Google Signs MoU with Andhra Pradesh to Support IT Vision for SMBs & Women

Google India, the tech giant, is supporting the state of Andhra Pradesh in transforming itself into ‘Digital AP’. The giant entered into a Memorandum of Understating with the government of Andhra Pradesh on Monday regarding the same. 'Digital AP' is Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s huge dream for the state.

According to the MoU signed, the tech company and government of Andhra Pradesh would work together effectively in getting more and more small and medium businesses and women to the online world.

The pact was signed by Rajanandan, Google India Vice President and Managing Director and Sanjay Jaju, the Andhra Pradesh Secretary. The MoU was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Ranjanandan addressed a gathering present at the official announcement of the signing of MoU later and said that his company would try to work effectively with the government of Andhra Pradesh in order to achieve its dream of being a digital model state. As a part of the project, self help groups with Telugu content will be put online.

“We are delighted to collaborate with AP government to achieve to achieve its vision to be a model digital state. Creating awareness about the benefits of the internet and its adoption among women, small medium businesses and children can deliver a huge impact for the state”, he said on Monday.

He further added that providing improved accessibility to the Andhra Pradesh’s government website and improving the local language web could end up opening a whole lot of opportunities for local young entrepreneurs and also make the internet more accessible and useful for the Non-English speaking users of the state.

The AP Chief Minister wishes that his state of Andhra Pradesh should become the first state to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Digital India.

The Chief Minister said, "We are happy to announce a number of initiatives along with Google, that will serve as the foundation in achieving the Digital AP vision. I will personally be involved in ensuring the roll out of these initiatives and monitor the impact".

The MoU signed between the Internet giant and the government of AP includes promoting internet safety among children and government officials, helping the AP government in making their websites available in local language and easily accessible on mobiles and getting more local languages content online.

Google Signs MoU with Andhra Pradesh to Support IT Vision for SMBs & Women

Google India, the tech giant, is supporting the state of Andhra Pradesh in transforming itself into ‘Digital AP’. The giant entered into a Memorandum of Understating with the government of Andhra Pradesh on Monday regarding the same. 'Digital AP' is Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s huge dream for the state.

According to the MoU signed, the tech company and government of Andhra Pradesh would work together effectively in getting more and more small and medium businesses and women to the online world.

The pact was signed by Rajanandan, Google India Vice President and Managing Director and Sanjay Jaju, the Andhra Pradesh Secretary. The MoU was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Ranjanandan addressed a gathering present at the official announcement of the signing of MoU later and said that his company would try to work effectively with the government of Andhra Pradesh in order to achieve its dream of being a digital model state. As a part of the project, self help groups with Telugu content will be put online.

“We are delighted to collaborate with AP government to achieve to achieve its vision to be a model digital state. Creating awareness about the benefits of the internet and its adoption among women, small medium businesses and children can deliver a huge impact for the state”, he said on Monday.

He further added that providing improved accessibility to the Andhra Pradesh’s government website and improving the local language web could end up opening a whole lot of opportunities for local young entrepreneurs and also make the internet more accessible and useful for the Non-English speaking users of the state.

The AP Chief Minister wishes that his state of Andhra Pradesh should become the first state to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Digital India.

The Chief Minister said, "We are happy to announce a number of initiatives along with Google, that will serve as the foundation in achieving the Digital AP vision. I will personally be involved in ensuring the roll out of these initiatives and monitor the impact".

The MoU signed between the Internet giant and the government of AP includes promoting internet safety among children and government officials, helping the AP government in making their websites available in local language and easily accessible on mobiles and getting more local languages content online.

Its Official, CarDekho.com Acquires Gaadi.com

Girnar Software Pvt Ltd, owners of auto portal CarDekho.com, and ibiboGroup have announced an agreement whereby GirnarSoft will acquire Gaadi.com, one of India’s leading auto portals, for an undisclosed amount. In June this year, we reported and predicted that this acquisition is going to happen soon, this time its official.

With the combined volumes of CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com exceeding 15 million monthly visitors, this transaction positions GirnarSoft as the undisputed #1 player in auto search and lead generation business in India.

The company stated that CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com will continue to run independently and operate as separate businesses in order to drive deep focus. While management teams of each of these entities will continue to build their businesses, GirnarSoft will look to create cross-synergies in product development for consumers and dealers, as well as in back-end operating systems.

Gaadi.com was founded in 2008. The company was acquired in 2011 by ibiboGroup during the early days of its evolution, and quickly became a leader in the used car segment online.

Speaking on this occasion, Umang Kumar, co-founder/CEO Gaadi.com said, "This is a great outcome for all stakeholders - Ibibogroup, Gaadi employees and CarDekho. Gaadi.com grew 10x in 3.5 years as a part of Ibibogroup and together with CarDekho we can scale our leadership in the used car business even faster. I had a good time at Ibibo, and hope to have an even better time with CarDekho!"

According to Amit Jain, founder/CEO of GirnarSoft, "Bringing Cardekho.com and Gaadi.com together creates outright market leadership for us in online auto in terms of visitors, dealer base and revenue. CarDekho.com is already #1 in the new car segment, and growing rapidly with its OEM and dealer tie-ups. The used car strength that Gaadi.com brings to the stable means that we will now be able to offer unparalleled products, services and support to all stakeholders, be it consumers, OEM manufacturers and new and used car dealers."

The core business model of CarDekho and Gaadi is earnings from lead generation for new and used cars, and media sales on their portals. The two put together boast of more than 2,500 car dealer tie-ups across the country, the largest among auto portals. Besides these, CarDekho helps retail over 4,000 cars per month for eight OEM manufacturers that it partners with.

According to Ashish Kashyap, CEO of ibiboGroup : "biboGroup wants to focus on online travel sector across its assets: Goibibo.com, TBOGroup, redBus.in and YourBus. ibibo has significant leadership and scale in each of these businesses and would want to further expand in this sector. Umang and the team at Gaadi.com are excellent and we have enjoyed working with them to build out the vertical. Our aim was to ensure that Gaadi.com gets the right home, and we are happy that it has been achieved through this acquisition."

Founded in 2007 by brothers Amit and Anurag Jain, both IIT-Delhi alumni, Girnar Software is engaged in three internet portals - CarDekho.com, BikeDekho.com and PriceDekho.com. The company does outsourcing services as well including website and mobile application development, testing and Q&A services.

An interview with CrazyHeadS, Vishakhapatnam’s Best Emerging Start-up

CrazyHeadSolutions is a student based startup, started by 2 determined students, Vaibhav Sisinty and Vineet Ganti pursuing their engineering third year. They have become a one stop solution to companies by providing Web Designing, Branding, Online Marketing and Creative content. They are now 11 months old and running successfully. Started with 2 people, they have grown to a team of 32 students from all over the country. CrazyHeadS is also a Microsoft Bizspark Start-up.

"One of main motto of CrazyheadS is training passionate students with the latest trend of technologies giving them the right push ant the right time, leave them with a spark, and they soar high," says Vaibhav. "Most of them joined us and did live projects which boosted up their profile and clients get innovative solutions because the ideas comes from young brains," adds Vineet. They have trained around 45 students for around 3 months.

Vaibhav and Vineet are both students of GITAM University, Vizag. All the operations of their startup are managed from the science activity center of the college. "The College has been really supportive helping out entrepreneurial mindset students. GITAM University has provided the students a vast approach on how to scale up as an entrepreneur and now, the University has setup a successful Entrepreneurship – Cell co-founded by us," Vaibhav adds proudly.

[caption id="attachment_95072" align="alignleft" width="335"] Vineet Ganti (L) and Vaibhav Sisinty (R), Founders - CrazyHeadsSolutions[/caption]

CrazyHeadS is completely a student run platform. Web Designing is taken care of by engineering students, Business Development for companies is handled by students pursuing MBA and Legal matters are handled by students pursuing LLB. "So, every aspect of it is taken care by students of different fields and we are trying to open this in different places in India so that students get an amazing experience of working for a company while they are already pursuing their education," says Vineet.

