Monsoons And Non-Covid Diseases! How To Avoid Them? IHP Director

This spells out Ms. Kanchan Naikawadi, Director at Indus Health Plus, pioneers in affordable, comprehensive and qualitative preventive health check-ups and diagnostics. Established in the year 2000, Indus Health Plus was primarily started to propagate the inherent benefits of preventive diagnostics and create awareness on how preventive health check-ups can reduce mortality and risks related with modern day diseases.

The story of Ms Kanchan Naikawadi is that of an ambitious career woman, successful businesswoman and inspiring woman entrepreneur. Director of Indus Health Plus, a leading preventive healthcare brand in India, Ms Kanchan has been the driving force behind the growth and development of Indus Health Plus. She is blessed with multiple abilities including marketing skills, industry knowledge, superb dynamism, hardworking capability and adventuresome spirit. Of the female entrepreneurs of India, she is a face of women power in the 21 century. She has bagged several prestigious awards for being the leading woman entrepreneur in the healthcare segment.

One of the main pillars and the building forces at Indus, Kanchan serves as an inspiration for all women, to dream big and achieve bigger goals in life. She has balanced her home and work incredibly to develop the company’s operations and expansion plans. ‘Adventure’, being her second nature, is the driving force instrumental in energizing her outlook to each fresh day full of fresh new ideas to be explored.

Born on August 6, 1972 in Mumbai, she completed her schooling from The Blue Mountains, Ooty and graduated in Commerce from the Mumbai University. With an amazing passion for speed, racing and flying, she started her career in 1993 as a counselor with Trade Wings. Thereafter her journey began as she strived to reach the sky, with a deep rooting to the ground.

Her calling came from Pune, where was she trained under her uncle, Mr. Sadanand Bapat, an excellent entrepreneur who molded her personality into what she is today. The de facto Director of HR, Administration and Operations, her expertise and motivation has led to the increase of the Indus family to more than  5 lakh satisfied members and an ever-growing family across cities. Kanchan believes in understanding the finer nuances of every single task. No work is small or big for her. Open to suggestions and feedback from employees across levels, her open-minded and flexible nature is definitely appreciated and respected by all her employees at Indus. A superb organizer and a vivacious worker, her expertise has brought Indus to what it is today, growing each day to achieve a pan-Indian footprint in the preventive health care segment.

A strong headed woman, Kanchan is blessed with the skills of multiplying money and handles this function on a daily basis. Thanks to her guidance, Indus is an extremely sound and financially well-managed company, with well-equipped and renowned delivery partners across the country. With a presence in 17 states and delivery partners in 78 cities across more than 122 centers, this 9001:2008 certified company; Indus Health Plus further expanding its network of delivery centers across the country.

Ms. Kanchan Naikawadi was conferred with Gold Stevie Awards for the category of 'Female Entrepreneur of the Year and Bronze Stevie Awards for the category of 'Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Asia, Australia and New Zealand' held on Nov. 2015. She bagged the Women Leadership Award in Healthcare during the Stars of The Industry Awards held on 14th Feb 2015 in Mumbai. She was conferred the title of Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by CMO - Asia - Women Leadership Awards 2014. She bagged Women Leadership and Innovation Awards 2014 for being the best innovator in the healthcare category. She received Silver Stevie for Female Entrepreneur of the year in Asia and Female Entrepreneur for Consumer Product at Stevie Women in Business Awards 2013.  . She was conferred as Woman Personality of the Year during CMO - Asia - Women Leadership Awards 2013 held in Singapore. She received the Women in Leadership and Innovation Award and “Gaurav Stree Shakti Award" in 2013.

A full time mother of two lovely girls, Kanchan has proved that multi-tasking is her forte. Traveling and the ever eagerness to learn is the driving force behind this woman. With an unending love to observe, grasp and implement, Kanchan’s belief is that ‘All work can be play and fun’.

Lam Research Sets Goal To Operate At 100% Renewable Energy By 2030, Achieve Carbon Net Zero By 2050

* Company outlines goals and accomplishments in seventh annual environmental, social and governance report

Lam Research Corp. (Nasdaq: LRCX) today published its annual Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report detailing the company’s progress in reducing its environmental footprint, driving a healthy and safe workforce, advancing inclusion and diversity, and contributing positively to the broader community.

