LinkedIn Launches In Hindi To Boost Access To Opportunities For 600 Million Indians

* With the launch of Hindi, LinkedIn is now available in 25 languages globally

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today marked a new milestone with the launch of Hindi, the first Indian regional language on LinkedIn, with the goal to support 600 million Hindi language speakers globally. With this launch, LinkedIn aims to break down language barriers, providing greater access to professional and networking opportunities to Hindi speakers in India and around the world. With the launch of Hindi, LinkedIn now supports 25 languages globally.

Starting today, as part of the Phase 1 roll-out of LinkedIn in Hindi, members will be able to access their feed, profile, jobs, messaging, and create content in Hindi on desktop, and on their Android and iOS phones. As the next step, LinkedIn will work towards widening the range of job opportunities available for Hindi speaking professionals across industries, including more banking, and government jobs. The platform will also continue to add more Hindi publishers and creators in the coming weeks to boost member engagement and conversations in Hindi.

India is a core market for growth at LinkedIn and the second largest market in terms of members after the US, accounting for 82 million members as part of a global community of 800 million members. India’s member base has grown by 20+ million in the past three years (15% year-over-year growth) and it has witnessed a spike in engagement and conversations on the platform since the pandemic.

“In India, LinkedIn has been mission critical to helping people connect, learn, grow and get hired during the pandemic and in this new world of work we are in. With the launch of Hindi, now more members and customers can unlock greater value from the platform through content, jobs, and networking, and express themselves in a language that they feel comfortable in.

We have witnessed high engagement and member growth in the last year, and it is at this exciting inflection point that we are strengthening our vision to create economic opportunity for ‘every’ member of the workforce, and taking down language barriers for Hindi speakers across the world,” says Ashutosh Gupta, India Country Manager, LinkedIn.

How to use LinkedIn, and set up your profile, in Hindi

Smartphone users will need to select Hindi as their preferred device language under phone settings to view the LinkedIn mobile application in Hindi. For members who are already using Hindi as their preferred language on their smartphones, the LinkedIn experience will automatically be available in Hindi. On desktop, members will need to click on the ‘Me’ icon at the top of their LinkedIn homepage and select ‘Settings and Privacy’. Members then need to click on ‘Account Preferences’ on the left, select ‘Site Preferences’, click ‘Change’ next to ‘Language’, and select ‘Hindi’ from the drop down list.

Once selected, the user interface and platform experience, including the navigation bar, will be displayed in Hindi, to help members quickly and easily locate features they are looking for. User-generated content, such as posts on a member’s home feed, will be displayed in the language that they were originally created in. However, for members whose primary language selection is set to Hindi, clicking on ‘See Translation’ option will display Hindi translations of the respective posts. If members are not already using a Hindi keyboard, to create Hindi content on LinkedIn, they will need to switch their keyboard input language to Hindi, or add the Hindi keyboard on their desktop or smartphone.

With the launch of Hindi, members also have the advantage of creating their LinkedIn profile in Hindi, and make it easier for Hindi speaking members and recruiters to find them for relevant opportunities. New LinkedIn members can sign up for LinkedIn in Hindi by visiting LinkedIn.com and registering for a new account. Members with existing English profiles can add a second language profile in Hindi. Adding a second language profile is currently only available on Desktop. To create a second language profile, members will need to click on the “Me” icon, followed by “View Profile”, and then “Add profile in another language”.

To display their existing profile in Hindi, members will need to create a secondary language profile in the same language as their existing profile. This will prompt them to choose a preferred language for their existing profile from a drop down list of 25 languages, which now includes Hindi.

The launch of LinkedIn in Hindi saw LinkedIn Influencers such as international life coach Gaur Gopal Das, monk-turned-entrepreneur Dr. Vivek Bindra, and nearbuy.com founder Ankur Warikoo share their first Hindi posts on their LinkedIn profiles.

The launch of Hindi is part of LinkedIn's vision to become a more equitable platform, and to allow more diverse professional communities to unlock greater value from LinkedIn. Other global initiatives include Project Every Member and the LinkedIn Fairness Toolkit that build equality into LinkedIn’s products and remove systemic biases and barriers to opportunity.

This is the Phase 1 roll-out of LinkedIn in Hindi, and the platform will evaluate member feedback and adoption to improve the member experience over the next few months. To get the latest news and Hindi creators to follow, check out this Storyline here. Read the blog here.

LinkedIn in Hindi is now available to all members globally on Desktop and Android, and will gradually roll out to all iOS users in the coming days. Visit the LinkedIn Help Centre to learn how you can view LinkedIn in Hindi, choose Hindi as the primary language on your profile, create or delete a profile in another language, and edit your secondary language profile.

