All Indians Matter Podcast Achieves Milestone, Completes 100 Episodes

* Since its launch a year ago, the show has built a dedicated, growing audience in India and across the world

* Episode 100 is a special conversation on issues that are top-of-mind for most Indians

The All Indians Matter podcast, hosted by veteran journalist Ashraf Engineer and managed by IdeaBrew Studios, will publish its 100th episode on September 4, 2021. The podcast, launched on Independence Day Eve last year, publishes two episodes a week – a conversation with an expert on an issue on Wednesdays and solo commentary by Engineer on Saturdays.

The podcast is a digital home for conversations with and about India on issues that truly matter. It is available on all major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Jio Saavn, Gaana, Wynk, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Amazon Prime Music India and many others.

The 100th episode is a special one. As the country goes through profound political and social changes, what are common Indians thinking? What do they want from the next decade and what keeps them up at night? Episode 100 is a conversation around these questions with people that common Indians can identify with – senior journalist Aarefa Johari, development sector professional and education equity worker Malvika Agarwal, and financial markets veteran Himanshu Vyas.

The conversation covers a wide range of topics that dominate the minds of common Indians: the worrying employment situation, social fissures, hyper nationalism, the economy, how India will negotiate a post-COVID world, to name a few.

Over the past year, the podcast has covered a variety of issues, from climate change to content laws and from the new farm laws to the worrying incidents of police torture. It has had a range of guests, from world renowned economist Jean Dreze to poet-lyricist Hussain Haidry and from social activist Harsh Mander to acid attack victim Daulat Khan.

There was also a special six-part series on Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination: the conspiracy, the people behind it, the political impact and why the Father of the Nation is relevant today. It comprised a series of conversations with Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of the Mahatma, Gandhi scholar, author and peace activist.

The podcast has built a solid reputation and audience not just across India but also globally, with people listening in from countries as distant and varied as the US, the UK, the UAE, Russia, France, Brazil and even Burkina Faso.

“In today’s times, audiences need a sane, clear voice that explains how national issues affect their lives every day. For instance, if the GDP-to-government debt ratio is high, how does it affect the common man’s budget? Or, if new farm laws are passed, what does it mean for prices of essentials and food security? People need clarity, someone to make sense of events for them. Unburdened by the organisational priorities of large media houses, independent media is uniquely placed to do this. The success of the All Indians Matter podcast is testimony to this,” said Engineer.

Aditya Kuber, co-founder of IdeaBrew Studios, which manages 86 shows now, said: “All Indians Matter was the first of our podcasts to go live. We believe strongly in the concept. It now has a dedicated and growing audience, which only underscores how much the demand for high-quality news-related content is expanding. It is attracting significant advertiser interest too. It’s a matter of pride that the podcast is 100 episodes old and we look forward to the next 100.”

Tableau Launches New Innovations And Enterprise Plans To Strengthen Organization-Wide Analytics

* End-to-end solution makes it simpler to buy, scale, govern and deploy self-service analytics 

Tableau, the world’s leading analytics platform (NYSE: CRM), unveiled new data and analytics platform capabilities today. The new enterprise capabilities and new enterprise subscription plans will help customers advance their digital transformations by empowering everyone in an organization with trusted and governed data, driving greater success with data and analytics at scale and better business outcomes.

“Tableau’s been at the forefront of our journey to better understand and serve our customers through data,” said Megan Oertel, Director of Product Analytics, Sysco LABS. “Tableau is used across our entire organization to help us report from all the different data sources we have in a governed and trusted way.”

According to McKinsey, 92 percent of companies are failing to scale analytics. And new data from Mulesoft and Coleman Parkes Research found that 87 percent of IT and business leaders are concerned that security and governance are slowing the pace of innovation. 

“IT leaders are facing unprecedented challenges today and the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to increase data self-sufficiency and empower everyone to do more with data,” said Doug Henschen, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. “It’s no longer a luxury for businesses to have a data analytics platform, it’s a necessity that could make the difference between surviving and thriving.”

Key new capabilities and improvements are focused on:

Managing the data chaos and enabling data governance at scale. New capabilities are making data challenges easier to manage, easier to scale, and easier to trust

Data Prep: Tableau Prep now makes it easier for customers to reduce loads/costs of server resources automatically and generate rows to more easily map out trends in data 

Governance: New features help ensure/maintain data quality by alerting you of any potential issues and provide easier visibility into the type of data you have and where it came from 

Centralized row level security: New features allow for increased flexibility and segmentation by allowing Tableau administrators to centrally configure which users and groups have access to which slices of data configure access. 

