Tag: Business

New Delhi (India), June 3: The annual Bundelkhand Literature Festival is scheduled for October this year. The upcoming festival aims to provide a platform for regional artists, literature, and farmers. The Association of Bundelkhand with the Indian history and heritage can be traced back to the 8th century. The region has gifted many prominent names to the Indian historical honour. The region is also known for preserving Indian culture and traditions for many centuries. From Jhansi and Orchha to Agra and Mathura, it gives glimpses of ancient Indian cultural, architectural, artistic, and royal abundance. The upcoming Bundelkhand Literature Festival, which is expected to be held in October 2022, strives to spotlight the region’s rich heritage and showcase the work of artists and artisans of the region. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Shri Brajesh Pathak are expected to attend the event. The final dates and venue of the event are yet to be disclosed.

Pratap Raj initiated the concept of the Bundelkhand Literature Festival. A native of Lalitpur district that comes under the region has researched its historic, spiritual and cultural characteristics. After realizing its importance in Indian history, Pratap Raj decided to conserve it and pass it to the next generation. The festival provides a common platform where established and budding litterateurs can collectively discuss social, fundamental, and research-specific subjects.

The festival also hosts a farmers’-meet to focus on different agricultural issues faced by the farmers of the region and introduce them to new advancements in the agro-industry, technology and policies. This is an attempt to solve the modern agricultural problems the farmers face.

The October event will be the second edition of the festival. The festival was launched in 2020 and was a 3-day event attended by the leading names from literature, art, and media personalities. The luminaries who attended the festival last year included Metraiyee Pushpa, Padmashree Kailash Madbaiya, Richa Aniruddh, Anikta Jain, Naveen Chaudhary, Aazam Quadri, Prahlad Agrawal, Indrajeet Singh, Dinesh Shankar Shailendra, Indiara Dangi, Kuldeep Raghav, Geet Chaturvedi, Vivek Mishra, Raja Bundela, Sushmita Mukherjee, Dr, Sharad Singh, Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi and Deepak Dua. A special Agriculture Awareness fellowship was organized during the festival in association with the state agriculture department.

Pratap Raj says, “The Indian society is standing on the cusp of change. Our efforts through the festival are to inspire youth to shoulder the responsibility of preserving the heritage in the form of literature, art, and culture. This was initiated with the sole aim to bring the brilliance of intellectuals, artists, and writers under one roof and to discuss various social issues, development prospects, and future options.”

The festival founder-director Pratap Raj is a noted litterateur, social activist, and philanthropist from Bundelkhand. His humanitarian and research work in the Bundelkhand region is highly recognized. He has been proactively working in the region for society and farmers. He has also developed an Agro Mart for the region’s farmers to provide them with a single facility where they get the resolution of the maximum problems.

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post The second edition of the Bundelkhand Literature Festival will be held in October appeared first on Republic News Today.

Rajesh Kumar Negi, Managing Director

New Delhi (India), June 3: Silver Pearl Hospitality & Luxury Spaces Ltd., a hospitality company operating in the niche market of the Boutique hotel segment, is coming out with a maiden IPO of 50,00 000 equity shares of Rs. 10 each at a fixed price of Rs. 18 per share to mobilize Rs. 9 cr. The issue opens for subscription on June 06, 2022, and will close on June 09, 2022. Minimum application is to be made for 8000 shares and multiples thereon, thereafter. Post allotment, shares will be listed on BSE SME.

The issue is solely lead managed by Inventure Merchant Banker Services Pvt. Ltd., and Purva Sharegistry (India) Pvt. Ltd. is the registrar to the issue. SVCM Securities Pvt. Ltd. is the market maker for the company.

Its current properties are located in Rakchham, Kinnaur, and Himachal Pradesh. Rakchham village is located in the Touristic Sangla Tehsil of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh, India. It is around 10 km from Chitkul, which is the last village of India near the China Border and around 12 km from Sangla and is located between the two. Rakchham is often known as mini Switzerland and has been the site for many commercial shoots. It is nestled between the majestic snowcapped Kinner Kailash mountain range and lush green meadows with the Baspa River. The first hotel property started operations in FY 19-20. All its hotels, cafes and restaurants are operated under “Osiya”. The company provides authentic hospitality and gives guests a localized and memorable experience. It seeks to cater to family and adventure loving enthusiasts and deliver differentiated yet superior service offerings with a value-for-money proposition.

