SBI Life Unveils Comprehensive Financial Immunity Survey, Providing Valuable Insights Into Consumer Predispositions

 

Key findings: 

* 8 in 10 Indians (78%) strongly feel that stress / anxiety affects mental & physical immunity

* Over 50% Indians not sufficiently prepared to face financial emergency related to lifestyle diseases

* Top 3 financial worries:

-Financial security against critical illnesses

-Family member getting infected by any lifestyle disease or Covid-19

-Job or income loss

* 8 in 10 Indians (80%) associate Life Insurance with ‘Safeguarding the family’s future’

* More than 6 in 10 Indians (61%) have bought or intend to buy critical illness plan/ cover to address the rising treatment costs and to avoid financial pressure on the family

* 7 in 10 Indians (75%) not having a critical illness cover, intend to buy one in the next three months

SBI Life Insurance, one of most trusted private life insurers in the country unveiled a comprehensive consumer survey, providing deep insights into consumer predispositions towards Financial Immunity in a post covid world. SBI Life commissioned the ‘Understanding consumer attitude towards Financial Immunity’ survey with The Nielsen Company, reaching out to over 2,400 consumers across 13 key cities covering the length and breadth of India. 

Understandably, in the wake of COVID-19, maintaining personal physical immunity has been on the fore, with almost every respondent confirming to have increased focus on physical immunity in some way. In fact, 8 out of 10 Indians are aware that ‘stress’ lowers mental and physical immunity.  

The survey further attempts to better understand the cause of stress, by enquiring about the top financial worries of the consumer today. The top three reasons for stress are attributed to (1) Financial Security against critical illness, (2) Family member getting infected by any lifestyle disease or Covid-19 and (3) Job or income loss. The reasons for financial worries cited by consumers underpin the stress caused by financial management of lifestyle diseases. Alarmingly, over 50% Indians are not sufficiently prepared to face any financial emergencies related to lifestyle diseases.

On the brighter side, the pandemic has brought in a realization on the need for protection, with 7 out of 10 Indians who currently do not own a Critical Illness cover, explicitly expressing an intention to buy one in the next three months. Another encouraging insight thrown up by the survey, is that 8 out of 10 consumers purchase Life and Health insurance with a clear motive of safeguarding family’s future.

Speaking about the survey findings, Mr. M Anand, President – Zone II, SBI Life said, “Over the last six months, individuals and families across the length and breadth of our nation, have shown tremendous resilience in coping with the pandemic. Despite the challenging environment, SBI Life’s consumer study on ‘Financial Immunity’ highlights the reassuring sentiment on the need to build a robust Financial Immunity to safeguarded one’s future and be protected from financial adversities.” He further added, “At SBI Life, we strongly believe that gaining financial immunity rests at the foundation of achieving one’s life objectives.”

About SBI Life Insurance

SBI Life Insurance (‘SBI Life’ / ‘The Company’), one of the most trusted life insurance companies in India, was incorporated in October 2000 and is registered with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) in March 2001.

Serving millions of families across India, SBI Life’s diverse range of products caters to individuals as well as group customers through Protection, Pension, Savings and Health solutions.

Driven by ‘Customer-First’ approach, SBI Life places great emphasis on maintaining world class operating efficiency and providing hassle-free claim settlement experience to its customers by following high ethical standards of service. Additionally, SBI Life is committed to enhance digital experiences for its customers, distributors and employees alike.

SBI Life strives to make insurance accessible to all, with its extensive presence across the country through its 940 branches, 16,569 employees, a large and productive individual agent network of about 1,37,000 agents, 58 corporate agents, a widespread bancassurance network of 15 partners,  28,962 partner branches (as of March 31 2020), 108 brokers and other insurance marketing firms.

In addition to doing what’s right for the customers, the company is also committed to provide a healthy and flexible work environment for its employees to excel personally and professionally.

SBI Life strongly encourages a culture of giving back to the society and has made substantial contribution in the areas of child education, healthcare, disaster relief and environmental upgrade. In 2019-20, the Company touched over 1. 14 lakh direct beneficiaries through various CSR interventions.

Listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange ('BSE') and the National Stock Exchange ('NSE'), the company has an authorized capital of Rs. 20.0 billion and a paid up capital of Rs. 10.0 billion. The AuM is Rs. 1,753.5 billion.

For more information, please visit our website-www.sbilife.co.in and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Linkedin.

(Numbers & data mentioned above are for the period up to June 30, 2020)

Replace Google Meet With These Platforms For Team Communication

Are you stuck juggling between your non-Google mail client and Google Meet for chatting? Are you not comfortable using your personal Google account or WhatsApp to chat with your co-workers? Maybe you’re just looking for something new and integrated.

