Star World Bids Adieu to Judges George, Matt and Gary through a MasterChef Extravaganza!

Food does not discriminate – it is a universal experience! And, in taking this experience to unprecedented heights, Star World, home to the world’s biggest cooking franchise in the country – MasterChef, hosted a grand soirée in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

In Bangalore, the event took place at the premium rustic and outdoorsy property of Tiamo, Conrad replete with a sumptuous 5-course meal and a delectable wine pairing affair that was brought to attendees by pouring partner, Jacob’s Creek. The occasion also signified an important milestone in the course of MasterChef history – the exit of judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, the trio that made MasterChef a global phenomenon.

The evening commenced with the presentation of an exquisite menu for the evening, one that was wholly dedicated to the judges. It comprised some of George, Gary and Matt’s favourite dishes from the show that was expressly curated by Sandeep Pandit, who was not only one of the top 5 contests on the 11th season of MasterChef Australia but was also one of the judges’ favourites. In knowing their tastes and having interacted with them throughout the season, the talented chef pieced the entire menu together and attendees were seen indulging in the delicacies that were laid out for them.

The menu consisted of a wholesome five course meal serving delicious dishes like Butter Corn Fritters with appetizers such as Tomata & Plum salad, Classic Prawn Cocktail, along with Spanish Chicken & Lamb Chorizo, Kale Risotto, Fish Puttanesca, and Chick Pea Puttanesca! Making the venue an exquisite food heaven, the feast culminated with scrumptious Salted Sour Cream Cheese Cakes!

Commenting on this joyous occasion, Chef Praveen Shetty, Tiamo, Conrad Bengaluru said “Our food philosophy at Conrad Bengaluru is to stay true to retain the essence of the dish while using the freshest ingredients and most robust meats. We are excited to present an innovative menu to the residents of Bengaluru, inspired by the great masterchef Australia series, at our award winning alfresco dining restaurant.”

An all-immersive gourmet dining experience in an elegantly designed setting together with the attendees, the most mouthwatering dishes from the show and a divine ambience created a gastronomic extravaganza like no other. Marking a momentous occasion, the magnificent affair was the perfect sendoff by Star World to the loved judges – Matt, Gary and George!

MasterChef Australia Season 11 airs in India on Star World. It is presented by Michelin Tyres, powered by Jacob’s Creek Music CDs and Cadbury Dairy Milk, with Titan as the lifestyle partner.

Season 2 of Smule Mirchi Cover Star will Unearth India’s Hidden Singing Talent

After a phenomenal first season, ‘Smule Mirchi Cover Star’, one of India’s largest digital singing talent hunts hosted by Radio Mirchi, is back with season two. Presented by Smule, the world’s favourite social music making app, the contest is now Live.

The talent hunt is a coveted platform for youngsters to showcase their singing talent and offers winners a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform at the 12th Mirchi Music Awards in Mumbai in the presence of leading icons of the Indian music industry.

Smule is returning as the title sponsor for the talent hunt after a hugely successful first edition that saw over 50,000 unique entries.

Interested participants simply need to download the Smule app and sing their cover entry.

Smule is backed in India by Times Bridge, an investment arm of the Times Group.

Bill Bradford, President, Smule said:  “India is a strategic market for us and a key part of our truly global community. Smule Mirchi Cover Star is a terrific way of not just unearthing and investing in local talent, but also of establishing our credentials as the most innovative and impactful musical performance platform. We want to use the mobile phone to connect people through music and bring it back to its social roots.”

Viral Jani, Senior Vice-President, Investment Operations, Times Bridge, added: “Our mission at Smule India is to give our users an unparalleled sing-along experience. Offering a national canvas makes Smule Mirchi Cover Star a unique platform to showcase musical talent in a truly democratic and accessible way. It’s an unmatched experience for winners to perform in front of prominent names of the music fraternity.”

Yatish Mehrishi (COO), Radio Mirchi: “Looking at the growing trends in the singing category and the excitement that people have for such activities, we were keen to give our listens one such innovative platform. Smule Mirchi Cover Star is a platform that not only will help people explore their hidden singing talent but also, something that people will enjoy while participating. After an amazing response in the first season we look forward to discover many such hidden gems and give the winner the stage of Mirchi Music Awards.”

