ICICI Lombard and PLUM Partner to Provide India’s First Technologically Powered Group Health Insurance Products

* Launch of India’s first technologically backed group health insurance products

* The partnership will solve four major areas of group health insurance - Real time pricing, onboarding, policy management and claims.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance, India’s leading private sector non-life insurance company has partnered with Plum, India’s fastest growing employee health insurance startup, to re-imagine and co-create India’s first technologically backed group health insurance products. With the use of latest technologies, ICICI Lombard and Plum intend to solve four major areas of group health insurance – real time pricing, onboarding, policy management and claims.

The penetration of health insurance across India is abysmally low, with 0.29% of GDP being spent on the health sector. Not surprisingly, India witnesses one of the highest out-of-pocket expenditures. There is an enormous unmet demand for healthcare, with only 2% of the total healthcare expenditure being currently covered by insurance providers. Several initiatives introduced by the Indian government like Ayushman Bharat, IRDAI’s Sandbox and National Health Stack are initiatives in the right direction. When it comes to the group health insurance market, which covers about 15% of the overall insured population and witnesses 25% year over year growth, it has been largely following the status quo. In light of this, this partnership between ICICI Lombard and Plum is aimed at benefiting the group insurance market thereby increasing insurance coverage in this sphere.

Real time pricing

It currently takes anywhere between five days to a couple of weeks for a company to receive a price estimate for a group health insurance policy. This happens due to a largely manual process of going through the data set and assessing the risk. ICICI Lombard and Plum in close collaboration, have built automated processes around data cleaning, validation, fraud detection, and underwriting thereby reducing the time taken to receive price estimates to a few minutes.

Companies can now visit www.plumhq.com, answer a few simple questions about their team, and get a price estimate in real time. From thereon, the company can upload the data on the portal, make the payment, and activate the policy instantly.

This will reduce the overall time from an average of a month to less than an hour.

Onboarding

Another challenge when it comes to employee health insurance is that most employees largely remain unaware of the policy and the benefits that it entails. A company invests a substantial budget on wellness of their employees, however, if the employees aren’t able to use it, the efforts go in vain. ICICI Lombard and Plum have worked together to ensure that employees are onboarded instantly as soon as the group policy is purchased. Employees are taken through a digital onboarding process wherein they understand their insurance benefits in simple English (rather than a long legal document).

Policy management

The third big challenge that organizations face is managing the employees that are part of the insurance. In fast growing organizations, employees are recruited almost on a daily basis. ICICI Lombard and Plum have built a real-time endorsement product that allows organizations to activate the health insurance of employees as soon as they join the company. Employees don’t have to wait for weeks to get a health ID card anymore.

Claims

Lastly, providing a seamless claims experience is one of the most crucial elements of any insurance. The two companies are now building an online claims submission tool for employees along with a real time tracking system.

Each of the above four products are industry-first for corporates. The goal is to offer employers and employees flexibility, transparent pricing, and exceptional healthcare experience.

ICICI Lombard and Plum together have been able to onboard more than 100 companies within the first six months of launch. These companies include startups like Fampay, StayAbode, Posist, Jiny, Revv, Swiflearn, The Label Life, and GrowFit. In addition to that, MNCs like Twilio, Instawork and Livongo, and companies like Lambda Group, Sunidhi Group, Rosmerta Group have also been onboarded.

On the partnership, Alok Agarwal, Executive Director, ICICI Lombard General Insurance stated, “Group Health Insurance is a pivotal part of any organization’s employee benefits framework.  In these unprecedented times, with the pandemic far from over, this initiative will not only help us safeguard our group insurance clients but will also ensure that each and every covered individual is prepared to restart the new normal, the right way. Additionally, this program will act as a facilitator towards the government's efforts to increase the overall health insurance penetration in the country.”

Abhishek Poddar, Co-founder & CEO of Plum added, “The group insurance health market in India is projected to grow to INR 100,000 crores by 2025, and will see the rise of innovative insurance products not available in advanced markets. With partners like ICICI Lombard, we hope to provide 700 million people with employer-sponsored insurance and become the de facto health insurance platform for one million corporates in India.” ICICI Lombard has always been a pioneer in introducing revolutionary technologically inclined product solutions for its customers. This strategic partnership strengthens this commitment of the insurer to its people and its commitment to individual well-being above all.

About ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd

We are the leading non-life insurer in India based on gross direct premium income in fiscal 2020 (Source: IRDAI). We offer our customers a comprehensive and well-diversified range of products, including motor, health, crop, fire, personal accident, marine, engineering and liability insurance, through multiple distribution channels. 

Murari Jalan, Kalrock Consortium Announce “Revival of Jet Airways”

Consortium led by Mr. Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital, has announced the revival of India's premier airline – Jet Airways as a full-service carrier. The Jet 2.0 program is aimed at reviving the past glory of Jet Airways, with a fresh set of processes and systems to ensure greater efficiency and productivity across all routes. As per the resolution plan, Jet Airways intends to operate all of its historic domestic slots in India and restart international operations. If everything goes as per plan and the Consortium receives the NCLT and regulatory approvals on time, Jet Airways would be back in the skies by the Summer of 2021.  

The Consortium's vision is to regain the lost ground, set new benchmarks for the airline industry with the tag of being the best corporate full-service airline operating on domestic and international routes. The Jet 2.0 hubs will remain Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru like before. The revival plan proposes to support Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities by creating sub-hubs in such cities. This would boost the economy in these cities, help Jet Airways stand back on its feet fast, and support the overall vision of the Indian Government to promote aviation business through Tier 2/ Tier 3 Cities in India.  

In addition, the Consortium's vision for Jet 2.0 includes plan to increase cargo services to include dedicated freighter service, a market currently underserved by any Indian carrier. Given India’s position as a leading centre for global vaccine manufacture, cargo services have never been more required. 

The Consortium had evaluated the option of starting a new airline but some of the inherent strengths of Jet Airways like the optimal flight slots, brand value and reputation for best-in-class inflight service and safety, giving Jet 2.0 an edge over others, were too tempting to resist. The Consortium decided that it would be advantageous to re-energise and start Jet Airways on a clean slate with an established brand.  

Commenting on the revival of the airline, Mr. Manoj Narender Madnani, Board Member of Jalan Kalrock Consortium said, “Jet Airways has been a brand with a glorious history of over 25 years, and it is the vision of the Consortium to put Jet Airways back in the skies at the earliest opportunity. We aim to re-energise the brand by infusing energy, warmth, and vibrancy into it while making it bigger and better. Over the years, the brand has created loyal customers and we wish to bring in freshness by adding value – an Indian brand with a global outlook, warm yet professional which symbolises the New India, Young India. With the revival of Jet Airways, it will restore the confidence among the Jet customers to fly again and experience its world class facilities.”  

Jet Airways is a well-known household aviation brand in India and the oldest private airline with an operating history spanning more than 25 years. The aviation sector was deeply hit by COVID-19, but that helped the sector as it underwent substantial correction and created that opportune time for the Consortium members to enter the sector. The Consortium's biggest strength is human capital, and it is putting together the best of aviation professionals with Global experience for running and managing the operations of Jet 2.0. 

Harvard University Announces Fund from Vijay Shekhar Sharma for Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute

Harvard University is delighted to announce a new gift from India’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, which will support the activities and research performed by the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute (LMSAI). With this gift, every year two bright and promising students from India would receive a scholarship to pursue their research at Harvard and work towards transforming the lives of millions in India and abroad.

By enabling scholars from South Asia to work in a cross-disciplinary fashion with faculty, researchers, and students across Harvard on critical questions and issues related to the region, Sharma’s gift will significantly enhance the goals of the Institute to deepen the teaching and research on significant cultural and global issues related to South Asia.

“Recent months have confirmed that the most pressing societal challenges are global in nature,” said University Provost Alan Garber. “We are deeply grateful to Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Through his generosity, he has affirmed our shared commitment to advancing cross-disciplinary research and learning in our interconnected world. His vision for a more collaborative future has never been timelier. We are proud to partner with him.”

