Tata Motor's ALTROZ DCA – Introducing The Gold Standard In Automatics

* Bookings commence today, at INR 21,000

Keeping the New Forever brand promise, Tata Motors, India’s leading automotive brand, today commenced the bookings of the ALTROZ DCA – The Dual Clutch Automatic version of India’s premium and safest hatchback. The Altroz DCA is an advanced Dual Clutch Technology that is designed for the Indian consumer. It comes with a wet clutch transmission, which ensures the best performance for all Indian driving conditions. The new ALTROZ DCA will set the Gold Standard in the world of automatics and offer a seamless drive experience to customers. Starting today, customers can book their ALTROZ DCA at all the authorized Tata Motors dealerships at just INR 21,000 with deliveries starting from mid March’22.

The ALTROZ DCA will be introduced in a brand new colour – the New Opera Blue and will be available in the top three variants - XT, XZ and XZ+ of 1.2L Revotron petrol engine. In addition to the new Opera Blue, the ALTROZ DCA would also be part of the #Dark range other than being available in Downtown Red, Arcade Grey, Avenue White and Harbour Blue colour.

Commenting on this much awaited product, Mr. Rajan Amba, Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Customer Care, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. said, “India’s safest hatchback, the ALTROZ, has carved a niche for itself in the premium hatch segment with more than 1.25 lakh happy customers. Taking our success story further, we wanted to delight our customers by introducing a world-class automatic transmission to the line-up in the form of the ALTROZ DCA. We are confident that the ALTROZ DCA will set ‘Gold Standard’ in automatics and will match the evolving preference of our customers. Our customers can visit their nearest Tata Motors dealerships to know more about the product and book the all-new ALTROZ DCA. I am confident that the ALTROZ DCA, when launched, will instantaneously witness an overwhelming response and help us expand our customer base.”

Since its launch in January 2020, the ALTROZ has received an overwhelming response and is appreciated by the customers for its laser-cut design, best-in-class safety, and exhilarating performance. Being the first vehicle on the ALFA (Agile Light Flexible Advanced) architecture, the ALTROZ has always set #TheGoldStandard in the premium hatchback segment. Altroz comes with many premium features such as leatherette seats, 7”touchscreen infotainment by Harman, rear ac vents, cruise control, auto headlamps, iRA connected car technology and many more.

Bizongo’s Revenue Across Textile Hubs Grows 20X In 11 Months As Manufacturers Adopt Digitisation

* Clocks INR 600 crore in annualized revenue across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh

Textile hubs of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are witnessing a rapid shift in MSMEs embracing technology platforms to fast track their business. Full stack B2B trade enablement platform Bizongo has seen its annualized revenue grow 20 times to INR 600 crore in the last 11 months from these regions.

Karnataka alone contributes 14 per cent to the national garment production in India and the state capital Bengaluru is known as the Garment Capital of India, owing to the presence of a large number of fabric and yarn manufacturers.

A substantial part of the growth is driven by the digitized and automated supply chain financing solution provided to manufacturers to help them with their credit and working capital needs. The steep rise in cotton prices and coal shortage have kept manufacturing units under pressure, increasing the need for MSMEs to seek credit to keep their production on track. Bizongo has been helping MSMEs with collateral free and minimum documentation working capital lines.

Bizongo’s Partner Hub platform helps textile manufacturers avail services across production planning, order delivery timelines, payment reconciliation, to do away with manual tasks. Bizongo has also launched IoT enabled cloud factory setups that power MSMEs to give real time updates to their enterprise customers about their products and order status, and also reduces time and effort in raising invoices and undertaking collections.

Bizongo’s supply chain finance model is rooted in generating free cash flow and offering faster access to working capital, which enables manufacturers to improve performance. This approach has spiraled the technology firm to become a market leader in the customized goods categories such as textiles, apparels and other contract manufactured goods.

Aniket Deb, Co-founder and COO, Bizongo said, “Our platform caters to the entire ecosystem of textile manufacturers - right from the enterprise customer, to the garment manufacturer and further up to the yarn supplier and even the cotton mill. Through our technology platform we have been able to add value to both sales and procurement. Be it digitizing orders and deliveries or invoicing to credit, Bizongo has made it possible for every player in the textile life cycle to conduct their business in the most efficient manner and optimize their resources.”

Bizongo has strong partnerships with over 25 financial institutions to facilitate credit and working capital needs of MSMEs. Some of the enterprise customers are Hours Overseas, Tripal Traders, and Namo Traders.

