Truecaller appoints Jijendran Ravindran as Vice President of Global Business Development

Truecaller announced the appointment of Jijendran Ravindran as Vice President of Global Business Development. Jijendran joins Truecaller from Xiaomi, where he was the Associate Director and Lead for MIUI India. He was responsible for managing and driving the overall business strategy for the brand. His work involved customisation of apps for India, app promotion, portfolio growth, managing partnerships & revenue across the MIUI properties and handling a large team of talents.

Jijendran has extensive experience of working across varied sectors spanning telecom operators, smartphone brands & Start-ups. His rich experience of over 16 years includes new partnerships, strategy, business development, operations, marketing, advertising & customer insights.

Jijendran will lead the business development function and will report to Kari Krishnamurthy, Chief Commercial Officer. Jijendran will be working towards expanding business and growth across markets. He brings to the table an innate knack for understanding consumers, a bias for action and people development experience. Prior to Xiaomi, Jijendran was heading app partnership for Micromax in India, Sri Lanka, Russia & Bangladesh. He has also been associated with Airtel and Vodafone in the past.

Welcoming Jijendran, Kari Krishnamurthy, Chief Commercial Officer, Truecaller, stated: 

“I am excited to have JJ on board. And I am confident that he will push our ambitions of having Truecaller in every connected device globally. His extensive experience and accomplishments in his recent past stints will definitely take our efforts to another level.”

Jijendran Ravindran, Vice President – Brand Development at Truecaller, added: 

“I feel both honoured and humbled on being appointed by Truecaller. I firmly believe in Truecaller’s mission and it has been a service I have relied on myself for many years now. I’m also excited about the journey ahead. Truecaller has become an integral part of hundreds of millions of consumers across the world and I look forward to taking up this challenging and exciting new role to create long term sustainable value for all stakeholders in the company.”

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LG Electronics supports fight against covid 19 by donating two advance Ambulances to Kailash Hospital

 LG Electronics, India’s leading consumer durable brand today contributed two Advance Life Support Ambulances to Kailash Hospital, Greater Noida as a part of their pledge to support India’s preparation for the third wave of Coronavirus.  LG’s CSR initiative is a part of their brand philosophy of making Life’s Good for people. With this contribution LG Electronics is looking forward to strengthen medical infrastructure.

 

To assist the medical system to prepare for the third wave of Coronavirus, LG is collaborating with various State Governments and NGO’s by contributing medical equipment and also supporting various hospitals across India. LG Electronics is supporting 21 hospitals across the country to strengthen the medical infrastructure by setting up dedicated wards for Covid-19 units and aiding them with the intensive care that they require.

 

Speaking of the initiative Young Lak Kim, MD- LG Electronics India said, 

“The contribution of the Advanced Life Support ambulances to Kailash hospital is another step by us to aid the community and support them for unforeseen situations in the future. In the last 24 years, we have been committed to our pledge to support the nation through various social initiatives. We will continue to focus our efforts on providing support to the Government and Citizens in this fight against the Coronavirus.”

 Earlier this year, LG had pledged support for $5.5 million to fight against covid and in help 10 makeshift hospitals across India. 

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Post Office Studios partners with NOMINT, a UK-based production company to accelerate growth of the animation industry beyond Indian shores

In a massive leap for India’s animation industry, Mumbai-based Post Office Studios has partnered with NOMINT, a production company based in London. The remarkable collaboration will witness NOMINT represent the Post Office Studios in the UK and the USA markets as well as the expansion of Post Office’s international presence, thus marking a prodigious development in the Indian animation industry. 

The goal of the move is to merge the creative power of both parties and build a smooth mechanism that enables collaborations with some of the largest brands in the world, propelled by novel narratives and experienced storytelling. 

With the overall development of the M&E sector, the Indian animation industry has evolved sufficiently, although still deemed relatively younger than its American or European counterparts. However, the partnership opens up new avenues overseas as Post Office will be represented in the European and American markets, thus strengthening the foothold of the country’s animation industry at an international level. 

The advantage of animation lies in thoroughly incorporating cultural relevance while catering to local tastes; yet remaining culturally multivocal when dubbed in regional languages of the world. Due to this and the rise of digital media, not only has animation reached the Indian diaspora but also the mainstream global market.  

Aditya Tawde, CCO and Co-Founder of Post Office Studios, says,

“We are delighted to partner with NOMINT and help expand India’s global footprint in the animation industry. The partnership will bring with it innovation and diversity that will facilitate a successful cross-cultural collaboration and usher creators into new markets previously unavailable to them. With our combined expertise and talent, we aim to break creative boundaries and deliver new projects together.”

Marilena Vatseri - Managing Director of NOMINT said,

“I am really excited to announce that the prominent animation studio, Post Office, has signed with NOMINT for representation in the USA and Europe. Post Office is one of the leading animation studios in the super exciting, bustling Mumbai animation scene. With a focus on high-end 2D and 3D, the animation studio is also celebrated for mixing styles and creating beautiful mixed media films. We have already been working with the team for the past year, and I am thrilled to show you the wonderful projects we have been collaborating on very soon!”

