IPRS Announces "Emergency Relief Package" from COVID-19 Crisis to Its Members

The creative community has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. Creators whose earnings arise from individual projects, have been left reeling from this unprecedented crisis which has now been compounded by an equally unprecedented lock down aimed at keeping all Indian citizens indoors and safe. The lockdown has a significant human cost in terms of lost earnings and the consequent inability of many creative community members to sustain themselves and their families during the next three weeks.

The Indian Performing Right Society Ltd (“IPRS”) is mindful of the stark concerns faced by its author and music composer members and as a responsible copyright society mandated by the Government of India is determined to do its bit to help its members across the country.

Accordingly, IPRS has declared an Emergency Relief Package to support its members, who are facing significant financial pressure during the Corona pandemic. The money will be paid to around 3150 author and music composer members across various geographies, to meet their basic needs for the next three weeks as we battle the virus.

Mr. Javed Akhtar, Chairman of the IPRS said, “It is our duty to support the call made by our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi for society to support each other through this 21-day lock down period. IPRS is what it is because of all its members. In these challenging and trying times, IPRS as a custodian of its creator members, stands shoulder to shoulder with all its members. This payment by IPRS is our contribution for the time being to help our creator members tide over this period of the 21-day lock down to be able to purchase basic necessities”.

Mr. Rakesh Nigam, CEO of the IPRS said, “It is in times like these that bodies like IPRS can provide much needed help and succor to its members. I am glad that we can contribute in this fashion to our members. I want to convey our Chairman Javed Saab’s message to all our members, that IPRS is there for them in this time of crisis.”

IPRS will be reaching out to its members to facilitate disbursement of the relief amounts on an immediate basis.

QuEST Global Puts a Strong Business Continuity Plan in Action with 80% of its India Workforce Working from Home

QuEST Global, a global product engineering and lifecycle services company, today said that it has worked with its customers to enable upwards of 80% of its employees across seven cities in India to work from home. The company is continuing to work closely with its customers and government authorities to enable work from home for the remaining employees who are safely staying back at their homes.

The company said that currently only critical personnel from IT and admin teams, who need to arrange workstations for remaining employees, are commuting to office with special approvals from the authorities. QuEST implemented these measures to ensure the safety of its employees and ensure business continuity in the wake of the nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Global Crisis Management team at QuEST has been monitoring the situation daily and has been taking all appropriate decisions including ensuring physical, facility and IT security and creating a safe work environment for its employees.

As a trusted thinking partner to its customers, QuEST has been taking decisive and proactive measures to address the challenges faced by its customers to continue their operations without any impact. The company has been closely working with its customers and stakeholders to understand their needs and take necessary actions to ensure business continuity. This includes getting swift approvals to provide remote high-end computing power to its employees working from home without compromising on data security norms.

Commenting on the ongoing situation and company’s preparedness to tackle the situation, Ajit Prabhu, Chairman & CEO, QuEST Global said, “In such difficult times, we believe that the well-being of our employees is foremost. At the same time, we are also ensuring that the integrity of our global operations is maintained so that customer deliverables remain unaffected. We are continuously evaluating the situation and working hard to enable all our employees to work from home. I would like to thank our customers for extending their support.”

“Over the past two decades, we have strived to be a trusted thinking partner to our customers, whom they can count on in both challenging and prosperous times. We will not waver from that goal and will always stay committed to our stakeholders. We will overcome this together as we have done in the past,” Ajit added.

About QuEST Global

For more than 20 years, QuEST Global has aimed to be a trusted global product engineering and lifecycle services partner to many of the worlds’ most recognized companies in the Aero Engines, Hi-Tech, Aerospace & Defense, Transportation (Auto and Rail), Power and Industrial, Oil & Gas and Medical Devices industries. With a global presence in 15 countries, 67 global delivery centers, and 12,800+ personnel, QuEST Global believes that it is at the forefront of the convergence of the mechanical, electronics, software and digital engineering innovations to engineer solutions for a safer, cleaner world. QuEST Global’s deep domain knowledge and digital expertise aim to help its clients accelerate product development and innovation cycles, create alternate revenue streams, enhance consumer experience and make manufacturing processes and operations more efficient.

