prometheus: i caused mortals to cease foreseeing doom.
chorus: what cure did you provide them with against that sickness?
prometheus: i established in them blind hopes.
chorus: that was a great gift you gave to men.
prometheus: besides this i gave them fire.
chorus: and do creatures of a day now possess bright-faced fire?
prometheus: yes, and from it they shall learn many crafts.
chorus: these are the charges on which–
prometheus: zeus tortures me and gives me no respite.

– aeschylus, prometheus bound (ca. 415 bc)

Stanley Kubrick’s celebrated film 2001: A Space Odyssey has no spoken word for the first half hour of the plot’s progress.  The breath taking, richly eloquent, visually poetic and deliberately slow film begins with the chapter – ‘The Dawn of Man’, which depicts two different ape tribes fighting over a waterhole. The fight is shown through a shouting match between the two tribes. All apes incoherently yell at each other through a powerful tone similar to a dog’s bark and screeches which suggests emotional discomfort. These noises are forms of argumentative dialogue and are presented in different audible sounds.

What follows is bizarre. After the lost tribe takes shelter in a cave, next morning, when one of the apes wakes up, witnesses a monolith. The monolith is the central prop that holds the film’s plot together and arguably represents the evolutionary trait in human in an abstract sense. The ape’s response to the monolith indicates fear, yet at the same time, curiosity. He touches the monolith, and evolves, symbolically. At this point, the ape becomes the central character.

A still from 2001 : A Space Odyssey

Another confrontation between two groups is ensued at the same waterhole as previously seen. The ‘evolved ape’ discovers a bone and kills the leader of the enemy tribe with it. At this point, ‘The Dawn of Man’ reaches its peak when, as a sign of victory, the ape propels his bone into mid-air, after which the audience is directly sent to an orbiting nuclear satellite in outer space, transitioning millions of years in the future.

The film argues that apes turn into human the moment it started using a tool, in this case a bone. And from an evolutionary standpoint, the bone and the nuclear satellite are the same thing. I will go a step ahead and argue that this ‘Dawn of Man’ is an entrepreneurial venture, too. And what must be noted, still, is that the entrepreneurial flair amongst human is older than language, and probably human itself.

An entrepreneur is a person who sees a problem and attempts to solve it with the tools available to his disposal, and often discovers and invents newer tools to do so.

By this definition, tracing human evolution is probably a good way to understand entrepreneurship. Let’s explore further.

The entrepreneur’s time travel

Probably the first entrepreneurial leap of human evolution was bipedalism. Although there are many theories around the reason why human started walking on two feet, the common thread which binds these theories is the sight advantage it gave us. Bipedalism freed our hands, which were also the tool we humans gifted ourselves. It is these hands, which have helped us create and use newer tools in the following millennia.

Bipedalism promoted a narrowing down of the human pelvis. However, since the pelvis was also the passage through which new-born babies pass, there was an evolutionary pressure on human favouring a wide pelvis, at least in women. Since we went ahead and walked anyway, bipedalism was the first instance where human went beyond its evolutionary trait, and chose to do something which was evolutionarily unintuitive.

What happened over the next hundreds of thousands of years is the death of many premature human foetuses. Nature responded to the human will of bipedalism by ensuring humans give birth to one baby at a time, and the babies have underdeveloped brains. Unlike babies of other animals, human babies when born, couldn’t see, walk, or talk. The evolutionary urge to protect its specie was felt. It is this urge that led to the formation early human societies, where men and women flocked together in groups. This grouping led to teamwork and collaboration, another important trait in entrepreneurial ventures.

The next major entrepreneurial leap in human evolution was its control on fire. While fire provided light in the dark nights, protection from other animals, and allowed humans to stay warm in cold nights, thereby also enabling humans to conquer territories which were otherwise inaccessible – what fire enabled most prominently in us humans was to allow us cook the food we eat.

Fire took the load off the human stomach but partially digesting our food. Suddenly humans were able to ‘outsource’ their digestion, and ‘venture’ into newer types of food ‘products’. Potato and meat, for example, were edible only after humans could control fire. Humans could now burn down forests and collect dead meat and semi burnt fruits and vegetables and eat them. With the focus of energy off the human stomach, the primary focus of evolutionary development shifted to our brains, which led to the Cognitive Revolution.

It is because of Cognitive Revolution, which occurred about seventy thousand years ago, that we started to behave in far more ingenious ways than before – for reasons that are still obscure. Humans were able to believe in stories that didn’t exist, and were able to collaborate in much larger groups. Unlike other species, human collaboration was now possible among members who they had not seen, touched or communicated with. It is because of Cognitive Revolution that we today believe in collectively imagined realities – such as religion, ideologies, languages, money and nation states – which bind us as a species even today.

Members of the genus Homo have existed for more than two million years. However, Homo Sapiens, our own flaunted species of great apes, has only existed for about a hundred and fifty thousand years. For more than half of this time, we coexisted with other species of the genus Homo, like lions, tigers and cats coexist even today. There are theories which suggest that among other species like Neanderthals and Homo Erectus, it was the Homo Sapiens who were the first to undergo Cognitive Revolution, and used its evolved brains and ability to collaborate to become the masters of the world today. The theories however argue whether Homo Sapiens eliminated the ‘competition’ posed by other genus, or ‘acquired’ them through natural selection. Both theories confirm the argument that human evolution has been an entrepreneurial process.

Over the past eleven thousand years, Humans have undergone stupendous growth, and has seen multiple revolutions which were fuelled by human’s the control of fire, bipedalism, and Cognitive Revolution. The first of the many revolutions was the Agricultural Revolution, which led to surplus of food, human settlement, an explosion in population, trade, and the eventual formation of empires. Before the Agricultural Revolution, every human being was in pursuit of his or her food. It was Agricultural Revolution, and the surplus it generated which freed people to get specialized in other areas. The Scientific Revolution, that happened over five hundred years ago gave birth to human curiosity and led to the Industrial Revolution, about two hundred and fifty years ago, when human population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth, standard of living improved for many, and there was a general surplus of materials. The renaissance in northern Italy played a key role in tying together core entrepreneurship concepts like questioning the dominant paradigm, connecting ideas from around the world, and connecting needs to solutions.

Industrial Revolution in turn triggered the Information Revolution, about 50 years ago, the era in which we live.

We did start the fire

Every specie is a producer. A honey bee produces honey, a bird makes her nest, and tree produces fruits. However, none of these productions are meant for others’ benefit. A nature lover might argue that a tree produces fruits for consumption by human and other animals. But biologically speaking, a fruit is the necessity of a tree for to be able to literally ‘spread its seeds’.

It is only humans that produce for others. A barefoot cobbler, for whatsoever reason, produces shoes for the people who can afford it. A farmer produces crops for others to eat. This mean of production, no matter how trivial it may sound, is the basis of the economic man. No other specie does that, and hence the very idea of economics is subjective only to humans.

While trade and economics have been the building block of human existence, entrepreneurship was not possible in the feudal era either, simply because work and worker were separate. A feudal lord who owned a business was probably not an entrepreneur, nor was a seventeenth century industrialist, simply because they chose to not work but get their work done by others; exploitation of labour, as Marx would put it. Until recently, every business model was based on this exploitation of labour. From the labours perspective, his work was driven towards livelihood, which is not true with the entrepreneur either, who works for the act of production itself. Unlike feudal lords, entrepreneurs prefer to get their hands dirty, too. Hence, the premise of the emergence of the entrepreneur replacing the feudal lord as the business leader is in itself a revolutionary phenomenon.

“The rise of microeconomics into prominence is an ultra-evolutionary, or revolutionary process”.

