Honeywell Wins Bengaluru Safe City Project Under Nirbhaya Fund

* Project under Ministry of Home Affairs’ Nirbhaya Fund to help prevent and curb crimes against women and girls in public places

Honeywell Automation India Limited (NSE: HONAUT) today announced it was selected to lead the Bengaluru Safe City project under the Nirbhaya Fund by the Government of India. An initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the project aims to create a safe, secure and empowering environment for women and girls in public places to enable them to pursue all opportunities without the threat of gender-based violence or harassment. The Bengaluru Safe City project is valued at INR 496.57 crore ($67M).

“For more than 30 years, Honeywell has supported India’s growth with differentiated technologies, working to make our cities safer, smarter and more connected,” said Ashish Gaikwad, president Honeywell India and managing director, Honeywell Automation India Limited. “We are honored to be selected for the Bengaluru Safe City project that works to directly address a key concern to improve the safety of all its citizens, especially women and girls.”

Honeywell will create an integrated Command & Control Center to manage a state-of-the-art video system that features more than 7,000 video cameras deployed at more than 3,000 locations across the city. The video system will provide advanced video analytics, including facial recognition, a “Dial 100” application and drones. Honeywell will also upgrade the city police department’s existing Suraksha app to help improve incident response rate and citizen engagement.

Bengaluru is among eight cities selected for the Government’s Safe City project, which involves identification of hot spots for crimes against women and deployment of various components, including infrastructure, technology adoption, and capacity building in community through awareness programs.

“Globally, Honeywell helps develop future-ready cities with its wide portfolio of smart and safe city offerings, including a focus on connected safety and security technology,” said Ashish Modi, president, Honeywell Building Technologies, Asia. “In India, we have been a strong partner to the Government’s 100 Smart Cities Mission already with focus on people, process and technology. Our technology-led integrator approach combined with our global expertise in delivering complex integrated solutions is helping city administrators make informed decisions and improve safety for citizens in near real time. We want to now deliver this for Bengaluru city, with the goal of turning it into city that’s safer and more resilient.”

The Bengaluru Safe City project will be implemented in phases. Honeywell will operate and maintain the security infrastructure for five years.

Honeywell’s smart city systems connect more than 100,000 IoT sensors and touch the lives of more than 100 million people. The company’s solutions help create actionable insights that city authorities and municipalities can use to improve their situational awareness, economic development and quality of life for residents. Honeywell has delivered similar projects under the Smart Cities Mission across multiple states, including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat, to name a few.

About Honeywell India

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 technology company that delivers industry-specific solutions that include aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help everything from aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. All of Honeywell’s global businesses have a strong legacy in India, built over the last eight decades. Honeywell’s India commitment is evident in three state-of-the-art manufacturing and engineering operations, and four global centers of excellence for technology development and innovation. Honeywell employs ~13,000 people across different locations including Bengaluru, Chennai, Dehradun, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Madurai, and Pune.  

About Honeywell Building Technologies

Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT) is transforming the way every building operates to help improve the quality of life. We are a leading building controls company with operations in more than 75 countries supported by a global channel partner network. Commercial building owners and operators use our hardware, software and analytics to help create safe, efficient and productive facilities. Our solutions and services are used in more than 10 million buildings worldwide.

Affine Ranked Among Top The 10 At Data-Centric AI Hackathon

Affine, a leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Engineering consulting and solutions firm was ranked among the top 10 on a leaderboard (/7th position) at the Deep Learning AI data-centric competition by Andrew Ng, who is also co-founder and Chairman of Coursera.  Balu Nair, Jayanth Ajay, Ph.D., and Ashwini Gupta, from Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AI_CoE), Affine, presented their case to the international leaderboard for the challenge requiring teams to accurately classify handwritten Roman numbers from 1 to 10.  

The data centric competition, Hackathon is a collaboration between Deep Learning AI and Landing AI and aims to elevate data centric approaches to improve machine learning model performances. Contestants were given datasets to improve and work on by the organisers. The competition was evaluated under two categories- ‘Best Performance Overall’ and ‘Most Innovative’. This competition was powered by CodaLab Worksheets.

