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New Delhi, February 23rd, 2023: Dreamotion and KRAFTON, Inc., makers of the popular battle royale game BGMI, today announced pre-registration for an all–new Indian version of Road to Valor: Empires, a real-time player-versus-player (PvP) strategy game. Renowned for bringing high-quality, engaging games to users worldwide, KRAFTON, Inc. has reimagined the game for the Indian audience, bringing several new updates including full-fledged Hindi language support to provide an immersive experience for the Indian gaming community.

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In Road to Valor: Empires, the first casual game for India from KRAFTON, players embark on a quest to build armies and win thrilling battles while commanding mythical guardians and troops. With the addition of the Hindi user interface, players can enjoy an enthralling visual journey as they play with various civilizations. Furthermore, exclusive India-specific updates include the option to create custom rooms where users can host, spectate, and play together with fellow gamers. Keeping in mind the regional pricing, the new optional starter pack with exclusive rewards for Indian users will also be available starting at INR 29.

With stunning graphics, captivating music, and easy-to-use controls, Road to Valor: Empires delivers an exhilarating experience for both hardcore and casual gamers alike. In addition to being made available in Hindi, the game will also subsequently support other Indian languages. More than just a launch, RTV Empires will also bring in new content regularly such as new characters, civilizations, in-game events, and esports tournaments.

“We’ve been at work on a neat surprise for our beloved Indian audience and are excited to bring Road To Valor: Empires along with Indian nuances and local customizations. We’re very excited to have worked with our talented studio, Dreamotion to bring in an authentic strategy experience in a casual format for Indians. With the addition of Indian rewards, new UI, and unique features, we hope players have a great time exploring the world of mythical and historical civilizations.” said Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO, KRAFTON, Inc. India. He further added, “We are committed to the Indian audience and will continue bringing new and exciting games that will enthrall our Indian gamers”

“We are eager to bring the all-new Road to Valor: Empires to India and hope that users enjoy the interplay of strategy, realistic graphics, and exclusive features that the game offers. With thrilling large-scale wars, and a host of characters, we are excited for users to experience the game. The new custom room feature will help casual players in India invite and jump into quick 2v2 matches or even spectate top players” said Junyoung Lee, CEO, Dreamotion. “For us, this is more than just a launch. We will be bringing in new civilizations, local characters, and features that challenge and excite our players in the future. And hopefully, make it esports ready, to encourage the vast talent in India to compete for valor!”

Key features of the game include:

Command armies, your way: It is a real-time PVP strategy game where players can outplay their opponents by creating their own army from different factions and unique units to claim the throne.
Hindi and English language support: With the latest addition of Hindi UI users can choose to enjoy the game in a way that feels natural to them

Bring legends to life: Choose characters from different mythologies and experiment with a diverse range of characters. From Athena, the Goddess of War, to Odin, the King of Asgard, to Caeser and and Cyrus players can select their guardians and experiment to see which characters and armies suit their playing style.

Stunning visuals: Realistic and fierce battles with immersive experience. From cavalry rushing to destroy enemy towers, continuing the fight even when knocked from their horses – feel the realistic fierce feel of battle right in your hands No one way to glory: Choose different mythological beasts and gods from the myths of multiple cultures and pit them against your enemy’s army while you’re vying for supremacy. As you gradually progress, you unlock features, heroes, units and better upgrades to your troops

Host epic battles: Custom rooms to host, spectate and enjoy multi-player experiences with friends
Road to Valor: Empires is the successor to Road to Valor: World War II, which launched in January 2019 and crossed more than 3 million downloads. Players can now pre-register to download the game from Google Play and the Apple App Store and the title will be available to play in March 2023.

To pre-register for Road to Valor: Empires, please visit Google Play Store and Apple iOS Store. For more details, follow the official India website, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube pages of Road To Valor: Empires.

One97 Communications Limited (OCL) that owns the brand Paytm, celebrated Mahashivratri, one of the most important festivals in India, by deploying special QR codes at 9 Jyotirlingas and nearby temple areas in the country. The pioneer of QR and mobile payments in India had designed the Mahashivratri special QR code with Lord Shiva’s photo.

Mahashivratri was celebrated on Saturday, 18th February 2023 across the country. There are 12 Jyotirlingas in the country of which Paytm had deployed special QR codes at Somnath in Gujarat, Mahakaleshwar & Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Baidyanath in Jharkhand, Bhimashankar in Maharashtra, Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu, Nageshwar in Gujarat, Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi, and Ghrishneshwar in Aurangabad.

