Microsoft Introduces Hindi and English (India) to Neural Text-to-Speech Service for the Indian Market

Microsoft India has announced the addition of English (India) and Hindi to its Neural Text to Speech (Neural TTS) service language set. The two Indian languages are among the 15 new dialects added to the service enabled with state-of-the-art AI audio quality. Neural TTS is a part of the Azure Cognitive Services and converts text to lifelike speech for a more natural interface. The service also provides customizable voices, fine-tuned auto control, and flexible deployment from cloud to edge.

With natural-sounding speech that matches the stress patterns and intonation of human voices, Neural TTS significantly reduces listening fatigue when users are interacting with AI systems. This makes the service ideal for developing interfaces to communicate with the customers. Organizations across sectors like telecom, media, and entertainment, retail, manufacturing, and product/ service development are using Neural TTS. Udaan, India’s largest online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, is using Text to Speech in Azure to develop conversational interfaces for their voice assistants.

Sundar Srinivasan, General Manager, Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd., said, “Our text-to-speech services have played a key role in democratizing information reach and empowering people and organizations. Through the inclusion of English (India) and Hindi in Neural TTS, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to refining speech and voice-based services for personal and business use in India. We will continue to drive further advancements in speech services to empower people wherever they are to access information easily.”

Microsoft’s Neural TTS can be used to make interactions with chatbots and virtual assistants more natural and engaging. It is also being used to convert digital texts such as e-books into audiobooks and being deployed for in-car navigation systems. The service enables human-like natural and clear articulation and uses deep neural networks to overcome the limits of traditional text-to-speech systems in matching the patterns of stress and pitch in spoken language. Neural TTS offers these benefits while maintaining comprehensive privacy and enterprise-grade security through data encryption.

The other new languages introduced are Arabic (Egypt and Saudi Arabia), Danish, Finnish, Catalan, Polish, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Swedish, and Chinese (Cantonese Traditional and Taiwanese Mandarin). Overall, Microsoft TTS supports 110 voices and over 45 languages and variants. You can learn more about Microsoft’s text-to-speech service here.

About Microsoft India:

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 11,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research, development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate digital transformation across Indian startups, businesses, and government organizations.

India’s Official Funding Based Show ‘Horses Stable’ Opens Registration for Season 1 Applications Powered by ah! Ventures

Horses Stable, India’s first-ever business-based show that empowers young entrepreneurs to raise funding for their business associates with a Mumbai-based VC firm ah! Ventures. The show format allows participating entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas to a panel of renowned investors a.k.a Horses and persuade them to invest in their startups.

Horses Stable aims to be a global funding platform to motivate and give wings to the dreams of ambitious entrepreneurs. To accelerate the vision, Horses Stable has collaborated with ah! Ventures to magnify its capabilities of accommodating participants on a larger scale. The VC firm will help the show unveil unprecedented opportunities with its network of over 62,000 entrepreneurs and 3,000+ global investors. 

As a part of the partnership, ah! Ventures will curate the registration process of Horses Stable Season 1 to spread the word and invite enormous participation while welcoming a new set of Investors and Deal Masters. Registrations will be open from September 1st to 25th 2020 on both the portals.

Commenting on the partnership, Prashant Agarwal, Co-Founder – Horses Stable, stated, “I believe collaborative culture is a powerful tool to create a competitive edge. The credibility of the new platform is multiplied to manifolds when produced together by two expert and experienced entities. Hopefully, Horses Stable Season 1 powered by ah! Ventures is going to be an example of one such platform.”

Amit Kumar, Partner, ah! Ventures added, “We are very excited to join hands with HS and believe that the show will provide a big boost to entrepreneurs and add the X-factor to the world’s 3rd largest startup ecosystem. The passion of the HS team fueled by our experience will surely make Season 1 a big hit.”

Horses Stable Season 1 will potentially be a common ground for entrepreneurs and investors to connect and work together to expand their business and profitability. Along with generating funding, entrepreneurs will get an enriching experience to meet prominent names of the industry. Heating the excitement, Horses Stable will be announcing the launch of their pitch season on one of the prominent OTT platforms in India. However, the team is yet to reveal the details, so stay tuned.

