HDFC ERGO Launches #Camsurvey Clainm Processing for ‘Jaldi Claim’ Settlement

HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, India’s third-largest non-life insurance provider in the private sector, today announced the launch of first-of-its-kind #CamSurvey motor claim service, a part of the Company’s ‘Jaldi Claim’ services. The new #CamSurvey service will help reduce the time taken to process motor claims, in selected network workshops, on the external body of the vehicle.

HDFC ERGO believes that a claim is the moment-of-truth and speedy claim settlement is of utmost importance for the customer. With this in mind, the company aims to revolutionize claim settlement processes through the ‘Jaldi Claim’ services which will offer quick and seamless settlement of claims.

As part of the #CamSurvey service, HDFC ERGO has installed cameras in network workshops which will enable them to assess the damages to the car. The cameras will be centrally controlled and pictures will be live-streamed for inspection. The pictures will be assessed by HDFC ERGO’s central team through the live-stream and claims will be instantly approved. This eliminates the process of appointing a surveyor to conduct the physical inspection of the vehicle. Moreover, it also saves the policyholders’ valuable time and helps in quick settlement of claims arising from any minor damages to the body of the vehicle.

HDFC ERGO truly believes that customer service is of utmost importance in any business and keeping this in mind, has evolved over the years to adopt newer technologies making processes simpler for the customers. The Company was the first in the non-life insurance sector to launch a mobile application – the Insurance Portfolio Organiser (IPO) App in 2012 and more recently launched the Overnight Vehicle Repair Service, another first-of-its-kind service in the General Insurance sector. In addition, HDFC ERGO customers can also use the Self-Inspection App to renew their motor insurance policy without any physical documentation and inspection.

The new #CamSurvey service is currently available in Mumbai & Pune, and will soon be extended to HDFC ERGO’s network motor workshops pan India.

Inmotion Ventures Invests in Urgent.ly as Part of $21 Million Round

InMotion Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s venture capital fund, has announces its investment in Urgent.ly, the connected roadside assistance service supported by a cutting edge technology platform.

Founded in 2013, Urgent.ly is a full-service roadside assistance provider, taking advantage of connectivity to offer a fully integrated recovery service from first notification to repair. The geo-location of Urgent.ly’s customers and their vehicles means the best-rated and closest providers with the right equipment are algorithmically matched, assigned and dispatched to help the customer. All of these steps – including ETAs, provider tracking, communications and ratings – are connected through Urgent.ly’s seamless, end-to-end digital experience.

In just two years of operations in the USA, Europe and Asia, Urgent.ly has 45 000 connected recovery vehicles on its platform and has signed deals with several large auto manufacturers and insurers.

InMotion Ventures invests alongside BMW i Ventures and Porsche Ventures, supporting Urgent.ly’s ambition to become the market-leading provider of roadside assistance services in the USA, and ultimately, globally.

“We are truly gratified by the support of our investors, including some of the world’s top global automotive brands, as we work to define the future of mobility and roadside assistance experience customers demand and deserve,” said Chris Spanos, CEO and co-founder of Urgent.ly. “We look forward to continuing to innovate our connected services across the rapidly evolving global automotive, insurance and mobility markets, where we have consistently driven increases in customer satisfaction over the legacy analog models that have defined the industry for the past 70 years.”

Sebastian Peck, Managing Director at InMotion, said: “Established automotive manufacturers have a responsibility to develop and fund cutting-edge innovations in the mobility and travel sector. With Urgent.ly, customers will be able to receive an end-to-end digital experience for their premium vehicles. InMotion is incredibly excited to support Chris and the Urgent.ly team throughout this exciting phase of growth.”

Global IT Spending to Reach $3.8 Trillion in 2020: Gartner Report

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total at $3.76 trillion in 2019, an increase of 3.2% from last year, according to research firm Gartner.

The overall IT spending is expected to grow at 2.8% in 2020 to touch $3.87 trillion, Gartner said in its latest forecast.

“Despite uncertainty fuelled by recession rumours, Brexit, trade wars and tariffs, the likely scenario for IT spending in 2019 is growth. However, there are a lot of dynamic changes happening in regard to which segments will be driving growth in the future,” said Gartner research vice-president John-David Lovelock.