Anupam Chaudhary, Owner, Namo Traders said, “Our sales have gone up by 45%. Despite the demand, we were facing challenges in supplying to our customers due to lack of working capital. Bizongo helped us achieve consistent growth in our business by resolving the issues around working capital.”

In 2021, the technology platform has facilitated INR 1200 cr through its supply chain financing.

The strong demand for digital platforms comes as enterprises face challenges arising from higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), manual processes, offline catalog and artwork management, ad-hoc vendor engagement, inaccurate purchase planning, high inventory, loss of sales, and delayed payments to vendor partners.

About Bizongo

Bizongo was founded in 2015 by three IIT graduates Aniket Deb, Sachin Agrawal, and Ankit Tomar, to digitally transform the fragmented and unorganized yet unique and ubiquitous B2B segment of customized goods. Today, the company focuses upon packaging, textiles, apparel & other contract manufacturing goods as its product portfolio and has a network of over 3,000 partner factories. Through its proprietary digital platforms, such as Procure Live, Partner Hub, and Artwork Flow, Bizongo offers Digital Vendor Management, Supply Chain Automation & Supply Chain Financing as key services to its enterprise customers. The B2B e-commerce platform services 300+ enterprise customers in fashion & lifestyle, pharmaceuticals, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, home & personal care, and e-commerce.

Shujaul Rehman, CEO Of GTFL, Appointed Vice Chairman Of CII Pune

Mr. Shujaul Rehman, Chief Executive Officer of Garware Technical Fibres Ltd., has been nominated as the Vice Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Pune Zonal Council for the year 2022-23. CII Pune held its 22nd annual meeting on February 24 and formed a new zonal council for the year 2022-23. The meeting was organised at Hotel Conrad in Pune and was attended by esteemed members of the organisation.

Mr. Shujaul Rehman holds an MBA from Aligarh Muslim University's Faculty of Management and Research. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program and a Harvard Business School alumnus. He has worked at Cadbury, Marico Industries, and CEAT in various roles.

He has maintained a sharp focus on client centricity, smooth execution, and an instinctive ability to anticipate future trends and consumer requirements as the CEO of GTFL, ensuring that the company continues its path of profitable growth driven by innovative solutions.

“I am honoured to have been appointed as the Vice Chairman of a prestigious body like CII Pune. CII actively contributes to the development of the nation by maintaining a strong partnership between the industry and the government. As the VC, my goal will be to make use of all my experience and learnings into taking forward CII Pune in a positive direction,” Mr. Shujaul Rehman stated.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) collaborates with industry, government, and civil society to establish and maintain an environment that is favourable to India's development through advising and consultative processes.

CII is a non-profit, industry-led and managed organisation with over 9000 members from the commercial and governmental sectors, including SMEs and multinational corporations, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 businesses from 294 national and regional industry associations.

“For more than 125 years, CII has been engaged in shaping India's development journey and works proactively on transforming Indian Industry's engagement in national development. CII charts change by working closely with Government on policy issues, interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for industry through a range of specialized services and strategic global linkages. It also provides a platform for consensus-building and networking on key issues,” the CII official website states.

An Indian Firm In XPRIZE List Of 5 Finalists Shaping Future Of Work

* HireMee features among $5Mn XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition top rankers

·     Sole non-US entry advances in the competition with the goal of quickly reskilling and provide jobs to 5,000 people in 3 industry segments

·     HireMee is spinning off Isotonic Solutions as a US company

India’s skilling, assessment and job platform HireMee has made it to the list of five finalists of the $5Mn XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition -- the sole non-US firm to make it to the prestigious global list.

XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges announced the five finalists of the three-year competition which reimagines the future of work and how workers are educated and trained.

The competition incentivizes teams to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of rapid training and reskilling solutions for individuals most vulnerable to employment loss.

HireMee competed in round two by deploying its solution to quickly reskill under-resourced workers. Judges evaluated all testing data, to move five teams forward as finalists choosing them because of their reduced training time, and higher job placement rate, and retention rate.

HireMee is now spinning off Isotonik Solutions as a US company with Mr. Chocko Valliappa, Mr. Tom Dretler and Mr. Shirish Pareek as co-founders.

“We are excited to see how the five finalist teams in this competition have tackled the challenge of closing the skills gaps,” said XPRIZE CEO, Anousheh Ansari. “The trainings offered are empowering workers and increasing accessibility to full-time, living wage jobs; radically changing lives and bringing abundance for all. The finalists are reimagining job training and career development; leveraging AI, VR, and disruptive technologies and their efforts are paramount in demonstrating the value of fast-paced training programs.”

