Google Unveils 'Project Soli', A Radar-Based Wearable To Control Anything

Are wearables your thing? Then, this particular thing is surely going to blow your gizmo crazy brains off.

When we normally talk about a wearable, most of us automatically think that it’s another watch wearable in town. Well, this time, thing again. Because this time, the wearable isn’t a watch, it’s you. Yes, YOU. Sounds crazy and unbelievable, right? Read on.

Google ATAP- the technology giant’s skunkworks division which creates all the cool things that we actually use nowadays, is ready with another wonderful offering for its tech crazy customers. The division recently teased everyone with talks of a new wearable that had the potential to “literally” blow everyone socks off at its session held at Google I/O.

Google ATAP believes that one’s hands are the best way to interact with a device, but, unfortunately, not everything is a device. Known as Project Solis, the wearable plans to make your fingers and hands the only interface you would ever require. It's essentially a tiny radar-based sensor that lets you control devices with your fingers as the interface – no touchscreen required.

In order to make this thing come true; the wearable is actually a radar that is so tiny that it fits easily into a wearable like smartwatch for example. The tiny radar will be able to pick one’s movements in real-time and use those movements to alter its signals.

When at rest, the hand actually moves slightly, which ends up as a baseline response on the tiny radar. Moving your hand from one side to another in relation to the tiny radar will also end up changing the amplitude and signal. Crossing your finger or folding it into a fist also affects the signal and changes it.

In order to make sense and use of the signal to a service or an application, ATAP plans to make use of APIs that will enter into the deep machine learning of the wearable.

Though it’s still in its early stages but this new wearable has surely given something to the tech crazy people to wait for and look forward to. A device that changes your hands into a User-Interface is surely a big invention. You go, Google!

RocketFood Is New Food Delivery Startup With 30-Minutes Promise

You have been living an independent life for quite sometime now and the initial excitement of being on your own is now over. The harsh reality has hit you, the reality of life, the reality of cleaning, cooking and washing your own clothes. Amongst all these sad realisations, the one thing that you miss the most is your mom's love-filled home cooked food.

If you're one of those who belongs to this category, we have an awesome solution in place for you.

Known as Rocketfood, this food delivery startup is known for delivering home cooked meet restaurant type delicacies at a rocket speed, quite literally. The seven months old food delivery startup aims to change the way the country eats food. Their 30 minute delivery guarantee, convenient packaging are some of the things that sets it apart from other such companies operating in this domain.

North Indian food is famous for its ghee and delicious curries and this is also one of the many reasons that make it difficult to order this food for delivery. When it comes to home delivery, many of the north Indian's that I know also prefer south Indian, Italian or Chinese food over their north India delight just because of the fear of getting ghee soaked or leaky curry packets being delivered to them at their doorstep.

Rocketfood solves this problem by delivering the meals in a pizza box packaging, making it easy to eat north Indian food without any additional utensils or even in the comfort of your car while travelling or commuting.

Founded by friends of fifteen years, Anurag and Abhineet, the startup is currently bootstrapped but has some very interesting future plans in the pipeline.

[caption id="attachment_99506" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Anurag and Abhineet - Founders of RocketFood[/caption]

This Ghaziabad based startup is currently delivering its gastronomical delightful food only to the people of Ghaziabad and Noida. The startup has plans of expanding into metros like Mumbai and Delhi in the coming months.

As far as food is concerned, there's no complaining. I ordered two rocketfood boost veg for Rs. 180 each and was surprised with the quantity I got. The home meet restaurant taste of the food and its price range makes it extremely feasible to eat daily for your stomach as well as your pocket. I will surely order once again and try the other offerings on the menu.

So, if you're one of those who has got bored of the bland taste of your maid’s home cooked food and a restaurant’s food is too much torture on your tongue, then Rocketfood is a perfect match for you.

7 Tips For Startups To Pitch Their Ideas To Angels

One of the toughest challenges that an entrepreneur has to face, besides the venture's daily functioning, is pitching his/her business to potential investors.

Since the pitch has a lot on stake, one needs to be well prepared for it. After all, you and your startup's future depend on it.

In order to make you prep for that one big meeting of yours, we, here at www.indianweb2.com, bring to you a list of pointers which you must follow by heart before making that grand entrance before your prospective investor.

1. Be Well Prepared - No, Here I am not just talking about being well prepared about your idea. Here, the focus is you. Yes, you. Though idea is a big consideration for an investor before investing but a even bigger consideration is the person behind the idea. It's not that difficult to come up with a brilliant idea but it is extremely difficult to execute that brilliant idea of yours in a brilliant way. So, prepare yourself for the storm of questions heading towards you.




2. Present Well - Any investor focuses more on the way you present rather than what you present. Of course, what you present is important but here your presentation skills will make or break the deal. Remember to cover all the essential points in your presentation and present them as crisply you can.




