Indian-Origin Researcher Tweaks Drones For Moving Targets

While drones are no longer an alien term to human beings but still the technology even after so many years of its discovery hasn't yet been able to realise its full potential.

Even now, landing a drone on a moving platform is a very difficult task both from a scientific and an engineering point of view. But since they're now being inducted in the defence sector and the mining sector in various countries, including India, there's almost no room for error.

In order to overcome this challenge, a team of researchers from University of Cincinnati has been teaching drones also know as unmanned aerial vehicles how to successfully land on moving targets. They are applying a concept called as the fuzzy logic to make this possible. Fuzzy logic can be best described as the kind of reasoning the common man employs subconsciously every day in his life.

While scientists care about accuracy and precision in almost everything they do in life, a majority of the common population gets through their everyday life by making inferences and generalities, or by using the fuzzy logic. The concept encourages people to not to think of the world in black and white and allows for nuance or degrees of truth.

The researchers are employing the fuzzy logic to program drones so that they can make better navigational decisions while in the air. The method has the potential of eventually making drones autonomous, which can lead to the technology finally landing in the hands of the common man rather than just big corporates and scientists. The research team includes Manish Kumar, an Indian-origin researcher who is also an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Kumar and his co-authors, Nicklas Stockton, a UC researcher, and Kelly Cohen, an aerospace engineering professor, recently presented their research and findings at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ “SciTech 2017 Conference” held in Texas.

According to Kumar, their method is the only way through which drones can have realistic, commercially viable uses. Presenting the paper, he also noted that the problem of drones having difficulty in navigating their ever-changing airspace is compounded when they have to make a landing on a moving platform such as a delivery van or even a US Navy warship pitching in high seas.

He added, in such scenarios, the drones have to land within a designated area with a small margin of error. This is where the fuzzy logic will help the drones to make good navigational decisions amid a sea of statistical noise. According to him, it’s called “genetic-fuzzy” because the system evolves over time and continuously discards the lesser solutions.

Kumar, Stockton and Cohen have even successfully used fuzzy logic in a simulation to show that it is an ideal system for navigating under dynamic conditions. Currently, Stockton, an engineering master’s student, is putting the concept of fuzzy logic to the test in experiments to land quadcopters on robots mounted with landing pads at UC’s UAV Multi-Agent System Research (MASTER) Lab.

Indian Scientists From IIT Develops Technology for Securing Internet of Things

The progress trajectory of the world of Internet of Things (IoT) hit a big roadblock last year when Mirai — a malware that caused one of the worst denial of service cyberattacks the world had witnessed in the last few years, took centerstage. This particular incident caused several people dissing the technology and its developers for not dedicating enough attention on the security of their products and the privacy of their users and thus in the process making several people vulnerable to theft of their personal/private information.

A while back, we even reported about how this whole discourse around IoT and security had tempted Andrew McGill, a reporter from The Atlantic newspaper to design and carry out an experiment to find out the current status of IoT security and how the result of the experiment shocked everyone in the IoT world and the real world completely.

His experiment involved him building a virtual Internet-connected toaster, and then putting it online and waiting to see how much time does it take for the hackers to attempt to breach it. And, what he found out wasn't something that even the IoT experts that he had spoken to while designing the experiment had predicted. He found out that hacking Internet of Things is actually a Child’s Play For Hackers as contrary to what he thought would take hackers a week to breach, took them only 41 minutes.

It is not that nothing is being done in the space to lift it from the dark dungeon that it has fallen into because of last year's Mirai controversy, but the process is a little slow. In fact, in the light of the current scenario around IoT, the 2010 founded Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group or the BITAG- an alliance formed by world technology giants Microsoft, Google, Verizon, Intel and a number of other players in the tech industry- has even laid out a set of guidelines so as to improve the security on Internet of Things devices.

While the world tech leaders only issued guidelines for IoT, a team of scientists at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur actually went ahead and successfully built 'Physically Unclonable Functions' (PUF) for securing unencrypted networks.

PUFs are basically fingerprint generator circuits for electronic objects which uniquely identify each object, and help in authenticating the commands sent to connected IoT devices. The receiving device have the responsibility of reading the command, verifying the authenticity of the sender and then operate accordingly. The PUF, which consumes very less power and is extremely light in weight, aims to ensure security protocol for device authentication, light-weight key exchange and secure communication.

While the research and the PUF is being highly appreciated worldwide, let's see if it is successful in helping the IoT win back the trust of its users and get back its secure tag.

Indian Hospitals Are Fast Adopting 3D Printed Body Parts For Second Lives

Earlier in the month, we reported how the field of 3D manufacturing in India is gearing up to have a golden period in the times ahead. And now, the country has finally entered the age of 3D printed body parts.

Recently, a team of doctors from Gurgaon's Medanta successfully performed a surgery on the failing spine of a woman and inserted a 3D printed titanium implant giving the 32-year-old teacher a completely new life.

Not only was the surgery successful, the teacher who is also a dancer and singer by passion was able to walk on her feet miraculously just four days after the heavy surgery. According to doctors, if the surgery would have involved traditional surgical techniques, the patient would have taken several months to walk.

Till last month, talking and walking, the two human bodily movements that human beings take for granted, were a herculean task for the patient. After the TB bug slowly consumed the second and third vertebra in her neck, it had slowly started collapsing. In addition to this, her spinal cord had also started getting compressed, resulting in her losing sensation on all her limbs. All this made her day-to-day life a very difficult one to survive.

This is when a team of 10 health specialists from Medanta came to her rescue and decided to deploy for the very first time in India a custom made ultra-modern 3D printed titanium implant to replace the two infected vertebra in her neck in a surgery that spanned over ten hours. A similar surgery has been attempted once last year in Australia and last to last year in China.

According to the team of specialists, the other option that they were considering was to use a piece of bone from the patient's own leg but that particular method would have kept her in the bed for more than 6 months after the surgery. But when they presented the patient with both the options, she courageously decided to go with the 3D one.

"We did the body part reconstruction with a 3D printed vertebra in a damaged spine of a patient who was getting quadriplegic. This was done for the first time in the country and probably for the third time in the world," said lead surgeon Dr V Anand Naik in a statement.

By making use of x-rays and high resolution Cat-scans, a virtual 3D computer model was prepared of the damaged part of the patient's spine. The next step involved designing a suitable replacement on the computer, which was then sent to a 3D printer in Bareilly, India where the titanium implant was specifically made for the patient layer by layer using lasers.

According to details made public by Medanta, the 3-cm-long specially designed medical metal cage was made with 154 grams of high-grade titanium and costed under one lakh rupees. Finally, this cage placed between the head and the torso of the patient relieving pressure on her spinal cord.

Dr Rahul Jain, lead designer of the 3D implant at Medanta said, "Actually it was quite difficult to design this implant because of the complex anatomy of the spine. Titanium implants are totally safe, as these are bio-compatible and it was also made sure that it would not impinge on the spinal cord."

The surgery can definitely be considered as a big step towards using innovation to help patients in India. According to experts, using regular implants can prove to be extremely challenging in some cases as the bones of the patient have to be manipulated in order to ensure that the implant fits perfect. But now, by making use of this 3D technology, the bone implant can be custom-made for the patient

Hyperloop Transportation in Talks With 5 Indian States' CM; To Invest $100 Million in India

Late last year, we reported that we could soon be seeing the hyperloop technology—a super-high speed pod-like vehicle, on the Indian soil. Back then, a top official from Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) had informed an Indian national daily that the company is currently seeking a nod from the Indian government to begin trials for their high-speed transportation technology in the country. And now comes the news that the US-based startup is in talks with five Indian states to build a high-speed travel network.

According to a recent statement given by HTT's chairman Bibop Gresta to PTI, he said that only does the company have five offers on the table from five Indian chief ministers, but they are also in talks with a corporate house for a local partnership and also an academic institution. He also informed that the company will be soon be raising $100 million in order to invest in the Indian subcontinent. The money will be raised exclusively for HTT's Indian project and from both international and domestic investors.

"We have five offers on the table from five chief ministers. We spoke to them and the one that will give us the land we will go and build. We have local partners and we are now raising $100 million and bringing another investment from abroad," said Gresta.

Founded in 2013, HTT is the first company to rise to the Hyperloop challenge. According to the startup's website, HTT has now become a global team focused on human-centric solutions that remove barriers to speed and efficiency in travel. The company leverages open innovation, technology, and a global community of passionate professionals to deliver the next breakthrough in transporation.