Affine secured 7th position in the Hackathon with 1,480 other entries and was the only Indian company to be a part of the top 10 list.

“We are very excited about our Top-10 achievement in the Data Centric AI Competition organized by Dr Andrew Ng, DeepLearning.AI and Landing AI teams.

At Affine, we have always put equal emphasis on the ML architecture as well as building “rich” data pipelines (high quality data + high quality features); resulting in successful ML deployments and lasting benefits for our customers. Our teams continue to innovate and upskill on algorithmic as well as data side of AI, the latter being very important in addressing production data challenges,” said Vineet Kumar, Co-Founder and Chief Solutions Architect, Affine.

An Indian MNC, founded about ten years ago as an end-to-end analytics service provider, Affine started with descriptive and basic predictive analysis but evolved over the years to COEs with aligned competencies, joint partnerships with academic institutions for R&D with respect to advanced statistical and mathematical models, Deep Learning to capitalize on the need for high end analytics.

About Deep learning AI

DeepLearning.AI is an education technology company that helps to empower the global workforce to build an AI-powered future through world-class education, hands-on training, and a collaborative community, making a world-class AI education accessible to people around the globe. DeepLearning.AI was founded by Andrew Ng, a global leader in AI.

Data-Centric AI, launched on June 17, 2021, is a competition by Andrew Ng, founder of Deep Learning AI, Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera, that pushes participants to build the best possible dataset instead of competing for the best model.  

About Affine

Affine is a leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Engineering consulting and solutions firm. Affine offers capabilities across the analytical value chain from data engineering and cloud-based implementations to analytics, machine learning, and business intelligence, to tackle day-to-day & strategic business challenges across multiple verticals & business functions in Gaming, Manufacturing, Hi-Tech & CPG industries.

Affine aims to bring about the evolution of business decision-making by adopting the ‘new’ in decision science and technology. Affine has believed in staying at the bleeding edge of decision science through a culture of celebrating excellence, continuous learning, and customer orientation.

With the hyper-convergence of AI, Data Engineering, and Cloud, Affine enables their customers to become game-changers to ‘Command the New’ in their respective market landscapes.

Life-Proof Nokia XR20 With Military Grade Design And Build Quality, Launched In India

* The toughest ever Nokia phone is built to withstand life’s rough and tumble

* The 5G smartphone is built to survive everything life throws at it: extreme temperatures from +55C to -20C, 1.8m drops, 1 hour under water[i], and more

* First ever life-proof1 Nokia phone goes on for pre-booking from 20 October and will go on sale from 30th October

* Nokia XR20 features in the worldwide blockbuster James Bond movie No Time To Die

HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, today announces the launch of the life-proof Nokia XR20, which is built to withstand the test of life. Nokia phones are built on the belief that technology should last for longer; the brand-new life-proof Nokia XR20 smartphone has been built to last with military grade resilience paired with four years of monthly security updates, the latest software upgrades for up to three years, and future-proofed 5G[ii].

Sanmeet Singh Kochhar, Vice President, HMD Global, said: “Indian consumers, are adventurous and outgoing and require high quality, reliable and robust smartphones that can support their fast-paced life and become an extension of their lifestyle. On an average, people damage their smartphone within just 10 weeks of purchasing it[iii]. So, they have to invest in protective cases, repairs and warranties that can increase the maintenance cost, leading to early device replacement.

The consumer expectation from a premium smartphone is not only for advanced features, but also the longevity of the device. The Nokia XR20 is a life-proof smartphone that has been designed and built to survive through the frequent drops, splashes and tumbles of daily usage. It’s a device which consumers can Love, Trust and Keep for a long time, without worrying about its maintenance.”

