Dec 1, 2021 | Interviews and Features
Card91, a payment infrastructure platform, has appointed Srijit Sanyal as Vice President, Sales & Partnership.
A veteran in the Fintech industry, Srijit has nearly 2 decades of rich sales experience with banks, fintechs and pharmaceuticals and has held senior management positions with several fintech companies like Mosambee, Ezetap and PaySwiff. He has also worked in the payments domain with banks such as HDFC and ICICI as well as processors like Atos Worldline.
His experience has enabled him to improve operational efficiency and set high quality standards in various aspects of the fintech industry. He was instrumental in significantly expanding one of the leading fintechs’ sales books by onboarding e-commerce, telecoms, insurance companies and NBFCs. He has also collaborated closely with banks to develop a payment ecosystem that spans multiple geographies.
Srijit will be directly reporting to the CBO Mr. Amit Shah and will drive sales along with him. He will also be responsible for the Partnership with the Banks and Networks to create a payments ecosystem to provide seamless solutions to the end businesses.
Ajay Pandey, Co-founder of Card91, stated that the company is rapidly expanding and is looking to hire more professionals across sales, operations and technology. With an idea to change the payments landscape in India, the founders have gathered buy sumatriptan, a stellar team to execute their vision and have seen a lot of positive steps towards that direction.
Amit Shah, CBO of Card91, is thrilled to have Srijit on board and is excited to bring new use cases to the market. In addition, he emphasised Card91’s rapid growth and the type of disruption the start-up is causing in the payments industry.
Nov 25, 2021 | Books, Interviews and Features, Lifestyle, Regional
Mehdi Hasan Maruf (Bengali: মেহেদী হাসান মারুফ) is a journalist, writer, columnist, and political commentator of Bangladesh who is well known for his bold independent writings. A powerful voice in journalism, creative writings, and social activism for the last several years.
He was born and brought up in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He finished college in 2008 at Dhaka Commerce College (DCC) and his undergraduate was completed at City Unity College, Athens, Greece. He is also a self-published author, has published several books written on fiction and non-fiction stories, novels, and adventure books. Mehdi Hasan Maruf currently lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is publisher and editor of Independent World Report, a world news online portal focused on human rights issues and information sites for migrants.
Published books:
The number of books published by “Mehdi Hasan Maruf” is five. These include one book titled “Concept of Humanity” written jointly with Professor AB Khan which is taught as textbooks at BRAC NGO School and other NGO Schools in Bangladesh.
The books published are:
1: Human weakness,
2: Partition of 1947,
3: Jibon theke neya,
4: Oviman,
5: Hardness of illness.
Publications:
• Bangladesher Dosh Shohore Sangbadikotai Nari (Tr. Women in Journalism in 10 Towns of Bangladesh)
• Maddhyam 2004 (Tr. Bangladesh Media Directory 2004)
• Sthanio Sarker O Sangbadikota (Tr. Local Government & Journalism)
• Gender, Media and Journalism
• Bangladesher Sangbadpatre Smaraniya Protibedan (Tr. Memorable Reports in Bangladesh Newspapers)
• Bangladesh Journalism Review: Women and Media
• Anusandhani Sangbadikata (Tr. Investigative Journalism)
Oct 4, 2021 | Interviews and Features, Tech
Neelesh Kripalani, Chief Technology Officer, Clover Infotech
For too long, cybersecurity has been reactive, a rather panicked response to an inevitable breach. However, the enterprise attack surface is massive, and continuing to grow and evolve rapidly.
‘It is estimated that cybercrime will cost businesses worldwide $10.5 trillion annually by 2025- CyberSecurity Ventures Report.’
Organizations are under intense pressure to get their data protection and security right. Thus, it’s understandable that organizations want to take a proactive approach against threats in order to create an environment of continuous compliance.
What are the key challenges for security managers?
Life has never been easy for security teams. Unfortunately, things are only getting harder with new challenges popping up. Here are the 5 key challenges faced by security managers…
- Rising volume & sophistication of cyber attacks
- The explosive growth in endpoints
- The digital-physical convergence
- Ensuring business continuity
- The widening skills gap
Keeping these challenges in mind, today’s security teams have to come up with new tactics to fend off the advanced threats being levelled against their increasingly interconnected enterprise networks.
