02 April 2025: Edstead, a leading research-driven documentary studio committed to impactful storytelling, has named Charu Budhiraja as its Chief Business Officer. With career spanning decades in branded content, content innovation, and strategic partnerships, Charu will play a key role in shaping Edstead’s business growth and expanding its influence in the media landscape.

In this role, Charu will lead business strategy, forge key brand partnerships, and drive revenue growth while ensuring Edstead’s purpose-driven storytelling reaches wider audiences. With an extensive experience in content creation and creative leadership, she will focus on expanding the studio’s impact by strengthening collaborations with brands, media platforms, and content creators to bring compelling, research-backed narratives to the forefront.

Speaking about her new role, Charu Budhiraja shared, “Edstead stands for storytelling with purpose—stories that challenge perspectives, ignite conversations, and create real impact. In today’s media landscape, authenticity and depth matter more than ever, and Edstead has built a strong foundation in this space. I’m excited to build on that momentum, foster strategic partnerships, and help scale Edstead’s reach while staying true to its mission.”

Shekhar Bhattacharjee, Founder of Edstead, welcomed Charu’s appointment, stating, “Edstead is driven by the belief that powerful stories can inspire change. Charu’s expertise in branded content and content strategy will be instrumental in amplifying our impact and expanding our reach. Her ability to bridge creativity with business strategy makes her the perfect partner as we take Edstead into its next phase of growth.”

 Charu joins Edstead from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), where she was a Creative Head, leading award-winning content initiatives across travel, lifestyle, history, education, and culture. Throughout her career, she has conceptualized and executed high-impact IPs, built brand narratives for some of India’s most iconic companies, and driven strategic collaborations that bridge storytelling with business growth. She has also held leadership roles at Discovery, Ogilvy, Creativeland Asia, and JWT, working at the intersection of media, marketing, and content creation.

2nd April 2025: In a significant move to further its commitment to strong governance and long-term value creation, BharatPe Group has nominated Sumeet Singh, Executive Director & General Counsel at BharatPe, as a Non-Executive, Non-Independent Director on the Board of Unity Small Finance Bank (Unity SFB). Simultaneously, Ram Rastogi, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in banking, IT, and digital payments, has joined Trillionloans as an Independent Director.

Singh brings to the Unity SFB Board an extensive track record in corporate governance, regulatory affairs, and legal strategy. At BharatPe, he has been instrumental in building a robust governance framework and navigating the company through complex regulatory and legal challenges. His leadership was pivotal during times of crisis, including high-stakes litigations and boardroom transitions, where he played a key role in steering BharatPe toward stability and growth.

In addition to his governance credentials, Singh has led multiple equity fund-raising rounds for BharatPe, contributing to the company’s expansion and strategic investments, including its 49% stake in Unity SFB. His appointment to the bank’s board reflects BharatPe’s intent to safeguard its interest as a key financial investor while reinforcing Unity SFB’s governance and regulatory capabilities. He also led the negotiations on behalf of BharatPe with Centrum group in setting up the Unity joint venture. Unity SFB is a new-age digital-first bank, established as a joint venture between BharatPe Group and Centrum Group. BharatPe Group holds a 49% stake in the bank.

Meanwhile Rastogi is currently the Chairman of the FinTech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), and has played an important role in shaping India’s digital payments landscape, notably through his leadership at NPCI in launching UPI, IMPS, and NACH. His extensive experience will guide Trillionloans, BharatPe Group’s NBFC arm, in expanding its lending portfolio and advancing credit access for underserved businesses and individuals nationwide.

April 2, 2025:  Tech Mahindra (NSE: TECHM), a leading global provider of technology consulting and digital solutions to enterprises across industries, and CrateDB, a data management company, announced a strategic partnership at Hannover Messe 2025, the world’s premier trade fair for industrial technology. The partnership will revolutionize the automotive, manufacturing, and smart factory sectors by delivering advanced agentic AI solutions that leverage real-time data analytics, enabling businesses to drive innovation and efficiency at scale.

The partnership will combine Tech Mahindra’s deep industry expertise and digital transformation capabilities with CrateDB’s high-performance database technology to unlock the full value of data for industrial customers. Leveraging CrateDB’s open-source, multi-model, distributed database, Tech Mahindra will provide enterprises with advanced capabilities to optimize supply chains, improve predictive maintenance models, and ensure higher quality control standards across their operation centers. Further, the solutions will analyze and integrate time-series data from industrial IoT (IIoT) sensors into a cloud-based environment, enabling businesses to utilize structured data for faster and more informed decision-making.

