M&S DRIVES CARBON REDUCTIONS WITH ITS FIRST AUTONOMOUS FIELD TRIAL

by Today's Fables

M&S is announcing the initial results from first retailer run ‘autonomous field’ trial, which will see the retailer selling lower carbon parsnips later this year.  the first retailer to farm and sell a lower carbon vegetable following an ‘autonomous field’ trial.  

In partnership with long-term supplier, Huntapac, the first fully autonomously farmed parsnips will be available in selected M&S stores this November. To create these lower carbon parsnips, the team has brought together all the latest technology to farm with a significantly lower environmental impact. The technology includes two robots for bed forming, planting and weeding, two different types of drone to monitor and maintain crop health, and the latest scientific testing on soil health and carbon impact. Much like when agriculture moved from horse and plough to mechanical tractors, these latest technologies offer a future of farming that will aid farmers, create more highly skilled jobs in the industry and attract new talent. 

The team has adopted a minimum till approach to help keep carbon locked into the soil, a green fertiliser and the new tech, which uses significantly less diesel than a traditional tractor to reduce carbon emissions. The green fertiliser is not only produced with a lower carbon footprint than traditional methods but works by removing nitrogen dioxide from the air and converting it to nitrogen which is used by the plants for photosynthesis. Initial data shows 46% carbon reduction compared to standard methods.  

On top of the carbon impact, the use of the new technology has other benefits including improved quality and quantity of crop yields. AI was used to monitor and improve crop health and autonomous technology can reduce weather impact. For example, in March this year, following the wettest six months in England since 18711, the team were able to get in and plant the field with the autonomous robot which wouldn’t have been possible with a traditional tractor. This has also contributed to an increase in quality and number of parsnips and reduced waste, with a 16% higher yield of grade one vegetables compared to Huntapac’s other parsnip fields.  

The field also includes various measures from M&S’ Farming with Nature programme to improve biodiversity of both wildlife and the soil, including agrisound boxes and wildflower borders. AgriSound technology monitors pollinator numbers with specialist listening devices situated on farm. 

The parsnips are being grown in Yorkshire and will become available in selected M&S stores in November.  

The trial was the first M&S Food project to be funded by the M&S Plan A Net Zero accelerator fund, which the retailer launched to find innovation projects to enable rapid action towards net zero to meet its Plan A goal of being a Net Zero business across its entire supply chain by 2040. 

Andrew Clappen, Technical Director at M&S Food, said: “Innovation is at the heart of M&S Food and our Plan A Accelerator Fund offers us the opportunity to tap into the entrepreneurial spirit of our suppliers. Projects like this help us move towards being a Net Zero business across all our operations and entire supply chain by 2040, whilst focussing on the quality of produce that M&S is famous for. 

Agriculture is one of our biggest contributors to emissions, so it’s important that we find new lower impact farming methods.  Trialling new ways to support our Plan A roadmap to Net Zero is an important step on the journey and this project has helped deliver more parsnips at M&S quality, a carbon reduction and brings together new technologies which if adopted more widely would create more highly skilled jobs and attract new talent into the sector.” 

Stephen Shields, Technical & Sustainability Director at Huntapac, said: “Our 40-year relationship with M&S has gone from strength to strength and we couldn’t have done this project without the Plan A Accelerator Fund. Not only are we seeing a reduction of the carbon impact but more parsnips at higher quality, due to us being able to plant the seeds despite bad weather earlier this year. This would have a fantastic impact on our business at scale and we’re aiming to deliver multiple fields farmed this way for next season.” 

Infosys and zooplus Collaborate to Drive Digital Transformation and Enhance E-Commerce Capabilities

by Today's Fables

Infosys ,a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting,  announced a strategic collaboration with zooplus, a leading European e-commerce company based in Munich, Germany, to enhance its service capability and scalability. The collaboration will establish a state-of-the-art Global Capability Center (GCC) in Hyderabad, India.

zooplus will leverage Infosys Topaz, an AI-first offering using generative AI technologies, that will aim to help the company drive AI innovation and growth transform e-commerce capabilities, and enhance operational efficiency. The collaboration will also help improve its marketing, e-commerce, and supply chain capabilities. It will support zooplus by enhancing its expertise in product management, technology, quality, design, and engineering; and set up a new order management system.

