Godrej Lawkim Motors Eyes 10% YOY Growth From Hermetic Compressor Motors By FY25

* As a market leader and independent hermetic motor manufacturer in India, Godrej Lawkim Motors expects between  60%  to 70% share of their revenue from the Hermetic Motors segment by FY25.

Godrej & Boyce, the flagship company of the Godrej Group, announced that its business Godrej Lawkim Motors is targeting a growth of 10% YOY in the next three years from Hermetic Compressor Motors. it also aims to steadily increase its share in specialised motors, lamination and components for varied applications. Hermetic Compressor Motors are used in applications such as air conditioners, refrigerators and commercial refrigeration.

Amid a surge in demand triggered by the heatwave, manufacturers of air conditioners and refrigerators have increased production to full capacity. The prices of components used in cooling appliances have also risen and are expected to witness a further hike in the coming quarter. Leading compressor manufacturers who need increased capacity have agreed to tie up with Godrej Lawkim Motors to grow and meet additional demand.

India is establishing itself as a centre for 'reciprocating compressors' thereby leading to an increase in the number of compressor manufacturers and volumes in the country. Reciprocating uses piston to compress air, mainly used in heavy duty commercial refrigeration. Godrej Lawkim Motors, as the pioneer of hermetic motors, creates energy-efficient solutions for a variety of applications, including commercial, industrial, and residential appliances. The business has recently upgraded  the technology of their motors by pioneering the launch of India’s first-ever e-switch technology for general-purpose motors.

Commenting on the expected growth, Xercsis Marker, Executive Vice President & Business Head, Godrej Lawkim Motors, says, “We lead the addressable Hermetic Compressor Motors Market in India. The high reliability of hermetically sealed compressors comes from the reliable Godrej Lawkim hermetic motor fitted inside and which is, the heart of the system. The BLDC (Brushless DC motors) Technology with the Controller card was developed internally for higher efficiency requirments, we expect the demand for this to also increase in the near future. Our focus is to continuously reengineer our diversified portfolio to make our customers cost of ownership more competitive whilst delivering the best in class quality for their domestic and export requirments.Owing to a rise in demand for cooling appliances, there has been an increase in demand for compressor manufacturers and volumes in India moreso from the PLI scheme introduced by the Government under the Atma Nirbhar initiative. By FY25, we expect that  60% to 70% of our increasing revenues will come from Hermetic Motors. We will continue to support our customers in their volume and value growth.”

About Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd

Godrej & Boyce ('G&B'), a Godrej Group Company, was founded in 1897 and has contributed to India's journey of self-reliance through manufacturing. G&B patented the world's first springless lock and since then, has diversified into 14 businesses across various sectors from Security, Furniture, Aerospace to Infrastructure and Defence. Godrej is one of India’s most trusted brands serving over 1.1bn customers worldwide daily.

To learn more visit: www.godrej.com

NFTICALLY Makes Minting NFTs Free For Users; Introduces Zero Cost Gas Fee

NFTICALLY, India's first global NFT marketplace creator & B2B SaaS is excited to announce that now it will allow the minting of NFTs without any gas fees on the Polygon network. The feature is enrolled to support the pockets of the users who earlier paid hefty amounts as a minting fee and were held back from minting their NFTs. This change will further boost creators, artists, businesses, and basically, anyone who is looking to get their NFTs on the market to create and mint their NFTs without any hassle of gas fees. The move comes to promote more NFT creators to enter the NFT ecosystem without the fear of bearing heavy costs. 

NFTICALLY has also reduced gas fees on other blockchains via Shared Smart Contract and adapted ERC20 payment tokens with the option to enable or disable them. Once the user gets their ERC20 tokens activated on the NFT Marketplace, NFTICALLY provides them with the option or flexibility to enable/disable them as per their requirements. The platform has also enhanced the flexibility to add Tether USD and Wrapped Currency as an additional payment option for the users.  

