Esper Partners with Point Mobile on Lifecycle Management for Rugged Android Devices

Android Leaders Simplify Android Deployment and Management for Industrial Fleets

Esper, a global leader in the Android DevOps space, has announced a partnership with Point Mobile Co., Ltd., one of the world’s fastest-growing manufacturers of rugged, handheld mobile computers. Industrial fleet managers have off-the-shelf access to the industry’s most powerful tools for Android device deployment and management on Point Mobile devices. Esper and Point Mobile want to help firms in energy, materials, and the supply chain rapidly deploy and secure Android devices.

“Point Mobile is among the most quality-focused mobile device makers in the world. They’re a globally-leading source for rugged Android devices and purpose-built mobile hardware,” says Esper’s COO and Co-Founder Shiv Sundar. “We’re proud to announce that Esper’s cloud tools are offered as part of Point Mobile’s leading options for post-sales support.”

“Together, we can help our customers in the supply chain, energy, and materials streamline operations and gain a competitive edge with connected Android,” says Sundar. Esper’s Android DevOps tools can reduce fleet OpEx by 60% versus traditional mobile device management (MDM) solutions by offering remote features to provision, update, and debug devices. 

“Point Mobile partners with innovators like Esper to drive our mission of transforming industry mobility,” says SK Kang, CEO of Point Mobile. “Remote Android management features significantly lower fleet operating expenses, which allows our customers to focus on transforming industrial workflows.”  

Esper and Point Mobile’s partnership was formed, in part, because both firms share a mission to provide stable, simple, and cost-effective Android mobility solutions. Point Mobile customers can gain a mobile advantage with built-in cloud tools for ultra-reliable, rugged Android devices. 

About Esper

Founded in 2017 in Bellevue, Washington, Esper is the industry’s first complete toolchain for connected Android devices like kiosks, point-of-sale, digital signage, and purpose-built hardware. Esper’s cloud console and open APIs provide the infrastructure for secure connection and real-time data exchange between Android devices and cloud. You can learn more at esper.io or on the company’s LinkedIn page. 

About Point Mobile
Founded in 2006 in Seoul, Point Mobile is one of the fastest-growing enterprise handheld mobile device manufacturers in the world. Point Mobile’s products include handheld mobile computers, rugged smartphones, LTE/Android mobile payment devices, healthcare terminals, RFID readers, and portable bluetooth scanners. Every part of Point Mobile’s devices and accessories is made in-house, with an aim of absolute ruggedness and high product quality.  Learn more at PointMobile.co.kr or on the company’s LinkedIn page.

USGIC Launches India’s 1st AI-powered Conversational Agent for Motor Insurance

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused ambiguity and disruption in customer services across the world and has changed the life of people in unthinkable ways. In these unforeseen circumstances, Universal Sompo General Insurance, as a customer-first organisation has launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered virtual agents for its motor claims services.

Universal Sompo's AI-powered virtual agents will use conversational AI to automate the routine conversations traditionally handled by live agents. The First Notice of Loss (FNOL), which is the first step in claims processing, is usually a call center-based service which requires extensive questions and data gathering. Customers who have had a motor accident and are wanting to register a quick claim are usually under stress and look for convenient ways to report the claim without having to wait in call queues. 

Offloading routine calls from customer service representatives to AI-powered virtual agents will create a far superior customer experience. The entire turnaround time (TAT) in the claim registration process is impacted significantly thereby reducing the wait time for filing a claim, checks on claims status, review of policy information, and much more - all the things live agents would typically manage. With this first-of-its-kind solution in the insurance sector in India, this entire process at Universal Sompo will shrink to a few minutes.

"Claims notification is a critical customer touchpoint in insurance. In Post-Covid era our biggest challenge is how we should Never Miss a Customer Call. AI automation will help streamline experience for both our customers and backend operations and we are placing big bets on it,” said Sharad Mathur, Managing Director & CEO, Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Ltd.

As a customer-first and responsible organization, Universal Sompo has been consistently scaling up its technology and infrastructure to align itself not only with regulatory changes but also to provide best services to its customers. Hence, to remain future ready and always ahead of the curve, it has recently deployed various initiatives like Mobile Application (M-POS) for POS channel, Payment Integration with digital wallets, System for Crop Insurance and Customer self-service portal etc.

Soon, Universal Sompo will be co-creating many AI and digital solutions which will help offset productivity losses and successfully face challenges of new operating environments. It is keen on recognizing tech trends, evaluate business opportunities, and actively incorporate relevant processes and programs into the business model, for outpacing and outperforming market competition. At the same time, the company will try to deliver simpler, innovative and customer need-based products.

About Universal Sompo General Insurance

Universal Sompo is the first Public - Private Partnership in Indian General Insurance Industry. The company is headquartered in Mumbai and is a joint venture between Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Karnataka Bank Ltd, Dabur Investment Corp and a leading general insurer from Japan, Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. Universal Sompo is operating across India through its 86 Branches and 17 Zonal Offices. It offers wide-range of products for Retail, Rural, SME & Corporate customer segments. It's innovating in the health insurance space and offers both standalone policies and co-branded products in conjunction with its bank partners. It continues to invest in technology ensuring quick and smooth services to customers. It serves customers through a vast distribution network of banks, branches, agents, brokers, auto dealers, POSPs, CSCs and so on. The company has also designed specific products for rural and semi urban markets.

Home Credit India announces the appointment of Sameer Katdare as Chief Risk Officer

Home Credit India (HCIN), a local arm of the international consumer finance provider with operations spanning over Europe and Asia, today announced the appointment of Sameer Katdare as Chief Risk Officer. Sameer brings with him a rich experience of more than 20 years in the Retail Banking sector across America, South Asia, and ASEAN. 

In his current role, Sameer is responsible for overall Risk Management framework and governance, oversight of Collection Operations and further strengthening of risk processes and capabilities. Prior to this, Sameer was with Standard Chartered Bank for 9 years in Mumbai and Singapore, He was the Regional Head for Credit Risk Management for South Asia and ASEAN. Sameer has also been associated with CapitalOne in its US Card and Small Business Banking units.  

On his appointment, Mr. Sameer Katdare said; “The NBFC sector is in the middle of a fundamental transformation, driven by culture of risk identification, challenge and mitigation, new client expectations, innovation and growth. Home Credit India is well-established with rich Global experience in consumer lending space enabled by Risk and Technology.   The company is brimming with great opportunities to serve its customers with best-in-class financing options. I look forward to joining such a dynamic organization and be part of Risk transformation journey” 

Welcoming Sameer on-board, Mr. Ondrej Kubik, Chief Executive Officer, Home Credit India said; “I am happy that Sameer has joined our leadership team. The changing dynamics of the industry makes the role of Chief Risk Officer vital for the functioning of any organization. Sameer, with his extensive experience in risk mitigation, will prove to be a tremendous asset for us, as his vision would advance our risk management portfolio. I welcome Sameer and look forward to working with him.”

Home Credit India serves over 11.3 million customers with various flexible loan options. Being a leader in the financing business of sub Rs 10,000 category, the company provides a plethora of hassle-free financing options from a strong network of around 31,500 points-of-sale (PoS) present over 350 cities. The company is committed to drive credit penetration and broaden financial inclusion through responsible lending in the country.

About Home Credit India:

Home Credit India Finance Pvt. Ltd. is a local arm of the international consumer finance provider with operations spanning over Europe and Asia and committed to drive financial inclusion in India. The company is committed to drive credit penetration and financial inclusion by offering wide financial solutions that are simple, transparent and accessible to all. Leading in sub Rs.10,000 category, Home Credit India has an employee base of close to 14,000 and has been consistently expanding operations since its entry in 2012, with its operations spread over 350 cities across 22 States in India. The company has a strong network of around 31,500 points-of-sale (PoS) and is growing with a customer base of over 11.3 million customers, driven by Pan-India expansion across major markets, a range of diversified and innovative products backed by superior customer experience. 

