Ratnadeep Opens its First Super Retail Outlet in Indira Nagar; Plans to Open 6 More Outlets in the City

Ratnadeep opened their 1st store in Bengaluru, at Indira Nagar. The store was inaugurated by Sandeep Agrawal, MD and the film actor Kajal Aggarwal. The Hyderabad-based brand is unique and special in the supermarket store format as they have better advantage in terms of product navigation and customer friendly visual representation of the products on display. They currently have 54 operational stores and many more in the pipeline.

The store offers superlative customer convenience and a pleasant shopping experience to Bangaloreans. The imported fruits, vegetables and products stocked in the regular segment come with the assurance of best quality and price ‘‘The imported assortment, Stock Keeping Units and quality merchandise are an added advantage with easy availability and proven authenticity of different brands compared with what is available in the general market and other stores’’ said Sandeep Agarwal Managing Director, Ratnadeep Supermarket.

By the end of 2020, they aim to establish an addition of 10 – 12 stores in Bengaluru along with 25 stores in the twin cities. Talking about the growth of Ratnadeep, Sandeep Agrawal said, ‘‘In 3 years only, Ratnadeep has opened 30 stores and aims to have a total of 100 stores nation-wide by 2020. The company will be employing over 4000 people out of which 60% of their employees will be women. Ratnadeep is expecting to reach a 1000cr turnover with a CAGR of 30% by the end of 2020.’’

MSI Announces Attractive Discount Schemes on Amazon.in and Flipkart.com Up to Rs 25,000 on Gaming and Laptops

Finding a good laptop that fits into the configuration and features’ checklist and doesn’t burn a hole in the pocket can be quite a task. Be it the gamers, who are looking for speed and quick cooling fixes or the creators looking to complete that perfect portrait; the Gaming and Prestige series laptops by MSI are the one-stop solution.

MSI, the world leading gaming brand and the most trusted name in gaming and e-Sports industry, has announced attractive discounts on its laptop portfolio as part of Amazon Prime Days Sale & Flipkart’s Big Shopping Day Sale.

‘We are pleased to be a part of one of the most anticipated sale days of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the country. This participation is one of our key steps as we look forward to open more stores in India and tie-up with more retailers to make our latest products available and accessible for the Indian consumers. As MSI’s brand value and dedication leverage the most innovative products for its customers, we look forward to create one of the most trusted brands in India looking at its immense potential and rapid growth in the gaming sector’, commented Mr. Green Lin, Regional Marketing Manager, MSI.

The upcoming Amazon Prime Days Sale is one the most anticipated two days for prime members.  For the third time in a row, to give its customers an experience and choices of its virtual collection, Amazon is offering users to experience the products they plan to purchase in VR ahead of Prime Day 2019. Customers in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata are able to see products in virtual reality already and can make their respective purchases on the days of the sale.

With a wide variety of laptops to choose from, MSI offers a true value for its product.

Muthoot M George Foundation Launches Muthoot Vivaha Sammanam

Muthoot Finance Ltd., India's largest gold loan company through its Corporate Social Responsibility arm Muthoot M George Foundation launches Muthoot Vivaha Sammanam.

Under the project, Muthoot Vivaha Sammanam, the company will provide financial assistance of Rs. 1 lakh each to 20 girls from Bangalore and suburbs, getting married between August and December, 2019. Daughters of financially deprived widows, getting married are eligible for the grant. Also, the household monthly income should be less than Rs.10,000.

Speaking about the grants, Mr. George M.Alexander, Exceutive Director of  The Muthoot Group said, “Marriage expenses in India is a major challenge for economically weak households, supporting such families with financial assistance through Muthoot M. George Foundation, is our way of giving back to the society.”

These grants can be availed by the mother of the eligible girls by filling an application with a letter from Local Councilor/Panchayat member/MLA recommendation certifying the case. Marriage invitation or letter indicating the date of marriage with any other document proving the genuineness of the application should also be attached.

Muthoot Vivahasammanam is ONE OF THE IMPORTANT   CSR ACTIVITY  of  The Muthoot Group providing financial aid for marriage assistance. The project was started in Kerala. The scheme has already been implemented in Kottayam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta ,Alappuzha, Thrissur, Ernakulam ,Kollam and Trivandrum districts. In FY 2018-19 the company spent a total of Rs.1,13,84,000/- as marriage assistance.

