Archive: January 31, 2023

Starting 2023 on a high note Radio City bags two awards at India Audio Summit & Awards 2023

India, 31st January 2023: Radio City, India’s leading FM Radio station, has been awarded two accolades at the India Audio Summit Awards 2023. With the mission to recognize and honor excellence in the audio entertainment industry, Indian Television along with Radio & Music aimed to award those who have made contributions to radio, podcasts, audiobooks, and technology. Held on 24th January 2023, the award ceremony was conducted at Chillin’ Kitchen and Bar, Andheri West, Mumbai.

RJ Ginnie has won The Best Morning Show award for ‘Kaam Wapsi’ and The Best CSR Initiative Award has been awarded to ‘Aapni Bhasha Aapno Swag’. Catering to the rhythm of the Indian heart, Radio City has consistently designed innovative content that reverberates with its audience.

Commenting on receiving the awards, Mr. Kartik Kalla, Chief Creative Officer, Radio City, said, “We are elated to start the new year on a high note as Radio City wins two awards at the prestigious India Audio Summit and Awards 2023. We have always ensured in offering locally viable content that resonates with the audience preferences and adds meaning to their life. During the lockdown, we launched various thought-provoking IPs to motivate and encourage listeners to continue thriving. Radio City has always been dedicated to evolving with changing times and building relatable content that contributes majorly to the listeners’ lives.”

Since its inception, Radio City has been spearheading growth in the audio entertainment sector. With changing times, Radio City has integrated technologically driven content and expanded its existing IPs to help the growth of the sector and its sustenance. This marks one of the many accolades received by the brand over the years and continues to show its commitment to staying true to its content and audience.

Sabre Corporation Named Among Best CEO and Best Company Culture Winners by Comparably

Bangalore – Jan. 31, 2023 – Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), a leading software and technology provider powering the global travel industry, recently received the Best Company Culture award and Best CEO award from Comparably, a workplace culture site and corporate brand reputation platform. Sabre was rated in the top 50 in these categories among 70,000 companies.

The award for Best CEO is determined based on the ratings employees give to the company’s chief executive and Best Company Culture is based on employee feedback across 16 different categories including leadership, team, environment, compensation, career growth, perks & benefits, work-life balance and company outlook.

“Culture starts with leadership so it makes sense that Sabre would have the honor of earning both of these prestigious awards,” said Shawn Williams, Sabre’s chief people officer.

Sean Menke joined Sabre in 2015 as President of Sabre Travel Network and is currently the Chairman and CEO. Under Menke’s leadership, Sabre has made strategic improvements to be held as the premier global technology platform in travel, serve as a great partner for its customers and further establish itself as an employer of choice.

“During his career in the travel industry, Sean has consistently led the way for change, challenging the status quo to help the industry evolve and find the best path toward the future of travel,” said Williams. “Like the rest of the travel industry, Sabre faced many challenges over the past few years, and, thanks to Sean’s steady and forward-thinking leadership, we are better positioned today for the future.”

Underpinning Sabre’s culture is the company’s commitment to its customers and to its team members. The company fosters an inclusive environment, where team members – with their wide and rich variety of differences – can bring their full selves to work, contribute their best and feel a sense of belonging. Additionally, Sabre’s Work From Anywhere policy and company-wide year-end break demonstrate the organization’s best-in-class culture.

Williams elaborates, “Sabre leaders are dedicated to their team members, provide transparent communication and have a relentless focus on team success. This well-deserved recognition is a testament to our leaders and team members’ passion for Sabre and to each other.”

Union Budget 2023 Expectations – Hyderabad Inc

Budget Expectations from Hyderabad Inc:

Mr. Gusti Noria, President, The Hyderabad Public School Society 

“The allocation towards the education sector in the Union Budget is almost double compared to the previous year and we consider it as a step that is both welcome and much overdue. It is our opinion that there must be more emphasis on developing k-12 students holistically, in a manner that facilitates them to emerge as full-fledged adults. We must prioritize educating students and even, teachers about digital literacy and make it one of the main focus of this year’s education budget. There is significant development in emerging technologies with each passing year and there has never been a better time to invest and evaluate about the impact it would have on growing children.

