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Category: People / Stories
Freelancers will represent 40% of the US workforce by 2020
As of today, over 53 million of Americans are freelancers; with their median income of $20K to 30K a year, America’s freelance workforce earned $1 trillion in 2016. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that almost 70% of current freelancers plan to keep freelancing for at least the next 10 years.
Freelancing is the new Millennials’ favorite career choice… and not only that, big companies and start up are hiring more freelancer than ever before. The secret is that freelancing brings benefits to both parts. For freelancers, the freedom of making their own schedule and having the flexibility to work from literally anywhere is priceless. Also, it is important to highlight that freelancing is growing so fast that freelancers are hiring more freelancers to handle big project. On the other hand, companies save a lot of time on money by hiring freelancers since they don’t have to manage them directly, and technically, freelancer are not employees, which means that employees won’t have to cover their expenses other that their salary. It’s pretty much like ordering a product.
Companies don’t work around employees and schedules anymore. Now, they are based on freelancers, tasks and deadlines. Web design, search engine optimization, coding, customer service, digital marketing, app development and blog management are the most in-demand freelancers skills in 2017. It’s estimated that by outsourcing tasks, employers save 30% every time they hire a freelancer, even when the salary is the same than full-time employees.
Upwork, Freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour and SpeedLancer are the leading freelance platforms in America and around the world. It a good time for them as well, with over 20million users and daily commision charged, this platforms are generating big bucks.
In this infographic Digperformance.com presents 29 Facts Every Freelancer Needs to Know About, a very nice way to show very interesting and awesome stats and facts about freelancing. Valuable information for both freelancers and business owners.
Starting up at the age of 50 – Khushru Farrokh
Starting up at the age of 50, this entrepreneur is defying all myths around any age bar to start a startup
For Khushru Farrokh, founder of Taasha, delivering IT solutions is akin to an artist creating a new painting. It is always a unique and stimulating experience.
Khushru was on the road to getting a PhD in Chemistry before the technology bug bit him in the ‘90s. Since then, he has been a technology person. He says, ” Since childhood, I was a fiercely independent person. My father was a trade union leader in a bank. That gave me lessons in public speaking and leadership from a very young age. Running a business wasn’t easy for me, but I learnt on the job.”
The groundwork began in September 2016 when he quit his job, but Taasha was launched in the middle of November 2016.
His experience while starting his own company at the age of 50
Khushru says, “Age is but a number. Many people told me that it was a bad age to take a risk and do something on my own. But with my background, I thought that it was the best age to do business. I had cultivated a great network. I had experience of working in all the areas of an IT services organisation. I am a regular guest faculty at some of the best colleges in India. I have also been delivering lectures at IIM-A.”
Khushru has been in the field of IT for more than 20 years. Over time, he realised that the IT industry was creating an aura around itself, an overly complex, superior air. A lot of jargon got created, and the end user was made to feel that the issue was a lot more complex than it actually was. So one of his reasons behind starting Taasha was to simplify such things.
He further adds, ” The name of the company was suggested by my wife, who is a language consultant. Taasha is a corrupted form of Nataasha, and it means birth.”
Core product
The services offered by Tasha include the following:
- Software development and testing outsourcing.
- Software process consulting.
- Helping companies set up offshore development centres.
- Startup mentoring.
Market size
Khushru thinks that outsourcing and process consulting are large markets globally, each more than a few hundred billion dollars. For software outsourcing, India is a prime location.
The company plans to enter functional verticals like media and entertainment, healthcare, education, and machine learning and data analytics. It is also planning to work in technologies like open-source.
Taasha is a six-member team today and is currently bootstrapping. Once it bags some good projects, the company would consider that the ideal time to go out looking for external funds.
How school makes kids less intelligent
| Eddy Zhong | TEDxYouth@BeaconStreet
Jackfruit 365
Biryani, masala dosas and galouti kababs made from jackfruit ? Their creator is an ex-Microsoft director who is showing the world that jackfruit is truly the jack-of-all-fruits !
