Ebixcash Announces Appointment Of Former RBI Executive Director - Uma Shankar To Its Board Of Directors

EbixCash Private Limited, a subsidiary of Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIX), a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial, healthcare and e-learning industries, announced the appointment of Ms. Uma Shankar, as a new independent director to the EbixCash Board. Uma is a career banker, having retired as Executive Director at Reserve Bank of India (RBI), after serving RBI for 37 years.  

Uma is well versed in financial regulation, cyber security and data analytics. She has served as the Co- Chair of the committees relating to Financial Regulation and as a member of the Audit and Supervision groups of several International financial bodies. On the national front, she was the Chairperson of the Standing Committees on Cyber security and Data analytics. She was also the head of the interdepartmental group to explore the feasibility of introducing Central Bank digital currency. 

Uma is presently an Independent Director on the Boards of Karnataka Bank as well as IDBI Capital Markets and Securities Ltd. 

Uma brings a vast repertoire of experience across banking supervision, currency management, urban bank regulation, cyber security and administration etc., in addition to more than two decades of board level experience in Government and Quasi-Government organisations. During her 37-year employment with RBI, Uma was nominated as an RBI Board representative on a number of reputed financial institutions - Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, UCO Bank, Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt. Ltd. (BRBNMPL), Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd.(SPMCIL) and ECGC Ltd. 

Uma Shankar said, “EbixCash has emerged as a strong player in the financial sector both on the B2C and B2B side – be it payment solutions, pre-paid cards, remittance, foreign exchange, bill payments, AEPS etc. on the B2C side and then technology-based services like lending, wealth & asset management, insurance etc. for banks and financial institutions. Having spent my entire career in the financial industry, I am well versed with the banking and BFSI industry, besides having a deep understanding of its various associated aspects like technology trends, cyber security, currency management, regulations and administration. I am delighted to join the board of EbixCash and to be able to humbly contribute to the EbixCash efforts to bring increased digitization to the financial industry worldwide.”  

Robin Raina, Chairman of the Board, EbixCash said, “Uma brings a deep blend of regulatory, administration, technology, strategic, and corporate governance experience across the banking and financial sector to the Board. She is seen as a leading luminary in the field of financial regulation, cyber security, data analytics and digital currency globally – all fields relevant to EbixCash as we embark on our global journey. We are excited to have her on the EbixCash Board.” 

Uma is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB), and has completed Executive Education at Columbia Business School, New York and has also achieved a Masters in English.  

Other EbixCash Independent Board members 

SP Kothari – A US Citizen, S.P. Kothari is the Gordon Y Billard Professor of Accounting and Finance at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Most recently, from 2019 to 2021 he served as Chief Economist and Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He received one of India’s highest civil honors, the Padma Shri on December 8th from the President of India, for his work in the field of Economics. 

S Ravi - Ravi is presently serving as the Chairman and Director of Tourism Finance Corporation of India Ltd – the premier Indian Financial Institution, set-up to promote tourism in India. He also presently serves on the boards of Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company Ltd., Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd., Aditya Birla ARC Ltd., IIFL Asset Management Ltd. and SBI Payment Services Pvt. Ltd. He has served on the boards of over 40 prestigious institutions including insurance companies, a number of public sector banks and public sector enterprises like UCO bank, Union Bank, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., BHEL, SBI - SG Global Securities Services Pvt Ltd to name a few. Also, he was appointed by Government of India and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as Chairman of the Technical Experts Committee for Punjab & Sind Bank’s Strategic Turnaround. 

Sunil Srivastav - Sunil is a career banker, having retired as Deputy. Managing Director of the Corporate Accounts Group at India’s largest bank - State Bank of India (SBI), after serving the bank for 38 years. Sunil brings a vast repertoire of experience across the international banking sector having spent a major part of his career in corporate banking at SBI, investment banking at SBI Capital Markets Ltd., and a five-year stint at SBI's New York office. Sunil is presently serving as a Senior Advisor to one of India’s largest investment banking firms - Edelweiss. He is also serving as a Senior Advisor to the World Bank for their Energy and Extractives program in India. Sunil is also an Independent Director on the boards of a number of public companies. 

