AESL Partners With Airtel DTH; Organizes Largest Counselling Session For NEET In India On Aakash Paathshala

* Aakash Paathshala will be conducting live counselling Series on NEET for Airtel DTH subscribers in response to popular demand and phenomenal response to the first 2 episodes on career counselling & JEE counselling

Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), the national leader in test preparatory services in partnership with Airtel DTH has recently launched the Aakash Paathshala - A Counselling series exclusively for Airtel DTH subscribers. The upcoming episode on ‘How to Score 600+ in NEET’, to be aired this Sunday, 28th February is poised to address key issues regarding the preparation for NEET. 

After the phenomenal success of the first two episodes of Aakash Paathshala, aired on February 14 and 21, on popular demand of the students, the Aakash Paathshala ‘Gurus’ are all set to help students prepare and plan their strategy for the highly competitive NEET UG (National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test) for admission into MBBS/BDS and other undergraduate medical courses in approved/recognized Medical/ Dental Colleges/ Institutes in India.   

Highlights of the Episode on NEET to be Aired on 28th February 

Format of the Paper - marking scheme, important subjects/ topics 

Scoring 600+ Do I have it in me? 

Is preparing from NCERT textbooks sufficient? 

How should I choose a college? What rank should I aim for? 

How can I improve on my weak subject? 

Commenting on the value that these sessions bring to a student’s life, Mr Narasimha Jayakumar, CEO, Aakash Edutech Pvt Ltd (AEPL) said, “The response to ‘Aakash Paathshala’ has been very encouraging so far. The series has generated massive viewership & excitement among students and parents. We see a very healthy engagement of students via comments and chats and it clearly outlines the need for ‘Counsellors’ and experts who can guide these students as they work their way towards their dream careers”. 

Through Aakash Paathshala, the panel experts from Aakash Institute will guide students with the important subject matters, what career opportunities students should explore post completion of Class X depending on their strengths, ways to improve time management and identifying practices to secure higher scores in competitive exams. The series will also underline the pivotal role of parents in helping students identify the right career and how they can be a prime source of inspiration and encouragement for the students who are in a sensitive stage owing to the high level competition across the world. 

Subscribers of Airtel DTH can watch Aakash Pathshaala on Aakash EduTV - channel #467 for JEE and #478 for JEE.  

The Aakash Paathshala episodes will also be streamed live on the official YouTube channel of Aakash Digital - https://www.youtube.com/aakashdigital. 

About Aakash EduTv 

Aakash EduTV is India’s first dedicated TV channel for Medical and Engineering entrance exams preparation. Launched by Airtel Digital in collaboration with Aakash Educational Services Limited, Aakash EduTV is available exclusively on Airtel Digital TV and provides high quality coaching sessions to students across India who are preparing for entrance exams such as JEE/Advanced and NEET. Best-in-class faculty of Aakash will teach the students through LIVE interactive classes and help students learn key concepts and solve problems. 

Starting at just Rs 8.23/ day, Aakash EduTv - JEE and Foundation is available on Airtel DTH Channel No. 467 and Aakash EduTv - NEET is available on Airtel DTH Channel No. 478. 

About Aakash Edutech Pvt. Ltd. 

Aakash EduTech Private Limited(AEPL) is a leading online learning platform that caters to the K12 segment and also offers comprehensive online test preparation services for students preparing for Medical and Engineering Entrance Examinations. A subsidiary of the prestigious AESL group (Aakash Educational Services Limited), AEPL comprises two distinct divisions namely, Aakash Digital and Meritnation.  

Aakash Digital powerfully leverages the over 30 years of Aakash academic legacy and discipline to bring to the students an edu-tech platform that helps them prepare for JEE, NEET and other competitive exams online by bringing quality coaching, similar to that being offered in Aakash classroom, to their laptops, desktops, tablets and mobiles. Aakashdigital.com offers powerful online courses for JEE, NEET and Foundation (Class 8-10) to help students prepare for these competitive exams from the comfort of their homes..

Sunteck Realty Limited Rating Affirmed ‘AA-’ With The Outlook Upgraded To ‘Positive’

Sunteck Realty Limited, Mumbai’s premium real estate developer announced its long-term issuer rating affirmation of ‘AA-’ with the outlook upgraded to ‘Positive’ by India Ratings & Research (Fitch Group). The short term issuer rating has been affirmed “A1+”. 

