IIT Kharagpur’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence (AI) has collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS), to develop a National Artificial Intelligence Resource Portal (NAIRP) to offer various learning resources on AI.
With initial funding from the Human Resources Ministry, NAIRP was launched as a part of the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) platform. Useful material for learning AI — textbooks, online courses, lectures, datasets, codes and other tools— will be made available through this portal.
The first version will be made available in a few months. This portal will use the AWS Cloud and also be connected to the in-house cloud developed at IIT Kharagpur. Being launched just when digital learning is being enforced everywhere — due to the pandemic restricting mobility— the portal could not have been better timed.
With foundational knowledge, the skills will be easier to pick up. The core topics include — search reasoning, machine learning and knowledge management. For advanced courses, a strong foundation is needed in statistical methods, linear algebra, algorithms and optimisation methods.
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Courses on AI at IIT have always lured undergraduate and postgraduate students in large numbers, as AI is capable of performance that goes beyond one’s imagination. IIT Kharagpur also intends to launch a course called Artificial Intelligence for Economics, which will deliver machine learning, game theory and their applications on economics.
Artificial intelligence can play a huge role in the science side of economics to help tackle economic challenges, such as data-driven forecasting and evidence-based policy making. Using AI search and planning, Bayesian models, machine learning, text and data mining, and game theory will play a key role in economic decision-making, behavioural economics and market game.
Use of AI in ecommerce and tech platforms is burgeoning and AI can bring seismic changes in education, agriculture and healthcare as well. Jobs that can be automated, will be done so by AI , which will pave the way for fruitful jobs that need human intervention.
Teaching driven by AI will not require supervision. It can be personalised and can gauge progress, and aptitude, and even decide which path the students should follow.

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Bollywood actor Sonu Sood, in partnership with Schoolnet, a vocational skill provider, has formed a joint venture (JV) with Temasek-backed job-matching platform, GoodWorker. An initial investment of Rs 250 crore from GoodWorker will assist blue-collar workers in procuring skills as well as employment.
Pravasi Rojgar, the job-providing platform was launched earlier this year, in July 2020, as Sood had taken to the streets to help migrant workers during their plight amidst the pandemic-induced lockdown. Employment providers, such as Amazon, Max Healthcare, Urban Company, Sodexo are already on board. The platform had about 10 lakh skilled migrant job seekers registered on the platform, within four months of its launch.
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Temasek is a Singapore government-owned investment firm that founded GoodWorker, which offers blue-collar jobs. GoodWorker is one of the leading investors in Zomato, Ola, Pine Labs and Curefit. This joint venture aims to reach 10 crore Indians, in the next 10 years by providing access to good jobs, career progression through upskilling as well as assistance — finance, healthcare, loans and social security services.
Through this joint venture, Pravasi Rojgar hopes to expand into building a resilient migrant-outreach programme through education, upskilling and technology. The collaboration brings in digitization, which will enable the job seekers more control over their data and the employers to find the right candidate for their job posting.
The JV will help in the humanitarian efforts of Pravasi Rojgar in helping the youth secure a means of livelihood and lead a better way of life. Product offerings from this venture will be formally launched in early 2021.

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National School of Drama (NSD), is accepting applications from interested candidates for various posts, including librarian, assistant director and sound technician. The autonomous body, which functions under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, will accept only online applications, the last date for which is November 6, 2020.
There is one post for librarian (Level-10), with a salary of Rs 56,100 to 1,77,500; one assistant director (official language) post (Level-10), with a salary in the range of Rs 56,100 to Rs 1,77,500. The post of PS to director (Level-7) will be eligible for a salary in the range of Rs 44,900 to 1, 42,400. The position of sound technician (Level-7) will attract a salary of Rs 44,900 to Rs 1,42,400.
Two vacancies of upper division clerk are also available one each for SC and ST candidates. The selected candidates are eligible for a salary of Rs 25,500 to Rs 81,100.
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For the post of reception incharge, the salary range is Rs 25,500 to Rs 81,100.
The post of carpenter (Level 4) also attracts a salary in the same range. Other posts in the same level and eligible for the same salary range are that of electrician and master tailor.
In addition, there are posts of lower division clerk and multi-tasking staff as well, at Level 2 and 1 respectively, with salaries in the range of Rs 18,000 to over Rs 60,000.
The application fee of Rs 200/- for UR and Rs 100/- for OBC (Non Creamy Layer) may be paid online. Candidates from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Persons with Disability categories eligible for reservation need not pay any application fee. Interested candidates may visit the official NSD website, www.nsd.gov.in or http://recruitment.nsd.gov.in or http://nsd.gov.in.
While NSD will not pay in travel allowance to candidates for attending the interview, those from the SC/ST category may get reimbursement for second class railway/bus fare, if they produce their tickets.

