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PhonePe sets a new milestone: Deploys 20 Lakh SmartSpeakers within 6 months of launch

Bengaluru, 22 February 2023: PhonePe, India’s leading fintech platform, today, announced its record-high distribution of 20 Lakh SmartSpeakers within just six months of launch. This is the fastest ramp-up seen for such devices among offline merchants in the country. PhonePe’s SmartSpeakers help validate customer payments without any intervention, and their speed of audio confirmations has helped build exceptional trust and reliability across over 3.5 Crore merchants on the company’s platform.

As merchants across India are increasingly adopting the PhonePe SmartSpeakers, they are realizing the value it creates for their business every day. On average, PhonePe SmartSpeakers are being used for the validation of more than 75 crore transactions per month. Merchant partners spread across ~16,000 pin codes (>75% pin codes) in the country are now using the SmartSpeaker, with Tier III locations seeing the deployment of more than 5 lakh devices.

Some of the features that make this device stand out in the market include portability, a best-in-class battery, great audio clarity even in the noisiest of environments, and the compact and versatile form factor which allows merchants to use it even in the most congested counter spaces. Earlier merchants using feature phones relied heavily on SMS, but now with the PhonePe SmartSpeakers, their payment validation experience has been significantly eased. PhonePe SmartSpeakers provide payment notifications in 11 Indian languages and comes with up to 4 days of battery life, dedicated data connectivity, a dedicated battery level LED indicator for ease of use, audio alerts for low battery level, and a dedicated replay button for the last transaction. By offering such convenience to merchants, PhonePe is seeing the successful adoption of PhonePe’s SmartSpeakers in the market, thus enabling an increase in digital payments.

Speaking on this milestone, Vivek Lohcheb, Head of Offline Business at PhonePe said, “The deployment of over 20 lakh SmartSpeakers across the country in record time is a testimony to PhonePe’s superior execution capabilities. PhonePe has always crafted innovative products and customized offerings to address unique merchant requirements. We are delighted to see our SmartSpeakers being widely accepted across all regions and cities of the country. This strong merchant preference for our SmartSpeakers is due to our device performance, and the trust associated with PhonePe as a brand. As we continue to build for our merchants, we will enhance the hardware and software capabilities of the device to actively benchmark our product in the market.”

PhonePe provides a suite of services to offline merchants which primarily include the interoperable QR code to accept digital payments through any UPI-enabled app, the PhonePe Stores functionality where merchants can access a large base of customers in their vicinity, the PhonePe Business app to facilitate end-to-end control of an entire payment process, Store Analytics feature for merchants to see their ratings and reviews, payment links for merchants to collect payment for goods and services remotely, and now, SmartSpeakers for reliable & convenient payment tracking at stores.

CarDekho adds Medulance on its platforms to provide emergency medical services to 60 million visitors

Mumbai, 22 January 2023: Aiming to support people with quick medical care, CarDekho has onboarded ambulance service provider Medulance on its mobile app and website. Amit Jain, the new Shark on Shark Tank India show, decided to add Medulance, a GPS-based platform enabling fast ambulance services that pitched its business on the show, to CarDekho without any financial transaction. Amit Jain, Co-Founder and CEO of India’s largest auto tech company – CarDekho Group – did this with an aim to expand the reach of the emergency first care service and help bring down the number of road accident fatalities. This offer was made by Amit Jain in succession to his offer of Rs. 5 crore for 5% equity in Medulance, the biggest offer in the history of Shark Tank India.

This free-of-charge integration of Medulance on the CarDekho app and website will enable users to call for an ambulance from the app and website in case of a mishap. This is in line with Amit Jain’s view of supporting cause-based businesses and will seek to prevent road accident fatalities in India.

Present in 500 cities, Medulance is India’s first, GPS-based technology platform that enables fast and reliable first-point medical attention. Started in 2017, Medulance intends to make finding an ambulance as easy as finding food or taxis these days to assist lives. It is an integrated emergency response support provider, ambulance booking and tracking system designed to provide first-point medical attention.

