Herman Miller Unveils Atlas Office Landscape and Cosm Chair for Indian Corporate Market

Herman Miller, Inc., a globally recognized provider of furnishings and related technologies and services, has launched its Atlas Office Landscape workstation and Cosm chair in India. Uniting human-centered design with Herman Miller’s leadership in innovative technology and materials, the company has unveiled these products as a testimony of being at the forefront of modern design, including the evolution of flexible workstations.  The company has already bagged customers for its new range of Atlas Office Landscape like Apple India, Manguard Plus, one of Ireland's leading private security service providers, offering clients professional solutions to their security needs in the Indian market.

This comes at the back of Herman Miller opening a new 2500 sq. ft. state-of-the-art office facility in the heart of Bangalore, supporting India and various other geographies across the world in terms of design, IT, R&D, finance and others.

Atlas Office Landscape designed by internationally acclaimed designer Tim Wallace, is an exceptional demonstration of responding to the new culture of workplace design for the 21st century desking requirements. It brings together height-adjustability and collaborative working, while offering flexibility without being constrained by structures. It also provides ergonomic support and is built to fit in almost all workspaces.

Cosm chair uses a revolutionary technology Auto-Harmonic Tilt that instantly responds to the user's body movement when seated and provides optimal support and a more neutral balance. This tilt mechanism is a culmination of two decades of design, research and engineering that is further deepened with Herman Miller’s understanding of how people sit and work. Designed by Studio 7.5, Cosm chair offers unparalleled comfort and performance. TIME Magazine has named Cosm to its list of the 100 Best Inventions of 2019, calling it the ‘pinnacle of personalization’. It has also received the prestigious Red Dot Best of the Best Product Design Award in the ‘Office Chairs’ category.

Jeremy Hocking, President, Herman Miller International said, “With the introduction of Atlas Office Landscape and Cosm chair in India, Herman Miller reinforces the company’s worldwide leadership in workplace innovation and high-performance seating. With our collection of leading brands, a global multi-channel distribution capability and a clear set of strategic priorities, we remain well-positioned to drive sustainable long-term growth.”

The company commenced its operation in 2005 in India and has witnessed a 60% Year-on -Year (YoY) growth in the premium office furniture category and is poised to grow at a pace of 25% in FY 19-20. While the company continues to focus on key global accounts, it has plans to tap on homegrown business within India.

Speaking on the company’s long-term commitment to the India and APAC market, Kartik Shethia, Vice President, Herman Miller Asia Pacific said, “India has always been and will continue to be one of the most promising and dynamic markets for Herman Miller. We are focused and committed in terms of further investments, channel development, new product introductions and strengthening the team in India. With height adjustable workspace picking up pace here, we felt the necessity to launch Atlas Office Landscape workstation and Cosm Chair in India. We also plan to expand our retail offering and make high-quality products accessible across markets in India and APAC.”

"Over the years, several leading IT players including Amazon India, Adobe, Google, Microsoft and Reliance Jio are all customers of HermanMiller's wide range of office furniture's in India spread across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai," remarks Shethia.

Herman Miller inaugurated its production facility at Bidadi in October 2015 to specifically serve India and neighbouring markets. It has witnessed a growth of 83% in FY 18-19 and is set to achieve a 100% growth in FY 19-20. Many international products have been localised and the company plans to offer new products lines from the India plant soon. The plant now serves more than 70% of the local demand. The company also plans to expand in the retail market with a focus on appointing channel partners in tier II cities. It has already opened an online store and listed few products on Amazon and Flipkart to cater to the digital market.

The Herman Miller Group, with a 100-plus-year history is a family of individually vibrant brands. The family of brands includes Colebrook Bosson Saunders, Design Within Reach, Geiger, HAY, Maars Living Walls, Maharam, naughtone and Nemschoff.

