Archives April 2026

Tri-Share pilot program receives $6 million to make child care more accessible and affordable. 

(St. Louis, Mo., April 21, 2026) Child Care Aware of Missouri (CCAMO) has been selected by the City of Kansas City and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to launch the city’s first Tri-Share Child Care pilot program designed specifically to support first responders.

The $6 million initiative, funded by House Bill 2 in the Missouri Legislature and a match from the City of Kansas City, will make it easier for first responders to access and afford quality child care. The Tri-Share model divides the cost of child care among the employer, the employee, and the state—easing the financial burden on working families while helping to retain essential workers.

CCAMO anticipates serving up to 500 children of first responders – including police, fire, 911 dispatch, and aviation police personnel – with enrollment offered on a first-come, first served basis through April 30, 2026. Eligible first responders can access a digital application here.

Modeled after Missouri’s Child Care Works initiative, the pilot aligns with statewide goals to strengthen workforce participation and promote child care affordability. CCAMO serves as the third-party program administrator, using the TOOTRiS technology platform to manage eligibility, enrollment, payments, and reporting.

“Our first responders serve our community at all hours, often balancing demanding schedules with family responsibilities,” said Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw. “This program helps remove one of the biggest barriers they face by making child care more accessible and affordable. It is about supporting families so they can continue showing up for Kansas City.”

“First responders are the backbone of community safety, often working long and unpredictable hours,” said Robin Phillips, CEO of Child Care Aware of Missouri. “This program gives them the reliable and affordable child care they need to stay focused on protecting others.”

Founded in 1999, CCAMO is a statewide nonprofit that focuses on a comprehensive early childhood education experience through impactful programs and partnerships. The organization’s services include workforce development, child care business supports, advocacy and policy work, and its new Child Care Keeps Missouri Working, a regional campaign offering concierge solutions to businesses undergoing employee recruitment and retention challenges due to the overwhelming shortage of quality child care options. For more information, call (314) 535-1458 or visit www.mochildcareaware.org.

Bengaluru, April 21: The makers of SHEBA® brand of cat food, part of the Mars family of brands, has launched its ‘IGNORED TO ADORED™’ campaign, featuring brand ambassador Sharvari. Rooted in a simple yet powerful truth, that while cats are deeply loved, their affection is never assumed but earned, the campaign brings to life the journey from being ignored to truly loved.

The globally loved SHEBA® brand is known for its refined taste and thoughtfully crafted recipes made with carefully selected, quality ingredients. With a legacy rooted in crafting elevated feeding experiences, the brand has consistently shaped how cat parents engage with mealtime today. It reflects Mars Pet Nutrition’s expertise in creating products that make everyday moments of care more intentional and rewarding.

The campaign film features Sharvari at the heart of the narrative, bringing to life a sentiment that resonates deeply with modern cat parents, that while cats are deeply cherished, their affection is earned slowly, subtly, and entirely on their own terms. The campaign is part of a larger global rollout, featuring personalities such as Haley Lu Richardson in the US and Cat Burns in the UK.

As cat parenting continues to evolve in India, feeding is becoming far more than a routine. It is increasingly seen as one of the most meaningful moments of connection between cats and their parents. Grounded in Mars Petcare’s understanding of pet parent behaviour, the campaign taps into a defining truth of modern cat parenting, the desire for those small but powerful signs of love, trust, and approval that make the bond so uniquely rewarding, with the product design using expertise from the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition.

At the core of the campaign is the ‘7-Day IGNORED TO ADORED™ Challenge’, which encourages cat parents to focus on small, thoughtful, and consistent moments of care, especially during mealtime. It reinforces the idea that winning a cat’s affection is not about grand gestures, but about truly understanding what matters to them, turning feeding into a more meaningful ritual that strengthens the bond.

This dynamic comes alive in the campaign film featuring Sharvari. While she is effortlessly adored by the world around her, the one approval she truly seeks remains just out of reach, a contrast instantly familiar to cat parents. The film captures a fundamental truth of life with cats: their affection cannot be demanded, only earned. As the story unfolds, it is the power of understanding, expressed through thoughtful moments of care and indulgent mealtime experiences, that transforms the relationship from distant to deeply affectionate.

