Month: February 2022

93.5 RED FM, India’s leading private radio and entertainment network has introduced ‘Decoding Unicorns’ an exclusive RED FM Podcast hosted by Prashant Pitti, Co-founder Ease My Trip. The show will focus on unveiling insights on what it takes to become a pioneer in today’s technology driven business.

RED FM – ‘Decoding Unicorns’

Host, Prashant Pitti who comes with rich exposure across entrepreneurship and team building will be curating an interesting series with those who have made it to the Unicorn Club. The astute and rational Mr. Pitti will be in conversation with established start-ups including Groww, Moglix, Zerodha, Ather, boAt, Droom and others. The podcast will provide early-stage founders with the tangible tips they need to start, grow, and run their business. With stories, anecdotes, advice, and mistakes-to-avoid, the episodes will delve into a variety of topics including recruitment, marketing, fundraising, sales and more.
Speaking on the announcement, Nisha Narayanan, Director & COO, RED FM and Magic FM, said, “Unicorns represent the Indian start-up ecosystem. India produced 14 Unicorns in Q4 of 2021 and is among the top five Unicorn producing countries in the world. Achieving this milestone was once considered elusive. But India’s example shows the term unicorn no longer holds the same weight as before. At RED FM, we are delighted to announce our new podcast, ‘Decoding Unicorns’ with Prashant Pitti, Co-founder, Easemytrip.com where he is speaking to some of the leading members of the unicorn club. The podcast will review lessons that one can learn from unicorn start-ups and what sets them apart from other businesses. Each company has its own story of how it became a unicorn and our podcast will shed light on those insights and much more.”

Speaking on the affiliation, Prashant Pitti, Co-founder Ease My Trip and Host of Decoding Unicorns, said, “9 out of 10 successful start-ups fail within 5-10 years of their inception. Decoding Unicorns would give future entrepreneurs the required insights on how to efficiently find gaps in the market today and stand strong when the storms of business arrive. Running a business is never a cakewalk but proper planning, strategy and insights will help early-stage start-ups to create a system that will make your money work for you. Decoding Unicorns is just a work book of the founders who’ve already made an ecosystem of their own. I have been a part of this wave for over a decade now and am looking forward to have a heart to heart conversation with one of the most successful founders of this very ecosystem on what it takes to build a unicorn.”

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(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with NewsVoir India and this publication takes no editorial responsibility for the same)