The five finalist teams that exceeded all expectations are Alelo, Los Angeles; Dignified Work, formerly Dignity of Work, Spokane; Team Isotonic, formerly HireMee, Bengaluru; SHIFA360, San Diego; and VITAL, Boston, Massachusetts. A milestone award of $1,500,000 will be shared equally between these teams whose solutions received the highest scores from the Judging Panel for successful implementation of their solution.

Isotonik Solutions, USA as a spun off entity from HireMee will deploy its wide-ranging global experience to build new, replicable pathways to rapidly reskill American workers in the final round of the XPRIZE competition.

According to Chocko Valliappa, Founder of HireMee, “Team HireMee is proud of this prestigious honour earned while deploying our proven strengths in using digital technology on an unmatched scale to enable the future of work. We hope to contribute significantly by solving the critical challenge of Rapid Reskilling. HireMee will continue to provide the technology spine for Team Isotonik, as a continuation of its journey towards enabling jobs to millions around the world.”

“Team Isotonik is excited at the opportunity to optimize our ideas on a much larger scale in Healthcare, Advanced Manufacturing and Administration as we strive to exceed our execution abilities in skill-building,” says Shirish Pareek, Isotonik co-founder based in Maryland, USA.

“As a finalist team, Isotonik is gearing up to deliver superior outcomes by training at least 5,000 individuals in three different occupations in three different industries and placing them into relevant jobs in the coming months,” adds Tom Dretler, Massachusetts, USA based Isotonik co-founder.

“We hoped teams would increase job training by 50 per cent. But so far their solutions have increased training by 87 per cent, with another round of testing to optimize their ideas,” said Dr. Monique Golden, Social Science Lead for XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling.

As a finalist HireMee is challenged to achieve an exponential increase in results by training at least 5,000 individuals in three different occupations in three different industries and placing them into relevant jobs and will test its solution from May to August, with judges set to review the data later this year.

XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling is powered by New Profit, a venture philanthropy organization, as part of the Future of Work Grand Challenge which aims to achieve broader systemic change to help prepare 12 million Americans from underinvested communities for workforce success by 2025.

The Grand Challenge is made possible by Strada Education Network, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Comcast NBCUniversal, Goodwill, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Schultz Family Foundation, and many others.

The initiative also brings together a consortium of design and operating partners driving positive change in workforce development including JFF, Accenture, Brandeis University, Education Design Lab, Goodwill Industries International, and Jobcase.

About HireMee

Skilling, assessment and job platform, HireMee, has enabled talent assessment of 1.2 million young men and women from 800 towns in India, and connected them to employers through a verified assessment process that evaluates their knowledge, skills, personality and communication. HireMee has helped recruiters select candidates for 2,20,000 job opportunities, nearly half of them on pro bono basis. Being a cloud-based platform HireMee leaves zero carbon footprint.

In 2021 HireMee conducted a million ProEx assessment examinations (exams) for 100,000 students. HireMee enabled Indian educational institutions to effectively navigate challenges posed by the pandemic by conducting 2 million defect free exams using the AI enabled ProEx platform. Additionally, HireMee offers institutions customisable hybrid learning solutions viz HireMee Gold, Lite LMS and Round Zero.

Team HireMee, now spun off as Isotonic Solutions in the US, is one among five finalists in the $5 Mn XPRIZE rapid skilling competition, reimagining the future of work and transforming how workers are educated and trained.

www.HireMee.Co.In

About XPRIZE

XPRIZE is a global future-positive movement, delivering truly radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. XPRIZE inspires and empowers a global community of problem-solvers to positively impact our world by crowdsourcing solutions through large-scale competitions, tackling the world’s grandest challenges in exploration, environment and human equity.

Active competitions include the $100 Million XPRIZE Carbon Removal with Elon Musk, $15 Million XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion, $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling and $1 Million Digital Learning Challenge.

https://www.xprize.org/

MIT xPRO Launches The Third Cohort Of The Online Cybersecurity Program In India

* Program in collaboration with Emeritus in India aims to upskill professionals at assessing cyber risks, improving defenses, and making their organizations cyber resilient with MIT xPRO. 

