Acer Unveils Acer One 14 – The Affordable Fully Loaded Laptop for Education and Small Businesses at Just Rs 22,999

Highlights:

•The new Acer One 14 is designed to cater to the immediate need of educational institutions and business to go digital without high investment

•Acer One 14 laptop is equipped with Intel® Pentium® Gold Processor

•Acer One 14 comes with Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 bit, 1 Gigabit LAN port with at least 2 USB 3.0 Type A

•The laptop comes with fully loaded specifications with 3 years warranty

Acer, the global PC brand, today updated its commercial line-up with fully loaded affordable new Acer One 14 laptop. It is powered by the Intel® Pentium® Gold Processor 4415U in a compact form-factor and impressive screen to body ration with a 14-inch display. The Acer One 14 is paired with 4GB DDR4 RAM expandable memory up to 32GB and host Intel® WiFi + Bluetooth connectivity. Especially designed for educational, Small-Medium Businesses and Enterprises to help them in the digital revolution the laptop comes with features include HD Cam with Microphone, 1 Gigabit LAN port, 2 USB 3.0 Type-A, 1 USB 2.0 Type A, and up to 4 hours of battery life.

Speaking on this occasion, Sudhir Goel, Chief of Commercial Business Group, Acer India said, “I am thrilled to announce the launch of new affordable Acer One 14 laptop designed specially keeping in mind the enterprise & education sector. Acer has always tried to stay ahead of the consumer’s demand be it the productivity at work or empowering students. This launch will enable working professionals, students and teachers to optimize their time with the laptop offering best performance and features for the price. This is an excellent laptop when it comes to affordability, security & loaded operating system is concerned.”

Driven by the goal of digital transformation, Acer India is reaching out to schools and educational institutions as well as businesses, for learning and work style transformation. The new device offers the performance and value that customers will be able to appreciate while investing in a laptop.

Pricing and Availability:

The Acer One 14 is priced from Rs. Rs 22,999 onwards and will be available at Acer E-store (https://store.acer.com/en-in/) and at over 1500 Acer channel partner stores across India. 

ZEE Entertainment to Donate Over 200 Ambulances, 40,000 PPE Kits and Build 100+ ICU Units Across the Nation

Donations 

* Company flags-off the healthcare infrastructure centric initiatives with Mumbai, by donating 46 Ambulances & 50 High Flow Heated Respiratory Humidifiers to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

* Company to also feed 10,000 migrants with 6,00,000 Daily Meals for a month across the Nation.

Media & Entertainment Powerhouse ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEE) has announced a national level CSR drive towards enhancing the Country’s healthcare infrastructure, further strengthening its fight against Covid-19.

In line with its CSR Policy, approved by the Board, the Company will support state governments & local governing bodies with critical interventions across 10 cities viz. Mumbai, Noida, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi & Chennai.

The Company will be utilizing the sanctioned CSR budget (for the fight against Covid-19) to provide the following:

* Ambulances – 200+ ambulances to be donated to the municipal corporations (46 ambulances have already been donated to BMC).

* Humidifiers – 50 High Flow Heated Respiratory Humidifiers to be donated BMC.

* PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) Kits – 40,000+ kits to be donated to municipal corporations across the Nation.

* Portable ICUs – 100+ ICU units to be built with state-of-the-art tech support across the Nation.

* Daily Meals – 600,000 meals to be provided to 10,000 migrants.

With the support of Maharashtra State Government, the Company has flagged off the National level CSR drive against Covid-19 with Mumbai, in the presence of Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, Minister for Tourism, Environment & Protocol, Government of Maharashtra, Mr. Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray and ZEE Entertainment Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Punit Goenka, by donating 46 Ambulances and 50 High Flow Heated Respiratory Humidifiers to BMC. This support will help build capacity and enhance the existing healthcare infrastructure in Mumbai.

The Company will approach and work with all state governments and local governing bodies across the Nation, to formulate an action plan that is structured on fulfilling the immediate requirements to fight the pandemic.