For the uninitiated, the Hyperloop system is actually a concept proposed by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk in the year 2012 wherein trains can travel at supersonic speeds up to 800mph (1,300km/h) using reduced pressure tubes. These Pressurised capsule pods also known as the train carriages will ride on an air cushion in steel tubes driven by linear induction motors and air compressors, which allows them to go faster than the trains that are currently in motion. This concept was originally conceptualised and prototyped by American inventor Alfred Beach in the 19th century.

Though Musk proposed the concept, he made clear that he is not interested in commercialising the technology by himself. Hence, now several startups are working on different methods to make their own version of the technology. On 9 May, 2016, HTT announced that it had licensed a new technology known as passive magnetic levitation to make Hyperloop work.

HTT's interest in India started when Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, invited the company to India during his U.S. visit in September last year. He also reportedly offered the company a big chunk of land in Pune, a city 118 kilometers away from Mumbai.

According to HTT, as far as they know the Indian government is only in touch with them for the Hyperloop system. Though the startup is a little upset and concerned with the confusion being created by its rival 'Hyperloop One’ in the country.

Hyperloop One is reportedly planning to host a seminar in the national capital this week in its effort to develop base in the second largesse population in the world.

“They (officials) are talking only with us, until now. Their (HO) company is doing an event on 27th. They are confusing a little bit. That confuses the brand Hyperloop. The funny thing is that they convinced the rail minister to go there,” Gresta said to PTI.

So far, HTT has invested a whopping $32 million in the project. It is already in various stages of implementation in UAE, Slovakia and the US.

According to Gresta, the company's action plan for India is to first build a 5-8 km track as part of its feasibility study.

Talking about the contributions of India in developing the HTT Hyperloop technology, Gresta shared that about 30 of the 600 people who contributed to the project are Indians and the company is also looking forward to having an office on the Indian soil and exploring the lucrative opportunity that the company presents. He concluded, “India is a great opportunity right now, and should embrace it. I will do it if I was a wise politician. I am passionate about India because it can be one of the first countries."

For the time being, it seems, HTT has an upper hand over Hyperloop One in making the dream of Hyperloop come true for Indians.

PayTM Offering Jobs To Laid-Off Employees of Snapdeal and Stayzilla

Delhi NCR-based payment and commerce company Paytm has turned into a knight in shining armour for hundreds of people in the Indian e-commerce sector who are untimely being laid off by their respective employers.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm's founder and CEO recently took to Twitter and wrote:

Hello, Tech/Product ppl in Delhi NCR, feeling heat of business restructuring?
We welcome you @Paytm and @PaytmMall with open arms.

— Vijay Shekhar (@vijayshekhar) February 24, 2017

It is important to note here that the Indian startup sector received two shocking news last week. While Softbank-backed e-commerce biggie Snapdeal announced that it is planning to hand out pink slips to 500-600 of its employees; on the other hand, Stayzilla, which claimed to be the largest platform (website and app) for verified homestays and alternate stays in India, decided to shut down its shop completely.

According to Snapdeal, which is India’s third largest e-commerce company, it was laying off some of its staff in order to “rationalize” its workforce as it aims to “become India’s first profitable e-commerce company in two years.

Snapdeal's co-founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, who founded the company in 2010 have also decided to take a 100% salary cut in these troubling times and dedicate their whole time in building the brand up. In an email that they both wrote to their staff last week, they admitted that they have made some mistakes in the past which have to be corrected now and expressed extreme disappointment over employees who are being let go in order to focus only on core functions.

The e-commerce company which is facing tougher competition in the sector from global giant Amazon has been facing difficulty in raising fresh capital. This is why they have decided on stopping all of their non-core activities, reducing costs drastically and cutting down staff strength to turn profitable.

Similarly, Chennai-based Stayzilla had been looking for fresh funding for quite some months, but the overall funding squeeze prevalent in the startup industry kept digging big holes in the startup's pockets and ultimately forced it to shut down.

According to a statement given by Stayzilla CEO and co-founder Yogendra Vasupal, they have decided to bring a complete halt to the operations of Stayzilla in its current form, and are currently looking to reboot it with a different business model.

While Snapdeal and Stayzilla are facing tough times, Paytm is having the time of its life since the Indian government's demonetisation announcement late last year.

The mobile wallet business has been the biggest gainer of the Indian government's surprise demonetisation move sprung on its citizens on the night of 8th October, 2016. The drive, which ended up sucking out 86% of the country's currency in circulation, resulted in a temporary cash crunch situation, which ultimately led to people turning to digital wallets to satiate their cash hunger. Paytm is currently leading the space with over a whopping 160 million users.

How A Startup's ESOP Made Its Peon A Millionaire

Shyam Kumar's story is the quintessential rags to riches story. From a 10×10 room in a slum in Mumbai suburbs to a 1 BHK rented flat in Mumbai. From earning a salary of rupees 8000 per month to 5 million, Kumar couldn't have ever imaged that his loyalty towards his employer of seven years would earn him such fortunes.

Kumar is a 42-yr-old peon working in Mumbai-based mobile wallet startup Citrus Pay since its inception in the year 2010. Last year, the startup struck gold when it was sold to PayU, the payments subsidiary of South Africa’s Naspers, making millionaires out of many of its employees. Kumar was one of these 15 employees.

A school-dropout, Kumar couldn't even land a steady job before he joined Citrus Pay. His driver brother's banker boss who was a close friend of Citrus Pay founder Jitendra Gupta helped Kumar in landing the job as a peon. Back then, Gupta was just into the initial stages of setting up the startup and Kumar was one of the first employee to be signed up for the company's employee stock ownership plan [ESOP]. Even though Kumar didn't fully understand what this meant, but he did grasp that this might be beneficial for him in the future.

For the uninitiated, an ESOP is a qualified defined-contribution employee benefit (ERISA) plan designed to invest primarily in the stock of the sponsoring employer. According to investopedia, ESOPs are "qualified" in the sense that the ESOP's sponsoring company, the selling shareholder and participants receive various tax benefits. ESOPs are often used as a corporate finance strategy and as means to align employees' interest with those of the company's shareholders.

When Citruspay got acquired last year, its CEO personally called Kumar and shared the news of him getting 5 million for his stake in the company. At that time, neither Kumar nor his wife could believe the news. But when Rs 2.6 million of the 5 million appeared in Kumar’s bank account on Nov. 30, that is when it finally sink in.

Currently, Kumar is planning to buy a new house in outskirts of Mumbai. He also plans to take his family for a much-deserved vacation time very soon, preferably to Goa.

This VR Startup Facebook Acquired for $2 Billion is Facing Complete Shutdown

Oculus, a $2 billion acquisition that Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook made almost three years ago, has landed the global giant in a huge mess now. A while ago, popular video game publisher ZeniMax, which is best known in the market as the owner of Fallout and Skyrim developer Bethesda Softworks, filed a lawsuit against Oculus accusing it of using copyrighted ZeniMax technology without permission.

In the lawsuit, ZeniMax had accused that Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of the company, stole trade secrets from ZeniMax to build the company’s signature product, the Oculus Rift. It also accused video game design legend and former employee, John Carmack, of stealing trade secrets. ZeniMax argued in the court that Luckey didn't even have the skills and brains to design the Rift. The lawsuit was dragged on for quite a bit with shocking revelations and accusations being made by both the companies against each other. At one point, even Mark Zuckerberg was dragged into the case. One of the most shocking turning point in the case came when Carmack admitted to stealing code and documents from ZeniMax on his way out of the company.

Towards the end, the jury ruled that even though Oculus didn’t steal any trade secrets but its founders had surely violated a non-disclosure agreement and also was guilty of “false designation." On the whole, Oculus is on the hook for a whopping $300 million, Luckey for $50 million, and co-founder Brendan Iribe is on the hook for $150 million.

Experts claim that even though the amounts of this judgement are most likely to be reduced on appeal, but trouble is still not over for Oculus.

ZeniMax is now seeking an injunction to block sales of any product that make uses of their technology. It is important to note here that the technology has already been widely distributed to developers who were working on several games for Oculus products, and notably the most popular Oculus Rift. If and when the injunction is granted by the court, it will result in limiting the games available for the Rift to only a few, which could really burn a huge hole in the sales of a company whose sales figure are already on a downwards trend.

Now the main question is, whether Oculus will be able to survive the $500 million judgment and the injunction if it is granted. The word in the market is that ZeniMax is putting its pressure on forcing a settlement and ending Oculus and its founders appeal process as early as possible. Whatever may be the case, the road ahead for Oculus doesn't look so smooth either way.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [20- 25 February]

The world of tech had another busy week. So, if you ended up missing out on the news; we have got you covered. Here's a list of top 10 things in tech that happened this week.

