Author: Neel Achary

The Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) honoured Dr Chandrakant Agarwal, President – Thalassemia & Sickle Cell Society (TSCS) for his contribution to vision 2030

Hyderabad, 14 July, 2023 – The Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society esteemed President, Dr. Chandrakant Agarwal, has been recognized for his exceptional contribution as one of the main architects behind Vision 2030. The comprehensive plan aims to revolutionize the treatment and support systems for individuals affected by thalassemia and sickle cell disorders. In light of this remarkable achievement, the Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) has decided to present Dr. Agarwal with a Citation Certificate, acknowledging his dedicated efforts and noble cause. The Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister- Sri Somesh Kumar Ji (IAS Retd), Padma Shri Dr GN Rao, and Mr. Anil Agarwal, President of FTCCI were present at the event.

Dr. Agarwal’s pioneering work in the field of thalassemia and sickle cell disorders has significantly impacted the lives of countless individuals, fostering advancements in research, treatment, and awareness. His invaluable expertise and visionary approach have played a pivotal role in shaping Vision 2030, a comprehensive framework aimed at improving the quality of life for those affected by these conditions.

In recognition of Dr. Agarwal’s tireless dedication, Mr. G N Rao, Chairman of LV Prasad Eye Hospital, along with Mr. Anil Agarwal, President of FTCCI, and several other esteemed officials, joined hands to present a memento to Dr. Chandrakant Agarwal.

On receiving the award, Dr. Chandrakant Agarwal, President TSCS said “I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious recognition from FTCCI. This Citation Certificate serves as a testament to the collective efforts and unwavering dedication of the Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society. It is a reaffirmation of our commitment to improving the lives of individuals affected by thalassemia and sickle cell disorders. I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this noble cause, and I dedicate this award to all those who have supported and believed in our mission. Together, we will continue to strive for a brighter future for every individual impacted by these genetic disorders.”

The Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society, along with Dr. Agarwal, remains committed to pursuing their mission of advancing research, treatment, and support systems for thalassemia and sickle cell disorders. Their tireless efforts continue to make a lasting impact, offering hope and a better future for individuals and families facing these challenges.

Oxane Named ‘Best-Of-Breed’ in Chartis RiskTech Quadrant® for Credit Risk Reporting Solutions

London/New York/New Delhi: July 14, 2023 – Oxane Partners (“Oxane”), a leading technology-driven solutions provider to private markets, announced that it has been recognized as ‘Best-Of-Breed’ by Chartis Research (“Chartis”) in its Chartis RiskTech Quadrant® for Credit Risk Reporting Solutions 2023.

The report, published by Chartis, evaluates, and ranks vendors based on their credit risk reporting capabilities in the RiskTech Quadrant®. Participants are evaluated on two broad categories: ‘completeness of offering’, which encompasses solution capabilities, data management and technology infrastructure, risk analytics, reporting, and presentation; and ‘market potential’, which covers business model, existing market penetration, and future growth potential, financials, customer satisfaction, and growth strategy.

Oxane achieved high rankings across multiple categories, recognizing the firm’s robust portfolio monitoring and risk management platforms. The solution stood out on several parameters such as platform and product capabilities, workflow management & integration capabilities, advanced analytics, and technological innovation. Chartis also highlighted key strengths of Oxane, under the ‘Best-of-Breed’ quadrant, recognizing its focused growth strategy that has contributed to an expanding client base, further solidifying its position as a key player in the risk management space for private markets.

“Amid the current market landscape, risk management needs of investment firms have become pertinent. We’re more focused than ever to meet their portfolio and risk management needs and this ‘Best-of-Breed’ ranking is a testament to our focus and innovation in the space. By aligning with market needs, we are reinventing portfolio management operations with our digital-first solutions, as we continue to grow partnerships with our clients and remain a trusted name in the private markets industry,” said Sumit Gupta, Cofounder, and Managing Director at Oxane Partners.

This recognition in Chartis RiskTech Quadrant® comes on the heels of Oxane being named in the Chartis RiskTech100® 2023 report, where the firm was recognized as the ‘Rising Star’ and winner of a category award for innovation in private credit operations and technology. These distinctions underscore Oxane’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of technology in the private credit sector while providing innovative solutions that enable clients to have better control over their investment operations.

