Author: Megha Vishwanath

Messaging services platform Gupshup raises $100 million from Tiger Global; becomes 6th Unicorn this week

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Gupshup, a Silicon Valley-based conversational messaging on Thursday announced raising $100 million in funding from Tiger Global Management. With this, the company’s valuation stands at $1.4 billion.

This is the sixth startup to enter the unicorn club just this week after startups like social media platform ShareChat, investment platform Groww, health-tech startup PharmEasy, social e-commerce startup Meesho, and credit card payment platform CRED.

The team plans to use this investment to scale product and go-to-market initiatives globally. As of today, Gupshup claims to be powering over 6 billion messages per month and its API technology enables over 100,000 developers and businesses to build messaging and conversational experiences.

“The growth in business use of messaging and conversational experiences, transforming virtually every customer touchpoint, is an exciting secular trend,” said John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global Management.

Gupshup, which was once known as SMS Gupshup, has been leveraging the power of the business messaging space in India for a long time. Gupshup says its technology is specially designed to optimise mobile-first economies like India and other emerging markets with similar dynamics.

Today several brands like Reliance Jio, Paytm, Zomato, Flipkart, Myntra, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra use Gupshup API for customer engagement across multiple channels, especially SMS.

The ubiquity of smartphones and the dominance of messaging apps is forcing businesses to go where the consumers are, in their favourite messaging apps. The team says that over the last few years, business messaging has become more conversational as SMS messages include hyperlinks and new messaging channels emerge.

“Customers expect to converse with businesses the way they do with friends. They expect the conversation to be simple, easy, quick, contextual, and personalized,” explained Beerud Sheth, Gupshup Co-founder and CEO.

“Gupshup’s mission is to build the tools that help businesses better engage with customers through mobile messaging and conversational experiences,” he added.

Gupshup’s last funding round was in 2011 and the company claims to have exited 2020 with an annual revenue run rate of approximately 150 million dollars.

According to the team, this new funding will be followed by a second close with additional funds from more investors. That announcement will be made at a later date, though there is no clarity on the timeline as of now.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Startup Digest: Top stories of the day

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Here’s a wrap of the top startup stories today (April 5).

BYJU’s acquires Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion

Edtech company, BYJU’S has announced its strategic partnership with Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), a test prep services player. Sources confirm to CNBC-TV18 that BYJU’s is acquiring Aakash Educational Services for nearly $1 Billion.

This partnership aims to create greater value for the student community by combining Aakash’s pedagogy expertise in the test-prep segment with BYJU’s content and tech capabilities. After the integration, BYJU’s will make further investments to accelerate Aakash’s growth. EY was the exclusive financial advisor for BYJU’s on this transaction. Phoenix Advisers was the exclusive advisor for the AESL.

Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO, BYJU’s said, “Our complementary strengths will enable us to build capabilities, create engaging and personalised learning programs. The future of learning is hybrid and this union will bring together the best of offline and online learning, as we combine our expertise to create impactful experiences for students.”

Meesho gets Softbank backing, turns unicorn

Social commerce platform, Meesho has raised $300 million in a new round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The latest investment valued Meesho at $2.1 billion and saw participation from existing investors – Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway and Knollwood Investment.

Commenting on the fund raise Vidit Aatrey, founder and CEO of Meesho said, “We take pride at the rate of speed and scale at which Meesho has grown, positively impacting millions of lives, and creating exponential learning along the way. With the new round of funding, we are extremely thrilled to have SoftBank onboard. We are focused on expanding our vision — from helping aspiring women entrepreneurs to creating Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses in India to succeed online.”

Meesho’s long-term mission has been to enable 100 million small businesses including individual entrepreneurs to succeed online in India. These small businesses include individual businesses owned and run by women entrepreneurs and homepreneurs who have become financially independent and successful over the years through Meesho, and have carved out their own identities.

Salman Khan backs Chingari

Actor Salman Khan has invested in Short video platform Chingari, which has also announced that the actor will join as its global brand ambassador. Salman Khan’s funding was part of a larger $13 million round in the company led by OnMobile Global Limited, a global player in mobile entertainment. Chingari this week also announced that OnMobile Global Limited, a global player in mobile entertainment, led a $13 million round in the company.