Spending is moving from saturated segments such as mobile phones, PCs and on-premises data centre infrastructure to cloud services and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, he added.

As digital business and digital business ecosystems move forward, IT will be the thing that binds the business together, he said.

IT services is poised to grow by 4.7% in 2019 to $1.03 trillion, and by another 4.8% in 2020 to total $1.07 trillion. Global enterprise software spending is projected to grow 8.5% in 2019 and expand by another 8.2% in 2020 to total $466 billion, according to Gartner.

Despite a slowdown in the mobile phone market, the devices segment is expected to grow 1.6% in 2019 and another 1.4% in 2020 to $689 million, it added.

Communications services is expected to grow 1.3% in 2019 and 1.5% in 2020 to total $1.43 trillion.

Data centre systems segment is projected to touch $202 billion by 2020.

Canara Bank Q3, 2018 Sees Huge Net Jump of 152% at Rs 318 Crore

Public sector lender Canara Bank on Monday reported a massive jump of 152% in net profit at Rs 317.52 crore for the third quarter ended December 2018, aided by strong growth in domestic advances and a healthy CASA growth.

The bank had logged a net profit of Rs 125.75 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. Its net interest income improved to Rs 3,814 crore, an increase of 3.66% from Rs 3,679 crore in the year-ago period. The bank’s domestic net interest margin (NIM) improved to 2.85% and global NIM at 2.65%.

The bank’s total income stood at Rs 13,513.35 crore, an increase of 9.49% compared to Rs 12,341.09 crore. PV Bharathi, executive director of the bank said the amount of gross NPAs stood at Rs 44,621.27 crore compared with Rs 40,311.98 crore. However, the percentage of gross NPAs stood at 10.25% compared with 10.38% in the third quarter of the last fiscal.

Net NPAs of the bank went up at Rs 26,591.07 crore in the third quarter compared with Rs 25,295.26 crore.

“The bank is taking a multi-pronged approach in terms of cash recovery. As far as recovery is concerned, there are proper policies in place. in the third quarter, cash recovery aggregated to Rs 2,814 crore,” she said. The provision coverage ratio has improved by 670 bps to 62.54% from the December 2017 level of 55.81%.

The bank’s CASA deposits were up by 10.66% at Rs 1.74 lakh crore, and CASA share (domestic) stood at 32.23%.

Bharathi said, “By the end of this fiscal, we are aiming to touch CASA deposits of Rs 2 lakh crore.” Going forward, the bank aims at improving the bottom-line further with balanced thrust on both retail and corporate advances.

Canara Bank said its employee stock purchase scheme (CanBBank ESPS) which kicked off on January 21 and closed on January 21 and closed on January 25 was oversubscribed by 134 per cent due to good participation from employees.

"Under the said issue of up to 2 crore equity shares under tranche-I, the bank will be raising a capital of approximately Rs 557 crore," said the bank officials.

Honda’s National Road Safety Awareness Campaign for College Students Reaches Bangalore

Aiming to build a culture of safe riding habits, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. conducted the National Road Safety Awareness Campaign for college students in Bangalore. The event was conducted at the Hasnath College in the city.

Road safety is a global priority for Honda. To further expand awareness on safe riding practices among youth, Honda has flagged off its new National Road Safety Awareness campaign starting January 2019. Through this initiative, Honda aims to cover more than 15,000 young college students and adults of 10 colleges across cities every month. After the start of Honda 2Wheelers India’s road safety campaign earlier this month, this initiative has already expanded to 7 cities including Bangalore and has educated over 11,000 youngsters and adults so far.

Honda 2Wheelers India’s two-day initiative in the Hasnath College in Bangalore spread road safety awareness to over 1100 participants including more than 100 females under the motto of ‘Safety for Everyone.’

Speaking on this initiative, Prabhu Nagaraj, Vice President - Brand & Communication, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Safety is Honda’s top priority and so far we have educated over 25 lac Indians on the importance of road safety. Further strengthening our commitment, we have conducted National Road Safety Awareness Campaign in Bangalore to promote safe riding habits in youth. Through this mega campaign, young college students are now learning through fun and taking #TheSafetyPromise with Honda. Our aim is to educate the young riders to foster the right safety habits amongst themselves and will further take this initiative to other cities across India.”

