Fly Emirates to Dubai & Enjoy Exclusive Hotels Rates Across the UAE

Emirates has partnered with Accor, Armani Hotel Dubai, Emaar Hospitality Group and Marriott to offer attractive hotel rates to passengers travelling to and through Dubai this summer

Emirates has partnered with world-renowned hotel providers to offer its passengers travelling to and through Dubai attractive summer rates in some of the UAE’s most prestigious hotels. Customers who purchase an Emirates ticket and travel from now until 30 September 2019 can enjoy exclusive summer hotel rates in any of the properties within Accor, Armani Hotel Dubai, Emaar Hospitality Group and Marriott during their stay in the UAE.

Visitors can take advantage of up to 30% off best available rates provided by Accor - a world-leading hospitality group with a diverse brand portfolio to suit all budgets.

Armani Hotel Dubai – a landmark hotel that exclusively occupies eleven floors of the world’s tallest building, The Burj Khalifa – is offering Emirates passengers up to 35% off on best available rates. The hotel conveniently provides visitors direct access to the world’s largest and most visited shopping and entertainment destination - The Dubai Mall.

Marriott boasts a diverse brand portfolio and the hotel chain is offering Emirates passengers up to 25% off selected best available rates at any of its properties across the UAE.

Emaar Hospitality Group – which is home to esteemed brands including the Address Hotels and Resorts, Vida Hotels and Resorts and Rove Hotels, is offering Emirates customers up to 35% off best available rates. Customers who book in Address Downtown, Address Boulevard, Address Dubai Mall or Palace Downtown can also complimentary access to Dubai Aquarium, Underwater Zoo and VR Park.

Dubai is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city with an eclectic mix of offerings including impressive architecture, world-class shopping, and fine dining restaurants. Visitors will enjoy exploring the city and its many attractions including iconic landmarks, fantastic beach and spa resorts with pool access, as well as indoor entertainment activities across various locations. 

To learn more about the offer, please click here. Passengers must present a copy of their Emirates flight ticket or boarding pass at the time of check-in.

Emirates customers visiting Dubai during the summer can also benefit from exclusive offers using My Emirates Pass – an offer that turns an Emirates boarding pass into an exclusive membership card providing travellers special benefits and discounts of up to 50% off in more than 500 leisure and retail outlet locations across the UAE. The exclusive pass allows customers to redeem up to 50% off in over 400 fine dining restaurants, luxury wellness treatments in almost 50 spas and leisure activities such as indoor skiing and water amusement parks. Customers can also take advantage and redeem up to 30% off at international retail outlets including popular fashion and fitness brands. My Emirates Pass offer is valid until 31st August 2019.

Emirates customers travelling in all classes can enjoy regionally inspired meals, 4,000 entertainment channels on ice – the airline’s award-winning in-flight entertainment system - and up to 20MB complimentary Wi-Fi to stay connected with friends and family during the flight.

Tech Mahindra Partners with Mahindra Logistics to Introduce Electric Vehicles for Employee Transportation

Tech Mahindra Limited, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business reengineering services and solutions, has partnered with Mahindra Logistics (MLL), one of India’s largest 3PL (Third-Party Logistics) solution providers, for introducing and operating Electric Vehicles (EV) for employee transportation. Mahindra Logistics will be deploying Mahindra E-Verito vehicles at Tech Mahindra’s Hyderabad campus under its employee transportation fleet from 24 July 2019.

CP Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra, said, “Sustainable mobility is the need of the hour. With environment and people at the core of our business, we at Tech Mahindra are committed to drive this shift to electric mobility. We are happy to partner with Mahindra Logistics to accomplish the collective vision of improved electric mobility that will help us shape a sustainable future. We look forward to adding more electric vehicles at our offices globally.”

As part of its Go-Green initiative, MLL’s People Transport Solution (PTS) business aims to take the tally of electric vehicles in its employee transportation fleet to 300, over the fiscal year 2020.

Pirojshaw Sarkari, CEO - Mahindra Logistics, said, “Electric Vehicles, for us, exemplifies the Mahindra Group’s vision of the Future of Mobility – a sustainable automotive ecosystem that brings mobility solutions to customers across the world. One of MLL’s Purpose principles is ‘Sustaining the Environment’ and we deeply believe in the need to adopt environment friendly solutions and also align our business practices accordingly. We are delighted to partner with Tech Mahindra to take this step towards a greener future.”

