The Data Literacy Project Introduces 18 Free Courses Offered by Qlik

Today the Data Literacy Project, the community dedicated to making society fluent in data, has announced the expansion of its library of resources, with 18 free Data Literacy courses now available from Qlik to help people and organizations around the world understand, analyze and use data with confidence.

Launched in October 2018, the Data Literacy Project includes founding partners Qlik, Accenture, Cognizant, Experian, Pluralsight, Chartered Institute of Marketing and Data to the People, with an overall aim of strengthening the data literacy skills among the workforce in today’s increasingly digitalized economy.

The expansion of the education program, which sees Qlik doubling the number of its courses over the last year, comes as part of the Project’s pledge to create the world’s most extensive library of resource-based learning for data literacy.

“Data-informed decision making is the ability to transform data and information into actionable and verified knowledge to ultimately make decisions,” said Kevin Hanegan, Chief Learning Officer at Qlik. “As the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes hold, data will be its universal language. That’s why we have made a firm commitment to helping organizations globally upskill workers in data literacy, from tackling unconscious bias in how they interpret data, to tips on how to correctly interrogate data, to ensure more robust business outcomes.”

Upskilling the workforce in data literacy is fundamental to unlocking business growth. Qlik’s recent Global Data Literacy Index found that organizations with higher levels of data literacy are associated with 3-5% greater enterprise value - a potential increase for large enterprises of between $320 and $534 million, associated to areas including productivity and growth. Enabling individuals to be data literate - i.e. fully confident in their ability to read, work, analyze and argue with data - when they leave education will set them up for success in the future workplace and help fuel business growth as well.

Self-service Platform Supports Improving Data-Informed Decision Making

The free courses, which are powered by Qlik’s self-service online learning platform and available on the Data Literacy Project website, have been designed to empower everyone with the ability to understand and use data with confidence, as well as help to foster a culture of data literacy and data-informed decision making inside organizations.

In addition to self-paced online learning modules, the following are also available from the Data Literacy Project: a comprehensive data analytics certification, learning resources for professors and students, and a Data Literacy Project individual assessment to receive a training roadmap based on your data persona. Qlik also offers a one day, instructor-led class, which is available worldwide as part of its Data Literacy education program at Qlik.com/GetDataLiterate.

“We firmly believe that data literacy should not be a skill beholden to a few individuals. That’s why we are taking direct action to instill data literacy more widely across all businesses through the free data literacy courses we offer,” said Hanegan. “Only by making sure that students and organizations have the basic building blocks in place to grapple with and analyze data for future, will we stand them up for success in The Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

US FDA -Approved TMS Technology Comes to Aid of Depressed, OCD, Addicted Patients in India

From Agarbatti to Neurocare, the Mysuru-based NR Group have grown many folds over the years. To cure depression, OCD, addiction patients in India, MindfulTMNeurocare uses advanced Transcranial Modular Stimulation Technology that is US FDA-Approved. After opening its first clinic last year in New Delhi followed by Chicago, the new clinic will be open in the city from Friday. The team are eying to open 100 clinics over a span of 10 years.

An estimated 300 million people around the world suffer from depression, among them 56 million are Indians. “This latter figure constitutes nearly 4.50% of the population - considering this percentage is set to increase because of the demands on mental health placed by urbanisation,” said Dr Vijay Mehtry, a consultant psychiatrist based in Bengaluru.

Mental health professionals blame rapid urbanisation for isolation of individuals and the increase in suicidal tendencies. According to Dr Ajit Bhide, the former president of the Indian Psychiatric Society, industrialised Japan, which has some of the highest suicide rates in the world, can be compared against agrarian Bhutan, where people are not exposed to expectations and are therefore generally satisfied.

“The problem in India is that we have extraordinary proportions of anomie in the country,” Dr Bhide said. Psychologists describe “anomie” as a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.

“People in urban areas have a high degree of comforts and are usually paid fat salaries, but with little time to spend that money,” Dr Bhide added. “Reversing the rising trend of urban mental deterioration means enforcing a value-based education, strengthening family values and other social relationships.”

Pavan Ranga recognising the human brain as an elaborate and three-dimensional electrical circuit where faulty sectors cause mental disorders, he adds that he sought a means to stimulate the neural network to fix disorders. “In a depressed patient, we can see neuron sets which show subdued activity. By using TMS technology, which uses large wand emitting magnetic waves, we can actually trigger or light up darkened neuron areas to effectively cure depression,” he said.

