Nickelodeon's International and India Announces First Corporation, The Twisted Timeline of Sammy & Raj

Nickelodeon International is teaming up with Nickelodeon India, a part of Viacom18 that is a joint venture between ViacomCBS and Network18, to coproduce The Twisted Timeline of Sammy & Raj. The new series marks the first collaboration between the top kids’ entertainment brand and the leading Indian kids’ category brand from India’s fastest growing entertainment network.

Currently in production with Nickelodeon India of Viacom18, The Twisted Timeline of Sammy & Raj is slated to roll out across Nickelodeon International in 2021. With a mysterious time-altering app at their fingertips, the series follows the reality-bending adventures of a pair of cousin-brothers, as they pause, rewind, fast-forward and slow-motion their way into a whole host of rowdy laugh-out-loud exploits.

The international collaboration is underway on the new 20 x 30-minute 2D animated series, with animation and storyboards developing in India, scripting in progress in the U.S. and U.K., and casting initiated in the U.S.   

“The popularity of international content is on the rise, and Nickelodeon is focused on meeting the rising demand for diverse, creative stories for a global audience. This groundbreaking partnership with Viacom18 goes beyond kids’ content, as we look to embrace greater diversity both on-screen and behind the camera,” said Jules Borkent, Executive Vice President, Kids & Family, ViacomCBS Networks International.

Nina Hahn, Senior Vice President, International Production & Development, Nickelodeon International, stated: “In the creative world, geographic borders have diminished, as more content is drawn by the hands of global artists from every corner of the world. The idea for this series was developed in collaboration with the team in India as we sought a way to fuse western and eastern story telling elements. Indian culture is very much a part of this series’ DNA, and we are eager to share those elements with our global audience.”

Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Head of Hindi Mass Entertainment & Kids TV Network at Viacom18 said: “Over the years, Nickelodeon India has created successful local IPs and characters that kids love. This partnership with Nickelodeon International has gone beyond the border lines of creativity and stands testimony to the success of Nick India and Nick International in creating groundbreaking content. It further reinforces the capability of the Indian Animation Industry. We are happy to partner with Nickelodeon International for this show and look forward to working together in creating this series for kids across the world.”

Anu Sikka, Head Creative, Content & Research, Kids TV Network at Viacom18 said: “Kids imaginations and aspirations are universal and it’s this learning that has brought this show to life. The series will be showcasing stories that kids around the world will find relatable and engaging, hopefully opening up more opportunities for future collaboration. Our efforts are to make sure that kids get to experience the best of animation and that this show will stir their imagination and transport them into a new world of adventure.”

Chris Rose, VP, Animation, Nickelodeon International and Anu Sikka, Head Creative, Content & Research, Kids TV Network at Viacom18 are overseeing the project. The head writer of the series is Jordan Gershowitz.

New Castrol Study Reveals ‘Tipping Points’ to Drive Mainstream Electric Vehicle Adoption in India

* Drivers in India require electric vehicles (EVs) priced at ₹23,00,000[1] (or $31,000), with 35 minute average charge time and a range of 401 km

* New study reveals ‘tipping points’ at which most Indian drivers would consider switching to an EV

* On average, they are looking to purchase an EV in just two years’ time

* Drivers in India are seeking a lower price point as much for EVs compared to consumers in other markets, but open to longer charge time

A major new study released by Castrol draws on the views of consumers, fleet managers and automotive industry leaders from across India to reveal the factors driving EV buying decisions.

Accelerating the EVolution reveals that, on average for consumers in India, a price point of ₹23,00,000 (or $31,000), a charge time of 35 minutes and a range of 401 kilometers (from a single charge) represent the ‘tipping points’  to achieve mainstream EV adoption. The research also estimates that the annual EV market in India could be worth $2 billion by 2025[2] if all three tipping points are met, pointing to a possible EV-powered low-carbon recovery for the automotive industry.

Sandeep Sangwan, managing director at Castrol India Ltd said: “Castrol’s global research shows that consumers are positive about making the switch to electric; buyers in India are keen to do so earlier than those in other markets. Although consumers in India are seeking a lower price point than consumers in other countries, they are also willing to accept a slightly longer charge time and a slightly shorter range. These market-specific nuances are important; Accelerating the EVolution provides a clear roadmap for the industry to help support the transition to accelerate mainstream adoption of EVs in India and around the world.”

Based on research from eight of the world’s most important EV markets, Castrol’s study examines five critical challenges that should be addressed to promote further growth in the EV market - highlighting the differing priorities for consumers and fleet managers.

