Flipkart's Founders now as rich as Infosys Co-founders

Flipkart's Founders now as rich as Infosys Co-founders

The Bansals of Flipkart are in the news for all the right reasons. Sachin and Binny Bansal of Flipkart now have a net worth of more than $1 billion which has made these two nearly as rich as the co-founders N R Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani of Bangalore’s tech giant Infosys.

A fresh fund raiser of $1 billion has resulted in raising the values of Sachin and Binny Bansals’ combined stake of approximately 15% at over Rs. 6000 Crore. On the other hand, the Murthy family which consists of four members has a net worth of about Rs. 8,700 crore in Bangalore’s Infosys, while the other founder’s family net worth is valued at about Rs. 6,500 Crore.

The trend all over the world clearly shows that consumer internet ventures have been successful in attracting awesome valuations. The Chinese and the United States internet markets have promoted or raised many billionaire entrepreneurs as soon as they went public with their ventures.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the famous CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is valued at a whopping $33 billion, while Jack Ma of Alibaba boosts of a net worth of $ 12.5 billion which is up $ 8. 9 billion year to date.

The Bansals may be nearly as rich as Murthy or Nilekani but they have been successful in superseding one of the co-founders of Infosys in net worth.  Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal who are not related by blood have a higher net worth than Infosys’ outgoing CEO and co-founder S D Shibulal. He along with his family had a net worth of around Rs. 4,300 crore in the IT services Company as of Tuesday. Its other co-founder Kris Gopalkrishnan’s family net worth stands around Rs. 6,500 crore.

Infosys has been on the scene for over four decades now with a market cap of about $30 billion, while Flipkart in just seven year of its existence has been successfully able to reach $7 billion. The Bansals are even in talks to create a $ 100 billion worth e-commerce Company. Flipkart has been successful in growing its sales from $ 10 million to an annualized $ 2 billion in a three year period from 2011 to 2014.

Flipkart's Founders now as rich as Infosys Co-founders

Flipkart's Founders now as rich as Infosys Co-founders

The Bansals of Flipkart are in the news for all the right reasons. Sachin and Binny Bansal of Flipkart now have a net worth of more than $1 billion which has made these two nearly as rich as the co-founders N R Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani of Bangalore’s tech giant Infosys.

A fresh fund raiser of $1 billion has resulted in raising the values of Sachin and Binny Bansals’ combined stake of approximately 15% at over Rs. 6000 Crore. On the other hand, the Murthy family which consists of four members has a net worth of about Rs. 8,700 crore in Bangalore’s Infosys, while the other founder’s family net worth is valued at about Rs. 6,500 Crore.

The trend all over the world clearly shows that consumer internet ventures have been successful in attracting awesome valuations. The Chinese and the United States internet markets have promoted or raised many billionaire entrepreneurs as soon as they went public with their ventures.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the famous CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is valued at a whopping $33 billion, while Jack Ma of Alibaba boosts of a net worth of $ 12.5 billion which is up $ 8. 9 billion year to date.

The Bansals may be nearly as rich as Murthy or Nilekani but they have been successful in superseding one of the co-founders of Infosys in net worth.  Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal who are not related by blood have a higher net worth than Infosys’ outgoing CEO and co-founder S D Shibulal. He along with his family had a net worth of around Rs. 4,300 crore in the IT services Company as of Tuesday. Its other co-founder Kris Gopalkrishnan’s family net worth stands around Rs. 6,500 crore.

Infosys has been on the scene for over four decades now with a market cap of about $30 billion, while Flipkart in just seven year of its existence has been successfully able to reach $7 billion. The Bansals are even in talks to create a $ 100 billion worth e-commerce Company. Flipkart has been successful in growing its sales from $ 10 million to an annualized $ 2 billion in a three year period from 2011 to 2014.

App downloads in India to cross 9 billion by 2015: ASSOCHAM

mobile apps

The app market is booming like never before. Nowadays we have an app for almost everything. There's an app to count your calorie intake, to measure your water intake, to help you find a cab and even an app to give you a time to time update about the traffic crisis on your route. These apps have surely made our lives much easier and faster.

With innumerous useful apps being launched every day, it comes as no surprise that the number of app downloads in our country will cross the 9 billion mark by 2015. This figure was revealed in an Assocham-Deloitte joint study. The 9 billion figure would be a big increase as the number of app downloads in India stood at a mere 1.56 billion in the year 2012.

A mobile application is basically a computer program which is designed to run on tablet computers, smartphones and other such mobile devices.

The Assocham-Deloitte joint study was conducted among people aged 16-30 years. According to the study, creating appropriate applications and local language content for each market, awareness and user education could result in generating greater opportunities media & entertainment and telecom industry.

The study also revealed that the recent consumer shift towards mobility devices and applications from fixed products and services provides an opportunity to equipment manufacturers, marketers and content and technology providers to accelerate the pace of development of mobile solutions.

The recent move to cloud services and mobile devices has benefitted technology providers with more and new opportunities to create better and closer relations with their customers and increase customer loyalty.

According to the study, monetization plays a big role for both global and local mobile game developers trying to enter the Indian market as India is still a price sensitive society where a majority does not prefer paying for mobile games and downloading large sized games despite of low internet plans and cheap gaming rates.

Mobile gaming has gained a great momentum in the gaming world. While technology giant, Apple offers community based experience with applications such as Game Centre which can be easily accessed on the company’s iPhones and iPads, Windows Smartphones on the other hand have Xbox Live for its customers.

Top Image - Dianne Miller @Flickr

App downloads in India to cross 9 billion by 2015: ASSOCHAM

mobile apps

The app market is booming like never before. Nowadays we have an app for almost everything. There's an app to count your calorie intake, to measure your water intake, to help you find a cab and even an app to give you a time to time update about the traffic crisis on your route. These apps have surely made our lives much easier and faster.

With innumerous useful apps being launched every day, it comes as no surprise that the number of app downloads in our country will cross the 9 billion mark by 2015. This figure was revealed in an Assocham-Deloitte joint study. The 9 billion figure would be a big increase as the number of app downloads in India stood at a mere 1.56 billion in the year 2012.

A mobile application is basically a computer program which is designed to run on tablet computers, smartphones and other such mobile devices.

The Assocham-Deloitte joint study was conducted among people aged 16-30 years. According to the study, creating appropriate applications and local language content for each market, awareness and user education could result in generating greater opportunities media & entertainment and telecom industry.

The study also revealed that the recent consumer shift towards mobility devices and applications from fixed products and services provides an opportunity to equipment manufacturers, marketers and content and technology providers to accelerate the pace of development of mobile solutions.

The recent move to cloud services and mobile devices has benefitted technology providers with more and new opportunities to create better and closer relations with their customers and increase customer loyalty.

According to the study, monetization plays a big role for both global and local mobile game developers trying to enter the Indian market as India is still a price sensitive society where a majority does not prefer paying for mobile games and downloading large sized games despite of low internet plans and cheap gaming rates.

Mobile gaming has gained a great momentum in the gaming world. While technology giant, Apple offers community based experience with applications such as Game Centre which can be easily accessed on the company’s iPhones and iPads, Windows Smartphones on the other hand have Xbox Live for its customers.

Top Image - Dianne Miller @Flickr

Lenovo developing a wearable smart glass similar to Google Glass

lenovo_smartglass

Lenovo, the world’s largest PC makers has come up with its own prototype version of wearable smart glasses which looks similar to the already famous Google Glass.  The prototype was unveiled to the world on July 24th in order to get the attention of other hardware manufactures and developers towards a new partner program.

This wearable device by Lenovo looks almost similar to the Google glass, the only difference being that its battery is attached down at the wearer’s neck. The battery is connected to the device by a small blue wire.  More details about the device are scheduled to come out in the month of October.

Lenovo is currently also in look out for partners to develop its products like air purifiers for the Chinese homes and wireless routers. It is also looking out for opportunities to team up and invest money in tech companies whose work involves something beyond Smartphones and Personal computers.

The Chinese PC maker has even teamed up U.S. smart glasses manufacturer Vuzix in order to bring its own product called Vuzix M100 into the Chinese market. This product will be in addition to Lenovo’s own prototype.

The M100 Smartglasses will make use of a 1 GHz dual-core processor and an Android 4.0.4. It is expected to go on sale to developers in the month of August or September for around $1298 in China. The device is targeted at business users.

vuzix_smart_glasses

The M100 promises to offer unprecedented access to data collection, information and more. It also comes with pre-installed apps which can be used to record and playback videos and still pictures, manage your calendar, track timed events and link to your Smartphone and much more.

