Nearly Half (48%) of Businesses in India at Low Levels of Digital Maturity

May 4, 2023, Bangalore, India – Today, Lenovo (HKSC: 992) launched its first-ever ‘Smarter Data Management Technology Playbook’ that captures insights from 550+ CIOs across Asia Pacific. The IDC led report highlights the current state of the data management landscape, digital maturity and readiness of CIOs to meet the data challenges and priorities now and in the future. Commissioned by Lenovo, the IDC study provides critical insights on infrastructure readiness, data innovation, sustainability, and selecting the right storage partner.

Key Highlights:

Digital Maturity

Businesses in AP expect 52% revenue to be digitally driven by 2027, but only 39% are at Stage 3/4 of Digital Maturity. Stage 3 or 4 indicates a well-defined multi-year execution roadmap of an organization.

India falls behind with 48% of businesses at Stage 1 of digital maturity. Lack of competitive pressure and cultural resistance to change hinder the transformation journey.

Digital Infrastructure Readiness

Majority of AP businesses (84%) consider digital infrastructure to be mission–critical or important for achieving business goals. However, only 38% are exceptionally or sufficiently prepared to maintain standard service levels, security and cost-optimization during events of unexpected business demands.

Nigel Lee, Director of Storage – AP, Lenovo ISG, said “Data innovation acts as a compass for CIOs, providing guidance to unlock new business opportunities and achieve digital success. By harnessing the power of data, companies can gain valuable insights to improve productivity and stay ahead of the competition. Lenovo’s open, reliable, and secure infrastructure solutions are helping customers modernize their data management infrastructure.”

A similar trend is in India, where digital infrastructure is either mission-critical or important for 87% of businesses, but in reality, only 33% are exceptionally/sufficiently prepared. To attain stage 3 or 4 of digital maturity, organizations must leverage future-ready IT driven by Hybrid Cloud platforms to utilize real-time business insights that lead to investment-focused outcomes.

Data Innovation

Data-driven innovation is critical for digital success and driving myriad business outcomes. However, lack of cyber resiliency, growing AI/ML workloads and limited data mobility in hybrid cloud impede data innovation.

Of 36% of the organizations in AP that are driving data innovation strategically or fairly strategically, 33% are investing in it to improve supply chain operations. The top two investment priorities for businesses in India are towards product & services engineering by 39% and driving competitive differentiation in products and services by 37%.

97% CIOs in India plan to accelerate their data-innovation journey in the next 2 years. To become digital natives CIOs will need to accelerate IT modernization and transformation. This also addresses the key challenges around data security and cyber resiliency, the growing mix of AI/ML-powered high-performance, and energy costs to support data explosion.

“It is interesting to see the majority of CIOs in India committed to accelerating their data innovation journey in the next two years,” said Amit Luthra, MD – India, Lenovo ISG. It presents a great opportunity for Lenovo to offer the best of data management systems and solutions to help organizations become digital natives and achieve their investment-focused outcomes.”

Information Management

Increasing deployment options, whether public, private, hybrid, or multi-Cloud, have led to challenges around data residing in silos. Businesses in AP are significantly investing in data storage and information management technologies for Hybrid cloud, Public cloud, and Software-defined storage.

Data Management platform for hybrid/multi-cloud is the #1 investment priority (53%) for CIOs across all AP geos, with the exception of India, which follows an inverse pattern. More than half (52%) businesses in India are looking to invest in software-defined storage solutions, followed by 44% in public cloud for data backup & business continuity, and 42% in data management platform for hybrid/multi-cloud.

Unified Data Management

Unified Management Platform is key to securing competitive advantage. Only 16% of the organizations in AP indicated that they have managed to build a single data management platform. 29% organizations have managed to minimize the number of data management platforms and made significant progress, opines IDC.

Businesses in India appear to be lagging with only 18% managing to reduce multiple Data Management platforms down to a few. Nearly 50% businesses still use multiple data management systems to independently manage block, file, and object data types with limited data mobility between public and private cloud, and edge locations.

Sustainability

93% of the organizations in AP indicated a strong focus on sustainability. 35% see a significant impact on brand reputation as the younger generation becomes much more concerned about climate change.

The sustainability wave is strong in India, with 94% businesses including it in their business agenda. Regulatory and compliance requirements, improving resource utilization, and attracting or retaining talent have become key business drivers of the sustainability agenda.

Amit Luthra added, “As Lenovo advances efforts towards a more sustainable world, we are delighted to see the growing importance and focus on sustainability in business priorities.”

