Category business

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Hult Prize is a year-long competition founded in 2009, which takes place in over 3000 campuses across 120 countries, where students get a chance to show how they can make a difference by solving a social issue and making this world a better place.

The Hult Prize Organizing Committee at XIM Bhubaneshwar conducted the OnCampus Grand Finale round on 5th February 2023. Eight teams made it to the Campus-Finale round and displayed competence of the highest order. The event was graced by an esteemed panel comprising Susmita Misra – Founder and CEO of The Magic of Sarees, Bidyut Bhanjdeo, Chief Business Officer at Raymond, Nirdosh Chouhan, CTO at Melorra and Kanti Prakash Brahma, Global Production Controller at H&M, Aditya Agarwal, Co-founder and CMO at Campus Sutra.

The judges kicked off the event by elucidating the importance of entrepreneurial spirit. They also urged students to take part in competitions such as The Hult Prize, which is an international event cutting across nations and thus providing invaluable experience and exposure.

Later the teams commenced their presentations with the theme being “Redesigning  Fashion”. The presentations showcased many innovative ideas, covering all the business aspects ranging from market segmentation and generating business plans to financials.

The idea of understanding the scope of changes in the fashion industry and innovative suggestions by Team Muffins caught the eye of the judges.

After intense competition among the eight teams, the judges chose Team Muffins, Team Marcos, and Team The Hulks as Winners, First Runner-Up, and Second Runner-Up, respectively. The winning team, Team Muffins, is now looking forward to the next round, which will be an exhilarating ride. They will be representing XIM Bhubaneshwar
in the upcoming rounds and continue hunting for its one-of-a-kind award in seed capital of $1,000,000.

Hyderabad, 18 February 2023: National Miner NMDC signed an Agreement for Collaborative Research with CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar on “Feasibility Studies for Preparation of Fused Magnesia from Kimberlite Tailings” today at its Head Office in Hyderabad. The Agreement was signed between Shri S.K. Chaurasiya, GM, R&D from NMDC, and Dr. Ashok Kumar Sahu, Chief Scientist, and Head, Strategy Planning & Business Development, from CSIR-IMMT in the presence of NMDC’s Director (Production) Shri Dilip Kumar Mohanty, senior officials of NMDC and Dr. Kali Sanjay, Chief Scientist, and Head, Hydro & Electrometallurgy Department, CSIR-IMMT.

NMDC operates the only mechanized diamond mine in Southeast Asia at Panna in Madhya Pradesh. This mine produces around 10 carats of diamond (2g) per 100 tonnes of Kimberlite processed, which is dumped as waste after the recovery of diamonds. Kimberlite tailings are used for the development of value-added products and are also known to be a good source of caustic magnesia. Addressing this research gap for the best utilization of Kimberlite that is available and accumulated over the years at Panna Diamond Mines,

NMDC has initiated the Research Agreement to study the processing and preparation of fused MgO and TiO2.

Speaking on this project, Shri Sumit Deb, CMD, NMDC said, “NMDC is tapping on the opportunity to utilize Kimberlite tailings from our Panna Mines as a resource to produce high-cost fused magnesia. We are confident that our endeavor will lead to converting waste to wealth and import substitution proving to be a significant step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

Kurnool, February 18th, 2023: Infertility is becoming a major concern in India due to erratic lifestyles, consumption of junk food, obesity, delayed parenthood, PCOS, and many other factors. Though 15% of Indian couples have infertility issues, hardly 3% seek fertility assistance. The misconceptions about infertility and the lack of awareness of advanced fertility treatments prevent couples from attaining parenthood. Hence, spreading the good news about advanced technologies and treatment options is the need of the hour.

Oasis Fertility, Kurnool, is one of the reputed fertility centers in Andhra Pradesh that offers highly personalized fertility treatments that are backed by technology. Several couples have attained parenthood with the assistance of Oasis Fertility, Kurnool. The center conducted a mass baby shower to felicitate all mothers-to-be who conceived through IVF treatment.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Vijaya Lakshmi D, Clinical Head and Fertility Specialist, Oasis Fertility, Kurnool stated, “I am very delighted to be part of this wonderful occasion, and my heartfelt wishes to all the mothers-to-be. At Oasis Fertility, we provide all kinds of advanced fertility treatments to both men and women enabling them to have their own biological children. Several million babies have been born out of IVF all over the world and hence couples need to come out of their fears and inhibitions and visit a fertility center if they are unable to conceive even after a year. Couples should also be aware that fertility declines with age and therefore the earlier the intervention, the better the outcomes. The infertility problem is on the rise world over, and due to a lack of awareness only 1% of those seeking treatment. Oasis through advanced technologies is in a position to make couples conceive their own genetic babies. We have a fertility preservation facility in Kurnool, to help patients suffering from cancer, as radiation and chemotherapies such patients undergo, harm their healthy cells. These patients can now do testicular tissue freezing in the case of men and oocyte freezing for women, very few centers have this facility. We are also offering Drug-Free IVF called CAPA IVM for the first time in the country. Oasis has to date fulfilled the dreams of 67000 couples.”