The recent chatter around ChatGPT has raised concerns about ethics, cheating, and plagiarism. Today’s kids are ‘digital natives’ and we need to invest in how they access, process, and promulgate information they gain from digital spaces in a manner that is healthy and non-obstructive to their overall well-being. 

While tax exemption of emerging EdTechs is a welcome move, academic partnerships with EdTech companies should not just be limited to universities. Schools in the K-12 sector should also get adequate funding and infrastructure to partner with emerging EdTech companies to train students and staff on digital literacy, sustainability, health, and nutrition in an effort to truly make them ‘future-ready.’ Another effective step to enhance global learning could be to encourage exchange programmes for both staff and students”.

Mr. Siddharth Arora, COO, Paradise Food Court Pvt Limited.  

“The F&B and Hospitality Sectors are undeniably some of the worst hit industries during COVID. However, the industry also recorded a phenomenal bounce back as a leading contributor in the service industry. A positively inclined budget in favor of offering input tax credit to the restaurants would be an impetus for the industry post-pandemic. Against the backdrop of the economy’s spiraling inflation, this move will ensure that we are posed to manage our PL and avoid forcing the costs onto the consumers.”

Mr. Gautam Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO, Quixy 

“The past union budget focused copiously on amplifying the digital ecosystem in the country. But to explore a comprehensive digital India, the private and government sectors must be incentivized to adopt indigenous digital solutions developed particularly in the MSME sector. Currently, startups can avail of a tax holiday for 3 years since incorporation. However, the ideal exemption should be 10 years, in view of the high cost of solution development. As positive employment drivers, startups also require government intervention in the expensive affair of hiring and retaining the right talent to drive growth.

Furthermore, despite having several means of financial backing like PMRY, Credit Guarantee Fund for MSMEs, Start-up India, etc., MSMEs face tremendous challenges in gaining the right window of financial support. This discourages them from becoming an intrinsic part of the Digital India program. Hence, to lead the startups onwards and upwards, a single-window process to enable the right financial support from government would be incentivizing for MSMEs. This will catalyze and leverage the full inherent potential of the Indian technology industry to become champions of digitization”.

ORGAN India hosts an organ donation awareness session at Rabindranath World School, Gurugram

31st Jan 2023, Gurgaon: ORGAN India, The Organ Receiving & Giving Awareness Network (ORGAN) India, an initiative by Parashar Foundation was invited by the Rabindranath World School, Gurugram to deliver an awareness talk on Organ donation on the 25th of January, 2023.

Dr. Sourabh Sharma, Manager, Projects and Outreach at ORGAN India and with Mr. Arbaz, Project Associate at ORGAN India, engaged the students in an informative session about the importance of organ donation. The students were enlightened about the growing organ donation crisis in our country. As per statistics 5 lakh people need organ transplant surgery in our country every year but a meagre percentage of these patients are able to receive an organ. Helping the students get acquainted with the process, Dr Sourabh and Mr Arbaz informed them that one person can donate multiple organs and can save about 8-10 lives.

A total of 150 students attended this workshop with the Principal and teachers of the Rabindranath World School, Gurugram.

“At Rabindrabath World School we ensure that our students are aware about their social responsibilities and they grow up to be citizens that work for the betterment of the country. This collaboration with ORGAN India to raise awareness about organ donation in India was a very important and informative session. We are happy that our students got to know about the ground realities and the process”, shared Mr Gaurav Tomar, Vice Chairman, Rabindranath World School

“An instrumental part of our initiatives is to directly connect with the public in raising awareness. This session was also in the same vein. It is important for children to be aware about organ donation as they are the future of our country. The more aware they are, the more aware their parents will be. The government in many states have issued directives to schools to ensure there are talks on organ donation at least once a year in schools. Till now ORGAN India ( The Organ Receiving & Giving Awareness Network) has covered more than 170+ schools. Just as the ‘say no to cracker’ campaign gained popularity with children, we wish to make organ donation a household phrase so it can be discussed within families. We need to ensure that the message that goes out is positive and we are happy to collaborate with Rabindranath World School for the same”, shared Ms Anika Parashar, Chairperson Parashar Foundation

ORGAN India has an MOU with the District Administration, Gurgaon under which they are working with various schools, hospitals, clinics, colleges etc. in Gurgaon to conduct awareness sessions on organ donation.

