How Jack Ma inspired me!!!

Jack Ma- every 5 years we have a review for our strategy now our strategy is always to look at the 30 years and 10 years every strategic decisions we make we have to ask one question this decision we make solve society problem because we believe the biggest social property you solved the most successful you are so if we do it this cannot solve any social problems we don’t do it second is this project is going to be successful in 10 years. If it’s it’s going to be successful in 10 years let’s do it if it’s going to be successful in one year or one month normally we forget about it because why you can be successful in one year or one month.

We all have to put parham and 5 years ago we had a big debate about 10 years later 20 years what are the things this china society the world leave want so we say happiness and health strategy to happiness and health we believe Holly do you know the movie industry bring people happy because today nobody is happy rich people are happy poor people not happy you know at least when I watch movie after you’re happy but right. So, I think we should have partner with the Hollywood especially like a lot of you know we have a different way of living and in China the movie we have a lot of heroes but China movies heroes always dead the American me movie here will never die if all the heroes die who want to be the hero so my movie I want to make the hero live right so this is this is I think we should learn a lot and it’s all about two years so we have another eight years ago I want to make our company that it’s it’s not ecommerce it’s something that giving people inspirations given people.

In the eBay model why about this model I told myself for is the gum set or a hat that will care about what the other people and the other thing Forrest Gump said nobody make money out of the catching whales people make money by catching shrimps so

We serve small business or not if you want to win in business you have to think bigger than the service or product you

They also teach all the tricks all the turns all the dips all the tosses in the air did it matter as much as the experience we provided to students every person wants to feel loved every person wants to feel like they belong but they want to feel wanted appreciated validated and see and so we’ve always at our school thought bigger. We thought about they may come in for a service but they come back and they refer others because we enrich their lives we focus on the essential human needs like love like care like belonging that across cultures across demographics everybody wants to feel or experience.

I love Jack Ma’s message thinking five or 10 years from now because what people are worried about let’s say right now for the next six months it’s going to come and go but what stands the test of time are the deep down worries and fears that we all share so if you want to have a successful business you have to think bigger than the service or product you provide because people may come to your dance school people may come to your coffee shop by random chance but that’s not what’s going to keep them there and that’s not what’s going to make them refer clients to you now I’ve got a special bonus clip for you but before we get to it today’s question is how have you been thinking small in your business and what can you do to change that to really make an impact on your customers.

Do you need a Business License to sell on Etsy?

Etsy is one of the most popular online shopping sites which provides wonderful DIY craftworks and many other similar products. Though it’s one of the most valued sites for online shopping websites, one question always pops up when a seller anticipates setting up one’s business. The question is if one needs a business license to sell one’s products on Etsy. Many sellers have repeatedly tried to know the business license policy’s details through the official website of Etsy. The policy regarding if the business license is necessary or not is available on the policy page of Etsy. Also, there are many articles on the internet that have given some ideas regarding the business license policy but not in a very detailed manner. Hence, here’s all the information you need to know to clear your confused minds about what to do and what not to, whether to get a business or not, how to start with the entire procedure before you set up your business on Etsy.

Importance of Business License to sell on Etsy

A business license is a permit which a merchant or a seller needs to get once he/she sets up the business to profit from it. If you are the budding entrepreneur or have a small business that you want to set up on Etsy, you need to go through the details here.

First and foremost, the need to have a business license depends entirely on how you wish to perceive Etsy’s career. For instance, if you pursue working as a seller as your profession or you are working as a seller just as a hobby or passion. If you decide on being a fulltime seller on Etsy, you would have to get that business license to be legal with your business. Your business will only be considered legitimate if you have the permit in the form of a business license. Once your store becomes legalized, you can start working as a fulltime business merchant on Etsy, without any further delay.

To apply for the Business License or not?

Now, I guess you’ve already made up your mind to pursue this as your business, and hence, you need to be sure about a few more things related to the need for Business License here. Firstly, if you’re gaining profit from your store on Etsy, if the answer to this is yes, you would have to report how much amount you are earning from the store and inform it to the IRS. Secondly, if your Etsy store is set up on partnership or LLC, you would have to get an EIN to continue with your business here, and you would also need to get the business license. Here, EIN stands for Employer Identification Number. This is important if you have a partner or multiple partners in your business.

Types of Business Licenses for Sellers

There are three types of business licenses for business merchants on Etsy. It mostly depends on the seller’s location or ownership or kind of products he or she sells here.

A Basic Business Operation License: This license provides you with the allowance to spread your business locally. You need to know how far you can spread your business in geographical terms, and this license helps you to operate your store within that periphery. You must get the idea of how far your business can reach from the local business administration office. You can contact them and know the details regarding the same.
An Employer Identification Number: As mentioned earlier, an Employer Identification Number is only required if you have a partnership business or LLC. Other than that, you don’t require an Employer Identification Number. If you are the owner of your store, mostly the case on Etsy, you don’t need an Employer Identification Number. This is only for the business sellers who have more than one or multiple partners attached.
A Home Occupation Permit: The Home Occupation Permit is needed if your business is based out of your home. You need this permit if your work is out of your home, like most other Etsy sellers. This kind of license is prevalent on Etsy because here, most sellers have their business set out of their homes.

Where to begin with the Business License?

Most readers now would want to know where to begin and where to go to get the much-needed business license. The entire process of how to get a business license pretty much varies from one place to another. The rules and regulations are pretty different from one city to that of another. You would have to make a proper conversation with the local SBA to know the complete detailed procedure of setting up your business and where to start. Once you contact them, you become aware of the entire process in your area or city, without any further confusion.

How safe is Etsy if you don’t have a Business License?

Etsy is mostly safe if you’re pursuing this platform as a hobby. Once you start making a profit out of your business, you need to get that business license done. Otherwise, you might risk getting caught by the IRS. The safest way to go about it is to make up your mind if you wish to make your store a profit-earning business for you or not. If you want to make this as your business, it’s better to be safe than sorry. You never know when you get caught without a valid business license. My advice would be to apply for that business license as soon as you make up your mind about making Etsy store your business platform or not.

If you’re pursuing your Etsy store as a hobby or as your passion, you don’t need to have a business license. You can continue with your hobby as a seller, as much as you want. You won’t get in any trouble. As the name suggests, the business license is only for those who are seriously taking Etsy as their start-up career or as an entrepreneurship platform for their business.

How to decide if it’s business or not?

The entire choice depends upon how you see your store, whether you see it as a hobby outlet or a business outlet, whether you want to make a profit out of your store or you are just doing it because you like doing it. The entire decision is yours. Also, the business license depends entirely upon this decision of yours. Many sellers get confused even after making their Etsy store, a business platform, about if they would gain profit or not. This is a very legitimate confusion, and one might always have this doubt on their mind. If you feel you need to be wholly assured of your decision and how profitable it is turning up for you, there’s always a path. You can opt for a five-year exemption, which would automatically postpone your choice on whether to get a business license or not. You can work on your business store for five years and see whether it makes a good profit on your profit. Once you’re satisfied with the feedbacks you would be getting, within the particular framework of five years, you can quickly go for the business license and make your business legalized and legitimate.

