Toyota Technical Training Institute (TTTI) Announces Admissions Open for the Year 2019-2020

In continuous efforts towards its various initiatives in the area of Skill Development, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the opening of admissions for the academic year 2019-20 of Toyota Technical Training Institute (TTTI), a dedicated 3-year program that provides opportunities for intelligent students from economically weaker sections across Karnataka.

Commenting on the announcement of this academic year’s admissions to TTTI, Mr ATSUNORI KOMEIE, Senior Managing Coordinator Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “At Toyota, skill development has been one of our focus areas and we are working towards bridging the skill gap in the automotive sector. TTTI over the last 10 years has established itself as a center of excellence for skill development in the area of mechatronics, weld paint and assembly. The students are trained on global manufacturing practices and TTTI has accordingly been selected as one of the training institutes, under Japan India Manufacturing [JIM] skill transfer promotion program. Our students have represented India in the World Skill Olympics and won accolades for the nation.”

Sharing his experience on the program, Mr. Lokesh - TTTI Student, said, “The training and the best practices shared at TTTI have been excellent and it has transformed me to become an industry-ready employable resource. Today I feel more confident both as a person and as a professional, ready to face the challenges of the industry. I witnessed an overall personality development in myself including physical fitness, communication skills, technical know-how and manufacturing skills. As part of the TTTI curriculum, the on-job training in the shop floor has given me an insight of the real-working experiences. I thank Toyota for providing me with this opportunity which has been a life changing experience.”

Admission to the 13th batch of TTTI is open: (at present) from economically backward sections of the society, from across the state of Karnataka. Aspirants between the age of 15-17 years (as on 15th July 2019) and have cleared SSLC in their first attempt with 50% overall and 50% in Mathematics and Science each are eligible to apply.

Further details on this year’s application are given below:

Note: Those who have completed or holding only other formal Degree/ Diploma/ ITI certificates are not eligible to apply. The selection procedure which starts soon after the SSLC result announcement (during May’19) includes a written test, skill test, physical test, assessment test, interview, medical test and antecedent check.

The three year full-term apprentice residential training in Automobile Manufacturing has four courses namely Automobile Assembly, Automobile Weld, Automobile Paint and Mechatronics.

The training curriculum at TTTI is a unique blend which focuses on the holistic development of Knowledge (16%), Skill (34%), Body and Mind (50%) of the students.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has been instrumental in promoting skill development in the automotive industry through various innovative programs. TTTI is one such step by the company towards helping talented youth from rural Karnataka in improving their quality of life and making them more employable thereby promoting a robust economy in the country. Through this program from the institute, close to 572 students from across the state have benefitted.

Training at TTTI is not restricted to classrooms and workshops alone. TTTI exclusively emphasizes on overall development of the trainees as per industry requirements and towards “Perfecting people” and thereby contributing young multi skilled, energetic, ideal students to the nation.

At the completion of the training,

·         Students receive certification from Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd.
·         Students are provided with the opportunity to appear for NAC (National Apprentice Certificate) exam, certification from ASDC (Automotive Skill Development Council) and certification from JIM (Japan India Institute for Manufacturing).

During the course, students will be given the opportunity to take part in various national and international competitions like National Skill Competition and World Skill Competition (Skill Olympics).

Highlights of Key Achievement:

·         Student get an opportunity to participate in National Skill Competition and World Skill Competition (Skill Olympics) in 3 categories namely - Mechatronics, Car Painting , Prototype Modelling

·         TTTI 2011 batch student secured 4th position in World Skill Competition 2015 held at Sao Paulo, Brazil and won “Medallion of Excellence”

·         TTTI student secured 3rd position (Bronze Medal) in Prototype Modelling & Medallion of Excellence in Mechatronics in World Skill Competition 2017 held at Abu Dhabi.

Qlik Appoints Geoff Thomas as Senior VP to Lead Asia Pacific Business

Qlik, a leader in data analytics and data integration software,  announced the appointment of Geoff Thomas as Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, Thomas is responsible for leading Qlik’s business and operations for the region with a focus on driving customer success and business growth. He will also be responsible for strengthening Qlik’s go-to-market strategy and execution with channel partners while building out Qlik’s team in the region.

Thomas brings over two decades of experience in helping enterprise customers seize new technologies to drive business growth while building and leading high-performance sales teams across Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Qlik, Thomas held key leadership positions with D2L, Polycom, Juniper Networks and Microsoft and most recently served as Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan at OneLogin.

