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Why to Enrol in A Master’s in Economics Program with Finance Specialization? – Fascinating Career Path Ahead

An economy cannot be stable without a well-functioning financial sector. Over the years, due to various national and international events including the ongoing pandemic that hit financial sector badly, the working of it has become more complex. To ensure efficient functioning of the financial sector, it needs well-equipped and trained professionals who can handle tricky tasks. Mainly, financial data analysts are now in high demand. These analysts are expected to have sufficient knowledge of the sector along with the overall economy and to be equipped with the skills of understanding as well as building models that would ensure financial securities to be traded at optimal prices and financial transactions to be done in the most efficient way.

These professionals, depending on their job profiles, may also need to create portfolio of profit generating financial assets that also bear lower risk factors. In this data driven world, an analyst needs to make use of a clever combination of mathematical, statistical, and analytical tools to comprehend the task of determining optimal prices of various financial assets, creating optimal investment portfolios, analyzing risk-return trade off of various assets, and so on. The branch of study that makes you efficient in doing this can be a Master’s degree in Economics with specialization in financial economics that covers the areas of corporate finance, investments and/or banking.

What does a master’s program in economics with specialization in finance exactly intend at?

It is a prerequisite to go through appropriate training and guidance to comprehend the changing structure of financial markets and gain proper skills to act as financial analysts. A perfectly structured master’s program in economics that offers specialization in financial economics helps to become an efficient financial analyst. This program makes one learn the application of diverse theoretical models to wide range of data using appropriate analytical tools and analyze those data. For example, a student enrolled in this program is expected to develop the skill of optimal price setting for financial assets, build the efficiency in risk analysis and devising risk management techniques in relation portfolio management for investors. Thus, this program helps in honing the skill of efficient financial decision making by developing a sound understanding of the theories and their applications in this field.

Is this program a right choice for shaping up your career path?

Do you want to be trained in financial economics?
Do you have adequate prior knowledge of economics and basic mathematical skills?

Then, this specialization in Master’s in Economics program is the right choice if you want to have the best advanced education in the area of financial economics.

The students that are the most suitable for this Master’s programme-

Must be ambitious to learn the modern finance.
Must be comfortable with the application of quantitative tools, and be eager to solve real-life financial problems.
Must be interested in discussing business cases and their implications.

A well-structured program makes you ready for jobs in the domain of of risk management, asset-liability management and research and analytics in national and international financial markets.

Career path ahead as a financial analyst:

While a strong financial system is a perquisite for a well-functioning economy, a financial system performs well only when efficient decisions are made and calculative moves are undertaken at every step. Financial analysts play crucial roles in this respect as these professionals possess the skill of applying appropriate analytical tools to the raw data available for making intelligent decisions in businesses.

You can act as a good financial analyst only if you have a strong educational background in this field. Besides, it would not also be tough to say that these professionals having such skills tend to get lucrative remunerations from their jobs. With a Master’s in Economics with specialization in Finance, you develop the skill to build your career in the financial and banking sectors as professionals in the areas of financial research and analytics, financial and bank risk management as quantitative analysts.

The demand for good analysts do not come from the banking industry only, but also from a wide variety of asset management firms, exchanges, regulators and various other firms operating in the financial sector.

One does not need to be very strong in mathematics or statistics if you wish to make your career as a financial analyst, but you can still gain the required expertise to become a good financial analyst if you enrol yourself in a well-structured PG program in Economics with a specialization in Finance.

Contemporary Issues in Journalism and the Importance of Media Training

Journalism is an oft-repeated word and rightfully so! Well, think about the contemporary world sans journalists. Chances are that many things would actually come to a standstill. While we all are aware about fake news, post-truth, paid news and other such evils, it is also a reality that democracy would cease to exist without an active press. It could truly be argued that journalism is the lifeblood of democracy.

Over the past couple of decades though, journalism and journalists have been facing an existential crisis – the crisis of establishing credibility and credence. The corporate bondage of editorial content and the dominance of business interests over the interests of enlightenment and empowerment have practically decimated people’s confidence on free and fair journalism.

Thus, in India and rest of the world, there is an urgent necessity to redraw the contours of what constitutes journalism. This process would require a substantial amount of expertise and innovation. Now, before we go any further into the discussion, let us understand as to what are the major issues afflicting the world of news globally.

