Author: The Metrognome

Categories
Event

Public symposium in Dadar observes Nirbhaya Day

Event at Dadar marks the day of the brutal gangrape of a paramedical student, an incident that shook the nation.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Be it in their own houses or in public spaces, girls and women are facing sexual harassment and various forms of violence all over India. Some form of sexual harassment has become a daily occurrence for girls and women right from 28 days old to 70 years old. Rapes, prolonged physical abuse, molestation are all par for the course.

Then there was the brutal and horrifying gang rape of a paramedical student in New Delhi on December 16, 2012. This was a landmark event in India’s history, and it stirred the common man into revolt. However, the ground reality is that there is still a studied silence over how we choose to treat women in our country.

In commemoration of the brave soul that survived our memories despite her death a few days later after her gang rape, Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) in collaboration with Beti Zindabad initiative of ActionAid yesterday organised a solidarity walk and public symposium in Mumbai. The walk started from Shivaji Park and ended at Vanmali Hall, Dadar West. Poorvi Bhave, anchor and actress anchored the succeeding event, which included plays by MAVA volunteers and the public symposium.

The symposium started with Sudhakar Suradkar (retired IGP Officer), Advocate Uday Warunjikar and Dr Ashish Deshpande (psychiatrist) along with Nirja Bhatnagar (Regional Manager, ActionAid Maharashtra) expressing their views and sharing relevant information on current affairs of the judiciary system and the mindset of society. A Q&A session for the audiences was opened soon after and it ended with the message that there should be zero tolerance towards violence against girls and women.

The events underlined the adage that a real man’s strength lies in respecting women and not in hurting them.

(Pictures courtesy Ravi Shet)

Categories
Trends

India’s digital commerce market to touch $128 bn in 2017?

ASSOCHAM’s research report pits the growth of the digital commerce space at a staggering $128 billion by the year 2017.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The digital commerce market in India is likely to touch $128 billion in 2017 from the current level of $42 billion in 2015 due to increase in mobile and Internet penetration, m-commerce sales, different payment options, exciting discounts, according to the joint study brought out by ASSOCHAM and Deloitte.

With an increasing mobile and internet penetration, m-commerce sales, advanced shipping and payment options, exciting discounts, and the push into new international markets by e-businesses are the major drivers of this unprecedented growth.

The digital commerce market in India has grown steadily from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $13.6 billion in 2014, according to a study on ‘Future of e-Commerce: Uncovering Innovation’, jointly conducted by The Associated chamber of commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and Deloitte.

The M&A deals (Softbank’s $627 million deal with Snapdeal, Flipkart acquired Myntra for $370 million, Ola Cabs acquired TaxiForSure for $200 million) and sky-rocket valuation of these e-commerce giants rising in last one year shows that the sector is heating up. The question would be whether these valuations are sustainable despite showing no signs of profitability. The global players like Amazon and Alibaba have deep pockets to rely on their parent companies for continuous funding support. The homegrown players would definitely need different metrics to preserve the investor confidence build in the sector.

Big retailers are increasingly focussing on their digital strategies in order to gain the obvious benefits of online platforms – wider reach, always on, personalisation, to name a few. E-commerce companies are concentrating their efforts on increasing the penetration of their mobile apps for higher growth. Big players in this space claim to have more than 50% of their revenue coming from mobile apps.

While releasing the paper, DS Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM said, “The supply chain and logistics in e-commerce business are highly complex to manage in a vast country like India where infrastructure is not well-developed to reach every remote and rural area. The taxation policies for the e-businesses are not well-defined depending on different business models and transaction types. The complexity has further amplified with transactions happening across borders for online selling of goods and services. Moreover, e-businesses do not take sufficient steps to deploy a security solution, which is hindering the consumer from transacting online.”

Newer technologies that could significantly bring a paradigm shift in the online businesses are analytics, autonomous vehicles, social commerce, and 3D printing. Companies have started to invest in data analytics to gain real-time insights into customer buying behavior and thus offer personalized user experience. The e-commerce companies are building communities on social media networks to better understand customer needs and to drive effective marketing strategies, noted study.

The future of e-commerce is bright and growth will come from mobile platforms, personalisation, social media analytics, omni-channel service, and sharing economy business models. The e-commerce industry is in an exciting place with the interplay of social, mobility, analytics, cloud (SMAC), digital, 3D and, virtualisation. The current high valuations, in spite of losses, perhaps, are indicative of the future potential.

Increasing Internet and mobile penetration, growing acceptability of online payments and favourable demographics has provided the e-commerce sector in India the unique opportunity to fundamentally alter the way companies connect with their customers.

