Anjali Venugopalan: The Economic Times Reporter

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Market Watch

Anjali Venugopalan

- GoWork CEO Sudeep Singh steps downGoWork raised $53 million in a round of debt funding from BlackRock and CLSA Partners in August 2019, and currently has 3 campuses across Delhi-NCR.
- JEE Advanced dates postponed due to Covid-19 outbreakThe exam was supposed to have been held on May 17. The Advanced exam follows the JEE Mains exam, which was supposed to have been held in the first and second week of April. The National Testing Agency yesterday announced that the JEE Main exam would now be held in the last week of May.
- Students Come Back Home: From foreign varsities to local prejudiceSocial stigma, hostility, near-boycott - Indians who were studying abroad and came back home are facing all of this and then some. Local citizens are responding with various degrees of hostility to those with travel history.
- Indian students abroad at crossroadsAccording to data from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, more than 6,20,000 Indians students went abroad in 2018-19.
- AR, VR and new-age tech companies report increase in demand as Covid-19 grounds workforceImagine sitting in your room, wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset and getting the feel of walking into a conference, or an expo, or watching a product demo. This isn’t science fiction as the Covid-19 outbreak grounds millions of people worldwide.
- Hospitals put in place video consultations, tele-ICUs to ensure continuity of medical careOn Wednesday, the health ministry issued guidelines on telemedicine. By then, top hospitals like Max Healthcare, Fortis, Manipal and Aster Hospitals had rolled out video consultations.
- Stanza Living employees contribute Rs 10 lakh to company's employee contingency fund for Covid-19The company has also announced a number of other measures related to coronavirus. Annual sick leave quota has been relaxed for employees till April, and will be extended based on situation assessment in the next two weeks.
- Wedding industry in crisis as most weddings cancelled, some rescheduledApril-May weddings are already affected, with several states including Delhi, Rajasthan and Kerala banning public gatherings of over 20-50, and the prime minister’s address on Thursday urging people to practise social isolation.
- Amidst shortage, institutes make their own hand sanitisersThe Indian Institutes of Technology at Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee, Ropar, Madras, MNIT Jalandhar, the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, St Xavier’s College, Jadavpur University, Lucknow University and Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University are among those making their own sanitisers.
- CBSE postpones board exams in view of Covid-19 outbreak"While maintenance of academic calendar and exam schedule is important, equally important is safety and security of students who are appearing in various examinations as also of their teachers and parents," HRD secretary Amit Khare said in an official communication.
- Indians at the covid epicentre: Locked out, confused & waiting to come homeMany students ET spoke with feared they would be left to the mercy of the already-overburdened Italian healthcare system if they test positive. The ministry of external affairs, though, confirmed regular evacuations. On Sunday, 218 Indians — including 211 students from Milan — landed in New Delhi, according to the ministry, all of whom will be quarantined for 14 days.
- Coronavirus: A nightmare for parents of students studying abroadAs the pandemic spreads, parents of students studying in Italy and other foreign countries are panic-stricken and trying to get their children home as the situation worsens, especially in European countries.
- DU students to study online, internal assessments put on hold due to coronavirusDU in a release also said that teachers will be available online as per the class schedule. The internal assessments as well as 'house examinations' for post-graduate and undergraduate courses also stand postponed until March 31.
- Search for immunity powers up sales of Ayurveda productsEven though the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy (Ayush) has issued an advisory recommending possible ayurvedic treatments, allopathic doctors say these products are not proven to cure an infection from the virus and can, at best, improve immunity.
- Bigbasket suspends all business travel, Indeed asks employees to work from homeCompanies like Oyo, Sodexo, Freshworks and Coca Cola said they have restricted non-essential business travel.
- Won't share meeting agenda under RTI, says new IIT Guwahati 'resolution'Experts say this violates the RTI Act, which says that all information that is of public interest must be available to the public.
- Avataar.Me ropes in Mayank Tiwari as Partner & CBO Tiwari will lead on-ground teams in San Francisco and Delhi and will be responsible for leading the expansion of the company’s global business footprint and its customer growth strategy. The company also said that he will focus on global business development and enterprise sales, market activation and platform brand- building.
