Tata ACE Gold Celebrates its 1st Anniversary in Indian Market

Celebrating the successful one year completion of its most popular small commercial vehicle- Tata Ace Gold, Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle player today announced a host of customer-friendly offers on its entire range of Tata Ace vehicles and other Tata SCVs. The schemes will focus on improving earnings of the consumer and offer them lucrative savings on their purchases with Tata Motors until March 31, 2019. Since its inception, the vehicle has been a preferred choice of over 2 million customers, making the brand a leader in the Mini Truck segment with a 66% market share.

The company is offering Low Interest Scheme and Personal Insurance cover on purchase of any variants of the Tata Small Commercial vehicles. Under the low Interest Rate Risk (IRR) scheme, the customers will save up to Rs. 1 Lakh in EMI under 1.99% for 3 years and 2.99% for 4 years, which will be valid on Ace HT, Ace Gold, Ace XL, Ace EX, Ace High deck, Mega Cab Chassis, Mega, Mega XL, Zip Gold and Zip XL. The company will also provide Rs. 10 Lakh Personal Insurance under the Tata Delight scheme. These benefits will be available at more than 1224 dealer outlets (3S and 1S) across the country.

On this momentous occasion, Mr. R T Wasan, Vice President, Marketing & Sales, CVBU, Tata Motors, said, “At Tata Motors, we always believe in making customer-centric offerings and maximizing revenues of the transport operators. Standing true to its brand theme of ‘Kaamyabi Kal, Aaj aur Kal’, Tata Ace Gold has successfully delivered on its promise of being a game-changer by offering superior safety, versatile performance in varied conditions, ease of maintenance, comfort and cost-effectiveness to its customers. Tata Ace Gold has proven to be a best seller, contributing to a 64% volume growth of the brand Tata Ace on a year to date basis reinforcing the increasing popularity of the brand among the Indian customers.”

Tata Motors has planned various marketing campaigns to celebrate the 1 Year anniversary of Ace Gold. Along with print, radio and digital promotions; the company has also planned customer meets, Naka Connect programs, Vehicle Demo along with the promotion theme, Loan and Exchange melas, and captive customer melas to connect with the current and potential customers.

Introduced in 2005, Tata Ace has successfully pioneered the concept of mini-trucks in India. The Tata Ace family of vehicles has been constantly evolving, strategically identifying and filling gaps in the market ahead of its time. The Ace platform has so far produced about 15 offerings, based on Engine type, engine power & body configurations. Today, the Tata Ace family comprises of brands like Ace, Zip, Mega and Mint for SCV cargo and Magic, Mantra and Iris for passenger movement in rural and urban areas. Therefore, for steep and hilly terrains to heavy and dense load over long distances, for better power and better torque to better fuel efficiency and durability, for narrow alleys and crowded bylanes to intercity transportation, for captive applications to voluminous goods - there is a Tata Ace to suit every customer need.

NSDC Unveils UNEVOC Centre Co-organises International Workshop on Greening of Job Roles and Curricula

Following National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) acceptance as a member to the UNEVOC Network in mid-2018, the NSDC-UNEVOC Centre was officially launched on 7th March 2019 at New Delhi. Mr. Shyamal Majumdar, Head -UNESCO UNEVOC awarded Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC with the UNEVOC plaque, officially recognizing NSDC as a UNEVOC Centre in the presence of Ms. Juthika Pathankar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, international Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) practitioners and other distinguished guests.

The UNEVOC Network is UNESCO’s global network for institutions specialized in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), which are concerned with skills development for the world of work and life. Coordinated by UNESCO-UNEVOC, the network provides an environment for exchange, cooperation and mutual assistance for its members, the UNEVOC Centres.

Members of the UNEVOC Network, called UNEVOC Centres, all have a position within their country that allows them to cooperate with other TVET stakeholders, both nationally and internationally and engage in variety of activities, such as (a)  to improve TVET in member states by promoting and fostering international collaboration and partnerships (b) to develop the capacities of UNEVOC Centres and associated TVET practitioners; and (c) to share promising practices and innovations in TVET

Commenting upon NSDC’s association with UNESCO-UNEVOC, Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, “Acceptance to the UNEVOC network indicates an important acknowledgement of NSDC’s strength and track record in the Skilling Ecosystem. Through the UNEVOC platform, we will not only gain from each other’s experiences through sharing of best practices and case studies but also access the best analytical tools that can support in building a robust and resilient data-driven approach to planning for TVET across different contexts.”

