Archives February 2023

By Ms, Rupa Bohra is Managing Director at TNS India Foundation

A movement of young women trained as “Agricultural Guides” are now leading effective action on climate change through sustainable agriculture in rural Africa. More than 8,500 individuals, mostly young women, have been approached by these Agricultural Guides.

These Guides are part of an initiative that was launched in 2013 to train young women from poor, marginalised farming communities across sub-Saharan Africa. As guides, these young women have become champions of sustainable agriculture. They have improved the productivity, sustainability and profitability of their own smallholdings as well as encouraged wide adoption of practical, affordable and locally-relevant climate-smart techniques. This includes inter-cropping and drip irrigation using waste plastic bottles and technologies that value indigenous traditions.

Similarly, in Dodola district, about 300km south of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, more than 2,000 smallholder young women farmers are involved in a joint United Nations (UN) programme to boost sustainable agricultural production and rural women’s economic empowerment, through training and cooperatives. Such agricultural cooperatives, especially those established by young women in rural areas, play a crucial role in enhancing productivity through sustainable farming practices.

A UN report suggests that giving women the same opportunities as men can increase agricultural production by 2.5-4% in the poorest regions and the number of malnourished people can be reduced by 12-17%.

Notwithstanding the huge importance of women in food production, they are often regarded as assistants on the farm and not as economic agents or farmers in their own right. Rural women lack equality in terms of ownership of family land that they work on in most cases.

According to a research by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, in the Indian Himalayas, a pair of bulls works 1,064 hours, a man 1,212 hours, and a woman 3,485 hours in a year on a one-hectare farm-almost thrice as much.

On the other side, a 2018 study by the University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) reveals that women are part of 42% of the agricultural labour force in India, yet own less than 2% of farmland. It is, therefore, imperative to improve these metrics at the national level.

Furthermore, women have faced challenges in accessing financial services that can be attributed to low literacy levels among rural women, specifically in financial matters, lack of a formal trail of documentation, amongst others.

To cite an example close to home, a not-for-profit organisation TNS India Foundation (TNSIF) has been working with 1,500-plus mango farming households across the 14 villages of Talala block of Gir Somnath district of Gujarat, since October 2020. A crucial aspect of the program, which is aimed at helping agricultural households (farmers) come together to establish farmer producer companies (FPC) in order to eliminate middlemen who buy from individual households and sell to an institutional buyer.

It was discovered that only 4 of the 1,100 FPC shareholders are women. And even in these cases, the women joined as their husbands had passed away and, they were the sole nominees. While all women FPCs are equally encouraged by the government through schemes like Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms, National Food Security Mission, National Mission on Oilseed & Oil Palm, and National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture, to name a few, they only have token power, which is quite unfortunate.

Challenges Faced by Young Women to Excel in Rural Economy

A 2022 UN report lists key challenges faced by women in rural economy. In many regions around the world, farming is the main source of livelihood and an important income source for the rural population. Rural women, who often struggle to secure their own land to farm in the first place, are facing heightened difficulties in the wake of global crises such as conflict and climate change. In many countries, rural women and girls spend most of their time on unpaid care and domestic work.

Lack of access to financial, government and other services is a common obstacle for rural women around the world. Gender inequalities, rooted in discriminatory patriarchal systems and social norms, mean that women are less likely to access agricultural extension services, markets, land and formal financial services despite their high participation in the agriculture sector. Other challenges that women face in the rural economy include a lack of information on job availability, as well as opportunities for training and education.

In addition, young rural women face restricted mobility after certain hours of the day and limited interaction with people outside their families. At times, mobility issues could also arise for women who are dependent on males for commuting between places.

On average, across countries, long-run gross domestic product (GDP) per capita would be almost 20% higher if gender employment gaps were closed, as per the World Bank report. Studies estimate global economic gains in the order of US$5-6 trillion if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate men do. Addressing critical gender gaps is an opportunity to boost incomes and stimulate growth.

In this regard, governments and corporates through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in terms of policy and awareness and funding have a bigger role to play.

Rural Economy Areas Where Women Contribute

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a significant number of women in the rural economy work as subsistence farmers, small-scale producers, own-account workers, and in plantations and agro-industries, but women in rural economy are also employed in other sectors, such as education, tourism and domestic work.

To this effect, TNSIF has developed a program to help the sustainable livelihoods of local farming households which aims to help their economic development by sustainably improving household incomes. In addition, the organisation has also developed a comprehensive mentoring program to push women to break social and cultural barriers and polish their entrepreneurial skills to establish and grow their own businesses.

