Latest news with #Kota
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Miss World 2025: Miss Brazil, Miss Canada touch down in Hyderabad
With the Miss World 2025 pageant just around the corner, excitement is building as contestants from across the world begin to arrive in Hyderabad. Among the first to land were Jessica Scandiuzzi Pedroso of Brazil and Emma Deanna Cathryn Morrison of Canada. Both beauty queens were warmly welcomed by Telangana state government officials at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) with the traditional hospitality the region is known for. The 72nd edition of the Miss World competition, set to take place on May 31, 2025, at the HITEX Exhibition Centre in Hyderabad, is already generating tremendous buzz. The pageant, which will feature contestants from more than 100 countries, marks the second consecutive year that India will host the prestigious event. Krystyna Pyszkova of the Czech Republic, the reigning Miss World, will crown her successor at the culmination of the grand event. India's representative at Miss World 2025, Femina Miss India World 2023, Nandini Gupta, has already begun her rigorous preparations for the global stage. The young beauty queen from Kota, Rajasthan, is focused on delivering her best performance at the competition. In a recent conversation with ANI, Nandini shared insights into her intense training schedule, emphasising the importance of representing India on such a prestigious platform. "I am training rigorously to shine on the world stage. Every day, I am learning a lot about Telangana, Hyderabad, and what the city has to offer," she said. Nandini also expressed her excitement about the event's significance for the state of Telangana, particularly in terms of its potential to boost the local economy, promote tourism, and showcase the region's rich culture. "Miss World is happening in India for the second consecutive time, and it is a moment of pride," she added. Earlier this year, Miss World 2023, Krystyna Pyszkova, along with Julia Morley, Chairperson and CEO of the Miss World Organisation, visited Hyderabad to review the event's arrangements. Krystyna shared her enthusiasm for the upcoming competition in India, highlighting the country's vibrant culture and its growing significance in the Miss World journey. Speaking to ANI, Pyszkova said, "I love the Indian sparkle that the last edition had, and it will be just amazing this time as well. India has a lot to offer, and I'm looking forward to experiencing it all."
Irish Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Kota raises $14.5m in funding to grow business
Irish-founded insurance benefits platform Kota , formerly known as Yonder , has raised $14.5 million (€12.8 million) in funding to bring globally accessible and frictionless employment benefits for employees That brings the total funding raised by the company to $22.9 million over three rounds. The new Series A round was led by Eurazeo, with existing investors EQT Ventures, Northzone and Frontline Ventures taking part. New investors 9Yards and Plug and Play also contributed to the round. 'Kota really stood out to us,' said Eurazeo's Elise Stern. 'With a tech-first approach, they've built a robust technical and financial infrastructure: deep integrations with insurers across dozens of countries, visibility across the benefits stack, and a seamless API that allows partners – from HRIS to payroll – to embed benefits natively.' READ MORE Kota will use the funding to expand its reach into more markets, increase the variety of insurance carrier partners in its products, and also grow its team. 'We're pretty ambitious. Our team is mainly made-up of engineers and specialists in things like some insurance and compliance. So we're doubling down there,' said CEO Luke Mackey. 'Where we invested a lot is making sure that we built the best engineering and product teams, best integrations teams and building great relationships with insurance companies. We have a small sales team in Dublin, we've expanded that team into the UK now. We have offices in Dublin and London, and we're hiring.' Kota is aiming to simplify health and pension benefits for global businesses and employees. 'Europe is exceptionally complex when it comes to insurance and that obviously feeds into benefits and the providers remain very fragmented country to country,' Mr Mackey said. 'The regulators are different. That just creates a lot of complexity, creates a lot of costs. That means that brokers are still the route into [the] market for small companies. 'What we're trying to do is build that underlying infrastructure, bring the insurance companies more online and make them easy and accessible in a very user-friendly way.' The company has also obtained its Central Bank of Ireland authorisation, with Mr Mackey saying it allowed the company to scale outside of Ireland, and passport across 30 European countries. The company is also expecting a boost from pension autoenrolment, which is due to begin next year. Founded in 2022 by Mr Mackey, chief technology officer Patrick O'Boyle and director of engineering Deepak Baliga, Kota began offering its services in 2023, and has since facilitated access to employee benefits for hundreds of small and medium sized companies. 'We're at a critically low level of housing stock' for buyers and renters Listen | 33:06
Irish Independent
22-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Kota raises over $14m in Series A round to drive its worker-benefits software
