Category business

AlUla, February 2023: Cloud7 Residence AlUla, the lodge-style resort with 150 modern bungalows is the region’s newest lifestyle hotel/residence from where travellers and adventurers will be able to enjoy a variety of cultural events, the world’s largest outdoor museum, heritage sites, art exhibitions, sport events, concerts, and adventure sites. For remote workers and business visitors, Cloud 7 offers a stay that facilitates your independence with all conveniences required, and the team works hard to curate human connections through inviting and connecting the local vibrant community of artisans, artists, talent, adventure guides and hospitable families with Cloud 7 guests.

Cloud7 Residence AlUla is a unique destination offering locals and guests a community-driven and connected stay revolving around unique experiences tailored to each and every taste for adventure. The essence of the space is to create ongoing local, regional and national collaborations with artists, entrepreneurs, food-preneurs, yoga and outdoor gym instructors and any other talented, creative, passionate individuals to enhance the humanization of the Cloud7 neighbourhood.

The Community and Culture Manager in charge of the events’ programming – a native from AlUla himself – primes the activities at the property that are a combination of live local traditional Kanoon and Oud music, as well as Jazz and live DJ gigs on weekends. Additionally, the authentic local experience is enriched by a collaboration with a home-grown food and beverage concept that will serve AlUla’s most cherished cuisine – hearty breakfast with dates and flat breads, savoury shakshooka and charcoal barbecue dinners by the pool side. Serving Saudi coffee, which is considered a social phenomenon in the Kingdom, is a central part of the welcome ritual at the welcome Beduin tent. Here, the ritual involves an educational element about the traditions and rich heritage. Guest at Cloud7 can also enjoy a homecooked meal prepared in the bungalows fully-equipped kitchenette, cosy up in the spacious living-room which extends into an outdoor private terrace, surrounded by mini herb gardens, making it the ideal location for a holiday, workcation or to move in for a while.

Cloud7 Residence AlUla is quickly becoming the home for those planning to stroll through majestic rock formations, canyons and cliffs by bike or, car or buggy visiting the most picturesque sites in AlUla, home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hegra. With its proximity to Pastry Boutique and the AlUla Old Town, Cloud7 Residence offers opportunities to meet artisans, purchase locally sourced souveniers and enjoy Saudi-inspired cuisine. The property is the latest addition to AlUla’s hospitality landscape providing mid-scale accommodation to travellers and guests who are seeking to work or stay for shorter or longer periods of time. The country’s transformation to a global tourism destination is now welcoming a growing number of visitors, consultants and employees from organisations that support the growth of this space working remotely from different places in the Kingdom. These visitors have already become one of the biggest contributors to the placemaking of AlUla globally.

This new Lodge is part of Kerten Hospitality’s global footprint of 50 projects. Recently, Kerten Hospitality, a mixed-use and ESG-focused lifestyle operator, announced new Cloud7 projects in Europe and the Middle East as part of the brand’s global expansion.

February 7, 2023 – Singapore – Algorand Foundation, the organization focused on growing the ecosystem for the world’s most advanced, secure and reliable layer-1 blockchain, announced broad-reaching partnerships in India.

With India set to surpass China as the world’s most populous country this year, the Foundation is committed to supporting the creation of employment opportunities and solutions that serve India’s vibrant population.

Algorand is the first layer-1 blockchain protocol to partner with T-Hub, India’s premier innovation hub with 600+ corporate partners, including Intel, AWS, Boeing, Meta, Microsoft, Cisco, among others. This partnership will support startups and established companies building high-impact, scalable blockchain-based solutions.

“T-Hub and Telangana state are committed to supporting a Web3 ecosystem of entrepreneurs, developers and creators. Our new partnership with Algorand, especially given the sustainability and real world utility of its blockchain in a market like India, is strong evidence of that,” said M. S. Rao, T-Hub CEO. “This partnership will help our ecosystem scale globally and access capital from around the world.”