To continue the focus and improve sustainability goals, CIOs and line-of-businesses (LOBs) need to collaborate to build a set of discrete business outcomes, beyond social branding and regulatory compliance requirements. Here’s how organizations in India see infrastructure and data management technology investments to drive sustainability:

AI/ML-based management, provisioning and orchestration software to increase storage capacity utilization levels
Inline compression & deduplication technologies to reduce storage capacity requirements
Consolidate departmental and workgroup storage with private cloud

Lenovo provides Data Management systems, platforms, and software solutions that enable customers to efficiently manage their data and information assets, from the edge to the core data center, as well as across myriad cloud deployments. Lenovo’s Data Management solutions underpin data mobility across the vast expanse of the heterogeneous IT infrastructure landscape, powering next-generation data and AI/ML powered business applications.

The Smarter Data Management Playbook studied 100+ IT and business decision makers (ITBDMs) from India.

Sightsavers India launches STAR, an Android-based app to track the progress of visually impaired children in their inclusive education program

03 May, New Delhi, India – Sightsavers India, a leading NGO that works towards eliminating avoidable blindness and promoting equality for people with disabilities, has developed an online app called “Student Tracking Assessment and Reporting (STAR)” to track the progress of visually impaired children in their inclusive education program. The tool has been designed to collect basic information, set baseline data of the children, capture progressive data of the Children with Visual Impairment (CVI), and generate reports based on monitoring of field-based activities.

Inclusive education is a key focus area for Sightsavers India, and the organization aims to ensure that children who are visually impaired are included in mainstream education for their overall development and inclusion. Blindness creates a cycle of illiteracy, poverty, and social exclusion for visually impaired children, making them one of the most vulnerable groups in the world. Sightsavers India supports inclusive education to break this cycle, promoting a positive and enabling environment in schools, families, and communities to support the holistic education of children with visual impairment. This is facilitated by the availability of assistive devices and accessible educational material, provision of compensatory skills training, infrastructure accessibility, and building education management and leadership, among others.

The STAR app will be used by the IE Facilitator (Inclusive Education), who will be responsible for collecting the information from the child through the app. The District Project Coordinator will be responsible for monitoring the data entries and ensuring timely submission of the data of their district, maintaining timeliness, completeness, accuracy, relevance, and reliability through the tool.

The STAR app has several features, including the ability to capture data both in offline and online mode, capture data on a real-time basis, mandatory fields that the user must fill in, the requirement to save data to move to the next page/section to avoid loss of data, the ability to review and verify data before submission, and the inbuilt functionality of the device.

Sightsavers India is currently implementing the inclusive education program in seven states, namely Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chattisgarh., with the district as a unit of intervention. The program focuses on training general and specialist teachers to aid the inclusion process in the classroom, prepare visually impaired students for the classroom, provide one-on-one help to children in the classroom, and teach visually impaired children skills such as Braille.

“The STAR app is a significant milestone for us in our inclusive education program,” said RN Mohanty, CEO of Sightsavers India. “We believe that this tool will help us track the progress of visually impaired children more effectively and support our mission of promoting inclusive education in India.”

A never-to-be-defeated spirit helped me win the Femina Miss India-2023 first runner-up crown: Shreya Poonja

New Delhi, May 3, 2023: Shreya Poonja(22), the first Runner-Up in Femina Miss India-2023 pageant finale held recently in Imphal, draws her strength from her ‘never-to-be-defeated’ spirit.

“I believe that a never-to-be-defeated spirit helped me win the Femina Miss India-2023 first runner-up crown. It is a quality I have built into my personality and this certainly is the most crucial aspect that helps me overcome obstacles in life. I believe in constantly working on myself and evolving into the best version every single day and this I focused on religiously,” said Shreya on Monday during a media interaction held at Essex Farms, Aurobindo Road, IIT Gate, here. Shreya returned to her home town Delhi on April 28 from Imphal.

Sharing her feelings on winning the first runner up spot in the coveted national pageant, Delhi University’s Deshbandhu College’s Economics graduate Shreya said: “The feeling is settling in day by day. There were a lot of efforts that were put in the past few years and to have finally been able to achieve this makes me feel accomplished. The efforts have validated my victory.”

Poonja’s alma mater is St. Anthony’s Senior Secondary School, Hauz Khas and she will be visiting both her school and college on May 4. Shreya has been busy after landing in Delhi. She has had a meeting with Delhi’s Chief Fire Officer in the Fire Headquarters at Connaught Place among other social engagements. Reflecting about the Miss India journey so far, Shreya said: “I have evolved every single day of my 40-day journey. Learning new things about myself along the way. There were tight schedules and discipline of the self-played an important part. Each individual had something great that they offered towards my journey and I truly cherish the time now.”

