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Inaugural Sync Digital Wellbeing Summit to seek greater understanding of digital harms

The self-styled “Davos of digital wellbeing” will raise awareness of the hidden realities of our relationship with digital servicesThe two-day summit (29-30 March) will bring together academia, tech industry titans, cultural figures and policymakers for an exchange of ideas and solutions for improving our relationship with techSimon Sinek and leadership from IBM, UNESCO and Childnet amongst those expected speak at sessions across the Summit Sync research indicates that nearly half of us (48%) spend more time online everyday than we would like DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia, March 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — As part of efforts to raise awareness of digital wellbeing issues, digital wellbeing program, Sync, is set to bring together leaders from across tech, academia, sports, culture and policy at the end of this month for its inaugural Sync Digital Wellbeing Summit.
Held between 29th and 30th March at The King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture (Ithra), Saudi Arabia, the Summit will provide a platform for thought leaders to develop new solutions for protecting the wellbeing of digital media users worldwide.
Focusing in on five key areas of concern, Summit sessions will invite speakers to offer insight and perspective on the topics of digital addiction, privacy, fake news and misinformation, relationships and algorithms. It is hoped that the exchange of ideas and knowledge can help to inspire tangible change in how we interact with, regulate and design digital platforms.
Abdullah Al-Rashid, Director of Sync says: “Our understanding of the complex impact of digital technology and social media on our relationships, personal wellbeing and society trails far behind our understanding of the tech itself and how to get the most clicks, likes and engagements out of it. It’s only in recent years that we have begun to have conversations around the more harmful aspects of our relationship with digital and social media. As the pandemic drove even greater integration of digital tech into our lives, it’s important that we invest more into these conversations to ensure that we uncover the full picture, and in doing so, avoid proposing solutions that focus only on symptoms rather than causes, and are short-term, partial, isolated fixes rather than meaningful, holistic or lasting changes.
“The Sync Digital Wellbeing Summit will bring together the most prominent experts in this field, as well as key stakeholders, cultural figures and influencers to discuss issues of digital wellbeing on a scale never before organised. Summit sessions will see our thought leaders ask provocative, but necessary, questions about our relationships with technology; provide insights into its impacts and offer solutions to the challenges we face. Only by collectively asking the right questions can we successfully define the path to a healthier relationship with technology.”
Thought leadership
Amongst the roster of thought leaders expected to speak at the Summit, will be major figures representing tech, NGOs, charities, Governments and the cultural influencer community. The headline speakers include:
Will Gardner OBE, CEO at Childnet, UK Mo Gawdat, Author, Entrepreneur and Former Chief Business Officer, Google [X], United Arab Emirates Jonathan Garner, Founder & CEO, Mind Over Tech, UK Ross Farrelly, PhD, Director Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, IBM, Australia H.H. Princess Haifa Al Mogrin, Permanent Delegate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UNESCO Angela Gandra da Silva Martins PhD, Vice-Minister, Human Rights for the Family, Brazil Liz Sweigart PhD, Chief Product & Strategy Officer, Safe Kids AI John A. Naslund, PhD, Instructor in Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School Gitanjali Rao, Innovator, Author, and TIME Magazine’s first-ever “Kid of the Year” in 2020Will Gardner OBE, CEO at Childnet – a UK charity campaigning for a safer internet for children – said: “The online world provides incredible opportunities for children, but also presents risk, and this is the case for children all over the world. There is a clear need for policy, regulation, protections and education to keep pace with this fast-moving environment, to ensure children are able to look after themselves as well as others online, but also for this work to include the voice of young people, sharing their experiences, their concerns and their ideas. I am looking forward to engaging on how to progress this area at the Sync Digital Wellbeing Summit”.
Speakers attending the Summit will be invited to discuss a broad range of topics relating to digital wellbeing. Attendees can expect to hear experts talking to the latest thinking on a number of issues pertinent to digital wellbeing. Panel session and speech highlights will include:
