Hyperloop Transportation, Government Stakeholders Move Forward with Regulatory Framework

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, leading testing, certification and inspection company TÜV SÜD, and Munich Re, one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, primary insurance and insurance-related risk solutions announced today the creation of the first set of Hyperloop core safety requirements and certification guidelines along with the first insurance framework for HyperloopTT worldwide systems. As construction moves forward at different locations around the world, HyperloopTT has reached key milestones on two of the biggest hurdles remaining for the new transportation system: regulation and insurance.

At a private meeting held at TÜV SÜD’s global headquarters in Munich, Germany, several of HyperloopTT’s partners and stakeholders, together with government representatives, were introduced to the first set of the new guidelines and products. Additionally, a roadmap for joint creation and adoption into a final legal framework for regulating the construction and safe operation of Hyperloop systems was discussed. In attendance were representatives from Ukraine, China, France, and the United States all of whom have existing agreements with HyperloopTT.

“TUV SUD has been working intensively with HyperloopTT over the past year,” said Ferdinand Neuwieser, CEO of TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH. “As a global leader in this field, TÜV SÜD will contribute to making the innovative technology of Hyperloop reliable and safe. The potential risks for passengers and others will be reduced to a minimum. Furthermore the guideline will form a strong basis for standardization, regulation and certification of Hyperloop systems.” The final version of the guideline is expected to be published in Q1 2019.

“Last year we told the world that HyperloopTT’s system was insurable,” said Claudia Hasse, head of special enterprise risks at Munich Re. “We are now able to insure their first commercial projects around the world and are working together to include our services into HyperloopTT’s technology license.”

“Hyperloop will change transportation as we know it,” said Volodymyr Omelyan, minister of infrastructure of Ukraine. “It is our responsibility to make sure that future technologies are regulated and safe, and today represents the foundation of a safe and reliable commercial Hyperloop system.”

“The creation of regulations and legal frameworks are critical components to our ongoing feasibility study between Chicago and Cleveland,” said Grace Gallucci, executive director of Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency. ”We look forward to continuing to work alongside HyperloopTT and their partners to implement these guidelines and policies into a framework specific to the Great Lakes Hyperloop.”

“HyperloopTT is the first company to have an insurable commercial system,” said Dirk Ahlborn CEO of HyperloopTT. “We have proven the technology to be feasible at every level and through our work with these partners, stakeholders, and governments we are creating the safest, most secure system possible.”

“In order to bring Hyperloop to reality we have sought out and formed alliances with industry leaders to provide the complete solutions for our systems,” said Bibop Gresta, Chairman of HyperloopTT. “Now we invite other nations to join these pioneers.”

Bangalore gets India’s First Largest Pet Resort - Petcart Nest at Sarjapur Road

Petcart, a fully integrated pet care solutions company has launched “Petcart Nest”, an exclusive ret resort in Bangalore. India’s first luxury resort that is dedicated for Pets.

Situated in Sarjapur Road Bangalore, PETCART “NEST” is spread across 2 acres of lush green space and a 2000 sqft of reception area. 

Petcart Nest is developed after three years of extensive research amongst the Pet Parents, and studying the matured markets like USA under the guidance and mentorship of the well known veterinary experts.  Pet Cart Nest is an exclusive dedicated resort where pet parents and their furry babies can spend stress free quality time under one roof.  Pet parents can also camp with pets and explore various adventures as well plan for overnight stay in tents.

Commenting on the launch, Shekhar Gaonkar Co-Founder and CEO shared his enthusiasm to bring distinctive “Pet Cart Nest” to Bangalore.  “With the steady increase of pet adoption and limited stress free avenues available for pets in Bangalore, we are optimistic that Petcart Nest will be an ideal luxury destination for pets and pet parents. 

“We are also developing a pet life cycle management tool liked by pet parents and loved by furry friends which will derive a personalized schedule for all pets at every stage of their life. Our aim is to foster healthy and happy pet world”, Gaonkar added.

Commenting on the launch, Nilendu Maiti, Co-founder mentioned, “To address the key challenges of new pet parents, at Petcart Nest we do provide hand-holding and training to first time pet parents on how to handle pets at every stages of their growing up”

At Petcart, we believe that pets make us better humans; thus we want to create a unique fun destination for pets and pet parents.  