Way Forward for Young Women in Rural Economy

By 2030, about 1.6 billion people will reach working age in low and middle-income countries—the number is lower in high income countries, but the need to stimulate job creation is just as urgent, as per the World Bank. Fifty per cent of the world’s population is and will be female, but women currently comprise only about 39% of the labour force globally. Economies that discriminate against women—in entrepreneurship and labour force participation—undermine their own growth trajectory. As per a few researches, gender gaps cause an average income loss of 15% in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies and losses are estimated higher in developing economies.

In the Indian context, in rural communities, agriculture and allied sector is the primary source of livelihood that includes 80% of all economically active women, out of which 33% constitute agricultural labour force and 48% are self-employed farmers. Rural women are engaged at all levels of agricultural value chain, that is, production- pre-harvest, post-harvest processing, packaging, marketing to increase productivity in agriculture.

Taking all these factors into account, there is a need to invest in and make easily accessible affordable time- and labour-saving in technologies to reduce rural women’s and girls’ disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work. Also, it is essential to promote rural women and producer organisations by raising their capacity, skills and services and build linkages to new markets and existing services offered by governments or NGOs.

Going a step further, there is also the need to tackle discriminatory social norms, including through engaging men and boys in measures and programmes for rural women and gender equality. All such efforts can fructify into empowering women in the true sense, especially young individuals in the rural economy.

The impending challenge employees or workers may face in India, is the risk of inadequate pension arrangements after retirement from work. As a fallout, individuals may either be required to put severe curbs on their post-retiral expenses or continue working beyond retirement age. Therefore, it is essential that one should take early and active steps toward planning, saving, and investing for retirement.

Towards this, National Pension System (NPS) offers multiple benefits of systematic retirement planning, creating a pension corpus along with tax benefits. NPS is one of the most customer-friendly and flexible pension plans in today’s time. It is a Regulated, Professionally managed, Low cost, Transparent, and Portable pension plan well suited for any individual.

Here are some of the compelling reasons to opt for NPS :

Tax benefits on investment of Rs 1.5 lakhs u/s 80C – NPS is one of the listed investment options which is eligible for deductions u/s 80C. The total deduction limit u/s 80C is Rs 1.50 lakhs and the amount contributed towards NPS can be claimed as a deduction subject to a ceiling of 10% of salary (20% of gross income for non-salaried).

Tax benefits on additional investment of Rs 50,000 u/s 80CCD (1B)- This additional tax benefit is exclusively available to NPS subscribers to claim tax deductions upto Rs 50,000 over and above the deduction u/s 80C. Effectively this translates into a total deduction of Rs.2.00 lakh for NPS subscribers i.e. Rs.1.50 lakh u/s 80C & Rs.50,000 u/s 80CCD (1B).

Tax benefits under Section 80CCD(2) – If an Employer contributes towards the NPS Account of an employee (subscriber), the employee can avail deductions u/s 80 CCD(2) in addition to the tax benefits available u/s Sec. 80C, subject to a ceiling of 10% of salary or Rs 7.50 lakh.

Tax benefits on returns and maturity amount – NPS belongs to a covetous category of financial products that offers a tax treatment of EEE- exempt-exempt-exempt. Not only on investment but the returns and maturity proceeds of NPS are effectively tax exempt. This EEE tax treatment is available only to a selected few financial products.

Low-cost product – NPS is the lowest-cost pension scheme in the world. The compounding effect achieved through regular investment and low-cost advantage provides an opportunity to accumulate a higher pension corpus during working life.

In conclusion, it can be said that investing in NPS helps reduce one’s taxable income apart from building a pension corpus for post-retirement life. Investing in NPS is easy and a subscriber has the flexibility to contribute any amount above Rs 500 anytime and there are no restrictions on the number of transactions one can undertake during a year.

New Delhi, 25 February 2023: A new breakthrough by sustainable plastic innovator Polymateria in partnership with Indian plastic manufacturer Toppan Specialty Films (TSP), has seen plastics commonly used in the packaging industry biotransform in under 4 months and return to nature in just 176 days, leaving no microplastics or toxins behind. It’s the fastest-ever full biodegradation of biaxially oriented (flexible) polypropylene which is used in food and cosmetic packaging. The result was achieved using Polymateria’s innovative biotransformation technology, which is set to play a significant part in reducing plastic pollution in India and around the world.

