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Piyush Goyal and UK-India FTA Negotiation Teams Honoured at 10th Anniversary of IGF UK-India Awards

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Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Uday Kotak, the Premier League, Grant Thornton, Wockhardt, the British Asian Trust and the British Council were also recognised at the annual IGF UK-India Awards 2026 for their outstanding contributions to the UK-India corridor.

LONDON and NEW DELHI, June 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, and the joint UK-India FTA negotiating teams were honoured with the Exceptional Leadership in Elevating UK-India Ties award at the UK-India Awards 2026 on Thursday, 25 June 2026. Held at The Peninsula London during the 10th anniversary of India Global Forum’s UK-India Week, the awards recognised the leadership behind the historic UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), following its ratification earlier this year.

Opening the evening, IGF’s Founder and Chairman Manoj Ladwa reflected on the journey of UK-India Week over the past decade, saying:

“Ten years ago, we set out to create a platform worthy of the modern UK-India relationship. One that connected leaders across business, government, capital, innovation and culture. A place where conversations became collaborations, introductions became investments, and relationships became lasting partnerships. That was the vision. And I called it – perhaps ambitiously – a Winning Partnership. I believed it then. I believe it even more tonight.”

The ceremony brought together senior ministers, high commissioners, diplomats and global business leaders to celebrate the individuals and institutions that have helped strengthen the UK-India partnership and advance it into a new phase of economic cooperation.

Biotechnology pioneer and Chairperson of Biocon Group Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was presented with the Lifetime Contribution to UK-India Relations award for her global leadership in science and entrepreneurship. The financial corridor’s deep capital flows were celebrated next as banking titan Uday Kotak received the award for Exceptional Leadership in UK-India Financial Services, delivering his acceptance via a special video message.

Grant Thornton was honoured for its Decade of Contribution to Consulting, recognised for shaping advisory excellence and influential corridor research. The evening’s narrative smoothly transitioned from economic engines to societal impact, honouring forces that deliver meaningful progress beyond the boardroom. Wockhardt was recognised for its Decade of Contribution to Lifesciences and Health Resilience, particularly through vaccine infrastructure, while the British Council was honoured for its Decade of Contribution to Education.

The diaspora’s vital role was cemented with the British Asian Trust receiving the award for A Decade of Contribution to Social Impact, followed by the Premier League, which was celebrated for connecting millions of Indian fans to British football through grassroots youth initiatives like Premier Skills.

The gala reached its peak as the focus returned to the architects of the trade deal. In a rare and powerful public moment of joint celebration, the UK-India FTA Negotiating Teams took the stage together to receive their Exceptional Leadership in Elevating UK India Ties award, earning a standing ovation for the years of tireless determination spent navigating complex policy chapters across changing governments.

Concluding the evening, the final Exceptional Leadership in Elevating UK-India Ties award was presented to Chief Guest Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, by IGF Founder and Chairman Manoj Ladwa and UK Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle MP.

Accepting the honour, Piyush Goyal said:

“I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this will be a success, and this CETA will become a template, a role model for many other free trade agreements in the future.”

The historic evening drew to a close with a grand finale group photograph of all laureates on stage, marking a decisive, unified entry into the next decade of the modern UK-India partnership.

About India Global Forum

India Global Forum tells the story of contemporary India. The pace of change and growth India has set itself is an opportunity for the world. IGF is the gateway for businesses and nations to help seize that opportunity.

Social Media Handles & Hashtag to Follow

Twitter: @IGFUpdates & @manojladwa
LinkedIn: India Global Forum

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How Cool Is Shenzhen? Just Ask Global Journalists Who Come to See It

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SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — “Shenzhen may well be the world’s No. 1 innovation hub. And together, Shenzhen and Hong Kong form the perfect endpoint of the modern Silk Road.”

That was the glowing verdict American economist Jeffrey Sachs delivered in Shenzhen just over a month ago, effectively giving the city one of the highest-profile stamps of approval in the world of development economics.

Sachs is hardly an ordinary commentator. One of the world’s most influential authorities on sustainable development, and for years a special adviser to the UN secretary-general, he knows a thing or two about how cities and economies grow.

In a recent exclusive interview with Zhi News (from Shenzhen Media Group), Sachs shared his in-depth views. The following is the full report:

when representatives from APEC economies come to Shenzhen, they are bound to be impressed. They will discover that the city is not merely a great place to find capital and business partners, but also a window into entirely new models of development—and perhaps a glimpse of what the future could look like.