As on date, the company’s portfolio consists of the following properties Osiya Shambhu Lodge, Osiya Shoshla Café, Osiya Rangnoo Rakchham Retreat, Osiya Tashi Dolma Home, and Osiya Baba Inn Guest Home.

Keeping in view the explosion in demand, wherein revenge travel is trending, the company intends to increase the keys in Rakchham by installing Bubble Tents which will be a first of its kind in Northern India. The company had conducted trial runs in May, wherein the feedback was very positive.

As part of its growth and geographical diversification strategy, it is acquiring a running hotel property in Goa spread over 39000 sq. Feet located at Tamborim, beach Cavelossim. . This property will increase the geographical reach and provide business during the winter season from November to February, which is comparatively a lean season for the properties situated in Rakchham, Himachal Pradesh. Unlike Himachal Pradesh, Goa remains an all-weather tourist attraction.

The promoter, Rajesh Kumar Negi, has approximately two decades of experience in the hotel and hospitality industry. The management team also has substantial experience in the hospitality industry. The strength of its management team and its understanding of the hospitality market enables it to continue to capitalize on current and future market opportunities. The company, through its directors, is also looking for partners in Shimla, Narkhanda, Nako, Tabo and Kaza to give holidaymakers an awesome OSIYA – they prefer to call it AWWSIA- experience at every stop on the Spiti Circuit.

With Covid-19 on the wane and all sectors opening up fully and people being confined to their homes for the last two years, the summer of 2022  promises to be a revival for the tourism industry in general.

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post Silver Pearl Hospitality & Luxury Spaces Ltd’s BSE SME IPO opens on June 6, 2022 appeared first on Republic News Today.

Mohali, June 3: Mr. Shaani Sinha, one of the pivotal members of the CSRL Super 30, has joined the faculty group of Anee’s school and will now be overseeing students’ preparations for competitive exams like JEE and NEET. Mr Sinha holds all India rank 131 in JEE Advance and is a gold medalist in B.Tech and M.Tech from IIT Delhi. He has previously taught the A1 Batch at Bansal Classes. Notably, Mr Sinha is a faculty member under the esteemed CSRL Super 30 program.

CSRL Super 30 has had a success rate of 94 per cent in the last five years. Super 30 is a highly ambitious and innovative educational program running under the banner of “CSRL – Central social responsibility and leadership”. It hunts for 30 meritorious talents from among the economically backward sections of the society and shapes them for India’s most prestigious institution —the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). In the last seven years, it has produced hundreds of IITians. They have all seen the change with sheer disbelief in their eyes that their children are now going to be top technocrats. Following the same model, Mr Shaani Sinha has been appointed as the program manager for students preparing for competitive exams for classes 11 and 12. A team of 9 teachers comprising of IIT and NIT faculty would be assisting Mr Shaani Sinha. The batch sizes would be 30 students and would follow the same schedule as is followed in the super 30.

Opportunities available for students at Anee’s School

Commenting on the launch of the project, Mr. Adit Goel, Managing Director, Anee’s Group of Schools, said, “While we have produced numerous CBSE boards toppers in the last 20 years, we aim to continue the trend by producing top ranks in the competitive examinations. With our ‘students first’ approach, our competitive batches will allow our students to have a guided study under the guidance of highly skilled experts.”

Moreover, Anee’s School has also tied up with the best sports academies in the country so that extracurriculars are given equal importance. The school has one of the best infrastructures in the Chandigarh Tri-City with highlights such as AC Classrooms, 600-seater state of the art auditorium, Half Olympic Swimming Pool, Indoor wooden Badminton Courts, Computer Labs by Apple, Atal Tinkering Lab, Football and Cricket grounds. The tie-ups include Harbhajan Singh Institute of Cricket, Padukone Sports Management, Swimlabs by Chahat, Minerva Club for Football, Velocity skating club and more. A scholarship test will also be conducted by the school to ensure that deserving students with financial constraints get a chance to compete in the top exams in the country. The school also boasts of being selected from over 40,000 schools by the Government of India to cater to 40 meritorious students from classes 9 to 12 selected through all India entrance exams conducted by the National Testing Agency, Govt of India. The school has given some of the best results in the region, with over 150+ selections in IIT and 200+ selections in various MBBS colleges.

