Annamrita Foundation Provides Meals for 79 Lac+ Migrant & Poor Families impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Key Points

* Since the lockdown on March 25, 2020, has provided:
* ~30 Lac meals across Maharashtra: Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Wada & Jalna

Distributed ~79 Lac meals across India
* Philanthropists and corporates pitch in to widen reach to the underprivileged
* The Foundation invites individuals and corporates to collaborate in this initiative through contributions to reach many more

Annamrita, formerly known as ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, has stepped up during the current lockdown to control the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide nutritious and hygienic meals to migrant workers, daily wage earners, slum dwellers and the poor living on streets across the nation. The Foundation launched ‘Operation Karuna’ to fight the scourge of hunger among the most vulnerable sections of society. Reliance Foundation and Ajay Piramal led Piramal Foundation have been key enablers with the former having pledged uninterrupted supplies of groceries and food grains during the lockdown period. Rotary Club of Bombay Queens Necklace has provided the much required initial funding for cooking large quantities of meals.

In the lockdown period since March 25, 2020 ~79 Lac meals have been distributed across the country at ~3.2 Lac meals per day. The Annamrita Foundation is inviting individuals, philanthropists, corporates and NGOs to come forward and contribute either small or large donations to this cause as there are vast numbers that are yet to receive this dire support.

Annamrita kitchens follow strict guidelines of hygiene and safety while preparing meals. Leveraging its unique ISO certified mass cooking technology, the power of a robust supply chain and industrial size kitchens, large quantities of meals are efficiently distributed to identified partner organizations/NGOs that have taken on the responsibility to ensure door-to-door delivery to the needy especially in slums. In Maharashtra, 81 tons of rice, 46 tons of pulses, 14 tons of cooking oil, 63.5 tons of vegetables, 4 tons of spices and 6 tons of salt have been utilized so far, to prepare these meals.

Dr. Radha Krishna Das, Annamrita Foundation said, “This is a difficult time for our country. Inspired by the teachings of our Founder, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, out of compassion towards our fellow living beings, we are committed to making a difference in their lives. The workers and volunteers of Annamrita are risking lives to do what is needed. We are grateful for the support we are receiving from our partner organizations as their active engagement has gone a long way to achieve the successful distribution of food. We request more people to join this initiative through their contributions so that we are able to reach many more that are currently facing acute hunger and shortage of food.”

Partners:

* Donors: The generous partner organizations that have contributed funds and donated in kind include Reliance Foundation, Ajay Piramal led Piramal Foundation, Rotary Club of Mumbai Queens Necklace, TajSats, Cipla, Bharat Petroleum, Bajaj, Thermax, Mahanagar Gas Limited, JSW, TVS, Mafatlal, IIFL Finance, Pidilite, Mahyco Monsanto, Bayer, Pranic Healing, Sahachari Foundation and other organizations and entrepreneurs.

* Distribution Partners: Rotary Club of Bombay Queens Necklace, Giants Parivar, NESH52 – No One Ever Sleeps Hungry, Art of Living, YMCA, Arham Yuva Seva Group, IDF and others.

Apart from big organizations, a large number of individuals and corporate employees have come forward to pledge and donate amounts staring from as little as INR 100 to crores as per their capacity. The love and support from individuals has encouraged. Annamrita Foundation to carry forward the noble task of feeding thousands of underprivileged people across the country.

Other Initiatives during the Lockdown include:

* Municipal Staff Feeding Program: At the request of the Municipal Commissioner of MCGM, Mumbai, Annamrita Foundation is delivering meals to all the dedicated and hardworking staff of the municipality on emergency duty. Over 10,000 members of the staff from departments such as solid waste management, maintenance, public health, education, social justice, fire, water and disaster management from 24 Wards around the city are catered to.

* Hospital Staff Feeding Program: The real battle against COVID-19 is taking place in quarantine centers and hospitals with doctors, nurses and several assisting teams working to save patients from the jaws of the disease. Annamrita Foundation is working round-the-clock to deliver meals to these hospitals and quarantine centers in Mumbai.

