PMI Offers Free Online Courses in the Wake of COVID-19 in India

Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading not-for-profit professional membership association for the project management profession has compiled a variety of free online resources and courses for at-home workers to help connect with the global community, build skills and prepare to advance in a post-COVID-19 world. The resources offerings are listed in a Virtual Resource Hub that will continue to be updated with additional services as needed.

The nature of work has shifted in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. There are still opportunities to bring the world closer and grow, even while social distancing. PMI is making a wide range of project management training materials available online for free to help at-home workers and bolster their skills as organizations rethink work processes and procedures. The free online courses include Project Management for Beginners, Agile in the Project Management Office, and Business Continuity.

Dr. Srini Srinivasan, Managing Director, PMI India, said, “In these trying times, organizations and employees are working from home and are juggling different tasks on day to day basis. This is where project management skills come into the picture, allowing individuals to align their tasks for the day, work more efficiently, and to stay relevant in such challenging times. We are providing free online courses that are not only relevant for project management and IT professionals but also for professionals from different industries. These resources can help businesses, managers, and employees as they continue to navigate their work and operations in the times of COVID-19.”

The Project Management for Beginners course introduces participants to the foundational knowledge necessary to join a project team and provides insights into taking steps on the path to a project management career. The Agile in the Project Management course walks participants through their role as a project management office director and introduces a series of scenarios designed to improve their project management office’s performance using agile principles and processes. The Business Continuity course offers information and lessons on rethinking work processes, which may be particularly helpful today as companies and their leaders and workers seek ways to cope with continuing their operations during the pandemic.

Other free offerings on the PMI resource hub include:

·         ProjectManagement.com Website, an online PMI project management community, where project managers from around the world can communicate, participate in discussions, play games, and access a variety of related resources.

·         Standards+  Online Guide (Beta), the online version of PMBOK® Guide, which provides information, digitized tools, templates, and case studies.

·         Snippets Resource (Beta), an online resource for small, bite-sized chunks of information about project management for busy professionals.

·         Navigator Portal (Beta), a career development platform for project professionals. Included are opportunities for comprehensive self-assessment of skills, interests, and goals, while offering action plans to achieve objectives.

·         Projectified Podcast series, which provides conversations about hot topics and emerging trends impacting the world of project managers, from digital transformation to artificial intelligence to career development.

·         Tower Game, a project management exercise offered through the PMI Educational Foundation, the Tower Game teaches participants to consider time, cost, quality, and risk as they explore project management.

·         PMI® Study Hall Resource (Beta), which provides sneak peeks into new Project Management Professional (PMP) exam resources, including outlines of exam content, daily practice questions, tips from experts, and resources for preparing for the exam.

·         PMXPO Virtual Conference, an annual virtual conference, for which PMI provides a link to its most recent event, which will remain available for on-demand viewing until June 26.

Emirates SkyCargo Scales Up Operations for Transport of Essential Commodities

The air cargo carrier currently operates flights to 51 destinations globally, out of which 19 cities are served by the Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777 freighter aircraft offering up to 100 tonnes of capacity per flight and 38 destinations are served by dedicated cargo flights on Emirates' Boeing 777 passenger aircraft offering up to 50 tonnes belly capacity. (For a full list of destination and schedules, visit the Emirates SkyCargo website)

London Heathrow airport is served by both Boeing 777-300ER passenger freighters and Boeing 777 freighters and is currently receiving four passenger freighter and two full freighter flights per week, as well as adhoc charter flights. As a road feeder location, cargo from London Heathrow is also transported by Emirates’ partner trucks to other UK cities and destinations including London Stansted, Dublin, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester and Glasgow.

Last week, Emirates moved 125 tonnes of urgent foodstuffs to Dubai. Also in the last week, Emirates have moved over 75 tonnes of pharmaceuticals and medicines from the UK to the United Arab Emirates, China, Pakistan, Australia and Japan. Flights have also been transporting electronic and e-commerce goods from the UK. On imports, Emirates SkyCargo flights have been transporting essential supplies including fruit and vegetables and on Tuesday 14th April, a special charter flight flew in 100 tons of hand sanitisers and other commodities into London Heathrow.