The upgrade in Outlook reflects the credit rating agency’s expectation of an improvement in the business profile of Sunteck due to acceleration in the already consolidating residential real estate market, with the pandemic-related disruptions having constrained demand and supply from unorganised real estate developers. The outlook upgrade is also supported by the resilient operating performance of Sunteck despite the pandemic. The price point diversity across completed, ongoing and new project launches, prudent financial policies, strong credit metrics and cashflow visibility also provided conviction to the outlook upgrade.  

Commenting on the same, Mr. Kamal Khetan, Chairman and Managing Director, Sunteck Realty Ltd. said: “This affirmation of ‘AA-’ credit rating with upgrade in outlook to ‘Positive’ by India Ratings is a reflection of our continued focus on prudent cash flow management along with financial discipline. Strong operating cash flows has aided us in the further reduction of our already negligible debt. We intend to maintain this discipline going forward and focus on financial flexibility to grow our business. Our ongoing focus on execution driven by our strong in-house construction capabilities will continue to generate sustained cash flows for us. The availability of inventory across our brands and pricing spectrum creates flexibility to offer projects based on needs of various customer segments. With a strong uptick on sales front across our portfolio of projects, especially in the mid-income and aspirational segments, we remain confident of emerging as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the ongoing consolidation in the industry basis our balance sheet strength, established track record and operational cash flow visibility.” 

About Sunteck Realty 

Sunteck Realty Limited (SRL) is one of the fastest growing Mumbai-based luxury real estate development companies. SRL has an immaculate track record of having one of the lowest net Debt/Equity ratios, financial prudency and sustainable growth. The company focuses on a city centric development portfolio of about 38 million square feet spread across 27 projects. Sunteck Realty has differentiated its projects under five brands - ‘Signature’: Uber luxury residences, ‘Signia’: Ultra luxury residences, ‘Sunteck City’: Premium luxury residences, ‘Sunteck World’: Aspirational luxury residences, ‘Sunteck’: Commercial & Retail developments. The company has been a trendsetter in creating iconic destinations such as the flagship project, Signature Island at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Sunteck City in Oshiwara District Centre (ODC), Goregaon and SunteckWorld at Naigaon - the largest township of MMR’s western Suburbs. 

Pine Labs Introduces AllTap App To Empower Small Merchants Across Indian Market

* Offers ‘tap on phone’ contactless payment acceptance for India certified by PCI SSC, RuPay, Visa, Mastercard and Amex

Pine Labs, a leading merchant commerce platform in Asia, today launched AllTap, a feature-rich app that can significantly accelerate digital payments adoption in India. Pine Labs AllTap is a revolutionary new app for small merchants to immediately start accepting digital payments on their NFC-enabled smartphone without the need of any additional hardware. The ‘tap and pay’ feature within the app is secure and is certified by PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), RuPay, Visa, Mastercard and Amex.

While the ongoing pandemic propelled the adoption of digital payments in India, a large and critical segment of small entrepreneurs are still untouched by digitization. Pine Labs AllTap addresses this key segment especially small merchants, home entrepreneurs, street vendors, hawkers, cab drivers, and others who are not ready to invest in a traditional point-of-sale (PoS) terminal to accept digital payments.

Commenting on the launch, B. Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs said, “We heard from small merchants, taxi drivers, self-employed individuals, tuition-givers, and several other solopreneurs, who wanted a simple digital payments acceptance solution. We are proud to unveil AllTap in response to their needs. AllTap comes with a cutting-edge contactless payments technology and requires no additional hardware for merchants to start accepting digital payments. Their NFC-enabled smartphone is now a payments acceptance device. Pine Labs AllTap has tremendous potential to bridge the digital divide not only in India but also in other markets. We are excited to introduce this pioneering app in the market today.”

Sanjeev Kumar, CTO, Pine Labs said, “With AllTap, we are offering merchants a robust PCI SSC-compliant Contactless Payments on COTS (CPoC) solution. This ensures all tap and pay transactions are fully secure. Our PCI SSC-CPoC listing underwent an extensive audit and certification from PCI SSC and leading networks Visa, RuPay, Mastercard, and Amex.”