Polymateria also worked with one of the world’s largest confectionery manufacturers to create rigid plastic packaging armed with biotransformation technology, which was measured to fully biodegrade in 230 days, breaking a previous record of 310 days. These twin breakthroughs mean that common packaging from candy wrappers to cigarette packaging could be made biodegradable – with important impacts on the 11 million tons of plastic waste which reach the ocean every year[1].

The first prototypes of biotransformed plastics developed through the partnership between Polymateria and Toppan were verified by the fully accredited AIMPLAS Technological Institute of Plastic laboratory in Spain, which tested the plastics under the ISO 17556 standard for biodegradability.

Mr Niall Dunne, CEO of Polymateria said, “I’m delighted to be announcing our record-speed biodegradation here in India given the leadership role the country is playing on tackling plastic pollution. In a market the size of India, multiple solutions will be needed and our technology provides an additional route by making plastic fully biodegradable in the ambient environment. Working with sustainability champions like Toppan gives me great hope that by coming together the industry will rise to the challenge.”

Mr Manohar Kumar, CEO of Toppan Speciality Films said, “We are delighted to see the record-speed biodegradation achieved by combining our plastic packaging with Polymateria’s technology. We are already seeing huge interest in our sustainable biodegradable packaging in India and look forward to working with some of the country’s most well-known brands as it gets widely rolled out.”

Products using Polymateria’s technology can be recycled, but if they escape into nature, they will biotransform into a bioavailable wax. The wax then attracts microorganisms like bacteria and fungi, which safely digest it and return it to nature without harm.

Biotransformation technology will be part of the solution to the global problem of plastic pollution, and Toppan is leading the way in adopting innovative technologies which can be brought to scale rapidly. This technology has the potential to significantly boost the sustainability of the packaging industry, in conjunction with other measures including improved waste management systems, consumer education and further innovative ideas from both government and the private sector. Time is running out to tackle plastic pollution, with some projections suggesting there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050[2]. Governments and businesses across many sectors need to work together to create a cleaner future.

Mumbai, 25 February 2023: India will benefit from the changed globalization as the interest rates will come down, said Surjit Singh Bhalla, Former Executive Director, IMF, at ABP Network’s second edition of ‘Ideas of India’ summit. Speaking at the summit, he highlighted that the Monetary Tightening Policy has been India’s response to inflation for the past 30-40 years.

Elaborating on the topic, ‘Crisis in the Global Economy – India’s Survival Guide’, Surjit Singh Bhalla said, “Monetary Policy has precious little to do with supply shocks and I would say now the monetary policy has precious little to do with inflation”.

Speaking on rise of India as a strong, emerging economy, he said, “China, which was a threat to the global economy, is now diminishing. However, the decline of China comes at a time with the rise of India.” He also pointed out that the quality of education and how fast India deregulates its economy will determine how fast we rise.

The panel was further enlightened by the presence of Dharmakirti Joshi, Chief Economist, CRISIL. Commenting on the topic, he said, “The slowing down of Global economies will spill over to us. Our forecast is that the growth will come down from 7% in 2022-23 to around 6% next year.”

The CRISIL Chief Economist also said that the quality of labour was a constraint for India which needs to be addressed. He said, “50% of India’s labour force is below Secondary School and they don’t have any skills, so I think you can’t fire the economy with such low skills.”

He emphasized on climate change as one of the biggest risks to the Indian Economy, especially in the last 2-3 years. “From an agriculture perspective, India is probably one of the most vulnerable countries to this risk. We need to ensure that proper measures are in place to avert any supply shocks that may come our way due to climate change.”

India has been taking extensive measures towards the growth of the infrastructure and manufacturing industry. “As both these sectors are carbon intensive, the challenge for Indian economy is to leave less carbon footprint while industrializing,” he added.

The summit promises an invigorating line-up of speakers with prominent figures from the world of business, politics, artists from the Hindi Film Industry, authors and other eminent sectors. The two-day event primarily addresses India’s stand as a burgeoning economy and global leader in shaping the future.

New Delhi, 25th February 2023: Hindware Italian Tiles from the house of Hindware – India’s leading bathroom and tiles solutions provider, is proud to announce the launch of its new campaign, ‘BROKEN NOT WASTE’. Conceptualized and executed by Hindware Italian Tiles and Grapes, an integrated communications agency, the campaign aims to raise awareness about the wastage of tiles that occurs during construction and renovation projects. It encourages consumers to adopt a sustainable approach by reusing or recycling broken tiles. As part of the campaign, Hindware has partnered up with Delhi Street Art – DSA Foundation to create stunning mosaics using waste tiles and view broken tiles as a valuable resource that can be repurposed and used creatively.

