The second edition of the India Football Tour, sponsored by multi-dimensional sportswear brand Zeven, came to an electrifying finale in the city with the Ahmedabad team winning the coveted opportunity to represent India at the F5WC Football World Cup that will be held in September this year at Shanghai, China. Conceptualized by AddRush, a sports management company specializing in events and technology, India Football Tour is the official Indian qualifier tournament for the F5WC world finals.
An amateur 5-a-side football tournament, the IFT is played on a smaller field and has few key differences from regular football – for instance, there are no “Off sides", and "Kick Ins” are used instead of “Throw Ins". The objective of the IFT is to provide amateur footballers a chance to compete on a global stage with the opportunity to represent India internationally.
This year, the Zeven India Football Tour travelled to 8 cities to pick the best amateur teams that the country has to offer. The tour started in September 2017in Mumbai and went on to Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kochi.
The 8 city champions landed in Bengaluru for the finals, a league and knockout tournament on 11th of May at Active Arena, Marathalli. The Event was watched live on Zeven’s social media platforms.
Commenting on the success of the tour, Anshul Vyas, COO, Zeven, said, “We are delighted with the phenomenal response received for the India Football Tour. As football gains prominence in India, IFT is a game-changing platform that fuels greater interest and participation in the sport. As a home-grown brand, at Zeven, we believe in transforming the way sports are played and perceived in India. IFT is one of the most prominent efforts toward this end”.
Speaking about the event, Shree Harsha & Kush Bahuguna, Director of Addrush said, “India Football Tour is a tournament that provides a global stage to amateur players. Our vision is to encourage amateur footballers to come out and compete with India’s best. With India Football Tour being broadcasted live this year it will provide the same kind of spotlight that they have seen professional players get."
A group of students from M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru secured 2nd place in Pradarshana-2018, a project exhibition held on May 9 and 10 for their project entitled “Characterization and improvisation of unique future energy device-Supercapacitor.”
The project by four students—Singa Tharun Kumar Reddy (21), M Akshay Shenoy (21), Manoj Kumar D (21) and Manvir Singh (21) is a unique energy storage device, a 3 volts battery that can charge in 10 seconds.
It is built with nanotechnology and all the materials used are eco-friendly. It provides better energy, power applications and lightweight properties with the help of nanoparticles.
This small battery can be arranged in series to get higher voltages like 12V, 24V so on.
This project was a year and a half in making. 5000 prototypes later, the group found the final product.
A similar project was undertaken earlier but it was priced at Rs 300 per battery. However, this group of students have priced the battery at Rs 50 to 100, which are efficient and lightweight.
This battery can be used in electric vehicles, regenerative braking system and energy suspension to name a few.
State-owned Canara Bank reported higher-than-expected losses as asset quality worsened and provisions against bad loans surged threefold in the quarter ended March.
The lender reported a net loss of Rs 4,859.8 crore during the quarter, it said in its exchange filing. That’s much higher than Rs 698 crore estimated by analysts tracked by the media. Canara Bank had reported a net profit of Rs 214 crore in the comparable quarter last year.
The lender took a tax writeback of Rs 2,450 crore during the quarter, without which losses would have been steeper.
Canara Bank’s quarterly loss is the second biggest quarterly loss reported by a public sector bank during the bad loan clean-up, which began in 2015 with the Reserve Bank of India’s asset quality review.
Canara Bank saw asset quality deteriorate in the fourth quarter as gross bad loans rose to 11.84 percent of total assets from 10.38 percent in the previous quarter. Ratio of net non-performing assets increased to 7.48 percent from 6.78 percent on a sequential basis.
Provisions against bad loans increased threefold to Rs 8,762 crore in the same period. Canara Bank said it did not take the benefits allowed by the Reserve Bank of India on provisioning against stressed accounts undergoing insolvency proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal, mark-to-market losses and enhanced gratuity. It also classified one gems and jewellery account as a non-performing asset in the March quarter owing to fraud.
