Indian Startup Dhiway Joins the ToIP Global Foundation as Founding Member

Governments, nonprofits and private sectors across finance, health care, enterprise software and more team up with Linux Foundation to enhance universal security and privacy protocols for consumers and businesses in the digital era

Dhiway, India’s first Verifiable Data Exchange Platform joined the Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation as a Founding Steering Committee member, to help enable trustworthy exchange and verification of data between any two parties on the Internet. The ToIP Foundation is hosted at the Linux Foundation with the goal of creating a robust common standard that gives people and businesses the confidence that data is coming from a trusted source, allowing them to connect, interact and innovate at a speed and scale not possible today. 

Dhiway is a startup out of Bengaluru, India. Founded by technologists with extensive experience in building open source projects which scale, Dhiway is committed to working with open standards in order to drive innovation.  Dhiway builds data interchange systems and enables organizations to deploy governance frameworks to sustain these as sustainable digital assets.

“Our strategic initiatives are designed to bring a higher degree of assurance to the exchange of data between peers, over the Internet and other digital networks. Our participation is aligned with our vision to make the world more transparent and trusted, using digital frameworks that can be universally referenced, understood, and consumed,” said Satish Mohan, Founder & CTO, Dhiway. “We intend to contribute our knowledge and expertise towards the mission of establishing a complete architecture for Internet-scale digital trust that combines cryptographic trust at the machine layer with human trust at the business, legal, and social layers.”

The ToIP Foundation is being developed with global, pan-industry support from leading organizations with sector-specific expertise. The other Founding Steering Committee members include Accenture, BrightHive, Cloudocracy, Continuum Loop, CULedger, esatus, Evernym, Finicity, Futurewei Technologies, IBM Security, IdRamp, Lumedic, Mastercard, MITRE, the Province of British Columbia and SICPA. Contributing members include DIDx, GLEIF, The Human Colossus Foundation, iRespond, kiva.org, Marist College, Northern Block, R3, Secours.io, TNO and University of Arkansas. Dhiway is proud to belong to this foundation, the only Indian company to do so.

The authenticity and verification of data sources is a key challenge for businesses worldwide. The deficit in confidence has an impact on the adoption of key business drivers such as digital identity, verifiable credentials, and smart contracts. The operational efficiency of businesses; ease of access to markets and convenience of transactions are focus areas to build through innovation and introduction of new products and technologies.

“The time has never been more important to advance an integrated stack for digital trust, which is clear from the strong representation of companies across industries that are supporting this work,” said Drummond Reed, interim executive director, ToIP Foundation. “We’re pleased to have Dhiway contributing this work and look forward to the collaboration.”

The Linux Foundation’s open governance model enables the ToIP Foundation to advance a combination of technology and governance standards for digital trust in a neutral forum that supports pan-industry collaboration. An open governance model that can be integrated into the development of the standards for digital trust is essential where the business, legal, and social guidelines for technology adoption impacts human trust and behaviour.

The ToIP Foundation will initially host four Working Groups. The Technical Stack Working Group and the Governance Stack Working Group will focus on building out and hardening the Technical and Governance halves of the ToIP stack, respectively. The Utility Foundry Working Group and the Ecosystem Foundry Working Group will serve as communities of practice for projects that wish to collaborate on the development of ToIP utility networks or entire ToIP digital trust ecosystems.

The ToIP Foundation will host an all-digital launch event on May 7, 2020, at 9:30 PM IST (9AM PDT) that will feature a panel discussion, interoperability demonstration and live Q&A. Register now for the live event. A second event will be hosted for the APAC region on May 8, 2020, at 6:30 AM IST (6:00 PM PDT).

Manipal Hospitals Bangalore Collaborates with Government of Karnataka to Conduct E-Rounds Initiative

Manipal Hospitals Bangalore in a bid to support Government of Karnataka (GOK) to combat pandemic cases is providing support via conducting E-rounds for high risk Covid Patients across 7 districts of the State. The war room set up in Bangalore, comprising of Principal Secretary for health and family welfare, health commissioner and government appointed doctors facilitate virtual health rounds between the districts and the specialists. The team facilitates consultations via video conference with all the Hospitals twice daily. Over the last 2 weeks, a specialist team comprising of a Geriatrician, Intensivist, Pulmonologist, Anesthetist and Nephrologist have been monitoring critically ill COVID – 19 centres across the state.