CrazyHeadS has expanded to Hyderabad and Berhampur (Orissa) as well and they plan to start it in Chennai, Vellore and Bhubaneswar from the next academic year. They take maximum 72 hours to make a website, and have a record time of completing it in 8 hours. They also provide the following services:

• Brand identity


• Graphic and print designing


• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)


• Social media marketing and Online Marketing


• Animated videos


• App development

Apart from these, the CHS has a venture where they conduct workshops in different college and universities. They have successfully conducted 9 workshops training more than 3500 students in association with Ankit Fadia and many others. The team deals with both national and international clients. They are currently not funded but looking for new talent to expand fast. They recommend the future entrepreneurs to stick to their dreams.

Clean-Tech Startup VigyanLabs Enables Intelligent Power Management for PCs/Laptops & Mobiles

Very soon, 20 percent of the PCs being shipped out of Japan will be housed with much better energy conservation system and technologies than before and this innovation by the Japanese has an Indian connection. The solution for better energy conservation system and technologies was provided by a Mysore based clean energy startup called Vigyanlabs based out of Mysore, India.

The startup is an innovation driven organization which believes in building products that promote green computing. It was founded in the year 2008 by Srinivas Varadarajan and Srivatsa Krishnaswamy. The startup in its four year of functioning till now has been successful in attracting some great minds of the country in building technology products and creating new Intellectual Property so as to deliver the startup's IP and knowledge base to the masses rapidly.

The startup has a vision of being a highly innovative science and technology company providing 'clean and green' solutions. It further has an aim of enabling all its customers to create robust, innovative and affordable IT products and solutions. In order to fulfill its vision and aim, the organization follows a set of five rules, they are: Respect for nature and life, high customer satisfaction, encouragement for individual ability, creativity and hardwork, integrality and responsibility and finally social responsibility.

During the time of its formation, the organization had looked into some of the key problems being faced by the world then and eventually zeroed into the space they can help effectively by their skillets. The organization chose "power management of IT infrastructure" as its core business area. The startup's first product has been IPM+ to enable Intelligent Power management in PCs, mobile and data centres.



The IPM+ for Mobile is a battery saver app makes use of innovative algorithms in order to manage power consumption in tablets and mobile phones. The IPM+ also increases the performance of the device by cleaning up unused memory and causes near zero battery leakage when the device is not being used. The product has been certified for all Android phones and is available in three variants- Lite, Pro and Premium. Pro and Premium variants are available as free trial versions here and here respectively.

The IPM+ for desktops enables upto 50% extra battery life in laptops and energy savings in PCs. It works effectively on Windows and Linux. The product enables fine-grained power optimizations by making use of its proprietary algorithms. It enables savings in a fully automated and non-intrusive manner.

The IPM+ for Enterprises promises to deliver a three-fold impact for its customers. The IPM+ is considered as an ideal tool for CIO in order to enable ‘green computing’ and gain a huge return on investment by the means of IT operating cost reduction.  As far as the CFO and COO are concerned, the product can be used as an easy to implement mechanism for the delivery of strong and stable sustainability results with a short period of time and for energy cost reduction.

The startup was recently enlisted by Gartner as one of the "Cool Vendors in Green IT and Sustainability".

Clean-Tech Startup VigyanLabs Enables Intelligent Power Management for PCs/Laptops & Mobiles

Very soon, 20 percent of the PCs being shipped out of Japan will be housed with much better energy conservation system and technologies than before and this innovation by the Japanese has an Indian connection. The solution for better energy conservation system and technologies was provided by a Mysore based clean energy startup called Vigyanlabs based out of Mysore, India.

The startup is an innovation driven organization which believes in building products that promote green computing. It was founded in the year 2008 by Srinivas Varadarajan and Srivatsa Krishnaswamy. The startup in its four year of functioning till now has been successful in attracting some great minds of the country in building technology products and creating new Intellectual Property so as to deliver the startup's IP and knowledge base to the masses rapidly.

The startup has a vision of being a highly innovative science and technology company providing 'clean and green' solutions. It further has an aim of enabling all its customers to create robust, innovative and affordable IT products and solutions. In order to fulfill its vision and aim, the organization follows a set of five rules, they are: Respect for nature and life, high customer satisfaction, encouragement for individual ability, creativity and hardwork, integrality and responsibility and finally social responsibility.

During the time of its formation, the organization had looked into some of the key problems being faced by the world then and eventually zeroed into the space they can help effectively by their skillets. The organization chose "power management of IT infrastructure" as its core business area. The startup's first product has been IPM+ to enable Intelligent Power management in PCs, mobile and data centres.



The IPM+ for Mobile is a battery saver app makes use of innovative algorithms in order to manage power consumption in tablets and mobile phones. The IPM+ also increases the performance of the device by cleaning up unused memory and causes near zero battery leakage when the device is not being used. The product has been certified for all Android phones and is available in three variants- Lite, Pro and Premium. Pro and Premium variants are available as free trial versions here and here respectively.

The IPM+ for desktops enables upto 50% extra battery life in laptops and energy savings in PCs. It works effectively on Windows and Linux. The product enables fine-grained power optimizations by making use of its proprietary algorithms. It enables savings in a fully automated and non-intrusive manner.

The IPM+ for Enterprises promises to deliver a three-fold impact for its customers. The IPM+ is considered as an ideal tool for CIO in order to enable ‘green computing’ and gain a huge return on investment by the means of IT operating cost reduction.  As far as the CFO and COO are concerned, the product can be used as an easy to implement mechanism for the delivery of strong and stable sustainability results with a short period of time and for energy cost reduction.

The startup was recently enlisted by Gartner as one of the "Cool Vendors in Green IT and Sustainability".

DocSuggest becomes Ziffi.com, raises Rs 15 crore from Orios Venture Partners

Yesterday, DocSuggest officially announced that the online doctor search portal is now transforming into Ziffi.com. With new brand and domain name DocSuggest is expanding from doctor search and appointment service to a comprehensive health and personal care search and appointments service.

Notably, the Mumbai based startup has also raised Rs 15 crore in series A funding from Orios Venture Partners. Docsuggest will use the funding to expand its coverage in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore & Hyderabad and strengthen technology interface, enhance design and initiate an aggressive marketing and brand building campaign

Curretly, Docsuggest is used to be an online booking engine for doctors appointments and beauty salons.

In DocSuggest official blog, it is stated - "After 5 years, 15000 doctors, 2.5Lakhs appointments, over a Million users and many mistakes later, we are even more optimistic, hungry and revving to achieve bigger and faster. DocSuggest is expanding from doctor search and appointment service to a comprehensive health and personal care search and appointments service."

The Mumbai-based venture was founded in 2010 by IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur alumni Shantanu Jha, Keerthi Kiran Chennupati, Pushkar Soni and Anshuman Pandey.

Ziffi currently claims to have 1.2 million users and is adding 7,000-10,000 new users every month. The service is free for patients and it charges a fixed amount to the service provider for each appointment booked.

[caption id="attachment_95062" align="aligncenter" width="700"] New Ziffi.com Website[/caption]

Ziffi will compete with several vertical focused players which have also attracted investor interest. Healthcare appointments platform Practo Technologies, which has already got Rs 25 crore backing from Sequoia, is expected to raise about $20 million in fresh funding this year. Another competitor is HelpingDoc which raised Rs 10 crore Singapore's Senior Marketing Systems (SMS) in August followed by Lybrate, which got Rs 7-8 crore from Nexus Venture Partners. Another one is new entrant PathDoor, which also lets you compare and book diagnostic lab tests in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi at a discounted price.

DocSuggest provides real time, accurate and detailed analysis about healthcare services including doctors' profiles, schedule, specialties, rating, reviews by previous patients, etc about available options enabling users to make an informed decision.

After selection of a preferred healthcare facility, the user can book a real-time appointment with the healthcare facility of his/her choice.

After transforming into Ziffi.com completely, the portal along with current services of doctor search and appointment service, will also provide comprehensive health and personal care search and appointments services.

Just Dial accuses US-based firm of stealing database of 9 million clients

Online phone directory giant, Just Dial, recently lodged a police complaint in the Bangurnagar Police station in Malad alleging that a rival listing company called Clear India Pvt. Ltd. has stolen its database of 9 million clients.

An FIR was lodged in the case and the police traced the roots of Clear Indian Pvt. Ltd. to the United States and Punjab. The cops also suspect the involvement of an insider in the case.

