Here's A Glimpse of TED Talk By World's Biggest Movie Star

The week saw megawatt Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) enthralling a jam packed audience at the April 27 TED conference in Vancouver, with many in the audience having a little clue about who he was. While they might have entered the venue not knowing who he was, but they left the talk truly acquainted with King Khan's (as he's famously called in India) humour and wisdom.

SRK walked on the stage after a clip from his 2007 blockbuster film Om Shanti Om played on the big screen. He immediately had the audience in his grip when he said, “India decided that somehow I, the Muslim son of a broke freedom fighter, would become its king of romance."

He further lightened the mood by saying “I’ve been made to understand there are lots of you here who have never seen my work, and I feel really sad for you."

The 20-minute talk, which included Khan sharing about his pre-acting days, journey to Bollywood and doing a step or two from his famous “Lungi dance,” earned a standing ovation from the TED audience crowd, which included Silicon valley leaders, scientists, and academics.



SRK has done over 90 films and danced to 200 songs in his 25 years long career, and has received countless awards, including the Legion of France', one of the country's highest civilian awards. He is also a recipient of an honorary doctorate from United Kingdom's University of Edinburgh for his philanthropic work.

Sharing his personal anecdotes, Khan recalled how the invention of internet affected him and his life. He said, “Everything I said took a new meaning; everything I did — good, bad, ugly — was there for the world to comment upon and judge." “Everything I didn’t say or do was also met with the same fate.”

He further shared that in the new world, reality has become virtual, and virtual has become real. He connected this learning with his own life and shared that when the World Wide Web was taking over the world he started to feel that he could no longer be who he wanted to be or say what he actually thought. He said, “And humanity at this time completely identified with me. Both of us were going through our midlife crisis. Humanity, like me, was becoming an over-exposed prima donna.”

“The whole world, and all of humanity, seemed as lost as I was,” he added.

But, Khan believes even with all of the complex problems and confusion happening in the world right now, there has never been a more momentous time for humanity.

Khan added that instead of wasting our times thinking about our future or cribbing about the past, we all should try to live in the present. He said, “The present you is brave. The present you is hopeful. The present you is innovative and resourceful. And, of course, the present you is annoyingly indefinable."

According to Khan, in his 51 years on planet Earth, he has learned one of life's most important learning. "I’ve learned that whatever moves you, whatever urges you to create, build, whatever keeps you from failing, whatever helps you survive, is perhaps the oldest and the simplest emotion known to mankind, and that is love."

Earlier this year, TED announced about its plans to bring a major network series in India hosted by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. The program, TED Talks India: Nayi Soch, which translates to “new thinking,” is the first time that TED is collaborating with a major network to produce a TV series featuring original TED Talks in a language other than English—Hindi.

Here's A Glimpse of TED Talk By World's Biggest Movie Star

The week saw megawatt Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) enthralling a jam packed audience at the April 27 TED conference in Vancouver, with many in the audience having a little clue about who he was. While they might have entered the venue not knowing who he was, but they left the talk truly acquainted with King Khan's (as he's famously called in India) humour and wisdom.

SRK walked on the stage after a clip from his 2007 blockbuster film Om Shanti Om played on the big screen. He immediately had the audience in his grip when he said, “India decided that somehow I, the Muslim son of a broke freedom fighter, would become its king of romance."

He further lightened the mood by saying “I’ve been made to understand there are lots of you here who have never seen my work, and I feel really sad for you."

The 20-minute talk, which included Khan sharing about his pre-acting days, journey to Bollywood and doing a step or two from his famous “Lungi dance,” earned a standing ovation from the TED audience crowd, which included Silicon valley leaders, scientists, and academics.



SRK has done over 90 films and danced to 200 songs in his 25 years long career, and has received countless awards, including the Legion of France', one of the country's highest civilian awards. He is also a recipient of an honorary doctorate from United Kingdom's University of Edinburgh for his philanthropic work.

Sharing his personal anecdotes, Khan recalled how the invention of internet affected him and his life. He said, “Everything I said took a new meaning; everything I did — good, bad, ugly — was there for the world to comment upon and judge." “Everything I didn’t say or do was also met with the same fate.”

He further shared that in the new world, reality has become virtual, and virtual has become real. He connected this learning with his own life and shared that when the World Wide Web was taking over the world he started to feel that he could no longer be who he wanted to be or say what he actually thought. He said, “And humanity at this time completely identified with me. Both of us were going through our midlife crisis. Humanity, like me, was becoming an over-exposed prima donna.”

“The whole world, and all of humanity, seemed as lost as I was,” he added.

But, Khan believes even with all of the complex problems and confusion happening in the world right now, there has never been a more momentous time for humanity.

Khan added that instead of wasting our times thinking about our future or cribbing about the past, we all should try to live in the present. He said, “The present you is brave. The present you is hopeful. The present you is innovative and resourceful. And, of course, the present you is annoyingly indefinable."

According to Khan, in his 51 years on planet Earth, he has learned one of life's most important learning. "I’ve learned that whatever moves you, whatever urges you to create, build, whatever keeps you from failing, whatever helps you survive, is perhaps the oldest and the simplest emotion known to mankind, and that is love."

Earlier this year, TED announced about its plans to bring a major network series in India hosted by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. The program, TED Talks India: Nayi Soch, which translates to “new thinking,” is the first time that TED is collaborating with a major network to produce a TV series featuring original TED Talks in a language other than English—Hindi.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [24– 29 April]

As the week draws to an end, let's recap the top 10 things that happened in the tech sector during the week.

1) ISRO Launches Solar Calculator App

ISRO launched an innovative app called the Solar Calculator app using which anyone can accurately and easily calculate the benefit of installing solar panels at any location in the Indian subcontinent. The app is available on the web and for the Android platform, and can prove to be extensively beneficial when it comes to setting up photovoltaic solar panels.

The app calculates the solar potential of a particular area by using data processed from Indian satellites, including the Insat-3D, the Insat-3DR and the Kalpana-1. The solar energy potential of a particular location is shown to a user in kWh/m2 or mJ/m2.

2) IBM Has A ‘New’ Focus on Indian Startups

The Indian startup ecosystem, which is currently the third largest startup ecosystem in the world and has the potential of becoming number one someday has tempted IBM to align a new focus on the ecosystem and speed up its efforts to interact with it.

Speaking to Gadgets 360, Nipun Mehrotra, IBM’s Chief Digital Officer for India and South Asia threw light on how until now the giant had been doing these efforts in various nooks and corners across the country but under the new organisation that IBM has become under him, they have realigned their focus on the startup ecosystem and the goal is now to provide a more centralised support structure for the startup ecosystem.

The technology giant is optimistic that it can help young entrepreneurs and startups with a number of things such as India stack integration etc. Further, it can also extend a helping hand in interfacing them with the various government agencies as well as businesses that can be their customers.

3) Here’s Why Apple Threatened Uber To Have Removed from the App Store

US-based car-hailing giant Uber has been in the headlines since its conception, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad reasons, but lately it has been the latter. Recently, an article published in The New York Times has alleged that Apple CEO Tim Cook had once threatened to delete Uber’s iOS app from the App Store, when he found out that the company had successfully found a way to identify individual iPhones, even once the Uber app was deleted from the phones.

This practice of finding individuals phones even when they have deleted the app is called fingerprinting, and is strictly prohibited by Apple. In order to ensure that Apple doesn’t get a whiff of its activities, Uber decided to geofence Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, changing its code so that its activities would remain hidden from the Apple Employees. Unfortunately, despite Uber’s several efforts, Apple being the technology giant it is ending up unearthing the malpractice, which led to the 2015 meeting of the two CEOs wherein Cook sternly told Kalanick to end the practice immediately or stand the risk of getting the Uber app removed from the App store permanently. The article mentions a source according to whom the Uber CEO was particularly shaken by Cook’s scolding, and decided to put a an immediate end to the practice.

4) Facebook Opens Its New Deep Learning Framework To All

The recently concluded F8 developer conference in San Jose, California saw Facebook announcing Caffe2, a new lightweight, modular, and scalable deep learning framework to the world. Built on the original Caffe, Caffe2 is a trendy type of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been designed by keeping expression, speed, and modularity in mind.

According to experts, deep Learning possess the potential of bringing significant breakthroughs in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Caffe2 aims to provide developers an easy and straightforward to experiment with deep learning first hand. When a developer is getting started with deep learning, Caffe2 can help them in understanding the workflow of how they can create and deploy their deep learning application.

5) Introducing ‘WikiTribune’ – A New Tool By Wikipedia Founder To Battle Fake News

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has announced Wikitribune, a news platform that will bring together journalists with a legion of fact-checkers. According to the platform, its main aim is to ensure that people all around the world are lifted of this curse called fake news and they only read true fact-based articles that can contribute towards having a real impact on both local and global events.

Though Wikitribune will be publishing news stories written by professional journalists, but it will give internet users the ability to propose factual corrections and additions if any, almost similar to the model being followed by Wikipedia. All the changes and additions suggested will be reviewed by volunteer fact-checkers towards the end.

