Best friends Jayesh and Aditya were just 22, when they stumbled upon the trending personal care niche on Instagram, while on a walk discussing various business ideas. Quickly, they looped Mayur into the idea. Mayur has been Jayesh’s former partner in Unzag Media; a performance marketing agency. All three of them felt that India came up short on a brand which could resonate with millennials and the forthcoming sector of Gen Z.

Beginning a DTC personal care brand was simple for the trio; where Jayesh and Mayur excelled in scaling DTC Brands through their digital marketing abilities, whereas Aditya brought in his prior knowledge in the personal care industry accomplished through his family-owned Salon Business “Cut and Style”.

They bootstrapped the brand in 2017 and launched their first product in the year 2018 namely Detoxifying Sea Algae Face Mask. It took them a year to consummate the product in the wake of experiencing innumerable samples and suppliers to find the ideal formula containing Seaweed Algae, Vitamin C, Activated Charcoal, and Hyaluronic Acid in the right amount. The product assists with detoxifying, brightening and removing pollutants from the skin, causing the skin to feel baby soft and clear.

The Face Mask became a rage in the country. From Influencers to celebrities, everybody contributed to its virality. In around 19 months, the brand has as much as 70,000 clients with stunning reviews and feedback. The product is sold nationwide through their website and on marketplaces like Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart and so forth. The brand professes to service 8,000 orders every month online, with an average ticket size of ₹999.

In August, last year, in the wake of seeing the response and input on the product, they propelled a similar mask for Men, so as to increase the market share.

The founders of Prolixr consider the yearly market evaluation and analysis as an absolute must, as they believe every year has its own utilization story to tell. When you compare the needs of customers five years back to now, it is a whole lot of different. Today, everything is about needs and interests-provoking consumerism.

The founders commented that “We have known from the start, the power of the digital medium. Isn’t it amazing to follow or buy anything you want, with just a few clicks? We saw the digital medium as a good way to establish our brand and our products. On the basis of our research, we sure made our customer personas, based on their likes, interests amongst many other things derived from the networking platform which helped us to curate the content and modify our image accordingly. Since people are very self-centric knowing the most about themselves, we aimed to create an image that resonates most of our audience groups, resulting in personalized and individualistic branding.” 

Product development in the personal care sector is a precarious task and Prolixr has had an analytical approach to deal with the conceptualization and advancement of the product. After the complete analysis of all the conceivable outcomes, it becomes a challenge for the team to come to a concise conclusion, the founders claimed.

To narrow down the assessment grids of the product, the founders mentioned that they have been directing groupdiscussions and substantial product feedbacksfrom a spectrum of customers. They also added that the detailed reviews, surveys and discussions have been aiming to cover all sides of customer preferences inclinations. “This type of analysis not only gives us an exceptional advantage over the other brands in the personal care industry but also helps us to build a brand image that aligns our products with customers.” said Jayesh Hans.

“We would want to stick to the DTC approach for now, as there are quite a few unexplored areas with a lot of scope, which is expected to rise even more post- COVID,” jointly said the founders of the brand.

The founders are currently stepping forward with the presentation of new products in the personal care fragment, intending to continue delivering new premium quality products to their customers.

The post Story Behind The Millennial Personal Care Brand – Prolixr appeared first on Digpu News Network.

Celebfie provides an opportunity for the fans to access short-form content created by the celebrities and also allow fans to directly engage with them

Celebrities-paparazzi and then fans & brands; the engagement between a celebrity and their fans have always been dictated by the paparazzi and their core circle. Fans are dependent on journalists to get a sneak peek in the lives of their favourite stars, but now a mobile application-based high-leverage content venture that goes by the name of ‘Celebfie’ is set to disrupt this age-old practice. Fans and brands would now have direct access to the celebrities and their exclusive content created by them.

‘Celebfie’ is way ahead of the present crop of celebrity centric platforms as they are just focused on paid celebrity shout outs, whereas Celebfie provides an opportunity for the fans to access short-form content created by the celebrities and also allow fans to directly engage with them. The current social networking sites facilitate one-way communication, where the fans express their views and requests, which is hardly noticed by celebrities, the reason is lack of personal touch. Celebrities receive hundreds of fan messages, they are tagged, trolled, and mentioned on multiple social media channels and it becomes difficult for the celebrity to respond to each one of them. On the other hand, shout out platforms only allow fans to buy celebrity shout out and personalised message videos, but the personal connection and engagement is missing even there.

