TS Times - November 2020

Special Edition: November, 2020

TS TiMES BRINGING TO THE FORE

EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING

SPOTLIGHT

Bidding adieu to Vasudeva Rao Y

VIEWPOINT MÉLANGE

COVER STORY

Emotional Well-Being and coping during COVID-19

For internal circulation only

CONTENTS EDITOR’S NOTE

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COVER STORY: Emotional Well-Being and coping during COVID-19

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SPOTLIGHT: Bidding adieu to Vasudev Rao Y

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IN SYNC: All you need to know about AiKno®

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YOUR STORIES… OUR STORIES…

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SHOWCASE: LTTS at NASSCOM ER&D Annual Summit

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MERCI BEAUCOUP: Rewarding Resilience

17

MÉLANGE: Converging Viewpoints

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EVERYONE MUST DO’T!

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TECH-TADKA: LTTS’ Sales Play Platform

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RECOGNITION GALORE

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WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN TURBULENT TIMES

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RAISING THE HAPPINESS QUOTIENT

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STEP CHALLENGE: Europe Gets Moving

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HALLOWEEN FEVER GRIPS LTTS USA!

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TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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EDITOR'S MESSAGE Dear Colleagues, The year 2020 has been a unique balancing act for each one of us as we continue to navigate the challenges while ensuring our physical well-being as well as work productivity remain unhampered.

It is a testament to the strength and resilience of all LTTS-ites that the organization has continued to deliver engineering excellence over the last 8 months. But one aspect that gets overlooked on such occasions is the importance of our mental and emotional well-being. To highlight this, our HR team launched GEMS (Globally Empowering Mental Stability) and partnered with NHRD – Mind Matters, offering webinars on topics ranging from emotional health and gender equality? to tackling anxiety and depression at the workplace.

Recognizing the criticality of emotional wellness, in this edition, TS TiMES caught up with colleagues across the globe to understand what makes them tick in the middle of a crisis. Our colleagues shared their mantra for emotional well-being and high productivity.

Given the odds, it was truly a proud moment for all of us to see every LTTS-ite stand hand-in-hand with the organization. Our CEO, Dr. Keshab Panda, along with our CHRO, M. Lakshmanan announced the Merci Beaucoup initiative as a token of gratitude towards the employees and their families for their unwavering determination in these uncertain times. Through this initiative, each employee was presented with a gift and a citation for their contributions.

The Power to Do Good is inherent in all of us and knows no boundaries. With this in mind, TS TiMES launched the Do-One-Thing or #DOT Challenge that refers to a small positive act that can inspire and influence those around us. Just capture your act on video and put it on the TS TiMES Yammer page. Refer to our story for more details.

In October, LTTS held two unique virtual connects to lend our voice to the important cause of diversity & inclusion. The first, named Mélange, is LTTS’ new thought leadership forum that brings together a community of like-minded people for enabling cross-pollination of ideas.

The second event was a virtual connect session where senior women leaders across the industry gathered to share their thoughts and viewpoints on ‘Women Leadership in Turbulent Times’. The session was attended by over 1,200 LTTS women colleagues across the globe under the banner of Wings.

We sincerely hope you enjoy reading all of these and more in the latest edition. Do continue posting your thoughts on the TS TiMES Yammer Page.

Best Regards, Team TS TiMES Aniruddha Basu | Vijay Maha | Sheetal Ishwalkar | Sayanti Chakraborty Yashavantha Kumar | Seema Joshi TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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COVER STORY

COVER STORY

EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING To state that 2020 has been a testing year would be an understatement. In these uncertain times, ensuring emotional well-being and coping with stress has assumed greater importance than ever before. There are a number of ways people are coping with stress and the myriad challenges thrown at us by this ongoing crisis. We spoke to LTTS-ites spread across geos to capture their perspectives and viewpoints on three key challenges that we are all facing: Coping with the pandemic, emotional well-being and working from home.

