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Small and medium enterprises (<keyword id="20086849" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="SMEs" source="keywords">SMEs</keyword>) are driving a major surge in <keyword id="21881529" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="job-applications" source="keywords">job applications</keyword> across key sectors, with more than 35 million job applications recorded in the first eight months of 2024, according to a report by jobs and professional networking platform apna.co. The growth is fueled by rising demand in sectors like BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance), BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), and hospitality. The report highlights that the surge in job applications is largely for roles such as Sales &amp; Marketing Managers, Accounting Technicians, Telecallers, Back Office Executives, and Business Development Associates. These positions are critical for the expansion of businesses in these sectors, and the growing demand reflects a strong upward trend in hiring. "SMBs and MSMEs employ more than 110 million people, making them the backbone of our economy. Their success is crucial for our nation's journey towards achieving a USD 5 trillion economy," said Nirmit Parikh, Founder &amp; CEO of apna.co. Parikh emphasised that the demand for skilled workers in these sectors is expected to continue growing, creating vast opportunities for <keyword id="20019820" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="job-seekers" source="keywords">job seekers</keyword> across India. <h2>Major growth in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities</h2>An interesting trend noted in the report is that over 55% of the total job applications for SMB roles came from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, including Jaipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kochi, and Bhubaneswar. As businesses expand into these cities, the talent pool is evolving to meet the growing demand, fostering a symbiotic relationship between employers and job seekers. Out of the 35 million job applications received, 14 million came from women, marking a 30% year-on-year increase in female participation. Women are increasingly taking on roles across diverse fields like finance, accounts, marketing, and graphic design, reflecting their rising involvement in the workforce. As SMEs and MSMEs continue to grow, the <keyword id="19972727" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="employment-opportunities" source="keywords">employment opportunities</keyword> they generate are set to further contribute to India’s economic goals, fueling progress toward the USD 5 trillion economy target. (With inputs from PTI)

Small businesses generated 35 million job applications till Aug 2024, 14 million were from women: Report

<ul><li>Around 4,000 jobs were posted every day during the <keyword id="36208" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="festive-season" source="Orion">festive season</keyword> this year, says the <keyword id="198540" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="apna" source="Orion">Apna</keyword> report. </li><li>Cities including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai and Indore witnessed a massive increase in the employer base. </li><li>Hospitality and beauty &amp; wellness industries witnessed a 65% growth in the number of employers this year as compared to the same period last year.</li></ul>The Covid-19-free festive season this year saw the creation of over two lakh jobs especially by the small and medium-sized businesses (<keyword id="417894" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="smbs" source="Orion">SMBs</keyword>) and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), according to a new report by jobs platform Apna. “Festive season is the time for Indian companies to hire professionals in order to maximise their business, creating a pool of opportunities for professionals across the industry. The season’s data reflects how the Indian economy is getting back on track,” said Manas Singh, chief business officer, Apna. The report further said that there was a massive increase in the number of employers looking out for the right talent pool across job roles like telecalling, <keyword id="6380915" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="bpo" source="Orion">BPO</keyword>, telesales, receptionist, front office, help desk admin and office assistants between September 1 to October 27 this year. Roles such as business development, telemarketing and sales also witnessed a growing demand in metro cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. In fact, during the festive season, on an average, 4,000 jobs were posted everyday, said the report. Cities including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai and Indore witnessed a massive increase in the employer base during the festive season this year. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Sectors recording the most number of jobs" comment="subhead" text="Sectors recording the most number of jobs">Sectors recording the most number of jobs</cmsannotation> According to the report, the hospitality and beauty &amp; wellness industries witnessed a 65% growth in the number of employers this year as compared to the same period last year. The logistics and delivery industry recorded a 21% increase in the number of job applications during this period as the sector offered higher pay and better perks due to higher demand for professionals in the festive season. Delivery jobs were most popular in metro cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi this season. E-commerce, food and hospitality sectors hired the maximum number of gig professionals this season. <keyword id="6358977" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="swiggy" source="Orion">Swiggy</keyword>, Zomato, Zepto, and Licious were the top recruiters during the season, the report added. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/hardika-shah-is-the-founder-and-ceo-of-fintech-company-kinara-capital/slidelist/95200480.cms">A mother’s struggles as a kirana-store owner drove her daughter to help small biz owners access loans</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/hearts-from-covid-positive-donors-appear-safe-for-transplantation-study/articleshow/95202521.cms">Hearts from Covid-positive donors appear safe for transplantation: Study</a>