As data and analytics is a key pillar for many companies’ digital transformation initiatives, the regional market for analytics continues to grow with International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasting revenues for big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions to reach US$27.0 billion in 2022 in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)[1].

Christopher Jones, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales at Qlik, said, “We’re at a new stage of our business with our end-to-end data integration and analytics capabilities, and our focus is on transforming our customers’ business through data to solve their most challenging problems. We’re confident Geoff will fully leverage the market opportunity, and I look forward to working closely with him and the team to help customers realize and unlock the full value of data.”

Geoff Thomas, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Qlik said, “I’m excited about the opportunity to expand Qlik’s business in this diverse market and region. Qlik is well poised to become the market leader in Asia Pacific given the region’s burgeoning opportunities, with many enterprises yet to fully scale the use of data and analytics to their advantage. With our investments into the region and strong execution, I believe we can bring Qlik to even greater heights.”

Qlik’s large and growing footprint includes over 50,000 customers globally. Asia Pacific customers which harness Qlik’s platform-based approach to derive actionable insights include Bajaj Auto, Fujitsu Limited, HDFC Life, Hendry Group, JAPFA Group, Lenovo, Samvardhana Motherson Group, SEGA Games, Singapore Management University, SISTIC, SITEL, Subaru Corporation, Sydney Local Health District United Overseas Bank (UOB), and Waitemata DHB, amongst others.

Emirates Unveils its Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai Focusing on Future of Commercial Aviation

Emirates, Premier Partner and the Official Airline of Expo 2020 Dubai, today unveiled the design and visitor experience concepts of its ultramodern pavilion for the 6 month mega-event. The Emirates Pavilion’s design and visitor experience will utilise interactive technologies and design-thinking focusing on the future of commercial aviation. Emirates has already broken ground on the pavilion and construction began in March 2019.

His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group said: “We are incredibly proud to unveil the first details of the Emirates Pavilion today, which celebrates the themes of Expo Dubai 2020. The aim for our pavilion is very much in line with that of Expo 2020 Dubai, to stimulate connections, create experiences and foster creativity and innovation, inspiring a commitment for a better future. The forward-thinking experiences will highlight the best that is yet to come in aviation, and will be a platform to showcase how important mobility is for the world today and in the future.

“Emirates and the wider transportation ecosystem here in the UAE will play a key role in providing connectivity for a successful Expo 2020, and the economic impact of the transport, hospitality and tourism sector will contribute AED 16.4 billion to the UAE economy, underscoring the vital role these industries play in generating economic value by bringing people together and breaking down barriers.”

Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General of Bureau Expo Dubai 2020 said: “We are excited to be bringing the whole world together to experience this incredible mega event. For almost 170 years, World Expos have united people in a spirit of inspiration and excitement for the future, and have amazed them with innovation, culture, art, food and fun.

“Air travel has transformed the ability of people to experience everything that the world has to offer. Expo 2020, and Emirates as our Official Airline Partner, will be bringing all of that together in one place, Dubai, in 2020. And the Emirates Pavilion will tell the incredible story of the role that air travel will continue to play in transforming mobility and shaping our futures.”

Taking place from October 2020 to April 2021, Expo 2020 Dubai is a must-attend event for visitors with an array of unique experiences at 190 country pavilions, and a packed entertainment programme with daily live events, parades, music and cultural festivals, inspiring talks and workshops and more. Food lovers and gourmands looking for innovative dining concepts will be able to sample cuisines from every corner of the globe, with over 200 dining experiences from casual food truck concepts to fine dining, and 34 ‘never seen’ before food concepts in Dubai.

The Emirates Pavilion

Guided by the three themes of Expo 2020 Dubai: mobility, opportunity and sustainability, the Emirates Pavilion was designed to reflect the dynamic lines of aircraft wings ready to take flight. The 26 slanted architectural fins that cover the entirety of the pavilion will hold over 800 metres of LED lights to create multi-sensory effects and movement across the structure, showcased by light shows during every night of Expo. The latest fabrication technologies, building techniques and sustainable design elements will be used such as integrated solar arrays, sustainable off-site construction, responsive solar shading and a verdant landscape on both the inside and outside of the Emirates Pavilion.

The 3,300sqm three-storey multi-function structure will be located in close proximity to the UAE Pavilion and within walking distance of the Al Wasl Pavilion, the epicentre of the Expo 2020 Dubai site.  The Emirates Pavilion will have the capacity to welcome more than 56,000 visitors per month during Expo 2020 Dubai.