There Will be No Retrenchment: PNB MD and CEO at PNB Q1 FY-21 Financial Results

India’s second-largest public sector bank, Punjab National Bank, (PNB) hosted a virtual press conference to discuss its Q1 FY 2020-21 results.  Sh CH. S. S. Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO of the Bank, briefly discussed with the Media PNB’s June-quarter results as well as the recent economic developments in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.  

While addressing the media, Rao said that overall, the economy would recover “more effectively” from October this year onwards and maintained the overall credit growth at 4-6 per cent, this fiscal.  He also spoke about MSME, QIP, net interest margin (NIM) besides other important economic and financial subjects. 

Here are major excerpts from the Press conference: 

* Net profit of ₹308 crore - as against the expectation of a net loss - for June quarter. 

* The Bank released key metrics for the merged entity (after amalgamating Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India). 

* The outstanding provisions are down by 1.5% during the June quarter.  

* Profit Before Tax down by 65%. 

* PNB expects credit costs to remain around 2.5% for FY21 

* PNB has guided that around 5-6% of its loan book may be restructured; the final figure would depend on the contours of the scheme - that the expert committee under Mr. K.V. Kamath prescribes 

* Expects the overall economy to come back “far more effectively” from October 2020 onwards 

* Maintains that overall credit growth would be 4-6 per cent, this fiscal; with this ambit, the MSME and retail segment will grow 8-10 per cent  

* MSMEs are expected to do well as they will have a great opportunity from the restrictions on Chinese goods 

* Sectors like hospitality, tourism and aviation will take a longer period to bounce back 

* On the proposed asset restricting window, the bank board is expected to approve the scheme in the coming days and by September an idea will emerge on the number of accounts that will be eligible for this facility. 

* Not expecting the Bank’s Net Interest Margin (NIM) and Net Interest Income (NII) to get adversely impacted this fiscal despite the Covid-19 

* PNB plans to go in for Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) by the end of the third quarter or early fourth quarter. * There is no plan as of now to approach the Government for capital infusion. 

* PNB has a strength of 1.03 lakh employees and, as the business grows, this employee strength will further grow 

PNB's loan book of Rs 30,000 crore has not opted for RBI's moratorium scheme (with only 20-22 per cent of account holders opting for it) 

* Following the merger of Oriental Bank of Commerce and Union Bank of India with PNB, there will be no retrenchment of employees 

* At the end of June 2020, PNB’s loan book size stood at Rs 7.21 trillion. So, the bank expects loans worth Rs 36,000-Rs 38,000 crores to avail the restructuring window provided by the RBI 

* Out of the total loan book of Rs 7.21 trillion, Rs 1.27 trillion belongs to the MSME category. Out of this, around 14 per cent is under the non-performing assets (NPA) category.  

The Indian Performing Right Society Limited Unveils ‘IPRS 2.0’

 IPRS Announces a Major Upgrade  

* Implementation of Members Self-Serve portal  

* Licensing deals with major digital players YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, Facebook, ALTBalaji and OLA, paving the way to a more rewarding future for music creators 

* Re-admission as Member to CISAC (the International body setting the highest standards for 232 Copyright Societies)  

* Distribution of royalties & relief funds during the pandemic 

* New state-of-the-art database, revamped infrastructure & workforce driving the change 

India’s only Copyright Society representing the authors, composers, and publishers of music, The Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS), announces the implementation of the world’s most advanced operating system for Copyright Societies. With this considerable investment, using cutting edge technology developed by Canada’s Dataclef, IPRS will provide the highest level of transparency for its members and licensees. With an authoritative database of millions of musical works and unlimited scalable processing capacity, this robust system will provide the best-in-class monetization capacity for the Society's members. 

To provide greater control and transparency to its members, IPRS is launching a portal where every member can edit personal information, access the list of his works, request modifications, submit new registrations, view a detailed royalty tracking and history of royalty payments. 

IPRS 2.0 also includes state-of-the-art license administration. Strategic deals with leading brands, digital music services, and OTT players have already opened new revenue for its members: YouTube, Facebook, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, ALTBalaji, or Ola, to name a few. With its scalable system, the Society can accurately process quadrillion lines of data and claim royalties across all broadcast and digital platforms. 