Etsy, as a business site, is business-friendly. So, you got nothing to worry about when it comes to your start-up career there. You can start with your store any day, even now, just after reading this article and follow the procedures to make a hobby out of it or a profitable business out of it. But you would have to keep in mind a few things before you jumpstart your business career. You cannot continue your business once you are making a profit. You need to report your profits and your earnings to the IRS. You would find many business holders there, who are using unfair means to continue gaining advantage without making their business legitimate. They are going to get caught someday, and they would have to pay a hefty sum of fine to the IRS. You should stay clean once you set up your business. Other than that, you need to contact your local business administration and get the remaining details about the business license. They would start with your paperwork once you understand the whole procedure. Once more, if you are a seller on Etsy who is not looking for profit there, you are not a business seller. You don’t need to apply for the business permit if it’s a hobby. But you surely need the business license once you are planning to make your business legalized and legitimate.

Who pays for Shipping on Etsy?

Apart from the business license, many sellers also face doubts regarding how who pays for shipping on Etsy. So, I am going to cover that part along with the business license details I gave previously. Etsy has a detailed shipping policy which is available on their website. Irrespective of that, here is some essential information regarding the shipping details.

The buyer pays for the shipping charge, no doubt in that. Many buyers only look for free shipping products so that they don’t have to pay for the extra costs which come for the product. Along with the buyer, the seller also has to pay a certain amount to Etsy for the transaction and the shipping of the product. If you charge a shipping fee for the products you sell on your store, you will find a shipping transaction fee. Even if you ship the product for free, you need to pay a certain percentage as the transaction fee. The transaction fee is compulsory for the seller. It doesn’t matter if you are charging the buyer for the shipping transaction or not; you need to pay 5% of the transaction cost anyway. If you charge the shipping fee, you need to pay 5% of the shipping transaction cost and 5% of the transaction cost. This is Etsy’s policy, and it is given in a detailed manner on their personalized website.

The only profitable way to sell your products is to divide the shipping transaction between you and your buyer. If you try to make the buyer pay most of the shipping transaction cost, they might not end up ordering your product even after liking it. Many buyers remove the products from the cart once they see the shipping charge more than usual. It’s better to divide the shipping transaction cost and not let one party pay the entire or the higher amount, neither the seller nor the buyer. Also, it would not be profitable if you end up selling the product, free of any shipping charge. You would end up paying the shipping transaction cost on your own, which might turn out to be a loss on your part. You need to calculate the entire cost and divide it skilfully to make the product look pocket friendly for the buyer and profitable for the seller.

You may need to go through the policy guidelines available on the Etsy website to get a detailed idea regarding the shipping transaction cost and the transaction cost and calculate what makes it profitable for you and lucrative for the buyer. Once you are in the midway, you might become satisfied with the profit you would be making even after you pay 5% of the transaction cost and 5% of the shipping transaction cost. But keep in mind that many sellers opt for free shipping so that buyers find the product more lucrative and end up buying more. You need to decide wisely how to move forward with the shipping cost. Rest assured, the buyer is the one who pays for the major part of the shipping cost.

“Where Did Indians Got Wrong Building Their Education System?”

Education has been seen as an integral part of our life so as to bring out better understanding of different aspects we see in our day to day routine, earn higher, provide helping hand in countries growth by improving the economy and earn respect in the society. People consider a highly qualified man as an intelligent, trustworthy and wise, and whom they can consult their problem and expect better and right solutions.Countries have grown on the basis of their intellectual minds bringing up new ideas and converting them into reality. Advancement in science and technologies have improved standard of living and brought ease to the life of people around the globe. Thus education helped to fight poverty, as well as create a platform to create a better and superior modern society.

Considering education, India is one of the biggest markets for it, where every year lakhs of people graduate as well as complete their higher secondary education. India is the youngest country around the globe with the average age of its citizens to be 27 years, which does give India a potential to be developed and grow as a powerful nation. But ground reality is a bit different.Indian Education has been questioned for a few decades and the question is the quality of this system and its age old teaching techniques. The techniques we usually see in our education system have not been transformed much since the times of british or even before. Wedo follow most Britishers’ techniques in studies. Those techniques focused to be within the boundaries and not exceed them as they wanted us to learn the basics so as to be more efficient to work under them and not revolt. They wanted to keep our thinking abilities and skills limited and that’s exactly what this education is still continuing to do so.

Students are taught to learn whatever the material resides in their books and no further motivation is provided to go beyond that knowledge.
Teachers mark students on the basis of their memorizing the facts instead of learning them.
That’s the reason most of us forget these as soon as we pass the class. While in other countries most of these systems have changed both in their school as well as colleges.Most of them have transformed to provide better learning and understanding of concepts through increased case studies, projects and other learning along with their usual lecture. While in India we still lack most of our practical knowledge and rather invest most of our time memorizing them.
Students in other countries are given the freedom to think beyond their lectures and bring up new ideas while in idea we are taught the same old subjects, old case studies and old syllabus.

That’s the reason why most of the students remain unemployed even after getting better degrees and marks as they lack basic and important skills. We do lack thinking ability, that is the reason why we do see new startups around the world and we work for them, while we do have startups but missing unique ideas.We should be fighting for our coming generation so as to Improve these age old techniques of teaching where only marks are appreciated and not the skills or talent that. We have to bring back the culture of thinking and sharing ideas and developing skills at an early age so as to make our country “men more efficient at work, no more unemployed, increasing literacy rate not by filling minds but with proper brain up minds with better thoughts and skills, better job opportunities and better standard of living.”

How Tik-Tok changed the World!!!

2020 has been a year of chaos, uncertainty and grief. A global pandemic, record unemployment and nationwide protests have left people reeling. Through it all though, there’s been TikTok, providing moments of levity and new dance crazes, interspersed with more serious commentary on the issues that we face.

TikTok, it’s like the party you want to be at, a t the moment. You’ll see hair tutorials, cooking tutorials. People can create challenges, they can create duets, they can interact, they can engage. TikTok is the most downloaded app of 2020. Since its global release less than two years ago, TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, have amassed 800 million monthly active users, more than Reddit, Snapchat or Twitter. Its parent company, ByteDance, is the most valuable startup in the world. Its reach might surprise you unless you’re a member of Gen Z or the parent of one. But as millions scramble for connection amidst quarantines, more and more users of all ages are hopping aboard.

