On Thursday, Westbridge Capital-backed edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah (PW) said that it had acquired iNeuron Intelligence to expand its offerings in the upskilling category.
The deal is valued at around ₹250 crores and will provide an exit to investors, including publishing house S Chand & Co. The iNeuron team will drive the company’s tech skilling plan under PW Skills, said Alakh Pandey, co-founder, and chief executive, PhysicsWallah.
PhysicsWallah offers upskilling courses under the PW Skills brand, which includes business analytics programs and computer science languages such as Java and C++.
Launched in 2020, PW helps students prepare for engineering and medical entrance examinations. It turned unicorn earlier this year after it raised $100 million in its Series A funding round from marquee investors Westbridge and GSV Ventures.
According to co-founder Prateek Maheshwari, there is a skills gap between what has been taught at institutes and what the industry demands. “We were looking for skilling startups that had strong fundamentals and have actually helped students bag their dream jobs.”
“We saw such capabilities in iNeuron, which helped a chef to turn into a coder and a UPSC aspirant with gap of five years land a job at Amazon,” Maheshwari said, explaining the thesis for the merger.
Since Elon Musk disclosed his plans to acquire the social media platform Twitter in April, Twitter has hit multiple hurdles along the way. Musk decided to take over Twitter as he believed the workforce to be “lazy and politically biased.” After the acquisition for US$44 billion, the platform has experienced several policy changes and bumps down the road, including millions of followers deactivating their accounts, several prestigious people like CEO Parag Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and General Counsel Sean Edgett being fired. Additionally, as a self-described “free speech absolutist,” he adopted a significantly different approach to content management and unbanning well-known users, including Trump. Elon claimed the policy changes to be in favor of the platform. In the most recent development, Elon has co-authored a series of Twitter threads, called Twitter Files, on the platform’s internal documents, with Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, freelance journalists.
He wrote, “The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter. The public deserves to know what really happened…” Elon provided many internal documents such as chat logs, executive emails, and screenshots taken in 2020 around the US Presidential elections to Weiss and Taibbi and asked them to build unique stories around the same. It is a ballistic move but is getting much controversial attention worldwide.
Let’s look at why these revelations are being billed as a bombshell.
We have elaborated each file sequentially, have a look.
1. Twitter Files #1: The Hunter Biden Laptop story.
Interspersed with his own investigation, Taibbi revealed a Twitter thread on December 2 that included internal Twitter emails. In some of these documents, Twitter’s internal discussions surrounding the decision to conceal the New York Post’s reporting on the findings on Hunter Biden’s laptop were revealed. The concealed tweets supposedly contained nude pictures and videos of Hunter Biden and were termed “revenge porn.”
Moreover, some of the tweets in this thread contained information on the platform-managed tweets flagged for removal by the Trump White House and the Biden campaign team. According to Taibbi, Twitter “received and honored” deletion requests from the Trump White House and the Biden campaign team. However, he provided evidence of the former but not the latter.
When the decision to suppress the content was made, then-CEO Jack Dorsey was not informed, but days later, he changed his mind, calling it a “mistake.” Simultaneously, Twitter’s hacked materials policy was updated to allow publishing such content with a contextual warning.
Matt posted a snippet of an exchange between the former legal head of policy, Vijaya Gadde, and Yoel Roth, Trust & Safety Chief. It appears that the decision was made at a high level in the company, without the knowledge of Jack Dorsey but with the involvement of the former legal head of policy, Vijaya Gadde.
https://t.co/j4EeXEAw6F can see the confusion in the following lengthy exchange, which ends up including Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth. Comms official Trenton Kennedy writes, “I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe”: pic.twitter.com/w1wBMlG33U
Concerning a practice referred to as “visible filtering” by the previous Twitter management, Bari Weiss published the second installment of the Twitter Files on December 9. Weiss reported that a high-level team called Site Integrity Policy-Policy Escalation Support (SIP-PES) was responsible for making decisions about “politically sensitive” accounts and controlling the extent of their visibility. Allegedly, Twitter utilized VF to prevent searches for specific individuals, restrict the audience for whom a tweet can be found, prevent certain users’ postings from ever making the “trending” tab, and prevent them from being included in hashtag searches.