The expert team of doctors are getting together virtually everyday at 11:00am and 18:00pm to evaluate cases of SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Illness) and ILI (Influenza Like Illnesses), across 7 districts of the State i.e Belagavi, Bidar, Kalburgi, Vijayapura, Gadag and Dakshina Kannada and Davangere. Identifying critically ill patients, going through the case records, lab investigations, XRays and coming up with a treatment protocol in conjunction with the treating doctors at these district hospitals has now become a routine. The doctors go through all the case details and come up with individual management plans.

The doctors have relentlessly supported and carried out 550 clinical interventions so far and more than 570 case discussions have happened until date. Around 47 lifesaving interventions like ventilation, dialysis, inotropes and thrombolysis have been performed. 40 of the 160 critically ill cases have recovered.

Dr. Trilok Chandra, IAS officer said, “The war room at Bengaluru maintains a parallel case sheet of every critical patient in the state. The expert team interacts with the local doctors four times a day and takes stock of the treatment being given to each of them. If required, the experts the experts also suggest the next line of treatment that can improve the condition of the patients. The main intention of the e-rounds is to ensure that not a single ICU patient is lost to Covid-19.

He further added “The team has taken telemedicine facility to a new level, where doctors from private hospitals have also joined the hands to fight this pandemic. As and when required, they take inputs from medical experts from other private hospitals also including paediatricians”

Along with medical interventions, the e-round team has also begun interacting with district administration and district health officers to ensure the doctors and medical staff receive all the required equipment and medicines to treat the patients.

Dr. Anoop Amarnath, Chief of Clinical Services at Manipal Hospitals, who is handling the e-rounds said, “This a very good example of how public-private partnership can work to improve accessibility to healthcare. Digital health enables remote care delivery. The e-rounds help in providing peer reviewed, best practice guidelines virtually. This is a thoughtful and wonderful initiative by Government of Karnataka which is helping critical patients through collaborative efforts.”

Sharing his thoughts Dr. Satyanarayana Mysore, HOD Interventional Pulmonology & Sleep Medicine, Manipal Hospitals Bangalore, “We have been able to streamline care, process of healthcare and this has reduced mortality in 6 districts of north Karnataka. It takes nearly 6 hours a day to get this private government partnership going to achieve low mortality amongst covid19 patients. This is in addition to our regular patient care.

Dr Sunil Karanth, Chairman, Critical Care Services, Manipal Hospitals said, “The COVID 19 pandemic has created tremendous distortion in all walks of life. During this health care professionals from different spheres have united to fight this common enemy. In a unique PPP, the state's health authority has teamed up with many private hospitals for conducting E-Rounds of critically ill COVID suspect patients in the second tier cities and interior parts of the state. This gives access to take expertise from the tertiary level hospitals to the grass roots and help saving lives.

Piramal Swasthya Attends Over 2.5 Lakh Calls on COVID-19 Via 104 Health Information Helpline

Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute, an initiative of Piramal Foundation, in partnership with various State Governments has managed to address over 2.5 lakh calls related to COVID-19 queries through 104 Health Information Helpline services. The Health Helpline in partnership State Governments of Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh attended to these calls during the lockdown period from March 25, 2020 until date. On an average, the 104-Health Helpline received around 20,000 calls in a day.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, the 104 Health Information Helpline has been acting as a channel between the governments and the communities by offering validated medical advice to the callers 24x7 every day of the week. It has undertaken several unique and customised initiatives in collaboration with State Governments to create awareness around Covid-19 cases. State Governments of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar have announced 104 helpline as one stop solution for all COVID -19 queries and grievances.

In order to deal with increased number of calls, the frontline staff team has been significantly expanded as per state requirement. Currently, over 1200 staff across various centres that includes paramedics, counsellors and doctors, are relentlessly attending to calls related to health advice, counselling, information sharing and reporting of COVID-19.