“The world’s response to the devastating pandemic has illuminated how we can transform our planet and intensify the best in humanity when we all work together towards a common goal,” said Tim Archer, president and chief executive officer of Lam Research. “I could not be prouder of the incredible efforts of Lam’s workforce to deliver for our customers and answer the call from our communities in need under the most challenging of circumstances. And in that spirit, I’m pleased to announce our goals detailed in the ESG Report include operating 100% on renewable energy by 2030 and becoming carbon net zero by 2050 to contribute to a more sustainable world.”

The company is proactively implementing environmental measures throughout its operations, from operational practices to the design of its products. In 2020, Lam made advances toward its 2025 sustainable operations goals in energy savings, water conservation, waste abatement, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. This includes goals of reducing scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from a 2019 baseline; achieving 12 million kWh in energy savings; conducting waste audits at applicable factory sites; reducing waste to landfill to 0%; and saving 17 million gallons of water in water stressed areas.

The recently released report provides an in-depth review of Lam’s ESG goals and strategies, as well as accomplishments in 2020. Key highlights include:

COVID-19 Relief and Recovery: As part of the company’s $25 million commitment for global COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts, Lam designated $7 million for assistance in communities where employees live and work. Funds were localized to each community’s specific needs, such as food security, shelter, education, personal protective equipment for local hospitals, and longer-term recovery efforts. This included a 2-for-1 matching gift campaign for employee monetary donations to COVID-19 relief programs. More than 200 organizations were supported through the company’s efforts in 2020, and Lam’s commitment continues into 2021.

Workplace Health and Safety: In response to the pandemic, Lam deployed measures to ensure the health and safety of its employees. The company’s incident management teams implemented administrative, engineering, and environmental controls at each company site to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In 2020, Lam’s global recordable incident rate was 64% less than the industry average.

Inclusion and Diversity: Inclusion and diversity (I&D) is a strategic focus area for Lam, and the company invested in I&D practices across the employee experience, including training, engagement, and company policy. This past year, 98% of all employees took part in a web-based microinequities training, fostering a more inclusive culture. Lam continues to activate eight employee resource groups connecting more than 1,100 employees and has ongoing relationships with industry partners and leading organizations in the I&D community.

Responsible Products: The Sense.i® product family’s new innovations in RF power and controls technology not only improve performance but also increase efficiency and enable customers to reduce the RF power used by 10-20% for each wafer etched. With new design and advanced manufacturing approaches, Lam eliminated 15,000 pounds of aluminum raw material per Sense.i tool. This reduces the resources consumed in the initial production of the unnecessary aluminum plate and in the recycling stream of 1.5 million pounds per year.

In collaboration with ASML and imec, Lam introduced a groundbreaking dry photoresist technology for extreme ultraviolet patterning that uses five to ten times less chemistry and two times less energy to create the same result, delivering significant cost savings and a more sustainable solution for chipmakers.

Extending the Equipment Lifecycle: Many of the technical advances Lam introduces in its newest products are available as upgrades through its Customer Support Business Group (CSBG), providing customers with a cost-effective strategy for extending the performance and capabilities of their existing installed base. Additionally, CSBG provides refurbished previous-generation equipment for applications that do not require the most advanced wafer processing capability, which results in avoiding the environmental impacts of manufacturing a new tool.

Lam’s Spares offerings enable the re-use of high value spare parts through a variety of re-cleaning, repair, refurbishment and re-coating services. Part lifetime extension, enabled by re-cleaning services, translates to approximately $400 million of reduction in materials consumption per year. Part re-use enabled by repair and refurbishment services translates to approximately $150 million of reduction in materials consumption per year.

Last week, Lam also announced the closing of an inaugural $1.5 billion sustainability-linked credit facility, demonstrating the importance of the company’s ESG goals. Over the credit facility term, Lam will receive a pricing adjustment if the company is above or below performance targets around annual energy savings and maintaining its high standard of employee safety.

About Lam Research

Lam Research Corporation is a global supplier of innovative wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. As a trusted, collaborative partner to the world’s leading semiconductor companies, we combine superior systems engineering capability, technology leadership, and unwavering commitment to customer success to accelerate innovation through enhanced device performance. In fact, today, nearly every advanced chip is built with Lam technology. Lam Research (Nasdaq: LRCX) is a FORTUNE 500® company headquartered in Fremont, Calif., with operations around the globe. Learn more at www.lamresearch.com. (LRCX-B).

