* With $75,000 in grants, the awards support high-impact innovations across key categories
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), the oldest technological university in the U.S, has announced the inaugural winners of the Ajit Prabhu ’98 Catalyst Fund Apex Awards. The awards were established through the Catalyst Fund, supported by Ajit Prabhu, Co-founder and CEO, Quest Global, the world’s largest independent pure-play engineering services company, and an alumnus of RPI. The Catalyst Fund, part of the $10 million gift by Ajit Prabhu last year, supports a range of innovation and entrepreneurship activities at RPI, with the Apex Awards representing its highest honors.
The Apex Awards recognize breakthrough student- and faculty-led innovations with strong potential for real-world impact. With a total grant of $75,000, the awards celebrate excellence across key categories and support innovations aimed at addressing complex, real-world challenges.
Ajit Prabhu’s continued association with RPI reflects a long-term commitment to strengthening education and innovation ecosystems globally. Through sustained institutional support, he has backed initiatives that promote research, encourage entrepreneurial thinking, and enable students to translate ideas into scalable solutions. This engagement is part of a broader, ongoing effort to support education globally, rather than a one-time initiative.
This initiative reflects a broader focus on fostering purpose-driven innovation, where engineering excellence is applied to solve real-world challenges and create meaningful impact across communities.
Ajit Prabhu, Co-founder and CEO, Quest Global, said, "RPI opened my eyes to what might be possible, and it's deeply meaningful to see these honorees carrying forward that same curiosity and drive to tackle real challenges in the world. Whatever success I've had is rooted in the mentors, institutions, and communities that supported me along the way. I'm grateful for the chance to give back and encourage the next generation of innovators at RPI."
“Ajit Prabhu’s enduring relationship with RPI reflects his deep belief in the power of education to shape innovators and problem-solvers for the world. His continued commitment to our students and faculty through initiatives like the Catalyst Fund Apex Awards strengthens RPI’s mission to translate bold ideas into real-world impact”, said Eric Ledet, Director of RPI's Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship.
The Apex Awards span areas such as advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and life sciences domains that are critical to solving complex challenges across industries. The initiative also reflects a broader approach of combining engineering excellence with community development. By supporting platforms such as the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at RPI, it contributes to building innovation-driven ecosystems that enable collaboration, experimentation, and purpose-led engineering.
About Quest Global
At Quest Global, it's not just what we do but how and why we do it that makes us different. We're in the business of engineering, but what we're really creating is a brighter future. For over 25 years, we've been solving the world's most complex engineering problems. Operating in over 18 countries, with over 93 global delivery centers, our 22,000+ curious minds embrace the power of doing things differently to make the impossible possible. Using a multi-dimensional approach, combining technology, industry expertise, and diverse talents, we tackle critical challenges faster and more effectively. And we do it across the Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Energy, Hi-Tech, MedTech & Healthcare, Rail and Semiconductor industries. For world-class end-to-end engineering solutions, we are your trusted partner.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Johnson’s® Baby Partners with Zee5 To Launch ‘Mom Talks’ With Parineeti Chopra
Motherhood today sits between deeply rooted traditions and rapidly evolving trends. From advice passed down by family to information consumed through digital platforms, new moms are constantly navigating multiple, often conflicting voices. With an aim to address dilemmas faced by modern parents, Johnson’s® Baby has partnered with Zee5 to present ‘Mom Talks’—a first-of-its-kind parenting talk show hosted by actor and new-age mom Parineeti Chopra.
As a brand which has partnered with parents for generations for over 130 years to care for their babies, Johnson’s® Baby furthers its commitment by co-creating a platform for meaningful and relevant conversations around modern day parenting. Rooted in decades of paediatric science and deep consumer understanding, the brand brings alive parenting mantras, evolving choices, and real challenges, addressing longstanding myths through credible, expert led and science backed insights that parents can rely on with confidence.