Speaking on this partnership, Mr. Amit Jain, CEO, and Co-Founder, CarDekho Group, said, “India reports one of the highest numbers of fatalities caused by road accidents every year, cutting short great life stories. About half of these lives can be saved if the injured receive timely access to medical care, and Medulance is playing a pivotal role in bridging this gap. As a responsible group, CarDekho has integrated Medulance on its mobile app and website, and is playing its part in helping create awareness about a service that can help save lives.”

Pranav Bajaj, a CEO, of Medulance, said, “Medulance was started with the aim to help people call for early first care in case of an accident. Our efforts have saved hundreds of lives so far and this social gesture by Shark Amit Jain will further amplify the reach of Medulance, allowing timely availability of ambulances and curbing the loss of lives.”

Shark Tank India 2.0 is witnessing increased participation from entrepreneurs that are battling societal odds and are keen on solving problems through their businesses. Amit Jain has been at the forefront of promoting such ventures by looking beyond profit and investing in businesses that help India move forward.

Kingston Technology Server Premier DDR5 4800MT/s Registered DIMMS Receive Validation on 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processor

Mumbai – February 22, 2023 – Kingston Technology, a world leader in memory products and technology solutions, today announced its 64GB, 32GB, and 16GB Server Premier DDR5 4800MT/s Registered DIMMs have been validated on the 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor (formerly codenamed Sapphire Rapids). Kingston offers server memory and Data Center (DC) SSDs for the most demanding workloads, and supports the global needs to store, manage and instantly access large volumes of data in both traditional databases and Big Data infrastructures.

For over 35 years Kingston has been the memory brand trusted by leading server manufacturers and the world’s largest data centers. Server Premier is Kingston’s industry standard memory solution sold by a specification for use in white-box servers, and is platform validated and qualified by leading motherboard/system manufacturers. Featuring a locked BOM (Bill of Materials) to provide a consistent brand and revision of primary components (including DRAM, register, PMIC, SPD hub, thermal sensors, and PCB), all Kingston server memory solutions are 100% tested and undergo a rigorous dynamic burn-in process designed to catch early-life failures at the factory.

Server Premier features include:

• Locked Bill of Materials (BOM)
• Part Change Notifications (PCN) – 90 days
• 8Q roadmap visibility
• Server platform validation
• Leading server motherboard manufacturer qualification
• Limited Lifetime warranty
• Industry-leading service and support

Intel’s 4th Gen Xeon Scalable Processor is their first to support next-generation DDR5 server-class memory and features eight memory channels, arranged in up to two DIMMs per channel, or 16 DIMMs per CPU socket. At 4800MT/s, each DDR5 Registered DIMM provides a peak bandwidth of 38.4GB/s, which when grouped in multi-channel configurations provides a marked increase in performance over DDR4-based servers. DDR5 introduces advanced features for a more reliable and more efficient memory subsystem, including on-die ECC (ODECC), double the number of banks and double the burst length, improved refreshes, inclusion of a power management circuit (PMIC), additional temperature sensors, decision feedback equalization (DFE), and dual independent 32-bit subchannels (40-bit for ECC).

The following modules are available now:

“We’re excited to announce the validation of our next-generation server memory parts on Intel’s 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processor,” said Kingston. “Validation is always the first step for memory manufacturers to demonstrate the quality and compatibility of their memory solutions. DDR5 delivers the technology to scale in bandwidth and capacity to meet the performance requirements of tomorrow’s data centers.”

In addition to server memory, Kingston’s Enterprise SATA 3.0 and NVMe Data Center (DC) SSDs are storage solutions designed with a stringent set of development requirements and a thorough testing process. The Kingston’s SATA Data Center SSDs are reliable high-performance, low-latency drives built for data centers and efficient client systems. Kingston’s NVMe Data Center SSDs provides extreme speeds for exceptional Quality of Service (QoS) demands for extensive daily tasks to mission critical information. Offering enterprises a wide variety of products to choose from.