Sukkhi Unveils Its Bridal Collection For The 2021-22 Wedding Season

*  The bridal collection is set to dazzle the wedding season in India

Sukkhi, India’s leading online-first fashion jewellery brand has unveiled their exclusive bridal collection for the wedding season of 2021-22. India has always been synonymous with the big fat weddings which had come to a standstill in the past year due to the pandemic. However, with the aggressive vaccination drives across the country and the low number of active Covid-19 cases, a resurgence of Indian weddings were witnessed. With state governments gradually relaxing rules for gatherings, Indians are back to planning massive weddings. The Confederation of All India Traders said in a press statement that approximately 1.5 lakh weddings were expected through mid-November - December 2021 in Delhi and 25 lakh weddings are expected across the country.

When it comes to weddings, Indians prioritize jewellery along with their wedding trousseau. As Indians have missed out on celebrating big last year, brides this year are looking forward to bigger and grander weddings and their outfit and jewellery styles will also reflect the same sentiment. Indian brides are incorporating minimalistic styles into their bridal attire and are choosing imitation jewellery instead of precious stones for their big day. The millennial brides are not shying away from flaunting their imitation jewellery to make a fashion style statement.

Sukkhi’s bridal collection features designs that are a perfect aesthetic representation of the modern day bride. Every piece of jewelry is uniquely designed to ensure versatility and can be worn to make statement. The collection is an exquisite wide range of gold plated, rhodium plated, rose gold plated necklaces, earrings, rings and other jewelry. Keeping in mind the interests of the brides of today, Sukkhi has included various designs that have a traditional approach with a contemporary twist. The jewelry is affordable with a price range of Rs. 500 that enables women from all walks of life to express their individualistic personality to their special day.

Adding to the above, Bhavesh Navlakha, Founder & CEO, Sukkhi said, “We, at Sukkhi, have always worked towards being a brand for women and by women. In sync with this vision of ours, we have wanted to ensure that our designs would resonate with the Indian women. Weddings are not only a celebration of love but of tradition, culture, families and the couple. We wanted our designs to connect with all these aspects for our customers. All the designs of this collection are Made in India and we are determined to continue delivering quality products to our customers across the country as we stay true to the trust they have placed in us.”

Founded in 2012, Sukkhi makes high-quality fashion jewellery using allergic-free material that is designed by women for women. One of the top-selling brands on e-commerce platforms, Sukkhi aims at delivering quality products at exciting prices. Every piece of jewellery by Sukkhi is intricately designed and works as the perfect style statement that can be flaunted on several occasions.

Sukkhi’s bridal collection is available on Amazon and Flipkart.

About Sukkhi:

Sukkhi is a leading new age online- first fashion jewellery brand. Founded in 2012, Sukhhi began with a vision to provide quality and trendy fashion jewellery products. The company makes high-quality products from allergic free material that is beautifully crafted and designed using the latest technology. After starting as an online-only brand, the company launched its own website in October 2016 and has widened its reach to over 125 offline touchpoints across India and over 26 different active marketplaces, including international markets like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and many more. Today, the company is one of the highest selling brands in the fashion jewellery category on Amazon and Flipkart, as well as on most of the e-tailers on which the brand is listed.

Delhi And Mumbai Lead The Race In Generating Demand For Water Dispensers And Office Stationery: JD Mart Consumer Insights

* Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chennai account for 70% of the demand generated from Tier-I cities witness high demand for water dispensers while 50% of the demand from Tier-II cities for ergonomic desks is being generated from Vijayawada

 With offices planning to come back to the physical mode of working, Delhi and Mumbai are witnessing a significant rise in demand for office water dispensers and ergonomic desks on JD Mart, India’s latest B2B marketplace by Just Dial.

Demand for water dispensers was the highest on JD Mart followed by that for stationary and ergonomic desks. A similar trend was also witnessed across Tier-II cities where most of the demand was being generated from the southern cities of Vadodara, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Warangal.

Among Tier-I cities, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chennai were the top-3 cities generating maximum demand for water dispensers. These three cities accounted for almost 70% of the demand being generated from Tier-I cities for water dispensers. Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata made up for the rest of the demand that is being generated from Tier-I cities. Visakhapatnam, Agra, Warangal, Vadodara, and Vijayawada were the top-5 Tier-II cities witnessing maximum demand for water dispensers.

Commenting on the trend, a JD Mart spokesperson said: “With strong signs of economic recovery, several organisations are planning to get back to the physical mode of working or have already headed back to the office. As a result, we are witnessing a sudden rise in traffic on JD Mart for office furniture from both Tier-I and II cities. While Tier-I cities are contributing primarily towards the rise in demand, some key Tier-II cities are also witnessing a steady surge in searches for office furniture. We expect this demand to grow more as more offices come back to the physical model.”   