Enabling state-of-the-art 4G and 5G broadband communications and new applications   NASHUA, N.H., Feb. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Parallel Wireless, Inc., the U.S.-based Open RAN company delivering the world’s leading All G – 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, cloud-native Open RAN solution, has announced a collaboration with Türk Telekom and Juniper Networks on a multi-vendor Open RAN initiative to deliver state-of-the-art broadband communications. Türk Telekom, the leading-edge and first integrated telecommunications operator in Turkey, will deploy Open RAN technology utilizing the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). Deployments will occur across trial sites after completing tests in the Türk Telekom Innovation Center. Türk Telekom is an early adopter and pioneer of Open RAN technology, utilizing a broad vendor ecosystem to build more flexible, efficient, and secure mobile networks to meet the demands of the 5G era. Türk Telekom has previously collaborated with Juniper Networks for the productization of the RIC, a critical part of Open RAN architecture, to automate networks, enable efficient resource utilization, and provide an optimal customer experience. Within the scope of this new initiative, Türk Telekom will utilize Parallel Wireless Open RAN software and Juniper’s state-of-the-art RIC: Parallel Wireless will provide an end-to-end Open RAN solution utilizing Band 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 radios and DU,CU software for 2G, 3G, and 4G and band 78 radios and DU,CU software for 5G. The first phase of the lab trial utilizing the RIC for admission control over 4G has been completed with more phases to come. Juniper Networks will be working alongside Türk Telekom and Parallel Wireless to provide its extensive RIC platform. Juniper will be deploying both the near-real-time (near-RT) and the non-real-time (non-RT) RIC and demonstrating the capabilities of various xApps/rApps. This will enable Türk Telekom to deliver differentiated services faster to their customers. This Open RAN initiative will be trialed in both Türk Telekom’s Innovation Center and in field environments by: Building a cloud-native, Open RAN world-class network solution based on a high-performance, distributed architecture. Improving service agility and reducing overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) with the introduction of RAN automation. Providing a turnkey solution that optimizes high traffic capacity requirements. This leading-edge network will help to enable mobile broadband services such as 8k video streaming, Internet of Things (IoT), e-Health, e-Education and much more. Yusuf Kirac, CTO, Türk Telekom, said, “At Türk Telekom, we successfully represent our country in the global arena by taking active roles in drawing the roadmap for 5G. As a result of our cooperation with Juniper Networks for the RIC solution last year, we now export our  new technology solutions globally. We have also established collaborations with global technology manufacturers. Within the scope of these collaborations, we continue our development, tests, and productization of Open RAN. Our collaboration with Parallel Wireless and Juniper Networks on this initiative is extremely important throughout our Open RAN journey and we are confident that this collaboration will be an important step towards enabling state-of-the-art 4G and 5G broadband communications and new applications.” Constantine Polychronopoulos, VP, 5G and Telco Cloud at Juniper Networks, said, “Collaborative efforts by technology vendors and service providers are critical to demonstrate real-world interoperability in this exciting and emerging space. Juniper’s ability to provide an open SDK and network-based APIs facilitates seamless portability of x/rApps on its RIC in multivendor environments and underscores the potential for all operators.” Keith Johnson, President of Parallel Wireless, said, “Parallel Wireless is proud to partner with Türk Telekom, the first integrated telecommunications operator in Turkey, providing our leading-edge, next-generation Open RAN software platform, enabling All G – 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G broadband communications and new state-of-the-art digital applications.”   About Parallel Wireless Parallel Wireless’s ALL G (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G) O-RAN compliant software platform has been deployed with global Mobile Network Operators from across six continents and forms an open, secure, and intelligent RAN architecture to deliver wireless connectivity, so all people can be connected whenever, wherever, and however they choose. For more information, visit: www.parallelwireless.com. Connect with Parallel Wireless on LinkedIn and Twitter. About Türk Telekom Türk Telekom, with over 180 years of history, is the first integrated telecommunication operator in Turkey. Having a wide service network and product range in the fields of individual and corporate services, Türk Telekom unified its mobile, internet, phone and TV products and services under the single “Türk Telekom” brand. “Turkey’s Multiplay Provider” Türk Telekom has 16.9 million fixed access lines, 14.3 million broadband, 2,9 million TV and 24 million mobile subscribers as of December 31, 2021. Türk Telekom Group Companies provide services in all 81 cities of Turkey with nearly 36 thousand employees with the vision of introducing new technologies to Turkey and accelerating Turkey’s transformation into an information society. www.turktelekom.com.tr Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1004727/PW_FullColor_CMYK_Logo.jpg

(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire India and this publication takes no editorial responsibility for the same.)

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) today announced that the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan has authorized the use of Sputnik M Russian vaccine for adolescents aged 12-17.
Thus Kazakhstan has become the first country outside Russia to authorize the use of Sputnik M.

In contrast with some international producers offering their vaccines in the same dosage for both adults and adolescents, the Gamaleya Center has developed Sputnik M specifically for adolescents.

Sputnik M is a two-shot vaccine based on the same human adenoviral vectors platform, which is safe and has been widely studied for over 30 years. The only difference between Sputnik M and Sputnik V is a lower concentration of viral particles per dose: Sputnik M for adolescents has 5 times less concentration in comparison with the original Sputnik V in both shots.

Russian Ministry of Health registered Sputnik M on November 24, 2021 based on data from clinical trials confirming the high safety and immunogenicity profile of Sputnik M among adolescents. During the trials there were no serious adverse events registered following vaccination with Sputnik M. Current results are corresponding with those obtained during clinical trials and real-world data on Sputnik V after vaccinating adults.

Sputnik V has been authorized in 71 country with total population of over 4 billion people. It induces stronger and longer lasting immune response against COVID (including the Omicron variant) than many other vaccines, which is further strengthened by Sputnik Light booster. A unique comparative study[1] conducted at Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Italy by a team of 12 Italian and 9 Russian scientists has shown that Sputnik V vaccine demonstrates more than 2 times higher titers of virus neutralizing antibodies to Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant than 2 doses of Pfizer vaccine (2.1 times higher in total and 2.6 times higher 3 months after vaccination).

The study was conducted in the equal laboratory conditions on comparable sera samples from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V and Pfizer with a similar level of IgG antibodies and virus neutralizing activity (VNA) against Wuhan variant. Sputnik V showed significantly smaller (2.6 times) reduction of virus neutralizing activity against Omicron as compared to reference Wuhan variant than Pfizer vaccine (8.1-fold reduction for Sputnik V in contrast to 21.4-fold reduction for Pfizer vaccine).