1) India’s ‘Internet of Things’ Market Will Grow To $9 billion By 2020

According to recent findings made by consultancy firm Deloitte in its TMT Predictions 2017, the number of units under Internet of Things (IoT) in India is expected to exponentially increase to 1.9 billion units by 2020 or about $9 billion. The Indian subcontinent, which has come to acquire the status of a growing IoT hub, is expected to see a 7 times increase, from just $1.3 billion in 2016 to $9 billion by 2020. The report estimates the current number of such devices in the country to be around 60 million.

The report also stated that going forward IoT solution deployment for digital utilities or smart cities and in the transport, manufacturing, logistics and automotive industries would drive in the demand for industrial IoT applications.

2) India Can Now Develop Its Own Space Station

While Indians were still basking in the glory of ISRO’s magnificent achievement of successfully launching 104 satellites on a single mission, ISRO’s chairman A S Kiran Kumar has given the citizens another reason to smile. In a recent statement given by Kumar, he said that India is capable of developing a space station of its own, but it needs ambitious planning and a long-term approach to achieve the same.

According to him, since there’s still a lot of talk and uncertainty about the immediate benefits of a manned space mission, that’s why India hasn’t be able to make up its mind about investing in a space station yet. Stressing on the phrase “the sooner the better,” Kumar also added that even though the country is capable of setting up a space station , it still requires a long-term thinking for making this possible.

3) IBM, Visa Team up To Make IoT Devices PoS and Support Secured Payments

Global technology and innovation company IBM and global payments technology company Visa Inc. have recently joined hands on a common mission. Together, the companies want every Internet-connected device on the planet to become its own point of sale (PoS). The giants aim to achieve the same through Visa’s token technology and IBM’s Watson for IoT platform.

According to experts, the partnership could work out something like this. Visa would put its token sharing architecture to use and tie a device to IBM’s cloud infrastructure. While the Token Service will give out information from the payment card a unique digital ID, IBM’s IoT cloud, on the other hand, would take the responsibility of handling the tokens and then connecting them to different devices.

4) Microsoft Launches Project Sangam To Help Low-Skill Job Seekers

Global tech giant Microsoft’s Indian born CEO Satya Nadella unveiled “Project Sangam” to the world yesterday. Aimed at pushing the Indian government’s much ambitious ‘Skill India’ initiative, the program will not only help the government in training people and instilling in them employable skills but also help them in getting suitable jobs via professional networking website LinkedIn.

According to the details shared by Microsoft, “Project Sangam” will be functioning as an open ecosystem where trainers will be easily able pour their well-researched content into the project and then the people in need can take the training right from “Sangam” and apply for jobs. The program will commence from the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Sangam is the first project on Cloud that will see Microsoft and LinkedIn working together to help the unemployed masses of the Indian subcontinent.

5) Google (Alphabet) Sues Uber For Self Driving Car Tech Theft

Google's self-driving car company Waymo has sued Uber Technologies and its autonomous trucking subsidiary Otto over allegations of stealing its confidential and proprietary sensor technology.

Waymo has accused Uber and Otto, which was acquired by the popular ride services giant in August, with the theft of confidential information on Waymo’s LiDAR sensor technology and then using the technology to pace the speed of its own autonomous technology.

The complaint filed in the Northern District of California clearly states Waymo saying, “Uber’s LiDAR technology is actually Waymo’s LiDAR technology.” In the complaint, Waymo seeks an unspecified amount in damages and a court order that prevents Uber and Otto from using its proprietary information.

6) India’s Special Force Nabs Grenade-Dropping Drone and ‘Dogo Robot’

The National Security Guard (NSG), which is an Indian special forces unit under Ministry of Home Affairs, has been provided with the latest weaponry available including a ‘dogo robot’ armed with remote pistol, a 3D fly-on-the-wall radar to see through a 20-m-thick wall and a grenade-dropping drone in order to carry out its lethal counter-terror operations with a punch of stealth.

The federal contingency force decided to induct some of the smartest gadgets and arms being used by SWAT teams and Special Forces all over the world based on the experiences it has had in preventing terror attacks and hostage situations in closed urban spaces.

7) Mahindra Group Ties-up With IBM To Develop Blockchain Based Supply Chain Apps

Mahindra Group, one of India’s largest diversified multinational group of companies and IBM, the global technology and innovation company headquartered in Armonk, NY have recently entered into a partnership to develop blockchain-based supply chain applications.

The project, a first of its kind in India outside of the traditional banking domain, aims to step up transparency and security between supplier-to-manufacturer trade through a permissioned distributed ledger.

The partnership will see both the firms working together on a prototype tool for tracking supply chain transactions via blockchain. The tool will enable all parties involved in the transaction to act on the same shared ledger, with each party updating only their part of the process, ensuring trust, transparency, efficiency and consistency, hence safeguarding the sensitive information in the process.

8) Meet These 4 New VR and AR Projects Via Samsung’s C-Lab Incubator

Global electronics giant Samsung recently unveiled to the world four new virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) projects that are currently being grown at its 2012 launched in-house Creative Lab (C-Lab).

Samsung announced that it will be showcasing four innovative C-Lab projects, delivering a broad spectrum of experiences via Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), two of the most significant current technology trends, at the Mobile World Congress, which is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, organised by the GSMA and held in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona.

The products on display will include a smart aid for visually impaired people called Relúmĭno, a remote-control VR/AR solution that enables consumers to use devices such as smartphones and PCs without a monitor named Monitorless, a VR home furnishing solution named VuildUs and a 360-degree travel experience platform named traVRer.

9) This Breakthrough Tech Invention Let You Ride Bike Indoors

The tech sector has worked hard to make indoor exercising as much fun as possible by giving birth to a trend known as the ‘gamification’ of cycling. California-based Zwift is an important player in this segment.

Founded in 2014, Zwift has designed a digital training software that creates a virtual universe in which riders from all over the world can train together in digital harmony. Co-founded by four individuals, Eric Min, Alarik Myrin, Scott Barger and Jon Mayfield, Zwift is quickly becoming a byword for indoor cycling all around the world.

Zwift allows its subscribers to ride in its virtual world, which it has named Watopia, as well as on online recreations of the RideLondon and 2015 Richmond World Championship courses. The riders are provided with an option of joining group rides and competing with cyclists from more than 150 countries or creating their own training sessions and plans. Zwift membership costs £8 per month.

10) Nokia’s WING will Allow IoT Networks To Cover Whole Planet

At the Mobile World Congress slated to be held in Barcelona from 27 February to 2 March 2017, Finnish multinational communications and information technology company Nokia is gearing to showcase its worldwide IoT network grid called the ‘WING.’

Reportedly, WING is a virtual global infrastructure that might include multiple private and carrier networks and satellite systems, based on what an enterprise is looking to connect and how it is planning to make use of the data collected. It is basically a managed service that aims to simplify global IoT connectivity by spanning technologies and borders. WING will be able to give enterprises working in domains like transport, safety, utilities and health complete access to a global IoT connectivity grid with subscription and device management, security and analytics all inclusive.

This Breakthrough Tech Invention Let You Ride Bike Indoors

In this monotonous fast-paced lives that we live nowadays, we often get time to go to the gym. This is the very reason that a lot of health conscious people have now started exercising indoors in order to save sometime and burn out some calories at the same time.

While exercising indoors might be time saving, but after a certain point of time it also ends up becoming boring and monotonous. This is where technology comes to our rescue. The tech sector has worked hard to make indoor exercising as much fun as it could be made possible by giving birth to a trend known as the ‘gamification’ of cycling. California-based Zwift is an important player in this segment.

Founded in 2014, Zwift has designed a digital training software that creates a virtual universe in which riders from all over the world can train together in digital harmony. Though the company faces stiff competition from other players in the segment like SufferFest, Peloton and TrainerRoad, but Zwift has been successful in holding a significant ground in the market as it adds layers of social gaming to the experience. This is the reason that till date about 250,000 people have availed the company's $10-a-month service and given indoor cycling a magnificent makeover. The company has raised a total of $45 million since inception.



Co-founded by four individuals, Eric Min, Alarik Myrin, Scott Barger and Jon Mayfield, Zwift is quickly becoming a byword for indoor cycling all around the world.

Zwift allows its subscribers to ride in its virtual world, which it has named Watopia, as well as on online recreations of the RideLondon and 2015 Richmond World Championship courses. The riders are provided with an option of joining group rides and competing with cyclists from more than 150 countries or creating their own training sessions and plans. Zwift membership costs £8 per month.



According to a Zwift official, community is at the heart of Zwift. It aims to promote a sense of shared experience by the game’s functionality and it is propagating the same through any number of social media channels, mainly Facebook. There are over 100 Zwift-centred groups on Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook.

