MICA Launches PG Programs in Media & Entertainment Management and Business Management Online with Ivory Education

MICA is offering Post Graduate Programmes in Media & Entertainment Management, and in Business Management online in association with Ivory Education. The programmes are available across India and globally through world-class e-learning environment. These can be done easily without traveling during the restrictions under COVID-19.

MICA launches two online PG courses in Media Management & Business Management

The participants can attend the classes from their homes, offices or any other place of their convenience. They can also use their mobile devices. The classes are held twice a week with part-time classes and convenient schedule for working professionals. Answer to any queries about the program is available at admission@ivoryeducation.in or via WhatsApp Chat at +91 8860438990.

Media and Entertainment industry has been considered as one of the growth drivers of India. The Industry has outperformed many and yet stands tall at 1674 billion INR (EY-FICCI, 2019) market. India is a market where the traditional and transformational media platforms are schedule to coexist in a big way. While, digital has been growing at a stupendous pace, the platforms like television, films, print and radio have been registering sustainable growth.

Considering the growth and scope of the industry, there is an utmost need for trained professionals to become the growth drivers to achieve newer heights. Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Media & Entertainment Management (PGCPMEM) is designed to create the future leaders of the industry.

Prof. Santosh Kumar Patra, Area Leader, Media and Entertainment Management (MEM) and Head, Centre for Media and Entertainment Studies (CMES) will personally be leading the programme at MICA. He has also taken the role of Programme Director.

The business environment has changed quite radically in India in recent years. To be effective and successful, executives need to refresh and enhance their management skills continuously. Such understanding is particularly essential in the complex, globalized environment in which economies operate today. Post Graduate Certificate Programme in Business Management (PGCPBM) is designed at providing this understanding to the participants.

According to recent report by The Economic Times, majority of the business management postgraduate, barring tier-1 institutes like MICA and select IIMs, are not employable. This programme is designed to cater to the needs of the industry and will help students and professionals excel in their career.

Prof. Rasananda Panda, Professor of Economics, Business Management Area and Registrar, MICA is the Program Director for PGCPBM. He is one of the most respected Professors in the field and has been associated with IIM Ahmedabad, Gujarat University, SLIMS, PDPU and other eminent institutions of repute.

MICA is one of the best B-Schools of India. The institute was established in 1991 and over the years emerged as a pioneer in meeting the needs of the industry. Today, it is the alma mater of professionals serving in media management, business management, marketing, marketing research, advertising, and communications-driven businesses.

This one year program intends to set a benchmark for those who aspire to excel in this field. Entire approach of this program is to impart domain expertise. It will follow a step-by-step approach where theoretical concepts will be followed by case studies and practical implementations. Sessions are designed to be interactive and participative.

The courses are commencing from July 2020. Graduates in any field from a recognized university are eligible for this course. Ivory Education will also provide placement assistance to those who successfully complete the program. Prospectus and Application form for the program can be downloaded free of cost at www.ivoryeducation.com.

The benefits of the programmes include:

1. Certificate of Completion awarded by MICA


2. On Campus module at MICA next year during the course of the programme, where participants can interact with faculties face to face & also experience the prestigious campus real time.


3. Gain MICA Alumni status


4. Insights into the modern and emerging trends in the industry


5. Gain deeper understanding of the nuances of the industry with a focus on specific in-demand areas


6. Convenient schedules for working professionals.

Designed with a mix of various case studies, industry examples etc. which enlighten participant's knowledge in the practical corporate scenario.

Lectures imparted by specially selected, eminent, core faculty from MICA.

Guest lectures by Industry Experts.

Specifically designed for working executive

Quality interactions and increased peer group learning.

Virtual classrooms that allow for active interactions with other fellow students and faculty

Immense opportunities for career advancement and networking

Kapil Rampal, Managing Director, Ivory Education Private Limited, said, "MICA is committed towards online courses. They list PGCPMEM and PGCPBM amongst their core courses and have deputed the finest leaders and faculty from MICA to manage and teach in these programmes. We are proud to continue our association in MICA and are looking forward to welcoming you in these programmes."

HARMAN Appoints Prathab Deivanayagham as Country Manager for India

HARMAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co.Ltd. focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, today announced the elevation of Prathab Deivanayagham as the new Country Manager for its India operations effective July 1, 2020.

Prathab has been with HARMAN for over eight years, and was previously leading HARMAN's automotive business in the country. As the new country manager, Prathab will further strengthen HARMAN's leadership across both its divisions - Automotive and Lifestyle in India.

Prathab succeeds Pradeep Chaudhry, who played a key role in HARMAN India's growth story for close to five years. Pradeep will step down from his role to spend more time with his family, and pursue his personal projects.

With over 9,000 employees, India hosts HARMAN's largest workforce across the world. For the last 11 years, HARMAN India has been growing its leadership in both sales and R&D capabilities, and today has development centers across seven cities, and a manufacturing facility in Chakan, Maharashtra, which manufactures highly sophisticated connected car solutions including automotive infotainment units, and digital cockpits for HARMAN's domestic and global automotive customers.

"We remain committed to our business in India, which also happens to be home for our biggest employee force. Our ongoing projects in India are a source of pride for our employees around the world. India is part of our growing BRIC countries, which contributes 16% of our global sale," said David Slump, President - Global Markets, HARMAN.

"At HARMAN, we believe in providing the right opportunities to our talent to grow within the company. I'm incredible proud to see Prathab take on the mantle, after many years of successfully leading the automotive business into market leadership. With his experience and business acumen, we are confident that he will elevate the company to reach bigger heights. We thank Pradeep for his incredible contributions to our growth story, and look forward to a promising journey ahead with Prathab," David added further.

[caption id="attachment_147595" align="alignleft" width="288"] Prathab Deivanayagham - Country Manager, HARMAN India[/caption]

"I am humbled by the appointment and the confidence placed in me by the company leadership. My ambition is to further strengthen our company's incredible legacy in India, build more powerful and purposeful brands, and make a valuable contribution in the success of our employees, customers and communities. Our Indian operations are strategic not only for the work we do for our domestic customers, but also for the innovations that feeds breakthroughs at HARMAN globally," said Prathab Deivanayagham, Country Manager, HARMAN India.

With over 25 years of industry experience, Prathab's repertoire of successful projects at HARMAN include launching and expanding a greenfield manufacturing site, bringing on-board and strengthening HARMAN's relationships with key OEMs like TATA Motors and Maruti Suzuki, and leading award-winning work for customers in the industry. Previously, Prathab had worked for Visteon in India.

Follow HARMAN Online

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About HARMAN

HARMAN (harman.com) designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and services supporting the Internet of Things. With leading audio brands including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson and Revel, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform around the world. More than 50 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. Our software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 33,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In March 2017, HARMAN became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Recruiters Opt for Virtual Interviews & Assessments as the New Way of Hiring on Campuses; Firstnaukri.com Survey

Firstnaukri.com, India’s largest end-to-end campus hiring platform from the house of Naukri.com, conducted a survey with over 1,300 students across campuses in India. The survey was rolled out to understand their sentiments about placements and internships amidst the current crisis. The survey revealed that the pandemic has adversely affected the campus-hiring scenario. Amid the panic of unemployment & lay-offs, only one-third of the students confirmed that they have a job offer at hand. Out of these students, close to 44% reported that their joining dates have been delayed while another 9% confirmed that their offers have been rolled back. Close to 33% said that the employers are not responding to them on the status of their job offers. Now, a majority of students are fast switching to online job portals to hunt for a job while another 17% are taking the referral route and connecting with their college alumni. 

The companies are postponing campus drives and resorting to new age technology solutions, including virtual interviews and online assessments to recruit candidates from various campuses. It will be imperative for students to start preparing for remote interviews as the new way of being hired. 

Commenting on the survey, Sharad Sindhwani, Business Head, Firstnaukri.com said, “The pandemic has hit placement prospects of the 2020 batch across 82% colleges. It has further impacted internship offers of 74% pre-final year students. However, students are not losing their morale and going virtual for their learning as well as job interviews. In fact, most companies are also using new age technology solutions to hire remotely.” 

In these tough times, online courses and certifications are the first choices amongst freshers to bridge any skill /knowledge gap. 70% of college students have already subscribed to online courses. Interestingly, the current pandemic has not impacted the higher education plans of 80% surveyed graduates. A large majority of students are also considering freelancing as a viable future career option.

Methodology

The COVID-19 jobseeker study was done to gauge the impact of ongoing pandemic on fresher placements in India. The survey was carried out with the college students of all batches (2020 to 2023) across several courses. The results are based on over 1300+ responses out of which 80% are responses from students pursuing BE/B.Tech degree. Based on this data, we have arrived at insights that we hope will shed light on the current campus placement scenario in India. 