Flexnest launches FlexDubs- a bluetooth enabled earbuds

New Delhi, 31st January 2023: Flexnest, a leading D2C fitness brand, has forayed into the rapidly-growing audio market with the launch of its state-of-the-art ‘FlexDubs’ – bluetooth earphones, that are equipped with AI-enabled voice assistance. Founded in 2021, Flexnest, today, has a user base of more than 70,000+ consumers. The brand is taking huge strides to complete their connected equipment portfolio with the launch of the ‘FlexDubs’.

The newly-launched ‘FlexDubs’ are feature-packed lightweight earbuds designed in Germany, that are bolstered with deep bass technology and a unique design. Offering Active Noise Cancellation for consumers supported by 40db reduction, the earphones offer up to 35 hours of battery backup on a single charge. Its IPX5 rating makes the ‘FlexDubs’ sweat resistant.

In terms of specifications and features, the ‘FlexDubs’ are compatible with both Android and iOS devices and have support for Google Assistant and Siri voice assistant. These have smooth touch buttons to control music, change sound modes and receive/reject calls. At the behest of two different sound modes, the users can effortlessly switch to active noise cancellation mode in a noisy environment, and to environmental noise cancellation when they’re looking to block any external noise to garner a better audio experience.

Flexnest has noticed a white space between Indian brands like BoAt, Noise etc. and international brands like JBL, OnePlus etc. The Flexnest FlexDubs, are priced at Rs 2,999 and positioned right in the middle of Indian and International brand’s products.

Speaking about the launch Mr. Raunaq Singh Anand, co- founder of Flexnest said “We at Flexnest continue to expand our product portfolio to serve the needs of our consumers’ entire fitness journey. Music and Hearables are an important element of working out and Flexnest users can now experience a quality sound experience that has been specifically tuned for their high powered workouts”

Customers can buy the product directly from Flexnest’s website or visit partners like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa Man, Nykaa Fashion & Tata Cliq Luxury.

M3M Foundation Honours its Lakshya Scholar, Radhika Keshari, the Youngest Professional Indo-Western Musician in The Golden Book of World Records: Launches Lakshya Scholarship for Performing Arts Students

Gurugram, 31 January 2023: M3M Foundation’s Lakshya Programme has successfully marked its 1^st anniversary on 30th January 2023. In celebration of its first anniversary, M3M Foundation launched the “Lakshya Scholarship” for talented children in the performing arts. The launch event took place at The Apparel House, AEPC, Sector 44, Gurugram, Haryana.

The ‘Lakshya- Udaan Hauslon’ Ki program was conceptualized a year ago to support the country’s talented youngsters in the fields of arts and sports. The unwavering support offered by M3M Foundation has helped several athletes stand out at various International, National, State, and District-level tournaments.

The ceremony started with lighting the auspicious diya by Mr. Roop Bansal, Director, M3M Group, Ms. Aishwarya Bansal, Trustee, M3M Group, Ms. Payal Kanodia, Trustee, M3M Foundation, Mr. Surajpal Ammu, a renowned social worker. More than 500 people, including representatives and community members from nearby villages of Gurgaon, Sohna, and Tavdu witnessed this mega event.

 The Lakshya Scholarship event was fully dedicated to Lakshya scholars of the M3M Foundation. Dr. Aman Bathla, the world’s fastest pianist having 52 World Records, was the Guest of Honour. His presence was a big draw at the event, with a mesmerizing performance by him and his students. The event’s other main attraction was the electrifying performance by Mr. Kamlesh Patel, a specially-abled Indian dancer, model, and speaker, also known as the pride of Baroda. Known for his star performance on the reality television show Dance India Dance, Kamlesh has given over a thousand performances in India and abroad.