Tech Mahindra has been at the forefront in using innovative technologies to solve complex issues of the real-world. As a responsible business entity, the organization concentrates on integrating sustainability into all aspects of the business and develops strategies for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) dimensions. 

First Edition of Vapasi for Women Technologists in Three Indian Cities

ThoughtWorks, a global software consultancy, will be hosting the first ever multi-city edition of Vapasi – a technical training program for women technologists who are on a career break and want to re-enter the world of IT. The latest edition of the program will be simultaneously organized across three cities – Chennai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon.

Set to kickstart on 5 August 2019, the four-week program will sharpen candidates’ technical skills through hands-on sessions on object-oriented programming practices. Upon completion, short listed candidates will be offered 3 to 6 months of internships at ThoughtWorks and can go on to apply for permanent positions. The last 6 batches of Vapasi that were tailored to developers and quality analysts saw close to 100 women participate. Today, many of them are on fruitful career paths at ThoughtWorks and other tech companies in India.

Commenting on the Vapasi program, Tina Vinod, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at ThoughtWorks in India said, “We have always understood the importance of diversity at the workplace and are committed to providing an inclusive environment for our employees. Empowering women’s success in technology is a key focus area for us and we are extremely delighted to launch the latest edition of the Vapasi program. We are experimenting with a multi-city approach that makes this edition of Vapasi, our biggest in terms of scale and execution. This year, our aim is to run no less than eight editions of the program across our seven offices in India.”

“I was a full-time working professional before a two-and-a-half-year maternity break. When I first considered going back to work, I wasn't very confident in starting all over again. That’s when I heard of Vapasi,’’ said Sana Siddiqui, an alumna of the Vapasi program. “During the program, I was surprised to recognize how Vapasi influenced me by boosting my confidence, vision, goals and interest in learning and gathering new skill sets. I received incredible guidance and coaching from the program’s mentors and this made me feel very welcomed!”

Soumia Annie Jose, another participant of the program said, “Vapasi helped me gain confidence and ignite a familiarity with emerging technologies. While the program’s intensive format sharpened my existing skill set, what was truly impressive was the exceptional patience demonstrated by the trainers and mentors. Vapasi has helped me get my career back on track.”

The Vapasi program is part of #TalkTechToHer, a ThoughtWorks initiative directed towards women in technology who have more than 6 years of work experience. The campaign aims to elevate conversations around inclusivity and drive home an important message - women will achieve as much as men or more, when presented with the opportunities, without the biases.

To register for the upcoming multi-city edition of Vapasi, please click here. The last date to register is 25th July 2019.

DRIP Capital Helps Bengaluru Plastic Exporters Capitalize on Trade Finance Solutions

Trade finance firm Drip Capital, in association with the Plastics Export Promotion Council (PLEXCONCIL), conducted a seminar on the topic ‘Interactive sessions on Export Factoring: Easy access to unsecured finance for SME Exporters’ in Bengaluru. Presented by Mr. Nath Kakani, Regional Sales Lead, Drip Capital, the seminar also saw the presence of Mr. Vijay Kumar, President, KSPA, Mr. Ravish Kamath, Chairman, PLEXCONCIL; Dr. B. Punnam Kumar, ITS, Deputy Director-General of Foreign Trade; Mr. K. Devaraj, Dy. Director - Mechanical, DI Bangalore, Ministry of MSME; Mr. Hariram Thakkar, Convenor - IPLEX 2019, KSPA and Mr. Vibinan K, AGM, ECGC. Many small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) plastic exporters from Bengaluru also attended the event.

In general, SMEs account for 45% of India’s total export volumes but are some of the most underserved when it comes to working capital provisions. Demands for collateral, long processing times, heavy paperwork burden, and other such factors contribute towards making working capital highly inaccessible for SMEs. Institutions like factoring firms and NBFCs offer alternative financing solutions; however, many SME exporters are unaware of these offerings and need to be educated about the same. One of the easiest such alternative methods is invoice factoring.