The show was unveiled at an immersive, first-of-its-kind cruise event that brought together influencers, media, and parenting communities for an exclusive preview of the show. The event saw an engaging panel discussion with leading mommy influencers, Snehalata Jain and Tanvi Thakker along with Dr. Dilip Tripathi, Head of R&D Baby at Kenvue India (Makers of Johnson’s Baby) as they delved into modern parenting, trends v/s traditions and key truths related to science backed skincare routines to protect a baby’s delicate & developing skin and how to choose the best baby products aligned to evolving expectations of parents today. The engaging discussion was followed by Parineeti Chopra sharing her personal experiences of parenthood, the importance of authentic conversations and building a community of moms as she unveiled the new show.
Speaking at the launch event, Parineeti Chopra said, “Every mom has a story about her parenting journey. With this show, in every episode we will spotlight these stories which every mom will relate to.” Elaborating on this, Dr. Dilip Tripathi said, “For over a century, Johnson’s® Baby has been guided by science and a deep responsibility towards parents and their babies. Our formulations are developed based on decades of research in baby skin biology and are designed to meet our stringent standards of safety and mildness. Today’s parents are more informed than ever, they actively research baby care, but are also faced with information overload, conflicting advice, and enduring myths. Through our association with Mom Talks, Johnson’s® Baby aims to bridge the gap between credible science and everyday parenting practices, empowering parents to make confident, well-informed choices for their little ones.”
At the heart of this collaboration is Johnson’s® Baby’s promise of ‘Helps Protect from Day 1’ - now reinforced with its new formulations, thoughtfully designed to be better for mums, babies and planet. The new and improved range is enriched with purposeful and natural ingredients like Aloe Vera and Vitamin B5, complemented by sustainable, transparent packaging designed for today’s conscious parents.
With this collaboration, Johnson’s® Baby aims to deepen its connection with new-age mothers by combining trusted care with contemporary conversations. By blending content, community, and credible expertise, Johnson’s® Baby continues to evolve its legacy, positioning itself not just as a trusted choice for gentle and effective baby care, but as a dependable partner in a parent’s journey from Day 1.
Mom Talks with Johnson’s® Baby, streaming exclusively on Zee5, is a multi-episode series that explores distinct dimensions of modern parenting. The series opens with Miracles of Motherhood, celebrating the emotional journey of becoming parents, followed by conversations such as Modern Moms vs Tradition, which examines the balance between generational wisdom and contemporary parenting approaches. Another key episode, Fatherhood Stereotypes, features Imran Khan in a candid conversation on redefining the role of fathers today, with the season culminating in a finale that brings together diverse voices to celebrate the evolving Indian parenting journey. The series will be seen every Friday and Saturday from April 4, 2026 onwards.
ixigo Trains & ConfirmTkt Partner With Swiggy To Offer On-Train Food Delivery
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ixigo Trains and ConfirmTkt, India’s leading AI-based train ticketing platforms, have partnered with Swiggy (Swiggy Ltd, NSE: SWIGGY / BSE: 544285), India’s pioneering on-demand convenience platform, to power its ‘Food on Train’ service. By integrating Swiggy’s restaurant network into the ixigo and ConfirmTkt apps, this collaboration provides the required solution to the "on-the-move" traveler’s hunger issue -with the same selection, reliability, and value that customers can expect from Swiggy when they order from their homes.
Through this integration, travellers can access an expanded range of meal choices, from popular national brands to well-known local favourites across cities- opting for familiar go-to meals or exploring regional specialties along their route. The service is designed to make train journeys more convenient by enabling passengers to order their preferred meals seamlessly and have them delivered directly to their seats.
With this partnership, train travellers can browse curated menus, order fresh and hygienic meals from over 40,000 trusted restaurant partners across 160+ railway stations in India, with the ability to track their order in real time, and receive delivery directly at their train seats. Travellers can also book meals from 4 days up to 30 minutes before train arrival. Additionally, Swiggy is offering ‘assured delivery or full refund’ for all food on train orders.