An intelligence-led cybersecurity approach
The biggest hurdle in managing cyber-security risks is probably the speed of the cyber-attacks and the amount of data and its inter-dependencies that must be analyzed in order to be able to respond in real time. Taking an intelligence-led security approach holds the key.
An intelligence-led security approach is a shift away from event-driven cybersecurity, wherein you embrace insights and intelligence to be proactive instead of being reactive to cyber-attacks by raising awareness of the threats before an attack. In this approach, cybersecurity team works on the assumption that you are already under attack. The process should be as automated as possible to derive the maximum benefit.
Intelligent cybersecurity management is primarily based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) including neural network-based deep learning. It applies various AI and ML methods that eventually seek for intelligent decision making in cyber applications or services.
Curating threat intelligence from millions of research papers and article, AI technologies and natural language processing provides quick insights to cut through the noise of daily alerts, thereby considerably reducing the response time. Nourishing intelligence into a security operations centre (SOC) can drive threat detection and response more aggressively.
Stay predictive and proactive
Innovation and digitisation will continue to grow at an exponential pace. The traditional cybersecurity approach is to attack the problem and solve it. However, with the increasing adoption of digital, you can’t do something once and hope that you’ll be safe forever. Risk management and resolution must be ongoing. Managing security in the digital world involves the gathering, synthesis, and analysis of security data as standard. It’s no longer just about the data, but what the data can tell us in order to be predictive and proactive. An intelligence-led cybersecurity approach will not only ensure safety and business continuity but also help you gain competitive advantage.
Sep 7, 2021 | Interviews and Features
It all started 27 years back, while he was studying in Kolkata, and used to help his uncle in his flower business when he developed interest and trading skills in being a florist. In 1994, he opened the first store of Ferns N Petals in the prime locality of Delhi. The air-conditioned ambiance and beautiful varieties of flowers captivated the attention of the customers. After getting an excellent response, he expanded into other regions of Delhi, and thus, the journey of delivering happiness continued.
Now, the company has grown to be the largest brand which is delivering happiness and celebrating emotions across the world through 11 different verticals. Today, we lead the floral, gifting, and cakes industry with 400 outlets in 125 cities nationwide and a presence across the world. The brand has become a driver of marketplace innovation and a contributor to local economies. We introduced our E-Commerce division in 2002, and since then it has grown in leaps and bounds to become the Largest Gifting Portal in the country. Today, FNP delivers across 400 cities & towns across India and 120 countries worldwide. Ferns N Petals has kept itself abreast with new technology and gives the facility to its customers to order flowers and gifts anytime anywhere by just logging on to www.fnp.com. The delivery can be done within 2 hours anywhere in India or abroad.
After having established ourselves as market leaders in India, Ferns N Petals expanded its International Footprints into the South East Asian and Middle East space. We boast of a specific website www.fnp.ae for UAE and www.fnp.sg for Singapore to cater to the unique set of customers in each of these regions.
With special occasions or festivals lingering around the corner, we believe gifting culture symbolizes love, care, and gratitude. Hence, we are not only limited to cater to personal gifting needs for family and friends but also the corporate gifting requirements for a healthy bond with business associates and employees. We offer an array of impressive gifting products that are available all year-round and at affordable prices. Using our international delivery services, one can send corporate gifts to Singapore, Malaysia, USA, UK and 70+ other International locations also.
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 Mr Vikaas Gutgutia, MD & Founder. Ferns N Petals |
Webnewswire: Considering FNP’s omnichannel presence, what percentage of your sales comes from digital channels vs on-ground retail stores?
Vikaas Gutgutia: We have always grown in double digits in the online space. Online is a significant portion of the group’s turnover. The online channel is our FNP’s backbone.
- 70% of sales come from our digital channel and the rest comes from the retail stores
- The overall turnover of the company was around Rs500 crore in FY 2020-21. However, due to the unfortunate lockdown disruptions, we expect a hit of around 15-20 percent in its topline.
