Hindi Daily Dainik Jagran Kicks-off its Entrepreneurship Initiative with ₹4 Crore of Seed Funding

India’s leading Hindi news daily Dainik Jagran launched the fourth edition of its social entrepreneurship initiative Janhit Jagran last month, offering Incubation and funding in the tune of 4 crore.

Inspired by the Government of India’s Startup vision and committed to promoting entrepreneurship in the areas related to the group’s 7 core concerns -- education, health, water, environment, women empowerment, poverty alleviation and human resource management.

Launched in 2015, Janhit Jagran initiative's first winners were felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since then, the initiative has evolved from being an annual award to an incubation platform and now offers funding up to Rupees 4 crore.

The initiative targets new and existing social startups working in the areas related to its core concerns and has a special incentive for college students with innovative ideas. The enterprise aspirants are offered mentoring and funding support -up to Rs 25 lac for each selected entry - by its incubation partners: Startup Oasis, Foundation for Innovation and Research in Science and Technology - IIT Kanpur, Innovation Park- IIM Calcutta and Technology Business Incubator - KIIT Bhubaneswar. The student applicants get a chance to win training at IIM Calcutta besides cash prizes up to Rs 1 lac.

For expert guidance in various sectors, Janhit has tie ups with prestigious organizations in each one of them – Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership in education, Water Aid in water conservation, UNESCO in environment, PHFI in health, PLAN India in women empowerment and Pradan in poverty alleviation and human resource management.

The program has an elite group of knowledge partners – IRMA and Deshpande Foundation that bring high level insight into design of the initiative and process of evaluating the entries.

In next two months, Janhit will travel to 30 cities across the country with its City Pitches.
If you have an idea for a social enterprise or an innovative idea that can contribute in fixing India’s biggest development challenges, then Apply here.

BetterPlace launches 'SkillConnect', A Digital Bridge for Blue Collar Skilling to Meet Demands of the Industry

BetterPlace, India’s leading technology platform for Blue Collar work-force has launched SkillConnect, a digital platform to bridge the gap between demand and supply for blue collars skilled workforce, by addressing the problem in a holistic manner from industry demand aggregation to sourcing, training, certification and placement, based on industry specific future demand.

Anantkumar Hegde, Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship unveiled the platform to the top industry leaders. On Day 0, SkillConnect indicated availability of more than 20 lakh jobs for the blue-collar workforce.

Pravin Agarwala, Co-founder & CEO, BetterPlace said, “We are seeing that employers are facing a severe shortage of skilled manpower, especially in the high growth sectors like logistics, facility management, security services, On-demand services, schools, etc. Meanwhile, the training institutes are looking for opportunities to place their trained & certified candidates. SkillConnect would be digital bridge to help connect the 2 sides. We are already seeing a demand for 20 Lakh candidates in the next 12 months based on current hiring trends of our customers. The total demand would be more than 2 Crore in the next 12 months.” The Company aims to on board one-lakh employers over the next 18 months, he adds.

Adding to this, T V Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education said, “Indian consumers today demand a world class service, and for industry to deliver that kind of service, there is an un-fulfilled need for a highly skilled workforce to meet the customer’s expectations, be more productive and to be real-life ambassadors of the brand”.

SkillConnect will work as a digital bridge to address the gap between demand and supply of blue-collar jobs pan India. Currently, the training institutes are skilling the candidates based on a fixed curriculum and then they start looking for a job matching with their skills. This doesn’t result in high employment as the industry demand is constantly evolving. Thus, the idea of SkillConnect is to make the platform demand driven so that the training institutes already know the job roles available in the market in a quantifiable manner and train the manpower accordingly.

A digital platform to move 20 million skilled rural youth, into India’s formal economy, in a friction-less manner. We have been looking for technology focused solution to address the challenges of getting reliable data that reflects the demand specifics, so that we can enhance placements by aligning our efforts with the demands of the industry. SkillConnect will help us by aggregating demand based on current hiring trends and future projections provide by employers”, said Manish Kumar, CEO, NSDC.

Highlighting the challenges of both demand and supply side, Saurabh Tandon, Co-founder & COO, BetterPlace said, “On the demand-side for blue collars workforce, besides the shortage of skilled candidates, there are sourcing challenges because the supply consists of ~75% migratory population, mainly coming through an un-organized ecosystem. Technology adoption can give dividends in terms of transparency and cost saving”.

Top employers in verticals like facility management, delivery and logistics, QSR, cab hailing, attended the launch event and have thrown their weight behind the initiative.

“As an industry, the facility management space is currently growing at 15% annually, and the attrition rates are very high especially at the front-line level. Our industry will need more than 10 Lakh people in the next 1 year. Getting trained and ready-to-be-deployed-workforce via an aggregation platform like SkillConnect would be a significant catalyst,” said Sandeep Sethi, MD IFM, JLL, a market leader in the Integrated Facility Management space in the country managing more than 450 million SFT facility space.

BetterPlace, started in 2015, by Pravin Agarwala and Saurabh Tandon, has been working tirelessly to accelerate blue-collar workforce movement from unorganized to a formal economy with an aim to provide them with a better quality of life and a clear career progression path. The launch of SkillConnect is the first of many steps in realizing that vision.

About BetterPlace Safety Solutions, it provides a digital platform for managing the lifecycle of blue-collar employees, like On-boarding, Background Verification, Training. Assessment & Certification, Attendance Management, Financial Service like loans & insurance to employees.

They are trusted by 1,000+ customers across Blue Collar heavy Industries like Private Security, Logistics, Facility Management, IT/ITES, On-Demand Services, Retail, Schools and more.

They have our Corporate Office in Bengaluru & our Regional office in Gurugram.

[Top Image - Saurabh Tondon, Co-founder of BetterPlace © IndianWeb2.com]

Mumbai-based Healthcare App Alivemeter Gets Acquired by Madhyam Corporate Services

Mumbai-based Madhyam corporate services Ltd which has business interests in media and healthcare, said on Tuesday that it has acquired the Diet Health Tech Startup Alivemeter for an undisclosed amount.
Alivemeter’s platform of dieticians and customers that provides cost effective diet plans with rigorous monitoring will be a synergistic addition to our tech enabled preventive healthcare infrastructure, said Mr S K Sharma director – Madhyam corporate public ltd

[caption id="attachment_125879" align="alignleft" width="350"] Tanushri Roy, founder of Alivemeter[/caption]

Alivemeter was founded in early 2016 by Tanushri Guin (Read our Featured Story), a marketing veteran who has worked earlier with large corporate firms such as Times of India, Zee and India today.

"Alivemeters’ robust technology platform along with network partnerships which includes over 70 fitness centres, Healthspring and insurance companies helps dieticians and nutritionists to scale business. We believe that with elements of AI to be added, it will greatly add value to condition management programs that we currently offer to Corporates and Health Insurance firms. Our businesses spread across east and north India & recent expansion in Singapore will augment Alivemeter to increase its consumer base at the same time help us providing an integrated solution to our consumers.” Said Mr Sharma.

"There is an urgent need for greater transparency in India's diet and fitness business. Madhyam has been doing great work in parts of India in preventive healthcare & condition management. It is also working very closely with central and state governments, schools & corporates providing health solutions to employees which in return will help them to improve productivity. I am sure the team would take Alivemeter to higher levels of growth. said Tanushri, Co-Founder & CEO of Alivemeter.

With growing technological advancements, the Indian healthcare sector has seen a rapid transformation especially in online healthcare platforms (OHP) that have emerged to 'democratize' the healthcare system.

Health-related mobile applications and technologies are often known as mHealth and manage the patient experiences.

According to a report, the global mobile health (mHealth) app market is projected to be valued at US$28.320 billion in the year 2018 and is expected to reach US$102.35 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 29.30% during the period.

It may be recalled that, earlier this month, tech giant Google had acquired Seattle-based health monitoring startup Senosis Health, which was founded by Indian-origin Professor Shwetak Patel along with four others.

Prior to this, in last month, LeapFrog Investments, an investor in companies that deliver healthcare and financial services for emerging consumers, has acquired a majority stake in Ascent Meditech, a Mumbai-based Consumer health tech company which own and operate market-leading Flamingo brand.

In August last year, emids, a global provider of IT services and solutions for the healthcare and life sciences industries, had made an acquisition of Encore Health Resources, a leading healthcare information analytics company focused on value-based care and electronic health records for providers.