Further to uplift more NFT enthusiasts, NFTICALLY has reduced platform fees for all subscriptions. The fees have been reduced to as low as 1.5% for some of the plans. This move aims to encourage the users to mint and transact as much as they want without having to worry about the high platform fee and to help Marketplace owners on-board many more NFT enthusiasts to their marketplace.  

“NFTICALLY believes in supporting its users and Marketplace owners. With these new features, NFTICALLY aims to ease the load on the pockets of the users,” said Toshendra Sharma, Founder and CEO of NFTICALLY. “NFTs and blockchain technology are shaping our future at the moment. These new features are enrolled to encourage more creators to showcase their NFTs to the world and help art-lovers to explore the boundless world of NFTs.”   

Over the span of 6 months, NFTICALLY has enabled over 12K+ NFTs and 6300+ listed stores from more than 50 countries across the globe; recording about 138% MoM growth in its users. This number makes up for one of the fastest growth of any platform seen globally.  

About NFTICALLY  

NFTICALLY is the first of a kind global NFT marketplace creator and a B2B SaaS for launching white-label NFT Stores & Marketplaces to Mint, Buy or Sell NFTs. The company has the vision to become a full-stack NFT Company to help anyone monetize their digital assets. The platform aims to simplify the NFT ecosystem and allows users to create a marketplace at a click of a button allowing them to park the NFT marketplace under their own domain names. From Airdrops to Social Tokens, from NFTs to Unlockable content - the users of NFTICALLY can access the latest & best of what NFTs have to offer, along with the ability to integrate their own CRM, Analytics, Marketing, etc.  

Being a B2B SaaS platform, NFTICALLY enables celebrities, influencers, gamers, clubs & enterprises to launch their own NFT Marketplace globally. It can be seen as “Shopify for NFTs”. World’s first NFT store launching solution on the cloud with features like Custom UI, Social Tokens for celebrities, KYC, USD Support, etc.  

Veranda Aims To Increase Students’ Employability Quotient Through Its Veranda Acacia Delivery Centres Across India

* Launches Veranda Acacia with the first set of Delivery Centres across 25 locations 

* Veranda Acacia is now a FutureSkills PRIME Ecosystem Partner

Veranda Learning Solutions Limited (“Veranda”), a public listed EdTech company (BSE: 543514, NSE: VERANDA), today announced the launch of Veranda Acacia, a comprehensive learning platform aimed to bridge the workplace-ready IT skills gap in India, through a nationwide network, with the signup of its first set of Delivery Centres across 25 locations.

The Acacia Phase 1 programs for Full Stack Web Development, Cloud and DevOps, as well as Data Science are aligned to Competency Standards developed by SSC NASSCOM in collaboration with Industry and approved by Government of India. IT-ITES Sector Skills Council NASSCOM is the national standard-setting body for IT Skills set up under the aegis of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Ministry of Skills Development & Entrepreneurship of the Government of India (GOI). The programs are based on an outcome-oriented approach that focuses on enhancing the learners’ employability quotient through a 100% practice-oriented and industry-aligned curriculum, a regimental pedagogy, and a robust placement support mechanism.

Acacia programs (career tracks) are fully aligned to the contemporary and emerging needs of the skilled workforce at IT industries, based on regular interactions with partner organisations, to provide them with work-ready college graduates. These career tracks are offered to the undergraduate and postgraduate students, both at Acacia’s Delivery Partner Centres and in institutional campuses. A total of six career tracks are offered, three each in Phase 1 and Phase 2, namely Full Stack Web Development, Cloud and DevOps, Data Science, Cybersecurity, Mobile App Development, and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Speaking about the launch of Veranda Acacia, Mr. Kalpathi S. Suresh, Chairman cum Executive Director, Veranda Learning Solutions, said, “All our programs are outcome-driven and with Veranda Acacia we aim to bridge the current skilled workforce gap in the tech sector. We will deliver high quality, affordable, and experienced instructor led courses across tier 2 and tier 3 towns to enable learners to quickly integrate within the industry in the coming 12 months. We are committed to investing in People, Product and Performance for providing students with sustained career excellence. We are working with several tech companies to provide them with a skilled workforce that can assist them in achieving their growth trajectories.”

