Svarochi Smart LED Lights Launches in Bangalore; Simultaneously Launches Mobile App that Controls the Lights

iBahn Illumination, India’s first company specialising only in Smart LED lights, officially announced the launch of its product range today in Bangalore.

Launched under the brand ‘Svarochi’, the products are Smart LED Lights that can be wirelessly operated with a mobile app. Consumers can switch the lights on and off, set the lights to the colour temperature of their choice (get the correct shade of white or yellow), adjust intensity and set the lights to any colour (from among 16 million available). The setup and operations are simple - consumers need to only know how to operate a smartphone.

Speaking at the launch, Rajeev Chopra, Founder & CEO, iBahn Illumination said “Our goal is to disrupt the market by offering a range of smart LEDs based on Bluetooth mesh technology, which will enable users to control the intensity and colour of their lights through our easy to use Smartphone app. We believe ‘Smart LEDs’ will be a ₹40,000 m ($600m) market by 2022. Our brand ‘Svarochi’ offers innovative products that are high on functionality, easy to use, locally relevant and affordable.”

Speaking on the market scenario, Arjun Shahani, Co-Founder & COO, iBahn Illumination said “We envision that Smart LED Home Lights in India will replace ‘standard’ LEDs in the next 10 years. We have interacted with numerous architects, interior designers, home specialists, etc. in the Mumbai market and the response to our products have been phenomenal. They love the fact that with Svarochi smart lights, a user has the ability to create the perfect light settings for every room and every occasion.”

iBahn Illumination, recently launched country’s first app-operated chip-on-board (COB) lighting solutions; its PRIMA and ELITE Series of spotlights. Compatible with Android and iOS, the spotlights provide exceptional indoor lighting and can be applied in spaces such as the living room, bedrooms, in POP ceilings for home, corridors, showrooms, cafeteria, restaurant, hotel lobbies, reception areas and in recessed gypsum ceilings.

Svarochi is a brainchild of the team that pioneered LED Lighting in India and aims to disrupt the market with its ‘Smart LED Home Lights’ branded ‘Svarochi.’ Rajeev Chopra (former Philips India CEO and Global CEO, Business Group Home, Philips Lighting BV) had recently announced the launch of the company, after raising its first institutional round of funding from leading Private Equity company. The company was formed along with the core leadership team that includes Arjun Shahani, Kunal Chaudhuri, and Sudeshna Mukhopadhyay

Prior to iBahn, Arjun was Business Head, Luminaires, Philips Lighting Division and Managing Director at Armstrong World Industries, Kunal was the R&D Head of the Professional Luminaires Business Philips Lighting India, while Sudeshna led Philips Lighting Design Centre and Lighting Academy in India.

iBahn aspires to make spaces beautiful with Svarochi Smart Lights, and become a ₹5,000 million company in 6 years. “Svarochi” is a Sanskrit word which means “brilliant appearance” and “own ray”. All products, right from their software to design and technology are designed, developed and manufactured in India. The company has rolled out its offerings pan India in a phased manner.

iBahn currently has its products under 3 categories, viz ‘lamps’, ‘downlighters’ and ‘spotlights’. These lights will be controllable with an app that will be available on Android and iOS. Svarochi Smart Lights make spaces beautiful, by enabling consumers to create the perfect lighting effect for every room and every occasion using their smartphones.

Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Ketan Patel Joins CASHe as its New CEO

Aeries Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a fintech company promoted by serial entrepreneur and private equity investor V. Raman Kumar, today announced the appointment of Mr. Ketan Patel as the Executive Director and CEO of CASHe. Patel has also been appointed as the Managing Director of Bhanix Finance & Investment Ltd., the NBFC arm of the company. In his new role as CEO, Mr. Patel will focus on the company’s next level strategies that will focus on actions centered around accelerating CASHe’s organic growth momentum as well as its strategy of becoming India’s largest digital lending company to the salaried and professional millennial. He will also be focused towards driving its technology innovation, accelerate its operational excellence as well as delivering superior customer experiences. 

