Boeing and HAL Celebrate Delivery of 150th Gun Bay Door for the F/A-18 Super Hornet

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) celebrated a milestone with Boeing, with the delivery of the 150th gun bay door for the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

The Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet is a twin-engine supersonic all weather, carrier-capable multirole combat jet delivering cutting-edge, next-generation multi-role strike fighter capability.

HAL has been Boeing’s long-term supplier in India for over 25 years. Boeing awarded HAL the contract to manufacture gun bay doors for the Super Hornet in 2007.

“We’re proud of our partnership with HAL. This delivery of the 150th gun bay door for the Super Hornet demonstrates that Indian suppliers are an integral part of Boeing’s global supply chain. This milestone is yet another endorsement of our commitment to India, which is well recognized today, because we’ve been investing and making in India for several years now,” said Salil Gupte, president, Boeing India. “Our investments in India are robust and ongoing, spanning technology, hi-tech innovation, production capacity, establishing a supply chain network, and developing skilling centers for aerospace manufacturing in India,” Gupte added.

“HAL is committed to strengthening aerospace manufacturing in India. This delivery is not just an important milestone for HAL, but also for Boeing and the Indian industry,” said R. Madhavan, chairman and managing director, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. “We thank Boeing for their support and commitment to Make in India,” he added.

Boeing has offered to build a 21st century aerospace ecosystem in India for manufacturing the F/A-18 Super Hornet with Indian partners, HAL and Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS). This production will create thousands of jobs and hundreds of suppliers in India, similar to the largest Boeing aerospace ecosystem that exists in the U.S., to help realize the Make in India vision to its full potential.

Boeing’s sourcing from India now stands at $1 billion with over 160 existing industrial partners who are raising the bar to deliver excellent quality and productivity, and becoming an important part of the company’s worldwide supply chain for some of the most innovative aerospace products in the world.

Cure.fit Raises $120 Million in Series D Funding in Indian Market

Health and fitness start-up cure.fit announced today that it has raised $120 million in the series D round of equity and debt funding. Led by Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures), Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital & Oaktree Capital; the new investors Epiq Capital, Unilever Ventures, Innoven Capital and Kotak Mahindra Bank joined the 4th round of funding for the three year old start-up. The fresh investment will fund cure.fit’s expansion plans in India and globally.

Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, cure.fit, one of India’s highest funded start-ups, has built the world's first integrated health platform that brings together all aspects of healthy lifestyle on one platform. With over 2 million downloads, cure.fit has built an innovative tech platform to manage every day health and built an offline fulfilment network for all its services.

With presence in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR region, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and the recent foray into Dubai, cure.fit’s innovative and holistic approach has been adopted by over 500K active subscribers across various offerings with strong cross usage between services. Cure.fit has over 180 cult.fit centres, 35 mind.fit centres and aims to grow this to over 800 centres by 2020. Eat.fit is servicing over 35K meals/day now and doubling every 3 months.

Mukesh Bansal commented, "Health habits of consumers has changed over the past few years and the need for new tech driven approach is a need for a much better consumer experience. cure.fit has created a unique platform and category to help meet this demand and to become the go to destination for all health needs for India. Leveraging deep tech and strong on-ground network, we aspire to service over 100 million consumers over next 10 years”.

“Accel continues to be a strong supporter of cure.fit since their inception. The team has identified a unique customer value proposition (exemplified by best in class NPS) across the health & wellness sector, in a rapidly expanding market. We therefore really appreciate the opportunity to lead another round of investment in the company!”, said Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel.

Sudhir Sethi, Founder & Chairman of Chiratae Ventures, added “cure.fit in its last 3 years blazed to India’s dominant Fitness and Health Tech Player. Now with the Dubai operations, it’s well poised to take the unique offering to international markets. Another Indian Consumer Brand going global".

“We are proud of our continued association with cure.fit. The leadership team has set high standards to serve customers and deliver great products”, said Vani Kola, Managing Director at Kalaari Capital.

