Surge | Business Upturn

India reports 47,092 fresh COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours; Highest surge in 2 months

Shivya Kumar — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 07:51:00 +0000

The surge of Coronavirus in India has conjured by 12 per cent by today. The reports claim to contribute about 47,092 new infections one of the largest single-day rises in months to see. The health ministry is said to record about 509 deaths in the last 24 hours. According to the sources in about 32,803 cases or nearly 70 per cent of new cases and a third of deaths have been recorded in Kerala. The total estimations of those affected are 40,90,036. The number of positives reported is 18.76 and with 173 deaths, the number of fatalities increased to 20,961. About 85 per cent of patients are affected by the claims of covid in the southern state which has resulted in a smart and strategic lockdown in the state. In the Karnatik college, about 32 students from Kerala have been tested positive. There are 18,386 active cases in the state as of now.

Maharashtra’s Covid total surge was 4,456 to take its tally to 64,69,332. The state reported 183 virus-related deaths in the past 24 hours.

Gujarat has reopened schools for classes 6 to 8 with only 50 per cent capacity. Though schools have been allowed to continues from the institutions yet online classes will continue. Around 32 lakh students are currently in Classes 6 to 8 in the state.

Delhi has also reported 36 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the active cases to 343. The active cases in the city now stand at 0.23 per cent.

Active cases inhabit 1.19% of total cases, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 97.48 per cent while the daily positive rate is 2.80 per cent.

The COVID-19 vaccine doses structured in the country has crossed the 66 crore mark. More than 69 lakh (69,42,335) vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January. Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has been classified as a “variant of interest”, the global health body said.

Coronavirus cases worldwide have crossed d the 200 million mark.

Apple delays office return to its employees until January due to COVID surge

Sneha Sengupta — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 13:07:08 +0000

Apple Inc. is putting off its return to corporate offices from October until January on an immediate effect because of the sudden surge of COVID-19 and its new mutant waves, as per a memo sent to employees on Thursday.

The company told staff it would notify the re-opening time slot at least one month before employees are required to join the office. Apple had earlier decided to get all the staff to start returning to their corporate spaces by early September before the delay till October.

Earlier on Thursday, Apple closed a retail store situated in South Carolina after witnessing more than 20 employees testing positive for or exposed to the deadly Covid-19.

When employees are required to return to work in the office, they will be expected to maintain a working slot of at least three days a week that is Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays with the addition of remote work on Wednesday and Friday specifically.

The memo issued for the staff, forwarded by the human resources and retail head Deirdre O’Brien at Apple, added that “The company does not currently expect to shutter its offices or retail stores. But she simultaneously strongly encouraged staff to get vaccinated. The company is yet to require vaccinations or testing, though it is upping its testing program to as many as three at-home Covid tests per week. ”

Passenger vehicle sales in India increased by 45% in July: SIAM

Sneha Sengupta — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 09:24:07 +0000

Passenger vehicle wholesales in India hiked by 45% to 2,64,442 units in July compared to 1,82,779 units in a similar month last year, auto industry body SIAM informed today.Acknowledging the July 2021 sales data, Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM said: “Indian Automobile Industry continues to face heavy headwinds in the form of global semi-conductor shortage and steep rise in commodity prices. On one hand, the industry is managing such supply chain challenges while ensuring the safety of its people, and on the other hand, Industry is also keeping a close eye on the onset of the 3rd wave in India and across the world.”

“Amidst such challenging and uncertain business environment, Industry is trying to maximize production and sales. However, sales for the period of April to July 2021 for the Passenger Vehicle segment are still lower than the level of 2016-17; for the Two-wheeler segment, still lower than the level of 2010-11; and the Three-wheeler segment has been pushed back by many years,” he added.

As per the latest data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the two-wheeler dispatches from the OEMs to dealerships witnessed a sudden decrease of 2%t to 12,53,937 units by July, against the 12,81,354 units in the year-ago period.

Motorcycle sales reached 8,37,096 units past month compared to the 8,88,520 units in July 2020, which dipped at 6%.

Scooter sales rose to 10% to 3,66,292 units from 3,34,288 units. At a similar pace, three-wheeler sales increased by 41% to 17,888 units the previous month compared to 12,728 units in the previous fiscal. The overall sales across various categories, excluding commercial vehicles, resulted at 15,36,269 units against the 14,76,861 units in July a year ago.

India’s power consumption jumps up to 28.08 bn units in 1st week of August

Sneha Sengupta — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 05:20:40 +0000

India’s total power consumption has significantly witnessed a surge of 9.3% to 28.08 bn units in 1st week of August.
As per the experts, the recovery in power demand and its consumption in the first week of August 2021 will continue to stay uniform and would gradually improve as many states have eased lockdown restrictions in order to maintain economic stability.

