Airtel Announces Benefits Worth Rs 270 Cr To Help 55 Million Low Income Customers To Tide Over The Impact Of Covid-19

 
Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s premier communications solutions provider announced special benefits for low-income customers on its network to help them stay connected during the ongoing pandemic. 

As a one-time gesture, Airtel will give the Rs 49 pack FREE of cost to over 55 million low income customers. The pack offers a talktime of Rs 38 and 100 MB data with a validity of 28 days. Through this gesture Airtel will empower over 55 million customers, mostly in rural areas, to stay connected and have access to critical information when needed.                 

Double the benefits. At this time, customers have an increased requirement of staying connected. Keeping this in mind, Airtel prepaid customers buying the Rs 79 Recharge Coupon will now get double the benefit. This will make it easier for them to stay connected at a difficult time. 

These benefits will be available to Airtel customers in the coming week.  

About Bharti Airtel 

Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over 458 mn customers in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT, Ad Tech and cloud based communication.

World Hypertension Day: Managing Hypertension During The Times Of COVID-19

As the world whirls under the effects of COVID-19, people with high blood pressure (BP) are more prone to confronting severe complications. Hypertension or high blood pressure has always been considered among serious medical conditions in India, which substantially increases the risk of heart, kidney, brain, and other diseases. Most of the people suffers from anxiety or stress, unhealthy food habits, or some possess hereditary tendencies, all of which can lead to hypertension.

There are some findings from the United States and India that have demonstrated that people who die of COVID-19 had around 2-3 of these risk factors. However, there is no precise reason, but various theories have been claimed.

A weaker immune system is one of the reasons that people with high blood pressure and other health ailments are at higher risk of contracting coronavirus. Long-term health conditions and ageing diminish your immune system and making it difficult to fight off the virus. Therefore, at this critical time, it becomes important for everyone to manage hypertension and do some lifestyle modifications.

Some preventive tips:

· Maintain health with proper diet: Health experts recommend different treatments for blood pressure patients. For a few, they might indicate a change in their eating habits to include food that is rich in potassium, for example: oranges, bananas, spinach, broccoli, etc, that helps in reducing blood pressure.

· Avoid Sodium rich food: It becomes compulsory for blood pressure patients to consume less salt and avoid packaged food as the consumption of sodium can cause a spike in blood pressure.

· Get enough physical exercise: An individual must exercise at least 30 minutes a day. The more one exercises, the simpler it becomes to control one’s blood pressure. Even mild exercise for 30 minutes four times a week will bring about changes in one’s body.

· Getting adequate Sleep:  Sleep is directly proportionate to your health condition, an adequate sleep for 8 hours helps maintain your blood pressure by not making it worse. People who sleep six hours or less may have steeper increases in blood pressure. There is more data on sleeping postures that can help manage hypertension.

· Invest in preventive health check-ups and genetic testing: Family history and genetics are common risk factors for most diseases. Genetic testing can help in knowing your predisposition for your overall health condition as hypertension can affect other organs like eyesight, kidney, and heart. A full body checkup helps you to lead a correct lifestyle and manage such condition better. Such people must monitor their blood pressure regularly along with other co-related conditions.

· Taking medicines regularly: Patients with hypertension should be consistent with their medications even if their blood pressure levels are normal. For any changes in the medication, they should always consult a doctor, but not stop the current medication.

GCPAS-MAHE To Conduct International Conference In Association With UNESCO Peace Chair

An online international conference on ‘Ecosophy, Art and Peace’ will be held on May 20 and 21, 2021 under the auspices of Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences (GCPAS) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, India, in association with UNESCO Peace Chair.

In these trying times, each unit of the theme – Ecosophy, Art and Peace – could be independently interdependent and interconnected among themselves; each unit is singularly significant and all units, interdependently as a whole, form the very basis of meaningful existence.

The problems faced by the world today may be categorised as individual, ecological and socio-political; different forms of art, could be the ‘means and ends’ to make life better, with deep philosophical exploration as their basis.

The GCPAS, MAHE will undertake its unique international conference with following sub-themes and inter-disciplinary approach.     

1.       Ecological challenges

2.       Socio-economic issues

3.       Alternative Economics

4.       Media and Social Change

5.       Gender Studies

6.       Ecosophical/Philosophical Explorations and Aesthetics

7.       Literature, Cinema and other art forms

8.       Peace: from individual to international  

Deadlines and Guidelines

Paper submission: May 16, 2021 (3,000 words)

Conference dates: May 20 and 21, 2021

Address: conference.gcpas@manipal.edu

The Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences (GCPAS) is a constituent department of the deemed university - Manipal Academy of Higher Education, which offers two postgraduate programmes – MA in Ecosophical Aesthetics and MA in Art and Peace Studies and an undergraduate programme in Aesthetics and Peace Studies.    

