Day: July 15, 2020

Economic cost of COVID-19

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has announced lockdown in the country to fight against the deadly virus. Indian economy is witnessing a huge loss because of COVID 19.

Economic impact

The economic impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in India has been hugely disruptive. World Bank and credit rating agencies have downgraded India’s growth for fiscal year 2021 with the lowest figures India has seen in three decades the since economic liberalization in the 1990s. The Indian economy is expected to lose over ₹32,000 crore (US$4.5 billion) every day during the 21-day-lockdown which was declared following the coronavirus outbreak. Up to 53% of businesses in the country will be affected Supply chains have been put under stress with the lockdown restrictions in place; initially there was a lack of clarity in streamlining what is an “essential” and what isn’t. Those in informal sectors and daily wage groups are the most at risk. A large number of farmers around the country who grow perishables are also facing uncertainty. Various businesses such as hotels and airlines are cutting salaries and laying off employees. The live events industry has seen an estimated loss of ₹3,000 crore (US$420 million).
In India, with a share of almost 90 per cent of people working in the informal economy, about 400 million workers or 40 crores in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis, according to ILO.

Let us have a look on the different sectors :

Unemployment Rate (of IT & other sectors)


While India does not have official high frequency labour market data, the unemployment rate put together by the Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy, or CMIE, shows a spike in the last week of March and the first week of April. The unemployment rate during the last week of March rose to 23.8 percent and stayed around those levels in the first week of April. The lockdown in India has left tens of millions of migrant workers . The coronavirus pandemic would have a debilitating impact on India’s tourism sector with the industry estimating an overall loss of Rs 5 lakh crore and job cuts for 4-5 crore people.
Of the total losses, the organised sector in the industry — branded hotels, tour operators, travel agencies which are the mainstay of the sector – may be hit the hardest with an estimated loss of around Rs 1.58 lakh crore, according to Confederation of Indian Industry estimates.

The industry body has said that branded hotel groups are set to lose as much as Rs 1.10 lakh crore, online travel agencies Rs 4,312 crore, tour operators (inbound and domestic) Rs 25,000 crore, adventure tour operators Rs nearly 19,000 crore and cruise tourism Rs 419 crore.
Consumer durables, automotive, auto components, white goods, capital goods, IT, startups and MSMEs sectors will be among the worst affected. The IT sector, which employs around 4 million engineers, is likely to witness around 5% job losses according to professionals.

About 1.5 crore people face job losses in India’s export sector following the cancellation of over half of the orders and a gloomy forecast for global trade due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Electricity Consumption


With factories closed and power demand coming mostly from households, peak demand has plunged. The average demand during peak evening hours, i.e. 7 pm, contracted by 26.6 percent for April 1-10 2020 over last year, according to daily reports published by the Power System Operation Corporation Limited. Likewise, maximum demand during the day has seen a drop of 24.5 percent.

Consumption of Petroleum Products


With fewer vehicles plying on roads, consumption of petrol fell by 16.4 percent in March 2020 over a year ago, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Diesel, consumed in factories and for plying commercial vehicles, saw a sharper hit as consumption fell by 24.2 percent year-on-year in March 2020. Analysts believe that fuel demand may fall by 2.3% in FY21.

PMI Barely In Expansion Zone
The two Purchasing Managers’ Indices complied by IHS Markit India showed slightly diverging trends. The Services Business Activity Index fell to 49.3 in March, down from February’s 85-month high of 57.5. The Manufacturing Activity Index saw a more modest fall to 51.8 in March, from 54.5 in February. This is because non-government services were the first to be hit even before a complete lockdown was announced. The Composite PMI stood at 50.6 in March compared to 57.6 in February 2020. A level above 50 denotes expansion, while a level below it suggests contraction.

Cargo At Major Ports


Cargo handled by Indian ports fell the most in five months, dragged down by a drop in liquid cargo and container volumes. Ports across the country handled 618.7 lakh tonnes of cargo in March, a decline of 5 percent over the year-ago period, according to data compiled by BloombergQuint.

Farm Arrivals


Farm Arrivals of agricultural commodities at key markets have fallen to a fraction of levels seen before a 21-day nationwide lockdown was imposed, data analysed by BloombergQuint showed. This, because of supply chain disruptions despite food items being classified as essential commodities. Data collated by BloombergQuint from Agmarknet, a government portal on agricultural marketing, showed a 15-76 percent decline in arrivals in the week of April 1-6 compared to the week of March 1-6. Overall, the total arrivals of major cereals, fruits and vegetables recorded across market centres fell to 3.09 lakh tonnes in the first week of April. This was 55.6 percent lower than arrivals seen a month ago. The drop in arrivals of agricultural commodities signals a disrupted supply chain ahead of the crucial harvesting season.