All the learners enrolling in Acacia’s career track are not just trained for the employment-aligned tech stacks, but also provided with an all-round placement support encompassing technical and non-technical interview preparation, soft-skills training, resume, and portfolio building and mock interviews. The learners will have access to its one-of-a-kind placement terminal with direct feed to the recruiters while creating interview opportunities for all the learners who meet the performance criteria. After successfully completing the above-mentioned aligned courses, and passing the SSC NASSCOM assessment, learners will be eligible for GoI Incentive scheme.

Through the FutureSkills Prime program, the Ministry of IT and NASSCOM have built an aggregator of aggregators platform to build an ecosystem of partners who will work together with us to bridge the yawning gap between the supply and demand of talent skilled in the digital technologies. 

Commenting on the genesis of Veranda Acacia, its Business Head - Mr. Himanshu Dandotiya said, “With Acacia, Edureka forays into an offline business with hybrid mode of academic delivery through our partners. The Indian IT sector needs millions of work ready graduates, while on the other hand the employability of our graduates is nowhere close to the demand that exists. Having trained fresh recruits for several leading IT companies over the years, we have precisely framed this program for making a fresh graduate work-ready and deployable. The quick sign-up of our first 25 centres is encouraging as we already see this number growing significantly.”   

Speaking on network expansion, Acacia’s National Head of Sales and Operations, Mr. Manish Mathur commented, “We at Acacia are committed towards building a state-of-the-art partner-network across India and soon beyond the borders of the country too. This will enable aspirants to learn new technologies with high-quality accredited content, while enhancing their placement quotient without migrating to cities. We strongly believe that this will make a difference to the demand supply gap and bring social equality.”

“We are very pleased to partner with Veranda Acacia to offer industry relevant IT courses with employable skills so that learners can secure long-term careers in the tech field, while providing us with a highly rewarding long-term investment opportunity. As Veranda Acacia’s Phase 1 programs are certified by SSC NASSCOM, learners are assured that the curriculum is based on an outcome-oriented approach that will bridge the gap in demand and supply of skilled IT professionals” said, Ms. R. Visalaakshi, Founder & Director, V NET Technologies (Delivery Partner).

About Veranda Learning Solutions

Founded in 2018, by the Kalpathi AGS Group - Veranda Learning Solutions is a public listed edtech company that offers a bouquet of training programs for competitive exam preparation, including State Public Service Commission, Banking, Insurance, Railways, IAS, and CA, as well as a slew of professional skilling and upskilling programmes in trending technologies. Veranda Learning Solutions aims at offering a robust learning platform riding on a network of strong mentors, educationists, and tech-experts.

Veranda Learning Solutions’ platform combines technology, processes, and methodologies to provide high-quality, in-depth, personalised learning opportunities and content to learners across the country. Dedicated to creating an impact on students and delivering successful academic outcomes, Veranda adopts a multi-modal delivery system backed by a rigorous and disciplined learning framework.

The company provides services through four subsidiaries: Veranda Race, Veranda CA, Veranda IAS, and Edureka – the customer facing brand of Brain4ce Education Solutions.

About Edureka

Founded in 2011, Edureka is best known for pioneering Live Online Classes based Upskilling programs for Working Professionals. Edureka partners with premier Indian institutes like IITs, NITs and prominent international universities like Purdue to offer training in Cloud Computing, DevOps, AI-ML, Data Science, Web Development, Cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies in addition to its proprietary training content.

Edureka’s instructor-led live online classes model has the best-in-class completion rates, learner satisfaction and career transitions. Edureka’s training content is immensely popular amongst online learners and is consumed more than 1.1 crore times every month across its Blog, Q&A Community, and YouTube channels. Having a 1200+ strong instructor pool, it has trained more than 1 million paid subscribed learners so far. Edureka is on a mission to enable transformative learning and career success in the digital economy for professionals and students across the globe.

After its acquisition in September 2021, Edureka is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Veranda Learning Solutions Ltd.

