Tuesday, 1st September ’20
Good morning, our worst fear for the economy surfaces as the GDP of India contracted by 24% compared to last quarter owing to the lockdowns and the restrictions. All sectors including manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, mining, etc except agriculture are in deep red as the economy records the sharpest drop in 41 years. Private consumption fell sharply by 54.3%. Amidst this economic low, another shocker came in as our former President and Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukherjee passed away leaving behind his illustrious 60 years in Indian politics. News of tension at the border with China surfaced leaving jitters in the market.
TMT wishes all its readers to continue on their leadership streak as we start the day with a quote from former South African President, Nelson Mandela,
A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.
MIND MONK
Calm your nerves before a Presentation Delivery
Surveys about our human fears commonly show fear of public speaking. An audience cannot see how you feel; they only see how you look and act. Therefore, when you learn how to look and act calm, confident, and composed on the outside, that’s what the audience perceives and believes.
Here are 5 tips for calming your nerves before a big presentation:
- Research your subject, craft your content and know your material well in advance.
- Research the venue, become familiar with the schedule of events surrounding your presentation, and test the equipment beforehand.
- Before your presentation, mentally walk yourself through the presentation. Picture yourself speaking with confidence and poise; see your audience responding positively.
- Know your audience. Do a little research beforehand in order to find out what your audience is hoping to gain from hearing you speak.
- Smile!!! Sincere smiling emits chemicals in the brain that calms the nerves and promotes a sense of well being.
Happy Presenting!!
MARKETS
Markets: GDP contracted to the worst in the last 41 years at 23.9% as compared to the last quarter and the Indian markets will soon reflect the same deterioration. The market snapped its 6-day winning streak as it fell sharply about 6% due to the Indo-China border tensions. Selling was seen across sectors with the bank, automobile, metal, and pharmaceuticals falling 3-5 percent. According to analysts, this could be the beginning of a bear trap and traders need to be cautious.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
- Edtech startup Eruditus has raised $113 million in funding led by Leeds Illuminate and Prosus Ventures (Naspers) with participation from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
- GM is moving the engineering team responsible for the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette to the company’s electric and autonomous vehicle programs. GM pledged to invest $2.2 billion into its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant to produce all-electric trucks and SUVs.
- SockSoho is a direct-to-consumer brand that aspires to become the “Uniqlo of India.” The company launched sales ten months ago, starting with men’s socks, and recently completed Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 program. They now have more than 30,000 customers and sell on WhatsApp.
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
- India strengthens military presence in all strategic points in the Pangong lake area: The Indian Army has significantly enhanced deployment of troops and weapons in all “strategic points” around the Pangong lake in eastern Ladakh following an unsuccessful attempt by the Chinese PLA to unilaterally change the status quo in the area. The Chinese military carried out “provocative military movements” to “unilaterally” change the status quo on the southern bank of Pangong lake on the intervening night of August 29 and 30 but the attempt was thwarted by the Indian troops.
- Reliance JioFiber to offer free Netflix, Amazon Prime with select plans: Reliance JioFiber customers will be getting the choice of opting for a new offer from the carrier. Reliance Jio has launched new broadband plans that are almost as cheap as prepaid plans for mobile phones. The company has launched new broadband plans starting from ₹399 and these plans won’t have any limit on data usage. These plans will be rolled out from September 1.
- SpiceJet launches portable ventilator SpiceOxy for patients with breathing issues: In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the budget airlines SpiceJet introduced a portable ventilator for patients with mild-to-moderate breathing issues. Dubbed as ‘SpiceOxy’, the compact ventilator was designed by engineers of SpiceJet Technic, a subsidiary of SpiceJet. This lightweight device can be used at home, in an ambulance, on hilly terrains like army base camps, hospitals, and portable applications like wheelchairs and gurneys, according to the airlines.
- India and Russia declared joint winners of the Chess Olympiad: The India team at the FIDE Online Olympiad created history on 30 August by winning its first-ever gold. However, in another first, this was shared with Russia, following an internet failure that affected two games.The Indian team boasted of some of the best minds in world chess, including Anand, team captain Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna. Yet, defeating Russia seemed a tall order.
BUSINESS LOUNGE
Baker’s Treat – Story of a Self-taught Baker
Mangalore (Mangaluru), the gateway of Karnataka, is famous for its unique brand of coastal cuisine. While these traditional dishes remain popular, there is a large segment of customers with rapidly changing tastes – the millennials.
Heavily influenced by Western cuisines, millennials are creating a big demand for burgers, pasta, pizzas, and cakes. When 48-year-old, Dubai returnee, Mariam Mohuideen observed this trend in Mangalore, she felt it was the right time to tap into her baking skills to start her own business.
In December 2014, she started Baker’s Treat -a bakery that sold home-baked goods. It was a small, 200 square feet space from where they made and sold baked goods. To achieve a product-market fit, Baker’s Treat employed a combination of word-of-mouth and digital marketing.
Being a self-taught baker, Mariam has always faced questions and criticisms regarding her qualifications to be a baker. People don’t often applaud each other for their self-made achievements.
In 2017, Mariam invested almost Rs 20 lakh and turned Baker’s Treat into a restaurant for cakes, cupcakes, burgers, pasta, and shakes aimed at Mangalore’s evolving taste buds. It was funded in part by her savings and through family investment.
Today, Mariam’s business is a 19-member, 2,200 square feet, 90-seater restaurant on Mother Teresa Road, Mangalore. It sees a daily footfall of around 150 customers, who mostly flock to Mariam’s Oreo Nutella cheesecakes, brownies, and cupcakes.
“I have taken in women who were unemployed and unskilled, and they are part of my team. I taught them the craft of baking, and some of them have become independent earners in their family,” Mariam says.
Mariam has also conducted cooking classes for over 600 people since 2013. She says she has also conducted free classes, in association with NGOs, and given away sales profits to charity.
With a healthy flow of customers, Baker’s Treat clocked a Rs 1 crore turnover last year.
Her business mantra is to take one thing at a time, be organized, and perform well. Also to be open to the daily experiences and consider them as lessons for life.
TMT VARSITY
SEO techniques (#2 of 3)
Web Site domain: Choosing the right domain is essential. A few important considerations here are that we should be clear about our target audience, what we intend to sell, and what makes our idea or business unique.
There could be a keyword in the domain that makes the domain name short, memorable, spell-able, and free of hyphens.
While coding the website, it is important to take care of the naming conventions of the filenames. The names should be short, simple, descriptive, containing 2-3 keywords and relevant to the page content.
The design and layout of the website should be simple and uncomplicated keeping the structure as close to the root directory as possible. We should have more text that HTML elements and ensure that the keyword density is about 10% of the page.
Optimized keywords:
A keyword is used to match a query to a user by the search engine. Most users type in 2-5 words to fetch results and we should ensure that we cover our relevant keywords.
Keyword weight: The ratio of the keyword to the length of the total text is called keyword weight.
Keyword Prominence: It is better to have the keywords in the first sentence of at least the first paragraph.
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, and Shashank Dobhal
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