09 March 2022: The Mobius Foundation launched a campaign and a webinar, “Equal Samman”, in line with the UN theme – ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow’. The campaign sought to understand the motto of #BreakTheBias and its role in the workplace and daily life.

The hour-long webinar was conducted virtually on March 8th, 2022, from 3:00-4:30 PM. It featured a panel of trailblazers who overcame obstacles imposed by society to become who they are today.

Dr. Ram Boojh, CEO, Mobius Foundation, welcomed all the guests and dignitaries and paid tribute to women warriors who are on the frontline of sustainability of the plant he further said “Our world would mean nothing without women. Their courage that exists in perfect harmony with amazing tenderness saves our world every day.”

Recognising the contributions of women and girls globally, the webinar initiated an informed and engaging debate about the dynamics of women’s empowerment and its impact on our nation’s development for a sustainable tomorrow. To emphasise the importance of breaking down biases against women and girls, the foundation invited internationally acclaimed women speakers to highlight the importance of challenging societal stereotypes. Dr. Neelima Jerath, Director General, Pushpa Gujral Science City; Dr. Shweta Khare Naik, Executive Director, Jane Goodall Institute India; Dr. Uma Tuli, Founder, Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust; and Ms. Nalini and Ms. Kamalini, SNA Awardee, and Padmashree, Ms. Indira Burman, Trustee Mobius Foundation, Chairperson SUNDESH, and Ms. Poonam Minhas, Principal Gyan Anant Vidyalaya graced the occasion.

Dr. Uma Tuli stated, “Biases have been broken many times. Look at the ‘Iron Ladies’ that have made their own place in society. What we need to see is men respecting women but also recognising women with disabilities who have been an inspiration to many like Sudha Chandran, Prachi, Bhakti, Arunima Sinha, and a lot more. We have to give equal opportunity and equal participation to people with special abilities, that’s when it will be #EqualSamman.”

Dr. Shweta Khare deliberated, “We as women should not limit ourselves. We have various roles to play, we have to find our own place, our own ways to be in this society.”

Dr. Neelima Jerath expressed, ‘Look at the clear skies beyond the glass ceiling – be strong – be soft – be silent, and let success make the noise one day’

Ms Nalini and Ms Kamalini said, “मैं ईश्वर का धन्यवाद करती हूँ मुझे नारी रूप देने के लिये। बिना नारी एक ऐसा आभाव होता है जैसे जीवन में कुछ है ही नहीं। नारी रंग है , संगीत है , संसार है , प्रकृति है। नारी सर्व है सर्वत्र है।”

Ms. Indira Burman, Trustee Mobius Foundation, Chairperson SUNDESH, thanked the guests and panelists and said The road to gender equality remains long and ever-shifting—particularly when it comes to the nuanced ways gender intersects with race, class, and sexuality. But today’s influential female voices give us hope that we’re headed in the right direction.”

The month-long digital campaign #EqualSamman – aims to address conscious and unconscious biases that prevail in society and prevent women and girls from living their lives to the fullest.

Biases have crept across different lines in women’s lives, whether in the public or private sphere. Women are expected to behave in certain ways, which means they must live up to the standards set by society. Every woman should embrace their own individuality and identity and use it to make a difference to transform the world around them and break the bias. Behaving counter-stereotypically and rebelling against these biases is viewed negatively by society, and as a result, people perceive a less likable image of women. Mobius Foundation aims to demonstrate the strength and ambition of women to elevate a climate of change in society as part of its challenge to established norms.

Individually, we’re all responsible for our thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can break the bias in our communities. We can break the bias in our workplaces. We can break the bias in our schools, colleges, and universities.

SO, LET US ALL PLEDGE TOGETHER, WE CAN ALL BREAK THE BIAS – ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY (IWD) AND BEYOND.

14 March 2022, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; The Flight Centre Travel Group (FLT) has reinforced its commitment to providing customers with the widest choice of airfares by increasing its investment in travel technology business TPConnects Technologies (TPC).