Key findings from the opinion research, which was conducted December 2019 to January 2020, include:

2022 - the year of the EV?

On average, consumers in India said they would consider purchasing an EV by 2022. This is two years earlier than the global average (2024). However, two thirds (67%) of consumers in India said they are adopting a “wait and see” approach. Over 40% of fleet managers said they are waiting for competitors to make the switch before they do.

Price is front-of-mind

Price is the number one priority for consumers in India with 67% of those surveyed saying that EVs are currently beyond their budget. The ₹23,00,000 (or $31,000) ‘tipping point’ for consumers in India is lower than the global average of ₹27,00,000 (or $36,000).

The study also finds that misconceptions about maintenance costs could be stopping consumers making the switch: 83% of Indian consumers say that these costs were preventing them from buying a fully electric car. This suggests that many consumers are unaware that the overall average cost of ownership of an EV over its lifetime tends to be lower than an ICE vehicle[3].

Demand for shorter charging times

Charge time was identified as the second most important challenge to the mainstream adoption of EVs, and consumers in India said they require an average charge time of 35 minutes before they would consider purchasing an EV. This is several minutes longer than the global average of 31 minutes. Nearly three quarters (72%) of those questioned believe EVs will only dominate on the roads once they can charge in a similar amount of time as it takes to refuel an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. 

‘Range anxiety’ is real

Range was ranked third on the priority list, with 64% of Indian drivers agreeing it is a significant barrier to mainstream adoption of EVs. On average, they expect a range of 401 km (from a single charge), approximately equivalent to the distance between Ahmedabad and Indore. This is significantly lower than the global ‘tipping point’ range of 469 km. However, around a third of drivers in India said they mainly use their car for commuting or short journeys, so this suggests that ‘range anxiety’ may only be partly driving their preference.

Mandhir Singh, chief executive officer at Castrol said: “The automotive industry has already demonstrated what it can achieve in response to the coronavirus crisis, turning its capabilities to producing much needed medical equipment. With EV technology constantly improving, the challenge now will be to drive a low-carbon recovery and accelerate the EVolution as quickly as possible. Castrol has been working with the automotive industry to develop unique e-Fluid technology to support EVs, from battery coolant e-fluid, e-greases and transmission fluids.

Bringing down the cost and charge time for electric vehicles while increasing range, infrastructure and vehicle choice will be critical to persuading consumers to make the switch to EVs.”

The Accelerating the EVolution report, which includes a full breakdown of the research and detailed global findings, is available to download here: www.castrol.com/EV.

Fittr Announces Grand Prizes in their Latest Edition of Transformation Challenge in India

* Fancy a Mahindra Thar or Kawasaki Ninja as your fitness gift?

* In the latest edition of the fitness competition, Fittr expects more than 15000 entries from across the world

* Apart from the grand prize of Mahindra Thar, the first prize would be Kawasaki Ninja 650 or an Apple Kit, and the top 50 runners-up will get Hero Cycles

In their constant endeavor to motivate people to get fit, Fittr, the Pune-based fitness startup is set to bring in yet another edition of their fitness competition Transformation Challenge (TC) Series 11. The 12-week online challenge which began from September 1, 2020, is currently accepting registrations till September 7 from across the world.

The TC 11 winner will be awarded either a Kawasaki Ninja 650 or an Apple kit of the equivalent value. In addition to this, the top 50 Runners Up will be given a Hero Cycle each, sponsored by Hero Cycles Limited.

Fittr will also choose the top 10 challengers each from the 9th, 10th & 11th edition of the competition.  A grand prize, Mahindra Thar will be presented to the one who stands out amongst these top 30 contenders vis-a-vis his/her transformation journey and consistency.

Known for their extraordinary offerings in the transformation challenges, Fittr gave out Harley Davidson Street 750 as the top prize for the 9th edition of the Transformation Challenge. The prizes keep getting better with each series.

Under the challenge, the participants are required to upload a video every week for 12 weeks clearly showing their transformation. The idea is to compete with the self as the candidates will be evaluated on the basis of their past journey. Factors such as gain in muscle mass, fat loss, and consistency from the past transformation challenges will be taken into account. The one who excels on all fronts will walk away as the winner of the challenge.

