Soon Farmers could Sell Agri-Products Directly from E-trading Platform E-NAM

​In order to increase the income of farmers, the central government is considering expanding its online platform National Agricultural Market (E-NAM), a pan-India online trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.

After this expansion, farmers will get an option to sell their products directly from the Warehouse Warehouse, which will help the farmers to get better value for their crops.

According to an official of the Agriculture Ministry, the farmers will be able to sell their crops directly from the warehouse after the expansion of this platform Chaulion will leave. At the same time, it will also help in achieving the goal of doubling the income of the farmers of the government.



The official says that we will soon launch the facility for farmers to sell agricultural products inside and outside the states on this platform. The officer says that the platform is ready and the bus launches are still pending.

The officials said that trading on this online platform would be the beginning of trading through warehouse owned by the Warehouse Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA). This will also increase the warehouse business.

At present there are about 1000 government warehouses in the country.



According to the Agriculture Officer, Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act 2017, to provide the real value of their crop the government gives permission to use godown and warehouses as markets. From this, the markets come near farmers and they get credit facilities on their production. Currently, states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh are providing their own warehouses and warehouses as markets to facilitate the sale of crop directly to the farmers. The official said that many more states could soon adopt this process.

Launched in 2016, E-NAM portal currently facilitates trading of more than 150 agricultural products . This trading is through online bidding.

Through this portal, more than 585 wholesale markets of 16 states and 2 Union Territories can be traded. At present, the unified online trading platform has more than 1.64 million farmers across the country registered with more than 1, 20,000 traders.

[Top Featured Image - Kate Trysh on Unsplash]

Fintech Startup Namaste Credit wins SKOCH Order-of Merit Awards, 2019

Namaste Credit, India’s leading AI-based credit discovery platform for MSMEs today was announced the winner of 2019 SKOCH Order-of Merit Awards, for its AI-based credit assessment solution for banks and NBFCs. The fintech startup was declared the winner during the 58th SKOCH Summit on 29th June 2019 with the underlying theme of ‘ModiNomics 2.0 - Macroeconomic Agenda’, at Constitution Club of India, Rafi Marg, New Delhi. Namaste Credit has won the prestigious award post a very stringent evaluation process, qualifying three parameters, namely -Early Bird, Jury Evaluation and Popular Vote.

SKOCH Award was instituted in 2003 and is the highest civilian honour in the country conferred by an independent organisation. It recognises people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make India a better nation, especially in the fields of finance, governance, banking, disaster management, technology, economics and inclusive growth.

Krishnan Parameswaran, co-founder and CTO, Namaste Credit says, “We are incredibly delighted to have won the prestigious SKOCH award for 2019. This win is a prominent recognition of our efforts towards bringing digital and financial inclusion of India most significant pillar of growth – the MSMEs. We have always been a technology innovation driven company and will continue to keep the momentum high."

Namaste Credit was founded in 2014 by Gaurav Anand, Lucas Bianchi and Krishnan Parameswaran. The startup has filed three patents for its AI-driven technology platform, which allows banks to reduce turnaround times for loan approval from three days to three hours. Further, their technology also leads to loan approval rates of 70% or above, which is the highest in the industry. They can achieve this through pre-qualifying SMEs using Big Data and matching them to lenders using their proprietary algorithms.

Namaste Credit raised $3.8 million in Series A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners in 2018. It also plans to grow the number of its technology licensing partnerships with leading lenders across the globe.

RBI's arm Building Model Platform for Blockchain Apps for Govt in Banking

In August last year, it was reported that India's central bank, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had set up a unit to supervise, oversee its efforts in emerging technologies including cryptocurrency, blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI). However RBI denied the reports later, but in April this year it was announced that National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which was incorporated by the RBI, is working on to develop highly scalable blockchain based payment solution to further strengthen digital payments in the country. Though the cryptocurrency part was missing in the later report.

Now, in a latest to this, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), an arm of RBI that that exclusively focus on banking technology, is working on development of a model blockchain platform to cater to the needs of banks.

AS Ramasastri, Director of IDRBT, has told a business daily that IDRBT is working on a model platform for blockchain applications for the government in banking and the same will be documented and developed next year.

The upcoming blockchain platform will put up all available blockchain applications with features like inter-operability, among others.

“While there is huge scope for deployment of blockchain applications, a cautious approach is very much needed,” said Ramasastri, pointing at the current situation where despite of the fact hat banks and financial institutions are do referring to blockchain technology already but real deployment of bloockchain applications has not been attempted so far.

to recall, a Infosys-Finacle survey report of 2017 had suggested that almost 50% of banks globally have already invested in the blockchain technology or were contemplating to do so in that year.

IDRBT, who is also in the process of setting up a 5G Use Cases Lab for banks, is speeding up its activities of the Fintech Forum launched a few months back with an aim of providing a continuous innovative platform to fintech companies, start-up ventures and banks, in order to enhance the co-innovation and reduce the on-boarding time for new technologies.

In the past, www.indianweb2.com covered various stories on how the technology is invading financial institutions like banks (Read Here) and electronic voting systems in several countries (Read Here), including India. In fact, not only banking and voting, Blockchain is also blurring the lines between technology and nature through a new species called Plantoid, a new digital plant, which is designed to reproduce itself via transactions made on the blockchain.

How Are Smartwatches Leading the Smart Wearables Revolution Around the Globe

Technology has evolved leaps and bounds to engulf our lives for the better. Lively innovations in the smart wearable segment have made it into one of the biggest industries in the world. The demand for smart wearable technology is on an upward trend as these devices are steadily becoming a necessity for the general public.

Studies conducted by Stastica are a testament to the increasing numbers of smart wearable users. These numbers will continue to rise as new modifications improve our smart wearable experience.

Advancements in research have been leading to increased innovation in the recent years and have been instrumental in driving the demand for the wearable market and led to new product categories like the smart fabrics and hearable, among others.

Investments by the likes of ICT Fund to propel Asian smart wearable brands like KaHa have come as a huge boost for the industry in Asia.

Smartwatches constitute a major portion of smart wearable sales and are crucial to the growth of this industry. Before getting in depth about the smartwatch analysis, let's talk about some other smart wearables in the market that have been making waves.

Different types of smart wearables in the market in 2019:

• WEARABLES FOR ASSAULT PROTECTION:

With a spike in the numbers of rape cases and assaults across the nation, it was only logical for manufacturers to come up with wearables that protect you against such untoward incidents.  Such a wearable is simply a gadget that is camouflaged as an attachment to the garment and made to detect falls and force. These wearables connect with your smartphones via Bluetooth and are capable of sending emergency texts or alarms as distress communications to your loved ones. Some of these are even capable of recording evidence for further legal actions against the accused.

• SMART RINGS:

Smart rings might seem like devices straight out of a sci-fi movie of the 20th century. These tiny wearables went viral for all the right reasons when they were first launched. These are especially popular among businessmen and individuals who spend most of their time in meetings and want to get notifications without attracting much attention. Smart rings are perfect for people who like to keep their wrists free.

• FITNESS TRACKERS:

A must for every fitness enthusiast in the modern era, fitness trackers are the second most popular and widely sold smart wearable devices behind smartwatches. Rising health issues due to sedentary lifestyle have attributed to the popularity of these devices. Another great selling factor of fitness trackers is their low cost and capability of capturing health data on a wider scope than big medical equipment.

• MEDICAL WEARABLES:

There is an increasing demand in the use of medical wearables owing to its affordability and convenience as opposed to routine check-ups that not only comes at a cost but also expensive. The latest advancement has seen these devices now capable of collecting highly accurate health data and connect remotely to the personal physician who will then be able to monitor your health progress and also check if you are correctly using your medications. Medical wearables include the likes of Google smart lenses, health patch MD, Cloud DX vitality and iTBra.

Why are smartwatches leading the bandwagon?

Not all of us like to have a screen strapped on our wrists, but who does not like the convenience of tracking workouts and responding to notifications without reaching for a phone?

Smartwatches are fantastic tools to enhance our comfort and elevate our interactivity with technology.

Owing to the increasing penetration rates of urbanization, the demand for aesthetically appealing advanced featured products with the ability to better serve the consumers' daily requirements, such as time schedules, has driven the market for smartwatches, globally.

In addition, the ongoing technological advancements by the companies are the primary factors stimulating the growth of smartwatches, as it is a completely technical product that requires constant research and development for differentiated features. Today the smartwatches supports various types of gaming, you can even play casino in india, don’t be surprised if James Bond makes a few bets at online roulette from his wrist...

Smartwatches are multi-functional as they do so much more than just check the time. Smartwatches can work as fitness tracking devices, enable you to attend to calls, make payments through NFC, etc.

Great smartwatches to opt for:

There are tons of smartwatches from different manufacturers in the market right now. This could make it tricky for a layman to choose the best of the lot. To ease your burden, we have compiled a few smartwatches that tick most, if not all the right boxes.