Jagriti And Zoho Join Hands To Build Digital Innovation Ecosystem In Eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal)

Jagriti, a non-profit that nurtures and promotes entrepreneurship in small towns and non-urban areas, announced today that it has partnered with Zoho Corp., a global technology company headquartered in Chennai, to set up a Digital Centre of Excellence (CoE) at its upcoming campus at Deoria, Uttar Pradesh. The Digital CoE will aim to incubate 3500 local SMEs, and provide technology support to 20,000 other companies, thereby promoting decentralised development and creation of local intellectual property.

The centre is one among the six CoEs being set-up in the new 6-acre campus of Jagriti Enterprise Centre-Purvanchal (JECP) in Deoria. The six CoEs will cater to SMEs in Deoria and 15 surrounding districts, and focus on different areas, namely: Agro-processing, Healthcare, Digital, Women, Rurbanization, and Handicraft & Apparel.

As a key partner for JECP’s Digital CoE, Zoho aims to create an innovation sandbox in Purvanchal by bringing its knowledge, expertise, and resources to the entrepreneurs in the region. This includes support in the form of technology, training, mentorship, and more.

Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Co-founder, Zoho Corp. said: "We are invested in creating knowledge hubs, and promoting R&D and entrepreneurship, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas. Only by decentralising development and tapping into the talent pool that exists in villages and small towns will we be able to develop technological capabilities and know-how necessary for a resilient economy. While we have been undertaking such initiatives in southern India, this partnership enables us to expand them to the north as well."

Speaking on behalf of Jagriti, Shashank Mani, Founder of JECP said, “Zoho’s values and vision are very similar to Jagriti. They seek to impact the small towns and districts of India with a deliberate long-term approach. The Jagriti Enterprise Centre-Purvanchal, and this partnership for the Digital CoE exemplifies these values, and will accelerate inclusive growth in Purvanchal that creates employment in this region.”

Shoaib Ahmed, Chair of JECP Digital CoE said, “Jagriti is a pioneer in focusing on enterprises in Tier 2 and Tier 3 districts. This journey started a decade back with our flagship programme Jagriti Yatra, which has produced 6,000 leaders. JECP and Digital CoE are the culmination of that effort, providing those in Purvanchal a world-class centre in 'Middle India'.”

Praval Singh, VP - Marketing & Customer Experience, Zoho Corp. said: "The Covid-19 pandemic has proven that digital transformation is the key enabler for SMEs, providing them the agility to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions and seize emerging opportunities. The Digital CoE will enable local enterprises to capitalize on this trend by utilising Zoho's resources and expertise."

Building India through Enterprise

Jagriti, a renowned non-profit organization that has been positively influencing the country's youth through its various initiatives for over two decades, believes that entrepreneurial energy in Tier 2 and Tier 3 districts in "Middle India" has to be mobilized for revival and growth of the region, and of the country. According to a Nesta report, Jagriti is “one of the few incubators beyond metros focused on small towns and districts, particularly Uttar Pradesh where employment and entrepreneurship is most needed”.

About Jagriti

Jagriti, a non-profit organization works on the core belief that well supported leaders can create local enterprise and employment to foster inclusive growth. Jagriti has demonstrated the impact of their work by inspiring leaders, creating networks, establishing enterprise templates with multiplier effect. It has worked on a 3 x I framework for its activities that link Inspiration, Incubation and Innovation in Tier 2, Tier 3 districts. Through its flagship program Jagriti Yatra it has created an alumni network of 6,000 young leaders, with 40% women participation and 28% rate of enterprise creation, catalyzing economic momentum in their regions. A visionary incubation and innovation centre, Jagriti Enterprise Centre-Purvanchal (JECP) being set-up in Deoria in eastern Uttar Pradesh has a 6-acre campus next to an inspiring Banyan tree which has been promoting small and medium enterprises in the 15 districts surrounding Deoria. It will have six Centres of Excellence (CoE), focusing on local innovation in Agro-processing, Healthcare, Digital, Women, Rurbanization, and Handicraft & Apparel.

