Noise Partners with Vijay Sales to Expand its Presence to Retail Outlets

* Noise’s entire range of product portfolio including the audio and smart wearables will be listed on both offline and online platform of Vijay Sales

Noise, the Indian connected lifestyle brand has announced its first-ever offline presence by joining hands with Vijay Sales, India’s leading electronics retail store chain. With this association, Noise has further intensified its foothold in India by offering its entire portfolio of products on both online and offline platforms of Vijay Sales. The partnership will further enable customers to buy products from www.vijaysales.com and 50 of Vijay Sales’ 100 plus stores across cities. The company will further expand its presence with other outlets of Vijay Sales in the upcoming months.

Leveraging the wide network of India’s one of the large format retail (LFR) chains - Vijay Sales, Noise intends to expand its reach by tapping larger customer base and strengthening its foothold in India through both offline and online channels. Under this partnership, Vijay Sales will be offering 2X MyVS reward points on purchase of any Noise products across the website and stores until the 1st of January,2021. The partnership will allow its customers to buy Noise products at competitive pricing for the market segment catering to 18-34-year-olds.

Speaking on Vijay Sales’ association with the brand, Ashish Gupta, Director, Vijay Sales, said, “This association seems promising as Noise has a variety of trendy neckbands, true wireless headphones & smart wearables that have been designed in a way that they strongly appeal to youth. We are hoping that our collaboration with them will go a long way.”

Sharing the announcement on the alliance, Gaurav Khatri, Co-founder, Noise, said, “We are pleased to announce our first alliance with India’s most preferable destination for consumer electronics. With this partnership, wewill be registering our first retail presence with a brand that resonates with our objective, values and outlook and equally excited to have them on board with us. We are committed to curate products which resonates with the spirit of Indian consumers andwith this alliance, we have taken one more step towards our customers that will help us serve them better.”

Noise, known as one of the fastest growing tech lifestyle companies, has been catering to the growing demands of earwear and smart devices in India for the past three years and due to its constant efforts, has also emerged as the market leader in both the audio and the smart wearable categories. The company has recently been ranked as India’s no.1 Wearable Watch Brand by the IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, Q3 2020. The current market share of the brand is 28.5% based on unit shipment as per the report issued. Noise has witnessed an exponential growth with 17X Y-O-Y in past 24 months.

The consumer durable industry picked up post the relief from the lockdown and Vijay Sales saw a value growth of over 7-8% from June,2020 onwards. Vijay Sales experienced a significant growth in its digital and accessories business post the lockdown due to work and school from home which sets the stage for Noise’s success in the stores and the website.

About Noise:

Founded in 2018 by Gaurav Khatri and Amit Khatri, Noise is an Indian aspirational connected lifestyle brand that is changing the way India remains connected. Established with a vision to redefine how India imagines connected devices and, Noise has managed to create a great mark on the market with its impressive line-up of products in the Smart Wearables and Wireless Earphones categories.

As per a recent report published via reputed global industry analysis firm Counterpoint Research, Noise is the second most sold brand for truly wireless (TWS) earphones in 2019 in India. Noise has been listed as one of the top brands on Amazon and Flipkart for four years in a row. Noise has been recognized as India’s No.1 Wearable Watch Brand in 2020 by IDC Worldwide Wearable Device Tracker reinforcing its position as a category leader.

Reliance General Insurance Empowers Customers with a Rapid Vehicle “Claims Slution Powered By Microsoft Azure AI”

Reliance General Insurance (RGI), a 100% subsidiary of Reliance Capital, has brought in speed and acceleration to its vehicle claim process by introducing ‘RAPID’ equipped with image analytics powered by Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services and Azure Machine Learning capabilities.  This end-to-end solution has helped RGI provide a much faster and seamless customer experience while making vehicle claims. 

India, which is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing auto insurance markets, relies largely on traditional ways to renew policies and process repair claims, which usually required inspectors to physically look over vehicles and assess damages. This leads to a delay in the process of inspection, resulting in keeping the cars and policy holders off the road for longer. To mitigate this challenge, Reliance General Insurance collaborated with Celebal Technologies, a Microsoft partner, to create the new AI solution, which allows customers to buy or renew policies anytime, anywhere. 

