Epson Launches Its First Signage Printer Range To Feature Multi-Purpose Resin Ink

Epson, a world leader in digital imaging and printing solutions today announced the launch of two new Signage Printers that feature multi-purpose resin ink. The innovative signage printers, SC-R5030L and SC-R5030 produce exceptional-quality prints for a diverse range of applications, with immediate lamination and high scratch resistance.

These new printer models are designed to provide outstanding quality prints and Higher color reproduction and consistency making them suitable for a wide range of applications in signage printing on a variety of media. The printers are targeted at print shops and jobbers for outdoor signage, indoor signage and wall graphics. Using Epson’s water-based resin inks, the SC-R5030L and SC-R5030 enables printing on a wider variety of media such as vinyl, banner, canvas, film, textile, paper and wall covering media. Moreover, Epson's water-based resin inks are environmentally certified and odorless, making printing applications safe for use.

Priced at Rs.17,06,559 for SC-R5030 & Rs.20,07,959 for SC-R5030L, Epson's new 64-inch signage printers are an evolution of trusted printing technology and provide enhanced functions to increase business efficiency. The printheads can now be replaced by users themselves, reducing external dependency and down time, which make business operations more efficient. The bulk ink solution features a 1.5 liter ink bag option for medium print volume output, and two swappable ink sets for high print volume (available on the SC-R5030L). Fully controlled heating technology, combined with long-life PrecisionCore Micro TFP printheads, provide reliable color consistency across the full length of the print run, which in turn helps avoid the need for reprints due to colour mismatched, enabling lamination and same-day delivery, and reducing turnaround times.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Vasudevan, General Manager - LFP/IE said, “With the launch of the SC-R5030L and SC-R5030, Epson strengthens its position in the resin ink printer market in India. With the new 64-inch signage printers and UltraChrome water-based resin inks, customers can now get a wider range of applications for display in retail environments, graphic printing as well as high-value applications such as wallpaper, soft signage and decoration. In order to reach the consistent quality level that customers demand, Epson manufactures all the components including the revolutionary PrecisionCore Printheads, water-based resin inks, firmware and software.

About Epson

Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to becoming indispensable to society by connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. The company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics. Epson is proud of its contributions to realizing a sustainable society and its ongoing efforts to realizing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the worldwide Epson Group generates annual sales of more than JPY 1 trillion. global.epson.com/

About Epson India

Epson India Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in the year 2000. Epson products address the needs of homes, businesses and commercial enterprises as those of consumers with specialized needs in India. With a commitment to providing products and services that surpass people’s expectations, Epson India today has an enviable reputation for quality and value. Headquartered in Bangalore, the company markets and supports Epson Inkjet Printers, Inkjet All-in-Ones, Point of Sale Printers, 3LCD Projectors, Scanners, Large Format Printers, Robots and Dot-Matrix Printers. In all of these categories, Epson is either the No. 1 or No. 2 brand in India and growing fast.

HCL Foundation Announces Rs 16.5 Crore ($2.27 M) Grant To NGOs In Sixth Edition Of HCL Grant

 * By supporting NGOs to build frameworks of social change, HCL Grant aims to co-create stories of developmental transformation 

HCL Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of HCL Technologies Ltd announced the winners of the sixth round of the HCL Grant, a flagship program dedicated to strengthening India’s “fifth estate” of NGOs working towards nation building.  

The three NGOs, one each in the development areas of environment, health, and education, will each receive a grant of INR 5 crore ($685,000) for a three to five-year project. In addition, two finalists in each category will receive a one-year grant of INR 25 lakhs ($34,000), making a total grant of INR 16.5 crore.  

HCL Foundation, which this year celebrates a decade of building strong and robust communities, is committed to contributing to the nation’s growth curve. Under its HCL Grant program, the Foundation has so far committed a more than INR 60 crore ($8.26 Million), excluding this year’s grants. Recognized as one of the most sought-after validations amongst NGO ecosystems in India, the HCL Grant has in the past five years reached over 733,000 beneficiaries. The Grant aims to touch the lives of at least 1.72 million people in 8,598 villages in 70 districts across 18 states and two union territories of India . 

The winning NGOs of HCL Grant 2021 were:  

Sahas (Environment) 

India Health Action Trust (Health) 

Child Rights and You (Education) 

The NGOs were chosen after an 8-month review of thousands of applications by an eminent jury, monitored and audited by Grant Thornton, the governance partner of HCL Grant. The jury consisted of: Ms. Robin Abrams, Director, HCL Technologies, and Chairperson of the jury; Mr. Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestle India Limited; Mr. B. S. Baswan, former Director, Indian Institute of Public Administration, and former Secretary, Human Resource Development ministry; Ms. Pallavi Shroff, Managing Partner,  Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. law firm; Dr. Richard Lariviere, President Emeritus, Field Museum (Chicago), and former President, University of Oregon; and Mr. Shiv Nadar, Founder of HCL, Chief Strategy Officer of HCL Technologies, and Founder and Chairman of the Shiv Nadar Foundation. 