This investment, the company said, will allow Chingari to accelerate its growth from 56 million users to over 100 million users. As part of the deal, OnMobile will integrate and distribute its direct-to-consumer ONMO gaming platform on the Chingari app and collaborate on other product integrations to serve millions of users.

The company said it will use the funds to enhance its content portfolio, hire top talent and accelerate its growing user base. Other investors who participated in this round include Republic Labs US, Astarc Ventures, White Star Capital, India Tv (Rajat Sharma), JPIN Venture Catalysts Ltd, ProfitBoard Ventures, Raghunandan G of Zolve (Co-Founder, Taxi4sure) and some large family office funds from the UK.

Wazirx launches NFT marketplace for Indian artists

Crypto exchange platform WazirX has launched a marketplace for Non-Fungible Tokens or NFT with an aim to enable “seamless exchange” of digital assets and intellectual properties including art pieces, audio files, videos, programs, and even tweets apart from other digital goods and services. Indian creators can now place their digital assets for auction over the blockchain-based NFT marketplace and earn royalty thereafter.

For the uninitiated, NFT is a one-of-its-kind asset that is non-fungible in nature. It means that NFT is not replaceable by another ‘identical’ item. Its copies cannot be created following the purchase, thereby making it a unique asset for buyers. NFT are the next logical step for everyone from collectors to businesses who are interested in inimitable, intellectual properties. Recently, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for $2.9 million in an NFT-based transaction. The same holds for artists, distributors, and other stakeholders who wish to drive digital sales while keeping their copyrights intact.

Nischal Shetty, founder, WazirX said, “We are delighted to launch one of India’s first NFT marketplace. Since our inception, we have been at the forefront of innovation and empowered our customers with value-added offerings. The latest addition to the WazirX portfolio builds along the same lines. It will truly transform the market in our rapidly digitizing world with a growing interest in NFT across the globe. Both digital creators and collectors stand to benefit from the WazirX NFT marketplace. As of now, we are working around certain nitty-gritty to make NFTs more lucrative for our customers.”

CareerLabs students raises $2.2 million from Rocket Internet’s VC fund-GFC & angel investors

CareerLabs, a profile building platform for college students and working professionals, has secured $2.2 million in a new financing round as it looks to scale its platform, including a new product. Founded in 2019 by the ex-leadership team of BYJU’s, led by serial entrepreneur PN Santosh, ex- Mckinsey alumnus and ex- founding member at BYJU’s, Krithika Srinivasan from University of Michigan and Prasanna Alagesan, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, CareerLabs claims to have reached out to 1 lakh+ students with 30000+ active users and 3000+ paid subscribers.

Rocket Internet’s VC fund – Global Founders Capital invested in the Bengaluru-based startup’s Pre-Series A round with participation from Toshan Tamhane, chief digital officer, UPL; Ajit Isaac, founder chairman of QuessCorp; Rohit Kale, MD, Spencer Stuart, Professors of ISB; Ghanshyam Das, former MD- Asia Pacific & Middle East, Nasdaq and Abhishek Nag, director of Business Development -India and South Asia, Netflix and other angel investors.

CareerLabs provides a technology-enabled platform with an unique Career Track recommendation engine called Career Wizard which helps CareerLabs provide suitable Industry-recognized Courses & Certifications for upskilling. The career skilling solutions are carefully built to make it affordable at a price that is 70% lower than similar solutions. Through a completely planned journey involving detailed profile analysis, personalized mentoring & recruitment help, CareerLabs is enabling millions of students in tier 2 and tier 3 cities to also access the same quality content and services.

Facebook data breach

Reports suggest that personal details of nearly 533 million Facebook users from more than 100 countries, including India, were leaked online and uploaded on low-level hacking forums. The exposed data includes personal information of 32 million Facebook users from the US, 11 million from the UK, 8 million from Brazil, 6 million from India, 3.8 million from Bangladesh, 1.2 million from Australia, among others, as per reports.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Short video platform Firework raises $55 million in series A funding

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Silicon Valley-based web stories platform Firework has raised $55 million in series A round of funding from GSR Ventures, IDG, Lightspeed, Sumitomo Corporation, and Asahi. The team says this investment will help Firework drive shift from centralised internet or Internet 2.0 to a more decentralised environment of the future or internet 3.0.

