JK Tyre Rating Upgrade By CARE Ratings In The Indian Market

CARE Ratings has upgraded JK Tyre & Industries Limited’s (JKTIL) Long-Term Issuer Rating to ‘CARE A/ Stable’ from ‘CARE A- / Stable’. The rating agency has also upgraded the rating of its domestic subsidiary; Cavendish Industries Ltd. (CIL) to ‘CARE A- (CE)’ / Stable from ‘CARE BBB (CE) / Stable’

The rating upgrade reflects, JKTIL better than envisaged operating performance in FY21 on the strength of strong demand from replacement, OEM and export markets, higher operating efficiencies, leaner cost structure and focus on better working capital management, which has resulted in improved profitability and higher cash accruals leading to substantial reduction in debt. The Company has also resorted to aggressive marketing by expanding the dealer network and brand shops in the current financial year to cater to high rural and suburb demand.

The subsidiary of the Company; CIL has well aided in the strong operating performance on the domestic front and successfully turned around with highest ever revenues and profitability this year on the back of higher operating efficiencies resulting from positive demand drivers as mentioned aforesaid. 

This robust performance has triggered positive rating action for both the Companies; JKTIL and CIL.

The acquisition of Cavendish Industries Ltd. (CIL) by JK Tyre in the year 2016 was strategic in nature and well considered decision to increase the manufacturing capacities at a much lower investment cost and also to enter 2/3 wheeler tyre segment. CIL's presence is primarily in the domestic replacement market and has diverse product portfolio in the truck and bus (T&B) bias and radial tyres, two/three-wheeler (2/3W) tyres and non-truck bias tyre segments.

Bentley Systems Announces New Bentley Education Program To Infrastructure Careers

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, (Nasdaq: BSY), the infrastructure engineering software company, today announced the Bentley Education program, which encourages the development of future infrastructure professionals for careers in engineering, design, and architecture. The Bentley Education program is initially available in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Ireland, and Lithuania, with plans to expand to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, and India by mid-summer. The program’s student and educator entitlements allow no-cost learning licenses for Bentley infrastructure engineering applications and proven learnings through the new Bentley Education portal. Students and educators from around the globe can register on the Education portal and connect to infrastructure organizations and resources to prepare for and to recruit for infrastructure engineering careers. Bentley also announced the Future Infrastructure Star Challenge 2021.

The Bentley Education portal provides a single source for an on-demand, frictionless, and fun experience for students as they build and enhance their digital design skills. Students and educators have access to comprehensive resources, including:

insights from leading AEC professionals, sharing what the industry has to offer students and what skills are in high demand;

the latest news and emerging trends in architecture, engineering, and construction; and

firsthand perspective of current engineering students, mentors, and women in infrastructure engineering.

The program offers full access to learning licenses of over 40 of Bentley’s most popular applications used by infrastructure professionals around the globe, including ContextCapture, MicroStation, OpenRoads Designer, STAAD.Pro, and SYNCHRO. The portal can be accessed via https://education.bentley.com.

The Bentley Education program is open to students and educators at community colleges, technical institutes, polytechnics, universities, secondary schools, and homeschooled students. The program is designed to create world-class talent that can rise to the challenge of improving quality of life and positively changing the world using Bentley infrastructure engineering software, applications, and proven learnings. The Bentley Education program will also help students develop digital skills, which are critical for a qualified talent pipeline to support infrastructure growth and resilience worldwide.

The Bentley Education program uses a role-based learning approach, allowing future infrastructure professionals to focus on specific capabilities needed for specific professions. Students can go beyond mere product proficiency and develop a comprehensive understanding of skillsets required to excel in various roles in infrastructure engineering.

“With many nations and institutions committing to infrastructure and digital education initiatives as top priorities for a post-pandemic world, we are excited to launch this much-requested and responsive program now,” said Katriona Lord-Levins, chief success officer, Bentley Systems. “We want to inspire and encourage students to learn about infrastructure engineering as a possible career path, and to introduce these young minds to the vast opportunities that lie ahead, with infrastructure going digital.”