The company had also deployed Mahashivratri special QR code in Haridwar and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, and Isha Foundation in Coimbatore. With this, devotees visiting the holy sites were able to make payments by scanning Paytm QR codes at shops and eateries in and around.

Paytm QR code enables small and medium shopkeepers to accept digital payments at zero upfront cost, and at zero MDR. The company is leader in offline payments with over 31 million merchant partners accepting payments via Paytm. It also offers consumers the flexibility of payments with Paytm Wallet, Paytm UPI LITE, Paytm UPI, Paytm Postpaid, debit and credit cards and netbanking.

Bengaluru, Feb 23, 2023: The Ballroom Hall of Hotel Ritz Carlton was abuzz with anticipation at the 5th edition of the CREDAI Awards for Real Estate (CARE Awards) 2023. Real estate developers from across Karnataka had submitted their nominations across various categories before an eminent jury panel. The awards were presented across multiple categories for Karnataka and Bengaluru City.

The awardees list are as follows:

Special Awards

– Outstanding Contribution to Realty Sector – Mr. R Nagaraj Reddy, CMD Zonasha Projects & Mr Jayaram Shetty, Managing Director, Laxmi Sai Investments & Developers, Hubballi

– Lifetime achievement award – Mr.Ravi Puravankara, Founder &Chairman, Puravnnkara Ltd & Dr KC Naik, Founder & Managing Director, Mahabaleshwara Promoters & Builders, Mangaluru

Bengaluru:

Dwelling above 1500 sft : Klassic Enterprises. For Klassic Landmark

Dwelling below 1500 sft: Rohan Housing for Rohan Iksha

Villas & Row Houses: NVT Quality Lifestyle Projects for NVT Lifesquare

Commercial Complex: Vaishnavi Infrastructure for Vaishnavi Techpark

Innovative Asset Class – Senior Living: Primus Lifespaces for Primus Reflection

Best CSR activity: Brigade Foundation

Karnataka North & South:

Karnataka North:

Dwelling below 1500 sft : BM Associates Hubballi. For BM Garden

Plotted development – less than 10 acres: Siddharth Realty Vijaypura for Model Colony

Plotted development – more than 10 acres: Kalaskar & Associates, Kalaburgi for Sharddha Metropolis

Commercial/ Shopping Mall: Ambizone Infrastructure Kalaburgi for Orchid Malls

Innovative Asset Class – Club: Siddharth Realty Vijaypura for Spoorthy Club

Best CSR activity: Siddharth Realty Vijaypura

Karnataka South:

Dwelling below 1500 sft : Sankalp Constructions Mysuru. For Temple Tree

Commercial/ Shopping Mall: Asiya Developers Karwar for Asiya Business Park

Best CSR activity: Beary’s Properties & Development, Mangaluru

Members from all across Karnataka attended the awards night.

Mr.Chaitanya Kulkarni, President, CREDAI Karnataka said, “The CARE Awards is a way for us to recognize members of the real estate fraternity who have done exemplary work in the field and to encourage others to do the same. It is very prestigious for the members as it is a recognition from CREDAI.”

Mr.Bhaskar T Nagendrappa, President of CREDAI-Bengaluru said, “This is a platform to recognize the efforts of real estate development across the state. Let these awards be an inspiration for all to excel in their field.”

These winners were chosen by an eminent jury panel based on presentations made in each category.

Mumbai, February 23, 2023 – In line with its vision to support Indian MSMEs, DBS Bank India announced its partnership with eSamudaay today. eSamudaay (a SAAS-based solutions provider, owned and operated by Nirmund Digital Distributions Private Limited), focuses on non-metro towns and cities, providing digital solutions on both the buyer and seller side and logistic support to make doing business on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) convenient for smaller players in the market. With this partnership, DBS Bank India aims to meet the needs of SMEs and MSMEs while conducting business through ONDC and expanding its digital solutions beyond traditional banking.