Nokia phones are built to last thanks to their signature quality build, leading security updates and AndroidTM upgrades making them the perfect phone, even for a 00 agent. Tough, resilient and life-proof[iv], the new Nokia XR20 is the latest 5G[v] Nokia smartphone to feature in a Bond inspired TVC with British actress Lashana Lynch who appears in character as 00 agent Nomi from No Time To Die.

Lashana Lynch, who plays 00 agent Nomi in No Time To Die, said: “The world we live in now means we all have the ultimate gadget in our pockets. It’s amazing what smartphones can do nowadays.”

Love It, Trust It, Keep It - Built for life’s rough and tumble

Tough on and off the pitch

Built to endure blistering temperatures, this device will follow you on all your family ventures, from sunny beach scrolling in scorching +55C, to the icy ski slopes of –20C. For the adventurous, or just those that are clumsy, the new handset can also survive the steepest of drops measuring up to 1.8m and survive one hour underwater. Also, if it gets dirty, you can give it a good scrub with soap and water.

Stamina and endurance

Future-proof as well as life-proof, the Nokia XR20 boasts the longest-ever monthly security updates from Nokia phones maker – four years – and up to three years of software upgrades.

With an up to two-day battery life[vi], it will also go the distance on a single charge, but should you need to power up quickly it supports 15W Qi wireless charging and 18W fast charging.

Photo finishes

For memories you want to remember forever, the reliable 48MP ZEISS Optics dual camera will provide excellent portraits or broad landscape shots. Plus, the two flashes bring in the light to darkness.

The all-new SpeedWarp mode lets you capture a whole lot of adventure in a compact, exciting montage. The Nokia XR20 keeps a steady hand on precious family memories – even when you’re at a sandbox or an adventure park, your footage will look stable with Action Cam mode.

And those moments that need to be recorded and brought back to life, the OZO spatial audio with wind-noise cancellation will ensure your videos are a true representation of the moment itself, without any unwanted sounds interrupting.

When you want the audio to reach further afield, the OZO Playback will be there to broaden the sound with the support of extra loud stereo speakers – they’re mighty enough to hear over a crowd at a BBQ this summer.

Pricing and availability 

The Nokia XR20 will be available in Ultra Blue and Granite colour options and comes in 6/128GB configuration at a recommended best buy price of INR 46,999, across leading offline retail stores, e-commerce platforms and Nokia.com. The smartphone will be available for pre-booking from 20-29 October, 2021 and the sales will start from 30 October, 2021.  Customers who pre-book the smartphone can avail free gifts such as a Nokia Power Earbuds Lite worth INR 3599, and One year of screen protection plan.

New Relic Names Peter Marelas As Chief Architect For APAC, Japan

* Seasoned tech chief to bolster Observability practice and drive data-driven engineering for customers

New Relic, Inc. (NYSE: NEWR), the Observability company, today announced the appointment of Peter Marelas as Chief Architect for Asia Pacific and Japan. Marelas will be responsible for empowering customers to establish and optimise Observability as a data-driven practice across every stage of the software development lifecycle. By consulting with customers on people, process, policy and technology, he aims to help customers realise greater benefits from their Observability investments.

Marelas brings more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry. Most recently, he was Chief Technology Officer, Asia Pacific Japan for Dell Technologies, Data Protection Solutions. Prior to Dell he held senior roles at EMC, Telstra, Symantec, VERITAS Software and Storage Technologies. He is currently completing a Masters in Data Science and holds seven patents relating to data management, data storage, machine learning and cloud. 

“We are delighted to have someone with Peter’s experience and calibre join New Relic,” Ben Goodman, SVP of New Relic Asia Pacific and Japan said. “He will be instrumental in delivering our industry-leading Observability solutions to help our customers bring new perspectives in delivering return on investment for their digital assets.”

“Driven by the pandemic, businesses are aggressively looking for ways to enhance their digital offerings. Observability offers real-time visibility across systems with powerful telemetry data, and the ability to correlate, contextualise and visualise the data for impactful business insights. We’re thrilled that Peter will spearhead our push to deliver the benefits of Observability to customers.”