Key Features of “Petcart Nest”

·         Spread across two acres of lush green space
·         With 1800 sqft swimming pool, with shower & blower facility
·         2 large size play areas
·         70 eco-friendly huts
·         Well-trained staff
·         In-house veterinary service
·         24/7 Surveillance
·         Pick-up & Drop of pets from the doorstep (Coming soon)
·         Video conferencing chat room facility to stay connected with your furry babies
·         Boarding & Day care facility
·         Night Camp with your pet
·         Flee & tick free resistance environment
·         Ample parking space
·         Eco-friendly waste management system
·         Pet Grooming Station
·         Pet Parent training 

Inaugural experiential Carnival for pets and pet parents is scheduled on 23rd September where pet and pet parents can experience the key features of the facility with Fun, Frolic Food and great Music. The entry for this event will be free for the pet parents.

L&T Infrastructure Finance Revises its Prime Lending Rate; Increases PLR by 25 Bps

L&T Infrastructure Finance Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, has announced a revision in its Prime Lending Rate (PLR). The company has increased the PLR by 25 bps to 16.00% from 15.75% for all eligible loans linked to PLR effective September 14, 2018. 

As on June 30, 2018, the wholesale finance loan book stands at Rs. 45,945 cr. with disbursements amounting to Rs. 8,665 cr. in Q1FY19. L&T Infrastructure Finance is the market leader in its focused areas of Infrastructure Finance - renewables, roads and transmission. The company’s strength lies in its strong underwriting ability, structuring and syndication capabilities and providing all infrastructure finance related services under one roof.

Kalyan Jewellers Invests Rs 125 Cr to Launch Flagship Showroom in South-Extension, New Delhi

A new landmark is set to shine in the tony neighbourhood of South Extension, New Delhi with the opening of Kalyan Jewellers’ flagship showroom on September 28, 2018. With an investment of Rs. 125 cr., the showroom in the capital city promises to be the crown jewel in the Kalyan Jewellers global network of 132 outlets. The flagship showroom of Kalyan Jewellers in South Extension I is spread over 2 dedicated floors with ample parking.  The showroom will offer customers a personalised jewellery shopping experience with a wide variety of contemporary and traditional designs.

Customers will be able to browse through Kalyan Jewellers’ myriad designs and selections for everyday as well as bridal wear and festive occasions.  Collections like Muhurat, the bridal jewellery line curated from across India, Tejasvi – Polki jewellery, Mudhra - handcrafted antique jewellery, Nimah – temple Jewellery, Glo – dancing diamonds, Ziah – Solitaire like diamond jewellery, Anokhi – uncut diamonds, Apoorva – diamonds for special occasions, Antara – wedding diamonds, Hera – daily wear diamonds and Rang – precious stones jewellery will enthral patrons at the flagship showroom. 

T. S. Kalyanaraman, Chairman and Managing Director, Kalyan Jewellers Ltd. said, “In the last four years Kalyan Jewellers has managed to establish itself as one of the most preferred jewellery brands in the NCR region. Our significant presence with 8 showrooms across the region and the large investment in a flagship showroom reiterates our commitment to grow our presence. The exciting part of our flagship showroom is the ability to give our customers a superior value proposition with the best of quality, world class designs, and service standards conceived for a memorable shopping experience.”

The second quarter of the current financial year has seen Kalyan Jewellers opening 10 showrooms across Indore, Kanpur, Ranchi, Raipur, Guwahati, Nagpur and Bengaluru. The launch of the flagship showroom in Delhi marks the second phase of its stated expansion plan of Rs.1000 cr. over 20 showrooms during this fiscal. The present showroom expansion is being met through internal accruals, without any bank borrowings or capital dilution.

Today, Kalyan Jewellers has 132 showrooms in India and Middle East. The brand also has a presence online through candere.com.

Tata Motors to Showcase its Indigenously Build Combat Vehicles at the BIMSTEC Nations Summit 2018

Tata Motors, India’s largest private sector land mobility player in the Defence space, will showcase its two flagship vehicles that have substantial export potential at the BIMSTEC Nations Summit 2018 in Pune. The vehicles that will be exhibited to the Army Chiefs and nearly 400 plus army officers from BIMSTEC Nations include the Tata 4X4 Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) and the WhAP8x8 ICV (CO developed with the DRDO). It demonstrates Tata Motors expertise in the combat range and its commitment to the “Make-In-India For Defence” policy of the Government of India.

