Zomato planning to set up ‘Rest Points’ for its delivery partners

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 16, 2023 | Technology

Online food delivery platform Zomato on Thursday said it is building public infrastructure called ‘Rest Points’ to support the entire gig economy and delivery partners of various companies.

In a blog post, the company’s Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal informed that it already has two ‘Rest Points’ operational in Gurgaon and plans to create more rest points in the most dense clusters of its food delivery business.

Rest Points offer clean drinking water, phone-charging stations, access to washrooms, high-speed internet, a 247 helpdesk and first-aid support.

Goyal, however, did not disclose the number or the location for setting up these Rest Points.

“We recognise that delivery partners face multiple challenges while on the job, from navigating through traffic to delivering orders in inclement weather conditions.

“In line with our commitment to their welfare, we are delighted to announce The Shelter Project under which we have started building public infrastructure (called Rest Points) to support the entire gig economy and delivery partners of various companies,” Goyal said in the blog post.

Goyal further noted that “we believe that by providing a space for all delivery partners to rest, recharge, and take a moment for themselves, we can create a better environment that promotes their physical and mental health.”

A study by government think tank NITI Aayog had recently estimated that in 2020-21, 77 lakh workers were engaged in India’s gig economy, with the workforce expected to expand to 2.35 crore workers by 2029-30.

Delivery boys, cleaners, consultants, bloggers, etc., are all part of the gig economy, and face several challenges related to social security, gratuity, minimum wage protection and working hours, as they are engaged in livelihoods outside the traditional employer-employee arrangement.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Intel launches new Xeon workstation processors for professional creators

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 16, 2023 | Technology

Chip maker Intel has launched the new Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), which are built for professional creators to provide massive performance for media and entertainment, engineering and data science professionals.

The new workstation processors are now available for pre-order from industry partners, with system availability beginning in March, according to the company.

“Our new Intel Xeon desktop workstation platform is uniquely designed to unleash the innovation and creativity of professional creators, artists, engineers, designers, data scientists and power users — built to tackle both today’s most demanding workloads as well as the professional workloads of the future,” Roger Chandler, Intel vice president and general manager, Creator and Workstation Solutions, Client Computing Group, said in a statement.

Moreover, the company said that the Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 processor series enable unprecedented scalability for increased performance with a breakthrough new compute architecture, faster cores, and new embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) packaging.

The new processors also provide the high-end computing foundation that professionals these days require for the future of computing.

Further, the chip maker mentioned that with DDR5 RDIMM memory, PCIe Gen 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6E, the new processors give professionals the cutting-edge platform technologies they require for the compute workloads of the future.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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2,767 complaints against influencers processed, most violations on Insta

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 16, 2023 | Technology

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Thursday said it has processed 2,767 complaints since coming up with influencer guidelines in May 2021.

More than half of the violations have been found on Meta-owned Instagram platform, while Alphabet’s Youtube contributed a third of them, the self-regulatory organisation for the advertising industry said.

The body said in over 90 per cent of the cases, there were modifications required.

“…the Central Consumer Protection Authorities also now require disclosure of material connection between brands and influencers. Hence, non-disclosures are potential violations of the law,” the body’s chief executive and secretary general Manisha Kapoor said.

In FY22, the total number of violations stood at 1,592, with virtual digital assets like bitcoins topping with nearly 24 per cent, and followed closely by personal care category which accounted for 23 per cent.

In the first nine months of FY23 (April-December 2022), there were 1,175 complaints received with personal care category topping by contributing a third of them, followed by food and beverage at 16 per cent.

Instagram accounted for 53 per cent of the violations in FY22, which has increased to 65 per cent in the first nine months of FY23, while in the case of Youtube, the same has declined from 37.8 per cent to 27 per cent.

The body also conducted a survey of 820 respondents, which found 79 per cent of them saying they trust influencers and 90 per cent saying they have made purchases based on influencer endorsements.

The survey said transparency and honesty about brand associations is the number one reason for influencer trust, followed by relatable lifestyle and content.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Foxconn secures new manufacturing site in Vietnam after turmoil in China

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 16, 2023 | Technology

Apples biggest supplier Foxconn has secured a new site in Vietnam, as the Taiwanese giant shifts production away from China after facing major supply-chain disruptions late last year after the lifting of zero-Covid policy.

According to South China Morning Post, Taiwan-based Foxconn (earlier known as Hon Hai Precision Industry) has signed a lease with Saigon-Bac Giang Industrial Park Corp to occupy a plot of 45 hectares for around $62.5 million to meet “operational needs and expand production capacity”.

In an exchange filing, the Taiwanese giant said the lease will run through February 2057.