Sunil Nair, CEO of Firework India, said “Firework is delighted to have some of the world’s top VCs as our investors and it validates our belief and work in the open web and what it will mean for businesses, users and countries in the future.”

“Firework is strongly built on the values of open web and decentralised internet and will lead the initiative to make the web a more democratic space for all. Our journey in India over the last 15 months is marked by growth, success and learning, which puts us that much closer to realizing our open web dreams”

The company said as of today, Firework has more than 450 million monthly views and has set out a larger mission to unite websites against the exploitative walled gardens and power the open web for the next 20 years.

When asked to elaborate the company says that in an Internet 2.0 model, simple business websites, while considered user experience in any communication strategy, rely far too heavily on driving their audiences off-site into alternative channels.
Tapping into this opportunity Firework’s tech enables any simple text and image-based website or ecommerce platform to deliver a social media like immersive and engaging experience with swipe-able, exciting, brand focused vertical short videos.

Jason Holland, President of Global Business, said, “Firework will power internet for the next 2 decades with vertical video web stories as a currency. As we upgrade and connect the global open web for Internet 3.0, publishers and businesses will leverage on another in creating a unified content consumption experience that’s never been made available. All of this is driven by Firework technology, content creation tools, e-commerce capabilities, monetisation innovation, and data-first capabilities. We will exceed 5 billion monthly views by Q4 2021.”

Nair further added, “Firework has created an ecosystem with which it is empowering both publishers and brands to independently be able to offer the best of social media without having to share user data and compromise on privacy issues. Our existing publishers and brands are deriving much more value in the form of engagement, stickiness for their own platform rather than contributing to the social media platforms.”

From an India point of view, the company has ranked the country right top of its priority list and is planning to make India a hub for rolling out strategies and innovations.

Recently, Reliance Jio roped in Firework to offer vertical video stories to its 100 million-plus KaiOS users in India. Their other publisher partners include Airtel and VI, in addition to Google and other mainstream media publishers.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Offline-to-online merchant platform DotPe raises $27.5 million series A funding from PayU, Info Edge Ventures & Google

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Gurgaon-based offline-to-online commerce platform, DotPe has secured $27.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by its early investor, PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus, resulting in an increase in the existing stake in the company.

Info Edge Ventures has doubled down on its seed investment in the company made last year and more than doubled its shareholding and tech giant Google joins in as a new investor. With this round the total funding stands at $35.5 million.

Founded by former-PayU founder Shailaz Nag with Gyanesh Sharma and Anurag Gupta in 2020. DotPe model provides digitised enterprise as well as SMB merchants through a full stack solution – from giving them an online presence to enabling seamless ordering (in-store and remote), online payments and delivery. The company claims over 38 percent of orders daily are now through repeat consumers.

Shailaz Nag, co-founder, DotPe said, “This new partnership will empower businesses (big or small) to be more discoverable, expand business avenues and conduct commerce like never before. Pandemic or not, we are here to reimagine the way offline businesses work and bring the digital revolution to the doorstep of every entrepreneur.”

The company has two main focus verticals – enterprise and SMB. DotPe claims to have deep integration with over 10,000 restaurants and food courts, including leading global and domestic FnB on the enterprise side.

While on the SMB front, it’s product Digital Showroom has on-boarded over 5 million merchants within 6 months of launch in September 2020. This product enables merchants to sell online by creating a digital storefront and accepting orders through WhatsApp.

Anirban Mukherjee, CEO, PayU India, said, “In a very short time, DotPe has acquired a promising merchant base with its impeccable product experience and innovation. We have always believed in fostering innovation by working with such disruptive, early-stage start-ups. Under Shailaz’s leadership, we believe DotPe is positioned for rapid expansion as it disrupts and transforms the offline to online segment. They also align seamlessly with PayU’s vision of digitising payments in India by enabling merchants of all sizes. We are excited to build on our initial investment and continue to support the company on its journey.”

This fresh funding will be deployed towards accelerating product development, market expansion and scaling technology to meet the fast-growing market demand.

