India’s second-richest man, Azim Premji, gave away 34% of his shares in Wipro Ltd to charitable causes, confirming his status as the most philanthropic Indian. The shares given away by Premji—a man known for his frugal ways—are valued at about $7.5 billion. With the latest contribution, the total value of funds committed by the billionaire to Azim Premji Foundation’s philanthropic activities is Rs.1.45 trillion ($21 billion). This includes a 67% economic ownership of Wipro, the foundation said. Premji inherited his father’s vegetable oil company and transformed it into a global software powerhouse. One of the world’s richest men, Premji still flies economy class, avoids costly cars and ostentatious displays of wealth. In terms of philanthropic contributions in the country, Premji is ahead of others by a distance. Although India has seen a rise in individual donations of late, contributions of Rs.10 crore or more account for more than half of individual philanthropy and Premji’s donations alone account for more than 80% of this.
The Mumbai-based consulting company, Mercer, announced the appointment of Arvind Laddha from JLT Independent Insurance Brokers (JLT) India, as CEO of Mercer India. The appointment will become effective upon the closing of the transaction between Mercer’s parent company, Marsh & McLennan Companies, and JLT, which remains subject to the receipt of certain antitrust and financial regulatory approvals. Laddha comes with over two decades of experience in advising clients on benefits consulting and administration, strategy and investment planning. During his tenure at JLT, he led the Employee Benefits Practice in India and served as CFO establishing its Global Employee Benefits Analytics centre of excellence.
Tata Trust Chairman Ratan Tata inaugurated the renovated building of Meherbai Tata Memorial Hospital (MTMH) in Jamshedpur. Speaking on the occasion, he said Tata Trust is putting a dream of contributing a grid of the hospital so that lives may be saved. Tata said, “We look forward to more lives that may be saved and serve mankind.” Chairman of Tata Sons, N Chandrasekaran said, “We are extremely delighted that this new cancer building has been completed and delighted that it has been inaugurated by Tata. This will provide significant help to affected patients of this part of the world and Jharkhand, he said while appreciating that the building was completed within very short time”. Later, talking to newsmen, General Manager (Medical), Tata Steel, Air Marshal (Retd) Rajan Choudhary and Dr. Sujata Mitra, Director of MTMH, said the hospital increased beds from 72 to 128.
Debt capital group, Northern Arc Capital, has appointed Leo Puri as its first independent, non-executive chairman of the Board. In his career of more than three decades, Puri has worked extensively in the UK, USA and Asia and brings to bear strategy, investing, and operating CEO experience. He was the Managing Director of UTI Asset Management Company till September 2018 prior to which he has been a senior partner at McKinsey & Company as well as Managing Director at Warburg Pincus. In his new role, his extensive experience in strategy, investing and execution is expected to help Northern Arc during its next phase of evolution and growth.
Social networking giant, Facebook, launched the “India Innovation Accelerator” programme with a focus on “Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Social Good”, under which it would mentor and support promising startups which are leveraging AI to address gaps within high social impact areas.“We are an ally for India’s economic growth and social development and this summit is our effort to understand how we can contribute to the development of deep tech in India, as well as corral resources to use these technologies to develop impactful solutions for tough and persistent problems,” Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India, said in a statement. The social media giant also launched “100 scholarships for students and developers” who are focused on nurturing their ideas for utilising AI for social good. The scholarships would enable the students to gain access to advanced courses on Deep Learning. The winners would be provided courses on AI and machine learning (ML) by professors of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. “At Facebook, we are also committed to growing the local AI ecosystem, which can be achieved by providing support to startups, to the student community, and by ensuring diversity within the ecosystem itself,” added Mohan. Another popular Facebook tool under the “AI for Social Good” initiative is its Blood Donation tool, which helps connect blood banks and hospitals to blood donors who have registered themselves on the platform. According to the company, to date, more than 35 million people have signed up to be donors globally.
In India and other select countries, content-streaming platform, Netflix, is testing a new mobile-only subscription plan that would cost users $3.63 a month (`251). The basic Netflix streaming plan in India starts from $7.27 (`500) and the test plan would slash the existing subscription plan exactly by half. ”We will be testing different options in select countries, where members can, for example, watch Netflix on their mobile device for a lower price and subscribe in shorter increments of time,” The Verge quoted Netflix as saying.
Although it remains unclear as of now, the statement from the content-streaming platform hints that it could start offering weekly or bi-weekly subscription options alongside or instead of monthly plans. Netflix declined to share what other countries would be involved in the test besides India. The test in India makes sense, given that Netflix has already expressed interest in the country, the report said. Todd Yellin, Product Vice President at Netflix gave a keynote in Mumbai addressing the company’s future plans of expanding interactive TV shows and Netflix original content from India on its platform. However, since this is a test, not all users would be able to be part of the new plan and it is also possible that Netflix could decide on not making it a permanent option after all.
