Archive: June 28, 2023

South Indian Bank signs an MOU with Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) for Dealer Financing

Thrissur, June 28, 2023: South Indian Bank (SIB) today signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (Automobile division) for providing the latter’s dealers with financing solutions. Under the partnership, SIB will provide unmatched dealer finance solutions to M&M’s dealers, thereby meeting their vehicle inventory funding requirements.

Speaking on the alliance, Ms. Biji S.S., Senior General Manager & Group Business Head, at South Indian Bank, said, “In line with our customer-centric strategy, we are signing this MoU. This alliance augments our focus on dealer finance business and we are confident that through our diverse finance solutions, we will be able to provide their dealers with inclusive finance options. Our partnership will provide the dealers with more options in funding their vehicle inventory. We are sure that it will create a synergy between our businesses and prove a benchmark in the banking and automobile industry.”

Speaking on the partnership, Mr. Baneswar Banerjee, Vice President – Sales, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “Our association with South Indian Bank will provide our dealer network with suitable inventory financing solutions. We are happy to partner with SIB which carries a similar tradition to us in serving India’s consumers with superior offerings. We look forward to working closely with SIB to further improve our value chain delivery equations and enhance our services.”

The MoU was exchanged between Mr. Rakesh Sen, Vice President, SPOC, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Ms. Biji S.S, Senior General Manager and Group Business Head, South Indian Bank, in the presence of Mr. Amit Jaiswal, DGM – Channel Finance & Dealer Business Development, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mr. Praveen Joy, DGM & Head Transaction banking Group, Mr. Ramesh U, DGM & ZSH, Corporate Business Group, South Indian Bank.

Bandhan Bank triples its branch presence in less than 8 years

June 28, 2023:Bandhan Bank, one of the fastest-growing banks in the country, today has achieved a milestone of tripling its branch presence in less than 8 years of its operations. The Bank now has a total of more than 1,500 bank branches. With a network of another 4,500 banking units that the Bank already has, the total number of banking outlets is now more than 6,000 across the country. The Bank started its journey with 501 branches on August 23, 2015.

The Bank currently serves more than 3 crore customers through a strong network of over 6,000 banking outlets spread across 34 states and union territories in India. It is committed to fulfilling the diverse financial needs of every Indian irrespective of where they reside, what financial product they need, or which banking channel they may prefer – physical or digital.

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, MD & CEO, said, “Today marks an exciting milestone for Bandhan Bank. The rapid growth of the Bank in the past eight years has been a result of the confidence and trust that customers from every corner of the country have reposed in us. India needs a deeper penetration of banking outlets to ensure that everyone has access to banking. With our rapidly growing branch network and digital offerings, Bandhan Bank remains committed to further enhancing convenience, security, and accessibility for our valued customers.”

The Bank has achieved significant strides in its journey of diversification of its asset book and geographical presence. The Bank will continue to expand its presence beyond its traditional regions of east and northeast with an even mix of rural and urban markets. The Bank is also steadily increasing the share of secured loans. The Bank offers a wide range of retail lending products like Home loans, Personal loans, Auto loans, and 2-wheeler loans at attractive interest rates. The Bank has recently started a fully digital savings bank account called Neo Plus digital savings bank account for customer convenience.

New Relic Redefines Application Performance Monitoring with APM 360 to Unlock Daily Insights for All Engineers

Bangalore – June 28, 2023 – New Relic, the all-in-one observability platform for every engineer, launched New Relic APM 360, the industry’s next evolution of application performance monitoring (APM) that goes beyond incident troubleshooting insights for select experts to daily performance, security, and development insights for all engineers. APM 360 correlates all essential telemetry data across the application stack and development cycle, such as deployment changes, key transactions, service-level objects (SLOs), logs, infrastructure, errors, security, debugging, and more. Now all engineers, regardless of their role and level of experience, can understand the upstream and downstream impacts of issues, discover emerging trends, and ultimately move from traditional monitoring to regular application maintenance and checks with the right insights to prevent potential issues. APM 360 helps all engineering teams across the organization gain a shared understanding of system health and close instrumentation gaps, driving platform adoption and increased data flow into the New Relic platform.

“New Relic pioneered application monitoring over a decade ago, and we have continuously innovated to meet the growing needs of our customers,” said New Relic Chief Product Officer Manav Khurana. “We introduced our all-in-one observability platform, offering a way to get all data across logs, infrastructure, and vulnerability management in-context with a single platform pricing. This has laid the foundation for us to redefine the APM landscape once again. New Relic APM 360 represents a pivotal moment in application performance monitoring where we have made it easy for engineers to make APM a simple daily practice.”