Paresh Parasnis, CEO, Piramal Foundation said, “At Piramal Swasthya we stay resolute in our efforts to support Central and State Governments to address the COVID-19 pandemic, even in the remotest part of the country. The 104 health helpline proved to be a simple and yet effective tool to share validated information as per the guidelines of WHO and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, especially for people who are not technology savvy or live in areas where access to media is challenging.  This initiative has helped in creating awareness thus bringing down the anxiety and fear in the society caused due to the coronavirus.”

In the year 2006, Piramal Swasthya started 104 Health Information Helpline in India as a one stop solution for all health-related information and advice. The service is supported by innovative software application and Clinical Decision Support System of validated algorithms and disease summaries and helps in tackling shortage of human resource enabling access to quality Healthcare services.

Piramal Swasthya in partnership with the state governments has been supporting beneficiaries through 104 Health Helpline across 7 states – Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Bihar.

Salarpuria Sattva Group Contributes To Central And State Funds To Fight The Battle Against COVID 19

Highlights

* Takes Up Community Outreach Initiatives, to Help the Needy During the Extended Lockdown Period
* INR 1 crore to PMCARES Fund
* INR 1.25 crores for Karnataka and Telangana CM’s Relief Funds
* INR 21 Lakhs to Iskcon’s Akshaya Patra

Salarpuria Sattva Group, India’s leading Property Development, Management and Consulting organization, has always been responsible in making a significant social impact to the communities it serves. Amidst the growing criticalities due to COVID19 crisis, where the most affected are from the marginalized sections of the society, Salarpuria Sattva Group has extended its boundaries and taken several noble initiatives for contributing to the upliftment of the impoverished, thus helping them survive in this challenging situation.

The group has donated INR 1 crore towards the PMCARES fund and simultaneously has contributed INR 1.25 crores to the CM relief fund of Karnataka and Telangana State Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation, Telangana. These funds are aimed to be a conscious effort from the company’s end for the required upliftment of the deprived in a testing time like this. The group has also provided INR 21 Lakhs to Iskcon’s Akshaya Patra for distributing grains to the needy along with INR 5 Lakhs to Agarwal Samaj to feed the poor and needy during this unprecedented time. The company is also providing 1500 meals daily for migrant workers

Furthermore, the group continues their existing endeavor, to feed the needy across different locations in the city everyday, till the end of lockdown. The group is taking the onus of cooking by themselves while adhering to hygienic precautions and distributing it in a systematic manner, following the Govt. directives of social distancing. Amongst selected areas across the city, Old Airport Road (near Rajeshwari Theater), Royal Orchid Road (near Manipal Centre), Challaghatta,  Nagasandra, Murugeshpalya, Jyothi Nivas College at Koramangala, are the primary locations where the group has initiated food distribution. Police Stations at Jeevan Beema Nagar and Electronic City, have extended help to the company officials to successfully implement this initiative.

In addition to this, the group has organized ration packets consisting of essentials like rice, wheat flour, oil, lentils, salt and other necessities for the extended lockdown period, aiming to touch the lives of 1500 migrant workers on a daily basis

Greenwood High School, the educational entity of the group has also come forward to provide cooked food to more than 600 people at Varthur and other nearby localities every day

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Bijay Agarwal, MD, Salarpuria Sattva Group said, “It has been challenging times for the entire country. It is important that we come together and help those in need. As a responsible entity, we at Salarpuria Sattva Group pledge to help the marginalized sections and provide them with food till the situation demands. This is our humble effort to help the people in distress.”

Hershey India Demonstrates its Care for the Nation and Partners Amidst COVID 19

Notes

* The organization will provide 120,000 fortified beverages and cookies across 20 cities to medical staff, police, sanitation workers, migrant laborers and underprivileged children
* Allocates a special fund to cater to medical needs of frontline sales force and contract workmen
* Hershey India and employees also contributed towards PM cares

Hershey India Pvt Ltd will distribute 1,20,000 fortified beverages and cookies across 20 cities pan India to express their gratitude and support towards the medical staff, police, sanitation workers, migrant laborers and underprivileged children in these tough times. The organization will be distributing Hershey’s Milk Shake, Sofit Almond Milk, Sofit Soy Milk and Sofit Protein Cookies.  The distributed products are fortified with essential vitamins and minerals.

