Archive: October 30, 2020

Business World

OPT, a technology bridge for employee and employer to Hire, Re-skill and Upskill

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Growthcode Technologies, #Opportunity Triangle (OPT), #OPT, #Ravi Krishnamurthy

Growthcode Technologies, a Bangalore based startup that provides diverse technical solutions, introduces – The Opportunity Triangle (OPT), a unique human capital actualization platform that is designed to increase employability.

Employability is not just about an individual being able to get a job. Employability refers to one’s ability to gain initial employment, maintain it, and obtain new employment when required. In other words, employability is about being capable of both getting and holding on to fulfilling work. OPT enhances employability by integrating solutions encompassing education, training, recruitment, career management, and workforce management.

Boosting employability has for long remained a tough nut to crack as it is relative to three key factors. Eligibility, accessibility, and availability are what directly and indirectly determine employability and OPT helps address each of these quotients. As Ravi Krishnamurthy, CEO, Growthcode, said, “Unfortunately, only 50% of the educated youth are employable, and only eight of a hundred get jobs. We identified this as a key area where a difference could be made. While academia makes them eligible for employment by imparting knowledge, OPT trains people for industry relevance. However, what makes us stand out is the fact that OPT is a holistic solution addressing all the factors that influence employability.”

In order to improve accessibility, apart from training potential candidates, OPT also works with academic institutions and helps them achieve a higher rate of placement by making their students more eligible. As institutions are very keen to boost their placement record, they willingly take part in non-intrusive industry relevance training programs with events such as virtual campus hirings and online job festivals. Outside of academic institutions, cracking the puzzle of the ‘employment industry’ is the next big hurdle. What OPT does here is to make the most hireable candidates available to the industry and lets them source, assess, and hire candidates effortlessly by just clicking a few buttons. Promising a hit rate that is significantly greater than the industry norm of 8%, OPT lets the industry streamline its workforce management practices.

Lastly, OPT also helps state and central governments achieve higher employment rates by assisting them in their initiatives like ‘Skill India’. In a demographic like ours, a platform like OPT can be instrumental in helping rural youth get opportunities across the country through virtual recruitment and career management solutions. Furthermore, OPT also helps enable remote teacher training and provides schools access to the best teachers and allows students to gain relevant skills, which will eventually pay off.

Business World

M3M Foundation embarks on the VrikshArpan initiative; to plant 1 million trees across India in three years

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #‘iMpower’, #Dr. Payal Kanodia, #M3M Foundation, #VrikshArpan

M3M Foundation has kick-started its unique environmental campaign to plant 1 million trees within 3 years. It has collaborated with Plantology, a self-funded organization that is committed to increasing green cover in India, for implementation of this campaign in Manesar. About 25,000 trees have been planted at NSG Manesar. Approximately 15,000 trees have been planted at CISF, Hyderabad, 10,000 at Army Base, Meerut. About 15,617 trees were also planted at Bemta village, Sundargarh district in Odisha in the first phase and around 1200 have been planted in Gurugram.

The initiative coincides with COVID-19 that underscored the significance of sustainability and maintaining a harmonious co-existence with nature. The marginalized and vulnerable section of the society has been hardest hit by the pandemic due to joblessness, lack of access to proper hygiene and nutrition and abject poverty.

‘VrikshArpan aligns with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals- 12, 13 and 15 by 2030 and India’s vision of increasing total area under green cover to 33 per cent.

“Tree plantation entails a plethora of benefits for people at the grass-root level and is a key to heralding a socio-economic change in rural India. The initiative will also sensitize the local community on the significance of protecting the environment. As a responsible organization, we are committed to augmenting government efforts to address the challenges of environmental degradation and climate change,” said Dr. Payal Kanodia, Trustee, M3M Foundation.

M3M Foundation, the philanthropic arm of M3M Group; is working towards bringing an equitable development for attaining a brighter India. Education, environment, health, disaster management and socio-economic development are its key areas. The Foundation believes in taking an innovative approach to address social issues by developing a self- sustained program.