The Chinese-owned app faces a slew of regulatory hurdles, privacy concerns and allegations of censorship. Amidst these struggles, it’s brought in a new CEO. This guy is Kevin Mayer. Formerly the Head of Streaming at Disney. That’s basically what Kevin Mayer’s first priority needs to be, is to make sure that Americans trust TikTok. In the end of the day , t hat may prove complicated. But in the short term, it hasn’t prevented tens of thousands of new users from signing up. The predecessor to TikTok was an app called Musical.ly. Founded in 2014, it provided a platform for users to create short, 15 second videos set to a song of their choice. The content mostly involved lip-syncing and dancing, and it took off quickly among preteens and teenagers within the U.S. This is an app that was built around the fact that there was music that was licensed to be used on this app. This was something that Musical.ly decided really to invest in, because they knew that music and sharing music was inherently social.

In July 2015, a year after its launch, Musical.ly reached number one in the iTunes app store. It continued to grow and was bought by the Beijing-based startup ByteDance for one billion dollars in 2017. ByteDance already owned Tik Tok, a similar video sharing platform, and merged the two apps less than a year later. Now TikTok’s main office is in Los Angeles, California. They’re essentially an American startup that is subsidized by a successful Chinese tech company. As the app has grown, it’s given rise to a whole new pack of social media celebrities. Content is public by default TikTok, and therefore the algorithm that determines what appears on a user’s home page gives every creator the prospect to place their video in front of millions. Really what we saw was a different style of humor. It wasn’t the sketches that you saw on Vine, and it wasn’t longer-form YouTube videos. It was meme culture or like the general public’s take on a meme. What I enjoyed about it is there was some deeper humor in there if you were paying attention to the trends that were happening.
On TikTok, King uses creative video editing to make it look like he’s performing magic tricks, a skill which has earned him over 44 million followers, the second most on the app as of June 2020. But at 30, King represents the rare millennial that’s broken into TikTok’s top ranks. Many of the most followed users are in their teens, and lip syncing and dancing remain wildly popular. So I originally started when I was 14 years old, and so I started using my facial expressions and hand motions to make these like larger than life lip sync videos. And as I grew up, I think the app also grew up. Now there’s so much more that you can do. While Martin has found her niche with dancing and lifestyle content, she says there’s something out there for everyone. There’s like creators who are huge when it comes to comedy, some still do lip syncing, some cooking videos, tutorials. You can do whatever you want as long as it’s fun, it’s quick and it catches people’s eye. Stay at home orders have propelled the app’s rapid growth in the United States. The U.S. is third in terms of downloads and second in terms of revenue, and its influence continues to grow.
Viral dances and memes have propelled a number of songs to the top of the U.S. charts, most famously, Old Town Road in 2019 . And now the moms, dads and siblings of the TikTok o bsessed have began to get in on the trends also , learning dances and performing challenges together. You’re still laughing at them, but actually the fact that parents are getting on it, I mean they needed that demo so badly to even make it to this level that they’re at now. In order to build out a sustainable revenue model, e xperts say that TikTok eventually needs to attract older users. Advertisers are going after broader demographics and especially those with purchasing power. TikTok claims that all American user’s data is stored within the U.S. and is not subject to Chinese law, many security experts remain skeptical. Similar concerns exists in India, where data protection laws are weaker and thus citizens are more vulnerable. Regulators are going to be very weary of that separation. Most recently, the app received criticism for what it said was a technical glitch, in which post tagged with #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd appeared to have zero views when they actually have over two billion. And in the past, both India and Indonesia have instituted brief bans on the app due to concerns over inappropriate content like violence and pornography. Lastly, there are ongoing issues regarding children’s privacy.

Experts say that TikTok’s long-term prospects depend upon its ability to keep users engaged while building out a sustainable monetization strategy. YouTube could be seen as a model in the way that YouTube shares advertising revenue with its content creators. Mayer’s background in streaming services also has both analysts and creators excited about what new forms of content may lie on the horizon. I have been begging TikTok to get into the streaming game. People have speculated that TikTok might get involved in original programming. To make TikTok sustainable, you’re going to have to do long-form content. I don’t see a version where you make 60 second videos forever and it stays cool for another two to three years. King also says TikTok’s live-streaming feature has room to grow. It’s super popular in China, but hasn’t yet taken off in the U.S. I think what’s next for TikTok is how they figure out how to make money, how they figure out how to create a home for advertisers, and how they make sure that content creators themselves want to stick around and don’t want to go jump off to whatever the next cool app is going to be.

COORDINATION IN AN ORGANIZATION

Coordination is the process of synchronizing the activities and works of different departments of an organization to show and ensure the unity and group or team work. Coordination allows the company to progress because obviously a team can work better than an individual. It helps in maintaining harmony and balance between the works in an organization. A group maintains a balance and thus provides proper quality work to its organization. It is basically a force that binds all the management functions. Coordination helps in running the various things in an organization such as purchase, production, sales and finance. Any organization with the coordination gives better results than others. Coordination is referred as the essence of management because it is sometimes considered as a separate function of management. Coordination is essential in maintaining the harmony among individuals working together so that everyone gets the praise for the part of work they have done. To elaborate that coordination is not a separate function, rather it is the part of the management, it can be seen in different parts which can be also said as the stages of coordination –

Planning is the first stage of coordinating in which the top management decides what and how to execute the complete work.
Next is the organizing step, in which the organizational plans are actually organized as per planning.
Third stage is staffing which is performed after the plans are organized.
Next stage of coordination is directing in which plans which are organized and staffed are actually executed.
Last and final stage of coordination is controlling in which all the activities which are newly executed are controlled so that no confusion and problem occurs.

WHY IS COORDINATION IMPORTANT?????
The need for coordination in an organization arises due to following reasons –

Growth in size of organization i.e. as the organization grows, number of employees increases and thus to manage more number of individuals there is a need of coordination.
Functional differentiation in an organization i.e. different departments of an organization need to be coordinated for better management.
Specialization in the people of organization may lead to discrimination due to which coordination is necessary.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COORDINATION

Coordination tends to integrate different individual efforts in the form of a group.
Coordination ensures and protects unity of actions and binds all the individuals of the departments of the organization.
Coordination is a continuous process i.e. it never stops and goes on like management. It starts at the planning stage and continues till controlling stage. It can never stop if the organization needs to work better and gain popularity.
Coordination like management, is all pervasive i.e. it is universal and is required at each level and in each department of the organization. It is basically a binding force, which can never stop.
Coordination is the responsibility of managers i.e. all the head departments are responsible for coordinating to other departments because in the first stage of coordination which is planning, higher authorities are required.

COVID-19 and its effect on students career

In his prophetic Ted talk on ‘The Next Outbreak’ in 2015, Bill Gates mentioned the great danger posed to humankind by global epidemics as compared to nuclear war. Five years later, we are right in the middle of what may be termed as the greatest global crisis since the Second World War. Covid 19 pandemic has swept the globe and is perhaps going to be recorded in history as the most impactful and consequential event of this century. It has stretched capacities of governance , public , health , infrastructure etc.

