Category: Business World

Cloudflare Launches Data Localization Suite in Asia to Help Customers Achieve Data Sovereignty

India, September 22, 2022 — Cloudflare, Inc.(NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today announced that Cloudflare’s Data Localization Suite (DLS) is now available in three new countries in the Asia Pacific region: Australia, India, and Japan. The Data Localization Suite will help businesses in these countries to comply with their data localization obligations by using Cloudflare to easily set rules and controls on where their domestic data goes and who has access to it. This ultimately allows any business in these countries to service their data locally while benefiting from the speed, security, and scalability of Cloudflare’s global network.

Nearly 70% of countries in Asia have passed or drafted new data protection and privacy legislation. This often makes it difficult for regional companies to use foreign-based vendors to handle domestic traffic. Without regional support, many businesses are under pressure to use only in-country run vendors and may be required to restrict their application to one data center or one cloud provider’s region. This creates a trade-off between compliance and fast, secure experiences for end users. With the Data Localization Suite, businesses of any size or industry can now use Cloudflare to get more choice and control over how to meet their data locality needs, without sacrificing security or performance.

“No business should have to choose between compliance with local data regulation and a superior experience for their customers. And yet, we hear time and again that companies are forced to do so in the face of a complex and ever-changing landscape of regional legislation,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare. “By expanding our Data Localization Suite to our customers in Australia, India, and Japan, we’re ensuring data locality doesn’t have to come at the expense of the speed, security, and privacy users expect and deserve online.”

Now, businesses in Australia, India, and Japan can use Cloudflare’s Data Localization Suite to:

• Control where traffic is serviced:Companies can choose the data center locations where their traffic is inspected. Businesses can also use Cloudflare’s Geo Key Manager to choose where private keys are held.
• Build and deploy serverless code, with regional control:Build applications that allow developers to combine global performance with local compliance regulations. Jurisdiction Restrictions for Workers Durable Objects makes it easy to build serverless applications that are confined to a specific region.
• Use Cloudflare’s security features to protect their web properties:Customers can use WAF, Bot Management, DDoS protection and more to ensure their websites are safe and stay online.
• Align with global and regional security certifications:Businesses can trust that they are compliant with global privacy and security certifications like ISO 27001, 27701, and 27018 while still offering performance and speed at scale.
• Asia Pacific has over 2.5 billion Internet users, representing more than half of the total Internet users in the world, and data protection and privacy have become increasingly important in this region. Preserving end-user privacy is core to Cloudflare’s mission of helping to build a better Internet, and we look forward to working with businesses across Australia, India, and Japan to enable them to provide fast, private, reliable, and secure services to their end-users,” said Jonathon Dixon, VP and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Japan, and China, Cloudflare.

Data Localization Suite has supported Cloudflare customers in alignment with European localization requirements and regulations since 2020.

“We’re thrilled to extend Cloudflare’s localization benefits to our customers providing them greater control as they manage international data transfer requirements,” said Blake Brannon, Chief Strategy Officer, OneTrust. “Our partnership with Cloudflare supports our mission to empower our customers to navigate the evolving regulatory landscape with ease.”

Today, Cloudflare’s global network spans more than 275 cities in over 100 countries including more than 100 points of presence across Asia Pacific to bring its security, performance, and reliability solutions to as close to its regional customers as possible. Cloudflare continues to invest in the region, with offices in Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo. In March, Cloudflare also announced 18 new cities added to their global network, including Bhubaneshwar, India; Fukuoka, Japan; Kanpur, India; and Naha, Japan.

For more information on regional services and Data Localization Suite, visit:

• Blog: Regional Services comes to India, Japan and Australia
• Data Localization Suite product page

Giving Women a million ways to wear their nails with SOEZI x Amazon

 

Fret not, as we have the perfect solution to your problems. Tap your phone to meet SOEZI with an app that is probably already installed on your trusty smartphone (psst, it’s an A to Z venture). The best press-on nail brand of Asli Sona, Sonakshi Sinha and lawyer plus beauty connoisseur Srishti Raai, SOEZI is launching on Amazon! These glam nails are just a click away to be at your doorstep. SOEZI’s first digital store on Amazon makes it easy to pick from over 100 press-on nail designs, quality and authenticity assured to the T. What are you waiting for? The best nails in town are fingertips away, go get ‘em!