There are often times when a specie breaks off from the evolutionary mainstream and decides to pursue a course of its own. This is not counter evolutionary, but an ultra-evolutionary, or a revolutionary process. The reason why fire, cognition, industrial productions are all called ‘revolutions’. Every time this has happened, we as a specie have evolved. It is during these times, that the specie adopts an environment hitherto unknown to it, or adapts itself to the same creating for itself a niche where it prospers phenomenally. The adaptability of the specie determines whether it would succeed or fail in propagating itself. Failure means an end to the pursuit of this course while success signals further specialization to dominate the space it has created for itself. If at all this specie is called an entrepreneur, would the analogy suffer much?

The assumption made here is, although the very human existence in all its glory we see today is an entrepreneurial venture, the entrepreneur in economic terms, we know and identify with is a modern idea.

References : 

1. Leslie & Christopher, 1990, An introduction to human evolutionary anatomy. London: Academic Press.

2. Yuval Noah Harari, 2015, Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind, Harper.

3. Prasanna Kumar Choudhari, 2015, Atikraman Ki Antaryatra, Vani Prakashan (Hindi).

Image Credit : Shutterstock

Enigmatic and beautiful, the North-East has always held allure for travellers. Known for its natural beauty and magnificence, the North-East is also famous for its ethnic artifacts and products; the Manipuri Phanek, tribal shawls, bamboo bags, tea and the treacherous Bhut Jholokia come to mind. Everything about the North-East smacks of authenticity. Yet, or perhaps because of this, it has been difficult to access up until now.

Giskaa is set to bring the flavours, beauty and art of the North East to your doorstep. An online marketplace exclusively for North East products, Meghanath Singh came up with this idea to make North-Eastern products more accessible. “Although, I have been living outside of Manipur for the past 23 years, I’ve always yearned to contribute something to my home state and the North-East,” adds Meghanath.

The building blocks

Meghanath says that he’d always wanted to start a company of his own. This desire led him to quit his high paying IT job in July 2014. He says that while he had several business ideas around social, mobile, and cloud technologies, he realised that his calling was different. In mid-2014, Meghanath realised that the e-commerce industry lacked North-Eastern products. “It’s a niche market, but I nevertheless decided to give it a shot, and create a platform where artisans from the North-East can showcase their products,” adds Meghanath.

There was quite a buzz surrounding eco-friendly products at that time. As Sikkim was going organic at the time too, Meghanath thought that they could position North-East India as a major production area, and a burgeoning centre, for high quality eco-friendly products. The e-commerce venture of Catena Technologies, Giskaa was founded by Meghanath, Surchand and Ratheesh.

The trio met in a unique way; when Meghanath posted on Facebook about his idea, Surchand, a long time friend responded. Surchand had explored the idea and had market analysis ready. Ratheesh in turn, had quit his job and was looking to do something different and joined the duo. As they had no office, the initial days were spent in coffee shops.

Challenges

The initial difficulties the trio faced were convincing partners about the venture, and collecting North-East specific data points. In both August and November of 2014, they set out on North-East tours. They travelled eight states, met artisans in the remotest of villages, and collected data on products, capacity, quality, marketability and logistics. After much hard work, the team was able to obtain a seed round of funding.

More about Giskaa

According to Meghanath, their supply chain and operations form the largest network of North East artisans. He further adds that the site has close to 1600 unique products, which are sourced from more than 100 suppliers and artisans. “We continue to add 60 SKUs every week. We target touching 6000 SKUs in the next six months,” adds Meghanath. He also says that more than 70 per cent of the products are exclusive to Giskaa. The website follows a marketplace model of which 50 per cent is inventory led. “Giskaa adds its margin on top of the product cost,” adds Meghanath.

Currently, the site sees over 50000 unique user sessions, averaging at 1200 unique visitors daily. Meghanath says that Karnataka contributes to 24 per cent of the traffic, followed by Delhi at 22 per cent, Maharashtra at 19 per cent and West Bengal 10 percent. He also adds that 69 per cent of the site visitors are women.

Market space

With the growing number of e-commerce purchases and sites, many wish to create niches within the clutter today. Whether it’s Jaypore, or Tjori, or Kashmiri Box, each one aims to bring out the beauty and ethnicity of each region.

Giskaa aims to launch mobile apps for Android, Apple and Windows devices. They also aim to strengthen and scale their North-East logistics through widening their network. They are looking at a warehouse and fulfillment in Bengaluru.

Website

Do you know the salary of your peer? Probably yes, because she earns almost equal and you may have exchanged your salary number after a recent raise. Do you know the salary of your boss, Director,VP, or CEO? No, not unless they have to disclose the number by a mandate of Public Companies Act.

If you ask your sales director how he closed the last deal or your marketing head how he attracted so many customers, then you will be advised to focus on your work rather than ask these questions. These are company growth secrets, so why should they disclose?

If you ask your company CEO to share the company growth strategy, salaries and marketing internals then all you will get is ‘baba ji ka thullu.‘ Don’t try that at your company.

But increasingly, there has been a steady rise in the number of startups which are radically transparent about the way they are doing business.Internal details about product development, design, sales, marketing, hiring, income & expense reports, funding, and even equity allocation information is shared openly.

Buffer

I started learning about the transparent culture since I started using Buffer, a social media scheduling app. Buffer has set a benchmark of transparency that new startups claim to build a transparent company,“the buffer way”.

They have openly disclosed salary and equity formula of the company (including founders), which is extremely useful for startups. Early stage startups will not want to miss out how Buffer raised $3.5M funding section where they disclosed how they found investors, their pitch deck, key matrices and even the term sheet after funding. I want to talk a lot more about Buffer but let’s see what other companies are doing.

Groove

Groove founder Alex Turnbull, shares his company growth moments from ‘aha’ to ‘oh shit’- everything on their journey from $0 to $500K in month revenue. This is the best place to start learning if you are building a SaaS company. They shared on their blog, how they won first 1000 beta customers when they started Groove.

You will find everything you need to know if you are selling cloud-based software products. They write about product features, investors, design, marketing, revenue, growth strategy and learning from their failures.

Recently, they offered startup tools worth $20,000 from more than 50 companies. Early stage startups can grab this offer before it expires. Normally these benefits are available only for accelerated and funded companies but Groove made it possible for anyone and everyone who wants to grow their startup.

Moz

If you are a digital company then you can’t ignore the power of SEO. You have not learned enough SEO if you don’t know about Moz. They will teach you SEO and Search Marketing free of cost.

This Seattle-based startup became a $35 million company without employing any sales person. That’s a true story. Moz CEORand Fishkin believes in a transparent and sharing culture, so you can learn from their insider story of $18M venture funding, metrics & future plans.

Rand shared his experience of open culture at his company –

At Moz, there’s a woman I work with on the product team, and she’s absolutely one of my favorite engineers. She’s a transgender woman and during one of our Lunch and Learns, she went up and shared a powerpoint presentation explaining her gender reassignment surgery, and the process, and what happens and all this stuff. And that was one of my best days at Moz, because I felt like “wow, if she feels comfortable enough with all of us to share that kind of thing, and if this is the kind of company where everybody goes and eats their lunch and learns about gender reassignment surgery, then I want to live in that world.”

Moz runs a popular series of Whiteboard Friday where they share valuable SEO insights every Friday.  The learning you can expect from their transparent culture is about – SEO, social media and content marketing.

HubSpot

It’s a heaven for marketing & sales guys. They run separate blogs to share insanely in-depth insights about marketing & sales.

They are advocates of transparency and startup culture since their inception nine years ago. You can explore more about hubspot startup culture and how they measure if they are following what they preach. You will also find their startup culture deck at the same link.

If you want to start digital marketing, then HubSpot is the right place to begin with. Their blog is a Bible of digital marketing where you can find free e-books, marketing templates, step by step guides, info-graphics and free images.

Apart from learning marketing and sales from gurus, startups can also learn how to build a company which is loved by its customers, employees, vendors and investors.

