Haptik Expands Leadership Team with Saumil Shah Joining as Vice President of Engineering

Haptik, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries and one of the world’s largest conversational AI platforms, today announced that Saumil Shah has joined the company as the Vice President of Engineering. Shah, who was most recently at Box.com, will join the executive leadership team of Haptik to run end to end engineering and product delivery. He will report directly to Co-Founder & CTO Swapan Rajdev and be based in the company’s headquarters in Mumbai.

With a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Shah has spent the last 10 years in Silicon Valley before moving to India to join Haptik. In his last role, he spent more than 6 years at Box.com, one of the world’s leading cloud storage and management companies. Having initially joined as a Software Engineer, he rose through the ranks to eventually launch and manage a 50+ team responsible for building Box productivity tools and managing quality engineering. Prior to Box, Shah started his career at Zynga, one of the world’s largest gaming companies at the time.

“Saumil’s track record for developing innovative products at scale, seen in his extensive work at Box and Zynga, combined with his deep understanding of technology, makes him an excellent addition to our executive team,” said Rajdev. “His enterprise software perspective will complement our AI product suite to ensure continued innovation and leadership.”

“I have always been a big believer in the power of AI to upgrade customer experiences for brands globally,'' said Shah, who has also had short entrepreneurial stints with one of his iOS apps being bought by an early-stage investor. “Haptik has been at the forefront of this paradigm shift and finds itself at an inflection point as a company today. At Box, I was able to see the power of the enterprise software business, which I hope to leverage in building a world-class engineering organization at Haptik. I’m very excited to join Haptik and work with the amazing team.”

Ever since the strategic transaction with Reliance Industries in April, Haptik has been growing the team organically and through acquisitions. The team is now 160 people, double from what it was at the start of 2019. This includes the acquisitions of Convrg, a Los Angeles based chatbot startup, and Buzzo, a Mumbai based conversational commerce platform. With Saumil on board, this further strengthens the company’s executive leadership to help enable rapid growth. 

Renault Announces Winter Service Camp Across India from November 25 to December 01, 2019

Renault India, the number one European automotive brand in India, continuing its commitment to enhance customer satisfaction with a superlative brand ownership experience, announced the commencement of a nationwide After-sales service initiative, 'Renault Winter Camp' from Nov 25 to till December 01st , 2019. To withstand their constancy and reinforce the relationship with the customers, the service camp will be effective at all Renault Service facilities across India.

With the objective to proactively support customers, the week-long winter camp will offer a comprehensive check-up for all Renault cars through 450+ service touchpoints. Trained and well-qualified service technicians would be dedicated to provide utmost care and expert attention that is needed for the vehicles. As per the guidelines stipulated by Renault India, the seven days winter camp will enable a detailed examination of all key functions of the car to ensure necessary actions for optimal performance of the vehicles.

Renault India will also offer exclusive benefits to its customer under the winter camp. Renault customers can avail up to 50% discount on select accessories, 10% attractive discount offers on select parts, 15% discount on labour charges and other value-added services. Renault India will also provide 10% discount on ‘Renault Secure’ which covers Extended Warranty Enrolment and Road Side Assistance. The company will also offer special price on ‘Renault Assured’ to facilitate the customers with insurance renewal solutions.

In addition to the check-up facilities and free car top wash, Renault India will provide a host of other value-added benefits like special discount offers on tyres (select brands), 5% discount on engine oil replacement and 5% additional discount on select parts & accessories only for MyRenault app registered users. Several fun-filled activities will be organized for customers with assured gifts and much more, making it an enduring and cherishing experience for the customers.

Renault Service Camps have always received an overwhelming response from customers across India and Renault will continue to build on such customer connect activities as it expands its footprint in India. Currently, Renault India also has a widespread presence of more than 350 sales and 264 service facilities across the country with benchmark sales and service quality.

Over the last few years, Renault has focused on establishing a strong base in India. Together with a strong product offensive strategy, Renault has been continuously undertaking strategic measures across all key business dimensions, ranging from product, network expansion, pioneering customer oriented activities and several innovative marketing initiatives to ensure unmatched customer satisfaction.