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The Central government is setting up a special committee to help the Labour Bureau conduct a national survey and take a headcount of the number of people employed by professionals, such as lawyers, architects, fashion designers, doctors and chartered accountants.
These professionals have yet to be studied in detail for their potential to employ people and create jobs. For instance, many fresh commerce graduates, data analysts and cyber-security specialists also find jobs with chartered accountants. Not all chartered accounts set up their own practises, a significant number take up jobs with various organisations.
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The country has about two million registered lawyers, and more than 1.15 million doctors (allopathy), and over three lakh chartered accountants, who have the potential to create jobs. The survey is expected to give a clearer and bigger picture of the job environment in India.
The Committee set up to assist the Labour Bureau in this survey, will be headed by SP Mukherjee, labour economist and emeritus professor of Calcutta University.
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This Committee will decide on the schedules, sampling design, methodology and other technicalities.
The resultant data will help evaluate the employment scenario better so that suitable policies can be formulated.
The Labour Bureau is already doing a study on migration workers and the manner in which they have been affected by the pandemic. The Committee led by Mukherjee is assisting the Bureau in fine-tuning the same, as reported by Mint.

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Third party logistics solution company, Mahindra Logistics (MLL), has not only added 10,100 seasonal jobs in preparation for the festive season, but plans to retain quite a few of them. The Company has trained about 20,000 people, including drivers and warehouse operators since 2018, under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
The logistics units of the Mahindra Group, has already taken on 10,100 people for seasonal jobs, it plans to retain a significant fraction of these in various departments.
Interestingly, it managed to hire almost 40 per cent of its contractual employees during the pandemic.
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In trying to keep up its commitment to diversity and inclusion, the Company is focussing on employing differently-abled persons, former members of the armed forces and members of the LGBTQ community. It is also focussing on taking on more women in various roles, especially those looking at a second chance at a career or struggling to make a comeback after a break. It is looking at hiring more than 500 people with disabilities directly on its rolls as well as for its business partners.
Its ‘Udaan’ programme is designed to give a second chance to women — who hae taken a break from work for various reasons — to get back into the mainstream. It offers various internship programmes for such women at all levels. Under the programme, the Company plans to hire at least 50 women in a year’s time.

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Salesforce will add over five lakh direct jobs in India in the times to come. While the California-based IT company will create about 13 lakh indirect jobs, it will take on 5,48,000 people directly soon.
With an aim to decrease the digital divide, the Company aims to fulfil its commitment of training about 250,000 students.
The Company realises the high potential that India has, and believes that India will lead, globally, in terms of artificial intelligence in the near future.
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Given the fact that the country has more than 60 crore connected to the Internet, the country is capable of having a US$6 trillion consumer spend in a period of five to six years. Apparently, a new person connects to the Internet every three seconds in the country. Therefore, it will not be long before it has more than a billion unique Internet users.
Another point that works in India’s favour is that 80 per cent of its population is below the age of 44, which will make it the most advanced connected society in the world.
Salesforce, manufacturer of software for managing customer relationships, developed the work.com suite in early 2020, to help organisations reopen their workplaces for the employees to safely return to them. The software helps in contact tracing, keeping track of employees’ shifts, dealing with emergencies in case of an outbreak and so on.

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Byju’s, the educational technology and online tutoring company, and Nippon Life India Asset Management are the latest additions to the list of companies that have expanded their ESOP pool recently.
Nippon Life has allotted 94,420 equity under the ‘Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management – Employee Stock Option Plan 2017 (RNAM ESOP 2017)”. With effect from October 07, 2020, the issued, subscribed and paid-Up equity share capital of Nippon Life stands increased to 61,25,66,115 equity shares of face value Rs10 each.
Byju’s on the other hand, is adding a few hundred million dollars to its ESOP pool as a reward for exemplary performance. The Company’s valuation, which was about $8 billion at the start of the year, has gone up to $11.1 billion in September. Interestingly, other than Flipkart, Byju’s is the only internet firm that has managed to raise more than a million dollars this year.
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As per a special resolution by the board of directors, approval has been given to reserve and allocate a pool of 71,698 equity shares. This newly allocated pool will be added to the current pool reserved under ‘Think and Learn Pvt Ltd ESOP 2019.’
With this new addition, Byju’s touches the Rs 3,000 crore mark, entering the league of large-scale consumer internet startups in India, that have a wide ESOP pool.
Paytm, which is valued at $16 billion, has an ESOP pool that goes beyond Rs 3,000 crore. Recently, Swiggy, the food delivery service also expanded its ESOP pool to Rs 1,589 crore.