37Signals

They started as a web design company in 1999 and became popular after 2004 when they released a simple task management tool – BaseCamp. They are the creator of open sourced development framework Ruby on Rails. They also wrote popular books – ‘Getting Real’, ‘ReWork and Remote’.

You can grab your free copy ofthe book ‘Getting Real’.

They contributed tremendous value in startups by staying open and transparent. For example, Basecamp was down once for a few hours in the middle of the night. Ninety nine percent of the customers never knew that, but they still posted an “unexpected downtime” notice to their blog.

Here’s what they posted: “We apologize for the downtime this morning — we had some database issues which caused major slowdowns and downtimes for some people. We’ve fixed the problem and are taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again…Thanks for your patience and, once again, we’re sorry for the downtime.”

I loved this lesson on transparency from their book ‘ReWork’.

All top chefs publish their recipes in cookbooks but no one ever became chef like them by following their recipes. It is the cook who makes delicious food not the recipe.

I still wonder why people are so afraid of sharing ideas! Learn from the story of Basecamp.

Benefits of transparency

We have not witnessed ‘transparency culture’ in Indian startup ecosystem yet, maybe because it is still evolving. I believe transparency is the future of companies. One day, big companies will start following this or will perish.

This is the rule of evolution that the strongest and adaptable survives when the environment changes drastically. And the business environment is changing.

Transparency can help startups sail through storms because of fundamental benefits of community and openness.

# Greater trust

People trust you more when you walk the talk. People trust you even more when you don’t hide anything. People love you when you have only one face and that you can become by being transparent.

This is equally applicable to your family, employees, customers and investors. When you don’t keep secrets, they trust you and they will stand by you in good & bad times.

# Efficiency

You are working with people who are bound by a set of values not the stack of policies. It’s natural that they will become more efficient in whatever they do.

Company culture is not what is written in documents that you have signed on your appointment day. Company culture is what you do when your boss is not around.

#Loyalty

To whom you will be more loyal? The person you trust, right?

You employees, investors and customers will stick with you forever till they trust you. They will forgive your silly mistakes because they know internally that you will work hard till the issue is resolved.

#Less stress

You paint a different picture to your employees, executives, customers and investors. Now you have to recall in every meeting what you promised to whom. That causes stress.

You will sleep peacefully when your plans, promises, commitments and actions are like an open book. You can focus more on product and leave worrying about playing politics.

In conclusion

Transparency is sexy but it’s not for everyone. Half way to transparency culture can be like the sip of cobra-toxic.

Your company culture is an extension of yourself. If you are not transparent at home then how can you build a transparent company? You can’t say that I will disclose my revenue numbers but not the channels of revenue. You have to otherwise people will fill the gaps by their own assumptions.

You can’t just blindly follow companies who claim their success by being transparent. You should work on yourself with awareness,and you will find out how to raise a company “the buffer way”.

9slides has had an insightful story. Started by Ruchit Garg in 2011, the company made tools to make presentations more effective and then pivoted to a solution in the learning and training space. Now, 9slides has been acquired by Limeade, an employee engagement platform. Financial details have not been revealed but from Limeroad’s perspective, the move has been made to stay ahead in the competitive corporate wellness market.

Ruchit Garg, 9slides

A Lukhnow boy, Ruchit Garg went to the US in 1999 to get his Masters in Computers Application. Post this, he joined Prologix for two years before starting a mobile VAS company in India which was his first attempt at starting up. He then moved to Microsoft and in the meanwhile, also co-founded another startup in India- eventnu.com which was a marketplace for events. But all his startup efforts had not payed off. Working for Microsoft, he moved to the US in 2008 and in 2011, he made one more attempt with 99slides and dived into the startup with all his heart. “Leaving Microsoft to start my own company was by far the most pivotal moment in my career. This created limitless possibilities of who I could be and what I could achieve,” says Ruchit.

9slides had started out as a product to make presentations more effective. Over time, Ruchit and team realized that the solution was being used more and more in the learning and training space. And this is when 9slides pivoted to an online training solution. A 500 Startups company, it delivers mobile technology for employees to watch video presentations, answer quizzes to test their knowledge, and create their own presentations to share. 9Slides also provides real-time analytics to employers on completion rates and comprehension. And Limeade was one of the biggest customers for 9slides.

Limeade is an online employee wellness platform that raised $25 million in 2014. Limeade has tools on its platform which help in keeping employees focused and efficient. “We’re creating an engaging experience that inspires people to improve health and well-being, while addressing the needs of HR leaders who want fun, simple solutions that work,” said Henry Albrecht, CEO of Limeade. “The 9Slides team has built game-changing technology that we know will delight our customers, and inspire employees to take control of their own health and well-being.”

The corporate wellness and workforce automation space is a massive area for startups but is usually away from the media glare. MindTickle is one of the big success stories from Pune which has customers globally. Peel Works is another company in the space which has been growing silently away from the spotlight. The market size is huge and with increasing debates around the future of workplace, more and more innovations will be tried out at offices around the world. A startup playing in this field requires: a) a solid product b) netowrks into a few big corporates to test out the product. For 9slides, it took a couple of years to pivot to a model that worked and once streamlines, they were able to get more customers and have also found an exit via one of them.

Website: 9slides

So many people would have watched the live release of the Apple iWatch with bated breath, wondering what it looked like, what it could accomplish. Many more follow the unveiling of various gadgets on a day to day basis, constantly wondering how much farther we could go to create products that will amaze or surprise us. As for me, I think the magic of innovation lies in its application in extremely mundane processes or products – especially those we see, hear, touch and feel on daily. It takes a whole other level of creative thinking to turn something we know so well, say a spoon, into possibly a smart device that could measure your calorie intake and give suggestions on what to eat to improve your health.

Which is why, my chat with Niyati Ingale of Dustless Painting was extremely enjoyable. She and her father have managed to take the ‘pain out of painting’ (their words, not mine) by making it a completely dustless procedure.

Tinkerers to founders

Niyati’s father, Atul Ingale, is an electrical engineering graduate of VJTI (’83). Always a topper, Atul was extremely passionate about engineering and wanted to create something that could benefit people. The idea of being an entrepreneur was constantly at the back of his mind even during his stints at various firms in the Middle and Far East, including one in Saudi Arabia.

In 1995, the family bought a house in Thane (Mumbai). While re-doing the house, Atul’s children (10 and two years old respectively) fell sick during the sanding process. Also, the family could not continue their daily activities during the painting because of the surrounding dust and paint residue in various places.

As the family’s designated ideator, Atul took a crack at creating a scrubbing machine with dust control. He made his own machine after a series of failures and later discovered it’s not financial feasible to produce and go for patents. Nonetheless, the issue kept bothering him all the way till 2013. He had already seen close family and friends facing the same problem.

Atul began to research dustless sanding technology and even bought a few machines. For about eight months, he experimented with different type of sanders and suction to get the desired torque and suction pressure. After all, if a machine was too hard, it could crack the wall and if it did not have the required power, it wouldn’t be able to scrape off the surface of a wall. In 2014, he found a brand that matched his expectations and told his daughter about it.

At that time, Niyati was working with CNBC and realized that the duo would have to conduct research on the need for a product like theirs before venturing into the market. Besides a company in Chennai, no one else was offering dustless painting services. Both father and daughter decided to take the concept further and established a company in late 2014. They approached various architects, designers, interior decorators and design firms. They also sold samples to potential clients and created a demo video to explain their product.

Getting the big break

A few big architects and interior designers saw the demo and Dustless Painting found its first few clients. They are now in the process of working with top MNCs in the pharma and FMCG sector. The venture has completed close to three projects in each vertical. Niyati states that the standards of cleanliness in healthcare are so high that after completing a project successfully in that space, the firm can work anywhere. In fact, one of their projects involved repainting a room while an operation took place.