Visitor Experience

The Emirates Pavilion will offer a glimpse into the changing world of commercial aviation and will help drive the discussion around the power of mobility and its advancements both in the air and on the ground, which ultimately enables the physical connectivity for people and products to move across the globe in a modern, efficient and environmentally sustainable way.

The interior of the Emirates Pavilion includes an enclosed floor plan which allows natural daylight to enter the space, reducing energy consumption. Experiential content will take centre stage, encouraging interaction throughout the visit. The second floor of the Emirates Pavilion will house an auditorium for speaker sessions and industry events, and the third storey houses a dedicated skygarden for visitors to enjoy the natural surroundings and green, open spaces.

The Emirates Pavilion will help tell the story of what commercial aviation might look like in the future – through topics that include the science of flight, advancements in engine technologies, new aerospace materials that increase performance and reduce fuel consumption, innovative fuselage interiors focused on elevating passenger comfort and well-being, and the future of the passenger experience at airports.

Using the basic principles of aerodynamics and the four forces of flight (lift, drag, weight, thrust), visitors will be able to understand the science behind flight, and learn about the basic principles of aviation. With aerospace design constantly trying to find ways to push flight to the limits, visitors will also explore how fast different technological developments will hit the runways.

Will the future of engines be electric? This is one of the questions that will be addressed as visitors learn about the advances being made in engine propulsion and thrust for next generation aircraft as well as cutting-edge propulsion systems that increase thrust and while burning less to reduce emissions.

The future lab will explore innovative metallic and composite materials that are being developed, improved and adopted to offer better flying performance. Whether it’s lighter weight with greater strength and less corrosion to ultimately improve fuel economy, these materials could become the building blocks for the aircraft of tomorrow.

The fuselage of tomorrow will help visitors dive into the phenomenal transformation happening in the world of cabin interiors. Whether its advancements in technology, materials or spacial design, the future of aircraft cabin design will take comfort and passenger well-being to another level, and redefine how we experience flying. Visitors will be able to explore dynamic seating layouts and ergonomics, immersive onboard experiences and intelligent interfaces, windowless fuselages, as well as the technology behind ‘smarter seats’.

Before passengers even board, future technologies at airports are transforming our travel experience on the ground. Emirates Pavilion visitors will be able to explore a biometric end-to-end passenger processing system, which not only uses iris recognition, but also examines the emergence of wearable technologies, as well as multiple biometrics and human recognition systems such as brain scanning and voice biometrics.

Finally, visitors will be challenged to create and configure their ideal aircraft of the future, combining selected technologies and personal preferences for choices of wing, fuselage, engine, and other elements to help them define their own experience.

It is estimated that 70% of visitors to the Expo 2020 Dubai will travel to the event through air links over the 6-month event, and Emirates’ network of 158 destinations in 86 countries will help facilitate that mobility and support the Expo in attracting 25 million visits through its marketing channels. Of the 190 countries that have confirmed their participation in Expo 2020, Emirates will help facilitate and offer connectivity with direct flights to 67 of participating countries, and the airline continues to evaluate opportunities for new flight services to unserved or under-served markets to stimulate traffic and grow passenger links to Dubai.

The airline is also investing in cutting-edge biometric technology to facilitate seamless travel for passengers on the ground in Dubai, and more will be done in the years to come for a more connected and automated experience.

vivo Announces Exciting Consumer Offers Exclusively for Amazon.in Summer Sale

vivo, the global innovative smartphone brand has announced a series of exciting offers during the Amazon.in Summer Sale from 4th – 7th May, 2019. During the four days sale, vivo is offering an opportunity for consumers to grab smartphones by saving up to INR 9,000 on prepaid orders.

Consumers can also avail attractive offers such as No Cost EMI up to 12 months on select vivo smartphones, 10% discount on SBI debit and Credit cards. Consumers can save up to INR 4,000 with the exchange offer. The offers are available on devices NEX, V15 Pro, V15, V9Pro, Y91, Y91i, Y17, Y83 Pro, Y95, Y93 and Y81i.

In a recent Counterpoint research, vivo emerged as the fastest growing brand during Q1 with a strong 119% Y-o-Y growth backed by the innovative range of smartphones being launched by the brand. The report also states that vivo’s expanding Y-series portfolio along with the launch of the V15, accompanied by aggressive consumer engagement campaigns (around IPL) drove positive consumer demand in the country. Having secured and sustained growth leadership, the company has fortified its customer outreach by launching expansive range of smartphones across price points and introducing consumer centric offers.

