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Giving us hope that we're finally bidding goodbye to this awful year, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=yahoo&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Yahoo</a> announced the <keyword id="3908608" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="2016-Year-In-Review">2016 Year in Review</keyword> (YIR)* for India. The YIR is a look at the year’s top trends, happenings and events, which caught the imagination of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=internet+users&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Internet users</a> in India. 
 In its ninth year now, this review is based on users’ daily search habits and an editorial selection of what they read, recommended and shared most on <keyword id="6363100" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Yahoo">Yahoo</keyword>. 
 
Among the various lists, Yahoo revealed the names of the top 10 people who created quite a stir in the World of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=business&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Business</a>. Have a look!

RANKED: The top 10 Business Newsmakers of 2016

What a year 2016 has been for politics and for politicians. From <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=donald+trump&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Donald Trump's</a> presidency, <keyword id="260213" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Arvind-Kejriwal">Arvind Kejriwal</keyword>'s constant whining to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=narendra+modi&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Narendra Modi's </a>surprise attack of demonetisation, we've seen it all. 
 But, we were curious. Who were the most searched politicians this year? <keyword id="3958240" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Yahoo-India-Year-In-Review">Yahoo India Year in Review</keyword> heard our question and decided to answer it by giving us a list of the 10 most searched politicians. 
 
Here they are:

The 10 most popular politicians of 2016

​Just like every year, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=yahoo+india">Yahoo India</a> released its list of the most talked about topics on the internet based on the search habits of its users this year too. 
 And, there was an unusual winner when it came to deciding who would be christened the <keyword id="3181653" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Personality-of-the-Year-2015">Personality of the Year 2015</keyword>. 
 
Would it be our selfie-obsessed Prime Minister<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=narendra+modi"> Narendra Modi</a>, who’s just back from another foreign or would it be the Badshaah of Bollywood, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/topic/Shah-Rukh-Khan">Shahrukh Khan</a>, who’s made a lot of moolah riding on people’s craze over yet another of his average movies? Maybe <keyword id="211974" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yahoo-India">Yahoo India</keyword> would give the crown to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=rahul+gandhi">Rahul Gandhi</a> instead, for being an unintentional stand-up comedian? (and for win atleast something for a change) 
 
Turns out, none of them deserve the honour. 
 
Instead, the Personality of the Year 2015 is none other than our very<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=cow"> cow</a>. 
 Our holy mother, the sacred <keyword id="6362952" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="cow">cow</keyword>? Yep, that’s her with the crown. 
 
"In an unexpected twist, the humble 'Cow' emerged as 'Personality of the Year', trumping other high-profile contenders for the top spot. It started with the Maharashtra government announcing a ban on sale of beef in the state -- a move which led to massive debates online and offline, spiraling into the 'beef controversy'," Yahoo said in a statement. 
 Further, the unfortunate <keyword id="3082300" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Dadri-lynching">Dadri lynching</keyword> ensured that the cow became the topic of every living-room discussions on religious intolerance, sparked the ‘award wapsi’ campaign and even went as much as stalling proceedings in the Parliament. 
 
Thus, the cow was the personality that generated a great deal of online buzz in 2015 with conversations revolving around its life and death and ending with its consumption and conservation. 
 
Let’s hope no has a ‘beef’ with this decision!

Guess what? The ‘cow’ wins Yahoo India’s vote for
Personality of the Year 2015

In what is being considered as the biggest layoff at <keyword id="6363100" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Yahoo">Yahoo</keyword> since 2012, the Internet search giant is sacking about a third of its staff in India. 
 The information was revealed by a person, who worksat its Software Development Centre (SDC) in Bangalore. This is considered to be Yahoo’s largest engineering centre in the world after California’s <keyword id="172186" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sunnyvale">Sunnyvale</keyword>. 
 
Media reports suggest that November 7 is the deadline to complete the process and engineers who are being laid off have been offered five-month pay as severance. A few of the lucky ones are being offered positions in Sunnyvale. 
 
