3i Infotech Hosts Their First International Women’s Day Event In India

* Focuses at creating a culture of transparency and gender supremacy 

3i Infotech Limited (BSE: 532628, NSE: 3IINFOTECH), a global Information Technology company, committed to accelerating business transformation, has announced their first International Women’s Day virtual event from March 1st – March 8th, 2022, alongside this year’s global theme of ‘Break the Bias’. As the new 3i Infotech, they are focused at creating a culture of transparency and gender supremacy, while building on inclusivity beyond equality. The 4500 employees’ strong company is empowering women employees through their new program – ‘NuWE’, with the theme ‘Flying Above the Clouds’.

The weeklong series will have engaging sessions featuring one expert per day. External curated speakers and experts from varied fields spanning technology, design thinking and innovation, marketing, finance and government sectors will speak at the event. The distinguished speakers for the event include:

Bhuvana Subramanyan, Chief Marketing Officer, Randstad India 

Michael Foley, Founder, Foley Designs PVT LTD 

Neha Bagaria, Founder & CEO, JobsForHer 

Gargi Chatterjea, Executive Director, CESC Limited 

Aruna Srinivasan, Customer Success Manager, VMware Tanzu 

Divya Kumar, publisher of ‘Fungalore’ book series 

Zohra Chatterji, Non-Executive Independent Director, 3i Infotech

With IT becoming the most sought-after career option for women in India, the number of women employed in the IT industry has seen a rapid increase over the past decade. According to data from JobsForHer, an online career platform for women, nearly 50% of the total number of jobs currently posted on the platform is for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) roles, an increase from 35% in pre-pandemic 2019. As per 451 Research, a technology industry research firm, women now make up 34% of the IT workforce in India. These numbers show an upward trend in women’s participation in the technology industry in India; however, the challenge is retaining gender diversity through into middle management and leadership roles. Organisations can create strong skilling, mentorship and networking initiatives. They also need to build a cohesive workplace policies, environment and work culture, to retain women especially in senior leadership positions.

Thompson P. Gnanam, Managing Director & Global CEO, 3i Infotech said, “Committees with both genders outperform, better diversity leads to better results and there are many more such revealing facts that clearly highlight the importance of establishing a gender-neutral organisation, where women are given an equal opportunity to grow and nurture their careers. We at 3i Infotech are involved in attracting, engaging and retaining women in our company at all levels. And this weeklong celebration is our commitment to creating a more inclusive culture that is built around transparency and gender supremacy.”

About 3i Infotech  

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, since inception in 1993, 3i Infotech has been committed to driving business value across multiple industry verticals. 3i Infotech, today, has emerged as a leading name in propelling the current wave of digital transformation initiatives, with deep domain expertise across BFSI, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail and Government sectors. The Company has over 4500 employees in 32 offices, 15 countries and across 4 continents. With a wide range of IT services, 3i Infotech has successfully transformed business operations of 1,200+ customers across 50 countries. The Company has a very strong foothold and client base in geographies like North America, India, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Website: https://www.3i-infotech.com/

udChalo Forays Into Real Estate Space To Exclusively Serve The Armed Forces

 

* Quality affordable homes now available for the armed forces at the best-discounted price from udChalo~

* Appoints Abhijit Das as Chief Business Officer to lead the real estate business~

* Bengaluru the next market in radar for real estate expansion

udChalo, a consumer tech company that exclusively caters to the armed forces of India, announces its entry into the real estate business. All defense personnel and veterans can now purchase affordable houses at discounted market prices through udChalo. Backed by the brand's commitment of ‘udChalo assurity’, all real estate purchases through udChalo will ensure investment in quality, affordable, and profitable housing properties. The Indian defense personnel can now purchase property through udChalo at a minimum 10 % discount from the actual market price.

With the focus to venture into all cities preferred by the armed forces, udChalo first ventures into the service in Pune city and subsequently plans to enter markets like Chandigarh, NCR Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur. The brand is in conversation with reputed developers in these cities which will further ensure better buying options and a hassle-free home buying journey for its consumer base.

For Pune city, udChalo joins hands with renowned Nyati developers to sell a ~100,000 sq ft area at the best-discounted rate to veterans and armed forces. Located at Wagholi Pune, a dedicated tower is designed by the builder for the armed forces of India. The property comes with the best of amenities and facilities available in the project, with proximity to schools, hospitals, markets, and other necessities.