For office stationery, Mumbai and Delhi were the top-two Tier-I cities that saw maximum demand while Bangalore and Kolkata were joint third. These four cities generated 74% of the demand from Tier-I cities for office stationery. The rest of the demand was generated from Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai. Among Tier-I cities, Vadodara, Agra, and Varanasi were the top-3 cities generating maximum demand followed by Vishakhapatnam, and Vijayawada. 

The third most sought-after category on JD Mart was the ergonomic desk that saw maximum demand from Mumbai followed by Delhi and Hyderabad among Tier-I cities. The rest of the demand came from the cities of Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata. Among Tier-II cities, Vijayawada accounted for almost 50% of the demand for the ergonomic desk while Warangal, Vishakhapatnam, Vellore, and Varanasi made the top-5 with most searches.

Juniper Networks Accelerates Partner Profitability With New Elite Partner Tier, Program Enhancements

* Juniper Partner Advantage 2022 introduces new Elite Plus partner level, strengthens partner communities and empowers experience-led sales engagements

Juniper Networks, a leader in secure, AI-driven networks, today announced new enhancements to the global Juniper Partner Advantage Program (JPA). Starting January 2022, a new top-tier level of the partner program will be introduced, and a modernized engagement platform that embraces a collaborative sales approach. The JPA 2022 program updates also deliver an enriched learning experience to enable partners to quickly expand their knowledge of Juniper and maximize their business growth opportunities.

As the past year has demonstrated, networks are more important than ever before. Network operators are faced with the dual challenge of an increasingly complex environment combined with the requirement to create the best possible user experience. Juniper Networks’ commitment to Experience-First Networking extends beyond innovative technologies to encompass all aspects of the organization. This experience-driven mindset extends to the partner program and its new collaborative focus, which will lead to stronger engagement and increased opportunity for Juniper partners.

JPA 2022 builds on the investments made in recent years with the acquisition of Mist Technologies, 128 Technology, Apstra and Netrounds, which contributed to record growth across all partner segments. New enhancements to the partner engagement platform, including expanded Champions communities for technical and sales roles, virtual workspaces for Juniper and partner sales collaboration, increased seller rewards and a new elite partner tier set the stage for continued growth.

“Juniper Networks is a partner-centric company, and the investments we’ve made in the program for 2022 will accelerate our strong partnerships and continue us all on the path of hyper-growth,” said Gordon Mackintosh, Vice President of Global Channel & Virtual Sales at Juniper Networks. “We believe our acquisition strategy and innovations have created the most compelling portfolio of networking solutions available today. By bringing that spirit of innovation into the partner program, with a new elite tier and enhanced community, we plan to see rapid growth and expansion next year and beyond.”

Additional program highlights include:

A New Top Partner Level – Elite Plus: Juniper’s most dedicated partners can now qualify for a new top-tier in the partner program – Elite Plus. This new partner level offers superior support, investment and rewards, along with dedicated business development and demand generation resources.

Partner Communities: Expanded Champions program adds role-based journeys for both technical and sales professionals. Partners will gain access to continuous learning, virtual selling tools, a Communities forum, and collaborative workspaces, along with digital badges and rewards to recognize success, as well as access to demo platforms and events.

Virtual Sales Pods: Collaboration between Juniper and partners is critical to success. New virtual sales pods create a shared workspace for partners and Juniper experts to communicate in real-time on account plans, ongoing sales efforts and more, leading to faster sales cycles and enhanced conversion rates.

New Learning Academy Platform: In support of Communities and collaborative sales efforts, the Learning Academy will serve as a resource for new content and webinars to drive partner education and accelerate success.

Incentive Rewards: Building on the strong investment strategy from 2021, we will reward partners for partner-led and new opportunity deal registration, while providing boosters on software and for our Elite Plus partners. 

“I’ve completed pre-sales network and security engineering programs throughout my career with all major networking manufacturers. Juniper has always been the gold standard, and this announcement raises the bar even further by recognizing the achievements of the technical community,” said Carl Lamendola, Network and Security Engineer, Mainline Information Systems.

The Juniper Networks partner program will be discussed at the 2021 APAC Virtual Partner Summit December 7, 2021. The 2022 program goes into effect January 1, 2022.