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post Mr. Shaani Sinha of CSRL Super 30s joined Anee’s School for JEE/NEET appeared first on Republic News Today.

Klub, India’s leading Revenue Based Financing platform, today announced that it has partnered with Oxyzo Financial Services Private Limited, a tech-enabled smart financing solution provider, to disburse ₹100 crores to support digital SMEs. The ₹100 crores fund will be deployed to enable SME-lending across India to provide fast, founder-friendly, and flexible funding.

Oxyzo is a tech-enabled company with a deep understanding of SMEs’ business needs. Aiming to transform small and medium enterprises into large, the company offers credit solutions that are customised to help SMEs expand their operations, increase revenue, and improve their profit margins. Oxyzo, which became a Unicorn earlier this year, has grown to an AUM of $350 million with a 100% Y-o-Y growth and wants to focus on the new age segment along with traditional lending and has partnered with Klub for the same. The company has cumulatively disbursed over $2.6 billion across 40,000+ nodes.

Prashant Roy Sharma, Head – Capital Markets & Structured Finance, Oxyzo said, “Oxyzo has always believed in partnering with companies that are constantly looking to help scale small and medium enterprises into large companies and Klub’s vision perfectly aligns with the same. With this fund, we together aim to provide flexible working capital to 250+ SMEs across stages. We are pleased to partner with Klub as this partnership will further increase our coverage of merchants in the market and offer new-age digital products to our existing customers.”

Through this partnership, digital SMEs will be able to avail of Revenue Based Financing of upto ₹3 Crores through the Klub platform. Klub provides SMEs with scalable capital and has completed 450+ investment rounds for its SME partners as they scale. The company’s investment platform combines financial product innovation, deep data-driven analytics, high-frequency collections, and community engagement.

Sudharsan Venkatkrishnan, Vice President, Klub, said “We are delighted to partner with Oxyzo as this will deepen the range of capital offerings to SMEs on our platform. Integrated deeply with Klub, this partnership is a small dent in a larger market that we envisage. We are on track to facilitate ₹1000 crores of disbursements this year and our partnership with Oxyzo further strengthens our ability in the right direction.”

Klub aims to deliver not just a platform-based approach but also to take these capital offerings to our embedded capital partners and offer more options to brands. The company is now on the path to providing capital solutions at scale via every platform that supports digital SMEs. To know more, visit www.klubworks.com

About Oxyzo

Oxyzo Financial Services is a tech-enabled smart financing platform which provides cash flow based working capital financing solutions to SMEs, Mid Corporates in the traditional and emerging new age sectors of the economy. The Company has done cumulative disbursements of US$ 2.6 Bn across 40K+ nodes to date and leveraged this data warehouse to build a differentiated tech-enabled supply chain and embedded finance marketplace that aims to solve the broader under penetration of formal credit in India’s broader economy. Oxyzo has an AUM of US$ 360 Mn and is rated A+ by ICRA and CARE. Oxyzo recently announced its $200mn Series A raise led by Alpha Wave and co-led by Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and Creation Investments.

About Klub

Klub, India’s leading Revenue Based Financing platform, provides flexible funding up to Rs. 30 crores to digital businesses and SMEs with recurring revenues. Based out of Bangalore, the company in partnership with leading NBFCs, HNIs, Financial Institutions, and its own SEBI registered fund provides growth capital to digital businesses. Klub offers different capital structures for businesses across all stages (early, growth & late) for recurring marketing, inventory, and Capex expenses. The company has deployed more than 450 investment rounds enabling growth for 250+ brands across India to date. Klub raised $20 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, US-based Alter Global, Japan-based GMO Venture Partners and 9Unicorns in 2021. For more information, visit www.klubworks.com

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post Klub joins hands with Oxyzo to facilitate ₹100 Cr to digital SMEs pan India appeared first on Republic News Today.