Speaking on the appointment, Chairman of Aeries Financial Technologies, V. Raman Kumar, said: “It is my pleasure to welcome Ketan to lead the CASHe team as CEO. I am very pleased that we have been successful in attracting a talented and experienced banker who intimately understands E-commerce and fin-tech businesses in India. Our decision to appoint Ketan is a clear reflection of the company’s avowed desire to accelerate the pace of growth by attracting India’s best of breed technologists and financial and banking professionals. Ketan is a long-time career banker at Kotak with over 18 years of outstanding experience heading key portfolios ranging from retail assets, wealth management and more recently as Business Head of E-commerce and Composite Banking Solutions (CBS) at Kotak.  He is a seasoned leader with a proven track record of bringing in operational excellence, accelerating innovation and achieving revenue and profitability in business. Ketan has a broad and deep banking experience across businesses and functions and has a clear understanding of the opportunities and priorities that lie ahead of us. I am happy that we will be working closely to build a hugely successful business at CASHe,” he concluded.

Speaking about his appointment as the CEO and Executive Director of CASHe, Ketan Patel said: “I look forward to leading the team at CASHe at such an exciting time. I am encouraged by the growth and potential CASHe has to offer and I am committed to building upon the excellent groundwork which has been undertaken by Raman since the launch of CASHe. My focus will be to strengthen CASHe’s growth and operational performance and making CASHe as a true leader in alternative lending for millennial in India.  I look forward to working with Raman, CASHe’s senior management team and all my colleagues as we carry on with the execution of our strategic plans.” 

 

Ketan Patel joins CASHe after an 18- year stint with Kotak Mahindra bank where he until recently held the position of a Business Head - CBS and E-commerce & Corporate Banking. In his role as Head of E-Commerce at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Ketan oversaw setting up a dedicated vertical for the fast-growing E-Commerce business out of the bank’s Corporate Banking Vertical. Throughout his successful career at Kotak and Kotak Mahindra bank, Mr. Patel led key business units including Kotak Securities, Mortgages, Kotak Wealth Management and headed its division focusing on NRI business. From 2010 until 2015, he helped setting up the Private Banking Business for the Kotak Group in the UK. Patel holds a Master’s Degree in Management Studies from Mumbai University.

‘Aadhaar Authenticated Online Elections’ Idea Declared Winner of Mojo Networks WiFi Think Fest 2.0

After a meticulous examination of entries received from over 500 students and professionals across India, Mojo Networks, providers of massively scalable carrier-class WiFi, announced the winners of its ‘WiFi Think Fest 2.0.’ Soham Sengupta, B.Tech student from Vellore Institute of Technology Chennai was announced winner of this contest. The second and third prizes were grabbed by Aditya Datar & Apurva Ravetkar from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Ian Noronha from IIT Roorkee respectively. 

 The awards ceremony for this contest was held at the 5^th Wi-Fi Knowledge Summit, an initiative which brings together WiFi practitioners and enthusiasts to develop best practices for WiFi planning, deployment and optimization. 

The entries were reviewed by Dr. Kaustubh Phanse, VP, Content and Product Design, Mojo Networks; Raghunandan G, Entrepreneur, Investor and Co-founder of Taxi4Sure; Jayalakshmi Umadikar, Senior Manager - Academic Liaison, IITMIC & RTBI; Devadas Pai, CEO, Nanocell Networks; Osama Manzar, Founder, Digital Empowerment Foundation and Suresh Chintada, Sr. Director, ARRIS Group, Inc.

Expressing his joy, Soham Sengupta from Vellore Institute of Technology Chennai said “I think the WiFi Think Fest competition is an outstanding platform because it values an individual's own ideas. I would definitely like to work to see these ideas implemented for the betterment of the country.”