• SAMSUNG GALAXY WATCH ACTIVE:

The latest wearable from Samsung's stable, the galaxy watch active is a much lighter and compact improvement over its predecessors. Samsung has already established itself as a leading smartphone manufacturer and compliments its phones well with its smartwatch line up. The galaxy watch active boasts of a 1.1-inch circular Super AMOLED screen, an Exynos 9110 processor, 4GB of internal storage, and a 230mAh battery. It houses plenty of sensors and wireless features, including Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, NFC for Samsung Pay, GPS, a heart rate sensor, and an ambient light sensor. It is also fairly inexpensive than many major direct competitors.

• APPLE WATCH SERIES 4:

The Apple watch series has an iconic status in the smartwatch segment. Although limited to iOS devices only, this line up of watches by Apple has seen sales in millions over the world. The Series 4 promises an unmatched seamless experience with iPhones and packs in two size options with a variety of colour options. It features a square1.78″ LTPO OLED display, Apple S4 chipset and 16 GB storage. It also has all the bells and whistles that you would expect from a high-end smartwatch but takes it up a notch with its ECG rated best in class heart monitor.

• TICWATCH PRO

Although a lesser-known name in the smartwatch market, the Ticwatch pro is the smartwatch for you if you want the best of both worlds - Android and iOS. This smartwatch comes with the WearOS and has two displays, one layered on top of the other. On the top is a transparent LCD display that can display the time, your heart rate and more when the battery is low.

Below that is a bright and bold OLED that will give you all of the benefits of Wear OS.

Conclusion/ CTA:

The Asian markets are especially flooded with competitively priced smart wearables spanning many platforms.

Smart wearables are not just mere luxury accessories anymore. They have taken a much more important role of supplementing our smartphones for a better, more intuitive connectivity.

As technology advances leaps and bounds, the smart wearable industry will see tremendous growth led by smartwatches.

Elevator Pitch Contest Returns with a Never-Before Opportunity for Startups

Entry is now open for the second edition of Elevator Pitch Contest, an enviable opportunity for start-up entrepreneurs to transform their business with a 3-minute pitch. Co-hosted by Lufthansa and TiE Delhi-NCR under the ambit of the Start-up Expo event, the unique challenge adds further punch to the extremely popular launch edition, with an unprecedented Grand Prize covering the key building blocks of startup success. With entries open till 30 July 2019, the Contest provides start-ups the chance to win:

• 
  
• Direct access to investors: An opportunity to work from the offices of Indian Angel Network, connecting directly with angel investors for an understanding of the investment process.



• Cambridge Ignite, an entrepreneurship program: A sponsorship to Ignite, the coveted global programme for entrepreneurs at Cambridge University, UK.


• Lufthansa Business Class ticket to Europe


• Dedicated mentor: A mentor dedicated to the winning startup for 6-months


• TiE expertise & resources: A complimentary membership of TiE Delhi-NCR providing access to an exclusive network of business experts and resources.

The top 3 challengers in the multi-stage contest, enter the Grand Finale, which will take place at Start-up Expo 4 – the largest ecosystem for start-up success – on 28 September 2019. The finalists get an opportunity to pitch live before an eminent jury and audience comprising business experts, industry leaders and senior government functionaries.

“Start-ups are an important growth engine powering India’s economic leadership. Lufthansa is privileged to be an enabler for these young new-age entrepreneurs by opening doors to a world of new opportunities,” said George Ettiyil, Senior Director Sales South Asia – Lufthansa Group.

“The Elevator Pitch is a dream challenge for start-up founders. It is tailor-made to their needs, providing them access to investors, mentors, business experts and a seat at a global entrepreneurship program – exactly what they need for success,” added Geetika Dayal, Executive Director – TiE Delhi-NCR.

Registration to the contest is free of cost and will remain open till July 30, 2019. Start-ups can apply online at www.lufthansastartupexpo.in. A distinguished jury comprising prominent business leaders across multiple domains will shortlist the applicants in a multistage selection process. The pitches will be evaluated on parameters such as product, USP, scalability, and market opportunity, besides others.



Through focussed initiatives such as the Elevator Pitch Contest among many others, the Start-up Expo has become a key catalyst driving transformation and growth for Indian start-ups. The event will take place at Epicentre, Apparel House, in Gurgaon on September 28, 2019.

The Start-up Expo is a high-visibility transformative platform which brings together all the essential ingredients needed to drive entrepreneurial growth under one roof and makes it accessible to emerging ventures – completely free of cost! The 2018 edition of the Start-up Expo saw 20,000 participants and 500 start-up exhibitors from 175 cities interact with 200+ mentors and experts, 100+ partners, and 75+ investors. Apart from facilitating more than 1,000 investor meetings, the one-day event gave entrepreneurs a chance to showcase their ventures, engage with investors and government stakeholders, attend knowledge-sharing sessions, and explore networking and business opportunities.

The Start-up Expo 4 aims to build on that impressive reception and drive greater growth and scale for more high-potential ventures across the country.

Kapil Dev, Others Invests in Online Hiring Platform WizCounsel

Wizcounsel, an online market network that helps people hire & manage freelance Legal, Tax & Accounting experts has raised Rs. 1 crore in an angel round led by Kapil Dev, Former Indian Cricket Team Captain, Sunil Kumar Gupta, Founder & Chairman, SARC Associates, and Manas Fuloria, Founder & CEO, Nagarro.

WizCounsel helps People & Small Businesses hire & manage freelance Legal, Tax & Accounting experts according to your budget and needs. The platform functions as a marketplace and a SAAS to help people hire the right Legal & Accounting experts - Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Business Experts and get work done seamlessly using inbuilt work management framework.

The raised funds will be used for marketing, sales and to strengthen current operations.
Talking about starting WizCounsel, Ranu Gupta, Founder & CEO, said “People still look for professional services the way they used to 15 years back and Professionals still develop a business the same way. This is a perfect “that’s how it has always been opportunity”. It is a big industry that is outdated and badly in need of improvement for speed, convenience, affordability, and quality”.



WizCounsel is an online market network that helps People & Small Businesses hire & manage freelance Legal, Tax & Accounting experts according to your budget and needs. The platform functions as a marketplace and a SAAS to help people hire the right Legal & Accounting experts - Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Business Experts and get work done seamlessly using inbuilt work management framework.

“It is going to be all about the Internet. People are already using it to order food, to book doctors, etc. and I am sure they will start looking for services from CAs and Lawyers or even Accountants online. Many directories exist, but the thing is there must be a platform to give them much more confidence about how they deal with experts for their work.” Said Kapil Dev, the legendary Cricketer.

Commenting on Investment, Manas Fuloria, Founder & CEO, Nagarro said “Individuals or small companies seeking legal, tax or accounting help are automatically on the back foot because of “information asymmetry”. They typically do not know what exact services to ask for, how much to pay, how to monitor timelines and effort, and how to evaluate the quality of decisions. WizCounsel aims to even this asymmetry by giving the client more control over the search, service and payment journey.”

WizCounsel was launched in March this year and is currently running in Beta. Till now, the platform has more than 100 verified professionals across different cities out of 600 total applications and has generated a total transaction value of approximately Rs. 3 Lacs.

Speaking on his Investment, Sunil Kumar Gupta, Founder & Chairman, SARC Associates said WizCounsel empowers young Accountants & lawyers who have always found it extremely tough to generate business for themselves.  A lot of Young professionals can work more passionately at a lesser price with the same quality. Like engineering & design teams, Businesses can form distributed finance & legal teams to cut on cost, improve quality and transparency.

The platform offers a variety of services right from simple Income Tax Filing to outsourcing whole Legal & Accounting work for a  business.  

Talking more about the Startup, Ranu said “The concept of sharing economy has impacted every industry the hardest way possible but professional services still remain on the backseat. It is going to be one unified internet connected global workforce and an innovative approach is required to figure out how the Legal & Tax Industry serves the next generation. The major aspect missing is the reassurance & confidence for clients with respect to their work. If we can track the delivery of our food, why shouldn’t we track the delivery of a shareholding agreement or monthly accounting MIS? This is where WizCounsel makes a huge difference. The vision is to create an open, affordable and a reassuring Tax, Legal & Compliance Eco-system for all.

IIT Kanpur and IIT BHU tie up with India Accelerator to change the face of entrepreneurship in India

India Accelerator (IA), a Launch pad for early-stage startups, with a potential to create disproportionate value and Algo8 launch Deep Tech ecosystem in IIT campuses. The first cohorts are to be created in IIT Kanpur and IIT BHU and would go live in summer semesters.

The Gurgaon based company runs mentorship driven acceleration programs for Technology start-ups in artificial intelligence (AI), Block chain, Consumer space, Finance, Gaming, e-commerce and AgriTech.

