Toyota, Panasonic Announce Joint Venture for Electric Car Batteries

Toyota has announced that it was creating a joint venture with Panasonic to develop batteries for electric cars, as the Japanese auto giant ramps up its ambitions for electric-powered vehicles.

The firm will be set up by 2020 and 51% of stake will be controlled by Toyota, the Prius manufacturer said in a statement. “Toyota and Panasonic are confident that the contracts concluded today will further strengthen and accelerate their actions toward achieving competitive batteries,” the statement added.

Toyota boss Akio Toyoda has previously said he wants half of the firm’s global sales to come from electric-powered vehicles by 2030, up from around 15% now.

“The key to electrifying vehicles in the future will be batteries. In order for Japan to survive this era of profound change with no natural resources, we must develop competitive batteries and establish systems for a stable supply,” Toyoda said. Panasonic is seen as a specialist in the battery sector and has already partnered up with electric vehicle innovator Tesla to operate a huge “gigafactory” in the United States.

EV Cars in India

Japanese auto major Nissan Motor Co said it will launch its electric car Leaf in India this year as it seeks to take the lead in EV drive in the country.

The company is also looking at other eco-friendly technologies such as its e-Power vehicles and hybrids for the country. “Leaf is a proof-point (that) we want to bring in India because this is a direction of leadership in EV, we have in the world,” Nissan Motor Co Senior Vice President and Chairman of management committee for Africa, Middle East and India Peyman Kargar told reporters.

Gautam Gambhir Unveils Funngage PowerPlayer Cricket 120 Scholarship; Trials on Jan 27 in Bangalore

Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir, along with sports technology firm Funngage.com has launched a nation-wide programme for Cricket Scholarship, the first of its kind for sports in India. Named ‘FG PowerPlayer’,  through this programme, boys and girls in the age group of 12 to 24 years will get a fully paid for cricket development scholarship with a three-week of fully paid for training camp in Perth, Australia at Guildford Grammar, under the guidance of former South African Test cricketer HD Ackerman.

It is a Pan India initiative and after successfully conducting trials in Delhi, Noida, Meerut, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Patna, Ranchi and Kolkata, the sports platform – Funngage.com is now starting with the southern India leg with Bangalore being the first city.

The trials will be conducted in FG academy. However, with a successful collaboration, Cricket Academy of Pathans (CAP) is the preferred academy partner for the scholarship programme.

“It is a fabulous platform for all the youngsters to come and showcase their talent. They are going to select 120 and out of that 60 will go to Australia in four batches (15 each). It is a transparent platform as well. It is an initiative where you will get a lot of kids from the grassroots,” said Gambhir addressing the media at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The selected students from Funngage PowerPlayer trials will get an opportunity to be trained for five years in CAP academies under the guidance of cricket experts and coaches. These scholarships will help in unearthing new talent and give young kids a platform to kick-start their budding cricketing careers.

The Bengaluru trials will begin from January 27 at Hyper Turf Cricket Ground, Yelahanka.

The cricket scholarship will be given for five Years and will cover the following:

Free of cost cricket coaching at any Indian cricket academy for 5 years

Free of cost cricketing equipment for 5 years

Free of cost medical support along with sports physiotherapy sessions at Funngage’s wellness partner and hospitals across India

Free of cost participation in matches and tournaments across India

Free of cost periodic Cricket Camps by Experts for Exposure and Training

Free of cost training in Perth, Australia (Guildford Grammar School), this includes visa fee, return air fare, accommodation, trainings, nutrition sessions, injury management, and matches with local clubs

“Through this platform, we want to ensure that anyone who wants to realise his or her dream of being a cricketer can do so. It’s an Initiative to help the cricketers develop their skills and not worry about finances. Funngage doesn’t claim to make anyone play for a state or any BCCI affiliated team or in any League. The cricketers need to follow the selection norms set by the respective cricket associations to get through there. We are here to ensure that all kids get their performance stats and none should be deprived of Good Cricket Coaching and facilities due to lack of funds,” said Karan Singh, founder & CEO, Funngage.com.

How to register for trials?
Registration for trials can be done at www.funngage.com or by downloading the Funngage mobile application from Google PlayStore for Android users and App Store for IOS users.

Registrations can also be done at Funngage counter set up at Hyper Turf Cricket Ground, Yelahanka and at 24/1, First Main, Chunchappa Block, RT Nagar from January 24 onwards from 11 am to 7 pm.

The basic and only administration fee to register into the programme is Rs 1,050 (all-inclusive) for batsmen and bowlers and Rs 1,950 (all-inclusive) for all-rounders and wicket-keepers.

Age-groups and schedule for trials
January 27 - Trials will be conducted for 12-16 years

January 28 – Trials for 16-19 years

January 29 – Trials for 20-24 years

January 30 – Trials for all groups in their respective age categories

Trials and selection process
Initial trials are held on center wicket of the ground with at least 5 High Definition (HD) cameras making ball by ball videos of each and every cricketer. These videos are shared with players on their Funngage account for their view and records. These videos are also shared with top coaches on Funngage, for them to assess and do a performance assessment for each player. The detailed report card and assessment scores highlighting their strengths and areas of improvements are given to each player.

