Tier 2 Cities Fare Best In Citizens’ Mental Wellbeing: TRA Research

* Kochi citizens show best mental wellbeing scores, Chennai fares worst

TRA Research, a consumer insights and brand analytics company, released its second Mental Wellbeing whitepaper, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day. The research tracked the Mental Wellbeing of citizens across urban India and was conducted with 1003 respondents across 16 cities between July and September 2021. The study also measured Health Worry, Economy Worry, Family Worry and Financial worry of citizens and their ability to cope with them.

Tier 2 cities display Excellent Mental Wellbeing scores. Kochi shows the highest MWBI 2021 score at +177% (up by 131% over MWBI 2020). Lucknow at +147%, and Chandigarh at +144% MWBI, show very close MWBI scores this year, up nearly 300% from the previous years’ report.  Along with these Indore (+113% MWBI) and Jaipur (+101% MWBI) display Very Good mental wellbeing scores, showing they are close in optimism to the top three.

The worst mental health scores are displayed by Kolkata (+9% MWBI), Ahmedabad (+3% MWBI) and Chennai (-8% MWBI). All three cities are precariously balanced in terms of mental health, but Chennai’s negative score shows citizens’ inability to cope with the anxieties that they are suffering from.

Speaking on the launch of TRA’s Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Impact report to mark the occasion of the World Mental Health Day, N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research said, "In last year’s study the highest anxiety of citizens across India was ‘Financial Worry’ at 60%, which has lessened to 47% in MWBI 2021. ‘Family Worry’ stayed constant which is down by only 1% to 53% this year, and ‘Health Worry’ at 49% MWBI and ‘Economy Worry’ at 36% hover around the same number as last year, both down by 1% from last year.”

"Not enough attention has been given by the authorities or corporates on mental health due to the pandemic. The impact on mental health is a long tail problem and can impede the ability to maintain trust in relationships with individuals, corporates and governance alike", Chandramouli elaborated.

“The research also asked respondents which activities they were most likely to undertake in the near future and the answers came with no surprises. The most likely activity was a Friends/Family get together with 38% answering in affirmative. Though many more places were opening up, a holiday or even visiting a place of worship was only an activity was stated as ‘Likely/Very Likely’ only by 28% of the respondents. Travel for leisure got the nod from 25%, and Shopping in a Mall was high on the list of 21% of the respondents. Movie Theatres will probably continue to face pressure from a lack of viewers as only 8% considered it as a ‘Likely/Very Likely’ activity in the near future”, he added.

About TRA Research

TRA Research, a Comniscient Group company, is a consumer insights and brand intelligence Company dedicated to understanding and analyzing stakeholder behavior through two globally acclaimed proprietary matrices of Brand Trust and Brand Desire. TRA Research conducts primary research with consumers and stakeholders to assist brands with their business decisions based on Consumer Behaviour insights.

TRA Research is consulting brands on transitioning during and after the Covid-19 crisis, to help them be more aligned to consumer and client expectations. TRA Research is the also the publisher of TRA’s Brand Trust Report and of TRA’s Most Desired Brands.

BITSZ - The Safest New Crypto Exchange Platform Launched In The Indian Market

* 24*7 multilingual live chat, 100% insurance on user wallets

The city witnessed the gala launch of the most promising Made in India Crypto exchange, BITSZ, on Sunday, October 10, 2021. Popular Actress Niddhi Agerwal, joined Team BITSZ for the grand launch, along with other notable personalities from the city.

Sharing his delight at the launch of this new crypto exchange platform, Mr. Naveen Kumar, Founder, BITSZ, said, “Crypto currencies are growing, and we are positive it will lead the market. There is a lack of awareness of digital currency, and this issue can get solved with the support of this platform. Extensive efforts have been made to launch a platform that provides insurance for all accounts. BITSZ is the only platform in the market that ensures every user wallet is secure, compared to other platforms in the market. The platform does not have bugs, and supports Anti-Money Laundering.”

Interacting with the audience Naveen said, “It is really exciting to see so many youngsters and crypto enthusiasts showing so much interest in BITSZ.”

