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  • 6 Ways to Boost your Retirement Planning (Savings)

    Did you know that the way you plan for retirement affects your future’s plans? It’s always advisable to start saving at an early age, especially if you want to get the best benefits from your retirement plan.

    It is a common fact that the majority of the population do not save for retirement at all. This is a worrying trend that needs to somehow change eventually.

    The moment you begin approaching 30 years is when you really begin seeing life in all its aspects. You see the reality of retirement fast approaching and you do not know what to do at this point. You can approach financial advisor for planning. But to plan a perfect retirement life plan then you should consider following things:

    Look at your goals

    There is a notion that when you are growing your family and career then everything stops at that point. Remember that this is added responsibility that needs to be sorted out so make sure that you have a budget and a financial plan. Your savings for retirement should also be the thing that you need to consider in your financial planning.

    There are things that you can surely put off now even as you seek to boost your savings. The most important thing in your mind should be your retirement goals.

    Life after Retirement

    There can be many things which you want to do in your retirement life like:

    • Your child’s destination wedding
    • Travel plan with family
    • Owning a beach house
    • Owning a green organic farm, etc

    Start early

    All above mentioned things are possible if you plan your retirement early. Compound interest on our early investments add up to significant multiples. You can start right from the age when you start earning. Younger the person is at the time of allocating funds towards a retirement investment, higher is the resulting payout at the time of investment-maturity.

    Also Read:

    Use time

    Your retirement age may be getting closer but it is good to note that you still have enough time on your side to save and invest. What you can do is to maximize on your employer savings plan(ESP). An employee savings plan (ESP) is a pooled investment account provided by an employer that allows employees to set aside a portion of their pre-tax wages for retirement savings or other long-term goals such as paying for college tuition or purchasing a home. This will give you the power of compounding that by saving a little you beat the odds of saving much later.

    Apart from EPS, below are the most common ways in which you can maintain your present standard of living after retirement.

    • Invest in mutual funds
    • Post office monthly income scheme (POMIS)
    • Fixed Deposits
    • Public provident fund (PPF)
    • Pension Funds
    • Senior Citizens Saving Scheme
    • You can buy physical property and put them on lease
    • Invest in Equity

    It’s better to invest in equity instruments to counteract inflation and accelerate the growth of your money. Investing in low risk investment will safe guard your money but will not grow your money.  

    Consider inflation

    One factor which can affect your retirement plan is inflation. Inflation can make your returns take a plunge and therefore, while choosing any plan, you must make sure that you have taken the futuristic price-rise projections into your consideration.

    You can boost your contributions

    It is a fact that most people have their income peaks during the ages of 34-56. These are the best years that you can have your retirement savings increased. This is very easy to achieve as you can make sure that you are contributing a percentage of your income rather than the whole amount.

    Also Read :

    Create contingency fund

    There can be unplanned expenses also which can affect your financial planning so you need to plan for such events also. Like, medical emergencies or business failure or unforeseen circumstances. These unexpected and unavoidable problems can affect your savings. So always plan to create contingency fund. Invest in health-insurance and specific plans simultaneously for such emergency situation.

    If you do that, then you are guaranteed of getting a boost of your retirement savings. That is why you need the right plan that will help you achieve the goals that you have for your family.

    Also Read:

  • Should you trade forex to make extra money?

    The Forex market was launched primarily in the 1970s, but today, it is a very diversified topic that involves thousands of active participants.

    Basically, the Forex market is a decentralized system of exchanging currencies that deals with everything ranging from buying, selling, or exchanging them at their prevailing rates.

    The term ‘Forex’ itself states ‘Foreign Exchange’ trading. This is a highly volatile market for which you require a strong trading strategy. Profits can be turned in only with a solid strategy as well as some substantial amount of experience. However, there is always the ‘risk’ quotient involved in any sort of trade for that matter. Hence, the entire concept becomes a subjective choice.

    A lot of us look for alternative income sources and might have even come across the Forex trade concept. Ever wondered of actually considering it as an additional medium of making extra money? We are here to list down some points for you regarding the same.

    Educate yourself and analyze the market-

    There is nothing better than educating yourself about what exactly the market is. As we are talking about alternative income sources, one shouldn’t ever be forced or pressurized to enter any platform due to peer pressure or just because it ‘sounds good.’Having complete and accurate knowledge about any such topic is very essential as all it involves is your effort, your time, and, most importantly, your money.

    The market includes the trading of currencies. Therefore, go ahead and choose a pair of currencies that have a good market performance. You are also required to do some very basic market analysis based on the overall performance, the risk involved, liquidity criteria, etc.

    Know your current financial conditions and restrictions-

    The Forex market is a place that faces cut-throat competition and stringent rules. However, if you are able to manage a very good lifestyle level, there is no hard rule for you to enter the market.

    However, go for it if you are totally knowledgeable and, most importantly, are willing to do so. But ensure that you know everything pertaining to it as well as about your investments because if things go wrong, you might lose a lot of money. Therefore, this is a very personal choice based solely on your requirements and decisions.

    Get a regulated broker and cross-check the history-

    If you are totally willing to enter the market and ready to make extra money, remember that you will have to begin by investing some amounts. For that, you will require a broker, pay him/her the brokerage, and make clever investment decisions.