Dustless Painting offers end to end services. Their team leaves the house exactly in the same state as it was before the painting. They ensure that customers don’t feel any inconvenience while going about each stage of interior painting. The employees are skilled at covering and masking premises during painting and there is a separate team working towards maintaining cleanliness at all times.

Challenges and the road ahead

Educating Indian customers was a slow and tedious process. Given that the phenomenon was relatively new in the Indian market, the father-daughter duo had their work cut out trying to explain why their services commanded higher charges. The painting space was rather disorganized and had no standardization. The Dustless Painting team encountered contractors who only cared about getting the job done. That’s when the founders realized that they could not be pitted against the usual painting services, Dustless Painting was a whole new product with a completely different modus operandi. They not only cared about the end-product but also about the why and the how of the process. Not disturbing families while they continued their everyday activities, not letting customers get affected even while they eat at their favourite restaurants – these factors mattered to the founders.

After this change of mindset, convincing customers became easier. Both father and daughter highlighted the advantages of Dustless Painting and the attention to detail that the team brought to the procedure right from how much pressure the employee puts on the brush, the quality of paint to the careful use of the machines.

Niyati believes that the level of professionalism Dustless Painting is bringing to the space is helping them win more clients. Ideally, the venture would like to partner with various architecture firms, pharmaceutical companies, and commercial builders to bring their services to the right set of clients. At the moment, the startup is focusing on jobs in Mumbai, they are hoping to expand to the metro cities in the next five years. A decade down the line, they plan to go global, transforming the way painting is perceived, one house at a time.

Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry has launched khadi denim designer wears to make khadi market more trendy and appealing to the youth.

Denim jeans, jackets, skirts and bags designed by NIFT graduates and other professional designers will be available at the exhibition-cum-sale centres at the khadi shops, an official statement said.

It also said that under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), a window will be opened at these centres, which will sell products made by micro entrepreneurs from all over the country.

“In the first phase, micro entrepreneurs from North East Region along with khadi institutions will be displaying their products in the PMEGP windows,” it added. Products like cane, bamboo, munga silk, and andi silk and other handicraft items will be available at the shops.

According to PTI, the sale of khadi products have also increased by over 60 per cent after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to buy atleast one khadi garment, MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra has said.

“The appeal made by the Prime Minister in his radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’ to buy atleast one khadi garment. As a result of the appeal, the sale of Khadi increased over 60 per cent,” an official statement quoting the minister said.

On October 3 last year, Modi had advocated for use of khadi products as a homage to Mahatma Gandhi. He had impressed upon people to use at least one khadi product, may it be a handkerchief or even a bedsheet.

According to PTI, Mishra said this while inaugurating the khadi denim exhibition. He has also inaugurated Northeast PMEGP exhibition. Emphasising on the need to manufacture not only market oriented but also product oriented khadi, he said there is growing demand of khadi in foreign countries as well.

The products displayed in the PMEGP exhibition are produced by the artisans of North East region.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

On-demand grocery and food delivery are unsolved problems in India and startups evangelizing this space appear to outnumber other segments in terms of attracting VCs wealth. So far, hyperlocal startups focusing on grocery and food delivery have raised $133 million this year.

After Grofers, Peppertap, and Zopnow, Bengaluru-based JiffStore has raised a follow-up round from Unitus Seed Fund and Times Internet Limited (TIL).

The raised funds will also be used to expand the company’s network of stores, promote the firm’s services across various marketing channels, hiring and improve the technology platform. JiffStore is also expanding its operations to other cities, including Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi.

Like Grofers, customers of JiffStore in Bengaluru now has an option to get grocery items delivered at their doorstep in 90 mins. Launched in October 2013, JiffStore has 120 supermarkets on board with 15,000 registered users in Bengaluru.

Team behind JiffStore and initial days of operation

The brainchild of Shameel Abdulla, Aswin Ram, Satish Basavaraj and Sandeep Sreenath, JifStore is also in advanced talks to raise Series A round. Shameel dropped out of ISB to start JiffStore. He is an engineer and worked with Wipro & EMC. He also started a mobile app development company and successfully ran it for two years before progressing to JiffStore.

Aswin has experience with McKinsey & Co and DHL Express. Earlier, he was heading DHL’s B2B business in Hyderabad, while Satish is an engineer with over six years of experience with EMC Mobile division. He was Innovator of the Year 2010 at EMC and holds four patents.

Sandeep is an alumnus of NIT, Durgapur (Btech) and IIIT B (Mtech). He has experience in leading technology and product management at EMC and Infibeam.com.

After bootstrapping JiffStore for first six months, they got selected by TLabs (Times group incubation centre) in Noida. Shameel says,

This happened as we were selected by Nasscom in their 10,000 startup program. We went to market in October 2013 and in the next six months we grew to 60 stores and 3000 users.

By April 2014, Unitus Seed Fund came on JiffStore’s board with a Seed funding of INR one crore.

Team Jiffstore

Differentiators and current traction

JiffStore has the early mover advantage and is the leader in non-inventory based model in Bengaluru. Right from the beginning, the startup followed a zero inventory marketplace model. Aswin points out,

Recently, there has been a lot of players venturing into the grocery online business; many of them follow the same model. But the key differentiator of JiffStore is that we are completely focused on groceries and we understand the intricacies of the grocery business.

The company currently ships 250 orders on a daily basis with an average basket size of Rs 600. With 40 plus members, team JiffStore mainly focuses on mobile apps. Aswin reveals,

Close to 65% of our transaction happens through mobile.

Importantly, JiffStore model is asset light and it doesn’t own any vehicles. The company has commission based revenue model with the stores.

JiffStore competes with Bigbasket, Zopnow, Grofers and Localbanya in Bengaluru. Hyperlocal delivery startups are having a ball in India and over $130 million was poured into these startups by VCs this year so far. Going forward, it would be exciting to watch how hyperlocal space shapes up in the second half of this year.

Website

A Dutch startup has unveiled plans to build the world’s first 3D-printed bridge across an Amsterdam canal, a technique that could become standard on future construction sites.

Using robotic printers “that can ‘draw’ steel structures in 3D, we will print a (pedestrian) bridge over water in the centre of Amsterdam,” engineering startup company MX3D said in a statement, hoping to kick off the project by September. The plan involves robotic arm printers ‘walking’ across the canal as it slides along the bridge’s edges, essentially printing its own support structure out of thin air as it moves along.

Specially-designed robotic arms heat the metal to a searing 1,500 degrees Celsius (around 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit) to painstakingly weld the structure drop-by-drop, using a computer programme to plot the sophisticated design. “The underlying principle is very simple. We have connected an advanced welding machine to an industrial robot arm,” said the bridge’s designer Joris Laarman.

“We now use our own intelligent software to operate these machines so they can print very complex metal shapes which can differ each time,” Laarman said of the project also involving the Heijmans construction company and Autodesk software. So far, the robotic arm has been used to print smaller metal structures, but the bridge will be the first ever large-scale deployment of the technology, MX3D spokeswoman Eva James told AFP.

It is hoped that the bridge will be a first step towards seeing the technique used on construction sites, especially those involving dangerous tasks such as on high buildings, she said. The technique also removes the need for scaffolding as the robot arms use the very structure they print as support.

According to PTI, the designers are now in talks with the Amsterdam city council to find a site for the project which they hope will be completed by mid-2017. “I strongly believe in the future of digital manufacturing and local production,” said Laarman. “It’s a new form of craftsmanship. This bridge can show how 3D printing has finally entered the world of large-scale functional objects and sustainable materials,” he said.