While IPRS is collecting royalties for Indian and international repertoire in the Indian market, it also collects royalties for Indian musical works used in overseas markets. This process involves managing various data formats, varied and fluctuating currencies, and intense coordination with Societies across the globe. 

IPRS distributed royalties of sixty crores (USD 8M) to its members since the commencement of the lockdown starting from April, and set up an emergency relief fund of nearly four crores (USD 535,000) for its members impacted by the pandemic. 

Speaking on this milestone, Mr. Javed Akhtar, Chairman of IPRS added: “The world as we know it is evolving at a furious pace and our music industry is no different. IPRS 2.0 is a momentous step forward in keeping pace with the changing times and bringing about positive change in our members’ lives. Our focus is clear and two-fold; on the one hand we want to bring in greater transparency. On the other hand, we want to leave no stone unturned and leverage every opportunity to ensure our members can reap all benefits possible of their hard work and creative acumen. Our aim is to create a more engaged eco-system where we continue to grow and flourish as a community-driven by our shared passion and drive.”   

Mr. Rakesh Nigam, CEO of IPRS said: “Our five-decade journey has been phenomenal, and we feel privileged and honored to offer a new chapter in our collective growth journey to our esteemed members. The new portal will bring in a high level of transparency into our operations where our members can view and check their repertoire at their own convenience. This will help eradicate obvious errors that occur due to bad data, wrong IPs, duplicate submissions, etc. We are confident that with the new technology deployment, we can overcome these challenges and offer better value to our members. Further, IPRS 2.0 also witnesses numerous strategic alliances as we have recently signed up licensing deals with social media channels and OTT platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, Facebook, ALTBalaji and Ola opening new revenue channels for our members. With IPRS 2.0, the journey that began three years back is adding to its list of achievements, the Will to set new benchmarks in the music industry, creating more opportunities for the authors, composers and publishers of music.”   

Mr. Jeff King, CEO of Dataclef added: “As an organization which is dedicated to advancing the efficiencies of rights organizations globally, Dataclef is pleased to have the opportunity to partner with The Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS). India is an expanding market with great potential for the music industry, it is essential that this growth continues to be supported by a strong Collective Society. We are collaboratively working with IPRS to design a more robust platform from which members can transparently and easily access data, align to the vision defined by IPRS. It is great to see a society actively investing in its staff and infrastructure to ultimately empower its members.”  

Commemorating the occasion of IPRS completing five decades, Mr. U. Vidyasagar, composer & musician and Board member of IPRS said, “IPRS 2.0 is a welcome move and charts the future for IPRS. The recent developments and technological advancements will be bringing in more efficiency, transparency giving control to our members to manage their own data and account. Further, this will usher in world class systems and processes helping our members to garner better revenues from their assets." 

After the new Board, elected in March 2017, it made significant changes to its constitution and professional rules, IPRS was granted registration as a Copyright Society in November, 2017 by the Government of India. One year later, IPRS was readmitted as full member by the Paris-based International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC), the apex body of 232 Authors' Societies in 121 countries representing more than four million creators. While addressing its General Assembly held at Tokyo the following May 2019, CISAC’s Chairman called IPRS the “fastest-growing Copyright Society in the world". IPRS is currently completing a Development Review by CISAC to certify global best practices in corporate governance, transparency, licensing, collections, and distribution of royalties.  

Adding to the above, CISAC Director General Gadi Oron said, “I would like to congratulate IPRS on serving the Indian and global music creators community for over half of a century. IPRS has undergone major changes in recent years and its return to the CISAC network in 2019 signaled its successful reform. We are pleased to note the great effort and dedication of IPRS and the society’s commitment to meeting international best practices. Although the society suffers from the COVID-19 crisis, like all other societies around the world, its work continues and its efforts to continuously improve its operations are evident. I have no doubt that we will see IPRS reaching new highs in the coming years, and that, turning into its 51st year of operation, it will continue to uphold the highest international standards of governance while working hand in hand with sister societies around the world, for the benefit of creators.” 

