SEBI Announces Ideathon “Manthan” To promote Innovation in the Securities Market

Students, Startup Founders, Professionals from any field can Register to Participate in Manthan between March 30 to May 14, 2022

·         Manthan is being held In Association with Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) & QRTAs -BSE, NSE, NSDL, CDSL, KFintech, CAMS, Link Intime and MCX

·         Themes include Investor education; securities market development; regulatory market integrations and Integration of securities market with financial services

Mumbai/Bengaluru, March 31, 2022: SEBI in association with the other market infrastructure institutions & QRTAs, has announced the launch of ‘Manthan’, an Ideathon for supporting new ideas and innovations in the securities market. The Ideathon was formally launched by Ms. Madhabi Puri Buch Chairperson, SEBI, at a function held in Mumbai on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.

Launching the Ideathon, Ms. Buch highlighted that adoption of Financial Technology (FinTech) in the securities market presents significant opportunities for stakeholders.

Adoption of FinTech can go a long way in democratizing financial services, making services cheaper and more accessible to the masses, thereby laying the corner stone for financial inclusion. Similarly, Regulatory Technology (RegTech) and Supervisory Technology (SupTech) present opportunities to have effective regulation of the market while lowering the cost of compliance for the market participants. Ms. Buch pointed out that, backed by a rich tradition of entrepreneurship and innovation, India is well positioned to leverage technology in the securities market, to deliver customised solutions at very low costs, to individuals even in the nooks and corners of our country.

SEBI has already facilitated the market and innovators to explore new ideas through the sandbox framework, which provides access to various test environments. Ideathon is another step in this direction. Ms. Buch stated that the focus of Manthan is on ideation, that it is SEBI’s belief that every single idea is worth evaluating - participants are encouraged to bring out any idea, even those which may not be achievable immediately.

SEBI Whole time Members, Executive Directors, various SEBI committee members and officials from the Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) and QRTAs also attended the launch event and expressed their optimism on the role that Ideathons and Hackathons can play in fostering innovation

More about Manthan and Who can Participate:

Manthan is a 6-week long Ideathon by SEBI in association with BSE, NSE, NSDL, CDSL, KFintech, CAMS, Link Intime and MCX to promote innovation in the securities market. Manthan will facilitate the creation of a pool of ideas and innovative solutions revolving around the securities market. Going forward, workable ideas emanating from Manthan may translate into possibilities and prototypes through a Hackathon.

Anyone over 16 years of age- students, start-up founders, professionals from any field -can participate by submitting their ideas at  https://manthan.devfolio.co/.  The event is open for registration from March 30, 2022 to May 14, 2022.

Registered participants need to submit their ideas in a video format, not more than 5 minutes in length. Each entry will be evaluated by an esteemed jury on criteria such as completeness, viability, functionality, Originality and impact.

As part of the Ideathon, interactive knowledge sharing sessions will be organized for registered participants through webinars to facilitate the submission of strong and truly innovative ideas. Top 10 winners of the Ideathon stand to win cash prizes worth a total of Rs. 5,00,000/-

Key Themes for Manthan:

The key themes for Manthan have been chosen to promote /ensure a healthy and safe growth environment for investors and to keep up the spirit of the Government’s thrust towards digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

The themes are:

·         Investor Education, Protection and ease of investing: the focus of this theme is on fraud prevention, investor education and inclusive growth through product innovation

·         Securities Market Development:  While securities market investment is one of the oldest forms of retail investment products, Manthan invites ideas that revolve around use of technology to support product innovation, increasing access to new customers and in the commodities markets

·         Market Regulation: financial services are increasingly being offered as combination of multiple financial products on tech enabled platforms. Such offerings while convenient for the customers, often are not clear on regulatory requirements. Manthan invites RegTech and SupTech ideas to help bridge the regulatory gap while using new business models and tech platforms for securities market

·         Integration within the Financial ecosystem: it is important integrate to securities market integration with other financial services ecosystem to support growth. Manthan encourages ideas that supports the integration by reducing duplication of processes such as KYC and onboarding and other challenges faced by investors.