Over and above the support towards healthcare relief, ZEE has also partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide 600,000 daily meals which will support 10,000 migrants across the Nation for a month.

Speaking on this announcement, Mr. Punit Goenka, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ZEE said, “The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in India have been far reaching and calamitous for vulnerable communities. It is important that we stand up during such times and step up our efforts as responsible members of the society. ZEE is committed to continue its strong support towards the Government, with a key focus on strengthening the overall healthcare infrastructure, to save our Nation from this pandemic. We are also significantly increasing our efforts on-ground to provide relief to migrants across the Country. We will continue to do our best to serve the Nation in these challenging times.”

Mr. Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray, Minister for Tourism, Environment & Protocol, Government of Maharashtra said, “The scale of this pandemic is enormous, and the Government of Maharashtra is working round the clock to enhance the modular medical facilities and support our frontline workers. Every step ahead is a successful step towards beating the current humanitarian crisis. We would like to thank Mr. Punit Goenka and ZEE for their support in this time of need towards Covid-19 response and relief.”

Mr. Iqbal Singh Chahal, Commissioner, BMC added, “We are dealing with challenging times where being ahead of the virus is key to fighting the war against Covid-19. We have implemented several path breaking innovative measures across the city to curb the increase in number of cases and are ramping up our medical facilities. We are glad to receive this support from ZEE that will further strengthen our efforts while also ensuring the well-being of the citizens. It is humbling to see organisations such as ZEE coming forward and fighting this crisis together with us.”

Earlier, vide an official press release issued on 7th April 2020, ZEE had announced financial support to over 5000 Daily Wage Earners working directly or indirectly with the Company. The Company had also encouraged all its 3400+ employees to contribute towards PM CARES Fund. The amount generated was matched by ZEE, and the collective proceeds were routed to PM CARES Fund.

As a responsible Media & Entertainment player, ZEE continues to take strong steps needed in further intensifying its fight against Covid-19.

SBI Card Unveils Video Based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP)

SBI Card, India’s largest pure-play credit card issuer announced the launch of “Video Know Your Customer” (VKYC) feature to ensure zero contact, hassle free customer on-boarding process. This launch is in line with SBI Card’s endeavour to establish an end to end paperless, digital sourcing and onboarding process.  VKYC launch will not only have a substantial impact on fraud reduction, but it will also reduce cost of the KYC process by nearly half.

SBI Card has launched VKYC following recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines permitting VCIP as a method of establishing customer identity together with E-Sign process. VKYC offers a simple, presence-less journey where a customer does not have to physically interact with anyone.  In the digital customer onboarding journey, E-sign process helps in obtaining digital signature from the applicant on a digital application form. The Applicant receives his application form in PDF format for validating the details he had provided. After verifying details, applicant digitally e-signs the application form and card processing can commence.

Commenting on the launch of VKYC, Mr. Hardayal Prasad, MD & CEO, SBI Card said, “We are a technology driven company and have made strategic investments to create state-of-the art infrastructure, both at the back end and front end, to improve our user experience. Technology has been meticulously deployed to digitise the customer journey at every step and make the entire process seamless. In line with our vision to Make Life Simple, we are now happy to launch Video KYC - a secure, AI driven, digital journey for our customers. It provides ease of use along with a high degree of safety through a contactless process. In a scenario, where social distancing has become the norm, this feature holds immense relevance for our customers, and we expect it to gain significant traction.”

 

With social distancing being the new normal, VKYC enables a customer to undergo a completely presence-less journey, without the need to physically interact with anyone. VKYC process uses techniques such as facial recognition, Dynamic Verification code, AI enabled OCR, Live Photo Capture facial recognition, OCR, geotagging etc, as mandated by RBI guidelines, making it more safe and secure than physical KYC process.

Technology infrastructure and systems are a key competitive strength for SBI Card. SBI Card has made significant investments in technology infrastructure. Its technology systems leverage artificial intelligence and process automation technologies across functions, to improve customer experience and enhance operational efficiencies.