Celebfie has been founded by Raminder Singh also known by the name Monty Alagh on Social media,  and his co-founder Praveer Singh who are school time friends. Raminder is the CEO of the company and is a reputed Edtech professional also the recipient of the edtech leader of the year award by the India-UAE Business Summit, 2018. Raminder identified the gap in celebrity booking and engagement segments while trying to book a celebrity for an event. He started research on how to contact celebrities in India and was amazed to find out that there were no transparent celebrity engagement platforms. This helplessness leads to the germination of an idea that later took the shape of Celebfie.

Speaking about the evolution process of celebfie Raminder said, “India is a country where celebrities are idolised, where else in the world would you find temples and fans worshiping a cricketer or a film star? This fact was in the back of my mind when the idea of Celebfie took shape. Through deliberations with friends and family, I zeroed in on developing a high-leverage content-based business, and was very sure that this platform should be ‘Made in India’ and with time be India’s very own New-Age social media and content consumption platform internationally.” The Celebfie App brings together three aspects of the entertainment and media industry i.e. celebrities, fans, and brands. Celebfie is an unfiltered medium for these three aspects to communicate within themselves and with their audiences.

The app is live on both Apple and Android stores, and users are thrilled with the way they get personalised access to the celebrities and the app’s user experience. “We were live with the idea to learn from the user experience, and also with our well researched, and though after product roadmap, users would get extremely engaging features with every new release in the application. Over time, the exclusive content generation would turn the platform into a high-leverage model, where celebrities would be able to monetise their content on the condition of exclusivity,” added Raminder. The application provides a fan with an opportunity to follow and subscribe to celebrity and their Celebfie channels; this would enable the fans to be noticed and can further connect with celebrities to get more personal attention from them.

When asked whether the company was a bootstrap venture or it had multiple investors Raminder quipped, “Initially we started on our own after that friends and family showed interest in the project and off late, with the interesting features, hugely scalable concept and the high monetisation potential of the application has intrigued many funding agencies. We are in talks with a few investors who may indulge in our seed funding round very soon.”

If technical and marketing experts are to be believed, Celebfie, would soon leave behind the most popular platforms that facilitate celebrity social content consumption and shout outs in India. It would prove to be the mother of all Apps for the fans and celebrities from every realm and sphere. Everyone starting from—Bollywood celebs to sports stars to singers and internet sensations—would find it as the best, safest, and the cleanest medium to interact and get connected with their followers.

The post Celebfie: New-Age Celebrity-Fan Engagement Platform appeared first on Digpu News Network.

Bengaluru-based crypto exchange startup Tradehorn, announced that it will be launching a new cryptocurrency exchange platform called ‘Tradehorn’ for Indian users in June 2020. The users can now trade, deposit and withdraw in Indian rupees (INR).

“We are here to serve novice traders, who are absolutely new to this & spread awareness of crypto as an Innovation,” said Rahul Vinakiya, Founder and CEO at Tradehorn. Speaking to Digpu, he said Tradehorn’s aim was to simplify things for users, and involve them in the crypto ecosystem with better understanding and reliability.

 “For us, how we measure success of this platform depends on whether my uncle would be able to use this,” he added. Tradehorn aims to educate the Indian masses regarding Crypto Trading in its totality. They want to bring in more people in the Crypto industry in the digitised Post-COVID era.

Rahul hails from a simple Jain family in ballari. Since the onset of his career, he has been handling FMCG & Restaurants business and has been following the crypto industry since its inception in India. He is keen on exploring new businesses globally and explore their hidden potential. While he has always been helping people see the greatness in them, Rahul’s Mantra for success is ‘The Key To Everything Is Patience’ .

Simplifying Crypto Trading For Indian Users

In an attempt to remove intricacies associated with crypto, Rahul said that he plans to create a user-friendly platform in the form of a mobile application. The user-friendly mobile application will have 24×7 customer education and support. This will further fuel TradeHorn’s motto of creating a socio-economy. It will be launched as Tradehorn app on Android and will be available on Apple’s IOS in June 2020 itself.

On asking abour the TradeHorn app, Rahul said, “Our experience is very different from the normal crypto exchanges in India which primarily focus on trading. We, on the other hand, are simply focusing on acquiring users on buying, selling and engaging with cryptocurrencies.”

