Category: launch

Wipro GE Healthcare Expands Local Manufacturing; New PLI Factory Opens

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• With an investment of over INR 100 crores, this greenfield facility is one of 15 medical device manufacturers approved under the government’s PLI Scheme towards Atmanirbhar Bharat
• As a key enabler in driving Karnataka’s commitment to underpin the growth of the ESDM industry, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) welcomes Wipro GE Healthcare’s new manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, India

Bengaluru, India – March 31st, 2022 – Wipro GE Healthcare, a leading global medical technology and digital solutions innovator, today announced the launch of its new manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, India, under the Indian government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme. The new plant, Wipro GE Medical Device Manufacturing factory (MDM), is aligned to the National Agenda of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and will further boost local manufacturing of medical devices in India. The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) is at the forefront of enabling a global ESDM ecosystem in Karnataka and has welcomed the first association of its Partner in Progress for Electronics, System, Design, and Manufacturing (ESDM) Program through the inauguration of Wipro GE Healthcare’s medical devices manufacturing plant. The plant is a 100% subsidiary of Wipro GE Healthcare and has been setup as a green field legal entity. The company has invested a little over INR100 crore in this facility.

A 35000 sq ft facility, the MDM factory is set up for 24/7 operations for manufacturing CT machines, cathlab equipment, ultrasound scanners, patient monitoring solutions, ECG machines and ventilators. It is equipped with automated testers to assess performance of the medical devices. This facility currently has 35 employees in its shopfloor which is expected to increase to 100 in next 2 to 3 years.

Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro GE Healthcare and Chairman, Wipro Enterprises, said “India is on an accelerated growth path in gaining global prominence for medical devices manufacturing. Wipro GE Healthcare’s new factory, with support from the government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, will aid the health ecosystem in India to realize its true potential in addressing local and global challenges for healthcare providers.”

Commenting on the launch, Dr. Shravan Subramanyam, Managing Director, Wipro GE Healthcare, said, “The new facility is a testament to our continued commitment to an Atmanirbhar Bharat and is a step forward in elevating India’s capability as a global manufacturing hub. We applaud the government’s initiatives towards making India self-reliant. The new draft of the National Medical Devices Policy 2022 provides further impetus towards empowering India’s healthcare ecosystem, and we at Wipro GE Healthcare are very optimistic about the future of MedTech in India.

“We congratulate Wipro GE Healthcare for its contribution towards boosting local manufacturing and generating employment in the local communities. Through our Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, we will provide continued support to the company’s efforts towards augmenting the ESDM sector and providing fillip to the region’s digital economy,” said C N Ashwath Narayan, Minister of Information Technology – Biotechnology, Higher Education, Science and Technology of Karnataka in his virtual address.

Mahesh Kapri, Managing Director, GE BEL & General Manager – ISC, South Asia, GE Healthcare, said, “The country’s import dependency for medical devices stands at 75-80%* and for India to rise the ranks as the leading MedTech devices market, local innovation & production is pivotal. We are confident that our new factory will contribute meaningfully to India’s self-reliance goal and will accelerate India’s profile on the global product development map”

Addressing those gathered at the inauguration, Dr E V Ramana Reddy, ACS, Dept of Electronics, IT BT S&T said, “Karnataka has always led the country’s technological progress. Policy initiatives at the central and state level have additionally encouraged the growth of the ESDM sector along with the growing demand for superior technology products. Industry 4.0 and the medical devices sector is heavily dependent on India’s electronics and manufacturing capabilities and creating a suitable ecosystem to foster this growth will take the nation far ahead. Initiatives such as these by Wipro GE Healthcare reflect their commitment towards making the state a pivot for innovation and growth. The industry’s acceptance of KDEM’s ESDM-led programs is a positive sign towards building the state’s IT and ESDM sector and taking it to a global platform.”