In-depth survey by TiE Bangalore reveals what entrepreneurs really need, to succeed in FY’23

Bangalore 29^th March ‘22: Funding is NOT the only goal for our Indian entrepreneurial community. Entrepreneurs shared that they want networking, mentoring and learning ahead of access to capital. The Bangalore Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), the world’s largest non-profit organisation for entrepreneurs, conducted an in-depth study with a leading market research firm amongst 200+ entrepreneurs across Bangalore. Findings revealed:   

●        77% of entrepreneurs surveyed believe that networking is a major challenge

To increase brand awareness and access to potential partners and consumers, entrepreneurs are recognizing that networking opportunities are paramount. This has been particularly hit during the pandemic – as online meetings offer very little scope for serendipitous networking

●        63% of respondents noted that they need to rapidly build their own learning & internal capabilities

Entrepreneurs are seeking to learn fast- in acquiring knowledge of markets, business & technology and look to learn from best practices of other successful entrepreneurs

·         56% of entrepreneurs cited finding and connecting with the right mentors as a challenge

Both existing & new entrepreneurs recognizes the value of a mentor for the business as well as for personal and professional growth.

·         Interestingly, only 40% of entrepreneurs surveyed shared that they needed help in accessing capital

TiE Bangalore interviewed 200+ entrepreneurs across Bangalore - founders of early-stage start-ups across D2C, Fintech, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Gaming, Mobility, Agri tech etc., and consisting of both existing, serial entrepreneurs and first-time entrepreneurs. Around 15% were female founders. The purpose of these in-depth survey was to understand what really matters to these entrepreneurs for their growth, and the areas that TiE Bangalore need to focus on, to accelerate their journeys.

Recently, TiE Global released the TiE Impact Report in partnership with KPMG – and the impact has been quite significant. Since its inception, TiE has mentored more than 25,000 start-ups globally, which have generated over 2.5 million jobs and USD 1 Trillion+ in wealth creation.

As one of India’s first TiE Chapters, TiE Bangalore continues to play a critical role in fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Bangalore & Karnataka by collaborating between various ecosystem stakeholders – VCs, Angel Investors, Educational Institutions, State Governments, Incubators, Corporates & Corporate Accelerators, etc.

Over the last year, TiE Bangalore has organised over 110+ initiatives/programs that has seen participation of over 15,000+ entrepreneurs and the support of over 25+ leading corporates as sponsors. One such key initiative is the Matrix Forum (formerly called IoT Forum) - TiE Bangalore’s special interest group. Started in 2014, Matrix Forum is now a vibrant community of over 2500+ IoT Start-ups, 14 task forces and 100+ active volunteers. As TiE Bangalore’s flagship event, Matrix 2022 is scheduled for May 24^th & 25^th as a

hybrid event in Bangalore and is being supported by the Dept. of IT/BT, Govt of Karnataka as a State Partner.

Mr. BJ Arun, Chairman, TiE Global said “The Indian start-up ecosystem has indeed taken off with 42 start-ups becoming unicorns in 2021 and another 13 turning unicorns within the first three months of 2022. Start-ups are really driving the Indian economy through their innovation & technology. Therefore, it is even more important now to accelerate the growth of this entrepreneurial ecosystem to play a significant role in making India a $5Trillion economy. TiE will continue to play this pivotal role of adding value to entrepreneurs in their growth”

Mr. Madan Padaki, President TiE Bangalore said "The survey has validated that the pillars of TiE – Networking, Mentoring, Education & Incubation are as relevant today as before. At TiE Bangalore, we will continue to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurship & entrepreneurs by leveraging our unique strengths of strong local community of charter member and the global network of entrepreneurs. We will continue to drive flagship initiatives like the Matrix, TiE Young Entrepreneurs & TiE Women while seeking to establish newer partnerships with Corporates & Governments to expand the possibilities for our entrepreneurs”

Today, TiE Bangalore is also hosting its Annual Celebration of the Entrepreneurial ecosystem with the presence of Dr. C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Hon’ble Minister for IT/BT/ST, Skills Development Entrepreneurship & Livelihoods, & Higher Education, Government of Karnataka as the Chief Guest, and Shri. Dinesh Chandra Patwari, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Karnataka & Goa as the Guest of Honour – and is celebrating the contributions of over 75+ Charter Members & partners in fostering this ecosystem.

