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Telling a Tale in a Technical World

Why study literature at a time when India is increasingly heading towards industrialization? What are its utilities? Who is literature for? Who is capable of understanding literature? The following writeup attempts to address these concerns.

Why study literature?

Have you ever wondered what guides our understanding of life? What is reality made of? Is it simply an assemblage of stimuli which we gather simultaneously? Every human being out of 7.8 billion souls traversing across the earth must have pondered on the said questions. Some may call these existential mutterings of microbes, or some may interpret these queries as fundamental. It matters not to say the least in the grand scheme of things, if there is a grand blueprint that is. However, we do not make sense of life through placing ourselves in the grand scheme. We see fragments – your story is what you get to live and experience. The grand story is not for you to go through, it is a luxury of posterity. So, how do we cope with these apparently relevant questions? Literature shows the way.

What is serious literature?

Serious literature is a record of insecurities and aspirations of human beings across time and space. As readers you may find strong resonance with someone’s accounts, which in turn help you to make sense – you find a way to combat your feelings. You come to terms with yourself. So, what about a library then? It is a record of your cultural memory. How many of you try to go there? Not many I suppose. So, how do you tune into that cultural repertoire? You may choose mediums of expression which are available more readily – perhaps Netflix? Or, a popular movie? The issue remains that these mediums have not withstood the test of time, nor have they been approved by experts. Do you take medicines which are not licensed by the competent authority? You certainly do not! So, why shall literature be any different?

Answering the Question

Literature is a discipline, you cannot simply appreciate it because you have evolved from your neanderthal like ancestors, and this has given you the privilege to read and write. One of the utilities of studying literature as a discipline is this – it enables you to identify the good from the bad. You learn to identify superior markers of your cultural memory from the imperfect ones. This is one aspect of critical thinking. A person who can question literature and navigate through its labyrinth is capable of questioning the laws which define convention. Literature too is a product of convention – at times it obeys the latter, or at times literature may question it. However, you should not take my words at their face value. Let me give you certain relatable examples.

Scenario 1: you are in love and you are considering whether to propose your beloved. You are not entirely sure how she / he may feel. You may get rejected and you end up not proposing her / him altogether. The opportunity passes and now you are filled with regret, you are not sure whether you did the right thing.
Solution: When in doubt turn to the bard –

“So I, for fear of trust, forget to say

The perfect ceremony of love’s rite,

And in mine own love’s strength seem to decay,

O’ercharg’d with burden of mine own love’s might.

… O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:

To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit.” (Sonnet 23)

So, you see dear reader, you are not alone in your plight. People have felt what you are feeling and people will continue feeling this way. You can combat your loneliness. Life does not appear too hopeless now, is it? Is this not good enough? Shakespeare, therefore, rises from his grave only to serve you as your personal psychiatrist – he has all the time in the world to listen to your worries and fears. He will not judge you. It is a safe space.

Scenario 2: something terrible has happened to you – a family tragedy, perhaps your cv was rejected at the site of your dream job, or perhaps you have discovered that you are an alien living among men and you do not really belong here! – therefore, you end up questioning the very will of the maker, the existence of God. You feel that nobody is really up there looking at you, and you are all alone in an unfamiliar galaxy, where you seem to exist by chance.

Solution: Tennyson attempts to capture the conflict of an entire era in his poetry. The uncertainty of divine revelations. He writes –

“So runs my dream, but what am I?

An infant crying in the night

An infant crying for the light

And with no language but a cry.” (In Memoriam)

No one can give you the answer whether God exists or not. You have to come up with your own! However, literature can certainly give you that space of solidarity. It is in our marrow to doubt the existence of an ever-loving, just Creator. We fear abandonment. But literature shows how even in our abandonment we are not alone. We have fellow abandoned creatures alongside us.

Take Away

It is a discipline like any other, yet it is a discipline that tells a story while it educates. Let us remember those bygone days of our childhood – sitting by the lampshade, hearing our grandparents telling us fantastic tales of adventure and bravery, wisdom and kindness, love and fraternity. That’s how life began, so do you really think you will ever forget the essence of such an experience? You cannot! Literature nests in our psyche the day we start learning.

