New Virtual Pet Game My Talking Tom Friends Is Now Available Worldwide

Outfit7 Limited announced the launch of its new virtual pet game My Talking Tom Friends, now available to download worldwide on iOS and Android. The eagerly awaited new game from the award-winning Talking Tom and Friends franchise brings a never-before-seen approach to the genre, uniting all six iconic characters in a play-as-you-want sandbox experience. Fans around the world couldn't wait to play the revolutionary new game, with 13 million pre-registering before the launch – a record-breaking achievement for the company.

“With My Talking Tom Friends, our goal was to take the popular virtual pet genre and reinvent it. We wanted to go far out and deliver something that sweeps people off their feet,” said Xinyu Qian, CEO of Outfit7.

“For the first time ever, we created an environment where our fans can play with not one, but multiple characters at the same time – in whatever ways they choose! This offers a practically limitless array of possibilities, providing a unique playing experience for each and every user. We are all very excited to see what will become of it in the hands of our fans.”

With Talking Becca – the newest addition to the franchise – joining Talking Tom, Talking Angela, Talking Hank, Talking Ben, and Talking Ginger, players can now tend to the needs and wishes of all six characters at once, and help them live their fascinating lives.

The friends are dynamic, moving around the open, scrollable house, looking for ways to have fun. Players can engage with them and take part in fun activities like cooking, painting, gardening, and socializing. There’s also a suite of brand new, action-packed mini-games to discover. Impressive interactive options allow fans to explore and customize the vivid, beautifully-designed virtual world at will.

For the chance to create your own unique stories of friendship and fun, download My Talking Tom Friends for free from Google Play and App Store.

CarDekho Reports 99% Surge in Traffic for Pre-Owned Cars Post Lockdown in Indian Market

Pre-Owned Cars 

* 99% of used car traffic recovered whereas 77 % of new car traffic recovered

* Traffic from Orange and Green Zones for new cars recovered 84 %

* Highest recovery rate of products between INR 1-5 lakh in new cars segment

* INR 2-5 lakh segment in pre-owned cars fully recovered post-lockdown

CarDekho, the leading full-stack auto company has reported 99% recovery in customer traffic for used car segment after the lockdown whereas 77% customers are back to search for new cars. A study conducted by the company shows that with the lifting of the lockdown, there is a  major shift in customers preferences across the segments, with hatchback and low-budget being the most sought-after cars across segments.

The traffic from Orange and Green Zones for new cars PAN India has recovered 84 % where as from red zones it has recovered 58% ; It signifies the customer sentiments improving strongly in Green and Orange zone with Red Zone fast catching up as customer search for their desired car has now resumed.

As per the report, the recovery rate of cars in the INR 1-5 lakh segment is the highest. Among SUVs, INR 5-15 lakh segment has the highest share, whereas sedans in the INR 15-20 lakh range are the most searched cars. MUVs within the price range of INR 10 lakh has been most sought during this period; the premium segment share has low volume (10%) and a very low recovery rate (50%). Further, Maruti and Tata cars are most searched by consumers, with Maruti having 23% share in new car traffic and Honda the highest share in the mid-segment cars with 7% share in traffic. The rest have 4-5% each.

The study was conducted between 17th Feb – 17th March, termed as the pre-lockdown period; the mid-lockdown period between mid-March till mid- April; and post-lockdown between 12th May to 28th May. It was also seen that the traffic from the Orange zone for used cars was the highest, with most coming from Karnataka. In the Red Zone, traffic from Maharashtra region for pre-owned cars was the highest.

Says Mr Amit Jain, Co-founder and CEO CarDekho, “Pre, mid and post-lockdown periods have impacted car traffic across the segments. New car and used car business have seen transformations in the consumer journey. The pandemic outbreak has changed people preferences and we believe they will opt for personal mobility solutions rather than shared mobility. We are now seeing a very fast recovery of consumer traffic on CarDekho with preferences for budget-friendly options. The used cars traffic has recovered by 99% and new car traffic by 77% showing that the market is now getting ready for actual business. We are hopeful that the sales recovery will also be fast with the lifting of the lockdown.” 

