DST, Intel India and SINE-IIT Bombay collaborate to incubate hardware and systems start-ups

Reinforcing their commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship as a step towards making Digital India successful, Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd (“Intel India”), and Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay have collaborated to launch the Collaborative Incubation Program for Hardware and Systems Startups (“Program”).

This is a unique program wherein the industry, academia and Government have come together to support hardware and systems-based start-ups in the country through mentoring, training, lab facilities, hardware kits, prototyping, business services,  funding, etc.,

The announcement was made on Saturday in the presence of Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India, Ms. Nivruti Rai, General Manager, Intel India, Vice President, Platform Engineering Group, Intel, Professor Devang Khakhar, Director of IIT, Bombay.

Nivruti Rai, General Manager, Intel India, Vice President, Platform Engineering Group, Intel; said, “Intel has a strong focus on accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship in India, and we are committed to help enable startups in the systems area, both hardware and software. Along with DST and SINE, IIT Bombay, Intel India will provide the critical support these starts ups need to be able to excel in creating market ready products and solutions.”

Second from left-Ms. Nivruti Rai, General Manager, Intel India, Vice President, Platform Engineering Group, Intel

• The Program will address gaps in the hardware and systems start-up ecosystem that companies face in product design, development, commercialization, and creating scale for their solutions.

• DST, Intel India and SINE aim to support up to 20 start-ups under this Program, and the call for applications for the first batch will be announced in early August 2016.

• During the year-long Program, start-ups will be supported for six months on-site at SINE, IIT, Bombay or Intel India, Bengaluru. After a period of six months, the start-ups’ solutions will be showcased to investors and industry players at a demo day, post which, the Program will extend virtual support for another six months.

• Participating start-ups will be incubated through intensive training periods, one-on-one mentoring, technology related support from Intel experts, business service support from SINE, as well as prototyping and manufacturing support.

• Intel India will:

• Build capacities through mentors, and provide technology related support for productization, and

• Facilitate ideation, design thinking, prototyping workshops and manufacturing support through industry experts. 

 

Collaborative Incubation Program for Hardware and Systems Startups 

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Pitch Top 50 Brands Awards: An evening with corporate top shots

Yesterday I got a chance to witness a live award show, the Pitch Top 50 Brands awards is an annual property of Pitch, from the exchange4media group which rewards Top 5 brands across 10 categories. The awards acknowledge the impactful, efficient and commendable marketing practices pursued  by the brands over a year of time. The winners are shortlisted from a variety of brands from big corporate like Tata, Hero MotoCorp, Mahindra & Mahindra to relatively small startups such as Practo, OYO rooms etc.

Initially 300 brands were selected across categories in Tier 1 process which was further halved to 150 brands in Tier 2 process after that Top contenders were finalized to further reach at the final Top 50 brands for the year 2016. After you scroll down a bit and see the list of Top 50 brands you will realize how tough a job it was for the Jury which included brand heads and cheif Marketing officers from organizations like Godrej Consumer, PolicyBazaar, Micromax, Renault, Hero MotoCorp etc, to reach to a consensus over the final 5 names in each category.

The host for the evening was energetic beauty Suparnaa Chadda who kept the audience engaged through out the process. I was fully impressed when amidst the corporate English environment she started with Saraswati Vandana in Sanskrit (या कुन्देन्दु तुषार हार धवला, या वीणा वर दण्ड मण्डित करा  ). 

@simplysup is hosting #top50brands and with drum rolls we start the event. Watch it #live https://t.co/7HnL09O7Xs pic.twitter.com/AC5mAuAtf8

— e4m (Events) (@e4mevents) July 22, 2016

After that Mr. Naval Ahuja from Exchange4Media group addressed the audience and wished all finalists. The event couldn't have been such successful without the partners and they were duly thanked on the stage before anything else occupied the stage. The partners for the event were Sakshi Media Group as Gold Partner and Associate partners were 9XJalwa,blogmint, FirstPost, IndiaToday, Laqshya.

The theme of the event was "The Power of Content Marketing" and the same was discussed in a panel of speakers like Avik Chattopadhyay, co-founder Expreal (moderator for the discussion), Anand Ramakrishnan, Head -Content & Digital Marketing, HCL Technologies, Satinder Juneja, VP- Sales & Marketing, NIIT Technologies, Radhika Binani CPO, PolicyBazaar.com. Mr, Satinder Juneja, recited a Hindi poem during the discussion which perfectly defines the power of content marketing.

"राह पे उनको लगा लाये हैं बातों में , कुछ और खुल जायेंगे दो चार मुलाक़ातों में । "

The Panel Discussing - "The Power of Content Marketing"

Word 'control' is irrelevant for today's consumers, they are self aware AND you simply can't control em- Ashwin #top50brands @theblogmint

— Rahul Kasana (@RahulKasanaTech) July 22, 2016

The discussion concluded with emphasis on need to co-create the content with individual content creators as each one of us have the power to create and can be a broadcaster.

