July, 2021 - - Page 2

25Jul, 2021

Google commits $800 million to support SMBs, health workers

Google – In biggest donation yet from any global tech giant, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced the company will provide over $800 million to support small and medium businesses (SMBs), health organisations, governments and health workers on the frontline of global COVID-19 pandemic.

The commitment would include $250 million in ad grants to help the World Health Organisation (WHO) and more than 100 government agencies globally provide critical information on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other measures to help local communities.

“This is an increase from our initial $25 million announced last month. In addition, we’re providing $20 million in ad grants to community financial institutions and NGOs specifically to run public service announcements on relief funds and other resources for SMBs,” Pichai said in a statement on Friday.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen around the world, it’s taking a devastating toll on lives and communities.

Google committed a $200 million investment fund that will support NGOs and financial institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access to capital.

“As one example, we’re working with the Opportunity Finance Network in the US to help fill gaps in financing for people and communities underserved by mainstream financial institutions,” said Pichai.

This is in addition to the $15 million in cash grants Google.org is already providing to nonprofits to help bridge these gaps for SMBs.

The company will give “$340 million in Google Ads credits available to all SMBs with active accounts over the past year”.

“Credit notifications will appear in their Google Ads accounts and can be used at any point until the end of 2020 across our advertising platforms,” Pichai announced, adding that it will help to alleviate some of the cost of staying in touch with their customers.

The overall commitment would also include a pool of $20 million in Google Cloud credits for academic institutions and researchers to “leverage our computing capabilities and infrastructure as they study potential therapies and vaccines, track critical data, and identify new ways to combat COVID-19”.

Google is working with supplier and partner Magid Glove & Safety, with the goal of ramping up production of 2-3 million face masks in the coming weeks that will be provided to the CDC Foundation.

“Additionally, employees from across Alphabet, including Google, Verily and X, are bringing engineering, supply chain and healthcare expertise to facilitate increased production of ventilators, working with equipment manufacturers, distributors and the government in this effort,” informed Pichai.

In addition to these commitments, Google also increased the gift match it offers every employee annually to $10,000 from $7,500.

“That means our employees can now give $20,000 to organizations in their communities, in addition to the $50 million Google.org has already donated,” said Pichai.

Apple has released a website and an iOS app that allows users to screen themselves for coronavirus symptoms, days after announcing that it would donate more than 10 million respirator masks across the US and Europe.

25Jul, 2021

Google Cloud unveils machine images to simplify workflow

Google Cloud – Google has announced machine images, a new type of Compute Engine resource that contains all the information people need to create, backup or restore a virtual machine, reducing the amount of time people spend managing their Cloud environment.

Custom images capture the contents of a single disk, for example, a boot disk, which can be used to create new instances that are preconfigured with the apps that you need.

Machine images are a more comprehensive resource that can contain multiple disks, as well as all of the information required to capture and create a new instance.

According to Google, it will reduce the time network admins and data scientists spend managing their cloud environments by eliminating extra steps and streamlining operations.

“In addition to storing complete instance properties and data, machine images use the same differential disk backup technology that powers incremental snapshots, giving you fast, reliable and cost-effective instance backups,” explained Ari Liberman, Product Manager, Google Compute Engine.

“The new machine images make it easy to create new instances at the heart of your scalability, backup and disaster recovery strategy,” he added in a statement.

25Jul, 2021

FinMin Notifies GST Grievance Redress Panel For Tax Payers

Tax Payers – The Finance Ministry on Wednesday notified setting up of a GST grievance redress committee at zonal/state level after it was approved in the last GST Council meeting this month.

The Council in its 38th meeting held on December 18 decided that a structured mechanism be set up for the taxpayers under GST to tackle grievances of taxpayers on GST-related issues of specific/general nature, Commissioner of AGST Policy wing of the Finance Ministry in a letter to all Chief Commissioners of Central Tax & GST and all Chief Commissioners/Commissioners of State Tax said on Wednesday.

The Council has approved constitution of ‘Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC)’ at Zonal/StateAlevel consisting of both Central Tax and State Tax officers, representatives of trade and industry and other GST stakeholders.

The Committee will examine and resolve all issues being faced by the taxpayers, including procedural difficulties and IT-related issues pertaining to GST.

It also can refer any issue requiring a change in Act/rules/notification/ form/circular/instruction to the GST Council Secretariat and the relevant Policy Wing of the CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom). IT-related issues will be referred to GSTN.

Whenever a GST policy related issue is referred by a GRC, the Policy Wing of CBIC would examine the said policy issue, and if required, would make suitable recommendations to process it for placing it before the GST Council for its consideration.