Chief Guest Smt. S.V. Vijayamma Garu, YSRCP Leader, said, earlier women had to bear the blame for not getting pregnant or conceiving a baby and the man went about marrying more women to bear his child. But infertility treatment brought about a change in the mindset and made men realize that the cause for not bearing a child could be due to deficiency in them and that’s a happy development. But the belief of women being responsible for not conceiving continues in rural areas, therefore there is an utmost need to build awareness about infertility treatment in rural areas. To seek infertility treatment people had to go too far to places like Hyderabad and Bangalore, but such advanced treatment is available in Kurnool itself. I look forward to Oasis setting up centers in smaller towns in the neighborhood of Kurnool and reaching out to the semi-urban and rural populace.

Guests of Honour Smt. B.T. Jaya Lakshmi Garu, B.A.N.I.S Yoga Master & National Gold Medalist; said, earlier not bearing a child was considered to be a curse, but today infertility treatment can help couples conceive. Practicing Yoga can help bear healthy children and my advice to all childbearing-age couples is to adopt yoga for a better lifestyle.

Dr. Vinusha Reddy Garu, Gold Medalist, State BJP Spokesperson; said, in our country, there are more than 2.73 crores of childless couples. Our culture giving children is given a lot of importance, though not much prominence is given to this by Westerners. The childless couple endures enormous trauma, especially the women get blamed for it. Oasis is known to provide the latest treatment and is now offering India’s first CAPA IVM (Drug-Free IVF) baby, thus the best possible infertility care in the country. Oasis is also known for its ethical care as trust is very critical in infertility care. Oasis center here is a boon for the people of Kurnool.

Dr. Vijayalakshmi Dasari, Clinical Head & Fertility Specialist, Oasis Fertility; joined the couples who conceived through IVF, along with the kids at the Mass Baby Shower Celebrations, hosted by Oasis Fertility, at Oasis Fertility, Kurnool, today.

India, 18th February 2023: Zee News, one of the leading and most trusted news channels in India, revealed the Dark Secrets of the selection process of India’s cricket team. Chetan Sharma, Chief Selector for The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), made some shocking revelations about the Indian cricket team and the BCCI via a GAME OVER exclusive story, which aired in 9 different languages on 14th February 2023 across Zee Media network.

Chetan Sharma allegedly spoke about the rift between the star players – Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Additionally, he disclosed the truth about how certain types of injections (which are not detectable in a doping test) are used by cricketers to attain full fitness. #Gameover has been one of the top trending keywords for Zee Media’s Story on Twitter. The biggest cricket story revelation also resulted in Chetan Sharma resigning from the post of Chairman Indian Cricket Team.

Commenting on the big story revelation, Rajnish Ahuja, Editor, of Zee News, said, “Viewers and cricket enthusiasts need to know the true picture, to help them differentiate behind the right and the wrongdoings of the society. The media fraternity needs to highlight public stories on regular basis.”

“Zee News has played a huge role in shaping the minds and hearts of our viewers and our country. As a pioneer in the news network, we strongly believe in revealing stories that are not only of public interest but can result in far-fetched social impact. The Big Story on the cricket fraternity has encouraged netizens to understand the truth of the cricket fraternity, ensuring impactful content consumption, and is a great case study capturing the data on the attention span of viewers spread across the country,” added Abhay Ojha, CBO, Zee Media Corporation Limited.

The shocking details revealed in a sting operation and clips of it going viral on social media will highly encourage the world cricket fraternity to pay extra attention and take strict action against any such drug consumption.

Prashant Thakur, Sr. Director & Head – Research, ANAROCK Group

Investment in residential real estate is a very different kettle of fish than end-user homebuying. When the intention is to return on investment, knowing how the housing asset class is performing is of prime importance. From an ROI perspective, there are two buckets to check – capital appreciation and rental yields. Let’s examine this.