Over the last few months, Zwift had been occasionally teasing the world about its ambition of expanding its cycling focused platform to other interests as well. One of those being running. Time and again they would tweet various screenshots of people running on Zwift and even spoke about it at a couple of Zwift events. And finally, the platform's latest version released earlier this year includes unofficial support for running on PC and Mac platforms. It is important to note that this is not an officially supported feature, since it is still pre-beta and available only as an Easter Egg for those who know where to find it. With the pre-beta version already here, we're sure that the feature would see an official release in the next few months.

Cycling is a great option for taking pressure off your joints. For 10 best exercise bikes reviews - hover here for more info

Meet These 4 New VR and AR Projects Via Samsung's C-Lab Incubator

Global electronics giant Samsung recently unveiled to the world four new virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) projects that are currently being grown at its 2012 launched in-house Creative Lab (C-Lab).

For the uninitiated, Samsung's C-Lab is a startup business program that aims at encouraging a creative corporate culture and nurture innovative ideas from Samsung employees. The program supports the development of ideas from all areas of the business.

While the program might have been launched back in 2012, but it was only last year that the world got to see the real talent of C-Lab at CES 2016 when Samsung showcased the first batch of the products from the lab graduates. And now, following with the tradition, the global electronics giant has announced that it will be showcasing four innovative C-Lab projects, delivering a broad spectrum of experiences via Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), two of the most significant current technology trends, at the Mobile World Congress, which is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, organised by the GSMA and held in the Mobile World Capital Barcelona. The 2017 edition of the Congress is slated to be held next week from 27 February to 2 March 2017 in Barcelona.

Relúmĭno

A visual aid application that works incorporated with Gear VR for near blind and visually impaired people and enables them to watch TV and read books with better clarity than ever possible before. Relúmĭno functions as a mobile application which when inserted into the Samsung Gear VR will enhance visuals and text so that they can be enjoyed by the user in better quality.

According to Samsung, Relúmĭno's technology also comes with the ability of remapping the blind spots by displacing images and using an Amlser grid chart to correct distorted images caused by metamorphopsia. It will enable visually challenged people to watch television sans the currently available expensive visual aids in the market.

traVRer

A 360-degree video platform, traVRer gives its users an opportunity to experience realistic virtual travel before and after a real-life trip. Using the platform, the users get to visit famous places and landmarks all around the world in addition with the mood, noises and events captured. It also gives the users a chance to seamlessly switch between different videos to go in different directions or see a particular place at a specific time of day – all without the need of navigating menus for alternative video options.

Monitorless

A remote-control VR/AR solution, Monitorless lets its users access their computers and smartphones without a physical monitor. Instead, it uses a special pair of glasses that resembles regular sunglasses. These glasses are used to view content from other devices and can be used for both AR and VR functionality because of the innovative electro chromic glass featured on the glasses. The product addresses the fact that the world still doesn't have enough AR and VR content and also ends up giving people the power to play high-capacity PC games on a mobile device.

VuildUs

A home interior and furnishing solution, VuildUs enables its users to see how a new piece of furniture would look like when ready and whether or not it will fit in the room before the user making the final purchase.

Consisting of a 360-degree depth camera and a mobile app for VR compatible devices, VuildUs users are required to firstly connect both the devices and scan their house using the camera. The data collected is then put to use to build a VR version of the user’s house which the user can then enter wearing a VR headset. They will be able to view items of furniture in 3D, and buy it on the spot if they think it is apt for the room. The solution does away with the cumbersome work of measuring space before buying furniture as it enables them to see whether it would fit in a space or not in real time.

Google (Alphabet) Sues Uber For Self Driving Car Tech Theft

Late last year, we had reported about how after seven long years of teasing around about its ambitious self-driving car project, tech giant Google had finally announced its own self-driving car company, Waymo. And now, just after three months of being launched, the company has landed itself in its first big controversy. 

Waymo has sued Uber Technologies and its autonomous trucking subsidiary Otto over allegations of stealing its confidential and proprietary sensor technology.

Launched in May last year, Otto has been making headlines since its launch because of Anthony Levandowski, one of its co-founders. A former executive on Google's self-driving project, Levandowski was one of the many executives who ended up abandoning the project midway when the pressure of churning out a cutting edge technology with a mandate to turn a profit crossed the rooftop.

It is important to note here that Waymo functions within Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which came into existence in 2015 with an objective of overseeing the company’s far-flung projects that have no relation with Google’s core business of online search and advertising. Since 2014, those far-flung projects have reportedly lost a whopping $8 billion, with a major chunk of it going into self-driving cars research. This was the reason that had led Google to tighten the grip on its Waymo project executives.

Waymo has accused Uber and Otto, which was acquired by the popular ride services giant in August, with the theft of confidential information on Waymo's LiDAR sensor technology and then using the technology to pace the speed of its own autonomous technology. According to the lawsuit filed by Waymo, Uber acquired Otto in a whopping $680 million deal.

The complaint filed in the Northern District of California clearly states Waymo saying, "Uber's LiDAR technology is actually Waymo's LiDAR technology."

In the complaint, Waymo seeks an unspecified amount in damages and a court order that prevents Uber and Otto from using its proprietary information.

In a statement issued by the ride services giant in response to the lawsuit controversy, Uber said that it is taking the allegations made by Waymo against Otto and Uber employees quite seriously and they will be reviewing the matter carefully.

The LiDAR technology, makes use of light pulses reflected off objects to gauge their position on or near the road, is considered as a very important part of autonomous driving systems. While working on the autonomous driving technology for last seven years, Google realised that the previous systems have been extremely expensive. This is when it decided to design one which is over 90 per cent cheaper, and gave birth to its very own LiDAR technology. According to Waymo, its LiDAR technology is among the company's "most valuable assets."

Waymo's complaint states before resigning from Google in January 2016, Levandowski had downloaded over 14,000 confidential files, including LiDAR circuit board designs. This very act of his gave Uber and Otto the leverage to put their self-driving technology ok fast-track. Google's Waymo has accused its former employee of then attempting to "erase any forensic fingerprints" of his act by intentionally reformatting his laptop.

"While Waymo developed its custom LiDAR systems with sustained effort over many years, defendants leveraged stolen information to shortcut the process and purportedly build a comparable LiDAR system in only nine months," the complaint filed by Waymo reads.

According to Waymo, it learned about this usage of its trade secrets and patent infringement by Uber and Otto after it received an email from a component vendor that included a design of Uber's LiDAR circuit board. Upon observance, it noted that the design had a "striking resemblance" to Waymo's LiDAR circuit board design. Waymo was apparently inadvertently copied on the said email.

[Top Image: Cnet]

Finally After A Year of Announcing, Govt Commits Rs 110 crore from 10,000 Crore Startup Fund

In a major relief to the Indian startup Industry, the Small Industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has finally pledged Rs 110 crore from the 2016 announced Rs 10,000-crore ‘fund of funds’ for startups, to four venture capital funds, namely Orios Venture Partners Fund II, Kae Capital, and two little known funds, Saha Trust and Kitven Fund III.

The selected four are currently trying to raise over Rs 1300 crore, to invest in India-born startups. Out of the 110 crores committed by SIDBI, 50 crore have been given to Orios Venture Partners Fund II, 45 crore to Kae Capital, 10 crore to Saha Trust and 5 crore to Kitven Fund III. Only 5.66 crore of the 110 crore amount has been invested in startups till date.

Orios Venture and Kae Capital are Mumbai-based Venture Capital funds being headed by Rehan Yar Khan and Sasha Mirchandani, respectively. Kitven Fund is a fund run by the Karnataka government aimed at promoting IT startups, Saha Trust on the other hand is a venture capital fund for women centric businesses that are being run by women. Currently, Saha Trust is targeting a corpus of Rs 65 crore and Kitven has a target of Rs 50 crore.

The Rs 10,000 crore startup fund has been allocated to the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) by the Reserve Bank of India. The capital has to be invested in Indian startups through a way of providing them soft loans, equity and other risk capital.

Designed to stimulate the growth of the practically non-existent domestic venture capital industry, the Rs 10,000 crore ‘fund of funds’ is the part of January 16, 2016 announced Start-Up India programme.

It is important to note that the Rs.10,000 crore 'fund of funds' is just a reiteration, rather a repackaging of the July 2014 budget proposal by Finance minister Arun Jaitley where he set aside Rs.10,000 crore for startups. The 'fund of funds' just provides us a little clarity on how it will be structured and managed. Earlier, we had reported that the much ambitious Rs 10,000 crore startup fund announced by the Modi government in financial budget of year 2014 was still lying unused as no one is clear which government department is responsible for managing the scheme.

