PUNE: From 10 February to 9 March 2026, India’s public walls will once again become spaces of dialogue, creativity, and shared imagination as Wall Art India returns for its 5th edition, marking a new milestone in one of the country’s most ambitious urban art initiatives.

Led by the Alliance Française network in India, in collaboration with the Embassy of France in India and the Institut Français, Wall Art India has, since 2021, transformed city walls into open-air galleries — free and accessible to all, deeply rooted in local neighbourhoods, and designed to remain part of the urban landscape long after the festival ends.

A month-long artistic journey across India

Spanning 15 cities across the country, the festival brings together 4 internationally recognised artists: two women and two men, three from France (including one from Réunion) and one Indian artist, for a month-long artistic journey shaped by exchange, participation, and shared creation.

• Khatra (India), a Baroda-trained artist, is known for his bold, meditative murals that blend typography, abstraction, and the raw textures of urban space.
• Kashink (France) is a major figure in international street art, whose vibrant, feminist works challenge social norms and celebrate freedom of identity.
• Kesadi (France) draws on his graffiti background to create poetic compositions inspired by everyday scenes and lived urban realities.
• Dey MKO (France / Réunion) develops large-scale murals marked by an intense palette and powerful symbolism, exploring women’s strength, resilience, and collective narratives.

Working closely with local communities, students, NGOs, and neighbourhood youth, the artists will create monumental murals that turn public space into a shared creative ground. Each artwork becomes a meeting point between artists and residents, between India and France, between individual stories and collective memory.

Artist Tours

Kesadi

Pune: 14 Feb – 17 Feb 2026

Venue: Aksharnandan School

Bahirat Wadi, Shivaji Co-operative Housing Society

2026 Theme: Women, Horizons & New Voices in Urban Art

The 2026 edition places women’s creativity and emerging urban voices at the centre of the project. Through murals, workshops, and public encounters, the festival celebrates diversity, resilience, and innovation, while exploring new artistic formats and reinforcing its commitment to inclusion and community participation.

The Grand Finale, to be held in Bangalore on 8 March 2026, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, will bring three artists together for a monumental collaborative mural, marking the culmination of a month of shared creation and cross-cultural dialogue.

Art for all, impact for cities

Since its launch, Wall Art India has:

• Created more than 40 murals across India and Sri Lanka, most of which remain visible today
• Reached over 12,000 on-site visitors during its last edition alone
• Generated strong national and international media coverage, contributing to the cultural visibility of host cities

By taking contemporary art beyond traditional institutions, Wall Art India reflects the vitality of India’s cities and affirms the role of art as a tool for inclusion, dialogue, and urban transformation.

Strong partnerships supporting creativity

The 2026 edition is made possible thanks to the continued support of partners committed to creativity and public engagement, including JSW, whose contribution supports mural production across the country, and, for the first year, Apollo Tyres, joining the project to champion public art, innovation, and community connection.

A shared vision for India’s urban future

In a country where cities are young, fast-changing, and deeply creative, Wall Art India resonates strongly with India’s own street-art movements while offering a meaningful international perspective. More than a festival, it is a national cultural movement — one that places public space, youth, and imagination at the heart of the conversation.

The post When Walls Speak: The Cultural Dialogue Between India and France Through Urban Wall Art appeared first on NRI News.

PARIS: Novotel, Accor’s founding brand, today announced the launch of an international partnership with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) that will see Novotel champion the protection and restoration of the ocean through science-based action and conservation projects. WWF is a global leader in building a sustainable future for people and the planet.

Under the three-year agreement, from 2024 to 2027, WWF France will provide technical expertise to Novotel, helping its 580 hotels worldwide to have a positive impact on the ocean, challenging and guiding the brand and its properties throughout many aspects of its operations. The partnership will also see Novotel sponsoring several critical WWF ocean-related conservation projects across the world.

Balance has long been at the core of the Novotel brand, both in its business fundamentals and in its commitments to the work-life experience of its guests. The brand’s focus on the ocean, the world’s biggest carbon sink and greatest source of planetary balance, which regulates the climate and protects habitats and wildlife, is a continuation of this purposeful commitment to balance.

Novotel will build a three-year science-based action plan, rooted in three of the United Nations’ priority ocean-related actions, namely: reducing marine pollution and ocean acidification, particularly from land-based activities; fighting overfishing and promoting sustainable fishing models; and increasing scientific knowledge and research for ocean health.

