TSSC partners with SBI Card for placement-linked skill development courses for women

 The centre is set to provide National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and National Curriculum Framework (NCF) aligned short-term courses in telecom service job roles.

Telecom sector skill training provider TSSC on Monday said it has partnered with SBI Cards and Payment Services for placement-linked skill development courses to train 763 women over the next two years.

Under this partnership, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) has launched a telecom centre of excellence (CoE) at the Government College for Girls Gurugram under a CSR initiative for women empowerment.

The project will cater to 763 candidates over the span of two years beginning from September this year, the statement said.

“The CSR project under this collaboration will be a pertinent boost in skilling the female youth and help them inculcate the spirit of self-reliance to explore new job roles. This crucial partnership with SBI credit Cards for CSR is yet another step forward to drive equality of opportunity for women and empower them,” TSSC CEO Arvind Bali said.

The CSR project was envisioned under TSSC’s Livelihood Enhancement and Promotion (LEAP) Programme which caters to basic and intermediate skill building for upcoming and legacy telecom courses.

The main objective of the programme is to impart the confidence and competence to candidates in telecom trades to help support the rising demand for service, manufacturing, and retail job roles.

“We are doing our share to improve the status of women in the workforce. We are confident that this collaboration with TSSC will benefit women candidates in Haryana and assist them in moving beyond theoretical courses to become job ready. This is a one-year partnership, and we believe it will add to the momentum of initiatives already underway by the government and various companies to attract more female talent to the industry,” SBI Card Managing Director and CEO Rama Mohan Rao Amara said.

source: Financial Express

Newscorp-backed PropTiger.com acquires Makaan.com

Elara Technologies Pte. Ltd., which owns PropTiger.com, a digital real estate marketing and transactions services provider, has entered into a transaction with Makaan.com Private Limited, owner of Makaan.com, another property listings and classifieds player that was part of the Anupam Mittal-backed People Group, who also founded Shaadi.com.

The transaction, which brings Makaan.com and PropTiger.com platforms together, creates India’s only truly comprehensive online real-estate platform, one that will offer end-to-end services to home buyers, real estate developers, property brokers, banks and private equity investors.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Together, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com will provide home buyers with a powerful online real estate platform to guide them through the early stages of home search and identification and all the way until they have the keys to their dream home,” said Dhruv Agarwala, Co-founder & CEO, Proptiger.com “The fully assisted home buying experience will include being able to shortlist the right set of homes from a wide array of listings online, and then having a personalized service that helps with site visits, price negotiations, documentation, home financing, registration and post sales services.”

PropTiger.com currently provides a complete, hassle-free, home buying experience to homebuyers in India, starting with property search and site visits to home loan advice and assistance in the final registration of property. Since 2011, some 12,000 homes worth US$ 1.2 billion have been purchased through the Proptiger.com platform. It has a team of over 500 people including engineers, product experts and property advisors in eight major Indian cities.

PropTiger.com also provides real estate consulting and data services to institutions, such as real estate developers, private equity investors and banks. Its proprietary database contains detailed information and transaction data on India’s residential real estate sector in 20 major cities in India.  

Makaan.com, an iconic brand synonymous with homes, was founded in 2007, and is one of India’s pioneering real estate marketplaces for property buying, selling and renting, offering a diverse array of services for home owners & buyers, investors, property brokers and real estate developers. It has around 200,000 active property listings and relationships with 40,000 brokers in 50 Indian cities. Some 40% of Makaan.com’s traffic comes from mobile, which is the fastest growing gateway to Internet for users in India. It has one of the best consumer engagement and conversion rates in the industry.

“India’s home-buyers will now have the biggest database of real estate information and related online real estate services that will also offer end-to-end services in major cities nationwide,” added Aditya Verma, CEO, Makaan.com.  Following the transaction, Verma will report to Agarwala. 

The Makaan.com transaction continues PropTiger.com’s rapid growth and cements its evolution as India’s leading digital and mobile real-estate platform.

Earlier this month, PropTiger.com announced the acquisition of Bangalore-based Out of Box Interaction (OoBI), a pioneering digital interaction design company that specializes in displaying real estate projects in an efficient and immersive way.

In November 2014, global media, book publishing and digital real estate services company News Corp took a 25% stake in Elara, bringing proven expertise in digital real estate to PropTiger.com. In Australia, News Corp is 61.6% owner of REA, and in the United States, it owns Move, Inc., which runs Realtor.com.  News Corp’s portfolio has played an important role in the newspaper and publishing arena in India through its Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins Publishers businesses. 