Sharing his thoughts on the inauguration of the unit, Shri B V Naidu, Chairman, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission said, “The KDEM has always strived to focus on innovation, skill development, identify and nurture talent in the start-up and ESDM space in clusters of Karnataka. We believe that the state has immense drive and hunger to learn, innovate and contribute significantly to the nation’s growth. When we launched our Partner in Progress program, the overwhelming response received by industry leaders was a reassurance to our commitment of building a strong ESDM ecosystem in Karnataka. Today’s inauguration of the new manufacturing unit of Wipro GE Healthcare, our first partner in the program is a step towards enhancing this ecosystem while building a nurturing platform for our very able capable and diverse workforce.”

Speaking on KDEM’s contribution to nurturing a strong talent pool in the ESDM space, Shri Sanjeev Gupta, CEO, KDEM said, “KDEM’s Partner in Progress for ESDM was an important step in pledging our commitment to making Karnataka a global hub for ESDM and Wipro GE Healthcare was one of the first partners in leading the charge for this. With its landmark project of a manufacturing plant for medical devices with a focus on diversity, is an important milestone in recognising the nation’s diverse talent force and their exceptional capabilities. We at KDEM are extremely happy to partner with the industry think tank to take the Beyond Bengaluru vision to the next level that will impact and ignite the next wave of development in India.”

The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission is a special entity set up to strengthen the digital economy in Karnataka. It is a first-of-its-kind organization designed to function as the knowledge bridge between the Government of Karnataka and industry with a view of accelerating the growth and investments of the ESDM, IT, BT, and S&T sectors in the state. KDEM’s efforts to scale the growth of the electronics, system, design and manufacturing (ESDM) industry has received wide acceptance from the industry. 18 large corporations have given their Letter of Intent (LoI) so far to set up operations in the state. This comes at a time when the Government of India recently announced its semiconductor policy to promote the manufacturing of semiconductor chips in the country.

The Government of Karnataka projects the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM)sector to yield more than 20% of regional GDP by 2025. The state government has been shaping its digital economy with new policies in the IT, ER&D, ESDM, and Skill Development sectors. Wipro GE Healthcare’s new facility promotes the ESDM sector in Karnataka and is in sync with the state government’s goal to build up the digital economy for the world through state-of-the-art medical devices made in India.

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Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Join Hands with Esri India for the launch of Mera Gaav, Hamara Jal Program

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Mera Gaav, Hamar Jal program aims to ensure sustainable water access and availability to rural communities across India
With the help of Amrita’s Empower Community App and Esri India’s ArcGIS Platform, villagers will be empowered to become champions to map water resources and ensure year-round access by monitoring and tracking water availability at a community level

New Delhi, 28 March 2022: To make water sustainability a reality for the communities across rural India, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Esri India jointly launched a program “Mera Gaav, Hamara Jal” that translates to “My Village, Our Water”. This program aims to transform the attitudes of community members to view water as a community resource rather than as a personal resource.

The initiative aims to empower communities to map & monitor the resources, water quality, practices prevalent in the community, livelihood activities, drainage, weather variability, and climate impacts. This extensive crowd-sourced data will provide the opportunity to derive the water sustainability challenges in each of the communities. Along with this, it will equip the local administration, community organisations, and individuals to develop strategies for water conservation, optimise water usage, develop restoration of water resources, and build awareness of short and long-term impacts. The program which is in its infancy is currently rolled out in villages in Kerala. Within a year, the program is expected to reach 1000 communities in villages across India adopted under the Amrita Serve Program.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India expressed that Esri India is privileged to partner with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham on this transformational initiative. “Mera Gaav, Hamara Jal” program will transform the way rural India looks at water sustainability. This would change the attitude of the communities as they start seeing water as ‘our resource’ rather than ‘my resource’. The program would encourage community participation as villagers themselves can collect and provide the data related to water availability, water consumption, etc. The ArcGIS system will be used to create maps and dashboards for understanding trends and patterns, and thereby enabling different stakeholders like the local administration, NGOs, and citizens to take steps for more judicious use of the scarce resource and encourage water conservation. This initiative is an excellent way to collaboratively move towards the achievement of UN SDG 6, which aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”.

