ACT Fibernet Extends Partnership with Chennaiyin FC as ‘Official Connectivity Provider’ for ISL 2019-20

ACT Fibernet, India’s largest fiber-focused wired broadband ISP (Internet Service Provider), has announced the extension of its partnership with Indian Super League champions Chennaiyin FC (CFC) as its official connectivity partner for India Super League (ISL) 2019 – 2020 edition.

As part of the partnership, ACT Fibernet will provide high speed internet service across the stadium offices, media rooms, fan zones and more, which will enable the audience, media, officials and players to stay connected seamlessly and enjoy HD quality internet speeds in real-time.

Speaking on this partnership, Sandeep Gupta, COO, ACT Fibernet said, “We are excited to be the preferred connectivity partner of Chennaiyin FC for the second time in a row. Chennaiyin FC are the flag bearers of football in Tamil Nadu, and we are happy that through our reliable and uninterrupted services we will enable the team, its fans and everyone associated with the club stay connected throughout the ISL season and enhance their overall digital experience”.

Commenting on the partnership, Ganeshaya Sodha, Head of Sponsorships & Marketing, Chennaiyin FC, said “We are extremely happy that ACT Fibernet is our connectivity partner for this season again. Last year, our team and fans had an overwhelming experience through their services. We are glad to have them on board and together we will put forward a fantastic and successful season this year”.

Additionally, ACT Fibernet will be running exciting contests on their social media platforms. Chosen lucky winners will get a chance to win match passes, replica jerseys, match balls, meet & greet with CFC players through the course of the season.

TLC to Premiere Emmy Award-Winning ‘Project Runway’ Starting November 04

The wait is over as the iconic fashion competition series “Project Runway” premiers on TLC India, The series will include supersized 60-minute episodes beginning November 4, 2019 every Monday on TLC SD and TLC HD. This season, as the fashion industry evolves, so does the runway with a new design aesthetic and additions to the judging panel: supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss joins as host with former “Project Runway” champion and celebrated CFDA fashion designer Christian Siriano as the mentor. ELLE Editor-in-Chief Nina Garcia returns as a judge, along with famed fashion designer Brandon Maxwell and journalist and former Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Elaine Welteroth.

The new look and feel continues with 16 new designers from across the United States and abroad who will compete for the coveted spot of a lifetime, a chance to show their collection during an exclusive runway show for industry insiders and influencers as well as win the largest cash prize in the show’s history. With an all-new runway and workroom furnished with sewing and embroidery machines by Brother, a glam room for the models outfitted by TRESemmé and Maybelline, along with challenges that embrace the nuances of the fashion industry—including flash sales, fast fashion, the inclusion of plus-size models.

Sai Abishek, Director – Content, Factual & Lifestyle Entertainment, Discovery, said, “Project Runway has successfully managed to remain at the top of fashion reality TV series for 17 seasons – a huge achievement considering that fashion continues to evolve from time to time.  A new look and a new supermodel host in Karlie Kloss, and famous fashion designer Brandon Maxwell as a judge, will add zing to the fashion design competition series. We are delighted to showcase this special series on TLC in India..”

Ganesh Rajaram, General Manager, EVP Sales Asia, International, Fremantle, said, “We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with TLC India to showcase Project Runway to audiences in India. This season promises to be as big as ever with an entire new look, including supermodel Karlie Kloss as the new host, as well as a brand-new judging panel.

The stakes are high as the aspiring designers stand to gain unparalleled experience and valuable skills in pursuit of their dreams. They're guided by judges and special guests who are knowledgeable about design, style, and pop culture including: Marni Senofonte, who is Kendall Jenner’s personal stylist as well as the stylist behind Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Super Bowl 50 looks; actress and Siriano muse Danielle Brooks, who judges a fierce challenge to design a dream dress for the women who keep New York City running; famed designer Dapper Dan drops by to inspire the contestants to think outside the box as he did with luxury fashions in the ‘80s; and to take things up another notch, rapper/songwriter Cardi B makes a surprise visit and gives commentary as only she can. Proving they can survive in the competitive and cutthroat world of fashion, the hopefuls compete in an array of challenges, including a series first - the flash sale challenge.