Manufacturing

Major companies in India such as Larsen and Toubro, Bharat Forge, UltraTech Cement, Grasim Industries, the fashion and retail wing of Aditya Birla Group, Tata Motors and Thermax have temporarily suspended or significantly reduced operations in a number of manufacturing facilities and factories across the country. Nearly all twowheeler and four-wheeler companies have put a stop to production till further notice. Many companies have decided to remain closed such as Cummins which has temporarily shut its offices across Maharashtra. Hindustan Unilever, ITC and Dabur India have shut manufacturing facilities expect for factories producing essentials.

E-commerce

In the third week of March, Amazon announced that it would stop sale of non-essential items in India so that it can focus on essential needs. Amazon has followed the same strategy in Italy and France. On 25 March, Walmart-owned Flipkart temporarily suspended some of its services on its e-commerce platform and will only be selling and distributing essentials. BigBasket and Grofers also run restricted services, facing disruptions in services due to the lockdown. Delhi Police began issuing delivery agents curfew passes to make it easier for them to keep the supply chain open. E-commerce companies also look for legal clarity related to what are “essentials. By this, they’re facing economic loss.

Stock markets

On 23 March 2020, stock markets in India post worst losses in history. SENSEX fell 4000 points (13.15%) and NSE NIFTY fell 1150 points (12.98%). However, on 25 March, one day after a complete 21 day lockdown was announced by the Prime Minister, SENSEX posted its biggest gains in 11 years, adding a value of ₹4.7 lakh crore(US$66 billion) crore for investors. On 8 April, following positive indication from the Wall Street that the pandemic may have reached its peak in the US, the stock markets in India rose steeply once again.

Tea


Due to logistical problems following the lockdown tea estates were unable to harvest the first flush. The impact of this on the second flush is not known. The entire Darjeeling tea based tea industry will see significant fall in revenue. Tea exports could drop up to 8% as a result.

Night lights


Night lights and economic activity are connected. In Delhi, night light radiance fell 37.2% compared to 1-31 March 2019. This was the biggest fall for any metro in India. Bangalore fell 32% while Mumbai dropped by 29%.

Chemical Industry


Some chemical plants have been shut down in China. So there will be restrictions on shipments/logistics. It was found that 20% of the production has been impacted due to the disruption in raw material supply. China is a major supplier of Indigo that is required for denim. Business in India is likely to get affected so people securing their supplies. However, it is an opportunity. US and EU will try and diversify their markets. Some of the business can be diverted to India which can also be taken as an advantage.

Auto Industry:
Its impact on Indian companies will vary and depend upon the extent of the business with China. China’s business no doubt is affected. However, current levels of the inventory seem to be sufficient for the Indian industry. If the shutdown in China continues then it is expected to result in an 8-10% contraction of Indian auto manufacturing in 2020.
Pharmaceuticals Industry:
Despite being one of the top formulations of drug exporters in the world, the pharma industry of India relies heavily on import as of bulk drugs. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, it will also be impacted. Textiles Industry:
Due to coronavirus outbreak, several garments/textile factories in world have halted operations that in turn affecting the exports of fabric, yarn and other raw materials from India.


Solar Power Sector:
Indian developers may face some shortfall of raw materials needed in solar panels/cells and limited stocks from China.

The real estate body Naredco has estimated that the sector would incur losses of Rs 1 lakh crore on account of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown and sought a $200-billion package from the government to kickstart the economy.

Estimate of economic losses

The Indian economy is expected to lose over ₹32,000 crore (US$4.5 billion) every day during the 21 day lockdown, according to Acuité Ratings, a RBI approved credit rating agency. Barclays said the cost of the 21 day shutdown as well as the previous two shorter ones will be total to around ₹8.5 lakh crore (US$120 billion).


On 27 March, Moody’s Investors Servicedowngraded its estimate of India’s GDP growth for 2020 from 5.3% to 2.5%. Fitch Ratings revised its estimate for India’s growth to 2%. India Ratings & Research also downgraded the FY21 estimate to 3.6%. On 12 April 2020, a World Bank report focusing on
South Asia said that India’s economy is expected to grow 1.5% to 2.8% for FY21. This will be the lowest growth for India in 30 years. The World Bank report said that the pandemic has “magnified pre-existing risks to India’s economic outlook”.


Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has sought an economic fiscal stimulus package of 1% of India’s GDP amounting
to ₹2 lakh crore(US$28 billion). The fiscal package and fiscal policies approach is being compared to what has happened in other countries such as Germany, Brazil and Japan. Jefferies Group said that the government can spend ₹1.3 lakh crore(US$18 billion) to fight the impact of coronavirus. Bloomberg’s economists say at least ₹2.15 lakh crore (US$30 billion) needs to be spent. It is estimated that the loss to the tourism industry will be ₹15,000 crore (US$2.1 billion) for March and April alone. CII, ASSOCHAM and FAITH estimate that a huge chunk of the workforce involved with tourism in the country faces unemployment.

The government has to take some measurements to save the economy.

Govt approves Rs 107 cr for firefighting facilities at Haldia Dock

Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has approved 107 Crore rupees for augmentation of firefighting facilities on five jetties of Haldia Dock Complex at Kolkata Port.

The modern firefighting facility will enable the Haldia Dock Complex in safe handling of the movement of petro-chemical products. The existing fire fighting facility does not support the handling of the LPG and other petroleum products as per the guideline of Oil Industry Safety Directorate of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Shipping Ministry has prioritized safety and security of cargo operation on all Major Ports. It is a move towards compliance of global standards for fire safety.

LPG and LNG cargo on Haldia dock is projected to increase in the near future. The state-of-the-art firefighting infrastructure will help to manage the petro-chemical goods in a safe and secure manner at Kolkata Port.

2,95000 MT food grains lifted by States under extended PMGKAY

Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said two lakh 95 thousand Metric Tonnes of food grains have been lifted by the states so far under extended Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana- PMGKAY

Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said two lakh 95 thousand Metric Tonnes of food grains have been lifted by the states so far under extended Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana- PMGKAY.

This is out of 203 Lakh Metric Tonnes of foodgrains which was allocated under the scheme to the states for five months from July to November. Mr Paswan in a tweet said, since July 1, 13.69 Lakh Metric Tinnes of food grains have been loaded and dispatched to the states so far through 489 rail racks.  

The Minister also informed that from 25th of March to 30th of June, Food Corporation of India (FCI) has transported approximately 140 Lakh Metric Tonnes of food grains through 4,999 rail racks. Mr Paswan also said, that procurement of wheat and paddy from farmers under procurement targets for the Rabi season 2020-21 is continuing.

He said, FCI has procured 389.71 Lakh Metric Tonnes wheat till 13th of this month. Mr Paswan said, with the purchase of 128.85 Lakh Metric Tonnes of paddy in the Rabi season, a total of 750.16 Lakh Metric Tonnes of paddy have been procured so far in 2019-20 season.

BJP delegation meets Prez Kovind, demands dismissal of TMC govt in WB over political killings

BJP delegation today met President Ram Nath Kovind and demanded the dismissal of the TMC government in West Bengal.
 
The delegation that included Kailash Vijayvargiya, Arvind Menon, Babul Supriyo, Swapan Dasgupta and Raju Bista apprised the President about the political killings taking place in West Bengal.
 
Yesterday the body of Hemtabad MLA Debendra Nath Ray was found hanging from the ceiling of a verandah outside a shuttered shop near his home in Bindal village in North Dinajpur district yesterday.

On United Nations’ 75th Anniversary, PM Modi to virtually address ECOSOC on July 17

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually address the valedictory of high-level segment of United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Friday.
 
This will be Prime Minister Modi’s first speech at the United Nations after India reinstated it’s place as a non permanent member in the Security Council earlier this year.
 
ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues and formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states of the United Nations. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Council since it’s formation in 1945.

US drops plans to deport international students whose courses move fully online because of pandemic

US government has dropped its plans to deport international students whose courses move fully online because of the coronavirus pandemic. The decision comes a little over a week after US President Donald Trump’s administration had announced the policy.
 
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the government over the plan.
 
District Judge Allison Burroughs in Massachusetts has said the parties have come to a settlement.   Foreign students were told last week that they would not be allowed to stay in the US this autumn unless they switched to a course with in-person tuition.

CBSE to declare result of Class 10th examination today

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will declare the result of Class 10th examination this afternoon. Students can access their results through the websites- www.cbse.nic.in, www.cbseresults.nic.in and www.results.nic.in.
 