 Another outstanding performance at the event was delivered by Ms. Radhika Keshari, a Lakshya scholar who has set a World Record for being the “Youngest Professional Indo- Western Music Performer” and entered her name in the Golden Book of World Records. Radhika has sung the Dashavatar Stotram in 10 different combinations of melodic notes of Indian classical music while playing the grand piano to create a fusion of Indian and Western classical music.

 Expressing her happiness, Dr. Payal Kanodia, Trustee of M3M Foundation, said, “This is a proud moment for M3M Foundation, which has always championed the cause of supporting young people’s participation in sports and arts. As we broaden our horizons, we are now supporting gifted children in the performing arts to hone their skills and become well-known personalities.”

She added, “India is a talent-rich country in sports and other fields. We’ve seen innumerable talented young people giving mind-blowing performances in dance, singing, theatre, and other genres. With our consistent support and their ongoing efforts, we’re sure that these high achievers will reach their full potential.”

 Lakshya scholarship will now support the development of talented children and youth from socio-economically deprived communities to hone their performing arts skills. It will prepare them to participate in district, State, National, and international competitions to ignite the passion for music, dance, and theatre among children and youth. The focus will also be to transform each individual into a role model for their respective fields and communities.

 M3M Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the M3M Group, strives to promote equitable development to realise a more prosperous India. The Foundation supports government efforts and takes aggressive measures in the developmental regime with the goal of fostering development and holistic growth for all. The Foundation’s prime focus is health, education, disaster management, and socio-economic development to transform a rural lifestyle.

PHDCCI Interactive Session of Industry with Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner (Haryana) & other Sr. Officials of Employees Provident Fund Organization

HR & IR Committee of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PHDCCI) organized an Interactive Session of Industry with Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner (Haryana) & other Sr. Officials of Employees Provident Fund Organization, in EPFO Premises, Faridabad. The Guest of Honour of the event was Ms. Anita Sinha Dixit – Addl. CPFC (Haryana), and the other officers of EPFO attending the event included Sh. Prashant Sharma – Regional Commissioner 1 (Gurugram West), Sh. Bhupendra Yadav – Regional Commissioner 1 (Zonal Office), Sh. Uday Gupta, Regional Commissioner II (Faridabad), and Sh. Vikram Singh, Regional Commissioner II (Gurugram East). Sh. Ashish Wig, Chair, HR & IR Committee, PHDCCI gave the theme address and moderated the Q&A session.

The program was well attended, with HR officials of various industries participating in the event. Participants were able to get on the spot solutions to the problems faced by them, and they also gave valuable suggestions to the officials.

Sh. Ashish Wig, welcomed the participants and briefed them about PHDCCI and the objectives of the present interactive session. He said that a similar interactive session was organized in Chandigarh which was also well received with tremendous response from all stakeholders. He informed about the Chamber’s plans to organize more such sessions in other cities of India in the coming months. The objective of such events is to disseminate knowledge about the new initiatives of EPFO and also to discuss the issues that industries face in implementing the schemes of EPFO, and to also know the expectations of the Organization from Industry.

Ms. Anita Sinha Dixit, Addl. CPFC (Haryana) mentioned in her address that EPFO is one of the world’s largest social security organization. EPFO provides three benefits to its members i.e Provident Fund, Pension to members & family members, and insurance benefits in case of unfortunate death of the member. EPFO has always been improving its systems. The huge emphasis of Govt. of India on digital transformation for rendering Govt. services, EPFO has continuously improved its processes and the journey of digitalization to enhance the employees experience, provide transparency, and reduce time and efforts in making compliance by the employers. Today, most of the employees’ interface can be handled through the online process including change in employment, withdrawal request for advances, final settlement, updating the KYC details, seeding of UAN with Aadhar, PAN, Bank account etc. UMANG app is also highly popular among members which provides easy access to the facilities of EPFO to its members. The digital initiatives of EPFO has not only improved the quality of service delivery to members but also provided ease of business to the employers.