The wining designer will receive the largest prize in the show’s history— $250,000 furnished by the Pilot's FriXion Erasable Gel Ink Pen —a feature in ELLE, and his or her own featured role in a Bluprint digital series as well as $50,000 to put toward their own design studio also courtesy of Bluprint. Plus, for the first time ever, “Project Runway” is partnering with one of the most prestigious organizations in fashion, CFDA (The Council of Fashion Designers of America) for a one-on-one mentorship including all the tools and connections to create, grow, and sustain a business in fashion.

What You Need to Know About the Google Chrome Vulnerabilities?

By Gary Davis, Chief Consumer Security Evangelist, McAfee

While you might have been preoccupied with ghosts and goblins on Halloween night, a different kind of spook began haunting Google Chrome browsers. On October 31st, Google Chrome engineers issued an urgent announcement for the browser across platforms due to two zero-day security vulnerabilities, one of which is being actively exploited in the wild (CVE-2019-13720).

So, what is the Google Chrome zero-day exploit? While there are few specific details known at this time, researchers did uncover that the bug is a use-after-free flaw, which is a memory corruption flaw that attempts to access a device’s memory after it has been freed. If this occurs, it can cause a variety of issues including program crashes, execution of malicious code, or even allowing an attacker to gain full remote access to the device.

The second of the two vulnerabilities (CVE-2019-13721) affects PDFium, a platform developed by Foxit and Google. PDFium provides developers with capabilities to leverage an open-source software library for viewing and searching for PDF documents. Like the first bug, this flaw is also a use-after-free vulnerability. However, there have been no reports of it being exploited by cybercriminals for malicious purposes yet.

Luckily, Google has quickly acknowledged the vulnerabilities and is rolling out a patch for these bugs over the coming days. Meanwhile, follow these security tips to help safeguard your data and devices:

Update, update, update. Be sure to install the latest Chrome browser update immediately to help mitigate any risk of falling victim to these exploits.

Turn on automatic updates. Practice good security hygiene by turning on automatic updates. Cybercriminals rely on unpatched software to exploit vulnerabilities, so ensure that your device software is updated as soon as patches are available.

Columbia Pacific Communities Unveils its TV Ad campaign Designed Exclusively for Ted Talks Season 2

Columbia Pacific Communities, India's largest senior living community operators, unveils its first TV ad campaign at Ted Talks India Nayi Baat - II hosted by Shah Rukh Khan. The seven episode show will be aired on weekends at 9:30 p.m. starting November 2. Columbia Pacific Communities has designed the campaign to target the audience of the show, who are progressive and positive in their thoughts and actions. Taking inspiration from the theme, the TVC has been designed and conceptualised in a manner that resonates with the concept of Nayi Baat.

The Ted Talks India Nayi Baat – second season is poised to reach out to the new age India by focusing on social issues and their solutions. In a span of 40 seconds, the TVC, in association with Ted Talks Season 02 Nayi Baat, showcases the brand ethos of positive ageing. The film celebrates the idea of a healthier, happier, worry-free and more purposeful future for seniors who choose to live to their fullest and on their own terms. It thereby, encourages senior citizens to opt staying at The Virtuoso Club and Serviced Residences, Bangalore, India’s first senior living community designed to international standards.

Highlighting the concept of the TVC, Piali Dasgupta, Vice President, Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities, says, "Produced entirely in-house on a shoe string budget, the communication, with the help of captivating images, tells the story of a happier, brighter, healthier and blissful future for our seniors. It weaves in the brand purpose of positive ageing and clearly positions the offering as “serviced residences for seniors” differentiating it from old age homes. The creative challenge was to tell our story in 40 seconds in a way that it showcased our product and service offerings optimally. The communication needed to be engaging, appealing and leave the viewer with a sense of hope and optimism while delivering all of the above. The communication addresses the brand's primary TG (55+ seniors), who have sought and not found this solution."

The TVC offers a true sense of enthusiasm and zeal which stands against the stereotypes one attaches with old age. The video film has been carefully crafted to offer a glimpse of what your future could be like if you choose to stay at the Virtuoso Club and Serviced Residences.

Commenting on choosing Ted Talks as the platform to release the TVC, Basav Mukherjee, Chief Revenue Officer, Columbia Pacific Communities, says, "We are proud to partner Ted Talks as we believe that change of any kind is triggered by conversations. At Columbia Pacific Communities, it is our constant endeavor to shift paradigms as far as senior citizens is concerned. And this will be possible only through conversations.  Star World has been one of the most popular entertainment channels in India, reaching out to 1.3 million English speaking audience for over two decades in our country.  It was our channel of choice given its deep resonance with our audience."