Infosys was selected for its unique AI-first strategy and its commitment to driving improvements in productivity while achieving cost efficiencies. The GCC will leverage Infosys’ data-driven excellence and innovative capabilities to play a pivotal role in transforming zooplus’ customer experience, significantly enhancing their technology and value chain capabilities.

Geoffroy Lefebvre, Chief Executive Officer, zooplus SE, said, “At zooplus our growth strategy has always been focused on leveraging data-driven insights to meet our customers’ demands. Our collaboration with Infosys to establish our new technology hub is a strategic decision driven by their AI-first strategies combined with expertise in delivering AI-powered solutions, with Infosys Topaz. We are confident that through this collaboration we will unlock greater operational efficiencies, enhance customer experience, and stay ahead in the competitive e-commerce landscape.”

Karmesh Vaswani, Executive Vice President & Global Head of Consumer, Retail & Logistics, Infosys, said, ” At Infosys, we believe in harnessing the power of technology to drive innovation enabling profitable and sustained future growth. Collaborating with zooplus to establish this new GCC in Hyderabad underscores Infosys’ commitment to driving digital transformation at scale for our clients. By leveraging Infosys Topaz, we will empower zooplus to realize their full potential and also position them at the forefront of excellence in digital commerce and marketing.”

PM GatiShakti National Master Plan completes 3 years of transforming India’s Infrastructure landscape

by Today's Fables

The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) for muti-modal connectivity, launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 13th October 2021, completes three years today having achieved significant milestones in transforming the country’s infrastructure landscape.

On this occasion, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal said, “PM GatiShakti has brought about a paradigm shift in how India plans and implements infrastructure projects. By integrating data from multiple Ministries and States, we have created a more efficient, transparent, and outcome-driven system. The impact is visible in faster project execution, lower logistics costs, and better services reaching every corner of the country.”

According to Secretary DPIIT, Shri Amardeep Singh Bhatia, “PM GatiShakti NMP launched as the transformative approach 3 years ago by Hon’ble Prime Minister, has accelerated the infrastructure planning & development process leveraging geospatial technology and the Whole of the Government approach. During the last three years, more than 44 Central Ministries and 36 States/UTs have been onboarded, their data layers have been integrated and are provided with their own geospatial planning portal.”

With its vision to bring synergy across Ministries/Departments, and States/UTs, the PM GatiShakti has successfully laid the groundwork for seamless, multi-modal connectivity and accelerated economic growth. The PM GatiShakti has redefined how India plans and executes large-scale infrastructure projects. By harnessing geospatial data from 44 Central Ministries and 36 States/UTs, the platform has significantly improved inter-ministerial coordination and streamlined project execution.

Godfrey Phillips India Limited’s Journey through the years

by Today's Fables

Godfrey Phillips India Limited, a flagship company of Modi Enterprises – KK Modi Group, is one of the largest FMCG companies in India. GPI’s commitment to quality is unwavering.

Along with a strong primary portfolio, GPI also have a strong confectionery portfolio with Funda and have unique offerings for international markets. These are a testament to relentless pursuit of excellence and passion for innovation.

GPI’S Guldhar plant in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh has been proving its consistent track record in performance excellence with multiple accolades to its name. Year on year, for over a decade, Rabale and Guldhar plants have been receiving the highest in category WINNER award in the areas of Environment Management, Health and Safety, etc. from Greentech Foundation.

 

Godfrey Phillips India’s Rabale factory in Maharashtra has also been recognized for its remarkable environmental practices by the Greentech Foundation and by a cross section of reputed stakeholders, including the Vasundhara Awards by the Government of Maharashtra, INSSAN, IRIM for Manufacturing Competitiveness. Rabale unit has bagged the Greentech ‘Quality and Innovation’ Award for two successive years.

Godfrey Phillips seeks RBI nod on bonus issue to non-resident shareholders

Godfrey Phillips India Ltd on Friday announced that its board of directors has discussed issuing bonus shares.

However, the company has decided to seek clarification and approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) before proceeding with the issuance, particularly for non-resident shareholders, including those under Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI).

Given the company’s involvement in manufacturing cigarettes and other tobacco products, where FDI is currently prohibited, the board recognised the need for regulatory clearance.

The decision to issue bonus shares will be revisited once the necessary approvals from the RBI are obtained. Godfrey Phillips India said a subsequent board meeting will be convened to finalise and implement the issuance of bonus shares.

“In view of the above, the board decided that on receipt of the necessary clarification/approval from RBI, a board meeting will be subsequently convened to approve the issuance of Bonus Shares and undertake necessary steps to implement the decision thereafter,” it said.