Based on the data collected by the Spallanzani Institute and results of Gamaleya Center’s studies Sputnik V provides for strong immune response against Omicron, which is further strengthened by boosting with one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine (the first component of Sputnik V).
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Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is Russia’s sovereign wealth fund established in 2011 to make equity co-investments, primarily in Russia, alongside reputable international financial and strategic investors. RDIF acts as a catalyst for direct investment in the Russian economy. RDIF’s management company is based in Moscow. Currently, RDIF has experience of the successful joint implementation of more than 100 projects with foreign partners totaling over RUB2.1 tn and covering almost all of Russia’s regions. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 18 countries that total more than $40 bn. Further information can be found at www.rdif.ru

Funds managed by Infinity Investment Management and advised by Convergent Finance LLP (“Convergent Funds”), announced the execution of an agreement with the existing promoter shareholders of Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals Limited (“Jagsonpal”) to acquire approximately 43.7% of the outstanding shares of Jagsonpal at a price per share of INR 235 for a total consideration of INR 2,692 mm (USD 36.0 mm).

Jagsonpal’s shares are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange. The proposed transaction will trigger a mandatory open offer for an additional 26% of the outstanding shares in accordance with applicable regulations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The transaction is subject to conditions precedent (including the completion of the open offer). The acquisition as well as the open offer are expected to close during the quarter ended June 2022.

Founded in 1964, by Jagmohan Singh Kochhar, Jagsonpal is a leading pharmaceutical company in the domestic formulations business. The company has been publicly traded since 1986. Historically Jagsonpal’s key strength has been the discovery of effective novel formulations leveraging Rajpal Singh Kochhar and the team’s deep scientific expertise. Jagsonpal’s product range focuses primarily on women’s health and orthopedics.

Rajpal Singh Kochhar, the Chairman & Managing Director, remarked, “We are excited to have the Convergent Funds as committed long-term partners. We are extremely impressed by the Convergent Funds’ partnership model and track record of value creation through operational improvements and efficient capital allocation. I believe this will greatly benefit the company and its stakeholders. Going forward, while the Convergent Funds will work extensively with company management in building the business, we will support the business with our legacy knowledge, pharmaceutical expertise, and industry connects.”

Harsha Raghavan, Managing Partner at Convergent, commented, “Jagsonpal is a well-established company in the Indian domestic formulations industry with a strong portfolio of brands. Women’s health is a critical issue for our nation, and Jagsonpal plays an important role in making its products accessible to the masses. The company has a robust distribution network and large field force of medical representatives. We are honoured and excited to work with the Kochhar family and Jagsonpal’s management team to identify growth levers that can catapult its market position.”

About Convergent Finance LLP

Convergent Finance LLP is an investment management and advisory partnership at the forefront of bringing together Ideas, Capital, and passionate Entrepreneurs. The Convergent investment process involves identifying proprietary platform and bolt-on opportunities, speed of execution, and a relentless focus on performance improvement. The Convergent value investing approach believes in paying fair and reasonable valuations through bilaterally negotiated transactions.

About Jagsonpal Pharmaceutical Limited

Established in 1964, Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals, specializes in developing and manufacturing bulk dru

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(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with NewsVoir India and this publication takes no editorial responsibility for the same)

– Hitachi Solutions further cements its position as a leader in accelerating digital transformation across industry verticals in the ASEAN region.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Hitachi Solutions, a leading provider of global industry solutions running on Microsoft Azure, is excited to announce its recognition as the 2021 Microsoft Business Applications Partner of the Year by Microsoft Malaysia.

The Microsoft Malaysia Partner Awards 2021 acknowledges outstanding success and implementations by partners in a variety of categories, recognizing partners that have brought innovative solutions to the forefront in order to solve complex business pains and challenges for customers from cloud to edge.

In the Business Applications category, Hitachi Solutions showcased exceptional work and dedication demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions grounded on Microsoft technology.

“We are honored that Microsoft Malaysia recognizes our deep commitment as one of its partners in the highly competitive Business Applications landscape,” said Kazunori Miyabayashi, President of Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific. “Through our strong capabilities and immense experience in transforming new and existing on-premises customers into the cloud, we continuously aim to encourage our customers to adopt the latest Microsoft applications to meet their emerging needs and make wiser business decisions.”