About CarDekho:

CarDekho Group, headquartered in Jaipur, was founded in 2008 and has footprints in India, Indonesia and the Philippines. The group currently operates various leading Indian auto portals such as CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, ZigWheels.com, BikeDekho.com, InsuranceDekho.com, PowerDrift.com and more. It recently launched an online insurance portal (www.insurancedekho.com) offering services in motor and health insurance and its CarDekho Gaadi stores serve as the one-stop destination for selling pre-owned cars. The group also pioneered specialized portals such as TyreDekho.com and TrucksDekho.com. In 11 years, the company has seen a phenomenal uptake and is now recognized in India as the largest automotive video content player with 2 million+ YouTube subscribers, the largest consumer-facing digital destination with 41 million monthly unique visitors, and the largest auto social media platform. In 2016, the company expanded its presence in Indonesia under the brand name OTO, which has become the number one auto site in the country. It recently acquired the Philippines operations of Carmudi thereby expanding its operations to two Southeast Asian countries. CarDekho has raised funding from marquee investors including Sequoia India, Hillhouse Capital, Ping An, Sunley House, CapitalG (formerly known as Google Capital), HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Times Internet, Trifecta, Ratan Tata, Times Internet Limited, Kreatif Media Karya and Dentsu.

Madhya Pradesh Re-Opens its Tourist Destinations. Focus on Domestic Tourism in India

Madhya Pradesh re-opens its State Tourism Development Corporation Hotels, Resorts and many private Hotels at tourist destinations for tourists and Hoteliers, Promoting Domestic Tourism allowing in tourists from within the Country. Madhya Pradesh Forest department has also issued a circular regarding re-opening of National Parks from 15th June 2020. National Park’s Buffer Zone will remain open during monsoon season.

Speaking on the same, Ms. Sonia Meena, IAS, Additional Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board said: “Madhya Pradesh being into Inbound Tourism promotion is very strong with its domestic tourism products, wildlife is one of them. Opening up tourist attractions would also give a sense of “returning to normalcy”. We see great potential after re-opening our destinations like wildlife, heritage, pilgrimage, leisure, and adventure tourism opportunities”.

Following the Health protection, safety and hygiene guidelines. We have sanitized and fumigated our premises. We are ensuring all hygiene and social-distancing norms and SOP issued by the Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India.

The first segment of the travellers we are looking to attract, are people from within and neighbouring states coming to visit our tourist destinations. Madhya Pradesh is surrounded by 5 states and it is very easy to travel by car from neighbouring states to our State, we also have a very good road network which connects major tourist destinations in the state. To begin with, people will start taking small / weekend tours with 3 / 4 Days itinerary and for them, our state could be the choicest tourism destination having several interesting tourism attractions.

Madhya Pradesh offers an assortment of attractions to everyone who loves to travel. It is the state with the forest area cover of approx. 77,700 sq.kms (Approx ¼ of the total land area) filled with Sal Trees & Bamboos. It has numerous wildlife hotspots with 11 National parks & 24 Wildlife sanctuaries such as Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary and Chambal Ghadiyal Sanctuary. The UNESCO World Heritage sites at Khajuraho, Bhimbetka & Sanchi are the iconic sites in the state. Madhya Pradesh has re-gained the tag of being “The Tiger State of the Country” by having maximum Tiger count (526) in the state. The roar of Tigers has increased in the dense and beautiful forests of Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh is not only home to two Jyotirlingas Mahakaleshwar and Omkareshwar. Burhanpur, Bhopal, Gwalior and Mandu are some of the beautiful architectural sites, whereas lndrasagar, Gandhi sagar, Tawa and Bargi are the spellbinding water bodies. Cultural events like Khajuraho Dance Festival, Mandu Festival, Orchha Cultural Festival, Tansen Festival are some of the annual tourism promotional festivals to attract tourists from all walks of life.

Next Education Witnessed Increase in Demand for its Next Learning Platform to continue Virtual Learning

Due to the pandemic, the times have been challenging for schools. With disruptions and indefinite lockdown, it is imperative for schools to reimage and reinvent their teaching-learning approach and pedagogy. Considering this situation Next Education India Pvt. Ltd., the pioneer in the K-12 education sector, is enabling schools to redefine their teaching-learning approach through its 'Next Learning Platform', an integrated platform to facilitate remote learning, academic and administrative operations without any hindrance. 2000+ schools across India have adopted the solution to ensure continuous academic and administrative operations. 

