Swiggy Charters Appoints Vishal Bhatia, Rahul Bothra in New Management Team

Swiggy, India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform has announced the appointment of Vishal Bhatia as its CEO for New Supply. While the company continues to add restaurants on its platform at a rapid pace, Bhatia’s appointment has been made in keeping with Swiggy’s vision of ‘changing the way India eats’ by solving for potential long-term gaps in supply.

The ‘New Supply’ business line will be focused on Swiggy’s strategy of giving consumers a greater assortment by addressing existing supply gaps in the marketplace, including enabling partner restaurants to expand their businesses. The company had announced its first New Supply initiative, Swiggy Access last month. Through Access, Swiggy brings a variety of food to consumers by enabling plug-and-play expansion for restaurant partners in different areas.

Bhatia comes with 19 years of experience in blue chip organizations like Reckitt Benckiser (RB), PepsiCo and Britannia. In his most recent stint at RB’s headquarters in the UK, Bhatia led the global growth strategy and the related innovation agenda on the Dettol personal hygiene portfolio, creating one of the fastest growing segments for the business.

Further strengthening its leadership, Swiggy has also recently hired Rahul Bothra as the company’s first Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In his role, Bothra will be responsible for building on the company’s growth, delivering greater efficiency and value to Swiggy and its ecosystem of partners, and taking the company to greater financial excellence at scale.

With over 16 years of experience, Bothra joined Swiggy from OLAM International, where, as the Divisional CFO he provided functional leadership to their global cotton operations across 16 countries. Prior to OLAM International, Bothra has held senior finance roles in Britannia Industries and Wipro Limited.

“As Swiggy prepares for the next phase in our growth, the new leaders will spearhead strategic initiatives that will create sustainable long-term value for our consumers and the marketplace. This requires concerted efforts and a very strong understanding of the consumer, coupled with the execution excellence that they bring onboard,” said Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy.

Swiggy has become a loved consumer brand by bringing convenience, choice, reliability and a great experience to food ordering. The company is currently working on various initiatives to set the pace for industry-wide innovations, and support Swiggy’s next phase of growth. 

BIG FM, Benadryl Announces the 5th Season of On-Air Singing Talent Show ‘Big Golden Voice’ in Bangalore

BIG FM, one of the India’s largest radio networks is back with the 5^th season of the biggest and most successful running on-air singing talent hunt ‘Benadryl BIG Golden Voice’ presented by Benadryl Cough Syrup, powered by LIC Housing Finance and online talent partner Songdew.com. With a commendable show put forth each season, this year will be even bigger and better with the property’s extended presence across digital platforms and an altogether new theme - Folk Recreated. Fortifying this essence with the tagline ‘YehMittike Sur Koi RoknaPaaye’, BIG FM will unearth hidden talent across the country and give all the finalist an opportunity to record their original songs and videos. The participants will be judged by ace Bollywood composer, Anu Malik and the winner will get a mega opportunity to sing an original song specially composed by him. 

Unlike other talent hunts which promise stardom and song release option to only the final winner, this show will give the opportunity to all the Top 10 finalists to record their original song and video. The opportunity is presented at the outset itself thereby making Benadryl Big Golden Voice a ‘Show of Talent’ than a Talent Hunt.  Based on this year’s theme, the Top 10 finalists will use folk music of India to re-create their original songs and perform it for the listeners. Bringing in an element of renewed engagement and delivering on the radio network’s promise of providing more music, the singers will also reinvent the classic songs with contemporary compositions. 

Entries will be invited through digital platforms of the radio network and a dedicated micro-site. 30 singers will be shortlisted from offline and online auditions. Listeners will then get the opportunity to select top 10 finalists among these singers through online/sms voting. Celebrity judge Anu Malik will help contestants groom their skills and become perfectionists to compete in the finale for the title. The video of the song featuring the Top 10 finalists will be released through Big FMs social media handles and will be amplified on digital. 

Speaking about the association, Dimple Sidhar, Vice President – Marketing, Consumer Products Division at Johnson & Johnson Pvt. Ltd. said, “Benadryl is proud of the association with Big Golden Voice for the 5^th year With more than 50 years of Doctor’s trust and being the Number 1 OTC cough syrup brand in India, Benadryl understands the chaos a cough creates in a consumer’s life. This chaos can rattle a singer’s performance. Benadryl’s promise is to provide efficacious solutions to stop this chaos so that you perform at your best. Benadryl BIG Golden Voice is a celebration of this promise.”

