Doc Accelerator Lab 2021 Application for Emerging & sophomore doc-makers

 Doc Accelerator Lab 2021 Application for Emerging & sophomore doc-makers

 

 

Deadline: January 14, 2021

Doc Accelerator Lab 2021 for Emerging & Sophomore Doc-makers

Doc Accelerator fellows will participate in a bespoke private lab where they will learn from industry experts and engage in indepth workshops. Fellows will also participate in Hot Docs Festival’s online industry programming. The program will focus on skills training and career advancement with a goal to foster an inclusive new generation of Canadian documentary filmmakers. Select fellows will also take part in a paid professional development mentorship in the year following the Festival.

Doc Accelerator Lab 2021 Application ELIGIBILITY

Ten to 12 Doc Accelerator fellows will be selected via an open application process. Applicants to the program must be:

• Of at least one of the following priority groups: Black, Indigenous, a person of colour, Francophone, Deaf, or living with a disability
• A Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada legally entitled to work
• An emerging or sophomore storyteller (i.e. three or fewer professional audio-visual production credits as a director or producer)
• NOT currently enrolled as a student
• Available flexible hours for the paid mentorship program that will take place at a mutually agreed time between April 2021-April 2022
• Able to participate in the Hot Docs Festival and Emerging Filmmaker Lab, which will take place between April 2021 and September 2021

BENEFITS

• Enrollment in the Doc Accelerator Emerging Filmmaker Lab
• Hot Docs industry pass, with access to the Hot Docs Forum, films, networking, conference sessions, programs and services.
• Private intensive creative, professional development, career planning, and skill development sessions
• Specialized lab workshops on fundamentals, including storytelling, funding and producing, the art of pitching, and promotion and distribution
• Access to the Hot Docs Online Community for one year

Festival and Lab
Fellows will participate in a private online lab taking place from April through September 2021. During the lab, fellows will hear from a variety of industry experts and will engage in indepth workshops.

Please note that the lab and all festival events are held in English, applicants should be comfortably fluent in English in order to participate.

Paid Professional Development Work Placement
Fellows will be matched with a successful Canadian documentary professional for a paid mentorship opportunity. The fellows will work remotely with their mentor, with significant focus placed on reaching the participant’s personal goals and outcomes for the experience. The work schedule will be determined by each individual placement and production schedule.

Accessibility Support
Hot Docs will work with selected applicants to ensure they are able to fully participate in the program. Resources such as personal support workers or ASL interpreters can be available as needed on an individual basis.

For more Information: Visit the webpage for Doc Accelerator Lab 2021 Application for Emerging & sophomore doc-makers 

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All India Council for Technical Education Pragati/Saksham Scholarship Scheme 2020-2021 for Students in India

 

 

All India Council for Technical Education Pragati/Saksham Scholarship Scheme 2020-2021 for Students in India

Application for All India Council for Technical Education Pragati scholarship scheme for India girls & Saksham scholarship for specially-abled students in India is now open.

The Mission Mode Project (MMP) of National Scholarships Portal under the National e-Governance Plan aims at providing common electronic portal for implementing various Scholarships schemes launched by Union Government, State Government and Union Territories across India.

The last date for the submission of online applications under AICTE Pragati scholarship scheme for girl students & AICTE Saksham scholarship scheme for specially-abled students (Fresh and Renewal cases) has been extended till 31. December, 2020.

 

Scheme – Portal Address

AICTE Pragati Scholarship Scheme (Fresh Applications) – Portal Address – National Scholarship Portal https://scholarships.gov.in

AICTE Pragati Scholarship (Renewal Applications) Portal Address-  AICTE web Portal at-https://www.aicte-pragati-saksham-gov.in

AICTE Saksham Scholarship Scheme (Fresh Applications) – National Scholarship Portal at- https://scholarships.gov.in

AICTE Saksham Scholarship (Renewal Applications) AICTE web Portal at-https://www.aicte-pragati-saksham-gov.in

The guidelines of the above schemes may be accessed at AICTE website. The students who are eligible and are admitted in the AICTE approved institutions and AICTE approved courses, as per scheme guidelines, may submit their applications for fresh and renewal cases at the respective portal. The students are advised to submit their online applications well in time so that their institutions are able to verify applications within the prescribed timelines.
The last date for first level of verification of applications by institutions of students including re-submitted defective applications and second level of verification by respective State Nodal Officer has been extended till 15th January 2021 and 31st  January 2021 respectively.

