Airtel And Meta Collaborate To Accelerate India’s Digital Ecosystem

* The collaboration across digital infrastructure, network technologies, and CPaaS will enable high-quality connectivity and world-class digital services for consumers in the country

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier digital communications solutions provider, and Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) today announced a collaboration to support the growth of India’s digital ecosystem. Airtel and Meta will jointly invest in global connectivity infrastructure and CPaaS based new-age digital solutions to support the emerging requirements of customers and enterprises in India.

Foundational connectivity infrastructure such as subsea cable systems are crucial for supporting the rising demand for high-speed data and digital services as India prepares to roll out 5G networks later this year. With the constant endeavor to augment the nation’s infrastructure, Airtel will partner with Meta and STC to extend 2Africa Pearls to India. 2Africa is the world’s longest subsea cable system and is expected to provide faster internet connectivity to almost 3 billion people globally. Airtel and Meta will extend the cable to Airtel’s landing station in Mumbai and also pick up dedicated capacity to further strengthen its submarine network portfolio. The 2Africa cable will significantly boost India’s cable capacity and empower global hyper-scalers and businesses to build new integrated solutions and provide a high-quality seamless experience to customers.

As members of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Open RAN project group, Airtel and Meta have been pioneers of Open RAN technologies with the shared goal of increasing ecosystem diversity, driving innovation, and cost-efficiency in connectivity networks. Airtel has signed an agreement to help increase operational efficiency of Open RAN and facilitate energy management and automation in radio networks using advanced analytics and AI/ML models.  Airtel is currently conducting trials for 4G and 5G Open RAN solutions on select sites in the state of Haryana and will commercially deploy the solution across several locations in India over the next few quarters. Airtel will share its learnings with wider ecosystem partners within the TIP community, including Meta, to help accelerate the deployment of Open RAN based networks across the world.  

Businesses in India are rapidly shifting to cloud-based solutions to serve their customers digitally. Airtel IQ, the world’s first network embedded Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) ecosystem, offers cloud communication across voice, messaging and video channels to help enterprises transform their customer engagement and drive profitability by leveraging automation and boosting revenue. Airtel will integrate Meta’s WhatsApp within its CPaaS platform. With this integration, businesses will now be able to use WhatsApp’s rich features and reach to provide an unparalleled omni-channel customer engagement to enterprises.            

Vani Venkatesh, CEO - Global Business, Bharti Airtel said: “We, at Airtel, are delighted to deepen our partnership with Meta to serve India’s digitally connected economy by leveraging the technology and infrastructure strengths of both companies. With our contributions to the 2Africa cable and Open RAN, we are investing in crucial and progressive connectivity infrastructure which is needed to support the increasing demand for high-speed data in India. We look forward to working closely with Meta to deliver best-in-class digital experiences to our customers in India.”

Francisco Varela, vice president of mobile partnerships for Meta said: “Subsea cables and open, disaggregated networks continue to play a huge role in the foundational infrastructure needed to support network capacity and fuel innovation. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Airtel to further advance the region’s connectivity infrastructure that will enable a better network experience for people and businesses across India.”

About Bharti Airtel: Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 500 Mn customers in 17 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high speed 4G/5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud based communication. For more details, visit www.airtel.com

About Meta: Meta builds technologies that help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses. When Facebook launched in 2004, it changed the way people connect. Apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp further empowered billions around the world. Now, Meta is moving beyond 2D screens toward immersive experiences like augmented and virtual reality to help build the next evolution in social technology.

Shared EV Mobility Leader Yulu Joins The Bengaluru Midnight Marathon (BMM) 2022 As Green Mobility Partner

* Yulu continues its partnership with the BMM to help raise awareness & funds for environmental causes & build a connect with Bangaloreans.

Yulu, India’s largest shared electric Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) player today announced its association with the 15th Bengaluru Midnight Marathon (BMM) 2022 as the ‘Green Mobility Partner’. The BMM 2022 is being held on December 10, 2022, at KTPO Ground, Whitefield, Bengaluru. The theme for BMM 2022 is ‘Run Freely Again’ which celebrates the spirit of coming out & running in the open after a 2 year break due to the pandemic. BMM is one of the first & few night marathons in the country and provides a very unique & memorable experience, resulting in huge participation from runners across the country.

R.K. Misra, Co-Founder, Yulu said, “Yulu as the green mobility partner of BMM 2022 is committed to the purpose of building a healthy and sustainable society. Today, running has quickly emerged as one of the most popular community sports and more people besides athletes, are health conscious. This platform enables us to connect with this user community as well as create awareness on the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle. The fundraising through the event will also go into environmental causes, which is a core ethos of Yulu, and we are delighted to join hands with the BMM once again.”