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Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages to allow permanent work from home

PTI | Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) on Wednesday said it has introduced an option of permanent work-from-home for its employees whose physical presence in the office is not required as part of a new policy. The policy provisions for employee safety, their emotional and physical well-being, and also monetary support to make the work-home space ergonomics suitable, HCCB said in a statement.
The policy, which is built on the company’s basic tenet of providing care and flexibility, will span the period post-pandemic that employees can choose to permanently work-from-home, provided they do not need to be physically present at the work location such as factory, or sales, it added.
“This policy is led by empathy and flexibility, ensuring employees and their dependents to feel safe and be at ease, regardless of their work location. The idea is to provide a seamless experience that is meaningful both for the company as well as the employees.
“The unique feature of the policy is that it has been co-created by our colleagues who we feel know their problems the best. The situation is evolving and hence we remain open and flexible to any modifications that the policy may need,” HCCB CHRO Indrajeet Sengupta said.
Under the policy, HCCB said it has started delivering ergonomically designed chairs from its office to the eligible employees to their homes on request.
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“Those working in other cities have the option to purchase work chairs. Recognising the need for uninterrupted internet connectivity, HCCB will provide monetary support for employees to install UPS for power back-up including monthly wi-fi expenses,” the statement said.
Employees can also avail of monetary support to purchase tables, headphones, lamps, webcam, external microphone, even a coffee mug or flower arrangement, it added.
“To deal with physical and emotional challenges, the company has provisioned for telemedicine facility and wellness counselling through the organisation 1To1 HELP. An app available for an easy download, managed by a chatbot, will continue to be used by employees to update the company on their health and wellness,” HCCB said.
The company has modified its health insurance policy with provisions to include parents and in-laws and ‘top-up’ cover for the immediate dependents, it added.
HCCB is among India’s largest FMCG companies. It manufactures, packages and sells beverages brands, including Minute Maid, Maaza, SmartWater, Kinley, Thums Up, Sprite, Coca-Cola, Limca, Fanta and Georgia, among others.
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The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on Wednesday increased the maximum assurance benefit to up to Rs. 7 lakh from the existing cover of Rs. 6 lakh under the Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme.
Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance, EDLI is an insurance cover provided by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO). A nominee or legal heir of an active member of EPFO gets a lump sum payment in case of the demise of the member during the service period.
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In the 227th Meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the board accorded approval for amendment of paragraph 22(3) of Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 to enhance the maximum assurance benefit to Rs 7 lakhs from the present maximum assurance benefit of Rs 6 lakhs.

“All organizations covered under Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 get enrolled for EDLI automatically.”

This scheme works in combination with EPF and EPS. There is no exclusion under this scheme and the insurance cover depends on the salary drawn in the last 12 months of the employment before death.
Both employee, as well as the employer, contribute to all three schemes run by the EPFO. The contribution made by the employer to EDLI is 0.5% (subject to a maximum of Rs 75).
The recent amendment will provide additional succour to families and dependents of members of the Scheme in case of their unfortunate death while in service. CBT was also informed that the actuarial valuation of EDLI Fund has allowed for the continuation of minimum assurance benefit of Rs 2.5 lakhs beyond February 14, 2020, and extension of minimum assurance benefit of Rs 2.5 lakhs to the family of those deceased members who were employed in multiple establishments during the 12 months preceding the month in which they died, as approved by CBT EPF in its 226th meeting.
In view of exceptional circumstances arising out of Covid-19, the agenda regarding interest rate was reviewed by the Central Board and it recommended the same rate at 8.50% to the Central Govt.
It would comprise of 8.15% from debt income and balance 0.35% (capital gain) from the sale of ETFs subject to their redemption by 31st December 2020.
It further recommended accounting such capital gains in the income of the financial year 2019-20 as being an exceptional case. The Central Board was apprised of the various initiatives taken by EPFO for extending nirbadh seamless service to stakeholders during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Members of the Board appreciated these initiatives and gave suggestions to further improve service delivery to all stakeholders.

