In a lockdown or a curfew like situation, what do people commonly rely on, for updates? If the first thought in your mind is News Channels, , you’re deeply mistaken. With hours of idleness in hand, all the major part of the population does is procrastinate. And what better way to procrastinate than Social Media? A study shows a massive 87% increase in social media usage amid the present lockdown.

With every other person from the community having a significant amount of “followers”, and having unguided access so as to post whatsoever they wish to, this Social Media that seems harmless mode of communication and fun to many, may act as the biggest curse to mankind. One may ponder so as to why? In the times of a pandemic, fear, leading to widespread panic, can worsen the situation multiple folds. And “What causes unwanted fear, one may ask?

False Information.

False Information is news, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately (sometimes even without realising the consequences) misinform or deceive readers and thus creating panic.

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

One of the major observable effects of widespread panic is Panic Buying. People start buying large quantities of a particular commodity or product due to sudden fears of a forthcoming shortage.­­­

Another effect is people sorting to untrue, exaggerated and dubious medical claims and hoaxes which they see on Social Media. People don’t check facts behind these claims and hence start believing all the wrong information. A lot many times these are backed by the strong beliefs and faiths that the communities have been carrying for ages, some right -some wrong.

According to an article by The Guardian, UK Anti-Fake News Unit deals with up to 10 false Coronavirus articles a day. One can only imagine the scale of such articles and the harm they cause.

Despite of the above points Social Media has proven to be a double edged sword. It’s both – a blessing and a curse.

A blessing in the form of a platform for Global Communication. Pandemics require co-ordinated global response strategies. People across the globe are able to communicate with each other. The people in the affected areas are able to help out those who are not yet a part of these areas; doing so by preventing them from making the same mistakes they did. When a cure isn’t known, these precautions are the only ray of hope in these dark times.

Social Media also a huge role in spreading information such as the people getting to know the requirement of Social Distancing and implementing it.

People are starting to understand the need to implement quarantine measures and curfew in the cities.

And how can we forget its main advantage for all the procrastinators out there? ENTERTAINMENT. How could we ever survive isolation without social media?

Not only this, Social Media has proved to be a platform where a good initiative can be organised and scaled up. People have and are continuing to co-ordinate donations in order to help the needy in these dark times.

To sum it up, we the people need to be more responsible when we decide to share or when we receive information to scrutinise it well and check its validation. We need the check if there are any facts backing the claim of such posts and thoroughly research if it is actually true? We need to do this so as to prevent worsening of the situation that we are already in.

What is called for is the right balance of free speech and responsible conduct till the time we do not have well drafted policies and mechanisms that address the digital creation and spread of misinformation about disease outbreaks. Let’s decide not to create an infodemic of the Pandemic that we are all struggling to come out of, as winners.

The enormity of what Goethe meant when he said, Nothing is harder to bear than a succession of fair Days, dawns on me as we tread our life paths each day with diminished physicality. Fair Day, here connotes idea of happiness sought. Succession of fair days imply consistency of happiness sought hitherto.

As we sit here and watch with astonishment the invisible hand of nature turning our lives upside down and outside in, a latent existential crisis seems to be surfacing. While in this zone, a presentation by two of my students in positive psychology class triggered a chain of thought that implored expression.  So, here I am cogitating the very idea of Happiness.

As a Psychological construct happiness  is treated in three key ways: happiness as a global assessment of Life and it’s facets; Happiness as a recollection of past emotional experiences and happiness as an aggregation of multiple emotional reactions across time. Thus, in general happiness entails satisfaction from one’s life, good mood, positive emotions and feeling enjoyment.

The glamour and allure associated with this human state is reflected in the Culture- expressed in art, cinema and literature; and institutions – Pursuit of Happiness is a key aspect of American constitution and now an officially accepted parameter of a nation’s vitality (UNO’s happiness index). Consequently, this chase for happiness puts happiness at a pedestal where it is eternally sought but seldom achieved.

