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Bengaluru Retail Summit 2024: Unveiling the Future of Retail

Jul 26, 2024 by Mansi Praharaj 0 Comments #Bengaluru Retail Summit, #Bengaluru Retail Summit 2024, #bigbasket, #Brigade Group, #Britannia Industries Ltd, #Britannia Industries Ltd V Muhammad Ali - CEO, #BRS, #CEO, #CEO & Executive Director, #Co-founder & CEO, #Consulting Business Leader for Retail, #CPG, #Drolls India Pvt Ltd Chandru Kalro, #Easybuy, #Enabling Growth, #Enabling Growth” & “Mastering the Market: Transforming Insights into Growth Opportunities, #Ganesan V P, #Hari Menon, #Healux International Pvt. Ltd Deepak Singh - Director & CEO Saturo Technologies Sumit Jasoria, #i – TEK RFID Hari Menon - Co-founder & CEO - Big Basket Dr Shashank Sinha, #IBM, #Italian Colony David R Stanley – Founder & Managing Director, #Johnson Verghese - Managing Director - Fossil Group India Karan Mehta - CEO, #Jt Managing Director, #Karan Mehta, #Kumar Rajagopalan, #Landmark Group, #Landmark Group Rajneet Kohli - CEO & ED, #Managing Director, #MD & CEO, #NEWME, #Nirupa Shankar, #Pharma & LS Industries – India South Asia, #Prestige Group Manohar Chatlani - MD Retail India Pvt Ltd, #RAI, #Rajneet Kohli, #Retail, #Retail Sector, #Retail Technology: Powering Business, #Retailers Association of India (RAI), #Revolutionize Retail with AI Everywhere, #Sheraton Grand Bangalore, #Soch Apparels Pvt Ltd Subhash Chandra - MD Sangeetha Mobiles Mrunmay Mehta - CEO, #Strategies for Retail Success: Navigating a Constantly Evolving Market”, #Tech Adoption: Integrating Digital Innovations with Physical Presence, #thought leaders, #Transportation, #travel, #TTK Prestige Chintan Mehta – Founder, #WOW Skin Science Ashim Ashok Patel

Bengaluru, July 24th, 2024: The Retailers Association of India (RAI) successfully held the second edition of the Bengaluru Retail Summit, a premier event that brought together the brightest minds and influential leaders from the retail industry. Held at the Sheraton Grand Bangalore, the summit emerged as a melting pot of transformative ideas, emerging trends, and invaluable networking opportunities. Against the vibrant backdrop of Bengaluru’s retail culture, it served as a pivotal platform for retailers and brands to engage in impactful discussions, collectively shaping the future of retail in India.

Speaking about the summit, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI), said, “India’s retail sector stands at the cusp of profound transformation. The dynamic discussions on strategies for retail success, the seamless integration of digital innovations, and the latest retail ideas have highlighted how industry leaders are navigating this constantly evolving market. Our focus on mastering the market and innovating is diverse. With a burgeoning middle class, expanding digital infrastructure, and strategic government initiatives, we anticipate a dynamic era of growth and innovation. These advancements position the retail sector as a pivotal driver of economic vitality and consumer empowerment in the years ahead.”

Highlights of the Bengaluru Retail Summit 2024 by RAI was the keynote address on ‘Revolutionize Retail with AI Everywhere’ by Ganesan V P, Consulting Business Leader for Retail, CPG, Travel, Transportation, Pharma & LS Industries – India South Asia, IBM.

The summit also hosted two stimulating Fireside Chats with Rajneet Kohli, CEO & Executive Director, Britannia Industries Ltd, and with Nirupa Shankar, Jt Managing Director, Brigade Group.

Expressing delight at the second edition of BRS, Rajneet Kohli, CEO & Executive Director, Britannia Industries Ltd said, “The future of retail lies in seamlessly blending technology with the human touch. Using data-driven insights to understand consumer preferences and deliver tailored experiences will drive growth and foster deeper customer loyalty.”

Hari Menon, Co-Founder & CEO, Bigbasket said, “The retail industry is at a pivotal point where digital transformation is crucial. Integrating online and offline channels is essential to meet evolving consumer demands. Innovation in logistics and personalized services will be the key drivers of future retail success.”

Karan Mehta, CEO, Easybuy, Landmark Group said, “Understanding and responding to diverse customer needs is more important than ever. By harnessing advanced analytics and staying ahead of emerging trends, retailers can create personalized and engaging shopping experiences, ensuring sustained growth and competitiveness.”