James Joseph did something few are brave enough to do. He quit his high-paying job as a Microsoft director to start a venture based solely on a fruit. Taking his love for jackfruit to a whole new level, he started Jackfruit 365, a company that sells the fruit in a packaged, freeze-dried form, and aims to promote all things jackfruit.
Photo Source
Talking to CrowdStudio about the eureka moment when he came up with the idea of Jackfruit 365, Joseph said:
“At the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, where I was hosting a dinner for my clients, Chef Hemant Oberoi had made a spectacular dish called the Varqui Crab along with its veg version, the Varqui Mushroom. It was delicious, but I couldn’t help thinking why the chef didn’t use jackfruit, which is more nutritious than meat and mushrooms.
Perplexed by the utter absence of jackfruit at the five-star soirees I attended, I asked around and all the chefs said the same thing: Too sticky, too smelly and too seasonal.
When jackfruit season finally came, I took some to a chef I knew. He used it to create a jackfruit burger coated in jackfruit seed crumbs that was delicious and much crispier than the aloo burger at McDonald’s. The actual eureka moment happened when we created a jackfruit pie, spectacular and more delicious than the apple pie and pecan pie I had in the US. That was when Jackfruit 365 truly took off.”
So Joseph began to investigate and found that despite being acknowledged as a super food, huge amounts of jackfruit are being wasted every season. According to an article on the state government’s website, Kerala alone wastes an estimated 35 crore jackfruit annually, which is about 75% of the harvest.
There are several reasons for this. The weight of a jackfruit, which is typically in the range of 3-5 kg, makes transportation in bulk difficult, while storing this highly perishable fruit is difficult. Cleaning jackfruit is also a tedious process, with the large ungainly fruit throwing prickly wedges, sticky sap, and a strong odour one’s way before offering its rich, bulbous flesh.
Concerned about the collective disregard for jackfruit, Joseph left his cushy job with Microsoft to return to his native town Aluva in Kerala and set up Jackfruit 365 in 2013. He wanted to make this undervalued and underrated seasonal fruit available for consumption 365 days a year.
Photo Source
Plunging headlong into the pursuit of his passion, this graduate of the Thiruvanathpuram College of Engineering decided to first address the challenge of making the jackfruit available 365 days a year. On learning that 80% of the fruit is made up of water, he hit upon the idea of freeze-drying jackfruit.
Freeze-drying reduced the weight of the fruit by 82%, cutting down the huge costs of transportation and storage. A 180-gm pack of freeze dried jackfruit can be stored at room temperature for 365 days and, when soaked in lukewarm water, yield one kg of jackfruit.
Photo Source
Joseph soon hired Amalgam, pioneers in setting up food processing factories in Kerala and Bangalore, to procure jackfruit and process and sell the freeze-dried fruit in packets of his brand, Jackfruit 365.
A stickler for perfection and quality, Joseph insists on farmers supplying unopened jackfruit, as opposed to the traditional practice of storing opened jackfruit in plastic packets, to ensure food safety.
His company also sponsors five midday meals for school children under the Akshaya Patra Foundation, for every pack of Jackfruit 365 sold.
The Microsoft Circle of Excellence award winner wants to create an organised market for jackfruit because its health benefits are numerous. Since the glycemic load (glucose level) in unripe jackfruit is almost half that of rice or wheat, the fruit makes a potent carbohydrate substitute for diabetics. Jackfruit’s high potassium content helps lower elevated blood pressure and its high anti-oxidant and flavonoid content protect against cancer. Jackfruit also increases the human body’s capacity to absorb iron, making it extremely effective in preventing and curing anaemia. Since jackfruit blends beautifully into most recipes, it can also change the way we look at health foods and gluten-free foods in particular.
Determined to demonstrate that dishes made from jackfruit can be mouth-watering irrespective of cuisine type, Joseph has also designed signature dining experiences for his clients with several internationally renowned chefs. His interesting and unique jackfruit-infused recipes include galouti kabab, biryani, masala dosa, kathi roll, panna cotta, and payasam, all made from dehydrated jackfruit!