Results will also be sent to the candidates through SMS on their registered mobile number and on registered email id’s. In addition to it, results can be obtained by sending SMS on mobile number 7738299899 with required details.
 
Results of Class 10th can also be obtained through Interactive Voice Response System on telephone number – 011-24300699. Besides, students can also view their results on UMANG App and on www.umang.gov.in. Students can also access Digilocker Application on UMANG App to view their marksheets and other digital academic documents.
 
Candidate’s digital marksheet, passing, migration and skill certificates will also be available in DigiLocker. The DigiLocker mobile app can be downloaded from Google Play Store.

Corona virus recovery rate reaches 63.02% in country

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry has said that the difference between the active cases and the recovered cases are increasing progressively and the total recoveries have reached 1.8 times of the active cases in the country.
 
It said, a total of five lakh 71 thousand 460 people affected with coronavirus have recovered in the country so far. With this, the recovery rate in the country has reached 63.02 per cent. Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is three lakh 11 thousand 565.
 
The Health Ministry has informed that India has 657 cases per million in comparison to the global average of one thousand 638 cases per million and the country has registered 17.2 deaths per million compared to the global average of 73 deaths per million due to Coronavirus. It said, the daily growth rate in new cases is showing a declining trend and it is now 3.24 per cent which was around 31 per cent in the March this year.
 
The Ministry said the case fatality rate has also declined to 2.61 percent. It said, 30 States and Union Territories have recorded lower fatality rates than the national average.
 
AIR correspondent reports that there are 20 States and Union Territories that have better recovery rate than the national average of 63.02 per cent. In terms of recovery rate, top five States and Union Territories are – Ladakh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Haryana wherein the recovery rate is above 75 per cent. 10 States and Union Territories have contributed 86 per cent in the total Covid-19 cases and 50 per cent of it alone came from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Government has said that adequate testing is being done in the country to effectively deal with this crisis.
 
There are 22 states in the country which are conducting 140 tests per day per million and overall 201 tests per day per million is being conducted in the country. Lab network has been ramped up to increase the testing and more than 14 hundred labs are conducting the COVID-19 test in the country. 

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said, States have been advised to keep a continued focus on containment, testing and clinical management. It said, increased testing will help in early detection of the cases and COVID appropriate behaviour and community ownership is necessary to contain the spread of this disease.
 
On the question of higher prices of certain drugs used in the COVID-19 treatment, the Health Ministry said, the Drug Controller General of India has asked the companies to start helpline numbers for the people and publicize the distribution centres through their websites. In addition, the state governments have been asked to keep vigil on price hike of the drugs and ensure the supply of the medicines.
 
The Health Ministry said that a Sero Survey has been conducted in Delhi and 22 thousand 800 blood samples were collected from 26th June to 5th of July. It said, the report will be published soon as different kinds of stratification of the data is underway.
 
On the question of nationwide wide lockdown, the Health Ministry clarified that strict measures have been imposed in certain containment areas as it has been found that easing of lockdown in the containment zones increases the number of cases.

15th India-EU Summit to be held in virtual mode today; India has important role to play in post COVID world, says EU Ambassador

The 15th meeting of the India-European Union Summit will be held in virtual mode today. The Summit will be co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of European Council Charles Michel and President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
 
The Summit will review India-EU cooperation covering political and security relations, trade and investment and economic cooperation. It is also expected to discuss developments around the COVID-19 pandemic and contemporary global matters of interest to both sides.
 
AIR correspondent reports that the Summit is taking place in the background of the EU wanting to play a more active role globally and also attaching higher priority to relationship with India and trying to look at the partnership in a more substantive way.
 
The new Presidents of the European Commission and European Council had taken over in December last year. The new leadership believes that the EU needs to play a stronger role in the global platform and has shown a lot of interest in India. It was in the year 2000 in which India and the European Union decided to institutionalise the mechanism at the level of the Summit.
 
This year marks 20 years of the Summit process between India and the EU. The last Summit between the two sides took place in 2017.
 
Ahead of the India-EU summit, the European Union representative in India, Ambassador Ugo Astuto, in an exclusive interview to AIR News, said that India has an important role to play in the post-Covid world. Speaking about the 15th Indo-EU summit, the EU Ambassador emphasised that economic cooperation, climate change, multilateralism and post-Covid response are going to be the focus of today’s discussions.
 