Lenovo’s prototype is a part of its NBD project which aims at creating a host of internet connected devices like Smartphone controlled toasters, air purifiers and fridges by taking help from third party manufactures.

Luftmed, a German based Company is currently working with Lenovo’s NBD program in order to sell Smartphone controlled air purifiers in China. The New Air X330 by Luftmed will offer more cleaner air and accurate statistics than its counter parts.

lenovo_smart_glasses_box_content

Top Image via - Michael Kan @Twitter

Lenovo developing a wearable smart glass similar to Google Glass

lenovo_smartglass

Lenovo, the world’s largest PC makers has come up with its own prototype version of wearable smart glasses which looks similar to the already famous Google Glass.  The prototype was unveiled to the world on July 24th in order to get the attention of other hardware manufactures and developers towards a new partner program.

This wearable device by Lenovo looks almost similar to the Google glass, the only difference being that its battery is attached down at the wearer’s neck. The battery is connected to the device by a small blue wire.  More details about the device are scheduled to come out in the month of October.

Lenovo is currently also in look out for partners to develop its products like air purifiers for the Chinese homes and wireless routers. It is also looking out for opportunities to team up and invest money in tech companies whose work involves something beyond Smartphones and Personal computers.

The Chinese PC maker has even teamed up U.S. smart glasses manufacturer Vuzix in order to bring its own product called Vuzix M100 into the Chinese market. This product will be in addition to Lenovo’s own prototype.

The M100 Smartglasses will make use of a 1 GHz dual-core processor and an Android 4.0.4. It is expected to go on sale to developers in the month of August or September for around $1298 in China. The device is targeted at business users.

vuzix_smart_glasses

The M100 promises to offer unprecedented access to data collection, information and more. It also comes with pre-installed apps which can be used to record and playback videos and still pictures, manage your calendar, track timed events and link to your Smartphone and much more.

Lenovo’s prototype is a part of its NBD project which aims at creating a host of internet connected devices like Smartphone controlled toasters, air purifiers and fridges by taking help from third party manufactures.

Luftmed, a German based Company is currently working with Lenovo’s NBD program in order to sell Smartphone controlled air purifiers in China. The New Air X330 by Luftmed will offer more cleaner air and accurate statistics than its counter parts.

lenovo_smart_glasses_box_content

Top Image via - Michael Kan @Twitter

Vatsana Technologies developing products to make networking easier

vatsana

Started in a college hostel room by Shashank Vaishnav, Vinay Sinhal and Parveen Singhal in 2010, Vatsana Technologies is a promising Indore based startup creating innovative products to make life easier for all of us. Before starting with their products, the company provided services for almost 18 months and gained the required funds to start making products. They are a strong, 12 member team working dedicatedly towards their products.

Currently they have 2 products in the market:

  • FollowMe247: It is a cloud enabled - hierarchy based - internet less - instant information sharing application.

  • Evrystry: A story sharing platform which allows users to crowd source their stories and experiences. With thousands of amazing stories, evrystry aims to make people smile every day.


FollowMe247 is a very interesting student-teacher interaction platform which works without internet or smartphones. “There is so much innovation and technology being brought into the education market but all of it is happening around the syllabus and the content delivery,” says Shashank. “But what everyone else was missing is that content delivery can happen only when there is a bond between the teachers and students and a bond is built only when they can interact, freely, no matter when and where, without any restriction and hesitation, with atmost privacy and zero cost!” added Vinay.

founders_vatsana

A teacher will never have to login to talk to his students, whenever, wherever, with an assurance that all of them will get the message because a student doesn’t need to install any app or even to have access to Internet. All they need is a phone, a basic phone with simple message facility. It is going to affect their daily lives by completely revolutionizing the way they connect, talk and interact with each other. Currently it is being used by 10 small and big colleges in India. SRM University, Chennai and IIT, Indore are two of the big names among them.

The product has sent more than 4million communication by more than 1000 registered teacher to over 20,000 students in last 12 months. It is coming out of beta this summer and will be available for all the education institutes across the country. They charge the organization based on the number of students, annually (INR 199 per student per year). “We plan to grow FollowMe247 to at least 500 colleges in the country before 2014 ends. Also, FollowMe247 is our first product for the education market. We have many more coming in near future,” they added.

On the other hand, Evrystry is a global story sharing platform which aims to share all the amazing and unique stories in the world. These stories can be about people, places, nature, animals and everything else where there is story unheard, untold to the world. “Evrystry acts like a one stop shop for all the photographers to tell us the story behind that amazing picture we all loved, it helps travelers to tell us the stories of amazing people whom they meet in a foreign country who help them when they needed the most, their experiences of different cultures and everything else that they felt during their journeys, it allows a blogger to blog in a better way, to engage its users in a whole new and different style,” said Parveen, the youngest of the three.

"Usually, people build a website/concept and then try to build the user/customer base. We did the opposite. We build our community first in form of a facebook page called 'Amazing Things In The World'," they said. Currently, the website strives on the income from ads. They plan to make it ad free soon. With 150,000 unique visitors and 400,000 page views on our website on daily basis, this Chennai based startup has made 1.7 Cr. turnover in its 4 years of operations.

Amazon answers to FlipKart, Pumps fresh $2bn in Amazon India services

Just a day after Flipkart announced raising of fresh $1 billion of funding from investors which become biggest fund raise ever by Indian e-commerce company, Global e-commerce giant Amazon also announced today that it will invest an additional $2 billion (double of what Flipkart got) to boost the growth of Amazon.in, its online marketplace in India.

"After our first year in business, the response from customers and small and medium-sized businesses in India has far surpassed our expectations," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com said in a statement The Economics Times.

Ever since Amazon launched its online marketplace services in India in last year, there has been a lot of turmoil in e-commerce ecosystem in India. Flipkart ran a funding spree and last three rounds being exceptionally huge. Snapdeal also grabbed fundings from global investors. Thereafter, Flipkart acquired India biggest online fashion store Myntra.com.

This latest announcement clearly shows the business enmity between World's e-commerce giant Amazon and India's homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart. Amazon also flaunted how much deep pockets it has got and it required no outer funding for Amazon. It also showed how desperate is Amazon for for its India's operation.

"We see huge potential in the Indian economy and for the growth of e-commerce in India. With this additional investment of $2 billion, our team can continue to think big, innovate, and raise the bar for customers in India," Bezos said. "At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales. A big 'thank you' to our customers in India - we've never seen anything like this," - Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon


Amazon has ramped up very quickly in India since its launch in June last year. It now sells over 17 million products across 28 categories and hosts about 8,500 merchants on its marketplace. Both Amazon and Snapdeal have sold about $600 million (about Rs 3,600 crore) worth of products this year and are targeting $1 billion or Rs 6,000 crore sales this fiscal.

Flipkart on other hand has so far raised over $1.7 billion in risk capital and crossed US$1 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), which is the value of items bought on the site, in February this year and became India's largest online retailer ahead of Amazon and Snapdeal.

Apple Buys Concept.io for around $30M

apple buys concept.io

Yesterday, Apple has officially acquired Concept.io Inc. The sources also suggest that after acquiring, the technology giant has already discontinued the startup's Swell mobile app which is a mobile streaming-content app.

This acquisition by Apple can be counted as the latest in the string of deals by the technology giant and could reflects Apple’s aim of achieving a much larger role in streaming audio and music content.

The deal for the two year old startup was reportedly locked by Apple at a whopping $30 million. Concept.io was valued at $19 million when it closed its Series A funding round in July last year.

The Swell app delivers a personalized audio news feed from websites such as Harvard Business Review, NPR and TED Talks. It works quite similar to what Pandora does for music. The content is suggested based on the data collected by the app when the user skips or stays on a particular content.

Conecpt.io was incubated at venture firm Charles River Ventures where the company’s chief executive and founder Ram Ramkumar worked as an entrepreneur in residence. In a funding event organized by the company last year which was labeled as an oversubscribed funding event by the company’s chief executive, the company had raised an astonishing $5.4 million. This along with the$1.2 million raised in the previous seed funding was going to help the startup flourish and improve its app. The application saw its last update on December 2013.

The startup’s investors included names like InterWest Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Correlation Ventures, Google Ventures and Draper Nexus Ventures.

Apple Buys Concept.io for around $30M

apple buys concept.io

Yesterday, Apple has officially acquired Concept.io Inc. The sources also suggest that after acquiring, the technology giant has already discontinued the startup's Swell mobile app which is a mobile streaming-content app.

