Tata Motors Announces its Upcoming Harrier VIVO IPL TV Campaign

In a build up to the commencement of the much-awaited VIVO IPL 2019, Tata Motors has announced a TV campaign comprising a ‘Mini-Series’ of TV Ads, that hinges on the story of 'Love At First Drive'. After an extremely successful partnership last season, Tata Motors will showcase its newly-launched, flagship SUV –Harrier, at the vaunted tournament this year.

Depicting the superlative quality of the Harrier, the Mini-Series will feature the highly acclaimed and celebrated Bollywood talents, Siddhant Chaturvedi from Gully Boy and Fatima Sana Shaikh of Dangal fame.

Scheduled for a nationwide release on 23rd March, this campaign is set to add a further dash of glamour to the Harrier and tell the story of how the SUV with its stunning and bold design, impressive road presence and performance creates an impression which is beyond ‘love at first sight’. Highlighting the Company’s association with the league for the second consecutive year, these TVCs will be played throughout the 50 days of the IPL season, well supported on ground and digital platforms.

Tapping on the pan India following of the game, this campaign will be advertised across the Star Sports network of 21 channels (National & Regional) to ensure the brand resonates with the audiences across the country. Conceived by 82.5 Communications, the films for the TVCs have been produced by Storytellers.

Commenting on the campaign, Mr. Vivek Srivatsa, Head - Marketing, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, said, “The first year of our association with the IPL proved to be a game changer for our much celebrated, compact SUV, the Tata Nexon which won many hearts and is now one of the leading players in its segment. We are confident that the 12th season of the IPL will be much bigger in terms of viewership and spectators at the stadiums. Through the ‘Love at First Drive’ campaign for the Harrier, we want to capture the audience’s attention in a manner that is both clutter breaking and eye-catching. Furthermore, Siddhant and Fatima embody the spirit of the Harrier and lend their individual style and appeal to the campaign. We are confident that the TVCs will project the right imagery for the Harrier and will help the brand to capture the imagination of a billion plus audience, just like the IPL itself.”

Speaking on this campaign, Mr. Anuraag Khandelwal, ECD, 82.5 Communications from Ogilvy Group, Mumbai said, “The Harrier is one outstanding SUV. We wanted to do something disruptive. Not only in the category but across categories. So, we came from a simple observation, that when one saw the Harrier, one fell in love with it. More so after test-driving it! Hence the idea #LoveAtFirstDrive.”

As an official partner, the all-new Harrier will be showcased in across stadiums. As part of this association, Tata Motors will continue to strengthen its existing IPL properties the ‘Harrier Super Striker’ and ‘Harrier Fan Catch’. Harrier Super Striker Award is for the player with highest batting strike rate in every match. In addition, the Harrier Super Striker of the season will drive home the all-new Harrier at the end of the season. The Harrier Fan Catch award of INR 1 Lakh is for the fan who takes a single-handed catch of a six during the match. Also, one lucky fan who wins the most popular Harrier Fan Catch of the season will drive home a Tata Motors car.

Launched in January this year, the Harrier based on the OMEGARC architecture derived from Land Rover’s legendary D8 platform offers a perfect combination of design and excellence. It is a flagship product from Tata Motors’ passenger vehicle range, boasting of extraordinary exterior design, thoughtfully and intelligently designed plush interiors, future ready connectivity and best-in-class infotainment.

Worldline India Launched “Digital Payments Report” on March 25, 2019

Worldline India is proud to present “Digital Payments Report”; an in-depth analysis of payment trends across traditional channels like debit and credit cards and new payment methods like mobile based payments, e-wallets etc for the year 2018. The report also analyses the consumer spending pattern across all categories based on the transactions facilitated by Worldline India. In addition, report also analysed the payments landscape in China as well as on how UPI 2.0 will lead to the development of a new ecosystem.

Key Highlights:

·         The Indian e-commerce market has the potential to grow more than four folds to US $150 billion by 2022 supported by rising incomes and a surge in internet users.

·         December witnessed the highest number of transactions while November 4 ranked as the day with the highest number of transactions followed by June 16 due to the highly celebrated festivals Diwali and Eid-ul-Fitr respectively.

·         The merchant categories with the highest volume and value of transactions in 2018 were Grocery Stores and Supermarkets, Restaurants, Service Stations, Clothing Stores and Hotels which accounted for about 45% of transactions.

·         The transactions at POS terminals increased from 4.6 billion transactions in 2017 to 5.8 billion transactions in 2018 (up by 26%), the share of card transactions at POS terminals to total card transactions remained constant at 35% to 38% only.

·         The value of transactions at POS terminals have increased from INR 8.8 trillion in 2017 to INR 11.3 trillion in 2018 (up by 27%), the share of value of money spent through cards at POS transactions to total money spent through card transactions at POS terminals and ATMs went up from 25% to 26% only.