Property Prices

As per ANAROCK Research, the current avg. prices in the top 7 cities are collectively approx. INR 6,150 per sq. ft. If we look back, the last five years have seen an increase of over 11% across the top 7 cities (from INR 5,551 per sq. ft. in 2018 to approx. INR 6,150 per sq. ft. in 2022).

If we delve deeper and consider the yearly trends in the last five years, it emerges that 2022 saw the maximum yearly rise (6%) in average property prices (INR 5,826 per sq. ft. in 2021 to INR 6,150 per sq. ft. in 2022). The previous four years, on the other hand, saw either no change or a maximum of 3-4% y-o-y increase in 2021 against 2020. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, property prices across cities remained range-bound due to a prolonged demand slowdown.

Post the pandemic, demand soared across cities – as did developers’ input costs – causing prices to rise, particularly in 2021 and 2022. Another factor driving prices up is the fact that most sales happening now are by branded developers who have not shied away from price hikes on the back of strong demand and rising construction costs.

Among the cities, southern cities of Bengaluru and Hyderabad have seen maximum 5-yearly increase of 10% in average property prices in last five years. Average property prices in Bengaluru stood at INR 4,894 per sq. ft. in 2018 and went up to INR 5,570 per sq. ft. in 2022. As for Hyderabad, average prices in 2018 in the city stood at INR 4,128 per sq. ft. and had risen to INR 4,620 per sq. ft. in 2022.

Source: ANAROCK Research

Rental Yields

Rental yield saw a decline across most cities in 2020 when compared to 2019 – a natural fallout of the pandemic and its work-from-home and e-schooling ethos. 2021 saw some improvement, with rental yields rising across cities and nearing 2019 levels. However, 2022 saw a decent rise in rental yields, which breached pre-Covid levels of 2019 across all the top 7 cities. This was largely due to a sudden spurt in rental demand with offices and schools reopening.

The current rental demand will remain strong in all cities as urban work opportunities rise and more people migrate to cities.

ANAROCK Research indicates that Bengaluru has the highest rental yield of 3.9% among all major cities, followed by Mumbai with 3.8%.

Outlook for 2023

There is little reason to be pessimistic in the current year, though under-researched investments and a short-term profit perspective must be avoided in 2023.

All the factors that drove up capital appreciation and rental yields are firmly in place, and the profitability potential for both investment rationales remains promising. That said, 2023 will face some headwinds in terms of economic slowdown and inflationary pressure, and this needs to be factored into any investment decision – including for real estate.

The RBI will likely take a pause after a spate of interest rate hikes, so growth momentum will continue. 2023 will continue to be driven by end-user demand, but serious long-term investors will find the market dynamics more than favorable. Property prices are likely to rise by another 5-8% in the larger cities – this bodes well for investors focused on capital appreciation, but also means that rental demand will increase.

Because of the new demand profile, larger-configuration homes will outperform compact affordable housing. Properties by branded large developers will pay better dividends in terms of both rental yields and capital appreciation.

February 18, 2023, Mumbai: Strategic Growth Advisors (SGA), India’s largest investor relations consultancy, partners with PR veterans Rahul Jain and Sudhir Shetty to launch a new-age communication consulting business. With a combined experience of 50+ years, the duo aims to introduce a new brand of storytelling catering to both traditional and internet economy clients.

Rahul and Sudhir aim to build a robust and agile communications brand that will uphold the voice of its clients through its simple, uncluttered and intent-driven storytelling. Having advised over 200 brands thus far, they are well-aligned with the dynamics of evolving communication requirements and aim to provide contemporary and bespoke solutions.

Rahul and Sudhir will bring in intellectual capital and creative thinking capabilities thus making SGA uniquely positioned in the category to offer integrated and end-to-end solutions to businesses across lifecycles. Currently, SGA manages over 250+ clients offering investor relations, corporate reporting, and brand & design services among others.

On Rahul and Sudhir coming as Partners & Jt-CEOs, Samir Shah, Managing Director, SGA said: “We are elated to have Rahul and Sudhir as Partners to launch a new-age communication consulting business. They will strengthen SGA to establish it as a complete stakeholder engagement firm. Rahul’s deep understanding of internet economy businesses and his proven consultancy skills distinctively position him to take SGA Communications’ Practice to its next phase of its growth journey. We are confident that they will be successful in developing a unique approach to brands’ business requirements.