Though announced on January 16, 2016, the Rs 10,000 crore ‘fund of funds’ was established only on June 22, 2016. This is when SIDBI took the responsibility of managing the funds. The funds were to be invested in SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). These AIFs were to then further invest in India-born startups.

Though Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India also committed to be a co-contributor to the ‘fund of funds,' it hasn't yet contributed any money to the fund.

According to a statement given by Mohandas Pai, who is a member of the six-member committee that selects AIFs, “The fund of funds has sanctioned more than 2000 crore. The disbursements are around 200 crore as of date. It is typical in a fund of fund structure to start like this and go up the J curve."

Under the original action plan, the ‘fund of funds’ was only supposed to provide support to startups operating in education, manufacturing, health and agriculture domains. But, it was finally concluded that the funding through the AIFs would not be just restricted to the startups that the commerce ministry recognises for other benefits. Hence, now the AIFs are allowed to invest in startups functioning in the other domains as well.

The AIFs were selected by SIDBI based on a number of criteria, with the primary one being that the selected ones will have to would to invest more than 50% of the corpus allocated to them in SMBs.

India's Largest Startup For 'Stays' Shuts Down

In one of the most shocking developments of 2017 for the Indian startup industry, Stayzilla, which claimed to be the largest platform (website and app) for verified homestays and alternate stays in India, has decided to shut down its shop abruptly.

While Stayzilla's decision to shutdown suddenly might seem abrupt, but it isn't totally abrupt when seriously pondered upon. A recently published report by Xeler8 revealed that in India nearly one in two startups ends up saying bye-bye sooner than later.

Founded in the year 2010, by Yogendra Vasupal with his wife Rupal Yogendra and his friend Sachit Singhi, Stayzilla was born out of their passion for traveling. The website, which once boosted of having 55,000 stay options in close to 1,000 towns across the country, now shows "sold out” properties tag for any date in March and beyond. While you can very much make bookings for the month of February, but beyond that the website is just blurting out "sold out” with n number of criteria applied.

Since nowadays social media is a startup's communication mode with its customers, we decided to vet Stayzilla's Facebook and Twitter accounts to find out if there's something wrong with the website; what we discovered only added to our suspicion. While Stayzilla’s Facebook page, which normally had daily postings, doesn't show any new posts from February 16 onwards, its Twitter account, on the other hand has now been made private with the last tweet being sent out on February 14.

Stayzilla CEO and co-founder Yogendra Vasupal decided to put all the rumours going around in the industry to rest by writing a blogpost. He said, "I would like to announce today that we would be bringing to a halt the operations of Stayzilla in its current form, and looking to reboot it with a different business model. This has been one of the toughest decisions that I have taken so far but it is the right thing to do."

So, what went wrong?

It is not that Stayzilla is the only homestay and alternate stays startup that wasn't having a good time in the longest time, the budget accommodation sector on the whole hasn't been performing well for quite sometime now, for example, Oyo, which is the highest funded of them, had financial losses running to the tune of US$52.5 million while it made a revenue of just US$2 million in financial year 2015-16. While in comparison to Oyo, Inasra Technologies, the parent company of Stayzilla, took a hit of just US$14 million in the same period with a revenue of US$2 million.

It is important to note that while Oyo with US$188 million in funding, has more cash in the bank to burn through; Stayzilla's funding on the other hand, comes out at less than a fifth of Oyo’s.

Starting its journey in 2010, Stayzilla had initially been successful in landing a whopping US$500,000 in funding from the Indian Angel Network. This was followed by a series A round of an undisclosed amount in the year 2013. In 2015, the startup raised a whopping amount of US$20 million and US$13 million in series B and C rounds from Matrix Partners and Nexus Ventures.

The startup had been looking for fresh funding for quite some months, but the overall funding squeeze prevalent in the startup industry from last year is continuing its run this year as well. With the fundings drying up, a number of startups are being forced to shutdown. Last year, we listed 20 Indian Startups That Died Young in 2016. And with Stayzilla's surprise shutdown, I think we have found ourselves the first big startup for the 2017 edition of the list.

The entry of cash-rich and popular global unicorn Airbnb in the Indian subcontinent only made matters worse for the homegrown Stayzilla. The startup, which became profitable last year, took a large piece of the pie in the budget accommodation market, leaving very less for others. Though Stayzilla had held its position in the alternative accommodation space, but without more funding, it wasn't just feasible for the startup to sustain such a large network spread across the country.

India's 3 Healthcare Startups Working for IoT Consumers in India

While a lot has been already said and done in the Internet of Things space, unfortunately, the common man still associates IoT with luxury. But fortunately, this isn't the real picture. The technology actually has a great potential in sectors like healthcare and energy, especially in a country like India where majority of good hospitals are located in the urban areas. In order for IoT to become mass adopted the common man i.e. consumers will have to see the real value in them.

According to data made available by the Medical Council of India, the doctor-patient ratio in the country currently stands around 1:1,674 against the World Health Organisation (WHO) norm of 1:1,000 . This is exactly where IoT is acting as a leveler and filling the gap. Late last year, we had reported that the coming years would see Smart Health Monitoring emerging as one of the most important applications of IoT in India.

Currently, healthcare delivery in the Indian subcontinent happens when the patients physically visit the doctors for treatment. But, IoT has the capability of bringing the treatment to right to the door step of the patients'.

For the uninitiated, the term 'IoT' was first coined in the year 1985 by Peter T. Lewis in a speech given at the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). It represents a network of physical objects that are embedded with internet connectivity enabling them to collect and exchange information.

Here's a list of 3 innovative Healthcare Startups Working for IoT Consumers in India:

Name: Forus Health
Location: Bengaluru
Founders: Chandrasekhar K

The medical technology startup was founded in the year 2010 by a group of engineers with a goal to eradicate avoidable blindness in India. There are 40 million people who are blind globally, and 15 million of them live in India. According to Forus Health, the high incidence of blindness in India is mostly due to limited access to eye care facilities in the country, high cost of treatment/surgery and lack of awareness.

Over the period of last seven years, the startup has been successful in designing and developing several affordable technology solutions to increase access and affordability of eye care. It's very first product 3nethra classic is a compact and portable non-mydriatic fundus camera used for capturing digital images of the posterior (retina) and anterior (cornea) segments of the eye. The device is used for identifying common eye problems such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, ARMD, cataract etc. The device is also integrated to a cloud based telemedicine platform which enables remote diagnosis.

Till date, 3nethra has successfully helped more than 300,000 remote reading and reporting, and reached around 150 locations. The startup's aims to cover 3000 locations in a couple of years.

Name: Cardiac Design Labs
Location: Bengaluru
Founders: Anand Madanagopal

A startup focused on designing and developing state-of-the-art, next generation medical products, Cardiac Design Labs helps in bringing advanced diagnostics beyond large hospitals.

The startup strongly believes that Innovation is a hybrid of conventional wisdom and the evolving intellect. It has applied this belief in design solutions that address the future needs of customers even better than they could have imagined. Its wearable device called MIRCaM (Mobile Intelligent Remote Cardiac Monitor) is capable of providing real time advanced cardiac diagnosis and monitoring even in remote areas. MIRCaM comes out much cheaper on the pocket when compared to advanced tests for detecting heart diseases and problems in larger settings.

Name: Spectral Insights
Location: Bengaluru
Founders: Prasanth Perugupalli, Sanjay Palsamudram, Mohan Perugupalli

Incorporated on 13 May 2016, Spectral Insights aims to bring innovative and affordable hyperspectral and multispectral imaging systems to address challenges in real world applications and create business opportunities for its customers.

The company has successfully built an affordable automated microscope that makes digital images which are available to pathologists on a computer screen, either locally or over the Cloud. In addition to this, it has also builds various tools to help pathologists to make rapid and informed diagnosis, in order to increase productivity, decrease their work pressure and raise the quality of work. It is important to note that senior-level pathologists in India are way short in numbers to serve the 120,000+ pathology labs across the country, which leads to unexceptionally high work pressure on them.

Via @Forbes

Microsoft Launches Project Sangam To Help Low-Skill Job Seekers

Global tech giant Microsoft's Indian born CEO Satya Nadella unveiled "Project Sangam” to the world yesterday. Aimed at pushing the Indian government's much ambitious 'Skill India’ initiative, the program will not only help the government in training people and instilling in them employable skills but also help them in getting suitable jobs.

The program, which will help Indians in getting jobs via professional networking website LinkedIn, will commence from the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Microsoft shook the tech world last year when it bought popular professional networking platform LinkedIn for a whopping $26.2 billion price tag. Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn is its biggest purchase till date. Industry experts pegged the deal as one of the biggest tech deals in the industry so far, only eclipsed by the purchase of EMC by Dell and Compaq by HP. In fact, the LinkedIn acquisition even left behind the much talked about 19 billion WhatsApp acquisition deal by Facebook a few years back.

