SIA And Lufthansa Group Joint Venture Partnership To Launch On 1 October

28 September 2017 (Joint Release with Lufthansa Group) - Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Lufthansa Group have confirmed 1 October 2017 as the launch date for their joint venture co-operation covering flights between Singapore, Australia and Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium.

Customers can choose from a wider range of travel itineraries and fare products that will be progressively offered by the airlines under the joint venture agreement.

Since November 2015, when both airline groups signed the joint venture agreement, they have expanded capacity between Singapore and both Germany and Switzerland. This includes the introduction of new SIA-operated flights between Singapore and Dusseldorf in July 2016. In March 2017, SWISS deployed its new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on daily flights between Singapore and Zurich. Lufthansa has also announced plans to re-introduce services between Singapore and Munich from March 2018.

These benefits will further enhance existing Star Alliance arrangements that customers enjoy on SIA, Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines. On the same date, flights operated by SIA, Lufthansa and SWISS between Singapore and Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich will be included in a revenue-sharing agreement between the two airline groups.

The two airline groups have also significantly increased codeshare ties, with over 130 city pairs now offered between key markets in Europe, Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific.

“We are pleased to launch our joint venture with Lufthansa Group, which has provided a strong foundation for us to work together to enable more flight frequency and enhanced travel options for customers of both airline groups. This joint venture demonstrates what we can achieve with the right partner, and we look forward to working even closer with Lufthansa Group,” said Mr Tan Kai Ping, Singapore Airlines Senior Vice President Marketing Planning.

Mr Dieter Vranckx, Lufthansa Group Airlines Vice President Sales Asia Pacific said, “This is a remarkable milestone for both Lufthansa Group and Singapore Airlines. With the launch of this joint venture, the two premium airline groups are jointly able to optimise the product offerings and high-quality services in a very competitive market throughout Europe, Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific. We are very proud to team up with Singapore Airlines, a reputable and reliable high-end partner, giving our customers greater choices.”

Source : SIA

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All-new S-Cross set to check into NEXA showrooms this festive season

The urban premium S-Cross from Maruti Suzuki, is all set to arrive in a brand new avatar this festive season. The all-new S-Cross will further strengthen Maruti Suzuki’s position in the premium segment. The Company today opened bookings for the all-new S-Cross at its network of NEXA showrooms across India.

All New Looks

The all-new S-Cross sports an entirely new, bold design with a powerful upright stance.

The masculine and aggressive upright stance is accentuated by a sculpted hood design and sleek headlamps. The sharp LED projector headlamps, housed neatly with the daylight running lamps (DRLs), make the all-new S-Cross more assertive.

The imposing chrome on the grille, along with the emphatic S insignia, makes the all-new S-Cross distinct and premium. The rear combination lamps (RCL), also equipped with LEDs, are cleaner, sharper and more contemporary in style. Wider tyres (215/60 R16), coupled with contrasting two-tone machine finished alloys, give it an imposing on-road presence.

Chic Classy Interiors

The interiors have also been tastefully upgraded and made classier with a satin chrome accent finish, a soft touch dashboard and well-coordinated seat fabric designs. More new-age technologies, like an intuitive touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay would also complement the all-new S-Cross. The piano black coloured central panel, together with a premium leather finish arm-rest, adds a dash of premium-ness to the offering.

All New Powertrain

In its newest form, the all-New S-Cross scores high not just on looks but also in technology and powertrain. The all-new S-Cross gets the DDiS 200 with Smart Hybrid technology. This is the third model in the Maruti Suzuki portfolio to host the DDiS 200 with Smart Hybrid technology. It comes packed with a host of features like idle-stop-start, torque assist, brake energy regeneration system and a gearshift indicator. Many of these features enhance energy efficiency in the S-Cross.