Webnewswire: Currently how many stores do you have across the globe? What are your plans for expanding your gifting portfolio?
Vikaas Gutgutia:
Ferns N Petals Flower Stores- 271 outlets in 125 cities
FNP Cake N More- 128 in 55 cities
FNP delivers across 400 cities & towns across India and 120 countries worldwide. Ferns N Petals has kept itself abreast with new technology and gives the facility to its customers to order flowers and gifts anytime anywhere by just logging on to www.fnp.com. The delivery can be done within 2 hours anywhere in India or abroad.
With special occasions or festivals lingering around the corner, we believe gifting culture symbolizes love, care, and gratitude. Hence, we are not only limited to cater to personal gifting needs for family and friends but also the corporate gifting requirements for a healthy bond with business associates and employees.
We offer an array of impressive gifting products that are available all year-round and at affordable prices. Ferns N Petals is the first and the only Indian floral and gifting brand that delivers in 400+ locations that include megacities, big towns, and small villages.
Digital gifting launched in March 2020
- The digital gifting options include Musician on Call (Guitarist, Violinist Flue, etc.), Celebrity Video Message, Poet on Call, Personalized App, Digital Caricatures, Personalized Video message, etc.
- The musician on-call service can be availed by customers for any and every occasion like Birthday’s Anniversaries, friendship, father’s day, promotion, etc. and to express emotions like I am sorry, romantic, motivation, Get well soon, and so on.
- Guitarist on-call followed by Celebrity video message are the most popular choices
- Digital gifting options launched in the last week of March contributed to 40% of April’s revenue;
- The segment contributed 7%-8% of the overall FNP’s FY20-21 revenue
Webnewswire: What are your plans in the pipeline for international expansion?
Vikaas Gutgutia: We have launched our services, as well as store operations in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. FNP records double-digit growth in sales and revenue in the UAE, with the aim of expanding to KSA during the next quarter. With existing delivery services across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, we have created a niche in the UAE’s online market. As a part of our key expansion plan, we have opened a new retail store in Sharjah. The expansion in Sharjah will help customers choose from the wide range of gifting options and avail the satisfaction of taking them home right away. Since establishing FNP’s first branch in Dubai, UAE, the brand has seen a tremendous revenue increase, and we are confident about the incredible opportunities the region has to offer. We are now aiming to enter a new international market every three months. Ferns N Petals is constantly expanding into other sectors as well.
Growth & Turnover of the company
|
Revenue (net)
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2018-19
|
2019-20
|
|
2020-21
|
|
|
Audited
|
Audited
|
|
Projected
|
|
FNP Retail + Online business (India, UAE, Singapore)
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211.31
|
283.78
|
|
389.24
|
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FNP Group turnover (Including wedding & gardens)
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252.99
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336.10
|
|
500.24 (approx..)
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The company has grown by 55% from April 2020 to November 2020 and below is the growth percentage for the last three years:
- March’ 17 – 38%
- March’ 18 – 53%
- March’ 19 – 49%
- March 20 -21 – 35%
Some of the key milestones are:
In 1994- First retail outlet opened in New Delhi
In 1996- Did first wedding décor assignment
In 2002- Launched www.fnp.com
In 2003- Opened first wedding venue ‘The Kundan’
In 2013- Launched ‘The Flagship Store’
In 2014- Launched Wedding Design Hub
In 2015- Went global through www.fnp.ae
In 2016 – Udman (first hotel of the brand)
In 2016- Crossed 1 million customers mark of www.fnp.com
In 2017- Started FNP Cakes ‘N’ More
In 2018 – Launched ‘FNP Media’ a content & production house
In 2018 – Successfully opened 300th Retail Outlet
In 2019 -Entered into FMCG business by launching FNP Water
In 2020 – Launched ‘Last Journey’ personalized funeral services
Upgrade and Investment in Technology
Technology has always been the backbone of the Ferns N Petals business. This pandemic has called for more of it. Before this pandemic, 98% of our business involved doorstep delivery of gifts or flowers, which was rendered impotent due to the nationwide lockdown. To deal with this slowdown in business and depleting market sentiments, we turned this business disruption into an opportunity by developing Digital Gifting, which is absolutely contactless and delivered directly on the recipient’s mobile phone or email. We have ambitious growth plans, as we are moving towards a data-driven approach and embracing the power of data and technology, we are planning to invest up to INR 30 crores in technology in the next two years to boost our e-commerce segment and to become the Uber of gifting services.