Yehuda Brody, Israel Coping with the Pandemic The current situation isn't simple and demands a lot from each of us, but I'm finding that spending time with my family at home every evening and volunteering in the community gives me the energy to push forward.

Emotional well-being Most people have been stressed in the past few months and I have friends and colleagues who have been hit both physically and financially due to these times. I can see the change in their behavior.

It's very important to keep an open eye and give a (remote) hand, financial aid and most importantly a kind word to people who need it.

As an active medic I treat all sorts of sick people. I believe many people lack the understanding of mental illness. The same way someone can have a heart attack, one can also have a chemical imbalance in their brain and suddenly they are not themselves, and this can be triggered by major or minor incidents, depending on the person. Mental illness can be very painful for the the patient's family, it’s important to respect and treat a mentally ill person with the same compassion and understanding we have for a physically ill person.

TS TIMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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COVER STORY Sachin R Shah, LTTS Onsite Coordinator, Australia Coping with the Pandemic The only certainty about this phase of uncertainty is that it too shall pass! One way to look at this entire scenario is that everyone is sailing in the same boat. From my personal experience, a good friend lost her job during the pandemic but in a matter of a few weeks she was back on her feet and had more than one job offer. So, it is just a matter of holding on to your confidence and cultivating patience as a virtue. For someone facing anxiety or low confidence, I would also like to suggest talking to someone. Reach out to a friend, family member or someone you think can help you.

Anil Kumar Dadi, Engineer, Embedded System & Platform SW (Client Project), Malaysia Coping with the Pandemic We need to remember that we aren’t the only one in this a situation but there are million others who are facing some issue or the other. We can try to channel our loneliness by concentrating on work or doing something that we like. As they say, “Idle mind is Devil's workshop,” it is therefore a good idea to stay engaged.

Karthik Kumar, Project Lead, Consumer Electronics (Japan) Coping with the Pandemic My family in India had contracted the virus in September 2020. The enormity of this pandemic hit my family in ways we never imagined, and it took weeks to recover. With my entire family in self-quarantine at home, necessities became a challenge. My spouse's health deteriorated further as she developed Pneumonia, leading to hospitalization. I was onsite away from family, losing hope every second. It was at that moment that our neighbors stepped in to help, leaving their fears behind. They aided my family until my return.

Recovery started at a rapid pace. Having faith in the goodness of the society and community that we belong to can give us a lot of hope and this hope combined with the assurance that "we are not alone" helped my family recover and come back to health.

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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COVER STORY Shalom Craimer, Technical Specialist, CTO team, Israel Working from Home I think working from home is easy and fun, the only challenge is taking care of the kids. I can get more done when working at home, but to be fair, I've had a lot of practice while working at start-ups without offices.

My wife (Miriam Malka) and I take turns. During lockdown or isolation, when we had to stay home, we did it in shifts: one person worked during the day, and the other during the night. Of course, sometimes work calls and deliveries required that we swap, but it caused timing conflicts only a handful of times. And even then, I can always just start a movie on the TV for the kids, and that usually keeps them busy for the duration of the time I need to focus.

Emotional well-being Mental illness is responsible for so much damage, and it's only in recent years that we're finally seeing it for what it is. From anxiety, depression to suicide, it's just so much. It's such a silent killer and destroyer of lives.

Thinking back upon my life, it's miraculous I've not yet lost anyone to suicide. (For a couple of friends, thanks to timely intervention, their attempts at suicide were prevented.)

You speak to the people who have the biggest smiles, or the greatest bounce in their step, and it's always surprising when they turn out to be depressed or dealing with anxieties. What's even more frustrating is when smart people think they are smart enough to overcome all their problems on their own. As if they could overcome a virus by thinking it away. It's ridiculous. And then they burn out, or run away, or lose their mind. It's so rare, but heart-breaking when it happens.