Customers can update their ixigo or ConfirmTkt app to view the list of Swiggy restaurants available on ‘Food on Train’. To order, travellers can select the ‘Order Food on Train’ option on the home page of the ixigo Trains or ConfirmTkt app, enter their PNR number and select the delivery station. They can then browse from a wide range of Swiggy restaurant partners, complete the payment and track their order live.
Commenting on the partnership, Sripad Vaidya, COO, ixigo Trains & ConfirmTkt, said, "Our focus has always been to simplify and enhance every aspect of the train travel journey. Food is an integral part of that experience. By partnering with Swiggy, we are combining our deep understanding of train travel with Swiggy’s strong restaurant network and delivery expertise to further strengthen our existing “Food on Train” feature. This collaboration enables us to offer greater choice, reliability and transparency, while ensuring timely and hygienic meal delivery directly to passengers’ seats."
Deepak Maloo, Vice President, Food Strategy, Customer Experience & New Initiatives, Swiggy, also added, "India's railways carry over 18 million long-distance, reserved passengers daily, and hunger doesn't pause at the platform. Our partnership with ixigo Trains and ConfirmTkt brings Swiggy's trusted restaurant network directly to the rail journey, covering 160+ stations. For millions of travellers, this means the same quality and convenience they expect at home, now follows them on the train, especially during long journeys."
India’s on-train food delivery ecosystem has expanded rapidly since IRCTC pioneered the e-catering category, highlighting the growing demand for convenient food delivery during train journeys. This partnership further strengthens ixigo’s existing “Food on Train” offering, enabling travellers to pre-order meals for delivery to their seats at station stops.
Swiggy’s latest consumer data signals a definitive shift from functional transit eating to a curated culinary experience on rails, highlighting some key trends. The ‘Heritage Flavor’ surge is visible: while Biryani remains the undisputed king of the tracks, there is a growing appetite for regional staples. Travelers are increasingly opting for authentic local favorites like Vada Pav, Adai, Appam, and Litti Chokha as they traverse different states. Also, in a heartwarming trend, nearly 14% of orders are now placed by non-travelers. From the comfort of their homes, family members are using Swiggy to ensure their loved ones on board receive a fresh, hot meal at their next scheduled halt. Group feasts are now common for food on train users. Demonstrating the platform's robust infrastructure, Swiggy has seamlessly fulfilled single orders as large as 45 items, catering to large families and student groups celebrating together in transit.
By bringing together ixigo’s strong rail user base and Swiggy’s expansive food delivery ecosystem, the partnership is set to offer customers more variety, better service reliability and a smoother digital experience, making train travel across India even more convenient.
About ixigo (NSE: IXIGO, BSE: 544192)
Launched in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai & Rajnish Kumar, ixigo (Le Travenues Technology Limited) is India’s leading AI-based travel platform for planning, booking and managing trips across trains, flights, buses and hotels. ixigo assists travellers in making smarter travel decisions by leveraging artificial intelligence. The ixigo, ConfirmTkt and AbhiBus apps allow travellers to book train tickets, flight tickets, bus tickets, hotels, and cabs, and provide travel utility tools and services developed using in-house proprietary algorithms and crowd-sourced information. With over 54 crore Annual Active Users in Fiscal 2025, ixigo is the leading OTA for Next Billion Users in India. For more information, please visit http://www.ixigo.com
About ConfirmTkt
ConfirmTkt, India’s leading authorised B2C online train ticketing and travel utility platform available on Android and iOS. It helps users secure ‘confirmed tickets’ by predicting confirmation chances for waitlisted tickets and tracking real-time train status, coach positions, platform numbers, and seat availability. Powered by machine learning and seat allotment patterns, ConfirmTkt offers alternative travel recommendations when direct trains are unavailable. Users can also enjoy free cancellation with a full refund and faster refunds via the ConfirmTkt wallet. ConfirmTkt enables direct train ticket bookings without redirection to IRCTC, providing a seamless and hassle-free experience.
