AAdvantage Insurance Group Hires Business Development Specialist

Zac Bilyeu to focus on creating initiatives that strategically capture additional growth opportunities.

(St. Louis, Mo., May 2, 2023) AAdvantage Insurance Group recently hired Zac Bilyeu as Business Development Specialist. In this position, he will focus on commercial sales, recruiting and training. Bilyeu’s responsibilities include generating prospects, developing new relationships, handling existing accounts, and maintaining client satisfaction by providing custom insurance plans in the property and casualty marketplace.

Prior to joining the agency, Bilyeu worked for a national voluntary benefits company as a Territory Sales Trainer. He holds his life and health licenses, as well as his Property & Casualty Insurance certifications, in Illinois and Missouri.

Bilyeu earned a Master of Education degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. Bilyeu also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism and Public Relations from Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill. and a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in Edwardsville, Ill.

Founded in 2009, AAdvantage Insurance Group specializes in auto, home, business, transportation, and life insurance. The agency serves clients in 19 states with the majority in Illinois and Missouri. AAdvantage Insurance Group is located at 78 S. Main St. in Glen Carbon, Ill.

“Zac is an excellent resource when it comes to risk management and client retention,” said AAdvantage Insurance Group CEO Josh Kaburick. “We look forward to all he will accomplish for our organization, including the solutions he will create to fully meet our client’s needs.”

AAdvantage Insurance Group is a member of Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), a cohesive family of more than 160 independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Illinois. Founded in 2006, VIAA generates more than $600 million in written premium and is the regional founding member for the Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance (SIAA), a $11 billion national alliance.

For more information about AAdvantage Insurance Group, call (618) 692-4440 or visit http://www.aadins.com.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Sells 15,510 units in April 2023

Bangalore, 02 May 2023: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) registered sales of 14,162 domestic units in the month of April, 2023. The company also exported 1,348 units of The Urban Cruiser Hyryder this month, thus clocking a total of 15, 510 units. While there were no exports in the corresponding period last year, TKM had registered domestic sales of 15,086 units in April 2022. The company undertook a week-long maintenance shutdown from April 24-28, 2023 for the upkeep of machinery and equipment to sustain operational efficiencies, productivity and safety.

TKM posted a healthy domestic growth of 26% in the first four months of Calendar Year 2023, by selling 61,005 units in the same period last year, where 48,278 units were sold, domestically.

With the Made-in-India Urban Cruiser Hyryder, TKM restarted its export operations from the Indian market to South Africa and the Middle East from the month of December 2022. This development strongly embodies the company’s commitment towards ‘Mass electrification’ with ‘Make in India’, not only for the country but also for exports which underpins India’s emergence as a global manufacturing hub for cleaner and greener vehicles. Besides initiating the export of vehicles, Toyota Group has also been exporting e-Drives which is a critical electric powertrain component that is being locally manufactured by Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP) in Bidadi near Bengaluru.

Speaking on sales numbers Mr. Atul Sood, Vice President, Sales and Strategic Marketing said, “TKM is continuing to witness high demand as well as good enquires, and needless to say we are extremely thrilled to see the market responding very positively. This reflects the customer acceptance of our world-class product line-up and advanced clean technology solutions, as we continue to strongly serve our customer base in India. The Toyota Hilux, Innova Hycross and the New Innova Crysta continue their phenomenal run, as the strong demand continues, which indicates customers growing trust in Toyota for their family’s mobility needs. Our SUV segment share also continues to be buoyant owing to the success of the Urban Cruiser Hyryder along with segment leadership of the Fortuner and the Legender, which are consistently leading with over 82% market share in Q1 of CY 2023. The Vellfire and the Camry Hybrid are also steadily contributing to our sales.

Our focus on the “customer first” philosophy also continues to manifest while we prioritize taking care of our customers. Earlier this month, we launched ‘Wheels on Web’ (WOW), an Online Retail Sales platform for the Bangalore region. This new platform offers customers, a seamless virtual experience by enabling them to book, purchase and get delivery of their favorite Toyota models like HyCross (gasoline), Hilux, Legender, Camry, Fortuner, and Innova Crysta (GX) at the comfort of their homes. Through such innovative services, our objective is to provide value-addition to our esteemed customers, to enable a convenient process for the purchase of Toyota vehicles, facilitate end-to-end transactions, including secured online payments for providing a one-stop-shop solution.

As we continue to focus on offering customers a choice of vehicle that fits their lifestyle and needs, we would like to thank our suppliers and dealer partners for working extra hard to meet the robust market demand and preparing to meet the evolving market needs in a dynamic manner.”