In Phase 1 of the contest, all entries will be screened and the top 100 will be shortlisted. These will be uploaded on the Smule Mirchi Cover Star website (www.mirchicoverstar.com) for voting and social engagement. These form the basis for evaluation, along with the decisions of judges Jonita Gandhi and the Meet Brothers.

Thereafter, five entries will be shortlisted from the 100 for the final round. The top five will battle it out at a specially curated event with press, fans and judges. The winner will be chosen and then groomed for various performances, including at the Mirchi Music Awards 2020.

Earlier this year, Ashmik Patil was crowned the first Smule Mirchi Cover Star and performed with the Meet Brothers at the 11th Mirchi Music Awards in front of the Bollywood music fraternity. Patil said:

“It’s been a life-changing experience - to be mentored by and share the stage with the Meet Brothers; I’m grateful to Smule and Radio Mirchi for the opportunity”.  Since being named the winner, Patil has gone on to perform at several live venues as well as for multiple Radio Mirchi events.

India Fashion Forum Turns 20, Set to Unveil Fashion Retail Intelligence Event in Bengaluru from Dec 17-18, 2019

India’s largest fashion intelligence event, India Fashion Forum (IFF) will be back with its 20th edition on December 17 and 18, 2019 at the Conrad Hotel, Bengaluru – marking two decades of its role as a key influencer and catalyst of fashion retail evolution in India. And for the first time in its long history, IFF is also changing its address — to Bengaluru, home to possibly India’s most innovative, tech-entrepreneurial demographic.

IFF’s move to Bengaluru endorses the story of fashion retail metamorphosis over the past few years. If the customer is at the heart of successful retailing, tech is now the soul. This also underpins the launch of Fashion Techway at the 20th edition of IFF. A futuristic showcase of tech-propelled fashion retail innovation, Fashion Techway will be not just the Showstopper, but will also be a ‘crystal ball’ of the future of this industry.

The event will offer an extraordinary environment dedicated to outstanding, mind warping innovation in the business of fashion, from agile design tools to exceptional in-store tech influencers, from the dynamic science of fashion retail analytics to hyper-targeted social marketing.

Referring to the significance of IFF’s role in catalysing Indian fashion retail, Amitabh Taneja, Chief Convenor, India Fashion Forum says, “It’s a milestone year for us, marking two decades of its recognition as a key influencer and catalyst of fashion retail evolution in India. This year, preview the next generation of fashion retail in granulated detail, from smart, sustainable sourcing to intuitive, real-time customer engagement, and everything in between. Besides these, through the launch of Fashion Techway we will help stakeholders discover how Innovation and Tech will be the biggest drivers of profitable fashion retail in 2020 and beyond.”

The 20th edition of IFF will be chaired by Akhilesh Prasad, President & Chief Executive, Fashion & Lifestyle Businesses, Reliance Retail.

“We must optimise India’s native intelligence through thousands of years of trading and retailing. Our legacy will never be obsolete; we just need to have powerful faith in ourselves. We must be be distracted or intimidated by new-fangled technology jargons; Indian brands and retailers need to use the intimate knowledge of our own country to effectively compete in a globalised market,” he notes, offering a preview of the conference agenda at the event.

Key Highlights : 20th IFF in Bengaluru

* 600+ unique fashion brands and companies representing best-in-class of fashion retail innovation
* 50+ Conference sessions, debates and discussions across two days
* Launch of Fashion Techway, exclusive showcase of fashion retail powered by tech
* 200+ C-Suite Speakers from all fashion retail functions — sourcing, business development, operations, product innovation, retail innovation and tech
* 20th IMAGES Fashion Awards presenting a first-ever format for fashion & lifestyle brands and retailers to present success stories to a global Grand Jury and industry peers at such a mega forum. Success stories will include: expansion, new launches, concepts, new outlets, flagship stores, innovation in product & retail design/VM, excellence across value & distribution chain, marketing & promotions, tech implementation in retail ops and customer service and more…

Over 200 speakers representing leading companies operating across the fashion retail value chain will be anchoring the two-day conference. Over 600 unique brands and companies will be attending and exhibiting next generation product innovation, retail support solutions and futuristic retail technology innovations at the mega congregation.