The company, formerly called Yonder, also announced it has secured a Central Bank of Ireland licence, becoming one of the only tech platforms regulated to deliver benefits across Europe. Kota (as Yonder) was founded by CEO Luke Mackey, Patrick O'Boyle and Deepak Baliga. Its customers include Zoe Health, Poolside, Carwow, Tines, &Open and Protex AI. Kota integrates with some of Europe's largest insurance providers, including Vitality in the UK, ONVZ in the Netherlands, Sanitas in Spain, Irish Life Health in Ireland and Allianz Global Care internationally. The company says that the funding will be used to expand the Kota workforce, increase the variety of insurance carrier partners in its products and accelerate customer acquisition. The Series A round was led by Eurazeo, which is listed on Euronext Paris, along with existing investors EQT Ventures, Northzone, Frontline Ventures, and new investors 9Yards and Plug and Play. Employee benefits are systematically undervalued and expensive The company's service aims to fix what it calls a 'broken' system where a combination of old-fashioned insurance or benefits providers, PDFs and manual processes make benefits inaccessible and unmanageable to a lot of employees. The company claims to fix this, comparing itself to Revolut's effect on traditional banking. It integrates directly with insurers and pension providers, giving employees immediate access and control, as well as giving HR teams a single platform to manage everything. 'Employee benefits, which can make up 25pc of total compensation, are systematically undervalued and expensive,' said Luke Mackey, Kota's CEO. 'I experienced this as a founder and a general manager, managing benefits in email, between brokers and insurance companies, completely disconnected and alien from anything else in the business. It's entirely out of date. Ultimately, no one on the team connected or engaged with them, no matter how much we invested. 'It's not surprising. Insurance benefits are delivered in clunky portals or in PDFs, which is so unengaging compared to the financial experiences employees are used to. 'Kota integrates directly with insurance companies so we can control that experience and make it easy to roll out and run benefits, no matter who you are or where your team is. 'This means that employees can quickly understand, enrol, access coverage, retirement plans, or other benefits, and actually value them.' Kota says that employee benefits, while growing into a $70bn market, are still 'unfit' for lean, forward-thinking start-ups and scale-ups populated by millennials and Gen Z workers. 'With a tech-first approach, they've built a robust technical and financial infrastructure,' said Elise Stern from Eurazeo. 'This includes deep integrations with insurers across dozens of countries, visibility across the benefits stack, and a seamless API that allows partners from HR information systems to payroll to embed benefits natively.'
Indian Express
10-05-2025
- General
- Indian Express
I went beyond the popular image of Kabir to create mine: Gulammohammed Sheikh
You joined the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda in 1955, within five years of its opening. Coming from a provincial town, Surendranagar, what was your experience like? It was amazing to be part of a like-minded community of artists and aspirants; to have the doors of our studios in the art school open, day and night. I had never imagined there could be a whole library full of books, only on art! The atmosphere in the college was liberal, which made newcomers like me feel at ease. Our teachers worked in the studios after class hours. We saw the seminal paintings of our teacher NS Bendre being painted. He gave demonstrations of oil painting and watercolour with such mastery, leaving us spellbound. Art History classes were conducted by artists themselves, except for Dean Markand Bhatt, who had studied it at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. He taught us Western art and aesthetics, while Bendre taught us Chinese art, and sculptor Sankho Chaudhuri, Egyptian and Mesopotamian art. You started your teaching career in Art History before you shifted to Painting. When I was a post-graduate student, there was an opening in the department to teach art history. The then Dean, Bendre, asked me if I would like to teach. It was a godsend offer as I was living on a paltry scholarship. I taught for three years before going to London in 1963. Upon my return, I taught again for 15 years till I moved on to head the Painting department. London played a role in igniting your interest in early painting traditions. The Painting Department at the Royal College of Art was adjacent to the Victoria & Albert Museum and students had free access. I used to eat lunch in the museum restaurant to avoid the bland fare in the college canteen, and on my way, I would see paintings in the Indian section. I was aware of the various schools of Indian painting, but a magical-looking Kota painting of a nocturnal jungle scene in the moonlight fascinated me. Robert Skelton, the Assistant Keeper of the Indian section, became a mentor. Writing my dissertation on Kota enabled me to have a closer look at the regional school of Rajasthan. During the summer vacation, I hitch-hiked in Italy to see the masters of the Renaissance. I was especially touched by the Sienese artists such as Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Sassetta. For them, painting was an act of love offered with humility and passionate