National Skill Development Corporation Partners With LawSikho To Provide Upskilling In Legal Courses

* The partnership aims to benefit more than 10,000 learners in three years and will focus on tier-2, tier-3 cities, small towns, and villages across India

* It will facilitate internships and freelancing opportunities in programs such as contract drafting, and diploma and degree courses for lawyers and law students

* NSDC and LawSikho will provide joint certification for various courses, and facilitate low-interest skill loans to the learners through NSDC’s network

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a strategic implementation and knowledge partner for Skill India Mission, working under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with LawSikho, a fast-growing legal education startup, to impart skill training to aspiring learners (from legal and non-legal backgrounds) and provide upskilling in legal programs.

The MoU was signed by Ved Mani Tiwari, Chief Operating Officer and Officiating CEO, NSDC and Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho. The MoU signing ceremony was also attended by Abhyuday Agarwal and Siddhant Baid, who are both co-founders of LawSikho.

The partnership will facilitate internships and freelancing opportunities in programs such as contract drafting and, diploma and degree courses for lawyers and law students. It will also provide entry-level courses such as virtual assistant, paralegal, among others, for non-lawyers. NSDC will be able to leverage LawSikho’s model that facilitates remote working for high-paying legal and non-legal jobs.

The collaboration seeks to benefit more than 10,000 learners over a period of three years, focusing on tier-2, tier-3 cities, small towns, and villages across the country. The program will introduce the learners to cutting-edge digital skills, which can provide them with remote jobs, freelance, internships and other career opportunities. Moreover, after learning the relevant skills, the learners can benefit from talent arbitrage jobs where they can work with clients and employers overseas.

Under the partnership, NSDC and LawSikho will also provide joint certification for various courses. They will facilitate low-interest skill loans to the learners through NSDC’s network and strategic support will be extended to LawSikho. The collaboration will also enable skilling the youth of the country in line with international standards.

Commenting on the partnership, Ved Mani Tiwari, Chief Operating Officer and Officiating CEO, NSDC, said, “Our collaboration with LawSikho is a step towards fulfilling the need for a skilled workforce in India and narrowing the existing gap between the demand and supply of future skills. As NSDC, we constantly strive to make skilling and vocational education available for all. Skilling and upskilling are key tools in not only empowering the workforce but in creating new booming sectors in the economy. I am certain that this holds huge growth potential for both the organizations.”

Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho, said, “LawSikho offers the most advanced legal courses learners can find anywhere, helping them acquire the right skills and knowledge. It is an online legal education platform that is focused on creating access to justice in India. Our partnership with NSDC will cater to the need of a skilled workforce in our country. Through this collaboration, NSDC and LawSikho will become great partners in driving meaningful skill development initiatives”. 

Largest Hybrid Learning Workshop For Heads of 10KAICTE Approved Institutes And Colleges, Conducted By Tech Avant-Garde

Prof. Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe, Chairman,AICTE  as Chief Guest inauguratedthe Hybrid Learning Curtain Raiser mega event held on 21 July 2022 at the WelcomHotel by ITC Hotels. He was accompanied by the Guests of Honour Dr. Buddha Chandrashekhar, Chief Coordinating Officerand Prof. B. Thimme Gowda, Vice Chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council.

AICTE has advised allits approved colleges to adopt Hybrid Learning to make them robust and lockdown proof. Tech Avant-Garde (TAG)has been chosen to assist these colleges to transform into Hybrid Learning Spaces. Ali Sait, CEO, TAG, was also present.

As the first step towards Digital Transformation,TAG is conducting free certification program to train heads of Institutionsin Hybrid Learning.Tech Avant-Garde, the Global Partner of Microsoft, in association with Microsoft Education is conducting this training program for Education Leaders on new paradigms of learning – Hybrid Learning.

Speaking at the event,Ali Sait, CEO of Tech Avant-Garde, said, “In Hybrid Learning, education will be reimagined, teachers will find their potential, learning will be from anywhere, any place on any device and there will be only one degree of separation between Learning and Education”.

Hybrid Learning Training Program

Thisprogram will commence from 29 July 2022. Training will be conducted in three batches. The sessions will be conducted onlineover a period two days.The duration of training for each day will be for one hour and thirty minutes. The participants can select the batches during registration.