About Firstnaukri.com

Firstnaukri.com is India’s largest end-to-end campus hiring platform from the house of Naukri.com. The brand digitizes and automates campus recruitments for campuses and connects them with potential recruiters looking for fresh talent across courses and across campuses. As of now, the brand has over 8000 associated campuses and has serviced close to 5000+ companies. Firstnaukri organized close to 35,000+ placements last year. 

Dev Accelerator Launches India's 1st Work-from-Home Co-working Membership

Dev Accelerator LLP (DBA DevX), a coworking space provider in India has launched a 'tech-enabled' Co-working Membership Plan that lets you co-work from home. The motive behind launching this plan is to facilitate a smooth transition from the traditional ways of working to the trending 'Remote Working' culture.

DevX WFH Membership Plan

The membership plan enables individuals to work remotely while staying connected with the team through DevX Collab, an indigenous technology developed by DevX that gives access to multiple work management, video conferencing, & productivity tools. It enables DevX's huge community of members & partners to network with each other.

As a part of the WFH membership, in addition to being able to access DevX's secure workspaces pan India for 3 days in a week, it also delivers a one-of-its-kind Work Pod to their members' home as an effort towards enhancing their WFH experience. The pod is an aesthetically designed cabin, with ergonomic chair, high-speed internet connectivity, exhaust and electricity plug, and a lot more.



Benefits of the Membership Plan are listed as follows:

DevX Collab

• Access an indigenous technology developed by DevX for its community.


• Work Pods


• Experience a private work area designed to enhance your productivity.


• Internet Connectivity


• Benefit from seamless high-speed Wi-Fi network connectivity.


• Allied Services


• Let your business leverage from our wide range of allied services.

DevX Workspace

• Access our vibrant workspaces for 3 days a week across India.


• COVID-19 Insurance


• Get an all-inclusive health insurance plan against Corona Virus.


• Further details about the WFH Membership Plan & Work Pods can be found on our website: devx.work/work-from-home.

On the launch of Work-From-Home membership, Co-founder, Umesh Uttamchandani says, "This pandemic event has made Work from Home a buzz word and being in the business of providing quality and aesthetically designed office spaces, we took this initiative upon us to mitigate the challenges associated with WFH. We've launched a WFH Membership plan that provides the flexibility to efficiently work from home while replicating the entire arrangement of a productive office work environment provided by DevX."

About DevX

DevX has created an innovative framework to assist businesses and boost the startup ecosystem in India. It was established in the year 2017 and started the journey from Ahmedabad. Today, being the largest Co-working Space provider in Gujarat, DevX is spread across various cities in India including Vadodara, Mumbai, Indore, Goa, Pune, Gurgaon, & Hyderabad.

They've had the privilege to cater an elite list of clientele. Few of the names are as follows: DCB Bank, Thomson Reuters, Sharechat, Sugarbox, Mobile Tornado, Afford Plan, QX Global, American Express, and many more.

75% Young Population Trades and Holds Cryptocurrency on Exchanges, NEO Banks in India

Bit2Buzz,a brand dedicated to crypto PR and tech media agency from India, has dive deeper to understand the trading behaviors of Indians, Women representations, and participation, the effect of COVID-19 on Indian crypto-blockchain entities, and how these crypto and blockchain companies are making waves in India.

In the Study, it was asked NEO banks and crypto exchanges to outline the user group that hold and trade cryptocurrencies on their platform. The answers were quite exciting. While crypto exchanges including WazirX, CoinDCX, Pocketbits, Bitbns, and NEO banks including Cashaa and Oropocket reported major youth population using their platforms, an exchange like Unocoin and NEO bank ‘Bank of Hodlers’ witnessed heavy traffic from the middle-aged group [ between the age of 35 - 50].

Status of Women Trading and Holding Cryptocurrency India

Although the report by CoinMarketcap in late April indicates that the number of women in the crypto industry rose by 43.24 percent in the first quarter of 2020, yet the first-hand data that Bit2Buzz gathered from Indian crypto exchanges and NEO banks marked a different approach to this.

While WazirX and CoinDCX haven’t shared this analysis, women traders and hodlers in exchanges including Unocoin marked almost 15 percent, followed by Bitbns 11 percent and Pocketbits nearly 2 percent. On the other hand, the percentage of female users among NEO banks is quite impressive. With Oropocket counting over 39 percent, Cashaa and Bank of Hodlers marked 30 and 5 percent respectively. 

The Bit2Buzz's research about whether exchanges and NEO banks witnessed any positive or negative impact of COVID-19 on user's trading patterns on their platforms reveals that the companies have seen a massive surge.

As per the research, trading volume on Bitbns, Bank of Holders, and Unocoin has no major effect, on the other hand, Cashaa notes that they are opening more bank accounts. They also added that the volume has gone up more than 800%. Similarly, Sumit Gupta from CoinDCX emphasized that Indians highly active during the lockdown, adding;  

The lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic meant that Indians spent more time at home, sustaining the national interest and curiosity in cryptocurrencies that was already high due to the favorable Supreme Court verdict. This gave Indians the chance to learn more about the benefits they could accrue with crypto, as well as to learn how to engage in the trading of crypto. CoinDCX witnessed the continuation of growth from Q1 to Q2. And the daily trading volume on CoinDCX was around 15 million dollars. 

Moreover, Sohail Merchant from Pocketbits stated that the volumes and overall interest on Pocketbits have gone up due to users having more free time to research and trade. More so, Nishcal Shetty, founder, and CEO at WazirX notes their platform has seen a tremendous increase in trading volume (470% increase) and user signups. 

EdTech Firm Getmyuni Acquires Avagmah from AEON Learning

With the acquisition Getmyuni will enable universities to offer online degrees

Benguluru based edtech startup GetMyUni has acquired online learning company Avagmah from AEON Learning in an all-cash deal on June 18th 2020. Avagmah, founded in 2015, had raised $5M from marquee investors like Lionrock Capital, Zodius Capital, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Atul Nishar, MEMG(Manipal Group) before it merged with Acadgild to form AEON Learning. 

Avagmah is a full stack OPM (online program manager) and enables universities to fully outsource their online programs. Through this acquisition, Getmyuni now enters the online certification and degree-granting space which has seen tremendous growth over the last couple of years and an even more significant uptick post Covid-19. Avagmah has worked with some top tier universities and colleges such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, Pondicherry University, Bharathidasan University, Alagappa University, NIT Kurukshetra to name a few.

Getmyuni is a TimesInternet backed edtech platform which helps students with their post K-12 learning journey. It owns and operates getmyuni.com, ieltsmaterial.com and thecollegemonk.com. Post the Avagmah acquisition Getmyuni will be using its existing distribution of a 40M annual user base and 300+ university partners to enter the OPM space.

"Since inception, we have always wanted to create impact at scale. Our core business of student acquisition for universities across India and abroad has grown over 200% since 2019. This acquisition allows us to complete the value chain for our users, by directly impacting the content delivery part of the business too. After the lockdown, online learning adoption has surged and there are huge regulatory tailwinds which suggest that this would end up being a multi B$ market, very similar to how it has panned out OPMs like 2U in the west. 

This acquisition allows us to pursue our vision to make higher education accessible to everyone in India, irrespective of their financial status or access to traditional offline setup, wherein private education is too expensive and public, very average in outcomes," said Upneet Grover, CEO and Founder of Getmyuni.

The OPM space is booming and with this acquisition Getmyuni is well positioned for the to be a category leader in this space.Upneet Grover- Founder and CEO of GetMyUni.

Cobots Maker Universal Robots Ties with Phillips Machine Tools India to Provide the Best CNC Machine Tool Automation Solutions to Indian Manufacturers

In an effort to boost productivity and help manufacturers emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever, pioneer and leading collaborative manufacturer Universal Robots (UR) joins hands with Phillips Machine Tools India, part of Phillips Corporation, the world's largest Haas factory outlet. Together, they are all set to offer machine shops a safe, user-friendly solution to optimize uptime and enable significant advantages to manufacturers in India. This is an extension of the existing partnership between the two companies in the USA, which was first announced in August 2019.

