Adani Foundation Enables More Than 3 Lakh Children to Dream Big on Project Udaan

Adani Foundation achieved a milestone in April 2019 when it reached out to more than 3 lakh students and youth through Project Udaan. Udaan is a one of its kind initiative of Adani Foundation, which aims to inspire students and youth to dream big.

The Udaan project is geared towards motivating the students of our country and encouraging them to achieve greatness as well as inculcating an entrepreneurial spirit in their lives.

Udaan is inspired by the life-changing story of Mr. Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group. As a child, Mr. Adani had visited the Kandla Port in Gujarat, and when he saw the expanse of the Port, he dreamt of having a Port of his own one day.

Udaan focuses on inspiration-based educational visits of school and college students to various business locations of the Adani Group at Mundra and Hazira in Gujarat, Tirora in Maharashtra, Kawai in Rajasthan, Dhamra in Odisha and Udupi in Karnataka. Under this project, an exposure tour is organised wherein students are given a chance to visit the Adani Port, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar facilities to get an insight about the large-scale business activities being carried out. When young minds are given exposure, it helps them to understand their own potential and get motivated to work towards the same.

Students are provided transportation, boarding, lodging, food and at every Adani Group business establishment, they receive knowledge about the operations of the business. The project covers students and youth in 5 States across the country and has reached out to 3,00,063 students and youth through 4143 exposure trips.

About Adani Foundation

Established in 1996, Adani Foundation today has widespread operations in 18 states that include 2250 villages and towns across the country with a team of professionals who work with an approach that embodies innovation, people participation and collaboration.

Touching the lives of more than 3.2 million people annually and passionately working towards creating social capital with focus on four core areas – Education, Community Health, Sustainable Livelihood Development and Infrastructure Development, Adani Foundation acts towards inclusive growth and sustainable development of the rural and urban communities, in turn contributing towards nation-building.

Alcohowl’s Pub Crawl Reached Over 2 Lakhs Digital Users!

Alcohowl is India’s first digital magazine for everything related to spirits, cocktails, nightlife and beyond. The magazine covers everything about the experience of fine drinking by shifting away from the mundane and diving into a world of niche spirits and drinks. The bespoke, specially curated content by a panel of experts makes sure that the readers are updated with the latest trends in fine drinking across the globe.

Alcohowl aims at creating the perfect blend of alcohol-related events, reviews, tastings and trends to give alcohol connoisseurs a different outlook on the art of fine drinking. Nightcrawlers, this IP event is one of its kind themed pub-crawls. The fifth edition of the crawl was held on 5th April, at Inorbit Mall, Malad. The event was met with tremendous response digitally which congregated as a healthy footfall on the event.

A pack of 70 enthusiasts were part of the Nightcrawlers. The event started at Haagen Daz Ice creams which featured exclusive flavours curated based on the series, followed by a fun time at the Timezone arcade where patrons got to indulge in free bowling games. The crawl then moved to Chili’s where the attendees engaged in the game called ‘Many Faces’ -- a version of ‘Guess the Character’ – and enjoyed loads of options in starters and drinks. The party continued to Beer Café where the attendees got to taste the coveted Night King shot especially made for the event and play fun games like ‘Break the Northern Wall.’ This was followed by a Fun Limbo session at Irish House with attendees having a dance off like never seen before with community platters and beers on the side.

The night was filled with games, trivia, drinks, giveaways and laughter. Everyone signed off with smiles on their faces, newly formed friendships, and beautiful memories.

Alcohowl reached over 2 lakhs users on the digital platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook & others.

Pallavi Naidu, CEO, Alcohowl commented, “Nightcrawlers as an IP is specifically focused towards bringing people together for an unforgettable thematic experience. After many successful editions, Nightcrawlers has garnered a huge following of loyalists who swear by the idea of Nightcrawlers and are always looking forward to the next one. As a concept a “bar crawl” hasn’t been explored much in India and Alcohowl is proud to say that we are the pioneers in this space. Watch out for many more exciting editions coming out soon.”

Naviin Ibhrampurkar – Head- Marketing and Corporate Communications Inorbit Malls said, “This was a unique themed crawl in our mall which bought patrons to the mall via online registrations. A crawl is great fun, especially when you are in groups and at Inorbit we believe giving our customers engagement that they remember as memorable experiences. We look forward to having more such events in future and thank team Alcohowl for managing it so well!”