Speaking about TC 11, Jitendra Chouksey, Founder & CEO, Fittr, said, “The entire world is facing a major challenge right now in the form of the pandemic. At such a crucial time, it’s important to stay positive and motivated and that’s what we at Fittr aim to do through our Transformation Challenges. We motivate people through constant support and unique gratifications to rise to the challenge and make the most of it. We’re all in this together and the best thing we could do is to invest in our health and fitness.”

FITTR started as a WhatsApp group by Jitendra Chouksey. The aim was to help his family and friends to achieve their fitness goals through mentorship, mainly in the form of tips and short video bytes. Soon from WhatsApp, the group extended its reach to Facebook. 2016 was the year when this group completely transformed into an online health and fitness coaching portal. The bootstrapped fitness startup, backed by actor Suniel Shetty, one of Bollywood’s fittest actors has now been rebranded as FITTR to take its fitness vision forward while serving its customers, both domestic and international. Fittr was recently in the news again when it secured pre-Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and became a part of the latest batch of Surge, Sequoia’s rapid scale-up program for startups in India & Southeast Asia.

Leading Emotion AI Company Entropik Tech Raises US$8 Million In Series A Funding

Entropik Tech, a leading Emotion AI company based out of Bangalore, India, has raised USD 8 million as part of its Series A Funding. The investment round was led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), a $300m venture fund, managed by Falcon Edge Capital, a leading global alternative asset manager, and backed by ADQ, one of the largest regional holding companies based in Abu Dhabi. The round was also participated in by existing investors, Bharat Innovation Fund, who increased their stake in the company and IDFC Parampara Fund.

Through its AI-first SaaS based technology platform, Entropik plugs a critical gap in the consumer insights and research industry. With over 17 patent claims in facial coding, brainwave tracking, and eye tracking, Entropik is poised to disrupt the $30bn consumer insights industry.

The company’s flagship product, affectlab.io, allows consumer brands to measure and interpret the consumer’s subconscious and emotional behavior across various touch points. Brands see up to 75% ROI uplift on marketing spends, 16% improvement in customer drop off rate and 35% improvement in customer satisfaction scores.

As part of this investment from AWI, Entropik will expand its presence to US, EU, SE Asia while leveraging Abu Dhabi as base to scale in  GCC, MENA markets.  In addition, Entropik plans to utilize the funds to deepen its AI capabilities, leveraging its current 26 mil+ Emotion session Data sets to deliver predictive offerings.

Entropik has already demonstrated ~150%+ net dollar retention and best-in-class sales and capital efficiency ratios. Its turnaround time on project completion is 1/7th versus traditional agencies, underlining it strong ROI to customers while offering higher accuracy.

Sharing his thoughts on the Series A funding, Ranjan Kumar, Founder and CEO, Entropik Tech, said, “We have seen a huge demand for our Emotion AI platform, achieving 10x+ revenue growth in the last 3 quarters. I am proud of our team for their persistence, and thankful to our investors for believing in our vision.”

Anirudh Singh, Managing Director, Alpha Wave Incubation, commented, “Entropik is targeting a large, global, multi-billion dollar market opportunity which has traditionally been hard to address through technology. Entropik’s superior growth has been a result of its robust customer traction and a compelling ROI for its enterprise customers. Entropik continues to drive best-in-class accuracy, customer retention and performance metrics. We are excited for Entropik to unleash its full potential with a global launch pad in Abu Dhabi.”

Having seen Entropik’s journey since early days, Ashwin Raguraman, Founding Partner - Bharat Innovation Fund, said, “Entropik has progressed phenomenally since our first round of funding, It is disrupting the customer experience testing and management space with a heady cocktail of cutting edge technologies including AI, EEG and Facial coding and is rapidly emerging as a global leader in the space. It is exciting to be a part of a new to the world effort that could help its customers build very engaging customer touchpoints and journeys.”

The company works with Fortune 500 companies and includes clients like P&G, Barclays, Maersk, Accenture, Target etc. This round of funding will help further scale international growth and ramp up its deep tech capabilities.

About Entropik Tech:

Founded in 2016, Entropik is world’s leading Emotion AI Platform helping brands measure its customers subconscious behavior. With over 80+ Enterprise Customers across BFSI, CPG, Media & Ent. And Telecom relying on Entropik solutions to provide Consumer Insights. Entropik has 17 Global Patent claims pending in the arena of Multi Modal Emotion recognition. Among many prestigious ones, company has won Amazon AI Award 2018 and has been quoted by Gartner as India’s ‘Top 5 cool vendor in AI’ by Gartner. Currently based out of Bangalore, Company has its business presence across North America, EU and SE Asia.

About Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI)

Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) is a $300m venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital, and backed by ADQ. AWI has a dedicated team across London, Bangalore and Abu Dhabi.

The fund invests in early stage tech-enabled, disruptive start-ups in India and South East Asia. In addition to providing outstanding founders with early-stage capital, AWI offers access to an unrivaled set of support mechanisms for business-building, while also helping companies expand globally and open up new markets in the GCC/MENA region and beyond.

ADQ is one of the region’s largest holding companies with a broad portfolio of major enterprises spanning key sectors of Abu Dhabi’s diversified economy.

Falcon Edge Capital is a diversified global alternative asset manager co-founded in 2012 by Rick Gerson, Navroz D. Udwadia and Ryan Khoury. Falcon Edge manages approximately $4 billion in assets across public and private markets. Falcon Edge has offices in New York, London and Bangalore. The firm offers a variety of investment products and strategies that cover a number of asset classes, themes and geographies.

AAF Introduces Ceiling Mounted Air Purifier Unit – PurAir350C

AAF (American Air Filter), a Daikin group of company, the world’s largest clean air solutions provider launches ceiling mounted air purifier PurAir350C for healthcare facilities. The unit has powerful three-stage filtration with UV light and a fan​. It can be retrofitted in an existing facility without impacting the HVAC system. PurAir350C can be retrofitted in isolation rooms, consultation rooms, wards, clinics, labs to protect from the spread of viruses and bacteria.

A combination of PurAir 350C & isolation stretcher provides perfect protection by containing possible outbreaks from transferring patients. The isolation stretcher contains the virus within the box, which has side pocket-holes allowing the medical staff to attend the patient without exposing themselves to the virus. The trapped contaminated air is drawn by PurAir 350C, ensuring clean air is released to the outside environment. This solution can also be used for ambulances and test labs thus, protecting medical staff from possible virus carriers during transferring patients.

Features:

The compact design of machine integrated with three-stage of high-performance ­filters can ef­ficiently remove indoor fine particles, harmful gases, bacteria and viruses.

The ­first-stage coarse panel fi­lter is used to effectively remove indoor large particles, dust and hair.

The second-stage gas-phase fi­lter can effectively remove indoor TVOC, odors, harmful gases, such as formaldehyde.

Third stage HEPA fi­lter can remove indoor particles such as PM2.5, PM1 and bacteria and virus.

The machine adopts a low-noise, high-torque DC fan, and three-speed switch function.

The optimized sealing structure can effectively control noise.

A quick ceiling-mounted structure design is suitable for pipelines and surface-mounted

environments. With upstream and downstream pressure drop detection port, it meets the professional site testing requirements.

Easy-to-replace air duct adapters at both ends for on-site installation.

Humanized automatic stop function when the opening cover to protect operator safety.

AAF’s Success Launch Story:

AAF supported a standard laboratory to convert into a corona testing lab with PurAir350C for safe exhaust air. Since PurAir 350C itself is complete equipment with several filtration stages and a fan (to address pressure drop variation), it was a perfect retrofit solution to upgrade the lab to handle the coronavirus tests for safe exhaust air, also without impacting the existing HVAC system. It can be connected to an existing fresh air system or mixed (fresh & recirculating) air system.

PurAir350C can also be used in commercial buildings, schools, airports, financial institutions, hotels, shopping malls, religious buildings, gyms, beauty parlors, banks, restaurants, cafes and any building which requires HEPA filtered air.

Organizations in India to Spend Nearly Half of their Cloud Budget on Hybrid Over the Next Three Years: IBM Survey

* The value derived from hybrid, multi-cloud platform technology and operating model at scale is 2.5 times the value derived from a single platform, single cloud, survey reveals 

* Public cloud spend to reduce from 50 percent share today to 43 percent by 2023

* By 2023, Indian organizations expect to be using an average of 10 clouds, however, only 29 percent of businesses have holistic multi-cloud management strategies in place

Tech Trends revealed in the survey:

* Globally, 64% of advanced cloud companies recognize the need for enterprise transformation and application modernization to go hand-in-hand, 2.6 times higher than the respondents from India

* Globally, 68% of businesses on advanced cloud journey are building an open-source cloud platform, compared to 46% of India respondents

* The survey report identifies businesses that recognize the strategic importance of Cloud, which comprise 13 percent of the global survey respondents, two percent of which are from India, as ‘Cloud Aviators’ 

* Organizations in India expect to be using at least 10 clouds from a growing number of vendors by 2023 but only 29 percent of businesses have a holistic multi-cloud management strategy

* 31% of IT executives in India say they are seeking Cloud Management Platforms for improved visibility and to control their cloud costs

* Enterprises in India are seeking an application development platform that can run on any cloud, workloads that can execute seamlessly across multiple clouds 

* Indian executives get over 2.6x of their investment in cloud management over a period of 10 years. 