Universal Robots joins hands with Phillips Corporation - the largest global distributor of best-selling Haas CNC machines, to help Indian manufacturers boost productivity

Cobots are niche robotic arms which are quick to deploy, have a low footprint, and easy to program, even for those who are first time robot users. They overcome common barriers to automation faced by manufacturers in India, allowing them to implement Industry 4.0 technology. Traditionally, manufacturers face significant difficulties in the loading and unloading of CNC machines, which happens to be one the most popular applications of collaborative robots. Thus, the distributor agreement between Universal Robots India and Phillips Machine Tools India will ensure the rapid deployment of cobots with Haas CNC machines to help manufacturers staffing issues and stay competitive in this time of uncertainty. It will further offer affordable solutions to new and existing manufacturers and drive them to push the envelope by adopting flexible automation and increase overall productivity.

"Universal Robots India is pleased to partner with Phillips Machine Tools India, a Haas Factory Outlet, in bringing our solutions to the Automated Machine Tending marketplace in India. With Phillips' extensive installed base and service network pan India, Universal Robots and Phillips India will bring the benefits of democratized & flexible automation to MSMEs, SMEs & OEMs as India emerges from the pandemic with a leaner but more productive & efficient manufacturing sector," shares Pradeep David, General Manager, South Asia, Universal Robots.

Universal Robots has already sold over 44,000 cobots across the globe, with more than 1,000 UR cobots for tending Haas CNC machines. Phillips Corporation has an installed base of more than 19,000 Haas CNC machines around the world. More than 60 different Haas models can be automated with Universal Robots' cobot arms. This partnership between the world's largest distributor of the leading CNC brand and the top collaborative robot brand offers a slew of advantage for India's manufacturers, combining a Haas-UR solution offered with Phillips' manufacturing expertise and application know-how to help businesses boost productivity and also prepare for the possibility of any future disruptions.

"Today, more than ever before, it's all about the competitive edge. We at Phillips Machine Tools India offer innovative, affordable solutions that create an unbeatable competitive advantage for Indian manufacturing. Phillips Automation through Universal Robots offers Cobots: collaborative robots that provide cost-effective, flexible, and safe automation solutions for a wide range of CNC machine tending tasks. With over 10,000+ CNC machines and 10 technical centres spread across India we combine our machine tool expertise and automation experience to help our customers increase their machine productivity through simple, reliable automation, the Phillips way," says Terrence Miranda, Managing Director, Phillips Machine Tools India.

The companies see tremendous potential in both, retrofitting existing installations with UR cobots, and also for getting through the door to new customers, offering turn-key solutions. After all, there is no hardwiring or complex coding involved in getting a Universal Robot to communicate with a Haas machine since UR has solutions like the VersaBuilt software that facilitates two-way communication between the UR cobot and the CNC. This means UR cobots can easily execute any machining program stored on the Haas CNC directly through the cobot's own teach pendant, maintaining all Haas safety interlock features. The partnership, thus, endeavors to take manufacturing in India to a whole new level, especially empowering those who are new to automation with a solution that enables Make in India with skyrocketed efficiency and quality.

Watch UR cobots tend a wide range of Haas CNC machines here.

About Universal Robots
Universal Robots was founded in 2005 to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible industrial robots that are safe to work with. Since the first collaborative robot (cobot) was launched in 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly cobot now sold worldwide. The company, which is a part of Teradyne Inc., is headquartered in Odense, Denmark, and has subsidiaries and regional offices in the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, China, India, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico.

For more information, please visit www.universal-robots.com or read our blog at www.blog.universal-robots.com/in

About Phillips Corporation
Phillips Corporation is a family-owned global manufacturing services company, partnering with customers to create legendary value by providing unparalleled expertise, innovative thinking, and solutions for those who shape the future. They partner with customers to improve competencies for applying manufacturing technology - resulting in leaps in productivity, great prosperity, and enduring competitive advantage.

Phillips Corporation globally is the World's Largest Haas Factory Outlet, combining the convenience and security of a local distributor with the strengths of an international organization.

~ Newsvoir

EdTech Firm GlobalGyan Signs MOU with NASSCOM becomes NASSCOM FutureSkills Platform Partner

GlobalGyan Academy of Management Education, one of India's fastest growing corporate EdTech companies, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NASSCOM FutureSkills, the flagship reskilling initiative by NASSCOM, the trade association of Indian IT-BPM industry to become a Platform Partner for the NASSCOM FutureSkills platform. Under the MoU, GlobalGyan will partner with NASSCOM FutureSkills on a journey to reskill and upskill 2 million current employees and also train another 2 million coming into the workforce from universities.

The research report on Talent Shortage 2020 shows that 63% of Indian companies report major talent shortage and IT remains one of the hardest roles to fill. Various reports also point to significant gaps in job-readiness amongst students graduating from Indian colleges. NASSCOM FutureSkills is a first-of-its-kind industry initiative to get India accelerated on the journey to building skills and becoming the global hub for talent in the emerging technologies, with an intention to create a skilling/up-skilling/re-skilling ecosystem to facilitate continuous learning as well as knowledge enhancement of all applicants in line with their aspirations and aptitude in a self-paced digital skill environment.

The partnership will enable GlobalGyan to empower thousands of IT industry professionals and students, with access to courses on professional skill development, creating dynamic learning experiences. GlobalGyan will support NASSCOM FutureSkills with a focus on content, evangelism and industry connects, to enable the skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling imperative for the IT-BPM industry in India. GlobalGyan courses are designed across key skill domains for future IT leaders which include Problem Solving, Design Thinking, Program Management, etc.

Expressing his delight on the partnership, Amit Aggarwal, CEO, IT-ITES SSC NASSCOM & Co-architect of NASSCOM FutureSkills initiative said, "Globally there is a greater need for the Arts (A) to get embedded in STEM. It is imperative for modern workforce to be better at skills like problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication for seamless integration of technical know-how with real-world applications. These skills have become a critical requirement to succeed in the IT-ITES industry these days, and should be studied and learnt along with traditional STEM subjects. We are happy to welcome GlobalGyan as a NASSCOM FutureSkills Platform Partner and we are confident that their industry-oriented, practical approach to professional development will aid with the STEM to STEAM transition."

Srinivasa Addepalli, CEO and Co-founder, GlobalGyan said, "The real jobs crisis is that there is a mismatch between the skills that the industry desires and those possessed by professionals and students. GlobalGyan has been founded on the belief that industry has to play a significant role in educating and skilling individuals. NASSCOM FutureSkills is a great platform to not only prepare India for future jobs but also create an environment of creativity and innovation. We are excited to partner with this prestigious industry body and look forward to creating wonderful learning experiences on the platform."

About GlobalGyan

GlobalGyan Academy of Management Education is an Edtech startup building a digital platform to help professionals progress their careers with learning and mentoring from industry leaders. Through its mobile and web apps, interactive content and personal coaching, GlobalGyan's network of experienced leaders provide practical knowledge that professionals can use immediately. Over 10,000 managers from India's largest corporates have built their business acumen and leadership capabilities at GlobalGyan since 2015. The company's angel investors include Ratan Tata, Dr. Jagdish Sheth and several other business leaders in India & overseas.

Find more information about GlobalGyan and how it is helping professionals prepare for the future of work at: www.globalgyan.in.

~ Newsvoir

78% Indian MSMEs Shutdown During Covid-19 Pandemic - Study

• Spocto conducted study on Loan Moratorium for lending organizations, titled "The Ground Truth - Voice of Indian Borrowers”,
•  Study reveals support customers need, its current awareness and understanding of Moratorium & its impact on their payment amount

As the coronavirus pandemic unleashes a devastating impact on businesses, institutions and society, Spocto, one of India’s leading big data analytics-based banking and financial services company, has initiated a comprehensive well detailed study entitled ‘The Ground Truth – Voice of Indian borrowers’. It consists of views and insights from 1.800 account holders across cities pan India such as Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad etc., wherein the study presents actual and actionable insights from the consumers on moratorium

The pandemic left countless working professionals bereft of employment opportunities, and factors like layoffs, salary cuts and reduced earnings have resulted in a mass exodus of both skilled and unskilled workers from the big cities to their hometowns. In this light, the data received from these retail loan account holders brings in insights pertinent to the ground reality, the support they need, their current awareness and understanding of Moratorium & its impact on their payment amount. 