About FutureSkills Prime

FutureSkills PRIME is of its kind a public-private partnership between Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NASSCOM to build a digital skilling ecosystem for the citizens of India.

FutureSkills Prime is upskilling professionals in various sectors, IT, non-IT as well as students across India in emerging technology towards building a nation-wide digital talent pool.

In the short journey, FutureSkills Prime has upskilled 8,00,000+ citizens of India, 89 % of whom are youth, thereby, contributing towards the vision of making the country a Digital Talent Nation.

ADIF Becomes A Party To The CCI Probe Into Apple's Alleged Abuse Of The App Market

The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) has officially become a party to the ongoing case against Apple before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) over the big tech firm’s alleged abuse of market power in the apps market. The complaint was originally filed by Jaipur-based non-profit ‘Together We Fight Society’ arguing that Apple’s imposition of a high in-app fee and other restrictions hurts competition by raising costs for app developers and customers, while also acting as a barrier to market entry. 

The CCI in late December 2021 ordered a probe into Apple’s business practices in India,  saying that the regular it was of the initial view that the tech giant had violated certain antitrust laws.

Apple’s app store practices have been restrictive and at times even violative of the rights of app owners to conduct their business and are facing scrutiny from antitrust regulators in the  United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands. In December 2021, the Dutch anti-trust regulator found Apple’s App Store policies to be in violation of its competition laws and has since levied a series of penalties against the company over non-compliance with its order.

Individual organizations have also mounted legal action against Apple over its business practices. Epic Games, for instance, filed a lawsuit in the United States after it was forced off Apple's App Store for redirecting customers to cheaper subscriptions and payments outside the App Store.

Big tech firms like Apple and Google have monopolised the app economy and continue to impose predatory policies on their app stores – such as forcing the use of their own payment systems – that harm the startup ecosystem and India’s developers. IOS and Android have a combined market share of 99.03% in India. Given their dominant position, their policies affect a large number of users and developers, and changes to their policies have a major impact on businesses.

“Both the gatekeepers of the app economy have been known to rig the game in their favour by indulging in abusive practices and abusing their dominant position. There is an urgent need to reign them in so that the interests of the scores of small players that make up the internet and app economy are protected,” said Sijo Kuruvilla George, the Executive Director of the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF).

By insisting on the usage of only its billing system, the big tech firms are ensuring they have an unfair advantage over other payment and billing systems. We need the CCI to study such practices by the big tech so that Indian developers can have a fair chance of fighting and surviving.

Anupam Mittal, the founder and CEO of Shaadi.com, said: “For the betterment and continued growth of the Indian startup ecosystem, it’s crucial that the internet, and specifically the app economy, is made fair, transparent and open. If the anti-competitive and monopolistic practices along with the gatekeeper policies of big tech firms are not kept in check, there is bound to be a detrimental impact on Indian entrepreneurs and businesses and ultimately the sovereignty of the country.” 

Union Bank of India Launches Digital Solution Product “Trade nxt”

* It will minimize the requirement of physical documentation & reduce turn-around time with better governance and enhanced security and controls 

Union Bank of India announced the launch of ‘Trade nxt’ (trade.unionbankofindia.co.in/UBIFCC/portal#/login), an online platform for providing comprehensive cross border trade finance services to Indian Exporters and Importers. It offers seamless entry and processing of letters of credit (LC), bank guarantees, export/import bills, disbursement of export credit, outward & inward remittances, dealer financing and much more. 

‘Trade nxt’ is a next generation digital banking platform that enables all corporates as well as MSMEs to transact all the cross border export-import transactions in a hassle-free way as it offers an array of services in one place, which eliminates the need for companies to visit a bank branch to initiate a trade transaction and ensures better governance with enhanced security and controls. Companies can now initiate a transaction from the comfort of their place 24/7 in a safe and secure manner. 

‘Trade nxt’ platform will also enable the regulatory online auto reporting through Import Data Processing & Monitoring System (IDPMS), Export Data processing & Monitoring System (EDPMS) and other statutory reporting pertaining to ODI/ FDI/ LRS transactions, which will make the process much more convenient. 