The BMM 2022 is a flagship fundraising event of Rotary Bengaluru IT Corridor (RBITC) which focuses on education, healthcare, and the environment. The new edition to the roster of events includes a timed fast 5K run as well as the virtual marathon. Yulu partnered with BMM in their last physical run in 2019 and is continuing their partnership in 2022. 

About Yulu

Yulu is India’s largest Shared EV mobility & battery swapping company, founded in 2017 by seasoned & serial entrepreneurs with the mission to make urban commuting clean, inclusive & sustainable. Backed by marquee as well as strategic investors, Yulu provides urban Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR, and is supported by India’s largest AI-powered Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform Yulu Energy, to provide practically unlimited range to its users. This network has completed 3.5 million+ battery swaps till date and has enabled the accelerated adoption of electric mobility in India. As a pioneer in the EV space, Yulu has influenced several policies aimed towards electric vehicles, and has generated livelihood opportunities for millions of people. For further information, visit www.yulu.bike or follow us on Twitter @YuluBike.

ACC And Ambuja Cements, Part of Adani Cement, Win Platinum Award At The IconSWM-CE Excellence Awards 2022

Highlights

·         ACC and Ambuja Cements received Platinum Award for their pre-processing and co-processing facilities at Wadi cement plant and Ambujanagar respectively

·         Wadi ranked Platinum in 2 out of the 8 categories

·         Ambujanagar ranked Platinum in 4 out of 8 categories

ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements, the cement and building material companies of Adani Cement and part of the Adani Group won the Platinum Award at the prestigious 12th International Conference & IPLA Global Forum 2022 on Sustainable Waste Management & Circular Economy held at Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

The Companies were recognized for their pre-processing and co-processing facilities at Ambujanagar and Wadi cement plants. Wadi ranked Platinum in 2 out of the 8 categories and Ambujanagar ranked Platinum in 4 out of 8 categories. The Companies offer sustainable waste management solutions to the agricultural, industrial, public, and municipal sectors. Through co-processing the waste from these sectors, the companies are contributing to a cleaner environment and conserving natural resources through replacement of traditional fuels with alternate fuels & raw materials (AFR).  Co-processing ensures recovery of energy and recycling of materials from waste, leaving zero residue. 

Mr. Ajay Kapur, CEO, Cement Business said, “We are delighted to be recognized and felicitated for our circular economy initiatives. We have always believed in environment conservation and are committed to make the best contribution towards co-processing waste responsibly for a sustainable future”. 

The International Conference on Sustainable Waste Management & Circular Economy (IconSWM-CE) is one of the biggest global platforms which deals with various aspects of solid & liquid waste management, treatment technologies, resource efficiency management, policy & strategies, innovation, circular economy, climate change & SDGs and many other related areas. IconSWM-CE event is held annually wherein exceptional contributions made by the cement industry in co-processing are recognized and felicitated.  

The principal organizers of this year’s event were the International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water (ISWMAW), Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, Centre for Sustainable Development and Resource Efficiency Management, Jadavpur University and International Partnership for Expanding Waste Management Services of Local Authorities (IPLA). 

Air India Leases 12 More Aircraft To Enhance Indian Operations

* Induction of aircraft in the first half of 2023

* 42 aircraft leased so far to boost connectivity on domestic, international routes

Air India, India’s leading airline and a Star Alliance member, today announced the lease of six Airbus A320neo narrow body aircraft and six Boeing B777-300 ER widebody aircraft to further augment its existing fleet. These aircraft are expected to be inducted in the first half of 2023 and will be deployed on Air India’s short, medium and long-haul international routes. The decision to lease twelve aircraft is in addition to the thirty leased earlier this year including twenty one Airbus A320, four Airbus A321 and five Boeing B777-200LR widebody aircraft.

The Airbus A320neo will be operated on the airline’s domestic/short-to-medium haul international routes.   Air India’s B777-300 ER will have four-class configuration of First, Business, Premium Economy and Economy, and will be deployed to connect Indian metro cities with even more international destinations.

The airline’s aggressive expansion plan has already witnessed 19 long-grounded aircraft returning to the skies with 9 more to follow even as the airline has stepped up lease of narrow and wide-body aircraft. As part of the expansion, Air India has raised the frequency of flights between key cities on the domestic sector and has also announced direct flights between Indian cities and key global destinations like Doha, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Birmingham. Further, Air India is set to commence direct flights from Delhi to key European cities like Milan, Vienna and Copenhagen, and from Mumbai to New York, Paris and Frankfurt.