Neil Eckert – Neil is presently the Chairman of Conduit Re, a UK reinsurer, that recently listed on the LSE. Mr. Eckert has been Chairman of Micro Power Ltd, a business that specializes in developing and investing in small-scale alternative energy projects and technologies. He is a director of Evofem Inc. and is Non-Executive Chairman of Design Technology and Innovation Limited, a patenting and intellectual property company. He also served as a Non-Executive Director of Arthur J Gallagher (UK) Ltd until September 2015.From 1999 until April 2005, he served as Chief Executive Office of Brit. In 1995, he co-founded Brit as a listed investment trust company. In 2005, Mr. Eckert founded Climate Exchange PLC and was Chief Executive Officer until 2010 when the company was sold to InterContinental Exchange Inc. 

Pavan Bhalla – Pavan till recently served in multiple leadership roles at Aon Hewitt, including Chief Executive Officer of Outsourcing (sold to private equity for $4.8B), Chief Financial Officer of Outsourcing and Corporate Controller He is currently a Partner with FCM LLC, a consulting firm that serves some of the largest private equity firms in the world and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Before joining FCM, Pavan was President of the HR & Financial Solutions business at Alight, where he led the company’s cloud-based HR and financial services platform business. As Senior Vice President of Finance for global telecommunications giant MCI, he helped lead the company out of the largest fraud and bankruptcy in corporate history. Before that, he was a Chief Financial Officer and Controller of several BellSouth Corporation subsidiaries. Pavan has an MBA in Analytic Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an MBA in Management Science from Simon Fraser University, Canada. He is also a Certified Public Accountant from Illinois. 

Leading Fintech Platform - PhonePe Crosses 350 M Registered Users

* Records over 150 Mn monthly active users & an annualized TPV of $650+ billion

* Strengthens position as largest fintech platform in the country with over 45% market share in UPI

PhonePe, India’s leading fintech platform today announced that it has crossed 350 million lifetime registered users further cementing its leadership position. This essentially means that one in four Indians now use PhonePe. The registered user base has grown by 28% from 273 million in January to 350 million in December 2021. The company also reported 150 million monthly active users (MAU) and an annualized total payment value (TPV) of $650+ billion in December.

PhonePe is leading the industry on all key metrics including value and volume of transactions, registered users as well as merchant coverage. The company has been the market leader in UPI with over 45% market share in terms of the volume of transactions processed in December. It also processed over 500 million transactions at physical stores (including kiranas) in December 2021. This was achieved due to the rapid expansion of PhonePe’s merchant coverage spanning 25 million stores spread across 15,700 towns and villages, constituting 99% of pin codes in India.

Commenting on the milestone, Sonika Chandra, Head of Consumer Platform & Payments, PhonePe said, “We are delighted to cross the 350 million registered users mark and emerge as India’s largest digital payments platform across all core metrics. This phenomenal growth is driven by our technology team’s relentless pursuit of delivering the highest end-to-end transaction success rates in the industry, as well as our offline sales efforts in building the largest merchant acceptance network in India. We will continue to push hard on deepening digital payment adoption and merchant acceptance across India.”

Strengthening Multilateralism And Strong Europe-Asia Relationship Critical For Global Recovery

"Multilateral cooperation, and a strong Europe-Asia relationship, is crucial for the global recovery. We believe it is important for all our Asian partners to work together to "build back better" – in a greener, digital, sustainable, and inclusive way in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic", said Niccolo Rinaldi, Head of Unit - Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union, European Parliament, on Monday. Mr Rinaldi also acknowledged the importance of collaboration and exchange between the EU member states and Asian countries in the education process. He stressed the critical role of universities like Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) as interlocutors of strengthening the EU's ties with Asia.

He was speaking at the inaugural program of a Winter School on 'EU-Asia Relations in a Multipolar World' jointly organised by the Manipal Centre for European Studies (MCES), a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, and Nordic Centre in India from 10-15 January 2022 at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), at Manipal, Karnataka. The 6-day Winter School is curated by Ms Priya Vijaykumar Poojary, lecturer, and Dr Yatharth Kachiar, Assistant Professor at the Manipal Centre of European Studies (MCES).

During the inaugural session, Mr Rinaldi emphasised that the Indo-Pacific region, highlighting its increasing importance reflects in the EU's strategy for cooperation with the region. "We are already a top investor in Indo-Pacific. Moreover, we are also the top development cooperation and trading partner in Asia. We have decided to reinforce our strategic focus, presence, and actions with the region. Our new EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific sends a strong political signal", said Mr Rinaldi.