A line of research demonstrates that more people value happiness or put it on pedestal more likely they are to experience lesser satisfaction from life. A very high value given to happiness is also associated with lower well being and even symptoms of depression. The explanation lies in the fact that constant pitting of life situation against these surreal goals leaves one dissatisfied, wanting and feeling inadequate. In the famous Madmen series, the protagonist quips – “What is happiness? It’s a moment before you need more happiness”. Doesn’t it somehow capture the flimsiness of the notion of happiness; the more we seek happiness the more it alludes us.

A comprehensive research done in 2011 suggests that there are positive outcomes of happiness but these do have limitations of intensity, context and form. Intense happiness experienced, ceases to have positive outcomes and can be potentially detrimental as it increases the propensity for riskier behaviors. Tasks involving confrontation as against collaboration have been found to be facilitated by angrier emotional states than happier emotional states. Also, positive emotional states draw upon easily accessible cognition, belief and stereotypes where as negative emotional states lead to more reflective and systematic processing of information. In terms of form, the more spontaneous and “go with the flow” form of happiness leads to more desirable outcomes as against happiness modulated by increased attempt to control the positive emotions through heightened self-monitoring or self-centricity.

Intuitively, there are things that make us truly happy but  questions worth pondering -is that feeling perennial? felt to the same degree with the same intensity perpetually? If the answer is no, let’s rethink.

Have we ever wondered why nature endowed us with multiplicity of feelings and thoughts, probably the nature wanted it so as this ability enabled us to ensure survival and propagate species. Maybe the experience of happiness is overrated.  May be its time we reflect on our very personal notions of happiness, assess our very individual struggles in the pursuit of happiness and more importantly accept and embrace the rainbow of emotions we are pre-wired to experience.

It was somewhere in December when most of us were settling in for the winter holiday season that we started to hear about a virus spreading in some part of China. By January 2020, Indian media had locked in on the virus and soon Covid-19 rose to the headlines. At the time of writing this, there are over 6 lakh infected worldwide and over 1000 detected in India. The numbers are climbing alarmingly.
India reported its first case of Covid-19 in January among returnees from the epicenter of the outbreak. The cases recovered and we were happy that the virus had been put in check with no new case in India for almost a month, while each day, the contagion reached new shores across the world. By the first week of March, however, our sense of vulnerability became real as new cases were detected, all with a recent history of overseas travel. The counter started ticking faster each day, as compounding started to play.
The government of India started with advisories and restrictions on people traveling from the epicenter of the outbreak from January 17. People arriving from countries with reported cases of the outbreak were being screened and quarantined if needed. This is when some cases were reported in the media which caught my attention.
There were instances of people being uncooperative during the screening and not disclosing their travel details accurately beyond ports of entry and exit. Positively tested cases or their co-traveling family members were reported of not only violating self-quarantine but recklessly absconding by train to their native places, jeopardizing the entire containment effort. What were they thinking? For sure, these people understood what was asked of them and why. As well as the impact of non-compliance. They didn’t belong to the cross-section of the demography which was impervious to facts of the contagion.
While the State pushed for social distancing, even its representatives and other public figures were blatantly flouting the prescription.
How can we explain such apparently nonchalant behavior? This is an important question. If we can better understand the mechanics of behavior, we will be wiser for the days ahead.
Knowing what is right doesn’t mean much unless you do what is right – Theodore Roosevelt.

Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system including the brain and the spinal cord. Neuroscience is interdisciplinary and works closely with other disciplines of study like mathematics, computer science, chemistry, philosophy, psychology, and medicine.

Consumer neuroscience is the application of neuro-scientific approach to consumer behavior studies. Consumer neuroscience is an emerging field of study that integrates psychology, neuroscience, economics and marketing. Consumer neuroscience attempts to understand how a consumer makes choice leading to final purchase.

Neuroscience is gaining fast momentum in consumer behavior studies because researchers have expressed dissatisfaction over the outcome of conventional survey methods. By implementing neuro-scientific methods the marketers intends to obtain information that cannot be known through conventional market research methods.