Ranga expressed confidence that patients with depression can be cured following 25 to 30 sessions over a one-month period. Each session would last for 19 minutes. About 25 to 30 session treatment would cost about Rs 1 to 1.5 lakh.

“In addition, TMS cannot directly address suicide yet – but it can help to address mild and medium forms of disorders,” Ranga concludes. 

Brigade Group Invests Rs 100 Crore to Enter into Co-Working Space - BuzzWorks in Bangalore

Real estate firm Brigade Group is entering the co-working business through the brand BuzzWorks, under which it plans to roll out 2,200 seats in the next two years. The Bangalore-based real estate player has proposed an initial investment of Rs 100 crore for the fiscal year 2019-20.

BuzzWorks will initially launch more than 200 seats at Whitefield and Malleswaram at the Brigade Metropolis and Brigade Gateway campuses totalling 15,000 square feet. Later, the firm plans to offer co-working spaces in locations such as Kochi, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad as well.

"BuzzWorks will be a natural extension of our commercial office portfolio and a forward integration for our business," said Nirupa Shankar, Executive Director, Brigade Group.

The Bengaluru-based group started off as a commercial space developer in 1986 and later expanded to other real estate segments including residential and hospitality.

With co-working segment gaining traction, big companies now comprise about half the clients. This has prompted many real estate firms such as RMZ Corp and Embassy Group to enter the business with ambitious plans.

India has more than 200 players operating over 420 co-working spaces across the country, according to Anarock Property Consultants. The consultancy has forecast twofold to threefold growth in this segment in the next two years alone.

Besides, it has said that with office rents rising across India, co-working spaces are likely to grow at least 30% year-on-year in terms of space occupied, with Bengaluru, National Capital Region and Mumbai, followed by Hyderabad and Chennai, offering the best prospects for growth.

The company also has 18 mn sqft of residential development to its credit and plans to launch another 9 million sqft by the next financial year. It has 0.5 million sqft of retail space and around 781 hotel rooms under construction.

Brigade Group has intensified its focus on the commercial real estate market. Brigade Enterprises has 11 million sqft of office space under various stages of construction. It has a partnership with Singapore-based private equity firm GIC Singapore for commercial properties.

Mindtree Inaugurates Silicon Valley Re-Imagination Center to Help Clients Look Beyond Digital

Mindtree has inaugurated its new Silicon Valley Re-imagination Center with the objective of collaborating with the best of the valley ecosystem - including its thriving startups, world leading academic institutions and innovation centers of large technology partners - for the benefit of its global clients. The center is designed to help Mindtree’s clients look beyond the current generation of digital technologies to fundamentally reimagine their business models, processes, offerings and experiences with a focus on modern artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. It will host board of directors, CxOs, and operational teams to drive highly impactful business reimagination initiatives. The center will also be the hub for Mindtree’s high-tech and media business that serves some of the pioneering companies driving the adoption of beyond digital technologies.

Many enterprises that have done successful digital transformation initiatives are wondering what is next. Advances in modern AI technologies have created an exciting opportunity to transform business processes, liberating human talent for more creative purposes by going beyond just digitization. The core systems of many enterprises are decades-old and have been enhanced with digital techniques like API-fication to support digital transformation initiatives. However, enterprises have an urgent need to rebuild core enterprise systems with micro-services and server-less architectures where security and AI are woven into the very fabric of these systems. Further, the combination of the internet of things (IoT) and modern AI is creating the opportunity for many industrial enterprises to rebuild their business models, business processes and products. Enterprises need the support of the world’s best technology ecosystem and talent to drive these reimagination initiatives.

“Mindree was born digital and is an established leader in the digital space,” said Rostow Ravanan, CEO and Managing Director of Mindtree. “We are being proactive in looking at what comes beyond digital and helping contextualize it for the benefit of our global clients. We have the unique advantage of serving some of the world’s most advanced technology providers and working collaboratively with newly emerging startups, as well as world leading academic institutions that are doing cutting-edge research in these areas. We expect our Silicon Valley Reimagination Center to be at the forefront of the next wave of reimagination that comes beyond digital by leveraging these advantages.”

“Our global clients in many industries are wondering, ‘What would a Silicon Valley startup company do if they were entering our industry today,’” said Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Executive Vice President for Mindtree’s Enterprise Reimagination business. “Having already completed several digital transformation initiatives, they see further opportunities for competitive advantage that AI, blockchain, IoT, quantum computing and other emerging technologies offer, and don’t want to be left behind. Our new Silicon Valley Reimagination Center has created an exciting space for our global clients to work closely with the best of the Silicon Valley ecosystem, help them connect the dots, and achieve that vision.”