About Herman Miller

Herman Miller is a globally recognized provider of furnishings and related technologies and services.  Since its inception in 1905, the company has relied on innovative design to help people do great things. The global design leader has evolved into Herman Miller Group, a family of brands that collectively offers a variety of products for environments where people live, learn, work, and heal. The family of brands includes Colebrook Bosson Saunders, Design Within Reach, Geiger, HAY, Maars Living Walls, Maharam, naughtone, Nemschoff, and Herman Miller. 

Five Tech Platforms that Help in Reducing Teacher Workload in India

As we move into 2020, the issue of overworked teachers continues to loom large, and answers are proving to be elusive as ever. What may come as a surprise is that teachers have always worked hard; in fact, the median working week has not changed significantly over the last twenty years. With the introduction of EdTech in schools and automating admin can reduce teachers’ workload by and significantly improve teachers’ day-to-day experience. Let’s take a look at some of the leading platforms, which are truly making a difference in reducing the teacher workload.

1. Launched in 2015, Byju's - The Learning App, is a learning app for students across age groups with programmes in English and Hindi that make learning and understanding concepts easier not only for school kids but also saves the time and effort of the teachers. The subject focus of the platform is math and science, and the concepts are explained using 12-20 minute digital animated videos, helping the teachers to express themselves in a better way and at the same time also reduces their workload.

2. TeachNext@Home, the award-winning multimedia content, integrated with world-class tools, lesson plans and assessments, helps students clarify doubts, revise concepts, develop their analytical skills and customise their learning needs at home, ensuring the best possible learning outcomes for students. The quality of the content has been validated through a testing tool, the Learning Objective Evaluation (LOBE) Instrument, developed at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Meant to enhance the home-learning experience, it helps 21st-century learners to be the architects of their own knowledge anytime, anywhere; helping to reduce teacher workload.

3. With mass adoption of technology Shemford Group of Futuristic Schools, India's most innovative school chain has also taken several steps to reduce teacher workload.  With technology based classroom solutions and standardising the base level of education along with ensuring all students have access to high level of high quality education with the help of AI enabled classrooms, Shemford Group of schools have taken a major to solve specific problems that teachers and schools actually deal with day to day.

4. Poland-based Brainly is designed to help students boost their inquisitiveness with a continuous flow of questions and radical solutions. The startup not just focuses on cracking puzzling questions but also on sharing ideas, deepening insights, and exploring knowledge.Founded in 2009, Brainly is the modern education company uniting students and experts in a fun, interactive world that celebrates understanding. Being the shortcut-free solution for fast-tracked learning it also reduces the workload for teachers. With over 150 million monthly users hailing from more than 35 countries accessing the platform, Brainly is the world’s most trusted, teacher-approved online learning resource.

5. Shiksha knowledge solutions, A highly experienced Lucknow based K-12 solution provider proffering turnkey solutions, has introduced diverse technologies like school management app, principal desk and a digital platform that caters to all stakeholders of the school along with full cycle services, starting from product conceptualization to implementation and support to the teachers and help them resolving as many workload bottlenecks as possible.

All these platforms are effectively eliminating unnecessary workload of teachers by streamlining data management. Research shows, that in school, the teacher is the most important factor on student achievement. It is critical therefore that they should only use technology if it frees and supports them to teach as well as they can.

Senior Bangalore Doctors Vouch for Ranitidine, API Used in Certain Antacids as Trusted, Safe & Effective Drug

A group of prominent city doctors from different specialties met the media today for a discussion to separate facts from myths about Ranitidine, an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used in certain antacids. During the meet, the doctors said that there is lot of misconception and unnecessary confusion on ranitidine.

A popular, ages-old medicine used to treat gastric acidity, Ranitidine was commercially introduced in 1981 and has stood up to the expectations of medical fraternity for being safe and efficacious. Ranitidine features on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.