In the wake of recent lockdown, Next Education has also added a Live lecture feature to the Next Learning Platform, thereby making it a one-stop solution for schools to go online. Through its comprehensive offerings, schools can seamlessly transform their pedagogy from offline to the online learning system.

Not only this, but the platform also helps teachers to optimise their strategies to enhance the online learning experience of students with its award-winning digital content, online assignments, personalised assessments and immediate feedback and evaluation. A noteworthy advantage of this platform is that it creates a school-like learning environment at home and empowers teachers to control and monitor academic operations within the comfort of their home.

To enable schools to with its admin functions, the platform offers NextERP for managing school operations and communications with ease. 

Speaking on widespread adoption of Next Learning Platform by schools across the country, Mr. Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO and Co-Founder, Next Education said, “Though the crisis is devastating, it is making schools technologically advanced. No doubt, this transition from offline to the online education system is challenging for many schools, but with Next Learning Platform it can be achieved seamlessly in no time. Our integrated platform has been adopted by 2000+ schools to run their virtual school. Various tools like NextERP, NextLMS, Live Lecture, and more in the Next Learning Platform focus on expanding academic operations and learning beyond the traditional pedagogy according to the unique needs of the school. ” Mr. Ralhan further added, “The overwhelming adoption of Next Learning Platform and positive response byschools across the country is an indication that it is imperative for schools to switch to e-learning tools to make learning more productive and engaging even at home. With the ease of implementation and user-friendly interface, Next Learning Platform makes quality education accessible without any impediments.”

Ms Meghna Singh, Director of Sheoran International School, Noida says, “The Live Lecture feature of Next Learning Platform has helped us in conducting online classes seamlessly. Approximately 150 students are attending the lectures by 20+ teachers everyday. The tool is very interactive with the curriculum being inbuilt therein. The entire methodology helps teachers to make conceptual understanding faster.”

Management team Mr Nagendra Mali and Ms. Sowmya Mali of Karnataka Public School, Haveri adds, “The Live Lecture feature is very helpful during this lockdown as it connects teachers and students in real-time. It helps us in running our school virtually. Next Learning Platform is an interactive platform where parents also share their feedback with teachers.”

Dr.Yuvraj Singh from The Imperial School, Ganganagar further adds, “We feel that the Next Learning Platform is a great step towards keeping the education ongoing for students. We appreciate that with the Live Lecture feature, we could run schools virtually in this situation too. We have been using these lectures everyday to conduct classes for all grades. Live Lecture will help us in reducing the workload by 50%.” 

Therefore, Next Learning Platform ensures the safety of students as well as educators amid the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby ensuring a seamless transition from offline to online academic operations. 

About Next Education

A complete K–12 education solutions provider, Next Education is transforming education with innovative and engaging technology-based solutions trusted by 240,000+ teachers and impacting the lives of over 12,000,000 students across 12,000+ schools in India. Since 2007, Next Education’s educational solutions and services have been well received nationally and globally and cover the syllabuses of CBSE, ICSE, Army and all state boards in more than seven Indian languages.

Perpule Expands its Operations in SouthEast Asia & Launches its E Commerce Enablement Platform

Following the massive rise in demand of ecommerce enablement solutions globally, Perpule a leading retail tech startup from India expanding its footprint to the Southeast Asian market with its ecommerce enablement product Perpule E-Commerce+. Through this expansion, the company is targeting modern retailers - spanning across categories like fashion, grocery, electronics, food & others - operating in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore & Philippines.

The retail market in Southeast Asia is over $700 billion but is yet to adopt modern technologies and become heavy on ecommerce. COVID-19 has further exacerbated the situation by disrupting the businesses of several offline retailers who are now facing a slowdown in sales and operations. Perpule E-Commerce+ strives to address these challenges by driving ecommerce readiness and thereby helping the retailer community restart their operations afresh in the post-COVID world. The company aims to secure around 20% of the ecommerce market share and help offline retailers switch to an online model in minimum time.

Perpule Ecommerce+ is truly built with a next gen approach to facilitate ecommerce smoothly from offline stores and has all the necessary integration with leading payment gateways, logistics players, ERP, POS, Loyalty etc. to make ecommerce enablement much easier for retailers. Perpule’s homegrown Progressive Web Apps (PWA) technology is a game-changer in ecommerce for retailers. It offers users a superior browsing experience even on poor internet connections and works completely offline thereby improving conversion rates by over 40%.