Speaking at the launch of the program, Dr. P Venkat Rangan, Vice-Chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham said that “It is with great delight that we announce the launch of Mera Gaav, Hamara Jal Program in collaboration with Esri India. The initiative that translates to My Village, Our Water aims to empower villagers to become champions in ensuring water sustainability at a community level. Water sustainability is a key national priority. Being home to 18% of the global population, India possesses only 4% of water resources across the world. Through this partnership, we aim to empower villagers to map their water resources by including various aspects like sources, distribution, family wise consumption pattern and their demographic details via Amrita’s EMPOWER community app. This data will be used for mapping hotspots with respect to water sustainability which in turn will help to map the water quality. As we add one more page to Amrita’s array of activities in this regard, it gives me immense happiness to join hands with Esri India.”

Dr. Maneesha V Ramesh, UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development and Provost, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham expressed her happiness over the launch of the program and provided a demonstration of ESRI’s ArcGIS dashboard which helps to capture information regarding the water resources mapped at the village level. The interactive dashboard provides information on water sources based on location and individual household level.

The program is planned to be rolled in a phased approach. As a part of the initial phase, community members will be trained to map and monitor water resources, assess water usage and quality so that they become more water conscious. To equip our future generations to become champions, the next phase of the project would involve training school children and teachers to make them water-wise. The future phases will see holistic empowerment of all the community members including children to achieve water sustainability. By including researchers and the general public, more data patterns will be incorporated for in-depth research. By joining hands with researchers, policies and recommendations are also planned to be rolled out to the government.

Thus, the initiative Mera Gaav, Hamara Jal aims to bring in a transformational change to perceive WATER as OURs rather than MINE. By empowering community members, water-wise communities will be sprouted to achieve community-scale implementation of UN SDG 6 targets.

The program was launched during the valedictory ceremony of the International Symposium on Water Sustainability – Challenges, Technologies and Opportunities (IWSS 2022) on 24th March. The 3-day symposium from 22 to 24 March was jointly organised by UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development and School for Sustainable Development, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham on the occasion of World Water Day.

The valedictory ceremony also showcased various initiatives launched by the Amrita Live-in-Labs® program on the occasion of World Water Day. This includes the Water Day pledge by children in various communities across India to spread awareness and take initiatives directed towards water conservation. Painting competitions were also held in 25 communities to bring out the thought process of how children perceived water access and availability in their locality. The insights from the paintings will help to develop design requirements for the framework to build solutions aimed to ensure water sustainability for different communities. Prizes were awarded to 2 children who did exceptionally well in the competition.

Overall, the symposium had 26 eminent international keynote speakers from 15 universities, industry, government and non-government organisations. Some of the key institutions that participated are Kings College London, European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology PAS, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Delft University of Technology, Tel-Aviv University, Esri India, Wageningen University, the Netherlands to name a few. By focusing on six different themes, the symposium unveiled various pathways towards achieving water sustainability by adopting a community-centric approach towards conservation and revival of water resources.

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RVU Launches Centre for Visual and Performing ArtsAnnual Music Festival planned in Bengaluru in November 2022

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Bengaluru, 20th March 2022: The RV University has launched the Centre for Visual and Performing Arts to bridge the gap in conservation, performing arts and art education.

It was launched at a glittering event last evening in Bengaluru which was attended by celebrities like the Founder of Ranga Shankara, Mrs Arundhati Nag, former MP, Rajya Sabha, Mrs B Jayashree and renowned Kannada author Mr Jayant Kaikini.

In his Presidential Address, Dr M.K. Panduranga Setty, Chancellor, RV University and President Rashtreeya Sikshana Samithi Trust said, “The future workplaces of the world are looking at creativity, collaboration and communication. These are skills of artistic training. A solid foundation of knowledge and the ability to think innovatively and creatively is the aspiration of every Liberal Arts School and global economy. At RV University, we want to promote that. We remain committed not merely to academic excellence, but academic excellence with the ability to creatively solve problems, to be able to work with society and make it a more livable place”.