6) India To Force Tax Duty on Bitcoin

India is considered as an important country for Bitcoin’s growth and future. The demonetisation drive sprung upon the nation late last year helped boost bitcoin usage like never before. With ATMs and banks running dry, people of the second largest population on Earth turned to digital currencies and mobile wallets to quench their cash thirst.

Concerned over the adverse impact that virtual currencies such as bitcoin can have on the Indian consumer, the Indian government recently setup a committee to examine the existing framework on digital currencies in the country. And now, according to the latest reports coming in, the Indian subcontinent is on its way to officially declare Bitcoin as cash before the end of summer and force a duty on the digital currency as the solution to its acknowledgment.

7) 74% Indians Prefer Self-Driving Cars, Says IBM

A survey conducted by tech giant IBM has revealed that Indian consumers show a high level of interest in the intelligent, intuitive and self-driving cars.

Titled “Auto 2025”, the survey was conducted across 16 countries and shows that Indian consumers are very interested in all aspects of automated car functioning such as self-driving, self-healing, self-configuring, and self-integrating. Indians selected self-driving capabilities most often with 74% of people preferring it. Even the least selected self-integrating capability is appealing to 69% of Indian consumers, said the survey.

The survey also said that 97% of Indian respondent want to own or drive a car in the next ten years, and among them — 35 years and older respondents expect their use of personal cars as their primary mode of transportation to drop by 12% by 2025, but anticipate their use of car & ride-sharing will double.

8) BlackBerry KeyOne will be available next month

Blackberry is all set to win everyone's heart all over again. According to a press release from TCL, the first TCL-manufactured BlackBerry KeyOne smartphone will go on sale in the US and Canada starting next month. The phone, which runs Android 7.1 Nougat, features a physical keyboard, which was the signature feature of BlackBerry smartphones launched years ago.

9) Anybody Can Now Make A Google Assistant Gadget With This New Toolkit

The week saw tech giant Google announcing the availability of its Google Assistant SDK. This means, now anybody can download and run the Google Assistant on a gadget of their choice. In fact, it will run well even on Raspberry Pi 3 devices and also on Linux. With this move, we can look forward to a future where we could see a big number of consumer devices running Google’s voice assistant — taking on Alexa as the go-to chat interface for gadgets.

10) Samsung Has A New Auto-reply App For Avoiding Distracted Driving

Distracted driving is the number cause of accidents on roads all around the world. But, technology giant Samsung is now trying to counter this problem by launching a new app called the In-Traffic Reply. The app has been designed to help people avoid using their smartphones while driving or biking by automatically sending preset replies when in motion.

The app, which is currently running in beta in the Netherlands, depends on the phones' GPS sensor to figure out whether the user is driving at which point calls and texts will be automatically responded to with either a default reply of “I’m driving, so I cannot answer at the moment,” an animated image, or a custom message.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [24 – 29 April]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out a brief description about all of them.

SoftBank Likely to Invest $1.9B in Paytm at $9B Valuation

Masayoshi Son’s media and Internet conglomerate SoftBank Group is likely to put in $1.9 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) into One 97 Communications Ltd, which runs digital wallet firm Paytm. The funding is likely to value Paytm at $9 billion and SoftBank will pick up 20% stake in the payments firm, citing two individuals familiar with the transaction.

Oyo Rooms Raises $250M from SoftBank, Others

Branded budget hotels marketplace OYO, which is operated by Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd, is closing a $250-million (Rs 1,612 crore) fundraising round led by existing investor SoftBank Group, said a media report. The recently-launched $100-billion SoftBank Vision Fund is expected to pump in $225 million in OYO, while the rest will come from Lightspeed Venture Partners India pvt Ltd, Sequoia Capital India Advisors Pvt. Ltd and Greenoaks Capital Partners LLC.

UiPath Raises $30M Series A Funding Led by Accel

UiPath Robotic Process Automation, the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company, has raised a Series A investment of $30 million (approx. Rs. 200 crores) led by Accel and with participation from previous investors Earlybird Venture Capital, Credo Ventures and Seedcamp. The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s global expansion and product development.

South Asia’s Largest Collaborative Coworking Space Network Raises $20 Mn from Sequoia India

Awfis Space Solutions Pvt. Ltd., South Asia’s largest network of collaborative co-working spaces, has received an investment of USD 20 million from Sequoia India. The funds will be used to grow its network of centers, launch new and innovative products/services and further enhance the existing technology platform.

Working towards achieving its target of having an Awfis centre within a 10 minutes driving radius in each of the key metros, the company plans to establish 100+ centres with 35,000+ seats across Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune in the next 24 months. Maple Capital Advisors acted as the financial advisor for the transaction.

Data Analytics Software Company Flytxt Raises Rs. 70 Cr to Scale-Up Product Adoption

Flytxt, a fast growing customer data analytics software company, today announced that it has raised Rs. 70 crore funding from DAH Beteiligungs GmbH, a company related to the Hopp family office. The company plans to invest new funds in R&D to continue evolving its software product to further its growth in the Telecom Industry and expand to other verticals. It will also help company to execute its order book of more than Rs. 500 crore.

Flytxt offers enterprise-class customer data analytics product that can ingest, manage and analyse large volume of moving customer data to derive actionable insights.

Food Delivery Startup Faasos Raises $6.4M From Lightbox Ventures, Sequoia, Others

Pune-based online food delivery startup Faasos has filled its plate with $6.4 Mn funding in an extended Series C round of funding, as per the filings made with the Registrar of Companies. The investment is led by Lightbox Ventures II, Lightbox Expansion Fund, Sequoia Capital India, RuNet South Asia, and RB Investments. Earlier in December 2015, Faasos raised the first tranche of the Series C, amounting to $30 Mn. So far, the company has raised a total of $64.6 Mn in six rounds of funding.

Startup Advisory Platform Oddup Gets $6M Funding From Brand Capital

Hong Kong-based startup focussed research platform Oddup has secured $6 Mn in its Series A round of funding led by Brand Capital, the investment arm of Indian media conglomerate The Times Group. The round also saw participation from existing investors including 500 Startups and Click Ventures and new investors including Moneta Ventures and White Capital. This round brings Oddup’s total funding raised to $7 Mn, till date. With the freshly infused funds, the startup aims to expand into India and complete its expansion throughout Asia.

Mobile Gaming Startup Mech Mocha Raises $5M in Series A Round

Bengaluru-based mobile gaming startup Mech Mocha has raised $5 Mn in Series A round of funding led by Accel Partners and Shunwei Capital. Existing investor Blume Ventures also participated in this funding round. Mech Mocha will deploy the funds to develop and launch new mobile-gaming titles across casual and mid-core gaming categories, targeted at the Indian audience.

Nitin Khanna, US based Serial Tech-Entrepreneur Invests $5 Mn in Punjab-based Startup, Isos Inc

Portland-based serial Tech-Entrepreneur, Nitin Khanna, has invested US$ 5 million in a Punjab based startup iSoS Inc, an investee company which is developing productivity enhancement solutions like smart attendance, real-time tracking and monitoring, inventory management, cashless transactions, security management etc. The startup was also awarded as “Innovative Idea of the Year” by Tiecon Chandigarh 2017.

Founded in 2016 and based out of Mohali, Punjab, iSOS stands for Integrated Smart Office Solution which offers Smart Office software solutions such as – Beacon, Smart attendance, inventory management, Real Time Monitoring, and Live tracking.

Hyperlocal Delivery Startup Scootsy Raises Pre-Series A Funding of $3.6M

After completing a year and a half of successful business operations in Mumbai, Scootsy has raised funding of $3.6 million in a pre-series A round led by Agnus Capital and Khattar Holdings. AntFarm, Scootsy’s incubator, has also participated in this investment round.
Founded in July 2015 by Rishi Khiani and Sandeep Das, Scootsy delivers quality products to consumers quickly and efficiently. Scootsy works with a combination of leading and small-scale businesses across food, sweets and bakes, books, beauty products, fashion and gifts to offer consumers an unparalleled end-to-end experience that redefines the home delivery experience.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Mumbai-based Haygot Education Pvt Ltd, which runs ed-tech startup Toppr.com, has raised an external round of funding of Rs 21.6 crore ($3.2 million) in a bridge round of funding, documents with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

Delhi-based online media network for women, POPxo has closed $3.1 Mn Series B round of funding led by existing investors Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures India Japan’s GREE Ventures, Summit Media (Philippines), Atul Goel, and Gurpreet Singh also participated in this round of funding.

Gurugram-based mobile services marketplace UrbanClap has raised about $3.1 Mn (INR 20 Cr) in venture debt from Trifecta Capital through non-convertible debentures.

Jaipur-based Qriyo Infolabs Pvt. Ltd, which runs home tutor provider Qriyo, has raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from Dubai-based investor Neelesh Bhatnagar’s NBVentures.