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Union Cabinet approves 03 Labour Law Codes at a meeting held on 8th September

Three labour codes involving what the government called “important labour reforms” were approved by the Union cabinet at a meeting held on 8th Sept evening.
The codes involve social security, occupational safety, health and working conditions, and industrial relations, sources said.  All three codes will be placed before parliament in the monsoon session that starts from September 14.
In June last year, the government decided to condense the 44 labour laws into four codes to help foreign companies do business in India – a process that becomes crucial in view of the economic recession.
One of them – the code on wages, which clubs together the laws relating to minimum wages, bonus, equal remuneration and a few others – has already been passed by parliament.
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The remaining three codes were sent to a Standing Committee and have now been now approved by the Cabinet.
One of these is about the social security code – involving provident fund, insurance, maternity benefits.
Another is the industrial relations code that will combine laws on industrial disputes, trade unions and others.
The last one is the occupational health and safety code, involving industrial safety and welfare laws.
Some states have already changed their labor laws during the lockdown to allow industry to revive after the seven-week lockdown over coronavirus — a move that was sharply criticised by the Congress.
The fight against coronavirus cannot be “an excuse for crushing human rights”, Mr Gandhi tweeted, joining voice with the labour unions, Left parties and activists who have stringently criticized the move.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has a dedicated third-party team to take care of and support its employees, who contract the COVID-19 infection. Called the Hitchki Response Protocol, it takes complete control of the situation. Irrespective of whether the employee is working from office or home, from the moment the suspicion of infection arises, the team takes charge of the situation.

“Humans are social beings, who are used to interacting and communicating at a social level, that doesn’t exist anymore. On one hand, while few employees are excited at the opportunity to work remotely — because it offers flexibility, and has increased their productivity — there are a bunch of employees who are deeply affected by the virtual working setup.”

“From getting the employees tested for the virus from the comfort of their homes to arranging beds in hospitals and providing PPE kits, the team does everything. We are deeply committed to the wellbeing of our employees,” shares Sailesh Menezes, director-HR, HPE.
Not just the physical wellness, HPE is also committed towards the mental wellness of employees during these tough times.
“Humans are social beings, who are used to interacting and communicating at a social level, that doesn’t exist anymore. On one hand, while few employees are excited at the opportunity to work remotely — because it offers flexibility, and has increased their productivity — there are a bunch of employees who are deeply affected by the virtual working setup,” Menezes says.
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“Wellness in an office environment is very different from that in a virtual setup. Today, you are not just managing your work life but also your home life. So, there are employees managing the domestic and professional front at the same time, which is a lot more challenging,” points out Menezes.
He believes the stress is more on the women staff. One needs to understand that children, who used to go to schools or creches, are now at home all day. With no domestic help, managing domestic chores, taking care of the elderly and the children along with handling official work, builds up a lot of stress.
“We realised that there is an extraordinary amount of stress, more on our women employees than men, just like the socio-cultural norms in India, wherein most of the household chores tend to fall on women. Therefore, we directed a lot of webinars, especially our employee-assessment programmes, towards women during these times.”
To connect with employees at large, HPE has initiated a weekly programme, called the ‘Virtual Happy Hour’, that brings teams together for casual discussions and sharing of thoughts. Also, a global connect is established with the CEOs interacting frequently with the employees.
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According to Menezes, “Nothing has changed much in the past few months except for the fact that physical engagement has given way to virtual engagement.”
Productivity enhancement
Menezes rightly explains that productivity can be looked at from different aspects — the infrastructure to be productive at home, the flexibility to be able to provide support to the organisation and the customer, keeping in mind their work schedules, and the physical and emotional state of the employees to be as productive as they are in office.
The Company has allowed every manager to define productivity in their own way. So, each manager works with his/her team on certain productivity norms and goals, taking into consideration their life at home.
“Productivity is also about enabling employees to work productively from home. So, we have provided employees with requisite infrastructure, such as high-speed dongles and power backups,” shares Menezes.
Learning and development
For Menezes, the lockdown has driven a high demand for online learning. Accordingly, the third important pillar for HPE is the entire learning process, which was virtualised.
The focus was primarily on virtual-learning platforms, which are cloud-based and available on mobiles phones, where employees can easily access and learn on the go.
“We are driving the whole learning mission to take HPE as a learning organisation through the virtualised-learning platform,” he adds.
On the hiring front, the Company is focussed on need-based hiring. “We will continue to emphasise on internal roles, because we believe in giving opportunities internally,” claims Menezes.