June 2: The paparazzi just informed there is a new red carpet in town. QuinDara is surely up to their next event. Making headlines for their grand events like wedding, international conferences and award shows. Now QuinDara is all set to create magic with QuinDara’s CEO Rohit Sharma’s grand birthday event at Barrel & co. QuinDara has always made sure to make their events as customised as possible and now they take over a new milestones by making this grand birthday event a magnificent one! Sharma, who is known for his noticeable style and a flamboyant lifestyle has surely got the town looking out for his much awaited birthday celebration. From an exclusive guest list to the theme, bottomless bar, memorable program line up and captivating glamour, team QuinDara is thrilled to make people almost reach for their sunglasses at night from all the glitter that will be witnessed tonight. Like always, the event company has got everything covered and so much for the guests to discover. The team has been making sure that every event executed is as professional and impeccable as possible. QuinDara is taking over the town yet again and this time for the magician himself. Painting Mumbai black and bling. The weekend is here to stay and so is Rohit Sharma’s unforgettable and exclusive event.

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post Rohit Sharma painting the town Red, with QuinDara events getting their bling game on point! appeared first on Republic News Today.

June 2: The 9^th Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Award was presented at ISKCON temple auditorium Juhu, Mumbai on 27/May/2022.

The award was given by the Great music director Anu Malik and Padma Bhushan great singer Udit Narayan. Actor CHUNKY PANDEY and MLA Bhartiya Lavekar were also present on this occasion.

The awardees were:

• Sarangi Maestro Ustad Kamal Sabri ji
• Alpesh shah DCM (Digital media and PR agency ) digital media partner.
• Padmashree Dr Kalpana Saroj ji,
• Film actor chanky pandey,
• Comedian Sunil Pall ji,
• MLA Bhartiya Lavekar
• Budhanjali Director Kailash Masum,
• Film Producer Nukul Mehta,
• Hulgesh Chalwadi BSP Maharashtra Incharge,
• Film actress pentali sen,
• Dr Hashim Ali,
• Social Activist/thinker Kamlesh Gautam Ravi UP
• Actress Mini Bansal
• Kanhaiya Salunke IMA President,
• Rajesh Salunke VV Sena,
• Dr Monali Thackeray,
• Film Director Prakash Allhabadi,
• PRO Abdul Qadir,
• Bollywood Photographer Kadir karnalkar,
• Film Actress Mini Bansal,
• Film Actress Pallavi Singh,
• Film Actress Siya Patil,
• Indian Classical Vocalist Pandit Anand Thakore,
• Bollywood actress Diveyaa dwivedi,
• Satara Safai Mazdoor Congress President Suraj Solanki,
• Film Creative Producer Akash Saini,
• Umar Hashim Ali,
• Ganesh Chauhan,
• Nilesh salunke,
• Ankit salunke,
• Praniti Rile,
• Jolly Parmar
• Prmod Khatrri
• Vikrant
• DOP Ashok Sharma

The audiences were well entertained by Comedian Sunil Pal. Sarangi Maestro Ustad Kamal Sabri ji showered his melodious drops of music on the show. It was an all inclusive entertaining and educational event where all the felicitators and the awardees were proud of each other’s achievements.

The organisers and the awardees expressed their special thanks to Mr S.SUDARSHAN Co-founder of SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT & WOMEN EMPOWERMENT  ORG AND  INDIAN MARTIAL ART for organizing such a wonderful event and recognizing real talentfrom various industries and honouring them with the prestigious award.

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post 9th Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Award took place with musical and hilarious pomp and show! appeared first on Republic News Today.

June 2: Touchwood Entertainment Ltd. (NSE: TOUCHWOOD), the leading event management company, is delighted to announce its results for the quarter & year ended March 31, 2022.

FY22 Performance Highlights:

Touchwood delivered a solid all-round performance in FY 2021-22 despite disruptions in 1st Quarter. Total revenue for FY22 was INR 2678.09 lakhs, registering a growth of 164% compared to INR 1011.57 lakhs in the FY21. The Company recorded a profit of INR 296.12 lakhs (PBT) for the fiscal year in comparison to INR 142.48 lakhs in FY21, a growth of 107%.

EBITDA of INR 348.58 lakhs (excluding prior period items).

PAT of INR 215.73 lakhs indicating profit margin of 8%.