Mr. Astuto said that both India and EU share strong bilateral relations and the summit holds high significance as both the partners will pledge to fight the menace of COVID-19 together. He said, both the partners share the same values of democracy and have converging interests that have become more relevant in the current scenario.
 
The Ambassador asserted that the summit will focus on a new cooperation agenda to create the future roadmap for a strong bilateral strategic partnership in the years ahead.
 
Mr. Astuto said, both India and European Union will discuss multiple issues in the virtual bilateral summit ranging from climate change to security and global peace. He expressed confidence in development of stronger Indo-EU partnership on multiple fronts.

PM Modi to address a digital conclave on World Youth Skills Day today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver a video address on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day today. The day marks the 5th anniversary of the launch of Skill India Mission. A Digital Conclave is being organized by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to mark the occasion.
 
Our Correspondent reports that skill India is an initiative of the Government of India to empower the youth with skill sets, making them more employable. Skill India offers courses across several sectors which are aligned to the standards recognised by both, the industry and the government under the National Skill Qualification Framework.
 
The courses enhance the technical expertise and companies don’t have to invest in training for the particular job profile.

International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Analytics (ICMLDA 2020)

Name of Conference: International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Analytics (ICMLDA 2020)
Date of Conference: JULY 18,19 2020
Venue: Virtual Conference
Organized by: Dept. of Computer Science,Sri Venkateswara University,Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
URL of the Conference: http://icmlda2020.com/index.php
Brief of Conference: ICMLDA 2020 International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Analytics (ICMLDA 2020) will provide an excellent international forum for sharing knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of Machine Learning and Data Analytics. The Conference looks for significant contributions to all major fields of the Machine Learning and Data Analytics in theoretical and practical aspects. The aim of the conference is to provide a platform to the researchers, young and innovative minds, experts and practitioners from both academia as well as industry to meet and share cutting-edge development in the field to motivate and give the delegates new ways to work and achieve through data. Contributions describing Machine Learning, Data Analytics techniques applied to real-world problems and interdisciplinary research involved in fields like medicine, biology, industry, manufacturing, security, education, virtual environments, games, etc., are especially encouraged.
Theme and Sub-Themes: Track 1: Applications of Machine Learning Track 2: Applications of Data Analytics
Email: icmlda2020@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

What this lockdown trying to School us?

Everyone out there saying, Nature is healing and it is the revenge of nature that’s why we’re suffering this pandemic because we people were harming our mother ‘Earth’ and some posting that, let’s not pollute our planet, use of vehicles should be less and blah, blah… That’s completely okay if we’ll not safeguard our planet then who will.

But Maybe nature taught us the real meaning of freedom that we craved for in the past 2 months and we’re neglecting it.

Maybe she is making us realise the value of freedom of those birds and animals who are caged inside our homes and zoo.  Don’t they deserve this freedom, and after being caged in our homes in this pandemic, why we’re still not sensing this common message?

Maybe we can’t do less use of vehicles for less pollution and maybe we can, but there’s one thing we can surely do, ‘To release those innocents’, let them free and fly all around, the way we wanted in this lockdown and if still, we’re not realising this then nothing can make us sense their freedom.

This earth is their mother too, they do deserve this freedom.

Positive impact of lockdown:

Although it’s becoming difficult to be in lockdown for several months due to coronavirus, we also know it’s for our better so let’s focus at its beneficial influence in our life in a number of different ways.

Personally to me that is the biggest chance we can get to improve for ourselves. To look into our shortcomings or weaknesses that we are lacking. To create us more qualified for our mission our future so that any moment we come out after lockdown everyone would see our entirely different constructive and inspiring transform. And that encourages me personally in a really massive way.

We will get much more chance to spend with our families, since most of us, because of our busy schedules, couldn’t even look at them. We also get the time to play sports, perform arts and crafts, prepare food and more, and so on. It’s a huge opportunity to mitigate tension and boost wellbeing while we’re with our loved ones 

It’s a wonderful opportunity to focus on our hobbies and learn about all sorts of different activities from our parents, which include with mom, we could learn to cook all kinds of new recipes, from dad, we could learn so much about his company, and so much time to sit down with our grandpa and grandma, which we are unable to do.

Digitalization has the greatest part in this lockdown for all of us. So we can’t appreciate for the  technologies to make our quarantine smoother. Modern users who used to consider it challenging to utilize this technologies are already being increasingly accessible to this technology, although existing users have started to use it more appropriately so efficiently.