According to the details shared by Microsoft, "Project Sangam” will be functioning as an open ecosystem where trainers will be easily able pour their well-researched content into the project and then the people in need can take the training right from “Sangam” and apply for jobs.

As and when the training is completed, the US-headquartered tech giant will update the profiles of the now skilled workers on LinkedIn so that employers can easily find them and hire them. The candidates will be provided job options according to their skills set.

Sangam is the first project on Cloud that will see Microsoft and LinkedIn working together to help the unemployed masses of the Indian subcontinent.

Speaking at the "Future Decoded” event in Mumbai, Nadella was joined by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The “Future Decoded” event is Microsoft’s two-day flagship technology and business conference. It is a platform that brings together 1,500 business and government decision-makers to engage in conversations on how technology will help in transforming all aspects of human life.

Microsoft will be putting the Indian government's much-publicised Aadhaar cards into use for enrolling people into the program.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu lauded Microsoft's efforts towards the unemployed Indian population. He also added, that by infusing the right ideas with right technology, Andhra Pradesh has what it takes to become the next Silicon Valley.

Naidu is hopeful that becoming a Cloud-first state will help the Andhra Pradesh government in tackling their resources better. He also said, "With the technology revolution, I aim to put my state among the top three states by 2022."

Taking the podium at the event, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis identified Cloud computing as a game changer technology. He also said that he strongly believes that Big Data analytics can be used by the government's to put their resources to best use. Fadnavis even took a moment to thank Microsoft for putting in one the biggest data centres in Maharashtra and shared that they have already started migrating to the Cloud. He also noted that Cloud computing and Big Data analytics can significantly help in gaining transparency in governance.

In addition to the Sangam project, the event also saw Nadella also announcing “Skype Lite”, an exclusive “Made for India” app that aims at providing a seamless experience in messaging, audio and video calling even at lower bandwidths.

The app, which supports several Indian languages including Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, is only available for Android devices. It has been especially designed to save data.

According to Nadella, Microsoft plans to bring Aadhaar integration to the app by June this year. With the Aadhaar integration in place, the users will be easily able to authenticate the identity of unknown callers in situations where identification verification is required.

Nadella also launched three other products — LinkedIn Lite, Starter Pack and Placements. While LinkedIn Lite is a tool that aims to help people connect from low-connectivity zones in the country. LinkedIn Placements, on the other hand, is an app meant for college graduates.

The Future Decoded event also saw Nadella also talking about the digital transformation brought in by Microsoft's Azure Cloud in startups, retail, auto, and banking sectors. We recently reported about Microsoft announcing a "strategic partnership” with India's Flipkart that will entail the ecommerce biggie adopting Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

In addition to this, he also talked about how Indian biggies Tata Motors and State Bank of India had realised the power of the Cloud and moved to the Cloud-first infrastructure in recent times. We recently reported how Tata Motors and Microsoft have signed an agreement that will allow Tata Motors to make use of connected car technologies from Microsoft in order to gift the Indian masses advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities in their cars. As a part of the deal, Tata Motors is specifically looking forward to exploring Microsoft Azure global hyper-scale cloud platform as it will make Tata Motors capable of providing the Indian consumers a smarter, safer and more personalised driving experience than the one which it is currently being available to deliver.

IBM, Visa Team up To Make IoT Devices PoS and Support Secured Payments

Global technology and innovation company IBM and global payments technology company Visa Inc. have recently joined hands on a common mission. Together, the companies want every Internet-connected device on the planet to become its own point of sale (PoS). The giants aim to achieve the same through Visa’s token technology and IBM’s Watson for IoT platform.

By completely transforming the way we live, work and play, Internet of Things (IoT) has made life easier for all of us. Today, IoT has been able to become a reality due to the convergence of several technologies. When IoT data is combined with cognitive computing, businesses are able to extract valuable insights to improve virtually every aspect of their operations and enable innovative, new business models.

According to McKinsey & Company's June 2015 report "Unlocking the potential of the Internet of Things," by 2025, data from connected devices will yield insights driving potential economic value of as much as USD 11 trillion.

By connecting consumers, businesses, banks and governments in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, Visa is currently powering about a whopping 60 percent of the world’s payments. On the other hand, IBM's Watson IoT Platform has been designed to simplify cognitive IoT development so one can harness the full potential of the Internet of Things.

One could now put their car to use to pay for gas without needing any cash, cards or phones. Or, even our old shoes could purchase new ones, as and when they sense they're no longer in a condition to be used.

According to Harriet Green, general manager, IBM Watson IoT, Internet of Things can be credited for completing changing the world around us, whether it’s enabling a washing machine to ensure we never run out of the cleaning agent or allowing businesses to achieve unimaginable levels of efficiency. He also added, that this change has been made possible by companies Visa and cutting edge technologies like IBM’s Watson IoT platform.

Commenting on IBM's partnership with Visa, Green said," This combination of IBM’s industry leading IoT technologies with Visa payment services, signifies the next defining moment in commerce by allowing payments on any connected object, with new levels of simplicity and convenience for everyone."

According to experts, it could work out something like this. Visa would put its token sharing architecture to use and tie a device to IBM’s cloud infrastructure. While the Token Service then gives out information from the payment card a unique digital ID, IBM’s IoT cloud, on the other hand, would take the responsibility of handling the tokens and then connecting them to different devices.

Voicing his company's sentiments on the deal, Jim McCarthy, executive vice president, innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa said ," With the power of Watson’s cognitive technologies and IBM’s leadership in IoT and security, they are the ideal partner to help us deliver secure payments to ‘virtually anywhere’ and on the enormous scale of the IoT.”

He also added, “The Internet of Things is not only driving a more connected world, it’s changing the way we live, shop and pay, by moving data and the point-of-sale to wherever the consumer wants it to be."

[Top Image: pbs.twimg.com]

India Can Now Develop Its Own Space Station

India created history on 15th February, 2017 by successfully launching 104 satellites on a single mission, overtaking the previous record of 37 satellites launched by Russia in the year 2014. Its this feat earned the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) numerous mentions in international newspapers and media, with several hailing India as a major player in the multi-billion dollar space market.

While Indians were still basking in the glory of ISRO's magnificent achievement, ISRO's chairman A S Kiran Kumar has given the citizens another reason to smile. In a recent statement given by Kumar, he said that India is capable of developing a space station of its own, but it needs ambitious planning and a long-term approach to achieve the same.

Speaking at the foundation day ceremony of Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore, Kumar said, "We have all the capabilities to set up a space station. The day the country takes the decision, we will 'ok' the project. Just draw a policy and provide us necessary funds and time."

According to him, since there's still a lot of talk and uncertainty about the immediate benefits of a manned space mission, that's why India hasn't be able to make up its mind about investing in a space station yet.

Stressing on the phrase "the sooner the better," Kumar also added that even though the country is capable of setting up a space station , it still requires a long-term thinking for making this possible.

ISRO is currently also contemplating partnering with the industry in order to enhance India's satellite launching capability. According to Kumar, India is still in need of more satellites to keep a tab on the land and weather conditions and enhance communication network.

Kumar also added that even though the number of companies manufacturing small satellites has significantly increased across the world, but a lot of these companies are incapable of launching them. Hence, this area holds immense commercial potential and India could tap into it by enhancing the launch facilities.

Over the period of last two decades, India has emerged as a key player in the lucrative commercial space market offering a low-cost alternative. In fact, ISRO is now extending its benefits to Indian entrepreneurs as well. We recently reported that ISRO has given Indian entrepreneurs an opportunity to utilise ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre’s (NRSC) 17 million GB of geo-spatial data collected through a series of its earth-mapping satellites in order to launch app-based startups and make millions by providing consultative services to their respective users.

[Image: Technobuffalo.com]

In Battle With PayTM, Reliance Jio To Be One of Uber India's Payment Option

Alibaba-backed payment and commerce company Paytm has found a serious competitor in Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio. The latter has recently entered into a partnership with the American cab-hailing company Uber, signalling a larger battle in India's digital wallet space, where the Delhi NCR-based Paytm is currently leading with over a whopping 160 million users.

Prior to this, Paytm was the only mobile wallet payment option available to Uber users to pay for their ride. But now, the users will also have an option of paying through Reliance Jio Infocomm's Jio Money.

As a part of the deal, Reliance Jio will be offering exclusive incentives for people who opt to use JioMoney, the mobile wallet app, for making Uber payments. Reliance is also planning to soon allow its users to book and pay for Uber rides from the Jio app itself, a feature that Paytm does not offer.