Q4 FY22 ended with a satisfactory performance despite partial lockdowns, Govt. imposed restrictions and uncertainty in a fragile geo-political situation. Total revenue for the quarter was INR 963.86 lakhs, a growth of 36% compared to INR 708.53 lakhs in Q4 FY21. Company reported a profit of INR 137.25 lakhs (PBT) as compared to INR 175.29 lakhs in the same quarter of previous year.

FY22 Operational Highlights:                                                                           

Launched its new platform – ‘MakeMeUp App’ that connects consumers to top notch beauty professionals, products and provides access to beauty experiences.

Released a Music Video sung by Navraj Hans & Ashish Chhabra. The video has more than 1 million views on YouTube within 3 months of the release. Music video features top names of Beauty & Social Media industry.

The MakeMeUp Web Series: A digital reality show based on makeup produced by Touchwood Entertainment Ltd. is airing on Hotstar, Hungama Play & other OTT platforms.

MakeMeUp- School of Makeup is operational at Vasant Kunj & Noida. 1st batch of MakeMeUp- School of Makeup at Vasant Kunj branch is expected to be completed soon.

Launched ‘WedAdvisor App’ on Play Store – a one stop platform to find all wedding vendors with genuine & verified ratings.

Touchwood Wedding School- Successfully completed 3 batches. 4th batch of Touchwood Wedding School is expected to be completed soon.

Revived wedding business post COVID-19. New projects were taken and completed successfully and company is growing rapidly.

Commenting on the performance, Mr. Manjit Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, said:

Despite frequent disruptions in the quarter owing to Covid wave 3 and other geo-political factors, the quarter has been satisfactory in terms of growth and profitability. The Company is well prepared and looking forward to an exciting year ahead with all its tech driven initiatives. We are gearing up to touch new horizons in FY23.

Touchwood at a Glance:

Headquartered in Delhi, Touchwood Entertainment Limited, established in 1997, specializes in a variety of event facilities, ranging from event planning & marketing to production services for the events.

Touchwood is known for its larger than life, awe-inspiring setups and formats and completely personalized service to clients. It provides end-to-end solutions for all kinds of events – be it corporate, social or political. Touchwood team is comprised of 42 professionals with a fully developed and functional in-house production facility. It has a panel of skilled craftsmen and band of highly qualified designers add the extra edge to its deliverables.

Safe Harbour:

This release contains statements that are “forward looking statements” including, but without limitation, statements relating to the implementation of strategic initiatives, and other statements relating to Touchwood’ future business developments and economic performance. While these forward-looking statements indicate our assessment and future expectations concerning the development of our business, a number of risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors could cause actual developments and results to differ materially from our expectations. These factors include, but are not limited to, general market, macro-economic, governmental and regulatory trends, movements in currency exchange and interest rates, competitive pressures, technological developments, changes in the financial conditions of third parties dealing with us, legislative developments, and other key factors that could affect our business and financial performance. Touchwood undertakes no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future / likely events or circumstances.

For more information, please contact: dinesh@touchwood.in

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post Touchwood records 164% growth in revenue for the FY 22 appeared first on Republic News Today.

Klub and Oxyzo Financial Services Private Limited are the hyperlinks in the article please carry. We want to publish this article today

Klub, India’s leading Revenue Based Financing platform, today announced that it has partnered with Oxyzo Financial Services Private Limited, a tech-enabled smart financing solution provider, to disburse ₹100 crores to support digital SMEs. The ₹100 crores fund will be deployed to enable SME-lending across India to provide fast, founder-friendly, and flexible funding.

Oxyzo is a tech-enabled company with a deep understanding of SMEs’ business needs. Aiming to transform small and medium enterprises into large, the company offers credit solutions that are customised to help SMEs expand their operations, increase revenue, and improve their profit margins. Oxyzo, which became a Unicorn earlier this year, has grown to an AUM of $350 million with a 100% Y-o-Y growth and wants to focus on the new age segment along with traditional lending and has partnered with Klub for the same. The company has cumulatively disbursed over $2.6 billion across 40,000+ nodes.

Prashant Roy Sharma, Head – Capital Markets & Structured Finance, Oxyzo said, “Oxyzo has always believed in partnering with companies that are constantly looking to help scale small and medium enterprises into large companies and Klub’s vision perfectly aligns with the same. With this fund, we together aim to provide flexible working capital to 250+ SMEs across stages. We are pleased to partner with Klub as this partnership will further increase our coverage of merchants in the market and offer new age digital products to our existing customers.”

