Friday, 14th August ’20
Good morning, let’s welcome Friday with a warm smile and an open heart. Right now, the world is amidst one of the worst trade wars in decades, and the consumers will feel the scourge of it. New treaties are forming, and old ones are deteriorating. A disease looms over the entire globe as a vaccine is just around the corner. Amidst this chaos, Bangalore witnessed one of the worst instances of communal violence in its history. Let’s hope that the economic order and peace restore in our country as we together foster towards a better and great India.
We’ll leave you with a quote from Jimi Hendrix to start your weekend,
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
MIND MONK
The pandemic and the lock-down has stormed our minds with its own set of challenges and uncertainties. Amidst that we give you some recipes to keep yourself in the pathway to greater peace, balance and focus in work, through mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives and perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment.
Good news is that mindfulness meditation is not restricted to cushion, you can practice it anywhere thus lending itself to a busy lifestyle. So the 4 simple ways to practice it in daily life are:-
- Walking – Walk to and from your car, while taking out the trash, grabbing a mail, going to the store. Build a habit to keep yourself on the move.
- Eating – At least once a day, eat a meal only with yourself. Take a breakfast date with you, feel the food that you take in for the first leg of the day
- Maintain an open awareness – While driving, be mindful of your hands on the steering wheel. The little “micro” turns you make to stabilize the steering wheel while driving are perfect for mindfulness practice because they’re constant
- Checking in is a simple practice that involves becoming mindful of what’s going on in your body and mind a few times throughout the day.
MARKETS
Markets: Amid lack of clear direction, the Nifty fell more than 70 points after Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his speech on transparent taxation to make an intra-day low. The defense stocks performed well after Defense Minister Rajnath Singh announced a negative import list. Overall it was a rough day as Sensex fell 59 points. Selling pressure was seen in telecom, healthcare, banks, and energy stocks, while some action was seen in capital goods, industrials, consumer durables, and metals stocks.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
- Intel announced a new way for making transistors on semiconductors what it now calls “SuperFin” transistors, which, along with new material being used to improve the capacitors on chips. It is expected to boost Intel’s processors by one Moore’s law node of performance – a whopping 20% more efficient.
- Facebook launched a Voting Information Center to help users with accurate and easy-to-find information about voting. Twitter is expanding rules against misinformation on mail-in ballots and early voting. These steps by the giants are to curtail fake news and misinformation on the eve of elections.
Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, which spun out of Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs will fund and create the next generation of mobility infrastructure – the launch of a subsidiary called Cavnue to develop roadways for connected and autonomous vehicles starting in Michigan.
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
PM Modi launches drive to make taxation fairer and taxpayers fearless: Launching the platform for “Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest” yesterday, the PM Modi said that this platform has big reforms like faceless assessment, faceless appeal, and taxpayers charter. Faceless assessment and taxpayers charter will come in force the very day, whereas faceless appeal service will be available from September 25. The focus of the tax reforms has been on reduction in tax rates and on simplification of direct tax laws.
Bollywood celebrities come under the scanner for fake social media followers: As popularity and viability get assessed on the basis of numbers, several film stars, considered big-time influencers by brands, are buying into fake fan following. Influencer marketing has become a significant part of digital marketing for legitimate movie or music marketing campaigns. Bollywood rapper Badshah’s alleged payment for fake views on a music video, in a bid to break a YouTube viewership record, is the latest instance of the film industry.
China extends anti-dumping duties on optical fibers from India: The extension on imports of single-mode optical fibers from India, has been done for 5 years. This will take effect from today, with punitive tariff ranges depending on specific Indian manufacturers. The fibers are mainly used in long-haul communication networks and metropolitan works in China.
BUSINESS LOUNGE
POKERING INTO BUSINESS!
Can poker be the bedrock to amass the initial investment in your start-up? Well, the idea seems quite unhedged and too risky, but it fructified in the case of David Daneshgar.
What’s the quickest way to come up with $30,000? If you’re a card shark like David Daneshgar, the answer might be to sign up for a poker tournament. Daneshgar and two of his friends wanted to start an online marketplace connecting florists with customers, but they didn’t have startup cash.
So Daneshgar – who won the World Series of Poker in 2008 – spent $1000 to enter a poker tournament. The grand prize of $30,000 was, coincidentally, just the amount of money they needed. At the end of the tense final round, Daneshgar told his friends what they wanted to hear: “It’s flower time.” They launched their business, BloomNation, soon afterward.
TMT VARSITY
Building a Culture of Innovation – Design Thinking
Design thinking builds people’s capacity to innovate by having them adopt and practice a certain mindset
We will today introduce you to the core design thinking principles, the 3 Es:-
Empathy = When you can empathize with them and take inspiration from their needs, feelings, and motivations, your team can create meaningful solutions to actual problems. In the mid-2000s, Google re-evaluated its months-long hiring process by including hearing how “everyone had a story about their bad interview experience with Google“, which helped the HR team to come up with effective ideas that focused on substantially reducing Google’s hiring time.
Expansive thinking = Expansive thinking, also known as brainstorming, is all about creating multiple ways to solve a problem or improve a situation. When a Google team began working on Loon — an initiative to provide internet service to unconnected communities around the world they applied 10X thinking. This moved them from limited solutions, like installing more fibers, to a truly innovative solution: using a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space to deliver connectivity.
Experimentation = Once you have a list of ideas, you’ll need to start learning which ideas work and which ones don’t — fast. This is where you begin experimentation or building prototypes.In 2014, the Google Primer team released a stripped-down, beta version of their educational app containing only 12 lessons that they then tested with select users. This helped the team refine both the UX and the content of the app, preparing them to launch the official Primer app a year later.
Happy Thinking!!
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, and Shashank Dobhal
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