AIC – Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum launches ‘AIC-Pinnacle EV Challenge’

Pune, February 22, 2023: India’s leading incubation and investment platform, AIC (Atal Incubation Centre)-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum, supported by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Ministry of MSME, and Ministry of Electronics and IT, Govt. of India, has announced the launch of the AIC – Pinnacle EV Challenge. This one-of-a-kind EV challenge is envisioned at encouraging startups from across the country working in the EV charging infrastructure, EV products, components, EV-related service, and solutions space to work on the challenges faced by the electric vehicle (EV) industry and come up with innovative resolutions. Nominations for AIC-Pinnacle EV Challenge will remain open till 28th February 2023. Startups offering specialized groundbreaking and potentially scalable solutions in one or multiple domains of challenges faced by the EV industry can apply.

Speaking on the announcement, Dr. Sudhir Mehta, Founder, AIC-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum, and Chairman of Pinnacle Industries & EKA said, “We are excited to launch the AIC – Pinnacle EV Challenge and provide a platform for startups to work on the challenges faced by the EV industry. With this EV Challenge, we aim to discover promising products, technology, and startups, explore commercial opportunities, and encourage the implementation of solutions and innovation in the EV sector. While the electric vehicle industry in India is growing vigorously, it is concurrently posed with a diverse set of challenges. We firmly believe that startups in our country possess a huge potential, talent, and futuristic vision and have an enormous ability to play a significant role in addressing the challenges the EV industry faces. They deeply understand the ground-level problems of the EV Industry and are highly driven to come up with innovative-scalable ideas and solutions that contribute largely to our country’s sustainability goals. We are positive that this challenge will inspire and support startups to come up with innovative solutions that will shape the future of the EV industry.”

The forum plans to facilitate the winning startups with cash prizes, product development support, and manufacturing partnerships with the EV industry. The first winner will be awarded a cash prize of INR 2,00,000, the second winner will receive a cash prize of INR 1,50,000, followed by a prize of INR 1,00,000 to the third winner of the challenge. In addition, the startups shall be provided incubation support, mentoring, co-working space, lab space, IP and legal support, funding support, networking support, etc by AIC-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum. The startups, if deemed fit, will also be provided support in the commercialization of the products.

The primary areas of conundrum are challenges related to the product, cost, Infrastructure, service, supply chain, investments, skilled manpower, the transition of ICE to EV, vehicle-to-grid integration, and any other latent issues. Only registered startups will be eligible for consideration and must apply on the official application website upto 28th February 2023. Winners will be announced in the first week of March on AIC-Pinnacle’s official website.

The EV Challenge conceptualized & organized by AIC -Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum will serve as a proving ground for future automotive engineers and organizations. The challenge is aimed at realizing energy-efficient solutions while meeting the decarbonization needs of the automotive industry. The challenge will provide startups with a platform to showcase their ideas and receive support in the form of mentorship and access to industry experts.

The AIC – Pinnacle EV Challenge will be conducted in two stages. The first stage will involve a selection process based on the applications received, and selected startups will have the opportunity to work on their ideas with support from industry experts. The second stage will involve a pitch session, where selected startups will present their solutions to a panel of judges, who will select the winning startups.

Meghalaya Jumps the Hurdle to Provide Efficient Sports Infrastructure and Promising Talent

India, February 22nd, 2023: Sports have been an integral part of world culture dating back as far as ancient civilizations. The most eminent example of sports culture and society, the Olympic Games are more than 3,000 years old. Sports have always had an extraordinary impact on society, culture, economy, and every other facet of a nation. For those engaged in sports, sports are the epitome of diligence, hard work, and dedication. In India, the sports sector has seen exponential growth and is considered to be the next big opportunity. With the best outcome at the Olympics and the Commonwealth games off late, India is on the rise, and all due to the best infrastructure and nutrition being provided to them. In the past few decades, we have witnessed countries such as America, Australia, and China invest heavily in the sports domain, especially at the grassroots level to develop community sports complexes and facilities. These facilities are available to their young population across schools, colleges, and universities. This has aided these countries to be some of the chart leaders and global sporting powers in world games with their athletes being able to practice at state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities.