 

It has all been an exciting milestone for the co-founders, knowing how SOEZI’s presence on Amazon will help these nails reach out to the modern Indian woman. “I believe our values are in alignment with Amazon and we are thrilled to launch exclusively as Amazon Specials, giving us the opportunity to widen our reach and have SOEZI products accessible pan-India.” Sonakshi mentions.

Logistics tech platform Intugine integrates with ULIP for improved multimodal visibility across road, rail, ocean and air

Bengaluru, India, 21 September 2022- Under the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP), the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), a part of the National Logistics Policy (NLP), sets the roadmap for developing a more interconnected and tech-driven framework for reducing costs and improving operational efficiency in the Indian logistics sector. The initiative is hailed as a game changer for the industry as logistics costs are currently at 13 – 14% of GDP in India. A brainchild of the NITI Aayog, the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Limited (NICDC) has taken charge of developing this platform by bringing all the milestones under ULIP, to help the logistics sector grow exponentially.

PM Narendra Modi, on September 17th, launched the National Logistics Policy in the national capital New Delhi. Intugine was one of the few companies to be invited and selected by the Prime Minister’s Office to demonstrate their solutions to the Hon’ble PM. Mrinal Rai, Co-founder and COO, Intugine gave the demo to PM Modi showcasing the disruptive capabilities of the platform and its abilities to provide real-time visibility of a shipment from source to destination.

Multimodal platform company Intugine has emerged as one of the early companies to integrate with the ULIP initiative to realise its true potential. The company has successfully integrated with the IT systems of various union ministries, state departments, governing bodies, and private service providers. Intugine now has an improved real-time multimodal visibility solution, with access to data from systems such as FASTag, FOIS, PCS and ACMES, giving their clients a single-screen view of all their shipments across modalities.

Intugine can fetch FASTag data from more than 800 tolls across the country for toll-based visibility of 90+ lacs commercial vehicles on the road while deriving actionable insights such as transporter scorecard, reliability score and transporter/lane analytics. Over and above, vehicle and driver verification that took around 2 hours before have now become easy with Intugine’s access to Vahan and Sarathi data. With all this data, companies can automate their audit processes, avoid unnecessary halts and delays caused by negligence in verifying details, and comply with transportation mandates in India.

Harshit Srivastava, Co-founder and CEO, Intugine, says, “Logistics has gained significant prominence in the last few years, with many new initiatives taken to enhance the logistics scenario of India. The future of supply chain visibility is tech-enabled, and there are many proactive schemes, such as ULIP, to help ambitious startups like Intugine bring transparency to global logistics operations. For instance, with toll infrastructure digitisation in the country or the ability to leverage the national railway API to gain greater visibility of rake shipments, we can give our customers a single-screen view of all their shipments in transit. This increases overall process efficiency, makes ETA predictions more seamless, drives down logistics costs, and helps our clients with a unified document reference to abide by transport regulations. We are ecstatic to fulfil the government’s aspiration to have an integrated view of the Indian logistics value chain by empowering the ecosystem with our improved multimodal visibility solution.”

As part of ULIP integration, Intugine is also synced with the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS), which equips their customer with milestone visibility of 9000+ freight trains while capturing real-time arrival and dispatch times of these trains in one of the largest rail networks in the world. The integration now enables tracking of 1400 million metric ton goods worth Rs 1.43 lakhs crore per year while reducing demurrages and wharfages and increasing the planning and execution efficiency of their rake movement.

Moreover, their Port Community System integrations offer one of the most advanced ways of electronic exchange of information between the logistics sectors and 13 major ports and 200+ smaller and intermediate ports in India. Intugine can now deliver customs data for import/export, port-in and port-out time of the container, and berthing date and time of 143 million tons of goods annually to its customers. This leads to a reduction in detention and demurrage charges and increases the overall visibility of port operations.