As a key activity under the NSDC and UNESCO-UNEVOC collaboration, a five-day international workshop on Greening of Job Roles and Curricula was organized jointly by NSDC and UNESCO-UNEVOC was held last week in New Delhi. The workshop sought to address policy and training needs for integrating sustainability and green concepts into occupational standards and fostering an understanding on effectively moving from occupational standards to curriculum planning and design. The workshop also aimed at identifying and addressing gaps in institutional strategies in the context of greening TVET.
The workshop brought together TVET professionals involved in policy planning, standard setting, training and assessments from 15 different countries – Mexico, Hongkong PRC, Germany, Canada, Kenya, Nigeria, Guyana, Zambia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and South Africa.

The workshop involved panel discussions, lectures from experts, group work and site visits. On day-one, participants were exposed to the concepts, approaches and best practices of Greening TVET followed by assessment of ground realities to identify greening challenges and opportunities in different country contexts. The second day initiated with different approaches of Greening TVET standards and curricula.. Day-three covered the aspects of teaching and assessing green skills and competencies as well as quality assurance concepts, followed by a study visit to the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE). On day-four, participants visited TERI School of Advanced Studies and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) at Mandir Marg to observe how greening activities are organized in practice. On the last day, participants reflected and presented the learnings of the workshop. 

Pune based Startup SparesHub Receives funding of Rs 3.5 Crore from Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network, Asia’s largest network of Angel investors, has invested Rs. 3.5 crore in Pune-based start-up SparesHub, an automobile parts start-up. SparesHub will utilise the funds for its geographical expansion and to strengthen its technology capabilities. The funding was led by Indian Angel members Neeraj Garg, Harsh Gandhi, and Ankur Agarwal.

Founded by Tapas P. Gupta and Arijit A. Chakraborty, the SparesHub team currently comprises 27 employees. It solves the problem of the unavailability of, and over-expensive, automobile parts which result in a significant loss of time, money, and efforts for car owners in India. Since its inception, SparesHub has been working to disintermediate and digitize the automobile parts industry in India. To this end, it is introducing modern supply chain and logistics methodologies in the industry, and caters to B2B customers. SparesHub works with India’s leading car companies and part manufacturers to make OEM and OES parts available to its customers (multi-brand service centres, service aggregators, fleet owners and insurance companies). Existing investor Holomua Group Inc, also participated in the investment round.

Padmaja Ruparel, President and Co-founder of Indian Angel Network, added, “The decision to invest in SparesHub was taken after a careful assessment of the business, the team’s vision, and its strategy to achieve the same. The company has the makings of a modern tech-based venture, with a unique business model, a strong technological framework, a product that fills a major gap in the market, and of course, a strong team. We are confident that the team will continue to enhance its product and build its USP, and emerge as one of the leading players in its domain.”

Tapas Gupta – CEO of SparesHub, commented, “Our mission is to create a whole new level of customer delight by leveraging technology. SparesHub is challenging the traditional methodologies and bringing in global best practices in the automobile parts supply chain and logistics domain. We are truly grateful for the funding from Indian Angel Network and the faith they have shown in our business model, and we hope for a long and fruitful collaboration with the Network.”

Indian Angel Network is Asia’s largest network of angel investors that invests in early-stage businesses, which have the potential to create disruption. The members of the network are leaders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem with strong operational experience as CEOs or a background of creating new and successful ventures. IAN goes beyond the normal, informal, local club structure of angel groups to a larger institutionalized model because of its nimble but robust, standardized, and transparent processes that allow it to scale across geographies and a large number of members.

Toyota Delights its Customers with Memorable March Campaign in India

In line with the company’s continuous efforts towards enhancing customer delight, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) rolled out its annual sales campaign ‘Memorable March’. Customers can avail exciting offers and benefits which will be provided on select models during the month of March across Toyota dealerships in India.

