Mahindra Unveils Electric 3 Wheeler Range of Treo and Treo Yaari Priced Starting at Rs. 1.36 Lakhs

Mahindra Electric Mobility Ltd, part of the USD 20.7 billion Mahindra Group, has dedicated to the country its first ever Electric Technology Manufacturing Hub in Karnataka. This new hub aligns with Mahindra’s strong belief in an all-electric future and is based on its Future of Mobility vision of producing Clean, Connected & Convenient vehicles. Mahindra is the pioneer of EV technology in India, and is gearing up to realise this vision with its new, futuristic EV products, concepts and solutions. 

The new facility, located in Bengaluru, Karnataka is set to revolutionise the way electric vehicle technology would be used in India, under Mahindra’s +ME brand. The Government of Karnataka has played a very proactive role during the development of this facility. The facility was inaugurated by KJ George, Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT & BT, Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, along with RV Deshpande, Minister for Revenue, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, Government of Karnataka, Priyank M Kharge, Minister for Social Welfare Department, Government of Karnataka and Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Chairman, Mahindra Electric Mobility Ltd.

This first of its kind, electric vehicle technology manufacturing facility in the EV capital of the country, has been set up with a total investment of Rs. 100 crore. Branded under the umbrella of +ME technologies, the facility will manufacture battery packs, power electronics and motor assembly which are integral part of an electric power train. The plant uses global standards of manufacturing processes and will increase the manufacturing of Mahindra Electric to 25,000 units per annum. The facility will create additional direct employment of around 200 people and some more through the allied services, in the state of Karnataka.

This is the first such project to be cleared by the Department of Industries & Commerce’s SLSWCC since the announcement of Karnataka State Electric Vehicle & Energy Storage Policy in 2017.

The company also rolled out its first lithium ion electric 3 wheeler range Treo and Treo Yaari and announced its price, starting at an attractive Rs. 1.36 lakhs ex-showroom Bengaluru, including FAME subsidy.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Chairman Mahindra Electric said “As the pioneers of electric mobility in India, Mahindra is poised to be at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution while spearheading the endeavour through its range of clean mobility solutions. The manufacturing hub inaugurated today is the next step by Mahindra in the Electric Technology space to increase local value addition and bring affordable EV technology to redefine mobility in India.  We are proud to launch Treo, the first Li-ion 3-wheeler auto developed in India. The Government of Karnataka has been very supportive in this initiative with their progressive policy framework for EVs. It has always supported accelerated adoption of EVs in the state.”

According to Mahesh Babu, CEO Mahindra Electric “At Mahindra Electric, our aim is to bring about a monumental change in the way India moves by enabling more EV products on the road through our +ME technology solutions. Reiterating our strong faith in EVs we have now invested in technologies that are core to EVs and have set up manufacturing of battery packs, motors, power electronics etc. in our new facility at Bengaluru. The government of Karnataka has been extremely supportive of this initiative.”

Babu further added, “Driven by the same +ME technology, we are also proud to roll out the first Treo. Built on India’s first Lithium-ion three wheeler platform, we are confident that Treo will transform the way urban India travels.”

The Treo range of electric three wheelers use Mahindra Electric’s home grown powertrain and maintenance free Lithium ion battery. The variants include Treo electric auto and Treo Yaari electric rickshaw, both available in the industry first hard top weather proof variants. With the use of exceptional light weighting technologies and composite body panels, the Treo boasts of a certified range of 170 km (eAuto), directly addressing range anxiety in the market. It also offers the best in class comfort for passengers with one of the most spacious interiors in the segment and for the driver through its clutch-less, noiseless and vibration free drive, thereby reducing the overall fatigue of the journey. The Treo range is built on an indigenously developed common platform with a view to serve market demands as they scale up.

During the first phase of its launch, the vehicles will be available at select dealerships across Bengaluru and Hyderabad and later in other cities in a phased manner.

The CoWrks Foundry Hosts its Cohort with Demo Day 2018 in B'lore

The CoWrks Foundry, a premier acceleration program, announced the completion of its first cohort, comprising of five innovative startups today.