Over 2 lakh jobs created this festive season, says report

<ul><li>Jobs platform and professional network <keyword id="9861237" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="apna-co" source="Orion">apna.co</keyword> has witnessed robust growth since its inception in 2019. Today it has a consumer base of 20 million, a number it plans to double in the next 12-18 months.</li><li>We speak to <keyword id="7634738" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rahul-deorah" source="Orion">Rahul Deorah</keyword>, Head of Marketing, apna.co to understand his plans for achieving this target.</li></ul>Most people looking for jobs on different job portals have come across fake job postings but there are still many who end up falling for these fraudulent postings. Jobs platform and professional network apna.co is on a mission to ensure its platform is as clean as possible and that it is able to connect jobseekers to relevant, genuine employers. The platform brought Rahul Deorah, who was previously a part of <keyword id="8681398" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="urban-company" source="Orion">Urban Company</keyword>, on board as its head of marketing in November last year. Deorah already has his plan charted out. Deorah feels apna has embarked on a Herculean task, to solve the earth-scale problems of unemployment, poverty and upskilling. He plans to do it by strengthening the platform, giving both jobseekers and prospective employers a good experience. He walks us through his plans of ensuring apna is able to achieve the ambitious goals it has set for itself in the next few years to come. Excerpts: Q) It’s been around 3 years since apna came into being. How has the journey been so far? Let me walk you through our journey so far. We launched apna in 2019 and our job is to connect job seekers with recruiters, and vice versa. Fast forward to 2022, we have over 20 million users, with a presence in over 50 cities. We have about 2 lakh people who trust us. Last month, we facilitated close to 20 million interviews through the platform. We try to create and expose opportunities to the rising workforce of India. Everyday we hear people asking, where are the jobs? At the same time, if you speak to prospective employers, they say they’re not finding the right candidates. So this is an asymmetry of information in the market that apna is trying to bridge by firstly ensuring that people who are posting jobs are deeply verified and have the right intent. At the same time, the candidates who are applying to jobs are well-filtered so that when they are connected to the employers, both sides get a relevant lead, ensuring higher chances of conversion. That's what we do today. In the future, we are working towards building a strong professional social network for the rising workforce of India, just like <keyword id="28120" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="linkedin" source="Orion">LinkedIn</keyword> does for you and me. We also want to create upskilling opportunities for our target audience to help them move ahead in their careers. Q) The pandemic brought about a seismic change in the world around us. How did it affect apna’s business? During the pandemic, especially the second wave, we felt that we had a huge responsibility, to ensure that all with the reverse migration, people could find enough opportunities to help set up their lives all over again. And during those 4-5 months of the second wave, we grew by almost 70% because we were working overtime to ensure that everything is at the right place for the candidates to find the right opportunities and the employers to post the right kind of jobs. Q) How have you been communicating with your audience? How have you been able to grow your reach? Apna is a network effects product. More employers will bring more candidates and vice versa. And the second network effect is a professional network that you create for these candidates, where people from similar vocation can speak to each other, just like we do on LinkedIn. So the power of the product has helped us grow over the last couple of years. Secondly, we have put together some innovative marketing campaigns. We’ve worked a lot to ensure that our value propositions which we swear by and execute are communicated to the candidate. There is a lot of asymmetry of information in the market and a lot of job postings on the internet are fake. That's something we’re extremely mindful of. When a candidate comes to apna, he or she knows that the jobs on our platform won’t be fake. And that helps us. Once they find the job, they refer us to multiple of their friends and family. So