Tata Motors have recently signed major military vehicle supply contracts with BIMSTEC Nations in that include Tata Xenon GS 800 to Myanmar, Tata Mine Protected Vehicles for UNIFIL, MONUSCO & MALI Missions, Tata 2.5T GS LPTA 715 4x4 to Myanmar and Thailand, Tata 5T GS LPTA 1628 4x4 to Nepal and Mission specific logistic vehicles for UN Peacekeeping missions sent by these Nations.

Commenting on the occasion, Vernon Noronha, Vice President, Defence & Government Business, Tata Motors Limited said, “Our defence mobility portfolio has grown from strength to strength, offering a range of combat, armoured, combat support & logistics vehicles that have been popular in supporting the military, paramilitary & police forces in their multifarious operations. Our International customers are aware that Tata military vehicles in use by the Indian Armed Forces are inducted by them, only after grueling pre-purchase testing (spread over years in different terrain and climate conditions) to exacting military standards. This also helps Tata Motors build confidence with foreign militaries on durability and maintainability aspects.”

“Our products on display - Tata 4X4 Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) and the WhAP 8x8 Infantry Combat Vehicle is a validation of our truly indigenous expertise to offer mobility solutions for counter insurgency and combat operations of Security forces in India and abroad”, he further added.

Tata Motors flagship product WhAP8x8 (Wheeled Armoured Amphibious Platform) is India’s First Infantry Combat Vehicle, designed for optimised survivability, all-terrain performance and increased lethality – Jointly developed with the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Tata Motors is the first private sector OEM in India to have developed a WhAP in a record period of 18 months. It is a fully loaded vehicle with safety features such as Blast protection, Ballistic Protection and NBC protection. Modulatory and Scalability features, helps this vehicle to be easily modified to cater to various terrain condition and missions. A low maintenance vehicle, with a seating capacity of 10+2 people, the WhAP8x8 comes in various variants such as Armoured Fighting vehicles, CBRN vehicle, Recce & Support vehicle, Medical Evacuation vehicle, Engineer Squad vehicle, Mortar Carrier, Commander’s vehicle and Anti-Tank Guided Missile vehicle.

Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) with 4x4 Configuration, is developed to serve as a mine-proof troop transport vehicle, a law enforcement special response vehicle used to counter insurgency, or an escort protection vehicle. The vehicle comes with best-in-class ground clearance for enhanced cross country mobility. The high power to weight ratio gives enhanced acceleration and maximum speed for quicker response during emergency situation.

Tata Motors has been a proud partner to the Indian Armed Forces since 1958, having supplied over 1.5 lakh vehicles to the Indian Military, Paramilitary forces and Police Establishments. In addition, Tata Motors is also a leading supplier of defence solutions to SAARC, ASEAN and African regions. The company has also established itself as a supplier of specialist vehicles for UN peacekeeping missions

Raghupati Singhania, CMD, JK Tyre, Conferred with Highest Civilian Honor of Mexico

Raghupati Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd, has been conferred with ‘Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle’, the highest honour accorded to non-nationals by the Government of Mexico. On the eve of the 128th National Day of Mexico, HE, Ms. Melba Pría, Ambassador of Mexico to India presented the award to Dr. Singhania on behalf of the President of Mexico. The top honor is in recognition of Dr. Singhania’s exemplary leadership, his noteworthy services towards humanity and his efforts to strengthen bilateral ties between India and Mexico.

Receiving the award, Dr. Singhania said, “I am honored with the recognition that Her Excellency Ms. Melba Pría has conferred upon me. It has been a privilege to have played a role in creating interest among Indian businesses in investing in Mexico. I have fond memories of my first conversation about Tornel with then President of Mexico, Mr. Felipe Calderon, and the rest, as they say, is history. The Government of Mexico has indeed given boost to business by welcoming foreign investment with open arms. It is a reflection of the Mexican Government’s helpful attitude towards industry, something that is worth looking up to for other countries too.”