Harshul Asnani, President and Head – Europe Business, Tech Mahindra, said, “Agentic AI is redefining industrial operations by enabling conversational UI, autonomous decision-making, automated business process flow and real-time data representation. As enterprises navigate Industry 4.0, traditional data infrastructures struggle to keep pace. Our partnership with CrateDB delivers AI-driven insights at scale, empowering businesses to enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly intelligent and data-intensive landscape.”

Together, Tech Mahindra and CrateDB have leveraged a unique cloud data management architecture to develop highly scalable and sustainable solutions that will help industrial enterprises scale production globally and optimize cloud resources. By incorporating a scalable and adaptive architecture, the solution can be deployed across various manufacturing sub-verticals, providing enterprises with a unified approach to real-time analytics.

Lars Färnström, CEO, CrateDB, said, “We are excited to join forces with Tech Mahindra at Hannover Messe to showcase how our real-time analytics platform can transform industrial operations. As businesses look to scale their data-driven initiatives, our partnership ensures they have the necessary technology and expertise to navigate the evolving landscape of Industry 4.0.”

As industries worldwide embrace Industry 4.0, the ability to process and act on data in real-time has become a critical differentiator. Under this partnership, both the companies will also showcase live demonstrations at Hannover Messe 2025, where attendees will witness how real-time analytics and scalable data infrastructure can enhance efficiency and optimize industrial operations.

New Delhi | Wednesday, 02 April 2025:   

 The details of the aforesaid new orders are as follows:

·         Orders in the Buildings and Factories (B&F) business in India

·         Order in the Railway business in India

 Manish Mohnot, MD & CEO, KPIL, said, “We are delighted with the order wins in our B&F and railways business. These orders wins will help us to further strengthen our order book and improve our market position in the B&F and railways business.  

More importantly, with full year FY25 order inflows in excess of ₹ 25,000 Crores, we continue to focus on building a diversified project mix that is in-line with our strategy to improve competitiveness and deliver profitable growth. We continue to remain well placed on back of our execution expertise, record order book position and strong financial profile to leverage on emerging opportunities in the power T&D and civil infrastructure segments.”

 

April 2,2025:We’ve all done it – promising ourselves we’ll start that important project tomorrow, or Monday, or next month when the “timing feels right.” While occasional procrastination is normal, for some people, it becomes a destructive pattern. 

Research has found that 20% of U.S. men and women are chronic procrastinators, meaning one in five adults regularly delay important tasks despite knowing better. This isn’t just occasional laziness – for many, it’s a deeply ingrained behavioural pattern that affects their work, relationships, and mental wellbeing.

“Most people think procrastination is just poor time management, but it’s actually much more complex than that,” says Howard Smith, Clinical Director at Rehab Bali, a world-class addiction and mental health treatment centre. “After working with hundreds of clients, I’ve identified one particular habit that signals someone is truly addicted to procrastination.”

That revealing habit? Constantly waiting for the ‘right moment.’.

Why ‘Waiting for the Right Moment’ Is a Warning Sign

This seemingly harmless habit – waiting for the perfect conditions before starting a task – is actually a major red flag. Smith explains that genuinely productive people understand there’s rarely an ideal moment to begin anything important.

“When someone consistently says they’re waiting for the right time, what they’re really doing is creating a permanent excuse,” Smith says. “Monday becomes next week, next week becomes next month, and suddenly a year has passed with no action taken.”

According to Smith, this pattern becomes particularly harmful when it transforms into an automatic response. The brain begins to associate starting tasks with discomfort and delays with temporary relief, creating a cycle that gets harder to break over time.

The Psychology Behind ‘Right Moment’ Procrastination

This specific procrastination habit has deep psychological roots. Smith identifies several key factors that drive this behaviour:

1. Fear of Failure

For many chronic procrastinators, postponing tasks isn’t about laziness – it’s about avoiding the possibility of failure. By waiting for the “perfect moment,” they protect themselves from potentially disappointing results.