When it comes to sports, the Northeast can least be ignored. Over the years the athletes from this region have held the Indian tricolor high. The Meghalaya Government run by the National People’s Party and the visionary Shri Conrad Sangma has seen an upsurge in Youth Affairs and Sports Infrastructure, besides significant other developments over the course of the last few years. Meghalaya has been a state that lives and breathes sports, especially football, since its inception in 1972 when it became a separate state from Assam. The state boasts of some international players that have represented the country in the past. It is seen that the state of Meghalaya is capable to produce several champion athletes in various sports. With a state-of-the-art sporting infrastructure that is being developed for various sports, the aspiration to develop sporting talent in the state is currently being effortlessly accomplished. The State Sports Policy of Meghalaya aims at promoting active participation in sports and physical activity as the central premise of Meghalaya’s culture, ethos, and way of life. The Government of Meghalaya believes that participation in sports and games improves the well-being and quality of life, brings social harmony, and promotes economic activities.

In their quest to earn more sporting laurels for the state, the Government has implemented 400 Grassroots Sports infrastructure projects which are under construction and several iconic sports stadiums like the much-awaited Football Stadium at the P.A. Sangma Sports Complex have been inaugurated in record time. The stadium invokes a great historical significance as it witnessed Tura Football League and Subroto Cup since its inception in the year 2006. The upgradation of this stadium has been a mammoth undertaking by the NPP Government in Meghalaya. The Stadium is a technological marvel, being the country’s largest pre-engineered composite football stadium with a sizeable seating capacity of 9500. The beautiful stadium is part of an equally magnificent Sports Complex built at a cost of ₹.127.7 Crore which is also nearing its completion. The Football Stadium and the two Indoor stadiums are built over a combined area of over 17,000 sqm. The Indoor Stadiums with Gymnasium, Swimming Pool, Table Tennis Hall, Squash Hall, and Badminton Hall have also been operational. Additionally, large infrastructures will also be ready in the next few months with JN Stadium (Polo Grounds Shillong) being upgraded, and Wahiajer Stadium and Indoor Stadium in Jongksha entering their concluding stages.

Sport is woven into the fabric of every community in the state. Traditional sports have been a part of every community’s lifestyle over the years, and it is seen to date that several communities still engage themselves in these traditional sports. Meghalaya has performed well in sports at the national and international levels in the past and has huge opportunities to develop more athletes in various other sports. With an aim to achieve laurels for the state, the “Meghalaya State Sports Policy 2019” is proposed with a commitment to excel in sports and to position Meghalaya as a leading sporting state in India. The State provides year-round, high-intensity, individual, event, and position-specific training. Teach athletes, who are now proficient at performing basic and sport-specific skills, to perform those skills under a variety of competitive conditions during training. Place special emphasis on optimum preparation by modeling competitions in training. Individually tailor fitness programs, recovery programs, psychological preparation, and technical development. Emphasize individual preparation that addresses each athlete’s individual strengths and weaknesses.

The NPP government has launched a talent identification program for athletes. The program aims to identify talented athletes at a young and impressionable age and then hone their skills through curated training programs. In the first phase of the program, 4,600 children in the age groups of 10-18 were tested on international standards for their athletic abilities. The initial findings are very encouraging and dozens of kids whose athletic abilities are at par and even better than international benchmarks have been identified. Raksan Sangma, a 17-year-old boy from Southwest Garo Hills clocked 2.84 seconds in the 20-meter sprint against the international benchmark of 2.99 seconds.

To realize this vision, STAR Talent Identification Program was launched to identify sports talents and impart quality training as per international standards, to encourage Coaches and Athletes, Cash award Scheme has been initiated. Rs. 4 Cr have been disbursed benefitting nearly 3000 athletes. ASPIRE program was launched where 23,000+ youths were skilled in soft skills and life skills for confidence building and nurturing critical thinking. Sports Scholarship Scheme was initiated to award sports achievers. The incentive is being transferred every month to the sportspersons. Meghalaya Games was held after 16 Years while hosting the 2nd Northeast Olympics successfully as one of the best-hosted games in the history of the Northeast region.