This acquisition by Apple can be counted as the latest in the string of deals by the technology giant and could reflects Apple’s aim of achieving a much larger role in streaming audio and music content.

The deal for the two year old startup was reportedly locked by Apple at a whopping $30 million. Concept.io was valued at $19 million when it closed its Series A funding round in July last year.

The Swell app delivers a personalized audio news feed from websites such as Harvard Business Review, NPR and TED Talks. It works quite similar to what Pandora does for music. The content is suggested based on the data collected by the app when the user skips or stays on a particular content.

Conecpt.io was incubated at venture firm Charles River Ventures where the company’s chief executive and founder Ram Ramkumar worked as an entrepreneur in residence. In a funding event organized by the company last year which was labeled as an oversubscribed funding event by the company’s chief executive, the company had raised an astonishing $5.4 million. This along with the$1.2 million raised in the previous seed funding was going to help the startup flourish and improve its app. The application saw its last update on December 2013.

The startup’s investors included names like InterWest Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Correlation Ventures, Google Ventures and Draper Nexus Ventures.

Facebook launches 'Save' button as new bookmarking feature

Facebook, the Social Networking giant has recently unveiled a new feature that will allow its users to store links from their News Feed and various Facebook pages for events, music, places, TV shows and movies to a list where they can find them and view later.

With this new 'Save' feature, the Facebook users will be able to indicate content that they wish to bookmark to be viewed later on. The feature has been made available for web, Android and iOS users.

Spool, which was a read it later startup, was acquired by the social networking giant some two years ago and now  with this new Save feature it seems Facebook has finally put this deal to use.  This new feature by Facebook would prove as a tough competition for the popular mobile app Pocket.

In a blog post written by Daniel Giambalvo, Software Engineer at Facebook, on Facebook's official blog, he mentions how everyday people find all sorts of interesting items on their Facebook News Feed that they don't have time to read or explore right away. But now using the save feature, they will be able to save items that they find interesting and check them out later when they have more time.

Using the save feature, the users can save items like music, places, events, TV shows and movies etc. The saved items can only be accessed and viewed by the user, unless he or she decides to share a specific link with his or her FB friends.

Mobile phone users can access and view the saved items on the 'more' tab or by clicking the link situated in the left hand side of Facebook on the web.

The items in the saved items list are organized by category and the users are just required to swipe right on each item in order to share the item with their FB friends or move it into the archive list.

Facebook will also send out reminders to you about your saved items every now and then. The feature will soon be available to every Facebook user throughout the world.

Soon Wi-Fi services in India's Cities and Universities

WiFi cities India

Wi-Fi has nowadays become as important as food for many of us and it seems the Narendra Modi government which came to power two months back has also realized the power possessed by Wi-Fi and decided to give it a further boost.

The NaMo government has decided on launching Wi-Fi services in urban areas and universities. The move has been taken in order to increase IT based government interference with people and making mobile connectivity easier. The government will be providing support to municipal bodies and state governments to launch these services.

BJP all throughout its election campaign stressed on creating "Islands" where Wi-Fi connectivity will be made available to speed up the process of e-governance all across the country, particularly in the urban pockets.

If some sources are to be believed, the telecom department paid a visit to the Prime Minister on Saturday and are expected to get approval of "competent authority" for the project by March next year.

The Telecom department is also trying to get a Cabinet approval for a scheme which aims at making mobile phone connectivity available to all uncovered villages in the Himalayan states. Another proposal which is in line to get the Cabinet's approval is for comprehensive telecom development in the North East region of the country.

In a recent presentation of all the important infrastructure ministries, the Planning Commission has submitted that the department aims at awarding work to set up around 500 mobile towers in the Left Wing Extremism affected districts. In 2014, it has a target of connecting 50,000 panchayats with the help of National optical fibre network.

The road transport ministry is also planning on launching a web portal which would aim at helping contractors in keeping a track of their pending bills and their current location.

According to a Ministry official, the facility for uploading the bill won't be available in the starting but one will be easily able to find out the status of his or her claims. This web portal will put an end to the ages old ritual of contractors visiting the government offices in order to get their payments cleared.

Soon Wi-Fi services in India's Cities and Universities

WiFi cities India

Wi-Fi has nowadays become as important as food for many of us and it seems the Narendra Modi government which came to power two months back has also realized the power possessed by Wi-Fi and decided to give it a further boost.

The NaMo government has decided on launching Wi-Fi services in urban areas and universities. The move has been taken in order to increase IT based government interference with people and making mobile connectivity easier. The government will be providing support to municipal bodies and state governments to launch these services.

BJP all throughout its election campaign stressed on creating "Islands" where Wi-Fi connectivity will be made available to speed up the process of e-governance all across the country, particularly in the urban pockets.

If some sources are to be believed, the telecom department paid a visit to the Prime Minister on Saturday and are expected to get approval of "competent authority" for the project by March next year.

The Telecom department is also trying to get a Cabinet approval for a scheme which aims at making mobile phone connectivity available to all uncovered villages in the Himalayan states. Another proposal which is in line to get the Cabinet's approval is for comprehensive telecom development in the North East region of the country.

In a recent presentation of all the important infrastructure ministries, the Planning Commission has submitted that the department aims at awarding work to set up around 500 mobile towers in the Left Wing Extremism affected districts. In 2014, it has a target of connecting 50,000 panchayats with the help of National optical fibre network.

The road transport ministry is also planning on launching a web portal which would aim at helping contractors in keeping a track of their pending bills and their current location.

According to a Ministry official, the facility for uploading the bill won't be available in the starting but one will be easily able to find out the status of his or her claims. This web portal will put an end to the ages old ritual of contractors visiting the government offices in order to get their payments cleared.

Predict the confirmation of your train ticket with ConfirmTkt

Predict the confirmation of your train ticket with ConfirmTkt

ConfirmTkt is a tool which assists the users in predicting confirmation chances of their train tickets with an unbelievable accuracy. With a mission to make Travel Simpler, Sripad and Dinesh came up with the idea of ConfirmTkt while working together at IBM. Sripad and Dinesh already have an android app in the market by the name 'Meterup'. Meterup is Auto fare, Taxi fare, Cab fare app in India.

Before boarding your train, you can check the status on Android devices as well with their ConfirmTkt app.

founders confirmtktWe asked them how it all started, and Dinesh said "We personally experienced the difficulties of getting a train ticket to travel to our native places. Whenever we try to book a ticket it would show waiting list. Sripad used to book tickets by analyzing the past trends manually. So we both thought why can’t we build something which can analyze and tell you whether to book or not."

ConfirmTkt is backed by a unique and efficient algorithm which predicts the future status of PNR's in seconds based on historical trends. It also assists you in deciding whether to book or not if the train is in waitlist.
At ConfirmTkt you will be able to

  • Predict your ticket confirmation chances if you have a waitlist ticket.

  • PNR status check.

  • Subscribe for the PNR confirmation notifications.

  • Search trains between a desired source and destination pair.

  • Compare all the ticket confirmation chances for the trains on a single screen and decide on the travel options.


"All you need is a valid PNR. Enter the PNR and click 'Get status' button to get all your PNR information instantly. ConfirmTkt shows the ticket confirmation chances with in a fraction of seconds,” says Sripad. Once you have finished your PNR status check, if your ticket is in waitlist/ RAC and you want to be notified when your ticket gets confirmed. Then just enter a valid email ID to subscribe for PNR confirmation notification we handle the rest. Once your PNR gets confirmed we will send you an email notification with the detailed PNR information," added Dinesh.

The intelligence behind the ConfirmTkt PNR predictions is very close to how humans think. We humans predict and act on the future based on past experiences. ConfirmTkt prediction algorithm is highly efficient and trustable. It has been thoroughly tested on about 2500 trains and achieved an overall accuracy of 88%. It took them 2 years to develop an algorithm with such an accuracy. “Do not worry about the accuracy, we will take care of it,” they say. The ticket confirmation chances may vary from a holiday/weekend to a normal day. As a result this 2 person team maintains ticketing trends for holidays /weekends separately and predict accuracy based on that.

The algorithm interprets these numbers by comparing the current availability with the ticket confirmation thresholds. By seeing these numbers, users can easily mitigate the risk involved while deciding on the ticket booking.