Marelas’ appointment follows New Relic’s 2021 Observability Forecast which recently revealed that 57 percent of tech leaders in Asia Pacific believe it is ‘very important’ to achieve enterprise-wide Observability that transcends basic monitoring.

“New Relic is at the forefront of enabling some of the world’s biggest and most highly regarded companies to achieve business success,” Marelas said. “I am thrilled to be joining some of the best and brightest minds in the industry. I look forward to adding enormous value in reshaping the digital transformation journey of our customers in the region so they can confidently future proof their businesses and overcome the toughest and most complex challenges with our leading Observability solutions.”

The Observability Forecast also showed that 78 percent of respondents in Asia Pacific expect to increase their observability budget in the coming year.

Engineers and IT leaders interested in New Relic’s Full Stack Observability solutions may visit newrelic.com.

About New Relic

As a leader in observability, New Relic empowers engineers with a data-driven approach to planning, building, deploying and running great software. New Relic One delivers the only unified data platform that empowers engineers to get all telemetry—metrics, events, logs and traces—paired with the most powerful full stack analysis tools to help engineers get past the ‘what’ to uncover the ‘why.’ Delivered through the industry’s only consumption pricing that’s intuitive and predictable, New Relic gives engineers more value for the money by helping improve planning cycle times, decrease change failure rates, accelerate release frequency and reduce mean time to resolution. This helps the world’s leading brands including AB InBev, Australia Post, Banco International, Chegg, Gojek, REI, Signify Health, TopGolf, World Fuel Services (WFS) and Zalora improve uptime and reliability, drive operational efficiency and deliver exceptional customer experiences that fuel innovation and growth. Uncover the ‘why’ with New Relic at www.newrelic.com.

Abbott And Real Madrid Team Up To Support The Health And Nutrition Of Children Globally

* Abbott becomes Health Sciences and Nutrition Partner of Real Madrid Football Club and Global Partner of the Real Madrid Foundation

* Partnership will include support of the first men's and women's and Academy football teams as well as support of the Real Madrid Foundation

* Foundation supports 65,000 children per year across 80 countries through education in sportsmanship, teamwork, respect, and health and nutrition

* Partnership supports Abbott's commitment to address global malnutrition over the next decade

Abbott has announced it has entered into a three-year agreement to be the Health Sciences and Nutrition Partner of the Real Madrid Football Club and Global Partner of the Real Madrid Foundation—an organization founded by the club to promote the values inherent in sport to children globally.  The partnership will encompass education, sports and social welfare activities in support of at-risk children in 80 countries, as well as nutritional support for the first men's and women's and Academy teams and new product innovation and development.

Real Madrid is one of the most successful and recognized sports clubs in the world and is supported by more than 600 million fans globally. In 1997 the club launched the Real Madrid Foundation to support social and cultural integration for at-risk children around the world through sport, through teaching values such as teamwork, respect, collaboration—and physical fitness.

"Malnutrition remains a concern amongst Indian children, more so since its consequent health effects often plague them lifelong,” said Swati Dalal, general manager, Abbott’s nutrition business, India. "Abbott and The Real Madrid Foundation share the same goal which is to nourish children around the world as we move towards a better, healthier future. Football is a universally loved sport which encourages healthy lifestyle habits and with this collaboration, we hope to secure wider reach and create long-lasting impact in the lives of children through our collective efforts and resources."

Working with local partners, the Real Madrid Foundation identifies and brings together local children in key at-risk areas—usually in remote, rural communities. The schools cover many different activities, ranging from healthy snacks and dental hygiene, to after school programs that involve health education and sports training. Each program includes a local social or environmental activity, such as healthcare facility visits. The children are screened for key health indicators at the beginning of each program and supported nutritionally throughout. The Real Madrid Foundation also runs week-long clinics for children who wish to improve their game with the Real Madrid methodology.

"Through the work of the Real Madrid Foundation, we’re not looking to develop the next footballer, we're looking to grow the next engineer, scientist or lawyer," said Emilio Butragueño, director of institutional relations for Real Madrid. "By teaming up with Abbott, a global leader and expert in nutrition, we can support children around the world in living healthier overall."