Fake News: The word, per se, is an oxymoron. A piece of news can’t be fake and an information that is fake can’t be classified as news. However, the word was popularized by Donald Trump in his run up to the White House. It meant any cooked-up or incorrect news – either intentional or unintentional. Fake news, again, can be classified into misinformation, disinformation and mal information. While misinformation is unintentional, disinformation is intentional. Mal information, on the other hand, albeit being true, is created to cause harm. The popularization of social media has been one of the reasons for the growing significance of fake news as a whole. However, the mainstream media organizations have also goofed up on multiple occasions thereby reducing the trust of the audience on news.
Post-Truth: Post-truth is an interesting phenomenon. In fact, it is more dangerous than fake news. Post-truth creates a situation in which belief systems and emotions become more important than objective facts. In such a scenario, it is difficult to ascertain the difference between news and propaganda. In the quest for increasing popularity, multiple news organizations from across the world have played to their galleries and contributed to post-truth. Needless to say that this also had a disastrous impact on news credibility.
Paid News: Probably the biggest evil in the world of journalism, paid news is a practice where journalists or news organizations accept payments in cash or kind to either provide positive or negative coverage to an issue, person or organization. As bizarre as it may sound, paid news has almost assumed gigantic proportions in India. It kills the very essence of journalism and reduces news to propaganda and falsehood. In fact, renowned scribes Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and K. Sreenivas Reddy did a seminal study on how paid news is becoming a encompassing phenomenon in India.
The Absence of a Viable Revenue Model: News primarily depends on advertisements for its survival. Thus, there exists an unholy domination of marketing content on editorial content across most of the news organizations. The dependence of news on advertisements has had a terrible impact on the objectivity and neutrality factors of journalism. Although crowd funding, paywalls and donations have been experimented with in terms of an alternative revenue model, the results have been far from satisfactory.

In the clamour for organisational growth and increased revenues, journalism has ceased to be a social service in addition to being just a profession. However, is it all bleak? While it seems so from the above discourse, the situation is definitely not beyond repair. There is a need to have a fresh relook at the profession and devise ways to reclaim the position of journalism as the pillar of an accountable nation. As it is, the aspiring and younger journalists can play the biggest role in this desired transformation. Let us look at some possible solutions:

The Pre-Eminence of Ethics: While anybody can be a journalist and one didn’t require any specific education to be a journalist until very recently, contemporary circumstances demand a dedicated media education for aspiring journalists. The advent of newer technologies and the growing demands of the profession has made journalism training compulsory. While imparting training on journalism, media schools and universities need to deliver dedicated modules on journalistic ethics. The students need to be sensitised to the larger purpose of the press and rightfully so.
The Importance of Alternative Media Platforms: In the current context, it is critically important to create a dedicated space for the alternative media platforms. It is important to understand that it is almost impossible for the mainstream media to come out of the clutches of corporate control. Hence, creating independent ventures is the need of the hour. The same can’t happen unless aspiring journalists are taught the basics of media entrepreneurship. A combination of financial viability and social enterprising is required. This training can only happen at a media school or university.
Innovation Is the Key: Given the changing trends of the industry, the aspiring journalists need to emphasize on developing innovative practices to again draw the target audience. This is possible only when they understand the intricacies of the profession. Thus, it is a given that journalism training is the need of the hour. The practical aspect of the profession can be taught only at a media school or university. At a time, when technology is coming to the forefront, the importance of training can’t possibly be emphasized enough.
The Importance of Research in Journalism: At a time when shallow research has become a decided bane in journalism, aspiring journalists need to stress on real research before creating their stories. The theoretical and methodical approaches of research can only be taught at a media school or a university. This is one of the most important reasons as to why media education is extremely important for aspiring and young journalists.

Given the current situation, journalism requires a serious facelift. The onus of giving this facelift is with the younger crop of journalists. The media schools and universities will play an equally important role in the transformation. However, what is required is an astute understanding of what ails the profession and its possible solutions. There is no reason to believe that journalism won’t be able to reclaim its position in the society.

Just in case you find this blog useful and relevant, please make it a point to share it with as many people as you like for them to know the contemporary issues in journalism and understand the importance of media training.

Journalism Now and Journalism Then: Evaluating Digital Revolution from a Journalistic Standpoint

When the history of 21st century is scripted, its first two decades will be marked as the period that transformed the very meaning of human existence. The unbelievable surge of digital technologies and the advent of the internet-based virtual world have been instrumental in reimagining humanity that we know or at least claim to know. Every area of human knowledge stands radically changed. Skills that were once considered a handful have rapidly become useless. No wonder that the larger domain of journalism has also undergone fundamental and structural changes.

Print has given way to the all-encompassing web; analog broadcasting has given way to digital broadcasting and plain text have given way to multimedia. With the gradual decline in the average attention span of news consumers, contemporary news can no longer afford to just inform. Infotainment has become the name of the game and interactive infographics have slowly started replacing the once dominant text information. While the first decade of the ongoing millennium was revolutionary for journalism and journalists on multiple counts, its second decade has changed the very approach of journalism. The coming in of the ubiquitous smartphone has heralded a brand new era in the practice of dissemination of information.

This article, albeit very limited in its scope, would make an effort to document the larger changes that has marked journalism and its various offshoots over the past one decade. Just so that one is clear, all these changes that we are referring to are not necessarily desirable. However, like everything else in life, journalism has also altered – for the better and also for the worse. For the purpose of easier comprehension, let us put some of those changes in the form of pointers:

1. The Predominance of Online Journalism: If the first decade of the new millennium belonged to television journalism, the second decade most surely belonged to online journalism. While the popularity of print journalism continued to dwindle, online journalism kept on growing. The liberal usage of multimedia and easier language made online journalism the hot favourite among both the millennials and members of the Generation Z. All existing studies and surveys predict the further growth of online media to the extent that it will be the only thing in the fray.