“cure.Fit has emerged as one of the largest and fastest growing health & wellness integrated platform in Asia. Combining seamlessly online and offline experiences, cure.fit technology has created an intelligent, personalised and versatile health companion that takes a holistic approach to physical and mental wellbeing. We are excited on the opportunity to work with the cure.fit team”, said Pawan Chaturvedi, Investment Director at Unilever Ventures.

Investors in Series D funding round include existing investors - Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures) and Oaktree Capital; along with new investors – Epiq Capital, Unilever Ventures, Innoven Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Kris Gopalkrishnan Family Office and Bruno Rachelle Family Office.

Citrix Strengthens Channel Presence, Announces Savex Technologies as New Distributor in India

Citrix has announced its expanded presence across the channel ecosystem in India, through the appointment of its third distributor in the region, Savex Technologies. Designed to drive deeper levels of reseller engagement across the region, the expanded distribution network aims to provide better partner access to secure workplaces, networking and cloud solutions, for their businesses and our mutual customers.

Commenting on the appointment, Raghuram Krishnan, Director-Partner, Citrix India, said “Citrix is glad to welcome Savex Technologies on board and we are confident that our strategic partnership will enhance our presence in the region and help us reach new markets. Savex Technologies’ expertise makes them a natural fit to offer value-added Citrix solutions and services to our India reseller ecosystem. We look forward to a great partnership with them.”

Anil Jagasia – Founder and Chairman, Savex Technologies Pvt Ltd said; "We are pleased to collaborate with a leading technology solutions provider like Citrix and showcase Citrix’s solutions and services to our reseller base. The Citrix portfolio greatly compliments ours, this strategic partnership will enable us to further deliver Citrix technologies into the channel, ultimately supporting our mutual customers and helping to ensure success in this fast-growing market. "

About Savex:  Established in 1988 and continuously evolving since then, Savex is one of the largest Information and Communication Technology distributor in India.  Headquartered in Mumbai, the company is having 39 sales offices, and 42 stock locations, a sales force of over 400 and 7000+ partners in 700 cities.

With 30years of experience in the Indian ICT Industry Savex core strengths lies in selection of Best breed of Products and Solutions, Seasoned Team with knowledge and expertise along with Cutting edge technology and rigorous process control, Savex focuses on solution Selling and Security Services with strong Logistics and ability to deliver in 700 cities in India and globally over 200 countries in local currency. Savex also has a network of over 20000 engineers as part of our extended team.

Under guidance from Leadership Team comprising of Anil Jagasia – Founder and Chairman, Jayant Goradia – CEO and Director, Devang Pandya – CTO and Director, Raunak Jagasia- Director Enterprise Business and Alliance, Mahendra Wahile – Director and Saurabh Naik – Director, company has been able to maintain trust and integrity in the market

Savex Technologies will join Citrix with their existing distributors in the India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Srilanka and Maldives market, who have played a key role in helping partners to capitalize on growing market opportunities. The newly appointed distributor will provide Citrix’s partner ecosystem with increased support in the key focus areas of secure workspaces, networking and cloud, in addition to more enablement opportunities and expanded access to multi-vendor configurations.

Subex Joins GLF’s (Global Leaders’ Forum) Communications Blockchain Network

Subex has announced that it will be a part of the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum’s Communications Blockchain Network (CBN), a blockchain-based consortium which aims to revolutionize the ICT Service Provider industry’s commercial settlement infrastructure. Through its mission to accelerate the adoption of automated settlement applications, CBN represents an opportunity worth billion to the global industry in terms of costs savings and revenues from new products and services.

The ITW Global Leaders’ Forum is a global network of leaders from the world’s largest International Carriers, who convene to discuss strategic issues and to agree collaborative activities, with the aim of upholding the principle of interoperability and ubiquitous international and technological coverage.

The CBN, which is expected to go live in the coming months, will be governed by a collaborative structure. Besides technology providers like Subex, the platform will see support from 11 leading global carriers to ensure this blockchain-based, special purpose mechanism can become a reality.

Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), can provide significant benefits that will transform inter-service provider settlement processes by enabling automation and improving security. DLT-based automation can facilitate carriers to settle new types of traffic, underpinning network and service innovation, and save costs.

The objective for the platform, and the collaborative industry-wide governance framework, is to facilitate development of open-source standards and APIs that enable service-provider interoperability of DLT-enabled services and manage critical infrastructure elements of the platform.

Louisa Gregory, leading the GLF working group on blockchain and Chief of Staff of Colt, said: “For the past 14 months the GLF and its partners have been putting rigour and processes behind this platform and we believe that now is the time to launch. The blockchain-based ecosystem has been tested with resounding success at every stage, and we believe that this platform signals nothing less than the future of ICT financial settlement.”

Vinod Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, Subex said “Digital Trust is increasingly gaining importance in the connected ecosystem and there is an urgent need to simplify inter-service interactions, without diluting the trust within these transactions. This is where technologies like Blockchain can be of great significance. In line with this, Subex is excited to be a part of GLF’s CBN initiative and work together with leading carriers and technology partners towards democratizing trust and simplifying the settlement process by using blockchain.”

Rohit Maheshwari, Head of Strategy and Products, Subex adds, “Subex has been at the centre of enabling digital businesses to effectively partner and transact with each other. Through the open and secure nature of Blockchain, the potential to fundamentally transform the way digital service providers (DSP) interact with each other is now on the table. Subex’s Blockchain based partner management solution is designed to enable DSPs to innovate, launch new services faster and disrupt markets while ensuring safety and security. We are also excited about possibility of leveraging Blockchain for use cases beyond partner management to areas with far reaching use cases for establishing Digital Trust. Therefore, we believe being part of a consortium of leaders like GLF will only propel our R&D efforts in Blockchain and help make it a business reality.”

Tata Motors Conducted the Fourth Edition of ‘TechFest’ and ‘SkillFest’ Programs

True to its moto of ‘Connecting Aspirations’, Tata Motors had recently conducted the Season-4 of Tata Motors Global TechFest and Global SkillFest 2019, an initiative to improve the skill and knowledge of commercial vehicles technicians and service advisors across the globe. The program saw over 7400 technicians and 3400 service advisors’ entries from 29 countries globally, including 801 channel partners from India and 500 from 28 countries globally i.e. Asean, LATAM, SAARC, LHD Africa, RHD Africa and Middle East.

Through this championship, Tata Motors aims to promote a mutual understanding between Tata Motors’ and the technicians and service advisors of their commercial vehicles channel partners. The theme of this year’s edition was to celebrate the technical & advisory skills of participants, allowing them to learn the latest in service technologies, at the same time understanding their training needs, ensuring the highest levels of service quality and delivery. The winners’ won cash prize worth $2000 (1st), $1500 (2nd) and $1000 (3rd) for SkillFest, whereas cash prize worth $1700 (1st), $1200 (2nd) and $700 (3rd) for TechFest.

Commenting on the championship, Mr. R. Ramakrishnan, Global Head Customer care, CVBU, Tata Motors Limited said, “The automotive industry is challenged with acute shortage of skilled manpower, especially technicians. With the transforming nature of the industry, it is imperative that the service aspect evolves correspondingly. The aim of this initiative is to bridge the skill gap in the industry and provide participants with hands-on learning. As a responsible company, we are committed towards the cause of promoting skill development and employment generation in the industry.”

The program familiarizes the participants about various aspects of commercial vehicles through competitive testing on technical know-how, product diagnosis, trouble shooting skills, knowledge on tools equipment usage, safe working practices, knowledge on processes, service IT ecosystems including CRMDMS and customer care APP, customer focused approach, soft skills, and new technological advancements.

The 5-stage competition was based on technical and theoretical tests, which analyses the quality of technicians. Through these evaluation processes, Tata Motors has been able to design and develop advanced training modules to upgrade technical skills and usage of specialised tools, also rewarding and recognising best talent, and thereby creating healthy competition among channel partners. Since its inception, the program over the last four editions has trained and provided exposure to over 20,000 technicians and service advisors of their commercial vehicles channel partners.

