MAM
Niine asks India to run for period-positive vision on Women’s Day
MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, whose movie Pad Man had shared an important about menstrual hygiene in India, has joined forces with the Niine movement, to mark International Women’s Day 2019, announcing the launch of Run4Niine in 500 cities on the 8 March. He will flag off the run from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Run4Niine partner Junior Chambers International (JCI), the non-profit organisation encouraging young people to be active responsible citizens, will help take the ‘Let’s Talk About Periods’ message to the streets of India and in up to 500 cities, made possible through JCI’s chapter networks.
Niine Movement and Niine Sanitary Napkins co-founder Amar Tulsiyan said, “I am delighted to be launching Run4Niine. The first event of its kind, we aim to galvanise the population into action and hope to get every woman, man and child running to break the taboos around menstrual hygiene. I would like to thank JCI and FOGSI for their support to help extend the reach of Run4Niine further and to thank Akshay Kumar for his continued support. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to work with such esteemed organisations and brilliant minds and we look forward to expanding our partner footprint further to truly create a Chain of Niine.”
Speaking about his association with Run4Niine, Akshay Kumar said, “When I made the movie Pad Man, I was hoping for it to turn into a conversation. But today, after a year, I can proudly say that it has grown to become a phenomenal movement, truly at a grassroots level. I am therefore excited to announce my partnership with the Niine Movement to take this to the streets of India and invite my fellow citizens, compatriots, change makers and path breakers to join me for Run4Niine, to raise awareness and initiate action on menstrual hygiene. Each of us, when joined together, will form a chain – an unstoppable force fighting an improbable stigma.”
He added, “International Women’s Day is a significant day for women and girls across the world; a day when not only women are celebrated for their achievements and contributions in all sectors of life but a cold reminder of the inequalities that exist in our society which have kept girls and women back for centuries. International Women's Day serves as a fitting day for Run4Niine, where everyone can come together in solidarity to tackle menstrual taboos.”
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.