Bentley Systems Joins as a Multinational Member – Announces Support of IFC for Digital Twins

BuildingSMART International is delighted to welcome Bentley Systems to the community. Bentley Systems, Incorporated is the leading global provider of comprehensive software and digital twin cloud services for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley Systems joins as a multinational member bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the standards and solutions program.

At the same time, Bentley announced the availability of iModel Bridge for IFC, a generic IFC bridge that enables Bentley’s iModels to consume IFC geometry and business data. iModels are specialized containers for infrastructure information that are at the heart of Bentley’s digital twins strategy for infrastructure engineering. iTwin Services now enable iModels to export snapshots in IFC and treat IFC datasets as an input source, aligning their content for use by Bentley’s design applications. Earlier this year, Bentley announced the availability on GitHub of version 1.0 of iModel.js, an open source platform for digital twins (see imodeljs.org).

Bhupinder Singh, Bentley’s chief product officer, said: “Bentley is committed to supporting the best implementation of IFC for digital twins. We are committed to openness, and in fact we’re making plans to open source iModel Bridge for IFC. The combination of IFC support and open source principles should give the community confidence that they can create and curate digital twins without being boxed in by dark data.”

Richard Petrie, CEO, buildingSMART International said, “I am delighted that Bentley has joined buildingSMART International. As one of the major software vendors in our field, Bentley plays a critical role in our community. The vision Bentley has for iModels and open source offers the IFC community exciting new possibilities for open interoperable ways of working with digital twins.”

Emirates, SpiceJet Seal Codeshare Deal for Seamless Access to Indian Travellers

Emirates has signed a codeshare and interline agreement* with SpiceJet to give travellers to and from India seamless access to a wider and a stronger route network. This is the first-ever codeshare agreement signed by SpiceJet.

From early 2020, customers travelling to India can take advantage of many more flight options on routes common to both airlines – Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Cochin and Delhi. Emirates’ customers can conveniently book and connect seamlessly in Dubai on direct services to Amritsar, Calicut, Mangalore, Madurai, Jaipur and Pune – routes served by SpiceJet. 

The codeshare agreement means travellers from across the globe can book a single ticket with attractive fares to any of Emirates’ nine points across India and connect onwards to 172 domestic routes that are part of SpiceJet’s network. SpiceJet’s domestic network includes popular destinations like Goa, Dehradun, Dharamshala, Jaisalmer, Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Guwahati, Pondicherry, Port Blair, Shirdi, Tirupati, Udaipur and Varanasi.

In this first phase of interline agreement customers can start booking flights from 25 November, for travel starting 15 December 2019.

Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer said: “Emirates has historically shared a close and collaborative bond with India. In the last decade, we have flown more than 50 million customers on our Indian routes, which we now serve with 170 weekly services from Dubai. Our partnership will help us leverage SpiceJet’s extensive route network, so that our customers who are visiting friends and family can fly closer to their hometowns, while tourists can more easily access many of the incredible sights and sounds India has to offer. This will also have a significant and positive impact on businesses in both countries and globally. We look to strengthening our partnership with SpiceJet even more in the coming months.”

Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet said: “We are very pleased to partner with Emirates for this new codeshare agreement which will offer a seamless travel experience and the widest possible travel options to our passengers travelling to and from Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East. This codeshare will further strengthen our position in the region and complement our international expansion strategy.”

The codeshare agreement follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by both airlines in April 2019.

*The codeshare agreement is subject to government approvals. 

Fanzart Eagles Now Set to Soar High Among Pro-League Golf Teams

Luxury designer fan brand Fanzart now owns a pro-league golf team, aptly called Fanzart Eagles. With this, Fanzart is backing a great set of sportspersons in the game. India may be a cricket loving nation but, growing silently on the anvil have been several powerhouses in the game of golf that are catapulting the country into the international golfing arena.

Speaking on backing the pro-league golf team, Anil Lala, Founder and Managing Director of Fanzart says, “As a luxury brand, our association with a premium game is a natural step forward. We have some fantastic single handicap players such as Arun Bajaj, Rahul Bhalla and Prahlad Rao, golfers who are held in high esteem in the league, on our team. Just as the mascot of the Eagle that forms the logo our team, we are sure of the soaring success that this league team will achieve going forward”.