Bearing testimony to the entire effort by athletes supported by Government, the 2nd Northeast Olympic Games was a remarkable success. The organization of this event is a testament to what the Northeast can do and the signs of what the Northeast can achieve in the times to come. There was a concerted and systemic effort behind the stupendous success of Team Meghalaya with unprecedented successes. Despite COVID, the NPP-led government continued supporting the athletes, ensuring that they get the best of facilities, training, and opportunity. The Government and the various sporting associations worked with a single-minded focus to emerge as champions. Meghalaya is now completely ready to host the National Games in 2023 and other international events. Meghalaya finished with a rich haul of 36 Gold Medals and an overall tally of 149 Medals.

The latest Internshala report shows Web Development and Python Courses being the most popular among students in 2022

22nd, January 2023: Internshala Trainings, the skilling engine of the career-tech platform, Internshala, in its exclusive report, has highlighted Web Development and Python courses being the most popular among students across the country. As per the report, the top five cities that recorded students opting for the Web Development and Python courses were Hyderabad (12.81%), Delhi (12.40%), Bengaluru (11.16%), Kolkata (8.51%), and Pune (8.23%).

The report highlighted that more than 36.12% of students wanted to opt for an online certification course like Web Development and Python as it may help them secure better job opportunities and internships, 28.38% of students believed that the courses help them to enhance their skills. While 10.69% of students were interested in opting for the courses to acquire certificates. Other reasons, like the ability to build their industry-level real-world project and fulfill the demand of their college authorities, were responsible for students to opt for Web Development and Python courses.

The report highlighted some interesting figures as the Tier-III cities recorded the highest interest to opt for Web Development and Python courses, i.e. 34.66%. Whereas, Tier-I and Tier-II cities recorded a figure of 30.14% and 18.54%, respectively. In the report, more than 58.64% of males and 41.36% of females opted for Web Development and Python courses through e-learning mediums in the past year.

As per the report, INR 50,000 and INR 7,200 was the highest and average monthly stipend, respectively, that was offered to the students who successfully completed the Web Development and Python courses and then landed an internship. Also, 5% of students enrolled in the Internshala Trainings from the last year were hired. Taking into consideration the data of the last two years, 15% of students got job opportunities upon the completion of the courses.

Shadab Alam, Head – of Internshala Trainings, said, “The e-learning model has facilitated smart and easy ways for students to acquire in-demand skill sets. The report highlights that courses like Web Development and Python have gained prominence in the last few years as their demand by companies to effectively run their businesses has increased, thus creating opportunities for the students to get jobs equipped with the knowledge of the required domain.”

He further added, that, “The Web Development and Python courses at Internshala are beginners friendly, allowing students from any educational background to take up the courses and add new expertise to their resume.”

Upon successful completion of the Web Development and the Python courses, the students got offered job opportunities in various companies like Perfectice Eduventure Limited, 1stMentor, United Nations Volunteer, Akaaro, Team Everest, Tare Zameen Foundation, BloodConnect, E Cell – FMS Delhi, BBC India News, Delhi Technological University – TATVA, The Entrepreneurship Cell, and IIT Bombay to name a few.

Also, the students who took the Web Development and Python courses shared their experiences on how the respective programs helped them to secure jobs. Listed below are some of the valuable experiences received as a part of the Internshala training program.

Ansh Singh took the Programming with Python training, said, “In the starting days of training, I was quite confident because I knew I was learning from a trusted and verified site. It helped me so much in upskilling myself and increasing my knowledge. I’m now reputed in my college because I was the only guy with the training certificate and knowledge in the whole batch. Many students, teachers, and even my HOD also came to ask me how I did it and what the advantages were, etc. Also, because of Programming with Python training, I’ve scored good marks in this field, and I’m doing 3 projects with the application of Python. It was a great experience for my career.”