    When you are choosing a broker, ensure that he/she is a regulated and legit broker. A regulated company will always show you its license, provide you with a verified account, and have no history of illicit activities.

    To stay on the safer side, always analyze your broker’s history through resources like newspaper articles, past charts, the prevailing currency pair insights, etc., to reassure that you and your investment intermediary have good cooperation while trading.

    CONCLUSION

    Hope you find this article useful to you in some way or another. Utilizing a platform like the Forex trade market for trading purposes is a very subjective choice and might differ from one person to another.

    Though it is a convenient medium, expands your trading arena, and gives you a better view of this market world, there is always the ‘risk’ factor involved, and that requires you to be extra careful.

    We put in our best efforts to educate our readers about forex trading in the best way possible. We subsequently suggest and encourage our readers to be vigilant when they enter the arena of forex trading.

  • Unknown Facts About Dropshipping | Dropshipping Facts That No One Tells You

    Dropshipping is a method for the retail of items in which the retailer acts as a middle man. The store does not keeps stocks of products, but transfers the orders of their customers to a wholesaler, the manufacturer of the product or another retailer and the order is shipped directly to the customer from them.

    Many e-commerce giants in today’s world started with dropshipping. The best example is Amazon. Dropshipping is better for you than other businesses if you want to enter the e-commerce field in your future. But, there are many facts about dropshipping that people generally do not know about. In this article, we will discuss some of these unknown facts about dropshipping and how these may affect your dropshipping business.

    Unknown Facts about Dropshipping

    • The common belief of some people is that dropshipping stores only sell cheap or low-quality products or products that they want to sell in bulk. But this idea is wrong. In fact, you can sell anything you want. You can sell items such as unique or expensive items and imported products on your dropshipping stores as long as there are customers who want to buy them. This relies only upon your preferences and the customers’ need. Many businesses and companies nowadays allow dropshipping stores to sell their products.
    • But, another thing to keep in mind is that not every company or store you approach will allow you to sell their products on your dropshipping store. Many of these have tie-ups with e-commerce websites or other dropshipping stores and may be unwilling to give you a chance. This is one of the biggest problems about dropshipping that it is hard to get suppliers for your store. But don’t lose hope. If you put enough effort and have patience, you will find someone who will give you a chance.

    Beginners guide:How to Start Dropshipping Business in India
    Do you ever dream of owning your business but you step back by looking at hugeinvestments and capital of starting the business, guess what now you can ownyour own e-commerce store and be the boss of your business. What if I told you you can start your own e-commerce business with lowinvestment a…
    StartupTalkyArbaaz sayed

    • Many stores will break your relationship with them if their products do not generate enough sales in your store. Like in any other business, it will take time to gain the trust of your suppliers and to maintain a good relationship with them.
    • People think that they need extreme coding skills and abilities or that they will need to hire a professional developer for the creation of their dropshipping website. But this is wrong. There are many platforms available that will let you create your own online store with no requirement of tech. Some of the famous ones are Shopify, BigCommerce, and Wix. The creation of a good website is the first step in starting your dropshipping business.
    Guide To Use Shopify For Creation Of Online Dropshipping Store
    • You should use the power of social media for advertising your products. The proper advertising of your products will increase the number of your customers many folds.

    How To Use Instagram For Your Dropshipping Business?
    Dropshipping is a method for the retail of items in which the retailer does notkeep stocks of products, but transfers the orders of their customers to awholesaler, the manufacturer of the product or another retailer and the order isshipped directly to the customer from them. Dropshipping has many…
    StartupTalkyYash Taneja

    • You should never make dropshipping your main work. Open a dropshipping store as a side business. In the beginning, you will only earn small amounts of money as the margin of profit in this field is very low. Even if your online store has become a very big one, it is not a guarantee that it will generate large revenues forever. So just stick to your primary work and let the dropshipping store be your side-business which you can use to either gain some experience or to earn a few extra bucks.
    • The competition in the dropshipping business has been increased significantly in the past few years. Therefore, it is not an easy task to establish your own dropshipping store among a crowd of them who have already established themselves. The key is to provide your customers with good support service and good quality products and to answer every need of your customers.
    • You will need to do a lot of research on products that will be of a greater profit for you and which are in demand at the time. In other words, you need to study the demand patterns of your customers. For example, in current times, the products that are in huge demand are protective face masks and hand gloves, hand sanitizers, and more.
    • You will need to analyze the statistics of your customers by using tools such as Google Analytics. It will tell you about the locations with the highest number of your customers, the average age group of your customers, the percentage of male and female customers on your store. It will also give you details about which of your products are getting the highest engagement and how many people visit your website each day. You need to use this knowledge to improve your store.
    Dropshipping Facts
    Information Provided By Google Analytics

    Effect of Coronavirus outbreak on Dropshippers
    The coronavirus outbreak [https://startuptalky.com/tag/coronavirus-outbreak/] has reached almost every corner of the world, with cases only continuing to soarday by day. In the months since the virus has emerged in Wuhan, China, therehave already been signs of a shift in consumer behaviour all ov…
    StartupTalkyVarad Kitey

    • You should be able to provide good customer service to your customers otherwise, you may lose them. Some of the areas in which customers may require support are the Delivery status of their product/s, re-availability of goods, shipment details of their areas, etc.

