Clothing In Natural Fabrics With Ethnic Motifs And Bright Hues Is Expected To Rule The Festive Season: ReshaMandi

As Navratri is just around the corner, the nation will witness a wide array of colours and celebrations. Although each Indian state celebrates the occasion differently and wears diverse festive attire, all the states are united by the shopping frenzy of their people. As a result, the beginning of India’s holiday season coincides with the start of the shopping season. Insights by a data intelligence company recently highlighted that consumers tend to shop more during the festive season as compared to the rest of the year. It also revealed that consumers plan to shop more this festive season in comparison to last year, one of the reasons being the desire to make up for the time lost during the several lockdowns during the last two years which left customers with little occasion to shop for or dress up.

ReshaMandi – India’s largest farm-to-fashion digital ecosystem for natural fibres – opines that the main emotion among the populace is a desire for calm and stability mixed with a sense of excitement and celebration as markets continue to open and economies recover. On the other hand, as India enters the festival season, there is a renewed optimism and vibrancy in the air, which directly correlates to feel-good and opulent attire.

The company recently introduced a trend forecast report, a first for the industry, which focuses on the Indian fashion business and provides critical insights into the trends expected to prevail this festive and winter. With an initial focus on the ethnic clothing, saree and home décor categories, it also analyses purchasing trends to foretell the colours, forms, accents and fabrics that are most likely to be in style. Since consumers are becoming value-conscious about their purchases and more fastidious about their preferences, the industry has had to strike a balance between presenting fresh concepts and providing secure, long-term solutions while still catering to consumers’ specific tastes.

As per the forecast, the dominant trends for the festive and winter seasons this year are as follows:

* Biophilic hues and themes have gained prominence, with the newly discovered spirituality and connection to nature.

* According to the forecast, the season will be characterised by opulent and positive tones that provide a sense of hope and luxury for trying circumstances. In this sense, 10 primary hues are anticipated for the upcoming festivals and shopping seasons. Overall, the most popular colours would include classic blue, crystal teal, green jacket, love potion, rubocondo, orchid, jaffa orange, calendula, bright chartreuse, and star white.

* Sarees are an essential component of Indian festival clothing. This year, traditional sarees such as those woven in the Kanjeevaram, Banarasi, Tant, Pochampally, and Kota styles are likely to be more in demand.

* In terms of details, small border/borderless, micro motifs, digital traditions, updated zari, scalloped/lace edges, translucency are expected to be more popular.

* The popular motifs are dots, stripes and checks, painterly florals, fine vines, cluster florals, birds & animals, mix & match.

* The fabrics that are anticipated to rule the holiday season are soft silk, cotton/ cotton silk, organza/tissue, chiffon/georgette, and banarasi silk.

Traditionally, festive attire comes with embellishments such as sequins, glitter and sparkles – which may suit a specific occasion, but do not necessarily qualify as being eco-friendly.

The good news is that Indians are now aware of how fast fashion continually affects the environment over the years. Thus, India now has a substantial market for sustainable fashion. This means that strengthening the supply side will benefit businesses, who are gradually shifting their focus towards sustainability. Despite competition from synthetic fibres, the eco-friendly inclination is demonstrated by the growing preference for natural fibres. The domestic market benefits from the constant change in Indian society as a result of evolving fashion trends.

ReshaMandi is steadily building the framework for eco-friendly apparel, fabrics and home furnishing to establish a new world of textiles and transform the industry by offering consumers and businesses sustainable solutions that are accessible, available and affordable.

Beginning with a focus on silk, ReshaMandi has subsequently broadened its bouquet to include other natural fibres such as cotton, jute, coir and banana. Recently, it entered the direct-to-consumer (D2C) market with its e-commerce portal ReshaWeaves, which sells gorgeous sarees from all around India to end users. Today, the organisation oversees the entire ecosystem for all natural fibres, serving a wide range of customers, including farmers, reelers, weavers, retailers, mills, manufacturers, exporters, corporates, designers and the final consumers.

adidas Adizero Doninance Continues As Tigist Assefa Storms To Victory At The 48th Berlin Marathon

It was a stunning victory for adidas’ Tigist Assefa in the 48th Berlin Marathon today, as the Ethiopian athlete proved that Impossible Is Nothing in the German capital. The winning time of 2:15.37 was the third-fastest marathon of all time, closely behind Paula Radcliffe and Brigid Kosgei.

Wearing adidas’ record-breaking ADIOS PRO 2 (https://www.adidas.co.in/search?q=adizero%20adios%20pro ) shoes, the victory marks the latest success for Assefa, having only ran her first marathon in March earlier this year. Knocking a staggering 18 minutes 24 seconds off her personal best, the Ethiopian dominated the field to come out on top, breaking the course record by almost 3 minutes.

