Registeration Open for Funskool Organizes a Multi-City 'Beylade Burst Challenge'

Funskool India Ltd, India’s leading toy manufacturer, is on a mission to find the next little Beyblader from a series of multi-city competitions across Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi and Chennai. These immersive competitions will engage their mind in a riveting game involving quick thinking, strategy and of course, sleight of hand!

The finalists / qualifiers from each city will then compete with each other in a tight scramble for the glorious title of ‘National Champion’, at the Finals to be held in Chennai on 28th April 2019

The ‘National Champion’ will then go on to represent India, where he/she will bring his blading best as they compete with their rivals from other countries.

Such Finalists from each country will have a face-off at the BEYBLADE BURST ASIA CHAMPIONSHIP on 26th May, 2019, at Seoul in South Korea! The talented winner will claim his/her glory and thereafter get crowned with the coveted title of BEYBLADE BURST ASIA CHAMPION!

Contestants can register at the venue to participate in the competition. Registrations will be on a first come first serve basis.

Register now, to become the ultimate BEYBLADEchampion!!

Programme Details:

Date: (Sat-Sun) April 6 & 7
Time: 3:00PM  Onwards
Age Group: 6-12 years
Contact: MD. SHABBUDDIN
Mobile: +91 9538717391
Venue: Toys R Us  @ Phoenix  Market City, Whitefield Main Road, Mahadevpura, Bengaluru -560048

Tata Hexa Clean India Trail Initiative by Sangeetha Sridhar Reaches Bangalore

The Clean India Trail Initiative by Sangeetha Sridhar, in a Tata Hexa, reached Bangalore today. After covering the western, eastern and northern region of the country, Ms Sridhar is all set to continue her expedition in the southern region. Commenced on the 12th of August, 2018 from the iconic Gateway of India in Mumbai, the Clean India Trail rides on the Swachh Bharat Mission and to spread awareness about Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a clean India.

As part of the Clean India Trail programme, Ms. Sridhar will drive the Tata Hexa across 150 cities in India, covering around 40,000 kilometers, to conduct a first-hand experiential assessment of toilet and sanitation facilities, the condition of national roads and highways and the safety quotient for solo woman travelers.

According to Mr. SN Barman - Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Customer Support, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, “The Tata HEXA is a power packed, feature loaded and adrenaline pumped vehicle, designed for those with an active and dynamic lifestyle. We are absolutely delighted to partner with Ms. Sangeetha Sridhar on this noble cause and are confident that her vehicle of choice, the Tata Hexa will effortlessly take her through the varied terrains that our country has to offer and will successfully help achieve her mission”

Commenting on this initiative, Ms. Sangeetha Sridhar, said, “I am extremely thrilled to undertake this one-of-a-kind trail. This specially curated trail takes me through different topographies and terrains and hence Tata Hexa suits my requirements. After a lot of research, I chose the Tata Hexa (fondly called Shexa by me), which is a vehicle that offers great reliability and extreme comfort, helping me seamlessly through this journey. It is a matter of pride to do something of this magnitude and I am grateful to Tata Motors for having given the Hexa to me for this journey.”

To mark the 150th year of the Tata Group and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Tata Motors had partnered with Ms. Sangeetha Sridhar, to drive a unique initiative called the ‘Clean India Trail’.  For the same, Ms. Sridhar has chosen Tata Hexa – the lifestyle SUV from the Company, as her vehicle of choice keeping in mind her requirement of a luxurious and reliable all-terrain vehicle.

Powered by a 2.2L Varicor diesel engine and producing a whopping 154 BHP at 400 NM of torque, the Hexa offers spacious and luxurious interiors, making it the most suitable vehicle for long journeys and her expedition. Keeping the requirements of the drive in mind, the Tata Hexa has been converted into a 24 sq. ft. home on wheels, with a sleep area, kitchen sink, chiller box and work space with charging points for Ms. Sridhar’s gadgets. Additionally, the wide network of Tata Motors authorised service stations across the country will be a call away to help her in case of any service requirements through this journey.