Ravi Kumar, CEO, udChalo said, “This business diversification is a well thought and researched move by udChalo, 99% of tax filing executed last year through udChalo’s Tax Filing Facility, unveiled section 24 of the Income Tax Act that lets homeowners claim a deduction of up to Rs. 2 lakhs was missing, furthermore benefits under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) were never utilized by our soldiers who dedicate their lives for the nation.  We stand by our motto of ‘Service to the service men’ and this initiative will ensure all saving parameters are monitored and maximum benefits are offered to the defence community. Unlike civilians, home buying is a challenging proposition as the requirements are unique, how to identify the right property, loan facility, proximity to schools, Army cants, hospitals and other amenities, and above all will the builder deliver and follow legal formalities needs to be addressed during their vacation. The team at udChalo will identify the properties that fulfil the requirements and is committed to provide the best quality product, hassle free buying experience, at an unmatched price.”

To lead the real estate business of udChalo on boards, Abhijit Das as the Chief Business officer. In the past, Abhijit has been an entrepreneur and a corporate executive in Real Estate, Financial Services and Consumer Industries. He has been a driving force in building the JLL business in East India and comes with extensive knowledge of the real estate industry. His vast knowledge and expertise will help udChalo grow the new vertical that they want to expand into and cater to the consumer demands of the segment.

Speaking on his appointment, Abhijit Das, Chief Business Officer for Real Estate- UdChalo, said “For the longest time the real estate needs and demands of the defense forces were overlooked. With udChalo venturing into this space this consumer segment can now avail the best discounts with some of the finest developers in the key cities. I am very excited to be a part of udChalo’s journey and we look forward to disrupt the market space and service our servicemen.” 

Since 2015, udChalo has been dedicated to serving the services of the country by facilitating convenient travel, utility bill payments, financial services, and access to consumer electronics. With this new segment, udChalo taps a consumer base of approximately 3 million who were only dependent on AWHO and Air Force Naval housing board that ensured quality and affordable homes catering to the segment's need.

Team at udChalo will closely monitor the progress of the construction and will have it evaluated by internal and external auditors on varied parameters like legal, engineering, architecture etc.

About udChalo:

udChalo is a leading Consumer Technology Company catering to the armed forces and their dependents. With the vision of ‘Making life simple for soldiers’, udChalo offers Travel, Financial Services, Group Housing, Consumer Electronics, and utility bill payment facility for its user base.

udChalo began its operations in 2015 headed by the alumni of the Army Institute of Technology and Stanford Graduate School of Business (Seed). It succeeded in tapping an untapped segment of consumers and is the only player in the segment. Today, through its website (www.udChalo.com), app platform, and 70 outreach centres udChalo caters to more than 2.8 million serving Defence Personnel, defence veterans, and their families. The estimated CAGR is over 450% in the last 5 years.

In a span of 9 years, udChalo has been instrumental in educating its consumer base and influencing consumer behaviour to turn its business profitable. Recently it was honoured with the national start-up award 2021 in the travel category and ranked 7th at the Economic Times ET Rise awards among India’s Fastest Growing MSME 2021.

udChalo is registered under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Govt of India, and is an IATA-registered agency. It holds ERI License from the Department of Income Tax. udChalo has been a recipient of the CRISIL Rating of CCAS2. The company was recently recognized by Guinness World Records for participation in two record-breaking cycling events.

For more details visit the website - https://www.udchalo.com/

HCL Technologies Named As An Elite Services Partner Of Snowflake

HCL Technologies (HCL), a leading global technology company, is now an Elite Services partner of Snowflake, the Data Cloud company. Within 18 months, HCL Technologies’ partnership tier upgraded thrice, representing commitment toward enabling digital transformation with proven solutions and deep technical expertise in Snowflake’s Data Cloud. This positions HCL as a trusted collaborator that clients can depend on to deliver Snowflake implementations.  

The Snowflake platform enables various workloads and applications, including data warehouses, data lakes, data engineering, data sharing, data science and data application development. HCL Technologies’ concrete, industry-leading migration methodology and accelerators, the in-house pool of diversified talent, and vast experience across geographies, technologies, and verticals allowed it to rapidly grow as a Snowflake partner and reach the highest partnership tier within two years from signing its first agreement with Snowflake. The broad experience of the HCL and Snowflake partnership is accelerating the immense power of the cloud on AWS, Azure, and GCP (Google cloud platform) by adding substantial value to our clients. 

“Enterprises across industries are taking a data-first approach to digital transformation. We are witnessing a massive acceleration in data initiatives on the cloud, powered by data engineering, data science and data application development,” said Anand Birje, President, Digital Business Services, HCL Technologies. “We are excited to attain the highest tier of partnership within just 18 months, in the Snowflake Partner Network, which endorses our deep capabilities and strategic collaboration, delivering successful Snowflake implementations.” 

Colleen Kapase, SVP Worldwide Partner and Alliances, Snowflake said, “HCL’s achievement as an Elite Partner is a testament to their deep expertise on Snowflake. Our recent joint customer implementations reflect their capabilities and customer connections globally. We look forward to continued momentum and partnership with HCL Technologies." 