Mapped against these priorities, the Novotel action plan will aim to rebalance its impact on the planet, determining short and long-term initiatives across four pillars that form Novotel’s Positive Impact Plan:

1. Reduce plastic, water & carbon footprint impact – empowering Novotel hotels to deliver positive impact action plans to reduce pressure on natural resources, with a strong focus on plastic, water & energy usage;
2. Make sustainable food choices – reducing meat, fish, and waste within Novotel’s food and beverage operations, and further development of sustainable seafood policies;
3. Enhance education & ocean awareness – educating guests, hotel teams, and local communities on the necessity of ocean conservation and how to positively contribute;
4. Contribute to research & innovation – partnering with NGOs and investing in sustainable innovation.

The partnership with WWF will help Novotel drive operational change and action for the greater good of the ocean and deliver upon its Positive Impact Plan. With a specific focus on the ocean, the WWF partnership has four main objectives:

• Work on sustainable seafood policies and supply chains for Novotel hotels and restaurants
• Raise guests’ and employees’ awareness of the importance of the world’s oceans
• Advocate for ocean preservation to inspire industry and policymakers
• Preserve and restore marine biodiversity through support of five WWF flagship projects around the world

To inform Novotel’s work, WWF is conducting extensive site visits to Novotel hotels to understand property-level operations and practices, assess procurement data, and make recommendations. WWF will provide a dedicated steering committee to assess Novotel’s progress on its commitments throughout the partnership.

The partnership will see Novotel supporting essential WWF France conservation projects around the world, including:

• The protection of Posidonia, an endemic flowering plant of the Mediterranean which plays a

key role as a carbon sink – removing carbon from the atmosphere – and providing benefits to 25 different marine ecosystems.

• The identification and removal of “ghost gear” – lost, abandoned, and otherwise discarded fishing gear – is the deadliest form of marine plastic waste that impacts marine turtles and mammals, elasmobranchs such as sharks, rays and skates, and marine birds.
• Supporting the WWF France’s Blue Panda boat, which sails across the Mediterranean carrying out work including scientific dives, protecting cetaceans from collisions with marine vehicles, and protecting endangered species of rays and sharks; as well as introducing the public to the Mediterranean, its conservation challenges, and the work being done to protect it.
• Tracking and tracing marine turtles in Asia-Pacific, gathering knowledge on their movements from nesting beaches to migratory corridors and foraging grounds, and mapping critical populations and conservation areas. Six of seven species of marine turtles remained threatened by harvesting, illegal trade, being caught by commercial fisheries, and the loss of nesting beaches.
• Protecting the sea turtles of the Western Atlantic, strengthening regional cooperation on sustainable fishing techniques, and combating illegal fishing. Fighting illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing will help protect leatherback turtles breeding in coastal areas of the Guianas, and green and olive ridley turtles from Brazil to Venezuela.

Commenting on the Novotel WWF partnership, Karelle Lamouche, Chief Commercial Officer, Premium, Midscale & Economy Division, Accor, said: “We are delighted to announce that Novotel is embarking on an exciting new chapter. Novotel, Accor’s founding brand, is a powerful brand, leading the Midscale segment in most of the world. Today, we are starting a bold new ambition, championing a sustainability cause globally.

Novotel has a long-standing commitment to innovation and balance, and we now take that commitment further, by choosing to help the greatest source of balance on our planet – the ocean.

To make this ambition a reality, we are proud to unveil a groundbreaking partnership with the WWF – the World Wide Fund for Nature. Together with our partners, teams, and guests, Novotel will lead the charge toward a sustainable future for our oceans, pioneering a new era of environmental stewardship in our hotels and driving industry change.

There is a deep imbalance in the way the ocean is treated. Globally, over-exploitation and pollution are depleting the ocean’s resources, while only a tiny fraction of climate finance is allocated to its preservation. The ocean’s health affects us all and our collective actions have a profound impact. We will rebalance how we engage with it, consume its resources, and invest in its protection and restoration. As a primarily land-based brand, Novotel has a unique opportunity to increase awareness of the impact everyone, everywhere has on the ocean and inspire positive change for the ocean’s future.”

Yann Laurans, Conservation Director, WWF France, said “WWF aims to restore ocean health for the benefit of people and nature. The oceans are an essential resource of biodiversity that must be protected. WWF is committed to strategic and innovative partnerships with the largest international and national companies in the world to help them concretely reduce their ecological footprint and make a positive contribution to the environment. We are confident our world-renowned technical and scientific expertise will help Novotel drive operational change for the greater good of their business and the ocean”.