The state-owned bank said the divergence in its gross bad loans at the end of financial year 2016-17 stood at Rs 3,248 crore.
Alliance Tire Group (ATG) is a leading name in the Global Off-Highway Tire Business. It owns three world-renowned brands – Alliance, Galaxy and Primex. Galaxy, the standard bearer brand for application specific, purpose-built tires, has launched its very first Radial OTR range, specially made to keep pace with the challenging needs of high-pressure job-sites.
Product Features:
• Superior performance
• Sturdy construction with customised tread designs
• Excellent stability and optimal traction
• Minimum heat build-up
• Strong carcass protection and superior cut resistance
• Excellent durability and reduced downtime
Speaking on the launch, The ATG Group Representative said, “Job-sites are maturing and becoming more challenging, leading to a change in the type of equipment being used, kind of material being handled, the surfaces of work. Galaxy range is specially designed to keep pace with these changing needs and help machines to perform at their full capacities without delays or downtime. Special tread compounds facilitate smooth functioning for longer cycles. At ATG, we understand that critical jobs can’t afford delays and require dependable partners to achieve results.’’
Galaxy hardworking range of tires is the optimal choice for such high –pressure job sites where business just can’t stop. These ranges of tires are designed for loaders, graders and dump trucks.
The Pattern of Galaxy Radial OTR Tire:
· HTSR 400 E4/L4
· LDSR 300 E3/L3
· MGSR 200 G2
YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank announced graduation of 7 startups from the Autumn cohort of its Global Fintech Accelerator, YES FINTECH.
The 15 week innovation program focused on mentoring start-ups to develop scalable business solutions. The 7 start-ups also had a unique opportunity to access YES BANK‘s vast network of 2 million+ retail, 10,000+ SME and 5000+ Corporate customers in addition to Digital banking infrastructure support and funding access.
Commenting on the event, Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES BANK, said, “We are pleased with the outcomes of our 2nd cohort, which has addressed multiple focus areas with material impact on Productivity, Data Intelligence, new MSME business generation and enhanced customer service, among others. At YES BANK, we believe in collaboration over ownership and have successfully been able to forge meaningful relationships with start-ups around the world which has helped us access innovations and solutions. Since launching the accelerator programme, we have seeded and scaled several such technologies which has had a multiplier effect on the entire fintech ecosystem.”
The Demo day, where each of the 7 start-ups had the opportunity to showcase their co-created solutions, was attended by a network of leading corporate clients of YES BANK, media executives, startup mentors in addition to the startups of YES FINTECH’s first cohort and Investors across verticals such as Finance, Technology, Capital Markets, Entertainment and Media etc. Several corporate partners expressed interest in adopting the solutions and will now enter into definitive contractual negotiations with the respective start-ups.
5 of the 7 startups have successfully completed PoCs and are to moving to commercialization, and 3 are in process of raising funds on the back of successful PoCs.
Fintechs that showcased their solutions during YES FINTECH’s Demo Day, May 11 2018:
*Sentimer, a Spanish fintech startup, offers AI and voice based automated customer support and transactions for MSMEs with the goal of improving customer experience via simpler, intuitive and homogeneous support service. The solution has the potential to be scaled by integration with smart speakers/ personal assistants developed by internet giants.
* bNesis based in Warsaw, Poland, bNESIS is a fintech startup focused on building a unified API service for enabling credit scoring and SME profiling via leading e-commerce portals for loan disbursement basis GST returns and transaction data.
*Pingal uses data science and natural language search to provide data driven decision making and real-time reporting on business KPIs. The Mumbai based startup launched operations in May 2017 and are looking at bagging multiple corporate projects within a year, with support from YES FINTECH.
*Karza assists in leveraging GST returns to underwrite loans from SMEs and corporates along with alternative credit scoring. Using this solution YES BANK is:
*Further deepening the YES GST solution
*Developing risk containment solutions for faster risk profiling and mitigate NPAs and loan frauds by locating defaulting absconders and tracing their assets for recovery using Karza’s advanced machine learning and data mining technologies.