To access Chartis RiskTech Quadrant® for Credit Risk Reporting Solutions 2023 and learn more about Market and Vendor Landscape Report, click here.

‘Sony Research Award Program’ to Start Accepting Submissions focused on Emerging and Innovative Technological Development

Now in its 8th year, held in North America, Europe, and India

Tokyo, Japan— Sony Group Corporation (Sony) announced today that it will begin calling for research proposals for the Sony Research Award Program on July 15, 2023. The Sony Research Award Program is an open innovation program, providing sponsored research funding for projects on emerging and innovative technologies in collaboration with Sony Group’s own research groups. Currently in its eighth year, the program is open to universities and research institutions such as government research institutes and nonprofit organizations in the U.S., Canada, 17 European countries*1 and India.

The Sony Research Award Program is comprised of two awards – the Faculty Innovation Award and the Focused Research Award. The awards create new opportunities for academics to engage in cutting-edge research, leading to the introduction of breakthrough technologies.

Ÿ The Faculty Innovation Award grants up to $100,000 USD to principal investigators for one year*2, for research projects that may fall within three broad subject categories (Information Technology, Devices & Materials, and Biomedical & Life Sciences) relevant to Sony’s current research interests.

Ÿ The Focused Research Award provides support for up to $150,000 USD for one year*2, to conduct research on 12 themes which is more focused in the areas of Sony’s immediate interest.

For more information about the awards, as well as the submission guidelines, please visit https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/research-award-program/ .

*1 European countries included in the program are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom.

*2 With the possibility of an extension.

Hiroaki Kitano, Senior Executive Vice President and CTO, Sony Group Corporation

“Sony’s Purpose is to ‘Fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology,’ and our mission for research and development (R&D) is to ‘Push our civilization forward and make this planet sustainable.’ Across various fields of our civilization and society, collaboration with external research institutions and academia is essential for Sony to develop technologies that enable creators to unleash their full creative potential and connect with diverse users. We believe that the Sony Research Award Program offers important opportunities for collaboration between researchers around the world and the Sony Group, to develop breakthrough technologies and innovations for a better future.”

Comment from the award recipients:

Professor Zhou Yu, Columbia University (New York, U.S.)

“It was such a pleasant experience working with Sony for the past three years. The synergy between our academic rigor and Sony’s industry experience creates a powerful combination that fosters groundbreaking research and propels us closer to real-world applications. This partnership not only enhances the quality and relevance of our research but also opens doors to potential future collaborations, knowledge sharing, and access to state-of-the-art resources. Working hand in hand with Sony fuels our passion for advancing Natural Language Processing and contributes to the broader academic and technological communities, paving the way for transformative advancements in dialogue understanding, planning, and generation.”

Professor Stephen Morris, University of Oxford (Oxford, U.K.),

“Receiving a Sony Research Award has been transformative for our research group. Being able to engage directly with researchers from Sony has enabled us to make great strides forward in terms of the application of our direct laser writing technique to the manufacture of liquid crystal display devices and related technologies. Through our collaboration, we have been able to tailor our simulations and experiments to align with current technology-limiting challenges, and at the same time unlock new scientific discoveries.”

Professor Arpita Patra, Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru, India)

“Collaborating with Sony has opened up avenues for considering real-world deployment of secure multiparty computation-based solutions to design efficient protocols for privacy-preserving recommendation systems. The team at Sony has discussed and shared possible use-cases that are relevant in practice which has allowed us to design tailor-made protocols as required for the underlying application scenarios. The financial support provided by Sony has allowed me to onboard talented young minds, and I believe the program is much needed to bridge the gap between theory and practice.”

Commvault Announces Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage on Salesforce AppExchange, the World’s Leading Enterprise Cloud Marketplace

India – July 14, 2023 – Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) today announced it has launched Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage on Salesforce AppExchange, providing customers with dedicated protection for their Salesforce cloud data, expanding upon native capabilities to offer extended retention, data isolation, sandbox masking and seeding, rapid recovery tools, and more. Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage offers broad-ranging coverage across Salesforce Sales Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, Service Cloud, and Health Cloud to help safeguard data from deletion, corruption, and ransomware attacks.

Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage is currently available on AppExchange at https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N4V00000HDcS6UAL&tab=e

Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage

With a multi-layered security approach, Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage provides enterprise-grade protection, including robust security standards and built-in zero-trust access controls for production and sandbox environments. In addition, it features ease of management with a single pane of glass approach, enabling businesses to comprehensively protect their Salesforce data alongside their other critical workloads.

“Availability on AppExchange leverages Salesforce’s central marketplace to create a fast and direct method for Salesforce developers and admins to access solutions that secure, protect, and defend their environments in the face of cyberthreats,” said Param Kumarasamy, Vice President of Product Management, Commvault. “Our solution provides the critical tools that protect these environments, as well as a wide breadth of workloads, helping customers reduce downtime and rapidly recover from attack while leveraging advanced, hardened, and proactive security controls.”

“Salesforce plays a critical role in our day-to-day operations and the potential of losing that data was too high a risk for us. We needed a solution that went beyond the standard data management package to take us to the next level of protection,” said Jason Kehl, Senior Vice President of Engineering & Data Science, Vectra. “This app was the answer. With a single platform design that makes it seamless to manage not only our Salesforce data, but all workloads across our infrastructure, as well as the highest level of security offered by any cloud-based data management solution, we can rest assured that our data is in good hands. The addition of Metallic on AppExchange means that Salesforce has thoroughly tested and approved the solution, providing another layer of confidence.”

“Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage is a welcome addition to AppExchange, as it accelerates business transformation for customers by delivering hardened security, robust coverage, and comprehensive control, all through a single, simplistic platform, in a data protection as a service environment,” said David Lee, Vice President of Product Management, AppExchange. “AppExchange is constantly evolving to connect customers with the right apps and experts for their business needs.”

Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage enables customers to learn more about this solution, watch demo videos, download product-specific resources, read reviews, register for a free 30-day trial, and more. Users can also request additional information on Metallic solutions.

Paytient officially closes $7.5M in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank to help Americans access and afford healthcare

Columbia, MO, July 14, 2023 – Paytient, the creator and leading provider of Health Payment Accounts (HPAs) on 13 July announced it has finalized a $7.5M venture debt facility with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, which was first announced in January of this year. Since it was founded in 2018, the company has raised $55.5M in equity from leading investors including Mercato, Bertelsmann Investments, Lightbank, Felicis Ventures, Box Group, Lachy Groom, Left Lane Capital, Commerce Bank, Crossbeam Ventures, Cultivation Capital, and Inspired Capital.

Today, Paytient serves over 1,000 enterprise clients in partnership with most of the Fortune 100’s major payors. The company’s Health Payment Account solution is offered by three major carriers alongside individual marketplace health plans in seven states, four major dental carriers, and has been white labeled into a number of digitally forward health benefits companies like Gravie, who is thoughtfully enabling patient access via Gravie Pay. Members have given Paytient 4.9 stars on Trustpilot and a 90+ NPS.

The funds will be used to develop new product features for release later this year in pursuit of the company’s mission to not only ensure people have the power to pay for healthcare but also to help them more easily access quality care for better prices. As healthcare prices are expected to rise 7% in 2024, solutions that increase access while lowering costs are becoming increasingly important to payers and self-funded groups.

“In March, I shared my faith in our friends at SVB—particularly Dennis Grunt and Matt Johnson— and my belief that innovation will always outrun fear in the long run as they worked to rebuild trust. As promised, we have continued our relationship, and we are grateful for the faith they have put in us by extending capital we’ll use to grow in this next chapter of Paytient’s mission to help Americans better access and afford healthcare,” said Paytient founder and CEO Brian Whorley.