Online travel, one of the key drivers of India’s e-commerce market, accounts for nearly 71% of e-commerce business in India. Though the online retail market in India, currently at $1.6 billion, is a miniscule fraction of India’s overall $500 billion retail industry; retail e-commerce has recorded a three-fold growth since 2011, predominantly driven by million dollar investments by domestic and foreign investors.

On the other hand, mobile commerce (m-commerce) is growing rapidly as a stable and secure supplement to the e-commerce industry. Shopping online through smart phones is proving to be a game changer, and industry leaders believe that m-commerce could contribute up to 70% of their total revenues.

Categories
Do

3 steps to becoming a professional dancer

A famous film choreographer explains what it takes to excel as a professional dancer and the steps needed to get there.
Longinus Fernandes .by Longinus Fernandes

Do you know what it takes to excel as a professional dancer?

To begin with, professional dancers display choreographed body movements and can appear either in theatre productions, TV shows, movies or dance recitals. Every dancer must be able to tell stories and display emotions with their bodies through various styles like ballet, hip hop and modern dance.

Dancers are also likely to pursue other dance-related professions after they can no longer perform professionally.

Fierce competition exists among professional dancers for available jobs. There is always a risk of injury in this career, as it is a very demanding one. Your working hours are highly irregular and may include days of rehearsals and evenings of performance, seven days a week. Travel is often required as a professional dancer, sometimes to exotic destinations. Tours may last for months on end away from home.

What do you need?

For starters, you must begin your dance training in childhood, which can continue throughout one’s life. Training usually starts as early as the age of five years in order for the dancer to gain enough experience to find professional work.

As a professional dancer, you must be creative, understand team work and have tremendous confidence in yourself. Apart from learning dance, one must also record high levels of mental stamina and physical endurance.

The 3 steps to turning pro

Step 1: Begin training

Most dancers start their training before they become adolescents and audition for full time work by the tender age of 16. Even after a dancer finds employment, training must continue throughout the dancer’s entire life.

Many students attend dance training programmes in their teens. Private dance or performing arts schools and institutes can provide the experience needed to gain acceptance into an advanced dance school. It is important to periodically enrol in workshops to get the added advantage of different perspectives.

Step 2: Acquire knowledge

Although post-secondary education is not required for a dancing career, specific dance styles or programmes can allow students to explore various dance genres, or concentrate on a specific discipline. Performance opportunities are often available to give students practical experience.

Step 3: Stay contented, conditioned and strong

A dancer’s job is physically demanding and requires long and irregular hours. Dancers typically must stay in top physical condition through regular exercise and training. Dancing is extremely taxing on the body, and a dancer may spend 8 hours or more in class or practicing.

Dancers have one of the most or the highest numbers of on-job injuries, so it is important to keep the body healthy and strong in order to continue working. Dance is the best way to feel that you are working without actually doing so! I always tell my students: “Always do what you love and love what you do.”

Longinus Fernandes is a nationally and internationally acclaimed dancer who has choreographed such hit songs as the Academy Award winning ‘Jai Ho’ from the film Slumdog Millionaire.

Categories
Film

Review: The Good Dinosaur

Pixar’s newest film based on dinosaurs with good animation, direction and screenplay is a treat for both kids and parents.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

Sweet and gently philosophical, this film forces you to think of a parallel universe where dinosaurs might exist.

Set in an alternate timeline 65 million years after an asteroid that would have been reason for the extinction of dinosaurs passes safe and sound over the Earth, the film features Henry (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) and Ida (voiced by Frances McDormand) who are Apatosaurus farmers. They have three children – Buck (voiced by Marcus Scribner), Libby (voiced by Maleah Padilla) and Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa). Buck and Libby are adept at handling responsibilities on their farm; however shy and nervous Arlo is not able to handle the tasks given to him. His father gives him the responsibility of guarding their silo and setting up traps.

One fine day, a caveboy called Spot (voiced by Jack Bright) gets captured in the trap, but Arlo does not kill him, instead he sets him free. Henry is upset by Arlo’s behaviour and forces him to track Spot along with him. But a huge flood kills Henry; this angers Arlo who chases Spot down only for both of them to fall into a river.

 

Arlo soon regains consciousness to realise that he has come far away from home. After a series of mishaps, he becomes friends with Spot, especially when the latter tells him that his parents are dead. A few days later, a storm ruins the land and Arlo remembers his father’s death before running to safety on his own.