About Swiggy
Swiggy is India’s pioneering on-demand convenience platform, catering to millions of consumers each month. Founded in 2014, its mission is to elevate the quality of life for the urban consumer by offering unparalleled convenience, enabled by over 6.9 lakh delivery partners. With an extensive footprint in food delivery, Swiggy Food collaborates with over 2.6 lakh restaurants across 720+ cities. Instamart, its quick commerce platform operating in 131cities, delivers groceries and other essentials across 20+ categories. Fueled by a commitment to innovation, Swiggy continually incubates and integrates new services like Swiggy Dineout and Swiggy Scenes into its multi-service app as well as creating standalone offerings like Toing and Crew for opening up new market segments. Leveraging cutting-edge technology and Swiggy One, the country’s only membership program offering benefits across food, quick commerce and dining out, Swiggy aims to provide a superior experience to its users. For more details, please visit our website: www.swiggy.com/corporate/
The Runway Is Yours: Style Social 3.0 Turns Bengaluru Into A Fashion Stage At The Bhartiya Mall Of Bengaluru
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Scheduled for April 11th and 12th, 2026, the auditions will offer participants a chance to step into the spotlight, with registrations now live on BookMyShow. The journey will culminate in a high-energy grand finale on April 25th, 2026, featuring a fashion show styled by leading global and national brands. The showcase will highlight spring-summer collections, bringing together trend-forward looks and curated styling for a vibrant runway experience.
The event is being curated by Sheetal Sharma, a former model and fashion show director, ensuring a professional yet accessible format that balances high fashion with individuality. Adding to the excitement, participants also stand to gain beyond the ramp, four winners will be featured in social media campaigns by the mall, while 25 winners will receive shopping and dining vouchers.
Backing the showcase is a strong lineup of leading fashion retailers including Lifestyle, Max, Pantaloons, Reliance Trends, and Zudio, each bringing their unique style sensibilities to the platform. With its blend of accessibility, scale, and fashion-forward appeal, Style Social 3.0 is set to redefine how the city engages with style, making it more personal, participative, and truly inclusive.
Event Details
What: Style Social 3.0
When: Audition Dates: 11th & 12th April 2026
Grand Finale: 25th April 2026- a fashion show
Where: Bhartiya Mall of Bengaluru
How to Book: Link
Yuma Energy Partners With Quantum Energy To Enable Seamless Battery Swapping For The Quantum Bziness
Yuma Energy, one of India’s leading battery-as-a-service (BaaS) and EV energy infrastructure company has partnered with Quantum Energy, an emerging Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer, to enable battery swapping compatibility for the Quantum Bziness, Quantum’s popular electric scooter designed for high-utilization commercial and last-mile mobility applications. This collaboration marks a significant step toward accelerating EV adoption by addressing one of the most critical challenges in electric mobility, vehicle downtime due to charging.
Powering Productivity, Eliminating Downtime for Mobility
The Quantum Bziness has been engineered specifically for commercial and business use cases, where operational efficiency and reliability are paramount. Through this partnership, Yuma Energy integrates its advanced battery swapping ecosystem, offering minute-level swap times and 99.9% network uptime, allowing riders to replace depleted batteries with fully charged ones in just minutes. This ensures delivering a solution that makes electric mobility as quick and effortless as traditional refuelling, ensuring vehicles stay on the road and livelihoods stay uninterrupted.
Building a Sustainable, Future Ready EV Ecosystem
This partnership reflects a shared vision between Yuma Energy and Quantum Energy, to build a future-ready EV ecosystem that prioritizes accessibility, reliability, and economic empowerment.
By combining Quantum Energy’s vehicle engineering expertise with Yuma Energy’s advanced energy infrastructure, the collaboration removes barriers to EV adoption for businesses, fleet operators, and independent riders. The integrated solution ensures that commercial EV users can maximize vehicle utilization while reducing operational costs and environmental impact.