The study primarily revealed the following key findings; 

• 59% of consumers witnessed complete loss of income due to COVID-19
• 34% employees from present workforce pool have lost their jobs
• As a result of the fiscal depravity, a staggering 78% of the MSMEs were forced to shut down operations due to zero revenue generation.
• 76% of the overall account holders have taken small-ticket loans amounting to Rs 50,000 in EMIs while it is mostly the unsecured loans that have contributed to the plunge in repayments than secured loans
• 78% of the consumers opted in for the initial Moratorium period (March to May), which implies that 22% either willingly chose to opt out or did not OPT IN from their bank’s Moratorium offer.
• 75% of the borrowers highlighted the need for more clarity and education surrounding moratorium. In a similar vein, 64% of the borrowers affirmed that they are aware regarding the interest that is levied on availing the moratorium clause.  
• 38% consumers prefer to speak or interact with a human interface to get their queries resolved
• Digital is the new de-facto medium for 62% of the loan borrowers reflecting on their need for real time, bias free, consistent & authentic resolutions
•  In another frame, about 28% consumers were discontented with the level of conversation with their banks 46% only are satisfied with the banks efforts on explaining the terms of Moratorium to its customers
• 37% consumers stated that they require support from the financial system in the form of essential loans for personal expenditure in the next 12 months
• Lastly, more than 56% customers are now yearning to opt out of the Moratorium 

Commenting on the revelations of this diligent and eye-opening study, the spokesperson for Spocto Solutions, Mr. SumeetSrivastava, Founder and CEO said, “The year 2020 has proven to be the proverbial Black swan event for all industries and their professionals. This period has also unfolded a few valuable takeaways, namely, that it is time the banking and lending ecosystem revamp their engagement policies and strategies, as their customers may not have the means to pay back their loans within the allotted time-frame. But this also on the other end implies that, they may have the willingness, but not the ability to pay right now. The banks must also keep in mind that these customers who are victims of the market inertia with all probability shall return to the financing space in the span of a year or two with at least 15-20 years of potential service. Hence banks should rather value the long term customer rather than smite down a short term defaulter. The banks too should focus on the heightened optimization of digital and efficient pathways of loan disbursement and recovery to generate greater consumer traction and engagement. This will not only help the ailing sector get back to its feet in due time but will also catalyze the re-building and recuperation of the considerable hammering that the sector experienced due to the catastrophic contagion. “

Lending organizations that prioritizes consumer engagement and digital collections, will witness the resurgence of revenue flows and hopefully carve a better and ebullient future in contrast to the present doldrums of the stifling post-pandemic scenario.

Mumbai-based Men's Healthcare Startup 'Bold Care' Raises Pre-Seed Funding

Bold Care, a men’s health and wellness platform serving a large market dedicated towards men, raised an undisclosed pre-seed round of fundraising from an array of strategic investors including, Rajesh Ranavat, the Executive Director at Fung Strategic Investments, Abhishek Shah, founder of leading digital marketing agency, CommerceX, partners at growX ventures, Sheetal Bahl, Manu Rikhye, Ashish Taneja, Kabir Kochhar, former founding partner at The Glitch, and Mohit Satyanand.

Founded in 2019 by Rajat Jadhav, Rahul Krishnan, Harsh Singh and Mohit Yadav, Bold Care is a digital platform that offers free sexologist consultations and discreet delivery of holistic sexual wellness kits. Healthcare has always been a primary focus for Rajat and Rahul who started an e-pharmacy back in 2015, which was one of the earliest startups in the space.

Bold Care has come together through their learnings and intent to create a positive change in a largely untapped issue of men’s sexual wellness. The venture is also being supported as part of Gurgaon based leading incubator, Huddle, who have been incubating and advising Bold Care since its early inception, as part of their diverse portfolio and tailor-made support functions to help grow promising startups. 

Talking about the fundraise, Rajesh Ranavat said, “What attracted me to Bold Care was the very clear vision and passion of the founding team targeting the men’s health and wellness space where the concept to an operational model was implemented in record time.

Bold Care has come up with an easily accessible digital solution backed by professional consultation and high quality medication where the client can consult under full confidentiality. The launch of this platform has come at the right time where telemedicine will become a more acceptable means for interaction between doctors and patients.

The platform has the ability to substantially scale up into adjacent areas of opportunity. I am very excited to be part of Bold Care’s journey and future prospects, and it has been an energizing experience interacting with Rajat and the founding team.” 

“The men’s health and wellness space is covered in mystery and largely inefficient in India”, highlighted Bold Care co-founder, Rajat Jadhav. He further added, “At Bold Care, we have created the easiest way for men to get free consultations with licensed andrologists and personalised treatment plans delivered. Our holistic plans include scientifically backed prescription medicines and natural supplements. Usually, sexual problems are symptoms of serious health conditions such as heart ailments. We aim to help men find a lasting, permanent solution, and treat the symptoms as well as highlight the underlying causes. Through features that include monthly follow ups with our customers, we can make necessary adjustments to their plans.”

“Advising the team has been a breeze due to their unity, hard work and the evident ‘Why’ in what they are doing, hence, for us to invest in them, was to join them alongside other strategic investors to build towards this change”, said Sanil Sachar, founding partner, Huddle. He further added, ”working with the team through their initial days, what was evident to us from their hands on approach to solve these problems was that 90% of men never take a consultation for their health. From day one, all four founders have worked with phenomenal vigor to build a venture for men to fully understand and appreciate themselves, and have a safe place to open up before anything goes wrong. As a country, we are moving quickly towards more preventive healthcare measures rather than just curative, and that’s where Bold Care finds itself working to make a positive impact.” 

All of Bold Care’s treatment plans and products are designed by their Medical Advisory Board - a panel of doctors who have worked extensively on different aspects of men’s health and wellness such as andrology, fertility, and urology to name a few. 

Dr. S.S. Vasan, a member of Bold Care’s Medical Board, is the President of the South Asian Society for Sexual Medicine and the Chief Medical Officer at Manipal Fertility.

Talking about Bold Care, Dr. Vasan said, “When I first interacted with Rajat, I was thoroughly impressed with their vision for the company. Together, in the coming months, we will be building high-quality products to address every aspect of men’s health such as heart health, immunity, improved sleep and other such issues that are spurred within the body.”

Bold Care’s treatment plans have been effective for almost 95% of their users who seek comfort with the entire experience. In addition to providing quality products, giving users an easy, friendly experience throughout their journey has been their communication since inception and this is evident with Bold Care’s rising customer retention of 70%, which is growing steadily each month.

About Bold Care

Bold Care is a digital men's health and wellness platform, which provides Indian men with easy online doctor consultations and personalised treatment kits, delivered to your doorstep.

They handpick all the doctors on the platform and ensure the highest quality of medicines by working with manufacturers who follow the best, hygienic manufacturing practices at their factories.

Bold Care offers personalised treatment plans with prescription medicines and natural supplements. With unlimited post-consultation follow-ups, they help you find permanent solutions for men’s wellness issues. 

For more information on Bold Care, visit - https://boldcare.in

Fintech Platform BharatPe Opens Its Research Lab 'BharatX'; Launches Internship Program with 1 Lac/Mth Stipend

B2B payments Firm. BharatPe, that is making 'UPI' Payment as universally​ accepted payment method at offline merchants, has launched BharatX -- its research lab, to promote the development and experimenting of radical ideas to solve the next set of merchant and business challenges with innovative product solutions.

With the research lab, BharatPe wants to ensure financial inclusion of over 60 million small and medium merchants in India.

Bharat X will focus on cutting-edge research across the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Data Science, Financial Services, Modeling and several other areas.

Besides this, the fintech firm has also launched an internship program for the students who have graduated in year 2020 from the 14 selected U.S. Universities and have been adversely impacted by the COVID lockdown or work visa related changes introduced by the government of the US.

The internship, which has duration from 3 to 6 months, has stipend of INR 100,000 per month. Stpident will be paid to anyone who is eligible to work in India. Though, currently only Indian citizens can work without any work visa in India.

BharatPe Internship is open in fields including AI/ML, Augmented Reality, Human Computer Interaction, Credit Risk Modeling, Financial Services, Marketing, Strategy etc.

Chennai's Music Therapy School to Create Online Content for Using Music for Better Health

Chennai School of Music Therapy (CSMT), the Chennai-based music therapy training, consulting, and clinical services institute, is launching "Dhvani", a series of podcasts and videos on music and health, to help create awareness about the science behind the application of music for health and self-care.

Two posters were released to create awareness about the use of Music as a tool for Self-care by Chennai School of Music Therapy

These online resources also aim to equip the general public as well as music therapy professionals to use music in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of diseases, especially the lifestyle diseases that are caused by stress.

Talking about Dhvani, Dr. Sumathy Sundar, Director, CSMT, said, "We relate music mostly with entertainment. However, it has the potential to heal. The objective of Dhvani is to explain the scientific basis to understand the relationship between music and health. As opposed to what we think, health is not just the absence of diseases. It is also about mental health and good relationships and leading a stress-free life. And music is not just for entertainment but it can be used to create multi-sensory stimulation, and brain activation for better health outcomes."

