Bhubaneswar: The 2nd Edition of the Odisha Manufacturing Conclave 2025, organized by the ASSOCHAM Odisha State Council, successfully commenced today at a city hotel. This year’s conclave, themed “AI-Driven Manufacturing: Innovation, Efficiency, and Sustainable Growth,” brought together industry leaders, policymakers, technology pioneers, and academia to discuss Odisha’s roadmap for becoming a future-ready manufacturing hub.

Additional Chief Secretary, Industry, Govt of Odisha, Shri Hemant Sharma highlighted that Manufacturing currently contributes 36% to Odisha’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), while the combined contribution of industry and manufacturing stands at 53%. He emphasized that there is significant potential to further enhance this share, and this remains a top priority for the state government. “Our policies have been strategically designed to drive this growth, and we are witnessing a rapid inflow of investments. Many investment proposals have not only been received but have also been successfully grounded,” he said.

Reflecting on Odisha’s industrial transformation over the past few decades, Sharma noted the role of technological advancements in optimizing resource use. “For instance, the land required for establishing aluminium plants with double the production capacity has now been reduced to almost half, thanks to improved technology,” he explained. He further added that the state government is actively supporting industries with a steady supply of skilled manpower and comprehensive infrastructure to help them flourish.

Shri Hemant Sharma, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries & MSME Dept, Govt of Odisha unveiled ASSOCHAM study paper in partnership with Primus Partners

The event commenced with a Welcome Address by Mr. Pankaj Lochan Mohanty, Chairman, Odisha State Development Council, ASSOCHAM, who lauded the Government’s visionary approach and called for stronger collaboration between the government, industry, and academia to enable smart and sustainable manufacturing in Odisha.

“AI is no longer an emerging trend; it is now a defining catalyst of modern manufacturing. Odisha must now transition from being resource-rich to becoming data-rich and digitally intelligent,” said Mr. Mohanty.

The conclave also witnessed the release of the ASSOCHAM-Primus Knowledge Report, providing critical insights on AI adoption and manufacturing best practices.

Mr. Andrew Fleming, British Deputy High Commissioner to East and North East India remarked, “India and the UK share a rich history of industrialisation and innovation. We now stand at the cusp of a new era, shaped by digital transformation, green technologies, resilient supply chains and the rising importance of critical minerals. With Odisha aspiring to become a major manufacturing hub, it naturally aligns as a strategic partner for the UK. Together, we can drive industrial innovation while upholding the principles of sustainability. Today, the UK is at the forefront of smart factory automation, advanced industrial engineering, and sustainable supply chain practices all underpinned by the latest advances in AI”.

Two key plenary sessions held. On Enabling a Competitive Manufacturing Ecosystem – Policy & Tech Integration session, Eminent speakers discussed how Odisha can leverage policy frameworks and cutting-edge technologies to build a future-ready manufacturing sector. Similarly, AI for Sustainable Manufacturing – Innovations & Best Practices session,
Industry experts explored how artificial intelligence can foster sustainable growth and unlock new opportunities across sectors. The conclave concluded with a strong call for collaborative action to make Odisha a national leader in AI-powered, sustainable, and intelligent manufacturing.

The event was attended by senior officials, industry stalwarts, technology leaders, international representatives. Ms Perminder Jeet Kaur, Senior Director – East & Northeast, ASSOCHAM proposed vote of thanks.

Other dignitaries spoke at the event were Shri D. Prasanth Kumar Reddy, IAS, Director of Industries, Odisha, Shri. Sashi Sekhar Mohanty, Chairman, Odisha State Manufacturing Council, ASSOCHAM, Mr. Prabodh Mohanty, Chairman, Odisha State Mining & Steel Council, ASSOCHAM, Mr Prashant Hota, Chairman, ASSOCHAM Odisha CSR & Sustainability Council & Mr. Bharat Dureja, Senior Adviser, Primus Partners India.

Chandigarh, 10^th June 2025: The Wealth Company Asset Management Private Limited, part of the Pantomath Group, has launched Bharat Bhoomi Fund—a ₹1000 crore Category II AIF with a ₹1000 crore green shoe option—under its fifth Bharat Value Fund series. The Fund brings private equity-style rigor to India’s growing real estate sector, with a focused approach on execution-ready projects across high-opportunity corridors and core cities.

Bharat Bhoomi Fund marks a thoughtful expansion of The Wealth Company’s investment canvas—rooted in the same value-driven philosophy that defines the rest of its approach. Building on the strong foundation and credibility of the Bharat Value Fund series—trusted and backed by quality investors such as Sovereign Fund of Funds and prominent Family Offices—this fund provides a natural way to broaden exposure to real assets. Offering visibility and collateral backing, real estate forms a resilient foundation alongside equity and private market investments—demonstrating lasting value across market cycles.