About The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Bangalore

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is the world’s largest non-profit organisation for entrepreneurs, founded in 1992. Acting as a one-stop destination for ‘Education’, ‘Mentoring’, ‘Funding’, ‘Networking’ and ‘Incubation’, TiE, since its founding, has been an exemplary liaison between aspiring entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Since 1992, TiE has expanded its presence to 14 countries and 62 chapters with more than 15,000 members and 3,000 charter members.

Since its inception in 1999 as one of India's first chapters, TiE Bangalore has played a pioneering role in fostering the entrepreneurship ecosystem, by actively promoting, mentoring, and helping start-ups scale. With a network of over 500+ members and a reach of 20,000+ entrepreneurs, TiE Bangalore has added significant value to entrepreneurs by providing them opportunities in networking, pitch sessions to various investors, learning & knowledge sharing sessions across personal resilience, business planning and functional areas like marketing, HR, legal, etc.

Over the last year, TiE Bangalore has organised over 110+ initiatives/programs that has seen participation of over 15,000+ entrepreneurs and the support of over 25+ leading corporates as sponsors. Focused programs have been launched to nurture entrepreneurial mindsets in young students, mentoring women entrepreneurs through TiE Women Entrepreneurs globally and bring in hundreds of quality mentors to support entrepreneurs through various special interest groups around education, healthcare, IOT, etc

Matrix 2022

IoT Matrix Forum initiatives include meetups and technology deep-dives on varied topics of interest, mentorship, engagement with corporates, partners and investors, evangelizing Frontier Technologies (like  Web 3.0, Metaverse, Quantum Computing) use-cases and best practices (like AR/VR/ Mixed Reality), thought leadership initiatives with corporates, startups, industry bodies and Government, facilitating Global Ecosystem connects and publishing of the Directory of 2500+ Deeptech, IoT and AR/VR Startups. 

We have also run the Matrix Awards for Start-ups since 2015 and proud to have given recognition/awards to innovative start-ups well before they reached mainstream like CropIn, Ather Energy, Sun Mobility, Flutura, REConnect Energy, Astrome, Tonbo Imaging, AltiGreen and SmokeScreen to name a few.

This year, the 7th edition of Matrix 2022 on May 24-25, 2022, will focus on 3 broad themes:

• Digital Next:   Accelerated adoption of IoT, AI/ML in all sectors in a post covid world- drivers, RoI, adoption trends in Agriculture, Healthcare & Industrial
• Sustainable Growth: Driving the next decade of Sustainable Growth centred around topics like Accelerating EV Ecosystem, Deeptech & Technology enablers, Policies & Regulations, Markets & Climate action drivers
• Future Tech: - with sessions around Metaverse and Web3, Quantum Scape, 5G & Private Networks, Edge AI, SpaceTech, etc.

About The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is the world’s largest non-profit organisation for entrepreneurs, founded in 1992. Acting as a one-stop destination for ‘Education’, ‘Mentoring’, ‘Funding’, ‘Networking’ and ‘Incubation’, TiE, since its founding, has been an exemplary liaison between aspiring entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Over the past decades, its footprint has been expanded across 14 countries and 62 cities with more than 15,000 members and 3,000 charter members.

Since its inception in 1999 as one of India's first chapters, TiE Bangalore has played a pioneering role in fostering the entrepreneurship ecosystem, by actively promoting, mentoring, and helping start-ups scale. TiE Bangalore has over 500+ active members and reaches over 20,000+ entrepreneurs through its various initiatives.

For more details, please visit https://bangalore.tie.org/

Sorbet Sangrias at one8 Commune!

Sangria can trace its roots back to Greeks and Romans who added all kinds of sugar, spices, and fruits to their wine. Well thanks to them, that was ancient history, this is a sip of a modern twist and there is certainly no going back! 

one8 Commune brings a childhood favourite and a grown-up's classic choice together as Sorbet Sangria- a unique combination of signature wines poured over fruity sorbets with a hint of luscious infusions and flavours curated by our brand mixologist Neeraj Sharma. 

With the season getting hot and hotter, brace up to quench your thirst on four types of tasty Sorbet Sangrias.

- Sunburst, a sweet and citrusy combination of kiwi sorbet with the infusion of lavender and elderflower in the classic Chenin Blac. 