Emirates Ground Crews Give An Emotional Send-Off to Last Flights Back to Dubai from London Heathrow

Emirates ground crews around the world have bid farewell to their last operating flights back to Dubai. EK 005 to London Heathrow, which departed at 1605hrs on 24 March was the last flight to take off from Dubai. EK 262 from Sao Paulo, which landed at 2235hrs (local time) was the last flight to arrive on 25 March into Dubai.

Emirates’ outstation airport teams from 39 stations including Prague, Newark, Seoul, London Stansted, and Zurich devotedly sent off their last passenger flights, maintaining social distancing rules, before the suspension took effect. Over the next weeks, Emirates’ operational teams will focus on preparing for service resumption.

As per UAE government directives to protect communities against the spread of COVID-19, Emirates has temporarily suspended all passenger flights from 25 March 2020. The airline will resume passenger services as soon as it is possible to do so. In the meantime, Emirates is still busy deploying its fleet of Boeing 777 freighters, bolstering international air cargo links for the transport of vital goods, including medical supplies and food, around the world.

About Emirates

Emirates’ 34 years in India have been defined by progressive investment, partnership and growth. In October 1985, Emirates launched flights from its Dubai hub to Delhi and Mumbai which formed the base of its initial route network. Since then, Emirates has grown its India operations to serve a total of nine destinations across India – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Thiruvananthapuram – with 170 weekly flights. The Emirates Group currently employs more than 13,700 Indian nationals globally, most of them in high-skilled employment. Globally, the airline flies to 157 destinations in 83 countries and territories.

Syncordis Partners with International Bank for Temenos-Based Transformation

Syncordis S.A., a leading Temenos banking software specialist and a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. (LTI) has been selected as the partner for a strategic Temenos T24 Transact engagement by Standard Chartered Bank as the bank transforms and upgrades its wealth platform. This prestigious win further consolidates Syncordis’ enviable reputation as a global, pure-play, one-stop partner for Temenos clients.

As part of this engagement, Syncordis will reimplement Temenos T24 Transact and integrate it with Standard Chartered’s Temenos WealthSuite, Insight and DataSource applications as well as other systems. The implementation will be accelerated by Syncordis’ regulated SaaS solution and LTI’s global system integration services. The benefits of this functionally rich, regulated SaaS solution include automated functional processes, customized, ergonomic and user-friendly menus and dashboards, predefined standard products with an exhaustive set of properties, as well as streamlined life cycle events.

Guillaume Desjonqueres, Chief Executive Officer, Syncordis said “Our Temenos expertise and project accelerators such as our SaaS solution make us the right partner for this transformational engagement. This is one of the largest engagements for Temenos WealthSuite in Asia Pacific and we bring a proven track and complementary services from LTI to it.”

Leveraging on Syncordis’ own regulated SaaS solution, Temenos’ Implementation Methodology (TIM) and a process-led “adopt” model to contain the scope, Syncordis is well-equipped to deliver the project alongside the client. The successful reimplementation will rely on standards to reduce customization and make Standard Chartered’s WealthSuite platform easier to manage and upgrade.

Amazon Prime Video Makes a Selection of Kids and Family Content Available Free to Watch on Prime Video for Amazon Customers

Amazon Prime Video Prime offers incredible value with unlimited streaming of the latest and exclusive movies, TV shows, stand-up comedy, Amazon Originals, ad free music listening through Amazon Prime Music, free fast delivery on India’s largest selection of products, early access to top deals, unlimited reading with Prime Reading, all available only for ₹129 a month

This week, Amazon Prime Video has made a selection of kids and family content available free to watch on Prime Video for all Amazon customers; including Just add Magic, The Dangerous Book for Boys, Wishenpoof, If you give a Mouse a Cookie, and many more. To access the free kids and family content on Prime Video, families without Prime memberships can log in from their Amazon account, and watch the free movies and TV shows on www.primevideo.com or through the Prime Video app which is free to download on compatible smart TVs, mobile devices, Fire TV, Fire TV stick, Fire tablets, Apple TV, game consoles and Chromecast. You can find the full selection of titles available for free in India here.