Mahindra’s Revolutionary iMAXX Telematics Connected Vehicle Tech Set To Transform Indian Vehicle Fleet Management

 * Mahindra’s iMAXX offers unprecedented predictability & control over the transporter’s fleet, leading to higher profits and a hassle-free ownership experience

* Featured as Standard Equipment in the BS6 compliant range of BLAZO X HCVs, FURIO ICVs & LCVs and CRUZIO Buses with free subscription package

* New Telematics platform deploys cutting-edge telemetry technology to provide powerful insights on vehicle health and performance

Mahindra Truck and Bus (MTB), a part of the USD 19.4 billion Mahindra Group, today announced the launch of its revolutionary connected vehicle technology, Mahindra iMAXX. This new Telematics platform is fitted into Mahindra’s BS6 emission norms compliant CV range, including the BLAZO X range of HCVs, FURIO range of ICVs & LCVs and CRUZIO range of buses. This new technology promises to further strengthen the value proposition of the MTB range for the company’s discerning customers.

The new Mahindra iMAXX technology, coupled with the tried & tested BS6 engines (mPOWER and MDI Tech) with FUELSMART technology and robust aggregates, retaining over 90% of the parts of the erstwhile BS4 vehicles, will help fleet owners and transporters transition to the BS6 ownership experience smoothly and efficiently. 

Speaking on the occasion, Jalaj Gupta, Business Head, Commercial Vehicles, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “At Mahindra we are the pioneers in Connected Vehicle technology, which has become even more important in the new BS6 era, given the increase in electronics based vehicle controls.”

Mr. Gupta added, “The Mahindra iMAXX Telematics solution, is based on next generation telematics technology and is at the heart of our brand promise -HAR CHEEZ GUARANTEE KE SAATH, for our BS6 vehicles. It is an intelligent fleet telematics solution which deploys cutting-edge telemetry technology like Dual CAN (Controller Area Network), 4G and other leading digital technologies, including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, to provide powerful insights on vehicle health and performance. This helps in maximizing returns for Fleet Owners.”

With the right telematics platform, like Mahindra iMAXX, enhanced fleet operations efficiency leads to higher asset productivity/ fleet utilization, lower costs of operations and higher fleet safety. Mahindra iMAXX, is an intelligent platform and a differentiated solution compared to other offerings in the market that focus mainly on location tracking based services and basic vehicle electronic data.

Today, Mahindra is seeing an unprecedented number of success stories from its BS4 fleet customers who are achieving upwards of 10% fuel economy improvements across their fleet.  In fact some customers are even achieving 100% asset productivity improvements in terms of kilometers driven per vehicle per day, thanks to the intelligent insights provided by the Mahindra iMAXX platform that was soft launched and co-created with customers in the earlier BS4 era.

Unique Benefits of Mahindra iMAXX Telematics Platform:

As against the regular telematics solutions that focus mainly on location tracking based services and basic vehicle performance analysis, the intelligent and revolutionary Mahindra iMAXX is in a different league due to the following:

Embedded Device Capability – The core capability of the Mahindra iMAXX embedded device is to absorb large scale, high frequency engine and allied system data securely, and transmit on a real-time basis over 4G airwaves for server processing. To put this in perspective, the amount of data transmitted through the Mahindra iMAXX device from the vehicle is on an average 600% higher than the previous generation telematics systems available in the market.

Digital Twin Platform – Once such a large amount of data comes into Mahindra iMAXX cloud servers, the machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence models put in place at the Mahindra iMAXX digital twin platform level helps provide accurate, reliable and predictive business and engineering insights. While most telematics solutions fetch and show vehicle data to customers without any further intelligence or analysis built-in, Mahindra iMAXX has the unique and unparalleled capability to add machine intelligence to normal data for enhanced credibility, efficacy and reliability – a First in Indian CV industry.