Commenting on the expansion, Abhinav Pathak, CEO & Cofounder, Perpule said, “While the entire world stands disrupted by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19, the retailer community has been impacted the most. At Perpule, we aim to equip retailers with an advanced, new-age online platform and provide them with a major fillip to effectively and profitably run their businesses, even during a crisis like this. We are delighted to foray into the Southeast Asian market and will endeavor to serve customers in the best possible manner through our tech-driven platform.”

About Perpule:

The founders- Abhinav Pathak (CEO), Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle started Perpule with the aim of providing better customer experiences in offline retail stores. With this in mind, they built India's first self-checkout solution and then scaled that into an end to end billing platform called UltraPOS which has been implemented by popular retail brands such as Big Bazaar, Shoppers Stop, Starbucks, HyperCity, Vishal MegaMart, etc. UltraPOS, a platform-independent, form factor independent POS billing system that can enable anytime, anywhere billing. It is a cloud-based SaaS product that eliminates the need for bulky servers and computers in the store. This leads to more display space at the stores, thus increasing sales per square foot.

About Perpule E-Commerce :

Perpule E-Commerce+ is a product launched by Perpule, one of India's leading omnichannel commerce companies, to enter the South East Asia Market. Perpule E-Commerce+ is Secure, Scalable, Fully Managed and Customizable Enterprise E-Commerce Platform for retailers, online brands and anyone else who wants to set up their online stores. Perpule E-Commerce+ makes offline retailers future-ready and helps them go online and leverage the power of E-Commerce. It comes packaged with a multi-channel solution and can help manage all the complex retail workflows. Perpule Ecommerce+ makes use of PWA technology which gives a superior browsing experience even on poor internet connections and works completely offline. Perpule E-Commerce+ has 40% better conversion rates as compared to other ecommerce platforms.

COVID-19 Impact Worsens, Talent Demand Dropped in Essential Sectors in May 2020

Highlights 

* Most high volume sectors noted a dip in talent demand in April 2020 v/s May 2020 comparison 

* Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals, BPO and BFSI registered the sharpest fall in M-o-M talent demand

* Among cities, Bengaluru saw the steepest dip in talent demand

* Marketing & Advertising, Front Office/Administration, Quality/Process Control job profiles registered the biggest setback in talent demand in May 2020

 

As the COVID-19 crisis deepens, talent demand at Indian Inc. dropped even in the essential services sectors as Healthcare and BFSI. India Inc. registered 8% drop in talent demand in May 2020 M-o-M analysis, triggered predominately by the extension of the nationwide lockdown from May 17 till May 31, 2020. Most high volume sectors noted a dip with the sharpest fall in the Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals, BPO, BFSI and Automobiles sectors, stated the finding of TimesJobs RecruiteX May 2020 edition. 

TimesJobs RecruiteX is a monthly recruitment index that records the demand and supply of talent at India Inc.

Commenting on the findings of RecruiteX May 2020, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “The COVID-19 lockdown has caused an irreplaceable damage to the Indian economy. From March 2020 to May 2020, the talent demand has slipped continuously for three months now. However, I am hopeful that things will get better from here. Job seekers should use this time to learn new skills to be better equipped for the future. Recruiters should also use this time to evaluate their hiring strategies to attract the right candidates.”

Here are the major findings of the RecruiteX May 2020 edition:

Industry-wise: The Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals sector – which noted a marginal jump of 2% in talent demand in April 2020 – shed most talent demand in May 2020. The BPO and BFSI sectors – which together employ a big share of India’s corporate workforce – too registered a drop in talent demand despite most companies operating remotely.

Sectors with notable loss in talent demand:

Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals: (-14%)

BPO: (-13%)

BFSI: (-11%)

Functional areas: Almost all functional areas recorded no growth in talent demand. The Marketing & Advertising job profile registered the sharpest dip in M-o-M talent demand.

Functional areas with notable loss in talent demand:  

Marketing & Advertising: (-30%)

Front Office/Administration: (-20%)

Quality/Process Control: (-17%)

Location-wise: Among the metro cities, Bengaluru shed most talent demand in May 2020. Chennai - which recorded a mere 1% growth in talent demand in April 2020 – saw no growth, no loss in talent demand in May 2020. All other cities saw no improvement in talent demand.  

