Hero MotoCorp Sets Up Dedicated Vertical For Harley-Davidson Business; To Be Headed By Ravi Avalur

Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, has set up a separate vertical to drive its new business of Harley-Davidson products and merchandise distribution in India.

Global automotive expert Ravi Avalur has been appointed as the Business Unit Head of the new vertical. Ravi will report to Dr. Pawan Munjal, Chairman & CEO, Hero MotoCorp.

Ravi has joined Hero MotoCorp from Engines and Engine Components manufacturer Cooper, where he was the Head of Strategy and International Business. Prior to Cooper, Ravi was the Managing Director at Ducati India.

The Team in the new Business Unit also includes four executives from Harley-Davidson’s erstwhile India operations, bringing in years of competencies in the areas of sales, marketing, customer experiences, service and logistics.

The Company has also commenced wholesale dispatches of Harley Davidson products to the dealers from January 18.  

Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp has on-boarded 11 existing Harley-Davidson dealers in key geographies across the country.

H-D DEALERS NAME CITY

* BENGAL SPEED AUTOMOBILES PVT LTD (Bengal Harley-Davidson) KOLKATA

* BAFNA MOTORCYCLES PVT LTD (Seven Islands Harley-Davidson) MUMBAI

* CONCEPT MOTORBIKE COMPANY PVT LTD (Nine Bridges Harley-Davidson) AHMEDABAD

* MOKSHA MOTORBIKE COMPANY PVT LTD, (Two Rivers Harley-Davidson) PUNE

* TUSKER MOTORCYCLES PVT LTD (Tusker Harley-Davidson) BENGALURU (LAVELLE ROAD)

* EAST COAST MOTORS (Marina Harley-Davidson) CHENNAI

* EXCELSIOR MOTORS PVT LTD (Spice Coast Harley-Davidson) KOCHI

* JYOTE AUTOMOTIVES PVT LTD (Konark Harley-Davidson) BHUBANESHWAR

* STERLING MOTORBIKES PVT LTD (Capital Harley-Davidson) DELHI (MATHURA ROAD)

* UTTAM SONS PVT LTD (Foothills Harley-Davidson) DEHRADUN

* SRIJAYALAKSHMI AUTOMOBILES PVT LTD (Banjara Harley-Davidson) HYDERABAD

Hero MotoCorp will also expand the service, parts and accessories business beyond the 11 cities currently covered by the newly appointed dealers, to a pan-India level through its extensive dealer network.

With customer-centricity and commitment to globally benchmarked sales and aftersales service as their focus, Hero MotoCorp and Harley-Davidson are committed together to providing a smooth and hassle-free ownership experience to the existing and future Harley Davidson customers in India.

Details of new model launches will be shared closer to launch dates.

MSME Aerospace And Defense Expo To Be Held From Sept 27-29, 2021 In Bengaluru

* Shri B S Yediyurappa, Chief Minister of Karnataka announced the event during inaugural function of AERO INDIA 2021  

* The event will be held from 27th to 29th September 2021 at Bengaluru International Exhibition Center 

* The three-day event will be organized by Laghu Udyog Bharati and IMS Foundation in association with Government of Karnataka 

The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri B S Yeddiyurappa, today announced the MSME Aerospace and Defense Expo as a part of the India Manufacturing Show. The fifth edition of this biennial event will be held in Bengaluru, from 27 – 29 September 2021. The event will be organized by Laghu Udyog Bharati - Karnataka (LUB-K) and IMS Foundation in association with the Government of Karnataka. 

During his inaugural address at the AERO INDIA Show Shri B S Yediyurappa, CM of Karnataka said, “As you are aware that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji wants MSMEs to play a very important role in AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. To realize his dream, Laghu Udyog Bharati and IMS foundation with the support of Government of Karnataka is organizing MSME Aerospace and Defense Expo from 27th to 29th September 2021 at Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre. I request Hon’ble Shri Rajnath Singh ji to extend full support of Defense Ministry to make this event a grand success.” 