Ms. Dixit shared about some of the achievements of EPFO initiatives such as Common Registration Portal i.e OLRE, Women Empowerment desk in EPFO Regional Offices, “NirbadhSewa”, EDLI and Pension Calculator, “ChintanShivirs”, “NidhiAapkeNikat”, “Pradhan MantriGaribKalyanYojna”(PMGKY) and “Aatmnirbhar Bharat RozgarYojana”

Sh. BhupendraYadav, RC I, mentioned thatIndianworking population is the actual growth engine which needs to be given confidence that Govt. organizations, Non Govt. organizations, employers, industrialists and HR Heads takes care of them and their families even when theyare busy in delivering their responsibilities. EPFO was established for taking care of such social security needs of the employees. It becomes a responsibility of all of us to provide this EPFO’s social security to all employees who are legally entitled for this or even to those whom Govt. has not made it mandatory. He thanked PHDCCI for organizing such a wonderful session for the benefit of society.

Sh. Prashant Sharma, RC 1, Sh. BhupendraYadav, RC 1, Sh. Uday Gupta, RC II & Sh. Vikram Singh, RC II addressed to the questions of the participants during “Technical Session & Interaction with Industry”

The interactive session have been a great success and next such session is scheduled to be held in Raipur and Varanasi on 10th February 2023 and 23rd February 2023 respectively.

TurboHire now available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace

India, January 31, 2023: Recruitment automation platform TurboHire announced its availability in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. TurboHire’s customers can now take advantage of the productive and trusted Azure cloud platform, with streamlined deployment and management.

Founded in 2019, TurboHire seeks to address traditional hiring inefficiencies through a simple solution that recruiters can install and deploy immediately. Its end-to-end platform combines AI and natural language processing to offer a human-like intelligence that identifies high-calibre candidate matches with 98% accuracy. The platform, which can be integrated with any existing HR software, includes 70 key features to simplify the recruitment process, from collaboration tools to ‘top 0 matching’ to interview scheduling. It deploys smart recruitment solutions that reduce hiring costs by up to 65% and time-to-hire by 78%. In the last three years, TurboHire has built a roster of over 150 clients who have collectively saved millions in hiring costs through the platform.

The Hyderabad-based startup’s most recent funding round brought in $2 million from investors like Pentathlon VC, The Chennai Angels, T-Fund, Mumbai Angels, and Hyderabad Angels. The team’s goal is to maintain a 20% MoM growth as they expand across international markets and to prioritise enterprise-level clients with 1000+ employees.

“We are delighted to be in the Microsoft Azure marketplace and give our customers access to its trusted tech. This is an important step in our expansion plan and we’re looking forward to building awareness of our platform among major B2B players using Microsoft Azure. This will further help us drive digital transformation and boost our business by helping us deliver impactful, human centred solutions to our customers.” said CEO and Co-founder, Deepak Agrawal.

Jake Zborowski, General Manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. said, “We’re pleased to welcome TurboHire to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, which gives our partners great exposure to cloud customers around the globe. Azure Marketplace offers world-class quality experiences from global trusted partners with solutions tested to work seamlessly with Azure.”

The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use.

Budget Expectations quote from Mr Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, IndiaMART

“My expectation from Budget for MSMEs has always been the same which is the simplification of Tax regulations and other compliances. Usually small businesses are a one-man army, or at best, functions with limited manpower. Hence, getting the compliances done is costly and time consuming. Its simplification will help MSMEs to devote more time to their business and innovation.

Implementation of GST has simplified the tax regime as in the erstwhile vat regime, it was quite complicated. Although, it still needs further simplification.

Similarly, as they work on a long credit cycle and slim profit margin, easy access to credit at a cheaper rate becomes crucial. This must be addressed by the government to help doing business easy” – Mr Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, IndiaMART