Cert-In & KOO Collaborate To Spread Awareness On Cyber Security

* The campaign will run through October 2021 with the theme ‘Do Your Part, #BeCyberSmart’

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, and India’s multi-lingual micro-blogging platform Koo are jointly executing citizen outreach activity to create awareness on cyber security this October - which is observed as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This collaboration aims to increase public awareness on the need to stay safe and secure online and leverages the theme  - Do Your Part, #BeCyberSmart. CERT-In and Koo App will boost awareness on issues like phishing, hacking, personal information security, password & PIN management, avoiding clickbait and protecting one’s privacy while using public Wi-Fi. 

Koo App will run this campaign across multiple Indian languages to strengthen the outreach amongst internet users from across the country. A slew of contests will be held to enhance engagement and knowledge sharing on this crucial subject, with winners getting exciting prizes.

Throwing light on this collaboration, Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder & CEO, Koo App said, “As a unique social media platform that empowers Indians to engage and connect across multiple languages, we seek to empower our users with crucial information pertaining to aspects of cyber security and privacy - which is needed to make the interconnected world much more secure and resilient. We are pleased to associate with CERT-In, the National Nodal Agency for incident response, to build awareness on cyber security, which we believe is part of Koo’s continued efforts to make social media a safe, trustworthy and reliable platform for internet users.”

Dr. Sanjay Bahl, Director General, CERT-In said, “People are the weakest link in cyber security.  To sensitize citizens and increase cyber security awareness amongst them, CERT-In is observing Cyber Security Awareness Month during October 2021 with the theme ‘Do Your Part, #BeCyberSmart’. Towards this, various citizen-oriented campaigns as well as training programs for the technical cyber security community in India are in progress. The collaboration with Koo is a step in this direction for the digital age citizens to enjoy their online experience in a safe and secure manner.”

About Koo:

Koo was founded in March 2020 as a multilingual micro-blogging platform in Indian languages. Available in multiple Indian languages, Koo enables people from different regions in India to express themselves in their mother tongue. In a country where just 10% of India speak English, there’s a deep need for a social media platform that can deliver immersive language experiences to Indian users and help them connect with each other. Koo provides a stage for the voices of Indians who prefer to interact in Indian languages. Crores of users, including some of the most eminent personalities from across India, now use the platform actively. 

Jaguar Land Rover Trials World-First Digital Supply Chain For Leather Using Blockchain Technology

* Secure blockchain technology ensures full transparency in the leather supply chain

* Jaguar Land Rover partners with Circulor, Bridge of Weir Leather Company and University of Nottingham on industry-leading leather trial

* ‘Digital twin’ created to track entire leather production process using GPS, biometrics and QR codes

* Project is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s commitment to offering customers sustainable and responsible premium material choices

* Trial is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s journey to net zero carbon emissions across its supply chain, products and operations by 2039

Jaguar Land Rover has trialled the use of secure blockchain technology to ensure full transparency within a sustainable leather supply chain.

In the world-first, Jaguar Land Rover partnered with supply chain traceability provider Circulor, leading UK leather manufacturer Bridge of Weir Leather Company and the University of Nottingham to trial the use of traceability technology in the leather supply chain.

As well as tracking compliance, the digital process enabled Jaguar Land Rover to assess the carbon footprint of its leather supply network, working with UK-based Bridge of Weir Leather Company to trace its lowest carbon leather from farm to finished article – all part of Jaguar Land Rover’s commitment to reducing the environmental and ethical impact of its products across their lifecycle.

Jaguar Land Rover is committed to offering customers more sustainable and responsible material choices for their vehicle interiors, such as Kvadrat – a refined high-quality wool blend textile that's paired with a suede cloth made from 53 recycled plastic bottles per vehicle – available on Jaguar’s all-electric I-PACE.

As part of the Innovate UK-funded research, a ‘digital twin’ of the raw material was created, allowing its progress to be tracked through the leather supply chain simultaneously in the real world and digitally. A combination of GPS data, biometrics and QR codes was used to digitally verify the movement of leather at every step of the process using blockchain technology.

Defining the verification process has created a repeatable blueprint for tracing a single piece of leather at every stage. It can be used across Jaguar Land Rover’s global supply chain and by other industries that rely on leather, such as fashion and footwear.