About SBI Card

SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited (formerly known as SBI Cards and Payment Services Private Limited) (“SBI Card”) is a non-banking financial company that offer extensive credit card portfolio to individual cardholders and corporate clients which includes lifestyle, rewards, travel & fuel and banking partnerships cards along with corporate cards covering all major cardholders’ segments in terms of income profile and lifestyle. It has diversified customer acquisition network that enables to engage prospective customers across multiple channels. SBI Card is a technology driven company.

P.S. The brand name of the company is ‘SBI Card’ and it is registered in the name of ‘SBI Cards and Payment Services Limited’. The company is trading under the entity name ‘SBICARD’ on stock exchanges.

Manipal Swindling Case Enters a New Phase; It’s Real Estate

The Manipal swindling case, involving over INR 75 crore. is netting new participants in the case. One Raveendra P, a real estate player, has now been accused of benefitting indirectly from some of the money swindled from the city-based Manipal Group which involved elaborate and convoluted methods to launder the siphoned off funds and escape detection. Raveendra has allegedly taken some of the money, amounting to INR 1.12 crore, siphoned off by the main accused Sandeep Gururaj, the former finance head of the Group, at a rate of interest of 18%. He has now been granted ad interim (temporary) bail in the case. Raveendra is scheduled to appear before the court for a hearing on June 26.

Gururaj used four other associates to launder the funds through Raveendra’s business. The investigation had surmised that the money lent by the four to Raveendra was indeed the money of Sandeep Gururaj. 

He has been involved in a lot of real estate projects, many of them involving questionable means, proved by the numerous cases foisted against him over the properties centred around Jigani, on the outskirts of Bengaluru.  Raveendra, an IT professional with an IT major in Bengaluru, quit his job in 2007 to take to real estate development and construction and hit pay dirt. Raveendra came in touch with Gururaj in 2014 who lent INR 1.12 crore along with three partners in the business at a rate of interest of 18%. 

After the investigation officers analysed the calls and messages between the participants in this instance, they realised the deal was fully funded by Gururaj. 

Raveendra was then arraigned. Raveendra is set to appear for a judicial interrogation instead of a police interrogation. 

It may be recalled, the case blew up when the main accused Sandeep Gururaj, along with his wife Charusmita, his associate Amrita Chengappa and Amrita’s mother Meera Chengappa were arrested on December 27, 2018, for siphoning off about INR 70 crore from Manipal Group’s accounts.

The first anticipatory bail application was in January 2019, and another in April 2019, in the High Court. A lookout circular was issued after the rejection of the third anticipatory bail in June, He has subsequently been proclaimed an offender under CrPC 82.

It may be recalled, a case of misappropriation was registered with the Cubbon Park police station, Bengaluru and the main accused has been in judicial custody from December 2018.

Lt Gen (Dr) M D Venkatesh Appointed As The New Vice Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education

Manipal Academy of Higher Education, one of India’s leading group of Educational institutes has announced the appointment of Lt Gen (Dr) M D Venkatesh as the new Vice Chancellor. Lt Gen (Dr) M D Venkatesh, an outstanding educator and currently the Vice-Chancellor of Sikkim-Manipal University, will be the new Vice-Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), the deemed university and an Institution of Eminence. He will take over charge on July 1, 2020 from Dr Vinod Bhat who has successfully completed his tenure. Dr. Vinod Bhat will be taking over a new role as Executive Vice President from July 1, 2020.