According to a Yahoo spokesperson, “As we ensure that Yahoo is on a path of sustainable growth, we’re looking at ways to achieve greater efficiency, collaboration and innovation across our business… To this effect, we’re making some changes to the way we operate in Bangalore leading to consolidation of certain teams into fewer offices. Yahoo will continue to have a presence in India and Bangalore remains an important office.” 
 
“The old paradigm where Yahoo thought of itself as a tech company with some media properties is changing. Now Yahoo thinks of itself as a product company that needs to execute well and swiftly,” the executive said. 
 Under the leadership of <keyword id="319703" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Marissa-Mayer">Marissa Mayer</keyword>, Yahoo, a one-time Internet pioneer, is trying to revive stagnant revenue growth. Mayer took the helm as Chief Executive two years ago and ever since then Yahoo has cut headcount consistently, even as it has focussed on acquisitions and expanding its media business. 
 
Those who have been offered pink slips can breathe a sigh of relief as the other Internet companies are already started reaching out to sacked Yahoo employees through social media. 
 
Image: wikipedia

Yahoo Downsizes Its India Operations, Offers Pink Slips To Hundreds Of Engineers

The New Year has brought <keyword id="6354458" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="US">us</keyword> some much-awaited good news on the hiring front and along with that, some concerns. According to experts, it may rain jobs in 2014 as Indian <keyword id="22917" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Companies">companies</keyword> are gearing up to add more than 8.5 lakh new employees to their payrolls. But a robust hiring scenario may also see a rise in employee attrition. <keyword id="115437" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="India-Inc-">India Inc.</keyword> experiences the highest attrition rate globally and one in four employees in the organised sector could be set to switch jobs, according to a Hay Group study. 
 But there’s another side of the story. Ask employees why many of them tend to take flight and the responses would seem identical. At least 39% are concerned about opportunities regarding <keyword id="605173" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Learning-and-Development">learning and development</keyword> while 36% feel there is no <keyword id="2000020" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Supervisory-coaching">supervisory coaching</keyword> to ensure their <keyword id="42546" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Growth">growth</keyword>. In brief, a lot of attrition seems to be happening because <keyword id="6358610" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Businesses">businesses</keyword> fail to engage with their employees in the right way – be it <keyword id="6669200" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="induction">induction</keyword>, on-the-job training, breaking down silos or team-building. 
 <keyword id="1631069" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Corporate-training-programmes">Corporate training programmes</keyword> often turn out to be inadequate as they mostly follow a set pattern, instead of a need-based approach, and uphold the age-old ‘classroom’ training model, instead of making learning fun and interactive. But here is one start-up from Pune that aims to usher in a sea-change in the <keyword id="770011" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Employee-training">employee training</keyword> and engagement space. Two-year-old <keyword id="2000014" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MindTickle">MindTickle</keyword> provides a Cloud-based <keyword id="2000035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gamified">gamified</keyword> and <keyword id="2000036" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="social-learning-platform">social learning platform</keyword> that makes the training experience extremely engaging. As ‘<keyword id="1071127" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gamification">gamification</keyword>’ gets hot all over the world, MindTickle, too, has created waves globally. Here is a snapshot that captures the start-up’s vision and viability. 
 
Who runs MindTickle (www.mindtickle.com): Four <keyword id="382595" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="co-founders">co-founders</keyword> – <keyword id="2000038" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Deepak-Diwakar">Deepak Diwakar</keyword>, <keyword id="2000039" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Krishna-Depura">Krishna Depura</keyword>, <keyword id="1141504" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mohit-Garg">Mohit Garg</keyword> and <keyword id="2000016" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nishant-Mungali">Nishant Mungali</keyword>. Deepak has done BTech in Computer Science from IIT Mumbai while Nishant holds a bachelor’s degree in Design from IIT Guwahati. Krishna is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and <keyword id="6357276" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="ISB">ISB</keyword>, Hyderabad. Mohit is an NSIT grad, has done MSEE from <keyword id="33081" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Stanford">Stanford</keyword> and holds an MBA from ISB. Krishna and Mohit were also batch mates at ISB. 
 Prior to starting up, Mohit was a director in PwC’s management consulting practice at New Jersey and worked with a number of telcos in the US, Europe, and <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> on various strategy projects. In addition, he has done <keyword id="187755" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="product-development">product development</keyword> for <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> start-ups such as <keyword id="270697" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Aruba-Networks">Aruba Networks</keyword>. The other three worked with <keyword id="1010923" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="PubMatic">PubMatic</keyword> before starting MindTickle although Krishna had an earlier stint with <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword>. The start-up was launched in August 2011 and its products were rolled out in beta in early 2012. Besides its headquarters and development centre in Pune, the company has a sales &amp; marketing office in <keyword id="12161" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="San-Francisco">San Francisco</keyword> as it is aggressively targeting the <keyword id="35193" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="us-market">US market</keyword> for expansion. 
 
