ACT Dons the Role of Platinum Sponsors at Bengaluru Open ATP Championship

ACT Fibernet (Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd.) India’s largest fiber-focused wired broadband ISP (Internet Service Provider) has reasserted its strong connect with the coveted Bengaluru Open by donning the cap of the Platinum Sponsor of the premium event.

The Bengaluru Open, to be held at the KSLTA from Feb 10 to 16, ranks as one of the biggest ATP Challenger Tour events across the world and the biggest in Asia, offering a total prize purse of US $ 162,000. The event will showcase some of the best players from across the world and is a platform to leverage tennis as an aspiring sport in India. As many as 48 players from over 20 countries (main draw) will be vying for honours in the week-long event that promises quality action to the tennis buffs of Bengaluru.

ACT had supported the previous two editions of the Bengaluru Open which aims to portray as the next sports capital of India while keeping the image of the Silicon City intact. Thus ACT Fibernet has joined hands with KSLTA to boost the sporting culture in the city and also be a part of responsible citizens (Sponsors) who have a common target of uplifting the image of the Garden City while also promoting the sport of tennis.

“Being one of the largest indigenous companies in Bangalore, we consciously make efforts to contribute towards the prowess and progress of this City. Bengaluru Open is one such prestigious event which has grown manifold and successfully established itself as one of the biggest tennis tournaments of Asia in the last few years. It is our pleasure to be part of the event for the third consecutive year and we will provide full support to make this season a grand success”, said Bala Malladi, CEO, ACT.

“Bengaluru Open has become a coveted stop on the ATP Challenger tour which also happens to be the biggest event in Asia. This is an event that is aimed at enhancing brand Bengaluru and also provide the best possible platform for the Indian players to participate in the highest category of ATP Challenger event to better their world rankings. The city of Bengaluru looks forward for this event and is fortunate to find support from the stakeholders of the city, not just the Government but also the corporate sector. ACT, being the pioneer of high speed Internet in the country and more importantly founded and headquartered in Bengaluru, have been supporting the last 2 editions of Bengaluru Open and have shown their commitment this time too. On behalf of Bengaluru Open, I thank ACT and its CEO Mr. Bala Malladi for this continued support and partnership. Companies like ACT certainly help the event raise the bar.” said Priyank Kharge, the brainchild behind the Bengaluru Open and its Chairperson.

India-Thailand Sign Joint Statement for Trade During the Visit of Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand to Bengaluru

Thai Trade Center, Mumbai. Royal Thai Consulate-General is glad to inform you that the Department of International Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, Thailand is organizing a Business Matching Event & Business Seminar Event on the 17th January 2020 at the ITC Gardenia Hotel, Bengaluru, which will be presided over by the Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Commerce, Thailand – H.E. Jurin Laksanawisit.

We along with Crescendo Worldwide, Pune, World Trade Center, Bengaluru, Bangalore Chamber of Industry & Commerce and Indo-Thai Chamber of Commerce are happy to organize this exclusive Business Networking Event during which there will be companies from Thailand for B2B meetings with interested Indian Companies from the sectors of Modified Starch, Rubber Wood, Rubber, Fruits, Food, Construction Materials, Furniture, Interior Design, A4 Paper, Stationery, Cosmetics, Bio-Plastics, Bio-Fertilizers, Lubricants, Etc..

This is a wonderful chance to test various Thai& Indian products and an initiative to attract the Indian Companies to invest in Thailand and also do business jointly with the Thai Companies. We wish that our products will find a special place in the hearts of every Indian customer.

Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Commerce, Thailand – H.E. Jurin Laksanawisit will also give a brief understanding on the benefits that will be given to Indian Companies by the Thailand government helping the Indian Companies in Investing in Thailand.

Welcome remarks will be given by H.E. Mr. Nitirooge Phoneprasert, Consul General, Royal Thai Consulate-General, Chennai;Mr. Bose Nair-Vice President, World Trade Center, Bengaluru; Mr. Rohit Mehta – President, Indo-Thai Chamber of MSME’s and Mr. Devesh R Agarwal, President, Bangalore Chamber of Industry & Commerce.

On the upcoming event, Mr Vineet Verma, President, World Trade Center, Bangalore, Kochi, Chennai said -‘At World Trade Centre, it is our constant endeavour to promote and further strengthen international trade and opportunities among countries.