Commenting on the win, K Raman, Managing Director of Microsoft Malaysia, said, “As technological solutions become more advanced and increasingly complexed, having the right partner to drive digital transformation for our customers is crucial. Over the past year, Hitachi Solutions has demonstrated excellence not only by staying innovative, but also using their technical knowledge of Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 solutions to address the needs of each customer, and we are pleased to name them Microsoft Malaysia’s Business Applications Partner of the Year for 2021.”

About Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.

Hitachi Solutions Asia Pacific helps its customers successfully compete with the largest global enterprises using powerful, easy-to-use, and affordable industry solutions built on the Microsoft Cloud. Hitachi Solutions provides global capabilities with regional offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, India/Middle East, Japan, and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit: https://global.hitachi-solutions.com/.

(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire India and this publication takes no editorial responsibility for the same.)

SBI General, one of India’s leading General Insurance companies launched an insurance awareness drive in Namsai, Arunachal Pradesh to ensure better insurance literacy amongst the locals. The launch event was addressed by Shri PC Kandpal, MD & CEO, SBI General Insurance (virtually); hri RK Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Namsai District and Smt. Shefali Khalsa, Head – Brand & Corporate Communications, SBI General Insurance.

SBI General has been a lead insurer to take up the campaign to drive insurance awareness in selected and suggested regions by IRDAI. According to Namasai.nic.in, Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh is second least populated region with a population of 95950 and 54.24% literacy. Recognizing that understanding of financial planning and insurance could be boosted in the region, SBI General aims to drive awareness and strengthen insurance penetration in Namsai through initiatives across various local touchpoints. The year-long awareness campaign has been designed with a four-pronged approach. The campaign that has been kickstarted with an inaugural session will be followed by various activities including nukkad natak, school contact programs, engagement programs in mandis/ panchayats, and many other activities.

PC Kandpal, MD & CEO, SBI General Insurance said, “SBI General is glad to take up the drive to spread insurance awareness in Namsai, the 18th district of Arunachal Pradesh. We started this insurance awareness drive from Ri-bhoi, Meghalaya, and with the success of the activities, we are happy to host the launch event and kick-start the similar activities in Namsai. Our goal is to ensure that every household in the region is educated about the benefits of ‘insurance’ and understands the need to build a secure future. SBI General Insurance will remain committed towards nation building and support insurance penetration through such initiatives.”

The Insurance Awareness launch event at Namsai was attended by Namsai dignitaries and local communities.

Regulatory authorities of China have approved the mixing of domestic inactivated vaccines against COVID (in particular, Sinovac and Sinopharm) and use of a different vaccine, including adenoviral-based, as booster shot providing yet another confirmation of the efficacy of mix & match approach pioneered by the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in creating a stronger and more durable immunity, including against the Omicron variant.

Vaccines produced by Chinese companies (Sinovac and Sinopharm) are widely used with over 4.7 billion doses supplied in China and globally[1]. While China’s State Council has authorized mix & match boosting only with domestic vaccines[2], the Russian one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine (the first component of Sputnik V) can become a solution for boosting those initially vaccinated with Chinese vaccines in other countries around the world.

Sputnik Light has already shown strong results used as a booster in mix & match trials, including for inactivated vaccines. For example, the study conducted in Argentina on Sputnik Light combination with other vaccines has shown that antibody and T-cells response elicited by Sputnik Light as a booster to inactivated Sinopharm vaccine is 10x higher vs two shots of Sinopharm. The study also has demonstrated that each “vaccine cocktail” combination with Sputnik Light with other vaccines like Moderna, AstraZeneca and Cansino had provided a higher antibody titer on the 14th day after administering a second dose when compared to original homologous (same vaccine as first and second dose) regimens of each of the vaccines. Using Sputnik Light in combinations with all other vaccines showed high safety profile with no serious adverse events following the vaccination in any combinations.

The heterogeneous boosting approach (“vaccine cocktail” using human adenovirus serotype 26 as the first component and human adenovirus serotype 5 as the second component) pioneered by the Russian Gamaleya Center is at the core of Sputnik V, the world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus. This approach had proven successful in creating a longer and more durable immunity against the coronavirus as demonstrated by the real-world data from Hungary, San Marino, Argentina, Serbia, Bahrain, Mexico, UAE and other countries.

To date Sputnik Light has been approved in more than 30 countries with a total population of over 2.5 billion and Sputnik V – in 71 countries with a total population of over 4 billion people.