The CoWrks Foundry is an initiative by CoWrks, one of India’s largest shared office space providers. The program is designed to nurture early-stage startups in the field of Urban Tech, Enterprise Tech, and Social Impact Enterprise, through a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, designed by industry veterans & experts. The Foundry’s well-architected framework nurtures durable and scalable businesses by investing in the ideas and the minds behind them.

Out of the 350+ startups that applied to the program from across India and some even international, the final five that were selected to be a part of the accelerator are Wagonfly, Understand Better, Ayasta, Betterly and T-Scale Hub. These companies were assisted with everything from initial seed capital and client acquisition to the art of crafting a stellar pitch.

The 24-week intensive program concluded with a Demo Day on November 14. The 5 startups had the opportunity to pitch their products, ideas and business models to venture capitalists, and prominent industry leaders at the city’s newest entrepreneurial hub - CoWrks Koramangala. In order to fuel entrepreneurship and create an environment where innovators and companies thrive, The Foundry also invited applications from the startups housed within the CoWrks community to pitch on Demo Day.

In addition to providing an initial influx of smart seed capital of upto $30K, The Foundry has been instrumental in equipping home-grown businesses with a solid foundation and the resources required to fully equip, refine and fortify their companies. Situated within CoWrks’ HQ in Bangalore, the startups in The Foundry have been able to access premium workspaces within CoWrks, and the opportunity to work alongside a carefully curated community of startups, freelancers and large enterprises. Each of the 5 startups were assigned dedicated mentors and experts from relevant industries, to provide targeted coaching and guidance.

As a part of the part of its post-program support, The Foundry will continue to aid these start-ups in terms of mentorship and guidance. 

Nruthya Madappa, Managing Partner, The Cowrks Foundry said: “Despite the start-up growth spurt in India, businesses in the Urban Tech, Enterprise Tech and Social Enterprise space, lack the guidance to overcome unique challenges. The CoWrks Foundry is our answer to India’s fractured entrepreneurial ecosystem. In comparison to the sturdy framework and incredible support afforded to thriving startups in Israel, Shanghai and Singapore, India lags far behind. Therefore, it has been our endeavor to provide them with world-class mentorship and expertise, technology and infrastructure support, as well as access to investors and customers so they can scale from idea to execution at an accelerated speed. It has been a grueling yet amazing journey so far, with like-minded peers interacting and learning from The CoWrks Foundry panel, mentors and each other.”

Ravi Teja Avasarala, Cofounder of Ayasta said: “What drew us to the Foundry was the team behind it.  They have an inherent understanding of what startups need in order to succeed and what sort of help is required at various stages. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that during the program, the Foundry team worked harder on solving our problems than we did. The networks we got access to would be invaluable to us in our journey. Foundry put in the effort to understanding our Ayasta’s offerings and then helped remove our biases by identifying where we are underselling ourselves. The Foundry program made us better founders which would eventually lead us to become successful entrepreneurs.”

Further to the success of the first cohort, The CoWrks Foundry is inviting applications for the second one by the end of November 2018. The 24 week-long program at the state-of-the-art CoWrks Millenia office in Bangalore will commence in January 2019. 

Startups Graduated from the First Cohort:

Wagonfly

Wagonfly is a single stop, cashless, queue less solution for brick and mortar stores. Bringing online checkout experience in offline stores. Solving the last mile supply chain issue in retail stores currently handicapped with manual barcode scanning leading to product dropouts & long queues.

Understand Better

Understand Better manages people intelligently with an AI powered HR solution that provides customized, contextual solutions for employee engagement.

Ayasta

With a combination of sensors, ML & CV, Ayasta ascertains deterioration, predicts faults and impending risk within a facility and in the external electrical grid.

Betterly

Betterly is an anonymous, personalized and economical, tech-enabled platform to address mental health issues. With certified professional counselors and psychotherapists through text, audio and chat, you won’t ever feel alone.