MIT xPRO, a professional education program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)—ranked as the number #1 University in the world according to QS World Rankings, 2022 and affiliated with 98 Nobel laureates—has launched the third cohort of the 10-month Post Graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity program. In three months, since its launch in December 2021, the program has enrolled over 100 participants and aims to meet the increasing demand for trained talent in cybersecurity.

According to a report by IBM (2021), India reported the second-highest number of cyberattacks in the Asia- Pacific region. According to the State of Cybersecurity, ISACA, 2021, 32% of Indian organizations said that they experienced more cyberattacks in 2021 than the year before. According to Forbes (2021), the projected worth of the cybersecurity market is estimated to be around USD 403 billion through 2027, and the annual estimated cybercrime cost to the global economy is estimated to be USD 10.5 trillion by 2025.

The Post Graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity is designed to provide a holistic experience to professionals and includes a mix of live weekly sessions and recorded lectures by global faculty and industry leaders. The program structure also includes applying learnings to real-time scenarios and is ideal for mid-and senior-level professionals who have excelled in cybersecurity and want to upskill themselves as leaders in cybersecurity strategies to improve their organization’s preparedness and response against cyberattacks. The program is also suited for graduates and early career professionals with or without prior experience in the IT field and looking to specialize in cybersecurity and accelerate their careers with a certificate from a globally recognized school. Learners also get the advantage of personalized feedback and career guidance in addition to enhanced networking opportunities. On successful completion of the program, learners will get a certificate of completion from MIT xPRO.

Commenting on the launch of the third cohort of the program, Keri Pearlson, Program Faculty and Executive Director of Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan (CAMS), said, “The role of cybersecurity has evolved in recent times, with corporates adopting emerging technologies, including AI, ML, big data, IoT, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and robotics, amongst others. There will be 3.5 million vacant cybersecurity jobs globally by 2025. To meet this demand for trained talent, the MIT xPRO Cybersecurity program has been designed to focus on both the defensive and offensive aspects of cybersecurity. We are pleased to extend MIT xPRO’s global collaboration with Emeritus by bringing this program to India, and the launch of the third cohort will empower more Indian professionals to be industry-ready in the field of cybersecurity.” 

The program starts on March 31, 2022, and has a fee of USD 3,500, with flexible payment options and discounts for multiple enrollments. The program is offered through Emeritus, a global leader in making high-quality education accessible and affordable, offering a digital-first, seamless learning and high engagement experience. Visit the program page for more details, and interested applicants should apply by March 30, 2022.

About MIT xPRO:  

Technology is accelerating at an unprecedented pace causing disruption across all levels of business. Tomorrow’s leaders must demonstrate technical expertise as well as leadership acumen in order to maintain a technical edge over the competition while driving innovation in an ever-changing environment. MIT uniquely understands this challenge and how to solve it with decades of experience developing technical professionals. MIT xPRO’s online learning programs leverage vetted content from world-renowned experts to make learning accessible anytime, anywhere. Designed using cutting-edge research in the neuroscience of learning, MIT xPRO programs are application-focused, helping professionals build their skills on the job. 

About Emeritus: 

Emeritus Executive Education offers customised and open programs in India, Singapore, Dubai and other global locations in collaboration with MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School, INSEAD, Harvard Business School (HBS), Kellogg Executive Education, Berkeley Executive Education, Wharton Executive Education, IIM Lucknow Executive Education, IIM Calcutta Executive Education and Emeritus. Our world-class executive education programs, supported by eminent program experts, provide an immersive learning experience integrated with actionable insights and practical business applications. The meticulously curated programs are delivered in a different range of formats; in-class, online, as well as blended programs. Our extensive portfolio also includes short 2-4 day in-class workshops, online courses of 2-3 months duration as well as comprehensive learning journeys that run over 6-9 months, customised to an organisation’s requirement. The Emeritus Group has more than 1,400 employees globally and offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Singapore, Palo Alto, Mexico City, New York, Boston, London, and Dubai. Following its $650 million Series E funding round in August 2021, the company is valued at $3.2 billion, and is backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Leeds Illuminate, Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Bertelsmann, Accel and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Learn more at Emeritus.org. 

BlackRock Partners With Verizon For Private 5G Network At New State-Of-The-Art NYC HQ

*  Marks the first commercial implementation of Verizon Business’ On Site 5G private network solution in the U.S.

Verizon Business and BlackRock announced today that BlackRock’s new global headquarters at 50 Hudson Yards in New York will feature a private 5G network from Verizon.