Mindtree has established partnerships with a growing network of Silicon Valley startups. Additionally, Mindtree in July 2018 established an endowed faculty scholar position in artificial intelligence at Stanford University’s School of Engineering. The position is designed to further accelerate the development of AI to solve complex problems. Engagements in the new center will combine these with world class business domain knowledge, technology, creativity and contextual knowledge of client businesses and systems to drive reimagination initiatives in a consulting-led approach.

Mindtree’s March 13 inauguration event had several notable attendees including Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise; Prof. Jennifer Widom, Dean of School of Engineering at Stanford; Ambassador Sanjay Panda, Consul General of India: and representatives of elected officials from both the U.S Congress and the California legislature, and leaders from Mindtree’s clients and partners.

Tata ACE Gold Celebrates its 1st Anniversary in Indian Market

Celebrating the successful one year completion of its most popular small commercial vehicle- Tata Ace Gold, Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle player today announced a host of customer-friendly offers on its entire range of Tata Ace vehicles and other Tata SCVs. The schemes will focus on improving earnings of the consumer and offer them lucrative savings on their purchases with Tata Motors until March 31, 2019. Since its inception, the vehicle has been a preferred choice of over 2 million customers, making the brand a leader in the Mini Truck segment with a 66% market share.

The company is offering Low Interest Scheme and Personal Insurance cover on purchase of any variants of the Tata Small Commercial vehicles. Under the low Interest Rate Risk (IRR) scheme, the customers will save up to Rs. 1 Lakh in EMI under 1.99% for 3 years and 2.99% for 4 years, which will be valid on Ace HT, Ace Gold, Ace XL, Ace EX, Ace High deck, Mega Cab Chassis, Mega, Mega XL, Zip Gold and Zip XL. The company will also provide Rs. 10 Lakh Personal Insurance under the Tata Delight scheme. These benefits will be available at more than 1224 dealer outlets (3S and 1S) across the country.

On this momentous occasion, Mr. R T Wasan, Vice President, Marketing & Sales, CVBU, Tata Motors, said, “At Tata Motors, we always believe in making customer-centric offerings and maximizing revenues of the transport operators. Standing true to its brand theme of ‘Kaamyabi Kal, Aaj aur Kal’, Tata Ace Gold has successfully delivered on its promise of being a game-changer by offering superior safety, versatile performance in varied conditions, ease of maintenance, comfort and cost-effectiveness to its customers. Tata Ace Gold has proven to be a best seller, contributing to a 64% volume growth of the brand Tata Ace on a year to date basis reinforcing the increasing popularity of the brand among the Indian customers.”

Tata Motors has planned various marketing campaigns to celebrate the 1 Year anniversary of Ace Gold. Along with print, radio and digital promotions; the company has also planned customer meets, Naka Connect programs, Vehicle Demo along with the promotion theme, Loan and Exchange melas, and captive customer melas to connect with the current and potential customers.

Introduced in 2005, Tata Ace has successfully pioneered the concept of mini-trucks in India. The Tata Ace family of vehicles has been constantly evolving, strategically identifying and filling gaps in the market ahead of its time. The Ace platform has so far produced about 15 offerings, based on Engine type, engine power & body configurations. Today, the Tata Ace family comprises of brands like Ace, Zip, Mega and Mint for SCV cargo and Magic, Mantra and Iris for passenger movement in rural and urban areas. Therefore, for steep and hilly terrains to heavy and dense load over long distances, for better power and better torque to better fuel efficiency and durability, for narrow alleys and crowded bylanes to intercity transportation, for captive applications to voluminous goods - there is a Tata Ace to suit every customer need.

NSDC Unveils UNEVOC Centre Co-organises International Workshop on Greening of Job Roles and Curricula

Following National Skill Development Corporation’s (NSDC) acceptance as a member to the UNEVOC Network in mid-2018, the NSDC-UNEVOC Centre was officially launched on 7th March 2019 at New Delhi. Mr. Shyamal Majumdar, Head -UNESCO UNEVOC awarded Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC with the UNEVOC plaque, officially recognizing NSDC as a UNEVOC Centre in the presence of Ms. Juthika Pathankar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, international Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) practitioners and other distinguished guests.