Mumbai-based, content platform for chronic health issues Sepalika.com announced a $750K Seed round of funding from Accel Partners.

BNT Autosoft Pvt. Ltd, which runs auto dealership and workshop management platform Autobix, has raised seed funding from UK-based auto parts maker GardX International Ltd. in return for a 25% stake.

INurture Education Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a higher education solutions provider, has raised Rs 10 crore (around $1.5 million) in venture debt from Mumbai-based non-banking financial company BlackSoil Capital Pvt. Ltd.

MintWalk, a robo-advisory platform for financial solutions, has raised funding from Poshika Financial Ecosystem Pvt. Ltd, an investment platform set up by former chief executive officer of Religare, Shachindra Nath.

Howdy Ventures Pvt. Ltd, a company based out of Chennai, has raised $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr) at a $3 Mn (INR 20 Cr) valuation, from S. Xavier Britto the Chairman of Kerry Indev Logistics Pvt. Ltd., against a 50% equity stake.

Bengaluru-based online pharmacy startup Myra has raised an undisclosed amount in extended Series A round of funding from Times Internet and the existing investor Matrix Partners.

Bangalore-based ZipGo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, the operator of an eponymous bus pooling app, has raised a Series A round of funding from new and existing investors.

Gurgaon-based Top Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates coworking platform The Office Pass, has raised $245,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) in seed funding.

Bengaluru-based AI startup NIRAMAI Health Analytix has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Seed round led by Pi Ventures. Ankur Capital, Axilor Ventures, 500 Startups and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal also participated in this round.

Online fashion brand Stalkbuylove has raised $1 million in venture debt from Trifecta Capital to strengthen its supply chain technology and expand its team, the two parties said on Monday.

Karnataka To Allocate Rs 10 Cr for Agri Innovation Startups

Striving to give the Indian agricultural startup a much needed technological boost, the Karnataka government has decided to allocate an amount of Rs 10 crore for agriculture innovation startups in the month of May.

As of today, about 60–70% of Indian population (directly or indirectly) depends upon the Agriculture sector. But, unfortunately, due to lack of innovation in the sector, it currently just contributes over 16–17% of the country's GDP.

Speaking at the National Trade Fair For Organics and Millets 2017 being held in Bangalore, Karnataka's IT and Tourism Minister Priyank Kharge said that the state government will ramping up its pace of helping startups in the agri space with series A and B funding by connecting them to potential investors.

He also revealed the government have had long discussions on the need of innovation in the agriculture sector and has decided to set aside a Rs 10 crore budget for the same. The amount will be allocated to selected agriculture innovation startups in May.

Talking about the Karnataka's government efforts in boosting startups in the state, Kharge shared that the government had recently funded Rs 2.5 crore to eight startups in the tourism space. The minister also took the podium to throw light on the fact that the state of Karnataka is the only state in the whole of India to have a Proof of Concept (Idea2POC) Grant Scheme, under which the government issues upto Rs 50 lakh as part of its multi-sectoral startup policy and works closely with various stakeholders to create ideation and incubation sectors.

According to Kharge, the Karnataka government is currently even funding startups in tier-II cities that have registered with the startup cell.

Adding to what Kharge said about the state government's dedication to startups, Karnataka's Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said that as of today, Karnataka is the only state in the Indian subcontinent which supports startups with a dedicated agri fund and also provides food processing funding, in case a company is not eligible for innovation funding.

Keep watching this space to know the names of the startups that receive this agriculture innovation funding in May.

India To Force Tax Duty on Bitcoin

India is considered as an important country for Bitcoin's growth and future. The demonetisation drive sprung upon the nation late last year helped boost bitcoin usage like never before. With ATMs and banks running dry, people of the second largest population on Earth turned to digital currencies and mobile wallets to quench their cash thirst.

Concerned over the adverse impact that virtual currencies such as bitcoin can have on the Indian consumer, the Indian government recently setup a committee to examine the existing framework on digital currencies in the country. And now, according to the latest reports coming in, the Indian subcontinent is on its way to officially declare Bitcoin as cash before the end of summer and force a duty on the digital currency as the solution to its acknowledgment.

As of today, the usage of virtual currencies such as bitcoins in India is not authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This could result in breach of anti-money laundering provisions. In fact, the RBI has time and again issued circulars cautioning holders, traders and users of virtual currencies in the country about the potential legal, security and financial risks that might arise due to these currencies.

The inter-disciplinary committee has been constituted by the department of economic affairs under the finance ministry and is being chaired by special secretary (economic affairs) and representatives from DEA, department of financial services, department of revenue (CBDT), home ministry, ministry of electronics and information technology, RBI, NITI Aayog and State Bank of India. The committee will be examining the existing framework of digital currencies and suggest ways to regulate the fast-growing segment so as to curb money laundering. But, the government has no plans of ordering a blanket ban on digital currencies in the country as being suggested by some reports in the media.

Seeing the growing bitcoin usage in the country as well as frequent panic created by government around it by issuing circulars and forming committees, India’s most popular bitcoin startups like Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure and SearchTrade decided to come together and launch a self-regulatory body called as the Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI). The body works towards ensuring an orderly and transparent growth of virtual currency market in India.

India To Force Tax Duty on Bitcoin

India is considered as an important country for Bitcoin's growth and future. The demonetisation drive sprung upon the nation late last year helped boost bitcoin usage like never before. With ATMs and banks running dry, people of the second largest population on Earth turned to digital currencies and mobile wallets to quench their cash thirst.

Concerned over the adverse impact that virtual currencies such as bitcoin can have on the Indian consumer, the Indian government recently setup a committee to examine the existing framework on digital currencies in the country. And now, according to the latest reports coming in, the Indian subcontinent is on its way to officially declare Bitcoin as cash before the end of summer and force a duty on the digital currency as the solution to its acknowledgment.

As of today, the usage of virtual currencies such as bitcoins in India is not authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This could result in breach of anti-money laundering provisions. In fact, the RBI has time and again issued circulars cautioning holders, traders and users of virtual currencies in the country about the potential legal, security and financial risks that might arise due to these currencies.

The inter-disciplinary committee has been constituted by the department of economic affairs under the finance ministry and is being chaired by special secretary (economic affairs) and representatives from DEA, department of financial services, department of revenue (CBDT), home ministry, ministry of electronics and information technology, RBI, NITI Aayog and State Bank of India. The committee will be examining the existing framework of digital currencies and suggest ways to regulate the fast-growing segment so as to curb money laundering. But, the government has no plans of ordering a blanket ban on digital currencies in the country as being suggested by some reports in the media.

Seeing the growing bitcoin usage in the country as well as frequent panic created by government around it by issuing circulars and forming committees, India’s most popular bitcoin startups like Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure and SearchTrade decided to come together and launch a self-regulatory body called as the Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India (DABFI). The body works towards ensuring an orderly and transparent growth of virtual currency market in India.

China's Didi To be Most Valuable Asian Startup

China’s ride-hailing startup Didi, which rose to worldwide fame last year for driving out ride-hailing superpower Uber from its country, is now all set to become Asia's most valuable startup.

According to a Bloomberg News report published a couple of days ago, the startup which completes 20 million rides daily in the world's most populated country was on its way of closing a fund-raising deal that once done will take the startup's value to a whopping USD 50 billion giving it the most valuable startup in Asia title. And, on Friday, the ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing disclosed in an emailed statement that it has successfully raised more than $5.5 billion from investors, scoring the single largest round of funding on record to bankroll an expansion beyond China and into driver-less technology. Didi didn't disclose the name of the backers who joined this round.

Starting its journey five years back in 2012, Didi currently has over 90 per cent of China’s ride-hailing market. This was made possible after Didi successfully managed to win a multibillion-dollar and a year-and-a-half-long battle with Uber last year where the giant agreed to sell its business and leave the country. Before departing the country, Uber managed to grab a 17.7 per cent ownership stake in Didi and $1 billion in cash.

The Bloomberg News report had quoted a few people familiar with the deal and revealed back then that the Chinese ride-hailing giant is on its way raise $5 billion in a new financing agreement. According to WSJ, the deal will take the Beijing-based Didi's valuation to USD 50 billion and make it the most valuable startup in Asia and number two in the world after Uber’s USD 68 billion valuation. Didi would replace the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi at the number two position.

China, which is the world’s largest car-hailing market, legalised ride-hailing services only in July last year. Didi, which has operations in over 400 Chinese cities currently, is now planning to expand overseas with an investment into Southeast Asian taxi-booking app Grab last year, which was followed closely on the heels of a tie-up with Uber’s US rival Lyft. With investors such as Apple and Chinese internet giants Alibaba and Tencent by its side, we're sure that Didi is soon going to rule the world ride-hailing market.

Google Launches 'Solve for India' Program To Inspire Startups and Entrepreneurs

Aiming to support and mentor new initiatives in the field of technology, Google on Friday announced its "Solve for India" program to inspire the new wave of entrepreneurs and startups in emerging cities like Pune, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Indore, Nagpur, Nashik, Madurai, Kanpur and Chennai.