Recently, the Haryana Government inked MoU with M3M Foundation to facilitate students’ online preparation for government jobs. The MoU aligns with the Haryana government’s vision to link one lakh candidates to government jobs in two years.

In the past year, the Foundation has undertaken many initiatives in this direction. It has launched ‘iMpower’ an education and skill-development initiative that aims to build a community-led Worksite Upliftment Programme for construction workers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it launched a project called ‘Kartavya’ to provide food and essential sanitation items to construction workers and families. To date, it has helped two lakhs of stranded people with ration and other essentials. It is reaching out to 3000 people daily under the project.

In the area of education, its work includes disbursal of liberal scholarships under its project ‘Sakshar’ to the financially deprived students and empowering the marginalized section of the society with basic digital literacy skills. In another initiative called ‘Sarvodya’, M3M Foundation plans to support and facilitate 13 villages of Orissa to become self-sustainable in the next three years.

Business World

Celebrate this festive season by booking your dream home with Oberoi Realty

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Borivali, #JVLR, #Mulund, #Oberoi Realty, #Vikas

Oberoi Realty, one of India’s most established real estate brand has made this festive season even more special for homebuyers. The company has introduced attractive bank and developer subvention schemes along with a 100% refund on stamp duty thereby minimizing the initial contribution required to be made by the customer. These schemes are available for company’s under construction projects at JVLR, Borivali & Mulund.

Under the bank subvention scheme, the customer pays 15% now and 85% on possession, and in the developer, subvention scheme the customer pays 25% now and 75% on possession. Customers who pay and register before 31st Dec’20 will further benefit from100% refund of stamp duty & registration charges which is being offered on these subvention schemes. For the ready-to-move-in project Esquire at Goregaon East, company is offering a “first of a kind” scheme wherein the buyer can pay 25%, move into his new home and then pay equal instalments of 15% for 5 years at zero interest.

At Oberoi Realty, we have always believed that every home buyer deserves to live in a home that offers comfort, a safe environment, and elevates his/her lifestyle. With this ethos, we have specially designed these offers to make our homes accessible to all aspirant home buyers and help them realize their dreams. Customer experience and trust remain at the centre of everything we do hence basis the consistent feedback we decided to introduce developer subvention scheme for the first time at our projects in JVLR and Borivali.

Our project locations, Maxima at JVLR, Andheri East, Sky City at Borivali East offer excellent connectivity to WEH and likewise our project Eternia & Enigma at Mulund West offer excellent connectivity to the EEH. All these projects are well connected to railway stations & upcoming Metro stations and provide easy access to requisite social infrastructure. The developments are designed in such a way that across generations families can live blissfully as if they are amidst nature while still being connected to the hustle and bustle of the maximum city. All the projects offer a galore of state-of-the-art amenities and take care of all the needs of every family member in any situation.

Oberoi Realty is known for its financial prudence, construction quality, and ability to deliver. The projects are also designed in collaboration with leading partners in construction and design like L&T, Capacite Infraprojects, Eco-Id-Singapore, LERA-New York, and HB Design-Singapore. The homes epitomize the luxurious lifestyle that Oberoi Realty is known for, offering the best of both worlds to its residents – holistic living in the lap of nature, with all the luxuries of living a modern life.

Business World

Now pay with PhonePe at over 20 lakh shops in Maharashtra

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Maharashtra, #PhonePe, #shops

PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform today announced that it is now live as a payment option at over 20 lakh shops comprising large organized retail stores as well as small and medium shops and kiranas across Maharashtra. PhonePe has recorded a phenomenal 64% year-on-year growth in its offline store acceptance in Maharashtra. PhonePe is currently live at over 1.3 crore offline shops across the country, and Maharashtra accounts for the largest share of offline stores.

Commenting on this milestone, Vivek Lohcheb, Vice President – Offline Business Development, PhonePe said, “We are delighted to be accepted as a payment option across 20 lakh offline shops in Maharashtra. Our wide acceptance network now allows our customers the choice of using digital payment modes like UPI, wallet, Credit or Debit cards to pay for their daily purchases across their favourite stores.