The UNEVOC Network is UNESCO’s global network for institutions specialized in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), which are concerned with skills development for the world of work and life. Coordinated by UNESCO-UNEVOC, the network provides an environment for exchange, cooperation and mutual assistance for its members, the UNEVOC Centres.

Members of the UNEVOC Network, called UNEVOC Centres, all have a position within their country that allows them to cooperate with other TVET stakeholders, both nationally and internationally and engage in variety of activities, such as (a)  to improve TVET in member states by promoting and fostering international collaboration and partnerships (b) to develop the capacities of UNEVOC Centres and associated TVET practitioners; and (c) to share promising practices and innovations in TVET

Commenting upon NSDC’s association with UNESCO-UNEVOC, Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, “Acceptance to the UNEVOC network indicates an important acknowledgement of NSDC’s strength and track record in the Skilling Ecosystem. Through the UNEVOC platform, we will not only gain from each other’s experiences through sharing of best practices and case studies but also access the best analytical tools that can support in building a robust and resilient data-driven approach to planning for TVET across different contexts.”

As a key activity under the NSDC and UNESCO-UNEVOC collaboration, a five-day international workshop on Greening of Job Roles and Curricula was organized jointly by NSDC and UNESCO-UNEVOC was held last week in New Delhi. The workshop sought to address policy and training needs for integrating sustainability and green concepts into occupational standards and fostering an understanding on effectively moving from occupational standards to curriculum planning and design. The workshop also aimed at identifying and addressing gaps in institutional strategies in the context of greening TVET.
The workshop brought together TVET professionals involved in policy planning, standard setting, training and assessments from 15 different countries – Mexico, Hongkong PRC, Germany, Canada, Kenya, Nigeria, Guyana, Zambia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and South Africa.

The workshop involved panel discussions, lectures from experts, group work and site visits. On day-one, participants were exposed to the concepts, approaches and best practices of Greening TVET followed by assessment of ground realities to identify greening challenges and opportunities in different country contexts. The second day initiated with different approaches of Greening TVET standards and curricula.. Day-three covered the aspects of teaching and assessing green skills and competencies as well as quality assurance concepts, followed by a study visit to the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE). On day-four, participants visited TERI School of Advanced Studies and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) at Mandir Marg to observe how greening activities are organized in practice. On the last day, participants reflected and presented the learnings of the workshop. 

Pune based Startup SparesHub Receives funding of Rs 3.5 Crore from Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network, Asia’s largest network of Angel investors, has invested Rs. 3.5 crore in Pune-based start-up SparesHub, an automobile parts start-up. SparesHub will utilise the funds for its geographical expansion and to strengthen its technology capabilities. The funding was led by Indian Angel members Neeraj Garg, Harsh Gandhi, and Ankur Agarwal.

Founded by Tapas P. Gupta and Arijit A. Chakraborty, the SparesHub team currently comprises 27 employees. It solves the problem of the unavailability of, and over-expensive, automobile parts which result in a significant loss of time, money, and efforts for car owners in India. Since its inception, SparesHub has been working to disintermediate and digitize the automobile parts industry in India. To this end, it is introducing modern supply chain and logistics methodologies in the industry, and caters to B2B customers. SparesHub works with India’s leading car companies and part manufacturers to make OEM and OES parts available to its customers (multi-brand service centres, service aggregators, fleet owners and insurance companies). Existing investor Holomua Group Inc, also participated in the investment round.

Padmaja Ruparel, President and Co-founder of Indian Angel Network, added, “The decision to invest in SparesHub was taken after a careful assessment of the business, the team’s vision, and its strategy to achieve the same. The company has the makings of a modern tech-based venture, with a unique business model, a strong technological framework, a product that fills a major gap in the market, and of course, a strong team. We are confident that the team will continue to enhance its product and build its USP, and emerge as one of the leading players in its domain.”

Tapas Gupta – CEO of SparesHub, commented, “Our mission is to create a whole new level of customer delight by leveraging technology. SparesHub is challenging the traditional methodologies and bringing in global best practices in the automobile parts supply chain and logistics domain. We are truly grateful for the funding from Indian Angel Network and the faith they have shown in our business model, and we hope for a long and fruitful collaboration with the Network.”

Indian Angel Network is Asia’s largest network of angel investors that invests in early-stage businesses, which have the potential to create disruption. The members of the network are leaders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem with strong operational experience as CEOs or a background of creating new and successful ventures. IAN goes beyond the normal, informal, local club structure of angel groups to a larger institutionalized model because of its nimble but robust, standardized, and transparent processes that allow it to scale across geographies and a large number of members.