Cities with notable loss in talent demand:  

Bengaluru: (-14%)

Mumbai: (-9%)

Hyderabad: (-6%)

Experience-wise:  The talent demand for professionals with 10-20 years of work experience noted steepest dip of 16% in May 2020. All other experience categories also noted a dip in talent demand. 

Work experience with notable loss in talent demand:  

10-20 years: (-16%)

5-10 years: (-15%)

Over 20+ years of work experience: (-6%)

About RecruiteX:

RecruiteX is the recruitment index for India. It is an analysis identifying the hiring activity and trends in India Inc. Based on tactful extraction and examination of jobs posted and applied for in a month at TimesJobs, it details ‘recruitment’ as a process backed by hiring sentiments of a recruiter and aspirations of the job seekers alike.

Huami Launches Amazfit T-Rex on Amazon & in.amazfit.com/ at INR 9999 in India

Smartwatch

* Amazfit T-Rex, the military certified outdoor smartwatch for sports and fitness enthusiasts with 20-day battery life and 20 Hrs GPS

* Soon will be available in the offline market across India via leading stores like Croma, Reliance Digital & Poorvika Mobiles

Huami Corporation, a biometric and activity data-driven company with significant expertise in smart wearable technology and the number 1 smartwatch brand in the watch segment, has officially launched Amazfit T-Rex smartwatch in India. Starting today, customers can purchase Amazfit T-REX online on Amazon & in.amazfit.com/. Amazfit T-REX will be available offline via leading stores like Croma, Reliance Digital & Poorvika Mobiles across the country by next week. Huami has partnered with PR Innovations, a leading technology importer, to market and distribute Amazfit T-Rex in India.

Amazfit T-Rex the rugged smart wearable designed for outdoor enthusiasts. The smartwatch has passed 12 regulation of military standard (MIL-STD-810) quality test to resist the harsh environment which can operate under unpredictable weather conditions, rain, hail or shine. Another distinct feature the T-Rex is built to withstand extreme temperatures as well as damp, salt and any challenging outdoor conditions, surviving for two hours under rapid temperature change from -40 to 70℃.

The smartwatch is packed with 14 sports modes, tracking user performance in everything from indoor and outdoor running to cycling to skiing and more. The smartwatch features a 1.3-inch AMOLED screen with (360x360 pixels) capable of displaying 16.7 million colours with superb clarity. It features 20hrs GPS, GLONASS, a BioTracker™ PPG optical heart rate sensor, an advanced activity tracker and a sleep monitoring sensor, all providing detailed data to enable you to best reach your fitness goals. Amazfit T-Rex delivers an impressive 20-day battery life.

The Amazfit T-Rex features 14 sport mode has 5ATM water-resistant design also allows you to advance your activities underwater, keeping track of your performance in open water swimming or triathlons. Built-in fast 28nm Sony GPS chip, so your GPS can continuously work for 20 hours. Activity Tracking with distance, active hours, calories and steps. Sweat-absorbent and comfortable silicone strap, Outer bezel made of special ink-filling technology, inner sweat-wicking design makes it breathable and keep it dry and not sticky. Bluetooth Music Control directly from your watch while exercising. A selection of 30 watch faces full of personality to choose from.

BioTracker PPG optical sensor provides high-precision 24h heart rate with heart rate interval values + abnormal heart rate warning. Sleep monitoring to understand better your sleeping pattern. Sedentary reminders when you’ve been inactive for too long. Smart Notifications for Incoming calls, text messages, apps, calendars, custom events. Easily find your Smartphone with the Find my phone function. Weather forecast (5 to 7 Days) + temperature warnings.

*Test conditions:

20 days: Heart rate is always on, sleep monitoring on, GPS is turned on 13 minutes a day, 150 messages are pushed, the wrist is illuminated 30 times, and 5 minutes of other operations. 

66 days: Turn off the phone's Bluetooth connection, heart rate and other functions, and lift the wrist to see the screen 100 times a day. 

20hours:  Turn on GPS recording motion track, turn on heart rate monitoring 

Note: Tests conducted in-lab, results may vary according to usage, settings, and many other factors.