About Alcohowl (https://alcohowl.com/):

Fine drinking isn’t just about what’s in the bottle, but the story and soul behind every sip. Welcome to Alcohowl, India’s one and only platform for fine drinking experiences.

With Alcohowl, we’ve aimed at creating the perfect blend of alcohol related events, reviews, tastings and trends to give alcohol connoisseurs a different outlook on the art of fine drinking.

So, we know you like Martinis stirred and not shaken. Exactly why, our cellar full of tastefully curated articles and audio-visual content will ensure there’s something for you to indulge into. Trust our Owl to uncork the perfect night-out for you with a list of the coolest events and hippest places to suit your mood. And whether it’s a Friday night soirée or a Sunday sundowner, stir up some new memories with our range of easy and delicious cocktail recipes. Also, to add a little magic to the mundane, we’ve got a list of tailored events that are sure to keep your spirits up. Quite literally!

How Rap Music Is Helping 5 Time Congress MLA Krishna Byre Gowda Talk To First Time Voters?

The coming election will see over 30 lakh first time voters casting their vote. And it's becoming extremely important for the mainstream parties to appeal to them. Krishna Byre Gowda, or KBG as he is known, the joint Congress and JD(S) candidate for Bengaluru North Parliamentary Constituency, has a secret weapon on his side.

Folk rap.

The Elements Mall on Bengaluru city was witness to folk rap performance by young musicians appealed to young voters to vote carefully, vote with a conscience and to vote for a future free of hate and violence. The performers also took up KBG's campaign promise “With You For You” and detailed - in rap - why he was their candidate of choice.

The lines from the song —"Ishtu varshavadaru innu unemployment, sullu matugaligella agabedi silent/Agadidre kelsa bejaragi koorabeka navu prati divasa?" (Unemployment exists even after these many years/Don't be silent listening to falsities/Should we sit jobless everyday?) seem to resonate a sentiment that is shared by many.

Airbus to Increase India Sourcing to $2 Billion by 2020 Over Next 5 Yrs

Bullish on India as a market place as well as a manufacturing hub, leading aircraft maker Airbus has said it has begun sourcing components for almost all its jets from the country and aims to take its cumulative sourcing from there to USD 2 billion in the next five years.

Showering fulsome praise for the Modi government's Make in India campaign, Airbus said it's making large number of products in the country, either directly or through its supply partners, where collectively more than 5,000 people are employed.

"It's a great initiative and we are already pushing for it in a big way. We have done a lot of 'Make in India' of our own and we would do much more, going forward," the European giant's Managing Director for India Srinivasan Dwarkanath told PTI in an interview here at the Paris International Air Show.

The company's latest A380 aircraft, which is being displayed here, has got evacuation slides for all its eight doors made in Bangalore while there are many other products that the company is getting made in India.
"Almost all our products have got India-made parts," he said.

Dwarkanath said there are broadly four areas of focus for Airbus in India -- engineering, services for customers, aerospace partnerships and R&D innovation.

"Some of the common themes across all these focus areas are skill development, jobs and getting and transmitting the know-how," said Dwarkanath, who is the Vice-President for International Cooperation, South and South-East Asia, besides being MD for Airbus India.

Airbus' own centre in Bangalore for engineering has got more than 350 engineers working in core engineering functions while there are over 2,000 people across the supply chain in this segment.

Two offshore development centres are also employing 300 people each, he added.

In the aerospace segment, Airbus has got over 40 suppliers and partners, including the Tatas and the Mahindras.

"Across the supply chain, more than 5,000 people are working, including one-third on the manufacturing side, exclusively for Airbus products. Our target for the next five years is to source USD 2 billion worth products from India cumulatively up to 2020," he said, while adding that the growth in the past 10 years has already been of about 12 times.

BoB’s Merger with Dena, Vijaya Likely to Take Upto 2 Yrs for Integration

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) is likely to complete the process of merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with it in two years, said a senior official of BoB.

The merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with BoB became effective from April 1.

Information technology platform integration alone will take about 12 months and other processes and systems may take another year or so, the official said.

The process has been designed to ensure that there is minimum disruption of the customers during the transition period, the official said adding that the branding of the three entities will be retained in the interim period and will be transitioned to the new brand in a phased manner to ensure minimum disruption to existing operations.