·         The number of POS terminals increased by 17% while the number of ATMs reduced during the year indicating that despite advances being made in digital payments; cash is still king.

·         29% of all transactions done on POS terminals were done through credit cards and they translated to 50% of the total amount spent on POS terminals.

·         NETC transactions in 2018 stood at 221 million, a jump of 110% over 2017 and the value of transactions was INR 51.5 billion, an increase of 79.7% over 2017.

·         The number of ATMs decreased from 0.22 million in 2017 to 0.2 million in December 2018. However, cash withdrawals have bucked the trend of reducing ATMs; in 2018, cash withdrawals stood at INR 32.69 trillion, a rise of 21.2% over 2017.

·         The number of transactions done on mobile wallets in 2018 was 3.98 billion, an increase of 33.4% over 2017 while the value of transactions in 2018 was INR 1.73 trillion, an increase of 81.46% over the previous year.

·         In 2018, the total number of credit card transactions was 1.68 billion transactions, an increase of 24% over the previous year and the total number of debit card transactions was 13.62 trillion transactions, an increase of 16.1% over the previous year.

Deepak Chandnani, Managing Director, Worldline South Asia & Middle East expressed, “It is heartening to see that Indian consumers are switching to non-cash methods for making payments and we at Worldline have a front-row seat to these fast paced changes. While innovative payments services providing convenient payment products have been successful in transforming the way we make payments today, the biggest change undeniably is that it is now 'normal' for people to make digital payments and for small merchants to accept them – this is what is making the digital payments revolution in India sustainable.”

NiYO & Upwardly Jointly Launch Investment Solution for Financially Underserved Segment

In one of the largest financial inclusion initiatives of its kind in India, NiYO, a fintech company managing employee benefits and payroll, and Upwardly, a tech-enabled financial advisory startup, have jointly launched a savings and investment solution for the financially underserved population in the country.

The partnership will make their combined wealth-creation app — NiYO Bharat mobile app — available to the masses, including over 1 million existing and new users of NiYO. The new investment strategy will lower the entry barriers to structured investment to a minimum of Rs 100.

NiYO Bharat mobile app users, who comprise blue and grey collar workers from the services and manufacturing sectors, will have a best-in-class solution with ease of convenience and top performance. The NiYO-Upwardly solution will target investors with annual incomes of $2,000 to $4,000 falling outside the purview of traditional banks and wealth management companies. This segment is estimated at over 50 million households.

NiYO has been launching financial products that are carefully curated by the proprietary algorithms designed by Upwardly.

NiYO Co-founder and CEO Vinay Bagri said, “Financial inclusion has always been at the core of our business. We are delighted to collaborate with Upwardly and offer a savings and investing solution to our customers through the NiYO Bharat mobile app. We believe this will go a long way in helping both our existing and new customers manage their short-term and long-term financial needs, and fulfil their financial goals in life.”

Prateek Mehta, CEO, Upwardly, noted, “We started Upwardly to democratise investing and wealth creation. We are excited about our partnership with NiYO and we believe that we can take investing to the next Rs 10-20 crore savers in India. A minimum investment amount of ₹100 and a choice between savings and growth options will excite our customers. We have also introduced Video KYC to seamlessly on-board NiYO customers. We expect NiYO users to widely adopt the solution and benefit from structured wealth creation.”

Over 800+ Indian Women Seek Promising Job Roles at Exclusive Diversity Job Fair

The sixth edition of ‘Women Changemakers Career Fair and Confluence’ made waves at The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon Delhi-NCR. An initiative of Stockroom.io, the event was an exciting opportunity for women to identify better job opportunities and understand diversity initiatives of leading corporate organizations.  The event provided a platform for participants to network with women corporate leaders and apply for available job roles across organizations.

Funded by Mancer Consulting Services, one of India's leading recruitment consultancy firms, Stockroom.io helps companies hire curated technology talent.  Women Changemakers is an exclusive career fair and confluence for women, which is the diversity vertical of stockroom.io.

At the venue, about 800 women with professional experience ranging from mid to 15+ years’ experience, and about 200 re-starters participated in focused discussions that helped them apply for suitable job roles. The high-level speaker line up and influencers at the Fair was also a huge attraction for most participants who were looking to learn, grow in their professions.

A very evident trend noticed this edition was with the number of women looking to get back into the workforce. Out of a total talent pool of 1200 entries received from Delhi for the event– 290 Women are Career Re-starters.  This is the highest ever in Delhi – The 2017 event had 55 career re-starters among 650 participants and the 2018 event in Delhi has 150 women looking to restart their career

The event also marked the launch of Woman ChangeMakers Returnship Program: Debut 2.0. This 4 week online internship program is an opportunity for women who have taken a break in their careers and want to re-enter the workforce as recruitment professionals. This program will enable corporates to recruit potential women candidates who can work from the comfort of their homes as recruiters.