At its most basic, invoice factoring is a process of procuring finance by selling the invoices of your transactions to a third party known as the factor. Based on your transaction history and other parameters, the factor gives the seller (the exporter) a credit line which they can then use to finance further transactions to other buyers (importers). In most cases, the seller gets 80% of their invoice value upfront from the factor (often without the need for collateral), and the remaining 20% -- minus the factor’s fees and interest -- after the buyer transfers the value of the invoice to the factor.

The plastics industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in India with a double-digit growth rate on average. The industry spans the country, with more than 2,000 exporters shipping various plastic goods and products. In FY2018-19, alone, Indian plastics exporters fulfilled shipments worth US$10.98 billion, 3.3% of the country’s total exports for the period. Indian exporters ship plastics to 205 countries, with the top five destinations being the US (11.96%), China (11.67%), UAE (5.28%), Italy (4.11%) and Germany (3.71%). India is also ranked among the top five consumers of polymers in the world and has 30,000+ plastic processing units employing over four million people across the country. Karnataka in particular contributes about 2.5% of the country’s plastics exports, worth roughly US$197 million.

Mr. Nath Kakani, Regional Sales Lead, Drip Capital said, “There are many small and medium industrial units in and around Bengaluru. However, these SMEs contribute only about 16.2% of the city’s outbound shipments, much lower than the country average of 48%. An important cause for this is that many of these SMEs face severe issues with managing their working capital because of a lack of adequate financing options. In order to solve this problem, Drip Capital provides collateral-free post-shipment finance to Indian exporters with instant approvals and minimal documentation.”

Drip Capital is a US-based trade finance firm that was founded in 2015 by Pushkar Mukewar and Neil Kothari to solve the financing problems faced by MSME exporters in India and abroad. Since its product launch in 2016, Drip Capital has seen rapid adoption by the Indian exporter community. The company has had exponential growth, growing over 20x times in terms of working capital financed in the last two years. The growth has been fuelled in part by an intense focus on technology and drive to productize trade finance by offering solutions customized to solve common issues and pain points faced by exporters.

Drip Capital has financed over $500 million worth of invoices till date, and currently works with over 400 exporters across various product categories and geographies across India and Mexico. Mr. Pushkar Mukewar, Co-founder and Co-CEO, Drip Capital, added, “A lot of Drip’s growth has been fuelled by increasing demand from labour-intensive and SME-dominated sectors, such as plastics. As per our latest data, Bangalore has over 300 SME exporters (except SEZs) who exported a combined total of almost 65,000 shipments, worth US$1.2 billion, in FY 2018-19 alone. While this number may be skewed due to the presence of several corporate offices in the bustling metropolis, there is little doubt that Bengaluru is a major commercial and exports hub, especially for the plastics sector. Drip looks forward to helping these exporters push this figure even higher.”

Drip Capital aims to educate exporters across industries and verticals about the great potential offered by invoice factoring and other trade finance services. The Bengaluru seminar, in conjunction with PLEXCONCIL, served to reinforce the potential of the solutions provided to exporters by Drip Capital.

Drip Capital’s plans include expanding into new markets across the world and leveraging technology to solve multiple problems commonly faced by exporters. Moving beyond trade finance, the company aims to continue leveraging data, technology, analytics, and a team of highly motivated professionals to become a leader in the global export ecosystem.

India’s First Global, Mega-Science Exhibition ‘Vigyan Samagam’ Begins on July 29 in Bengaluru

India’s first-ever Mega Science Exhibition, ‘Vigyan Samagam’, will begin in Bengaluru on July 29, 2019 at the iconic Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum. Dr Anil Kakodkar, Member, Atomic Energy Commission & Chairman, Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Commission, Mumbai will inaugurate the Exhibition in the gracious presence of Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST, New Delhi, Prof V. S. Ramamurthy, Emeritus Professor, NIAS, Bengaluru and Shri A D Choudhury, Director General, NCSM, Kolkata.

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Science and Technology (DST) and National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), Ministry of Culture, Government of India, are the joint organisers of ‘Vigyan Samagam’. Shri Ranajit Kumar, Head, NCPW, DAE, Dr. Praveer Asthana, Head, Mega-Science Divisions, DST and Shri Madan Gopal, Director, Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum jointly announced the programme at a Press Conference in Bengaluru today and explained the objectives and various activities related to ‘Vigyan Samagam’. 