2. The Arrival of Social Media Journalism: Before delving into the trend, it is important to point out that social media and journalism are two different concepts and are not intrinsically connected to each other. However, the rapid increase in the usage of social media and the instant need for news somehow contributed to the growth of a new phenomenon known as social media journalism. Today, breaking news items break on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook pages serve as platforms for larger discussions on recent trends. Today, anybody from any corner of the world can post a piece of news for the rest of the world to see. It can be argued that social media journalism has largely democratized the flow of information.

3. The Growing Relevance of Alternative Media: There was a time when large corporate entities and media behemoths had absolute control on the collection, production and dissemination of news. However, thanks to the largely economical nature of the online medium, a good number of smaller and independent news ventures are cropping. While some of these media organizations have already broken even, there are many that are making rapid inroads into the larger news ecosystem. Consequently, geographical locations that were once considered fringe are increasingly featuring in the mainstream. Larger corporates have lost their monopoly on news.

4. The Ominous Entry of Fake News and Post-Truth: Thanks to Donald Trump, the former President of the United State of America, the world was informed about an essentially oxymoronic term called fake news. For the purpose of academical

propriety, we would rather use the three individual terms ‘disinformation’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘mal-information’. All these are different types of misleading or false information that owe their origins to a multitude of reasons including ignorance, propaganda and unholy political ambitions. While not entirely different, the term ‘post-truth’ probably has a wider ramification on the very sustenance of press as the fourth estate of democracy. Post-truth represents a dystopian scenario where emotions and personal convictions become stronger tools in shaping public opinions than objective facts. This phenomenon indicates a general disdain for logic and common sense.

5. The Increased Popularity of Infographics: The current generation has a general liking for representative visuals. Therefore, infographics serve as a potent tool to retain the consumers of news. To put it in simple terms, infographics are charts, visual data and statistics that help people digest complex information in a systematic and uncomplicated manner. We have come to a point when different news organizations report stories only through infographics. In the next few years, this trend is only going to grow.

6. The Gradual Vanishing of Gatekeeping: For all those who are not aware of what gatekeeping is, it is the process of filtering information before publishing. With blogs, vlogs, social media and personal websites slowly becoming the primary mode of disseminating news, gatekeeping as a phenomenon is increasingly losing its relevance. While this has democratized the flow of news to a large extent, news credibility and authenticity have become sore areas. It is expected that as we move ahead, a mechanism will be worked out that will impart balance to the whole process of journalism.

7. Mobile Journalism Is the Next Big Thing: Journalists across the world are increasingly using smartphones to gather, produce and disseminate news. In fact, mobile journalism or MoJo, as it is popularly known, has become so powerful that it is predicted that in the next one decade, journalism will be primary mobile.

8. News Virality: What was once called breaking news during the heydays of the broadcast revolution is now known as viral news. Some news become viral and gather a significant number of eyeballs in a very small span of time. In fact, the greatest mechanism to make a story viral is to put it on social media platforms.

While the points mentions above are rather generic and broadly define the transformation that marks the news industry, there are many others that are equally important, if not more.

However, for the purpose of brevity, we shall discuss the same some other day. Just in case you find this blog useful and relevant, please make it a point to share it with as many people as you like for them to know the changes that have engulfed the world of journalism.

Artificial Intelligence in Health Care: A New opportunity to build Career

In lockdown era of Covid-19 outbreak, creates a recession in different working sectors and numerous people lost their jobs in different areas. After pandemic, new job opportunities have been opened up. Among them, AI in health care is considered as one of the promising one. In the context of covid-19 pandemic there exist shortage of health care personnel and this not fulfilling the diagnosis response at the emergency stage. Integration of AI in health care can be considered as a promising option to overcome the shortage of health care personnel. Now question is that how a computer Engineer can incorporate AI in health care. The applications of AI into health care have been categorized into three groups.

Patient-oriented AI
Clinical oriented AI
Administration and operational Oriented AI

The Patient oriented AI system can directly improve the patient care. According to the report of UK Govt., if the AI-enabled symptoms checker is coupled with the telemedicine technology, reduced number of physicians visits in hospitals. Different Machine Learning and deep learning-based (ML/DL) algorithms have been considered to train the aforementioned AI-enabled symptoms checker system where the several symptoms of the common diseases have been considered as the training data.

Apart from this, several organizations adopted the chatbot system to improve the patient care. Chatbot is a software program that automatically chat with the patients through text or voice messages. A chatbot system, initially collects information from patients. After analyzing this information using different Computer vision techniques, provides the information regarding the present conditions of the disease as well as, what he will do. In some places, the chatbot systems are not capable of collecting the patients’ information, a wearable device can play an important role. These wearable devices sense the patient’s disease information through some sensors and AI-based methodologies provide the actual conditions of the disease. Another noteworthy fact is that AI can improve the accuracy in disease detection.