Started in 2017 with an idea to achieve both a financial return and a positive economic & social impact, the guiding principle of IA is to stimulate the establishment and growth of start-up ecosystem and to increase the number of successful companies originating and developing in India.

Algo8 is an Indo Canadian AI/ML deep tech firm that specialises in systemising tacit knowledge in O&G, Process Industry, Healthcare, Retail, Telecom and BFSI. They have designed developed and deployed cutting edge Data and AI tech for large organisation and government in India Canada UK and US.

Together at Prithvi, both will create an environment for precision in skills, global contexts and connections, cash to create and enable new gen tech entrepreneurs. Focus is AI/ML enabled deep tech startups incubation and acceleration through a joint program.

Ashish Bahtia, Founding Partner, India Accelerator said “Our Company helps startups grow from good to great. This launch will be beneficial for new technologies and innovations. Deep tech ecosystem is raising globally. It is the next stage of continuous progress in platform technologies. This technology has power to create its own markets. It will also help companies to achieve growth and success”.

Prof. Bandyopadhyay, IIT Kanpur said "Prithvi is an exciting experiment that can create exponential growth of AI/ML companies in the academic campuses."

Nandan Mishra, CEO of Algo8 commented that “The availability of data will enable AI to give birth to new epistemologies and challenge/change the decision science paradigm in multiple walks of life. Using it to create scalable systems that benefit businesses and individuals is what we intend to do. Ecosystems would play a big role in this. We have created that through Prithvi.”

On this occasion, the coordinator of MCIIE, Prof. P.K. Mishra, IIT BHU said that "Collaboration between IIT BHU and India Accelerator will help further strengthen the startup ecosystem in the campus. It will help students engage with industry through structural program run by India Accelerator. Further this association would help our students take locational advantage to engage with different stakeholders in their startup journeys. "

Free Android app allows Connectivity Boost by Bandwidth Sharing

Smartiply today announced the worldwide availability of its DataNinja app for Android devices on Google Play. DataNinja allows mobile phone and tablet users to combine bandwidth from trusted nearby mobile devices or Wi-Fi networks to harness reliable, speedy and secure Internet connections even in environments with weak and unreliable connectivity. The app is available in India for subscribers of all major mobile telecom operators including Jio, Vodafone-Idea, Airtel and BSNL Mobile.

The explosion of mobile data usage has put tremendous strain on network and cloud resources. In addition, many areas outside (and even within) cities and towns are plagued by poor network and other constraints that impact the end-user experience, especially with bandwidth hungry applications such as video streaming. However, family, friends and colleagues often spend time together and have multiple devices among them that are idle much of the time. DataNinja combines the capabilities of nearby devices through Smartiply’s patented Fog Computing technology, dramatically enhancing mobile users’ experience of video and data intensive applications even in places with weak connectivity.

DataNinja offers the following benefits to users:

1. Speedy & reliable connectivity by combining networks- Merge Wi-Fi and cellular networks on their own phone to get a significantly faster experience.


2. Sharing Internet bandwidth with friends & family- Link bandwidth of multiple trusted devices to create a fog network to get higher-speed uploading and downloading. Users don't need to share passwords to share bandwidth.


3. Seamless self-healing connections- The failover technology ensures uninterrupted and seamless performance even when one of the connections drops.


4. Security, privacy and control- All data is encrypted and routed over multiple links within Smartiply’s VPN network to ensure security and privacy. Data metering provides usage tracking and allows users to set limits on sharing.\

Details about the features and a product video can be found at smartiply.com/DataNinja

"We want to inspire people to share with each other, rely on our technology to provide a delightful experience, and count on us for bandwidth rescue while on-the-go” said Smartiply Co-Founder and CEO, Kaushik Pillalamarri.

Smartiply, Inc. is a mobile technology start-up headquartered in New Jersey, USA. By creating a fusion between Fog Computing and Internet of Things (IoT), Smartiply is the first platform that enables resource sharing and collaboration among connected devices. Co-founded by Dr. Junshan Zhang and Dr. Mung Chiang, who have been credited with pioneering Transactional Networks and Fog Computing, the startup sprouted out of Arizona State University and Princeton University in 2015. The company is backed by Wistron Corporation, a strategic partner and world leader in original design manufacturing. Smartiply has deployed its technology commercially, delivering value and ROI, and continues to build innovative products based on its platform. The platform software development kit (SDK) can be incorporated by system integrators, operators, device manufacturers, video streaming companies and third-party developers to provide differentiated experience to their end users. Smartiply is actively driving SDK partnership opportunities globally.

Zone Startups India announces 7th edition of Next Big Idea

Mumbai-based Zone Startups India, one of the largest tech accelerators in India has announced the 7th edition of its annual Next BIG Idea contest. NBI 2019 will invite applications from tech startups across the Country to be selected under the program. The Next BIG Idea is an annual feature of Zone Startups India that engages stakeholders including startups, incubators, co-working spaces, investors, industry & other enablers through roadshows in 20+ cities across India.

Zone Startups India team will be hosting roadshows across 21 cities to launch the contest pan-India throughout July 2019. These roadshows allow a number of promising companies to understand the North American market fit for their products, thereby giving them an opportunity to apply for the program and going through multiple rounds of selection process & speak to global jury members. The applications for the contest will be accepted online from 28th June 2019 till 30th August 2019.

NBI 2019 team will be visiting upcoming startup hubs like Hyderabad, Chennai to tier 2 and 3 cities like Vizag, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur in order to invite applications for the program. The idea is to find the most deserving growth stage startups who have global aspirations to expand their business.

Launched in 2013, Zone Startups India has successfully operated 6 editions of the program till date, that has benefited 39 Indian tech Startups, through a soft-landing program across major tech hubs in Canada and the US.

The objective of the Next BIG Idea contest, since inception, has been to identify and support hi-tech, hi-potential Indian startups that are seeking to expand internationally, and are actively looking at the North American market. The selected startups get access to a bespoke market access program which includes mentorship, industry connects, investor meetings and a great international exposure.

The alumni network of Next BIG Idea Contest comprises of startups that have successfully raised multiple rounds of funding, as well as, startups that have made exits through mergers and acquisitions -  some of the names being, CitrusPay, Sokrati (selected in 2013 but chose not to go in the midst of their funding round), Heckyl, Vidooly, ShieldSquare, Plackal, Flip Technologies, AdSparx, Konotor (acquired by FreshDesk), Data Resolve, Uncanny Vision, Gray Routes, Sequretek, Plackal (acquired by Sheroes) etc.

In 2018, the contest came to be a part of a larger Canada-India Bilateral Entrepreneurship Initiative supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India - which allowed Zone Startups India to increase the number of benefactors to 13 entrepreneurs each year, for a period of 2 years 2018 and 2019. Dr. Anita Gupta, Director, DST India, says, "The Department of Science and Technology , Government of India supports bilateral entrepreneurial platforms which enables Indian Startups to go global . Next Big Idea scouts and connects best tech based startups with International markets like Canada. Exposure to Canadian Startup Ecosystem through a well structured program provides access to relevant stakeholders, market and networks are the key takeaways for Startups. I wish the 7th edition of NBI a great success."

“If we had not gone through the NBI program, we would never have given a serious thought to looking at Canada as a potential gateway to the North American Market. It was an eye-opener in a lot of ways.” says Pankit Desai, Co-founder & CEO, Sequretek, winner of Next BIG Idea 2017. Sequretek has since raised INR 27 crore led by Unicorn India Ventures in September 2018 and set up an office in the US in Dec 2018.

With the 5th edition, a new addition was made to the Next BIG Idea contest, in the form of the Aditya Jha Entrepreneur India Award - for recognising social entrepreneurs who have translated their innovative & impactful ideas into technology driven businesses. The winner receives a grant of INR 5 Lakhs during Next Big Idea winner announcement.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Zone Startups on the Next Big Idea Competition for the 7th edition this year. The Next Big Idea is a great example of how Indians and Canadians can collaborate to achieve revolutionary social and business success. Canada is the best start-up partner that any of you could have. That is because, in a world where many countries are closing doors and putting up walls, Canada remains open. We are a country built on diversity that welcomes entrepreneurs from all over the world, and Indian entrepreneurs have proven to be a very good fit. I am looking forward to the continued success of innovation, convergence of ideas and partnerships through Next Big Idea! Good luck to all the participating young entrepreneurs!”, says Annie Dubé, Consul General, Canada.

Last year, the Next BIG Idea contest roadshows were hosted in 20 startup hubs from across the country, and attracted over 1,100 applications, from which 13 startups got an opportunity to explore soft-landing in major Canadian cities.

