CO₂ Technology Competes As One Of The Top Three Inventions

* Christoph Gürtler and Prof. Walter Leitner nominated in the Industry category

* CO2 made commercially viable as a raw material

* Technology forms the basis for a large number of marketable products

Covestro's CO2 technology continues to write its success story. The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced the nomination of the two German chemists, Dr. Christoph Gürtler (Covestro AG) and Prof. Walter Leitner (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion and RWTH Aachen University), as finalists in the "Industry" category of the 2021 European Inventor Award for their role in developing new technology for using carbon dioxide (CO₂). This technology enables the harmful climate gas CO2 to be used as a valuable raw material for sustainable plastics. Their process deploys chemical catalysts to drive reactions between CO2 and conventional raw material. This process creates so-called polymers in a more sustainable and economically viable way. CO2 is firmly incorporated in the process.

"This nomination is an important confirmation of our efforts towards making chemistry more sustainable. It shows how crucial patents are for the development process of technology," says Christoph Gürtler, who is responsible for the development of new processes and products at Covestro. "It is a tremendous honor to be part of the award ceremony on behalf of the interdisciplinary team from product research, process development, marketing, and the many other minds driving our invention."

Successful cooperation between industry and science

"The plastics industry can make a significant contribution to combating climate change by switching to greenhouse gas-neutral production. To achieve this, we need to break away from petroleum and use alternative raw materials such as CO2", says Dr. Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro. "The nomination for the European Inventor Award is an endorsement of our company as a pioneer in this field. I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the many colleagues, including those at our partners, who contributed to the development of the innovative CO2 technology – a genuine sustainability highlight."

The two nominees, Gürtler and Leitner, have played a significant role in the development and market launch of the platform technology, which originated in the collaboration between application-oriented science and the research-oriented industry. Their involvement in a large number of patents related to the use of CO2 is proof of this: together, the two hold over 100 patents on CO2 technology.

Breakthrough in catalysis research yields success

Covestro and RWTH Aachen University founded the CAT Catalytic Center in 2007. "The scientific community has long had the desire to be able to use carbon dioxide as a supplier of carbon for plastics. Experts have been working on this issue for nearly half a century," explains Walter Leitner.

CO2 forms chemical compounds only with great difficulty. This is the problem that Christoph Gürtler and Walter Leitner's team had to solve.

The team combined industrial and academic expertise. A great deal of creativity, perseverance, and many experiments with catalysts finally culminated in success. The breakthrough was achieved by precisely controlling the reaction between CO2 and the petroleum-based propylene oxide in the presence of a customized catalyst system. "We collaborated closely to develop the right catalyst that led us to success," says Gürtler.

The resulting so-called polyol was introduced to the market by Covestro under the product name cardyon®. It is already being used to produce soft foam for mattresses, adhesives in sports floors, padding in shoes, and in-car interiors. Elastic textile fibers are currently on the threshold of market maturity. Research projects have successfully demonstrated that CO2 can also be deployed for insulating materials made of rigid foam and for surfactants, for example in detergents.

Contributing to resource conservation and the circular economy

The use of CO2 contributes significantly to the circular economy. Replacing conventional crude oil as a carbon source in part with the climate gas CO2 preserves resources. The carbon, in turn, remains in the cycle without being released into the atmosphere. Moreover, initial studies have also shown that this technology makes it possible to produce more recyclable plastics whose components can be more easily recycled. An all-around sustainable innovation.

Launched in 2006, the European Patent Office's Inventor Award distinguishes outstanding European inventors and teams and is one of the most prestigious awards of its kind. The award ceremony will take place online for the first time on June 17 and will be broadcast live on the Internet. Three teams are nominated in the Industry category.

About Covestro:

With sales of €10.7 billion in 2020, Covestro is one of the world's leading polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative, sustainable solutions for products used in many areas of everyday life. In doing so, Covestro is fully aligning itself to the Circular Economy. Its main customers are the automotive and transport industries, the construction industry, the furniture and wood processing industries, and the electrical, electronics, and household appliance industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, healthcare and the chemical industry itself. As of the end of 2020, Covestro produces at 33 sites worldwide and employs around 16,500 people (converted to full-time positions).

Acronis The Global Leader In Cyber Protection, Receives More Than $250M Investment At $2.5B Valuation

* Funding to accelerate growth, expand its portfolio of cyber protection products,

and enable service providers to serve their clients better

Acronis, the global leader in cyber protection, is pleased to announce that it has received more than $250 million funding round from CVC Capital Partners VII and other investors. Acronis will use the funds to further accelerate growth by expanding its unique portfolio of natively integrated cyber protection products. A significant portion of the investment will also be used to further enhance Acronis’ go-to-market initiatives by expanding its broad partner network – most notably, managed service providers (MSPs) – to help them better serve the cyber protection needs of their clients. The investment values the company at more than $2.5 billion.

“Acronis’ talented management and R&D teams have invested significant resources developing an innovative cloud-native ‘MSP in a box’ solution, with integrated backup, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, remote management, and workflow tools,” said Leif Lindbäck, Senior Managing Director of CVC Capital Partners. “Acronis provides mission-critical solutions to more than 10,000 MSPs and half a million small and medium businesses. CVC has a strong track record in cybersecurity and partnering up with successful entrepreneurs, and we are looking forward to teaming up with Serguei Beloussov and the Acronis team to accelerate the company’s growth.”