Under this alliance, which was finalized on Republic Day (January 26, 2023), DBS Bank India will gain deeper insights into the end user’s requirements and can offer them customized solutions. Focusing on a more inclusive offering, the Bank will leverage its robust, globally-renowned digital capabilities and go beyond traditional banking to offer bundled and bespoke cash management solutions to cater to the diverse needs of SMEs and MSMEs – such as efficiently managing collections, payments, payroll, liquidity management, and financial products. As eSamudaay’s financial partner, DBS Bank India will pilot their solutions in a few South Indian cities such as Udupi, Thanjavur, Mangalore and Mysore, with a long-term plan to cover 24 cities across India, managing end-to-end flows of the entire supply chain in those cities.

Divyesh Dalal, Managing Director & Head – Global Transaction Services at DBS Bank India, said ” Our endeavor has always been to enable our customers to drive efficiency and growth through customer-focused, digital solutions. This partnership furthers our commitment to empowering MSMEs, especially those beyond metro and tier-1 markets. We are excited to partner with eSamudaay, who share our ethos of enabling businesses to grow through innovation. We look forward to offering our customized financial solutions to local businesses and contributing towards the growth of India’s burgeoning e-commerce market.”

Expressing confidence at what could become a unique growth model for India and other countries, Anup Pai, co-founder and CEO of eSamudaay said, “Our team is happy to partner with a global bank that has taken a futuristic stand on decentralization as a means to spread the wealth, as well as provide the financial resources to individuals and communities to expand their business. We have created a digital solution for decentralized, inclusive economic growth and believe that in DBS Bank India, we have found the right partner to offer a slew of financial products for local commerce to thrive.”

DBS believes in delivering a banking experience that is safe, transparent, and hassle-free. Recently DBS Bank India partnered with Gofrugal Technologies to help SMEs catalog their products quickly and expand their sales channels via ONDC. Earlier, DBS Bank India launched a first-of-its-kind digital and paperless trade financing solution for freight forwarders that leverages Electronic Way (eWay) bill verification for digitalizing and simplifying trade transactions.

eSamudaay works with various stakeholders, including local associations, the chamber of commerce, and financial institutions, to digitalize local trade. This new-age technology company helps businesses become self-reliant and compete with larger organizations. The Open Network ensures that potentially every seller gets enhanced discovery opportunities, not to mention the possibility of trading overseas as the model develops.

DBS Bank India leverages the power of ecosystems and technology to help clients connect across the value chain and provide enabling solutions that drive efficiency and synergies for growth. Furthering its goal of financial inclusion and digital penetration in the country, DBS Bank India offers an online credit solutions platform, “DBS Digital Business Loans,” which ensures easy access to business credit for the entire spectrum of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, offering up to Rs 20 crore in credit.

As per data from the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, as of 25th November 2022, the Udyam Registration portal registered 12,201,448 MSMEs1. Indian MSMEs are rapidly adopting digital payments over cash, with 72% of payments done through the digital mode compared with 28% of cash transactions. The rise in digital adoption presents prospects for further growth in the sector.

India  Feb 22, 2023: Procter & Gamble India today announced the ‘Lead With Care’ Program that offers holistic support to employees who are caregivers to children with disabilities and special needs. Effective April 1, 2023, this program will enable employees to avail early preventive care and treatment for children impacted by specific neurodevelopmental, cognitive, behavioral, or physical impairments. The Program includes medical coverage across diagnosis, doctor consultations, treatment, cost of medicines and devices, and builds on top of the existing medical support the company extends to all its employees and their families, including employees of the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, the Company will facilitate specialized and trained day-care support via certified partners and shall provide an employee assistance program (EAP) available 24×7 to all employees and their families to navigate this journey.

With this, P&G India is pioneering holistic support to employees who are caregivers to children with disabilities and special needs, not just for the industry in India, but also for P&G globally, serving as a learning ground for other markets.

Srinivas P.M. – Head, of Human Resources, P&G India Subcontinent said, “At P&G, CARE is the cornerstone of our people policy – CARE for our people and their families. We have undertaken deliberate efforts to prioritize their health and well-being, which is yielding visible results. Several studies indicate that early diagnosis and treatment of disabilities can positively impact the long term. With ‘Lead With Care’ our endeavour is to help our people avail early-stage medical and care interventions for their children, which can significantly impact their growth and overall quality of life. We also understand that this can be a challenging phase for our people, and therefore are extending our Employee Assistance Program to get the necessary help in their journey.

This is in line with our philosophy that prevention is better than cure. We believe that only when our people and their families are truly happy and healthy at their core, is when they will be able to bring their full selves to work. With this, and several other initiatives, we continue to Lead With Care.”