Outlining the plans of the Centre for Visual and Performing Arts, Dr. YSR Murthy, Vice-Chancellor, RV University said, “We have received a philanthropic grant from C. Krishniah Chetty Group of Jewelers to organise an Annual Music Festival in Bengaluru in November 2022. Subsequently, we have plans to start an annual theatre and annual dance festival. We will forge collaborations with the top cultural institutions, art and theatre schools, music sabhas, major national and international festivals, museums, and art galleries.”
Highlighting the RV University’s commitment to make this Centre a vibrant entity and organise year round activities, Vice Chancellor, RVU, Dr. Murthy said, “The Centre will host workshops, conferences, lecture demonstrations by leading performing artistes and artist-in-residence programmes. The Centre will offer a range of certificate courses, short term courses, and weekend programmes that will provide great learning opportunities to students and the community.”
Addressing the audience at the event, Arundhati Nag, said, “It is an important day for all of us as RV University has launched the Centre for Visual and Performing Arts. I hope that not only the students from the University learn the importance of art and culture in our lives, but others across the country get an opportunity to use the impressive infrastructure of RVU, and benefit from that.”

B Jayashree highlighted the importance of the Centre in bringing in connection with culture across the country and the world. She said, “The RV Group of Educational Institutions have contributed immensely to the education system in India, by offering high quality education at an affordable cost. By opening this new Centre for Visual and Performing Arts, it has opened new doors and opportunities for students and others to pursue their passion”.

Jayant Kaikini set the tone for the final act of the evening, a tribute to the Nightingale of India, Lata Mangeshkar by the highly popular singer Sangeeta Katti. Reminiscing about how the world of music and performing arts have undergone a massive change over the last few decades, he said “Today’s generation of youth are very fortunate to have the opportunity to pursue their passion and dreams, thanks to entities like the Centre for Visual and Performing Arts, and I hope that they will make full use of this.”

The launch event was held at RV Dental College auditorium in JP Nagar, Bangalore. The evening included performances by RV University students showing their newly acquired skills through the energetic Kamsale dance, a scintillating display of Yakshagana by students of Yaksha Degula and a tribute to Lata Mangeshkar by Sangeeta Katti, who sang evergreen melodies.

Professor Deepa Ganesh, Executive Director, Centre for Visual and Performing Arts said, “Art was never insular, it was always profoundly impacted by the socio-political happenings of the society. To study art, therefore, not only holds clues to the past but has keys to handle the future.”

Adding further, she mentioned, “The Centre for Visual and Performing Arts wants to somewhat think like a disrupter. The Centre, unlike conventional departments, wants to be a space for dialogue. It is open to both traditions and to the innovation of contemporary times. It is not interested in a hybrid model but in a conversation, debate and collaboration of cultures. It is interested in the knowledge systems, documented and oral. It aspires to focus on socially relevant and participatory practices and encourages projects that investigate the nature of art and society.”

The courses taught at the Centre will have their linkage with the liberal arts courses that the University offers. This combination will allow students to study a broader range of subjects. It will help in developing well-rounded individuals having adequate knowledge and skills in multiple fields. The students will be taught to think critically and be problem-solvers, which will be an incredibly valuable skill in any career.

There will be interdisciplinary courses provided to students through the Liberal Arts programme of RV University, which is already offering courses such as Introduction to Performing Arts, Creative Writing, and Great Films of the World, which prepares the student to think in a creative way.

The Centre will provide ample opportunities for students to groom themselves to be career-ready and provide accessibility to art education for all people.

The advisory board members of the Centre include experts from various fields of music, dance and fine arts like Arundhati Nag, Girish Kasaravalli, Sukanya Ramgopal and H.K. Venkataram among others. With such luminaries on board, this Centre aims to become a landmark institution in arts education in the cultural hub of Bengaluru.