Making learning on the serious topic of road safety more fun-oriented, Honda had different activities for all.

·         To spread road safety awareness, safety riding theory sessions on correct riding posture, traffic signs and road rules were conducted for students.

·         A special training activity a virtual riding simulator was executed for all to experience over 100 possible dangers on road before actual riding.

·         Riders tested their riding skills through slow riding activities and riding on narrow planks.

·         Women were specially targeted for the Female safety riding session. Here, Honda’s female instructors empowered the females on riding a two-wheeler and knowledge of road safety rules.

·         Above all this, Honda also conducted fun educational activities like road safety games and quizzes on daily basis so that participants have fun learning about safe riding too.

NiYO Launches First-Ever Global Travel Card with Zero Forex Mark-Up

NiYO, the new-age digital banking solutions provider for salaried employees, has launched NiYO Global Travel Card, which is the first-ever forex card with ‘zero forex mark-up’. Travellers, using this card, will not pay any currency exchange premium and international transaction fees – unlike a regular forex card.

With the NiYO Global Travel Card in her pocket, the overseas traveller will effectively have no need for the usual multi-currency forex cards or travellers’ cheques – all the while making international transactions cost-effective across 150-plus countries and 35 million merchants worldwide.

Besides the cost-effective feature, NiYO Global Card also offers instant digital onboarding, convenient loading from the user’s bank account via NEFT/IMPS.

The card is supported by a cutting-edge mobile app, which gives users the ability to lock and unlock either the full card or a payment channel anytime, anywhere in the world. The app also provides real-time notifications on usage, exchange rates and refunds, while helping users find convenient ATM locations, avail nearby offers – thus making it one of the most modern cards in the world today.

Further, business travellers can submit claims on-the-go by adding bills for each transaction right in the app. These claims can be instantaneously approved by their employer organisations via the NiYO Corporate Portal.

NiYO CEO and Co-founder Vinay Bagri said, “The forex card market in India is worth $17 billion; around 20 million people are expected to travel abroad this year. By 2020, this number will rise to 50 million. With such a staggering number of Indians travelling abroad, we aim to capture a lion’s share of the market.”

NiYO CTO and Co-founder Virender Bisht said, “Our aim has been to facilitate hassle-free experience among our customer. Forex is one of the key components for travel and remains a concern. International travellers are always burdened with high currency exchange rate charged by banks, which varies between 1-3% of the amount transacted. Banks also charge either a flat fee or a set percentage of the transaction amount in addition to the currency exchange charge. Moreover, people are also very worried about card security abroad. This card is a one-stop solution for all of these problems. We have invested our best effort and technology in the designing process to provide the safety feature along with other components. The card has already been reviewed and appreciated by many top executives from the India Inc. and today, we are glad to present it to our customers at large.”

Founded by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht, NiYO works at the intersection of financial services, HR and technology. NiYO was launched in July 2015 and since then has already clocked in more than 3000 corporates and is being used by over 5 lakh salaried employees in these organisations.

Land Rover Launches Special Landmark Edition of Discovery Sport and Enhances its Design Appeal

Jaguar Land Rover India, has announced the launch of Model Year 2019 Discovery Sport Landmark Edition. The Landmark Edition is powered by the 2.0 l Ingenium Diesel, which delivers a powerful 132 kW output and exhibits the vehicle’s true spirit of adventure.

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd. (JLRIL), said:
“The introduction of the Landmark Edition for Model Year 2019 Discovery Sport further enhances the Discovery Sport portfolio. This special edition variant introduces remarkable features to the vehicle that fortify its exceptional capability, versatility and spirit of adventure.”

The Discovery Sport Landmark Edition is available in three colours: Narvik Black, Corris Grey and Yulong White, all crowned with a Carpathian Grey contrast roof. It features a sporty and dynamic front bumper, with Graphite Atlas exterior accents and 45.72 cm (18) 5 Split Spoke 511 wheels in gloss dark grey. The vehicle’s interiors receive further aesthetic emphasis by Ebony grained leather seats and an Ebony headliner, complemented by dark grey aluminium finishers around the centre stack.