Most New unicorns Hiring For Mid-Level, Experienced Professionals, Bengaluru Most Preferred Work Destination

It’s the season of the unicorns with India adding 36 new ones to its tally in 2021 till now. With this, it's also the season of aggressive hiring at unicorns as most are expanding their workforce with hiring witnessing a 15-20% increase in 2020-2021 v/s 2019-2020, found a recent TimesJobs survey. This survey was conducted among 364 HR leaders and managers from the unicorns and startup ecosystems to decode the hiring trends at unicorns. Most (76%) respondents said that hiring saw ‘significant improvement’ from Jul’21-Nov’21 v/s Jan’21-Jun’21. 

Other major trends outlined by the TimesJobs' ‘Unicorn Hiring Survey' are:

Most unicorns hiring mid-level professionals: 

The TimesJobs survey asked about the most preferred work experience group and mid-level 

managers were voted by most (39%) respondents. This was followed by the recruiters’ preference for freshers/people with up to 2 years of experience (36% votes) and entry level positions (13%). Recruiters’ preference for senior professionals (10-15 years experience) and C-suite leaders was voted at 9% and 3% respectively. This hints that unicorns are strengthening their middle layer to scale up their products and services.  

E-commerce unicorns to create most jobs:

TimesJobs asked the survey group about which sector unicorns would be the top job churners, and E-commerce topped the list with 28% votes. This was followed by IT/ITeS (24% votes) and E-service providers (16% votes). 

Product leaders most accountable for unicorns’ growth: 

* The TimesJobs survey asked unicorn recruiters about which C-suite profile is most accountable for a unicorn’s growth, here are the responses:

The most popular work destination for unicorns: 

Among all Indian cities, Bengaluru continues to be India’s Silicon Valley with nine of this year’s unicorns originating from there. Mumbai comes right after with seven unicorns, 

followed by Delhi and Gurugram. When asked about preferred work destinations for unicorns, Bengaluru was voted on top by 41% respondents, followed by Delhi-NCR (24%) votes. 

Most employees ditch MNCs to join unicorns in hope of better work-life balance:

TimesJobs reached out to 587 employees from startups to understand if Indian unicorns offer good career growth opportunities and 92% employees said ‘yes’. Only 8% disagreed with this stance. 

Also most said that the main reason for them to choose a unicorn job over a MNC job is their preference for work-life balance, voted by 37% respondents. This was followed by better career growth (voted by 28%) and work accountability (13%) offered by unicorns. 

Commenting on these trends, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “Unicorns enjoy a unique place - sandwiched between growth-focussed MNCs and the lean-structure focussed startup ecosystem - and this makes them attractive employers. With a boom in the virtual experience, unicorns in E-commerce, Edu-tech and Retail will be the new mass employers. And, to attract high potential candidates, these unicorns should focus on providing good work-life balance and using innovative recruitment strategies more than ever.”

In the virtual world, hiring skilled candidates is more complex and challenging than otherwise. TimesJobs asked unicorn recruiters about their candidate sourcing technique, and most (35%) said they use career sites & job postings. 

Making Designer Wear Accessible River Season 2 Launches On Amazon Fashion

* Amazon Fashion in association with DBS Lifestyle LLP, launches RIVER Season 2 – the second season of the affordable, multi-designer brand created in partnership with some of India’s most celebrated designers Suneet Varma, JJ Valaya, Ashish Soni & Namrata Joshipura

* Suneet Varma, JJ Valaya, Ashish Soni and Namrata Joshipura come together in Season 2 of RIVER to present a curated line of ready to wear everyday essentials and occasion wear

* Customers can now purchase limited edition styles from their favorite designers only on Amazon Fashion

Amazon Fashion in association with DBS Lifestyle LLP, today announced the launch of RIVER Season 2 in India. After the successful launch of RIVER, an affordable multi-designer brand created in partnership with some of India’s most celebrated designers, last year, RIVER Season 2 has designers like Suneet Varma, JJ Valaya, Ashish Soni and Namrata Joshipura curating apparel that mirrors their individual aesthetic and styles. RIVER Season 2 will enable customers to re-imagine their favourite designer labels only on Amazon Fashion.

The carefully curated selection catering to both men and women, will allow customers to invest in impeccably crafted apparel, making it a wonderful mix of the latest trends and everlasting classics. From classy and elegant sarees and dresses for women and royal bandhgalas, ethnic jackets, trendy shirts and kurtas for men, the RIVER Season 2 collection also focuses on building the occasion wear selection by creating dedicated capsules in each designer’s collection, besides a range of everyday looks.

“RIVER Season 1 witnessed a great response from shoppers across India, with demand from both metros and tier 2/3 cities and towns for all the designers’ collections. With the launch of RIVER Season 2 on Amazon Fashion, we continue to work closely with the seller DBS lifestyle, to ensure that customers across India can continue to access affordable designer wear. Through RIVER Season 2, we aim to reach out to diverse consumers and help them be closer to the designer’s creative vision,” said Saurabh Srivastava, Director and Head, Amazon Fashion India.