Furthermore, Intugine can now provide its clients with customs data of their air cargo through integrations with ACMES, ACCS, and AAICLAS systems, covering 20 major airports in the country.

Commenting on the benefits of seamless integration across the logistics value chain, Amit Tyagi, Deputy General Manager, Gold Plus Glass Industry, says, “By tracking goods from their source to destination using a combination of modalities, Intugine has played a pivotal role in giving us multimodal and intermodal visibility of our assets on a single platform. This aids us in building resilience within our supply chain operations and empowers us to cater to timely deliveries.”

IIM Kashipur making Societal Impact with its Experiential Learning Initiative

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kashipur launched its Experiential Learning (EL) initiative
in 2021. The program aims to serve local communities and tackle developmental challenges
within the state of Uttarakhand. The program is structured such that students work in teams
with regional organizations and businesses to solve social and economic issues. This ensures
value addition to both sides where students get hands-on learning experience of real-life
business problems while communities benefit from the management expertise that the students
bring in. The initiative is governed by EL Chair Prof. Vivek Roy, Prof. Vaibhav Bhamoriya, and Prof.
Kumkum Bharti, and Prof. Abhishek Srivastava.

An initiative that is first of its kind distinguishes IIM Kashipur from other elite leagues of IIMs.
The entire EL which is of one credit is mandatory for all the students in the flagship MBA
program. After an introductory theory course in the first year, students take up and deliver on
projects throughout their second year.

The agenda is segregated into three different thematic verticals, namely (i) Environmentally
Sustainable Business Practices (ESBP) (ii) Unlocking Rural Potential (URP), and (iii) Micro,
Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME). Even during the time of the pandemic, last year’s
batch has done tremendously well in helping and learning from the organizations.
As of now, 55 organizations have partnered with EL, offering 62 intriguing projects to the
current batch of 2023. Partner organizations range from small businesses and NGOs to CSR
wings of large corporations and government enterprises. Current EL partners include the
Central Himalayan Institute for Nature and Applied Research (CHINAR), Mount Valley
Development Association (MVDA), MSME Development and Facilitation Office, Government
of India, Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), Gandhi Fellowship, and ICICI Foundation among
others. The entire Experiential Learning team is actively working on expanding the range of
partners offering high-impact projects and giving back to society.

GoMechanic Spares holds Mechanic Prize Distribution in Nimbahera; Distributes motorcycle & gifts to loyal workshops, mechanics & spare part retailers

Bhilwara, 21st September 2022: GoMechanic Spares, India’s No.1 car spare parts brand organized a Mechanic Prize Distribution Ceremony at Nimbahera, Rajasthan on Thursday afternoon. The event was organized in association with GoMechanic’s authorized spare parts distributor for Bhilwara, Aarna Associates. Mr. Jagdish Prasad from Kumawat Tractor Garage, Nimbahera, Rajasthan was rewarded with a Bajaj Platina motorcycle for his exceptional loyalty toward the GoMechanic Spares brand & being the top buyer of GoMechanic genuine spare parts. Several gifts including electronics & household appliances were also distributed to other loyal customers by Mr. Archit Bhandari, owner of Aarna Associates. The event was attended by over 150 mechanics, workshop owners & retailers around the city who came to witness the ceremony.

In an exclusive interaction Nitin Rana, Co-founder, GoMechanic, said “We are extremely delighted to be able to honor & reward the efforts of our loyal customers. The event is focused mainly to appreciate the best workshops, retailers & mechanics who have been continuously purchasing & distributing GoMechanic’s genuine spare parts in their respective markets. With their support, we have already spread our network to 100+ distributors and 600+ retail counters & workshops across 65+ cities in two years & will continue to expand at this pace.” He also said that more such felicitation ceremonies will be held in several other regions in the coming days.

The brand aims to strengthen the network of distributors and mechanics across the country by providing them with genuine spare parts at the best prices and dedicated sales & marketing support. This will eventually lead to the expansion of the spare parts business across the country making GoMechanic Spares one of the most trusted brands.