Through this initiative, Google aims to expand and energize the startup ecosystem in these 11 tier II cities and inspire the budding entrepreneurs to solve for India and its underserved user needs, says the company.

The internet today provides an opportunity to everyone to pursue their passion and create solutions to solve for the real problems of India.

The program will provide a platform for developers and entrepreneurs in tier II cities to hear from experts and learn about the latest Google technologies and get access to direct mentoring and support from Google.

Entrepreneurs will get an opportunity to learn directly from Google engineers who will share product usage insights, how to develop mobile first solutions with strong offline and language capabilities and help them build solutions across areas like agri-tech, healthcare, transportation, education, sanitation and more.

"Majority of India's Internet users are Indian language users and over 80 percent of them access the Internet from their mobile phones. However, the current Indian startup ecosystem is building products for English speaking audience and caters only to 15 percent of the population," said Karthik Padmanabhan, Program Manager Lead for Google India.

"Through this initiative we want to bring the best of Google under one program and join forces with them to help create solutions that serve the needs of a billion Indians," he added.

Developers and entrepreneurs will gain from a variety of Google's programs starting with the Google Launchpad mentoring program which will help them to build, scale and accelerate product ideas into category leaders.

Launchpad includes a six-month mentorship program covering all aspects of product design, business models, technology support to build for scale and go to market strategies along with USD 50,000 equity free investments. For startups looking to build scalable solutions, Google will provide over USD 20,000 of cloud credits.

Developers can also look forward to build on their skills and learn from experts on latest in Android, Firebase, Machine learning, Cloud API s, progressive web apps and Indian language translation solutions.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

Razorpay Ropes in MasterCard’s Arif Khan as Chief Innovation Officer

Razorpay, the online payments platform, has appointed MasterCard’s Arif Khan as its Chief Innovation Officer to chart its next growth path. In this role, he will be responsible for managing the innovation process inside the organisation by building strategies and identifying new business opportunities. He will also be working closely with various banking and financial institutions for developing new technical capabilities and a robust payment architecture with the goal to provide cutting edge solutions to customers.

Helping businesses accept payments online, Razorpay is a core technology company focussed on building disruptive technologies and pioneering new solutions. The company had recently appointed Amit Saini from Ola, as their VP of Engineering.

Before joining Razorpay, Arif was a Senior Business Leader at MasterCard, where he helped in the global expansion of Simplify, a MasterCard payment gateway platform, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region. Arif has been in the payments industry for close to two decades. He has a proven track record in product management and business development. Prior to MasterCard, Arif was a Senior Vice President at HDFC, where he spent more than 17 years leading and implementing strategic projects in the Payments and Digital space.

Delighted at the appointment, Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-founder at Razorpay said, “Fintech in India has shown how disruptive innovation can spearhead the market towards efficiency and growth. Arif, with his rich experience in the banking and financial sector, is a valuable addition to our leadership team especially at a time when we are in the fast lane of innovation and growth. Together we will work towards building a stronger brand through the creation of valuable and differentiated products in the payments space”.

Excited to join the Razorpay team, Arif Khan, Chief Innovation Officer at Razorpay said, “The disruption in the payment industry has undoubtedly changed the way financial services are provided and consumed today. Startups and emerging companies such as Razorpay are widely being seen as the driving force behind the Fintech boom, as they are able to innovate, create new business models and harness the efficiencies created by this latest wave of disruption. Having followed the scale & growth of Razorpay closely in recent times, I am excited to be at the centre of this action and will be focussing on leveraging advances in financial services and technology to create new products and solutions for Razorpay merchants”.

As one of India’s fastest growing payment platforms, Razorpay is disrupting conventional payment mechanisms across the country. Spearheading the adoption of UPI, Razorpay was the first payment gateway to make the payment option available for its entire merchant base. Razorpay is one of the first India-based company to be supported by Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley incubator, along with being invested in by top venture capital firms, Tiger Global, Matrix Partners & Mastercard.

74% Indians Prefer Self-Driving Cars, Says IBM

In October 2016, we reported that a survey by World Economic Forum had revealed that as much as 85 percent of adult Indians are willing to ride in self-driving vehicles. Now, after six months, an another survey conducted by tech giant IBM has revealed that Indian consumers show a high level of interest in the intelligent, intuitive and self-driving cars.

Titled "Auto 2025", the survey was conducted across 16 countries and shows that Indian consumers are very interested in all aspects of automated car functioning such as self-driving, self-healing, self-configuring, and self-integrating. Indians selected self-driving capabilities most often with 74% of people preferring it. Even the least selected self-integrating capability is appealing to 69% of Indian consumers, said the survey.

The survey finding said that 53% of Indian consumers consider themselves tech-savvy, which is much ahead of the 38% number in growth market and 40% in mature market.

"Consumers in India are more keen on trying out new things, with ongoing digitisation, and they are more aggressive than the growth markets," said Alexander Scheidt, VicePresident and Executive Partner, Global Automotive Industry leader, IBM.

Scheidt added that over 10% of the population in India, which is a huge number, is open to new models and new ways of mobility which should prompt the industry to think about catering to the needs and providing the services.

The survey also said that 97% of Indian respondent want to own or drive a car in the next ten years, and among them -- 35 years and older respondents expect their use of personal cars as their primary mode of transportation to drop by 12% by 2025, but anticipate their use of car & ride-sharing will double.

Sriram Lakshminarayanan, automotive Industry Leader, Client Innovation Center, IBM India, said "Autonomous cars is still a wish-list item for India since most of the cars in the country are not even application enabled". He added that the first steps towards automation and connected cars in India should be subscription-based services that offer basic utility alerts such as headlights left open, doors unlocked, or car-tracking facility on the driver's smartphone.

To recall, nuTonomy, a MIT startup which had already launched its self-driving cabs on the roads of Singapore, last year, thinks that self driving cars will not work in India due its dense traffic condition [Read Here].

Notably, teams at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) are currently meticulously working on ‘autonomous vehicle solutions’ or self driving car which can tackle Indian roads with dense traffic.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

Meet 8 Finalist Startups Selected for Qualcomm Design in India Challenge II

Qualcomm Incorporated finally revealed the names of the top lucky eight finalists in the first cycle of Qualcomm Design in India Challenge II (QDIC II), registrations for which began in January this year.

Launched in association with National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), QDIC aims to encourage product companies in India to come up with out-of-the-box, innovative hardware product designs that incorporate Qualcomm technologies and platforms.

For the uninitiated, Qualcomm's technologies has been credited for powering the smartphone revolution and connecting billions of people as a result of it. Its products are now revolutionising several industries, including IoT, healthcare, automotive, computing, and data center, and are allowing millions of devices to connect with each other in ways that could never be imagined before.

In January this year, Qualcomm announced an investment of a whopping USD $8.5 million for expansion of its design initiatives in the Indian subcontinent under a newly formed program called the ‘Qualcomm Design in India Program’ (QDIP). Under this program, it announced two key initiatives:

• The Qualcomm Design in India Challenge II, which will be conducted in two Cycles through the year, one in one in January and the second in May.

• The launch of a new Qualcomm Innovation Lab (QIL) at Hyderabad and expansion of the corporation's current Innovation Lab in Bangalore to enable Indian mobile and IoT ecosystem by providing advanced Camera, Audio, and RF design assistance.

The final eight startups of the first cycle of QDIC II were selected through a selection process which concluded with an extensive pitch session in March 2017.

The selected eight companies will now be incubated in the Qualcomm Innovation Lab and two winners will each receive a prize money of USD $75,000 at the end of the incubation period expected in August 2017.

Here's a brief description of the eight shortlisted companies for the second edition of the QDIC:

1) Name: iBot Control Systems India Pvt. Ltd.
Founders: Ravi Subramanyam
Website: www.iamibot.com

Founded in the year 2011, iBot is working towards creating the world's first DIY for the Internet of Things, targeted at consumers, manufacturers and operators globally. Backed by Microsoft Accelerator, iBot aims to do for machines, what Intel did for the computer. Its product suite enables machine-to-machine (M2M), human-to-machine (H2M) and machine-to-system (M2S) interactions; thereby giving birth to a framework for interconnectedness between humans and machines to create smarter everything a.k.a “Smartiverse”. The startup's mission is to make a single board that can be used by industry and academia to build IoT apps with iBot Toolsets.

2) Name: Avanijal Agri Automation Pvt. Ltd.
Founders: Channabasappa Kolar, Vijayeendra H S
Website: www.avanijal.com

Born with an aim of addressing farmer's irrigation needs in India, the startup designs and develops Irrigation Systems/Controllers that helps farmers in growing more produce with less water, labour and electricity. The controllers designed by Avanijal make it extremely easy for anyone to irrigate, fertigate and flush water filter through mobile phones and helps farmers avoid those odd hour farm visits. The controller supports basic time, volume and sensor based precision irrigation. It also supports wired and wireless valve/sensor connections.