A Focus on Malnutrition

Malnutrition affects 1 in 3 people of all ages, all geographies and all socioeconomic classes. More than half of all children affected by wasting globally, live in Southern Asia,[i]  and stunting or chronic malnutrition (low height with respect to age) has increased in 11 of 17 states in India.[ii] The proportion of severely wasted children has increased in 13 of 17 states while proportion of children who are underweight (low weight with respect to age) has increased in 11 of 17 states.

Abbott has long been focused on improving nutrition through our innovations, recently announcing the formation of the Abbott Center for Malnutrition Solutions—a hub of Abbott and external nutrition experts and partners with a goal to reduce malnutrition in every region of the world over the next ten years. With this partnership, the first under the center, Abbott will work with the Real Madrid Foundation Social Sports Schools around the world to support at-risk children in their goal of having access to a healthier life and a better future.

This work will contribute to Abbott's 2030 Sustainability Plan ambition to transform care for malnutrition, chronic disease and infectious diseases, with a goal to improve the lives of more than 3 billion people by decade's end. 

The partnership will run through the end of the 2023-2024 soccer season and will encompass working with Real Madrid Foundation Social Sports Schools in twelve countries to provide malnutrition screening, education and nutrition support, while also supporting nutritional needs for the Real Madrid Foundation clinics, which take place in 42 countries.  As the Health Sciences and Nutrition Partner, Abbott will also work closely with the club to drive research into new ingredient and product innovation and development as part of the nutritional support for the Real Madrid first men's, women's and Academy teams. 

About Real Madrid

Real Madrid C.F. is a sport entity with 119 years of history. It is the club with the most European Cups of both football (13) and basketball (10) and was awarded by FIFA as the Best Club of the twentieth century. Real Madrid has millions of fans in all corners of the world, with 371 million followers on social networks, and is for the third year in a row the most valuable football club in Europe according to The European Elite 2020 report, prepared by consultancy KPMG. Real Madrid is the most valuable football brand in the world for Brand Finance for the third year in a row and achieved the highest record in the Transparency Index of football clubs last season. More information about Real Madrid C.F. is available at www.realmadrid.com, the most visited soccer club website for the fifth consecutive year.

L&T Technology Services Reports Strong Broad-Based Growth In Q2FY22

 

L&T Technology Services Limited (BSE: 540115, NSE: LTTS), India’s leading pure-play engineering services company, announced its results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2021.

Highlights for Q2FY22 include:

Revenue at ₹16,077 million; growth of 22% YoY

USD Revenue at $217.4 million; growth of 22% YoY

EBIT margin at 18.4%; up 470 bps YoY

Net profit at ₹2,300 million; growth of 39% YoY

Special dividend of ₹10 per share to mark the 5-year anniversary of LTTS' IPO; Record date October 27, 2021

During the quarter, LTTS won 5 deals with TCV of USD10 million plus, which includes 2 USD25 million plus deals.

“We had a strong quarter with 6% sequential growth in constant currency driven by healthy traction in digital engineering across all our five segments. The rising digital adoption across our customer base has led to our revenue from digital & leading-edge technologies increasing to 55% in Q2.

Medical, our youngest segment, crossed $100mn in annualized revenue and is a testament to our differentiated domain expertise and strategic relationships. We are seeing a healthy deal pipeline and good traction in our six big bets - Electric Autonomous & Connected Vehicle (EACV), 5G, Med-tech, AI & Digital Products, Digital Manufacturing and Sustainability.

Our broad-based growth was accompanied by a rise in Operating margin which at 18.4% is the highest we have reported. We will continue the journey of investing in innovation labs and capability building, that has yielded us gains in market share and operating model efficiency”, said Amit Chadha, CEO & Managing Director, L&T Technology Services Limited.