Hershey India has associated with India Food Banking Network (IFBN) of the Food Security Foundation India to conduct the distribution. The organization will also be distributing their products to the medical staff in All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhopal and Sion Hospital in Mumbai.

Commenting on the activity Herjit Bhalla, MD, Hershey India, said, “As India and the world continue to battle the pandemic, this is a small gesture of gratitude and support by Hershey India to lift the spirits of all the brave frontline workers and the affected communities. We salute the medical staff and the police who are gallantly serving the society in these critical times and hope that they continue to stay safe.”

Highlighting the steps taken by the organization internally he further added, “We have also rolled out several programs to ensure protection and safety for our frontline sales force, contract workmen and depot staff in these challenging times. We have implemented our ‘Hershey Cares’ program which ensures suitable insurance scheme for all our frontline sales force. Additionally, we have allocated a special fund to cater to medical needs of our frontline sales force and contract workmen.”

Hershey India and employees have also contributed towards PM cares. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused an alarming health crisis across India and the world, with the healthcare infrastructure overwhelmed with critical patients. The need of the hour now is for everyone to stand together and support the communities that need utmost care in these trying times.

About The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company, headquartered in Hershey, Pa., is an industry-leading snacks company known for bringing goodness to the world through its iconic brands, remarkable people and enduring commitment to help children succeed. Hershey has approximately 16,000 employees around the world who work every day to deliver delicious, quality products. The company has more than 80 brands around the world that drive $8 billion in annual revenues, including such iconic brand names as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kit Kat, Jolly Rancher, Ice Breakers and SkinnyPop.

For more than 125 years, Hershey has been committed to operating fairly, ethically and sustainably. Hershey founder, Milton Hershey, created the Milton Hershey School in 1909 and since then the company has focused on helping children succeed.

AI Is No Magic: 4 Steps Your Organization Can Start On Its AI Journey

By Sandeep Alur, Director, Microsoft Technology Center, Microsoft India

For decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated its heartbeat via the predictive power it possesses and the profound impact it can have on society. As with any emerging technology, AI went through its phase of hype where it was considered to be a futuristic magic pill, to becoming a reality, as we see organizations leveraging AI to light up aspirational use cases and develop new business models.

By attaining human parity across vision, speech, and text, AI has the potential to have a significant impact on business outcomes. At the Microsoft Technology Center, I interact with customers every day about infusing AI into their solution portfolio, and it is clear that we are past the incubation stage and the time is ripe to put our learnings into practice.

For organizations that are still trying to figure out their AI journey, here are four things I have learned from customers who have successfully implemented AI projects:

Be realistic

One of the common questions I hear from customers during our initial meetings is how they can experiment with AI to understand the ‘art of possibility’ and the eventual return on investment. I believe experimenting is absolutely the right thing to do since the most difficult task at hand is not implementation via technology but identification of the right use case. Being realistic about what you wish to solve or accomplish is the need of the hour, and this is where business and technology leaders must come together. It is also essential to strike a balance between the accuracy and precision you strike on day one versus the eventual goal post. The partnership should lead to choosing a use case that gives a head start to their AI journey and yet qualify to be a significant one from a business impact standpoint.

Invest in the evolution of an AI model

AI is no magic, and the outcome of implementing an AI model has a direct correlation to the underlying data that has gone into training it. Building an AI model involves eternal iterations, and the outcome only gets better with new or more data over time. Do not expect human parity on day one. Businesses need to invest in the evolution of the model that may take umpteen number of iterations, even before it reaches an acceptable level of accuracy and precision.

A real-world example that comes to my mind is related to our operations at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC), where we host customers. A Technical Architect (TA) leads these engagements. By virtue of hearing and dealing with so many customer challenges, they get better each day in their ability to operate as trusted advisors. A TA’s knowledge graph gets updated daily with new learnings and they keep getting better to help our customers.