The details of online portal for institutions for first level of verification of online applications are as follows:

Pragati/Saksham Scholarship Scheme 2020-2021 Portal Address

AICTE Pragati & Saksham Scholarship schemes (Fresh Applications) – National Scholarship Portal at- https://scholarships.gov.in

AICTE Pragati & Saksham Scholarship Schemes (Renewal Applications) – AICTE web Portal at- https://www.aicte-oragati-saksham-gov.in/institutes/login.php .

The eligible institutions are also advised to verify applications of their students immediately after receiving the applications on the portal.

 

 

 

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Apply: How to Join the Generation Connect Visionaries Board 2020

How to Join the Generation Connect Visionaries Board 2020

How to Join the Generation Connect Visionaries Board 2020 is the overarching initiative of the ITU Youth Strategy on the journey to World Telecommunication Development Conference 2021 (WTDC-21) and the WTDC-21 Generation Connect Global Youth Summit. The three pillars of the Youth Strategy are: Empower, Engage and Participate.

The Generation Connect Visionaries Board will be assembled as part of the efforts related to the implementation of the ITU Youth Strategy to further champion the voices of youth to advance digital development. Two ITU representatives, six nominated high-level appointees and six nominated youth experts/young people, will work together on a voluntary basis¹, over a period of a year – 2021, to achieve the board’s strategic objectives.

 

• r strategic guidance on youth participation and empowerment.
• To identify and invite strategic partners to ensure youth engagement and youth participation in digital cooperation.
• To advocate for meaningful youth engagement in digital cooperation, through different promotional activities, such as active social media campaigning and inspirational role model talks.

Deliverables

The key deliverables expected of the Generation Connect Visionaries Board include the following:.

• Clear strategic guidance to the ITU on the implementation of the ITU Youth Strategy.
• New partnerships with high-level partners, youth organisations and boards.
• Strong awareness of WTDC-21 Generation Connect Global Youth Summit amongst board members’ own networks.
• Successful and meaningful youth engagement before and during the WTDC-21 Generation Connect Global Youth Summit.

Generation Connect Visionaries Board 2020 Selection Criteria

The ITU will select board members for the Generation Connect Visionaries Board, based on the following criteria:

• Active champion for youth engagement, empowerment, and participation.
• Passionate and active involvement in digital cooperation and youth engagement.
• Ability to offer strategic guidance and collaborate with the ITU for one year and support in the review after the one year has been completed.
• Affiliated with at least one youth related organisation, network and/or initiative (local, national or international).
• In 2021, willing to participate in promotional activities such as interviews, social media, webinars, and panel sessions.
• Commitment to attend the four board meetings that will take place in 2021, before the November WTDC-21 Generation Connect Global Youth Summit.
• At least one nominee should come from WTDC-21 host country – Ethiopia.

Key Dates

9th Nov 2020	Generation Connect Announcement and Application Launch
6th Dec 2020	Application Deadline
TBC Jan 2021	Press Release to Announce Board Members
TBC Jan/Feb 2021	First Inaugural Meeting
TBC Apr 2021	2nd Meeting
TBC Jul 2021	3rd Meeting
TBC Sept 2021	4th Meeting
Nov 2021	WTDC-21 Generation Connect Global Youth Summit and WTDC-21

 

SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION HERE

For more Information: Visit the webpage on How to Join the Generation Connect Visionaries Board 2020

 

 

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How risky is your Mutual Fund?

 

 

How risky is your Mutual Fund?

 

 

As an investor, it is not out of place to understand the role that risk plays in managing your funds and as an ingredient to investment.

 

In my several years of analyzing and writing on Nigerian mutual funds, many questions that I have been asked bothers mostly on mutual fund performances or returns. No one has ever asked me about mutual fund risks, as if the risk is not of any importance to them.

Risk is one of the things that should concern you as an investor. Risk is an ingredient of every type of investment. As an investor, you cannot totally run away from it but you can manage it through diversification, by selecting and mixing your portfolio up with assets of varying risks and correlations.

