New business owners have one thing in common, they have to be master of improvisation. The ability to make bold decisive decisions for an entrepreneur makes them pivot quickly in growing direction. Sachin Upadhyay, a young entrepreneur and motivational speaker has brought a positive change in the lives of millions of people and youngsters. Growing up in a business family, he learnt the basic ethics of business early.

Sachin says that his family taught him the best thing to do is never cheat anyone that will help you to make your name as a brand. A foodpreneur by passion, he has built a tribe of his own on his social media circuits. Sachin social media profiles and you will realize, just how many people draw inspiration from her foodpreneur journey!

From being a social media expert to becoming one of the most loved foodpreneur, the journey has been impeccable. Speaking about his exponential growth, Sachin says, “Life is a race to grow one’s industry and the one who grows it, goes ahead.”

As an entrepreneur, Sachin started his first venture and journey with a social media marketing and branding company in the year of 2012, in which he worked extensively with the real estate sector. He understands the essence of a house for a middle-class household and therefore, Sachin founded ‘Utkarsh Developers’ in 2015. He has actively changed the status quo with affordable and state-of-the-art housing and successfully completed 7 projects to date.

From Entrepreneur To Foodpreneur

Not stopping at that, Sachin ventured out in the foodservice industry. He started his first restaurant chain ‘Bol Biryani‘ in 2018 which started establishing franchises within 6 months. With time and experience came great ideas as well.

Sachin went on to start ‘MoMo Colling‘, which is famous for providing an exhaustive variety of momos. Recently Sachin founded ‘Legends Of Grill‘ in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

Sachin says, “The increase of special offers, discounts and deals have attracted more attendees to the casual dining space, which has also witnessed changes owing to the advent of technology. Startups have not only been providing special deals for customers but they have also innovated to bring a variety of tools for restaurant owners to tap into more customers”

Outlook As A Foodpreneur

As a businessman who did not look back in his business ever, with only focussing on growth and planning, Sachin wants the taste of food to circulate all over India. He strongly believes that in order to succeed in the foodservice industry, it is imperative to grow and maintain franchises with increasing ROI. Sachin says he aims to create at least 150 outlets by the end of 2021.

As a foodpreneur, his envisions redefining the customer relationship management system for the restaurant industry and also offering high-quality food with the best discounts for the customers.

Vision For The Real Estate Industry

As a real estate developer, Sachin understands the hassles of purchasing residential and commercial properties. In light of this, Sachin is going to launch a digital platform ‘My Recin‘. The portal will enable buyers to actively track progress on the project and the stage of completion. The buyer can also find relevant documents, compliances and feedbacks from old residents.

Digpu asked Sachin why he chose to be an entrepreneur in an already competitive industry to which he said,” I come from a business family and therefore, I work towards creating opportunities and value for others. I believe that this will lead to a path of mutual growth. I have always been focussed and have never lost hope as an entrepreneur.”

In a brave mission of empowerment by creating employment, Sachin Upadhyay is ready to foray into all new domains.

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PIET has also designed & installed a Sanitizing Tunnel in its premises and offers its robot ‘Ruby’ to hospitals in Panipat that can be used to serve COVID-19 patients.

Panipat Institute of Engineering and Technology (PIET) based in Panipat, Haryana is a leading institution for students pursuing Engineering and Technology and one of the best engineering colleges in Delhi NCR. The institute has raised the bar by not only continuing education and ensuring placements during the COVID-19 pandemic but has also contributed effectively in the fight against Coronavirus.

Despite the nationwide lockdown, PIET enabled placements for its 130 students through the efforts of the placement co-ordination team and the robust processes, systems and due to brand recall already built by the institute.

The success is not limited to just lockdown period. In fact, pre-lockdown more than 100 companies had already visited PIET for campus placement during the 2019-20 session and more than 500 students received offers. One of the students got a package of 28 lacs per annum in a Fortune 500 multinational company, thus PIET lived up to its reputation in academics and placement.