3) Name: Alexapath
Founders: Duval Palsana, Lou Auguste, Shishir Malav
Website: www.alexapath.com

The Bengaluru-based startup is working towards disrupting traditional microscopic imaging by turning smartphones into medical diagnostic and imaging tools that too at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Traditional telepathology methods are known to depend heavily on over-priced legacy solutions, with costs anywhere between a whopping $20,000 to $230,000. But Alexapath claims that its patented technology offers a portable, rapid, and a more cost-effective solution. The recipient of 2016 USISTEF Funding, Alexapath is successfully leveraging the smart phone technology to overcome inaccessibility to microscopic diagnosis across the world.

4) Name: iSquare Mobility Pvt. Ltd.
Website: www.isquaremobility.com

Founded in the year 2012 with a specific goal of becoming the go-to Design House for end-to-end mobility solutions across hardware, software, and cloud, iSquare Mobility has come a long way today. The startup is working towards a better India by making a positive impact on the lives of professionals in the Public Health and Education sector by solving day to day problems through clever innovations and cutting-edge technology. Currently, the startup is in the focus for having a solution in the concept stage for a portable wireless tele-medical device to pre-screen breast cancer.

5) Name: Hug Innovations
Founders: Raj Neravati
Website: huginnovations.co.in

Trying to bridge the gap between humans and technology through its wearable technology products, Hug believes that the world is currently in the growing need of a technology that is more of a companion than a gadget. The startup is looking to collaborate and create an ecosystem of service providers, developers and smart devices to continually augment and enhance consumer experience.

The startup's first-of-its-kind device developer platform, “Hug Gestures SDK” enables the integration and extension of a proprietary gesture control technology with smart devices, mobile apps and PC software. This solution is currently in the concept stage.

6) Name: Steradian Semiconductors Pvt. Ltd.
Founders: Apu Sivadas, Ashish Lachhwani, Rakesh Kumar, Gireesh Rajendran
Website: www.steradiansemi.com

Founded by Industry experts in Wireless and RFIC design with more than 50 patents and several publications to their credit, Steradian Semiconductors is fabless semiconductor company focused on CMOS millimeter wave products for Radar. The startup is currently working on building a high resolution 4D radar that will potentially enable true all-weather vision for autonomous vehicles and drones

7) Name: Stellapps Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Founders: Ranjith Mukundan, Mr. Ravishankar G. Shiroor, Praveen Nale, Mr. Ramakrishna Adukuri, Mr.Venkatesh Seshasayee
Website: www.stellapps.com

India's first of its kind end-to-end dairy technology solutions company, Stellapps has been founded by a group of IITians and technologists with a strong industry background and rich experience. Funded by Omnivore Capital – a fund anchored by Godrej Agrovet Limited and investment patrons include a large group of IIT alumni, Stellapps produces and procures comprehensive farm optimization and monitoring support, which helps dairy farmers and cooperatives maximize their profits while minimizing effort.

The startup's innovative applications and state-of-the-art mechanization tools leverage Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud, Mobility, and Data Analytics to improve Agri- supply chain parameters, including milk production, milk procurement, cold chain, animal insurance and farmer payments. Its concept includes a Wi-Fi sensor module, a wiimote and IoT router that can be used for smart automatic milk collection unit and cold-chain monitoring, as part of Stellapps IoT platform.

8) Name: Tagbox Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Founders: Adarsh Kumar, Saumitra Singh
Website: www.tagbox.in

The Bengaluru-based startup enables its clients to create more reliable and sustainable cold chains through providing them solutions at the intersection of Internet of Things, Advanced Analytics and Automation & Control. It is currently working towards creating an ultra-low power wireless platform that can significantly improve the efficiency of cold storage and logistics by monitoring and controlling key health parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, gas, energy, and others.

TataCLiQ.com Appoints Sauvik Banerjjee as CTO and Behram Sabawala as the CFO

TataCLiQ.com, Tata group’s multi-brand Phygital e-commerce player, today announced key leadership appointments. Mr. Sauvik Banerjjee joins the leadership team as the Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Kishore Mardikar as Chief – Brand Marketing and Institutional Sales and Mr. Behram Sabawala as the Chief Financial Officer. TataCLiQ.com has witnessed a multi-fold growth since its launch in May 2016 and is looking to foray into newer categories and expanding its brand portfolio.

“We are pleased to have Sauvik, Kishore and Behram on board with us at an exciting stage of our journey. Since launch, TataCLiQ.com has seen multi-fold growth and has been partnering with several retail organizations in our Phygital evolution. I am sure that with their collective knowledge and expertise, we can build on this momentum further and deliver on our value of an authentic and brand forward experience to our consumers,” said Ashutosh Pandey, CEO, Tata CLiQ.com.

Sauvik Banerjjee joins Tata Industries as Vice President – Digital Initiatives, and has been deputed to Tata CLiQ as the Chief Technology Officer. He will focus on strengthening the technology backbone of the company for superior customer experience. A tech evangelist and entrepreneur by heart, Sauvik has built two successful start-ups and is on the board of advisors for several companies and start-ups alike. He has been responsible for disruptive innovation ideas in technology and omni-channel commerce that have earned him the distinction and title of being one of the only 6 people (the only person of Indian origin) in the world to have worked on all global omni channel platforms. Prior to joining TataCLiQ.com, Banerjjee was the Chief of Technology for SAP Global’s omni-channel and digital vertical and was responsible for developing the architecture of TataCLiQ.com and Reliance Jio. He holds a Doctorate from University of Sunderland and Durham University.

As Chief – Brand Marketing and Institutional Sales, Kishore will spearhead the marketing and customer retention initiatives at TataCLiQ.com, and will also build the institutional sales setup. A TAS Manager of year 2000, Kishore brings along with him experience in the areas of Marketing, Sales and Operations across sectors such as Telecom, Hospitality, and Airlines. Kishore started his career with Tata Technologies and held key positions at Tata Teleservices Ltd. and Roots Corporation Ltd (Ginger). Prior to joining TataCLiQ.com, he served as the Vice President, Marketing at TATA SIA Airlines Limited (Vistara) where he played key role in the launch of Vistara brand and building its Frequent Flyer program – Club Vistara. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Management from National Institute of Industrial Engineering.

Behram Sabawala joins Tata CLiQ.com as the Chief Financial Officer. Behram is a Chartered Accountant with more than three decades' experience across areas such as Audit, Banking, Treasury, Finance and Accountancy both in India and overseas, most recently in Africa. He joined the Tata Group in January 2002 as Chief – Corporate Finance at Tata International Ltd. He then moved within the Tata Group to Voltas Ltd., where he was Sr. General Manager Finance and CFO – Products. He also worked with Drive India Enterprise Solutions Ltd. (DIESL), which operates in the supply chain management / logistics space, as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Prior to joining TataCLiQ.com, Behram served as CFO for Tata International’s Distribution vertical at Tata Africa, based in Johannesburg.

The leadership team of TataCLiQ.com also includes Vikas Purohit, who is the Chief Operating Officer and Reuben Pandian, Head- Omni Channel, who is spearheading the Phygital effort for the company.

Sauvik, Kishore and Behram will be based out of the TataCLiQ.com office in Mumbai.

This Coimbatore Startup Wants To Make Smart-Homes Affordable To Everyone in India

Coimbatore-based Karsan technologies has decided to make every Indian home smarter than ever with its stellar debut product, Smitch.

Imagine a home which knows you better, understands you better and helps you save your hard-earned money by managing your electricity consumptions without you having to compromise and make changes in your lifestyle. Karsan technologies' Smitch is a tiny WiFi enabled smart module which makes all this possible.

Launched with a mission of making every home in India a smart home by 2030, the extremely compact WiFi enabled smart module goes comfortably behind your switchboard and lets you control your lights, fan and electrical points right through your smartphone (mobile app) or voice (Amazon echo).

How Does It Work?

The Smitch modules has an in-built WiFi chip through which they directly connect to your existing router without requiring any external hub. This particular feature lets you control and monitor your home from anywhere in the world at anytime of the day/night. It meticulously monitors your energy consumption and then provides you with detailed analytics which can help you in cutting down your energy bills significantly.

What Makes Smitch Different From Other Home Automation Products?

Though Smitch faces tough competition in the market from products like Silvan, Oakter, Pert and Homebot etc., but the product holds on its own as unlike other home automation products, it doesn't require a hub to function. This automatically helps in reducing the cost of automation significantly. Karsan technologies claims that Smitch is 30% more affordable than its competitors. In addition to this, Smitch is extremely compact and sits comfortably behind a user's existing switchboard, which means it saves them the trouble of replacing their switchboards or rewiring their existing cables.

The Founders

Karsan technologies was started by two 19-year-old Robotics and Automation engineering students, Sanath Kumar and Pragadheesh Raj in August, 2015. The duo decided to give up the prospects of having cushiony jobs for their love for building products and automation. They decided to leap whole-heartedly into entrepreneurship after the completion of their degree. The duo already have a couple of patents under their names, both combined and individually.