Shri Rajnath Singh, Union Minister of Defense said, “India today offers unique opportunity in Aerospace and Defense manufacturing. Domestic manufacturing of rare and complex Defense platforms has now become the focus of our policy under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. We encourage global OEMs to set up their own manufacturing facility or enter into a strategic partnership with Indian companies. India is steadily marching from Make in India towards Make for the World. We have a strong and diversified micro small and medium enterprises sector with more than 85,000 units. We also have one of the fastest growing start-up ecosystems catering to niche technologies.”  

The three-day expo spread over 20,000 m² will be the largest exhibition for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in Aerospace and Defense industry. IMS 2021 will provide opportunity to MSMEs from diverse Industry sectors like Auto Industry, Industrial Engineering, Electronics and Automation etc. IMS 2021 will also host Vendor Development Program, B2B meetings and Workshops. The event will be supported by Indo German Chamber of Commerce as well as leading Industry bodies of India.

The Chairman of India Manufacturing Show and former National President of LUB, Mr H V S Krishna said, “We met the Hon’ble Defense Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh Ji and he in-principle has agreed to extend full support of defense ministry to this show. We are expecting over 500 exhibitors, 20000 business delegates and 150 experts addressing conference and workshops and VDPs. The participants in the event will include leaders from large defense global and Indian OEMs, Defense PSUs and Ordinance Factories as well as DRDO Labs. We are also glad that Hon’ble CM has declared complete support of government of Karnataka to this event.” 

About Laghu Udyog Bharati - Karnataka (LUB-K) and IMS Foundation:   

LUB is a pan India Organization in the service of Micro and Small Industries. It has branches in almost all states of India with thousands of MSME members. IMS Foundation is the single largest collaborative platform for all Indian and Global manufacturing, engineering and other ancillary industries including Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) IMS Foundation conducts Trade shows & Conferences, seminars, Training Programs on various topics for advancement of skills, quality and efficiency in industries. 

Dabur India Ventures Into ‘Organic’ Space, Launches Dabur Organic Honey On Amazon.in

Dabur India Limited, one of India’s leading Ayurvedic companies has partnered with Amazon India to launch Dabur Organic Honey, the first ever organic product from the house of Dabur. Procured from organically grown flora, which are untouched by chemicals and made by wild bees, the nutrient and antioxidant-rich Dabur Organic Honey comes with the promise of being completely unprocessed and unpasteurized.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Prashant Agarwal, Marketing Head- Health Supplements, Dabur India Ltd said, “Organic is not just a choice of products. It is gradually becoming a mainstream lifestyle. In terms of consumption, the focus on natural and other products is on the rise. We are confident that people who conform to this lifestyle would definitely find the Dabur Organic Honey a much-needed addition to their daily routine. Dabur Organic Honey is completely unprocessed and unpasteurized with only filtration done to remove any impurities. We are happy to have partnered with Amazon to take this product to our consumers, who have made Dabur Honey as World’s No. 1 honey brand.”

Mr. Saurabh Srivastava, Director – Category Management, Amazon India said “We are happy to bring the new ‘Dabur Organic Honey’ for customers on Amazon.in. With the new Dabur Organic Honey, we aim to strengthen our portfolio and provide our customers a vast selection of organic products from a trusted brand like Dabur. We continue to give our customers an unmatched value, fast and reliable delivery and a great shopping experience”.

“Today Indian consumers’ demand for Organic food has increased and with fitness and healthy lifestyle at the forefront, we as a brand have developed an Organic version of our Star product Dabur Organic Honey which is 100% pure and natural. The process of procuring the Organic Honey from remote rainforests has been the most rewarding experience for us as a brand and we make sure we pass on the unadulterated and unpasteurized product to our consumers, as it is. So yes, I am proud to say that we select apiaries within close proximities of only organic farmlands managed without chemicals or pesticides to get our hero product. The product is exclusively available on Amazon at INR 235 for a 300g pack” said Smerth Khanna, Business Head – Ecommerce, Dabur India.