Using the Pine Labs AllTap, merchants can convert their NFC-enabled smartphone into a payment acceptance device in minutes and avail a host of additional features such as converting a transaction into Pay Later EMIs to increase sales. AllTap is powered by Pine Labs’ robust payment infrastructure which is already trusted by over 150,000 merchants. 

Pine Labs AllTap addresses several pain points of small merchants. Merchant can now switch to contactless digital payment, accept digital payments acceptance during door-step delivery, reduce the checkout time delays through quick tap-and-go payments.

The app requires little documentation for the digital onboarding of merchants, making it a quick to download and use solution. Pine Labs AllTap app is available on Google Play Store and can be downloaded from here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pinelabs.epos

About Pine Labs

One of Asia’s leading merchant commerce platforms, Pine Labs serves prominent large, mid-sized and small merchants across Asia and the Middle East. The company’s unique cloud-based platform enables it to offer a wide range of payment acceptance and merchant commerce solutions including enterprise automation solutions such as inventory management and customer relationship management. Its stored value platform includes issuing, processing, and distributing digital gift cards for corporate customers around the world. Incorporated in Singapore, Pine Labs’ key investors include Actis Capital, Mastercard, PayPal, Sequoia India, and Temasek. 

SIDBI Joins Hands With Social Alpha To Set Up Swavalamban Divyangjan Assistive Tech Market Access Fund

First ever inclusion fund in the Assistive Technology sector to promote innovation and reduce out-of-pocket expenditure for persons with disabilities; Each Social Alpha incubated startup will get access to up to Rs 20 lakh grant Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the Principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has joined hands with Social Alpha to set up the Swavalamban Divyangjan Assistive Tech Market Access (ATMA) fund, a first of its kind inclusion fund offering financial grant to Social Alpha-incubated startups working in the Assistive Technology sector.

Under this, each incubatee will have access to implementation support of up to Rs 20 lakh. The fund will finance upto 50% of product price for the initial users improving the access and reducing the out of pocket expenditure for procuring new technologies. 

Speaking about this partnership, Shri V. Satya Venkata Rao, Deputy Managing Director of SIDBI said, “MSMEs and the development sector are the worst impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking cognizance, Government, through AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, has taken measures to boost the MSME sector to be instrumental in the economic revival of the country. With SIDBI’s vast experience in catering to MSMEs and operating various funds, developing a Social Impact fund i.e., Swavalamban Divyangjan ATMA Fund comes as an opportunity to be part of this mission.” 

Shri Manoj Kumar, CEO and co-founder, Social Alpha, said: “Creating new markets in Assistive Technologies has been a big challenge and requires significant investment in ecosystem development. ATMA fund heralds a new era for the Assistive Technology sector by enabling early adoption of innovative solutions. We believe that the reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure will catalyse demand, which is essential for the long-term sustainability and growth of entrepreneurial risk taking in this sector. We are happy to partner with SIDBI as its support can help scaling this fund to include pan-India incubators while offering a much-needed boost to this sector’s research and development efforts.” 

Assistive Technologies are an emerging market opportunity in India. Social Alpha has been playing a pioneering role in market creation through its technology incubation, venture acceleration and seed capital programmes. In addition to providing access to risk capital, Social Alpha has been building a network of clinical partners and NGOs to support the innovative startups in their lab to market journey.

The startups will be able to apply for Social Alpha incubation throughout the year. Applying start-ups will go through a rigorous selection process. Social Alpha will identify the Assistive Technologies that need support and evaluate the business plan. The incubatees will also be eligible for Social Alpha follow-on investment, subject to further due diligence. 

In India, there are anywhere between 40 to 80 million persons-with-disabilities (PWDs)— i.e.., one in twelve households has a family member with a disability. However, due to low literacy levels, social stigma and lack of opportunities, people with disabilities remain the most excluded members of society. Many children with disabilities stay out of school, disabled adults are likely to be unemployed, families with a disabled member tend to be economically weaker, and the ageing population puts a lot financial stress at both the household and national levels.