 It is a user-friendly application with customised dashboards, OCR based transactions, artificial intelligence, bulk uploads, with additional features like customised MIS/ reports and many other features are made available in ‘Trade nxt’. 

The Ministry of Electronics & Technology recently felicitated Union Bank of India for achieving highest percentage of digital payments transactions under the category of large and medium banks at “Digital Payment Utsav”. Union Bank of India also became first public bank to go live on Account aggregator (AA) ecosystem. In the zeal to accelerate its digital transformation. 

Key benefits of the ‘Trade nxt’ platform: 

Initiate transactions anytime, anywhere; with minimal dependency on the branch  

Facility of uploading scanned copies of documents is available, wherever applicable. 

Prefilled templates for similar transactions or options to Copy from previous transactions 

Auto generated regulatory declarations 

Saves time and cost of manually printing and signing documents through in-built Maker & Checker functionality in customer portal 

Auto generated transaction advice and SWIFT messages 

Track status of transaction initiated by you through transaction tracker 

Set Auto Reminders for future payment & Bill due dates 

Intelligent and customized Dashboard 

Dedicated Relationship Manager desk 

Digitize trade finance transactions 

Initiate transaction through upload option (Paperless cross-border transactions). 

Symphony limited Ropes-In Ace Cricketers Harbhajan Singh, Shikhar Dhawan For A Unique AI-Led Campaign

India’s most loved air cooler brand Symphony limited has roped in the country’s sought-after cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Shikhar Dhawan for a unique AI-led nationwide initiative. The brand has partnered with Rephrase AI to create hyper-personalized video films for over 2,300 retailers across India. This is the first time in the consumer durables industry that a brand has leveraged artificial intelligence and initiated geo-targeting for each retailer. The heartwarming videos will witness India’s popular cricketers appreciating dealers for their constant support and efforts for providing great customer service.   

Known for being one of the largest homegrown brands, Symphony has always supported small and local businesses and has been a strong advocate of Vocal for Local. Along with the personalized videos, Symphony has also given letter of recognition, a certificate and a couple of goodies as a token of appreciation. The brand has taken this thought a notch higher by paying a tribute to the work of their trade partners. It strikes an emotional chord by going out of the way in reaching out to the people that matter.   

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Anuj Arora, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Symphony Limited says, “We are ecstatic to have partnered with reputed cricketers, Harbhajan Singh, and Shikhar Dhawan. They came on board to create AI driven customized videos for our dealership partners who are an integral part of our company. The objective is to create brand love and deepen the bonding with our trade partners. We are consistently brainstorming and innovating to come up with intriguing campaigns. With this initiative, we hope to strengthen our relationships and reach new heights together.”  

Speaking on the collaboration, Harbhajan Singh says, “I am honored to be a part of this initiative spearheaded by Symphony Ltd. There are multiple layers of processes and teams to make a brand successful and achieve the goal of sales. Taking a note of the work of trade partners and their efforts is an excellent way to acknowledge their contribution. Homegrown brands in India are doing a fantastic job and ensuring a good turnaround! I wish Symphony the best for their stellar work!”   

Speaking on the collaboration, Shikhar Dhawan, who is exclusively managed by RISE Worldwide, India’s largest independent Sports and Entertainment Company, commented, “I am pleased to partner with Symphony for their new campaign that motivates their partners. I always believe in appreciating teamwork and this campaign celebrates their hard work. I look forward to being a part of it.”   

Nisheeth Lahoti, the co-founder at Rephrase.AI mentions, “Generating AI videos with 2 big stars and a compelling narrative was a fresh challenge for us - however, seeing the commitment of the brand to build something for the distributor network was compelling. Rephrase.ai created a digital avatar that cloned the face and voice of the cricketer and use AI to generate a unique video for more than 2000 stakeholders.”  