P.S. let your inquisitive friends and relatives know why you have decided to pursue literature by sharing this piece.

Career growth in VLSI and Embedded System Design for B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering students after Pandemic

Learning areas of this course:

All students must learn advanced skills in high demand like VLSI and Embedded System Design and apply these skills to get a job. These transferable in-demand skills are so essential after post-pandemic. ECE offers new career opportunities to its engineers. All of our essential services are now projected to a new level. During a pandemic, we are shifting away from using offline platforms and toward online platforms. We are accustomed to using e-commerce to buy and sell goods or transfer funds via online platforms, and there is a large employment opportunity. Use of Embedded system design can be found in every industry, from medicine to manufacturing. An embedded system is a combination of hardware and software that performs a specific task within a specified time frame which means it should perform only one specific task. The main advantage of using an embedded system in an application is that it reduces the size and cost of the task while also improving its reliability and efficiency. Students studying Electronics and Communication Engineering will be able to find jobs in e-commerce by preparing themselves with the necessary skill sets.

Because of the pandemic, our demand for biomedical electronics has increased. We must develop more biomedical instruments and devices to ensure our survival in the healthcare system. There will be a huge opportunity to find work in the field of biomedical. Because these domains require knowledge of circuit theory, semiconductor device, analog circuits, digital circuits, and understanding of VLSI and Embedded System design, they are mostly open to students with an ECE background. As a result, they have more job opportunities.

Unique Aspects and strength of VLSI and Embedded System design:

Working in the core electronics industry is the dream of every ECE engineering students. VLSI and Embedded system design are two of the most important industries for an electronics engineer. However, in order to find work in these industries, one must be highly skilled, with a solid understanding of the fundamentals and a hands-on approach. The industry expects engineers to be familiar with industry standard EDA tools and fabrication but fabrication is beyond the scope of B.Tech course structure. Using Make in India, Digital India and Start-up India programme thrives to the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector in India, many manufacturers are relocating to the country to establish their businesses. Making India a Semiconductor Hub for ESDM, the government invites applications for the Chips to Startup (C2S) Program. The Indian government has approved a comprehensive programme to develop an Integrated Circuit (IC)/ ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) design by using VLSI system design in the country. Many Start-ups and MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise) are now interested to progress in this field.

Every year, India spends billions of dollars to bring electronic consumer devices to the country. VLSI and Embedded systems play a significant role in consumer electronics. As a result, VLSI and embedded systems are emerging domains in India. There will be a significant skill gap in these areas. Every year, India invested billions of dollars to import electronic consumer devices. VLSI and Embedded systems are important in consumer service electronics. As a result, VLSI and embedded systems are growing in popularity in World. There will be a significant skill gap in these following areas.

SoC Desien
ASIC Design
Reusable IP Core(s) Design and Development
Application Oriented Working Prototype of ASICs and SoCs
ASIC and FPGA Research and Development

With the emerging rise in the VLSI industry our processing speed increases to Intel Pentium P5 processor to recent core i9 processor and our mobile phone processor become thinner (4nm) to make mobile phone energy efficient and provide better performance.

Every new process node is evaluated based on three key metrics: power, performance, and area (PPA). Designers strive to balance and improve the three areas, but cost and time-to-market (collectively PPACT) are taken into account when chipmakers choose between process node options.

Industry 4.0 jobs are available through VLSI and Embedded System design. Smart homes are built with IoT and Embedded system design technology and smart electronics appliances such as a smart refrigerator, air conditioner, TV, microwave, and washing machine that can be controlled remotely via smartphone. IoT and Embedded system design technology play an important role in healthcare.

Students having the following skills for companies like Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung, HCL Technologies, L&T etc.

Programming skills like Verilog/VHDL and
Exposure to VLSI Industry standard tools for ASIC and FPGA design
Embedded Programming skill like C, C++, Java, Embedded C++ and Python
Clear understanding of analog and digital circuit analysis and design.