Similarly, an AI model has an evolution journey too. Invest in it.

Set guardrails for responsible AI

From a data science lifecycle point of view, when you choose a use case, you either realize that you do not have an apt dataset or you probably have taken on an area where technology is still evolving. Either way, organizations will fail fast or end up building an AI model with certain accuracy and precision.

But even before an organization starts building an AI plan and gets aspirational in infusing AI into their suite of applications, an element that should be the backbone of overall design thinking is related to principles of ethics and responsibility. Every organization needs to put into place guardrails on how it will develop and deploy AI models, and more importantly, the impact they will have on individuals.

At Microsoft, we have identified six principles for responsible AI that guide the development and use of AI with people at the center. These are - fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. You can read more about them here.

Organizations may develop their own principles according to the nature of their business, but the guiding principles will ensure that their AI models are trustworthy.

Establish trust

This is where one needs to understand that implementing a model into production alone is not success, but ensuring the outcome adheres to the design principles indicated above. Over a period of time, this will ensure that users can trust the predictions these models generate, and it should be an eventual goal post for any business.

For example, imagine a model in the healthcare domain, where the system predicts the outcome of a patient’s health check. For the care team to establish trust with the system, there have to be minimum ‘false positives’ and there needs to be a feedback loop for the care team to improvise the system. Hence, establishing ‘trust’ is critical on the trail of assessing AI impact for a use case.

To conclude, implementing AI in an organization needs business and technology leaders to invest in defining an operating manifesto to uplift the spirit of responsible AI. Success on this path will do a lot of good in instilling trust in the system. It is also imperative that one be realistic and practical about the expected outcome, and think long term.

Hyundai Announces Industry First ‘Hyundai EMI Assurance’ Program

Hyundai Motor India Ltd., country’s first Smart Mobility Solutions Provider and the largest exporter since inception, today announced Industry First ‘Hyundai EMI Assurance’ program to enhance convenience and raise positive customer sentiments. As announced, Hyundai Motor India is all set to re-open dealership operations under strict adherence of government directions in COVID-19 affected areas.  Maintaining all Safety and Hygienic parameters, all Hyundai touch points -showrooms and workshops are following contactless services for customer interactions.

Announcing the Industry First Hyundai EMI Assurance Program, Mr. Tarun Garg, Director – Sales, Marketing and Service said, “Hyundai is a Progressive, Innovative and Caring brand. We understand customer aspirations of buying a vehicle and to ease the vehicle acquisition in uncertain times, we have brought the unique and industry first Hyundai EMI Assurance Program. We are sure, the Hyundai EMI Assurance Program will give new Hyundai owners working in private organisations full peace of mind during these times and create positive and confident sentiments for Hyundai car purchase.”

To ease the buying process, while keeping the fear of employment uncertainty at bay, a unique and Industry first customer program ‘Hyundai EMI Assurance Program’ has been introduced for select new Hyundai customers covering up to 3 car loan EMIs. The program covers the customers under uncertainties such as employment loss in view of Poor financial health/Acquisition/ Merger of the company or due to any applicable laws.

The Hyundai Assurance Program is offered on select Hyundai car models purchased during the month of May’20 and covers the customer for a period of one year from date of sale of the car (Excluding first 3 months).

Hyundai Cares

Under the ambit of the ‘Hyundai Cares’ initiative, HMI has laid down guidelines to be followed at its Dealerships across India that encompass all facets of customer interactions. This will include Display car & Test Drive car preparedness, Customer Lounge & Washrooms sanitization (showroom & workshop), Delivery process of New car & Serviced car, Contactless Demonstration, and servicing. Customers can also opt for remote car demonstrations through online video conferencing application with Sales Consultants at Dealerships. Further, with Hyundai’s Click-to-Buy Integrated end-to-end online car sales website, customers can buy a brand-new Hyundai Car online. Hyundai is also offering customers its 360 Digital Service & Contact-less Service Experience, through which customers can book a service appointment online through the Hyundai Care app, WhatsApp, Hyundai Website, or a call to Dealers.