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COVID-19 Update: NITI Aayog Warns Citizens of an Imminent Third Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

It hasn’t been long since the country came out of the ghastly second wave of the Coronavirus infections. A huge chunk of our population got infected with the virus with many succumbing to death. While COVID-19 cases are still on the rise, new variants like the Alpha and Delta strains have emerged with fresh concerns. There is fear among the people that the spread of the new variants of COVID-19 will cause a third wave in the country. Many fear the extent of help vaccination could extend. According to many research and predictions, the start of the third wave has already begun. Recent findings suggested by VK Paul, Head of the COVID task force, NITI Aayog, have hinted that India may see upto 6L cases a day in the coming months, and may possibly, be worrisome for the pediatric population. Similar mathematic models and research have hinted at a ghastly third wave if preparations aren’t put in place.  A number of epidemiologists and medical experts have hinted that the third wave could cause a rise in the number of daily COVID cases starting September and peak around the end of October or November.  Source: Times of India

Covid-19 vaccine still best way to protect oneself from Delta Variant

It is being claimed that taking both the doses of Covid-19 vaccine can still be the best way of protection against delta virus variant. This test result was first identified in India and now inthe United Kingdom as well. Further studies show that the Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs, although less effective, but does offer the same level of protection as provided by Pfizer-BioNTech after four to five months, which was known in the largest study of its kind. But these vaccines are not as effective as they were against the Alpha variant, which caused most of the infection in the UK last winter. Although not much data is available for Moderna, researchersbelieve it is equally effective as the other vaccines.  The analysis for the effectiveness of these vaccines was done based on half-million test results from a total of 743,526 participants in the UK’s Covid-19 household infection survey led by Oxford University and the Office for National Statistics. As per the data received, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had 93% effectiveness against the Covid-19 infection symptoms, two weeks after taking the second dose, whereas Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine has its effectiveness up to 71%. Source: BBC News

Delhi Government claims to give free education to children who lost their parents during the pandemic, in the same school

Delhi Government has issued orders, that children who lost their parents in pandemic after March last year, shall be offered with free education and allotted the same school in which they were studying. These directives were issued by Delhi Government for the private school which is running on DDA or government allotted land. The Directorate of Education (DoE) said in an official order, “that all the children who lost their parents after march last year, either due to Covid-19 or any other reason, needs to be taken care of in terms of education. Such students are asked to be admitted to the same school without any draw of the lot if the schools are running on DDA or government allotted land. The approval for these kids to continue their education in the same school shall be done by a competent authority”. On the other hand, such students can also be treated as students studying under economically weaker section disadvantage. Hence, the reimbursement will be paid by the Directorate of Education, and once these kids complete education till class 8, they can get admission to the government school.  Source: Indianexpress.com

Employees benefits will be changed in the upcoming hybrid workplace

In the surge of the upcoming hybrid workplace, employees’ benefits are again put behind filters.  A lot of company’s current benefits might not be as beneficial as it was before the pandemic. With this change, many employees are putting a lot of expectations from benefits proposition. As stated by Lauren Mason, a principal at Mercer, amanagement consulting firm. “Employees values have shifted quite significantly because of the stressors of pandemic and around child care and other concerns, as well just re-evaluating life circumstances”. This way a lot of new factors will get into consideration while calculating employees’ benefits. A lot of new factors are needed to be taken into consideration. As after facing off the pandemic and surviving it through various means. What we look at around us is a hybrid workforce altogether. Source: Wallstreetjournal

Streaming services are now looking forward to creating viewers friendly content that can be watched by family

The OTT platform so far became the primary source of entertainment, especially within the mobile-first market like India. Therefore, various OTTs are moreover interested in rolling out family-friendly content, as the family audience is believed to be forming a major part of the viewership and audience market. The OTT platforms are more focused on bringing back the family entertainment time from normal TV channels to streaming channels. In this phase historical fictions, biopics of national heroes, mythology, and comedy are segments where attempt to deliver OTT content that can include family and children together as the viewer is being worked on. To look at the recent examples in this phase we can see Disney+Hotstar bringing The Empire and SonyLIV is ready to deliver the Biopic titled Rocket Boys on Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai. On the other hand, Netflix which noticed that more than 60% of its subscribers are watching kids and family content per month, will be all set to release over 50 original movies and shows targeted at the family and kids segment this year.  Source: livemint.com