About Dabur India Ltd:

Dabur India Ltd is one of India’s leading FMCG Companies. Building on a legacy of quality and experience for 136 years, Dabur is today India’s most trusted name and the world’s largest Ayurvedic and Natural Health Care Company. Dabur India's FMCG portfolio nine Power Brands with distinct brand identities – Dabur Chyawanprash, Dabur Honey, Dabur Lal Tail, Dabur Honitus, Dabur Pudin Hara, Dabur Red Paste, Dabur Amla Hair Oil, Vatika and Réal fruit juice.

About Amazon.in

The Amazon.in marketplace is operated by Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd, an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). Amazon.in seeks to build the most customer-centric online destination for customers to find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online by giving them more of what they want – vast selection, low prices, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience; and provide sellers with a world-class e-commerce marketplace.

Seeks PM Modi’s Intervention For Restarting Mining To Tackle Goa’s Job Crisis

* GMPF accuses Goa Foundation of derailing state’s mining operations

* If remedial steps not taken, Goa’s Fourth Consecutive Mining Year will go futile

* Requests Central government to consider legislative amendments in Goa Daman and Diu concession abolition Act 1987 for immediate restart of Goa Mining

* Expresses concern about Goa's increasing unemployment rate and continuous decline in Goa's Growth rate, which is well behind the National Growth rate

Goa Mining People’s Front, the umbrella body fighting for resumption of mining operations in Goa, has said that irresponsible actions of Goa Foundation has brought Goa’s mining industry to a complete standstill that has led to loss of over 3 Lakh livelihoods and complete collapse of the state economy. GMPF has also sought urgent intervention of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi for resumption of mining in Goa or else the state runs the risk of losing its fourth consecutive mining year due to the ban imposed by Hon'ble Supreme Court of India.

During the recent meeting of Goa mining dependents in South Goa, the GMPF condemned Goa Foundation for intentionally creating repeated hurdles in resumption of mining activities. It also stressed upon Goa Foundation to push for immediate resumption of Goa mining during the upcoming court hearing.

In response to Central Govt Notice dated 24 August 2020 posted by Ministry of Mines on its website for public consultation called, “Note on Proposal for Mining Reforms”, the GMPF had suggested to the Central Government to consider amendments to The Goa Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Abolition and Declaration of Mining Leases) Act by making this abolition act prospective from 1987. This suggestion was in line with State of Goa, which has written to the Union Government on multiple occasion since 2018 for legislative cure/amendment, which shall extend the period of Lease until 2037 by making Abolition Act Prospective (i.e. 50 Years as mandated under MMDR Act 2015).

While Addressing the meeting GMPF President Mr. Puti Gaonkar, said, “ We were hopeful that in the reforms package for Atmanirbhar Bharat for Mining Sector, the Centre would consider amendment to the Goa Daman and Diu Abolition Act. However, we understand the same was not a part of it. Goa’s mining industry and the livelihood of lakhs of mining dependent population has been neglected in the last three years. We wonder why Goa Foundation is active only in opposing development projects in the State. Is the Goa Foundation representing driving agenda of external forces, which want to see us Goans poor and impoverished?

Balaji Gauns from Dharbandora Taluka Truck Owner's Association said, "As a representative of Panchayats, we also demand immediate action from the Union Home Ministry on our representation where we have sought investigation into financial dealings and other aspects of Goa Foundation. We suspect a strong foreign hand behind them who want to destabilise our country and State.”

Over the past three years, mining dependents have met and submitted various appeals/representations/memorandums seeking intervention and action from the authorities at the State and Centre level including Honourable President of India, Honourable Prime Minister, Union Home Minister, Union Mines Minister, Union Law Minister, Chief Minister of Goa, various MP’s cutting across party lines, and bureaucrats at Centre and State to take note of the plight of the people of Goa..