Speaking on the campaign, Ayesha Huda, Chief Marketing Officer, Mars Petcare India, said,

“Cat parenting in India is undergoing a clear and intentional shift, with today’s pet parents becoming far more discerning about the choices they make for their cats. Feeding is no longer a routine, it reflects care, quality, and the bond they share. We are not just responding to this shift, we are actively shaping it. Built on a strong global legacy of crafting premium, high-quality recipes and deep expertise in pet nutrition, SHEBA® products are redefining what indulgent, meaningful feeding looks like for modern cat parents. With ‘the IGNORED TO ADORED™ campaign, we are bringing this evolution to life in a way that is both culturally relevant and emotionally resonant, where thoughtfully crafted mealtime experiences become a powerful expression of connection between cats and their parents.”

Sharvari, brand ambassador for the SHEBA® brand, added,

“You can be loved by millions, but winning a cat’s approval is a completely different feeling and that is what makes this campaign so special to me. ‘IGNORED TO ADORED™’ campaign captures something every cat parent instantly understands: their affection is never automatic, and that is exactly what makes it so meaningful. I am proud to be the face of the SHEBA® brand in India, and I love how this campaign brings to life the role that care, patience, and indulgent mealtime moments can play in building a deeper bond.”

With its wide range of recipes made with carefully selected, quality ingredients including, fish and poultry products, SHEBA® meal combines exquisite taste with nutrition to elevate everyday feeding. Available in indulgent flavours such as Maguro & Bream Flavour, Fish with Sasami Flavour and Skipjack & Salmon Flavour under the SHEBA® RICH range, as well as with Tuna, Pumpkin and Carrot in gravy and other variants in the Delicious gravy range, SHEBA® recipes continues to bring together taste, quality and nutrition for discerning cats and the people who love them.

New Delhi, Apr 21:  DLF Malls has launched its vibrant “Summer Up” campaign across its premier shopping destinations-DLF Mall of India, DLF Promenade and DLF Avenue, running from April 15 to May 20, 2026. The campaign reimagines summer shopping by seamlessly integrating curated fashion with cutting-edge digital experiences.

Built around the theme “100 Looks, 1 Summer,” the initiative showcases 100 thoughtfully considered looks and styles crafted by renowned stylists Pranav Goswamy, Smridhi Sibal and Jasbir Singh Mehta. The edits feature collections from globally recognized brands such as Zara, H&M, Mango, Tommy Hilfiger, Marks & Spencer, Aldo and Charles & Keith. Spanning categories from everyday wear and work looks to travel wardrobes, occasion dressing and seasonal essentials, the campaign offers a complete style guide for the modern shopper.

Pushpa Bector, Senior Executive Director & Business Head – Retail, DLF Limited, said, “100 Looks, 1 Summer is about reimagining how India shops – fluid, expressive, and across brands. At DLF Promenade, DLF Avenue, and DLF Mall of India, we are bringing together fashion, technology, and personalization through AI smart mirrors and immersive phygital pop-ups. It’s a celebration of mixing, matching, and making every summer look uniquely yours.”

At the heart of “Summer Up” is a phygital retail experience introduced in partnership with ORBO, blending physical browsing with digital innovation. Visitors can engage with interactive lookbooks, AI-powered smart mirrors and augmented reality (AR) try-on tools, enabling them to visualize outfits, access product details and locate items within the mall effortlessly.

The customer’s journey is designed across four intuitive touchpoints: Discover, Try, Explore and Navigate, making fashion exploration more personalised and engaging. The smart mirrors allow real-time virtual styling, helping shoppers transition seamlessly from inspiration to purchase.

Extending beyond the mall environment, DLF Malls has introduced a dedicated microsite that mirrors the in-store experience. This platform allows users to browse curated looks, identify featured brands and plan their shopping visits remotely, bridging online discovery with offline retail.

With “Summer Up,” DLF Malls continues to push the boundaries of experiential retail, creating a connected ecosystem that enhances convenience, personalisation and engagement for today’s digitally savvy consumers.