Overview of TKM

Overview of TKM 1st Plant:

Overview of TKM 2nd Plant:

A Taste of Meghalaya at Pullman New Delhi Aerocity

New Delhi, May 2023: Pullman New Delhi Aerocity is hosting a Tribal Gourmet pop-up showcasing ‘Meghalayan cuisine’ from May 5th to May 14th, 2023, Tanisha Phanbuh, a self-taught North Eastern Food Connoisseur, proud participant in Masterchef India Season 6 and the Founder and Director of Tribal Gourmet, a platform showcasing the North East’s gastronomical delights will be showcasing a range of Meghalayan re-imagined gourmet dishes at the award-winning Pan-Asian restaurant Honk.

Speaking on the occasion, Tanisha Phanbuh says, “The North-Eastern cuisine of India is full of undiscovered fresh and vibrant flavours. Being born amongst the vibrant flavours of Meghalaya, I intend to carry the essence of the Northeast and aim to spread the aroma to the metropolitan cities through these pop-ups. It is my conscious effort to start a conversation around the delicacies of Meghalaya, and I feel that by joining hands with Pullman New Delhi Aerocity, I can bring them to the spotlight, making it a mainstream gourmet delight for its patrons.”

In the past, Tanisha has successfully executed multiple food pop-ups at places like “The Olive, Whisky Samba, Cocktails and Dreams Speakeasy, and The Meghalayan Age,” all of which have been well received by people.

Pullman New Delhi Aerocity invites all its patrons to savour the flavours of this cuisine with Tanisha, Director of Tribal Gourmet, and raise a toast to north-eastern flavours.

When – 5th to 14th May’ 2023 [7 PM Onwards]

Where – Honk, Pullman New Delhi Aerocity

Mr. Ajay Bijli, MD, PVR INOX LIMITED, Delivers the Exhibition Keynote Address at CinemaCon 2023 in Las Vegas (USA)

India, 2 May 2023: Mr. Ajay Bijli, Managing Director, PVR INOX Limited, the largest and the most premium cinema exhibitor in India and the fifth largest listed multiplex chain globally delivered the keynote address at CinemaCon 2023, the Largest Global Cinema Industry Event in Las Vegas, USA on April 24, 2023. A visionary and thought leader with over three decades of experience in the film exhibition business in India, Mr. Ajay Bijli shared key pieces of advice for exhibitors, studios, and streaming platforms globally.

Here are some highlights of his keynote address for different stakeholders in the eco-system:

Exhibitors

• Need to adapt to changing landscape and consumer behavior
• Make cinema more relevant and create new experiences – format, technology, and hospitality
• Use loyalty program and audience behavior data to provide meaningful engagements
• Use pricing strategies as a marketing tool through subscription programs, bundling of offers, and segmentation to attract customers at various price points
• Build out-of-home entertainment destinations, not just cinemas completely differentiated from watching content at home

Studios

• Create more content for the big screen
• Monetize the content journey – theatres first and then streaming
• Increase the theatrical window

Streaming

• Streaming and Cinema are here to co-exist
• Create a perfect ecosystem to make content bigger, leveraging the merits of cinemas and streaming
  Big-budget films can’t make it big and would not be able to recoup their investments if they come too quickly to streaming
• The probability of Piracy and theft of content is more on streaming
• Theatrical release set the quantitative and qualitative benchmarks and drive greater value for streamers
• Create a perfect eco-system attune to make content bigger leveraging the inherent strengths of theatrical and streaming
• Welcomes tech giants, Apple and Amazon’s plans to invest in making movies for cinemas

Mr. Ajay Bijli has become the First Indian Film Industry official to be invited to deliver the Keynote address in CinemaCon’s 11 year’s history. For someone who created the multiplex industry in India 25 years back, Mr. Bijli is strengthening and creating scale to the film exhibition industry. Through his critical experience of mobilizing content producers, mall developers, studios and cinema technology makers, Mr. Ajay Bijli has been able to create a conduit between consumers and film industry on one hand and the other with the retail industry and real estate development. Today multiplexes have witnessed significant growth across major Indian cities and smaller towns considering India is an under-screened market.

Sram & Mram, Dostyk Refinery Llp Seal Deal for Oil Partnership

New Delhi, May 2, 2023: UK-based global conglomerate SRAM & MRAM Group, today inked a deal with DOSTYK REFINERY LLP, KAZAKHSTAN. The partnership will see SRAM provide an expanded range of Oil and Natural Gas affiliates in the region, strengthening the long-standing relationship between the two countries. With the collaboration in place, SRAM & MRAM Group will also diversify its energy portfolio by importing crude oil from non-Opec sources; will be procuring at least 6 million tonnes (mt) of crude from DOSTYK REFINERY, KAZAKHSTAN.