Sanjay Gupta, vice president and country head, Google India said, “In the last few months we’ve seen an acceleration in offline players seeking to move their businesses online. We’re pleased to back young companies like DotPe that are supporting India’s digital transformation by connecting consumers and merchants through helpful, innovative tools. This investment under Google for India digitization fund underlines our belief in working with India’s start-up ecosystem towards the goal of building a more inclusive digital economy that will benefit everyone.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Google Play halves service fee for app developers to 15%, but there’s a catch

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Google has announced a ‘significant change’ for developers that sell in-app digital goods and services on Google Play. In-app purchasing refers to the buying of goods and services from inside an application on a mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet. A classic example is gaming apps, where for a fee, the user playing the game gets extra attempts to reach the goal.

Starting July 2021, the tech giant will reduce the service fee Google Play receives from 30 percent to 15 percent, for the first $1 million of revenue every developer earns each year.

How it all started

To recap, in September last year, Google said that it will enforce its Google Play rules to require developers who sell digital goods and services in-app to use its payment system. This Google Play billing policy rules applied to all Android developers, who use Google’s billing system which takes a 30 percent fee from payments. Back then Google said that more than 97 percent of apps globally do not sell digital goods, and therefore do not pay any service fee. Out of the remaining 3 percent, Google clarified that more than 98 percent of its current developers already complied with the “long standing policy”.

Despite what seemed like reinforcement of an existing policy, this announcement from Google did not go down well with the Indian startup ecosystem and became a raging issue in the tech ecosystem almost instantly. Several Indian startup founders met under The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) to evaluate legal options.

#CNBCTV18Exclusive | @Paytm Founder @vijayshekhar lashed out at #Google, calling the US giant a “money collecting, money siphoning” machinery #StartupStreet @ShereenBhan #paytmminiappstore @MeghaVishwanath pic.twitter.com/IGgBSKIOB3

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) October 5, 2020

Given the backlash in India and the matter reaching the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) and the Competition Commission of India, Google on October 5 gave an extension of six months to Indian app developers. While the policy will come into effect in other regions from Oct 2021, in India it was deferring the policy to April 2022

Post this announcement Google set up ‘policy workshops’ with the global team of Google Play and met up with several India developers to make note of the asks from the ecosystem. As one would have guessed, the most popular demand laid on the table was to lower this 30 percent fee on in-app purchases of digital goods.

Today in a global blog-post titled ‘Boosting developer success on Google Play’, the tech giant claims, “With this change, 99 percent of developers globally that sell digital goods and services with Play will see a 50 percent reduction in fees. These are funds that can help developers scale up at a critical phase of their growth by hiring more engineers, adding to their marketing staff, increasing server capacity, and more.”

While addressing the fact that scaling an app does not stop once a business hits the $1 million revenue mark, Google further added, “We’ve heard from our partners making $2 million, $5 million and even $10 million a year that their services are still on a path to self-sustaining orbit. This is why we are making this reduced fee on the first $1 million of total revenue earned each year available to every Play developer that uses the Play billing system, regardless of size”.

How this will work?

To avail this revised fee-structure a developer will be required to confirm some basic information and disclose details of all associated accounts. For now, the company says this this discount will automatically renew each year but full details will be released in the coming months.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Jio partners with Firework to offer video stories feature on Jio KaiOS

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Betting on the global rise of “stories” format, Reliance Jio has roped in Firework short video platform to offer vertical video stories to its 100 million plus KaiOS users in India.

The Firework-Jio collaboration will bring together Firework’s snackable content from its data base to Jio’s network of handheld devices and apps. With this move, Firework will be native in all Jio KaiOS phones and integrated within the Jio browser.

Firework is a Silicon Valley based short video stories platform that made an entry in the India market in 2019. Headquartered in Redwood City, California Firework currently has operations across 8 countries.

Also read: ‘Atmanirbhar’ India – the vision for the telecom sector

Firework’s SaaS based offering enables businesses and platforms to bunk in the “Stories” format, be it on apps or in the open web through a simple integration.

Sunil Nair, CEO of Firework India, said, “Jio has created a new category of connected users by bringing the KaiOS ecosystem to India and then pioneering app development on these phones, meant for an untapped audience. To have them join the portfolio of Firework publishers is a significant reassurance towards Firework’s business leadership as a short video network platform, globally.”

Also read: TRAI invites suggestions on encouraging R&D in telecom, broadcasting sectors

He added, “KaiOS opens newer audiences to the short video category and with Firework’s focus on high quality short video stories in multiple Indian languages, this alliance shows great potential with already visible traction.”