Axis Bank partners AI Startup for AI powered Conversational Banking IVR 'AXAA'

• A  multilingual BOT; can converse in English, Hindi and Hinglish 
• AXAA is capable of recognizing the intent and nature of the customer’s query effectively 
• Accelerates engagement and problem solving, using automated speech recognition and natural language understanding (NLU)

With an aim to address the increasing number of queries from customers effectively and promptly, Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector Bank today has announced the launch of Automated Voice Assistant ‘AXAA’, an Artificial Intelligence powered conversational voice BOT. The launch of AXAA is in line with the Bank’s “Dil se Open” philosophy, to build a sharper customer focus and embark on a journey of constant innovation and enhancement. AXAA operates like a humanoid and has power to change the paradigm of customer experience from conventional Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to a new era of call steering and precise response with very high degree of accuracy and consistency. It will assist customers to traverse through the IVR and address their queries and requests, without the need for any human intervention in most cases.

AXAA is a next-gen multilingual voice BOT that can converse in both English, Hindi and Hinglish. It is a unique service that helps accelerate engagement strategy and uses cutting edge automated speech recognition, natural language understanding technology boosted by Artificial Intelligence powered business algorithms. AXAA provides an augmented customer experience that automates the contact center operations and is capable of handling a lac customer queries and requests per day with ability to scale up faster. This automated voice assistant has been deployed to enhance customer experience by enabling in-depth understanding of their queries, its context and the intent of the call. 

Speaking on the launch, Mr. Ratan Kesh, EVP and Head - Retail Operations and Service, Axis Bank said, “Our objective is to re-define the role we can play in the life of our customers, by elevating digital banking to new domains of customer service. These initiatives are part of the Bank’s goals and priorities as outlined in its strategy based on the three vectors of (GPS) Growth, Profitability and Sustainability. This new technology will not only enhance customer experience, but will also increase efficiency of our contact centre operations. More importantly it will help our employees to focus on more complicated queries and request from customers and thereby improve productivity while improving quality and customer experience. AXAA will work side by side with expert customer service officers in delivering consistent and superior experience to customers. AXAA also enables us to incorporate more automated self-services on IVR and brings the customer closer to adoption of the digital platform.’’ 

The Bank has partnered with the service provider Vernacular.Ai to deploy AXAA on phonebanking IVR. Vernacular.Ai extends end-to-end technical support on the solution and renders professional services for the deployment and integration of voice BOT with Axis Bank's applications.  

On the occasion, Mr. Sourabh Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, Vernacular.Ai said, “We are very excited to partner with Axis Bank on their digital journey to provide a first of its kind banking experience to millions of its customers across India. An early adopter of new technologies, Axis Bank is known for its customer-centric approach to innovation. Our voice AI platform - AXAA will help Axis Bank offer its customers a superior engagement experience in a language that they are comfortable with, and resolve more issues with no waiting times. Voice is the future of human interface with machines, and AXAA is the most advanced and accurate voice AI platform for Indian language speech and dialects.” 

AXAA is capable of recognizing the intent and nature of the customer’s query with success rate more than current industry benchmark and is able to contain the call on IVR without any human intervention. In case AXAA is unable to service or cater to a particular customer query, she will direct the call directly to one of the expert service officers (a human assistant), minimizing the navigation time on conventional IVR. Axis Bank remains committed to embracing digital technologies to be able to serve its customers better. 

About Axis Bank: 

Axis Bank is the third largest private sector bank in India. Axis Bank offers the entire spectrum of services to customer segments covering Large and Mid-Corporates, SME, Agriculture and Retail Businesses. With its 4,528 domestic branches (including extension counters) and 11,971 ATMs across the country as on 30^th June 2020, the network of Axis Bank spreads across 2,559 centers, enabling the Bank to reach out to a large cross-section of customers with an array of products and services. The Axis Group includes Axis Mutual Fund, Axis Securities Ltd., Axis Finance, Axis Trustee, Axis Capital, A.TReDS Ltd., Freecharge and Axis Bank Foundation. To read more about the Bank, please visit https://www.axisbank.com.

About Vernacular.ai: 

Vernacular.ai is a Series A funded start-up and an AI-first SaaS business that is driven with a mission to become the leading voice AI/automation system in the world and currently services leading enterprise clients across BFSI, Hospitality, F&B, and other industries. The Bengaluru-based start-up won the seed capital investment of the year in 2018, by venture intelligence and was nominated at the ET Start-up Awards 2018.

Learning Matters' Virtual Voice Teacher 'Tara' is Revolutionising the Way Students Learn in India

'Tara' - the proprietary virtual voice teacher of Learning Matters, an ed-tech company headquartered in Bangalore, is radically changing the way students learn in schools and in their own homes across the country.

Tara - a dynamic, two-way interactive teaching assistant that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) - has been instrumental in solving challenges brought on by COVID-19 in online teaching and learning through the use of voice technology. With the use of text-to-speech and speech-to-text, Tara employs voice technology to create an immersive learning experience.

[caption id="attachment_149764" align="aligncenter" width="884"] Learning Matters Team[/caption]

Tara is extremely light on hardware, requiring only a smartphone or a simple voice-enabled device such as the Echodot and a voice platform like Amazon Alexa. Speaking about the easy deployment of Tara, Gowri Mahesh, co-founder and COO of Learning Matters says, "Tara requires only a minimum 3G connection to function effectively, making it not only a simple interface to use but also very easy to deploy and use anywhere. Further, Tara ensures natural learning by making use of the most natural way in which human beings learn - through conversation and interactivity i.e. listening and speaking. And with content that is aligned to curriculum, engagement with learners is high."

The pandemic has made video-based learning the default mode of teaching. However, video-based learning has its own set of mandatory requirements including high-speed internet and a tablet, laptop or desktop. With Tara, Learning Matters is solving these challenges that are contributing to the digital divide. With just a smartphone and an app, learners can access their lessons and assessments. Furthermore, Tara can repeat lessons, exercises, and assessments as many times as learners need, without any fatigue. She supports individualized learning as well as pair, small-group, and large-group learning. With such varied use cases and capabilities, Tara has proved to be an able teacher assistant that allows students to continue uninterrupted learning, whether at school or at home.

Tara can teach in Hindi, too. "Tara English" an Amazon Alexa skill teaches English to non-English speaking users in an easy and seamless way. By simply saying, "Alexa, Tara English open karo", users can launch the Tara English skill and go through lessons based on levels of proficiency. Tara English is available on the Amazon Alexa skill store.

Speaking of the USP of Tara Saraswathy Ramamoorthy, Co-founder & CMO of Learning Matters says, "The biggest advantage of Tara is that she will not only tell learners they are incorrect but also explain why and correct them. And, because she is a non-judgemental teacher, learners learn without fear, whether they are adults or children. Also, with Tara there is no concern about screen time."

Ramamoorthy G, Co-founder & CEO of Learning Matters speaking about the future plans for Tara said, "Tara is already in use to effectively teach English to students and teachers. Soon, Tara will also teach science and the humanities making it a superior intervention tool in education."

To learn more about Tara from Learning Matters, go to www.learningmatters.xyz/voice.

About Learning Matters

Learning Matters is an ed-tech company headquartered in Bangalore. Their vision is to make education scalable, sustainable and impactful. They accomplish this through their educational solutions and services for schools such as Tara - a virtual, voice teacher; Kengine - a digital content platform on the cloud; StarTeacher - professional development and training programmes for teachers; and ToolBox - activity kits for teachers and students. Their website is www.learningmatters.xyz. They can be looked up on social media at: facebook: @LearningMatters.xyz, LinkedIn: learning-matters and Twitter: @LMofficialHQ.

For editorial queries, please contact priyanka.shetty@learningmatters.xyz or +91 87922 87138.

B2B Fintech Firm Signzy Fast Tracks Hiring to Cater to Demand Rise in the wake of COVID-19

Set To add close to 70 new employees to strengthen its Technology team

Leading B2B fintech startup Signzy today said that it will be hiring close to 70 employees over the next six months to cater to the growing demand for its services, in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Signzy, which works with over ninety leading banks and financial institutions in India, is looking to primarily strengthen its technology team with the new hires, besides adding to its marketing and business development functions.

Ankit Ratan, co-founder of Signzy says, “The ongoing pandemic has driven an extraordinary pace of digital transformation for the banking and financial services sector.  In the last four months, the demand for digitalised workflow solutions, including video-KYC, has gone near universal among the BFSI players. Naturally, we have to scale up our team strength in order to meet this demand.”

