McAfee’s APAC Cyber Resiliency and Risk Report Identifies Security and Cloud as Key Tech for India Digital Transformation

Key Findings:

* 60% of Indian organizations believe that their culture of cybersecurity is ‘strategic’, in comparison to Australia (27%) and Singapore (40%)
* 98% of Indian enterprises are likely to invest more in security due to regulation, despite the maturity of their jurisdiction
* India is most likely to have ‘high’ impact (58%) of cybersecurity incidents on the business compared to Singapore (42%) and Australia (16%)
* The C-Suite is more likely to believe that their organization’s cybersecurity posture is ‘strategic’ (53%), compared to other levels of management

McAfee, the device to cloud cybersecurity company, today unveiled its APAC CYBER RESILIENCY AND RISK REPORT, revealing that organizations in India describe their culture of cybersecurity as either strategic (60%) or embedded (33%). The survey, covering 480 cybersecurity decision-makers across eight Asia-Pacific countries including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand, also revealed that 97% of the organizations in India were familiar with the concept of cyber-resilience compared to Australia (73%) and New Zealand (75%). Cyber resilience refers to an entity's ability to continuously deliver the intended outcome despite adverse cyber events. The concept essentially brings the areas of information security, business continuity and organizational resilience together. An astounding 93% of organizations in India believe that they are cyber-resilient, taking the top position amongst all the other countries in the region.

The survey also measured the cybersecurity maturity levels of organizations in the region:

Key policy areas such as risk and asset management, governance, culture, education and awareness, were rated lowest in the maturity index, implying an immediate need for high priority improvement
Cyber resiliency functions such as data protection, response and recovery planning, response and recovery communications were identified as areas that IT would like to see improved by 2021 in relation to their cybersecurity maturity levels
Investment in categories such as data protection, cloud protection technology and network protection technology were top priorities for enterprises targeting an “optimized” cybersecurity maturity posture. Processes at the “optimized” level focus on continuously improving process performance through both incremental and innovative technological changes/improvements

Commenting on the report findings, Sanjay Manohar, Managing Director, McAfee India said, “The objective of cyber resilience is to enhance an entity's ability to deliver the intended outcome continuously at all times. While organizations can put a cost on cybersecurity damages related to a data breach, reputational damage, impact on sales and other areas are difficult to measure, implying that the level of belief that a cost can be placed is higher than expected. Organizations in India are most likely to have ‘high’ impact of cybersecurity incidents. Therefore, involvement of cybersecurity in digital transformation at the management level becomes critical in more developing jurisdictions such as India, where regulation and compliance are evolving and therefore may be more of a focus for organisations.”

The Digital Transformation agenda

Enterprises in India are at different stages of their digital transformation journey. Organisations have either been ‘always’ digitally focused or have fully implemented digital transformation or at the nascent stages. Organisations in the technology/IT sector are much more likely than other types of businesses to be at an advanced stage of digital transformation. As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve, cybersecurity is fast becoming an integral part of digital transformation, with 49% ‘extremely’ involved and 41% ‘very involved’ in the digital transformation process.

Data breach (62%), data tampering (49%) and fraud (43%), were predicted to be the top three risks enterprises will be prone to in 2021. However, the findings also show that in 2021, new risks will spread through a range of other potential issues such as an increase in fraud (23% - 30%) and defacement (24% - 28%)
The report revealed that an enterprise faced up to 120 data breaches on an average in the past year, with the respondents across APAC, estimating an average loss of USD $298,812. Interestingly, when asked whether they could put a cost on their recent cyber incidents, Indian organizations led with 91 percent believing that they were able to quantify the financial impact.
Larger organizations were prone to more cyber incidents but organizations with more than 500 staff suffered an average of 209 incidents, which is almost 8 times higher than businesses with 50 to 100 employees. However, there is little difference in detection, response or recovery by country, type of business or size of the organization

Despite regulatory and compliance pressures, the results suggest many businesses still lack the technological sophistication and management support to detect and recover from cybersecurity attacks quickly enough to avoid damaging the business. We live in a digital age, meaning that while cyber resilience has the capability to get stronger, so too does the level of sophistication of cyber-attacks to counteract this. Looking forward to 2021, the survey infers that enterprises would be pursuing a broad range of initiatives to bolster their cyber resilience initiatives, including automation and integration, both of which are enablers for better cyber resilience through data-driven responses modelled after set policies.

