Guwahati, February 28, 2025: Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal, reflecting on his visit to Advantage Assam 2.0, highlighted Assam’s immense potential and reaffirmed his commitment to the state’s progress. Taking to social media, Agarwal shared his experiences in Assam, including its growth trajectory, rich cultural heritage, and thriving tea industry, while also outlining ideas to transform the state into a world-class oil-producing hub.

Agarwal emphasized Assam’s strategic potential in oil and gas, suggesting a model similar to the U.S., where small oil wells allow start-ups and entrepreneurs to participate actively. “Big things come in small packages,” he remarked, advocating for simplified clearances, financial incentives, and enhanced exploration efforts to unlock the sector’s full potential. Increasing domestic oil and gas production, he added, would reduce import dependency and lower energy costs.

Beyond energy, Assam’s tea industry, which contributes over 50% of India’s total production, holds vast potential, Agarwal noted. He proposed encouraging small and medium-sized tea estates with fewer regulatory hurdles, creating jobs, and promoting boutique tea brands for global markets.

The state’s vibrant cultural heritage was also in focus, with Agarwal witnessing the historic Jhumoir Binandini event, where 8,000 tea community members performed in what he called a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.” “Hon’ble PM led the way, playing the Dhomsa drum, bringing the entire stadium alive,” he wrote.

Cairn Oil & Gas, a Vedanta Group subsidiary, further reinforced its commitment with a Rs. 50,000 crore investment in oil and gas exploration, targeting 100,000 barrels of production per day and generating one lakh new jobs. The company’s CSR initiatives, including Nand Ghars, digital classrooms, and handloom skill centers, will also contribute to Assam’s socio-economic development.

As Advantage Assam 2.0 unlocks new opportunities, Vedanta remains dedicated to driving Assam’s transformation into a major energy and industrial hub, said a company spokesperson.

Mumbai, February 28, 2025 – Amazon today announced a US$1.2 million investment to restore the mangrove forests and mudflats that are critical foraging for Mumbai’s iconic flamingo population. Working with Hasten Regeneration, a social enterprise and developer of ecosystem restoration projects, the investment will fund the clean-up along the settlements on Thane Creek in Mumbai and plant mangroves in the nearby state of Gujarat. Amazon is supporting the initiative through its $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, which promotes climate resilience, biodiversity, and nature conservation projects in communities where it operates.

The project will tackle plastic pollution by installing a trash boom that blocks plastic waste from entering the Mumbai basin, where more than 1 million migratory birds – among them flamingos and over 180 other species – stop to feed each season. The goal is to remove at least 150 tons of plastic waste and replant the flamingo feeding grounds, including the stopover sites on the way to the nesting areas in the neighbouring Gujarat province. The project also aims to improve the quality of life for the slum settlement on the bank of Thane Creek, which will benefit from a cleaner environment.

Mangroves can sequester and store up to 10 times more carbon per hectare than mature tropical forests, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The mangrove planting work will also generate employment and opportunities for the rural community in Gujarat, especially female-led planting companies.

“The preservation of Mumbai’s flamingo habitat is paramount, not only for the biodiversity it sustains but also for the communities whose livelihoods depend on it,” said Abhinav Singh, Vice President of Operations, Amazon India. “By joining forces with Hasten Regeneration on this landmark project, we aim to safeguard Mumbai’s flamingo habitat for future generations.”

“This collaborative effort between Amazon and Hasten Regeneration is a game changer for the Mumbai basin. The project cleans up the polluted banks of Thane Creek, which is one of the most polluted waterways in the world. We are also creating a positive social impact, employing women to replant mangroves in critical stop-over sites for the precious flamingos on the way to their nesting grounds,” said Sheeba Sen, co-founder of Hasten Regeneration’s India branch and Director of Alaap.

“This initiative, aligned with the government’s goals under the Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes, will significantly contribute to protecting the habitat of flamingos and other migratory birds by planting 375,000 mangrove shrubs and trees. And with that, it will, over time, build climate resilience for local communities by protecting against storm surges, rising sea levels, and erosion, while also creating multiple sustainable livelihood opportunities” said Shri Mukeshbhai Zinabhai Patel, Minister of Forest and Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources and Water Supply, State of Gujarat.