Amsterdam city council spokeswoman Charlene Verweij told AFP the Dutch capital was supporting the project.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

There’s a growing trend among young college graduates  to pursue their passion and take up entrepreneurial pursuits instead of slogging at corporate jobs.  But many face hurdles and roadblocks because of lack of financial resources and proper guidance. Many organisations have identified this and are allocating resources to ‘catch them young’ and give budding entrepreneurs a chance to work on their dream projects. Analog Devices India (ADI) through its bi-annual student design fellowship, ‘Anveshan’ mentors budding engineers to enhance their system design skills by developing prototypes of their ideas.

ADI recently concluded Anveshan 2015 where the goal was to design innovative technological solutions to address growing system level challenges. After the initial stages they had 12 finalists and gave the top three a chance to showcase their innovations. Analog Devices funded the selected project development and supported the teams with the necessary hardware such as evaluation kits, emulators, components and software development tools.

Related read: Bhaag startup bhaag – the stories of 11 student entrepreneurs from India

Here are the top three innovations from the event:

IoT enabled Diaper: Baby beats

Mr. Anand Madangopal, MD of Cardiac Design Labs with the winners

IIT Bombay team of Neeraj Babu C, Vineesh V S, Riyaz Mohammed, Apurv Mittal and Anjaly T.R had a working prototype of a baby wellness monitor.

The problem: With an increasing population of working class parents in India, many find it difficult to monitor their kids round the clock. Kids from the stage of infancy to a period of 60 months are prone to various health issues and need constant attention to keep them safe from hazards around. Common health problems include cold, fever and skin problems like diaper rashes. Respiratory diseases like upper and lower respiratory infection are also common among Indian children.

According to a survey conducted by NCBI, published as ‘Causes of neonatal and child mortality in India’, the two major cases accounting for 50% of child deaths till five years of age are pneumonia and diarrhoea. India has the highest child mortality rate as per UNICEF report on child mortality 2011.

Their Solution: Children need to be vaccinated at regular intervals and served with the necessary nutrients. It is at this time that they undergo great cognitive, emotional and social development and are most active, curious and hence are prone to hazards. This requires parents to spend a considerable amount of time to keep untoward incidents like electric shocks, hazards from water and fire at bay. The team found that most of the baby and child monitors available in the market currently were mere audio or video solutions. So they developed a working prototype of a wearable baby wellness monitor which can closely monitor the child’s clinical and general wellbeing through different sensors. The device can be clipped to the child’s diaper and monitor his or her movements, body temperature etc.

Myoelectric limbs

R.V. College of Engineering team comprising of B.Koushik, Biswajit Roy showcased their innovation through a bionic arm.

The problem: The team found that rehabilitation for the handicapped is a big issue in the world. They went through many studies about assistive devices for the handicapped and found that prosthetic hands for the upper limb are either hook or hand-shaped and are actuated by either body or external power. Body-powered prosthetic limbs are controlled by cables connecting them to elsewhere on the body. Externally powered prosthetic limbs are powered with motors which can be controlled by the patient in several ways through switches or buttons. While these are functional, they wanted to develop prosthetic limbs that are more hassle free and more intuitive to control.

Their solution: They found that a more advanced way to control a prosthetic limb was by ‘listening’ to the muscles remaining in the residual limb that the patient could still contract. Because muscles generate small electrical signals when they contract, electrodes placed on the surface of the skin can measure muscle movements. Although no buttons are physically pressed by the muscles in this case, their contractions are detected by the electrodes and then used to control the prosthetic limb- in a way similar to the switch control method.

Amputee rehabilitation through gaming

VIT, Vellore team comprising of Chandan Dhal, Akshat Wahi presented their project titled ‘Psycho-physiological training approach for amputee rehabilitation’.

The problem: Amputees generally face a tough uphill task in their rehabilitation process, which can involve repetitive tasks that are needed to strengthen muscles. So the team came up with the idea of including gaming in the rehabilitation process to provide a more personalised approach that is more accessible by conventional methods.

The solution: They found that digital signal processing of EMG signals facilitates creation of such a rehabilitation scheme and they programmed DSP processors based on ATmega328 to act as keyboards for playing games like Mario, where only three inputs are required to play i.e. left, right, and jump. They processed the output of three EMG sensors attached to different muscle groups to act as the inputs for the game.

For an amputee in rehabilitation this setup can provide a practice regimen, where the patient’s primary focus would be on winning the game, rather than focusing directly on the rehabilitation training. The team believes that this approach could reduce the level of stress during rehabilitation and make recovery times faster and easier. The solution is also implementable on smart phones and computers.

Website: Analog Devices

Related read: How taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber are bringing micro-entrepreneurship to students

Discount brokerage is generally restricted, and taken up only by experienced and mature traders. And now, the process of discount brokerage, one of the most traditional financial transactions, is reaching the online space. One such platform is Trade Smart Online, an online discount brokerage platform, where the client pays purely for transacting on the trade.

According to estimates, India has over 100 discount brokering companies.  And now, with discount brokerage hitting the digital space, brokers now have access to a larger number of clients.  According to Vikas Singhania, Trade Smart Online is about people and the maximum benefit a customer can get from the platform.

He says that most brokerages charge a minimum amount for stocks below a particular price. Their aim in doing so, according to Vikas, is to protect their brokerage in absolute terms. He adds that low-priced stock would give them minuscule brokerage if calculated in percentage terms.

He says that this particular method of calculating brokerage has a big impact on the profitability of the client. To add to this, he says that a discount broker will not be able to advise you to buy or sell stocks, or remind you of the trading calls that clicked, “They will conveniently brush recommendations that did not perform under the carpet. The near-rock bottom brokerage cost makes a lot of difference for a client, especially if he is trading with large volumes,” adds Vikas.

Trade Smart Online provides a platform for transaction, and the services that are essential to complete a transaction.

Building Trade Smart Online

Fascinated with technology from an early age, after finishing his MS in Industrial Engineering and before pursuing his MBA from Purdue University, Vikas had joined his father’s business, VNS Finance. It was during his stint here that Vikas gained a deep understanding of the stock broking business.

He adds that the stock broking business had already become extremely competitive, with retail clients struggling to break even. “I knew that a concept like discount broking would come to their rescue with reduced trade costs,” says Vikas. In 2008, after doing market research, the father-son duo decided to launch this new offering. However, the global markets had begun to crumble at that point in time, post the Lehman crisis.

Vikas Singhania, Founder Trade Smart Online

While waiting for the markets to stabilize before launching out a full-fledged roll-out, the duo started to work on proprietary training, updated their technology and improved their internal systems. “Over the next few years, not only did markets stabilise, but also the Indian economy caught up with technological upgrades too. Smartphone penetration in the country accelerated, aided by much higher bandwidth speeds. We realised that the market was now ready for our offering. That’s how Trade Smart Online was born, in January 2013,” says Vikas. The initial seed money was raised by VNS Finance.

Trade Smart Online started operations two years back, and the company has grown to three times its size last year, in terms of number of clients and revenues. Currently, Trade Smart Online has over 9000 clients that help generate daily volumes of close to Rs 25 billion. According to Vikas, this has been possible due to cost effective and convenient products that suit the clients’ needs and requirements, and also due to seamlessly integrating trading experience with technology.

“We are location-agnostic. While our registered office is in Mumbai, we have clients from several parts of the country. Being a discount broking online platform, we do away with the need of having a physical presence in cities/states. In fact, this (low establishment costs, low manpower costs) is precisely what helps us in keeping our costs low, which we effectively pass it on to clients by way of lower brokerage charges,” says Vikas.

For a traditional practice like brokerage, one of the biggest challenges that Vikas and his team had to face was building trust and faith. Being a nascent industry, it took time for Trade Smart Online to acquire the right perception among investors.

Differentiators and revenue

Vikas says that technology has been one of the greatest differentiators for Trade Smart Online. He adds that it enables clients to be aware of what and how much to pay. “Our client base is varied, and so are the needs of our customers, leading us to design systems and processes that provide sound guidance on planning and execution”, adds Vikas.

