Acronis Launches World’s First Comprehensive Cyber Protection Solution in India

Notes

* Able to curb cyberthreats and improve remote working practices during the pandemic
* Enables service providers to cut costs by 25-30% and defend their clients through AI-powered integration of data protection and cybersecurity – with Zoom security and COVID-19 URL filtering

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, announced today the launch  of Acronis Cyber Protect, an innovative new cyber protection solution that integrates backup, disaster recovery, next-gen anti-malware, cybersecurity, and endpoint management tools into one service. Acronis Cyber Protect eliminates complexity, improves productivity, and enables managed service providers (MSP) in India to efficiently make security a focal point of their portfolio – ensuring their business can meet client expectations for data, applications, and systems security and protection.

As per Acronis, the primary challenges service providers in India face are: complexity, inadequate security, and low productivity. The lack of integration between the patchwork of vendor solutions they use to build their services decreases security, complicates employee training, productivity, and usability – all while increasing support and licensing costs with multiple vendors. Acronis Cyber Protect changes the game by introducing a single solution to deliver backup, anti-malware, security, and endpoint management capabilities such as vulnerability assessments, URL filtering, and patch management – while on average saving service providers 25-30% in operational costs.

These integrated capabilities create new opportunities for MSPs to deliver enhanced cybersecurity. With Acronis Cyber Protect, MSPs can proactively avoid cyberattacks, minimize downtime, ensure fast and easy recoveries, and automate the configuration of client protection to counter the latest cyberthreats. The result is improved margins, better profitability, easier SLA compliance, greater performance, and decreased churn – all at a lower cost.

“Our security team has been seeing a dramatic growth in cyber attacks in India over the past few months – as much as 30-70% growth in some cases.  In these turbulent times, service providers need to offer their clients integrated cyber protection that covers all Five Vectors of Cyber Protection - safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security. The industry needs a unified, modern cyber protection, this is the need of the hour. And with Acronis Cyber Protect, service providers will have just that,” said Rustom Hiramaneck, Country Head, South Asia at Acronis.

AV-Test, the renowned German security institute known for carrying out rigorous tests on malware security solutions, used a computer running Windows 10 Professional – thus testing both the status and dynamic detection rates of Cyber Protect - and scanned a set of 6,932 malicious Windows executable (PE) Acronis files. Acronis scored perfectly with a verified 100% detection rate, and delivered a perfect result in the lab’s false-positive test, causing zero false positives. More information about the test is available here.

When it comes to the ever-evolving cybersecurity measures, it is impossible to achieve 100% guaranteed security. So, if a threat does slip through – you need the best business continuity plan to restore affected data, applications, and systems quickly and effectively. Acronis Cyber Protect grants just that.

“Traditional backup solutions are dead because they are not secure enough, and traditional anti-virus applications do not protect data from modern cyberthreats. Legacy solutions are no longer able to counter the dangers today’s businesses face,” said Acronis Founder and CEO Serguei “SB” Beloussov.

Acronis Cyber Protect is a demonstration of the power of integration. It features one unified licensing model, one agent and backend, one management console, one user interface, and a high level of integration among services – sharing data and automating actions to greatly improve the security posture for endpoint and edge devices.

“Acronis is among the companies on the forefront for integrated data protection and cyber protection,” said Phil Goodwin, Research Director, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group, IDC. “We believe that Acronis Cyber Protect is among the most comprehensive attempts to provide data protection and cybersecurity to date.”

Helping MSPs secure remote work amid COVID-19

Acronis rapidly developed a holistic set of features for Acronis Cyber Protect to help MSPs and their clients smoothly and safely meet the challenges of today’s remote work environments including:

* To help protect employees: Voice-enabled, touchless control for remote connections to office machines for end-users; Security alerts from Acronis Cyber Protection Operations Centers related to COVID-19

* For remote work devices and users: Default templates with secure protection plans for remote work devices; Native VPN capability; Secure file sync and share integration; Remote data wipe; Full protection for video conferencing platforms.

* To help with finances: The ability to pause billing for non-paying customers while preserving their backups; Launched Acronis #CyberFit Financing and promotions through July 31, 2020; No extra charges for Acronis Cyber Protect and no billing for Acronis Cyber Backup for new clients

The Acronis roadmap expands the availability of Acronis Cyber Protect to all businesses worldwide, with a personal version of the solution planned for release in Q3 2020.