3. Keep Your Business Plan Ready From Day 1 - Most of the Angels looking to invest are extremely interested in knowing your exit strategy before finally locking the deal as most of them get bored and tired with one company for so long and start looking for new and fresh opportunities. So, make sure that you have your exit strategy ready with you before going for that meeting.




4. Research Well - An entrepreneur should not only know all about his idea and business plan but he should also be aware of his investors past, future and present. Doing a thorough research on your investor is going to give you a good overview of the investor's earlier investments and their success ratio.




5. Make Due Diligence Your Priority - Most of the investors take about three months or more to due diligence on your business ideas. Make sure that they don't have to think much and waste your and their time.




6. Term Sheet Offer - Negotiate a good term sheet offer. Does this term sound absolutely alien to you? Go check out to the websites of the Angel Capital Association or European Business Angels Network to know more about. You don't want to ignore it as this is often termed as the most painful part of the whole process.




7. Language- Brush-up those vocab skills because nothing sounds more professional and impressive than a person speaking in fluent language.

With all these points in place, we're extremely sure that you're going to rock that pitch. And, yes, always keep your chin up. It helps. All the best

Flipkart, Snapdeal Oppose 100% FDI in India’s E-Commerce Sector

The debate around FDI (foreign direct investment) refuses to settle down and this time it has entered the e-commerce domain.

According to rumours doing the round, both the e-commerce portals and the brick & mortar retailers have been having contrasting views on the idea of FDI in the e-commerce space.Not only this, in order to garner the maximum profits, the two entities are also debating on the fact that who can be tagged as a marketplace.

Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart function as a marketplace in India as these e-commerce platforms allow any retailer to sell goods on their platforms. On the other hand, companies such as Reliance Retail, Shoppers stop are considered as closed marketplaces since they only choose to work with a selected few vendors.

Among the huge number of e-commerce portals, only Amazon India seems to be openly endorsing the cause of FDI in Online retail.

Recently, Retailers Association of India (RAI), a lobby organization for big companies such as Future Group and Reliance Retail has asked has asked the government clarification regarding what constitutes a marketplace.

They are also seeking a status equal to their online rivals, as many of the offline retailers have shown interest in opening their own online stores.

Many of these online retailers are in favor of 100 percent FDI in the e-commerce sector but this is being opposed by some of the big names of the online marketplace such as Snapdeal and Flipkart.

On the other hand traditional retailers seem to have agreed on a united stance on the issue. "A lot of our members are either already running or want to open online channels and get access to foreign capital. This ambiguity on 'retail marketplaces' creates a sense of risk," said Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive, RAI, in a statement to the Business Insider.

According to e-commerce firms, they will end up losing a major share of market if such policies are initiated.

The government is hearing all the stances on the issue before preparing its final policy.

How NASA's Space Technology Saved Lives In Quake-Hit Nepal

Technology has once again come to the rescue of mankind. The recent earthquakes in Nepal have left everyone shocked and sad with despair. The earthquakes have caused major harm to life and property in the neighboring estate. With new earthquakes and aftershocks still marring the country, the rescue operations are becoming all the more difficult.

The most important thing in such times of disaster is to save as many lives as possible. And, FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response), a device developed by NASA primarily for use in outer space, is helping in doing just that. This heartbeat detecting wonder device has already helped in saving four lives in Nepal trapped under 10 feet earthquakes caused rubble. FINDER detects heartbeats by making use of a microwave-radar technology.

Two FINDER devices were used for the rescue operations in Nepal after the disastrous 25th April Earthquake. The four men saved had been trapped for days at Chautara in Sindhupalchok district.

[caption id="attachment_99308" align="aligncenter" width="394"] NASA's FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response)[/caption]

NASA technology plays many roles: driving exploration, protecting the lives of our astronauts and improving -- even saving -- the lives of people on Earth," said David Miller, chief technologist at NASA headquarters in Washington in a statement to IANS.

The search and rescue device makes use of a technology that was originally developed to detect life on other planets.

According to Miller, "FINDER exemplifies how technology designed for space exploration has profound impacts to life on Earth."

According to a statement released by DHS, the device has capabilities of detecting people buried under up to 30 feet of rubble, hidden behind 20 feet of solid concrete and from a distance of 100 feet in open spaces. FINDER has been developed by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in partnership with DHS.

In order to make the device better, a new feature called "locator" has been added to it. With this new feature, FINDER will not only be able to detect the heartbeats of the trapped people but also provide the exact location of the person within about five feet, depending on the type of rubble he/she is trapped in.

"The true test of any technology is how well it works in a real-life operational setting," said Reginald Brothers, DHS undersecretary for science and technology in the statement.