- Green Sunset, a signature Sauvignon blanc infused with the flavours of passion fruit and kaffir lime poured over fruity green apple sorbet. 

- Berry Boss, serving Shiraz with the blast of berry flavoured sorbet and a hint of cool watermelon. 

- Mango Sizzle, a blend of chili mango sorbet with the flavours of fresh rose petals and peach brewed in the classic Cabernet shiraz. 

Drop in and try these tasty fruity, frozen Sorbet Sangrias!

Price: Rs 595 ++ (per glass-150ml)

2895 ++ (5 glasses-750 ml)

Date: 1st April onwards

Venue: one8 Commune,

Raja Bahadur Mills

For enquiries, call: 8007400018, 8001800018

Seekho.ai raises $3 million in Pre-series A funding to solve for India’s employability

The company saw unprecedented growth in the last 12 months and will deploy these funds to further scale its disruptive live learning & jobs platform

March 31, 2022, New Delhi: Seekho.ai, India’s first career accelerator that combines live learning, mentorship and employment, has raised $3mn in pre-series A funding round. The round saw participation from investors such as the Family Office of the JM Financial Group, LetsVenture, Trica, Super Morpheus, Yuj Ventures, Sequoia Capital India’s Surge as well as prolific angels like Varsha Rao and Amit Ranjan. The company will deploy the raised capital to grow its disruptive business model- a super affordable all inclusive access to career related courses and workshops- delivered live by industry mentors.

Seekho.ai is a career accelerator that does everything possible for job seekers who are looking to get into marketing, finance, analytics, product and other areas to succeed in the dynamic world of work. It is developing a unique AI engine to make learning more personalized and job matching more relevant. What sets Seekho.ai apart in the jobtech space is its ability to bring high quality learning at affordable prices - and combining learning, community and jobs seamlessly. Seekho’s 525K users have already learned from over 460 industry gurus and over 10K have gotten jobs at over 300+ corporates. The company is already touching a revenue run rate of US$ 5 million and expects to enable 7 million users by the end of 2023.  

Launched in April 2021, Seekho.ai was born in a Covid world, with the coming together of Arihant,  Ajeet and Divya. Ajeet and Arihant have helped build multiple successful tech startups in the past decade including HealthKart, 1MG and Joe Hukum, which was later sold to Freshworks. Divya, founded Safeducate a decade ago, India’s largest logistics skilling company that skilled over 50K students every year. She has also played a critical role in India’s skilling policy.

Commenting on the fundraise, Divya Jain, Co-founder, Seekho.ai said, “Seekho believes that the higher education system doesn’t prepare you for the world of work. Between graduating and starting work, there is a sizeable gap - filled neither by the educational institutions nor the employers. We are using technology to truly democratize job-led education - in an affordable, fun and gamified way.”

Adding to it, Arihant Jain, Co-Founder, Seekho.ai commented, “We believe in bringing world class career education at affordable prices to Indians. We believe that Stanford/ Harvard level of quality content and an application based learning approach is the need of the hour to solve for India's demographic dividend problem. Our vision is super large and we’re just getting started! We feel privileged to partner with the right set of investors who share our vision”

Mr. Nimesh Kampani of JM Financial commented, "Seekho is working on the incredibly exciting job tech space that is creating a learning platform with real outcomes. What is exciting for us is that they are genuinely democratising higher education for our youth and created an offering that is affordable but yet effective."

Seekho gamifies learning journeys leading to real career outcomes. Every milestone completed on Seekho earns Karma Points. These points can be redeemed on live classes, and also move learners up the Seekho Talentboard where corporates are on the lookout to hire. Seekho leverages the community to push everyone to accelerate their career. Seekho has launched a gamified version of the Group Discussion called GriD and India’s first fun learning event called SeekhoX.

About Seekho.ai

Launched in April 2021, Seekho.ai is a career accelerator that does everything possible to help you succeed in the dynamic world of work. It combines live classes from industry gurus, job opportunities looking to be filled and a community centered around a growth mindset. Seekho enables learning through its 10 academies which have been created and structured around the most high demand, high pull areas of the knowledge economy. Users can subscribe to Seekho’s academies and become a part of Seekho’s Talentboard. Seekho is disrupting the age-old hiring process by matching ‘only relevant’ jobs seekers & employers, thereby reducing professional hiring timelines to half.