- IIT Mandi receives funding from NABARD to set up farm producer bodiesNilay Kapoor, chief general manager, NABARD, said, “The Regional Office proposes to sign a tri-partite agreement involving NABARD, EWOK and IIT, Mandi for developing farmer-friendly equipments. In addition, opportunities will be explored for collaboration in areas like Internet of Things in agriculture, watershed, rural mart etc.”
- Aegon Life Insurance appoints Naveen Bachwani as Chief Operating OfficerAegon Life Insurance, today announced the appointment of Naveen Bachwani as its chief operating officer. Bachwani is expected to drive digital transformation, product development and operations.
- Dassault Systèmes Appoints Deepak NG as Managing Director for IndiaDeepak joined the company in 2011 and has more than 21 years of experience across different industries. He has previously worked at technology giant IBM and is also a post-graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
- How finding jobs becomes difficult for acid attack survivorsWhile companies like Shoppers Stop, mall brand Select Citywalk and Italian automotive parts maker Magneti Marelli have supported the cause as part of their CSR, a lot still needs to be done to employ survivors.
- IIT Delhi launches master’s in cognitive science and economicsThe institute said it is launching an M.Sc. in Economics and an M.Sc. in Cognitive Science from July 2020. The programmes will have 25 seats each. The institute said the cognitive science program would be highly interdisciplinary in nature, building on theories and methods from psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, philosophy and, anthropology among others.
- IIT Madras signs MoU with Robert Bosch Engineering for internshipsIIT Madras and German university RWTH Aachen offer a dual degree program, with student-exchanges between the two institutes. The exchange students are expected to go through an industry internship in both Germany and India.
- IIT Delhi alumnus Vinay Chhabra appointed CEO of Real Time Data ServicesVinay Chhabra has previously held prestigious positions in the government such as chief commissioner of the Central Excise and Customs, chief controller of Government Opium and Alkaloid Factories, and principle director-general of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in the Indian Revenue Service.
- Demand for sanitizers, masks at a fever pitchAccording to data shared by All Food and Drug License Holders Foundation (AFDLHF) that represents around 7,000 pharmaceutical suppliers, the total market for masks has swelled up to Rs 450 crore over the last two months from about Rs 200 crore annually.
- IIT Delhi to have New Zealand Centre, $100000 in grant for projectsIIT Delhi and Education New Zealand will put in $50,000 each - making it a total of $100000 - to fund 10 research projects which will be done in collaboration by academics from IIT Delhi and one New Zealand varsity.
- Indian students may reassess China optionExperts estimate that there are around 20,000-25,000 Indian students in China, with 80-90% of them studying medicine. China is a popular study destination for medical students due to lower fees and better infrastructure compared to private medical colleges in India. Some Indian students had returned after the outbreak of coronavirus, and they are not sure when they can go back.
- IIT-Hyderabad researchers make headway in potential treatment of ALSThe researchers have identified a molecule called AIM4 and the mechanism through which it could help in the treatment of the disease. ALS is a rare and debilitating neurodegenerative disorder that affects the voluntary movement of the muscles and can even lead to paralysis or death.
- Budget: Govt move to promote FDI, ECB in education to boost sectorWhile the government has allowed 100% FDI in education sector a few years ago, the use of ECBs to fund education infrastructure is a newly-proposed measure. ECBs are low-cost financing instruments and hence borrowing money through the ECB route will mean lower borrowing cost for institutes. Generally, interest rates on ECBs are in the range of 4-6%.
- University of Houston signs MoU with Himachal based-Shoolini UniversityThe US based University of Houston, a leading public research university in Houston, Texas, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Himachal based Shoolini University for collaboration in research and academic partnership.
- Sodexo India appoints new country presidentThe company said he would be responsible for driving corporate governance and strategic directorial responsibility for all of Sodexo’s operations across India.
- Crompton appoints Vishal Kaul as vice-presidentKaul was previously director at Samsung as director of the content and services, and consumer lifecycle management category. He has previously worked with Nokia and Thermax. Kaul is a graduate of engineering college VJTI, Mumbai and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
- The cost of protests at campusesEducationists and marketing pundits concur that expressing dissent on campuses by students through protests is normal, and acceptable. However, some caution when protests stretch too long and send the functioning of an institute into a tailspin, it can potentially impact the reputation of the institute.