The Bentley Education portal also serves as a gateway for individual students or teams of two to submit their innovative concepts for Bentley’s Future Infrastructure Star Challenge 2021. The global competition is open to students from community colleges, polytechnics institutes, and universities. Students advancing in the Challenge, based on their ideas that improve quality of life, will work on modeling, simulation, and visualization to develop a design model. The winner of the Future Infrastructure Star Challenge will be announced during the Going Digital Awards at the Year in Infrastructure 2021 Conference.

The inaugural Future Infrastructure Star Challenge is divided into Stage 1 (Conceptualization),

and Stage 2 (Design and Visualization). In Stage 1 (Conceptualization), students are invited to submit their ideas for “a next big infrastructure project” in any of the following categories: road and rail, building and facilities, water and wastewater, cities and mapping, and power generation. While conceptualizing their idea, students should focus on an environmental challenge that affects or is affected by infrastructure development, consider applying the Internet of Things, and emphasize the project’s contribution to the world’s health and welfare.

The top 20 judged projects from Stage 1 (Conceptualization) will each win USD 500, with the top 10 projects moving on to Stage 2 (Design and Visualization). Here, each such entry may take advantage of opportunities to work with infrastructure professionals, and/or to attend masterclasses with Bentley experts, to bring their ideas to life using Bentley applications. In addition to being announced and introduced at the Year in Infrastructure 2021 Conference, the winner of the Future Infrastructure Star Challenge 2010 will receive a cash prize of USD 5,000 and recognition in Bentley’s 2021 Infrastructure Yearbook.

Vinayak Trivedi, vice president of Bentley Education, said, “We want to make the Bentley Education portal the place where students can go to learn about and become inspired to make infrastructure engineering their career choice. The goal of the program is to help students who are passionate about infrastructure to get a jump-start on a fulfilling career. The Future Infrastructure Star Challenge 2021 provides an opportunity for them to be creative and innovative in project designs for improving the quality of life and positively changing the world.”

‘Cov-Tech Ventilation System’, A Compact Ventilation System For PPE Suits Designed By Nihaal Singh Adarsh

It is a known fact that working in PPE suits for long hours is extremely uncomfortable, making it a challenge for frontline and healthcare workers. To fix their problem, Watt Technovations, Nihaal Singh Adarsh a student from K J Somaiya College of Engineering and incubated at riidl, Somaiya Vidyavihar University has designed ‘Cov-Tech Ventilation System’, a compact ventilation system for PPE suits. This product is designed specifically to act as an add-on component to the existing PPE suits to bring comfort to our front-line medical workers. Link: https://www.watttechnovations.com/

Nihaal Singh Adarsh, received the NIDHI Prayas grant of INR 10,00,000 from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for prototype development and product innovation with the help of riidl (Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory), a not-for-profit organization under Somaiya Trust, supported by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, Maharashtra State Innovation Society, Government of Maharashtra. The startup also received a support of INR 5,00,000 from New Venture Investment Program (a joint program conducted by riidl & K J Somaiya Institute of Management).

The device truly stands out from the rest and makes the medical workers' life easier. It is an innovation, designed specifically by combining technology with science to bring comfort to the people working during the Covid-19 pandemic. After conducting research, it was realized that such a product was either not economical for the average medical practitioner  or was simply not compact enough to be utilized on a daily basis. The ‘Cov-Tech Ventilation System’ tackles these issues by ensuring a compact, portable and user-friendly device to provide a ventilation system for PPE suits. Video Link: https://www.watttechnovations.com/videos

The sole purpose behind creating the 'Cov-Tech Ventilation System', is to bring comfort to the healthcare professionals working during the Covid-19 pandemic in a safe manner.The demographic that the product caters to is primarily doctors and independent medical practitioners who are currently working in environments of high risk and are quite uncomfortable due to the challenges of wearing a PPE kit for long hours.

Supported by Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE Lab India. Dassault Systèmes is among the Fortune 50 list of the largest software companies that develops software for 3D product design, simulation, manufacturing and more. It is supported by the NIDHI Prayas Program of the Department of Science and Technology. It is also supported by BIRAC and Maharashtra State Innovation Society.