So far, 500+ mentors have engaged 500K+ young professionals on the platform and worked with students across 200 Colleges/ Universities. With 300+ corporates posting jobs every month, Seekho expects to help over 7 million users by the end of 2023. Seekho’s parent company, Seekify, raised seed funding of  $1.5M from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge in 2019 before their pivot to the current model.

Aviva Life Insurance bags India’s Most Trusted Private Life Insurer Award 4th time consecutively

Ranks 1^st in the Private Life Insurance category and 8^th in overall BFSI sector

New Delhi | 30 March 2022: Aviva Life Insurance has been ranked as the India’s Most Trusted Private Life Insurance brand for the fourth time consecutively, according to the 11^th edition of TRA’s Brand Trust Report, India Study 2022. Additionally, the company has been ranked eighth in the overall BFSI sector and 68^th in a list of 1000 brands across sectors.

Commenting on the recognition, Mr. Vinit Kapahi, Head of Marketing, Aviva Life Insurance, said, “We are pleased to have won the Most Trusted Private Life Insurance Brand of the Year Award for the fourth time in a row. It is the continued belief of our customers and partners that has made us achieve this recognition. This award is a testament to our consistent customer-centric approach and our purpose ‘With you today, for a better tomorrow.’ Going ahead, we shall continue our endeavour to innovate while staying true to our customers’ needs.”

Aviva Life Insurance has retained trust amongst its customers despite the pressing times, by offering a range of life insurance products, including child, investments and retirement plans, etc.to fulfil the customers’ financial needs. Keeping its brand purpose into consideration, the company is dedicated to offering seamless and hassle-free life insurance solutions, since its inception.

Mr. N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research quoted that “Aviva Life Insurance has shown tremendous performance in gaining the trust of its customers by becoming Most Trusted Private Life Insurance Brand of India this year. While it has been a trusted leader among Private Life for four years consecutively, it is a sign of its customer responsiveness, engagement, and Trust. We are very happy to see them do so well in this study.”

Brand Trust 2022 is conducted by TRA, a consumer insights and brand analytics company that has been conducting this syndicated research for the last 10 years. This year the study was conducted through Face to Face mode amongst 1617 consumer influencers in 16 cities in India between Nov-Jan 2021.  This syndicated research arrives at a Brand trust score basis a comprehensive Brand Trust matrix which has been derived basis years of research and empirical data. Brand trust comprises of 3 foundations of trust: Building capacity to Trust, Building perception of Positive Intent and Demonstrating Relevant Competence. These foundations are based on 10 brand behaviours which are essentially business traits and combine to create the 3 foundations of brand trust matrix. Aviva Life Insurance India is a leading life insurer in India with a sustainable growth model. It is a joint venture between Dabur Invest Corp and Aviva International Holdings Limited, a UK-based insurance group that has been taking care of people for more than 325 years.

Atlassian doubles down on its VC fund to propel the SaaS ecosystem

In just 1.5 years since its inception, Atlassian Ventures has invested $110M in funding 

Bangalore, March 31, 2022 – Atlassian Corporation Plc (NASDAQ: TEAM), a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software and the maker of Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello products, has deployed over US$110 million in VC funding and now supports over 30 organisations, just shy of 18 months since launching Atlassian Ventures. 

The global funding provides an opportunity for SaaS startups looking to work with Atlassian’s best-in-class cloud products and platform. The company which is passionate about the future of work and new ways to collaborate in the cloud will also look to tap into India’s growing SaaS startup ecosystem and the country’s rich talent pool. Globally, it considers India a key market for innovation, having grown its office in Bengaluru into a world-class R&D center employing over 1,000 in India across engineering, design, product management and more. 

Established in late 2020 with an initial investment of US$50 million, the Atlassian Ventures team invest in companies across three focus areas where it can uniquely accelerate growth. Firstly - the early-stage startups, who are building apps for Atlassian’s cloud products. Secondly - larger, growth-stage startups deepening their partnerships with Atlassian; and thirdly, Atlassian channel partners creating new cloud products and services that support the future of teamwork. 