The general belief is to trust what a customer does than what a customer says. The ultimate aim of consumer neuroscientists is to decipher why consumers behave the way they behave and know their probable future behavior. Likewise the motive of every marketer is to understand consumer behavior towards marketing strategies and design marketing plan to suit customer preferences.

Neuroscience Toolkit

Most popular and widely available toolkit to study consumer neuroscience are mentioned below:

• EEG (electroencephalogram): This is used to detect brain-based signals that can relay information about consumers purchase intentions when exposed to external stimuli.
• Eye tracking: Eye tracking is used to examine consumer attention when presented with various brand/product alternatives in the environment.
• GSR (Galvanic skin response): GSR measures and registers slight changes in the responses of skin conductance of the consumer after his/her exposure to a marketing stimulus.
• fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance): It is employed to map brain activity of consumer through detecting changes associated with blood flow in the body.
• Facial Coding: measures the voluntary and involuntary movements of facial muscles, participants are exposed to investigation stimuli.

The list of tools/apparatus used for consumer neuroscience is long, attempted to mention only the popular ones. Depending on the financial viability and outcome required consumer neuroscientists may employ relevant tool or combination of tools.

The fascinating outcomes of neuro-marketing is yet to be realized, however it is emerging as a reliable tool to global marketing companies to know their customers in various cultures. Such consumer research will help bridge the gap in consumer understanding for companies operating in cross-cultural environment.

In India neuroscience research is still in nascent stage and its potential is yet to be realized here, barring few start-ups and some multi-national companies, consumer neuroscience research is yet to find some takers among the corporate houses. High cost involved in setting-up labs or outsourcing such services may be the reason for not using neuroscience as popular market research method.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/how-neuroscience-can-help-global-companies-bridge-the-gap-with-indian-customers/articleshow/57818955.cms

Most of us would have sat through PowerPoint presentations where the right mix of content delivery and attention-grabbing slides was not achieved. That is how one sees the death of potential proposal through powerpoint even before it takes a shape. This article focuses on tips and tricks to make your slides appealing and help you leave the desired impact to push your proposal.

Figure 1: A poorly designed slide

I’ve found that a good structure to the talk is the best way to convey point across. The outline view in Microsoft Word is designed to give an overview and is a good place to start. Outlining the presentation makes it easy to concentrate on the topic and content, without being waylaid by details like colour and animation. The entire outline can be ported to PowerPoint using the send to PowerPoint command.

Figure 2: Outline view of MS Word

Do make use of the layout view in PowerPoint to keep the slides consistent. A large variety of layouts are available to suit any need. Use a clean sans serif font which will be readable from a distance. Use sentence case and do not reduce the size of the font below 22 points.
Make your sentences brief and to the point. Ideally, everything should be bulleted and no bullet should span more than 2 lines. Use simple words to cue you and keep the audience engaged.
Be careful about colour. Remember that projectors do not reproduce colours faithfully so try to test the colours on an external display. Avoid using too many colours for fonts and keep it consistent through the presentation.

Figure 3: The colour wheel – Colours opposite to each other go better together

Use illustrations charts, graphics wherever feasible. Source your pictures carefully and make sure they’re of a good resolution. A graphic that breaks up into pixels on the screen or appears skewed reflects poor preparation.
Remember to omit any unnecessary details so that you can stick to the time. You should never have to stand in front of an audience and skip through slides. Plan it so that the presentation carries the right amount of detail for the right amount of time.
Learn to use the presenters view of PowerPoint to practice. This allows you to see the slide, your own notes and the time, on one simple screen. A number of shortcuts are available to jump from slide to slide, show a black or white screen, see headings of slides bracket open (Ctrl-S). So you can jump neatly from one slide to another.

Figure 4: Some handy shortcuts while presenting

A good set of slides is important to keep the audience focused on the matter. Of course, the content and other skills matter as much. I hope the above points will help you make your presentation subtle yet powerful.