The young duo already owns a patent under their name: Home Automation Controlled Both Manually And Remotely (Patent issuer and number in India 5554/CHE/2015).

Sanath kumar also owns two other patents in the Home automation space viz Automatic Switch Actuation Systems & Economic Energy Management For Telecommunication Towers.

Pragadheesh published his paper 'Flexible Automation System for Industrial Transformer Testing' in the 'International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation'.

Journey So Far

The startup, which received a whopping Rs.3 crores angel funding in December 2015 within a couple of months of its launch, now has over 400 homes in Coimbatore automated by Smitch. It is currently in the midst of locking in deals with several builders and property developers in Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai to be their one stop Home automation provider. With an average conversion rate of around 23 per cent, Smitch numbers have been phenomenal so far.

Plan Ahead

With Smitch already making its presence feel in metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, Karsan technologies plans to expand the joy of affordable home automation to several other cities across India by the end of the 2017-18 FY.

Website: http://mysmitch.com/
App: https://appsto.re/in/jZ7_fb.i

This Coimbatore Startup Wants To Make Smart-Homes Affordable To Everyone in India

Coimbatore-based Karsan technologies has decided to make every Indian home smarter than ever with its stellar debut product, Smitch.

Imagine a home which knows you better, understands you better and helps you save your hard-earned money by managing your electricity consumptions without you having to compromise and make changes in your lifestyle. Karsan technologies' Smitch is a tiny WiFi enabled smart module which makes all this possible.

Launched with a mission of making every home in India a smart home by 2030, the extremely compact WiFi enabled smart module goes comfortably behind your switchboard and lets you control your lights, fan and electrical points right through your smartphone (mobile app) or voice (Amazon echo).

How Does It Work?

The Smitch modules has an in-built WiFi chip through which they directly connect to your existing router without requiring any external hub. This particular feature lets you control and monitor your home from anywhere in the world at anytime of the day/night. It meticulously monitors your energy consumption and then provides you with detailed analytics which can help you in cutting down your energy bills significantly.

What Makes Smitch Different From Other Home Automation Products?

Though Smitch faces tough competition in the market from products like Silvan, Oakter, Pert and Homebot etc., but the product holds on its own as unlike other home automation products, it doesn't require a hub to function. This automatically helps in reducing the cost of automation significantly. Karsan technologies claims that Smitch is 30% more affordable than its competitors. In addition to this, Smitch is extremely compact and sits comfortably behind a user's existing switchboard, which means it saves them the trouble of replacing their switchboards or rewiring their existing cables.

The Founders

Karsan technologies was started by two 19-year-old Robotics and Automation engineering students, Sanath Kumar and Pragadheesh Raj in August, 2015. The duo decided to give up the prospects of having cushiony jobs for their love for building products and automation. They decided to leap whole-heartedly into entrepreneurship after the completion of their degree. The duo already have a couple of patents under their names, both combined and individually.

The young duo already owns a patent under their name: Home Automation Controlled Both Manually And Remotely (Patent issuer and number in India 5554/CHE/2015).

Sanath kumar also owns two other patents in the Home automation space viz Automatic Switch Actuation Systems & Economic Energy Management For Telecommunication Towers.

Pragadheesh published his paper 'Flexible Automation System for Industrial Transformer Testing' in the 'International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation'.

Journey So Far

The startup, which received a whopping Rs.3 crores angel funding in December 2015 within a couple of months of its launch, now has over 400 homes in Coimbatore automated by Smitch. It is currently in the midst of locking in deals with several builders and property developers in Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai to be their one stop Home automation provider. With an average conversion rate of around 23 per cent, Smitch numbers have been phenomenal so far.

Plan Ahead

With Smitch already making its presence feel in metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, Karsan technologies plans to expand the joy of affordable home automation to several other cities across India by the end of the 2017-18 FY.

Website: http://mysmitch.com/
App: https://appsto.re/in/jZ7_fb.i

PayTM Founder Wants Every Rich Indian To Invest in Startups

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, whose own mobile wallet and ecommerce company is backed by Chinese investors, believes that the Indian subcontinent has enough resources to survive itself if the rich of the land take some responsibility and start investing in small businesses. Speaking at an event, Sharma shared that most of the Indian startups have to look overseas for money for the lack of investors in the domestic circle.

With a large ecosystem of over 4,500 startups, India is currently the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. Experts believes that if majority of the traditional businesses of the country pitch in, the sector has the potential of becoming number one in no time.

"I am all for domestic investments. I want every domestic rich person to start putting money in startups. I truly call upon on them. India's old economy companies should bring that capital back to put money in startups. Why do we need outside investors when we can have people from inside (the nation)," said Sharma at an event when asked to share his views on the capital dumping issue by global firms, which has resulted in closing of doors to entrepreneurship in many sectors including online marketplace and taxi aggregation.

Sharma isn't the first Indian entrepreneur to raise this issue. In the past, several Indian entrepreneurs have pointed towards the lack of interest within the country to take the Indian startup industry forward, leaving them no option but to turn to foreign investors.
It is important to note here that when a foreign investor comes in, the money that the startup makes on their investments goes into the pockets of these foreign investors and adds on the economy of their respective countries. So, in the end, the money which could have gone into the Indian economy if a startup would have had an Indian investor goes into the economy of a foreign land.

It was only last month that Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal had shared about the current situation of the Indian startup ecosystem and acknowledged the fact that what is currently happening in the industry is something which hasn't happened anywhere in the world. Talking about the large amount of capital being dumped in the country in order to win maximum market share, Bansal pointed towards the fact that there's an uneven playing field made available to Indian startups in their own country against those settling here from elsewhere.

Similar views have also been echoed by MakeMyTrip CEO Deep Kalra who believes that the Indian government has ended up taking the motto of Atithi Devo Bhava to a whole different level altogether. Pointing towards the stiff competition that the company is facing in surviving in its own country against global rivals such as Airbnb and Expedia expanding their base in India, Kalra said that though he isn't averse to foreign companies coming to the Indian subcontinent but these companies are often met with a different treatment through government policies, which makes them uncompetitive.

Interestingly, even though the Paytm founder is now voicing his concerns about capital dumping by global players, his own company, which has investments from China's Ant Financial, has been accused of dumping capital to gain the customer base by its Indian rivals including Mobikwik.

Let's hope that a good majority of Indian business elite are able to rise to the occasion and invest the money that they have earned off the Indian market back in it by investing in the Indian startup ecosystem.

[Top Image: bloombergquint]

New Web Portal and Mobile App Launches for Micro and Small Enterprises in India

Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting launched two important initiatives of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Ministry of MSME), viz. Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council (MSEFC) portal and MyMSME Mobile App on the occasion of the 15th Meeting of the National Board for MSME. Both these initiatives brought online all MSME schemes and 3700 delayed payment cases that involve an amount of Rs. 1650 Crore.

MSEFC Assist in Monitoring of Delayed Payments

Kalraj Mishra said that Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council (MSEFC) portal, would facilitate implementation of the delayed payment provisions of the MSMED Act 2006 and also assist in monitoring of delayed payment cases. This online platform is expected to be a significant step in the direction of Digital India from the perspective of the MSME Sector in the country. With the access to this platform, micro and small enterprises would be able to file their delayed payment related grievances online. The grievance filed would be communicated through email and SMS to the parties involved. It would also help officers of the Ministry of MSME as well as the State Government concerned in monitoring the progress of cases both at the State and National levels.

Mishra also confirmed that most of the States have already uploaded the information regarding delayed payment cases on MSEFC portal. As on 31.03.2017, 3690 cases involving an amount of Rs.1660 crore are being considered by various MSEFCs. In fact, the online portal would be of great help to start-ups since delayed payment is probably the single biggest problem for start-ups.

MyMSME App to Provide Information of All Schemes

To enable the MSMEs to lead in the era of M-Governance, the MyMSME Mobile App has been launched. It provides information on all schemes implemented by the Ministry of MSME at one place. The MSME units have had always been complaining that information on all schemes were not available at a single place. Such a compilation is certainly the need of the hour so as to ensure that entrepreneurs need not be searching multiple windows for help or information.

With the help of MyMSME mobile app Ministry of MSME would be providing one single window to MSMEs to access information on all schemes implemented by the Ministry and as well as apply for any of them. And MSMEs can also lodge grievances pertaining to Ministry of MSME through this app.

Moreover, the ministry of MSME has embarked on the journey to make every scheme online.  Its internet grievance monitoring system has already resolved the grievances of more than 3000 persons.

 

Fintech Firm MintWalk Raises Funding from Former Religare CEO Shachindra Nath

MintWalk (GetClarity Fintech Services), a leading goal-based, SEBI-registered robo-advisory platform today announced a funding by Mr. Shachindra Nath, Ex – Group CEO of Religare Enterprises, through Poshika, his Investment and mentoring vehicle. He has also agreed to be the Chief Mentor of MintWalk.