Speaking about the launch of the new season, spokesperson of BIG FM said, “Each year, Benadryl BIG Golden Voice has raised the bar among on-air singing talent hunts with its credible celebrity judges and brilliant winners going on to win recognition in the music industry. We feel proud to witness our long-standing association with Benadryl enter the 5^th year. This edition will be carried out on a whole new level with a novel theme and a massive digital outreach. In our search for the next singing sensation with the theme - Folk recreated, we intend to capture the attention of different sets of audience. Also, having activated our digital platforms for auditions and voting, we will be further raising our engagement across demographics and making this an effective platform providing extensive visibility to our partners”. 

Since its inception, Benadryl BIG Golden Voice has created benchmarks in the radio singing talent hunt space. The property has witnessed various highlights across seasons, such as winners marking their debut in the music industry, inviting entries from international talent and having renowned celebrity singers as the judges. Artists such as Abhijeet Bhattacharya (Season 1), Shankar Mahadevan (Season 2 & 3) and, Malik Brothers - Armaan and Amaal Malik (Season 4) have added to the credibility of the activity and contributed in scouting the best talent for Indian music industry.

Mahindra Electric Hands Over eVeritos to NGO Wheels of Change

Mahindra Electric, part of the diversified US$19 billion Mahindra Group and a pioneer in the development and production of electric vehicles in India, today handed over three eVeritos to Wheels of Change, a non-profit organization that works towards making the world accessible for the differently abled individuals. Hemantha Kumara, Additional Commissioner for Transport along with Mahesh Babu, CEO Mahindra Electric, handed over the vehicles to Ritheesh Shetty, Trustee, Wheels of Change, at the Mahindra Electric corporate office today.

These eVeritos will be used under the NGO’s initiative KickStart cabs and will be specially customized to suit the needs of the differently abled. One of the major modifications will include a swivel out mechanism on the front co-passenger seat of the eVerito. This is aligned with Mahindra Electric’s endeavour to provide mobility solutions for all and comes under the company’s CSR initiative. As a part of this handover, the company will also hand over one fast charging unit to facilitate the movement of these three eVeritos.

Set up in 2013 as a non-profit that works towards making the world accessible for persons with disabilities. The organisation also works to promote inclusion of other marginalised communities like sexual minorities.

WoC has so far worked as the research and design partner for Kickstart Services Private Limited, in promoting transportation for persons with disabilities and seniors. Through this, designs for vehicle modification have been made that are appropriate for different types of disabilities (wheelchair users, crutch walkers etc.). WoC also has expertise in making public spaces like parks, toilets and public spaces accessible. The approach is to understand a place holistically and make it accessible rather than in isolation.

Calm India Unveils Web-Series to Address Declining Mental Risk in India!

Calm India, a health tech start-up launched an initiative to spread awareness about depression and declining mental risk in India. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) course, has been launched to gain control of mind and build resilience to stress, anxiety and depression. The course will be conducted through a web series comprising of fourteen episodes of curated therapeutic content of approximately 15 minutes each. It’s a 4 week online self-help course on Building Mental Resilience Tailored for everyone across the country.   

Calm India’s 4-week course is a complete package which includes 13 episodes narrated by a young psychologist and a volunteer at Teach for India, Faraz Khan. He teaches the art of acceptance, the evolutionary and the biological basis for emotions, the actual science behind meditation, deep breathing, exposure therapy, flooding, thought spirals, tackling skewed thinking patterns, retraining your sleeping habits, the value of different components of your diet, the medications that are often prescribed including their side effects, an interactive assessment of where you lie on the spectrum of anxiety, depression and insomnia; etc. The course is being conducted online to reach out to as many people as possible in the country.

In addition, this extensive solution includes a set of 23 compact audio books that help in building healthy thought patterns. The soothing voice of Gaana Srinivas guides you into the course in audio form and also helps unwind the after effects of a stressful day with audio cognitive behavioural therapy. It also includes a Reference deck which is a beautiful graphical representation of the course content in a concise format. The objective of Calm India is to provide self-help online access to mental health solution that is very affordable to all. The entire course costs INR 399 only.

On announcing the launch Shashank Udupa, Founder of Calm India says “In India, 93% of the population suffers from chronic stress and well over 1/4 th of the country suffers from depression. As a business, if we were hiring therapists (or aggregating them), we’d still run into the issue of the imbalance between number of therapists versus number of mental health sufferers, so we’ve come up with a more scalable solution at a price that makes it really affordable for all the people in remote areas of India that neither have access nor have the purchasing power to spend on a therapist. Our next step is to regionalize the content and have it dubbed into most of the popular Indian Language.”