In 2023, Amazon announced a US$15 million investment from the Right Now Climate Fund to support nature-based projects in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Amazon has launched three projects in India including this one, supporting the Centre for Wildlife Studies to plant 300,000 trees in the Western Ghats on the border of tiger and elephant habitat; and working with ICLEI South Asia to launch a network of 75 school gardens to support urban biodiversity and combat child malnutrition, to provide 15 million meals for children in India’s municipal schools.

Mr. Dilip Modi, Founder & CEO of Spice Money

“The recent data released by the Ministry of Finance, showing UPI transactions crossing a record 16.99 billion in January 2025, marks a significant milestone for India’s digital economy. UPI remains the cornerstone of India’s digital payment ecosystem, contributing to 80 percent of retail payments across the country. In the 2023-24 financial year, the total transaction volume exceeded 131 billion, with the value surpassing Rs 200 lakh crore.

This data highlights the growing acceptance of digital payments and the trust people have in India’s digital financial ecosystem. At Spice Money, we are proud to be part of this journey, working to make financial services accessible to everyone, especially in rural and underserved areas.

This achievement reflects the collective efforts of the government, banks, and fintech companies. Over 80 UPI apps and 641 banks are live in the UPI ecosystem, demonstrating its widespread adoption and scalability. This growing participation underscores the platform’s reliability and efficiency, solidifying its pivotal role in driving digital financial inclusion across the country

A critical part of this success has been the role of business correspondents, who have been instrumental in bringing digital financial services to the last mile. They are the backbone of financial inclusion, ensuring that even the most remote communities can participate in the digital economy.

As we move forward, it is important to focus on reaching even more people, particularly those in smaller towns and villages. With a 1.5 million Adhikaris network, Spice Money remains committed to empowering individuals and businesses with simple, reliable, and affordable financial solutions. Together, we can ensure that the benefits of digital payments reach every corner of the country.”

New Delhi, 28th February 2025 – Kia India, the country’s leading mass-premium carmaker, has been awarded the prestigious ‘Great Place to Work’ certification for the period of February 2025 – February 2026. This certification underscores Kia India’s unwavering commitment to building a trust-based, inclusive, and high-performance workplace culture where employees feel valued, empowered, and inspired.

With over 92% employee participation from corporate, regional, and plant offices across the country, this achievement highlights Kia India’s employee-friendly policies, which prioritize the all-round professional development of its workforce.

On the occasion, Mr. Gwanggu Lee, Managing Director & CEO of Kia India, remarked, “Being recognized as a Great Place to Work is a proud milestone for all of us at Kia India. Our dedication to fostering a customer-centric, people-focused, and collaborative ‘One Team’ culture is at the heart of everything we do. This certification is a testament to our ongoing journey. We remain committed to listening to our people, learning from their insights, and investing in their growth, making Kia India an even more inspiring place to work. As we continue to redefine mobility, we are steadfast in our mission to cultivate a workplace that nurtures innovation and growth.”

The certification process followed the rigorous Great Place to Work® model, evaluating workplace culture across five key dimensions: Credibility, Respect, Fairness, Pride, and Camaraderie. Kia India excelled in all these areas, reinforcing its commitment to employee engagement, well-being, and a culture of excellence. Notably, Kia India stands out as one of the few automobile manufacturers in the country to receive this prestigious recognition.

New Delhi, February 28, 2025—New Relic, the Intelligent Observability company, announced a powerful agentic AI integration with ServiceNow, building upon its expanding open agent ecosystem and existing agentic integrations. By connecting New Relic’s Intelligent Observability Platform with best-of-breed solutions, New Relic goes beyond a simple API data pull to provide deep, mission-critical insights and intelligent recommendations to the tools and platforms where customers already work. Enterprises embracing New Relic and ServiceNow can automate enterprise workflows, maximize business uptime, and minimize revenue loss.

“Enterprises have more data at their disposal than any team of engineers can handle,” said New Relic Chief Product Officer Manav Khurana. “Our agent-to-agent AI integrations, connected via natural language APIs, automate tasks across toolchains and turn disparate data sets into business-critical insights. These insights, powered by our unified telemetry data, identify issues where most humans wouldn’t even think to look and provide intelligent recommendations that allow users to take immediate action. And, unlike other observability companies that compete with best-of-breed ITSM and security tools, we are not trying to replace the tools our customers use and love. We are bringing New Relic’s Intelligent Observability Platform into their existing workflows via our open agent ecosystem, which allows our customers to connect with an agent.”