It might be because there's still a taboo against seeking help for mental illness. Being sick with a cold isn't your fault, and neither is having your brain-chemicals shift to bring your depression. My favorite meme on this is: "If you can't make your own neurotransmitters, store-bought is fine."

The key point here being, one must not be ashamed of seeking help when needed.

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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COVER STORY Ramakrishna Venkiteswaran, Delivery Manager, Edison Working from Home After the initial charm of video calling wore off, it was replaced with juggling between work and young kids, and home distractions meant I ended up not being able to concentrate. A few changes that have helped me are:

• Creating a separate space for my office helped increase focus, made it easier for my little daughters to know that if the office door is closed it is “Do Not Disturb” (reality is not perfect but situation has improved)

• Investing in ergonomic office improvements viz – stand up desk, good chair helped to reduce the neck pain and back strain = better health

• Setting a schedule for office work and the same manner having family time has helped ease the challenge a bit but it is still not perfect but a a work-in -progress.

Emotional well-being Caring for mental well-being was a challenge even earlier [before COVID-19] and during the pandemic it has caused a spike as stress has increased due to people losing jobs, having challenges with under-employment, among others. In addition, from my observation we are not that well educated in terms of identifying signs of mental illness in a person. Until very recently, stress, anxiety was not looked as a serious condition that needed review by a professional, but rather as something that will go away with time. As we move towards a progressive and aware society, we have to increase the access to education and awareness to mental health. This will also help tackle substance abuse issues as mental illness has a close relation with it.

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT

BIDDING ADIEU TO VASUDEVA RAO Y After spending close to 30 years, our dearest Vasudeva Rao Y retired from his professional responsibilities as Head - Automotive Business (APAC), at LTTS. A true veteran, Vasu was the embodiment of dedication, diligence and determination. In his parting interview, Vasu shared his feelings about LTTS, engineering and the way forward. “LTTS is a true Engineering, R&D company, because everyone including Recruitment, HR, IT, Admin talk product development,” he quipped.

Vasu believed that the break/Chai time was when he socialized and had interesting discussions with some of the genius minds at LTTS’ Manyata Campus and that many of the #Crosspoll!nnovation ideas emerged in the canteen.

Although Vasu may have left an empty cubicle in office, his retirement has undeniably left a large empty space in our hearts. Click on the link below for Vasu's parting words.

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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IN SYNC

IN SYNC

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AIKNO® Enterprises have been using traditional documentation methods for capturing and saving data such as engineering drawings, PDFs, excels, images, PPTs etc. Digitalizing these documents or extracting data from these traditional documentation resources is a tedious task and involves dependencies on experts, making it a time-consuming & inefficient activity.

LTTS’ award-winning solution AiKno® with its Cognitive Meta Data Extraction module automates the tedious task of digitalizing legacy data, thereby improving efficiency by 92-95% and reducing the data processing time by 85%.

Salient Features of AiKno® AiKno® has learned from industry veterans, providing it with unparalleled domain excellence.

The continuous self-learning system can perform auto corrections and drive semantics-based rules on human feedback without any need of re-engineering

AiKno® OCR can extract the metadata from the scanned documents available even in image format.

AiKno® team has filed for the below 3 patents: 1. Auto model selection 2. Auto learning 3. Cognitive Assist

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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YOUR STORIES… OUR STORIES… Donating Smiles Katriya Bhavik Babubhai, Engineer, Airoli While we all try to live our lives normally, one day something happens that just changes us forever.

During college, I was part of a techno-managerial committee named “Technovanza” and participated in various CSR activities conducted by the team such as visiting ashrams, teaching orphaned children, Braille Kit donation at Blind School in Mumbai, cloth donation, helping sweepers, etc. In my 3rd year I was appointed to head the committee and our sole focus was to give back to society. This experience moulded me and changed my perspective towards helping others and the society.