Availability and Promotions

Please visit https://www.acronis.com/en-us/business/cyber-protect/ to sign-up online or request a fully-functional trial. To support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, Acronis Cyber Protect is available at the same cost of Acronis Cyber Backup Cloud for all service providers until July 31, 2020.

About Acronis

Acronis sets the standard for cyber protection through its innovative backup, anti-malware, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, endpoint management, storage, and enterprise file sync and share solutions. Enhanced by its award-winning AI-based active protection technology, blockchain-based data authentication and unique hybrid-cloud architecture, Acronis protects all data in any environment – including physical, virtual, cloud, mobile workloads and applications – all at a low and predictable cost.

Founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008, Acronis now has more than 1,500 employees in 33 locations in 18 countries. Its solutions are trusted by more than 5.5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses, including 100% of the Fortune 1000 companies. Acronis’ products are available through 50,000 partners and service providers in over 150 countries in more than 40 languages.

FAITH Doubles Loss Guidance on Tourism From ₹ 5 Lakh Crores to ₹ 10 Lakh Crores in Meeting with EG-6

Key Pointers

* Requests CEO Niti Aayog for immediate help with Governments & with RBI
* Stop the clock on all statutory payments
* 50% value of the almost 10% of India’s GDP from Tourism at risk from collapse
* The 2- month old earlier guidance tourism value at risk doubled
* Learnings from China show a minimum of 6 months tourism shutdown before a soft opening for very short haul domestic tourism

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) has revised upwards it’s value at risk to Indian tourism.

In a meeting with EG -6, yesterday, FAITH informed that they would like to revisit and double their earlier guidance.

The earlier guidance which was calculated and was shared with the Government in March 2020 had put tourism’s economic value at risk at almost ₹ 5 lakh crores + from this pandemic.  FAITH believes this value at risk could go as high as ₹ 10 lakh crores given the way tourism supply chains are breaking down in India across all its key inbound, domestic & outbound markets.

The direct and indirect economic impact of Tourism industry in India is approximately estimated at ~ 10% of India’s GDP.  This roughly puts the full year economic multiplier value of tourism in India at almost ~ ₹ 20 lakh crores.

This value covers the whole tourism value chain across airlines, travel agents, hotels, tour operators, tourism destinations restaurants, tourist transporters, tourist guides etc. These are across all the segments of tourism be they leisure ( inbound, outbound, domestic) corporate travel, heritage, adventure, meetings incentives, exhibitions & events, religious and spiritual tourism and in upcoming high value niche tourism products such as sea & river cruises, camping, rafting, golf  film tourism, jungle tourism, agri tourism and many more.

Tourism has one of the largest economic multipliers. FAITH based upon its industry estimates believes, that in India given its globally unique natural and cultural heritage which is spread across the Indian hinterlands, each rupee spent on tourism could have an economic multiplier of between 2.5 - 3 times. While this is India’s global competitive advantage in tourism, this can also quickly translate into a competitive disadvantage due to this pandemic, if not supported immediately as tourism jobs are spread right across the cities to remote areas pan India.

Empowered Group -6, an inter-ministerial group of Government of India, headed by the CEO Niti Aayog has carefully listened to the concerns across all the tourism verticals and have assured to take it up with the Government and with the RBI.

FAITH has requested that for revival of any demand in tourism, the tourism supply in India has to first remain intact. For the same, they have requested Niti Aayog for a COVID 19 Tourism fund of minimum ₹ 50,000 crores which can be used by tourism enterprises in India as a 10 year interest free loan for taking care of their employees. This along with a 12 months full waiver of all banking loans & of all  central and state statutory liabilities be it PF , ESi, income taxes, GST , fixed power and utilities tariffs, property tax, excise, inter-state tourist transportation taxes and license fees, all without any accumulated or penal interest has to be done immediately.

FAITH communicated to EG 6 that this is the only win - win - win outcome as it will not only keep the Indian tourism industry alive for a revival, it will also keep the jobs intact and it will also protect the exposure of the banking sector to tourism preventing their loans from  becoming NPAs.