The chief guest for the evening Mr. Mahesh Giri, National Secretary BJP and MP from East Delhi arrived shortly after, he addressed the audience in Hindi and emphasized on the work done behind a product by the brand awareness team which includes content creators, PRs, marketeers etc. Mr. Giri, presented awards for five of ten categories before he left for the day.

Top 50 Awards - Chief Guest, Mr. Mahesh Giri Addressing the audience

Below are the list of award winners across the categories. Please note that there is no rank here as all the winners are judged as equal in each category.

Bottom of the Pyramid	Master Connectors	Digital Strategists	Disruptors	Affluent
AAJ TAK	BROOKE BOND RED LABEL	AMAZON INDIA	AMAGI	ARMANI
BIG BAZAAR	CADBURY	FACEBOOK	AMAZON KINDLE	AUDI
COLGATE	COLORS	HOTSTAR	OLA	JAGUAR LAND ROVER
HERO MOTOCORP	HONDA MOTORCYCLE & SCOOTER INDIA (HMSI)	OLX	PATANJALI	MERCEDES-BENZ
PARACHUTE	RADIO MIRCHI	PAYTM	POLICYBAZAAR	PORSCHE
		YOUTUBE	PRACTO

Social Contributors	Impactful Debuts	Evergreens	Globetrotters	Resurgents
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER	ABOF	AMUL	BAJAJ AUTO	BRITANNIA GOOD DAY
MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA	BALENO	FAIR AND LOVELY	GOA TOURISM	HAVELLS
MARUTI SUZUKI	HYUNDAI CRETA	RAYMOND	HERO MOTOCORP	MAGGI
MAX BUPA HEALTH INSURANCE	RENAULT KWID	SAFFOLA	MICROMAX
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES	ROYAL ENFIELD – HIMALAYAN	STATE BANK OF INDIA	TATA GROUP

After all the awards were announced we had dinner waiting outside for us with Cocktail and all, without wasting any time we had our dinner and headed back to home with a new experience and memories to keep. Thanks blogmint for providing me with this opportunity.

Why and How I was there?

As mentioned earlier, Blogmint was one of the associate partners for this event. Blogmint is a influencer marketing program connecting brands with Influencers. I am registered with them as an influencer  and have participated in few of their campaigns. This time I got a request to cover the event , the task was exciting for me and I happily obliged to do that. 

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WhatAShaadi user app launched to help you plan your dream wedding within few clicks

Every time we see a new app launch to solve some purpose of life , we are reminded that we are living in the era of technology and this development is what will define our time in coming days. Yesterday was one such moment again when we witnessed the launch of a simplistic yet very useful and carefully crafted mobile application named 'WhatAShaadi'. As you might have already guessed with the name, the app aims to help you through the chaos of planning a coordinating for the most special day of your life, i.e. your wedding day.

WhatAShaadi

The startup has already over 1500 vendors on board and the vendor version of app was already in the market for quite a time, and now the user version is also launched. So if you are going to get married soon , we would recommend you to try out this app. During the launch event I had interaction with the co-founders Sneha, Natasha and Rahul Lakhania. The team is enthusiastic and specially on tech part Rahul the tech person behind the platform has done a very good job. Application interface which you will see is just a part of what they have built on technology front but the research work they are doing is really commendable. 

The team at 'WhatAShaadi'  has made sure that you don't get any disturbances in using their service hence you will see no ads on the application, even for the vendors you can simply chat with them and then choose only select vendors who can call you saving you from spam calls.WhatAShaadi is an exceptional, one of a kind mobile app, which offers exclusive deals, a personal concierge service, and a wide range of vendors to cater to different market segments.

The app was launched at a blogger’s meet hosted by Co-founders Natasha Dang and Sneha Singh at Levels in Hauz Khas Village.

Speaking on the occasion, Co-founders Natasha Dang and Sneha Singh said, “The process of planning a wedding starts from the day a mother starts visualizing her child’s wedding. WhatAShaadi is an initiative to help realize that dream! Everything you need to plan a wedding, from a fashion designer for the bride to the venue that falls in your budget is available on the app! The USP being that one does not need to be a techspert to use the interface, as its extremely user friendly and helps save time, energy and money!”

Founder and Chairperson Mr. Praveen Dang and Co-founder Rahul Lakhaney, the tech ninja behind the inception of the app were also present at the launch.