Elara’s other major investors include SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizon Ventures.

Makaan.com was founded within People Group by entrepreneur and investor Anupam Mittal, whose pioneering digital ventures in India also include the matchmaking site Shaadi.com and the mobile content & commerce company Mauj Mobile.

 “In addition to being able to combine Makaan.com listings and PropTiger.com’s home buying services, we are delighted we can also now tap Anupam’s proven expertise in profitably engaging digital audiences in India,” said Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President, Strategy, for News Corp, who chairs Elara’s Singapore-based board.

“This transaction will help shape the future of the real estate ecosystem in India,” predicted Mittal. “During the past few years, India’s home-buyers have embraced digital platforms in a big way. Starting by creating the first and only full-stack property solution, the combination of Makaan.com and PropTiger.com is set to accelerate customer-focused innovations dramatically.”

Credit Card Borrowers face high risk of fraud in E-commerce

The illegal practice of swiping card for cash is quite prevalent amongst the trader hubs of India. "Legally, swiping card for cash is not allowed in India unlike in the UK or US. There have been rackets in the past that the police have busted," said Nidhi Gurnani, cofounder of Cardback, an app which advises buyers on their credit card usage. The other reason behind swiping credit cards for fake sales is to earn rewards.

"In accelerated reward point schemes, one can earn up to Rs 1 lakh, on a swipe of Rs 20,000, said Gurnani.

As merchants move to sell online, card for cash model is also moving to ard for cash model is also moving to the online world. "Some ecom merce companies accept digital payments for products but in stead used the cash to run op erations. They don't deliv er on time," Gupta of CitrusPay added.

Not only payment gate ways but mobile wallets have also become extremely cautious. It's eas ier to swipe money from a credit card into a bank account Users are able to withdraw cash from their credit cards at almost 0% in mobile wallets compared to up to 2% they are charged on e-commerce portals. "We allow only Rs 5,000 worth of money to be loaded via a credit card into our mobile wallet. We also take at least 3 days to transfer money to a bank account, to check fraudulent transactions," said Sunil Kulkarni, Deputy Manag ing Director at mobile wal let firm Oxigen Services (India) Pvt Ltd.

About Rs 1800 crore of transactions went through Oxigen last year, of which the company charges 1%, usually from the vendors.

College students support to take up liability

If India plays its cards right, by 2025, the country can become the top knowledge production centre of the world, said Dr TS Sridhar, IAS, additional chief secretary of Government of TN, Higher Education Department, Secretariat at Easwari Engineering College.

About 818 students received their degrees, out of which 581 were of graduation and 237 of post graduation. Seventeen students from UG and 10 PG students were ranked in Anna University. Jayachitra, Masters of Engineering (ME), Electronics and Electrical Engineering secured her Gold medal stood first while, Gayathri and Sarathy S bagged the second and third positions, respectively.

Delivering the 12th graduation ceremony address at Easwari Engineering College, TS Sridhar said, “Let the students mantra be, to have an open mind, strive hard, uphold the ethics of their profession and enjoy their work.”

The acquisition of knowledge has therefore been the thrust area throughout the world and sharing the experience of knowledge is a unique culture of our country. India is witnessing a silent revolution and rapidly becoming a global research design and development centres in the all fields, said Sridhar

The chief secretary also went on to say that as Indian industry is becoming globally competitive, it requires people with technical skill sets, to be globally benchmarked and sourced. This will result in the Indian and foreign industrial research and development centres vying with one another to seek the best brains, as young graduands, the students should grab the opportunities and participate in the unprecedented era of economic growth. Harjit Harman Jhanjhar

Dr TR Pachamuthu, Founder Chancellor, SRM Group of Institutions said, “Graduating students have several responsibilities to shoulder. They need to carry their institutions’ reputation forward, because the companies return to the colleges for placements based on the students who have already been working there. Graduation doesn’t mean receiving a degree. It comes with added responsibilities as well.”