Decentralized Finance Giant Terra Captures The Asian Market With A Technology-First Approach

* Announces Terra Ideathon winners across Fintech, Logistics and Healthcare sectors in India; 

* Raises $25 million in funding from Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital

* Expands Product Solutions With The Launch Of Mirror Wallet 

South Korea-headquartered decentralized finance platform, Terra, today announced the nine winners of the “Think with Terra Ideathon” a four-month-long program that challenged Indian developers to push the boundaries of the realm of payments across various industries with blockchain use cases. The nine projects selected across the three identified tracks - Fintech, Logistics, and Healthcare, will receive rewards from a pool of INR 500,000, and will be integrated as a part of Terra’s global developer community and will be working closely with the global Terra team itself. The winning projects included innovative solutions with blockchain use cases in Agro-tech, healthcare, public affairs, and supply chain sectors. 

The Ideathon, launched in partnership with Singapore-based innovation management brand Lumos Labs, is a step towards strengthening and expanding its base in Asian markets with a special focus on a strong developer community in India. 

Nicholas Platias, Head of Research at Terra mentioned “As the first edition of Terra Ideathon in India, we saw some very interesting projects coming from the developer and student pool in India and it reiterates our belief in the Indian market as the hotbed for innovation in the blockchain space. The selected ideas reflect empathy towards real-world problems and a scientific bend of mind to apply innovative emerging technology such as blockchain to resolve these concerns. This is a beginning to our long-term commitment to the Indian Blockchain ecosystem and we will be actively exploring opportunities to  collaborate with the developer and startup community in India.”

Terraform Labs, the group behind Terra has been aggressively driving their vision to lead a decentralized finance movement, globally. It recently raised $25 million in a new round from Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, and others. 

The stablecoin for e-commerce creator also launched Mirror, the first synthetic assets protocol that tracks the price of stocks, futures, exchange-traded funds, and other traditional financial assets, bridging crypto with traditional markets. It has already proven people will use its volatility-free tokens in decentralized finance (DeFi) to buy synthetic stocks by locking over $340M in total value of assets within two months of launch and plans to attract blockchain denizens to even more use cases. Terraform Labs is also behind the Chai payments app, an e-commerce wallet that’s widely used in Asia with over 2.2M users and has raised $60M in its Series B investment round.

“We look forward to using the funds for building key pieces of infrastructure in the Mirror Protocol for synthetics, Anchor Protocol for savings, and other killer DeFi applications to make Terra’s algorithmic stablecoins the centerpiece of the decentralized finance movement,” Terraform’s co-founder Do Kwon said.

Terra is building new financial infrastructure powered by a family of stablecoins, each pegged to major fiat currencies all algorithmically stabilized by Terra’s native governance and staking token, Luna. Terra’s mission is simple: set money free by building open financial infrastructure. The company has navigated a steady path of growth towards increasing the expansion and development of its products and network. Terra now has the third-highest number of transactions of all blockchains (after BTC and Ethereum) and is generating 13M USD in fees annually.

About Terra Money:

Terra Money's mission is to harness blockchain technology to build financial products that empower the mainstream user. To that end, it is building and scaling payments as well as savings and investment products that are being used by millions of users. The ecosystem token of the Terra blockchain, Luna, trades on most major global exchanges including Binance and Huobi.

Testbook Kick-Starts 2021 With Its Unique Digital Campaign In India

Testbook, one of the leading edtech players in the test preparation market for public sector jobs in India has launched its first digital brand campaign. The campaign takes a usual route and uses cases to highlight the convenience that Testbook offers for different competitive exams in India. The edtech app helps students throughout their journey with daily live classes catering to over 100+ government exams such as RRB, NTPC, SSC CGL, CHSL, DRDO MTS, SSC JE, GATE, Bank Clerk, and Bank PO exams like SBI Clerk and SBI PO 2020, and many more.

The digital brand campaign emphasizes the convenience of preparing for government exams from Testbook.com with flexible learning options. The films depict real-life situations where the protagonists struggle for a proper environment to study and crack the competitive exam. And Testbook comes to the rescue with its one-stop solution that can be accessed at your fingertip through an app providing all the study materials, live-coaching, and doubt-clearing sessions for your exams.