In developing countries like India, the doctor and patient are low and an individual clinician works nearly 14-18 hours in a day. Due to this extensive workload, clinicians may overlook the early sign of the disease. A computer aided diagnosis system (CAD) can assist doctors to detect these symptoms at the early stages. The researchers from University of Calcutta said that their implemented CAD system is capable of detecting lung nodules at early stages which may indicate lung cancer if it is detected at later stages.

Furthermore, AI can also increase the efficacy of the targeted therapy. AI is capable of identifying the accurate effected area of the abnormal tissue. By supervising the effected area through computers, a clinician can provide the drug to the patients.

Apart from the computer vision techniques, the natural language processing (NLP) also improves the clinical outcomes. In daily clinical practice, clinicians often required previous disease history, medications doses and the family history of the disease to prepare appropriate diagnose plan. In health sector, the data are stored in an unstructured manner i.e., the health sector-maintained paper-based work. Due to extensive workload these data may lost. The Electronic Medical Record or EMR is a software where the NLP techniques can store large number of clinical text data in a structured form. In present context, the existing EMR software is very costly. This necessitates the AI-based health care industry to implement a low cost and more accurate EMR tool for improved diagnosis procedures. The Norway based Globus.ai’s AI enabled EMR system shows that it fills clinical data 90% more faster than the human work. Another interesting application of AI in health care is robotic surgery. In this application, different computer algorithms have been automated for different surgeries. However, the general decisions are still taken by the surgeon.

Beside the clinical outcomes, AI can also improve the patient safety. It has been observed that, several patients suffer from adverse drug effects i.e., the drug is not suited for the patient body. Israel’s MedAware’s patient safety platform considered different ML algorithms to detect and reduce the risk of medication error.

This discussion reveals that to provide improved health care, participation of AI engineers in heal care industry become an inevitable option. This creates huge job opportunities to the engineers.

Why Is Translation Important for Indian Literature?

Why Translation of Literature is important in a country like India?

The relevance of vernacular language literature and translations in India has been in talk of the town owing to Indian novelist Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Ret Samadhi, which was recently translated into English as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell and won the prestigious International Booker Prize in the last month. This comes at a time when the publishing industry has just witnessed a resurrection in promoting translation. Publishers have realized the value of translations and have begun to invest in their promotion.

Are we going through a changing time?

Even a few years ago many publishers were doubtful to invest money on translations, claiming the possibility that they would not be appealing to the global readers and hence would not be consumed internationally and subsequently become a commercial failure. The translation scenario in India has definitely improved, owing to the concentrated efforts of various people and organizations. Whereas Indian languages like Bengali, Malayalam, and Tamil, have a greater number of translations into other regional languages as well as English, many other Indian languages require ongoing support to bring their literature to the larger audience. Translation became an equally important part of the publishing vision as you can’t run your business in the publishing industry in a country like India, with is a multicultural as well as multilingual nation without publishing translation. The media exposure and prizes that regional authors are receiving have greatly aided in bringing these wonderful, captivating literary works to the attention of the people.

Is translation of the vernacular Indian literature necessary?

India has always been a country with a diverse range of culture and languages. As India has a diverse range of languages, with hundreds still spoken today contemporary laws give equitable representation in the constitution, respecting the feelings of all language speakers. In India, English literature grew in popularity during the previous century. An examination of Indian literatures in the last few decades of nineteenth century and first few years of twentieth century demonstrates that translation as an art and practice was significantly responsible for its expansion. Many Indian authors might have stayed unknown beyond India if it hadn’t been for translation. Without the English translated version of the masterpiece Gitanjali, who would have known of Rabindranath Tagore?Translators are recognizing the value of translations, particularly when it comes to translating not only classics but also the modern literary texts. Most of the Indian writers and scholars have come to the conclusion that translation aids in the integration of India and the rest of the world. By removing linguistic restrictions, writers and publishing houses will have a better opportunity to showcase their creativity, perception, and insights. It easily facilitates in adding a variety of your work and ensuring that it reaches a large number of people who are interested. Aside from the assistance of linguistic professionals, one can communicate considerably more effectively in foreign nations. It can be said that it fosters unity across diverse cultures, which is fascinating. It not only brings that language to the forefront, but it also allows the rest of the world to see India from a unique perspective. When a writer translates, they get the ability to share their views and to constantly expand.

Career in Advertising-Appealing and Rewarding

Communication requires two-person to share some sort of idea or information, which can come in various forms, while advertising follows the same mechanism but with a price. This is one of the most prominent factors that differentiate advertising communication from any personal communication. Prof. Harari, in his book ‘Sapiens’, mentioned the chronological development of three orders that changes the course of humanity, the first one being economy or money, then politics, and the last one being the religion. Advertisements provide evidence of all these factors in their message of discrimination under the veil of various appeals. This is fascinating how a simple product with a very common set of features and qualities can become a hot favorite with the help of massive and effective campaigning. Advertisements play a significant role in spreading and establishing the enter-subjective reality into the mind of the consumer and end up crating and nurturing the value of the product or service they are attached to. The aura that is being created through advertisements also helps in increasing the value and reputation of the brand itself. This makes the job of advertisers even more challenging, starting from the conceptualization to execution and measuring the performances.