Accenture Helps Del Monte Foods Unlock Innovation and Drive Business Growth with the Cloud

Accenture has helped Del Monte Foods, Inc. gain more visibility into its IT operations, access real-time customer insights to inform decision making, reduce IT spending costs by up to 35 percent, and increase operating efficiencies by significantly reducing the time it takes for its professionals to receive IT capabilities, service and support from weeks to less than an hour.

Del Monte Foods’ IT transformation journey arrives at a time when the company is setting the stage for a new era of innovation and growth. In a fiercely competitive market, the leading producer of branded food products realized that it needed to modernize its technology infrastructure to increase its ability to sense and respond to opportunities to capture greater market share by accelerating the speed of product to market.

The project is part of Del Monte Foods’ company strategy of building relevance through product differentiation, expanding distribution into key growth areas, and optimizing the supply chain to increase operational agility.

In less than four months, Accenture helped Del Monte Foods find opportunities to streamline their operations by migrating hundreds of applications including Del Monte Foods’ critical SAP® ERP Central Component system to Amazon Web Services (AWS). This short, seamless migration was possible through the automated tools and the deep experience of the Accenture Cloud Factory, where thousands of large-scale migrations have already been successfully delivered. As part of the transformation, Del Monte Foods is leveraging the Accenture Cloud Platform to automate the management of its cloud services, freeing up company resources to focus on innovating its core competencies of food production and distribution.

With minimal disruption to the harvest seasons, the transition to the cloud has enabled Del Monte Foods to achieve the following:

·      Manage costs by scaling its IT resources up or down quickly and only pay for the computing resources it uses;
·      Have a fluid and responsive organization by consolidating and automating back and front office functions; and
·      Have a future-ready IT platform for automation, analytics and applied intelligence to gain customer insight to inform innovation and accelerate product to market.

“With Accenture as our partner, our move to AWS means that Del Monte Foods now has a more agile operating environment to free up resources for more superior business outcomes, such as ensuring the long-term health of our categories,” said Chad Anderson, Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Del Monte Foods. “Just as important, throughout the entire process, Accenture’s expertise — both in technology and in the consumer goods industry — has helped us build better experiences for our customers by delivering against core consumer trends, such as our consumers' desire to eat healthier foods.”

Key to the migration was the expertise of the Accenture AWS Business Group, which helped develop a comprehensive future-looking strategy for Del Monte Foods to jumpstart targeted solutions for Del Monte Foods’ objectives.

Kishore Durg, Accenture Technology’s cloud and growth & strategy lead, added, “With 132 years of history, Del Monte Foods is a brand that is relentless about adapting and transforming its operations to create relevance at scale to meet tomorrow’s demands. The future belongs to industry-leading organizations like Del Monte Foods who have the foresight to invest in essentials, like the cloud for its agility, and a data-driven backbone for insight-led decision-making, differentiated customer experiences and breakthrough outcomes.”

"We applaud Del Monte Foods and their decision to update their infrastructure in a move to the cloud. Migrating over 200 servers in less than four months has allowed them to be a more agile organization, resulting in a better product for their customers,” said Mike Clayville, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales and Business Development, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “AWS is thrilled to be part of this project with Del Monte Foods and Accenture."

Accenture has worked on 20,000 cloud computing projects for clients, with 80 percent of the Fortune Global 100, and has more than 77,000 professionals trained on cloud technologies and architectures. The company has been innovating in cloud technology for nearly a decade and holds more than 300 granted patents and pending applications across its global cloud portfolio.

Vikas Agnihotri Takes Charge of Google After Rajan Anandan Resigned

Google’s India and South East Asia President Rajan Anandan has put in his papers after an eight-year stint at the American tech giant.

Anandan, also an investor in multiple startups, is slated to join venture fund Sequoia Capital. He will work with Google until the end of this month.

Vikas Agnihotri will take on the interim responsibility. He is currently serving as Google’s Country Director for Sales.

“We are grateful to Rajan for his huge contribution to Google over the past eight years. His entrepreneurial zeal and leadership have helped grow the overall internet ecosystem in India and Southeast Asia,” Google President Asia Pacific Scott Beaumont said in an emailed statement.