Industry Recognitions:

LTTS has been recognized as a ‘Leader’ in Everest Group’s Autonomous, Connected, Electric & Shared Mobility Automotive Engineering study

NelsonHall positioned LTTS in the ‘Leaders’ Category in Digital Manufacturing Services in its NEAT Leader 2021 study

ISG Group rated LTTS as ‘Leader’ in IoT Consulting & Services and IT/OT Tech Data Convergence

LTTS’ Finance Team was honored for excellence in Consistent Liquidity Management by BW Businessworld CFO Finance Strategy Awards 2021

Stevie’s International Business Award adjudged LTTS’ SafeX DevOps framework as the winner in the Achievement in Product Innovation category

LTTS won the prestigious Association for Talent Development (ATD) Best Award 2021 and was ranked No. 1 for Talent Development practices

Patents

At the end of the second quarter, the patents portfolio of L&T Technology Services stood at 769, out of which 556 are co-authored with its customers and the rest are filed by LTTS.

Human Resources

At the end of Q2FY22, LTTS’ employee strength stood at 17,983.

About L&T Technology Services Ltd

L&T Technology Services Limited (LTTS) is a listed subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Limited focused on Engineering and R&D (ER&D) services. We offer consultancy, design, development and testing services across the product and process development life cycle. Our customer base includes 69 Fortune 500 companies and 57 of the world’s top ER&D companies, across industrial products, medical devices, transportation, telecom & hi-tech, and the process industries. Headquartered in India, we have over 17,900 employees spread across 17 global design centers, 28 global sales offices and 72 innovation labs as of September 30, 2021. 

MADAME Creates Bespoke Collections Featuring Looney Tunes Capsule In Collaboration With Warner Bros. Consumer Products

Leading fashion brand MADAME announced the launch of their new collection in collaboration with Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP), inspired by the iconic Looney Tunes characters. An ode to the fun-filled universe of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner, Sylvester the Cat and many more beloved characters, the Looney Tunes Capsule collection will comprise a range of sweatshirts and graphic t-shirts for women of all age groups.

With various fashion trends making a well-deserved comeback in 2021, this series will ignite nostalgia for the fans of the playful antics and high energy Looney Tunes characters. The new collection is designed keeping in mind a wide variety of currently preferred colour palettes including Arctic Blue, Italian Clay, French Navy, Lilac and Sage Flower.

Commenting on her creative process for this collection, Head- Design at MADAME, Parika Rawal, said, “All our collections are focussed on capturing the trending themes that are currently adopted by the fashion industry. Irrespective of age groups, we have observed a growing demand for clothes with cartoon characters, simply because of the ease at which they connect with our customers. These collections are quirky and ensures a stress-free casual wear which can be picked up on the go.”

MADAME first emerged as a crowd favourite through their various collections that also featured other beloved characters, including Tom and Jerry. The Looney Tunes Capsule is a clothing range that fits women who are willing to explore a quirky sense of style that showcases a difference in fashion statement.

Vikram Sharma, Head of Consumer Products, Advertising & Partnerships, WarnerMedia India, Southeast Asia & Korea said, “At Warner Bros. Consumer Products, we continue to identify innovative approaches for all our shows and characters to become a part of the lives of our fans. This collaboration with MADAME is a celebration of ‘Looney Tunes’ and its legendary characters that have set a benchmark in the world of animation. We are excited to present this exclusive collection and give all fans an opportunity to wear their love for these characters on their sleeves, quite literally!”  

While expressing his views on the launch of this playful collection, Akhil Jain, Executive Director, MADAME, commented, “Our ambition is always to create a collection that anyone, regardless of their age would want to own. Someone who wants a classic yet whimsy or experimental clothing will find our cartoon inspired themes very vibrant. Through our partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, we wanted to create an appeal for those who connect with these characters dearly.”

The collection retails from INR 1299 to INR 2599, making it accessible to women who closely follow such trends and look for limited edition collection to upgrade their wardrobe. Various retro trends are making a comeback and MADAME’s collection helps in creating an easy everyday look that is not just trendy but also connects with the vibe of modern consumers.