AI and the Classroom: Machine Learning in Education !!

For years schooling has been typified by its aspect of the physical grind on the part of both students and their teachers: teachers cull and prepare educational materials, manually grade students’ homework, and provide feedback to the students (and the students’ parents) on their learning progress. They may be burdened with an unmanageable number of students, or a wide gulf of varying student learning levels and capabilities in one classroom. Students, on the other hand, have generally been pushed through a “one-size-fits-all” gauntlet of learning, not personalized to their abilities,…

Indian stocks fall 1% as banks, Reliance drag !!

Indian shares closed lower on Tuesday, ending upto 13 per cent surge over the last nine sessions, as banks and heavyweight Reliance Industries weighed, with a broader rally on hopes of a quicker global economic recovery coming to a halt. The Nifty closed down 1.2 per cent at 10,046.65, while the Sensex dropped 1.2 per cent to 33956.69. Earlier in the session, the indexes had risen more than 1 per cent each as shopping malls and restaurants reopened this week following the world’s biggest coronavirus lockdown, even as the number…

Govt plans to decriminalise bounced cheque, several other economic offences, seeks opinion from stakeholders !!

The Union government has initiated the process for decriminalising economic offences that are currently punishable with a jail term, fine or both. The government has sought opinions from stakeholders like state governments and the public on proposals to amend 19 acts that criminalise economic offences like a bounced cheque. As per the Centre, the move is aimed at speeding up the economic revival process and encourage businesses. There is a growing concern in the government that due to the Covid-19 pandemic and economic distress there might be a surge in…

PoS Startup Innoviti Chases Profitability After Raising Series C !!

Bengaluru-based digital payments solutions startup Innoviti has raised an undisclosed amount in Series C funding from Netherlands-based FMO-Entrepreneurial Development Bank, along with existing investor US-based Bessemer Venture Partners. Rajeev Agrawal, CEO of Innoviti Payments, told Moneycontrol that this may be  company’s last funding round as it plans to generate cash from its books within 6-8 months. He also said that the company may only consider another fundraise if there’s an opportunity for acquisition or inorganic growth. The latest round is said to be all primary capital and had no secondary…

Rupee trims intra-day gains to end 6 paise lower at 75.61 to US $ !!

The Indian Rs on Tuesday gave up all its intra-day gains to close 6 paise lower at 75.61 against the US $ in line with weaker sentiment in financial markets triggered by steeply rising coronavirus cases in the country. Besides, robust US $ against its key rivals also had an impact on the domestic unit.The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.42% to 97.02.  The rupee opened at 75.53 against the US $, but pared the gains to settle at 75.61 against…

Voice assistant to help you shop on Flipkart !!

Homegrown retailer Flipkart on Tuesday introduced voice assistant capability on its platform to make consumer’s e-commerce journey simpler and more natural. Introduced in Flipkart’s grocery store Supermart, the voice assistant will enable consumers to discover and buy products easily using voice commands in multiple languages, starting with Hindi and English, said the company. “The technology team at Flipkart travelled across the country to understand the various contours of building a voice capability and fine-tuned it to identify and respond to the different variations in Indian languages,” Jeyandran Venugopal, Chief Product…

Tech firms spot a big opportunity in India !!

A budget proposal to use technology to bring in changes in administration across sectors and deliver citizen services is expected to benefit Indian IT companies, helping them expand their domestic business and build models that they can take globally. “The intent shown by the government means that for the first time companies like Tech Mahindra will be able to build government, citizen and cyber security models in India and then take them outside, instead of it being the other way around,” CD Gurnani, CEO of Tech Mahindra, told ET. Indian IT…

Pinterest shares techniques to help you make excellent video ads !!

If you’re scrambling for ideas to make thumb-stopping video content, Pinterest may have a few, okay , techniques to help you make video ads that stand out on the platform. Pinterest says that video views on the platform have increased threefold over the last year. To make your videos visually standout, Pinterest advises playing with perspective, white space, color, movement, motion, and depth to make your content feel alive. Pinners love video. In 2020, video views on the platform have increased more than 3x over the previous year. Unlike a…

L&T Heavy Engineering delivers 1,250 MT-Cryostat to French Nuclear Fusion Project Amid Lockdown !!

L&T Heavy Engineering has announced that its 1,250 MT-Cryostat base, the single largest section of the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor, was successfully lifted and placed into a reactor building in France, accomplishing a major milestone in the nuclear engineering world. Assembly tools of cryostat were delivered during the lockdown by Larsen & Toubro. The cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the reactor vacuum vessel and the superconducting magnets and acts essentially as a very large refrigerator. The reactor base, the single largest and heaviest Tokamak component of the world’s largest…

Startups Can Now Offer ESOPs For Up To 10 Years Under New MCA Definition !!

The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), on Friday (June 5), announced that the  Companies (Share Capital and Debenture) Amendment Rules of 2020, under which the government has Extended the employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), changed definition of startups and also made some regulatory changes in share capital requirement. Under the latest amendment the ministry of corporate affairs has also notified that startups can now offer sweat equity of up to 15% of their paid-up share capital. Besides this, the ministry has decided to change the definition of startups to be…