Individuals are more interested in taking new lessons, watching webinars, pursuing online internships, etc. because of this beneficial opportunity. Schools, universities, private coaching are expected to offer continuous study hours without disrupting their instructional schedules.

It is also a massive support for financial institutions to provide resources and also to raise identification among their clients. Companies are embracing technologies during covid19 to increase knowledge and intern a daily interaction with their on-board consumers.

Government as a whole and its various departments at central and state level have increased the scope of technology through video conferences. In fact, we are all being addressed and updated by the government through this technology. 

Such technology also allows us sensitive of the amount of cases that have taken place in our world, as well as rendering useful apps like Arogya Setu by showing us the virus from our surroundings.This lockout has also had a significant effect on improving the emissions in our country. After the curfew, there has been a substantial drop in the air quality index throughout the region. 

After 30 years, the Himalayan Rane has been seen by people in Punjab more than 100 miles away due to the reduction of air pollution caused by the lockdown. eg; The famous Silk Board Junction known for the worst traffic jam is empty.

eg:south america”s most popular city Sao Paulo too is witnessing calm streets and clearer skies.

There has been a major decrease of air quality of Bangkok as a consequence of the closing of schools a month earlier owing to an rise in air pollution. Infection in India to Taj Mahal now appears so bright in healthy air that air pollution is that.The consistency of the water in the river Yamuna is so good that chemical waste and pollution are prevented in the flow.After years, though, the Swans are now heading to Venice because of this lockdown. Intact species can be seen roaming openly in various parts of the world while people are restricted by coronavirus lockdown.

These quarantine is also helping us greatly in maintaining our health:

Generally, because of our everyday schedule, we might get much less time to relax due to long distance travel, but instead, because of this lockdown, we ‘re not just having enough time to sleep, but infact more than enough  to complete our proper nap, as well as at night, we ‘re also able to go back to bed early because we’re not moving out to work because of the lockdown, which is a huge benefit in enhancing our safety.Now that we don’t drive too often so we can concentrate on our eating at home by getting home-cooked and balanced meals.We ‘re also finding more motivation to continue working out at home from exercise, therapy, fun Zumba and so on for our families to stay well together.

We may also make a major contribution to cleaning our house by ourselves, and often we do end up with items that we haven’t used for a long time, and other garbage that we can quickly throw away, which allows us to have a cleaner living space. Sweeping, mopping, dusting and sweeping are also opportunities to keep us healthy and consume our excess calories.

So thats why instead of stressing much on coronavirus cases or when will this lockdown endow should start investing time on things that really matters in our life and for our self growth because we don’t always get such opportunity to work on ourselves.

The Impact of Social Media Marketing

 

What is Social Media?

Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein describe social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content”.

Social Media contains two words. The first one is “Social” which means interaction, sharing and so on. Another word is “Media” where to say that social media is a medium for publication.

Social media contains a lot of tools and applications which let the users express their opinion, publish articles, sharing videos and so on easily.

Social Media Influence:

According to Sir Andrew Likierman, London Business School Dean, “social media has completely disrupted the way businesses assess their performance”. This statement is completely true because social media is no longer an option but is a must, especially companies that dealing straightly with customers. Some business can completely avoid thinking about social media like wholesalers because they are just dealing with another business. Since social media became more powerful, organization are facing difficulties to measure their performance. They must have specific strategy for social media or even companies could have one special unit that handle feedbacks and responses from user. Any negative feedbacks should grab attention and they have to discuss on how to react with any negative comments. Any negative response from customers will be there on net forever. No way to remove that and because of that, companies that avoid think about social media will lose some customers.

Customers are now become more particular about with whom and from where they are buying products or services. They willing to make online search before making any purchase decision especially for expensive items. Since internet is now more conveniently searchable through smart phones, customer can make search in just a minute. That’s why companies must have social media presence and put some attention to manage customer response and try to convince them that the business is reputable and trusted.

Social media providing big opportunity to organization to build better relationship with clients and providing real one to one communication. They have no better advertising then “word of mouth”. Satisfied customers surely will share to their friends in their social network about their experiences with the particular company. If one person shares their experience to his 400 Facebook friends, and that friends spread that news to their friends, the information moves extremely fast. If a video uploaded in YouTube with attracting title like “Think Twice before you eat XXX”, this video surely will grab thousands or even millions of social medial users. With “Share” function available almost in any site, in just a second we can share anything to social media community.