After decades of trailblazing development, Shenzhen has more than earned that kind of academic attention. It is, after all, a city built on miracles and a straight-A student in the school of urban development.

The more you admire Shenzhen, the more you begin to understand why it deserves admiration. That, to me, is precisely where the real significance of Shenzhen’s development lies: not simply in what the city has achieved, but in what its experience tells us about where the world may be heading.

As a journalist, I would put it this way: Shenzhen is a mother lode for anyone trying to understand China. For global academia, and perhaps even more so for the world’s media, it is a gold mine of stories, ideas and opportunities.

Over the past year or two, a curious phenomenon has swept across Western social media and, increasingly, Western society itself: China-maxxing, sometimes jokingly described as “becoming Chinese.”

“You met me at a very Chinese time in my life.”

Yes, that viral internet phrase borrows its punchline from the Hollywood classic Fight Club. Earlier this year, The New York Times offered a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek description of the trend in one of its features:  If you drink hot water, wear slippers indoors or shop at Asian supermarkets, you may be Chinese, according to the internet.

But here is what caught my attention.

When it comes to Shenzhen—and China more broadly—Western mainstream media can sometimes be surprisingly slow on the uptake. Take China-maxxing. It only became a mainstream media story, splashed across newspapers and television screens, earlier this year—more than six months after a Twitter user, @Girl_virus, first posted about “becoming Chinese.”

To put it bluntly, China-maxxing was not exactly handed down to the mainstream media from above. The world’s netizens pushed it up there.

The New York Times even framed the provocative question this way in a headline: From Labubu to “becoming Chinese,” has China become cool?

Well, if the Times’ reporter comes to Shenzhen, I’ll make a pretty safe bet: he or she will come away thinking, Shenzhen is super cool.

So here’s my advice to my fellow journalists around the world: follow the lead of those pioneering scholars. Get closer to Shenzhen. Walk into Shenzhen. Stay a little longer. Look a little deeper. And then go farther afield.

There are simply too many fascinating stories here waiting to be told—and too many forces behind those stories waiting to be decoded.

And here’s the best part.

More than two decades ago, Shenzhen residents already had the confidence to put it into one unforgettable slogan:

“Once you come, you’re a Shenzhener.”

I suspect foreign correspondents arriving in Shenzhen today may discover their own version of that old Shenzhen experience:

Come for the story. Stay for the experience. Leave having become, at least a little bit, a Shenzhener.

And trust me, it’s going to be quite an experience. 

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SOURCE Shenzhen Media Group

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Datamaran Appoints Bert Sinnema as Chief Technology Officer

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LONDON, NEW YORK and LEEUWARDEN, Netherlands, Sept. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Datamaran, the AI-powered risk and governance software provider, today announced the appointment of Bert Sinnema as Chief Technology Officer. Based out of the company’s Leeuwarden office in the Netherlands, Sinnema will lead Datamaran’s global engineering and product teams, including the engineering hub in Valencia, Spain, driving the technology and product vision behind the platform that helps organizations understand and manage evolving risks and opportunities.

As CTO, Sinnema will own Datamaran’s product vision, strategy, and technology roadmap, from setting direction to architecture, delivery, and the teams building it. He steps into the role at a pivotal moment for the company, as Datamaran deepens its use of AI across the platform to give customers faster, more decision-ready insights into risk, regulation, and stakeholder expectations. His mandate: lead the engineering and product organization, accelerate the pace of AI-driven product development, and ensure the platform keeps pace with the increasingly complex and fast-moving risk landscape.

A track record scaling product engineering teams

Sinnema brings more than 12 years of product engineering leadership experience spanning startups, scale-ups, and category-leading platforms, with deep expertise at the intersection of engineering, cybersecurity, and AI. He joins Datamaran from Eye Security, Europe’s fastest-growing cybersecurity company, where he served as VP of Engineering and built the product and engineering organization from the ground up, scaling the multi-hub international team 3x and helping the company reach a €60M Series C round.

Before Eye Security, Sinnema spent over three years at HackerOne, the world’s leading ethical hacking and bug bounty platform, rising to Director of Engineering. Earlier in his career, Sinnema founded and served as CTO of SmartLockr, a secure communications and privacy platform he bootstrapped, scaled across three countries, and took through Microsoft’s Ventures Accelerator in Berlin.