“Further expanding Harvard’s work and partnerships in India is a major priority for the University,” said Vice Provost for International Affairs Mark Elliott. “This fund, which will provide leading South Asian scholars in all fields with new opportunities to pursue their research at Harvard, will bring benefits to them and their home institutions as well as to the Harvard community. In this way, this new program will do much to strengthen and broaden the kinds of academic connections we depend upon to help deepen our engagement with South Asian partners and to advance our academic mission globally,” he continued.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the Founder CEO of India's largest payments company, Paytm. He has played a critical role in developing the mobile payments and digital age financial services ecosystem in India. A strong believer in the power of technology to uplift underserved, Sharma founded Paytm in August 2010. Paytm counts Alibaba, Ant Group, Softbank and Berkshire Hathaway as its shareholders. He has a bachelor's degree in electronics and communications from the Delhi College of Engineering.

"I believe that good education can change an individual's life in the most profound ways. My father, who was a teacher, believed that the world can be positively changed through education. His teachings are my inspiration to make this contribution to Harvard University. Harvard’s integrity, diversity, and commitment to excellence are exemplary. I hope this gift will help future leaders attain the global vision that would help in transforming the lives of millions for the better in India and beyond,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Sharma has seen firsthand the transformational powers of education. Inspired by the work of his father, he has helped students in their pursuit of a promising future through his support for several foundations that assist the educational pursuits of thousands of students. Additionally, Sharma has been named the UN Environment's “Patron for Clean Air,” where he helps to drive greater environmental action and awareness, and advocates for the goals of UN Environment's global “BreatheLife” campaign.

Tarun Khanna, Director of the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute and Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School, highlighted the importance of creating a robust platform for knowledge-sharing, connecting those who may not otherwise have had the chance to interact. “We continue to increase the number of interdisciplinary programs and fellowships offered at the Mittal Institute, welcoming scholars of South Asia to share their research and partner with Harvard’s faculty and students. Thanks to Vijay’s generosity, we move closer to a critical mass of diverse perspectives and ideas at the Institute that deepen the world’s understanding of South Asia, from all disciplines and angles,” he said.

Each year, the Mittal Institute supports the research endeavors of numerous scholars from South Asia, providing them with opportunities to interact with Harvard’s faculty, students, and larger community for knowledge-sharing and the potential formation of new research partnerships. “This gift from Vijay will make it possible for young scholars of South Asia — who may have limited access to resources, but are highly talented — to have the opportunity to engage with the intellectual community at Harvard in ways that would make a lasting impact on their personal and professional development,” said Meena Hewett, Executive Director of the Mittal Institute.

With this generous gift, the Mittal Institute will continue to build its hub of scholars across all disciplines to further enrich the understanding of South Asia both in Cambridge and abroad. 

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Brings ‘Dream Car Art Contest’ to Indian Children

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the introduction of ‘Toyota Dream Car Art Contest’ in India to provide an opportunity for children to draw their dream car.

The Toyota Dream Car Art Contest kicks off with the National Contest to be held online from December 2020 to January 2021 for children in three age categories. The top three winners of the National Contest in each category will have the opportunity to represent India at the World Contest to be held at Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan in March 2021. The online contest is open to children below 15 years and they can use any standard drawing medium to create their artworks.

Talking about the initiative, Mr. Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Service, TKM, said, “The thinking behind the contest is that every great idea is born in the glimmer of a dream and at TKM, the intention is to help nurture the creativity of the future generation of great inventors, thinkers and dreamers. In this quest, we hope to find the next auto visionary. Further, we want to spread our philosophy of creating ever-better cars with better technologies that are environment-friendly. We hope children will enjoy the platform provided by the contest to share their ideas about the future of mobility by drawing their dream cars.”

Since its inception in 2004, the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest has been conducted as part of Toyota’s social contribution initiatives. Globally, as many as 6.2 million children from 100 countries/regions have participated in the contest since 2004 to share their thoughts about a dream car that is good for society. In 2019 alone, there were about 9,50,000 entries from 86 countries and regions around the globe.

“World of Christmas at Phoenix Marketcity “- The Tree of Jubilation

With Christmas round the corner, it’s that time of the year again when Santa visits us and fills our homes with happiness and goodies. Yes, Its Christmas time! Phoenix Marketcity Bengaluru is all set to take Christmas celebrations to a whole new level this year with its mesmerising Christmas décor to spread the festive cheer! Be fascinated by the shimmering display of lights adorning this gigantic Christmas treewith an inimitable European design! The larger than life magnificent Christmas tree is making people go ‘woooow’ in amazement, also creating a wonderful photo opportunity for people to take memorable selfies. The mall is exquisitely lit, with Christmas jingles and sounds of hope filling the air. Festive offers, gifts, laughter, and happy people complete the picture.  