Speaking on the launch of ‘Debut 2.0’, Naren Krishna, the founder of Stockroom.io said “ Debut 2.0 is a very powerful tool for women who are looking to start their journey back in the workforce as recruitment professionals. The program offers flexibility and ease of transition from your break to getting back to work. The 4 week training will be provided in the form of weekend classes by few of the industry’s biggest names in the recruitment space. The program is designed to provide soft skill trainings and mentorship to help increase the returnee’s confidence and have meaningful impact as they begin their journey”

Debut 2.0 is a free program that women can register by visiting: https://wcmi.in/debut-2.0/. The curriculum of the program covers topics ranging from Sourcing, Talent mapping, Social recruiting, Talent marketing.

Women Changemakers Career Fair and Confluence had a powerful lineup of speakers that included Hitesh R; Author and Paralympic Medal winner, Preeti Kaul; VP – Human Capital @ Optum, Kaushambi Nag Bhatia; People Leader, Org Practice Asia @ McKinsey, Jaya Singla; Lead Consultant | Project Manager @ Thoughtworks, Raman Kansal; Office Principal @ Thoughtworks

Naren Krishna, the founder of Stockroom.io observing the participation, said “We have been receiving great response from Delhi women community every time. This is our 3rd time in Delhi-NCR and first of the five events planned this year. We are truly overwhelmed by the response from candidates and companies. Apart from helping companies recruit amazing diversity talent we also wanted to give back to the society with the launch of Debut 2.0 in whatever way we can. In the coming one year our aim is to ensure we at least have 50 world class women recruiters who would be working from their convenience of home. This is going to be a one-of-it’s kind program ever in the recruitment space.  ”

In July 2018, Stockroom.io launched Equiv.in , India’s first exclusive diversity job portal. This platform today has over 60,000+ Women, 3000 persons with disabilities and 20 profiles and helps companies connect with an amazing diversity talent pool through the portal and its highly curated events.

Towards an Inclusive Workplace: It's One’s Ability, Not Disability that Defines an Individual

Over 50 representatives from the corporate sector participated at an employer sensitization seminar organized by the American India Foundation (AIF) and Cheshire Disability Trust (CDT). The seminar titled “Diversity in the Workforce” provided a platform to understand the challenges and share best practices of employers in hiring diversified work force in terms of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), especially Women with Disabilities and also brainstorm ways to promote inclusion of PwDs in the formal workforce. The key address was presented by the chief guest Shri V.S. Basavaraju, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Government of Karnataka.  With the support of Tarsadia Foundation-USA and Circle of Hope, Boston, AIF advocates for inclusive growth in India through the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workforce and acceptance of disabilities within larger communities.
                                                                   
Other eminent guests present during the event included Meenu Bhambhani, VP & Head - CSR, Mphasis, Rama Chari, Director, Diversity & Equal Opportunity Centre (DEOC), Bipendra Gupta, General Manager, Lemon Tree Hotels, and Jyothi Ganapathi, Accenture. Addressing the participants, Shri V.S. Basavaraju, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Government of Karnataka said “We need to talk about diversity in not just one particular sector, but diversity across all other sectors that are equally important for people with disabilities to be able to have a meaningful life. The Government is committed to doing its best. Collaboration and convergence seems to be the mantra to make this happen.”

On the occasion Mathew Joseph, Country Director, AIF said “In a country where less than 2% of its disabled are employed, AIF is revolutionizing the industry paradigm in India by providing equal opportunity and access to employment for persons with disabilities. Participation from the corporate sector is crucial in promoting inclusion of PwDs, especially women with disabilities at workplace.”

AIF’s Ability Based Livelihood Empowerment (ABLE) works with persons with disabilities by providing skill development training and creating employment opportunities for a sustainable livelihood. Since its inception, ABLE has trained more than 14,000 PwDs. With specialized curriculum development for the visually impaired, hearing impaired and orthopedically impaired, ABLE combines assistive technologies and workplace solutions with career counselling. ABLE also builds the capacity of NGOs across India to ensure equal opportunities for all PwDs.

About AIF: The American India Foundation is committed to catalyzing social and economic change in India, and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through high-impact interventions in education, livelihoods, public health, and leadership development. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with NGOs to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a suggestion from Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 4.6 million of India’s poor. Learn more at www.AIF.org

AIF’s Ability Based Livelihood Empowerment (ABLE) program trains persons with disabilities (PwDs) and facilitates their entry into the job market through advocacy, promoting inclusive growth in India. With specialized curriculum development for the visually developed (massage therapy), hearing impaired (retail and hospitality) and orthopedically impaired (mobility); the ABLE program combines assistive technologies and workplace solutions with career counselling, while building the capacity of NGOs across India to ensure equal opportunities (SDG 10) for all Persons with Disability (PwDs).