One of the main reasons that we must use social media is because our competition is using that daily as marketing strategy. Another big reason why a business should use social media because their customers and future customers are using it. A lot of people have at least one social media account like Facebook, YouTube and so on. A business should present their brand where customers are. Traditionally we can see people open shops at crowd places like in shopping mall and so on. The same case here where a business should present in crowd place like social media. Millions of people using that every day.

Some Fail Stories of Businesses When Using Social Media:

In 2012, giant car manufacturer Toyota launched Camry Effect Campaign on Twitter to promote Camry. They had created number of Twitter account. This campaign was designed for directly communicating with users but what happen is, big number of users start to accuse Toyota for their bombarding and spamming marketing then with many unsolicited messages. As response Toyota suspended their accounts. Until now this campaign is well known as fails campaign. The main problem with this campaign is, not because Toyota Spamming but the content of the messages that they send out were not attracting. They also were sending same messages content over and over. They were only sending promotional messages which did not help to build relationship with users.

Advantage of Social Media for Business:

The advertising cost is much more cheaper then traditional advertising and promotional activities. Social media also gives full value for every penny they spend. Traditional advertising only shows the brand to the customer but with social media company can build long term relationship through “Like” function and can get their email address for sending future emails.

Future customer able to find our brand through many channels like sharing activities, news, search engine search result and so on which gives company free advertising. Social media can bring huge amount of traffic to their content especially when that content is grabbing their attention. This is what we can call free traffic or free customers.

Social media allows customers to express their experiences to others. A satisfied customer surely will bring another new customer through sharing experience activity. Companies will improve their products and services to customers.

Disadvantage of Social Media for Business:

A successful online presence especially in social media, a company needs an experienced team which can improve companies’ reputation. Social media becomes unique and able to drive a lot of sales when they engage with their customers. This mean they have to reply messages, comments and so on. Pushing sales without engaging with customers or not responding to negative feedback will damage the companies’ reputation. Organization also must produce new contents and always find out ways to overcome to any negative feedback.

Wrong online presence strategy will damage the companies’ reputation and put them at a viral social disadvantages. Any mistake they companies make in front of thousand of fans or social media members will result in big reputation impact. So, companies must be careful when performing social media campaign.

Using social media marketing and advertising campaign could be more time consuming because companies would have to watch out every activity in the social media.

Conclusion:

Social media gives deep impact to the business world. Today from small companies to big giant companies. Social media landscape is big and the system and technology are continuously growing and changing everyday. Companies who are using and present in social media are enjoying big benefits. Social media is no longer an option but is a must especially companies that dealing straightly with customers. Social media promises a lot of opportunities and challenges, so organization must prepare themselves for facing it.

THE INAPT VERDICT OF ENRICA LEXIE’S CASE

In Enrica Lexie’s case, India’s long-await hasn’t caused any satisfactory result. Italy has command over it since the very beginning and eventually succeeded in its objective. on February 15, 2012, two fishermen sailing on fishing boat St. Antony shot off by two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvotore Girone in India’s contiguous zone. Which is positioned 20.5 nautical miles off the Kerala coast. This incident caused outrage and conflict of opinions over legal jurisdiction and immunity between the governments of India and Italy.

Recently, Permanent Court of Arbitration acknowledged the functional immunity of the two marines accepting the plea of Italy that they were working on a mission on behalf of the Italian government and gave Italy the jurisdiction over the matter, regardless of the fact that, the incident happened in India’s contiguous zone and the victims were the Indians. Due to the non-existence of any unilateral and bilateral and treaty between India and Italy, the Italian marines shouldn’t have gotten away in the name of immunity. This decision has set the menacing precedent for all the countries will now be enacting specific laws to give immunity to the military and paramilitary personnel. This will be troublesome for contiguous States. Albeit, the International  tribunal for the law of the Sea,  ruled that the marines are entitled to compensate India for the loss of life, physical harm, material damage to property, and moral harm, India still seeks for more than just monetary restitution for the unjustified killing of its citizens on mere doubt that the boat was a pirate skiff. Now it is to be seen how Italian court will act against the marines under the criminal law. India as a responsible state accepted the decision made by PCA by the virtue of Article 51 of Indian constitution which mandates it to uphold and respect the International law. Now that India has no jurisdiction over the matter anymore it must not show any leniency in securing the justice for Pink and Valentine if Italian court go to the extreme to support the killers.