New Relic and ServiceNow integration removes context switching between multiple tools and surfaces actionable insights

IT teams often waste time and energy switching between dozens of tools in the face of an avalanche of data. It’s now near-impossible to quickly make accurate decisions, resulting in poor business outcomes and higher operational costs. Organizations can increase efficiency while reducing errors and risks by automating repetitive, tedious, and multi-step complex tasks. New Relic’s agentic integrations help teams adopt a more proactive posture with actionable insights — surfaced in context from all IT and business data — that empower intelligent decisions capable of driving growth and innovation.

Natural language allows any user to query and resolve issues with intelligent recommendations

New Relic AI, its in-platform generative AI assistant, works with ServiceNow to identify, prioritize, and address the impact and root cause of IT issues. New Relic brings real-time production data like errors, logs, traces, security vulnerabilities, and alerts directly into ServiceNow experiences and workflows. All information and insights will be presented directly within the ServiceNow interfaces in natural language, eliminating tool switching, unlocking access for any user, and speeding up issue resolution. New Relic and ServiceNow provide users with alert intelligence reports that contain alert impact analysis and probable cause theories based on deep analysis of the health of an application. Users can also query specific services, hosts, and system components for performance insights drawn from current performance data and compare them against historical trends and best practices.

“For AI agents to truly be effective, they must seamlessly communicate with each other and leverage accurate, real-time insights,” said ServiceNow GVP and GM of ITOM and Cloud Observability, Brian Emerson. “By integrating observability data from multiple APM and observability vendors, including New Relic, into ServiceNow’s workflows, we’re breaking down data silos and creating a unified, agent-to-agent experience. This ensures operators can focus on high-impact incidents, make informed decisions, and drive exceptional customer experiences at scale.”

“Any observability platform that leverages agentic AI to stitch together critical enterprise systems and enables autonomous problem-solving will unlock the ability for applications to self-heal,” said IDC Group Vice President Stephen Elliot. “The upside for businesses is enormous, as this would eliminate interruptions that cause revenue loss and brand damage, and also allow teams to focus on innovations that further improve customer experiences and increase revenue.”

The advanced platform combines an open agent ecosystem with compound and agentic AI to deliver predictive insights

Across a sprawling digital landscape, IT teams struggle to find the most accurate, real-time information to diagnose and repair issues before they affect customers. On top of that, they struggle to detect pre-incident patterns and slow-burning issues that eventually cause digital interruptions and erode the customer experience. They need to get ahead of incidents before they happen. New Relic is solving these challenges for customers by adding Predictions to its Intelligent Observability Platform. Predictions anticipate problems before they occur by using machine learning to analyze historical data, quickly identify patterns, and forecast time-series metrics within a single interface. Users can analyze a given data set or create an alert that looks ahead for early warning signs of a problem.

Radisson Hotel Group announces the signing of Radisson Collection Resort & Spa, Jaipur. This signing marks the Group’s fourth property in the city and the third Radisson Collection hotel in South Asia. Nestled in Kukas, the 200-key resort will reflect Rajasthan’s royal legacy, deriving its design inspiration from Jaipur’s heritage, culture, and art, making it an ideal destination for leisure travelers and grand celebrations.

The resort will exude the true spirit of Jaipur, combining landmark architecture, elegant interiors, exceptional gastronomic, and cultural experiences, and personalized service. It will feature 200 elegantly designed rooms and suites that will blend Radisson Collection’s contemporary design with Jaipur’s palatial architecture. Guests will be able to indulge in curated dining experiences at specialty restaurants and unwind at the bar and coffee lounge. The resort will also boast state-of-the-art wellness facilities, including an alluring spa, a fitness center,r and an outdoor pool. With plans for one of Jaipur’s largest M&E spaces, featuring heritage-inspired ballrooms and grand palatial designs, the property is poised to become a sought-after venue for grandiose weddings, corporate gatherings, and landmark celebrations.