This readiness is not limited to online placements. PIET, one of the few NBA accredited colleges in India and its students were ready for online classes even before nationwide lockdown, long before online education became a norm.

Continuing Education through Education 4.0

PIET adopted a remarkable academic narrative called Education 4.0 during COVID-19 implementing online classes and seminars. The institution seamlessly transited from an offline mode to a virtual delivery mechanism within a few hours while the nation was moving into the very first phase of lockdown. Education 4.0 comprises of a few key aspects like Blended Learning, Differential Learning and other innovative modes of learning and discussions.

Also Read: Fight against COVID-19 won’t succeed if used masks are left undisposed

Tech-driven contribution to fight against COVID-19

While ensuring continuous education and placements, PIET is also playing an active and effective role in empowering people in the fight against COVID-19. A team of 3 students from PIET’s IT department developed a web app called COVID-19 self-assessment test and tracker, to detect COVID-19.

This app provides the user with a self-assessment test and includes a symptoms checker functionality and suggests appropriate responses. It gives results in the form of a percentage, on the chance of having COVID-19 infection. Not only is the app a force-multiplier in the fight against Coronavirus, it is also testimony to PIET being one of the top Artificial Intelligence colleges in India.

Speaking on the initiatives to combat COVID-19, Mr Rakesh Tayal, Vice Chairman, Panipat Institute of Engineering & Technology said, “Given the current scenario we all are in, all the tools should be used. The fight against COVID-19 is tough but we believe that every problem has a solution. Hence, it is imperative for all of us to come together and make our respective contributions towards that solution. PIET passionately believes that the nation comes first and that is why we have taken multiple steps to help the society. All innovative ideas have been put to their best use and we are proud that our students came up with an app which allows everyone with a mobile phone to access necessary information for COVID-19 symptoms. We have also done our bit not to let the education of students suffer because of this pandemic. I would urge everyone else to keep safe and not let either the hope or the efforts down.”

As part of tech enabled fight against Coronavirus, PIET which is also one of leading textile engineering colleges in India has provided technical support in helping Mahadev Exports, a leading export house of Panipat, win the DRDO licensefor PPE Manufacturing. Mahadev Exports is now manufacturing 20,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Kits per day.

PIET has also designed & installed a Sanitizing Tunnel in Premisesand offers its robot named ‘Ruby’ to the hospitals in Panipat that can be used to serve medicines and food to the COVID-19 patients. This user-friendly robot can be controlled from up to 100 meters of distance reducing human interaction and helping medical staff to minimize contact. As one of the top BTech colleges in Haryana and India, PIET was ready before Coronavirus hit and is prepared now to ensure bright future of its students.

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SRINAGAR: Contemporary calligraphic practice is defined as the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skilful manner, Nadiya Mushtaq Mir from Srinagar has been doing exactly that through one of the captivating forms of art. In fact, she has, through her enchanting artworks, given a new lease of life to the art of Calligraphy in the Valley.

Brought up in a conservative family in Civil Lines area of Srinagar, Nadiya did Masters in Economics and Diploma in Fashion Designing but followed her passion. She has become what she wanted to – a creative calligrapher and a designer.

“Right from my childhood, I had tremendous energy full of creativity. I wanted to follow my dreams and do something in life. Through Calligraphy, I was able to channelize my creativity,” Nadiya says, adding, “The first time I started doing calligraphy, I realised I am good at it. I had an intuition that if I continue working on my talent, I could be better at it.”

Calligraphy requires long hours of serious dedication and scope for deviation even by a small degree would hamper prospects of a perfect art. She adds, “To accomplish a piece of art, one must dedicate continuous focused hours.”

Nadiya’s family has supported her throughout her journey to be a well-known calligrapher. “They read media reports about my work. And, since my work is mainly related to religion, they are happy about it,” Nadiya says.

But she is not sure whether this support would last for the years to come.