Among the speakers at the 20th IFF are: Suresh J, MD & CEO, Arvind Brands & Retail, Lavanya Nalli, President, Nalli, Abhishek Ganguly, MD, Puma India, Nina Lekhi, MD & Chief Design Curator, Baggit, Dilip Kapur, President & Founder, Hidesign, Vasanth Kumar, MD, Lifestyle, Rishi Vasudev, SVP & Group Head, Fashion, Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Ramneek Khurana, Co-founder, Lenskart, Gautam Vazirani, Creative Strategist – Sustainable Fashion, IMG Reliance, Sanjeev Mohanty, Managing Director, South Asia, Middle East And North Africa, Levi Strauss and Company, among others.

About India Fashion Forum

Launched in 2000, India Fashion Forum (IFF) is India’s largest fashion retail intelligence event. Every year, a powerful blend of conference sessions, workshops and master classes, zoned exhibitions and industry awards mark IFF’s confluence of the biggest consumer trends, market intelligence and retail innovation in the business of fashion in India.

The 20th edition of IFF Conference will offer unparalleled insights from international and Indian industry experts, academics, global fashion research majors and analysts through a world-class mix of keynote addresses, panel discussions, CEOs Roundtables, presentations, knowledge series sessions and workshops. Four themed exhibition platforms — Fashion Sourcing, L Cube, Asia Shop, India Brand Show — will showcase the most market-ahead fashion ingredients, design innovation, technology, retail strategies and solutions to a mega congregation of leaders from the business of fashion in India and elsewhere.

Christmas Just Got Merrier with 3 Special Edition Fans from Fanzart

This Christmas, the aroma of pudding can disseminate throughout your living space as Fanzart, a fan manufacturer which focuses on innovative designs and features have launched a new range of fans adding glitter to this Christmas festival. It appends to the decorative spirit, the twinkling of lights, the beautiful colors, nativity scene, sweet aroma of freshly baked cookies and multitude of decorations.

Mr. Tarun Lala, Executive Director, Fanzart said, “The new Christmas range of fans appends our existing novel collections. Apart from celebrations, décor is a main element of Christmas. We wanted to offer our customers tote up their décor with a stylish and feature rich fans.”

‘Shimmer’ to the Twinkle

‘Shimmer’ is a stylish, glittery and musical ceiling fan that comes with retractable blades and a three-colour LED light dome. The addition of glitter makes it look like the night sky, making it perfect to sleep under. Equipped with blue-tooth speakers, here’s a fan that can turn your Christmas Eve into a night full of fun and laughter with Christmas carols playing from up above. 

Features:

Colour: White
Blade: Retractable Transparent Fine Acrylic 4 nos
Sweep: 1118 mm / 44 in
Light Kit: Multi Colour LED (36W)
Sound Kit: 10W Bluetooth Speaker

Speicial Functionalities:

BLDC motor fan
Glittery effect on the fan
Multi-colour LED option

Bluetooth speakers

‘Pluto’ Swaps Red and Wooden Finish

A remarkable feat of engineering, the Pluto boasts a laudably compact design. The high quality special wooden blades come in a reversible dual colour scheme, which makes this fan an interior designer’s dream. The fan complements very well with the Christmas décor as you can swap the blades to the red colour. The fan itself will become the centre piece in your Christmas themed living room.

Features:

Colour: Nickel Black
Blade: Reversible High Quality Special Wood Red / Black 5 nos
Sweep: 1070 mm / 42 in

Special Functionalities:

Reversible blades
Summer Winter feature

‘Tiffany’ Filled with Affluence

This range is named after one of the most gifted jewellery makers in history and the name goes by the core material used which is Tiffany stained glass. Tiffany redefines aesthetic brilliance. The dome and lamp shades feature exquisite glass-painting while the hand-crafted wooden blades form a sight to feast on. The penta-pack LED lights also make the fan capable of illuminating larger rooms than its competitors. The Tiffany brings in the festive season with panache.

Features:

Colour: Hand Painted Multi Coloured Stained Glass
Blade: Hand Crafted Natural Wood, Chestnut 5 nos
Sweep: 1320 mm / 52 in
Light Kit: E27 x 5 (15W) | E12 x 4
Pull Chain Included

Special Functionalities:
Summer winter feature
Hand painted stained glass
Hand crafted wooden blades

New Jaguar Lifestyle Collection Inspired by Classic Mark 2 Saloon will Unveil for Christmas

Highlights

* Exclusive apparel and lifestyle accessories celebrate legendary Mark 2 Saloon on its 60th anniversary
* New range includes heritage art prints, ‘ultimate getaway car’  T-shirt, espresso set and zip-up jacket
* The Mark 2 was launched in 1959 and went on to inspire future generations of Jaguar sport saloons
* New collection is part of a Jaguar lifestyle range perfect for Christmas gifts

Jaguar has channeled the timeless design of its legendary Mark 2 saloon for a new range of clothes and accessories – perfect for Christmas.