Recent clarity of RBI on Crypto Currency Banking makes thing easier for Tradehorn. Tradehorn extends its gratitude to the Supreme Court for its revolutionary verdict and hopes that the crypto industry grows like other global market segments and industries under regulated regime.

Ease Of Transactional Processes

He said that they have collaborated with a few banks to process the transactions for their users in a seamless manner. The banks that Tradehorn has partnered with after the Supreme Court verdict are readily available to help crypto start-ups and crypto users.

Few questions are still bothering Cryptocurrency lovers. In light of this, Rahul said, “On the service aspect, there is clarity. However, what about the value at which the currency is brought and sold, whether that is liable to tax or not is a big question,” This is a very important thing which needs to be cleared by the government so that companies and users feel free to start trading. A lot of people don’t know how to get started with crypto, as they are unfamiliar with how the tech implications would work. This clarity would not only help the crypto companies, but also for the users.”

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The team at Cuelogic are addressing a pertinent challenge that is prevalent among most technology leaders – how to increase their development throughput?

Pune, India: Cuelogic Technologies today announced that they are partnering with Amazon Web Services to conduct a value-driven webinar aimed at technology leaders to help them realize rapid release velocity, accelerate time to market & innovate at speed and scale. 

Cuelogic Technologies, headquartered in Pune, with offices in New York & San Francisco is a leading software engineering, cloud & digital services consultancy. Today, the company announced that it will be hosting a special webinar, where it will talk about an actual use case where their client seamlessly embraced cloud-native & serverless technologies to scale, release faster and realize better developer productivity. It will detail how the business transformed itself into a digital business with built-in abilities to identify, create, deliver and measure new value through new digital capabilities. The webinar will be co-hosted by AWS, a leader in the serverless space and managed cloud space.

Neel Vartikar, Chief Customer Officer at Cuelogic elaborated “These are testing times and we want to help stakeholders derive maximum value from their initiatives.The webinar will be case study driven and entail our field notes from a critical project that we have executed here at Cuelogic. I am sure people attending it will relate to it on multiple levels as the entire idea is to cut through the noise and share pointers that will help leaders to navigate through the change and get to their goals faster. It is a great example of how cutting edge technologies can be applied to solve complex business problems”

The agenda will be as follows –

• Spotlight on the entire journey of Cuelogic’s client from combating tech obsolescence to becoming a cloud-first business having built-in abilities to identify, create, deliver and measure new value through digital capabilities.
• Partnership with AWS for best of breed solutions, implementing serverless, technology decision making and best practices.
• Actual field notes on real time challenges, re-architecting, migrating and automation.
• Highlights on business outcomes (accelerated time to market, operations and cost optimization, scaling and increased development throughput) and how they can be achieved by leveraging technology.

The speakers of the session would be Sunu Sasidharan (Head of Technology – Cuelogic Technologies), Eshaan Anand (Partner Solution Architect –  AWS, Singapore) Deepan V (Head – Emerging Partners, India & SAARC, AISPL) session would be moderated by – Harsh Binani (Head of Marketing & Partner Initiatives – Cuelogic Technologies)

The event will be held live on the 18th of June 2020 from 3 p.m. IST. Registrations for the webinar can be made here

The post Cuelogic Technologies & AWS conduct webinar aimed to help technology leaders appeared first on Digpu News Network.

The Coronavirus outbreak is changing the educational landscape across the globe by transforming the traditional chalk-talk teaching method to tech-driven learning. The educators are harnessing and utilizing the bevy of available technological tools to create content for remote learning of the students. This has opened up new possibilities to do things differently, with greater flexibility leading to potential benefits of easily accessible education for students while also maintaining social distancing to curb the spread.

One of Delhi NCR’s leading educators, with a 100% placement record over the last four years, Galgotias University, located in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh is turning this adversity into opportunity. Since day one of the lockdown, the university has ensured no stumbling block affects the learning curve.

Equipped with its e-learning tools 

Regular online classes, assessments, and seminars for its students have helped continue the learning process, using platforms such as Zoom, Moodle, Google Classrooms, Google Hangouts, Skype, Webex, and Virtual Labs. Students, across courses, are also attending e-sessions by industry experts—all from the comfort of their homes. Faculty members are available 24*7 through phone calls and WhatsApp guiding pupils at every step.