Soon A $100 Mn Early-Stage Fund to Invest in India's PropTech Startups

Late last month, a new tech alliance was founded with an aim to accelerate the digital transformation of India’s real estate sector. Called as "Built World Technology Alliance" (BWTC), the alliance is being supported by Indian real estate industry leaders Yash Gupta, Anuj Puri and the RMZ Family Office. In a latest development to this, Anuj Puri and Yash Gupta along with CapitalM, the family office of realty developer RMZ Corp, plan to launch a $100 million early-stage fund to invest in companies in the expanding property technology (proptech) segment.

Blue Sky Ventures (BSV), a new venture capital fund has been co-founded by Yash Gupta, Anuj Puri and CapitalM to invest, mentor and create growth opportunities in the proptech space businesses. The alliance will also be lending support to the BWTC alliance and its annual event.

Bluesky plans to raise capital through the alternative investment fund route and both Puri and Gupta will also invest in the proposed fund in their personal capacity.

BSV will invest in early-stage start-ups and will contribute in a direct and significant way to the success of its portfolio companies by leveraging the real estate expertise, operating experience, domain knowledge and relationships of its partners, said a report by Livemint.

The VC fund, which aims to raise the first tranche of capital by the end of this year, aims to encourage innovation in the property sector across the life cycle of a project from conceptualization to occupation and day-to-day management.

India is one of the most dynamic markets in proptech, with the maximum proptech deals since 2013, according to property advisory JLL India. It said the proptech business is dominated by online brokerage platforms aimed at the residential space, with a few players such as JLL India who have built online platforms for commercial brokerage.

Anuj Puri is a former chairman and country head of JLL India, who left the firm in early 2017 to start his own venture, Anarock Property Consultants.

According to Puri, realty sector in India has not been very open to new technologies. “The idea is to back companies that will bring in technology in real estate to increase efficiency and productivity,” he said in a statement.

After setting up Anarock last year, Puri appointed Rahul Yadav, former co-founder and CEO of Housing.com, as chief product and technology officer.

“While there have been a lot of investments in the financial and educational technology, funding in proptech has been fairly untouched but has a lot of opportunities across a project lifecycle,” said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of RMZ family office. Before joining RMZ this year, Goenka was a senior partner at PriceWaterCooper (PwC).

CapitalM is an investor in disruptive real estate technologies and provides Series A to Series C funding to entrepreneurs who have an established product and user base but need growth capital to scale their business. Its recent investments are - CoWrks, a co-working space firm; Smarten Spaces, which is an AI and IoT-enabled space digitisation platform for real estate firms; and, SpazeBud App, a community engagement app that allows community building, forming groups. chatting, virtual stores, medical appointments, ordering food, etc.

Top Featured Image - VCCircle.com

India's Largest Co-Working Space, Smartworks Opens its Second Center in Chennai

Smartworks, which claims to be India’s largest provider of managed workspaces, opens its second facility in the city of Chennai on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), bringing its total footprint in India to over 1.2 million sq. ft. The facility at OMR, Chennai is spread across 85,180 sq. ft. with a seating capacity of 1500 seats. With this launch, Smartworks is taking its total number of centers in India to 15 across nine cities namely, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Launched three months ago, Smartworks` first center in Chennai at Guindy was fully occupied by 10+ companies within two months on the back of strong pre-booking, owing to the increasing demand for shared workspaces in the city. Currently, Smartworks has brought on board several marquee clients, counting Tata Communications, Microsoft, Arcelor Mittal, Amazon,Carrier, Otis, Daikin, Lenovo, Bacardi, Swiggy, Rivigo and OLX among its 500+ strong client base.

Speaking of the launch in Chennai, Smartworks Founder, Neetish Sarda said, “We are excited to launch Smartworks’ second facility in Chennai, a city that is continuously witnessing a rise in demand for office spaces which indicates a healthy and thriving culture in the city. This is a huge accomplishment for us. Chennai is fast emerging as a destination for information technology, outsourcing, manufacturing and enterprises, that has led to entry of global firms here.”

He adds, “The facility in OMR complements our already functional Smartworks facility in Guindy was booked out 100% within two months of its launch which has led to the opening of this new facility in OMR. Smartworks aspires to be the preferred partner of choice for businesses here that wish to create productive, innovative and dynamic workplaces for their employees. We are bullish on the sector we operate in and see ourselves expanding very fast in the next 3 years, targeting 10 million sq. ft. We are also eyeing our presence in non-metro cities very soon.”



In its one of a kind collaboration, Smartworks is proud to announce its association with Episource, a U.S headquartered company with operations across India and the Philippines. In their recent expansion with Smartworks, they have occupied eight of the ten floors at OMR Centre, seating 1,400 of their new employees.

“The ease and flexibility with which Smartworks has helped us expand into this office has been commendable. We look forward to further embracing the unique culture and collaborative work environment Smartworks offers. It is exciting to see the array of facilities at our disposal, from visitor management and IT support to an assortment of recreational activities. Outsourcing our office management to co-working operators allows us to focus on our core competency— medical record review services.” says Sishir Reddy, CEO, Episource.



With millennials preferring to join companies like Episource that understand the importance of a work-life balance, Smartworks recognizes the importance of providing employers like Episource the ability to offer their employees an enriching environment to work in.

The OMR area of Chennai where Smartworks facility is located is the IT corridor of the city. The area also offers a good mix of residential and office complexes, contemporary structures, swanky eateries and a growing number of entertainment zones. OMR enjoys good road connectivity; proposed Metro will further boost the demand in the area. Smartworks’ facility has been designed with lively and welcoming interiors in informal seating, and the facility’s cafeteria, Smart Cafe, creates an ambience where members can relax and unwind before meetings and socialize or network with other member companies. The center also provides a state-of-the-art medical facility that takes care of employees’ healthcare.

Founded in April 2016, by Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani, Smartworks is reinventing enterprise workspaces to boost employee productivity and to become the preferred workspace of choice for India's vibrant millennials. With demand for customized workspaces growing rapidly across Tier 1 & Tier 2 cities, Smartworks is targeting 10 million sq. ft. of managed office space over the next three years.

Smartworks claims to be India’s largest provider of tailor-made, flexible workspace, with a footprint of more than 1.2 million sq. ft. across 15 locations in 9 cities (Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune) catering to more than 500+ organizations across large enterprises, SMEs, start-ups, and freelancers. Founded in April 2016, Smartworks is reinventing enterprise workspaces to become the best workspace experience provider and the workspace of choice for India's vibrant young workforce.

Haier Launches IoT-enabled Smart Laundry Service in India

Chinese consumer electronics and home appliances firm, Haier, has launched its 'Smart' Laundry Service in New Delhi, India. The unique Smartphone enabled laundry service is a fully automated INternet of Things (IoT) enabled implementation. Installed at the Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University, the service will cater to all registered students in the campus, reported The Mobile Indian.

Haier aspires to innovate for its customers and be a technology leader in the Industry. Excited to announce the launch of IOT enabled Smart Laundry solutions.. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for more info. #TheFutureBeginsNow pic.twitter.com/hDdvVkcuud

— Haier India (@IndiaHaier) August 29, 2018

Unveiled in March this year at the Appliance & Electronics World Expo 2018 (AWE), Haier's IoT Laundry Platform is industry’s first, as well as the largest IOT laundry platform in the world.

Controlled completely through the “Haier Wash App”, users can reserve, schedule, monitor and pay for the services from their phones. This provides an end-to-end digitally managed washing experience. Each washing machine is connected to the cloud and can be individually managed from the app.

The Haier Wash App will assist the user throughout the washing process. It will remind them to take their clothes out once the washing is over and will maintain a complete record of their laundry usage in the past. With such convenience, users can easily multitask and finish other chores simultaneously while their clothes are being washed.

[caption id="attachment_125859" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Haier 's Smart Laundry Service in New Delhi[/caption]

To ensure a highly hygienic washing process, the commercial washing machines being used at the Haier Smart Laundry Service feature a specially developed double sterilizing function. Ozone sterilization and high-temperature sterilization are extremely helpful in avoiding cross pollution and bacteria transmission, thus making the laundry process healthier.

Haier is also planning to promote the Community Laundry in more Indian universities in near future and provide the students with high-efficient and convenient washing experience. This is also an important step Haier took in developing overseas markets and accelerating the building of community laundry platform worldwide.

Eric Braganza, President, Haier Appliances India commented on the inauguration, “This is a moment of great pride for us to achieve the milestone of setting up India’s first IoT enabled Smart Laundry service. As we progress further on Haier’s vision to become a global leader in the era of the Internet of Things through its Eco-brand strategy, our focus to create smart solutions for the connected consumer is strengthening. This initiative is a step towards providing high tech, hassle-free laundry solution to today’s millennials who are fast adopters in this hyper connected age.”