    Conclusion

    The bottom line is that the dropshipping business may prove useful to you in terms of experience and revenues. But you must not fully rely on it as a full-time business. The above facts are either unknown to people or they ignore it. But these facts must be considered if you have or are planning to open your own dropshipping store. Have a little patience and consistency, and your dropshipping online store will flourish and grow and reach new heights.

  • Why your Brand can’t Risk Missing out on Digital Transformation in the 21st Century

    Digital transformation is the fundamental transformation of a brand by integrating digital technology into its processes and operations in a bid to leverage the potential and opportunities that digital technologies present to today’s businesses.

    It is a cultural change that challenges the status quo and streamlines business processes and customer expectations to meet the present and future shifts in business trends.

    Indeed, in this digital age, any company that intends to compete favorably would necessarily inculcate digital transformation in its vision. That said, here are some of the reasons why your businesses terribly needs digital transformation.

    Also Read: Streamlining Digital Transformation: What You Should & Shouldn’t Be Spending On

    Digital Competition

    Digital transformation is helping businesses to focus on their customers’ insight to grow their business. With the elimination of geographical barriers and the globalization of commerce, there is increasing competition among brands on a global scale.

    Today all you need is an online presence and top-notch business intelligence to be able to transact business with partners who are continents away. Companies that have not aligned with this trend will continue to miss out on this opportunity, while those who have embraced digital transformation reserve the potential for limitless expansion and growth.

    If your business has not incorporated digital transformation in its operations, regardless of how long it has been established, you stand the risk of stagnation and losing out to the newer digital start-ups. You could remedy this situation by hiring professionals that render business transformation services to put you back in the front of the pack.

    Enhance Business Intelligence

    Digitization has increased the level of business intelligence that companies have access to. Artificial intelligence machines effectively analyze big data gathered via digitally enhanced means. The level of analysis is beyond human capacity and provides the kind of insights that allow modern businesses to anticipate and meet the needs of their target market effectively.

    Thus, digital transformation is making brands more prominent and better by providing improved business intelligence that plays essential roles in contemporary corporate environment.

    Employee Efficiency

    More modern businesses now desire enhanced agile hybrid IT services and flexible networking capability. Revolutionary artificial intelligence handles a lot of mundane tasks, thus allowing employees to focus on core business functions. This move away from manual processes and automated processes increases staff efficiency, motivation, and makes them more useful.

    To keep your employees motivated and loyal to your company, you need to invest in providing them the best working experience in the organization. Your staff will be better motivated when you make their jobs easier.

    This motivation translates to increased productivity and improves your business operations in the long run. Digitally transform your business using top-notch business transformation services and amplify your employee efficiency.

    Also Read: How to Boost Productivity- Make Every Minute Count With These Hacks

    Improved Customer Experience

    Your customers can make or mar your business. Their transactions with you are subject to how well you meet their expectations of a seamless experience across all touch points. That is why you need to take advantage of the potential of digital transformation to create the best possible user-experience for them. Leverage digital means to interact with your customers, sourcing more valuable information about them that you could apply in marketing campaigns.

    Unilever, example of Digital Transformation

    Traditionally, an enterprises buy customer data from market-research firms, but Unilever chose to build its own database. They built their database using information from customer registrations, store loyalty cards, and third-party sites—all of which eventually exceeded 900 million individual customer records.

    Unilever matches the scale of its data with the scale of small teams. “Digital hubs” around the world gather analysts together to study consumer traits, segment the traits into hundreds of categories, and build content to serve them. These teams are made even more agile with the support of an extensive artificial intelligence (AI) system that can help predict upcoming trends.

    Conclusion:

    Don’t stay behind time. Move on from the Stone Age into the Jet Age leveraging on the innovative digital transformation mastery of Kanerika. Your rivals are already jumping on the business transformation bandwagon, you can’t risk coming to the party late.  

    Also Read: A Complete Guide on How to Start an Ecommerce business in 2020

  • Grow Your Dropshipping Business Through Instagram | How To Use Instagram For Dropshipping

    Dropshipping is a method for the retail of items in which the retailer does not keep stocks of products, but transfers the orders of their customers to a wholesaler, the manufacturer of the product or another retailer and the order is shipped directly to the customer from them. Dropshipping has many advantages over other business models. The most important of which is that it requires significantly less amount of money as you do not have to invest in large inventories. But to get your dropshipping business to run smoothly and grow bigger, you need to advertise and gain customers through any means possible. And currently, there is nothing better than social media for advertising. And the most popular social media platform in today’s date is Instagram. So using Instagram for Dropshipping is a good idea.

    Why To Use Instagram For Dropshipping?

    As I already mentioned, Instagram is the most popular social media platform today. It has about 1 Billion active users per month. The majority of people on Instagram are of the age group of 25-34 years old. Instagram allows users to share photos and 1-minute videos and stories that last 24 hours with their users.  Users or businesses can also share IGTV videos that are long-length videos and also go live on their Instagram account for their followers. Paid advertisements are also available for your business on Instagram.
    So, if used properly, Instagram can prove to be very valuable for your dropshipping business.