Festivals are about spending time with family, but have you ever wondered what happens to those who do not have families? Since my experience of helping people during graduation, I decided to visit orphanages annually during Diwali with friends and spend some time with those who are not as fortunate we are. As such, my friends and I have been visiting Gonsalo Garcia Ashram, Vasai. With the help of public funding, we bought dictionary, books, crayons, games, footballs, badminton sets, cricket set, board games, hand wash, etc.

The experience has been surreal – the sparkle in the children’s eyes, the warm hug with which they greeted us and the enthusiastic tour they gave us of their home.

We talked for hours on various topics and played both indoor and outdoor games. Once they asked me “Why do you do this?” I answered, “Just to see the smile on your face!”

If you have the power to make someone smile, do it. The world needs more of it.

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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A Change in Perspective S Karthikeyan, Engineer, Chennai After college, I worked in a BPO for a while and in parallel applied to the IAF recruitment board. The selection process involved a written exam followed by a one-week physical and psychological analysis. I was sent to Mysore for this process.

Our batch consisted of 150 applicants, including someone for whom this was the ninth attempt. At the end of the first day, only 70 of us were selected while all others were asked to return. I got acquainted with a few and learned a lot. By the end of day six, 5 remained while rest 65 were sent home, including me.

Since the selection process is so unpredictable, there is no point of booking prior transport. After a five hour wait, I finally got a seat. It was then that I noticed an inebriated man, sitting just a meter away from me and a pregnant woman standing. It was an excruciatingly painful day and I could not gather the strength to offer the pregnant lady a seat. To my and everyone else’s shame, the inebriated man graciously offered her a seat.

It has become a human tendency to judge, so much so that when we an intoxicated man, we think lowly of him - we either scorn or pity them. I am usually courteous but failed miserably at this occasion whereas someone, of whom I did not think well, stood tall. This incident has changed my perspective towards people and even after 5 years I stop and think twice before making a judgment call on someone’s character.

TS TiMES, Special MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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India, NOT Nepal!!!

Susheel Dubey, Senior Engineer, Bangalore

India,NOT Nepal !!!

I had a colleague named Nepal Singh Patel in the same project I was working on.

One day, owing to massive work backlog, Nepal requested me to take a printout from the printer installed in a conference room, but when I reached, I saw there were no printouts.

To check what happened, I decided to call Nepal’s extension, however, instead of dialling 1618 (Nepal Singh’s Ext. no), I dialled 1816. The Ext. no. 1816 was allotted to one Mr. Uday Nayak, a senior Account Head. Uday answered the call and confident that it was Nepal Singh’s extension I did not greet with a “Hi” or “Hello” and addressed him as ‘NEPAL’. There was silence for a moment and then came the reply, “No, No, this is not Nepal… This is India and I am Uday Nayak speaking.”

Mr. Uday Nayak assumed that someone was calling to NEPAL country but had dialled India by mistake. I quickly realized the mistake and silently disconnected the phone.

Bonsai – A ‘LIVE Art’ that Lasts for Generations Krunal Thakar, CAE Department, LTTS, Vadodara The word “Bonsai” literally means “Potted Tress”. Bonsai is basically a dwarf tree potted in a shallow pot, featuring all characteristics of mature tree. The traditional art called “Penjing” dates back to 6th Century in Chinese history. The Japanese art of Bonsai originated from the Chinese practice of Penjing, which eventually became known to rest of the world in 18th Century. The art of Bonsai has its roots in India as well. It is believed that ancient ayurvedic physicians grew medicinal plants in miniature form for convenient transport, which they called “Vaman Vriksha”.

TS TiMES, Special MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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My journey with Bonsai art started when I first read a book “Bonsai for the Tropics” by Ms. Jyoti Pandya. Being from an agricultural family, I have been exposed to the knowledge of horticulture and agriculture since childhood. Over the years, I have developed several mature bonsai trees in my home garden. Banyan (Ficus Benghalensis), Pipal (Ficus Religiosa), Champa (Plumeria), Tamarind (Tamarindus Indica), Fringe Flower (Loropetalum), Pilkhan (Ficus Virens) are some of them.