Firework claims that their service already powers some of the leading publishers in India to simply plug in and bring millions of exciting short video content to its users. . So far in India, Firework has partnered with Vi, Samsung, MI, OneIndia.in, Google Discover to name a few.

Disclaimer: RIL, the promoter of Reliance Jio, also controls Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Indian women battle strongest gender bias across APAC, says LinkedIn

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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1 in 5 (22 percent) working women in India said their companies exhibit a ‘favorable bias’ towards men at work when compared to the regional average of 16 percent.

This according to professional network LinkedIn’s Opportunity Index 2021 report. Even though 66 percent of people in India feel that gender equality has improved compared to their parents’ age, India’s working women still contend the strongest gender bias across Asia Pacific countries

A deeper analysis shows that more women in India have experienced the impact of gender on career development when compared to the APAC region. In India, more than 4 in 5 working women (85 percent) claim to have missed out on a raise, promotion, or work offer because of their gender, compared to the regional average of 60 percent.

The Index highlighted that the difference in perception of available opportunities in the market for men and women in India. While 37 percent of India’s working women say they get fewer opportunities than men, only 25 percent of men agree with this. This disparity in perception is also seen in conversations about equal pay, as more women (37 percent) say they get less pay than men, while only 21 percent of men share this sentiment.

In India, the top three job opportunities sought by both men and women are job security, a job that they love, and a good work-life balance. But despite having similar goals, more women (63 percent) think a person’s gender is important to get ahead in life when compared to men (54 percent).

Consumer sentiment from the report shows that more than 7 in 10 working women (71 percent) and working mothers (77 percent) feel that managing familial responsibilities often come in their way of career development. In fact, about two-thirds of working women (63 percent) and working mothers (69 percent) said they have faced discrimination at work because of familial and household responsibilities.

While job security is critical for working women across India, women are laying more emphasis on the type of employer they choose to work with, the recognition they will receive for the work they do, and the skills that will be utilized on the job. As per LinkedIn’s findings, they are actively seeking employers who treat them as equal (50 percent), while 56 percent are looking to get recognition at work for what they do.

Lack of required professional skills and a lack of guidance through networks and connections are also some of the other barriers that get in the way of career development for working women in India.

Need of the hour: Robust maternity policies and flexibility programs

Women have been disproportionately impacted amid Covid-19, and the expectations to juggle home and work life have wreaked havoc in their lives. As a result of the barriers faced by women at work, more than 1 in 2 women and working mothers in India expect organizations to offer reduced or part-time schedules (56 percent) and robust maternity leaves and policies (55 percent) to make the transition smoother.

Telecommuting or Work-From-Home has also been appreciated by women across the workforce in India during the pandemic, and it is seen as the top-ranking demand for women in the workforce today, along with other flexibility programs.

More than 1 in 2 women are also looking for more professional connections and mentors who can help them advance their careers, as 65 percent women agree that lack of guidance through networks is a key opportunity barrier.

The report further shows that 9 in 10 (89 percent) women state they were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Carl Pei’s Nothing ropes in Stockholm-based Teenage Engineering as founding partners

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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London-based consumer technology company and ex-co-founder OnePlus Carl Pei’s new venture Nothing on Wednesday roped in Teenage Engineering as a founding partner of the company.

Teenage Engineering is a Stockholm-based company that’s known for their unique craftsmanship and industrial design prowess. For over ten years, the company has been developing highly acclaimed products for people who love sound, music, and design. The company’s emblematic first product, the portable wonder synthesizer OP-1, was launched in 2010 and is still used by world-famous musicians today.

“I’m really excited to welcome Teenage Engineering to the growing Nothing family. They consist of some of the best designers and creatives that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Together, we have created a product roadmap that’s unique and true to Nothing’s vision,” said Carl Pei, CEO and co-founder of Nothing.

Jesper Kouthoofd, co-founder and CEO of Teenage Engineering, is the creative lead and the visionary behind Nothing’s design world, while Tom Howard has been appointed as head of design of Nothing.

“When Carl first told me about Nothing’s vision I remember being super excited thinking about how this would be translated into the design identity of the products. After months of research and development, we are now in a place where I believe we will have something exciting to show to the world,” said Jesper Kouthoofd, founding partner and creative lead of Nothing.