He further added, "Of course, no one wants disasters to occur, but tools like this are designed to help when our worst nightmares do happen. I am proud that we were able to provide the tools to help rescue these four men."

List of Important Startup Incubators & Accelerators in Delhi-NCR Region

If startup is like blood in this growing economy, then incubators and accelerators are like veins and arteries. Without the veins and arteries, the blood has no relevance.

We at www.indianweb2.com understand this and have hence combined a list of the best incubators and accelerators in Delhi to make things easier for all the startups taking their first big step in the business world.

Before starting with the list, we would like to clear one thing, the basic difference between incubators and in accelerators. Both these terms are used interchangeably a lot of times but it is important to understand the basic difference between them if you are planning to venture into this big startup world.

Incubators are organisations that incubate a startup's early product idea, help them in making a prototype and then finally make a product out of it. On the other hand, accelerators are the ones responsible for accelerating or increasing the speed of a startup's business.They are short, intense programs that help a startup build its idea and hone their skills.The engagement of an incubator is for a more duration than the accelerator.

• Technology Business Incubator, IIT Delhi, New Delhi
  Based out of IIT Delhi, this incubator only incubates startups started by people having some or the other IIT Delhi lineage. They can either be a part of the academic staff, be a student or an alumni of the institute. The incubator has very strict selection guidelines and startups not having any connection with the institute can still make the cut by tying up with the institute's professors. The incubator makes available MSME and dst grants for the startup's funding needs.


• 5ideas, Gurgaon
  The accelerator founded by Gaurav Kachru and Pearl Uppal. They are also the founders of dealsandyou and F&U respectively. They both have over ten years of experience in the startup industry.The platform only takes in maximum 5 startups at a time and invests 2.5 cr per startup.It then has a very deep collaboration with the chosen startups for a period of 6-12 months.


• Indian Angel Network, New Delhi
  The incubator has been established from the support of National Science & Entrepreneurship Development Board of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. It incubates startups for a period of 18-24 months. The Indian Angel Network has a worldwide reputation of having a well established network of entrepreneurs, professionals, academicians and domain experts in place.


• Amity Innovation Incubator, Noida
  The 'not for profit' society has an army of trained and experienced professionals as a part of its advisory board. The incubator offers the startups a range of incubation services like Business Planning, Managerial support, technical support etc., which help them in honing their entrepreneurial skills and talent.


• Technology Business Incubator, Shriram Institute, DelhiEstablished by the support of a sponsorship from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, the incubator is based in the campus of Shriram Institute for Industrial research, Delhi. The incubator aims to contribute and promote to the growth of country based companies and economy.


• Technology Based Incubator, University of Delhi (South Campus), New Delhi -
  Technology Based Incubator (TBI), the biotech park in delhi (India), established at University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC) in the year 2009. At this TBI, ideas and innovations will be nurtured in a holistic view along with the incubation of juvenile technologies into commercially feasible ventures.


• Information Technology Business Incubator - JSSATE-STEP - Noida
  Established by the support of National Science & Entrepreneurship Development Board of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, the incubator aims to encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and competency development in the startup industry. The incubator has the prestigious Best TBI award by DST for the year 2004 to its credit.The incubator has incubated some 69 startups till date.


• The Hatch, Gurgaon -
  The platform offers both virtual and physical accelerator and incubator programs. Its incubator programs lasts for 52 weeks and also packs in thirteen weeks of accelerator program.The startups can be funded up to a maximum limit of 10 lakhs. The platform also provides the investos with an access to fund the startups up to a limit of Rs. 1 crore.


• Green House Ventures Accelerator, Gurgaon -
  The newest startup accelerator in the list will fund and mentor startups between the incubation and venture capital stages.GHV Accelerator will be first of its kind in India. The program will accelerate 25 incubated startups for Series A round and growth to 10x in 12 mnths with upto $100K of seed funding. Interested startups may apply here to GHV accelerator program.


• GSF, Delhi -
  Headed by former Reliance Entertainment President, Rajesh Sawhney, the accelerator is the only multi-city accelerator with its footprints in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. It invests around $25k to 30k for a single digit equity which ranges from 5-8percent.


• TLabs, Delhi -
  A product of Times Internet Limited, the accelerator invests a sum of ten lakhs for ten percent equity. The accelerator has two batches which start in the month of February and August. It has a thirteen week program which includes mentorship from some of the most renowned names from the industry.


• Veddis, Gurgaon
  The platform's portfolio includes both incubatee and investment companies. Veddis is one of those incubators which provides its startups with a ready to move-in office space, complete with technology support and all other critical support services essential for the development of a product. Its invests anywhere between $250k to 10M in its selected startups.