This is how the algorithm interprets ConfirmTkt status:

  • If the confirmation chances are above 70% then we interpret it as 'Confirm'

  • If the confirmation chances are between 30% and 70% then we interpret as 'Probable'

  • Anything below 30 % is interpreted as 'No Chance'


They are not using any third party software’s for big data analytics. They have built the software on their own ad plan to improve and put new functionalities to the product soon. We see it becoming the most innovative ticket search tool that can show all possible ways of getting a ticket for any mode of transport. As a message for future entrepreneurs, they said "Don't be afraid to take risk. If you want to solve some problem that nobody else dared to solve and are passionate about it then just do it."
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPkBs9xCjkk]

Passbrains enabling on-demand, real world 'Crowdtesting' of apps

passbrains_crowdtesting

Passbrains is the on-demand crowd testing division of Pass Technologies. With their headquarters in Zurich- Switzerland, the company is Europe's leading on-demand software testing services. They have been delivering testing services to global clients including fortune 500 firms across different industry sectors.

Mayank Mittal, director & country Head of Pass Technologies- India says, "Passbrains hosts global tester community and comprises comprehensive toolkit to deliver full spectrum of on-demand professional testing services for web, mobile, cloud and enterprise applications across industry domains." They have a 25,000+ strong testing community spread across more than 100 countries and have recently opened up an office in Bangalore.

There are more and more apps to be developed for a growing number of devices, OS versions and languages. Software quality is crucial to any business success and it's important to make sure that users will love the end product. In the current scenario, software testing is time consuming and is still below expectation. Lack of test resources and the changing nature of software landscape has brought about a shift from traditional testing methods to a more dynamic way of testing called Crowdtesting.

Passbrains.com has the perfect solution for faster, efficient and credible testing and is a leading crowdsourcing platform for on demand managed application testing services. It consists of thousands of highly skilled software testers and thousands of consumers ready to test an app within the time you need it. Testers will test the app in a number of devices, languages and operating systems the app needs to function in. Testers report lots of bug report in the apps and suggest improvements for the usability. The reports are then reviewed by quality engineers at Pass Brains as soon as they come in.

We asked Mayank what prompted them to extend operations in India, he said "Software industry is evolving at a fast pace with increasing customer expectations and growing competition. Delivering premium quality software applications at market speed has become a priority. This has brought about a shift from traditional testing methods to a more dynamic way of testing called the managed crowd testing."
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_MhlbdODXQ]

Passbrains platform can be used in self-service mode or to license a white labeled version allowing users to run test projects using their internal staff exclusively or in combination with Passbrains' tester community. They have set up two delivery centers in Mumbai and Bangalore within a year of starting operations. “India's growing prominence in the crowdsourcing testing community can also be seen from the fact that around 10-15 percent of our crowdsourced testing community hail from India,” he added.

The approach is based on an Integrated Delivery Model with a combination of internal teams and professional crowd testers. The in-house team comprises mainly of project managers, test managers, domain experts and technical consultants. This team handles consulting, project management and reviewing of all deliverables submitted by the Passbrains community. The tester community at Passbrains has a large mix of testers ranging from novice testers to seasoned professionals with more than 20 years of experience.

“For every project, the testers from our community are chosen on the basis of a comprehensive selection process covering various metrics, such as testers’ skills, testing and specific domain experience, demographics, performance and many other factors to ensure optimal test coverage, quality and overall performance,” said Mayank.

Their model is very attractive to small and medium scale enterprises that expect high quality professional testing services at competitive price points. They operate on a hybrid model which is a mix of on-shore, offshore and crowdsouced testing. To identify which project or applications are viable candidates for this constellation, they also offer free 'CrowdConsult' services to their customers.

BuzzingBubs ensuring that parents spend the best time with their kids

buzzingbubs

As parents, I am sure you have all done your share of endless research – whether it’s finding the right toys, fun things to do on weekends, where to holiday or planning the perfect birthday party. And we know that each time, you wanted to do more with our kids. “We created BuzzingBubs for parents like us who want to make our kids’ days more fun and memorable. Our goal is to be your guide whenever you’re looking for ideas for things to do with your kids," say the founders Sunena Saigal and Priyanka Sehgal.

founders_buzzingbubsLaunched on April 23, 2013 in Bangalore, Buzzingbubs.com is a platform to serve the interests of parents with kids. The contributors on this wesite are from different walks of life and have helped to create a holistic, well-rounded content. “Our aim is to give emphasis to quality over quantity while we explore every area of relevance in this domain.We wish to cut out the noise and curate information which is useful from a parents' perspective. Whether it’s recommending the most kid-friendly restaurants or the best children's parks in Bangalore, we've captured and highlighted information that parents care about and give’s them a clear picture at a glance,” says Sunena. Their website contains that local and personal touch which makes a big difference.

They are currently in talks with certain collateral brands exploring synergies. Currently using wordpress on their website and have made it mobile friendly. “More than 60% of our users are accessing our content on their mobile devices,” says Priyanka. Apart from a content editor and designer on board, they have more than 15 contributors. Their contributors are super mum’s and dad’s that keep the website buzzing with great articles.

They plan to cover the needs of parents in Bangalore in depth and thereafter take it to other major cities in India. Priyanka suggests the future entrepreneurs to ‘Believe in their idea no matter how simple it is.’ “An idea, executed well is what makes a difference,” she says.

Lingua.ly's Language Learning Technology Now Available On iOS

lingualy

Lingua.ly, a cross-platform solution that draws on a user's environment and interests to create a personalized language learning experience, announced today the launch of the Lingua.ly app on iOS. The launch demonstrates the company’s commitment to digital language learning and education and enforces the importance of fostering communication and learning within today’s global community.  Since launching the Android app earlier this year, the company has further evolved with the release of a WebApp and through expanded academic partnerships.

The app is already available as Android app is now also available as a free download in the iTunes App Store.

Lingua.ly's language learning technology provides learners with a free dictionary and learning platform to discover vocabulary in over 18 languages. The platform goes beyond traditional translation and flashcard services and assesses skill level behind the scenes, recommending fresh content in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Hebrew as well as practice exercises personalized for the individual.To enhance user engagement, the new iOS app includes a number of gamification features, where words collected are counted via a leader board and a practice session tracker that rewards power-users, effectively encouraging additional vocabulary searches.



"Lingua.ly for iOS means learners all over India and Asia now have access to a free digital immersion language experience via their mobile devices," said Lingua.ly CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Jan Ihmels.  "The market is growing at a tremendous rate and Lingua.ly will be at the forefront, leading the way in language edtech with a sophisticated technology unlike any other available today. Lingua.ly brings systematic learning to the worldwide web, providing an engaging tool for learners from beginner to advanced levels."

Lingua.ly has witnessed widespread adoption, with over 100k+ Android downloads in the first month of its Android release. It anticipates the same or greater on iOS. The company will expand support for additional languages by Fall 2014 and is poised to make a lasting entrance into the digital language learning and edtech channels.

Big-data analytics startup Peel-Works got $2mn funding from IDG Ventures India and Inventus Capital Partners

Big-data analytics startup Peel-Works got $2mn funding

Mumbai-based SaaS and big data analytics startup Peel-Works have got $2 million (about Rs 12 crore) in series-A of funding from IDG Ventures India and Inventus Capital Partner. Earlier in 2011, Indian Angel Network (IAN) had also invested a $1 million in Peel-Works.

"The two new key markets are the United States and south-east Asia, and we expect to have a present in these geographies in the next six to 12 months," said Sachin Chhabra, founder & CEO, Peel-Works.

Founded in 2010 by Sachin Chhabra, Peel-Works enables companies to keep tabs on people who close the sales cycle to check whether they are performing optimally. The start-up's cloud-based solution, called - 9Yards, gives companies analytics data on nine parameters to measure the performance of sales staff.

Another Peel-works' product called - Genius, analyses sales data, salesforce data and other relevant internal & external data to provide actionable insight on the employee performance, enabling companies to make quicker decision making.

The company has built a SaaS based Salesforce transformation and analytics platform that provides presence and performance management capabilities for companies with large extended salesforce.

This is also the second time that IDG Ventures and Inventus have joined hands to invest in a company. In October last year, both firm co-invested $2 million in Bangalore-based product recommendation platform Unbxd.

IDG Ventures is a global family of venture funds with approximately $3.6 billion under management. IDG Venture India has also been an investor in online companies such as Myntra, FirstCry.com, Yatra and Zivame.com. Inventus Capital partner on other hand had invested in Indian online startups such as - Dhingana, RedBus.in, PolicyBazaar.com and Vizury.

Google offering Rs.6 crores to build Laptop sized power inverter

Google offering Rs.6 crores to build Laptop sized power inverter

Internet giant Google has decided to offer $ 1 million (Rs.6 crores approx) to anyone who comes up with a laptop sized solution or method for transforming renewable energy into a power source that can be easily used in homes.