One might think that advertising only means creating a piece of interesting design that will increase the demand for the said product or service however, it works beyond the designated areas and lingers within the subconscious of the consumers. Therefore, it requires research beyond the usual level to create a piece of advertising that would be rememberable. Interestingly, when we recall any brand in a particular category, this happens because of the advertisements that we might have come across at some point of time in our life. If it happens, then the job of that advertiser is half accomplished as the band manages to avoid the conflict and clutter while coming to the surface with their presence. The rest half would be considered completed when the consumer finally makes the purchase. Though the job of an advertiser does not end there as the path to a successful campaign requires understanding and acknowledging the demography, psychography, and behavioral perspective and changes of the consumer for years. At the same time understanding the dynamics of the market is also important before putting the ideas into action. Recently there is an advertisement with a tag line “share the meal” where it is appealing the smartphone users to donate a minimum of 50 cents to the hungry children with statistics of smartphone users outnumbers the hungry children by twenty to one. The expected changes that can be brought forward through the contribution of all smartphone users, if they all could donate 50 cents to the poor and hungry children. That will possibly let no children to bed with an empty stomach. The campaign was launched by the united nation’s “world food program” to eradicate hunger from the children as one out of seven children does not have enough food to lead a healthy and active life. The advertisement is a public service advertisement that is cleverly designed to send an appeal to the people who are using smartphones to use their app to donate a minimum amount to save a young hungry soul. While most public service advertisements (PSA) are created to raise awareness among the people on issues of public concern, one of the most struggling challenges some public service advertisements (PSA) could encounter is managing the donation received from the people, unlike other advertisements who can easily manipulate consumers by showing the benefits to them for the investment they are making into their products or services. For some PSAs, the advertisers need to make people understand to give away their wealth for the benefit of the society which is indeed a difficult task and requires a lot of effort and persuasion. That is the reason, many PSAs are adopting innovative ways of sending their message to the people to find a way to penetrate their consciousness.

Brilliance in the message creation and presentation can certainly pull the attention of the viewers towards the advertisement and send across the message successfully. There are numerous issues like fake news, female feticide killing, health and sanitization, safe drinking water, child marriage, and so on where the PSAs are created for the people to be aware of the circumstances, restrictions, and devastations to help in the prevention.

Campaigns that aim to make changes

Fake profile on Tinder

A campaign came out to protest against the fake profiles on Tinder in Ireland that forces many women in Ireland to get into prostitution. The campaign carries a series of women’s pictures that bear the signs of bruises and also show her in a compromised position indicating the constant struggles and abuses storming on her mind and body. The pictures are arranged from a gorgeous looking woman to a submissive and gloomy one with the message “your options are left or right” appealing to men not to contribute in the transformation. While many PSAs are focused on finding a soft spot in the cognitive areas of the views to create a lasting impact on them, this one puts forward a question of moral and social responsibility to seek out the answer for the viewers.

Stop child marriage

Child marriage has been a huge problem in India, especially in the rural ages but that has also been a problem in many other parts in the world where research shows that more than 39,000 underage girls are forced to accept marriage every day. A campaign came out in the veil of the wedding blog showing a 12 years old girl “Thea” is being prepared to get married and engaged in pre-weeding activities while the groom was chosen to be a 37 years old guy called “Geir”. The video shot the wedding day where people attended with open invitations and when “Thea” walked through the aisle to attain the ceremony, more than 3.5 million people used the hashtag “#stoppbryllupet” (“StopTheWedding”) to protest against this injustice. Later on, the stunt was reviled to be a PSA created by Plan International, a Norwegian non-profit organization, to protest against child marriage.

Helpline for Children

A wonderful campaign launched by the Spanish Children Foundation “Anar” emphasizes the brutality and abuses faced by many children. The outdoor backlit standee was designed to integrate two similar pictures where the differences can only be identified by two different angels. For an adult of an average height of 1.75 m, the standee shows an image of a child with a message “A veces el maltrato infantil solo es visible para el nino que lo sufre” (Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it) while for a child with an average height of 1.35m, the image changes to the same child baring clear signs of struggles and abuses with a message only meant for the children to see “Si alguien te hace dano llamanos y te ayudaremos” (if somebody hurts you, phone us we’ll help you). The ad was created by the “Anar Foundation” which runs a telephone line to help children and teenagers who face risky situations with the aim to warn the adults to refrain from such abuses towards the children as well as extend their help to the children who need help to get out such abusive living condition.

Sanitary napkins for the cost of cigarette

When it comes to health and hygiene, Indian women need a lot of awareness and care on the usage of sanitary napkins, especially in the rural territory where hygiene factors are given little importance. A famous PSA is featuring Bollywood actor “Akshay Kumar” in an advertisement on a sanitary napkin where the recent popularity of his film “Padman” was being integrated to raise the awareness of among the people. The PSA depicts a scenario where a worried husband is interacting with the actor while his wife is being attended by the doctors for a disease caused by the usage of unhygienic products during the menstruation cycle at a village hospital. The actor takes the opportunity to explain the usage of sanitary napkins for avoiding such health hazards while the cost of the product is almost equal to two cigarettes. The PSA is covering two aspects in one advertisement while the visible and prominent one is to promote the usage of sanitary napkins for the women to prevent contaminations, the subliminal one is also asking people to stop smoking. The PSA uses the fame of the Bollywood actor who has managed to create an image of a social reformer through his activities and also featured as the lead actor in the movie “Padman” which is based on the achievement of Arunachalam Muruganantham who managed to produce sanitary napkins at minimum cost to provide a healthy living to unfortunate women.

