Cult.fit Kicks Off Fitstart – Its Biggest Sale Of The Year In India

cult.fit, India’s leading fitness platform, announces the launch of the Fitstart sale, its biggest sale of the year, which kicked off on 25th July with brand ambassador Hrithik Roshan as the face of the campaign.

The Fitstart sale has been a major catalyst in cult.fit’s efforts to bring people to fitness and get them started on a path to better health. This time, cult.fit is offering its online and offline products and services at highly attractive prices with discounts of up to 50-60%. This sale is applicable across all its categories and will last until the end of July.

With an increased interest in fitness among people, this sale offers an opportunity for customers to experience the best workout formats taught by highly-skilled trainers in the country. Whether it is some sweat-inducing cardio exercise, guided meditation sessions, elegant yoga asanas, or even just a fun dance session – cult.fit’s Fitstart sale has options for people across fitness levels, formats, and ages.

During the sale, customers can choose from a host of offerings focusing on both physical and mental health. These encompass the cultpass live for workouts at home, cultpass membership for cult.fit centres and partner gyms, personal training, as well as services like online therapy, online doctor consultation, and lab tests at home, among others.

Commenting on the launch of their sale, Mr. Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth and Marketing Head, cult.fit, said: “With health and fitness on top of the mind for most people, it is never too late to get started on the road to better physical and mental health. The Fitstart sale, which is our biggest sale of the year, presents the perfect opportunity for people to commit to their overall well-being. Like each year, this year too we have some great offers across all categories on our app. Now with gyms reopening, we are also offering our offline cultpass packs at discounted prices alongside our online products. We are excited to kick the sale off and hope to see more people choose us to help them get healthy and achieve their fitness goals.”

About cult.fit

cult.fit is a health and fitness platform by cure.fit Healthcare Pvt Ltd and is headquartered in Bangalore, India. Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, cult.fit caters to living a healthy life through its critical dimensions — physical fitness & wellness. The platform provides fitness-related services through a mix of online and offline channels. These include offline group workouts at cult.fit centres and other gym- or equipment-based workouts at partner gyms and fitness centres across the country. cult.fit also offers online personal training, group workouts, and live fitness classes across various formats.

cult.fit is an app-based service provider and is available on Android and iOS.

For more information on cult.fit: www.cult.fit

10000th Tata Safari Rolls Out Off The Line; Crosses Its Milestone In Five Months

Tata Motors, India’s leading automotive brand today rolled out the 10,000th unit of the all new Safari from its manufacturing facility in Pune. Despite all restrictions, after the 100th rollout in February 2021, the last 9,900 units of the new Safari were rolled out in less than four months, a remarkable feat achieved, on the back of strong response from the customers as the brand grows in popularity by the day.

Truly appreciated by customers for its dynamic design, comfortable 3rd row seat, premium interiors, spirited driving experience and safety features, the new Safari is one of the top-selling 6/7-seater high SUV with a current market share of 25.2% in its category. Furthermore, together with its stablemate (Safari + Harrier), Tata Motors currently commands a 41.2% in the High SUV segment (as of Q1 FY22).

Speaking on this milestone, Mr. Shailesh Chandra, President – Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors said, “We are thrilled to have reached this significant milestone for the new Safari in a span of four months.  Not to mention, we have achieved this landmark during one of the toughest periods our country has endured in its long history. The 10000th feat validates the collective hard work put in by various teams responsible for the rebirth of this illustrious model. The Safari in its new avatar takes forward the brand's rich legacy by combining Tata Motors' Impact 2.0 design language with the proven capability of OMEGARC, the architecture derived from Land Rover's renowned D8 platform – the gold standard among SUVs worldwide. This iconic brand is already leading the segment and we are delighted with our customers’ response. We thank our customers for their continued trust in the brand. We will continue to keep our New Forever range refreshed catering to the ever-evolving needs of our customers.”

The new Safari is a potent blend of power and elegant sophistication. It has evolved to meet the needs of today's SUV customers, who want appealing design, plush and comfortable interiors, unparalleled versatility, outstanding performance, go-anywhere experience, top-notch safety and most up-to-date connected car technology for a modern, multifaceted lifestyle.