Hangouts or Meet isn’t your only option anymore—the remote work boom (thanks to the pandemic) has brought out a handful of chat tools that let you connect with your colleagues, with added features like video chats and audio messaging. Plus, Hangouts simply isn’t enough for your business—especially if you need file sharing.

Here are some of the top alternatives for Google Hangouts to help you pick the right tool for your business communication.

1. Flock

Flock is built for communicating with your colleagues, just like Google Hangouts. But it goes beyond just chat and video conferencing—Flock works with all your other productivity tools like Google Calendar, Asana, Zoom, and many more.

Like Hangouts/Meet, you can find all your company contacts right within Flock. Flock takes a step further with a company directory and the facility to search for and join group conversations (channels) for any project you’re working on. Alos, unlike Hangouts, Flock has built-in audio and video conferencing as well as the ability to leave an audio message in any channel.

Flock is free for small teams that are just getting started, with unlimited messages, 10 public channels, and unlimited 1:1 video calls. Midsize teams who need more features can use Flock PRO and larger enterprises can upgrade with additional features

2. Slack

Slack, a software for business, works as a central hub for all your business’s communication, setting up separate channels and bringing on “the death of email” as they call it. Slack makes it easy to navigate multiple conversations at all times, with easy-to-find channels and the ability to join multiple Slack teams with just one login.

While Slack’s video functionality works well for 1:1 chats, it isn’t built around video conferencing. For group calls on video, you’ll need a Zoom or Jitsi integration, just like platforms such as Flock.

3. Telegram

Telegram calls itself “the world’s fastest messaging app,” and allows quick sharing of videos, gifs, images, geolocation, and documents. Its “secret chats,” similar to Snapchat, are encrypted end-to-end with a self-destruct mechanism that deletes messages after a set period of time, from one second to one week. However, Telegram chats aren’t normally encrypted—so if you’re looking for a secure communication tool for your business, Telegram may not be your best bet.

Video calling on Telegram is new as of 2020 and only available for 1:1 videos. The jury's still out on whether it's an effective video conferencing tool—but its new profile video feature is a standout that this writer is hoping to see become the standard across messaging platforms. Telegram is best for small working groups or nonprofessional teams. Use it as a regular messaging app for more than two individuals. Telegram's runs on a "free forever" model.

4. Skype

Skype is a household name for those who communicate with loved ones or business partners who live a great distance away. However, Skype has traditionally been for one on one communications and only recently began to dive into supporting multiple profiles in one meeting.

Skype has proven to be reliable but is sketchy when it comes to business use. The reason for this is based upon the limited number of participants allowed at one time, which is currently capped at ten users.

A benefit to Skype is the ability to share files with participants, share screens, as well as an impressive chat feature.

5. Jitsi

Jitsi is an open-source platform that replaces Google Hangouts’ and Google Meets' chat and video functions. Jitsi allows for screen sharing and web conferencing and requires no software downloads; there’s a mobile app, too. Jitsi provides VoIP and Jabber texting for quick communication. The simple interface makes it a free and easy Google Hangouts alternative for small groups or 1:1 interactions. Jitsi is free and requires no signup to use.

Indus Health Plus Ties-Up with OYO Hotels & Homes, Provides COVID-19 Testing Assistance to Travelers

Indus Health Plus, a pioneer in preventive healthcare has today, announced its partnership with OYO Hotels & Homes, the world’s leading hospitality chain to extend its services to conduct COVID-19 detection tests. The collaboration aims to provide a convenient platform for COVID-19 detection tests for the people who are planning their travels. It is essential if a person is travelling to a state that is following pre-travel COVID test guidelines. In addition, through this service, travellers will be able to easily book an appointment call back for a COVID-19 test from OYO’s app and its website across all major metros, tier I and tier-II cities. This service will enable customers of OYO to plan a safe and healthy trip along with a peace of mind.

This development will also help in enhancing the company’s focus on preventing and controlling disease transmission through extensive testing of COVID-19. These COVID-19 detection tests will be priced at standard rates as followed by respective states.

Amol Naikawadi, Joint Managing Director, Indus Health Plus, commented on this development said, “Our organization is committed to prevention and we believe that as the lockdown state comes to an end, travelling will become more frequent. Hence, it will be critical to have a preventive healthcare system in place to test people travelling to states where pre-travel tests guidelines are mandatory. We have partnered with OYO Hotels to extend our support to fight this pandemic and provide ease to OYO Hotels customers in different parts of the country. We will continue to provide support and identify opportunities where Indus Health Plus can be a part to control this challenging situation in our country.”

Commenting on the partnership, Rohit Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, OYO India & South Asia, said “We’re seeing really positive signs of travel coming back. After spending months under lockdown and now, restrictions easing across the country, consumers are looking forward to stepping out and exploring new destinations, closer to home, and of course with utmost precautions. While intentions to travel are strengthening, our teams are working round the clock to also strengthen our offerings, and our value to the consumer.”