This week will also mark the exclusive India digital debut of Parasite, the film that created history by winning the most awards at the Oscars 2020, on 27th March.  Directed and written by Bong Joon Ho, the film follows the lives of a poor family, the Kims as they con their way into becoming the servants of a rich family, the Parks. But their easy life gets complicated when their deception is threatened with exposure. Prime Members can enjoy the Award winning Korean Film in Korean with English subtitles, as well as with Hindi dubs exclusively on Prime Video India.

Fashion enthusiasts across the world can now celebrate as Amazon Prime Video brings the much-awaited unscripted Amazon Original Series Making The Cut S1. The American reality television series will be hosted by none other than supermodel Heidi Klum and Fashion consultant Tim Gunn; where they will test the design and business skills of 12 designers as the compete for the coveted prize. Prime members can watch this high fashion fight to the finish starting 27th March.

Prime members can stream some of the latest Indian blockbusters, including Tamil crime thriller Mafia: Chapter 1 starring celebrated superstars Arun Vijay and Priya Bhavani Shankar; Punjabi action film Ik Sandhu Hunda starring Gippy Grewal, Neha Sharma; mystery thriller Madha (Telugu) starring Trishna Mukherjee, Rahul Venkat and Gashmeer Mahajani, Pooja Sawant, Mohan Agashestarrer Bonus, shortly after their theatrical release. Additionally, catch the popular Malyalam comedy Gauthamante Radham starring our Amazon Original Series The Family Man’s starrer Neeraj Madhav, in the lead starting.

HIGHLIGHTS

Parasite

Ki-taek`s family of four is close, but unemployed. With a bleak future ahead of them, the son Ki-woo is recommended for a well-paid tutoring job, spawning hopes of regular income. Carrying the expectations of his family on his shoulders, Ki-woo heads to the Park family home for an interview with Mr. Park, the owner of a global IT firm. It is at this house that Ki-woo meets Yeon-kyo, the beautiful young lady of the house. However, behind this meeting, an unstoppable string of mishaps lies in wait.

Making the Cut S1

In this first season of Making the Cut, Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn take 12 established designers around the world from New York to Paris to Tokyo, as they compete to become the next global fashion brand. Each week, winning looks will be available to buy on Amazon in the Making the Cut store, and the last designer standing will receive one million dollars to invest in their brand.

Mafia: Chapter 1 (Tamil)

Directed and written by Karthick Naren, Mafia is a story of Aryan who is a narcotics officer entitled with making the city a drug free zone. One day, people very close to Aryan get murdered one by one. He feels that this might be the work of the mastermind who is behind the entire distribution network.

Madha (Telugu)

Madha is an intriguing psychological thriller with a lot of mystery and suspense. It is a story of a proof-reader named Nisha (Trishna Mukherjee) who begins dating a cinematographer called Arjun (Venkat Rahul), unknowing of his devious plans for her.

Gauthamante Radham (Malayalam)

The Neeraj Madhav starrer, Gauthamante Radham revolves around revolves around Gauthamam and his journey of getting a driving license and, for the first time in the family, a car of his own. The film follows three stages of Gauthaman’s (Neeraj) life panning in on what a family’s first car means to them. It highlights the emotional attachment they feel for the vehicle.

Ik Sandhu Hunda Si (Punjabi)

To fight the corruption in Punjab university, senior student Sandhu announces his candidacy as Grewal for the election.