Gaurang Shetty, Chief Innovation Catalyst, riidl said, “We encourage students to innovate. We provide a foster environment to help the innovator to make the best output. A team of teachers and supervisors support the startup and help them at every stage.” 

Capgemini Commits Rupees 50 Crore To Augment Medical Infrastructure In India

* Capgemini’s Social Response Unit (SRU) is partnering with State Government Authorities and UNICEF to provide critical COVID-19 care 

Capgemini has committed Rupees 50 Crore to augment the efforts of the central and state administrations in India towards fighting the second wave of COVID-19. This fund will be used to build COVID care ICU facilities, oxygen generation plants, other long-term medical infrastructure and provide relief operations.

As part of this effort, Capgemini is in discussions with various State government authorities to set up healthcare facilities across those cities where Capgemini has its presence. This contribution will be in addition to the Capgemini CSR statutory fund in India.

“India is at the heart of what we do in Capgemini, and the health and safety of our employees and the communities we live in, remains our top priority. This second wave of the COVID pandemic in India has been particularly challenging, and we want to ensure all our support to fight this pandemic and come out stronger. At this critical time, we are committed to accelerate medical assistance in India through the Capgemini Social Response Unit. This fund will help to enhance the efforts of the Central and State authorities in building long-term medical infrastructure in India,” said Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini.

In addition, Capgemini is also contributing Rupees 5 Crores to UNICEF to provide immediate support across India for critical COVID response care, by setting up 3 oxygen generation plants and RT PCR testing machines to augment the government efforts to fight against COVID-19.

“At Capgemini, we are fully committed to providing timely medical, financial, and emotional support to all our team members and their dependents during these unprecedented times. As we continue to support our colleagues, we are also striving to extend help to the communities we live in by providing access to critical care, which is required immediately for the fight against COVID-19 as well as medical needs in the coming years,” said Ashwin Yardi, CEO of Capgemini in India.

During 2020, in line with Capgemini’s social commitment, Capgemini’s Social Response Unit (SRU) provided 65 fully equipped ICU beds to three BMC hospitals in Mumbai, as well as 100 Oxygen Concentrators (OC) and 65 High Flow Nasal Cannulas (HFNC) to 15 government hospitals across Bengaluru. These ICU beds, which are fully equipped with ventilators, ECG monitors, and other critical ICU patient-monitoring devices, are currently being used to treat patients critically affected by COVID-19.

About Capgemini

Capgemini is a global leader in partnering with companies to transform and manage their business by harnessing the power of technology. The Group is guided everyday by its purpose of unleashing human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future. It is a responsible and diverse organization of 270,000 team members in nearly 50 countries. With its strong 50 year heritage and deep industry expertise, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to address the entire breadth of their business needs, from strategy and design to operations, fuelled by the fast evolving and innovative world of cloud, data, AI, connectivity, software, digital engineering and platforms. The Group reported in 2020 global revenues of €16 billion.

Capgemini in India comprises over 125,000 team members working across 13 locations: Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Salem and Tiruchirappalli. 

Cascade Family Learning Services Offers Montessori Flexi Education Learning Pods

 * A specially designed program which ensures safety, mental health and well-being of children during Covid times

Cascade Family Learning Services (CFLS), a unique educational ecosystem, today announced the introduction of its Montessori Flexi education learning pods with an intention to empower children, self-direct their learning. Families cooperate to provide the needed facilities-academic and non-academic and come together to form these pods under the guidance of the CFLS team. Keeping the current Covid situation in mind, CFLS has specially designed this program which not only ensures safety, mental health and well-being of children, but also explores home based learning using classroom materials, yearlong parent education on stress-free parenting and supporting students at home.

This program caters to children in the age group of 1 to 18 years. Some of the key elements of the program:

¥ The Toddler Community ( 14 – 36 months of age)

Two or more adults to facilitate their daily routine. The main focus will be on personal hygiene, independent dressing and undressing skills and introduce toileting and food prep appropriate for that age. Also, it provides opportunities to contribute on care of environment, in both indoor and outdoor areas, designed to help the child refine skills based on real-life activities.