Nitu Kumari joined the Web development training program and found it very enriching to gain a new skill. As a part of her experience, she said, “I took a web development course in 3rd year of my engineering degree. The instructor explained concepts using proper examples and implementation. After this course, I worked as a MERN stack developer. The course helped me get my first Internship at a well-known start-up in just a month, and I also got the job before even completing my internship. The courses are well structured, easy to understand, and helped me land my first job. I am thankful to the founder of Internshala, Sarvesh Agarwal, for building such a good platform.”

Crayons Advertising aims to double its revenues by 2026, riding on events and digital verticals

Delhi/ Mumbai, February 22, 2023: Crayons Advertising Limited, India’s leading homegrown integrated advertising agency, today announced its plans to double its revenues in the next three years, mainly riding on digital and events verticals.

Promoted by the Indian ad veteran Kunal Lalani, Caryons Advertising has demonstrated presence as an integrated and innovative advertising agency for over three and half decades. The company has recently filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with NSE Emerge for initial public offering (IPO). Upon listing, Crayons will be India’s first major homegrown advertising agency to go public.

“In the past few years, we have consistently invested in our capabilities – comprising of people, processes, partners and performance”, said Kunal Lalani, Founder & Managing Director, Crayons Advertising. “Today, we are aiming for an orbital shift, given our integrated proposition, the strong economic tailwinds for the advertising sector and sustained mandate flow in our digital and events verticals. We are raising funds to build further our digital capabilities, which will enable us to not only cater to the brands in Bharat, but also offer our new-age tech-led solutions to the world going forward”, added Kunal.

Strong macros aiding industry optimism

The Indian advertising market was valued at nearly INR 670 billion in 2020. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11% from 2022-2027 to reach INR 1253.2 billion by 2026. Infrastructure, banking & financial services (including fintechs), tourism, Government departments & the MSME and large home-grown players are expected to command a larger share of ad budgets. The demand for integrated players with a deep understanding of Bharat will dominate the agency selection going forward.

Investing in quality people

Crayons continued to strengthen its leadership team with appointments of marquee professionals. Recently, Faisal Haq joined the company as its Chief Operating Officer industry veterans Manoj Jacob and Anurag Mishra were inducted as the Executive Creative Director and Sr. Creative Director, respectively.

“In the business of creativity and innovation, the quality of people is the core differentiator. We at Crayons have always believed in building teams by investing in credible leaders, which has enabled us to build our reputation as a respected creative partner to global brands. With timely investments in our capabilities backed by robust brand equity, we are now expanding our leadership team,” said Kunal.

Faisal Haq is the new COO of the agency. His forte lies in exploring potential business avenues and managing operations to achieve business targets focusing on top-line and bottom-line profitability. An industry veteran with over 25 years of experience working across agencies and brands, Faisal has delivered several award-winning works across social & digital media. A celebrated professional, Faisal was also declared COO of the Year ’22-’23 by the Indian Achiever’s Forum. Before Crayons, Faisal worked with WATConsult-Dentsu Creative.

Manoj Jacob joins as Executive Creative Director and commands over 20 years of experience working across agencies like Ogilvy, DDB Mudra, Havas, BBDO, and Contract Advertising. He has helped build several brands such as Peter England, IBM, Lenovo, Himalaya Wellness, Louis Phillipe, Diageo, Exxon Mobil, GE, UNICEF, Fosters, Reckitt, etc. Manoj’s work has won him two Cannes Lions. Other commendable accolades include an Adfest Lotus, One Show Merit, Media Spikes, and a Clio for ‘Best Writing in Print’.

Anurag Mishra joins the Agency’s creative arsenal as Sr. Creative Director. He commands a decade of experience, working with marquee agencies such as JVM, Ogilvy, Serviceplan, Innocean Worldwide and McCann across Europe and Asia. He has also bagged multiple prestigious awards, including Cannes, D&AD, Clios and ADC. Anurag captained creatives during the relaunch of the iconic Hyundai Santro in Indian markets. In addition, he also helped establish Cadbury Choco Bakes Cookies ‘meetha chhupa rustom’ campaign, followed by a digital campaign – Cadbury Choco Bakes Cookie Eclipse.