Director Peter Sohn keeps the story sweet and simple with good animation and the right amount of humour. There is enough pathos and good nature in the film to keep both children and adults engrossed. The film features some really good music numbers as well. I recommend this film for kids who are curious about dinosaurs, and for parents if they want to tell a fresh bedtime story to their young children.

 (Picture courtesy www.christianitytoday.com)

Categories
Kharcha paani

Why India needs OPD insurance

Most Indians avoid doctor visits due to prohibitive costs of health care, thus leading to eventual hospitalisation. OPD insurance can help.
Sourced from the FICCI Feedback Report, ‘A Guiding Framework for OPD and Preventive Health Insurance in India- Supply and Demand Analysis’

The working population in India spends about 60% on the out-patient healthcare treatment annually from their pockets due to the skewed primary care system in India. Despite this, India has the lowest number of Primary Care visits by individuals, hence leading to hospitalisation cases. This is as per the FICCI-Feedback Consulting report titled ‘A Guiding Framework for OPD and Preventive Health Insurance in India; Supply and Demand Analysis’.

The objective of the report is to analyse the demand and supply needs for primary and preventive care insurance and suggest the business potential for the insurers and government stakeholders by introducing OPD insurance covers for primary care. At present, this has not been an area of focus for the insurance companies, leading to various issues that as discussed in the report.

As per the findings, about 16% of the urban population with a paying capacity and existing policy holders would be potential target group to purchase OPD covers if the primary care system is framed in a proportionate way with the right Government intervention.

Insurers suggest that the biggest barrier for offering OPD covers in India is the lack of data for pricing the covers and unorganised regulatory guidelines for primary healthcare. As per the report, early detection, regular health check-ups and preventive methods, could result in preventing a proportion of 44% of hospitalisation cases.

The IRDAI recently launched the report in a function in New Delhi. As per a release, “While the need to include primary and preventive elements in health insurance products is undisputable, it has not made much headway given the concerns relating to likely misuse and overuse. This paper has come at an opportune moment giving scope for discussions not only regarding the supply and demand side aspects of primary and preventive care but also the environment within which these aspects operate.”

The paper, produced by Feedback Consulting in partnership with FICCI’s task force on ‘Primary and Preventive Care’ provides the international big picture framework and a detailed local market opportunity with actionable solutions.

The report analyses the primary care practices of select countries like Brazil, China, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa to draw learnings from an India perspective. The report also highlights local case studies about healthcare start-ups such as Practo Technologies, Qikwell Technologies and Portea Medical for insurers to galvanise the potential of the primary care market.

Three major actionables can enable the OPD insurance market in India – Capitation-based products to allow risk sharing with aggregators and health administrators; electronic health records for frictionless platforms to administer OPD claims, and closed provider networks to align providers and insurer’s interests.

Read the entire report here.

(Picture courtesy www.kokilabenhospital.com. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Film

Review: Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

Celebrating the 65th anniversary of the famous comic strip, ‘Peanuts’, this sweet film delivers a dose of nostalgia for fans.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

This one is for you if you love Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

The story revolves around Charlie Brown (voiced by Noah Schnapp) who develops a crush on his  new neighbour, The Little Red-Haired Girl (voiced by Francesca Capaldi) and his efforts to grab her attention. In a side story, Charlie’s loyal beagle and best friend Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez) discovers a typewriter and decides to write a novel about his alter-ego, The World War I Flying Ace trying to save his lover Fifi (voiced by Kristin Chenoweth) from Red Baron.

On Lucy’s (voiced by Hadley Belle Miller) advice, Charlie who is frustrated with his streak of bad luck, decides to participate in a series of new activities in the school in a hope that The Little Red-Haired Girl will notice him. Charlie participates in the school’s talent show for a magic act with Snoopy; however when his sister Sally’s (voiced by Mariel Sheets) performance goes wrong, Charlie sacrifices his own performance time for her and rescues his sister’s act with Snoopy’s help. Charlie realises that his crush likes dancing and so signs up for the school dance. While he receives praise for his dancing (which he learns from Snoopy), he slips and sets off the sprinkler system, which cut shorts his dance and all the other students ridicule him.

 

Charlie’s bad luck continues even on a book report project that he must partner his crush on. After a series of events, he walks away from fame and glory when he realises that he is being praised for someone else’s work.

Director Steve Martino keeps the film sweet and simple with the right amount of emotions and focuses on the themes of friendship and resilience. The lead characters are adorable, and it has its LOL moments. Mostly, though, it is a nostalgic ride for fans of the famous comic strip featuring two beloved characters.

(Picture courtesy www.nme.com)

Exit mobile version