As evidence, Bari shared screenshots of the internal system with accounts tagged as “Trends Blacklist,” “Search Blacklist,” “Do Not Amplify,” and “Do Not Take Action on User Without Consulting with SIP-PES.” Some accounts whose snippets were shared by Bari:
Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s account was placed on the “ Trends Blacklist.”
3. Take, for example, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children. Twitter secretly placed him on a “Trends Blacklist,” which prevented his tweets from trending. pic.twitter.com/qTW22Zh691
Dan Bongino, a reputed right-wing talk show host, was on the “Search Blacklist.”
4. Or consider the popular right-wing talk show host, Dan Bongino (@dbongino), who at one point was slapped with a “Search Blacklist.” pic.twitter.com/AdOK8xLu9v
The controversial part is when Twitter denied the allegations back in 2018. Vijaya Gadde and Kayvon Beykour (Head of Product) had then said, “We do not shadow ban.,” and also added that “we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.” Evidently, the images show otherwise.
The revelations do not end here. Chaya Raichik’s Twitter account “libsoftiktok” became the talk of the town as it rose to the highest level of scrutiny. It was on the Trend Blacklist and the “Do Not Take Action on User Without Consulting With SIP-PES” list.
16. One of the accounts that rose to this level of scrutiny was @libsoftiktok—an account that was on the “Trends Blacklist” and was designated as “Do Not Take Action on User Without Consulting With SIP-PES.” pic.twitter.com/Vjo6YxYbxT
In 2022 alone, the account was suspended six times, and each time the posts were blocked under violation of Twitter’s “hateful conduct” policy. However, the committee noted in an internal SIP-PES report from October 2022, following her sixth ban, that “LTT has not directly engaged in behavior violative of the Hateful Conduct policy.” Again, this contradicts what was publicly informed.
19. But in an internal SIP-PES memo from October 2022, after her seventh suspension, the committee acknowledged that “LTT has not directly engaged in behavior violative of the Hateful Conduct policy." See here: pic.twitter.com/d9FGhrnQFE
Later, Raichik’s home address and pictures were leaked on Twitter, and ironically, the platform denied support by saying that it did not find the content to violate Twitter rules.
3. Twitter Files #3: Donald Trump’s Suspension
Both Matt and Bari posted the third installment on December 9. Donald Trump’s tweets have been controversial for years, and Twitter has resisted internal and external calls to ban him because he is blocking a world leader from sharing vital information. But during the presidential elections in January 2021, following the riots at the Capitol, Trump’s Twitter account was suspended on 8 January. While it finally happened during the three days of Capitol riots between 6 and 8 January, the theoretical groundwork was established months before.
According to Taibbi, Yoel Roth often met with representatives from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Roth said the meeting’s purpose was to coordinate efforts to thwart foreign interference and domestic disinformation in the elections.
4. The fourth installment of the Twitter Files talks in continuation about the removal of Donald Trump.
Blogger Michael Shellenberg posted internal conversations between Yoel Roth and some of his colleagues. These conversations show that Jack Dorsey was on vacation when Twitter’s senior executives and Roth were progressing overwhelmingly toward banning conservatives. Following an email from Jack about maintaining Twitter’s consistency in policies, including the rights of an account’s return after a temporary suspension, Roth had a conversation with an employee. Soon after, as Michael shares, Roth just shared a text saying that Jack had approved a system policy called “repeat offender for civic integrity,” under which any five violations would result in a permanent suspension.
Around 11:30 am PT, Roth DMs his colleagues with news that he is excited to share.
“GUESS WHAT,” he writes. “Jack just approved repeat offender for civic integrity.”