The covid 19 started out as a health pandemic, has created long-lasting changes to the way we live and work. As it continues to spread across the globe, many countries have decided to close the schools as part of a social distancing policy. However, these closure od educational institutions has affected the education of more than 1.5 billion children and youth worldwide due to the amid pandemic situation.

1.students re-evaluating their career choices

With a lot of uncertainty surrounding future educational prospects a report says that 63% students feel that their initial career plans have been severely affected due to Covid-19, while 42% students feel that they have been forced to reconsider their preferred career choices and are thinking of having a backup plan now. The ongoing pandemic has further triggered and put question marks about travelling overseas for education. A lot of students who were originally planning on studying at an overseas university are now likely to change their higher education plans.

With the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted student’s career plans and according to a report its seen that careers like medicine, life sciences and allied medicine are among the top 15 careers which students are looking at pursuing. The top five career choices of students include business management, computer applications and IT, entrepreneurship, medicine and design.

2. E-learning

With all the educational institutes being closed, its one of the biggest test of online teaching and home-schooling amid the covid 19 situation In these testing circumstances due to impromptu closure, the biggest scourge and the blessings in disguise are the online learning platforms also known as eLearning. This online learning method is catering to the growing demands of the students in the most efficient manner. The online learning platforms have seen a spur in the number of students who are enrolling in the plethora of courses they offer. From courses on various Government sector exams, technical courses to activities like painting and even dancing there is a unceasing list that is available to the students at the most affordable price. Technology and online learning platforms have become increasingly crucial and due to this college costs could dwindle tremendously as more students will like via online methods.

Nevertheless we cant deny the fact that this pandemic has widen the digital divide.A country like India, which is not new to eLearning but it should be kept in mind that closures of schools are likely to widen the learning gap between children from lower-income and higher-income families. While many parents with access to technology and internet are progressively turning to online education technology to keep their kids learning at home while some may not be able to. In a recent survey from India Welfare Trust, it has shed light on how children are bearing the impact of the unprecedented outbreak.

3.Graduates facing uncertainty

Unemployment -Students graduating from college in 2020, will have a tougher time finding their first job, unlike your immediate seniors, and its obvious that unemployment levels three months after graduation will be higher.
Job first, choice later -Students will start off fast through by making more efforts and by taking risks. Salaries may be lower by nearly 20% and students may not find jobs in their preferred domain so its important to prioritise getting any job to gain work experience and shift domains once the market improves. It is advisable that working through unpaid internships or investing your time in family business will be beneficial
Digital skills– The job market always changes after a major crisis. This time, the change is an increased focus on online, technology and digital skills that enable workers to contribute remotely. Whatever your line of education be, you are unlikely to be considered unless you demonstrate comfort with digital tools in your field of work.

In this time of crisis well rounded and effective educational practice is what is needed for capacity building of young minds .

Alternative for Chinese apps !!!

let’s talk about the alternatives to popular Chinese apps:

Cam Scanner is something a lot of people use and it has had its issues in the past I mean last year Kaspersky found a Trojan module in the app and it had gone away but it came back and now it’s banned again but there are some alternatives you can use so there’s Google Drive which has a simple scan feature that not many people know about and there’s Adobe scan and Microsoft Office lens both of which are feature packed like Cam Scanner now Adobe scan is something I prefer because I like the fact that it can detect the document is scanning be the ID card or resaved or a whiteboard or your usual documents it also has different editing tools OCR support and scanned images don’t have any watermark on them.
Chinese browsers the CM browser APIs browser and of course the infamous UC browser which in the past has been in the news for taking unnecessary permissions showing spammy ads so yeah you shouldn’t be using these browsers anyway but if the browser you should be using is Firefox I know there’s chrome too of the sleeve but I am recommending Firefox for its privacy focused approach first of all Firefox brings a clean and blood-free experience unlike UC browser and like I said it’s focused on privacy and security. It blocks a lot of trackers automatically so that’s great plus it has all the great features like visual tab truly secure private browsing etc so Firefox is a great alternative to basically any browser out
Share it and Xender are another really popular apps on this whole band list but of late they have become kind of spammy and bot especially share it now I personally used to use Xender a lot to transfer files from a phone to PC but offline something really cool and really easy called Google files now snap drop isn’t an app it’s a web-based service. Just tap on the device and send any file.
ES File Explorer is another infamous app that has had its issues in the past the app has been reported to you know share app recommendations at spyware Android devices and beat shady engendered now lot of Android skins almost all the Android skins come with the old fine manager apps but if you want a third-party fire manager app there are a lot of great options, if you want a simple free file manager this obviously files by Google and if you want to create paid option there’s solve Explorer now, FX file explorer because it’s privacy focused there are no ads it’s free version because the most handy features like multiple windows support for most archive formats.
Tik-Tok has been banned and no it’s not the only video sharing platform from China that has been banned this also like and ye I’m not sure how do you pronounce it but there are some good alternatives to Tik-tok. Triller-the app and it does not take any unnecessary permissions and number of celebrities posting videos on the platform so that’s good plus it brings Tik-tok features as you can see you can create music videos and there are different tracks to choose from like Tik-tok and you also get the feature where you can collaborate with other users.
Viva video is a video editing app that has gone really popular in India now this is an app that was banned back in 2017 as well for spying on Indian users. So it’s obviously kind of shady but there are some great video editing apps you can use on Android now that’s in short if you want the same port at UI or the tools similar to what you get in viva video or you can use Kine master. It is more feature like multi device timeline all the video editing tools different textiles effects transitions.
Helo the social media app that got really popular India because of its original language support has been banned too and you can use share chat instead which also brings the same so share chat is an app based out of India and it offers content in 15 region languages which is great, there’s no English support and when, basically people posting memes quotes whatsapp for words and things like that.
Screen recorder lab that also got pretty popular but it’s been banned now but you don’t really have to worry because there are a lot of great screen recording apps on the Play Store my recommendation is the screen recorder no ads painting simply first of all this is ad free and support different resolutions different frame rates and an Android 10 devices this for parental audio recording which is awesome. If you want to record a gaming sessions so this is a simple great alternative that just works when compared to do you recorder.
Hide is a photos and videos hider app that was flagged recently for its privacy issues and now it’s been bad now there are a lot of alternatives to hide photos and videos. The alternative is keep safe, keep safe uses cipher 256 encryption which is the same protocol used in many banking apps and it’s an app that lets you protect or hide apply with documents videos and photos it also has great features like phase down auto lock encrypted, backups, trash recovery and breaking alerts. It kind of brings everything you need so, use this instead of all type well there are a lot of other apps with these privacy issues and if you want alternatives for every single one of them we have an extensive detail.