Its e-learning tools have heralded a key to tide over students’ concerns over learning and keeping them academically occupied during the lockdown. Galgotias University is continuously exploring opportunities to innovate and fuel the growth of its students. The batch of 2020 has already been offered jobs with reputed companies at handsome packages.

Now students can take their pick from 15,000+ online lectures, 9,000+ e-learning resources, 3,000+ virtual classroom instances, 4,000+ online assignments, 1,000+ virtual videos, and 500+ virtual programming labs. They also have access to over 4,000 courses on industry-ready skills on multiple MOOC platforms (for credit transfer). E-resources such as NPTEL, SWAYAM, Udemy, Coursera, and MIT OpenCourseWare links are shared with all the students to enhance their learning curve.

The University’s app allows students to plan their lectures, and keep abreast of seminars, activities, and events. It also keeps them informed about their attendance status, results, and course handouts provided by the faculty.

Embracing Technology And Learning

“Galgotias University has been embracing technology and providing a parallel learning environment to its students for over a decade now. Our students have always been ahead in terms of learning and adapting to Industry 4.0 technologies. Consequentially, we have an outstanding placement record year after year. Even in these challenging times, the batch of 2020 has already been offered jobs by leading companies at attractive salary packages,” says Dhruv Galgotia, CEO, Galgotias University.

They are organising internships and placement interviews online. Even the faculty meetings are being held virtually. Faculty development programmes on outcome-based education, teaching-learning pedagogy, and new quality benchmarks are being discussed and implemented. The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) recently accredited three of the programmes offered by Galgotias University. These include Computer Science Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electronics and Communication. Galgotias University is now one of the youngest, as well as one of the very few private universities in the country, to have received such accreditation.

Suneel Galgotia, Chancellor, Galgotias University, believes that accreditation plays a vital role in facilitating the improvement of higher learning, recognising the innovations and achievements of the university, as well as its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. This will also demonstrate accountability to the public and indicate the university’s commitment to excellence and will give it a new sense of direction and identity. Not only this, but leading global universities also admit students only from NBA-accredited universities and colleges.

 “This will now open the doors for us to 20+ countries under the Washington Accord, where accreditation such as NBA is acknowledged,” says Dr.Preeti Bajaj, VC, Galgotias University. About the allocation of funds to the education sector in the Union Budget, Dr. Bajaj says, “The government has introduced a lot of schemes and programs on skill development, which is appreciable.”

A Noble Gesture To Contain The Pandemic

To mitigate the after-effects and contain the spread of the pandemic, Galgotias has provided the Uttar Pradesh government with 2,200 beds for doctors. The university, which believes in giving back to society, has also helped create a quarantine centre in a short time. Over 6,000 meals are provided to the needy and 2,000 sanitizers have been arranged to ensure proper hygiene. Further, the university has announced Rs. 21 lakhs towards the Chief Minister’s Covid-19 relief fund.

While maintaining its reputation of being a premium centre of knowledge generation and dissemination, such philanthropic acts will take Galgotias even further in their quest to achieve overall excellence.

The post Galgotias University ups its virtual education game amid COVID-19 appeared first on Digpu News Network.

It is not very often that a person chalks out a well-thought-of career plan at an early stage in life. But 19-year-old Dipika Rana is one such motivated individual who aspires to become an actress and is in the thick of things about what it would take to realise her dreams.

The vivid details of Dipika Rana’s elaborate plan and determination to learn things quickly can give serious competition to people even double her age. Today, Dipika is a famous face on Likee, the pioneering global short video creation platform by Singapore-based BIGO Technology Pte Ltd – with a whopping 11.08 million fans. She is well-admired by her fans and is known for her unique video making styles that entertain her fans to the fullest.

Dipika loved dancing and acting since a very young age. Her brother was her first and the best fan she has. He was the one to introduce Dipika to Likee and encouraged her to showcase her talent to the world via the platform. She instantly connected with the app as she saw many like-minded creators making videos and getting appreciation for their efforts. But she did not own any phone. Curious as a cat, she borrowed her father’s phone to download Likee because she knew this was something that would help her in achieving her dreams.

