MSRcosmos group launches Farms IQ to empower the agricultural supply chain with cutting edge technology

MUMBAI, 29 NOVEMBER, 2022 (TGN): MSRcosmos, an enterprise IT services company providing world class software solutions & services to leading organizations across the globe launches Farms IQ, a robust digital system for the agricultural supply chain that can help increase productivity while enhancing business value for agriculture and farm brands. Farms IQ will serve as a subsidiary of the MSRcosmos group of companies. 

The new venture will aid in combating counterfeit activity, tracking product inventory, strengthening customer loyalty and engagement for brands and businesses in the agricultural sector. Farms IQ shall make use of Track & Trace technology to enhance traceability with blockchain-enabled QR codes and provide cost-efficient delivery of products, track their real-time consumption patterns, enhance traceability and facilitate automation. This will not just include anti-Counterfeit measures but also contribute towards the overall strengthening of the agricultural business. 

Farms IQ will also be offering rewards and loyalty ecosystems for brands to incentivize the retailer or consumer directly thus being able to maximize their ROI and accelerate customer growth. It will leverage Artificial Intelligence to offer a dashboard of performance report, sales tracking and end-customer registration to streamline workflow for businesses. 

Asset Digitization solutions under Farms IQ will allow smooth trading and ownership of asset transfers as a digital copy of each asset can be generated on a blockchain-powered network, driving transparency and efficiency at every level of operation. 

Farms IQ  will provide technology that can be used to significantly boost business value, ensure sustainability, lower carbon footprints, create profitable business models, and gain strategic advantages for businesses in the agricultural field. Businesses can experience reduced costs, create a secure environment, enhance further business prospects, reduce fraud, and improve customer retention and loyalty. 

Mr. Balaji Kandregula Sr.Director Products and Solutions at MSRcosmos, said, “Agriculture is a big part of the Indian economy or rather any economy because it helps feed the entire population. It engages and collaborates with all industry sectors. A society is typically seen as strong and stable if it has a solid agricultural foundation. Through this new offering, we seek to enhance the system as well as increase the efficiency of the agro supply chain. Our goal is to provide agricultural industry players with solutions that promote sustainability, transparency, and business value.” Ends

MSRvantage offers Serialization Systems in pharmaceutical packaging to combat counterfeiting

Mumbai, 28th November, 2022 (TGN): MSRvantage, IT Services subsidiary of MSRcosmos Group, U.S.-based multinational conglomerate enables blockchain based product serialization solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. This offering aims at enhancing security for medicine brands and consumers both by providing a complete and transparent overview of the products’ journey to fight fraud and counterfeit.

“With our next gen blockchain solution and pharma services experience, companies can make their brand name synonymous with trust and authentic medicines.” Said Mr. Balaji Kandregula, Vice President, MSRvantage. In the past, the industry has witnessed pharmaceutical products lose out to market-circulating bogus goods and treatments. Companies have long battled to remove them from the market in order to protect potential and crucial patients. Not only is a brand's image and reputation at risk, but it's also possible that one of the raw materials used to create a specific product does not meet industry standards, necessitating the recall of all the medicines. To limit loss and ensure that faulty products don’t reach the final consumer, these issues must be handled quickly and properly.

“The step was to implement pharma product serialization. It’s a method in which product packaging are assigned a unique code. The code is defined according to the country’s regulation and follows the industry standard.” said Mr. Kandregula. For further protection and safety, the code is visible on both the primary and secondary packaging of the products. Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) are implemented effectively and efficiently since pharmaceutical companies have a long list of laws and regulations to check off and to ensure that risk is reduced. They must ensure that the funds and resources are utilized effectively. All network participants may see where and in what condition the merchandise is because blockchain provides information over a shared network with distributed systems.

Because each product has a unique serial number, it is simple to trace them. This implies that faulty products may be quickly recalled and false products can be quickly removed from the market. A product's manufacturing process, location in the supply chain, and delivery status can all be fully transparent through. The solutions from MSRvantage offer real-time data traceability based on 24-hour tracking.

Blockchain-based smart contracts ensure that there are no middlemen, which restricts the ability of phony goods to enter the market. By connecting operations with identification labeling and authentication systems, blockchain also offers protection.

More information on product serialization offerings and other solutions by MSRvantage is available here.