Commenting on WiFi Think Fest 2.0 Rajesh Gandhi, VP, Carrier WiFi Solution, Mojo Networks said, “Purpose of WiFi Think Fest contest is to get innovative solutions and services by leveraging the power of BharatNet infrastructure. This has been our second year in organizing this contest, and there has been tremendous response from WiFi practitioners, students across India. This is a first of its kind forum that provides a platform for sharing creativity and generating newer ideas which are vetted by seasoned professionals.”

Prominent moderator who was part of the reviewing panel of WiFi Think Fest 2.0 entries, Osama Manzar, Founder, Digital Empowerment Foundation said “WiFi Think Fest is a great initiative to find enthusiasm around and how hungry minds provide innovative solutions to connect the unconnected.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Sells 13,537 Units in March 2018 in India

Toyota Kirloskar Motor sold a total of 12539 units in the domestic market this month of March 2018. The company exported 998 units of the Etios series this month thus clocking a total of 13,537 units.  In the month of March 2017. TKM sold a total of 13,796 units in the domestic market and exported 636 units of the Etios series in March 2017.

Commenting on the sales performance, N. Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “We are happy to have registered a positive growth of 3% in the first quarter as compared to Jan – March 2017. The Yaris bookings for customer will open from April and we expect customers will highly appreciate the product. Our dealerships are already getting good number of customer enquiries on Yaris.

Fortuner has registered a growth of 83% in FY 17-18 as compared to FY 16-17.

Corolla has registered a growth of 16% in FY 17-18 as compared to FY 16-17.

We are thankful to our customers for their continued trust and loyalty to the brand.

 We hope to maintain a positive growth momentum in sales in the upcoming months.

Mahindra Insurance Brokers is First Rated at Maturity Level 5 of the People CMM

Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd. (MIBL) announced that it has been appraised and rated at Maturity Level 5 of the CMMI Institute’s People-Capability Maturity Model(P-CMM) thus becoming the first insurance broking company globally to achieve this international benchmark. The appraisal was led by Rajesh Naik of QAI India Limited.

An appraisal at maturity level 5 indicates that the organization is performing at an “optimizing” level. At this level, an organization continually improves its processes based on a quantitative understanding of its business objectives and performance needs. The organization uses a quantitative approach to understand the variation inherent in the process and the causes of process outcomes.

"People-Capability Maturity Model (P-CMM) is an organizational transformation model from the CMMI Institute, USA. CMMI Institute, the global leader in the advancement of best practices in people, process, and technology. The Institute provides the tools and support for organizations to benchmark their capabilities and build maturity by comparing their operations to best practices and identifying performance gaps. For over 25 years, thousands of high-performing organizations in a variety of industries, including aerospace, finance, health services, software, defense, transportation, and telecommunications, have earned a CMMI maturity level rating and proved they are capable business partners and suppliers.

Ramesh Iyer, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd. said, “Mahindra Insurance Brokers Limited (MIBL) achieved P-CMM® Maturity level 5 by focusing on process performance through incremental and innovative technological improvements. The agile and empowered workforce has helped MIBL stay ahead of the curve in a challenging industry.”  

Dr. Jaideep Devare, Managing Director, MIBL, commented, “We are truly proud and honoured to be the first Company in the World in the BFSI Sector to have achieved P-CMM® Maturity level 5. We have been striving relentlessly to provide our team members across geographies with opportunities to develop their competencies and capabilities so that they can consistently deliver a delightful customer experience.   This benchmark achievement is a testament to the systems and processes we have put in place, to our people capabilities, and to our commitment to our customers.  It also serves as a motivation to us to continue in our efforts to achieve people excellence and create customer delight.”

“MIBL’s appraisal at Level 5 of the PCMM Model is a re-endorsement of the significant emphasis we place on developing our existing competencies and creating a globally competitive learning and development culture. It reiterates MIBL’s focus on adopting and aligning Global HR and Business process standards and ensure sustainability of business,” said Vinay Deshpande - Chief People Officer, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Sector.