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App development in India and challenges faced by the developers

Smartphones are too mainstream now, every new phone launch which makes it to news is taken for granted to be a smartphone, we are talking in the time when a company claims to sell smartphone for just Rs 251. So what makes these phones really smart is it just the Hardware, NO not at all the hardware capabilities were always present but the real hero of these smartphones are the Apps installed in these and their capability to get everything done for you. Some one has very aptly said that, "your smartphone is not a smartphone if it is not on smart network and doesn't have smart applications" this is so true in today's scenario. While the hero of our Smartphones are these smart applications which we fondly call apps, the real heroes are the developer who develop these applications. There's a lot of effort that goes right from conceptualization to design and then to build the application that we install on our smartphones find a solution to our day to day chores. India being one of the largest smartphone user country the application market is also huge and opportunities are just growing day by day, however the development is also not a cakewalk for our heroes as well. We have tried to list out current challenges faced by Indian app developers which are as following.

App Development

Resource Crunch: Well this can be very conveniently attributed to our orthodox thinking, traditional teaching methods and lack of courage for taking risks. Our educational institutions need to rethink how they want to mold the students thinking , whether they want them to learn or to innovate, to follow or to lead and take risks. We have highly talented resources but they are familiar with Windows OS and hesitate to try out OS X or Linux. Cost of app development software also plays a big part which is another challenge, for example to develop a cross platform application one has to purchase license of Xamarin and also should have access to OS X for building applications for iOS. These limitations narrow down number of developers available and thus a significant quality developers never come on board for application development.

Idea Evaluation: App stores are flooded with applications, you go and search for one application you will get many. Some times these applications are all same and one is not adding value over that of any other. Good market research and zeal to solve real problem is one thing and to execute this is another. Its always better to get your ideas reviewed by experts and get it validated, however finding experts is another big task for individual developers.

Connectivity: Apart from few metro cities we as a country are way behind in internet connectivity, situation is getting better gradually but it still a major road block for any IT professional and our app developers are not untouched with this fact. Better connectivity opens all doors to online forums, educational materials to get help and references.

Technical Challenges: Even if all of above is mitigated, we have the biggest challenge in front of us that is technical challenges which includes making your application responsive to different screen sizes, making application in optimized way so that it takes lesser of mobile resources and consume less battery power. Security of the applications as well as the device itself becomes developers responsibility as you don't even know which other apps the user is using and from back door if any spam app access data shared to your application. 

Post Development i.e. Marketing: After one is done with the development of a particular app then comes the herculean task of getting your application some visibility on the app store. The marketing cost are mostly higher than the budget allows specially if you are an individual developer.

Mr. Ebrahim Popat, Country Manager 9 Apps says "While the Indian app market is on a high-growth trajectory, it continues to face lot of difficulties,including connectivity, local online payment issues and lack of effective promotional channels. Effective addressal to these issues will attract more talent to the sector. The app development industry has undergone rapid expansion and is flush with talent in India. What is missing is the right platform for these developers to showcase their talent, get exposure for their apps and connect with fellow developers.

Mr. Ebrahim Popat, Country Manager 9 Apps

9Apps, as one of the most important products of UCWeb, is part UC Open Platform - an ecosystem to help Indian mobile internet players acquire users and monetise traffic. As far as I know, there is no other local mobile platform in Indian market that can compare with us, in terms of user base and app distribution. 

We have also announced the launch of 9Apps Trends, India’s first comprehensive local app market monitoring service that provides app trends, data analysis and an in-depth market report. The monitoring tool will address the growing need for a comprehensive app industry analysis and help local app developers and distributors. 9Apps Trends is a public web facility with free access to all. With the right platform for distribution and monetisation, developers in India will come up with content and apps relevant for the Indian market – compact, localised and in regional languages."

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GST, Internet Infrastructure, Taxation reforms among top Pre Budget expectations from Tech Startups

Pre Budget Quote from PayU

"Today, India has a critical mass of people who are online and have access to electronic instruments of payments.  With Digital India, we have the right platform to move from a cash dominated economy to a less cash economy in medium term & a cash less in the long run. RBI and Govt have been very pro-active in facilitating innovations in electronic payments. Indian consumers have often surprised the conventional wisdom when it comes to adopting new ways of doing things – telecom, internet. If right incentives on both supply (Merchants) and demand (Customers) side are announced in this budget session, it would push the quick and wide  adoption of electronic payments. 

Spokesperson - Mr.Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and CEO - Droom

Internet  is an enabler of growth and visitor Highways should be simulated, similar to our rail and road infrastructure. Allocation of budgetfor creating a robust network of Internet connectivity across India is elementary. In the union budget we wish to see avenues of public private participation with telecom Operators. The same is the key to Internet growth; unless our telecom providers do not fuel our masses with bandwidth and affordability, Digital India would be a distant dream.

Spokesperson - Mr. Mohit Mittal, Founder & CEO - Voodoo

Mohit, who has been successfully starting up his businesses since his college days at IIT Madras is very positive and believes in promising changes in the startup environment from this budget. He says, "After the 'Startup India' initiative from the prime minister, new startup founders & entrepreneurs are holding their hopes and expectations high from the upcoming entrepreneur-friendly tax regime at this Union budget." 