About Zoho

With 50+ apps in nearly every major business category, including sales, marketing, customer support, accounting and back office operations, and an array of productivity and collaboration tools, Zoho is one of the world's most prolific software companies. Zoho is privately held and profitable with more than 9,000 employees. Zoho is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with international headquarters in Chennai, India. Additional offices are in the United States, India, Japan, China, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates. Zoho respects user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products. More than 60 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses, including Zoho itself.

Tata Motors Bags Order Of 15 Hydrogen-Based Fuel Cell Buses From Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

* The buses will be used to evaluate the potential of developing hydrogen-based PEM fuel-cell technology in India

Reaffirming its commitment towards sustainable mobility, Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle player and leading bus manufacturer, announced that it has won a tender of 15 hydrogen-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell buses from the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). IOCL had invited bids for supply of PEM fuel cell buses in December 2020, and Tata Motors was selected as the winner following a diligent evaluation process. All 15 buses will be delivered within 144 weeks from the date of signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

In addition to supplying the buses to the Research & Development Centre of IOCL, Tata Motors will also collaborate with them to undertake R&D projects and collectively study further the potential of Fuel Cell technology for commercial vehicles. This will be done by jointly testing, maintaining and operating these buses for public transport in real-world conditions in Delhi-NCR. The buses will be refuelled by hydrogen, generated and dispensed by IOCL.

Sh. S.M.Vaidya, Chairman, IndianOil, stated that IndianOil has been pioneering the national efforts towards ushering in the hydrogen economy for various applications, including mobility. This 1st of its kind project in the country is bringing the country’s largest fuel supplier and largest commercial vehicle manufacturer on board to take the hydrogen & fuel cell technology to the next level. This initiative would also act as a stepping stone for various other key programs of IndianOil, which proposes to introduce hydrogen-based mobility on different iconic routes and important sectors in the country. These futuristic steps are in the right direction for making hydrogen as the ultimate net-zero fuel.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Girish Wagh, President, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors said, “We are delighted to win this prestigious tender from IOCL for it adds to Tata Motors’ rich legacy of introducing future ready technologies for cleaner and greener public transport. We have successfully supplied 215 EV buses under FAME I and won orders for 600 EV buses under FAME II. This order to supply PEM Fuel Cell buses from a company as respected as Indian Oil Corporation, further encourages our ongoing efforts on developing India-focused alternative sustainable fuels to transform the future of mobility in India.”

Dr. SSV Ramakumar, Director (R&D), IndianOil while congratulating Tata Motors Ltd., mentioned that lot of hard work has been put in by the IndianOil R&D team towards conceiving, planning and executing this joint developmental cum demonstration program with a strong support from Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. IndianOil through cutting edge R&D, is committed to strengthen the production and supply chain of hydrogen energy in India and would be setting up ~1 ton per day hydrogen production pilot plants based on 4 innovative pathways besides collaborating with Tata Motors for fuel cell research.

About Tata Motors

Tata Motors Limited (NYSE: TTM; BSE: 500570 and 570001; NSE: TATAMOTORS and TATAMTRDVR), a USD 35 billion organization, is a leading global automobile manufacturer of cars, utility vehicles, pick-ups, trucks and buses. Part of the USD 113 billion Tata group, Tata Motors is India’s largest and the only OEM offering extensive range of integrated, smart and e-mobility solutions. It has operations in India, the UK, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa, and Indonesia through a strong global network of 103 subsidiaries, 10 associate companies, 3 joint ventures and 2 joint operations as on March 31, 2020.

With a focus on engineering and tech enabled automotive solutions catering to the future of mobility, Tata Motors is India’s market leader in commercial vehicles and amongst the top four in the passenger vehicles market. With ‘Connecting Aspirations’ at the core of its brand promise, the company’s innovation efforts are focused to develop pioneering technologies that are sustainable as well as suited to evolving aspirations of the market and the customers. Tata Motors strives to bring new products that fire the imagination of GenNext customers, fueled by state of the art design and R&D centers located in India, UK, US, Italy and South Korea. Internationally, Tata commercial and passenger vehicles are marketed in countries, spread across Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, South America, Australia, CIS, and Russia.

