Airtel Outlines Its Digital Entertainment Vision with Airtel Xstream

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telecommunications services provider, today announced the launch of its converged digital entertainment play: Airtel Xstream.

Airtel Xstream is part of Airtel’s vision of building a world-class digital entertainment ecosystem for Digital India and make it accessible to customers through innovative devices and exciting applications. Over the coming months, Airtel plans to roll out a range of exciting solutions to cater to the entertainment needs of every customer segment of India that is getting transformed through rapid adoption of high speed data services.

All the content on one platform, delivered across screens: Airtel Xstream brings one of the widest entrainment catalogues – hundreds of satellite TV channels, tens of thousands of movies and shows in English, Hindi and multiple Indian languages, millions of songs, plus access to all the popular OTT entertainment apps on one platform. It enables customers to access all this content across the screen of their choice – TV, PC, and Smartphone with a unified User Interface.
Future Ready platform for connected Homes: Airtel Xstream devices will come with capabilities beyond world-class entertainment and will be the IoT gateway for enabling a range of solutions for connected homes.
Exclusive benefits for Airtel Thanks customers: Airtel Thanks customers will enjoy exclusive benefits on Airtel Xstream, including free access to premium content from Airtel’s content catalogue plus offers on a range of other services.       

Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Bharti Airtel said: “Airtel is on an exciting mission to provide a broad array of digital services and platforms that can form the foundation for a rising India. As part of our digital entertainment play, our vision is to truly massify digital entertainment and make it accessible to more and more customers through innovative platforms.

Today, we are announcing India’s first converged entertainment platform Airtel Xstream that brings together your favorite content including Live TV, video, music, news, and sports across an OTT smart stick, internet enabled set top box and handheld devices. Digital India is transforming the way content is being consumed over internet connected devices. Airtel Xstream will cater to needs of a new generation of consumers who are looking for seamless and converged entertainment across multiple screens at home and on the go.”

With the launch of Airtel Xstream, Airtel has become the first company in India to enable a seamless digital entertainment experience, with a unified user interface across all screens. Airtel has rolled out a new range of Airtel Xstream connected devices that will make any TV a smart TV and will be available to customers starting today. Airtel Xstream devices offer blazing-fast performance and slick viewing experience through solid product engineering, deep design excellence coupled with strong device specifications. 

Future Generali India Insurance Appoints Anup Rau as CEO and Managing Director

Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited (FGII), the general insurance arm of the joint venture between retail game-changers Future Group and global insurer Generali, has appointed Anup Rau as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.

A seasoned professional, Anup has a career spanning over 23 years of which the last 19 years have been with the Insurance Industry. He has the unique distinction of heading both Life and General Insurance companies. He joins Future Generali India from Edelweiss General Insurance where he was the CEO and was also the CEO of Reliance Nippon Life Insurance prior to that. He has also had successful stints in leadership positions in HDFC Life and ICICI Prudential Life.

Anup has pursued his MBA in Marketing from the University of Mumbai after his Bachelors with Honours in Economics from the University of Delhi.

On welcoming Anup Rau to Future Generali India Insurance, Rob Leonardi, Regional Officer for Generali Asia said, “We view India as an important and fast-growing market for our business in Asia. Anup’s vast experience and understanding of retail, combined with his expertise in strategic digital initiatives within the industry, will be a huge asset for Future Generali India. We are confident that Anup will take forward the strong legacy of his predecessor to new heights.”

Anup Rau commented on his joining, “Future Generali P&C business is respected in the industry for its range of innovative and customer-friendly products and the quality of service,  on both the retail and corporate side. I believe that FGII is poised to make the leap to the next level on the firm foundation set over the past decade. I look forward to leading the company in what promises to be a very exciting next few years.”