“With its innovative solutions and extensive partnerships, Paytient is helping Americans access and afford quality healthcare care,” said Dennis Grunt, Market Manager and Midwest and Mid-Atlantic Lead with SVB. “Silicon Valley Bank has a long-standing history of supporting companies, like Paytient, who are working to improve the lives of others. We’re excited to continue to work closely with Brian and the Paytient team and provide them with the financial products and advice they need to grow their business and help more people manage their healthcare costs. “

Discover White Sharks and More in 3d! Cutting-edge, Interactive Shark and Ray Displays Bring the Ocean to Life

14 July 2023 – SHARK AWARENESS DAY

The Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) is bringing sharks to life, thanks to interactive 3D models that will be available across various platforms. Visitors to the World of Sharks website can investigate the biology and evolution of sharks and rays by rotating first-of-their-kind models online at the SOSF’s flagship information repository. Young South African learners will dive into unravelling the mysteries of different shark species and their lives on the SOSF Shark Education Centre’s website.

Have you ever wondered how many kinds of sharks there are? Which is the biggest shark or the fastest? For these answers and lots more, the Save Our Seas Foundation’s (SOSF’s) World of Sharks website is the one-stop shop for shark information. Designed to provide scientifically accurate information in an engaging format, World of Sharks is where you can find infographics, podcast episodes, species cards and topic pages covering everything you’ve ever wanted to know about sharks and rays.

“We wanted World of Sharks to be the ultimate shark FAQ – created to answer all the questions people want to ask about sharks and rays,” says SOSF CEO Dr James Lea. “Through engaging and accessible content, we hope to grow a repository of fascinating shark facts that people can trust.”

And now, with this latest addition, the website will host interactive 3D white shark and manta ray models designed by the Digital Life Project at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) in collaboration with the SOSF.

“I was really wanting to create something 3D and interactive, where visitors to the World of Sharks can explore in an engaging way that highlights the unique physiology and evolution of sharks and rays and demystifies their unique adaptations,” explains Jade Schultz, content manager for the SOSF.

The Digital Life team, led by Professor Duncan Irschick, in collaboration with CG artist Johnson Martin and UMASS Amherst undergraduates Emma Hsiao and Braedon Fedderson, used media provided by the SOSF and data and open-access images to reconstruct these 3D shark species.

The interactive biology models enable website users to learn about different elements of shark and ray physiology. For instance, just allowing the cursor to hover over key features will bring up information on everything from how manta rays filter feed and why they are under threat to facts about how scientists use sharks’ dorsal fins to identify individuals in a population. The 3D models are open access, and free to view and download for non-profit use.

Although concerted efforts by researchers and educators are turning the tide for sharks and rays, significant challenges remain. More than one-third of these species are under threat of extinction, which means we still have much work to do to change misconceptions, banish misinformation and empower people with useful information so that they can also participate in conservation.

“The key to all our understanding of sharks – why they do what they do and what is needed to help them recover – relies on there being a foundation of basic, reliable life history information,” says Dr Lea.

The SOSF has a strong legacy of using communication and storytelling to do this, but this most recent commission with innovators from UMASS harnesses the power of creative design and technological advancement. The World of Sharks makes the reach for this kind of information global, but the SOSF is also excited to present very detailed and accurate information at the local scale.

Young visitors to the SOSF Shark Education Centre (SOSF-SEC) in Cape Town, South Africa, have an incredible opportunity to explore the rocky shores nearby in the Dalebrook marine protected area. This kind of in-person experience is irreplaceable, but to dive deeper into the reaches offshore requires technological wizardry and creative flair. A new website for the SOSF-SEC will host a diversity of 3D sharks that are found in False Bay, the largest bay in southern Africa. Children who would never otherwise dip below the waves to see these sharks will now be able to watch, for example, an endemic (found nowhere else in the world) catshark curl into a defensive doughnut-shape. Whether on iPads in the centre or at home online, learners can marvel at the most amazing feats of the sharks that live on their doorstep. Simulating behaviours like spyhopping in white sharks and demonstrating how sharks move in their environment give children an immersive experience, regardless of whether they have access to the ocean.

Still in the throes of the brainstorming and development that will expand these tools to their full potential, the director of the SOSF-SEC, Dr Clova Mabin, enthuses, “We also think that it might be possible to use the tools as a teaching aid in the classroom, to simulate field work. Learners could view them on the iPads and potentially take various measurements, comparing them across the different species.”