Sharing his experience and the motivation behind building BITSZ, Naveen highlighted the need for disruption and the unrelenting efforts of his team to do something that was never done before.

BITSZ has partnered with the leader in digital asset management, Fireblocks, and it will provide insurance to users on all types of wallets. Along with this, BITSZ will become the fastest exchange allowing 30 million transactions on the platform. 

“Currently, our platform has a trading volume of 1 million+, it has 5+ exchanges listed, and 2,000+ retail investors,” added Mr. Naveen, as he encouraged and invited all newbie traders and those who had lost money in previous exchange hacks, to take one more chance in crypto with BITSZ and partner in the crypto future ahead.

Due to its unique concept of exchange and high anticipation of trading, BITSZ has been attracting a lot of buzz from other crypto players since the day of its registration. BITSZ has also constantly been the center of attraction for crypto investors because of the unique features that the entire crypto industry will witness for the first time. BITSZ introduces a platform that provides the fastest transactions, insurance on wallet, extremely easy UI, 24*7 multi-lingual live chat, customer support, and AI suggestions.

Addressing the audience at the launch, Niddhi Agerwal said, “As a business student myself, I completely understand the benefits of investing in crypto currencies. BITSZ, as a platform, stands out for users due to the concept of providing 100% insurance. I learnt today that despite being independent, 33% of women always involve a man in their family to make decisions in investments. I would like to encourage both men and women to come forward and invest in crypto currencies. It is a safe and great investment to make. I am excited to be part of the launch of this unique platform.” Congratulating Team BITSZ, Niddhi wished them all success ahead. 

ABOUT BITSZ

BITSZ is a Made-in-India Next-generation Exchange enabling the global community to unleash the value of Digital assets. It is a blockchain-based technology company established with the vision to create a comprehensive service of enterprise-class platforms to buy, sell and trade eligible digital assets. BITSZ visualises a better future where all types of assets are distributed natively on blockchains in tokenized form and intends to be a complete enterprise-grade platform for securing, trading, and maintaining investments in digital assets. The exchange platform provides fastest online trading and the best price defi aggregators by helping leverage their full-stack platforms: truetrade, bitszbot, and coinwheel.

Tata Consultancy Services Operating Performance Misses Expectations In Quarter 2 Of Fiscal 2021-22

Shares Hold

CMP: Rs3936  |  Target Price: Rs3700

■    TCS Q2 operating performance missed expectations, reporting lower-than-expected revenue and EBITM. Revenue grew 4.2%/15.5% QoQ/YoY in CC terms. EBITM expanded by ~10bps QoQ to 25.6% due to headwinds from supply-side inflation and currency.

■    Revenue growth was broad-based and all verticals posted double-digit CC growth YoY. Growth was led by Manufacturing (21.7% CC YoY), Life Sciences & Healthcare (19%), Retail & CPG (18.4%), and BFSI (17%). All geographies, except for Asia Pacific, posted double-digit growth YoY.

■    Strong and sustained demand environment, broad-based growth, healthy deal intake (USD15.7bn in H1), and traction in cloud, enterprise application services, analytics and IoT give management confidence of sustaining a robust revenue growth trajectory.

■    We cut our FY22/23/24 EPS estimates by 1.2%/0.3%/0.3% after factoring in the Q2 performance miss. The operating performance miss for the second consecutive quarter and rich valuations will weigh on stock performance. Maintain Hold with a TP of Rs3,700 (28x Sep'23E EPS).

Glance Pioneers Use Of AI-Led Deepfake In Its ‘Har Pal Happening’ Campaign For Glance LIVE

Imagine Einstein flirting with Mona Lisa. Or a rap battle between Shakespeare and Newton. Potentially taking marketing to the next level, one of India’s largest lock screen platforms Glance* became the first brand in the country to use deepfake technology in digital content marketing. In its latest ‘Har Pal Happening’ campaign to promote Glance LIVE, Glance has introduced a series of AI-led videos which are quite entertaining for the users.