For The Wealth Company, real estate is not a new direction, it’s a natural progression aligned with the need to diversify portfolios. The asset class aligns perfectly with the focus on tangible value, risk-managed returns, and disciplined capital deployment. The Fund is built to bridge the gap between developer mindset and investor expectations, applying hallmark underwriting and governance frameworks to a physical asset class, supported by expert operators and executional control.

The Fund will follow a diversified capital allocation strategy—investing in data centers, warehousing, hospitality, and renewable parks, sectors aligned with India’s evolving infrastructure, digital transformation, and sustainability priorities. Investor demand for these new economic assets is growing, driven by the country’s digital and green energy transitions. These segments go beyond traditional real estate—they represent economic infrastructure, reflecting the fund’s strategic focus. Alongside this, investments will target mid-to-premium residential, retail, plotted villas, and mixed-use developments across high-growth cities such as Mumbai (MMR), NCR, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The fund will also focus on infrastructure-led corridors and plotted developments benefiting from upcoming connectivity and urban expansion.

The Fund is led by Rakesh Kumar, whose experience spans over 50,000 real estate transactions and senior leadership roles at Shell, Walmart, and Reliance, along with Bhavya Bagrecha, who has executed over ₹2,500 crore in institutional real estate investments and introduced India’s first REIT-style structure under SEBI’s VCF regulations. The team is further strengthened by Peter Sharp, former head of Walmart’s Asia real estate operations, who joins as an advisor with over 35 years of global experience.

The Fund’s approach is designed to identify projects with clear land titles, regulatory readiness, and early exit visibility. It will target ready-to-launch assets that can move swiftly from investment to value creation. With a robust pipeline of approximately 1200 acres across six projects, Bharat Bhoomi Fund is well-positioned to deploy capital with speed, prudence and precision.

Madhu Lunawat, Founder and Director of The Wealth Company Asset Management, stated, “As capital becomes more thoughtful, the demand for real assets with real outcomes has never been higher. Bharat Bhoomi Fund allows meeting that demand with discipline, data, and domain expertise. The Wealth Company’s investment ethos is now extending confidently into India’s real estate space—with conviction and clarity.”

As the Indian real estate market matures, Bharat Bhoomi Fund arrives with timing, leadership, and structure —opening the door to a new standard in real estate investing.

Chandigarh, June 7, 2025: As part of its ongoing sustainability journey, Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), India’s largest hospitality company, reiterates its commitment to environmental stewardship by advancing impactful waste management and plastic reduction initiatives on World Environment Day. Aligning with the United Nations’ theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution,’ IHCL continues to lead in sustainable practices through its ESG+ framework of Paathya.

Mr. Gaurav Pokhariyal, Executive Vice President – Human Resources, IHCL, stated, “At IHCL, sustainability is integral to our business strategy and purpose. We recognise the urgency of the global plastic crisis and are committed to being part of the solution. Through Paathya, we are driving systemic change by eliminating single-use plastics and investing in long-term waste management solutions. As we continue to evolve, our focus remains on creating lasting impact within our hotels and across our communities.”

IHCL has made significant strides in eliminating single-use plastics across its operations. Key initiatives include installing in-house glass water bottling plants across 64 hotels, introducing 500 ml and 250 ml water bottles in banquets and spas, and incorporating biodegradable materials for bathroom amenities. Transitioning to carbon-neutral bamboo key cards made from renewable resources, IHCL eliminated 623 tonnes plastic. Waste segregation at source is implemented across all hotels, with waste streams being tracked and recycled through authorized channels. To manage organic waste, 101 hotels have installed organic waste composter or biogas systems, collectively preventing over 8,119 tonnes of organic waste from reaching landfills.

The partnership with United Way Mumbai to implement a comprehensive community waste management program led to the collection of over 1,12,000 kilograms of waste in six months, with more than 41,500 kilograms directed for recycling. Through this partnership, interactive sessions are conducted across Mumbai’s colleges raising awareness on marine pollution, mangrove conservation, and practical waste management strategies. Other community initiatives include the adoption of Mahim Reti Bunder and Mahim Causeway in Mumbai for a multifaceted approach to waste management.