Facts on ranitidine:

• US FDA has confirmed through their tests, by simulating what happens to ranitidine after it has been exposed to acid in the stomach with a normal diet and results of these tests indicate that NDMA is not formed through this process. 3
• Neither US FDA or DCGI have asked for a ban on ranitidine.
• Age-old medicine for treating gastric acidity
• Features in WHO’s List of Essential Medicines 4

Contrary to the popular perception created, Ranitidine has not been banned. None of the key pharmaceutical regulators such as the US FDA, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) /CDSCO have asked for a ban. However, the recall by a few manufacturers in India was purely voluntary. The US FDA tested numerous ranitidine products and found levels of NDMA similar to levels one would be exposed to if they ate common foods like grilled or smoked meats.

The US FDA in its recent statement issued on January 8, 2020 has said that NDMA is a known environmental contaminant found in water and certain foods. A person taking a drug that contains NDMA at-or-below the acceptable daily intake limit every day for 70 years is not expected to have an increased risk of cancer.2

Reiterating US FDA’s stand on the issue, Dr. T. R. Raghu, HOD-Cardiology, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research said, “The USFDA, in its statement, has confirmed that ranitidine does not lead to cancer in typical stomach conditions of humans. Cardiologists like me have been prescribing ranitidine for several years, and haven’t yet come across any adverse reactions in our patients. Ranitidine is an age-old molecule commonly prescribed by cardiologists with other drugs for heart. It is a safe and efficacious drug for hyperacidity. In fact, ranitidine is better because it does not cause drug interaction with Clopidogrel and Aspirin (which cardiologists prescribe often) unlike other class of antacids.”

Echoing similar opinion, Dr Ashok Kumar, Professor and HOD, Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research said, “The CDCSO/DCGI never banned ranitidine. They have only asked the state bodies to get the product tested from manufacturers. Blood thinning agents are given to cardiac patients which causes hyperacidity. In order to counter this acidity, ranitidine is prescribed in combination, and we have always found it safe for our patients over so many years. Ranitidine is given to outdoor patients as well as to those patients in ICU when they are dealing with stress ulcers.”

Dr Nagendra Kumar, Consultant Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Hepatology and Nutrition, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Columbia Asia Hospitals said, “We have gathered here to dispel the misinformation around ranitidine. It is an age old molecule, low priced and affordable medication. I have been prescribing my patients for ranitidine for years and none of my patients have reported any serious adverse effect of the medicine consumption. There is no co-relation between ranitidine and cancer seen in my practice of so many years.”

Dr Purushottam Chavan, Assistant Professor, Head and Neck Onco-Surgeon, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology said, “US FDA has clearly stated that a person taking a drug that has NDMA below the acceptable limit every day for 70 years is not expected to have an increased risk of cancer. Also, ranitidine is usually prescribed for short duration. As per the latest update from US FDA, the acceptable daily intake limit for NDMA is 0.096 micrograms (96 nanograms) or 0.32 ppm for ranitidine containing products.”

Dr Arun KN, Nephrologist,  Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital said, “Ranitidine came to India in 1980s when I was a medical student. Surgeries for peptic ulcers, which were one of the commonest surgeries in those times, have become very rare within a decade after ranitidine came. At present, there is a lot of confusion among patients, media and healthcare practitioners about ranitidine and its side effects. The USFDA has certified that ranitidine is safe for human consumption. NDMA is a naturally occurring contaminant which is present in air, food, water etc. As a senior nephrologist, I want to assure patients that ranitidine is a safe and reliable drug. Recently, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) asked Ranitidine to be made available again in all civic hospitals and dispensaries for use after seeing the test reports on Ranitidine from the laboratory which showed no contamination in the drug. The test reports prove that the drug is safe for consumption.”

Motilal Oswal Financial Services Announces the Launch of Digi Partner

SALIENT FEATURES OF DIGI PARTNER

* No compulsion of office infrastructure
* Exclusive reactivation & HNI client dealing support desk
* Minimum refundable deposit
* Dedicated Apps for Trader & Investors
* Personalized Advisory support for all segments & products
* Online Funds & Securities pay-in and pay-out facility
* Client wise Surveillance & RMS facility
* Trade confirmation to clients through voice blast & ECN (Electronic contract note)

MotilalOswal Financial Services has announced the launch of their new asset-light business partner model, Digi-Partner. Capitalizing on the trend of digitization, given more than 70% of transactions of purchase happen digitally; this was an apt move for a financial services leader like MOFSL. This model requires little/no investment to start a financial intermediation business and will certainly revolutionize the sector.