What fascinates me about Bonsai is that it is a “live art”. It takes years of hard work, lot of patience, knowledge of horticulture and most importantly your personal connect with tree that you are developing as Bonsai. You develop a special bond with your Bonsai trees, and I believe that trees and plants can also understand human feelings. Every day I spend at least 30 minutes with my Bonsai tress watering, fertilizing, cutting, pruning or sometimes just observing them. It gives immense mental peace when you cultivate something and see it take form and shape in front of you such as Bonsai trees, it’s like meditation.

From Impression to Inspiration Daniel Reuben J, Project Lead, USA Growing up, I was inspired by the camera called Click 3, that my dad used back in the days when film rolls were used. He was a passionate photographer and when the camera was digitalized, he did not get a chance to own one due to other commitments in life. His passion for photography had made an early impression on my mind and hence when he retired from his professional service 8 years ago I gifted him a Canon 550D DSLR and he was really happy with it and wherever he travelled, he carried the DSLR with him and enjoyed clicking pictures with it - be it weddings, birthday parties, or Baptisms in church.

A few years later, I moved to US and was simply amazed with the landscapes and how blessed this land was. I started longing for a camera and followed the footsteps of my dad. That’s when I got myself a Canon 80D DSLR TS TiMES, Special MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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I started exploring the country-side in the US and took pictures of landscape and family and friends and everything that I could capture with the lens. It was a learning experience and I have striven to get better at my craft. I found out various ways to achieve what I desired to get in the frame and more often than not, succeeded doing it. I was not only inspired by the landscapes, but also the smaller things in routine settings such as gardens and lawns and started exploring them. I started working with my macro lens in my phone camera (Macro Photography). Below, you can see the pictures of the dandelions. Flash Photography raised my curiosity and again I strove to learn it to perfection and the results are there for you to see - the same dandelion from a different setup with my camera and two flashes.

Building an Electric Cycle Rinodh Alagarswamy, Engineer, Chennai Can you think of travelling 600 km per month at a cost of 80 rupees without sweat, petrol, and hassles of traffic? Of course yes, with an electric cycle, you can! On top of it, you can stay healthy as well by cycling. Our lives have become so hectic that there is hardly any time available to take care of ourselves mentally and physically. Every day, when we start for the office, first thing that comes to our mind is traffic. With an electric cycle, you can avoid traffic and yet reach office without much effort by engaging the electric mode and while returning from the office, you can disengage the electric mode and keep yourself healthy by cycling. Trust me, I am doing this for past 4 years, and it has made my life easier and happier in-terms of health and has also provided me great monetary benefit. You won’t believe but cycle is my preferred mode of transportation for distances ranging up to 200 km/day.

I have made two modifications to my cycle: Motor assist mode: There is a sensor attached to the pedal which measures the crank (pedal) rotation. So that power required to drive the weight of vehicle is be shared by the motor along with your pedal power. So, it is like riding a treadmill and in the process avoiding leg cramps.

TS TiMES, Special MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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Motor disengage mode: It is painful to ride a motor attached cycle. By nature, it will act as a generator, so we need to give more power than a normal cycle. A cycle should be cycle right! So I was able to give it a clutch and gear mechanism inside the motor - so that the system disengages while pedaling and makes the ride easier (unless an accelerator is added as is in electric bikes).

Hey Ishwar…

Nirav T. Thakkar, Discipline Lead, Bangalore In 2011, on Diwali I saw a lady and wrote a poem...

Logo ki tarah aaj me apne aangan ko, Sitaron si jagmagati roshni se saja nahi pai..

Naye saal ke is pyare se din pe, Tera bhog lagane me koi mithai nahi laa pai..

Tere bhandar me sabne aaj sab kuch diya, Par mein tujhe aaj apna kuch naa de pai..