The development also signifies India being the world’s third-largest oil importer. The partnership will further strengthen the long-standing relationship between the two entities. The MoU was signed by Dr. Sailesh Lachu Hiranandani, Chairman SRAM & MRAM Group & Sartbaev Saken Satvaldievich, Export Director, DOSTYK REFINERY LLP.

Earlier in the year 2022, the Group partnered with Malaysia-based, Petrichor Capital Group for Oil and Gas trading businesses.

With the aim to ensure the long-term, sustainable security and supply of energy-related services in KAZAKHSTAN, the collaboration serves to boost the contribution of the leading company, as well as encourage the implementation of alternative energy solutions.

Speaking on the collaboration Vishal Ahuja, Global Marketing Director, SRAM & MRAM Group, quoted, “We are pleased to partner with DOSTYK Refinery and this will serve to add to SRAM’s Energy portfolio. This will also help in strengthening the partnerships between two countries and will also help in creating employment opportunities. We look forward to building upon our long-running collaboration.”

“The group is elated with the alliance that will certainly help the group explore in the segment. Besides, the collaboration will also provide the right impetus for the strategic growth plans and add value to the SRAM & MRAM portfolio,” quoted Sanjeev Kumar, Global Operation Director, SRAM & MRAM Group.

Currently, SRAM GROUP has a presence in the ports of Singapore, Malaysia, Fujairah, Hamriyah, Sharjah, Oman, Huston, and Rotterdam. The core Group has also tied up with different Refineries in countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Venezuela, Kuwait, and many other countries.

Sartbaev Saken Satvaldievich, Export Director, DOSTYK REFINERY LLP, expressed, “DOSTYK Refinery has a historic legacy in the region, and we are delighted to take our partnership with SRAM & MRAM to new heights. We are hopeful of this alliance and will continue to explore and offer best-in-class products and services. This alliance with SRAM will help u in capitalizing on new opportunities underpinned by sustainable and cleaner operations.”

The group will also be facilitating the supply of Jet Fuel A1, EN 590 (10 ppm, 50 ppm), D6, Gas Oil 1000 -2500 PPM, Crude oil of Heavy, Super heavy and Light, Pet Coke, LPG, and CNG.

Hitanshu Heera, Director, SRAM & MRAM Group quoted, “We are proud to be associated with DOSTYK REFINERY. The collaboration will help us in reaching out to non-Opec sources. It will certainly offer a great business proposition to all the stakeholders in the long run.”

5 Startups Enhancing Customer Experience for Brands

India is home to a thriving startup ecosystem, and in recent years, several innovative startups have emerged that are focused on enhancing the customer experience for brands. These startups offer a range of solutions to help businesses improve customer engagement, streamline customer support, and deliver a more personalized experience. From customer engagement platforms to AI-powered e-commerce search platforms, India’s startup ecosystem is driving innovation in the customer experience space. Here are five Indian startups that are leading the way in this exciting field.

Kapture

Kapture is a renowned SaaS-based Customer Support Automation platform that deeply focuses on customer support and enables personal customer interactions. Founded in 2014, Kapture brings a customer profiling and segmentation tool that lets the user collect and segregate all prospect interactions on a single platform. This enables them to understand and profile their customers for a more real experience. The startup is helping brands with ticket management, a knowledge management system, an intelligent self-service portal, efficient customer data management, intelligent chatbots that provide contextual responses, omnichannel support operation that integrates queries from multiple channels onto a centralized location, customized tools, and powerful API integrations for smooth operations.

Zendesk

Zendesk is a ticketing system used to manage customer conversations. With any Zendesk plan, you’re able to manage email, Twitter, and Facebook conversations. On their higher-cost plans, you’re also able to manage phone and chat conversations. Though Zendesk is generally associated with larger teams because of the relative complexity of the product, resources needed for initial set up, and overall cost, they do have a few lower-cost plans. Those lower-cost plans do lack some features but should cover the basics for those with a primary focus on email support.

Freshdesk

A cloud-based customer support and helpdesk software that offers a range of features to manage customer interactions and improve customer experience. Freshdesk has two support offerings: one for just a help desk solution and one that covers omnichannel support. There are plan tiers within both, but the help desk solution is a lower cost on average when compared to the omnichannel product, and it’s probably a good starting place for most small businesses.