For our merchant partners, the advantage is they can now serve more customers and grow their business with PhonePe. This milestone is also a significant step in helping us move towards our goal of digitizing 2.5 crore offline stores across India, thereby contributing to the vision of a digital and less-cash economy. Going forward, we aim to increase our presence in Maharashtra’s rural areas also and hence will be recruiting over 1700 more sales executives in the state over the next 3 months.”

PhonePe has built a comprehensive set of offerings to help offline merchant partners grow their business and attract more customers. One such feature is the ‘Stores’ tab on the PhonePe app which enables a seamless connect between PhonePe’s 23 crore customers and offline shops at scale throughout the country. Customers can easily discover a large number of offline shops in their vicinity and either call or chat with store owners to place their orders and shop from the comfort of their home.

Customers can also pay the stores remotely for their purchases using the “Pay now feature” without needing to scan any QR codes. PhonePe has also introduced a Digital Khata solution helping offline stores maintain easy records of customer transactions. In case the working capital gets stuck and the payments happen only when the customer comes to the shop next, the store can easily send a reminder for faster collection. Earlier this year PhonePe had also introduced a one-of-its-kind PhonePe ATM enabling customers to visit nearby offline stores to withdraw cash instead of having to visit a bank ATM.

Business World

Exclusive Interview: Brian Moynihan Chairman and CEO of Bank of America in a conversation with Shereen Bhan on CNBC-TV18

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Bank of America, #Brian Moynihan, #CNBC-TV18, #Shereen Bhan

Q: What do you make of the global recovery? Most CEOs that we speak to do seem to suggest that perhaps the worst is behind us, that the crisis has passed. Would you agree?

A: If you think about the major economies of the world, whether it is European, Chinese, US, Indian economy – if you look at economies that are on the further side of the healthcare crisis because this is a healthcare crisis that has an economic impact, you can see that China’s economy is growing again and it is bigger than it was. If you look at the US, expectations from our experts this quarter is that you will see 30 per cent plus growth in GDP for Q3. So we were 32-33 per cent down in Q2, 30 per cent plus up in Q3 which leaves you at about 95 per cent of the size you were the year prior to the crisis, which is a big restoration of the economy. In Europe likewise, you are starting to see it come back.
However, it is all going to be about the healthcare crisis. Today and yesterday the concern is the cases rise, will there be further measures to control and shutdown and that may make the recovery ebb inflow. However, right now we have restored a major part of the economies in the world.

Q: You spoke about the ebb inflow that is expected given the fact that we are now seeing a rise in COVID cases across the US and Europe. What is the worst case that is being factored in at this point in time? We are now starting to see local restrictions, lockdowns being re-imposed, what is the worst-case scenario that is being factored in today?

A: Our research team has the US growing in Q4 and then growing in each of the quarters next year and total growing 4.5 per cent or so next year. We have India down 9 per cent in 20 and then up 8 per cent. So people are factoring in those ebbs inflows, they are probably not factoring in a worldwide shut down again. However, you don’t see that in government resolutions as you look at the economies across the US or in different conditions. You are seeing that the ability to control the hospitalisations in a serious outcome because the treatment regimens are better etc and we are in a race for a vaccine which is somewhere out there ahead of us. So now the question is what are you going to do between now and then? think the nature of the controls appear to be different although we have to take this virus very seriously – wear a mask, social distancing and all those things I think the understanding of that is much deeper in our populations than it was in March and April. We didn’t understand how the virus was transmitted back then, so the shutdown and the belief that you had to close public transportation and things like that are not the same right now.

Q: In terms of the central bank as well as government interventions, we have seen a whole bunch of stimulus packages being announced not just in the US but across the world. What is the expectation now given where we find ourselves with global growth and specifically in the US what next now in terms of intervention?