Accor, Novotel’s parent Group, has an established track record of developing sustainable solutions and innovations in the maritime sector. To name just a few, Accor has supported Energy Observer since 2017 and recently partnered with the Fondation de la Mer in 2022 to adopt the Ocean Framework, to assess the impact of its business activities on ocean wildlife. The Group banned endangered fish species, promoted responsible fishing, and was the first hospitality group to commit to progressively eliminating single-use plastic items from their guest experiences to fight against ocean pollution. Accor’s commitments are aligned and consistent with the Group’s commitment to contribute to global carbon neutrality by 2050 and to remove all single-use plastics from the guest experience.

Brune Poirson, Chief Sustainability Officer, Accor, commented: “Novotel’s commitment and investment in ocean preservation, alongside the WWF, represent a major turning point in its history. It demonstrates the determination of the brand and the Accor Group to act resolutely in favor of biodiversity and fight climate change while inspiring the entire sector. Tourism has a major impact on marine resources. Yet, it is also very dependent on them. Our responsibility is not only to mitigate this impact but also to come up with impactful solutions that will help the industry adapt to climate change and its consequences. Our ambition is thus to support our owners in turning social and environmental challenges into sources of opportunities, for their assets and for the societies in which they operate.”

Created in 1967 in France, Novotel is Accor’s founding brand. It now boasts over 580 hotels across 65 countries, with 42,000 Novotel “Heartists” looking after over 30 million guests a year.

The post NOVOTEL ANNOUNCES OCEAN PROTECTION PARTNERSHIP WITH WWF appeared first on NRI News.

PARIS: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) has emerged as a leader in customer satisfaction in France by ranking first in the 2023 French IT Sourcing Study by global think tank Whitelane Research. With a satisfaction score of 84%, TCS retained its position at the top for the fifth consecutive year.

Whitelane Research is an independent organization that conducts in-depth research into information technology procurement policies in Europe and organizes events across the continent. The 2023 French IT Sourcing Study, conducted in collaboration with IT consulting firm Timspirit, is the largest independent survey carried out in France among 200 business managers and customers of IT service providers. It covers 600 IT outsourcing contracts and 700 cloud service contracts.

TCS France consolidated its leadership with a score that is 12% higher than the average of companies in the sector and a lead of 6% compared to the organization that ranked second. The general satisfaction score is also up 3%, a significant jump from last year’s performance.

“We are delighted to be ranked number one in customer satisfaction by our French customers for the fifth consecutive year. For over three decades, TCS has been partnering with many esteemed French organizations on their transformative journeys, contributing to their growth and helping them realize their visionary goals. Our enduring collaboration has been built on a foundation of innovation, customer-centricity, continued investment in local talent, and a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within the French market. We remain committed to fostering success and driving transformational impact for our French clients and this achievement reaffirms our position as their trusted partner.” said Rammohan Gourneni, Managing Director of TCS France.

Operating in France since 1992, TCS has supported more than 80 large French companies in their growth and transformation journeys, including 18 CAC40 companies (Alcatel-Lucent, BNPP, Engie, Sodexo, Société Générale, Total, etc.). In the three decades since, TCS has made significant investments in the country and opened service centers in Paris-Suresnes, Lille, and Poitiers. The IT services leader has also been recognized as one of the best employers in Europe and France by the Top Employers Institute for 11 years in a row.

TCS’ growth in France is reflected in its performance in the 2023 survey on indicators such as account management (87%, + 11% vs. average), innovation, and ability to drive transformation (79%, + 15% vs. the average), and the use of sustainable technologies (78%, +13% vs. the average).

Jef Loos, Head of Procurement at Whitelane Research, said, “Tata Consultancy Services holds the top position in France for the fifth consecutive year, demonstrating the consistency of its commitment to its French clients. Maintaining such a high customer satisfaction rate year after year and in a rapidly evolving technological context shows the technical capabilities, flexibility, and customer centricity that TCS teams can do, whether in terms of digital transformation, application services, Cloud or workplace.”

The study brings out important insights on the topics that IT managers will be prioritizing for the next two years. Almost 63% of the respondents plan to outsource more or at least maintain their current level of outsourcing. Respondents’ main motivations remain cost reduction (56%), refocusing on core business (45%), improving the quality of service (40%), and better access to resources and talents (32%). The services that managers will focus on include finance, the manufacturing industry of chemicals, consumer goods, pharmaceutical products, and finally public services.

The post TCS Ranks No. 1 in Customer Satisfaction in France for 5th year appeared first on NRI News.