Ushering into the new age of rising user demands, ShareChat, India’s fastest growing vernacular social media app, has announced the launch of three new features - “Private Messaging” and “Open Tagging”. With an aim to encourage connections between the users with similar interests and to promote content diversity on the platform, ShareChat has launched these exciting features. ShareChat also announced “Shake-N-Chat” feature which will connect two users engaging with content from similar genres, over personal chat, at random.
Basis a survey undertaken by ShareChat on User Meet-up in 2017 across six Indian cities, more than 88% of ShareChat users wanted a Private Messaging feature on their social media platform. Against this insight, ShareChat developed a feature which allows users to send private messages without having to switch to an alternative app. The “Private Messaging” feature is designed to encourage one to one communication in Indian languages among the vernacular internet users of India.
Additionally with the recently launched "open tagging" feature, users are allowed to create tags and post relevant content under these user generated tags. The most engaging and trending user-generated tags will be visible in the “explore” section of the platform. Shashwat Chandra, Senior Product Manager at ShareChat added “Users have responded better than our expectation with the launch of Open Tagging feature. Users are actively creating diverse tags on the latest events and posting relevant content around the theme.”
Today consumers expect constant, effortless feature updates. To facilitate connections between unknown users with similar interests, ShareChat introduces “Shake-N-Chat” feature, a personal messaging feature which allows users to connect with other unknown users and chat, simply by shaking their phones.
Commenting on the launch, Sunil Kamath, Chief Business Officer at ShareChat said- “Over the years, we have observed that many users shift to other direct messaging apps for privacy purposes. ShareChat is a unique platform which connects users with similar interests resulting in relevant and meaningful discussions. The launch of new features like private messaging and Shake-N-Chat strengthens the platform’s social experience between both known and unknown users. We are very excited to launch these new features and are confident that they will resonate with users”.
ShareChat takes into account the everyday need of digital content and infotainment of first-time web users in their own preferred dialect. It enables users with an environment where individuals can express their sentiments, showcase their talents, discuss trends and meet new individuals with similar interests. Today ShareChat has a total 30 million unique registered users on the platform.
India's leading real estate services firm ANAROCK Property Consultants has announced its partnership with HVS, the global hospitality sector leader. As a new business vertical under the ANAROCK Group, HVS ANAROCK will focus on brokerage, feasibility studies, operator searches, appraisals, executive search and other hospitality sector consulting and advisory services throughout South Asia.
Anuj Puri, Chairman - ANAROCK Property Consultants takes on the added role of Chairman - Hospitality at HVS ANAROCK and the Firm’s soon-to-be-appointed CEO will report to him. Shobhit Agarwal, MD & CEO - ANAROCK Capital will head the transactions vertical at HVS ANAROCK.
Stephen Rushmore Jr, President and CEO - HVS, commented, "We are very excited to partner with ANAROCK as we share a strong professional and cultural fit. Together, we foresee rapid expansion in the region and will be able to tap into more resources to serve our clients better than ever. India has always been an exciting market for us, and we are targeting a concentric outward growth into the hottest South Asian markets from here. HVS India has had more than two decades of exposure in the country, and we anticipate the partnership will leverage ANAROCK's proprietary real estate funding platform to increase HVS India’s revenues by up to 75% over the next two years.”
Anuj Puri confirmed that ANAROCK is in the process of rapid expansion in terms of both geographies and business verticals, and the launch of HVS ANAROCK dovetails perfectly with these plans. "HVS is the leading global hospitality player, and we have aligned our synergies to tap into this market in India and beyond,” he said. “Tourism in India is growing by over 15% annually, and the launch of HVS ANAROCK coincides with some of the most exciting times for the Indian hospitality industry.”
Shobhit Agarwal has already concluded hospitality-specific capital markets deals worth over US$ 2 billion in his previous assignments across key markets. "There is a huge number of funding, divestment and acquisition deals to be tapped into, and HVS ANAROCK already has excellent relationships with India's leading hospitality operators,” he said. “Over the past four years, India has seen some 4-5 major hospitality-related deals annually, with leading private equity players being active participants on the funding side."