Also Read: India’s one-man-band and Likeer Gladson Peter is an inspiration

Dipika had limited access to the phone because her father would be on his job for most hours of the day. But whenever she did have the phone in her hand, she would make videos for Likee. Her efforts so far were reaping her good results. Slowly and gradually, she started to earn fans on the platform. Her interest grew with love and admiration from her fans, and she began to take part in every trending topic on Likee, including online challenges. Her efforts and dedication won her her-first-ever mobile phone via a Likee challenge. Now, she could make videos whenever she wanted to. This win was a significant step towards making her dream a reality on Likee.

Along with making videos, now she could also do some research on what would garner her more fame. Her sister Isha Rana, who is also present on Likee, hinted that more or less everyone was creating similar videos. This not only made Dipika understand that she had to have a different flavour in her videos to stand apart from the crowd, but also acted as an inspiration to bring about the desired changes.

Soon she embraced a new video making style that transformed her Likee journey and made her a top-rated Likee video creator. Dipika Rana says “The goal of my life is to become an actress and I have already established my identity in the field because of Likee.” She further said, “I find every Likee challenge very exciting and always try to think out-of-the-box to make unique videos on them.”

Dipika’s journey is a tale of inspiration particularly for young women in India who wish to unshackle the chains of norms that restrict their growth as an artist and moreover as an individual. She is one among the increasing list of female video creators who have made a mark for themselves through apps such as Likee.

Also Read: Beauty Fades, Your Talent Doesn’t: Likee’s Inspirational Icon Anmol Rodriguez

Her fans drive Dipika’s success on Likee and whatever she does raises the bar of her fans’ expectations from her. This has helped her convert her raw talent into something more meaningful. She says “I learn and try different styles of videos. If my fans like a particular style of video, then I feel excited and dig deeper into that kind and create more such videos.”

She is very selective when it comes to creating Likee videos and she is strengthening her position with a peculiar style. Dipika adds,“I am planning something big for my fans on Likee. It is a surprise, so I want them to stay tuned to my Likee channel.”

As a platform, Likee means a lot to Dipika Rana. She is glad that she could still continue making videos when the world unexpectedly had to deal with COVID-19, which even triggered a country-wide lockdown in India. At times, making videos on Likee during lockdown was the only thing that would cheer up Dipika. She says “I advise everyone to join Likee, irrespective of their age. One can earn a good name and money from the comfort of their homes.”

Dipika Rana feels that platforms such as Likee are a great medium for talented people to be discovered and hopes more people like herself would find the path to their dreams through the app.

Also Read: Raziuddeen Siddiqui, a Math genius transforming lives through Likee

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ECVV is essentially a cross-border MRO products sourcing platform which mainly deals in finished and semi-finished industrial goods. The company was established in 2006 to help more companies to save money, save time, and be worry free to complete sourcing from China. Over the years, ECVV has emerged as a reliable MRO B2B e-commerce platform. The MRO products sourcing platform is to adopt smarter delivery routes and implement premium delivery techniques for a safe and timely delivery.

The leading MRO products B2B platform, ECVV has announced to extend its network of suppliers to enable business owners to procure finished and semi-finished goods from China. With restrictions on travelling, the said decision of ECVV is said to provide respite to those producers who intend to resume their production.

The cross-border product sourcing platform has also decided to strengthen its Safebuy service to ensure safety of payment and timely delivery of goods across international borders. The service provider has a network of 950,000 suppliers and over 2.2+ million global buyers.

With a significant surge in demand for machinery, hardware electronic appliances and building materials, the service provider intends to take advantage of their strong network of suppliers. As per reports, they intend to use smart routes and revamp their delivery control system to ensure timely delivery of primary goods.

The CEO of ECVV stated, “Our primary motive in this pandemic-stricken hour is to ensure payment safety and on-time delivery to help big and small enterprises to resume their production process.”

Also Read: ADB, Alibaba establish strategic partnership for rural vitalisation in China

Over the years, the company has been a leading B2B service provider to over 3000 international customers ranging from governmental agencies, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and product-based service centres. With the implementation of newer delivery control system, and a more extensive supplier network, a robust segment of primary and secondary will benefit in several global countries.

Ever since businesses decided to resume their production amidst the scare of COVID-19, the scarcity in the availability of raw materials has been a constant source of worry. Nevertheless, the ECVV is hopeful that by increasing the network’s size, they can help meet the gap between demand and supply of both industrial and semi-finished goods significantly.