“Today, more Indian organisations than ever recognise the impact of reliable and high-performance applications on their environments. At the same time, the push to accelerate cloud adoption necessitates that IT leaders reassess their monitoring strategy. The evolved APM offering from New Relic will support these companies to meet the requirements of cloud-native, hybrid environments, by enabling every engineer to get ahead of potential issues through complete, real-time visibility of all their apps and services,” said Kris Day, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, New Relic.

Legacy APM tools suffer from fragmented data, disparate stack views, and undetected monitoring gaps. These data silos, lack of service correlation, and blind spots can inhibit the adoption of application monitoring as a daily practice, which often results in slow incident response, low product innovation, and efficiency loss. New Relic takes APM to the next level.

APM 360 gives engineers a holistic view of applications’ health and performance with at-a-glance health monitoring and full app lifecycle view in a single place, as well as debugging workflows and automated dependency visualization to improve customer experiences, with easy access to the following daily insights:

•  Deployment changes: View all deployments and change events without switching tools or screens.
•  User experience signals: Track customer-impacting transactions and sees synthetics checks right in APM.
•  Correlated service levels: Monitor SLO budgets and risks directly from inside the APM view.
•  Full-stack performance: At-a-glance view of services, infra, logs, issues, and more to drive daily insights.
•  Unified security view: No-instrumentation access to application vulnerabilities from APM agents or third-party sources for a full view of continuous runtime software composition analysis (SCA) alongside APM telemetry.
•  Code-level debugging: Drill down to access stack traces, errors, metrics, and logs in the context of code
•  Data recommendations: Discover and rectify un instrumented services, missing alerts, and vulnerabilities.
•  GenAI assistance: Coming soon, use New Relic Grok (now in early access) to ask any questions in natural language.

New Relic APM 360 is now available free to all New Relic users across the globe. To get started, sign in to your New Relic account or sign up for a free account.

Industry leaders celebrate National Logistics Day

Spokesperson: Ms. ZaibaSarang, Co-founder, iThink Logistics

National Logistics Day serves as a reminder of the profound impact of logistics in connecting people, businesses, and communities. As we talk about the significance of National Logistics Day, let us also not forget the Policy which stamped the backbone of the logistics infrastructure, paving the way for streamlined operations, enhanced efficiency, and accelerated growth. This Logistics Day holds even more important now than ever.

Post the announcement of the policy, India’s logistics infrastructure has shown steady growth. With the objective of a one-stop solution for National logistics, four key actions of NLP, IDS, ULIP, ELOG, and Group for System Improvement were introduced with the integration of the latest technology. By embracing the transformative power of logistics and technology, we can forge a future where logistics becomes the cornerstone of economic progress, fostering global connections and leaving an enduring legacy for future generations.

While we are in the corridor of embracing the future, sustainability in logistics, paperless logistics, and reduction of carbon footprint has been the epitome of any conversation. NLP at the same time is concentrating on reducing carbon footprint with the introduction of IDS and ULIP which works towards digitizing the entire supply chain process despite the highly fragmented nature of the sector.

With all this happening, India has seen inevitable growth as India ranks 39 out of 139 countries in the 7th edition of LPI 2023. On the other hand, the export rate has grown from 5% to 6% since the inception of NLP. Still, we have to go miles before we achieve the single-digit logistics cost and develop a data-driven decision support system to ensure economic growth by enhancing exports from 6% to 8%.

Spokesperson: Sandeep Bansal, Chief Business Officer, Falcon Autotech

“On this momentous National Logistics Day, we celebrate the extraordinary growth and potential of warehouse automation in India. With the Indian warehouse automation market projected to reach USD 682.1 million in the next five years, experiencing an impressive CAGR of 26.1%, as per the Mordor Intelligence 2023 report, we stand witness to the transformative impact of automation on our industries. We are very much aligned with the power of automation to revolutionize the logistics landscape, driving efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction to unprecedented heights. Warehouse automation enables companies to optimize their warehouse operations, reduce costs, and deliver faster, more accurate services. Government initiatives to strengthen the industry such as NLP and ONDC are a great move where I also extend my heartfelt appreciation to the government, industry stakeholders, and technology enablers who have embraced warehouse automation and contributed to the industry’s success. We are aligned with shaping the future of logistics in India, propelling growth, and setting new industry standards. We continue to harness the potential of automation, and will provide more innovative and leveraging cutting-edge automation solutions that will elevate the industry to greater heights.”