The revenues of Trade Smart Online are a function of the volumes generated by the clients. Therefore, Vikas says that the higher the volumes, the higher the client mining and the more buoyant the capital market. This according to Vikas, not only encourages increased trades, but also improves the value of the trade.

The team has three pricing plans; apart from charging the lowest brokerage at 0.007 per cent for intra-day traders, they also have two other plans to offer; namely, the unlimited monthly plan under which a client pays a fixed sum monthly irrespective of the value he ends up trading through the month, and also the option of trading at Rs 15 per order irrespective of the size of the trade across segments. Clients can opt to choose the plan that best suits their trading requirement.

A growing space

Today the number of startups operating in the online discount space are growing. Some of the similar organisations in the space include RKSV, Tradejini and Zerodha. These in fact are growing at breakneck pace. According to reports, RKSV plans to increase the size of its user base to over 1,00,000 customers in the next four months.

“Internet penetration and growth of smart-phone usage is changing the way individuals trade on the stock markets. Tech-savvy individuals between 20 and 35 years are changing the ways of trading on the stock markets, and this is stoking the growth rates witnessed by the industry. This means that there is the probability of higher growth rates in the near future,” concludes Vikas.

Website

The Gujarat government has said that a Chinese business association has decided to set up a textile industrial park in the state in near future.

A delegation of China Association of Small and Medium Enterprizes Industry (CASMEI) met Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel at Gandhinagar and discussed various aspects related to the setting up of park in Gujarat, an official release said.

The meeting between CASMEI delegation, led by its vice chairman Shen Gaohua and deputy secretary general Guo Zhixin, and Patel is the result of her recent China visit where state government’s Enterprise iNDEXTb (industrial extension bureau) signed an MoU worth Rs 1.6 billion with CASMEI in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to PTI, Patel told the delegation that during her China visit, she was impressed with the Chinese model of industrial parks, where the selling points for the goods produced in the industrial park, are created within the park. She showed keen interest to replicate this business model in the upcoming industrial park in Gujarat, the release added.

As per the release, Patel assured all the cooperation needed from the government in acquiring land as well as other permissions and facilities for the industrial park.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

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National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has said that it has signed an agreement with Captiveway India Solutions to create a portal which will house NSDC-affiliated learning and training centres with their offered skills training courses.

“This partnership will certainly give a push to the skill development landscape in India. It will benefit companies involved in the skill training space,” NSDC Managing Director and CEO Dilip Chenoy said in a press release.

“It will assist in increasing their business volume, make them a part of an active skill ecosystem and will also give them international exposure. This platform will see training organisations expand their infrastructure and open more training centres,” Chenoy said.

According to PTI, under this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), NSDC will undertake to create a comprehensive and cohesive skill ecosystem for MNCs looking at trained manpower to support their business requirements.

Captiveway’s CEO Vijaya Koumar said, “We are all excited to be partnering with NSDC towards increasing India’s skilled workers. We are looking at around a million people getting skilled in the next five years from this project.”

“We hope this will offer new and innovative opportunities for our training partners to collaborate with global organisations towards best practices, curriculum and scale up the efforts of skill development in the country,” Koumar added.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

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Former Gluster founder, Anand Babu (AB) Periasamy has given a reason for the open source community to smile today. Along with launching the new open source startup Minio, he has also raised $3.3M seed funding round for the company. Startup Minio enables application developers to build their own cloud storage and scale to millions of users. Led by General Catalyst and Nexus Ventures, the venture funding round included Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Index Ventures, Mark Leslie, Brian Stevens, Ben Golub, Lanham Napier and Andrew Feldman. The company will use the funds to develop the Minio Server, Minio Client and Minio Libraries.

Minio, Inc., the company behind Minio was founded in in November 2014 by Anand, Harshavardhana, Frederick Kautz and Garima Kapoor. It is an open source distributed object storage software. Minio server and client are written in golang and released under Apache v2 licence.

Related read: How this Open Source enthusiast climbed up ‘Urban Ladder’

The industry and the startup

Over the last five years, the Internet has seen an unprecedented growth of data driven by photos, videos, documents and machine generated data. Object storage evolved primarily to address this type of content in the cloud. According to a recent research study by industry analyst MarketsAndMarkets the public/private cloud storage market is estimated to grow from $13.57 billion in 2014 to $56.57 billion in 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.1%. Minio aims to democratize cloud storage by building object storage in the open source community. Anand says,

 The name Minio stands for minimal object storage and derives from our belief in the philosophy of minimalism. To store 80% of the world’s data, users need only 20% of the storage functionality. As counterintuitive as it seems, scalability and operational ease start with reduction and simplicity.

Minio will simplify storage to the extent application developers can include object storage with their application stack, just like Node.js, MongoDB and Cassandra. Minio is perhaps the first developer friendly storage targeted at private clouds. Minio has the potential to make every developer a storage expert.

Also read:  Plivo – An Open-Source Startup With An Open & Flexible Culture

Investors interest at a nascent stage!

Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Managing Director, Nexus Ventures have his full faith in Anand. He says,

Abstracting out technology sophistication into elegant simplicity, minimalism and user delight has been the cornerstone of AB’s entrepreneurial efforts. He had done that successfully with his previous startup gluster that we were thrilled to have partnered with. He is doing that again with minio, which we are again thrilled to be backing from day 0. Minio has the potential to redefine cloud storage, the way we know it.

Deepak Jeevankumar, Principal, General Catalyst Partners believes that Minio’s unique understanding of the open source community building, storage and the needs of millennial application developers is commendable. He says,

They are well positioned to swing for the fences in this 10 billion+ market opportunity and capitalize on a fundamental secular shift in decision making from IT to application developers.

Website

You may also like: Aravind Ravi, Founder, Scrollback – who swears by Open Source

Startups catering to hyperlocal needs  are fast stealing the limelight in the entrepreneurial ecosystem this year. While on-demand delivery networks (grocery, food, veggie, cake, and flowers etc.) like Grofers, Peppertap, Swiggy, Roadrunnr, TinyOwl and others raised over $133 million fundings, hyperlocal service aggregators attracted about $10 million (approx) VC funding.

Of late, on demand hyperlocal service space witnessed the debut of a slew of startups like Urbanpro, Urbanclap, Taskbob, Housejoy, and Doormint among others. But newly-launched CallAtHome (CAH) claims to cut through competition via micro-managed marketplace with curated and hand-picked service professionals.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

It’s a mobile first, hyperlocal curated marketplace for on-demand service providers like a plumber, electrician, driver required at home that is the buzz. The customer just needs to make a booking as per convenience and CAH takes end-to-end control on the transaction.

Genesis of CallAtHome

The brainchild of Alok Inamdar and Satyendra Singh, CallAtHome was born out of a common pain faced by the duo. While Alok was harassed and overcharged by a plumber, Satyendra faced a lot of hassle in hiring a part-time driver.

Both Alok and Satyendra used to work at Nestle. Alok says,

During the lunch hours and coffee breaks, we used to discuss the possibility of having a simple solution that would solve the problem of hiring people to work on the mundane domestic chores.

With  some basic research, the duo realized that nobody had really solved this problem and  had instead focused on solving a smaller problem of providing information on the service professional. Alok adds,

After various rounds of discussion with friends and family, the idea seemed to get even more validated.

Finally, before taking the plunge, they decided to test the market by launching a MVP (minimum viable product – the mobile app). He points out,

The idea seemed to click immediately in the market and the number of bookings increased very fast.

Alok is an IIM Calcutta & NIT Nagpur alumnus while Satyendra studied at SP Jain and B. Tech from MIT, Manipal. The duo has over five years experience in IT, FMCG & e-commerce domains.