Duration:

Link to TVC: Presenting The Virtuoso Club and Serviced Residences by Columbia Pacific Communities

Technology Trends Shaping E-procurement Industry Across India

Private and government organizations have always procured goods, materials, and labour from vendors. Before e-procurement, organizations procured using simple methods that often resulted in corruption. When the internet became widespread e-procurement became commonplace. Today large organizations have established e-procurement portals that make procurement transparent and seamless. E-procurement today facilitates B2B and e-commerce transactions. Advances in software led to e-procurement picking up steam. With each advance, e-procurement became more thorough and precise.

The prestige of workers in the e-procurement industry has been tied to the state of the economy. During slumps, procurement was managed by clerks. When the economy was robust, procurement became vital to strategy and was managed by well-educated professionals. Today an e-procurement strategy is more vital than ever and believed to be a solution to weathering downturns.

Industries Adopting E-procurement

40% of demand for e-procurement comes from government organisations while 10% comes from manufacturing industries, 12% from hospitality businesses, 4% from IT and software companies, 3% from e-commerce companies, 20% from banking entities, 3% from FMCG players, 3% from the telecom industry, 4% from the healthcare sector, and 1% from other industries.
E-procurement in Next 5 Years

Over the next 5 years, e-procurement will present numerous opportunities to businesses. Businesses that exploit such opportunities will add value to their models. Procurement will deeply influence organization strategy and be a source of competitive advantage. Procurement managers will not only be accountable for lower costs but also innovation, agility, and supply certainty.

Technologies like robotics, AI, and blockchain will make procurement more intelligent, efficient and transform it from a tactical differentiator to a strategic one. Data will be continuously cleansed and improved using machine learning techniques. This will leverage process outcomes and automatically identify and cure data anomalies in systems. Manual processes for high-volume and regular procurement tasks will be eliminated. Procurement will become seamless end-to-end.
Procurement will happen over hyper-connected ecosystems which will become the standard. The process from sourcing to settlement will be unified and provide business agility and speed. 

New Technologies Impacting E-procurement

Technology and digitalization are dramatically changing customer experiences and expectations. Procurement has evolved from an operative, administrative system to a strategic function. Redundant procurement tasks are being automated and C-suite leaders are being involved in decision making. Digital technologies are leading to product innovations that lead to superior market visibility and higher profits.

Last year organizations adopted cognitive procurement technologies like big data analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation. In 2019 these technologies are being adopted more aggressively. Blockchain is being used to transform procurement by improving contract management, tracking, and payment processing.

Before e-procurement organizations communicated offline. Today e-procurement lets organizations work in a coordinated environment. Organizations today are likely to communicate in real-time using online platforms. Organizations use AI to source strategically by predicting demand and during advanced negotiation techniques to optimise their search for suppliers.

Businesses and government organizations have realised that data is the fuel that provides deep insights. It helps make decisions that drive profits and ensure growth. Companies use emerging technologies that convert data into useful information. Such information improves purchasing power, spending management, and mitigates risk.  

Orion Shopping Festival Draws Huge Enthusiasm Among Shoppers

It’s that time of the year, when Bengaluru’s most exciting festive shopping event gets going, attracting huge enthusiasm from eager shoppers who wait for the best deals and promotions. And the annual Orion Shopping Festival at Orion Mall Brigade Gateway never fails to disappoint with its delicious mix of offers and amazing prizes to aspire for.  Beyond the exciting rewards and incentives for shopping, the mall also gets a resplendent makeover with décor that inspires everyone to truly live the spirit of the festive month.

This year, starting from October 5 till November 3, Orion Mall at Brigade Gateway is pulling out all the stops for all those who need an incentive to kick off their festive season shopping frenzies. Shoppers will stand a chance of winning an iconic Harley Davidson Street 750 as the weekly prize, and the cutting edge One Plus 7 phones as the daily prize, making this year’s festivities all the more alluring.