Acuver Appoints Manjunath B S as the New Chief Technology Officer

Acuver Consulting Private Ltd. has appointed a new Chief Technology Officer (CTO), technology leader Manjunath B S. As CTO, Manjunath will be the custodian of tech innovation and strategy as well as drive the organization’s engineering vision. His role will span strategic planning, R&D and forging a culture of continuous innovation. Acuver has recently launched an end-to-end Product Engineering as a service, which will be led by Manjunath.

“Manjunath brings a wealth of experience and we are eager to see him overhaul our product engineering service offering.  We will be counting on him as a seasoned leader to deliver exceptional quality and ramp up value for our clients”, said Sunny Nandwani, Founder and Managing Partner, Acuver.

Previously, Manjunath worked with Tesco, Reliance Retail and Schneider Electric in mission critical engineering and management roles. With more than sixteen years of industry experience, he is a veteran in building agile software products and scaling organizations. He has a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from NMAM Institute of Technology.

“Helping organizations scale up quality and delivery on both consumer and supply chain side is my passion, and given that Acuver is at the prime of its growth phase, this role really calls out to me. I am looking forward to fortifying the Acuver Centre of Excellence, developing the company's technical community and accelerating efficiency within internal teams as well as in our commercial offerings to support long term company's growth objectives”, said Manjunath. “I am honored to contribute to Acuver as CTO”, he added.

Acuver Consulting helps companies optimize their supply-chain for enhanced efficiency, profitability and customer experience. Acuver combines the right tools, methodologies and expertise in IT, business and technology to deliver solutions customized to the client’s unique operational landscape. 

Indian Tourism Industry on the Brink of Collapse with Massive Job Loss as COVID-19 Brings Tourism to A Standstill

Key Points

* Over 95% MSMEs of 53,000 travel agents, 1,15,000 Tour Operators (inbound, domestic, outbound), 15,000 Adventure, 2700 MICE, 19,11,000 Tourist Transporters, 53,000 hospitality and 5 lakh restaurants facing the heat due to lack of cash flows
* COVID-19 Pandemic has jeopardized India’s once hailing 5 lakh crores tourism industry and employment of an estimated 3.8 crore jobs

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality, the policy federation of all the national associations representing the complete tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India (ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI) over the past six weeks has been appealing to the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Tourism Minister, Commerce Minister, Aviation Minister, Niti Aayog and the Parliamentary Committee on Tourism and Reserve Bank of India. Indian Tourism industry, in 2018-19 handled business of over 10.5 million foreign tourists, more than 5million visiting NRIs, 1.8 billion domestic tourist visits & over 26 million outbound travellers. The industry is facing its biggest economic challenge with the larger and combined effect of 9/11 and the slowdown of 2009 and estimated bigger effect than the Economic Depression and World War II.

All the cash inflows of the industry have completely frozen and are likely to stay that way for the financial year 2020-21.  To address the issues of cash outflows, FAITH has recommended immediate measures for survival that need to be addressed parallelly.

* A complete deferment for twelve months of all statutory dues payable by tourism, travel & hospitality industry at the Central Government level, state and municipal government level without attracting any penal interest. These would include GST, Advance Tax payments, PF, ESI, customs duties, excise fees, fixed power & water charges and any fees for licenses and renewal at the state level.

* A support fund ‘Tourism COVID 19 Relief fund’ to be set up by RBI or Ministry of Finance or Tourism to support salaries and establishment costs. It should be either in the form of an interest free loan to Tourism companies for repayment of the principle over 10 years. The industry estimates the value of the fund to be minimum of Rs.50,000 crores which is almost equal to gross banking credit to the Indian Tourism industry.

* RBI has already provided for three months moratorium on EMIs of principle and interest payments on loans and recalculation of working capital from Financial Institutions. This needs to be without any accrued and accumulated interest during this period and it needs to be extended for twelve months.

To achieve the above FAITH recommends setting up National Tourism Task Force of all relevant ministries of the Central Government along with ministry of tourism and chief secretaries of State governments and industry stakeholders. This should be with legislative powers on the lines of GST council for state-wise standardized tourism response.

FAITH has also recommended that once the survival measures have been implemented then the measures for revival of Indian Tourism needs to be put in immediately. The Govt needs to stimulate domestic tourism by giving 200% weighted reduction of expenses to Indian corporates for undertaking their meeting, conferences, and exhibitions in India. LTA like income tax exemption of upto Rs.1.5 lakhs to Indians for undertaking their holidays with the country, these exemptions to be availed against invoices issued by GST registered Indian Tourism service providers.