What inspired the venture: A hobby activity by the foursome led to the Eureka moment. It was called <keyword id="2000046" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="TeraMeraIdea">TeraMeraIdea</keyword> and later evolved into an <keyword id="6541953" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="online-platform">online platform</keyword> that allowed users to experiment with new ideas in the Internet, media and social business space. “We had quizzes and knowledge-based treasure hunts covering loads of topics. And people simply loved to learn things through our quizzes,” recalls Krishna, one of the co-founders. That’s when the four realised that learning can be fun and interesting without being scary or boring. 
 At the same time, they saw the rise of some new technologies and new concepts – Cloud, for instance, and increasing mobile penetration; social networking, casual gaming and gamification. The four of them were quite convinced that a big opportunity was out there to transform the learning experience with the help of social and gamification elements. So they did some more experiments with knowledge-based games, and worked with <keyword id="2000019" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="LD">L&amp;D</keyword> experts and researchers to learn the best practices in interactive learning. “Finally, we deployed pilots for corporate houses and the feedback was just awesome,” says Krishna. “It was noon-clear that <keyword id="2000051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Conventional-learning">conventional learning</keyword> would take a backseat in the next few years. So we decided to take the lead and create a next-generation learning platform,” he adds. 
 
What’s the pitch: <keyword id="2000054" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Effective-training">Effective training</keyword> and better <keyword id="610471" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="employee-engagement">employee engagement</keyword> that generate <keyword id="2000055" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Business-results">business results</keyword>. Most businesses are deeply dissatisfied with their training programmes although they have invested a large chunk into their human assets. Classroom methods are near-dead, especially in a corporate environment, as they are resource-heavy, limited in scope (not customisable), and lack the scale and global reach-out required for today’s mobile and <keyword id="2000092" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Distributed-workforce">distributed workforce</keyword>. On the other hand, a conventional e-learning system like the CBT or the WBT fails to engage and motivate the end user. “But at MindTickle, we have created a next-gen learning platform that enables enterprises to create and deliver very engaging and effective training,” clarifies Krishna. 
 
Why the name MindTickle: During its research days, the start-up came up with a unique content creation technique that would transform chunks of data into interesting mind tickles – a series of brain-teasers that would help you gain knowledge through problem solving and content discovery. Hence, the name. 
 
How it works: Simply put, MindTickle has created a Cloud-based learning platform, which enables enterprises to deliver their training programmes anywhere, at any time and on any device. Moreover, the same learning platform can be used to train their partners and customers. It features an in-built social and gamification engine that makes the entire learning experience really engaging. This has not only resulted into huge participation, but also ensured increasing level of <keyword id="2000060" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Training-completion">training completion</keyword>. 
 As of now, the focus is on <keyword id="2000062" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="New-hire-training">new hire training</keyword>, <keyword id="2000064" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Product-training">product training</keyword>, <keyword id="2000065" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sales-training">sales training</keyword> and <keyword id="2000066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Customer-service-training">customer service training</keyword>, but the range can be quite extensive. Also, a SaaS (software as a service) platform means totally hassle-free implementation – enterprises can simply sign up and start creating their own learning/training sites. 
 The start-up offers an intuitive admin interface with a number of templates that allow companies to create interactive training programmes by using their existing content (audio, video, PPT, PDF, Doc file, etc.). Once that is done, a trainer can invite end-users who can securely access the site via any Web browser. Detailed <keyword id="6359249" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="analytics">analytics</keyword> and reports are also generated on a real-time basis, which trainers can use to measure the effectiveness of their programmes and can also tweak it, based on the feedback. Overall, MindTickle has embraced the <keyword id="2000067" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SoGaMo">SoGaMo</keyword> (social, gamified and mobile) technologies as its product backbone. 
 “Our platform has several pre-defined, <keyword id="2000070" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Customisable-features">customisable features</keyword>, which users can tweak to create their own <keyword id="2000071" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Personalised-experience">personalised experience</keyword>. However, we don’t create custom solutions for specific requirements,” explains Krishna. 
 