Role of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

In today’s fast paced digital marketing landscape, marketers are all looking for innovative ways to tap customer and engage with them to provide a better customer experience. Artificial intelligence (AI) has great potential to create effective dynamic marketing strategies and improve sales and marketing efforts of the business. In fact without AI, it will be difficult for business to survive in competitive landscape and stay ahead in competition.
What is AI and how it is enhancing marketing efforts
As per the survey conducted by TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) of 835 companies in 2017, AI is most widely used by companies across various functional areas of organization, particularly to discuss about marketing AI could beneficial in following ways as shown in the diagram below

Artificial intelligence in marketing (AI Marketing) is a tool for leveraging customer data and AI concepts like machine learning, deep learning to predict customer behavior and their next move to enhance the customer experience and journey.

Below are the examples of leading brands which, successfully implemented AI in Marketing

1. Nike has launched an online store based on augmented reality and projection systems that allows customers to design their own sneakers in-store. The system displays the design on the blank shoes then the chosen designs are printed on the sneakers and available to the customer in about 90 minutes. This customer engaging feature serves two purpose one to collect data about customer preferences for sneaker brand and second it drove sales.  Further this data is analyzed with machine learning algorithms and Nike design its future products and deliver personalized product recommendations to the customer through different digital marketing tools.

2. Starbucks use mobile app and its loyalty card to collect and analyze customer data. It uses predictive analytics technique for data analysis and sends personalized content through marketing emails and messages to customers. These content include recommendations when they are approaching a local store also suggest offers to increase the customer’s average order value.

3. Alibaba a retail giant has opened a physical “Fashion AI” store in Hong Kong with aim of streamlining the fashion retail experience to the customer through the use of Artificial Intelligence.
4. Southeastern Europe’s Mobile Gaming Company  is also using AI to convert players from the free version of its game to paid version.

5. BMW’s has launched AI-enhanced sports car this is designed for those who values exclusivity and early adoption AI technology. The AI enhanced technology first learns about its driver and then automatically systems are adjusted to enhance cabin experience to suit an individual. BMW’s focus on connected cars and technology-enabled cars is to keep its customers brand loyal.

To summarize, AI is most widely used for customer targeting, to get customer insight and thereby anticipating future customer purchase and presenting personalized offers accordingly. It improves upon media buying and monitoring social media comments to determine overall brand affinity and issues. Advancements in Artificial Intelligence are offering companies, better ways to enhance customer engagement, customer experience and brand loyalty.

Image Source:

Here’s Why AI in Performance Marketing is Here to Scale

https://hbr.org/2017/04/how-companies-are-already-using-ai

Technology has made us a global community in the literal sense of the term. Mankind now has a completely integrated information marketplace capable of moving ideas to any place on this planet in minutes. Ideas will flee from manipulation or onerous regulation of its value or use and no government can restrain it for long.

Human experience has shown that every technological change brings with it some unforeseen problems, taking advantage of which the law breakers explore new techniques to perpetrate their criminal activities. Internet is one such grey area, which has given rise to the menace of cybercrimes. The computer based global communication system has crossed the territorial borders thus creating a distinct field for online activity warranting global attention.

As a saying in criminology goes – “a crime will happen where and only when the opportunity avails itself.” Until recently, we were aware of only traditional types of crimes like murder, rape, theft, extortion, robbery, dacoity etc. But now with the development and advancement of science and technology there came into existence machines like computers and facilities like internet. The internet has opened up a whole new virtual heaven for the people good and bad, clever and naive to enter and interact with lot of diverse cultures and sub-cultures, geography and demographics being no bar. The very same virtues of internet when gone in wrong hands or when exploited by people with dirty minds and malicious intentions, make it a virtual hell. Stories of copyright theft, hacking and cracking, virus attacks and plain hoaxes etc. have mounted up in the last few years. It is fascinating to study cyber offences like cyber hacking, cyber fraud, cyber pornography, cyber terrorism, cyber stalking, cyber ragging etc. and also the European, UK and Indian approaches towards these offences.[1]

Despite such a great influence of computers and internet on day-to-day lives, the fact remains that only a fraction of people know what computer and internet is all about? There is a paucity of systematic study which elaborately discusses the basic concepts of cyber world like meaning, evolution, generations, types, characteristics and major components of computers; forms of networks, history of Internet in India, services and limitations of Internet etc.