IBM Report: Cost Of A Data Breach Hits Record High During Pandemic

* Data Breaches Cost Surveyed Companies $4.24 Million Per Incident On Average; Highest In 17-Year Report History

* Adoption of AI, hybrid cloud, and zero trust approach lowered data breach costs

IBM Security today announced the results of a global study which found that data breaches now cost surveyed companies $4.24 million per incident on average – the highest cost in the 17-year history of the report. Based on in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by over 500 organizations, the study suggests that security incidents became more costly and harder to contain due to drastic operational shifts during the pandemic, with costs rising 10% compared to the prior year.

Businesses were forced to quickly adapt their technology approaches last year, with many companies encouraging or requiring employees to work from home, and 60% of organizations moving further into cloud-based activities during the pandemic. The new findings released today suggest that security may have lagged behind these rapid IT changes, hindering organizations’ ability to respond to data breaches.   

The annual Cost of a Data Breach Report, conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored and analyzed by IBM Security, identified the following trends amongst the organizations studied:

Remote work impact: The rapid shift to remote operations during the pandemic appears to have led to more expensive data breaches. Breaches cost over $1 million more on average when remote work was indicated as a factor in the event, compared to those in this group without this factor ($4.96 vs. $3.89 million.)

Healthcare breach costs surged: Industries that faced huge operational changes during the pandemic (healthcare, retail, hospitality, and consumer manufacturing/distribution) also experienced a substantial increase in data breach costs year over year. Healthcare breaches cost the most by far, at $9.23 million per incident – a $2 million increase over the previous year.

Compromised credentials led to compromised data: Stolen user credentials were the most common root cause of breaches in the study. At the same time, customer personal data (such as name, email, password) was the most common type of information exposed in data breaches – with 44% of breaches including this type of data. The combination of these factors could cause a spiral effect, with breaches of username/passwords providing attackers with leverage for additional future data breaches.

Modern approaches reduced costs: The adoption of AI, security analytics, and encryption were the top three mitigating factors shown to reduce the cost of a breach, saving companies between $1.25 million and $1.49 million compared to those who did not have significant usage of these tools. For cloud-based data breaches studied, organizations that had implemented a hybrid cloud approach had lower data breach costs ($3.61m) than those who had a primarily public cloud ($4.80m) or primarily private cloud approach ($4.55m).

“Higher data breach costs are yet another added expense for businesses in the wake of rapid technology shifts during the pandemic,” said Chris McCurdy, Vice President and General Manager, IBM Security. “While data breach costs reached a record high over the past year, the report also showed positive signs about the impact of modern security tactics, such as AI, automation and the adoption of a zero trust approach – which may pay off in reducing the cost of these incidents further down the line.”

Impact of Remote Work and Shift to Cloud on Data Breaches

With society leaning more heavily on digital interactions during the pandemic, companies embraced remote work and cloud as they shifted to accommodate this increasingly online world. The report found that these factors had a significant impact on data breach response. Nearly 20% of organizations studied reported that remote work was a factor in the data breach, and these breaches ended up costing companies $4.96 million (nearly 15% more than the average breach).

Companies in the study that experienced a breach during a cloud migration project had 18.8% higher cost than average. However, the study also found that those who were further along in their overall cloud modernization strategy (“mature” stage) were able to detect and respond to incidents more effectively – 77 days faster on average than those who were in early-stage adoption. Additionally, for cloud-based data breaches studied, companies that had implemented a hybrid cloud approach had lower data breach costs ($3.61m) than those who had a primarily public cloud ($4.80m) or primarily private cloud approach ($4.55m).

Compromised Credentials a Growing Risk

The report also shed light on a growing problem in which consumer data (including credentials) is being compromised in data breaches, which can then be used to propagate further attacks. With 82% of individuals surveyed admitting they reuse passwords across accounts, compromised credentials represent both a leading cause and effect of data breaches, creating a compounding risk for businesses.

Personal Data Exposed: Nearly half (44%) of the breaches analyzed exposed customer personal data, such as name, email, password, or even healthcare data – representing the most common type of breached record in the report.

Customer PII Most Costly: The loss of customer personal identifiable information (PII) was also the most expensive compared to other types of data ($180 per lost or stolen record vs $161 for overall per record average).