Through partnerships with Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad and the Indian School of Business, the Algorand Foundation will soon launch faculty development programs, student developer training, and a master class series for companies looking to transition critical business processes to Web3.

In addition, Algorand will act as a technology partner for the new $50 million Global Climate Resilience Fund – launched by the Clinton Foundation and its Clinton Global Initiative, with SEWA as a founding partner – geared towards helping women micro-entrepreneurs address climate change. SEWA is the largest trade union in India with more than 2.1 million female workers. For 50 years, SEWA has improved the livelihoods of self-employed women workers from the informal economy through initiatives including technical training.

In celebrating the new fund, the Algorand Foundation and its CEO Staci Warden have joined Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and The Clinton Foundation in Ahmedabad. The fund, in part, will help local entrepreneurs connect with the carbon markets and monetize carbon credits that their activities generate. Through business accelerator programs and seed investments, Algorand will support women-led enterprises building solutions to increase financial inclusion and empowerment of SEWA members and low-income working women across India.

“At the Algorand Foundation, we are deeply committed to ensuring blockchain lives up to its potential in creating a more inclusive economy in India and across the globe,” said Warden. “I am thrilled to be back in India, and especially to see the embrace and enthusiasm by people across the country for technology that can so significantly and positively impact their quality of life.”

Algorand’s focus on India follows the Foundation’s recent appointment of Anil Kakani as India Country Head.

“The partnerships we are formalizing this week with India’s most respected institutions and organizations are reflective of the reliability, scalability and real world utility of Algorand’s blockchain technology,” said Kakani. “Our mission is built around sustainable impact. We are ready to take center stage in India and across the globe to fuel world-changing solutions to improve access to financial services, health care, education and so many other critical applications.”

Startups and developers interested in learning more about Algorand and opportunities to take part in this initiative can apply to join a 3-day mini accelerator experience in Hyderabad taking place March 24-26, 2023.

Mumbai, 7th Feb 2023: Delhivery Ltd., India’s largest fully integrated logistics provider, has partnered with eSamudaay, a software solution provider, to enable rural businesses to scale by serving customers across India.

Coming together of Delhivery and eSamudaay, network partners of ONDC, effectively broadens the footprint of local products and aligns with the government of India’s plans of ‘Make in India, for the world’.

Bengaluru-based eSamudaay has launched a tech-enabled platform called TyohaarForever Platform to curate India’s vast range of hyperlocal products produced by local artisans. Through the partnership, eSamudaay will leverage Delhivery’s extensive pan-India network of 18,400+ pin codes to make these local products accessible across the country.

The platform enabled the first set of cross-country orders for raw, unpasteurized Himalayan Honey produced by Tenacious Bee Collective. A Delhivery field executive picked up the products from Jia valley, located in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, to ship to Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

Tenacious Bee Collective is a start-up that brings local farmers on a single platform with apiarists and scientists. Their aim is to spread the use of raw and unpasteurized honey and help local beekeepers enhance their incomes. Tenacious Bee Collective is in the process of being onboarded on the ONDC network.

Speaking on the initiative, Mr. T Koshy, Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer, ONDC, said,” ONDC, with its agenda of democratizing digital commerce, aims to bring the smallest of sellers onto the network and provides them with a level playing field. I’m delighted to see two network participants, Delhivery and eSamudaay, enable ‘Tenacious Bee Collective,’ a small company from Kangra, Himachal Pradesh on-board onto ONDC to take its products to customers across India.”

AjithPai, Chief Operating Officer, Delhivery, commented on the partnership, “We are excited to collaborate with ONDC network enablers such as eSamudaay to open up new vistas for delivering value and creating wealth at the grassroots level using digital technologies. With Delhivery’s technology-enabled, fully-integrated logistics solutions, entrepreneurs and businesses from the remotest villages and settlements can serve customers across the country. India has huge demand from different tiers of economy, and ONDC will truly unlock the growth potential of digital commerce in India.”