Business executives in India are increasingly planning to invest in hybrid multi-cloud platform strategies and capabilities to drive business transformation and to unlock value, reveals an IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey.  The IBV surveyed Indian and global executives across industries to gain an in-depth understanding of their organizations’ current use of hybrid cloud, multi-cloud and their approach to multi-cloud management for the report titled, ‘The hybrid cloud platform advantage: A guiding star to enterprise transformation in India.’

According to the survey respondents, 17 percent of their IT spend is allocated to cloud at present and they plan to increase the share of spend on hybrid from 42 percent to 49 percent by 2023. The majority of their cloud budgets are being allocated to hybrid cloud platforms even as their public cloud spend is set to reduce from 50 percent share today to 43 percent by 2023. Most industries will exhibit growth in the number of clouds they will deploy, which can go up to 10 clouds particularly in insurance, telecommunications and retail as these industries will continue to expand multiple cloud deployments in the next three years.

Further, the study confirmed the return on investment (ROI) of a platform approach as respondents said that the value derived from a full hybrid, multi-cloud platform technology and operating model at scale is 2.5 times the value derived from a single platform, single cloud vendor approach. In fact, the platform approach is cited as accelerating value with scale.

Commenting on the survey insights, Viswanath Ramaswamy, Vice President, IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software and Services, IBM India/South Asia said, “The adoption of cloud has been a central feature in developing new, digitally-driven business models. Interestingly, the findings show that hybrid multi-cloud is the fundamental enabler of an organization’s operating model, helping them to embark on a journey to become a Cognitive Enterprise of the future. Further, Hybrid Cloud enables improved business performance and greater ROI. This is proven in the instance of leading businesses that have successfully achieved demonstrable competitive advantage through robust hybrid cloud management and governance platform.

In India, leading businesses such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are achieving business transformation by leveraging hybrid multi-cloud platform technology and embedding AI.  We are  betting big on Hybrid Cloud which is secure, interoperable, open and free from vendor lock-in.”

The survey was conducted from February to April 2020 by the IBM Institute for Business Value in collaboration with Oxford Economics and covered 6,000 executives globally including 412 executives from India, across industries, job titles and geographies.

Download the full survey reports from here http://ibm.co/hybrid-cloud-platform-india

Honda India Power Products Launches All New 4-Stroke Backpack Brush Cutter

 

Brush Cutter Category

* Aims further increase in market share

* First in the industry to launch a1.3 hp 4-Stroke backpack brush cutter

* New model features Honda 4-Stroke advantage of unmatched fuel efficiency, environment friendly engine& ergonomic machine design.

Honda India Power Products Limited (HIPP), a leading manufacturer of power products in India, today unveiled its new 1.3hp 4 Stroke Backpack Brush Cutter,Model: UMR435Tacross different regions in India. HIPP has been the market leader in brush cutter category offering a wide range of models ranging from 1hp for light usage and up to 2hp for heavy duty usage.

Announcing the launch Vijay Upreti, Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing,Honda India Power Products said “With increasing scarcity of farm labour and shrinking farmland sizes, customers are seeking more portable solutions for their regular de-weeding and crop harvesting requirements. A large number of consumers today have started using brush cutters for their daily de-weeding, crop harvesting, farm & road-side maintenance needs”.

Today, Honda brand of brush cutters are the preferred choice of customers owing to their state-of-the-art 4-Stroke engine technology and superior product quality backed by a nation wide chain of over 600 Sales & Service dealerships.

The objective of launching a new variant is to offer a cost-effective solution to customers in the hilly and mountainous regions of the country.The new model has been designed for efficient removal of weeds insloping farmlands and fruit orchards. Themachine also offers an effective solution for weed removal amongst closely spaced row crops.

UMR435T backpack brush cutter comes in two variants, L2ST with 2-teeth bar blade & LEDT with 3-teeth blade & Nylon Line cutter offering customers a choice of cutting attachments suitable to the landscape. Ergonomically designed backpack harness with flexible shaft and coil spring mounted engine minimizes user fatigue so essential for long duration working.