If you want to work in technology, you must have certain skills. You must think like an engineer and learn engineering skills. Contrast “engineering labour” with “engineer.” If you believe you are an engineer, you must prove it before the rest of the world believes you. And proving it is difficult. However, believe me when I say that the VLSI Industry is in desperate need of Engineers. We have a demand, but no resources. We can find engineering labour but not engineers. It’s oversaturated for people who consider themselves engineers but perform engineering labour work. It has a bright future for those who are connected to technology and willing to learn on a regular basis. The future exists in all domains (analog – because world is analog, Digital – all computer works on binary, Mix-signal – because we are moving from integration of Real world and Computer world in form of AI, ML, AR-VR).

Future relocation area Memory that is fast and compact high-speed, low-power processor design. Every individual must now determine what skills they possess and where they can contribute and whether or not the industry is saturated will be determined by this.

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.

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?

Applications of Machine Learning in Geography: Present and future trends

Machine learning is one word at present time machine learning can be defined as a system where computers can perform tasks that require human intervention and intelligence. Machine learning is part of artificial intelligence which is growing rapidly in the present era. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the broader umbrella of computer-driven applications where Human support is hardly required. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. AI is also associated with the development and design of algorithms. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have reduced the role of humans in many activities Like in industry public affairs research and academia. Geography as a discipline has also benefited from the applications of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Geographical information system Remote Sensing and GIScience as a whole get the benefit of machine learning which is termed GeoAI. Different organizations like the American Association of Geographers (AAG) in Environment System Research Institute (ESRI) and Microsoft are collaborating to develop a GeoAI-based platform for the analysis and visualization of different data.

The advantage of machine learning algorithms lies in the fact that the algorithm can use the data pattern to train itself and come up with better predictive or classification solutions. Machine learning is classified into different groups supervised learning, unsupervised learning, Semi-supervised learning, and reinforced learning.

In recent years automation in geography and location-based study is taking place at a quick pace. Mechanisms to monitor different spheres (terrestrial, atmospheric, and aquatic) are growing at high speed. This leads to a large quantum of data availability of different types and formats. Machine learning is helping to analyze this data using different advanced algorithms like Support vector machine, Random Forest, Artificial neural network (ANN), or even one step ahead deep learning methods like Convolution Neural network (CNN) and dynamic learning methods like Q- Learning.

In the area of human geography, machine learning has been used to explore the distribution of products and goods, population genetics, detecting, characterizing, and evaluating human epidemiology, tourism projections, detecting military patterns, international politics, and agricultural production systems. Within physical geography, ML is used to advance research on environmental diversity, biogeography, and abundance, water resource management, climate modeling, climate change, etc.

In the Geographical Information System (GIS), users can use it to comprehend the spatial elements of their work and connect it to data such as population data. The GIS data can be utilized for a variety of reasons, including transportation, drought analysis, agricultural, disease outbreak analysis, land occupation, and so on. At the same time, GIS enables the storing of a large volume of data in a secure manner, as well as access to it at any time and on a rapid basis. So, the purpose of this chapter is to examine previous works and research in this area to better understand the current status and capabilities; also, it will be an attempt to prepare for future improvements in the field of GIS.

There are also many challenges faced by machine learning in the part of lack of data and as well as the quality of data. Quality issues in machine learning lead to improper predictions and classification. As the technology is still evolving real-world complexities are sometimes mishandled by the algorithms. Ethical issues are very much prominent in countering human geographical contents. They’re also voids left for spatially explicit machine learning and other spatiotemporal models. This vacuum of Spatio-temporal models hinders the growth of machine learning applications in geography.

In the future, machine learning will be more robust with advanced GeoAI algorithms which can encounter issues like handling large and complex data. More spatial explicit models and algorithms will be available to provide solutions to complex and multifaceted real-world problems. The emergence of automatic machine learning (AutoML) is showing the path for such a solution. In solving geographical problems of the future integration is required between the conceptualisation and implementation of models. As artificial intelligence has started touching down nearly all spheres of life, machine learning is going to play a key role in unlocking the different mysteries of nature near future.

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.”