The campaign involves creating vibrant mosaics of 32 square feet at Harcourt Butler Senior Secondary School and Surjit Wasu Memorial School in New Delhi. The mosaics were created by a team of talented artists, interior designers and architects who used their creativity and skills to transform waste tiles into beautiful works of art. The entire project is part of Hindware’s commitment to sustainable design and their efforts to reduce waste.

Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Mr. Sudhanshu Pokhriyal, Chief Executive Officer, Bath & Tiles, Hindware Limited said “As the leader in the bathroom industry in India, we felt that we had a responsibility to address the issue of waste produced through renovation and construction. Our campaign ‘Broken Not Waste’ is another step towards raising awareness for the usage of the waste of tiles that occurs during construction and renovation projects and encourages people and industry leaders to adopt sustainable practices. With this campaign, we further strengthen our commitment to sustainability and our aim to reduce environmental impact through innovation and creativity.”

Charu Malhotra, Vice-President, Marketing, at Hindware Limited, said “At Hindware, we are committed to sustainability and reducing our impact on the environment. Art has the power to create awareness and therefore we have partnered with Delhi Street Art – DSA to transform waste tiles into one-of-a-kind artwork. These murals will be a symbol of our commitment to sustainable practices and encourage others to follow the same”

Speaking on the campaign, Shradha Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, Grapes commented, “Our main purpose with the ‘Broken Not Waste’ initiative is to promote a sustainable mindset, with the tile and construction industry at the center of it. So, the campaign communication focused on providing simple, practical solutions to combat the issue, while sensitizing the audience about it. Moreover, the mosaic art installations give a physical presence to the idea and serve as a tangible representation of the impact garnered by the initiative.”

The campaign launch coincides with National Tile Day on February 23, 2023. The brand will take this step further and looks forward to scaling it up in the future. Both mosaics created under the ‘Broken Not Waste’ campaign were unveiled in New Delhi, and more art pieces are expected to be created across the country. This innovative project is a testament to the power of creativity and innovation in promoting sustainable living and reducing waste. Additionally, Hindware has partnered up with dealers, interior designers, and architects for extending the efforts of the campaign to address the tile waste issue right from the design to end of construction of a building and adopt corrective measures to reduce the impact.

New Delhi, 25 February 2023- NimbusPost, India’s leading provider of tech-enabled logistics solutions for SMEs, enterprises, and D2C brands, and ClickPost, the fastest-growing logistics intelligence platform, announced the availability of an integration between the two logistics platforms to streamline eCommerce brands’ shipping journeys.

Through this collaboration, the two logistics giants will integrate their platforms to build an advanced logistics interface throughout supply chain operations. The partners intend to leverage new-age technology such as AI and Machine Learning to facilitate a superior shipping experience for online merchants and upgrade the brand-customer relationship. The association is projected to transform eCommerce logistics by enhancing logistics capabilities and accelerating eCommerce brands’ scalability.

While consistently expanding eCommerce demand is straining the present supply chain scenario, further fuelling complexities, automation has become the need of the hour. The partnership between NimbusPost and ClickPost is also a step towards promoting automated operations with maximum transparency. Now eCommerce merchants will be able to identify fake delivery attempts by delivery partners and reduce undelivered orders (RTO) and customer escalations through automated NDR management. Automatic order confirmation through WhatsApp, SMS and IVR calls will help in bringing down the return order percentage, promoting a higher margin on sales.

Mr Naman Vijay, the Co-founder and CEO of ClickPost, expressed his thoughts on the collaboration by saying, “ClickPost and NimbusPost’s commonality lies in our desire to craft shipping solutions and services that improve customer experience. Backed with engines and workflows designed with AI and ML, we both focus on enriching brand-customer relationships through timely communications and automated resolutions. ClickPost’s technical capability along with NimbusPost’s shipping solutions can be a game changer for the supply chain operations of any eCommerce business.”

Commenting on the alliance, Mr Yash Jain, the Founder and CEO of NimbusPost said, “Partnering with ClickPost reinforces our commitment to providing seamless and efficient logistics solutions for eCommerce merchants. Together, we bring a wealth of industry experience and expertise in providing technically innovative and advanced logistics solutions. This collaboration leverages ClickPost’s logistics intelligence platform with the shipping excellence, expertise, and resources of NimbusPost, creating a powerful solution for eCommerce brands looking to optimise their supply chain operations. We are confident that this partnership will drive significant value for our customers and position us as leaders in the logistics industry.”