    Also Read: Beginners Guide:How to Start Dropshipping Business in India

    How To Use Instagram For Your Dropshipping Business

    • The first thing you need to do is to create a business account on Instagram. Make full use of your bio, your username, and your profile picture to describe your business.
    • Add your contact details like your email address so that people can contact you.
      Use your Bio to describe to your followers and potential customers about your business, the type of products or services that you offer, and other contact details such as your contact number or address of your shop (if any).
    • After that, fill your account with posts describing your products, their price and shipment charges, and more.
    • Always include relevant hashtags in your posts. Using relevant hashtags increases the traffic on your account and that in turn increases the number of customers. Also add suitable captions describing the product/s, the shipment details, the return policy, and the price of the product. Shipment details include shipment cost, countries or cities you ship to, etc.
    • Use the search feature for finding your biggest competitor and keep an eye on them. Give offers and schemes so that more people are attracted to your account.
    • Look out for relevant pages such as product reviewers and ask them for paid or unpaid shoutouts. Shoutouts on big accounts lead to an increase in your customers. Prepare a good post and caption for the shoutout and include hashtags and provide it to the account. Some accounts will accept paid promotions or shoutouts, others simply do a shoutout in return for a shoutout of their account on yours.
    • Use advertisements by Instagram. Select the post/s that get the highest engagement and advertise them by clicking on the ‘Promote’ button under that post. Advertising on Instagram is a good way of attracting an audience. Your post will be visible to specific users. You can choose a specific age group or a specific gender and your sponsored posts will only appear to people in those categories. Make the post interesting, so that people view your profile and follow you.

    Also Read: How To Use Instagram For Business

    • Make full use of stories on Instagram. Share product links and details on stories. You also need to add relevant hashtags in stories.
      Upload the review or unboxing videos of your products. You can share 1 minute long videos as posts on Instagram. For longer videos, use the IGTV section.
    Instagram For Dropshipping
    Example Of A Good Bio, Story Highlights And Posts
    • Message some of your customers to ask them about the quality and service and post its screenshots on your account’s posts or stories. Make sure to keep them as highlights if you are posting them as stories because stories last for 24 hours only. This ensures new customers about your service and the quality of products and increases the chance of them ordering something from your store.
    • Use Google Analytics and insights to know about the traffic on your account and the engagement of your posts. Google Analytics lets you know about the most engaging posts and types of customers you usually get. You can use this knowledge to attract more traffic to your account.
    • The insights section will also show the amount of traffic generated on your account. The account insights will tell you the reach of your page, that is, the number of accounts that have seen any of your posts or stories in the past 7 days. It also tells you the interactions of your posts. Interaction simply means engagement activities such as a follow, like, or comment. It will also give you the information of your followers such as locations with the highest number of followers, the age range of your followers, and the percentage of male and female followers along with the growth of your account.
    Instagram For Dropshipping
    Instagram Insights
    • Reply to each and every query or question by the customers. Ask them to DM (Direct Message) or email you any query and make sure to reply to each of them.

    Also Read: Impact of Coronavirus outbreak on Dropshippers

    Conclusion

    This is the age of social media and therefore, if you want to expand your dropshipping business, you should use the power of social media. Using Instagram for dropshipping with the right strategies can help you expand your business and greatly increase the number of customers. Follow each and every one of the above steps and watch your business grow to new heights.

  • Benefits of Key Person Life Insurance Policies

    This is a term that is so new and fresh to a number of people but key person life insurance policy is an insurance policy that provides death benefit to a business if its owner or another significant employee passes away.

    In small businesses, such key persons are normally the owners or co founders of the business. These key persons are normally those who are responsible for the majority of the major profit in the company.

    Key Person Life Insurance Policy covers very key people who are crucial to the business and without them the business is incapable of moving forward or thriving.

    The purpose of key person insurance is to help the company survive the blow of losing the person who makes the business work. When the employer purchases life insurance of these individuals then there is indeed a chance for the business to continue.

    Also Read: Insurance Industry In India: Industry Growth, Market Size, And It’s Future

    How does the key person life insurance work?

    The main aim of the Key Person Insurance Policy is to actually compensate the business from losses that are incurred when a key income generator is lost so that the business may continue.

    The policy is actually on the person who is key to the organization such that the organization cannot do without him or her. This person becomes the owner or the beneficiary of the insurance coverage.

    In the event that this person dies, then the company will receive death benefit which can be used to keep the business running.

    How does the key person life insurance protect a business?

    One thing to note is the fact that life insurance coverage is issued on the business key person gives the company access to funds that helps to protect and keep the business running smoothly.

    Benefits such as claim can be used as a cost that will be used for the recruitment purposes of rather for a replacement. When death of a key person takes place, especially one that is covered by the policy, the firm is guaranteed of an access to funds that will help replace any revenue that may have been lost.

    How much is enough?

    It’s very difficult to determine.  Here are some guidelines that may help:

    • Replacement Value: Coverage could equal the amount needed to recruit and train a suitable replacement.
    • Business Life Value: Coverage could equal the loss of annual earnings multiplied by the number of years the employee would have worked until retirement.
    • Multiple of Salary:  Coverage could equal the employee’s annual salary, times the number of years a newly hired replacement might take to reach a similar skill level.
    • Contribution to Profits: Coverage could equal the amount of income lost due to the loss of the key employee.