Flybot launches its first product in India – Flybot Beat

Flybot, a lifestyle brand that deals in fashionable consumer electronics announced the launch of its first product Flybot Beat, a true wireless earphone. The earphones are touted to offer a superior sound and customized fit. It gets cushioned ear tips and an ergonomic ear design. The product is priced at Rs. 2999 and is available on Amazon India.

The new earbud comes equipped with Bluetooth Version 5.0 that enables customers to connect their smartphone/tablet easily to get a truly wireless experience with transmission range of up to 10 meters. It provides an HD quality sound and has an 800 mAH powerful battery, portable charging storage that last up to 4 hours music play time and more than 100 hours standby.





Commenting on the same, Mr. Kartik Agarwal, CEO, Flybot stated “Flybot Beat is designed to give its users a superlative experience through very light, hassle-free comfortable fit and long-lasting battery. These factors will make the product an instant hit in the Indian market especially among youth, daily commuters and music enthusiasts.” 

“Flybot Beat provides the perfect balance of great sound, everlasting battery life, convenience and personal style all for a disruptive price of Rs. 2999.” He further added.

Flybot Beat has dynamic drivers which is designed to deliver detailed High Definition Sound, 3D surround sound and premium music experience. It features a built-in Mic to offer hands free control and calling features and the earbuds can also be used as two independent Mono earbud. The product is compatible with all iOS and Android devices. On purchase of the earphones, customers will get 365 days of table replacement warranty.

Enclosed are the detailed specification of the product:

Colour	Black
Version	5.0
Standby Time	>100 Hours
Transmission Distance	10 M
Charging Voltage	5V
Charging Time	<2-3 Hours
Talk Time	6-7 Hours
Battery Capacity	800 mAh for charging case for buds 40mAh each
Net Weight	94 gm
Product Size	90*108*36mm
Selling Price	Rs. 2999

Headquartered in Delhi, Flybot India is the brain child of Staunch, a leading online and offline retail Distribution Company. Flybot is the lifestyle brand that deals in fashionable consumer electronics, exhibiting an urban design language and offer pertinent specifications.

Oyo Ties with China’s E-Commerce Platform Meituan to List 8,000 Oyo Accommodations

OYO Hotels and Homes, the world’s sixth largest and fastest-growing chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes & living spaces, has today announced a year-long strategic partnership with Meituan, which is China's leading e-commerce platform for services and also an investor in Swiggy, India's biggest food delivery platform

In the first phase of the partnership, OYO Jiudian (Hotels), which is the largest single hotel brand in China and the second-largest hotel group in the country, will list 8,000 of its standardized accommodations on Meituan Hotels platform. This will further assist OYO Hotels in driving consumer traffic, data operations, and brand promotion.

OYO Jiudian is committed to creating quality living spaces using its full-scale fulfillment-led model, which allows it to achieve benchmark scale and efficiency that starts with supply acquisition, renovation, hospitality and operations, technology and omnichannel distribution across online and offline channels. Meituan Hotels, as a comprehensive accommodation service platform, offers consumers with a wide range of hotel accommodation options ranging from high-end to mass market to family-run and small boutique hotels. It is driven by the mission - “We help people eat better, live better".

This partnership combines OYO Jiudian’s capacities in innovative transformation, business development, management and operations with Meituan’s supplementary advantages in platform, open ecosystem, user base, traffic, and technological innovation. This will enable easy access to OYO’s standardized, trustworthy and affordable accommodations across the Middle Kingdom to all of Meituan’s wide user base.

Commenting on the partnership, Sam Shih, COO - OYO China said, “OYO Jiudian is fulfilling aspirations of millions of travellers by transforming the hospitality landscape and ensuring that great hospitality experiences are not only for the rich, but for everyone. We are proactively delivering on China’s focus on reforming the supply sector and are always open to partner with like-minded and customer-focused organizations that are contributing to the development of the travel and hospitality industry. Our partnership with Meituan is a reflection of our commitment to providing quality living spaces to consumers and creating higher value for small-and medium-sized standalone hotel owners across China."

Guo Qing, Vice President - Meituan Group, General Manager of Meituan Hotel, Meituan Ticketing and Meituan Vacation, said, “We have held strong the principles of opening up and achieving mutual wins. We wish to work with various kinds of partners to harness technological innovation and provide well-rounded services that satisfies our customers, thus creating better living experiences to consumers and generating higher values and generating better revenue for hotel partners."

OYO Jiudian is deeply committed towards ensuring that over 400 million middle-income population in the country has access to high-quality and affordable accommodation. Every day, over 3,00,000 heads are on OYO Jiudian pillows in China as it offers a great experience at a low cost. In a brief period of 1.6 years, it has strategically expanded its presence across tier 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cities with a focus on hotels that are 80 rooms or less as that’s the whitespace not many hotel chains have addressed. Today, OYO Jiudian is present across 337 cities in China, including Hangzhou, Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Kunming, among others with 5,00,000 rooms as a part of its chain in the country.

As China's leading e-commerce platform for services, Meituan operates well-known mobile apps in China, including Meituan, Dianping, Meituan Waimai, Mobike and others. Meituan offers over 200 service categories, including catering, on-demand delivery, car-hailing, bike-sharing, hotel and travel booking, movie ticketing, and other entertainment and lifestyle services, and covers 2800 cities and counties across China. The total transaction amount of Meituan reached RMB 515.6 billion in 2018, with an increase of 44.3% over the same period of last year. The total annual numbers of transaction users and active online merchants of Meituan reached 400 million and 5.8 million in 2018, respectively.

Source - Newsvoir

Bitcoin Price Drops $1.8K in 15 Minutes as Coinbase Crashes

Price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell by ~ $1,800 within 15 minutes after Coinbase, a US-based cryptocurrency trading platform, experienced a brief outage yesterday. Both = website and API of Coinbasebecame temporarily inaccessible, as the price of bitcoin dropped more than $1,700 in the span of 15 minutes.

On its status page, Coinbase first reported that it was investigating an issue in which its API and website were not functioning properly at 1:47 p.m. PDT, Wednesday or 2:17 am, Thursday Indian Standard Time (IST).

The cryptocurrency exchange reported major outages across its website, mobile apps and API, though its internal systems appeared to be functional during that period. When reached, a spokesperson told CoinDesk: “We’re back up.” At 5:17 ET, the exchange’s status page noted: “A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results."

Notably, the all-of-a-sudden outage comes at time when just a couple of days back bitcoin surpassed both the $12,000 and $13,000 price marks in a matter of hours.

According to its website, trading app Robinhood also reported issues with its crypto trading service.

The platform was rendered inaccessible on mobile and desktop browsers around 20:45 UTC. Bitcoin’s price, which saw a high of nearly $13,900 on Wednesday, fell over the past hour, dropping as low as $11,900. BTC’s price was at about $13,685 just prior to the fall, hitting $11,908.11 before bouncing back upwards — a difference of roughly $1,785. Despite recovering back above $12,000, the price is currently hovering at roughly $11,920 as of the time of publication.

According to data BitMex, nearly $250 million in volume traded hands in a 5-minute period surrounding the initial price drop, with nearly $690 million in volume trading across 15 minutes after the drop began across its XBT/USD perpetual swap contract market.

Bitcoin’s price has been on a tear across the last week, coming close to 18-month highs above $13,000 earlier in the day. The price was hovering around $9,000 one week ago.

Source - Coindesk.com

Govt's BIRAC with Social Alpha and Mphasis are Looking for Startups in Assistive Technology Sector

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Government of India, along with Social Alpha and Mphasis, announced the launch of the ‘BIRAC-Social Alpha Quest for Assistive Technologies – supported by Mphasis’ today, a search for startups in the Assistive Technology sector to support innovations focussed on enabling and empowering solutions for persons-with-disabilities.

The Quest will identify and select up to 10 innovations that enhance the learning, working and independent living for persons-with-disabilities. These winning innovations will also be provided up to INR 20 lakhs each to facilitate their market access journey, for implementation of work orders.

Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary DBT & Chairperson, BIRAC said, “BIRAC is promoting development of innovative biotech solutions to address unmet needs. A number of initiatives rolled out in last few years have positively impacted the Biotech Startup ecosystem which has now grown to 2500+ across the country. This includes products and technologies focused for persons-with-disabilities. BIRAC - Social alpha launch of “Quest for Assistive Technologies” intends to identify, handhold and deploy Assistive Technology solutions for the deserving ones. This partnership could prove instrumental in building a pipeline of innovative and affordable solutions. I hope that this initiative will encourage national & international stakeholders to join hands in delivering assistive technologies at scale.

Addressing the audience at the launch event, Dr. Mohd. Aslam, MD, BIRAC said, “BIRAC promotes entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs to undertake strategic translational research to develop innovative products and technologies. Technology driven solutions can steer the change for societal well-being and impact billions of lives. I hope that BIRAC-Social alpha Quest for Assistive Technologies would provide a platform for start-ups to leverage this engagement for creating and deploying innovative assistive technologies across the country.