Apr 21: Strengthening its operational leadership as it expands across the Eastern Himalayan region, Summit Hotels & Resorts has appointed Deepak Bothra as Corporate General Manager. With close to three decades of experience in hospitality, Deepak Bothra brings deep expertise across hotel operations, pre-opening projects, quality control, and revenue management. Over the years, he has worked with leading international and regional brands, holding senior leadership roles and contributing to the successful launch and turnaround of multiple properties.

In his new role, Deepak Bothra will oversee operational strategy, service standards, and performance optimisation across Summit’s growing portfolio. His focus will be on strengthening quality benchmarks, streamlining systems, and ensuring consistency across properties as the brand continues to scale its presence in Sikkim, Darjeeling, and the wider Northeast.

Commenting on the appointment, Sumit Mitruka, CEO, Summit Hotels & Resorts, said, “Deepak brings a rare combination of operational depth and quality-driven thinking. As we continue to expand our network across the Northeast, strengthening internal systems and service standards becomes critical. His experience in building and refining hotel operations will play a key role in driving consistency and long-term performance across our portfolio.”

Apr 21: The traditional foundations of legal training are being dismantled by automation, leaving the industry’s elite firms facing a radical ‘capabilities gap’ in their future talent pipeline. This is according to a new study from leadership consultancy firm The Positive Group, which highlights how the rapid adoption of GenAI is transforming the centuries-old apprenticeship model that underpins how trainee lawyers develop legal judgement, expertise and the skills needed to become a partner.

 The report, titled The AI Leadership Challenge in Law, was produced in collaboration with researchers from Harvard Business School, RSGI, and Hubel Labs. It draws on insights from 16 of the industry’s most influential decision-makers -including Managing Partners, Chief AI Officers, and heads of professional standards from firms including Orrick, Herbert Smith Freehills, Baker McKenzie, Bird & Bird, A&O Shearman, White & Case, and Gilbert + Tobin.

 The end of ‘learning by doing’

For generations, junior lawyers built their “legal muscle” through repetition: document review, due diligence, and exhaustive research. The report argues that this “volume work” was not merely a revenue driver, but a psychological necessity for building the cognitive foundations of professional reasoning and judgement.

 However, the study warns that as AI takes over these foundational tasks, the ‘repetition loop’ is breaking. Junior lawyers are being catapulted into higher-level advisory work much earlier in their careers—often before they have developed the instinctive ‘gut feel’ for risk that only comes from years of interrogating primary sources.

 Anna Sutherland, Executive Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, a contributor to the research, highlights the scale of the challenge: “Traditionally, juniors learned by repetition through drafting, due diligence, and volume work. AI is changing that, so the challenge is to ensure they still build solid foundations while acquiring new skills.”

 A Scrutiny Gap is emerging:

The report identifies a burgeoning risk within the firm hierarchy: a decline in critical scrutiny. One participant noted that with AI-generated drafts, there is now “less requirement to go and interrogate sources”, creating a dangerous psychological bias where outputs are accepted at face value.

 “We are heading toward a potential crisis of potential skills deficit in critical thinking and appraisal,” says Will Marien, Director at The Positive Group. “If a junior lawyer hasn’t spent years digging through the ‘why’ behind a contract clause because a machine produced it in seconds, they lose the ability to spot the nuance where the real risk lives. The apprenticeship model wasn’t just about learning the law; it was about learning how to think under pressure. By removing the repetitive, routine work, we are inadvertently removing the training ground for work that involves judgement, appraisal and interrogation of sources.”

 Marien continues: “Law firm leaders must recognise that AI doesn’t just change the workflow; it changes the cognitive development of their most valuable asset: their people. We are seeing the end of the stable strategy; firms must now move to a model of ‘Adaptive Apprenticeship’ where critical thinking is taught as a primary skill, not an accidental byproduct of volume work.”

 From information generators to curators of meaning

The research suggests that the role of the junior lawyer is being redefined in real-time. Rather than acting purely as generators of information, they are increasingly becoming “curators of meaning” and “challengers of logic”. This shift is not only changing the skills required, but is reshaping where expertise sits within firms.

