MAM
LifeCell emerges as the Regional Award Winner of Google SME Heroes Challenge 2015
MUMBAI: LifeCell, India’s largest private umbilical cord stem cell bank won the regional award at the Google SME Heroes Challenge 2015 for innovative use of internet to expand its business. LifeCell was also among the top 5 national finalists, shortlisted from 25 SMEs from different regions.
LifeCell is the first company in the industry to have taken early strides in the digital medium to take the concept of umbilical cord banking across expectant parents in the country. Over the years the company has established significant presence in digital advertising to create awareness around the concept, educate the customer, generate interest and help them to actively consider umbilical cord stem cell banking as a wise investment for their children.
LifeCell’s digital innovations and initiatives include content marketing campaigns, product discovery & purchase journey enabled by a robust technology platform that integrates its web properties, customer contact center and mobile applications to create a delightful experience for customers. LifeCell’s digitally driven content marketing innovations such as pregnancy properties, events, offers from its brand partners in the lifestyle and mother & baby sectors are hugely popular among expectant couples.
LifeCell received the award in Delhi at a grand finale organized by Google, presided over Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) – Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
Speaking at the event, LifeCell’ chief marketing officer V.Ravi Shankar said “LifeCell was established in 2004. Until 2008, the service was largely a prescribed one by medical practitioners to expectant parents. We found that our audience of expectant parents was turning to digital media and especially Google to get information on pregnancy best practices including nutrition, fitness, do’s and don’ts. This was a big opportunity for LifeCell to reach out to pregnant couples across the country. We have been hand holding our audience in their journey towards parenthood by providing engaging content and online & offline infotainment programs. Digital media began our innings by providing a gateway to reach out to our audience directly. Today digital media serves as the one of the significant channel for expectant parents to reach out to us, catapulting the growth of our business and brand.”
Earlier in November 2014, at a grand event organized by Google in Chennai, LifeCell was selected as one of the five finalists from Chennai to compete at the national level against leading SMEs across the country.
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.