To stimulate Tourism exports, SEIS needs to be notified at 10% value for all foreign exchange tourism companies and needs to be maintained at minimum same value for next 5 years and for off-season, it could go upto 15% value. To ensure the revival of Indian travel agent, all refunds, advances and cancellation amounts to be immediately paid back by all airlines, railways and state wildlife parks.

The TCS on travel agent proposed in the finance bill 2020 to be implemented on October 1, should be completely abolished as it puts the Indian travel fraternity at a huge disadvantage of upto 15% v/s their global competitors. Additionally, the service fee for credit card charges needs to below 1% and all corporate travel agent credit cards to be honored. To additionally ensure the survival of Indian tourist transporters, all inter-state levy need to be reduced and standardized. The year 2020-21 can be declared as a GST tax holiday for Indian tourism without stopping the flow of Input tax credits since there will be minimal GST collections from highly reduced travel within India.

FAITH urges the Government to declare immediate survival measures to prevent mass bankruptcy and crores of unprecedented layoffs. Worldover, countries have already put in support measures for Tourism industry through salary support and tax waiver such as USA, UK, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia and many others.

Intuit QuickBooks Joins Hands with Milaap to Support Small Businesses in India During COVID-19

Intuit QuickBooks today announced the launch of the Small Business Relief Initiative, in collaboration with Milaap, to help small and micro businesses in India to raise money to tackle the challenges arising from the COVID-19 lockdown. Intuit’s QuickBooks Online is the world’s leading financial management solution for small businesses and accountants.

The Small Business Relief Initiative aims to raise funds for small and micro-businesses that are facing difficulties in paying employee salaries and in covering business expenses due to COVID-19. India has around 6.4 crore MSMEs that contribute to 29% of the GDP and employ 11.1 crore people. (Source)

As the COVID-19 induced lockdown continues, most of the small and micro businesses in the country are struggling to survive mainly due to cash flow problems. The Small Business Relief Initiative brings together Milaap’s crowdfunding platform with Intuit QuickBooks’ expertise, to provide local businesses with the resources and tools they require to start a crowdfunding campaign in a few clicks, via the Milaap  platform where qualifying businesses that have been impacted by COVID-19 can raise micro-grants to meet essential business expenses.

Talking about the program, Aditi Puri Batra, Country Manager, Intuit QuickBooks India, said, “Small and micro businesses play an important role in the larger supply chain and thus their health is imperative to kick-start the industry when the lockdown eases. While the Government of India and Reserve Bank of India have taken multiple steps to address the liquidity crunch faced by these businesses, there is a need for more programs that can put cash into their hands as not every one of them may have access to lending. We are hopeful our initiative fills that gap and empowers these small and micro businesses that are also a crucial source of employment for millions of people in the country.”

Intuit QuickBooks India is also fundraising by enabling its employees in India to donate funds to a small and micro business of their choice on Milaap’s platform and creating awareness about the initiative across its small business network and associated brand channels.

Regarding this initiative, Mayukh Choudhury, CEO and co-founder, Milaap said, “Small and micro businesses are a lifeline for countless communities. Over the last decade, Milaap has supported over 1.5 lakh micro and small businesses. An immediate financial stimulus, for these vulnerable businesses is the need of the hour. Such a stimulus will address not only the availability of goods across local areas, but also the sustenance of employment across the economy.”

How the Small Business Relief Initiative works:

Intuit QuickBooks India Small Business help site: Intuit QuickBooks is providing its network of small businesses with a resources and tools site that enables businesses to start their own fundraiser or support an existing one. From there, small businesses can share their story on Milaap and request help covering employee-related and business expenses. Then everyone - friends, family, neighbours, companies - can all search the Small Business Relief Initiative site to find small businesses in need and donate directly to them.

Milaap.org Small Business Relief Fund: Milaap.org, India’s largest crowdfunding platform for medical emergencies and social causes, has launched the Small Business Relief Initiative where people can donate to support the overall initiative. Donors in India will be able to donate towards a business of their choice on the Milaap platform.