walking the talk is our second critical piece. Marketing can only take you so far. If you're selling something that is not right for me, I won’t care about how beautiful your ads are. Q) Word-of-mouth has worked well for you then? Absolutely. And word-of-mouth is a function of good execution. Q) You spoke about some innovative marketing. Can you give me a few examples? Marketing has two parts. The first is what you say and the second is how and where say it. The ‘where you say it’ part has been democratized over the last 5-6 years because people are spending more and more time on their phones. So when about 30-35% of their attention span in a day ends up being on the mobile phone, that becomes a conduit for us to reach our audience. What we say becomes extremely critical because we primarily focus on our value propositions. The reality is that this is a market that is plagued by mistrust. So if you walk the talk, your audiences and consumers will absolutely love you. We ensure that we only talk about things that we can actually execute and pull off and I call that innovative because you're doing the regular things but you're doing it well. We don't discount any mediums. We use anything that helps us reach out to our audiences. Q) Where does the majority of your target audience reside? Is it metros or smaller cities? We don't really segregate it that way. We try to understand where are the right opportunities for the right candidates. Our internal data says that over 50% of people in say a city like Agra are looking for jobs in Delhi. So while we target them in Agra, we tell them about jobs in different cities. Q) Can you talk us about your growth? Where are you currently and where do you want to go? Today, there are over 20 million consumers who trust us. Our aim is to at least double this number in the next 12-18 months because you can't do enough for the country. We want to ensure that we keep working hard and delivering on what our aim and ambition is, and hopefully add to the growth of the country. Q) There are already many players in the segment who have been around longer and already have a wide consumer base. What gives apna an edge? Internally, we don't really worry about or discuss competition because if we know what the right thing to do is, we just execute on that. So what gives us the edge is, over the last couple of years, we have very deeply focused on ensuring that the experience of the candidates as well as the employers is absolutely fantastic because that would make people come back to our platform. We make sure every call is genuine. Of course, if today we’re good, in the future we want to be exceptional. So we have a long way to go. If we keep doing the right things consistently, we only have the size of our ambition to worry about. Q) Is there a community communication side to apna as well, similar to what we have on LinkedIn? Absolutely! That’s one of our core focus areas. We launched a community product or groups for Indian professionals where they can send each other connection requests and connect with each other. Some of our groups like government job preparation or beautician groups are buzzing. We have included this in our Android app. We see people sharing helpful tips to each other, they try to help each other find jobs. And it's a very safe and professional place to communicate with each other and build a professional network for the rising workforce in India. Q) How big is the team currently? How are you expanding it further? We have about 500 people across India. We need to at least double this number over the next 18-24 months if we want to hit our ambitious goals because there's a lot we want to do. Q) Going ahead, what are a key focus areas for you going to be? A key focus area for us for this year as well as for the next 4-5 years is to keep improving the platform, the candidate and employee experience and our community. We already have over 70 communities and groups for different kinds of vocations, our task is to keep improving on those so that people look forward to coming online, sharing and exploring better opportunities for themselves at all times. As a company, we believe that for the rising workforce of India, there's a glass ceiling that people around them have created for them. They are told they can’t go beyond that and they themselves start believing that. We want to break that glass ceiling. Secondly, our aim would be to take our brand story to the world. Today, how much we can help people is not very well-known within our target audience. So our job would be to take that message to the right people in the right way which will help catapult growth.