The project is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s Reimagine strategy: a sustainability-rich combination of modern luxury, unique customer experiences, and positive societal impact.

Reimagine aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its supply chain, products and operations by 2039. Jaguar Land Rover will work with industry experts to improve sustainability, reduce emissions and collaborate on next-generation technology, data and software development leadership.

Dave Owen, Jaguar Land Rover Executive Director of Supply Chain, said: “We are currently restructuring our supply chain as part of Reimagine, with a focus on transparency and sustainability. The outcome from this world-first trial will allow us to further improve the sustainability of the leather supply chain around the globe, ensuring the complete traceability of raw materials from origin to vehicle.

“This is one step in our journey to net zero carbon emissions across our supply chain, products and operations by 2039, enabled by leading edge digital capabilities.”

Through InMotion, its venture capital and mobility services arm, Jaguar Land Rover previously announced an investment in Circulor, allowing the company to source premium materials with greater transparency as to the provenance, welfare, and compliance of suppliers throughout its networks.

The technology could be deployed to trace other commodities. Circulor is already using blockchain to improve the traceability of minerals used for electric vehicle batteries. Blockchain technology is impossible to modify or tamper with, giving customers greater confidence that the sustainable supply chain is authentic, and all materials have been sustainably sourced.

Dr Warren Bowden, Innovation and Sustainability Director of Scottish Leather Group, said “In partnership with Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Nottingham, we believe there is a clear opportunity to implement blockchain technology to enhance the existing, world-leading standards of traceability and transparency that exist within UK agriculture and its Cattle Tracing Scheme.

“At Bridge of Weir, we see the potential to create carbon-positive leather – if we source from local farms where the livestock is grass fed, where there is no deforestation, and we couple this responsible approach to sourcing with ongoing innovation to create zero carbon and zero waste manufacturing processes. The blockchain technology developed in this trial will enable each stage in the process, and the entire leather supply chain, to be accurately tracked and measured.”

InMobi Signs Definitive Agreement To Acquire Appsumer Analytics And Insights Platform To Power Performance Marketers Around The Globe

* Deal Brings Unified Intelligence to Mobile Marketing and Deeper Understanding of Marketing Effectiveness; Improves Business Performance for Global Advertisers 

InMobi, a leading provider of content, monetization and marketing technologies that help businesses fuel growth, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Appsumer, a performance insights platform for mobile app advertisers that provides a 360-degree view of marketing spend across channels, allowing advertisers to turn complex data into rich insights. Based in London, Appsumer has been the intelligence platform of choice for performance marketing teams at consumer brands, including Miniclip, Picsart, Viber and more. The company was funded by Galvanise Capital and named a Top 100 UK start-up.

Appsumer’s self-serve technology platform, intellectual property and team will support InMobi’s end-to-end content, monetization and marketing stack and empower marketers to assess their performance marketing spend all in one place. With third-party identifiers losing their dominance, which complicates the measurement and attribution process, it’s more important than ever that marketers have a clean, crisp view of how their marketing channels are performing. Appsumer’s workspace allows customers a single source of truth to track performance, analyze results and use that data to plan more effective campaigns.

Together, InMobi and Appsumer intend to build an operating system that makes understanding user acquisition funnels easier by using artificial intelligence (AI) to build predictive capabilities into the platform to help growth marketers more quickly experiment and iterate to optimize results from their user acquisition strategies.

Shumel Lais, CEO and Founder of Appsumer joins InMobi and will continue to lead the division, charting its future growth path and product roadmap. The full Appsumer team will join InMobi to ensure client service continuity and further develop and support the analytics and automation offering under the InMobi umbrella. Appsumer will continue operating independently as a subsidiary within the global InMobi organizational structure.

“Appsumer brings a next-generation approach for advertisers to better understand the efficacy of their marketing efforts across multiple channels that growth marketing teams employ daily,” said Abhay Singhal, Co-Founder of InMobi Group and CEO of InMobi Marketing Solutions. “The solution makes it easy to map all mobile performance media investment to business outcomes; Shumel and his team are well-known industry leaders and visionaries in their field and will play an instrumental role in driving InMobi’s next wave of growth and innovation.”

“Joining forces with InMobi potentially represents an exponential growth path for our pioneering technology,” said Lais. “I’m excited that Appsumer has the opportunity to get into the hands of even more developers and marketing teams worldwide to leverage our best of breed offering, making it the default home for growth marketing.”