Dhvani podcasts and videos will present the science, and also demonstrate various activities around music, other than listening to it, to achieve the targeted body, mind, soul responses - and flowering of relationships. The recommended practices can be done with minimal resources like music players, mobile phones with audio players, and radio.

Dhvani resources will be available in English. A team of trained and certified music therapy professionals and researchers, headed by Dr. Sumathy Sundar, will create content at regular periodicity.

On the recently passed World Music Day, observed every year on June 21, CSMT has released exclusive posters for adults and children, explaining the potential, types of, and activities around music to relax body, mind, and soul; and improve relationships. The organisation has also conducted a webinar titled, Music for Health and Self-Care, on the same day that attracted global participation. The webinar was chaired by Dr. Sumathy Sundar, Director, CSMT, who delivered an address on "Music and the Soul".

The webinar had Dr. B Sivaprakash, Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute (MGMCRI), Puducherry, as the keynote speaker. Dr. Baishali Mukherjee, Faculty, and Research Associate, CSMT, spoke on Music and the Mind. An experiential session on Singing for Healing was conducted by Mr. Vikram Kannan, Music Therapist, TTK Addiction Centre. Dr. Anasuya Ravikanti, Director, Swarajeevani Centre for Music Therapy, Hyderabad, spoke about Music for Relaxation.

Two posters from CSMT were also released by Prof. Sivaprakash during the event, to create awareness and sensitize the public about the use of Music as a tool for Self-care.

~ Newsvoir

In A 1st, An AI Humanoid Robot to Play Lead Role in A Sci-Fi Movie

As film production across the globe halted amid COVID-19 crisis and several lockdowns to prevent the pandemic has already pushed the release of any fresh movies, film makers are now relying on robots, AI actors, as they are immune to Coronavirus.

A US-based flim financer, Bondit Capital Media, along with New York’s Ten Ten Global Media and Belgium's Happy Moon Productions have teamed up to finance new Sci-Fi movie called 'b', which will have an Artificial Intelligence based Humanoid Robot named 'Erica', playing a lead role in the upcoming film with the budget of US$70 milllion.

The AI Actor's name 'Erica' stands for "Erato Intelligent Conversational Android".

According to Hollywood Reporter, the science-fiction movie will be the first to rely on an artificially intelligent actor. The movie's story is created by visual effects supervisor Eric Pham, Tarek Zohdy, and Sam Khoze.

Erica with its creator, Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro. Photo: Osaka University/ATR

The movie tells the story of a scientist who discovers dangers associated with a program he created to perfect human DNA and helps the artificially intelligent woman he designed -- Erica -- escape his lab. The story aligns well with Erica’s real-world origin story — her creators, Japanese scientists Hiroshi Ishiguro and Kohei Ogawa — designed her to study human-computer interaction, with Ishiguro even creating an android version of his own daughter in the past.

Created by Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, Eric is an advanced android designed as a research platform to study human-robot interaction. It understands natural language, has a synthesized human-like voice, and can display a variety of facial expressions.

Erica is 166cm (in standing) tall and with 44 pneumatic actuators (Face: 13 DoF; Neck: 4 DoF; Arms: 9 DoF x 2; Torso: 3 DoF; Hands: 3 DoF x 2), it has forty-four degrees of freedom for face, neck, arms, and waist. It can express various facial expressions and some gestural motions. Erica's appearance is designed for beautiful and neutral female face, by which people can familiarly interact with it. It speaks in unrealistic synthesized voice.

Erica runs on ROS, Java and Python. It has 2 CMOS cameras and 2 microphones in the head.

Y Combinator Reduces Investment Size and Pro Rata Rights in Follow-up Fundings

US-based seed-stage accelerator, Y Combinator (YC), is reducing the standard deal of its investment from $150,000 to $125,000. Altough it has reduced the investment amount, the equity percentage would remain the same i.e 7%, on a post-money safe

In a blog post this Friday, Y Combinator’s president Geoff Ralston said that the starting with Winter2021 batch, YC would make two changes to its terms for startups --

1. Reducing Investment size from $150K to $125K ;
2. Reducing the amount YC's pro rata right to 4% of subsequent rounds. Pro-rata investment rights give an investor in a company the right to participate in a subsequent round of funding to maintain their level of percentage ownership in the company.

Originally, YC gave about $20,000 for 6% equity in a company. In 2011, Yuri Milner and SV Angel began offering an additional $150,000 to every startup in YC. We continued this program with new investors and reduced the deal to about $100k for 7%. The amount put into each company was changed to $80,000 when Start Fund was renewed. In 2014, YC increased that amount to $120k and in 2018 to $150k when it raised its last fund.

In April , Michael Seibel, CEO and a partner at Y Combinator, announced that the summer 2020 ("S20") will be fully remote, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes interviews for the batch, office hours, evening talks, and meetups throughout the batch.

Applications for the Winter 2021 batch are now open at https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ .

Nigeria's SEC Warns Against Blockchain Firm that Claims to End Poverty in Any Country in Less than 9 Mths

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigeria has warned stakeholders and the investing public about the activities of an illegal blockchain operator - iBSmartify Nigeria, which is the promoters of a Blockchain known as iBledger (iBcashcryptocurrency) and InksNation.

In an announcement, SEC, said 0

The general public is hereby advised that neither the promoters of iBSmartify Nigeria nor the illegal products they offer are registered or regulated by the Commission." In view of the above, the general public is hereby WARNED that any person dealing with the said entity and others in the same business in any manner whatsoever, does so at his/her own risk.

Based out of Badagry, Nigeria, iBSmartify (InksNation) claims to use Blockchain , Artificial Intelligence, Extended Reality and Quantum Computing for Humanitarian Good towards building a better world where humans live like Kings and Queen in an autonomously driven ecosystem of abundance.

On its website 'inksnation.io', the company also claims to have invented the World's First Philanthropic Blockchain (InksLedger) and the World's First Charitable Trust DAO (InksNation), which the company in questions claims to end poverty in any country in less than 9 months incentivising goodness, promoting love, unity, oneness, peace and equitable distribution of wealth.

Further the Nigenrian company claims that its native Reserve Coin called 'PinKoin' will pay every single Nigerian, African and Human being on earth including babies born everyday a minimum of N120,000 ($330) monthly for life as UCBI (Universal Child Basic Income).

In a circular dated June 26, 2020, the SEC pointed out that neither the promoters of iBSmartify Nigeria nor the illegal products they offer are registered or regulated by the commission.

The SEC keeps warning the investing public against dealing with fraudulent and unregistered investment schemes and capital market operators, especially those with bogus investment and unjustifiable return claims.

The commission, in 2019, clamped down on some Ponzi scheme operators by blocking their bank accounts and taking over the real estate properties linked to them.

ISRO's 'Space 2.0' Program - Pvt Co.s Now be Allowed to Build Rockets; New Space Body IN-SPACe Formed

Last month, Indian space agency ISRO had announced that private companies including start-ups will be allowed to take part in India's space activities including planetary exploration, outer space travel among others and now, in a major announcement, ISRO Chairman Dr K.Sivan revealed the next phase a.k.a "Space 2.0" strategies including incorporation of new organization to implement the same. Dr Sivan, in a recent (separate) interaction with NDTV, said that private sector will now be allowed to build rockets too.


Even for ISRO's ongoing Gaganyaan mission, the agency has invited participation from private players for the new technologies that will have to be developed. ISRO is inviting private firms to participate in activities including building their own launchpads, launch vehicles, satellites and providing commercial services.

By allowing private firms to participate in all space activities at ISRO, the Indian space agency wants to focus on more advance technology development, indigenisation of technologies, and capacity building.

Beside, the Indian union cabinet, on Wednesday, has approved the formation of a new organisation called "Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) ", which will provide private firms with equal opportunities in the space sector.


IN-SPACe will have members from the Space Commission as well as industry representatives on its board.

Dr Sivan, who is also Secretary of the Department of Space (DoS), while interacting with media personnels through video-conferencing, further said on IN-SPACe that a majority of start-ups have shown interest in space applications.

While many start-ups have already shown interest to participate in the space sector that has now been opened up for private players, big corporates are yet to come forward.said Dr. K. Sivan

The IN-SPACe will also hand-hold, promote and guide the private industries in space activities through encouraging policies and a friendly regulatory environment,” the government said in a statement. ‘New Space India Limited (NSIL)’ would endeavour to reorient space activities from a ‘supply driven’ model to a ‘demand driven’ one, thereby ensuring optimum utilisation of the nation’s space assets, it stated.