Today 20 million consumers trust us, we aim to at least double this number in the next 12-18 months: Rahul Deorah, apna.co

<ul><li>Section 80JJAA of the Income Tax Act gives deduction for three years to employers for hiring new people.</li><li>The current limit of this provision is ₹300,000 a year that effectively means that the compensation of these people should be less than ₹25,000.</li><li>If the limit is increased, it could help in boosting the salaries of and the number of jobs for gig workers.</li></ul>One of the major concerns raised by the gig workers — such as <keyword id="4235145" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="delivery-partners" source="Orion">delivery partners</keyword>, drivers and more — who work for companies like Zomato, Swiggy, BigBasket and Blinkit (Grofers), is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/bigbasket-flipkart-and-urban-company-may-have-paid-fair-wages-but-it-wasnt-enough-to-earn-a-living/articleshow/88946309.cms">the lack of decent compensation</a>. But what if we were to tell you that if an existing provision of the Income Tax Act is clarified and amended, it could raise salaries for the gig workers. Under Section 80JJAA provision of the Indian Income Tax Act, companies can get a tax deduction for hiring new people. If a company’s workforce increased by 50, the salary paid to these employees would make the company eligible for an additional deduction of 30% for the next three financial years, Hemal Zobalia, Partner at Deloitte Haskins &amp; Sells LLP explains. For example, if the company is paying ₹1000 annually to each of these 50 employees, it will get ₹300 as tax deduction for each of them for each of the next three years. Essentially, 90% of the first year’s salary, for each of the new employees, will be deducted from the company’s taxable profit. The goal of this provision is to create more permanent employment for those who are “low-skilled”, according to Jimit Devani, a partner at Deloitte Haskins &amp; Sells. The provision is applicable for employees whose salaries are ₹25,000 per month or less.Increasing the salary limit to ₹35,000-₹40,000 may push more companies to hire permanent employees instead of contractual ones. Meanwhile, Zobalia is of the belief that this would also help in further increasing their payout and salaries. But there is a bigger challenge here. This is not a widely availed incentive by the companies for several reasons. First, companies prefer to hire people on contract and keep them on a third party’s payroll. Such companies cannot avail tax benefit under the 88JJAA provision. Bringing people on to the payroll makes them eligible for other benefits like pension, insurance, and severance to name a few, Devani said. The third parties, however, do avail these tax benefits for employees that have been on their payroll for at least eight months, Devani added. The second issue with this provision is that the benefit is available only on the net addition of employees. Say, a company has a total of 10 employees. Five of them quit the company in a year, and six more are hired in the same year. While the company has six new employees, the net addition to the workforce is only one. And, so, the tax rebate is available only for one additional employee, and not all six. Improving this provision under the income tax law may go a long way in creating sustainable employment for people with less-valued skills, across a range of industries including the gig economy of which the likes of Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon and Flipkart are part of. The current state of salaries in the gig economy As per <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/urban-company-ola-uber-are-not-the-best-places-for-gig-workers/articleshow/88561764.cms">Fairwork India report of 2021</a>, most newage digital platforms — including Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, Dunzo, PharmEasy and Ola — do not offer fair wages to the contractual workers associated with them. Even though companies like Flipkart, Urban Company and BigBasket pay higher and better, it still may not be enough to make local living wage after costs, the report adds. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;" class="redcator-table-advance"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Company </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Avg income range, including cost </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Flipkart </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹14,500-₹25,000 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Urban Company </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹30,000* </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">BigBasket </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹18,000-₹24,000 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Zomato </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹20,000-₹30,000 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Swiggy </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹10,000-₹15,000 </td></tr></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody><tbody></tbody></table>Note: Urban Company’s average salary excludes cost Source: Urban Company’s latest report, Apna.co It is important to note that there has been a further reduction in the payout for delivery executives due to decrease in rate cards and incentives, along with increased input costs of petrol and platform commissions. This has made matters worse for the Indian gig workers like delivery partners and drivers, the Fairwork report adds. Fairwork rates digital platforms on their treatment of gig workers who work for them. SEE ALSO <a class="tout-title-link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2022-why-income-tax-slabs-may-not-change-this-year/articleshow/89179572.cms">Budget expectations 2022: Here’s why income tax slabs may not change this year</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/the-indian-government-has-spent-less-than-half-the-money-it-had-budgeted-for-capital-investments-so-far/articleshow/88852518.cms">The Indian government has spent less than half the money it had budgeted for capital investments, so far</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2022-expectation-in-higher-standard-deduction-tax-slabs-and-covid-insurance/slidelist/88891751.cms">From higher standard deduction and change in tax slabs to clarity on Covid insurance, here’s what tax experts want from Budget 2022</a>

There’s a way government can prod Zomato, Swiggy, Uber and Ola to increase salaries of delivery partners and drivers