Commenting on the platform, SunjayKeswani, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Commerce Business, eSamudaay, said, “Taking off from our mission of creating decentralized digital communities, TyohaarForever is one such platform that enables the curation of best of the products from rural communities from the deepest of locations In India. We work with them so that these very sellers and artisans can take charge of their own livelihood improvement and economic betterment. The core beneficiaries of our initiative are sellers in informal settlements and tier-2, tier-3, and tier-4 cities. In fact, we are driving ONDC initiatives in what we know as Bharat.”

The Hiranandani Thane Half Marathon is back with its 9th edition and this time, it’s not just a run but a movement towards health and the environment. Milind Soman, a fitness icon, will serve as the brand ambassador and will lead the way, starting the event with a ceremonial flag-off.

Hiranandani, as a brand, has always been committed to the well-being of the environment and has introduced numerous green initiatives in all its townships. The #RhymeForEarth initiative is a testament to this commitment and the Hiranandani Thane Half Marathon is taking this cause a step further.

So don’t just run, but run with a purpose—pledge to be mindful of your carbon footprint and join the movement to protect mother earth. Let’s #RunForEarth

HTHM9 will be flagged off on February 12, 2023, from Hiranandani Estate, Thane. In this edition there will be three categories:

•  Half Marathon – 21.097 km
•  Green Run – 10 km
•  Family Run – 4 km

Date: 12th February 2023

Time: 5.30 am onwards

Website: https://hthm.co.in/

Venue: HTHM9 will be flagged off from TMC ground, near New horizon, Hiranandani Estate, Thane.

Bengaluru, 7th February 2023: Cashfree Payments, India’s leading payments, and API banking solutions company, launched ‘Co-lend’, India’s first fully automated escrow management solution for co-lending. ‘Co-lend’ has been developed in line with the digital lending guidelines announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It facilitates instant disbursal with auto reconciliation and a dashboard for managing multiple partnerships. Additionally, it requires no manual intervention, automatically notifies the loan management system, and eliminates reconciliation efforts.

Currently, in co-lending partnerships, the reconciliation of funding to the escrow accounts for disbursement and repayments is done manually, resulting in errors and delays. The lender and originator pool money into the Co-lend escrow, and then disbursals and collections happen from and into the escrow. In this process, the Loan Management System (LMS), the Loan Origination System (LOS), and the actual loan disbursal, as well as repayment, are disconnected, resulting in reporting delays and challenges in accounting and reconciliation for each player in the partnership. Cashfree Payments’ ‘Co-lend’ addresses all these challenges and makes the entire process automated increasing efficiency and accuracy.

Cashfree Payments’ ‘Co-lend’ provides a robust platform for co-lending originators and lenders, especially the ones sanctioning high volumes of loans, where real-time disbursement, repayment, and reconciliation are primary requirements. Cashfree Payments has also partnered with Loan Management Services and Loan Origination Service providers as well as banks to enable a plug-and-play offering for lenders to manage all their co-lending and add new partners with ease. The current set of banks that already support a Co-lend integration are ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Axis Bank.

Akash Sinha, Co-founder and CEO of Cashfree Payments, said, “With the exponential expansion in digital lending, there is a tremendous demand for compliant and scalable solutions. We are pleased to announce that Cashfree Payments now offers a co-lending platform to provide NBFCs and banks with a one-stop solution for escrow management, disbursal, and repayment, with a focus on automating payments and complex reconciliation involved. As an innovator in the API banking and payments space, we have strived to deliver this solution at a vital juncture to assure continuity and development for our merchants while maintaining compliance at the forefront.”

With over 50% market share among payment processors, Cashfree Payments today leads the way in bulk disbursals in India with its product Payouts. Recently, India’s largest lender, SBI invested in Cashfree Payments, underscoring the company’s role in building a robust payments ecosystem. The company works closely with all leading banks to build the core payments and banking infrastructure that powers the company’s products and is also integrated with major platforms such as Shopify, Wix, Paypal, Amazon Pay, Paytm, and Google Pay. Apart from India, Cashfree Payments’ products are used in eight other countries including the USA, Canada, and UAE.