Co-Founded by private equity industry veterans and IIM alumni, Nikhil Banerjee and Shiv Nandan Negi, MintWalk ("GetClarity Fintech Services Pvt. Ltd"), crafted by experts, is on a mission to provide honest financial solutions to help people reach their goals. MintWalk is a new financial services platform to answer the question –“How do I achieve my Dreams?”

On the occasion, Mr. ShachindraNath commented, “Having built large financial services businesses from scratch, I am of the firm view that passion and commitment differentiate between success and failure in entrepreneurship. I found Nikhil and Shiv have real intensity to solve the problem of the investing world. Their goal based approach is simple yet unique and their machine learning and analytical algorithms are quite strong. I am sure very soon this would be a market leading platform in India.

Shiv Nandan Negi, Co-founder, MintWalk said, “In a country with single digit penetration across financial products, we require a different strategy to drive financial adoption. We look at Shachindra's coming aboard as a validation of our approach.”

Nikhil Banerjee, Co-founder, MintWalk said, “with the guidance of Shachindra, we are confident of growing our business and creating a benchmark for the industry. Shachindra will contribute to MintWalk’s overall strategy, and mentor us on building out the platform and capturing the sizeable opportunity in front of us.”

Focusing on the concept of achieving life’s goals and dreams, MintWalk provides a clean, immersive, non-intimidating user experience which is focused on decision making and tracking the portfolio. A key feature that MintWalk provides is the periodic review of your investments as and when you’re moving towards your goal, and based on aberrations, the App suggests course correction or modification of investments, thus ensuring that the user does not waver from his goal.

Mintwalk combines world class analytics, thriving on patterns, transactions and feedback data allowing it to upgrade itself constantly and provide intuitive & relevant user experience. The app is now live on Google Play Store (iOS/ web version work-in-progress).

Hitachi India Appoints Bharat Kaushal as the Managing Director

Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd. (Hitachi India) today announced the appointment of Mr. Bharat Kaushal as the Managing Director of Hitachi India. Bharat will be the first Indian to spearhead Hitachi India’s operations. He succeeds Mr. Kojin Nakakita who has been elevated as Chairman of Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd. and Hitachi Asia Ltd. The new appointment will be effective from 1st June 2017.

Bharat is currently serving as Chairman in India of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). He is the first non-Japanese to be appointed as SMBC India’s CEO and served the role between 2012 and 2015.

In his new role, Bharat will focus on promoting Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business in India. Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business resolves issues faced by society and customers by combining advanced IT with operational technology (OT) and products/systems, allowing us to provide total solutions.

Hitachi India was declared the 5th regional headquarter for Hitachi in 2011. Other key management areas outside Japan are China, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas. Hitachi Group in India operates in diverse verticals including information and communication systems, industrial systems like water, oil and gas supply and management, transportation and urban development systems.

Speaking on the appointment, Mr. Kojin Nakakita said, “The management at Hitachi unanimously believed in the decision of appointing an Indian to lead the company’s ambitious and challenging mandate. India is a strategic and emerging market for us. Bharat is ideally credentialed to drive Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business in India. We feel his experience in promoting cross-border business relationships between Japanese and Indian Government and companies is a unique leverage. We are extremely confident of Bharat’s leadership and pioneering vision and I will personally support him in driving our business to achieve unprecedented growth.”

Commenting on his new remit, Mr. Bharat Kaushal said, “It is a privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of leading a company with an iconic legacy. I will aim at aggressively expanding Hitachi’s Social Innovation Business by building on the core ethos of the company. I look forward to being part of an already winning team and taking Hitachi to new heights by contributing to improvement of customers and the society.”

Bharat has over 25 years of industry experience specializing in macroeconomic policy, Government advisory, project finance, debt restructuring and mergers and acquisitions. He is currently a member of the Indo-Japan Task Force (IJTF) set-up by the two Governments and is the Convenor of the Financial Strategy Group to address policy as well as operational level concerns of Japanese Government and private sector institutions pursuing business opportunities in India.

Bharat has worked with SMBC for 20 years. While the greater part of his career has been in investment banking, he also served successful assignments as Strategy Advisor to the India Investment Center, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India and as part of the Economic Policy Unit of the World Bank in Washington DC.

Bharat is an alumnus of Columbia University, where he pursued a Masters in International Affairs (MIA) and Northeastern University where he secured a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). He graduated from St Stephen's College, Delhi.

Nitin Khanna, US based Serial Tech-Entrepreneur Invests $5 Mn in Punjab-based Startup, Isos Inc

Portland-based serial Tech-Entrepreneur, Nitin Khanna, has invested US$ 5 million in a Punjab based startup iSoS Inc, an investee company which is developing productivity enhancement solutions like smart attendance, real-time tracking and monitoring, inventory management, cashless transactions, security management etc. The startup was also awarded as “Innovative Idea of the Year” by Tiecon Chandigarh 2017.

Founded in 2016 and based out of Mohali, Punjab, iSOS stands for Integrated Smart Office Solution which offers Smart Office software solutions such as - Beacon, Smart attendance, inventory management, Real Time Monitoring, and Live tracking.

Nitin Khanna, who is also the CEO of MergerTech an M&A firm based out of Oregon, Portland said, "Indian start-up eco-system has gotten the attention of the world. The best part about India is that tech entrepreneurship is abounding in Tier 2 cities as well from where some very brilliant ideas and services have made successes as startups. With productivity being the key for most companies, Isos serves an essential need and we see growth in this segment.” “After working as an investment banker overseas, I have come across many potential start-ups around the globe, but the zeal and commitment showcased by the Indian entrepreneurs, hailing from small towns is amazing. Today, investors are much more willing to invest in start-up, but the problem is identifying the right start-up to invest and scale it has been the area of my expertise", Khanna added.

He was the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Saber Corp., one of the largest providers of state government solutions in the United States. He co-founded Saber in July 1998 and helped grow it to 1200 employees and over $120MM in revenue by 2007 when it was sold to EDS for $460MM.

Under Nitin Khanna's leadership, MergerTech recently facilitated the sale of Simple; an Internet banking start-up based in Portland, Oregon, to BBVA, a Spanish bank. The latter paid over $115 million for Simple, which attracted a buyer on the strength of its personal finance services accessible through its customers' smart phones. The deal represents the largest sale of a Portland venture in the last several years.

MergerTech is a global M&A advisory firm that works with technology entrepreneurs to maximize their outcome by finding the ideal financial or strategic acquirer. As the dominant firm in this space, MergerTech provides one service—passionate sell-side representation of technology clients who expect a sale price of $10MM-$200MM for their company.

Introducing 'WikiTribune' - A New Tool By Wikipedia Founder To Battle Fake News

The topic of fake news has caught everyone's attention like never before. Though the phenomenon has been existent since the conception of journalism but it gained some major traction with the advent of the internet. Seeing the issue ballooning up, a number of tech giants decided to jump in and curtail the problem as much as they can. Earlier in the year, we reported how Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook finally launched its much-awaited 'disputed' tag to fight 'fake news' on its famous social networking site. And now, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has announced Wikitribune, a news platform that will bring together journalists with a legion of fact-checkers.

According to the platform, its main aim is to ensure that people all around the world are lifted of this curse called fake news and they only read true fact-based articles that can contribute towards having a real impact on both local and global events.

Though Wikitribune will be publishing news stories written by professional journalists, but it will give internet users the ability to propose factual corrections and additions if any, almost similar to the model being followed by Wikipedia. All the changes and additions suggested will be reviewed by volunteer fact-checkers towards the end.

In order to ensure transparency, which is somewhere missing in today's journalism practices, Wikitribune will try to be as transparent about its sources as possible and post full transcripts of its interviews, as well as videos and audios.

Further, at Wikitribune, the language used in its stories will be neutral and factual and not favour one party over another. According to Wales, "It takes professional, standards-based journalism, and incorporates the radical idea from the world of wiki that a community of volunteers can and will reliably protect the integrity of information."

Wikitribune has been designed with an intent of counteracting fake news spreading on social media. It has been seen that fake news has a potential of spreading like a wild fire on social media in a matter of seconds and cause major havoc and panic among people. It fundamentally breaks the news and shows us what we want to read in order to confirm our biases, and to keep making us click on those links at any cost.

Though the Wikipedia founder is now trying to make the world a better informed society, it is interesting to note that prior to Wikitribune, he was on the other side of the road. Wales' internet encyclopedia has often run into troubles for hosting misleading or inaccurate information, as at 10 edits per second. Being a community platform, Wikipedia often finds it difficult to single out miscreants who purposefully plant false information.

It will be interesting to see what damage control Wikitribune is able to achieve in the world full of fake news.