Founded in 2014 by four IIT Bombay alumni, Testbook.com has more than 14 million registered users and has served more than 90 million applicants so far. It has also reached out to more than 260 million students in India whose education was impacted as a result of the spread of COVID -19.

Speaking about the campaign, Narendra Agrawal, Co-Founder & Marketing Head of testbook.com “The campaign captures the true essence of smooth learning experience combined with the benefits of live classes with top faculty, personal mentoring and exam strategies by our qualified coaches. It depicts the scenarios which most of the students go through in getting a good learning experience with great affordability. We are confident that our innovation campaign will connect with our consumers.”

The series of films in the brand campaign celebrates the determination of students and encourage them to make their dreams come true. These campaigns will go live in multiple phases with various creative and unique themes. The five innovative films portray the determination, diligence, and passion of students towards cracking a competitive exam. A competitive exam is not just an individual’s fight, but a fight for the whole family. Just like your mother supports you day and night, Testbook is standing together with you in this battle to clear the exam. Testbook understands the requirement of their learners and provides them with the best of resources. It helps students in pivoting to different exams without thinking about their pockets at affordable fees. Testbook is available for all the students across cities for all the competitive exams under one roof, one pass.

Sakal Signs Quintype As Strategic Provider For Their Big Digital Transformation

* Data-driven publishing platform to power the digital journey of Maharashtra’s leading media conglomerate

Quintype Technologies India Pvt. Ltd, a leading digital publishing SaaS company, on Wednesday announced that Sakal Media Group, the largest independently-owned media business in Maharashtra, has chosen Quintype as their preferred digital publishing partner to widen their digital presence. Sakal will rely on the breadth and depth of Quintype, including the capabilities in content management, monetization, audience engagement, real-time analytics, omnichannel content distribution, API access and multi-site support, to provide a seamless experience to readers and powerful collaboration tools to publishing teams.

Sakal’s digital transformation journey with Quintype will begin with its flagship website. The transformation will be powered by Quintype’s Bold, a cutting-edge content management system that helps manage, publish, share and monetize the content on all social channels, platforms and devices effortlessly.

“Our readers’ needs and expectations of how they consume content is ever-changing and the current pandemic situation has accelerated the digital shift. Quintype will give us the agility to innovate quickly and provide a seamless and secure experience while delivering the reliability and performance our readers have come to expect from us for more than 85 years,” said Abhijit Pawar, Managing Director, Sakal Media Group.

As the media industry shifts from mobile-first to mobile-only content strategy, Quintype is helping content creators capture the new landscape of audiences and linking it with monetization.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Sakal on their digital journey. We believe in empowering the publishers and providing a seamless digital publishing experience so that they can focus their energies on putting out quality content. Sakal has been at the forefront of quality journalism and we are excited to support and accelerate their growth,” said Chirdeep Shetty, Chief Executive Officer, Quintype India Pvt. Ltd.

Sakal has signed Quintype for its full suite of digital publishing products, including their cutting-edge CMS BOLD, subscription management system Accesstype, audience engagement solution Metype, mobile apps and their website development tool Page Builder.

About Quintype :

Founded in the year 2015, Quintype is an industry leading digital publishing platform that helps manage, publish, share and monetize content on all social channels, platforms and devices effortlessly. Catering to modern-day content creators, Quintype’s personalization engine takes audience engagement and monetization across channels to a whole new level. With features such as engagement tracking, real-time analytics, author performance and automated daily reports, Quintype offers an all-inclusive content management solution. To learn more about Quintype, visit www.quintype.com

About Sakal :

Founded by the eminent journalist Dr. N. B. Parulekar, and established in 1932, the Sakal Media Group is the largest independently owned media business in Maharashtra. Headquartered in Pune, the educational and cultural capital of the state, Sakal Media Group owns and operates newspapers and magazines in Marathi as well as English with a circulation across Maharashtra and Goa. The newspapers and magazines owned by the group in Marathi and English have a combined readership of over 14 million. The group also has interests in digital media, event management services, commercial printing and also runs the leading Marathi news television channel, Saam TV.