At present, the shared laundry business of Haier has expanded into universities, hotels, apartments and other fields. In China, it has been introduced to 32% of the self-service laundry rooms, providing service to over 10 million users. In the shared laundry field based on smart IOT, the share of Haier Washing Machine exceeds more than 60%, which makes it in the absolutely leading position of the industry.

The Chennai Angels Invests ₹2 Crore in Largest Chai Retail Chain in Chennai "Chai Kings",

The Chennai Angels (TCA) today announced a 2 Crores investment in Chai Kings, the largest Chai Retail Chain in Chennai.

The development comes within six months after Chai Point, the largest organized Chai Company in India, raised $20 million Series C funding round, led by Paragon Partners, in April this year.

Chai Kings, founded in 2016 is the largest Chai Retail Chain in Chennai operating with 8 stores. Chai Kings offers a sumptuous range of chai in exotic flavours, in the most hygienic ambience and at perfectly justifiable prices. Chai Kings also delivers Chai at your doorstep through in house delivery personnel as well as through the online food aggregators. Chai Kings deliver upto 4 kms radius from the outlets and uses food grade use-and-throw heat retaining chai flask for safe consumption also ensuring the Chai is piping hot for at least 50 minutes. With the vision to be the favourite chai place, Chai Kings is expanding rapidly in Chennai with the target of 100 stores in 5 years.

“Sadique and Balaji have built a strong brand with Chai Kings, which has a great potential to scale given the vast consumption base in the country. We look forward to working with the Chai Kings team and helping them scale up their operations. We are excited to partner with Chai Kings and be a part of their growth journey.”, said Mr. Piyush Bhandari who lead the investment from The Chennai Angels.

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“We are super happy with our progress so far and to have created a niche and following for the brand. This investment coming at the right time will further propel us. This funding proceeds will be used towards adding retail stores and to strengthen our service operations” said Jahabar Sadique, Co-Founder & CEO, Chai Kings.

“We are excited to have The Chennai Angels part of our journey. We are planning to setup additional stores to cater to folks in IT Parks, Malls and few stores in High Streets, at a faster pace. There is going to be a sea of new product launches as well” said Balaji Sadagopan, Co-Founder & COO, Chai Kings.

India is one of the world's biggest tea consumer and in the coming months, startups like Chai Kings will also face competition from the Tata Group, which has already launched its Tata Cha tea cafes and plans to aggressively ramp it up.

Besides, Chaipoint had recently launched its 100th store in Indiranagar, Bangalore. Mr Priyank Kharge, Minister of Social Welfare Development, Karnataka Government inaugurated the Store.

The Chennai Angels is one of India’s most active angel investing groups. Founded in the year 2007, it is comprised of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders with a track record of starting and scaling large enterprises.

Additionally, several seed and venture capital firms hold institutional membership in the group. Though it is located in Chennai, TCA’s investing members and portfolio investments are not limited by geography. Unusually for an angel investing group, TCA has a diversified portfolio that goes well beyond a restrictive tech focus, reflecting the diversity of its members’ interests. TCA portfolio companies benefit from the collective expertise and rolodex of its members.

Mahindra Logistics Acquires Bangalore-based ShipX

Mahindra Logistics (MLL), one of India's largest Third-party logistics (3PL) solution providers, today announced the acquisition of a strategic stake in Transtech Logistics, also known as ShipX. The acquisition is expected to be completed by August 31, 2020. According to multiple media oytlets, the acquisition deal was done at Rs.7 Crores.

This acquisition comes within a couple of months after Tata Motors Ltd picked up 26% stake in TruckEasy, an another Bangalore-based startup in logistics space. With that, Tata motors, the flagship of the $100-billion Tata Group, marked its first ever stake-purchase in a domestic startup.

About ShipX, it is a SAAS (Software as a Service) based Transport Management Solution (TMS) platform that serves the supply chain automation needs for 3PLs, shippers and transporters.

Shipx is founded by a mature and experienced team including - Amar Kalale, Maxin Samuel, Bharat Ramanath and
Venkatraman Mahadevan. These were part of a Boston-based supply chain fulfillment company that had been incubated by Infosys.

ShipX has been working with MLL for over 3 years and has been enabling transportation solutions. This acquisition will help MLL to increase end-to-end digitization and bring in operational efficiencies.

Mr. Pirojshaw Sarkari, CEO - Mahindra Logistics, said, "Logistics in future will be more technology driven - both in terms of our own operations, as well as interfaces with our customers and business partners. With our asset light business model, we are already like a 'platform'. The strengthening of our relationship with Shipx opens up a new opportunity to take this to the next level.�

Mr. Amarnath Kalale, Co-Founder of Transtech, said "MLL has been our most valuable customer for more than 3 years. This investment will help us in developing more product features and strengthening the organization". Prior to Shipx, Kalake was also the co-founder Yantra solutions, a Boston based supply chain solution provider. Amar has more than 20 years of experience in providing technology solutions for logistics and supply chain problems. Amar has Bachelor's degree in Engineering and Masters in Computer Science. .

It may be recalled that, Mahindra, which is an umbrella firm of Mahindra Logistics, had picked up a 16% stake in Bengaluru-based self-drive car rental startup Zoomcar for $27.6 million as part of a Series C round of funding worth $40 million (Rs 256 crore), in February this year.

In the same month, Mahindra had also made an investment of about $1 million in Mumbai-based connected car IoT-device making startup Carsense (formerly Carnot) for 22.9% stake in Carnot Technologies Pvt Ltd, the parent company of brand name Carsense.

Stock Xchange BSE's Institute & Israel's Sasha Infra Join Hands To Promote Startups in Water Conservation Space

Water is essential and everybody knows it however crisis of same is not unknown too. From depleting water table to drinking water shortage, there are several issues pertaining to water, across India. In a welcome step towards solving this future-havoc problem, BSE Institute, a wholly owned subsidiary of leading stock exchange BSE, has joined hands with Sasha Infrastructure, which is a leading water and infrastructure Services Company that represents several water tech companies from Israel.

The collaboration will focus on driving this innovation in India with the involvement of organizations from Israel who are world leaders in this domain.

Both the entities have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote startups and entrepreneurs in the domain of water conservation and technology. The MoU was signed by Ambarish Datta, MD and CEO at BSE Institute, and Romiel Samuel, MD, Sasha Infrastructure, Israel.

"The objective of the collaboration is to promote startups in the domain of sustainable water-related infrastructure and services," BSE said in a statement.

Initially, the startups to be considered shall be in the field of water well refurbishment, ground water recharge, waste water treatment, etc. which shall create sustainable impact in water tech.

The purpose and nature of the water infrastructure investments needs have significantly expanded to water supply and sanitation, flood protection, drought management, and water quality management.

As per the statement, innovative startups can reduce overall investment needs and improve capital efficiency through improving the operational effectiveness of existing water infrastructure.

Ashish Chauhan, Managing Director and CEO of BSE Ltd, said startups have a critical role to play in this domain by evolving innovative solutions to address this issue.

"It's delighting to see India and Israel cooperating once again on this strategic field of water," Consul General of Israel in Mumbai Yaakov Finkelstein said.

Israel & Water Tech

Israel is the leader in water technology in the world. It has perfected the modern-day version of the innovative process of drip irrigation, and since 1959, has taken it to the next level, so much so that other countries, both developed and developing, want a piece of the action.

Israel recycles about 87% of its water. The country that has dedicated the greatest resources, innovation, and cultural attention to the problem of water scarcity. Today, it leads the way in solving problems of water supply, spearheading efforts to deal with water leakage, farming efficiency, recycling waste, desalination, pricing policy, and education.

A year ago, India and Israel have deepened their business relationship by the launch of a technology fund, the Israel India Innovation Initiative Fund, or I4F, that focuses towards growing the two countries' business relations.

It may also be recalled that, in August last year, the Nasscom Product Council and Accenture, an IT consulting major have had together joined hands with Israel Innovation Authority to help startups to grow and nurture.

News sourced from Times of India

India Gets Its 1st 'SMART' Railway Coach with AI-Enabled CCTVs; To Build 100 More

Indian Railways has just got its first 'SMART' coach including Artificial Intelligence (AI) -enabled CCTV cameras. The SMART coach, built by Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli, has several new features that will go a long way in enhancing the safety and security of train journeys and enhancing passenger comfort, said Indian Railways in a statement.

Indian railways will soon roll out 100 more such coaches.

The new smart coach will be equipped with black boxes and coach information and diagnostics systems. The black boxes will have a powerful multi-dimensional communication interface to provide information on coach condition, queries related to passenger information on a real-time basis.