Cathay is excited to announce the launch of Cathay Cargo, a rebrand of its cargo business, and a change of name from Cathay Pacific Cargo. The change aligns with the airline’s overarching brand redesign, and reinforces the existing strong brand association and perceptions held by its customers. Cathay Cargo aligns with the same purpose, vision and values of our master brand Cathay and all of its subsidiary brands, including Cathay Pacific, the passenger airline, and Cathay, the everyday lifestyle offering.

Cathay Cargo is united behind Cathay’s vision to become one of the world’s greatest service brands, and plays an integral role in helping to fulfil that aspiration through its world-class air cargo network, which transports products that facilitate trade across the entire Cathay network and beyond. Shipping directly to more than 70 destinations worldwide, Cathay Cargo is committed to advancing the development of all destination countries served by Cathay’s more than 200 aircraft.

Group Chief Executive Officer Ronald Lam said: “Cathay’s cargo business has played a vital role in the success of the Cathay Group since 1946, when we carried our first shipment between China and Australia. Our cargo services operate out of our home base of Hong Kong, which is also the world’s busiest international air cargo hub.

“This is an opportune moment to align our cargo business with the master brand as we continue our cargo investments in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area for a promising future. This rebrand reflects our Cargo business’ commitment to the same ‘Move Beyond’ ambition as the Group, while building on a strength that the Cathay brand has long been known for – offering leading-edge services to our customers.”

Reflecting this commitment to invest, Cathay Cargo has recently introduced a number of exciting refreshed solutions, including Cathay Priority and Cathay Pharma. Cathay Mail is scheduled for a refresh in March. These services cater to the respective burgeoning demands by customers for effective temperature-sensitive solutions, and efficient and reliable delivery solutions with new digital technology that better meets the requirements for shipment visibility, reliability and speed.

Director Cargo Tom Owen said: “Cathay Cargo continues to innovate new solutions, services and technology for customers as we build towards being one of the world’s greatest service brands. Continued investment in technology and logistics will solidify our position as a leading player in the industry.”

Cathay Cargo has invested in technology in recent years. This includes Ultra Track, a multi-dimensional track-and-trace service that gives customers near-real-time information on the airport-to-airport leg of the shipment journey using low-energy Bluetooth data-loggers; and, Click & Ship, an intuitive online booking service available 24/7 with instant processing and confirmation.

As part of its rebranding campaign, Cathay Cargo’s website has been revamped to reflect the brand ethos, and enable users to easily access popular features such as booking, track and trace, and flight availability, whilst also providing a clear showcase of recent campaign offers and featured solutions. The rebrand will connect Cathay Cargo to the master Cathay brand – a premium travel lifestyle brand offering a range of products and services that create more value for customers and partners. Cathay Cargo will have more exciting initiatives in the coming months as the company works toward a complete rebrand.

New Delhi, February 25 2023: HDFC Life, one of India’s leading life insurers, has launched HDFC Life Guaranteed Income Insurance Plan. This product provides guaranteed, regular, tax-free benefits and guaranteed death benefits.

HDFC Life constantly endeavors to offer products that meet various life stage needs of individuals. With HDFC Life Guaranteed Income Insurance Plan, the Company is providing an opportunity for customers to build a financial corpus that would support them through regular and guaranteed income.

Life insurance is a necessity for every individual with responsibilities and long-term financial goals. HDFC Life Guaranteed Income Insurance Plan can enable fulfillment of these goals.

Key benefits:

• · The plan provides a guaranteed income of 11% to 13% annually as a percentage of the Sum Assured under the policy
• · Discount on first-year premium is available for online purchase; discount of 12% for 8 and 10 years of premium payment term (PPT) and a discount of 15% for 12 and 15 years PPT
• · The plan provides life cover even during the income payout phase
• · Individuals can choose the income period of 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25 or 30 years
• · Guaranteed Death Benefit can be availed of either in lump sum or in monthly installments as a family income benefit option
• · The entry age for the plan ranges from 0 (zero) to 65 years
• · This is a non-participating life insurance plan

Speaking on the launch Aneesh Khanna – Head of Products & Segments, at HDFC Life said, “At HDFC Life, our aim is to ensure financial security for our policyholders and their loved ones. Life insurance as a product category provides the dual benefits of protection and long-term savings. HDFC Life Guaranteed Income Insurance plan offers guaranteed returns and secures policyholders from future uncertainties. The plan offers choice of premium payment term and life cover even during the income payout phase. We hope individuals make the most of this plan and build a corpus along with a financial safety net for themselves and their families.”