#IndiaFightsCorona On Twitter: Tweets Around Seeking Or Providing Medical Help Increase By 1958%

Twitter’s research identified, analysed and compared COVID-19 Tweets sent out during the initial months of the second wave in India (April 01 - May 31, 2021) with Tweets from the months preceding it (February 01 - March 31, 2021) to gain insights into the conversations that unfolded on the service

It found that the average daily number of Tweets about COVID-19 from India increased by over 600% (7x) during the surge (April 01 - May 31, 2021)

A boost to the conversation: People in India came together to support each other and share information bolstering replies during the surge months by 1.5x

Tweets from medical professionals in India increased by 1.5x (50%) during the surge as they used Twitter to share important information

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Twitter has played a critical role in keeping people connected and amplifying authoritative information from credible sources. Especially over the course of this past year, the way people have used Twitter has evolved. With the onset of the second wave of COVID-19 in India, Twitter emerged as a real-time helpline as people turned to the service seeking and offering help to secure life-saving facilities, medicines, food, and much more. An incredibly positive people’s movement to support one another took shape on the service. 

Tweets on COVID-19 grew manifold during April 01 - May 31, 2021, and the service witnessed 100% growth in COVID-19 conversations compared with the previous two months (February 01 - March 31). Twitter analysed this growth and classified the conversations into four broad categories:

Medical help: Tweets around seeking or providing medical help increased by 1958% (20x). #Covid19 was Tweeted 77% more during the second wave,  #Blood was Tweeted 72% more as compared to the Feb-March period, #Plasma saw an 834% increase and #SOS was Tweeted 152% more during this time. In fact, the exchange of Tweets between people seeking help and those volunteering to connect them with resources boosted the volume of replies - revealing a 1.5x increase. 

As the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines expanded and vaccination drives gained momentum, people followed and participated in Twitter conversations on vaccine awareness, availability, and much more. Tweets around #Vaccine and #Vaccination went up by 246%. To support this conversation, Twitter introduced a home Timeline prompt that points people to vaccine-related updates and information from authoritative sources. 

Sharing information: With a critical mass of expert organisations, official government accounts, health professionals, and epidemiologists on the service, people leveraged it to find accurate information on the latest developments, best COVID-19 practices, vaccination drives, and other relevant information. They Tweeted with hashtags - #CoronavirusUpdates, #CoronaIndiaUpdate, #Covid19IndiaResources, among others - amping up conversations by 916% (10x).

Raising funds: The spirit of humanity and helpfulness surfaced as people came forward to contribute to relief efforts, and fundraising conversations went up by 731% (8x). It is interesting to note that Australian cricketer Pat Cummins’ (@patcummins30) Tweet announcing his monetary support to India was the most Liked and Retweeted Tweet during this period.

Mental health: Mental well-being remained top of mind for people and recorded a 153% (2.5x) increase during the surge. People Tweeted with hashtags such as #DoctorsMentalhealth, #CovidCounselling, #CovidDepression, #CovidInsomnia, among many others. Prayer or hope emerged as the dominant sentiment with the folded hands 🙏 being the most Tweeted emoji.

While Tweets on #IndiaFightsCorona saw a 530% increase, among local and state-related conversations, #DelhiFightsCorona and #MaharashtraFightsCorona saw a significant increase in Tweets - with conversations going up by 1872% and 2377%, respectively. Twitter also introduced several features, including multiple state-specific Event Pages for credible updates from the region. 

More than ever, Twitter remains committed to serving the public conversation. It introduced a number of features and initiatives in support of the COVID-19 conversation in India. Some of these were a dedicated COVID-19 hub on the Explore page, several Twitter Events Pages that bring together the latest Tweets from a number of authoritative and trustworthy government organisations, media and civil society sources in local languages, an SOS page, related Topics, Twitter Lists of credible accounts to follow, among several others. The WHO has also engaged with account holders on the service around important issues. Twitter also prioritised the roll-out of Spaces in India, to give people access to more ways of having informative conversations and staying connected.

