Exxonmobil Partnered With Mountain Goat As The ‘Official Lubricant Partner’ In Their Winter Marathon Expedition 2021

ExxonMobil Lubricants Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned affiliate of ExxonMobil Corporation, recently extended its partnership with Mountain Goat as the ‘Official Lubricant Partner’ for their 4WD Winter Marathon Expedition 2021. Motorsports continues to be one of the key elements of ExxonMobil’s brand legacy across the world and this partnership is geared towards creating awareness about Indian motorsports and move one-step closer to taking it to the next level.

Talking about the association, Rupinder Paintal, Director, Marketing - India ExxonMobil Lubricants Pvt. Ltd said, “As a brand synonymous with performance and leadership in technology, we have been actively associating with events, such as this, in order to maintain our legacy and commitment towards excellence. We are delighted about our strategic alliance with Mountain Goat as their official lubricant partners and we hope to keep working towards collaborating with such events to promote adventure sports in the country.”

The marathon was flagged off in Shimla on January 11 in the presence of Anil Kumar Khachi, Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh. The five-day expedition passed through Kalpa, Chitkul, Jalori Pass and wrapped up in Manali on January 16.

The Mountain Goat Winter Expedition is amongst the toughest, yet most popular rallies in the country with temperatures dipping to -20 to -30 Degree Celsius, low oxygen levels, fog, and hailstorms testing the endurance of machine and the driver. This is also the first time in Lahaul where a convoy of 45 Vehicles had entered the North Side of the wall and reached Baralatchala. With Mobil engine oil under the hood, the drivers could rely on the world’s leading synthetic engine oil to deliver exceptional engine performance and protection – even under these extreme conditions.

About ExxonMobil in India

ExxonMobil’s downstream business engages in the distribution, sales and marketing of Mobil branded lubricants and specialties. The chemicals business provides market development support, analytical and reporting services. It also conducts chemical product application support services and product testing support at its technology center in Bengaluru. The upstream business provides consulting and LNG market development support services for other ExxonMobil upstream affiliates. The business support center / technical support center provides a range of support services for ExxonMobil’s operations around the globe. ExxonMobil contributes to programs in India that support education, health and the community.

Under Daaji’s Spiritual Leadership, Shri Ram Chandra Mission Is Inspiring The Whole World: Prime Minister Modi

Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in his valedictory address to the practitioners of Sahaj Marg (Heartfulness meditation), congratulated them on the completion of 75 years of Shri Ram Chandra Mission and emphasised the need of embracing yoga and meditation to combat the uncertainties in life. Mr. Kamlesh Patel (Daaji) President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission & Guide of Heartfulness, along with lakhs of Abhyasis (practitioners of Heartfulness) and new seekers were part of the virtual valedictory ceremony. Heartfulness under the aegis of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (also known as Sahaj Marg) has been propagating the modern-day version of the ancient Raja yoga system of meditation amongst millions of people across 150 countries worldwide. People across the world are benefiting from integrating this easily adopted practise in their daily lives.    

Prime Minister Mr. Modi also lauded the efforts of Heartfulness Guide, Mr. Kamlesh D Patel (Daaji), and mentioned - In today’s world, there is lot of emphasis on fast pace, people are short on time. In such times, through Sahaj Marg, you (Shri Ram Chandra Mission) are making a significant contribution in keeping people energetic and healthy. 1000’s of your volunteers and trainers are familiarising the world with the art of Yoga and Meditation. This is a huge service to humanity/mankind. Your trainers and volunteers have made the real meaning of knowledge come true. Our Dear Kamlesh ji is famous in the world of meditation and spirituality as Daaji. I can only say that he is a beautiful amalgamation of goodness of the Western World and India. Under Daaji’s spiritual leadership, Shri Ram Chandra Mission is inspiring the whole world and especially the youth towards a healthy body and a healthy mind.  

Addressing the gathering Mr. Kamlesh Patel (Daaji), Guide of Heartfulness said, “The transformational benefit of Heartfulness Meditation lies in transmission of Pranahuti (life force), unique to our practise and helps make it easier for the seeker in making meditation a daily part of their lives and benefit from it.  Heartfulness Institute stands out by making relentless efforts to share the learnings from this ancient tradition, free of charge, to people across the world.  The Heartfulness practice is a certain way of achieving peace, leading to samadhi. It is known to offer a state of deep meditation and bliss within the first few weeks of practice.” 