Sputnik V creates stronger and longer lasting immune response against COVID (including the Omicron variant) than many other vaccines, which is further strengthened by Sputnik Light booster. A unique comparative study[3] conducted at Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Italy by a team of 12 Italian and 9 Russian scientists led by Francesco Vaia, Director of the Spallanzani Institute and Alexander Gintsburg, Director of the Gamaleya Center has shown that Sputnik V vaccine demonstrates more than 2 times higher titers of virus neutralizing antibodies to Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant than 2 doses of Pfizer vaccine (2.1 times higher in total and 2.6 times higher 3 months after vaccination).

The study was conducted in the equal laboratory conditions on comparable sera samples from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V and Pfizer with a similar level of IgG antibodies and virus neutralizing activity (VNA) against Wuhan variant. Sputnik V showed significantly smaller (2.6 times) reduction of virus neutralizing activity against Omicron as compared to reference Wuhan variant than Pfizer vaccine (8.1-fold reduction for Sputnik V in contrast to 21.4-fold reduction for Pfizer vaccine).

Based on the data collected by the Spallanzani Institute and results of previous studies, mix & match boosting with Sputnik Light is the best solution to increase other vaccines’ efficacy and extend the booster protection period as optimal adenoviral platform configuration provides better protection against Omicron and other mutations.

Sputnik Light and Sputnik V and have been developed using a safe technology that has been widely studied for over 30 years and have not been associated with rare serious side effects such as myocarditis or pericarditis.

The highest safety and efficacy of Sputnik V and Sputnik Light was demonstrated in more than 30 studies and real-world data publications from more than 10 countries.

Sputnik V and Sputnik Light can be stored in a conventional refrigerator at +2 +8ºC for 6 months, making them available globally, including in remote territories, without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.

The two-day celebration witnessed participation from 150+ children of iMpower clubs enjoying games, other recreational activities and delicious food

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To provide greater pan-national air connectivity under UDAN scheme – connecting the unconnected

flybig, a scheduled commuter airline and IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) have entered into an agreement to facilitate travellers to book air tickets for flybig’s scheduled air operations routes through the air ticket booking facility available on IRCTC booking site & Mobile application so that everyone can travel to remote areas where rail connectivity is unavailable. This partnership with flybig is an initiative to make travel partners more accessible to diverse parts of India that have recently been connected to the rest of the country. This partnership is under the ambit of Government of India’s flagship scheme, ‘DEKHO APNA DESH and UDAN “UDE DESH KA AAM NAAGRIK”.

Commenting on the strategic partnership, Capt. Sanjay Mandavia, CMD, flybig said This partnership with IRCTC will allow the passengers to book their travel tickets to flybig’s northeast destinations seamlessly without hassle through the IRCTC portal online for both its individual and corporate travellers.

“It is a step forward from ‘Rail miles to Air miles’ – underlining flybig’s philosophy and aspiration to connect every farthest airport location, providing last mile connectivity options to those locations hitherto unconnected even by Rail – at the most affordable fares and catalyzing growth of state and regional economic market opportunities.”

“It is my strong belief that every new destination connected by flybig will not only enhance air accessibility and boost tourism across destinations but also open new vistas of economic opportunity of untapped demographic landscapes of India. “Furthermore, I do believe that this facility will augment movement of Indian security forces – Armed & Para Military forces to various critical sectors in the north eastern states.” Capt. Mandavia added.

Indian Railways Tourism and Catering Corporation (IRCTC) is pleased to have joined hands and signed an agreement with flybig, a new-age regional scheduled commuter airline operating in the North East. IRCTC enters into such agreements from time to time in order to boost domestic tourism and facilitate ease of booking and air connectivity access to even the remote area of North East under the Government of India’s flagship scheme, ‘DEKHO APNA DESH.’

flybig launched its services in the North East in the second week of May 2021. Currently it operates across 4 states and 8 destinations including Kolkata (West Bengal), Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Lilabari, Rupsi -all in Assam, Agartala in Tripura and Passighat & Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh. flybig has operates one ATR 72-500 and Two ATR 72-600 aircraft. It also plans to bring in two Bombardier Q400 transport aircrafts on wet lease into its fleet to further enhance capacity and add further routes

flybig sees itself as an industry partner to the Government of India in its endeavor to provide air connectivity under the UDAN scheme, with the primary goal of increasing air route access to Tier II and Tier III cities and towns, as well as making air travel more affordable, thereby acting as a catalyst to promote and broaden economic development, greater economic inclusiveness, boost employment and livelihood generation, and thus enhance development.