Speaking at the same inaugural session, Dr Yeo Lay Hwee, Director, European Union Centre in Singapore, emphasised the importance of partnership between Asia and Europe in strengthening Multilateralism. She stressed the "urgent need to uphold the international order based on rules and principles of international law with the United Nations at its core to address global and regional challenges." She also noted the importance of confidence-building measures and preventive diplomacy in contributing to peace and stability and reaffirmed the principles of mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual interest and the renunciation of the use of force and the threat of using force in international relations.

Dr Neeta Inamdar, the Head, Manipal Centre of European Studies (MCES), highlighted the importance of enhancing Asia-Europe connectivity, which has political and economic aspects and socio-cultural links with people-to-people aspects. She noted that young people are influential change agents propelling humanity's movement towards a new sustainable future. To this end, strengthening EU-Asia relations would mean ensuring young people's meaningful participation in all spheres and public and political life. She further said, "it is necessary to encourage the expansion of educational exchange and cooperation among EU and Asia for sharing good practices of ways to tackle common global issues."

Bayer Enhances Leadership Role For D Narain And Simon Thorsten Wiebusch

* D Narain, President, Bayer South Asia and Managing Director, Bayer CropScience Limited takes on an enhanced leadership role as the Global Head of Smallholder Farming

* Simon Thorsten Wiebusch, Chief Operating Officer, Crop Science Division of Bayer for India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka appointed as Executive Director, Bayer CropScience Limited and Country Divisional Head of Crop Science Business in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Bayer, a global life sciences company present in India for over 125 years, today announced enhanced leadership roles for D Narain and Simon Thorsten Wiebusch, two senior executives from its India team to support its strong commitment to improve the livelihood of 100 million smallholders globally and deliver sustainable farming solutions.

D Narain, currently President, Bayer South Asia, and MD, Bayer CropScience Ltd takes on additional leadership responsibilities as Global Head of Smallholder Farming for Bayer.

Simon Thorsten Wiebusch, who is currently COO of Bayer’s CropScience business for India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (IBSL) takes over as Executive Director, Bayer CropScience Ltd and the Country Divisional Head of the Crop Science business in these countries.

D Narain and Simon will continue to be based out of India, which is the largest small farmer market in the world and also serves as Bayer CropScience’s incubator to bring new smallholder farming innovation.

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to help people and planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to drive sustainable development and generate a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2020, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 41.4 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 4.9 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

GTPL Partners With Aprecomm To Bring Innovation To Customer Experience With Network Intelligence

GTPL Hathway Limited, one of the largest Multi-Service Operator (MSO) in India with cable TV distribution and high-speed broadband service distribution, today announced investment in innovative technology to remotely optimize its residential Wi-Fi connections through a partnership with Aprecomm. This A.I. technology will help GTPL bring down the customer issue resolution time and enhance the customer experience on its network of more than 700K connected broadband households.

Aprecomm’s AI Engine allows GTPL to convert its Household connections to A.I. enabled Smart WiFi access points. The technology offers proactive monitoring and measuring of the Wireless Experience of the connected devices and provides real-time insights to improve the reliability and performance of the network.    

Speaking on the development, Mr. Anirudhsinh Jadeja, Managing Director, GTPL, said, “GTPL believes in continuous investments in technology in order to keep innovating and providing the best service to our consumers. The partnership with Aprecomm will aid us in our efforts to ensure the best experience for our broadband consumers with faster and proactive resolution of potential issues.”

Pramod Gummaraj, CEO, Aprecomm, said, “We are very happy to work with GTPL and bring the latest technology into their network which can assist them with up to 50% reduction in customer support handling time and phenomenal improvement to the customer experience. We are looking forward to bringing more innovation in Network Automation in the coming months.”

The measurable improvements offered by the integration between GTPL and Aprecomm also lead to lower maintenance cost and improved customer satisfaction for one of the country’s fastest growing ISPs.

Guharajan Sivakumar, CTO, Aprecomm said, “With Aprecomm’s vendor agnostic technology, GTPL is now able to manage and monitor ONUs through a unified interface, ensuring assured internet experience to their customers”.

Guru Prasad V, CTO of GTPL Hathway Ltd said, “We have already started deploying this technology and could see the ease with which we are able to measure the customer experience and take proactive actions to improve it. Aprecomm technology immensely helps us to achieve Network Automation.”

