Microsoft Collaborates With Invest India To Empower Tech Startups In Indian Market

* Cohort of 11 tech startups join Microsoft for Startups program

Microsoft India today announced its collaboration with Invest India, Government of India’s national investment promotion and facilitation agency, to support tech startups in the country. As part of this collaboration, the Microsoft for Startups program will work closely with Accelerating Growth of New India's Innovations (AGNIi Mission), a program of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and a Mission under the Prime Minister's Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) that convenes India's finest technologies with their potential adopters. Housed and executed by Invest India, AGNIi Mission helps startups become enterprise ready. With support from AGNIi Mission, Microsoft has onboarded 11 startups into the Microsoft for Startups program. These startups span various industries such as agriculture, defense & security, IT/ITeS, e-mobility, waste management and financial services.

Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest India, said, “Fostering strong ties with the top enterprises in the world to nurture Indian innovation is one of the most important contributions of AGNIi in ensuring India’s continued strength in the global economy. I congratulate the AGNIi Mission for playing a pivotal role in transforming India’s innovation landscape in these unprecedented times of global change.”

The startups selected to be a part of the Microsoft for Startups program will gain access to a plethora of benefits, including Azure credits, as well as support for technology and business acceleration, focused on scaling their growth. Startups will be able to utilize Microsoft technology including Azure, GitHub, and M365, allowing them to quickly build and run their businesses. The selected startups will also get personalized technical sessions, content, and mentorship. Moreover, they will be able to leverage Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace, enterprise sales team, and the rapidly growing partner ecosystem to develop and execute their go-to-market strategies.

Emily Rich, Director of Startups - APAC, Microsoft, said, “The collaboration between Microsoft and Invest India affirms our commitment to the startup ecosystem in the country. Combining the reach of Invest India’s AGNIi Mission with the tech and business resources of Microsoft for Startups, this is an exciting opportunity for startups to accelerate their aspirations for enterprise readiness.”

The startups shortlisted by Microsoft for Startups for the current cohort include:

Amplearth Packaging & Systems: Enables latest innovations to help manufacture and manage large-scale sustainable and reusable FMCG packaging.

Arishti CyberTech: Enables security and flexibility within enterprise communications, enabling businesses to share sensitive data smoothly.

Daybest Research:  Provides smart agricultural intelligence and technology to farmers in India and government institutions.

Go Buzzr (Dev BeeTech): An agritech startup offering an IOT Based Smart Beehive Monitoring System that studies the condition of a beehives and communicate through the mobile application.

Prkruti (Jal Technologies): Provides businesses with an efficient outcome with their wide array of application services including Business Analysis & Documentation, B2B Technology, Software Solutions, E-commerce, Mobile Apps Design, Web-hosting & Website Development and Enterprise Application Integration.

Sandbird Research & Development: Provider of a smart electric tiller with which the farmers can sit remotely and operate the vehicle with remote control technologies without any need of a driver.

Vasudhaika Software (Kalgudi Digital): Provider of a convergence platform for businesses across agriculture & rural livelihoods by providing a holistic approach that benefits the organizations.

Vecmocon Technologies: Contributes to sustainable requirements of society through technology solutions such as smart battery pack, EV cluster, fleet management, operations motor and motor control.

Whrrl Fintech Solutions: Empowers farmers, traders and producer companies on blockchain platform in raising working capital to tide over lengthy crop cycles

YCLEPT 4E Labs: Provides clean energy, connectivity & local information on the go using eco-friendly smart solutions. It runs on clean energy and can be operated through cloud technology.

Yuktix Gidabits: Provides innovations around accurate farm monitoring, solar computing, wireless sensors, IoT for agriculture, harvest quality monitoring and farm risk and health management.

Dr Ranjan Pai Inaugurated “Rotary MAHE Skin Bank” At Kasturba Hospital, MAHE, Manipal

Today, Coastal Karnataka’s first-ever Skin Bank was Inaugurated by Dr Ranjan R Pai, Chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group. Rotary Club Manipal Town and Manipal Academy of Higher Education partnered to establish “Rotary MAHE Skin Bank” at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal.  Rotary Club Manipal Town received Rotary Foundation’s Global Grant for Rs 83 Lakhs to procure the equipment, and MAHE contributed Rs 50 Lakhs for the infrastructure creation.