¥ Casa or Primary Program (2½–6 years)

This program encourages them to explore, discover and to collaborate with peers. It also inspires self-directed learning, promotes self-confidence, independent thought and action, critical thinking while fostering social-emotional and intellectual growth. Uninterrupted blocks of work time (typically 3 hours in length) allows children to work at their own pace and fully immerse themselves in an activity with undivided attention. This cycle respects individual variations in the learning process, facilitates the development of coordination, concentration, observation, peer interaction, independence and a sense of order while facilitating the child’s assimilation of information.

¥ Elementary program (6–12 years)

This is an individually paced curriculum that challenges children academically and safeguards their well-being and sense of self. Engaging as contributing members of a respectful community, they learn to question, think critically and take responsibility for their own learning skills that would support them in later education and in life.

¥ Adolescent program (12–18 years)

This adolescent program at Cascade is designed to provide a number of socially and culturally relevant discussions for their growing personality that hinges on moral development, while preparing them to live as an adult in the society. Field experiences in two associated rural centres offer deep impressions and systematic understanding of human needs vs earth ethics, combined with a call for action.

Admission of children is based on interviews and discussions with families, besides home visits, to recommend early head-start into screen free experiential learning at home.

Speaking on the flexi program, Ms. Vidya Shankar, Founder, Mentor, Adolescent and certified Montessori Coach and Sports Guide said, “We are proud to be the FIRST educational institution to introduce this unique and flexi program with utmost importance given to the parent-children-guide relationship. We strongly believe parents and guides are the main pillars for the child to construct early impressions on education and their pleasant collaboration in early childhood setting is critically important to the overall development of the child”.

She added, “We have supportive evidence from our extensive research on the impact of educating the child using this unique and collaborative approach. Our research findings have aided us to polish the unique path-breaking tool we developed, a few years ago, that would measure the Child Rights Compliance in schools. The CRCI Index tool is copyrighted and is expected to take-off soon”.

Schools that are keen to certify themselves with the CRCI index on entitlement of rights for children in their school, can apply to our parent organisation Relief Foundation. This tool would also enable parents to educate themselves on the safety and well-being of children if they are admitted into a school with higher order of compliance.

Many parents are currently facing a range of concerns in this pandemic situation, especially lack of continuity in their child’s education and progress, due to the sudden shift from the traditional face-to-face learning to online learning. CFLS has re-calibrated its learning program to address the core issues that have resulted from the pandemic, with counselling and support for parents and children to improve familial relationships while maximising their learning and fear-free, caution-laced gleaning of knowledge from the world happenings.

About Cascade Family Learning Services

CASCADE FLS was started by its 23 year old parent organisation Relief Foundation in 2010, aims to empower families into collaborative learning by offering collective resources in a common space, priming up parents to do Montessori courses and enter the classrooms as guides under the leadership of Ms. Vidya Shankar.

Families have stayed in as a community, helping through the Covid times and providing excellent support online for older students and offline, scheduling with the guides. It is a refreshing and enriching education place for families and children, to learn and grow together!

Koo Launches “Talk To Type” Feature For The Indian Languages

* Becomes First Social Media Platform in the World to launch “Talk to Type” Feature

Koo announces the launch of what they call the Magic “Talk to Type” feature. Anybody who wants to share their thoughts can now do so easily without having to type. They can speak their thoughts out loud and the words will show up magically on the screen. All at the click of a button and without using a keyboard. This will happen in all the Indian languages Koo is currently available in. It’s touted to be the easiest way to share thoughts with people in a native Indian language.

Koo is the first social media platform in the world that is using this “Talk to Type” feature, that too in Indian regional languages, apart from English. This will enable regional language creation in the easiest way possible for millions of Koo users. Many users who are uncomfortable using the keyboard will be enabled and empowered with such a feature.

Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder, Koo said “This “Talk to Type” feature is magical and takes creation for regional language creators to the next level. Users don’t have to use the keyboard anymore and type out lengthy thoughts. India language speakers can now speak their mind and the words will show up on the screen magically! For those who found it difficult to type in local languages, this feature removes all that pain. We will keep adding value to Indians by enabling the easiest localized forms of expression and present their thoughts to India in a seamless way.”