As far as capital is concerned, the official said, the government has infused Rs 5,042 crore in the bank taking care of additional expenses and maintaining minimum regulatory capital requirement.

There would be pressure on the balance sheet of the bank during the first quarter when the maximum impact of the merger will play out and, subsequently, the impact will moderate, the official added.

The maiden three-way amalgamation is the first step in the consolidation of the public sector banking industry recommended in 1991 by the Narasimham Committee report. Through this merger, the government has created an institution of global scale and size, thereby providing significant benefit to all stakeholders.

The consolidated entity started the operation with a business mix of over Rs 15 lakh crore on the balance sheet, with deposits and advances of Rs 8.75 lakh crore and Rs 6.25 lakh crore, respectively.

BoB, the second-largest public sector lender after State Bank of India, now has over 9,500 branches, 13,400 ATMs, and 85,000 employees to serve 12 crore customers.

The announcement of the three-way merger was among several reforms initiatives undertaken by Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar to make public sector banks (PSBs) healthy, robust and globally competitive.

As part of the reform process, the government had also announced the transfer of the majority 51 % stake to Life Insurance Corporation in IDBI Bank in August last year to transform the Mumbai-based lender.

Besides, the Department of Financial Services made a record capital infusion of Rs 1.06 lakh crore in the PSBs in 2018-19. As a result, five PSBs, including Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank, were out of the prompt corrective action framework of the RBI earlier this year. Non-performing assets showed a negative trend in 2018-19 and reduced by Rs 23,860 crore between April 2018 and September 2018.

Following the merger, the number of PSBs has come down to 18. 

Reliance Jio Crosses 300 Million Customers Mark on March 2, 2019

Telecom operator Reliance Jio has crossed the 300 million customers mark in two-and-a-half years of its operations, sources said.

The milestone was reached on March 2, they added.

Queries sent to Jio on the matter remained unanswered.

However, in its television commercials during the ongoing IPL season, Jio is shown 'Celebrating 300 million users'.

Jio became the fastest company in the world to achieve 100 million telecom subscribers in 170 days of starting commercial operation.

In its earnings report for the quarter ended December 2018, Bharti Airtel had disclosed that it had 284 million customers.

However, as per regulatory filings, Bharti Airtel reported having 340.2 million customers on its network in December and 340.3 million customers at the end of January.

Bharti Airtel crossed the 300 million customers mark in 19th year of its operations.

Vodafone Idea became the largest telecom player in the country with 400 million customers following the merger of mobile business of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular on August 31, 2018. 

Cure.fit Launches Incubator and Plans to Invest USD5 Million in Ten Healthy Packaged Food Companies

Integrated health care platform Cure.fit, has announced the launch of its first incubator to aid new age healthy packaged food brands.

With the increase in health awareness, Healthy and Better for You (BFY) packaged food segment is growing exponentially in India. A lot of new brands have come up in the last few years and even large FMCG companies are focusing on launching their health food range.

As part of their investment, Cure.fit will support the companies on aspects such as cutting edge health & nutrition research, consumer insights-that will help increase effectiveness of the products, branding & positioning , go to market strategy and provide access to custom sales channels – cult centres, Eat.fit cafes, Cure.fit app.

Some of the categories they are is looking to invest in:

·         Ready to eat Snacks (cookies, chips, munchies, trail mix)
·         Nutrition Bars
·         Juices & Beverages
·         Natural supplements
·         Meal Replacements
·         Ready to Cook Products & Meal Kits
·         Staples
·         Dairy Products

In February, Cure.fit acquired cold pressed juice brand, Rejoov for an undisclosed amount. In the next few months, Cure.fit is looking to scale the sales of packaged health food segments across multiple cities through its app & Cult.fit centres.

Commenting on the announcement, Ankit Nagori, Co-founder Cure.fit said, "While a lot of great products are being created, entrepreneurs find it difficult to raise capital and find shelf space in the market. At Cure.fit we want to enable these entrepreneurs to focus on creating healthy and tasty products for the end customers by giving access to capital and shelf space.”

Criteria for selection:

The first phase of the program will be focused on the categories mentioned above only. Companies with innovative products and a credible team can apply for the program. Though the applications for the program is open throughout the year, a quarterly evaluation of the received applications is performed. The shortlisted companies will be invited to pitch with Cure.fit’s investment committee post which the results will be announced.

Companies who are interested to apply for the incubator can mail to incubator@curefit.com