Shreya gives credit to her parents – mother Bharti Poonja and father Sanjay Poonja – for the feat. “My parents have been instrumental in my win. I have not had an easy path to victory. However, my close friends and family members continued to support my vision and gave strength and encouragement to me whenever necessary.”

Talking about her future plans, she said: “I have always been in love with the camera, for as long as I can remember! I am keenly interested in the entertainment and show business and have already been working in the same since I was 17. I’m looking forward to commencing work soon.” When asked to share tips for young girls preparing for the title, Shreya said that the most important thing I believe is to be truly happy with what you do and not let short-term wins or defeats sway you away.

“Have a clear vision of why you want to do something and then work towards it every second of every day. Soon things are bound to work your way. Do not get impatient with the results of your efforts. Please know that it is not the win but the habit of pushing yourself to the limit that will in time bear fruit,” she concluded.

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Collaborates with BITS Pilani WILP for MBA Manufacturing Management Programme for its Professionals

Hyderabad: ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India), a joint venture of ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel, two of the world’s leading steel manufacturers, signed an MoU with Work Integrated Learning Programmes (WILP) division of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, an Institution of Eminence (IoE), to leverage their MBA Manufacturing Management Programme for some of its professionals.

The agreement with BITS Pilani WILP will help facilitate leading higher education opportunities in manufacturing management for some of AM/NS India’s engineers, while not needing them to take a career break. Besides providing a unique upskilling opportunity, which will help professionals hone their management and technical skills, it shall also help address AM/NS India’s need for a wider talent pool of professionals, who can take up leadership roles with a holistic understanding of technology and management.

The MBA Manufacturing Management is a four-semester Work Integrated Learning Programme, with online classes conducted during the weekends, thereby helping professionals to study, while continuing to work. The learners, with access to highly engaging study material, can learn at their own pace. They can also attend the lectures from any location using the state-of-the-art digital technology and will also be able to access recorded lectures later. The programme also emphasizes on experiential learning and will empowerthe learners to applyconcepts learnt in the classroom in real-work situations.

Dr. Anil Matoo, Head of Human Resources, IR &Administration at AM/NS India, said, “We are elated to announce our collaboration with BITS Pilani WILP for the two-year MBA Manufacturing Management programme, with an aim to develop and groom our manufacturing leaders. AM/NS India believes in providing continuous learning opportunities to employees through leading institutions and this collaboration is another step in this direction. BITS Pilani is an Institution of Eminence, especially known for providing technicaleducation of the highest standards. With its robust curriculum, this programme will help in grooming our engineers to handle challenging assignments and in creating a competitive edge for us.”

Elaborating about the collaboration, Prof. G. Sundar, Director, Off-Campus Programmes & Industry Engagement, BITS Pilani, said, “It gives me great delight that the working professionals of the joint venture of ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel (both among the leading steel manufacturers in the world) will be enrolling in the MBA Manufacturing Management programme. Continuing higher education, reskilling and upskilling of professionals are critically important in helping them adapt to the rapid developments and manage various key aspects, such as production, new technologies, strategic planning, and operations, in a holistic and effective manner —thereby, aiding their organization in gaining the edge too in today’s highly competitive manufacturing sector.”

Residential Property Prices Witness Sharp Uptick in India in Q1 2023: PropTiger.com Report

Mumbai, 03 May 2023 – According to a recent report by PropTiger.com, housing prices in India have surged during the first quarter of 2023 with the average price rise across all the major realty markets being close to 7% YoY.

The report indicates that all the markets covered in the analysis showed an upward movement in average rates of new homes.

The report highlights that the average rate of properties in Bengaluru saw a 10% appreciation in the past one year, making it the market with the sharpest uptrend in property prices. Pune and Ahmedabad were close behind this southern market in terms of price increase, with these markets witnessing an 8% and 7% rise in their average property rates, respectively.

Mr. Vikas Wadhawan, Group CFO, PropTiger.com, Housing.com & Makaan.com, said,” Real estate has consistently been one of the best-performing asset classes over the long term, and with prices expected to go up further, it might be a good time for fence-sitters to take the jump and buy their dream home. Having said that, one needs to keep in mind that buying a home is the most expensive purchase decision a family typically makes. So, it is important to weigh all the pros and cons carefully before making a final decision.”