Anil Lala goes on to say that it is important that sports forms of every kind have the right kind of backing from strong players across the industry. Backing a pro-league golf team is a way to take the sport to the next big level.

Fanzart Eagles is one of 20 major pro-league teams. Each of these teams have been backed by major corporates and legacy brands based in India. 

All New vivo U20 Mobile Gives Unstoppable Performance & Priced at Rs 10,990

Highlights

·         Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 AIE and massive 5000mAH battery supporting 18W Dual-Engine Fast Charge
·         16.53cm( 6.53) display - Biggest in the segment
·         To be available on Amazon.in and vivo India E-Store starting 28th November, 12PM onwards

vivo, the global innovative smartphone brand, today announced the power-packed addition - U20 to its U-series portfolio. Following the successful launch of U10, this all new entrant is the company’s second offering under the U-series designed especially to cater to the unstoppable generation. The U20 is equipped with the new generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 equipped with 4th Generation Kryo CPU and 6th Generation Adreno GPU and best in segment 5000mAh battery that comes with 18W fast charger inside the box. The device will be available in two variants - 4GB + 64GB and 6GB + 64GB variants (both variants have expandable storage) in two attractive color options – Racing Black and Blaze Blue priced at INR 10,990 and INR 11,990 respectively. The device goes on sale in India on Amazon.in and vivo India E-Store starting from 28th November, 12 noon onwards.

A perfect amalgamation of #UnstoppablePerformance, vibrant display and supreme camera capabilities – U20 offers an impressive 5,000mAh battery that is complemented by 18W fast charge. Running on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 675AIE Octa-core processor clocked up to 2.0GHz, the U20 ensures a seamless experience.  The device also comes with 16MP selfie camera and an AI triple camera setup at the back - 16MP Sony IMX499 (Primary + Night Mode) + 8MP (Super Wide Angle) +2MP (Super Macro).

Consumers will also get an array of attractive offers* on the purchase of vivo U20 including:

·         INR 1000 off on prepaid orders
·         No cost EMI upto six months
·         Jio Benefits worth INR 6000

Like all vivo devices, the U20 follows vivo’s commitment to ‘Make in India’ and is manufactured at vivo’s Greater Noida facility.

Commenting on the launch, Nipun Marya, Director-Brand Strategy, vivo India said, “After the great response that we received for U10 in India, we are excited to announce our second offering under the U-series portfolio; the vivo U20 that will offer a superior experience. This new unstoppable performer will incorporate a differentiated offering at great value, and offer best in class features in the sub-12k category that we believe will be a great fit for the discerning Indian audience.”

Nishant Sardana, Category Leader - Mobile Phones, Amazon India added “Following the success of Vivo U10, we are delighted to extend our association with Vivo for the new U20. We look forward to millennial customers enjoying the second device from the powerful U-Series portfolio on Amazon.in.”

#Unstoppable Performance with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675AIE

The latest vivo U20 uses the new generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 equipped with 4th Generation Kryo CPU and 6th Generation Adreno GPU to give you effortless multi-tasking and powerful gaming experience. To complement SDM675, U20 comes with faster LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.1 Storage. The Antutu score of the processor is over 2 lakhs, thereby providing unstoppable performance.

#Unstoppable Power with a 5000mAh Battery and 18W Fast Charging

Experience Unstoppable Power with the big 5000 mAh Battery on U20. Don’t let the battery stop you from playing games or watching movies. With U20, battery worries are a thing of the past, 18W Dual-Engine Fast Charging technology fills up this big battery in no time. U20 also supports with reverse charging technology and can charge other devices like a mobile power bank. (OTG cable required).

With the help of massive 5000mAh Battery with 18W fast charging, in a single charge users can get:

·         273 hours of standby
·         21 hours of Instagram
·         17 hours of Facebook
·         11 hours of YouTube

#Unstoppable Experience with FHD+ Halo FullView™ Display

U20 gives an immersive experience while playing games and watching videos as it comes with With a 16.58cm (6.53 inch) FHD+ Halo Fullview Display in the segment combined with a high 90.3% Screen to body Ratio. The U20 display also comes with Panda MN228 display protection that scores 700 on the Vickers hardness test results.