“If conditions aren’t perfect, you have a built-in excuse if things don’t go well,” Smith explains. “This creates a safety net for your self-esteem, but it comes at the cost of never actually making progress.”

2. Perfectionism

Perfectionism and procrastination might seem like opposites, but they’re actually closely linked. The need for perfect conditions before starting can paralyse decision-making.

“Many of my clients with perfectionist tendencies struggle most with starting tasks,” says Smith. “They believe that if they can’t do something perfectly, it’s not worth doing at all. This creates impossible standards that no moment can ever live up to.”

3. Present Bias

The human brain is wired to value immediate rewards over future benefits, a psychological tendency known as ‘present bias.’ This makes it difficult to choose short-term discomfort (starting a challenging task) over short-term comfort (putting it off).

“When you tell yourself you’ll start tomorrow, you get an immediate hit of relief,” Smith notes. “This creates a powerful reinforcement cycle that trains your brain to repeat the behaviour.”

4. Emotional Regulation

Smith points out that procrastination often serves as a way to manage uncomfortable emotions.

“People often don’t realise that procrastination is primarily an emotional regulation problem, not a time management issue,” he says. “The act of postponing difficult tasks temporarily alleviates the anxiety, boredom, or frustration associated with them.”

Howard Smith, Clinical Director at Rehab Bali, commented:

“After working with hundreds of clients struggling with chronic procrastination, I’ve found that breaking free from this pattern requires addressing both the behaviour and its underlying causes. Start by acknowledging that no perfect moment exists – excellence comes from starting imperfectly and improving through action. Try breaking tasks into tiny steps that feel almost too easy to fail at, which helps overcome the initial resistance.

“It’s also vital to recognise the emotions driving your procrastination. When you feel the urge to wait for a ‘better time,’ pause and ask yourself what you’re really feeling – is it anxiety, self-doubt, or something else? Simply naming these emotions can reduce their power. Remember that procrastination is often about avoiding discomfort, not the task itself. With practice and self-compassion, you can learn to tolerate that discomfort long enough to take the first step, which is always the hardest.”

April 2, 2025 – Zendesk, a pioneer in Agentic AI-powered service, announced today at its annual Relate conference the launch of the Zendesk Resolution Platform, aimed at redefining customer experience. This platform, purpose-built for service by the largest AI service software provider, introduces a suite of advanced tools that seamlessly integrate Zendesk AI Agents, a comprehensive knowledge graph, actions and integrations, governance and control, and measurement and insights. Together with human expertise, the Zendesk Resolution Platform empowers businesses to deliver exceptional service and ensure a clear path to issue resolution.

“The only metric that matters in customer service is resolution. The Zendesk Resolution Platform is not just making service faster – it is making Agentic AI actually work for service, solving every issue with less effort and better outcomes,” said Tom Eggemeier, CEO of Zendesk. “Our network of AI agents built with service at the heart works like a well-trained search and rescue team, ensuring every interaction leads to a resolution. And as the only large service software provider offering outcome-based pricing, we make sure customers only pay for problems that are resolved – not for interactions or failed attempts. Resolutions are the future of customer service, and Zendesk is leading this revolution.”

Maureen Chong, Regional Vice President, Asia and India, Zendesk, adds, “As we look at the vibrant and rapidly evolving Indian market, it’s clear that businesses are not just seeking faster service but are demanding smarter, more efficient solutions that drive real outcomes. The digital transformation journey that many organisations in India are on presents a unique opportunity to leverage AI and advanced technologies to enhance customer and employee service. With our AI-powered Zendesk Resolution Platform and outcome-based pricing, we are uniquely positioned to meet these needs, enabling Indian businesses to navigate the complexities of customer and employee service with agility and precision while only paying for successful resolutions.”

The Zendesk Resolution Platform is built on five core components all with new products and features announced today at Relate 2025:

Zendesk Agents

• Next Generation Zendesk AI Agents designed to enhance service delivery by providing faster, more accurate responses to customer inquiries, ensuring that every interaction is handled with precision and care. These new Zendesk AI Agents reason, learn, and adapt to even the most complex inquiries, providing customers with real resolutions.

• Upgraded AI Agent Builder is a dynamic platform that allows businesses to create customised AI agents tailored to their unique service needs, enabling a more personalised customer experience and saving admins time.