New priorities required before inculcating MedTech

Before the healthcare industry moves towards being fully-fledged health tech. A set of demarcations and regulations are required in the market. For a long decade, health tech technologies have tried to make a mark with the cutting edge in society. There were a lot of game-changing elements that mesmerized the health industry in the 20thcentury, like; antibiotics, insulin, and IVF. Yet again 21stcentury has surprised us with a new set of game-changing elements like robotic surgery, gene therapy, and COVID Vaccinations. Here, we must not forget the fact that innovation also comes with an element of risk.  New technologies and can pose a sign of threat unless guarded with the right ethics and checkpoints. With new technologies arriving daily in the era of health technology. It has become important for startups of health tech to act with checks and ethics. Ethical actions: health techs need to follow a set of ethics that can create a common base for the right set of actions for the innovations and their effects. It is then required to justify the common phenomenon that decreases the manipulation of any practices or their demand segments from people.  Demarcation: The health tech industry and the universe of its innovations are almost endless. In this regard, it becomes important to see to what extent innovations remain as a boom and not a curse. A set of defined rules to act and apply shall be set for keeping the health tech industries under the right supervision. Availability to the people: A lot of health tech innovations can be great and revolutionary but might not be available to all. This can happen in course of earning more and more profit. That cannot be a good idea to promote or support. Hence it becomes important to understand in what way the technologies can reach up to maximum people in the best way possible. Infrastructure support and acceptance: Any innovation is almost no innovation if not supported by the right and required infrastructural setup to boost it up. On the other hand, many times we tend not to accept a lot of new technologies or methods. That’s mostly because a lot of people or segments are biased to give up on older techniques. Thus, there is a strong need to understand what needs to be changed and when.

IIT Kharagpur institutes full-ride scholarship for the JEE Advanced top 100 rankers

IIT Kharagpur has instituted a full ride scholarship to support students who figure in the top 100 of all India rankings of JEE advanced, institute director Prof Virendra Kumat Tewari said on Wednesday.   The scholarship entitled  ‘Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Full Scholarship for Top 100 JEE (Advanced) Rankers’ will cover the entire expenses of students who win it till they complete their B.Tech course at IIT Kharagpur, Tewari said at the institute’s 71st foundation day programme held at its campus. The scholarship will be implemented from the 2021-22 academic session and will consider students whose parents’ gross annual income is less than Rs 20 lakh, he said. “At IIT Kharagpur we believe that not a single meritorious student should have their education limited due to financial constraints … It is our responsibility as well as our privilege and immense pleasure to support all such talented and meritorious but economically challenged students to access higher education. “This scholarship is in the name of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay) and he earned the title of ‘Vidyasagar’ for his vast knowledge in Sanskrit and Indian philosophy which was compared to the vastness of the ocean,” he said. Students require funds not only to for tuition fees but for myriad other reasons like buying  books, transportation, food and lodging, he said adding the expense may be too high for a family to pay. “The full ride scholarship will cover the entire cost of education of a student such as institution fees, hall expenses, text books, meals, gadgets and other miscellaneous expenses such as relocation expenses, personal expenses, other living costs and also to provide an out-of-pocket allowance. It will leave them free to focus on their studies and social life without worrying about money.”, said Prof Jayanta Mukhopadyay, the Dean Outreach and professor of computer science and engineering department at IIT Kharagpur. Prof Surjya K Pal, the Associate Dean of Alumni Affairs and Branding and a professor of the mechanical engineering department said the institute will bear all the expenses of the chosen student throughout his tenure. “The students you are encouraged to carry on with your studies, not only for your bright future but also for the progress of the nation”. If a student who has won the scholarship wants to be of support to his/her family, he/she can do so as there is a provision where the saved amount from the students expenses can be utilised for the benefit of immediate family members, he added. Source: PTI