The 20th edition of BioAsia – The Marquee Healthcare and Life Sciences event, organized by the Government of Telangana, has announced that the coveted Genome Valley Excellence Award for the year 2023 will be conferred upon Prof. Robert S. Langer, in light of his pioneering research that has led to the development of the first commercial mRNA vaccines used for a variety of infectious diseases. Langer is currently the David H. Koch Institute Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. He is also being acknowledged for his exemplary research in human health, including the detection, monitoring, and treatment of cancer. A veteran in his field, his remarkable contributions to biomedical and therapeutic research include developing long-term and controlled-release drug delivery systems used for a variety of applications including cancer therapy, insulin, and vaccines.

February 7, 2023, New Delhi: Lumenore, a platform that develops advanced analytics and business intelligence solutions incorporated with intuitive and AI-Powered modules, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with iQ Innovation Hub LLP, an integrated technology partner specializing in consulting and delivering enterprise solutions. This move will help Lumenore increase business momentum and expansion into the U.S., EU, and Indian markets.

Lumenore is conceptualized to make analytics simple and flexible to help organizations achieve more with data with faster access to actionable business insights. The platform’s unique features, like NLQ-powered conversational analytics (‘AskMe Anything’), AI-recommended insights (‘Do you know’), self-service solutions and building a data universe have helped enterprises across the globe accelerate their data transformation journey and empower data-driven decision-making across industries.

Under the agreement, Lumenore has authorized iQ Innovation to purchase and/or license products and to grant access to resell them in the regions. iQ Innovation provides end-to-end support in intelligent automation, cloud solutions, cloud migrations, web development, mobile development, API development, ETL, and automation testing & blockchain in industries like healthcare, automobile, and e-commerce. Through this partnership, Lumenore expects to add more than 10,000 no.s of userbase in the IT and healthcare sector in the next two quarters.

Talking about the partnership, Mr. Naren Vijay, EVP – Growth, Lumenore said, “Brands nowadays are looking to access the availability of near real-time data for analytics. At Lumenore, we have the expertise and have changed how organizations of any size in any industry do things. We are happy to partner with iQ Innovation which strives to build intelligent business solutions like us. With their strong presence in the healthcare and technology sector, we are looking forward to further accelerating our go-to-market strategy and reaching new organizations in India, U.K and U.S region.”

“After observing the evolution of hyper-automation in the post-COVID-era, we decided that now was the right time to develop a new range of services to respond better to the industry needs. Lumenore is a great brand to bring under the iQ Innovation banner and offers us potentially in all the markets we serve. The intelligent BI Analytics platform will bolster our core offering and further defines our footprint globally,” said Ms. Gayatri Dandekar, Business Development Lead, iQ Innovation.

Lumenore is making its entire dashboard and conversational analytics available to end users to help them make better use of the data collected. Using Lumenore’s BI platform will help organizations reduce their overall reporting and dashboarding cost by 30% while improving the efficiency of reporting operations by 50%.

New Delhi, February 2023: Pullman New Delhi Aerocity has curated the ‘Thai Food Festival’ from 10th- 19th February 2023 at its award-winning Pan-Asian restaurant -Honk. The 10-day festival  will be the ultimate gourmet opportunity to taste a range of authentic Thai dishes by showcasing the gastronomical journey of renowned Chef Vina from Thailand.

With the intention to bring to life the very essence of Thailand, Pullman New Delhi Aerocity is delighted to introduce a specially curated Thai menu that includes appetizing dishes like Pad med mamuang, Pad Thai noodles, Gaeng knew waan, Rak baw kab Naphung Sos and Thaptim crop.

Speaking on the occasion, Chef Vina says, “Thai Cuisine has been much liked in the south and it is now becoming popular in the northern cities of the country as well. With this thought, I am excited to join hands with Pullman New Delhi Aerocity to showcase my culinary journey through an exclusively curated menu of traditional Thai delicacies.”