Appsumer’s platform offers marketers no-code integrations with more than 100 marketing channels, customizable dashboards for clients to build and track goals and KPIs, and daily processing of marketing data for more accurate measurement and informed decision making. On average, Appsumer customers access the platform more than five times each week, making it a central part of their performance marketing operations. 

The acquisition of Appsumer extends InMobi’s recent enterprise expansions. Last month, InMobi launched InMobi Telco to help mobile carriers and handset manufacturers optimize their customer experiences and diversify their revenue streams. 

About InMobi

InMobi is the leading provider of content, monetization, and marketing technologies that help fuel growth for industries around the world. The company’s end-to-end advertising software platform, connected content and commerce experiences activate audiences, drive real connections, and diversify revenue for businesses everywhere. With deep expertise and unique reach in mobile, InMobi is a trusted and transparent technology partner for marketers, content creators and businesses of all kinds. Incorporated in Singapore, InMobi maintains a large presence in San Francisco, London, and Bangalore and has operations in New York, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Delhi, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Melbourne, Seoul, Tokyo, and Dubai. To learn more, visit inmobi.com. 


About Appsumer

Appsumer is built for performance marketing teams at consumer mobile apps who want to accelerate user acquisition more effectively. The platform aggregates and normalizes cross-channel cost, attribution, revenue, and predictive data and visualizes it in an easy-to-use business intelligence (BI) tool for user acquisition (UA) teams. This gives marketers a single tool where they can make more effective optimization decisions and improve performance. Appsumer has been recognized as one of the top 100 UK-based startups and won industry awards including Digiday’s Best Mobile Marketing Platform. Its platform powers user acquisition teams at top-grossing consumer mobile apps worldwide including Lovoo, Miniclip, Trainline, Huuuge Games, and Picsart.

Godrej Appliances Targets Double-Digit Growth This Festive Season With A Slew Of New Products And Attractive Schemes

* Introduces new range of refrigerators and washing machines

* Rolls out ‘Dil Se Diwali’ offer with a basket of easy EMI schemes and upto 20% cashback

Godrej Appliances, one of India’s leading manufacturers of Consumer Appliances and amongst the key consumer facing businesses of Godrej & Boyce, flagship company of Godrej group, unveiled its ‘Dil Se Diwali’ festive promotion by launching a range of new products and enticing offers to make this festive season brighter.

With second wave at an end, consumers are looking forward to some celebrations finally, albeit with caution. Appliances are a part and parcel of festive celebrations at home and the season is expected to augur positive purchase sentiments. The company has launched a range of aesthetic glass door direct cool refrigerators, double door frost free refrigerators, and top load washing machines. This is in line with the increased traction witnessed in the premium segments since the last few months and follows the company’s foray into the premium category of dishwashers recently.

Commenting on the festive launches and offers, Mr. Kamal Nandi, Business Head and Executive Vice President – Godrej Appliances, said, “After a difficult year dealing with the pandemic, consumers in India are gearing up to celebrate the festival season. Despite concerns around the third COVID wave, double vaccination should help in driving positive consumer sentiment. Festive season usually contributes 30% of annual sales for us. We are seeing encouraging signs of demand revival and are targeting a double-digit growth rate of 20% plus during this festive season. We believe this season, consumers will celebrate ‘Dil Se Diwali’ with our slew of exciting offers and new introductions.”

The festive season is marked by deals and offers and given the overall economic downturn in multiple sectors due to Covid, festive promotions will also play an even more significant role this year.  In keeping with consumers’ need for liquidity, the company has designed lucrative cash backs upto 20% and Multiple EMI schemes (8/0, 10/2, 12/4 standard EMI schemes, 1 EMI off on 20/5 scheme and 24/4 fixed EMI schemes starting at just Rs. 900). Consumers can also take home a premium Godrej Appliance by paying just ₹1 down payment, creating yet another opportunity for our customer’s delight. Extended warranty is also available in specific categories and segments to ensure that the customer is getting maximum value on his festive purchase. The Dil Se Diwali festive promotion offers will be available till 15th November across stores. Customers can also avail offers on the company’s e-store at shop.godrejappliances.com.