The application envelope should be clearly marked ‘Application for Marriage Gift’. The applications are to be sent at: Zonal Office, Muthoot Finance Ltd., Bangalore North Regional Office, UCF Centre, 84/3, First Floor, III block, HBR layout, Hennur Main Road, Lingarajapuram, St. Thomas Town Post, Bangalore 560 084.

Top 10 States have 83% Penetration of Outstanding Portfolio: Equifax-SIDBI Study

“Microfinance Plus”, a quarterly publication by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Equifax revealed growth in overall volume in loan disbursement by 20% in FY18. From the overall industry’s gross loan portfolio, 83% was contributed by top 10 states, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu being the highest by contributing 35% of the top 10 states.

Key highlights:

•          As of March 31, 2019, MFIs provide micro credit to over 6.40 crores clients
•          The microfinance portfolio represents a growth of 40% over FY18. NBFC-MFIs account 37% of total portfolio having the largest share of portfolio in micro-credit followed by banks.
•          40% NBFC-MFIs have the highest number of unique live customers; loan disbursement saw 20% growth from FY18 to FY19 while an average ticket size per loan has increased by 13% Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) to reach Rs. 31,623.
•          Portfolio outstanding as of March 31, 2019 grew by 40% while NBFC-MFIs witnessed the highest growth at 49% across sectors.
•          25% of portfolio outstanding was comprised by top 30 districts out of 619.
•          Puducherry has the highest concentration of active MFI borrowers by population at 14% followed by Tripura at 11% and Tamil Nadu at 9%

On the launch, Mohammad Mustafa, IAS, Chairman & Managing Director, SIDBI said, “The second volume of Microfinance Pulse is continuation of strong collaboration between SIDBI and Equifax to bring the latest Microfinance sector trends to industry and policy makers alike. The growth in the overall microfinance portfolio is encouraging.”

KM Nanaiah, Managing Director, Equifax Credit Information services Ltd. and Country Leader, Equifax India and MEA said, “Microfinance is systemically important to Indian financial services industry. It is interesting to see penetration trends across states with top 10 states having 83% market share of outstanding portfolio. We are glad to partner with SIDBI for a report that looks into the future prospects in the microfinance sector.”

The SIDBI-Equifax quarterly study revealed 20% growth of volume in loan disbursements.  Highest number of loans as of FY19 are disbursed in 20,000-30,000 ticket size category followed by 30,000-40,000 ticket size category whereas ticket size category of 50,000-60,000 saw the highest increase by 67% from FY18 to FY19.

“Microfinance pulse” also states geographical concentration that reported 83% growth in disbursed amount of top 10 states by the microfinance industry’s gross loan portfolio. West Bengal and Tamil Nadu contribute 34.7% of the top 10 states. Amongst the top states, West Bengal, Tami Nadu, Bihar, and Karnataka are having portfolio of more than 15,000 crore, indicating a highly concentrated market.

Microfinance Pulse aims to provide insights on trends in the Indian Microfinance industry – from disbursements to delinquencies to top growing states and top loan categories.

Barracuda Launches Cloud Security Guardian for Microsoft Azure

Barracuda, a leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, today announced the general availability of Cloud Security Guardian for Microsoft Azure. This agentless Software-as-a-Service solution provides end-to-end visibility into the security posture of public cloud workloads, ensures continuous compliance, and automates remediation of security incidents.

Cloud Security Guardian is another example of Barracuda’s significant emphasis on their build-with motion with Microsoft. It leverages Microsoft’s Security Graph API to provide security scores and alerts to identify and prevent security policy violations that can often turn into threats. Cloud Security Guardian also integrates with Microsoft’s Azure Firewall.

Why Cloud Security Guardian

According to Gartner analysis, by 2020, 80 percent of cloud breaches will be due to customer misconfiguration, mismanaged credentials, or insider theft, and not cloud provider vulnerabilities. To address this problem, organizations need a solution that watches over security and compliance, so developers can focus on building applications.

“Cloud Security Guardian for Microsoft Azure bridges the requirements of two worlds — that of the CISO or security expert and that of the cloud developer — to enable organizations to rapidly develop and deploy new cloud products and workloads in Azure while remaining confident their infrastructure is secure,” said Fleming Shi, Chief Technology Officer at Barracuda.

How Cloud Security Guardian Works

Cloud Security Guardian is pre-loaded with security policies built on CIS Benchmarks, and it is certified by CIS. Among its key features are an interactive map of an organization’s cloud ecosystems, simplified drill-downs and relationship identifiers, and automated remediation for security policy violations.