*Balance is deepening the bank’s penetration in the new to bank/youth segment by developing a savings habit and enabling smart investments. Balance is a personal savings app that aids financial education among youth to save the petty change and invest in FDs and mutual funds.
*Fyle links email, consumer apps and other platform to simplify and automate recording, sharing and processing of expenses and invoices to a one-click process within an organization. Bangalore based Fyle has also recently raised funds from Pravega Ventures and Beenext, a Singapore-based venture capital firm.
*FinBit offers loan decisioning by automated analysis of bank statement to enable underwriters in understanding a customer’s financial behavior.
Amazon India has launched Shutterbug, a one-of-its-kind online club for photography enthusiasts. An India-first initiative across Amazon geographies, Shutterbug is designed to be a free to use, engaged community bringing all photographers from beginners to professionals under one roof.
The club is open for everyone interested in photography and offers a mix of tips & tutorials, engagement opportunities with renowned photo mentors, offline workshops and exciting contests to showcase photography skills.
At its heart, Shutterbug comes with the aim to educate and upskill budding photographers in India. To achieve this, Amazon India has partnered with Toehold Travel & Photography, a renowned training & photography brand helmed by Jayanth Sharma, a Sanctuary Asia award-winning photographer.
Shutterbug will feature original bite-sized video training content and exercises from Toehold. There is also a formal course on photography featuring five modules with 17 videos called Essentials of Photography. Shutterbug will also feature monthly content on advanced techniques on different genres of photography. Moreover, Amazon India will be leveraging expert content & renowned photo mentors from top imaging brands like Leica, Canon and Sony.
“Amazon.in has a wide customer reach being the world’s largest product search engine. Associating with a program like Shutterbug helps us to not only bring our devices and accessories to the customers but also educate them about the advantages, utility and optical excellence of our products”, said Sunil Kaul, Managing Director, Leica Camera, APAC. He further added, “I foresee that programs like these help build the desire for new product categories in India as these need awareness for adoption and growth.”
“Shutterbug has been designed with a single objective of helping photography enthusiasts indulge in their passion. Along with video content, we will be facilitating interactions with leading brands and stalwarts of the industry. We look forward to celebrating photography in India through this unique platform.” said Jonathan Burks, Category Leader - Consumer Electronics, Amazon India.
Statistically, photography has become a ubiquitous hobby among millennials around the world. According to industry reports, in 2017, 1.2 trillion photos were clicked – about 160 pictures for each of the 7.5Bn people on earth! In 2016, 350Mn photos were shared on Facebook, 95Mn on Instagram, 400Mn Snapchat and 1.6Bn via WhatsApp every day. However, what separates iconic photographers from amateurs is their curiosity to learn, continuing practice to hone their skills and using the right equipment for the job.
Ather Energy, the smart electric two-wheeler start-up, has announced it has signed an agreement with Sanmina Corporation, a leading integrated manufacturing solutions company headquartered in San Jose, California, to develop and manufacture key components designed by Ather for its maiden scooter – the Ather S340.
As part of the agreement, Sanmina will exclusively manufacture Ather’s charging system, battery management systems and dashboard at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chennai, India.
Speaking on the agreement, Tarun Mehta, CEO and co-founder of Ather Energy said, “We value a manufacturing partner like Sanmina, with expertise in battery management systems and electric vehicles, who is as excited as we are about this market. In a smart scooter like the S340, integrating the power circuits with each other, the onboard charger and the charging stations is of paramount importance. Sanmina and Ather have designed a system that offers the utmost efficiency with the highest levels of safety.”
Commenting on the agreement, Mike Landy, Sanmina’s EVP and COO of EMS for Asia and Europe said, “Sanmina is excited to partner with Ather Energy. We are impressed with the sophisticated design and innovative technology in the S340. Sanmina specializes in mission critical products and electronics, and we are proud to collaborate with Ather Energy.”
The Ather S340 is slated to launch in Bangalore in June, 2018.