- Seeking a match offline? there’s an app for thatMany millennials think it’s easier to feel the chemistry face to face, versus on text whether it’s casual dating or looking for a life partner, reports Anjali Venugopalan
- Anant National University launches fellowship for climate action“It shifts the focus from the unprecedented level of climate anxiety we see around us today to offering individuals ways to be part of the solution to mitigate climate change,” said Miniya Chatterji, CEO of Sustain Labs Paris, a company that helps companies become sustainable, who is also leading the climate action program.
- Talk like an American: Business of accent trainingA sharp uptick in business dealings with American clients is driving growth in the business of accent training. The demand for US accenttrained corporate employees has been high since 2017, says Salman Ansari, CEO of Talent Resourze, a company that provides accent training. Demand has been growing at 15% for the last two years, according to Ansari.
- BharatPe appoints Dhruv Bahl as Head of OperationsThe company said he will be responsible for overall operations across merchant acquisitions, servicing, payments, lending and commerce. Bahl has previously worked at Fortis, Bain & Company, PayTM and Airtel Payments Bank and Roadzen. The company, which was launched in 2018, raised a total of $65.5 mn in two rounds of funding last year.
- India Inc opens doors to transgender employeesKPMG, Infosys, Accenture, Nestaway, Sodexo and others have policies have introduced policies as well as hiring plans to ease the transition of the marginalised community into the formal workplace. Education, discrimination in access to housing and ignorance of society as to why gender dysphoria happens are the major challenges the community faces.
- Students on hunger strike in IIT Guwahati taken to hospitalThe PhD students, Vikrant Singh and Himanchal Singh, said they were “forcibly removed” from campus by police officers today. Himanchal said they were told by police that they were attempting suicide, and that was considered an offence.
- Campuses rally in protest against JNU attackThe wave of protests began on Sunday night, soon after videos and photos of the attack began circulating on social media and being shown on television. Apart from demonstrations in front of the old police headquarters in Delhi, protestors gathered at the Gateway of India in Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and elsewhere.
- Poor migrants move to other rural areas, relatively well-off to urban, finds studyA study found that 78% of all individuals from rural Bihar went to an urban destination. However, those belonging to the top of the social and economic hierarchy in villages are disproportionately represented in the rural-urban migrations.
- Invest19 appoints gets new director of sales and marketingInvest19 was started a few months ago by Advisorymandi, which is a stock market advisory portal.
- Diversity makes business sense for India IncSome companies are widening the search for recruits from among those who have been marginalised. Apart from more women, companies are looking to recruit persons with disability (PwDs), LGBTQ candidates and army veterans. The reason — it makes good business sense. The numbers are small, but interest is growing.
- HC asks IIT-Guwahati to refund alumni feeIIT-G has been charging Rs 1,500 as one-time alumni fund fees from first-year students since 2016, even though its board of governors had said only final-year students should pay this amount. The institute claimed the fee collection was “based on a resolution by IIT Council of India,” according to a copy of the court order reviewed by ET.
- Decarbonising economy can drive growth in downturn, says Wendy Woods"The positive news that should make both business and government comfortable is that you can grow the economy while decarbonising... but it’s not an equal field," said Wendy Woods, global leader for social impact practice at Boston Consulting Global (BCG).
- PeopleStrong acquires SaaS startup QiloVipul Mathur, Co-Founder, Qilo, said, “It is very rare that the vision of two organizations and products gets aligned, which is what happened in our case. We are super excited towards creating a larger impact for enterprises globally”.
- Subscription box cos sending surprise boxes sprout up across IndiaGeekCrate is a company that ships out a very special dazzling box to geeks in India who love comics, television, movies, gaming and anime.
- Foundation Holdings commits $100 million in education JV with Ryan groupThe Ryan group of 137 schools operates in 40 cities and teaches 270,000 students, according to the group. Foundation Holdings has offices in Mumbai, Jeddah and Cayman Islands.
- Quora now live in Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and GujaratiLaunched in English in 2010, the platform has grown to reach more than 300 million unique visitors per month, according to the company. It is now available in a total of 24 languages. More than half of Quora’s visitors come from outside of the United States, said the company.
- IIM Kozhikode to launch MBA in liberal studies and managementThe program, which will start in June next year, will accept 20-25 students in its first batch. “The world is changing very quickly… it requires people to decode culture and technology. Data needs to be made sense of,” said IIM-K director Debashis Chatterjee. Instead of just teaching tools and techniques, the program would aim to teach students how to think.
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