It was an adidas podium sweep in the Women’s Marathon, with Assefa facing stiff competition from Rosemary Wanjiru, who finished second in 2:18.00 on her marathon debut. Making the impossible possible, Assefa had to dig deep but managed to hold on for the victory over fellow adidas athletes Wanjiru and Abayechew.

Speaking after her win, Assefa said: “Wow, what a day! I’ve worked so hard in training and so coming here to Berlin and winning has made it all worthwhile. This is a huge victory for me, becoming third-fastest of all time at the marathon, and really proves that Impossible is Nothing. Thank you to everyone who helped me achieve this today, I feel so proud and grateful.”

Meanwhile, in the Men’s Marathon, it was a podium second place finish for Mark Korir, with an impressive time of 2:05.58. Korir’s silver medal concluded the podium dominance for adidas’ ADIZERO range, wearing the ADIOS PRO 3 shoe.

Also competing in the Men’s Marathon were adidas’ Andamlak Belihu and Abel Kipchumba, who finished fourth and fifth respectively. Both Belihu and Kipchumba got huge personal bests, with Belihu beating his previous best time by over 3 minutes. Belihu went out very strongly in the first half of the race, running alongside Kipchoge to go sub-60 at half-way, but Korir and Abate came back strongly in the second half to take the podium places.

THE ADIZERO LEGACY

After helping the world’s best runners smash seven World Record[OS1] s in the past two years, the adidas ADIZERO franchise has undoubtably proven its dominance. Developed with and designed for the fastest athletes, major successes of the ADIZERO franchise include:

·         Peres Jepchirchir setting a new Half marathon World Record in the ADIZERO Adios Pro 1 in 2020.

·         Tamirat Tola, becoming World Champion in the men’s marathon in Oregon this summer - in the ADIZERO Adios Pro 2 - smashing the World Athletics Championships record which has stood since 2009.

·         Bekelech Borecha winning the Prague Marathon women’s race earlier this year wearing the ADIZERO Adios Pro 3.

Air India Improves Refund Processing Capability & Turnaround Time Drastically

·         Airline Processing Time Reduced to 2-3 Days

·         Full Backlog of Over 2.5 lakh COVID-19 Refunds Successfully Processed

Acknowledging that refunds have been an issue for many airlines during the global pandemic and subsequent recovery, Air India today shared details of the steps it has taken to improve its capability and performance in this area.

Like all airlines, Air India was severely impacted by COVID-19 and, regrettably, many customers’ travel plans were affected.  As one of many steps undertaken to better meet customer expectations and speedily address legacy issues post-privatisation, Air India placed high priority on clearing the backlog of refunds.  More than 2.5 lakh cases totalling in excess of Rs. 150 crore were processed in just the first few months after privatisation.

Significant effort has since been placed on improving processes and systems, and employing technology, to turn around new refunds cases at a greater pace.  As of today, an eligible refund request lodged on the Air India website will typically be processed by the airline within 2-3 days. 

Subsequent processing by banks and/or credit card companies, which is beyond the airline’s control, can add another two weeks before customers see the refund (less any fees deducted in accordance with the tickets’ conditions of sale) in their accounts.  In the case of bookings made via travel agents, the refund is made to the travel agent who is then responsible for disbursing to the traveller.

Commenting on the development, Air India’s Chief Customer Experience & Ground Services Officer, Mr. Rajesh Dogra said, “At Air India, the customer is our top most priority. The processing of a record number of pending refund cases is a testimony to the different teams coming together and addressing a key legacy issue in a comprehensive and effective manner. As part of our transformation, we are committed to bring standardised structure across our functions which is critical for us to emerge as one of the world class airline brands globally.”

Mr. Dogra added, “We encourage anyone who believes they have a refund outstanding from Air India to provide details via the Old Pending Refund Link on the home page of our website www.airindia.in. This link has been specially created to address if there is any residual old pending refund case”

About Air India:

Founded by the legendary JRD Tata, Air India is synonymous with the growth and evolution of civil aviation in India. Since its first flight on October 15, 1932, Air India has spread its wings to become a major international airline with a network across USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Far-East & South-East Asia, Australia and the Gulf. The airline also has an extensive domestic network connecting over 55 cities in the country through its fleet of narrow and wide bodied air crafts. Air India has been a member of Star Alliance, the largest global airline consortium, since July, 2014.