[caption id="attachment_131539" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] (Left to Right) Manoj Kumar, Meenu Bhambhani and Dr Manish Diwan[/caption]

Speaking at the launch event, Manoj Kumar, CEO and Co-founder, Social Alpha, and Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tata Trusts said, “There is a huge shortage of quality solutions that cater to and empower persons-with-disabilities at a price point they can afford.  Sometimes we come across innovators who have built the right prototypes, but find them struggling with the end user acceptance, design for manufacturing and market access. Affordability and user experience are the key to large scale adoption of such solutions and our program is designed to validate the product-market fit, help with clinical trials where required and bridge the gaps that exist in the distribution and service channels. We have already incubated four innovative companies in this sector—Bionic Yantra, Blee Technologies, Innaumation, and Tactopus, and through this Quest we are deepening our commitment the sector.”

Meenu Bhambhani, Vice President & Head- Corporate Social Responsibility, Mphasis, addressed the event, and said, “At Mphasis we have a strong focus on improving the lives of persons-with-disability. We have partnered with Social Alpha to support the curation, design and implementation of the Quest. This initiative is aimed at introducing game changing innovations to the market; building this cohesive ecosystem with critical organizations will significantly fast-track the lab-to-market journey for innovators. We believe this can really move the needle for disability inclusion in India and through this partnership we are committed to further the cause” Mphasis, through its CSR initiatives, has been doing pioneering and cutting edge work to promote disability inclusion in the mainstream. This partnership with Social Alpha resonates with our focus on providing solutions that enhance equal participation and dignity for people with disabilities in all spheres of life especially through inclusive solutions.

Upon selection, the winners of the Quest will be enrolled into the Accelerator for Inclusive Solutions — a game-changing 3-month accelerator program where they will be given the chance to work with selected implementation agencies within the Social Alpha, BIRAC and Tata Trusts network, interact directly with potential users of their product, and gain exposure to other funders, buyers and CSR initiatives. As a unique feature, these winning start-ups will also be provided up to 20 lakhs each to kick-start their market access journey, for implementation of work orders, and further support for clinical validation and product engineering. In addition, the start-ups will also have the opportunity to work closely with experts on price discovery, cost optimization, market validation, and marketing and sales.

Multiple estimates suggest that there are anywhere between 4 to 8 crore disabled people in India—i.e. one in twelve households has a family member with a disability. Moreover, due to low literacy levels, social stigma and lack of opportunities, people with disabilities remain the most excluded and unidentified members of Indian society. Large number of children with disabilities stay out of school, disabled adults are likely to be unemployed, and families with a disabled member tend to be economically weaker. While there are several players working to improve the situation, currently, there is no concerted industry effort. To address this gap, Social Alpha also announced that it would be launching a unique Open Innovation Platform which will serve three key purposes: first, identification of key problems and the critical areas where technological interventions are necessary, second, collaboration of innovators and entrepreneurs to develop the technology to serve identified problem, and third, facilitation of  market access for these innovations by aggregating end users and inviting funders, eventually reducing the cost to the end consumer.

“We envisage this platform to include organisations working with persons-with-disabilities, experts and thought leaders, start-ups, channel partners, CSRs arms of companies, family offices and foundations that focus on disabilities, as well as Central and State governments. This platform will bring together the innovation and investment ecosystems; map problems with potential solutions and help capital allocation decision of both philanthropic and commercial capital providers” said Manoj Kumar.

Presently, Social Alpha has partnered with several leading organizations working for inclusivity including Enable India, Artilab, Jaipur Foot, Saksham Trust, Xavier’s Resource Center for the Visually Challenged, National Institute of Speech and Hearing, and AssisTech at IIT-Delhi.

The Quest for Assistive Technologies is open for applicants starting today, June 27, 2019 and will be accepting applications till August 15, 2019. For further information visit - www.socialalpha.org/assisistivetech

IP Tech Company Clairvolex Raises $3.5 Mn in second tranche of Series B

US-India based IP Tech and Solutions firm Clairvolex has raised $3.5M as the second tranche of Series B round funding by California based Walden Riverwood Capital, and participated by IndusAge Partners. Earlier, the company had raised $8M in Series B and $4M in Series A, a combined raise of $15.5M. The funds were used to build and launch a new product - LEAP-IP, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled IP solutions platform.

Clairvolex will invest the recent funds to deepen LEAP’s market penetration, expand sales and marketing footprint in the US and Europe. They are also looking at adding more data science and data engineering capabilities in both Bangalore and Los Altos, CA centres.

Speaking on the occasion, Manoj Pillai, CEO of Clairvolex, said, “Patent Management & Monetization is a USD 180 Billion market globally. We developed our AI enabled tech platform, LEAP, based on more than a decade of our experience managing patent portfolios to deliver significant benefits to patent holders in the management, prosecution, and monetization of these assets. LEAP is currently being deployed for several large patent holders based in the US and Europe market. We are aiming to manage 10-15% of patents of the top 50 tech IP owners by 2025."

Leap-IP is the first AI & Machine Learning (ML) enabled patent portfolio development the platform, incubated in India and engineered jointly with the Silicon Valley, for global markets to address the patent development industry. Powered by ML, AI and automation, and with an extensive data at its backend, LEAP offers enhanced patent development and monetization capabilities, helping companies build patent portfolio strategies with potential for higher monetization at half the current level of investments. LEAP’s databases have access to over 12 million patent data records at the backend, more than 30,000 IP specific rules and at least 130 automated standard operating procedures supported by Natural Language Processing algorithms to streamline patent prosecution.

Close to 80% of all patents in the world brings zero returns to their owners. They are non-performing assets sitting as a cost center in the P&Ls of these companies. None of these patents support the company’s defensive, offensive or collaborative use of patents to protect or enhance their economic interests. Leap offers real-time valuable insights that can help companies develop & keep only valuable patents, while optimizing the rest. Leap automates by leveraging AI, a significant amount of patent processes around building patent portfolios reducing costs by half while increasing quality & speed.

Clairvolex has over 190+ employees who are predominantly IP para professionals, IP analysts & patent engineers with a 50+ technology product development team based out of Bangalore & Gurgaon. The company has a product management and technology leadership function based out of the Silicon Valley. They currently have around 80 customers across the Hi-Technology patent owners market predominantly in US & Europe.

Clairvolex Inc. is a global Intellectual Property (IP) asset management company. It is a strategic patent portfolio development partner to some of the world’s most innovative companies such as General Electric, Ericsson, Philips, Amazon, and Qualcomm. With offices in multiple US locations, Clairvolex has a global team of experts who offer expert-IP solutions to customers using the LEAP technology platform. Clairvolex is the only Indian company funded at both Series A and B rounds by Silicon Valley-based investors.

LEAP is developed by Clairvolex Inc, a global Intellectual Property (IP) asset management company. Clairvolex is a strategic patent portfolio development partner to some of the world’s most innovative companies such as General Electric, Ericsson, Philips, Amazon and Qualcomm. With offices in multiple US locations, Clairvolex has a global team of experts who offer expert-IP solutions to customers using the Leap technology platform. LEAP is backed by a clutch of investors: Agnus Capital, IndusAge Partners, & Walden Riverwood Ventures.

Healthcare Platform Curofy launches Chat feature to help Doctors discuss Real-Time Cases

Curofy, a leading healthcare networking application for doctors has launched ‘Curofy Chat’ feature. The new feature offers a fast and simple messaging service where doctors can chat with his/her fellow doctors and also can share /answer medical cases at the same time. Not only this, one can chat with hospital members and even discuss cases in group.

Curofy is a mobile app that facilitates interaction between doctors from various fields of medicine. With this platform, doctors can quickly locate other physicians, call them, take the second opinion, and seek advice on patient cases through collaboration. It’s an innovative platform for doctors to discover a solution for all their medical prerequisites with just a single click.

The main aim behind the chat feature is to provide a platform for doctors for immediate diagnosis. A survey was conducted on around 4,00,000 doctors where more than 85 % doctors were in favour that Curofy has become a problem-solving platform for them especially in the rural areas where the doctor count is less. Also, with the help of this, doctors can communicate at a faster way using the new innovation in the medical world.



Curofy Chat helps to discuss clinical cases in real time, create private chat room for doctors, connect without sharing the contact, one can form the professional multi-speciality groups and also robust communication. Discussion about problems in such groups can help to reduce the time of consultation and treatment. When doctor is in doubt about any case, he/she can easily get second opinion from his/her choice of doctor in the private chat as well.

Speaking about the feature, Mr. Pawan Gupta, Co-Founder, Curofy, "The chat feature transforms Curofy from being a knowledge sharing platform to an immediate diagnosis platform. This truly has the potential of disrupting doctors' day to day life in a good way. This is one of our biggest launch since our inception.”