The deal brings secure 5G Ultra-Wideband connectivity to areas of BlackRock’s brand-new Hudson Yards facility where high speed and low latency are put to optimal use, such as its trading floor, client-facing conference center, cutting edge auditorium, and meeting rooms.

The On Site 5G deployment can replace office WiFi and allows BlackRock to take advantage of workplace-of-the-future tools and applications including virtual enhanced training, AR/VR, enhanced security management and monitoring, real-time edge computing and emerging data-centric technologies that require high bandwidth and low latency.

“5G Ultra Wideband is the platform for 21st century business and should be a prerequisite for any workplace that aims to be state of the art and future ready,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business.

“BlackRock’s decision to outfit their new headquarters with On Site 5G from Verizon Business puts them at the forefront of data-centric innovation, in full view of clients, guests and partners, who can enjoy the on-premises private network and all its benefits as well.”

“Our vision from the very beginning was to create a world-class, tech-centric experience for our people and our clients,” said Rob Goldstein, COO of BlackRock. “Partnering with Verizon Business to deploy On Site 5G at our new headquarters will help us turn that vision into reality. As we usher in a new world of work, the vibrant and dynamic environment that we are looking to create will give our people the best opportunities to succeed and better serve our clients.”

On Site 5G is a secure non-standalone private network that combines 5G Ultra-Wideband small cells with an LTE packet core and supporting radios, providing compatibility with a wide range of both LTE and 5G devices. The offering uses 5G radios from Corning Incorporated.

As 5G technology and capabilities advance and evolve, On Site 5G provides customers with a scalable, customizable platform to take advantage of developments in burgeoning technologies such as IoT, AI/ML, AR/VR, real-time edge compute and much more.

Leading Crypto Payment Gateway-Transak Expands In India To Empower Web3 Developers To Onboard The Next Billion Users

 

* On Transak users will be able to directly buy crypto using INR via bank transfers, debit/credit cards, wallets, UPI, and various payment applications worldwide

* Support for all major blockchains, tokens, and stable coins. 80+ cryptocurrencies in total making it the only fiat on-ramp in India 

* Transak Has Already Partnered With Marquee web3 Players Like Polygon, & WazirX NFT

* Transak will also look at filling 200+ positions with local talent 

After successfully running operations in over 60+ countries, the UK-based fiat-to-crypto payment gateway, Transak, is now in India. Transak’s launch in India marks the entry of the nation’s first and only fiat on-ramp provider. In addition to building a team of 50+ local talents, Transak has partnered with marquee web3 players like Polygon, WazirXNFT, and Zilliqa and are under process to further integrate with Mudrex, edge wallet, and others 

With an objective to catalyse mass adoption of crypto transactions, Transak would enable users to buy crypto using bank transfers, debit/credit cards, wallets, UPI, and various payment applications worldwide. Transak’s gateway is integrated with fiat payment methods around the globe which could further be used to make the purchase.

“We are thrilled to extend our shared passion of simplifying crypto transactions to the Indian market,” said Sami Start, Co-Founder, Transak, “With the world’s second-largest population, the Indian market has both the opportunity and will to fast-track future with web3 developments by the way of mass adoption. We believe Transak would bridge that gap in the Indian market and would tap into the true potential of its one 1.4 billion nationals.” 

Further elaborating on Transak’s progress so far and its future plans for the market,  & Yeshu Agarwal, Co-Founder, Transak, added, “Transak uniquely provides fiat on-ramp in India and our extended vision is to empower and enable the Dapps built in India to have secure yet seamless onboarding onto crypto-economy. With Transak, users will now be able to directly buy crypto using INR via bank transfers, debit/credit cards, wallets, UPI, and various payment applications worldwide. To execute this vision, we are also looking at utilising the local talent pool as we plan to grow our team to 200+ by hiring across functions.”   

By offering an easy route to add the gateway to an app or website with just a few lines of code, Transak’s fiat-to-crypto payment gateway empowers both novices and enthusiasts and enables easy purchase, sale, and trade-in of cryptocurrencies. With its wide crypto coverage, the gateway offers support for all major blockchains, tokens, and stable coins, marking a tally of 80+ cryptocurrencies.

About Transak

Transak is a developer integration for a fiat-to-crypto payment gateway. This solves the important problem of allowing mainstream people and businesses to access crypto and blockchain. It does this by integrating local compliance, payment methods, and liquidity from 60+ countries around the world.

Connect with Transak on LinkedIn, or visit https://transak.com/ for more information.