While inaugurating the Rotary MAHE Skin Bank,  Dr Ranjan Pai said, “this Skin Bank will help the burn victims of this region, especially the underprivileged people. Through skin grafting by utilizing the readily available skin in the skin bank, the patients will get the best care, and their quality of life and self-esteem will improve. MAHE has always been at the forefront when it comes to the delivery of state of the art clinical care, and with this skin Bank, MAHE clinicians will demonstrate their astute skillsets in treating burn victims. I congratulate Rotary and MAHE team, who have made this possible”.

Dr NC Sreekumar, Professor and Head, Department of Plastic Surgery, KMC Manipal, explained the need and usefulness of Skin Bank at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal. He said “in the cases of major burn wounds, i.e., more than 30-40% wound, patients own skin is not sufficient to save them.  Although several expensive skin substitutes are available in the market, human cadaveric skin is the best substitute for skin. By having a skin Bank at Kasturba hospital, the burn patients need not wait for 2-3 days of the crucial period to procure the skin from other parts of India. The availability of skin is also an issue. By having our own skin back, we can start treatment quickly and reduce pain and even save lives”. 

Rotary District Governor Rtn PHF MG Ramachandra Murthy, Chief Guest of the function, said “This year’s theme of Rotary is ‘SERVE TO CHANGE LIVES. Rotary MAHE joint venture is offering Skin Bank to the community to changes the lives of people. Thanks to the Rotary Foundation, MAHE and Rotary International District 3182 and all involved in this project”. Along with Rtn Sadananda Chatra, Rtn Rajaram Bhat and Rtn Ganesh Nayak,  he handed over the Skin Bank equipment to MAHE. On behalf of MAHE, Dr HS Ballal- Pro Chancellor, Lt. Gen. (Dr) MD Venkatesh- Vice Chancellor and Mr CG Muthana- Chief Operating Officer of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal received the equipment.

One of the Guests of honour, Dr Sunil Keswani, Director of National Burns Centre and Skin Bank, Navi Mumbai, said, “It is indeed a momentous day for Karnataka that a Skin Bank has come up in Manipal. This is going to save many lives. My best wishes to KMC Manipal and Rotary Club Manipal Town on this historic occasion.”

Speaking during the occasion, the Chief Guest of the function Lt Gen (Dr) MD Venkatesh, said “with the establishment of Rotary MAHE Skin Bank at MAHE, we have the added responsibility of making skin available for major burns patients of this region. Let us work on war footing to create awareness among people to donate skin and maintain adequate stock in our Skin Bank. Through the philanthropic activity of Rotary, we are able to accomplish this, and I am thankful to all who have contributed to establishing this Skin Bank.

President of the function Dr HS Ballal said, “we have full-fledged Burns Unit with 18 beds under Plastic Surgery Dept.  To support this, Skin Bank is a must because almost all burns patients require skin grafting later. Think of Organ and tissue  donation not as a duty but as a privilege.   Pledging your organs and tissues is not just about making a donation.  It is about making a difference.”

Rtn. PHF Sesappa Rai read the messages of major contributors, Rtn. Dr Vasantha Prabhu and Rtn. Dinesh Nayak of USA; and message of Rtn Gulam A Vahanvaty, trustee of The Rotary Foundation. President of Rotary Club Manipal Town Rtn. Ganesh Nayak welcomed the gathering, and Dr Avinash Shetty, Medical Superintendent of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal proposed the vote of thanks. Rtn Dr Raviraja N S, Director-Corporate Relations, MAHE, presented the program.

ROTARY -MAHE SKIN BANK HELPLINE NUMBER – 09686676564.

