Amazon Prime Video to Launch an All-New Amazon Original Series Hostel Daze

Amazon Prime Video has announced the launch of its latest Amazon Original Series Hostel Daze, created by The Viral Fever (TVF). Marking the first association with Indian youth's much loved content provider, TVF, the five-part comedy-drama brings to life the adventures of four hostel wing-mates, Ankit, Chirag, Jaat and Jhaatu as they embark on an adventurous journey full of challenges, adventures and friendships they will forever cherish. Starring budding talent, Nikhil Vijay, Luv, Shubham Gaur and Adarsh Gaurav, the series launches on 13th December, 2019 across 200 countries and territories on Prime Video.

Vijay Subramaniam, Director and Head, Content, Amazon Prime Video India, said, “Amazon Prime Video continues to reiterate its promise of creating entertaining content for customers across all ages and genres of entertainment. The Viral Fever is known for their engaging content especially in the young adult space and Hostel Daze is a perfect example of that. It’s a highly entertaining series, and we are confident that it will resonate really well with today’s youth. Mark your calendars, for a fun, breezy and entertaining binge-watch, starting 13th December, 2019.”

Sameer Saxena, Chief Content Officer and Head, TVF Originals, said, "This is an exciting time for Indian content players, as the entertainment industry is witnessing a seismic change with the ever-growing demand for homegrown content. Amazon Prime Video has set its mark as a diversified content provider across the world and we are excited about collaborating with them. Hostel Daze is a light-hearted series underlined with emotions that brings to fore the journey of Indian students, as they learn to survive & thrive the ‘hostel life’. We’re optimistic that the show will bring back memories for the ones who’ve lived in hostels, relate to the ones who currently are and set expectations for the ones who’re preparing to start their hostel life.”

Hostel Daze depicts the life of students living or we should say surviving in a Hostel through the adventures of four wing-mates -Ankit, Chirag, Jaat and Jhaatu. As they embark on this journey, facing a variety of challenges and overcoming most of them through new learnings; they develop strong bonds that they shall cherish forever. While navigating through this new phase in life and feelings of vulnerability and nervous excitement that surround the four boys, they find their true identities. In the process, they create a home away from their homes with their own set of random rules. They argue, jostle, hustle but sometimes unite to survive the first semester.

Hostel Daze is poised to strike the right chord with the booming young adult audience. Catering to the needs of this segment, Amazon has made its Prime membership even more affordable with a “youth offer” of 50% cashback on its Annual Prime membership of INR 999. Customers in the age bracket of 18-24 years can avail this exciting offer by signing up for Prime and verifying their age on the Amazon app.

TGIS - The Global Indian School @ JP Nagar Opens for Admissions

A school is a space that should ignite curiosity and nurture creativity. With that as a central credo, TGIS - The Global Indian School @ JP Nagar now opens its doors for admission from nursery to Std VI for first year and later to Std X. With a child-centric approach, the school focuses on creating a personalised learning space for every student. The school offers the CBSE syllabus, in a compact structure that allows for a number of professional traits such as leadership, project management, and interactive abilities and other such value-added skills to be easily incorporated.

Speaking on the opening of admissions Pramod Srinivas, Founder, TGIS - The Global Indian School @ JP Nagar says, “Classrooms have now become a collaborative space where teachers have moved to the role of being facilitators – of knowledge and the learning of skills. In keeping with our strong belief in equal opportunity, we are a completely non-biased and an inclusive school, of children with disabilities, irrespective of gender and race. We have ensured that the focus at TGIS - The Global Indian School @ JP Nagar is not just on the ‘what’ of learning but, also on the ‘how’ of learning”.

Supporting this approach are a range of unique programmes that are offered at TGIS - The Global Indian School @ JP Nagar. Some of them are

·        Choice time and Wonder time activities - giving time to answer all those curious questions with hands-on work
·        Circle time
·        Show ‘n’ tell
·        DEAR – Drop Everything and Read
·        Writer’s workshop
·        Research and Referral
·        Jigsaw Learning
·        E-Qube - a program that teaches children critical thinking, skill-based problem solving and life skills. Students are taught to be empathetic, which is the need of the hour

The school also offers signature programmes such as the TGIS Dayitva- that opens opportunities for community development, wildlife interaction, collection programs for charity, community care etc.

Besides these differentiators, the school is equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories for young minds to explore the world around them. The school also places emphasis on safety – from transportation methods to the campus.