Paytm has been Uber's preferred payment partner for the longest time, but the deal is most likely to change the same.

The mobile wallet business has been the biggest gainer of the Indian government's surprise demonetisation move sprung on its citizens on the night of 8th October, 2016. The drive, which ended up sucking out 86% of the country's currency in circulation, resulted in a temporary cash crunch situation, which ultimately led to people turning to digital wallets to satiate their cash hunger.

While Reliance Jio might have ended up missing the bus during the demonetisation phase, but it is now in full form to aggressively pursue the Indian mobile payments space. The Jio-Uber partnership deal is a testimonial of just that. According to experts, a lot now depends on how Jio incentivises Uber users and cashes on the great opportunity that the deal presents.

Commenting on the partnership with Jio, Madhu Kannan, chief business officer, India and Emerging Markets for Uber said, “Digital payments have become part of our everyday lives and by integrating JioMoney as a payment option, our riders will have the ability to use a familiar and consistent payment experience."

According to a statement given by Anirban S Mukherjee, business head of JioMoney, “JioMoney’s integration with Uber will power the rapid migration of many more Uber transactions to the digital platform."

Launched last year, Reliance Jio claims to have added 72 million telephony subscribers till date. Though it hasn't yet given out the subscriber details of its JioMoney users, but it has time and again claimed that the mobile wallet will be playing a critical role in the company's growth.

The mobile payment space in India is heating up big time with several new players being added every month and the old ones rapidly strategising to build a larger user base. Currently, Paytm and MobiKwik- both of which already boost of having one million merchants- are planning to add more merchants so as to provide their respective users with as many options as available. We had also recently reported that Paytm is close to raising $180-200 million (around Rs1,210-1,350 crore) in an investment round led by Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Other than Paytm and MobiKwik, Indian government-backed BHIM app, SBI Buddy, and Snapdeal’s FreeCharge are some of the other prominent players in the market.

[Image: TheQuint]

11 Promising Virtual Reality Startups in India Right Now

Virtual reality is currently one of the hottest talks of the town. The technology, which has the potential of becoming a major aspect of future technology, offers its users a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by the person. The person becomes a part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment for a brief period of time and, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions whilst there.

Seeing the attention Virtual reality is garnering in India, a number of companies here are working on the concept and coming up with their own products focused around Virtual reality. Here's a list of 10 Virtual reality startups in India that are currently meticulously working towards changing the way humans interact with computers.

SmartVizX

Started with an aim of eliminating barriers between the real and the unreal world, SmartVizX prides itself on being one of the highest funded startups in the Virtual reality category. The startup, which offers a wide variety of interactive and immersive VR solutions across devices such as desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile etc., has also been named 'Start-up of The Week’ in the recent past by NASSCOM under its much famous 10000 start-ups initiative.

At SmartVizX, the mission is to disrupt the traditional decision-making process and buying behavior by creating Virtual Reality solutions for Businesses. They're currently catering to the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry. The startup's products VIZ, ARCH-VIZ, ARCH-VIZ (Mobile) etc., offer innovative features such as, interactive walk-through of an entire project, actual simulation of sun's light in a particular room of the project during any particular time of the day, a view of immediate surroundings from balconies and other vantage points from the project etc. Hence, the customer can get to experience a realistic simulation, of how their property would turn out to be.

Grey Kernel

Being one of India's first VR-based startup, Grey Kernel's “IRA VR”, which was the startup's flagship product, has become the most successful Indian VR product on Google Play store. The startup hosts in-house developed content and also the content its curates from several Indian/International Virtual Reality studios.

Taking birth in the year 2015, Grey Kernel's first Virtual Reality demo for Oculus Rift DK2 landed a place in RoadToVR, which is considered as one of the top most International VR e-journals. Gaining momentum from this feat, the company was successfully able to pull of an International VR project.

Whereas most of the India based VR production Studios are currently focusing their attention on creating Monoscopic 360 degree videos, this particular startup is a front-runner in the space. It has been able to achieve this pedestal by creating Stereoscopic/Interactive Virtual reality content and being able to solve engineering/distribution for their clients that are into media & publishing, real estate and marketing agencies.

Merxius

Founded by college friends Vaishali Neotia and Hasan Ali Khan in 2011, Merxius (mer-she-us) is both Augmented & Virtual Reality company from Hyderabad. Merxius has created a flagship product - RealSim Editor, or RED which the founders call it Photoshop for Virtual Reality. With RED anyone who has a 3D model can import it into this platform and in one click, can get virtual reality (VR) out of it. The RED tool is currently being tested by the Indian Armed Forces to create a training module for engine maintenance.

The startup, which is yet to raise funds, was recently added to the list of top 10 deep tech companies by IBM SmartCamp and has also been selected for a Tata Elxsi incubation programme.

Xenium

Founded in the year 2007, Xenium started contributing to the VR scene in India only in 2014. The startup firmly believes that VR has the potential of providing researchers with tools to accelerate scientific discovery, businesses with new visualization techniques and developers with fresh creative insights. The VR venture had been started even when wireless headgear like Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift etc. were not available in the Indian Market after their release.

The firm has been credited for being the fourth company in the world and the first in India to have successfully attempted doing a live streaming using Virtual Reality. Complete VR systems and application development are among many of the services being provided by the startup. Xenium's virtual reality solutions are known to cater to the needs of both enterprises and in academics as it paves the way for enhanced communication and innovation.

Tesseract Inc.

The startup managed to put itself on world's Virtual Reality map by inventing the first 360 Virtual Reality Camera ever. With Tesseract, the founder, Kshitij's dream is to able to empower everyone with the ability to capture their precious memories in 360 and VR, and relive them as if they were in the same moment back again.

With its hardware/software designed, innovated, and manufactured out of India, Tesseract's plan is to completely transform the way humans record, consume and share content currently.

Tesseract's Methane 360 VR is a hit in the travel and real-estate world and is being currently employed by big companies like Grabhouse, MakeMyTrip and Nestaway etc. It's latest invention is a consumer grade 360 Virtual Reality Camera – ViCAM, which is being termed as the world’s smallest 360 Virtual Reality Camera.

Trimensions

Based out of the capital city New Delhi, the award-winning digital services and UX design agency has been able to carve a space for itself both in the Indian virtual and augmented reality space. It is working across a wide range of verticals which includes enterprise, education and entertainment.

By focusing its energies on good, clear design and user experience, Trimensions aims to bring new exciting technologies within the reach of the common man in India. Its name is famous in the industry for developing innovative new approaches to train people. The startup is also into 360 video production and VR for training simulations and AR for machine maintenance.

Look Mobility

Started in 2015, Look is a Bengaluru-based startup founded by Ashwin Krishnan. It is essentially a flexible and powerful development platform for creating multi-platform 3D virtual reality interactive experiences for Android and Google Cardboard and a complete ecosystem for anyone who aims to build a business on creating high-end content and connecting to their most loyal and enthusiastic players and customers. Apart from this, The startup has solution for the content consuming part of the platform as it has created its own world's first flat foldable VR headsets called foloVR.

Still in a nascent stage, this startups look promising because of its offerings & solution which is unique in Indian market as not many startups are working in VR development platform as far as India is concerned.

Meraki

The country's first Virtual Reality content production studio for consumers as well as businesses, Meraki was founded a year ago by Arvind Ghorwal, Parth Choksi, Agam Garg and Sairam Sagiraju.

With an illustrious client list which includes names such as Star Sports, Network 18, Percept Pictures and Channel V, Meraki is currently into creating 360 degree films for experiential marketing, real estate, events, tourism, sports, adventure, advertisements, weddings, news and fiction.

Imaginate

Conceived and executed in November 2011 by Hemanth Satyanarayana, an alumnus of IIT-Madras and Indian School of Business, Imaginate Technologies, Inc is not just a virtual reality startup but an augmented reality startup too. Its flagship VR product called NuSpace can be used in industrial training and collaborative design, from a manufacturing point of view. Its technology can be used to provide customised VR and AR solutions to those in the retail, healthcare, defence, education and entertainment segments, among others.

The Hyderabad-based startup is backed by venture fund SRI Capital which invested Rs 3.35 crore ($500,000) as seed fund in the startup recently.

GazeMatic

Based out of Bangalore, GazeMatic has built a reputation for itself in the VR world by building “THE CALLER”, a mobile app for Virtual Reality. A first of its kind voice caller app, "THE CALLER" can help the user teleport himself when they are on a call with their friend. The app has found instantaneous success since its launch and has managed to score users in US, UK, Germany, Russia along with India.