Medvarsity Online, People Tree Hospital Partner to Enhance Emergency Medicine Department in the Hospital

Medvarsity Online Ltd., a leader in online medical education, has partnered with People Tree Hospitals to provide healthcare professionals with an advanced and well-structured Fellowship Program in Emergency Medicine intended to provide an in-depth understanding of the subject with a practical approach to students. The 1-year course, ‘Fellowship in Emergency Medicine’ is a collaboration project between both the organizations which envisions to increase the number of emergency medicine experts, thereby improving one of the most important aspects of healthcare and impacting the Indian medical fraternity.

The prime goal of the fellowship program is to strengthen the medical practitioners to be able handle the emergency cases with precision. This also focuses on bridging the gap between the number of emergency medicine healthcare professionals (HCPs) in India and the foreseeable requirement for the future. PRS Legislative Research had estimated that India had witnessed over 5 lakh road accidents which killed about 1.5 lakh people in 2015. According to the most recent statistics (2018), the number of road deaths in India was observed to be 1.49 lakhs. Conspicuously, there is no substantial improvement in the situation over the period of 4 years even though 2017 had seen a fall of 3% compared to the figure in 2016.

Despite the consistent occurrence of accidents and subsequent deaths, there is a significant dearth of emergency care specialists and services in India, which is because of the paucity of HCPs specializing in the domain. Evidently, there is a dire need for more HCPs with specialization and expertise in emergency medicine who can contribute in providing timely and high-quality emergency health services in the country.

“In India, 90% of the patients with head injuries do not receive optimal care during the first hour of treatment, which leads to the fatality of one out of six victims. This is due to the significant dearth of medical professionals specializing in emergency care or having skill-sets required to treat the patients in the initial phase of the injury or a traumatic condition. We are privileged to join hands with People Tree Hospitals wherein healthcare professionals will get practical training in emergency care under highly skilled practitioners and subsequently gain the necessary competence level in the field, which will aid in the improvement of the scenario of emergency medicine in India,” said Mr. Gerald Jaideep, CEO, Medvarsity Online Ltd. about the partnership.

The course, ‘Fellowship in Emergency Medicine’, aims to provide a thorough knowledge and impart imperative practical skills needed from practitioners to improve the healthcare quality in the emergency medicine domain. Furthermore, it intends to exude competencies in triaging patients and identification & treatment of life-threatening emergencies.

The biggest advantage of having an established emergency medicine department with abundant experts is that it provides the healthcare facilities with adequate resources to diagnose patients, identify the main components of the problem, and initiate proper care at a very early phase of illness or injury. This increases the likelihood of the improvement in the condition of the patient, thereby increasing the speed of recovery to a substantial extent. 

The increase in the number of experts in the emergency care department can streamline a lot of operations in the healthcare facility. In the contemporary scenario of the healthcare industry, the specialist who is capable of treating a particular condition comes at a very later stage of the treatment. This is particularly because of the lack of expertise in the junior HCPs deputed in the emergency care department because of which the magnitude of time taken to diagnose and identify the problem is significantly increased, which leads to further deterioration of the patient’s condition. On the other hand, the availability of experts at the emergency department can reduce that time, thereby pacing up further treatment and reducing the risk of deterioration of the patient’s condition.

“The Doctors working in the Emergency department should not only be quick thinkers & highly skilled but also should have loads of patience and perseverance. In addition, they need to be trained well in communication skills, as these doctors work in trying circumstances. Hence, the Fellowship in Emergency Medicine (FEM) course jointly certified by Royal Liverpool Academy and Medvarsity Online Ltd. is a welcome step to achieve the goal of training professionals for providing better emergency care to people in need. At PEOPLE TREE Hospitals we believe in achieving excellence in all that we do, it applies well in emergency medicine for both clinical and academic excellence” said Dr. Chandrasekar Chikkamuniyappa, MS, DNB{Ortho}, ROC Fellow {HSS, NY} CEO & Senior Joint Replacement Surgeon PEOPLE TREE Hospitals

The Fellowship in Emergency Medicine by Medvarsity enables the students to:

Enhance their knowledge and gain competence required for the prevention, diagnosis, and management of acute and urgent aspects of illness and injuries.