For more admission details contact: (080) 6364888811/22 or you can log on to https://theglobalindianschool.com/

Tata Trust’s CInI Scales Up Partnership With CropIn To Impact 40,000 Tribal Households in Jharkhand

The Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), an Initiative of Tata Trusts, has scaled up its programme on Lakhpati Kisan with technology integration in partnership with agri-tech pioneer CropIn to improve the livelihoods of 40,000+ tribal households across its focused states in Central Indian Tribal Belt. The partnership was announced at an event conducted by CInI in Ranchi. This partnership comes as part of CInI’s ‘Mission 2020: Lakhpati Kisan – Smart Villages’ program, which aims to bring over 1 lakh households out of poverty by improving their livelihood and overall quality of life  in an irreversible and sustainable manner.

Nearly 85% of India’s agricultural sector comprises of small and marginal farmers, most of whom face challenges such as high production costs, low access to credit, and poor market linkages. Community Institutions such as Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are a great way for these farmers to come together to overcome these issues and have economies of scale. FPOs provide a great opportunity for diverting a part of development funds into implementing technology projects for small and marginal farmers to meet their aspirations in the agriculture sector.

The partnership with CInI is being implemented through community institutions that are led entirely by women farmers. These tribal women farmers are responsible for timely and effective monitoring of the farmlands along with providing regular guidance to the farmers. The program not only looks at poverty alleviation but also focuses strongly on women empowerment.

The CInI’s program has witnessed great success since its launch in 2015 and has impacted the lives of over 100,000 households, bringing them in the ambit of institutional structures for driving change. They now want to strengthen their impact and efficacy by leveraging the advanced technologies in the field of agriculture to address the specific constraints faced by the tribal population in the region. CInI also believes in the merits of livestock development for which they are looking to initiate better animal husbandry practices. For taking the program to the next level with the help of a cutting-edge technology solution, CropIn will play an important role in achieving CInI’s vision of changing human lives for the better.

The partnership announcement event held in Ranchi witnessed a community interaction that focused on the "Role of technology in enhancing smallholder farmers’ income”. The gathering was attended by invitees from various like-minded organizations. Speaking on the occasion, Ganesh Neelam, Executive Director of CInI said, “Achieving aspirations of tribal communities through the focused Lakhpati Kisan programme has been the focus at CInI. For us, innovative technologies and approaches are core for achieving the outcomes of these communities. The partnership with a well-known technology partner such as CropIn is very unique and important for us to meet the audacious goals of our programme. We proactively look for this partnership to be taken at scale for larger benefits of small and marginal farmers.

The first phase of this partnership started in 2018, during which CInI leveraged CropIn’s SmartFarm to improve the livelihood of 4,300+ farmers across the Gorabanda and Dhalbhumgarh regions in Jharkhand. Looking at the outcomes and impact generated by this pilot, CropIn and CInI have decided to set a bigger goal of scaling up to reach more than 40,000 households.

SmartFarm uses cutting-edge technologies like real-time satellite-based plot monitoring to intervene at every stage of the crop lifecycle. The solution helps build accurate farmer and produce profiles through proper channelization and digitization of data. It also actively engages farmers by sending them farm best practices advisories — not only for agriculture but also for livestock like pigs and goats. SmartFarm also helps monitor the field team that consists exclusively of women tribal farmers. The field staff engage with the farmers on a day-to-day basis and gather critical farm data using SmartFarm’s easy-to-use modules. SmartFarm helps conduct yield analysis, allowing CInI to measure the impact of the interventions and improve outcomes going forward.

"Through our partnership with CInI, we aim to promote technology in the larger space especially in the tribal areas. Additionally, we are also providing our solution for the livestock sector. The uniqueness of this program is that it is managed by women-led FPOs thereby emphasizing our focus on women empowerment. We are incredibly excited about this partnership and look forward to creating a positive impact in the lives of farmers." Jitesh Shah, CRO of CropIn Technology added.

About Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI)
Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI) is a nodal agency of the Tata Trusts, working on transforming the lives of tribal households in the Central India tribal belt. The organization works with various civil society organizations, agriculture and other knowledge institutions, state agencies to establish sustainable development models for tribal communities.

In 2015, CInI launched a highly ambitious “Lakhpati Kisan – Smart Villages” program to work with over 100,000 families and make them lakhpati irreversibly and sustainably through agriculture and allied livelihood prototypes embedded with technology innovations led by community institutions and micro enterprises.

Star World in Partnership with Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Celebrates MasterChef Australia at Daddy, Bangalore

Nothing unites people more than the lure of a sumptuous feast. Standing true to this thought, Star World, India’s leading English entertainment channel, and Jacob’s Creek, the most acclaimed Australian wine in the world, come together to create a MasterChef Experience like never before! As the most loved culinary cooking show in the world, MasterChef Australia’s Season 11, nears its finale, Star World along with its proud sponsor, Jacob’s Creek Music CDs, hosted an exclusive scintillating dinner party this Friday at Daddy in Indiranagar, in Bangalore.