Sharing their perspective on the partnership, Mr. Muthu Subramanian, MD & GM, Yuma Energy, said:"Electric mobility must work for the people who depend on their vehicles every day. Our partnership with Quantum Energy ensures that riders using the Quantum Bziness can operate without interruptions. By making battery swapping as fast and simple as refuelling, we are enabling productivity, improving earnings potential, and accelerating India’s transition to sustainable mobility."
Mr. Chakravarthi C, Managing Director, Quantum Energy, said:
"At Quantum Energy, we design and manufacture vehicles that solve real mobility challenges. Integrating Yuma’s battery swapping solution with the Quantum Bziness enhances convenience and operational efficiency for commercial users, reinforcing our commitment to delivering practical and scalable EV solutions."
GE Aerospace Global Volunteering Week - Commitment To Supporting Local Communities
Photo Caption: GE Aerospace employees from the John F. Welch Technology Centre in Bengaluru led volunteer initiatives spanning environmental restoration, education, and community engagement during the company’s annual Global Volunteer Week. The activities undertaken by the teams reflect GE Aerospace's involvement and commitment to supporting local communities.
Villa Swagatam Indian Laureate Sajid Wajid Sheikh Awarded The Henry Clews Prize 2026-2027, France
Created in honour of sculptor Henry Clews and his wife Marie Clews, the prize continues their vision of the château as a place dedicated to artistic freedom, experimentation, and international exchange. Through this programme, the historic site comes alive as a space of creation, inspiration, and dialogue between artists, particularly in the field of sculpture, which was central to Henry Clews’ work.
Sajid Wajid Sheikh first visited the Château de La Napoule in autumn 2025 as a resident of Villa Swagatam, a network of artistic and literary residencies implemented by the French Institute in India and the French Embassy in India. His selection for the Henry Clews Prize highlights the lasting artistic connections that can emerge from the programme’s residencies and the depth of the cultural dialogue fostered between France and India.
Commending multidisciplinary artist Sajid Wajid Sheikh, H.E. Mr Thierry Mathou, Ambassador of France to India, said: “Through programmes such as Villa Swagatam, France and India are not only fostering artistic dialogue but also laying the foundation for transformative experiences that shape the trajectories of emerging artists. I congratulate Mr Sajid Wajid Sheikh for winning the Henry Clews Prize, illustrating how these pathways, once initiated, can evolve independently and meaningfully, and contribute to the deepening cultural cooperation between South Asia and France.’”
Nelcy Mercier, Director of Operations the La Napoule Art Foundation, commented: ‘We are especially delighted to welcome Sajid Wajid Sheikh back to La Napoule as the laureate of the Henry Clews Prize. His work resonates deeply with the spirit of the château, a place where artistic experimentation is encouraged. During his Villa Swagatam residency last autumn, he demonstrated a remarkable sensitivity to the legacy of Henry Clews while bringing a powerful and very new contemporary perspective. We look forward to accompanying the development of his work during this new chapter.’”
Based between Navi Mumbai and Aurangabad, Sajid Wajid Sheikh is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice considers the artist as a witness to their time. Through installations, sculptures, mechanical devices, films, and drawings, he explores tensions between oppression and resistance, giving shape to often silenced narratives. His kinetic installations frequently employ machines as metaphors for systemic dysfunctions, while his drawings and paintings evoke cycles of conflict and violence. His work has recently been presented at ARCO Madrid, the India Art Fair, and the Mumbai Urban Art Festival 2022, among others.
During his first residency at La Napoule, he developed a series of ceramic works inspired by the universe of Henry Clews, with whom he perceives both formal and conceptual affinities. As part of the Henry Clews Prize, Sajid will return to the Château de La Napoule for a year-long residency from September 2026 to September 2027. The works created during this period will be presented in a summer exhibition at the château in July and August 2027.
The award marks a new turning point in the artist’s relationship with the Château de La Napoule and reflects the enduring role of artistic residencies in fostering international collaboration and creative exchanges.
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