Anandan had joined Google from Microsoft India in 2010. Previously, he was also been associated with Dell India and McKinsey & Company.

Anandan will focus on developing ‘Surge’ programme for startups by acting as an investment advisor and mentor to the founders. Surge aims to engineer rapid early progress for startups, by enabling disproportionate access to capital, talent, network and decades of company-building knowledge.

Cadabam’s Group Signs Up with UK’s Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust to Fight Mental Health Disease in India

Cadabam’s Group, India’s largest private provider of mental health services which has been providing its services for 26 years, announced its association with United Kingdom’s Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (NTW) to reduce the treatment gap and enhance the quality of mental healthcare services in India.

Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (NTW) provides mental health and disability services across the North East England, will be working as a ‘Knowledge Partner’ with Cadabam’s Group based in Bangalore to develop above programs through sharing of expertise,  mutual support and training.The partnership offers both organisations an opportunity to share their expertise in the delivery of mental healthcare to different regions.

John Lawlor, Chief Executive of NTW, and Sandesh R Cadabam, Director of Cadabams Group, signed a memorandum of understanding at St Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle to formally launch the collaboration.

Sandesh R Cadabam, Director of Cadabam’s Group, said, “This collaboration will support us in progressing towards standardising our current services and developing new ones along the model of comprehensive care pathways which NTW excels in. I am excited that an association with such an outstanding NHS organisation will bring a quantum leap in the quality and accessibility to mental health and learning disability services across India, as well as providing a huge opportunity for us to mutually learn from each other.”

John Lawlor, NTW Chief Executive, said, “Our Trust is excited to be working with the Cadabams Group. Our partnership is based on shared values, including the importance of compassionate care as well as embracing innovation, and I am looking forward to seeing how it develops and how we can learn from each other. I am particularly pleased that this collaboration will support the delivery of mental health and disability services to some of the most-vulnerable individuals in the regions of India that Cadabams serves.”

WHO's Mental Health Atlas 2017 reveals, although some countries have made progress in mental health policy-making and planning, there is a global shortage of health workers trained in mental health and a lack of investment in community-based mental health facilities.

Moreover, there is an extreme shortage of mental health workers like psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors. In the latest available data, in 2014 it was as low as ''one in 100,000 people''

Talking of the pilot project, disease burden of mental illness in India and optimisation of the efforts being taken, Dr B R Madhukar, Medical Director of Cadabams Group, said, “This partnership as a pilot in Bangalore where about 40 mental health professionals, including counsellors, nurses, clinical psychologists, social workers and other professional staff will be trained by us to handle the basic-to-complex cases of mental illnesses. Post this, we aim to spread the knowledge to other parts of the country, including a few hundreds to thousands of healthcare professionals. In most parts of India, mental health is still considered a stigma and therefore, nearly 70% of the patients are not able to seek or get the right help. Out bigger objective is to reach people in the community where the patients did not have a chance to receive mental health support, ultimately covering districts and states. In this process, we will develop healthcare services and systems, including care pathways and clinical protocols to manage the delivery of healthcare in India.”

Talking on this new partnership Mr Dominic Mc Allister the British Deputy High Commissioner of Bangalore said “Mental health is a growing area of concern globally, and this collaboration lays the foundation for better, responsive and accessible treatment options for local patients. This partnership is a great example of UK-India collaboration in improving access to quality healthcare services. The Department for International Trade (DIT) and British Deputy High Commission Bengaluru are proud to support this collaboration, which brings together specialist knowledge and services from the NHS with Cadabam’s experience in healthcare delivery to provide enhanced local services in mental health.”

As part of the partnership, NTW will provide support for Cadabams to develop new ways of working within areas including addictions, smart prescribing, school mental health, community and home-based care. The organisations were introduced to each other by the British Deputy High Commission-Mr.Dominic McAllister, who supported the collaboration process throughout its development. Considering the benefits this would bring mental healthcare services in India, he was keen for this collaboration to happen so that collectively they could work together and bring about a resourceful outcome benefiting all.