Though need for Assistive Technologies is well established, India lacks a vibrant market for disruptive Assistive Technologies solutions that can uplift people with disabilities. This is because the Assistive Technologies industry’s value chain is broken; distribution, sales and service mechanisms are poorly established, and, in many cases, non-existent. The disabled population is highly fragmented across the nation, and access is restricted due to a lack of formalized market channels. Moreover, the gap between need and affordability is huge, thus making it extremely difficult for persons with disabilities to access the latest innovations.  

The ATMA fund will be an instrument to improve both the quality and accessibility of newer Assistive Technology products trying to enter the market. It can inspire a radical rethinking of the disability sector.. 

Doctors Successfully Performed “Awake Brain Surgery” On 36 Years Old Patient At Fortis Hospital

* Awake brain surgery is a neuro surgical technique that is performed while the patient is awake to avoid brain damage

A 36-year-old patient suffering from motor area tumor successfully underwent Awake brain surgery at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road. The team of doctors led by Dr Satish Satyanarayana – Additional Director- Neuro Surgery along with Dr Simha-Senior Anaesthetist at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road.

Awake Brain Surgery or Awake Craniotomy is a surgical technique that enables surgeons to avoid injury to critical regions of the brain during surgery and are helpful in cases where cortical mapping or continuous monitoring of neurological functions are expected to improve outcomes.

The patient was presented with a history of focal seizure of right upper and lower limbs a year ago followed by a second episode of seizure two months later. He started witnessing recurrent seizures coupled with loss of consciousness for about 5minutes. Post thorough diagnosis at Fortis Hospitals, it was found that the size of lesion has increased in the brain, hence he was advised surgical management.

Dr Satish Satyanarayana – Additional Director- Neuro Surgery at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, explains, “The size of the tumor was found to have 2.14*2.51*1.79cm with perilesional edema, therefore we recommended him to undergo neuro navigation guided left posterior frontal navigation guided, awake craniotomy with neuro monitoring for micro neurosurgical excision of the intrinsic brain tumor in motor cortex by 3D Zeiss operative microscope and intraop  fluoresein imaging for safe surgery.

Normally, brain tumors are operated on patients under general anaesthesia which facilitates patients not be aware and cooperate for the procedure. However, for certain tumors in or near vicinity of vital brain regions like Motor or speech area, the safety of surgery lies in patient being able to be monitored in real time by the neuro anaesthesiologist Dr Simha-Senior Anaesthetist. We used cutting edge other supports like 3D neuronavigation mapping out and avoided major pathways vital for functioning as well as intraop tumor fluorescence which highlighted tumor and differentiated it from neural structures. With the help of this technique, the surgery became extremely safe and we had a perfect neurological outcome.

Initially, the patient was very apprehensive, however, after several rounds of counselling and briefing session with doctors, he agreed to undergo surgery and was very cooperative during the procedure. Thus we were able to perform all the required tasks perfectly and ended up with zero deficits despite tumor being located exactly in the motor strip.”, he added.

About Fortis Healthcare

Fortis Healthcare Limited – an IHH Healthcare Group Company – is a leading integrated healthcare services provider in India. It is one of the largest healthcare organisations in the country with 36 healthcare facilities (including projects under development), 4000 operational beds and over 400 diagnostics centres (including JVs). Fortis is present in India, United Arab Emirates (UAE) & Sri Lanka. The Company is listed on the BSE Ltd and National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India. It draws strength from its partnership with global major and parent company, IHH, to build upon its culture of world-class patient care and superlative clinical excellence. Fortis employs 23,000 people (including SRL) who share its vision of becoming the world’s most trusted healthcare network. Fortis offers a full spectrum of integrated healthcare services ranging from clinics to quaternary care facilities and a wide range of ancillary services.

TSIA And CSS Corp Co-Author Report On Outsourcing Trends In 2021

* The report highlights two major trends- increase in outsourcing contracts and service providers creating sophisticated digital capabilities to service customers 

CSS Corp, a new-age IT services and technology support company in association with The Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), has released a co-authored report named ‘2021 Trends in Outsourcing’. The report uncovers two major 2021 trends in outsourcing- increase in outsourcing contracts and service providers creating sophisticated digital capabilities’ businesses to meet the needs of enterprise customers.