Talking about the taxes and growth structure in startups, he also adds, "exempting these startups from few direct and indirect taxes will also foster their growth and ensure a propitious ecosystem for them." 

Mr. Manavjeet Singh , Founder and CEO, Rubique

Startup India action plan has showcased some signs of encouragement for startup ecosystem and from this year budget too we expect similar positive support from the government. For any startup ease of starting a business is crucial. We need a supportive environment on compliance front to reduce the paperwork so the founder can execute his idea faster. Also tax holidays/exemption on service tax in initial years would help startups to deploy their funds effectively to make their foundation stronger. Also there should be smooth process of deployment of funds government has reserved for startup. This would definitely encourage the promising entrepreneur community in India.

Quote on behalf of Mr Ranjit Punja, CEO & Co-founder, CreditMantri

Quote on Behalf of Mr Neeraj Jain,  CEO & Co-founder, Zopper 

Rajeev Karwal, Founder and CEO, Milagrow

With the launch of Startup India, we are very confident about Govt’s focus and due importance to Startups. We would like to get more details on operationalization of Startup India. It is fairly certain to say India could soon emerge as one of the top three Startup hubs in the world given its natural inclination for Enterprise and support of establishment," Shailaz Nag, Co-founder & COO, PayU India

Subsidy on smartphones is my next expectation, buying a smartphone is much easier than buying a desktop / laptop. The current Tier 2 and 3 cities and rural India thrives on these devices and smartphone reach will only make them stronger and smarter. It may give rise to evolution of many new Enterprises. Lastly, GST would be a game changing reform, it will enable a country wide, single market with reduced transaction costs for businesses and controlled economic volatility.

Mr. Soumitra Gupta, Founder & CEO, Togofogo 

Few expectations from the budget are clarity on FDI in e-commerce and simplification of the indirect tax regime. Reduce state wise differences in indirect taxation to simplify pan India operations for many companies especially startups. Either GST comes soon or taxation improves. Also, reduction of import duties with an option to allow businesses to ‘Make in India’ will be a welcome move. Subsidies at ground level will make Entrepreneurs feel protected & safe. Digital literacy and mobile internet penetration intier 2, tier 3 cities are other areas onto which we would like to see the Union Budget’s focus.

Mr. Raghav Bahl,  Founder, The Quint 

We need only two things: one, more bandwidth/spectrum; and two, a level playing field on taxes. Why should a rich, old, viable, lucrative medium like print advertising be exempt from service tax, while the fledgling, entrepreneurial, technology driven Internet advertising is skimmed?

Following the Jan Dhan Yojana and the new payment bank licenses, it is only logical that we are likely to  see a large outlay in the Budget to build rural connectivity so as to enable increased digital penetration within unserved segments of the population. Building brick and mortar bank branches will take too long and it is imperative that access to a bank and the ability to send and receive Mondaywill be digital. We are also likely to see a reduction in excise duty on hardware required to promote a Digital India.

"The govt should discuss special plans and incentives for offline retailers to compete with FDI funded online retailers. The offline retail is largest employment generator in the country and govt should bring about major incentives for this sector. Also, the budget should have specific measures to increase digital connectivity across the country."

Quote on behalf of Mr HarshVardhan Lunia, CEO & Co-founder, Lendingkart

“The recently launched ‘Startup India’ initiative has stirred-up optimism amongst entrepreneurs. However, there still subsists a need to exempt startups from direct and indirect taxes, with MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) being the key one as it will help entrepreneurs reduce burden and cash outflows. While tax holiday certainly brings a sigh of relief, it may not be beneficial for many technology startups who do not make profits in initial years of their commencement. Therefore, such startups should be able to claim benefits of tax holiday of 3 years within a period of minimum 5 years from inception. Furthermore, since service tax liability proves onerous for entrepreneurs, there is a need to reconsider that as well. Another critical aspect is the elimination of long-term capital gain taxes for investors in unlisted startups so that they are able to attract more funding from angel investors. Considering the pace at which tech startups are growing in India, it has become even more crucial for us to push the ‘Digital India’ initiative. Currently, the IT penetration level in India is at 19 percent which is quite low as compared to other developed and developing countries. For us to realize the dream of a digitally connected country, it is imperative to have a robust digital infrastructure in place and encourage mobile internet usage amongst citizens as much as possible. Moreover, tax relief for buyers on purchase of computers and mobile phones will also enhance internet penetration in the country.”

I feel that at this point the impact of Digital India or Make in India is only in the media. It is not just about removing red tape and corruption; the real situation on ground hasn't changed much. The global outlook is also gloomy at present, as the industry is saddled with high debt. The stock market and regular investment options are not giving good returns. Unemployment and hidden underemployed is at an all-time high.