Cisco, Social Alpha Launch 'Krishi Mangal'; Support Five High-Impact Agritech Start-Ups With Grants of Rs 2 crore

* Pilots implemented by start-ups over one year will positively impact 17500 marginal farmers across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh

Cisco, and Social Alpha, have announced five high-impact Agritech start-ups to be part of 'Krishi Mangal' - a scale-up accelerator programme to support start-ups working on solutions for smallholder farmers. The selected start-ups have developed Agritech innovations across supply chain traceability powered by blockchain, data analytics for crop management, energy-efficient cold-storage units, sustainable aquaculture solutions, and e-commerce solutions for livestock management.

These five start-ups under Krishi Mangal are focused on income increase, creating jobs, and promoting micro-entrepreneurship along agriculture and its allied value chain:

TraceX Technologies is organising the food and agriculture supply chains using blockchain technology to enable transparency, trust, and traceability across the ecosystem. Trace X will work with 1000  farmers in Belgaum, Karnataka on maize value chain; increasing their income by 25%.

Jalkeevika Infotech is focusing on creating sustainable livelihood options by bringing accessibility and affordability in aquaculture. Jaljeevika will train 500 farmers in fisheries in pond management practices and deploy IoT sensors in Yavetmal, Maharashtra.

Pashu Bajaar is building a transparent, objective, and efficient livestock product market and promoting micro-entrepreneurship for livestock farmers via e-commerce. The start-up will train over 1000 livestock farmers on commercial goat farming, credit planning and livestock financial services in Lucknow, UP and Deoghar, Jharkhand.

Tan90 is decentralising the cold chain for storage and transportation for last-mile delivery through their proprietary Phase Change Material based cold storage solutions. Tan 90 will deploy its portable cold-storage boxes for fisheries in 11 districts of AP and Telangana; impacting 5000 farmers.

Satyukt is providing farm-specific dynamic crop advisory and early warning of risks (flood, drought, pest, diseases) via a mobile application at an affordable cost for marginal farmers. Satyukt will work with 7000 farmers in Karnataka, UP, Telangana and Maharashtra in using the mobile app to increase crop yield in a sustainable manner.

Krishi Mangal brings together the power of innovation, entrepreneurship, and communities for the wellbeing and prosperity of smallholder farmers. It follows a two-pronged approach. Along with the accelerator programme, it will also promote India’s first digital Agri collective that enables ecosystem-level collaboration and co-creation of solutions while helping start-ups navigate the ecosystem and accelerate their work in the agriculture and allied sectors. In Krishi Mangal's one-year scale-up accelerator, the five start-ups will each receive a grant of Rs 42.5 lakh to implement their solutions in a new geography or customer segment. Additionally, they will receive support in market access, sales and distribution, and fundraising.

Both Social Alpha and Cisco believe in rural transformation by supporting start-ups and initiatives targeting smallholder farmers. Krishi Mangal emphasises the need for innovation and entrepreneurship to enable farmers to deal effectively with occupational hazards and systemic inadequacies.

Harish Krishnan, Managing Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagements, Cisco India, said, "As part of our work, we seek to inspire and empower a generation of global problem solvers who will not only survive – but drive and thrive – in our increasingly digital economy. With the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital technologies connecting devices and data, innovative ideas now have the ability to make a difference more quickly than ever before – and we're here to help. While the prize money will help accelerate the adoption of breakthrough technology, products, and services that drive economic development and solve social or environmental problems, engagement with Cisco mentors during the course of the program will mean that organizations and entrepreneurs can leverage great domain expertise and strong market knowledge."

Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO, Social Alpha, said, "Small and marginal farmers already face numerous risks to agricultural production, and climate change is making their livelihoods even more precarious.  At Social Alpha, we have chosen to address these vulnerabilities and are constantly scouting for start-ups that are working on breakthrough technologies for large-scale impact.  Social Alpha's partnership with Cisco will help us scale high-impact solutions to reduce risk and increase the income of smallholder farmers."

Social Alpha’s deep engagement with the agriculture sector finds articulation in several key aspects-, such as increasing agricultural output value, increasing agricultural productivity, reducing post-harvest losses, enhancing climate resiliency through adaptation and mitigation, and improving transparency of value chains. In the last five years, it has nurtured over 25 Agritech start-ups.

Cisco has been actively involved in alleviating farming distress, and as part of it had partnered with NASSCOM last year to initiate a comprehensive study on the utilization of the Internet of Things in the Agriculture sector. The study focuses on technologies in reshaping India’s agrarian sector output, improving land productivity, optimizing input costs, and maximizing farmer incomes while bringing India at par with global agricultural practices. The report, titled “IoT Adoption in Indian Agriculture: A 2020 Landscape,” will be available on NASSCOM Community for free download.