CCTV system with AI capability will improve the security standards of the train and also help in keeping a check on the behaviour of the railway staff. The footage would help track untoward incidents.

The coaches will also have GPS-based passenger announcement and passenger information system and the digital destination board that will keep passengers informed about the current location of the train, expected time of arrival at the next station and the speed of the train.

The wheel of the smart coaches will have "vibration-based self-power harvesting sensor", which will know in advance if the tracks they are about to run on are weak or not. The sensors are based upon energy harvester which means they will be charged by the jerks that are already present in the train.

[caption id="attachment_125819" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Wheels of Smart coach (Image - FInancialExpress.com)[/caption]

Equipped with modern sensors and centralized computer to monitor the status of all sensors through a single window, this coach is on LHB platform, a statement from the Rail Ministry said.

LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches are the passenger coaches of Indian Railways that have been developed by Linke-Hofmann-Busch, a German firm now known as Alstom LHB GmbH after the takeover by Alstom and mostly produced by Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, India.

The Central Processing Unit, known as 'PICCU' (Passenger Information and Coach Computing Unit), an industrial grade computer has been provided with GSM network and will primarily monitor the important area of coach maintenance and passenger interface.

The passenger information system will inform the passengers about the current location of the train and the next station and also expected time of arrival at the next station. This system can also show the speed of the train, the statement said.

Related Reading - Indian Railways Bans WhatsApp and YouTube For On-Duty Staff

CCTV with artificial intelligence capability will enhance the security of the passengers and also monitor of the behaviour and activities of on Board railway staff.

"The footage will also help in the investigation into any untoward incident during the journey and identifying the culprits and indirect intervention from the remote control centre," the Ministry said.

The coach is also provided with the emergency talkback system for communication between the passengers (especially woman and child) and the guard of the train so that necessary assistance can be provided.

The SMART coach will also have a Wi-fi hotspot information system.

An additional cost of all systems/all equipment will be approximately Rs 12-14 lakhs which can be recovered in a year or so, the ministry said.

"As part of the pilot project. Railways will soon launch 100 more smart coaches to gain experience and validate," Ashwani Lohani, Chairman of Railway Board who inspected the first SMART coach on Tuesday, said.

News Sourced from Financial Express

Delhi-based Health Advise Chatbot Visit Receives Funding from Salesforce Chief Scientist Richard Socher

Visit, an artificial intelligence (AI) driven Chatbot for health advice, which already counts Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Snapdeal founders - Kunal Bahl & Rohit Bansal, as its backers, has again roped in an another popular figure as its investor as it received an undisclosed amount of funding from Richard Socher, the Chief Scientist at Salesforce.

Socher, a Stanford alumni and a leader in the field of AI based in Silicon Valley, US, has invested in his personal capacity in Visit. Visit is Socher's third investment so far as prior to this he has invested in Israel-based Zebra Medical Vision, a medical imaging insights platform, and Luka, a software development company based in San Francisco, California.

With Socher joining Delhi-based Visit as an investor, Anurag Prasad, co-founder of Visit, said, "Richard's massive expertise in the field of AI will help us strengthen our product and machine learning efforts by leaps and bounds."



Richard Socher, on this investment, said, "The visit app is one of the most exciting combinations of human and artificial intelligence, helping people get fast, accurate and affordable advice on their health."

Founded in 2016 by BITS Pilani alumni Anurag, Shashvat Tripathi, Chetan Anand and Vaibhav Singh, Visit Internet Service Pvt. Ltd is headquartered in Delhi and offers personal healthcare assistant/chatbot for health queries and also provides a tele-health platform to connect to healthcare specialists. It connects users with over 2,000 doctors and specialists for treatments, prescriptions and counselling.

"Users engage with the Visit Chatbot by describing their symptoms and the bot poses a series of questions to predict the most probable diagnosis," explained Anurag.

In April, this year, the startup had grabbed undisclosed funding from Biz Stone, who is one of the founders of microblogging site Twitter.

According to a survey report by Oracle, it was revealed that about 80 per cent of the companies surveyed are interested in making use of chatbots within a period of next 4 years so as to take their customer service to another level.

Besides being the chief scientist at Salesforce, a global CRM solutions provider, Richard Socher was also the founder and CEO/CTO of AI startup MetaMind that was acquired by Salesforce in 2016. Metamind is an automatic image recognition powered by AI.

Recent Chatbot Startups Activities

In March this year, mobile handset manufacturer Micromax had invested in an AI-enabled Chatbot startup 'One Labs', which has developed a chatbot similar to Apple's Siri and Google Assistant.

In July 2017 Freshworks (formerly Freshdesk) acquired a chatbot startup called Joe Hukum, which too was based out of Gurgaon. Later, in the same year, an another Gurgaon based AI chatbot startup iDelivr got acquired by Phonon Communications.

The year 2017 was dominated by various chatbot activities as Amazon launched chatbot tools for developers, to help them build chat features into their own app while Microsoft launched India-specific chatbot called Ruuh, which later got wind up by the company however.

[Top Featured Image - Visit co-founders | Via - Visit@ Facebook]

News sourced from Economic Times

An Idea to Replicate S.Korea & Japan's Model of Virtual Grocery Stores for Kolkata Metro

Kolkata Metro, a rapid transit system serving the Kolkata metropolitan area, traces its root since year 1971 when its first master plan was envisaged. With 300 metro services daily carrying over 650,000 passengers, Kolkata Metro is the second busiest metro system in India however for quite some time its running in losses so much that the it has to spend Rs 300 to earn Rs 100 of revenue.

To revive the business of Kolkata Metro, a group of few noble students from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta, have come up with an idea in which they have suggested that e-commerce majors like Flipkart or Amazon should be roped in to start India's first of its kind virtual grocery stores on station walls.

This idea coming from IIM-Calcutta is a result of commissioned request from Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) where the later has asked IIM-C to restructure its revenue model. A team of 3 MBA students -- Alan Shaji Idicula, Urjaswit Lal and Tushar Kumar, came up with this idea of installing wall-length billboards designed to look like a series of supermarket shelves.

Alan Shaji Idicula, who's one of the members of IIM-Calcutta Team proposing the idea of virtual grocery store, explained the idea as -- the digital billboards will display product images along with the QR code. Passengers can scan the code to order daily-use products like groceries and FMCG items. The concept marries the two distinct models of traditional brick and mortar shops and e-commerce.

Around 20 teams of IIM students studied different metro stations to find additional sources of revenue after which Alan’s team was selected as the winner by KMRC.

Alan Shaji Idicula said their proposal is to bring Flipkart/Amazon on board and start India’s first virtual grocery stores on Metro walls.

Notably, the idea is quite similar to what European supermarket chain Tesco (known in South Korea as Home Plus) -- in 2011 -- had done in South Korea by putting grocery store shelf mock-ups on subway platforms to launch the world’s first Virtual Grocery store.

In 2012, Tesco had also opened the UK's first interactive virtual grocery store in Gatwick's North Terminal, which is in southeast of England.

Comparing the proposed plan of IIM-Calcutta with the Tesco's virtual grocery store in South Korea's Seoulleung subway station, then Tesco's virtual grocery store too comprises of pictures of products that are posted with QR codes underneath. Shoppers use their smartphones to scan the QR codes of the items they want. The products in their virtual shopping carts are delivered right to the customers’ homes at their selected delivery time.

Indrani Banerjee, who is Kolkata Metro spokesperson, told LiveMint, "We are trying to implement it. The idea is to increase our non-fare revenue so that there is no burden on passengers. We are trying to utilise our space in the best possible manner". She however did not divulge any details whether they have approached any e-commerce company to implement this idea.

The team also proposed to earn revenue through train wrap ads, hoardings and digital kiosks and paid wi-fi services inside Metro trains.

Additionally, the team of IIM-Calcutta also calculated that KMRC can easily earn an additional revenue of Rs 20 crore just by renting/leasing out 68,478 sq. ft. of un-utilised space, at 20 Metro stations in Kolkata, for shops and advertisements.

Notably, such virtual stores are also gaining attention in stations of Japan as well as in the U.S. In 2012, a leading Internet grocer of the U.S., Peapod.com, launched more than 100 virtual grocery stores at commuter rail stations in Boston, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

News sourced via Live Mint.

Carzonrent Launches 'Cabpro' - A SaaS Platform for Corporate Car Rentals

New Delhi-based corporate car rental firm Carzonrent India Pvt. Ltd., better known as Carzonrent, has announced the launch of Cabpro, a stress-free transport management solution for the smart corporate. Cabpro is a unified car rental technology platform that works as a centralized platform handling end to end operations for corporate ground transport.