According to the announcement made by Chancellor Dr Ramdas Pai, MAHE, “ The search committee, meant to select the Vice-Chancellor has finalized Lt Gen (Dr) Venkatesh’s name, who has significantly contributed to the field of education, being the Vice-Chancellor of Sikkim-Manipal University since June, 2017 and earlier as the Academic Dean in the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune. We extend a warm welcome to Lt Gen (Dr) M D Venkatesh and wish him good luck for his new role. I would also like to thank the outgoing Vice Chancellor Dr. Vinod Bhat for his immense contributions, especially in raising MAHE to the status of Institution of Eminence, recognized by Ministry of Human Resources Development, in setting up more than 100 research centres in the varsity and improving MAHE’s position in global ranking. The incoming Vice-Chancellor Lt Gen (Dr) Venkatesh, who is completing his tenure in Sikkim-Manipal University, has significantly contributed to the improvements in infrastructure, academic processes, and IT infrastructure of SMU. He has been able to bring research and publication into sharp focus and SMU has seen a remarkable upswing in the number of projects and publications.’

Lt Gen. (Dr) Venkatesh graduated from Mysore Medical College in 1978 with an exceptional academic record and was commissioned in Army Medical Corps in 1979. He acquired his MS (ENT) from Mumbai University in 1986 and has been an outstanding ENT Surgeon. He has also undergone training in Cochlear Implantation and Neurotology in India and abroad and is among the earliest Cochlear implant surgeons of the country. Lt Gen (Dr) Venkatesh has trained generations of undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune. Over the years, he held several senior academic positions in AFMC including the deanship. He was also a founder faculty of the department of Medical Education Technology at AFMC.

Lt. Gen. (Dr) Venkatesh has served the armed forces for 38 years, during which, besides academics, he has also held numerous administrative positions and is credited with many achievements. He was instrumental in instituting the “on-line admission process” for UG, PG and Post-Doctoral admissions in the Armed Forces Training Institutions that ensured total transparency and efficiency in the system. His pursuit of quality was recognized by NAAC in accrediting AFMC with a CGPA of 3.66 out of 4 in March 2015. He was also the head of the premier training establishment of AMC that provides training to all para medical personnel of AMC and medical officers of AFMC. He has also been on various committees of MCI, NBE, ICMR and MOH & FW.  He is an assessor of NAAC as well.

Tulips Covid-19 Swabs to Tackle Global Testing Kit Shortage

With COVID-19 cases rising fast, Tulips, Asia’s leading personal hygiene consumer care product innovator, today, announced that it is accelerating production of special, affordable ICMR and NIV approved swabs to help overcome the world’s shortage of test kits. Test kit swabs are one of many medical and personal protection equipment in short supply globally.

The pandemic can’t be fought without widespread testing to find out who has the disease. And, it’s critical for finding those people who may be spreading the virus with or without showing all the symptoms. Millions of testing swabs are needed across world, and so Tulips is focussed on innovation and scaling up the production in record time, to tackle the situation.

Revised ICMR guidelines asks all symptomatic and asymptomatic high-risk contacts of confirmed cases to be tested. Even under these guidelines, India may need to step up to five lakhs tests a day, as the country opens up and further spread seems inevitable.

While Tulips has already supplied more than 10 million affordable swabs to major VTM kit producers present throughout India within a month, it is now keen to meet the global demand. Most of the states are using low cost Indian special Swabs, as these have helped them to cut their Test Kit costs by almost 40 percent to 60 percent.

With promising design, indigenous innovation, and stringent quality, Tulips is resolute to scale up production for widespread availability of swabs to help timely diagnosis. Besides producing sufficient swabs to meet the surging testing needs, the company is keen on partnering with governments to share their processing expertise and donate free swabs to those in need.

Accelerating testing is an integral part of the response mechanism to combat COVID-19. For instance, the US has recently accelerated production of tests as labs process as many as 450,000 tests a day. As India reopens the economy, testing will be key to its wider success.

The intent of Tulips is to fulfil the critical national demand in nasal and throat swabs, a key component in fighting COVID-19 war and rely less on supplies from other countries, in these testing times. With rising number of COVID-19 cases, the company shifted focus to affordable swabs, as domestically produced swabs would cost one-tenth the imported swabs.

As the COVID-19 cases surpass 8.34 million globally, with more than 436,899 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University - the global ecosystem must work together in synergy to fight the virus.