On being asked about the challenges she faces, Nadiya Mushtaq says, “The first challenge is to choose what verse to work on, what colour combination to use. These are the basic things. Then you have to decide whether to go by the customized demands of clients or to pursue own creativity as the two may not coincide most the time.”

On being asked whether she faced any gender-specific challenges, she replies, “Not many actually. The clients who order, consider it very religious and give me a lot of respect. The journalists and even the people associated with many other arts have been very supportive and as such, I did not face any gender bias.”

Most of her clients want her to work on a particular theme which she finds elementary and basic. She wants to do something ‘on the next level’. However, she says, “Client demand is paramount.”

Even though Nadiya earns a handsome amount, she never rated money as a metric to gauge her success as a calligrapher. But she is still not sure whether to make the art her full-time profession.

For the time being, she wants to live the present moment. “Yes, my work is going well. I am even getting orders from outside of South Asia. Coming few years, touchwood should go well,” she says.

About her future plans, she says she has some definite plans in mind. Among other endeavours, she plans to open an academy to promote calligraphy. “At the same time, I am getting good offers and it all feels very satisfactory,” she adds.

In her message to the budding calligraphers, Nadiya calls calligraphy as an art of patience to create perfect beautiful handwriting. “Analysing & interpreting the knowledge of the structure of each letter and how to connect and balance them together effectively are the ways to developing your own style of calligraphy,” Nadiya says, adding, “Your calligraphy will never be and look good if the paper bleeds with ink or colour. So, keep practising and don’t ever give up.”

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Internet usage has seen a surge in Covid19 era, and few scammers would love to take advantage of this situation. Thousands of Forex trading related Ponzi schemes, Cryptocurrency related Ponzi schemes have already been unveiled globally, more specifically in India.

As Indian investors are habituated to forget things quickly, same old scammers are in line to loot common Indians in the name of Forex traders, Crude oil company investment plan, ROI based MLM scheme & more importantly Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin-related fraud.

Without the mandatory Cryptocurrency regulation as such genuine Crypto exchanges are in an uncomfortable situation but these scammers keep on looting Investors by promising huge return.

Social Media Deception And Fancy Jargons

Some scammers go for straight-up deception. The founders of scam cryptocurrency One Coin defrauded investors of $3.8 billion by convincing people their non-existent cryptocurrency was real, as per an article on Business Standard.

Other scams are based on impressing potential victims with jargon or claims of specialized knowledge. The Global Trading scammers claimed they took advantage of price differences on various cryptocurrency exchanges to profit from what is called arbitrage – simply buying cheaply and selling at higher prices. Really, they just took investors’ money.

Global Trading used a bot on Telegram, too. The investors could send a balance inquiry message and get a response with false information about how much was in their account, sometimes even seeing balances climb by 1% in an hour. With returns looking like that, who could blame people for sharing the scheme with their friends and family on social media?

Some fraudsters are also convincing people to share their services friends and family. You may find 5 to 10 apps online in India asking for investing in their investment schemes online via Facebook in the name of Forex.

Fraudulent initial coin offerings

Another popular scam technique is called an ‘initial coin offering’. A potentially legitimate investment opportunity, an initial coin offering essentially is a way for a startup cryptocurrency company to raise money from its future users. In exchange for sending active cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum, customers are promised a discount on the new crypto coins.

Many initial coin offerings have turned out to be scams, with organizers engaging in cunning plots, even renting fake offices and creating fancy-looking marketing materials. As per the article by the Business Standard, in 2017, a lot of hype and media coverage about cryptocurrency fed a huge wave of initial coin offering fraud. In 2018, about 1,000 initial coin offering efforts collapsed, costing backers at least $100 million. Many of these projects had no original ideas – more than 15% of them had copied ideas from other cryptocurrency efforts, or even plagiarized supporting documentation.

Investors looking for returns in a new technology sector are still interested in blockchains and cryptocurrency, but they should be aware that they are complex systems that are new even to those who are selling them. Newcomers and relative experts alike have fallen prey to scams.