Claimed by the company as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution platform for car rental, Cabpro is developed to tap into the large unorganized corporate car rental industry, estimated at USD 2.5 billion consisting of large and small taxi vendors servicing corporate clients across India. This technology platform will enable savings of upto 20% for corporates in their spending on car rental services by solving for erratic service quality and a lack of transparency in terms of billing & tracking. Companies will also save time and cost in terms of administrative and operational effort of manpower while engaging with unorganized vendors to improve overall customer experience.



"We at Carzonrent have more than 18 years of domain expertise in the car rental space and our customers have always appreciated that we bring this experience to benefit them. The USD 2.5 bn billion unorganised car rental industry is unwieldy and difficult to manage and neither pure tech solutions nor OTAs are able to solve for both technology and service,” said Mr. Rajiv K Vij, Managing Director and CEO at Carzonrent (India) Pvt. Ltd. “Cabpro is our endeavour to organize into a single, unified car reservation platform that connects vendors and corporates. It will bring transparency and convenience to the business transport mechanism saving them upto 20% in manpower costs, unwieldy vendor management and disjointed reconciliation processes."

The platform is integrated to handle end to end transactions for corporate ground transport - automation enabling easy booking, real-time vehicle tracking, smooth & GST compliant billing and secure PCI-DSS compliant payments. Cabpro services small, medium and large size corporates and it seamlessly integrates with both larger vendors with proprietary technology and smaller vendors in need of a SaaS platform. Carzonrent will also provide tech support and a national command center as service back up for Cabpro.

Founded in the year 2000, by Rajiv Kumar Vij , Carzonrent offered chauffeur driven cars on hire, primarily to corporate clients. In 2006, Carzonrent launched its radio taxi service EasyCabs in the New Delhi, making it the first Indian company to offer car leasing and taxi services. The company commenced self-drive car rental service Myles in late 2013, almost a year after Zoomcar launched as the first self-drive car rental company in India. In April 2015, Carzonrent acquired car-pooling company Ridingo, which was featured in the Forbes as one of the "Hottest Global Startups" and was a part of GSF Accelerator and NASSCOM 10,000 Startup.

The company today has its presence in 65 locations, 9 Airports, Major Railway Stations and prominent hotels and malls. The company services 1000 plus corporate customers and is planning to expand its fleet size to 30,000 cars in the coming three years. The company services more than 25,000 travellers every day in different parts of the country having moved more than 10 million travellers last year. The company boasts of 30,000,000 satisfied customers till date with 20,000 trips and 2,50,000 kilometres daily.

India Unveils Drone Policy to Allow Commercial Use of Drones from 1st December, Everything You Need to Know

Its been since 2015 that it has been speculating that drones can commercially be used. From e-commerce deliveries to delivering pizza, last couple of years saw many plans from startups to giants like Flipkart planning drone deliveries in the past however as India's aviation regulator, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which till now has restricted the use of drones in India for commercial purpose, the plans made never manifested into reality.

But now, all these will now certainly be possible as Indian government on Monday announced the Drone Policy allowing the commercial use of Drones starting December 1 this year.

According to government officials, the users of drones will be required to do a one-time registration of their drones. They will also need to register the pilots of these drones as well as their owners. After the registration, users will have to request for permission to fly it on a mobile application. An automated process will either permit or deny the request instantly.

Last November, the then Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju first announced about the policy on use of drones, including for commercial purposes.

Drones have been classified into five categories based on maximum take-off weight -- nano (up to 250g), micro (251g to two kg), mini (2kg to 25kg), small (25kg to 150kg) and large (over 150kg).

For the lightest category Nano, a payload of up to 250 grams and flight to a maximum height of 50 feet, have been approved. A user need not seek prior approval for operating a nano drone.

In case, if the permission is denied, any drone without the digital permit will be unable to take off. If the permission is given, the drones will be allowed to fly during daytime-only. The maximum altitude allowed for drones to fly will be 400-ft.

While announcing the new policy, Union civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu said, “Today we start an exciting new chapter in India’s aviation history by allowing commercial use of drones. I am sure that many new and exciting applications will emerge that will propel India’s economy forward. Our progressive regulations will encourage a vast Made in India drone industry.”

Civil aviation minister, Minister of State (MoS), Jayant Sinha said, “There are opportunities for our aviation sector and for India's startup industry as India is set to become a global leader as far as drone ecosystem is concerned. It's important for us to have a policy roadmap and regulations that support growth of the drone ecosystem.”

The new policy has been named as Drone Regulations 1.0 and it provides guidelines and has provision for stricter penalties.

Officials said that the ministry is further working on Drone Regulations 2.0 which will examine the issues like certification of safe and controlled operation of drone hardware and software and Airspace management through automated operations linked into overall airspace management framework.

As per the guidelines, Airspace has been partitioned into Red Zone (flying not permitted), Yellow Zone (controlled airspace), and Green Zone (automatic permission).

For flying in controlled Airspace, filing of the flight plan and obtaining Air Defence Clearance (ADC) and Flight Information Centre (FIC) number will be necessary.

As per the regulation, “No Drone Zones” will be around airports; near the international border, Vijay Chowk in Delhi; State Secretariat Complex in State Capitals, strategic locations and vital and military installations.

Drones are a technology platform which has wide-ranging applications from photography to agriculture, from infrastructure asset maintenance to insurance. Drones range in size from very small and those that can carry multiple kilograms of payload.

Drone Regulations:

• Drones could only fly during the day-time


• The upper height ceiling of flying drones is 400 feet.


• Airspace has been partitioned into Red Zone (flying not permitted), Yellow Zone (controlled airspace), and Green Zone (automatic permission).


• For flying in controlled Airspace, filing of flight plan and obtaining Air Defence Clearance (ADC) and Flight Information Centre (FIC) number will be necessary.


• “No Drone Zones” will be around airports; near international border, Vijay Chowk in Delhi; State Secretariat Complex in State Capitals, strategic locations and vital and military installations.

In the first commercial use of drones, e-commerce giant Amazon has used a drone to deliver a bag of popcorn to an address in rural England.

In October last year, Amazon had already filed patent for delivery drones in India.

In the same month, China’s e-commerce giant JD.com, also called Jingdong, unveiled its super-sized delivery drones at the service of its customers. Considered China's largest online retailer, JD.com has a national distribution network that matches the coverage of global e-commerce giant Amazon.

News sourced via - New India Express.

[Top Photo by Kevin Chow on Unsplash ]

Soon A Dedicated ISRO TV Channel To Showcase India's Space Tech and Science

Soon, within a few months, Indian space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a dedicated ISRO TV channel showcasing space applications, developments and science issues, targeting young viewers and people in remote areas in their language.

The upcoming TV channel will not only promote scientific temper among people but also expand ISRO's outreach across the country.

ISRO chief K Sivan told reporters, "We don't have any science TV channel. This channel will inculcate scientific temper among people."

Additionally, ISRO will also conduct training camps, organise capacity building programmes for for school students from class 8 to 10 to inculcate scientific temper among them. ISRO will select students and organise training camps for 25 to 30 days.

Earlier this month, Vigyan Prasar, an affiliate of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), govt. of India, launched an over-the-top (OTT) channel -- i.e TV content via the internet -- dedicated only to science & technology content to create scientific awareness among fellow citizen by showcasing the recent developments in science and technology particularly from Indian scientific research institutions and laboratories.

In March this year, ISRO tied up with Kerala government to incubate and promote startups in the satellite and space technology sector by launching an incubator for spacetech startups in the country.

It may be recalled that recently, ISRO had also made an announcement that it is planning to develop world class propulsion technology to ensure cost effective re-usable, recoverable, re-startable and reliable space launches, a similar space technology that Elon Musk promoted startup, SpaceX, is known for.

News sourced from NDTV.

Over 450 Chinese Brands to Enter India Directly as Counfreedise Retail Ties with Hong Kong Circle Tech

Over 450 brands from China will now enter India through e-commerce way and get listed on eCommerce websites operating in India, including Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra.

BuyMore, a brand of Bangalore-based Counfreedise Retail Services Ltd, India’s leading e-commerce aggregator for the online retail sector in India has tied up with Hong Kong Circle Tech, China’s leading retail consulting firm, in order to pave the way for Chinese retailers’ entry into the Indian market. This association is a stepping stone in providing quantum growth to the e-commerce retail sector in India as well as China.

BuyMore plans to invest more than 1.5 million dollars on duties and taxes for import of these goods over the next few months.