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While companies worldwide are either laying off their staff or introducing pay cuts to survive the economic after-effects of the pandemic, Ecom Express is doing just the opposite. Amidst such uncertainties, the logistics solutions provider has revealed its plan to hire over 7,000 full-time employees in the next two months!
The decision to hire more people was taken after the Company witnessed a surge in online shopping across cities, with people opting for doorstep deliveries post the pandemic.
The intention to hire is also driven by the dire need to keep the supply chain running smoothly, and ensure safe and timely deliveries.  Also, the Company is gearing up for the festive season, when  the number of online shoppers is expected to spike, given the festival sales, discounts and special offers that are characteristic of the period.
The hiring will span across business functions, such as last-mile delivery, warehouse management, operations, information technology and data sciences. Candidates from across India, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Chandigarh, Indore, Patna, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bhopal, Jaipur and the metros will be considered.
Being a logistics services provider to the e-commerce industry, employees are the backbone of Ecom Express. In order to facilitate the deluge of doorstep deliveries, it will need more hands.
These new positions will make up around 25 per cent of the company’s total workforce.

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Amidst protests against racial injustice, many companies are trying to bring out a meaningful change in their policies to protect Black employees, who have faced years of discrimination. Google has also gone ahead and done its bit by announcing its commitment to building sustainable equity for its Black+ community.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, has sent a note to the employees, underlying the several changes that the Company is planning.
Google is working to improve Black+ representation at senior levels. It is committing to the goal of 30 per cent improvement in leadership representation from underrepresented groups, in the next five years.
According to Pichai, the Company will post senior leadership roles externally as well as internally, and invest more in places, such as Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and London, where it already has offices.
As per the Company’s recent diversity report, only 2.6 per cent of Google’s leadership comprise Blacks, and the number was the same last year.
In order to address the representation challenges, Google is establishing a new talent liaison within each product and functional area to mentor and advocate for the progression and retention of Googlers from underrepresented groups.  Special effort will be made to hire, retain, and promote people from underrepresented groups and ensure that Google’s employees, especially the Black + employees, experience a “stronger sense of inclusion and belonging.”
To achieve this, within a span of 90 days, a task force including senior members of the Black+ community at Google will give in their recommendations.
Among its commitments, Google plans to establish a range of anti-racism educational programmes that are global in view and can be scaled to all Googlers.
Finally, Google is rolling out a $175 million commitment to support Black business owners, founders, and job seekers. This will include $100 million in funds and organisational support to Black-led capital firms and startups.

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Oyo, the hospitality chain, will be granting employee stock ownership plans or ESOPs worth approx. Rs 130 crore to all its employees who have been furloughed. The hospitality company had revealed its intention to place many of its staff on furloughs or send them on temporary leave in April. It is now doing all it can to minimise the impact on the affected employees. However, the exact number of employees furloughed is yet to be revealed, but is expected to be in thousands.
In an official mail, Ritesh Agarwal, founder and group CEO, OYO, informed the employees that in recognition of their contributions to the Company, all impacted ‘OYOpreneurs’ will be made co-owners and shareholders of the Company; and that they would be eligible for ESOPs worth Rs 130 crore or about US$ 18 million according to their bands and locations.
Agarwal also stated that while he was optimistic about taking back the employees at some time in the future, he was unable to deny the fact that this uncertainty is likely to last for a while.
For those employees who already possess stock options, the Company is “dropping the one-year cliff on the vesting of stock options” for everyone hired in the last one year. Therefore, everyone leaving, irrespective of their tenure at the Company, can become a shareholder.
The stocks are being provided to even those employees who are not affected. That means, each member of the staff will be a co-owner.
The furloughed employees will also receive placement support.

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It is not just people worldwide who are adjusting to the sudden, drastic changes in life brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, but companies are having to adjust too. If organisations manage to see the opportunity in this crisis, they can emerge stronger, more creative, and with a more loyal and engaged customer base.
Insurance companies, such as Aviva Life Insurance are crafting their response to the crisis and are continuously striving to improve their existing practices.
Amit Malik, chief people operations & customer services officer, Aviva Life Insurance, says, “Any crisis is an opportunity and I think that has been one key element of our response — be it towards our customers, partners or employees.”
The Company’s response to the Covid situation was guided by its crisis-management team. To ensure business continuity and stakeholder communication, the focus has been on its employees and customers.
“It has involved relooking at a lot of processes to enable remote functioning, quick adoption of digital means and educating our customers to do the same, increasing the frequency and nature of communication with our existing customers, and helping our employees manage their health and wellbeing in these tough times,” adds Malik.
Very simply put, there were three challenges that the Company had decided to focus on when the menace broke out.
The first challenge was to make sure that any new customer seeking a new policy is able to do so, and hence, the whole policy-issuance process needed to continue even while working from home.
Second, attention had to be drawn towards the existing customers. The Company had to make sure that they were able to reach out for any help they required with respect to their policies.

