Continuing its disruption streak and providing its customers ultimate ‘peace of mind’ while purchasing their mobile phones, iVVO, a pioneering communications brand and the latest entrant in the Indian mobile phone market, has now unveiled its ‘Eco Series’. All products in this series are priced under Rs.669, with the range starting from Rs. 569. iVVO is a subsidiary of BRITZO, an industry player that recently came to fame for spearheading various forward-looking innovations in ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) targeted at the rural Indian audience. The tagline for the newly-launched series is “Smart bhi, Kifayati bhi”.
The product lineup of the Eco Series, as of now, comprises iVVO IV1801, iVVO IV1805s, and iVVO Eco Beatz (earlier known as iVVO Beatz IV1805/IV1805s). The company has covered all of its offerings with a hassle-free service policy of a 201-day replacement guarantee and a product warranty of 455 days. iVVO has targeted the ‘Real India’ by keeping the prices well-within the slab of Rs. 669. All three devices feature a 1000mAH battery, MP3 and MP4 player, LED Torch, Bluetooth support, dual-SIM support, one-touch music access, 1.8-inch screen, GPRS web browser, wireless FM, megapixel camera and a storage space expandable up to 32 GB. IV1805s additionally includes a selfie camera and vibration mode.
Speaking on the launch, Mr. Pradipto Ganguly, CEO and Co-Founder – Britzo, said, “The Eco Series is the perfect confluence of features, cost-effectiveness, and entertainment that is soon going to redefine the mobile phone experience of the ‘Real India’, which is essentially our target audience. Since our market foray, we have been experiencing an extraordinary demand for our product offerings. We are confident that the Eco Series will further emerge as a crucial milestone for us, as we make deeper inroads into the country’s rural hinterlands.”
The brand had recently launched iVVO Beatz IV1805 (now rebranded as iVVO Eco Beatz). iVVO IV1801 and iVVO IV1805s, on the other hand, have a price range starting at Rs. 569. The overall range is priced between Rs. 569 – Rs.669. The newly launched series has increased the brand’s product offerings in the market to 8 smart feature phones, and 2 smartphones.
IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today unveiled "Generation AI 2018: Second Annual Study of Millennial Parents of Generation Alpha Kids." The survey illuminates how millennial parents in India, U.K., U.S., China and Brazil with Generation Alpha children (eight years-old or younger), think growing up with health- and medical-related AI technology will impact the lives of their children. Born from 2010-2025, Generation Alpha is considered by many to be the most tech-infused demographic, and AI technologies are expected to infiltrate nearly every aspect of their lives.
Generation Alpha Trend Watch: Babies Wearing AI Health Trackers
Experts say wearable technology will soon be able to track patient health data, and by using AI and machine learning, physicians and wearable users will then be able to gain a better understanding of changes in that patient's health. Millennial parents across the globe are most comfortable letting their Generation Alpha children use wearables to track their health starting with their teenage years (33 percent). However, more than half (58 percent) would have those ranging from as young as infancy to five years-old (including toddlers) wear them.
Kids Not Feeling Well? AI Knows Why … and How to Fix it
In the next decade AI will be even more developed, prompting clear majorities of Millennial parents in various countries to say they would have at least some trust in AI technologies for diagnoses and treatments of their Generation Alpha children.
More than half (56 percent) of Millennial parents globally said they would have at least “a great deal of” trust, with India (80 percent) leading the way.
Speak up and Smile: The Chatbot + Biometric Pediatrician is In
Experts say that in the future when people are ill they will be able to converse with a speech recognition-powered chatbot. The chatbot will use AI to compare the symptoms communicated against a database of diseases, patient history and circumstances, then recommend a course of action. How likely are Millennial parents across the globe to use an AI and speech recognition-powered chatbot to diagnose their sick Generation Alpha child, according to the survey?
Eighty-three percent of Millennial parents in India said that they are likely to use an AI chatbot to diagnose their sick child in the future, including more than a third (38 percent) saying they are extremely likely.
Facial recognition software and machine learning are also helping clinicians diagnose rare diseases by analyzing patient photos and correlating detected irregularities with rare genetic diseases. As for how comfortable Millennial parents would be using such technology to seek answers if they had concerns about their child’s health:
More than eight out of ten Millennial parents from Asia (84 percent in India), say they would be very comfortable using this technology for diagnosing their child.
Robot Surgeons Get a Thumbs up to Operate on Millennials’ Children
Surgical robots powered by artificial intelligence are bringing new innovations and accuracy to the operating room.
Millennial parents in India are significantly more likely (78 percent) to allow robots powered by AI to conduct surgery on their Generation Alpha child
In Life or Death Decisions for Generation Alpha Kids or Their Own Parents, Millennials Trust Doctors Relying on AI
When asked whether they strongly or somewhat agree with the statement that they would trust doctors that base their recommendations on data coming from AI to make life or death decisions regarding their Generation Alpha children:
More than half (51 percent) of Millennial parents in India say they strongly agree with this statement, while less than one out of 10 parents in India (5 percent) disagreed with this statement.
Real-Time AI Health Monitoring and Data Tracking Will Become Routine in the Future
Majorities of Millennial parents across the globe are confident AI will make real-time, round-the-clock monitoring and data tracking of their health -- including AI-powered reminders for medicine, exercise and doctor’s visits -- a routine practice, especially in Asia.
Indian Millennial parents are overwhelmingly confident (88 percent) that this practice will become routine.
Millennials See Cancer Eradicated in Generation Alpha’s Lifetime, Thanks to AI
Medical imaging coupled with AI can now diagnose many forms of cancer even before anything is suspected. According to the survey, Millennial parents in Asia are significantly more likely to think AI medical breakthroughs in the future will likely eradicate cancer during their Generation Alpha children’s lifetime.
A majority of Millennial parents in India (83 percent) think AI medical breakthroughs will eradicate cancer.
"Generation AI 2018: Second Annual Study of Millennial Parents of Generation Alpha Kids" surveyed 2,000 parents, aged 20–36 years-old, with at least one child eight years old or younger -- 400 each in the United States, United Kingdom, India, China and Brazil. The surveys were conducted May 17-23, 2018.
The internet-based startup Fixpocket secured USD 250,000 seed funding from La Gajjar Group, a private investment group based in Ahmedabad. Following the venture, the two companies together formed Kasova Ventues Private Limited, which currently owns and operates Fixpocket.
The capital has been utilized for setting up the initial team, design & development of technology and early-stage marketing activities. Fixpocket launched the first version of its web portal in April 2017. It consists of more than a hundred categories identified to serve different microservices in the market.
So far, around 17,000 people have enrolled as members of Fixpocket for providing one or more of its 3,500 services. The freelance marketplace has also been able to establish tie-ups with more than 200 corporate enterprises and fulfilled over 2,000 orders since the launch of its website.
Soham Thacker, Co-Founder, Fixpocket said, “Fixpocket was conceptualized by identifying the gap of micro-services in the freelancing market. People in India possess a variety of skills but the market lacks a platform for these skills to be publicized and monetized. We have established a special Corporate Management team that reaches out to large and mid-sized companies, educating them about the beneficial use of Fixpocket and how it can help them reduce fixed overheads by outsourcing their work.”
“Fixpocket’s vision is to create an online marketplace where Digital Microservices are offered by Working Professionals & Freelancers at a reasonable & fixed price. These services then can be purchased by Individuals, SME’s & Start-ups who are looking for freelancers or project-based content providers. We have a mission to establish Fixpocket as a brand which is known for its quality services offered at highly competitive prices. We want to develop valued trust amongst all the buyers by ensuring on-time delivery,” added Kaivan Shah, Co-Founder, Fixpocket.
Nestlé India announces the launch of NESPLUS - a range of nutritious and delicious breakfast cereals for the entire family. A unique combination of wholegrain and multigrain, NESPLUS breakfast cereals aim to offer an array of healthy breakfast choices for Indian families.