Most Common Attack Method: Compromised user credentials were the most common method used as an entry point by attackers, representing 20% of breaches studied.

Longer to Detect & Contain: Breaches resulting from compromised credentials took the longest to detect – taking an average of 250 days to identify (vs. 212 for the average breach.)

Businesses That Modernized Had Lower Breach Costs

While certain IT shifts during the pandemic increased data breach costs, organizations who said they did not implement any digital transformation projects in order to modernize their business operations during the pandemic actually incurred higher data breach costs. The cost of a breach was $750,000 higher than average at organizations that had not undergone any digital transformation due to COVID-19 (16.6% higher than the average).

Companies studied that adopted a zero trust security approach were better positioned to deal with data breaches. This approach operates on the assumption that user identities or the network itself may already be compromised, and instead relies on AI and analytics to continuously validate connections between users, data and resources. Organizations with a mature zero trust strategy had an average data breach cost of $3.28 million – which was $1.76 million lower than those who had not deployed this approach at all.

The report also found that more companies were deploying security automation compared to prior years, leading to significant cost savings. Around 65% of companies surveyed reported they were partially or fully deploying automation within their security environments, compared to 52% two years ago. Those organizations with a “fully deployed” security automation strategy had an average breach cost of $2.90 million – whereas those with no automation experienced more than double that cost at $6.71 million.

Investments in incident response teams and plans also reduced data breach costs amongst those studied. Companies with an incident response team that also tested their incident response plan had an average breach cost of $3.25 million, while those that had neither in place experienced an average cost of $5.71 million (representing a 54.9% difference.)

Additional findings from the 2021 report include:

Time to respond: The average time to detect and contain a data breach was 287 days (212 to detect, 75 to contain) – which is one week longer than the prior year report.

Mega breaches: Average cost of a mega breach was $401 million, for breaches between 50 million and 65 million records. This is nearly 100x more expensive than the majority of breaches studied in the report (which ranged from 1,000-100,000 records.)

By industry: Data breaches in healthcare were most expensive by industry ($9.23m), followed by the financial sector ($5.72m) and pharmaceuticals ($5.04m). While lower in overall costs, retail, media, hospitality and public sector experienced a large increase in costs vs. the prior year.

By country/region: The US had the most expensive data breaches at $9.05 million per incident, followed by Middle East ($6.93m) and Canada ($5.4m).

Methodology and Additional Data Breach Statistics

The 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report from IBM Security and Ponemon Institute is based on in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches of 100,000 records or less, experienced by over 500 organizations worldwide between May 2020 and March 2021. The report takes into account hundreds of cost factors involved in data breach incidents, from legal, regulatory and technical activities to loss of brand equity, customers, and employee productivity.

SOLÖ Mechanical To Realise Significant Energy Savings With An ELGi EG Series Screw Air Compressor

* SOLÖ Mechanical chose the EG37 VFD compressor to improve efficiencies at their Eskilstuna plant in Sweden

ELGi Compressors Europe, a subsidiary of ELGi Equipments Limited, one of the world’s leading air compressor manufacturers, announced today that one of its customers, SOLÖ Mechanical, will realize up to 20,000 EUR in energy savings over the next five years with an ELGi EG Series screw air compressor.

SOLÖ Mechanical, a Swedish provider of sheet metal and cutting, processing, welding, and assembly services, was looking for a partner to resolve the efficiency, noise, and pressure issues they faced with their erstwhile air compressor. The ELGi team in Sweden conducted an energy audit of the compressed air system using the ELGi Air Audit. The audit identified inefficiencies and provided recommendations for an upgrade along with expected savings and cost estimates.

Based on the audit’s recommendations, SOLÖ Mechanical replaced their aging compressor with an ELGi EG37 VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) unit. The ELGi Air Audit analysis (also confirmed by an independent third-party consultancy) estimated that SOLÖ Mechanical would save approximately 350 EUR a month or up to 20,000 EUR in five years in energy spends, from upgrading to the EG Series. After having commissioned the unit in January 2021, a recent energy audit conducted confirmed the energy savings. After only five months, ELGi’s EG Series has already saved SOLÖ Mechanical 1,630 EUR.