RELIANCE RETAIL NOT LIFTED GOOD FOR AROUND 8 MONTHS IN SPITE OF MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN RELIANCE RETAIL, FUTURE GROUP & VENDORS: GOODS WORTH Rs. 500 CRORE INVOLVED

FUTURE GROUP’S MSME VENDORS IN JEOPARDY ALONG WITH ONE LAKH WORKERS AS PAYMENTS NOT RECEIVED FOR LAST 3 YEARS

 MSME GARMENT VENDORS WILL GATHER TO MAKE DESPERATE PLEA TO LIFT UP READY INVENTORY ON 14TH NOVEMBER 2022 AT RELIANCE RETAIL HEAD OFFICE

 NO CLEAR ASSURANCE FROM FUTURE GROUP DURING VENDOR’S AGITATION HELD ON 11TH NOVEMBER,2022 AT THEIR HEAD OFFICE

MUMBAI, 14th NOVEMBER, 2022 (TGN): Future Group Vendors United (FGVU) is an association of more than 300 MSME vendors supplying garment and fashion accessories to all Future Group companies namely Future Enterprises Ltd / Future Retail Ltd / Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd / Future Speciality Retail Ltd.

Mr. Piyush Shah, Co-Founder & Member of Future Group Vendors United stated that the future of vendors and around one lakh workers was in jeopardy. & dire state as no payments received from Future Group for more than 3 years and ready goods of around Rs. 500 Crore lying to be lifted. The vendors of FGVU had a gathering of more than 100 vendors at Future Group’s head office in jogeshwari to meet Mr.Kishore Biyani on 7th November, 2022. Mr. Biyani called us on 11th November, when we met under strict police bandobast. He heard us but no clear reply or the solution was given by him.

In view of above situation, the vendors have decided to gather outside Reliance Retail head office at Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai on 14th November, 2022 at 11 AM for making desperate plea to lift the ready inventory. Vendors from across the country, viz. Tirupur, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan etc. have been camping in Mumbai, will join the gathering.

We had two points agenda, while meeting Mr. Kishore Biyani, though nothing came out from the meeting.

1) Recovery of our outstanding in all Future Group companies pending since over 3 years.

2) The goods which we had made under the tripartite arrangement between Future Enterprises Ltd / Reliance Retail Ltd / Vendors lying with us since last 8 months.

Post pandemic when Future group was in a bad shape financially and when we all vendors had stopped supplying goods to Future Group companies as old outstanding was already pending and had no clarity regarding the payments, then Reliance Retail Ltd came in support of Future Group.

A mutual arrangement was arrived at where we vendors used to bill goods to Future Enterprises Ltd and ship to Reliance Retail Ltd and payments for the same were done by Reliance Retail Ltd directly to the vendors.

Since the vendors were also exhausted financially, so this mutual arrangement was structured in this manner where Reliance used to pay 25% of PO value in advance and balance within 10 days of GRN(Goods Received Note) at Reliance Retail Ltd warehouse.

This continued for 6 months after which the payment terms were revised to 45 days post GRN and this arrangement was supposed to last till 31-03-2022 and we received payments duly till February 2022

Then suddenly came a time when since January 2022, when Reliance Retail stopped lifting the goods for which orders were already placed to us by the sourcing team of Future Group along with the PO copies . Thus, the vendors and around one lakh workers’ future were jeopardised, leaving them in mid-sea on their own with a backlog of inventory and payment and nowhere to go.

There was no information about anything until 27th April 2022 when we came to know that their deal was called off (Reliance – Future deal).

After a lot of request, part quantity of our goods were lifted by reliance retail Ltd in the month of July / August 2022 but a major part of our goods are still lying with us which has a value of more than 500 crore.

Most of the future group stores were acquired and their front end and back end staff were absorbed by Reliance Retail and they continue to pay the rents and salaries to them respectively

We fail to understand how reliance is paying rent and electricity of closed stores of Future Group and paying salaries to employees without any work for last more than 6 months, value of which far exceeds the amount of goods which is merely worth Rs. 500 cr.

Being Future Group vendors, we had no way to contact Reliance Retail and we do not even have a clear reply from Future Group inspite of chasing them for last 8 months .

We have approached all the institutions, associations, MSME and other government bodies to support the industry or else thousands of vendors who are MSMEs and who employ more than 1 lakh workers will be out of business and won’t survive this delay in payments and ready goods deliveries. The whole industry will see the drastic effects of unimagined magnitude & crisis for a long time if the issue of these Msme’s is not resolved.

Some desperate measures need to be taken not only in the interest of these MSME vendors & huge number of workers but also to safeguard the general interest of garment industry in the country.

For further information, please contact Mr. Piyush Shah, Co-Founder of “Future Group Vendors United” Association on +91 93244 65500.Ends

MSRvantage launches smart contracts based customer loyalty solutions for retail brands

MUMBAI, 1st NOVEMBER, 2022 (TGN): By reshaping rewards and customer loyalty programmes with the use of latest technology, MSRvantage empowers retail brands to achieve better business prospects and adapt to the shifting demands of the growing market. As a result, expenses are minimized, brand loyalty is increased, and intelligent collaboration for trustworthy business agreements is made possible.