Google has decided to offer these 1 million dollars as prize money in a competition called 'The Little Box Challenge' which it has started along with Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

The competition involves designing and building a kW-scale power inverter, an inverter that can be used to convert renewable energy like solar and wind, before transforming it into suitable current to be used at homes and in vehicles.  But the competition is not that simple, the challenge lays in the fact that the inverter has to be of the size of a small laptop or tablet, which is roughly 1/10th of the currently available size of the inverters.

According to the search giant, they're looking for someone who can design and build a kW-scale inverter with the highest power density of at least 50 Watts per cubic inch. The company also thinks that anyone who has a high disregard for the perceived limits of engineering will be best suitable for the job. The company believes the development of this laptop sized technology can result in changing the future of electricity.

google little box challenge

Google believes that the inverters being currently used in houses are too big and according to it, making these inverters smaller in size would enable more efficient distributed electrical grids, more solar powered homes and it could also help in bringing electricity to the most remote parts of the world.

People interested in participating in the competition can register their team by September 30, 2014. In order to allow and help even eligible academic participate in the competition, the search giant has arranged grant funding for them. The deadline for submitting the grant application is also September 30, 2014.

The registered teams would be then required to file a technical approach and testing application by 22nd July, 2015. Based on these applications and approaches up to 18 finalists will be selected for the final testing at the testing facility. The final testing would require them to bring their inverters in person in the US by October 21, 2015. The final results would be announced sometime in January 2016.

Google offering Rs.6 crores to build Laptop sized power inverter

Google offering Rs.6 crores to build Laptop sized power inverter

Internet giant Google has decided to offer $ 1 million (Rs.6 crores approx) to anyone who comes up with a laptop sized solution or method for transforming renewable energy into a power source that can be easily used in homes.

Google has decided to offer these 1 million dollars as prize money in a competition called 'The Little Box Challenge' which it has started along with Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

The competition involves designing and building a kW-scale power inverter, an inverter that can be used to convert renewable energy like solar and wind, before transforming it into suitable current to be used at homes and in vehicles.  But the competition is not that simple, the challenge lays in the fact that the inverter has to be of the size of a small laptop or tablet, which is roughly 1/10th of the currently available size of the inverters.

According to the search giant, they're looking for someone who can design and build a kW-scale inverter with the highest power density of at least 50 Watts per cubic inch. The company also thinks that anyone who has a high disregard for the perceived limits of engineering will be best suitable for the job. The company believes the development of this laptop sized technology can result in changing the future of electricity.

google little box challenge

Google believes that the inverters being currently used in houses are too big and according to it, making these inverters smaller in size would enable more efficient distributed electrical grids, more solar powered homes and it could also help in bringing electricity to the most remote parts of the world.

People interested in participating in the competition can register their team by September 30, 2014. In order to allow and help even eligible academic participate in the competition, the search giant has arranged grant funding for them. The deadline for submitting the grant application is also September 30, 2014.

The registered teams would be then required to file a technical approach and testing application by 22nd July, 2015. Based on these applications and approaches up to 18 finalists will be selected for the final testing at the testing facility. The final testing would require them to bring their inverters in person in the US by October 21, 2015. The final results would be announced sometime in January 2016.

Andhra Pradesh to replicate Kerala's Startup Village model

Andhra Pradesh to replicate Kerala's Startup Village model

Andhra Pradesh is contemplating on cloning Kerala's much famous Startup Village. The village is credited with being the country’s first telecom business incubator where hundreds and technology enthusiasts and students head to with their bag of innovative and fresh ideas.

A team of officials headed by J Satyanarayana, the information and technology advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government made a visit to the Silicon Valley styled village in the previous week in order to get firsthand knowledge and understanding about the functioning of the exclusive zone of innovators.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is planning on setting up the startup zone in the city of Vishakhapatnam. He is also thinking of forming an innovation fund in order to create an innovative ecosystem.

The government aims at achieving IT investments worth $2 billion in the time period of three years and electronics investments worth $5 billion. It even has plans of offering gigabit broadband connectivity to every village by 2020. The government further has goals of setting up IT parks in Vijayawada, Kakinada, Chittoor and Anantapur.

Meanwhile, people at Startup Village are proud and happy that the country’s first public-private technology business incubator is gaining popularity and encouraging other states to have such an ecosystem for themselves too.

The team from Andhra had a detailed discussion with the Startup Village’s chief executive officer Pranav Kumar Suresh and Hrishikesh Nair, head at Infopark, which is a state run IT industry destination in the city. In the meeting, the team from Andhra asked for their help and support for setting up a similar facility in Andhra Pradesh.

According to J Satyanarayana, the Andhra government is thoroughly impressed by the Kerala Startup Village and aims at setting up an incubation facility of similar kind. The government is in touch with the team from Startup village for the same.  This step taken by the government is a part of the process of gearing up its IT policy in order to attract more entrepreneurs, investors and startups.

Ajay Sawhney, principal secretary to the chief minister; Sanjay Jaju, the information technology and communications secretary and experts from the consultancy firm Ernst & Young ,were also the part of the Andhra Pradesh delegation that visited Kerala.

Andhra Pradesh to replicate Kerala's Startup Village model

Andhra Pradesh to replicate Kerala's Startup Village model

Andhra Pradesh is contemplating on cloning Kerala's much famous Startup Village. The village is credited with being the country’s first telecom business incubator where hundreds and technology enthusiasts and students head to with their bag of innovative and fresh ideas.

A team of officials headed by J Satyanarayana, the information and technology advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government made a visit to the Silicon Valley styled village in the previous week in order to get firsthand knowledge and understanding about the functioning of the exclusive zone of innovators.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is planning on setting up the startup zone in the city of Vishakhapatnam. He is also thinking of forming an innovation fund in order to create an innovative ecosystem.

The government aims at achieving IT investments worth $2 billion in the time period of three years and electronics investments worth $5 billion. It even has plans of offering gigabit broadband connectivity to every village by 2020. The government further has goals of setting up IT parks in Vijayawada, Kakinada, Chittoor and Anantapur.

Meanwhile, people at Startup Village are proud and happy that the country’s first public-private technology business incubator is gaining popularity and encouraging other states to have such an ecosystem for themselves too.

The team from Andhra had a detailed discussion with the Startup Village’s chief executive officer Pranav Kumar Suresh and Hrishikesh Nair, head at Infopark, which is a state run IT industry destination in the city. In the meeting, the team from Andhra asked for their help and support for setting up a similar facility in Andhra Pradesh.

According to J Satyanarayana, the Andhra government is thoroughly impressed by the Kerala Startup Village and aims at setting up an incubation facility of similar kind. The government is in touch with the team from Startup village for the same.  This step taken by the government is a part of the process of gearing up its IT policy in order to attract more entrepreneurs, investors and startups.

Ajay Sawhney, principal secretary to the chief minister; Sanjay Jaju, the information technology and communications secretary and experts from the consultancy firm Ernst & Young ,were also the part of the Andhra Pradesh delegation that visited Kerala.

Developed By An Indian Startup, Smart shoes Is A Next-big thing In Wearable Industry

smart_shoes_lechal

Ever thought of a Smartshoe? Well, Secunderabad, India based startup Ducere Technologies has come up with one.

The Smartshoe is called Lechal shoes and is expected to cost more than $100 (approx Rs.6000). Lechal in Hindi literally translates to "take me along", (lay-ch-al), in Hindi is developed with the vision to offer products that are intuitive and unobtrusive, facilitating every user to evolve to higher lifestyles, reaping the benefits of making technology work for them. It is the world’s first interactive haptic footwear, innovated in India and designed for every one.

The shoes are Bluetooth enabled and will hit the market in September this year. The shoes work by syncing with a smartphone app that makes use of Google maps and vibrate to communicate to the users when and where to turn in order to reach their destination.

The user just needs to feed in his or her destination in their Smartphone and then leave it in their pocket because the buzzing in their left or right Smart-shoes will take them safely to their destination.

This wonder product has been invented by an Indian startup called Ducere Technologies Pvt. Ltd which was started by two US educated Indian engineers in 2011. The company now has around 50 employees and is situated in the Secunderabad city of Telengana.

According to Krispian Lawrence, co-founder and chief executive of Ducere, these Smartshoes will work as a natural extension of the human body. A person can forget his wallet, his watch while leaving the house but he can never forget wearing shoes.