• BusinessWorld Accelerate, Delhi -
  Based out of Delhi, BW|Accelerate is designed to become a multi-city start-ups acceleration program & platform, empowering aspirants, entrepreneurs and all eco system players to leverage from the infrastructure built around. Its Accelerate-Entrepreneur program is an exceptionally well planned, focused and Incisive 3 months/12 weeks sector agnostic program designed to accelerate beyond-MVP, Pre-revenue and early stage companies with experienced hand holding, business intelligence and market access.

View/ Search Complete List of Startup Incubators in India

Chandigarh-Based CA-Turned-Entrepreneur Put Dabba (Tiffin-box) Service Online

Moving to a new city is tough but what is tougher is coping with the loss of your mom's home cooked loved-filled meals. One of the major problems that one faces while moving to another city or becoming independent is the problem of food.

Eating out every time is not an option given the huge amount of travelling cost involved. In such situations, most of us settle for dabba services that promise to give us the best of both worlds, the taste of home cooked food away from home and that too at a much cheaper rate than any other restaurant.

Anyone who has tried to avail a dabba service knows that finding a decent dabba place near your house or office is no easy task.While finding a dabba service, the priority is to find the one which offers good food at a decent price but in order to do so; one has to go through a tedious process of calling each and every service separately and comparing their price and menu.

This would have been your condition too a few months ago but with — SendMyTiffin you can leave your dabba (Tiffin-box) services problem behind forever.

[caption id="attachment_99216" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Anuj Jain (left) founder of SendMyTiffin.com during launch in Chandigarh[/caption]

Launched by a Chandigarh based charted accountant, Anuj Jain, the website brings tiffin services from Chandigarh, Panchkula, Zirakpur and Mohali on one single platform. Currently, Anuj has tied up 20 local tiffin service providers across cties like Panchkula, Mohali, Zirakpur and Chandigarh.

"It is an unorganised sector with only random numbers listed online and in a scattered way. Hardly anyone has their own dedicated website and there’s no information regarding menus either,” said Jain in a statement to Indian Express.
The website is quite interactive and easy to use. The listings include the menu, location and price of the dabba.

"We take online payments but the delivery starts in three to four days. As a special initiative, the vendors are offering a five-day paid trial offer so that the customer is not bound to eat the food for a month if the taste and service are not up to the mark,” added Jain .

A customer can book dabba services for all three meals of the day. Talking about future plans Jain said, "We will look at offering reviews from customers as well. The online food market has a huge potential with 200 million Internet users in India. We are also working on a mobile application that would enable customers to place orders on their phones too."

The Chandigarh-based startup is looking to increase number of tiffin service providers listing on website by 10-20% month on month by exploring and catering to moving to new locations.

Bootstrapped & Self-funded, Sendmytiffin.com as of now is a sole proprietorship owned by Anuj Jain. Anuj Jain is a chartered accountant with over 10 years experience in field of Accounting and Finance.

This Woman-Led Startup Is Here To Pamper Females During PERIODS

Those five days of the months are the most uncomfortable ones for all females coping with menstruation periods. Mood changes as if it is on a swing, going up and down in a second, you start hating things you loved and you start loving things you hated.

When you are on period, all you want is something which keeps your mood alive and keep the ongoing mood swings in check. A lot of times, our period becomes an unpleasant period for those around us because of the unreasonable behavior we exhibit during that time.

Understanding the trial that periods can have on a woman's mood and body, Being Juliet, an out-of-the-box startup especially  for women also led by a women herself, Rashi Choudhary, has come with a solution to make those five most dreaded still awaited days of the month bearable. Notably, BeingJuliet is India's first Period subscription box service.

The New Delhi based startup offers its subscribers a monthly box of sanitary goodies. Along with the sanitary supplies, the startup also packs in small but thoughtful gifts for its subscribers to help them tread those painful five days. Women can choose subscription of 3 Months (Rs.1650) , 6 Months (Rs. 3300) or a full 1 Years' (Rs. 6600), What’s more! Your pack also carries small thoughtful gifts/surprises each month.

With BeingJuliet.com, women can pick their brand, pick their personal combination of XL Pads, Regular Pads, Tampons & Panty Liners. Select Last Menstrual Period date online through the website and BeingJuliet will make sure it reaches you before you need it.



The goodie box reaches its subscribers five days before their periods in order to save them the ordeal of running to cosmetic shops at the very last moment.

According to Rashi Bajaj, founder of BeingJuliet.com, "The current lifestyle of a modern girl or woman while she is swinging in between the boardroom, her home or her child’s PTM leaves no time for her. So much so that, more often than not, we forget that our periods are due the next day." Rashi gave this statement in an interview to yourstory.com.

Firstly, It was difficult for her to make the customers understand the value proposition of the whole concept and Secondly, she had a hard time convincing the traditional marketers as they thought this wasn't the right way of promoting their products but in the end, everything came together for Being Juliet and Rashi. The customers loved the concept and the marketers understood it.