As the name suggests, Digi-Partner is a unique partnership model where your complete business right from acquiring clients, account opening, business operations, product suggestions, advisory product Investments and moderation is done digitally. While you focus on activating your relationships, the technology provides the backbone to help your business grow.

Speaking on this initiative Gaurav Manihar, Head – Business Alliances , MOFSL said, “It is a well-known fact that India has a young, educated population. It is also known that equity penetration in India is less than 4% ( vis-a-vis 60% in USA) and hence presents a large opportunity for financial intermediation. Our Digi Partner model helps young Indians who have a passion for investing and relationship management to turn entrepreneur by removing the barriers that prevent them from doing so.”

Some of the key advantages of this model are

* Minimal cost of customer acquisition in digital channels compared to traditional channels
* High reduction in the cost of transactions and servicing through digital channels compared to traditional channels
* Multifold increase in revenue generation through customers as compared to branch only model

Through this unique business model, MotilalOswal Financial Services wishes to reach out those who aspire to become entrepreneurs in the field of financial intermediation but cannot afford very high investment due to infrastructure costs. The capital market penetration in India is very low as compared to other developed countries. The more the affordable such business modules get, it will help in multiplying equity penetration in India.

Kavita Viswanath Joins JFrog as GM India to Help Drive Growth

JFrog, “The Liquid Software Company” known for enabling continuous update flows with advanced DevOps platform tools, has appointed Ms. Kavita Viswanath as its General Manager for India to oversee their India Operations.

“We are excited to onboard Ms. Kavita Viswanath as the General Manager for JFrog India,” said Orit Goren, COO at JFrog. “The business world is streaming fast towards cloud services and that accelerates their adoption of DevOps and DevSecOps to account for continuous delivery and seamless deployment. We are scaling up our operations in India and Kavita’s experience in leading teams and integrating functions across a company will play a major role with us.”

In recent years, JFrog has acquired two US-India based companies. CloudMunch allows DevOps business intelligence and analytics to drive DevOps forward by scaling software releases and Continuous Updates. Shippable is a best-of-breed CI/CD technology that is now included in the JFrog Platform as JFrog Pipelines and JFrog Mission Control. Between those two acquisitions, the headcount at JFrog in India has continued to grow.

Viswanath brings over 19 years of experience in leading roles with different sectors. She was associated with Flipkart before joining JFrog, and was responsible for building the B2B business of their ‘Made in India’ brand Billion. She also played a role as Head of Planning and Strategy for Flipkart Ads. Her most recent assignment with them was leading Global Sales at Myntra, for their AI-based SaaS product.

“I am happy to have this great opportunity with JFrog India. JFrog has proved its presence in the global business of cloud and DevOps services, and India has unmatched business potential to explore in this area,” said Kavita Viswanath in a statement.

Viswanath proudly joins JFrog after many years in the software business with leading global technology companies like Microsoft and Oracle, where for more than a decade she managed Enterprise Sales and Alliances for their on-premises and Cloud businesses.

Continued Viswanath: “I look forward to leading the dynamic team and helping JFrog scale up their India operations.”

About JFrog

JFrog is on a mission to enable continuous updates through liquid software, empowering developers to code high-quality applications that securely flow to end-users with zero downtime. JFrog is the creator of Artifactory, the heart of the end-to-end Universal DevOps platform for automating, managing, securing, distributing, and monitoring all types of technologies. JFrog products are available as open-source, on-premise, and on the cloud on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. As a leading universal, highly available enterprise DevOps solution, the JFrog platform empowers customers with trusted and expedited software releases from code-to-production. JFrog is trusted by more than 6,000 customers, and top global brands such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Uber, VMware, and Spotify depend on JFrog to manage their binaries for their mission-critical applications. JFrog is privately held with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.

