Rohini Nilekani,Gates Foundation and Sattva Unveil Flagship Report on the State of ‘Everyday Giving in India’

Rohini Nilekani, renowned philanthropist has today launched a flagship report on the state of ‘Everyday Giving in India’. The research was undertaken by Sattva Consulting, a well-known  social impact consulting firm, in association with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.

This report is a first-of-its-kind 360-degree mapping of the market, solutions, innovations, challenges and opportunities in “everyday giving” in India—i.e. the ways in which India’s ordinary citizens give their money and time, and engage with social causes. The report has been prepared through a comprehensive market estimation process along with conversations and surveys with key players, experts, individuals and charitable organisations. This report is based on the research study conducted between September 2018 and March 2019 and examines the state of everyday giving in India to understand what it would means to unleash the full brain, muscle and financial power of India’s everyday givers to propel the country’s social development.

One of the study’s biggest findings is the comparatively small percentage of India’s everyday giving that goes towards NGOs. Only INR 3.5k crores goes to NGOs, making it a mere 6% contribution to total philanthropic giving in India.

The report launch was followed by two insightful panel discussions on “Strengthening our citizenship muscle: Everyday giving in a participatory democracy” & “Innovation and growth potential of the formal everyday giving market in India”.

The panel discussions highlighted various themes around everyday giving and the ways of harnessing the potential of India’s  billion givers to enable and support the country’s social development. The conversation also brought up the subject of how everyday giving and citizen engagement can be leveraged as a powerful instrument in the best possible way to overcome key social challenges of the country.

While discussing the need of streamlining philanthropic giving, Rohini Nilekani, Co-founder of Rohini Nilekani philanthropies said, “This carefully researched report shows us that the giving muscle in India is well-exercised, but could do with some protein shake! In fact, the research tells us that with some streamlining of efforts, India could emerge as the hub of innovation around everyday giving. The report details many recommendations for all sections of society – samaaj, bazaar and sarkaar. We hope this will help many more people and institutions join this journey of everyday giving to achieve our common goal of a good society, embedded in kindness to strangers.”

Victoria Vrana, Victoria Vrana, Deputy Director, Policy, Systems and Giving by All at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said “India has always had a rich culture of giving, and this study is an important attempt to unpack how enabling India’s everyday givers and their solution ecosystem can have a huge impact on human, economic, and social progress in the country”

Aarti Mohan, Co-founder, Head - Sattva Research said “Nearly all cultures have strong traditions of giving and caring for their communities. India, in fact has the most number of people volunteering and donating money in the world, ahead of the USA and China. Growing potential to give is evident from the expanding size and wealth of India’s middle class. We believe this is the apt time to discuss individual giving and citizen engagement in nation building, when the country is embarking on a new wave of governance post the elections of 2019”.

The event saw attendance from leading NGOs, crowdfunding channels, Internet and social media influencers, funders, policymakers and other enablers leading the charge on encouraging giving by common people in India.

About Sattva
Sattva is a social impact strategy consulting and implementation firm that works closely at the intersection of business and impact, with multiple stakeholders including non-profits, social enterprises, corporations and the social investing ecosystem. Sattva works to realise inclusive development goals across themes in emerging markets including education, skill development and livelihoods, healthcare and sanitation, digital and financial inclusion, energy access and environment, among others.

Sattva Research works on research and insights to influence decision-making and action towards social impact in the ecosystem in Asia. They have partnered with organisations such as the Gates Foundation, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), USAID, AVPN, DFID, GIZ and Rockefeller Foundation to publish research, case studies and insights, and engages sector leaders through roundtables, conferences and impact circles.
 
About Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

Ather Energy Announces Entry into Chennai Region Along with Charging Infra by June

Ather Energy, has announced its plan to enter the Auto Hub of India, Chennai, in June 2019.  On the heels of its announcement of launching in multiple cities this year, Chennai is the second city the company is entering after its commercial launch in Bengaluru in 2018. With this, Ather enters its rapid expansion phase, and plans to be in 30 cities over the next couple of years.