Ensuring analytics scales with enterprise demand 

Enterprise reference architecture: Enterprise Deployment Guidelines (EDG) provides the Tableau reference architecture for our enterprise customers with a prescriptive methodology to achieve requirements around availability, scalability and security. EDG is technology agnostic, platform independent and aligned with enterprise data center best practices.

Dynamic Scaling: New feature helps enterprises appropriately resource their deployment and ensures enough containers are available during peak demand times and scale down during low demand times.

o   Resource Management: IT teams can better optimize the performance of Tableau Server by defining application resource limits.

New enterprise subscription plans make it even easier to procure and deploy Tableau across an entire organization. By bundling analytics with Data Management and Server Management, enterprise customers can more easily procure and deploy Tableau’s full capabilities to benefit everyone.

“Tableau has long been a favorite to help individuals see and understand data,” said Francois Ajenstat, Chief Product Officer, Tableau. “We’re making it easier for IT leaders to make it a favorite across the entire enterprise and deliver an end-to-end solution to leverage the full power of data analytics.”

The data prep and catalog improvements along with the new subscription plans will be available later this month with the release of Tableau 2021.3. The additional features will be available in the coming months. To learn more, visit: www.tableau.com/products/our-platform.

Sugar.fit Is Slated To Raise $10 Mn In Seed Funding Led By Cure.fit, Endiya Partners And Tanglin Venture Partners

* Sugar.fit offers a holistic data-driven approach that will help customers prevent, manage and reverse diabetes in 6-12 months’ time

* Sugar.fit was in stealth mode for the last 9 months; they have recently concluded a pilot and have now launched in Bangalore and Delhi-NCR

cure.fit, India’s leading health and fitness company, along with Endiya Partners and Tanglin Venture Partners have agreed to invest $10 million in Sugar.fit – a healthtech startup that seeks to manage and reverse diabetes through a highly consumer-centric data-driven digital health experience. The investment is expected to close by September.

About 70 million people in India suffer from diabetes and another 80 million are pre-diabetic. Diabetes is the leading cause of several fatal health complications which requires people to continuously monitor and regulate their sugar levels.

The startup uses continuous glucose monitoring technology (CGM), which helps users see real-time impact of various food and lifestyle activities on their blood sugar level. Sugar.fit’s comprehensive program further combines medical experts with deep technology, including coaching, personalised analytics, and integrated devices and testing.

Cure.fit will actively support the Sugar.fit team with their fitness and wellness content, and access to their millions of health-conscious consumer base in the country. Cure.fit's digital capabilities in pre-emptive health, scale of Cult.fit, and network of doctors and coaches are strong assets for sugar.fit.

Sugar.fit launched two months ago and is currently operational in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR. The company has seen strong traction and is on track to hit $1mm ARR this quarter. Sugar.fit plans to expand to 10 cities over the next few months.

Commenting on the investment, Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni, Partner, Endiya Partners said: “There is increasing evidence that with proper medical and lifestyle interventions, diabetes can be prevented, managed better and even reversed. However, current systems of care management are often generic and lack personalisation. Sugar.fit’s goal to sustainably manage and reverse diabetes for millions of Indians in the next few years is a worthy goal which we at Endiya are thrilled to partner in.”

Madan Somasundaram, Co-founder of Sugar.fit said: “We have an innovative tech-led solution that gives real-time tracking and hands-on personalised assistance to our customers. 90% of our users are seeing significant drop in their blood sugar levels along with drastic reduction in medication and weight and are on track for diabetes reversal. Our customers have rated the product 3.9 on a scale of 4 and we are seeing referrals from word-of-mouth every day. I am confident that Sugar.fit can sustainably manage and reverse diabetes for millions of Indians in the next few years.”

Sugar.fit’s founding team includes Madan Somasundaram and Shivtosh Kumar and the core founding

team comes with vast experience in building and scaling products at cure.fit, Dailyhunt, Flipkart, Myntra, Samsung etc. Majority of the tech team is from Curefit and have avg experience of 5+ years. The team has previously built health products with NPS of 80+.