India's first international budget carrier, Air India Express was launched in 2005 to meet the need for affordable services on short and medium haul routes- connecting smaller towns directly to the Gulf and South East Asia regions. After operating for over 69 years as a Government-owned enterprise, Air India and Air India Express were reacquired by the Tata group in January 2022. Post the acquisition, time-bound transformation milestones have been laid out and a series of steps have been initiated towards ensuring Air India emerges as a world class airline.

Vihaan.AI, derived from the Sanskrit for “Dawn of a New Era”, is Air India’s five-year transformational roadmap.  Supported by five pillars, multiple workstreams and spanning three phases over five years, Vihaan.AI will see dramatic growth in Air India’s network and fleet, a completely revamped product and customer proposition, and much-improved reliability. The airline will also take a leadership position in technology, sustainability and innovation, while aggressively investing in the best industry talent. Vihaan.AI is aimed at putting Air India on a path to sustained growth, profitability and market leadership, and restoring the airline to the heights of global aviation.

About the Tata group:

Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising 30 companies across ten verticals. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission 'To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust’.

Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six percent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation, and art and culture. In 2020-21, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $103 billion (INR 7.7 trillion). These companies collectively employ over 800,000 people. Each Tata company or enterprise operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors. There are 29 publicly-listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of $314 billion (INR 23.4 trillion) as on December 31, 2021. Companies include Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Tata Consumer Products, Titan, Tata Capital, Tata Power, Tata Communications, Indian Hotels, Tata Digital and Tata Electronics.

Atlassian Recognised In The Top 50 of India’s Best Workplaces For Women By Great Place To Work Institute

* This is the second successive year that Atlassian has featured among the top workplaces for women in India

Atlassian Corporation Plc (NASDAQ: TEAM), a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software and the maker of Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, and Trello, today announced that it has been recognised in the ‘Top 50 Best Workplaces for Women 2022' in the large companies category, by the Great Place to Work Institute. This is the second consecutive year that the company has been recognised as a top workplace for women in India, based on its unique work culture that includes openness, teamwork, and innovation.

Atlassian, which established a local presence in 2018, has grown its office in Bengaluru into a world-class R&D center by hiring the smartest technical minds and intentionally creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. The company also recently announced its plans to grow its India team to over 3,000 employees by the end of FY24 (July 1-June 30).

Atlassian is a strong proponent of building a culture of inclusivity and diversity at the workplace and is actively working towards supporting women in tech. The company’s unique parental leave policy, childcare support benefits, mentoring initiatives, flexible work options, and a generous allowance for remote working setup and tools provide women with a conducive and favourable work environment to excel in. Apart from this, Atlassian also has an annual women-focused event - She Talks Tech, which is an inspiring tech talk series that provides women in the tech space to connect, network, and learn from each other.

In 2020, with the recent emergence of remote and hybrid work models, Atlassian introduced Team Anywhere, a flexible work policy that gives its employees a choice to work from home, the office, or a combination of both, whereby employees get to choose what works best for them based on their work and lifestyle.

“It gives me immense pleasure to see Atlassian's recognition as a Great Place to Work for Women for the second consecutive year in India. It’s exciting to know that not only are more women joining the engineering workforce in the country, but that our unique culture is able to attract and retain some of the best female talent within the country. As we look to ramp up our hiring in India and grow to a 3,000 employee base in the next two years, we will see more women joining our workforce from across India”, said Dinesh Ajmera, Site Lead, India, Atlassian. 

Vandana Abraham, Head of Design, ITSM, Atlassian said, “During my four years at Atlassian, I’ve been able to get exposure to different parts of the business from strategy through to operations, and really supercharge my learning. I’ve seen many talented women thrive in all stages of their careers thanks to the unique Atlassian culture. One of the things that is so special about working at Atlassian is the value and emphasis it places on creating an environment where everyone’s voice is heard. I’m proud to work at Atlassian and can’t wait to see the great female talent we hire as we continue to invest deeply in the Indian market.”

This year, more than 1,122 organizations participated in the ‘India’s Best Workplaces for Women’ survey conducted by the Great Place to Work® Institute in India, from which the top 50 workplaces for women were selected and recognised. The study is one of India’s largest annual assessments of workplace excellence for women across all levels and is based on confidential employee feedback and an audit of management processes.

Further, certified organizations were then studied basis Gender Parity in Experience & Representation across levels to arrive at India's Best Workplaces for Women 2022. The Eligibility Criteria include - Having at least 10% women employees on their payroll and a minimum of 70% positive feedback on the Trust Index© employee survey from women employees in the organization.