The new approach would create a system where five violations ("strikes") would result in permanent suspension. pic.twitter.com/F1KYqd1Xea
However, as the subsequent tweets reveal, the policy was for “everything else,” and “Trump continues to just have his one strike.” But, to everyone’s surprise, Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s account due to a risk of further incitement of violence.
Roth's colleague's query about "incitement to violence" heavily foreshadows what will happen the following day.
On January 8, Twitter announces a permanent ban on Trump due to the "risk of further incitement of violence." pic.twitter.com/psLb5HDGQP
The following events are crucial to comprehending why Twitter decided to ban Trump. When a sales executive asked whether the company was dropping the public interest policy, Roth said they were just changing the public interest approach for Trump’s account. This policy allows select officials/election contenders’ content, even if it violates Twitter’s content policy.
What happens next is essential to understanding how Twitter justified banning Trump.
Sales exec: "are we dropping the public interest [policy] now…"
Roth, six hours later: "In this specific case, we're changing our public interest approach for his account…" pic.twitter.com/XRUFil2npI
Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet Inc. division specializing in health sciences, stated that it has laid off over 200 workers, or 15% of its workforce. This is the first time in at least six years that Alphabet or one of its affiliates has announced employment cutbacks.
In September of last year, Verily emerged from the Google X research program in 2015 after receiving a $1 billion investment from Alphabet. At the time, Stephen Gillet was announced as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and co-founder Andy Conrad became the executive chairman.
In his emails, Stephen wrote to the employees that the company is striving for financial independence from the parent company Alphabet. According to the emails, the cuts were due to “redundancy” on the team and canceled programs.
The layoff comes after comparable layoffs in the corporate sector, primarily in banks and technology industries, as businesses try to cut costs in a challenging economic climate. Many companies like Meta, Salesforce, Tesla, and others have hinted at more layoffs in 2023.
Foreseeing tougher economic situations, Verily said in a blog post, “We will advance fewer initiatives with greater resources.” Verily also stopped developments on its analytics tool Value Suite and some other products, adding that it will also remove employees from those segments.
California-based Inner Cosmos has successfully developed and implanted a penny-sized brain chip in a patient to cure depression and will be starting the 2nd human trial in February. As per Inner Cosmos, depression could soon be treated using the “digital pill” as a brain implantation that delivers electrical pulses to the regions of the brain affected by mental illness.
CEO of Inner Cosmos, Meron Gribetz, was diagnosed with ADHD at age 10. The diagnosis was the reason for his interest in neuroscience. He said, “The world is in a state of severe disorder, and the effects are being felt by millions leading to surging levels of depression.”
The Inner Cosmos brain chip has two parts: an electrode and an external prescription pod. The electrode is implanted under the scalp, and a prescription pod is attached to the head to power the device. In March 2022, the company gained permission from the US Food and Drug Administration to carry out patient trials with their technology.
A fairly simple outpatient operation can implant the tiny electrode into the cranium, and the procedure only takes 30 minutes. The implant targets the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 15 minutes each day, the part of the brain responsible for processes like working memory, abstract reasoning, and motor skills.
The second human trial, if successful, can pave the way for more advanced treatments in neurosciences.
A seminar series called “The Digital Future for Business & Society: Emerging Perspectives on the Metaverse” will be jointly hosted by Professor Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Dr. Laurie Hughes, Swansea University, UK, and Director of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune, Professor Ramakrishnan Raman. The latter announced the same in their LinkedIn post.
This seminar series will run for twelve months, beginning in January 2023 and ending in December 2023. A couple of sessions a month by stalwart professors from universities worldwide have been planned online, and the registration is free for all interested.
The series will be overseen by Dr. Anabel Gutierrez, co-chair of digital marketing and analytics SIG at the Academy of Marketing, and Dr. Vinod Kumar, Associate Professor of Marketing, SIBM, Pune.
The seminar series will offer thought-provoking insights into the metaverse and the impact it has on the future. The seminar series will present various ideas from a number of expert speakers to highlight the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapid emergence of the metaverse.