As in the case of Bengaluru, Ather Energy will be introducing both its products 450 and 340, along with setting-up its public charging infrastructure, Ather Grid, across consumer-friendly locations such as cafes, malls, tech-parks, gyms, etc.  To encourage adoption of EVs in the city, Ather Energy has announced free charging at Ather Points for all electric vehicles for the first 6 months. Ather’s electric and intelligent scooters bring ease of access and convenience to their owners by allowing them to identify charging point locations and their real time availability through the Ather Grid app. This unique model is currently existent in Bengaluru with Ather Grid up and running at 24 charging locations with 31 charging points.

After witnessing tremendous success in Bengaluru with stocks of Ather 450 being sold out till September 2019 in Bengaluru alone, the company today has opened its early access privileges to Chennaites and the rest of India as it ramps up. The “Pre-Order Interest” option on the company’s website gives consumers priority deliveries, early access to book the Ather 450 & Ather 340 and invitations to exclusive events and test rides.

Ather Energy reiterated its commitment to developing India’s charging ecosystem by announcing its pan-India association with Godrej Nature’s Basket recently. The partnership will see Ather Energy setting-up its charging stations - Ather Point - at Godrej Nature’s Baskets’ 35 odd locations across the country.

Holding a special place for the company’s founders and IIT Madras graduates – Tarun and Swapnil, Chennai has become a hotbed of innovation and technology. It was during their time at the institute that the founders decided to build electric scooters instead of battery packs to address the influx of substandard EVs flooding the Indian market.

Ravneet Phokela, Chief Business Officer says, "After a successful launch in Bengaluru, we are expanding across the country starting with Chennai. The launch in Chennai is like a homecoming for Ather, as the organization was conceptualised at IIT Madras. We have already started receiving pre-order interest from enthusiasts on the website. As we enter this exciting market, we are looking at extending the same go-to-market strategy that we employed in Bengaluru, starting with accepting pre-orders, setting up of the charging infrastructure and the Experience Center, followed by the delivery of vehicles.”

About Ather 450: The Ather 450 is designed for city riding conditions, it comes with a top speed of 80 km/hr, a range of 75 km and one of the quickest accelerations for the scooter category of 0-40 km/hr in 3.9 seconds. Also, for the first time in the category, Ather 450 comes with parking assist, which allows riders to reverse into tight parking spots. The key differentiators of the Ather 450 are its intelligent features, seamless charging and ownership experience. The Ather 450 has a 7” touchscreen dashboard that allows onboard navigation with options of alternate routes and saved locations. It comes with the Ather app that enables push navigation from the phone to the vehicle dashboard, remote monitoring of the vehicle’s health and charge status. Finally, with the over-the-air (OTA) updates functionality, the vehicle is capable of improving over time with continuous upgrades and the addition of new features and functionalities.

About Ather Energy: Ather Energy, India’s premium, smart electric vehicle company was founded in 2013 by IIT Madras alumni, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. Backed by founders of Flipkart, Tiger Global and Hero Motocorp, Ather Energy has designed India’s first truly intelligent electric scooters - Ather 450 & Ather 340 - powered by a comprehensive public charging network, Ather Grid, built and designed in India.  With 31 charging Points in Bengaluru, Ather Grid is the largest fast charging network for two wheelers in the country. With over 42 patent applications, 127 trademarks and 122 design registrations to its name, Ather Energy aims to provide consumers with the best possible ownership experience. The company currently operates in Bengaluru and will be entering the Chennai market in June 2019, followed by other major cities across the country. 

Atos Named a Leader in SAP HANA and S/4HANA Services by NelsonHall

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, has announces that it has been identified as a ‘Leader’ by global research and advisory firm NelsonHall in its latest Vendor Evaluation & Assessment Tool (NEAT) for SAP HANA and S/4HANA services.

The report cites Atos’ strengths, including a significant organizational focus on growing HANA and S/4HANA, broad geographic delivery footprint, clearly defined target verticals and geographies, assets incorporating innovative offerings like SAP Leonardo and SAP Cloud Platform and its Breakthrough Partnership with Google Cloud to drive S/4HANA on the cloud.

Atos SAP HANA and S/4HANA  solutions and services span the continuing management and rationalization of existing SAP instances while maintaining focus of the critical shift to HANA.