The summit witnessed captivating discussions on topics such asStrategies for Retail Success: Navigating a Constantly Evolving Market” “Tech Adoption: Integrating Digital Innovations with Physical Presence” “Retail Technology: Powering Business, Enabling Growth” & “Mastering the Market: Transforming Insights into Growth Opportunities.”

industry leaders speaking at the summit included:

Johnson Verghese – Managing Director – Fossil Group India

Karan Mehta – CEO, Landmark Group

Rajneet Kohli – CEO & ED, Britannia Industries Ltd

V Muhammad Ali – CEO, Retail, Prestige Group

Manohar Chatlani – MD Retail India Pvt Ltd, Soch Apparels Pvt Ltd

Subhash Chandra – MD Sangeetha Mobiles

Mrunmay Mehta – CEO, WOW Skin Science

Ashim Ashok Patel, MD & CEO, i – TEK RFID

Hari Menon – Co-founder & CEO – Big Basket

Dr Shashank Sinha, CEO, Drolls India Pvt Ltd

Chandru Kalro, Managing Director, TTK Prestige

Chintan Mehta – Founder, Italian Colony

David R Stanley – Founder & Managing Director, Healux International Pvt. Ltd

Deepak Singh – Director & CEO Saturo Technologies

Sumit Jasoria, Co-Founder & CEO, NEWME

These thought leaders shared their insights on the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities within the retail sector, fostering a rich environment of knowledge exchange and collaboration. The event’s successful execution has set a benchmark for industry gatherings, reaffirming Bengaluru’s status as a central hub for retail excellence.

About RAI:

Retailers Association of India (RAI) is the unified voice of Indian retailers. RAI works with all the stakeholders for creating the right environment for the growth of the modern retail industry in India. It is a strong advocate for retailing in India and works with all levels of government and stakeholders to support employment growth and career opportunities in retail, promote and sustain retail investments in communities from coast to coast, and enhance consumer choice and industry competitiveness.

Women Role Models in STEM Shine at myAvtar Career Conference, 2024

Bengaluru, May, 2024: Avtar Group, India’s leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Solutions firm, hosted the myAvtar Career Conference (MACC) at Karnataka Trade Promotion Organization (KTPO), Bengaluru today.

myAvtar Career Conference (MACC), the career extravaganza brought together inclusive companies and a vast pool of women talent from the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) under one roof. Participating Companies included, Aditya Birla Group, Publicis Sapient, Broadridge Financial Solutions India Limited, Moody’s, Renault Nisan Tech, IBM India, Google Cloud, HDFC ERGO, ACT, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Gallagher, Happiest Minds Technologies Limited, Stryker, Verisk, AKJ Somaiya Institute Of Management, among many others.

Tailored for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), MACC offered a unique platform to connect, collaborate, and converse with like-minded professionals, industry-leading companies, and renowned experts in the industry. The conclave was an ecosystem designed to foster learning, sharing, and networking for women in the STEM field; an opportunity to explore new horizons in the STEM field, to grow personally and professionally, and to unlock a world of possibilities. The conference witnessed a large gathering of students, educators, professionals, and industry leaders who shared their knowledge, experiences, and insights.

STEM Shine at myAvtar Career Conference, 2024

Avtar Group also announced the winners of their inaugural “Women in STEM” Awards. This Awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding achievements of women who are making significant strides in the STEM fields. In STEM Icons 15 plus years of work experience category, Vaijayanthi Srinivasa Raghavan Senior Director, UPS India Technology Centre, Priya Kanduri, CTO, SVP – Cyber Security Services, HappiestMinds Technologies Limited, Deepti Singh, Deputy General Manager- Head of Department System Installation, Renault Nissan Tech have received top 3 awards. In STEM Divas 8-15 years of work experience category, Subbulakshmi Ramkumar, Deputy Manager, RNTBCI, Yogita Bhanwaria, Senior Manager, Biocon Biologics Limited, MuthuSusithra Devarajan, Team Manager, Broadridge Financial Solutions have received top 3 awards. In STEM Stars 2-8 years of work experience category, Nishtha Mahendru, Consultant, Applied Innovation Exchange, Capgemini, Nidhi Raut, Sr. Engineer, Renault Nissan Technology Business Centre India (RNTBCI), Indujaa Thangavel, Broadridge Financial Solutions have received top 3 awards.