FNP Gardens, Unit of Ferns N Petals
A wedding is like a dream! And we help you turn that dream into reality!
FNP Gardens is today the one-stop solution for a dream wedding experience. From luxury to mid-range wedding venues at Chattarpur Central, The Kundan, Vilasa, Opulent, Shagun Farms, Udman, Pavilion, The Ritz, The Riviera, The Riviera House, and Azizaa farms, spread across Delhi and Gurgaon. Over a span of 3 years, FNP Gardens has successfully organized 1300+ Weddings until March 2020 & completed 80+ Weddings during the pandemic.
FNP Weddings
This pandemic has taken a toll on almost every industry in the world and the Indian Wedding Industry, estimated around $50 billion, has now come to a halt. All the summer and spring weddings at our 11 venues under FNP Gardens are either postponed or canceled. Many couples have chosen to postpone their weddings to the winter season of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, whereas few who have canceled the bigger celebration are now opting for an intimate wedding. Because of these cancellations, all the associated units such as caterers, designers, make-up artists, wedding vendors, or planners have been affected to the core. We see this year, the revenue continues to stay below expectations. But there is no question Indian weddings will return with a spike in growth in the coming years.
Changes in the era of pandemic
The Indian wedding market is ever-growing and has multiplied multifold in the past few years. However, due to this ongoing pandemic, things may change but wedding functions will never stop in India and we will come back stronger. Since social distancing is the need of the hour, we are expecting a behavioral shift towards choosing the wedding venues. People will either opt for bigger space so that sufficient distancing can be maintained or they will prefer a smaller banquet that can accommodate only immediate family members.
Webnewswire: Role of sustainability in the wedding season
Vikaas Gutgutia: This year has made us realize, that it’s high time that we give more priority to sustainability. Being, the biggest floral chain in India, we have always been closer to the elements of nature and now we will also implement them in our weddings. All the arrangements, be it décor, catering, lighting, and so on will be done, minding the rules of sustainability. We are also promoting day weddings to support the idea of saving energy. On top of it, we are also planning to add eco-friendly elements to beautify the spaces for weddings. Therefore, we are trying to go on a sustainable path for weddings.
Coping up with the changing trends | We would make all the required arrangements as per the need of the hour. Be it the setup of our venues, installing sanitizing tunnels, tweaking the buffet style, and so on… everything will be done in accordance with the need of the hour. There will be an emphasis on top-notch hygiene standards as well as ensure contactless services.
Webnewswire: Discussing Current Scenario
Vikaas Gutgutia: For people who planned their wedding during April’21, we suggested to most of the couples and their families to shift their weddings to October-November-December dates. Hopefully, by then the Covid situation should be under control, and the Govt. may be kind enough to give us better guidelines, having a better no of people at a wedding.
If you practically look at the situation, somebody has been waiting to organize his/her wedding for almost 2 years now and cannot push it beyond a certain limit. Just like last year’s lockdown, there are people who organized their wedding in a smaller manner. We have assisted them in managing things, doing the venue décor, catering, etc. This present financial year so far has been a washout, hopefully, if the pandemic curbs and situation comes under control, OND should be much brighter, there is yet a fair chance to recover from this financial hit but yet let’s be practical and honest that it won’t be able to cover up for the losses incurred so far but at least we won’t be out on a duck.
Profile of Mr Vikaas Gutgutia, Founder & MD, Ferns N Petals
Mr Vikaas Gutgutia, is a maverick entrepreneur and the Unicorn Founder & Managing Director of Ferns N Petals. Established in 1994 he started his journey with the purpose of providing world-class facilities to Indian society. For Mr. Gutgutia, gifting was an intimate way of expressing one’s love and appreciation to a dear one and he wanted to transform this experience from a beautiful dream to an ingenious reality. Despite what most might think, a university degree doesn’t always equate to success, with just a simple B.Com degree in hand and putting his blood and sweat into the business for years, he established a name that has become a household phenomenon and the largest flower and gifting brand in India.