Signzy offers an AI powered RPA platform for financial services and has added 35 new employees since March to meet the growing demand for its solutions. The company is actively seeking candidates for roles like Backend Engineer, Full Stack Engineer, Product Manager, Frontend Developer, SDET 2, Product Marketing Manager, Engineering Manager and many more.

Some key roles that Signzy is hiring for are: 

Backend Engineer: The candidate will be responsible for producing robust production ready codes and maintenance services. Providing tech and infrastructure for marketing campaigns, creating CRUD APIs for front-end business systems, creating developer friendly service APIs & backend SDKs, and user end products on top of the core technologies are key for this role.

Full Stack Engineer: A candidate who is tech savvy and is passionate about creating solutions using technology. Creating user-end products with top core technologies, the candidate will be responsible to achieve Signzy’s vision and build a responsive and elegant mobile/desktop web UIs. The candidate will also expand and scale the backend infrastructure to global scale. Ability to lead a team, a creative mind to develop and present new features would be necessary traits.

Engineering Manager: Another critical position available is that of Engineering Manager, who will be responsible for mapping business objectives to an optimum engineering structure, including correct estimation of resource allocation. The candidate will work closely with the internal stakeholders to analyse and assess projects. A good leader, spokesperson for the team playing an integral role in key technical, product and hiring decisions.

Product Sales - B2B Sales / Enterprise Sales / SaaS- A competitive and trustworthy candidate to help Signzy build business activities. The candidate is a sales professional responsible for discovering and pursuing new sales prospects, negotiating deals and maintaining customer satisfaction. The candidate must be a go getter who possesses excellent communication skills and feels comfortable reaching out to potential customers to demonstrate Signzy solutions. Ultimately, he/she will help Signzy exceed business expectations and contribute to the company's rapid and sustainable growth. This is a great opportunity for the right candidate to forge a career in India’s fastest growing sector.

Apart from a competitive work environment, Signzy offers its employees a flexible and employee friendly work culture. The startup works with an alluring list of clients, including four of the largest banks in India like SBI, ICICI Bank and more. Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with MasterCard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve customers in the multiple geographies.

About Signzy

Signzy is an AI powered RPA platform for financial services. No matter how complex your workflow or operational complexity, Signzy is able to completely automate your back-operations decision-making process into a real-time API. This is possible due to a combination of Nebula — Our no code AI model builder and our Fintech API Marketplace of over 200+ APIs. Today we work with over 90+ FIs globally including the 4 largest banks in India and a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US. Globally we have a strong partnership with MasterCard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve our customers in the 2 geographies. Our Product team of 120+ people is building a global AI product out of Bangalore.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

WeeMate Launches Innovative Pee Device in India to Help Women Relieve themselves with Ease

In a boost to women empowerment a women friendly urination device has caught the attention of today's educated and savvy women. The device called WeeMate has been launched by the entrepreneur Ms. Neha Chachra with an aim to help women counter dirty public toilets and to protect them from deadly infections that they may get from using public toilet seat.

A couple of years back she had met with an accident and while recuperating she encountered difficulty in accessing hygienic public toilets. She understood that this is a common dilemma and many women like her might have to face similar challenge every day. In due course she came up with the idea of WeeMate to save all the women from the horrors of public toilets. The revolutionary pee friendly device WeeMate aids a female to urinate while standing upright and avoid sitting on dirty toilets. The main purpose of the device is to funnel urine away from women while she takes a pee standing up rather than squatting.

WeeMate Product

WeeMate Founder Ms. Neha Chachra said, "Public washrooms are unfortunately a nightmare in India and ladies dread them the most. While using these toilets, the women even shudder at the thought of the number of people who may have sat on the same toilet seat and would have forgotten to wash that. Smaller bladders than men, the inability to stand and pee while using these dirty toilets - all such reasons led me to launch WeeMate and support the women of today who need to travel long hours for the job; spend the whole day shopping, go on a day out with friends, and so on."

No one can underestimate the fact that intimate hygiene is one of the most important aspects of the women's health. Thus, she thought it's time to stand for hygiene and came up with WeeMate - an ideal pee friendly device for women who hate unhygienic and dirty toilets. Now with the help of WeeMate, the women can relieve themselves with ease in all public toilets without any fear of contracting diseases like Gut infection, Viral infections, STDs and UTIs. All these infections occur when the germs from toilet seat transfer to urethral or genital tract, but WeeMate helps women to stay infection free by allowing them to stand and urinate. In the current COVID-19 situation, the relevance of WeeMate in the lives of women has already increased manifold.

Priced affordably at Rs. 180/- for 10 pieces, the women friendly stand-to-pee device WeeMate is available all across the country on reputed online marketplaces and neighbourhood stores. As inaugural offer the company is giving two pieces extra free of cost in every pack.

N9 World Technologies Announces Swiss Antiviral Performance for India with Global Antimicrobial Reach

N9 World Technologies, India signed an agreement with Consolidated Pathways Inc., USA to incorporate unique Swiss antiviral and antimicrobial technologies into sustainable, cost effective custom blends for the textile industry. 

N9’s special offerings provide antiviral performance against the Coronavirus bringing proven hygiene function and material protection to the Textile industry. 

Based in Michigan, Midland USA, Consolidated Pathways is a brand & technical representative for Sanitized^® products, and supports the advancement of the trusted Sanitized^® Quality Seal and related branding concepts to the global textile industry. 

Consolidated Pathways is partnering with N9 World Technologies in support of its antiviral and antimicrobial custom blended products that, when properly applied can utilize the highly regarded Sanitized^® Quality Seal.

N9 World Technologies Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Resil Chemicals, is based in Bengaluru, India and is a manufacturer & marketer of specialty chemicals in Antibacterial, Cooling & Dynamic Drying technologies. It enjoys the trust of over 150 brands and retailers in India for its products like COOLIT^TM, Neudri^TM, N9 Pure Silver^TM, etc. This partnership will now allow both companies to offer unique performance benefit platforms to the global textile industry. 

Mr. Vikram Rao, Managing Director of N9 World Technologies has said “With this partnership, N9 World Technologies is now a ‘One Stop Shop’ for Global Brands & Retailers who are seeking innovative and sustainable speciality finishes for their textile products. A worldwide business development team is already in place for marketing and servicing customers with these proven technologies with global regulatory approvals.”

Mr. James Krueger, CEO of Consolidated Pathways added “We are excited to partner with N9 World Technologies. This partnership provides a unique combination of technologies, market information and expertise that can help brands and retailers enhance their products in ways that are meaningful to consumers.”

About N9 World

A globally recognized organisation, N9 World Technology is committed to offering well-researched solutions in the hygiene and wellness space to our customers by constantly developing next generation technologies that are sustainable. They are part of a renowned group that is one of Asia’s leading innovative formulators of silicone for textiles, having heritage of more than 25 years of product development and innovation for the textile industry. Website Link: http://n9world.com/

Bank of Baroda’s Credit Card Arm Readies for Digital Transformation with Implementation of Fiserv Technology

BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda, has chosen Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, to enable the digitization of their end-to-end card issuance and processing cycle and support the launch of several new and high-tech products including contactless credit cards, tokenisation and integration with branded wallets, and virtual credit cards.

BFSL is one of the earliest issuers of credit cards in India and has a reputation for delivering superior card products and services to its customers. To advance their digital strategy and keep pace with rapidly changing consumer expectations, BFSL will utilize FirstVision^TM from Fiserv, an end-to-end managed services solution that enables card issuing and processing with global economies of scale and integrated capabilities that span the card lifecycle.

The service-oriented architecture and open APIs of FirstVision facilitate rapid application development, enabling new capabilities to be brought to market more quickly and at a lower cost. The software as a service (SaaS) solution is hosted locally in India and enables card processing for major issuers across the country, helping ensure compliance with local payment and customer data regulations.

“Delivering robust, secure products and a superior experience to our customers is our priority,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director and CEO at BOB Financial Solutions Limited. “Fiserv understands our market, and we value the fact that their card processing capabilities are hosted in India. The scalable, integrated technology provided by Fiserv will allow us to deliver the experiences our customers expect now and into the future, as we accelerate the launch of new products and services being adopted by all major issuers.”