Thailand continues to exhibit great potential and we look forward to further strengthening trade ties between the two countries. Many sectors and industries coming together from both the sides will enable us to tap into the growing business opportunities. On behalf of World Trade Centre, I take this opportunity to wish the delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Commerce, Thailand – H.E. Jurin Laksanawisit, Thai Trade Centre and all the participants great success. I am sure exchange opportunities will strengthen the Indo-Thailand bi-lateral trade.

There will also be a panel discussion on “Potential Business Creation & Opportunities between India and Thailand in “The Hospitality & Smart Building Solutions” focusing on sectors like Architecture and Technology Trends in 2020; Residential/Real Estate; Hotel Industry; Construction Industry & Services; Infrastructure (Urban Infrastructure).

The visit of Deputy Prime Minister is the second time after his success of trade connection in Mumbai and Chennai. The meeting led to the signing of many MoUs, namely cooperation between Indian rubberwood and Thai furniture association, and the beginning of cooperation between Bigbasket and Thailand’s Department of International Trade Promotion. This visit is also the best opportunity and initiative to build bilateral relation between South India & Thailand both in terms of mutual trade and investment.

LAVA Launches Z71 with a Dedicated Google Assistant Key Priced at Rs 6,299 and Available on Flipkart

LAVA International Limited has announced the launch of its new smartphone, LAVA Z71. Catering to the ever increasing data consumption needs of today’s millennial; the handset is being launched with a special JIO offer, where the buyer gets Rs. 1200 instant cash back and an additional 50GB of 4G data.

LAVA Z71 equipped with a dedicated Google Assistant key enables users to access a variety of apps and features, using voice command. The smartphone’s 5.7”HD+ Dot Notch display with an aspect ratio of 19:9 provides an immersive viewing experience to the users.

Coming to the camera, LAVA Z71 is coupled with 13MP+2MP Dual Rear Camera with an LED Flash and a 5MP selfie camera with soft flash that captures stunning pictures, even in low light. The smart phone’s camera is packed with premium features like professional mode and an AI studio Mode which enables users to click pictures using 6 level portraits.

The LAVA Z71 runs on latest Android 9 Pie OS and also has a face-unlock feature and a fingerprint scanner.

The smartphone offers 2GB RAM and a storage capacity of 32GB, expandable up to 256 GB to ensure enough space to store your favourite music, videos, pictures and apps.

Packed with a powerful 3200 mAh AI battery, the LAVA Z71 runs for 1.5 days in a single charge. The smartphone is powered by a 2GHz quad-core MediaTek Helio A22 16nm processor and offers dual SIM with 4G as well as VoLTE support.

“We are happy to add LAVA Z71 to our bouquet of smartphones. The data consumption of the budget smartphone users has increased exponentially and they want to upgrade to the latest smartphone with attractive features. LAVA Z71 caters to this requirement with its great collective of features, comprising notch display, dual camera, face-unlock and fingerprint scanner at a pocket-friendly price. This launch is yet another endeavour from LAVA to fulfil its commitment of making advance smartphone technology available and affordable for all,” said Tejinder Singh, Head- Product, LAVA International Limited.

The smartphone comes in two attractive colour variants - Steel Blue and Ruby Red with mirror finish design. Priced at Rs 6,299, LAVA Z71 is currently available on Flipkart.

Jaguar Land Rover's New Shape-Shifting Seat of the Future Makes you Think You're Walking

Highlights

* Pioneering technology could help reduce the health risks caused by sitting down too long
* ‘Morphable’ seat system continually adjusts to optimise customer wellbeing on long journeys
* Micro-adjustments made by series of actuators in seat foam simulate the rhythm of walking
* Research forms part of Jaguar Land Rover’s commitment to make societies safer and healthier

Jaguar Land Rover is developing the seat of the future - a pioneering shape-shifting system designed to improve customer wellbeing by tackling the health risks of sitting down for too long.

The ‘morphable’ seat, being trialled by Jaguar Land Rover’s Body Interiors Research division, uses a series of actuators in the seat foam to create constant micro-adjustments that make your brain think you’re walking, and could be individually tailored to each driver and passenger.