“Foxconn signed a $300 million agreement with a Vietnamese developer last August to build a new factory in Bac Giang, where it already produces iPads and AirPods,” according to the report.

Foxconn is also planning to increase its workforce at its plant in India over the next two years.

The company announced a $500 million investment in its Indian subsidiary in December last year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, in the company’s quarterly earnings call earlier this month, said that the Covid-19 challenges “significantly impacted the supply of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max and lasted through most of December”.

Meanwhile, the key Apple supplier reported strong revenue for January that surged 48.2 per cent (year-on-year), after facing significant Covid-related disruptions in October and November in 2022.

“With operations returning to normal and product shipments increasing at the Zhengzhou campus, revenue in January delivered strong double-digit growth both on MoM and YoY basis,” said Foxconn.

The company reported better components supply and strong customers’ pull-in. Smart consumer electronics products and computing products showed strong double-digit growth.

Foxconn’s biggest iPhone manufacturing facility in China, hit hard by Covid-related disruptions, gradually recovered and production reached about 90 per cent of maximum capacity in early January.

Foxconn Technology Group’s facility in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou is the world’s largest iPhone factory, which saw major disruptions in the last three months of 2022 caused by the pandemic controls.

In a New Year’s message, Foxconn Chairman and CEO Young Liu had said the Taipei-based company may see a more difficult and challenging path ahead.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Sundar Pichai pushes Googlers to spend more time improving its Bard AI

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 16, 2023 | Technology

Google CEO, Sundar Pichai has asked employees to spend 2 to 4 hours on improving Bard, Google’s recently-released AI chatbot, reported Business Insider (BI) citing a leaked company-wide email. Bard is the company’s AI chatbot that Google intends to integrate into search.

The email indicates urgency in Google’s approach in order to win the next generation of AI-based search. Google has been pushed to the sidelines as Microsoft has garnered attention for its investment in OpenAI. Notably, OpenAI created ChatGPT, which has gained popularity in recent months. ChatGPT, the chatbot, was released in 2022.

It can respond to broad, open-ended questions with human-like answers, the report said.

Last week, Microsoft released a revamped version of its Bing search engine powered by ChatGPT. CEO, Microsoft, Satya Nadella called it a “new day” for search.

Addressing Googlers in his memo, Pichai wrote, “I know this moment is uncomfortably exciting, and that’s to be expected: the underlying technology is evolving rapidly with so much potential”.

He added, “The most important thing we can do right now is to focus on building a great product and developing it responsibly,” as quoted by BI.

The report added that last week, when Bard provided an incorrect response to a question about the James Webb Space Telescope, Google suffered reputational damage. In addition to that, the stocks of the company declined more than 9 per cent as the news of the mistake gained traction.

Earlier, Google saw internal turmoil over its AI-based initiatives, as some employees feared the technology was not ready and could cause harm, like the spread of bias or misinformation. At the same time, data and user feedback are an advantage for Google as they help Google further improve responses in its AI systems, the report said.

“AI has gone through many winters and springs,” Pichai concluded. “And now it’s blooming again. As an AI-first company, we’ve been working towards this for many years and are ready for it,” Pichai said, as per the report.

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One Indian mobile user now consuming 19.5GB data on average a month

by Hansraj Agrawal | Feb 16, 2023 | Technology

Average data consumption per user in India reached 19.5GB per user a month in 2022, which is equivalent to 6,600 songs, a report showed on Thursday.

Mobile data traffic in India jumped 3.2 times in the last five years, reaching over 14 exabytes per month, according to Nokia’s annual Mobile Broadband Index (MBiT) report.

The report revealed that pan-India mobile data usage per month grew from 4.5 exabytes in 2018 to 14.4 exabytes in 2022.

Together, 4G and 5G subscribers now account for almost 100 per cent of the total mobile data traffic in the country.

“India has seen a massive uptake of mobile broadband based on successful deployment of 4G LTE networks. We believe that 5G will take mobile broadband consumption to the next level in India by enabling new digital use cases for both consumer and enterprise segments,” said Sanjay Malik, SVP and Head of India Market at Nokia.

At an aggregate level, total mobile data consumed in India is expected to more than double by 2024.

Over 70 million 5G devices are estimated to have been shipped to India in 2022, indicating a strong traction for 5G in the market.

According to the report, enterprise spending on private 5G networks will be driven by new use cases in diverse industry verticals, including manufacturing, utilities, transportation and healthcare, among others in India.

The country’s investment in private wireless networks is expected to reach around $250 million by 2027.

“It is essential that this growth is managed in a sustainable manner while supporting India’s aim to become a trillion-dollar digital economy,” Malik added.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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