The FirstVision platform will enable BFSL to move forward on their digital transformation journey with a fully integrated suite of card management tools including digital cards and loyalty management, advanced fraud modules, risk management and analytics solutions.

“The speed at which financial services providers need to satisfy customer demand for digital services has further accelerated as a result of the impact of COVID-19,” said Ivo Distelbrink, EVP and head of Asia Pacific at Fiserv. “With Fiserv, BFSL can reimagine customer journeys and launch to market with speed in order to better serve their customers in a rapidly changing digitally-centric world.”

About BOB Financial Solutions Limited

BOB Financial Solutions Limited (formerly known as ‘Bobcards Limited’) was established in the year 1994. It is a Non-Banking Financial Company, wholly owned by Bank of Baroda, one of the top banks of India. The Company's primary business is in credit cards with its key differentiator being simple, easy-to-understand products that are fairly priced and efficiently serviced. For details, please visit www.bobfinancial.com.

About Fiserv

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV) aspires to move money and information in a way that moves the world. As a global leader in payments and financial technology, the company helps clients achieve best-in-class results through a commitment to innovation and excellence in areas including account processing and digital banking solutions; card issuer processing and network services; payments; e-commerce; merchant acquiring and processing; and the Clover^® cloud-based point-of-sale solution. Fiserv is a member of the S&P 500^® Index and the FORTUNE^® 500, and is among FORTUNE World’s Most Admired Companies^®. Visit fiserv.com and follow on social media for more information and the latest company news.

FISV-G

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200729006111/en/

PingPong Payments India Marks its 1st Anniversary

US-based Fintech company, PingPong is celebrating its 1st anniversary of establishment in India. The global payments unicorn PingPong Payments had started its India operations last year, with its head office in Bangalore. In the last year, PingPong India has partnered with e-Commerce giants such as Amazon, Shopify, Wayfair to promote Indian Sellers and help them expand their e-Commerce business across the globe. In addition to e-Commerce merchants, PingPong has introduced an International Payment Platform for freelancers as well as offline exporters in India.

Commenting on their journey so far, Sidharth S. Prasad, Director-India BD and Partnerships, said, "We have received an overwhelming response from the Indian market so far. PingPong India has been entrusted by hundreds of e-Commerce sellers, exporters, and freelancers. In the first year itself we have acquired significant market share in the global e-Commerce payments segment, and we target to assume market leadership in the next couple of years. With the introduction of new payment options for Freelancers, Offline Exporters and App Developers, we are hopeful to grow our transaction volumes rapidly by end of the year 2020.

[caption id="attachment_149734" align="aligncenter" width="581"] PingPong India Launch Event 2019 in Jaipur[/caption]

PingPong's success has been driven by the efficiency it brings to global e-Commerce sellers' payment costs; for many of its customers PingPong has been known to reduce the charges of international remittances by over 80% thereby helping sellers keep more profits. PingPong has also enabled global sellers with product suites like VAT payments in UK and EU and payments to suppliers. This year PingPong launched the AED, SGD and MXN currencies' receiving accounts, becoming the outstanding payments provider in India to do so. Another persistent pain point of Indian global sellers has been issuance of FIRCs, PingPong took this issue head on and has established a seamless digital FIRC issuance process making it a hassle-free experience for sellers.

Amid the pandemic, though the e-Commerce segment saw some impact, freelancers in India have seen a spike in their demand. While majority of freelancers receive international payments directly from platforms, they skip to calculate the high conversion charges which is incurred while receiving foreign remittance. Most of the time this fee goes unaccounted which leads to reduction in margins. By receiving direct payments from platforms many freelancers end up incurring conversion charges up to 4%.

PingPong Payments India has introduced a unique solution for freelancers in India who are working with International platforms or clients. Unlike other players, PingPong charges up to only 1% fee to receive international payments, thus accruing a savings of around 50% on conversion charges and platform fees.

During early July 2020, the parent company of PingPong Global Solutions celebrated its 5th Anniversary. With a humble beginning in 2015 in New York, today PingPong is the sophisticated third-party payments company supporting global Amazon sellers and can be used on 14 Amazon sites worldwide. Since its inception, PingPong has helped the seller community save 70 per cent of the cost incurred in the form of fees for Amazon and other platforms - which roughly saves $1.6 billion from 2016 to 2019 compared to the previous services charge.

"We believe that India has a lot to offer to the world and Indian export business is at the cusp of seeing new heights. With increasing focus on Make in India and improvements in ease of doing business ranks, The Indian selling community is going to be a dominant force in world trade. Our payment solution which is focused on security, compliance and cost reduction is surely going to be a tool for gaining competitive advantage for the sellers. We are here to work with the Indian community and help take the India story to every corner of the world," said Mr. Kenny Tsang, Managing Director PingPong Global Solutions in USA.

PingPong has been expanding its portfolio in different market segments. Recently, the company has launched its Payment Gateway in India supporting sellers selling globally through platforms like Shopify and Magento. PingPong has also introduced a payment platform for Indian exporters and MSMEs. The payment platform will help Indian exporters receive international payments into their local bank accounts at competitive rates while providing a 100% transparent pricing dashboard.

About PingPong

PingPong was founded in 2015 with the mission of helping global e-Commerce sellers keep more profits by providing competitive rates. Today, the company serves more than 750,000 online sellers worldwide, has processed more than $10 billion in cross-border payments for e-Commerce merchants to-date, and transfers more than $100 million per day for international e-Commerce sellers. Global merchants around the world trust PingPong to help them save on cross-border payments, VAT & supplier payments, and more.

For more information, please visit: in.pingpongx.com/in/index.

Amazon Opens its Fraud Detector Services that Helps Businesses Identify Online Identity, Payment Frauds in Real Time using Machine Learning

Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company, announced the general availability of Amazon Fraud Detector, a fully managed service that makes it easy to quickly identify potentially fraudulent online activities like online payment and identity fraud.

Using machine learning under the hood and based on over 20 years of fraud detection expertise from Amazon, Amazon Fraud Detector automatically identifies potentially fraudulent activity in milliseconds—with no machine learning expertise required.

Essentially, Amazon Fraud Detector automates the complicated steps of creating machine learning models for fraud detection. Everything from data validation to model deployment can be done with no machine learning or coding experience required. The result is machine learning based fraud detection models that can be deployed in minutes instead of months.

Amazon Fraud Detector provides a fully managed service that uses machine learning for detecting potential fraud in real time (e.g. online payment and identity fraud, the creation of fake accounts, loyalty account and promotion code abuse, etc.), based on the same technology used by Amazon.com—with no machine learning experience required.

Amazon Fraud Detector is now available in parts of the US and other countries -- Ireland, Singapore, Sydney, with availability in additional regions -- expectedly India -- in the coming months.

With Amazon Fraud Detector, customers use their historical data of both fraudulent and legitimate transactions to build, train, and deploy machine learning models that provide real-time, low-latency fraud risk predictions. To get started, customers upload historical event data (e.g. transactions, account registrations, loyalty points redemptions, etc.) to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), where it is encrypted in transit and at rest and used to customize the model’s training. Customers only need to provide any two attributes associated with an event (e.g. logins, new account creation, etc.) and can optionally add other data (e.g. billing address or phone number). Based upon the type of fraud customers want to predict, Amazon Fraud Detector will pre-process the data, select an algorithm, and train a model.

https://youtu.be/MNSq2G3V8wM

TReDS Processed Payments worth Rs. 19,000 Crores to Ensure Timely MSME Payments: Ketan Gaikwad, MD & CEO of Receivables Exchange of India (RXIL)

In a recent webinar hosted by The Indian Paint Association (IPA), affiliated to CII on “Decoding the Economic Package  Reviving Growth - Reinventing Strategies”, Ketan Gaikwad, MD & CEO of Receivables Exchange of India Limited (RXIL) addressed an awareness session on TReDS. He stressed upon the importance of TReDS in helping MSMEs in better management of their cashflows. TReDS is an institutional mechanism set up by the Reserve Bank of India to facilitate trade receivable financing of MSMEs from corporate buyers through multiple financiers. 