The meeting was attended by the presidents of all founding associations of FAITH - ADTOI, ATOAI, FHRAI, HAI, IATO, ICPB, IHHA, ITTA, TAAI, TAFI and by WTTC.

China’s recent experiment of opening up after a minimum of 6 months lockdown saw some soft opening of Tourism and that too with very limited, short- haul  domestic travel.

Faith believes that if one goes by that example a minimum of 6 months of direct and indirect output of tourism will be impacted which will put almost ₹ 10 lakh crores economic value at risk in India.

FAITH has already raised requests over the past seven weeks to the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, customized requests to each of the 28 chief ministers,  to RBI, to the Tourism Parliamentary panel,  to Ministry of Commerce, ministry of Civil aviation and is closely in coordination with ministry of tourism.  

MaxiVision Eye Hospitals Group Reopens Free Tele / Video Call Primary Eye Care Consultations to the Poor

With requests pour in from people across India, MaxiVision Eye hospitals group takes pride to announce the reopening of free Tele / Video call primary eye care consultations to poor patients. MaxiVision has earlier offered this service for two weeks from April 1-14. There are many patients who are indigent and can’t afford for online paid consultations as their earnings are zero for the last 40 days due to COVID19 pandemic and subsequent announcement of lockdown by the Government of India.

Many panic-stricken patients with eye-related complaints calling Maxi Vision for eye care advice regularly. Some people complain of redness in eye and allergies, while others complain of dryness, refractive and blurred vision problems, and so on. Few of them are unable to come out as they are staying in the containment / Red zone area.  There are many patients who require regular checkups to safeguard their eyes and improve the vision, while few might be having eye-related ailments but unable to reach out to the doctors in the current situation.

This initiative is to extend support to the government in its effort to curtail the spread of the virus by maintaining social distance for Covid-19 free India and offer services to patients staying at home. This service is available from 7 - 17th May 2020 for patients across India. Doctors available for consultations as per the time scheduled below.

Following is the list of team of doctors from Maxivision Eye Hospital who offer Telephonic / Video call primary eye care consultation on Cataract, Glaucoma, Cornea and Refractive problems

o   Dr. Rohini, Cataract & Refractive Surgeon, 12 Noon to 1 pm Ph.No. +91 98665 89796,
o   Dr.Bhanuprakash, Cataract &Refractive Surgeon, 4pm to 5pm Ph.No. +91 77028 69111
o   Dr. Nitin Seshachalam, Cataract & Refractive Surgeon, 3 pm to 4 pm Ph.No. +91 96764 21770
o   Dr.Anilkumar, Glaucoma & Cataract, 11am to 12 Noon +91 70328 21361
o   Dr Thandav Krishna, Vitreo Retina & Diabetic Eye Care, 3pm to 5pm Ph.No. +91 94411 00988
o   Dr Muralidhar Rao, Vitreo Retina & Diabetic Eye Care, 11am to 1 pm Ph.No. +91 9848060773

 Patients can contact 9390110000 for more details.

All Airtel Thanks Customers to Get “FREE Unlimited Access to ZEE5’s Premium Catalogue”

ZEE5, India’s Entertainment super-app and Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) have been deepening their collaboration to bring best-in-class digital entertainment to customers in India. This special offer for Airtel Thanks customers will be available from May 4, 2020 to July 12, 2020. Airtel Thanks customers will be able to access the entire catalogue of ZEE5 premium content without having to pay any subscription charges.

Mr. Manpreet Bumrah, Business Development & Commercial head, ZEE5 India said, “ZEE5 is extremely happy to strengthen the relationship further with Airtel. ZEE5 is a complete entertainment destination with a depth of offerings across content types, genres and 12 languages which is hard to beat. Having established ourselves as entertainment super-app of India, with the largest catalogue of content, we have captivated audiences across geographies and demographics. We are looking to expand our reach through this partnership with Airtel as we will leverage synergies between the brands and further bolster our presence across the country. We are certain that the plethora of choices we offer will keep the Airtel customers highly entertained throughout this summer.”

Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel Thanks is now one of the largest REWARDS programs in India and offers a truly differentiated experience to our loyal customers. We are delighted to work with ZEE to bring high quality premium video content to our customers as part of the expanding Thanks Rewards.”

As ZEE5 entered its 3rd year of operations, the leading OTT platform in the country is looking to strengthen its relationships further. Airtel’s pool of audiences will allow ZEE5 to tap into an evolved customer base consuming content on the move.  While ZEE5 continues to partner with brands that are cutting-edge and best-in-class, the core focus of all alliances is to enable a seamless content viewing experience for consumers.

Airtel Thanks is the flagship customer program of Airtel as part of its strategy of winning with quality customers. The program is designed to deliver exclusive rewards and is tiered in its offering – Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each tier opens a whole new set of benefits for Airtel customers. The benefits are powered by Airtel’s strong partnerships, which go from premium content, device protection and much more.

BharatPe Introduces –“Paisa Bolega” Voice Alerts for Transactions & “BharatPe Balance”

BharatPe, India’s largest merchant payment and lending network company, has introduced two new products in its app for merchants. With ‘Paisa Bolega’ - voice alerts of transactions, shopkeepers will be able to hear aloud instant confirmation of all payments received through their BharatPe QR, without even touching the phone. ‘BharatPe Balance’ reflects the total money available to the shopkeeper across deposits, loans and daily collections through QR.

BharatPe has been a leader in offering simple solutions for shopkeeper’s business needs. During the lockdown, the company has seen business per merchant go up significantly as both customers and shopkeepers prefer contactless QR payments.  Average ticket size has gone up 70% from Rs 300 to Rs 500 as customer shop more for essentials, albeit less frequently.

‘Paisa Bolega’ is a button introduced in BharatPe App. This converts the shopkeeper’s smartphone into a loud speaker – announcing the value of transaction received. This does away the need for the merchant to check his phone repeatedly to see if money has come in. No need to maintain any additional device.

‘BharatPe Balance’ feature gives a single snapshot of the shopkeeper’s daily QR collections, balance in 12% interest a/c & the loan limit. This gives the shopkeeper single snapshot of his business and capital available to him.

Mr. Ashneer Grover, CEO & Co-Founder, BharatPe, said: “We believe in offering solutions that are affordable and easy to use. Our new instant voice alerts on transaction product (‘Paisa Bolega’) is free, compared to a competing payment player who is giving Chinese speaker devices to do the same voice alerts and is charging hundreds of rupees from merchants for it.”

“BharatPe is all about Indian software ingenuity over Chinese hardware. Shopkeeper’s phone is all the hardware that he actually needs and is more capable than all PoS devices combined,” Ashneer added.

About Bharat Pe

BharatPe was co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 with the vision to make financial inclusion a reality for Indian merchants. BharatPe launched India’s first UPI interoperable QR code, first ZERO MDR payment acceptance service, first UPI payment backed merchant cash advance product, and the only P2P NBFC investment product offering merchants up to 12% interest. Currently serving over 40 lakh merchants across Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Jodhpur, Ludhiana, Surat, Patna, Karimnagar, Mysore, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Warangal. The company has grown business 30x in 2019 and is the leader in UPI offline, processing 5 crore+ UPI transactions a month (annualized TPV of US$ 2.7 Bn). The company has already disbursed more than 25,000 loans (Rs 150 crores +).

upGrad Doubles Classes, Courses and Capacity to Deal with the Surge in Demand for Online Learning

Edtech major upGrad, India’s largest higher education provider just moved their start dates for all their 40 courses to start every month instead of quarterly, to take on the surge in demand from working professionals. This has more than doubled their course capacity, and each class now has a peak of 1000 learners at a given time.

“The larger the class in online, the more active the peer-to-peer learning and so it’s the inverse of offline learning,” says Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, upGrad.

"Last month we reached 5, 00,000 learners for our online programs, which is no mean feat in itself. Now take into consideration that our average ARPU is INR 2.5 lakhs. Yet, we are only at the very start of addressing a market of over 100 million working professionals and graduates." continues Screwvala.

This quarter, upGrad’s revenues will cross an annual run rate of INR 500 Cr with the launch of their Live Learning platform free of cost to multiple colleges and universities, to replicate their classrooms online and address their students during the Covid-19 period seamlessly. The company also separately recorded 10,000 enrollments for their 350 hours of free courses initiated during this period.