BeingJuliet.com is Rashi's second startup venture. She is also the founder of Carpet couture, a startup that makes customized carpets and rugs. After completing her MBA, she also worked at Infosys for 8 months post which she started 'Carpet Couture', a boutique for Customised Contemporary Handmade Rugs & Carpets. The Idea was to offer exclusive Couture Handmade Rugs for High End Residences & Projects.

The path wasn't all merry for Rashi and she also had to face a few hiccups like any other startup.

Microsoft Unveils 'Edge' To Replace Internet Explorer Browser

Get ready to say goodbye to your old buddy Internet Explorer. Though many of us don’t use it anymore and have moved on to fatser alternatives like Google Chrome and Firefox but many of us still have internet Explorer installed in hope of using it someday incase of some emergency.

This farewell time has arrived because Microsoft, the giant behind Internet Explorer, has something bigger and better for all of us.

Called the Edge, the new web browser was kept under wraps as 'Project Spartan' so far.The new browser is expected to be lighter and much more faster than the Internet Explorer.

Microsoft Edge is Internet Explorer's replacement. The minimalistic "chrome-free" web browser is designed to put websites up front and dispense of everything else — including icons and menus that could potentially slow page loads.

The all-new Windows 10 browser built to give you a better web experience. Write directly on webpages and share your mark-ups with others. Read online articles free of distraction or use the offline reading feature for greater convenience. Microsoft Edge is the new browser that works the way you do.



On the top of all this, the new browser would come with some super amazing new features like a distraction free reading mode, a personal voice assistant app for windows, built-in notation tool and website information powered by Cortana.

"Microsoft Edge is the browser built for Windows 10, and it will be available on the widest range of Windows 10 devices," said Joe Belfiore, Corporate vice president, operating systems group,Microsoft, at Build 2015, a conference of developers.

Stating the reason behind the unique name, Belfiore said, "For us the name refers to the idea of being on the edge of consuming and creating."

"It refers to the developer notion of being closest to the modern capabilities of the Web," he added.

The browser will be different from all the current browsers as it will be able to understand what the user wants and give him/her exactly that. Edge with its built-in Cortana will have the capability to learn and understand the things that the user cares about. The browser would even help the user in getting those things done.
The software giant has already tested it a lot of times and is quite optimistic about its product this time.

Microsoft Edge hosts a new rendering engine, Microsoft EdgeHTML. This engine is focused on modern web standards, allowing web developers to build and maintain one consistent site that supports all modern browsers. This greatly simplifies the hard work of building first class web sites, allowing more time and energy for web developers to focus on reliability and security rather than the complexities of interoperability.

Further, the Edge would even give the users to try their hand at Web coding.
"Now, there's another big thing that we're doing in Microsoft Edge that has huge relevance to you.

"That is enabling users to engage with your sites and give you a shot at starting to write some Web code, which you may put into an app via Web extensions built into Microsoft Edge," Belfiore said.

Additionally, Microsoft Edge is also Microsoft's first web browser to have its voice assistant Cortana directly integrated. Speak naturally to Cortana about anything. Cortana can chat, get info, and do things for you.

Though Edge is a successor to the existing Internet Explorer but the software giant has decided to keep the latter for now. The new browser will only be available for Windows 10 and further.

Chennai Startup Develops World's First TV-Based Home-Automation System

Are you one those persons who is always asking for more? The one for whom variety is the flavor of life? If the answer to both the questions is yes, then this product might interest you. The device is called MaxMyTV and it will literally maximize your television viewing experience. MaxMyTV is a Smart Hub that upgrades your TV to a Home Automation and Social Media Control Center.

Developed by Chennai-based Internet of Things Startup, MaxMyTV is essentially a Smart Box that sits between your TV and set-top box and works towards improving two prime areas of Television watching experience for its users - Home automation & Social TV.

Television is the prime source of entertainment for a lot of people in India and sometimes we get so engrossed that we don’t want to miss even a second of the program or the match that we’re watching and whenever such as situation arrives that you’ve to choose between missing your favorite show or taking care of some other household work, we’re left in a lurch to choose between the two. But with MaxMyTV, this won’t ever arise again.

Android based MaxMyTV Smart Hub is primarily a Home-Automation System that automates your home and overlays alerts from Sensors, IP camera and Social Media on TV broadcast video.



The device provides you with a luxury to control your home sensors and view its detailed analytics right from your TV. The user can access the Smart Hub with the help of the AirMouse Qwerty Remote Control. They can even control all their home automation devices right from their own Smartphone. The added bonus is that all this can be done while you’re watching your favorite show as all these features will appear as overlays on your current Television screen.