Through this partnership, digital SMEs will be able to avail Revenue Based Financing upto ₹3 Crores through the Klub platform. Klub provides SMEs with scalable capital and has completed 450+ investment rounds for its SME partners as they scale. The company’s investment platform combines financial product innovation, deep data-driven analytics, high-frequency collections, and community engagement.

Sudharsan Venkatkrishnan, Vice President, Klub, said “We are delighted to partner with Oxyzo as this will deepen the range of capital offerings to SMEs on our platform. Integrated deeply with Klub, this partnership is a small dent in a larger market that we envisage. We are on track to facilitate ₹1000 crores of disbursements this year and our partnership with Oxyzo further strengthens our ability in the right direction.”

Klub aims to deliver not just a platform-based approach but also to take these capital offerings to our embedded capital partners and offer more options to brands. The company is now on the path to provide capital solutions at scale via every platform that supports digital SMEs. To know more, visit www.klubworks.com

About Oxyzo

Oxyzo Financial Services, a tech-enabled smart financing platform which provides cash flow based working capital financing solutions to SMEs, Mid Corporates in the traditional and emerging new age sectors of the economy. The Company has done cumulative disbursements of US$ 2.6 Bn across 40K+ nodes till date and leveraged this data warehouse to build a differentiated tech-enabled supply chain and embedded finance marketplace that aims to solve for the broader under penetration of formal credit in India’s broader economy. Oxyzo has an AUM of US$ 360 Mn and is rated A+ by ICRA and CARE. Oxyzo recently announced its $200mn Series A raise led by Alpha Wave and co-led by Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, Creation Investments.

About Klub

Klub, India’s leading Revenue Based Financing platform, provides flexible funding up to Rs. 30 crores to digital businesses and SMEs with recurring revenues. Based out of Bangalore, the company in partnership with leading NBFCs, HNIs, Financial Institutions, and its own SEBI registered fund provides growth capital to digital businesses. Klub offers different capital structures for businesses across all stages (early, growth & late) for recurring marketing, inventory, and capex expenses. The company has deployed more than 450 investment rounds enabling growth for 250+ brands across India to date. Klub raised $20 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, US-based Alter Global, Japan-based GMO Venture Partners and 9Unicorns in 2021. For more information, visit www.klubworks.com

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post Klub joins hands with Oxyzo to facilitate ₹100 crores to digital SMEs across India appeared first on Republic News Today.

Virtual cities designed as part of the course

Dezact, UK together with LAC, China, Design Futures Foundation, USA & Avani Institute, India are organizing a series of online courses for designing cities in the virtual world

London (UK), June 2: A unique 3 week long online course has been launched for design students in Asia which is focused on designing cities and entertainment venues in the metaverse. Dezact, UK,  in collaboration with LAC, China, Design Futures Foundation (DFF), USA & Avani Institute of Design, India, has launched the online course titled ‘MetaPlay 2.0’ to promote the potential and viability of emerging technologies like parametric design & modeling tools, and augmented reality/ virtual reality tools.

MetaPlay is set to be a micro design studio equipping the participants with actionable digital and parametric modeling skills and exposure to the game engines and CGI tools within the AEC industry. The workshop will explore the concept of multi-dimensional spaces and experiences in architecture. MetaPlay 2.0 continues the research for designing future social and leisure experiences in virtual environments and extends the scope of research exploring time as a dimension with a focus on spatial transformability and programmable matters. The workshop will also explore a variety of other topics such as potential changes of architectural design process, material organization, tectonics, spatial experiences and public perception of a built environment as part of a design project. MetaPlay 2.0 aims at investigating the changing mode of architectural production using disrupted technologies such as AI, generative design, automation, and augmented reality / virtual reality tools to explore and rethink built environment design that is digitally conceived and experienced. This is the second course in a series of international courses that are going to be conducted over the duration of this year.