Ahead in safety: Tested at the company’s world-class Rohtak R&D facility, the all-new S-Cross is among the six models already compliant with advanced upcoming new safety norms - frontal offset crash, side impact and pedestrian safety. It comes with rear seat ISO-FIX child seat safety mount. These features are standard across all variants of S-Cross.

Launched in August 2015, S-Cross was the first premium offering to debut from the Company’s all new premium retail channel-NEXA. S-Cross therefore, has been instrumental in shaping the premium imagery of the channel and contributed significantly towards establishing NEXA. The Company has sold over 53,000 S-Cross in the domestic market and exported over 4,600 units.

Source : Maruti

India’s popular car WagonR scales unique feat of cumulative two-million sales

WagonR, India’s popular car from Maruti Suzuki has scaled the unique feat of two-million sales in cumulative wholesales. Launched in 1999, WagonR continues to feature among the top five best selling cars in the country for the last over 10 years.

WagonR has always attracted discerning customers, who want their car to be unique. Maruti Suzuki has consistently introduced new design as well technology upgrades in WagonR, which has made it as top choice for buyers. The Company has kept in mind that customers are aspirational and expects enhanced quality of design, features and technologies in their car. 

Maruti Suzuki has listened to its customers and progressively introduced features such as dual airbags, multiple fuel options, ABS, premium interiors and acclaimed Auto Gear Shift in WagonR. WagonR scored its first million sales in 2011, nearly 133 months after its launch. However, with gaining mass popularity and increasing mobility in the country, 

WagonR scaled its next million sales mark in just 79 months. This is the testimony of WagonR being relevant and delighting customers. 

Commenting on the success of WagonR, Mr. R S Kalsi, Senior Executive Director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki, said, “Since its inception, WagonR has been ahead of its peers. Its comfort seating, spacious interiors superior fuel efficiency, practicality and pleasure of driving have made it a popular choice. To keep it strong, Maruti Suzuki has systematically upgraded the brand with new design and features. Needless to say WagonR has continued to top the sales chart. Despite intensified competition in small car space, WagonR continues to be the preferred choice of the practical car buyers.” 

WagonR has been the blue-eyed car for first time buyers. Nearly, 45% of WagonR customers have picked it up as their first car. At the same time, close to 20% of WagonR customers have purchased the car multiple times. While the brand enjoys national appeal, cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad have contributed handsomely towards it total sales. Among the news features added, Auto Gear Shift trims account for over 16% sales while CNG accounts for over 20% sales. 

With this achievement, WagonR becomes the third model in the country to enter the iconic league of cars like Maruti 800 and Alto, to cross the two-million cumulative sales mark. 

Source : Maruti

TVS Jupiter Crosses 2 Million Sales Mark in 4 Years

TVS Motor Company, India’s leading two and three-wheeler manufacturer in India, today, announced that their popular scooter brand, TVS Jupiter, has clocked sales of 2 million units within 4 years of its launch. 

TVS Jupiter, which was launched in 2013, has stayed true to the brand’s promise of Zyada ka Fayda, winning multiple accolades over the past 4 years. In early 2016, TVS Jupiter was the fastest scooter to reach the mark of 1 million sales, doing so in a mere 30 months. 

Commenting on this achievement, Aniruddha Haldar, Vice President (Marketing) Commuter Motorcycles, Scooters and Corporate Brand, TVS Motor Company said, “It brings us immense delight to see that TVS Jupiter is surpassing milestone after milestone since its launch. 

TVS Jupiter has the distinction of being the first scooter to reach this milestone in a short span of 4 years. This milestone is special as we now have 20 lakh happy customers in the TVS Jupiter family. It is occasions like these, which humble us, as well as, inspire us in our endeavour to continue offering superior products and complement them with dedicated customer satisfaction initiatives.” 

TVS Jupiter is powered by a next generation, all-aluminum, low-friction 110cc engine that delivers a remarkable mix of power, superior acceleration and best-in-class fuel efficiency. The metal bodied, TVS Jupiter is styled to have a substantial road presence, which delivers high performance ride quality with superior ride comfort making it a perfect, sensible companion. 