Emerging Careers in English Literature

English Literature as a discipline can be fascinating and aesthetic if you love reading about various literary genres. There has been a steady growth of different English literature genres, for example, Dalit Literature or Translation Studies or Diasporic Literature. Many universities have added a list of various programs and areas of specializations to be offered to the students under the department of English. But, there has always been a doubt related to career opportunities in the field of literature. Apart from the teaching and academic sector, there are many opportunities after you graduate with a degree in English literature.

List of careers in English literature

Here is a list of emerging careers that you can pursue once you are an English literature graduate.

There are multiple job opportunities in the publishing sector. You can apply to internships while you are still pursuing your degree. There are various roles in the publishing sector, like editor, sub-editor, copy editor. Along with these primary roles, we can observe a steady rise of audiobooks. This is an excellent scope for recent literature graduates. You can apply to become a voice-over artist to build up the audiobook collection in many publishing houses.
Online teaching is another emerging career in the field of literature. If you are interested in the education domain and want to pursue your career as an online teacher, you can apply for the same. Many educational institutes are planning on adding up more tuition classes rather than classroom teaching. Hence, you can try online teaching as a career option.
The most popular emerging career is in the field of writing. If you have an underlying passion for writing, you can try to opt for content writing jobs or internships. There are many different parts of writing, such as academic writing, or technical writing, or creative writing. You need to find out what you are most comfortable in. Then, you would be able to write on various niches like lifestyle, education, business, book review, entertainment, travel, food, and many others.
Digital Marketing or Social Media Marketing is one of the most popular sectors at the moment. With the growing need for digitization, social media has proved to be one of the new leading methods to promote a business or a start-up.
Content Development is one of the new options that are being opted by many literature students. Once you graduate, you can quickly look for an internship related to content development and managing.

The careers mentioned above have been emerging steadily in the market sector. After you complete your English literature graduation, you can try and apply to whatever option you feel convenient. Nowadays, even pursuing a literature subject can lead to several new career paths. You definitely need to do a lot of market research, and know about the roles and responsibilities required in different positions, and apply accordingly. It is better to start early and gain some experience through internships while you are still in college. In this way, you would easily be able to realize what is more interesting for you.

MANAGEMENT

Management is not only a term but a whole process of getting things done more effectively. In managing things, we aim to achieve our goals more effectively and efficiently. Management is very essential for all the organizations, whether small or big, profit or non-profit. Every type of organization requires management in achieving their goals more successfully. Lack of management makes the things confusing and thus company may fall or lack as compared to other companies of their competition. Management is a group or team work and cannot be actually achieved by a single individual.
Management has several advantages and importance in an organization such as –
• It actually helps in achieving group or team goals.
• It helps in increasing efficiency of work.
• It actually creates a dynamic organization.
• Despite of group, it also helps in achieving the personal goals or it can be said that it develops the personality of the individual.
• It also helps in the development of the society by the interaction of different people.
The complete definition of the management contains 3 essential terms –

PROCESS i.e. management is a process requiring planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.
EFFECTIVELY i.e. managing the task helps us complete the task more effectively and better than before.
EFFICIENCY i.e. management increases the benefits and profits by the tasks than before.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MANAGEMENT

Management is a goal oriented process i.e. it does not go just like that. It is actually a goal oriented process. These goals are decided and stated before starting any project and there is no doubt in the fact that management helps us achieving our goals more efficiently and better than before.
Management is all pervasive i.e. it has been observed and meant that management is a universal concept all types of organization, whether small or big, profit or non-profit has to apply some management rules to improve their organization’s standards.
Management is multi-dimensional i.e. it is a kind of complex activity. It can be more understood by saying that a lot of things need to be managed in order to rum an organization. Management of work, people, and operations are the three main dimensions which need to be managed for effective working.
Management is a continuous process i.e. it never stops. It is an ongoing process. It requires constantly solving the issues faced by the organization by managing its dimensions.
Management is a group activity i.e. it is not the work of a single person rather it requires a group or team. Every member of the team has to work very effectively for the good results of the operation they are performing.
Management is a dynamic function i.e. management allows the organization to better interact with the surrounding environment and to build better relations with other organizations so that they can help in need.
Management is an intangible force i.e. it cannot be seen but its effect can be felt and seen in the betterment of the organization. The company works more happily, employees are more energetic when each and every work of the organization is managed properly.

Are products really ‘Made In China’ ???

Made in China. We’ve become accustomed to seeing the label on products manufactured in the world’s second biggest economy. But buying one of these products in China instead of say, the U.S., doesn’t guarantee you’re getting a better price. Chinese tourists have built a reputation for being big spenders abroad, spending a whopping $277 billion in 2018, much more than any other nationality. A lot of times, people think that purchasing something in China will be inexpensive, but that isn’t always the case. So how much of a difference are we talking? If we bring four products from four popular western brands to compare. Starbucks, H&M, Adidas store, a Godiva store. To keep things consistent, we will be using 2019’s average foreign exchange rate. The products compared are:

A standard black t-shirt at H&M.
Starbucks Grande Cappuccino.
Godiva Chocolates.
An Adidas hat.

Now let’s compare:

The shirt at H&M is priced nearly the same in the U.S. and China.
A Grande Starbucks cappuccino will cost you $4.63 in Beijing, but in Los Angles, California, $3.95.
This case of Godiva chocolates, called Pearls, is priced at $7.24 in Beijing, but only $3.95 in LA.
The Adidas hat will set you back $42.27 in China, nearly double the price of a similar hat in the U.S.

This experiment has made clear that pricing are complicated. So much so, that websites have popped up like the Mac Index, a site that compares Apple product prices from around the world. So many ads for Apple here in this area. According to an analysis done by Tech Insights, the cost to make an Apple iPhone 11 Pro is $490.50. Yet according to The Mac Index, the price to buy one is $1,318 in Japan, $1,477 in the U.S., $1,658 in Mainland China and more than $2,000 in Turkey and Peru. Prices vary across countries due to factors like demand, tariffs and tax refunds. And then there’s the supply chain: the network of people, organizations, activities, information and resources involved in the creation of a product.

close up of camera over black background — Photo by ATC Comm Photo on Pexels.com

Apple’s current CEO Tim Cook is considered by some to be a mastermind in supply chain. He first joined Apple in 1998 with a mandate to clean up the company’s manufacturing and distribution. Over time, he closed factories and warehouses, instead opting for contract manufacturers in China. That’s great for Apple’s profit margins, but it’s certainly not praised by President Trump, who has asked Apple to make its products in the U.S. If, say, iPhone production was moved to the U.S., instead of China, different analyses show the price for the consumer could go up from anywhere from $30 or $40 to hundreds of dollars to even $30,000-100,000. That’s partially why, despite Apple pledging to invest more money in American manufacturing, it maintains China as its hub for making its gadgets.

american and chinese flags and usa dollars — Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

That’s Omar Slim, a senior portfolio manager at global asset manager, PineBridge. When you hear about made in this country or that country is really quite relative and it’s a simplification of things because it’s most likely made in a number of countries. Here’s an example. Let’s say we want to make lasagna for dinner. If Jeff cooks the ground beef and prepares the cheese, Sarah makes the tomato sauce and layers the ingredients into a pan; and Blair, who bought all the ingredients, puts it in the oven, who gets the credit for making the lasagna? Now, let’s apply that to Apple’s iPhone. While the phone might say ‘Made in China,’ some of its parts come from other parts of Asia, Europe and even the U.S. Even though an iPhone may be assembled in China, it’s still tariffed in China as a U.S. product because Apple is an American company. The brand makes that clear with by, ‘Designed by Apple in California. How they’re treated in terms of customs, they will be treated as a U.S. product. So regardless of where they come, it’s essentially a U.S. product. Same for Chinese products going into the U.S. and same for, for instance, European cars.