In such a strained business environment, the 4th industrial revolution in the form of robotics can help revitalize the flagging global market. I feel the Government must provide long-term fiscal incentives to attract global investment in robotics to India. The infrastructure of high speed web has to be built at the cheapest cost so that smart IOT appliances can perform to their true potential and solve our everyday issues. Even the ecosystem of chips and other important components has to be built to match the global standards. This will ensure that world scale manufacturing of finished products moves to India in the longer term. Moreover, a move must be made to steamroll the GST bill through at any cost, as it will lead to a greater ease of doing business. Even if the bill is passed today, its impact on businesses will only be seen after 12 to 18 months. Therefore, the Government must take up the matter of the GST bill on an urgent basis. The local direct and indirect taxes account for 30 to 40 percent currently; as such, a move will have to be made to reduce these taxes to half in order to support businesses within the country. The 4^th industrial revolution is right around the corner in form of robotics. Let us have a national plan to capitalize fully on it.

Mr Anish Williams, CEO and Co-Founder of TranServ

The Union Budget is expected to keep up the good work set in motion by the ‘Start Up India, Stand Up India’ initiative. With the fintech industry emerging as a big market segment for the Indian economy, the Government must look to consolidate the alternate banking and financial transactional spacein the upcoming budget as it looks to give digital commerce a big boost. As such, we are expecting a relaxation of norms and increased ease of doing business for digital wallets owing to the disruptive impact and ubiquitous accessibility that they offer. An increase in the limit of capital that wallets can handle will definitely add to the user convenience and fuel the growth of the industry.We are also looking forward to a deeper, more integrated service provision in association with nationalised and private banks to further the cause of financial inclusions.

Uday Reddy, CEO & Founder of YuppTV

Road map to GST in the upcoming budget will go a long way in both increasing the ease of doing business and reducing the cost of doing business. Further rationalisation of local taxes into GST will also pave the way for incubation and higher growth of digital businesses. Fiscal incentives for broadband infrastructure penetration and consolidation of broadband play is required to usher in digital revolution and to bring India on par with developed countries.

Satish Kataria, Managing Director, Catapooolt "With the year starting on Hon'ble PM's Start Up India Movement announcement and various proposed measures - this year's budget could be revolutionary milestone towards strengthening India's start-up movement - ofcourse provided that the proposed measures are implemented with right spirit and right fine print! Further, we are aware of the Special Committee that is being constituted under the Ministry of Finance to look at various innovations to ease up start up funding - which we believe is also looking at domain of crowdfunding. We are hopeful, that similar to other developed nations acknowledging and opening up crowdfunding, India too would look at this medium positively - as it can well sync up with several newly proposed measures such as proposed INR 10,000 Crore start-up fund (where a possible plug in with crowdfunding can bring true elements of market validation of innovative ideas as well as engage larger communities to come on board) as well as National Start up Hub (where it can connect early stage start ups with other enablers).  In short, we expect and hope that this budget would place a new milestone towards acknowledging and supporting the role of entrepreneurs in shaping the next India.

Abhesh Verma, COO, nexGTV

The $1.5 billion start-up fund announced in 'Startup India 2016' reflects the Government’s faith in digital and startup ventures. It’ll be interesting to see the budget address critical infrastructural bottlenecks to improve the fund’s channelization and accessibility in order to foster increased Internet penetration in Tier 2 cities and beyond, which will bring forth the next wave of digital entrepreneurs as well as consumers and help meet the Government’s vision for Startup Indian & Digital India.

Ambika Sharma, Founder, Instappy

We hope that this year’s budget will give us a clearer picture on taxation policies. With the launch of Make In India campaigns and the funds allotted by PM the startups have seen tremendous growth.  We wish that this year also the budget will be focused on the growth and on investors as they are the main source of funds for the startups. 

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abof.com posts Rs 100 crore Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) within 90 Days of launch

Aditya Birla Group's online fashion portal abof.com has clocked an annualized gross merchandise value (GMV) of INR 100 crores within 90 days of launch. abof.com – all about fashion, the fashion ecom portal from the house of Aditya Birla Group is a one-stop-shop for the millennials offering apparel, footwear and accessories for men and women went live in mid-October 2015. The brand serves 6000 pin codes catering to 500+ cities in the country.

 

abof.com claims reaching several industry first milestones after its launch in October last year. These milestones includes 15% return as compared to 20-25% industry standard in return orders, more than 20% orders from repeat customers in such a short time span, largest private label range with over 1200 products available on the platform of its own brand abof, abof branded merchandise contributes to 40% of total business.