Any crisis is an opportunity and I think that has been one key element of our response — be it towards our customers, partners or employees

The third and most important challenge was to ensure that the employees, the Company’s driving force, did not experience any form of anxiety because of the ongoing uncertainty.
Living the value of ‘Care More’ in these challenging times, Aviva India continued with its legacy of ensuring the engagement and wellbeing of its employees and took no time to adopt social- distancing norms. Guidelines and best practices were shared with all employees to help them balance their mind, body, heart and soul as they continued to work, even while handling added household responsibilities.
The ‘Work Feeling Happy Campaign’ or WFH was launched to ensure that learning never stopped. The fun activities did not let anyone’s mental wellbeing be impacted during the testing times.
To handle this situation in a structured way, the Company came up with several strategies as a key to encourage everyone to embrace the new normal.

Learning via ‘Curious Learner Challenge’
Aviva India’s 1700+ employees have been provided access to 8500+ learning resources to identify their learning needs and enjoy on-the-go learning. People have shown interest in courses not only related to their jobs, but in various fields such as IT, coding, fine arts, photography, music, social-media advertising, mindfulness, leadership skills and so on.

Over the last two months, Malik shares, “We have curated and shared over 25 webinars and podcasts and received excellent feedback. It is indeed interesting to see insights from employees who attend webinars and live sessions shared by us, which encourages healthy debates on the WhatsApp groups.”

Engagement via ‘Work Feeling Happy Campaign’
This four-week campaign aimed to equip everyone with information, micro-steps, fun quizzes and webinars on weekly themes and complimentary access to a meditation app, which they could enjoy along with their families.
The initial theme was health and wellbeing, with the focus being to ensure that the disturbance in the daily schedule and reduced movement does not impact the physical and mental wellbeing of the employees. This was followed by mindfulness and gratitude, with an aim to de-stress everyone.

Gradually, the employees were offered online courses, along with activities to inculcate budgeting amongst kids and family, and understand the shortcomings while handling personal finances. The employees were also guided on being resilient in adverse situations similar to the current scenario around the globe.

The evolution of the video platforms has built a supportive ecosystem for the sales team.

Under such extreme conditions, the ability to adapt to digital platforms faster has helped its salesforce deliver even under lockdown conditions.

“Our ‘mobile sales tool’ has helped them log in policies without requiring personal meetings with the customers. Customers were encouraged to leverage the benefits of the self-service portal— that helps them with their policy renewals and so on, for which they would typically depend on their advisors,” Malik said.

The crisis and the related uncertainty of health and life have made the need for insurance stand out like never before — especially in a country, such as India, where people are prone to buying insurance not for indemnity, but rather investment.

The insurance company is living up to its purpose of ‘With You Today for a Better Tomorrow’, wherein it is operating with the goal that not a single customer’s policy should lapse for the lack of awareness or inaccessibility to our services.

In Malik’s words, “After the initial low in March, renewals have steadily improved — the top query in our call centres for the last month has been about renewal premium payment and our business numbers for the months of April and May are evidence of the same.”

Moreover, self-service portals for policyholders are proving to be game changers for Aviva Life Insurance.
Malik believes that insurers will need to ramp up their call centre operations to keep pace with the increase in premium payments, claims and other customer requests. Going forward, new- age solutions such as cloud telephony, AI-powered chatbots, and interactive voice response and so on will provide the customers with contactless service and seamless experience.

Now that the Company has got back to working from office, albeit with just a few employees initially, the challenge is to help its people imbibe social distancing as the new normal.

Aviva is meticulously putting in interventions for every single minute that an employee spends in the office to ensure that social distancing is maintained at all times.

An onsite doctor has been engaged who visits the office thrice a week to check on all support staff and any employee who is feeling unwell. Employees have to sign an e-health declaration every day before coming to work. For seating arrangements, a minimum six-feet distance is ensured between the work stations. Employees will have limited usage of common spaces, such as the cafeteria, lifts, meeting rooms and so on.

For Malik, employee safety is paramount, and therefore, even more than the numbers, it is about understanding who can contribute from home and who needs to come to office.