“Shortage of key kits hurt COVID-19 diagnosis. And, enhanced testing is the only way out to tackle the novel coronavirus global pandemic till a cure or a vaccine is found. Tulips understands this well and is trying to ensure that it supplies Swabs to other countries in Asia & Africa as well. The situation also demands more innovation for finding faster and cheaper testing methods, to scale up the testing in our country. As swabs are going to be an integral part of any COVID-19 diagnostics test kit, we are willing to collaborate and partner with any Indian company, institute or innovators doing research on making the tests faster, cheaper, and may need to have special swabs developed,” said Rahul Jain, Partner, Tulips.

With a footprint across the world, Tulips products are exported to more than 15, quality-discerning, nations. State-of-the-art facilities, world-class quality standards, product consistency, and automated production lines, makes the company one of the lowest cost manufacturers in the world.

Incorporated in 1998, Tulips is one of the largest and the most qualitative manufacturer and exporter of personal hygiene products, like cotton buds, special swabs, cotton balls etc., in entire South Asia.

Shopify Introduces Plans and Offers to Help Indian Small and Medium Enterprises Get Back to Business

Shopify India, a leading global commerce company, has put together a range of exclusive offers to help small and medium businesses across India adjust to the new normal in the coming months and sell online more efficiently. These exclusive offers will make it easier for businesses to get back on their feet by enabling them to offer customers a great shopping experience while helping reduce monthly costs. Over INR 1 lakh in partner credits can be saved through Shopify’s eCommerce solutions from industry-leading service partners.

The lockdown has affected small and medium businesses due to low consumer spending, disruption in production and deliveries resulting in a cash flow crunch. Shopify undertook an in-depth analysis of common problems merchants faced before putting together offers from relevant partners. This will allow merchants to offer consumers an easy shopping experience, save costs on logistics and delivery, expand their target audience and overall, grow their business.

Mr. Sandeep Komaravelly, Director of International Growth, Shopify said, “COVID-19 has changed the way we do commerce and underscored the importance of shopping locally. In order to survive and thrive, merchants need to embrace omnichannel commerce, because consumers have already embraced it. Helping entrepreneurs create and develop their businesses by removing the barriers that exist to selling online is at the very heart of our business philosophy and we have been accelerating solutions that will aid merchants, future proof their businesses. These offers have been designed to equip small and medium businesses to navigate the evolving retail landscape.”

Mr. Ashish Tandon, Head of Channel Sales, PayPal India, “The small and medium enterprises while being the backbone for the economy have been most impacted by the pandemic. As consumers are increasingly moving towards digital modes of transacting, these businesses are following suit. Shopify and PayPal have played a key role in helping merchants digitize. PayPal will be extending an exclusive offer for small and medium merchants looking at going online and give them access to our 300 million consumers globally to expand their business and emerge stronger.”  

Through Shopify, merchants will have easy access to partners for various business solutions.  Payment partners like Razorpay, PayTM and PayPal will help maintain ease of checkouts. Logistics providers like Shiprocket will ensure an uninterrupted movement of deliveries. Marketing tools and services like Adyogi will provide assistance on customer targeting and promotions. Order and warehouse management software like Unicommerce will help keep a check on stock availability and incoming orders. Customer support and engagement tools like Freshworks will help maintain connect with customers along with lending and legal compliance service.

Shopify’s partner ecosystem assists merchants to simplify their daily activities and also help save costs. By taking advantage of Shopify’s offers on payment solutions, merchants can save upto INR 7000.  By using logistics service providers can result in cost-savings of upto INR 9000.

About Shopify

Shopify is a leading global commerce company, providing trusted tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business of any size. Shopify makes commerce better for everyone with a platform and services that are engineered for reliability, while delivering a better shopping experience for consumers everywhere. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify powers over one million businesses in more than 175 countries and is trusted by brands such as Nush by Anushka Sharma, Raymonds, Starstruck, John Jacobs eyewear and many more. For more information, visit www.shopify.in.