Reports further added that a significant number of customers availed ECVV’s Safebuy services during April and May. On the same subject, a prominent broad member of the company added, “It encouraged us to improve our services even further so that we can accommodate more orders and facilitate smooth and safe delivery of goods even during this chaotic situation.”

Based on the reports collected, more streamlined and well-organised services can be expected from the MRO products sourcing platforms in the next few months as well. With more industries resuming their production, an increase in the suppliers’ network may benefit the producers significantly.

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SRINAGAR: Six months after the August 05 decision in 2019 by which the BJP-led Central government ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir while bifurcating it into two Union territories, Kashmir was limping back to a new sort of normalcy. However, the normalcy was short lived as the Coronavirus made its entry into the Valley and compelled the authorities to order a total lockdown so as to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease.

The lockdown in Kashmir has had a crippling impact on almost all the sectors, from Agriculture, Manufacturing, Banking, Financial Services to Ecommerce, Education, Healthcare and Tourism & Hospitality.

The economy of the newly carved out UT has been particularly hit, with the losses being estimated in thousands of crores.

Back in December 2019, Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) had put the losses at Rs 17,878 crore in the face of severe restrictions in the Valley following the dilution of Article 370.

Releasing a comprehensive sector-wise report on losses due to disturbance after the August 5 decision by the Centre, KCCI had stated that the losses had been assessed based on Jammu and Kashmir’s GDP for 2017-18.

Later, the KCCI revised the figures and put the losses at Rs 30,000 crore since August 2019, with more than five lakh people rendered jobless.

On Wednesday (June 03, 2020), an amalgam of 30 trade bodies of the Valley held a press brief in Srinagar and said that Kashmir witnessed 3000 days of lockdown, thus simultaneously deteriorating the situation of business community here. The traders also stated that the special package of Rs 20,000 crore announced by the government has been announced for the people excluding the business community of Kashmir.

“In particular, our businesses are suffering from last ten months and we have never come out of the lockdown,” the traders said, adding that the situation of business has got further deteriorated after the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic in Jammu and Kashmir.

It’s not just the economy, the second important sector that has been suffering since long is the Education. The State government had ordered closure of all educational institutions in Jammu and Kashmir on the eve of August 05 last year. After abolishing the former State’s special position, the authorities ordered opening of schools but students stayed away.

It was in March this year that students started to turn up in schools, colleges and universities but it was a very short-lived phenomenon. Schools reopened on February 24 after remaining shut for nearly eight months but were shut down again after the Centre announced a country-wide lockdown in March to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around one million students are enrolled in government and private schools in Kashmir, with an equal number in the Jammu region. The government and private schools started online classes for students but the restrictions on 4G Internet have not helped the cause.

The parents of private students have also complained that the schools have asked them to clear the fees of their wards at a time when the economic activity due to lockdown has come to a halt. The question of fee-payments is likely to be a major issue when schools reopen in the Kashmir valley.

Apart from online classes, the absence of high-speed mobile internet marred the dissemination of information, especially video content, related to COVID-19. Medics have repeatedly been asking the authorities for the restoration of 4G Internet services.

Besides health services, people from other sectors have complained of inability to work due to the suspension of 4G mobile internet.

Given the sad state of affairs, it is ironical to witness that the phase-wise lockdown relaxations announced by the Centre hardly trickled down to J&K. Instead, the administration has been pressing for restrictions as the cases of Coronavirus continue to surge in the Valley.

In the special scenario of the Valley, the administration needs to think out-of-the-box and devise a ‘sustainable unlock strategy’ instead of a ‘lockdown strategy’ and only such a measure would help mitigate the sufferings of Kashmiris.

The post Economy, Education & 4G – Kashmiris have more worries than just COVID-19 appeared first on Digpu News Network.

SRINAGAR: On Friday, the Jammu and Kashmir administration announced the opening of all the offices across the Union Territory and directed all the officers and staff to attend their respective offices on regular basis on all working days from June 06.

In an order (No. 621-JK (GAD) of 2020; Dated: 05-06-2020) issued by the government, all the government offices have been directed to remain function from today i.e. June 06, 2020.

“In pursuance to order No. 11013/9/2014-Estt.A.III dated 18.05.2020, issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India and in partial modification of Government Order No. 477-JK(GAD) of 2020 dated 17.04.2020, read with Government Order No. 584-JK(GAD) of 2020 dated 20.05.2020 and in compliance with the Order No. 40-3/2020-DM-I(A) dated 30.05.2020 of the National Executive Committee, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the SOP on preventive measures to contain spread of COVID-19 in offices, it has been decided that the functioning of government offices in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be regulated,” read the official notification.