The training dates are as follows:

•               Batch 1: Friday 29th July 2022 - Saturday 20th July 2022

•               Batch 2: Friday 05 Aug 2022 - Saturday 06th Aug 2022

•               Batch 3: Friday 12th Aug 2022 - Saturday 13th Aug 2022

The registration link for training program is  -https://tagevent.in/aicte

Training Agenda:

This training program will cover the following topics:

•               Develop your vision and build a roadmap to get there

•               Prepare your Stakeholders

•               Develop model Colleges

•               Stay connected

•               Real time case studies

The Education Leaders who attend this program will get certified and the colleges will become eligible for two sessions of advisory on Hybrid Learning, to be availed  within 2 months of the program.

The program will be conducted on Knowledege L’avenir platform.

About Tech Avant-Garde:

Tech Avant-Garde (TAG) is India’s largest Solution Provider in the education segment, supporting all genre of institutes, ranging from K-12 schools to universities. TAG is a part of the Accelerator program of Microsoft and has been certified as a Global Trainer for Microsoft in Education. TAG won the award for the Best Worldwide Training Partner of Microsoft Asia region. TAG, as a co-sell partner and ISV of Microsoft, has implemented the Digital Transformation and Holistic Learning program to help educational institutions to navigate from physical classrooms to digital classrooms. Some of the products and solutions of Tech Avant-Garde include Lycee-Cyber Academe, an ERP Campus Management solution, Efeeonline, an Online Multimode Fee payment solution for educational institutions which is connected to the Bharat Bill Payment System developed by NPCI. TAG also works in knowledge enhancement of educators through Knowledge L’avenir, the largest social learning platform for teacher and Knowledge Key Foundation, to bring state-of-the-art technology and tools to aid institutions and teachers to enhance their digital teaching and learning skills.

ICICI Securities Q1 FY23 Results Show Revenue At Rs. 795 Crore, Up 6% YoY

 Q1 FY23 Performance Highlights:

·         Revenue at Rs 795 crore, up 6% YoY on back of healthy growth in retail allied and distribution income

·         PAT for the quarter stood at Rs 274 crore

·         The company saw improvement in market share across various segments:

o   Retail derivative market share registered growth for first time in 4 quarters as our market share improved from 3.3% in Q4FY22 to 3.5%

o   Recently launched commodity trading segment is performing well and continues to gain market share. It was 4.4% for Q1FY23.

o   Stable NSE Active market share of 8.4%

o   MF AUM market share increased to 1.7%, up from 1.6% YoY.

·         The company witnessed continued traction in product proposition:

o   Average MTF book grew 97% YoY; maintained leadership position with 22.4% market share.

o   More than a million customers have taken Prime membership. Prime and Prepaid customers together contribute 71 % of retail equities revenue.

o   ISEC Mutual Fund average AUM (exc. Direct) up 11% YoY; Equity AUM up 20%

o   SIP Equity AUM increased by 9% YoY to ~Rs 126 bn v/s industry growth of 8%

o   PMS book grew 10% QoQ; crossed INR 8 bn

o   Markets and Money app combined downloads have crossed 2 million mark and are rated ~4 on play store.

·         The company made several launches to further improve its product proposition:

o   LIFEY and Masters of the Street which resonates well with wealth customers.

o   On Experience and Analytical tools side for trading segment, the company rolled out new products like Smart Order Platform, Easy Options and Trading View

·         The company entered into exclusive partnership with HSBC Bank which is the first of its kind for them globally, to offer 3-in-1 broking services to their customers in India. This will provide us access to their HNI customer base.

Commenting on the results and financial performance, Mr. Vijay Chandok, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Securities said: In this “quarter of moderation” for the industry, we focused on gaining market share, diversifying our revenue mix, containing costs and building product pipeline as we continued to make strategic investment in technology to be “Future Ready”. Our recently launched product proposition and digital properties continue to witness healthy traction which is a testimony to our execution capabilities. Our digital innovation helps us differentiate our product proposition and embrace a broader client universe as momentum continued in our broad-based and digital-led customer acquisition engine. As we continue our journey towards becoming a “digitally integrated financial marketplace”, our emphasis continues to be on diversification, operating leverage and strengthening product positioning by making strategic investments in technology to build a “future ready architecture” as well as on building a diversified talent pool. Through these strategic levers, we will offer highly customized solutions to partner our customers though their financial journey.

Business Highlights

ICICI Securities has a client base of ~80 lakhs, of which over 4.4 lakh customers were added during the quarter. Digital sourcing and open architecture approach continue to demonstrate strength with ~72% of new customers in the quarter coming from channels other than ICICI Bank. During the quarter, 62% of customers acquired are under 30 years of age (vs 60% YoY) and 85% are from tier II and below geographies (vs 78% YoY).

The company has over ~35 lakhs active clients (those who have transacted across any product categories in the last 12 months) and over 31 lakhs NSE active clients (those having traded on the NSE in the last 12 months), up 62% and 73% YoY respectively.