A: You got to remember that this is a healthcare crisis and till the healthcare crisis is behind us the central governments around the world, governmental administrations around the world including the administration in the US, basically in March, April and May unloaded tremendous monetary stimulus, as well as a fiscal stimulus which has had a strong offsetting effect and that, is why you got this fast snapback to the highs. You are at 95 per cent of the economic size in the US immediately because of what the public sector did through monetary stimulus and fiscal stimulus and so all that has worked.

The issue now is that it has gone on longer than people thought. So now the question is, as you look across the range of industries, certain industries are back and the revenues are there, certain industries have fared well in this, but some other industries need another stimulus in my mind to help those people make it to the other side of the crisis. So the focus can be narrower but you still need some help both on the human side and also on the economic side to make those industries cross the river and get to the other side

Business World

Exclusive Interview: Salil Parekh, MD & CEO of Infosys in conversation with Shereen Bhan on CNBC-TV18

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #CNBC-TV18, #Infosys, #Salil Parekh, #Shereen Bhan

Q: Let me start by asking you about the transformation strategy that was put in place when you joined the company almost 3 years back in 2018 in January. The focus then was on winning large deals, on becoming more relevant in the digital space and skilling employees as well as further efforts to localize. Now you have been able to achieve good metrics on each of those parameters that you had set out. So, as you start your fresh year, is there going to be a new strategy, will you do a little bit of the same, will it be something different, are you going to sharpen and refine the current strategy? What should we now expect?

A: I think absolutely — we have had many of those areas – digital, reskilling, and focus on what we do with our employees, all of that working well. Our focus today going ahead is continuing with where we are. We close out the third year in March and at that stage, we will start to look at what could be the further refinement. What we are really seeing is much more work on digital transformation. As you know, we reported 25 per cent growth in digital in the previous quarter and we see that traction continuing. About half our companies now focused on digital. We are seeing more and more work in the cloud space. We launched our own cloud brand ‘Infosys Cobalt’ a few weeks ago. So, that should continue and much more refinement in that direction.

Q: On the digital front, because when you posted your numbers, you did talk about 50 per cent of revenues coming from the digital business soon. Can you quantify that for us? What is the timeline that we are looking at?

A: Soon means in the next few quarters because we have been growing at this very good pace of 25 per cent for some time. Even though this whole crisis environment, with the global economy in a difficult situation, our growth in digital is continued. The focus for many large enterprises is really to adopt digital and drive it through. So, really in the next few quarters, we hope to see us crossing over the 50 per cent.

Q: What we are seeing today is a resurgence of cases across the US and Europe when it comes to COVID. Is that a concern? Are you starting to hear nervousness from clients already on the back of that?

A: Today we are seeing that the cases are increasing, the model that we build or the scenarios we built had anticipated some of that to come about. Our growth guidance, which is 2-3 per cent, bakes in some of that. Of course, if there is an extreme scenario, we have not baked it in, but we do not see that coming today and we don’t see at this stage any nervousness from our clients especially on the digital portfolios.

Q: I want to talk a little bit about what we are now starting to see in a post COVID era – when I spoke with Rajesh Gopinathan he said that we are at the start of the first phase of a multi-year tech transformation cycle. How are you reading that and what is this going to mean structurally for each of your businesses going forward? What is it going to mean in terms of spends as well that you foresee?

A: The technology world is really going through a massive change and any large enterprise is leveraging technology for different uses. So, you look at businesses whether in retail, in banking, in insurance, everyone is leveraging technology to make sure that they are connected with their consumers, their customers in a direct way, in a digital way. All of that is a benefit for us and Infosys because the more there is focus on these digital technologies, the more we see growth in the coming years. Once we get beyond the COVID situation, my sense is we will come back to where we were as we entered it. We had a very good growth pace of 9.8 per cent; my sense is we will start to come back to that and now this wave has further accelerated.

Business World

Apollo Hospitals and Medtronic Partner to Advance Stroke Management Using Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Apollo Hospitals Group, #Dr Prathap C. Reddy, #Medtronic, #Mr. Madan Krishnan, #Ms. Preetha Reddy, #Ms. Suneeta Reddy

Apollo Hospitals Group today announced a partnership with India Medtronic Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) for advanced stroke management for the first time in India. The USFDA approved AI platform for stroke diagnosis has been validated by clinical trials.1 The AI software will provide automated analysis in less than two minutes, enabling faster decision making in the stroke where every second count.