The seminar topics include Engaging Users in the Metaverse and Surfing the Internet and Diving in the Metaverse: A Status Quo Analysis. It will also discuss Metaverse and Tourism Marketing, the Pollution-reducing and Pollution-generating Effects of the Metaverse, and Unlocking the Metaverse in Operations and Manufacturing Management.
Some interesting discussions on topics such as Advertising and Media Planning on the Metaverse, Individual and its Property in the Virtuality, the Legal Aspects of Virtual and Augmented Reality, Metaverse Retail: Reflections on the Opportunities and Challenges Ahead, Opportunities and Challenges of Metaverse in Marketing will be held.
Engineering refers to designing and building things. Similarly, data engineering refers to designing and building pipelines to transform data into a usable format. The term surfaced around 2011, especially within data-driven enterprises like Airbnb and Facebook. Such companies house vast amounts of potentially valuable real-time data. Earlier, software engineers used to develop appropriate tools to handle this data. The requirement soon evolved into data engineering skills for handling big data.
In the last ten years, the majority of companies have transformed digitally. Digitization has resulted in unprecedented volumes of a variety of data types that is much more complex. While data scientists are required to work with this data, there is a need for people who would organize and complete it, ensuring its quality is preserved. This is where data engineers step in and organize the data so that data scientists or other users can utilize it for further analysis. These data pipelines collect data from multiple sources and represent it as a single source of information.
The process may sound easy, but it requires many data literacy skills to engineer data. This article discusses some of the top data engineering skills necessary if you want to upscale your data career.
Top Data Engineering Skills
Here is a list of some highly appreciated data engineering skills. Have a look and master them to advance your career as a data engineer.
Machine learning and AI
Machine learning and artificial intelligence have become one of the most prominent technologies over the past few years. These technologies use specific algorithms to predict future states based on the input data. Data engineers need prior knowledge of these algorithms to work and organize data based on the company’s requirements. Additionally, a robust foundation in mathematics and statistics will give you an edge in understanding how these algorithms work.
Data engineers are simply software engineers who specialize in data pipelines and workflows. Consequently, machine learning becomes a must-have skill because it aids you in building better pipelines and models, making it one of the most necessary data engineering skills.
Data Engineering Skills for structures and algorithms (DSA)
Data engineers are responsible for organizing and handling unstructured data and transforming it into a usable format. This data must be stored somewhere accessible so that it can be used conveniently. Data structures are simple storage units that come in handy for the same. Not just for storing, data in these structures are also readily available for processing and cleaning. Secondly, DSA goes through several common problems and tells you how efficient they are. Although data engineers are mainly responsible for organizing and filtering data, they should know how to see if an algorithm is working efficiently.
Database technology – SQL and NoSQL
As a data engineer, you cannot find your way around SQL-based schemas and their syntax, given SQL is a widely used language. Many cloud-based systems like Amazon QuickSight and Athena are compatible with SQL-like interfaces. Additionally, NoSQL database technologies have gained popularity over the last few years, especially for storing unstructured or semi-structured data. These databases store data in key-value pairs and object formats like JSON or Parquet. A basic understanding of manipulating these key-value pairs is necessary if your data is stored in open-source ecosystems like Hadoop, MongoDB, or Cassandra (NoSQL frameworks). Data engineers should know both to have a holistic view of database technologies and be remarkable at showcasing their data engineering skills.
Scripting in Programming languages
You must be an efficient developer if you wish to be a data engineer. Almost all data engineer positions require you to know programming languages like Python. As a data engineer, you will also have to write scripts and glue codes because everything nowadays involves coding. There is infrastructure as code, pipelines as code, etc. Hence, having a robust programming background and interest in finding data patterns is vital. In addition to scripting, a data engineer must have an “operations mindset” to ensure that your infrastructure is reliable. Having some DevOps experience as a part of data engineering skills will help here.