For example - Say you want your TV to automatically turn on and stream video from your front door camera when someone is at the door? (Think pizza delivery) and in another scenerio when you would like to have the lights, heat and music turn on when you enter a room?, this when MaxmyTV come with the solutions. MaxMyTV will act like an invisible Robot and carry out your orders with the set rules you select.

Founded by embedded systems designer Robert Kennedy Manoharan, hardware designer Saravanabhavan Chandrasekhar and applications developer Evangeline Santhakumar, MaxMyTv comes with smart accessories like sensors and beepers that can be attached to home devices. A smart hub that sits in between the television and set top box streams footage on the TV/smartphone screen as overlays or alerts and also enables the user to control almost every other device in the house via the television.



Kennedy says "the reason for choosing TV as the main medium, while most IoT products are centred around smartphones, is because it serves as "the best alert system" with "better video-audio system."

Social media has now become a way of life and Maxmytv makes sure to cover this aspect of current generation. This IoT startup has integrated social media with TV to give social TV. Now you can check your social networking sites , mails while still enjoying your television serials.By pressing the 'Social' button on the remote control, you'll be able to launch Social TV applications such Facebook and Twitter as a sidebar on your television screen.

Not only this, Android based MaxmyTv device will also give you the luxury to interact with Live TV shows. And, if you're still asking for more, then Maxmytv sure doesn't dissappoints you. The device also comes with power metering which will allow its users to track which device uses the most energy. With this, you will be able to manage your devices and electricity bills better.

Indian Startups' Biggest Challenge Is Red Tapism & Ambiguous Laws

Have an awesome startup idea in place? Your friends, family and their family and friends love it too? And, now you're thinking you're a billionaire. Give that thought a rest if you're currently in India because starting a business in the country isn’t that easy. While having an idea may seem the biggest hurdle everywhere else. Here in India, once you have conceived an idea there are bigger troubles waiting ahead for you.

While starting up one doesn't really plan about what will happen in future if their company becomes a success. At that point of time, we're just focused in making things work and making them work smoothly. But, if you're a person starting up a company in India, you should take our advice and always plan ahead.

While at the peak of your business you might just want to enjoy your success, but the scenario in India can be quite different. Once successful, there are a lot of legalities that one has to deal and in certain cases this has resulted in complete washout of businesses.

[Related - How to Register a Company/Startup in India]

India's inefficient legal system makes it an extremely difficult country to start a business in. It is interesting to note that it is easier to do business in Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh than it is to do in India.

India's Weakness As A Market For Startups

1. Poor Business Legislation


2. Poor Basic Infrastructure


3. Inadequate Health & Enviornment Safety.


4. Bribery & Curruption


5. Exchange Rate Volatility


6. Low Broadband Rate.


7. Ambiguous Laws & Regulations

Though PM Narendra Modi seems to be doing all things right to endorse his make in India but what effect will have it on a larger scale is "yet to be seen".

Some of the complexities that one has to deal with while starting up and in order to make your task a little easier, Below is a list of essential things which you must keep in mind when starting a new company.

Founder's agreement

While everything might feel hunky dory today, that might not be the situation forever. Always think of the future while doing something or entering into a partnership. Assess all the possible scenarios in your head and chalk out a proper plan for them.

Make it a point to get a written agreement signed amongst the founders’ right at the beginning. Don't sign incorporation until your startup starts earning some real revenue. Having a founders agreement in place helps in saving time and money and even decreases the chances of mudslinging afterwards.

If you have to do incorporate, make sure you get a no frills service rather than a CA or a lawyer. Startups are a different breed of business altogether and hence their documentation also needs to be different than others.

Always consider the tax liability of your newly opened business. LLP has proved to be much cheaper when considering tax bills and is good for lifestyle business, family business etc. especially when your business has no immediate plans of raising any funds.

Business Licenses

Doing business in India means getting ready to run pillar to post for several business licenses. Research well about all the licenses that might be applicable to your business.

Not having proper licenses might not be deterrent initially but it can prove to be a setback in future when you're looking towards getting funds as investors are often very specific about licenses.

Moreover, not having licenses can get your startup entangled into unnecessary legalities and costly legal suits. In some cases it can also result in a complete shutdown of the business.

Vendors Contract-

Being a startup, you should always keep your eyes and ears open. Just don't go on a signing spree and sign whatever comes your way so that business gets started sooner.

Vendor contacts signed in the beginning stage are very crucial. Make sure you read each and every point, each and every clause with utmost concentration. Read up some contact law and make sure that you haven't missed out on some important clause.

Enforcement of Contracts -

Having a contract in place and enforcing it meticulously are two very different things.

According to the world Bank, India ranked at 184 is one of the five worst countries in the entire world in terms of enforcing a contract.

While big businesses have a proper army of people in place to make sure that their each and every point in the contract is enforced to the T, businesses just starting up can't afford to dish out that much money.