COVID-19: Rio Tinto, CAF India and Sakshi join hands; To 200 PPE Kits to Healthcare workers in Gurugram

As the world grapples with COVID -19, multi-stakeholder partnerships are being forged to mitigate the risks emerged due to the pandemic. In one such instance, Rio Tinto joined hands with Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) India to support frontline COVID warriors of Gurugram district, Haryana. The initiative kick started today from Civil Hospital, Sohna Gurugram with the distribution of 200 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits to healthcare workers. In the course of one week, 2,600 such kits will be distributed to healthcare and sanitation workers. The initiative will also address the safety needs of family members of the health and sanitation workers. Each of their households and their locality will be sanitised on a weekly basis.

Besides this, a comprehensive awareness campaign will be launched. This will involve distribution of IEC material (pamphlets, leaflets) on Dos and Don’ts during the pandemic; wall paintings; awareness film screenings; trainings on using Aarogya Setu app; Q and A sessions. Common areas such as, hand-pumps, grocery shops will be marked with circles to ensure social distancing.

Community, village and block level committees will be formed consisting Sarpanch, teacher, ANM/ASHA health worker and youth leader to monitor and ensure that community members adhere to the information disseminated through various mediums. These committees will also be responsible to report any violation of norms, domestic violence and abuse. The project will also enable community workers access various government schemes.

“This program is part of an integrated effort by Rio Tinto to support the local community. Frontline healthcare and sanitation workers put themselves at risk as the first line of defence against the pandemic. This intervention will safeguard the workers, their families and communities with protective and preventive measures. I’m thankful to our partners, CAF India and Sakshi, for addressing this issue,” said Vikram Merchant, Country Head, Rio Tinto.

Elaborating further on the need of more such initiatives, Meenakshi Batra, CEO CAF India said, “India is one of the most densely populated countries of the world and containing a pandemic like COVID-19 here, becomes even more challenging. We had one of the largest, longest and earliest lockdowns in India — it helped in controlling the spread but we still could not manage to break the chain. The demand for protective equipments, ventilators and testing kits continues to be high and we need to stand with the government and provide all the help we can. I am thankful to Rio Tinto for supporting the initiative and our NGO partner, Sakshi for implementing it.”


Talking about the awareness drive, Mridula Tandon, President and Zuber Khan, Director, Sakshi said: “Families of frontline workers need to be kept safe too. For this, awareness generation will play a very important role. Importance of wearing masks, good hand hygiene and social distancing needs to be reinforced among communities over and over again. We are thankful to Rio Tinto and CAF India for supporting us and giving us a chance to help these at-risk communities."

About Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto is a leading global mining and metals companies, and has been in business for more than 149 years. We prospect for, mine and process the earth′s metal and mineral resources that are essential for making thousands of everyday products that meet society′s needs. Headquartered in the UK, we work in more than 40 countries: the majority of our operations are in Australia and North America, but we also have businesses in South America, Europe, southern Africa and Asia.

Rio Tinto’s activities in India go back to 1930. India is a key market for Rio Tinto products and in turn we source goods and services from India for our global operations. Our footprint across India is growing. We are increasingly focused on procuring services from Indian suppliers as well as selling key metals & minerals to the Indian market. Our interests are diverse both in geography and product.

About Sakshi Sakshi – 

CEC is a national level Non-Government Organisation. Their work is concentrated in the field of Education, Health and Community Development. Sakshi has been working in Gurugram for over five years and has an excellent understanding of the communities.

Amazon Acquires Autonomous Ride-hailing Start-up Zoox for ~$1.2 Billion

Amazon has signed an agreement to acquire Zoox, a California-based company working to design autonomous ride-hailing vehicles from the ground up. Aicha Evans, Zoox CEO, and Jesse Levinson, Zoox co-founder and CTO, will continue to lead the team as they innovate and drive towards their mission.

Though no official financial details were revealed but according to media reports including NYTimes.com, Amazon has reportedly shelled out about $1.2 billion US dollars to buy the six-year-old self-driving vehicle technology startup.

Founded in 2014, Zoox is autonomous vehicle company targeted at robo-taxi market by developing a fully autonomous, purpose-built fleet designed for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to drive and humans to enjoy.\

Tesla CEO Elon Musk reacted to the Amazon's acquisition news Musk by taking a jab at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Twitter. In his tweet, Musk called Amazon CEO a copycat but used a yellow cat icon instead of the word "cat."

.@JeffBezos is a copy 🐈 haha https://t.co/plR7uupqBG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 26, 2020

Notably, while Tesla cars are built to go directly to customers Zoox's vehicles are designed for ride-hailing purpose and Amazon will more likely use Zoox for its package delivery process.

"This acquisition solidifies Zoox's impact on the autonomous driving industry," said Aicha Evans, CEO of Zoox. "We have made great strides with our purpose-built approach to safe, autonomous mobility, and our exceptionally talented team working every day to realize that vision. We now have an even greater opportunity to realize a fully autonomous future."

"Since Zoox's inception six years ago, we have been singularly focused on our ground-up approach to autonomous mobility," said Jesse Levinson, Zoox co-founder and CTO. "Amazon's support will markedly accelerate our path to delivering safe, clean, and enjoyable transportation to the world."

Zoox's ground-up vehicle focuses on the ride-hailing customer, with tightly integrated features designed to provide a revolutionary passenger experience. Zoox's approach to invention provides flexibility and the means to iterate rapidly to continuously deliver a superior experience for customers.

AWS Unveils Amazon Honeycode for Anybody to Build Web & Mobile Apps

Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs, has announced the launch of a no-code app builders - "Amazon Honeycode" -- a fully managed service that allows customers to quickly build powerful mobile and web applications – with no programming required. Backed by a database in AWS, it is a web-based, drag-and-drop interface builder tool.

Currently in beta, Honeycode is free to use for teams of up to 20 users and 2,500 rows per work load.

Amazon Honeycode gives the power to build powerful mobile & web applications without writing any code. It uses the familiar spreadsheet model and lets you get started in minutes. If you or your teammates are already familiar with spreadsheets and formulas, you’ll be happy to hear that just about everything you know about sheets, tables, values, and formulas still applies.



With a lengthy list of built-in functions, Amazon Honeycode customers can get started creating applications in minutes, build applications with up to 20 users for free, and only pay for the users and storage for larger applications.

Currently, Amazon Honeycode is available in US West (Oregon) with more regions coming soon.

With Honeycode, Amazon will now compete with existing no-code platforms like Webflow, Bubble, Airtable, Intermal and Retool.

In Amazon Honeycode, customers can get started by selecting a pre-built template, where the data model, business logic, and applications are pre-defined and ready-to-use (e.g. PO approvals, time-off reporting, inventory management, etc.). Or, they can import data into a blank workbook, use the familiar spreadsheet interface to define the data model, and design the application screens with objects like lists, buttons, and input fields.

Additionally, one can also add automations to their applications to drive notifications, reminders, approvals, and other actions based on conditions. Once the application is built, customers simply click a button to share it with team members. With Amazon Honeycode, customers can quickly and easily build multi-user, scalable, and collaborative web and mobile applications that allow them to act on the data that would otherwise be locked away in static spreadsheets.

Tokyo Replaces Bengaluru in Top 20 Global Startup Ecosystems; 30% of Top Ecosystem are in Asia-Pacific

The Global Startup Ecosystem Report (#GSER2020) is the world’s most comprehensive and practical research on startup success and ecosystem performance. We are grateful to our Members and more than 300 partner organizations that help make this research possible. 

Startup Genome’s coverage of ecosystems is growing. Our analysis now ranks the top 30 and 10 runner up global startup ecosystems, as well as 100 emerging startup ecosystems. In the past, our ranking included only the top 30 global startup ecosystems. We have expanded our list of ecosystems to include regions that have traditionally received less coverage, including Central Asia, Middle East, Africa, and South America. 

In one of the findings, due to low levels of Funding the ranking position of Bangalore and San Diego have been displaced by Tokyo (at #15) and Seoul ( at #20), respectively . 

Key Findings from the #GSER2020 Rankings include:

• For a second year running, the top seven ecosystems remained the same. These ecosystems are in a league of their own and command a combined Ecosystem Value of $1.5 trillion, 1.7 times the remaining top ecosystems. Silicon Valley maintains its #1 position. New York remains at #2, although now London has risen up and is now tied with it. Beijing is at #4 and Boston is at #5. Among the top five global startup ecosystems, only London was not in the top five in the 2015 ranking, showing an incredible rise in its startup power. Tel Aviv-Jerusalem and Los Angeles follow, both tied at #6. 


• The “Rise of Asia” is more visible this year, with 30% of the top ecosystems coming from the region, compared to 20% in 2012. Of the 11 new ecosystems that made it to the top ecosystems list, six are from the Asia-Pacific region. 