The core objective of the webinar was to be able to address and educate the participants about the functioning and benefits of TReDS which has ensured MSMEs to receive payments worth Rs. 19,000 crores on time.

Currently, the payment recovery cycle falls above 90 days for a majority of MSMEs and payment delays become a huge problem for business continuity of such enterprises. In a recent interview, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for MSMEs, said that the Central, state governments, government-owned companies and the private sector owe small business outstanding dues worth ₹5 lakh crore. TReDS (Trade Receivables Discounting System) could be a viable solution to settle these dues.

“In the pandemic induced lockdown alone, RXIL has noted an uptick of MSMEs and their large corporate buyers becoming a part of the platform as more people realise the importance of invoice discounting. By enabling digital onboarding and a waiver of onboarding charges, the platform has been able to provide their services to MSMEs in a seamless manner,” Gaikwad explained.

MSME Ministry vide its Notification dated November 02, 2018, had mandated all Corporates with a turnover of more than INR 500 crores and all Public Sector Enterprises to get themselves registered on the TReDS platform to ensure liquidity for MSME Suppliers against their receivables.

“We urge MSMEs and corporates to register with TReDS and avail the benefits of quick and easy financing. TReDS offers a win-win proposition to large corporate buyers and their MSME sellers. The MSMEs get their dues paid on time while the corporates can enjoy an extended credit period,” the RXIL Chief Executive appealed to the webinar participants and MSME.

Both the seller and the buyer need to be registered on RXIL’s platform to take the benefit of TReDS. The registration charges on the platform have been waived off till 30^th September 2020 under the SIDBI’s Swavalamban Crisis Response Fund.

About Receivables Exchange of India:

Receivables Exchange of India is an RBI accredited TReDS (Trade Receivables Discounting System) Exchange Platform. Started as a joint venture between Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) with State Bank, ICICI and Yes Bank as other stakeholders. RXIL empowers small businesses to realize their growth potential by accelerating their collections. With its innovative digital platform, MSMEs today can auction their trade receivables at competitive rates, through online bidding by financiers, and gain access to capital in less than 48 hours. This helps SMEs with major liquidity problems and puts a healthy cash flow back into their working cycles for smoother runs in their businesses. RXIL has close to 3,000 MSMEs, 500 buyers and 35 financiers on the platform.

Zone Startups India in Partnership with Startup India Launches Online Incubation to Promote Women Entrepreneurs (VIP-WE) in India

Zone Startups India (ZSI), in partnership with Startup India, has launched Virtual Incubation Program for Women Entrepreneurs (VIP-WE) to promote women entrepreneurship in the country.

Continuing the journey that was started over 4 years ago with empoWer (India’s first accelerator for women in Tech), VIP-WE is a sector agnostic program architected to support early-stage tech startups founded by women through a curated 10-week program. As the name suggests, VIP-WE is being delivered completely online.

VIP-WE will handhold and guide 20 early stage technology-based startups led by women entrepreneurs, who are preparing to build market traction for their products or services and scale their ventures. The highlight of the program is that the incubatees will not only go through an intensive period of curated learning and development but also get a mentor assigned who will provide personalised coaching basis the identified needs of the specific venture. Further, this will be a free of cost program for all incubatees.

Mr Hemant Gupta, Managing Director, Zone Startups India, said, “Zone Startups India has always focused on tech ventures which are innovative either in the idea, offering, approach or delivery and those that need guidance during their initial period of product development, go to market as well as growth phase. Entrepreneurship is a long and oftentimes lonely journey, and we want to by the partners that give the support that is required, when it is required. We have built a strong supportive network of mentors, coaches, corporates and investors for our startups. Promoting women entrepreneurship has always been our focus and we have been running the hugely successful ‘empoWer’ program for women entrepreneurs for the last 4 years.

We are delighted to join hands with Startup India, who has been doing path-breaking work in the areas of innovation and startup ecosystem enablement. Our virtual incubation program will allow mentors, business services providers, investors and corporate innovation departments to connect virtually to these startups. By creating a virtual platform to nurture women led startups we have expanded our reach to support women from even the hinterland of our country. Our program outreach will also cover the hinterland cities of India apart from metros. Catalysing tech innovations by enabling women founders to take their idea forward and make available to them a larger platform to find collaborators, customers and investors in order to succeed, is what we hope to deliver via our VIP-WE program.”

The program will include 80 hours of workshops & interactive sessions spread over 10 weeks delivered virtually. The unique curriculum developed by Zone Startups India includes diagnostic sessions & clinics, practical insights, topical business management techniques, business and revenue model validation and investor pitch training.

The program will kick-off with 100 Open Startups as the Global Strategic Partner with access to their extensive global ecosystem, Cisco Webex as the Technology Partner along with a host of investors as well as Business Support Services Partners in a collaborative effort to boost women entrepreneurship in India. And the program will end with a virtual Demo Day, where the startups will get a chance to pitch to a panel of angel/early-stage investors, accelerators as well as corporates.

Additionally, while all 20 startups qualify for Global Level 3 of 100 Open Startups Global Movement , the top 3 selected startups will qualify for Global Level 4 of the same challenge. Startups can also subscribe to cloud services, legal & financial and other business support services via credits and/or discounted offerings through this program.

Says Mr Varad Rajan Krishna, Founder and CEO, 100 Open Startups, “Under the present circumstances, the virtual or digital incubation and mentorship program is the best option. Women entrepreneurs face a lot of challenges worldwide. The reason 100 Open Startups partnered with Zone Startup India as their Global Strategic Partner is that women entrepreneurs worldwide and in India can add value and can also learn from each other. We would like to bring more visibility for the founders through various global events and initiatives thereby creating more opportunities for business and investments.”

For details on the program email to: abhishek.rotkar@brtsif.com

IBM Report: Compromised Employee Accounts Led to Most Expensive Data Breaches Over Past Year

Customer Personal Data Exposed in 80% of Breaches Analyzed; AI and Automation Significantly Reduce Costs

IBM Security (NYSE: IBM) announced today the results of a global study examining the financial impact of data breaches, revealing that these incidents cost companies studied $3.86 million per breach on average, and that compromised employee accounts were the most expensive root cause. Based on in-depth analysis of data breaches experienced by over 500 organizations worldwide, 80% of these incidents resulted in the exposure of customers' personally identifiable information (PII). Out of all types of data exposed in these breaches, customer PII was also the costliest to businesses studied.

As companies are increasingly accessing sensitive data via new remote work and cloud-based business operations, the report sheds light on the financial losses that organizations can suffer if this data is compromised. A separate IBM study found that over half of surveyed employees new to working from home due to the pandemic have not been provided with new guidelines on how to handle customer PII, despite the changing risk models associated with this shift.

Customer PII was the most commonly exposed type of data in a breach, according to IBM-Ponemon 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report

Sponsored by IBM Security and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report is based on in-depth interviews with more than 3,200 security professional in organizations that suffered a data breach over the past year.¹ Some of the top findings from this year's report include:

• Smart Tech Slashes Breach Costs in Half: Companies studied who had fully deployed security automation technologies (which leverage AI, analytics and automated orchestration to identify and respond to security events) experienced less than half the data breach costs compared to those who didn't have these tools deployed – $2.45 million vs. $6.03 million on average.
• Paying a Premium for Compromised Credentials: In incidents where attackers accessed corporate networks through the use of stolen or compromised credentials, studied businesses saw nearly $1 million higher data breach costs compared to the global average – reaching $4.77 million per data breach. Exploiting third-party vulnerabilities was the second costliest root cause of malicious breaches ($4.5 million) for this group.   
• Mega Breach² Costs Soar by the Millions: Breaches wherein over 50 million records were compromised saw costs jump to $392 million from $388 million the previous year. Breaches where 40 to 50 million records were exposed cost studied companies $364 million on average, a cost increase of $19 million compared to the 2019 report.
• Nation State Attacks – The Most Damaging Breaches: Data breaches believed to originate from nation state attacks were the costliest, compared to other threat actors examined in the report. State-sponsored attacks averaged $4.43 million in data breach costs, surpassing both financially motivated cybercriminals and hacktivists.