The shoes were initially developed to help the blind. The cane which is currently used by many blind people helps them only in detecting obstacles but these shoes will tell them which direction to face or turn in order to reach their destination.  While testing the smart shoes, the company realized that they can be equally useful for the sighted as well.



Features of Lechal Smart-Shoes -


Navigation:
The user simply needs to set a destination in the app, which then uses GPS to determine the best route.As the user walks, the shoes indicate upcoming directions via direct tactile sensations: vibrating on the left side of the soles to indicate an upcoming left turn, for example. The shoes can also sense and communicate other information, such as obstacles in the way.

Fitness:
'LECHAL' footwear counts your steps, and tracks your calories burnt. Through the App the user can set goals, create custom workout sessions and much more. It can help count the steps taken, calories burned and monitor your fitness goals.

Interaction:
'LECHAL' footwear allows you to tag locations, set destinations, start/stop/pause navigation, and much more, all by executing simple foot gestures.

lechal smartshoes features

The shoes can also be used to record the distance travelled and the amount of calories burnt.

The shoes and its removable insoles have been developed and designed in India but manufactured in China. The shoes and inserts will be available in red and black color options.

According to Mr. Lawrence, the company has already received orders for some 25,000 pairs and is expected to sell 100,000 pairs by March next year. The company is also planning on tying up with eye institutes and non-profit organisations to sell the Smartshoes to the blind at an affordable price.

Developed By An Indian Startup, Smart shoes Is A Next-big thing In Wearable Industry

smart_shoes_lechal

Ever thought of a Smartshoe? Well, Secunderabad, India based startup Ducere Technologies has come up with one.

The Smartshoe is called Lechal shoes and is expected to cost more than $100 (approx Rs.6000). Lechal in Hindi literally translates to "take me along", (lay-ch-al), in Hindi is developed with the vision to offer products that are intuitive and unobtrusive, facilitating every user to evolve to higher lifestyles, reaping the benefits of making technology work for them. It is the world’s first interactive haptic footwear, innovated in India and designed for every one.

The shoes are Bluetooth enabled and will hit the market in September this year. The shoes work by syncing with a smartphone app that makes use of Google maps and vibrate to communicate to the users when and where to turn in order to reach their destination.

The user just needs to feed in his or her destination in their Smartphone and then leave it in their pocket because the buzzing in their left or right Smart-shoes will take them safely to their destination.

This wonder product has been invented by an Indian startup called Ducere Technologies Pvt. Ltd which was started by two US educated Indian engineers in 2011. The company now has around 50 employees and is situated in the Secunderabad city of Telengana.

According to Krispian Lawrence, co-founder and chief executive of Ducere, these Smartshoes will work as a natural extension of the human body. A person can forget his wallet, his watch while leaving the house but he can never forget wearing shoes.

The shoes were initially developed to help the blind. The cane which is currently used by many blind people helps them only in detecting obstacles but these shoes will tell them which direction to face or turn in order to reach their destination.  While testing the smart shoes, the company realized that they can be equally useful for the sighted as well.



Features of Lechal Smart-Shoes -


Navigation:
The user simply needs to set a destination in the app, which then uses GPS to determine the best route.As the user walks, the shoes indicate upcoming directions via direct tactile sensations: vibrating on the left side of the soles to indicate an upcoming left turn, for example. The shoes can also sense and communicate other information, such as obstacles in the way.

Fitness:
'LECHAL' footwear counts your steps, and tracks your calories burnt. Through the App the user can set goals, create custom workout sessions and much more. It can help count the steps taken, calories burned and monitor your fitness goals.

Interaction:
'LECHAL' footwear allows you to tag locations, set destinations, start/stop/pause navigation, and much more, all by executing simple foot gestures.

lechal smartshoes features

The shoes can also be used to record the distance travelled and the amount of calories burnt.

The shoes and its removable insoles have been developed and designed in India but manufactured in China. The shoes and inserts will be available in red and black color options.

According to Mr. Lawrence, the company has already received orders for some 25,000 pairs and is expected to sell 100,000 pairs by March next year. The company is also planning on tying up with eye institutes and non-profit organisations to sell the Smartshoes to the blind at an affordable price.

Two Indians have made Iron Man's JARVIS AI a reality

Hollywood movies are now serving as inspirations to young Indian entrepreneurs. Sci-fi movies like Time Machine, Back to Future are inspiring young blood to push their thinking and come up with ideas inspired from the technologies used in these films, like software that responds to human communication or an application capable of receiving messages from the past.

Taking inspiration from one such Hollywood flick Iron Man, two young Indians have come up with ways which will allow users to play the role of Tony Stark aka Iron Man and order their computers to do tasks for them similar to JARVIS in movie Iron Man, J.A.R.V.I.S. (Stands for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System).


Airocorp formerly known as JARVIS is actually world's first Artificial Intelligence Operating System and a life automation system. It thinks and learns about the user's surroundings, habits and usage patterns and adapts itself according to the needs of each individual user.


Jaipur based Himanshu Vaishnav and Delhi's Chirag Dewan, are two computer science students who are in the midst of developing a basic version of Airocorp (Jarvis), an operating system used in Iron Man. Jarvis in Iron man symbolized a very intelligent system which could access all electronic devices, computers and security locks of the Iron Man.  According to these two young entrepreneurs, their artificial intelligence is capable of changing computing forever.

They have an aim of developing an operating system that would be able to understand a human’s needs and will be capable for performing easy task such as arranging folders or sending e-mails.

According to Chirag, the operating system will be capable of being controlled by gestures and voice. It will further keep evolving with time. Here voice doesn't simply mean the voice commands but instead the user will be able to communicate with the operating system normally like a human being and the OS will respond in natural language. It will be like the user is talking to another human being.



Jarvis is smart, it understands you, it remembers things from past and use them to enhance your experience. It can control any electrical equipment.

Jarvis designed to be evolve with it's user. It can handle the security, power-management, multimedia & your online social life with ease and for professionals, it can create reports, do research and make your life easier. It's up to it's user how to use it. To know more on how this JARVIS works read company's doc.

The duo is currently in the midst of raising funds for their dream project. They have the support of twelve other engineers who have volunteered to work on the project. They are also in touch with angels and VCs in the US.

They had also received an offer from an Indian based Angel investor but the duo ended up rejecting the offer as they are in lookout for an investor who can guide them about business and also understands technology and their vision.

The startups is completely bootstrapped however most recently the Artificial Intelligence startups of India are now being considered by Microsoft Ventures for their home automation accelerator in Seattle, Washington.

India records highest social networking growth

social networking growth india

Nowadays people all around the world drink eat and sleep internet and it seems Indians are working hard to leave everyone behind in terms of social network usage.

A recent study has revealed that more and more Indians are signing up to Facebook and twitter everyday and accessing their accounts innumerable times in a day. This statement is backed by the fact that India saw a record 37 percent growth in social networking last year. The study has been conducted by eMarketer.

eMarketer is an independent US based market research firm which excels in providing insights and trends prevailing in digital marketing, commerce and media.

The study also revealed that worldwide the trends are a little different. Globally, the growth rate of social network is gradually decreasing but India seems to be an escalator to reach the top position. The number of social media users in urban idea has grown to an astonishing 80 million in 2014 from 63 million years ago.

According to the study, India is only second to US in terms of Facebook usage and is expected to even supersede the US in 2016 by having the largest Facebook population all across the globe. The study was released at an international conference organized by L.N Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research in association with Academy of India Marketing and IDG Media on “Social Media Marketing in Emerging Trends”.

A survey conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India has also revealed astonishing facts. According to it, around 78 million netizens all around India were actively using Facebook in early 2013; this figure is a 50 percent growth over the same period in 2012, followed by 33 million people accessing Twitter and 20 million LinkedIn.

According to the institute group director, Uday Salunkhe, social media is the next big frontier and whether people like it or not, they cannot ignore the powerful medium in the virtual world.  He also added that the boom has resulted in the establishment of social media as an imperative part of a holistic marketing strategy as it has proved to be extremely beneficial for businesses to create an online personality, reduce costs and improve customer services.

India records highest social networking growth

social networking growth india

Nowadays people all around the world drink eat and sleep internet and it seems Indians are working hard to leave everyone behind in terms of social network usage.

A recent study has revealed that more and more Indians are signing up to Facebook and twitter everyday and accessing their accounts innumerable times in a day. This statement is backed by the fact that India saw a record 37 percent growth in social networking last year. The study has been conducted by eMarketer.

eMarketer is an independent US based market research firm which excels in providing insights and trends prevailing in digital marketing, commerce and media.