Bonus (Marathi)

Aditya runs his family business and he follows a vegan diet. His dream is to take business to another level and wants his workers to be paid well. But his grandfather opposes his decision of paying bonus to his workers and challenges him to live their life for a month.

Selfie With Bajrangi (FVOD)

The first season of Bajrangi revolves around the day to day problems of Ankush and how he overcomes those with his friend Bajrangi's help.

Inspector Chingum (FVOD)

Chingum, the Police in-charge of Shantiwood Police station has a strong South Indian accent. His misadventures leads the character to become comical yet very action oriented. Chingum dreams of a “Zero Crime City”. Chingum is accompanied by Hera, Pheri, Khabrilal, Chatur, Dosa Anna & Bozo. A vicious villian No Baal who secretly owns a Crime University but Chingum always defeats him.

Just Add Magic (FVOD)

(For children ages 6-11) - Kelly Quinn and her two BFF's, Darbie and Hannah, stumble upon her grandmother's mysterious cookbook in the attic and discover some far from ordinary recipes. When the Shut'em Up Shortcake silences Kelly's pesky little brother and the Healing Hazelnut Tart heals Darbie's ankle, the girls discover they have the power of magic.

The Dangerous Book for Boys (FVOD)

The McKenna family must cope with the passing of its much-loved patriarch, Patrick. Hope appears in the form of a book called The Dangerous Book for Boys that Patrick created for his three sons. It becomes a how-to guide that inspires fantasies in his youngest son, Wyatt, enabling him to reconnect with his father and learn lessons that help him navigate real life.

If you give a Mouse a Cookie (FVOD)

In the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, based on the beloved books by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond, we get to know Mouse, Pig, Moose, Dog and Cat and their favorite humans. When Mouse and friends get together, one thing always leads to another in the most unexpected ways. You just never know where things will end up, but you can be sure that IF Mouse and Friends go on an adventure together, THEN they will just have to have fun the whole time.

Wishenpoof! (FVOD)

Bianca is just like any other little girl, except for one teensy little thing. Bianca has Wish Magic, so she can make wishes come true. Whether she's at home in Wish World, at the Willow Tree with her fairy friends, or at school with her non-fairy friends, Bianca and her hilarious teddy bear sidekick Bob navigate day-to-day problems with a little help from Bianca's mom and of course, wish magic!

Sherazade The Untold Stories (FVOD)

Sherazade: The Untold Stories tells the true story of the classic Arabian Nights tales. One powerful female character, Sherazade, was the real hero of the famous stories. Without her, Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad could not have had their adventures.

Zendesk Announces Partnership with Tata Consultancy Services

Zendesk, Inc. has announced a strategic alliance with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to provide world-class, enterprise grade CRM solutions for large Enterprises. The partnership combines Zendesk’s powerful support, sales and engagement software solutions together with TCS’ deep contextual knowledge and experience in digital transformation. Together, Zendesk and TCS will collaborate and more efficiently solve companies’ increasingly complex technological requirements and provide powerful CRM custom solutions and integrations.

“We are thrilled to join hands with TCS, this partnership will meld TCS’ deep expertise in technology with Zendesk’s CRM product portfolio and equip businesses to connect, serve and engage with their new-age customers across demographics. In India, we can observe an urgency to make enterprise CRM more adaptable and user-friendly to cater to the diverse user base. Accounting for the scope that this need presents, the recent GlobalData report has estimated that India’s overall spending on CRM is set to reach about $2.3bn by the year 2023. The timing for this partnership could not have been better to serve our local customers,” said KT Prasad, Country Sales Director, Zendesk India

“We are excited to work with TCS to better support the needs of enterprise companies,” said Ricardo Moreno, Vice President of Worldwide Partners, Zendesk. “With the combination of TCS’ long-standing history of providing information technology (IT) services, consulting and business solutions to many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journey and our service-first CRM offerings, we look forward to helping companies foster a transparent, responsive and empowered customer experience."