    What is the cost for key person life insurance policy?

    There are a few things to consider when determining the amount of key person life insurance to purchase.  A good business should think about how much it would cost to replace a key person in the company and how long it would take to train a new person.

    They should also be able to look at the revenue that will be lost during the replacement process and how much revenue the key person had brought in for the business.

    Your company should also consider a buyout agreement that clearly outlines what happens if the cofounder of the business dies. This serves as an agreement with the partners and shareholders.

    When you are considering the key life insurance buyout agreement then make sure that you have an agreement with your accountants and legal counsel.

    Let no one lie to you, key person life insurance is the best way to protect your business after the loss of a key person and should be strongly considered when your business is developing and growing.

    Also read : The Impact of Coronavirus On The Insurance Industry

  • Still Sceptical About AI & ML? Get Started With These Machine Learning Books

    Machine learning has gifted humanity the power to run tasks in an automated manner. It allows us to improve things that we already do by studying a continuous stream of data related to that same task. In this article we have short-listed some Machine Learning Books.

    ‘Machine learning is a core, transformative way by which we’re rethinking everything we’re doing. We’re thoughtfully applying it across all our products, be it search, ads, YouTube, or Play. We’re in the early days, but you’ll see us in a systematic way think about how we can apply machine learning to all these areas.’ – Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google

    Machine learning has a wide range of applications that belongs to different fields,i.e. From space research to digital marketing. Machine learning is a complex field but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be learned.

    Here Are Some Must-Read Machine Learning Books.

    1. The Hundred-page Machine Learning Book

    This book by Andriy Burkov explains the various topics of machine learning topics in a mere 100 pages. Written in an easy-to-follow manner, the machine learning book is endorsed by reputed thought leaders to the likes of the Director of Research at Google, Peter Norvig, and Sujeet Varakhedi, Head of Engineering at eBay. Post a thorough reading of the book, the reader will be able to build and appreciate complex Artificial intelligence systems, clear and ML-based interviews, and even start their own ml-based business.

    2. Programming Collective Intelligence

    This book is counted among the best books to begin understanding machine learning, the Programming Collective Intelligence by Toby Segaran was written in the year 2007. The book makes use of Python as the mode of delivering the knowledge to its readers.

    3. Machine Learning For Hackers

    The Machine Learning for Hackers by Drew Conway and John Myles White, is meant for the experienced programmer interested in crunching data. The word hacker here refers to adroit mathematicians. Rather than delving deeper into the mathematical theory of machine learning, the book explains numerous real-life examples to make learning ml simpler and faster.

    Some Must-Read Machine Learning Books
    Some Must-Read Machine Learning Books

    4. Machine Learning

    Written by Tom M. Mitchell, this book is a fitting book for getting started with machine learning. It offers an overarching view of machine learning theorems with summaries of the respective algorithms. The Machine Learning book is full of examples and case studies to help the reader in learning and grasping ml algorithms easily.

    5. The Elements Of Statistical Learning

    This book focuses on mathematical derivations to define the underlying logic of an ml algorithm. Written by Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, and Jerome Friedman, The Elements of Statistical Learning is a must-have book. It is recommended to have a basic understanding of linear algebra before choosing this book.

    Also Read: Best Sales and Marketing Books

    6. Learning From Data

    Instead of imparting knowledge about the various advanced concepts pertaining to machine learning, this book by Yaser Abu Mostafa, Malik Magdon-Ismail, and Hsuan-Tien Lin prepares its readers to understand the complex machine learning concepts thoroughly.

    7. Pattern Recognition And Machine Learning

    This book was written by Christopher M. Bishop, and serves as a great reference for understanding and applying statistical techniques in machine learning and pattern recognition. A basic understanding of linear algebra and multivariate calculus are prerequisites for going through the machine learning book.

    8. Natural Language Processing With Python

    Written by Steven Bird, Ewan Klein, and Edward Loper, Natural language processing is the backbone of machine learning systems. It uses the Python programming language to guide the reader into using NLTK, the popular suite of Python libraries and programs for symbolic and statistical natural language processing for English and NLP in general.

    Also Read: Must Read Startup Books for Entrepreneurs in 2020

    9. Bayesian Reasoning And Machine Learning

    Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning is a must-read for anyone interested in entering the field of machine learning. Written by David Barber, there is no scarcity of well-explained examples and exercises in the Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning book.

    Books are the 2nd Most popular medium of learning
    Books are the 2nd Most popular medium of learning

    10. Understanding Machine Learning

    Written by Shai Shalev-Shwartz and Shai Ben-David, The Understanding Machine Learning book offers a structured introduction to machine learning. The book focuses on the fundamental theories and algorithmic of machine learning, and mathematical derivations.

    Also Read: Want To Enhance Your Marketing Skills? Here Are 20 Books Every Marketer Should Read

    11. Hands-On Machine Learning With Scikit-Learn & TensorFlow

    By using concrete examples, minimal theory, and two production-ready Python frameworks-Scikit-Learn and TensorFlow- the author Aurelien Geron helps the reader gain an inherent understanding of the concepts and tools to build an intelligent system. The reader will learn a range of techniques, i.e. from simple linear regression and progressing to deep neural networks.