Round 1 – Basic Skills Trial: 12-balls trials on the center wicket with each batsman facing 4 bowlers and each bowler bowling to 4 batsmen with at least 5 HD Video cameras capturing the action

Round 2 – Advanced Trial: 24 balls advance trials followed by a fitness test

Round 3 – Camp: 10 days training camp and 5 matches of 40 overs each per players

Round 4 – Awarding Scholarship: Top 120 cricketers to get 5 years of Cricket Development Scholarship and top 60 to train for three weeks at Guildford Grammar School, Perth, Australia.

With 1,400+ Certified Inspectors, Droom’s ECO Establishes Trust Through a Seamless Customer Experience

Equipped with a thorough 121+ point auto inspection by certified technicians, ECO envisions to set the industry standard for vehicle inspection

New Delhi ECO, Droom’s proprietary vehicle inspection service, has paved its way to become one of India’s largest doorstep inspection services. With 1400+ certified inspectors on its platform, this initiative by India’s first and largest pioneering online automobile transactional marketplace has an incredible geographic reach of over 500+ pin codes across the country. 

The leading online automobile marketplace has allocated INR 25 crores of funds specifically to achieve its growth objectives pertaining to ECO inspection. Through these measures and dedicated efforts, Droom strives to establish the services provided by ECO as the industry standard benchmark for inspection and certification services. Since the last two months, Droom has been successfully running a pilot for its owned and operated models in Delhi and NCR.

Acknowledging the rapid success of the application, Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Droom remarked, “ECO is India’s most scientific, data driven and comprehensive vehicle inspection service.  We are overwhelmed by the response ECO has been receiving and strive to continually provide our customers with seamless experiences. We see ECO as a key facilitator of establishing trust and transparency among our customers regarding the buying and selling condition of vehicles on our core marketplace and are looking to invest in the emerging technological advancements in this segment of Droom.”

With an aim to further strengthen its grip on quality control, SLA (Service Level Agreement) adherence and delivering world-class customer experience through its doorstep vehicle inspection services, Droom has setup an in-house team of ECO inspectors on owned and operated model. These trained technicians, referred to as ‘ECO Ninjas’, can read and write in English, have an educational degree in automobile servicing from any of the top ITI/Polytechnic/Vocational Training institutes in the country, and are ECO-certified after taking extensive tutorials and passing an online test. 

ECO also developed a customized Enterprise solution for Banks for loans, Insurance companies for break-in Insurance renewals and Large cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola. Droom has already signed up with some of the leading Banks to offer its inspection services around vehicle financing of Used vehicles.

Droom is also planning to venture into independent inspection services through ECO wherein people can purchase and avail the services and get their vehicles certified without listing them on Droom. Furthermore, Droom envisions to gradually scale across all major cities in the country with 500+ in-house technicians, eventually setting up a combined capacity of 1000+ inspections per day in the long run.

SHEROES Strengthens Internet Women’s Narrative Brings Health Platform Maya Into The Fold

SHEROES, the communities for women platform to acquire Bangalore-based women’s health app Maya. This helps SHEROES become the deepest women’s platform, globally, with over 14 million members, poised to reach 100 million in due course. The platform continues building its “women-only spaces on the internet” narrative – also termed as women’s internet.

Founded by John Paul, Maya enables women to keep track of their health via a mobile application. Women world over use Maya to track their cycles, monitor related symptoms, set health reminders, monitor pregnancy and connect with health experts. The platform is accessible in 14 international and vernacular languages (including Hindi and Tamil), and is actively used by women users in over 20 countries.

Commenting on the acquisition, Sairee Chahal, Founder-CEO of SHEROES, said, “The SHEROES platform is one of the safest, most constructive spaces on the Internet for women, and as our community grows, we continuously seek ways to create more value for our members. Health is one of our fastest growing communities on the SHEROES app, and adding Maya to our bouquet of products, helps us strengthen our offering in this space. SHEROES is committed to building the women’s internet – an experience which helps women find advice, community, resources and opportunity.

Safety, high trust, high empathy are core values to SHEROES and Maya, and this acquisition is a natural alignment of a collective vision – to support women sans judgement.

Maya with its feature-rich platform, has been a game-changer in health tech, offering diagnostic tests, online doctor consultations, fertility predictions and pregnancy tracking. SHEROES, as a complete ecosystem for women, stands to gain from Maya’s product and platform. The founder John will help us enhance our product leadership.”

Maya’s journey began in 2014, with the intention of leveraging consumer tech to positively influence women’s health. The app, available on iOS, Android and Windows, has a sleek, quirky user interface, and additionally, offers premium features that can be access via in-app purchases. Users actively record monthly cycles, associated symptoms, and trace out a pattern to help them manage their menstrual health.

“Approximately 70% of all reproductive issues in women are caused due to poor menstrual health. In India, women still use manual methods to track their health. Taking advantage of smartphone access in the remotest corners, Maya equips women to manage their health better using a smartphone.