“We take great pride in being India’s first fashion portal to significantly upgrade the online shopping experience for our customers though our curated collection, proprietary fashion content and advanced technologies which are amongst the world’s best,” said Prashant Gupta, President & CEO, abof.com. “The Topline we have achieved in our first quarter of operation is very promising and is validated that our TG is resonating with us completely and that we are on the right track.” he added.

abof attributes this to three key strategies which have helped the company reach the INR 100 Crore mark. First is sharp segmentation and focused targeting. The glam-led platform is targeted at millennials and offers latest styles, personalized fashion content and style tips. The highly curated multi-brand portal offers the trendiest looks of the season through its own brand ‘abof’ and selected products from handpicked brands. The personalized fashion feed ‘What’s Hot’  has very high consumer engagement, e.g., nearly 10 min of time spent by every visitor. Second is best of breed technology which includes best tech partners and also introduced one of its kind features like 3D trial room and visual search. Third area is Customer Experience. abof treats its customers like celebrities and has designed its CX to enrich their experience at every one of more than 50 touch-points. abof uses premium packaging and offers superior delivery services like delivery across 365 days a year (including Sundays and holidays), refund on pick up, spot exchange and many more.

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Payoye™ partners with Gratification Card Company ‘Injected’

Payoye^TM will enable INJECTED’s 2500+ merchants to receive and make payments online hassle free

 Payoye™, India’s first CashCardContact™ less unified payment platform, has partnered with Gratification Card Company, Injected.  INJECTED EGC is a Pune based company  enabling “Mobility“ towards the daily Expense and Purchase elements by offering instant gratification  or on the spot discount cards.

 

Payoye™ which is a mobile based payment platform that enables payments through any instrument i.e. credit/debit/cash card, internet banking & e-wallet at any place, anytime, anywhere by anyone uses an OYETag™ (QR Code) as a medium to accept and receive payments through mobile phones. Injected will now use this OYETag™ in their gratification cards.

 

INJECTED EGC is in the process of integrating Payoye’s^TM online shopping feature for purchase of EGC cards. This will enable interested users to scan the OYETag™ and make payment with their choice of payment instrument.

Payoye's  mPOS app will be used by INJECTED partners/merchants to scan OYETags^TM on INJECTED EGC cards which will help them to verify card holder details. The mPOS app will also enable INJECTED EGC merchants to receive payments from their customers through any of the payment instruments (credit/debit/cash cards, internet banking, e-wallets etc.).

Payoye’s^TM registered user can skip the registration process as user details will be shared with INJECTED EGC to enroll Payoye’s^TMusers.

 

This partnership between the two companies mean that Payoye^TM will enable INJECTED’s 2500+ merchants in Goa and Pune to receive and make payments online hassle free.

 

Navneet Chauhan, Founder and CEO, Payoye™ commented, “With this partnership, INJECTED will be able to create more value for its merchants and user by enabling them with our unified payment platform. Our platform also provides BI insights, customer/merchant management capabilities and consumer usage behavior.”

 

 

Injected will also use Payoye’s real-time dashboard for data analysis on the usage INJECTED EGC card penetration, usage and user behavior.

 

On the partnership, Mathew Kordolia, CEO of INJECTED commented, “To make sure that our vision “Livelihood simplified” stays transparent to our beliefs, we are more than honored to have partnered with Payoye. The simplicity they bring to the payment platform, in time will prove to be a unique payment infrastructure apt both for urban and rural India.”

With Payoye™, anything and everything, including ecommerce sites/normal websites, magazines, brochures, pamphlets, hoardings etc. becomes a Point-Of-Sale, increasing sales for the merchants and giving convenience to users. It is easily configurable and highly secured way of payments. Unlike any other payment method available in the market today, Payoye™ addresses offline (grocers, small shop owners, premium outlets in malls, restaurant, taxi bill payments etc.) and online (e- commerce/normal/mobile sites) market for the users.

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Buzzmeeh rolls out its online mobile repair platform in Delhi-NCR

First smartphone I reviewed was Micromax Canvas HD (A116) which was not a review device albeit it was bought by me for my personal use, despite all the good specifications the device malfunctioned after 6 months of use and then started trauma of travelling pillar to posts to get the issue rectified. In an unknown city searching for the Service centre and reaching there was itself a big achievement for me. Now once I had submitted my smartphone for repair I had to arrange for a standby phone from one of my friend, luckily he had extra phone as he had just upgraded to a smartphone from feature phone.

Buzzmeeh.com

It seems like someone has paid attention to this painful area and aims to make our lives easier by providing online solution to this problem. The man is Puneet Gupta who has launched online portal providing one click service for mobile repairs for warranty and non-warranty both kind of mobile phones.

When mobile enthusiast and young visionary Puneet Gupta thought of initiating his venture Buzzmeeh.com, his idea was to make life simpler for people hunting for a local mobile repair shop and solve their inconvenience of being stuck with an inefficient standby handset. The online portal is a disruptor in the mobile repair market, offering services beyond mobile mending with pick-up and drop off services, standby handsets and live SMS updates.

