Espresso: TVS Motor and Escorts step up digital play

TVS Motor eyes digital investments

Automaker TVS Motor Company is running a digital technology organisation through its Singapore subsidiary that addresses business challenges by harnessing analytics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and Internet of Things.

TVS Motor (Singapore) has invested $19.5 million in three start-ups in the US, and one in Singapore, according to its latest annual report.

Altizon operates a business in digitising legacy factories, Predictronics in the area of predictive maintenance, and Scienaptic in credit services focused on credit decisioning, underwriting and collections. Fleet management platform Tagbox in Singapore is focused on granular asset tracking.

Predictronics, Scienaptic and Tagbox registered double-digit revenue growth over the previous fiscal, according to TVS Motor Company.

Tech Mahindra logs into vaccine supply chain

Mid-sized IT firm Tech Mahindra has partnered with StaTwig, a company in Hyderabad, to implement a blockchain-based solution ‘VaccineLedger’ for transparency in the global vaccine supply chain.

TechMahindra will work with the digital supply chain solution provider to prevent failures related to expired and fake vaccines and stock out, at a time when vaccine manufacturers are dealing with supply shortages.

The two firms want to build a global consortium of vaccine researchers, governments, pharmaceutical companies, distributors, and healthcare workers. 

Escorts steps up digital services

Tractor manufacturer Escorts said it has implemented IT-enabled business processes that leverage new technologies to deliver on digitisation. “Our digitisation processes improve productivity and controls, while we have implemented digital projects to increase customer outreach,” the company said in its latest annual report.

Escorts cited Care Device 24X7 (one-touch service request for doorstep service), Traxi (rental services for tractors and farm equipment) and Digitrac (a digital marketplace for purchase of tractors) that are helping provide better services to its customers.

Global debt rose by $32 trillion in 2020: Moody’s

Global debt rose by $32 trillion in 2020, according to international credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service. 

At $290.6 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2020, the global outstanding debt grew over 12.3 percent from $258.7 trillion in the corresponding period of 2019.

While Moody’s foresees global debt to continue rising in 2021, the good news is that despite an uptick in defaults, policy support has prevented a debt crisis in emerging markets. But, the pandemic and its aftermath will challenge their debt-servicing capacity. On the other hand, advanced economies have more fiscal space but will face productivity and demographic challenges.

SoftBank pays $1.6 bn for Yahoo! Japan rights

Softbank’s internet business division Z Holdings Corporation, previously known as Yahoo! Japan Corporation, has bought the Yahoo! trademark for $1.6 billion, securing its rights to the name and associated technology.

In effect, Yahoo! Japan won’t have to pay a royalty anymore to Verizon Media (which owns Yahoo! worldwide) to use the Yahoo! branding. 

Unlike the rest of the world, Yahoo! Japan is still a popular web-portal. Z Holdings already owns the country’s second most popular messaging app Line and one of the largest mobile payment apps PayPay.

Axis Bank’s digital leaps in 2020-21

Axis Bank made significant investments in 2020-21 to drive innovative technology solutions and build greater collaboration between business and technology, according to its latest annual report.

It cited the implementation of tech-driven transformation project ‘Sankalp’ in Axis Bank’s Commercial Banking Coverage group, which has reduced loan-approval time by nearly 75 percent, while raising relationship managers’ productivity by two or three times.

“We have adopted an agile methodology with multiple cross-functional squads working on over 220 high-priority, organisation-wide transformation projects,” said Amitabh Chaudhry, CEO of Axis Bank. Half of these projects have been fully completed.