In 2020, it is predicted that customer experience will surpass both price and quality of product as a brand's key differentiator. As part of this alliance, global companies will benefit from TCS’ technology expertise and Zendesk’s support, sales, and engagement software to meet customers’ rapidly evolving demands and transform their experience. This includes:

Alignment between TCS' industry leading consulting, implementation and optimization services with Zendesk's CRM product portfolio.
Access to TCS' deep expertise across industries including financial services, manufacturing, retail, and more.

“TCS leverages its domain knowledge and deep customer relationships to contextualize its comprehensive suite of CRM/CX offerings to create bespoke solutions that provide a superior customer experience and create competitive differentiation,” said Akhilesh Tiwari, Global Head, Enterprise Application Services at TCS. “Our partnership with Zendesk brings together the best capabilities of both organizations to help businesses fast-track their digital transformation journeys.”

Today’s partnership announcement with TCS comes on the heels of Zendesk’s recent Support Suite, Sales Suite and Sunshine announcements. These service-first CRM solutions enable service and sales teams to instantly connect with their customers and have natural conversations across all touchpoints. 

The Private Industry is Also Doing its Bit to Help India Fight the COVID-19 Situation!

During this COVID-19 pandemic when the entire world is facing serious crisis and our country India is also on the verge of the same, Government of India in support of the 1.3 billion population is taking serious measures to curtail the deadly virus. While the Government yesterday announced a package of 15,000 crore rupees to fight the pandemic, private organisations such as Reliance and Vedanta have also stood up to help India fight the situation.

Meanwhile the budding private sector of India is also trying to contribute to the community by doing it’s bit.

Hong Kong based logistic gaint; Lalamove is currently planning to support the delivery of essentials in the cities that they operate in and are currently under lockdown. They have reached out to various businesses involved in food, groceries, pharmacies, etc., offering their support in helping them deliver their goods to the people in need.

Another tech-based logistics company 72 Networks has availed a Corona Specific Medical Insurance policy for all our employees in the event of any casualty to cover their financial burden. In case of any casualty (Corona specific), the medical insurance company will bear the total cost of the test & treatment and a payment of 1000 Rs will be given to the infected person during his time of quarantine on a daily basis so that he can meet his daily requirements (as a part of policy).

Apart from the Logistics sector; Edtech platforms like Edubrisk are also rising up to the occasion to help solve the educational crisis in the country. They are running free learning sessions for teachers/institutions so that they can take online classes for their students. Also, they are providing free demo entries for students who need to finish their courses on their platform.

Another reputed institute in the country for skilled-based courses i.e The Academy of Pastry & Culinary Arts is taking classes on Zoom for their students and are also doing a Insta Live/Facebook Live session daily for the normal crowd and are teaching them home friendly recipes so that they are occupied in this time of lockdown. These recipes are taught by world renowned and award winning chefs.

The dating/gaming industry is also not far behind as during this time of lockdown, dating apps like Gleeden are providing alternatives for individuals to spend their time at home doing something that they find pleasurable. The platform has registered a hike of over 70% on its platform during this period. The gaming platforms are also not far behind and are giving lucrative offers to woo the customers. Falling the suit, Fantasy & Online gaming platforms like the Baazi Games have also witnessed a hike of 8-10% on its online poker platform; PokerBaazi. These platforms are proving to be very handy in order to divert the attention of the masses locked at their homes.

Another important sector Fintech; whose importance is only going to increase with the coming time as due to the lockdown less and less people will venture out of their homes and the facility to avail handy loans from your homes or through your mobile phones is going to garner traffic soon. Shubh Loans; a fintech lending company (NBFC) is also fully prepared for the future challenges and is more than willing it play its bit in supporting the Government of India and its people. They are also encouraging their employees to work & stay at home and support the Government’s initiative fully. Apart from this they have also provided comprehensive medical insurance plans that include coverage for parents which will prove to be extremely valuable at times like these.