Risk management starts with an understanding of what risk is and how to measure it. It also needs an understanding and a self-analysis of an investor, with a view to knowing the investors’ risk tolerance or appetite. 

 

Different investors have different appetite or tolerance for risk. The amount of risk each investor is willing to take in order to achieve a given return is his risk tolerance. Conservative investors opt for low-risk investments, the downside of which is that they have to live with low returns too, while aggressive investors go for high risk-high return investment types.

What is Risk?

 

According to the dictionary, “Risk is a situation involving exposure to danger or harm”. However, when the word risk is used with respect to mutual funds or stocks, it implies volatility.

Volatility on the other hand, is the fluctuations in the unit prices of mutual funds or stocks. The greater that volatility, the greater the risk. Mutual fund risks are indicated with historical volatility.

How do investors measure risk?

 

There are many measures of mutual fund risk, but the most basic is standard deviation. When standard deviation is calculated with respect to a mutual fund, it is calculated as a measure of the extent to which the actual performance of the mutual fund in question has deviated from the average performance.

How Mutual Fund Standard Deviation should be used

 

Investors use and should use standard deviation to rank mutual funds’ risk with a view to uncovering which fund aligns with the investor’s risk appetite and tolerance. Though mutual funds can be ranked in accordance with their risk as indicated by their standard deviations, there are other risk-adjusted measures that can help an investor to sift between mutual funds in the selection process.

Here are some of them:

• Sharpe Ratio: Sharpe ratio is a risk-adjusted statistic that tells an investor if the returns a mutual fund made over a period of time is commensurate with the risk exhibited by that mutual fund over the same time period. A fund with a higher Sharpe ratio should be more preferable to one with a lower Sharpe ratio.

• Alpha: It is another measure of mutual fund risk-adjusted performance. Alpha is a measure of the extent to which a mutual fund performs better than a given but suitable market index. Using the Nigeria All Share index as an example, a mutual fund with an Alpha measure of 1% implies that the fund outperformed the ASI by 1%. Alpha helps to know if a fund performance is due to manager’s asset allocation skills or due to luck. It is therefore a fund manager selection tool as well.
• Beta: Beta is a measure of the volatility of a mutual fund in relation to the volatility of a given but suitable market index. A higher beta indicates that the mutual fund has more volatility and therefore more risk than the index in question. Beta is calculated by conducting a regression analysis of mutual fund returns versus index returns over a period of time.
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• R-Squared: It is a statistic that measures what percentage of movement in or returns from a mutual fund that can be attributed to movements in the overall market index. A fund with an R-Squared of .9 indicates a high correlation with the market and that 90% of the returns from the fund can be explained by events in the overall market. R-Squared therefore, helps to uncover how a fund manager’s asset allocation ability benefits a mutual fund. It could be useful in not only fund selection but also in manager selection.

I have intentionally belaboured you with all the above seemingly boring piece of this article, so you will understand the basis for my selection of the 5 low-risk mutual funds in Nigeria with positive Alpha. This analysis is based on the NAV Summary Report from January 2010 to November 6th 2020.

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  Source: Quantitative Financial Analytics

• Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund: This is currently the fund with the lowest risk. According to Quantitative Financial Analytics, Stanbic IBTC Bond fund has a standard deviation of 0.15, an Alpha of 2.09 and a Sharpe ratio of 4.15.
• Stanbic IBTC Absolute Fund: This is the second-lowest risk mutual fund in Nigeria. It has a standard deviation of 0.18, an Alpha of 1.81, and a Sharpe ratio of 2.83
• Legacy Short Maturity Fund: This is the third-lowest risk mutual fund in Nigeria. This fund has a standard deviation of 0.2, an Alpha of 2.08, and a Sharpe ratio of 2.78
• Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Fund: This is the fourth-lowest risk mutual fund in Nigeria going by its standard deviation of 0.22, an Alpha of 2.96, and Sharpe ratio of 4.03
• Coral Income Fund: This is the fifth-lowest risk mutual fund in Nigeria as indicated by its standard deviation of 0.43, an Alpha of 0.38, and a Sharpe ratio of 0.25

Bottom line

Note that this ranking is solely driven by the standard deviation as a measure of risk. However, the ranking changes when done on a risk-adjusted basis of Sharpe Ratio. I will do a piece on risk-adjusted ranking in my next article.

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 source: here

 

 

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