After a prolonged period of falling exports, Chinese industry is facing extreme pressure as they are struggling to find base in their home markets. Hong Kong Holdings has associated with BuyMore to get their retail clients from China listed on BuyMore’s base of 10 eCommerce websites including Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra catering to Indian market. Chinese enterprises will be able to build their brands by bringing products directly to the consumers with the help of BuyMore and sell products that qualify in terms of quality and price.

In the first wave, the two companies plan to bring in over 450 Chinese brands to India. BuyMore plans to invest more than 1.5 million dollars on duties and taxes for import of these goods over the next few months. The goods being sent are valued at over 5 million dollars and range from mobile phones, accessories, electronic accessories, apparel’s, watches, sunglasses and many more.

As India replaced China as the most promising retail market in the world last year; BuyMore is leveraging this opportunity to let various international brands access entry into India as a global retail market, through them. In addition to other services, BuyMore is also developing the Chinese variation of the BuyMore Seller App and ERP in order to help Chinese factories use BuyMore technology and analytics to understand, manufacture, advertise, ship and slate prices in the country.

Commenting on this association, Mr. Sidharth, MD & Co-Founder, BuyMore, said, “Over 80% of lifestyle and electronic products used today originate from China. This shows that the market has a lucrative opportunity we can enact upon. This association will help bring in these products at the right price to the consumer and provide better quality as well as provide warranty on their behalf.”

Vivian Chen, CEO, Hong Kong Tech Circle said, “This is just the beginning. Our association with BuyMore can mean much more than this in the future. We are amazed by the kind of service and state of the art technology which BuyMore provides and are hoping to have great sales through them in India as well as in other International markets.”

Speaking about this association Abhinandan, CEO & Co-Founder, BuyMore, said, “We are hoping to reduce brand monopoly that currently exists in the Indian market. With our leading AI technology we will help Chinese factories streamline their production and cut production costs so that the Indian consumers can benefit from the cost cutting. India is price sensitive and we aim to give quality products at great rates by bringing in Chinese brands.”

Subramanya, CFO & Director, BuyMore said, “From a financial stand point, this business partnership is sure to mark one of the most unique partnerships in terms of mode of investment and valuation of technology in the country today.”

To make retailers’ jobs easier, BuyMore has already doubled its warehouse facilities in Delhi and Bangalore as it plans to give free warehousing services to these brands in the initial stages of brand building. It would also be providing free listing and cataloguing services to these brands.

About Counfreedise Retail Services ltd, the company behind the brand, Buymore, it was started in 2012, by Sidharth Mahesh and Abhinandan Mahesh with an initial investment of Rs 20 lakhs. Both of them had a single ambition of creating a company that has a strong work ethic and has a highly sustainable future. 2016 marked the global entry of Counfreedise and in the year 2017, it released 6 software for global retailers, created its own national and international logistics solutions for Indian retailers. It has also become the sole retail distributor of many International brands in India. Its ERP solutions that give brands and brand distributors accurate sales data account reconciliation and automated payments are one of its kind. Today over 350 brands sell online through Counfreedise. With over 1 lakh sqft of warehousing space, they are one of the profit-making entities in the e-commerce domain. Their range of solutions helps companies in brand building, accounting, advertising, logistics, cross-border trade and software solutions which are getting more powerful with each passing day.

RBI Forms News Unit Exclusively for Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and AI

India's central bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set up a new unit to supervise, oversee its efforts in emerging technologies including cryptocurrency, blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Although RBI has put a ban on cryptocurrencies in April, the new unit will research and possibly draft rules and supervise new emerging technologies in the future including cryptocurrencies and its underlying technology, Blockchain, reported Economic Times today.

However, there's no official announcement from the central bank bu the new unit is reportedly a month old and a chief general manager has been appointed to lead it.

The idea behind forming this new unit, exclusively for emerging technologies, is to use data, analytics and real time information for different RBI functions like inflation targeting, banking regulations and policy enforcement. This unit on data sciences is likely to start in December 2018.

“As a regulator, the RBI also has to explore new emerging areas to check what can be adopted and what cannot. A central bank has to be on top to create regulations. This new unit is on an experimental basis and will evolve as time passes,” said the report citing a person familiar with the RBI’s plans.

The efforts come as the Indian government announced its plans to explore blockchain technology earlier this year. While presenting Union Budget 2018-19, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said, “The Government will explore use of block chain technology proactively for ushering in digital economy.”

Last September, A.S. Ramasastri, Director of the RBI’s research arm, the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), said that the institute was developing a blockchain-based platform for handling different banking-related applications.

Moreover, despite the ban, RBI isn’t giving up on the idea of a cryptocurrency completely. In line with central banks around the globe, the RBI too is mulling introducing a fiat digital currency called 'Lakshmi' coin, which would become an alternative to the Indian rupee for digital transactions, and unlike bitcoin which is a non-fiat digital currency, the new one will be fiat-cryptocurrency.

It may also be recalled that a blockchain startup of Indonesian-origin called Pundi X announced that it is preparing to launch point-of-sale network in India so that people in the country can buy and invest in cryptocurrencies not just only online but offline as well.

[Top Image - Moneylife.in]

Warren Buffet's Firm To Invest $286-358 Mn in PayTM for 3-4% Stake

Popular American business magnate Warren Buffet's multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway is reportedly in talks to invest about US$286 to $358 million (~ Rs 2,000-2,500 crore) in Paytm's parent firm One97 Communications, marking his first direct investment in India.

The deal is likely to be announced within the next couple of weeks and will value PayTM at over $10 billion, giving the Noida-based startup more uplift, that already counts China’s Alibaba Group Holdings and Japan’s Softbank as its major backers.

“Berkshire is in talks to pick up a 3-4% stake in the company and it is being done through a primary subscription of shares,” said the Economic Times report citing a person familiar with the development.

The report further said that the transaction was discussed at the board meeting of Paytm held a few weeks ago. But a deal, including the size of the investment, has not been finalized yet.

According to a second person cited in the report, Berkshire Hathaway is impressed by the scale that Paytm has been able to build in a short period of time. They realize that technology companies go through a cycle of losses before they start generating cash.

If this deal goes through then this will also be Berkshire Hathaway's first investment in a privately-held technology company in the world. In the past, Berkshire Hathaway has selectively invested in some publicly listed tech companies, most notably International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. and Apple. Berkshire recently exited IBM, but still owns Apple stock.

One of Berkshire’s key fund managers, Todd Combs, who is also seen as a potential chief investment officer at the company, is leading the transaction, the newspaper reported.

Last month, PayTM conducted 5 billion transactions worth $50 billion in gross transaction value (GTV) on an annualised basis based on its performance in June. According to Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings, PayTM saw total income increase by 38% to Rs 828 crore with losses of Rs 899.6 crore in the year ended March 2017.

In the same month, it was also reported that PayTM is close to announce its new mobile digital payments service for Japan in collaboration with Softbank.

In May, Paytm's parent, One97 Communication announced that its revenue grew to Rs 829 crore for the financial year 2017, up from Rs 598 crore in the year before, even as its losses narrowed for the same period.

One97 Communications, the parent company owns 49% in Paytm Payments Bank with the remaining stake held by its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in his personal capacity as per regulations.

About, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet promoted MNC traces its roots to a textile manufacturing company established by Oliver Chace in 1839 as the Valley Falls Company in United States' Valley Falls, Rhode Island. In 1929, the Company merged with the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company established in 1889, in Massachusetts.
Eventually, Buffett owned 31.7% aggregate voting power of Berkshire's shares outstanding, as of July 2016.

Investments of Berkshire Hathaway

As of March 2017, 65% of Berkshire's equity securities were concentrated in five companies -- American Express Company ($12.0 billion), Apple Inc. ($19.2 billion), The Coca-Cola Company ($17.0 billion), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) ($11.2 billion), and Wells Fargo & Company ($27.8 billion).

On March 25, 2011, Berkshire Hathaway made its first foray into the Indian insurance sector with its non-direct subsidiary BerkshireInsurance.com in the presence of Warren Buffett himself.

References - Wikipedia.org/Berkshire_Hathaway

This Indian Political Party Becomes Asia's First Blockchain Enabled Party

Almost a year back we wrote a piece about how blockchain is also being utilized in electronic voting systems in several countries, with a strong possibility in India as well. Now in what turns out to be a rightful prediction, a political party in India called Democratic Party of India (DPI), a registered political party with Election Commission of India, has signed a deal with MiVote, an international direct democracy NGO, to become the first Blockchain enabled Political Party in Asia.