About upGrad:

Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. In a short span of around 5 years, upGrad on-boarded over 53K paid learners and impacted more than 500K individuals globally, making it India’s largest online higher-education company, basis gross revenue generated from the Indian market in FY18-19.

upGrad provides programs in the areas of Data Science, Technology, Management and MBA to college students, working-class and enterprises. These programs are designed and delivered in collaboration with top-notch universities like IIT Madras, IIIT-B, BITS Pilani, MICA, NMIMS Global Access, Duke CE, Deakin University, Liverpool John Moores University and others. To further enhance the learning experience, a comprehensive ecosystem has been built which includes one-on-one mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, industry networking and most importantly expert career guidance providing learners' holistic support to elevate their careers to the next level.

The company has been awarded the title of ‘Best Tech for Education’ by IAMAI in 2019. The company received the ‘Best Education Brands’ award by Economic Times, Most Innovative Companies in India' by Fast Company in 2017 and has made it to LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’ two years in a row in 2018 and 2019.

Force Motors ‘Mobile Dispensary’ Treats 27,066 Patients, Eases Pressure on the Healthcare Fraternity in Karnataka

Key Points

* “Doctor at Your Doorstep” initiative treats 27,066 patients in 28 days through the mobile dispensary
* Checked and referred over 34 suspected COVID—19 patients to the government hospitals across Karnataka

Presently, there is immense pressure on the doctors and medical staff due to increasing positive cases daily. To address this issue, automotive major Force Motors in association with the Bhartiya Jain Sanghatan has initiated a mobile doorstep dispensary facility “Doctor at Your Doorstep” in Karnataka.

This initiative started on 07th April, with Mobile Dispensary Vans completely equipped with doctors, support staff, medicines moving to various economically weaker localities in Bijapur as per a pre-intimated schedule. Further, 24 mobile dispensaries has been treating people every day in other cities in Karnataka.  The team of doctors and medics with these vans are fully equipped to identify COVID-19 symptoms and directly infected suspect cases to the designated hospitals.

All the medicines that are prescribed or given out on free of charge basis. Mobile units can check 2,500 people every day and can examine the symptoms of around 500 patients in a day. Doctors in the vans monitor patients for cold and flu conditions and also inform patients about preventive measures to be taken against coronavirus spread. Over 27,066 residents have been checked and more than 34 suspected COVID-19 patients were transferred to government hospitals in the last 28 days. This service will continue until Coronavirus is fully contained.

Speaking on this initiative, Mr. Prasan Firodia, Managing Director, Force Motors said “COVID 19 has created huge pressure on doctors and medical staff. We are proud to be associated with this noble initiative”.

He further added “Apart from this initiative our group (Dr. Abhay Firodia Group) has earmarked Rs 25 Crores to support COVID-19 relief activities. This deployment will be aimed at supporting upgradation of health care infrastructure, enhancing blood collection capability, facilitating mobile clinic/testing capabilities and providing free food to the needy”.

The citizens, as well as the local administration, have welcomed this initiative and Force Motors have already extended this initiative to other key markets like Baijapur, Bangalore & Mysore and others cities across Karnataka.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Shantilal Mutha, Founder BJS said, “The Firodia family has always wholeheartedly supported his organization’s social work initiatives, right from inception over three decades back”.

About Force Motors Limited

Force Motors, was established in 1958 by Shri N. K. Firodia, with the vision to provide affordable commercial transport for the masses by harnessing the best available technology and offering economical, reliable and efficient products.

Today, Force Motors is a fully vertically integrated automobile company manufacturing automotive components, aggregates, vehicles and agricultural tractors. Its ‘Traveller’ and ‘Trax’ vehicle ranges are market leaders in their respective segments.

Force Motors is the flagship of the company group headed by Dr Abhay Firodia which has 15 manufacturing units across the country and a 14,000-strong workforce.

Force Motors is the only company in the world that produces engines for both Mercedes and BMW. In March 2018, it entered into a JV with Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG to manufacture in India and supply worldwide their 10/12 cylinder S1600 engines (545 to 1050hp) for power generation and under floor rail applications.