Prime Minister in his opening remarks congratulated the mission and inspired the practitioners of Heartfulness by mentioning - this milestone of 75 years is very critical in nation building and taking the society forward strongly. It is the result of your commitment towards this goal that this mission is today spread to more than 150 countries.  

In reference to the global headquarters of Heartfulness in Hyderabad he said, I have been told that Kanha Shantivanam is built over a region that was barren earlier. It is your (Daaji) dedication and commitment that has transformed it into Green Kanha Shantivanam.  

He continued his address and said - the world is looking at health and wellness very seriously especially after Covid 19. India has much to offer in this regard. Our Yoga and Ayurveda can contribute to a healthy planet. We should scientifically elaborate on their benefits and invite the world to come and rejuvenate in India. Your own Heartfulness meditation practice is a step in that direction. 

Globally, lack of attention to Mental health issues have only compounded the situation with COVID 19. Studies by reputed organisations have also shown that Heartfulness meditation and other forms of meditation help reduce stress, anxiety and promote overall wellbeing. Meditation and yoga will play a very important role in averting a new crisis in the making, and we must embrace these practices to lead a more balanced and harmonious life. 

Added Daaji, “It is through karma that we move towards Brahma vidya. It is through Shramma that we proliferate in the material world. Both are necessary. It is a clarion call that India must lead the world and rest of humanity towards spirituality. Spirituality is unification, and we must unite by achieving the highest goal through interconnectedness amongst ourselves without any barriers.”  

Heartfulness Programs: touching and transforming lives everywhere  

About Heartfulness:  Heartfulness offers a simple set of meditative practices and lifestyle changes, first developed at the turn of the twentieth century and formalized into teaching through Shri Ram Chandra Mission in 1945 in India with a goal to bring peace, happiness and wisdom one heart at a time. These practices are a modern form of Yoga designed to support contentment, inner calm and stillness, compassion, courage, and clarity of thought, as the first step towards a purposeful life. They are simple and easily adopted and are appropriate for people from all walks of life, cultures, religious beliefs and economic situations, who are over the age of fifteen. Ongoing training in the Heartfulness practices is going on at thousands of schools and colleges, and over 100,000 professionals are meditating in corporations, non-governmental and government bodies worldwide. More than 5,000 Heartfulness Centres are supported by many thousands of certified volunteer trainers and millions of practitioners in 160 countries. 

Heartfulness initiatives to support a sustainable way of life touches people from different walks of life these include initiatives around health, education and green amongst others. The impact of some of the programs is captured below.  

A.)  Health 

Training to Anganwadi and Asha workers to deal with stress under its Divya Janani program 

Contribution by Heartfulness to support our community during COVID 

Over 10 lakhs meals served  

Around 7.5 lakhs masks distributed to frontline workers as part of covid support programs 

B.)  Education 

5000+ universities and colleges benefit from Heartful Campus programs  

Heartfulness Education Teacher Capacity Building Programs for Govt and Private School Teachers – 10050,000 teachers in the last three years. 

Over 150,00,000 (10th 11th 12th standard) students benefit from free HELP (Heartfulness Experience Life’s Potential) programs to become confident and wholistic individuals 

Heartfulness Essay Event being conducted over 28 years to inspire value-based learning amongst youth is touching lives of a million students each year across 250,000 education institutes 

Heartfulness Education provides Vedic math training to teachers, trainers and student 

10,000 under privileged students given free training on Brighter Minds – the cognitive enhancement program for children of 5 - 15 years 

PH. D program: 2 of the scholars have so far completed their theses and received their PhDs from the University of Mysore, on the topics of the effect of values education on the behaviour of students, and the role of Heartfulness in the transformation of human qualities. 20 other scholars are continuing their theses. 