LogMeIn Announces New GoTo Marketplace and Latest Partner Integrations

LogMeIn, Inc. has announced the launch of the GoTo Marketplace, a single point of access to all of the applications and productivity tools that integrate with LogMeIn’s GoTo suite of Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) products. LogMeIn also announced new and improved integrations for the GoTo portfolio, including Salesforce Lightning, Theta Lake, Clio, Zoho and Prezi. The new integrations, built by both LogMeIn and their partners, help drive productivity and efficiency within their customer’s communication and collaboration workflows.

The GoTo Marketplace was built for customers to more easily access all of the applications that integrate with GoTo’s suite of products, such as GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, Jive and GoToConnect — which combines the power and reliability of Jive's cloud VoIP phone systems with GoToMeeting's web, audio and video conferencing. Customers can quickly begin using the GoTo suite with applications and productivity tools — ranging from sales, marketing and customer support tools, to scheduling, collaboration, education and learning apps — from one easy-to-navigate website. The GoTo Marketplace provides customers and their end-users a way to build a more personalized workflow offering that fits in to their professional ecosystem based on their specific roles and business needs.

“Working the way our customers want to work, and helping to improve their productivity and efficiency, has been — and continues to be — one of our top priorities,” said Mark Strassman, Senior Vice President and General Manager of UCC at LogMeIn. “This means supporting them from a product standpoint with our meeting, webinar, voice and room solutions, and working within their ecosystem to integrate with the tools they already use. Our new integration marketplace was built with the customer top of mind, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer these exciting new integrations.”

The latest integrations to be included in the GoTo Marketplace are:

•  Clio and Jive/GoToConnect – With Clio and Jive/GoToConnect, legal practices receive alerts through automated screen pops when a current client is calling, and seamless call-tracking ensures that a recent or past call can be attributed to a time entry which can later be billed in Clio. New matters can also be created or attributed to a call in Jive and instantly synced to Clio.

•  Prezi and GoToWebinar – With Prezi and GoToWebinar you and your content come together on the same screen, similar to a news broadcast, for more engaging visuals in your webinars. This removes the need to switch to a separate screen to show visual references and creates a clearer connection between a person and their visual content.

•  Theta Lake and GoToMeeting – Theta Lake automates the capture and archiving of video communications and detects compliance risks and unintentional data sharing in video communications. This is extremely valuable for customers in regulated industries who need a process to detect these risks that remain hidden in video communications.

•  Salesforce Lightning and GoToMeeting – This integration for GoToMeeting allows users to launch GoToMeeting straight from Salesforce, making it easy to setup face-to-face meetings with leads, contacts and opportunities without ever leaving Salesforce. Users also get full context of prospects with detailed records of sales calls, recordings and conversations histories. Salesforce also integrates with GoToWebinar.

•  Salesforce Lightning and Jive/GoToConnect – Users can click-to-call using Jive Voice and GoToConnect, straight from Salesforce with this new integration, currently in public beta. This integration provides more accurate sales analytics with automatic call logging and daily call tracking, as well as improved efficiency with click-to-call, note taking and finding and responding to missed calls.

•   Zoho and Jive/GoToConnect — The Zoho CRM-Jive/GoToConnect integration helps sales teams simplify call activity management for inbound and outbound phone calls with call notification screen pop-ups, click-to call dialing, and automatic call logging. Zia Intelligent Call Routing, powered by Zoho’s Intelligent Assistant (ZIA), prioritizes and automatically routes calls to match customer needs with agent skills, enabling companies to deliver first-call resolution and ramp up and improve the caller experience with personalized service, simpler workflows and advanced call management features. Zoho also integrates with GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.