Cloud Security Guardian differs from other security compliance solutions because it can automatically deploy, configure, and operationalize CloudGen Firewalls and CloudGen WAFs when it assesses a security need — therefore, enhancing the security framework.

These orchestration and security management capabilities also extend to Microsoft’s Azure Firewall, which Cloud Security Guardian can deploy and configure when it encounters security situations that require it.

What organizations are saying about Cloud Security Guardian

“Cloud Security Guardian’s Cloud Security Profile Management product is certified by CIS, and we’re pleased to work with Barracuda on an initiative that helps organizations implement and stay current on the recognized best practices for securing IT systems and data in the public cloud,” said Michelle Peterson, Product Owner, CIS Benchmarks.

“During our SOC-2 certification, Cloud Security Guardian has been key to identifying any security non-conformance and limiting the additional investment we would have had to make to review all these policies manually,” said Shalomi Levin, Chief Technology Officer at Perception Point, whose threat detection platform runs in the cloud. “Cloud Security Guardian simplifies the whole process.” 

Subex and Rhino Niger Networks Sign Partnership to Offer Telecom Analytics Solutions in Africa

Subex, a leading telecom analytics solution provider, announced a strategic partnership with Rhino Niger Networks to cater to the digital transformation demands within the African markets. This partnership comes at a time when governments across the continent have announced their plans and aspirations to go digital.

Rhino Niger Networks offers digital services covering assurance, fraud prevention, network data governance amongst others. The primary goal of this partnership will be to leverage on Subex’s technical expertise coupled with Rhino’s local presence and understanding of the Nigerian and African market at large. The collaboration will act as a catalyst to drive the adoption and application of digital products and solutions, as well as enhance customer experiences.

Shankar Roddam, Chief Operating Office, Subex added, “Africa is unique by virtue of its diversity, culture and economic challenges. Driving a digitalization initiative in a diverse continent requires a combination of strong technology, robust domain and very good understanding of the nuances of rolling out large scale initiatives.

In line with this, Subex is delighted to be partnering with Rhino Niger Networks. This partnership is based on leveraging complementing competencies and will enable Subex to further strengthen its presence in Nigeria and other African markets. Subex currently holds the highest market share in Africa for our core portfolio. Our expertise in the area of Digital Trust coupled with Rhino Niger Networks understanding of the market and their extensive reach will go a long way in enabling the digital transformation agenda. Our collaboration has already started bearing positive results in terms of a number of key wins and we are confident of greater success in the near future.”

Commenting on the partnership, Russell Osi, Chief Technical Officer, Rhino Niger Networks said: “We are very excited to be working with Subex, who are world class leaders in the telecom industry. Both companies offer complementary operations and share similar values. This partnership underscores our dedication to provide innovative in-class digital capabilities for regulators and other stakeholders in the telecommunications sector in Nigeria.”

FIA Global Forays into Mutual Funds Distribution Segment by Launching Unique Quant and AI Based “FINVESTA”

FIA Global, a leading fintech company in digital payment & distribution systems for last mile financial inclusion in Indian and Nepal, announced its unique quant and AI based advisory & distribution mutual funds platform for the masses,”FINVESTA”.

Targeting low income households, it recommends personalized goal-based investment solutions based on the risk profile and real-life goals of the customer. Unlike other mutual funds distribution platforms, FINVESTA has an embedded intelligent advisory platform, along with profiling engine which packages goal-based solutions by leveraging the technical & fundamental analysis of 3000 growth mutual funds. The completely paperless enrolment process by the application for registering mutual funds makes it very convenient for the masses to invest in a complex product with just a few clicks.

Commenting on launch, Seema Prem, CEO of FIA Technological Services Ltd. (FIA Global) said, “FIA Global since its inception is committed to provide end to end digital solutions to unbanked & underbanked segment of the population. With the launch of FINVESTA, we endeavor to provide easy and accessible platform to people who are not able to invest in sophisticated mutual fund products. Currently, underbanked or FI segment are only saving money in low interest earning products, with this application we believe a person can even generate an average return of 15% on his/her investment for longer term goals leveraging high performing funds.”

We also endeavour to make mutual funds more accessible to every Indian and are targeting 1 mn households by 2020” She added.

As of now, FIA Global through its extensive distribution network in India and Nepal, catering to more than 20 million customers, will be extending the services to underbanked and FI Segment. In future they are also looking to tie up with various industries and segments.

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.