Amphora - London’s Leading Fine Wine Investment firm Partners with Wine Trailblazer Cecilia Oldne in India

Cecilia Oldne, one of the Indian wine industry’s best known people and respected Sommeliers has joined hands with London based Fine Wine Investment firm Amphora Portfolio Management taking Liquid Luxury to the next level in India! 

Amphora, which was set up in London in 2009 builds, manages and stores bespoke fine wine portfolios for collectors, investors and wine enthusiasts.

What is fine wine? Fine wines are defined as those which improve in the bottle with age. The most desirable and expensive of these are produced in extremely limited quantities and get rarer over time. Each bottle of Chateau Latour 2005 for instance, once opened and drunk can obviously never be replaced. Diminishing supply is what makes Fine Wine Investment unique! Fine wine take ten years or more even to reach their drinkable window. They then get better and better for decades, all the time becoming more and more desirable!

David Jackson, the brainchild behind Amphora, identified an unprecedented opportunity for wine investors in late 2008 following this credit-crunch driven market correction.

Amphora has been operating in India since 2014. The heady combination of double-digit returns from a physical, tangible asset coupled with the safe and discreet nature of wine investment evidently made Amphora’s proposition very attractive to Indian investors. India is about to overtake China as Amphora's biggest market outside the UK. 

“For me, India is far more than simply commercial success. These last four years have been a total joy and an incredible adventure. My clients in India have all, without exception; become personal friends, and I have had the privilege of exploring the far corners of this fascinating country. It is for these reasons that I have clocked up more than 30 Indian stamps in my passport in the last 4 years!

I have known Cecilia professionally for a couple of years now, and am thrilled to bits that one of the best known and most respected wine people in India has agreed to join our team. Having Cecilia "on the ground" is a very demonstrative statement of Amphora's commitment to its India business and clients” says, David Jackson, CEO Amphora Portfolio Management.

“India is learning fast when in comes to wines, but not many people know what a great investment commodity this liquid luxury can be too.

One of my aims is to educate Indians and wine enthusiasts that wine is not restricted to just the drinking element. Wine investors are the key to ensuring a balanced supply of mature wine to the secondary market, and Amphora helps them make the right choices. As wine is consumed, the supply effectively decreases. The imbalance between demand and supply is the main driver of prices. Wine is unique in that the producers cannot increase supply to meet the burgeoning demand from countries like India. It is relatively straightforward for makers of other luxury goods  - watches, handbags, even cars – to increase production, but you cannot reproduce a vintage wine!

I look forward to raising a glass with our existing and future fine wine investors here in India!” says, Cecilia Oldne, Amphora’s India partner and Ambassador.

The demand for fine wine is growing at a frantic rate in Asia, from China to India. The older generation in India favoured beer and whisky, but the younger generation is becoming more and more knowledgeable about wine – it is nothing short of a cultural revolution. The import duty however on fine wine in India is very high and at 160% - not in favor of the fine wine connoisseurs and collectors. Amphora, however, stores its clients wines in London. Storage is critical when it comes to fine wines. Even the best investment-grade wines lose their value if not stored properly.

Amphora helps investors make smart decisions by applying quantitative analysis techniques taken from the financial markets. Their head of research, Philip Staveley, was Head of Global Emerging Markets for Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, and today writes a weekly wine investment feature in The Drinks Business magazine.

Once an investor puts their money on a portfolio of wine, it is bought on their behalf, registered in their name, and stored in an insured and climate-controlled London warehouse, regulated by HMRC. The Amphora team also arranges the sales of the wines for a profit on behalf of its clients.

Amphora estimate the global size of the fine wine market to be approximately 4.5 billion pounds, and long term returns on the benchmark index - the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index, which tracks the value of the 100 most regularly traded investment grade wines – is just under 11%. Amphora’s aim is to generate returns in excess of 15% by way of fully managed portfolios, thereby doubling invested funds in 5 years. The Liv-ex 100 Index is quoted on Thomson-Reuters and Bloomberg. Fine Wine continues to be one of the most secure global investments.

Amphora Portfolio Management

Amphora builds, manage and stores bespoke fine wine portfolios for collectors, investors and enthusiasts. No jargon, no nonsense – just jolly good advice from a professional team sporting an enviable wealth of knowledge, talent and experience drawn from the financial markets.