"When it comes to businesses' ability to mitigate the impact of a data breach, we're beginning to see a clear advantage held by companies that have invested in automated technologies," said Wendi Whitmore, Vice President, IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence. "At a time when businesses are expanding their digital footprint at an accelerated pace and the security industry's talent shortage persists, teams can be overwhelmed securing more devices, systems and data. Security automation can help resolve this burden, not only supporting a faster breach response but a more cost-efficient one as well."

Employee Credentials and Misconfigured Clouds ­– Attackers' Entry Point of Choice
Stolen or compromised credentials and cloud misconfigurations were the most common causes of a malicious breach for companies in the report, representing nearly 40% of malicious incidents. With over 8.5 billion records exposed in 2019, and attackers using previously exposed emails and passwords in one out of five breaches studied, businesses should rethink their security strategy via the adoption of a zero-trust approach – reexamining how they authenticate users and the extent of access users are granted.

Similarly, companies' struggle with security complexity – a top breach cost factor – is likely contributing to cloud misconfigurations becoming a growing security challenge. The 2020 report revealed that attackers used cloud misconfigurations to breach networks nearly 20% of the time, increasing breach costs by more than half a million dollars to $4.41 million on average – making it the third most expensive initial infection vector examined in the report.

State Sponsored Attacks Strike Heaviest
Despite representing just 13% of malicious breaches studied, state-sponsored threat actors were the most damaging type of adversary according to the 2020 report, suggesting that financially motivated attacks (53%) don't necessarily translate into higher financial losses for businesses. The highly tactical nature, longevity and stealth maneuvers of state-backed attacks, as well as the high value data targeted, often result in a more extensive compromise of victim environments, increasing breach costs to an average of $4.43 million.

In fact, the respondents in the Middle East, a region that historically experiences a higher proportion of state-sponsored attacks compared to other parts of the world³, saw over 9% yearly rise in their average breach cost, incurring the second highest average breach cost ($6.52 million) amongst the 17 regions studied. Similarly, businesses studied in the energy sector, one of the most frequently targeted industries by nation states, experienced a 14% increase in breach costs year over year, averaging $6.39 million.

Advanced Security Technologies Prove Smart for Business
The report highlights the growing divide in breach costs between businesses implementing advanced security technologies and those lagging behind, revealing a cost-saving difference of $3.58 million for studied companies with fully deployed security automation versus those that have yet to deploy this type of technology. The cost gap has grown by $2 million, from a difference of $1.55 million in 2018.

Companies in the study with fully deployed security automation also reported a significantly shorter response time to breaches, another key factor shown to reduce breach costs in the analysis. The report found that AI, machine learning, analytics and other forms of security automation enabled companies to respond to breaches over 27% faster on average, than companies that have yet to deploy security automation – the latter of which require on average 74 additional days to identify and contain a breach.

Incident response (IR) preparedness also continues to heavily influence the financial aftermath of a breach. According to the report, companies with neither an IR team nor testing of IR plans experience $5.29 million in average breach costs, whereas companies that have both an IR team and use tabletop exercises or simulations to test IR plans experience $2 million less in breach costs – reaffirming that preparedness and readiness yield a significant ROI in cybersecurity.

Some additional findings from this year's report include:

• Remote Work Risk Will Have a Cost: With hybrid work models creating less controlled environments, the report found that 70% of companies studied that adopted telework amid the pandemic expect it will exacerbate data breach costs.
• CISOs Faulted for Breaches, Despite Limited Decision-Making Power: Forty-six percent of respondents said the CISO/CSO is ultimately held responsible for the breach, despite only 27% stating the CISO/CSO is the security policy and technology decision-maker. The report found that appointing a CISO was associated with $145,000 cost savings versus the average cost of a breach.
• Majority of Cyber Insured Businesses Use Claims for Third Party Fees: The report found that breaches at studied organizations with cyber insurance cost on average nearly $200,000 less than the global average of $3.86 million. In fact, of these organizations that used their cyber insurance, 51% applied it to cover third-party consulting fees and legal services, while 36% of organizations used it for victim restitution costs. Only 10% used claims to cover the cost of ransomware or extortion.
• Regional & Industry Insights: While studied companies in the U.S. continued to experience the highest data breach costs in the world, at $8.64 million on average, those studied in Scandinavia experienced the biggest year over year increase in breach costs, observing a nearly 13% rise. Responding healthcare companies continued to incur the highest average breach costs at $7.13 million — an over 10% increase compared to the 2019 study.

About the Study
The annual Cost of a Data Breach Report is based on in-depth analysis of real-world data breaches experienced by over 500 organizations worldwide taking place between August 2019 and April 2020, taking into account hundreds of cost factors including legal, regulatory and technical activities to loss of brand equity, customers, and employee productivity.

To download a copy of the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, please visit: ibm.com/databreach

Sign up for the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report webinar on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. ET here: https://ibm.biz/BdqhMf

About IBM Security
IBM Security offers one of the most advanced and integrated portfolios of enterprise security products and services. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned IBM X-Force® research, enables organizations to effectively manage risk and defend against emerging threats. IBM operates one of the world's broadest security research, development and delivery organizations, monitors 70 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries, and has been granted more than 10,000 security patents worldwide. For more information, please check www.ibm.com/security, follow @IBMSecurity on Twitter or visit the IBM Security Intelligence blog.

¹ Report analyzes data breaches occurring between August 2019 and April 2020. Limitations of the report's methodology can be found in the report.
² The 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report examines the cost of a mega breach, namely breaches involving the loss or theft of one million records or more, based on a separate analysis of a specific sample.
³ According to the IBM 2020 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index: https://ibm.biz/downloadxforcethreatindex

NebulARC Successfully Solved Inefficiencies in Logistics For Numerous Large-scale Companies in India

Equipped enterprises with AI-based Virtual Assistant to help them take immediate actions based on predictive insights~

NebulARC, one of India’s fastest-growing logistics SaaS platforms, has successfully enabled numerous organisations in India to orchestrate their supply chains and gain real-time predictive visibility for intelligent decision-making. It has helped businesses in Pharma, Agriculture, Retail, Warehousing, Manufacturing, and the logistics space to save huge costs resulting from inefficiencies and lack of real-time visibility across the entire supply chain.

Founded in 2018 by Alok Sharma and Aman Bhatnagar, NebulARC is setting new benchmarks in the logistics SaaS space. The company works with large enterprises helping them automate the entire supply chain management. Its Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Virtual Assistant has proven to be a key enabler for businesses by helping them significantly reduce risks of theft, pilferage and other unwanted events such as temperature excursions by providing intelligent alerts and actionable insights.  

Removing the visibility black box for B2B shipments, NebulARC has created a one-stop-shop for its customers, catering to their varied needs right from Vendor Assessment and Optimisation, Order Fill Rate Analytics, Inventory Optimisation, Signature and Traceability of high value assets, Freshness and Shelf Life Management for Perishables, Effective Route Planning, to Location Tracking in real-time. 

Commenting on the same, Alok Sharma, CEO & Co-founder, NebulARC stated, “We consider this an achievement to have helped numerous large-scale companies in the last one year in eliminating complexities in their logistics operations and bringing down costs by a significant share. The year 2020 has brought transformational changes for businesses. Organisations have started paying increased attention to managing their logistics effectively in order to survive in a world impacted by COVID-19.

“We are certain to drive operational excellence for many more businesses in time to come with our unique capabilities. In a bid to do so, we will continue to innovate and invest heavily in cutting-edge technologies to help companies stay ahead of the digital curve.”, he further added.

The company’s mission is to empower its customers to have 24x7 control of goods and assets from the start of their journey until the final destination through comprehensive Asset Lifecycle Management, hence leading end to end visibility and transparency across the entire supply chain. 

Receiving wide acknowledgement,  NebulARC’s BEO was chosen as the best product in India under the Digital Transformation category at the India Mobile Congress 2019. Besides, NebulARC was also selected by the Government of India as the winner of Animal Husbandry Grand Challenge. The company has also won the LogX Accelerator by DP World & Startup Kerala Mission for POCs & PO, among other initiatives. 

About NebulARC

Founded in 2018 by Alok Sharma and Aman Bhatnagar, NebulARC's IoT-powered predictive technology enables enterprises to orchestrate their supply chain and gain real-time visibility to make intelligent decisions that affect their bottom line. 