Claim to fame: Traction and recognition. MindTickle has been awarded for ‘Best use of engagement techniques in Enterprise HR’ at the Global GSummit in 2012 and 2013. And the traction has been impressive over the past two years. More than 54,736 learners from a number of leading organisations have benefited till date while its customer base includes several <keyword id="542582" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fortune-500-companies">Fortune 500 companies</keyword> and some reputed start-ups such as <keyword id="282568" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SAP-Labs">SAP Labs</keyword>, <keyword id="15492" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vodafone">Vodafone</keyword>, <keyword id="6357395" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="eBay">eBay</keyword>, <keyword id="180948" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Yahoo-India">Yahoo! India</keyword>, <keyword id="164941" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="inMobi">InMobi</keyword>, <keyword id="54613" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="makemytrip">MakeMyTrip</keyword>, <keyword id="1101579" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SHRM">SHRM</keyword> and ISB. 
 
Show me the money: Unlike many start-ups, this one is a venture-funded company and raised an undisclosed seed <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> from <keyword id="144381" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Accel-Partners">Accel Partners</keyword> in January 2012. That’s not surprising as globally, the training market is worth $200 billion and growing. MindTickle targets medium-to-large enterprises in India and the US, and has in place a robust per-user subscription model. However, it is a <keyword id="2000069" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Product-company">product company</keyword> that needs constant cash-burning for ongoing design, development and implementation. “To meet that requirement, we are now putting all the money we earn back into the company and we are not margin-focused at present,” says Krishna. “Of course, no one can ignore break-even and profits, but our first priority is to build more and more world-class products and adopt a scalable go-to-market policy,” he adds. The start-up will also raise more funding as and when it requires the money for incremental growth. 
 
Biggest challenge: Not competition, per se, feels Krishna. According to him, MindTickle’s platform actually complements a lot of existing learning solutions, rather than being a direct competition. For instance, the company has tools, which help create great videos from existing PPTs or help record or create screencasts for training. With the help of such platform integration capabilities, companies in the training space can actually improve their offerings by leveraging multiple content formats. On the other hand, quite a few education tech companies like Udemy, Coursera and <keyword id="1175348" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="edX">edX</keyword> have come up in the <keyword id="6561759" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MOOC">MOOC</keyword> space (<keyword id="1071995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Massive-Open-Online-Courses">Massive Open Online Courses</keyword>) and they are now entering the <keyword id="2000084" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise-environment">enterprise environment</keyword>. MindTickle is keeping a tab on the latest developments as these may ensure further opportunities for growth and <keyword id="6379846" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="collaboration">collaboration</keyword>. 
 “But one of the biggest challenges is to evangelise the concept – to make people aware of how easy it is to create great training programmes,” admits Krishna. Many of the <keyword id="2000089" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Subject-matter-experts">subject matter experts</keyword> feel intimidated when faced with the complexity of the current systems. Companies, too, struggle to cope with <keyword id="2000091" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Employee-learning">employee learning</keyword> and engagement, especially when they are growing very fast or trying to manage a distributed workforce. “Now that we have got a great platform whose effectiveness has been proven globally, our next challenge is to position our brand, create awareness and grow exponentially,” concludes Krishna.