Amphora are award winning fine wine specialists and the friendly face of wine investment. An advisory firm that mix business and pleasure! 

Honor Unveils the Honor 10 Lite in India, Most Stylish AI Selfie Companion at INR 13,999 and INR 17,999

Honor, the leading smartphone e-brand under the Huawei Group, has officially announced the Honor 10 Lite in India. Packed with 24MP AI Selfie camera, an innovative dewdrop display and a shimmering color gradient back, the Honor 10 Lite is as stylish as it is affordable. The smartphone will be available in 4GB + 64GB at INR 13,999 and 6GB + 64GB at INR 17,999 in Sapphire Blue, Sky Blue and Midnight Black colors in India. The smartphone will be exclusively available on Flipkart.

The Honor 10 Lite comes with an impressive 24MP AI selfie camera, AI scene detection technology on both rear and front cameras, latest Kirin 710 processor with 12nm process technology, Dewdrop Display, first Honor phone with Intelligent EMUI 9.0 on top of Android 9 (Pie) out of the box and 3,400 mAh battery.

"We’re proud to announce the Honor 10 Lite in India, the smartphone demonstrates Honor’s strong dedication to selfie photography and exceptional design. Following our devotion in photography and design in the Lite series the Honor 10 Lite is also pushing the boundaries even further and will sport a range of high-end features. As an innovative and trend-setting brand, Honor is dedicated to bringing unrivaled products with unbeatable value to all our consumers,” said Suhail Tariq, CMO, Huawei Consumer Business Group.

“We are excited to launch the new Honor 10 Lite on Flipkart. This franchise has been one of the most successful ones from Honor and we are confident this too will be received well by our customers,” said Aditya Soni, Senior Director, Mobiles, Flipkart.

Be your best self with Honor 10 Lite’s smart photography

Following Honor’s long history of selfie-strong smartphones, the Honor 10 Lite is pushing the boundaries even further. The AI camera can recognize eight different scenes (Sky, Beach, Plant, Flower, Stage, Night, Room and Snow) and adjust camera settings to click best ever selfies. The front camera also features AI based facial recognition and light fusion technology, ensuring you always look your best in every scenario and light condition. 

Dual Rear AI Camera is capable of detecting 22 different scenes to give best ever photographs in every scenario and condition. Low light photography is enhanced by its big f1.8 aperture and AIS mode which enables it to capture beautiful and detailed shots even in low light conditions.

Style yourself with Honor 10 Lite’s dazzling design

The Honor 10 Lite’s rear design is made from eight layers of shimmering material for a dazzling visual effect. Inspired by the lights and colors of its surroundings, the Honor 10 Lite’s vibrant gradient color choices include the newly introduced Sky Blue, which has a luminescent gradient effect that fades from light grey to blue, inspired by the natural light spectrum, as well as the classic Sapphire Blue and Midnight Black. 

To complement the range of captivating colors, the Honor 10 Lite also offers a 15.77cm (6.21”) FHD+ screen Dewdrop Display, with a 91% screen-to-body ratio for a best viewing experience. Honor 10 Lite also comes with TUV certified eye care mode to prevent your eye with any damage due to harmful blue light.

Flagship-like Configuration

Powered by the Huawei Kirin 710 chipset, the Honor 10 Lite performs as well as any flagship phone. Fast LPDDR4X RAM improved performance and reduces lag in multitasking. This is the first Honor phone to have GPU Turbo 2.0 which keeps FPS at max(~60FPS), reduces lagging and frame drops giving an immersive gaming experience to users.

EMUI 9.0 based on Android Pie

Honor 10 Lite is the first Honor phone to have latest EMUI 9.0 based on Android 9 (pie) out of the box which gives a unique and refreshing new feel to its users. With its new features like Digital wellbeing, Gestures, Themes user can have best ever UI experience.

Special Features:

*  AI Shopping: Shop what you see with Intelligent AI shopping experience on various shopping e-commerce platforms in India.