The company ensures profitable supply chains by providing IoT and AI-based analytics for predictive decision making. With its unique technology, it provides the complete control of goods and assets – when they are in-transit (logistics), at-rest (warehouse and retail) and operations (manufacturing).

With its differentiated product offerings, it helps businesses eliminate inefficiencies and empowers them to achieve operational excellence in a highly competitive and customer-centric environment. NebulARC  has been a key enabler for companies in Agriculture, Logistics, Shipping, Retail & Warehousing, Pharma, Telecom Infra, and Manufacturing industries. 

Feathers of Awards & Accolades attached to its badge:

1. NebulARC’s BEO was chosen as the best product in India under the Digital Transformation category at the India Mobile Congress 2019
2. Accelerated by Turbostart for Founder’s Fellowship program & seed funding
3. Chosen by the Government of India as the winner of Animal Husbandry Grand Challenge 
4. Won the LogX Accelerator by DP World & Startup Kerala Mission for POCs & PO
5. Incubated & supported by NASSCOM under the NASSCOM 10k Startup program
6. Supported by Microsoft US under their Startup program
7. Incubated at IIMK LIVE 

Tevatel Introduces ‘doocti’ to Increase Sales Efficiencies

Tevatel India's leading telecom software solutions provider has launched a disruptive cloud telephony platform (doocti), a utility tool that aims to revolutionise the sales support systems. As businesses adapt to the new normal, there have been numerous internal changes and alterations in the business processes for enhanced collaboration, flexibility, and business continuity.

Enterprises, mid-sized firms, start-ups, or MSMEs are losing a considerable business every year due to poor sales and customer service.

Highlighting the solution, Nagarajan Prakash, Co-Founder & Director, Tevatel said, “With doocti, organisations can benefit from exponentially results in sales efficiency enhancement and can retain up to 89% customers. The multi-featured automated dialer systems match up to every calling requirement and help get contextual data on the lead. The tool helps identify the incoming caller and can demonstrate results from the customer records in real-time. Integrating call center capabilities in the existing CRM, Tevatel’s advanced phone system software helps enterprises drive sales efficiently.” 

doocti equips the modern-day call centre with the following features - 

• Call Routing: The tool allows specific calls to the predetermined queue, which is decided based on specific criteria.

• Call Transfer: It relocates an existing call to another agent if the actual agent is busy or the caller needs some specific information.

• Ring Groups: Sharing the distribution of incoming calls through a group of extensions using ring groups feature.

• Call Queuing: The solution places the incoming calls to be answered in a queue, while the extension users are busy attending other calls.

• Useful Analysis and Insights: Timely tracking agents' performances and call data help in generating essential team leads and strategies for management and action.

• doocti is Highly Collaborative: Setting up a single platform for all the calling work demands all-agent supportive communication devices such as mobiles, handsets, and IP Phones.

• Automation of Tasks: Seamless automation of almost all manual work done from the agent’s results in better customer interaction.

• Deliver at Scale: It supports 30+ application integrations across various categories of sales, CRM, consumer support, and others.

With doocti, Tevatel aims to empower Call-centre 2.0 with multi-channel, multi-function features for enhanced customer engagements. Digital transformation has enabled contact centres with advanced capabilities on handling both inbound and outbound calls and maintaining omnichannel customer engagement platforms. 

Tevatel aims to empower enterprises to connect with their stakeholders in an entirely new way. With numerous success stories, Tevatel has been helping India’s leading healthcare services, fintech companies, banks, edu-tech start-ups, and several BPOs to function and transform processes to advance customer engagement and boost sales efficiencies.

About Tevatel (doocti):

Incepted in 2007, Tevatel is a leading Telecom software solutions provider for modern business offering best-in-class cloud telephony products and services. Tevatel empowers people and organizations to innovate, increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and stay ahead of the competition. Headquartered in Chennai, Tevatel is built on open standards-based Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), enabling customers to leverage cloud solutions without investing heavily in CAPEX or OPEX. Whether on-premises or as a hosted cloud-based solution, Tevatel’s solutions reflect years of experience, continual efforts in R & D, skilled workforce, and commitment to deliver simple yet powerful solutions to meet customer’s business challenges. 

Tech Mahindra and Hinduja Group's CyQureX Sign a Global Strategic Partnership

Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions, announced a global strategic partnership with Hinduja Group's CyQureX, a leading provider of advanced Cyber Security solutions world-wide, with a view to offer world class cyber security solutions in support of clients through successful digital transformation.

The strategic partnership will enable the organizations to become leaders in the emerging 'Zero Trust' environment, leveraging CyQureX's core SDP (Software Defined Perimeter) technology and solutions, alongside Tech Mahindra's strategic focus on cybersecurity and other next generation technologies. The partnership will enable Global customers to have access to state-of-the-art cyber security protection for Data Assets across the entire life cycle i.e "Data in Motion", "Data in Use" and "Data at Rest".

With decades of consulting and digital transformation expertise, Tech Mahindra will provide consulting, planning, designing, integration, orchestration and automation of services. CyQureX, which represents a new and critical business vertical of the well diversified, multimillion dollar turnover transnational Hinduja Group, with research and development centers in India and USA and offices spread across USA, Europe/United Kingdom, Middle East and India, will prioritize capabilities in the 'Cyber Security domain - the new middleware of the future'.

CP Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra, said, "Organisations have accelerated their digital transformation journey to emerge stronger and smarter from the current crisis. As a global leading provider of digital services, Tech Mahindra is committed towards leveraging new-age technologies to unleash new business opportunities and experiences for our customers and partner ecosystem through strategic partnerships and world class solutions. We see cybersecurity not only as an essential service but as a key business differentiator for our clients. The partnership with Hinduja Group's CyQureX aligns with our core business proposition, and will further strengthen our position as the cybersecurity partner of choice for our customers globally.

GP Hinduja, Co-Chairman, Hinduja Group is of the view that "This partnership is a game changer in the cyber security domain. It brings the leading security services company Tech Mahindra, and our newest technology company, CyQureX, together to create a highly secure, agile and resilient digital world. I am extremely delighted to see this strategic partnership formed, as it is in line with one of the core principles of our founder, Partnership for Growth. With rapid transformation of business to digital, we believe cybersecurity will be the cornerstone to protect all digital assets, particularly for digital transformation of India and other geographies. We are committed to develop many more indigenous state-of-the-art cyber security products and technologies in the coming years, with a vision to be a major global player in the emerging cyber security solutions market."

"I am very excited about the alliance with Tech Mahindra," observes M.K. Narayanan, Executive Chairman of CyQureX, a Former National Security Advisor and Special Advisor on Intelligence and Security to the Prime Minister of India. "This is a critical alliance and I am hopeful that it will be the catalyst to leverage next generation technologies like Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and create Cyber Security platforms to protect businesses, critical infrastructure and government. It promises to take digitalisation to the next level, providing clients across the globe with fully integrated cyber security solutions."

The strategic partnership between Tech Mahindra and Hinduja Group's CyQureX will not only provide affordable protection to critical data, and defend nations against 'stealth offences', but would provide Cyber Security solutions for agile deployment that are critically important for business continuity, competitiveness and flexibility. Together, given TechMNxt charter, which focuses on leveraging next-generation technologies, and Hinduja Group's CyQureX as a leading provider of cyber security solutions, exciting new opportunities have become available in the arcane world of Cyber security. Simultaneously, Tech Mahindra and Hinduja Group's CyQureX will work towards Product Development, Consulting Services and Delivery in the Cyber Security space.

About CyQureX

Established in 2017, CyQureX is a cyber security solutions provider headquartered in London, UK. A Hinduja Group company, CyQureX focuses on design, development and delivery of next generation cyber security portfolio and services. Providing Software defined perimeter based network security solutions to a diversified set of industries such as banking, engineering and financial institutions.

Website:www.cyqurex.com.

About Hinduja Group

The Hinduja Group is one of India's premier diversified and transnational conglomerates. Employing nearly a 150,000 employees, with presence across 38 countries it has multi-billion dollar revenue. The Group was founded over a hundred years ago by Shri P.D. Hinduja whose credo was "My duty is to work so that I can give".