Shashank further focuses on the awareness of mental health issues that is almost negligible in India. He says, “A general session of a therapist costs a good amount of money and it takes a minimum of 15 sessions to have an effect. Not all teenagers or working professionals going through anxiety or depression can possibly afford the money or the time to go to a therapist regularly. Housewives undergoing similar issues also may not be as comfortable due to our society’s outlook. They can easily buy our calm India course and regain their mental health without having to heading out for help and it’s also easy on their pocket. This platform being priced at 399 rupees makes it affordable and private to seek out better thinking patterns. We want to give the masses a better alternative solution that uses real science. We also have the links to our research on our website for every point we’ve presented, if the viewer wants to dig deeper at any point during or prior to the course.”

Enrolling for this course is quick and seamless - visit www.calmindia.com, register yourself and you’re good to go!

Persistent Systems Leading Players for Enterprise and Consumer Software in ‘Zinnov Zones 2017

In its recently released report ‘Zinnov Zones 2017 for Product Engineering services,’ Zinnov  positions Persistent Systems in the leadership zone for ‘Enterprise Software’ and ‘Consumer Software’ for the fifth consecutive year. Persistent is positioned as “Established and Niche” for overall product engineering capabilities – in line with the company’s focus on software–driven businesses.

"Zinnov Zones 2017 – Product Engineering Services” rates 40+ service providers on their product engineering prowess. Service providers are assessed based on multiple dimensions such as spread and maturity of delivery and services capabilities, scalability, growth rate, financials, innovation & IP, ecosystem linkages and feedback from enterprise buyers.

This rating represents the company’s positioning with respect to other service providers based on a detailed assessment across dimensions such as delivery and services capabilities, spread & maturity, scalability, innovation & IP, ecosystem linkages, and feedback from buyers. 

Dr. Anand Deshpande, Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Systems, “Our leadership is a recognition of strengths in building software products for our customers. At Persistent, we are collaborating with born-digital companies, software industry leaders, as well as with enterprises who are partnering with us in their transformation to become software-driven. This is driving our focus on Software 4.0 which extends our software product DNA with competencies such as design thinking, collaborative innovation, hackathons, and continuous engineering.”

Sidhant Rastogi, Partner & Practice Head, Zinnov, “Persistent’s strong track record in building software products and their expertise in software engineering makes them a preferred choice among the customers. The company’s flexible and custom-built platform based solutions, APIs and in-house ready to use frameworks helps in accelerated new product developments”

L&T Technology Services Emerges Leader in Overall ER&D Services: Zinnov Report

L&T Technology Services Limited consolidated its position as the country’s leading pure-play engineering services company after being rated as a leader across 10 major industries in the Zinnov Zones 2017 Product Engineering Services report. The Zinnov report cited LTTS’ well diversified digital solutions portfolio, focus on critical futuristic technologies and transformational deal wins with customers as major factors driving the momentum.

Zinnov rated L&T Technology Services as a leader across verticals such as Automotive, Aerospace, Telecom, Semiconductors, Consumer Electronics, Energy & Utilities, Industrial Automation, Transport, Construction & Heavy Machinery and Medical Devices.

The Zinnov Zones 2017 Product Engineering Services ratings also highlighted a significant leap in LTTS’ Embedded Technology capabilities underpinned by an exhaustive portfolio of proprietary solutions that has made LTTS an ideal design partner in the embedded systems space.

Zinnov rated LTTS as the leader in its Industrial Automation and Construction & Heavy Machinery practices based on its capabilities. Zinnov rated LTTS’ capabilities based on its practice maturity, domain expertise, infrastructure capabilities, strategic innovation, breadth of services across the PDLC and leverage of ecosystem connects. This is the seventh consecutive and fifth consecutive year in which L&T Technology Services has been distinguished as a leading player by Zinnov in Industrial Automation and construction & heavy machinery respectively.

“L&T Technology Services continues to dominate the Engineering services space due to its new age proprietary solutions, 38 R&D Labs spread across its delivery centers, focus on futuristic technologies such as perceptual engineering and neural systems and a client centric ethos that has seen some large deal wins driving the company’s topline,” said Sidhant Rastogi, Partner & Practice Head, Zinnov

“We are also encouraged by the traction in LTTS’ digital business led by the company’s Intellectual Property and platform solutions. A diversified digital services portfolio & strategic focus on top customers augurs well for the company’s prospects as a leader in ER&D,” Rastogi added.