Are You Game To Transform Employee Training, Engagement? This Start-up Can Help…

Nearly a month into the nationwide lockdown announced by the Indian government to prevent the spread of COVID-19, online search trends on Yahoo India reflect the curiosity and anxiety that people are facing. Owing to the pandemic, novel Coronavirus-related searches rose by a whopping 427%. The top five COVID-19 keywords searched were 'COVID-19 updates', 'Symptoms of COVID-19', 'COVID-19 treatment', 'COVID-19 death toll' and 'live COVID-19 tracker.' People also mass-searched for 'lockdown in India,' 'vaccine for <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>,' 'social distancing', and '<keyword id="4751090" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hydroxychloroquine">Hydroxychloroquine</keyword> for coronavirus'. The latter is an anti-malarial drug that the US President Donald Trump described as a "game changer" in the fight against the Coronavirus crisis. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75341330" title="Coronavirus cases in India count hits 23,000 mark— 718 dead and 4,748 recovered as of April 24" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> During the pre-lockdown phase, actor <keyword id="1655" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Priyanka-Chopra">Priyanka Chopra</keyword> was the most searched female celebrity followed by Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone. All this changed when 'Babydoll' singer <keyword id="1758842" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kanika-Kapoor">Kanika Kapoor</keyword> tested positive for COVID-19 on her return from London. Kapoor replaced these superstars to take the top spot and even ran into trouble for not self-quarantining on return. Post-lockdown, superstars <keyword id="6357912" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="amitabh-bachchan">Amitabh Bachchan</keyword> and Rajinikanth topped the list of most searched male celebs. Yahoo's 'Search in the Lockdown,' chronicles and compares what users in India searched for before and during the lockdown, shows trends that are based on users' daily search habits in the last one month. Before COVID-19 began to rule the search bar, the top search keywords online for news, included 'Delhi election results,' 'Delhi riots/Delhi violence' and 'JNU violence'. The top searched keywords (people) included Donald Trump, Arvind Kejriwal and <keyword id="29632" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jyotiraditya-Scindia">Jyotiraditya Scindia</keyword>. During the global shutdown, netizens are also looking online for productivity tools while working from home, with video conferencing apps Zoom and Skype being the top two searches. In the entertainment arena, searches for 'Bigg Boss', 'Drive', 'Tanhaji', 'Housefull 4' and 'Good Newwz' were replaced by the old classic 'Ramayan' that was re-telecast on Doordarshan. Pandemic based movie 'Contagion' was also highly searched. Top questions Indlooked for answers to online during the lockdown are: What is COVID-19? How long does coronavirus live on surfaces? How to make a mask at home? Is there any vaccine for Coronavirus? Does Coronavirus spread through air? What happens to Coronavirus patients in quarantine? <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75344399" title="PM Modi launches eGramSwaraj portal and app to help villages go digital" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>

Most Indians are watching Ramayan and searching for Kanika Kapoor during the lockdown

After spearheading innumerable innovative projects to enhance consumer experience for three years, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>’s vice president of products <keyword id="2878282" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Saran-Chatterjee">Saran Chatterjee</keyword> quits. 
 After his stints at companies like <keyword id="2878685" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="OmegaMobile">OmegaMobile</keyword> and Fujitsu Network Communications and Yahoo, he had joined Flipkart in 2012 and was leading the e-commerce major's product management and design for its consumer experience and platform team. He was also involved in building out Flipkart’s new advertising business. This resignation comes at a time when Flipkart is investing heavily to recruit talent from global firms like Google and Yahoo to build a technology capability that can rival <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> in the country. 

	In March, it had roped in two senior Google execs Punit Soni and Peeyush Ranjan for $5-6 million annual packages and former McKinsey director Saikiran Krishnamurthy for a similar pay package, as per company sources familiar with their compensation. Former Yahoo India R&amp;D head Hari Vasudev had also joined Flipkart as Senior Vice President- Engineering, IT &amp; Analytics for its Supply Chain vertical in April this year.