The new age technology uses Artificial Intelligence to identify damage from the vehicle image feeds and procures the correct assessment which gets instantly delivered to consumers.  In this process, right from the accident spot, the insured can access Reliance Selfi app to intimate the claim, upload the photos and documents to get the claim registered. Once the claim is generated, the AI tool starts processing and almost instantly generates a provisional repair work order for the customer. It also gives an option to the customer to opt for on-the-spot settlement which can be credited in customers' account immediately. 

RAPID brings down the process of claims intimation to claims settlement period, to complete in less than an hour, from an otherwise time-consuming and hassled process that took an average period of 10 to 12 days. 

Talking about this initiative, Mr. Rakesh Jain, CEO, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited commented, “Introducing this AI-based solution, makes the entire vehicle claims process completely superfast and hassle-free for our customers. This technology brings the much-needed acceleration to more than 60% of claims we receive for our passenger vehicles which have just peripheral damages. With the use of RAPID, a significant decrease in the claim processing time is achieved, which will result in an enhanced customer service experience. This initiative connects well with our Brand Philosophy Tech + Heart, offering tech solutions with human touch.” 

Venkat Krishnan, Executive Director, Commercial Partners, Microsoft India, said, “Microsoft’s goal is to amplify human ingenuity by making the benefits of AI accessible and valuable to everyone. We are pleased to collaborate with Reliance General Insurance to bring the power of Artificial Intelligence and its transformative impact to reimagine the experience for their customers. We thank our partner Celebal Technologies for creating the solution, which makes the both the renewal and claims processes agile and more efficient, in a secure and scalable manner.”   

About Reliance General Insurance 

Reliance General Insurance, a part of Reliance Capital, is one of the leading general insurance companies of India.  The Company offers a well-rounded and comprehensive bouquet of products including Motor Insurance, Health Insurance, Travel Insurance, and Home Insurance, and offers customized solutions to meet the protection needs of each customer. Reliance General Insurance has a wide network of more than 40,000 intermediaries across 136 branch offices across India for offering its products and services to retail, corporates and SME clients. 

Tata Motors to Increase Commercial Vehicle Prices from January 2021

Tata Motors, India’s leading vehicle manufacturer, today announced that there will be a price increase across its commercial vehicle range, effective January 01, 2021.

The steady rise in material and other input costs, impact of forex and transition to BS6 norms, have cumulatively escalated the cost of manufacturing vehicles. The company had thus far been absorbing the addition in costs but with their steady rise in line with market trend, it has become imperative to pass at least some portion of the cost increase to customers via appropriate price revisions 

The price increase is expected across the portfolio of M&HCV, I&LCV, SCV & Buses. The actual change in price will depend on individual model, variant and fuel type. Tata Motors will continue to offer best in class value in each segment with low total cost of ownership and increasing profit potential for vehicle owners.

OYO Hotels & Homes Plans to Tap Into Leisure Destinations in Karnataka, Commits to Boosting Tourism in the State

* Shri M Lakshminarayana, Advisor to Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka and Mr. Rohit Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, OYO India & South Asia discussed the company’s commitment to the state

* Following the introduction of the new tourism policy in the state, OYO is committed to boost tourism in the state and closely work with its partner network to offer ‘Sanitised Stays’ experience to the travellers

* In line with the new Karnataka tourism policy, OYO is committed to attract tourists from across boundaries  to the state to showcase its glorious tradition, rich culture and artistic excellence

* Currently, OYO enjoys presence in top cities such as Bengaluru, Mysore, Coorg, Mangaluru, Udupi-Manipal & Hubli in Karnataka

Supporting the state government’s move to introduce the new ‘Karnataka Tourism Policy 2020-2025’ to create inclusive socio-cultural growth and generate economic benefits for the people of Karnataka, OYO Hotels & Homes reiterated its commitment to boost tourism in the state. In a recent meeting with Shri M Lakshminarayana, Advisor to Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka, the company highlighted its plans to strengthen its footprint in the state.