In case, where there are more than one state corresponding to a single Central Tax Zone, the Grievance Redressal Committee will be constituted at state level for each State. Where there are more than one Central Tax Zones in a state, the committee would be constituted at the zonal level.

Each zonal/state level redressal Committee will comprise zonal principal chief commissioner/chief commissioner of Central tax (Co-chair) , chief commissioner/commissioner of state tax (co-chair), representatives of various trade associations (up to 12).

Representatives of prominent associations of tax professionals such as chartered accountants, tax advocates, tax practitioners (up to 4 in number), nodal officer of ITGRC of the Central Tax and Nodal officer of ITGRC of the state tax will also be part of it.

24Jul, 2021

Faking emotions at work does more harm than good

Faking emotions -The idea that someone can fake a positive attitude to elicit real-life benefits – often backfires when used with co-workers, a new study suggests.

Instead, making an effort to actually feel the emotions you display is more productive, according to the research, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

For the findings, the research team analysed two types of emotion regulation that people use at work: surface acting and deep acting.

“Surface acting is faking what you’re displaying to other people. Inside, you may be upset or frustrated, but on the outside, you’re trying your best to be pleasant or positive,” said study researcher Allison Gabriel, Associate Professor at University of Arizona in the US.

“Deep acting is trying to change how you feel inside. When you’re deep acting, you’re actually trying to align how you feel with how you interact with other people,” Gabriel added.

The study surveyed working adults in a wide variety of industries including education, manufacturing, engineering and financial services.

“What we wanted to know is whether people choose to engage in emotion regulation when interacting with their co-workers, why they choose to regulate their emotions if there is no formal rule requiring them to do so, and what benefits, if any, they get out of this effort,” Gabriel said.

According to the researchers, when it comes to regulating emotions with co-workers, four types of people emerged from the study: Nonactors, or those engaging in negligible levels of surface and deep acting; Low actors, or those displaying slightly higher surface and deep acting; Deep actors, or those who exhibited the highest levels of deep acting and low levels of surface acting; and,Regulators, or those who displayed high levels of surface and deep acting.

In each study, nonactors made up the smallest group, with the other three groups being similar in size.

The researchers identified several drivers for engaging in emotion regulation and sorted them into two categories: prosocial and impression management.

Prosocial motives include wanting to be a good co-worker and cultivating positive relationships.

Impression management motives are more strategic and include gaining access to resources or looking good in front of colleagues and supervisors.

The team found that regulators, in particular, were driven by impression management motives, while deep actors were significantly more likely to be motivated by prosocial concerns.

This means that deep actors are choosing to regulate their emotions with co-workers to foster positive work relationships, as opposed to being motivated by gaining access to more resources.

The main takeaway is that deep actors – those who are really trying to be positive with their co-workers – do so for prosocial reasons and reap significant benefits from these efforts, said the study.

Deep actors also reported significantly higher levels of progress on their work goals and trust in their co-workers than the other three groups.

The data also showed that mixing high levels of surface and deep acting resulted in physical and mental strain.

24Jul, 2021

Every Ecommerce Business Needs a Blog

Ecommerce Business – In the event that you are running an online store you despite everything have not included blogging in your showcasing procedures then you are surely at a gigantic misfortune. Disregarding blogging will surely imply that you are neglecting numerous chances to carry development to your business.

Blogging is compelling, significant. Content resembles fuel for any business and there is no point of holding it back in the carport. Use it adequately and let it drive your business to a fresh out of the box new degree of development. Set up the blogging system now and offer more by carrying more clients to your online store.

Here are the 5 top reasons why you should incorporate blogging for your e-commerce business:

1. Boost your SEO

Blogging improves your site’s SEO, as it were, as it improves the uniqueness in your substance and furnishes you with the chances of getting backlinks to your site. In the event that you begin to furnish normal web journals on your site with special substance, unique information and pictures, your site rankings will improve a great deal. This is the reason, in the event that you have not begun blogging yet, start now to…

2. Bring New Customers And Strengthen Your Relationships With Your Customers

At the point when you give your crowd a great deal of value and helpful substance, you build up a trustable picture in their eye. This can make them purchase items or administrations from your site. More than that, this will assist you with retaining your old clients by building solid associations with them. Thusly, blogging can…

3. Get Established As An Industry Leader

At the point when you begin to give customary quality substance to your crowd, they begin considering you to be an Industry chief. Be that as it may, so as to give the crowd quality and one of a kind substance, you should do a great deal of overviews and examines to acquire unique information and measurements. Try not to stop for a second to do that, it merits giving exertion for in light of the fact that it will…