About GTPL

GTPL Hathway Limited is the second largest Multi-Service Operator (MSO) in India engaged in cable TV distribution and high-speed broadband service distribution reaching an estimated 10.8 million households in over 1000+ towns across 15 states in India with presence in Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Odisha, and Telangana.

The company is the largest Multi-Service Operator (MSO) in Gujarat and is the second-largest player in the cable market of West Bengal. GTPL also has a significant presence in all other markets.

GTPL Broadband Pvt. Ltd. is the 6th largest Private Wired Broadband provider, with a vision to provide high-speed fibre broadband at affordable rates and currently has an active customer base of 7 Lac plus.

About Aprecomm

Aprecomm is an industry game-changer with an AI-enabled Software Stack to understand Customer Wi-Fi Experience. Aprecomm offers cloud-based automated solutions to enhance Wi-Fi performance. Aprecomm’s patented technology helps in automatically and proactively troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues. This way ISPs and Enterprises will be able to fix them immediately and dramatically minimize down-time. Aprecomm’s solutions help enterprises, ISPs, TSPs improve their business standards through higher reliability, reduced expenses, and speedy ROI.

“Technology Is Influencing Music Education In A Big Way And Artium Academy Is At The Forefront Of This Digital Turn” - Aruna Sairam

* Aruna Sairam joins the Artium Academic Board and dons the role of Faculty Head for Carnatic Music

*  (Artium Academy is an online music learning and community platform which has in less than a year grown its learner base by 10X.)

Renowned Carnatic vocalist and Padma Shri Award Winner Aruna Sairam is excited at the prospect of encouraging and helping aspiring students learn Indian classical music. She has joined the Artium Academic Board and dons the role of Faculty Head for Carnatic Music where she will use her vast knowledge and experience to shape and nurture talent, through the unique music courses offered by Artium Academy.

Known for her tremendous contribution to the world of music spanning almost six decades, Aruna believes that the music space is evolving drastically and with time and technological advancements, method of teaching also needs to evolve to be in line with the emerging trends

Aruna Sairam’s latest campaign for Artium Academy canvasses the inter-play of music with technology  to make learning a lot easier and more accessible to people of all ages. Through the campaign video, Aruna Sairam explains her love for Carnatic Music and highlights her journey on how she learnt it herself. The video ends with Aruna Sairam inviting music enthusiasts from across the world for an exciting course in Carnatic Music designed and curated personally by her.

The Carnatic Music course of Artium Academy is a curated blend of innovation and perfection, taught one on one by trained and certified teachers based on a performance driven Carnatic music curriculum designed under the guidance of Aruna Sairam herself. The course aims at a performance driven learning approach that is simple and easy to grasp.

Talking about her aspirations to nurture future musicians, Aruna Sairam said, “Learning music has become a lot easier due to technology. India as a nation is not just passionate about listening music but we love to learn music as well. Technology is helping to foster and develop future musicians in a big way and I am delighted to be a part of Artium Academy to develop and nurture future musicians.”  

Talking about her association as Head of Faculty at Artium Music, Aruna Sairam added, “My association with Artium Academy is very timely as I was looking to share my learning and experiences in the genre of Carnatic Music, an art form I have worshipped over the years. I am extremely excited to become a part of Artium’s Academic board and contribute towards building the gold standard in music learning.”

“We are delighted to announce the launch of our latest campaign, featuring the legendary artist - Aruna Sairam. We believe that by delivering this performance-oriented course led by the maestro herself, we can empower music enthusiasts with skills that can help them towards their journey of becoming professional musicians. At Artium Academy, our constant endeavour remains to use technology such as personalised dashboards, learning tools, graphs, virtual practice rooms and auditoriums, to help revolutionize how people learn music by making it more relevant, participatory, and engaging, while delivering quality music education directly from the veterans of the music industry.” Adds Mr. Ashish Joshi, Founder and CEO - Artium Academy

With the advent of new technology, Aruna dreams to take Carnatic music to the millions of aspirants worldwide and providing them with an opportunity to train them under her wing. Aruna’s zeal to promote fresh and young talent lead to her collaboration with Artium Academy for the launch of their latest campaign to inspire music enthusiasts across the world.