The first key trend predicts an increase in outsourcing contracts this year, as many companies were grappling with their business continuity plan due to several reasons like lack of infrastructure and inability to transition to 100% work-at-home model. The second key trend focuses on how service providers have begun creating separate business units to make digital capabilities easily available to meet the requirements of large enterprise customers. Leading service providers have made great advances in sophisticated digital capabilities, including artificial intelligence and robotic process automation. This has led them to identify opportunities to effectively scale operations and accelerate development of digital expertise in support functions across enterprise customers.

The report highlights the trends and patterns that are going to be mainstream in support outsourcing in 2021 and how enterprises can leverage the right digital support partner. It showcases how the outsourcing value proposition has evolved in areas such as near-shore outsourcing, outsourcing of non-traditional functions like sales that form a significant portion of costs in XaaS companies and the rise of outcome-based commercial models. It also talks about how outsourcing can enable organizations to expand into new geographies. The pandemic has ushered in an era of work-from-anywhere which has further dwindled location dependencies and provided a fillip to remote operations.

John Ragsdale, Distinguished Vice President, Technology Research, TSIA, said, “Technology companies are increasingly forming strategic relationships with outsourcers to not only help scale support operations cost-effectively and guarantee a high-quality customer experience, but also to accelerate digital transformation. 2021 will see this trend amplify further and service providers like CSS Corp are well placed to emerge as strong outsourcing partners for technology organizations.”

“The Covid-19 crisis has emphasized the need to adopt digital technologies to build agility and resilience in the organization’s operations. Technology service providers like CSS Corp, have deep industry expertise in enabling business transformation for its customers and driving impact by blending human ingenuity with cutting-edge intelligent technology tools. As organizations look to strategize in a post-Covid business environment, it will be critical for them to strengthen their core capabilities while partnering with apt service providers to help them in their digital journeys, driving innovation and creating better experiences for customers.” said Sunil Mittal, Executive Vice President, CSS Corp.

Prioritizing technology innovation in response to a rapidly changing world has never been more important. The ‘2021 Trends in Outsourcing’ report is a useful tool for companies wanting to rapidly accelerate their digital automation journey with insights on effectively partnering with technology service providers to leverage their full potential.

About CSS Corp

CSS Corp is a new-age IT services and technology support company that harnesses the power of AI, automation, analytics, cloud, and digital to address customer needs. The company partners with leading enterprises to help realize their strategic business outcomes. Its team of 8,000+ technology and business services professionals across 18 global locations is passionate about helping customers differentiate and succeed.

About TSIA

The Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) is the world's leading research organization dedicated to helping technology companies achieve profitable growth and solve their top business challenges. Services, Sales, Product, and Channel organizations at technology companies large and small look to TSIA for world-class business frameworks, best practices based on real-world results, detailed performance benchmarking, and exceptional peer networking opportunities. TSIA's membership community consists of over 40,000 executives from 96 countries and represents 80% of the Fortune 100 technology companies.

Takeda Launches Mobile Application To Support Patient For Treatment Of Genetic Diseases

* The XPERT EASE App will support HCPs with dose calculation for the treatment of patients with Lysosomal Storage Disorders

Takeda India, part of the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a global values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader, launched the 'XPERT EASE' application. The application is developed for the exclusive use of healthcare professionals to addressawareness-related challenges and enable an efficient digital ecosystem for disease updates and dose calculation for improved management of patients with rare lysosomal storage disorders.

Doctors' screening, diagnosis, and treatment of genetic diseases have often been identified as challenging, including advising the dosage of medicines specific to patients' individual needs. The XPERT EASE is designed to keep in mind such challenges while managing lysosomal storage disorders.

On the occasion of the launch, Dr. Sandeep Arora, Medical Affairs Head- Takeda India, said, "At Takeda, we are keen to enable faster diagnosis and access of patients to our medicines and innovative therapies. The XPERT EASE application enables healthcare professionals to raise suspicion index, leading to early diagnosis and better disease management. As we move forward in our commitment to patients and HCPs, we seek to drive collaborations across the country in ensuring that patients benefit from our pioneering efforts."

XPERT EASE safeguards dosage accuracy and reduces the incidence of error, thereby helping physicians develop personalized dosing regimens tailored to their patients' specific needs diagnosed with Lysosomal Storage Disorders. Healthcare professionals can access the applications through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store..