The Group owns businesses in Automotive, Information Technology, Media, Entertainment & Communications, Banking & Finance Services, Infrastructure Project Development, Cyber Security, Oil and Specialty Chemicals, Power, Real Estate, Trading and Healthcare. The group also supports charitable and philanthropic activities across the world through the Hinduja Foundation.

Website: www.hindujagroup.com.

About Tech Mahindra

Tech Mahindra represents the connected world, offering innovative and customer-centric information technology experiences, enabling Enterprises, Associates and the Society to Rise™. We are a USD 5.2 billion company with 123,400+ professionals across 90 countries, helping 981 global customers including Fortune 500 companies. Our convergent, digital, design experiences, innovation platforms and reusable assets connect across a number of technologies to deliver tangible business value and experiences to our stakeholders. Tech Mahindra has been recognised amongst India's 50 best companies to work for in 2020 by the Great Place to Work️ Institute.

We are part of the USD 21 billion Mahindra Group that employs more than 240,000 people in over 100 countries. The Group operates in the key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, after-market, information technology and vacation ownership.

RTI Response on Indian Crypto Ban Cabinet Note Reveals Ground Reality

Amid all chaos that surrounded crypto regulations in India, the country’s trusted crypto regulatory media platform, Crypto Kanoon filed the RTI, seeking the bottom reality of the Cabinet Note.

Coinpedia Interviewed Mr.Danish to understand what does the mean for crypto regulations in India.

Coinpedia – What’s your recent RTI means for crypto regulations in India?

Mr.Danish – On 12th June, news published in the Economictimes claimed that Govt. is intending to pass a law on the infamous Banning of Cryptocurrency……… Bill 2019 (Crypto Bill) and that Ministry of Finance has already moved a cabinet note for inter-ministerial consultation in this regard.

This news caused enormous confusion as the same was merely based on surmises. Therefore this RTI was primarily filed to check the veracity of this news and also to know the proposal contained in this cabinet note.

The response to this RTI revealed very crucial information about how the Govt. is looking at this entire issue. In this response, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) discloses the fact that the Banning of Cryptocurrency …….Bill, 2019 has not been approved by the Government yet.

It further says that now this Bill is to be examined by the Government through Inter-ministerial consultation. It is pertinent to explain here that the word “Government”, used by DEA in this response, refers to “Ministry of Finance” and not “Parliament” or “Cabinet Secretariat” which means that this Crypto bill does not conform to the satisfaction of the Finance Ministry.

It is however unclear and quite pre-mature to say that the Ministry of Finance will make substantial changes in this bill to reject the idea of a complete ban on Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin etc.

However, it seems that the Ministry of Finance does not want to proceed with this Crypto bill for parliamentary clearance in the present form.

Considering the aforesaid, it can be inferred that the Indian Government has not yet finalized upon its policy around Crypto regulation and is still open to suggestions which are in fact a very good sign as this reconsideration may also pave the way for Crypto friendly regulation in India.

Coinpedia – Since global regulators showing a positive stance on cryptocurrency, do you think that the Indian Govt will also follow the suit?

Mr.Danish – It is true that India has always been very calculated in regulating new technologies. Internet was made available for public use in India in 1995 but the law relating to Computers and the Internet came into force as late as in the year 2000 i.e., Information Technology Act, 2000.

The regulatory developments happening in other parts of the world are crucial in many aspects and when it comes to Crypto, this technology gives very little discretion or the option to the lawmakers.

As Andreas Says, “You Cannot Ban Bitcoin In Your Country, You Can Only Ban Your Country Out Of Bitcoin.” 

Therefore I believe that in this age of globalization, it is hard to believe that any country can afford to isolate itself from the entire world.

Coinpedia – If there’s a crypto ban in India (as recently suggested in a cabinet note), which sector of the crypto industry will be majorly affected in India?

Mr.Danish – The present bill contemplates a blanket ban on everything related to Cryptocurrencies. If this bill is converted into law in the present form, then no sector can survive.

It prescribes punishments for every activity from mining, holding, advertising, promoting, buying, selling to providing exchange services.

Coinpedia: What’s your advice for the ‘Indian crypto industry’ if Govt bans crypto in India?

Mr.Danish – If the Govt. decides to pass a law banning Crypto, this law can be challenged by Crypto business, traders, or enthusiasts based on various rights available to them under the Constitution. 

They can challenge this law before the Supreme Court under Article 32 and before High Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution. 

Original Source to the Interview - https://coinpedia.org/news/interview-on-rti-response-on-indian-crypto-ban-cabinet-note/ 

Nearbuy Founder Sumeet Kapur launches next venture; Secures seed Funding from Inflection Point Ventures

• Nearbuy Founder Sumeet Kapur launches Wellcure
• Raises $200,000 from IPV
• Funds to be used for marketing, tech development, team expansion to scale up
• Wellcure promotes naturopathy for overcoming lifestyle related ailments
• Aims to transform the health map of India through application of nature's laws and make natural health lifestyle an everyday experience
• Wellcure has a user base of close to a lakh in beta stage
• Wellcure marks 10th investment from IPV since Mar 2020

Nearbuy.com founder Sumeet Kapur announces his next venture - Wellcure. Wellcure, a health tech platform aiming to democratize natural healing, has raised $200,000 from Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). The company founded by Sumeet Kapur, Ankur Bhatia and Aanchal Kapur aims to revolutionize the future of healthtech in India. Wellcure is based on the premise that health is simple, the human body has holistic healing capacity and we just need to facilitate this natural process.

Wellcure, one of India’s fastest growing natural health communities, caters to all health and wellness needs - physical and mental, with an existing user base of close to a lakh, it aspires to reach 1 million people by the next year. With its ability to specifically cater to the needs of the customers by offering curated content along with the practical feasibility of offering recipes, e-books, online guided programs, live events etc, WellCure has been able to position itself as a market leader in the growing industry of health-tech.

Sumeet Kapur, CEO & Co-Founder, WellCure, says, “With this influx, we aim to scale our operations substantially to reach INR 5 Crore of sales in FY21 whilst doubling our subscribers base. We have been working closely with Vinay Bansal, Founder and CEO of IPV, and look forward to growing Wellcure with this association.”

Nature cure believes that lifestyle diseases, chronic illnesses, and seasonal infections are signs of acid-alkaline imbalance, increased toxins and lack of repair in the body. These causes can be removed using natural foods, nature’s elements and optimum physical activity. Highlighting the perception about diseases and the body's functioning.

Vinay Bansal, Co-founder, Inflection Point Venture- “We believe the integration between nature and technology is Wellcure’s biggest selling point, presenting its users with the most appropriate solutions. WellCure’s business vision is in line with this macro trend in the health tech sector that we have seen unfolding in India in the past few years. This prompted us to back WellCure as we believe that it could redefine the way people look at health & wellness.”

Wellcure marks 10th investment from IPV’s platform since Mar 2020.

After the global health crisis, health & wellness has gained center-stage. Boosting immunity, maintaining a healthy body, eating right, and keeping a positive mental outlook now have immense relevance in people’s lives. Nature cure provides a credible solution to this existential crisis.

About WellCure

Wellcure, a Gurgaon-based health tech startup, founded by Sumeet Kapur, Ankur Bhatia and Aanchal Kapur, is swiftly becoming India’s fastest growing natural health community which acts as a natural healing-oriented platform to maintain a healthy & balanced lifestyle.

It operates as an online platform that brings together nature-cure enthusiasts across the globe to help share, interact, learn, heal, and inspire each other. With a team of natural health experts, it provides comprehensive knowledge, e-learning courses, e-books, self-cure tools, guided programs, access to leading nature cure professionals, and organizes events to promote and to make natural healing easily accessible to all. It essentially acts as a one-stop facility to all-natural health, lifestyle & wellness needs.

About Inflection Point Ventures

Inflection Point Ventures is India’s largest and one of the most active angel platforms in India today. Founded in 2018 by a group of accomplished CXOs who come with rich experience in the start-up ecosystem, either as co-founders themselves or by leading their organizations through various stages of funding. Their expertise lies not only in financial aspects such as private equity and venture capital but also in business strategy, expansion, and risk mitigation. IPV aims to go beyond just providing funding to startups by offering them access to customers, guidance and mentorship.