In an environment like the current cryptocurrency market, potential investors should be incredibly careful to research what they’re putting their money into. An investor should find out who is involved as well as what the actual plan is for making real money, without defrauding others. Never forget the scams from Speak Asia, MMM, Onecoin, Bitconnect, Gain bitcoin & all other forex scams.

Adv P M Mishra from Finlaw Consultancy concludes by saying, “Through this conversation, I aim like to save millions from those scammers & save a new technical innovation, which might face undue regulatory death in India. Everyone must research before investing otherwise there are bigger prices to pay.”

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In conversation with Digpu, Shibabrata Bhaumik, Founder of London based Fintech startup PayQ, talks about the exponential growth of the company, adopting new territory starting from the United Kingdom to diversifying its merchant acquisition to the EU and his milestone of stepping into the Indian Market.

Fintech lending began to emerge in India around 2014 and soon mushroomed into a rapidly expanding ecosystem. But what is missed is the extent to which the rise of fintech has catalysed broader changes in the economy. Fintech will help unlock Bharat and India will emerge as a cashless economy and enhancing financial inclusion.

The entrepreneurship game has changed substantially during COVID19 and players have to change their game plan post COVID19.

In conversation with Digpu, Shibabrata Bhaumik, Founder of London based Fintech PayQ, talks about the exponential growth of PayQ, adopting new territory starting from the United Kingdom to diversifying its merchant acquisition to the EU and his milestone of stepping into the Indian Market.

PayQ’s entry to India comes at a very opportune time. During the lockdown, several questions have been raised about the readiness of the Indian grassroots system to allow its small businesses to participate in an end-to-end digital ecosystem that powers content, transactions and finally, payments and fulfilment. With this one move, PayQ has sent out signals to take on the giants in the payments, content and eCommerce spaces, simultaneously.

PayQ’s digital payment platform also includes digital billing to even geotagging, Shibabrata believes that merchant digitization business will boom when the lockdown eases. PayQ also deals with a merchant account for high-risk businesses like payment gateway for tech support, Merchant accounts for Pharmacy and aims to go beyond the traditional payment method to revolutionize the e-commerce industry.

While Paytm, Google Pay, Naspers-owned PayU and other players were aggressively trying to rope in small businesses on their platform, as B2B doesn’t bleed the business, the big scramble is for over 60 million small businesses. PayQ and Shibabrata are trying to get them hooked to the payment gateway by offering a host of services, including loans, easy payment acceptance and settlement to small businesses including Kirana shops.

In style and philosophy, Shibabrata Bhaumik, the 36-year-old founder and CEO of PayQ, is in the camp of the financial anarchists. He sits, jammed alongside Developers, Payment Technology Experts and Data Scientists, in a row of tiny desks resembling library carrels and he prefers to sit and work with the team around their desk not like a typical CEO with fancy cabin. He talks about a brave new world in which we are liberated from the shackles of giant banks and government-controlled money supplies.

The CEO of PayQ, Shibabrata Bhaumik is a young first generation entrepreneur, who has developed application programme interfaces (APIs) for India’s ambitious Unified Payments Interface (UPI). He says, “Working with the government is not so difficult. It has been an enriching experience. Your credibility depends on your delivery of performance. The payments landscape is going to change fundamentally”.

On being asked by Digpu about why he got into this business in the first place, “I wanted the world to have a global, open financial system that drove innovation and freedom.” In the following business model, though, Shibabrata fits in with the pinstriped financiers working down the block.

Born at Kolkata, India to an engineer Father, Shibabrata displayed an entrepreneurial streak as early as grade school. He recalls being hauled into the principal’s office on charges of operating a candy-reselling venture on the playground. The business flings continued with a scheme to resell used computers and, after he earned a master’s degree in 2006 in International Business.