Gain expertise in the treatment of life-threatening emergencies.

Explore multiple career opportunities in the field of Emergency Medicine.

Gain ability in resuscitating a critically ill patient and performing life-saving procedures.

Develop good communication and counselling skills required in emergency care.

In addition to the aforementioned aspects, the course captures all the proactive practices that will help a physician working in the emergency care department to treat the patients better.

The blended learning program has 240 hours of learning content and a 48 weeks of skill sessions which helps students gain comprehensive coverage of the subject. It also has live lectures and webinars by renowned clinicians.

Any physician or HCP who has completed MBBS with internship and has MCI/State Medical Council Registration is eligible for the course.

Mobil Strengthens its Presence on Amazon.in and Flipkart

Mobil, the popular lubricants brand, has made its best in class products available on India’s largest online stores- Amazon.in and Flipkart.

In recent times, online shopping has gained a lot of popularity in India as customers look for more choice and greater convenience. With the aim of catering to such digitally savvy customers, Mobil has made its top-selling range of motorcycle and car engine oils reachable and available for customers right at their fingertips. The range also includes Mobil 1 -   one of the global market-leading synthetic engine oils.

IIT Madras and XLRI Jamshedpur Emerge Victorious at the Hero Campus Challenge – Season 5

The fifth season of Hero Campus Challenge (HCC), an initiative by Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, concluded with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras and Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur emerging victorious in the Engineering and B-school categories respectively.

Both the winning teams received a prize of Rs. 2 lakhs while the two runners-up teams received a prize of Rs. 1 lakh each. All 30 individual finalists of HCC - Season 5 were offered Pre-Placement Interviews at Hero MotoCorp.

Season 5 of the Hero Campus Challenge received record-breaking registrations from 32,152 students (10,717 teams) from both, B-Schools and Engineering colleges, when it was launched in October 2019. All the teams went through multiple assessment rounds over the course of the past four months.

The competition started with the first-round of Online Assessment, to check the basic domain knowledge of the teams, followed by an Idea Elevator Pitch Round where the selected 1,092 teams had to present the details of their solutions. The students then proceeded to the Virtual Presentation Round where 80 shortlisted teams presented their detailed idea to the Jury. In the end, only 10 Teams qualified for the Grand Finale.

All the finalists went through an extensive mentorship period with the Senior Leadership Team of Hero MotoCorp, to prepare them for the finale. All ideas focused on bringing sustainability in the shared mobility space and the optimum use of Artificial Intelligence in current operations.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Vijay Sethi, Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Head - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Hero MotoCorp Ltd. said, “Hero Campus Challenge provides an engaging platform to youngsters for bringing creativity and fresh perspective to the table. Over the years, the HCC has evolved into a prestigious platform that nurtures India’s future business leaders. Building on the previous years, Season 5 received an overwhelming response from the student fraternity from across the country’s top institutes of higher education. Participation in HCC has increased every season and, on our part, we have ensured that we raise the bar in terms of complexity, competitiveness, and challenge. I am sure that the next season will be even bigger. In my view, all the selected teams are winners, for the simple fact that from almost 11,000 teams, only 10 made it to the finale. Being a youth-centric organisation, we will continue to bring innovative platforms to promote young talent in our country.”

The jury consisted of the Senior Leadership Team Members of Hero MotoCorp, along with external Academic Experts: Professor Harsh V. Verma from the Faculty of Management Studies; Professor Anil Parihar from the Delhi Technological University; Professor Jaskiran Arora and Professor Soharab Hossain from the BML Munjal University and Professor Rohit Mehtani from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

Launched in 2015, the Hero Campus Challenge is a campus-centric, business-solutions oriented competition, which is conducted across the premier management and engineering schools of the country. It is open to students pursuing graduation and post-graduation from all IITs, NITs and engineering colleges. Students in first and final-year from two-year MBA/PGDM programs can also submit their entries for participation.