Jaguar Land Rover India to Introduce Hybrid Vehicles By End of 2019

Jaguar Land Rover is proposing to launch its electrified products in India. In line with Jaguar Land Rover’s global commitment to introduce electrified options on its entire product portfolio by 2020, Jaguar Land Rover India proposes to offer multiple products, ranging from Hybrid Vehicles to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) over the next few years, starting from 2019.

Towards the end of 2019 Jaguar Land Rover will introduce its first Hybrid Vehicles from Land Rover. In second half of 2020, Jaguar Land Rover India plans to launch its first Battery Electric Vehicle, the Jaguar I-PACE.

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd. (JLRIL) said:

“Jaguar Land Rover’s focus is to commit itself to a more sustainable future and our engineers have developed just the right products to lead us on this path. The introduction of electrified vehicles in Jaguar Land Rover India’s portfolio is in line with the government’s thrust towards electric vehicles. The company is encouraged by the introduction of FAME-II by the Government of India and its focus on expansion of the charging infrastructure in the country. This is bound to help with faster adoption of all kinds of Electric Vehicles in due course.”

Jaguar Product Portfolio in India

The Jaguar range in India includes XE (starting at ₹ 40.61 Lakh), XF (starting at ₹ 49.78 Lakh), F-PACE (starting at ₹ 64.64 Lakh), XJ (starting at ₹ 111.30 Lakh) and F-TYPE   (starting at ₹ 90.93 Lakh). All prices mentioned are ex-showroom prices in India.

Land Rover Product Portfolio in India

The Land Rover range in India includes the Discovery Sport (starting at  ₹ 44.68 Lakh) , Range Rover Evoque (starting at ₹ 52.06 Lakh), All-New Discovery (starting at ₹ 76.94 Lakh), the New Range Rover Velar (starting at ₹ 82.90 Lakh), Range Rover Sport (starting at ₹ 103.74 Lakh) and Range Rover (starting at ₹ 181.86 Lakh). All prices mentioned are ex-showroom prices in India.

Jaguar Land Rover Retailer Network in India

Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are available in India through 27 authorised outlets in Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Karnal, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Pune, Raipur, Vijayawada and Surat. 

IVM Podcasts Launches Alexa Skill for TV Personality Cyrus Broacha

IVM Podcasts, India’s premier podcast network announced that its popular show, Cyrus Says will now have its own official skill on Amazon Alexa. Listeners of Cyrus Says can now play the popular podcast on their Amazon Echo or any Alexa-enabled device with the convenience of voice.

Hosted by the inimitable Cyrus Broacha, the show covers various elements of life in urban India including politics, sports, civic sense, traffic, kids, food and a host of other themes. This cricket season tune in to LANSO (Left-Arm-Not-So-Orthodox) – a topical edition of his podcast that airs every Wednesday by just saying “Alexa, talk to me about cricket”.

The skill can also be accessed with the Alexa app available on iOS and Android. Once enabled use simple voice commands such as “Alexa, open Cyrus Says”, or“Alexa, ask Cyrus says to play the latest podcast” to start listening.

Speaking on the association, Amit Doshi, founder of IVM said, “Making the skill available on Amazon Alexa is very exciting since it’s a sign of larger audiences adopting podcast as a medium of consuming content. It’s a seamless way to listen your favorite podcast with an official skill and I’m certain that fans of Cyrus Says will be very pleased with this development.”

Cyrus Broacha, TV and theatre personality, comedian and host of the show said, "Wow Cyrus Says is on Amazon Alexa?   Keep in mind Cyrus himself is not available. Just Cyrus Says. Ask Alexa to play me, I mean Cyrus Says."

“It is exciting to see huge interest in podcasts and that Alexa Skills are enabling this adoption. We are delighted to see IVM onboard a popular name like Cyrus Broacha with a Alexa Skill focusing on cricket and other important topics”, says Dilip R.S., Country Manager for Alexa Skills, Amazon India.

While podcasts are a fairly popular medium of content consumption in the west, the Indian market is still playing catch-up. Over the last 4 years, IVM has been creating audio content and building a consumer base for the medium by creating engaging content and has collaborated with over 50 podcasters to garner 10 million listens so far.