Make sure that you yourself have strong negotiation skills or higher someone with these skills sets. Having good negotiation skills at place can give you the desired advantage over your contemporaries.

Accounts & Taxation -

The saying "Ignorance is bliss" doesn't works here. This is where a lot of startups fail and wash out completely. A lot of founders have also faced prison time because of this. Being the founder of the company, you must have some very basic understanding of your company's accounts and taxation. Make it a point to never leave it entirely to a CA as the money involved here is huge and the consequences of anything going wrong can prove to be devastating.

RideSafe - A Mobile App Which Can Sense Trouble Even Before You Can

Safety is the main concern nowadays. With the number of rape, murder and robbery cases increasing day by day, the number of people stepping out to enjoy at night or even in broad day light has decreased drastically.

The primary concern which we have while stepping out or even planning to step out is how would we commute.

In order to make travelling a part of the day that we would love rather than dread, a Bangalore based startup has come up with an app called RideSafetyApp that boosts itself as being the first REAL safety app for women in the world while commuting via road.

The app is a product of the wonderful minds of Geet Garg and Nishith Rastogi, who are IIT Kharagpur and BITS Pilani graduates respectively.

The app makes sure that whatever be the area or time of your commute, you're safe and sound and makes sure that your family knows the same.The app with its state-of-the-art RealTime Route Deviation Detection (R2D2) engine is extremely easy to install and use.

Though the taxi aggregators like (ola,uber,meru) have introduced the tracking feature, but the person tracking the ride will have to keep checking the link, every 5 minutes, But RideSafe would automatically inform the user and his contacts as soon as we notice deviation from the intended route! This can be extremely useful in places where the user is travelling for the first time.

A sample trip link, that is sent to user's selected contacts - http://goo.gl/MPMZKa

Once installed from the app store, the user is just required to enter his/her destination and the rest will be taken care by the app.The app will alarm the user if and when the driver deviates from the intended route.

If the driver deviates from the intended route, the app's algorithm will detect this in real-time and alert the user & user's family and friends. The app accounts for minor detours, shortcuts, traffic detours and several other edge cases.

Ridesafe stands out from a sea of other road safety apps available in the market for women. What makes it different is that fact that while in other applications the person tracking the ride is required to check the link in every five minutes, that is not the case with ridesafe. In ridesafe app, this function is done by the app itself.
As soon as it senses a deviation, the app will automatically buzz the user and his/her contacts.

Along with offering safety benefits, Ridesafe also provides its users with a host of other features.The application can be used to measure the total time taken to complete the journey, to calculate the average time and speed during the trip. It can also be used to sync up during meetings.

The app's user interface and UX are very simple and clean. The app can be downloaded free of cost and has the potential of putting all travelling worries of women to rest once and for all.

Kerala Startup Cracks International Robotics Challenge

Indians startups are literally going places. Recently, Qbotics Labs, a Kerala based startup, was declared as one of the finalists at the international robotic challenge HRATC 2015.

Known as the biggest conference in the world for automation and robotics, HRATC this year was conducted as a part of ICRA 2015 by IEEE Robotics and Automation society.

The Kerala based startup is backed by Kerala's much famous Startup village and aims to deliver robotics, image processing and embedded system applications to its clients.Founded by Lentin Joseph, Qbotics' vision is to build technology and machines that are environment friendly and will help make the planet a better place for future generations.

The HRATC challenge was to inspect a random area for mine by making use of a Husky robot. Qbotics Husky robot code gave an extraordinary performance and performed autonomous navigation to successfully detect mines.

In total, five finalists werw selected at HRATC 2015. This included University of Nebraska, National University of Singapore, University of Texas and Qbotics Labscame second in the list.

Qbotics team named as "Zephyr" ended up securing the second position among these five finalists from all over the world. Team Zephyr comprised of the founder, Lentin Joseph and Kamil Kafoor, a student studying mechanical engineering at College of Engineering, Munnar. The final competition is all set to take place on 26th May during ICRA 2015.

10 Desirable Qualities For Every Startup Leaders

Every individual in this world has the potential and qualities to make it big in life. What makes the difference is the time and effort put in in finding and polishing those qualities.

Same is the case with enetrpenuers. Every person has the capability to become a successful businessmen. One just requires to brush up some knowledge and polish certain skills. In order to make things easier for you, we at IndianWeb2 bring to a list of qualities that make a successful business leader. Read on.

Courage- True courage lies in taking risks. A successful leader is one who is not afraid of taking risks. Sometimes a situation might require you to take a road not taken. Don't be afraid. Note down the pros and cons and take your decision accordingly.

Problem solving capability - Problems are a part of the process. Whenever we are doing something, certain situations/ problems are bound to arise. We might be lucky enough to for-see some of them, while in a certain other situations they might hit us by a surprise. Either case, a leader is the one who isn't afraid of the problems and takes the responsibility to lead his/her team out of the situation. Problems only make them think better.