“We’ve been looking for a partner that could provide us with an accurate overview of our compressed air needs while recommending a solution that could deliver reliable, uninterrupted, compressed air at lower operational costs,” said Tommy Bolinder, Maintenance Manager at SOLÖ Mechanical. “The team at ELGi suggested an air audit, which clearly indicated the improvement areas along with recommendations for the steps we needed to take and what savings the project will generate. They showed us how to save 4,364 kWh of energy a month by replacing the present compressor. Numbers speak for themselves, so it was easy to make this decision as it is a 47% saving on my energy bill.”

“Understanding the performance and efficiency of compressed air systems is critical in every industrial application as it directly influences our customers’ bottom lines,” said Patrik Almström, Area Sales Manager Sweden at ELGi. “With the ELGi Air Audit, we presented a clear picture of how they can reduce power consumption and the wear and tear on the compressed air systems while extending lifetime and lowering life-cycle costs. With the air audit results from SOLÖ Mechanical, we provided a tailored solution; one that maximises the customer’s energy savings.”

The robust design of the EG Series compressor range enables operations at extreme temperatures – from cold to hot and from dry to extremely humid conditions, leading overall to higher reliability of the compressed air system. ELGi’s high-efficiency airends equipped with in-house developed η-V profile rotors, with 4/5 lobe combination, are designed to run at low rotor speeds. This unique design reduces pressure losses, and together with the OSBIC (Oil Separation by Impact and Centrifugal action), 3-stage separation provides best-in-class energy efficiency. 

Thanks to low operating speeds further improved by the operational Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), the compressor can adapt to the changes in demand and optimize the airflow, saving energy costs. These EG compressors run very quietly, contributing to improved employees’ comfort at the SOLÖ Mechanical plant.

Test Prep Platform Major - Edukemy Raises $2 Million In Pre-Series A Funding

* Led by Auxano, Falcon5, and other angel investors through Felix Advisory 

Edukemy, India’s emerging test prep EdTech company, has raised $2Mn in Pre–Series A funding round lead by Auxano, Falcon5, and other angel investors. These funds will be used to further strengthen Edukemy's position by working towards building the best test prep platform for multiple competitive examinations, as well as to build the team and scale the product. 

Edukemy was founded during the pandemic in 2020 to build a cutting-edge technology driven platform which is an enabler for ‘learner and educator’ as a combined solution, with a key focus on personalised education.  With this clear aim, Edukemy created one-of-a-kind evaluation model for non-subjective as well as subjective competitive exams. Since December 2020, Edukemy is gaining great traction with a growth of 3x in the content view by the audience and doubled the engagement rates in classes by making the learning interactive and effective. Our subscriber revenue is growing rapidly, and we aim to reach 1 million paid learners by 2023 and plan to expand into additional verticals. 

Mr. Chandrahas Panigrahi, CEO and Co-Founder, Edukemy, said, “We are thrilled and humbled to welcome like-minded business partners as we grow together in our journey of becoming the best EdTech company in the government competitive test preparation. Since our inception, our business and presence in the field has grown multifold. The company is working towards achieving an ARR of $3Mn in revenue. This year, in the first quarter alone Edukemy tripled its revenue base and crossed 10k+ paid learners and plans to scale 4X in the current year.” 

Mr. Manish Mehta, Managing Partner- Falcon 5, said, “We were extremely impressed by Edukemy founders’ vision to disrupt the non-stem test prep sector through technological innovation. Their bold approach is exactly what is needed to provide learners with evaluation-driven pedagogy and personalised learning experiences, and we are excited to join them on their next mission to reach out millions of students achieve their dreams and success in life.” 

The spokesperson from Auxano, said, “We are pleased to be associated with Edukemy. We believe in their pedagogy delivering impact to the students preparing for government exams. The innovative technology solutions enabling scalability and solving challenges faced by the learners and educators is positive for the growth in this space.” 

Edukemy has also come up with a unique TCE model which is unmatched in the EdTech world, result of consumer research and solution to the problems faced by them. TCE stands for Teaching Methods, Content Experience and Evaluation & Feedback. For evaluation and feedback in the TCE model, the company created ‘Korrecto', which provides personalised feedback to each individual student and is powered by cutting-edge evaluation tools that use artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. 