C.)  Unique eco preserving initiatives 

6500,000 plus trees including rare and red listed varieties planted in 5 years  

15000 + trees identified for felling due to road widening from successfully translocated from remote regions 

 A rain forest successfully implemented for the first time in Telangana region 

6,00,000 plus nursery that acts as a supply to the greening efforts at Kanha Shantivanam.

Global PayEX Automates Account Receivables Worth Rs.1000 Cr For Goldmedal Electricals

* Cloud based EIPP platform FreePay reconciles payments 2X faster; reduces Daily Sales Outstanding by 9 days

Addressing delays in invoice collections and in offering real time discounts to its 6,000 strong dealer network across India, home grown brand Goldmedal Electricals has automated more than 70 per cent of its Account Receivables (AR) through B2B Fintech Global PayEX’s FreePay – an Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) solution. This translates into unlocking the potential of working capital worth INR 1000cr 9 days earlier.

Locked up working capital has been a pressing concern for B2B players, especially during COVID-19 pandemic. Add to it, ballooning AR numbers owing to traditional methods of invoice collection via Post Dated Cheques (PDCs) and manual reconciliation of each payment on company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

With the adoption of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered cloud based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, Goldmedal Electricals has seen faster digital collection, 2X faster reconciliation, a 9-day reduction in Daily Sales Outstanding, which together have enhanced working capital efficiency and increased visibility on company cash flows by 99 per cent.

Around 3,000 dealers of the company have opted for EIPP, with an average addition of 75 dealers every month since June 2019.

Global PayEX Chief Revenue Officer Narayan ‘Naru’ Ramamoorthy said, “Traditional methods and manual processes of AR continues to lock up billions of dollars of working capital across the globe. Our technology unlocks this value to empower businesses in cash flow planning and deployment while also creating value for their dealers by having better access to digital payments and channel finance. We are proud to partner with Goldmedal Electricals in its journey of digital transformation and working capital optimisation.”

The B2B fintech provides the whole stack of cloud solutions for Account Receivables and Account Payables to help optimise working capital for large Indian and MNC clients.

Goldmedal Electricals Director Kishan Jain said, “Around five years back, Goldmedal started on this path to become a digital organization. We started investing majorly in technology to drive efficiencies and productivity in various aspects of our functioning and are thrilled by the results. Integrating Global PayEX's FreePay solution into our systems has been an important part of this initiative and we are delighted to share that we have noticed a significant improvement in our revenue collections along with gaining key insights that have helped shape our business. We are excited about this initiative and look forward to working with Global PayEX on this transformational journey.”

Over the last two and a half years, dealers and distributors of the leading electrical brand use the EIPP solution to make highly secure digital payments. Global PayEX has provided Goldmedal Electricals with a real time dashboard that tracks invoice status and payments received, which helps in reconciling the payment against the invoice into its ERP.

In addition to automating AR, the switch and system manufacturer leverages the platform to offer multi-slab discounts, product and season incentives by region to its dealers and distributors, most of whom are Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

About Global PayEX

Global PayEX is an AI powered cloud platform for working capital optimisation in order-to-cash and procure-to-pay cycles. The B2B fintech processed INR 100 billion+ worth of transactions in 2020 for B2B buyers and sellers through multiple banking partners.

Global PayEX offers end-to-end suite of Account Receivable (AR) and Account Payable (AP) solutions including FreePay, AlgoriQ, FinEX and APEX to help large corporates with multiple dealers and vendors in electronic invoice presentment and payment, intelligent automation in reconciliation, channel financing and AP automation and vendor financing.

The B2B fintech has over 40 clients including MNCs and Indian corporates across industries including manufacturing, trading, pharmaceutical, food, FMCG, packaging, electrical, textile and hardware. Global PayEX also operates in the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Founded by serial IT entrepreneur Mohan Krishnan, Global PayEX is the first fintech company J.P.Morgan has invested in Southeast Asia. It is headquartered in New York and Mumbai.

About Goldmedal Electricals

Goldmedal Electricals is a home grown electrical company which was established in the year 1979 with a vision to create electrical switches and accessories that make a positive difference to the lives of consumers. In 1981, Goldmedal entered the Wires and Cables business. In 1995, the company set up a state of the art manufacturing unit in Goregaon, Mumbai for the manufacturing of wires & cables and modular switches. Alongside Wires and Cables, the company today manufactures a vast range of electrical products including various types of Switches, Home automation systems, Security Systems, Entertainment devices, Door bells, Wires, Cables and more for residential buildings as well as commercial establishments.