As informed by the organizers, all major global Mega Science Projects where India is participating, such as Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), ‘Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research’ (FAIR), ‘India-based Neutrino Observatory’ (INO), ‘International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor’ (ITER), ‘Laser Interferometer Gravitational - Wave Observatory’ (LIGO), ‘Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiments’ (MACE), ‘Square Kilometre Array’ (SKA) and ‘Thirty Meter Telescope’ (TMT) will be exhibited at ‘Vigyan Samagam’. The objective of organising ‘Vigyan Samagam’ is to spread awareness about the exciting world of front–ranking science and technology. The Exhibition will bring together many world-renowned scientists from India and abroad, along with budding scientists, science enthusiasts, students, industry, academia, institutions and people from Bengaluru and the State of Karnataka.

Shri Ranajit Kumar, said, “Vigyan Samagam is an endeavor to bring Science projects, overlapped with technology, a step closer to the society and highlight the value and impact of fundamental research to a broad cross-section of stakeholders. This Exhibition shall provide a unique science communication platform and create a bridge for further interactions between India and its global peers, bolstering India’s contribution to globally prestigious science projects.”

Dr. Praveer Asthana said, “The exhibition will also aim to connect with school children, students and aspirants who want to pursue fundamental science and research as a strong career option. Talks and sessions with academia and industry will also be the integral part of the event. It will provide a unique platform to all stakeholders for cross-fertilisation of ideas.”

Explaining about the format of the Exhibition, Shri Madan Gopal said, “The Exhibition will have a number of working models and exhibits, themed-based galleries of posters, informative audio-visual content and electronic displays and interactive kiosks will be setup for each of the Mega Science Projects. A unique exhibition pavilion, developed at CERN, has been specially brought over for Vigyan Samagam and shall be showcased at VITM. Several interesting talks and activities like quiz contests and model making have been planned for the schoolchildren.”

The biggest attraction for the visitors would be to witness how India contributed in global Mega – Science projects where several developed countries have participated collectively. ‘Vigyan Samagam’ will aim at traversing the visitors through the world from micro to macro, unveiling the efforts of the international community in understanding the Universe. It will offer a great opportunity for students and families to understand the workings of the Universe - from discovery of the Higgs particle to that of gravitational waves from merger of neutron stars and black holes and to the origin of the Universe and its evolution through various stages.

The inaugural event will be followed by a two-day scientific event comprising of invited talks and lectures by eminent speakers from the field of science, technology and industry. Coinciding with the scientific discussions during the first two days at each venue, industry partners working with the participating Mega Science Project Groups will set-up expo at the venue to showcase their contributions. In its multi-venue journey, after Bengaluru, ‘Vigyan Samagam’ will travel to Kolkata in the period 4th November, 2019 to 31st December, 2019 at Science City. In its final leg, it will reach New Delhi at the National Science Centre from 21st January, 2020 and will close on 20th March, 2020.

Global, Iconic Scientific Organisations to participate:

Vigyan Samagam will have the presence of prestigious organisations such as CERN, FAIR, INO, ITER, LIGO, MACE, SKA and TMT. The audience would also include invited members from various scientific organisations, industry and academia. As part of project awareness activities, each participating Project will be carrying out week-long activities consisting of popular talks, science demonstrations, interactive quiz programmes, etc.

Connecting with School Children, Students: A key objective of Vigyan Samagam:

On the sidelines of the Exhibition, in Bengaluru, a number of activities engaging the curiosity, attention and imagination of school children and students will be taken up. Activities such as quizzes, essay-writing, drawing contests, etc. have been planned by the organisers.

In order to reach out to people at large and get them involved with this Exhibition, ‘Vigyan Samagam’ has launched a website www.vigyansamagam.in where people can get more information about it. Events such as talk shows, lectures planned during the Exhibition will be streamed live through popular social media platforms. The Exhibition will be open on all days including Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays. The timing of the Exhibition will from 10 am to 6 pm.

VIBGYOR Group of Schools, Bags 3 Prestigious India K-12 Awards

VIBGYOR Group of Schools in Bengaluru recently won 3 significant awards at ‘Eldrok India K-12 Summit’ held at Taj West End, Bengaluru.