Total client assets stood at Rs 5.3 Lakh crore on 30th June, 2022, vs Rs 4.4 Lakh crore a year ago, up 20%.

In Q1FY23, Equities and Allied Business, which comprises retail equity, institutional equity, lending towards ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plans) & MTF (Margin Trade Funding), Prime & NEO subscription fees and other charges stood at Rs 524.6 crore. The Retail Equities and Allied Business reported revenues at Rs 475.9 crore, up 2% y-o-y, vs Rs 466.2 crore in Q1FY22. ESOP & MTF interest income rose 83% year-on-year to Rs 151.2 crore in Q1FY23 and the daily average funded book for the quarter for these businesses stood at ~ Rs 7,100 crore against Rs 3,630 crore in Q1FY23.

We continue to remain market leader in MTF with a 22.4% market share. The company continued to receive encouraging response to Prime plan that provides a package of privilege pricing, exclusive research, and higher eATM limits per day.

Our NPS score continued to increase this quarter as well as a result of improvements made in our customer journeys.

Institutional equities revenue during the quarter decreased by 17% y-o-y to Rs 48.6 crore, primarily due to slowdown in market volumes and decline in capital market deals.

Distribution business continues to scale well as revenue stood at Rs 152 crore in Q1FY23, up 28% y-o-y on the back of strong performance from Mutual Fund, Insurance and Other Products.

I-Sec is India’s leading MF distributor by revenue and assets and its MF revenues grew by 21% YoY to Rs 89.2 crore in Q1FY23. On the back of SIP count rising to ~ 10 lakhs in June 2022, from 8.5 lakhs in June 2021, the company’s market share in SIP flows stands at 3.4%. ICICI Securities’ MF AUM (excl direct) is up 11% YoY.

ICICI Securities is also a leading distributor of other financial products like loans, fixed income products, corporate bonds and deposits, insurance, bank Fixed Deposits (FD), Alternate Investment Funds (AIF), Portfolio Management Services (PMS), Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB), and National Pension Scheme (NPS). Revenue from Life Insurance business grew 61% YoY to Rs 12.6 crore while revenue from other distribution products grew 34% on YoY basis. The company disbursed Rs 619 crore worth of loans during the quarter, against ~ Rs 318 crore in the same period last year. I-Sec’s Private Wealth Management (PWM) business reported Rs 2.3 billion of revenue in Q1FY23 up 26% y-o-y. The PWM business is a home-grown franchise serving ~70,000 High Networth and Ultra High Networth (HNI/U-HNI) clients (~1,600 clients added during the quarter), with an asset base of ?2.8 Lakh crore, up 38% year-on-year.

Our Issuer Services and Advisory business (Investment Banking) revenue stood at Rs 35 crore in Q1FY23. This business was impacted as this quarter was not deal conducive due to postponement of public market issues. ICICI Securities is ranked #1 in IPO/ FPO/ InvIT/ ReIT issuance with a 66% mobilization market-share. The company has a strong pipeline of 42 deals amounting over Rs 825 bn, and 23 deals where amount is yet to be decided

Future Generali’s #StandWithPride Campaign Goes Big With ‘Breaking Free’ Video

Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited (FGII) is an inclusive employer and is committed towards creating an environment that fosters inclusivity, openness, and acceptance. A step in that direction is the grand celebration held during the PRIDE month at FGII offices in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore.

As a true proponent of diversity and inclusion, FGII recently conducted a social experiment in support of the LGBTQIA+ community. This social experiment was conducted in an effort to boost awareness and sensitization towards the LGBTQIA+ community and foster affinity for its members while showing solidarity and support.

This social experiment video on breaking free brought together 20 participants of different genders, age, and sexual orientations and asked them questions regarding the biases they have faced. Through the video, people will learn of the biases that the LGBTQIA+ community faces on a regular basis, making it a compelling and thought-provoking watch. To help break biases, they need everyone’s support hence it is important to be a friend and an ally. 

Watch the video here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUHcaB_CXLE

Speaking on the social experiment, Ms. Ruchika Malhan Varma, Chief Marketing Officer, Future Generali India Insurance said “Our efforts to support the LGBTQIA+ community are not limited to the Pride month alone. For us, diversity and inclusion is a strategic imperative, one that we strive to imbibe in our work culture. We are committed to promoting inclusive growth throughout the year and beyond, and our latest initiative, which features the video ‘Breaking Free’, aims to help people across communities to break free from the habit of limiting LGBTQIA+ conversations to just Pride month. As a brand that leads with ‘Human – Touch’ and an organization that is focused on building a diverse and inclusive environment, we have made concerted efforts to encourage dialogue, build sensitization, and foster communication amongst individuals and the society as a whole.”