Raymond Builds A Digital Platform to Strengthens Digital Foray with SAP S/4 HANA

Raymond Group, India’s leading fashion and textile retailer is re-engineering its FMCG division – Raymond FMCG, as a part of its efforts towards reaching a turnover of 1,000 crore by 2020. Albeit a novel entrant to the FMCG arena, Raymond FMCG believes in building a robust digital backbone to bring about unparalleled innovation and accelerated business growth. The company trusted SAP S/4HANA to fulfil this criterion of being a unified platform that can upsurge business efficiencies to provide outstanding business values. Raymond FMCG is one of the early adopters to implement all the modules of SAP S/4Hana in their Personal & Home Care segment.

“Digitalisation is no longer a matter of choice but a strategic priority and a core in our NEW INDIA,” said Giriraj Bagri, President and Group CEO - FMCG, Raymond Ltd. “Our vision is to become a player of choice amongst the emerging and enterprising Indian consumers for their daily lifestyle needs. With the existing SAP association, we are confident to lay a digital foundation, that in-turn will act as a catalyst for our future growth.”

Leveraging SAP platform, the company will be able to meet newer market challenges, seize upcoming opportunities, reimagine their business model, and finally engage end-customers in the most competitive experience. Within a month of deployment, the company has already witnessed increased efficiencies while parallelly rolling out SAP S/4HANA for its other arm – JK Helene Curtis.

“Today organizations deal with large swathes of data and it was pertinent for us to look at a solution-based approach beyond products, that would help us keep pace with changing customer trends,” said Barun Mukherjee, Director-Transformation & Business Development, Raymond FMCG  “SAP S/4HANA Platform has proven to be the right solution aiding our vision for exponential growth and making the organization future ready,” he added.

“Technology creates ‘Experiences’ and only great experiences drive customer acquisition and loyalty.” said Subramanian Ananthapadmanabhan, Vice President, Enterprise Business, SAP Indian Subcontinent. “Digital transformation involves a fundamental mindset shift at every level of the organisation. Through this conjunction with Raymond, we believe we will help carve out the brand’s digital journey while generating upsell and expansion for them to strive in today’s dynamic market,” he added.

New Report Reveals Financial Services Industry Embracing Hybrid Cloud

Nutanix, Inc., a leader in enterprise cloud computing has revealed that the financial services Industry, FSI, outpacing other industries in the adoption of hybrid cloud, with the deployment of hybrid cloud reaching 21% penetration today, compared with the global average of 18.5%.  The findings were announced in the enterprise cloud leader’s Enterprise Cloud Index Report for the financial services sector, measuring financial firms’ plans for adopting private, public and hybrid clouds

Financial services firms today are facing mounting competitive pressure to streamline operations while delivering a differentiated experience to their customers, including leveraging new technologies such as blockchain. This FinTech revolution, combined with the growing burdens of regulatory compliance, data privacy, and security issues are pushing CIOs to fundamentally transform the technological underpinnings of their institutions. The report reveals exactly how the financial services industry is embracing the capabilities of cloud computing to address these needs.

It is also abundantly clear from the survey results that many financial organizations are still struggling with modernizing their outdated legacy IT architectures and processes, resulting in inefficient operations and potential vulnerability in regard to data breaches. In fact, the report revealed financial services run more traditional data centres than other industries, with 46% penetration. Despite their progressiveness on the hybrid cloud front, financial organizations have lower usage levels of private clouds than any other industry, at 29% penetration compared to the average of 33%.

Like other industries, the financial services sector cites security and compliance as the top factor in deciding where to run its workloads. Nearly all respondents also indicated that performance, management, and TCO are critical factors in the decision. However, more than 25% cited these same factors as challenges with adopting public cloud. In other words, as is often the case with new IT solutions, the most important criteria are also the most difficult to achieve. This could account for part of the disparity between the high desire to adopt hybrid cloud, and today’s relatively low hybrid cloud penetration levels of just 21% in the financial services sector.

Sankarson Banerjee, CIO, RBL Bank, commented “legacy systems and processes are significant impediments to the agility that today’s business demands. The BFSI segment in India has been a trailblazer in adoption of new tech such as HCI, Hybrid cloud, AI and ML. At RBL, Hybrid Cloud is at the forefront of our IT vision and strategy for driving agility in responding to business and customer needs across channels and products.”

The bullish outlook for hybrid cloud adoption globally and across industries is reflective of an IT landscape growing increasingly automated and flexible enough that enterprises have the choice to buy, build, or rent their IT infrastructure resources based on fast transforming application requirements.