Commenting on his new role as Partner and Jt-CEO – Comms and PR, SGA, Rahul said “Indian public relations and communications industry is at the cusp of a massive transformation driven by the rapid digitisation and expansion of the new economy business. Startups are changing the world order and even disrupting the way businesses are operating across the world. Therefore, communication solutions that are in alignment with the changing times are the need of the hour and that is exactly what we aim to provide. Being India’s premier IR consultancy, SGA will have an edge over others to offer end-to-end communication solutions for both startups and enterprise businesses. Looking forward to exciting times and also extremely thankful to Samir for this association as we embark on this journey to chart out a new phase of growth for our clients and our people.”

On being elevated as Partner and Jt-CEO – Comms and PR, SGA, Sudhir said: “I extend a warm welcome to Rahul for joining us in our new journey. We are confident that our team will benefit immensely from his expertise in building businesses and fast-tracking the growth.

Communication as a business is gaining immense significance to power organizations overall growth and business vision. Today reputation management is at the core of CXOs’ wish list, and this will give us a huge opportunity to carve a niche in the category.

“I take this opportunity to thank Samir for reinforcing his confidence in me and allowing me to expedite our vision for the communications business,” Sudhir added.

Rahul has over 20 years of experience in the communications and PR space. In his last stint of almost a decade with Adfactors PR, he was instrumental in building the Fintech and New Economy space from ground zero. He is well-known in the startup space for curating award winning communication campaigns and building industry first categories such as ‘School EdTech’, ‘Rural Fintech’ ‘Treasury Tech’ etc. He has closely worked with 100+ internet economy brands and thoroughly understands the intricacies of the startup ecosystem. Rahul has been awarded with Reputation Today 40 Young Turks and BW 40U40 PR Professional for building robust business practice and bespoke solutions for clients.

With an overall experience of over 27 years, including a 16-year stint at Adfactors PR, Sudhir is a communications pundit with a deep-rooted understanding of financial markets and financial communications. At Adfactors PR Sudhir, had fostered Public Relations (PR) & Investor Relations (IR) practices that served clients across sectors. He has overseen the communication strategies for complex M&A transactions, crises, corporate activities, Public Offerings for some of the big Indian as well as multinational companies over the years. Sudhir hails from a financial journalist background and has worked across leading wire agencies and a financial daily for over 9 years.

Judge India Solutions, a leading IT staffing company, has proudly announced that it has been recognized as one of the Top 50 most innovative companies by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for its outstanding achievements in the IT industry.

Top 50 most innovative companies by CII is a prestigious award that recognizes excellence and innovation in the IT staffing industry.

Abhishek Agarwal, President of Judge India – Global Delivery at The Judge Group said, “We are thrilled to receive this prestigious award and are grateful to the jury members who recognized our hard work and dedication to innovation and making an impact. This award is a testament to our team’s unwavering commitment to providing exceptional IT solutions to our clients.”

“We would like to thank our clients for their continued trust and support, and we look forward to building on this success and achieving even greater heights in the future,” added Mr. Agarwal.

Judge India Solutions has been a trusted partner to numerous companies, helping them build top-performing IT teams by providing them with the best talent available. With a focus on providing a personalized and client-centric approach, the organization has dedicated itself to helping clients achieve their business goals by providing them with immaculate services tailored to their needs.

The organization is part of a 52-year-old legacy founded by Martin E. Judge Jr. in 1970, as a professional services company offering innovative solutions to leading Fortune 100 companies across the globe. The organization has rapidly expanded its offerings into new industries, and new countries over the past 52 years with a full line-up of professional services across various verticals from 30+ offices located in the US, Canada, Europe, and India.

February 18, 2023, Mumbai: PLANET (Personalised Lending & Assisted NETworks) application by L&T Financial Services (LTFS), a retail-focused non-banking financial company, has achieved the milestone of 2 million downloads. The exponential growth in the number of downloads is attributed to deeper penetration of loan products in rural India through digitization and expansion of loan products in urban India.

The PLANET app, which is one of the highest-rated finance apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store with a score of 4.5 and 4.3 respectively, has generated close to Rs. 1,500 crore business, collections of over Rs. 130 crore and has serviced more than 21 lakh customers as on January 31, 2023.