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With millions of migrant workers roaming around without jobs in Uttar Pradesh, the state government is planning to amend the UP Food Processing Policy 2017, UP Milk Policy 2018, UP Tourism Policy 2018, UP Handloom, Powerloom, Silk Textile and Garmenting Policy 2017 as well as the UP Pharmaceutical Industry Policy 2018, to create more jobs.
The state has realised that only amendments to the existing policies of several labour-intensive industries can help give the much-required push to industrial activities and result in job creation.
The Uttar Pradesh government has signed four memoranda of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Industries Association (IIA), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Laghu Udyog Bharati (LUB) and National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), to generate 300,000; 300,000; 250,000 and 250,000 jobs respectively. The move is expected to provide employment to almost 1.1million migrant workers.
To enhance the farm value chain, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh has demanded that food processing proposals be cleared at the earliest. He has also called for stronger promotion of corn-based food processing industries in the western and central regions of the state where corn has been produced in surplus.
So far, more than one lakh migrant labourers have returned to the state travelling on about 1,550 Shramik Special trains. The maximum number of trains, that is, about 520 came from Gujarat, while 398 trains came from Maharashtra and 233 from Punjab.

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While the plants of Perfetti Van Melle India are currently operational, the production for a few of its products has been put on hold. The confectionery major got its first break to resume operations on March 30, at its Rudrapur plant, barely a week after a nationwide lockdown was imposed across the country. A month later, around May 7, it got permission to resume work at the other two plants, in Manesar and Chennai as well. However, production for some of the more people-intensive products of the Company, such as the compressed mints and jelly sections, has not begun yet.

Initially, work had begun at the Rudrapur plant with 15 to 20 per cent capacity and currently it stands at 90 per cent. For the plants at Manesar and Chennai the operational capacities stand at 75 and 70 per cent respectively. On the delivery side, the organisation is working at 70 per cent capacity overall.

Before beginning work, the management at Perfetti took care of all the routine healthcare requirements at the plants, such as setting up social distancing norms, staggered cafeteria timings, sanitisation of the washrooms, cafeterias and walkways and increasing the number of buses to abide by the safety protocols. The number of buses have increased three times in a few places and so have the number of transportation shifts in a day.

According to Ritu Kochhar, head of HR at Perfetti Van Melle India, functioning under social distancing is not the best way to be productive. “Employees within the plant are now working at a distance from one another and adjacent lines cannot begin work simultaneously,” says Kochhar.

Under normal circumstances, production lines run simultaneously. However, because of social distancing norms, lines are running in bi-weekly shifts at a distance from one another.  The lack of available employees is the reason why the compressed and jelly production lines have not been able to resume production.

It is not just leaders we are recognising through the HERO campaign, but anybody who has performed above and beyond. Behaviours that we call out as HERO are what we need from our employees at this point in time

Perfetti Van Melle has a total strength of more than 6000 employees, of which around 4000 are working under third-party contracts and the remaining 2000 plus are directly employed by the brand including those working in the corporate offices. Perfetti has four regional sales offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon and Calcutta, three factories and one head office in Gurgaon.

In terms of the supply chain, the western region has taken a major hit as the movement of goods is still restricted. Kochhar mentions that the Company had the time to scale up production and build up stock before the lockdown hit the country, by learning from its European counterpart where the lockdown had hit much earlier.

In sales as well, employees began work around the end of April as per zonal relaxations on movement. While initially sales employees were taking orders on call, currently around 65 per cent of the sales force is on the ground working, barring those operating in the western region.

Engagement
To keep the employees engaged while working from home, Perfetti has created cross-functional teams in charge of engagement activities across its office locations, such as the Gurgaon team, which is called the Bureau of Serious Fun. Activities include connecting employees and their families together to organise virtual games, such as Tambola, activities for the kids, talent shows for the whole family and an interesting event called Chef of the Month, where employees are encouraged to create their own recipes using any Perfetti product and become part of a recipe book, which is in the pipeline.

COVID-19 has changed the expectations from employees at the workplace, and as a result, rewards and recognition have changed as well. To help spread understanding among the employees as to what is expected of them and create that readiness for work, Perfetti is running a campaign called the HERO campaign. Here, H stands for ‘hunger for result’, E for ‘entrepreneurial spirit’, R for ‘raise the bar’ and O for ‘out-of-box thinking’. Under this campaign, the Company is going forward by rewarding all employees and teams who display the above qualities and do expectational work. This includes personnel working at the plants, whether it be the employees on the production lines, the security guard or the housekeeping staff and those working from home.