“The past year was a unique year of resilience and transformation that taught us how to transcend barriers and keep going even in the face of adversity,” said Ms. Abrams. “Despite the pandemic, the robustness demonstrated by our NGO partners, experts, jury members and the entire team is commendable. The passion and zeal of our NGO partners to bring in scalable and replicable solutions have created systemic shifts across geographies, lending velocity to the sustainable development agenda. The winners and finalists of this year’s Grant also have significant stories to tell, with visible on-the-ground impact. My best wishes to these NGOs, who are addressing some of the most pressing issues in the key development categories of environment, health, and education in the most remote corners of the country.” 

Ms. Nidhi Pundhir, Director, HCL Foundation, said: “The year 2020 has been both special and unusual. Special, in that the Foundation is completing ten years of facilitating high-impact, sustainable socio-economic development in rural India. Unusual, in that the NGOs we support had to deal with unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic and various natural disasters, while initiating and implementing their developmental projects. What is inspiring about these NGOs is that they are treating COVID-19 as the ‘new normal’ and are continuing with their path-breaking projects without a pause, creating a much-needed last-mile support framework.” 

On the occasion of the grant awards, the HCL Foundation released “Fifth Estate – NGOs Transforming Rural India in Environment, Health and Education,” a compendium featuring the top 30 NGOs selected in the sub-jury round, as well as the previous year’s winning NGOs. 

About HCL Grant  

HCL Grant is a flagship program of HCL Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of HCL Technologies, to strengthen The Fifth Estate – the NGOs. Driven by a commitment to nation building, the HCL Grant enables NGOs to play a decisive role in building an equitable, inclusive and future-ready India. It supports NGOs to build new frameworks of social change and surfaces path-breaking models of  rural transformation in the areas of Environment, Health and Education. 

Actors Come Together For Web-Series Conceptualized And Produced By Godrej Group

Arjun Bijlani, Shivangi Joshi, Surbhi Chandana, Gurmeet Choudhary & Debina Bonnerjee, Amol Parashar, Smriti Khanna, Aashka Goradia Goble, and Kunal Vijayakar, are all coming together to sue the dreadful year 2020. Shocked? Don’t be as they are all collaborating for #LiveItUp 2021, a nine-part web-series conceptualized and produced by the Godrej Group. 2020 will be personified by actress-comedienne Jamie Lever. This digital series will be released exclusively during the fifth season of Godrej L’Affaire, India’s coolest lifestyle affair with lots of music, masti and fabulous discounts on lifestyle brands. Catch all the excitement of Godrej L’Affaire by clicking on https://bit.ly/3r8llIB

To be released on the Godrej L’Affaire Instagram and Facebook page (@godrejlaffaire) from February 14, the innovative mini web-series takes a long, hard look at the year 2020 in a fun conversational manner. Godrej L’Affaire fifth season is all about making India bounce back, with live streaming sessions, exclusive web content launch, flash contests and best deals & offers that are more than generous.

The web-series has been conceived as a quirky courtroom theatrical in which viewers will see the year 2020, played by Jamie Lever, put on trial for the disruptions it caused in our lives this year from travel and food to parenting, grooming and various other nuances of Lifestyle.

Amol Parashar for instance will sue 2020 for canning all our travel plans. Kunal Vijayakar will seek revenge on behalf of us foodies who had to cook for ourselves. Aashka Goradia Goble will be representing our love for fitness and mental health. Duo Gurmeet Choudhary & Debina Bonnerjee will be giving their piece of mind to 2020 for not being posture-friendly and Arjun Bijlani is going to ensure we get back that ‘safety waali feeling’. There will be Shivangi Joshi who will fight for the right to our beauty routines, Smriti Khanna will be the voice of lockdown parents. The fashionista Surbhi Chandna will sue 2020 for making us dress in PJs all day and night.

A ‘judge’, played by radio host Sharma G aka Gaurav Sharma, will hear the arguments before delivering the verdict at the end of each episode.