Bagged Marquee accounts

Recently, the company announced that it won marquee mandates, including TATASons, National Skill Development Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, TATA Croma and Bank Of Baroda. The mandate of the National Skill Development Corporation is to transform the brand notion and strengthen the connection with youth. The agency’s experience in handling government businesses played a vital role in the final selection for taking over its social media mandate.

Within the TATA Group Companies, Crayons recently bagged the social media mandate for TataSons. In the last couple of years, the agency has handled and executed multiple prestigious campaigns for the Tata Group. Crayons also worked on the Tata Mumbai Marathon campaign, which serves as a case study in awareness and engagement. Furthermore, in the past year, Crayons Advertising was appointed by TATA to launch the historic Air India transition campaign ‘Wings of Change’ and handle TATA Croma’s creative mandate.

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Want to Meet Deep Tech Funders? Sanchiconnect IP-Led Startup Meet & Greet

The launch of Sanchiconnect’s ten-city deeptech roadshow is a watershed moment for India’s early stage deep tech founders. This is the first ever deep tech meetup series, with the goal of bringing perspectives, conversations, and sentiments from venture funds investing in this space.

Kochi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR, Indore, and Hyderabad will be included in the first phase of the roadshow. The schedule for these meetups has already begun to reach the audience’s inbox.

According to Dr. Sunil Shekhawat (CEO of Sanchiconnect), the emergence of deep tech startups in recent years has not gone unnoticed. He believes that such an initiative will enable early-stage founders to become more aware of the opportunities available in this field, as well as gain access to resources that will help them achieve their goals more quickly. This is phase 1, and phase 2 will only focus on tier 2 cities in the next roadshow, which will be scheduled within 100 days.

Sanchiconnect is a platform that connects entrepreneurs with deep tech-focused but stage and sector-agnostic funds. During each meetup session, the organisation will deploy resources to develop customized programmes for each city based on the local startup ecosystem, as well as provide networking opportunities for founders and investors alike.

This initiative gives founders an excellent opportunity to discuss their initial work and progress with prospective investors and industry veterans. This roadshow series provides an exciting platform for startups to scale up quickly, with the goal of enabling innovation across sectors through technology-led solutions.

Arth – A Culture Fest and Rekhta Foundation are coming together to give you a taste of Hindi Poetry on 24th February at Sunder Nursery, New Delhi

22nd February 2023: Arth – A Culture Fest, one of India’s leading cultural festivals, has announced a beautiful collaboration with the Rekhta Foundation. The collaboration aims to bring together an initiative that share a common goal of celebrating India’s rich poetic heritage and promoting the magic of Hindi poetry and language at large!

To celebrate this union and also the beauty of Hindi poetry, Arth – A Culture Fest and the Rekhta Foundation will come together to host the Hindwi Kavita Sandhya. Scheduled to take place on the evening of 24th of February at Sunder Nursery, this Kavi Sammelan session promises to be an evening to remember where eminent poets like Anamika, Ashok Vajpeyi, Badri Narayan, Dinesh Kushwaha, and Manav Kaul will recite their popular poems.

“Hindi forms a connecting link between the diverse languages and cultures inhabiting the vast land of India and we hope to share this heritage with a vast populace through Hindwi Kavita Sandhya at Arth Festival.” said Mr. Sanjiv Saraf, Founder of Rekhta Foundation. “Inspired by the enormous love and support received for our work on Urdu literature. The foundation has now streamlined its efforts towards preserving and promoting Hindi literature and culture through our initiative “Hindwi.org”. He added