Simplilearn, Purdue University Join for PG Online Courses in India

Simplilearn, a global e-learning provider of digital skills training, today launched a new online course: the Postgraduate Program in Data Science, co-developed with Purdue University and in partnership with IBM. The Postgraduate Program in Data Science will be offered in India and will equip aspiring data science professionals with the skills needed to jump-start their career - ranging from programming languages like R and Python to machine learning and more. By 2021, IDC predicts Data Science and cognitive computing spending will reach $52.2 billion. Data Scientist is one of the hottest professions. IBM predicts demand for Data Scientists will rise by 28% by 2020.

This collaboration provides the most comprehensive Data Science program -- leveraging Purdue’s academic excellence in Data Science; IBM’s content, tools and certification; and Simplilearn’s award-winning curriculum and Blended Learning approach. Program participants will use a combination of self-paced videos and live virtual classes with significant hands-on exposure to ensure practical, industry-aligned learning. Class sizes will also be limited to foster maximum interaction. Program graduates will receive several highly prized certifications and will be granted Purdue University alumni status.

“In today’s dynamic and ever-evolving ecosystem, data is the most valuable asset any company has,” said Anand Narayanan, Simplilearn’s Chief Product Officer. “As a result, the demand for skilled data scientists who are adept in technical, analytical and business concepts has never been higher. Simplilearn’s comprehensive Data Science program in partnership with Purdue provides all the core skills that professionals need to succeed in this field.”

Data science has multiple applications. Industries such as healthcare, e-commerce, and banking are already harnessing data and AI to gain competitive advantage.

“With data playing a significant role in businesses and organizations around the world, there is an increasing demand for data scientists with industry-relevant skills,” said Gerry McCartney, Executive Vice President of Purdue Online. “We are happy to collaborate with a successful online training company like Simplilearn to provide professionals with the required competencies in a program that leverages Purdue’s internationally recognized educational expertise.”

Kesh King Shampoo Infuses ‘Ayurvedaasan’ for Healthy Hair Ropes in Shilpa Shetty as its New Brand Ambassador

Kesh King, the leading ayurvedic hair and scalp care brand from the house of Emami Ltd., announced the introduction of Bollywood diva and Yoga fitness icon, Shilpa Shetty, as its new brand ambassador for its shampoo.

Shilpa’s dedication towards staying fit and healthy admirably synergises with Kesh King’s brand ethos of ensuring a stress free ayurvedic hair care solution. Shilpa Shetty joins the elegant league of Kesh King Brand ambassadors comprising of stars like Juhi Chawla, Sania Mirza, Huma Qureshi and Shruti Haasan, who have been endorsing the brand from time to time.  To mark the onset of this new journey, Kesh King Shampoo with its inherent ayurvedic benefits of Aloe Vera and 21 ayurvedic herbs, also launched a brand new TVC.

Kesh King Shampoo’s new TVC comes with a new messaging of “Hair fall ka aayurvedasan” which is a healthy, ayurvedic solution to control hair fall, which is quite similar to the health benefits of yoga for the body.  The shampoo has dual benefits, as it reduces hair fall and promotes soft and silky beautiful hair.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Priti A. Sureka, Director, Emami Limited, added, “Shilpa is an elegant and versatile actress with a rich legacy of work. She is a true fitness enthusiast who has equally carved out a niche as an entrepreneur yet being a really hands-on-mother. We are extremely glad to have her on board for Kesh King shampoo. In today’s day and age, Indian women undergo anxiety for her falling, damaged, dull and lifeless hair due to daily stress, improper diet, pollution, seasonal changes and many other reasons. Like yoga which benefits the body, Kesh King shampoo with its natural ingredients like aloe vera and 21 ayurvedic herbs offers the best hair health benefits to control hair fall and also make it look beautiful.” 

The storyline of the new Kesh King Shampoo TVC shows Shilpa practicing yoga with her friend highlighting the hair fall issue of the latter. Shilpa advises the friend about the need to make ‘Ayurvedasan’ a part of her life’s routine – introducing Kesh King Shampoo to her, which offers the ayurvedic and natural benefits of health and life to one’s hair – a benefit which almost equals the goodness that ‘yoga asanas’ give to one’s body.