<keyword id="19896016" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="new-delhi" source="keywords">New Delhi</keyword>, A significant percentage of recruiters believe cultivating a positive <keyword id="621615" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="work-environment" source="Orion">work environment</keyword> and rewards and recognition are essential to boost <keyword id="7972474" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="employees-productivity" source="Orion">employees' productivity</keyword> as against traditional time-based metrics, according to a survey. In contrast to the traditional approaches of evaluating employees based on time and attendance tracking, 7 out of 10 employers prioritise <keyword id="6133674" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="quality-work" source="Orion">quality work</keyword> and key performance indicators like targets and project completion rate as the primary indicator of productivity. The survey by jobs and professional networking platform apna.co said that the move towards quality work and target completion as against traditional time-based metrics marks a major shift in productivity assessment approaches. As per the survey, 77 per cent of recruiters believe cultivating a positive work environment and rewards and recognition are essential to boost employees' productivity. Moreover, 5 out of 10 recruiters preferred training and development and regular feedback to minimise distractions and enhance focus during work hours. The survey involved over 5,000 employers to delve into the evolving dynamics of productivity assessment in the workplace. "In today's fast-paced work environment, effective workplace communication and a positive work environment are paramount for fostering productivity. "Our survey also observed a fundamental change in the perspective of employers who are addressing productivity killers and embracing strategies to foster a positive and efficient work culture by focusing on high-quality work instead of mere time-punching, encouraging breaks and leaves," Nirmit <keyword id="20672301" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="parikh-founder-ceo" source="keywords">Parikh, Founder &amp; CEO</keyword> of apna.co said. The survey noted that poor communication and an unhealthy work environment affect productivity in an organisation. To address these concerns, companies should adopt actions like setting clear expectations, managing workloads efficiently, investing in training, and providing regular feedback.

Quality work matters more than time-punching and attendance says new survey

234-year-old company EID Parry is only a tad more valuable than year-old  unicorn GlobalBees

<ul><li>India ranked second in terms of hours spent on mobile and downloads according to <keyword id="1646890" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="app-annie" source="Orion">App Annie</keyword>’s latest report.</li><li>Out of the total 3.8 trillion hours, Indians spent more than 699 billion hours on mobile in 2021.</li><li>India also comes second in terms of the number of downloads across Google Play Store and App Store.</li></ul>The pandemic drove mobile consumption in 2020, and the trend continued in 2021 according to the latest App Annie report. In 2021, Indians spent more than 699 billion hours on mobile, according to the latest State of Mobile 2022 report by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/mx-takatak-instagram-josh-moj-and-snapchat-are-most-downloaded-social-and-entertainment-apps-in-india-as-per-app-annie/articleshow/86003516.cms">App Annie</a>. This is out of the total 3.8 trillion hours spent on mobile globally. With this much consumption, India takes the second place after China and before the United States. App Annie’s report shows that the consumption of mobile is increasing as compared to China which saw a slight decrease from 2020 to 2021. In 2020, Indians spent 655 billion hours on mobile, and 510 billion hours the previous year. The figures aren’t surprising since India is the second-largest smartphone market in the world adding to that cheap and affordable mobile internet. But it does highlight the growing usage and dependence on mobile as the key electronic device for entertainment, communication, games, finance and more. <div type="image" title="nft (55)" msid="88854442" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Indians spent 4.7 hours per day on average in 2021.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> India ranks second in terms of app downloads too. In 2021, there were 26.7 billion downloads across the Google Play Store and the App Store. India is however still far behind China which recorded a whopping 98.4 billion downloads in 2021 alone. The number is increasing for India though which saw 18.9 billion downloads in 2019 and 24.3 billion downloads in 2020. Finance apps in particular witnessed over 1 billion downloads in India last year which is an increase from 8.9 million in 2020. This helped fuel the 28% YoY increase in overall finance app downloads globally to 5.9 billion. App Annie also highlighted breakthrough job searching apps in 2021 which was Apna for India with 17.7 million downloads. Overall, Instagram was the most downloaded app in India in 2021. The highest consumer spending app was Hotstar, while WhatsApp had the highest number of monthly active users. 2021 was also a healthy year for the app store ecosystem and revenue according to the App Annie report. A total of two million new apps and games were released in 2021 for iOS and Android devices. Google Play Store accounted for 77% of the total apps and games. In terms of revenue, over 230 apps and games surpassed $100 million in annual consumer spend, and 13 of them even crossed $1 billion. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/tiktok-instagram-snapchat-twitter-the-worst-social-media-apps-for-sleep/slidelist/88849589.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">These are the worst social media apps for sleep</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/gadgets/news/how-to-check-laptop-model-ram-serial-number-spec-processor-and-system-details/articleshow/88850141.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Here’s how to check your laptop’s RAM, model number, storage, processor and other system details</a>