IBM Unveils On-Chip Accelerated Artificial Intelligence Processor

 

* New chip design unlocks the ability to leverage deep learning inferencing on high-value transactions, designed to greatly improve the ability to intercept fraud, among other use cases

At the annual Hot Chips conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled details of the upcoming new IBM Telum Processor, designed to bring deep learning inference to enterprise workloads to help address fraud in real-time. Telum is IBM’s first processor that contains on-chip acceleration for AI inferencing while a transaction is taking place. Three years in development, the breakthrough of this new on-chip hardware acceleration is designed to help customers achieve business insights at scale across banking, finance, trading, insurance applications and customer interactions. A Telum-based system is planned for the first half of 2022.

According to recent Morning Consult research commissioned by IBM, 90% of respondents said that being able to build and run AI projects wherever their data resides is important[1]. IBM Telum is designed to enable applications to run efficiently where the data resides, helping to overcome traditional enterprise AI approaches that tend to require significant memory and data movement capabilities to handle inferencing. With Telum, the accelerator in close proximity to mission critical data and applications means that enterprises can conduct high volume inferencing for real time sensitive transactions without invoking off platform AI solutions, which may impact performance. Clients can also build and train AI models off-platform, deploy and infer on a Telum-enabled IBM system for analysis.

Innovations across banking, finance, trading, insurance

Today, businesses typically apply detection techniques to catch fraud after it occurs, a process that can be time consuming and compute-intensive due to the limitations of today’s technology, particularly when fraud analysis and detection is conducted far away from mission critical transactions and data. Due to latency requirements, complex fraud detection often cannot be completed in real-time – meaning a bad actor could have already successfully purchased goods with a stolen credit card before the retailer is aware fraud has taken place.

According to the Federal Trade Commission’s 2020 Consumer Sentinel Network Databook, consumers reported losing more than $3.3 billion to fraud in 2020, up from $1.8 billion in 2019[2]. Telum can help clients to move their thinking from a fraud detection posture to a fraud prevention posture, evolving from catching many cases of fraud today, to a potentially new era of prevention of fraud at scale, without impacting service level agreements (SLAs), before the transaction is completed.

The new chip features an innovative centralized design, which allows clients to leverage the full power of the AI processor for AI-specific workloads, making it ideal for financial services workloads like fraud detection, loan processing, clearing and settlement of trades, anti-money laundering and risk analysis. With these new innovations, clients will be positioned to enhance existing rules-based fraud detection or use machine learning, accelerate credit approval processes, improve customer service and profitability, identify which trades or transactions may fail, and propose solutions to create a more efficient settlement process.

Telum and IBM’s Full Stack Approach to Chip Design

Telum follows IBM’s long heritage of innovative design and engineering that includes hardware and software co-creation and integration that spans silicon, system, firmware, operating systems and leading software frameworks.

The chip contains 8 processor cores with a deep super-scalar out-of-order instruction pipeline, running with more than 5GHz clock frequency, optimized for the demands of heterogenous enterprise class workloads. The completely redesigned cache and chip-interconnection infrastructure provides 32MB cache per core, and can scale to 32 Telum chips. The dual-chip module design contains 22 billion transistors and 19 miles of wire on 17 metal layers.

Leadership in semiconductors

Telum is the first IBM chip with technology created by the IBM Research AI Hardware Center. In addition, Samsung is IBM’s technology development partner for the Telum processor, developed in 7nm EUV technology node.

Telum is another example of IBM’s leadership in hardware technology. IBM Research, among the world’s largest industrial research organizations, recently announced scaling to the 2 nm node, the latest benchmark in IBM’s legacy of contributions to silicon and semiconductor innovation. In Albany, NY, home to the IBM AI Hardware Center and Albany Nanotech Complex, IBM Research has created a leading collaborative ecosystem with public-private industry players to fuel advances in semiconductor research, helping to address global manufacturing demands and accelerate the growth of the chip industry.

Ravi Jain, Director - Server Sales, India South Asia said, "The financial services sector deals with a huge volume of transactions and mission critical workloads on a day-to-day basis. The newly launched IBM Telum, Z Series chip is designed to cater to the volume, while enabling applications to run efficiently where their data resides. The chip will also allow businesses to capture insights and fight fraud in real-time."