More than a quarter of people worldwide – 1.4 billion – are living increasingly sedentary lifestyles*, which can shorten muscles in the legs, hips and gluteals causing back pain. The weakened muscles also mean you are more likely to injure yourself from falls or strains.

By simulating the rhythm of walking, a movement known as pelvic oscillation, the technology can help mitigate against the health risks of sitting down for too long on extended journeys with UK drivers covering an average of 234 km every week**.

Dr Steve Iley, Jaguar Land Rover Chief Medical Officer, said: “The wellbeing of our customers and employees is at the heart of all our technological research projects. We are using our engineering expertise to develop the seat of the future using innovative technologies not seen before in the automotive industry to help tackle an issue that affects people across the globe.”

Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles already feature the latest in ergonomic seat design, with multi-directional adjustments, massage functions and climate control fitted across the range. Dr Iley has also issued advice on how to adjust your seat to ensure the perfect driving position, from removing bulky items in your pocket, to shoulder positioning and from ensuring your spine and pelvis are straight to supporting your thighs to reduce pressure points. View the video here.

The research is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s commitment to continually improving customer wellbeing through technological innovation. Previous projects have included research to reduce the effects of motion sickness and the implementation of ultraviolet light technology to stop the spread of colds and flu.

Together, these efforts are driving towards Destination Zero; Jaguar Land Rover’s ambition to make societies safer and healthier, and the environment cleaner – a responsible future for our workers, customers and communities around us. Through relentless innovation, Jaguar Land Rover is adapting product and services to meet the rapidly-changing world.

New Study Finds AI as a Viable Tool to Detect Changes in Patients’ Mental Health

The USC Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab (SAIL), a center that focuses on analyzing signals by people, from people and for people, in new collaboration with UCLA, has found that AI can accurately detect changes in clinical states from speech as well as physicians. The study appears in PLOS One.

SAIL, which has long applied AI and machine learning to identify and classify video, audio and physiological data, partnered with researchers at UCLA to analyze voice data from patients being treated for serious mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depressive disorders. These individuals and their treating clinicians used the MyCoachConnect interactive voice and mobile tool, created and hosted on the Chorus platform at UCLA, to provide voice diaries related to their mental health states. SAIL then collaborated with UCLA researchers to apply AI to listen to hundreds of voicemails using custom software to detect changes in patients’ clinical states.  The SAIL AI was able to match clinicians’ ratings of their patients.

“Machine learning allowed us to illuminate the various clinically-meaningful dimensions of language use and vocal patterns of the patients over time and personalized at each individual level,” said senior author Dr. Shri Narayanan, Niki and Max Nikias Chair in Engineering and Director of SAIL at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Tracking changes in clinical states is important, say the researchers, to detect if there is a change that shows that condition has improved or worsened that would warrant the need for changing treatment.

“Listening to people has always been at the core of psychiatry.  Our approach builds on that fundamental technique to hear what people are saying using modern AI. We hope this will help us better understand how our patients are doing and transform mental health care to be more personalized and proactive to what an individual needs,” said lead author of the study Dr. Armen Arevian, Director of the Jane and Terry Semel Institute Innovation Lab which focuses on the interdisciplinary intersection of mental health, neuroscience and technology.

This project builds on SAIL’s body of work in behavioral machine intelligence to analyze psychotherapy sessions to detect empathy of addiction counselors-in- training in order to improve their chances of better outcomes, in addition to the Lab’s work analyzing language for cognitive diagnoses and legal processes.

The next step in this joint research is to scale up this individualized approach to a larger population over longer time periods of observation.

NuTy’s Proprietary HPP Preservation Technology Keeps Food Fresh, Healthier & Safer

NuTy became India’s first company to launch extended shelf-life, ready-to-eat curries, and meals using non-thermal cold pasteurization through its proprietary cooking process aided by HPP (High-Pressure Processing) technology. NuTy is also India’s first omnichannel Food-As-A-Service company using modern food technologies, processes and logistics to offer gratifying, healthy meal options affordably. NuTy’s multi-pronged vision is to help satiate every appetite through authentically curated regional cuisines, reducing waste and also enhancing livelihood by creating micro food-entrepreneurs. NuTy, a venture of Tulita Ahara Pvt Ltd., has its high-tech HPP meal factory in Hosur with a meal processing capacity of 5 tons-per-day. The company has invested US$ 5million in building the facilities and building its network so far.

