Brands
Microsoft to go aggressive on digital
MUMBAI: After acquiring Nokia, Microsoft has lost no time in launching the Nokia Lumia 630 in India in the affordable segment. Single SIM and dual SIM variants of the smart phone are available for Rs 10,500 and Rs 11,500, respectively.
An Economic Times report earlier this month said that Microsoft was targeting the $50-billion affordable handset market globally, with special focus on emerging markets, including India, where 80 per cent of the market leans towards smart phones priced below Rs 10,000. With the launch of the Nokia Lumia 630, Microsoft is certainly prepping to give other handset makers a run for their money.
Nokia Lumia 630 is the first device in India with the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS. This is significant as various media reports have said that Windows Phone is the fastest growing ecosystem in the smart phone market and research firm IDC has even said it was the third biggest OS in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Not surprisingly, expectations from the Nokia Lumia 630 are much higher as compared to the price at which it is positioned. To attract consumers, the brand has rolled out special offers which include 3G data for 2 months (1GB limit) from Vodafone, a 2 month subscription for Box TV and eBooks worth Rs 2,000 from Flipkart.
Nokia India Director-Sales Raghuvesh Sarup mentioned that the brand will soon roll out a television and print campaign to market this product. Apart from this, Sarup said that the brand is expected to push around 50 per cent of its communication via digital. Interestingly, the blogger community will be involved frequently in the coming days.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