PNB Housing’s Unnati Home Loan: A Perfect Tool For Housing For All

As the effects of the global pandemic are tapering down, we are witnessing a steady uptick in the affordable housing segment seeding growth toward the rising demand for home ownership. In fact, many state governments have extended their support in terms of stamp duty reductions and housing finance companies are reaching out to potential customers, especially millennials, with easy and affordable home loans at attractive interest rates, friendly terms and conditions, and contactless service delivery.

For example, PNB Housing Finance is offering customer-friendly Unnati Home Loan of up to Rs. 35 lakh, or up to 90% of the property’s market value for salaried individuals and up to 80% of the property’s market value for self-employed individuals. The minimum home loan amount is as low as Rs. 8 lakhs for Tier-1 cities or Rs. 6 Lakhs for Tier-2 cities. Also, PNB Housing Finance provides such loans for a property of minimum size measuring 225 sq. ft. or 40 square yards in case of a construction loan within the city’s geographical limits.

This makes Unnati from PNBHFC a smart investment choice for young-entrepreneurs and aspirant salaried class of the millennial generation from mid-sized towns and cities of India who would like to invest in an asset class early on in their career life-span. Additionally, the extended 30-year repayment plan reduces the EMI burden on the borrowers.

PNB Housing Finance Managing Director and CEO Hardayal Prasad said, “We launched Unnati Home Loan as part of our constant effort to offer quick, affordable and customer-friendly financial solutions to those aspiring to buy their dream home and fulfil an important life goal. The loan is tailor-made for low and medium income groups, and will give a big push to the government’s broad vision of ‘Housing for All by 2022’. Unnati Home Loan will play a significant role in not only empowering individuals to own their homes but will also lift the socio-economic wellbeing of our Society.” 

Unnati Home Loan from PNBHFC comes along with competitive rates of interest for both salaried individuals, and self-employed with flexible repayment choices. PNB Housing has also collaborated with leading insurance companies to offer customers best-in-class options for insurance products and services right at their doorstep.

Spread over 65 cities with 94 branches, PNB Housing Finance has formed strategic alliances with multiple affordable housing builders across the country to assist in timely loan disbursals. As a step further, PNBHFC’s representatives hold awareness drives, run education-based campaigns and offer consultations on various loan products and its credit worthiness round the year. The underlying aim of these activities is to educate and help new home buyers realise their dream.

With a minimum contribution of as little as 10% of the total cost of a property (including stamp duty and registration charges in case of an outright purchase), buying a home has become lot easier and efficient than ever before. Unnati Home Loan brings with it a range of benefits such as quick and simple documentation, doorstep assistance to facilitate fast approvals and disbursals along with a scope for joint ownership. Simultaneously, an applicant for a home loan under Unnati is eligible for a subsidy under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). With a pan-India presence, buying a home through PNB Housing Finance is both a smart decision and a dream come true.

Moglix Launches Supply Chain Finance Platform Credlix In India

Asia’s largest B2B commerce company, Moglix, has announced its foray into the supply chain financing space with the rollout of its digital platform Credlix. Credlix is a digital supply financing platform from Moglix that provides quick collateral-free working capital solutions, exclusively to its suppliers, pan-India through its collaboration with banks.

Currently the service is available to its 15,000+ suppliers, most of whom are MSMEs. Moglix’s decision to plug into digital supply chain financing is one of the many initiatives it has taken to secure the supply chain ecosystem from disruptions.

Credlix’s supply chain financing platform makes it easy for suppliers to access collateral-free credit from enterprise buyers and banks/NBFCs through invoice discounting. Suppliers will be able to request for early payments from enterprise buyers at affordable discount rates to keep their supply chain up and running. Credlix allows suppliers to monitor all stages of invoice discounting and stay in control of their cash conversion cycle.  From credit application and credit risk assessment to payment approval and final disbursement, suppliers will get a single platform to manage their early payment requests.