    12. Building Machine Learning Powered Applications

    The author Emmanuel Ameisen demonstrates the practical ML concepts with the help of various elements,i.e, code snippets, illustrations, screenshots, and interviews with industry leaders. The reader will learn the necessary skills required to design, build, and deploy applications powered by machine learning (ML) with the help of this book.

    13. Grokking Deep Learning

    Grokking Deep Learning teaches one to build deep learning neural networks from the basic level. In his engaging was, author Andrew Trask shows one the science under the hood, so to grok for oneself every detail of training neural networks.

    14. Deep Learning With Python

    Deep Learning with Python introduces the field of deep learning with the help of Python language. Written by Keras creator and Google AI researcher François Chollet, this book builds an understanding through explanations and practical examples.

    15. Deep Learning

    This book by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville is an introduction to a vast of topics of deep learning, covering mathematical and conceptual background, the deep learning techniques used in industry, and also research perspectives.

    Conclusion

    Machine learning is a trending career option these days. The future looks all bright and shiny for it. So, it is high time to jump into the scene and make a profitable, professional career out of it.

    This article sums up the 15 best machine learning books that you can go through to advance in machine learning the way you want it. I hope you find it informative and helpful.

  • Blockchain Startups In India

    The banking sector has modernized and tried to deal with all types of hindrances in transactions, leakages and ease of process utilising internet. Digital payments have almost ended the sluggish and orthodox process of physical transactions. It just takes few minutes to do the payments using credit/debit cards Or Net banking. Even the business dinosaurs – Google and Amazon have also launched their digital payment platforms as Google Pay (G-Pay) and Amazon Pay respectively. Paytm and UPI have also gained popularity in the last few years. But this doesn’t mean that no further amendments or changes aren’t needed! Banks or Third Parties still charge some pennies while online transaction and bank frauds are on exponential rise. Not even a single bank in this world can guarantee of 100% security of customer data and money. Half of the adults around the world doesn’t have access to financial services because the financial institutions are too far away or too expensive to use. All the banks have very strict rules which must be followed as they don’t show mercy under any conditions. The 2008 financial crisis where several banks failed teaches us that there is no such thing as a trusted third party. They failed because of mismanagement, greed or they can be involved in illegal bank activities. Therefore, to solve this problem, blockchain was coined by Satoshi Nakamoto. The era of digital currency evolved and is now the future of banking system. So, let us see the complete story on the topic- Blockchain Start-ups In India.

    RentalCoins
    Signzy
    LaLa World
    CoinGeto
    Unocoin
    CoinSwitch
    Coinsecure
    ZebPay
    uTrade
    StreamSource

    Bitcoin and Blockchain

    Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that operates independently from a central bank. There are many different blockchains- public and private. They allow anyone to send value anywhere in the world where the blockchain file can be accessed. Think of each chain as an online database stored in a distributed, peer-to-peer fashion. The storage devices for the database are not all connected to common processor and each block – ordered records – has a timestamp and a link to a previous block. The Blockchain is an Internet-based, distributed, public database where transactions can only be added once they are validated through complex mathematics that prove authenticity of the data. It is a public ledger of all the transactions that have ever been executed.

    Also Read: Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: How can it change India?

    Blockchain Start-ups in India

    Blockchain

    Here is a list of the 10 most exciting blockchain startups. they are:-

    1. RentalCoins

    Founded  : 2017
    Location  : Bangalore (India)
    Total Funding : USD 8M

    RentalCoins 1.0 is a private cryptocurrency of the Drivezy, that is a decentralized car rental platform. The tokens are used to create a fleet of collaboratively-owned vehicles accessible to customers. Also offers an app that provides updates on operational vehicles, vehicle blocks and maintenance schedule and information about activity, location, and revenue of the vehicle.

    2. Signzy

    Founded  : 2015
    Location  : Bangalore (India)
    Total Funding : USD 4M
    Investors  : Stellaris Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, Rajan Anandan and 17 Other Investors

    Signzy is a digital contract platform which enables digital drafting and signing of legal contracts. Customers need to upload their contract in PDF/DOC format or choose a standard contract format. Signzy verifies the signature and identity of the user and also stores the contracting history on the cloud for future reference. Claims to guarantee non-repudiation of contracts through their biometric user authentication system and block chain based digital trail. The company is running pilots on blockchain technology in the areas of security for financial service companies and of smart contracts on financial assets.

    Also Read: How UPI impacted FinTech Industry?

    3. LaLa World

    Founded  : 2016
    Location  : Delhi (India)
    Total Funding : USD 2M

    LaLa World provides a financial ecosystem targeting the underbanked and migrant population. Provides 5 major products: LaLa Transfer for P2P remittance, LaLa Bill Pay for global bill payments, LaLa Lends for P2P lending, LaLa Card for payments at PoS, and LaLa Kit that contains a mobile phone with pre-loaded LALA Wallet, LALA Insurance, LALA Card, Partners’ products etc.