Keeping into consideration, the demand and needs of doctors, the chat feature is acting as a new gadget for the members. Not like the other social application, Curofy Chat is specifically dedicated for the medical professional who wants to be in touch with more people and wants to learn more.

Curofy is a doctors’ networking platform which creates a spam-free and secure environment to communicate with each other. With more than 4,00,000 doctors on its platform, Curofy helps to solve more than 400 cases every day. With 4,00,000 cases solved so far, Curofy is indeed the biggest digital repository of patient case in the country. Now, with this ‘Chat’ feature, they are going to help the doctors with better and faster communication.

HDFC Raising $1.4 Bn for its NBFC Arm through IPO

India’s largest private sector bank, HDFC Bank Ltd, is planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) of its NBFC arm, HDB Financial Services Ltd., before March 31 in a deal that could see the company raise more than ₹100 billion ( ~ US$1.4 billion), reported Bloomberg, citing people aware of the development at HDFC which is yet not in public.

HDFC is working with Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley to manage an initial public offering of its NBFC unit, said the report. The bank plans to sell the shares in HDB Financial Services Ltd. before March 31.

Founded in 2007, HDB Financial Services is a non-banking financial company (NBFC) that offers various products such as personal loans, commercial vehicle loans, gold loans, and loans against property.

As India is going through liquidity crunch and NBFCs are among who suffered most, HDFC aims to raise funds in order to expand its lending services through its shadow banking unit and selling shares in the unit will help the Aditya Puri-led bank raise funds.

The upcoming IPO is expected to be a mix of primary and secondary share sale and it will largely be a primary capital raising exercise given the current market conditions, said a report on same by LiveMint.

Notably, despite the NBFC crisis in the country when other NBFCs got hit by rising borrowing costs after the India witnessed shunning down of credit market post the infamous crisis at IL&FS, the credit profile of HDB Financial has remained unscathed even as many other shadow lenders in the country have suffered.

According to HDB website, HDBFS is accredited with CARE AAA & CRISIL AAA ratings for its long-term debt & Bank facilities and an A1+ rating for its short-term debt & commercial papers, making it a strong and reliable financial institution.

HDB Financial Services has about 1000 branches spread across 22 States & 3 Union Territories in India.

HDB Financial reported a profit of 11.5 billion rupees in the year ended March 31 on a total income of 87 billion rupees, data available on the lender’s website shows.

Fintech segment is one of the most lucrative business segment in India. To recall, Japan's SoftBank is too reportedly setting up a big fintech platform in India and for this Softbank is said to be finalizing a massive US$1 billion deal by investing $1 billion in Mumbai-based Piramal Enterprises' financial services arm, which primarily deals in wholesale and corporate debt.

Max Bupa, MobiKwik Tie-up to Promote Bite Sized Health Insurance Products in India

Max Bupa – one of India’s leading standalone health insurance players today announced a strategic partnership with MobiKwik–a leading Fintech platform, to promote affordable and convenient bite sized group health insurance products for MobiKwik’s 107 Million customers across the country.

Bite-sized insurance offerings, which are essentially easy to buy, over the counter health insurance products, primarily targeted towards working professionals and millennials, are fast picking up pace in India and gaining huge interest from customers who are always on the go and are looking for convenient, low price and accessible health plans for their specific health needs. These young customers are looking for quick, simple and affordable health insurance propositions to take care of their specific health needs. They are interested in a fully digital buying journey along with simple claims procedure.

In keeping with this emerging trend, Max Bupa in association with Mobikwik will offer a slew of innovative offerings, including a Cancer cover at nominal premium and a HospiCash product, in order to make health insurance purchase simple, instant and affordable for MobiKwik’s vast customer base.

Max Bupa’s HospiCash product offers a perfect solution for their evolving health needs. It provides for a pre-defined daily allowance basis the number of days of hospitalization irrespective of the actual expense incurred by the customer. This ensures that the out of pocket expenses are taken care of. Priced at an annual premium as low as INR 135, HospiCash will offer INR 500 per day hospital allowance for up to 30 days in a year to a customer. If admitted to an ICU, the amount receivable by the policyholder is twice the daily hospitalization cash benefit. In addition to this, customers would also get additional security against accidents wherein the family would receive INR 1 Lakh in case of accidental death of the customer.

The HospiCash buying journey on the MobiKwik app is fully digital - just 2-clicks and even the claim process is simple, thus making the customer experience completely seamless.

Max Bupa will also offer a new proposition for Vector Borne Diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya, Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, Lymphatic Filariasis, for those who are interested in further safeguarding themselves against the increasing incidences of such diseases. A lumpsum payout of INR 10,000 against these conditions will help the customer to not only take care of hospitalization expenses but also loss of pay for the time they have been away from work. Such proposition would soon be available on the MobiKwik platform at a nominal premium of INR 49. Further, customers would also get an accidental death cover for INR 1 Lakh as additional security.

Being a specialized Health Insurance player, Max Bupa understands the challenges that the lifestyle diseases are posing to Indians. Cancer being one of the most dreaded diseases with over 1 million patients getting registered every year. The battle against Cancer has a severe financial drain which leads to families of patients to borrow from friends or family or even sell their assets. To provide solution to these challenges, Max Bupa will offer a fixed benefit Cancer plan for Mobikwik’s customers which would provide the required protection to the customers and support them in such tough times, with a lumpsum payout to not just take care of their medical expenses but also support the financial needs of their family.

Commenting on the alliance, UpasanaTaku, Co-founder MobiKwik said, “Our mission is to build affordable and accessible financial services for a billion Indians. We call this ‘Building for भारत’. Bharat needs a truly disruptive approach to ensure health cover is available to every citizen at a low premium, with instant issuance and without fear of medical exams and piles of paperwork. A single hospital stay without any insurance cover becomes a long lasting financial burden on many lower and middle class families. We are committed to enabling our customers with smart insurance products that are affordable, and simple to understand with lightning fast purchase experiences. With this Max Bupa partnership, we are bringing together the power of protection and digital to provide affordable health insurance to millions of Indian families.”

Speaking about the announcement, Ashish Mehrotra, MD & CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance said, “At Max Bupa, the customer is at the centre of everything we do and it is our constant endeavor to design products and solutions that fulfills their growing requirements. Today’s customers demand simple, affordable and digitally enabled on the go products which provide coverage for lifestyle illnesses as well as basic hospitalization cover. In line with this, we foresee bite sized insurance products driving the insurance sector in the near future, eventually bringing more and more new customers into the ambit of health insurance. Our alliance with MobiKwik fortifies our commitment to make quality health insurance products more affordable and accessible to millions of customers across India through digital innovations. We are enabling financial inclusion by making pocket size health insurance solutions available through the Mobikwik platform and plan to acquire 1 million Mobikwik customers over the next 3-4 years”.

Milkbasket Raises $2.16 Mn in Follow-on Funding from Innoven Capital

Grocery delivery startup Milkbasket has raised ₹15 crore (~US$2.167 Mn) from venture debt firm Innoven Capital, which is in addition to US$ 10.5 million (around Rs 72.59 crore) the company had raised earlier this month led by Unilever Ventures, with participation from Mayfield India, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and few Indian family offices.

The funding comes within a month after the startup had last raised $10.5 million in its Series B round. Notably, in this month only, Milkbasket's ₹20-crore debt funding deal with Sachin Bansal-led BACQ fell through.

“The fresh investment positions us firmly for continued growth, and we will be investing substantially in geographical expansion, new technological advancements and hiring through the year,” Anant Goel, Co-founder and CEO, Milkbasket said in a statement.

Goel further said “this is a testament to our proven pioneering model and a solid team that is transforming everyday lives of urban households in India”.

In April, Milkbasket had announced a ₹20 crore debt funding deal from Bansal’s BACQ. However, in June, the startup then put out a press statement clarifying that "Milkbasket and (Bansal’s) BACQ have mutually decided not to proceed with the investment that was announced on April 29, 2019."

To date, Milkbasket has raised close to $26 million in equity funding from Mayfield, Beenext, Kalaari Capital, Unilever Ventures, Lenovo Capital (LCIH), Blume Ventures and few family offices.

Milkbasket had last raised $10.5 million in its Series B round this month.

METZ Launches Infinity Screen Google Certified Android 8.0 Smart TVs on Amazon.in

Premium German brand METZ has launched android 8.0 Smart TVs today in India on Amazon.in. The newly launched TV comprises of 32 inch (M32E6) HD Ready Android 8.0 Infinity Screen TV @ 12999, 40 inch (M40E6) Full HD Android 8.0 Infinity Screen TV @ 20999, 50 inch (M50G2) 4K UHD Android 8.0 Infinity Screen TV @36999 and 55 inch (M55G2) 4K UHD Android 8.0 Infinity Screen TV @ 42999.