Sujit Patil, VP & Head of Corporate Brand & Communications, Godrej Group, said, “At the Godrej Group, we are constantly striving to cultivate a deeper engagement with our consumers and our audience. The pandemic may have made this harder than ever, but on the other hand the virtual world has opened up so many innovative avenues to build those connections that can be just as impactful. The launch of this fun web-series with seamless brand integration is an example of this. We believe the concept and storytelling will create a riveting narrative for viewers and an even more immersive Godrej L’Affaire experience in a year when they can’t attend it personally.”

The series will highlight the trials and tribulations of 2020 via its quirky narrative. It will not only leave viewers laughing but will also connect with them as every character demands payback from 2020.

'2020 payback karo’ will be the rallying cry of the plaintiffs who each have their own reasons to sue the year. But who wins? That’s the mystery of it.

Watch the webisodes on Godrej L’Affaire Facebook page and Instagram handle @godrejlaffaire.

Web Series Trailer - #LiveItUp 2021 - Trailer

About Godrej Group

Established in 1897, the Godrej Group has its roots in India's Independence and Swadeshi movement. Our founder, Ardeshir Godrej, lawyer-turned-serial entrepreneur failed with a few ventures, before he struck gold with a locks business. Today, we enjoy the patronage of 1.15 billion consumers globally across consumer goods, real estate, appliances, agriculture and many other businesses. In fact, our geographical footprint extends beyond Earth, with our engines now powering many of India's space missions. With revenues of over USD 5 billion we are growing fast, and have exciting, ambitious aspirations. For us, it is most important that besides our strong financial performance and innovative, much-loved products, we remain a good company. About 23 per cent of the promoters’ holding in the Godrej Group is held in trusts that invest in the environment, health and education. We are also bringing together our passion and purpose to make a difference through our Good & Green strategy of 'shared value' to create a more inclusive and greener India. At the heart of all of this, are our people. We take much pride in fostering an inspiring workplace, with an agile and high performance culture. We are deeply committed to recognizing and valuing diversity across our teams.

InnoVen Capital Invests Rs 25 Crores In MediBuddy Platform

Following the announcement of the closure of its $40 Million Series B Round, MediBuddy, India’s leading digital healthcare platform has also received significant funding support from InnoVen Capital, Asia’s leading venture debt and speciality lending firm. The firm has invested INR 25 crores in the platform. This investment underlines the InnoVen Capital’s commitment to back promising start-ups that are disrupting their respective categories.

Talking about the investment, Mr. Satish Kannan, Co-Founder & CEO, MediBuddy, said, “Knowing that our investment partners trust in our vision, helps us work harder in building the health infrastructure in India. As India’s leading healthcare platform, we thrive on making quality healthcare affordable, accessible, and available across the length and breadth of the country. We are delighted to enhance our partnership with InnoVen Capital, who have been a partner with us for several years. It makes me immensely proud to say that we now have the most comprehensive network to serve consumers and enterprise clients alike. With our recent equity funding as well as venture debt raise, the company is well-capitalized to execute an ambitious growth agenda.”

Ashish Sharma, CEO, Innoven Capital India added, “Healthcare delivery is at an inflexion point and Covid has further accelerated the transition. We have been an active investor in the Healthcare space and believe that tech first, AI-driven platforms like MediBuddy are well-positioned to disrupt the market, and we are delighted to back them in their vision to make quality healthcare accessible for all.”

In June 2020, to create market leadership in the digital healthcare industry, DocsApp (India’s leading online doctor consultation platform) merged with MediBuddy. Going forward, both MediBuddy and DocsApp will operate under a single brand name - MediBuddy.

As India’s largest digital healthcare platform, MediBuddy gives its users 24x7 access to high-quality healthcare on their fingertips. MediBuddy helps its users consult specialist doctors, order medicines and book lab tests from the comfort of their homes. It is also a partner to several leading corporate customers in the country and helps their employees access multiple healthcare benefits.

With a network of over 90,000 doctors, 7,000 hospitals, 3,000 diagnostic centres and 2,500 pharmacies, covering over 95% of all pin codes in India, MediBuddy is well-positioned to strengthen its leadership position by providing 24x7 access to a range of healthcare services across India. MediBuddy is truly living up to its name of being a ‘buddy’ who can be trusted to meet all your healthcare needs.

Signify Enters The Fans Category In India With Its EcoLink Brand

* Company enters the fans category for the first time, expanding portfolio beyond lighting and switches.

* Focused on value-conscious buyers seeking high-quality products.

* Products launched under EcoLink brand, which was launched in India in 2019.

Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, today announced that it is launching fans in India, marking its first ever entry into this huge market segment. The new products will be launched under the EcoLink brand, which was launched in India in 2019. With its latest offering, the company is focusing on value-conscious buyers seeking high-quality products at affordable prices.