Based out of Delhi-NCR region, Buzzmeeh.com offers a simple and cost-effective process for all mobile users to get their mobiles phones repaired in a click. Taking mobile repairing beyond the industry norms, its gamut of services ensures complete customer satisfaction. Customers can avail pick up and drop off services anywhere in the Delhi NCR region, within two hours of a request being placed on the website. Buzzmeeh gets under warranty handsets repaired from the official service center and if not under warranty, its in-house experts repair the same at a minimal cost. Furthermore, the customers can continue enjoying the smartphone services even while their handsets are in the repairing center, with the standby handset offered by Buzzmeeh.com. The platform also sends out live SMS services updating the users on the progress of their phones. It provides genuine replacement for damaged parts with a 30-day warranty.

Commenting on the launch of this portal, Puneet Gupta, Founder and Director of Buzzmeeh said, "The innovative, process driven, customer friendly business model of Buzzmeeh was a much-needed disruptor in the largely unorganized market for mobile phone repairs. Through this platform, we want to save people from the hassles of making multiple trips to repair vendors. The underlying intention is to make Buzzmeeh a trusted brand name in the mobile repairing space. We envisage transforming the mobile repairing ecosystem in India with the help of our 100% trained technicians promising 24 hours guaranteed repair at competitive pricing."

Within a few months of its launch, Buzzmeeh is on an expansion spree across the length and breadth of the country. It works at easing the issues of distrust and lack of responsibility that the customers feel towards mobile service providers and offer a credible and convenient solution to mobile repair.

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Trends to watch for in 2016 from industry experts

One more year has passed by in Information technology era, which brings the dawn of another new year and with it comes the time of speculations, calculations , new energy and new trends. So what will be New Year 2016 like? Let's try to find out with the vision of industry experts.

"Implementation of GST could again be a turning point for the smart device industry and might prove to be a barrier for an easy-India-entry strategy of  a lot of the chinese brands. GST will ensure taxation benefits for focus on distribution and for being present across the breadth of the country. 

"- Micromax

Micromax

Ecommerce has taken a very good shape in yesteryears and innovative solutions are coming up day by day which will make ecommerce accessible to more and more people. With launch of 4G LTE networks in India, more services can be availed with less hassle. From Paypal to Paytm we have come a long way. 2016 is expected witness even more growth on mobile wallets and services where these can be used with. Launch of offline digital cash solution such as PaySe is another giant step towards offline wallets.

“India is experiencing tremendous growth in the use of Internet as well as mobile. As per various estimates, there are a just under a billion cell phone connections in India and the country adds around 6 million new cell phones every month in usage. Although the number of Internet users is still low in comparison - around 200 million users, the conversion of cell phone users to mobile users is fast growing. As per telecom industry estimates, 65% of all new Internet users in India experience their first Internet surfing activity via mobile. I anticipate that many players will develop integrated mobile wallet apps, along with the usage of heavy online & offline marketing. In markets with a more advanced payments system, mobile wallets will have to do more than just execute a payment, they will have to add a value proposition beyond payments.” - Pradeep K Sampath, Chief Operating Officer at MMP Mobiwallet Payment Systems Limited

When talking about Ecommerce one cannot simply ignore the use of coupons , deals and comparision websites. Startups for online price comparison have seen a tremendous growth and similar services are expected to grow in 2016. Instead of looking specifications of hundreds of phone its now much convenient to do a simple search on such website for 2gb RAM mobile . A list of mobiles with required specifications with lowest price available helps user to take wise decisions backed by data. Similarly, using coupons and deals available on different platforms certainly saves one from spending too much.

Year 2015 has set an example for 2016 to follow. 2016 will be customer centric year with focus

on capturing each and every click of the user journey. We expect many more exclusive partnerships to get the best discounts for the users. India will overtake the US as the second largest market for smartphones in the world by 2016 as smart mobile devices become affordable, global research firm eMarketer has said. With Government of India’s ‘India Digital Plan’ that promises that by 2019, everyone in India will have a smartphone, the prospects of online shopping is only expected to grow. Overall, we expect to that digital coupons industry will grow 25% in 2016. - Ms Kulpreet Kaur, Co-founder, Shop Pirate Coupons

2015 also saw ecommerce playing on app only strategy but it seems that it didn't went as it was expected. 2016 will be a year of more focus on mobile platform but app only trend doesn't seem to follow at least at this time.

As mentioned earlier 2015 witnessed launch of 4G LTE services in India, and without any doubt 4G smartphones will be the new trend for 2016. Though 4G services have not gained that popularity but coming year is expected to see 4G becoming the common service to access internet among majority of Indian urban population.

With two 4G models from Lenovo featuring in the list of top 10 smartphones sold in 2015, Lenovo certainly emerged as the favourite smartphone brand of the year!