Nothing will be releasing its first products in the coming months. The company recently announced that it is opening up for its community to invest as part of its Series A.

So far, over 20,000 people have signed up for early access with a registered interest close to $30 million in total. This community funding round will be carried out through a crowd-fund campaign starting on March 2.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Gen X bets on work experience, millennials focus on upskilling,: LinkedIn

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Eighty percent of professionals are confident about skilling opportunities, while 79 percent are confident about the strength of their CVs, according to the latest LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index, a fortnightly pulse on the confidence of the Indian workforce.

However, the latest edition of the Workforce Confidence Index shows a dip in India’s overall confidence, as the composite score dropped from +58 in December 2020 to +54 in January 2021. The survey attributes this dip in optimism to the workforce’s growing concerns about the status of the pandemic, surmounting expenses, and job availability in the present economic climate.

This professional uncertainty comes right after the year-end holiday season, when India’s hiring rate dropped to 17 percent year-over-year in December 2020, according to the latest edition of LinkedIn’s Labour Market update.

This survey is based on the responses of 1,752 professionals, findings from January 1-29 reveal that professionals in India are confident about career progress despite growing uncertainties about the job market and financial future in the current environment.

While the job market looks bleak, entrepreneurship looked up for Indian professionals last year. The Labour Market Update spotlights the rise of entrepreneurship in India, as findings show a 10 percent growth in members with the title ‘founders’ or ‘co-founder’ on their profiles from January to December 2020 on LinkedIn. This uptick in new entrepreneurs was particularly strong in the fields of Mental Healthcare, E-Learning, and Online Media.

“Skills are expected to become the new professional ‘currency’ this year as workers from different generations rely on learning new skills to future-proof their careers, at a time when industries continue to strengthen their remote operations. Employees from traditional sectors such as Corporate Services, Healthcare, and Software & IT industries are found to be most confident about the future of their employers, as companies continue to adopt newer technologies, and revamp their talent strategies. Reimagining employee skills and roles to welcome the post-pandemic ways of working will be crucial to building resilience for companies across sectors,” says Ashutosh Gupta, India Country Manager, LinkedIn.

The Workforce Confidence Index shows that while India remains resilient, professionals from different generations have contrasting reasons to stay confident in these testing times. While 92 percent of Gen X and 98 percent of Baby Boomers say the strength of their work experience and academic qualifications makes them more confident, 86 percent of Millennials state they are more inspired by opportunities to grow their skills and climb the ladder. Further, 80 percent of Gen Z professionals say that the likelihood of progressing their careers makes them more confident today.

According to the Workforce Confidence Index, professionals working in Corporate Services and Finance industries in India saw the highest surges in employer optimism. At a time when companies continue to strengthen their remote capabilities and revamp their talent strategies, findings show that the Employer Confidence Index (ECI) score of the Corporate Services industry rose from +37 in October 2020 to +54 in January 2021, which indicates a boost in demand for these services, and the sector’s future growth possibilities. The Finance industry’s ECI also jumped from +20 in October 2020 to +41 in January 2021, a possible indication of how India’s rapidly growing fintech landscape sharpens its focus on alternative financial services in the age of digital transformation.

Overall, professionals from Corporate Services (+54), Healthcare (+49), and Software & IT (+47) industries are the most confident about the future of their employers.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Government’s alternative to WhatsApp is here and it’s called Sandes

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Sandes-e Aate Hai is not just a song from the movie Border anymore, it could in fact be the new way of messaging for government employees.

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) of India has on Thursday launched a WhatsApp-like instant messaging app called Sandes. NIC said the chats on this government instant messaging system are secured with end-to-end encryption.

Touted as an upgrade to the existing Government Instant Messaging System (GIMS), the Sandes app though built for government officials, but can be used by individuals as well. All you need is a government email ID for sign-up.

To download the application, the APK file for android on the NIC website. However, for iOS users, the app is available App Store and is compatible with all devices including iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running on iOS 12.0 and above.

NIC has described this application as a “secured instant messaging platform to connect with government officials, family, and friends with GIMS Instant messenger for free” on the Apple’s app store.

Much like any other messaging application, users can send and receive texts, multimedia content such as images and videos or even create new groups.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow