Powered By Microsoft Azure, Respirer Living Sciences Is Simplifying Air Quality Monitoring In India

* Provides insights on critical air quality levels across 122 Indian cities

To help spread awareness about air quality, climate-tech startup Respirer Living Sciences has developed a dashboard that provides real-time access to air quality pollution data. Powered by Microsoft Azure, this dashboard data can be leveraged to devise solutions from citizens and policymakers to tackle air pollution.

With an objective to improve the quality of life for people, the team at Respirer evaluated several parameters and air quality stood out among them. The startup realized that people were keen to know about the air quality in their immediate surroundings. However, the cost of setting up air quality monitoring solutions was very high, which prompted Respirer to start developing affordable air quality monitoring platforms, using sensors and IoT. However, sensors sometimes malfunctioned and recorded unnecessary data and noise which sometimes led to inaccuracies.

To achieve complete accuracy in mentoring air quality data, Respirer collaborated with Microsoft Research (MSR) India’s Center for Societal Impact through Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI). The startup is one of the four organizations in the program’s first cohort. MSR enabled them to integrate fault detection technology in their platform. Respirer platforms also use a technique called dependable IoT, developed by researchers at MSR, that monitors the health of IoT-based devices using a fingerprint of their battery’s performance.

Using machine learning and data visualization, Respirer built a dashboard, enabled by Power BI, to study data from 240 government air quality monitors as part of the National Clean Air Program tracker. The Power BI dashboard is able to run the data through Azure’s SQL servers, making the process fast and seamless. More importantly, it enables the Respirer team to execute all of this with a shorter turnaround time and with a small development team. It also enables government officials to check if any of their monitoring stations go offline and repair them in real time.

Ronak Sutaria, Founder of Respirer Living Sciences said, “About 40 out of the 240 Continuous Air Quality Monitoring Stations set up by the government are in and around Delhi alone, which is why it’s no surprise that the city always leads in conversations around air pollution. Even in places where data exists, it’s stored in databases that not many track regularly or are not accessible to citizens. Scientific and accurate data in this space can provide meaningful insights and increase awareness about air quality across the country to enable greater involvement and action from citizens and policy makers.”

The Respirer solution costs one-twentieth the price for installation of a regulatory air quality monitoring system. It provides easy access to data around historical trends and levels of different pollutants across individual cities on a yearly basis or during different times of the day. It also enables anyone to select different filters to get insights that are meaningful to them, thus eliminating the need for any data science knowledge. 

Ronak added, “Typically, it would have taken us four to six months and a team of developers to pull out all the analytics and visualize that amount of data at these depths. But with Power BI, we were able to execute this project in just a little under four weeks with just one analytics engineer.”

Respirer’s long-term vision is to create a network of low-cost air quality monitoring sensors to provide a wider scientific view of the air that India breathes. A reasonable analysis of air quality index in India will require a simplified collection of data across 4,000 to 8,000 locations in the country. The startup’s plan is to fill this gap with affordable air quality monitoring devices.

Around 1,000 Respirer devices have been used by housing societies, schools, industrial companies, and even government organizations for monitoring air quality in their locations. Respirer is working towards building a platform to make the data publicly available, across a unified platform, allowing delivery of hyper-local air quality data so citizens know the quality of air they are breathing at not just city level but even at a neighborhood level.

Aviva India Appoints Sonali Athalye As The New Chief Financial Officer

Aviva Life Insurance, India’s most trusted private life insurance company, has announced the appointment of Sonali Athalye as its Chief Financial Officer. She will be responsible for strategic planning, treasury, and financial performance management. In this position, Sonali will focus on accelerating the company’s growth, financial strategy, managing investor relations, strategic business planning, and corporate governance.

Sonali is a seasoned professional with over two decades of rich experience in Finance, Compliance and Governance functions, primarily in the Life Insurance industry. She has been a founding member of two Life Insurance joint ventures from the start-up phase and comes with a deep domain expertise in Life Insurance as well as Fintech.

She has over two decades of rich experience in organizations like Pramerica Life Insurance, MetLife India Insurance Company and Tata AIA Life Insurance. She possesses experience in all finance functions including Controllership, FP&A, Taxation, M&A etc.  Prior to joining Aviva, Sonali served as Chief Financial Officer at RenewBuy.com.

Mr. Amit Malik, Managing Director & CEO, Aviva India said, “I am pleased to welcome Sonali to our team at this pivotal point in our growth trajectory. Her extensive background in Fintech will play an important role in Aviva’s transformation. She brings a strong track record of driving results and accelerating growth by leading finance and strategy transformations.”

Ms. Sonali Athalye, Chief Financial Officer, Aviva India “The life insurance industry currently is at a vital juncture with tremendous scope for growth and I am excited to step into the CFO role at Aviva India at this stage. I look forward to making a meaningful difference as we go forth and enable the company to realize its fullest potential.”

About Aviva Life Insurance:

Aviva Life Insurance Company India Limited is a joint venture between Dabur Invest Corp and Aviva International Holdings Limited, a UK based insurance group whose association with India goes back to 1834. By choosing Aviva Life Insurance, you benefit from the management experience of one of the world’s oldest insurance groups, with a history dating back to 1696. Today, Aviva Group has 33 million customers in 16 countries (as of 1st January 2019).

Fuelled By Olympics, Indians Are Searching For Sports Coaching Classes Online

 

·         Trending service categories in the Education vertical are Sports Coaching, Competitive Exam Coaching, Language Training and Driving Schools

·         Chennai leads in online searches for sports coaching followed by Bangalore and Delhi

A study undertaken by Sulekha, India’s leading tech-AI platform for expert services has unveiled interesting insights about the demand of services that were leading in Indian cities in July. This study is based on visits and searches by nearly 50,000+ consumers across top 8 Indian cities that landed on Sulekha in July 2021.

Key findings of the study:

Category insights

§  The Top 4 service categories in the education vertical that have seen a spike in online searches include Sports Coaching, Competitive Exam Coaching, Language Training, and Driving Schools. These categories are also a part of the top 15 trending categories among home, office and education related services.

§  In Sports Coaching category, the top five most searched sports are Athletics (385%), Cricket (365%), Badminton (274%), Kabaddi (247%) and Football (223%) in July.

§  In Competitive Exam Coaching category, the top three most searched are SSC (Staff Selection Commission) (66%), Teachers Exam Coaching (42%) and Defense/ Police Exam Coaching (32%) in July.

§  In Language Training category, most searched categories are Spoken English Training, Foreign Language Training and Indian Language Training. These categories overall grew by 34% in July.

§  In the Driving Schools category, most searched categories are Car driving classes (46%), two wheeler-driving classes (45%) and heavy vehicle driving classes (14%) in July.

City insights

§  Chennai is leading in its searches for Sports coaching and saw a growth of 63%; followed by Bangalore (61%) and Delhi (43%).

§  Hyderabad is leading in its searches for Language training and saw a growth of 37%; followed by Bangalore (36%) and Chennai (28%).

§  Bangalore is leading in its searches for Driving Schools and saw a growth of 48%; followed by Mumbai (45%) and Chennai (22%).

§  Hyderabad is leading in its searches for Competitive Exam Coaching and saw a growth of 33%; followed by Mumbai (29%) and Bangalore (27%).

Satya Prabhakar, Founder & CEO, Sulekha, said, “It’s interesting to see the surge of online searches in varied service categories like sports coaching and language training. The sudden increase in online searches in sports coaching could be attributed to the renewed interest in sports fueled by the Olympic Games that concluded recently. On the other hand, service categories such as Language training and Competitive exam coaching have seen a steady growth in the past couple of months. This is in line with the users’ efforts in upskilling and search for better job opportunities.”

*Sulekha’s trend trackers is an interesting monthly compilation of insights on Home, Office and Education related services.

Indira IVF Hits A First In India, Inaugurates Its 100th Infertility Treatment Centre

* A market leader, Indira IVF is the first single specialty IVF chain to attain the milestone

With the inauguration of two new centres at Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur and Bathinda in Punjab, Indira IVF, India’s largest infertility speciality clinics chain, has notched a major milestone of establishing 100 centres across India. The organisation came out with the watershed announcement as it completes over a decade of seminally aiding couples with realising their dreams of growing their families. It is the first single-speciality infertility treatment chain in India to have 100 fertility centres under its banner.

As a purpose-driven pioneering organisation, Indira IVF has always prided itself on accessibility by taking IVF treatment to even the remotest parts of the country. All of this empowers patients in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, in particular, to secure medically proven solutions and also provides for a much-needed respite financially to those needy lot as couples do not have to travel afar for their treatments. By way of this, Indira IVF has cradled more than 85,000 couples helping them conceive since 2011 and, in turn, cementing its position as a staunch market leader and the most trusted single- specialty fertility chain in India.

Reflecting on the journey, Dr Ajay Murdia – Founder & Chairman, Indira IVF Group said, “We started as a humble diagnostic clinic with sperm bank facilities in 1988 before foraying into IVF treatments a decade ago. Our growth and the number of couples we have been able to help over the years is an indication of the change in attitude towards IVF and infertility in the country. We are pleased to be a part of this journey as more people opt for medical solutions for their health conditions.”

Speaking on the milestone, Dr Kshitiz Murdia – CEO & Co-Founder of Indira IVF said, “We are delighted to open our 100th centre and lend a helping hand to more couples who dream of parenthood. With this milestone, we aspire to strive to continually impact thousands of lives. As a part of our continued venture, we plan to increase our reach in the Eastern and Southern regions of the country. We are also keen to expand into the international market in Southeast Asia to provide state-of-the-art IVF facilities at affordable prices.”

Talking about the progress in IVF technology Nitiz Murdia, Director and Co-Founder of Indira IVF said, “The landscape of IVF has changed manifold and we have a number of technologies today that minimise risk factors and ensure better outcomes. New advancements in assisted reproductive technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) are taking place regularly and at Indira IVF, we always keep our doors open to adoption of any such technology which would prove beneficial for couples in their journey of bearing children.”

Parallel with all the developments, Indira IVF also received a significant minority investment from TA associates, a leading Boston-based global growth private equity firm in 2019.  Following that Indira’s network of IVF centres has further expanded in number to 40.  As a technology-first organization and as boasting of having the country’s largest network of IVF centres, Indira is today a pillar of support for countless couples to navigate through the meandering and often tedious journey of starting a family, in the first place, altogether.

About Indira IVF

Indira IVF is India’s largest infertility speciality clinics chain with 100 centres across the country, supported by a passionate workforce of over 2,000 people. Indira IVF performs about 30,000+ IVF procedures a year – the highest number in the country.

As a responsible leader, Indira IVF constantly strives to dispel the stigma, taboo, myths and misinformation about infertility. Indira IVF is also committed to developing and grooming talent for fertility treatments. Through the Indira Fertility Academy it collaborates with like-minded organisations and institutions to further this cause. Having perceived the potential of Indira IVF in the sector, TA Associates, a leading global equity firm from the U.S., invested in the organisation in 2019.

Indira IVF was founded in the year 2011 in Udaipur, Rajasthan by Dr Ajay Murdia.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Inaugurates Centre Of Excellence At Vemana Institute Of Technology For Skilling Students

In furtherance of its commitment to the Skill India mission, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today announced the establishment of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) at Vemana Institute of Technology (VIT), Bangalore. The Vemana-Toyota CoE has been developed under a Memorandum of Understanding between TKM and VIT. TKM has been developing CoEs at various colleges to help students become industry-ready, having established 12 centres thus far, it plans to create more such facilities in the future.

The CoE set up within the VIT campus in Bangalore under the mechanical engineering department features Toyota engine, transmission, and powertrain as cut section and do-it-yourself models to provide hands-on experience of automotive mechanisms to the students. VIT is one of the leading engineering colleges in Karnataka since its inception in 1999 by the Karnataka Reddy Jana Sangha (KRJS).

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. S. Jayaram Reddy, President, KRJS, who presided over the inauguration ceremony on Thursday, said, “We are delighted to collaborate with Toyota, which is at the forefront of pioneering automotive technologies across the world. The CoE will serve as a great learning resource and a practical tool for our students beyond the classrooms. Such initiatives are vital to make our students industry-ready and employable for the fast-growing automobile sector in the country. We are thankful to the Toyota management for their vital contribution to the skill development of our students and look forward to furthering our collaboration in the time to come.”

Sharing his thoughts, Mr. Sudeep S. Dalvi, Senior Vice President, Director & Chief Communication Officer, TKM, who was the chief guest for the occasion, said, “As a manufacturer, we understand the emerging skill landscape and the gaps that exist in the formal training avenues. It is our endeavour to help plug this skills gap and create industry-ready talent that will enable the auto industry on its path to greater localization and self-reliance. With the CoE, the aim is to foster experiential learning so that students can develop a good understanding of key automotive components and technologies. We are happy to join hands with the management of VIT for this initiative and hope together we can create more learning opportunities for the students.”

The inauguration ceremony was attended by senior officials of TKM, management committee members of KRJS and senior staff, faculty members and students of VIT.

Honda Sets A New Trend In 180-200cc Segment, Launches The All-New CB 200X In The Indian Market

 

Distinctive Design

·       Sharp, muscular & urban explorer design provides excellent riding ergonomics

·       Sporty Under cowl & Upswept exhaust for a striking appeal and rugged character

·       Upright Riding Position minimizes any kind of fatigue to the rider

·       Raised & swaged handlebars add ruggedness inspired from high-end machines

·       Tall Visor enhances aerodynamics & reduces wind resistance

·       Knuckle covers with integrated LED winkers for an imposing stance with boldness

·       Long & comfortable Sporty Split Step Seat ensures comfort during long rides

·       5Y shaped alloy wheels enhances the appeal

Superior Technology & Convenience

·       Golden Upside Down(USD) Front Forks add precision steering and excellent cushioning

·       Fully digital, liquid crystal meter with advanced features like gear position indicator, digital clock, service due indicator & battery voltmeter

·       All-LED lighting setup offers better visibility and reliability

·       Tough Tread Pattern Tyres provide superior grip and control

·       Front and Rear Petal Disc Brakes with ABS give greater confidence

·       Mono-shock rear suspension adds superior handling & comfort

·       Engine stop switch for convenience during brief stops

·       Hazard switch for emergency stops and low visibility conditions

·       Key on Tank adds convenience for the rider

Dynamic performance

·       Powerful & efficient 184cc BSVI PGM-FI engine for a torquey & agile riding experience

·       Diamond Type Steel Frame ensures outstanding stability and agile handling

Special value for customers

·       Special 6-year warranty package* on CB200X

·       Attractively priced at Rs. 1,44,500 (ex-showroom Gurugram)

Setting a new trend in the evolving 180-200cc motorcycle segment, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. today launched the all-new CB200X in India. It is a carefully crafted machine for everyday usage as much as it is for exploring the roads less travelled; the all-new CB200X is ready for both a busy weekday city commute as well as short weekend relaxed rides beyond cityscapes.

Powered by 3 new patent applications, the all new CB200X is a testament of Honda’s innovations as it marks the future of mobility while going beyond customer expectations.

Talking on the launch Mr. Atsushi Ogata, Managing Director, President & CEO, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Today, it is my great pleasure to introduce a new motorcycle, inspired by Honda’s legendary CB legacy. Keeping in mind the evolving lifestyle of the Indian youth, the urban explorer - CB200X gives today’s youngsters a riding experience that pushes them to explore more. Built to excite riders, CB200X offers a perfect riding companion for their daily city rides and short weekend getaways beyond the cityscapes.”

Sharing more details, Mr. Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Director, Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Marking a steady evolution in 180-200cc segment, CB200X is a classic urban explorer at heart developed for next-gen millennials. Its design is inspired by Honda’s legendary higher displacement adventure bikes. The overall design provides riders an upright and relaxed posture for city commute as well as for their weekend rides. Built to deliver dynamic performance, its engine delivers a powerful torque character in a practical range and a sporty performance in high rpm range. Unique knuckle covers with integrated LED winkers, golden USD front forks along with other features not only lend CB200X an imposing road presence but a premium rugged character too. Be it the urban landscape or beyond, CB200X gives you the freedom to EXPLORE LIFE WITH EVERY RIDE!”

With a distinctive design philosophy & superior technology, CB200X is built to deliver top-notch performance and excellent riding ergonomics. Complemented by a range of stylish features, CB200X is a testament of both precision engineering and aggressive appeal.

Distinct Design

CB200X wears an upswept exhaust thus accentuating its rugged & sporty yet premium character further. The sharply designed under cowl adds a striking appeal.

Eliminating fatigue arising from riding posture are the perfectly positioned foot pegs, raised & swaged handlebar inspired from Honda’s high-end machines that add the right amount of ruggedness & strength to CB200X’s design philosophy.

Tall Visor allows the rider to move freely with minimum resistance, and compliments the overall appeal of the motorcycle.

Arriving in style with an imposing road presence, the all-new CB200X comes equipped with Knuckle Covers integrated LED winker thus lending the bike an extra layer of confidence when exploring nearby trails. They not only protect the rider from external surroundings but also add a dash of boldness to the overall package.

Long & comfortable Sporty Split Seat (613mm) ensures that both the rider and pillion are always at ease. An accessible seat height (810 mm) inspires riding confidence and comfort.

Nothing reflects strength with ample amount of style like the CB200X. The unique lightweight stylish 5Y Shaped Alloy Wheels enhance the overall ride quality and handling on uneven rough terrain.

Superior Technology & Convenience

A distinctive match of sophisticated engineering and premium aesthetics, the Golden Upside Down (USD) front forks deliver utmost precision while steering and enhance the high-end appeal.

Complementing both form as well as functionality is the Fully Digital Liquid Crystal Meter bringing better visibility in both bright & dark conditions. Key information like Gear Position Indicator, Service Due Indicator and Battery Voltmeter is also available on the screen with 5-level adjustable brightness.

Approaching blinding curves with a sharp gaze is CB200X’s all-LED lighting setup (LED headlamp with position lamp, LED winkers and iconic X-Shaped LED tail lamp), which also lend it an aggressive stance always ready to blaze through dimly lit environments.

Those weekend trails and fun detours are now just round the corner with special Tough Tread Pattern Tyres (Front 110mm & Rear 140mm) giving excellent street performance and ample grip.

To ensure efficient braking control over a wide variety of roads, CB200X is equipped with Petal Disc Brakes (Front & Rear) with ABS.

Bringing stability and control is the Mono-Shock Rear Suspension, which delivers an excellent riding experience & superior handling while cornering.

While the Engine Stop Switch makes it convenient to turn-off the ignition with a simple flick, Hazard Switch feature adds to the safety of riders in low visibility condition. Key on tank placement amplifies its street fighter character while adding more convenience to the rider.

Dynamic performance

The all-new CB200X offers cutting-edge technology and an awe-inspiring design that oozes pure performance. Bharat Stage-VI compliant advanced 184cc PGM-FI engine powers the CB200X. PGM-Fi system uses onboard sensors constantly to inject optimum fuel and air mixture to provide greater performance and superior efficiency.

It offers strong acceleration and quick response through optimization of intake and exhaust components. At 12.7 kW @ 8500 rpm & 16.1 Nm @ 6000 rpm, CB200X’s engine delivers sporty power in higher revs and balanced mid-range torque.

Ensuring smooth power delivery is Roller rocker arm, which helps in reduction of friction losses. The engine also comes equipped with a Piston cooling jet that acts as heat absorbent hence improving engine thermal efficiency. Diamond type steel frame ensures outstanding stability and agile handling.