*  Calorie Detection : Detect calories in food items just by looking them through camera

*  AI Enhanced calls: AI noise reduction accurately recognizes noise and suppresses it

*  Wi-Fi Bridge: Now you can share any Wi-Fi network as hotspot and connect maximum 4 devices

*  Paytm Pay: One click pay option for Paytm users

*  App Assistant: Enjoy uninterrupted gaming experience

*  Dual VoLTE: You can access internet from 1 sim, while you are having a phone call with the other sim

*  AI Smart Face Unlock: Lock Screen with Privacy Protection - By face recognition, only the phone owner can see more details

*  Smart Fingerprint: Apart from unlocking phone, you can use it from taking photos & videos, answer call, stop alarm, show notification panel & browse photos

* Smart Triple Bluetooth Connection: Connect 3 devices - Like Bluetooth headset & Smart Watch

*  Ride Mode: Specially for bike rider safety & Keep them away from the unwanted distraction of call

*  Party Mode: Connect upto 6 Honor devices and play your favourite song in all the device at the same time

The Honor 10 Lite is the successor of the Honor 9 lite that was launched in India earlier in the year 2018. Honor has sold more than 1.5 million Honor 9 Lite devices so far. The Honor 10 Lite will also be available for Sale on Honor’s official website www.hihonor.com/in.

Surya Kiran, Saras to Make Comeback at Aero India Show in 2019

The Surya Kiran team was disbanded in 2011 and will return with a nine-aircraft display that never failed to delight the crowds. Things hot up for Aero India as 47 aircraft confirm presence; IAF Surya Kiran, NAL’s SARAS will be part of display after many many years.

With little over a month left for Aero India to start, around 47 metal birds that will take part in the airshow have confirmed their participation.

While a majority of the aircraft that would be taking part in flying and static display during the airshow are Indian made or belong to the Indian armed forces, a few foreign ones too are making their presence felt. Aero India is to be held at the Air Force Station Yelahanka between February 23 and 24.

Among the Indian aircraft, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will have the largest presence with nine aircraft which will be on both flying and static display, followed by the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

The aerobatic teams who have confirmed their participation include the Indian Air Forces (IAF) Surya Kiran and the Sarang teams. After a hiatus of eight years, Surya Kiran will return with its nine-aircraft formation during next months’ Aero India.

Surya Kiran used to be a big draw, performing stunts in Kiran MK-II aircraft, a basic trainer for IAF’s budding fighter pilots. It had been the mainstay at the biennial Aero India since 1996. However, the team was disbanded after the 2011 edition of the air show as the IAF decided to reroute the Kiran Mk-II’s solely for training purposes due to a shortage of trainer aircraft.

The Surya Kiran team later made a conversion to the Hawk Mk-132 Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) and since 2015 have been training and performing with the Hawk aircraft. Though the Surya Kiran team performed at 2017 edition of the airshow, it was with a six-aircraft formation and not the nine aircraft formation.

Also making a return to the airshow after many years is the NAL designed and developed SARAS PT1N which last performed in the Aero India 2009. The SARAS program was grounded since 2009 following a crash of prototype of the aircraft in the outskirts of Bangalore and took to the skies only last year. The 14-seater aircraft will be among the aircraft that will be part in the flying display.

Among the vintage aircraft which will be taking part in the airshow is the Dakota aircraft.

Among the foreign helicopters and military aircraft which will be on static display are the Airbus H135 and Airbus H145 the Airbus A400M, C295 and the ANTONOV 132D. Two Rafales will also be part of the flying display.

Aeris and Roambee Unite to Enhance Cold Chain Monitoring via IoT

Aeris, a technology leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), has announced it is working with the Roambee Corporation, an IoT supply chain and enterprise asset visibility company, to help enterprises improve their monitoring of shipments and assets through IoT-based technologies offered by both companies.

Roambee provides IoT-based real-time global condition monitoring and visibility services for in-transit goods and in-field assets. Roambee’s unique end-to-end solution simplifies global shipment visibility across the supply chain, including the entire cold chain process for enterprises. The company provides patented hardware and software technology, combined with an array of senor data, analytics, predictive reporting and open application programming interfaces (APIs) to increase return on investment (ROI), improve supply chain operations, and reduce inventory loss.

Aeris offers end-to-end IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions through its comprehensive Aeris® Mobility Platform (AMP) and Aeris Connectivity Platform (ACP). Collectively, these platforms enable enterprises and original equipment manufacturers to embark on a digital transformation journey to enhance revenue, create new services and form new business models.

ACP provides Roambee with the ability to manage its global data connectivity, which in turn is being used by Roambee for its shipping, inventory, pallet, asset and fleet monitoring services. This helps Roambee advance its service delivery while improving supply chain predictability and throughput for enterprises.