Head of Atlassian Ventures, Matt Sonefeldt says, “Our goal for Atlassian Ventures is to build a world-class venture capital fund, not just a great corporate venture program. We measure our success by how well we help founders grow their companies through Atlassian, and we’re excited about supporting awesome companies that are driving collaboration for teams on the cloud. This year we’ve built a dedicated team inside Atlassian to support Ventures and our portfolio founders as we set our sights on a much bigger goal, several times larger than the $110 million invested today.” 

Atlassian Ventures portfolio companies receive mentorship from the Atlassian team and global exposure at its events, in addition to the capital they receive. The mentor meets them regularly to check in on progress, give advice based on their experience in the ecosystem, and help with any roadblocks they may be facing. 

Highlighting the success of the venture fund, Dinesh Ajmera, Site Lead and Head of Engineering, India, Atlassian says, “One and a half years later, we've really seen first-hand the impact this funding has had on the global ecosystem. We’ve seen wonderful growth across the portfolio whether its partners seeing more integrated users, teams hiring talent or growing revenue, and developers turning side projects into full-time jobs. With the increasing focus on cloud and India being one of the biggest startup hubs in the world, we’re committed to doing our part to ensure a vibrant ecosystem. We’ve been amazed at how our ecosystem has innovated on top of Atlassian products and we want to continue enabling their success and growth.” 

Atlassian Ventures' three core focus areas are agile development, work management and IT service management. Outside of these fields, the corporate VC would also consider investing in start-ups playing in spaces such as product-led growth, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). 

For further information on how to apply for funding, visit http://atlassian.com/company/ventures. 

About Atlassian 

Atlassian unleashes the potential of every team. Our team collaboration and productivity software helps teams organize, discuss, and complete shared work. Teams at more than 225,000 customers, across large and small organizations - including Bank of America, Redfin, NASA, Verizon, and Dropbox - use Atlassian’s project tracking, content creation and sharing, and service management products to work better together and deliver quality results on time. Learn more about our products, including Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Trello, Bitbucket, and Jira Align at https://atlassian.com/. 

शेमारू टीवी पर 1 अप्रैल से देखिये सुपरहिट शो 'परवरिश'

'परवरिश' की कहानी कहीं न कहीं अपनी वास्तविक ज़िन्दगी के साथ जोड़ती है

 

मुंबई, 31 मार्च 2022: शेमारू एंटरटेनमेंट के मनोरंजन चैनल शेमारू टीवी पर 1 अप्रैल 2022, रात 7 बजे से शुरू हो रहा है पारिवारिक धारावाहिक 'परवरिश - कुछ खट्टी कुछ मीठी'। यह कहानी आहूजा और अहलूवालिया इन दो परिवारों को अपने बच्चों को पालने में आनेवाली परेशानियों और अनुभवों पर केंद्रित है। इन दोनों परिवारों के बच्चों की परवरिश के तरीके अलग-अलग हैं और स्वाभाविक है कि उसकी वजह से दोनों परिवारों में कई अलग-अलग घटनाएं लगातार होती रहती हैं। कभी सुख, कभी दुख, कई भावनाओं के उतार-चढ़ावों के साथ धारावाहिक आगे बढ़ता जाता है। दर्शकों में बच्चे और उनके माता-पिता दोनों के लिए यह धारावाहिक काफ़ी दिलचस्प रहेगा। वे सभी इस कहानी को कहीं न कहीं अपनी वास्तविक ज़िन्दगी के साथ जोड़ सकेंगे।

इस धारावाहिक में टेलीविज़न के कुछ मशहूर सितारों को एक साथ देखने की ख़ुशी मिलेगी। बेहतरीन अदाकारा श्वेता तिवारी स्वीटी अहलूवालिया का किरदार निभा रही हैं, जो रॉकी (तपस्वी मेहता) और गिन्नी (आशिका भाटिया) की माँ हैं। दूसरी ओर हैं अपने कई लोकप्रिय किरदारों से सभी के दिल जीत चुकी, नामचीन अभिनेत्री रुपाली गांगुली, जो बनी हैं पिंकी आहूजा यानी रावी (आँचल मुंजाल), राशि (स्पर्श खानचंदानी) और सनी (रक्षित वाही) की माँ। ये दोनों मांएं अपने बच्चों का भला चाहती हैं, लेकिन स्वीटी सख़्त हैं, जबकि उनकी अपनी बहन पिंकी बच्चों की परवरिश में काफ़ी मृदु और सौम्य है।