Advertisements are created to raise awareness among the target audience and this industry offers the people who are eager to find a creative outlet a perfect place to reach out to thousands and millions of people. One doesn’t need to be equipped with all different forms of creativity, rather they can choose their skills carefully which would be applicable in creative magnificent at the same time meaning fool paid communication.

Why Study Forensic Science?

Forensic science is a branch of science that is involved in the study of legal evidence. This branch of knowledge has contributed immensely to crime investigation, criminal law, and also civil litigation.

In the words of fiction writer Chuck Palahniuk, forensic science and its central role in criminal investigations may be succinctly explained as, “Everything is a self-portrait. A diary. Your whole drug histories in a strand of your hair. Your fingernails. The forensic details. The lining of your stomach is a document. The calluses on your hand tell all your secrets. Your teeth give you away. Your accent. The wrinkles around your mouth and eyes. Everything you do shows your hand.” This is precisely what Forensic Science is, in a nutshell!

This kind of work requires a lot of patience and attention to detail. The personalities that are best suited for it are those who are calm under pressure, have excellent powers of observation, who are good at problem solving, who can cope with working long hours and also carrying out strict routines.

The study of forensic science is a subject that is not usually very well known to the general public. There are many reasons why one should consider studying this subject, including the diverse and high-level job opportunities that it offers. Forensics is about identifying patterns and solving mysteries. A career in forensic science can also often lead to more ground-breaking work within other fields such as psychology, law enforcement, engineering, and medicine. Forensic scientists also use their skills to solve crime cases. This can involve identifying the perpetrators of crimes through blood spatter analysis or DNA testing. For example, they might be able to match a fingerprint found at the scene of the crime with a suspect. Forensics is not limited to just fingerprints and DNA tests though; forensic investigators often use ballistics tests, ballistic identification and firearms fingerprinting to identify criminals.

If you have a natural curiosity, enjoy solving puzzles, and care about truth and justice, then you may want to consider a career in forensic science. Forensic science is the application of scientific knowledge to criminal investigations. Examples of research areas in forensic science include:

Fingerprinting
DNA profiling
Ballistics
Tool marks
Forensic engineering
Crime scene reconstruction

With its multidisciplinary approach, forensic science is the crucial contributor which aids fuse together all types of evidence in whatsoever type of inquiry. This entails applying the ideas and methodology of several scientific fields to legal issues. And here is an illustration of the many fields of Forensic Science- Forensic Toxicology, Forensic Psychology, Forensic Pathology, Forensic Odontology, Forensic Linguistics, Forensic Geology, Forensic Entomology, Forensic Engineering, Forensic DNA Analysis, Forensic Archaeology, Forensic Anthropology, Digital Forensics, Forensic Ballistics etc.

Therefore, Forensic science offers several fascinating employment prospects. You can specialise on a few topics or get active in them all. Also, because each investigation and crime scene are unique, your tasks will vary from day to day. One day you may be visiting a crime scene and collecting pictures, and the next you could be in the lab looking for linkages between suspects and illegal behaviour, you may be in court a few days later, presenting evidence to the jury! Based on your scientific discoveries, you will also be required to rebuild crime scenes. As a result, you’ll never have a dull day. This is not your typical office job, where you sit in the same position every day! Rather A fascinating job path!

In a world where you are automatically prejudiced towards the organisation for which you work, you are fully unbiased in this position! You must offer entirely unbiased scientific data, relying solely on science to establish the facts. If there is DNA evidence of a suspect at a crime scene, your role is to convey it as reality rather than opinion! And, well, the work itself is fantastic! How great is it that you work in a field that employs science to solve crimes?

Bright Career Opportunities with specialization in the field of Economics

In today’s scenario of growing income inequality where technology is already displacing jobs at a fast pace, the shock created post-pandemic on health and the economy ground has put the economies into freefall, and labor markets are very much disrupted. There is huge unemployment created worldwide due to the global recession, and the recession has influenced mainly those communities which are already in a vulnerable position. The speed of technology adoption is expected to even enhance in near future and the adoption of cloud computing, big data, and e-commerce remain high priorities for business leaders, following a trend established in previous years. However, there has also been a significant rise in interest in encryption, non-humanoid robots, and artificial intelligence. In this scenario, this blog discusses career opportunities in the field of economics.