As the name suggests, “deepfake” is a combination of two words — deep learning which is a subset of machine learning, and fake. So deepfakes are essentially hyper-realistic AI-generated fake videos, images or audio recordings that look and sound just like the real thing. 

The ‘Har Pal Happening’ campaign introduces innovative videos showing interactions between famous and historic characters who come alive for the viewer in a unique AI-led deepfake avatar. In a fun and engaging conversation, they highlight the LIVE experience on the lock screen along with all its various offerings. Quirky deepfake jugalbandis by instantly recognizable characters such as Akbar-Birbal and Laila-Majnu focus on the interactive features of Glance LIVE such as polls, AMAs, quizzes, and rewards amongst others.

Apart from Glance, the digital campaign was also amplified across the brand’s social media platforms. It witnessed significant engagement and virality, successfully meeting its objective of generating brand awareness in the minds of its target audience. While the campaign reached more than 31 million users on Glance, it saw an engagement rate of more than 20%. The AI-led deepfake campaign saw ~3 million organic shares and 4 million organic clicks while it also got picked up by some of the most popular Indian meme pages.

Rohan Choudhary, GM and Vice President, Glance Feed said, “We believe LIVE is potentially the next frontier of content and we intend to positively influence the 'live internet’ category we have created with Glance LIVE.” He further added, “The Har Pal Happening campaign premise is akin to a digital carnival. It brings alive the variety and vibrancy of always-on content for Glance LIVE users, right from consuming the different live streams across genres throughout the day and night, to engaging and interacting with their favourite celebrities and influencers. Consumers today prefer advertising and marketing content that not only informs but also excites, entertains and engages them. We used AI-led deepfake technology to achieve this and are extremely glad that it has worked well with our users.”

With the intent to redefine how consumers consume content, Glance recently launched LIVE. It will have 24/7, high quality, live content, from some of India’s best developers, across sports, current affairs, entertainment, gaming, and shopping. In addition, it will have exclusive live streams from some of the country’s favourite celebrities and influencers, with whom users can deeply engage and interact.

Some of the recent live shows that audiences enjoyed on Glance LIVE included celebrities like Raj Kumar Rao and Ali Fazal. On the sports front, ‘Pitch ke Peeche’ was an immersive LIVE watch-along for cricket covering the recent India series against Sri Lanka, featuring Aakash Chopra, Steve Harmison, Deep Dasgupta, Vijay Dahiya, Reema Malhotra, alongside fan and expert voices. Glance also partnered with Chennai Super Kings during the IPL, wherein millions of fans could interact real-time with CSK stars like Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Shardul Thakur, Moeen Ali, Dwayne Bravo, and Robin Uthappa.

Vasavi Hospital And Affordplan Swasth Announce Tie-Up To Help Patients Save On Their Medical Bills

* Vasavi Hospital and Affordplan Swasth launch a healthcare savings card, helping manage an entire family’s healthcare needs in Bangalore

Affordplan Swasth and Vasavi Hospital have announced their collaboration on a healthcare savings card to make hospital facilities more affordable and accessible for patients. The Affordplan Swasth card offers customers complete access to all the hospital services at Vasavi Hospital with financial benefits and a full range of healthcare financing options for their entire family.

Affordplan Swasth is a YES BANK prepaid card with a digital wallet that enables OPD (Outpatient Department) services, lab tests, purchase of medicines and goal-based EMI savings for all IPD (Inpatient Department) treatments. Equipped with a chip-enabled card, customers will also enjoy additional benefits in the form of instant cashback, exclusive hospital offers and exclusive discounts on preferred brands through the Affordplan Swasth partner tie-ups. Affordplan Swasth has already partnered with many hospitals in South India, delivering financial benefits to patients by lowering their medical expenses through their platform.

Aditya Sharma, CEO, Affordplan said, “We are proud to associate with Vasavi Hospital in an endeavor to make quality healthcare more accessible and affordable. We hope to cater to more patients and their families in Bangalore with Vasavi and make medical care more inclusive.”