Through this partnership, Medtronic will help in bringing in stroke technologies, technical expertise, training and comprehensive stroke management with the integration of AI platform at the Apollo Institute of Neurosciences at ten locations in Apollo Hospitals across the country, taking stroke management to the next level by standardizing stroke diagnosis and empowering clinicians to make a faster, more accurate diagnosis and treatment decisions.

Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “Stroke is a major global public health problem with 1 in 4 people over the age of 25 years suffering a stroke during their lifetime, according to data from the World Stroke Organization2. The fourth leading cause of death today, around 1.8 million people in India suffer from a stroke every year and it is only early treatment that can reduce morbidity and mortality.3 There is an urgent need to improve the treatment and management of stroke using digital technologies. Today, AI platforms are improving patient care and outcomes every day, and at Apollo Hospitals, we are proud to be at the forefront of the AI revolution in healthcare.

This partnership brings together Apollo Hospitals’ clinical expertise, AI platform and stroke technologies from Medtronic to transform stroke treatment in the country. With this partnership, Apollo Hospitals continues to be the torchbearer in adoption of digital technology as one of the first hospital group in South Asia to use AI in an organized and scalable manner for comprehensive stroke management. Also, with the introduction of 640 slice CT Scan having a capability of doing cerebral angiogram, the patient will definitely gain by means of advanced technical adaptations in stroke treatment.

AI has been a boon for the healthcare industry and has transformed many different aspects from drug development to diagnostics and clinical medicine and surgery. It has simplified the lives of patients, doctors and hospital administrators, taking over tasks that are routine, saving time and costs, freeing the doctors to give more time to their patients. It has helped to reduce the chances of errors in diagnostic processes and medical errors due to heavy caseloads.”

Mr. Madan Krishnan, Vice President, Medtronic Indian Subcontinent said, “Medtronic has been leading the fight against acute ischemic stroke (AIS) – enabling our physician partners with meaningful stroke technologies to empower their expertise. There is a huge unmet need with regards to stroke awareness and therapy in India.

Medtronic has been partnering with hospitals to create centres of excellence in the country so that patients are identified faster, and they receive the best treatment. We are aiming to address the current treatment gaps in stroke with our innovative technologies, aiming at reducing the door to needle time, thereby potentially improving outcomes for patients. Our partnership with Apollo Hospitals will further our goal of creating awareness and providing quicker access to quality healthcare for stroke patients in India.”

The AI platform uses artificial intelligence to create high quality, advanced images from non-contrast CT, CT angiography, CT perfusion, and MRI diffusion and perfusion scans, helping hospitals to improve time-critical triage or transfer decisions and facilitate better patient outcomes. The stroke team will be able to remotely access the brain scans of stroke patients with the AI analysis on the mobile app or email for faster decision making without losing time.

Other benefits include physicians being able to evaluate the patients remotely and visit in-person only when the AI analysis of the scans suggest an indication for treatment. This will help to reduce unnecessary exposure in a COVID situation. The AI system will also generate a valid document proof to support the clinician’s decision taken on the course of treatment for a stroke patient.

Ms. Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The Apollo Hospitals – Medtronic partnership will bring about a paradigm shift in acute stroke management, building and establishing a world-class stroke program with uniform stroke protocol across the group. Trials have shown success in achieving substantially larger clinical benefits through the use of AI technology and the Apollo – Medtronic partnership will support early diagnosis and effective clinical decision in stroke patients leading to the shortest treatment time for better clinical outcomes.

While early treatment leads to the best clinical outcome, a trial of stroke patients treated up to 6 to 24 hours with the use of AI technology lead CTP or MRI scans showed better clinical outcomes for the patients.1 The partnership also envisages a structured training and education program to further improve the clinical efficiency of the Apollo stroke clinicians and support team.”