About Artium Academy

Artium Academy is India’s first online music education platform with a performance – driven standardised curriculum designed by music maestros. Artium Academy offers 1:1 learning through live and interactive classes on its platform. With a united vision and driving force to democratise music, Artium Academy endeavours to make music learning available to everyone. While technology is the brain power enabling innovative ideas to engage with its students and teachers, music is the very core of Artium Academy. Eminent music virtuosos such as Sonu Nigam (also the Patron in Chief), Shubha Mudgal, Aruna Sairam, KS Chithra, Louiz Banks, Gino Banks, Raju Singh, Aneesh Pradhan are the Faculty Heads and form the Artium  Academic Board along with Ananth Vaidyanathan, who is the Chief of Pedagogy , to oversee the curriculum and teaching methods.

About Smt. Aruna Sairam

Trained in the Veenai Dhanammal style of Carnatic Classical music, Smt Aruna Sairam epitomises the genre completely with her purity of voice, adherence to traditional values and profound music expression. Little wonder really, as she was trained by the legend Dhanammal’s own granddaughter, T. Brinda. Aruna trained in different forms such as improvisation, swara singing, variations of pitch on a note (gamakas) and ragam-thanam-pallavi, with some of the greats. Her ability to oscillate between traditional Carnatic classical singing and improvisation, earned her the sobriquet of ‘the new queen of soul’ from the London Evening Standard. Little wonder then, that she was the first Carnatic Classical vocalist to perform at the BBC Proms in 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Aruna remains a student of her craft today even as she teaches and conducts mentoring programmes nationally and with institutions in Germany, the UK, France and Canada. Bestowed with the Padma Shri in 2009, she was also awarded the Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 2018 among several other honours and is the Vice Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Academy.

Capital Market Veteran Amit Shah Launching A3 Tech - A Fin Tech Startup To Democratize Financial Services

*  A3 Tech will enable independent financial advisors with a complete ecosystem to compete with banks and large wealth management firms. The tech focused solution is the first of its kind in India to help financial advisors grow their business manifold.

A3 Tech, the Indian investment firm led by financial industry veteran and IIFL Wealth Management co-founder Amit Shah, announced the launch of its cutting-edge digital technology platform which is the first external asset management platform to be established in India. By providing an avenue for independent financial advisors to compete with banks and large wealth management firms, A3 Tech’s unprecedented technology will catalyze the transformation of the financial services sector, driving growth in a way that has never been seen before. 

As a holistic financial ecosystem, A3 Tech is uniquely positioned to support financial advisors with digital technology, social media communication, engagement with their customer base, and a robust reporting platform. Through its unparalleled service offering, it aims to integrate with all asset classes including mutual funds, equities, alternatives, loans and consumer/housing transactions.

Amit Shah, chief executive officer and founder of A3 Tech, confirmed the development and said the platform is designed to enable independent financial advisors grow their businesses by 10X in 5 years.  

Awarded the 'NRI of the Year' in 2016 for the Asia Pacific Region for achieving outstanding success overseas, Amit Shah, Founder & CEO, aims to aggressively promote wealth managers to set up and grow their business independently powered by A3 Tech platform. Bringing over twenty years of global expertise in the wealth management industry, he seeks to transform and disrupt the rudimentary makeshift model of financial advisory. With the massive wealth creation occurring in tier two and three cities in the last decade, the platform will provide budding savvy entrepreneurs and financial advisors with world-class technology to kick-off upcoming large wealth management enterprises. 

Adding his thoughts on the same "We are providing a quasi-private banking platform to an adviser where an adviser would get everything which he/she would get as if working in a bank or a more prominent firm but on an independent basis.”  This differentiated platform will help advisors standardise presentations, refine pitches, and help them with client penetration. Using Amit’s extensive knowledge of Indian & Global markets' wealth management industry, A3 Tech strives to help advisors prepare the right proposition, enabling them to expand their businesses.  

Over the years, the financial industry has observed financial advisors get to first INR 100 crs of assets under advisory in their initial years of operations but struggle to scale up to INR 1,000 crs and beyond. A3 Tech’s vision is to help these advisors achieve their true potential and build a solid brand for themselves which they can monetize later. Beyond a company, A3 Tech is your partner. Through its innovative and personalized services, it will guide and support you every step of the way, allowing you to make greater change than you could ever have imagined.