About Atlassian

Atlassian unleashes the potential of every team. Our team collaboration and productivity software helps teams organize, discuss, and complete shared work. Teams at more than 240,000 customers, across large and small organizations - including Bank of America, Redfin, NASA, Verizon, and Dropbox - use Atlassian’s project tracking, content creation and sharing, and service management products to work better together and deliver quality results on time. Learn more about our products, including Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Trello, Bitbucket, and Jira Align at https://atlassian.com/.

About Great Place to Work

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees around the world and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Great Place to Work helps organizations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. Emprising®, their culture management platform, empowers leaders with the surveys, real-time reporting, and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Their unparalleled benchmark data is used to recognise Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces™ in the US and more than 60 countries, including the 100 Best Companies to Work For® and World’s Best list published annually in Fortune. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a Great Place to Work For All™. To learn more, visit http://greatplacetowork.com.

Zee Business Launches New Show On Financial Education Across India

Zee Business, one of India’s most viewed business channel, has launched a new show - Rupee Ki Paathshala, to help viewers understand the nuances of financial markets. The show will be a part of the series – Paathshala, which promises to keeps its viewers updated on various developments of the financial markets in a unique and simple manner. 

Rupee Ki Paathshala which will bring out the latest developments in the currency world where there is a huge fall in the rupee vs USD trading, and this has surprised everyone from the government to the market pundits. The rupee has depreciated nearly 8% against the dollar in the same year. At such a time there comes a question, why has there been such a commotion due to the huge depreciation of the rupee? How does the rupee fall, how does the rupee rise? How does the fall and rise of the rupee affect our lives? Where does rupee trading take place?  Why is the value of rupee generally seen in comparison to dollars prominently?

To answer all these questions, one need not look beyond Rupee Ki Paathshala which will be hosted by Zee Business’ Managing Editor Anil Singhvi. 

Speaking of the new show, Anil Singhvi, Managing Editor, Zee Business, said, “The rupee is falling day by day. On Monday, it fell to the level of 80 for the first time against the dollar. It has now hit its all-time low and breached the psychological mark of 80 per dollar and hence it becomes necessary to bring to our audience a show that will explain in a distinctive way on what is the ABCD of Currency Market and why the Rupee is falling against the USD.”

About Zee Media Corporation Ltd: Zee Media Corporation Limited is one of India’s leading media and entertainment companies with strong presence in the news and regional entertainment genres and is India's one of the largest News Network with 14 news channels, 34 digital properties in 10 different languages, reaching over 693 mn+ consumers and digital properties like Zeenews.com, Bollywoodlife.com and Thehealthsite.com

CHAVI - India’s First Oncology Image Bank Launched To Accelerate Collaborative Cancer Research

* The image Bank has been conceptualized in partnership with Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, have launched India’s first fully annotated, relational, de-identified cancer image bank - CHAVI. This first-of-its-kind research partnership between the two premiere institutions in India was inaugurated in Kolkata on the 24th of September. The launch of CHAVI - Comprehensive Archive of Imaging is a towering boost to cancer research in India and will enable scientists from across the world to have free access to de-identified patient images and requisite clinical information that can be utilized for research purposes.

The inauguration also witnessed an enriching discussion chaired by experts including Dr. Arun P, Director Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, Dr Mammen Chandy, Ex-Director Tata Medical Center, Prof Partha Pratim Chakrabarty, Ex-Director and Professor of AI and Computer Sciences, IIT Kharagpur, Prof Jayanta Mukherjee, Dean Outreach of IIT Kharagpur along with the Heads of Departments of ACTREC Mumbai, Tata Memorial Hospital Mumbai, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute Lucknow, Christian Medical College Vellore, amongst other specialists in the fields of cancer and artificial intelligence in Medicine. Dr. Sanjoy Chatterjee, Dr. Indranil Mallick, and Dr. Santam Chakrabarty from Tata Medical Center were also present at the launch.

CHAVI is the first imaging biobank exclusively dedicated to oncological imaging from India. The project has been designed as a research collaboration between Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, and IIT Kharagpur, and developed as a part of the National Digital Library of India (NDLI). Its purpose is to develop an image biobank that is available across the country and to foster a foundation for future collaborative research efforts amongst major Indian cancer institutes. The project will encourage researchers, academicians, and industry experts to use the wealth of imaging data available in CHAVI.

Dr. P Arun, Director Tata Medical Center Kolkata said, “Data from digital imaging is critical to patient care, and with today’s technology, it also forms the substrate for future research to improve patient outcomes. It also allows evaluation of the efficacy of current treatment protocols. CHAVI from Tata Medical Center, developed in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur colleagues, gives us the platform to enhance AI-Radiomic research using freely available annotated digital oncological imaging.”