    4. CoinGeto

    Founded  : 2015
    Location  : Delhi (India)
    Total Funding : USD 2M
    Investors  : Impanix Capital

    CointGeto is a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Users can buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies on the platform. Accepts payments via credit card, debit card, UPI payments and bank transfers. The platform supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and GETO tokens.

    5. Unocoin

    Founded  : 2013
    Location  : Bangalore (India)
    Total Funding : USD 2M
    Investors  : Blume Ventures, ah! Ventures, Mumbai Angels and 10 Other Investors

    Unocoin enables users to buy bitcoins by paying INR from any online bank, or through NEFT/RTGS. Uses can buy/sell a maximum of 2 bitcoins per day. It also holds bitcoin campaigns which connect large buyers and sellers of bitcoin in India. Seed round was led by Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. Partnered with BTCJam to offer P2P lending services in India.

    Also Read: 20 Best Fintech Startups in India

    6. CoinSwitch

    Founded  : 2017
    Location  : Bangalore (India)
    Total Funding : USD 2M
    Investors  : Sequoia Capital

    CoinSwitch is an online cryptocurrency exchange. Users can enter the amount and currency to be exchanged, and coinswitch provides options for the best prices. Users can choose among the option, convert the currency, and track the progress. As of Jan’18, supports 100+ cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, ripple, and self among others.  

    7. Coinsecure

    Founded  : 2014
    Location  : Delhi (India)
    Total Funding : USD 1M

    Coinsecure is an India based Bitcoin exchange and trading platform. It charges a fee of 0.3% per transaction and uses a hybrid wallet solution to store funds in cold storage with a small percentage of funds in the hot wallet for immediate withdrawals. Partnered with OKLink, Hong Kong based company to enable remittances to India.  

    8. ZebPay

    Founded  : 2014
    Location  : Ahmedabad (India)
    Total Funding : USD 1M
    Investors  : Claris Capital

    Zebpay is a mobile Bitcoin wallet app. Users can buy and sell bitcoins using their local currency from the Zebpay app. They can also use their bitcoins to encash them via eVouchers like e-commerce vouchers, airtime and gift cards. Plans to charge its partners a referral commission. Also has plans to charge a fee to merchants using Zebpay to accept bitcoins for premium merchant features. Part of Zeb Ventures private limited registered in Singapore and has its main operation and development office in Ahmedabad, India. Launched in India in March, 2015. Arjun Handa, chief managing director of Claris Life Sciences and Amit Jindal, managing director of Jindal Worldwide, invested around $450K and $150K respectively. Nagendra Chaudhary, chairman at Jaipur-based Triangle Engineering invested $150K among other investors in series A round of funding. As of July 2016, the company has 65K+ users.

    9. uTrade

    Founded  : 2011
    Location  : Chandigarh (India)
    Total Funding : USD 1M
    Investors  : Nitin Jindal, Aiysha Ahmed, Mohit Agarwal and 17 Other Investors

    Financial technology solutions company providing various products including multi-asset trading platform, algorithms and analytics. Offers muTrade, a high frequency trading platform that is delivered along with various automated algorithms; provides detailed portfolio and trading analytics. Products enable investors to analyse latest and historical market and social media information to make smart trading decisions. Has raised $1M till date and has clients in India, Singapore and Dubai and has identified clients in Indonesia, Turkey and Africa. In June 2016, the company launched uClear, a blockchain driven solution that will enable real time clearing and settlement of contracts across the cash and derivatives segments of the financial markets. The first stage of adoption will be led by the Over-the-Counter (OTC) segments without existing central clearing infrastructure such as foreign exchange (FX) and the fixed income securities markets.

    10. StreamSource

    Founded  : 2018
    Location  : Gurgaon (India)
    Total Funding : USD 1M

    StreamSource is a decentralized personal loans marketplace, based on Quorum blockchain. Lenders and debt buyers can initiate & settle transactions that include buying & selling of credit approved leads and loan transactions. Lenders upload their credit models on secure blockchain node and can provide other partners access to their decision model. The platform allows to bid, buy & sell leads to other partner lenders.

  • Why Freelancers Should Leave Their Rooms and Join A Startup

    Most of the very big companies that rule over the market today started from small startups. Some of them started in a room, some in small garages. With the increasing craze and growth of freelancing in the previous years, people have developed the tendency to adopt freelancing as their full-time careers. Sure, it sounds very good to be a freelancer. You can wake up whenever you want, you can work according to your schedule, work from your own home in perfect isolation. They do not consider the possibility that they can work in startups too which is a much greater career path for their future.

    Working in startups provides you first-hand industry experience that is valuable for your career. While freelancing may seem the best option for some people, it has many disadvantages that are discussed later in this article. The startup industry has also been gaining higher altitudes in the past decades. Many startups are being started with many unique ideas that bring out the best in people. More and more people are joining startups today. Before mentioning the advantages of working at startups, we should first take a look at the disadvantages of working as freelancers.