The company has increased its equity interest in the Dubai-based Software as a Service (SaaS) business, which aims to shape the future of travel distribution and has been at the forefront of ongoing changes to traditional distribution models, from 22.5% to 70%.

FLT initially invested in TPC in February 2020 with a view to supercharging the development of TPC’s innovative technology platform, which aggregates content from multiple sources including:

  • Global distribution systems (GDSs), which airlines traditionally utilised to distribute air content
  • Low-cost carriers (LCCs)
  • Emerging supplier-direct channels, specifically airlines’ New Distribution Capability (NDC) offerings; and
  • Other third-party NDC aggregators

TPC has a proven track record in NDC and provides a centralised NDC Gateway which services customers in both the aviation and travel agency sectors.

The business offers travel agents a range of solutions to access aggregated air content via the TPC Universal API (application programming interface), which can be directly integrated into any user interface, or via agency business-to-business (B2B) platforms such as the NDC marketplace portal.

TPC was established in 2012 by Rajendran Vellapalath and Praveen Kumar, who both maintain an ongoing involvement in the business and will become part of the new TPC board. In addition to the TPC board, Mr Vellapalath will be involved in Kerala Pravasi Association, a non-government organisation (NGO) led by the expatriate community-based in India, and a new Social Media application.

The business has a proven track record in developing NDC solutions for airlines and aggregating these for travel sellers and has been recognised globally by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as both an IT Provider and Aggregator. FLT’s involvement in TPC allowed the company to become the first global travel management company to receive IATA Level 4 certification, the highest level available at the time (achieved in 2020).

“FLT’s investment comes at an important time, given the rapid changes that are taking place in the distribution of air content and with the development of the Airline Retailing Maturity Index, which IATA is now pioneering,” Mr. Vellapalath said,

“This is one of the biggest industry disruptions in recent years, with NDC and IATA’s new ONE Order customer record system at its core.

“The strong relationship between TPC and FLT will ensure that both companies remain at the forefront of this ongoing change and play a lead role in the future evolution of distribution.”

For airline customers, TPC offers advanced NDC solutions via its middleware offer and order management services. TPConnects airline customers include Singapore Airlines, Oman Air, Gulf Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Eastern Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, Air Cairo, Egypt Air, SaudiGulf Airlines, and Air Mauritius.

“The traditional airline distribution model is being disrupted, with growth in direct connections between buyers and sellers, the proliferation of new commercial models, the rise of new entrant technology providers and continued enhancements in connectivity,” FLT’s leisure and supply chief executive officer Melanie Waters-Ryan said.

“Within this ever-changing distribution landscape, we have taken proactive steps to complement our GDS partnerships and ensure we can source and deliver the best content to our leisure and corporate customers globally by investing in TPC.

“TPC has been at the heart of the evolution in airfare distribution during the past decade, is now engrained in our business, and is integral to the new operating systems and platforms we are delivering in both the leisure and corporate sectors.

“By investing further in the business, we have greater influence over future developments and the product’s ongoing evolution, while ensuring we continue to deliver the widest choice of airfares to our customers.

“Fast-tracking future developments will also provide FLT with a better opportunity to be ahead of our competitors’ comparable solutions.”

Other potential commercial benefits to FLT include:

  • Lower costs – the ability to cost-effectively access and book a broad range of NDC content via TPC and avoid the surcharges that some airlines are now applying to bookings made via GDSs. FLT can also access TPC content at a lower rate than it pays to aggregation competitors
  • Margin improvement, through access to TPC’s margin management tools and ability to control decisions relating to where air content is sourced from
  • Access to NDC-related incentives that airlines are increasingly offering to their travel agency partners
  • Enhanced ability to offer and distribute exclusive private fares for airlines; and
  • Access to new revenue streams through TPC’s offerings to airlines and other travel agency groups