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Bengaluru, 25th Feb, 2023: ThePilot.in, an aviation institute facilitating airline pilot training and building careers for future pilots, enters into a strategic partnership with Barcelona Flight School which is a pioneer in pilot training program in Spain. The goal of this collaboration is to develop a course syllabus that satisfies both Indian Dgca and EASA requirements for a commercial pilot licensing programme. For aspiring pilots, this would open a door to exposure to other highly regarded EASA Commercial Pilot Certification Programs.

ThePilot.in intends to raise public knowledge about the commercial pilot’s license as a rewarding career path. This collaboration is a start in the right path. This groundbreaking alliance satisfies the standards set by Indian and European agencies.

Commenting on the partnership, Urvi Jani is the Founder and Managing Partner of ThePilot.in says “Being a partner with Barcelona Flying School makes us feel honoured and grateful. Our collaborations are an indication of that, and our focus is on providing genuine advice for pilot training programmes that are high-quality, economical, and hassle-free. In due course, we plan to expand into other pilot training programmes and aviation software solutions to become one of the largest and most reputable pilot training firms in India.”

ThePilot.in has partnered with more than 12 flight training organisations in India, the United States, New Zealand, Spain, Canada, and South Africa to provide aspiring pilots with courses that provide the best learning environments and highly regarded airline pilot licenses with aircraft and technology that meet international standards. While keeping in mind that we have a programme that meets every budget and that we are able to support as many upcoming pilots as possible.

ThePilot.in

Founded in 2019, ThePilot.in is an aviation institute providing end-to-end solutions, facilitating the leading international Standard Professional Pilot programs across the globe.We are committed towards instilling the aspirational pilots of today, with comprehensive knowledge, attitude, and future-ready skillsets, empowering them to stand out from the competition in their journey. We offer two programs, Commercial Pilot training programs in India & Globally (USA, NZ, Canada, South Africa, Spain) and Aircraft Type Rating Programs. We facilitate the students with all inclusive processes and backend work such as medical appointments, EGCA guidance, education loans, visa process, ground and flight training, conversion checks and the paper work for various processes and a step by step guidance. With no enrolment, hidden or add on charges and 90% plus visa success rate are geared to provide the trainees the best training environment for their career path ahead.

Hyderabad 25th February:- KL Deemed to be University, Hyderabad campus is organizing an International conference on Advances in Computational Intelligence and its Applications (ICACIA-2023) from 23rdto 25th February, 2023. The objective of this conference is to present state-of-the-art scientific results, encourage academic and industrial interaction, and promote deeper understanding of the domains among academicians, industry experts and students, who gathered from different corners of the world. The conference is expected to explore the possibilities of collaborative research and advancement in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Pattern Recognition (PR), Machine Learning (ML), IoT and related fields that can revolutionize the technology world.

Among the key speakers, Dr Haider Raza, University of Essex, UK., Dr Rafal Scherer, University of Technology, Czestochowa, Poland and Dr AnupNandy, NIT, Rourkela, India delivered keynote address during the inaugural session. The technical sessions will be held in hybrid mode to generate new ideas and enhance the quality of research and its future implementation during the conference. It will witness the global leaders in the fields of research and technology who can shape and sharpen ideas that would be fruitful to benefit the global scientific community.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr.G.PardhaSaradhi Varma, Vice Chancellor, KL Deemed to be University said, “We are committed towards providing global avenues that may expose students and faculty to the wider communities and networking platforms at both national as well as international levels. I am sure that the delegates who have hailed from India and abroad will enjoy the sessions and enhance their learning through collaborative journey. A new future in the fields of AI, PR, ML, IoT and related technologies is awaiting and these discussions will surely give rise to potential ideas and innovative solutions for the development of technologies that would lead the global scientific world into a brighter tomorrow.”

The conference was inaugurated in the presence of the guests and Dr L Koteswara Rao, Principal, KL Deemed to be University, Hyderabad, delegates, faculty members, and students. Various rounds of technical sessions were conducted on day one. More than 70 delegates from India and abroad who are expected to present their research papers during the three-day international conference. All accepted and presented papers, will be included in the conference proceedings to be published by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Florida, USA, informed the convenor Dr. Sheikh Fahad Ahmad.”

KL Deemed to be University, one of the country’s top ranking educational institutions in India promotes international standards in education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship. The University has been closely working with partners from the top-notch industries, companies and academia both at national and international levels to promote global industry-oriented research projects.