Qlik – Julie Kae, VP Sustainability and Impact, Executive Director of Qlik.org

“At Qlik, we see plastic pollution not just as an environmental issue, but as a solvable data challenge. Across our global offices, we’ve eliminated single-use plastics and adopted eco-friendly practices across events, sourcing, and operations. But our greater impact lies in helping others act. Through partnerships with C40 Cities, UNFCCC, and Van Oord, we support real-world, data-driven solutions – from tracking plastic use to identifying smarter ways to reduce waste and build climate resilience. We’re proud to work with nonprofits and public sector organizations that turn data into impact, whether it’s supporting climate dashboards, open-access tools, or smarter recycling systems. These are more than pilot projects – they demonstrate what’s possible when insight drives action.

As we continue this journey, our commitment to achieving net zero by 2030 remains central to how we innovate, operate, and empower others.”

Automation Anywhere – Neeti Mehta Shukla, Co-founder and Chief Social Impact Officer

“At Automation Anywhere, we believe technology must be a force for good – not only in transforming how work gets done, but in protecting the planet we all share.

Over the past year, in collaboration with WWF-India, we have been leveraging automation to enhance marine litter monitoring and accelerate environmental impact. Our solutions have enabled the identification of over 4,400 plastic pollution hotspots along Odisha’s coastline, empowering conservation teams to collect, analyze, and act on data more efficiently than ever. We plan to expand these efforts in the coming months to further amplify impact and scalability. This work builds on our broader commitment to purpose-driven innovation, as reflected in our 2025 Impact Report, which highlights thousands of volunteer hours and growing employee participation in global sustainability initiatives.

Every organization has a role to play. By embedding sustainability into the heart of innovation, we can solve some of our planet’s most urgent challenges.”

UST – Vishnu Rajasekharan Nair, Director, Sustainability and Culture

Over the years at UST, sustainability has shifted from being just a strategic focus to something that quietly influences how we work, how we build teams, and how we make decisions. What has moved it forward is the steady effort of many people choosing to act together in ways that make sense for their teams, their roles, and the communities around them.

We’ve seen this take shape through everyday actions like the zero-waste hackathons, afforestation drives, and paperless workstreams. Not because they were mandated, they happened because people cared and felt trusted to take the lead.

One example is our Colors platform. Built on behavioral science, it gives our associates the space to lead projects around sustainability, wellbeing, and community. Over the past year, that’s meant transforming unused spaces into herb gardens, switching to reusables in cafeterias, and helping local women to launch sustainable micro-businesses. Taken together, these grassroots efforts, alongside broader systemic changes, contributed to a 20% reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, while our facilities reached 50% renewable electricity usage by the end of 2024.

Across the organization, we also saw more than 16,300 volunteering hours logged through over 170 community-based projects, with initiatives that impacted 127,000 lives globally, a reflection of what happens when sustainability becomes part of the culture, not just the strategy.

This World Environment Day is a moment to pause and notice the quiet efforts happening all around us. It’s in the way people choose to act sometimes in small, simple ways that add up to something meaningful over time. That’s how a culture shifts. Not all at once, but together.

Mphasis – Deepa Nagraj, Head of ESG and CSR

At Mphasis, we firmly believe that long-term progress must be ethical, inclusive and sustainable. Environmental considerations are an essential part of how we grow as a business and engage with the communities around us. Organisations today have a responsibility to move beyond short-term metrics and invest in building long-term ecological and social value.

Our collaboration with United Way of Bengaluru reflects this commitment. Since 2022, we have constructed over 1,300 percolation wells across Bengaluru. Each well conserves more than 1.28 lakh litres of rainwater annually, contributing to over 171 million litres of groundwater recharge every year. This initiative is helping restore the city’s water resilience while strengthening urban sustainability.

Equally significant is our ‘Mangrove Matters’ initiative in Pulicat, where we are restoring 70 acres of mangrove forest while creating sustainable livelihoods for the Irular tribe through their involvement in sapling care and ecosystem maintenance. The project not only improves biodiversity and climate resilience but also supports community upliftment through nature-positive action. These efforts reflect our belief that sustainability must be rooted in both environmental responsibility and inclusive development.

KPIT – Manasi Patil, Lead for Sustainability Initiatives

At KPIT, sustainability is deeply embedded in our vision to Reimagine mobility with you, for the creation of a cleaner, smarter, safer world. The mobility ecosystem is evolving rapidly, with software and electronics redefining vehicle architecture, and in this shift, sustainability must be foundational — not reactive. As we enable global OEMs to develop software-defined, electric, and intelligent vehicles, we also believe our responsibility lies in ensuring that the way we work, grow, and contribute mirrors the future we’re helping to build.