This is the first time that the company is expanding its product portfolio beyond lighting and switches in India, thereby tapping into the larger electrical goods market. This is a definitive step in the company’s strategy to build a strong electrical brand that will help open new opportunities to increase its top line and expand its share of wallet in the new home segment.

EcoLink’s current portfolio features more than 300 lighting products, offering a wide range of consumer and professional LED products and luminaires at affordable prices. These lighting products are equipped with the revolutionary VoltSafe Technology, designed to withstand drastic voltage fluctuations that are common in Indian households.

The newly launched range of EcoLink fans features more than 36 products in the ceiling fans category. Based on the company’s strong understanding of Indian consumers and market conditions, these fans are equipped with features like heavy copper motors and EasyClean technology. The heavy copper motors offer high speed and durability, while the EasyClean technology offers ease of maintenance. The company will further expand its fans range with new products featuring energy efficient brushless direct current (BLDC) technology, silent fans with ABS blades and other categories over the next few months.

Coming from the house of Signify, EcoLink products offer the same promise of reliability and high quality that customers have come to expect from the Philips brand. The brand is now also available in other markets like Indonesia, Malaysia and Middle East (UAE).

Commenting on this development, Sumit Joshi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Signify Innovations India Limited said, “Fans is a big market segment in India, and this makes it a very suitable proposition to further strengthen our strong EcoLink brand, which received an overwhelming response from customers since its launch in 2019 in the lighting and switches segments. This latest launch enables us to further expand our share of wallet in the new home segment. We hope to continue our growth momentum in the future with a customer-first approach, backed with innovation.”

Signify markets the best lighting brands in the world, each addressing a different customer segment. It has its Philips range of luminaires for consumer and professional customers, interact IoT platform for professional customers, Color Kinetics luminaires and systems for façade lighting customers, Philips Hue connected range for consumers, in addition to the newly launched EcoLink brand.

Atlassian Launches Cloud Enterprise To Meet Large Customer Needs

* The company’s ‘most advanced cloud offering’ comes to Jira Software, Confluence and Jira Service Management 

Atlassian Corporation Plc (NASDAQ: TEAM), a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software and the maker of Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello products, has launched its most advanced cloud offering to date -  Atlassian Cloud Enterprise for Jira Software, Confluence, and Jira Service Management. 

Specifically designed to meet the needs of Atlassian’s largest customers now and in the future, Cloud Enterprise was created to provide improved scalability, security, and governance controls to help standardise Jira Software, Confluence, and Jira Service Management deployments on a purpose-built cloud platform. 

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises were forced to rethink how their businesses operated. More than 95 percent of new Atlassian customers start with its cloud products. The company has invested in cloud services as the future, to power teams of all sizes now and moving forward. Atlassian Cloud Enterprise offers five new capabilities to address the ‘core needs’ of enterprise customers. These include - global scale, with unlimited instances to allow teams to customize instances based on their needs; the highest standards of reliability with a guaranteed 99.95 percent uptime SLA and dedicated enterprise support; enterprise-grade security and compliance to ensure safe, convenient access to Atlassian cloud products on any device while meeting data privacy requirements across the globe; powerful governance controls for user and change management at scale; marketplace apps that meet enterprise needs for extensibility in the cloud. 

Bala Venkatrao, Head of Product, Enterprise Cloud at Atlassian said, “With Cloud Enterprise, we now offer customers the ability to not only standardize on one cloud platform that can scale on demand, but also set up multiple instances to support specific team needs. A key differentiator for this offering is data residency, which is the ability to pin data to a geographic realm.” 

“To help admins more efficiently manage thousands of users spread across multiple products and instances, Cloud Enterprise includes a new centralized admin hub. And built-in integrations with leading identity providers let customers automate user provisioning and de-provisioning, saving admins time and hassle,” he further added. 

One of the primary benefits of standardizing on Atlassian’s cloud platform is faster access to innovative features, such as the recently introduced machine learning-powered ‘smarts’ capabilities, which can go a long way to improve the end-user experience. Atlassian Cloud Enterprise offers a safe, isolated sandbox environment where production data can be cloned, and upcoming changes can be tested. To meet the needs of Atlassian’s largest customers, Atlassian collaborates with its marketplace partners to provide a robust offering of cloud apps and integrations. 

About Atlassian 

Atlassian unleashes the potential of every team. Our team collaboration and productivity software helps teams organize, discuss, and complete shared work. Teams at more than 194,000 customers, across large and small organizations - including Bank of America, Redfin, NASA, Verizon, and Dropbox - use Atlassian’s project tracking, content creation and sharing, and service management products to work better together and deliver quality results on time. Learn more about our products, including Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Trello, Bitbucket, and Jira Align at https://atlassian.com/. 