Mayank Bidawatka, Co-founder, Koo said “Our mission at Koo is to connect India and enable a billion Indian voices to express themselves freely in their mother tongue. We will keep simplifying expression for anybody who wants to connect with their audiences. We are very excited to launch the “Talk to Type” feature that enables people to create without typing. All they have to do is hit a button and speak into their phone and the words will magically show up on the screen. It can’t get easier than this! We are first social platform in the world to launch such a feature. You won’t find this on Facebook, Twitter or any other global platform.”

B-Town Celebs Pick New-Age Mobile Platform ‘Celebfie’ As Their Go-To-App For Their Digital Footprint

Amidst the ongoing second wave of pandemic, several Bollywood and Television biggies are doing their bit to help their fans keep entertained and pass their time in a  positive midframe this lockdown. From renowned actors like Sharad Kelkar, Shakti Kapoor, Bhagyashree, Mahima Chaudhary to Rahul Dev and others have been utilising their idle time to interact and connect with their fans directly and more meaningfully through this new-age mobile platform called “Celebfie”.

Celebfie is a marketplace where fans and brands can seamlessly connect with their choicest celebrities from different verticals like Bollywood, Music, TV, Sports and even Authors and Chefs for any requests by just a click on the mobile app. As of now, Celebfie is close to having 300+ carefully chosen celebrities to be part of their “500 premium celeb club”, with many more exciting regional, national and even international celebrity names in the pipeline.

The celebrities have been curating exclusive content for fans on their ‘Celebfie Micro Channels’, which fans and brands can subscribe to for not just the content, but to directly interact with the celebrity and much more. Very soon to release among various innovative and very interesting features coming on Celebfie a AI and ML enabled App, is ‘Celebfie Live’ where fans can request for live video calls, watch live celebrity events & attend live masterclasses and can also enjoy shopping via an experiential ‘C-commerce’ offering where the celebrities will be promoting their merchandise, or the products they use through their special-edition boutiques on the platform.

“I am very happy to join this new platform Celebfie and to be receiving such a warm welcome from the audience. The platform is doing a great job by letting celebrities on board to showcase their creative content and building strong bonds with the fans,” Shakti Kapoor said.

Meanwhile, fitness freak Vindu Dara Singh is thrilled with the kind of response he has been getting on Celebfie. The actor said, “I always wanted to be a part of a platform that actually bridges the gap between celebs and their fans. And guess what, I have got my hands on Celebfie, a perfect blend of all. The kind of options they provide including brand endorsements, promotional video bytes, etc. is an added advantage.”

“We are enabling our Celebrity partners to curate more meaningful, entertaining and exclusive content for their fans and will also be digitally promoting multiple artists who had to compulsively slowdown in these tough times. This pandemic has shown us that when every industry may be forced to slow down, digital has not only survived but thrived, so adapting to this new way of doing business is extremely beneficial, this for sure is the best and a must way forward,” said Raminder Singh, Founder & CEO- Celebfie.

Meanwhile, there is a long list of TV celebs too who have already joined the platform and have motivated a lot of their fans to join Celebfie. Sharad Malhotra, Helly Shah, Shubhangi Atre, Kishwer Merchant, Shekhar Suman, Natasha Suri, Sonu Kakkar, Sana Saeed, Shazahn Padamsee,  Raju Srivastava and Apara Mehta among others.

The fans can now subscribe to directly get access to exclusive BTS, unknown or lesser known insides of their favourite celebs only on Celebfie Micro Channel. To send brand video requests and custom fan requests to your favourite celebrity download the Celebfie App. https://www.celebfie.com/

About Celebfie: Celebfie is a new-age celebrity-fan engagement platform that enables fans and brands to have direct access to the celebrities and their exclusive content. Just by clicking on ‘Book a Celebfie’ fans and brands can now request for customised video messages, social media interactions or private event bookings, and for brands they can put in a request for social media collaborations, promotional video bites, brand endorsements or appearances at events amongst other things.