The new range of NESPLUS breakfast cereals comes with four multigrain variants – Kokos, Choco- Burst Fillows, Strawberry-Burst Fillows and Nutty Honey Granola. Each of these is a combination of four grains - wheat, rice, oats and the traditional Indian millet, jowar. This combination of grains along with unique flavors has been specially created for the Indian palate. A key characteristic of the product is that it remains crunchy in warm milk.
Commenting on the launch, Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestlé India said, “Breakfast is considered to be the most important meal of the day and consuming the right breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day. NESPLUS is specifically designed for the Indian consumer and offers Vitamin D, Calcium, B-Vitamins, Iron, Folic Acid and Fibre, making it a great addition to the breakfast table.”
With this launch, Nestlé India aims to provide high quality nutritious breakfast options for the Indian consumers in line with its vision to introduce products ingrained in nutrition, wellness and health.
Chennai-based automobile aftermarket platform, GoBumpr, has raised around $600k in Pre-Series A funding led by the existing investors - The Chennai Angels (TCA), Keiretsu Forum and individual investors. The investment round was led by Vinod Kumar Dasari (MD, Ashok Leyland) and saw participation from Shankar V (Director, Acsys Investments), Ramaraj R (Founding Member, Elevar Advisors), Priyamvada Balaji (Wholetime Director, Lucas Indian Service) from TCA to name a few. Ramesh Mangaleswaran (Senior Partner, McKinsey) and Gopal Mahadevan (CFO, Ashok Leyland) have also invested in the company as part of this round. Earlier, GoBumpr raised $420K in Jan 2017 in their first round of investment.
Started in Oct 2015 by IIM grads Karthik Venkateswaran, Nandha Kumar Ravi and Sundar Natesan, GoBumpr leverages mobile technology to standardize and automate the ~ 80% unorganized automobile after-sales market ($10bn in annual revenue). Currently, GoBumpr, is India’s largest player in the online automobile services aggregation space in terms of number of workshops getting business via the platform and the number of daily service transactions. GoBumpr currently active in Bangalore and Chennai, does 7000+ B2C transactions monthly servicing INR 3 Crore in billing value. GoBumpr earns commission on the business generated to it’s partner workshops.
“GoBumpr has scaled the B2C service business across 2 major metro cities delivering value to both workshops and vehicle owners. Beyond being able to deliver quality business to workshops, GoBumpr’s ability to become an overall technology platform in the automobile aftermarket tapping multiple revenue streams is the key to emerging as winner in this space. Beyond services, extension of GoBumpr’s platform to spares, tyres, accessories, used cars has worked really well for the company and this overall aftermarket tech platform will be a boon to the industry “said Vinod Kumar Dasari (MD, Ashok Leyland) who has invested in the company in both the funding rounds.
“GoBumpr, though started as servicing platform, has now evolved into a much bigger play with the extension of their tech interface to tyres, batteries, spares, used cars etc. This allows GoBumpr to be a one stop shop for all of the car owners need and also for the workshop owners to get their inventories in place. GoBumpr’s branding of their premium workshops (similar to OYO rooms) and 100% capacity fulfillment is a game changer for the company” said Mahalingam K (Partner, TSM Group) who has invested in GoBumpr in both the rounds and advises the core team.
“We have established presence and scaled GoBumpr services in Bangalore & Chennai in the last 12 months. With our success in these two metros, we are confident of scaling the platform not only to other metros but also to other businesses within the automobile aftermarket. As such automobile is one of the oldest industries and at GoBumpr, we are keen to digitize the after-market space and be India’s most trusted auto commerce solution for consumers” said Karthik Venkateswaran of GoBumpr.
Commenting on GoBumpr’s AI powered Smart Service, “We are working on AI enabled platform leveraging data from OBD and existing service records of the car owner to provide tech enabled smart service assistance to car owners. This would significantly disrupt the way vehicle owners and workshops diagnose repairs and handle service” said Nandha Kumar Ravi, who heads the overall operations for GoBumpr.
GoBumpr is a 'go-to' pitstop for end-to-end car and bike service needs right from regular servicing, repair jobs, body works – denting, tinkering & painting to 24*7 on-road assistance. GoBumpr.com also provides door-step car wash, engine oil change, tyres and battery replacement services at door step. With over 2.5Lakh+ customers and 2500+ service workshops in their platform, GoBumpr transforms the automobile servicing process into a seamless & hassle-free experience with real-time tracking of vehicle service status till payment and delivery. GoBumpr also provides automated service reminders to vehicle owners. GoBumpr is currently available in Chennai & Bangalore and would soon be available in other metro cities.
The Chennai Angels (TCA, www.thechennaiangels.com) is one of India’s most active angel investing groups. Founded in the year 2007, it is comprised of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders with a track record of starting and scaling large enterprises. Additionally, several seed and venture capital firms hold institutional membership in the group. Though it is located in Chennai, TCA’s investing members and portfolio investments are not limited by geography. Unusually for an angel investing group, TCA has a diversified portfolio that goes well beyond a restrictive tech focus, reflecting the diversity of its members’ interests. TCA portfolio companies benefit from the collective expertise and rolodex of its members.
Over 71% Indian enterprises say Global Data Privacy Regulation(GDPR) will help bring a sense of privacy in business and innovation in ideas, according to a recent survey conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (DTTILLP or Deloitte India or Deloitte) in alliance with Data Security Council of India (DSCI).
The joint study reaffirms, organizations that are GDPR ready will gain a competitive advantage, as they will be able to use personal data in their innovations and digitization, helping provide better delivery to their clients through the following measures:
· Provide better customer experiences (60%)
· Enhance productivity of internal operations (54%)
· Personalization of product & services deliveries (47%)
· Creation of new products and services (46%)
In addition, particularly small & mid-size EU companies would open up for business possibilities to Indian firms, given the ease of data transfer between organisations.
With respect to sectors, IT/BPM, Health, Ecommerce, Manufacturing and Pharma are the five frontrunners of the GDPR readiness journey.
Commenting on the survey launch Vishal Jain, Partner, Deloitte India said,” Digital transformation and advanced technologies have enabled enterprises to enhance customer experience. This requires a fair balance between data privacy and accessibility.
GDPR brings in a renewed focus to data privacy. While this is a new compliance imperative, it also provides a competitive advantage for businesses. Infact, our survey findings also infer that GDPR can be the new business opportunity for Indian firms.
The need of the hour for India Inc is to develop a strategic roadmap of adoption for this policy that is transparent and further allows them to build the next layer of customer trust."
Rama Vedashree, CEO, DSCI said “EU has been a key geography for Indian IT and has been servicing customers across several verticals including public sector.
Innovations in global services delivery models, best in class processes and standardization, attention to data protection has kept India’s IT growth story flying high. Scaling its people, process maturity and harnessing technology solutions for rigorous implementation has enabled driving conformance to data protection regulations in various geographies. Given EU GDPR, and impending India’s Data Protection Law, stepping up focus on Data protection practices and capability building, is a key imperative to satisfy expectations of customers and consumers
The joint survey from Deloitte and DSCI is an effort to analyse the current state of preparedness of Indian organizations basis the requirements mandated by the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
· According to the survey in India, even as 28% of the small organizations are yet to initiate their journey towards GDPR, 71% of survey respondents expressed that this regulation will help bring a sense of privacy in business and innovation in ideas.
· Out of the organizations that have taken action for GDPR readiness, 80% have conducted general awareness campaigns for all their relevant stakeholders to identify their processes, which access personal or sensitive data.
· While Right to Data Portability, Right to Erasure and Right to Restriction of Processing were recognised as most challenging data subject rights, 62% of respondents felt avoiding legal & contractual liabilities, fines & penalties as the biggest motivator for compliance followed by the need to get a competitive edge.
· The report also notes that IT/BPM sector was the most responsive sector in terms of taking any steps towards GDPR readiness with 84% of IT organizations having started readiness journey. This was followed by health and E-commerce sectors with 81% and 80% organizations respectively initiating their process.