The tree is beautifully decorated with lit motifs, Christmas greens and baubles. Witness this beautifully laid out Christmas surprise all December at the mall and explore a wide variety of trees, baubles and festive trinkets at our Christmas pop ups, with exciting products curated from across the world. Get clicked and post your Christmas selfies to spread the magic of Christmas! 

Shoppers will be spoilt for choice as ‘World of Christmas’ at Phoenix Marketcity this year promises to be bigger and better than ever before with trending accessories, cute artifacts, home decor products and other exciting festive merchandise. This Festive Season gets more rewarding with INR 1cr worth prizes to be won on shopping, It is pouring deals at Phoenix Marketcity where customers can stand a chance to win grand prizes like Car, Bike and much more. That’s not all, Santa will be welcoming every visitor at Phoenix Marketcity to spread the festive spirit by handing out presents to little ones. 

Mr. Gajendra Singh Rathore, Senior Centre Director at Phoenix Marketcity Bengaluru said “We are delighted to wish all our customers a Merry Christmas and a very happy new year. Christmas at Phoenix has always been a special affair, we always try to do something unique and different every year to surprise our customers and have outdone what we did last year by setting up a magnificent ‘World of Christmas’ décor. That’s not all, we are also setting up a European themed Christmas market that will showcase Christmas products from all over the world which will be on sale so it is a great time to take home some Christmas goodies. We have gone one step further to ensure our customers are safe at the mall with our SOPs in place. We invite you to be a part of “World of Christmas at Phoenix Marketcity and experience the magic of Christmas! 

The Highlights:  

World of Christmas Bazaar: 

The Christmas flea market boasts of everything from chocolates to home décor, and red-nosed reindeer. There’s everything you can imagine here, from Christmas trees, Santa Claus toys, sparkling baubles and beautiful tinsels to snowflakes and icicles, artistic Christmas balls, handmade décor, stockings, wooden birds, home décor lights and tons more. 

‘World of Christmas at Phoenix Marketcity’ is a world marked by the sparkle and magic of the season in every single aspect. So be sure you don’t miss out on the most happening and lively Christmas celebration in Bengaluru this year!  

Christmas Carols and Gifting Santa: 

Acclaimed artists sing carols, while a generous Santa hands out gifts to lucky visitors spreading joy and smiles. 

Step in Out Food Festival on 12th December 

Phoenix Marketcity truly understands the privilege of meeting friends, eating at favourite restaurants & indulging in some entertainment. The Step in Out Food Festival is one of a kind experience packaged with all the favourite restaurants that comes with contactless dining, safety protocols, entertainment and a whole lot more! Get ready for a day full of scrumptious food, groovy music, entertainment and lots more on the 12th of December at Phoenix Marketcity to indulge in gluttony , extravagant experiences with great music , pop ups by  city's best restaurants and their Instagram able dishes at the day long food festival! 

Shop and Win: EOSS in the 3rd & 4th week of December.  

About Phoenix Marketcity Bengaluru  

Classified as a “Larger Lifestyle Engagement Destination”, Phoenix Marketcity Bengaluru offers visitors, an array of unforgettable experiences. With its truly international look and feel, tastefully done interiors and the best of food, fashion, and entertainment from the world over, Phoenix remains ‘The’ destination for the premium discerning customers of the city as well expats. With over 300 stores, representing an exhaustive mix of International, National and Regional premium brands, the mall offers the most comprehensive and compelling lifestyle shopping experience in Bangalore. More than just a Mall, Phoenix Marketcity, Bengaluru is in fact a veritable melting pot of fascinating cultures, beautiful clothing and high-end couture. It is a city within a city, an urban space where retail, entertainment and leisure offerings co-exist.  

Vedantu Appoints Ranjan Sakalley as Head of Engg & Technology

Vedantu, a pioneer in Live online tutoring in India, today announced the appointment of Ranjan Sakalley as Head of Engineering & Technology. Based in Bengaluru, Ranjan will report to Vamsi Krishna, CEO and Co-founder, and will spearhead the expansion of Vedantu’s tech and engineering team to 200 members by end of this financial year.  The hires will happen at multiple levels including senior as well as supporting roles. The team will drive further innovation to increase accessibility, affordability, and predictability in LIVE online learning.