The lifestyle collection celebrates the famous model’s 60th anniversary with the exceptional attention to detail Jaguar cars have always been renowned for.

A choice of three heritage art prints capture the spirit of the original sports saloon, while a set of four espresso cups feature graphics inspired by the Mark 2’s distinctive twin headlamps.

The Mark 2's role in popular culture is celebrated on a T-shirt with the ‘Ultimate Getaway Car’ printed on the back. Available in three colours, it also has an instantly recognisable graphic of the car's shape. A zip-up cotton jacket features the same stylised image on the inner lining while a cap showcases a second design.

Joe Sinclair, Jaguar Land Rover Director of Branded Goods and Licensing, said: “We wanted to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the legendary Mark 2 in a way that allowed enthusiasts to show their admiration for the car. It’s such an iconic vehicle that this collection will appeal to anyone interested in enduring design and classic vehicles. They are perfect Christmas gifts.”

The Jaguar Mark 2 was launched in 1959 at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, and became an overnight sensation, embodying all three attributes from William Lyons’ famous advertising slogan: Grace, space and pace. It was available with a choice of powerful XK- derived six-cylinder engines, including the top-of-the-range 3.8 l that delivered 164 kW (223 PS) and a top speed of 201 km/h (125 mph).

Along with its reputation for its exceptional on-road performance, the Mark 2 was also part of Jaguar’s motorsport success story, with Roy Salvadori and Graham Hill among the greats to drive it to victory in saloon car races.

New Tool from the Center for AI in Society at USC Aims to Prevent Suicide Among Youth

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), the suicide rate for individuals 10 – 24 years has increased 56% between 2007 and 2017. In comparison to the general population, more than half of people experiencing homelessness have had thoughts of suicide or have attempted suicide, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council reported.

Phebe Vayanos, assistant professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering has been enlisting the help of a powerful ally –artificial intelligence– to help mitigate the risk of suicide.

“In this research, we wanted to find ways to mitigate suicidal ideation and death among youth. Our idea was to leverage real-life social network information to build a support network of strategically positioned individuals that can ‘watch-out’ for their friends and refer them to help as needed,” Vayanos said.

Vayanos, an associate director at USC’s Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS), and her team have been working over the last couple of years to design an algorithm capable of identifying who in a given real-life social group would be the best persons to be trained as “gatekeepers” capable of identifying warning signs of suicide and how to respond.

Vayanos and Ph.D. candidate Aida Rahmattalabi, the lead author of the study “Exploring Algorithmic Fairness in Robust Graph Covering Problems,” investigated the potential of social connections such as friends, relatives, and acquaintances to help mitigate the risk of suicide. Their paper will be presented at the Thirty-third Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) in December 2019.

“We want to ensure that a maximum number of people are being watched out for, taking into account resource limitations and uncertainties of open world deployment. For example, if some of the people in the network are not able to make it to the gatekeeper training, we still want to have a robust support network,” Vayanos said.

For this study, Vayanos and Rahmattalabi looked at the web of social relationships of young people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, given that 1 in 2 youth who are homeless have considered suicide.

“Our algorithm can improve the efficiency of suicide prevention trainings for this particularly vulnerable population,” Vayanos said.

For Vayanos, efficiency translates into developing a model and algorithm that can stretch limited resources as far as they can go. In this scenario, the limited resources are the human gatekeepers. This algorithm tries to plan how these individuals can be best positioned and trained in a network to watch out for others.

“If you are strategic,” says Vayanos, “you can cover more people and you can have a more robust network of support.”

“Through this study, we can also help inform policymakers who are making decisions regarding funding on suicide prevention initiatives; for example, by sharing with them the minimum number of people who need to receive the gatekeeper training to ensure that all youth have at least one trained friend who can watch out for them,” Vayanos said.

 “Our aim is to protect as many youths as possible,” said lead author, Rahmattalabi.

An important goal when deploying this A.I. system is to ensure fairness and transparency.

“We often work in environments that have limited resources, and this tends to disproportionately affect historically marginalized and vulnerable populations,” said co-author on the study Anthony Fulginiti, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Denver who received his Ph.D. from USC, having begun his research with Eric Rice, founding director of USC CAIS.