The Apollo Hospitals and Medtronic partnership to build comprehensive stroke management will lead to multiple patient benefits. The use of AI platform in stroke management will reduce diagnosis time from 60 mins to 2 mins1. The time saved is brain cells saved as every minute of delay leads to 2 million more brain cells dying. A stroke at odd hours of the night will not result in a patient losing time for an expert review to begin treatment.

The time between onset of stroke to treatment is significantly reduced which can help in improving outcome, reducing hospital stay and saving costs for the patient not just on hospitalization but also on follow-up and rehabilitation. Every patient will receive appropriate treatment as per the indication and not lose any treatment opportunity.

Ms. Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “The Apollo Institute of Neurosciences has revolutionized high-end neurological care in the country. With a legacy of innovation and excellence, it has been working at the cutting-edge of neuro-imaging, neuro-intensive care and medical and radiation oncology services to deliver outcomes that match the leading neurology institutions in the world.

A highly skilled multidisciplinary neurosciences team dedicates itself to enhancing patient care through cutting edge technology and the partnership with Medtronic will elevate the quality of stroke care with world-class AI-powered stroke treatment.”

Apollo Hospitals’ comprehensive stroke centre equipped with 24/7 emergency, a team of specialized experts, CT, MRI facility, and capability of specialized surgical and interventional therapies will have treatment taken to the next level through AI. With AI technology, stroke diagnosis will be standardized and scans will be available remotely within no time to the stroke physician.

The technology will increase utilization of IV-tPA (intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke). It will also increase detection of LVO (large vessel occlusion) which accounts for up to 38% of acute ischemic strokes4 and utilization of mechanical thrombectomy (physical removal of the clot in the brain by a special device threaded through the blood vessels). The partnership will optimize stroke protocol and create a strong regional tele-stroke network with the power of AI.

The AI technology-enabled advanced stroke management will be launched at the Apollo Institute of Neurosciences at Apollo Hospitals, Bannerghatta Road, Bengaluru; Apollo Hospitals, Greams Road, Chennai; Apollo Hospitals Navi Mumbai; Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad; Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad; Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi; Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Jayanagar, Bengaluru; Apollo Hospitals, Sheshadripuram, Bengaluru; Apollo BGS Hospitals, Mysore; and Apollo Hospitals, Indore.

Education

Want your kids to learn coding at home? Here are the Top 5 platforms to learn coding for free.

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #coding at home, #Coursera, #free coding, #Khan Academy, #Next Education India Pvt Ltd., #Udemy, #Whitehat Jr.

When the pandemic hit the globe, learning coding at home became a medium of turning imagination into reality for kids. Kids nowadays can easily learn the art of programming, coding, software development, web development and even Python, that too from the very beginning just by simply enrolling themselves on various online programmes. The demand for learning coding and programming is expected to increase in future and it requires a zeal in kids as well to rise and shine in this particular field. We have curated a list of Top 5 platforms which are specialised in teaching the most essential skills to help both Kids and adults learn the latest programming language.

1. Next Education India Pvt Ltd

Next Education is an end to end K-12 solution provider backed up with 400 hours of video lessons, 2D & 3D animation to make learning experiential and fun, topic wise questions with solutions, sample papers, a question from All India Test Series and detailed performance report. In case of doubt, the online question-answer forum helps you in getting a solution within 24-hours.

Smart learning solutions provider Next Education India Pvt Ltd has launched a coding game– KODA –which will help the children to design their own games through coding. KODA enables the children to acquire coding skills and also facilitates learning of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Koda is block-based programming, designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The game is designed for the children between 9 and 13 years and is available on the company’s self-learning platform LearnNext. The platform incorporates more than 12 programming concepts and 40 learning modules to keep the children interested. The modules cover programming and STEM concepts.

In addition to this, Next Education provides the next book, next mentor, next lab (robotics, English, Hindi, math, science) and pre-designed curriculum for facilitating better academic planning for teachers and students. It’s one space for all as it strictly aligns to the syllabus of CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE and 23 state boards in 8 languages. Next Education is growing every day with 66000+ digital classrooms, 700+ schools adapting hands-on labs, 240000+ teachers and 12000000+ students.