* SAP Consulting and Digital transformation - preparing a practical roadmap with clearly defined business benefits and technical definition
* SAP Cloud Platform - enhancing SAP Digital Core with agility and taking full advantage of mobility, social, analytics and IOT
* SAP Application Management - application transformation, development and ongoing management of SAP landscape
* Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud for SAP - Modernize SAP landscapes on Atos Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud
* New dimension Infrastructure - most powerful and scalable SAP HANA solution on the market developed by Atos. Certified up to 16TB and 16CPU

Commenting on the research, David McIntire, IT Services Research Director at NelsonHall, said: “Atos’ position as a Leader in NelsonHall’s SAP HANA and S/4HANA services NEAT evaluation is driven by its capabilities to provide end to end services, support client adoption of S/4HANA in the cloud and its ability to leverage analytics and IoT to deliver business cases that drive adoption of HANA and S/4HANA.”

Elaborating on Atos’ role as a leader in SAP HANA and S/4HANA services, Sean Narayanan, Atos Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Business Platforms & Solutions said: “We are delighted to be recognized as a global Leader in SAP HANA and S/4HANA services. SAP HANA has been at the core of our growth strategy since 2016 with the commitment to our clients to deliver business outcomes and an excellent user experience through our proven delivery methodologies and best-in class service management.”

Adani Foundation is Poised to Change the Contours of Education in Jharkhand, Gujarat

Adani Foundation launched the Gyanodaya smart e-learning project in 150 Government Schools of Godda, Jharkhand and has undertaken a major drive to instill confidence in students who are weak in academics in 17 Primary Government Schools in the Kutch region.

Through the Gyanodaya smart e-learning project, more than 40,000 children from the tribal districts of Godda are currently reaping the benefits and going forward this project will reach out to more than 1 lakh students in 600 High Schools essentially to bridge the gaps in quality education and complement the traditional teaching methodologies. The Project, which began in July 2018, engages and interacts with students through e-learning videos. The unique element of this module is an assessment which is done at the end of the session and students are given feedback for further improvement. The audio-visual medium makes learning interesting which improves retention and attendance leading to an increase in overall performance.

The Project has received huge encouragement from the District Administration led by District Collector, Godda, Ms. Kiran Kumar Pasi. The project was also recognised by the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Mr. Raghubar Das, as a pioneering project towards improving the quality of education in remote areas of Jharkhand. Adani Foundation is implementing this project with support from Eckovation.

Speaking on this occasion, Dr. Priti Adani, Chairperson, Adani Foundation, said: “By applying technology we are ensuring quality education like smart classes in schools to remote tribal areas, thereby helping students to improve comprehension and building enthusiasm in attending school. This will lead in students excelling in education and becoming better citizens.”

In the Kutch region of Gujarat, Adani Foundation has undertaken a major drive in 17 Primary Government Schools to instill confidence in students who are weak in academics. These Priya Vidyarthi (name given by the Government for students who are academically weak), will be supported under project Utthan initiated by Adani Foundation.

This project initiated in Aug 2018 has been heartily welcomed by teachers, parents and students. Under Project Utthan, special classes are organized in schools to strengthen three fundamentals- reading, comprehension and writing. Students from standard 1-4 are taught in English and the schools have been provided with a smart class library, books and sports equipment for their holistic development. This initiative is a part of Adani Foundation’s commitment to social upliftment and is generating great response.

To provide quality education in 17 primary schools, the state governments education minister Bhupendrabhai Chudasma signed a MoU with Adani Foundation on a trial basis to begin with. Under project Utthan, teachers proficient in English, Gujarati and Kutchi language are giving their services to these schools.

Gartner Identifies the Top 8 Supply Chain Technology Trends in 2019

Gartner, Inc. has identified the top 8 supply chain technology trends in 2019.

Gartner’s top strategic supply chain technology trends have broad industry impact, but have not yet been widely adopted. They might be experiencing significant changes or reaching critical tipping points in capability or maturity.

“These technologies are those that supply chain leaders simply cannot ignore,” said Christian Titze, research vice president at Gartner. “Within the next five years, if half of large global companies are using some of these technologies in their supply chain operations, it’s safe to say that the technologies will disrupt people, business objectives and IT systems.”

The top 8 supply chain technology trends in 2019 are:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI technology in supply chain seeks to augment human performance. Through self-learning and natural language, AI capabilities can help automate various supply chain processes such as demand forecasting, production planning or predictive maintenance.

“AI supports the shift to broader supply chain automation that many organizations are seeking,” said Mr. Titze. “For example, AI can enhance risk mitigation by analyzing large sets of data, continuously identifying evolving patterns, and predicting disruptive events along with potential resolutions.”