Details of ‘Lead With Care’:

UNICEF estimates that 1 in 10 of all children worldwide have disabilities. Early intervention becomes a critical first step as several studies indicate that early detection and early intervention can avoid the precipitation of several of disabilities and can reduce the impact the disability may have on the child and the family. With this approach, the ‘Lead With Care’ program includes:

– Medical Coverage: For over 10 types of treatments including diagnosis, consultations, treatment, cost of specialized devices, and medicines for eligible dependent children up to 18 years of age. This enables employees to avail of early-stage medical interventions and diagnoses which can significantly impact the quality of life and the overall development of their children. These focused interventions range from medical devices to cognitive therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy including neuro rehabilitation, and prostheses/orthoses among others.

– Day Care Support: Enabling employees to avail specialized daycare facilities for their children by facilitating specialized and trained day-care services via certified partners. This aims to help working parents ensure quality care and a specialized teaching environment is always available to their children so that the intervention and recovery continues unhindered.

– 24×7 Employee Assistance Helpline (EAP): The EAP facility is available to all employees, round the clock, where they can seek specialized counseling, assistance, and guidance through difficult moments along the journey

Caring for its employees and their families has truly been the cornerstone of the culture at P&G India, with the topmost priority being their health and well-being. Recognizing that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work across a diverse workforce, the Company has evolved its medical benefits program periodically, basis real employee experiences and needs, which resulted in the curation of a more holistic program that includes the ‘Lead With Care’ Program.

In line with Saudi’s Vision 2030 and to welcome more than 2 million Indian visitors this year, Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) has strengthened its commitment to driving awareness about tourism and hospitality in its region. As part of the delegation visit to India earlier this month, this mission program featured a range of meetings, industry round-tables, and networking events including participation at the One World Travel Market in Mumbai (OTM) and the South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) in Delhi. This was followed up with two roadshows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) has also, commenced an official partnership with the world’s preeminent Twenty 20 cricket league, the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) at an event held in Mumbai last week.

India is a key source market for Saudi. As part of Saudi’s ambition to achieve 100 million visits annually by 2030, India represents immense potential as it is expected to be one of Saudi’s largest tourism source markets by then. During the course of these engagements, STA held 3,000-plus meetings with leading trade partners and travel buyers to promote Saudi as a holiday destination. They also shared insights into the growing trends of MICE tourism and budget travel.

On his recent visit to India, Alhasan Aldabbagh, APAC President at Saudi Tourism Authority, said, “We are delighted to showcase the beauty of Saudi and its diverse tourism offerings all across India. We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from our partners here and STA is committed to investing, learning and working closely with them to ensure our product offerings are attractive for the Indian market. These engagements are
important in helping us achieve ambitious goals and drive visitation numbers from India to Saudi. Last year, we saw 1 million visitors, which has encouraged us to become ambitious about doubling the figures from this region this year. India, we believe, will be the number one tourism source market for us in 2030 as we aim to welcome more than 12 million visitors by then.”

“Saudi is a great holiday destination with rich cultural, historical, and spiritual sites. It is home to 6 UNESCO world heritage sites and more than 10,000 archaeological sites that are unexplored and that we are waiting to be explored. This includes historical places like Al Balad in Jeddah and Turaif in Diriyah – the birthplace of Saudi.

We also offer a variety of tourism experiences such as the Boulevard World in Riyadh city, and Bujairi Terrace home to over 20 retail and lifestyle brands including four Michelin-starred restaurants, the Red Sea Project, and much more. Apart from our tourism product offerings, we are also working on many exciting partnership and sponsorship opportunities like the IPL. We believe that the partnership with IPL is one of the first steps in strengthening a culture for the game of cricket in Saudi.” Alhasan Aldabbagh added.

Earlier this month we launched the 96-hour stopover visa with a 1-night complimentary hotel stay when you fly with Saudia, which makes Saudi more accessible than ever. The Stopover Visa is open to all leisure, business, and religious travelers traveling on SAUDIA and flynas. STA is also opening up 9 dedicated visa centers in India by the end of this month, to increase the accessibility and connectivity for Indian travelers to enter Saudi.

Saudi is a diverse destination. It boasts leisure and entertainment hubs, including the fastest F1 street circuit and is known to host the world’s largest dance music festival, among others. Find out more about Saudi’s tourism offerings and visa programs on the Visit Saudi website.