He added, “For instance, to ensure we come up with the most useful solutions for travellers, our senior leaders have personally spoken with nearly 2000+ consumers to understand their aspirations and worries, their concerns, and requirements. Through these conversations, we understood that leisure travel is on the rise but consumers are still cautious about sanitisation and regulations, and therefore, we launched Sanitised Stays to increase our standard of hygiene at OYO properties. To make the planning process easier for consumers, we also introduced Travel Assistance on our app to help with COVID-19 testing and state-wise guidelines, therefore, becoming a part of our guests’ journey right from the very beginning.”

The service will allow the customers to book a sample collection from home or make an appointment at a screening center as per convenience.

E-commerce Start-Up The Indus Valley Wins Prestigious TiE50 Award at TiEcon 2020

 

The Indus Valley a D2C natural cookware brand is excited to announce that it has been selected as a 2020 TiE50 Winner in the prestigious TiE50 Awards Program. This ten-year-old awards competition is a program of TiEcon, the world's largest conference for tech entrepreneurs.

The Indus Valley was founded in 2016 by the husband and wife duo Jagadeesh Kumar and Madhumitha Udaykumar. After receiving funding from The Chennai Angels, they have managed to grow rapidly and are currently at the 25 Crore ARR.

They are on a mission to make all Indian kitchens natural and safe. They design and sell natural cookware products like iron tawa (griddle), cast iron Kadai (frying pan) and wooden spatulas.

“Customer is in the centre of everything we do. Being a D2C brand we are close to the customer and continuously make improvements.” said Jagadeesh, to which Madhumitha added “The products that we develop are designed for Indian food. We have a strong iterative product development method that helps us continuously launch new products and improve our products and process.”

The TiE50 Awards was presented virtually to the winners during a ceremony on September 3rd. The Indus Valley was recognized for its work as a trusted consumer brand using the D2C e-commerce model.

"TiE50 again attracted high potential startups bringing innovation from different parts of the world. Besides the recognition associated with the TiE50 award, this year TiE50 also partnered with Meet the Draper's, a ground-breaking reality show to give an opportunity to some companies to pitch to the show," said Kamal Anand, TiE50 Program Chair, while speaking about the Award Program.

"For over 28 years as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and with a global footprint of half a million entrepreneurs, enterprise executives, and investment professionals, at TiE Silicon Valley we take pride in the fact that we have created TiE50, a strong 10-year-old brand for recognizing high potential startups," said BJ Arun, President, TiE Silicon Valley.

With this added dose of enthusiasm and recognition, The Indus Valley will continue building a strong presence in the cookware space. The company sells on their own website (https://www.theindusvalley.in/), as well as marketplace presence on Amazon, Tata Cliq and Flipkart among others. 

Currently the company is processing 15000 + monthly shipments. They are a strong 100+ member team. They have reached 1,00,000+ customers in 6000+ pin codes. Going forward, The Indus Valley plans to focus more on product development and research. “Our financial goal is to reach an INR 100 Cr ARR by 2022,” said Jagadeesh, adding that the company also has plans to extend its reach beyond the current category and is working on raising fresh capital to fuel the growth.

Hindware Promotes Safe Public Hygiene Practices In Bengaluru Through a Distinct Campaign - ‘Safety in Your Hands’!

Reiterating its commitment towards promoting good health and hygiene in the society, Brilloca Ltd, makers of India’s iconic bathware brand, Hindware, launched the second phase of their ongoing campaign– ‘Safety in your Hands’.

Having catered to over 1 lakh people in the first phase by installing 8 contactless handwash booths in the Delhi NCR region, the company has now launched the campaign in Bengaluru.

Hindware contactless handwash booths are installed at four high footfall locations across Bengaluru including Corporation Circle, Majestic, Sattelite and Guttahali. Through this unique initiative, the company aims to continue propagating the message and importance of maintaining proper sanitation and personal hygiene.

In keeping with the brand’s legacy of driving innovation as per the evolving needs of the community, the sensor-based handwashing system addresses one of the key priorities of the nation, i.e., creating awareness and building access to safe and hygienic hand-washing facilities at public places.

To create awareness among the masses and drive behavior change, the Company has introduced a series of thoughtful initiatives, both on-ground and through its social media platforms (@Hindware_Homes on YouTube, twitter, Facebook and Instagram). These include safety-oriented videos and posts, instructions on using the contactless handwashing booths and interaction with users near the stations. 