For more information on Sugar.fit, visit: https://www.sugarfit.com/

About cure.fit

cure.fit is a health and fitness company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, cure.fit caters to living a healthy life through its critical dimensions — physical fitness & wellness. The platform, branded as cult.fit, 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. The platform 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, visit: www.cult.fit

About Endiya Partners

Endiya Partners is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in Indian product start-ups that are globally relevant. Leveraging deep domain expertise along with vast entrepreneurial and operating experience, the Endiya team plays a key role in co-creating scalable businesses. Endiya’s portfolio consists of disruptive and category-defining companies across SaaS, Fintech, Deeptech, and Healthcare sectors including companies like  Darwinbox, Kissht, Curefit, SigTuple and Qapita. Founded in 2015, Endiya Partners has $100M under management.

BPCL’s AI Enabled Chatbot URJA Enhances Digital Experience Of Customers

* Urja is the first AI-driven chatbot in the country’s Oil & Gas industry

* Integrated with company’s Website & WhatsApp Number

* Urja has already crossed over 1 Crores customer sessions with an overall rating of 4.5+/5

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a ‘Maharatna’ and a Fortune Global 500 Company, announces the launch of ‘Urja’, an intelligent virtual assistant with AI/NLP (Natural Language Processing) capabilities and trained on more than 600 use cases. With the objective of making BPCL’s customer interface comprehensive & integrated digitally, Urja, the Chatbot is now available on the company website for any queries for both B2B & B2C. The virtual assistant is designed to deliver a seamless self-service experience and enable faster resolution of consumer queries / issues.

BPCL has initiated “Project Anubhav” with an objective of delivering to its vast retail (B2C) and commercial (B2B) customer base a consistent superior and unified experience of BPCL across multiple touchpoints. Under Project Anubhav, Urja represents an integrated communication platform that connects all BPCL communication to any channel, unifying all customer touch points with a single and cohesive voice. After a successful 6 month pilot on WhatsApp for enabling LPG bookings; Urja today speaks in 13 languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu and Assamese). Over 45% of the conversations with Urja are in the non-English languages ensuring inclusiveness for all types of customers of BPCL.

BPCL has domestic LPG customer base of 8.5 Crores plus customers across the country, served by more than 6000 distributors. With over 19000 petrol pumps spreads across the country, BPCL today serves approx. 30% of the fuelling requirement of the country. In addition, BPCL also services 12 lakh+ B2B customers for their fuel, lubricants and gas requirements across industries. URJA plays a vital role to answer & provide solutions for consumer’s queries & requirements with its Artificial Intelligence.

BPCLs core values include customer centricity, customer focus. Commenting on this initiative Mr. Arun Kumar Singh, Director Marketing, said “We at BPCL always work hard for welfare of our customers and towards growth of the nation innovatively and efficiently. Through our ‘Urja’ chatbot we aim at providing an entirely new experience for our consumers and creating an AI based virtual assistant for availing key services and to provide real time resolution of queries.”

Following are the services being offered through the Virtual Assistant:

·         LPG services:

o   Booking of LPG Cylinders

o   Know price of LPG cylinders & Payment for LPG Cylinders

o   Delivery status of booked LPG cylinder & refill history

o   Change the LPG Distributor

o   Update mobile number

o   Request services from BharatGas distributors like mechanic services

o   Request Double bottle connection (for single bottle connection customers)

o   Emergency & Complaints/Feedbacks

·         Fuel services

o   Locate nearest fuel station / pump and get directed to the pump

o   Get Petrol / Diesel Price

o   Get details of UFill Vouchers

o   Know about BPCL programme’s and offers including Smartdrive & Smartfleet Loyalty Programme, Fuel Kart Door Delivery etc.

o   Smartdrive Loyalty Programme : Check Petromiles and wallet balance, check transaction and recharge history

o   Request door delivery of fuel through BPCLs Fuel Kart Programme

·         Know about BPCLs products including industrial fuels, solvents, MAK Lubricants.

·         Customers can now show interest in BPCLs products and BPCLs field teams can connect with such customers. 