Advanced Analytics

Advanced analytics span predictive analytics — those that identify data patterns and anticipate future scenarios — as well as prescriptive analytics — a set of capabilities that finds a course of action to meet a predefined objective. The increased availability of Internet of Things (IoT) data and extended external data sources such as weather or traffic conditions allow organizations to anticipate future scenarios and make better recommendations in areas such as supply chain planning, sourcing and transportation.

“Advanced analytics are not new, but their impact on today’s supply chains are significant,” said Mr. Titze. “They will help organizations become more proactive and actionable in managing their supply chains, both in taking advantage of future opportunities and avoiding potential future disruptions.”

IoT

The IoT is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to interact with their internal states or the external environment. “We are seeing more supply chain practitioners exploring the potential of IoT,” said Mr. Titze. “Areas that IoT might have a profound impact on are enhanced logistics management, improved customer service and improved supply availability.”

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

RPA tools operate by mapping a process in the tool language for the software “robot” to follow. They cut costs and eliminate keying errors. “We are seeing a significant reduction in process lead times RPA technology is used to automate the creation of purchase and sales orders or shipments, for instance,” said Mr. Titze. “RPA technology reduces human intervention and improves consistency across manual data sources within manufacturing.”

Autonomous Things

Autonomous things use AI to automate functions previously performed by humans, such as autonomous vehicles and drones. They exploit AI to deliver advanced behaviors that interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people.

“The rapid explosion in the number of connected, intelligent things has given this trend a huge push,” said Mr. Titze. “The once distant thought of reducing time for inventory checks by using drones’ cameras to take inventory images, for instance, is here.”

Digital Supply Chain Twin

A digital supply chain twin is a digital representation of the relationships between all physical entities of end-to-end supply chain processes — products, customers, markets, distribution centers/warehouses, plants, finance, attributes and weather. They are linked to their real-world counterparts and are used to understand the state of the thing or system in order to optimize operations and respond efficiently to changes.

“Digital supply chain twins are inevitable as the digital world and physical world continue to merge,” said Mr. Titze.

Immersive Experience

Immersive experiences such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and conversational systems are changing the way people interact with the digital world. “In supply chain, organizations might use AR along with quick response (QR) codes and mobile technology to speed up equipment changeovers in factories,” said Mr. Titze. “Immersive user experiences will enable digital business opportunities that have not yet been fully realized within global supply chains.”

Blockchain in Supply Chain

Although supply-chain-related blockchain initiatives are nascent, blockchain has potential to fulfill long-standing challenges presented across complex global supply chains. Current capabilities offered by blockchain solutions for supply chain include traceability, automation, and security.

“Organizations might use blockchain to track global shipments with tamper-evident labels, allowing a reduction in the time needed to send paperwork back and forth with port authorities and improved counterfeit identification,” said Mr. Titze.

Gartner clients can learn more in “The 2019 Top Supply Chain Technology Trends You Can’t Ignore,” which provides an outlook into other emerging trends that m

Softbank Eyes $2-3 Billion Investment in Relaince's Jio; Due Diligence is Currently Underway

Japan’s Softbank is reportedly looking to make a $2-3 billion investment in India’s fastest-growing telecom firm Reliance Jio as billionaire Mukesh Ambani looks to deleverage business by selling stakes.

This comes on the back of reports of Saudi giant Aramco in discussions to buy a 25% stake in Reliance Industries’ refining and petrochemical business for $10-15 billion.

“Softbank has long been seen as a potential investor in Jio,” JPMorgan said in a research report. “For the past 2 years, our conversations with investors have highlighted expectations of Softbank investing in Jio and hence the news flow is not surprising.”

It, however, remains to be seen how much money does Softbank actually put in, what the implied equity valuation is and if the e-commerce venture is included in the Jio entity.

It was reported that SoftBank’s Vision fund is currently undertaking due diligence to buy a stake in Jio Infocomm, which in September 2016 launched pure play fourth-generation or 4G technology-based telecom services and within a span of two years have become India’s third largest telecom company with highest monthly subscriber additions.

Both Reliance and SoftBank spokespersons declined to comment on the matter.

“In our view, for a meaningful de-leveraging, investors would likely want to see an equity inflow of more than $5 billion from a single investor or a combination of investors,” JPMorgan said valuing Jio at $50 billion.