Commenting on this campaign, Mr. N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “Toyota as a brand has been relentlessly customer-centric, listening to and anticipating what their customers need.  The Memorable March Campaign is a way of expressing our gratitude to our valued customers who have been showing their relentless trust and confidence on Toyota products.  It has been our endeavor to provide the best to our customers in terms of unbeaten safety features, performance, comfort, high fuel economy and unmatched quality with low cost of ownership.

We always work towards exceeding the expectations of our Customers by providing "Best in Town" experience & sustenance of Quality, Durability & Reliability of our products and services.

To further enhance the joy of ownership, the company has introduced exciting offers under the Memorable March Campaign for Toyota customers.

Toyota is also offering special benefits for Government and Corporate employees with the Yaris available in CSD and Innova Crysta G available in GeM. All customers can avail these benefits until March 31st 2019.

“Congratulations to Synechron for building an organization focused on employee engagement and performance,” said Maria Jimenez, Chief Nominations Officer of Business Intelligence Group. “It was clear from analyzing the employee survey data that this is a great place to work and employee feedback is not only listened to; but acted upon. Congratulations to the entire team.”

Synechron Named as One of the Best Places to Work for Second Consecutive Year

Synechron Inc., a leading Digital IT Consulting firm for financial services, has today announced that it has been named a winner in the Business Intelligence Best Places to Work Awards for 2019. Synechron was the winner in the Global Enterprise category. The organization sought to identify companies that are actively working to improve their own performance through efforts to challenge employees in environments that makes work fun and engaging.

This award marks the second consecutive win for Synechron in the Best Places to Work awards. The win also comes as Synechron’s employee and recruitment initiative, Employee 2020, approaches the one-year anniversary of its rollout. Both the awards and Employee 2020 initiative relied on employee engagement surveys and feedback.

John Gaunt, Chief Human Resources Officer, stated “Winning this award for the second year in a row is a true testament to what it means to be a proud Synechronite. We are committed to positive employee engagement and celebrating what sets apart Synechron and its employees that create such a great work environment.”

Top 5 Platforms Solving Critical Business Needs of Fast-Growing Enterprises

Enterprises are cornered with the ever-changing business landscapes and a growing competition, both from the industry incumbents and start-ups. The evolving ecosystem requires enterprises to remain ahead of the curve and always prepared for the unexpected. With the ever tightening grip and growing stakes, several platforms have come up to offer selective services to the fast-growing enterprises. From enterprise communication to cyber-security, tech consulting and more, these platforms are helping India’s fast-growing enterprises better manage their ventures and achieve the aspirational business growth.

Enterprise Communication made easy with Telebu

Effective communication between team members or the business and its key stakeholders is oftentimes the biggest challenge. In the present age, teams are remotely spread out and communicating with disparate teams often results in time lags and other inefficiencies. However, designing communication products for today’s enterprises, Hyderabad-based Telebu offers plausible solutions.

With its marquee product and audio conferencing solution, grptalk, Telebu allows instant conferencing (dial-out calls) for enterprises. The cost-effective solution removes any delays in conference calls, with the participants only having to answer the call from the bridge, not requiring any pin code, password etc. Furthermore, grptalk offers easy connectivity even in areas with low network coverage and easily connecting conference calls anywhere between 3 to 10,000+ participants.

Other enterprise solution products by Telebu include bulk text and voice SMS solution, in-bound and out-bound call centre software, emergency alert system, and API platform. 

A trustworthy tech partner: Cybage

Tech consulting has the potential for opening hidden vistas for the start-ups, mid-size companies and large-scale enterprises. To the same end, Cybage solves complex problems for its clients using new-generation technologies for Cloud, Mobility, E-commerce, Data Analytics, Social Collaboration, and enables enterprise-wide digital transformation.

Working with the world's best Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), the solution by Cybage are focused on modern technologies, and are enabled by a scientific, data-driven system called DecisionMines™ for Digital Excellence. This unique model de-risks the approach, provides better predictability, and ensures a better value per unit cost.