4. Connect People To Your Brand

Blogging empowers individuals to interface with your image. The greater part of the individuals are searching for the data just on the web yet not for purchasing stuff. These individuals can run over your image through your blog, communicate with your image by remarking, and request your assistance. You have a chance of drawing in future clients with blogging by carrying your image to the individuals by…

5. Creating Opportunities For Sharing

In the event that you do the blogging insightfully, you can get your websites shared on the internet based life handles of the perusers. Give your websites the internet based life reconciliation and ask your perusers keenly to share it. At the point when it happens it will support you…

6. Build A Network

The more individuals read your sites, the more brand mindfulness you get, the more grounded the system you construct. Recall that your business shouldn’t be totally a B2B business. You can connect with numerous affiliates, outsourcing organizations and other specialist organizations who may enable your business to develop.

Collect Emails

You can request that your perusers present their messages or buy in to your bulletins. On the off chance that a peruser believes that your online journals are extremely instructive and helpful, they may buy in to it and give you their email ids. You can even send subtleties of your new items, offers and deals once you have gathered their email ids. This will push you to…

8. Sell Products

Something beyond gathering email ids and sending messages about your items, you can utilize the intensity of substance promoting to make the peruser purchase your items enthusiastically. The procedure is exceptionally straightforward and simple, you need to call attention to the basic issue for which your perusers are looking answers for, push on the issue and give the arrangement in type of your item. Also, think about what you may get a high sell on those items you have advertised through blogging.

9. Build Trust Online

You may have the stunt as of now. Give quality substance continually and center around conveying value. There are numerous advantages of that and one of the most significant of them is that it causes your image to construct trust on the web. More than that, nature of your substance and importance can take your blog to the main page of SERPs. You may likewise…

10. Get Backlinks To Your Website

Many individuals will peruse your web journals when it begins to rank. As I have said it before that you should do a ton of inquires about and overviews for the blog yet it will all be commendable. Presently let me clarify how it will help your web based business. At the point when the clients acquire the information on your blog which is no place accessible on the web, they may give your blog a backlink on the off chance that they utilize that data.

Indeed, even the greatest of the bloggers offer backlinks to the sources they have assembled their data from. This will support the traffic on your site, it’s positioning on Google and other web indexes and will improve your trust factor.

24Jul, 2021

Eat walnuts daily for better gut, heart health

Eat walnuts daily – Walnuts may not just be a tasty snack, they may also promote good-for-your-gut bacteria, say researchers, adding that these ‘good’ bacteria could lead to better heart health.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, suggests walnuts as a part of healthy diet may be a heart- and gut-healthy nut.

Additionally, those changes in gut bacteria were associated with improvements in some risk factors for heart disease.

“Substantial evidence shows that small improvements in diet greatly benefit health. Eating two to three ounces of walnuts a day as part of a healthy diet could be a good way to improve gut health and reduce the risk of heart disease,” said study researcher Kristina Petersen from Penn State University in the US.

According to the researchers, another research has found that changes to the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract — also known as the gut microbiome — may help explain the cardiovascular benefits of walnuts.

For the study, the researchers recruited 42 participants with overweight or obesity who were between the ages of 30 and 65.

Before the study began, participants were placed on an average American diet for two weeks.

After this “run-in” diet, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three study diets, all of which included less saturated fat than the run-in diet.

The diets included one that incorporated whole walnuts, one that included the same amount of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids without walnuts, and one that partially substituted oleic acid (another fatty acid) for the same amount of ALA found in walnuts, without any walnuts.

In all three diets, walnuts or vegetable oils replaced saturated fat, and all participants followed each diet for six weeks with a break between diet periods.

To analyse the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, the researchers collected fecal samples 72 hours before the participants finished the run-in diet and each of the three study diet periods.

“The walnut diet enriched a number of gut bacteria that have been associated with health benefits in the past,” Petersen said.

“One of those is Roseburia, which has been associated with protection of the gut lining. We also saw enrichment in Eubacteria eligens and Butyricicoccus,” Petersen added.

The researchers also found that after the walnut diet, there were significant associations between changes in gut bacteria and risk factors for heart disease.

According to the study, Eubacterium eligens was inversely associated with changes in several different measures of blood pressure, suggesting that greater numbers of Eubacterium eligens was associated with greater reductions in those risk factors.

24Jul, 2021

Disha, Aditya on retaining moral compass while playing killers in ‘Malang’

Malang – In their upcoming release “Malang”, Disha Patani and Aditya Roy Kapur essay characters that are in a quite dark space, with both justifying the act of killing. According to the actors, these are morally tricky characters, and as performers they essay such roles in a non-judgmental manner, emphasising that the film is nothing but a work of fiction.