The Small Business Relief Initiative in India follows a similar program Gofundme launched by Intuit QuickBooks in the US in partnership with Gofundme.

Emirates Steps Up Safety Measures for Customers and Employees at the Airport and On Board

Emirates is stepping up precautionary measures at the airport and on board to ensure the health and safety of its employees and customers. All cabin crew, boarding agents and ground staff in direct contact with passengers will now don personal protective equipment (PPE) which includes a protective disposable gown over their uniforms, and a safety visor, in addition to masks and gloves.

At Dubai International airport, gloves and masks are mandatory for all customers and employees. Thermal scanners monitor the temperatures of all passengers and employees stepping into the airport. Physical distancing indicators have been placed on the ground and at waiting areas to help travellers maintain the necessary distance during check-in and boarding.

The airport team has also installed protective barriers at each check-in desk to provide additional safety reassurance to passengers and employees during interaction over the counter.

On board Emirates’ flights, seats are pre-allocated with vacant seats placed between individual passengers or family groups in observance of physical distancing protocols.

Emirates has also modified its inflight services for health and safety reasons. Food and beverages continue to be offered in the form of bento-styled boxes to reduce contact between the crew and customers during meal service, and minimise risk of interaction. The personal boxes provide customers with sandwiches, beverages, snacks and desserts.

Similarly, to reduce risk of spreading the virus by touch, magazines and other print reading material are temporarily unavailable. Cabin baggage are currently not accepted on flights. Carry-on items allowed in the cabin are limited to laptop, handbag, briefcase or baby items. All other items have to be checked in, and Emirates will add the cabin baggage allowance to customers’ check-in baggage allowance. Customers have to wear their masks and gloves throughout their journey from check-in until they disembark.

All Emirates aircraft will go through enhanced cleaning and disinfection processes in Dubai, after each journey.

Tata Tele Business Services Offer ‘Work from Home’ Solutions to Enterprises

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered both demand and supply side challenges for enterprises across India. With most of the businesses moving their operations to a work from home mode, Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) is offering ‘Work from Home’ solutions that empower these enterprises with robust, end-to-end connectivity solutions with secure access, collaboration and back-office operations.

As enterprises adapt to this new reality, TTBS’ Work from Home solutions help them maintain ‘business as usual’ mode while improving their efficiency and productivity as their employees work remotely. Some of these solutions include Hosted IVR, which allows enterprises to quickly set up distributed call center and enable agents to work from home, Audio and Web conferencing solutions which enable collaboration across employees, partners and customers, International Bridging Services that allow business to remain globally connected and Secure Document and Data Management solutions that address security concerns arising out of a distributed and remote working environment.

Elaborating on these solutions, Mr. Sai Pratyush, Group Product Head – IOT, Cloud and SaaS, Tata Teleservices Ltd. said, “The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a need for business continuity and we are committed to not only providing our customers with uninterrupted telecom services, but also support them with innovative solutions that help them deal effectively with this unprecedented crisis. As working from home becomes the new normal, our customers want solutions that enable employees to connect securely from their homes and collaborate effectively with their colleagues who are also working remotely. We will continue to focus on bringing to market, innovative solutions that would help our customers address this new normal.”

TTBS has leveraged its expertise and experience in the telecom sector to address the surge in customer demand for reliable connectivity and access to applications and services they need. With the focus on customer centricity and innovation, TTBS will continue to play the role of technology enabler by strengthening its portfolio of services especially in the areas of SaaS, IaaS, IOT and Cloud.

Following are the Work From Home solutions from TTBS:

* Hosted IVR – The service allows enterprises to setup a ‘Distributed Call Centre’ for remote work scenarios. The cloud-based IVR service facilitates agents receive customer calls on mobile devices, perform complex tasks such as Dynamic Call Routing and Call Hunting for a seamless customer service experience. Moreover, the service al so enables team leads track team’s performance by analyzing call quality and critical parameters like received and missed calls ratio per hour.