Attribute to NishithRastogi, Founder & CEO of Locus

“National Logistics Day plays a crucial role in recognizing the Logistics & Supply Chain industry’s success over the past few years. Thanks to its dedicated workforce, from truck drivers ensuring timely deliveries in all weather conditions to meticulous warehouse workers and strategic supply chain managers for their commendable efforts in ensuring seamless last-mile delivery operations. That said, technological advancements with AI, ML, etc., have positively augmented the productivity in this sector, optimizing routes and reducing delivery times and carbon footprints. However, despite these advances, our recent Last-Mile Maturity Assessment report revealed that only 20% of 3PL & CEP organizations in India claim to have an empowered workforce with sufficient technology for smooth communication and efficiency. Today, we at Locus call on all stakeholders to advance this percentage, ensuring our logistics workforce is equipped with the right technology tools, fostering a robust logistics ecosystem.”

Attribute to Transport Corporation Of India

As India drives ahead in becoming a US$ 5 Trillion economy, the Indian logistics sector is at the forefront of various drivers enabling these aspirations. With stable market dynamics and nurturing policy framework that facilitates PHYGITAL infra development, today, Logistics in India is at an inflection point. Innovations in digitalization, inflow of private investments and focus on environmental & social sustainability are strengthening our foundations. At TCI, we are committed to playing a key role in this journey by providing end-to-end integrated multimodal logistics & supply chain solutions across India and the neighboring countries. Thereby, moving 2.5% of India’s GDP by value every year.

MediBuddy’s latest brand campaign features Amitabh Bachchan in an unique avatar for the first time

National, June 2023: MediBuddy, India’s leading digital healthcare platform, is constantly revolutionising the Indian healthcare sector through innovation in its core offerings of online video doctor consultations. MediBuddy’s vision is to make high-quality healthcare accessible to a billion Indians. The platform promises to deliver an online video consultation with a specialist doctor in 10 minutes, 24X7, 365 days a year.

The campaign focuses on creating a healthier India by launching a series of targeted brand films featuring Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. In today’s time, individuals are increasingly demonstrating an inclination toward adopting a health-conscious lifestyle. However, when people are unwell, they overlook the importance of seeking expert medical attention. This is due to the common belief that they can self-treat or because they willingly accept unsolicited advice. MediBuddy aims to change this prevalent behavior by making users realise that an online video consultation with an expert doctor can be availed from the convenience of their home or anywhere within 10mins.

Speaking about the campaign, Mr. Satish Kannan, Co-founder & CEO of MediBuddy, said, “It’s been our vision to make high-quality healthcare accessible to a billion Indians. We constantly invest in technology to bridge the urban and rural healthcare divide. Our platform will provide our fellow Indians with the convenience of consulting a doctor on video in 10 minutes, ensuring accessibility to expert doctors and healthcare services. This will help them make informed decisions, leading to a healthier community. We are confident that the desired message to raise awareness about the convenience and accessibility of online video doctor consultations will create a shift in existing mindset amongst people at large and enable them to make healthier choices.”

Mr. Saibal Biswas, Head of Marketing, Partnerships & PR at MediBuddy, added, “The new brand campaign is based on the fact that people usually make arbitrary decisions or procrastinate in seeking expert medical attention. It aims to create a top-of-mind recall for choosing online video doctor consultation actively challenging the accepted status quo. It emphasizes that accessing expert medical consultation can be as convenient as everyday online activities like banking, shopping, and food delivery. Mr. Bachchan’s portrayal in the ad films echoes MediBuddy’s positioning as an expert caregiver who is always there to assist users during their healthcare journey. In the ads, Mr. Bachchan pops out of the mobile phone magically in a never seen before avatar, as a buddy and a living personification of the MediBuddy app.”

MediBuddy’s services are available in 16 languages, making it accessible to people from diverse regions and linguistic backgrounds. Moreover, with 22+ specialties available, MediBuddy caters to various medical needs, making quality healthcare accessible to a billion Indians.

EagleBurgmann expands presence in India

Chennai, India, 28 June 2023:EagleBurgmann, a member of EKK and Freudenberg and global market leader in sustainable sealing solutions, has opened a new Shared Services Center in Taramani, Chennai. Dr. Sebastian Weiss, CFO of EagleBurgmann, officially inaugurated the new facility.

The new site operates as Shared Services Center providing standardized transactional processes across the Western hemisphere of the EagleBurgmann organization and delivering end-to-end processes as a major part of the company’s value chain.