The Aeris Connectivity Platform provides a “smarter” cold chain because real-time monitoring devices provide managers with live data and situational alerts, thereby mitigating risks along the cold chain before they arise, while providing actionable insights for future business improvements.

Roambee’s real-time monitoring solutions provide managers with live data and situational alerts, thereby mitigating risks along the cold chain before they arise, while providing actionable insights for future business improvements. By leveraging ACP and its location-based services, Roambee’s services alleviates on-time delivery risks; reduces spoilage and damage risks; lowers theft and financial risk, and improves its overall delivery of service.

Ananth Narayanan, CEO of Myntra and Jabong Resigns

Ananth Narayanan, chief executive officer of Walmart-owned Myntra and Jabong, on Monday resigned from his post. According to sources, Narayanan is planning to pursue external opportunities.

“Ananth has played an important role in making Myntra and Jabong into a formidable player in the fashion ecommerce market and steering the company towards sustainable growth,” Myntra said in its statement.

Flipkart’s Amar Nagaram has been named as the head of Myntra and Jabong, the company stated. He will report to Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

Nagaram, who recently moved to Myntra from Flipkart, has been working with the group for around seven years now.

“Myntra and Jabong are an important part of the Flipkart group serving our valuable customers. The company will continue to execute the growth strategy and leverage synergies with Flipkart as appropriate,” it said. “...(Nagaram) has played a pivotal role in making shopping accessible, delightful and affordable on every connected device. Most notably, he led the efforts on revisiting the boundaries of mobile web, making the experience on it as good as native,” the statement said.

According to sources, Narayanan might join Hotstar as its CEO.

Market sources said Jabong will continue to operate for now and Flipkart may shut down the platform after a few months.

Toshiba TEC Singapore Inks Partnership for Multi-Function Peripherals with Galtech Infosolutions for Indian Markets

Toshiba Tec Singapore Pte Ltd announced the partnership with Galtech Infosolutions Pvt Ltd for the sale and service distribution of Toshiba multi-function office peripheral systems.

With Galtech’s strong business presence and network in the Northern and Southern parts of India, Toshiba TEC and Galtech collaboration is a powerful step forward in the expansion of Toshiba’s award winning MFPs penetration across India.

"We are very pleased to make this announcement with Galtech," said Takeshi Kimura, General Manager of Toshiba TEC Singapore. "Customers in India are continuously looking for the latest innovations that strengthen operations as well as the financial bottom line. We believe Galtech Infosolutions has all the capabilities and industry expertise to represent Toshiba in providing the highest level of satisfactory office printing requirements to these parts of India.”

"We are pleased to be working with Toshiba TEC Singapore” said Kishore Krishnan, Managing Director of Galtech Infosolutions Pvt Ltd. “We will be able to leverage on our very strong dealer network and business expertise so as to bring quality, high speed, brilliant print quality and state-of-the-art MFPs to South & North India. We are confident that this partnership will move us up very quickly to the next level of excellence.”

Galtech will commence distribution of the following Toshiba MFP series with immediate effect.

Luxury Goes Digital with Revolutionary QUEO SmarTap for Bathrooms

Bathrooms aren't usually the first room in a home, you would associate with being smart but that's not to say they can't be. QUEO - the purveyor of bespoke bathrooms has introduced the world’s most indulgent shower experience, the ‘Queo SmarTap’. The latest QUEO offering has created the first and only complete smart bathing system, delivering a sensational experience.

Queo Smartap’s technology manifests itself in pure luxury and comfort and lets users enjoy a perfect flow of water, at the exact right temperature, sustained throughout their shower. To add to the experience the Queo Smartap’s creates an ambience of relaxation with customized music and the perfect shower scenario. This avant-garde bathing system can also regulate the shower, bath and sink to create a synchronized bathroom tailored to tunes to match your hair-flips while you shower.

This extremely tech-savvy shower system can be controlled through a smartphone app, voice commands via Amazon Echo or manual digital controllers. The system is highly intuitive and brings the shower at the users’ fingertips, by learning their lifestyle and creating countless shower scenarios through its smartphone app. Whether it is the wetness of mist, a tropical downpour or the thrill of a roaring jet stream, the three Outlet Controls of SmarTap ensures a rich and indulgent experience.

Hot, cold, quick and relaxing, the SmarTap app lets consumers define countless bathing scenarios tailored to their preferences, each one with a personal user profile.