Welcoming Ranjan Sakalley on board, Vamsi Krishna, CEO & Co-Founder, Vedantu said, “I am elated to welcome Ranjan as our new Vedan, who joins us to lead the Technology and Engineering function. Ranjan is an industry veteran and engineering leader adept at solving complex and real-time business challenges. Owing to his eclectic experience he brings the best of both worlds with startup and enterprise-led thinking. As Ranjan partners in our journey to create Impact at Scale, we endeavour to create a service where a child feels loved, cared and inspired, and technology has always been central to creating that experience and impact.”

As one of the leader in K-12 EdTech space, Vedantu is building its technology prowess to ensure a seamless experience for students even in low-bandwidth conditions in tier III markets and beyond. In his new role, Ranjan will oversee all product engineering decisions, including design, delivery, and reliability of products.

On his appointment Ranjan Sakalley, Head of Engineering & Technology, Vedantu said, “I am stoked to be part of the organisation in its next phase of growth when EdTech is making waves and bringing LIVE online learning to every other Indian home. Vedantu is investing heavily on engineering to make LIVE online class seamless, highly interactive and engaging and my role will be to build predictable learning outcomes for millions of students who are learning on our platform.”

Ranjan is an engineering veteran with two decades of expertise in building and scaling teams at Gojek, GoPay, ThoughtWorks, Proteans and Everest Software Inc. amongst others. In his previous roles he has built products and custom software to solve tough distributed computing issues, complex real time business functions at scale as well as engineered exciting new products and features for end users. Ranjan holds a B.E. in Electronics and Communications Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Karnataka.

About Vedantu:

Vedantu is a LIVE interactive online learning platform for students. It offers individual and group classes delivered by experienced teachers in a LIVE real-time, virtual learning environment. Students also access content, take assessments and get their learning reports on the platform. 150,000 students study LIVE every month on the platform and more than 25 Million users every month from 1000+ cities and 40+ countries access free content, tests, doubts, videos on Vedantu’s platform and its channels on YouTube. To know more about Vedantu log on to https://www.vedantu.com or download the Application on your Android or iOS device.

Brigade Announces the Launch of Third Mall–Orion Uptown on Old Madras Road Near Whitefield-Hoskote Crossing

The Brigade Group, announced the launch of its third mall in Bengaluru as part of its mixed-use development, Brigade Golden Triangle located on Old Madras Road at the Whitefield-Hoskote crossing. The Orion Uptown Mall is over 3 Lakh sqft and is the latest addition to the neighbourhood that also has a 7 lakh sqft commercial office space, a 140-key room Holiday-Inn Hotel and over 800 residential units.

The mall was envisioned to address the much required retail hub that is customer-centric and the perfect blend of a relevant retail mix and convenience shopping. Orion Uptown is well poised to cater to the immediate micro-market, primarily comprising young working professionals and double-income nuclear families with a burgeoning middle income. It is also close to the up-country market and will serve as a welcome pitstop for highway travelers.

Apart from the signature comforts and ambience, the mall features a good mix of fast fashion brands, hypermarket and utility formats such as consumer electronics, international chain of QSRs and entertainment.  The leading brands which are currently operating in the mall include PVR Cinemas with 5 screens, Reliance Digital, Health & Glow, Reliance Trends, Max Fashion, Pizza Hut, Flavours of Malabar, Go Colors, etc. And, brands such as Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC and ALL Market (Hypermarket) are opening soon.

“Our approach to Orion Uptown was conscientiously different right from the planning and conceptualization stage to all the way up to execution and launch of the Mall. Instead of leaving it as run of the mill neighborhood mall, we explored every avenue and curated a specific set of factors to offer a high utility immersive neighborhood retail experience of consumer relevance and convenience.  By meticulously analyzing the location and its populace, the proximities, road accessibility and nearby towns, we defined our own vision of what the mall should be. I think the real magnitude of our efforts will be evident to anyone who visits the mall. I believe Orion Uptown is so much more than just a neighbourhood mall.” opines Shashie Kumar, COO – Retail, Brigade Group.

Orion Mall has also launched a free Bus Shuttle Service for customers from Kolar and Malur to and from Orion Uptown Mall. We believe that this will make it more convenient for customers of these high potential towns to visit the newly launched mall.