·         Feedback from Customers across services

·         FAQs across all businesses and services of BPCL

You can chat with her on WhatsApp: http://bit.ly/3to7i3j or on our website: http://bit.ly/2AO8K8l

New Land Rover Defender V8 Bond Edition Inspired By No Time To Die

* Unstoppable and exclusive: New Land Rover Defender V8 Bond Edition created by Land Rover SV Bespoke to celebrate Defender’s role in 25th James Bond film, No Time To Die

* Potent performance: Powerful new model is based on the recently launched 386 kW Defender V8 and is available in both 90 and 110 body designs

* Licence to drive: Design inspired by the Defenders which appear in No Time To Die and includes the Extended Black Pack with 50.80 cm (20) Satin Dark Grey wheels and Xenon Blue front brake calipers

* Bespoke touches: Unique ‘Defender 007’ rear badge, 007 puddle lamp, illuminated treadplates and exclusive touchscreen animation on the Pivi Pro infotainment

* Collector’s item: Each Defender V8 Bond Edition carries the SV Bespoke logo and an exclusive ‘One of 300’ etching

* Screen inspiration: No Time To Die is released in cinemas globally from September 30 2021

Land Rover SV Bespoke has created a new Land Rover Defender V8 Bond Edition to celebrate the 25th James Bond film, No Time To Die, ahead of its world premiere later this month.

Available to order as a Defender 110 or 90 and inspired by the specification of the Defenders that appear in No Time To Die, the stealthy Defender V8 Bond Edition features an Extended Black Pack with 50.80 cm (20) Satin Dark Grey wheels, signature Xenon Blue front brake calipers and a ‘Defender 007’ rear badge.

The bespoke touches extend to the practical interior, with illuminated ‘Defender 007’ treadplates and a specially developed touchscreen start-up animation for the intuitive Pivi Pro infotainment system that honours Land Rover’s long partnership with the James Bond franchise. At night, customers will also spot unique ‘007’ puddle lamp graphics.

Exclusively available to just 300 buyers around the world, the Defender V8 Bond Edition’s interior features laser etching detailing that it is ‘one of 300’ and the SV Bespoke logo. Each vehicle is commissioned by the vehicle personalisation experts at SV Bespoke in the UK.

Finbar McFall, Land Rover Brand Director, said: “The Land Rover Defender V8 Bond Edition is an exclusive take on the most powerful production Defender ever made, inspired by vehicles on screen in No Time To Die. It represents a meeting of two great British brands and is a unique celebration of Land Rover’s 38-year association with James Bond.”

Defenders are at the heart of the action in No Time To Die alongside two Range Rover Sport SVRs. A Range Rover Classic and Land Rover Series III are also in the film, which will be released in cinemas around the world from September 30 2021.

Based on the recently launched Defender V8, the Bond Edition is powered by a 5.0-litre supercharged petrol engine, which produces 386 kW, 625 Nm of torque and drives through an eight-speed automatic transmission. The Defender V8 90 accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 5.2 s with a top speed of 240 km/h.

It delivers new levels of performance and driver engagement by combining the V8 with expertly developed suspension and transmission tuning to create the fastest and most dynamically rewarding Defender yet.

With unique suspension and transmission tuning, including bespoke spring and damper rates and a new Electronic Active Rear Differential, Defender V8 delivers more agile and engaging handling with heightened body control – all accompanied by a characteristic V8 supercharged soundtrack.

No Time To Die is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and stars Daniel Craig, who returns for his fifth and final film as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007. The film will be released in cinemas from September 30 2021 in the UK through Universal Pictures International and in the US on October 8 2021, from Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) via their United Artists Releasing banner.

Department Of Philosophy – MAHE To Launch Master’s In Sanskrit Studies

The Department of Philosophy (DoP) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) - an Institution of Eminence is all set to launch Master’s in Sanskrit Studies from this academic year onward. The launch of Master’s in Sanskrit Studies will be set off by the inaugural address ‘The Importance of a Multidisciplinary Approach to Liberal Arts in India’ highlighting the case for Sanskrit in current educational scenario delivered by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chair of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), Govt of India, New Delhi. Prof Debroy is a Sanskrit scholar and an Economist. He has translated major literary classics from Sanskrit to English that run over 8000 pages, stated the release issued by the Department.

The address will be a part of the orientation day for its master’s students in European Studies, Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit Studies organised jointly by the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence – Manipal Centre for European Studies (MCES) and the Department of Philosophy (DoP) on Friday, 3 September 2021 at 3 pm with a special inaugural address via Zoom – https://bit.ly/orientation3sep2021. The event is open to all. Subsequently, the students will go through a rigorous one-week immersion program sessions (seminars and workshops) conducted by various professors from institutes like – IIT Bombay and Kharagpur, Manipal University Jaipur, Krea University and MAHE, Manipal before the actual classes begin.