Commenting on the lease of the aircraft, Mr. Campbell Wilson, CEO & Managing Director, Air India, said, “Growing our network is an essential part of Air India’s Vihaan.AI transformational journey and we remain committed to increasing connectivity and frequency of flights both domestically and internationally. These additional aircraft leases will support our near term growth even as we finalise plans to refresh and significantly grow our long-term fleet.”

For more information, visit www.airindia.in 

About Air India:

Founded by the legendary JRD Tata, Air India pioneered India’s aviation sector. Since its first flight on October 15, 1932, Air India has an extensive domestic network and has spread its wings beyond to become a major international airline with a network across USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Far-East, South-East Asia, Australia and the Gulf. Air India is a member of Star Alliance, the largest global airline consortium. After 69 years as a Government-owned enterprise, Air India and Air India Express were welcomed back into the Tata group in January 2022. The present management at Air India is driving the five year transformation roadmap under the aegis of Vihaan.AI to establish itself as a world-class global airline with an Indian heart.

Vihaan.AI is Air India’s transformational roadmap over five years with clear milestones.  It will be focussing on dramatically growing both its network and fleet, developing a completely revamped customer proposition, improving reliability and on-time performance. The airline will also be taking 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.

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.

Global Tech Maor LTIMindtree Rings The Opening Bell At BSE

LTIMindtree [NSE: LTIM, BSE: 540005], a global technology consulting and digital solutions company, today marked the commencement of trading on the Indian stock market under its new name by ringing the opening bell at BSE.  

The iconic bell-ringing was done by Mr. A. M. Naik, Group Chairman of L&T Group and Chairman of LTIMindtree; Mr. S. N. Subrahmanyan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of L&T Group, and Vice-Chairman of LTIMindtree; Mr. R. Shankar Raman, Whole-time Director and Chief Financial Officer of L&T Group, and Non-Executive Director of LTIMindtree; and Mr. Debashis Chatterjee, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of LTIMindtree, in the presence of Mr. S. S. Mundra, Chairman of BSE, and senior leaders from L&T, LTIMindtree, BSE, and LTIMindtree’s partner organizations.  

Formed on November 14, 2022, through the merger of erstwhile Larsen and Toubro Infotech (LTI) and Mindtree, leading technology consulting and digital solutions companies under the Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Group, LTIMindtree — a scaled-up IT services provider with a client portfolio of more than 750 global enterprises and nearly 90,000 professionals in more than 30 countries across five continents — is the fifth largest IT services company in India by market capitalization. 

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. A M Naik said, “It is a proud moment for us. LTIMindtree furthers L&T’s strategic vision of growing IT services into one of the core pillars of our overall business over the next few years. LTIMindtree combines LTI’s engineering and Mindtree’s software DNAs, blending their problem-solving and digital-first strengths into a unique value proposition for our clients, further reinforcing L&T’s acclaimed tradition of innovation, excellence, trust, and empathy.” 

Mr. S. N. Subrahmanyan said, “Blessed with a rich heritage of growth and innovation, LTIMindtree is about reimagining the future for our stakeholders, and making it bigger, better, and bolder. By building upon the combined momentum of its constituents, LTIMindtree endeavors to tap into the significant opportunity ahead to not just live the future but shape it. We look forward to delivering on our promise to our stakeholders by turning our differentiated strategy into sustainable value.”

Mr. Debashis Chatterjee said, “The commencement of trading of LTIMindtree shares signifies an important milestone in our journey of value creation. It also marks the start of a momentous new chapter in the history of the IT services industry. As a rapidly converging world gives rise to newer business models and revenue streams, LTIMindtree brings the diversity of scale and digital capabilities required to get businesses to the future, faster.” 

Shareholders of erstwhile Mindtree, delisted from November 23, 2022, have been issued shares of erstwhile LTI in the ratio of 73 shares of LTI (now called LTIMindtree) for every 100 shares of Mindtree. The parent company, L&T, holds 68.73% of LTIMindtree. 

About LTIMindtree 

LTIMindtree is a global technology consulting and digital solutions company that enables enterprises across industries to reimagine business models, accelerate innovation, and maximize growth by harnessing digital technologies. As a digital transformation partner to more than 750 clients, LTIMindtree brings extensive domain and technology expertise to help drive superior competitive differentiation, customer experiences, and business outcomes in a converging world. Powered by nearly 90,000 talented and entrepreneurial professionals across more than 30 countries, LTIMindtree — a Larsen & Toubro Group company — combines the industry-acclaimed strengths of erstwhile Larsen and Toubro Infotech and Mindtree in solving the most complex business challenges and delivering transformation at scale. For more information, visit www.ltimindtree.com. 