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

Tata Motors Names Its Upcoming SUV As ‘PUNCH’ In Indian Market

* Unveils its first SUV on the ALFA architecture

Following a grand unveil at the Auto Expo 2020 as the H2X Concept, Tata Motors is now gearing up to launch the newest addition to its SUV lineup. The Company has christened this highly anticipated SUV as ‘PUNCH’. Leading up to its national launch this festive season, Tata Motors has today officially unveiled the PUNCH, its first SUV built on ALFA-ARC (Agile Light Flexible Advanced Architecture), developed under Impact 2.0 design language. Designed for the next generation users, the Tata ‘PUNCH’ is a no-compromise SUV, offering an exciting mix of tough utility with sporting dynamics and epitomises what a characterful SUV should be. It is bold, young, modern yet robust, compact yet practical, tough yet playful and exudes true expression of confidence and individuality.

The Tata PUNCH has been cleverly carved to sneak through the busy streets while being a fun car to drive on winding, rugged countryside vistas. It packs in a punch for SUV enthusiasts by providing ample cabin space, great drivability, segment leading safety and power packed performance of a true SUV. Combined with its versatility to go anywhere, the high seating position and a dynamic SUV design makes it a desirable choice for all SUV lovers. Whilst delivering all the expected attributes, Tata Punch goes above and beyond to bring customer an impactful offering, never seen presence like before, with extraordinary attention to detail and pristine quality execution, all while delivering a dynamic, stylish and a trendy urban SUV.

Unveiling this much-awaited SUV, Mr. Shailesh Chandra - President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors said – “Tata PUNCH, as the name suggest is an energetic vehicle with a capability to go anywhere. Light on its feet and strong in its caliber, this is a vehicle which truly punches above its weight. With the perfect combination of stunning design, technology and driving dynamics, the PUNCH will come equipped with superlative features and an architecture that has proven its versatility in all forms. True to the SUV genes of all Tata Motors’ products and catering to needs of customers who are looking for a compact city car with pure SUV characteristics, PUNCH will be the fourth addition to our SUV family, widening the range of options for all to choose from. 

Intelligently designed in a compact footprint, the Tata PUNCH will be a high impact SUV and will redefine this crowded market. Its muscular surfacing and an athletic look make a perfect amalgamation for a tough SUV, living up to its bigger brothers. With lightweight, modular and flexible characteristics, the ALFA architecture has the ability to evolve into a range of modern and youthful vehicles within a short development cycle. Conceptualized to redefine the SUV segment, the PUNCH is all set enter the market this festive season and create a niche of its own.

Furthermore, Tata Motors also announces the digital footprint of its brand ‘PUNCH’. Consumers can follow its journey on the dedicated brand social media handles @tatapunchofficial or visit the website at https://cars.tatamotors.com/suv/punch

Click here to watch the name reveal video - https://youtu.be/bCfX3Y2CmBY

Emirates Lives Up To Its Customer Experience Promise Helping Over 2 Million Customers Take More Control Over Their Travel Plans

* More than 24 month validity for tickets and extension of waiver until 31 May 2022

* Emirates raising industry benchmark on turnaround speed for refunds to customers

In the ever-evolving travel landscape, Emirates continues to prioritise choice and flexibility for its customers to help them make the most of the changes that come their way. Since March 2020, the airline has helped over 2 million customers make multiple date or destination changes, or exchange their tickets for vouchers to be utilised for future travel. More than 92,000 customers have exchanged their tickets for travel vouchers, and more than 38,000 of them have flown and are planning to fly with their redeemed vouchers for tickets.

Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer for Emirates Airline said: “As demand gradually grows for international travel, customer assurance and seamless booking flexibility will remain central to our strategy. Ensuring we have the most customer-friendly booking policies has helped build confidence amongst travellers when deciding to fly with us, giving them more control over their travel plans when uncertainty hits. This means empowering them to make stress-free changes through our generous waiver policy, allowing easy redemption of vouchers, ensuring faster refund processing times, all coupled with our industry-leading multi-risk insurance cover, and the extension of tier status and Miles for our Skywards members.”