• New Copilot enhancements from Zendesk include the ability for businesses to seamlessly integrate Zendesk knowledge sources and external systems, enabling Copilot to autonomously run key business procedures on behalf of agents. For instance, the Copilot can generate context-rich responses using the help centre or effortlessly execute tasks in platforms like Jira or Slack. Best of all, setting up these integrations is now easier than ever, with no code required. These copilot enhancements significantly streamline workflows, enabling quicker resolutions while boosting agent productivity.

Comprehensive Knowledge Graph 

• Zendesk Knowledge Graph consolidates service knowledge for immediate access by Zendesk agents. This robust foundation powers over 50,000 active service knowledge bases, making it the largest service-specific resource globally. Businesses can easily index and connect their own knowledge sources without complex setup.

• Zendesk Knowledge Builder uses AI to analyse past tickets and key business context to create a ready-to-use knowledge base, ensuring timely access to the right information for faster resolutions for those starting without a fully developed knowledge base. With Knowledge Builder, there’s no long setup and no content drafting.

• New Generative Search feature provides immediate answers right at the top of the help centre and eliminates the need to sift through links. Unlike competitors, Generative Search will be included in every Zendesk plan.

Actions and Integrations

• Action Builder empowers businesses to easily connect and automate AI and human agent workflows across any system without coding. With Action Builder, businesses can easily create the connected service experiences they need and that their customers crave, all within Zendesk and free from expensive vendors and custom development.

• App Builder is a new no-code solution for building apps in Zendesk, leveraging generative AI. With app builder, admins can develop custom apps using natural language prompts.

Governance and Control

• AI Reasoning Controls give real-time visibility into the AI agent’s thinking. Now, businesses can see how their AI interprets customer requests, why the AI chooses certain responses, and where to refine the agent’s behaviour – ensuring it operates exactly the way businesses intend.

Measurement and Insights

• Custom Quality Assurance (QA) is the only service QA that scores 100% of interactions across human and AI conversations. And now using the power of generative AI, Custom QA surfaces hidden insights giving businesses complete visibility into service quality. Custom QA doesn’t stop at ticket scoring or agent coaching either, Custom QA can generate reports such as ones that show every ticket where customers are discussing competitors.

• AI Insights Hub is a centralised AI operations centre that shows all of the AI features that are active and highlights key usage metrics. Admins also get AI-driven recommendations, whether it’s suggesting automating responses or refining workflow routing rules.

“Zendesk’s launch of the AI-powered Resolution Platform marks a significant step forward in enhancing customer and employee service experiences. By integrating advanced AI capabilities with human expertise, Zendesk has the potential to position itself as a leader in the evolving landscape of AI-driven solutions,” said Daniel Newman, CEO of The Futurum Group. “As businesses increasingly adopt these technologies, the focus on delivering seamless, efficient service will undoubtedly shape the future of customer engagement.”

An Upgraded Enterprise Contact Centre Solution

Zendesk for Contact Centre is powered by AWS and enhanced with advanced voice capabilities with Zendesk’s proposed acquisition of Local Measure. This solution redefines the contact centre landscape—think of it as the un-CCaaS. Zendesk for Contact Centre delivers all the capabilities of an enterprise contact centre solution, no matter the geography, call volume, or complexity. With AI seamlessly integrated throughout the call journey, Zendesk for Contact Centre is easier to set-up, use, and maintain.

Harnessing the Power of Customer Service, Now for Employees

Zendesk also announced the launch of the Zendesk Employee Service Suite. This versatile suite is designed specifically for internal support teams such as IT and HR, offering an intuitive yet powerful solution that equips teams to deliver exceptional employee service.

Designed for the Agentic AI era, the employee service suite features easy-to-deploy pre-trained AI that provides rapid resolutions and efficient, accurate service to employees. This suite includes essential tools for internal teams, including a service catalogue, new pre-built HRIS integrations, and a tailored agent workspace designed for employee service with task lists, approvals, and out-of-the box templates.

In the coming months, Zendesk will launch IT Asset Management to help companies track and manage the hardware and software employees rely on every day.

“The new employee service suite is easy to implement and scale across departments, ensuring quick time to value and a low total cost of ownership. Zendesk future-proofs employee service with an easily integrable, adaptable, and customisable solution that empowers organisations to navigate a rapidly evolving workplace while leveraging the power of Agentic AI,” added Eggemeier.