The complaint filed by the Just Dial Manager Raman Muttukrishnan accuses Clear India of stealing the online phone directory giant’s database and then using the database for the benefit of their own business.

The written complaint stated that Just Dial is a registered company with a database of nearly 9.1 million listings and this whole database was allegedly stolen by Clear India Pvt. Ltd.  In the complaint, Just Dial also accuses Clear India of sabotaging their business and maligning the company’s reputation. The complaint further accuses Clear India of accessing the giant’s computer and system networks and copying the whole data without the online phone directory giant’s permission.  Even the junk data that the company used for testing was stolen.

According to the police, the matter came to Just Dial’s light when it started receiving complaint calls from their angry clients. The clients informed the company that all their data and details were also available on a different website that they had never approached. Seeing the complaint calls plump in number the company sensed that something was amiss and immediately checked its internal system and other website and found that the clients were in fact true. The company then immediately lodged an FIR with the police station in Malad.

According to a Bangurnagar Police officer, “It’s not possible without someone from Just Dial helping the accused. We are recording statements of the staff and checking CCTV footage. Being a cybercrime, it is a lengthy process, but the accused will be tracked down soon”.

An internal investigating team at JustDial has found out that Clear India is not a registered company though they have their own website. Clear India belongs to some Singh brothers based in the US. The company also has a branch in Chandigarh and a police team has already been sent to the place for further investigations.

Just Dial accuses US-based firm of stealing database of 9 million clients

Online phone directory giant, Just Dial, recently lodged a police complaint in the Bangurnagar Police station in Malad alleging that a rival listing company called Clear India Pvt. Ltd. has stolen its database of 9 million clients.

An FIR was lodged in the case and the police traced the roots of Clear Indian Pvt. Ltd. to the United States and Punjab. The cops also suspect the involvement of an insider in the case.

The complaint filed by the Just Dial Manager Raman Muttukrishnan accuses Clear India of stealing the online phone directory giant’s database and then using the database for the benefit of their own business.

The written complaint stated that Just Dial is a registered company with a database of nearly 9.1 million listings and this whole database was allegedly stolen by Clear India Pvt. Ltd.  In the complaint, Just Dial also accuses Clear India of sabotaging their business and maligning the company’s reputation. The complaint further accuses Clear India of accessing the giant’s computer and system networks and copying the whole data without the online phone directory giant’s permission.  Even the junk data that the company used for testing was stolen.

According to the police, the matter came to Just Dial’s light when it started receiving complaint calls from their angry clients. The clients informed the company that all their data and details were also available on a different website that they had never approached. Seeing the complaint calls plump in number the company sensed that something was amiss and immediately checked its internal system and other website and found that the clients were in fact true. The company then immediately lodged an FIR with the police station in Malad.

According to a Bangurnagar Police officer, “It’s not possible without someone from Just Dial helping the accused. We are recording statements of the staff and checking CCTV footage. Being a cybercrime, it is a lengthy process, but the accused will be tracked down soon”.

An internal investigating team at JustDial has found out that Clear India is not a registered company though they have their own website. Clear India belongs to some Singh brothers based in the US. The company also has a branch in Chandigarh and a police team has already been sent to the place for further investigations.

VGulp - An Online Booze Destination Across India

Going out drinking & hosting parties at home just got easier with online discovery tools for discounts in pubs and bars and its is - VGulp. Vgulp, which stands for "We gulp" helps you gulp at the most happening pubs for less.

VGulp, a Bangalore based online startup provide best information on watering holes and wine barrels along with real monetary value with offers, deals, discounts and knowledge. The portal curates the best deals on alcohol in town - Unlimited booze, free starters, discounts on bills, group discounts, packages and listings for best places in town to drink.

You can save anywhere from 10-50% on your next gulping event in more than 200 pubs, currently in Bangalore. VGulp as an online services are available through the standard exclusive offers or on demand offers tailor made to meet your requirements. Alternatively, you can also use VGulp's comprehensive happy hour search and recommendation engine featuring the more intrinsic details that are updated once every two weeks. You can also browse photos, see videos, get location information, contact details and know the features pubs offer among others. The services are completely free for users and its doesn't charge users a penny for this.



Anand Janardhanan, Co-founders of VGulp said - "We intend to be the online destination for gulpers across India and beyond. As a part of which, we launched Gulp Mag - The what to drink, where to drink, how to drink education online magazine and Gulp Wiki - The directory plus wiki of Liquor Brands, and Spirits in India. We are also working on a mobile app focussed on social engagement features."

Officially registered in September 2013, VGulp worked with more than 50 bars and have delivered more than 4000 group walk-ins till date resulting in more than INR 2CR worth of business. The startup is growing at 40% MoM, with a 10% virality upwards. Vgulp makes money through a premium listing model, deal advertisement and a deal commission model.

VGulp also states that it does not support or promote the abuse of alcohol in any means. It aggregate and distribute information and do not own them. Deals are owned by the respective restaurants/bars.

Startup Village in talks to offer tech support to UK healthcare industry

Finally Indian startups have a reason to rejoice. Recently, Kochi based Startup Village, which is famous for being India's first PPP model technology business incubator, was involved in detailed discussions with a delegation from UK on possibilities of Indian startups helping British healthcare industry by providing them with technological support. The discussions were initiated by the United Kingdom delegation.

The United Kingdom delegation was a team of 18 members and comprised of healthcare industry leaders and specialists. The 18 member team held discussions with the representatives from Startup Village regarding establishing business partnerships with young Indian entrepreneurs who can find innovative and unique solution to solve the challenges and problems being faced by the British healthcare sector.

Once the delegation is done identifying and finalizing the partner companies, they will make them available with financial assistance so that they can develop innovative customized technology solutions without any hurdle.

The 18 member delegation was also accompanied by Bharat Joshi, who is the British Deputy High Commissioner. Bharat was fully impressed with Startup Village and lauded the incubator’s effort in creating an ecosystem for encouraging entrepreneurial culture among the youngsters of the country.

The delegation team included Dean Frederick Bernard Francois-Smith, Medical Emergency Head, Advatech Health Care Europe Ltd; Professor Charles Kingsland, Professor of Reproductive Medicine and a consultant Gynecologist at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, UK and Chief clinical Officer for the Hewitt Fertility Centre, Samit Kumar Biswas, CEO and Director, Advatech Health Care Europe Ltd. and Chris Born and Mike Nithavrianakis, Healthcare Specialists, Healthcare UK.

“It is really encouraging to see that our startups here are getting recognition from overseas market. Technology products are accepted faster in developed markets and access to those markets are what we are trying to build for creating success stories at home”, said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman, Startup Village in a statement to Economic Times.

According to Pranav Kumar Suresh, Chief Executive Officer, Startup Village, this visit by the UK delegation itself stands testimony to innovative and unique services and products provided by the young startups and entrepreneurs here in India. These discussions might clear the way for Indian startups to enter the Global market.

Startup Village in talks to offer tech support to UK healthcare industry

Finally Indian startups have a reason to rejoice. Recently, Kochi based Startup Village, which is famous for being India's first PPP model technology business incubator, was involved in detailed discussions with a delegation from UK on possibilities of Indian startups helping British healthcare industry by providing them with technological support. The discussions were initiated by the United Kingdom delegation.

The United Kingdom delegation was a team of 18 members and comprised of healthcare industry leaders and specialists. The 18 member team held discussions with the representatives from Startup Village regarding establishing business partnerships with young Indian entrepreneurs who can find innovative and unique solution to solve the challenges and problems being faced by the British healthcare sector.

Once the delegation is done identifying and finalizing the partner companies, they will make them available with financial assistance so that they can develop innovative customized technology solutions without any hurdle.

The 18 member delegation was also accompanied by Bharat Joshi, who is the British Deputy High Commissioner. Bharat was fully impressed with Startup Village and lauded the incubator’s effort in creating an ecosystem for encouraging entrepreneurial culture among the youngsters of the country.

The delegation team included Dean Frederick Bernard Francois-Smith, Medical Emergency Head, Advatech Health Care Europe Ltd; Professor Charles Kingsland, Professor of Reproductive Medicine and a consultant Gynecologist at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, UK and Chief clinical Officer for the Hewitt Fertility Centre, Samit Kumar Biswas, CEO and Director, Advatech Health Care Europe Ltd. and Chris Born and Mike Nithavrianakis, Healthcare Specialists, Healthcare UK.