Introducing 'WikiTribune' - A New Tool By Wikipedia Founder To Battle Fake News

The topic of fake news has caught everyone's attention like never before. Though the phenomenon has been existent since the conception of journalism but it gained some major traction with the advent of the internet. Seeing the issue ballooning up, a number of tech giants decided to jump in and curtail the problem as much as they can. Earlier in the year, we reported how Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook finally launched its much-awaited 'disputed' tag to fight 'fake news' on its famous social networking site. And now, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has announced Wikitribune, a news platform that will bring together journalists with a legion of fact-checkers.

According to the platform, its main aim is to ensure that people all around the world are lifted of this curse called fake news and they only read true fact-based articles that can contribute towards having a real impact on both local and global events.

Though Wikitribune will be publishing news stories written by professional journalists, but it will give internet users the ability to propose factual corrections and additions if any, almost similar to the model being followed by Wikipedia. All the changes and additions suggested will be reviewed by volunteer fact-checkers towards the end.

In order to ensure transparency, which is somewhere missing in today's journalism practices, Wikitribune will try to be as transparent about its sources as possible and post full transcripts of its interviews, as well as videos and audios.

Further, at Wikitribune, the language used in its stories will be neutral and factual and not favour one party over another. According to Wales, "It takes professional, standards-based journalism, and incorporates the radical idea from the world of wiki that a community of volunteers can and will reliably protect the integrity of information."

Wikitribune has been designed with an intent of counteracting fake news spreading on social media. It has been seen that fake news has a potential of spreading like a wild fire on social media in a matter of seconds and cause major havoc and panic among people. It fundamentally breaks the news and shows us what we want to read in order to confirm our biases, and to keep making us click on those links at any cost.

Though the Wikipedia founder is now trying to make the world a better informed society, it is interesting to note that prior to Wikitribune, he was on the other side of the road. Wales' internet encyclopedia has often run into troubles for hosting misleading or inaccurate information, as at 10 edits per second. Being a community platform, Wikipedia often finds it difficult to single out miscreants who purposefully plant false information.

It will be interesting to see what damage control Wikitribune is able to achieve in the world full of fake news.

Hyperlocal Delivery Startup Scootsy Raises Pre-Series A Funding of $3.6M

After completing a year and a half of successful business operations in Mumbai, Scootsy has raised funding of $3.6 million in a pre-series A round led by Agnus Capital and Khattar Holdings. AntFarm, Scootsy's incubator, has also participated in this investment round.

Founded in July 2015 by Rishi Khiani and Sandeep Das, Scootsy delivers quality products to consumers quickly and efficiently. Scootsy works with a combination of leading and small-scale businesses across food, sweets and bakes, books, beauty products, fashion and gifts to offer consumers an unparalleled end-to-end experience that redefines the home delivery experience.

With a customer base of over 200,000 since its launch, Scootsy has quickly scaled to become the premium app of choice in the city with a base that comprises industrialists, celebrities and spans generations including millennials who appreciate the curation of products on offer.

One of Scootsy’s clear differentiators is their premium positioning which includes bringing on exclusive brands such as Hamleys, ROYCE’, The Bombay Canteen, The Table, Nicobar, Condé Nast magazines and Jean-Claude Biguine. This also comes through in an average order size of above Rs 900, an amount that is 2.5 times that of the competition.

With the new round of funding, Scootsy plans to improve customer experience by further strengthening its logistics, technologies and delivery platform. Scootsy will also add to its offerings with Scootsy Express, a service that will deliver food to corporate offices across the city within minutes. Additionally, Scootsy will launch Scootsy Pop-Up, a kitchen and distribution platform that will be available to iconic brands from across the country.

Furthermore, with its focus on curating and empowering quality small medium enterprise, Scootsy has given brands like Sugar Rush, MamaZ, Bono Ice Cream and Bawi Bride a platform to access a wider customer base and a highly monetisable sales and distribution channel. Funds will be also be utilised to bring more of these brands to life and continue its support in growing the local retail entrepreneurial ecosystem.

IBM Has A 'New' Focus on Indian Startups

When you're at the top, it is almost given that people are going to notice you and try to take a share of your pie. A similar thing is happening to the Indian startup ecosystem which seems to have caught technology giant IBM's eyes. The Indian startup ecosystem, which is currently the third largest startup ecosystem in the world and has the potential of becoming number one someday has tempted IBM to align a new focus on the ecosystem and speed up its efforts to interact with it.

Speaking to Gadgets 360, Nipun Mehrotra, IBM's Chief Digital Officer for India and South Asia threw light on how until now the giant had been doing these efforts in various nooks and corners across the country but under the new organisation that IBM has become under him, they have realigned their focus on the startup ecosystem and the goal is now to provide a more centralised support structure for the startup ecosystem.

The organisation acknowledges the fact that when it comes to startups, they have experimented very little but with their new focus in place and the process being streamlined at the global level, things are going to change for better.

The technology giant is optimistic that it can help young entrepreneurs and startups with a number of things such as India stack integration etc. Further, it can also extend a helping hand in interfacing them with the various government agencies as well as businesses that can be their customers.
Though IBM's interest in the startup ecosystem is great for the industry but it seems to have come much late. Several other technology giants such as Google and Amazon which could be described upstarts in the past years are also vying for the same startups and have been meticulously working on areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and machine learning, and so on. The list also includes social networking giant Facebook and software giant Microsoft.

Mehrotra addresses this problem in the interview and says that many of the young entrepreneurs and startups might find IBM's counterparts more interesting than them because they are consumer facing, and IBM's customers are pretty different. But, according to him, the real thing is that they have actually been in the forefront. While others have been experimenting with chatbots, IBM's Watson platform is the one that has been providing actual intelligence.

Mehrotra further clarified his company's stance and says that IBM is in fact very industry oriented. Though people might not automatically think of them because they weren't the ones behind starting IoT, or wearable approach to machine learning. But, those were more visible, and not a deep problem.

IBM's biggest strength is in enterprises, but according to Mehrotra, IBM would be open to working with consumer facing startups as well. This is because many-a-times there are products that the startups aren't even aware are capable of solving a requirement that IBM's customers might have. "A consumer product can be very useful in a B2B market as well, because eventual our customers are B2C, so there is an end user you have to develop for, said Mehrotra.

IBM believes that there still a lot of unexplored terrain when it comes to areas such as education, fintech, e-commerce, and health, and these are the areas that the giant would like to invest its attention in when working with startups. According to Mehrotra, IBM's focus is on deep technology and how they can make a difference with it when combined with the right business model.

Referring to the large enterprise clients that work with the giant, Mehrotra claims IBM has the biggest biggest customer base in the industry which helps them get deep insight into how the overall market is looking time to time, and what all niches exist to be populated. According to Mehrotra, IBM basically has two approaches to the scenario. Sometimes, they work with people to build things from the ground up, and at other times they try finding a startup that's doing something, and a customer that has the same need, or bring multiple startups together to work together and build a solution.

The best thing is, that IBM isn't actually investing any of its money in doing this- instead the company offers startups consultations on business and technology, access to talent and tools within the company, and applies it's invaluable design thinking principles to their businesses and prepares them build for the future.

Though IBM might be a little late to the party, but as they say, "better late than never."

Gaining Foothold in China Market, Capillary Technologies Appoints Tony Wang as its Director of Technology

Expanding its horizons, Capillary Technologies announces the initiation of its first technology team overseas, with Tony Wang as its newly appointed Director of Technology. Recognizing the growth potential China offers, the home-grown company, based in Bengaluru, is all geared up to commence its first 10-member technology team outside of India.

Tony Wang comes with over 20 years of extensive experience in IT software R&D, system implementation, and technology management across various industries including retail and finance. He has previously worked with leading global companies such as Bertelsmann, Oracle, Autodesk, Arvato services etc.

Capillary Technologies is bridging the gap and equipping retailers with cutting-edge, SaaS-based, customer engagement suite of products and solutions, recently launched a social CRM for China-based app WeChat and is also integrating its e-commerce CRM with Alibaba-owned online retailers Tmall and Taobao Mall. The omnichannel customer engagement and commerce platform company that provides solutions to retailers is also collaborating with apparel retailers like Lee, GXG and VF.

Commenting on the announcement, Aneesh Reddy, CEO and Co-founder, Capillary Technologies commented, “Tony’s appointment is of great strategic importance to us at Capillary. After India, this will be our second development center which will focus entirely on the local market. The purpose is to cater to the local market better so that we can engineer solutions that are relevant to the local demands. Tony comes with a quiver full of rich and diverse experience in domains such as CRM, FMCG, services and finance industries both globally and in China and we are extremely excited about the value addition and expertise he will bring to the table.”

Commenting on his new role, Tony says, "China retail Industry has clearly been a step ahead of all other Asian countries, and Capillary is a rising forerunner with its range of products, including Capillary InStore, Capillary Analytics and Capillary WeChat CRM that have won the loyalty of many businesses. I am excited to join this young and dynamic team and look forward to building future-ready products to take the China business to the next level."

The company is also ramping up its sales and account management teams and customer success teams across India, China, Southeast Asia, Europe, West Asia and Africa.