An Update On Twitter’s Efforts To Support The COVID-19 Conversation In India

More ways to find credible information

Along with the event pages we shared last week, we’ve launched new State-specific COVID-19 pages that surface the latest Tweets from people asking for SOS resources, as well as those offering help. We currently have six State-specific pages available in the places hardest hit by COVID-19, including: Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab.

The COVID-19 SOS page helps surface information from those offering or seeking immediate help during this crisis. We have also built a series of Twitter Moments to help you get the facts from the most reliable sources about vaccine safety, how to stay safe and more.

Twitter Lists curate all the Tweets from accounts on that list in one place, making it easy to navigate and keep up with specific accounts during fast-moving events. We have curated a series of Twitter Lists of health authorities, public health experts, health journalists, fact-checkers, and other authoritative sources, so you can stay up to date about information during the second wave of the pandemic. We’ve also created a List of verified organisations who are engaging in COVID-19 relief work that you can follow on Twitter.

As India opens up vaccination to everyone above the age of 18 years on May 1st, you may be looking for up-to-date, localised information about vaccine safety, vaccine eligibility, and more. To meet this need, we’re expanding our efforts to surface credible COVID-19 information with home Timeline prompts featuring the latest information about COVID-19 vaccines in both English and Hindi.

We are partnering with news and media organisations as well as journalists across India to bring the latest, most credible news about COVID-19 to your timeline. These diverse and trusted voices share valuable information in real-time and in multiple languages across formats like video, Twitter Moments, threads and livestreams.

Enabling developers to build tools in real-time

Developers in India are building creative tools and apps using the Twitter API to help people source information about medical services, oxygen, medicines, food, and more. We've been working closely with developers to ensure their services are able to have the widest impact, and reach the most people while operating in compliance with Twitter's developer policies.

A couple of examples include covid19-twitter.in and covidsos, developed by Umang Galaiya and Mashrin Srivastava respectively. These tools, built using the Twitter API, make use of Twitter’s Advanced Search functionality by providing easy-to-use filters that help people navigate Tweets about COVID-19 in real-time by applying location filters or other search parameters.

To surface the most recent Tweets about COVID-19 resources and requests, Shivam Dhruva and Mahendra Rathod have developed CovidTweet, which is an interface that lets volunteers see recent, verified requests in one place.

Sprinklr has built a comprehensive dashboard to give people a way to see city-specific requests for medicines, oxygen, hospital beds, plasma, and other critical necessities.

CovidVerified, developed by Shikhar Saxena and Siddharth Bulia is enabling volunteers on-the-ground  to verify the availability and fulfilment of requests related to oxygen, hospital beds and many other essentials.

Helping you donate to organisations

Prompt: We have launched a prompt that will show up for anyone searching key hashtags such as #helpIndia and #donateIndia, or even combinations of key terms like ‘help’ + ‘India’ or ‘donate’ + India’. The prompt will direct you to a Twitter List of verified organisations that we work with, and to an event page featuring the latest Tweets from some of the organisations on the front lines of India’s COVID-19 response.

Tip Jar: Last week we launched Tip Jar, a new way for people to support others with money and lend a helping hand. It allows you to link to an existing account with the following payment providers: PayPal, Cash App, Patreon, Bandcamp and Venmo, and takes you off Twitter to the selected app where you can show your support in the amount you choose. Twitter takes no cut.

This feature is particularly relevant during a crisis like the one we are in, which is why we are in the process of expanding the number of accounts that have access to this feature in the country. We are also working to bring Indian payment providers to Tip Jar, along with the ability to use Tip Jar in multiple languages.

Our approach

Ads for Good Credits: Following our earlier commitment to provide Ads for Good credits to help amplify Tweets from five non-profits and organisations supporting COVID-relief efforts, we have extended credits to six new organisations including: Give India, Akshaya Patra, Milaap, Rise Against Hunger India and the Hemkunt Foundation.

Protecting the public conversation with our policies

We are committed to protecting the public conversation, and our policies help us do that. A global team of specialists are working around the clock to make it easy to find credible information on Twitter and to limit the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content.

COVID-19 Misinformation Policy: We know people are concerned about misinformation circulating on the service in the midst of a public health crisis, and we want to ensure we are clear when articulating our policies. We tackle COVID-19 misinformation based on the highest potential for harm using a combination of product, technology, and human review. In order for content related to COVID-19 to be labeled or removed under this policy, it must:

●        Advance a claim of fact, expressed in definitive terms

●        Be demonstrably false or misleading, based on widely available, authoritative sources

●        Be likely to impact public safety or cause serious harm

As of 1 March 2021, following the update to our COVID-19 misleading information policy regarding misleading information about vaccines, we apply a label warning on Tweets that advance unsubstantiated rumors and disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information about vaccines. Tweets which advance harmful false or misleading narratives about COVID-19 vaccinations will continue to be removed.