The company’s revenue from operations increased 12% to ₹1,158.2 crore compared to ₹1,034.1 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding fiscal.

At the operating level, EBITDA was up 3.5% to ₹248.3 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal over ₹239.8 crore in the year-ago period. The EBITDA margin stood at 21.4% in the reporting quarter compared to 23.2% in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

Cabinet approves health coverage to all senior citizens of the age 70 years and above

by Today's Fables

Cabinet approves health coverage to all senior citizens of the age 70 years and above irrespective of income under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY)

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the health coverage to all the senior citizens aged 70 years and above irrespective of income under the flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (ABPMJAY)

This aims to benefit approximately 4.5 Crore families with six (6) crore senior citizens with 5 Lakh rupees free health insurance cover on a family basis.

With this approval, all senior citizens of the age 70 years and above irrespective of their socio- economic status would be eligible to avail the benefits of AB PM-JAY. The eligible senior citizens would be issued a new distinct card under ABPMJAY. The senior citizens of the age 70 years and above belonging to families already covered under AB PM-JAY will get an additional top-up cover upto ₹5 lakh per year for themselves (which they do not have to share with the other members of the family who are below the age of 70 years).

All other senior citizens of the age 70 years and above will get a cover upto ₹5 lakh per year on a family basis. Senior citizens of the age 70 years and above who are already availing benefits of other public health insurance schemes such as Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), Ayushman Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) may either choose their existing scheme or opt for AB PMJAY. It has been clarified that senior citizens of 70 years and above who are under private health insurance policies or Employees’ State Insurance scheme will be eligible to avail benefits under AB PM-JAY.



AB PM-JAY is the world’s largest publicly funded health assurance scheme which provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to 55 crore individuals corresponding to 12.34 crore families. All members of the eligible families irrespective of age are covered under the scheme. The scheme has covered 7.37 Crore hospital admissions including 49 percent women beneficiaries. The public has benefited to the extent of over Rs. 1 Lakh crore under the scheme.

The expansion of cover to senior citizens of the age of 70 years and above was earlier announced by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in April 2024.

JSW Energy arm secures 200 MW wind-solar hybrid power project from MSEDCL

by Today's Fables

JSW Energy Limited is a top renewable energy company in India and a leading power generation company in India. Committed to the efficient utilization of all available resources, JSW Energy stands out in the private sector as a prime example of sustainable growth. The company expertly manages operations to enhance social and economic benefits while minimizing environmental impacts through cutting-edge innovation. Over the years, JSW Energy has grown steadily and strongly, becoming a prominent energy company in India. 

Today, JSW Energy not only has a significant presence across various Indian states but also holds stakes in natural resource companies in South Africa, showcasing its expansion in power generation and distribution on a global scale.

JSW Energy shares gained over 2.5% in the early deals on Tuesday, August 27, after the company said its subsidiary JSW Neo Energy Ltd has secured a fresh contract from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) to establish a 200 MW wind-solar hybrid power project.

The letter of award comes as a part of MSEDCL’s Phase III tariff-based competitive bidding process, JSW Energy said in a regulatory filing.

With this new capacity addition, JSW Energy’s total locked-in generation capacity has increased to 17.2 GW, including 2.9 GW of hybrid capacity. The company’s current operational capacity stands at 7.5 GW, with a target to reach 10 GW by FY25.

JSW Energy’s portfolio now includes 7.5 GW of operational capacity, 2.3 GW under construction across wind, thermal, and hydro projects, and a renewable energy pipeline of 7.3 GW, with power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed for 2.3 GW.

Looking ahead, JSW Energy aims to expand its generation capacity to 20 GW and its energy storage capacity to 40 GWh by 2030. The company has also set a long-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 aligning with its strategy to become a comprehensive energy products and services provider.

On August 23, JSW Neo Energy Ltd received a Letter of Award (LoA) from state-owned NTPC Ltd for a 300 MW ISTS-connected Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Project. This project was part of NTPC’s Tranche-VI, which aims to develop 1,000 MW of ISTS-connected wind-solar hybrid power projects.

On the same day, JSW Energy announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, JSW Renew Energy Twenty Ltd, signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd (BESCOM) for a 300 MW solar project. The project was awarded by Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL).

 

High-Tech Highways: India Uses NVIDIA Accelerated Computing to Ease Tollbooth Traffic

by Today's Fables

India is home to the globe’s second-largest road network, spanning nearly 4 million miles, and has over a thousand tollbooths, most of them run manually.