“Orion Shopping Festival is an event that all our patrons look forward to every year.  The mall’s décor is a major draw with people coming here to soak in the beauty of the mall and click pictures as it is a sight to behold. And shoppers flock to us during the festival for an all-in-one experience that covers all their favourite retail brands, and of course, the world-class dining and leisure experiences. Also this time round, we’ve giving away exciting prizes that almost everyone aspires to owning. For close to a decade now, we have kept the excitement levels up and have become the preferred choice for gala festive shopping events in the city” opines Vijay Kumar Bhatia, Sr. GM- Orion Malls.

Singapore - Karnataka Collaborate in Material and Child Healthcare Benefits for 100,000 Mothers, Newborns

Healthcare leaders and specialists across Karnataka and Singapore mark the successful conclusion of a three-year collaboration between the two countries on antenatal and child healthcare in Karnataka at a healthcare symposium today. The three-year capacity building initiative has successfully trained nearly 180 Indian healthcare professionals across the Southern Indian state and as a result, at least 100,000 pregnant mothers and newborns have benefited from better quality healthcare services.

The Enhancing Maternal and Child Health Services (EMCH) Programme is a three-year specialist programme implemented by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) in partnership with SingHealth and the State Institute of Health and Family Welfare (SIHFW), Government of Karnataka. The EMCH Programme was designed to help augment the government’s efforts to tackle preventable causes of both infant and maternal deaths, with the aim of reducing infant deaths and ensuring safer pregnancies for more women.

Since 2016, A/Prof Tan Hak Koon, SIF Specialist Team Leader and Senior Consultant, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, SingHealth has led a team of multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals from the Singapore General Hospital to work with their Indian counterparts in government healthcare institutions in 26 districts across Karnataka including Bengaluru, Belgaum, Mysuru, and Shivamogga to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). [Please refer to the project factsheet for more information on the project.]

These efforts also contribute towards achieving the larger UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 of Good Health and Well-Being, where the global goal1 is to bring the MMR to 70 per 100,000 live births and IMR to 12 per 1000 live births. In India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s has set goals2 of achieving an MMR of 100 by 2020 and IMR of 28 by 2019. Karnataka’s commitment to improving the reproductive and child healthcare systems has helped surpass these goals with an MMR of 703 and IMR of 254 and respectively.

“The overall health and well-being of our society is reflected in having a robust healthcare system for pregnant mothers and infants. Through the SIF and EMCH Programme, we have been able to address gaps in the antenatal care and have made improvements in our journey to providing better services and creating a reliable, sustainable healthcare environment for our citizens. We are heartened that the collaborative efforts by our Indian doctors and their Singaporean counterparts continue to reap positive effects in bringing down our MMR and IMR,” said Dr Rajkumar N, Deputy Director (Maternal Health), Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka.

Over the three-year EMCH Programme, the doctors, nurses, public health leaders and officials from Karnataka had the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with their Singaporean peers through a series of training workshops, a symposium and a study visit to Singapore. All parties gained valuable insights and perspectives from the learning exchange. Among the trained pool of healthcare practitioners, 31 Master Trainers were identified and received additional training on how to cascade their knowledge to their peers in the industry.   

As part of the programme, a half-day Symposium on Labour Room Management will be held at the Lalit Ashok Hotel in Bangalore today. Organised by SingHealth, the Symposium is expected to draw more than 150 delegates, including clinicians from the field of obstetrics & gynaecology, as well as ministry health officials. Experts from Singapore and Karnataka will share their perspectives on topics in the area of maternal and child health.

Professor Ivy Ng, SingHealth’s Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “SingHealth is privileged to have worked with the SIF and SIHFW, Government of Karnataka on this programme to reduce infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates in our respective communities. Our multidisciplinary team of obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives and senior nurses has benefited from the sharing, camaraderie and knowledge exchange as they interacted with the healthcare teams in Karnataka.”

SIF’s Executive Director Jean Tan said, “The EMCH Programme brought together the medical communities in Singapore and Karnataka to help raise standards of MCH in Karnataka which has since benefitted 100,000 pregnant mothers and newborns. This impact – delivered entirely by a team of volunteers from SingHealth who have given generously of their time and talent and their counterparts in Karnataka – bears testament to SIF’s vision of making friends for a better world.”

The EMCH Programme is yet another collaborative project in India in healthcare – one of the key focus areas of the SIF’s work – and joins the ranks of similar maternity and child health programmes in Tamil Nadu (2009 – 2013) and (2015 – 2018). It also marks another milestone in the 24-year friendship between the SIF and India to uplift lives and build enduring friendships between our peoples.