The newly launched TVs are Google Certified Android and are known for their remarkable features including German Technology, premium Aesthetics, Bezel-less Infinity Screen, high resolution, millions of apps from Google play store, YouTube, Hot star, Netflix, and many more such attributes.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Norbert Kotzbauer, CEO, METZ Germany & Mr. Victor Wan, MD, METZ India said, “We are happy to launch 4 SKU today on Amazon. in. Our products are characterized by incredible German engineering and are simple to operate. Our products are also known for their latest smart functions that allow unlimited entertainment in the living room.”

Speaking about the launch Garima Gupta, Category Leader – Televisions, Amazon India (Designation) said, “We are excited to partner with METZ to bring their Android 8.0 Smart TVs for our customers on Amazon.in. With this partnership, we continue to build a strong portfolio of televisions offering vast selection, great value, fast doorstep delivery and unparalleled shopping experience.”

With the aim of enchanting its customers by its marvel of engineering, performance and durability, METZ, the premium German brand, acquired by Skyworth in 2015, and is all set to unveil its premium range LED TVs. METZ brand range of UHD, OLED with the advanced technology of AI will be made available online on Amazon.in in India.

Meeting the aspirations of Indian customers for latest technology products at best value will be the Hallmark of METZ brand in India.

Model Number	Size	Category	Key Features	MOP
M32E6	32"	Android TV (8.0 Version)	Android 8.0 Version, Google Assistant, Google Play, YouTube	12999
M40E6	40"	Android TV (8.0 Version)	Android 8.0 Version, Google Assistant, Google Play, YouTube	20999
M50G2	50"	4K Android TV (8.0 Version)	Android 8.0 Version, 4K, Google Assistant, Google Play, Netflix, YouTube	36999
M55G2	55"	4K Android TV (8.0 Version)	Android 8.0 Version, 4K, Google Assistant, Google Play, Netflix, YouTube	42999

Established in 1938, METZ has been one of the longest established consumer electronics companies in Germany, and has dominated Europe for over eight decades. Ever since its inception METZ emerged far ahead by delivering contemporary designs as well as latest customer-friendly technology that was of the highest quality. Little wonder that METZ as a brand has earned its coveted position of being ‘the pride of millions of households’ in not only in Germany, but in entire Europe as well.

25-Yr-Old Cybersecurity Startup Founder Trishneet Arora Features in Fortune India’s 40 Under 40 List

At the young age of just 25, Trishneet Arora makes his way to the prestigious Fortune India’s 40 Under 40 List, a list of individuals that the publication considers to be “India’s Brightest Business Minds”. It is a ranking of power and influence. The list includes business personal who are successful in their own fields and who are under forty years old.

“On his right forearm a little above the wrist, Trishneet Arora, TAC Security Solutions’ Founder and CEO, has "Scorpion" tattooed in elegant running hand. Resourceful, brave, stubborn, passionate- these are the traits of a Scorpion”, a perfect way to describe an author and a cyber security expert that he is.

Featuring in Fortune India’s much-awaited special issue, Trishneet Arora who announced a whopping 270% company growth at the company’s sixth annual general meeting continues to bask in company’s growing glory. The cyber guardian shares his journey, challenges and milestones in the four-page spread of Fortune Magazine.

A company that started from his house today has offices in Mumbai, Chandigarh and United States of America. They recently also announced the commencement of operations in Africa and are looking to expand more globally. Their product ESOF (Enterprise security in one framework) is a solution to secure your complete IT Infrastructure.

TAC Security is a leading and trusted cyber security-consulting partner that specializes in securing the IT infrastructure and assets of some of the leading enterprises globally. It protects ₹1 Trillion transactions every year. TAC Security is India’s first cyber security company to be involved in policy making and strategizing of the cyber security policies for a sensitive law enforcement agency in the United States of America.

ESOF (Enterprise Security In One Framework) a product by TAC Security is said to be a revolutionary game changer in the cyber security industry and assures safe and time-saving results. ESOF's major targets are banks, large enterprises, healthcare and government departments and defense. TAC Security has already sold the platform to existing customers and few new clients from United States have started using it.

In past Arora was also listed among the 50 Most Influential Young Indians by GQ Magazine, Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list, Entrepreneur Magazine’s 35 under 35 list, while August 25, 2017 was proclaimed as "Trishneet Arora Day", by the Mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Film-maker Sunil Bohra has announced a biographical movie based on Arora. By being honored in Fortune India’s 40 under 40 he has achieved another big milestone.

About TAC Security

TAC Security Solution is an industry leader and trusted cyber security partner for their clients to protect networks and information assets from malicious activity such as cyber-attacks with the underlying motto of "Securing Cyberspace: Securing Future".

TAC Security - a cyber security startup empanelled by CERT-In, Ministry of Information Technology, Govt. of India. Helping the companies like - Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), AMUL, Punjab & Sind Bank and various Government Agencies, etc. to achieve confidence in the security of their IT Infrastructure.

In 2016, TAC Security raised Pre-Series ‘A’ funding from Prominent Indian Investor Vijay Kedia prior to this TAC Security had inducted Subinder Khurana former Vice President of Cognizant on its board. In 2017, Singapore based former regional sales director of Imperva, Lawrence Ang and US based former Vice President of IBM, William May backed TAC Security.

Unacademy Raises $50 Mn in Series D led by Steadview, Sequoia India and others

Bangalore-based educational technology company Unacademy that offers online education has raised $50 million Series D round of funding led by Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. The founders of Unacademy, Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini, also contributed to the round. The new round means the startup has raised close to $90 million to date.

Started as a channel on YouTube in 2010, Unacademy will use the latest funding capital in expanding the number of educators it has on the platform as well exam courses. It will also improve its product and expand the team.

To date, Unacademy has raised a total of about $90 Mn in six rounds of funding including the latest one. It last raised funds in July last year, when it had raised $21 million from Nexus Ventures, SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital India among others. Prior to that, in eptember 2017, the startup raised $11.5 million Series B round of funding led by Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures

Unacademy was founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta. Gaurav and Hemesh were previously running Flatchat which was acquired by CommonFloor in 2014. Roman, 26, is a doctor from AIIMS and one of the youngest people to clear the prestigious Indian Civil Services Examination. To follow his passion, he quit his administrative services post as Asst. Collector of Jabalpur to start Unacademy.

Last October, Unacademy acquired WifiStudy, a Jaipur-based YouTube channel, for reportedly $10 million (~ Rs. 73.12 Crores) in order to tap the test preparation market and increase its presence in tier-2 and -3 cities among students who prepare for public recruitment exams including railways and banking.

Education sector in India, which has largest population in the world in the age bracket of 5 to 24 years is estimated to grow to $35 billion in next six years.

Unacademy, which also operates in Indonesia, competes with BYJU's, Toppr, Vedantu and Embibe. While BYJU's is dominating the global market. Vedantu, which raised $11 million in April, has recently launched a LIVE interactive learning platform called 'WAVE' (a revolutionary new LIVE learning platform), claiming it to be India's first.

India's Mobile Payment Forum Calls for Multilingual, Speech-based Payment Apps including UPI

Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI), India's umbrella organisation responsible for deploying mobile payments in India, has called for developing multilingual and speech based payment apps. The forum led by IIT-Madras faculty has made recommendation to India's central bank to include features in payment apps such as customer support and grievance redressal in multiple Indian languages in order to enable financial inclusion i.e making digital payments accessible to all individuals and businesses at affordable costs.

MPFI has submitted these recommendations to Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Committee, on the deepening of digital payments.

Notably, MPFI has played a key role in developing inter-operability and security standards for India's popular fund transferring service 'Immediate Payment Service' (IMPS) and later the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which was built using IMPS only.

Other key recommendations of the MPFI include increasing women consumers and using voice-based features in Mobile Apps. The positioning of mobile internet, especially towards payments, may need judicious advertising within the social and cultural context.

In its recommendations, MPFI emphasize that presence of regional languages is a crucial component towards achieving inclusiveness and increase the help of mobile and digital payments in rural India.

Established in 2006, MPFI is a joint initiative of the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and Rural Technology Business Incubator of IIT Madras. With its latest recommendations, MPFI aims to enable mobile payments, and mobile financial services for everyone in India through secure, efficient and low cost transactions.

For strengthening the digital payments space and adding confidence and trust in the Indian consumer, the MPFI recommendations considered three broad perspectives, which include:

(i) User and Merchant perspective

(ii) Regulation, methods and processes

(iii). Standards for transactions, via channels like SMS.

Chairman of MPFI, Prof. Gaurav Raina, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, said in a statement, "Most MPFI members feel there is still much to be done to increase awareness for the different modes of digital payments among users and merchants, and also about best practices for user's security."