Novotel Goa Candolim appoints Chef Pritpal Singh Bakshi as their Master Chef

National, 20th September 2022: Novotel Goa Candolim has appointed veteran Chef Pritpal Singh Bakshi as their Master Chef. With over 33 years of rich experience, the award-winning creative chef has worked across Thai, Lebanese, Russian and other varied cuisines with a bent toward Indian food.

While his specialization veers towards North Indian cuisine especially his signature Mutton Rogan Josh and Butter Chicken, he is a multi-cuisine chef and has won numerous awards for best food & hospitality, including a gold medal from The World Masterchef Association, USA. He has travelled to over 15 countries and loves to explore and learn from the cultures and cuisines of all places he visits.

Speaking of this appointment, Complex General Manager, Ranju Singh said, “We are looking forward to working with a globally experienced and immensely talented chef, that Chef Pritpal is. With his exquisite skill set, we have no doubt that he will add one more feather to our hat. His knowledge of such a vast range of cuisines that he has accumulated from his travels will add more value to our hotel. We are confident that with his presence we will make the experience our guests have, even better. It is our pleasure to welcome him to the Novotel family, and we look forward to scaling new heights together.”

Chef Bakshi considers Novotel as a home away from home. Even at 63,  he considers both the Novotel properties in Goa to be like gold mines and the possibilities here are endless. This place makes him feel like a 26-year-old all over again and he hopes to push the boundaries of the culinary world and create recipes which will lead an entire generation of young chefs to dream bigger and cross all the boundaries which have been set for them.  

Born in the heart of the capital city of New Delhi, Chef Bakshi has worked across multiple national and international chains like the Oberoi group and the Broadway chain of hotels in Jammu and Kashmir. He has also worked in Bangkok, Chennai and Bengaluru where he mastered his craft and today after such a rich repertoire is a committed culinary advocate.

In his new role, Chef Bakshi will be responsible for positioning Novotel Candolim Goa’s culinary journey and spearheading the kitchen team in identifying new and innovative culinary techniques to provide guests with exemplary services.

A compassionate person, he also undertook the responsibility of two other lesser-privileged children by sponsoring their education and livelihood. Today, these children too are well-settled in life and thriving. A passionate seeker of calm and peace, he may be seen exploring the unseen side of Goa in his leisure time.

Optiminastic launches its virtual office Optiverse, strengthens its Metaverse-As-A-Service offering for brands

September 20, 2022; Mumbai, India:

Digital marketing agency, Optiminastic Media with expertise across Tech based Performance, Content, and Influencer marketing services makes an entry into the Metaverse with the launch of its virtual office space, Optiverse. Strengthening its Metaverse As A Service (MaaS) offering for brands across the globe, Optiminastic Media’s Optiverse will play a significant role in providing brands and advertisers a view into the numerous potential marketing opportunities that the Metaverse has to offer. Through Optiverse, Optiminastic Media will enable brands to initiate their metaverse journey, enhance their creative strategies and drive marketing innovation.

Purposefully designed to meet the needs of a burgeoning global digital economy, Optiminastics’ ground-breaking metaverse office Optiverse will enable end users and brand marketers to create their avatars, engage in office walk-throughs, interact with Optiminastic’s workforce, conduct meetings, etc. Optiverse will help Optiminastic showcase the potential opportunities for brands to engage with consumers in the Metaverse.

Speaking on the development, Akshae Golekar, Founder of Optiminastic Media said, “At Optiminastic, we have been bullish about the potential of the Metaverse. We have been early and keen watchers of Web3 and the Metaverse and believe that it has the opportunity to erase borders when it comes to creative communication. We have been working closely with brands in this domain and the launch of our office, Optiverse reinforces our commitment to the development and growth of MAAS in India and across the globe. We look forward to closely working with India Inc. as they step up their Web3 and Metaverse play while establishing Optiminastic Media as a partner of choice in this field.”

“Best time to be an actor” – Pururava Rao

With the boom of OTT platforms, the demand for good actors has gone miraculously high. So many stars whom we almost forgot, are coming up with their own films, web series, and short films which are rich in content and characters.