The airline rewrote the playbook on booking flexibility, when it introduced the industry’s most generous ticket validity, giving customers the option to hold or use their ticket anytime for more than 24 months. Now, the airline has extended its booking waiver for travel through 31 May 2022, ensuring customers can book with confidence knowing they are fully supported should their travel situation change.

Emirates has also continued its long-standing commitment of honouring refunds to its customers, processing nearly 3.3 million refund requests to date since the start of the pandemic. The airline has bolstered its capabilities to manage refunds for tickets, resulting in a speedy turnaround time for its travel agency partners and customers, raising the bar as the fastest in the industry, building more trust, goodwill and loyalty for the future.

Emirates customers have also benefitted from the industry’s most comprehensive multi-risk travel cover since it was launched in December 2020. The airline was the first to provide additional assurance for travellers, strengthening its proposition for added peace of mind. Since its introduction, over 7.2 million customers have flown with confidence knowing they were protected through Emirates’ multi-risk insurance cover.

Emirates has also been inspiring loyalty and increasing retention among its frequent flyers. Emirates Skywards has extended the tier status for over 630,000 Silver, Gold and Platinum members until 2022. It has also extended the validity of 51 billion Skywards Miles, allowing members to hold on to them for future flights, upgrades and other partner rewards.

YES Bank, WheelsEMI Enter Co-Lending Partnership For Two-Wheeler Loans Across Indian Market

 YES Bank and WheelsEMI Pvt Ltd, have entered into a strategic co-lending agreement to offer two-wheeler loans at competitive interest rates. The partnership aims at synergizing respective capabilities to provide an efficient and seamless lending experience to two-wheeler buyers across India.

The co-lending framework laid down by Reserve Bank of India provides a collaboration tool which benefits from the low-cost funds of a Bank and the sourcing and servicing expertise of a NBFC. This alliance leverages the strengths of both lenders, making this a winning proposition for all stakeholders, thereby expanding the reach to underserved markets.

WheelsEMI offers a range of affordable solutions along the two-wheeler ownership-ridership lifecycle, driving affordable mobility for working families. These include financing of new and pre-owned two wheelers, access to Electric bikes, insurance, servicing, spare parts management and a transparent marketplace for pre-owned two wheelers. WheelsEMI specializes in financing customers in deep geographies through its unique model which bridges the digital divide between the urban and rural geographies while enabling mobility to the under-represented segment of customers.

Under the arrangement, both the lenders plan to finance over 1 lakh two-wheelers in the first phase.

Rajan Pental, Global Head – Retail Banking, YES BANK, said, “We are pleased to partner with WheelsEMI. This arrangement will enable the Bank to enhance its reach by entering and deepening its presence in newer markets.  We look forward to leverage the strengths of Wheels EMI in semi urban and rural markets and build a profitable and sustainable two-wheeler loan portfolio through this partnership.”

Srinivas Kantheti, MD & CEO, WheelsEMI added, “Two wheelers present a huge white space, and we are excited to partner with Yes Bank. This partnership will leverage our investment, increase our reach while building a quality book for the Bank.”

About YES BANK

YES BANK is a ‘Full Service Commercial Bank’ providing a complete range of products, services and technology driven digital offerings, catering to Retail, MSME as well as corporate clients.

YES BANK operates its Investment banking, Merchant banking & Brokerage businesses through YES SECURITIES and its Mutual Fund business through YES Asset Management (India) Limited, both wholly owned subsidiaries of the Bank. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has a pan-India presence across all 28 states and 8 Union Territories in India including an IBU at GIFT City, and a Representative Office in Abu Dhabi.

For more information visit the Bank’s website at http://www.yesbank.in/. 

About WheelsEMI

WheelsEMI Pvt Ltd is India’s first two-wheeler life cycle management company offering a range of affordable solutions along the two-wheeler ownership-ridership lifecycle, driving mobility for working families including financing to purchase new and pre-owned two wheelers, access to Electric bikes, insurance, servicing, spare parts management and a transparent marketplace for pre-owned two wheelers. Over the last three years, the company has expanded across 13 states and 100+ cities in India with over 3 Lakh customers.