“Zoho's suite of products, and our market-leading CRM in particular, provide business critical information and serve as a platform for enabling unified customer experiences," said Anand Nergunam, VP Revenue Growth at Zoho. “Integrating it with GoTo’s suite of products helps businesses deliver a personalized customer experience and improve efficiency. Through our partnership, we're making it easier for businesses to leverage the full power of both platforms through simpler workflows and deep integrations."

"Law firms need powerful technology to make their lives, and the lives of their customers, easier. That's why we chose to partner with LogMeIn and their GoTo suite of products,” said Andrew Gay, Manager of App & Developer Ecosystem at Clio. "Combining Clio Manage, Clio's leading practice management software, with Jive, offers law firms across the globe the ability to capture more billable hours and improve a client’s overall experience."

Tata Altroz Earns the 5-Star Adult Safety Rating from Global NCAP

Key Highlights:
• Tata Motors (TML) yet again rolls out the safest car in the country : 2nd time in a row
• Altroz becomes the second Indian car to get the Global NCAP 5-star rating (Adult occupant protection)
• 5-star safety as standard across all variants of Altroz

Tata Motors, has proudly announced that its premium hatchback - the Altroz has become the latest recipient of the 5-star adult safety rating from Global NCAP, the foremost global car assessment programme. This makes Altroz not only the second vehicle from Tata Motors to achieve this, but also makes it the second passenger car in the Indian automotive industry to make it to this level, after the Nexon, which was awarded this distinction in December 2018.

The Tata Altroz has been designed to offer world-class protection to its occupants, which was been hitherto lauded in media reviews of the car. This landmark achievement by Tata Motors is also a testament of the fact that the automotive industry in India is capable of delivering the highest global standards of safety in vehicles.

Commenting on this landmark achievement, Mr. Mayank Pareek, President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit (PVBU), Tata Motors, said, “We are proud to have delivered yet another product that will be regarded as the safest passenger vehicle on Indian roads. In alignment with our philosophy of Connected Electrified Shared and Safe (CESS) mobility solutions, we have successfully provided the Indian automotive industry with yet another product that is a certified example of stringent safety. The Nexon was the proverbial guiding light for us in this aspect, and the Altroz has followed its footsteps, setting a new benchmark across the industry safety standards. We hope that achievements such as this one, elevate the trust in our badge among the Indian car-buyers and continue to prove Tata Motors as a brand associated with class-defining products.”

Road safety has been the prime agenda jointly for both the Government as well as the industry and Tata Motors is known to make both elegant and safe cars. This latest Global NCAP score reaffirms that TML stands by its commitment to make the best in global car safety, accessible to Indian customers. The Company has dedicated itself to the mission of ‘Safe Bharat’ by developing innovative mobility solutions, in personal as well as mass transportation. Tata Motors is committed to the mobility transformation through Connected, Electrified, Shared & Safe (CESS) and the company has taken conscious decision to build the nation responsibly by bringing in an inclusive & sustainable approach.

Expressing himself on this milestone, Mr. Rajendra Petkar, President and Chief Technology Officer, Tata Motors, said, “We are delighted to have made yet another car – the Tata Altroz that raises the bar for automotive safety standards across the industry. Being an industry first in the hatchback segment in the country, this is in lockstep with our objective to deliver mobility solutions that possess advanced technological features alongside providing robust protection for the occupants. This achievement is in line our philosophy that vehicle safety should be made accessible to all. Getting GNCAP 5 star for the Altroz is an outcome of the relentless hard work put in by the engineering team with support from the project function and entire organization, including our supplier partners. Together they delivered an excellent package consisting of outstanding structural integrity while using a “digital first” strategy.”

The Altroz’s structure and overall safety has been evaluated through the Global NCAP crash tests. The car has been tested for both front and side impacts. The combined evaluation of both the tests by Global NCAP have resulted in a full 5-star rating. Altroz has also achieved a notable 3-star for child occupant safety.

Keeping in line with this achievement, safety has also been kept as a critical aspect of the Company’s theme for Auto Expo 2020, which takes place next month.