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Description automatically generatedFurthermore, Mr. Sanjeev Jain, National Sales Head, Godrej Appliances, added, "We are happy to continue the Godrej tradition of bringing joy into the lives of millions of Indians through our value-laden products and further dazzle up the festivities through our thoughtfully designed offers – cashbacks, easy finance schemes with attractive EMI, extended warranty and more is available for our consumers to pick from. With our technologically advanced products exclusively launched for the season, backed with attractive offers we are confident of a good festive run.”

About Godrej Appliances:

Godrej Appliances, a business unit of Godrej & Boyce, is one of the leading Home Appliances players in India. Godrej & Boyce was the first Indian Company in 1958 to manufacture Refrigerators and since then Godrej Appliances has expanded its portfolio across many other categories like Washing Machines, Air Conditioners, Microwave Ovens, futuristic Thermo-electric cooling solutions, Air Coolers, Deep Freezers, highly specialized Medical Refrigerators and more recently, UVC Technology-Based Disinfecting devices and Dishwashers, all powered by the driving philosophy of 'Things made thoughtfully’. This thought extends from human-centric design to planet centric design. Environment is a core value at Godrej. Both manufacturing units of Godrej Appliances became the first in the country to win the coveted Platinum Plus Green Co certification for their pioneering green manufacturing practices. The brand takes pride in not just its carefully designed products and environment-friendly technologies, but also best in class after-sales service delivered through over 680 service centers and more than 4500 SmartBuddy service experts spread all over the country.

To learn more visit : https://www.godrej.com/godrej-appliances

Canara Bank Launches Credit Outreach Programme Across Karnataka

Hon’ble PM in his independence day speech on 15th August 2021 has launched “Azadi Ka Amruth Mahothsav” celebrating 75th year of independence through various outreach programmes. As a part of the directions from Government of India (GOI) SLBC Karnataka has decided to conduct Mega outreach programmes in 19 districts of the state starting from 13th October 2021 . All Public sector banks, Regional Rural Banks, DCCBs, MFIs, NBFCs and Private sector banks operating in the district along with NABARD  and other government departments such as  KVIC, KVIB and DIC are participating in the programme. The credit outreach programme is conducted to create awareness on various credit facilities available and to accept and issue provisional sanctions.

The Credit outreach programmes are conducted to create awareness and sanction loans under Pradhan Mantri Mudhra Yojana -PMMY (MUDRA), Stand Up India, PMSVANidhi, ECLGS, PMEGP, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund scheme (AIF), Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund scheme (AHIDF), Agriculture, MSME, Retail, Education, Housing loans and other Atmanirbhar Bharat schemes.

During the programme all efforts will also be made by banks to drive a special awareness campaign regarding various PM Jana Suraksha schemes of GOI like Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), APY and enrolments also will be undertaken there itself. Awareness and enrolment under digital banking also will be part of the outreach. 

Other districts also will be conducting similar programmes at various centres of the respective districts  and will be creating credit  and digital awareness among the public.

SLBC requests General public to utilize the opportunity and avail credit facilities and also to get enrolled under PM Jana Suraksha schemes during the outreach programme.

Eightfold AI And Tata Consultancy Services Announce Partnership To Transform Talent Management For Enterprises Across The Globe

 Eightfold AI today announced its partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization. Through this alliance, TCS will offer services for the Eightfold Talent Intelligence Platform, and develop innovative joint solutions enabling enterprises to transform talent outcomes, retain top performers, upskill and reskill the workforce, recruit top talent efficiently, and reach diversity goals.

“Tata Consultancy Services brings the experience, depth and organizational knowledge required to create the sustainable business outcomes that our joint clients expect from Eightfold AI,” said Kamal Ahluwalia, President of Eightfold AI. “Their expertise and culture of innovation make them an ideal partner. We are excited about the possibilities our clients will achieve with our Talent Intelligence Platform paired with the services of TCS.”

“We believe through our partnership with Eightfold, we can help organizations manage workforce skills at scale and unleash their potential via AI enabled skill curation. By leveraging TCS’s domain expertise, consulting depth and center of innovation along with Eightfold’s cutting edge platform solution, our customers will be able to use AI for skill discovery, promote internal mobility, enable data driven decisions, drive diversity agenda etc.," said Ram Subramanian, Global Head of Human Capital Practice at TCS.

About Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for the last 50 years. TCS offers a consulting-led, cognitive powered, integrated portfolio of business, technology and engineering services and solutions. This is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile™ delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development. For more information, visit www.tcs.com

About Eightfold AI

Eightfold AI® delivers the Talent Intelligence Platform™, the most effective way for organizations to retain top performers, upskill and reskill the workforce, recruit top talent efficiently, and reach diversity goals. Eightfold AI's patented, deep learning artificial intelligence platform empowers enterprises to turn talent management into a competitive advantage. For more information, visit www.eightfold.ai.

'Sarvendriyanam Nayanam Pradhanam’ 80% Of Knowledge That We Acquire Is Through Our Vision

* World Sight Day on Oct 14, 2021

* By Dr. Satya Prasad Balki, MS, FCAS, Cornea, Phaco & Refractive Surgeon, MaxiVision Group of Eye Hospitals

As the excerpt from ’Neeti satakam’ written by the great scholar Chanakya says - ‘sarvendriyanam nayanam pradhanam’, which literally means, of all the senses, the sense of vision is supreme!  Ever wondered why he made this observation?! Because-80% of knowledge that we acquire is through our vision. Without vision, the other senses of hearing, taste, smell, and touch cannot differentiate! If you are blindfolded and made to smell a rose and a bottle of rose perfume, Can you differentiate?!

This only goes to show how our ancient scholars understood the importance of vision and documented it, ‘father of surgery’ Sushruta had described in detail the anatomy of the eye and its diseases like cataract and its treatment which involved displacing the cataractous lens with a sharp instrument inside the eye known as couching.

In the year 2000 WHO started to celebrate the second Thursday of every October as ‘WORLD SIGHT DAY’. This initiative is to bring global awareness to the issues of eye care facilities and preventable blindness. As I write this article, there are over 1 billion people worldwide with no access to eye care or even a basic eye examination, most suffering from treatable conditions such as cataracts wherein the natural lens of the eye loses its transparency, a surgery to replace this with an artificial lens suffices in restoring vision, refractive errors like simple myopia, hyperopia, especially in young children-which, only need spectacle correction, diabetic retinopathy in adults wherein the retina of eyes is damaged due to uncontrolled diabetes, which warrants prompt treatment to avoid permanent loss of vision.

As an eye doctor, I know that these conditions are indeed treatable with timely intervention; all it takes is access to the patient. In our practice we regularly have outreach programmes wherein we travel to remote corners of the country and conduct eye camps, the response to these camps is simply overwhelming with patients turning up in thousands every single time, which highlights the gravity of the situation and the need to administer timely treatment and spread awareness.

Hence the WHO has set a goal that by the year 2030 there should be an increase of 40% in effective coverage of refractive errors and a 30% increase in cataract procedures around the world.

Today is world sight day ( 14th Oct 2021)! And the theme this year is ‘’love your eyes’’, which is more relevant now than ever. With people locked up in their homes, work from home option has only worsened the burden we put on our eyes, mind you, eyes are as resilient as they are sensitive, they best try to accommodate the stress we put them under. Online classes for kids are increasing the rate of refractive errors. So we need to take care of our eyes, try and reduce screen time, get frequent and thorough eye checkups with your eye doctor and follow their advice, which is one of the objectives of this year’s sight day-

Let us pledge to Get an eye checkup and encourage our friends and family to follow the same.

Pledge to protect our eyes

Pledge to create awareness about preventable blindness and the need for eye donation

I urge my readers to use social media on this day to spread the message of eye care with the hashtag #loveyoureyes and make this unique initiative a success.

Also, with the festival season coming up, kindly exercise caution while playing with fireworks as they can cause serious and sometimes irreversible damage to your eyes, which is substantiated by the fact that the few days around Diwali are the busiest for eye doctors. Maintain a safe distance while playing with fireworks and use of protective eyewear is imperative. 

I Would like to end with another fascinating trivia, did you know that the basic design and function of a camera is based on well the way the eye functions-technology mimics biology!  We spend a fortune on a high-end smartphone or an SLR camera when our eyes have a staggering resolution of 576 pixels!! Now that’s a crystal clear picture!! and you have got two at no expense !!

I hope with these few words I have done my bit to spread the message -love, cherish and nourish your eyes because they are precious! 

Stay healthy! Live better!!