T-Scale Hub

T-Scale Hub is a community and platform for architects and vendors where firms can review the work of desirable candidates by paying a subscription fee and vendors can advertise their products & services to the architecture community, generating additional revenue.

Sandalwood Agarbathi Sees Highest Demand this Diwali in Bangalore

Dussehra and Diwali is the time of the year when agarbathi has a crucial role to play not only in pooja rituals but also in festive gifting. Lifestyle habits and social influence have a big role to play in one’s inclination towards a particular fragrance. This year Sandalwood agarbathis were in increased demand followed by champa in South. These two fragrances have contributed to about 30% of the overall agarbathi sale in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana region.

Sarath Babu, President, AIAMA, said ‘This year agarbathi industry has witnessed a growth of over 20-25% in sales as compared to last year during October-November period. In every market, demand was driven by one or two key fragrances like Sandalwood and Champa in South, Mogra in West, Rose in North and Citrus in East. Sandalwood infused agarbathis have contributed close to 30% of sales of agarbathis in the southern markets including Bangalore. With Christmas and New Year nearing, the demand for agarbathi in international market is bound increase at least by 10% over the previous year.’

It is scientifically proven that fragrances have the power to drive one’s mood and behaviour on an instinctive and subconscious level and the best time to include these fragrances in our daily routine is during morning and evening prayer or meditation sessions. These practices help keep our mind calm and composed for the stressful professional or personal life we bound to live.

JLL Launches Global Centre for Technology, Data and Information Management in Bangalore

JLL has opened its global Centre of Expertise ('CoE') for Technology, Data & Information Management. This state-of-the-art facility is focused on harnessing emerging technologies and developing new solutions for JLL and its clients. As India's first global centre for property technology ('PropTech'), the CoE will set new standards of innovation for the commercial real estate industry.

Spread over 20,000 sq.ft. at Prestige Trade Towers in Bangalore, the CoE will open with 170 (and growing) highly skilled tech experts working together to provide a single data, engineering and support platform to JLL and its clients globally.

More importantly, the CoE will drive rapid iterative innovation, aiming to set new standards for the commercial real estate industry. This includes experimenting with data and technology design, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality and other emerging technologies to help JLL's clients to make smarter decisions about real estate.

The CoE will also collaborate with other technology partners to prototype and fast track new solutions and ideas.

Anthony Couse, CEO, JLL Asia Pacific, says: "The real estate industry is faced with a tremendous opportunity for digitisation. Technology and data will revolutionise the way we do business, and JLL wants to be at the forefront of this digital transformation. Now with a single, global technology platform and best-in-class tech talent on our side, we are one step closer to realising our ambition as the technology leader in the real estate industry."

Ramesh Nair, CEO and Country Head, JLL India, says: "PropTech is an emerging concept in India, with ample opportunity for growth. Locating our Global Centre of Expertise in Bangalore allows us to be at the heart of innovation and disruption. We are excited to usher in a new age of transformation by leveraging PropTech to help solve our clients' problems, make smarter decisions and simplify lives."

George Thomas, CIO, JLL Asia Pacific, says: "Today we take a big step forward towards our digital ambitions. Our talented colleagues located in Bangalore, India will support our businesses to deliver an end-to-end digital experience, underpinned by a modern data and technology platform that will leverage JLL's deep knowledge-base to enable unique data insights and advanced digital solutions for our clients. Aligned to our technology and data executive management team at JLL, the CoE will also serve as a liquid lab to architect, build and test advanced digital products to support our clients, as well as our firm."

The new workplace features an open, collaborative design, catering to the varied workflows of each employee, including focus pods, collaboration lounges and relaxation spaces. The centre also integrates smart technology such as Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) projections, allowing teams to utilise the immersive virtual reality environment for research, design or analysis. Wellness was another key consideration and the space was designed to meet the WELL Gold standard for the highest levels of health and safety in a workplace.

The inauguration of the CoE is the latest in JLL's ongoing digital transformation, alongside strategic acquisitions, appointment of Silicon Valley leader Vinay Goel as Chief Digital Product Officer and launching JLL Spark, a global division dedicated to identifying and delivering new technology-driven real estate service offerings.