Hyper Automation
Hyper Automation is one of the very obvious data engineering skills and refers to a business-driven approach to automating as much as possible. The process incorporates several technologies, tools, and platforms to perform value-added tasks like scheduling events, running jobs, etc. Hyper Automation has grown over the last few years in tandem with data pipelines and specialized scripting for moving data into the cloud. It leads to enhanced work quality, faster business processes, and decision-making agility. A data engineer should, thus, know how hyper-automation works.
Data Visualization as One of the Data Engineering Skills
Data engineers are often expected to perform exploratory data analysis (EDA) while working with data to ensure that the required ETL/ELT task is completed. EDA analyzes specific trends, patterns, or graphical representations of the data. A data engineer should know how to visually present and analyze data using statistical knowledge with tools like SSRS, Tableau, Azure Synapse, Excel, Power BI, etc. visualization also ensures that the data quality is maintained as data engineers process it. Therefore, it is an essential skill if you want to proceed in data engineering.
Multi-cloud computing
The model is called multi-cloud computing when an enterprise utilizes many cloud combinations simultaneously. It could be two or more public or private clouds or a combination of public, private, and edge-based clouds. Shifting to a multi-cloud model enables companies to avail themselves of better data security features and cost savings simultaneously. Given its rising trends, data engineers are expected to understand the requisite technologies that go into cloud computing. Besides having other data engineering skills, they are also expected to have experience with Iaas (infrastructure-as-a-service), PaaS (platform-as-a-service), and SaaS (software-as-a-service).
Data APIs
Data engineers must have experience with application programming interfaces (APIs) in addition to standard data engineering skills because part of their job is to build APIs (application user interfaces) in databases to enable data analysts and scientists to send queries. These interfaces share data infrastructure for real-time analysis. Furthermore, data engineers must be proficient in programming languages like Scala or Python to create APIs and facilitate other data engineering tasks.
Understanding ETL Tools as Data Engineering Skills
ETL stands for extract, transform, and load, and the term describes the entire process of extracting data from a source system, transforming it into a required format, and loading it to the desired location. Since data engineers are responsible for organizing and processing data, it is relevant to know ETL tools. When handling vast amounts of data, engineers perform batch processing and ensure that the data remains relevant to the specific requirement. Many ETL tools, like Fivetran, Hadoop, IBM DataStage, Hevo, Talend, etc., are very efficient in batch processing. A data engineer should be able to work through these tools while organizing data.
Apache Hadoop
Apache Hadoop is an open-source library that enables distributed procession of large datasets. It is a cluster of frameworks that support data integration, making it suitable for big data analytics. Hadoop is a popular framework as it is compatible with gigabytes to petabytes of data by strategic clustering. Data engineers who are acquainted with such frameworks (Hadoop, Kafka, etc.) would have the edge over others in terms of better efficiency for real-time data processing, monitoring, and reporting, making it one of the most necessary data engineering skills.
As per online marketer Gael Breton, the world-famous tech journalism platform CNET has been quietly publishing articles generated by AI. He noticed that many of the website’s articles bear the byline “CNET Money Staff,” which, as per CNET, is identified as “AI Content published under this author byline is generated using automation technology.”
Looks like @CNET (DR 92 tech site) just did their coming out about using AI content for SEO articles. pic.twitter.com/CR0IkgUUnq
In a first-of-its-kind internship program, two artificial intelligence (AI) interns will join Codeword, a top tech marketing agency. The interns will join its team of 106 employees and will closely work with the creative team. The AI interns, Aiden and Aiko, will work directly under Terrence Doyle, Senior Editor at Codeword, and will create blog posts for the company’s blog and social media profiles.
3. Hockeyverse, Hockey India’s Metaverse Project to Welcome FIH Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup
Hockey India is the first National Sports Federation to enter the metaverse. Hockey India debuted the “Hockeyverse” on their social media platforms on Monday, just days before the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar, Rourkela. With Hockeyverse, hockey enthusiasts can enjoy the sport at Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium while sitting at home. They can also use features like the Photo Booth (to take pictures), Team Room (to meet Indian hockey players), and Trophy Room.
