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MERCEDES BENZ HELLO! DEBUTANTS’ BALL 2018 HOSTED BY HELLO! INDIA
MUMBAI: India’s premier lifestyle brand HELLO! and a trailblazer in the luxury lifestyle content space reinforced its legacy by successfully hosting India’s first ever Debutants’ Ball. ‘The Mercedes Benz HELLO! Debutants’ Ball 2018’ held at the opulent St.Regis, Mumbai, celebrated 16 rising and next generation stars from Bollywood, Royalty, Corporate and Politics. The one-of-a-kind elite affair personified class and elegance at par with the international version of the debutants’ gala.
HELLO! India’s first Debutants’ Ball served as a platform to introduce the young heirs of creatively renowned families to the nation. These young men and women were presented as the torch bearers of their great legacies while focusing on their thoughts behind being a part of the India Inc. story and their potential contributions to the nation. Dressed for the occasion spilling sheer panache and poise, the debutants were accompanied by their respective cavaliers/parents.
Speaking about the first Debutants’ Ball by HELLO! India, Ruchika Mehta, Editor, HELLO! India said,” "Taking the lead in the lifestyle landscape yet again, HELLO! Is proud to host India’s first- ever Debutants' Ball, an evening where the next generation and rising stars of India’s first families were introduced to the world. This super exclusive evening witnessed the best of names from the world of royalty, society, Corporate and Bollywood. This event marked a new beginning and a must attend in everyone’s social calendars.”
While the evening was all about royalty and grandeur, singer Sophie Choudry, the lady that exudes elan reflected the magnificence of the night in her stellar ensemble. She not only enhanced the essence of the evening as the host, but also regaled the audience with her soulful singing performance. The gala night transcended through a mesmerizing musical performance by renowned vocalist and musician Sarosh Nanavaty followed by Lidya and the band.
The evening was held in association with Mercedes Benz, Longines as Luxury partner and Jean Claude Biguine, Paris Salon & Spa as styling partner.
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Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
