professional integrity, corporate governance and regulatory compliance – for the benefit of customers.. Before the end of the financial year, the intent for the Group is to expand the Chits business beyond Karnataka and look at Rs 1,000 crore of business from Karnataka within this fiscal.
These chits will be available to the customers of Bengaluru through the Muthoot Pappachan Chits office located FFK Towers, 1st Floor, 30th Cross, Tilaknagar Main Road, Jayanagar and nationally will be available from over 3600 branches of Muthoot Fincorp Ltd (MFL). MFL is the flagship company of Muthoot Pappachan Group and one of the leading NBFCs in India with over 3500 retail branches, pan India.
Additionally, there are multiple channels for distribution established such as Agents, Direct sales teams, Corporate’s, focussing on MSMEs primarily and Digital channels. The efforts will be solely directed towards ensuring that the best of services reach the maximum number of consumers in the beginning and then eventually at sustaining these customers. In terms of technology, Muthoot Pappachan Chits have established the following processes and systems such as:
Online Platform- with following features
· Shop & buy various scheme – Complete details of the product with terms & conditions
· Pay online
· Balance & statement online
Automated process – Hassel free onboarding of customer by eliminating filling up of manual forms/application other than one single pager
· Auto filled agreements
· Auto filled forms & challans
· Automated Prize Money Distribution documents
The chits business in India is primarily unorganised and the organized players are few who are dealing with their own as well as policy challenges and changes in this space. The organised market size of Karnataka for chit business is approximate~ Rs 15,000 crore and Muthoot Pappachan Chits sees itself as one of the major players in the coming years.
Thomas John Muthoot, Chairman & Managing Director, Muthoot Pappachan Group launching the Chits business for Karnataka, said, “We feel that with our experience in the financial business, our deep understanding of the financial instruments space, our lengthy association with the needs & wants of our customers and our commitment to providing them with the right financial products and services, we will deliver effectively and empower their human ambitions. We as a group are guided by our vision to provide the common man with simple & easy financial products, solutions & services, to meet the needs and fulfil their dreams towards tangible & substantial betterment in their lives.”
Roy John, Vice President, Muthoot Pappachan Chit (India) Pvt. Ltd. further added, “Chits are a popular form of saving and borrowing in Southern India and a very strong source of financial management. With our wealth of expertise in the financial services space, we feel we will bring a lot of value and structure to a space that we currently see as driven primarily by unorganised players.”.