Casio Presents the World’s First GST Calculator Made for Indian Market

Casio India has announced the launch of the world’s first GST calculator. With the introduction of GST in 2017, Casio India adopted the mission to provide a single solution for all GST based calculations. Surveying different Indian markets to understand the nuances of the invoicing process over the past year across the nation, Casio India is introducing two new innovations MJ-120GST and MJ-12GST dedicated to the Indian market. This calculator is equipped to navigate the challenging environment and develop smooth functionality by easing the issues faced by Indian retailers post the introduction of GST.

Kulbhushan Seth, Vice-President, CASIO India said, “As market leaders in the calculators’ category, Casio India is committed to making meaningful innovations that help its customers day in and day out. We are proud to announce the launch of the World’s first GST calculator. CASIO GST calculator’s features bring a refreshing touch to the whole calculator’s category. It will make manual invoicing easy and hassle-free.”

Ideal for anyone dealing with GST based invoicing, the key features of the Casio MJ-120GST and MJ-12GST calculators are as follows:

•In-built GST tabs: All the five (0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%) GST are in-built in MJ-120GST and MJ-12GST. Separate buttons for the GST slabs will drastically reduce the number of clicks, hence reducing the time required to process the invoice. The tax slabs are changeable as per the industry needs.

• Gross value (net value + Tax), net value and tax paid under different GST slabs stay stored in the GST+0, GST+1, GST+2, GST+3, GST +4 buttons and the overall value in the five slabs stays stored in the GST GT button. Hence, there’s no need to recalculate the values repeatedly.

•Tax- Mode application: While working with the different markets Casio India also recognised that tax payers and traders calculate the base value of products by deducting tax from MRP. Hence, a TAX- feature for all the five tax slabs to calculate the base value from MRP was introduced. Tax-mode has its application in calculating base value and net profit earned.

• Multi-industry use: Functionality of GST+/tax- key makes MJ-120GST transcend industries as it can calculate values in multiple formats i.e. gross value from base value in GST+ mode and base value from gross value in Tax- mode. Furthermore, the GST GT key is for calculating gross value of a GST based calculation and can it can also be used for calculating the grand total of a calculation.

Price: MJ-120GST for INR 475/- | MJ-12GST for INR 395/-

Availability: All leading Stationery Stores

Reverie Language Technologies launches Gopal - Indic Voice Suite

Reverie Language Technologies, a leader in Indian language localisation solutions, announced the launch of Gopal, its Indian language voice suite available in 12 Indian languages. The Indic voice suite can be integrated with both chatbots and IVR solutions that companies can use for greater engagement.

Chatbots are used to interactively prompt users to select options and take actions on a platform, leading them through a certain user flow step by step. For example, bank customers can be overwhelmed by the process of securing a loan, with all the details needed. Chatbots can lead them through the process, by asking them step by step for their requirements and prompting them to choose from options.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) lets users speak to an automated system to select from predefined options and carry out an action. An example would be a telecom operator helpline where users have to listen to a prerecorded message and dial to select options from the list being dictated. With voice integrated IVR, users can verbally state their choices and the system will recognize their queries and suggest relevant options, removing redundant steps in between.

“As hundreds of millions of Indians access the internet for the first time, they are presented with platforms featuring unfamiliar UI. Iconography is often alien to these users, and what mature users would see as intuitive, needs to be spelt out to them”, says Arvind Pani, Co-Founder & CEO of Reverie Language Technologies.

Arvind Pani also explains with an example of e-commerce platforms, which use the cart icon prominently. Over 80% of Indians have never seen a shopping cart in their lives. And the existing UIs have been designed keeping mature English language users in mind, which does not make them inclusive. In addition, user education is a continuous process that takes time, involving constant guidance and handholding. Education for even a basic user flow to complete a simple task can require multiple instances of explanations before the user is comfortable.

Chatbots have been helping internet users access and use a variety of services, making user flow easier.  However, they have had limited reach because they are text based, English only, and cater to mature internet users. According to a Google-KPMG report, 90% of these new internet users, as well as over 50% of the existing Indian internet user base is formed by Indian language users.