At MetaPlay, participants will learn hands-on skills on digital world-building directly from industry experts. The list of the instructors includes names like Akshay Goyal (Founder of Tron Labs and Partner at Architron Group), Ping-Hsiang Chen (Senior Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects), Dimitar Pouchnikov (HOK Architects), Cherylene M. Shangpliang (Designer at Zaha Hadid Architects, London), Zehao Qin (Design Systems Analyst in Applied Research + Development (ARD) group at Foster + Partners, London) and Jiahao Syu (Foster and Partners). In addition, at the end of the 6-day workshop, students are expected to design and build architectural scale projects within a virtual environment. Students from multiple countries are slated to join this global design workshop and by participating in the course, the students will not only receive a behind the scenes exposure of how to create entertainment venues for metaverse and crypto futures but will also be certified as Metaverse Designers. 

Ping-Hsiang Chen, Director and Co Founder of Dezact London said “Creative industries such as architecture and design involve a core process based in iterating hundreds of ideas before presenting a final idea in front of a client. In the end this version may not be understood correctly due to limited graphical capabilities of the designer or lack of technical awareness of a client. Metaverse is a great platform for such design ideas to be experienced and opens up wider opportunities for projects that have great social, economic and functional potential. Metaverse not only helps the creative industry to grow, but at the same time the effort designers put into projects can potentially be compensated in unique and creative ways. In this context MetaPlay workshop series aims to address future spatial design and engagement in conjunction with psychological aspects of a human and experiences in a new type of virtual space.”

As the founders of LAC, Jeffery Lee explains, “The world is witnessing a new wave of metaverse with the breakthroughs and innovations in internet and hardware technology. Technologies such as NFT, virtual spaces, metaverse platforms and AR and VR are increasingly being promoted by the Chinese government, internet giants and advanced architecture firms coincidentally. Together with DEZACT, DFF and Avani Institute of Design, LAC ‘Meta Play’ online workshop brings such future opportunities for Chinese students to explore in this domain from an international perspective.”

Talking about this unique workshop, Akshay Goyal, the Co Founder of Design Future Foundation (DFF) and Dezact, shares, “Post Covid, the Web 3.0 revolution has triggered an immense interest in smart contracts, virtual metaverse platforms and all things NFT. Over the next decade, people will seek more and more immersive virtual experiences, pushing consumers and brands into the Metaverse. Early pioneers include platforms like Sandbox and decentraland and the course expects to trigger this conversation with the virtual designers and developers of this future.”

DEZACT is a London based organization created to speculate and investigate the changing modes of conception, production and consumption of urban space in the post digital era. It operates at the disciplinary intersection of art, architecture, new media and urban studies. It brings together artists, designers and educators to participate in a forward-looking debate on the position of technology in art, architecture and culture.

LAC (Linking Academy Creation) is a design organization founded in 2014 in Shanghai, China, with branches in Beijing, Hangzhou and Wuhan. It has expertise in developing and connecting educational resources in the fields of architecture, landscape and interaction design. It aims to be the leading international platform for design education, academic exchange and design practice.

Design Future Foundation (DFF) is a non-profit organization that believes in the potential of design in solving global problems and creating a massive impact in our rapidly changing world. Operating at the intersection of design & emerging technology, DFF engages with organisations, academia and professionals to explore the impact of design beyond its bracketed boundaries.

Now, Dezact, UK has tied hands with LAC, China, DFF, USA & Avani Institute of Design, India, on a mission to assist developers and architects in the journey into the Metaverse of the future.

For More information: https://www.dezact.org/metaplay2

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designfuturesfoundation

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post Metaverse design international program launched in Asia appeared first on Republic News Today.

Named after the Greek God of Wealth, plutos ONE is a one-stop platform for bank customers to manage all their commerce needs.

 New Delhi (India), June 2:

Banking in India

India boasts the second-largest banked population and one of the most dynamic and advanced fintech sectors in the world. Those achievements seem at odds with the fact that fewer than 3% of Indians have a credit card and fewer than 25% have ever made a digital transaction. Part of the responsibility rests with the banks. Stuck between restrictive mandates and an emphasis on short-term profitability, Indian banks are unable to provide their customers the services they need. There are 31 credit card issuers and 304 banks on the UPI network, but since there are more than 2000 banks in India, most Indians have their Savings Accounts with banks that don’t issue credit cards, don’t offer UPI payments and don’t have any digital offering.