I now also see the SHEROES community playing a role in evangelising a constructive narrative around women’s health. We can’t reimagine women’s internet without women’s health, and the opportunities in counselling, commerce and creativity that the SHEROES platform provides,” observes John Paul, Founder of Maya.

The SHEROES platform aims to emerge as the world’s most transformative women’s platform, with a vision to touch the lives of 100 million women in the next 36 months. 

Godrej Properties Aqua is Bangalore’s First Fully Sustainable Water Management System

The Mumbai-based real estate developer launches its project in Bellary road (NH-7), located at International Airport Road in North Bangalore. The project comprises of water secure homes which will make use of the Godrej QST System – Bangalore’s first and only fully sustainable water management system.

Godrej Properties Ltd, one of India’s leading real estate developers launches its project Godrej Aqua in Bangalore. Spread across 7.19 acres, Godrej Aqua comprises of a saleable area of approximately 72,918 square metres (784,878 square feet). The project offers 2BHK and 3BHK apartments ranging from carpet areas of 69 square metres to 116 square metres (738 square feet to 1251 square feet).

Strategically located at Bellary road - a premium residential area, Godrej Aqua is in close proximity to the commercial and industrial catchment areas of Hebbal, Yelahanka, and Devanahalli. It also offers good connectivity to Outer Ring Road, Bangalore International Airport, and the Central Business District. The Bellary road micro-market has emerged as one of the fastest growing residential areas of Bangalore with a lot of infrastructure developments and projects coming up in the area.

Godrej Properties now has 17 projects in Bangalore.

Godrej Aqua aims to revolutionize residential water management in Bangalore. With the Godrej Quad-Step Treatment Process (QSTP), the project will be able to provide pure drinking water at all times, and recycle most of the water on site. Using the Recharge, Reduce and Recycle principle, the project aims to ensure that water sufficiency in every home is a reality that's well within reach. Furthermore, to address perennial concerns regarding the water quality in residential projects, Godrej Aqua has introduced an Advanced Treatment Plant, centralized RO and water softening facility to ensure high grade quality of water.

“Businesses need high-level performance of Cloud-based applications to ensure business continuity and plan for disaster recovery. Our Evidian SafeKit technology is clearly the right solution for customers which value simplicity and flexibility – and simply cannot afford any downtime” adds Bruno Rochat, Evidian SafeKit product line manager, high availability expert at Atos.

All Atos Evidian Identity & Management applications are made highly-available via the SafeKit solution.

Atos Unveils 100% Software-Based High Availability Solution for Cloud Apps

Atos a global leader in digital transformation, today launches its new Evidian SafeKit 100% software solution to ensure high availability of enterprise business-critical services hosted in the Cloud. It is fully comprehensive and includes real-time replication, load balancing and failover all within the same one software product.

In recent years, organizations have been moving their business-critical services and infrastructure to Cloud solutions, which are cost efficient, flexible and scalable. However, for critical services, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99,99%, may be not high enough.

In this context, Atos offers Evidian SafeKit, a 100% software-based solution that enables enterprises to implement business continuity for their critical services hosted in the Cloud. SafeKit provides templates for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform that enables customers to create their first application cluster on two virtual machines in less than 10 minutes. This cluster manages computer failure issues and ensures fast application recovery.

The Evidian SafeKit ‘in the Cloud’ solution is:

* Easy to use (plug & play) – does not require any particular expertise in the domain of high-availability
* Flexible and can be deployed in any Cloud

Gurgaon-Based Coloured-Lenses Startup Lensico Looking for Funding

Lensico is an innovative startup that allows customers to buy prescription or coloured lenses online. Its innovative model which is completely unique in India has allowed it to capture a significant market share. The Gurgaon based company now expects to expand pan India and is seeking additional funds to allow it to do so.

The company is dedicated to helping people see better without compromising on their physical appearance. It is for the fulfillment of this vision that Lensico is seeking funding of $500,000. The funds being sought will be used for technology led expansion to help customers get the most out of the newest technology. The company’s leadership expects to use the funds for marketing which will allow lakhs from around India to learn about Lensico’s unique offering.  Using the funds, Lensico expects to expand across India and to allow lakhs of Indians to benefit from technology that imparts them crystal clear vision.

Lensico’s founders also expect to use the funds to perform eye checkups in people’s homes. Doing so will greatly increase its reach across India and increase its base of customers. The company’s founders aspire for Lensico to be the only brand in India that aggregates contact lenses.

Speaking about the need for additional funding  Shashwat Kedia, CEO and Founder, Lensico said “We are in a business that improves people’s quality of life. Among Indians, there is a shift in preference towards wearing contact lenses as opposed to spectacles. This trend is most visible among the young and is as potent in smaller towns and cities in India as in larger metropolitan areas. We believe that we are poised to serve this market and offer the gift of good eyesight to millions without compromising on their physical appearance. Nearly 50% of Indians suffer from poor eyesight, we expect to serve this huge market and as a result to improve the lives of millions”.