Internet in the present millennium has become all pervasive and omnipresent. Internet in a sense is analogous to the high seas which no one owns yet people of all the nationalities use it. Cybercrimes have emanated from development of Internet or in simple language we can say from computer network. Cybercrime is an inevitable evil having its origin in the growing dependence of mankind on computer in modern life, the reason being that computers despite high technology devices are extremely vulnerable. Thus, whenever any crime or criminal activity takes place with use of computer, it constitutes a cybercrime. It is for that reason cybercrime is defined as an unlawful act wherein the computer is either tool or target or both.

Cybercrimes are such harmful activities in the cyberspace which may cause damage to a person, property or even the state or society. . there are many cybercrimes which are being committed by offenders all over the world using computer technology. Being radically different from the conventional crimes, the law enforcement agencies find it difficult to tackle cybercrimes with existing infrastructural mechanism because of lack of adequate knowledge about the computer operating system.

The ‘Cyber Manthan’ has bestowed many gifts to humanity but they come with unexpected pitfalls. It has become a place to do all sort of activities which are prohibited by law. It is increasingly being used for pornography, gambling, trafficking in human organs and prohibited drugs, hacking, infringing copyright, terrorism, violating individual privacy, money laundering, fraud, software piracy and corporate espionage, to name a few.

A legal framework for the cyber world was conceived in India in the form of E- Commerce Act, 1998. Afterwards, the basic law for the cyberspace transactions in India has emerged in the form of the Information Technology Act, 2000 which was amended in the year 2008. The IT Act amends some of the provisions of our existing laws i.e. the Indian Penal Code, 1860; the Indian Evidence Act, 1872; the Bankers Book Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Though since 2000 the IT Act is in place in India for curbing cyber crimes, but the problem is that still this statute is more on papers than on execution because lawyers, police officers, prosecutors and Judges feel handicapped in understanding its highly technical terminology.

Due to the global nature of this crime it is required to have policing at international level as also active cooperation of the international community. The European Convention on Cybercrime, 2001 was one of the many praiseworthy attempts to tackle this crime, as it laid down guidelines to be followed by the member states in combating cybercrime. The convention not only dealt with the changes and improvements in the substantive part of criminal law but also referred to the procedural aspect which must be taken into consideration while restructuring the existing law to meet the current needs of developing technology. Out of variety of crimes, the convention chose ten specific cybercrimes and urged the member states to include them in their information technology laws and provide a concrete mechanism to fight against them. The crux of the matter is that uniformly accepted standard cybercrime preventive laws should not vary from place to place. In other words, uniformity is ensured with reference to substantive cyber laws of various nations.

The countries which have updated their cyber law to suit the needs of developing computer technology are notably, United States, Canada, Australia, Japan Germany and other European countries. So far as India is concerned, it has introduced a comprehensive information technology law by amending the principle Information Technology Act, 2000 by the I.T. (Amendment) Act, 2008 w.e.f 5^th February, 2008. The amending Act has inserted as many as 15 new cybercrimes which are punishable under the I.T. Act.  Apart from these crimes, as many as 21 provisions has been added in Indian Penal to include within its ambit, certain criminal acts relating to cyberspace and electronic media; e.g. Sec 29-A which specifies that where the words ‘record’ or ‘document’ occurs in the code, it shall include an electronic record or document.

The scope & extent of cyber crimes is also other problem which is extremely alarming. The threat which started as simple form of Hacking done by some computer geeks for fun has now taken one of form as Cyber Terrorism, which need no special explanation about level of devastation which it can create. Extent of cyber crimes have went from few Thousand Dollar financial losses to Billon Dollar losses; from privacy threats to big multinationals to each and every individual today having a smart phone with them today.