China became a popular manufacturing hub in the 1980s after it started to open to the world. It became known for its cheap labor costs, lax regulations and business-friendly environment. As China’s manufacturing sector grew, it took the crown from Germany as the world’s top exporter in 2010. While Made in China has become synonymous with cheap and low-quality products, China is hoping to change that. In 2015, it launched a Made in China 2025 initiative, which aims to shift its economy from low-end manufacturing to high-end, high-tech products. In 2017, Tim Cook said China lost its place as a low labor cost manufacturing nation many years ago. The U.S.-China trade war resulted in a tit-for-tat increase in tariffs on many products.

With increasing costs being passed on to consumers, many companies are looking to diversify their supply chain, instead of being so reliant on China. That sentiment has only grown, following the coronavirus pandemic’s hit on the global manufacturing industry. Along that supply chain, there will be some companies, that instead of manufacturing it in China, if they could, they could try to replace. In fact, companies including Apple, Microsoft and Google are reportedly looking into moving some of their hardware production from China to Vietnam or Thailand. But that might be harder than it sounds. The other countries will have a hard time to compete along with the fact that the infrastructure is shown that it’s quite good, along with the fact that in certain countries would not want to compromise the relationship with China.

The reality today is that a product likely has many components which are sourced globally. A phone may be designed in the U.S, but its screen is sourced from South Korea, the sensors and microchips may be from Taiwan or Germany, with its assembly in China. So, the next time you see a product with the words, “Made in China,” remember that the full story is seldom pure, and never simple.

YouTube: The video hosting platform that has created a raging storm!

Its one of the best user friendly video platforms in the world .Its produced many celebrities and has the solutions to many of our woes in the form of interesting videos. Be it beauty vloggers, lifestyle vloggers or food channels one can find everything on this site. It caters to all our doubts and easily accessible by all. It’s at par with Google, Instagram and Facebook and will continue to remain so in the long run.

Creators have minted huge amounts of money through their YouTube channels, many unemployed people found an amusing and interesting job in having their own youtube channel and creating user friendly content. It has changed the world. Every minute around 500 hours of video content is uploaded. It’s become a platform for many creators to show off their talents and this has also helped viewers in doubt.

Though it comes with its biter drawbacks as some of the content is not user friendly, then comes the problem of stingy comments which can frustrate the channel creator and it also does have a lot of illogical content uploaded on it. The other problem is anyone can become a YouTube creator regardless of their background or their job. The fact that it is free for any content creator attracts many, to have your own channel on YouTube one does not need require a certain set of skills or any kind of aptitude, one should have a strong will in creating attractive content which attracts subscribers and likes as well as comments to gain popularity and be a part of the trending list. There are numerous advertising channels on YouTube which make one million dollars per month.

There are several perks of being a You tube creator-

Recognition in the online community is one of the biggest perks as it allows one to become famous and gain popularity in this competitive world.

It’s a huge source of income, incase of followers-more the merrier as the more the followers more is the income, many you tubers are earning huge amounts of money specifically certain beauty vloggers and lifestyle vloggers, it has given them access to a luxurious lifestyle and has turned the table. Many have even given up their 9 to 5 jobs to become a youtuber. Some of the most famous YouTube vloggers in India are Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chachlani, Sandeep Maheshwari or Shruthi Arjun Anand. When it comes to the International creators we find PewDiePie, Jena Marbles, Luis Alvarado (Fernanfloo), Samuel de Luque (VEGETTA777), Evan Fong (VanossGaming), Andrew Hecox and Daniel Padilla (Smosh), Mark Fischbach (Markiplier) etc. at the top.

It’s a platform where you can share your creativity, your hobbies be it cooking, makeup or even reviewing products, and it’s been a huge help especially when it comes to creating new recipes from the kitchen we can always rely on YouTube as it will give us the recipe video and the numerous options available.

Fan following and online traffic– One gains a huge momentum in both of these areas as one almost becomes a celebrity and achieves a name in the industry.79% of internet users are said to have a YouTube account.

But there are also some drawbacks

There is a lot of criticism associated with being a youtuber, especially stingy, bitter and biting comments can really shake people up in an emotional way and there are other external sources as well who will criticise you and judge you on becoming a youtuber.

Many Youtubers are completely dependent on the income coming from Youtube which can be very perilous as it’s a very unstable career and can doesn’t give one any kind of job security.

It’s a risky job, as one day you will have 80,000 followers and after a few moths you might just have 80 or you might not be trending anymore as mabey your content is not that attractive anymore or the quality of your content is not up to the mark which attracts viewers and subscribers. To keep up in the game is not an easy task. As of 2019 Youtube had around 2 billion active users.

Many Vloggers and lifestyle you tubers are giving away everything on YouTube and even if you are just a youtuber you are at risk, as one’s privacy is exposed to a great extent which can become a path to unwanted problems. Many vloggers have had cases where crazy fans have trespassed their property and invaded their privacy.

It is time consuming as one has to plan out the content, record it and edit it, one has to be considerate of the content the viewers are expecting and create content accordingly which fulfils their demands and also saw that one gains more followers and to remain in trend.

The competition is real as there are thousands of vloggers and one has to come up with unique and attractive content to remain in the limelight.

How Starbucks captured the coffee & the world…!!!

With nearly 30,000 cafes across the world , Starbucks has become over just a household name. From its iconic cups, often adorned with misspelled names, to the espresso inside them, Starbucks has catapulted from one coffee bean shop in Seattle to a sprawling $80 billion business over the last 47 years.