The discussion focused on the tourism and hospitality landscape in the state, government’s plan to promote Karnataka under its campaign ‘One State, Many Worlds’ to attract more tourists and promote the state as a preferred destination. The discussion also revolved around strategies and steps taken by the Karnataka government to revitalise the industry amid COVID 19. The discussion hosted by Mr. Rohit Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, OYO India & South Asia was attended by the company’s senior leadership team where the company shared details of its overall efforts to revive the sector, bringing demand for its hotel partners through alternative use cases and its plans to join hands with the government to facilitate new, improved ways of travel.

The hospitality chain plans to tap into inter-city travel, leisure and holiday-season travel demand and extend its ‘Sanitised Stays’ experience to the travellers given the steady boost in domestic tourism.

During the meeting, Shri M Lakshminarayana, Advisor to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, said, “Karnataka has immense potential to become a world-class destination. Many cities and destinations in the state are unexplored. The state is home to a diverse range of beaches, wildlife, and pilgrimage destinations. As workations and home-stays gain popularity, it continues to be a big focus for the state. Some of the most popular destinations Kodagu and Chikmagalur have beautiful home-stays which are in huge demand. Road infrastructure, first-class transport connectivity with airports continues to attract more tourists and maintains the state’s reputation as an industrial and technology hub. We are excited by the potential that OYO Hotels & Homes possesses to collaborate with the hotel partners and bring affordable, quality, safe and hygienic stay-in experiences to the travellers visiting the state.”

Commenting on its plans for the state, Mr. Rohit Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, OYO India & South Asia said, “I would like to personally thank Shri M Lakshminarayana, Advisor to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka for his valuable time and insights. Karnataka is an important market for us. Over the past couple of years, we have enabled numerous economic opportunities at every level by partnering with hundreds of hotel partners in the state. Blessed with a pristine and unexplored coastline, Karnataka has the opportunity to become part of the country’s beach tourism landscape. We at OYO, are very excited by Karanataka’s tourism potential and are committed to growing and deepening our presence in the state. We, along with our hotel partners, look forward to delivering a safe, secure and comfortable experience to the travellers.”

OYO recently revealed its most-sought after 150+ leisure properties with the #EscapeRoutes catalog. These properties follow OYO’s ISO-certified quality management standards, with Sanitised Before Your Eyes and Contactless Check-in offerings. Other amenities include an in-house dining feature, great views and access to WiFi. Owing to the high demand for beach destinations across the country, OYO has also rolled out its ‘Chal Beach Chalein.’ campaign this week.

About OYO Hotels & Homes:

Opening its doors in 2013, OYO Hotels & Homes, a young hotel startup, today is the world’s leading chain of hotels and homes. OYO today operates in over 800 cities in 80 countries, including the U.S., Europe, U.K., India, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Japan.

“World of Christmas at Phoenix Marketcity" in the City - 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 tree with 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. 

Investing in Next Gen Security Solutions to Propel Modernization and Digital Transformation Efforts in 2021

* 5 key Security Tech trends that must be at the heart of every organization’s security strategy

* Sudeep Das, Technical Leader, IBM Security Systems, IBM India/South Asia

2020 witnessed the threat landscape in India changing and evolving quickly, data breaches, ransomware attacks, privacy failures, and other cybersecurity challenges are now on everyone’s radar screen more than ever.  Yet most businesses still struggled with effectively preparing for them. Challenges that continue to hold companies back include:– complex regulatory requirements, lack of alignment on security strategy as well as cybersecurity and compliance maturity, frequent organizational changes, security skills shortages, uncertainty regarding security “best practices” and lastly insufficient practice of plans for responding to a cybersecurity incident — that is if they have an incident response plan at all. A recent IBM and Ponemon Institute study highlighted that 41% of the respondents from India review and test their cybersecurity incident response plan (CSIRP) only once each year. This is an alarming fact, specifically in the light of the current pandemic since many organizations had to overnight shift to a Hybrid work environment leading to many unforeseen risks.  

Further, as per our 2020 Cost of Data Breach report, Indian companies witnessed an average of ₹140 million total cost of a data breach in 2020, an increase of 9.4% from 2019. Additionally, companies with fully deployed security automation were able to detect and contain a breach 27% faster than those with none. Showcasing the importance of technology preparedness. 

We believe the next wave of the tech security landscape will be enhanced by these five trends helping organizations innovate and be prepared for all present and future uncertainties.   