With his persistent efforts and desire to create an exceptional brand, he brought a new edge to the flower gifting culture in the country, and now this flower has budded into different directions with 400+ stores across India and 11 verticals under one umbrella. Some of these are FNP Retail and Franchising, FNP E-commerce – India | UAE | Singapore, FNP Cakes ‘N’ More, FNP Weddings & Events, FNP Gardens, Floral Touch – UAE, FNP Flagship Store, Sipping Thoughts, Wedding Design Hub, FNP Media, and FNP Water. Due to his many achievements, he was nominated as Entrepreneur of the Year (2020) by Ernst & Young.
Mr. Gutguita has found his success because of his unconventional and out-of-the-box ideology. He had set out with a dream to transform the world of gifting and flowers and has managed to achieve just that. Now, FNP has diversified into various other fields. Mr. Gutguita has time and again proved that no dream is too big for a person who has what it takes. Other than the quest to be the best in the industry, he has a deep interest in penning down poems based on his experiences of life.
Company Profile
Jul 28, 2021 | Health and Wellness, Interviews and Features
Difficult times happen at some point in all our lives. In recent times, we got hit with difficult situations that the whole world has been experiencing together. This unique challenge of a ‘world pandemic’ escalated difficult times and problems to a new level that we have never experienced in our modern lives.
Dr. Mary Ann V. Mercer, Psy.D., author of ‘Bouncing Back from Difficult Times’ reveals, “It was a wakeup call for most people regarding their lives. And for many that was very unsettling and upsetting”. As a result of working and speaking with people from all over the U.S., Dr. Mercer revealed commonalities in dealing with these difficulties and uncertainty. The sense of uncertainty about the future played havoc on everyone, and still does today.
Dr. Mercer revealed, “While a lot of people struggled, I noticed many people flourished.” Why was that? In discovering these patterns, Dr Mercer decided to reach out to all those who are still suffering because of the recent pandemic – as well as to a variety of other ‘difficult times’ in people’s lives. Her new book and workshop benefits everyone who ever experienced difficult times in their lives and needs guidance to bounce back.
Dr. Mercer reveals, in stories and examples how certain people overcame and grew through the challenges and difficult times. Dr. Mercer explains, “There are key behaviors, traits and habits that are key to bouncing back from difficult times. Even if you were not born that way, you can learn specific patterns from resilient, hopeful, and optimistic people. These are the individuals who leapt out of these hard times.”
These lessons are important right now because of the ongoing uncertainty of our time. Also, some people are experiencing doubt and nervousness in needing to re-enter and face life again. Just because we flicked the ‘on switch’ in our world does not mean everyone is ready or willing to move ahead. Many are still stuck, trying to make sense of it all, while doubting who they are, what they want and what they are capable of doing in their life. Dr. Mary Ann Mercer’s book guides people out of the rut of uncertainty, and points people in the right direction not only to bounce back but also gain new meaning and purpose in their lives.
Overall Dr. Mercer explains “…you can learn from resilient and optimistic people in that they deal with their reactions calmly and are not reactive to difficulties. Plus, they accept the situations that challenge them. They acknowledge the need to change their position in a flexible and adaptive manner. This includes changing their expectations and plans for their lives.” People have observed that Dr. Mercer “provides the key to handling all kinds of challenging and tough situations”.
Dr. Mercer provides you with keys to ‘Bouncing Back from Difficult Times’ in an interview and article for your viewers and readers.
Mary Ann V. Mercer, Psy.D., is a Psychologist, Speaker & Intensive Coaching™ co-creator. Dr. Mercer co-authored many books, including SPONTANEOUS OPTIMISM™. She appears on TV & Radio, including Oprah, Home & Family, plus Crook & Chase. Dr. Mercer is quoted in many publications, including Fitness, Self, Health, Martha Stewart, Fitbit, & Redbook. She delivers speeches and workshops — and co-founded the self-help website www.PositiveLifeAnswers.com