In today’s world of huge competition, it’s the field of specialization studies that are in high demand in all sectors. So, it is very important to opt for a career option where there is the core domain knowledge and subject specialization to fetch a good job in all aspects. Having specialization in the subject of Economics has bright career opportunity options in various sectors (both government and private) and it is expected to grow further in the post-pandemic scenario. A background in economics carries huge weightage and impression on the chances of selection for a bright career option in many sectors. The beauty of studying this subject is that the student can choose from many varied career options after finishing their graduation with economics honours.

Since every moment of our daily life, data is created everywhere, and a proper analysis of data can answer lots of questions. Hence, in the given scenario in the field of economics, there is a huge demand for professionals who are trained in handling Big Data.

Thus, after pursuing a Masters’s in Economics with a specialization in Econometrics where they learn data handling techniques and usages of software like EViews, Stata, and R, there are opportunities to work in MNCs working with handling Big Data. Since the subject of Economics always has a research inclination, there is a huge demand for Economics postgraduates professionals trained in analysing data and preparing reports. They are hired not only by corporates but also by various government agencies and organizations which are engaged in analysing data and publishing reports. It’s a win-win position for the postgraduates who have specialization in financial economics as well since there is a huge demand for profiles such as investment portfolio management which requires knowledge in finance and data handling. Online content development and content writing on the basis of reports and data analysis are in huge demand in the field of economics. Lots of start-ups are engaging people having skills in data analytics. Typically, Data analysts are promoted to higher positions like senior data analysts, data scientists, data analytics managers, business analysts, etc. So if somebody enjoys working with numbers, and thinks analytically the career option as a data analyst is extremely in demand. There is a huge scope in the academic research field also for social scientists like economists. Graduates in economics also have huge opportunities to incorporate MNCs and companies engaged in research-related activities. Many students also pursue MBA after their graduation in Economics, since it adds a feather in the cap of the candidate. They are in high demand in the corporate sector.

Besides the corporate sector, students with Masters in Economics can appear for the examination for various specialist officer posts in Economics which are conducted by various Government Banks and the Reserve Bank of India. These are specialist officer posts that require domain knowledge of economics. There are also examinations conducted by Public Insurance companies like Oriental insurance for specialist officer posts in Economics Those students having a research inclination and wish to come in the field of academics can appear for the NET examination for lecturership and NET-JRF examination for Ph.D. scholarship. There are various government organizations preparing research reports, they also hire Economics postgraduates for research purposes and various other officer posts.

There are career opportunities for students after finishing their graduation in Economics as well. The students can compete for prestigious government services like the Indian Economic services examination which is conducted by UPSC. The syllabus of this examination comprises all the topics which an Economics graduate learns in his/her three years of Economics Honours (BA/ B.Sc) course. They can also appear for various other government examinations like Staff Service Commission and Public Services Commission where a background in Economics is given good preference. There are various NGOs and Research organizations also engaging students of economics in preparing analytical reports on topics of social issues.

The above description gives us a clear picture that there is a huge demand for Economics graduates and post-graduates in many sectors for well-paid and prestigious positions.

Overall, the subject of economics is highly in demand in the world of Big Data especially in the post-pandemic world with data centers in growing demand. So, if students select a program with a specialization in the field of Economics, it will surely give them a competitive advantage in their career growth and opportunities.

Why become a Cost and Management Accountant?

Who is a Cost and Management Accountant (CMA)?

CMA, a reputed designation like Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary, has a pivotal role in strategic business management. CMAs are such who, in addition to focusing upon optimum utilization of available funds, also need to take strategic decisions for meeting the sustainability goals of the company. Unlike mere Accountants, CMAs not only focus on cost estimation but also on cost reduction; while assessing operational efficacy in production and service-related operations. Through implementation of modern technology, CMAs advise on optimum product mix; and identification and mitigation of business risks. So, Excellence combines with multifaceted Accounting and Managerial skill, along with Advanced Technology in the role of a CMA.

Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) defines four major roles of CMAs as “Steward, Operator, Strategist and Catalyst” in their Global Salary Survey 2021. They mentioned the following:

“Stewards are responsible for safeguarding a company’s assets and ensuring compliance with financial regulations and external financial reporting.
Operators provide services like financial planning, treasury and tax to run an efficient finance organization.
Strategists are financial leaders that align business and finance strategies for the future of the business.
Catalysts execute new strategies related to a business’s finance function.”

How can one become a CMA?

A student needs to pursue CMA Course to become a CMA. This professional Course can be pursued from India (as offered by the Institute of Cost Accountants of India) or abroad (US CMA- offered by IMA). In India, there are three levels for completion of CMA Course- Foundation, Intermediate and Final. The entire process for pursuing CMA Course from ICMAI is given by means of flowchart below.

However, a candidate can also pursue US CMA, which is globally recognized, from IMA. Such a Course can be completed with a minimum of 6 months to 3 years. The candidate needs to get enrolment in CMA Program as a member from IMA website and register for the exam. The candidate needs to pass the Exam in 2 levels with a minimum of 360 marks out of 500. Further, there is no requirement of Article ship in US CMA as that of 6 months for CMA India.

Why become a CMA?