It further said, “All the officers and staff, at all levels, shall attend office on a regular basis on all working days w.e.f. 06.06.2020.”

Employees who are at higher risk due to COVID-19 i.e. older employees, pregnant employees and employees who have underlying medical conditions have been asked to take ‘extra precautions’ and avoid being exposed to any frontline work requiring direct contact with the public.

The administration has also directed the office managements to facilitate work from home, wherever feasible.

“Routine issue of visitors/temporary passes should be suspended and only those visitors with proper permission of the officer who they want to meet, should be allowed after being properly screened,” the government order said.

“All the measures prescribed in the SOP on preventive measures to contain spread of COVID-19 in offices by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, shall be followed at all times and bio-metric attendance shall continue to be suspended until further orders,” it added.

The order further said that heads of the departments and offices shall ensure strict compliance of SOP and other related instructions to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

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With the world in lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the casualties has been sports which had to take a back seat due to government-imposed travel restrictions and new laws on social distancing. Golf has been one of the sports most affected with courses shut up.

One such golfer has been rising Indian star 8-year-old Chaitanya Pandey, whose meteoric rise to the top of his sport has been halted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

Here are the takeaways about Digpu’s discussion with Chaitanya Pandey on golf and life after the lockdown ends.

What is the extent of the impact of Covid19 on Golf?

The obvious answer is that because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the government lockdown, we are currently barred from playing or practicing the game. Courses are closed, many of them have had to lay-of staff and are just operating with a skeleton crew.

Some groups have been hard hit financially by the shutdown as well, particularly caddies who rely on golf for the day-to-day work and do not have any other income. There are also many casual workers like greenkeepers who have seen their income dry up overnight.

At the same time all tournaments have been cancelled, and it is by no means clear when events will be staged again.  I was due to take part in some big events in Europe & USA, i.e European Championship, IMG Academy Junior World Championships in San Jose, FCG Callaway World Championship & US Kids Golf World Championship but because of the pandemic I am not participating.

When competitive golf does return, it is likely to be completely different than it was before. Social distancing will need to be maintained, spectators may not be allowed to watch events in any numbers for months, possibly years to come, and there will be many health and safety precautions.

What would you do once the golf courses are open for play?

The first thing I would do is hit some balls again just for the pleasure and freedom of being able to do so. After months in lockdown, the fact of being on a golf course again will be a pleasure in itself.

After I had got over the novelty, I would then go back to practising my swing and my short game again, but, in the first instance, being back on the course would be enough in itself. 

One thing that golfers need to be careful of when they return to action is not to try and overexert themselves the first time they get back on a course.

Also Read: Chaitanya Pandey – India’s Young Tiger Woods

How are you staying with the game during lockdown?

I am fortunate to have a small golf studio at my home so I am able to practice my swing and also work on my short game. I have also been doing stretching, yoga, meditation and running to stay fit. I love to watch videos and films of the top professionals, so I can learn more about their game and pick up tips and techniques to try and adopt when we are all able to start playing again. I also try and stay in touch with my coach Rohit Bose over Zoom. He continues to give me tips and advice and helps me stay motivated and focused on my game.

Tell us about your routine during lockdown?

Before I start my day, I try and exercise and run for 30 minutes on tread mill to get both my mind and body up and running. I like to stay on top of my schoolwork as it always come first for me. I am doing 5 -6 online classes conducted by my school on weekdays plus home assignment.  An hour of Yoga and Meditation helps me to stay calm and focused. Evening hours I love to dedicate to my game which comprises of hitting 200 balls and short game.

I am an avid reader so read lot of different kind of books and practice and compose music on my guitar. Lastly spend time with my family watching movies etc.

What is your advice to everyone in context to the present times?

Obey the government guidelines, stay safe and follow the rules. This is a really difficult time for all of us but we are all in this together, so we just have to be patient and wait until the situation is under control.

One of the advantages of playing a game like golf is that it teaches you to be mentally strong. I think you just have to regard the health pandemic as like having a bad round of golf.

In conclusion, Chaitanya says, “It is bad for a while but does not let it shake your confidence. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully, you can strike the ball better then.”

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