Speaking about her association with Kesh King shampoo, Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty, further added, “I have always been a champion of ‘fitness’. Practising yoga for a fit body, mind and soul is a way of life for me. When I got to know more about Kesh King, I was pleasantly surprised to find that with its proven ayurvedic benefits, Kesh King is going to offer me the healthy benefits of ‘hair yoga’ for a hair fall free, lustrous and healthy crowning glory. I am happy to be on board with Kesh King.”

Recommended by International hair institute, Kesh King Ayurvedic shampoo has aloe vera and 21 ayurvedic herbs that not only reduces hair fall but also transforms dry and rough hair into soft, silky shiny hair. The Kesh King brand portfolio includes ayurvedic medicinal oil, shampoo, conditioner and ayurvedic capsules. 

The new Kesh King Shampoo TVC featuring the brand ambassador Shilpa Shetty has gone on air recently in its key markets.

ServiceNow Delivers Native Mobile Experiences at Scale for Work

ServiceNow, the company that makes work, work better for people, today announces the launch of native mobile experiences for everyday work across the enterprise with the general availability of its Now Platform New York release (https://www.servicenow.com/now‑platform/latest‑release.html). For the first time, consumer‑like mobile experiences that can make almost any everyday work task easy to do have arrived, making our work lives as simple, easy and mobile‑friendly as our real lives.

Powered by the Now Platform, the leading platform in managing complex enterprise workflows across functions, departments and systems, ServiceNow’s new Now Mobile app makes diverse everyday work tasks simple and easy. Whether it’s fixing an IT issue, ordering a computer, finding a conference room, getting help from human resources, approving purchase orders, travel requests and legal documents, or finding quick answers to questions, the Now Mobile app makes it easy to take care of business on the go.

The New York release also features a new ServiceNow Onboarding app, which makes starting a new job a cinch by combining all of the multi‑departmental tasks involved in getting up and running as a new employee into a single, intuitive mobile experience. Together, Now Mobile and Mobile Onboarding set a new mobile standard for the enterprise, moving beyond single solution apps into workflow mobile experiences that better match how people really want to get work done.

ServiceNow is committed to harnessing the power of its Now Platform in managing complex enterprise workflows with the native mobile capabilities coded into the platform to become the global leader in delivering native mobile‑friendly workflow experiences to enterprise customers at scale. Combined with ServiceNow’s release earlier this year of ServiceNow Agent, the new Now Mobile and Mobile Onboarding apps offer enterprises an unmatched suite of native mobile apps that offer leading features, capabilities and user experiences.

“Just as mobile was at the center of transforming our lives at home, we believe mobile will be at the heart of delivering great experiences at work,” said ServiceNow’s Chief Product Officer Chirantan “CJ” Desai. “Employees today expect their employers to offer native mobile‑optimized tools. Mobile is the way many people want to get everyday work tasks done. The Now Platform enables companies to quickly and easily deliver unmatched native mobile experiences to employees that will unlock productivity and make work, work better for them.”

Reducing complexity for employees with Now Mobile and Virtual Agent

The latest platform release from ServiceNow comes at a time when enterprises are looking deliver better efficiencies and experiences. The intelligent, intuitive Now Platform helps streamline IT, employee and customer workflows, connecting separate systems and processes on a single platform.

Now Mobile and Mobile Onboarding are just two of more than 650 innovations in the New York release.

The New York release also includes innovations in natural language understanding (NLU), which is integrated into ServiceNow Virtual Agent. With NLU, employees can interact with Virtual Agent by using simple human terms to quickly find answers, order items or get help for common problems — all without having to contact the service desk.

These innovations in the Now Platform, coupled with the machine learning capability of ServiceNow Predictive Intelligence, help organizations provide a comprehensive service delivery experience that makes it easy for employees to get the help they need.