“It is really encouraging to see that our startups here are getting recognition from overseas market. Technology products are accepted faster in developed markets and access to those markets are what we are trying to build for creating success stories at home”, said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman, Startup Village in a statement to Economic Times.

According to Pranav Kumar Suresh, Chief Executive Officer, Startup Village, this visit by the UK delegation itself stands testimony to innovative and unique services and products provided by the young startups and entrepreneurs here in India. These discussions might clear the way for Indian startups to enter the Global market.

'Shark Tank' is Business Plan Contest for Budding Entrepreneurs; Organized by IIM Bangalore

All the budding entrepreneurs pay attention, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has something interesting in store for you.

IIM-B is conducting a business plan contest called Bzzwings for young and budding entrepreneurs from top engineering institutes and business schools across India. The contest will see angel investors funding aspiring student entrepreneurs.

NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), which is IIM-B’s entrepreneurship and incubation centre, is organizing a ‘Shark Tank’ for the very first time. ‘Shark Tank’ would have angel investors coming in and funding student business plans.

According to G Sabarinathan, Chairperson, NSRCEL, this business plan contest will act as a platform for identifying and nurturing some serious entrepreneurial teams from a sea of entrepreneurs and then helping them start up.

‘Shark Tank’ will be a small five minute rapid fire Question-Answer round where questions will be hurled at contestants by potential investors and the contestants will have to survive them.

IIM-B had invited business pitches earlier this year from students of top colleges, institutes of India such as Xavier Institute of Management-Bhubaneswar, MDI-Gurgaon, Indian School of Business- Hyderabad, Institute of Rural Management, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and Delhi College of Engineering, among others.

The top ten pitches will be awarded by getting funding from the ‘Shark Tank’ angel investors. The top two pitches will be additionally rewarded with funding from Indian Angles Network and Mumbai Angles. The top two would also get rent free incubation support from NSRCEL for a period of one year.

The business plan contest will be a part of Vista, IIM-B’s annual business fest. The ‘Shark Tank’ would see two investors offer seed funding to one social venture and one for profit venture each. VGN Prakash and Ubhaya are the two investors. The ‘Shark Tank’ will act as a means of providing seed funding to out of the box deserving ideas and the right to spot these deserving ideas rests wholly on investors.

The ‘Shark Tank’ investors will have full liberty to choose anyone from the top eight teams. An Entrepreneurship Conclave has also been organized after the ‘Shark Tank’.

The top eight teams have been selected from over 120 entries from across India. The process of selecting 8 teams from 120 entries was entirely managed by the NSRCEL and students.  The selection process included four rounds of rigorous screening, progressing from 120 to 64, then 64 to 32 and then finally from 32 to the top 8.

'Shark Tank' is Business Plan Contest for Budding Entrepreneurs; Organized by IIM Bangalore

All the budding entrepreneurs pay attention, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has something interesting in store for you.

IIM-B is conducting a business plan contest called Bzzwings for young and budding entrepreneurs from top engineering institutes and business schools across India. The contest will see angel investors funding aspiring student entrepreneurs.

NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), which is IIM-B’s entrepreneurship and incubation centre, is organizing a ‘Shark Tank’ for the very first time. ‘Shark Tank’ would have angel investors coming in and funding student business plans.

According to G Sabarinathan, Chairperson, NSRCEL, this business plan contest will act as a platform for identifying and nurturing some serious entrepreneurial teams from a sea of entrepreneurs and then helping them start up.

‘Shark Tank’ will be a small five minute rapid fire Question-Answer round where questions will be hurled at contestants by potential investors and the contestants will have to survive them.

IIM-B had invited business pitches earlier this year from students of top colleges, institutes of India such as Xavier Institute of Management-Bhubaneswar, MDI-Gurgaon, Indian School of Business- Hyderabad, Institute of Rural Management, Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and Delhi College of Engineering, among others.

The top ten pitches will be awarded by getting funding from the ‘Shark Tank’ angel investors. The top two pitches will be additionally rewarded with funding from Indian Angles Network and Mumbai Angles. The top two would also get rent free incubation support from NSRCEL for a period of one year.

The business plan contest will be a part of Vista, IIM-B’s annual business fest. The ‘Shark Tank’ would see two investors offer seed funding to one social venture and one for profit venture each. VGN Prakash and Ubhaya are the two investors. The ‘Shark Tank’ will act as a means of providing seed funding to out of the box deserving ideas and the right to spot these deserving ideas rests wholly on investors.

The ‘Shark Tank’ investors will have full liberty to choose anyone from the top eight teams. An Entrepreneurship Conclave has also been organized after the ‘Shark Tank’.

The top eight teams have been selected from over 120 entries from across India. The process of selecting 8 teams from 120 entries was entirely managed by the NSRCEL and students.  The selection process included four rounds of rigorous screening, progressing from 120 to 64, then 64 to 32 and then finally from 32 to the top 8.

AlgoLint - Online Algorithm Practice Tool for C/C++, Java, Ruby or Python

Algolint is a new online algorithm practice tool, the simplest code editor and personal notes application. It i actually an online algorithm practice tool which provide algorithm enthusiast, learners and students an open platform to write and practice algorithm problems online. User can write code in C/C++, Java, Ruby and Python. Students can use basic code template to solve their problem, which can save their time during practice. Also they can save their own template to use for their further practice.

User can add their Dropbox account here so that all their practice code will be automatically sync with their storage. Its an open source website with clean and simple user interface. User can select their preferences for editor to make it more convenient for their usage.

To practice algorithms you can use templates for base algorithms and save your code as template to use later. You can also add dropbox to your account and sync all your practice codes to your dropbox. Moreover, you can create your public profile and share your public codes to the world.

Parent online entity behind Algolint is Killermobi, which used to provide free mobile software and applications.

Rishabh Tripathi who is the developer of AlgoLint, is a software professional who started killermobi.com in his college days with 6 mobile application 4 year back, and got more then 1 crore download across all channel, coming this time with a simple open source tool (algolint.com) for software professional and students who wanted to practice algorithms and coding online. He is currently working as a product manager in a startup.

Replace Your Password With Your Heartbeat

Nowadays remembering too many passwords has become a clumsy job altogether. What if we don’t ever have to remember a password again? Won’t that be super awesome? Well, a Canadian startup is working hard to make this awesome thing a reality.

Bionym, a Canada based Startup recently unveiled the 'Nymi' which is a wristband that knows who you are based on your unique heart rhythm.

The Canadian startup has recently raised a $14 million Series A funding led by Relay Ventures and Ignition Partners.

Nymi is an unlocking wristband which makes use of an electrocardiogram sensor (ECG) to recognize an individual's heart rhythm and then uses this heart rhythm to unlock a device. What makes Nymi 100 percent dependable is the fact that its ECG sensor doesn’t measure a person’s actual heart rate but rather the electrical activity that the person’s heart generates. This electrical activity of the heart is as unique as finger prints.

With passwords leaking and stealing becoming daily news, the Nymi can act as a great biometric alternative. The wristband also comes packed with applications in the Internet of Things as a Bitcoin wallet, house key and others. Nymi can be used by you at your home to wirelessly take control of your smartphone, your car, your computer and much more. The wristband makes sure that you interact with your devices in a smart, key and password free environment. Its customizable notifications take care of the fact that you never miss out on any texts, emails or social updates.



The Nymi does not continuously monitor your ECG. It reads your ECG only while activating. The Nymi provides continuous authentication through additional sensors that detect whether the Nymi is still on your wrist. Once the Nymi is removed, it will need to be authenticated once again.

That means that any increase or decrease in your heart rate will not affect the Nymi while it is on.

The wristband hasn't been released in the market yet. Bionym will make use of cash to get the first ten thousand preorders, therefore you can Pre-Order Nymi at introductory price of $79. After that, the price for the next batch will go up to $99.

"We're establishing the Nymi as the de facto platform for persistent, trusted identity, and this round of financing is providing us with resources needed to bring the platform to market", said Karl Martin, CEO and Founder at Bionym in a press release.