Businesses are leading the digital transformation in today's environment. The demand for effective solutions has increased along with the development of effective technologies. In order to accelerate digitalization across all of their company promotion strategies and create an efficient loyalty programme for customers and influencers, they discover the necessity to construct a reliable technical foundation.With top-notch loyalty solutions that entice customers and strengthen value propositions with intelligent automation, this offering from MSRvantage will assist brands in maintaining their client loyalty. By directly rewarding the retailers themselves, it aids retail businesses in digitising their trade promotion strategies and decreasing their dependency on middlemen. With the help of MSRvantage's blockchain-based rewards and loyalty solution, the company can assess performance more clearly. Additionally, analytical tools and dashboards assist the business in closely observing, evaluating, and estimating the success of both the present and new schemes.

“It is critical for companies to strategically invest in cutting-edge technology like blockchain as customer-focused business strategies become the norm.” said Mr. Balaji Kandregula, Vice President, MSRvantage. He emphasised how consumers acclimated to a variety of new technologies fast during the past year, whetting their hunger for change. This also applies to loyalty programmes and how they need to be updated to accommodate members' openness to novel ideas, particularly younger members searching for innovative ways to interact with programmes online. With the aid of MSRvantage's blockchain solutions, brands can be more creative in luring customers to their incentive and loyalty programmes and ultimately to their physical locations.

For details please visit :

https://www.msrvantage.com/services/

CXOs from India make a mark at the Ironman Triathlon Challenge

MUMBAI, 31 OCTOBER, 2022 (TGN): Ram Gopal, Kartik Iyer and Amit Vasistha (CEOs, CXOs from India) recently successfully finished the much coveted Ironman70.3 triathlon in Astana, Kazakhastan, an experience for athletes all around the world.

The three corporate leaders from India that championed the cause of wellness at Ironman 70.3 were Amit Vasistha, a former investment banker, Founder and CEO of wellness startup GALF (more popularly known for their brand MyGALF.com). Ram Gopal is the current serving India CEO of leading international bank. Kartik is senior leader and a seasoned banker.

In the post covid world, holistic wellness has become a raging concern. Staying healthy and fit has become an unsaid priority for everyone. Sadly though, very few seem to be taking the real steps to transform their lives towards achieving these health goals. Not surprisingly the stress, anxiety and Heath issues like obesity, hypertension are at an all time high today, especially amongst corporate organization.

However, the situation is not all gloomy as there are corporate leaders and CXOs who are leading the cause of wellness from the front independently. Several corporate leaders have taken it upon themselves to serve as role models when it comes to giving wellness its due importance along side their corporate responsibilities and maintaining a healthy and balanced approach to work and life.Ends

Inga, TIH Singapore tie up to launch PE fund to invest in mid-size Indian cos.

G. S. Ganesh, founder of INGA

Fund with overall target of around ₹ 5 bn will follow a sector agnostic approach with positive bias towards Specialty Chemicals, FMCG, Electronics, Food & Agriculture and Healthcare/Pharma

National, 11^th October 2022 (TGN): Inga Ventures (Inga), in partnership with TIH Limited (TIH), Singapore, is launching a ₹ 1,250 mn private equity fund “Ekkum TIH Emerging Opportunities Fund” for investing in mid-size enterprises in India. The Fund has received commitment of ₹ 250 mn from the sponsors and their affiliates.

 

The Fund will infuse growth capital in mid-size emerging companies operating in niche segment with strong track record. The Fund will aim to target companies with a clear expansion and value creation plan. The initial size of the fund is targeted at ₹ 1,250 mn and the overall target is ₹ 5 bn.

 

The Fund will follow a sector agnostic approach with positive bias towards Specialty Chemicals, FMCG, Electronics, Food & Agriculture and Healthcare/Pharma.

 

Commenting on the launch, G. S. Ganesh, founder of INGA, expressed confidence in establishing a strong and sound platform for nurturing success stories. He added that with solid experience in dealing with emotions of founders, the fund will tap the best in industries and partner them in their growth journey. He further commented that the partnership with TIH brings the best combination of the strong network and long term relationship of Inga and long standing investment experience of TIH. The strength of Inga is a collective experience of over 100 years comprising its founders and key management personnel.

 

Commenting on the partnership, Allen Wang from TIH said, “We are delighted to partner with Inga, a premier and veteran corporate finance/investment banking firm in India with mid-cap segment focus. Their wide reach across the country presents great investment opportunities for us in the middle market space in corporate India. We are confident that the partnership will help both parties to expand our opportunities in a quickly expanding Indian economy – from both a direct investment and cross-board perspective.”

 

Inga has emerged as a boutique relationship investment banker (IB) with a two decades of successful track record of nurturing family enterprises to a strong listed company or navigate its exit through M&As. In all these, Inga has displayed the key traits of managing the family aspirations vis-a-vis their hesitancy to cede control.

 

With this background and strong emphasis on family grown SME business Inga Ventures has stepped in to the next and logical phase of promoting a PE fund which will invest in such opportunities.