Nabil Sultan, Emirates divisional senior vice president, Emirates, said: "We have particularly ramped up operations for transporting cargo in the bellyhold of our passenger aircraft in the last two weeks. Emirates SkyCargo has been expanding its network on a daily basis and some of the latest destinations for our cargo flights on passenger aircraft include Bangkok, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Singapore and Taipei. Air cargo remains the fastest means of connecting essential supplies to those that need them and our expanded network allows for increased connectivity across different global origins and destinations."

Go on a Space Odyssey with Platanista Games’ Space Finder

Are you looking for an exciting virtual ride into outer space? Then, get ready for ‘Space Finder’! After successfully engaging gaming fans in fun-interactive experiences with ‘Surgical Strike – Border Escape’, a shooting game, and most-recently launched ‘Super Keeper’, a cricket game, Platanista Games is back with a new offering for mobile phone game lovers. Today, IN10 Media’s gaming studio that’s aimed at creating immersive, interactive experiences for consumers across all demographics, announces the launch of ‘Space Finder’, an endless casual game for iOS and Android users.

Set on planet Earth, in the all-new, space odyssey game the player has to launch a rocket and then safely transition to space filled with planets, stars and other celestial objects. As the rocket explores the uncharted space the player's duty is to guide the rocket to take the safest route, protect from an unrelenting list of obstacles, collect gears to create new spaceships / rockets and help the astronauts discover new planets.

Space Finder Game Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNklM_--C_w&feature=youtu.be

Commenting on the launch of ‘Space Finder’, Mansi Darbar, Vice President - Corporate Strategy and Development, IN10 Media, says, “At Platanista Games, we focus on creating fun, locally-appealing interactive games for a wide range of players equipped with different levels of gaming skills. Research shows that casual games in the country is fast emerging into a favourite entertaining activity for consumers of all age-groups. With Space Finder, we are hoping to continue building a rich catalogue of games and offering immersive experiences to gamers in the country.”

Along with Apple Store on iOS and Google Play Store on Android, players can download ‘Space Finder’ from Cherry Mobile, Multilaser, 9 Apps, Catappult, Apptoide, Bemobi, Appxplore, Indus IOS, GetJar, Amazon Apps, SlideMe and Samsung Apps. 

PlayShifu Announced Orboot App is Now Free for Any User Without Purchasing the Physical Toy

PlayShifu, the leading augmented reality (AR) toy company teaching foundational, STEAM skills through phygital (physical and digital) play, today announced that their Orboot app is now free for any user without purchasing the physical toy.

To support learning at home in the wake of the pandemic, PlayShifu has opened app access to those who haven’t purchased the Orboot globe. Now, anyone can play 4 games for free even without the globe. Shifu Orboot is a specially designed globe powered by AR and works with the companion app.Earlier, one could purchase games inside the app if they didn’t have the Orboot globe, but PlayShifu has now removed the in-app purchases.

The company raised a Series-A round of $7 million funding in July last year and has 2 platforms  with multiple products, Orboot and Plugo.Currently, they are seeing a surge of around 30k new registered user in March with April trending higher. They expect asimilar trend in May and June. The daily active users on the Orboot app went up by 60% over the last two weeks. As more and more parents are looking for educational games for their kids who are home bound due to COVID-19 outbreak, the company is witnessing around 300%-demand-surge alone in the US where Amazon is delivering certain products.

Hyundai Motor India Donates Sum of Rs 7 Crore to PM CARES Fund

Hyundai Motor India (HMI), country’s first Smart Mobility Solutions Provider and largest exporter since inception, made a donation of Rs 7 Crore to the PM CARES Fund, extending its support to the Citizens of India, amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. SS Kim, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd. said, “The core values of our foundation inspire us to strive for the betterment of society. Our contribution to the PM CARES Fund stands testament to solidarity we hold with the people of India, amidst this crisis. In challenging times such as these, we are pledging to bring about ‘Progress for Humanity’ and will continue giving back to help India defeat this adversity.”

As part of Hyundai’s road map of giving back to society, series of initiatives have been taken to assist the Government in the battle against COVID-19. The range of initiatives now include:

Donation of Rs 7 Crore to PM CARES Relief Fund
Donation of Rs 5 Crore to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Relief Fund
Hand Over of Imported COVID-19 Advanced Diagnostic Test Kits worth Rs 4 Crore
Strategic Partnership with Air Liquide Medical Systems to augment the production and supply of ventilators; In-house Development of Ambu Bag Actuator
Distribution of PPEs, masks and other safety kits in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Haryana
Distribution of dry rations in Delhi and Tamil Nadu to adversely impacted sections of society

About HMIL

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company (HMC). HMIL is India’s first smart mobility solutions provider and the number one car exporter since inception in India. It currently has 11 car models across segments SANTRO, GRAND i10, GRAND i10 NIOS, ELITE i20, AURA, VENUE, Spirited New VERNA, All New CRETA, ELANTRA, New 2020 TUCSON & KONA Electric. HMIL’s fully integrated state-of-the-art manufacturing plant near Chennai boasts of advanced production, quality and testing capabilities.