According to Nick Sturiale, Managing Partner of Ignition Partners, Nymi can be seen as a potential game changer. "With the breadth and depth of third party application developer commitments, it's clear there is a tangible excitement at the numerous use cases presented by extending identity and presence from the smartphone onto the wrist".

The Canada based startup is touching new heights every day and has almost forty employees working from its new Toronto office. Salesforce and Mastercard also acted as contributors in the round.

Replace Your Password With Your Heartbeat

Nowadays remembering too many passwords has become a clumsy job altogether. What if we don’t ever have to remember a password again? Won’t that be super awesome? Well, a Canadian startup is working hard to make this awesome thing a reality.

Bionym, a Canada based Startup recently unveiled the 'Nymi' which is a wristband that knows who you are based on your unique heart rhythm.

The Canadian startup has recently raised a $14 million Series A funding led by Relay Ventures and Ignition Partners.

Nymi is an unlocking wristband which makes use of an electrocardiogram sensor (ECG) to recognize an individual's heart rhythm and then uses this heart rhythm to unlock a device. What makes Nymi 100 percent dependable is the fact that its ECG sensor doesn’t measure a person’s actual heart rate but rather the electrical activity that the person’s heart generates. This electrical activity of the heart is as unique as finger prints.

With passwords leaking and stealing becoming daily news, the Nymi can act as a great biometric alternative. The wristband also comes packed with applications in the Internet of Things as a Bitcoin wallet, house key and others. Nymi can be used by you at your home to wirelessly take control of your smartphone, your car, your computer and much more. The wristband makes sure that you interact with your devices in a smart, key and password free environment. Its customizable notifications take care of the fact that you never miss out on any texts, emails or social updates.



The Nymi does not continuously monitor your ECG. It reads your ECG only while activating. The Nymi provides continuous authentication through additional sensors that detect whether the Nymi is still on your wrist. Once the Nymi is removed, it will need to be authenticated once again.

That means that any increase or decrease in your heart rate will not affect the Nymi while it is on.

The wristband hasn't been released in the market yet. Bionym will make use of cash to get the first ten thousand preorders, therefore you can Pre-Order Nymi at introductory price of $79. After that, the price for the next batch will go up to $99.

"We're establishing the Nymi as the de facto platform for persistent, trusted identity, and this round of financing is providing us with resources needed to bring the platform to market", said Karl Martin, CEO and Founder at Bionym in a press release.

According to Nick Sturiale, Managing Partner of Ignition Partners, Nymi can be seen as a potential game changer. "With the breadth and depth of third party application developer commitments, it's clear there is a tangible excitement at the numerous use cases presented by extending identity and presence from the smartphone onto the wrist".

The Canada based startup is touching new heights every day and has almost forty employees working from its new Toronto office. Salesforce and Mastercard also acted as contributors in the round.

TimesDeal to Merge with Coupondunia.com

In May this year, the digital arm of Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd, Times Internet Ltd bought majority stake in Coupondunia.com, now Times Internet has announced the merger of its deals site TimesDeal with CouponDunia. After the merger, the entire coupon business will be carried out under the CouponDunia brand name.

The company posted a statement regarding the merger on its website. The statement read, "The merger will bring our combined user base the benefits of both worlds-the best online coupons and a wide range of local deals. The integration will take time and currently you won’t see deals from TimesDeal on CouponDunia. But once its complete, you will find at least 5x the number of local offers each day in comparison to what is available as of now".



CopounDunia was acquired by Times Internet Ltd earlier this year.  According to the stats available till May 2014, the site enjoyed over one million subscribers and got an amazing two million visitors on a monthly basis. CouponDunia claims to have served coupons from over more than 1,500 online brands. The company even claimed that it was driving purchases worth Rs. 500 crores annually.

CouponDunia had even expanded its horizons overseas in 2013 by launching separate language websites in countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Poland and Brazil. The company competed with the likes of Cashkaro, Rocket Internet backed CupoNation and others in India.

Times Internet Ltd. was founded in 1999. It operates a portfolio of mobile and web proprieties which also include indiatimes.com. According to the firm, it gets more than 37 million monthly visitors. Times Internet offers e-commerce, location based services, news, video, blogs, emails and mobile VAS.

TimesDeal to Merge with Coupondunia.com

In May this year, the digital arm of Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd, Times Internet Ltd bought majority stake in Coupondunia.com, now Times Internet has announced the merger of its deals site TimesDeal with CouponDunia. After the merger, the entire coupon business will be carried out under the CouponDunia brand name.

The company posted a statement regarding the merger on its website. The statement read, "The merger will bring our combined user base the benefits of both worlds-the best online coupons and a wide range of local deals. The integration will take time and currently you won’t see deals from TimesDeal on CouponDunia. But once its complete, you will find at least 5x the number of local offers each day in comparison to what is available as of now".



CopounDunia was acquired by Times Internet Ltd earlier this year.  According to the stats available till May 2014, the site enjoyed over one million subscribers and got an amazing two million visitors on a monthly basis. CouponDunia claims to have served coupons from over more than 1,500 online brands. The company even claimed that it was driving purchases worth Rs. 500 crores annually.

CouponDunia had even expanded its horizons overseas in 2013 by launching separate language websites in countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Poland and Brazil. The company competed with the likes of Cashkaro, Rocket Internet backed CupoNation and others in India.

Times Internet Ltd. was founded in 1999. It operates a portfolio of mobile and web proprieties which also include indiatimes.com. According to the firm, it gets more than 37 million monthly visitors. Times Internet offers e-commerce, location based services, news, video, blogs, emails and mobile VAS.

GrownOut is Patent Pending Referral Hiring Solution Technology

The process of hiring has always been a problem. Be it for companies which are hiring or people who are being hired. The complexities and challenges involved to make a perfect hire takes away all the excitement in the process. Sumit Gupta and Harsimran Walia thought of a process which is easy, quick and most importantly interesting and made a platform called GrownOut. They 'One can find anything in his network, he just needs to look deeper'.

With the recent revolutions in Internet, there was a tremendous need of modernization of hiring solutions. Many of the companies still rely on old school thought of database utilization. "I have personally been working in this industry for quite some time. I have seen organizations spending lots of their energy struggling to find suitable candidates despite existing solutions," says Harsimran. "The average turnaround time is much better than other methods. Retention rate is better for employees hired through this medium. Overall, I believe this was a much needed product in the market," adds Sumit.

GrownOut is a Gurgaon based startup and have launched its first version in March 2014.

[caption id="attachment_94998" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Sumit Gupta & Harsimran Walia, Founders - GrownOut.com[/caption]

They believe in an ideology of 'hiring through one's network'. Un-noticeably, we use the same phenomenon in our daily lives. For example, if you are looking for a good dentist in your area, you turn to your friends first to seek this information. Also, you are going to trust this person over someone picked up from any directory since it was ‘referred’ by your friend. 10 creative enthusiasts based in New Delhi are using the same method to help people get jobs.

Here are some features of the platform:

1. Customized Network: Create a network that extends to your employees, friends and colleagues.




2. Smart Search & Profile Match: Powerful filters like demography, industry, skills, experience and location, recruiters can narrow down their selections of candidates and further streamline their selection process.


3. Automated Referral Hiring: Recruiters can pinpoint who they need to interview and ask the common connection for a referral directly.



4. Impressions on The Web: GrownOut provides admittance to the professional and social biography of a prospective candidate on the web and helps them create the right impression with hiring executives.




5. Applicant Tracking System: GrownOut has an inbuilt application tracking system that helps you manage your entire hiring process in one go. From posting jobs, screening resumes to generating requests for interviews to tracking application status, everything you need is customized on the GrownOut platform.




6. Network Insights: Details about the strength of the network, industry focus, and average hire time are all available at the click of a button. Their analysis tools help recruiters figure out what is, and is not working in their favor for better hiring.

GrownOut have received funding from Mr. Niraj Singh (Outbox Holdings Pvt Ltd) in the past few months (amount undisclosed). The team aims to make hiring simpler by researching on efficient ways to make things better for. They will be extending our platform to make it a 'one stop hiring platform.'

