Upskilling gains momentum 😎
Favipiravir gets approved, peddlers turn vendors, and coronavirus tally reaches 4 lakh.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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E-commerce giant enters alcohol delivery 🍻
Amazon India has secured a licence to deliver alcohol in West Bengal, reports Reuters. This signals the e-commerce giants first known entry into India's multi billion dollar alcohol sector.
Food delivery giants, Zomato and Swiggy had started alcohol delivery in some cities last month after India restricted offline liquor sales during the lockdown, which pushed regulators to quickly facilitate online sales.
The move which looked like an impossibility during normal circumstances came as a huge win for consumers. Also, it helped regulars strictly abide by social distancing practices.
Following Amazon apparently even Big Basket has won approval to deliver alcohol in the state. If this pilot is successful, more states will be coming shortly.
Upskilling gains momentum 😎
With massive layoffs and mass unemployment, online learning platforms are experiencing a surge in traffic from people looking to up skill. Also, employers are forcing employees to utilize any free time on learning skills in preparation of future projects.
Ever since the COVID outbreak, Jigsaw Academy that trains corporate employees has witnessed a 70-80% rise in the number of people enrolled.
Consumer learning platform Udemy saw a 200% growth in enrollments with web development and data science showing a growth of 60% and 58% respectively. There has been a significant increase in course creation as well and app installs in the last 60 days increased by 200%.
Also, a couple weeks ago we wrote about how Unacademy is seeing nearly 100% growth in revenue each month since the lockdowns went into effect.
Historical evidence suggests that every recession is followed by a 2x growth in professional education enrollment, this time however the growth is going online.
G-Meets made easy 🤝
In a bid to make video conferencing on Google easy, the company has introduced browser shortcuts for G-Meet where typing meet new into the browser will automatically open a new G-Meet session.
It is a small yet a very useful feature for people who use the platform a lot. Google already has a bunch of other similar features for its G-suite productivity tools.
Despite being one of the populars in the market, Google’s conferencing solution was hamstrung by Zoom’s meteoric rise and it seems like the company is trying to be more omnipresent.
Beware against phishing warns the government 🧐
The Government of India has warned and issued a formal advisory to its citizens of the possibility of a massive phishing attack that promises free COVID testing and then steals personal data of the citizens.
The attack campaign is expected to start on June 21st and the malicious impersonators claim to have around 2 Million email addresses. These phishing emails work by directing recipients to fake websites and asking for personally identifiable and payment information.
According to the Computer Emergency Response Team the ID is suspected to be ncov2019@gov.in with the subject free COVID-19 testing for residents of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad.
Amidst rising tensions with China, the Government of India is concerned about heating cyber war between the two nations.
Favipiravir gets approval 👍
Glenmark Pharma has received go from India’s drug regulator to manufacture and sell antiviral drug Favipiravir for treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 patients. The drug is priced at ₹103 per tablet and needs a prescription.
Favipiravir is an oral drug and the recommended dose is 1800 mg twice daily on day one and 800 mg twice daily upto day 14.
Elaborate tests show the drug offers a drastic reduction in the viral load in 4 days and has shown clinical improvement of upto 88% mild COVID-19 cases.
Tweet of the day -
The last 25 years of the internet saw trillion dollar companies from the west dominate the world of technology. What do you think the next 25 years would look like?
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🥴 Peddlers take up odd jobs as supply and demand of drugs dries up - guess the drug business is not recession proof after all. As supply dries up and demand remains disrupted due to lockdown, everyday neighborhood peddlers are forced to take up odd jobs. Their skills might be suitable for delivery jobs, or perhaps consider a logistics startup? JK.
🙌 Government may ask states to go local - taking another step in cutting down economic ties with China, the central government has asked state governments to adopt the public procurement practices that favor the “Make in India” initiative. The request unanimously asks states to prefer local suppliers before looking at Chinese vendors.
💬 Outfits with COVID-19 messages see a surge in demand - trust entrepreneurs to make the most of an opportunity. T-shirts and other clothing printed with witty COVID-19 commentary are seeing a surge in demand. Increasing use of internet as well as growing popularity of ecommerce in India is abating this direct-to-consumer selling.
🥳 RIL crosses the $150B market cap - on the back of the 25% sale in Jio and a debt free balance sheet, RIL has now crossed the $150B mark, making it the highest market capitalization of any Indian company. Investors and analysts believe the company is just getting started.
🎡 Disney ends free 7 day trial for Disney+ - after scaling up to nearly 60 Million subscribers worldwide, Disney now thinks it no longer needs to offer a free trial for its streaming service. After falling behind on the global streaming wars, Disney launched its own platform to compete and so far has done a phenomenal job of a comeback.
😷 In the highest single day spike, tally of COVID cases crossed 4 lakh - India’s battle with the virus continues in full force as the tally now crossed over 4 lakh. Recovery rates continue to remain high as well.
Hope you took a thing or two away from today’s edition. 😀
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