Ray Nathan, Co-founder, NuTy, a serial entrepreneur with successful exits from his earlier ventures, said, "Food is among the most basic of human needs, and most often working urban millennial’s have to make compromises of taste, health or money every day due to non-availability of any existing options. A balanced diet is a primary human need and therefore we have focused on ready-to-eat meals that are affordable, nutritious, tasty, hygienic food with a long shelf-life. We source produce from farmers to ensure quality and cost, we are careful to ensure genuine regional recipes, and give our meals shelf-life of up to 60 days through our proprietary HPP technology without any artificial additives added."

Adding to this Naveen Chander, Co-founder, NuTy, said, "Our new curries range with 30 options allows any individual or food-entrepreneur to increase food variety, with least trouble and minimal investment. We aim to be India’s kitchen and will have a reach in 500 cities and towns by 2023 and would have created 200,000 micro food-entrepreneurs by then. Food habits of new India are changing rapidly, kitchen time is reducing and work-led migration leads to the non-availability of the foods we love most. NuTy has truly brought together the combination that was hitherto thought impossible in Ready-To-Eat meals."

“We are scaling rapidly and we expect to cover the top 50 cities in India by the end of 2020. By 2023 we expect to be within a two-kilometer reach of any customer, with large cities have over 1000 points-of-sale (POS), medium-size cities having 300 to 500 POS and small cities having 100 POS. We will be available through grocery delivery apps like Big Basket and Amazon by the middle of next month and other hyper-local delivery apps by the middle of 2020. Soon everyone can enjoy a healthy, nutritious and tasty NuTy meal on-demand,” said Nitin Bhatt Group VP Sales & Marketing NuTy. 

About NuTy:

NuTy is India’s first Food-as-a-service brand offering Home-style ready-meals based on regional recipes. Founded by Ray Nathan and Naveen Chander, NuTy is one of the first food brands in Asia to use HPP technology in fresh curries resulting in superior taste, quality, and nutrition at the same time. NuTy Ready-Meals are available as take-away at hundreds of retail stores and on food-delivery platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, and UberEats.

9stacks.com’s Poker Players Bag Multiple Prizes at IPC Awards 2020

9stacks.com, the best online poker platform for the Indian poker players, has always proved its mettle. This time also it has won the hearts of poker enthusiasts with six of its players winning awards at the Indian Poker Championship(IPC) 2020 in Goa. The IPC kicked off on January 14 and will continue till 19th of this month.

Players from 9stacks bagged Awards in various categories:

Amresh Kumar - PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) Grinder of the year.
Radhika Mahalingaiah - Recreational Player of the year.
Sagar Patnaik - Texas Hold ’em Grinder of the year
Gitanshu Mehta – Midstakes Tournament Player of the year
Anuj Manocha - High stakes Tournament Player of the year
Bhavye Mittal - 9stacks All-Rounder of the year.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sudhir Kamath, CEO & Co-Founder, 9stacks, said, “It is wonderful that so many of our players have been recognized for their success at poker. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the young achievers who have performed well in the IPC and want to wish them a great future in poker. 9stacks, with its innovative ideas, has always provided a user-friendly platform to its players and is determined to become the India’s most preferred online poker destination.”

Ever since its inception in 2017, 9stacks.com has been offering emerging professional poker players a chance to compete with the best at live events around the world. This year, 9stacks Team India is participating at the Goa IPC and has previously sent players to Vegas, Manila, Czech Republic and Thailand. In particular, 9stacks has sent dominant teams to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker - in 2018, 25 players represented 9stacks Team India in Vegas, and two of them finished in the top 100 of the 8000-entrant Main Event there. In 2019, as many as 65 players qualified for Vegas, and this year’s LFGVegas3 promotion kicked off next week with a target to enable even more players to chase their Vegas dreams.

As the poker industry continues to grow in India, awards functions like IPC recognize current success stories and encourage more players to play poker, and the ever-increasing numbers for the IPC are proof of this. Live as well as online poker has seen phenomenal growth in India in the last three years.