The scooter also comes with TVS patented Econometer, which guides riders in both 'Eco Mode' and 'Power Mode' and the engine delivers best-in-class fuel economy in 'Eco' mode. TVS Jupiter is available in Base variant as well as ZX and ZX with Disc Brake. The brand recently launched a Classic Edition which offers a variety of novel features such as all new sunlit ivory body colour, elegant full chrome mirrors, stylish windshield, a classy pillion cushioned backrest, along with other thoughtfully designed features like a smart USB charger and comfortable dual-tone seat. 

TVS Jupiter is also equipped with Sync Braking System (SBS) which ensures a safer and smoother riding experience. The scooter is available in colour selections of Royal Wine, Matte Blue, Stallion Brown, Titanium Grey, Midnight Black, Volcano Red, Pristine White, Jade Green and Mystic Gold.

Source : TVS

macOS High Sierra now available as a free update

Cupertino, California — Apple today announced macOS High Sierra, the latest release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is now available as a free update.

With macOS High Sierra, Mac users gain powerful new core storage, video and graphics technologies. A new file system ensures more efficient and reliable storage, and support for High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) brings stunning 4K video at lower file sizes. Metal 2 powers virtual reality content creation, faster performance and more. The Core ML developer framework makes it easy to create apps with powerful machine learning that predict, learn and become more intelligent. macOS High Sierra also includes a number of refinements to the apps Mac users enjoy everyday, including Photos and Safari.

“macOS High Sierra is an important update that makes the Mac more capable and responsive, while laying the foundation for future innovations,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “High Sierra introduces new technologies for VR, high-efficiency video streaming, advances in storage technology and more, while apps such as Photos, Safari, Mail and Notes are refined to give users even more reasons to love their Mac.”

New features in macOS High Sierra:

Apple File System (APFS)

• APFS is a new, advanced storage architecture providing an extensible foundation to support new features and future storage technologies on the Mac.
• APFS brings support for the latest high-capacity storage devices and delivers enhanced performance, security and reliability. 
• With APFS, common operations such as copying files and directories are nearly instantaneous.
• Data is protected from power outages and system crashes thanks to advanced data integrity features.
• APFS currently supports every Mac with all‑flash internal storage — support for Fusion and HDD Mac systems will be available in a future update.

High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Support

• HEVC (H.265) is a new industry standard that enables extremely efficient compression, streaming and playback of video.
• HEVC enables users to watch 4K video files at full quality, while requiring 40 percent less storage space than the current H.264 standard.1 
• With HEVC, Apple is enabling high-quality 4K video streaming on networks where only HD streaming was previously possible.2
• Hardware acceleration on the new iMac and MacBook Pro delivers incredibly fast and power-efficient HEVC encoding and playback.
• Developers like Adobe, Blackmagic Design, GoPro and more are joining Apple in adopting HEVC.

 For more information, visit: apple.com/in/macos/high-sierra.

Jio Offers on iPhone 8, iPhone8 Plus Rs. 10,000 Cashback, 70 Percent Buyback

Jio is offering Rs. 10,000 CashBack on iPhone8 & iPhone8 plus on Citi cards on the 29th September only, and an option of 70% buyback. Jio is also offering exclusive offers for the 4G consumers. Please check with Reliance Digital stores for the exact details.

Source : Jio.com

RENAULT INDIA LAUNCHES THE NEW DUSTER SANDSTORM

Renault, one of the fastest growing automotive brands in India, today announced the launch of New DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION. With 9 new exciting enhancements, the DUSTER SANDSTORM has an imposing presence and is tailormade for true automotive enthusiasts. 