Government to mobilize Rs 31290 Crore through sovereign gold bonds: FM

From the date of the launch of Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) in 2015, the government has collected Rs 31,290 crore. This was informed in the parliament on Monday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The main objective of the gold bonds was to create an alternative financial asset and also an investment substitute for purchasing or holding physical gold.  In this respect, Nirmala Sitharaman said, ‘It was the response of the public in respect of the SGB scheme which resulted in a collection of Rs, 31,290 crores in 2015-16”. These bonds have been issued on payments in Indian Rupees and dominated on grams. Issued on the behalf of the government of India by the Reserve bank of India and have a sovereign guarantee. Currently the limit for the investment of 4 Kg per fiscal year, for individuals and 20 kg per fiscal year for Hindu Undivided Families, trusts, and similar entities. The ceiling for this will be counted based on the financial year and it will include SGB purchases during the trading in the secondary market, as the finance minister stated. With that, the ceiling on investment will not include the holding as collateral by the banks and financial institutions.  Source: economictimes.com

Now one can ger Paid leave tax credit for enabling more vaccination

Now employers will be able to claim their tax credit based on the wages of employees, who are taking off to assist their family and household members, or even to people who look to the employees for caregiving help, to get vaccinated for COVID-19.This announcement was made by the treasury department and IRS for eligible employees to take paid leave tax credits under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). So that leaves can be provided to each employee getting the vaccineand also for the time required to recover from that vaccine, through September 30, 2021. Under this, the eligible employers generally will have less than 500 employees. The employers who were voluntarily giving sick leave or family leave will be able to claim tax credits equal to the wages paid for providing paid time off. Along with that, the employers are also allowed to claim tax credits for other wage-relatedexpenses, such as health plan expenses. This credit facility was created under the Families first Coronavirus Response Actand amended and extended by COVID-19 related tax relief act of 2020, which was then further extended underARPA till September 30.  Source: shrm.org

Top ten Edtech startups to look up for in 2021

The pandemic year taught us a lot of new ways of living and certainly changed a hell lot of habits. When it comes to looking back at the history of education in 2020, missing edtech will be impossible. Either online coaching classes or K-12 coaching modules, without edtech there was no other way to keep up with the education.  Because of this a lot of edtech companies witnessed J-curve in terms of their user subscription, funding scale, attracting the interest of investors, entrepreneurs with a never expected boom before in 2020. If we look at the figures in 2020 the edtech startups attracted total funding of $1.4 billion, as compared to $1.8 billion raised by edtech startups in total for the period from 2014 to 2019. With this new trend in education and increasing demands for edtech, the Indian edtech market is expected to touch $10.2 billion in the next five years. As per the data received by Inc42 Plus, K-12 Learning solutions are expected to account for 41% of the total edtech market share by 2025 where this K-12 learning solution is estimated to see a growth of 3.7 times in the coming years. Thus, these upswing growths of startups have shown a major aspect of growth in the edtech sectors. Here are a few edtech as per Inc42 that is going to be a big hit in 2021. Classplus; empowering tutors to go digital: As per the data, close to 7 crore students take tuition every year. Focusing on the scope of such an education era. It is a very focused area to grow and with huge demand. In the last year, the company’s growth has been ten times. Thus, it can be seen as one of the most aspiring ideas for edtech. Masai school; creating a new breed of software developers and programmers: Bengaluru-based edtech Masai school is aiming for a $3.1 billion software development and programming market. Masai schools look up to train professionals as well as beginners via the income sharing agreement (ISA) model. As per Inc42, in 2021 Masai school will foray into three new verticals including a program for a pre-final year for college students for software development, UI/UX training, and data analytics. Practically; AI-based real-time attentive Index and Virtual classroom platform: The edtech startup practically offers an AI-based real-time attentiveness index and a virtual classroom session to schools. Practically is expected to generate revenue of 40 crores in the financial year 2022. As the startup is looking out for pan India expansion in 2021. There are various other ambitious edtech startups to look up for in 2021 that can create a huge market space for edtech. These are quizizz, skillmatics, textbook, Winuall.  These startups will be the future of Indian edtech trends in the coming times.