Broadly speaking, the law enforcement agencies all over the world are confronted with four major problems while dealing with cybercrimes in a network environment; which are technical, legal, operational and jurisdictional in nature.

Technical challenges are cybercrimes such as; hacking, stealing data, espionage, exchange of pornographic material, blackmailing etc involve detection of source of communication which is a complicated task. Therefore, the cyber criminals find it easy to impersonate on the internet and hide their identity.

Further complicating cyber crime enforcement is the area of legal jurisdiction. Like pollution control legislation, one country cannot by itself effectively enact laws that comprehensively address the problem of internet crimes without cooperation from other nations. While the major international organizations, like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G-8, are seriously discussing cooperative schemes, but many countries do not share the urgency to combat cyber crimes for many reasons, including different values concerning piracy or espionage or the need to address more pressing social problems. These countries, inadvertently or not, present the cyber criminal with a safe haven to operate. Never before has it been so easy to commit a crime in one jurisdiction while hiding behind the jurisdiction of another. Though the issue of jurisdiction in cyberspace cannot be settled spontaneously, but still a global effort in this direction is the need of hour.[2] The researcher has made an attempt to exhaustively analyze these jurisdictional riddles and has suggested the evolution of a uniform international law applicable to transnational cyber crimes.

The legal challenge emerges from the fact that cyber criminality is no longer confined to the developed countries alone but it has assumed global dimensions in recent decades. The conventional legal techniques of investigation of cybercrimes are inadequate particularly, in case of cross country crimes. The problem becomes more complex because of lack of any universally accepted definition of cybercrime.

The operational challenges faced by the law enforcement agencies because of lack of adequate cyber forensic technology for dealing with cybercrimes constitute another in-road which renders it difficult to collect and preserve sufficient evidence against the person accused of cybercrime, thereby resulting in his/her acquittal by the court.

The jurisdictional challenges impending the efficient handling of cybercrime investigation result out of widespread inter-connectivity of the computer networks and the supporting infrastructure such as tele-communication, information dissemination on website etc. In case of cross-country cyber dispute or crime, the problem often arises as to the law of which country would be applicable to the case in hand.

Hence, all such matters of new cyber crimes and problems involved give rise to new bulging dimensions to cybercrimes. How far national and international efforts are compatible in dodging them is to be seen. Meanwhile a regular cyber space citizen should take proper precautions and care to avoid nasty loss of property and life too by becoming the victim of cybercrimes.

  Top 5 Job Skills to achieve success in 2020

The world is evolving and moving fast, acquiring new and relevant skills is essential to be able to make our mark in the Corporate world. The Companies of today need employees to have strong skill sets to be able to add value and handle complex tasks.

Image credits: http://dawgen.blogspot.com/2017/11/research

Data Analytics: has emerged as one of the most critical skills for the coming decade, the understanding, use and application of data for business decision making and analysis

Design Thinking: this skills helps us to apply creativity, challenge assumptions, innovation and problem solving to work and business, it fuels the integration and assimilation of a business requirement, engages people into a panoramic or 360 view of work and the world. It relates decision making and impact on business and its environment.

Critical Thinking: makes us view and review work with a critics perspective, it helps us understand what has been done, how it has been done, what influenced it and what can be done better. It builds a unique analysis from the view of an outsider, basically similar to stepping out of the frame and reviewing wok done.

Emotional Intelligence: it is the strongest skill to help us manage emotions for self and others, as Daniel Goldman rightly shares in his theories, it helps to build strong and lasting relationships and work in harmony with our environment. It is essential for people management and to achieve success in life and at work.

Collaboration: working together joins the best qualities of each individual and binds them together, working alone limits our ability to achieve the best solution. Collaboration is the key for organizations to move ahead and business needs us to pool our resources and abilities to achieve our targets.