EagleBurgmann manufactures mechanical seals, expansion joints, packings, and gaskets for high-performance applications. The German-Japanese joint venture company is an innovation leader and technology partner for customers in industry sectors such as Food & Beverage, Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Water, and Pharmaceuticals. EagleBurgmann products serve as major enablers of sustainable production methods in those industries. Mechanical seals are key components in water desalination facilities, sewage treatment plants, or in vaccine and pharmaceuticals production.
The new facilities currently host more than 120 experts in the fields of Engineering & Technical Sales Support, Information Technology, and Finance & Controlling. Dr. Sebastian Weiss underlined: “I am delighted to celebrate EagleBurgmann’s success in India together with our local colleagues. Their commitment and talent are a valued contribution to EagleBurgmann’s diverse and international workforce”.

Chicco India: Chairy Booster Seat

The foldable feeding chair by Chicco India is a practical and useful product with a compact design

As a parent, mealtime with a kid is quite interesting but sometimes it can be a tedious task as they have to bend down and upwards. Chicco, the renowned leader in baby care products, is thrilled to present Chicco Chairy Booster Seat that makes baby’s meal time, a fun time. Booster seat for kids ensures feeding in the right position and also encourages independent eating.

Chicco’s Chairy Booster Seat is a foldable feeding chair that evolves into a first chair for the baby until 3 years old. The chair is the only practical feeding chair that can be used both as a standard booster seat (for 0-36 months) as well as a first chair (12-36 months) for the baby. Due to the adjustable height, and the removable tray and belts, the seat practically evolves with growing babies as they explore different food and discover new tastes. The chair is super compact and simple to use, and it takes up very little room when folded up for storage or transportation.

This seat is the practical solution for the baby’s first meal from 6 to 36 months with its wide and removable tray and comfortable seat. It will accompany your baby in their feeding journey with its easy and intuitive regulation system. The chair can be adjusted to four heights to follow the baby’s growth and allow a better alignment to different kinds of tables. In this, child safety is ensured by 3 points, it has a belt and easy-to-install harness that guarantees a secure fixing to the adult chair. Since it is equipped with padding, the child can be seated comfortably in this booster feeding chair by Chicco India.

Bawarchi Diaries celebrates extravagant fusion of architecture, gastronomy, and design at grand Mumbai event

Mumbai, June 2023 – Bawarchi Diaries showcased the brilliance, innovation, and practicality of kitchen design with the participation of the top 70 esteemed architects and design studios including Reza Kabul (Architect Reza Kabul ARK), Kiran Gala (Kiran Gala Associates), Pushyamitra Londhe, Tejal Mathur (Tejal Mathur), Amit Porwal (IPIPL), Manish Dikshit (AUM Architects), Santha Gour (Infiniti Design Studio), Lalita Tharani (Collaborative Architecture), Prashant Chauhan (Zero9), Maithili Raut (RED Architects) to name a few.

The event brought together architects and chefs in a unique collaboration, as the talented architects donned the chef’s hat and synergised with skillful chefs from Sofitel Hotel. Renowned celebrity chefs including Vicky Ratnani, Rakhee Vaswani, Varun Inamdar, Ananya Banerjee, and Sougata Ghosh evaluated their creations, providing expert feedback to enhance the culinary experience.

Ms. Ranjita Kundu, the Founder of House of Amber, expressed her enthusiasm for the event, stating, “Bawarchi Diaries is a celebration of the art and science of kitchen design. Our aim was to ignite conversations, fuel creativity, and inspire everyone who graced the occasion.”

The main highlight of Bawarchi Diaries was the spotlight on the significance of kitchen design elements through exclusive partnerships with leading brands. Boffi Kitchen by EtreLuxe, the official Lifestyle partner for the event, showcased luxurious and meticulously designed kitchens known for their uncompromising quality. Blum, the hardware partner, unveiled revolutionary advancements in kitchen hardware, bringing innovation and functionality to the forefront. Additional top names featured Luxe Surfaces as the official Surface partner, Smeg as the Appliance partner, and Vihan as the official Light and Automation partner.

The event was embellished with renowned kitchen brands that have been pioneers in their respective domains: Küche7 showcased their expertise in stainless steel kitchens, highlighting their craftsmanship and precision engineering, all made in India. Carysil, a leading producer of quartz kitchen sinks, showcased exceptional designs that added elegance and durability to the kitchens. To add to the extravagance, Nobilia Kitchen, known for its German precision and ingenuity, displayed exceptional designs that perfectly aligned with the overarching theme of Bawarchi Diaries. Further, Poliform presented its Italian range of kitchens, emphasizing the importance of research as a catalyst for innovation and progress in kitchen design.