Find below links to some of the videos 

https://youtu.be/kNntyvz7ozw  

https://youtu.be/Dg3I7t3IiVw  

https://youtu.be/5uRl7o1smzw   

Symphony Limited:  

Symphony, an Indian Multi-National Company with presence in over 60 countries is the world’s largest manufacturer of air-coolers. From inventions to innovations, energy responsibility to environment stewardship, Symphony is a market leader which has been cooling customers for generations. The massive supremacy of Symphony coolers in the residential, industrial, and commercial segments has made the brand synonymous with ‘cooling.’ Founded in 1988, in Gujarat, India, Symphony Limited established a new category of evaporative air-cooling in India, taking it to the globe. As a disruptor of a highly unorganized sector, the company has set high benchmarks comprising 201 trademarks, 64 registered designs, 15 copyrights and 48 patents, defining the gold standard of air cooling. 

Horizon Aerospace Wins Boeing Contract For Maintenance And Support Of Its Key Defence Platforms

* Collaboration in Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of wheels and brakes for Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster, P-8I and IAF VIP 737 transport fleet

Horizon Aerospace has won a contract with Boeing for the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of three key Boeing defence platforms in India, the P-8I operated by the Indian Navy (IN), and the C-17 Globemaster and VIP 737 transport fleet operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF). This strategic collaboration aims to grow capabilities in India in the areas of wheels and brakes MRO of IAF and IN maintainers. 

“The collaboration with Boeing strengthens and enriches our existing relationship. The enhanced collaboration underscores the growing international recognition for Horizon’s capabilities in the aerospace and defence domain. We are proud to partner with Boeing and excited, to have been chosen to work with them on such prestigious and critical projects that build as well as test India’s indigenous MRO capabilities,” said Per Smedegaard, Group President, Horizon Aerospace, Defsys Solution.

Horizon Aerospace (India) Pvt Ltd have been a part of the SAFRAN SPOT network, and a part of ECOSERVICES (Pratt & Witney & S. T Aerospace JV) networks. This co-operation will undoubtedly enhance Horizon offers and capabilities under Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative of the Government of India.  Boeing is one of the top aerospace companies for enabling implementation of best-in-class processes and operations in their supply chain.  Horizon’s collaboration with Boeing will enable Horizon to enhance its capabilities, on-time delivery and quality processes.

“This collaboration enriches our partnership with Horizon Aerospace, brings them aboard our Boeing India Repair Development and Sustainment (BIRDS) hub initiative, and is an important milestone as we continue to grow supplier-partner collaboration in India, for India. It will help us in our goal to generate value for our defence customers locally through faster turnaround, exceptional operational capability and readiness on Boeing aircraft”, said Ashwani Bhargava, Director, Supply Chain Management, Boeing India.

BIRDS hub is an in-country network and alliance of suppliers led by Boeing in India that envisions a competitive MRO ecosystem for engineering, maintenance, skilling, repair and sustainment services of defence and commercial aircraft. This network aims to drive high industry benchmarks in India for maintenance and repair, platform availability, customer satisfaction, quicker turnaround time.

About Horizon Aerospace

Horizon Aerospace has been providing highly reliable and quality service, which helps in keeping aircrafts flying. The OEM supported service centre has over 700 assemblies serviced per month, and is one of the largest MRO service providers in India today. It is EASA, DGCA and CEMILAC certified and has a dedicated team of certified professionals to render accuracy in servicing. Horizon QMS is AS9110C certified and currently supports Civil and Military aircraft fleets. Horizon Aerospace has grown to become a trusted name in maintenance, repair and overhaul of sub-assemblies that form an integral part of Civil and Military aircrafts.

Horizon is approved on Safran Landing System and Collins Aerospace Global Network and processes over 600 wheels and brakes per month. Since inception in 2006 Horizon has delivered 59,000 Plus units without failure.

With a modern infrastructure and a pool of highly trained and experienced technicians Horizon is providing excellent and highly reliable service. All trainings are carried out by OEM trainers (Safran and Collins Aerospace). Horizon is audited by the OEMs in addition to DGCA and EASA at regular intervals.