Other key findings of the report include:

The financial sector values application mobility across clouds. Application mobility is the ability to move apps and workloads back and forth across private and public cloud infrastructures as workload type or economics warrant, while enjoying unified management and operations. Both financial companies and other industries chose application mobility between clouds second most often as the number one perk to hybrid cloud, and the financial sector chose it 3% more often than the average. 63% of financial industry respondents said they considered inter-cloud application mobility “essential.”

Financial services companies control cloud spend better. Another motivation for deploying hybrid clouds is likely enterprises’ need to gain control over their IT spend. Organizations that use public cloud spend 26% of their annual IT budget on public cloud, with this percentage set to increase to 35% in two years’ time. More than a third (36%) of organizations using public clouds said their public cloud spending exceeded budgets. In comparison, 33% of financial respondents reported being over budget, revealing that they are doing marginally better than others at managing public cloud expenses.

IT skills are a barrier to adopting hybrid cloud in the financial industry. While 88% of respondents said that they expect hybrid cloud to positively impact their businesses, hybrid cloud skills are scarce in today’s IT organizations. These skills ranked second in scarcity only to those in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). Financial services respondents generally reportedly slightly greater deficits in skillsets across all categories except for AI/ML.
91% of financial services organizations surveyed said that hybrid cloud was the ideal IT model. This belief in hybrid cloud, and the fact that the sector has higher than industry average adoption of hybrid cloud, is likely driven by the recognized need for digital transformation. Yet conversely, the data shows a lower adoption of private clouds than the global average across industries. This might be explained by the fact that portions of the financial services space have been change-averse and also an indication of the overall complexity of modernizing existing legacy infrastructures.

“Increased competition combined with more stringent regulatory and compliance environments is forcing the entire industry to re-assess the capability and relevance of its current IT infrastructure,” said Neville Vincent, Vice President A/NZ, ASEAN and India, Nutanix. “Today’s new normal is an environment where customers expect personalised and tailored services delivered where they want it, when they want and the way they want it. The good news is the industry is already seeing the customer and company benefits of hybrid cloud infrastructure, the concern is that at just over 20%, there is still a long way to go to satisfy increasingly sophisticated and demanding customers and achieve the ultimate customer experience.”

Nutanix commissioned Vanson Bourne to survey more than 2,300 IT decision makers, including 333 worldwide financial services organizations, about where they are running their business applications today, where they plan to run them in the future, what their cloud challenges are and how their cloud initiatives stack up against other IT projects and priorities. The survey included respondents from multiple industries, business sizes and geographies in the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) regions.

Tech Mahindra’s Blockchain Solution Safeguards 300Mn+ Mobile Subscribers in India from Spam Calls

Tech Mahindra Ltd. announced the successful deployment of a cutting-edge solution leveraging Blockchain Technology for the telecom sector in India impacting 300Mn+ mobile subscribers. The solution aims at mitigating the issue of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) or spam calls

In 2018, Tech Mahindra designed the Blockchain solution, constituting more than 25% of the Indian market share, in compliance with the regulations and guidelines of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) in order to enable Telecom providers prevent unauthorized access of their subscribers’ data.

Further, Tech Mahindra is also demonstrating Blockchain capabilities in diverse sectors including Telecom, Manufacturing, Hi-Tech Industries and Financial Services. For instance, in the Financial Sector, Tech Mahindra has designed a solution for one of the largest public sector banks in India to provide an immutable record of audit transactions and enable single view of transaction data from multiple systems on the blockchain.

Addressing the organisation’s acceleration in the Blockchain vertical, Rajesh Dhuddu, Global Practice Leader, Blockchain, Tech Mahindra, said, “Blockchain is a focus for corporates and government alike, and is expected to be a trillion-dollar market by 2030. With the concerted and coordinated efforts by the Indian government and the industry backed by appropriate regulation, India can continue to sustain and enhance its leadership position in Blockchain technology. At Tech Mahindra, we are betting big on Blockchain as part of our TechMNxt charter, to deliver tangible business value and empower our customers to provide a completely differentiated experience to their end customers”.

As a part of the TechMNxt charter, Tech Mahindra is progressively investing in next generation technologies to cater to the customer’s evolving and dynamic needs. The digital transformation provider has already identified and is working on a holistic framework called Block Ecosystem that comprises of various levers; Block Studio, Block Engage, Block Talks, Block Geeks, Block Accelerate, Block Access & Block Value, which create industry leading applications that are architected on innovation and human excellence to unlock significant value for all stakeholders.