“One of the key sectors that has the potential to boost women’s workforce participation, is the STEM industry. While 43%of STEM graduates are women, they make up only 28% of the STEM workforce. Moreover, women drop out of the workplace due to childbirth, childcare and elder care. Consequently, only 3 percent of women hold CEO posts in the STEM Industry. While research has established that improving women’s workforce participation can boost India’s GDP by 27%, more women in STEM would set the stage for inclusive innovation and solution designs that are equitable for all. Women have historically been underrepresented in STEM, yet they bring invaluable perspectives and ideas to these fields. MACC awards recognizes the exceptional talent, the brilliance, and diverse perspectives of women in STEM,” said Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, Avtar Group announcing the awards at the myAvtar Career Conference today in Bengaluru.

“Through MACC, we are acknowledging the remarkable work being done by women in STEM and also addressing the systemic barriers they face. Our goal is to create an environment where every individual, regardless of gender, has the opportunity to thrive and drive progress,” added Dr Saundarya.

At the conference, three organizations with the “Best Programs for enabling women in STEM”Biocon Biologics Pvt Ltd, Kyndryl and Molecular Connections Pvt Ltd were also recognized.

In addition to the awards, the myAvtar Career Conferences hosted a series of panel discussions, skilling tracks conducted by IBM, Google Cloud, Johnson & Johnson and Publicis Sapient exclusively for women. The event also provided a platform for knowledge exchange, mentorship, collaboration, further strengthening the presence and influence of women in the STEM field.

The conference hosted in the hybrid mode –saw an attendance of over 3000 women at the on-ground event, while there were over 2000 attendees virtually. Companies opened up jobs from entry-level to senior-level positions across India – Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Madurai and Coimbatore.

IBM Launches Fourth Annual Call for Code Global Challenge to Tackle Existential Threat of Climate Change

ARMONK, N.Y., March 22, 2021 — Together with Call for Code Creator David Clark Cause, Charitable Partner United Nations Human Rights, and the Linux Foundation, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the launch of the 2021 Call for Code Global Challenge. This year’s competition invites the world’s software developers and innovators to combat climate change with open source-powered technology.

Now in its fourth year, the Call for Code Initiative has grown to more than 400,000 developers and problem solvers across 179 nations, and has generated more than fifteen thousand applications. Call for Code aims to drive immediate and lasting humanitarian progress around the world through the creation of practical applications built on open source-powered software, including Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, IBM Blockchain, atmospheric data from IBM’s Weather Company, and developer resources and APIs from partners like Intuit and New Relic.

The diverse and like-minded global ecosystem of experts, companies, foundations, universities, and celebrities supporting Call for Code continues to expand. It includes UN World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator experts, Arrow Electronics, Black Girls Code, Caribbean Girls Hack, Clinton Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative University, Ingram Micro, Intuit, Kode With Klossy, NearForm, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Way, and World Institute on Disability.

To help take on climate change, IBM is announcing new partnerships this year with Heifer International and charity: water. Heifer International joins the Call for Code movement, contributing their world-renowned expertise in mitigating hunger and poverty by investing in local farmers and their communities.

“Smallholder farmers produce the majority of the world’s food and are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. With access to information and technology, they can make informed decisions on what to grow and when, enabling them to increase their incomes, while feeding the world,” said David Gill, Senior Director of Technology Innovation for Heifer International. “We’re excited to join IBM and the developer and open source communities in supporting these solutions that have the potential to increase access to water, food, and markets for millions of people around the world.”

IBM’s multi-pronged advocacy for environmental sustainability dates back decades. Earlier this year, IBM announced it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by prioritizing reductions in its emissions, energy efficiency efforts, and increased clean energy use across the more than 175 countries where it operates. More recently, IBM Research announced progress in accelerating the discovery of new carbon capture, separation, and storage technologies.

“Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and we must apply our collective ingenuity and cutting-edge technologies to make a lasting difference,” said Ruth Davis, director of Call for Code, IBM. “Together with our ecosystem of partners, IBM will work with the winning team to incubate and deploy their solution in communities where it’s most needed, just as we’ve done with past winners. I encourage every developer and innovator around the world to seize this opportunity through Call for Code to change our climate trajectory.”

Last year’s winning solution, Agrolly, is an app designed to support small farmers by providing climate and crop predictions and recommendations. Since October, the Agrolly team has expanded their solution to new markets and provided hands-on training to more than 500 rural farmers across Mongolia, India, and Brazil, who are testing and using the app to fight the effects of climate change. Agrolly is also working with the IBM Service Corps on a deployment plan to improve and test their technology in the coming months.

