Startup Around

In a tweet, CreditMate cofounder and CEO Jonathan Bill said that the company has reduced salaries across the board to save costs.

The company is cutting pay on the basis of the total salary, where eight employees earning above INR 1 Lakh per month seeing 25%-100% pay cut.

CreditMate has a total of 60 employees and is cutting its salary bill by up to 20%.

CreditMate joins the club of several other startups where salary cuts have been introduced, but most of it has been voluntary.

CreditMate isn’t the first one to enforce forced pay cut. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585990806.6046705/CreditMate-Cuts-Founders,-Employee-Pay-To-Save-Pandemic-Hit-Business?ref=audio_experience

As part of India Stack, DigiLocker is an e-platform for issuance and verification of documents & certificatesThe ministry of human resource and development (MHRD) has urged the University Grants Commission (UGC) to integrate national academic depository (NAD) within the existing DigiLocker facility for storage of official documents and ID cards.

It has further directed the commission to implement this as a permanent scheme inside DigiLocker.

This would include central universities, state universities, private universities, other institutions and school boards.

UGC to be authorised to implement NAD as a permanent scheme, in co-operation with the Digilocker,” said the MHRD letter.

With this, while all the applications that are linked with NAD through NDML and CVL portals will be delinked and the same will be linked through DigiLocker, said the HRD ministry. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585989006.1503534/UGC-To-Integrate-National-Academic-Depository-Within-DigiLocker?ref=audio_experience

With time, the tech will get democratised and trickle down to the consumerThere is a huge wave of research currently being done in the field of Quantum Computing.

Moore’s law is slowing down – Computing power isn’t increasing as quickly as it used to.

What exactly is Quantum computing?

Simply put, Quantum computers can process massive, complex datasets more efficiently and effectively than classical computers.

Regardless of the path we take, Quantum Computing is here to stay. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585987206.1078725/Quantum-Computing:-What-You-Need-To-Know?ref=audio_experience

No business within the private sector will be completely immune to the economic distress that will follow the current coronavirus pandemic.

And across the board, there will be a focus on efficiency and on cutting your cloth to suit the new economic circumstances.

This time around, the issues could be far worse because of the uncertainty it has brought, especially in human resources.

Additional discretionary input by employees will make all the difference between companies achieving their objectives and becoming competitive in a difficult economic climate.

HR leaders are also expected to orchestrate employees in developing new technical capabilities that can prepare them before a recession. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585985405.8428187/How-HR-can-use-lessons-from-the-last-recession-to-get-ahead-of-a-coronavirus-led-economic-downturn?ref=audio_experience

Joining these forces against Covid-19, state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has come with a slew of measures that can come handy in these situations.

DRDO uses this adhesive for making suits of paratroopers.

DRDO has shared this technology with two companies which are now looking to manufacture around 15K to 20K suits every week.

Scaling-Up Manufacturing Of Safety GearBesides the support in manufacturing personal protection equipment (PPE) or bodysuits, DRDO is also manufacturing five-layered N 99 face masks.

Further, DRDO has also come up with a reusable face shield to protect medical professionals from getting infected to coronavirus. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585983605.505987/Ventilators,-Masks-&-PPE-Suits:-Here’s-How-DRDO-Is-Taking-On-Covid-19?ref=audio_experience

Let’s take a close look at how firms are staying ahead of the curve with hyper-personalization trends in 2020.

These systems have enabled the de-fragmentation of humungous sets of customer data, which is then fed to AI models to analyze customer profiles.

Among financial services firms, user personalization has experienced a spike.

Financial services firms are creating tailored content for individuals.

In the financial services industry, the percentage of players that see personalized digital content as the most exciting opportunity over the horizon nearly doubled from 7% in 2018, to 13% in 2019. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585981804.9335406/Why-Hyper-Personalisation-Is-The-Key-For-Digital-Marketing-In-2020?ref=audio_experience

But Aprameya Radhakrishna, Founder of TaxiForSure, and Mayank Bidwatka, who was a part of the core team at redBus and went on to found several startups, had a different take on local language content.

Until 2017 when he announced his next startup - Vokal, a peer-to-peer Indian language content app – in a long social media post.

According to Aprameya, there is a lack of high-quality content in Indian languages that can cater to the masses.

What about those who aren’t fluent with English language but are fluent in a native Indian language?

Indian language content platforms are fast-growing, like ShareChat, DailyHunt, and TikTok to name a few. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585980219.0691707/[The-Turning-Point]-Why-the-founder-of-TaxiForSure-and-a-redBus-exec-launched-a-content-startup?ref=audio_experience

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) will closely engage with startups in India to come out with different kinds of innovative solutions to tackle the COVID-19 health crisis.

The DST has approved the setting up of a Centre for Augmenting WAR with COVID-19 Health Crisis (CAWACH) at a total cost of Rs 56 crore to scout, evaluate, and support innovations and startups that address COVID-19 challenges.

The Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), a technology business incubator at IIT Bombay supported by DST, has been identified as the implementing agency of the CAWACH.

It will provide access to pan-India networks for testing, trial, and market deployment of these products and solutions in the identified areas of priority COVID-19 solutions.

This will help to address various challenges faced by country due to severe impact of the novel coronavirus. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585978411.9582863/Coronavirus:-DST-to-work-closely-with-startups-for-innovative-solutions?ref=audio_experience

Some of the startups are asking some employees to opt for leave without payWe bring to you the latest edition of movers and shakers of the week in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Movers And Shakers Of The WeekupGrad Ropes In BYJU’s Chief Business OfficerMumbai-based edtech startup upGrad has appointed Arjun Mohan, former BYJU’s chief business officer (CBO), as the CEO of the company’s Indian operations.

Mohan brings over a decade of experience in the edtech sector and was one of the early employees of BYJU’s.

Prior to BYJU’s, Arjun worked at Titan Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Realty And Infrastructure, and Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Movers and Shakers of the week! | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585976408.3179448/Important-Movers-and-Shakers-Of-The-Week-[March-30--4-April]?ref=audio_experience

Mumbai’s Tao Art Gallery in Worli celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and marks the occasion with an exhibition titled The Tapestry of Time.

The team is headed by Kalpana Shah (founder-director), Sanjana Shah (creative director), Nayana Sarmalkar and Sunaina Kewalramani (gallery managers), Preeti Malkan (sales), and Urvi Kothari (marketing).

“Curated by my mother Kalpana Shah, figurative works are displayed in the primary Window Gallery, and abstract art in the adjacent Atrium Gallery,” Sanjana says.

“In troubled times like what we are going through today, art can be a source of solace and inspiration to all.

Kalpana Shah (L), Sanjana Shah (R)Got a creative photograph to share? | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1585974606.9189203/How-art-gives-us-solace-and-inspiration-in-these-troubled-times-–-Sanjana-Shah,-Tao-Art-Gallery?ref=audio_experience