“Creation of meaning has always been a joint endeavour in our culture – sahriday reader or rasagya shrota play with multiple dhwanis of the text and create a sufiana silsila of never ending Meaning. They are all thus the co-creators of texts. Being a part of Arth – A cultural fest is a wonderful opportunity for artists like us to share the beauty of poetry and its rich heritage. Joining hands with Rekhta has been an enriching experience for all of us. Rekhta has worked wonders in creating subliminal bridges across cultures,” said Anamika, Poet, Social Worker, and Novelist

Manav Kaul, Actor, Writer, and Theatre Director said, “Arth – A Culture Fest is a wonderful platform that celebrates the diversity of art and culture in all its forms. As an actor and writer, I feel privileged to be a part of this festival that gives artists from different genres a platform to showcase their works. I am also glad to see the collaboration between Arth and Rekhta Foundation, which shares the same vision of promoting and preserving our rich cultural heritage.”

A Zee Live Spokesperson said, “We are thrilled to collaborate with Rekhta Foundation for Arth – A Culture Fest, as their commitment to promoting the rich literary and cultural heritage perfectly aligns with our vision for this festival. Together, we hope to create an unforgettable experience that celebrates the diverse artistic traditions of our region. With this edition of Arth, our aim is to deliver an immersive cultural experience that showcases the beauty and diversity of our language and traditions.”

The collaboration between Arth – A Culture Fest and Rekhta Foundation promises to be a celebration of India’s diverse cultural heritage and a platform for promoting inclusivity and diversity. The festival is expected to attract a wide audience from across India and beyond and promises to be an enlightening and enriching experience for all.

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TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship and Swiss based Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN) joins forces to address global skill crisis

Mumbai, 22nd February 2023: TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, India’s largest privately owned Degree Apprenticeship program from the house of TeamLease Services Limited, has announced its partnership with Swiss-based Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN Global), to scale the adoption of degree apprenticeships/work-based learning in India. With this partnership, TeamLease and GAN aims to scale degree apprenticeship adoption in the country. The association is built on the premise of the prowess of apprenticeships to address employability gaps and create a robust pipeline of skilled talent for the industry.

The sentiment around apprentice deployment has significantly improved over the past few years. A H2 2022 study indicated that close to 77% of employers were keen to increase their apprentice pool. In fact, over the last three years, employer intent towards deploying apprentices has increased by 6% y-o-y. Both traditional sectors and new age sectors are becoming more receptive towards the model. While this demonstrates the growing acceptance of degree apprenticeships and work-based learning in India, the growth is subdued and allied partnerships like TLDA and GAN will help scale the model.

Sharing her views, Ms. Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder and Executive Director, TeamLease Services said, “India has one of the largest youth populations in the world, with about 13 million youth joining the workforce every year. However, only 1 in 5 engineering students, 1 in 10 graduates and 1 in 4 management professionals are truly employable. Work based learning and degree apprenticeships have emerged as the most powerful instrument to bridge this gap. On the job learning is enabling candidates to have better domain skills and their industry experience makes them more employable. While there are many efforts taken towards promoting work-based learning, including the recent announcements during the Union Budget, more cohesive efforts are required. Our partnership with GAN Global, a network that shares our vision of creating an inclusive and skilled workforce, through apprenticeships, is a step in that direction. It will help us to boost the adoption of degree apprenticeship in India, bridge the gap between education and skilling, and empower the youth with the right domain skills and industry knowledge, leveraging their global experience.”

“Our mission is to achieve employment for all worldwide, and we believe that Indian youth is a significant quadrant in the ecosystem. Apprenticeship programs are one of the most powerful solutions to bridge the skill gap and increase employability of the youth cohort. It is beneficial for the candidates as well as employers, which prepares the apprentices for a long term employment. This partnership represents a significant opportunity to drive positive change in the Indian workforce and create a brighter future for all”, added Nazrene Mannie, Executive Director, GAN Global.

With the aspiration to scale up to 10 million apprentices in 10 years, TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship is paving the way for the next generation to continually equip them with the required skillsets and help them get into the workforce. This partnership will not only help in creating a skilled workforce but will also contribute to the economic growth of the country, and enhance the employability of the youth.