Among such increasing demands, many good actors have emerged and stolen the show. One such name is Pururava Rao, who recently played the role of Anil Kumar Sisodia in Amazon mini tv’s sports drama ‘Dhavak’ directed by Abhishek Sharma and produced by Kevin Kailash Muthiah.

Talking about his experience Pururava said, “I’m loving the appreciation I’m getting from the audience. We had a lot of fun while shooting this film and I think that fun transcended on screen but the best part remains that for most of us it was one of our first films and we managed to make each other look good”

The actor not only acted but also wrote the dialogues for the film. He has previously been seen as a Raw officer in ‘Rashtra Kavach OM’ starring Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sanjana Sanghi. He is also known for Adheen’s (2020) short film, which got nominated for Filmfare awards. “Writing happened to me through theatre and ever since I’ve been doing both simultaneously. Thanks to the boom of OTT platforms so many actors are getting a chance to come on screen. I think it’s the best time to be an actor. Of course, your training as an actor plays a crucial role but opportunities have increased for sure.”

Pururava’s upcoming projects involve a Netflix film titled ‘Plan A Plan B’ and a short film with Raghubir Yadav called ‘Aath Aana’. He is also writing a few scripts currently. But it all started with a very naive incident, Pururava explains “Once a producer asked for my work reel and all I could manage was recordings of my theatre plays. I realized I couldn’t sell the shoe by showing the sole. I missed the role. Nevertheless, I started making films with my friends and the very first film ‘Itwar’ we made won an award for India Film Project among 1600 entries from all over the world, we shot that film on a phone. Since then the journey has been uphill”.

Profits on Housing Investment – Past, Present, and Future

With so many other options before you, should you invest in residential real estate? Will it be more profitable than mutual funds or direct stocks? Can you make a killing with housing?

Let me be blunt – massive residential property profits are impossible in a housing market where end-users are the primary buyer base. Most Indian end-users are very cost-sensitive and highly resistant to price escalations. Unlike what we saw in some speculative cities in the past, investors cannot force price increases – only the market itself can do that. I will come to that shortly.

You cannot buy homes and ‘flip’ them a few months or a year or two later for massive profits. We have all heard of speculators who doubled their investments in earlier years, but the real estate markets in speculator-run cities finally crashed hard. In cost-conscious cities like Pune, Bengaluru, and Chennai, we never saw the unhealthy phenomenon of speculative buying and selling take hold.

Buyers in these cities will ignore overpriced homes. Homebuyers always tend to prefer properties priced in line with market rates. Investors cannot dictate the market. Investors can make satisfactory but not spectacular profits on housing in cost-conscious cities, but their primary capital is patience.

So, nobody makes fat profits on housing anymore?

Some investors still turn huge profits in markets like Mumbai and Delhi. They have considerable cash reserves and market knowledge – even ‘inside’ knowledge. Such investors spend significant time and resources identifying one-off properties in highly aspirational locations and making some fast moves.

I will assume that no such well-heeled, well-connected investor is reading this article. They will be too busy tapping into their privileged network of contacts and perusing mind-boggling balance sheets. Those without unlimited cash or insider knowledge must rely on a more sedate investment approach.

Investing in the future

It is an excellent time for housing investors who know what to buy and can stay invested for at least 4-5 years. Urban housing prices have stagnated for a long time but are now rising again. Going by latest data by real estate portal Magicbricks, housing prices rose anywhere between 15-20% in many micro-markets in the last one year alone.

There are two reasons for this – one, increasing demand after 2020, and two, unrelenting cost inflations for developers, which they cannot absorb any longer and must pass on to their customers.

There is little chance of cost inflation reducing. It results from supply-chain disruptions and pricing cartels created by raw materials suppliers. While supply chains may ease up in the future, the second problem is endemic, and only some compelling moves by the government can break it. The demand resurgence is also here to stay.

How quickly will prices rise?

While housing prices are increasing, Indian developers will be careful not to price their projects out of the market. In a dynamic called ‘price discovery,’ they will only raise prices to an extent the market is willing to bear. Developers benefited from the demand boom post-Covid-19 and will not become too aggressive with pricing.