Photo Source
In his tryst with the jackfruit, Joseph also realised that the indigenous tree is as good for farmers as it is for consumers. Drought-resistant, evergreen and environment-friendly, he believes this tree can act as climate shock absorber for farmers:
“I don’t even consider it a crop. It just grows. When other crops fail, you can always count on the jackfruit tree.”
The techie turned entrepreneur is also the founder of Professional Bharati, an online platform that is a one-stop shop for NRI professionals wanting to relocate to their hometowns and still earn handsomely. Through his own experience, he knows that the opportunities in India’s non-metros, small towns and villages are endless and this venture is his attempt to persuade others to return home too.
http://www.thebetterindia.com/59942/james-joseph-jackfruit-365-superfood-india/
An Intrapreneur can become a great Entrepreneur in his own organization
An uncut, personal account of Mr Y C Deveshwar’s inspirational journey from starting off as a young AUT to becoming the Chairman of ITC Ltd
getNatty
Two Zoroastrian (Parsi) Entrepreneurs have started up an Internet Technology platform for young Fashion Designers that helps them showcase their creative talent and get orders directly from their customers worldwide without any middle man involved. Check out their startup at www.getNatty.com and give support to such budding entrepreneurs who can continue making our community proud.
Motorbike runs on water
This motorbike can travel over 300 miles on just 1 liter of water
https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/videos/884678961622229
Natural agriculture
Natural agriculture: The man behind ‘zero-budget spiritual farming’
Padma awardee believes there’s much to learn from ancient Indian cultivation techniques
Subhash Palekar demonstrates the preparation of ‘Jiwamrita’ formulation.
…..“The farmer needs to apply to the crop a dose of Jiwamrita — a fermented solution containing 200 litres water, 5-10 litres cow urine, 10 kg dung, 1 kg each of gur (jaggery) and besan (gram flour), and a handful of soil from the farm bund — for every acre. The other important thing is to spread a carpet of harvested crop residue between crop rows, which helps to absorb moisture from the atmosphere and also prevents emergence of weeds,” explains Palekar.
According to him, Jiwamrita basically nurtures thousands of bacteria essential for healthy crop growth. The urine and dung used in the formulation, he insists, should be from indigenous cattle: “one desi cow can nourish 30 acres”……
According to him, Jiwamrita basically nurtures thousands of bacteria essential for healthy crop growth. The urine and dung used in the formulation, he insists, should be from indigenous cattle: “one desi cow can nourish 30 acres”……
Courtesy : K F Keravala
Shiva Ayyadurai an Indian-American scientist invented Email when he was just 14.
The 14 Year Old Indian Boy Who Invented Email turned 52 on Dec 2nd 2015. But how many of us know that, Shiva Ayyadurai an Indian-American scientist invented Email when he was just 14.
Ayyadurai was born to a Tamil Family in Bombay. At the age of seven, he left with his family to live in the US. In 1978, aged 14, he developed a full-scale emulation of the interoffice mail system which he called “E-mail”. It replicated all the functions of the interoffice mail system: Inbox, Outbox, Folders, Memo, Attachments, Address Book, etc. These features are now familiar parts of every email system.
Studying at Livingston High School in New Jersey, Ayyadurai began his work on the email system for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He closely observed that the desktop of each secretary, in addition to the typewriter, had an Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Carbon Copy Paper, Folders, Address Book, Paper Clips (for attachments), etc, which they used each day to create and process incoming and outgoing mail.
Then he conceived an electronic version of this system. He created a computer programme of over 50,000 lines of code, which electronically replicated all the features of the interoffice mail system. On August 30, 1982, the US government officially recognized Ayyadurai as the inventor of email by awarding him the first US Copyright for Email for his 1978 invention. Yet his name is nowhere in modern history of computer science. Whoever claims the invention, Ayyadurai will remain the father of E-mail. Hope he gets the name in history he deserves.
Deva Bhatt added 4 new photos.
Enterprisers.in 