During the first week of August 1-7, 2020, the power consumption was 25.69 BU, whereas, in August 2019, it was 25.18 BU.

However, the power demand and the attached consumption rate will witness a significant improvement due to higher commercial and industrial demand in the near future but the fear and apprehension for another wave can possibly demolish this idea of recovery.

The demand for power for commercial and industrial needs got deeply affected from the first week of April as a major fallout. The highest supply per day resulted at 188.59GW in the first week of August, comparatively 14 per cent higher than 165.42 GW last year.

In August the peak demand was satisfied, wherein the consumption was167.52GW, lower than 177.52 of 2019.

April 2021 experienced a year-on-year spike of nearly 38.5 per cent. Despite a lower base rate of 102.08 BU, 2020, the power consumption in India witnessed a higher rate of 6.6 per cent year-on-year growth in May.

In June, the consumption grew to 9 per cent to 114.48 BU, against 105.08 BU in the same month last year.

In July the consumption rate was 11 per cent to 124.42 BU against 12.14BU in the same month. Power consumption in February this year was recorded at 103.25 BU, compared to 103.81 BU a year ago.

The power consumption after a gap of six months witnessed a 4.6 per cent year-on-year growth in September 2020, and 11.6 per cent in October 2020. By November, the consumption rate declined to 3.12 per cent.

Surge funding: Edu-tech platform, Kyt secures capital of USD 2.5 million

Shalmali Bhagwat — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 09:07:42 +0000

Edu-tech platform Kyt on Monday said it has managed to secure capital of USD 2.5 million (about Rs 18.5 crore) in funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge to further branch its online-first global academy for extracurricular learning.

Founded in June this year, Kyt works with technology to provide online-only live lessons to children from 5 to 15 years old. With head offices in India and Singapore, Kyt was founded by husband-wife duo Bhavik Rathod (former Uber India executive) and Tripti Ahuja. To date, over 1,000 students have associated with Kyt, and the platform has recruited more than 20 teachers.

The company plans to increase its teacher base to 500 over the next 12 months and include more subject courses, including chess, various musical instruments, public speaking, creative writing, and how to be a content creator, a statement said.

Kyt acts as the medium of contact between students and global educators, including Indian Chess Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, Philippines’ hip-hop legend Ruel Varindani and celebrity yoga instructor Sabrina Merchant.

“After speaking to several parents, we realised that there is a much larger need to provide high-quality courses that focus on the holistic and all-round development of the child, beyond just academics. With a strong team of curriculum designers, pedagogy experts and education consultants, we embarked on this vision to build an online-first, global academy for extracurricular learning for kids,” Kyt co-founder and CEO Bhavik Rathod said.

The future of education is a mix of online and offline learning, and the market size for primary and secondary extracurricular learning is pegged at USD 10 billion in India alone, and around USD 200 billion globally, Rathod added.

“While most learnings used to happen in physical spaces, there will be rapid adoption of online learning even beyond COVID-19, as these well-structured curriculums will build strong global communities, encouraging children to remain engaged over time,” he added.

Kyt is part of the group of companies united by Surge, a bi-annual rapid scale-up programme run by Sequoia Capital India for startups across Southeast Asia and India.

Haryana-based Shipsy secures USD 6 million funding from Surge, Info Edge

Shalmali Bhagwat — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 06:33:44 +0000

Shipsy on Wednesday said it has managed to secure a capital of USD 6 million (about Rs 44.3 crore) in a funding round, co-led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, and existing investor, Info Edge.

Shipsy is a SaaS (software as a service) based firm that aids shippers and logistics companies in digitisation and optimisation of their operations. The platform helps shippers reduce transportation costs by automating and digitising freight negotiations, reducing incidental charges, significantly improving shipping turnaround time. This helps pull down working capital loss for shippers with the help of advanced machine learning models.

Shipsy was co-founded in June 2015, by Soham Chokshi, Dhruv Agarwal, Himanshu Gupta, and Sahil Arora. It has raised about Rs 10 crore till date and has customers across Dubai, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Singapore and Malaysia. The company has witnessed a 3-fold jump in revenue over in the last year and a half. It has substantially increased its customer base by over 2x over the lockdown period as enterprises lookout for a digital solution to manage shipments.

“Owing to a substantial increase in the demand for our solution, it was important to leverage the momentum and look out for global investment partners in our next leg of our journey”, Shipsy co-founder and CEO Soham Chokshi said.

“The money raised in the Series A funding round will further accelerate growth and enable to continue aggressive geographical expansion, besides investing in product innovation,” Chokshi added.

In November last year, BSE-listed Info Edge – in a regulatory filing – had said it has signed an agreement to invest about Rs 5 crore in Llama Logisol – which operates Shipsy. Commenting on the follow-on fundraise, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman of Info Edge, said the product has secured a large consumer base with large Indian as well as overseas corporates, helping them with a significant cost reduction.