According to #FlipTrends, a year ender report by Flipkart, Lenovo A6000 plus and Lenovo K3 Note were the top two most sought after smartphones in 2015. Motorola closely followed with two smartphones, Moto G 3^rd Gen and Moto E 2^nd Gen featuring at the third and sixth position respectively. Xiaomi Mi 4i & Redmi Note 4G took fourth and fifth spots followed by Samsung Galaxy On7, Samsung Galaxy J7, Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 and Asus Zenfone 5.

As is the case with increasing mobile applications and penetration of smart phones with internet, the mobile led ecosystem is bound to grow at a faster rate. Brands such as Micromax , bringing affordable 4G smartphones to the market will be playing a major role in this revolution. 

“The ongoing trend of affordable smartphones will continue in the coming year as well with expected launch of more mid segment smartphones which will fit the budget and deliver the best in class experience to the customers. The innovative nature of the Smartphone industry has been steadily gaining ground in recent years and in a competitive market, manufacturers look towards providing users with features that give their products the cutting edge. Fast charging, better camera quality, fast data speed/quality and low-cost data connectivity options with introduction of 4G will be major game changers in 2016. At OPPO, we plan to launch 8-10 numbers of handsets in the coming year and are looking at 300% growth with more nation-wide channel partners.” -Mike Wang, CEO, OPPO Mobiles India

The Honorable Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative gathered steam this year with not only the domestic manufacturers but also global brands investing hugely in local manufacturing which will further lead to his vision to ensure a smartphone in the hands of every citizen by 2019. Close to 30% of the handsets being sold monthly are manufactured or assembled locally giving a big boost to the Indian handset market as companies are now able to quickly bring the latest technologies to the market in a short span of time.

Within the handset industry, so far Samsung and Micromax have been the flag-bearers of “Make in India” by ramping up domestic manufacturing. In 2016, clearly a lot of additional capacity will come up as Chinese and Indian brands/ODMs drive investments into this space with continued policy incentives. This will be a key driver for new business models to emerge to ensure unit level profitability as operations ramp up. We may also witness the beginning of some key component level manufacturing as global component suppliers evaluate their business viability and setup establishments here.

Mobile led services will become mainstay and mobile internet ecosystem will grow beyond the 150-200 Mn smartphone users driven by a strong collaboration between the device, access and service eco-system. The entire mobile ecosystem will come with the launch of a number of services across sectors like entertainment, travel, healthcare and banking. The coming year will see the entire mobile industry joining hands with an aim to foster a culture of innovation, creating solutions that can take care of indigenous needs and building an empowered ecosystem for permeating technology into the nooks and crannies of the country. The key to this growth will be simplification through relevant services and availability of these in various Indian languages.

With prediction of such growth in Mobile ecosystem it is no surprise that mobile phones will dominate market share in terms of search data and other services. 

There’s good reason that mobile demands so much of our mindshare. Few technologic advancements have had such a profound effect on the way we live, work, play and socialize as mobile devices. We are likely to see a big shift in mobile search. With so much data available, and so many past browsing habits to draw from, we are likely to see highly contextualized search results. Results that use help of third-party apps to not just recommend a particular product, but find it in the customer’s preferred color, size, location, price range and much more. Also, mobile payments are on the rise around the globe. I expect this trend to take the mobile Internet by storm in the coming quarters. 360° Video is another trend I am bullish on. It will give users complete control over what they want to view and from what angle. Online shopping is likely to get a complete overhaul, giving consumers a real-time perspective about the products they are going to buy. In emerging markets, burgeoning smartphone and mobile Internet usage will fuel rise of regional and localised apps and games.

While we strived to keep up with breakthroughs in 2015, I expect 2016 to bring in seismic shifts. - Kenny Ye, MD, UCWeb India (part of Alibaba Mobile Business Group)

Implementation of GST could again be a turning point for the smart device industry and might prove to be a barrier for an easy-India-entry strategy of  a lot of the chinese brands. GST will ensure taxation benefits for focus on distribution and for being present across the breadth of the country. 

"Smart watches, Health monitors, Fitness trackers- The world of mobile is changing. The wearable landscape got a lot of attention this year, and it has helped fuel more talks about a future where every device or object could be connected. Today, the number of “things” that are connected to the Internet in a home have changed. While earlier, one would have a single desktop computers connected to the Internet, today the number of devices include tablets, laptops, gaming consoles, smartphones, Televisions and more.   

IoT will be a game changer and you will be able to see brands step out of their comfort zones, trying newer things. It can open up a new horizon and the possibilities are limitless. What is interesting is that Mobile will be at the center stage of this change. Everything that a user wants, will be and can be controlled through his mobile device. 2016 will be a beginning towards offering consumers this change. " - Rahul Sharma, Cofounder YU televentures

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