Bawarchi Diaries not only celebrated the integration of architecture and gastronomy but also offered attendees an unprecedented experience. The day began with a press meet, providing insights into the collaboration between architecture, design, and culinary arts. Attendees were enthralled by the captivating performance of the MH43 band in the evening, which added to the enchanting atmosphere of the event.

Revolutionizing the art of gifting, Bawarchi Diaries introduced the innovative Bawarchi Bazaar. Attendees had the opportunity to explore a diverse range of choices from renowned brands brought by United Distributors such as Tabasco, Barilla, Loacker, and Lotus Biscoff, allowing them to customize their selections with fine wines, exquisite cheeses, and exotic fruits and vegetables. This personalized gifting experience ensured that each attendee had a memorable and tailored experience, reflecting their unique tastes and preferences.

By seamlessly integrating architecture, culinary artistry, and innovation, Bawarchi Diaries elevated attendees’ understanding of kitchen design. The event showcased the fusion of creativity, craftsmanship, and culinary excellence, leaving an indelible impression on all fortunate enough to be present.

Resilient Housing Market Defies Global Uncertainties: Sales Surge by 8% in Q2 2023, PropTiger.com Report

New Delhi, 28th June 2023: Sales of residential units and new supply witnessed an 8 percent and 11 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in the April-June quarter of 2023 across eight major cities in the country, respectively, underscoring the resilience of the housing market, reported PropTiger.com.

A total of 80,250 units were sold in the eight cities in Q2 2023 compared to 74,320 in the year-ago quarter, showing a growth of 8 percent, said the Real Insight Residential – April-June 2023 report, a quarterly analysis of India’s top eight residential markets by REA backed PropTiger.com.

The markets covered in the report include Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Delhi-National Capital Region, and Pune.

Mumbai and Pune continue to record the maximum traction, taking a combined share of 61 percent in overall sales in Q2 2023.

On the residential new supply front, realtors launched 113,770 units, an increase of 11 percent compared to 102,140 in the April-June quarter of 2022. Mumbai has been the frontrunner in terms of new supply, followed by Pune and Ahmedabad.

“India’s top eight residential markets continue on a growth path with sales rising by 8 percent in the June quarter. The RBI’s decision to pause the hike in the key lending rate helped in sustaining strong positive sentiments for buying residential properties,” said Mr. Vikas Wadhawan, group CFO, REA India & Business Head PropTiger.com.

“The driving factors behind the uptick in housing sales over the last two years are pent-up demand from the COVID-affected period, growing appetite for homeownership, revival in the economy post-pandemic, and the evolving need for more spacious homes. We anticipate that the upward trend will persist, making the 2023 calendar year even better than the previous year in terms of sales performance.,” Mr. Wadhawan added.

During Q2 2023, 15 percent of the residential units sold were classified as ready-to-move-in, while the remaining 85 percent were still under construction. The majority of sales, comprising 27 percent, were concentrated in the price range of INR 45-75 lakh, closely followed by the price range of over INR 1 crore, which accounted for 25 percent of the overall sales.

In a semi-annual comparison, sales witnessed notable growth of 15 percent, while new supply experienced a substantial increase of 43 percent.

The largest portion of new residential units introduced in Q2 2023 was focused on the INR 45-75 lakh price range, accounting for the highest share of 33 percent among all launches. Notably, units priced at over INR 1 crore constituted a significant portion, representing nearly 29 percent of the total.

Ms. Ankita Sood, Head of Research, REA India (PropTiger.com, Housing.com & Makaan.com) said The western markets sustain their property rally as Mumbai and Pune witness considerable growth in demand in the second quarter. These cities take a combined share of 61 percent from the national sales tally primarily boosted by demand in localities such as Thane West and Dombivali in Mumbai and Charholi Budruk and Hadapsar in Pune. We see this surge in demand is driven by end users seeking improved amenities and an enhanced lifestyle.”

India’s MSME sector is poised for a bright future with Mr Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, IndiaMART

Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, IndiaMART.
“India’s MSME sector, the second largest globally, is poised for a bright future. With transformative government initiatives like Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and the One District One Product scheme, bolstered by robust digital infrastructure and supportive marketplaces, MSMEs are primed to unleash their boundless potential. However, to truly empower these enterprises, there is a pressing need for enhanced credit enablement, with initiatives like digital lenders, account aggregators, and the innovative OCEN platform leading the charge. Collaboration between the public and private sectors is essential to drive this progress.

As we celebrate World MSME Day, let us acknowledge the pivotal role played by MSMEs in India’s economy and advocate for further reforms that simplify tax regimes and streamline KYC processes, ultimately facilitating their seamless integration into the formal ecosystem.”