* Interactive Website - The service ensure a higher level of customer satisfaction in all digital aspects. It can help the businesses automate visitor’s experience by providing tools to address customer queries remotely. The suite also offers ‘Auto Routing’ to direct customer queries to department specific agents, and ‘In-chat’ file sharing to facilitate agent collaboration to resolve a specific customer query

* Audio & Web Collaboration - Tala Tele Business Services ensures a higher degree of digital collaboration at every step of remote working setup. The ‘Audio & Web Collaboration’ ensures seamless exchange of multimedia files over different platforms and devices. It offers unlimited conferencing service at fixed affordable monthly rentals wherein you can add up to 125 participants at a time. The service enjoys a wide reach with local dial in across 80 countries across the world with 130+ access numbers. The suite offers File Sharing, Chat, Record and Replay meetings over a ‘Secure Conferencing Setup’ for your employees, colleagues, partners and customers over desktops, smartphones and tablets.

* International Bridging Services – With employees making international calls while working from home without any ISD packs, Tata Teleservices’s IBS ensures globally connectivity at optimized ISD costs. The service includes ‘Secure Calling’ to offer password protected ISD calling at employee level with basic mobile devices without any third-party app installation. Moreover, the ISB feature also ensures privacy of employee’s personal mobile numbers by masking it on International calls.

* Document Management System - The DMS service facilitates sharing of large documents remotely without compromising on security. Our document security algorithms secure and de-risk document repositories from data loss. The DMS also enables highest standards of data confidentiality by only allowing authorized users to access certain documents. The service also enables role-based access to boost employee’s collaboration by allowing them to work on the same set of documents remotely.

* Office 365 Collaboration Suite - Tata Tele Business Services also offers ‘Office 365 Collaboration Suite’, the one-stop collaboration and productivity package for all the business requirements. The cloud-based software` suite includes- Microsoft Teams, One Drive, Share Point and Yammer to help the businesses thrive in today’s digital era.

* Dropbox for Business - The ‘Dropbox for Business’ that serves as a central place to store and access documents during work from home scenarios. With Dropbox for business, the teams can work from anywhere and sync important files across all devices.

Faradion Bags First Order for Sodium-ion Batteries from ICM Australia

Highlights

* Sodium-ion batteries are a superior alternative to Chinese Lithium-ion batteries
* Sodium-ion batteries poised to revolutionize mobile and automobile sectors
* Faradion actively looking at India as a destination for manufacturing of Sodium-ion batteries

Faradion Ltd., world leader in sodium-ion battery technology, has announced its first order from ICM Australia. Sodium-ion batteries, owing to its exceptional superiority over lithium-ion batteries, are likely to revolutionise the automobile/mobility, storage and mobile sectors across the world.

Faradion’s Sodium-ion technology provides similar performance to conventional chemistries, while replacing expensive materials such as cobalt and lithium with the far more abundant sodium. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, Faradion’s sodium-ion batteries have exceptional thermal stability and safety. Further they can be safely transported and maintained at zero volts.

India is one of the largest markets for mobile devices across the world. Recently the country has also demonstrated significant progress in the adoption of EV (Electric Vehicle) technology, making it a priority market for Faradion. Further, as the world seeks out alternatives to China-dependent Lithium-ion batteries, Faradion’s Sodium-ion based technology offers a promising solution. In line with this, Faradion is actively exploring manufacturing presence in India for its Sodium-ion batteries for diversified applications.

Having seen significant interest in regions such as the US, Europe and India due to its performance, safety and price point, Mr. James Quinn, CEO of Faradion says Australasia is the next logical region for Faradion given the market conditions.

“Faradion is accelerating large scale industrialisation of its safe, low cost, Sodium-ion energy storage technology.”

“After Australia, we foresee India as our next priority big market, given the huge growth in mobile devices and a bigger electric mobility market waiting to grow rapidly” Quinn concludes.

In recent years, Australia and New Zealand have demonstrated a steady uptake in battery storage in residential, commercial and grid scale applications due to factors including significant reductions in the cost of storage and solar systems; increasing cost of electricity, concerns about blackouts and financial incentives and policies from the government.

Speaking about this order from ICM Australia, Mr. Thomas Gregson, ICM Australia Investment Director said, “This order represents a first step for an Australian company to commercialise world leading sodium-ion technology, and we’re pleased to be offering a premium product that is safe and price competitive to the Australasian market.”

“We have seen large interest in energy storage solutions recently and believe the Faradion technology can provide, in a sustainable way, the energy security customers require at attractive ROIs,” Gregson adds.