FIA Tech Achieves Milestone “20 Million Customers” in June 2019

FIA Tech, a leading fintech company in digital payment & distribution systems for the last mile financial inclusion, has crossed milestone 20 million customers in June 2019. The company has got maximum number of subscribers from states such as West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, UP and Rajasthan who have opted for financial services through wider network of FIA tech.

To further increase the customer base, company is also planning to cross sell key products through their innovative technology platform besides focusing on deepening their presence and adding new customers in the next 2 years.

Commenting the development, Ms. Seema Prem, CEO of FIA Tech said, “Reaching a 20 million customer base is a milestone achievement for us and is a testimony of customers having faith in FIA. With the industry showing upward trend, we are hopeful to see a large base getting added into Indian financial inclusion system enabled by FIA’s cutting edge technology.” “We are aligned to Govt’s larger agenda of enabling financial inclusion to the last mile” She further added.

With a digital payment network spanning 622 districts in the country, FIA Tech provides banking and financial services at the door step of customers in underserved low-income households and minorities in India and Nepal. Profitable since inception, company has seen increased adoption of financial services across its range of products – basic banking services, mutual funds advisory and loan sourcing. Company will soon be rolling out intuitive investing platform for the masses and focus on loan origination for the credit invisible.

Airtel Thanks its Mobile Customers with FREE Hello Tunes

As part of the growing range of exciting benefits under its refreshed #AirtelThanks program, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) said the its Postpaid and Prepaid mobile customers can now set their favourite songs as their Hello Tunes (ring back tones) for FREE through Wynk Music app. 

 All 40 million songs from Wynk Music’s library will now be available to eligible Airtel mobile customers as ‘Hello Tunes’ without the monthly subscription charge of Rs 36.

 This exclusive benefit will be available to all mobile customers on prepaid bundles or postpaid plans of Rs 129 and above.

 To get their FREE Hello Tunes customers simply need to download the latest version of Wynk Music app (available for both iOS and Android) and click on the Hello Tunes icon to set their favourite songs as their ring back tone.

Customers can set and change their ‘Hello Tunes’ as many times as they want. One only needs to renew the FREE ‘Hello Tunes’ subscription through Wynk Music every 30 days.

Wynk Music’s extensive library offers popular music in 12 genres and 15 languages, including English, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese and Rajasthani.

 Says Sameer Batra, CEO – Content & Apps, Bharti Airtel: “We are happy to offer Wynk Music’s full catalogue as ring back tone on a subscription free basis as part of #AirtelThanks. Wynk Music’s focus has been on leveraging technology and deep data science to deliver a personalized and intuitive user experience. ‘Hello Tunes’ is a product that Airtel mobile customers use to express themselves. Airtel mobile customers can now enjoy their favourite songs on Wynk Music and also at the click of a button set them as their Hello Tune. This is yet other delightful benefit from Airtel to thank its customers.”

 How eligible customers can set their favorite songs as FREE Hello Tunes using Wynk Music   

1.      Download the latest version of Wynk Music or update your existing app to the latest version
2.      Launch the app and click on the ‘Hello Tunes’ icon on the top right hand corner of the app
3.      Search for your favourite song and select as your Hello Tune
4.      Alternately users can play their favourite song and click on the Hello Tunes icon in the music player to set the song as their Hello Tune
5.      Confirm your Hello Tune on Wynk Music app every 30 days to continue enjoying the free subscription

#AirtelThanks is part of Airtel’s motto of winning with quality customers and the refreshed program is designed to deliver exclusive rewards. The new program is tiered in its offering – Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each tier opens a whole new set of benefits for Airtel customers. The benefits are powered by Airtel’s strong partnerships, which go from premium content brands like Amazon Prime, Netflix and Zee5 to Wynk music, device brands and many more.