Call for Code has generated more than 30 solutions that are being incubated and field tested in a series of deployments, including 12 open source projects hosted by the Linux Foundation, enabling these projects to evolve through the power of the open source community. As the latest example, today on UN World Water Day, the Linux Foundation announced that another Call for Code solution, Liquid Prep, will be hosted at the Foundation so developers worldwide can contribute their mobile, IoT, Edge, cloud, and weather skills to help farmers optimize water usage during droughts.

“The winning team from each Call for Code Global Challenge receives $200,000, and support from the IBM Service Corps, technical experts, and ecosystem partners to incubate their technology, open source their code to make it available for anyone to use, and deploy their solution on the ground in communities around the world,” said David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause, and Creator of Call for Code. “This year the competition focuses on three sub-themes that are key to combatting climate change: clean water and sanitation; zero hunger; and responsible production and green consumption.”

ANSR collaborates with IBM to establish and operate Centers of Excellence

Bangalore: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and ANSR Consulting Inc., the global market leader in designing, establishing and operating Global Capability Centres (GCCs), today announced a strategic collaboration to set up and manage Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in areas including cloud, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation for Global Capability Center (GCC) clients across the globe.

With more than 40% share of the global GCC market and an immense talent pool, India is seen as a hotbed for enterprise transformation and innovation through GCCs – a trend that is becoming even more important as clients look to accelerate digital transformation, rebalance project priorities and optimize costs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of this collaboration, ANSR will combine its proprietary GCC Playbook, GCC Consulting services expertise as well as its capability to design, build and operate GCCs with the deep industry and IT Consulting competencies of IBM Services. The partnership will also enable GCC clients to use the IBM Garage methodology – IBM’s unique approach for putting innovation at the heart of an enterprise along with cloud support and continuous delivery through co-creation, co-operation and co-execution at speed and scale. The IBM Garage methodology can help clients accelerate their migration to hybrid multi-cloud and accelerates application modernization to achieve their business goals.

This collaboration will be executed through a joint go-to market initiative for existing ANSR and IBM customers as well as enterprises that are seeking to set up GCCs in support of advancing the enterprise growth and transformation agenda.

While ANSR will set up and run GCCs using its unique ‘as a service model’, IBM will enable the clients’ transformation agenda by bringing in extensive industry knowledge and deep technology expertise globally.

“We are excited to partner with IBM and aim to provide our clients the best-of-breed combination of ANSR & IBM’s offerings and services. Clients will now be able to co-innovate and co-execute along with ANSR & IBM through this collaborative model. This will definitely enable an accelerated and hassle-free journey for our clients’ GCCs to become true transformation centers and an extension of the enterprise,” said Lalit Ahuja, Founder & CEO, ANSR.

“GCCs have now come a long way to become a true extension of the global enterprise. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the world truly borderless. It is imperative that the right partnerships across the GCC ecosystem are leveraged towards delivering value to the enterprise in relevant markets. With this collaboration, businesses will be able to take advantage of the vast universe of IBM’s intellectual property as well as research in specific industries along with ANSR’s GCC capabilities in a seamless manner. The CoEs will give clients access to world-class talent and solutions in a contactless, Dynamic Delivery model along with best of the breed Hybrid Multi-Cloud, Cognitive & AI capabilities,” reiterates Santosh Kulkarni, Global Leader – Global Capabilities Centers, IBM.

IBM Drives Capabilities for Clients to Run Business-Critical SAP® Software Workloads on Hybrid Cloud

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new services, partnerships and capabilities designed to help clients accelerate their hybrid cloud journeys and deploy and run SAP® software workloads wherever they choose – from the IBM public cloud to on-premises. These new offerings expand on IBM and SAP’s global alliance partners to help clients optimize their SAP software workloads.

Global clients across industries are choosing to run their SAP software workloads on IBM Cloud, including Peruvian construction company Cementos Pacasmayo, Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP), the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler based on revenue, and Italian fashion footwear retailer Primadonna Collection. Reinforcing IBM’s commitment to investing in a hybrid cloud ecosystem, IBM and SAP are also expanding their ecosystem of GSI and ISV partners, to include Syniti, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech Mahindra and others, to help simplify and speed how clients run their SAP software workloads on IBM Cloud.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, enterprises around the world are looking to modernize their operations. According to a recent IBM IBV study,64 per cent of executives surveyed now plan to shift to a more cloud-based business model over the next two years. With this acceleration comes the need for deploying complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business process workloads in a way that provides clients with the industry’s highest levels of security. Based on IBM Hyper Protect Crypto Service, the only service in the industry built on FIPS 140-2 Level 4-certified hardware.