 

About Inga Ventures

Founded by a 1st generation investment banker, Mr. G S Ganesh, Inga Ventures has been offering boutique investment banking services to Indian corporates since 1999. Inga provides a broad range of services in the areas of equity capital market, private equity, corporate advisory and merger & acquisition.

 

About TIH Singapore

TIH Limited (TIH) is an SGX-listed closed-end fund set up in 1994, and is managed by one of the most established private equity investment teams in Asia. TIH currently has two business segments – Investment Business and Fund Management. Under the former, TIH is involved in special situation investments in both public and private companies, acquisitions of secondary portfolio and non-core assets, private credit, and long term strategic private equity. Under the Fund Management segment, TIHIM, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TIH, which holds a Capital Markets Services License issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is a multi strategy investment manager with current asset under management of more than USD 1.12 billion in strategies such as special situation, public equity and private equity.

Heart2Heart Challenge for the healthy heart has kickstarted as over 700 people have already taken the challenge: JB Pharma

Mumbai (TGN): Toeing the theme of World Heart Day 2022 – ‘Cardiovascular Health for Everyone’, India is taking Heart2Heart Challenge for a healthy heart – a unique physical activity campaign to inculcate the healthy habit of checking whether one’s heart is healthy or not by climbing 4 floors (60 steps) because a study published in Rev Esp Cardiol (Engl Ed) ^[1] reveals so.

 

The study further reveals that by climbing stairs one can check one’s heart health as failing to climb 4 floors (60 steps) in one-and-a-half minutes is a sign of sub-optimal heart function.

 

By taking the Heart2Heart Challenge for Healthy Heart, one needs to climb 4 floors i.e., 40 feet in a minute, and if 726 people take this challenge, then the height of Mount Everest (29028.9 feet) in a minute can be climbed. And the height of Mount Everest has been already climbed as over 700 people have taken this challenge.

 

In the opinion of Dr Ajay Mahajan, Prof & Head of Cardiology at KEM Hospital, Mumbai, “Coronary Artery Diseases (CAD) occur in the younger population of India as compared to the western world. The average age of heart attack is 56 years & about 30% occur at the age of fewer than 40 years. This is a decade earlier than the western world. The urban & semi-urban areas have 80% of these heart attacks. Fuelling the rise of coronary artery disease is the fact that 16% worldwide diabetics reside in India making it the infamous diabetic capital of the world.”

Dr Mahajan further added, “The overall mortality of heart attacks of 13% and it is higher in women than the men. Compounding problems is the fact that sudden cardiac death occurs for 10% of are in age groups less than 40%. This leads to a loss of productivity and has a profound socioeconomic impact. A large-scale primary prevention initiative dealing with lifestyle changes of regular exercise, consumption of a balanced and healthy diet and tobacco cessation. Training of personnel in resuscitation is also needed. To spread awareness, the Heart 2 Heart campaign Healthy Heart challenge is the need of the hour.”

 

By taking the Heart2Heart Challenge – Doing it yourself (DIY), Indian youth – who are succumbing to cardiac arrest, and middle-aged people will be able to take preventive measures to resist heart risks in future. 

 

“India is anticipated to have the world's greatest number of cardiac deaths by 2030, with Cardio Vascular Deaths accounting for roughly every fourth death. High blood pressure (BP) is a common risk factor for cardiovascular disease. 42% of Indians with hypertension don't know that their blood pressure is higher than normal. Heart attack and stroke account for 85 % of CVD-related mortality. One of the leading behavioural risk factors are physical inactivity and lack of exercise. Hence, climbing stairs is one of the many forms of exercise that has been scientifically proven to be beneficial for one's heart. The stair climbing test is an easy way to check one’s heart health at no cost. The Heart2Heart campaign is an initiative that needs to be propagated in India to prevent future cardiac problems,” stated Dr Jamshed J Dalal, Director, Centre for Cardiac Sciences, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute, Mumbai.

 

JB Pharma’s initiative – Heart2Heart Healthy Heart Challenge is a unique campaign of its kind, which aims to revive some of the forgotten but essential habits to stay heart healthy. 

 

First, people have forgotten stair climbing, which JB Pharma’s initiative – Heart2Heart Healthy Heart Challenge wishes to revive through this campaign to stay heart-healthy.

 

Second, people have stopped going for preventive health checks as 75% of the Indian population never goes for diagnostic tests, which is the reason why they miss the early signs of (CVDs). But #heart2heartchallengeindia is, do it yourself (DIY) indicative assessment.

 

Third, in the campaign, the simplest methods of BP measurement (BP Right Karo) have been listed because hypertension is a ‘silent killer. But most people with hypertension are unaware of the problem because it may have no warning signs or symptoms. For this reason, blood pressure must be measured regularly. Ends