2. Coursera

When we talk about online courses, Coursera is generally the first option that strikes the mind of the learners. With an array of popular and niche courses, Coursera provides state-of-the-art curriculum and faculty support to the aspirants. With more than 250 courses dealing only in the programming languages, you will not return empty-handed once you make your mind to pursue a course in Coding from Coursera. You can choose course language, level, duration, specific skills, and mode of learning depending upon your requirement.

3. Udemy

Udemy is another trusted platform where you will find more than 800 courses, all dedicated to make you a pro at coding. Python, JavaScript, WordPress, HTML, CSS, Android Development, Bootstrap, PHP, Swift, you name anything and the website offers some of the best free courses in this domain. Not only this, the surprising fact is that IT aficionados can actually train the mind of their kids in the field of coding at a very early age. There are coding courses for kids as well. You can click on the link provided below that will land you directly to the coding course designed for kids.

4. Khan Academy

Another stalwart in the domain of digital learning, Khan Academy offers free computer coding courses to the learners. Though there are limited options but each module is designed to ensure that the aspirants get hands on the best programming resources and will become well-versed in the know-how of computer coding. Computer programming classes are conducted by experts and in addition, there are online assignments, and practice sets that will put your knowledge to test. Visit Khan Academy without a second thought, to pursue one of the best coding courses available online.

5. Whitehat Jr.

Founded in 2018, WhiteHat Jr is an ed-tech platform that teaches students coding through one-on-one video classes with instructors. WhiteHat Jr offers AI courses for children aged six to 14 years. The app helps children learn computer programming and encourages them to create games, animations, applications and more. The platform works with a live one-on-one online teaching format and a thoroughly researched curriculum. The subjects range from the data structure, app and game development to machine learning and space technology. It offers four levels of courses — beginner, intermediate, advanced and professional — for students in grades 1-12. They currently have over 7,000 teachers on its platform.

Editor’s Note:
Enjoy reading another best article “What is Scratch: Easy Coding for Kids Ages 8-11”
Anther Good article: COURSERA INC Statistics & Facts

Business World

Returning to the new normal: Startups that are ensuring a safe comeback

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Dotpe, #New Normal’, #safe comeback, #Staqu, #Startups, #Unlock, #Zoomcar

With ”Unlock” initiates in the country after lockdown, businesses are resuming operations.

As India begins to ease the restrictions of lockdown, it will be imperative that there are measures in place to ensure the safety and security of citizens going back to work and daily activities. Startups across India have come up with innovative new ideas to tackle challenges presented by Covid-19 such as how to ensure social distancing, rethink transport in city centres, and get people back to work. From factory workers to city commuters, here are some startups using tech to help us to return to a new normal.

Zoomcar – Succoring essential service providers

India’s self-drive mobility platform, Zoomcar, has stepped up to ease the transportation woes faced during the pandemic. Zoomcar has partnered with various organizations that are considered essential in this period to ensure their employees are provided a safe commuting option. The service ensures these partnering organizations are able to lower the barriers for essential personnel to come in and serve the needs of the citizens. Also, Zoomcar has announced the launch of Zoomcar Mobility Services (ZMS), to provide a diverse array of software-based platform services across the entire spectrum of vehicle categories ranging from 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, 4-wheelers, trucks, and buses. ZMS will work across both internal combustion and electric vehicles and is fully hardware agnostic.

Dotpe has launched a QR-based contactless commerce and payment solution

With the increasing cases of Covid-19 globally, many countries announced the lockdown state and started observing strict norms of social distancing. This urged the retailers both online and offline, to push for contactless commerce. Gurgoan based O2O commerce platform DOT has launched a QR-based contactless commerce and payment solution and is striving to tap the $1 trillion retail market in India. The contactless retail solution by DOT will allow the shoppers to scan a QR code by using the mobile phone camera and get access to catalogues of retail brands and menus of restaurants on a browser.