Create Memories with AI Triple Camera

When you see the world through an AI Triple Camera, creating photographic masterpieces is easier than ever. U20 features the Sony IMX499 Camera Sensor with large Aperture of f/1.8 and PDAF, to handle everything you throw towards it. A truly versatile camera which comes loaded with like AI Super Wide Angle, Super Macro, Bokeh with Shot-Refocus and much more.

Additionally, the Super Wide Angle lens expands your view to 120° to give you a wider view. And the 16MP front camera with AI Face Beauty helps you celebrate your most radiant moments in life, without effort. It also comes with multiple selfie modes, such as AI Face Beauty, AR Stickers etc. which makes the selfie-taking experience enjoyable and fun.

#Unstoppable Gaming with Ultra Game Mode

Ultra game mode is designed to give you an Unstoppable gaming experience. Multi-Turbo is the lightning-fast feature gamers need. By reducing frame-drop, it gives you smoother gaming experience.

The City Held Second Convocation of Presidency University on November 23, 2019

“India is on the threshold of becoming an economic superpower and India is the leading country when it comes to use of space technology. India has launched 269 satellites of other countries and 118 satellites of its own. The youth of the country can take India to lead the world in all spheres. You have the opportunity to take India to the forefront”. This was stated by Mr. A. S. Kiran Kumar, Former Chairman, ISRO. He was speaking as Chief Guest on the occasion of the 2nd Convocation of Presidency University, Bengaluru on Saturday, 23rd November 2019.  Calling upon the new graduates to keep continuously updating themselves, Mr Kumar said that the knowledge they have acquired today will help them to remain competitive not beyond  two years. And they need to un-learn old knowledge as well as re-learn new knowledge  in order to succeed beyond that. Stressing on the need for acquiring knowledge in multiple domains, Mr Kiran Kumar said that no single domain expertise is sufficient. One has to acquire  knowledge and skills in inter-disciplinary as well as multi-disciplinary areas in order to remain competitive in the present day. Calling upon the new graduates to contribute to society, Mr Kiran Kumar said that not many people get the opportunity for high quality education and therefore, they have a responsibility to contribute to the society, mother earth and nation at large.

The Honourable Chancellor, Sri Nissar Ahmed while delivering the presidential remarks expressed that it was a happy and proud moment for him as the second batch of students graduate out of the university this year. He thanked the parents, students and all the stakeholders who have helped scale up Presidency University to one of class and repute with over 9,200 students on roll today and wished the students success. Giving an inspirational advice to the passing out graduates, the Chancellor said, “ Be smart, be bold and be humble”.

The Guest of Honour and Found Pro Chancellor, Prof. Dr. M Ramachandran recalled the formative days of the university and commended the Chancellor for his commitment to excellence. He stressed that students should build a good character and develop positive qualities of honesty, punctuality and sincerity.

In the beginning, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Radha Padmanabhan welcomed the gathering. Present on the occasion of the Convocation were Pro Chancellor, Prof. Vijayan Immanuel besides members of Board of Governors,  Trustees, faculty members, graduating students and parents. Controller of Examinations, Prof. Surendra Kumar conveyed the Vote of Thanks in the end.

192 MBA graduands of 2017-19 batch and 513 BTech graduands of 2015 -19 batch received their degrees from the Hon’ble Chancellor.  The following graduands received the Gold Medals :

Mr. Jagadish K Reddy of 2017-19 MBA Program received the Kathija Bi Memorial Gold Medal.
Besides, the following graduands received the Abdul Hameed Memorial Gold Medals :

Mr. Nitish Kumar of 2015-19 B.Tech. (Civil Engineering)
Ms. Aparna Dasgupta of 2015-19 B.Tech. (Computer Science and Engineering)
Ms. Aysha Sayed Iqbal of 2015-19 B.Tech. (Electronics and Communication Engineering)
Mr. Prajwal C S of 2015-19 B.Tech. (Electrical and Electronics Engineering)
Mr. Syed Mustaqeem of 2015-19 B.Tech. (Mechanical Engineering)
Mr. Pardeshi Rishabh Kishor of 2015-19 B.Tech. (Petroleum Engineering)