Demand for CMAs increases magnificently with the rapid industrial growth, owing for increase in demand in strategic business decisions and value creation. On account of involvement of modern technologies in business world, there lies a strong need to have certification which can build up a professional propensity for the competitive age. CMA certification increases employable skills through practical and industrial exposures.

For this reason, there becomes a rapid expansion of career prospects for CMAs as evidenced from increasing demand for Financial Managers, Financial Analysts, Chief Financial Officer, Financial Research Associate, Financial Controller, Corporate Controller, etc. by the Top MNCs. Not only in the Corporate, CMAs are also high in demand in the academic institutions in teaching cost and management accountancy. Further, CMAs also engage themselves in providing cost related consultancy services.

The competences developed at the CMA profession ranges in the following way:

Constructing Cost efficacy.
Business Analytics Strategy and Sustainability
Auditing & Assurance
Product pricing and Business Valuation
Cost Benefit Analysis
Firm Governance
Efficient Regulatory Landscape
Benchmarking
Cost and Management Accounting
Management of Finance.
Management of Direct and Indirect Taxes
Management Control Systems

As per Indian Express 2021 report, around 500 newly qualified CMAs were recruited by Top companies like Accenture, Philips, ITC, GAIL, TCS, L&T, etc. Such remarkable growth in demand was also evidenced by 40% hike in highest CTC offered by Accenture as compared to that of highest CTC in 2020. Not even that, the average CTC was also around Rs.10 lakhs per annum (30% hike as compared to that of 2020).

As per IMA Global Salary Survey report 2021, the mean compensation for the CMAs in India in 2021 were $ 29,685 as against $ 19,439 for non-CMAs. Even the mean salary for the CMAs was also increased in 2021 ($14,096 to $15,000).

Henceforth, aspiring candidates can enhance their core competences through getting a CMA certification; thereby getting distinct career opportunities and earn lucrative salary in the global business world.

APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India said “If we have to succeed in the globalized world, we have to enlarge the scope of Cost Audit to cover all aspects of manufacturing and service sector activities including healthcare and education.”

PHARMACY EDUCATION IN INDIA

Pharmacy is a versatile, dynamic, and fast-growing profession with a wide range of professional opportunities. With the enormous advancement in this field, it became one of the primary pillars of global healthcare. Centrally regulated education policies in India, pharma education became more specific in its target. Pharmacists contribute to their workforce in different areas of healthcare and society starting from medical shops to research and development. Maximum therapeutic benefit from their treatment and medicine is the primary concern of a pharmacist. Many pharmacists work behind the screen to run a smooth healthcare system and face the unbound challenges of healthcare. The pharmacy profession has been ranked by Gallup poll (USA) as one of the trustworthy professions. The third-largest professional to provide healthcare services in the world is the pharmacist.

The pharmacy word has been coined from the Greek word ‘Pharmacon’ which means drug. The demand of a defined pharma education has increased by identifying the complexity of medicine and their formulations and the criticality of making the medicines. In the ancient era, pharmacists are entitled to help physicians. Nearly at 1240 AD, the pharmacy has separated from medicine to fulfil the requirement of skill, knowledge, and responsibility to manufacture medicine. There are other systems of medicine also in practice in India like Ayurveda, Sidha, and Unani where the separate skilled pharmacist demand also came into existence. Pharmacy education in India was certified level offered in Goa by the Portuguese in 1842 and the university level education started in 1937 at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Since then, several universities, and colleges are offering courses across the country. The first Pharmacy college in Asia was established in 1842 in Goa, India. Prof. M L Schroof is called the father of Pharmacy education in India. The Pharmacy act 1948 regulates the Pharmacy profession in India and as per Sec 3 of this act the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has established which regulates the Pharmacy education in India. The courses like Diploma in Pharmacy (D. Pharm), Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharm), Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm. D.), and Master of Pharmacy (M. Pharm) is offered by different colleges in India.

Diploma in Pharmacy: Minimum requirement is 10+2 Science stream. It’s a 2-year full-time course with 500 hours of hospital training.

Bachelor of Pharmacy: Minimum requirement is 10+2 Science stream (PCM/PCB/PCMB). It’s a four years full-time course. After D. Pharm 3 years course (Lateral entry at 2nd year)

Doctor of Pharmacy: Minimum requirement is 10+2 Science stream (PCM/PCB/PCMB) or D. Pharm. It is a six-year course including one year internship. After B.Pharm direct admission of 4th year of Pharm D.

Master of Pharmacy: Minimum requirement is B. Pharm from a PCI-recognized institution. It’s a two years full-time program. The specializations are Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Analysis, Pharmacology, Pharmacy Practice, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Industrial Pharmacy, Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Regulatory Affairs, and Quality assurance.

Ph.D. in Pharmacy: Minimum requirement is M. Pharm. It can be full-time or part-time. The minimum duration is three years.

The Pharmacy education in India is well defined with wide range of career opportunities. It is also a divine profession associated directly with core healthcare system. The professions also include production of medicine, direct health care manger as clinical and hospital pharmacist, educationist, government job, research and development, analytical chemist etc. Choosing Pharmacy profession is definitely a wise decision towards a perfect career and a divine job.