Elaborating on the launch of Credlix, Rahul Garg, Founder & CEO, Moglix said “MSMEs in India account for 11 crore jobs and 29% of the country's GDP. Unclogging the cash flow through the supply chain will be integral to fostering winning partnerships between MSME suppliers and large enterprise buyers and realizing the Government of India’s vision for Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Credlix is on track to provide invoice discounting of INR 1000 Crores over the next 12 months and is aiming to touch INR 10,000 Crores discounting value over the next 3 years by scaling up to include more banks, suppliers, and geographies.”

Offline models of credit underwriting have a high exposure to manual intervention and use under-reported financial metrics of suppliers. The offline underwriting system makes the credit cycle more risk-prone, and slower. The risk of NPAs and bad debts compels creditors to charge a higher cost for credit. 35% of MSMEs in India receive payments after 3 months of delivering their manufactured goods. Credlix is offering a technology-driven supply chain financing system that will make it easier for suppliers to get just-in-time payments. Credlix is also building other products on its platform that will solve for other credit needs of suppliers, by partnering with financial institutions.

About Moglix -

Moglix is one of India’s largest and fastest-growing B2B commerce companies specializing in digitally enabled procurement and supply chain solutions for MRO, Packaging, Infra and SaaS products for contract management. It serves industrial products in 50+ categories from 35 locations across India and has presence in the UK, Singapore and Middle East.

Vee Technologies’ Stitches A Partnership With Academia For A Pandemic Solution

* Along with the Department of Fashion Technology, Sona College of Technology develops seam sealing machines for PPE kits

Of the many heroic deeds of Indian firms innovating in a variety of ways during the lockdown — from developing a vaccine, to managing logistics to designing safe online education delivery to developing AI enabled testing platforms, India can add yet another success story – that of developing indigenous ‘seam sealing machines’ for making PPE kits.

The machines stitched out of a successful industry-academia partnership helped beat the six month long wait time to source ones from Japan or China.

Mr Chocko Valliappa, vice chairman of the Sona Group with interests in technology, IT services, design, engineering education and skill training, encouraged the teams within the group to pool their academic and industry resources to benefit the industry and lead to better outcomes for its engineering students.

The leadership team at Vee Technologies, a Bengaluru based technology services company, called upon its team of engineers in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic to look for areas where it could help play a role in containing the pandemic. It held discussions with the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) on possible areas where it could contribute.

Following discussions, it identified that a key problem area for India was a shortage of seam sealing machines for making Personal protection kits as no Indian manufacturer had ever made them. Importing these machines from Japan and China would mean a long wait time extending up to six months.

A core team of project engineers from Vee Technologies took up the challenge even though many in the team had not even heard the name of PPE kit until March 2020 let alone seeing a machine that would do the seam sealing.  Just before the lockdown the Vee Technologies team had worked with the IT Department of Sona College of Technology to re-engineer an app for contact tracing of Covid19 positive individuals.

A search led them to connect with researchers from the fashion technology departments of Sona College of Technology who were experienced in dealing with different fabrics and materials. The team, homebound during the nationwide lockdown, researched, and then came up with design ideas which it shared over Zoom calls. Several iterations later, the design was finalised. In the middle of a total lockdown, sourcing parts also was challenging.

However, within no time, gleaming seam sealing machines that matched the imported version were ready. The speed with which this team sewed together a product few had seen earned them accolades for producing an engineering marvel because the only details they had were from the manuals and videos online. The team was ecstatic to see these machines in a production facility.

These indigenous machines were soon working side by side with Japanese machines matching their exacting standards in making PPE kits.

Even the AICTE took note of this stellar industry academia partnership. One of the notable reasons why the Department of Fashion Technology team won the AICTE-CII 2020 for its industry-academia linkage. Vee Technologies CEO Mr Chocko Valliappa calls this a showcase of the Indian engineering prowess and a ‘sangam’ of industry and academia to jointly design and manufacture a product in the true spirit of building an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Vee Technologies is a winner of World HRD Congress dream employers 2021 award.