As a message for future entrepreneurs, Sumit says, "I think a venture always start with a very simple idea. When you are venturing into something, make sure to ask some very critical questions like how it is making the current situation better and by what degree. Monetization and revenue should not be the primary concern. If you manage to build something very useful, money always follows."

Explanatory Video of GrownOut.com

Now A Wearable Artificial Kidney: Receive Dialysis on the Move

Another 'Wearable Device' has been invented and this time its more of health science than a playable gadget, as science has for long acted as a boon for the citizens of the world and now it has come to the rescue of patients whose Kidneys have stopped working on the move.

A team of medical researchers have been successful in building a miniature dialysis machine that can be worn on the body by the people whose kidneys have stopped working on the move to filter their blood.

The miniature dialysis machine is being called as the WAK - Wearable Artificial Kidney. It can be worn around the body by the patient just like a utility belt and connects to the patient via a catheter. The wearable artificial kidney is very light at five kilograms and easy to use as it runs on batteries.

Dr. Victor Gura and his talented team from University of California are the genius brains behind this wonder product. According to the team, the main aim behind developing this Wearable Artificial Kidney was to relieve the patients off the pain of large dialysis machines. The wonder product will give the patients suffering with late stage Kidney failure the freedom and liberty to walk and shop freely anywhere while still having their dialysis.



Traditionally, the patients suffering from Kidney failure are required to stay at one place when their blood is getting filtered by a bulky dialysis machine. This four hour session of dialysis is a must for three times a week.

The Wearable Artificial Kidney (WAK) has been made possible because of a new type of pump and lighter and more durable batteries.

One reason for developing the device is to allow patients more mobility during a dialysis session and the ability to go about some of their daily activities while the device runs. With present-day dialysis treatment, patients are tethered to a cumbersome machine. On average, such sessions occur three times a week and three to four hours each time.

Another reason the researchers entered this device-development field is because they were concerned about the lack of progress in treating patients with end-stage renal disease. People with this condition have a relatively poor quality of life and a high mortality rate.

The device has already been tested on animals and has recently been granted approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration to start proper testing of the device on humans.

Dr. Victor Gura, a physician specializing in internal medicine and kidney disease, created the initial prototypes for the WAK in his clinic in Beverly Hills, Calif. He completed the prototypes in a lab at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. His original team included the late Austrian physicist and equipment safety standards developer Hans Dietrich Polachegg, as well as bioengineer Masoud Beizai, and physician and medical device researcher Carlos Ezon, both of whom live in Los Angeles. Gura is a clinical associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

The WAK device and its components have several U.S. and foreign patients. Wearable Artificial Kidney is being registered as a trademark.

At this point it isn't possible to provide a firm time frame for availability for Wearable Artificial Kidney device. Before it could be a real option for general use by patients in renal failure, the WAK still must pass several clinical trials and undergo design improvements. Its continued development also would require obtaining additional funding.

Now A Wearable Artificial Kidney: Receive Dialysis on the Move

Another 'Wearable Device' has been invented and this time its more of health science than a playable gadget, as science has for long acted as a boon for the citizens of the world and now it has come to the rescue of patients whose Kidneys have stopped working on the move.

A team of medical researchers have been successful in building a miniature dialysis machine that can be worn on the body by the people whose kidneys have stopped working on the move to filter their blood.

The miniature dialysis machine is being called as the WAK - Wearable Artificial Kidney. It can be worn around the body by the patient just like a utility belt and connects to the patient via a catheter. The wearable artificial kidney is very light at five kilograms and easy to use as it runs on batteries.

Dr. Victor Gura and his talented team from University of California are the genius brains behind this wonder product. According to the team, the main aim behind developing this Wearable Artificial Kidney was to relieve the patients off the pain of large dialysis machines. The wonder product will give the patients suffering with late stage Kidney failure the freedom and liberty to walk and shop freely anywhere while still having their dialysis.



Traditionally, the patients suffering from Kidney failure are required to stay at one place when their blood is getting filtered by a bulky dialysis machine. This four hour session of dialysis is a must for three times a week.

The Wearable Artificial Kidney (WAK) has been made possible because of a new type of pump and lighter and more durable batteries.

One reason for developing the device is to allow patients more mobility during a dialysis session and the ability to go about some of their daily activities while the device runs. With present-day dialysis treatment, patients are tethered to a cumbersome machine. On average, such sessions occur three times a week and three to four hours each time.

Another reason the researchers entered this device-development field is because they were concerned about the lack of progress in treating patients with end-stage renal disease. People with this condition have a relatively poor quality of life and a high mortality rate.

The device has already been tested on animals and has recently been granted approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration to start proper testing of the device on humans.

Dr. Victor Gura, a physician specializing in internal medicine and kidney disease, created the initial prototypes for the WAK in his clinic in Beverly Hills, Calif. He completed the prototypes in a lab at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. His original team included the late Austrian physicist and equipment safety standards developer Hans Dietrich Polachegg, as well as bioengineer Masoud Beizai, and physician and medical device researcher Carlos Ezon, both of whom live in Los Angeles. Gura is a clinical associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

The WAK device and its components have several U.S. and foreign patients. Wearable Artificial Kidney is being registered as a trademark.

At this point it isn't possible to provide a firm time frame for availability for Wearable Artificial Kidney device. Before it could be a real option for general use by patients in renal failure, the WAK still must pass several clinical trials and undergo design improvements. Its continued development also would require obtaining additional funding.

Google Collaborate to Develop a Mobile App for the PM's Office

Technology giant Google is currently working with the Government of India in order to launch a nationwide contest for developing a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office. This contest is an initiative undertaken by the government to support its Digital India programme.

The search giant released a statement saying, "MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the Government and Google are collaborating to launch a nationwide contest to develop a mobile application for the PM's office".

According to Google, the main aim of the application would be to bring the Prime Minister Office closer to each and every citizen of the country. The contest will showcase the country’s talent and how Indians are also capable of building a world class application.

Google has plans of launching a number of initiatives as a part of supporting the PM’s vision, these include programmes such as getting Indian SMEs online, helping more and more women get online, showcasing the country’s rich culture and heritage online which will result in the digital empowerment of the citizen’s of the country.

According to the tech giant, it will continue to help the government’s transition into an increasingly ‘mobile’ India by building a vibrant language ecosystem online.

Google is all set to introduce curriculum for officials, schools and elected representatives in order to encourage internet safety and digital literacy among the citizens.

The tech giant is also working closely with the country’s Department of Information and Technology and other state governments in order to develop such initiatives for them.

According to RS Sharma’s statement to PTI, “I’m happy Google is coming forward to roll out initiatives that will contribute to the Digital India vision. I’m sure others will come forward and join this moment”. RS Sharma is the Secretary at Department of Information and Technology.

According to Rajan Anandan, Google India Vice President and Managing Director, with over 245 million users as of June 2014, India has now become home to the third largest number of Internet users all over the globe. It can be expected to acquire the second position by next year and have a 500 million user market by 2016.

He further adds, “Yet, there are more than a million a billion people who will need to be brought online for India to realize the vision of connected, knowledge economy”. According to Anandan, Narendra Modi’s Prime Minister Digital India Programme can play a transformational role in getting more and more citizens online and changing the face of the country.

Google Collaborate to Develop a Mobile App for the PM's Office

Technology giant Google is currently working with the Government of India in order to launch a nationwide contest for developing a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office. This contest is an initiative undertaken by the government to support its Digital India programme.

The search giant released a statement saying, "MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the Government and Google are collaborating to launch a nationwide contest to develop a mobile application for the PM's office".

According to Google, the main aim of the application would be to bring the Prime Minister Office closer to each and every citizen of the country. The contest will showcase the country’s talent and how Indians are also capable of building a world class application.

Google has plans of launching a number of initiatives as a part of supporting the PM’s vision, these include programmes such as getting Indian SMEs online, helping more and more women get online, showcasing the country’s rich culture and heritage online which will result in the digital empowerment of the citizen’s of the country.

According to the tech giant, it will continue to help the government’s transition into an increasingly ‘mobile’ India by building a vibrant language ecosystem online.

Google is all set to introduce curriculum for officials, schools and elected representatives in order to encourage internet safety and digital literacy among the citizens.

The tech giant is also working closely with the country’s Department of Information and Technology and other state governments in order to develop such initiatives for them.