4. Free 6-Months AI Certification Program by BHU
The Department of Computer Science at Banaras Hindu University has launched a free, six-month AI certification program with specialized training. 100 seats will be available through this program, and applicants will be admitted based on their performance on an entrance exam. Interested candidates can register for the program at the official website.
5. DeepL Raises US$100m at a Valuation of US$1b+ for Translation-as-a-Service
DeepL, an AI startup providing instant translation services, has announced that it raised more than US$100m at a valuation of US$1b+. It is a German company founded by Jaroslaw Kutylowski as a B2B (business-to-business) service rather than a B2C (business-to-consumer). DeepL supports translation on Mastodon, a decentralized social network. With the recent funds, DeepL plans to expand its services to cover more enterprises and switch to Grammarly-style writing assistance.
6. AI Detects Rare Forms of Dementia
Researchers at the University of Leipzig Medical Center and Max Planck Institute have utilized AI and machine learning to detect rare forms of dementia using patient MRIs. Researchers demonstrated in their study that AI can automatically identify patterns in patient imaging data that are exclusive to rare forms of dementia, facilitating early diagnosis.
Hockey India has become the first National Sports Federation to enter the world of metaverse by announcing the launch of ‘Hockeyverse.’ The announcement came on Monday, only days before the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar-Rourkela.
Hockeyverse will provide a novel virtual experience where global hockey fans can experience their favorite sport from the comfort of their home through their personal computer.
Upon accessing the ‘Hockeyverse’ URL in a browser, users are welcomed to the hockeyverse virtual world page. Users are asked to enter their name and email address. After selecting their virtual Avatar’s gender, users can click on the ‘Enter Hockeyverse’ button to enter.
The Hockeyverse features attractions such as a replica of the newly built Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium. The building just outside the stadium’s main entrance has two rooms, consisting of a brief history of Indian Hockey and their current achievements.
Fans can also use the Photo Booth, where they can take selfies with players virtually. There is also The Team Room and The Trophy Room, where fans are welcomed by Hockey India’s famous players. Fans will also have access to the site where they can buy desired hockey merchandise.
The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, Pune, is now available to visitors in the metaverse. The virtual replica of the museum will be present on BharatVerse, which is a metaverse platform that works to create digital twin places of particular interest.
Museum Director Sudhanva Ranade said, “We will facilitate an immersive experience of the metaverse for virtual visitors to get a feeling of being present in real-time inside the Museum.”
The visitors will be able to access the museum through head-mounted devices, web browsers, or mobile phones. They will be able to take a 3-D tour of the museum, created under the guidance of renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Shreekant Kelkar.
Founder-Director of BharatVerse, Rohit Srivastava, said, “We envision BharatVerse as a collaboratively-built virtual India where every square meter of the real India can be showcased as it is. We are building the metaverse platform on the three-pronged principles of collaboration, contribution, and creativity.”
The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum exhibits items from the collection of Dinkar G. Kelkar, a noted Indian art collector and historian. The museum’s collection includes palanquins, carved woodwork, traditional lamps, and much more.
At the Auto Expo 2023, Meta launched ‘Move with Meta,’ which is an upskilling and enablement program in partnership with FADA to train over 3000 auto dealers across India to build a social presence and digitize with the help of Meta Platforms.
While explaining the reason Meta is training auto dealers, Meta said that with people increasingly depending on digital touchpoints to decide on their automobile purchases, auto dealers are feeling an urgent need to become discoverable to customers online.
While commenting on the partnership, the president of FADA, Manish Raj Singhania, said, “Meta has done ground-breaking work by helping dealers to create a social presence and generate online leads, that too with minimal investment.
The program will include knowledge from global teams and provide dealers with low-cost and easy access to best-in-class global digital expertise.
Meta will also leverage FADA’s scaled forums, such as state-level dealership workshops known as Vyapaar, and its initiatives for under-35 dealers to enhance the program’s reach.