In order to bring a stunning gourmet experience to its MasterChef fans in in the city, Star World and Jacob’s Creek delivered a stunning ‘Our Table’ themed soiree by bringing dishes from a medley of cuisines and hereby created a wholesome MasterChef Experience! The theme reflected the wine brand’s exclusive food and wine experience – ‘Our Table’, offered at their Barossa valley vineyard in Australia and combined it with a dining extravaganza for the ultimate reunion of food, fashion and culinary greatness.

Course by course, invitees were drawn into a spectacular experience that transposed the traditional wine tasting process as world renowned wine ambassadors, Hortense Cabouret and Abhinav Dewan, interacted with them about food pairing techniques with wine. Moreover, exquisite dishes curated specially for this spectacular gathering by one of MasterChef Australia Season 11’s top 5 contenders – Sandeep Pandit, offered an unforgettable experience to all the guests. And while people from across the culinary and fashion industry delighted over the world-class wines and delicious food, this upscale and classy bungalow turned café – Daddy was all LIT and cozy for this intimate affair.

The chefs at this café along with MasterChef Season 11 alumni, Sandeep Pandit, presented guests with a top-notch menu serving delicious dishes ranging from Tandoori Spiced Cauliflower Stakes, to lip-smacking Croquettes with Pomello salad. And with these wow-worthy buffet offerings which included a whole table dedicated to delicious Braised and Grilled Lamb, a fun twist to the classic Indian Pani Puri and finally Poached Apples with Fresh Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream, also laid out were some of the finest collection of wines from Jacobs’ Creek.

Influential personalities such as culinary genius and TED speaker Vinay Nagaraju, MasterChef India Season 2 runner Shazia Khan, Ankit Mehrotra – CEO, Dine Out, Mayank Mittal – CEO, Qualdix among others, graced this Our Table with their presence and indulged in an all-immersive gourmet experience of exquisite food and world-class wines. 

Actress Aishani Shetty Inaugurates ‘Asia Jewels Fair 2019 at Vivanta by Taj Whitefield from Dec 7-8, 2019

Asia Jewels Fair ’2019, one of South India’s most Glamorous & Niche Jewellery Exhibitions, is hosting its 17th edition in Bengaluru city from 7th to 8th December 2019. The Grand jewelry Fair will take place at Hotel Vivanta By Taj whitefield, situated on Whitefield Main Road, and one of the most luxurious 5-star hotels in this area, from 10.30 a.m. to 8 p.m.  This expo will be one of the most exclusive ones, as this will be showcasing Jewellery designs which has never been seen before and top handpicked from various parts of India.

The Grand Inauguration of Asia Jewels Fair 2019 was Inaugurated by  Actress Aishani Shetty at Hotel Vivanta by Taj Whitefield, Bengaluru on 7th December 2019..

Asia Jewels Fair ‘19 is a very niche event exhibiting exclusive and high-end branded jewellery in gold and diamond segments. The event will showcase some of the latest collections from, Fine gold Jewellery, Diamond Jewellery, Platinum Jewellery, Traditional Jewellery, Wedding Jewellery, Precious stone Jewellery, Kundan, Jadau & Polki Jewellery etc.

“Asia Jewels Fair “ is one of the most prestigious and  most awaited Jewellery exhibitions in the city. This fair will offer a great shopping experience and even provide an option to Pre book the desired Jewellery  for the up-coming Marriage Season & all the prospective grooms and brides. A fair like this is a one stop-shop that brings some of the best jewellery, designs and precious stones under one roof. It is the perfect destination to buy exquisite and world class jewellery in South India.”

It will be a treat to watch Luxury Jewellery designs from top leading brands of Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Surat & Hyderabad, displaying their exclusive designs and coming together to create the most glamorous & spectacular platform for designer Jewellery. Some of the  International Jewellery designs have also participated in the grand event. Abaran - Timeless Jewellery  , Sri Ganesh Diamonds & Jewellery  , Nikhaar Jewels  , Mohika Jewels - Mumbai, Vitrag Jewels , Abira Jewellery  , Bikaneri Jewels –Mumbai.Antegra  are few of them.

P&G Health Launches PANACHE for India’s Gen X Doctors – Platform to Assist Medical Students on Healthcare

Highlights

* PANACHE will assist medical students in honing crucial skills for holistic patient care such as medico–legal aspects, ethics, role of technology and soft skills like emotional intelligence
* Participants from more than 250 medical colleges across 130 cities will go through 2 rounds of online quiz assessments culminating in a live quiz for the final round at the APICON 2020
* Top 3 PANACHE winners will be offered a scholarship for further education by P&G Health

Procter & Gamble Health Limited (formerly known as Merck Limited) today announced the launch of PANACHE - a first of its kind platform to support India’s Gen X doctors in their medical education journey. India has over 65,000 medical students enrolled in 450 medical colleges, amongst whom 30,000 post graduate students will soon enter the professional world. Intended to supplement their core medical curriculum, PANACHE aims to assist students in honing crucial skills for holistic patient care viz medico–legal aspects, ethics, role of technology, emotional intelligence, decision making, good communication, teamwork, problem solving and leadership among others.