According to RS Sharma’s statement to PTI, “I’m happy Google is coming forward to roll out initiatives that will contribute to the Digital India vision. I’m sure others will come forward and join this moment”. RS Sharma is the Secretary at Department of Information and Technology.

According to Rajan Anandan, Google India Vice President and Managing Director, with over 245 million users as of June 2014, India has now become home to the third largest number of Internet users all over the globe. It can be expected to acquire the second position by next year and have a 500 million user market by 2016.

He further adds, “Yet, there are more than a million a billion people who will need to be brought online for India to realize the vision of connected, knowledge economy”. According to Anandan, Narendra Modi’s Prime Minister Digital India Programme can play a transformational role in getting more and more citizens online and changing the face of the country.

Meet 'Pramaan', India’s Very Own 3D Printer

3D printing is currently a $2.2 billion industry but is bound to grow up to $10.8 billion as per Goldman Sachs. 4 energetic entrepreneurs saw an opportunity in this sector, decided to tap it and make a 3D printer so that it doesn't have to be imported to India at high prices. This is how Global 3D Labs started out in Manipal, Udupi. Gopal Krishna, Aviral Kedia (both from MIT, Manipal), Manish Amin, Shreyas Kudva (both from MITE, Manglore) set out to make their product, Pramaan. Pramaan is a latest generation, industrial grade, desktop 3D Printer designed for multiple users and sturdy usage.

[caption id="attachment_94964" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Pramaan Creator - (L-R) Gopal Krishna, Shreyas Kudva, Aviral Kedia and Manish Amin[/caption]



"Concept modelling has been an integral part of any Engineering process. The models can be developed for various sectors ranging from Architecture to Jewellery," says Gopal. The 3D printed parts give a first-hand experience of how the products will look in their physical scale. The printed parts can be painted, sanded or even chromium plated to give an actual feel of the product or the architectural structure before it is brought to the production stage.

"Unlike earlier processes where concept modelling consisted of separate simulation on computer and then a scaled down model made up of wood, foam, etc., a 3D Printed part gives the tangibility of computer simulation and physical modelling at the same time," adds Aviral. The printers can create parts that can be tested for production before the final machine tooling is done.

"Pramaan has LCD support and SD card connectivity that allows it to be an independent system. The printer has a massive build volume of 27 x 35 x 22 cm3 that allows the users to build multiple and bigger parts in a single print. It has the largest build volume in its price range," says Shreyas.



Pramaan can be used with ABS, PLA, Laywood, HIPS Polymer, Nylon 618 and other compatible materials. Pramaan can be used to print multiple designs that can be both downloaded from the internet as well as designed by the user. Pramaan can be used with various 3D printing software that are available for free download. Apart from this, Pramaan has full metal chassis which helps making the machine a very robust one.

"Presently we are researching on multiple extruder 3D printers, food extruders, 3D scanners. These products will hit the market in early part 2015," says Gopal. G3D Labs has signed an MOU with Appmob Marketing to conduct workshops throughout the nation to make people aware of the wonders this technology can do. These workshops are a part of G3D Labs endeavour to evangelize 3D printing in India.

How Pramaan is different from other 3D Printers -

Pramaan comes with LCD support and can interact in 11 different languages meant to cater to customers all across the globe. Moreover, the printer has a massive build volume which is the biggest in the world for its price range. The printer is made for multiple users and has a sturdy chassis made of Mild Steel.

Moreover, Pramaan is a plug and play gadget. You can unpack the machine and start printing from the day 1. You can even print Pramaan without using system as Pramaan comes with SD card support. You can copy the g-codes and print using the same.

[caption id="attachment_94967" align="aligncenter" width="700"] 3D printer 'Pramaan' in action[/caption]

The team currently comprises of 9 members and they hope to establish themselves as major player in field of 3D printing and rapid prototyping by constant R&D and launching a variety of products. They are currently not funded.

As a message for future entrepreneurs, Aviral says "Entrepreneurship is a great way to bring about the changes that you wish to see in the society and empower people. Do not hesitate to invest your time and efforts in something that you firmly believe in because if you can dream it you can do it."

BaklLol - Now Have Fun on Whatsapp with Indian Stickers

Now, you can have all the fun on Whatsapp with lots of Indian stickers and memes for Whatsapp with this simple app called - bakLOL, exclusively created to suit Indian WhatsApp users.

Creation of this app came out of curiosity when the app makers noticed that a new messenger was launched and a lot of young people started moving to it just because Whatsapp doesn't have stickers. Syed Atif with support of Ankit Gupta immediately felt the need of an app that can enable users to use stickers and memes in Whatsapp while chatting with our friends. "Then we thought why we cannot develop an android app which can support Whatsapp to provide stickers/memes/trolls to the users in order to make it more interesting. Thus, we started working on it." said Ankit.

All Whatsapp addicted people who spend most of their leisure time chatting with friends and prefer Whatsapp over other means of communication because of the liberty it gives you in terms of using pictures and stuff.

There are other apps on the play store which provide Whatsapp stickers and memes but they do not have content relevant for Indians. Also, the mechanism to send the stuff on Whatsapp is a little cumbersome. BakLOL fills this gap as it contains stuff relevant to Indians only along with an easy mechanism to share the stickers on Whatsapp.

A Baklol is a person who is supposed to be stupid. It is a Bihari word, generally used by the people of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh in India. The app contains an exhaustive collection of Indian Memes from Bollywood and Television shows, Desi Trolls and Indian lingo stickers (what people in India usually talks).

Makers of this app are Syed Atif, Ankit Gupta and UJ. Syed Atif is a Mechanical Engineer from HBTI, Kanpur by qualification who hails from Mau, a small town near Allahabad, UP. An artist from the core of his heart, he is a pro in Sketching, Painting, Singing Rap. While, Ankit Gupta is a Software Engineer from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Ahmedabad. UJ is a Chemical Engineer from HBTI, Kanpur.

The ease of using bakLOL app is what makes it different from other such apps. Just install this app, a floating icon will appear when you open Whatsapp™ and you can directly send stickers and memes from the app. No need to go back to the home screen and open bakLOL app again and again.

There are 8 categories in bakLOL as of now - Bollywood: ,TV, Thand Rakh: An exclusive collection of desi indianized version of Keep Calm posters, Trolls: An exclusive collection of desi indianized version of funny trolls, Shudh Desi Romance: For people in love, this is what they typically speak, BC(BAATCHEET): Indian Lingo, this is what most of the indians speak, Cult Movies: Memes from cult bollywood movies e.g. Delhi belly, South Indian spice: Especially for our south Indian brotherhood.

For all WhatsApp users and addicts its a must have app for you to have on your smartphone as WhatsApp doesn't provide any feature of ending stickers & meme and this app is filling in the app especially for Indian users. Moreover, a saviour for WhatsApp itself, as new messaging apps are coming in with sticker sending features people might move away from Whatsapp and now with bakLOL as an add-on (not endorsed by or affiliated with WhatsApp) for WhatsApp there are no reason to leave Whatsapp as as far as feature of sending 'Stickers & Memes' are concerned.

New Travel Portal 'Travelaero' Synchronizing travel - Hotels, Flights & Car Rentals

Another travel portal has been launched in the market. Travelaero.com, which is a Mumbai/Dubai based startup, announced the launch of its portal on 17^th September, 2014. The startup has partnered with some of the leading brands and will provide the users with travel itinerary, online booking facility and easy car rentals etc. with the launch of its online portal. The main focus of the startup is to cover the resident expats in United Arab Emirates, Dubai and international travelers visiting Dubai. The startup wants to provide the users with complete travel solution ranging from Flights, Hotel and car rentals.

Travelaero.com has since long been evaluating strategies to establish its brand value in the market. As a part of its plan, it has for now launched a very easy and user friendly portal which will be further enhanced in the near future by introducing more customer centric approach based on the usability.

According to Mr. Rakesh Uthaman, CEO of Travelaero.com, "Travelaero aims to become one of the top travel portals in the region by 2015. As the product is very young and under development, our concept for travel holds lots of potential for the Global markets as well. We are doing a series of action to get in quick launch of the customer centric travel platform with lots of features, meanwhile keeping it simple". He also added, "At present we are open for online bookings, soon in a couple of months, we would be ready to take up telephone and direct bookings as well. Having studied the market potential, we are planning to open offices in multiple metropolitan cities in India and United Arab Emirates".