About Edukemy 

Edukemy is India’s best govt. test prep EdTech company that has developed an evaluation model based on cutting-edge technology. Our priority is to scale the learning experience for every individual by offering an insightful and enriching environment for students with a focus on live classes, handwritten notes, and an interactive platform. With more than 50 years of cumulative experience at teaching and mentoring students, Edukemy strives each day, with every single student, to make a difference. We intend to democratize education by delivering quality content, valuable mentorship. We believe in disrupting the normal and bring in innovation in methods of teaching. 

Freightify - The Shopify For Maritime Freight, Announces $2.5 Mn Pre-Series A

Freightify, the ocean rate management platform bringing advanced e-booking functionality to freight companies of all sizes, today announced it has secured $2.5mn in Pre-Series A funding led by Nordic Eye Venture Capital with the participation of Tradeworks VC, Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, and Blume Founders Fund. Existing Investor Mr. Vinod Kumar Talreja also participated in the round. 

Freightify features a suite of pricing and sales tools for the ocean freight industry and already serves customers in over 10 countries. The firm will use the proceeds to invest in expansion into the US and Europe. The company also plans to invest in its product ecosystem covering other stakeholders of the container supply chain. 

Freightify’s platform handles more than $400mn in freight revenue for customers and a corresponding GMV of $2 billion while the SaaS model can scale as the customers grow. 

“Exciting to follow a dynamic and ambitious organization that has great chances of making a huge digital impact in International freight forwarding. We encourage the global outlook and is impressed about the common vision for the company” said Nordic Eye’s Investment Manager Ib Drachmann 

“We invest in ‘Digital Trade Enablers’ that drive trade through innovation, by solving important problems in Logistics and eCommerce. One of these important problems is the lack of structured commercial data that can be used across the freight forwarding value chain, from freight rate procurement, standardisation, automation & quotation, to e-bookings and visibility” said Niklas Holck, CEO at Tradeworks.vc

“We founded Freightify with the belief that the future of technology in freight forwarding should be democratised and made available for everyone.” Said Raghavendran Viswanathan, CEO and Co-founder, Freightify. “The current capital expansion from the right partners cements this belief and helps us add value to the maritime industry across the world.”

Freightify makes it simple for small and mid-size freight forwarders with little to no technology expertise to set up an online own branded storefront. This store is powered by data from various sources including live prices from ocean carriers like Maersk, CMA CGM, Evergreen, etc. At the same time, offline contract rates from other carriers are automated in real-time for easy comparison. Further, this can be easily integrated with the freight forwarders’ TMS systems for operations and fulfilment.

About Freightify: 

Freightify (formerly FreightBro), enables freight forwarders of any size for the digitization of global trade. The brand empowers freight forwarders by providing white labelled rate automation solutions to digitize their rate procurement, rate management, and quotation processes with ease. Freightify is backed by marquee accelerators like the Betatron Group, JioGenNext, and Alchemist Accelerator. 

Canara Bank Reports Consolidated Q1FY22 PAT Of Rs 1094.79 Cr During Q1 FY 2021-22

Canara Bank has reported financial results for the period ended June 30, 2021.

Financial Results (Q1 FY 2021-22) - QoQ Comparison

The company has reported total income of Rs.23288.74 crores during the period ended June 30, 2021 as compared to Rs.23774.15 crores during the period ended March 31, 2021.

The company has posted net profit / (loss) of Rs.1094.79 crores for the period ended June 30, 2021 as against net profit / (loss) of Rs.1065.09 crores for the period ended March 31, 2021.

The company has reported EPS of Rs.7.50 for the period ended June 30, 2021 as compared to Rs.7.26 for the period ended March 31, 2021.

Financial Results (Q1 FY 2021-22) - YoY Comparison

The company has reported total income of Rs.23288.74 crores during the period ended June 30, 2021 as compared to Rs.22713.92 crores during the period ended June 30, 2020.

The company has posted net profit / (loss) of Rs.1094.79 crores for the period ended June 30, 2021 as against net profit / (loss) of Rs.431.81 crores for the period ended June 30, 2020.

The company has reported EPS of Rs.7.50 for the period ended June 30, 2021 as compared to Rs.3.29 for the period ended June 30, 2020.