Zoho Announces Zoho.in for India

Zoho Announces Zoho.in for India

At Zoholics: India, company launches a free software package for businesses in India; Announces future plans on hosting in India

Zoho Corp., the leading IT product company from India, today announced the launch of Zoho.in, a suite of applications for companies to run their entire business on Zoho. Zoho is offering this package free exclusively for Indian businesses.

Included in the package is an offer for Indian businesses to register a free .in or .co.in domain, a flexible website creation application in Zoho Sites, Email Hosting application in Zoho Mail and Document Management and Office suite apps in Zoho Docs, as well as several mobile applications that accompany these web applications.

Additionally, Zoho also announced plans to open a data center in India to serve Indian businesses.

The Zoho.in package is free for the first 25 users in a business. Up to 25 users can get free business-class email accounts in Zoho Mail. Businesses can create unlimited websites using Zoho Sites' drag-and-drop interface. Zoho Docs, the document management application which allows businesses to share and collaborate on documents is available for free for unlimited users in a business. The mobile applications in the package include Zoho Mail, Zoho Docs, Zoho Writer and Taskz, and these are available on both iOS and Android.

Zoholics: India
Zoho is organising its first Zoholics event in India on Nov 20-21, in Bengaluru. Spread across two days, the event will focus on Zoho sharing its journey on becoming the largest IT product company from India. The company will also talk about how India is moving towards the next-gen product development hub and how a product company can be built from scratch in India.

Zoholics: India will cover several interesting sessions, challenging the startup community to think out-of-the-box, to make a difference. Delivering the keynote session will be Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Founder, Zoho Corp., who will talk about breaking all rules to drive exceptional innovation.

Sridhar Vembu, CEO & Founder, Zoho Corp. said, “Innovation happens through exception. Rules codify normal behaviour. Thus, being exceptional entails that rules be broken. Something that cannot be ignored are India's micro, small and medium size businesses which have seen unprecedented growth over the last decade. Additionally, starting tomorrow, we will be giving .in and .co.in domains for free to Zoho customers along with several essential applications to run your business, giving emerging companies the much-required introduction to the cloud.”

Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist Zoho Corp. said, “Zoholics: India is all about us sharing our journey through the years. The road wasn't without bumps, resilience and reinvention are the enduring values that outlive others. Then, the world became flat and provided global access to all. Now it's tilting in our favour. Indian companies are at an inflection point and have access to a large pools of young talent with the creativity, flexibility, and experience that is unmatched. At the event, we plan to highlight the upcoming opportunity in India.”

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Axis Bank Launches Smart Self-Service Terminal

Axis Bank Launches Smart Self-Service Terminal

A self-service terminal that facilitates customers to deposit as well as withdraw cash from the same machine

Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, announced the launch of a smart self-service terminal that enables customers to deposit as well as withdraw cash from the same machine. Customers can initiate a deposit transaction through the smart self-service terminal even without using a debit card and will receive instant credit for the deposited amount.

There is no cap on the amount of cash deposited by the customer through these terminals, provided his/her PAN details are available with the bank.

The smart self-service terminal will reduce the frequency of loading cash in the machine as well as the cost of idle cash as it allows cash recycling operations by dispensing deposited cash for future withdrawal transactions, thereby improving efficiency of the bank's cash operations.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Rajiv Anand, Group Executive & Head- Retail Banking, Axis Bank said, “Axis Bank has been a pioneer in launching customer friendly technology initiatives in the banking space. The self-service terminal is another innovative product by the bank which will help customers carry out all financial and non-financial transactions in a convenient and hassle free manner.”

Axis Bank has focussed on introducing innovative products and services and has always promoted the convenient and hassle free self-service environment through ATMs, Cash Deposit Machines (CDM) and Cheque Deposit Kiosks. The smart self-service terminal is another step by the bank towards offering a one stop solution to its customers for carrying out all their financial and non-financial transactions. The bank will convert its existing CDMs to smart self-service terminals in a phase wise manner.

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India Must Lead Global Sustainable Development Agenda Post Rio Plus 20 Summit

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Monday, July 02, 2012 -- (Business Wire India)
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) held a special media interaction on the challenges and opportunities in the context of global sustainable development agenda post the recently concluded Rio Plus 20 Summit today. Director General of TERI, Dr. R K Pachauri, Executive Director Dr. Leena Srivastava and Distinguished Fellows Nitin Desai, Ambassador Chandrashekhar Dasgupta & Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, reflected on the various issues raised at the Summit and underscored the need to tackle unsustainable means of production and consumption.

The recent culmination of the Rio Plus 20 Summit has once again fuelled socio-political debate on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead on the road to sustainable development. While a number of environmental activists and NGOs have expressed deep disappointment with the outcome of this major event, several governments view it as a victory and vindication of their own specific stands. TERI’s distinguished speakers said the need of the hour was to engage concerned stakeholders to arrive at a consensus on critical issues such as equity between developed and developing nations in achieving sustainable development.

Speakers felt there were two ways of following the outcome of Rio+20. One was to conclude that nothing of substance and certainly no agreements were produced by this conference. The second view would be to conclude that the ‘future we want’ as documented as the outcome of the conference clearly provided a wide canvas of concepts and directions that the world could possibly adopt towards the pursuit of sustainable development.

Speakers also pointed out that at the Summit, the developed countries had attempted to rollback principles of equity, which were an integral outcome of the Rio Conference held in 1992. However, lauding the strong and united stand taken by the developing nations at the Summit, Dr. R K Pachauri, Director General, TERI, said: “It is time India takes the lead and takes charge of the intellectual leadership of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) raised at the Summit.” Dr. Pachauri further added, “The final produced at the culmination of the Rio Summit had enough substance for each community and stakeholder to pick up elements to promote the discourse of global sustainable development.”

Speaking at the occasion, Executive Director, TERI, Dr. Leena Srivastava said: “The final document recognised the need of clean energy to achieve sustainable development. Emphasis of the Summit was also on boosting education and capacity building to meet sustainability targets.”

Ambassador C. Dasgupta, a Distinguished Fellow at TERI, said: “The road ahead would focus on the evolution and scope of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their relation to the Millennium Development Goals.”

Nitin Desai, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, said: “The interest and participation of corporate entities and the scientific and academic communities at the Summit was far greater at the Rio Plus 20 Summit than ever before. This is so because the trend is no longer limited to green consumerism, but to green investors.”

Dr. Pradipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, opined: “The focus on sustainable production and consumption is the main point that has emerged from the Summit. Strong unity among the G-77 group to protect their individual development space has also come out strongly through the conference.”

Speakers also highlighted relevant opportunities to enhance the scope of the sustainable development agenda:

i) Profiling the elements of a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The concept of green economy would need to take into account links between financing, technology, capacity building and national needs for sustainable development.

ii) Enunciating sustainable development goals and motivating of stakeholders, including business and industry to set in place a reporting system involving sustainability.

iii) Establishing regional, national, sub-national and local initiatives to implement the provisions of the Rio+20 document.

iv) Dealing effectively with the challenge of climate change and problems such as deforestation and loss of biodiversity as well as the problems of desertification, land degradation and drought.

v) Evaluating pathways to sustainable consumption and production.

About The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI):

From microbiology to global climate change, from smoke-filled rural kitchens to plush corporate boardrooms, from schoolchildren to heads of state—no sphere of human endeavor is unfamiliar to TERI. Headed by world-renowned economist and Nobel Prize winning climate scientist, Dr R K Pachauri, TERI is best described as an independent, not-for-profit research institute focused on energy, environment, and sustainable development and devoted to efficient and sustainable use of natural resources.

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