VIBGYOR High - Horamavu received an award in “Excellence in Safety & Security Systems at School" category. VIBGYOR High - Jakkur received an award in “Progressive in Creative Learning Programs” category while VIBGYOR High - BTM Layout received an award in “Excellence in Early Childhood Learning Program” category. Directors, principals, school owners from various schools, policy makers, and industry related entrepreneurs were present at the summit in a large number.

Founded in 2004, VIBGYOR Group of Schools recognised as ‘India’s Most Admired Brands in Education 2018-19’, is a leading chain of Schools known for its quality education and academic excellence. VIBGYOR Schools offer a unique range of world-class educational services for the holistic development of students in curricular and co-curricular studies. Under the leadership of Mr. Rustom Kerawalla, Founder Chairman of the institution, VIBGYOR Group is currently has 33 schools in nine major cities, reaching out to more than 48,000 students nationwide.

VIBGYOR High caters to the students from Grades 1 to 12 and VIBGYOR Kids to the Pre-Primary segment with a student-teacher ratio of 10:1 on an average. VIBGYOR Group’s recent addition is a chain of schools offering CBSE Board curriculum- VIBGYOR Roots (Pre-Primary division) and VIBGYOR Rise (a Primary and Secondary School) which addresses the increasing demand for educational institutions and impart quality education with a wider outreach. VIBGYOR High provides a mixed spectrum of national and international levels of education in affiliation with CISCE, CBSE, and Cambridge International.

Ather Space Now at Wallace Garden, Nungambakkam in Chennai

After the successful launch of Ather 450 and 340 in Chennai earlier this month, Ather Energy, has officially inaugurated, ‘Ather Space’, the Ather experience center at Wallace Garden Road, Nungambakkam on 24th July. The inauguration was led by a group of enthusiastic Ather customers, who wanted to be the first ones to experience Ather Space.

Ather Space was designed to educate customers about electric vehicles while providing a holistic experience in an interactive space. The company inaugurated the first experience center in Bengaluru in June 2018 and opened the second one in Chennai today. Chennaites can now ride the Ather 450 and get an in-depth view of the product and features before pre-ordering the vehicle. Customers can also book test ride slots on the website prior to visiting the experience center.

The Wallace Garden experience center is designed to be a dynamic, tactile and interactive space. The center’s design and user experience has been improved based on Ather’s learnings from the Bengaluru Ather Space and the Chennai center is twice in size of its Bengaluru counterpart. Customers can learn about every aspect of the vehicle and witness the engineering and mechanical efforts that have gone into manufacturing it through a naked scooter up on display. Apart from seeing the key components of the scooter, one can learn and interact with the intelligent and connected features through a digital display.

Ather began accepting pre-orders for Ather 450 in Chennai on 9th July and since then have received a phenomenal response from customers and are sold out till the end of the year. The brand has a thriving community, Ather Forum in its launch cities. The inauguration by consumers instead of company officials is a recognition of this ardent following of the community who are making an active choice of going electric.

The on-road price of the Ather 450 is INR. 1,31,683 and Ather 340 will be priced at INR. 1,19,091 in Chennai. The price includes the regulation 2 helmets, along with the FAME 2 subsidy and other basics like insurance, road tax, GST, and other fees.

Ather began the installation of its Ather Grid points in Chennai on May 2019 and has installed ten fast charging points, so far. These charging points can be found in malls like Forum Vijaya Mall, offices like AtWorks and cafes, restaurants, and even grocery stores. To encourage adoption of EVs in the city, Ather Energy will provide free charging at Ather Grid till December 2019 for all electric 4Ws & 2Ws and will add 40-50 more charging points to their network.

Ravneet Phokela, Chief Business Officer, Ather Energy says, "Our experience centers are designed to reflect Ather's value proposition, a great experience powered by intelligence. It is a place where people can experience the scooters, understand our drive to build high-performance electric vehicles, and be a part of the electric future. Typically, a consumer spends about 45 minutes on average at an Ather experience center which is unique in the category. In fact, our stores are managed by engineers who are product specialists and are focused on consumer experience rather than mere sales. As in Bengaluru, the Chennai Ather Space will help to initiate conversations about electric vehicles and attract a lot of customers.”