The portal describes itself as a "One-Stop" travel portal for cheap Airfares, best Hotel accommodations and lowest Car Rentals. Further, Vacation packages, Tour packages and Travel store will be launched soon.

The new portal might give competition to established travel portals in India such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com or ClearTrip, as Travelaero is different in a way that along with flight and hotel bookings it also have an extra feature of booking/renting cars. However what is available in MakeMyTrip is not there in Travelaero i.e. Bus ticket bookings. Moreover, Makemytrip and other established travel portal in India has large loyal user-base so Travelaero has to have something different which can pull those loyal customers from other portals.

The portal has very strict cancellation and refund policies. In some of the cases, the bookings are non-refundable and further, if you don't cancel in advance you may also incur a "no-show" fee in addition to any other supplier fees charged.

New Travel Portal 'Travelaero' Synchronizing travel - Hotels, Flights & Car Rentals

Another travel portal has been launched in the market. Travelaero.com, which is a Mumbai/Dubai based startup, announced the launch of its portal on 17^th September, 2014. The startup has partnered with some of the leading brands and will provide the users with travel itinerary, online booking facility and easy car rentals etc. with the launch of its online portal. The main focus of the startup is to cover the resident expats in United Arab Emirates, Dubai and international travelers visiting Dubai. The startup wants to provide the users with complete travel solution ranging from Flights, Hotel and car rentals.

Travelaero.com has since long been evaluating strategies to establish its brand value in the market. As a part of its plan, it has for now launched a very easy and user friendly portal which will be further enhanced in the near future by introducing more customer centric approach based on the usability.

According to Mr. Rakesh Uthaman, CEO of Travelaero.com, "Travelaero aims to become one of the top travel portals in the region by 2015. As the product is very young and under development, our concept for travel holds lots of potential for the Global markets as well. We are doing a series of action to get in quick launch of the customer centric travel platform with lots of features, meanwhile keeping it simple". He also added, "At present we are open for online bookings, soon in a couple of months, we would be ready to take up telephone and direct bookings as well. Having studied the market potential, we are planning to open offices in multiple metropolitan cities in India and United Arab Emirates".

The portal describes itself as a "One-Stop" travel portal for cheap Airfares, best Hotel accommodations and lowest Car Rentals. Further, Vacation packages, Tour packages and Travel store will be launched soon.

The new portal might give competition to established travel portals in India such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com or ClearTrip, as Travelaero is different in a way that along with flight and hotel bookings it also have an extra feature of booking/renting cars. However what is available in MakeMyTrip is not there in Travelaero i.e. Bus ticket bookings. Moreover, Makemytrip and other established travel portal in India has large loyal user-base so Travelaero has to have something different which can pull those loyal customers from other portals.

The portal has very strict cancellation and refund policies. In some of the cases, the bookings are non-refundable and further, if you don't cancel in advance you may also incur a "no-show" fee in addition to any other supplier fees charged.

New Sony's SmartEyeglass to Launch Next Year

At very first it was Google who came up with Google Smart Glass then after a long gap Lenovo also announced of its upcoming Lenovo Smart Glass followed by China's search giant Baidu who announced Baidu Eye a chinese smartglass to rival Google and now this time it was technology giant Sony who also announced its Smart Eyeglass in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, 19th September, 2014. The SmartEyeglass from Sony is a transparent lens eyewear that works by connecting with compatible Smartphones to superimpose information such as images, texts, and symbols, onto the user’s field of view. Only Smartphones having Android 4.1 or later will be compatible with the SmartEyeglass. Further, Android 4.3 or later is necessary in order to make use of the video functionality of the camera.

The SmartEyeglass will offer the users a diverse range of sensing technologies, which includes an accelerometer, brightness sensor, Gyroscope, a CMOS image sensor, microphone and an electronic compass. The SmartEyeglass makes use of the above mentioned features along with the GPS location information provided by the connected Smartphone, in order to give information most optimized to the user’s current circumstances.



The technology giant has made use of its unique hologram optics technology in order to develop a phenomenal lens that can achieve high transparency of 85% and thickness of just 3.0 mm, all this has been made possible without the use of half mirrors that can act as obstruction in the user’s vision. The monochrome display of the SmartEyeglass makes sure that high luminance of up to 1,000 cd per meter square is achieved even when the energy consumption is lower than a color display. This high luminance and low energy consumption delivers a screen with clear readability to the user so that he/she can read text easily in a wide range of environments.

At the announcement, Sony also demonstrated some preloaded apps on the SmartEyeglass. A Localive app provides social feeds aggregation and distribution for surrounding local area whereas its-mo NAVI for SmartEyeglass app provides pedestrian navigation.



The SmartEyeglass can be expected to hit the markets by March next year.

Sony has also announced the availability of a dedicated SmartEyeglass Software Development Kit (Developer Preview) which would enable developers to think upon new and innovative ideas for creating scenarios where the device can be used. The kit will also boost the development of various applications. The kit comes with an emulator, sample code, tutorials to get started, In-depth developer guides, Design guidelines, API references, test instructions and Publishing guidelines.

 

Technical overview of the SmartEyeglass prototype

• Binocular see-trough eyewear display.


• Monochrome green colour.


• Maximum display brightness: 1000cd/m2.


• Embedded camera.


• Accelerometer, gyro, compass and brightness sensors.


• Microphone.


• Bluetooth v3.0.


• WiFi – 802.11b/g/n.


• Separate controller with touchpad along with power, navigation and camera buttons.

New Sony's SmartEyeglass to Launch Next Year

At very first it was Google who came up with Google Smart Glass then after a long gap Lenovo also announced of its upcoming Lenovo Smart Glass followed by China's search giant Baidu who announced Baidu Eye a chinese smartglass to rival Google and now this time it was technology giant Sony who also announced its Smart Eyeglass in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, 19th September, 2014. The SmartEyeglass from Sony is a transparent lens eyewear that works by connecting with compatible Smartphones to superimpose information such as images, texts, and symbols, onto the user’s field of view. Only Smartphones having Android 4.1 or later will be compatible with the SmartEyeglass. Further, Android 4.3 or later is necessary in order to make use of the video functionality of the camera.

The SmartEyeglass will offer the users a diverse range of sensing technologies, which includes an accelerometer, brightness sensor, Gyroscope, a CMOS image sensor, microphone and an electronic compass. The SmartEyeglass makes use of the above mentioned features along with the GPS location information provided by the connected Smartphone, in order to give information most optimized to the user’s current circumstances.



The technology giant has made use of its unique hologram optics technology in order to develop a phenomenal lens that can achieve high transparency of 85% and thickness of just 3.0 mm, all this has been made possible without the use of half mirrors that can act as obstruction in the user’s vision. The monochrome display of the SmartEyeglass makes sure that high luminance of up to 1,000 cd per meter square is achieved even when the energy consumption is lower than a color display. This high luminance and low energy consumption delivers a screen with clear readability to the user so that he/she can read text easily in a wide range of environments.

At the announcement, Sony also demonstrated some preloaded apps on the SmartEyeglass. A Localive app provides social feeds aggregation and distribution for surrounding local area whereas its-mo NAVI for SmartEyeglass app provides pedestrian navigation.



The SmartEyeglass can be expected to hit the markets by March next year.

Sony has also announced the availability of a dedicated SmartEyeglass Software Development Kit (Developer Preview) which would enable developers to think upon new and innovative ideas for creating scenarios where the device can be used. The kit will also boost the development of various applications. The kit comes with an emulator, sample code, tutorials to get started, In-depth developer guides, Design guidelines, API references, test instructions and Publishing guidelines.

 

Technical overview of the SmartEyeglass prototype

• Binocular see-trough eyewear display.


• Monochrome green colour.


• Maximum display brightness: 1000cd/m2.


• Embedded camera.


• Accelerometer, gyro, compass and brightness sensors.


• Microphone.


• Bluetooth v3.0.


• WiFi – 802.11b/g/n.


• Separate controller with touchpad along with power, navigation and camera buttons.