SBI holiday-cum-shopping credit card with Yatra.com

State Bank of India and Yatra.com well known online travel portal, has launched a holiday-cum-shopping card that will enable Indian travelers to avail discounts across travel and holiday packages.
The new holiday card will enable travellers to avail discounts across Yatra.com travel and holiday packages, exclusive previews to its deals and benefits, including accelerated rewards on their purchases.
SBI Cards and Yatra.com are looking forward to a very positive response for the holiday credit card because card provides the best travel solutions to customers.
"As a company, we are constantly innovating to provide the best travel solutions to our customers. Our partnership with SBI Cards for the holiday card is a part of this overall approach. We are looking forward to a very positive response for the card," Yatra.com CEO Dhruv Shringi said.
The card has been designed to enable customers win reward points every time they use the card. So, the more they swipe their cards, the closer they get to their next dream holiday, he said.
"Travel continues to emerge as a growing segment for credit cards. The SBI Cards brand is based on the value proposition of 'Make Life Simple' ? the core promise of our brand. The proposition stands testimony to the company's continuous efforts of simplifying the lives of our customers,"
SBI Card mostly based on make life simple proposition. The proposition stands testimony to the company's continuous efforts of simplifying the lives of our customers,"

New Super Premium Credit Card lauched by ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank launched a credit card targeted at the super affluent. Customers will get two different Credit cards, one each from payment gateways American Express and MasterCard, but both will be linked to a single card account.
The card christened Sapphiro is the third offering in its Gemstone collection and is aimed at super affluent segment and the bank's wealth management clientele.
Customers will get two different cards, one each from payment gateways American Express and MasterCard, but both will be linked to a single card account, it added.
Details on who qualifies to get the card and membership charges, if any, were not specified by the bank in the statement.
"The Sapphiro takes the level of privileges for our super affluent and wealth management consumers several notches higher through the high-end experiential rewards on offer," managing director and chief executive Chanda Kochhar said.
Card users can joy privileges offered by Leading Hotels of the World, Atlantis the Palm, Dubai, and Air France-KLM and other offerings like Thursday night movie premieres, complimentary tee-offs at championship golf courses across the world and premium privileges across travel, shopping, wellness and entertainment, the statement said.
Click to Apply for ICICI Credit Card Online

Deutsche Bank infuses Rs.455 cr to grow Indian business

Deutsche Bank AG, Europe’s largest lender with $3.07 trillion (Rs.153 trillion today) of assets, has infused Rs.455 crore to strengthen its Indian operations. The German bank has been investing money every year in its Indian branches since 2007, with 2009 being an exception.
“The capital base pertains only to the India branches and excludes all other Deutsche Bank entities operating in India—equity broking and investment banking, primary dealership, asset management and shared services,” Deutsche Bank said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
The latest capital infusion will take the bank’s tier I or core capital in the country to a little over Rs.5,500 crore. Tier I capital includes a bank’s equity and reserves.
Deutsche Bank’s India branches have shown a compound annual growth rate of 38% over the last five years. The German bank recently received nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open two branches in Ahmedabad and Surat, which will take its network to 17 outlets.
The additional capital will be used to service and finance the bank’s corporate, institutional and retail clients, said Gunit Chadha, chief executive of Deutsche Bank’s Indian unit.
Corporate and investment banking makes up more than 80% of Deutsche Bank’s business in India. In April 2011, the bank sold its credit card business to IndusInd Bank Ltd, but has maintained that it will continue to invest in retail banking, although this will remain a small part of its overall business in India.
In 2010-11, Deutsche Bank’s profit in India rose 41% to Rs.630 crore, helped by rising income from advances, trading and fees. It earned Rs.1,880.16 crore from advances and investments, up from Rs.1,578.87 crore in the previous year.
This is the right time for foreign banks to strengthen their Indian businesses to service corporate clients in the country, said Manish Ostwal, banking analyst at Kisan Ratilal Choksey Shares and Securities Pvt. Ltd.
“Even larger banks such as Standard Chartered are now focusing on wholesale banking because getting permission to open branches from RBI is difficult, while helping Indian companies to get capital from abroad is their strength, which no other local bank except the State Bank of India can provide,” Ostwal said.
Deutsche Bank’s new branch licences from RBI have come after two years. UK-based Standard Chartered Plc received permission to open three branches—one each in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Thiruvananthapuram in 2010. The last time both the banks opened branches was in 2010.
In India, Deutsche Bank is the smallest of the big foreign banks in the country, including Standard Chartered, Citibank NA and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd (HSBC). RBI distributes 12-18 branches among all foreign banks every year. SBI Recruitment 2012
HSBC and Citibank have not got permission to open any new branch in the current cycle, their spokespersons said.
India’s reputation as one of the fastest growing economies in the world has also led to lenders such as Deutsche Bank in getting capital here, Ostwal said.
“The recent ratings downgrade of the Indian banking sector has made it difficult for Indian banks to access funds and, hence, foreign banks have an opportunity to strengthen their position in areas such as foreign exchange, commodities, merger and acquisitions and structured finance,” the analyst said.
In November, global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service Inc. downgraded the outlook for Indian banks to negative from stable, citing a likely deterioration in asset quality in the next 18 months.