The Psychology of Technology panel with Dr. Mohammed Alhajji, Director of the Behavioral Insights & Nudge Unit, Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health and Dr. Moritz Büchi, Senior Research and Teaching Associate, University of Zurich Gen Z Versus the Digital World panel moderated by Rodney WJ Collins PhD, SVP & Director, McCann Worldgroup Truth Central and featuring Chantelle de Carvalho,  Producer, I am Gen Z and Othman Almoamar, Community Engagement & Research Program Manager, MISK Foundation Scanning the Horizon – Tech Trends and Their Implications for Digital Wellbeing panel with Dr. Latifa Al-Abdulkarim, Assistant Professor, College of Computer and Information Science, KSU – King Saud University and Dr. Ross Farelly, Director, Data Science and AI, IBM, Australia Does The Internet Need Warning Labels? debate with Matthew Bergman, Founder, Social Media Victims Law Center, Senior Partner, Bergman Draper Oslund UdoA full Summit agenda will be announced in due course.
The Summit will also play host to an Agora, bringing together attendees in a public forum to help encourage the generation of new strategic ideas. This will involve breakout sessions where attendees will be able to share their thoughts on how to best promote the global digital wellbeing agenda. Led by topics discussed in the speaker sessions, the breakout sessions will cover ‘The Digital Wellbeing Future We Want’ and ‘Building A Global Digital Wellbeing Movement’.
During the Summit, Sync will doing deep dive sessions with SMEs and researchers from diverse nations, experience and background aimed at bringing together key insights around digital wellbeing with and the way forward and future of digital wellbeing.
Sync data illustrates growing concern for our relationship with tech
The Summit follows the launch of Sync’s first whitepaper[1], Global Digital Wellbeing Report 2021. The research illustrates how embedded new media and tech has been into our daily lives in recent decades, but with a particular focus on how such trends have accelerated as a result of the pandemic. Research from the Global Digital Wellbeing Report was also included in a paper published by Prof Justin, Department chair of Psychology at Zayed University, and the Sync Research Fellows. It was published in Frontier in Psychiatry, the most-cited Multidisciplinary Psychology journal in the world. As an open-access journal, the article is accessible for readers here.
Sync’s survey of 15,000 people, included in both the report and paper, found that:
Despite huge worries over online addiction and half of us admitting we skip sleep every week to remain online at night (rising to 69% among Gen Z), 19% of parents let their kids go online without any set time limits. Almost a third of us admit to misleading friends and family members about the amount of time we spend online, rising to 40% of Gen Z – those aged between 10 and 25 years old. Nearly half (48%) of us spend more time than we would like to online every day, and 43% of us have not had a single day off from social media in the past year. Three quarters of all respondents (75%) are now demanding governments invest more in high quality affordable care for online addiction and 61% say internet and social media addiction should be formally recognized as a medical condition. Knowledge partnerships
Sync also recently announced another collaboration with the Digital Wellbeing Research Center at University of Milano-Bicocca which will use a holistic new approach to study college students’ relationship with their smartphones, including impact on concentration and anxiety in different social contexts.  
Marco Gui, Director of the Center, says: “Every university student today owns a smartphone, delivering connectivity past generations could only dream of. But at what cost? We’re grateful for Sync’s support for our new methodology to investigate the potentially beneficial and harmful effects of being permanently connected.”
To find out more, visit https://sync.ithra.com/.
About Sync
Sync is a digital well-being initiative launched by King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) with a vision to create a world where we are all in control of our digital lives. The initiative is guided by extensive research in collaboration with global entities to understand the amplifications of technology and how it’s affecting our lives, and translate the knowledge gained into awareness campaigns, tools, experiences, educational content and programs aiming to raise the global public awareness around the topic.
To sync with Sync: Twitter https://twitter.com/SyncIthra, or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SyncIthra 
About Ithra
The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) is one of Saudi Arabia’s most influential cultural destinations, a destination for the curious, creatives, and seekers of knowledge. Through a compelling series of programs, performances, exhibitions, events and initiatives, Ithra creates world-class experiences across its interactive public spaces. These bring together culture, innovation and knowledge in a way that is designed to appeal to everyone. By connecting creatives, challenging perspectives and transforming ideas, Ithra is proud to be inspiring cultural leaders of the future. Ithra is Saudi Aramco’s flagship CSR initiative and the Kingdom’s largest cultural centre, comprising an Idea Lab, Library, Cinema, Theater, Museum, Energy Exhibit, Great Hall, Children’s Museum and Ithra Tower.
For further information, please visit: www.ithra.com.
Follow Ithra on social media: Facebook (King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture), Twitter (@Ithra) and Instagram (@Ithra) #Ithra
[1] Developed based on a survey of 15,000 people in 30 countries commissioned by Sync and conducted by PSB Middle-East in June and July 2021.