	 
	(image credits: www.brunchnews.com)

Saran Chatterjee leaves Flipkart

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Yahoo is effectively shutting down its Indian engineering office in a series of layoffs that will involve up to 500 people losing their jobs. 
News of the layoffs emerged yesterday after <a href="http://www.nextbigwhat.com/yahoo-india-layoff-297/">Indian news site Next Big What claimed that Yahoo</a> would be laying off every one of its employees in the country. That proved to be untrue.
<a href="http://qz.com/277371/yahoo-just-sacked-nearly-all-of-its-engineers-in-india/">According to Quartz</a>, around 500 employees will be affected by the cuts, meaning that the Bangalore software development centre will essentially be shut down. Yahoo India, the company's editorial, sales and support unit, will be unaffected.
Employees involved in the new Bangalore layoffs are being offered five months of severance pay. Around 5% are being relocated to Yahoo's US office in California. The layoffs won't all happen at once, either, instead they will come in phases until December.
<a href="http://qz.com/277371/yahoo-just-sacked-nearly-all-of-its-engineers-in-india/">In a statement to Quartz</a>, Yahoo explained the reasoning behind the layoffs: 
As we ensure that Yahoo is on a path of sustainable growth, we're looking at ways to achieve greater efficiency, collaboration and innovation across our business… To this effect, we're making some changes to the way we operate in Bangalore leading to consolidation of certain teams into fewer offices. Yahoo will continue to have a presence in India and Bangalore remains an important office.

Yahoo Is Laying Off Most Of Its India Engineering Office

This could be the first time that new age online companies in India realise the potential that patents carry with them. 
 The digital payments firm <keyword id="6377963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Freecharge">FreeCharge</keyword>, which is owned by <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, has internally developed an alternative to the <keyword id="510437" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="OTP">OTP</keyword> authentication process, and has already filed for patenting the technology. 
 
The authentication solution is called as 'On The Go Pin', and is aimed at making both online as well as offline transactions faster. This technology replaces the OTP received through text message with a pin that is within the phone and keeps changing every few seconds. From the backend, the servers of the bank and the merchants would be verifying the pin so that the transaction can be processed. 
 <keyword id="259717" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Govind-Rajan">Govind Rajan</keyword>, COO of FreeCharge, told ET that this technology would eliminate the wait time, caused by connectivity issues, for both the retailers as well as customers. 
 
"This system fulfils the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) mandate for two factor authentication and does not require even a single paisa of additional investment by retailers or customers," said Rajan, who also heads the strategy office of Snapdeal. 
 
A deal with Shopper's Stop has already been stuck, and it would soon begin transactions using the new technology. 
 Filing of this patent can be the welcome sign of the modern-day Indian online industry, which has big players like <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, Snapdeal and <keyword id="6357120" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PayTM">Paytm</keyword>. All these companies are investing huge bucks in R&amp;D to develop various breakthrough technologies, but this is the first time that someone has patented a technology. 
 
Rahul Dev, patent and trademark attorney at Tech Corp Legal, told ET that this trend of patenting new technology is slowly catching up, not only to protect it against theft, but also because a patented technology, even with pending registration, becomes a highly valuable intangible asset for the company during fund raising. 
 
It means that these patents serve as a business tool rather than a legal tool, especially for firms that are global in nature because patents command a high premium in international markets like the US and UK. 
 
As per Sharad Sharma, former CEO of Yahoo's India R&amp;D arm and former chairman of Nasscom's product council, 97% of patents filed in India are done by multinationals, which makes these efforts by new age companies a good sign. 
 
<a href="http://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/larger_wm_brw/public/field/image/2014/08/freecharge_lede.jpg?itok=KQKCPIaB">Image source</a>

Attention please PayTM! FreeCharge files patent for OTP alternative

It’s aptly quoted, “We were born as explorers, not caretakers”. The “beyond planet” fascination is hard to explain but it is what it is. Technology and so much else has changed over the decades since those first footprints in the lunar dust that there’s now a good chance a <keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword> astronaut won’t be the first to walk out onto the next new world. 
 