HERO behaviour can include going beyond one’s functional roles to help out a colleague or trying to find creative solutions to get the job done even amidst restrictions.

In order to reward those for exceptional performance, the management has found a creative way to recognise their efforts. The work performed by the employees along with a small note of appreciation is printed on the product packaging, which is shipped out for delivery along with a virtual copy being sent out for the concerned employees themselves. In addition, employees can choose to recognizse their colleagues for any work they deem worthy, by filling up a form and sharing it online.

“It is not just leaders we are recognising through the HERO campaign, but anybody who has performed above and beyond. Behaviours that we call out as HERO are what we need from our employees at this point in time,” says Kochhar.

Speaking about going back to office, Kochhar mentions that they are putting out surveys to gauge the readiness of the employees and get an idea of the condition they are in, along with what they need to go back to office. “We shall probably start with 10-15 per cent in shifts for two to three days in a week, beginning with those employees whose roles demands physical presence in the office,” opines Kochhar. However, she adds that it is highly probable that not more than 40-50 per cent of the workforce will be in office at a time, at least till the next quarter is over.

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French automobile manufacturer, Renault, is planning to sack 15,000 employees worldwide as part of its cost-cutting plan for the next three years. Due to the impact of the pandemic, the car maker is aiming to lessen its production capacity to 3.3 million vehicles in 2024 from the  present 4 million, due to the slack in demand. Like most other manufacturers in the auto space, Renault has suffered losses, for the first time in a decade in 2019.
Renault has a 180,000-strong global workforce, and of the 15,000 jobs being cut, 4,600 will be cut in France itself, while the rest will be cut across the world.  The Company plans to hold its expansion in countries, such as Romania and Morocco, and shift its focus to manufacturing small vans or electric cars in the next three years.
As per sources, Renault had earlier planned to offer a voluntary departure plan and a retirement scheme to reduce the workforce without having to sack employees.
Apparently, the Company’s investment and expenditure has been very high in recent years, and now it is being forced to cut costs, by adopting various measures, including cutting the number of subcontractors, in areas such as engineering and reducing the number of components being used.
The restructuring measures, including job cuts and transfers affecting almost 10 per cent of its global workforce, will cost the Company approx. 1.2 billion euros.
It is now trying to overcome the economic impact with industry-wide changes such as investment needed to produce more environmental-friendly vehicles.
The Renault Group, 15 per cent of which is owned by the French government, said some plants which make its electric Zoe models, will stop assembling cars and focus on recycling activities.
Six sites in all, including a component factory in Brittany and the Dieppe factory, where the Group’s Alpine cars are manufactured, will be under review.
Unions in France have said they fear the Company’s restructuring measures could lead four out of the six sites to shut.

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Online ticket booking company, BookMyShow, has laid off or furloughed 270 employees, making it the latest addition to the list of well-funded consumer internet companies to have fired workers in the wake of the economic crisis, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ashish Hemrajani, CEO, BookMyShow informed the employees of the downsizing move, which he said in the mail was resorted to, “due to the unfavourable environment.”
The e-mail was later posted on the Company’s website.
The employee strength of the Company stands at 1,450 in India and globally,. About 270 employees across various functions and teams will be impacted by this exercise.
“This includes those who will be put on furloughs, along with those with whom we will have to part ways, at least, as of now,” said Hemrajani.
However, the Company did not provide a breakup of the number of employees who have been fired, and those put on furlough.
In the last funding in 2018, the Company was valued at about $800 million and investors, such as SAIF Partners, TPG Growth and Accel Partners were among its list.
BookMyShow joins the likes of home-grown ride-hailing major Ola, hospitality chain Oyo Hotels & Homes, food delivery majors Zomato and Swiggy, and B2B e-commerce company, Udaan—that are among the most high-profile consumer internet companies to have raised millions of dollars in funding — in slashing employee numbers.
Founded in 1999, by Hemrajani, the Company’s affected employees will be provided a severance package that includes two months’ salary, irrespective of tenure or as per notice period, as well as medical insurance, which will cover their nominated family members also, until September 30.
Those furloughed will continue to remain employed with BookMyShow and will be eligible for all medical insurance, gratuity and other benefits as per their employment standards.
“The Company has cut all other expenses and renegotiated with vendors, partners and landlords, and after exhausting all other cost-saving measures, we have taken this decision as a last resort,” Hemrajani said in the e-mail.

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