Fintech startups, in turn, tend to focus on acquiring customers at the top of the wealth pyramid. The calculation here is that the Lifetime Value (LTV) of such customers justifies the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) but below a certain threshold the spend on acquisition may not be worth it. The end result is that services accrue to those of us in Tier 1 cities but are unavailable to customers in smaller cities.

“When we looked at this situation,” says plutos ONE Co-founder, Rajjat Gulati, “we realized that the problem wasn’t one of acquisition but of access. After all, with more than 80% of India’s adult population having savings accounts, acquisition has, effectively, already been done once. Any fresh acquisition would be inefficient and expensive.”

The plutos ONE Solution

What’s missing, he explains, is access for the banks and their customers to solutions that are already available to the more digitally privileged consumers. This is where plutos ONE comes in. At one end, plutos ONE aggregates Banking Commerce providers. At the other end, plutos ONE uses these services to provide banks with increased engagement and monetization of their customers. The end result is a platform that complements the bank’s offering and provides users with a one-stop-shop for all their digital financial needs.

Gulati explains, “Every bank we meet has similar aspirations. They want to be able to offer their customers commonly-used services like bill payments, recharges, and banking commerce. This not only keeps their customers from using, and being poached by, D2C fintech platforms but it also increases the per-customer monetization for the bank by keeping all transactions within their systems.”

Banks’ Approach to Digital

The larger banks have taken different approaches to providing their customers with more digital services.

Some are embedding services within their own mobile apps or launching secondary apps to offer non-core-banking services. ICICI and HDFC with their multiple apps, Bank of Baroda’s BOB World and SBI’s YONO platform come to mind. Some banks engage third-parties to manage their digital platforms. HDFC SmartBuy is one such example. The most technologically advanced banks have tied up with neobanks that create digital-only banking interfaces. But all of these approaches are limited in the number of banks and, consequently, the number of people they can reach, the founders of plutos ONE believe. “There are, perhaps, 10 banks that have the technology to support neobanks,” Gulati says. “Another 15 banks that can create decent apps. What about the next 500 banks? Or the 1000 banks after those? None of them have the money or scale or product wherewithal or technological prowess to make banking commerce and other digital services available to their customers. But we do.”

The plutos ONE Model

The founders knew early on that their objective of Banking-Commerce-for-All dictated how their platform would manifest. For one, they could not invest the time or money to offer all the services themselves.

Instead, plutos ONE depends on third-parties to deliver the actual services. This allows the platform to not just curate the most robust services on the platform but also allows newer services to be integrated quickly.

They couldn’t afford to create custom solutions for each bank they tied up with. With many years of working with banks, the founders knew that those conversations tend to get drawn out across many years. Instead, they created a standalone platform. And they offer it to banks as an engagement solution.

Gulati says, “We have engagement programs for credit cards wherein we incentivize new card issues, card activations, regular monthly usage as well as increasing the average spend per user. We have similar programs for debit cards, we help reactivate inactive accounts, and we help banks monetize their bill payment APIs. And we do this all for free. What’s not to love?” He adds, “Banks also appreciate that we don’t offer competing services, don’t need any tech integration, and don’t ask for user data. These characteristics were vital to our design so that we could offer the same level of service to the customers of the smallest cooperative banks as to those of the largest PSUs and could execute quickly.”

The Road Ahead

plutos ONE’s immediate goal is to bring on board as many banks on to the platform as they can. Gulati says they have a target of signing 200 banks – mostly Cooperative Banks – over the next 18 months.

Advanced discussions are currently underway with nearly a dozen banks, including some large PSUs. In terms of services the platform will see Bill Payments go live in March and Banking Commerce, including general e-tailing, travel and online pharmacies, immediately after. These, the founders believe, are the most effective at generating trials for digital platforms. The plan is to add many more services, but getting credit in the hands of their women customers is the highest priority for Rohit and Rajjat. They believe that with credit comes financial agency and with financial agency comes financial value-creation.

Contact: rajjat@plutos.one +91 99106 29998 (Co-founder) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajjatgulati/

About Post Author

RNT Reporter

dhaval.rntoday@gmail.com

https://republicnewstoday.com

The post plutos ONE – How two founders are unlocking value in Middle India by sharing the customer relationship with banks appeared first on Republic News Today.