As one of the communities facing a high degree of biases from peers and family members, the LGBTQIA+ community requires all the support possible to withstand and break free of the barriers impacting them on a daily basis. In the months ahead, Future Generali India Insurance aims to #StandWithPride and further the cause of the community.

PayMate B2B Customers To Make Utility Bill Payments Using Visa Commercial Credit Cards

PayMate India Limited (“PayMate”), a leading B2B payments and services provider that digitizes, automates, and streamlines business-to-business (B2B) payments in supply chains, has integrated the capability to make utility bill payments using commercial credit cards as a new feature on its platform.

PayMate’s customers and users can make utility bill payments such as landline bills, electricity bills, water bills, broadband bills, among others along with their other statutory and vendor payments.

Speaking on this, Ajay Adiseshan, Managing Director and Chairman, PayMate says “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses faced challenges with traditional methods of payments. By adding Utility bill payments on the PayMate platform, we have created yet another avenue for PayMate’s customers to use commercial credit cards; ultimately providing a fully integrated B2B payments stack to our customers.”

From April to December 2021, PayMate processed ?22,467.92 million of direct tax payments and ?99,929.67 million of GST payments on its platform through commercial credit cards, while the overall commercial credit card-processing TPV increased from ?187,142.31 million in Fiscal 2021 to ?464,766.45 million. As of December 31, 2021, the total number of Customers and Users using the PayMate platform is 166,811.

PayMate is also a Visa-certified Business Payment Solution Provider (BPSP) in the UAE and is also aiming to expand into other parts of Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (“CEMEA”) region. PayMate has a relationship with Visa, pursuant to which Visa facilitates introductions of PayMate to Visa issuing financial institution partners, and PayMate will ensure that commercial credit cards processed through PayMate’s system are Visa cards for certain international territories agreed with Visa.

Onsurity Wins “Innovator In Mass Market- Emerging & Mature Award” At PICUP Fintech Awards 2022

India’s first tech-led monthly subscription-based employee health benefits platform, Onsurity has won the “Innovator in Mass Market- Emerging & Mature Award” at the 4th edition of PICUP Fintech conference and Awards on 20th July 2022 organized by Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

 Kulin Shah, Co-Founder, Onsurity and Rohan Srivastava, Head of expansion received the award from Mr Sunil Mehta, Chief Executive Officer, Indian Banks’ Association & Ms Jyoti Vij, Deputy Secretary General, FICCI.

 PICUP fintech is a marquee event organized by FICCI and Indian Banks Association (IBA) where BCG was the knowledge partner. The conference aims to bring together leading fintech players, bankers, NBFCs, insurance companies, technology experts and policy makers at a common platform to discuss and analyse several innovations that are redefining the financial services industry and also look at developing potential fruitful collaborations.

 “We are proud to be?recognized?for our team’s unwavering dedication and passion in making equitable healthcare a reality in India through innovative technology solutions. Onsurity is scaling new heights with unparalleled growth by providing affordable healthcare benefits and encouraging health and wellness benefits across a community of over  2,500 SMEs in India" says Kulin Shah, Co-Founder, Onsurity.

 He further added, “The recognition highlights that our unique technology led healthcare benefit solution with monthly affordable payment options has a clear added value to the mass market segment. We look forward to further enhancing the healthcare experience with an aim to reach 10,000 SMEs by 2024, by owning the entire employee health and wellness benefits value chain and claims experience in the industry.”

 Onsurity, in its endeavour, to democratize healthcare is consistently trying to disrupt the employee health benefits space. It is providing seamless experience to its clientele through its self-serve tech platform by offering customised and flexible healthcare and wellness solutions in a sachet making it affordable and accessible to millions of SME’s.

 Onsurity benefits range from preventive care like doctor teleconsultations, online medicine delivery, free fitness, insurance and wellness webinars, to in-hospitalization support related to claim processing and reimbursements.

 About Onsurity:

Founded in 2020, Onsurity simplifies employee healthcare with technology solutions that make healthcare work for everyone. With over 3,00,000 members and over 2,500 companies and partners including VISA, BSE, Jupiter Money, Terrapay, Infra.Market, Ferra Engineering, Clevertap among others—Onsurity is democratising the healthcare experience for SME and their workforce across India. Onsurity is India’s top 10 Innovative Fintech Start-up recognised by The Digital Fifth, has built smarter technology that’s easy to use, gives people an advocate in their health journey, and helps employers unblock working capital by managing costs. 