"The MPFI can help by creating videos in different official languages to spread awareness on digital payments. These videos can then be used by all stakeholders in the ecosystem," he said.

Earlier this month, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its vision document for Payment and Settlement Systems 'Vision 2021' detailing RBI’s outlook for the payments space.

The Vision 2021 document lays down 36 specific action points to be adopted during 2019-2021 to improve all aspects of payment systems including innovation in feature phone and USSD-based payments services, internal ombudsman (independent & impartial investigator for consumer complaints) for digital payments, geo-tagging of payment system touch points, enhancing contactless and tokenisation technology, national settlement services for card schemes and increasing adoption of distributed ledger technologies aka Blockchain.

Source - India Today, Times of India

Tech-Logistics Startup Blowhorn to Turn 50% of its Fleet Electric, Hybrid & CNG by 2021

Blowhorn, India’s leading intra-city logistics aggregator today announced that it is planning to turn towards environmentally sustainable mobility. The startup plans to move 50% of its fleet to eco-friendly mobility solutions like EVs, Hybrid vehicles, CNG by the end of 2021 and 100% by 2025. The company stated that it has a dedicated team building out a robust action plan to make this ambitious goal practicable.

To this end, Blowhorn has over the past several months advanced discussions with multiple stakeholders including several EV and battery manufacturers, technologies targeting EV alternatives, and the broader mobility ecosystem. To underscore its commitment, Blowhorn also announced that it had expanded the roles of several of its most senior executives to drive this critical initiative. Currently, 10% of Blowhorn fleet already run on EVs and environmentally sustainable.

[caption id="attachment_131500" align="alignleft" width="400"] Mithun Srivatsa_co-founder & CEO, Blowhorn[/caption]Mithun Srivatsa, co-founder and CEO of Blowhorn, says "At Blowhorn, historically, we have focused relentlessly and successfully on sustainable unit economics, profits and on enhancing the livelihoods of our partner drivers. We are at an interesting inflection point where experimental technologies are poised to become mainstream. We have always believed that the future of smart logistics is green, and we hope that this public articulation of our commitment will spur more players in the broader logistics industry to follow suit."

Karthik Prabhakar, Partner at Chiratae Ventures adds “Electric Mobility is a rapidly evolving sector, which will potentially grow the current landscape. Blowhorn is the innovation leader in intra city logistics and it was natural that they expanded into the new space."

Blowhorn, headquartered in Bangalore, is backed by marquee investors including Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG), MSDF, Draper Associates and Unitus Ventures.

Founded in 2014, Blowhorn is India’s leading intracity logistics startup and an innovation leader operating in all major metros in India with a broad suite of services from the first mile, middle mile, and last mile while handling goods from 1g to 1T. Blowhorn is backed by marquee investors comprising Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG), Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Draper Associates and Unitus Seed Fund.

Japan's Govt & Firms including Mizuho Bank, Suzuki to Infuse $140 Mn in 100 Indian Startups

India and Japan are jointly launching a $187 million (Rs 1,298 crore) startup fund-of-funds (FoF) to invest in over 100 technology startups in India with focus on ventures working in the fields of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence, reported Nikkie Asia.

The fund is an outcome of a deal between Japan and India sealed in October last year, in which the countries agreed to cooperate on a broad range of projects related to business, technology and human resources.

According to an another report on same, by VCCircle, the corpus of upcoming FoF called "Indo-Japan Emerging Technology & Innovation AIF" is $187 million (Rs 1,298 crore), of which $150 million will be raised from Japanese investors while the remaining will be raised from Indian investors.

The upcoming FoF, which expects the first close by September this year, aims to invest in more than 200 Indian companies focssed on emerging areas such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), fintech, healthcare, consumer, education, robotics, automation and business-to-business (B2B) software, said the VCCircle report.

Four Japanese firms - Mizuho Bank, Development Bank of Japan, Nippon Life and Suzuki Motor -- have already signed letters of intent for the FoF.

Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd (RNAM), the Indian asset management arm of Nippon Life, will manage the FoF.

In addition, the Indian government will send specialists for advising the FoF on investment targets. These specialists will have knowledge about local startups in India.

A year back, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japanese External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in association with India's Nasscom and IIM, Bengaluru on Monday launched an office and Indo-Japan Startup Hub in Bengaluru in order to support Japanese companies' local operations. Japanese govt plans to use this office to arrange cooperation between Japanese companies and startups that will be backed by the fund.

Just a couple of days back, Japan's NTT Data, a Fortune 500 company, has invested an undisclosed amount of funds in Pune-based CloudHedge Technologies.

Recent Japan-based Activities within Indian Startup Ecosystem

Earlier this month, Tokyo-based internet services firm, Rakuten Inc., launched Rakuten Social Accelerator, its social innovation initiative, in Bengaluru. Rakuten Social Accelerator is a collaboration program that brings together social entrepreneurs, not-for-profit organizations and Rakuten employees, each with a social mission to tackle critical issues facing society today using technologies and business assets.

In this month only, Japan's highly regarded entertainment company Akatsuki Inc's Entertainment Technology Fund, AET, announced that it is looking to invest $500,000 each in five new early-stage startups in India that falls under vernacular category.

Recently, India’s premier bio-innovation hub, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), has signed an Letter of Intent (LOI) with Beyond Next Ventures (BNV), a Tokyo-based venture capital firm and one of the leading independent accelerators in Japan dedicated to incubation investment in technology start-ups, to fund and mentor the best deep science innovations in the field of Life Sciences and Biotechnology in India.

In April, Japan's venture capital fund, Incubate Fund announced that it is setting up a $27 million India dedicated fund by the end of 2019, for investing in promising Indian startups.

To recall, in last August, Japanese payments firm Anypay, invested an undisclosed amount in India's on-demand payments and e-commerce platform, Instamojo. Besides, Softbank is already dominating as an investor in most of the unicorn startups in India.

Smartphone-based Car keys with Alexa: BMW gives Early Glimpse of its Digital Services 'myBMW'

The BMW Group #NEXTGen event provided exclusive background information on what the future holds for the myBMW digital ecosystem. All BMW Group and NOW services, along with mobility services and products, will be pooled together under this name. Products and services will be split into My Car, My Life and My Journey categories, presenting customers with a single gateway into an all-encompassing portfolio of personal mobility-enhancing offerings. The BMW Group will reveal further details on myBMW at the IAA Cars 2019 motor show in Frankfurt on 12 – 22 September.

“Hey BMW, what’s your favourite colour?”. Chatting away with the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant.
Since March 2019 the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant has been available in a large number of models fitted with BMW Operating System 7.0. Responding to the prompt “Hey BMW”, the intelligent, digital character helps the driver, learns their preferences, knows their favoured settings and is an expert on everything to do with the vehicle. Thanks to the regular Remote Software Upgrades supplied over the air for seamless installation directly into the vehicle, the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant acquires new skills all the time, enhancing and expanding his capabilities. The next upgrade will make it possible to enjoy casual chats with him and engage in brief, entertaining exchanges.

Amazon Alexa in BMW and MINI models.

[caption id="attachment_131490" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] BMW Intelligent Personal Asisstant in the BMW 1 Series[/caption]

Seamless integration of Amazon Alexa is now available for a host of BMW and MINI models, enabling customers to access many of the Alexa functions they already use at home while out and about in their car. They can ask Alexa questions, get weather forecasts and traffic information, catch up on sporting events, listen to tracks from Amazon Music or TuneIn, or check out audio books from Audible. Appointments and to-do lists or shopping lists can likewise be managed simply by speaking. Added to which, the Control Display in the BMW or MINI also provides visual feedback for the selected content. And Alexa even makes it possible for customers to operate compatible smart-home devices, such as lamps, thermostats and automatic garage doors, from their car.

The BMW Digital Key turns smartphones into car keys.

The Digital Key dispenses with the need for a conventional car key. Employing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, it allows the new BMW 8 Series Coupe and other models in the BMW range to be locked and unlocked from a smartphone. Holding the smartphone up to the door handle opens the car. Once inside, the engine can be started as soon as the phone has been placed in the wireless charging or smartphone tray. Accessed via BMW Connected, the Digital Key can optionally be shared with up to five other people. The BMW Digital Key is currently available for all NFC-capable Samsung Galaxy devices running Android 8.0 and above.

Digital charging services for electric cars.

The charging services from BMW put an end to the stress of searching for an available charging station. Customers can check the probable availability of a specific station along the selected route before they begin their journey. Once they are within 20 minutes’ drive of the intended charging station, they can also reserve a space directly from their car. And if that car happens to be a BMW plug-in hybrid, they will additionally earn valuable iMILES bonus points for any sections of electric driving recorded within the BMW eDrive Zones. These can then be exchanged for extra charging credit at all ChargeNow stations.

~ Published unedited (except headline) via Business Wire India feed. Images - press.bmwgroup.com