“LTTS’ ability to win Large & Strategic Transformation deals using the technology pillars of digital engineering, perceptual engineering, pervasive technologies and smart manufacturing have enabled LTTS to be a leader in Zinnov’s annual ratings.  This reaffirms the confidence our customers have placed in us and we will continue to invest in Embedded, IIoT and Hi-Tech capabilities that will consolidate our position as the global leader in pure play engineering services,” said Ashish Khushu, Chief Technology Officer, L&T Technology Services Limited.

"Zinnov Zones 2017 – Product Engineering Services” rates 40+ service providers on their product engineering prowess. Service providers are assessed based on multiple dimensions such as spread and maturity of delivery and services capabilities, scalability, growth rate, financials, innovation & IP, ecosystem linkages and feedback from enterprise buyers. 

Neill Blomkamp, OATS Studios Release ‘ADAM: Episode 3,’ Short Film Created in Unity Tech

Unity Technologies, creator of the world’s most popular creation engine that has reached more than 3 billion devices, announced that ‘ADAM: Episode 3’ is now available to watch on YouTube. ‘ADAM: Episode 3’ was created by Academy Award-nominated director Neill Blomkamp and OATS Studios using Unity 2017. This is the third installment in the ‘ADAM’ franchise, a visually-stunning series that explores a world where human prisoners have had their consciousness transferred into the bodies of mechanical cyborgs.

“I have had the privilege of leading VFX on blockbusters like ‘Fast and Furious 6’ as well as story-driven sagas such as ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ In my years, I’ve never had a more powerful and instantly responsive toolkit than Unity,” said Chris Harvey, VFX Supervisor, OATS Studios. “Working in real-time in Unity 2017 gives the team the flexibility to make important creative changes without having to suffer the consequences of reshoots, saving us time and money.”

The original ‘ADAM,’ created by Veselin Efremov, was released in 2016 as a short film to demonstrate technical innovations of Unity. It won a Webby Award and was screened at several film festivals including the Annecy Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival. ‘ADAM: The Mirror’ picks up after the end of the events of ‘ADAM’ where the cyborg hero discovers a clue about what and who he is. ‘ADAM: Episode 3’ gives viewers their first glimpse of one of the villains in the ‘ADAM’ universe.

OATS was founded as an indie film studio that experiments with the latest filmmaking technologies, and their work on the ‘ADAM’ franchise is the first time they have worked in a real-time creation engine like Unity 2017. Harnessing the power of real-time rendering, OATS used Unity 2017 to create photorealistic graphics and lifelike digital humans. This was achieved through a combination of Unity’s advanced high-end graphics power, new materials that utilize the Custom Render Texture feature, advanced photogrammetry techniques,  Alembic-streamed animations for facial and cloth movement, and Unity’s Timeline feature.

“More and more of the world’s boldest filmmakers are choosing Unity to help bring their creative vision to life,” said Isabelle Riva, Head of Made with Unity, Unity Technologies. “By shooting and rendering in real-time, Blomkamp and his team at OATS were able to achieve breakthrough visuals that stand as a monument to the level of graphics achievable on Unity. We can’t wait to see what the next wave of game developers and filmmakers create.”

‘ADAM: The Mirror’ and ‘ADAM: Episode 3’ were created back-to-back by a team of 25 people over the course of six months, and they demonstrate the latest technologies Unity 2017 has to offer. Innovations in these short films include:  

·  Lifelike Digital Humans in Real-Time: OATS created the best-looking human ever in Unity using custom sub-surface-scattering shaders for skin, eyes, and hair

·  World’s First Alembic-Based Facial Performance Capture for Real-Time Using Unity: OATS has created a new facial performance capture technique that streams 30 scanned heads per second for lifelike animation, all without the use of morph targets or rigs

·  Virtual World Comes to Life Through Photogrammetry: Staying true to their live-action background, OATS shot more than 35,000 photos of environments and props and after the initial photogrammetry solve, imported these into Unity using the delighting tool. This allowed them to quickly create rich, complex environments and materials without the need to spend time to model high-resolution models

·  Rapid Streamlined Iteration in Real-Time Unleashes the Power of Creativity: The power of real-time rendering lets artists and designers “shoot” the story as if on a set, with a live responsiveness that allows room to experiment and make creative decisions anywhere in the process

·  Unity’s Timeline Backbone for Collaboration: Unity’s Timeline feature, a visual sequencing tool that allows artists to orchestrate scenes without additional programming, combined with multi-scene authoring to allow a team of 20 artists to collaborate on the same shot simultaneously

Unity exists to democratize development, solve hard problems and enable success -- three core values that are the driving forces of Unity’s adoption by millions of creators. Games and experiences made with Unity have reached more than 3 billion devices worldwide this year and were installed more than 20 billion times in 2017 alone.