conviction. I found them close to Indian painting in sensibility. After finishing my studies in London, I returned to India, mostly travelling overland. The three-month-long journey evoked greater love for the wanderings than I was already prone to. The year 1981 seems to be seminal, as you completed several important works. Yes, in that year I showed with artists such as Bhupen Khakhar, Vivan Sundaram, Nalini Malani, Jogen Chowdhury and Sudhir Patwardhan in the exhibition we called, 'Place for People'. Each of us was involved in exploring and focusing on the world we lived in. In that sense, several works were autobiographical. In my case, Speaking Street recalled memories of my childhood in a provincial town. Following it, a large painting, titled City for Sale, dealt with the irony of communal riots raging at one end, and on the other portrayed a cinema hall audience, totally oblivious of it. The Tree of Life (1996), which you painted for the Vidhan Bhavan in Bhopal, was the first time you took up painting on such a massive scale for a public building. Yes, I had long desired to make a mural in a public space, after I saw the cityscape, Effects of Good Government, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Sienna. The mural in the Legislative Assembly was 31-feet high and 21-feet wide. The idea was to cover a cultural tapestry of India with its multiplicity and diversity. The central motif of The Tree of Life represents the lives of people, both past and present, including glorious as well as turbulent periods. Then, Kabir appeared in your work. The beginning of the 1990s was a period of great turbulence, which needed a healing touch. Kabir was the answer. Instead of using just the popular rendition of Kabir as a Vaishnavite saint, I also searched other images of Kabir as prototypes to create mine. The man who said 'tera Saai(n) tujh me', indicated looking inwards, instead of seeking an answer in the outer world. You started with a small town. Then, you entered the belly of a city, and then you moved to the world. In a chance encounter I found a medieval map of the world — the Ebstorf mappa mundi — which I used as a basis for re-enacting the world. In the 20-odd years, many such maps were made to reframe the world. The use of a portable shrine or Kaavad served as an alternative to the easel painting. Its format allows multiple stories like a picture book unfolding gradually. The recent work, Kaarawaan, at its core, holds the idea of a journey, wherein I packed my favourite characters from history, mythology and the world of dreams. I painted within it all the artists, poets and thinkers whom I admire. The intention was to paint a civilisational ark carrying a world of humanity in the midst of highly turbulent waters.
Time of India
08-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Assam chief secy lays foundation stone for Rs 67cr auditorium
Guwahati: State chief secretary Ravi Kota on Thursday laid the foundation stone for a cutting edge 1000-seater auditorium at the Janata Bhawan project, with an estimated budget of Rs 67 crore, is a key component of the master plan for the redevelopment of the secretariat complex and ministers' auditorium is expected to be completed and ready for inauguration by Apr 2027, an official statement auditorium's modern elevated gallery will have two floors and a combined seating capacity of 773 people, complemented by a balcony that accommodates an additional 240 individuals. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A dedicated conference hall, VIP and common waiting areas, an on-site pantry, and restrooms designed for men, women, and persons with disabilities are the other amenities to be new auditorium, which will accommodate high-end meetings, cultural events, and official gatherings, is intended to improve the Janata Bhawan complex's operational infrastructure and offer a space for the state secretariat's expanding invited officials and employees of the secretariat to share their ideas to enhance facilities of the complex. Kota suggested creating creative, cultural and athletic groups to take part in the many festivities and events hosted on the grounds and underlined the value of developing new talent inside the State chief secretary Ravi Kota on Thursday laid the foundation stone for a cutting edge 1000-seater auditorium at the Janata Bhawan project, with an estimated budget of Rs 67 crore, is a key component of the master plan for the redevelopment of the secretariat complex and ministers' auditorium is expected to be completed and ready for inauguration by Apr 2027, an official statement auditorium's modern elevated gallery will have two floors and a combined seating capacity of 773 people, complemented by a balcony that accommodates an additional 240 individuals. A dedicated conference hall, VIP and common waiting areas, an on-site pantry, and restrooms designed for men, women, and persons with disabilities are the other amenities to be new auditorium, which will accommodate high-end meetings, cultural events, and official gatherings, is intended to improve the Janata Bhawan complex's operational infrastructure and offer a space for the state secretariat's expanding invited officials and employees of the secretariat to share their ideas to enhance facilities of the complex. Kota suggested creating creative, cultural and athletic groups to take part in the many festivities and events hosted on the grounds and underlined the value of developing new talent inside the secretariat.