3i Infotech Limited , a global Information Technology company which had recently unveiled a new corporate identity for their services business unit, brand-named as Altiray™, has today announced plans to foray into ‘Retail’ as a new vertical this year. The Company also plans to expand into newer geographies like Canada and Kenya to increase their global footprint, which now encompasses North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South Asia. Partnership-driven GTM, Cross-leveraging BU selling, Multi LOB deals, Solution-led sales and Digital transformation are some of the key themes that the Company has embarked on propagating this year, as part of their transformational journey.
With deep domain expertise across the Banking & Financial Services, Insurance & Healthcare and Government spectrum, the Company would gradually look to continue to focus on Digital Transformation as an overarching theme. In the Government segment, the focus is on consulting and delivering cutting-edge technical work in the eGovernance space. The Company also announced that their BPO expansion is one of the focus areas from a LOB (Line of Business) perspective this year. The expansion envisioned is globally, and within India they would be focussing on RPA (Robotic process automation) based BPO offerings.
Speaking on the renewed focus, Mohua Sengupta, EVP and Global Head of Services said, “We have chosen not to be everything to everybody, but instead focus on those key verticals where we could make a marked difference for our customers. Digital transformation has been our overarching focus area, and will continue to be one of our key strategic themes this year as well. It would percolate across the entire spectrum of our business & operations - be it building our solutions; be it choosing the right people from the market who have joined us with the specific skill-sets; be it cross-training or cross-skilling our existing employees or be it hiring sales people.”
“Solution-led sales is another key theme that we have been driving and which we will continue to focus on. Solutions & Integrated frameworks are our USP and which we plan to leverage on. We are pleased with our solution landscape which is very well integrated across domains and emerging technologies. Of particular interest is the area of ‘Testing’, which is one of our key strengths. We are having maximum discussions around testing solutions and most of these discussions are led by the solutions that have been built over the last one year,” she further added.
Cross-leveraging the other BUs and Cross-selling across BUs would be another theme that the Company would rely on heavily this year. With Multiple LOBs (Line of Business), which includes ADMS, Testing, IMS, Professional Services and Consulting, their operations were largely disjointed until now. This would witness a paradigm shift.
Altiray solution landscape includes 5 varied offerings, which include AxES, CRUX, Momenta, Flexib and HybridNxT. Frameworks such as AxES (Accelerate, Enable, & Scale) and CRUX (Customer Reach & User Experience), aim to catalyse the digital adaption for mid-sized and large enterprises with built-in end-to-end framework elements, cutting across B2B and B2C centric options.
Momenta, the Data and Insights Marketplace, a suite of pre-built Analytics apps, supports a multitude of industries and business functions. Each app manages the complete end-to-end process. They also have Flexib, which offers performance, security and automation testing.
The Company also helps enterprises move towards digital transformation with Hybrid Cloud, through their offering HybridNxT. They also invest heavily in the areas of TaaS, DevOps, Agile, and CT (Continuous Testing framework) to meet the demands of enterprises.
MARG Institute of Design and Architecture Swarnabhoomi (MIDAS) – a Telugu minority institution, affiliated to Anna University, Chennai and approved by Council of Architecture (COA), New Delhi has opened admissions for its flagship Bachelor degree in Architecture (B.Arch) program – 2018 batch.
With an aim to provide world class training in Architectural Education, MIDAS has industry veterans from across the globe as part of the faculty board to offer an extensive industry experience by providing the students both theoretical and practical knowledge. MIDAS campus offers students a space to create, innovate and revolutionize through various live training and workshop session with some of the eminent architects from the industry. With a constant drive to offer students a 360 degree education system, the curriculum and teaching methodologies at MIDAS are designed to integrate international standards of delivery.
Admission for B. Arch is open to all Indians (provided the applicant fulfills the minimum eligibility requirements for admission as per Council of Architecture, New Delhi and Anna University, Chennai). The eligibility criteria for selection as per norms of Council of Architecture and the Anna University include Higher Secondary or 3 year Govt. recognised Diploma with 50% aggregate and Mathematics as a compulsory subject & NATA Score written in the year 2018.