In 2012, Shibabrata read the manifesto by a European Union Bank that proposed card payments of Visa, Mastercard & the future Fintech companies will have limitless possibilities and bitcoin as an underground currency. Its transactions are recorded on a ledger called the blockchain, maintained in duplicated computer files by a band of self-appointed guardians called nodes. The nodes are kept honest, and troublemakers at bay, by requiring a participant in the network to engage in some arithmetic busywork before certifying a batch of transactions.

The busywork, called mining, did not interest Shibabrata. But he did see an opportunity in the business of safeguarding the keys to the coins and setting up transactions. Working weekends and late nights, Shibabrata and his Developing Team created a Payment gateway to process high volume transactions and connected the nodes with the acquiring bank and launched the first payment portal in 2014 but later sold it to an EU Bank.

Few Venture capitalists from Russia and Germany, invested 5 million USD in Shibabrta’s innovative approach in 2017 and motivated him to create PayQ, a unique high-risk merchant account company whish uses cryptocurrencies and blockchains to build transaction networks for corporations.

Crypto has been condemned as rat poison by Warren Buffett, as a fraud by Jamie Dimon and the mother of all scams by doomsday economist Nouriel Roubini. Where’s the payoff to the economy?

“It’s coming,” Bhaumik says. He posits a future in which thousands of startups use crypto to raise capital in a global marketplace no longer controlled by Wall Street firms. Within a decade, he predicts, the number of people participating in the blockchain economy will explode from 50 million to 1 billion. We are destined to enjoy a financial system that is “more global, fairer, freer and more efficient.”

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IM Branding incepted in the year 2018 with great passion towards a positive transformation towards the industry. IM stands for Indian Made and the company’s slogan is – ‘Be A Brand Yourself Before Branding Anyone’. They kickstarted their business after availing Mudra Loan of 5 lakhs from UCO Bank. In no time, the company soon expanded its wings to the UK as well. 

Dalson Zacharia Samuel, CEO, IM Branding shared his journey and said, “When we shared our dream project with UCO Bank, they were very positive and willing to associate with us. Without their never-ending support and encouragement, we would have never made this possible. We are always grateful to the bank for being the pillar of support to our humble beginnings.”

Cutting down all unnecessary expenditures is one of the most important and arduous tasks in any successful venture. In conversation about this, Dalson says,” The future of work is Work From Home (WFH). We started it way before companies were forced to imbibe it in their functioning. Not only did we save the infrastructural costs, but the employees also feel more comfortable and productive in their own spaces. Presently, we have employees who are working virtually from around the globe because we believe in the optimum use of technology.”

IM Branding is all set to expand its business and to meet the day-to-day needs of every customer through the growing technology applications. The company has been successfully running its mobile app – IM Profile for the entertainment and media industry globally, for the past few months. 

IM Profile is an all-in-one mobile application that aims to build a digital influencer system.   It is ready to launch a mobile application known as ‘IM Connect’ by the end of 2020. IM Connect will be a single app that integrates with all other services and is going to be the only paid social networking app to date. 

Not stopping at this, they are also entering the Film and OTT industry with IM Films and IM Ads in the near future. IM Films is an OTT-Service provider within the IM Connect app. There will be five production houses under the name ‘IM studios’ and will be providing content to IM Films. The company plans to invest the revenue of one vertical into the execution of the other. A portion of the revenue generated through IM connect will be utilized by IM studios for unique content production.

Furthermore, IM Ads is an online advertising service that helps advertisers to personalize and customize advertising.  The users can place ads through products such as IM Profile, IM connect, IM Buzz, IM News and IM Booking, IM Music.  As part of the expansion, the technical apps and services will be improvised on the go. IM Branding aims to be recognised as the most impactful social media company in the global market. The company already owns several top brands in the UK namely Crochie Clothing Brand, Plan Your Adventures and IM Super Market. 