In 2008, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd expanded its robust manufacturing operations by acquiring Tornel having three production facilities in Azcapotzalco, Tultitlan and Hidalgo. Under Dr. Singhania’s strategic leadership, the company turned around the facility in the very first year by improving efficiencies and increasing market share across product segments.  Over the years, production capacity has been expanded, and Tornel’s global footprint enhanced in North America and the Latin America markets.

The company more recently implemented the first-ever labour restructuring programme in Mexico, at JK Tornel by rightsizing workforce.  This was made possible due to tremendous help received from the Government of Mexico, particularly the Labour Ministry. 

‘ReimagiNE Waste 3‘ -2018 Hackathon Concludes with Promising Solutions Towards Effective Waste Water Management for Bengaluru

REimagiNE Waste 3, the annual four-day hackathon on Waste Management organised by Waste Impact Trust, and the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in partnership with United Way recently concluded in the city.

With the theme of 'Waste, Water and Livelihoods’ this year, the hackathon was divided into two phases and served to identify low-cost, high-impact, inclusive solutions to the problem of water waste in Bengaluru. The event saw a strong participation of over 150 applicants divided in 29 teams at the end of the first two days. Participants ranged from students to retired people along with entrepreneurs, technocrats and innovators who were guided by over 25 mentors and 30 domain experts.

Four winners took home prizes totaling Rs 2.5 lakh. ‘Rakshak’, an interdisciplinary team of six that presented an affordable platform for detection of poisonous gases, took home the winning prize of Rs 1 lakh, followed by team ‘Flow Tensor’, which won the second prize of Rs 50,000 for their solution of a system for managing inlets into water bodies. While ‘Wattage from Sewage’ won the third prize of Rs 25,000 for their innovative concept of generating electricity from sewage, a special prize of Rs 75,000 was reserved for Waste E-Preneurs for their promising solution of preventive monitoring of manholes using a city-wide, low-cost, low-power wireless sensor network.

While the hackathon spread across four days and two phases concluded, there is a 45-days challenge that will give an opportunity to all participants to refine, relook and redevelop their solutions to create workable ideas for water waste management.

“The highlight of this year’s REimagiNEWaste3 was the participation of an eight year old, 11 year old and a 14 year old boys who came up with a workable and practical solution of making a device that can create mini whirlpools to remove floating waste from water bodies. It was a thrilling experience to see ‘Domain Experts’ such as Safai Karmacharis and persons who work in maintaining the lakes work together with the highly educated to come up with innovative and inclusive solutions for the day to day problems faced by them. We look forward some of these solutions being implemented on the ground” said Gayitri Handanahal, the founder of the Waste Impact Trust and Lead Organiser of the REimagiNE Waste event.

“We now intend to take this event to the next level and come up with some exciting and interesting solutions to trivial challenges in the coming editions of the event” She added.

Commenting on the event, Manish Michael, United Way said, “Complex problems with respect to Waste, Water and Livelihoods in urban spaces require sustained efforts to develop ideal solutions. This Hackathon was a great platform to bring together different stakeholders towards achieving these solutions. We are confident that some of the incredible ideas that came about through this event will surely help our garden city in addressing issues related to effective waste water management.”

Commenting on the event, Prof. Amaresh Chakrabarti, Chairman, CPDM, IISc said “There is something magical about bringing together a diverse group of people for a finite amount of time and leaving them with a challenge to overcome. With a bit of training into design thinking, really wonderful solutions come out, which many do not expect. The REimagiNEWaste Hackathon series allows us to apply this magic to problems of social relevance and with the right stakeholders being involved from the beginning.”

Commenting on her experience of participating in the event, Aswathy T K, from BOSCH said “Reimagine waste hackathon was one of a kind hackathon where we were shown the actual problems faced by water bodies, which gave us a realistic picture of the magnitude of the problem. We had the freedom to choose the problem which we want to solve, and moreover team up with other participants which helped in bringing people from different background together. The most important part was that each team had a domain expert (people who actually work on the ground- manual scavengers) and thus I got to know about a lot of problems they face due to each one of our ignorance. Our solution was to help manual scavengers improve their working condition and we wish to rework on our idea and prepare for the day challenge”

REimagiNEWaste3 was brought together by support of United Way, Earthwatch Institute, ELCIA, ITC WoW, Navya Disha, Wipro, Novozyme and in partnership with Bengaluru Lake Federation and Biome.