Aajtak tere naam se sabse bahot kuch manga, Par tujhse aaj me apne liye kuch naa mang pai..

Hey Ishwar, In sabke bavjud kyu mujhe esa lagta hai….

Jese sari zindgi me bus tere sath hi jee pai…!!!!

Teri hi wajah se aaj me apne aangan me, Ek hi sahi, Par imandari ke paiso se diya to jala pai…

Bhog nahi lagaya to kya huaa…!!!

Par khud bhukha rahe ke, Bache mitti ke tel se tere is diye ko lambi umar to de pai…

Tere bhandar me Bhet na de pai to kya huva, Par har roj tere darbar me, Hoto pe tera naam liye me hajir to rahe pai…

Aaj tera hi naam leke tujhse khudke liye kuch na mang pai to kya huva..!!!

Par sabko tere hi naam se, tere hi pas se, Khudke liye kuch mangne ka me mauka to de pai….

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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SHOWCASE

LTTS AT NASSCOM ER&D ANNUAL SUMMIT LTTS was the Platinum Sponsor for NASSCOM’s first virtual Engineering & Design Summit that was conducted through 23rd and 24th September. This year’s theme for the event was Re-Designing Global ER&D for the New World Order. The event featured over 50+ eminent speakers from the entire engineering value chain including OEMs, Technology Companies, End-User Industries, Analysts, Policy Makers, and Global Capability Centres.

The Connected World: Beyond the 5G revolution

We had two speaker sessions at the event to connect with the audience.

Ashish Khushu Chief Technology Officer

The first session saw our CTO, Ashish Khushu deliver a keynote on The Connected World: Beyond the 5G revolution and for the ‘Invite Only’ session on 5G and Role in Proliferating the Emerging Technologies, LTTS speakers were: Geetha G, Global Delivery Head, Communication and Media and Divya Bhatt, Business Head, Asia & Media & Entertainment.

Invite Only Session: 5G and Role in Proliferating the Emerging Technologies

Geetha G Global Delivery Head -M&E

Divya Bhatt Business Head-Asia & MEA

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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MERCI BEAUCOUP REWARDING RESILIENCE

COVID-19 was an unprecedented challenge that disrupted business operations across industries.

Given the odds, it was truly a proud moment to see every LTTS-ite stand hand-in-hand with the organization. LTTS takes pride in the resilience shown by each employee and the support extended by the families of the employees in circum navigating through this crisis. It was heartening to see every LTTS-ite responding to the situation quickly whether it was converting home to a mini-lab, upgrading personal laptop for oďŹƒce use, or toggling between work for home and work from home.

Our CEO, Dr. Keshab Panda, along with our CHRO, M. Lakshmanan announced the Merci Beaucoup initiative as a token of gratitude towards the employees and their families for their unwavering determination in these uncertain times. Through this initiative each employee was presented with a gift and a citation for their contributions.

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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CONVERGING VIEWPOINTS Business continued as we seamlessly moved from board room meetings to a virtual environment and from formal attire to loungewear. But in this transition, we lost the informal conversations and discussions with customers.

L&T Technology Services recently launched its own thought leadership forum – Mélange: a community of like-minded people for enabling cross-pollination of ideas. Mélange is a platform where a series of virtual sessions are conducted to discuss on various topics of relevance.

Recently, we concluded Mélange by LTTS Nordics and had a rich peer-to-peer discussion on ‘How to do diversity and inclusion the right way’. The discussion was moderated by a diversity expert and was attended by select invited customers from Nordic region.

The audience opened-up and shared their personal experiences on how diversity and inclusion adoption differ in their respective countries, including dimensions like gender, age, ability & disability, introverts and extroverts. Few key takeaways from the session were new diversity topics to watch out for in 2021, the impact of the diversity gap on discrimination and the positive change in society through #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter.