सभी शैलियों के अलग-अलग प्रकार के शो प्रस्तुत करके अपने सभी दर्शकों की मनोरंजन से जुड़ी ज़रूरतों को पूरा करने का वचन शेमारू टीवी निभा रहा है।पारिवारिक ड्रामा देखना पसंद करनेवाले दर्शक शेमारू टीवी पर परवरिश और रिश्तों के अलग-अलग स्वादों का लुत्फ़ उठा सकते हैं।

ASSOCIATION OF APARTMENT OWNERS OF NBCC GREEN VIEW DEMAND IMMDIATE REFUND OF THEIR MONEY WITH INTEREST AND COMPENSATION FROM NBCC

New Delhi,31 March, 2022: The Association of Apartment Owners (AOAO), NBCC Green View Group Housing Project at Sector 37D in Gurugram, today demanded that National Building Construction Corporation (India) Limited to return the flat owners the amount they had paid along with all costs, including, registration fee, and expenditure on interiors, with 15% annual interest, as the buildings have been declared “unsafe” by the company itself resulting in eviction of residents.

            The Green View saga is unprecedented as perhaps for the first time in independent India a multi-storey building has dilapidated and declared unsafe for living within 4 years of construction, that too by a public sector company, AOAO said at a press conference here.

             Nearly 260 families have become homeless for no fault of theirs.

            While passing the order for eviction of residents from Green View on February 17, 2022, the District Magistrate and Chairperson of District Disaster Management Authority, Gurugram had directed NBCC to refund the money to the residents with interest within a period of one month of the order. However, in utter disregard of the order, NBCC has not paid any amount to the flat owners.

            AOAO, a registered body under the Societies Registration Act, said that the construction of the buildings was so poor that within a few months cracks had appeared in the pillars, beams and slabs and within 3 years the builder (NBCC) had to declare these buildings unsafe rendering about 260 families homeless for no fault of theirs.

            The Association said that there is ample proof of tender manipulation and other irregularities in selection of contractors by the company as well as collusion with the contractor which ultimately resulted in shoddy construction and poor workmanship.

             The irregularities were pointed out in the report of the Chief Technical Examiner of the Central Vigilance Commission during December,2019. However, no CBI investigation has been ordered by the Government so far.

             AOAO has written to CBI as well as EOW, Delhi Police more than a month ago to investigate the matter and bring the culprits to book.

             However, till today there has not been any noticeable action from the two agencies.

            The Association has moved the Punjab & Haryana High Court through a writ petition demanding immediate refund of money to the displaced owners and the same is pending adjudication. 

             The Association has held several meetings with the CMD of the Company and written number of letters demanding immediate refund with interest and compensation, but there has been no response.

            AOAO has also approached the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with the grievances asking it to give directions to the company to compensate the displaced home buyers.

            The displaced homebuyers most of whom are senior retired Government employees have been forced to live in rented accommodation in miserable conditions uncertain about the future.

Rithvik Dhanjani and Tridha Choudhury get candid about their perspective on Arranged marriages

Arranged, the short film starring Rithvik Dhanjani and Tridha Choudhury is striking the right chord with audiences making ever since its premiere with its highly relatable story. Directed by Ritesh Menon, the short film features popular actors Rithvik Dhanjani and Tridha Choudhury in lead role and produced by Terribly Tiny Tales, this story throws light in the lives of Richa (Tridha Choudhury) and Tarun (Rithvik Dhanjani) who meet in the traditional arranged marriage set up and how they discover things about each other that seems far from normal. During a conversation, the actors shared interesting insights on how they feel about arranged marriages.

Commenting on the occasion, Rithvik Dhanjani said, “The film actually gives a very beautiful take on the traditional arrange marriage set ups, it breaks the stereotypical mould and brings out honesty and the identity and value that both the individuals have which usually the family doesn’t feel important to give out and what sets what sets Arranged apart from the rest is purely by the virtue of the values that two different individuals have and how they come together. The beauty about it is it’s not preaching an individual to do something the youth will also connect with it as it modern and urban in the way it thinks.”