• The 2020 rankings have seen the growth of many R&D powerhouses: those ecosystems growing largely building upon their strengths on research and patent production. Tokyo (#15) and Seoul (#20) are the prime examples of this, with both ecosystems scoring the max in the Knowledge Factor — a measure of R&D activity. Shenzhen (#22) and Hangzhou (#28) also fit this ecosystem archetype. 


• There are two new entrants in the top 20 global startup ecosystems: Tokyo (#15) and Seoul (#20). They displace Bangalore (which fell primarily due to low levels of Funding) and San Diego. 


• In addition to Tokyo and Seoul, new entrants among the top 30 include Shenzhen (the advanced manufacturing hub, at #22), Hangzhou (home to Alibaba, at #28), and São Paulo (#30, returning to the top ecosystems list after falling off in 2017). 


• Six ecosystems debuted in the list of runners-up of top global ecosystems: Salt Lake-Provo and Dallas (tied at #31 with other ecosystems); as well as Copenhagen, Melbourne, Montreal, and Delhi, tied at #36 with Dublin. 


• Amsterdam and Stockholm have demonstrated strong improvement over the years. Amsterdam was ranked #19 in 2015 ranking and since then it has continued to rise to #15 in 2019 to #12 in 2020. Amsterdam ranks very high in Connectedness, gaining from Netherlands’ logistical and social connectedness to the world. Stockholm, which debuted in the 2017 report at #14, climbed four places to #11 last year and managed to break into top 10 in this year’s ranking. Stockholm’s performance was driven by a high volume of substantial exits. 


• Traditional tech centers improved significantly in this year’s ranking. The Seattle ecosystem made its debut in the top 10, rising two places from last year. Washington, D.C. is another standout case, moving up eight places in the ecosystem rankings to #11 due to its strong tech talent pool. 

Key Findings on the Impact of COVID-19 on Startups include:

• In 2020, the State of the Global Startup Economy can be seen through two main angles: the calm before the storm, up to Dec. 2019, and then the consequences of the COVID-19-triggered crisis. 


• Until December 2019, things generally looked positive for startups globally. We analyzed companies in the billion-dollar-club, with exits or private companies in technology with over $1 billion in valuation. In 2013, only four ecosystems produced unicorns or billion-dollar exits. Today, a cumulative 85 ecosystems have produced companies unicorns or had billion-dollar exits, astoundingly. 


• As the COVID-19 crisis hit across the world, startups have found themselves in a double bind, being hit hard from two main shockwaves: capital shock and demand. 


• Four out of every 10 startups today are in the Red Zone: they have three months or fewer of capital runway. This means that they will collapse if they do not raise additional capital and their revenues and expenses remain unchanged, risking a mass extinction event for startups globally. 


• The fundraising process has been dramatically disrupted. Even for startups that already had term sheets from investors before the crisis, signed or unsigned, three out of every four startups have had the fundraising process disrupted. A dramatic 18% of those startups with term sheets have had a funding round cancelled by the investor, and 54% have had their funding round delayed or the lead investor become unresponsive. 


• Total VC funding has dropped dramatically across every single continent. Globally, it is down by 20% in the three months of 2020. In some regions of the world it dropped even more sharply. China, the first country hit by the crisis, had funding drop by over 50% relative to the rest of the world, as we have written for the World Economic Forum. While the country is experiencing a rebound in investments in March, it still faces lower activity than it had in December 2019. 


• About 72% of startups saw their revenue drop since the beginning of the crisis, with the average startup experiencing a decline of 32%. Shockingly, almost 40% of companies of the companies saw their revenue drop by 40% or more, and only about 12% are experiencing significant growth. 


• Over 60% of startups have laid off employees or reduced salaries. For startups reducing FTEs, an average of 33% of jobs were cut, as the Startup Genome COVID-19 Impact Insights survey shows. This is also reflected in crowdsourced data about startup layoffs globally, with the number of employees laid off identified in these crowdsourced lists growing 5x between March and May 2020. 


• 71% of startups have reduced their expenses, with an average cost cutting of 22%. The combination of drop in expenditures, salary cuts, and layoffs have downstream effects for the rest of society, not just today but also tomorrow’s potential for economic growth and innovation capacity. 


• However, the news is not all gloomy: Every crisis creates opportunities, and this crisis is no different. For instance, over half of Fortune 500 companies started during a contraction. Over 50 unicorns were created in the Great Recession alone, as Startup Genome data shows. The list of companies funded during the Great Recession is impressive. It includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Palantir, and Dropbox — all of these based in the Bay Area. This shows the need for funding startups during down periods. 

Key Findings in Policy include:

• Startups contribute meaningfully to both local communities and to the global startup economy as a whole. With that in mind, policymakers should be focused on helping startup companies get through COVID-19 intact. 


• Startups need help now and if policymakers don’t work to support them, the economic effects will be dire. Global venture capital funding has dropped roughly 20% since the onset of the pandemic in December 2019, creating ripple effects throughout startup ecosystems. 


• Governments stand to make money by injecting at least 6 months worth of cash into technology startups. Even with a negative 10% return on equity, the cost per job saved is 41% lower for startups than for SMBs, respectively costing $14,766 or $24,928 per job saved. It simply costs less to save a job in a startup than elsewhere. 


• Startups not only are a good engine for jobs, but without startups, there’s less innovation at larger corporations and at small- and medium- sized businesses (SMBs) as well. 


• Governments around the world are taking actions to help businesses during COVID-19, but they aren’t doing enough to assist startups. Government relief programs typically have strict eligibility rules and emphasize companies with revenue, profitability, and collateral. But this leaves a lot of startups out in the cold. 


• 43% of startups globally are not receiving assistance and/or do not expect to be helped by national or local government relief measures. 


• The first major goal of governments should be to inject capital quickly to save at least 80% of startups that are at risk of folding in 2020. The second goal should be to inject capital to increase the rate of new seed and Series A investments over the next two years, to ensure these types of investments do not drop as dramatically as they did during the 2008 recession. 


• With startups struggling to generate demand they had before the COVID-19 crisis, policymakers can step into help with the development of government-led innovation procurement programs. Startups can help with addressing problems rising from the COVID-19 crisis especially startups in healthcare, social services, and online services. 

7 Tips to Use RD Calculator the Right Way

Recurring Deposit (RD) is a saving instrument used by individuals who are new to the world of investments and savings. This investment mechanism allows investors to make small deposits at regular intervals and earn returns on them. Thus this enables individuals to save penny by penny instead of depositing a lump sum amount in a go. Also, it is suitable for risk-averse investors as it provides higher returns than a savings account and has lower risks. One can say that an RD works as same as the FC, but comes with higher flexibility, making it more preferable.

Though recurring deposits seem to be a good investment option, it is essential to assess the optimal combination of the instalments, interest rates, and the tenure of the deposit that would fetch optimal returns. RD Calculator is one such systematically designed tool that can be used to decide the right blend. The RD calculator by Scripbox is one such measure that can help one plan one’s investments better. Individuals can use an RD calculator to know about the rates of interest and the value they would gain from their savings. 

Here are a few tips to use the RD Calculator in the right way online:

 

• Choosing and using the RD calculator: One must use an online calculator from an authentic source. Individuals looking for the help of a calculator should research online for the best rd calculator such as the one by Scripbox or any other financial institution. One the investor logs in to the official website of the calculator provider, he needs to input the amount he wishes to keep aside as savings each month. The next step is to choose the duration till which the investor wishes to invest in the RD. Note that senior citizens earn a higher return on their investments than ordinary investors. Thus it is important to enter the details about your senior citizenship to get the accurate output. Once this necessary information is entered, click on calculate. The calculator user gets the interest he or she might earn on the maturity of the deposit as the output.

• Calculation of maturity amount: The maturity amount that the investors get at the end of their duration is the total of the principal amount they deposit and the interest they earn over the period. Here the interest is compounded quarterly on the investment amount. This calculation of the maturity amount can be a little complicated for certain individuals. RD calculator comes to the rescue of such investors. The calculator helps them compute the maturity amount they ould receive on maturity. Thus it is a good idea to use an rd calculator whenever one needs to examine their prospective returns on the investments.

• Duration of the investments or the maximum and minimum tenures: Investors seeking to invest in an RD have a huge variety of options to choose from concerning the tenure of their investments. They can choose the investment tenures from 6 months to a maximum of 10 years. In case the investor is a Non-Resident Indian (NRI), the maximum tenure is as much as 12 years.

• Minimum monthly instalments: Recurring deposits are rather a very flexible mode of investments with relatively less risk and potentially higher returns. However, one limitation of this is that several banks and financial institutions have prespecified a minimum amount of monthly instalments that the investors are required to deposit in their banks’ recurring deposit accounts regularly. It is vital to note that this amount should be specified while using the calculator.