To appreciate the power and uniqueness of this solution, and how this technology powers our service guarantees for customers, consider this actual case that occurred on one of the customer’s vehicle during Lockdown 1.0. The artificial intelligence built into the system which monitors multiple correlated vehicle parameters was able to predict an engine cooling system issue, 33 hours prior to it actually occurring on the vehicle i.e. vehicle sending a high coolant temperature fault code through its ECU. With the predictive alert available at the right time to our NOW 24X7 helpline and Uptime monitoring team and to the customer, coupled with the agility and timely action of the customer support team, a possible major vehicle breakdown was averted and the driver continued on the trip after minor repairs provided by our mobile service van.

For more details on the features of Mahindra iMAXX, please click on:

https://www.mahindratruckandbus.com/imaxx.aspx

Godrej Locks Introduces Contactless Key, Arm-Operated Door Handle and Foot-Operated Door Openers, e-Commerce on Amazon India

Godrej Locks & Architectural Fittings and Systems, the 123-year-young leading manufacturer of innovative locking solutions, announced its foray into the contactless products segment with an innovative contactless safety access range for the post COVID-19 world. The company has launched four new products in the range including Universal Brass Key, Arm-Operated Door Handle and two variants of Foot-Operated Door Opener. The company has launched this range exclusively on e-commerce and is currently available for purchase on Amazon India.

In the new normal, people are concerned about the surfaces they touch with their hands. They want to avoid any direct contact to keep themselves safe from germs, bacteria and viruses. Godrej Locks addresses these genuine concerns of people with its new contactless safety access range. These new products are designed proficiently for homes and commercial spaces like hotels, restaurants, malls, retail stores, hospitals, etc., ensuring people don’t have to touch surfaces directly with their hands. 

Godrej Universal Brass Key ensures that people do not touch any contaminated surface directly with the hands. The Universal Brass key provides a wide range of applications such as to pull door handles in public and private places, press pin pads, open and close bathroom doors, turn on/off electrical switches, carry groceries, among others. This key has antimicrobial properties since brass kills germs and bacteria and avoids spreading of viruses.

Godrej Arm pull handle is an arm-operated door opener that works on any latch-less wood, or metal door. Similarly, Godrej Foot Pull is a foot-operated door opener that can be used to open any kind of doors. Be it opening washroom door, internal & main residential door, hospital door, office door, commercial spaces or retail stores, both these hands-free solutions ensure one can open doors without touching them with hands. This makes Godrej Arm pull handle and Foot Pull a reliable solution to avoid transmission of germs and bacteria. These products can be installed easily on doors, without the help of a carpenter.

Commenting on the launch, Shyam Motwani, EVP and Business Head, Godrej Locks & Architectural Fittings and Systems, said, “With the outbreak of COVID-19, the world has seen people take proactive measures for better health and hand hygiene. As concerns over the spread of the virus through contact or shared surfaces continue to threaten the world, the segment of contactless products is becoming the preferred choice for people, be it for home or commercial spaces. Hence, looking at this current need of people, we have launched a contactless safety access range offering them a unique solution to go touchless.”

He further added, “We have opted for an exclusive e-commerce launch as we will be able to reach out to a wider audience across geographies within India. We are confident that these high grade contactless solutions will ensure the safety and well-being of our customers.”

The entire contactless safety access range is very affordable keeping in mind the interest of people. Godrej Universal Brass Key comes at a price of INR 299 only. Godrej Arm pull handle and Godrej Foot Pull is available for INR 499. These products are currently available on Amazon India. Godrej Locks is likely to partner with other e-commerce platforms to make its innovation contactless solutions available for customers.

About Godrej Locks and Architectural Hardware & Fittings

Godrej Locks & Architectural Hardware and Fittings is a 123-year-old leading manufacturer of innovative locking devices. Since its inception in 1897 by Ardeshir Godrej, the name ‘Godrej’ has become synonymous with trust, protection and integrity. From the first Anchor branded lock in 1897 to the first ever spring less lock in 1907, to the iconic 'Navtal' in 1954, and to the postmodern biometric locks, Godrej has set every benchmark in the locks industry. Over the years, Godrej Locks and Architectural Hardware & Fittings have changed in form, function and scope of application. But one thing still remains the same – the solid stamp of trust and reliability. Godrej Locks adhere to global quality norms and hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications.