Starbucks sales account for 57 percent of the total cafe market. Yes, 57 percent, nearly two-thirds of all coffee sold at cafes in the U.S. comes from a Starbucks. But this impressive expansion hasn’t come without growing pains. With more than 14,000 locations in the U.S. alone, Starbucks has spread itself too thin. Having too many stores has led to fewer transactions at individual stores. To compensate, the company has raised prices. But doing this too quickly or too often can drive customers away. So how did this happen? And what’s a coffee giant to do about it? The year is 1970.
Three college friends, Zev Siegl, Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker decide to get into the coffee business. They found a mentor in Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee and the man responsible for bringing custom coffee roasting to the U.S. He knew the coffee industry inside and out, especially the gourmet end. He was the most educated coffee guy in the country at that time. So with Peet’s help, the three friends open Starbucks, a coffee bean shop and roastery at Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market in 1971. Peet provided the young entrepreneurs with roasted coffee beans and connected them with coffee brokers until they could set up their own roastery and source their own beans. For the first decade, the founders opened five more locations in Seattle. At this point, contemporary coffee consumers might have noticed a glaring absence: actual coffee drinks. But that’s the thing about the 70s coffee culture: it didn’t really exist outside the home. There were no coffee bars nor was there much of a requirement for espresso-based drinks. You purchased coffee beans and you either took them home as beans or we ground them for you in the store. Nobody expected to urge a beverage at a Starbucks coffee store until after 1980.

Starbucks’ initial focus was bringing high quality beans to consumers who were more accustomed to instant or canned coffee, but that changed with the addition of one man. The company hired its first really professional Director of Marketing and Sales, and that man was Howard Schultz. And he couldn’t figure out why we weren’t selling beverages. In 1983, Schultz travels to Italy and returns with an idea: turn the coffee bean stores into cafes. Starbucks served its first latte the next year. The experiment was a success, and four years later, Schultz partnered with investors and bought Starbucks for $3.8 million. He was only 34 at the time. Schultz pursued a strategy of aggressive expansion. By the time the company went public in 1992, it had 165 stores, in 1996 it had opened more than a thousand locations, including its first international cafes in Japan and Singapore.
Growth was so rapid that, just three years later, Starbucks opened its 2,000th location. Schultz switched from CEO to Executive Chairman in 2000, at which era Starbucks operated 3,500 stores in additional than a dozen countries. Between 2000 and 2007, the number of Starbucks cafes more than quadrupled, from 3,500 to over 15,000. During this era , the corporate opened a mean of 1,500 stores per annum , including 2,500 in 2007 alone. Sales shot up from $2 billion to $9.4 billion. Consumers were increasingly ditching their kitchen mugs for these iconic paper to-go cups. But then, Starbucks hit a wall: the 2007 financial crash. That year, its rapid growth screeched to a halt and its stock price plummeted by 50 percent as cash-strapped consumers backed away from pricey coffee habits. So, Starbucks brought back Howard Schultz. This news alone caused Starbucks stock to increase by 9 percent.

Schultz halted growth and focused on customer experience. He shuttered cafes – more than 600 in 2008 and another 300 in 2009 – and laid off around 6,700 baristas. A month after his return, Schultz ordered Starbucks to shut all of its U.S. locations for one afternoon so he could retrain more than 135,000 baristas about how to make its signature espresso. Schultz’s goal was to remind customers what they loved about the brand by making the stores an experience, not just a place to get a quick coffee. They stopped selling breakfast sandwiches and brought back in-house grinding, infusing the cafes once again with that fresh coffee aroma. Schultz even mandated the removal of automatic espresso machines. These made service faster, but removed much of the romance and theatre of watching baristas craft each cup of coffee. Schultz’s makeover worked.

The company’s stock soared more than 143 percent in 2009 and same-store sales rebounded. Starbucks has posted positive same-store sales ever since. During Schultz’s makeover of the cafes, Starbucks barely opened any new stores. But the pace picked up again in 2012. By 2017, Starbucks opened nearly 3,000 more locations, ending the year with 28,000 cafes round the world. However, this brings us back to the first problem: profit cannibalization. Over-saturation, particularly in urban locations, has spread sales thin. Because Starbucks has numerous locations, customers do not have to be loyal to only one. So albeit Starbucks overall sales are growing, its individual same-store sales won’t reflect it. Compounding this problem are changing consumer preferences. People are shying away from sugar-laden calorie bombs. which happens to be one of Starbucks’ staples. These signature Frappuccinos contain an average of 57 grams of sugar. That’s more than double the recommended daily limit of sugar. So, to combat these problems, Starbucks is changing once more . The company announced the closure of 150 stores in 2019. That may seem like a drop in the bucket for a sprawling company like Starbucks.

The company’s biggest undertaking is its new line of upscale stores: Starbucks Reserve Roasteries. These massive, 20,000-square foot stores are designed to be a tourist destination. Here, Starbucks baristas and bartenders’ experiment with different brewing methods and craft new, innovative beverages. These have proven popular. In the first weeks, the Shanghai Roastery made an average of $64,000 every day, which is double what a regular cafe makes in a week.

The Power of ATTITUDE💪 – Lion & Eagle

There are only two animals on the planet that the creator identified himself with the first one is the eagle and the second animal is the lion and when we study these two animals because if he is the leader of the universe and we want to be a leader on earth we need to better find out the nature of these animals and also the up attitude of those animals.

If we discover that both of them are the kings of their domain the Eagle is the king of the bird Kingdom and the lion is the king of the animal kingdom but let’s talk a little bit about the lion, the lion has the spirit of leadership and this word spirit here is referring to attitude everybody’s attitude a leader has attitude that makes him or her different from followers now the lion is the king of the jungle but the lion to is a great source of encouragement to all of us. I want you to write down this down remember this as long as you reside favorite the lion isn’t the tallest animal within the jungle number two the lion is not the largest animal in the jungle number three the lion is not the heaviest animal in the jungle number four the alliant is not the smartest animal or the foremost intelligent animal within the jungle and yet when he shows up all of them run away.

It really brings home the purpose a military of sheep led by a lion will always defeat a military of lions led by a sheep and therefore the answers thereto dilemma is that this because leadership can transform cowards into violent warriors the proper quite leadership can transform a timid into bold people that are fellows leadership is that powerful leadership can walk into a camp of depressed people on in 20 minutes. They are turned on into unbelievable powerful armies because leadership determines everything the lion is that the king of the jungle due to one-word attitude.

Lion features a different attitude that creates every animal scared of him now we do not want to steer by fear but it does take respect for you to become a leader once I use the word fear within the jungle we’re talking about respect the elephant respects the lion the hyenas respect the lion they the giraffes they respect the life what makes these massive animals respect such a small cap the attitude is the difference for example, a lion will see an elephant and the thing that counts with mine one word lunch I could eat this thing and he acts the way he thinks now here’s another amazing mystery the elephant is larger, bigger, stronger, more powerful, heavier and more intelligent and yet when the elephant sees the lion one word involves mind eater attitude may be a product of belief you can’t have an attitude beyond your belief so your attitude comes from your belief system the lion is that the king due to what he believes about himself.

GTU to conduct Examination for final year students, here’s how it will be conducted…!

GTU – Gujarat Technological University to conduct online as well as offline exams on 2nd of July. V.C. of GTU Navin Seth and V.C. of MS University Parimal Vyas raised an issue about exams and said that:

“All private universities are conducting examinations and if state universities do not conduct exams, the students enrolled with them are going to face serious repercussions for the same – in terms of not being able to go for higher study, or even bag a job. “Their competence in the time to come will be challenged.”