There is no doubt that IM Branding will soon carve out its niche in the market. According to Dalson Samuel, “ We live in a world created by others. For example, Youtube asks us to create a youtube channel, Facebook says to create a page and Instagram says to increase followers thereby make an income. None of these companies ever motivate or inspire us to grow as a business like them and earn. So, when we thought about our brand, we wanted to be different. We wanted to be a self-made brand capable of Monetizing Users Time into Money when they use IM Connect.”

He further stated, “Most of us want to go with the flow, but as a team, we are determined to create a world of our dreams. Most of the graduates aspire to work for International companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. But we want to establish as an Indian company, every job seeker looks for.  Our determination is to grow ourselves as employees’ dream company from India. We envision bringing business from various parts of the world to India and help the national economy to grow.”

For his prospective investors and business partners, Samuel says, “I invite Indian investors to understand this opportunity and convert our mutual vision into reality. We are passionate young Indian brains who are all focused on building ‘IM’ as a brand. We are looking forward to working with more passion-driven visionaries in the future. Internet business will not shut down until the earth shuts down. As an entrepreneur, I am sure of converting this vision into reality; maybe not immediately but absolutely and definitely.”

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New York And New Delhi –

Molinari Media PBC today announced that it is going to open its first international subsidiary office in Delhi, India. Molinari Media (MM) is a global fintech media and broadcast company that broadcasts from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange Group Studios. MM produces two programs – ‘the Digital Asset Report’, which provides a weekly look forward on digital assets, blockchain, innovation, disruption, legislation, and regulation. It also produces ‘TheIMPACT’ which focuses on ESG investing and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

The shows are hosted by Vince Molinari, Patricia Wu, Jeff Gitterman in New York. The lead host in London at the LSEG is Lawrence Wintermeyer while Troy McGuire is the Chief Content Officer and Executive Producer of the show. The contributors include Dr Jane Thomason and Georgia Fairweather in Australia.

The subsidiary in Delhi will further expand Molinari Media’s global footprint and its financial streaming platform to India. The India subsidiary launch further solidifies the momentum of Molinari’s international expansion following its recent acquisition of the UK based Fintech Worldwide, the commencement of the production of the Digital Asset Report at the London Stock Exchange Group Studios, and the recent content partnership with Asia Times Financial.

The company named Pratik Gauri, an Indian business leader as the Host and President of the new venture. “We believe that both our programs – the Digital Asset Report and TheIMPACT will find a vast audience given the sophistication of the fintech sector in India and it’s embracing of Impact related initiatives. India is doing some amazing things in this space and we look forward to highlighting those initiatives”, said Molinari Media PBC Founder and CEO, Vince Molinari. He further added, “We are confident in Pratik’s vision, energy and capability to lead and host both these programs in India.”

Pratik Gauri is a rising entrepreneurial leader in India, with a large social media presence and reach. He has founded a portfolio of purpose-driven companies in the 5th Industrial Revolution space helping achieve the UN SDGs in the last decade. He serves as the India CEO of 5th Element Group, a global impact management consultancy, and had earlier served as Head of Trade Sales in Delhi NCR for Tata Sky, India’s leading direct broadcast satellite television provider.

Pratik is also the Global Youth Lead of Dream Tank – a worldwide 1 Billion youth movement. Among his many accolades and accomplishments, he has been named a Greenbiz Global 30 under 30, BP scholar, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Ambassador at One Young World, Asia’s top 50 voices by Earth Day Network, and a Climate Reality Leader by Al Gore.

In conversation with Digpu News, Pratik Gauri said, “I am thrilled to join Molinari Media and expand its global media footprint. I have met amazing people in India developing incredible solutions in the Sustainability and Impact space and I’m excited to share and amplify these stories on our shows and platform which will help the general public gain deeper understanding surrounding the issues and credible solutions.”

The content produced in India will be featured in FINTECH.TV’s coverage from NYSE, Nasdaq, London Stock Exchange, and other exchanges from across the world. At the heart of this partnership is also to engage the private sector in partnering to help realize the Sustainable Development Goals. It will expand Molinari’s broadcast base and loyal viewership in the financial and blockchain community.