About Cisco:

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is a worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, helping secure your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Network and follow us on Twitter.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

About Social Alpha:

Social Alpha is a multi-stage innovation curation and venture development platform for science and technology start-ups that address the most critical social, economic and environmental challenges through the power of entrepreneurship and market-creating innovations. Since its inception in 2016, Social Alpha has supported more 150 start-ups including 40+ seed investments. 

90% Tech Recruiters Looking For Developers With New Skills During Lockdown, Most Hiring Developers For Product Development Roles

* TimesJobs’ ‘Developer Hiring Survey 2021’ found 38% Indian tech recruiters would hire a developer for his excellent coding skills v/s relevant experience, educational achievements or past projects

* 32% said women technologists still face a bias when interviewed or recruited for software development roles

* 90% IT recruiters want to hire developers who learnt new skills during the lockdown

Excellent coding skills rank way higher for the Indian tech recruiters when hiring developers, as compared to relevant experience, similar past projects or educational degrees, found a recent TimesJobs survey. TimesJobs’ ‘Developer Hiring Survey 2021’ was conducted among 957 tech recruiters to understand their preferences while hiring developers.

The survey found that most (38%) recruiters would hire a developer with excellent coding skills, overlooking his educational achievements or experience. Over 28% respondents said that a developer’s (relevant) experience would be their sole criterion for hiring. Next 21% said they considered relevant educational qualifications as the only bar when hiring a developer. Remaining 13% said that they would hire a developer basis his performance in interview and skill tests and no other factor would matter.

The respondents of ‘Developer Hiring Survey 2021’ belonged to startups (24%), SMBs(34%) and MNCs(42%). Here are the other takeaways:

Ø  Most firms screen developers for job interviews basis experience in various technologies

Remote talent assessment caught pace in the COVID-19 lockdown when businesses - big and small - turned to AI-driven specialised platforms such as SpeedHire for bias-free, cheating proof, accurate assessment. Such platforms save on a recruiters’ time, effort and are location-agnostic, which is the need of the hour.

The TimesJobs survey asked tech recruiters about how they selected candidates for interviews, here’s what they said:

● 33% reviewed all the technologies that a developer has worked on to make an interview decision

● 28% preferred relevant work experience to call a developer for job interview

● 22% screened developers basis the proficiency of different programming languages

● 10% screened developers basis time spent coding projects

● 7% followed a mixed approach for screening candidates

Ø  Women technologists face gender bias at hiring, strongest bias exists for software development roles

The TimesJobs survey asked if women coders still faced bias from recruiters and firms, and most (82%) respondents said ‘yes’.  Of these, most respondents (57%) agreed that gender bias is the main reason that very few female software developers are eventually hired, whereas 43% disagreed with this statement.

The survey further asked about the job roles where women developers faced most gender bias, here are the responses:

● 32% said women technologists faced most bias in software development roles

● 31% voted for a strong bias in system administrator roles

● 21% claimed women techies faced most bias in product designer roles

● 16% stated most bias existed for software engineering roles

Ø  Most firms hiring developers for product development roles presently 

TimesJobs asked the tech recruiters about the roles for which they were hiring developers, their responses are:

- Most firms (40%) were presently hiring techies for product development roles

- 30% were hiring for tech support roles

- Infrastructure management roles ranked third, as voted by 17% respondents

- Business intelligence got the rest 13% votes

Ø  Most tech recruiters prefer candidates who learnt new skills during lockdown

Upskilling and reskilling are a pertinent need in the IT sector where firms always prefer developers adept in emerging technologies. TimesJobs asked the hiring managers if they preferred developers who had learnt extra skills during the lockdown. The unanimous answer was ‘yes’, stated by 90% respondents. Only 10% said ‘no’, this was not necessary for them.

About TimesJobs:

TimesJobs is a platform to help competent professionals enhance their career growth. With over 25 million registered job seekers across the board and more than 60 million page views every month, it is the most preferred career portal among ambitious and talented professionals who want to make smarter career decisions that accelerate their career progression.