The report highlights that the cost of buying a house in India continues to rise due to several factors, including the continuous rise in the cost of raw materials and labour, the growing demand for homes post-COVID, and the cessation of government-funded subsidy schemes in March this year.

Furthermore, while the Reserve Bank of India has taken a pause in hiking rates for now, inflation remains a concern, and the central bank may increase the benchmark lending rate in the next cycle, which could further amplify costs for the buyer because of increased borrowing costs on home loans.

Discussing buying trends, Ms. Ankita Sood, Head of Research, PropTiger.com, Housing.com & Makaan.com said: “Property prices in Indian cities have been growing at a fast pace of 6-7% since the past year with a renewed thrust on homeownership. Apart from a rise in input costs, limited supply of the right product & ready to move in projects for the end-user have led to an upward push in prices.

Ms. Sood added “Interestingly, while the weighted average prices have grown by 6 per cent YoY, in the March quarter, key micro-markets in cities of Gurugram, followed by Bengaluru have seen YoY growth of 13 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. Given the current market trends of demand-supply mismatch, we expect property prices to continue to rise albeit within a close range, where the quality ready-to-move-in segment will trade at a premium.”

The report indicates that the average price per square foot in cities such as Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Kolkata, and Pune has witnessed a significant increase.

Shri Raj Kumar Dubey Takes Over as Director (Hr) of Bharat Petroleum

Mumbai, May 3, 2023: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is pleased to announce that Shri Raj Kumar Dubey has today taken over as Director (Human Resources) of the company. Shri Dubey brings with him a wealth of experience in business and human capital development, having worked in the industry for over 34 years.

Shri Dubey is an alumnus of NIT Allahabad, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has also acquired a Master of Business Administration from the International Centre for Promotion of Enterprises, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Throughout his career, he has implemented several strategic organizational development initiatives and change management processes impacting more than 400 locations and 7,500 people and has worked closely with international consultants in the areas of organizational restructuring, visioning, and HR planning, and has successfully led several leadership positions and concluded various critical and challenging assignments across various business verticals like Aviation, Operations, HR, and Retail in and across different regions.

Mr. Dubey has brought in customer centricity in the Fuel Retailing Channel by pioneering the marketing of differentiated products & premium fuels to great heights maintaining the leadership position.

YC-Backed Ed-Tech Startup Oneistox rebrands itself as Novatr; Projects 12X Revenue Growth in FY24

Delhi, 03 May 2023: Oneistox, a homegrown ed-tech startup transforming the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry, has rebranded itself as Novatr. The strategic move is in line with their vision to fill the innovation gap in AEC by honing the power of human potential and building tech-first skills. The hyper-growing ed-tech platform founded in 2021 by Harkunwar Singh along with his co-founders Vipanchi Handa, Mehul Kumar, and Chaithanya Murali has been clocking a tremendous 30% m-o-m growth over the past 12 months and has turned profitable starting FY2023.

With the ultimate aim of accelerating the adoption of technology in the AEC industry at large, Novatr aims to be the bridge between the dreams of AEC’s future and the skills imperative for its realization. In 2021, Oneistox was founded to propel the AEC industry further towards tech-first skills and ensure better opportunities. “Oneistox” or “1:x”, signified exponential growth, but as the brand grew bigger, the macro vision evolved into something much bigger than what it was. Now, the brand has evolved to realize its true ethos as “Innovators” and thus renamed itself to Novatr”. The platform’s main objective is to design tech-first curriculums and cultivate a community of ambitious individuals who are ready to tap into a whole new world of possibilities.

“We are at the helm of witnessing a transformative phase of the AEC industry, and with our pivot to Novatr, we aim to change this landscape. As we navigate through this transformation, it has become clear that simply revamping the education and training of AEC professionals is not enough. The real challenge lies in transforming the industry itself from the inside out. This rebranding is a stepping stone in our mission to fill the innovation gap in the AEC industry and realise ourselves as what we truly are, Innovators” said Harkunwar Singh, Co-founder, Novatr

In their journey of empowering learners to become future-ready professionals, Oneistox clocked a net revenue growth of 30% MoM in FY2023. The key focuses for the startup during this period have been to improve its platform infrastructure, develop more new-age courses for learners, and expand its team. Currently, Novatr is clocking an ARR of $6 mn. Keeping up with their previous trajectory, the company is projecting a 12X revenue growth in FY2024. The platform offers a range of courses and programs, including Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Computational Design, to help learners build critical skills and stay ahead of the curve. The brand recently announced that they’ve raised $1.2 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Powerhouse Ventures, Soma Capital, and notable angels like Amit Ranjan, Co-Founder, Slideshare.