In the trailer, Aditya’s character says: “Mere liye, jaan lena mera nasha hai (for me, taking lives is an addiction)”.

Disha’s protagonist quips: “Jaan lena mera mazaa hai (taking lives is fun)”.

Disha’s character is otherwise portrayed as someone who loves to live “from one high to another”, soaked in adventure sports, long rides and wild nights out.

Talking about her role, Disha told IANS: “Every individual has her own reality, and every action she takes, she feels, is justified in the situation that she lives. That is what my character is about. For example, there are psychopath killers and, of course, what they are doing is not right! So when the audience watches the film, I do not want them to get inspired by her actions and try them in reality. It is a work of fiction.”

For Aditya, playing such a character is a morally tricky deal. “It is tricky and that is why it is important to understand such a character instead of judging him. In reality, all of us try to rationalise the way we behave, the way we take any action. As an actor, I am trying to give life to a fictional character, so it is important to understand that. I try to understand where they are coming from when they do something instead of judging them as right or wrong,” he explained.

The actor added: “A guy can do something that is wrong in my opinion but not for him as a character, and on screen I am not playing myself but a fictional character written by someone, which came from someone’s imagination. So when I am working on a character, I refrain to make it likable, especially in this case, because he is doing some dubious things in the film.”

Directed by Mohit Suri, “Malang” is set in Goa and the story revolves around four characters. The film also features Anil Kapoor, Kunal Khemu, Amruta Khanvilkar and Shaad Randhawa, and is scheduled to release on Friday.

24Jul, 2021

DD back with Mahabharat, Byomkesh Bakshi, Circus on public demand

Mahabharat – After Doordarshan announced on Friday that its popular eighties epic “Ramayan” would be aired from Saturday, the audience started demanding for other popular old television shows of that era be re-telecast.

Taking note of such public demand, the government re-telecast body has decided to telecast “Mahabharat”, “Byomkesh Bakshi” and the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Circus”.

While “Ramayan” will be telecast everyday at 9am and 9pm, “Byomkesh Bakshi” has been allotted the 11 am slot. “Mahabharat” airs at 12 noon and 7 pm while “Circus” will be on screen at 8 pm.

Excitement of the viewers found their way to social media. Since Saturday morning, Twitter has been buzzing with tweets filled with gratitude.

One user tweeted: “#mahabharat… Remembering my childhood stage and exiting am seeing with my kids.. My daughter translating.. Thanks Doordarshan..”

Another user shared: “Rarely do I watch anything on TV and even rare is with family. Thank You DD. Took me a while to figure out the channel no though. In case you’re lost like me, it’s Channel 1194 on Tata Sky. #Mahabharat.”

Another viewer wrote: “One of the best #detective series #ByomkeshBakshi back to our home once again. Watch the time before CID nd savdhan India #CoronaPandemic #bestuseoftime #StayHome #SupportLockDown Thanks @DDNational @prasarbharati.”

Another user shared: “Already watched today re-telecast of first episode #Ramayana, #ByomkeshBakshi & now eagerly waiting to watch #Mahabharata on #Doordarshan. Thank You @DDNational & @prasarbharati. #StayHomeSaveLives as #IndiaFightsCorona”

Meanwhile, demands for several other old shows continues on social media. These include the Milind Soman-starrer “Captain Vyom”, Mukesh Khanna’s “Shaktimaan”, “Malgudi Days”, “Hum Log”, “Alif Laila” and “Fauji”.

24Jul, 2021

Children’s packed lunches lack nutritional quality: Study

Childrens – Fewer than two in every 100 packed lunches eaten by children in primary schools meet nutritional standards, according to a new study.

According to the researchers from University of Leeds, who conducted a major survey in UK, the lack of fresh food is to blame.

“This study underlines the role that parents, carers, the government and the food industry have in ensuring children eat more healthily,” said study researcher Charlotte Evans from University of Leeds.

“The research has found that on some fronts, packed lunches have improved but they are still dominated by sweet and savoury snack food and sugary drinks. The vast majority provide poor nutritional quality. Addressing that issue over the next 10 years will require a concerted effort,” Evans added.

For the findings, published in the journal BMJ Open, the research compared the nutritional quality of packed lunches brought into a sample of primary schools in 2006 and then in 2016.

The results reveal how the nutritional quality of lunchboxes has changed over 10 years.

It is estimated that more than half of primary schoolchildren take a packed lunch to school.

Over the 10-year period, the researchers found that many children did not have any dairy foods in their lunch, and meals did not meet the recommended standard for calcium.