Traditional booths like these, wherever in the world they’re deployed, can contribute to massive traffic delays, long commute times and serious road congestion.

To help automate tollbooths across India, Calsoft, an Indian-American technology company, helped implement a broad range of NVIDIA technologies integrated with the country’s dominant payment system, known as the unified payments interface, or UPI, for a client.

Manual tollbooths demand more time and labor compared to automated ones. However, automating India’s toll systems faces an extra complication: the diverse range of license plates.

India’s non-standardized plates pose a significant challenge to the accuracy of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems. Any implementation would need to address these plate variations, which include divergent color, sizing, font styles and placement upon vehicles, as well as many different languages.

The solution Calsoft helped build automatically reads passing vehicle plates and charges the associated driver’s UPI account. This approach reduces the need for manual toll collection and is a massive step toward addressing traffic in the region.

Automation in Action

As part of a pilot program, this solution has been deployed in several leading metropolitan cities. The solution provides about 95% accuracy in its ability to read plates through the use of an ANPR pipeline that detects and classifies the plates as they roll through tollbooths.

NVIDIA’s technology has been crucial in this effort, according to Vipin Shankar, senior vice president of technology at Calsoft. “Particularly challenging was night-time detection,” he said. “Another challenge was model accuracy improvement on pixel distortions due to environmental impacts like fog, heavy rains, reflections due to bright sunshine, dusty winds and more.”

The solution uses NVIDIA Metropolis to track and detect vehicles throughout the process. Metropolis is an application framework, a set of developer tools and a partner ecosystem that brings visual data and AI together to improve operational efficiency and safety across a range of industries.

Calsoft engineers used NVIDIA Triton Inference Server software to deploy and manage their AI models. The team also used the NVIDIA DeepStream software development kit to build a real-time streaming platform. This was key for processing and analyzing data streams efficiently, incorporating advanced capabilities such as real-time object detection and classification.

Calsoft uses NVIDIA hardware, including NVIDIA Jetson edge AI modules and NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs in its AI solutions. Calsoft’s tollbooth solution is also scalable, meaning it’s designed to accommodate future growth and expansion needs, and can better ensure sustained performance and adaptability as traffic conditions evolve.

AI Chases the Storm: New NVIDIA Research Boosts Weather Prediction, Climate Simulation

by Today's Fables

As hurricanes, tornadoes and other extreme weather events occur with increased frequency and severity, it’s more important than ever to improve and accelerate climate research and prediction using the latest technologies.

Amid peaks in the current Atlantic hurricane season, NVIDIA Research today announced a new generative AI model, dubbed StormCast, for emulating high-fidelity atmospheric dynamics. This means the model can enable reliable weather prediction at mesoscale — a scale larger than storms but smaller than cyclones — which is critical for disaster planning and mitigation.

Detailed in a paper written in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Washington, StormCast arrives as extreme weather phenomena are taking lives, destroying homes and causing more than $150 billion in damage annually in the U.S. alone.

It’s just one example of how generative AI is supercharging thundering breakthroughs in climate research and actionable extreme weather prediction, helping scientists tackle challenges of the highest stakes: saving lives and the world.

NVIDIA Earth-2 — a digital twin cloud platform that combines the power of AI, physical simulations and computer graphics — enables simulation and visualization of weather and climate predictions at a global scale with unprecedented accuracy and speed.In Taiwan, for example, the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction predicts fine-scale details of typhoons using CorrDiff, an NVIDIA generative AI model offered as part of Earth-2.

CorrDiff can super-resolve 25-kilometer-scale atmospheric data by 12.5x down to 2 kilometers — 1,000x faster and using 3,000x less energy for a single inference than traditional methods.

That means the center’s potentially lifesaving work, which previously cost nearly $3 million on CPUs, can be accomplished using about $60,000 on a single system with an NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPU. It’s a massive reduction that shows how generative AI and accelerated computing increase energy efficiency and lower costs.

The center also plans to use CorrDiff to predict downwash — when strong winds funnel down to street level, damaging buildings and affecting pedestrians — in urban areas.

Now, StormCast adds hourly autoregressive prediction capabilities to CorrDiff, meaning it can predict future outcomes based on past ones.

A Global Impact From a Regional Focus

Global climate research begins at a regional level.