Cheshire Disability Trust (CDT) is a non-profit voluntary organization registered in 2011 is a member of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Global Alliance, a worldwide organization with affiliations in 54 countries. CDT’s mission is to enable people to improve their quality of life and to campaign for the removal of the barriers which hinder them.

Mindtree Promoters Condemn, Remain Unconditionally Opposed to Reported L&T Takeover Bid

The promoters of Mindtree, a global technology services and Digital transformation company, today said they would unconditionally oppose the reported hostile takeover bid by Larsen and Toubro Ltd.

The promoters, including Krishnakumar Natarajan (executive chairman), Subroto Bagchi (co-founder), Rostow Ravanan (CEO) and Parthasarathy N.S. (executive vice chairman and COO), issued the following statement:

“The attempted hostile takeover bid of Mindtree by Larsen & Toubro is a grave threat to the unique organization we have collectively built over 20 years. Since we started the company in 1999, we have built a rock-solid organization that outperforms its peers in IT services, differentiates and innovates through digital, and consistently delivers strong financial results and favorable returns to our shareholders. We’ve also carefully created a differentiated corporate culture made up of our amazing “Mindtree Minds,” which reached the 20,000 milestone this year. A hostile takeover by Larsen & Toubro, unprecedented in our industry, could undo all of the progress we’ve made and immensely set our organization back. We don’t see any strategic advantage in the transaction and strongly believe that the transaction will be value destructive for all shareholders. Our collective success depends on building and nurturing relationships with our clients and partners. This unexplainable transaction will bring disruption to those relationships and impair Mindtree’s ability to differentiate itself in the market and continue to deliver client value and great shareholder return. We believe that culture needs to be carefully created and nurtured over time, and can’t be bought and sold like any asset.

The team of Krishnakumar Natarajan, Subroto Bagchi, Parthasarathy N.S. and Rostow Ravanan at Mindtree said, “We remain 100 percent committed to our long-term vision of building an independent company. We believe it’s in the best interests of our shareholders, Mindtree Minds, and our organization overall to continue opposing this takeover attempt. In addition, there has been a large outpouring of sentiment from Mindtree Minds online at #MindtreeMatters expressing their strong desire to retain our culture and our independence. In the meantime, while this situation unfolds, Mindtree will continue to be laser focused on continuing the stellar work for our clients and delivering great value to them.” 

AECOM Accelerates Digital Advancement with Real-time Insights into Project Performance and Trends

AECOM is a premier, fully integrated global infrastructure firm with 87,000 employees across 150+ countries that provide design, engineering, construction, and management services. AECOM was an early adopter of Bentley’s new ProjectWise Project Insights cloud service.

Project management teams previously relied on other tools to prepare snapshots of information management progress inside the ProjectWise environment, which was time consuming and produced results that were quickly outdated. These dashboards showed current status but did not necessarily provide an adequate view of past performance or insight into future performance.

AECOM collaborated with Bentley to imagine and develop a new solution, ProjectWise Project Insights, a cloud service built on Microsoft Power BI. ProjectWise Project Insights enables project teams to leverage and visualize project data more effectively in order to identify trends in the information management process.

At AECOM, teams have access to “data-rich” ProjectWise templates through the organization’s award-winning ProjectHub system. These templates promote a repeatable, consistent, and process-driven approach within the Common Data Environment (CDE). ProjectWise Project Insights equips decision makers with an immediate picture of the performance of the CDE and unlocks new value from the project such as an ability to examine historical trends and predict future ones. This digital advancement solution delivers new perspectives and a deeper understanding of project performance by presenting clear, up-to-date and actionable visualisations of project performance.

Now in production across more than 30 major infrastructure projects, ProjectWise Project Insights is delivering a new perspective and immediacy to the analysis of project performance. Project managers can visualize and share live information trends and improve collaborative behaviors. ProjectWise Project Insights also enables AECOM to measure and monitor the adoption of best practices and standards. This includes model-based delivery, an iterative process that focuses design development into the design model rather than drawings that are quickly out of date. ProjectWise Project Insights equip the project management team with automated performance metrics to monitor and enhance the adoption of model-based delivery.

For AECOM teams that design, build, and operate some of the largest infrastructure assets in the world, ProjectWise Project Insights will provide new ways of analyzing information in the CDE that will ultimately benefit clients and drive consistency and information management best practices across global ProjectWise projects.

Norris Spencer, Highways Information Manager, AECOM, said, “ProjectWise Project Insights is delivering a new perspective to Leadership and Project Management as the dashboards provide unique views of information management practices and Building Information Model health across the CDE.”

Elizabeth Berna, Information Manager, AECOM, added, “Our project managers also use the dashboards to identify trends in project performance providing the client with new ways of assessing project health.”