India’s most significant contribution to its rich legacy and history is art and culture. They are its soft power. But over the years, the structure of society has changed, and opened up opportunities to students to pursue careers in art and culture. This has raised many questions of how one can preserve the rich tradition of performing arts, while integrating it into current cultural practices. We, as a society, need to collectively preserve high standards in art education and bring in more innovative delivery forms. There is a vital need to educate the current and future generation of the less heard or seen forms of arts and the emergence of new ones.

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Manipal Hospitals partners with ConnectedLife, leveraging Fitbit wearable technology, for Continuity of Care Post-High-Risk Surgeries built with Google Cloud

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First of its kind initiative in India bringing wearable technology for post-surgery care.

Bengaluru, 17th March 2022 : Manipal Hospitals, the second-largest healthcare services provider in India, today announced a strategic partnership with ConnectedLife built with Google Cloud to use Fitbit’s wearable technology with ConnectedLife’s virtual platform to monitor patient progress and empower ‘Continuity of Care Post-High-Risk Surgeries’.

Through this virtual platform, the clinical teams at Manipal Hospitals will gain a holistic view of the patient post-discharge, tailor their intervention precisely to the patient’s needs, and monitor them in their journey towards a healthy post-surgery recovery. This digital initiative aims to use wearable technology to stay connected with patients post surgeries like total knee replacement, angioplasty, cardiac bypass surgery, and other high-risk surgeries.

(L-R) Dr Ranjan Shetty, HOD & Consultant – Interventional Cardiology, Manipal Hospitals, Mr Dilip Jose, MD&CEO, Manipal Hospitals, Mr Alok Shankar, Country General Manager, Fitbit at Google, Dr Hemant K Kalyan, HOD & Consultant – Orthopaedic Surgery, Sports Medicine, Manipal Hospitals

The advanced digital solution can remotely capture heart rate, oxygen saturation level, and activity metrics (sleep quality, steps taken, and pain score) both pre and post-operatively. The technology optimizes patient care via triggering reminders to take medications or participate in physiotherapy and triggering warnings if there are significant deviations outside normal physiological parameters.

Early data indicates patients on the programme have seen improved adherence to medication and exercise schedules with associated improvements in physical activity. Within this programme we are able to give patients in post-operative care a better view of their activity, sleep, and other health metrics that can help empower them in managing their day-to-day wellbeing.

“This is the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the history of Manipal Hospitals and in the Indian healthcare ecosystem. Today, we have an excellent opportunity to develop a cohesive program for the continuity of care after hospitalization. Through this partnership, we are expecting post-surgery care to become seamless, as wearable technology will help us monitor certain critical parameters of patients who have undergone total knee replacement surgery, angioplasty, cardiac bypass surgery, and other high-risk surgeries,” said Dr. Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Hospitals.

“In the long run, it will help facilitate Manipal Hospitals to determine if the post-operative data collected from the ConnectedLife with Fitbit dashboard match with functional outcomes and improved patient satisfaction post-surgery. This data will allow us to understand and develop new methods in cost-effectiveness, compliance, comfort, and ease of use, all while giving us accurate data on the vitals,” said Mr. Dilip Jose, MD & CEO, Manipal Hospitals.

“The intuitive, user-centric platform will help every person, from at-risk patients to chronic sufferers. We will be able to better understand their condition and then collaborate with care teams to achieve better health outcomes. Through its patient-centric platform, we will be able to replace lengthy manual processes with 24/7 insight-based care and monitoring, and thus enabling recovery outside of hospitals,” Mr. Jose added.

Alok Shankar, Country Manager for Fitbit India said, “We continue to work with ConnectedLife to facilitate engagement with strategic partners like Manipal Hospitals to develop and implement solutions that play a key role in building the digital health ecosystem in India. This programme gives people a better view of their health metrics, which can help empower them to better manage their recovery.”

