ASSOCOHAM Launches Illness to Wellness, a Awareness Programme Aimed at Promoting Healthy Living in Association with SAVLON

Healthy Living

* Programme to promote healthy living with focus on wellness and preventive health through healthy habits, diet, exercise, and holistic health

* Programme kicked off with a webinar titled ‘Illness to Wellness – The Yoga Way’ with discussion on the role of yoga in fighting the COVID-19 health crisis

* Webinar revealed that the Delhi Government has deployed 30 yoga instructors in COVID centres to help the patients; and yoga therapy is being extended to the contact chain like family members, police personnel, medical professionals among others 

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), one of the apex trade associations of India has started a national health & wellness awareness program called ‘Illness to Wellness’ to promote healthy living and preventive health through holistic measures. 

Supported by the hygiene brand SAVLON, the programme was kicked off with a webinar on the topic “Illness to Wellness – The Yoga Way” which saw leading health and yoga experts and recognized industry leaders deliberate on how Yoga could be the answer for mitigating threats caused by viruses and other ailments like the COVID 19.

A key speaker at the session Dr Ishwar V. Basavaraddi, director, Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, revealed that, “we have deployed 30 instructors in COVID centres run by the Delhi government, who would teach patients yoga for three hours in the morning. Additionally, we have undertaken yoga lessons for COVID patients in the neighbouring 11 districts. We received 500 applications from Department of Science & Technology to understand the beneficial aspects of yoga especially for COVID patients and so are working on three projects with renowned yoga institutes to arrive at findings.” The programme is being expanded to cover people who have come in contact with COVID patients like family members, police personnel, medical professionals etc. 

For centuries yoga has proven to be a tool for mental and physical well-being. As the focus on boosting immunity grows due to the widespread adverse health effects caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, the role of this ancient and spiritual practice has become prominent in the journey from illness to wellness. Other eminent speakers emphasised the importance of wellness, not just in challenging times, but in general as a way of life.

While sharing his perspective, Mr Rajiv Chandran, director and office-in-charge, UN Information Centre emphatically stated that United Nations embraced the Yoga and 175 out of 193 countries unanimously agreed to celebrate Yoga as an annual International Day. The COVID–19 pandemic has completely transformed the concept of wellness. Now, wellness is not merely an individual's concern rather a community strategy and is being viewed in a very broader perspective of people's relationship with planet and the society.”

Promoting adoption of correct lifestyle and wellness strategy, (Padma Shri) Guruji Dr. H. R. Nagendra, Chancellor, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana & President, Indian Yoga Association said, “During the present COVID pandemic situations, Yoga – A Way of Life – can bring wellness for people at large. Coronavirus has the potential to infect and affect the human lives, however our immune system is also very strong as WBC (white blood cells) acts a gigantic robust army to defend from many viruses including corona. Stress weakens our immunity system and thus it becomes a victim of virus (corona) attack. He further stated that although one can cure through medicines, vaccinations and other supplements, the solution to strengthen our immunity is Yoga only.” 

Sharing his views, Mr Anil Rajput, Chairman, ASSOCHAM CSR Council said, “COVID pandemic has taught human race the hard lesson that medical science may not have readymade answers to emerging health crises. Therefore, we need to go back to the basics by putting focus on preventive measures and healthy living. Illness to Wellness has been timely conceived to bring the spotlight back on aspects we perhaps know at the back of our mind, but many are not able to practice in the rush of a busy life, such as the importance of healthy diet, exercise, hygienic habits, timely preventive practices among others.”

Indian Search Industry to experience stronger competition

Despite the search market in India being very small and amounting to less than $40 million in a year but the market is growing rapidly at about 33% yearly and so the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal is significant to India, Praveen Bhadada, engagement manager, Zinnov Management Consulting.

Speaking on the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal and its impact on India, Bhadada said, “Google is the dominant search engine in India and there are about 15 plus local search engines that have emerged in the last 2 years, for e.g. asklaila.com, justdial, guruji.com, mapmyindia.com, tolmolbol.com etc. covering niche areas. Unlike Baidu (search engine in China), they do not directly compete with the global giants such as Google, Yahoo or Microsoft.”

With presence of more than 35 million SMBs in India, and some of them relying heavily on search engine marketing to push their products across the globe, the

Microsoft-Yahoo partnerships can provide them a better second alternative, he said.
The rapid pace of broadband penetration in India will help both Google and Microsoft-Yahoo in the long run and help them gain larger share in markets such as India and China.

The deal will help both Microsoft and Yahoo! put a strong battle against Google, which currently enjoys more than 65% market share in the $25 billion plus global market for search engine marketing, said Bhadada.

In fact, Yahoo! globally accounts for close to 20% while Microsoft, with its new Bing search platform enjoys about 9% market share.

In the exclusive agreements, Microsoft will acquire a 10 year license to Yahoo’s core search technology and Bing will be the exclusive platform for all Yahoo! sites.

According to the official statement, Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s sites during the first 5 years of the agreement.

He said Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s revenue per search in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country. “Complete integration may take anywhere between 18-24 months.”

The two will continue to compete in other common business areas such as email, web products, messaging etc.

However, dominance of Google may or may not be hampered, he said. Search major Google may be less worried with this agreement with Yahoo and Microsoft Google enjoys a big share in the market and the customer confidence is high on Google as compared to Yahoo and Microsoft. “Unless the actual number of searches increase for the user, this deal may not bring in any fruitful results for the two and the complete integration will only happen by 2011-2012 timeframe,” he said.

But some believe that the Bing platform for advertisers is relatively inferior to that of Yahoo and but alternatively, users will now have a stronger alternative that will provide them scale and if the combined search can provide users a better experience, then they may potentially eat up into Google’s share in the future.

CXOtoday.com