Physical hazards of weather and climate change can vary dramatically on regional scales. But reliable numerical weather prediction at this level comes with substantial computational costs. This is due to the high spatial resolution needed to represent the underlying fluid-dynamic motions at mesoscale.

Regional weather prediction models — often referred to as convection-allowing models, or CAMs — have traditionally forced researchers to face varying tradeoffs in resolution, ensemble size and affordability.

CAMs are useful to meteorologists for tracking the evolution and structure of storms, as well as for monitoring its convective mode, or how a storm is organized when it forms. For example, the likelihood of a tornado is based on a storm’s structure and convective mode.

NVIDIA researchers trained StormCast on approximately three-and-a-half years of NOAA climate data from the central U.S., using NVIDIA accelerated computing to speed calculations.

UltraTech Board of Directors approves the purchase of 32.72% equity stake in The India Cements Limited and making open offer to public shareholders of The India Cements Limited

by Today's Fables

At its meeting held today, the Board of Directors of UltraTech approved the purchase of 32.72% equity stake of the promoters & their associates in India Cements Limited.

UltraTech had made a financial investment in India Cements to acquire 22.77% equity at a price of Rs 268 per share in June 2024.

India Cements has a total capacity of 14.45 mtpa of grey cement. Of this, 12.95 mtpa is in the South (particularly Tamil Nadu) and 1.5 mtpa is in Rajasthan. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

Post signing of SPA and obtaining regulatory approvals, UltraTech will pay Rs. 3,954 crores at Rs. 390/ share for buying 32.72% stake in India Cements from the promoters & their associates. This will trigger a mandatory open offer, at Rs 390/ share. The Open Offer will be done subsequently after obtaining all regulatory approvals.

Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, said, “UltraTech Cement’s investments over the years, both organic and inorganic, have been designed to propel India to become a building solutions champion globally. Every investment in a core sector like cement accelerates economic activity and drives progress. These investments have also facilitated India’s nationwide infrastructure upgrade, powering our country’s growing need for housing, roads, and other vital infrastructure. This, in turn, has had tremendous impact on the lives and aspirations of people.” He added, “The India Cements opportunity is an exciting one as it enables UltraTech to serve the Southern markets more effectively and also accelerates our path to 200+ MTPA capacity”

Rolls-Royce and TCS Collaborate on Hydrogen Research Programme

by Today's Fables

TCS, a global leader in IT services, consulting, and business solutions, has expanded its partnership with Rolls-Royce, a British multinational specializing in civil aerospace, defence aerospace, services and power systems, to advance its sustainable initiatives.

This collaboration involves research into hydrogen fuel system technology, continuing to prove hydrogen could be a zero-carbon aviation fuel of the future.

TCS, leveraging its expertise as a trusted service provider, will provide engineering skills and support to Rolls-Royce as it addresses three key challenges in the journey to enabling hydrogen for use in aviation: fuel combustion, fuel delivery, and fuel systems integration with an engine.

This partnership underscores TCS’s commitment to driving sustainable transformation across industries, aligning with its broader mission to harness technology for positive societal impact. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set ambitious targets for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, necessitating innovative sustainability solutions.

Alan Newby, Director, Research and Technology, Rolls-Royce, said, “We welcome TCS to our hydrogen research programme and their engineering skills will play a valuable role in addressing our technology goals. We’ve already made great progress and having TCS with us gives us additional capability as we move forward on our journey to enable the energy transition for the aviation sector.”

The partnership builds on a long-standing relationship between Rolls-Royce and the Tata Group, including engines and a strong supply chain commitment.

TCS has also been working with Rolls-Royce since 2010 in the areas of design, manufacturing engineering, control systems and software, after-market services as well as IT services.

Anupam Singhal, President – Manufacturing, TCS, said, “The partnership between TCS and Rolls-Royce is an exciting one that represents a powerful alliance in the quest for sustainable aviation solutions. We are aligned with Rolls-Royce’s ambition for a greener future. This partnership is the perfect opportunity to put our technological strengths and passion for the environment to use for advancing innovation and fostering an eco-friendlier aerospace sector.”

Regu Ayyaswamy, Senior Vice President and Global Head- Internet of Things and Digital Engineering, TCS, said, “TCS and Rolls-Royce have been partners in advancing engineering excellence for nearly a decade. The new partnership for research into hydrogen fuel systems represents a pivotal next step at a time when the aviation industry is faced with the urgent challenge of reducing carbon emissions while maintaining performance and efficiency.