Golmaal Fun With Donuts: Mad Over Donuts And Nickelodeon Collaborate To Make Summer Brighter For Kids

* Inspired by Nick’s Golmaal Jr. Prank Gang and mangoes, the specially curated donuts will be available in 3 different mango flavour variants 

This summer is all about staying indoors and being safe at home, and that means children are confined to their homes their entire vacation, away from friends and fun. To make these gloomy, tougher times lighter, India’s loved brands Mad Over Donuts and Nickelodeon have collaborated with one another to spread cheer amongst children and gift them several unforgettable experiences with #NickKaMangoficentSummer

Mad Over Donuts and Nickelodeon India are all set to introduce a limited edition of mango flavoured donuts called ‘Golmaal Jr. Treat Box’ inspired by none other than Nick’s Golmaal Jr, an animated show by director Rohit Shetty based on the comedy movie series Golmaal.

Known as the pranksters, Gopal, Madhav and the rest of the Golmaal Jr gang have always been the favourites of kids. This summer, through this one-of-its-kind partnership, the best thing for our young viewers in the afternoons is to indulge in the seasonal mango treats as they watch the all-new episodes of the mischievous escapades of Golmaal Jr every Monday to Friday at 12.30 PM on Nick channel.

Bite into Happiness with the exclusively curated ‘Golmaal Jr. Treat Box’ that consists of soft, fluffy donuts which are available in season special mango flavours: Mango Cheesecake, filled with mango-infused cream cheese, topped with mango chocolate curls and mango jam; Mango Tango, stuffed with mango jam and topped with mango chocolate shavings; and Mango Berry, oozing with white chocolate, mango chocolate and dark chocolate ganache. These extremely delicious donut flavours are available across the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

The limited edition of the Prank Gang donuts will have the characters come to life with creative toon designs on the package and box toppers of the toon characters greeting the little customers who have ordered them online. For our little fans, these treats call for loud hurrahs and mid-week high fives in the comfort of one’s home. Fun designs on the outside and delicious mango donuts inside -- have you seen a better combination that could make a child smile?

The formula of good food plus favourite toons has worked with kids ever since the lockdown happened, says Mr.Tarak Bhattacharya, Executive Director, Mad over Donuts. “We have partnered with Nickelodeon to provide comic relief to our tiny little customers. In fact, one of the most popular food items that has helped kids perk a bit is donut. As we have entered May, a month that kickstarts with season of mangoes, who better than our prank gang to take the onus of spreading happiness and cheer and make the month more humorous for our little audiences!” shares Bhattacharya.

This collaboration will be promoted by a 360-degree marketing and communications plan which will include digital promotions. Year after year, brands like Mad Over Donuts and Nickelodeon work towards innovative and fun ideas for customer engagement across all age groups.

Speaking about keeping kids engaged through the summer, Sonali Bhattacharya - Head – Marketing, Kids Entertainment Cluster at Viacom18 said, “We believe that as the category leader we have a very important role to play in keeping kids in a positive frame of mind in these difficult times. Nothing can lift the spirit as well as a pack of donuts curated specifically keeping the kids’ favourite Nicktoons in mind! The bond that kids have with the Golmaal Jr. gang is very strong and this innovative collaboration with Mad Over Doughnuts is our attempt in bringing cheer to kids while they remain indoors during the summertime. We are certain that the Golmaal Jr. Prank Gang donuts will infuse happy moments in the days of kids and their families.”

Keeping in mind the current scenario, all Mad over Donuts stores are maintaining the highest hygiene and safety standards in their workstations and are offering contactless home delivery options. We encourage our customers to stay at home and get happiness delivered. The brand offers 100% eggless and freshly made products. You can order them from the comfort of your home, through Zomato or Swiggy or by visiting www.madoverdonuts.com. Spreading happiness is the core mantra of Mad Over Donuts and we want the contagious cheer of happiness to be a constant in the lives of our fans, young and elderly alike.

Technology Business Incubator Of SRM University-AP Launched The First Start-Up Venture Cohort

Technology Business Incubator of SRM University-AP launched the first venture cohort with 36 selected start-up business ventures, on May 15, 2021, in the presence of the special guest of honour from industry, Prof Ramesh Loganathan, Head of Co-innovation and Outreach at IIIT Hyderabad and Ex-Chief Innovation Officer of the Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC).