Hyundai Motor India Limited Celebrates 25 Years Of Excellence In India

Hyundai Motor India Ltd., country’s first Smart Mobility Solutions Provider and largest Exporter since inception, today announced the emphatic significance of 2021 marking 25 Years of excellence in India and celebrating its Silver Jubilee. 

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. S S Kim, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd., said, “Envisioning India at the heart of global manufacturing and commerce, Hyundai, began its journey with the country 25 years ago towards a mutual progress. Today, it gives us immense pride to have come this far together, developing a sustainable and thriving ecosystem leading to collective evolution of the Indian Automotive Industry. Under the aegis of our global vision ‘Progress for Humanity’ Hyundai Motor India will continue to drive excitement across the market through innovation in products and services. As a part of our commitment to the nation, we will continue our efforts towards the betterment of society and communities ensuring the fruition of a brighter and greener future for the generation to come.”   

Mr. S S Kim, added, “We aim to become India’s most beloved and trusted automotive brand, offering smart mobility solutions to our valued new age Indian customers.”  

On 6th of May 1996, HMIL officials laid the foundation of Hyundai Motor India’s manufacturing facility at Irungattukkottai in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. Over the last two and a half decades, this facility has advanced from strength to strength, emerging as the hub of manufacturing excellence, symbolizing strong synergies of development of a shining India. Operations for the manufacturing facility began on September 1998 with the commissioning of Hyundai’s first integrated car manufacturing plant outside Korea.

Since then, from rollout of products such as India’s iconic ‘tallboy’ SANTRO - the first car in India to be developed with an MPFI engine, to creating new segments like Premium Hatchback with the i20, Hyundai has been redefining experiences and creating memories for a Happy Life. Hyundai became a household name in India defining mobility excellence across segments, achieving its highest ever market share of 17.4 % in CY2020. 

• Over 9 Million total sales since inception

• Investment of over $ 4 Billion 

• Total Sales Outlets – 1 154

• Total Service Outlets – 1 298

• No. 1 SUV Brand in India with 180 237 Units sold in CY 2020

• Exporting to 88 Countries   

Over the last 25 Years, Hyundai has relentlessly strived towards realizing the dream of ‘Make in India’ and has continued to sustain its position as India’s leading exporter of cars, surpassing the 3 million vehicle export milestone in 2020.

• 5 00 000 Exports in 2008

• 10 00 000 Exports in 2010

• 20 00 000 Exports in 2014

• 30 00 000 Exports in 2020

With its state of art integrated manufacturing facility producing world class products for Indian customers, Hyundai has been refining mobility experiences for customers with introduction of new and innovative technologies that surpass the aspirations of customers. 

• India’s First Fully Electric SUV– ‘KONA Electric’

• India’s First Fully Connected SUV – ‘VENUE’

• India’s first online end to end Retail program - Click to Buy

• India’s largest customer outreach program - Hyundai Mobility Membership

• India’s First Intelligent Manual Transmission iMTClutch-free Manual Transmission

• Democratized Turbo GDi Petrol Engines offered on VENUE, New CRETA, VERNA, the all-new i20, GRAND i10 NIOS, AURA

Hyundai has been driving manufacturing excellence at its plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai that is spread across 540 Acres of land and has an installed capacity of producing 7.5 Lakh units annually. Supporting the government’s make in India initiative Hyundai has manufactured over 9 million cars at this facility. Further driving supremacy and excellence across practises Hyundai’s manufacturing facility as it stands is -

• Zero wastage 100 % water recirculation facility using recirculated water and rainwater harvesting systems

• 85 % energy utilization from renewable sources to be achieved in 2021 

• 33 % of the physical expanse of the factory is under green cover

• Nearly 14% of the cars manufactured at the plant are dispatched by eco-friendly railway route which drastically cuts down on emissions and carbon footprint. 

• Smart Factory houses over 650 4th Generation robots, a perfect example of deploying Industry 4.0. 

• Utilization of AI in robotics automation for car manufacturing

• Highest output in a single Month – 71 000 in December 2020

As the foremost Smart Mobility Solutions Provider, Hyundai will focus on transformation that exceeds the evolving customer expectations. With the emergence of new age buyers and millennial customers, Hyundai is introducing products that match the aspirations of younger, discerning and advanced Indian customers. Hyundai will continue to drive excellence across its portfolio of products and services ensuring Hyundai Car owners enjoy quality time.