Srivatsan HA., CEO, Vasavi Hospital said, “At Vasavi, our mission is to achieve clinical excellence with foremost importance to patient care without compromising on quality at an affordable price. Our partnership with Affordplan is in alignment with our values and we hope to be better equipped to serve our patient community.”

Affordplan has partnered with hundreds of hospitals across 11 cities, having touched more than 5,00,000 patient lives through their product. They already have a strong hospital network footprint in Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Jaipur. Mumbai, and Kolkata markets and are expanding aggressively in South India. As of now, they have active collaborations with 70+ hospitals in South India and have impacted more than 2,00,000 patients. They plan to cover all mid to large-sized cities in India.

Located in South Bangalore, Vasavi Hospital offers advanced tertiary care facilities with specialities across Cardiology, Neuro Sciences, Urology and Nephrology among others. The hospital has a strength of 150 beds and is also equipped with a state-of-the-art Cath Lab and OT facilities. Vasavi Hospital is dedicated to making advanced healthcare available, accessible and affordable to the community.

About Affordplan

Launched in 2015, Affordplan is a first-of-its-kind fintech platform, which is at the intersection of finance, healthcare, and technology. They’ve partnered with hundreds of hospitals across 11 cities, having touched more than 5,00,000 patient lives through their product. Swasth – their current innovation is a healthcare savings card launched in collaboration with YES BANK, that can be used across OPD, IPD, lab, and pharmacy services. Affordplan Swasth offers a full stack of financial services for healthcare including an OPD wallet, IPD savings, medical loans, and insurance.

“Run Your Own Life Race. Your Career & Life Is Not A Sprint, It’s A Marathon”, Says Group Head, HRD, Bajaj Finserv At 29th Convocation

“Love & Happiness” being a key differentiator in building your professional careers! Be comfortable with who you are and what you want to be", that was how the graduates were addressed in the opening speech by Mr. Deepak Reddy, Group Head- Human Resource, Bajaj Finserv Limited, the Chief Guest on the second day of the 29th Convocation Day of MAHE on Sunday, October 10th, 2021

The second day of the convocation witnessed the graceful presence of Chief Guest of the afternoon Mr. Deepak Reddy, Group Head- Human Resource, Bajaj Finserv Limited, Mrs. Vasanti R Pai, Trustee MAHE Trust, Pro-Chancellor Dr H.S. Ballal, Dr Ranjan R Pai, Registrar, Academy of General Education and President, MAHE Trust, Lt Gen (Dr) M D Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor, Dr PLNG Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr CS Thammaiah, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr Dilip G Naik, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr Pragna Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar and Dr Vinod V Thomas, Registrar, Evaluation.

Bringing down the curtain on the eventful second day of the convocation at 3.00 pm, KMC Greens, Manipal, Mr. Deepak Reddy, Group Head- Human Resource, Bajaj Finserv Limited, shared a number of interesting thoughts from his career journey that would evidently stay in the minds of the students after he graduated from T A Pai Management Institute, a MAHE Group College.

To address the recently graduated students in the convocation, Mr. Deepak Reddy, Group Head- Human Resource, Bajaj Finserv Limited said, “Essentially, the skills of today need to be updated every now and then. It is my belief that along with the mandatory need for continuous learning agility, your ability to understand and love your customers, your teams, your society, and your environment is what will give you the edge. This will be paramount in making sense of technology, data, customer need, people need and in making the right decisions in a fast-changing world.”

Mr. Deepak Reddy further added that staying connected with your friends plays a key role and said “We are proud of each other’s successes, but it means nothing toward how much you care, respect, love, or enjoy each other. We purely cherish the human in each one of us and not the other frills. Same is with families!”, he also added and congratulated all the graduated students and challenges the MAHE batch of 2021 to create of one India’s Top 10 philanthropist organizations which he believes they will be able to achieve.

Lt. Gen (Dr.) M.D. Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor, MAHE, said, “MAHE’s recent recognition as one of India’s top universities by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) by the Union HRD Ministry of India speaks for its glory. Our students are our pride and today where we stand on the global level is because of our relentless hard work, persistence, and determination which Dr TMA Pai envisioned for us. Today at MAHE we congratulate and wish the very best to all our 2087 graduating students and their families.”