Indians spent more than 699 billion hours on mobile alone in 2021

During the last three decades, there has been significant changes globally regarding advancement of technology, globalization of markets, globalization of production, and growth of enterprises. Despite all these so-called achievements, the gap between developed and other economies is widening. The gap between wealthy and poor is growing. The environmental degradation is becoming a bigger challenge for the future generations. 
 
However, the majority of the countries address these challenges by relying on voluntary actions of the large corporates as well as populist measures by the government. There have been little efforts to collaborate and strategize the action plan for these issues or setup the outcome driven metrics for performance assessment as to what has been achieved, what not, and why? 
The launch of global initiatives like MDGs followed by SDGs however signifies a gradual recognition and acceptance of the social and environmental inequalities. The governments and corporates have started talking about collaborative actions, strategic CSR, metrics and assessment as a way forward. 
 India has mandated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity for the corporates by introducing the CSR law on 1 Apr 2014. The first objective of CSR law is to raise the consciousness and motivation among the corporates to undertake social and environmental action as the core of the business model rather than a fringe activity. This is needed to achieve significant impact at the grassroots level. The second objective is to encourage the social and environmental impact measurement and reporting. During 2014 Independence Day, The Prime Minister of India, Sh. <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> put emphasis on "walk together, we move together, we think together, we resolve together, and together we take this country forward." 
 
The new CSR law mandates long-term orientation of social and environmental initiatives having better accountability and responsibility by the corporates. To be precise, there is an attempt to make a shift from pure capitalism towards a socially responsive mode of capitalism. This implies enabling a change in focus from checkbook charity based model to socially responsible, engaged and embedded business model where companies invest their time, capital and manpower on the long-term basis for sustainable social and environmental interventions. 
 
India, as a country represents a land of extremes and contrasts. One aspect of India highlights the country as a modernizing economy, which is dynamically becoming a force for social innovation. India is known as one of the largest emerging economies having a population of more than 1.25 billion. This represents 1/6th of the world's people. The majority of this population lies at Base of the Pyramid (BoP). India is also one of the fastest growing economies having an average GDP growth rate of around 7% (2011-15). According to UN Report, India has the world's largest youth population of 356 million (10-24 years old). Another contrasting aspect of India involves low rating on Human Development Index (HDI) and Social Progress Index (SPI) calculated by UNDP and Social Progress Imperative respectively. HDI 2015 ranks India at 130 among 180 nations while SPI 2015 ranks India at 101 among 133 countries. HDI ranks the countries on the basis of three dimensions – to lead a long and healthy life, ability to acquire knowledge, and ability to achieve a decent standard of living. SPI measures the social progress of a nation on the basis of three dimensions – basic human needs, foundation of well-being, and opportunity. The majority of the population in India lives in the rural areas; lacks access to the formal market ecosystem for the fulfilment of their basic needs and transacts in an informal economy. Around two-third of the population in India earns less than $2/day (USD 1990 PPP level) and lives and transacts in an informal economy. 
 