In a partnership with MiVote, which is nothing less than historical, DPI will adopt global MiVote model wherein it will determine all policy positions through a blockchain-enabled democratic platform that will ask every Indian citizen their preferred direction for their community.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MiVote India powered @democratic_of to contest upcoming elections across #India. https://t.co/vrOD0i6DFY pic.twitter.com/iiw9Ibe99c

— MiVote (@MiVote) August 24, 2018

MiVote, which is a decentralised model of community decision-making that prohibits special interest group influence, corporate money and career politicians, announced its India entry in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, has supposedly received positive responses in India for its “policy framework, governance model and technology platform

Founded in 2011, by Adam Jacoby, MiVote is also in talks with over 20 countries besides India and the US, including Scotland, The Netherlands, Belgium and Malaysia, for adaptation of its blockchain-enabled direct democracy platform to their communities.

About the Democratic Party of India, it was established in 1961 and was registered by the Election Commission of India in the year 1989. The Party was revived in 2018 with a vision towards Socio-Economic empowerment of Citizens starting from the most deprived sections of the society with a stern focus on Inclusive development, and a commitment to ensure that the most marginalised and disconnected members of the community have genuine representation. The DPI already boasts more than 3 million members across India in the first 60 days since its relaunch.

DPI is now the world’s first political party to adopt the global MiVote model.

Blockchain, which is the same technology that underpins Bitcoin, ie being used by MiVote by replacing ‘Bitcoins' with voting tokens. Each transaction is a vote added to a public record, which can then be tallied and audited by anyone who chooses to do so. Thanks to the workings of Blockchain technology, once a vote has been added to the record, it can never be changed or removed - it now exists in perpetuity.

In MiVote blockchain voting solution, if anyone tries to dishonestly modify one or more records it will cause the new information to be rejected by the rest of the network, as their collective understanding of the record will not be the same, thereby providing unprecedented confidences and assurances, which a traditional online voting systems could not.

Founder and Chief Steward of the Global MiVote movement, Adam Jacoby, having spent ten days with the MiVote India team, headed by Joydeep Mondal, and the leadership team of the DPI in Delhi commented, “MiVote is thrilled to have found a group of people so committed to the principles of genuine democracy. The Democratic Party of India will be a wonderful steward of the MiVote model and will provide the people of India with a political choice, unlike anything they have seen before.”

The National President of the Democratic Party of India, Captain G.S. Rathee, said on partnership with Mivote, “The association with MiVote will not only empower the vision of the party, rather it will also give a direction towards development and strengthening the democratic behavior of India.”

“The Democratic Party of India is ready to contest the 2019 Parliamentary Elections in all states across India. Party candidates will also contest the upcoming 2018 Assembly elections in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.”

The election symbol for the Democratic Party of India, allotted by the Election Commission of India, is POT.

Source - MiVote, Via - Bitcoin Exchange Guide | Reference - SocialPost.News

[Top Image - ]

India To Fight Fake Drugs Problem Using Oracle's Blockchain Solution

According to a report by World Health Organisation (WHO), 35% of the fake drugs sold all over the world comes from India which means that an estimated one in 10 medical products circulating in low and middle-income countries like India is either "substandard or falsified". In India too, 20% of the drugs sold in the country are fake.

India occupies the counterfeit drug market of nearly Rs 4,000 crore, says the research report from WHO. This leads to implication isof highest concern not just for India but for other countries too. As medicines promote antimicrobial resistance in people, who can pass on the mutant infection while travelling to other countries. Such bacteria or virus resistant to medicine will become impossible to treat.

Seeing this danger, a government of India's policy think tank, NITI Aayog, has partnered with the technology giant Oracle and local chain of hospitals, Apollo Hospitals, where Oracle will integrate its blockchain technology and a distributed ledger solution in pharmaceutical supply chain, which will create records that are unchangeable for each pharma transaction.

With this, India plans to eliminate all channels of counterfeit medical products, including pharmaceuticals, by transferring the hospital chain’s complete inventory to a blockchain-powered system. The technology is expected to reduce fraud and better manage quality in the production and distribution of pharmaceutical products. The government hopes to get real-time visibility into all drugs produced in and exported from the country.

A blockchain is a continuously growing list of digital records, or blocks, that are linked using cryptography.

Essentially, blockchain technology stops the entry of fake drugs into the supply chain, mainly the part between the drug manufacturer and end-consumers. The technology uses a highly scalable transparent protocol in order to assign every manufactured product an asset. These assets are then added to the blockchain and assigned a unique identification number, commonly referred to as hash.

Tying up of NITI Aayog with Apollo hospitals chain will help the hospital chain across India to bring their entire inventory on blockchain which in turn will help in reduction of counterfeit drugs as well as increase efficiencies. In addition, the government will get a bird’s eye view of all the drugs in supply and can identify and track discrepancies. In the words of Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO of NitiAayog, “… is putting pharma supply chain management in blockchain for complete traceability of drugs from the manufacturer to consumer.”

Besides tech giant like Oracle or IBM, few startups such as Chronicled, LinkLab, iSolve, LifeCrypter and BlockVerify, are also actively working to find blockchain solutions that bring transparency, traceability and integrity to the global drug supply chain.

Apart from this, there are various industries where blockchain hopes to bring about transparency. Even under the healthcare umbrella, there are several blockchain companies working on bringing transparency and security to patient records, DNA database creation and genomics.

In May-June this year, telecom regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) moved a proposal to utilize blockchain technology for curbing irritating telemarketing spam call. Later in last month TRAI mandated the new guidelines of implementing to all Mobile Service Providers in India.

Source - Crypto News | References - Drug Patent Watch

India's 1st Marketing Accelerator for Hotels & Homestays Launches

It been over a year when we featured a promising Chandigarh-based startup, Stay On Skill, that allows people with skills to travel the world and get free homestay, in exchange of helping their host learn a skill they are gootd at.

In the last one year, the startup has helped numerous commercial properties across India in different aspects and during this period the founders realized that hotels and homestays in India are mushrooming like never before and this in turn has created a visibility problem for such properties where not every plausible customer knows about the existence of them.

In the city of Ooty itself there are more than 2000 hotels (and these are just the ones that are listed online). Across India, more than 1,75,000 properties are taking online bookings. Amid all of this, the problem is - how do you make people know that you exist. Listing on platforms like Airbnb or Booking doesn't ensure you visibility or bookings. If your property shows up on the second page of airbnb, you might as well forget that prospective customers will get to know about it. One good way to stand out from the crowd is to create a brand for yourself digitally - through social media, blogging, and video creation.

Unfortunately, not all homestays or hotels are aware of to how to go about it. Additionally, an analysis by Sat on Skill show that many of homestays in the past have been cheated by fake bloggers and instagram influencers, who either don't have authentic following or high traffic.

Stay On Skill, thus decided to launch India's first Marketing Accelerator for hotels and homestays to make these things transparent for properties and provide them some real value, by bringing to them real, verified, tested and authentic influencers.

[caption id="attachment_125761" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Team of Stay on Skill[/caption]

The idea behind the accelerator is to help the deserving properties get the visibility they require, and the complete 3 months program is designed around that. The second aspect of the accelerator is to help the properties learn how to make more revenue through digital marketing and how to perform well on booking portals like airbnb. For this we have special masterclasses designed by experts, and office hours, where in the properties tell us about the specific challenges that they are facing and our expertise can benefit them.

Stay On Skill is expecting over 100 properties to apply for its first batch. The applications are open only till 31st August.

Interested properties can apply here - http://stayonskill.com/accelerator.html

Benefits for Hotels & Homestays

Besides gaining visibility, which the company claims to be minimum of 1.2 Million in 3 months, through the accelerator program, hotels & homestays will get access to star influencers who have the ability to make their property viral.

The participants will also get access to Masterclasses on different aspects of Social Media, Digital Marketing, Web Booking, so that after the accelerator they can take forward the learnings and start executing it themselves.

The properties may also able to Build a brand value, as when some good influencers get associated with your property, it creates a great brand value for you, which most properties don't know how to capitalize on it, says Arjun Tuli, founder of Stay On Skill. "Increase in brand value and visibility lead to increase in revenue," Arjun added.

[caption id="attachment_125760" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Influencer Community of Stay On Skill and The Accelerator[/caption]

Selection Criteria

The accelerator program is looking for boutique hotels and homestays who are looking to stand out from the crowd. To select a property, the company will analyse it's uniqueness factor based on the following parameters -

1. Stay and lodging


2. Location


3. Culture


4. Food


5. Experience

This particular batch of the Stay On Skill accelerator is Not For Profit . All that we'll be receiving from the properties will go towards payment of the bloggers, influencers, graphic designers and social media experts - we won't be making a profit of a single penny from it. The idea behind it is to provide the accelerator as a medium to share our knowledge and expertise with the properties and help them benefit from it. If we are able to make it happen at a small scale for 10 properties, next time around we'll try to make an effort to reach a wider audience and help more properties benefit from it, told Arjun, founder at Stay On Skill.