Tata Sons Chairman, N. Chandrasekaran is Now a LinkedIn Influencer

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking platform, today announced Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of the Board of Tata Sons, as a LinkedIn Influencer. As part of the LinkedIn Influencer program, N. Chandrasekaran joins an esteemed group of 500+ Indian and international leaders such as Narendra Modi, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Priyanka Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Trudeau, and Sachin Tendulkar, among many other noteworthy personalities. These global pioneers, thought leaders, and visionaries spark insightful conversations and discussions on the platform, and continue to be a strong inspiration to professionals across industries. Other LinkedIn Influencers from India include Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Kailash Satyarthi, Vani Kola, and Anny Divya.

N. Chandrasekaran first joined Tata Group as an intern in 1987 and rose through the ranks at TCS to become CEO and Managing Director of the global IT solutions and consulting firm. In 2017, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Tata Sons, one of the country’s largest conglomerates. Today, as a LinkedIn influencer, N. Chandrasekaran engages with the platform’s 62+ million members in India, by underlining the impact of technological developments on industries and people. He also uses the power of his voice to highlight the importance of community and trust. In his debut LinkedIn article, the businessman highlighted how the shift from ‘shareholder capitalism’ to ‘stakeholder capitalism’ can help any company foster trust and inclusion, in order to create scalable impact and value.

In his latest article on LinkedIn, N. Chandrasekaran writes about his new book, ‘Bridgital Nation’ that talks about how technology can be used to solve India’s employment and economic hurdles. India is troubled by ‘twin challenges’, he writes; people want good jobs but don’t have the means to acquire them, and there are people in need of services that are out of their reach. He believes combining people with technology can be the best way to upskill and close the gap.

On being announced as a LinkedIn Influencer, N. Chandrasekaran, said, “Business opportunities, cutting across sectors, can be realised through engaging discussions and meaningful collaborations. The potential on the platform for continuous learning, experience sharing and lateral thinking is very exciting. I look forward to interacting with the LinkedIn members in converting challenges into opportunities, fostering innovation and delivering sustained societal impact.”

“We are delighted to welcome N. Chandrasekaran as a LinkedIn Influencer. N. Chandrasekaran’s visionary bent of mind, drive for technology excellence, and his inspiring professional journey will lend itself to valuable discussions on the business and economy on our platform,” said Adith Charlie, India Managing Editor, LinkedIn.

In an exclusive video interview with LinkedIn, N. Chandrasekaran shares his views on success, economic development, and on becoming a CEO. A few nuggets below (in his own words):

On loving your work everyday: “I think there are days in which you feel more pressure, if you will. But I think most part of my career, I really feel that I have had a very, very enjoyable profession because my job at TCS for 30 years saw me learning a lot of technology and also meet with different customers, different industries, travel around the world... And work in teams, work with some great people.”

On becoming a CEO: “... you don't chase a title. You chase a dream. If you have an aspiration and a purpose and then you give it all you got, I think you'll be surprised. You will far exceed what you dream about.”

On his new book: “...the more I thought about it, I felt that actually all of the problems can be grouped into two challenges. One is definitely a lack of access...On the other side I think we have a lot of talent, and in a way I can say that we have both demand and supply, but we can't match...we saw technology as a bridge between people and access.”

On the impact of automation on jobs and education: “I fundamentally think that AI, if applied well, irrespective of the market, it can make a big impact, both in terms of productivity and job creation...One of the things that we need to definitely do is to make some interventions in our education system...the skills that are required to address real time problems are collaboration with people, creativity and critical thinking.”

On why companies should focus on stakeholder capitalism: “By focusing on a full stakeholder value, it is not that you are eroding shareholder value...if you focus on stakeholders, most of the time the shareholder value will get created… I think a satisfied customer or a satisfied employee is all interlinked.”

On the Indian economy: “...I personally believe that India is a phenomenal market and I'm extremely bullish on India because there are a lot of factors going for us. I think India will get more organized… And there will be more middle income people in India, which essentially means that it'll be more affordable spend that's going to happen. And most of India's infrastructure is yet to get built.”