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Firstsource Partners with Typeface to Launch Agentic Marketing Services

New full-stack offering turns content operations into an agentic growth engineNEW YORK and MUMBAI, India, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Firstsource Solutions Limited (NSE: FSL) (BSE: 532809), an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, today announced the launch of a new offering — Agentic Marketing Services — in partnership with Typeface, the marketing orchestration engine for the world’s leading enterprises. The offering is designed to help enterprises move from marketing ambition to scale by transforming, implementing, and operating AI-native marketing systems. It transforms marketing operations into a scalable growth engine and delivers measurable top-line revenue growth beyond operational efficiency alone.
  Agentic AI is redefining how enterprises think about the customer lifecycle, and marketing content sits at the center of that transformation. Enterprises deploying AI-driven personalization are seeing up to 40% higher revenue compared to their peers. Content operations is both a growth lever and an efficiency play for CMOs: roughly 30% of CMO budgets go to content; approximately 55% of content work is manual — resizing, localization, brand compliance — while 90% of those manual workflows can be AI-enabled.”At Firstsource, our approach has been about moving beyond traditional boundaries to build adaptive, intelligence-led ecosystems that deliver measurable outcomes. Content operations is now the most disrupted layer of the modern marketing stack, with Large Language Models reshaping the entire value chain — from ideation and production to governance and distribution — making it both the biggest near-term efficiency opportunity and the most exposed surface area in enterprise marketing,” said Ritesh Idnani, MD and Chief Executive Officer of Firstsource.”CEOs and CMOs are not looking for a consultancy that hands off a roadmap or an agency that operates in silos — they want a partner who can transform, implement, and operate marketing systems end-to-end. By combining micro-segmentation, personalization, and deep industry context, we help clients build acquisition, engagement, and retention engines that are intelligent, compliant, and scalable. Typeface brings the AI technology to generate personalized, on-brand, compliant content at scale, and Firstsource brings deep experience in customer operations, especially in regulated industries like banking, financial services, healthcare, and retail. Together, we enable enterprises to plan, build, and run modern marketing — turning content operations into a compounding growth engine and delivering outcomes, not just effort.”The partnership extends the capabilities announced with Typeface’s recent Marketing Orchestration Engine launch — bringing governed AI systems into full-stack marketing operations for regulated enterprises.”AI only transforms marketing when it’s embedded into the workflows that drive real customer outcomes,” said Abhay Parasnis, Founder & CEO of Typeface. “Firstsource brings deep industry expertise and operational rigor in highly regulated environments. Together, we’re helping enterprises turn AI ambition into operational reality, embedding governed intelligence into the systems that power durable growth.” While Typeface provides the orchestration layer that unifies brand intelligence, AI agents, and enterprise systems, Firstsource brings the operational expertise and insights to enable effective decision making and implement and run these systems in complex, regulated environments. Together, they redesign how growth is driven — focusing on the moments, segments, and mechanisms that truly move the needle — enabling enterprises to shift from fragmented activity to scalable, revenue-led execution.Industry view”In retail, seasonality and micro-segmentation are where revenue is won or lost. Every peak moment demands thousands of personalized variants across marketing, service, and customer operations — and the retailers who get this right see real movement on acquisition, conversion, and retention, not just efficiency. What makes the Firstsource–Typeface offering different is that it is not another tool — it is an operating capability. Pairing agentic AI with embedded marketing operations is exactly what retailers need to move from broad campaigns to true lifecycle-driven engagement. For the industry, this is a meaningful step-change in how growth gets engineered.” – Dave Kimbell, Ex-CEO Ulta Beauty; Firstsource Advisory Board Member”Healthcare payers sit on a real paradox: a huge share of member communication is locked inside PHI and claims workflows where the rules are clear and rightly strict — but the biggest lever on affordability lives outside that envelope, in how payers engage members on wellness, prevention, plan literacy, and proactive disease management. That is a white-space opportunity the industry has barely touched. This is where marketing AI services can genuinely move the needle. With micro-segmentation and agentic content, payers can reach the right member with the right nudge at the right moment — entirely within compliant, non-PHI pathways — and shift the engagement model from acquisition and retention to lifelong wellness. That is how you make healthcare more affordable, improve member experience, and strengthen the economics of the plan at the same time. The Firstsource–Typeface offering is one of the few capabilities purpose-built to operate at that intersection of compliance, personalization, and outcomes.”- Paul Sanford, Ex-EVP Operations, Cigna Group; Firstsource Advisory Board MemberAbout FirstsourceFirstsource Solutions Limited, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company (NSE: FSL) (BSE: 532809), is a global intelligence partner to enterprises across healthcare, banking and financial services, communications, media, technology, retail, and utilities. Its inch-wide, mile-deep practitioners work collaboratively to reimagine business process management.With operations across the US, UK, India, Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, and Australia, Firstsource combines over twenty-five years of domain expertise with an agent-first delivery model to design, build, and operate intelligent enterprise operations. Through its Intelligence That Operates promise—powered by Kairos, the operating system that makes it real—the company unifies consulting, implementation, and operations into a single full-stack engagement and underwrites outcomes, not effort, turning deep domain intelligence into a compounding operational advantage for firms in the world’s most regulated industries. (www.firstsource.com)About TypefaceTypeface is a marketing orchestration engine for the world’s leading enterprises, coordinating brand intelligence, AI agents, and enterprise systems across cross-channel marketing operations. Built for large organizations, Typeface combines shared brand intelligence, governed agent workflows, and deep enterprise integration at scale — connecting seamlessly with platforms like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Google — to help teams scale what works without sacrificing quality or control. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, Typeface enables organizations to operationalize AI inside real marketing workflows, turning brand standards, approvals, and performance signals into coordinated systems that improve over time. Typeface is backed by Lightspeed, GV, Salesforce Ventures, Madrona, Menlo, and M12, and has been recognized by Fast Company, Gartner, TIME, LinkedIn, and Adweek as a leader in AI for marketing. Learn more at www.typeface.ai.Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2515360/Firstsource_Logo.jpg