It, however, put implied equity value at $25 billion. Reliance Retail was valued at an implied equity value of $35 billion.

“A potentially smaller equity sale, which although would establish a larger equity value of Jio, would not be seen as a meaningful positive, in our view,” it said. “We also need to see what the potential stake sale would involve. More importantly, from a stock price perspective, we believe the potential investment would have to be an equity investment in Jio and not in the proposed InviT as that would be a quasi-debt investment.”

As of now, Jio is the carriage and content vehicle, while Reliance Retail is the offline retailer. It remains to be seen where the eventual commerce would sit - Jio or Retail, and whether it would be part of any Jio equity stake.

“Overall, we maintain our view that while the earnings environment for the company is deteriorating with downside risks to refining and petchem (petrochemical), stock multiples would keep on moving higher on expectations of potentially large stake sales on higher than current implied equity values for the various businesses,” JPMorgan said.

In a separate report, HSBC Global Research said RIL’s consolidated adjusted net debt has declined to $33.2 billion in the Q4 FY19 that ended on March 31, from $42.7 billion in Q3.

Edureka Launches Tech Career Guide with Precise Learning Paths for In-Demand Technologies

Aimed at addressing the skill gap in the IT industry, Edureka, a global e-learning platform for trending technologies, today launched their Tech Career Guide 2019 - a one of its kind guide that provides  technology professionals with the precise learning paths for in-demand technologies namely, Machine Learning, Big Data, Cloud Computing, DevOps, Blockchain and Cybersecurity. This 360-degree career guide also touches upon industry outlook, job trends, salaries, and learning hours for these technologies in addition to sharing findings of a survey on the most sought-after technology job roles this year. With the Tech Career Guide, IT professionals who want to upskill will now have easy access to a one-stop solution to build their dream career path: https://www.edureka.co/career-guide.

Vineet Chaturvedi, Co-Founder, Edureka, said, “Today’s IT professionals are already aware of the importance of re-skilling in the fast-evolving industry. What they lack is structured and expertly-curated learning paths to the rewarding job roles which they aspire to land soon. We have observed that while preparing for such roles they often get misled by irrelevant information online or waste too much time finding their own way. We have launched the Edureka Tech Career Guide to fulfill this need and help IT professionals efficiently prep for the trending technology jobs where there exists a huge skill gap.”

The Edureka Tech Career Guide seeks to answer the most frequently asked questions around technology career paths, especially those for emerging technologies while providing credible information based on Edureka’s deep expertise in these technologies. It is the ultimate resource for technology professionals seeking answers on the most searched queries:

Which technical skills are worth learning?
Which job titles are the most rewarding & their industry outlook?
The exact career path to hot technology job roles, recommended learning hours & resources 

As per Web Master global data (2015-18), 34.4% searches have been on how to attain a job role (e.g. data scientist), 30.7% searches have been on specific technology categories, 19.8% on specific tech careers and 15.1% on what courses to take to bag such roles. It is evident from the above data that technology professionals know which technology they want to upskill in – they just don’t know how to go about it in an organized manner. This fact is also supplemented by the sheer number of similar queries received by Edureka on it’s blogs and YouTube channel daily. A dip-stick survey conducted by Edureka, as a foundation for the career guide, also showed the same findings. Only 13.8% of the surveyed technology professionals said they were skill-ready for their dream job, 16.5% of them said that they felt they were not skill-ready, and the remaining techies said they were still up-skilling, often in an unorganized way.

As more and more people search online on how they need to upskill and don’t get anywhere, there is a definite need for a resource that guides IT professionals through a step-by-step process on upskilling. The Edureka Tech Career Guide 2019 aims to offer all this and more to technology professionals who are unsure of the learning path to their dream career. It also gives the recommended learning roadmap to those who have already started their learning journey and provide course correction if needed.  Check out the Edureka 2019 Tech Career Guide here:  https://www.edureka.co/career-guide.

About Edureka:

Edureka is a global e-learning platform for live, instructor-led training in trending technologies. They offer short term courses supported by online resources, along with 24x7 lifetime support. Edureka has an unwavering commitment to help working professionals keep up with changing technologies. With an existing learner community in more than 100 countries, Edureka’s vision is to make learning easy, interesting, affordable and accessible to millions of learners across the globe.