Passion - A true drive to do something is what matters the most in this industry. There are hundreds of people who enter the startup scene every month but in the end, only a few are able to survive. The survivors are the ones who are really passionate about the thing that they are doing and are not bogged down by certain hurdles.A man with a true passion can achieve whatever he/she wants in their life.

Guts - Business is an unstable terrain. What might be the situation today, might be exactly the opposite tom. A true businessman is the one who embraces this fact and still decides to take risks. Failure is the part of the process and the one who understands it, is the true leader.

Curiosity - There are a number of people in the world with plenty of knowledge and means, yet they aren't all able to make it big. The difference here is "curiosity". The one who is happy and content with his current situation and doesn't want to explore newer terrains ends up getting stuck in a monotonous life and a person with a zeal and curiosity to explore the unexplored always has an advantage over such people. In short, curiosity is the mantra of success.

Execution - Having a good plan in place and executing it nicely are two different things. It's easier to come up with ideas and plans but the true test lies in execution.Good Execution is a very imp quality in a successful entrepreneur. That's the one thing which distinguishes him/her from others. A good plan can fail as a result of bad execution.

Focused - For the ones who are focused , half the battle is already won. A successful person is the one who knows what he's aiming for and is working only towards it.A focused person rarely fails. He/she makes it a point to get up again and again and work harder the next time.

Humility - Whatever you may achieve in life, always remain humble to the people who have helped you get there. The time you start thinking that your success is a result of only your efforts and start having the i can't do anything wrong attitude , you're downfall will start sooner or later.

Determination - Your never say never attitude will make you go miles.
Successful people don't take no for answers. They have a special quality of changing nos into a yes. Once they determine to do something, they do everything in the world to make it happen.They can pull off an impossible situation and make it look extremely easy.

Expectations - Successful entrepreneurs know what's feasible and what is not. They know where to draw the line.They have realistic goals and they put in their honest efforts to achieve them.

Startup From Chennai Develops Tiny Smart-Car Device

We have everything;from Smartphone to Smart TV to smart watch and just when you thought nothing can be made much smarter, a new smart device comes in the market to prove us wrong.

This time it’s a smart car, a car which notifies you when your car will run completely out of fuel, a car which will be able to detect the nearest fuel station, a car which will make driving a smooth experience for you.
Created by a Chennai based startup called Fuel Book Technology, this tiny device has the capability to turn any car into a smart car. Deepak John J came up with the idea for Fuel Book through his own experience. Once while driving, his car ran completely dry and he was stranded in the middle of nowhere. That's when the idea of a smart car struck Deepak's mind. Accompanied by an app, the device is self-installable and has the potential to create a smart vehicle right through any car's diagnostic port.

The startup has currently developed a working prototype of Fuelbook and close to entering production stage and for same they have crowdfunding this Smart Car device on Indiegogo and til now managed to get in just 9days an amount of $854USD out of $50,000 USD pledged.

The device is very easy to use. Once you have plugged it in your car, you’re required to download the application and launch it. The next step involves syncing the device over Bluetooth and Voila; you’ve now successfully turned your dumb car into a smart one.

The Fuel Book will not only tell the driver when his/her car will completely run out of fuel but also detect the nearest fuel station and ATM to help them. Along with this, the device also comes with a feature that will allow the user to unlock their car door right from their phones and save time.

Traffic is the biggest dread of a driver and this tiny device makes sure that its users don’t have to face this dread anymore. Using the device, the users will be able to transform their horns into a smart sensing apparatus that will send a message to the driver in the front and know the reason for the hold-up. If you’re one of those drivers who hate surprise bumps or breakers in their way, then don’t you worry because you won’t be getting any such surprises in future. The Fuel Book comes with a special social territory mapping feature that will alert the driver ten seconds prior to a bump in their way.

The device has a built-in accelerometer which takes care of the car’s speed. In the time of emergency, the device will share the driver’s GPS coordinates with his/her registered emergency contact through SMS or with the help of another Fuel Book using the “tag mode” feature.

The device has another super feature called the Al Engine that will collect and send the driver’s behavior data. Based on the user’s travelling history, the device will be able to detect when or where will he/she take a turn or when he/she will hit a break or accelerate. This feature will send a smart notification if there’s any trouble ahead in the way.

The tiny wonder device has an Atmel Smart Cortex-M3 MCU, a temperature sensor, a magnetometer, three-axis accelerometer, and has both RF connectivity and Bluetooth for pairing. The Fuel Book is compatible with iOS, Windows and Android smartphones and even works with Android Wear and Pebble smart watches. It is expected to hit the market November this year.

CarIQ, a Pune based startup has also developed an IoT device somewhat similar to Fuel Book.