TeamIndus, an aerospace start-up based out of Bangalore is going to be the first privately funded company in the world to land a rover on moon and it’ll be done with the help of former ISRO scientists who have worked on projects like Aryabhatta and Chandrayaan-1. 
 
From an IT job to being a space-tech entrepreneur 
 “Rahul Narayan (Co-founder) was working at an IT firm and he then saw this wallpaper of Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) on a desktop. The first thing he did was find out what it was and then call the GLXP office to find out which Indian team was in the competition. Fortunately, there was no one and then at the moment he registered. Quit his job and started pursuing this,” said <keyword id="3453187" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="sheelika-ravishankar">Sheelika Ravishankar</keyword>, Marketing and Outreach. 
 For an engineer working at an IT firm leaving his job to pursue his dreams has always been a risky venture. Guess what? Risk takers get rewards. He then took this company to a point where <keyword id="44604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nandan-Nilekani">Nandan Nilekani</keyword>, and former Yahoo India R&amp;D chief <keyword id="207306" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sharad-Sharma">Sharad Sharma</keyword> were the first one to invest. Why wouldn’t they be? It’s a matter of national pride and not just equity. 
 
Google Lunar X Prize 
 
The Google Lunar XPRIZE was launched in September 2007. The competition offers a total of US$30 million in prizes to the first privately funded teams to land a robot on the Moon that successfully travels more than 500 meters and transmits back high-definition images and video. 
 
The Spacecraft 
 
The lightest UAV sent on moon was by China, which was nearly 150 kgs. The spacecraft we’re making will carry a 20-kg payload, of which 10 kg will be allotted for commercial use. Yes, they took it to another level (from 150 kgs to 20). “Additionally there are a lot of complications in making an aircraft, we have to take care of temperatures, we have to land on the right spot decided at that moment, right wheels to travel on the surface of moon etc. But we’ve been doing good under the guidance of ISRO experts and our young and enthusiastic colleagues.Of which some of them have left their previous jobs,” said Sheelika. 
 
AI enabled Rover 
 
The rover will be tapped with AI enabled software which will decide where to land at moment. “We looked at all the data from NASA and Russian mission and we found a spot called Mare Imbrium. When the system reaches the surface it has to make decision anonymously. Because it’s moving at a speed of 1.7 kms/sec we needed to have AI in the system. So we collaborated with Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics(LASP), University of Colorado, which is older than NASA.,” said Sheelika 
 
Investment 
 
When asked about how much they need to build a rover and successfully execute the requirements, Sheelika stated that the total sum required is US$70 million and currently they’re in a process to raise another round of US$10 million.

This Indian Startup will be the first privately funded
company to land a rover on Moon

Experience counts. Indian start ups have realized the benefits of recruiting a seasoned executive in the team. The first three Indian startups with a valuation of $ 1 billion - Flipkart, Snapdeal and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Uber-testing-cash-on-deliverymodel-in-Hyderabad-May-roll-out-in-other-cities-soon/articleshow/47245769.cms">Ola</a> having become giants in terms of revenue are relying largely on seasoned executives in key roles, as per a news report by The Economic Times. 
 
Having brought Krishnendu Chaudhury and Ravi Garikipati on board from the Silicon Valley, Flipkart is aiming high in terms of employee’s satisfaction and ambition. 
 
Meanwhile, Peeyush Ranjan, Flipkart's new head of engineering, has started a programme called <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/This-is-where-Flipkart-is-transferring-hundreds-of-its-employees/articleshow/47655386.cms">F24 to fix any problem that engineers face within 24 hours</a>, be it malfunctioning laptops, access to libraries or whatever. "As the organisation gets bigger it has an inherent challenge to stay nimble, and not get bogged down," Ranjan who previously led the engineering group for Google's Android One project told ET. 
 
Aneesh Passi, cofounder of Basil Advisors, which hires for startups, said, "These people (seasoned executives) know massive distribution set ups. They have seen huge scale, managed huge turnovers... that's why companies want to hire them." 
 