The Renault DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION will be available in two trims – RxS Diesel 85 PS SANDSTORM EDITION offered at an attractive introductory pricing INR 10,90,400 (exDelhi) and RxS Diesel 110 PS SANDSTORM EDITION offered at an attractive introductory pricing INR 11,70,400 (ex-Delhi). The Renault DUSTER SANDSTORM comes with 5-speed and 6-speed manual transmission and is available in a 2-wheel drive (2WD) option. 

Commenting on the launch of the new DUSTER SANDSTORM, Mr. Sumit Sawhney, Country CEO and Managing Director, Renault India Operations said, “Renault DUSTER, which has over the years acquired the stature of a cult product, has the widest offerings in the SUV segment. As part of our endeavour to keep our products and services innovative and contemporary, the exciting enhancements on the DUSTER SANDSTORM make it look even more rugged and tough - the very DNA of a true SUV. The new DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION is offered at compelling price points and will provide the owners a bold, intelligent and efficient avatar of the DUSTER which will further continue to carry the legacy of the DUSTER forward in India.”

The exterior design of the New DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION SUV is very powerful and imposing with the New Matt Black front armour with DUSTER Branding & Lamps. It maintains its robust iconic SUV appeal and the bold graphics make it even more expressive with the smart and striking SANDSTORM decals on the hood, doors, tailgate and ORVMs. The rugged look with the Shiny black front grille expresses the assertive personality of the SUV and the pride associated with the brand. Other exciting exterior embellishments like the all New style ZODIAC 16 inch machined alloys, and the Body Colored Outside Door Handle finish accentuate the rugged SUV look and perfectly resonates with this offering.  

The interiors of the Renault DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION perfectly complements the vehicle’s exterior design. The exclusive touch in the vehicle’s interior environment is based on a host of innovative enhancements like the interior color harmony in black & grey, centre fascia with dark chrome finish, shiny black door trim decorative strip & grab handle and door handle finish in black. The exclusivity of the new vehicle extends to the new seat covers and floor mat set with ‘SANDSTORM’ branding. It is also equipped with a 7-inch touch screen and dual air bags. Colours: The New DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION is available in 3 colour options - Outback bronze, Moonlight Silver and Slate Grey.

The DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION will be powered by the powerful and frugal K9K 1.5 dCi (Common Rail Direct Injection) engine that effortlessly overcomes every challenge and is easy to own and maintain. The diesel engines churn an output of 110 PS and 85 PS. The powerful 110 PS version has a 6-speed manual transmission with gear ratios perfectly matched to the engine’s output with an excellent fuel efficiency of 20 kmpl (ARAI). The 85 PS version features a 5-speed manual transmission that delivers the best-in-class fuel efficiency of 20 kmpl (ARAI). Bookings for the New DUSTER SANDSTORM can be made either at the dealerships or through the Renault DUSTER App, which could be easily downloaded from the Google Playstore. “Renault DUSTER, one of the most awarded SUVs and known for its iconic SUV design in India has been able to make a strong connect with the Indian customers across diverse demographics and geographies. It has inspired us to offer something new and better to our customers in line with their ever evolving needs and preferences. The New DUSTER SANDSTORM EDITION will help us further bolstering the ongoing momentum of DUSTER in India,” added Mr. Sawhney. 

Source : Renault

Festive Celebrations Begin, Samsung India Announces ‘Never Mind’ Offer for Consumers

Source : Samsung

How To Do Bigger Things With Samsung Galaxy Note8

Galaxy Note8, Samsung’s most powerful smartphone is witnessing huge interest in India. Pre-bookings for Galaxy Note8, which opened on September 12 in India, has seen an overwhelming response so far. Pre-booked customers will begin to get their devices from September 21.

Galaxy Note8, the ultimate multitasking phone for work and play, comes with a 6.3-inch Infinity Display, allowing users to do more with their smartphones. With Galaxy Note8’s S Pen, users can express themselves in new ways. How ? Let’s find out from Aditya Babbar, General Manager, Mobile Business, Samsung India.  Take a look and share.

Source : Samsung