This partnership is a testament to HCL’s commitment to unlocking business value at scale and accelerating the cloud data transformation journey for organizations globally. HCL Technologies and Snowflake are leveraging their mutual core strengths by defining and implementing the data architecture patterns. HCL’s Data First approach provides a pathway toward distributed cloud platforms removing barriers to scale from expensive, resource-intensive, monolithic data and insights ecosystems. The Snowflake Data Cloud aligns with Data First vision to offer seamless data integration on a multi-cloud ecosystem. This enables advanced analytics functionality for enterprises globally and provides faster business outcomes for mutual customers allowing them to leap into the future by making the most of their data.  

 With Snowflake, HCL Technologies is driving go-to-market (GTM) activities globally, with scaled competency and delivery excellence. HCL Technologies continues to build an internal Snowflake Center of Excellence to create implementation models, migration frameworks, design principles, vertical industry solutions and horizontal accelerator solutions.  

Aegon Life Accelerates Digital Transformation Partners With “Legerity’s FastPost For Real-Time Finance Systems Architecture”

Aegon Life, India’s leading digital life insurance company, has selected Legerity’s FastPost, a cloud-based Accounting Rules Platform, as a core component of its new real-time finance systems architecture. 

This is an important milestone for the company as it rolls out a fully integrated, event-driven, cloud-based, scalable architecture. 

The move will enable a digital-ready back office supporting real-time accounting and reporting capabilities for Aegon Life. A ground-breaking aspect of the implementation is the real-time streaming of data that capture business events, and seamlessly converts them into entries in the Accounting System. 

Manish Falor, Chief Financial Officer at Aegon Life, commented, “Traditional finance system architectures rely on batch integration; meaning data is often outdated by the time it reaches finance. This new architecture ensures that Aegon Life’s finance department can account for business events and transactions as soon as they happen. This will deliver game-changing capabilities in enabling real-time business and partner profitability, advanced business insight, plus improved end-to-end financial control and data lineage. This implementation is an important step in our digital transformation journey.”  

Jeremy Wood, CEO at Legerity, adds, “Aegon Life is paving the way for future state finance systems and data architecture. Leading-edge finance platforms like FastPost integrated with the latest data cloud and streaming technologies mean finance are equipped and ready to handle the wave of digital innovation that all firms face". 

No Diet Suits All: Optimise Nutrition As You Age, Says Dr. Kadhe

By Dr. Ganesh Kadhe, Associate Director, Nutrition Medical and Scientific Affairs, Abbott

As the world celebrates womanhood on March 8th, let’s pause to understand what healthy eating looks like for a woman. Literally. What should we be feeding our bodies so that we can enjoy good health throughout the changing stages of our lives? Whether you’re a student attending online classes or a corporate honcho working from home these days; a homemaker who never gets a moment’s rest or maybe you’re none of the above but as a woman, you need to know what nutrition is right for you and more importantly, when.

Starting from the time you’re a teenager, what you eat will define who you are in the years to come as nutrient needs are higher now than any other time in your lifecycle. As teenage years are a time of rapid growth and development, eating a well-balanced diet is key, as healthy food is essential for proper hormonal balance. One must stay fit by consuming good fat from fish, avocado, nuts, olive oil etc. The onset of menstruation at this stage often causes low haemoglobin so load up on food rich in iron, protein and avoid junk food containing refined sugar, saturated and trans-fat.

If you’re under 30, it’s a good time to start increasing your calcium intake. Incase the pandemic continues to play spoilsport of how much of sunshine vitamin you can absorb, add vitamin D into your diet to enable the absorption of calcium. If you’re pregnant or breast feeding then lean proteins, iron, and vitamin C (to absorb the iron) are all must-haves for you. Incase you are planning a pregnancy, intake of supplements comprising of vitamin D, B12, iron, calcium and folic acid are essential. A well-balanced diet for all women this age should include some meat and dairy, seafood, green leafy veggies, pulses and grains, dry fruits, and citrus-rich fruit.

Make the transition into menopause a smooth one by limiting on foods high in salt, preservatives, and saturated fats. Women in their 40s and 50s must say hello to more calcium and iron, food rich in antioxidants like berries, cocoa, green tea and more fibrous food like whole grains, veggies, and fruit. In addition to vitamins D and C, another one that cannot be ignored as we age is B12 which is responsible for neurological function and is usually deficient in vegetarians so consciously supplement your diet with vitamin b12 fortified food if you don’t get it naturally. As the onset of metabolic disorders and vitamin deficiencies are seen often in this age group, following a low glycaemic, low fat high protein diet topped with regular exercise is essential.

Age may only be a number but if you want to stay fit and active even over 60 then the amount of nutrients in your food needs to increase in proportion. As a woman in her senior years, your diet should already include all that is recommended above. So that means foods rich in calcium, iron, protein get a big yes and processed foods, saturated fats and excess salt get a big no. The other red flags at this age are spicy foods that can trigger acidity issues, too many sweets that can lead to sugar imbalance and eventually diabetes. One should be conscious that avoidance of dairy due to lactose intolerance is not a solution and they should rather consume dairy products rich in calcium and proteins.