Bengaluru-based urban mobility startup, Bounce, has appointed Bharath Devanathan as the Senior Vice President, Growth and EV. Devanathan comes with nearly 20 years of diverse experience in the space of internet, Technology and E-Commerce streams. His diverse and global experience makes him a multi-dimensional leader. In his previous stint, he was the COO of Groupon Inc’s APAC emerging markets region and earlier had worked with brands like Yahoo and Booz & Company. In his new role, Devanathan will bolster the leadership team and will look into Bounce’s Business growth & expansion, Strategy and Operations. He will additionally focus on electric vehicle initiatives. With its patented keyless technology, Bounce users can pick up/drop the bikes, bicycles or electric bikes anywhere in the city at any time. The company does about 150K rides on a week on week basis.
Entering the lucrative credit card business, Apple has introduced the Apple Card, that is built into the Wallet app on iPhone, offering customers a familiar experience with Apple Pay and the ability to manage their card on their devices. Apple is partnering with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard to provide the support of an issuing bank and global payments network. According to the company, Apple Card simplifies the application process, eliminates fees and encourages customers to pay less interest and providing a new level of privacy and security. Apple Card also offers a reward programme with Daily Cash which gives back a percentage of every purchase as cash on customers’ Apple Cash card each day, the company said in a statement.” Apple Card builds on the tremendous success of Apple Pay and delivers new experiences only possible with the power of iPhone,” said Jennifer Bailey, Vice President of Apple Pay. Customers can sign up for Apple Card in the Wallet app on their iPhone in minutes and start using it with Apple Pay right away in stores, in apps or online worldwide. Apple Card uses machine learning and Apple Maps to clearly label transactions with merchant names and locations. Purchases are organised by colour-coded categories such as Food and Drinks, Shopping and Entertainment. A unique card number is created on iPhone for Apple Card and stored safely in the device’s Secure Element, a special security chip used by Apple Pay.” Goldman Sachs will never share or sell your data to third parties for marketing or advertising,” said Apple. “We are excited to be the global payments network for Apple Card, providing customers with fast and secure transactions around the world,” added Ajay Banga, President and CEO of Mastercard. Apple has also designed a titanium Apple Card for shopping at locations where Apple Pay is not accepted yet. Apple Card needs no number, CVV security code, expiration date or signature on the card.
Azure Power, a solar power producer in India, announced that it has commissioned a cumulative capacity of over 500 MW since last fiscal year, bringing the company’s total operational portfolio to over 1,400 MW, one of the largest solar portfolios in India. Over the past three months, Azure Power has commissioned over 250 MWs, among the highest installations by a company in this period. All utility-scale projects commissioned since the past fiscal year were commissioned ahead of schedule. Recent commissioning of projects includes the final phase of a 260 MW solar project in Gujarat and a 100 MW solar project in Karnataka. With the commissioning of these projects, Azure Power’s operational capacity in Gujarat is now over 270 MW, the largest in the state. Speaking on this occasion, Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power, said, “We are pleased to have commissioned over 250 MW during the current quarter. Our ability to complete projects ahead of schedule and at scale is a testament to our efficiency and reliability as a trusted solar power producer. We continue to demonstrate our strong project development, engineering, and execution capabilities and are delighted to make this contribution towards realisation of our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s commitment towards clean and green energy, through solar power generation."
In the Instagram era, you have to be photo-ready, is what Nina Garcia, Editor-in-Chief of Elle Magazine said about her meeting with Enrique Lores, HP’s president imaging and printing. Someone wanted her to pose for a photograph with Lores and she had hesitated because she felt she wasn’t camera ready. At HP Reinvent 2019, the company’s biggest global partner event, Garcia and Lores gave details of a collaboration between them with the latter trying to find an ally for HP in print. For Garcia too, who at that time had just taken over as head of the fashion magazine, there was a good reason for the collaboration.” We met looking for ways to shape things up,” she said. This was when they decided to have cover posters for readers but did not know whose poster customers would like to collect.” So right there we started being strategic,” Garcia said about how the subject was chosen. The cover had to be of someone who had a fan base and a social media presence. That was how Kim Kardashian featured on the cover, which was signed by her. “This was a personalised cover from Kim. Then it was Jennifer Aniston. They were unique,” she said. Lores asked her whether there could one day be a fully personalised magazine for an individual.” That is a dream. We have incredible data from our digital site. That would be a logistical feat but this is possible,” she said. Lores gifted her a blue scarf that had been produced on an HP Stitch machine. He explained later that it helped to overcome the problem of ink colour matching and provided consistency.
Anand Mahindra-led IT firm Tech Mahindra is among the top 30 digital firms globally, the only Indian company, on the list by Spectator Index showed. Amazon, Netflix and NVIDIA are the top three firms in the ranking. Tech Mahindra is ranked at 15 spot on the list. Meanwhile, Tech Mahindra reported a 13 per cent sequential rise in Q3 profit to Rs.1,203 crore. Notably, the consolidated net profit jumped 27.5 per cent on-year. The firm’s revenue rose 3.6 per cent on quarter to Rs.8,944 crore. In the October-December period, the software exporter won a key contract from one of the largest banks in the ANZ region for digital channel integration across core banking processes and asset finance.
by Orchie Bandopadhyay