Invoice Discounting & Financing via Priority Vendor

Whether you are an enterprise dealing with multiple suppliers or a vendor fulfilling orders of large companies, invoice discounting and financing can radically transform and optimise everyday operations. Suppliers struggling with no clarity on when to expect the payment, as typically the payments may take up to 60 days once the goods or services are delivered, or enterprises being chased for timely payments, both can find suitable solutions at Priority Vendor.


As India’s largest early payment platform, Priority Vendor not only helps enterprises with e-invoicing but also helps them in securing capital against approved invoices, either through early payments or invoice discounting. Large corporates can further ensure the optimum financial health of their supply chain, by leveraging these solutions. With its AI-engine, the platform offers the most competitive and deep discounts for supply chain financing. 

Artificially Intelligent Cyber Defence with Paladion

Cyber criminals are out on a prowl, and they are targeting present day’s fast-growing enterprises. Since businesses have a lot to lose, i.e. their reputation and important customer data, they make up for the best targets for online nefarious activity. Thus, enterprises of today need to anticipate, detect, and respond to current threats (such as ransomware) and cyber incidents.

To the same end, Paladion leverage AI in its Managed Detection and Response service to provide high-speed cyber defence. The platform not only protects the enterprise from cyber-attacks by quick response but also detects the threats emerging pre-handed.

Securing BYOD for enterprises with Seqrite

The business landscape today is embracing BYOD-led work culture to enhance productivity, ensure seamless interoperability, and improve employee convenience. Employees feel comfortable working on their own devices, while smartphones have become integral to business environments. However, the same enhances security risks due to inadequate security measures or use jailbroken/rooted devices.

The Enterprise Mobility Management portfolio by Seqrite manages the same by offering two cloud-based solutions, MobiSMART and mSuite. The solutions have been designed to provide comprehensive control over mobile devices accessing the network and data of enterprises, helping them be completely secured against multiple entry points to company’s online architecture.

Manipal Hospitals Enters Guiness World Records for Free Screening Health Camp for 623 People on World Kidney Day

India’s leading Healthcare service provider, Manipal Hospitals Bengaluru celebrates as it bags two new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles at the same time today. On the occasion of World Kidney Day, the hospital attempted and successfully accomplished two new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles of conducting the longest kidney disease awareness session as well as the most number of urine analysis tests.

In line with the theme for World Kidney Day, ‘Kidney Health for Everyone, Everywhere’, the hospital conducted urine analysis test for 8 hours and an awareness lecture on kidney disease for 1 hour. Both the awareness session and urine analysis test witnessed 311 and 623 people respectively, creating two new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ titles on the same day.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a non-communicable disease that affects 1 in 10 people worldwide. While its severity can vary, CKD is often progressive and needs lifelong medical care. Over 850 million people worldwide are now estimated to have kidney diseases from various causes. CKD causes at least 2.4 million deaths per year and is now the 6th most common cause of death. 9 out of 10 patients who have kidney disease don’t even know that they have it. Between 2 to 7 million premature deaths happen for lack of access to dialysis and transplantation. Despite the growing burden of kidney disease, kidney health is often under emphasized and neglected, leading to late detection. This attempt to enter GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS was made as an effort to create awareness among the general public to look at wellness rather than illness as Manipal Hospitals being a responsible healthcare group.

Both initiatives that won the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ titles were adjudicated and certified by Mr. Rishi Nath, Adjudger, GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS. The largest gathering was addressed by Dr. Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Hospitals Bengaluru on the importance of kidney to our health.

Elated by the achievement, Dr. Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Hospitals Bengaluru said, “It is a matter of great pride for all of us at Manipal Hospitals Bengaluru to be recognized by GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ for our initiatives. We are delighted to be entitled as the only hospital in India to be conducting the longest kidney disease awareness session as well as the most number of urine analysis tests. Through our initiatives we wanted to reach out to as many people as possible on this World Kidney Day to create awareness on kidney disease and we are glad to have achieved our goal.”

Hence, we need to put our minds and resources in making our country healthier and fitter by moving our focus from curative to preventive care. This can only happen by creating awareness about kidney health with emphasis on screening for kidney disease.