1. Security to drive modernization efforts: Most large organizations that already have significant security deployment would be looking to drive modernization and transformation of their tools to better cover the increased threat landscape. Organizations are optimizing and scaling their existing tools both in terms of newer use cases and newer detection scenarios being operationalized. All of this leading to more coverage of their infrastructure across on-Prem, operational technology (OT) infrastructure as well as cloud infrastructure and services. Further, along with upscaling the tool's output organizations would also look to modernize the security insight exchange between these controls in a platform-based manner rather than the existing manual methods of information and security context sharing.

2. Blueprinting a Zero-Trust Framework: There is a renewed vigour around combining Identity, Data, Network, and Device security into a common analysis platform to better deliver security context and build on an organization’s Zero-Trust journey. Companies are realizing that all the siloed security programs are not delivering the right level of risk view to them and it is necessary to drive horizontal data analysis across "all" the security telemetry data that is available for the most critical resources in the organization - people, data and infrastructure.

3. Adoption of Security From the Cloud:  With a lack of skilled personnel being a major inhibitor to maximize the efficacy of security investments, we are seeing more and more organizations evaluating Security as a Service option. This empowers the organization to work with a security firm specializing in various security services. Security as a Service can help with the maintenance and operationalization of the security controls thereby driving security through an SLA-driven program rather than a traditional path of consuming an on-Prem security solution.

4. AI/ML-powered security to be ubiquitous – While we have witnessed the use of AI/ML within the realm of security, moving forward, organizations will embrace the power of machine learning to help them monitor their risks across all security controls. There are mountains of security telemetry data available with all IT landscapes and not all of this data is being analyzed and used for security monitoring and threat hunting. ML-based tools could provide the necessary insights from each of these controls - be it the security information and event management (SIEM) system or the user behavior analysis system or the identity risk monitoring system and more importantly the data security systems. Companies will need to evaluate their AI journey for security to ensure that it is moving from just a promise phase to actual delivery of AI-based security insights. 

5. Automation and Orchestration to be the core of security strategy- Organizations have traditionally struggled to take quick and auditable action on security insights that are provided by the various protection systems in the organizations due to either lack of man-power or lack of process. Investments in orchestration and automation technologies can help ensure that the detected incidents are addressed in a systematic and compliant manner.

SoME Organises Completely Virtual Graduation Ceremony and 240 Learners Graduated Virtually

School of Meaningful Experiences (SoME) celebrated their second annual graduation ceremony, SoME 

Day entirely virtually on December 20. In partnership with Kestone, an integrated marketing company, the event used a platform which simulated an actual venue with a reception, discussion tracks, main auditorium, networking centre and fun areas. 

The simulation enabled viewers to not only watch the event from the comfort of their homes but also chat with SoME members to get more information about the organisation’s myriad programmes.  

The virtual venue was further divided into various platforms - three rooms with speakers’ names, a helpdesk and auditorium. Depending on which room the viewers chose, they were gifted with a fabulous speech by an eminent speaker. The speakers included Roopa Pai, one of India’s best-known children’s author and Dr Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist, author and teacher. Both spoke on a range of topics from books and Design to the importance of inculcating Curiosity and Creativity among children. 

The chief guest for the event was Dr K Radhakrishnan, Ex-Chairman ISRO, who spoke on a timely topic, ‘Space, 21stcentury and resilience’.

The highlight of the evening was the graduation ceremony, where almost 240 learners graduated virtually. Their pictures were collected beforehand by SoME and were superimposed with graduation robes and caps. Viewers could also get their graduation pictures by clicking on the photo booth option, making the event fun and interactive.

Other than speeches, the event also had a stunning musical performance by three youngsters from Sikkim, Raguell, Dorjee and Wangchuk of the Way Up North band. 

Speaking on the occasion Rakesh Godhwani , Founder, SoME said “We were initially hesitant about going completely virtual. But with covid becoming a mainstay we had to improvise. More than 500 viewers joined us and chatting with them as the event unfolded was amazing. We got a chance to mingle and connect with many future learners. The first SoME day saw 22 learners graduate, this year it was 240! Here’s hoping we graduate more learners next year.”