For more information, please visit www.fintech.tv

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With a Coronavirus-induced strict lockdown in place, the valley of Kashmir is seemingly going through a digital transformation.

Although, the social and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are difficult to predict at this point in time, however, it is having a profound impact on social life and the economy.

Along with concerns about the health of the population, fears of a serious economic crisis are looming large in the air as well. Due to the stringent restrictions, the existence of some businesses is already endangered; others have been able to retool their approaches in developing a different culture of work.

Mohammad Shamim, from a suburb in southern Kashmir’s Pulwama employees at least 12 employees in his wood carving unit. Since the time lockdown was imposed, the factory is shut but the unit has been able to fulfil orders from its stockpile. “Most of our customers prefer to pay us through e-transfer after the growing cases of Coronavirus emerged in the Valley. They seldom go to banks now,” Shamim says.

Next to Shamim’s factory, Nazir Mir runs a grocer’s shop. He has been permitted by the district authorities to run the shop from morning till 4 PM. After most of his customers asked for his bank account details in order to pay him money online, he has hanged a little banner in his shop with the same details. He says, “It was much needed as most of my customers asked for my bank details to pay for the items they bought from here. Going to places like banks is least preferred these days.”

The story is same for various other sectors and institutions in the Valley who are increasingly taking use of the digital resources to keep their businesses and work afloat during the worst pandemic crises created by COVID-19.

From teachers and professors taking to video sharing platforms like YouTube, bureaucrats and government officials holding meetings via video conferencing to businesses taking advantage of online payment channels, grocery stores taking orders on WhatsApp and students looking for avenues to study online, more and more people in Kashmir are using internet to lead the Valley towards a digital revolution.

Although the complaints of low internet speed keep finding space in news headlines across various newspapers and online news portals, people have largely embraced the new way of working and studying from home. Online communication tools are playing an essential part to keep the collaboration running smoothly and unhindered.

The pandemic might end anytime soon, but most of the changes brought about by the virus-induced lockdown will stay forever. It is expected that there will be increased levels of meetings and conferences held online even after the coronavirus pandemic ends, businesses will keep exploring new channels of online transactions and even a revamp of online classes is in the offing as more companies will be looking to cater to the needs of educational institutions.

A clear trend can, however, be forecasted. On the one hand, the majority of businesses/firms face acute negative effects of the crisis. On the other hand, most people are convinced that the COVID-19 crisis will contribute to technological progress in the long term and that, all in all, the digital economy will emerge from the current situation even stronger than before – a prospect that gives cause for hope in the face all of the negative news we are hearing at this time.

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SRINAGAR: While setting another example of communal harmony, Muslims in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on Thursday went all out to help in the cremation of a Sikh carpenter, hailing from Punjab.

The non-local, identified as Rakesh Singh, from Punjab died at his rented accommodation in Wakura village of Ganderbal district in Kashmir.

As the locals found it difficult to send the body to the deceased’s native village amid the Coronavirus-induced lockdown, they decided to cremate his body as per Jatt rites.

As per COVID-19 norms, doctors examined the body before cremation while those who participated in his last rites wore proper protective gears.

Touched by the gesture of local Muslims, the slain Sikh’s brother said, “We have been working in Kashmir from the past decade. I am overwhelmed by the approach of locals. They are great human beings. People across India should learn the principles of humanity from people of Kashmir.”

The local people also consoled the grief-stricken brother of the deceased and assured to provide all possible help. The local Muslims lifted the bier and even chanted religious hymns during the funeral procession. It is pertinent to mention here that Kashmiri Muslims often participate in the last rites of people from religious minorities including those Pandits who decided to stay in the Vale, when their relatives decided to migrate to Jammu and other parts of the country in 1990 to get out of the harm’s way in the midst of a cataclysmic upheaval after armed militancy broke out in the Himalayan

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