With this Food Festival, Pullman New Delhi Aerocity aims to offer its guests with a diverse F&B experience.

When – 10th to 19th February 2023 [ 7 PM Onwards]

Where – Honk, Pullman New Delhi Aerocity

Price – A-la-carte Menu [ ₹ 4000 plus taxes for 2 ]

Bangalore, 07 February 2023: Air India, India’s leading airline and a Star Alliance member, has announced the latest step in its progress optimisation of network following the full subsidiarization of Air Asia India in November 2022.

In this current phase, three stations – Bhubaneswar (BBI), Bagdogra (IXB) and Surat (STV) – will now be served by Air Asia India, rather than Air India. Delhi- Visakhapatnam and Mumbai-Lucknow will be operated exclusively by Air India. In all cases, the flight frequency remains the same.

Additionally, Air India will enhance connections from Delhi and/or Mumbai to Ahmedabad (AMD), Cochin (COK), Trivandrum (TRV), Visakhapatnam (VTZ) and Nagpur (NAG) to enable seamless, two-way domestic-international-connectivity with long-haul international flights operating from the two metros. Air India will also be increasing frequencies between Delhi and Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and between Mumbai to Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru.

Commenting on this expansion, Mr. Campbell Wilson, CEO and MD, Air India, said, “The acquisition of Air Asia India, together with the ongoing restructuring and expansion of Air India, accords an unprecedented opportunity to optimise the Group’s flight network. Specifically, it allows us to better match routes with the most appropriate airline business model, focusing the full-service airline on metro-metro markets and high connectivity routes, and the low-cost airline on more leisure oriented or price sensitive markets. This will improve our attractiveness to corporate travellers and leisure travellers alike, as well as improve connectivity between key domestic cities and Air India’s fast-expanding international network.”

As part of its ongoing, Group-wide portfolio optimization efforts, in the future Covestro will increasingly focus the Engineering Plastics business entity on its core business. As a result, the Maezio® product line with highly specialized fiber-reinforced composites and the associated production at the Markt Bibart site are to be discontinued in the course of the current year. “With its Group-wide ‘Sustainable Future’ strategy, Covestro is consistently aligning itself with the needs of high-growth customer industries to generate sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive market,” says Lily Wang, Head of Covestro’s Engineering Plastics business entity. “Despite major investments in the development of the Maezio® business and in production technology, as well as technological advances achieved as a result, we were ultimately able to leverage only a few synergies with our core business. Therefore, after a thorough review, we have decided that the Maezio® product line will be discontinued. This decision was not easy for us,” Wang adds.

Covestro started working in the field of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites in 2015 with the acquisition of TCG Thermoplast Composite GmbH. Following the strategic decision to discontinue the Maezio® product line after almost eight years, Covestro searched intensively for a buyer for the Markt Bibart site. As this attempt was ultimately not successful, Covestro decided to close the site later this year. Most recently, 48 of the approximately 7,600 employees in Germany were employed there. “We have initiated an extensive sales process, which, unfortunately, was not successful. Our focus on the ground is now on providing the best possible support to all colleagues. To this end, we will be working closely with the local employee representatives to find fair solutions for all those affected and to ensure that the closure process is socially responsible,” emphasizes Site Manager John Bauer.

A focus on core business

Thermoplastic fiber composites are a highly specialized and competitive niche business. Covestro has invested in building up the business since taking over the site in 2015 and has made very good technical progress in production. Nevertheless, the company has not succeed to scale the Maezio® business with sufficient success in the market. There are only a few synergies with the core business of the Engineering Plastics business entity and the vast majority of key account business. In addition, the typical customers for thermoplastic composites only order on the basis of joint, complex and time-consuming technical application development, and then only in very small quantities. This is in marked contrast to the far predominant distribution model and key account business in the Covestro Group.

Covestro is thus sharpening its focus on its core Engineering Plastics business by discontinuing the Maezio® products. Major customers in the automotive, electronics and healthcare divisions, among others, use these high-quality polycarbonates for further processing in a wide range of products.