The study also revealed that worldwide the trends are a little different. Globally, the growth rate of social network is gradually decreasing but India seems to be an escalator to reach the top position. The number of social media users in urban idea has grown to an astonishing 80 million in 2014 from 63 million years ago.

According to the study, India is only second to US in terms of Facebook usage and is expected to even supersede the US in 2016 by having the largest Facebook population all across the globe. The study was released at an international conference organized by L.N Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research in association with Academy of India Marketing and IDG Media on “Social Media Marketing in Emerging Trends”.

A survey conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India has also revealed astonishing facts. According to it, around 78 million netizens all around India were actively using Facebook in early 2013; this figure is a 50 percent growth over the same period in 2012, followed by 33 million people accessing Twitter and 20 million LinkedIn.

According to the institute group director, Uday Salunkhe, social media is the next big frontier and whether people like it or not, they cannot ignore the powerful medium in the virtual world.  He also added that the boom has resulted in the establishment of social media as an imperative part of a holistic marketing strategy as it has proved to be extremely beneficial for businesses to create an online personality, reduce costs and improve customer services.

Google to directly mentor 25 startups in India for the first time

Google to directly mentor 25 startups in India for the first time

Internet giant Google has decided to mentor 25 startups for the very first time in India. The company would mentor the startups on topics like business development, marketing and design thinking. Till now Google has been playing part in Indian startups ecosystem as a sponsor of NASSCOM 10,000 Startups events, but now it will directly nurture and mentor startups in India.

The event will take place in the first week of November this year. The event is called Launchpad and will reportedly be a five day event. November will see numerous Google employees from across the world come to India to share and impart their knowledge, experience and industry expertise to the startups. The event will take place in the search giant’s Bangalore office.

The company has also announced a similar event for Brazil earlier this week.

According to Sunil Rao, who is the country head of startup ecosystem at Google India, this event would be a first of its kind in Asia. The event may then be rolled out in places like Tokyo as well.

The Launchpad is already a famous event in Israel. In Israel, the event is held as a one week pre-incubation program for early stage startups. Each day in the event is kept for a specific subject and includes one on one mentorship, presentation and focused work.

Top executives at the search company have made it very clear that Launchpad doesn’t aim at selecting or picking up companies for future investments.  Till now, the search giant has contributed to the Indian startup scene by sponsoring National Association of Software and Service Companies 10,000 Startups program.

Google ventures has not yet invested in any Indian based company but Google Capital, the growth equity arm of the company has invested in a Chennai based company called Freshdesk, which has its headquarters in San Francisco.

Google to directly mentor 25 startups in India for the first time

Google to directly mentor 25 startups in India for the first time

Internet giant Google has decided to mentor 25 startups for the very first time in India. The company would mentor the startups on topics like business development, marketing and design thinking. Till now Google has been playing part in Indian startups ecosystem as a sponsor of NASSCOM 10,000 Startups events, but now it will directly nurture and mentor startups in India.

The event will take place in the first week of November this year. The event is called Launchpad and will reportedly be a five day event. November will see numerous Google employees from across the world come to India to share and impart their knowledge, experience and industry expertise to the startups. The event will take place in the search giant’s Bangalore office.

The company has also announced a similar event for Brazil earlier this week.

According to Sunil Rao, who is the country head of startup ecosystem at Google India, this event would be a first of its kind in Asia. The event may then be rolled out in places like Tokyo as well.

The Launchpad is already a famous event in Israel. In Israel, the event is held as a one week pre-incubation program for early stage startups. Each day in the event is kept for a specific subject and includes one on one mentorship, presentation and focused work.

Top executives at the search company have made it very clear that Launchpad doesn’t aim at selecting or picking up companies for future investments.  Till now, the search giant has contributed to the Indian startup scene by sponsoring National Association of Software and Service Companies 10,000 Startups program.

Google ventures has not yet invested in any Indian based company but Google Capital, the growth equity arm of the company has invested in a Chennai based company called Freshdesk, which has its headquarters in San Francisco.

Marketing Automation - How to make it work for you [Infographic]

Marketing Automation - How to make it work for you

Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks.

Marketing automation has range of benefits, including improving the quality and quantity of lead. It helps improve the customer experience online, making customers more likely to buy, stay loyal, and become advocates. Some of the most used marketing automation tools used in companies, organizations and startups are - Marketo, Constant Contact, HubSpot and Eloqua.

A study founds that for companies using marketing automation 44% are likely to see ROI within 6 months and 77% are likely to see ROI within one year of implementation.

Team at Adeccousa decided to take a look at the best ways to implement it in order for a business to actually make money out of it, while attracting more quality leads.

Make marketing automation tools and talent work for you.

By 2015, the use marketing automation technologies is expected to increase by 50%.

NASSCOM to slash membership fees to 1/3rd for SMEs & Startups

NASSCOM to slash membership fees to 1/3rd for SMEs & Startups

Nasscom, the IT industry body has planned to slash its membership fees in order to become more inclusive and easily accessible to smaller firms that have the talent and potential to become the next big thing.

The IT industry body which boosts of IT service heavy weights like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Service as its members has plans of reaching out to the smaller firms by slashing its membership fees to about a third of the current rates prevailing for the early stage firms. They even plan to shower these small firms with a host of benefits.  This could also result in the bringing of product companies with just a prototype and limited or zero revenue into its fold for the very first time.

According to Ravi Gururaj, chairman of a Nasscom council, the benefits that these small firms will receive by associating themselves with Nasscom will help them lighten the membership cost and even allow the product companies to be part of the IT body.

The membership fee for regular members in Nasscom is based on the gross IT-BPM revenues of the previous fiscal year and as far as start-ups are concerned, the subscription is based on the estimated turnover of the current fiscal year. In addition to the subscription fee, there is an annual Newsletter and mailer charges of Rs.4800 which needs to be paid.

Currently, a company with a Rs.10,000 crore plus turnover needs to pay an annual subscription fees of Rs.60 lakh to be a part of the IT body and the companies with a turnover of less than Rs.1 crore are required to shell out Rs. 15,000 for the subscription.

Nasscom is also planning on playing an enabling role in new areas such as mobile and products and Internet.

This step taken by the IT body will help the smaller companies who always wanted to join Nasscom but couldn't because of the cost factor. Earlier these companies preferred in spending whatever little money which they had on marketing or product development rather than using it for the subscription fee.  The reduced membership will let these small firms reap in all the benefits of Nasscom’s events and networking and also give them a taste of what an ecosystem can do for them.

NASSCOM to slash membership fees to 1/3rd for SMEs & Startups

NASSCOM to slash membership fees to 1/3rd for SMEs & Startups

Nasscom, the IT industry body has planned to slash its membership fees in order to become more inclusive and easily accessible to smaller firms that have the talent and potential to become the next big thing.

The IT industry body which boosts of IT service heavy weights like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Service as its members has plans of reaching out to the smaller firms by slashing its membership fees to about a third of the current rates prevailing for the early stage firms. They even plan to shower these small firms with a host of benefits.  This could also result in the bringing of product companies with just a prototype and limited or zero revenue into its fold for the very first time.

According to Ravi Gururaj, chairman of a Nasscom council, the benefits that these small firms will receive by associating themselves with Nasscom will help them lighten the membership cost and even allow the product companies to be part of the IT body.

The membership fee for regular members in Nasscom is based on the gross IT-BPM revenues of the previous fiscal year and as far as start-ups are concerned, the subscription is based on the estimated turnover of the current fiscal year. In addition to the subscription fee, there is an annual Newsletter and mailer charges of Rs.4800 which needs to be paid.

Currently, a company with a Rs.10,000 crore plus turnover needs to pay an annual subscription fees of Rs.60 lakh to be a part of the IT body and the companies with a turnover of less than Rs.1 crore are required to shell out Rs. 15,000 for the subscription.

Nasscom is also planning on playing an enabling role in new areas such as mobile and products and Internet.

This step taken by the IT body will help the smaller companies who always wanted to join Nasscom but couldn't because of the cost factor. Earlier these companies preferred in spending whatever little money which they had on marketing or product development rather than using it for the subscription fee.  The reduced membership will let these small firms reap in all the benefits of Nasscom’s events and networking and also give them a taste of what an ecosystem can do for them.

MyMTC allows to track bus location in Chennai in real time

mymtc android app

Public transport is a lifeline on which most cities of our country run and within the public transport, buses are the most economical option which is being used by more than half the population of the country on daily basis and the biggest problem being faced by these bus commuters are the erratic bus timings.  Well, not anymore, My MTC has finally come to the rescue of the bus commuters of Chennai.