“We are honoured to partner with Manipal Hospitals and Fitbit in bringing about a digital transformation within the Indian health eco-system to continuity of care post-high-risk surgeries. For ConnectedLife this is an incredible opportunity to deliver at scale and further advance the application of easy-to-use smartphone and wearable technology, and novel data analytics and AI, and population health management tools. With our trusted, secure, and scalable enterprise infrastructure, ConnectedLife will deploy new features and capabilities based on patient and clinician feedback every two to four weeks, and maintain the strictest accountability for data acquisition, privacy and protection,” said Mr. Daryl Arnold, Founder & CEO, ConnectedLife.  

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BFI launches INBL 3×3 Season 1

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*First pan-India basketball competitions take the sport to the countrys grassroots

Bengaluru, March 17, 2022: The Basketball Federation of India – the governing body for the Olympic sport of Basketball in India, on Thursday, announced the inaugural season of The Indian National Basketball League 3X3 -2022, to be held from March 18 to May 29, 2022. The highly-anticipated Indian National Basketball League is to be conducted across 20 cities across India. The 20 cities are Aizawl; Bengaluru; Bhavnagar; Bhilai; Chandigarh; Chennai; Cuttack; Delhi; Guwahati; Hyderabad; Indore; Jaipur; Kangra; Kochi; Kolkata; Ludhiana; Lucknow; Mumbai; Panjim; Puducherry simultaneously.
FIBA 3×3 competitions will be held across four categories Men, Women, U18 Men and U18 Women. The champions from each city will qualify to play the National Finals scheduled to be held at Bengaluru from May 27-29, 2022.The competitions in Men and Women are open to any player to form a team and participate and will comprise players above the age of 18. The Under 18 competitions will feature players born on or after 01.01.2004.

The inaugural weekend of March 18-20 will see action in the BFI-INBL 3×3 Season 1 at Bengaluru (Sree Kanteerava Stadium (Outdoors) and the West Bengal Basketball Association courts in Kolkata. More than 200 teams will be seen in action 120 teams in Bengaluru and more than 90 teams in Kolkata. There will be action every weekend in at least two cities and in three cities on certain weekends till the National Finals. The Season takes a break for the weekends of April3 and April due to the 71st Senior National Championships being conducted in Chennai. There is rich and unprecedented prize money for the top four teams in each category at the city level as the National Finals. City competitions

Category
Men & Women
(for each category)
U18 Men & U18 Women
(for each category)

Champions
Rs. 30,000/-
Rs. 20,000/-

Runners-Up
Rs. 20,000/-
Rs. 15,000/-

3rd Place
Rs. 15,000/-
Rs. 10,000/-

4th Place
Rs. 10,000/-
Rs. 5,000/-

National Finals

Category
Men & Women
(for each category)
U18 Men & U18 Women
(for each category)

Champions
Rs. 150,000/-
Rs. 75,000/-

Runners-Up
Rs. 100,000/-
Rs. 50,000/-

3rd Place
Rs. 75,000/-
Rs. 25,000/-

4th Place
Rs. 50,000/-
Rs. 15,000/-

Speaking at an exclusive press conference to announce tournament today in Bangalore, Dr. K Govindaraj, MLC, President, Basketball Federation of India said, “The Indian National Basketball League was formed in November last year by the BFI, to build awareness and popularity and to identify and develop thousands of promising basketball talent in the country. The unique competition format that we have put together takes basketball to the grassroots. We are playing in 20 cities providing an opportunity for players in those cities to play right at their doorsteps and yet be a part of the FIBA 3×3 World Ranking system. This is our first step and we are hoping it will take us all the way for India to qualify to the 2024 Olympics.”
Chander Mukhi Sharma, Secretary General, Basketball Federation of India, added, “We are delighted to get rolling that too at this scale and with such active participation. From our initial interactions with the teams from across cities, this promises to be exciting for every sport and basketball lover in the country. “

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