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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EVERYONE MUST DO’T! All of us hold the power to change things for the better. The range could vary – some of us would have the potential to influence our immediate family and acquaintances and others would have the potential to influence the larger segments – communities, neighborhood, team, society, so on and so forth. So why not use this influence to bring about a positive impact? Why not communicate to these followers, the things that you are really passionate about? Why not Do One Thing (DOT) that will make a difference in the world?

LTTS’ DOT initiative aims to create a ripple effect of positive influence and we have already started the journey.

Follow us on #DOT on Yammer to learn how your own peers are changing the world – one step at a time!

And hey, while you are at it, why don’t you DO’T?

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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LTTS’ SALES PLAY PLATFORM L&T Technology Services is all set to get its own ‘Sales Play’ platform, called Tech Tadka. The platform is being launched in two phases and will be primarily used by the sales and delivery teams of LTTS.

The first phase, known as Tech Tadka Episodes, was launched in September and four virtual sessions have already been conducted on topics such as Cloudification, Energy Manager, Cloud App Modernization, and Cybersecurity, while more topics are in the pipeline. In these hour-long interactive episodes - each attended by ~100 participants - subject matter experts from both delivery and sales come together to discuss specific technical bytes & case studies. This helps our sales teams with the technical insights required to deliver a powerful sales pitch with the technical punch during their conversations with prospective customers.

The second phase, due in December this year, will see the launch of an app and web-based application, which will provide knowledge about LTTS’ solutions using self-shot videos by our very own sales and delivery subject matter experts. Other features include online assessments and marketing assets repository for each solution or service hosted on this platform.

Stay tuned to know more on Tech Tadka and how you can taste its flavors!

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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RECOGNITION GALORE

TECH-TRIUMPH – IBEMSTM WINS 2020 CUSTOMER VALUE AWARD FROM & SULLIVAN LTTS' i-BEMSLEADERSHIP was the recipient of Frost & Sullivan's CustomerFROST Value TM

Leadership Award for Global Smart Building Optimization & Experience Management.

Frost & Sullivan also praised the company's strong research and development background and its willingness to adapt to changing business environments to meet and exceed customer expectations.

LTTS bags Stevie American Business Awards 2020 LTTS’ North America Geography HR Team has been recognized with a Silver Stevie Award for Human Resources Team of the Year: Talent Management with a focus on Rewards & Recognition in the 18th Annual American Business Awards in 2020. LTTS has won an award in this category for the second time in a row.

LTTS has been recognized for its various Rewards & Recognition programs that create a great place to work for employees while being tied to the Company’s organizational objectives. The Award is a testament to the extraordinary work by our HR Team.

Three Cheers for Team LTTS! TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN TURBULENT TIMES At LTTS, we have around 25% of women representation in our workforce, and they seem to be juggling far more responsibilities, especially when boundaries between work and home have blurred.

Considering this fact, LTTS hosted a virtual session – a webinar with Senior Women Leaders across the industry to gather their thoughts and viewpoints on the Women Leadership in Turbulent Times and exchange notes and ideas on how they are in balancing personal and official work.

The leaders who participated in the panel were Aarti Shah, SVP & CIO - Eli Lilly, Kimberly Riddle, Vice President (Supply Chain Innovation & Governance Global Engineering) - Procter & Gamble, Seema Ghanekar, Global Head (Industrial & Consumer Products) - L&T Technology Services.

The virtual event was conducted on Oct 29, 2020 and the conversations were centered around: • • • •

The changing role of women during COVID-19 Balancing personal and professional responsibilities The role women play to create a successful home and workplace Advice for young women engineers to cope during these turbulent times

Here are a few insights/excerpts from the event:

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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RAISING THE HAPPINESS QUOTIENT On Oct 4th we celebrated Animal Welfare Day. Through our My Pet, My Companion drive, LTTS' HR team invited entries from employees to share their snaps with their pets.