 Junior lawyers are often more fluent in emerging AI tools and are playing a growing role in driving innovation from the ground up. As Christian Bartsch, CEO of Bird & Bird, notes: “Some of our best ideas don’t come from senior leaders, but from next-gen talent. We’ve built innovation channels to capture these ideas so they aren’t lost in our wider organisation. As part of our journey, we’ve become braver about calling time on what doesn’t work.” In this environment, curiosity, adaptability, and the ability to interrogate AI outputs are becoming core capabilities at every level of the firm.

 However, the report warns that this transition must be managed carefully. Rather than relying solely on traditional repetition-based learning, leaders are being encouraged to take a more active role in shaping how junior lawyers engage with AI through clear narratives, role-modelling, and creating environments where questioning and critical thinking are actively encouraged.

 By fostering trust and openness around both the potential and limitations of AI, firms can ensure that junior lawyers build the confidence and nuance needed to apply these tools effectively. In this way, the transition becomes less about managing risk, and more about intentionally developing the next generation of lawyers to combine technological fluency with strong professional judgement.

 The Leadership Mandate: devising adaptive apprenticeships

For the law firm C-suite, the findings reinforce the need for a radical departure from traditional talent management. The report concludes that AI maturity is not about how many licences a firm buys, but how it re-engineers the path to expertise.

Marien concluded: “The task for leading law firms is no longer to protect the old ways of working, but to find new pathways for developing “depth” in an automated environment. This means placing an unprecedented premium on “soft” cognitive skills—curiosity, the ability to challenge automated reasoning, and ethical interpretation—that were previously assumed to develop over time.

 “In a world where the commodity – the legal output – is increasingly free, the ‘Psychology of AI Maturity’ proves that the only remaining value is the human at the keyboard. If firms fail to fix the apprenticeship model now, they aren’t just losing their juniors; they are losing their future partnership.

Bengaluru, India Apr 21: Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), announced Digital Convergence Technologies (DCT), a system integration and digital transformation company that simplifies complex IT challenges through its “converge and deliver” philosophy, has joined the Akamai Partner Connect Program. DCT enables mid-market and enterprise clients to leverage a specialized refactoring practice for migrating workloads to Akamai, providing a streamlined, cost-effective path to cloud modernization that was previously fragmented across multiple vendors.

DCT’s key services and offerings include system and cloud engineering, architecture modernization, and large-scale refactoring of legacy environments; dedicated practices for transitioning and modernizing cloud architectures on distributed platforms; and managed services that enable scalable, high-performance, and cost-efficient cloud operations across industries.

“Our focus is on modernizing legacy architectures and simplifying complex cloud environments to deliver scalable, high-performance systems. By partnering with Akamai, we are enabling enterprises to move away from closed, black-box solutions and bring control back into their own hands — creating flexible, cost-efficient architectures that are built to scale,” said Vineet Dhawan, CEO, Digital Convergence Technologies (DCT).

This collaboration is designed to support customers across the media, healthcare, and fintech verticals through digital modernization, cost optimization, and specialized managed services. It specifically addresses the needs of mid-market media clients seeking a plug-and-play streaming platform and enterprises requiring HIPAA, ISO 27001, and HITRUST accredited solutions.

“By combining Akamai’s globally distributed infrastructure and developer-friendly cloud with DCT’s specialized refactoring practices and managed services, we are empowering customers to modernize and transform their legacy environments into scalable, cost-efficient cloud architectures,” said Dave Allen, Vice President of Geo Sales and Partner Sales at Akamai. “DCT’s expertise in refactoring and architecture modernization aligns strongly with Akamai’s mission to deliver high-performance, developer-friendly cloud solutions.”

Akamai Partner Connect is a unified global program that supports resale, distribution, technical solution enablement, services, and referrals. The program includes enhanced incentives aligned with strategic offerings, region-specific tiering, and streamlined access to tools and support. To learn more, visit akamai.com/channel-partners. To learn more about Digital Convergence Technologies, visit the DCT website.

To hear more about how Akamai and DCT are working together to modernize cloud architectures beyond traditional “lift and shift” approaches, listen to the podcast.