Students can fill in their details in the Application Form from www.midas.ac.in or purchase the application from the admission office. For Admissions and Campus visit, call 7358600536 or write to infor@midas.ac.in. The Admissions Office is located at Old no. 25, New no. 39, Steeple reach, Cathedral Road, Wing A, 4th Floor, Chennai – 600 086. Landmark: Near Stella Maris College, Next to Prince Jewellery.
Infosys said it has set up India Trade Connect, a blockchain-based trade network in India, in partnership with seven lenders, including Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and RBL Bank. The other partner banks include Kotak Mahindra Bank, South Indian Bank and Yes Bank.
"The network is being used by the banks to run a successful pilot of Finacle Trade Connect, a blockchain technology based solution developed specifically to address the trade finance process requirements of banks," Infosys said in a statement.
Finacle Trade Connect will enable increased automation and transparency, while helping efficiently manage risks in trade and supply chain financing operations, it added.
Infosys said the network is designed to digitise trade finance business processes, including validation of ownership, certification of documents and making payments, while working on a distributed, trusted and shared network.
"The network will create new business opportunities for participating banks, while eliminating the inefficiencies in the existing trade processes and enabling everyone involved in a transaction to have a single source of the truth," the statement added.
It noted that financing decisions (using the system) are more informed since the banks involved in a transaction are aware of the exact position of a bill as well as the exposure of the corporate with its respective partner bank.
The range of functions include Bill Collection, Letters of Credit, Open Account for Trade, Customer to Customer, Transactions for Trade, Business to Customer transactions for Trade, PO financing and Invoice financing.
Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer at Infosys Finacle, said like any innovative technology, the usage of blockchain-based applications will gradually increase from early adopters to others who will join based on proven and tangible benefits.
"We are committed to helping our clients realise the path breaking benefits of blockchain technology and we look forward to many more collaborations to strengthen this consortium and building other networks across the world," he added.
Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. , a global technology consulting and digital solutions company ranked number one in the overall customer satisfaction, in the European IT outsourcing study conducted by Whitelane Research. The French study is part of Whitelane’s annual extensive IT outsourcing survey. LTI is positioned well above the industry average on several Key Performance Indices such as Service Delivery, Relationship, Commercial, and Transformation.
The study compared leading service providers on eight performance indicators viz. Service delivery, Account management, Proactivity, Price level, Contractual flexibility, Innovation, Transformation, & Business understanding. Based on client ratings, LTI scored an impressive average of 80% satisfaction. Whitelane’s IT Outsourcing study was conducted with senior-level executives that have an influence on corporate IT strategy and IT sourcing decisions. Both organizations with large IT budgets as well as organizations that have outsourced a significant amount of their IT processes, receive an invitation to participate in the research.
Sanjay Jalona, CEO and Managing Director, LTI said, “France is an important market for us and our top rank in the customer satisfaction study by Whitelane reflects our investments and strong leadership team in the country. This acknowledgment strengthens our resolve to be the most customer-centric provider globally and to deliver superior services by leveraging our deep domain expertise and strong partnerships”.
Jef Loos, Head Sourcing Research Europe, Whitelane Research said, “France is a highly competitive market, and we evaluated close to 500 unique IT outsourcing contracts held by over 145 of the top IT spending organizations for this study. LTI consistently scored well on all parameters and ranked the highest in Proactivity, Transformation, and Business understanding. The company’s position is a recognition of its investments in building a next generation, best-of-breed services partner.”
LTI has offices across European region and in November 2017, the company announced the acquisition of Luxembourg based Syncordis Consulting alongwith its identified subsidiaries in UK, France and Luxembourg.
NeoStencil.com is conducting a seminar on IAS Toppers Strategy for Prelims & Mains on Sunday 20th May 2018 at Sagar Party Hall, P.No 827, Vijaya Nagar, 4th Main Road, Near BSVP School, Bengaluru.
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