 Onsurity, headquartered in Bengaluru is backed by Quona Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Whiteboard Capital, and other leading healthcare and technology investors and advisors.

Read more about Onsurity at www.onsurity.com

Ashraya Hastha Trust And Smile Train India Announces Five-Year Commitment To Support Cleft Care Across Seven States In India

* More than 10,000 cleft affected children and their families from resource poor communities will directly benefit from this partnership. 

Ashraya Hastha Trust, a Bangalore based charitable organization funded by Infosys’ Co-Founder K. Dinesh and his family and Smile Train India, the country’s largest cleft focused NGO have announced a five-year partnership with an aim to boost the cleft care ecosystem in India. Ashraya Hastha Trust will support 10,000 cleft surgeries, five capacity building trainings and safety medical equipment at Smile Train treatment centers across seven states to include Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir.

The partnership was launched with an event at Smile Train’s treatment partner, CHL Hospitals at Indore in the presence of Ms. Asha Dinesh, Trustee, Ashraya Hastha Trust, hospital cleft team, Smile Train officials, cleft patients and families.

"We have worked closely with Smile Train India in the past and are completely aligned with their efforts to support safe cleft treatment across the country. Their commitment and passion is unparalleled and inspiring,” said Ms. Asha Dinesh, trustee at Ashraya Hastha Trust. "The consequences faced by children with clefts, if not treated on time, are profound and often enduring. I have been a part of the cleft journey as my daughter Divya was born with a cleft. With proper treatment, she leads a normal life today as a successful woman entrepreneur. I empathize with mothers who may not have access to the care their children need to live healthy and full lives. With this partnership, we intend to work together to better facilitate safe, quality cleft care for children in need. We hope that we can collectively work towards making healthcare affordable and accessible and influence all the ecosystem stakeholders to make policy level changes so that no child with cleft is ever left behind ”

Speaking at the launch, Dr Jaideep Chauhan, Maxillofacial Surgeon and Smile Train Project Director at CHL Hospitals, Indore said, “We at CHL Hospital, with support from Smile Train India have managed to perform  surgeries thus far. We are truly grateful to the additional support that Ashraya Hastha Trust has extended and we hope to continue our journey with cleft warriors diligently.The medical equipments, trainings and support that Smile Train and Ashraya Hastha Trust have provided us with is phenomenal and we hope to put it all to best use. Our aim is to ensure safe surgeries, promising forever smiles to children”

In India, an estimated 35,000 babies are born with a cleft lip and/or palate every year, and hundreds of thousands of children with untreated clefts live in isolation and face difficulties with eating, breathing, hearing and speaking. The partnership will focus on supporting cleft treatment in the seven identified states, while also strengthening safety and best practices in cleft care.

Mamta Carroll, Smile Train’s Senior Vice President & Regional Director for Asia, expressed her gratitude towards Ashraya Hastha Trust and their dedication towards the cause. She said, "Facilitating free, safe and quality cleft treatment is Smile Train India’s priority. With this prestigious partnership, we hope to continue supporting cleft surgeries by enabling underprivileged children born with clefts to live healthy and productive lives. We aim to strengthen our local cleft ecosystem and reach children in some of the most remote regions of the country." 

About Smile Train India

Smile Train empowers local medical professionals with training, funding, and resources to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children globally. We advance a sustainable solution and scalable global health model for cleft treatment, drastically improving children’s lives, including their ability to eat, breathe, speak, and ultimately thrive. Since 2000, Smile Train India has supported more than 650,000 free cleft surgeries across India, through a network of 150+ partner hospitals. To learn more about how Smile Train's India’s sustainable approach, please visit smiletrainindia.org.

About Ashraya Hastha Trust

Ashraya Hastha Trust was founded in May 2000 by Maj. (Retd)S. Nanjundiah in Bangalore along with founding trustees Mr. K.Dinesh (Infosys co-founder) and Mrs. Asha Dinesh (Women entrepreneur promoting vegan beauty products), with the primary purpose of helping the poor and needy, mainly in the areas of education and Rural Health Care. With the passage of time, their daughters Mrs Divya and Ms. Deeksha also became the trustees. In the initial years, the trust focused on initiatives in education and health in rural Karnataka. Eventually, the trust expanded its support to varied causes and organizations, from the education of economically backward students to setting up infrastructure or addressing challenges in health systems.

Currently the trust operates in 6 major thematic areas; health, education, livelihoods, animal welfare, disaster relief and management and environment, across India.