Salesforce

A cloud-based customer relationship management platform offering solutions for sales, customer service, and marketing, with analytics, automation, and integrations. It can be a good option for teams that are looking to provide support over Slack — Service Cloud integrates natively with Slack. Beyond Slack, you can use Salesforce Service Cloud to provide support via email, live chat, and self-service channels. The platform also offers add-ons like field service and AI tools and can integrate easily with Salesforce CRM for added customer insights.

Zoho

A customer relationship management platform that offers solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service, with features such as analytics, automation, and social media management. The company’s flagship product is Zoho One, an integrated suite of over 45 applications for sales, marketing, customer support, accounting, and other business operations. Zoho’s products are designed to be affordable and easy to use, and the company has been recognized for its commitment to customer satisfaction and support. Zoho is also known for its affordable pricing and its commitment to customer privacy, with a strict no-advertising policy and a data center exclusively for its customers.

5 Emerging NBFC causing a disruption in EV financing

Auto loans are a key segment in retail lending in India. With regards to credit borrowing in the Auto segment in India; commercial vehicles, three-wheelers, and two-wheelers are some of the leading entities, especially in terms of Electric Vehicles. It was observed that nearly 77 percent of all vehicles in India are financed through banks and non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs).

As per a report by CEEW, nearly 45% of all three-wheelers sold in India – mostly comprising battery rickshaws – are electric. Furthermore, electric two-wheelers form nearly 54 percent of all EVs sold in FY 2021–22.

So here are top 5 Emerging NBFCs causing a disruption in EV financing:-

Mufin Green Finance- Incepted in 2016 Mufin Green Finance started with E-rickshaws way back and has now diversified into financing the electric vehicle Ecosystem. It is amongst the top Leaders in EV financing and with a market share of 5% in E-rickshaw financing and with Its phygital approach has been able to keep the NPA’s as low as 1.92%. Mufin chooses EV financing with a focus on 3 green platforms i.e. Electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, & swappable batteries.

Revfin- With an aim to build India’s largest lending company. Through its award-winning and innovative digital platform, we provide loans to people at the bottom of the pyramid. Its typical customer lives in Tier 2 or 3 town, has no credit history, very low level of education and has no banking transactions. Revfin underwrites loans using revolutionary techniques like psychometrics, biometrics and gamification. The entire loan application journey is delivered digitally through an App.

Greaves Finance- Its vision s to ensure that financing is never an impediment for anybody who aspires to own a vehicle in the affordable two-wheeler segment and committed to accelerating the country’s transition into the Electric Mobility segment

Manappuram- Manappuram Finance Ltd. is one of India’s leading gold loan NBFCs which works with an endeavor to make life easy with vehicle loans. Today, it has 5073 (Including branches of subsidiary companies) branches across 28 states/UTs with assets under management (AUM) of Rs. 302.6 billion and a workforce of more than 41,000.

Vedika credit capital– Vedika Credit Capital Ltd is a Non-Deposit taking, Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC-MFI). It was recognized and re-registered to carry out the business as NBFC-MFI with approval from the Reserve Bank of India in 2015. As of now It is lending in electric mobility aggressively, and has multiple co-lending partnerships which lend in 3 wheeler as well as the electric three-wheeler segment.

Wishes and Blessings celebrates nine years of social services with fundraising concert Jashn-e-Qawwali

To mark the celebrations of its 9th anniversary, Delhi-based NGO Wishes and Blessings organized “Jashn-e-Qawwali” – Concert for a Cause on 30 April 2023 at The Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi. The special celebrations turned more scintillating amidst the soul-stirring renditions by the musical group – Nizami Bandhu.

The proceeds from the fund-raising concert will be used to set up a skill development center under Project Sahas – a skill development initiative for underprivileged women in Delhi. The project aims to empower disadvantaged women with the necessary skills and resources to build a better future for themselves and their families.

“The grand concert was a unique mix of entertainment, and musical extravaganza, while also rekindling the purpose – We Come Together to Meet Our Social Responsibilities. The concert proceeds will significantly revamp several underprivileged women’s lives by empowering them with the right skills to achieve financial independence. We look forward to more such initiatives to continue supporting the less fortunate people across the country,” said the Founder and President of Wishes and Blessings Dr Geetanjali Chopra.

Established in 2014, Wishes and Blessings is a registered NGO with the vision to build a world with equal opportunities.

“Our work creates a positive impact on communities and assists corporations to meet their social responsibilities by linking beneficiaries with donors. With a mission to ‘inspire and empower dreams’, we have been working across gender, economic and social barriers on diverse causes, including education, nutrition, care for elderly people and relief. As of date, we have over 20 centres across six states in India,” added Dr Chopra.