Commenting on the 29th Convocation, Dr. Dilip G Naik, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Mangalore Campus MAHE, said “The pandemic has been tough for each one of us. While we still fight the battle to overcome the pandemic, we ensure that our students get the best of education and facilities and excel in their careers.  Addressing the students, he added, “The convocation experiences is essential to both the University and all of the students cause from here you are beginning a new journey. You take your own career choices and rise above. This is the moment you will remember some years back take a sense of pride. I heartily congratulated the students and their parents.

The second day was concluded with the Vote of Thanks by Dr. C S Thammaiah, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Corporate Academia Engagement), MAHE and the Declaration to close Convocation was given by Dr H S Ballal, Pro-Chancellor, MAHE.

“Both Education Of Mind, Heart Are Important For Formation Of An Individual": Santa Jeremy Ono, VC Of University Of British Columbia

 "The world faces many challenges – disease, climate change, environmental destruction, poverty, and war. Whether in Canada or Karnataka, we need to step up to meet those challenges, and graduates such as yourselves will help to do so", that was the essence of Dr. Santa Jeremy Ono, the 15th President and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia, the Chief Guest on the opening day of 29th Convocation Day of MAHE on Saturday, Oct 9, 2021.

The first day of the convocation witnessed the graceful presence of the Chief Guest of the afternoon Dr Santa Ono, President & Vice-Chancellor, University of British Columbia, Mrs. Vasanti R Pai, Trustee MAHE Trust, Pro-Chancellor Dr H.S. Ballal, Dr Ranjan R Pai, Registrar, Academy of General Education and President, MAHE Trust, Lt Gen (Dr) M D Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor, Dr PLNG Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr CS Thammaiah, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr Dilip G Naik, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr Pragna Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar and Dr Vinod V Thomas, Registrar, Evaluation.

In convocation address on the meticulously planned and brilliantly executed, spread over two days at 3.00 pm, KMC Greens, Manipal, Dr Santa Ono, President & Vice-Chancellor, University of British Columbia, congratulated the students on completion of graduation. In his speech, he said “You are at a transformative time in your lives – a world of possibilities lies before you and encourages them to seize the day as the way from here is up and forward. I believe there are two types of education – education of the mind and education of the heart. Education of the mind is what you read in textbooks or hear in lectures. It's what you're examined on. But the education of the heart is even more important in your formation as an individual, and as a human being and citizen, and a global change agent for a better world”. He further said that “When I think of young people such as yourselves, and what you’ve done to get to this day, I am confident that the world is in good hands, and that we will meet and overcome the challenges we face.” and congratulated all the graduated students.

Speaking on the occasion, Pro-Chancellor Dr. H.S. Ballal said, “A convocation ceremony for students is a milestone achieved which will forever hold a very special place in their hearts and they will cherish these moments forever. We at MAHE wholeheartedly wish all our students a glorious future. Our students have always been our pride and honour, and we are certain each one of you will make MAHE and your parents proud.”

Lt. Gen (Dr.) M.D. Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor, MAHE, said, “At MAHE we have over 375 programmes across 31 disciplines and today we would like to congratulate all our 2125 students, their parents, and the entire MAHE family for their relentless efforts especially during the COVID pandemic. Today, we are recognized as one of India’s top universities by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) by the Union HRD Ministry which is a demonstration of great and committed team work in fulfilling the dream of our Founder Dr TMA Pai”.

Commenting on the 29th Convocation, Dr. PLNG Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (HS) MAHE, said “Today we feel a sense of pride as we witness our student’s graduation ceremony. Times have been tough for each one of us, but our determination helped us get through this. I congratulate all our students and wish the very best for their future endeavours.”

Presenting the Vote of Thanks, Registrar Dr. Narayana Sabhahit, thanked all the dignitaries present at the occasion and extend heartfelt gratitude to parents, students including esteemed press and media representatives.