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill Draft Announced: NASSCOM

* A bill to set up a baseline law on digital personal data protection - NASSCOM

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) met the Honorable Union Minister of Railways; Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw along with Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma Secretary MeitY last week for a roundtable discussion on the recently announced draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022. The meeting was attended by industry leaders, startups, and SMEs who provided their initial feedback and suggestions on the bill.

The Honorable Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw provided several key messages, including: 

All future rules will be put up for public consultation in line with parliamentary mandate

The Bill is designed to be simple to not just read, but also to implement across use-cases, as it will serve as a horizontal baseline that will cut across sectors and use-cases. Moreover, it is important for such a law to remain flexible and agile to technological changes.

The Data Protection Board will be designed to redress concerns and complaints regarding data protection in a manner that the mechanism is accessible and effective for every strata of the society.

As the Bill gets finalised, on cross-border data flows, government will ensure that the approach focusses on strengthing data protection without disrupting data flows.

A good idea for startups and technology providers to offer their feedback will be to test the Bill against their specific use-cases to identify gaps, if any, and provide suggestions accordingly

The shift away from revenue-based penalties is to ensure certainty and avoid getting into debates on revenue calculations which have created concerns in other regulatory regimes

The industry stakeholders appreciated the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022, welcoming that, as compared to the previous drafts, this version has been simplified by removing past proposals that were not related to personal data protection, such as non-personal data, or that would have posed significant concerns to ease of doing business, such as the criminal offence, the hardware certification scheme, or the statutory data residency requirements.

The technology neutral design of the Bill combined with focus on leveraging technology to enchance the effectiveness of the data protection board and enable consent management were noted as key features that would help the Bill meet its objectives.

On cross border data flows, the industry felt that a framework prepared in consultation with government departments, sectoral regulators, and public consultations, should provide a clear, proportionate and enabling framework. Industry welcomed the retention of forward-looking concepts, such as the consent manager, to enable citizens to effectively manage their consent.

Recognizing that data is central to every country and industry, NASSCOM will continue to work with the government and the industry, and make recommendations that are aimed to not only further strengthen this bill from a privacy and innovation perspective, but also bolster India’s narrative as a trusted global partner for all invested in digital transformation.

Benesse, Japan’s Leading Education Company, Enters Indian Market

* Organized summit “Future of education and enabling well-being” in Bangalore in association with Empowered Minds Edu Solutions on December 3, 2022

Benesse (which means “well-being” in Latin) has set its foot in the Indian education space. Set up in the year 1955, the company grew rapidly in Japan and has been the largest education company in the country for over the last six decades. The heart of Benesse is enjoying the process of moving forward, step-by-step and with resolve, towards the realization of people’s dreams and aspirations.

In order to share their learning, both from so many years of experience working with schools in Japan and a limited experience in India so far, as also to gather insights from the Indian educators; Benesse had organized a summit titled “Future of education and enabling well-being” in Bangalore on December 3 in association with Empowered Minds Edu Solutions. Renowned educators and practioners from more than 50 educational institutions and school groups participated in the summit and shared their experience on topics most relevant to students and teachers of today. The day was divided into keynote sessions and panel discussions including on topics such as- “back to classroom- (online vs offline), improving well-being at school, relevance of student data analysis to improve learning outcomes and ways to build sustainable world in a world of constant change”.

Reflecting on their India entry, Mr Kotaro Ueda, Representative Director of Benesse India Private Limited said “we have been looking at the India education space for a very long time and did some small engagement in the past. What completely convinced us this time around to start our operations in India was the New Education Policy of 2020. When we did our assessment of the Policy, we concluded that several measures proposed there are very similar to how the K12 and higher education system evolved in Japan over the years. And, therefore, our experience could be of some help to our school partners in India”.

Speaking during the summit, Mr Hemant Joshi, Executive Director of Benesse India Private Limited stated “we envisage to work with the schools in a very data backed way. And, hence, one of our first offerings is around student assessment backed continuous improvement programme. This data provides actionable insights into key strengths and areas of development at the level of the school, class and individual students; which translates into a continuous improvement programme executed in partnership between the school and Benesse. Similarly, our second offering is focused on providing specific learning support to students based on the assessment findings. Many other offerings are on the anvil and are being shaped leveraging our experience in Japan and basis the feedback we are receiving from our clients in India.”