822 students are from Karnataka, which constitutes 34% of the 10,200+ students who have already enrolled for PANACHE nationwide. Speaking about the initiative, Milind Thatte - Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Health Limited stated, “As India increases access to healthcare, patient expectations of care are rising. Today’s doctors require multiple competencies for good practice. P&G Health’s PANACHE goes beyond sharing medical expertise for any therapy area, to help equip the doctors of tomorrow with holistic skills that encompass all aspects of clinical practice. We are very thankful to the renowned medical expert panel, who worked with us to design the PANACHE program to ensure it covers the most relevant skills and topics, and to the Heads of Medical colleges who are partnering with us to take this program to students across the length and breadth of India.”

* 1st Round (online): 8th Dec ‘19
* 2nd Round (online): 15th Dec ‘19
* Final Round (live): 8th Jan ’20 at APICON, Agra

All participating students will have access to tutorials and learning  resources on www.panacheindia.org, as well as workshops conducted by leading experts on medico-legal guidelines, patient-doctor interactions etc.

Participants from more than 250 colleges across 130 cities will go through 2 rounds of online quiz assessments culminating in a live quiz for the final round at the APICON 2020. All participating students will have access to tutorials and learning resources on www.panacheindia.org, as well as workshops conducted by leading experts on medico-legal guidelines, and patient-doctor interaction. Top 3 PANACHE winners will be offered a scholarship for further education by P&G Health.

Underscoring the vital need in Bangalore for such a program, Dr. Srinivasa S., MBBS, MD (Paed), FIAP, Professor and HOD of Paediatrics, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bangalore said, “The skills and topics tested by PANACHE have immense practical value. Patients today are increasingly empowered and come prepared to discuss and evaluate various options towards better health. Providing care is not just about diagnosing and treating diseases, but also about leading patients through a journey of sound management and adherence to a plan. Any platform that helps today’s students build these requisite skills will help drive better care for patients.”

The Last Overland Expedition Arrives at Land Rover’s Manufacturing Site in Slovakia

The Last Overland, a team reversing the famous 1955 Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition continues its journey from Singapore to London with a visit to Jaguar Land Rover’s manufacturing facility in Nitra, Slovakia.

There, the team were met by the latest Land Rover, the New Defender, which came face-to-face with its early ancestor “Oxford” a Series I Land Rover. To welcome the team at Nitra were Slovakian Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, alongside Jaguar Land Rover’s Executive Director for Manufacturing, Grant McPherson.

The team were given the opportunity to tour the state-of-the-art facilities at Nitra, where they saw New Defenders rolling off the production line. Alex Bescoby, expedition lead commented, “We had always hoped to visit Nitra as part of our voyage and to explore the manufacturing heart of the New Defender. We received a fantastic welcome from the Jaguar Land Rover team at Nitra – marking a special start to our homeward leg to London”.

Land Rover will continue to support The Last Overland on their journey through Western Europe, with the team travelling through Austria, Germany, France and Belgium before their arrival into the United Kingdom on 14 December.

A gathering of Land Rover owners will assemble from across the UK and Europe to welcome The Last Overland team at Folkestone, UK. After, the team will be joined by a specially commissioned Oxford & Cambridge liveried New Defender on its final journey to the finish line at The Hilton Park Lane in London - yards from the finish line of the First Overland Expedition in 1956.

Alex recounts, “This journey has definitely been an action packed one, filled with many ups and downs, and I can’t believe how quickly the eighteen months that went into planning this journey has brought us here, all in one piece so far! We’ve managed to drive this incredible 64-year-old car once more, to so many remote and fascinating parts of the world, through tropical monsoons, -20 degree and at more than 5000m above sea level. Oxford has taken it all in stride. From Nagaland to Tibet, from Turkmenistan to Serbia, the welcome we’ve received has been unbelievable.”

The Last Overland expedition a test of strength and grit

Like any major expedition, especially one crossing so many international borders in such an old car, The Last Overland was not one without problems. One particularly memorable incident was a major mechanical mishap where Oxford’s back wheel fell off while Alex & Nat were driving at 70kmph in Turkmenistan, severing their brakes entirely.

The humans on the journey were also put to the test. The team of eight from the UK, France, USA, Belgium, Indonesia and Singapore were presented with a different set of challenges, including when altitudes, temperatures and various diets took a toll on their bodies. These involved the occasional food poisoning episodes, frigid temperatures and even needing to rely on supplementary oxygen while coping with altitude sickness at certain points of the journey.