Essential Reliability

Delighting customers further is Honda’s 6-year warranty package (3 years standard + 3 years optional extended warranty*) on CB200X.

Price & colors

The new CB200X will be available in three stunning colors - Pearl Nightstar Black, Matte Selene Silver Metallic and Sports Red. The CB200X is attractively priced at Rs. 1,44,500 ex-showroom (ex-showroom Gurugram). Starting today, Honda has opened the bookings for CB200X at its authorized dealership network across India.

The new motorcycle will start arriving at Honda 2Wheeler network from September 2021. To book online, visit https://www.honda2wheelersindia.com/BookNow/        

SonicWall, Fusion BPO Services Enter Into Strategic Partnership

SonicWall today announced that it has entered a strategic partnership with Fusion BPO services, a global BPO with headquarters in Kolkata, India and Draper(USA). SonicWall will offer its state-of-the-art next-generation firewalls (NGFW) for SMB, enterprise, and government organizations.

On discussing the partnership with SonicWall, Mr. Rajan Singh, CTO Fusion stated “With our rapid growth in the recent years, we found that the company’s mix-and-match cybersecurity architecture consisting of SonicWall next-generation firewalls and a mix of other applications including UTM firewalls varied from office to office. It was becoming increasingly difficult to manage, as we aimed to implement the same cybersecurity measures across the entire company.

“SonicWall has been extremely proactive in attending to our business requirements and implementing the right solutions. Earlier we were managing two devices, one for UTM Firewall and other for SD-WAN. Sonicwall has enabled us to manage the firewalls better through one single platform,” further added Mr. Singh.

Fusion offers a diverse range of call center services, including garnering potential customers, managing data efficiently, or troubleshooting technical problems and administration issues from 18 centers in 9 countries. Its host of peripheral activities is aimed to propel business through a blend of manpower, technology, research, and analytics.

“We are very happy to have this newer and comprehensive relationship with Fusion now. After analyzing their requirements, the SonicWall team proposed to resolve the issue with its current generation of SonicWall NGFWs, which offers several performance advantages. This includes  enhanced functionalities such as SD-WAN that benefits businesses by reducing overhead costs and increasing network performance. Our solutions can now offer management efficiencies and simplicity, finally realized by switching to a single-platform architecture like SonicWall NGFWs,” said Mr. Debasish Mukherjee, Vice President, Regional Sales APAC at SonicWall Inc.

“After in-depth vendor evaluation, Fusion ultimately chose to deploy more than 15 pairs of NSa Series NGFW in high-availability (HA) configuration, augmented with a six-year subscription to SonicWall’s support services. are delighted and look forward to this new partnership, which will add great business value”, added Mr. Mukherjee.

“By replacing its mixed bag of cybersecurity solutions with a total SonicWall platform, Fusion was able to unify cybersecurity management from multiple sources into a single‑pane-of-glass management and reporting, making it easier to interpret and assess all cybersecurity measures,” said Mr. Singh.

“As a result of using this platform, we have seen a 15% increase in security effectiveness and 10% increase in system stability. This transition has also resulted in an overall boost of operational efficiency and increase in business continuity. Additionally, this solution gives us an overall saving of 25% from a 6 year period,” added Mr. Singh.

“Some of the benefits for Fusion will be a Secure SD-WAN, Lower TCO with HA licensing policy, alongside a dedicated and secure Cloud-based management. Last but not the least, a Single-pane-of-glass management and reporting for all firewalls, will be a huge  game changer for it business”, shared Mr. Mukherjee.

About SonicWall

SonicWall delivers Boundless Cybersecurity for the hyper-distributed era in a working reality where everyone is remote, mobile and unsecure. SonicWall safeguards organizations mobilizing for their new business normal with seamless protection that stops the most evasive cyberattacks across boundless exposure points and increasingly remote, mobile and cloud-enabled workforces. SonicWall closes the cybersecurity business gap for enterprises, governments, and SMBs worldwide by knowing the unknown, providing real-time visibility, and enabling breakthrough economics.  For more information, visit www.sonicwall.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.