No matter what age you are, drink plenty of water to keep your body well hydrated, add a nutritional drink to your diet for a healthy balance of nutrients, get enough sleep so that you feel fresh and rejunvenated; stay active with age-appropriate exercise and pay equal importance to your mental wellbeing. A lifestyle that combines all of this with a healthy, well-balanced diet will ensure that you relish womanhood at any stage in your life.

Sara Ali Khan Invest In The Casual Wear And Pop-Culture Apparel Brand - Souled Store

* The popular starlet dons the hat of an investor, and invests an undisclosed amount in the homegrown merch and fashion label 

The Souled Store, India’s most popular casual wear and pop-culture apparel brand is set to welcome aboard Sara Ali Khan as an equity partner. The rising new-gen starlet invests an undisclosed amount in the brand, giving The Souled Store a significant investment push and boosting the brand’s celebrity star power.

Given The Souled Store’s massive popularity, growing brand equity, and Sara’s love for all things pop culture, the collaboration is a definite win.

Started by four pop culture enthusiasts, Vedang Patel, Harsh Lal, Aditya Sharma and Rohin Samtaney, The Souled Store is India’s largest online merchandising platform with licenses such as Disney, Warner Bros., WWE, IPL, Viacom18 and more under its roster.

Since its inception, The Souled Store has been setting new benchmarks every year, with its last highlight being a multi-crore funding of INR 75 Crores from Elevation Capital that has also paved the way for other D2C brands to dream big. The brand has also introduced a series of stellar campaigns featuring OTT and YouTube superstars Ashish Chanchlani, Mithila Palkar (Little Things), Ayush Mehra (Call My Agent: Bollywood), Barkha Singh (Engineering Girls S2), Ahsaas Channa (Girls Hostel) and others.

Commenting on the partnership, Sara Ali Khan, said, “I am delighted to partner with The Souled Store. In a short span of time, the brand has carved a niche for itself in the casual wear space. Being an ardent pop-culture lover, and a firm believer in originality and comfort being as important as fashion, I see the brand as a perfect fit to invest in. I look forward to being part of the TSS family.”

On the appointment of Sara Ali Khan, Rohin Samtaney, Co-Founder, The Souled Store said, “We are ecstatic to welcome Sara on board, she has definitely upped the ante when it comes to her love for fashion and styling. Her quirky and experimentative styling best reflects our brand image; we couldn’t have found a better investor and partner. We expect this collaboration will lead to great things together.”

The brand’s current product portfolio includes top wear, bottom wear, innerwear and active wear for men and women.

As a brand, The Souled Store strongly believes in the power of an omnichannel presence. It has successfully built a customer base of 4+ million.

About The Souled Store:

The Souled Store is India’s largest online merchandising platform with 180+ licenses, including Disney, Warner Bros., WWE, IPL, Viacom18 etc.  Although primarily an online brand, The Souled Store currently has five offline stores with more launching soon.

Website Link: https://www.thesouledstore.com/

Ed- Tech Startup Wonderslate Launches Game eBooks App For All Competitive Exams Like NEET, UPSC, JEE

* The app offers learning content from 150 premium publishers blended with games for a superior learning experience.

Going a step ahead to make learning fun, engaging and interactive, Wonderslate has launched the Game eBooks app for students to learn current affairs and practice MCQs in multiple modes such as games, tests as per their preferences. The app comes with preparatory reading materials and videos from 150 premium publishers bundled for superior learning experience. Best-suited for students preparing for competitive exams and entrance tests like UPSC, banking, railways, state government job exams, NEET, JEE, the app is the most innovative, cost-effective and engaging way of preparation in both English and Hindi.

“After receiving a tremendous response for our previous current affairs game app, we are now releasing this first-of-its kind Game eBooks for all competitive exams. At Wonderslate, we constantly try to make learning fun with gaming by providing a smooth, hassle-free and superior user experience. The app is best to learn current affairs, practice mock tests, compete with a challenger online, track progress and make notes. Making the best use of time, the app allows the user to prepare for the exams anytime, anywhere,” said Anand Achyut, Founder and CEO, Wonderslate.

The latest offering by Wonderslate supports modes such as real time game mode with a challenger, single player tests, practice, flashcards. The users can practice tests on a daily, weekly or monthly basis as per their ease and convenience. Its smooth user interface makes learning hassle-free and joyful. The users can also download the reading content as PDF files and refer to them for making notes or revision. The gaming feature enables the users to compete with challengers online and they can track their progress on the leaderboard. This encourages them to constantly work on themselves and also on improving  their rankings on the board for better results. The app is completely ad-free and enables the users to focus on their exams without any disturbance.