With their locks reaching several countries around the world over a period of time, the brand has come a long way in delivering world-class smart locking solutions, therefore revolutionizing the very perception of a locking device from a mere functionality at an entry and exit point, to a proud pause at the doorstep, a moment to take in the significance of how far they have come.

CMR Study Reveals Consumers are Prioritizing Audio Quality Over Camera in their Smartphone Purchase

 Consumer Study 

* Indians consider audio quality as one of the most important factors in their next smartphone purchase with a score of 66 out of 100, followed by battery life at 61, and camera at 60

As per a new study by CyberMedia Research (CMR), Indian Consumers are now prioritising audio quality as a key smartphone purchase driver ahead of camera and battery. In fact across all parameters one in every four users have stated audio quality as the most important factor while selecting their smartphone. For the first time ever, consumers are more tuned into ‘audio quality’, possibly driven by long hours spent alone in a homebound economy. In doing so, they are also seeking better, immersive experiences.

“Given the advancements in smartphone camera and battery, I believe consumers are mostly satisfied with industry-leading innovations therein. On the other hand, in the current homebound economy, consumers are getting more aware, and paying more heed to audio quality. As such, they are putting it on priority for the neo normal, from a communication and content consumption point of view,” said Satya Mohanty, Head-Industry Consulting Group, CMR.

According to Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, “These interesting study findings provide us with a basis to better understand evolving consumer aspirations around smartphone audio. Consumers are now seeking infinitely better and immersive listening experiences, whenever and wherever they go. Across use cases, ranging from OTT consumption to mobile gaming & even UGC, consumers seek more high-quality sound. This is where brands with industry-leading innovations, such as Dolby, will stand to shine and fulfill consumer aspirations.”

The CMR study titled “What Audio Means for Indian Smartphone users?” categorizes Indian consumers, based on their audio consumption patterns, into three broad cohorts:

* Digital Natives who spend >20 hours weekly (39%)

* Digital Dependents who spend 10-20 hours weekly (44%)

* Digital Laggards who spend < 10 hours weekly (17%)

Online content consumption – movies and music, have witnessed a tremendous growth, driven by the ubiquitous smartphones. Over the past few years, the rise of affordable and value for money smartphones has fueled content consumption, on-the-go, and at home.

India loves to binge watch on video streaming platforms, cutting across genres, including episodic content and user-generated video content on social media. In the midst of the pandemic, OTT platforms are benefiting from increased viewership, as well as new subscribers. Amongst the three cohorts, Digital Natives tend to spend more time on OTT platforms & rate audio as the most important factor considered while buying their current smartphone. 

Here are some of the most interesting study findings:

* Audio quality matters. Indians consider audio quality as one of the most important factors in their next smartphone purchase with a score of 66 out of 100, followed by Battery Life at 61, and Camera at 60. Smartphone users consume audio mostly through

* listening to music on popular audio OTT platforms (94%),

* watching video – movies, OTT content, or user-generated content on social networks (96%).

* Preferred audio accessories include wired earplugs and earbuds. 78% of the consumers prefer wired earplugs, while 65% indicate using earbuds.

* Video consumption differ with consumer personas. For instance, Digital Natives prefer videos of shorter duration (38%) whereas Digital Laggards prefer videos of longer duration (23%).

* Better audio experience means differently to different consumer personas. For instance, Digital Laggards associate better audio experience to voice and dialogue clarity (69%), whereas Digital Natives associate it to an immersive experience (61%).

* Five in every eight users (62%), use audio during gaming. 72% of those users are satisfied with it.

* Indians more tuned to audio problems. Three in every seven users face some problems in smartphone audio on a regular basis. Problems faced include

* Audio being too soft (33%)

* Audio being too loud (30%)

* Distorted audio (24%)

Note for Editors:

The CMR study titled “What Audio Means for Indian Smartphone Users?” is based on a digital survey covering 1012 respondents, across six cities of India, namely New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad, covering the age groups of 18 to 40, and socio-economic levels of SEC A and B. The study was conducted in early to late July 2020.

For results based on a randomly chosen sample of this size, there is 95% confidence that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 3% of what they would be if the entire population had been surveyed.

To know more, and download the report, visit www.cmrindia.com/shelf