“From the initial years onwards, SRM University-AP is focused to create entrepreneurs who can be the leaders of tomorrow. The University signed an MOU with the University of California, Berkeley to design the curriculum to promote entrepreneurship,” Said Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor, SRM University-AP, in his welcome speech.

Advancing the proceedings of the event, the guest of honour Prof Ramesh Loganathan gave a brief understanding of the scope and future of entrepreneurship in India and the global scenario. “The entrepreneurial journey should start with identifying the problems in the ecosystem. A great example can be the face recognition software that started with the idea of capturing student attendance in colleges. Similarly, the budding entrepreneurs should identify such similar problems, do thorough market research and then prepare the business plan. The price of the product/idea should matter the last.”

SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh established the ‘Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA)’ as part of the strategic alliance with UC Berkeley to create an academy combining their Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Jacob Center of Design and Innovation to foster the culture of innovation, design and entrepreneurship among the students of all streams including engineering, liberal arts and sciences, and management. Dr Prakash Jadav, Associate Professor and Head of IDEA opined, “It is exciting to see so many students submitting their business ideas in the first business cohort. I am sure that with our guidance and mentorship, they all can reach new heights in setting up their ventures in the industry.”

62 teams, which comprises 192 students applied for the opportunity. After rigorous screening and evaluation on various parameters like innovation, scalability and commercialization, 36 teams/ ventures were selected to be a part of the SRM TBI’s first cohort.

The selected ventures will be mentored and supported for a period of a minimum of 12 months where they will be facilitated with infrastructure support, mentoring and networking support, seed fund, and innovation fund support, hardware and software support, industry connectivity, learning resources, market exposure and several others.

The selected ventures will be mentored and supported for a period of a minimum of 12 months will all the services of a regular technology business incubator. SRM TBI will also provide an opportunity to pitch to the investors, connects with industry experts, market linkage, and a global network of mentors. The start-ups developing prototypes and MVP can apply for the Product validation track and pre-revenue/ revenue stage start-ups can apply for the Market validation track. Each of the 36 start-up ventures will get hands-on mentoring and guidance from the mentors and experts from their respective working areas. The start-ups go through physical interactions through contact sessions at SRM AP and virtual interaction with mentors through online workshops during the program.

Mr Udayan Bakshi, CEO SRM TBI & Associate Director Entrepreneurship cordially thanked all the speakers and panelists for their efforts to make the SRM TBI cohort launch a grand success. He also highlighted that TBI will not limit to just this batch of students or to the SRM University-AP, but shall extend its vision and activities to the entire ecosystem.

Hero Motocorp & Gurugram Districts Administration Partner To Set-Up 100-Bed COVID-19 Care Centre

In keeping with its commitment towards Covid-19 relief efforts, Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, has partnered with the District Administration of Gurugram in Haryana to set-up a makeshift 100-bed Covid Care Centre in the city.

Hero MotoCorp is supporting the Covid-19 Care Centre - set up at the Government Girls College in Sector 14, Gurugram – under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform “Hero We Care”.

Dr. Yash Garg, lAS, Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram, Haryana said, “The support from Hero MotoCorp towards Covid-19 relief is extremely heartening and we are grateful to the company and its employees for extending a helping hand during this hour of crisis. The Covid Care Centre will help augment our medical infrastructure and enable us to widen the scope of our relief activities for the affected people in the district. This is an excellent example of the public-private partnership in contributing towards the larger cause of the society. At a challenging time such as this, we urge more corporates and private organisations to come forward for similar initiatives.”

Bharatendu Kabi, Head – Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) & Corporate Communication, Hero MotoCorp said, “As a responsible corporate citizen, Hero MotoCorp has always believed in contributing towards the wellbeing of the ecosystem that we operate in. We are truly glad to partner with the district administration in setting up this 100-bed Covid Care Centre, which will go a long way in supporting the healthcare infrastructure in the Gurugram.”

Hero MotoCorp continues to keep expanding its initiatives towards Covid-19 relief across the country by partnering with local hospitals, state governments and local authorities.

Hero MotoCorp’s Covid-19 Relief Measures

· Hero MotoCorp recently partnered with the Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Kankhal (RMSK) at Haridwar in Uttarakhand for strengthening their healthcare system and response to Covid-19

· Additionally, Hero MotoCorp is also extending support to Covid-19 hospitals in various states, including Delhi, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

· The company is also providing its motorcycles and scooters for safe, personal commuting by health workers and medical staff in several states, including Delhi & NCR, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat

· Hero MotoCorp has contributed oxygen cylinders for emergency medical use by some of the hospitals in Delhi and Haryana. The Company has been donating PPE Kits to the health authorities in various states for use by health workers