As a step forward, this survey laid emphasis on the need for a dedicated privacy team and a Data Protection officer (DPO) as their absence may pose a problem for organizations once the regulations for data privacy of various countries broaden after the enforcement of GDPR. This team would set the ground for Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) that would help organizations identify, assess, and mitigate or minimize privacy risks with data processing activities.
Furthermore, it suggest that it is important for Indian organizations, especially Business Process Management (BPM) organizations, call centres and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organizations, to assess their role under GDPR as that of a Data Controller (DC), Data processor (DP) or both, since regulatory requirements for a Data Controller may vary from those for a Data Processor.
Commvault, a global leader in enterprise data management, backup, recovery, archive and the cloud, today announced a new partnership with IBM, in which IBM Business Resiliency Services will be able to provide a managed service based on the Commvault software portfolio of data management and protection software, including the Commvault Data Platform. With this new relationship, IBM Business Resiliency Services will be able to deliver its global customer base a single powerful platform for managing, backing up, recovering, migrating and indexing of all their data, whether it is located on-premises or in the cloud.
IBM Business Resiliency Services will offer its customers the opportunity to deploy Commvault software on-premises, on infrastructure managed in IBM data centers and in IBM Cloud environments. IBM Business Resiliency Services will offer the software both as a solution or as a managed service. The Commvault software offerings will also enable IBM healthcare customers to manage critical MEDITECH, Epic and other EHR data, as well as medical images, across their healthcare enterprise.
IBM is partnering with Commvault as enterprises increasingly realize that they need a simple, powerful and comprehensive data protection and management platform to reduce complexity in their IT environments. The rise of the digital economy is increasing this complexity, as the amounts and types of data in the enterprise grows, while at the same time the number of sophisticated ransomware and other cybersecurity attacks rise. In addition, the implementation of GDPR and other new data privacy and other regulations, combined with increasingly diverse IT environments that consist of various kinds of on-premises infrastructure and multiple cloud services, are creating greater complexity for enterprises.
“The enterprise finds itself in an era where clients are seeking more simplicity and agility in their data backup and recovery solutions to help enable their digital transformation,” said Daniel Witteveen, Vice President, Global Portfolio, IBM Business Resiliency Services. “Seamless integration of IBM and Commvault solutions for on-site or off-site data backup will help deliver a more simplified business continuity model and help reduce operational risks and costs for customers.”
With this new partnership, IBM Business Resiliency Services customers can now easily purchase Commvault-powered services through IBM, empowering them with new ways to help maintain business continuity, streamline IT efforts, minimize cybersecurity and regulatory compliance risk, and use data as a business asset by:
· Optimizing backup, archiving, recovery, search and e-discovery operations across applications, databases and endpoints, with specific migration, granular search and other capabilities designed to optimize management of applications such as IBM DB2, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle.
· Implementing comprehensive ransomware, GDPR and other data protection and regulatory compliance strategies that allow them to backup, find, govern and quickly recover data throughout their organization from a centralized portal.
· Enabling hybrid cloud strategies by moving, managing and activating data across on-premises and cloud infrastructures, including IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environments.
“As an IBM Business Resiliency Partner, this extended partnership enables SHI to offer a leading data management and protection solution with deep integration into the Microsoft Enterprise,” said Ed McNamara, Sr. Director Communications and Marketing, SHI International (IBM AND Microsoft Reseller). “As a result, SHI’s customers will have a more streamlined way to acquire and deploy this powerful trifecta of world-class solutions from IBM, Microsoft and Commvault, empowering them to optimize the management and protection of their most vital applications.”
“The combination of Commvault’s industry-leading data management and protection platform with IBM Business Resiliency Services’ vast business continuity expertise will enable IBM customers to more easily manage, protect and archive their enterprise data wherever it is located,” said Owen Taraniuk, Head of Worldwide Partnerships and Market Development at Commvault. “By being able to offer their customers Commvault products, IBM Business Resiliency Services experts can better ensure their customers’ cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, cloud adoption and other digital transformation initiatives do not result in any disruption to their operations. This new partnership provides IBM Business Resiliency Services experts with the data management platform they need to solve the many IT resilience challenges their customers face as they move to new hybrid cloud environments.”