But the combination of unavoidable cost escalations and healthy demand still means that prices will rise – gradually but surely. Apart from the Magicbricks data, which covers only some locations, housing prices have gone up by at least 8-10% across the major cities already. We will have seen another 8-10% price increase in most urban markets two years from today. In 10 years, prices will go up by between 20-35% and – even higher in some micro-markets.

Which type of housing will appreciate the most?

Affordable housing in India is having a terrible time right now. This is unlikely to change in the future unless the government announces new schemes and incentives for buyers and developers of such housing and makes land available. Luxury home sales have increased significantly after the pandemic, but nothing compared to mid-range and premium homes, where demand almost doubled after 2020.

Within this category, gated communities and integrated townships are now the most popular with homebuyers. Demand for properties in such townships will overtake all other housing types in the coming years. Why? Because of the new constraints and concerns brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Homes are now being bought to literally act as future-proofed fortresses against any unforeseen events like the pandemic. Indian homebuyers now long for privacy, security, generous open spaces, a walk-to-work option if possible, and adequate common facilities.

Betting on integrated townships

Townships are the ideal housing investment because, unlike other formats, they will become increasingly scarce in the years ahead.

Integrated townships require huge land parcels and their developers need sufficient capital and specific expertise in creating and maintaining such projects. As the shortage of urban land increases, smaller projects will be constantly redeveloped by smaller builders – but the scope for new large townships, developed and run by players who understand this format, will decrease.

Townships work so well as an investment because both homebuyers and tenants are now on the lookout for ease of living, overall safety and security from both a general and pandemic point of view, and wellness-oriented features and amenities. Buyers also want large enough homes to accommodate WFH and e-schooling comfortably, should these options exist or become available again.

Final Advice

It has been said before – residential real estate investors should not commit the mistake of looking for the lowest price-tags. It is often deficiencies in property or location that lead to lower prices. Developers who invest sufficiently in the land, project infrastructure, and quality construction will not offer prices lower than in other projects.

Beware of marketing claims touring ‘upcoming infrastructure’ – often touted as a game-changer leading to high capital appreciation. Do not take such claims at face value. Has work on this infrastructure project begun? By when is it likely to be completed? Which areas will genuinely benefit from it? Buy into such claims only if you’re satisfied with the results of your investigation.

Whichever property type you choose, deal only with reputed developers and their projects. For good reasons, these are drawing the lion’s share of housing demand today. Buyers no longer fall for bland assurances regarding construction quality, project delivery, transparency, and quality of amenities and facilities. They want a genuine article.

You can be sure that when you put your property for sale many years later, the developer’s brand will play a vital role in how much you can demand – and get.

Essar Power and Essar Foundation donates essentials to Jay Janardan Swami Anath and Vrudha Ashram, Nashik

Mumbai, September 15, 2022: Essar Foundation has always been leading from the front when it comes to society and community uplift. Essarities from Essar Power and Essar Foundation team donated essentials to the residents of Jay Janardan Swami Anath and Vrudha Ashram, an orphanage and home to old aged abandoned senior citizens, situated in Lasalgoan, Nashik around 320 kilometers from Mumbai.

The ashram is run by a couple – Mr Dilip Baburao Gunjal and Mrs Sangeeta Dilip Gunjal. As part of its ongoing support to the poor and homeless, Essar Foundation along with Essar Power, provided essential items like rice, dal, cooking oil, wheat pulses etc to the ashram. In the past too, Essar Foundation has supported the ashram on various fronts like building a shelter home, supporting an orphan and budding skater Durga (who stays at the ashram) and has won many skating competitions on district and state level. She has been sponsored by Essar Foundation for her sports and studies.

Ms Payal Chhabra represented the Foundation team and handed over the material to the couple. Mr Gunjal thanked Essar Power and Essar Foundation for the support as it will help provide sufficient food to the children and old aged members of the Ashram.

Essar Foundation has a rich heritage of service across India in health, education, livelihood, women empowerment, sports, environment and infrastructure. The Foundation has always stood by the nation in every emergency, be it pandemic or natural calamities. Essar Foundation has always been very active in society welfare in villages around Essar sites.