Acronis Cyber Protect is the first unified cybersecurity and data protection solution that is natively integrated, so service providers can operate these critical functions through a single pane of glass, delivering comprehensive cyber protection at a lower cost.

“With this additional funding, we will accelerate the development of our product portfolio and invest more in our partners’ success,” said Serguei “SB” Beloussov, founder and CEO of Acronis. “Our goal is to develop market-leading technology and help our partners grow their profits, while providing the best protection for their clients.”

Acronis will continue to invest in staff resources, expanding its global sales, partner account management and partner success teams and hiring new technical talent for its research and development centers in Bulgaria, Israel, and Singapore, as well as Switzerland and the United States.

Focus on partners

Focusing on its growing partner network is critical to the company’s strategy for rapid growth. In February, the company launched the #CyberFit Partner Program to support the development of cloud-focused resellers and service providers. In March, Acronis made available a new version of Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud – enabling partners to deliver comprehensive cyber protection for all workloads for little to no upfront cost. In April, Acronis introduced a new partner portal, providing easy access to content, tools, and training for partners.

With the new funding, Acronis will expand the support for cloud partners – providing them with additional sales and marketing resources, faster and localized technical support, dedicated partner success managers, and local data centers in 111 locations worldwide.

Phil Goodwin, Research Director, Cloud Data Management for Protection for IDC notes that the investment from CVC will add to the momentum behind cyber protection. “Acronis has been at the forefront of the cyber protection movement, establishing itself as a pioneer in solutions that unify advanced cybersecurity with innovative data protection. By continuing to expand their technical capabilities and partner network, the value they bring to the market will only increase.”

Service providers who are interested in learning more about how they can benefit from Acronis’ partner-focused approach are encouraged to visit https://www.acronis.com/en-us/partners/.

About Acronis

Acronis unifies data protection and cybersecurity to deliver integrated, automated cyber protection that solves the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) challenges of the modern digital world. With flexible deployment models that fit the demands of service providers and IT professionals, Acronis provides superior cyber protection for data, applications, and systems with innovative next-generation antivirus, backup, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection management solutions. With award-winning AI-based antimalware and blockchain-based data authentication technologies, Acronis protects any environment – from cloud to hybrid to on-premises – at a low and predictable cost.

Founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008, Acronis now has more than 1,600 employees in 33 locations in 18 countries. Its solutions are trusted by more than 5.5 million home users and 500,000 companies, including 100% of the Fortune 1000, and top-tier professional sports teams. Acronis products are available through 50,000 partners and service providers in over 150 countries in more than 40 languages.

About CVC Capital Partners

CVC is a leading private equity and investment advisory firm with a network of 23 offices throughout Europe, Asia and the US, with approximately US$118 billion of assets under management. Since its founding in 1981, CVC has secured commitments in excess of US$160 billion from some of the world's leading institutional investors across its private equity and credit strategies. Funds managed or advised by CVC are invested in over 90 companies worldwide, which have combined annual sales of approximately US$100 billion and employ more than 450,000 people.

MyCaptain Announces Appointment Of Three New VP's To The Senior Management Team

MyCaptain, an India-based online learning platform has announced today the appointment of three new members to the company’s senior leadership team.

Mr Ajay Dev Sigh, Mr T Shrikanth & Mr Gopal Sharma has recruited to help scale customer Acquisition across channels and strengthen the Technology Bedrock. Together they bring 70 years of experience and will help MyCaptain foray into pro-courses and further grow the courses which they have. 

"We are pleased to welcome, Mr Ajay Dev Singh, Mr T Shrikanth and Mr Gopal Sharma as the new VP’s," said Mohammed Zeeshan, Co-Founder & CEO, MyCaptain. "They join MyCaptain at an exciting time as we continue to drive our strategy forward and build deeper relationships with our customers to fulfil our purpose of helping them decide the career of their choice. The addition of these VP’s complements our team’s skills and experiences, and we are confident they will provide valuable perspectives as we continue to execute our strategy. We look forward to their contributions and are excited they chose MyCaptain"

Mr Ajay Dev Singh has joined MyCaptain as Vice president of Marketing & Customer acquisition. Prior to MyCaptain Ajay was also the head of Marketing and Digital Strategy at Basic First learning where he spearheaded a revenue of 250 crores in 18 months and then with Reliance as the  Vice president of Media and Entertainment

Mr T Shrikanth has joined MyCaptain as Head of Sales for the Professional course vertical. Prior to MyCaptain Shrikanth was the Vice president of sales at The Hindu & Sulekha

Mr Gopal Sharma has joined MyCaptain as Vice president of technology. Prior to MyCaptain Gopal was also the Head of Delivery at ClaimGenius, and then with Infocepts where he headed the Technology team. Also, he is the Co-Founder at Goodyaara.

MyCaptain is a platform which transforms passion into a career, with mentorship from 200 plus professionals who have made a mark in their respective fields, in the most exciting way possible. This platform aims to bring about an education revolution by enabling millions of students to take the first step in their field of interest, such as photography, app development, or spoken poetry, to name a few, and facilitate their growth in the field. 

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.