More than 2 lakh rural customers of L&T Financial Services have downloaded this application to access the various benefits like the convenience of checking loan details, and ease of access to loan-related documents along with specialized services like timely credit scores and daily mandi prices. In fact, the app also offers Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) reminders and is available in 10 regional languages, besides English and Hindi.

Speaking on the milestone, Mr. Dinanath Dubhashi, Managing Director & CEO, L&T Finance Holdings Ltd. said, “Connecting rural India to the digital ecosystem has been one of the key pillars of the government, and I am happy to share that our initiatives in this direction are also gaining momentum. Our strong rural customer base along with our robust digital and data analytics-based platform today enables us to reach out to the last-mile rural customer and introduce, educate, and establish the advantages of technology in making lives simpler. Out of the total downloads of our customer-facing application – PLANET app – more than 10% of the downloads are from rural India. We are proud to have serviced more than 60,000 requests of our rural customers till now. It is interesting to note from our data that rural customers understand the importance of a good credit score as we saw close to 20,000 rural customers check their credit score judiciously on the app. The utility and timely features including mandi prices and calendar reminders for EMI payments are being keenly used by our farm and micro loan customers.”

As a part of the expansion of services to urban customers, PLANET app is constantly evolving to offer exciting features. These include Insta Loans for consumer loans and two-wheeler finance customers

with end-to-end digital journeys. Insta Loans for two-wheeler finance customers is an intuitive autonomous 5-step journey for two-wheeler finance customers. The entire journey from zeroing in on the two-wheeler model, to the knowing exact dealership to visit for delivery can be done through the app. This feature is available for both existing and new LTFS customers.

PLANET app can be downloaded by scanning the QR codes below:

Pune, 18.02.2023: Orchids The International School recently conducted a ‘Yoga for Drivers’ program at its Tathawade branch in Pune. Considering driving is one of the most difficult activities that require physical as well as mental agility. After driving through heavy traffic and handling boisterous young children, the drivers are hardly in a frame of mind to exercise or go for gym activities.

Studies on the work and health of bus drivers indicate that they are at an increased risk of physical and mental occupational ill health. Therefore, the school took this initiative to bring awareness on maintaining good health, especially through Yoga, and how it will benefit their overall well-being. Yoga sessions can help drivers to prevent injuries by improving their flexibility, balance, and posture. This reduces the risk of back pain, neck pain, and other driving-related physical ailments.

The 3 hours long session was conducted by Aarti Karve, a Yoga practitioner who taught a series of powerful Yogic practices, including Yoga Namaskar (Yoga for Well-being), Nadi Shuddhi (Yoga for Peace), Neck Practices (Yoga for Success), Simha Kriya (Yoga for Respiratory Health), and Shambhavi Mudra (Yoga for Inner Exploration).

The program witnessed the participation of around 50 school drivers from different Pune branches of the school. The program received positive feedback from all the drivers present.

Speaking on the program, Nikhil Agrawal, Head of the Center of Excellence said, “At Orchids, we promote and educate about healthy living habits not just to our students but also to support staff. We understand that the job of the school bus driver comes with immense responsibility and requires the utmost patience. Driving safely by following all the safety rules, watching out for rogue drivers, sitting for long hours, breathing polluted air during traffic and driving for long hours, and controlling their emotions leave them mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the day. Thus, we felt stress relieving programs for drivers are required. Exercise and yoga will help reduce stress and lead to healthier lives. Given the positive feedback we got through this program, we are also looking forward to conducting such programs in the future. Their enthusiasm and eagerness were visible as they felt good to be looked after and cared for, making them more cheerful and stress-free while on duty.”

Periodic motivation classes rewarding drivers for their good deeds can help improve the morale of the drivers.

Lenovo Delivers Solid Results as Diversified Growth Engines and Operational Excellence Drive Profitability

“With total revenue of over US$ 400 million across all Lenovo portfolios in India in Q3 FY22/23, we continue to see strong momentum for our services and solutions business in India. We are committed to investing in capability building to deliver for our customers beyond end-point devices and achieve our service-led transformation objectives with a broad suite of pocket-to-cloud offerings. We have taken concrete steps on the ESG front, which help our customers reduce their carbon footprint (CO2 Offset services) and e-waste management (Asset Recovery Services). With the help of new IT solutions, we are on our journey to becoming an end-to-end technology partner that enables intelligent transformation for our customers.” – Shailendra Katyal, Managing Director, Lenovo India