PayPal, a global technology platform and digital payments leader with over 20,000 employees, adopted the Now Platform as it began its journey of providing its engineers with the technology backbone needed to connect operations, create a centralized hub for resources and give access to self‑service tools. “Like any enterprise company, PayPal’s engineers use various applications to help manage its infrastructure. With ServiceNow, we now have a single platform that lets us connect digital workflows and have a common engagement layer across our systems of record and apps to provide our engineers with a more efficient and productive work experience. Using the Now Platform, our engineers are freed up to work on more strategic work and focus on our goal of providing customers and employees with an experience that’s as easy, simple and intuitive as the PayPal mobile experience,” said Dan Torunian, PayPal’s Vice President of Employee Technology & Experiences and Data Centers.

“As enterprises move from dabbling with digital to becoming ‘digitally determined,’ it’s clear they need agile platforms that can adapt as fast as they do, at scale,” said IDC’s Program Vice President, Stephen Elliot. “CIOs should consider how mobile‑first applications for work, and associated digital workflows enabled by a unified platform, can provide CIOs with the speed needed to create a truly digital workplace and the experience employees expect.”

Availability

ServiceNow’s Now Platform New York release is generally available today. The ServiceNow Now Mobile and ServiceNow Onboarding apps are available to download on the Apple iOS store and Google Play store.

SAP Concur and Thomas Cook India Strengthen Partnership to Streamline Travel and Expense Management

SAP Concur, the world’s leading provider of expense, travel and invoice management solutions, today announced the commitment of its partnership with Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., a leading integrated travel and travel related financial services company. The partnership is a reiteration of enabling organizations across verticals to completely automate their business travel for employees. SAP Concur in partnership with Thomas Cook India provides a user-friendly, integrated travel and expense (T&E) management solution to help enable an organization’s workforce with a seamless and rewarding experience.

For any business, managing expenses is as important as growing revenue. Today, most organisations in India use manual processes for travel and expense reporting, thereby losing productive hours that can be utilised towards more strategic tasks. To succeed in the digital age, organizations need lean, integrated and most of all, digital processes to support their business and improve the bottom line. Travel and expense management is always challenging, but with such partnerships, a corporate can actually usher in savings by automating manual processes that otherwise would cost additional money and time.

Speaking on strengthening the partnership with Thomas Cook (India) Ltd., Ms. Mankiran Chowhan, Managing Director, SAP Concur, India said, “SAP Concur’s value proposition is simplicity, integrated travel and expense management, and we look at partnerships that help translate these into customer experiences and brand loyalty. Last year, our collaboration saw increased adoption by corporates owing to the integrated offering. Together with Thomas Cook India, we aim to transform the way organisations manage their business travel, expense and invoice in a highly visible marketplace.”

India has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing business travel markets, with a business travel spend that is likely to touch USD 46 billion by end of 2019, with a projected annual growth rate of 11.5%. A recent report from KPMG revealed that last year, rise in annual growth of business travel spend for India has been the highest among the top 15 business travel markets globally. While India is the seventh largest business travel market globally, it is projected to be amongst the top five travel markets by 2022. Furthermore, India-China-Indonesia (ICI) travel spend is predicted to reach USD 565 billion in 2022 and is projected to be the largest in the world by 2035.

“At Thomas Cook India, we’ve been sustained in strategic ideation that brings value to multinationals, Indian corporates, and SMEs. Our delivery of employee experiences helps eliminate tedious tasks, reduce cost and hence, enable them to work smarter. We are delighted to renew our partnership with SAP Concur as a global reseller which will now enable us to deliver cutting-edge solutions by driving integration and automation - equipping our Global and Indian clientele to better manage their travel expenses and invoice processes,” said Indiver Rastogi, President & Group Head - Global Business Travel - Thomas Cook (India) Limited.

Acer Delivers a Chromebook for Family Fun, Entertainment, Productivity

Acer has debuted with a new Chromebook that provides the performance, portability and battery life today’s families, students and small business owners need in a Chromebook.

“Today we’re offering four new Chromebooks in three sizes, so consumers can get the right Acer Chromebook with the display size, features and technology that fits their lifestyle needs,” said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business at Acer. “Chromebooks have moved far beyond their original promise of getting computer users online in a quick, secure and easy-to-manage way, now allowing customers to access apps that help with every aspect of their day from budgeting, staying in touch, having fun and taking care of life’s business.”