“We are delighted to introduce the Radisson Collection brand to Jaipur, a city steeped in culture and known for its unmatched hospitality. This will be our fourth property in the city, which has always been a leading tourism and MICE destination. With the growing demand for exclusive accommodations in this dynamic market, this signing further strengthens our commitment to providing bespoke experiences in iconic Indian destinations. Radisson Collection Resort & Spa, Jaipur is strategically positioned to capture a significant share of Jaipur’s domestic leisure and wedding market, driven by strong demand from Delhi NCR and other key Indian cities. We are excited to continue our growth in Rajasthan, blending heritage with contemporary luxury lifestyle to offer unparalleled experiences to our guests,” said Nikhil Sharma, Managing Director and Area Senior Vice President, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.

Kukas, known for its outstanding wedding venues, is home to some of Jaipur’s iconic hospitality landmarks, positioning Radisson Collection Resort & Spa, Jaipur as a key player in the city. Strategically located on National Highway 248, connecting Delhi and Jaipur, the resort is just 30-40 minutes away from Jaipur International Airport and Jaipur Junction, offering seamless connectivity for travelers. The resort will also be ideally situated near major attractions like Amber Fort, Nahargarh Fort, and Hawa Mahal, further enhancing its appeal to leisure travelers.

“This signing is a key milestone in our growth strategy for South Asia, focused on markets with strong demand for exceptional accommodations and destination weddings. The Radisson Collection Resort & Spa, Jaipur, will be an addition to our luxury lifestyle portfolio. Jaipur’s enduring appeal and growing significance as a wedding and leisure destination, as well as the increasing demand for resort-centric developments, makes it the ideal location for this property,” said Davashish Srivastava, Senior Director, Development, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.

“We are excited to collaborate with Radisson Hotel Group to bring their iconic Radisson Collection brand to Jaipur. Our property will embody the royal essence of Rajasthan while offering world-class hospitality experiences. We are confident that it will become a landmark in the city’s luxury lifestyle hospitality landscape,” said Sandeep Sharma, Owner, of  Radisson Collection Resort & Spa, Jaipur.

Radisson Hotel Group continues to command a leading presence in the Indian market and is one of the country’s largest international hotel operators with over 199 hotels in operation and development. It continues to be the largest hotel operator in a tier-1 market like Delhi NCR, while over 50% of its portfolio is in tier-2 and 3 markets. With properties located within a four-hour drive of each other, the Group has successfully introduced various brands to the growing Indian market, including Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Park Inn by Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn & Suites by Radisson and Radisson Individuals and its extension Radisson Individuals Retreats.

National, India 28th January 2025: Skoodle, the flagship brand of Stone Sapphire India Pvt. Ltd. (SSIPL), has unveiled a groundbreaking initiative to promote sustainability in the stationery industry. By scaling up the production of its eco-friendly recycled paper pencils, the brand aims to make a significant environmental impact and inspire a greener tomorrow. This innovative approach is set to transform the stationery industry and significantly reduce the environmental impact of traditional pencil manufacturing.

In India, conventional wooden pencil production results in the loss of approximately 1 tree for every 9500 wooden pencils produced. Skoodle, through its innovative approach and technology, produces 720 million wood-free pencils annually, saving an estimated 3000 trees each year, and this has been going on for about 6 years. Further by transitioning the market completely to recycled paper rolled pencils, this impact could grow threefold, paving the way for significant environmental conservation.

“Our commitment to sustainability goes beyond business—it’s a responsibility we embrace wholeheartedly,” said Shobhit Singh, Managing Director & CEO of Stone Sapphire India Pvt. Ltd. “By introducing recycled paper pencils, we aim to create a lasting positive impact on the environment. This initiative symbolizes the power of small changes that inspire a larger movement. Our vision is for India to lead in sustainability, starting with actionable steps like Skoodle eco-conscious practices.”

Skoodle’s efforts are projected to have saved 13 acres of forest land every year since 2018, contributing to a sustainable future, while addressing key challenges such as deforestation, carbon emissions, and waste management. The brand invites individuals, businesses, and educational institutions to join this Earth-Conscious Movement and embrace sustainable practices in their daily lives.

Skoodle’s initiative underscores the importance of innovation and responsibility in shaping a sustainable future, one pencil at a time. By choosing Skoodle’s eco-friendly products, consumers are directly contributing to a more sustainable future. Together, small actions can lead to big changes, ensuring a healthier planet for future generations.