HMIL forms a critical part of HMC’s global export hub. It currently exports to around 88 countries across Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Australia and Asia Pacific. To support its growth and expansion plans, HMIL currently has 517 dealers and more than 1,330 service points across India. In its commitment to provide customers with cutting-edge global technology, Hyundai has a modern multi-million-dollar R&D facility in Hyderabad. The R&D centre endeavours to be a centre of excellence in automobile engineering.

Residents in Bengaluru Can Now Pay Their “Electricity, Water” and Other Essentials Bills Using Paytm App

Notes

* Paytm app offers a one-stop solution through ‘Stay At Home Essential Payments’ feature
* Residents in Bengaluru can now make timely payment of essential bills like Bangalore Water Supply And Sewerage Board (BWSSB) on Paytm app
* Mobile and DTH recharge, credit card, insurance premium payments also become easier

To reduce the spread of COVID-19, people are advised to stay at home under the precautionary guidelines. In such a situation, the residents of Bengaluru can make all essential payments like water bill of Bangalore Water Supply And Sewerage Board (BWSSB), credit card bill payment, Mobile and DTH recharge, apartment maintenance bill, etc on Paytm app

India's leading digital payments and financial services platform Paytm has recently revamped its user interface with ‘Stay At Home Essential Payments’ feature. Thus all billing related requirements have been integrated on one single platform, where the people can easily select the icon of various service providers without switching to their respective websites. Marvellously curated, this new app also enables its users to seamlessly make payments for their mobile and DTH recharge, electricity, bill, credit card, etc. It also has the options for booking gas cylinders, and a special ‘Buy Insurance’ tab for insurance services.

Residents in Bengaluru can also pay their apartment maintenance bill within a few minutes. Even if your society/apartment is not registered on Paytm App, you can start making payments by following some simple steps.

Amit Veer, Senior Vice President, Paytm said, “Our team used the opportunity of working from home to understand how we can help the residents of Bengaluru. We have revamped the interface of the Paytm app so that the people in Bengaluru could easily see the essential payment icon and avoid stepping out of their home and taking the risk of being infected. We have also launched an information and assistance centre on COVID-19 so that the people are not misguided by the unscrupulous information being spread on various social media platforms. We are also providing free access to more than 50 e-newspapers of various national and regional media publications on our app. With the help of our self-assessment tool, the users can test their risk factor to this virus and follow the necessary precautions for staying safe.”

During the recent weeks, Paytm has launched several initiatives to check the spread of Coronavirus. The company is collecting donations for a contribution of Rs.500 crore to the PM Care Fund. Additionally, the company is also raising donations for food for the labourers and is working on it together with KVN Foundation. 

PRAHAR Calls for Accelerated Utilization of DMF Funds to Protect ‘Lives and Livelihoods’ from COVID Devastation

Highlights


* PRAHAR launches a ‘National Movement for Livelihood Resurrection and Self Employment’ in the wake of COVID 19 crisis
* A corpus Rs. 23510 crores of unutilized DMF fund is available which if liquidated can bring great relief to the people in mineral states at a time of a national crisis
* DMF fund collection in some key states includes Odisha’s Rs. 9501 crore, Karnataka Rs. 1842 crore, Goa Rs. 188 crore, Assam Rs. 80 crore, Meghalaya Rs. 48 crore and West Bengal Rs. 43 crore till date.
* Irresponsible opposition must be investigated for vested interests
* Judiciary should recluse from admitting objections to the utilization of funds and it should be left to the states to evolve a local policy serving the specific needs of the region

PRAHAR (Public Response Against Helplessness and Action for Redressal) a Delhi based NGO dedicated towards finding solutions for problems of the helpless, today urged the Government to actively use unutilized DMF (District Mineral Foundation) funds and accelerate relief efforts towards protection of lives and livelihoods for the COVID affected communities across states. This is part of the NGO’s ‘National Movement for Livelihood Resurrection and Self Employment’ in the wake of COVID 19 crisis launched recently.