Professor Partha Pratim Chakrabarty, Ex-Director IIT Kharagpur, Prof of Computer Sciences Department IIT Kharagpur said, “We envisioned CHAVI as a unique comprehensive digital archive of cancer images allowing complementary information on assisting improvements in patient outcomes. The collaborative work between Tata Medical Center and IIT Kharagpur, commissioned by us has now reached a critical point- the repository has been made functional. This should now allow significant collaboration between institutions across the world. India’s first such free access databank: CHAVI, will allow usage of previously unavailable data from the region, add relevant ethnic diversity in Radiomic research and hopefully complement available OMICS data to improve patient care.”

Professor Jayanta Mukherjee, Dean Outreach IIT Kharagpur and Professor of Computer Sciences Department IIT Kharagpur added, “It is very satisfying to see that the radiological image databank 'Comprehensive Digital Archive of Cancer Imaging' (CHAVI), developed under a research collaboration between IIT Kharagpur and Tata Medical Center, Kolkata, operational and available for the researchers in the domain of Medical Imaging and Oncology. In this era of AI and Machine Learning, data is a critical asset for the pursuance of knowledge, and CHAVI will facilitate the researchers with this key component and build a vibrant ecosystem for collaborative research among them.”

Dr Sandeep Verma, Secretary of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, shared, ‘‘I am very happy to note that the first fully annotated cancer image bank of India - CHAVI, has been developed by Tata Medical Center and IIT Kharagpur. It is really a matter of pride to know of such an advancement. The efforts of Dr Sanjoy Chatterjee, Prof PP Chakrabarty and their team is appreciated for their pioneering work.”

What makes CHAVI unique is the aspect of a unified, relational, vast database of de-identified demographic, clinical, pathological, molecular biological, treatment, and outcome data for all patients. This database is a powerful tool for exploring image sets across cancer sites. This feature allows an interested researcher to potentially interrogate radiological images in a cancer site agonistic fashion. Oncology is a discipline that is heavily dependent on imaging not only for diagnosis but also for therapy and post-therapy follow-up. Through CHAVI, centers across the world can upload images for free to enhance radiomic research and improve collaborative research work, which will help cancer care and will lead the way for innovating better strategies to control cancers.

Visit the website for further details on CHAVI - https://chavi.ai/

About Tata Medical Center:

Tata Medical Center, Kolkata is a philanthropic state-of-the-art Cancer Care Center committed to deliver Comprehensive Cancer care with cutting-edge technology and world-renowned Healthcare Professionals.

Website: https://tmckolkata.com/in/

Cygnet Infotech Announces Partners With smartContract CLM

* Aims to facilitate comprehensive Contract Lifecycle Management by augmenting its blockchain-based e-signing platform Cygnature

Cygnet Infotech has announced a partnership with smartContract CLM to augment its existing digital signing solution, Cygnature, and provide a comprehensive contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution to its customers. Catering to a global market that is projected to reach a size of $2.2 billion by 2024, Cygnet Infotech aims to establish a significant presence in the Cloud-based CLM segment by leveraging and integrating CLM capabilities into its Cygnature platform. This partnership will enable companies to elevate contract creation, review, execution, and post-execution experience for every business function while increasing compliance with the broadest range of legal requirements and following the most stringent security standards.

Researchers have concluded in multiple reports that organisations in India lose 9.2% of revenue annually due to poor contract management practices, and this partnership will help in reducing these losses for the enterprises in India.

Commenting on this latest development, Yogesh Lokhande, Business Head Cygnature elaborated, “We help clients accelerate their Digital Transformation through connected ecosystems. Our collaboration with smartContract CLM, a trusted Contract Lifecycle Management provider, will ensure that we are at the forefront of offering unique CLM solutions for organizations’ business challenges. We are confident that together with smartContract CLM, Cygnature will unlock even more efficiencies for businesses and will strengthen its position as a preferred digital contract signing and management solution.”

Distinguished by its flexible configuration and the ability to be tweaked to specific business requirements, smartContract CLM boasts of advanced features such as AI-powered My Contract Assistant, robust obligation management, Word Add-In, and Email Add-in. 

Speaking on the importance of this partnership, Amit Garg, Founder of smartContract CLM, said, “integration with Cygnature further enhances our ability to deliver an end-to-end contract management experience with seamless consistency to our clients, including the ability to digitally create, execute, understand, and manage contracts with simplicity. Counted amongst the leading CLM systems available today, smartContract CLM is trusted by some of the largest organizations and is flexible enough to solve contracting challenges as they evolve. With our association with Cygnature, both companies will benefit from each other’s core technological capabilities and provide a more technologically advanced solution for every contract management need.”