[Top Featured Image  by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash]

Zone Startups India Launches 'FinDhan' To Identify Startups To Collaborate with TVS Credit

Chennai-based TVS Credit, one of India’s leading NBFCs, and Mumbai-based Meta accelerator Zone Startups India, are joining hands to launch ‘FinDhan’, a year-long multi-format startup engagement program to work with fintech and enterprise tech startups.

Under this program, TVS Credit will be working with startups and look to engage over niche as well as broad areas critical to financial services, such as underwriting, collections, customer/dealer management, people management, new product development, operations, and Robotic process automation (RPA).

Interested Startups can Apply here.

The identified startups which fit into the requirements will get a chance to do a milestone-based pilot with TVS Credit, leveraging business unit insights and data. Successful pilots stand a chance to form a commercial partnership with TVS Credit. The pilot opportunity is a major win for selected startups, as it will help them leverage TVS Credit business insights and mentorship from leaders.

Zone Startups, a market leader in designing curated corporate innovation models, will be operating the programme – and engage on a series office hours, demo days, industry nights, innovation challenges and hackathons, with an aim to drive deeper engagement between the fintech and startup ecosystem, and the leadership team of TVS Credit.

“FinDhan is a great opportunity for FinTech, and other emerging technology companies catering to the financial services industry, to engage with a market leader in TVS Credit. We call this a hybrid model accelerator, which offers TVS Credit a series of multi-format engagements with the external innovation ecosystem, built over a year. There has been a lot of thought process put into designing this model, from varied business units within TVS Credit, and to have that kind of buy-in and engagement from the leadership is a great start in itself,” says Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director (India), Zone Startups.

“We are looking to bring 40-50 startups into the fold of FinDhan over the next 12 months, and see how many of these are able to form mutually beneficial business partnerships with TVS Credit. We believe that the business insights and legacy of a market leader can be leveraged by an agile, emerging tech company looking to offer a great customer experience,” he adds.

With this startup engagement program, TVS Credit is looking to strengthen its business by leveraging the latest technology. It aims to achieve the highest level of customer experience throughout the lifecycle of its customers, leverage customer profiling to address unmet demands, automate manual processes, and develop new products across their business.

"India is one of the world's largest markets for financial services. It is also the country where the adoption and usage of new technology has cut across all barriers of geography, language and social strata. It is therefore quite clear to us that, to become a leader in financial services, our tech initiatives need to be one step ahead of the pack, always. We couldn't have imagined a better partner than Zone Startups to help us find the right solutions for our business challenges and implement them smoothly. I look forward to a long relationship, filled with ideas and innovation," says Venkatraman G, Chief Executive Officer, TVS Credit.

The coming together of two well-known names in their respective verticals will work as a great an opportunity for the startups onboarded through the FinDhan programme to gain insights from the senior leadership team at TVS Credit – a market leader in its domain, as well as a chance to engage on pilot opportunities, to explore strategic business opportunities with the Company.

Swiggy CEO Confirms Company's Entry To Hyperlocal Delivery Space

Sriharsha Majety, CEO & co-founder of Swiggy, has said in an interview that the company is experimenting with few hyperlocal categories, which is among several new initiatives that the India’s largest online food ordering startup has planned for going beyond just food ordering and delivering.

“We’ve been closely observing our consumers’ lives and we feel that there are some unique capabilities that we have that can take a shot at solving more problems, even outside the realm of food. You’ll see us start making small forays into new areas,” said Majety in an interview.

This confirms a report we published in April this year, according to which Swiggy, in coming months, will launch new hyperlocal service called 'Dash', to deliver medicines and grocery.

Additionally, Swiggy is also working on a new loyalty program to retain its fleet of several thousands of delivery executives, said Majety.

Notably, since start of this year Hyperlocal delivery startups are grabbing investor eyeballs again with startups in this segment raising a total of $82.6 million in funding, in first half of 2018 - according YourStory research. In June, Bangalore-based hyperlocal delivery startup Dailyninja raised $3 Mn in a funding by Saama Capital.

According to market research firm, Ken Research in its latest publication on “India Hyperlocal Market Outlook to 2020 - Driven by Rising Startups Firms and Fluctuating Investments”, the India Hyperlocal market will grow at a considerable CAGR rate thus exceeding INR 2,306 crore by 2020

This year, Swiggy raised a total of $301 million in two rounds - $100 Mn from Naspers and China’s Meituan, in February; and, $210 million from Naspers and DST Global, in June. This made Swiggy to join elite club of Unicorns - aka startups with a valuation of $1 billion+ - and values Swiggy at roughly $1.3 billion, surpassing rival Zomato’s $1.1 billion valuation.

Founded in 2014, by Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini, Swiggy is one of the fastest entrants into the unicorn club and raised a total of $465 million since it started.

According to Swiggy's latest regulatory filings, the company reported revenue of roughly Rs 133 crore, while losses widened to Rs 205 crore in the 2016-17 financial year.

India's ​First Ever Data Privacy Suit Questions Indians' Fundamental Right to Privacy Amid Aadhaar Data Breaches

On an auspicious day of Tuesday, 21 August, Delhi High Court (HC) had issued notice to world's largest biometric ID system -- Aadhaar's issuing body Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as well as the central government of India on a petition alleging that the fundamental right to privacy of all Indians with an Aadhaar card has been violated because of Aadhaar data breaches that occurred on numerous occasion. And, with this the petition accepted by Delhi HC becomes India's first ever data privacy suit.

The petition filed alleged a violation of the fundamental right to privacy as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and, as affirmed in one of earlier court case, due to Aadhaar data breaches.

A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Anu Malhotra issued notice and sought reply of the authorities on the plea which also urged the court to direct the Centre to either allow people to opt out of the system or delete the entire existing UIDAI data in view of the security breaches.

The bench has instructed -- the UIDAI, Union of India, National Informatics Centre, and Ministry of Communications and IT -- to submit their response within the next six weeks.

The bench listed the matter for further hearing on November 19.

Also Read - India Is About To Privatize 100 Terabytes of Its Citizens Data

Although there were numerous occasion when it was evidently proved that Aadhaar biometric system is not at all safe and nor maintained securely by its statutory authority UIDAI or Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), govt. of India. But because of embedded journalism, neither mainstream media nor common citizen had so far filed a petition for consistent privacy breach hapenning through over-glorified Aadhaar cards issued to 1.05 billion people till September 2016.

What Does the Petition Asks -

The petition asks the Delhi High Court to do the following:

• Direct the authorities to ensure compliance with all relevant rules for security, including publication of a privacy policy and creation of an information security policy for the UIDAI.



• Direct the authorities to reveal the number of data breaches since the inception of the Aadhaar programme, along with details of how Basheer’s own data has been compromised.



• Appoint an independent investigative/audit committee to investigate all breaches.



• Appoint a neutral ombudsman/verification authority for addressing complaints relating to Aadhaar or other data breaches as well.



• Direct the authorities to provide the option of opting out of the Aadhaar system.



• Award exemplary damages for the failure to adhere to security practices, so as to deter the government and authorities like the UIDAI from being negligent with the rights of citizens again

.

• In the alternative, direct the Centre to delete all existing Aadhaar numbers.

The Petitioner

[caption id="attachment_125742" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Shamnad Basheer | Image - Lawctopus.com[/caption]

The petitioner who filed the suit is a Kerala-based lawyer named - Shamnad Basheer, who's a quite an influential man even before filing the petition else no common men have that much of courage to stand against stubborn and "pro-lynching" government of India the country has today. Besides being an an Indian lawyer, Shamnad Basheer was also a Ministry of Human Resource Development Chaired Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, and the Frank H. Marks Visiting Associate Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the George Washington University Law School.

Speaking to The Quint, Basheer said that the court’s decision was a very welcome one, since the judges had rejected the UIDAI’s attempt to conflate this case with the challenge before the Supreme Court, recognising that redressal of security breaches is important.

Basheer also the founder of SpicyIP blog, which is one of India’s leading blogs on intellectual property (IP) and innovation law/policy.

Content sourced from [with addition and editing] these sources - Economic Times, The Quint, WikiPedia.org/Aadhaar, Wikipedia.org/Shamnad_Basheer

[Top Featured Image - arvin febry]