USPs and differentiators

Stressing on USPs, Satyendra says,

At present, there are various players in the market who’re looking to organize this sector. Our key differentiator lies in approach. We micromanage platform with curated and handpicked service professionals. Moreover, we standardized the services in the market, which provides a clear visibility to the customer on how much he would be charged.

Alok Inamdar and Satyendra Singh

The company classifies services into two categories — essential and premium services. The essential services are very need based (i.e you call a plumber only if there is a leak) and so the frequency of usage is low.

“But the pain point is pretty high in the essential services and act as a strong selling point to the customers. The premium services (like home cleaning & chauffeurs) are more based on the want of the customer, and so we are seeing a good growth in the transactions in this category,” outlines Satyendra.

Revenue model and traction

CallAtHome charges a fixed commission from the service professionals on each transaction. This works for the service professionals too, as they pay only when they earn. As of now, the CAH team has three full time employees (including the cofounders).

Currently, the company processes close to 500 transactions on a monthly basis. Alok reveals,

We are growing at 5X every month, with around 75% repeat customers.

CallAtHome has 35 service providers listed on its platform and are looking to board 100 more in a month.

Road ahead

CallAtHome plans to establish itself very strongly in the Gurgaon market, while increasing its portfolio and ensuring it becomes the top of mind service for any customer in Gurgaon. Alok says,

The growth we are seeing has convinced us that we are onto something big and we would need to ramp up our marketing and operational capabilities. The company is now actively looking to raise funds mainly for hiring talented people and focus on increasing customer awareness.

Competition and size of opportunity

There are many players in this segment including UrbanPro, UrbanClap, Housejoy, TaskBob, FindYahan and Doormint among others. Theseventures also attracted VC investment. Marketplace for local services UrbanPro secured$2 million funding from Nirvana Ventures while backed by Snapdeal founders, UrbanClap secured INR 10 Crore from SAIF Partners and Accel Partners. FindYahan and TaskBob also snapped up angel rounds.

According to an industry estimate, the market for local services in India is highly disorganised and currently estimated to be worth INR 9 billion. The size of the segment is big enough and multiple players can co-exist. The on-demand hyperlocal space is very nascent and this is just  the beginning. Going forward it would be interesting to watch how this space shapes up in the future.

Android App

Narendra Modi is one of the most tech-savvy leaders and a big promoter of e-governance and m-governance from the very beginning. Within two months of assuming Prime Minister-ship, he had launched the ambitious project MyGov. He’s well known for leveraging social media to reach out to the citizens of the country. Whether it was Indian General Elections 2014 victory or Barack Obama’s India trip, he has shared it all on social media. Now, when India is going mobile, Prime Minister Modi has decided to take another step towards connecting with the people at their convenience.

Today, he launched the ‘Narendra Modi Mobile App’. The Android application is a one-stop destination for knowing about all the latest day-to-day activities of the Prime Minister. With just one click, the interactive ‘Narendra Modi’ app allows the user to connect with the PM.

The app features include:

• An opportunity to receive messages and emails directly from Prime Minister Narendra Modi
• There is also an option to contribute and earn ‘badges’ through to-do tasks
• Receive the latest news updates of the Prime Minister
• One can tune-in and listen to the various ‘Mann ki Baat’ editions of Prime Minister Modi
• Interact with the PM and share ideas and suggestions
• Read Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s blogs
• Get the unique insights in the biography section
• Comprehensive information on initiatives and achievements of the Union Government, including an ‘infographics’ section

The app lets the users read and know about PM Modi’s style of ‘Good Governance,’ and has got a dedicated section that highlights the Prime Minister’s efforts towards augmenting India’s ‘Global Recognition.’ The ‘infographics’ section presents how Governance is improving lives of the people.

Also read: Why Narendra Modi’s Independence day speech was historical

The Google Play store listed his official website in the ‘Developer’ details with the email ID as narendramodi1234@gmail.com. Bharatiya Janta Party head office was mentioned as the address(11 Ashoka Road, New Delhi 110001).

You may also like: Why Narendra Modi’s Make In India is indeed a step of a lion

Here’s a video explaining the functionalities of the app:

You can download the app on your Android device from Google’s PlayStore.

MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra has asked banks to make available easy finance for micro enterprises under the Prime Minister’s Employment Guarantee Programme (PMEGP).

The issue was discussed during a meeting with bankers, Khadi & Village Board and State Industry Department in Mumbai. The Minister said the banks should avoid delay in sanctioning of loans. “Timely sanction of the projects will result in getting subsidy to the beneficiaries without any hurdle,” an official statement quoting Mishra said.

He also asked the banks to ensure that maximum benefits of the PMEGP scheme are provided to women, SC/ST and unemployed youth. “All efforts should be made so that the scheme should reach the grass root level which will fulfil the dream of ‘Make in India’ of our Prime Minister,” he added.

According to PTI, Mishra said that some instances have come to the notice that despite clear cut guidelines given by RBI, bankers are insisting to the small beneficiaries for collateral security in case of projects up to Rs 10 lakh. He asked the banks to give clear directions to their respective branches that they should adhere to the RBI guidelines.

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), is a flagship programme of the government for generating employment opportunities by setting up micro enterprises in the rural as well as urban areas.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

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As part of its efforts to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, NITI Aayog held consultations with top officials of various departments and ministries. The Aayog will today hold broader consultations with the stakeholders in the innovation and entrepreneurship space.

During the meeting presided over by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, the officials discussed initiatives to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. Among others who attended the meeting were NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat and members of the Expert Committee on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The meeting took place against the backdrop of announcement of establishment of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Self-Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) under the NITI Aayog by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech for 2015-16. In order to take these initiatives forward, the NITI Aayog had set up an Expert Committee, Chaired by Professor Tarun Khanna, Director, South Asia Institute, Harvard University and Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School on April 21, 2015.

According to PTI, In the first meeting of the Expert Committee on May 1, 2015, a decision was taken to hold discussions with selected ministries, departments and other stakeholders who have taken initiatives to promote innovation/entrepreneurship. The veterans, industry leaders and heads of prominent incubators, representatives of Industry associations, sector specific experts, service sector representatives, venture funding agencies, educational institutions and representatives of States will join the consultation process tomorrow.

It is expected that the deliberations will give a fillip to the initiatives to promote innovation/ entrepreneurship across the country, the statement said.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

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With over 230 million students in India, the education sector is booming in the country. According to a two-year-old report by India Ratings, the Indian education sector’s market size had been expected to touch Rs 602,410 crore ($109.84 billion) by FY 2015 due to the strong demand for quality education.

The ever-growing education sector has also created the need for proper student counseling. In April 2011, Surabhi Dewra and Love Chopra co-founded meracareerguide.com. The website aims to help the Indian youth find answers to their career-related questions.

MeraCareerGuide Team

“Our objective is to provide informed opinions to students. And we try to do so by connecting students to career counselors, and providing psychometric career tests and huge amount of information about various career options,” says Surabhi.

Aimed at young people, the website caters to students between 13 and 22 years, to youths searching for quality education. It offers career options to job seekers across 500 different career topics. “We also target individuals with special skills and qualities. Many people are not aware of the commercial viability of their skills or interests. We offer guidance to such individuals and empower them by offering the most suitable career path,” says Surabhi.

Surabhi Dewra

The venture claims to address basic issues in career counseling that other counseling ventures do not. “We have been able to offer effective guidance to thousands of students who have now found their best options. Users are made aware of several new industries and new trades that suit their interests. Through these, they are able to find new opportunities and develop a complete new approach towards personal skill and interests. We first give 10 free minutes of career counseling. From there, a fee of Rs 999 is charged for 45 minutes. This includes career tests to judge candidates’ skills,” says Surabhi.

Growth of sector

The education market of the country is projected to reach more than $109 billion by end of this year. The sector grew at a CAGR of 16.5% between 2005 and 2012.