“The global pandemic has seen a year’s worth of digital transformation efforts with the acceleration of cloud adoption compressed into months,” said Harish Grama, general manager, public cloud, IBM. “Clients across industries are looking to shift to cloud and this is the core focus of our collaboration with SAP – giving our clients the ability to embrace the benefits of the cloud without compromising on security and controls. This is all done through an open hybrid cloud architecture so our clients have a choice in how they approach their digital transformation, guided by the industry expertise needed to be successful in their journey.”

Clients globally choose hybrid deployments to run SAP software workloads:

Clients working to deploy their SAP software workloads to IBM Cloud include:

· Peruvian construction company Cementos Pacasmayo, who deployed its SAP S/4HANA suite to IBM public cloud as it sought to expand beyond construction sales to value-added services, which allowed it to handle the additional ERP complexity that came with its new business line.
· Coca-Cola European Partners, who is deploying several large SAP software workloads — including the SAP ERP application and the SAP BW/4 HANA® solution — as part of its hybrid transformation. The work is designed to help CCEP deliver higher levels of service to its customers by leveraging advanced analytics while retaining a reliable infrastructure.
· Italian footwear retailer Primadonna Collection, who deployed its IT infrastructure to a certified SAP software environment on IBM public cloud for VMware to improve manageability and performance. This is designed to help Primadonna Collection modernize its business-critical processes, such as sales and customer care, as it looks to expand its global footprint.

IBM launches new partnerships, services, and capabilities to support SAP software deployments:

New partnerships, services and capabilities are designed to make it easier for businesses to deploy their SAP applications to IBM public cloud – or another environment of their choice.

· Expansion of partner ecosystem: To help clients more quickly and easily deploy SAP technologies in the cloud, IBM is expanding its SAP ecosystem of GSI and ISV partners with the addition of Syniti, TCS, BlueIT, H.T. High Technology, and Tech Mahindra. Syniti’s Knowledge Platform™ Cloud Edition on IBM Cloud is helping speed project times by up to 46 percent for clients deploying complex datasets to SAP S/4HANA. SAP also sells the SAP Advanced Data Migration application by Syniti, with a cloud edition delivered on IBM Cloud. Syniti is an SAP partner offering solution extensions to SAP software. IBM and TCS are engaging in joint go-to-market initiatives focused on accelerating cloud transformation journeys with TCS industry solutions and extensions for large enterprises.

· New offerings through IBM Services: To help ease and speed clients’ cloud deployment processes, services including IBM Rapid Move for SAP by IBM, are powered by IBM Cloud to help clients deploy to SAP S/4HANA. The services are bundled to include access to IBM Services, IBM Cloud and IBM Global Financing. IBM Services offers clients a hybrid option to allow customers to selectively deploy applications to the new cloud-based platform.

· New SAP certifications: IBM recently acquired several new SAP certifications – adding to its portfolio of more than 100 solutions tested and certified by SAP — to allow customers more choices around where and how to run their SAP software workloads. These will allow clients running SAP software workloads on an IBM infrastructure to access SAP applications in an optimized, quality-controlled way. The new certifications include:
o IBM Power Systems Virtual Server – helps customers modernize their SAP software workloads with the option to run them in a virtualized infrastructure hosted in IBM data centers. With this certification, IBM can run applications based on SAP HANA® or the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform within its virtual server stack. IBM Power Systems Virtual Server is a private infrastructure-as-a-service offering with access to the full catalog of IBM Cloud offerings.
o 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor-based servers on virtual private cloud — enterprises can grow business value with faster data insights from SAP certified instances on IBM Cloud with Intel technologies.
o NetApp certified storage for SAP workloads – gives clients running large and highly complex enterprise workloads access to ultra-high performance storage. IBM is now offering up to 180,000 IOPS of NetApp-based storage in the cloud – previously available only on-premises – to deliver high levels of performance, resilience and reliability.

As part of their global alliance partnership, IBM and SAP have worked with hundreds of clients across the globe on more than 5,500 individual projects to modernize their systems and business processes based on an open, hybrid cloud approach. IBM brings deep industry expertise and experience gained from 37,000 SAP-certified professionals, and is one of the most awarded SAP partners, named an SAP Pinnacle Award winner 36 times. https://www.ibm.com/blogs/digital-transformation/in-en/blog/the-ibm-sap-digital-transformation-partnership/

About IBM Cloud For further information visit: www.ibm.com/cloud/.

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