Ed-Tech StartUp, TagHive Collaborates With The Govt. Of UP To Bring Class Saathi In 200 Government Schools Across Varanasi District

* Plans to bring Class Saathi to 1000 schools in Uttar Pradesh alone by 2022

* Aims to onboard more than 5000 schools by the end of 2021 across India

* Is in talks with state governments of Rajasthan, Kerala and Jharkhand for similar partnerships

Backed by Samsung Ventures, Ed-Tech Startup, TagHive announced today that they have received the official letter from the School Education Department of Uttar Pradesh to bring their flagship product, Class Saathi on board in 200 government schools in Varanasi. The decision was taken after the successful pilot test in around 34 schools with 60 teachers and 1500 students in early 2019. 

Class Saathi’s AI powered clicker-based solution model along with its app, brings digital learning to children even in the most under resourced schools without the need for additional infrastructure like internet or electricity. 

Class Saathi also provides an app for parents and an app for administrators to monitor progress in learning outcomes of the students and stage necessary corrective interventions in time. The startup recently collaborated with the Government of Madhya Pradesh and announced the launch of Class Saathi across 52 districts covering 2080 schools in the state. 

Celebrating yet another successful collaboration, Mr. Pankaj Agarwal, a graduate of IIT Kanpur, Harvard Business School and CEO of TagHive said, “More than happy, we are fueled by purpose to do more, to lighten the burden on the education system in the country. What started as OUR vision is now nationally recognised as a solution to most technological challenges in education today. Our world-first solution has the power to make any school smart at low-cost without requiring schools to have internet connectivity and electricity.” He attributes these key Class Saathi features to their growth and recognition by various state governments.

Mr. Pankaj also says that the foresight with which their product has been developed complies fully with the National Education Policy. “The NEP calls for technological solutions for modern day educational problems. It understands the need for quick, accessible, evaluative techniques to not just improve students’ learning outcomes, but to also evaluate teachers’ performances. That is essentially the core principle of Class Saathi - to assess and provide real time scores so that all the key parties in the system are held accountable to their educational goals”, he said.

It is no surprise then that Class Saathi is coming up as a popular choice with various governments to help them maximise their educational agendas.

Mr. Vinod Yadav, also a Harvard graduate and Director of Progressive Foundation that will lead the implementation of Class Saathi, said “We are extremely happy with the results that Class Saathi has shown during the pilot run in Varanasi in 2019. More than 1000 students successfully answered 20,000 questions via Class Saathi platform in less than a month and we saw an average jump of 8% in their scores. Smart and light assessments and interactive solutions are definitely the need of the hour and we believe that Class Saathi perfectly suits the educational needs of government schools. While Class Saathi would be available in 200 schools of Varanasi, we intend to take it across the state going forward.” 

Speaking about expansion, Mr. Pankaj said, “Any product can grow only when there is a sizable need for it. According to NEP data, 3.22 crore (32.2 Million) students between the ages of 6-17 are out of school. NEP also attributes severe learning lags as one of the key contributors of student attrition. Class Saathi’s assessment model is designed to tackle these learning lags. So, the need for our product is being recognised as essential. If creating educational impact drives our growth, we only aim to expand our services to wherever it is needed”, he said. 

TagHive’s aim is to reach over 5000 schools in India by the end of 2021 and they are already in promising talks with the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala and Jharkhand. 

About TagHive Inc.:

Incorporated in April 2017, TagHive Inc. is a Samsung funded, education technology company headquartered in South Korea and with corporate infrastructure and operations in India. The edtech startup is founded by Mr. Pankaj Agarwal, an IIT Kanpur graduate with an MBA from the Harvard Business School. TagHive offers clicker-based classroom response systems and AI powered at-home learning app under the ‘Class Saathi’ brand in India and under the ‘Class Key’ brand elsewhere. This mobile and desktop enabled smart and low-cost classroom technology solution is currently being used in over 650 K-12 schools in Korea alone. Also, over 200,000 students have already benefited from the Class Saathi at-home learning app. Currently, TagHive owns 17 registered intellectual properties and trademarks and 13 more are in the pipeline. The EdTech company recently raised its latest round of investment at US$10M valuation.