Commenting on the occasion, Tridha Choudhury said, “Every, person would relate to the character of Richa and Tarun as it brings alot of hope and happiness in the minds of people. Every youth should be aware of why they should go for a set of an arrange marriage. The film gives a message to the youth of why they should not shy away from arranged marriages and what I love about Ritesh Menon and Sharanya who is the writer and how Terribly Tiny Tales has packaged it plus how Amazon miniTV is taking the short-film to audiences is incredible.”

Streaming for free on Amazon miniTV within the Amazon shopping app, Arranged is one high quality content that will keep the audiences hooked to their seats.

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qy23xz4RSY

Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune see faster revival in return to workplaces

India, 31 March 2022: Occupiers in India have started opening their doors to employees after a hiatus of two years. Over the last two months, cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune have seen employees returning to workplaces at a relatively faster rate. These cities have economically well-diversified commercial markets spanning trading & manufacturing, BFSI, which are contact-intensive services. Moreover, domestic companies have been at the forefront of bringing employees back to offices in a phased manner. Service-oriented markets such as Bengaluru and Hyderabad, which have a strong technology base have also seen a steady return of employees to their workplaces.

The overall market is seeing a surge in workplaces opening in the last few months after the diminishing impact of the third wave of Covid-19, and good vaccination coverage among the eligible population. Beginning March 2022, several technologies and IT companies have started calling employees to the workplace at least two times a week, with most of these majors opting for a hybrid work policy.

Some global companies and MNCs have reopened with a hybrid model of working, but many continue to chalk out their hybrid policies. Overall technology companies are taking more time to develop policies as they continue to work remotely. Indian IT companies have started opening offices in March 2022, with many of the companies planning to return to offices in a phased manner beginning in April 2022. At some companies, the senior management employees are coming into the workplace a few times a week. Consulting companies have also adopted a hybrid work model with employees coming into the workplace 2-3 times a week on a rotational basis.

“Returning to the workplace has been a running theme for the last two years, soon after every wave. However, we are seeing companies opening the office with greater fervour only now. Q2 2022 will be a crucial period as we expect more companies to open up workplaces to their employees through a hybrid model. We have already started seeing companies encouraging in-person team meetings, team huddles and brainstorming meets that were done virtually over the last two years. We are also seeing companies opting for next-gen office spaces that act as centres of collaboration and innovation,” said Ramesh Nair, CEO, India and Managing Director, Market Development, Asia, Colliers.

Overall, business sentiments have significantly improved after the third wave of Covid-19 in January 2022. To corroborate the above trend, Colliers studied the key trends emerging from the Google Covid-19 Community Mobility Reports to understand the change in patterns of visits to workplaces across the top six cities. The study showed that Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune have seen a steady increase in visits to workplaces, compared to other cities and are almost inching towards pre-pandemic level. Having said that, the traffic has significantly improved across all the cities in the last 2 weeks. (The visit to the workplace is a comparison of visits in March 2022 from a baseline of five weeks between January-February 2020 pre Covid-19).

Companies need to focus on ‘What will employee want in the workplace’

Overall, occupiers are showing a clear preference for next-generation offices. The focus needs to be on building the office for employees wants, which will keep ‘employee experience’ at its core.

Companies can overcome employees’ fatigue to resume office by making the workplace safety compliant. These new-age offices will promote health, safety, protection and wellness through various facets. At the same time, technology will be an important enabler as offices evolve into a space for collaboration, innovation, socializing.

Source: Colliers

Landlords and developers can also focus on:

a)     High-performance buildings (A high-performance building facilities technology, environment, energy and efficiency parameters to enable greater productivity, health and wellness.)

b)    More space for common amenities

c)     Sustained wellness measures to bring back employees to offices and highlighting the same to tenants

d)    Assisting tenants with renovations to maintain social distancing requirements

There will be immense scope for landlords to upgrade existing facilities. Colliers estimates that landlords and developers have a scope to upgrade around 100 million sq feet of office space in the top six cities, accounting for 14% of the existing stock. Retrofitting of buildings is crucial and can fetch as much 20% increase in rents for developers/landlords. Upgradation should make these offices more attractive to occupiers, leading to a) increased rents and lower vacancy levels, b) high tech buildings and c) sustainability benefits like reduction in carbon emissions.