Traditionally, large Indian corporates have contributed to social and environmental issues by undertaking convenience based philanthropic initiatives at random, which are not necessarily integrated into the core of the business. However, this approach has created a limited impact on the society and environment. The basic needs and challenges faced by the underserved segment in India require systemic solutions, which are scalable, replicable, integrated and sustainable over a long term. These solutions need to have top management buy-in and involve continuous monitoring with proper impact assessment and evaluation. The companies need to integrate the social and environmental focus areas into the core of their business model, something which had been missing from the social and environmental initiatives of the majority of the companies before the introduction of CSR law. 
 There exist many examples in India where social and ecological focus areas are getting integrated into the core business model of the company. In FMCG, companies like <keyword id="165043" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="hll">HLL</keyword> have engaged the rural women as “Shakti Ammas” for selling its products in the villages. This is a shift from the traditional wholesaler-to-retailer distribution and delivery model. The rural women get trained in the sale of daily use products like soaps, detergents etc. door-to-door. At one end, this leads to last-mile channels for creating awareness and delivery thereby generating volumes. At another end, this creates viable income opportunities for rural women. In agriculture, companies like Mother Dairy have brought together the marginal farmers and milk producers to bring their products like fruits, vegetables, and milk to the market. The marginal farmers get transparent pricing for their products being sold to Mother Dairy besides getting market exposure, training and consultancy on improving the quality of their offerings. In Telecom, <keyword id="15491" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Airtel">Airtel</keyword> has launched "Apna Choupal", a voice-based value added service for delivering information on day-to-day activities like agriculture, job, education, weather and health to the customers in rural and semi-urban areas. In inter-state bus transport, redBus has created a multi-sided technology platform, which provides a real-time interface between the unorganized small bus operators and bus travellers regarding seat availability and booking. redBus has eliminated the information asymmetry between bus operators and inter-state bus passengers thereby reducing the high bargaining power of travel agents. The small bus operators no longer depend on travel agents for selling their seat inventory. The bus passengers no longer depend on travel agents for booking their tickets. Then, there are other companies like <keyword id="45224" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mahindra">Mahindra</keyword> group, which have created a digital platform – “Spark the Rise” to stimulate social innovation by crowd-sourcing the best ideas from the individuals and groups related to energy, technology, agriculture and rural development issues. 
 
What acts as a differentiator in the above examples is the willingness of the companies to view the social and environmental issues from the same angle as the need for economic growth and financial performance. That implies getting CEO and top leadership on board to be a part of social and environmental initiatives, integrating the social and ecological focus areas into the core of the business as well as ensuring that appropriate social and environmental impact metrics are identified, assessed and reported to all the stakeholders in a similar manner as financial performance. 
 However, to enable large scale adoption of <keyword id="2875288" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="shared-value">shared value</keyword> philosophy and compliance with CSR law, there is a need for systemic focus and concerted efforts of the government, consulting organizations and other social institutions towards awareness building and behavior change orientation among the corporates. Creating Shared Value is indeed a strategic approach for the corporates, who are aiming to make a sustainable social and environmental contribution to the needs of the underserved segment after the introduction of the new CSR law in India. 
 
The artcle has been authored by <keyword id="248570" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sandeep-Goyal">Sandeep Goyal</keyword> (CEO, Shared Value Initiative India) and Amit Kapoor (Honorary Chairman of Institute for Competitiveness, India; President &amp; CEO, India Council on Competitiveness)

How is CSR Law driving the Corporates towards Shared Value Approach?

NEW DELHI: Imagine a Narendra <keyword id="2196111" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Modi-vs-Priyanka-Gandhi">Modi vs Priyanka Gandhi</keyword> contest for the Varanasi <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> seat. It would have been the mother of all election battles, and would have put everything and everyone else in the shade. It would have electrified the nation and riveted the attention of the world. 
 Priyanka Gandhi is reliably learned to have been very keen to be the <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword> candidate in the holy city. But the party leadership finally decided against fielding her. 
 Priyanka, who has so far limited her political responsibilities to managing her brother and mother's Lok Sabha campaigns in <keyword id="43068" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Rae-Bareli">Rae Bareli</keyword> and Amethi, is believed to have made a strong pitch to contest because she felt Modi was “bad for the country” and needed to be “stopped”. 
 