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Shaping Future-Ready School Leaders: Woxsen University Leads Design Thinking Initiative for Principals

HYDERABAD, India, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The School of Arts and Design at Woxsen University, in collaboration with the Public-School Principals’ Association (PSPA), conducted a Principal Leadership Programme on April 27, bringing together 30 principals from leading schools across Hyderabad for an immersive, design-led learning experience focused on rethinking leadership in contemporary education.

Participating institutions included Delhi Public School, Sloka International School (Tukkuguda), Jain Heritage Cambridge School, AVN Vida International School, CMR School (Medchal), and Gitanjali High School, among others. Designed as a hands-on, studio-based workshop, the programme moved beyond traditional formats, enabling participants to engage in collaborative problem-solving, systems thinking, and real-world leadership challenges.The programme was delivered by Woxsen’s Centre for Learning Design (CLD) and the David Dunne Design Thinking Lab, and was guided by the university’s ERS (Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability) framework, reflecting an integrated and purpose-driven approach to leadership development.Through guided design thinking exercises, principals explored new approaches to decision-making, innovation in school ecosystems, and building student-centric learning environments. The interactive format encouraged peer exchange and practical application, making the experience directly relevant to institutional leadership.Rajendra Prasad, President of the PSPA, said, “The School Principals’ Leadership Workshop at Woxsen University was well organized and delivered with great impact. The sessions were highly engaging and insightful, and the programme received overwhelming positive feedback from participants for both its content and overall experience.”Dr. Ashok Pandey, Member of the PSPA Leadership Team, shared, “An inspiring day at the picturesque Woxsen University campus, engaging with exceptional school leaders committed to designing the schools of tomorrow.” Dr. Adity Saxena, Dean, School of Arts & Design, said, “This programme is aligned with Woxsen’s core pillar of Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability, reinforcing our commitment to purpose-driven education. We see our role as bridging ideas, institutions, and impact in education, and we are grateful to PSPA and Rajendra Prasad for this meaningful collaboration.”The initiative reflects Woxsen University’s commitment to strengthening the school education ecosystem in Telangana by building leadership capacity and fostering future-ready thinking among educators. Following the workshop, the PSPA leadership team engaged in a strategic discussion with Dr. Adity Saxena to explore future collaboration opportunities.Building on the momentum of the programme, Woxsen University and PSPA are exploring the launch of a structured Principal Leadership Certificate Programme. The proposed initiative aims to institutionalize leadership development for school heads and further strengthen the region’s education ecosystem through sustained, practice-oriented engagement.About Woxsen University, HyderabadWoxsen University, located in Hyderabad, is one of the first private universities in the state of Telangana, India. Renowned for its 200-acre state-of-the-art campus and infrastructure, Woxsen University offers new-age, disruptive programs in the fields of Business, Technology, Arts & Design, Architecture, Law, and Liberal Arts & Humanities. Woxsen also houses Asia’s largest Sports Infrastructure, spread over 60 acres. With 175 Global Partner Universities and a strong industry connect, Woxsen is recognized as one of the top universities for Academic Excellence and Global Edge. Woxsen has also secured the QS Business Masters World Ranking 2025, Rank #9 All India, Top 100 B-Schools by Times B-School Ranking 2025, Rank #6, Asia Pacific, Bloomberg Best B-School, and features in India’s Best B-Schools beyond IIMs by Dalal Street Investment Journal 2025, in 4th consecutive year. Woxsen is ranked as one of the Top Professional Colleges in India by Outlook I-CARE for its undergraduate programs, securing All India Rank 12 among the Top 130 BBA Private Institutes, All India Rank 20 among the Top 160 B.Tech Private Institutes, All India Rank 3 among the Top 25 Design Private Institutes, and All India Rank 3 among the Top 30 B. Arch Private Institutes.Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2969917/Woxsen_PSPA_1.jpgPhoto: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2969918/Woxsen_PSPA_2.jpgLogo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1771070/5365059/Woxsen_University_Logo.jpg 