A Chromebook with a Large, Anti-Glare Display for Maximum Productivity

Acer’s new Chromebook comes with a large display and boosts productivity in a range of environments. The new Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-1H/1HT) can be enjoyed in bright-light conditions thanks to their anti-glare displays that provide sharp and legible text as well as vivid, clear videos, and photos.

The Acer Chromebook 314’s large 14-inch display is available with up to a Full HD (1920 x 1080 resolution) display with IPS[i] technology and wide viewing angles in both touch and non-touch models. These lines have new designs with thin bezels surrounding the large displays, making the visuals even more vibrant and compelling.

Flexible, Fast Connectivity to Peripherals and Online

The new Acer Chromebooks include two USB 3.1 Type-C Gen 1 ports – one on each side – for charging the Chromebook from the most convenient angle. The ports can also be used to charge the device as well as other products, transfer data quickly and connect to an HD display. In addition, the new Chromebooks each have two USB Type-C ports, two USB 3.1 ports and a MicroSD card reader for extra storage capacity.

All of the new Chromebooks feature a front-facing HD webcam for video chats and Google Hangouts. The convertible Acer Chromebook Spin 311 also has the option for a world-facing camera for capturing 1080p video.

Customers can stay connected to their network with Intel® Gigabit WiFi and a strategically placed 802.11ac wireless antenna with 2x2 MU-MIMO for a fast and reliable wireless connection. Additionally, Bluetooth 5.0 delivers a convenient wireless connection to peripherals.

Performance and Long Battery Life for All-Day Productivity, Fun

All four new Acer Chromebooks deliver solid all-day performance for access to multiple apps and tabs, video streaming and more. Customers can stay updated on social media, handle tasks for work and school, and shop online quickly and confidently using these devices with the latest dual-core Intel Celeron® N4000 or quad-core Intel Celeron N4100 processors. The Acer Chromebook 315 also offers the option for an Intel Pentium® Silver N5000 processor.

The Acer Chromebook 315 can be configured with up to 128 GB eMMC storage and up to 8 GB dual-channel SDRAM.

Acer Chromebook customers can be assured their devices will keep going during the day and well into the evening without having to recharge them. The Acer Chromebook 315 delivers day-to-night battery life lasting up to 12.5 hours1.

Cool, Quiet Designs

The new Acer Chromebooks all feature fanless designs that run quietly, making them great for shared spaces such as in a family room, library or coffee shop. They also have moisture- resistant touchpads to protect the device from unwanted dampness.

The Google Assistant Gets Things Done, Hands-Free

All four new Acer Chromebooks feature the Google Assistant[ii], which allows users to get more done faster and smarter, hands-free. With the Assistant, users can quickly send emails, find documents, listen to music, access their calendar, or control smart home devices, all without switching screens. All they need is to say “Hey Google” to get started.

Easy to Deploy, Manage, Keep Safe; Google Play™ Support

Acer Chromebooks support multiple user sign-on to keep data safe. Family members can share the system and log onto their unique accounts to ensure their projects. Gmail accounts and information are kept away from prying eyes, even if the Chromebook is damaged or stolen. Storage on Google Drive[iii] protects files, documents and photos safely in the cloud, and ensures that the most current version is always available. Chrome OS delivers fast boot times of about 8 seconds as well as heightened security through automatic updates to guard against ever-changing online threats, such as viruses and malware.

The new Acer Chromebooks will support Google Play at launch, so families will have access to Android and Chrome apps for entertainment, fun, learning and more.

Pricing and Availability

The Acer Chromebook 314 will be available in India from December 2019, starting at Rs 42,000.

Exact specifications, prices, and availability will vary by region. To learn more about availability, product specifications and prices in specific markets, please contact your nearest Acer office via www.acer.co.in.

The new Acer Chromebook was unveiled today at the next@acer press event held in Berlin, where the company announced a range of new devices and solutions for gamers, creators, families, students and professionals.