Follow N Chandrasekaran on LinkedIn, and watch his exclusive video interview with LinkedIn here.

COLOROTHON Celebrates Colors of Life and Social Cause In Bengaluru

COLOROTHON Season 12 with the tagline ‘Draw Your Imagination’ attracted ten thousand people at the Kittur Rani Chennamma Stadium Jayangar, Bengaluru. The  participants included a diverse groups of teens, adults and senior citizens to color their imagination.

The paintings were a reflection of diverse thoughts, nature and shades of life. Many aspiring artists got an opportunity to interact with established artists as they painted live at the event.

In what is expected to be the largest open air drawing and painting session, people in the age group between 3 and 90 years can come along with their families, express their imagination and creativity on paper.

The event was inaugurated by Senior Congress Leader Shri. DK. Shivakumar , along with Shri. Ramalinga Reddy, Senior Congress Leader, Ex. Home Minister, Govt. of Karnataka in the presence of Mrs. Sowmya Reddy, Jayanagar MLA, N. Nagaraju, Byrasandra Corporator, Wing Commander M A Afraz(Retd) Founder – Honourpoint Bengaluru  and Celebrity guests like Actress Shwetha Srivatsav, and Mrs. Prathima David ,  Mrs. India Pride Of Nation Ravishing 2019 1st Runner-up & A certified Yoga teacher.

Organized by Breathe Entertainment, COLOROTHON also saw a display of other activities like drums circle, caricature, doodle artist, origami artist, interactive, drum circle, robo act, magic show , digital engagement, flea market, toonfigures , and many more.

Overwhelmed by the response, Kishore Joseph, Founder Trustee  of the COLOROTHON said “it is an amazing and humbling experience to see people come with their family and spend some quality time in creativity, a rarity in today’s fast-paced world.”

Revealing the activities lined up for the event, Kishore Joseph, Founder Trustee COLOROTHON, said, “Even though not a competition we will announce 15 best paintings selected across 5 age groups, which are 3 to 7, 8 to 12, 13 to 20, 21 to 30, and 31 and above to encourage and remind people that a life without creativity could never be colorful. 300 Best paintings will be donated to our charity partner Charity Partner- Honourpoint India's only online memorial for  Martyrs of Indian Armed Forces.

This season a special category is being introduced for the theme “ A Salute to Fallen Heroes” of our Armed Forces to connect the participants with the cause of Honourpoint.  The event will also witness 30 accomplished artist doing live paintings to inspire the budding artists. He added.

Incidentally Colorothon Season 12 will be appreciated by Exclusive World Records for most number of people painting under one platform for all age groups.

Our vision is to see Indians from all over the country of all ages and all groups take to painting on a day which will be celebrated as Colorothon Day”

COLOROTHON is a platform that brings people together to celebrate colors and life. As an organizer we have elevated this season with inception of a largest open air painting exhibition, which will happen within a span of one month. Christened as a COLOROTHON initiative, the exhibition will display all the paintings from the event and the proceedings will go to charitable organizations.

Summing up the event Ms. Sowmya Reddy said, “We are in absolute delight to have seen people bring out the child in them and make moments colorful. Learning and exploring are two constants in our lives.

We thank all our partners whose contributions have been invaluable in bringing out the event, partners include: Radio Partners , Fever 104fm and 94.3 Radio one, Shilpi Voices, Youthphoria, Lya, and Prachar Media.

CASHe Releases its 2019 Millennial Borrowing and Spending Analysis Titled ‘The 2019 Millennial Loan-o-Nomics

Highlights

* Key findings from the analysis reveal millennials within income range of Rs 25k-50k topped the borrowing charts.
* A six-month loan is their most-preferred loan tenor
* While UPI and NEFT topped the charts for repayment mode; weekdays – Tuesdays & Wednesdays were their most preferred days for applying for a loan

CASHe, India’s leading digital lending company for young salaried professionals, today released its 2019 report on the millennials key borrowing and spending habits.  According to the report, medical expenses and consumer durable purchases topped the chart for reasons why millennial availed digital loans all through 2019. They were closely followed by loan foreclosure and holidays. CASHe who specifically caters to the millennial segment of the population undertakes customer data analysis on an annual basis. Christened as the ‘ The 2019 Millennial Loan-o-Nomics’, the report analyzed data of an active pool of over 400,000 loan application received from customers outlining multiple data points and key insights showcasing the typical consumption patterns, buying behavior and borrowing habits of millennial across India.