Passi, added that the unicorn startups, which have joined $1 billion club, "have the funding now, so they have pressed the accelerator". Ola Cabs too is betting on experienced hands as it looks <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Uber-testing-cash-on-deliverymodel-in-Hyderabad-May-roll-out-in-other-cities-soon/articleshow/47245769.cms">to stay ahead of rival Uber that has started accepting cash payments</a> in certain cities and is making deeper forays into tier two cities, says the news report by the financial daily. 
 
To that end, Ola is relying on its head of new initiatives, Sundeep Sahni, to replicate his success in making Lazada the number one ecommerce portal in Indonesia in his previous stint. "Going deeper in existing markets and creating newer and wider use cases is going to be critical," said Sahni, who joined Ola in mid-July. 
 
"On the functional side, Ola has got its rough edges. Since we are in the business of on demand, if you can remove a fraction of the second, it makes a big difference," Singh, who joined the firm after his five-year-stint at travel portal Cleartrip.com told ET. 
Snapdeal has hired Jeyandran Venugopal, a former Yahoo India executive, to prepare its future technology roadmap and got on board experienced executives to head its strategy and product divisions. 
 
"In ecommerce, only small strides have been made. There is a lot that they can learn from other industries in terms of customer service," Jayant Sood of Snapdeal told the financial daily. "True focus is now coming into digital commerce. My mandate is to transform customer experience and aim to be the best in customer service across industries."

Flipkart, Snapdeal and Ola drive up demand for ‘experienced’ executives in startups

Fearing that backlash in India will hurt prospects of his <keyword id="1826931" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Internet-org">Internet.org</keyword> in other countries, <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword>’s <keyword id="6354630" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mark-Zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</keyword> is leaving no stone unturned to swing India’s opinion in favour of Internet.org, which allows certain services to be provided free of data charge to users. 
 
The billionaire is also exploring alternatives to subsidise access to certain Internet services including Facebook. 
 
Zuckerberg recently held dialogues with people in India's start-up and technology world to convince them about Internet.org, a partnership stitched by the social networking giant. 
 
Earlier in May, Sharad Sharma, former Yahoo India research head, angel investor and software product activist, received a call from Zuckerberg in this regard. 
 
A person briefed on the discussion told Economic Times, "Facebook is worried that the backlash in India could affect Internet.org in other markets like Brazil and Indonesia." 
 Internet.org invited severe criticism in India as activists claimed that it violated the principle of <keyword id="6391709" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Net-neutrality">Net Neutrality</keyword>. As the debate hogged global attention, the social networking giant publicly defended the initiative. 
 
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg also initiated talks with the Union Government on a proposal to subsidise data access for Indian consumers. It is willing to foot as much as one- third of the cost, the person cited above said. 
 
Facebook did not respond to an email sent by ET. 
 
"Now that there is global criticism of Internet.org, they need India to allow it to go through. India is ground zero for zero rating," Nikhil Pahwa, one of the people leading the Savetheinternet campaign in the country, told the financial daily. 
 
Zero rating, or the practice of allowing certain services to be accessed free of charge, is the focal point of the Net Neutrality debate in India. Proponents of Net Neutrality argue that allowing companies to zero rate their applications or services will lead to an uneven Internet ecosystem where smaller competitors will be edged out by companies with more money. 
 
Economic Times reported that through Internet.org, a partnership between Facebook and several telecom operators including Reliance Communications in India, users can access certain websites and services free of data charges. The social networking site doesn't pay the telecom operators but these firms see this as a way to get more people to consume data services as they experience the Internet and move out of free or subsidised plans. 
 
Founder and Chief Executive of mobile-commerce, Paytm, Shekhar Sharma, said he was glad that Mark Zuckerberg was reaching out and sorting the issue out. 
 
"Internet.org should be more transparent about the partners they choose because arbitrarily selecting them doesn't make it neutral," he said. 
 
Nearly 40 service providers signed up on Internet.org when it was launched in India in partnership with Reliance Communications in October. However, many services pulled out of the programme as the Net Neutrality debate heated up and companies were forced to take a stand. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

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