“This algorithm can help us find a subset of people in a social network that gives us the best chance that youth will be connected to someone who has been trained when dealing with resource constraints and other uncertainties,” said Fulginiti.

This work is particularly important for vulnerable populations, say the researchers, particularly for youth who are experiencing homelessness.

“"One of the surprising things we discovered in our experiments based on social networks of homeless youth is that existing A.I. algorithms, if deployed without customization, result in discriminatory outcomes by up to 68% difference in protection rate across races. The goal is to make this algorithm as fair as possible and adjust the algorithm to protect those groups that are worse off,” Rahmattalabi said.

The USC CAIS researchers want to ensure that “gatekeeper” coverage of the more vulnerable groups is as high as possible. Their algorithm reduced the bias in coverage in real-life social networks of homeless youth by as much as 20%.

Said Rahmattalabi: “Not only does our solution advance the field of computer science by addressing a computationally hard problem, but also it pushes the boundaries of social work and risk management science by bringing in computational methods into design and deployment of prevention programs.”

The research is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office and involves collaborators: Eric Rice, associate professor at USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and founding director of the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society; Anthony Fulginiti, an assistant professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work; Milind Tambe, professor of computer science at Harvard University; Brryian Wilder, Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at Harvard; and Amulya Yadav (’18 Ph.D.), assistant professor of computer science at Penn State University.

Tata Motors Announces the Launch of New Generation Prima and Ultra Trucks in Kuwait

Tata Motors, one of the world’s leading automobile brands today officially launched its new generation range of Prima and Ultra trucks in Kuwait, specially designed to meet the changing customer needs.

The world smart Tata Prima with its power, sustainable speed, safety and reliability, best-in-class, aggregates, cabin features and comfort, is designed for long-distance/ hours of transportation. While, the Tata Ultra offers faster turnaround time and enhanced profitability for any goods carrying business, making it an ideal business utility vehicle  partner for movement of materials across distances.

The launch of the new products come in line with the successful delivery by Tata Motors for orders from Waste Management and Cleaning Companies operating for the Kuwait Municipality. Tata Motors bagged the contracts that includes the use of its new generation Prima and Ultra trucks for municipality cleaning projects for the next 5 years.

Tata Motors emerged as the single largest OEM to supply trucks spanning the heavy, medium and light categories for various applications for usage by the cleaning companies in the Kuwait municipality. The quality of the trucks, and the strong service footprint, makes it the perfect partner to support the Kuwaiti government's drive for modern and efficient civic infrastructure development. It is also the largest single order of Tata Prima trucks and is thereby setting new benchmarks for performance and success in international markets.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rudrarup Maitra, Head - International Business, Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors Ltd. said, “Tata Motors is a well-known brand in Kuwait.  With our new range of future ready products, we will continue to play an active role in the commercial vehicles industry and work closely with our customers here to develop and bring world class products and solutions catering to varied needs of the country.

The recent order is reflective of our commitment to be an integral participant in the international landscape as well. The vehicles will help boost brand visibility for Tata Motors. Further we hope to continue our long and rewarding partnership with the Waste Management and Cleaning companies operating in the Kuwait Municipality. We also conducted training workshops for the technicians and drivers to familiarize them with the vehicles, to have better drivability and performance.

Having been extensively tested to confirm with global standards, the next-generation range of Tata PRIMA commercial vehicles boasts world renowned aggregates and build quality, higher emission norms, comfort with driving dynamics, optimized drivelines and continues to offer advantages of a Tata Motors commercial vehicle of lowest total cost of ownership.

The Tata ULTRA comes with superior performance, a comfortable walk-through cabin, new generation driveline with optimized aggregates for higher performance and multiple load-body configurations, offering customers the advantage of increased productivity and longer life. It gives value for money and durability with TAT (Turnaround Time) hence ensuring lowest cost of operations.

We are confident that through our trusted partnership with Al Zayani Company, we will be successful in establishing a long-term relationship with our customers.”

Mr. Nail Alzayani, Managing Director, Al Zayani Group said “The new next-generation range of commercial vehicles by Tata Motors, the Tata Prima & Tata Ultra brand are shaped by technology, and is in every sense, giving GCC customers competitive business advantages, with the trusted credentials of the Tata Motors brand. We cherish our partnership with Tata Motors and are geared to deliver a blend of high quality and unique value to our customers in Kuwait”.