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Ryan Group of Schools Hosts First In Math® — 24® Game National Tournament in Mumbai

MUMBAI, India, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ryan Group of Schools successfully hosted the first of three National First In Math® — 24® Game Tournaments in Mumbai on Friday, April 24, bringing together some of the brightest young mathematical minds from across Western and Central India.

A total of 124 top-performing students from the West Zone were selected to compete in the live tournament, representing Ryan schools from across the region. Their participation reflects the remarkable scale of Ryan Group’s commitment to numeracy and skill-based learning. Today, 92 Ryan schools across India actively participate in the First In Math® program, with students having collectively solved nearly 3.5 crore maths problems through year-round practice.The live tournaments are a high-energy numeracy initiative centered around the iconic 24® Game series, created in 1988 by engineer-inventor Robert Sun, who also developed the First In Math® program. Designed to make mathematics engaging, fast-paced, and rewarding, the competition sharpens students’ logical reasoning, focus, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.Students arrived with great enthusiasm and pride, ceremoniously collecting their MVP badges along with personalised score cards bearing their seating assignments. The event began on an inspiring note with a message and prayer, followed by spirited cheerleading performances that energized participants and audiences alike.The tournament format tested both speed and accuracy. In the first round, four students were seated at each table, where proctors issued challenge cards one at a time. Each card required students to use all four numbers shown, without repetition, to create a three-step solution equaling 24. The first student to solve the challenge within 15 seconds earned the card’s score value by stating the solution clearly and accurately.After an exciting opening round, students progressed to the semifinals, which featured two thrilling tiebreaker moments, before the final round saw the top four players in each grade group compete for top honours.Final Round Winners were:Champions of Champions (Tablet Winner): Mst. Gaurang Roy, Grade 7, Ryan International School, ICSE, Malad.Grade Group Level Champions: Mst. Nehaan Sethia, Grade 4, Ryan International School, Sanpada and Mst. Varad Gunjal, Grade 6, Ryan International School, SanpadaUnder the visionary leadership of Dr. Grace Pinto, Managing Director, Ryan Group of Institutions, Ryan schools across India adopted the First In Math® program with a clear goal: to ensure that every Ryanite experiences both the joy and the power of mathematics. The initiative continues to build lifelong skills in students, including logical reasoning, critical thinking, concentration, and strong analytical ability.Dr. Snehal Pinto, Director, Ryan Group of Schools, said: “At Ryan Group of Schools, we believe mathematics is not just a subject, but a powerful way to develop confidence, logical thinking, and problem-solving skills for life. The First In Math® — 24® Game Tournament beautifully brings together learning and excitement, inspiring students to enjoy the challenge of numbers in a dynamic and meaningful way. As Ryan Group proudly celebrates 50 years of nurturing young minds, initiatives like these reflect our continued commitment to innovation in education and to empowering every Ryanite to excel with skill, spirit, and determination.”Following the successful Mumbai tournament, the National First In Math® — 24® Game Tournaments will next travel to Delhi and Bangalore, continuing Ryan Group’s nationwide celebration of numeracy excellence and student achievement.About Ryan Group of Schools: Ryan Group of Schools is a premier educational institution in India with a widespread network of 150+ schools across 20+ states and 40+ cities, reaching learners across the country and abroad. Founded on the vision of fostering holistic development and academic excellence, the group is dedicated to nurturing lifelong learners who are equipped to face the challenges of a rapidly changing world.With a rich legacy spanning 50 years, Ryan Group of Schools has established itself as a beacon of educational excellence, combining academic rigor with character-building values.Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2968951/First_in_Math_2026_Ryan_Group_of_Schools.jpgLogo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1687598/5934106/Ryan_Group_Logo.jpg 

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