Mahindra Launches A Unique Finance Scheme For Its PickUps And Small Commercial Vehicles In Partnership With State Bank of India

EMI starting as low as Rs 6666 per month

·         Lower interest rate starting from 11.5%

·         Higher Loan Amount – 85% On-Road funding (Maximum: Rs. 10 lakhs)

·         Higher Loan Tenure: Up to 6 years (Including Moratorium of 1 month)

·         No third-party guarantor. No ITR required for First Time Users (FTUs)

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., one of the top Commercial Vehicle manufacturers in India, offering the widest range of products and solutions from 3-wheelers to 55 ton HCV Trucks has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State Bank of India (SBI). The MoU is set to offer unique financial assistance for the purchase of M&M’s range of small commercial vehicles and PickUps, providing among the best interest rate and loan tenure. SBI’s Contactless Lending Platform technology will further ensure uniformity, transparency and a reduced turnaround time in the loan approval process. It will also allow flexibility in a customer’s cashflow and contactless ownership experiences for brands such as SUPRO Profittruck & Jeeto and PickUp product range to make Mahindra vehicle ownership safe and affordable.

Commenting on the announcement, Amit Sagar, Business Head – SCV at Automotive division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said, “In our endeavor to provide the best customer experience and service, we are consistently looking for offerings that will delight our customers. Our financing scheme is not just unique, but also very pertinent, given SBI’s reach and trust across the length and breadth of the country. This scheme will provide the desired impetus and confidence to our SCV and PickUp customers and help them prosper.”

The collaboration with SBI will allow M&M’s small commercial vehicles customers to avail loan in a contactless and hassle-free manner with only 59 minutes loan approval process.  This will help customers own a superior product with EMI as low as Rs. 6666 (for a loan amount of 3.45 lacs) and a lower interest rate of 11.5%. It also gives flexibility of extended tenure up to 6 years including a one-month moratorium period also. The customers can opt for a higher loan amount with up to 85% on-road funding. There is no requirement of any third-party guarantor. Along with MSME, small road transport operators and First Time Buyers of small commercial vehicles can also take benefit from this breakthrough M&M vehicle financing scheme with SBI.

The State Bank of India, with a pan-India reach and more than 22,000 branches, has an extensive network across the country, and through this partnership it hopes to strengthen its reach, especially in rural areas, aiding employment as well as providing unique and innovative financial assistance to its customers.

M&M recently launched the SUPRO Profittruck range which is developed on the successful SUPRO platform. It is affordable, more powerful, boasts of a greater payload capacity and higher mileage and thereby higher profit to the customers. The SUPRO Profittruck range comes in both diesel as well as CNG fuel options. The Jeeto brand launched in 2015, has been a great success and a choice of over 2 lakh happy customers. It is a strong offering in <2Ton load category which comes with multi fuel options of Diesel, CNG & Gasoline and in two different deck sizes providing array of options to customer. Mahindra Bolero PickUp range has been the market leader for over two decades with more than 16 lakh happy customers. Mahindra Bolero PickUp has a wide range of vehicles – Single cabin, Double cabin, AC, 4WD and CNG options along with multiple payload and cargo sizes suiting the customer requirements.  The aim is to influence the customer’s life positively and enable them to earn more & to progress in life, while building a long-term relationship with brand Mahindra. M&M also provides best in class after sales support through its vast Primary and Secondary service network and trained technicians.

About Mahindra:

Founded in 1945, the Mahindra Group is one of the largest and most admired multinational federation of companies with 260,000 employees in over 100 countries. It enjoys a leadership position in farm equipment, utility vehicles, information technology and financial services in India and is the world’s largest tractor company by volume. It has a strong presence in renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality and real estate.

The Mahindra Group has a clear focus on leading ESG globally, enabling rural prosperity and enhancing urban living, with a goal to drive positive change in the lives of communities and stakeholders to enable them to Rise.