    Also Read: The Pros and Cons Of Becoming a Freelancer

    Disadvantages of Freelancing

    • Your work is not stable and your job is not secure. You may or may not get work all the time. This is a great disadvantage because if you do not get constant work, you do not get a constant salary, which means that you’ll be in great trouble when you have to pay your bills.
    • If you are freelancing, there is no schedule for your work. You tend to work when you please. This also means that there is a possibility that you sit for hours at a time trying to finish your work resulting in overwork. This can affect your lifestyle and your health in a bad way.
    • Although it may seem to be a very good thing to some people that you work alone and isolated and at your own leisure if you are freelancing, but not being able to communicate with someone about your work or share your workload with someone can be frustrating.
    • When you start with freelancing, there is no guarantee of the fact that you will get a job as soon as you apply for it. You will face huge and large competition from people who have already established themselves as huge freelancers. Maybe you are not able to get a job or if you are, its paycheck does not meet your expectations. This can be frustrating and can severely affect your work.
    • Also, there are many jobs on freelancing platforms that turn out to be a scam once you have handed them your work. This wastes your time and efforts.

    Now that we have discussed about the disadvantages of working as freelancers are, we should also discuss how these disadvantages are overcome when you work in startups.

    Also Read: Future of Freelancing in India – Things You must Know about Indian Freelancing Sector

    Advantages of working at startups

    • If you are working at a startup, you have stable work and high job security. You constantly have work to do, and a constant salary. Initially, your paycheck will probably be low, but as the startup grows, the amount on the paycheck increases. This amount will be much more than what you would have been able to get as a freelancer. Although, some startups may pay you less, but they offer much more than salaries to their employees. Some of them may provide you with a small portion of their shares, which, when the startup becomes a multi-million one, will be greatly beneficial to you.
    • You have to work as per the schedule of the startup. This ensures that you do not have to overwork and that you follow a healthy lifestyle. Even if in some case, you have to do overwork, you will get paid for that, unlike in freelancing.
    • If you work in startups, you are surrounded by people who are talented and enthusiastic about their work. You get to learn a lot from all of these people. This also provides a good environment to work in. There are people working with you that are sharing your workload which had to be done by you alone if you were working on it as a freelancer which turns out be a very good advantage in favour of you.
    Working in Startups
    Working Alone (Freelancing) vs. Working in Groups By Sharing your Workload (Working At Startups)
    • You learn a lot about the industry and gain experience in your work. This will be useful if you are planning to join a big company or establishing your own startup in the future. You will not be able to gain all of this knowledge and experience if you are working as a freelancer.
    • You can still work as a freelancer along with your job. This way you can earn some extra bucks!

    Also Read: Smart Strategies To Get Job In a Startup Company

    Conclusion

    While working as freelancers may seem fancy, it has its own disadvantages that are already discussed earlier. When you work in startups, it will definitely give you a chance to grow, both at the professional and personal levels. If you are new to the industry or are just about to start your career, freelancing may prove useful to you, but only part-time. When you’ve had some experience, you should join startups so as to master the skills that you have learned and to get familiar with the industry. While freelancing may provide you with a good base to start something new, you should not consider freelancing as your permanent or full-time job. Just gain some experience, gather some skills, and apply to work at some established company or a new startup.

  • Mark zuckerberg lost over $7 Billion After Brands Boycott Ads on Facebook

    Mark Zuckerberg has lost over $7.2 billion after major firms pulled advertising from Facebook Inc.’s network and the current net worth of Zuckerberg is $79.7B.

    Shares of Facebook fell 8.3%, the most in three months, after Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers, joined other brands in boycotting ads on the social media network.

    Facebook stocks Drop down to 8.3% 

    Also read: Tech Giants, Facebook,Instagram, and Twitter reacts to George Floyd Protest

    This has affected the market value of Facebook and has eliminated $56 billion from its market value and drove Zuckerberg’s net worth down to $82.3 billion according to Bloomberg. This has bought down mark Zuckerberg to the 4th richest person overtaken by the chief executive of Louis Vuitton Bernard Arnault who is now the third richest person in the world.

    Major brands from Verizon to Hershey’s have stopped social media ads on Facebook after critics expressed that Facebook has failed to sufficiently monitor hate speech and disinformation on the platform.

    Also read: Facebook Invests $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms for 9.99% Stake

    Top Brands Boycotting Facebook Ads over Hate Speech

    Unilever, $42.4 million in advertising

    Uniliver One of the biggest advertisers in the world said it would stop running ads on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter in the United States for at least the rest of 2020.

    Coca-Cola, $22.1 million

    Coca-cola announced that it would stop all paid ads on all social media platforms globally for at least 30 days. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said that “The company was not joining the official Facebook boycott”.

    Verizon, $22.9 million

    The chief media officer of the telecommunications company said that it was “ it is pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners.” Verizon has stopped both paid and unpaid ads on Facebook.

    Honda America, $6 million in advertising

    The automaker decided that it will withhold ads from Facebook and Instagram for the month of July to stand with people united against hate and racism.

    Levi Strauss & Co., $2.8 million

    the chief marketing officer of Levi Strauss Jen Sey has criticized Facebook for its failure to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platform. Sey also wrote that Levi Strauss would suspend advertising at least through the end of July.

    After this increasing criticism, Facebook revised its policies announcing that the company would label all voting-related posts with a link encouraging users to look at its new voter information hub. Facebook also expanded its definition of prohibited hate speech, adding a clause saying no adverts will be allowed if they label another demographic as dangerous.