According to the data available on the Ministry of Mines website a sum of Rs. 35,925 crores have been collected in DMF funds in total as on January 31, 2020 out of which only 35% or Rs. 12,414 crores have been spent so far, leaving behind a corpus of Rs. 23510 crores to be spent.

On March 26, 2020, the Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman during an announcement urged DMF funds to be used to supplement and augment healthcare facilities, screening and testing requirements and any other resources that might be required by the state governments. However, after 3 weeks only negligible progress has been made with few districts making some discretionary use of these funds. This is because of lack of clarity on the modalities of use of these funds for the purpose of saving lives and resurrecting livelihoods in the aftermath of the COVID outbreak.

Some mineral states like Goa have already been under deep economic crisis because of the judicial interpretation leading to cancellation of mining leases in March 2018 by the Supreme Court. This took away livelihoods of 30% of the state’s population and brought 3 lakh mining dependents to the brink. Recently, the COVID 19 pandemic has stopped Goa’s tourism business also. Goa has only two industries – tourism and mining. The tourism industry is unlikely to see a revival for the next 9 to 12 months and with mining also on a standstill, the state will suffer immensely with a potential law and order situation that can follow.

Goa collected Rs. 188.65 crore in DMF Fund and Rs. 399 crores in Goa Iron Ore Permanent Fund till March 2018 when mining was operational. Out of this only 2% or Rs. 4 crore of DMF fund has been used for the welfare of people. At a time when the state is in its worst crisis, this corpus can act as a bail-out package. The Finance Ministers’ announcement and subsequent attempt by state authorities to use these funds is facing irresponsible opposition. As per media reports, a high profile NGO in the state of Goa has threatened to file a petition in the Supreme Court to stay such fund utilization citing that this is against the statues of the Minerals Act and such utilization is ‘illegal’ and a ‘raid’. Such opposition on the back of the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law (the welfare objective) should be investigated for vested interests.

Speaking on the subject, Mr. Abhay Raj Mishra, National Convenor and President, PRAHAR, said, “In line with the Prime Minister’s clarion call to protect “Jaan bhi, Jahaan bhi” (lives and livelihoods), it is important to go all out to save lives and ensure economic survival of citizens at the bottom of the social pyramid during the current crisis. We need to unlock all possible resources at this hour. These include unused corpuses such as DMF funds and keeping wheels of economic activity rolling wherever permissible. Nations who come out of this pandemic with least damage will have a strong position in the new world order and India, which is in a better position, cannot make mistakes in letting this crisis take over the future of our countrymen”

“Yesterday, India witnessed its largest single day surge in COVID 19 positive cases till date at 2154 new cases. This after 26 days of continuous national lockdown and all preventive measures makes it unpredictable as to when this crisis will recede. If the present of our citizens is severely compromised, what is the point of holding resources for a future than nobody has seen.”

“Heartless opposition by institutions with a mindless goal to forcibly come across relevant should be stopped immediately as it exposes their true intentions. Our people need to survive and economy needs to revive for which all stakeholders including the executive, legislature, judiciary and civil society must work in unison”, he added.

According to the Minerals Act, 40% of the DMF fund can be used for ‘other priority areas’ whereas 60% should be reserved for the ‘priority areas’. This means that while 60% of the fund can be kept for communities directly working in mining activities, the remaining can be used for the wellbeing of the state. DMF corpus is particularly attractive here.

Among the mineral-bearing states, Odisha collected the highest amount as DMF (Rs 9,502 crore) followed by Jharkhand (Rs 5,181 crore) and Chhattisgarh (Rs 4,981 crore) till January 2020. Other collections are Rajasthan (Rs 3,514 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 2,864 crore), Telangana (Rs 2,774 crore), Karnataka (Rs 1,842 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 1,728 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 906 crore), Gujarat (Rs 668 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs. 651 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 610 crore) and Goa (Rs 189 crore). When it comes to spending of the proceeds, Chhattisgarh stands first with spending of Rs 3,359 crore till January followed by Odisha at Rs 2,794 crore and Jharkhand at Rs 2,409 crore. Even smaller states like Assam collected Rs. 80 crore, Himachal Rs. 143 crore, Meghalaya Rs. 48 crore and West Bengal Rs. 43 crore.