With the peak of OTT and content creation, studios have begun experimenting with a spectrum of ideas and thrive internationally. As the shrinking world gives a vast opportunity for animation companies to marry creative minds to work across multiple platforms, the association between Post Office Studios and NOMINT essentially seeks to accomplish that and flourish around the world. 

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Partners Group to acquire leading Indian wired broadband service provider, Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT)

 Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, has agreed, on behalf of its clients, to acquire Atria Convergence Technologies ("ACT" or "the Company"), one of India's largest providers of high-speed fiber-optic broadband, from Argan (Mauritius) Limited and TA Associates. Partners Group, which has been a joint investor in ACT since 2016, will acquire a controlling stake in a transaction that values the Company at an enterprise value of nearly USD 1.2 billion.

Headquartered in Bangalore with over 7,000 employees, ACT is a leading multi-service operator offering a package of internet, TV, data, and other broadband services. The Company serves around 2 million wired broadband subscribers across 19 cities in India and has one of the largest fiber networks in the country, capable of delivering connection speed of up to 1 Gbps. ACT has high customer retention rates and delivers reliable broadband, strong uptime, and quality customer service. The Company is well-positioned to benefit from rapidly rising data consumption in India, which has been accelerated by new working and learning from home trends since COVID-19. Partners Group will work closely with ACT management and TA Associates, which will continue to hold a minority stake, on a value creation plan to support the Company's ongoing growth and contribution to the Digital India mission.

Manas Tandon, Managing Director, Private Equity, Partners Group, says: "ACT is on the frontline of digitization in India, providing fast, reliable broadband to millions of homes in the country. The Company is an excellent opportunity for us to support the transformation of a growing business through expansion into new markets and development of new product offerings. As existing investors, we have followed ACT's journey for several years and have been impressed with Bala and his team's strategic vision, and their commitment to customer satisfaction, which converges with our focus on operational excellence."

Bala Malladi, Chief Executive Officer, Atria Convergence Technologies, comments: "ACT has been a pioneer in the fixed broadband industry with its relentless focus on creating a culture of technological excellence, as well as employee and customer centricity. The Company has been at the forefront of facilitating working from home and learning from home during the pandemic and believes in supporting the Digital India mission significantly. Partners Group has been an integral part of the Company’s growth journey for several years and is a great believer and supporter of our core values. The firm's experience working with global technology companies and its expertise in supporting multi-dimensional growth will be very valuable."

Vageesh Gupta, Member of Management, Partners Group, adds: "Data consumption in India is booming yet our thematic research shows the wired broadband market is supply constrained with the country continuing to have amongst the lowest fiber-to-the-home penetration in the world. We are delighted that Bala and his team have chosen to partner with us as we work together to implement a value creation plan that will focus on expanding ACT's share in new geographies and customer segments."

Partners Group's other investments in India include Vishal Mega Mart, franchisor of the Vishal Mega Mart brand and wholesale supplier to Vishal-branded hypermarket stores; Aavas Financiers, provider of housing loans to low and middle income customers; and Ecom Express, a leading provider of logistics solutions to the Indian e-commerce industry. ACT is Partners Group’s third investment in the telecom space this year after Unity Digital, a telecom tower platform in the Philippines, and Eolo, Italy's leading fixed wireless access broadband provider.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance by the relevant merger control authorities.

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Picsart celebrates India's 75th Independence day adding regional elements for its diverse audience in the country

 Picsart, the leading creative platform celebrates Indian Independence and language diversity by adding two more regional languages to the earlier existing two, Hindi and Bengali. With this, the app covers the major languages of the regions in India. 

Independence Day celebrates the sacrifices of the freedom fighters who fought the colonial occupation to give India Independence. Since independence, India has been a democratic and diverse nation striving towards further greatness and prosperity. Picsart with its India-centric features aims to give the country’s millennial population an opportunity to express this diversity in the most creative way possible.

To make Independence Day extra special, Picsart has also further introduced four new Indian text fonts, Indian music, and exciting stickers and replays that will allow users to create special content to portray their love for India. Picsart seeks to empower Indians to express themselves to create content using the special range of filters, replays, stickers and fonts available in the app.

“75th Independence Day is both special and emotional for all Indians. It reminds us of the sacrifices many made to get us here. Picsart is proud to be a part of the celebration and celebrates it by introducing two new languages Marathi and Tamil in the app alongside the existing languages of Hindi and Bengali. In doing so, Picsart aims to reach the local communities to help encourage them to create content in major Indian languages and share with the world”, said Ravish Jain, Country head at Picsart, India.

Picsart is free to download for Apple, Android, and Windows and can also be accessed on the web. Picsart Gold is available on a monthly or annual subscription basis for those wishing to enjoy premium editing. With Picsart Gold, subscribers have access to millions of stickers, hundreds of fonts, frames, and backgrounds, and an entire library of free-to-edit content and stock photography.

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