Apart from perhaps tying up Modi in Varanasi and forcing him to curtail his national campaign, Priyanka's entry would have charged up the rank and file of the Congress at a time when a number of ministers and leaders were reluctant to fight elections of fear of losing (one senior Cabinet member is reported to have feared a rout). The fact that she was willing to place 'a higher principle' above a real risk of defeat would have sent out a strong and defiant message to the demoralized troops, and hopefully, the entire electorate, Congress insiders said. 
 
“Even if she’d lost, the results would have been only known after the elections. But it would have come as a huge booster before. It was very courageous of her. That’s something senior Congressmen who’ve run away from contesting didn’t understand,” said a party manager. 
 
 
 
 
Senior partymen said the decision to not field Priyanka was driven by the logic of preferring a ‘local’ to take on Modi the ‘outsider’. But there may have been other reasons too: 
 
* The estimate that Priyanka's presence in Varanasi would have accorded Modi “too much importance”; 
 
* The fear that defeat of one of the three Gandhis might have dimmed the ‘halo’ around them; 
 
* It would almost certainly have exposed Priyanka to attacks from Modi and the BJP on account of her husband Robert Vadra's alleged ties with real estate giant DLF and brought some of his other reported land deals under the microscope; 
 
* Most of all, it would have diverted attention from Rahul and his campaign, and raised questions as to whether Priyanka's entry was an implicit acknowledgement of her brother's lacklustre leadership. There might have been some apprehension that Priyanka, by the force of her personality, would have greater gravitational pull than Rahul. She has been variously described by those who know her as “charming, charismatic and connected”; her political instincts are also said to be sharp, and she can work a crowd. The 41-year-old Priyanka’s entry could have undermined Rahul’s authority not long after he'd been officially anointed future leader. 
 
For Priyanka, who is said to be very close to her one-year-older brother, the reason for wanting to contest in Varanasi was never to position herself as an alternative to Rahul, but to “fight the good fight”, according to an insider. “She has no larger ambition to lead the Congress,” he added. 
 
Still, her desire to take the field against Modi is significant because it’s in stark contrast to the continuing perception of Rahul being a reluctant politician, and because it shows that the younger sibling may not be averse to broadening her political interests behind the family boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi. For a long time now, there has been a subterranean demand, ‘Priyanka lao, Congress bachao’, which periodically finds public voice. 
 
One of the reasons the Congress delayed naming a candidate for Varanasi was because it was weighing the possibility of naming Priyanka. But the actual decision against fielding her was taken some days before Tuesday’s announcement of local MLA Ajay Rai as candidate for the Congress; the last few days were spent seeking a tacit understanding with SP and BSP for complicating Modi's job in Varanasi. 
 
Significantly, early this month, in perhaps the strongest push yet for bringing Priyanka to the forefront of the Congress, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said that Rajiv Gandhi spoke to him about his daughter’s political aptitude way back in 1990. The question is: Was Dwivedi aware of the secret confabulations and was he trying to test the waters? 
 
While promising to reveal details in due course, Dwivedi said, “As far as I know, her (Priyanka) interest in politics started at an early age. She was keen to understand political developments and the language of politics from the very start. I even have proof of this but I don’t want to discuss it now. All I’ll say is that Rajiv Gandhi told me something about this in 1990. That’s all for the moment.” 
 
The comment immediately led a group of Congress leaders to claim, off the record, that there were plans afoot to bring Priyanka into active politics. 
 
That plan has been shelved, at least for the moment. As for Rai’s chances in Varanasi, even the boldest gambler is likely to think twice before placing a bet on him. 
 
But Priyanka is clearly still interested in Varanasi, even if she’s not in the fight herself. At a meeting at the Tughlaq Lane residence of Rahul last Monday, Priyanka gave Rai a pep talk soon after the party decided to field him. 
 
“Priyankaji ne kaha ki aap jam kar ladiye. Unhone apna personal mobile number bhi diya aur kaha ki aapko jo bhi zaroorat hogi woh aap turant bolen. Woh aapko muhaiyya karayi jaayegi. (Priyankaji told me to fight wholeheartedly. She gave me her personal mobile number and told me not to hesitate to ask for anything that I may need and said I will be given every help),” Rai quoted her as telling him.

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