“This season seeks new opportunities through new designer offerings including a women-focused collection by Namrata Joshipura in addition to collections by Suneet Varma, JJ Valaya and Ashish Soni. The new season is in alignment with the current market trends focusing more on wedding collections and party wear for both men and women. It will continue to be our endeavour to bring exciting offerings and showcase new designers in the ensuing season. RIVER has opened new avenues for designers through both selections and reach and has become a part of the conversations across all tiers of the country,” he added.

RIVER Season 2 of has over 180 styles ranging from casual, basic and trendy shirts, classic trousers, jackets and bandhgalas to sarees, dresses, jumpsuits, blouses, scarfs and coordinates for both men and women.

Suneet Varma has some beautiful sarees designed for celebratory occasions like weddings and parties. The selection also brings one of the best assortments of floral sarees in chiffon georgette and lace. The selection presents some beautiful statement dresses for women and shirts and bandhgalas with comfortable trousers for men by JJ Valaya. Ashish Soni’s collection features added design elements in menswear, with details in shirts and kurtas. He also brings some beautiful denim blazers and bandhgalas and some very quirky prints to go along with it in shirts and comfortable trousers. The outfits from Namrata Joshipura’s collection provides a solution to every woman for both day and evening wear and introduces a new category of coordinates in womenswear.

The launch accommodates unique and regionally diverse needs and demands of customers in Tier 2 and 3 cities, making designer wear accessible to customers across 100% serviceable pin codes through the Amazon fulfilled network. The RIVER store has been created with love offering a compelling and immersive shopping experience for existing and new to designer segment customers, all of whom will be able to now make an informed buying decision before placing an order. The store offers detailed product information on sizing, product details and wash and care instructions in addition to offering styling tips and detailed product imagery that will allow the customer to choose carefully and conveniently.

Link to the image: https://we.tl/t-SUylrC8uae

57 Percent Of Indians Prefer Searching For Jobs In Regional Languages

* 7.2 crore+ interviews and 6 crore+ professional conversations in regional languages in 12 months

* Hindi, Kannada, Tamil most preferred vernacular language

* Users in Tier-II cities are more likely to engage in a language apart from English

apna.co, India’s largest jobs and professional networking platform in India has today shared that more than 57 percent of its users prefer a vernacular language to search for opportunities and build their professional networks.  Launched in 2019, apna’s app is presently available in 10 languages apart from English, including Hindi, Kannada, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, and Telugu.

The vernacular language interface is driving a higher engagement on the platform. The data collected over the last year also reveals that after English, Hindi is the most popular language followed by Kannada and Tamil.

According to apna, users in Tier-II cities are more likely to choose a vernacular language to enable their job search and professional networking. Cities including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Bhilai have the highest percentage of regional language users on apna.  The platform’s data also highlights an increasing percentage of users from metros like Delhi-NCR and Mumbai being more comfortable in looking for a job in a language other than English.

Talking about this trend, Manas Singh, Chief Business Officer, apna.co said “The comfort and familiarity of interacting in their first language builds confidence and enables our users to find hyperlocal opportunities with ease. We are certain that the trend of using vernacular languages will strengthen as we expand to more cities in India.”

In the last 12 months, apna has enabled more than 7.2 crore interviews and 6 crore+ professional conversations in a regional language. The vernacular language tech has been built in-house by apna.

Proficiency in regional languages is also opening an array of job opportunities as internet companies offer their products to users in Bharat.  apna offers a variety of jobs that do not require English as their core competency. The hot job roles include Telecallers/BPO executives, delivery partners, sales, back office, computer/data entry operator, accounts, finance, driver, marketing, and retail.

apna is expanding its presence to more cities, helping job seekers easy access to prospective roles, considering their respective skills, experience and other preferences. The apna app comprises 70-plus communities for skilled professionals such as carpenters, painters, tele-callers, field sales agents, delivery personnel and others. apna communities have enabled users to grow their professional networks, upskill through peer learning and discover gig opportunities.

About apna

Founded in 2019, apna.co is India’s largest jobs and professional networking platform dedicated to helping India’s rising workforce to unlock unique professional networking and skilling opportunities. Having secured more than $190 million from marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Lightspeed India, Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Ventures, GSV Ventures, Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship.vc apna is on a mission to enable livelihoods for billions in India. With more than 16 million users, present in 40-plus cities and counting and more than 150,000 employers that trust the platform, India has a new destination to discover relevant opportunities.