My MTC is a crowd sourcing android app which has been especially designed for the Chennai City buses so as to track the realtime location of the bus that the commuters are looking for.

The app can be easily downloaded free of cost from the Google Play store and requires Android 2.3.3 and up to function.

Using the app, the bus commuter can update the current location of the bus during their travel by just updating "SPOT" and the app will use the current location retrieved through the GPS of the user’s phone as the current location of the bus.

The My MTC app also allows users to tag their favorite buses and get regular and realtime updates about the location of that bus. The commuters can even check the bus location by using “FIND”. The app makes use of efficient algorithms to make this tedious process look easy and fast.

The app comes packed with very interesting and impressive features. It provides the commuters with realtime notifications and information about the bus. It makes spotting and finding of a bus a real easy task.

The app even lets a user find the nearest bus stop from their current location through their phone’s GPS. In order to make travelling by buses easier and worry free, the app provides the users with the route maps of the bus route. It even provides them with them information like distance, bus fare and number of stops about the bus.

The application is a result of hardwork of connectingarea. The team at connectingarea had an aim of simplifying the Chennai MTC bus journey while developing this app. The team runs various checks and validations in order to remove the wrong update and information.

MyMTC allows to track bus location in Chennai in real time

mymtc android app

Public transport is a lifeline on which most cities of our country run and within the public transport, buses are the most economical option which is being used by more than half the population of the country on daily basis and the biggest problem being faced by these bus commuters are the erratic bus timings.  Well, not anymore, My MTC has finally come to the rescue of the bus commuters of Chennai.

My MTC is a crowd sourcing android app which has been especially designed for the Chennai City buses so as to track the realtime location of the bus that the commuters are looking for.

The app can be easily downloaded free of cost from the Google Play store and requires Android 2.3.3 and up to function.

Using the app, the bus commuter can update the current location of the bus during their travel by just updating "SPOT" and the app will use the current location retrieved through the GPS of the user’s phone as the current location of the bus.

The My MTC app also allows users to tag their favorite buses and get regular and realtime updates about the location of that bus. The commuters can even check the bus location by using “FIND”. The app makes use of efficient algorithms to make this tedious process look easy and fast.

The app comes packed with very interesting and impressive features. It provides the commuters with realtime notifications and information about the bus. It makes spotting and finding of a bus a real easy task.

The app even lets a user find the nearest bus stop from their current location through their phone’s GPS. In order to make travelling by buses easier and worry free, the app provides the users with the route maps of the bus route. It even provides them with them information like distance, bus fare and number of stops about the bus.

The application is a result of hardwork of connectingarea. The team at connectingarea had an aim of simplifying the Chennai MTC bus journey while developing this app. The team runs various checks and validations in order to remove the wrong update and information.

Delhi Based Startup 'BMES' developing innovative products for leading companies

bm_embedded_solutions

B.M. Embedded solutions was established in 2011 and is involved in Embedded Systems R&D, Embedded Solutions and Product Development. "We make products using Programmable Chips called Microcontrollers. We design the Hardware and write a Software for that Hardware and make a device. These are usually sold in market to OEM's or Traders or Industrialists," says the co-founder Mandeesh Singh.

Mandeesh and Bishan started this venture while they were still in college. “We fell in love with Programming Chips and making fast and intelligent robots (called Line Follower Robots, Racing Robots, Water Robots, etc.). What started as a hobby, turned into Passion and there was no looking back,” said Bishan.

They have already worked with clients like SAR Microsystems, Greyscale Systems, Skayvon Electronics Pvt. Ltd, CMC Ltd, Evanze Technologies etc. providing them with commercial solutions starting with Multi-Interface Scrolling Message Display to Dual Channel PWM Controller Board (Medical Lighting Application). “Apart from this, we also help college going students with their projects. We have helped with almost 500 projects till now and developed an expertise in them,” they say.

[caption id="attachment_93581" align="aligncenter" width="700"]museum kiosk proximity detector Prototype of "Museum Kiosk Proximity Detector and Audio Playback System"  developed by BMES to be used in Museums. BMES used an Ultrasonic Detector to Detect the Presence of any Guest / Visitor and playback the Audio Clip for that Particular Kiosk Automatically via Software.[/caption]

remote cooler controller prototype

Based out of Delhi, their 3 member team is currently working onpH Meter, Low Power Zigbee Network Communication. They have recently made a Data Processing Unit for Milk Collection and Billing System. “We also provide Custom Embedded Solutions and recently did a project, working with WiFi, Zigbee Network, R.F.I.D. Access, Multiple LED’s Control, and Multiprocessor System,” said Mandeesh. “We are working on technologies like Embedded Linux (Raspberry Pi, Beagle Bone Black), BLE, Low Cost Wi-Fi and High Efficiency 32 Bit Microcontrollers for a lot of our projects,” added Bishan.

As a message for future, they say “If you believe in what you are doing or want to do, just do it with your full heart and passion. Don't listen to anyone who says you can't do it, just go ahead and do it.”

Check out more about the company here.

IIT Delhi alumni working to solve employability problem in the country

skillwill

Aishwarya Chaturvedi and Indrajeet Roy, alumni of IIT Delhi have created SkillWill to improve the employability of our country’s graduates. SkillWill is a self-assessment platform for students created by ANTZ AGE Technologies. Based out of Delhi, the company helps students understand their employability before they start applying to companies.

Indrajeet has more than 5 years of experience in Indian education industry. He has led the research in the field of Human Resources, Psychometric and Industrial Engineering. The team came up with the idea of SkillWill when Aishwarya realized that he had 4 interviews in a week during his placement semester. “I found it difficult to prioritize my preparations for these companies. They were all from different fields,” he says. “Indrajeet had gone through the same problem,” he added. They sat together with Abhay Chaturvedi (Angel Investor) and made a blueprint of the solution. That’s how they came up with Assessment for Graduate Employability (AGE), their company’s proprietary assessment product.

“We match you to jobs from 60 different job sectors. We do this after assessing you for 22 employability skills and matching you to the right job, specific to your core area. We did this because we didn't see multiple examinations, that screen you for the job and rejects you without a feedback, bringing in any value. A single preparatory exam goes a long way to solve this conundrum.” says Indrajeet.

So how is SkillWill different from its competitors?

  • SkillWill conducts initial aptitude tests for students and makes them understand employability. They connect students, trainers and companies on skills. Companies tell them how important certain skills are, trainers tell how much can they improve each of these skills in the students and students can assess how good they are at those skills.

  • A comprehensive test of analytical, communicative, technical and interpersonal abilities figures out the students' way forward and they only recommend jobs that match to students’ profile obtained as above. The other products in the market rarely take interpersonal skills of students into account, if any.

  • SkillWill is designed to facilitate student’s job search thoroughly following this five step process:


    1. Know what companies need – The team quantifies what the jobs are looking for and the respective weights of each skill for every job.

    2. Know yourself – SkillWill assessment profiles students on 24 employability skills collected from the Kent University and FICCI’s skills framework.

    3. Find the gap – Students know quantitatively their largest gaps, as well as the strongest skills. They can model their resume, cover letters and interview preparation accordingly.

    4. Fill the gap – Based on the person’s skills profile, the SkillWill team connects him to the right trainers and trainings helping him prepare well for the job. In addition, SkillWill makes available excellent tools, worldwide that help student prepare better.

    5. Hit the target – In the jobs that student is most employable, SkillWill team sends him job openings collected from recruiters, off campus portals and direct companies.





This team of 5 employees with 15 interns from IIT’s use an analytical framework which unites all the students, trainers and recruiters strictly around employability skills. The product is built on PHP Yii framework. They plan to expand to a team of 50 people soon. “We are looking to build a pan-India presence over the next 6 months, assessing 1,00,000 students from cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh and Jaipur,” says Indrajeet.

The company is part bootstrapped by its founders, Indrajeet and Aishwarya. The company has its angels in form of Abhay Chaturvedi and Prabhat Chaturvedi. "We are at a seed stage and working with $250k of funds over the next 6 months," they added. As a message for future entrepreneurs, Aishwarya says, "If your gut says no, trust your intuition. But if your gut says 'yes, but I'm a little scared', feel the fear and do it anyway."

SkillWill is a venture focused on achieving scale and growing fast. The team is always on its toes, be it product development or product marketing. We are also focused on providing the best customer experience around the product (and the services). The team is excited and hungry for more.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJtC8H65Tp4]

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