Our social responsibility is driven by Education, Environment, and Energy, with Employee Engagement as the core of all focus areas. This organisation-wide commitment is backed by measurable action. Under our sustainability roadmap EcoVoyage 2030, we are progressing toward net-zero emissions, and our campuses are steadily transitioning to renewable energy sources. At our Pune campus alone, over 2,800 indigenous trees have been planted across the green belt and hill slopes, supporting soil retention and ecological balance—leading to an increase in biodiversity, including renewed migratory birds.

We want to make sure we all leave a positive legacy through our work and have some wonderful stories of impact to share with our families. In FY25, KPITians collectively undertook more than 15,000 actions, including planting trees, carpooling, eating less meat, and more. This number being higher than our headcount, it averages at least one action per person. Moreover, when tracked at an individual level, 40% of employees reported undertaking at least one sustainability initiative last year, with this percentage rising further when factoring in all our CSR activities.

Our environmental initiatives also extend into communities. Through afforestation and water conservation work in rural areas, over 61,000 trees have been planted with a survival rate exceeding 95%, and nearly 44 million liters of water have been conserved, directly benefitting more than 46,000 individuals.

Errol Musk Concludes Transformative 6-Day India Visit, Praising India’s Green Tech Leap and Cultural Depth

NEW DELHI, INDIA – June 7, 2025: After a highly productive and culturally enriching 6-day trip, Errol Musk, Global Advisor to Servotech Renewable Power System Ltd., concluded his visit to India today. Accompanied by his daughter, Alexandra Musk, the visit, which began on June 1st, significantly underscored India’s pivotal role in the global green technology and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure revolution.

Hosted by Servotech Renewable, Musk’s itinerary was packed with high-profile engagements designed to accelerate India’s sustainable development. His journey included headlining the India–Global Green Tech Vision Forum in New Delhi, where he shared his global insights on green technology. He also toured Servotech’s state-of-the-art manufacturing plant, gaining firsthand insight into India’s indigenous capabilities in EV chargers and solar solutions.

A unique aspect of his visit involved profound spiritual and cultural immersion. Musk engaged in sacred visits to the Ram Mandir and Hanuman Garhi Temple in Ayodhya and ISKCON Delhi. At ISKCON, he actively participated in a Tulsi plantation drive, performed arti, and reverently partook of the ‘Chappan Bhog’ prasad, highlighting the deep connection between sustainability and Indian traditions. During his spiritual interactions, he openly praised the timeless teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

Reflecting on his journey, Errol Musk stated, “This trip has been truly eye-opening, witnessing India’s dynamic progress in green tech and its rich cultural depth. I leave incredibly optimistic about India’s future and its role on the global stage, and I look forward to returning soon to explore more of India’s beautiful places.”

Raman Bhatia, Managing Director, Servotech Renewable Power System Ltd., expressed, “Hosting Errol Musk has been an immense privilege and a pivotal moment for Servotech and India’s green energy sector. His strategic insights and personal embrace of India’s cultural values have been incredibly validating, further solidifying our commitment to accelerating India’s journey towards a cleaner, more sustainable, and self-reliant future.”

Musk’s departure marks the culmination of a visit that has not only strengthened Servotech’s global partnerships but also vividly amplified India’s narrative as a burgeoning leader in both sustainable innovation and spiritual harmony.

6th June 2025: NSE Sustainability Ratings and Analytics Ltd announces the launch of its ESG ratings for listed companies, marking a significant milestone in advancing sustainable business practices in India. NSE Sustainability focuses on assessing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, providing stakeholders with vital information to make informed decisions.

NSE Sustainability received its certificate of registration from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to operate as a Category I ESG Rating Provider (ERP). As a wholly owned subsidiary of NSE Indices Limited which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE), NSE Sustainability embodies the principles of transparency and actionable insights.

Shri Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD and CEO, NSE, said “NSE Sustainability’s mission is to provide stakeholders including investors, businesses, regulators and the public with accurate, comprehensive and unbiased evaluations of corporate sustainability practices.”

The ESG ratings are derived from a thorough evaluation of company practices, policies, and disclosures across relevant sectors and industries. NSE Sustainability employs a transparent, data-driven, and materiality-based ESG ratings methodology aligned with both national and international standards and best practices. By integrating a wide array of parameters, NSE Sustainability ensures its ESG ratings reflect a balanced and objective perspective, free from biases related to size, scale, or industry.

Shri Aniruddha Chatterjee, CEO, NSE Indices, said “The launch of ESG ratings by NSE Sustainability Ratings and Analytics Ltd underscores our commitment to innovation in sustainable finance and we believe that our ESG ratings, data and analytics will set a benchmark in advancing ESG practices across industries.”