1.
200 laid
off at bike-sharing platform, Bounce
Earlier, the Bengaluru-based company had laid off 130
employees in June 2020.
With demand for shared mobility showing no signs of recovery, Bounce, the
Bengaluru-based bike-sharing platform has resorted to another round of layoffs.
After laying off 130 staff members in June last year, it has now slashed 200
more jobs. The concerned employees will receive three months’ salary as
severance pay and will continue to enjoy medical benefits till 2021. Even post
lifting of lockdown, Bounce had been able to witness merely 35 per cent of
total ride-hailing traffic till Nov-December 2020. The Company allows people to
rent scooters for up to two years, without having to own them. They offer
convenient daily, weekly, monthly plans to suit every pocket. In the middle of
2020, its workforce strength was more than 600. However, after two rounds of
layoffs, the strength has been reduced to about 200.
2.
From Bengaluru to
Srinagar, fake jobs rackets on the rise across India
People are
falling prey to fraudsters offering fake job offer letters in return for huge
sums of money. In
Srinagar, a fake job racket was busted when five people including two
constables of the Railway Protection Force were arrested for duping people of
huge amounts of money in return for jobs. The gang had been operating from
Srinagar, Budgam and Baramulla. In Mumbai, another fake job racket was busted,
wherein six fraudsters had duped over 450 people. The Malad-based Mumbai Sri
Consultancy was run by six school drop-outs from West Bengal, who had been
operating from Kolkata and Mumbai. The one-year old consultancy used to get in
touch with job seekers from outside the state they were operating from. They
avoided entertaining locals. They would take the passports of the aspirants and
demand anything between Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,25,000 towards cost of tickets, visa
processing fee, and so on.
3.
Google
fires yet another staff scientist, appoints new supervisor
The move has fuelled
criticism of Google’s supposed promise of research freedom. Google
has fired its scientist, Margaret Mitchell for violating the Company’s code of
conduct and security policies. The Company has alleged that she moved
electronic files out of the Company. This is the second researcher to be fired
from Google’s ‘ethics in artificial intelligence (AI)’ team, after Timnit
Gebru. Now, Google has appointed Marian Croak, a Black executive, to supervise
the research being done on responsible artificial intelligence (AI). Croak will
head 10 teams, comprising scientists researching on the ethical implications of
automation and AI. Last year, Gebru had exposed the bias that existed in the
Company’s facial analysis systems. Gebru’s termination had sparked employee
protests throughout the Company. Gebru and Mitchell had been working to enhance
diversity and inclusion in the Company’s research team. Things started going
against them when they began to protest against the censorhip of papers that
found issues with its product offerings.
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