There was a reduction in the number of packed lunches meeting the standards for vitamin A, vitamin C and zinc.

According to the study, there was no reduction in saturated fats. There was no reduction in the portion size of crisps.

The researchers said the food industry has not focused on reducing the size of savoury snacks in the same way it has on sweet snacks.

Although the amount of sugary food in lunchboxes declined over ten years it is still higher than recommended.

The researchers investigated whether packed lunches met the food standards that apply to cooked meals in England’s schools.

Since 2006, eight standards have been introduced for cooked school lunches. Confectionery, savoury snacks and sweetened drinks are restricted while vegetables, protein and dairy have to be included in each meal.Packed lunches, however, are not subject to any control.

The researchers found that the percentage of packed lunches meeting all eight food standards was very small, increasing slightly from 1.1 per cent in 2006 to 1.6 per cent over ten years.

“Improving what children eat at school will help reduce the risk of childhood obesity,” Evans said.

24Jul, 2021

Can Startups get unsecured Business loans?

Startups are expected to grow rapidly, at a rate of between 5% and 7% per week in their initial stage – Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator

A startup goes beyond the purview of a traditional company just setting its foot on the ground. The term startup better suits to a business that is more technology oriented and has high potential to grow. And due to high growth potential, these businesses need lots of funding.

Who can start a startup?

Anyone! A startup is merely an idea of business. It starts with very little investment that is sometimes provided by government agencies. Most of the times, it is the government that pushes entrepreneurs to launch their startups. It rolls out startup programs from time to time to invite capable persons to launch their companies at a very small level sometimes individually.

Started with little money from the government, startups look for more financial help from banks and investors. They need money for buying technology; employing skilled workforce and for branding and marketing.

Startup environment in India

Definition: Indian government defines a startup as a business as a private limited company or as a partnership firm with an annual turnover not exceeding 25 crores. A business remains a startup for a period of seven years from its date of registration or until its annual turnover exceeds the startup limit that is 25 crores. For a biotechnology startup, the time period is 10 years.

In 2016-17, India witnessed 40% growth in the number of startups. With this high growth rate, India becomes one of the top five startup countries in the world. And the credit for this growth goes to creating a very healthy environment for startups.

After China and the US, India has the third highest number of startups in the world. As we discussed earlier that India saw 40% growth in startups, 30 startups of this 40% are academic incubators launched under the Indian government’s “Start-up India” initiative. Industry pioneers expect a spurt in the growth of startups in coming days.

Supportive factors

Tier-II and Tier-III cities emerged as a hub for startups. The work environment in these cities is conducive due to the local government support. Businesses like logistics and SaaS have started to crop up in the remote areas. IT technology is a boon for startups as most startups. Computing, artificial learning, blockchain, and robotics have helped many startups to come up.

Increasing government support works as a lifeline for startups striving to thrive in the competitive market. Government is providing many facilities like bank credit facilitation scheme to support and strengthen startups. Also, the general financial rules are amended to make way for startups to supply goods to government offices.

The real situation of startups Bootstrapping for longer: Tech startups received fewer deals in the first-half of 2017 in comparison to 2015-16. It is due to may me-too companies opened in previous years. The market for startups has become more competitive and the competition has its toll on the funds that have started drying up resulting in bootstrapping for startups for a longer time period.

Impact of GST: Implementation of GST brought new financial challenges for startups many of whom were served tax notices. They have to give tax on funding received over and above the fair market value of their startups. It is a capital investment but now treated as income hence liable for taxes.

Employee attrition: Employees working in startups are employed by large businesses that can pay higher salaries and give more benefits than startups. Many startups have become toothless due to employee attrition. Since their funds have dried up, they can’t afford skilled workforce.

In India, startups are passing through a difficult phase where they need more funding for expansion, debt restructuring and employee retention. But the good thing is that the startup system is maturing and it is expected to mature into a strong and valuable system for startups.

Funding for startups

Bootstrapping for longer could result in a shutdown but there is no certain way to come out of this situation. There are banks and equity investors that fund startup. Also, the government has special funding plans for startup businesses. The startups can also get up to 1 crore without any collateral security but with the condition that they are able to present a business model that works; the potential for growth, income, and profit.

Bank loan for startup businesses

Most startups get their funding through venture capital firms and angel investors and they miss the funds provided by banks that have special schemes to help startup companies. Banks are the biggest investors for startups. The give loans under different categories to run and expand a startup.

Banks provide financial assistance to startup companies through all stages of development. The entrepreneurs can request an asset-backed loan or working capital depending on their needs.

Page 2 of 4

« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »

Monthly Archives: July 2021