The findings delineate an astute, young population with financial aptitude much ahead of its previous generations. Most millennial prefer to move out of their parent’s place thus embarking on a journey of financial independence. Today, therefore the cohort juggles various responsibilities without compromising on their needs and aspirations. Small, personal loans are tailored to meet the present millennials needs who are faced with obstacles of expensive accommodation, higher education and travel. Often saddled with the repayment of hefty EMIs the moment they land their first job, digital lending with shorter lock-in periods is a saviour for especially for those with inadequate of zero credit history. Emergencies, like unforeseen medical expenses, are thus the reason why 37% of millennial customers resorted to lending – a sharp increase from 31% last year.

Averse to the manner in which millennial are being perceived, the CASHe data clearly outlines the purpose of borrowing among millennial being need-oriented rather than redundant. While ‘emergencies’ accounted for approximately 57% of the borrowing, ‘aspirations’ accounted for 43%.

Surprisingly,  only 10% of borrowers are women, reflecting the ratio of male to female application ratio on Cashe app. It suggests that women in this cohort are conservative when it comes to borrowing and spending! Hyderabad soars ahead in terms of millennial credit demand compared to last year, ranking second after Bengaluru, followed by others metros such as New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Older millennials, between the ages of 31-38 accounted for about 52% of the loans taken, while the millennial cohort earning in the 25k-50k category presented the highest number of borrowers at 43%, succeeded by those in the 15k-25k monthly income bracket at 36%.

The data showcased that ‘71 days’ is the average frequency of repeat loans, while 73% of the applicants are repeat users. In terms of loan size, a majority of them (27%) preferred small ticket loans of under Rs. 10,000 and the data indicated a significant credit demand from near-prime millennial accounting for approximately 55%. This reinforces the idea that millennials are actually quite financially disciplined – repaying loans on time and dispelling their image of being irresponsible spendthrifts.

The customer analysis also divulges certain fascinating, novel insights. Considered the most tech-savvy of the current generations, millennials rely heavily of technology for communication. Thus UPI and NEFT topped as the most preferred medium of repayment. 78% of millennial choose to apply for loans during weekdays, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And while 12 pm to 4 pm was recorded as the most preferred time to apply for a loan, 5 am to 6 am was registered as the most preferred time when millennial chose to repay loans.

Despite the stark differences between the spending habits of millennials and Gen X, some things remain comfortingly constant. Even with an increasing number of people living away from their families to pursuit of jobs, they continue to imbibe the spirit of Indian festivals with great enthusiasm. This is why ‘Christmas’, ‘New Year’ and ‘Diwali’ ranked among the top occasions when millennial availed digital loans. August, September and December represented the peak period for digital lending, as the segment actively indulged in shopping and travelling, whereas Samsung, Xiaomi and Vivo arose as the most preferred handsets for the cohort.

On the occasion, CEO of CASHe, Mr. Ketal Patel said, “Millennials, I believe is one of the most misunderstood segment of the present times. Lower savings and higher spending by millennials is being caricatured to present them as financially irresponsible dreamers, much averse to reality. Their spending and borrowing behavior reflects where they are currently in their lives -- settling down, renting out, new job, starting families’ etc. CASHe believes millennials are ‘achievers’ - independent at an early age and nurturing the attitude to grow while combating multiple challenges through financial discipline.”

“The Indian banking infrastructure has not evolved enough to include the gamut of needs by this emerging section of the population and this is where new-age digital lending companies like CASHe step in – an industry estimated to touch $100 billion by 2023. Representing the ‘chief wage earners’ and the largest demographic cluster of the country, millennials are redefining the Indian consumer story and thus have the potential to deliver the country from the current economic upheaval. It is therefore essential to create an ecosystem that matches their needs, while driving initiatives to bridge the gap between male and female borrowing, in order to truly create a financially inclusive economy” he further added.