Founded by Karthikeyan NG and MohanRaj MS in the year 2015, GazeMatic has become a hub of all the De-facto companies in the startup ecosystem of India in just one year. Thanks

AbsentiaVR

Founded in June 2015, by BITS Pilani, Goa dropouts Shubham Mishra, Vrushali Prasade and Harikrishna Valiyath, AbsentiaVR has been able to carve a place for itself in the VR startup world with its highly innovative virtual reality headset called Tesseract. The headset wishes to provide users an incremental experience in the newest available format i.e the 3-D virtual reality.

The founders decided to come together and startup AbsentiaVR upon realizing the grave need to bridge the gulf between existing virtual reality and electronic content.

[Top-most Image - Shutterstock]

India's Special Force Nabs Grenade-Dropping Drone and 'Dogo Robot'

The National Security Guard (NSG), which is an Indian special forces unit under Ministry of Home Affairs, has been provided with the latest weaponry available including a ‘dogo robot’ armed with remote pistol, a 3D fly-on-the-wall radar to see through a 20-m-thick wall and a grenade-dropping drone in order to carry out its lethal counter-terror operations with a punch of stealth.

The federal contingency force decided to induct some of the smartest gadgets and arms being used by SWAT teams and Special Forces all over the world based on the experiences it has had in preventing terror attacks and hostage situations in closed urban spaces.

The NSG had recently upgraded its sniper rifles and inducted the German PSG1 A1 in order to give its marksmen an upper hand over others. The PSG1 A1 is a 7.2 kg weighing rifle with telescopic sight carries an enhanced number of 20 rounds to engage and pin down targets for a longer time and is complemented with longer range and extreme accuracy. It is an upgrade of the PSG1 sniper variant currently being used by the special force.

The Indian security forces have been using drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for quite sometime now, but the force has only recently added its crack teams with a locally made ‘munition launcher system’ that is capable of carrying a pair of 38mm grenades to stealthily drop in enemy territories with the precision and aide of the in-built spy camera.

The four small rotors of the grenade-dropping white-coloured drone helps it in taking it to the air. The drone is controlled on the ground remotely by a operator who is camouflaged with the surroundings.

According to several experts in the field, the Israel-made ‘dogo robot’ is one of the most clever and lethal weaponry that the NSG has added to its capabilities. It is capable of dragging its 11.5kg weight towards a hidden terrorist and then informs the commando teams about the terrorist's exact hiding location and arms and ammunition holding via a camera feed.

The dogo robot is capable of being armed with a small Glock pistol in order to shoot the target (terrorist) from a joystick control board and provide an intervention opportunity to the waiting commandos teams. It also comes with a two-way encrypted audio system that will allow the robot's operator to listen and intervene in hostage situations without the flat device itself coming into the target's notice.

A few pieces of the dogo robot have been procured by the NSG for its counter-hijack and counter-terror operations task, at a cost of Rs 76 lakh each. It has been named dogo robot so by taking inspiration from the capabilities of a Argentine Mastiff.

Coming to the 14-kg 3D fly-on-the-wall radar, it is an upgradation from its 2D variant that the NSG had employed during the last year's January Pathankot IAF base attack. The 3D variant is capable of giving the commandos pictures from across a 20-meter thick wall with a 80 degree field of view. The weaponry, which can be easily placed on the outside of a closed room like a fly-on-the-wall, comes at a price point of Rs 1 crore.

Taking cognisance from the emerging terror scenario in the world, the NSG has decided to equip its commandos with all the latest gadgets available.

In addition to the aforementioned weaponry, the NSG has also procured light-weight Israeli and US-made ‘corner shot’ rifles that is capable of taking down terrorists and saving hostages with precision, without ever exposing the commandos.

In addition to the Indian Defence sector, the Indian Mining sector has also realised the potential of drones. We recently reported how the Ministry of Mines has decided to give a major push to using of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in order to increase India’s mining sector efficiency. Prior to that, we had also reported about how there's a huge opportunity for Drone Startups in India as the country is looking to employ more drones to monitor its borders.

India's 'Internet of Things' Market Will Grow To $9 billion By 2020

The Indian government's Digital India initiative has lead to the country becoming more and more digital by each passing day. And now it seems, the country's smart home industry is all ready to reap in the benefits of its government's futuristic programme.

According to recent findings made by consultancy firm Deloitte in its TMT Predictions 2017, the number of units under Internet of Things (IoT) in India is expected to exponentially increase to 1.9 billion units by 2020 or about $9 billion. The Indian subcontinent, which has come to acquire the status of a growing IoT hub, is expected to see a 7 times increase, from just $1.3 billion in 2016 to $9 billion by 2020. The report estimates the current number of such devices in the country to be around 60 million.

For the uninitiated, IoT devices refers to the devices, other than smartphones and computers, that are connected to the World Wide Web.

The report also stated that going forward IoT solution deployment for digital utilities or smart cities and in the transport, manufacturing, logistics and automotive industries would drive in the demand for industrial IoT applications.

According to predictions made by Machina Research, even though the Indian smart home industry trails much behind the US and Chinese, it still represents a very promising internet-related growth area for the Indian subcontinent.

The Indian Prime Minister has been an aggressive campaigner of the Digital India initiative. Last year on 8th October, he took the entire country by storm when he announced that the country's 500 and 1,000 rupee notes would seize to being legal tender. His move ended up encouraging the citizens to turn to digital wallet apps in order to deal with the cash crunch.

According to the report, by the year 2020, industries such as manufacturing, transportation, logistics and automotive are most likely to witness the highest adoption levels of IoT in India. The Indian government has allocated about $1 billion for 100 smart cities, over the period of next five years, which is expected to serve as a key enabler for IoT adoption across the aforementioned industries. The government is currently also working on bringing affordable, high-speed internet to 150,000 Indian villages.

Mahindra Group Ties-up With IBM To Develop Blockchain Based Supply Chain Apps

Mahindra Group, one of India's largest diversified multinational group of companies and IBM, the global technology and innovation company headquartered in Armonk, NY have recently entered into a partnership to develop blockchain-based supply chain applications.

The project, a first of its kind in India outside of the traditional banking domain, aims to step up transparency and security between supplier-to-manufacturer trade through a permissioned distributed ledger.

The partnership will see both the firms working together on a prototype tool for tracking supply chain transactions via blockchain. The tool will enable all parties involved in the transaction to act on the same shared ledger, with each party updating only their part of the process, ensuring trust, transparency, efficiency and consistency, hence safeguarding the sensitive information in the process.

A USD 17.8 billion multinational group based in Mumbai, India, Mahindra has operations in industries ranging from aerospace to automotives, as well as agriculture, finance and technology, and provides employment opportunities to over 200,000 people in over 100 countries.

It is important to note that the partnership comes at a time when India’s business and finance sectors are aggressively exploring the Blockchain technology. The year began with India's central bank RBI’s research arm, the Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) giving a green light to blockchain and publishing a report stating that it has successfully tested the blockchain technology for core banking processes in the country in a pilot and considers that now the right time for the technology’s wide adoption in India. IDRBT's report was followed by the news that some of India’s largest banks have come together to build Bank-Chain -- a consortium aimed at testing an inter-bank blockchain platform. Other firms, including IT consultancy Tata, have pursued various proofs-of-concept, while startups working in the bitcoin space have continued to develop products.

Blockchain is a slowly emerging but promising technology that allows for transactions and data transfers to be completed in just a matter of a fee seconds through a peer-to-peer computer network, with no dependence on a third party. The tech is being considered as a potential game changer for the banking industry, a sector that the conglomerate's IT services arm, Tech Mahindra Ltd has its eyes set on.

While according to experts, Mahindra is just setting out to test the waters with the supply chain prototype, but Mahindra says it is currently also looking at other applications across its various business lines, including transportation and agricultural technology.

“The Mahindra Group is pioneering the use of blockchain to disrupt its traditional businesses and drive future growth. We are actively looking at other applications across the Group in financial services, auto, mobility and agritech,” said Anish Shah, Group President (Strategy), Mahindra Group in a statement.

He also added, “This proof of concept represents a significant step forward in making blockchain, still a new technology, a more compelling and efficient supply chain solution for Mahindra Finance’s small and mid-sized enterprises loans business.”

On the other hand, IBM is also on the path to rapidly expand its blockchain consulting services and capabilities. It is actively working with clients in order to get a better understanding of what it takes to actually make Blockchain ready for business. IBM's valued open source contributions to the Hyperledger Fabric and its blockchain services on IBM Bluemix cloud has made it easier and quicker for developers to develop applications while testing availability, performance, and security of a permissioned blockchain network.