So, the GTU has decided to conduct examination for final year candidates.

“Allow universities to frame examination guidelines as per their requirement and local dynamics. The new proposed guidelines may create further issues, so the framework of new guidelines regarding cancellation of examination must incorporate the flexibility of giving autonomy to individual universities for taking the decision regarding the date, mode of examination and other related guidelines in line with the set norms of UGC,” – the V.C. said.

GTU also plans to conducts for those who have fear and lives in containment zone via online mode as well as off in the month of September-October.

We have students from 32 states. To bring uniformity in exam patterns for Gujarat, out of state and of India students, we decided to conduct online exams for all. I raised only one point and asked All India University members that they should convey to UGC that universities should be given autonomy to decide and conduct exams. No mandatory guidelines for all universities should be set for blanket implementation,” Vyas said

GTU gets 'Most Trusted State University' - Times of India

The online mode of exam will be conducted with high safety in hand on hand with varasity, and planned to conduct exams of around 1600+ students with 1 supervisor for each 15 student and the computers will be completely checked there will be no copy-paste option available as well as browsing on the internet will also be disabled for an additional security each and every 1600+ students movement will be recorded, computers will be properly sanitized before and after use.

The offline exams will be conducted for those who are willing to go for offline mode. There will only 15 students on each class and 1 supervisor for each 15 students proper distance will be allotted between each student and proper sanitation procedure will be followed up.

The timings of the online mode is 2.5 hours where as for offline mode is 2 hours with the reduced question. For different typing speed of each student differs additional half hour time is allotted for students of online mode of examination.

GTU diploma, PDDC and BPH December 2018 exam result declared at ...

Electrified Fabric Could Zap the Coronavirus on Masks and Clothing

Prototype mask made from a fabric that can inactivate pathogens. Credit: Vomaris Innovations, Inc.

Wearing masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) can slow the spread of COVID-19. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone wear some kind of face covering in public places, especially where social distancing is difficult to maintain. And health workers are donning additional coverings, such as gowns. Yet all such protective gear shares one significant problem: people still risk becoming infected with the novel coronavirus if they accidentally touch areas of the fabric that are contaminated with viral particles. So researchers are working to develop cloth that could inactivate or repel coronaviruses—ideally including the one that causes COVID-19—and other pathogens.

People transfer infectious particles to their hands if they touch the front of a mask during use or when they remove gowns or other PPE, according to Chandan Sen, director of the Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering at Indiana University. He and his colleagues have been developing a way to render those particles and other infectious agents harmless. The team researches “electroceutical” materials that wirelessly “generate electric fields across the surface of the fabric,” Sen says. Those fields can disrupt the behavior of bacteria or viruses on the cloth.

“The beauty of this [technology] is the inherently simple design,” he says. The polyester material is printed with alternating spots of silver and zinc resembling polka dots. They are one to two millimeters wide and spaced one millimeter apart. When the electroceutical material is dry, it functions as an ordinary fabric. But if it gets dampened—say, with saliva, vapor from a coughed up droplet or other bodily fluids—ions in the liquid trigger an electrochemical reaction. The silver and zinc then generate a weak electric field that zaps pathogens on the surface.

The researchers co-developed the material with the biotechnology company Vomaris Innovations in 2012. Last year they showed that the technology could be used to treat bacterial biofilms in wounds. A clinical trial is underway to further evaluate the fabric’s effectiveness as a Food and Drug Administration–cleared dressing for wound care, Sen says.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sen’s team tested its existing material on a different coronavirus strain that causes a respiratory illness in pigs and on an unrelated type of pathogen called a lentivirus. “We wanted to know how broadly this principle could be applicable,” he says. In a study posted on the preprint server ChemRxiv in May, Sen’s team reported that its electroceutical fabric destabilized both viruses, leaving them unable to infect cells. The researchers plan to submit the results to a peer-reviewed journal as well.

To study the fabric’s action, they placed a liquid solution containing viral particles onto the electroceutical fabric and a polyester control fabric without the metal dots. After the droplets were fully absorbed, and the samples had rested for one to five minutes, the researchers recovered viral particles from both fabrics and tested whether they could still infect the types of cells they typically target.

“The data presented here show that, of the total virus that was recovered, a significant percentage was inactivated,” says Jeff Karp, a professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and co-leader of an N95 respirator working group at the Massachusetts General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation. Karp, who was not involved with the study, adds that the researchers did not test all of the virus that they had placed on the cloth. “In fact, the majority of virus was not recovered from the textiles examined in this study,” he says. Sen responds that his team focused on sampling only enough viral particles to show that the fabric had rendered them unable to infect cells. The researchers recovered roughly 44 percent of the particles from the electroceutical fabric samples that had rested for one minute. And they retrieved 24 percent of them from the samples that had rested for five minutes.

The material’s virus-fighting abilities have not been tested specifically on SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The researchers’ findings with the two viruses they studied, however, gave them “hope that this could apply more widely,” Sen says. He adds that large-scale manufacturing of the electroceutical fabric is already possible and that the costs of producing it are relatively low. The metal dots could be printed directly onto the front surfaces of masks, he suggests. Or an electroceutical fabric could be inserted between the front of a mask and the wearer’s face.

If a virus-stopping PPE material were widely available, it could limit the novel coronavirus’s ability to spread. “There is a huge unmet need to better understand modes of viral transfer that lead to virus transmission,” Karp says. “As we develop a better understanding of this, there is a huge immediate need to develop and quickly apply solutions that can reduce transmission.”

Metal dots are not the only potential approach. Paul Leu, director of an advanced materials laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, and his colleagues are developing a textile coating that repels bodily fluids, proteins and bacteria. It also repels one strain of adenovirus that causes respiratory illness and another that causes conjunctivitis, as reported in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces in April. Leu’s team has also not tested the material with the novel coronavirus itself, however. “The main thing with testing [the coating on] SARS-CoV-2 is the biosafety level you need to test it, because it’s very hazardous,” he says. Still, his team plans to see how well textiles with this coating repel a different coronavirus.

Leu says the coating, which remains repellent even after ultrasonic washing and scraping with a razor blade, could make PPE safer for wearers to take off. It could also be used on hospital bed linens, drapes and waiting room chairs, the researchers note in the study. But Leu points out that the coating is intended for use with medical textiles that are already considered reusable. His team has not tested it on single-use masks or N95s, but he thinks it could potentially damage them. Still, he says, the coating could work well for cloth masks such as those now being worn by many among the general public.

By developing materials that kill or repel viruses, researchers hope to make masks and other protective gear safer to remove and more effective against all viruses. “If the common person were to have PPE that wouldn’t spread infection,” Sen says, “I think that’s a big, big deal.”

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