The market is still expanding, and business prospects are big in the sector. Education startups are the latest trend in the sector. Innovation in K-12 segment is becoming the selling point of any new venture. Emergence of ICT (information and Communication Industry) in education is also trending, shaped by startups and investments. “As the Indian education sector is still under-developed, there exists massive scope for development and progress. Venturing into this domain results a win-win situation for entrepreneurs as well as end users,” says Surabhi.

The increasing traffic indicates the growing reach of the venture. Meracareerguide.com has been growing with an annual growth rate of 300%.

Investment & funding

The sector seems to be attracting a lot of investment. The company was funded with initial investments from three investors: Ronnie Screwvala, founder of UTV Group, Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO of Indiagames and Rajesh Tekriwal, a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience in high-ended industry areas.

Love Chopra

“We are seeing investors’ interest in our venture. We are also raising our Series A funding.  We already have investors for it,” said Surabhi.

Challenges tackled

Lack of connectivity is the primary challenge in the sector. Another great challenge is the attitude towards adoption of new methodology and traits. “We are addressing the issues via our website. Digitization, innovation and extensive use of technology can overcome this challenge,” says Surabhi.

Competitive Inc

“MeraCareerGuide.com is working in a complete new category. There are individual career counselors in the market. There are many internet businesses in the education sector, but each one of them works in a different category and offers a different product. There is a huge need for personalized mentorship and guidance in the sector; and we are working on that,” said Surabhi.

Website

How many times have you been frustrated trying to get hold of a plumber to fix a pipe leak? Once you did find a suitable one, were you flummoxed about what to pay him/her once the job was done? Were there times when you felt that the service was overpriced?

Welcome to the world of unorganized services. A world where the range in price per service defies logic, and quality checks are hard to come by. Bro4u.com aims to inject technology, accessibility and professionalism to the space by creating a curated platform for unorganized services.

Bro4u.com is an e-commerce marketplace for household and professional services in Bengaluru with over 20 categories of services, including handymen (plumbers and electricians), cleaning, electrical, computer and document services.

The beginnings

The founders, Pramod Hegde (26, completed his MBA) and Rajath KR (26, civil engineer) drew inspiration from the Make In India campaign. They experienced multiple challenges when dealing with local service providers. Around the time the Make In India initiative picked up momentum, the founders thought about what they could do to contribute to the country’s progress. Pramod came up with the idea of consolidating services onto a single platform for users across India and quit his corporate job to pursue his dream.

Within 15 days, there were already a few members working out of a 2BHK towards that single goal of building an e-commerce platform for services. Akshay Harish (BCA, with four years of web development experience) became their go-to guy for technology. The team has now grown to 17. In fact, Pramod pitched his idea to potential team members in the park, over the phone, on the road and many other unconventional places.

The team was extremely motivated and worked hard to turn their concept into reality. They are proud to have built an e-commerce market place which can cater to home service needs of the whole of Bengaluru. So far, they have served 2,300 orders successfully and process an average of 30-35 orders per day and they get 35-40 enquiries on a daily basis.

The lack of capital spurred the team to maximize their resources and thoroughly utilize free platforms. They have created short movies, conducted FB group engagements, written on blogs, and continued the traditional approach of giving personal cards. In fact, in the recent TCS Bengaluru marathon, they gave away Bro4u shade caps to every second runner to reach a wider audience. Bro4u also utilized a global platform called ‘Thunderclap’ to invite people to launch the site online. The portal went live on Feb 25^th this year helped by more than 500 people globally and reached out to almost three lakh people.

The platform has brought more than 700 vendors on-board and its digital vendor acquisition rate is growing by 10% (month on month).

Challenges

Initial challenges included finding the right vendors and connecting them with clients. The venture had to set up processes for validation and quality checks to monitor the quality of service provided by their vendors. Using online references and referrals from the vendors they met, the team was able to build a credible list. It took close to two months to source good vendors. Bro4u’s team met with a majority of their vendors personally and signed agreements to ensure that their final customers are given high quality services.

Pramod believes that the team at Bro4u is the biggest strength of the venture and each member comes with an entrepreneurial mindset and has been instrumental in distinguishing the startup from others in the space such as Housejoy, Urban Clap, Doormint, Jack on Block and Zepper. The home services space is seeing quite a boom with 70 of the 150 startups founded in 2014. According to reports, the unorganized market is estimated to be worth $100 billion, including mobile platforms.

The future

Although the venture’s current plan is to build its position in Bengaluru, Bro4u’s long-term vision is to become the single biggest marketplace for services in the next 10 years. They are planning to expand to Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi in next six to eight months. They are sector-agnostic and are looking at exploring potential opportunities in digital and creative services, education, health and fitness, legal and contractual services.

If you wanted to buy a second hand bike or vehicle, how would you go about it? Many would reach out to friends or known associates through social media or traditional modes of communication –word of mouth. The pre-owned vehicle market is fast growing; for example, Olx claims to be one of the largest portals for used cars in the country.  According to sources, this segment might even get bigger than the new vehicle market. Now entering this segment is a platform for second-hand bikes, CredR.

Born out of personal experience, CredR was started by IIT Mumbai and Stanford alumni Sumit Chhazed, Nikhil Jain, Nittin Mittal and Shiv Agarwal. “A year back, my colleague and I were trying to buy a second hand. Only when we took the plunge did we realise how difficult and hassling the process actually was. There is lack of trust in the product, as there are no benchmarks. The process of discovery of the good to purchase in itself was inconvenient,” says Sumit.

Thus, the team realised that this market needed someone to come up and build credibility, trust, transparency and convenience in the space, thus making it easy for the buyer to understand and pick the right product for their use.

How does CredR work?

According to Nikhil, buying a bike on CredR is a simple three step process. You get to choose from a wide range of bikes of different models and brands. All details are provided, like the colour and body, working condition, document verifications – whether these are good, satisfactory or bad – and performance metrics. On the basis of this, you can choose which bike you would like to test drive. The bike is then taken to you, the prospective buyer.

“After this, if you like the bike, you can pay a token amount. You can then complete the payment through payment gateways integrated on the website. And after that, there is a little documentation and then the bike is yours,” says Nikhil.

Image Credit: Shutter Stock

When the team started, they had three bikes per day. Currently, they are averaging 30 to 40 bikes per day. The average selling price of a bike is close to Rs.40000 – 45,000, according to Nikhil. The gross merchandise value is around two crores per month.

Speaking of the challenges faced, Nikhil says that initially it was very difficult to get into the secondhand bike market. This was because the team was very clear on transparency and wanted the prospective buyer to know everything about the bike, including its problems. “It was difficult to convince people that transparency was only going to help them, as it would give the buyer confidence,” adds Nikhil.

Also Read: One hell of a ride: More than $100 million poured into India’s auto classifieds space

Market space and traction

Operational for the past four months now, CredR works in three cities – Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune -and has sold over 1000 bikes. “We receive close to a 1000 requests every day and are clocking a 300 per cent month-on-month growth. With over 180 employees currently, we plan to expand to the 10 most ‘automobile-crazy’ cities in the coming months, and attain a pan-Indian presence.We are also aiming at strengthening our technological and operational bases. We are in advanced talks about institutional funding and are hoping to close the same within the next few weeks,” concludes Sumit. Companies like MahindraFirstChoice have even raised a second round of funding of $15 million.

The segment and space for used goods is fast picking up in India, especially pre-owned vehicles. Apart from biggies like Quikr and Olx, several other startups like Zigwheels, ReGlobe, Bikewale and Carwale are entering the space. When it comes to used cars, the space is said to be 1.3 times bigger than new cars and continuing to grow exponentially.

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Video editor: Anjali Achal
Cameraman : Rukmangada Raja
Video Reporter: Dola Samanta