As a constituent of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, the Department of Philosophy conducts teaching and research activities in the areas of Humanities and Social Sciences through academic programs, projects, publications, and events. In consonance with the National Education Policy (NEP), the Department aims at transcending the disciplinary boundaries and offers two multidisciplinary programs – MA Indian Philosophy and MA Sanskrit Studies and other courses in humanities. With a team of promising scholars who are the beneficiaries of prestigious Erasmus Plus and Raman Charpak research fellowships at European universities, the Department is collaborating with the University of Toronto, Canada on a project on Indian dialectics and argumentation funded by Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI), New Delhi. It has also developed the first searchable Digital Concordance – MAHE Mahabharata with three critical editions (http://mahabharata.manipal.edu/). The Department has brought out several scholarly translations and publications and is conducting interdisciplinary research in the areas of philosophy, literature, digital humanities and computational linguistics, the release noted.

The MA Indian Philosophy program involves critical and interdisciplinary engagements with Indian discourses and introduces philosophising as a skill set which students can incorporate in their approach to other academic fields, as an acquired life skill, and as a professional competence necessary for diverse career pursuits. The program accommodates students from diverse academic backgrounds and offers ample exposure to variety of philosophical subjects such as ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and linguistics. 

The two-year MA Sanskrit Studies provides an opportunity to acquire proficiency in Sanskrit language and study its linguistic foundations, while also understanding Sanskrit as a broadly-deployed medium of intellectual, literary, artistic, and religious expression in India. It incorporates an attempt to trace and reconstruct the intellectual history of India and develop a familiarity with the ongoing debates and topics in the study of Sanskrit. The program aims at equipping students with the skills necessary for interpreting and analysing Sanskrit texts of various genres - epic, poetry, commentary, and exploring the intertextual links between discourses in pre-modern and modern Indian literatures. Both the programs offer a yearly exit option with a PG Diploma, concluded the note.

MaxiVision Eye Hospital Unveiled Free COVID-19 Vaccination Drive

* An initiative to extend support to the Government’s efforts in mass vaccination

Hyderabad Based MaxiVision eye hospital has launched Free COVID19 Vaccine drive today in its Somajiguda hospital. Sri.Anjani Kumar – Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad and Sri .Muralidharan FICCI Chairman have graced the occasion as chief guests. Dr.GSK Velu – Chairman, MaxiVision Eye Hospitals, Dr.Kasu Prasad Reddy Garu – Co-Chairman, Founder & Mentor, MaxiVision Eye Hospitals have attended the program as guests of honour

This drive has been taken up by MaxiVision as part of its CSR initiative in the light of the pandemic, with a view to accelerate vaccinations for the needy. Vaccination Drive starting from today will continue until 5th of September, 2021. This initiative is engineered in partnership with FICCI and Neuberg Diagnostics, the drive will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the mentioned dates and will be administering Covaxin to the attendees.

Speaking on the occasion Dr.GSK Velu – Chairman, MaxiVision Eye Hospitals said, “MaxiVision, though it is a single-specialty hospital, has always had a heart for charity. When the pandemic swept the city, our doctors and paramedics braved themselves and treated patients who were in need of emergency services. This time we are planning to dispense 50% of our vaccine stocks free of cost to the poor and needy. Though Telangana Government is well ahead in mass vaccination drives, this small attempt is to supplement the Government’s efforts in this part of the city. We have created a separate block with all paramedical support in our hospital at Somajiguda. 1000 people can have free vaccines from 2nd till 5th. We will extend the numbers to 2000 if there is continuing demand.”

Elaborating more on the same Dr.Kasu Prasad Reddy Garu – Co-Chairman, Founder & Mentor, MaxiVision Eye Hospitals,said  MaxiVision Eye Hospital has always been at the forefront of extending help to those in dire need, be it reaching out to Kerala with essential commodities during the floods or providing emergency medical services in the pandemic.This free vaccination drive is yet another attempt by MaxiVision in doing its bit in helping society in these uncertain times.

Despite many rounds of mass vaccination drives conducted by the Telangana government, many sections of the city remain unvaccinated. The hospital plans on distributing half of its vaccine supply in this free vaccination drive and is prepared to extend the drive if the demand continues.

Appointments for the vaccination drive can be made on calling: 9390035926.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner Sri Anjani Kumar IPS addressing the media during the free COVID19 vaccine drive launch in MaxiVision Eye Hospital Today. Dr.Kasu Prasad Reddy - CO-Chairman MaxiVision Eye Hospital, Sri. A.Murali Krishna Reddy - CO-Chairman FICCI is also seen in the picture.