Staqu – Video Analytics to smart monitoring

A Gurgaon-based startup, Staqu, recently announced an array of offerings to facilitate superior COVID-19 response. The brand is leveraging its proprietary video analytics platform JARVIS to roll out cutting-edge use cases aimed at identifying, tracking, and curbing the spread of COVID-19 and similar contagion. The video analytics is the only way to monitor all the compliances and guidelines in new normal. The offerings include COVID-19 identification, Suspect Tracing, PPE monitoring, Security, Safety and Hygiene Analytics and People Analytics.

Business World

More than 1,000 schools, colleges and universities were attacked between June and September; highlight latest Barracuda Threat report

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Barracuda Networks, #colleges, #Murali Urs, #security solutions, #universities

Barracuda Networks, a trusted partner and a leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, has detected a new wave of spear-phishing attacks targeting the education sector, as institutions continue to operate online. The researchers evaluated over 3.5 million spear-phishing attacks executed on various sectors, including those that were solely aimed at the education sector, affecting more than 1,000 schools, colleges, and universities. Spear phishing is a personalized phishing attack that targets a specific organization or individual. Over the years, cybercriminals have rapidly evolved and continue to adopt more innovative styles of attacks against different sectors, including education.

The Threat Spotlight further revealed that educational institutions are more than twice as vulnerable to a carefully-crafted business email compromise (BEC) attack than an average organization. Using this form of attack, threat actors have taken hold of schools, resulting in devastating losses. While the scale of attacks dropped by 10-14% during summer vacation (July and August), the number substantially picked up in September when students returned from holidays. The researchers also highlighted the advent of two more common types of attacks: email scams and service impersonation, against schools between July and September.

There was another stunning revelation in the report. Gmail accounts were the primary medium for cybercriminals to launch the aforementioned attacks – accounting for 86% of all BEC attacks on the education sector. Cybercriminals prefer to use well-known email providers like Gmail because they are free, easy to register and have a higher reputation in the market. They customized malicious email addresses using terms like ‘principal’, ‘head of the department’, ‘school’, and ‘president’ to make them look realistic. In fact, attackers even used convincing subject lines to quickly grab the victim’s attention and thus create a sense of urgency. Some of them include COVID-19 New Updates, COVID-19 School Meeting, COVID-19 Update, and Follow Up Right Now, among others.

Surprisingly, as per the analysis, of the total number of malicious messages detected (both inbound and outbound), 1 in 4 messages was sent from internal email accounts. This percentage was significantly higher for the education sector, with 57% of infectious emails sent from internal accounts. This means accounts in the education industry were used to send more attacks than they actually received. Since there was a high degree of trust associated with these compromised accounts due to their legitimacy, it was incredibly valuable for criminals who used them as a perfect launchpad for attacks.

Murali Urs, Country Manager-India, Barracuda Networks, said, “As schools and colleges continue to teach students remotely, it makes both the parties vulnerable to cyberattacks. Spear phishing has many forms as we saw in our latest threat report. While online teaching and learning is a crucial part of the new normal, it is also important for students and teachers to act mindfully before, during and post the online classes. Neither every system has updated antivirus protection, nor everyone is aware of how to respond to these attacks. Investing in the right cybersecurity solutions along with gaining proper knowledge on prevention methods is, therefore, the need of the hour.”

Prevention measures

To begin with, schools and colleges need to prioritize email security that leverages artificial intelligence to identify unusual senders and requests. This additional layer of defence on top of traditional email gateways will provide substantial protection against spear-phishing attacks for both staff and students. They must also invest in technology that will enable them to identify suspicious activities and potential signs of account takeover.

In addition, institutions should educate both staffers and students about email threats and how to recognize them, understand their nature, and finally report them. Security awareness training is all the more critical now because of the increasing reliance of educators and learners on email and other digital tools for communication and educational purposes.

On top of that, institutions must also establish and regularly review company policies to ensure that personal and financial information is handled safely, especially during wire transfers and payment changes. In-person/telephone confirmation or approval from multiple authorities for financial transactions can work wonders.