Here are a few pictures from the e-album, showcasing the deep loving connection that our employees share with their pets. Enjoy the warmth exuded by each picture to de-stress &refresh:

TS TiMES, SPECIAL MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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STEP CHALLENGE EUROPE GETS MOVING

LTTS' Europe launched a wellness challenge to boost the morale of employees and keeping them motivated during the lockdown period. Get Moving Europe was a 4-week Step Challenge which had 20 teams joining from across the geo. The teams comprised of various departments and countries with participation from the likes of Gaurav Gupta, Chief Business Officer - Europe (CBO), the regional heads, engineers and employees from enabling functions.

It takes about 20 million steps to walk around the world, several years of commitment as well as determination, stamina, and a state of mind that only few of us can imagine.

Collectively the teams have walked 21636686 (twenty-one million six hundred thirty-six thousand six hundred eighty-six) steps in four weeks!!!!

What an amazing achievement Team Europe!

Prizes were given to the three best teams as well as smaller prizes throughout the challenge.

Week 1: Category – Individual with the most steps: Kshitij Modak from team Happy feet Week 2: Category –Team with the greatest improvement from the first week: Anand Maru and Devendra Chouhan from the Team, The Warriors Week 3: Category – Best Photo: Sheethal MP, Arun Rks , Ankit Chauhan, Sunil Jayaram from Team SCHRITTMEISTER

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3rd prize was to an all-girls team from UK Girl power consisting of: Avneet Sandhu, Munira Asaria, Nivedita Sagade

2nd Prize was Deepak Mestry from the team Warrior

1st Prize was to the Top Team consisting of Muthukumar Krishnasamy, Prashant Panchal, Chirag Machhi, Rupeshkumar Ramani

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HALLOWEEN FEVER GRIPS LTTS USA! Halloween was a little dierent this year but it didn’t stop our ECCO (Engagement Club of Central Ohio) Account Team from ďŹ nding creative spooky ideas and have fun while staying safe at home.

From carving pumpkins đ&#x;Žƒ to making creepy snacks đ&#x;?Ź to dressing up đ&#x;§› and having virtual parties, our colleagues and their families got into the spirit of #Halloween to celebrate the holiday! đ&#x;‘ťđ&#x;Ś‡ We received an excellent response and participation in the event. The best costume competition was part of the event where employees nominated themselves, spouse, and kids to dress up as any Spooky Character of choice for winning exciting prizes. The categories were: 1) 2) 3) 4)

Best Individual Costume Best Baby/Toddler Costume Best Kids Costume Best Group Costume

Judges for the contest were our own Pirate Captain Samir Bagga and Wilson Amalthas, who cheered, encouraged, and motivated everybody throughout the event.

One of the groups used their creative movie-making skills to release a spooktacular video teaser.

Overall, it was a fun and lively event where colleagues and their families came together to celebrate Halloween Trick or Treat Virtually.

Samir Bagga Chief Marketing OďŹƒcer

Wilson Amalthas Head - HR Americas TS TiMES, Special MONTHLY EDITION | L&T TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

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LTTS employees located in the Peoria, Illinois office and surrounding area customers hosted a virtual pumpkin/decorating/carving contest in celebration of Halloween. Nine employees submitted a picture of their decorated/carved pumpkin and all employees voted on their favorite pumpkin.

The 1st place winner was the dragon carved

by Brian Messmore, DOC LLC and the 2nd place winner was the haunted house carved

by Pooja Jain, DOC LLC. Winners were announced on Friday, October 30th. Winners and participants were awarded with Amazon gift cards.

‘The Dream Merchants’, West Virginia SIG Team of LTTS P&G Account celebrated Halloween in a unique way in these unusual times. The families shared their Halloween decorations, flaunted their Halloween costumes via an online get together. Everyone got to visit everyone else’s house through cameras. For few moments while the kids became superhumans, the parents became kids.

Halloween treats were also distributed.’

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#EngineeringTheChange

BCP Teams India Ganesh Raghavan Ravi Kumar

USA Wilson A

Europe Vishal Khatri

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