Building for Datamaran’s next chapter

“Bert has spent his career building engineering organizations from the ground up and scaling them through some of the most demanding environments, including as a founder himself. He knows firsthand what it takes to turn conviction into something real, and to keep adapting as the market evolves,” said Marjella Lecourt-Alma, CEO and co-founder of Datamaran. “As Datamaran evolves from ESG issue management into an AI-powered governance platform, Bert’s founder mindset and experience building teams, technology, and culture make him exactly the right leader to shape what comes next for our teams, customers, and partners.”

“I like to operate at the intersection of product engineering leadership and AI, where the hardest problems live, and the highest-leverage decisions get made,” said Sinnema. “Datamaran is applying AI to help organizations navigate a genuinely complex risk landscape, and I’m excited to bring my experience building and scaling engineering and product organizations to that mission. This is the most interesting time to be building in tech, and I’m looking forward to being in the middle of it with the team.”

Contact: Helen Skeen, Director of Communications and Insights: helen.skeen@datamaran.com.

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SOURCE Datamaran Limited

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Diving deeper into real-life home demands, EZVIZ brings next-generation home innovations and products to IFA with expanded application scenarios

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HOOFDDORP, Netherlands, Sept. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — This IFA, EZVIZ explores new frontiers with its full-range products in the smart home hall 1.2. Under the theme “Accelerating Innovation”, the company creates an immersive experience at booth 175, featuring anticipated debuts that highlight its leadership in self-developed smart home security and home entry products, and introducing next-generation devices powered by local-first EZVIZ AI. EZVIZ also builds excitement by unveiling brand-new smart cleaning robots and wearable electronics for stay-at-home and on-the-go lifestyle needs.

“EZVIZ has prepared a technological feast, with each line-up full of hardcore innovations,” said Chris Xu, General Manager of EZVIZ’s International Business Center. “Especially in Europe, where we’ve developed our portfolio and services for over a decade, we offer global solutions and Europe-tailored options rooted in insights and localization.”

As the hall’s largest stand, EZVIZ designs 5 interlinked areas, allowing audiences to embark on a journey from visual protection and add-on home convenience to robotic fun and future imagination.

For its renowned smart home cameras, EZVIZ aims to lead with an innovative leap in technology and product design.

The triple-lens 90f series for ultra-vision: Upgraded from the 90 Duals, the wired H90f and battery-powered HB90f pack three lenses, ushering in the triple-lens era of professional-level awareness. They are designed to cover visible distance with 12x mixed zoom, capturing details that are easy to miss across broad areas like ranches.The dual-lens 3K series for compact, mobile security: With the basic CB30 and advanced CB60 models, this series embodies flexibility enabled by high-capacity batteries and magnetic bases. The CB60 further maintains a clear view beyond Wi-Fi range with 8x zoom and switchable 4G-WiFi connectivity.

EZVIZ further expands the potential of smart cameras with EZVIZ AI, delivering the EZVIZ MIRA advanced model system directly on devices to unlock advanced detection and management.

EZVIZ AI CoreX home station: Bringing EZVIZ MIRA to the local level, EZVIZ delivers uncompromised AI performance through the masterpiece edge model AI CoreX. Acting as a private home station without reliance on the cloud, it offers large file storage, smart search with text, photos and videos, and multi-device management, without needing to be online.Local-first AI solutions: Making local AI features accessible at all levels, EZVIZ integrates the power of local AI chips on end devices with AI capabilities on edge devices, and by offering flexible AI home plans. Users can either enable detection features on standalone cameras without subscriptions, or customize scalable systems by adding AI CoreX or other home hubs like the X6.

In smart entry, EZVIZ introduces new line-ups for broader scenarios.

Smart AI locks: From DIY options to high-end choices, EZVIZ offers a complete understanding of smart locks. Among them is the flagship DL50FVX, integrated with pioneering technologies. It provides on-device palm vein and facial unlocking, enhanced awareness with dual lenses and a built-in screen.Doorbells & peephole cameras with add-on AI: EZVIZ showcases versatile options, from door viewers to dual-lens video doorbells that keep entrances connected. The state-of-the-art EP8 Ultra marks a new chapter in video doorbells, providing thoughtful care beyond security with its interactive local AI screen.Smart entry systems for villas: Designed for interaction at gates and driveways, EZVIZ presents systematic solutions with the representative HP7 Pro Video Doorphone and HG2 600 Pro Gate Opener. The HP7 Pro ditches bulky intercoms, offering keyless entry, 4K awareness and centralised management, while the HG2 600 Pro delivers lag-free vehicle access.

For more information, please visit ezviz.com/page/ifa2026.

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SOURCE EZVIZ

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