Introducing Reverie’s Gopal Indic Voice Suite.

●      Gopal can fluently comprehend user queries and deduce intent for any of its 12 supported languages. In addition, Gopal’s speech recognition engine is dialect sensitive.

●      Reverie’s proprietary architecture makes adding new domains and use cases to Gopal seamless.
Besides Indic chatbots, the Gopal suite also includes IVR automation powered by Reverie's proprietary ASR (Automated Speech Recognition).

It can also function as an input tool, providing voice typing by converting speech into text.

Gopal has been tested for banking apps and mobile recharges and has been shown to increase ease of use, while helping users leapfrog using unfamiliar UI, user flows, and interfaces.

In a survey conducted by Reverie featuring 472 Indian language internet users over the age of 45 on Android devices across 15 towns, it was found that 54% of respondents found mobile recharge through Gopal’s voice suite easier to use than the existing options. 35% showed a willingness to use a similar voice based service to recharge their phones on a regular basis.     

‘Automated Data Science’ to Offer a Competitive Edge to Enterprises

(Authored by Srinivasan Rengarajan, VP & Global Head - Data Science and Analytics, 3i Infotech)

According to a recent Indian jobs study, data science is one of the topmost and fastest growing field in India and its relevance is increasing in almost every sector. Reports from NASSCOM suggests that India’s data industry would reach $16 billion by 2025 from the present level of $2 billion. At the core of it, data science is the science of examining raw data and applying statistical techniques for the purpose of drawing business related conclusions and predicting business outcomes. In every organization, there are opportunities to implement data science and transform the way business is carried out.

Leading analysts like Gartner and Forrester have quoted 2018 as a milestone year for organizations, with over 70% of them expected to leverage data science for Business Optimization.  It is one of the most talked about topics in the CxO community.

In today’s era, all small and large corporates are sitting on a gold mine of data, however, the biggest challenge they are facing is to use these data to get business insights which they can implement to make effective business decisions and optimize their business. In the Indian context, below are the industries adapting data science to gain the competitive advantage:

Financial institutions are optimizing price, improving customer satisfactions, predicting risk of defaults, optimizing underwriting process
Hospitals are increasing diagnoses accuracy, providing physicians with accurate sickness’s causes for individual patients, preventing patient readmissions, predicting risk of infections
Retail chains are increasing occasional and loyal customer satisfaction, optimizing campaigns, offering the right price for products, preventing inventory shortage
Manufacturing organizations are predicting machine failures, providing predictive safety alerts, building accurate pro-active maintenance plan
However, applying traditional data science methods to real-world business problems is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and challenging. It also requires experts in the several disciplines, including data scientists.

Enterprises leveraging Automated Data Science to achieve efficiencies:

Automated data Science represents a fundamental shift in the way organizations of all sizes approach machine learning and data science. Automated data science platforms are bringing the advanced AI techniques into reach for the mainstream. Organizations are finding that with automated data science they can make progress in AI without hiring new data scientists or embarking on expensive, time-consuming training for their employees. Instead, almost anyone with domain experience and a familiarity with data can build predictive models without writing a single line of code or having deep knowledge of machine learning algorithms.

With automated data science, AI innovation is not just exclusively in the realm of the data scientists, but can now be shared with those that best understand the business needs. The main obstacle to AI success is no longer capability, but rather a refusal to embrace new methods and new approaches. Automated data science platforms removes many of these obstacles, and with a sound data science strategy will accelerate your success.

Automated data science saves up to 80% of time in model building, cuts 90% of the learning curve time, delivers 20%-40% more accurate and stable models and lastly zero preparation time for production deployment of models, thereby giving the utmost advantage to organizations to adapt data science.

The world is being disrupted by visionaries. Combining the power of AI and automated data science with a sound strategy is helping build a future that is smarter, more efficient, and fairer for everyone. The companies that take advantage of automated data science will succeed and prosper. Those that don’t will be left behind.