New Delhi, 22 February 2023: Vedanta Limited has been declared as the preferred bidder for Sijimali bauxite block, located in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of Odisha, under the mineral block auction conducted by the Government of Odisha.

The block is a strategic fit for Vedanta given its size, location, and bauxite quality. The block has estimated reserves of 311 million tonnes of bauxite.

Bengaluru, 22 February 2023: On the 16th and 17th of February 2023, Manipal College of Health Professionals conducted an International Symposium on Early Intervention and Family Centred Services: Bridging the Gap to Participation and Inclusion for Children with Disabilities in collaboration with Amar Seva Sangam, University of Toronto and McGill University; sponsored by Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. This symposium is the first of its kind to be hosted by Manipal College of Health Professions.

The symposium was inaugurated by the chief guest, Dr. Prachi Kaul, Director, of Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute appreciated the Manipal Academy of Higher Education for getting prestigious conference awards funded by Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. The guests of honor are Shri Sankara Raman Srinivasan, CA and visionary behind the Enabling Inclusion Program at Amar Seva Sangam, Dr. Karunakar Kotegar A, Director of International Collaborations, Dr. Padmaraj Hedge, Dean of Kasturba Medical College were present during the inauguration.

The organizing chairperson, Dr. G. Arun Maiya, Dean of Manipal College of Health Professions welcomed the gathering, Dr. Dinesh Krishna, Director of the strategy, enabling inclusion App, Amar Seva Sangam gave the overview and objectives of the symposium and convener, Dr. John Solomon, Head Department of Physiotherapy at Manipal College of Health Professions proposed the vote of thanks.

The symposium was focused on a partnership approach to health care, with families as the major stakeholders in the decision-making process. The symposium was held in the hybrid mode with offline as well as online participants and delegates from MAHE, University of Toronto, McGill University Canada, Amar Seva Sangam, and Chennai participated. Over 175 participants were a part of this symposium making it an incredible experience. The symposium hosted a total of 18 speakers (10 National and eight International) with nine of the speakers presenting their speeches in person while rest nine joined us online.

Gurugram, 22 February 2023: Six women entrepreneurs met on the opening day of the three-day GSV -Emeritus India Summit, in Gurugram, to discuss the urgent need to close the gender gap that women in the workforce are facing. The panel was comprised of Ashley Chiampo, Chief Learning Officer, Emeritus; Smita Deorah, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, LEAD; Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital; Prerna Jhunjhunwala, Founder and CEO, of Creative Galileo; Supriya Paul, CEO, Josh Talks, and Lisa Tenorio, SVP, Learning Design, Harvard Business Publishing.

They were part of a panel discussion titled “Power of Women Leading Innovation” that explored the impact women leaders are making in their respective communities, and how they are leveraging education and entrepreneurship to create positive change.

“Only 6% of venture-funded businesses in India are co-founded by a woman. Yet, if you look at the CEO level, it is only 2%. As per a study we did recently, 70% of the women who wished to start their businesses claimed they mostly pitch to male investors. 68% of them believe that raising money is more difficult because of their gender. We must initiate discussions about this and look for solutions,” said Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital.

The panel also explored the challenges women have had to face as they strive to lead. Prerna Jhunjhunwala, Founder and CEO, of Creative Galileo, said that “Women make up 75% of all teachers. When we consider Principals, this figure drops to 50%. When we consider tech founders, the figure drops to 6%. And less than 1% when it comes to policymakers. As a founder, I firmly feel that this needs to change. We also need to change the mindset of people to foster the right environment for women entrepreneurs.”

The world’s most brilliant and influential leaders in education innovation, as well as, Indian government decision-makers gathered on the first day of the three-day summit to exchange ideas and develop a narrative about the future of the Indian ed-tech sector and its function in leveraging learning to transform lives around the world.

Over three days, the summit will feature speakers including Hon’ble Minister Smriti Irani, Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Sandhya Devanathan (Meta), Anant Agarwal (edX), Sandeep Singhal (Westbridge Capital), Vani Kola (Kalaari), Deborah Quazzo (GSV Ventures), Alakh Pandey (Physics Wallah), Vivian Wu (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) Madan Pilutla (Indian School of Business), Rajendar Pawar (NIIT), and other eminent leaders from Blackstone, Accel, MIT, Harvard, upgrade, Simplilearn, Duolingo, Classplus and more.