Commenting on the occasion, Mr Sanjay Kalra, CEO, Bath Products & Tiles, Brilloca Limited, said, “Having received an overwhelming response with over 1 lakh hand washes in phase one, we have commenced phase two of the ‘Hindware, Safety in your Hands’ campaign in our effort to continue promoting health and hygiene. As the country unlocks, it necessitates the cultivation of a conscious practice of washing hands, especially when accessing public places. Aimed at driving a behavioral change through this campaign, we are encouraging safe and hygienic practices by placing these booths at high footfall locations and expect to bring about the change which has become an imperative for the new normal”

Crafted after a thorough study at Hindware Design Studio, the contactless hand wash system is fitted with sensor operated faucet, basin and foot operated soap dispenser with a digital sensor, keeping a count of hand-washes of a particular station.

Ms Charu Malhotra Bhatia, Vice President - Marketing., Brilloca Limited, added, “It is imperative that the brands, with their expertise and knowledge, bring solutions that contribute towards the larger priority of the nation. Through this initiative, we want to do our bit where there is a seamless connect with our products and offerings with the societal cause. Coming from a brand of Indian lineage and our legacy, we take it as our responsibility to drive behavioral change in the changed normal.”

Hindware has been a pioneer and trend setter in the sanitaryware segment for more than six decades. As India’s leading sanitaryware and faucets brand, it has a strong brand recall and loyal customer base of millions across the country. Driven by innovation at the Hindware Design Studio, it brings together a perfect amalgamation of technology and aesthetics, creating bathroom products that are aligned with the evolving consumer requirements offering quality, design and trust of brand Hindware.

Nutrify India Partners with NRDC to Promote Reliable and Competitive Technologies from R&D Institutes

Nutrify India, a leading nutra-consulting firm and Ideas-To-Commercialization platform in Nutraceuticals, has announced its partnership with National Research Development Corporation (NRDC). NRDC was established in 1953 by the Government of India, with the primary objective to promote, develop and commercialise technologies from various national R&D institutions and universities and is presently working under the administrative control of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology.

The partnership has been created with an aim to promote, develop, nurture and commercialize innovative, reliable and competitive technologies from R&D institutes through value addition. The association has already resulted in one big success story of EspererOnco Nutrition and now there are Nutra startups in India who will be jointly screened by Nutrify India and NRDC to support them till commercialization. Nutrify India will continue hand holding till larger market access in India and abroad. As per this agreement, Nutrify India will have an office representation in NRDC headquarters too.

Commenting on the partnership, Amit Srivastava, Chief Catalyst, Nutrify India, "Post -Covid 19, the Nutraceuticals space has witnessed unprecedented growth as preventive health has sharply come into focus. Nutrify India is focused on helping expanding business horizons for companies in the Nutraceutical space by helping them with business collaborations and creating synergies.With this collaboration, we plan to create an innovative ecosystem for all startups. It is an honour to have NRDC as our partner in this mission of providing aid to all the startups to expand their horizons.

“India is a fast-growing Nutraceutical hub and if it has to evolve into a global epicenter of nutraceuticals then it has to be concerted effort by industry bodies like Nutrify India and government bodies like NRDC. We are privileged to join hands with Nutrify India along with many universities and institutions. With this collaboration, the objective is to protect the indigenous process and product so that it could be make it market table export potential. Today, intellectual property is very important for all the sector of the technology without that we are not going to mitigate the challenge what we have been facing”, said the Regional Head of NRDC- Dr BK Sahu.

Growth Of Sports In India : Fantasy Gaming The Country's New Booming Sport

The Indian fantasy sports market has shown phenomenal growth. Gross revenues of online fantasy sports operators stood at ₹2,400 crore in FY20 compared to ₹920 crore in FY19, up almost three times year-on-year, according to the FIFS-KPMG 2020 report. Cricket continues to dominate the sports arena, but the emerging generation is fast developing interest in the rapidly growing sport, football, which also happens to be the second most popular fantasy game of choice.

Taking cue from the same,  India's first football dedicated fantasy gaming app Twelfth Man, the flagship product of NxGn Sports Interactive launched in April 2020 with the Indian football legend Sunil Chhetri as its brand ambassador has successfully grown from a piece of document to a strong community of 500k users. The app currently follows the freemium model & gives the users an option to play for free as well. In a short span of time, the app has gained about 10k + followers on Instagram; about 82K + page likes on Facebook; about 2K subscribers on YouTube; about 5k followers on Twitter.

The long-term plan of Twelfth Man is to become the go-to Football app in India, and one of the biggest football communities in India with special focus on supporting the growth of fan culture in India and creating a positive impact on Indian football.   The Indian Fantasy Sports industry grew at a CAGR of approximately 215% from 2016 to 2020 and is expected to cross the $3.7 billion mark by 2024. In the same time frame between 2016 and 2020, the Indian Fantasy Sports' user base grew from a meagre 4 million to over 90 million users.