• Calculation of the TDS: One must remember that the RD calculator does not consider the TDS while presenting the output. Therefore, investors should calculate TDS manually. This is because of the RBI norms which do specify that recurring deposits are liable for TDS, but do not specify its implementation across various organizations.

• Age of the investor: The rate of interest available on a recurring deposit depends largely on the age of the investor. The majority of the banks provide a higher interest rate to senior citizens. This higher interest rate may range between 0.50% to 0.75% in addition to the ordinary interest rates for other investors. Thus, one must verify the rate of interest applicable before entering the figures in the calculator.

• How is the maturity amount calculated: While we can escape the complex calculations by using this online tool, it is important to understand the formula behind it for a better understanding of the process. 

 

The formula used when compounding is done quarterly in a recurring deposit is:

A = P*(1+R/N)^(Nt)

Here, ‘A’ stands for the maturity amount in INR that will be earned at the end of the tenure, ‘P’ denotes the recurring amount that shall be deposited regularly in the RD, expressed in INR, ‘N’ denotes the frequency of compounding, ‘R’ is the interest rate applicable in percentage terms of the recurring deposit, and ‘t’ is the tenure for which the deposit is to be made.

The investor to understand this formula before using an RD calculator as this must help in understanding the output along with the role of each parameter to be inputted.

Convergent Finance Announces upto $23.8 Mn Investment in Camlin Fine Science Ltd

Convergent Finance LLP, an investment advisor to Infinity Investment Management, announced an investment, upto INR 1,800 million (USD23.8 million) in Camlin Fine Sciences Limited (‘Camlin’), a vertically integrated company engaged in the manufacturing of antioxidants and aroma chemicals supplying the food industry globally. Structured as a subscription to equity warrants priced based on the prevailing market price and in accordance with applicable SEBI regulations, the investment will aggregate upto INR 1,800 million (USD23.8 million) and will result in an approximately 22.65% ownership stake on a fully diluted basis. As a critical step towards aligning the interests of all shareholders, terms of the investment contemplate the institution of an ESOP programme for senior management, accompanied by a call option provided to the promoters to increase their shareholding. Customary closing conditions, including shareholder approval, will apply.

Camlin is engaged in the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of specialty chemicals and blends, which are used for many applications in the food industry and beyond. Camlin is a leading producer of anti-oxidants (used as food preservatives and in cattle feed) and is also the world’s third-largest producer of vanillin (the flavouring agent behind “vanilla”, used in food & beverages). Camlin has manufacturing facilities in India, Italy, Mexico, China and Brazil with R&D centres at India and Italy and application labs in India, Mexico, Brazil, USA and Italy. The company serves customers in more than 80 countries across the globe with more than 100 products and over 1,000 satisfied customers.

Harsha Raghavan, Managing Partner at Convergent, commented, “Ashish Dandekar, with over 28 years of experience in the industry, has successfully led the company to achieve its current stature, and we are very impressed with Camlin’s performance under his leadership. Camlin is well-positioned to benefit from the current supply-chain disruption and the overall shift towards moving manufacturing away from China to other cost-efficient locations including India. Given our track record of working with great platform companies to help transform them into global leaders, Camlin will benefit from our network of relationships, strategic insights, and operational expertise."

Ashish Dandekar, MD of Camlin, welcomed this investment by saying, “This investment is a vote of endorsement for Camlin, and a reflection of the extraordinary transformation underway within our company. Given our M&A oriented strategy, this investment and the partnership that it brings with Convergent will enable us to leverage Convergent’s deep global expertise and relationships while benefiting from their strategic guidance. Since I started this business about 25 years ago, I have never been more excited about the prospects ahead."

About Convergent Finance LLP

Convergent Finance LLP is an investment management and advisory partnership at the forefront of bringing together Ideas, Capital, and passionate Entrepreneurs. The Convergent investment process involves identifying proprietary platform and bolt-on opportunities, speed of execution, and a relentless focus on performance improvement. The Convergent value investing approach believes in paying fair and reasonable valuations through bilaterally negotiated transactions.

About Camlin Fine Sciences Limited

With over 30 years of experience, Camlin is engaged in research, development, manufacturing, commercializing and marketing of specialty chemicals and blends, that are widely used in everyday life across foods, animal and pet feed, flavours & fragrances, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, petrochemicals, dyes and pigments, polymers and biodiesel.

Zee5 Unlocks 'Scan and Pay' UPI Option on Samsung Smart TVs for A Digital India

ZEE5, the Entertainment Super-App of India, has become the first ever OTT platform to launch an UPI based payment facility on connected devices. Users of Samsung smart TVs now have an option of ‘scan and pay’ by selecting the ‘UPI payment’ mode, ‘scanning the QR’ and ‘paying on their UPI app’. With this easy convenient option, the app is set to empower users by democratizing the payment process and allowing customers to make payments through their smartphones. The UPI based payment facility provides a safe and easy option for consumers across India who wish to opt for digital modes. The latest version of the app has also made ZEE5 available to users owning 2016 & 2017 models of Samsung Smart TVs, thus making ZEE5 widely accessible to Samsung users.

ZEE5 has been a leader in the OTT space due to the platform’s consistent efforts to reinvent viewing experience for users. Right from content to navigation to backward compatibility, ZEE5 continuously innovates and integrates the entire experience through technology and innovations to bring maximum convenience to users. As a player that caters to a vastly diverse audience and has multiple options in subscription packages, this takes forward the ZEE5 vision to make the entire experience simple and quick.

Sharing more insights, Mr. Rajneel Kumar, Business Head - Expansion Projects & Global Head of Products, ZEE5 India stated, “ZEE5 has been leading the way in innovation through technology with constant upgrades to our interface and navigation to make things smoother for users. In an industry leading initiative, ZEE5 is now offering users the option to make their payments easily online while watching their favorite content through smart TV Apps. The latest update of the ZEE5 app on Samsung Smart TVs has already made UPI QR payments available to users. Customers can now choose their plan, make the payment through UPI within seconds by scanning the QR code, and then continue streaming. This is an exciting juncture for ZEE5 as very few sectors offer this option and we are the first platform in this industry to explore this. ZEE5 has been a pioneer in integrating new technology and options and this is another step that will drive forward our growth."



"At Samsung, our approach has always been to provide customer centric and meaningful innovations that offer convenience to our consumers. A welcome addition to the Samsung ecosystem, ZEE5 will now enable payments through UPI on their platform by scanning the QR code and paying on smartphones. OTT platforms have become the new norm for consumption of entertainment and this unique feature will provide a seamless and integrated service for our customers," said Mr. Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India.





Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI said, “We are happy to associate with Zee5 and provide a unique offering in the form of UPI scan and pay to the Samsung Smart TV viewers. We believe the QR scan feature will help them start or renew their Zee5 subscription instantaneously while staying connected. In today's times where OTT platforms are becoming an integral part of millions of lives, innovative offerings like UPI QR empower viewers with a new level of convenience and comfort which we understand is the need of the hour. We are confident that our strategic alliance with Zee5 is poised to offer customers a delightful digital payments experience."

Narendra Yadav, Vice President, Paytm said, "We are happy to partner with Zee5, which is one of India's leading entertainment networks. With Paytm UPI, users can now make quick subscription payments through their smartphones and get access to an exciting world of digital entertainment. We look forward to bringing new innovations together with the company."

ZEE5 offers a large library of content in 12 languages which include originals, popular shows and movies. The distinct genres and languages have also helped strengthen ZEE5’s reach and popularity in regional markets as well. The platform’s popularity has further solidified due to the focus on easy navigation through integrating various tools and features which have made selecting custom plans and making payments even more hassle-free over time.

HOW TO PURCHASE ZEE5 SUBSCRIPTION USING UPI ON SAMSUNG SMART TV

In pursuit of continuously enhancing customers’ experience, both Samsung and ZEE5 have plans to further deepen their ongoing partnership with hot key integration for the latest Samsung Smart TVs (2020 models), slated to go live soon.

About ZEE5

ZEE5 is the digital entertainment destination launched by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), a global Media and Entertainment powerhouse. With content across 12 languages like English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati & Punjabi, ZEE5 is home to 1.25 lakh hours of On Demand Content and 100+ live TV channels. The platform brings together the best of Originals, Indian and International Movies and TV Shows, Music, Kids content, Cineplays, Live TV and Health and Lifestyle content all in one single destination. ZEE5 offers ground breaking features like 11 navigational languages, content download option, seamless video playback and Voice Search.