Synechron will be conducting its first-ever hackathon – SyneHack 201.7 to address challenges of the Artificial Intelligence world. SyneHack 201.7 will be hosted in association with HackerEarth and will provide participants a chance to contribute to the financial services industry that is undergoing a phase of digital transformation.

Image Source – SyneHack

SyneHack 201.7 is a 24-hour hackathon that calls for developers to create an application that can process structured and unstructured data to eventually predict if a customer is satisfied or dissatisfied with their banking experience.

Registrations for SyneHack 201.7 are now open and acceptance of submissions will conclude on Sunday, April 9, 2017. SyneHack 201.7 will conclude with an onsite event scheduled for April 22–23, 2017 in Bengaluru. Participants will be eligible to win prizes of up to INR 2,50,000. The winners of the hackathon will be announced on Sunday, April 23, 2017.

Faisal Husain, Co-founder and CEO, Synechron, said

Synechron has always been driving innovation to the next level by unleashing the ‘Power of 3’ – Digital, Business Consulting and Technology. In line with our commitment to innovation, we are thrilled to be associated with HackerEarth and establish our very first Hackathon – SyneHack 201.7. The hackathon is ideally designed to demonstrate the prowess of proven technologies like Artificial Intelligence and similar cutting-edge technologies and how they bring in a plethora of opportunities to the financial services industry. I am sure such initiatives would lay the foundation of the evolution of the banking of the future.

In any bank, customer satisfaction is a key measure of success. Unhappy customers don’t stick around and rarely voice their dissatisfaction before leaving. Synechron aims to address this very challenge through SyneHack 201.7. Synechron’s cutting-edge solutions for Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain utilize its Digital, Business Consulting and Technology expertise and ensure real–time benefits, center on strategic business challenges faced by financial institutions today.

Sachin Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, HackerEarth said

Technologies like Open APIs, Artificial Intelligence, AR and VR, Bots, Big Data, Blockchain, and IoT will form the basis of tomorrow’s economy. The banks of tomorrow must be able to help customers navigate this new economy in a safe and comfortable way, while giving them access to advantages of new technologies. This hackathon aims to seek and promote new services, technologies, and ways of working with customers that are aligned with what customers expect from a modern bank.

About Synechron

Synechron, one of the fastest-growing digital, business consulting & technology services providers, is a USD 400 million firm based in New York. Since inception in 2001, Synechron has been on a steep growth trajectory. For more information, please visit Synechron

Paytm founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma was vocal about being disappointed with the way banks and the financial system in India work. ‘The financial system penalizes a sincere person, but if someone speaks the language of those in the power corridor, he takes a loan of Rs 600 crore and lives in London,’ said Sharma, taking a jibe at the other Vijay, Vijay Mallya.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave 2017 held in Mumbai, during a session titled Master Talk: The e-economy | From the Front-lines of Change, the Founder and CEO of Paytm said, Financial system in India is penalising for those who are sincere, who pay their taxes on time.

Talking about his hope that the RBI will give a nod to Paytm doing banking in the country, he said, ‘If the RBI blesses us, we will be able to have our bank by this month end.’ ‘What happened in 2016 was nothing short of revolution,’ Sharma said, talking about the demonetization drive.

When asked about the key to success of Paytm, Sharma said

The key to success for Paytm is that Paytm works. Paytm works when it is expected to work. Paytm works where it needs to work.

Talking some numbers, he said

Paytm currently has about 21.5 crore subscribers. SBI has 20.7 subscribers. Paytm does about 20 crore transactions while according to RBI all other e-wallets do 19 crore transactions combined.

Paytm’s net worth is around USD 6 billion. The company has seen exponential growth post-demonetization.

About India Today Conclave

Started as part of India Today’s 25th anniversary, India Today Conclave was designed as a meeting point for the best minds from India and around the world to map the geopolitical and economic future of the country. In its inaugural year the theme was India Tomorrow 2002: Opportunities and Threats with Vice President of the USA Al Gore as the chief Guest. The speakers who have been part of this conference each year are current and former heads of state, Nobel Laureates, spiritual leaders, industry captains, social workers, economists, authors, academics, scientist, strategists, activists, cine directors, actors and sportspersons. The past conferences can be accessed here

Ratul Puri, Chairman, Hindustan Power Projects Pvt. Ltd, kick-started the session titled The Disruptors: Technology and Opportunity on a promising note, when he spoke of twelve technologies which have been identified which are likely to add between USD 0.5-1 trillion to the Indian economy. IT was a fitting introduction to a session of young disruptors, who are paving the way for new developments in the space of technology to create opportunities.

Rohan Murty took over as he analysed the promises and challenges of artificial intelligence. He opened his presentation with an image of 18 women on the screen, who were professional computers. The word computer was a job title well before it was a machine, he said. He spoke of a telescope run by AI, which makes discoveries of the night sky, of haikus and artwork created by machines and revealed that through AI, a task completed by 1,000 people, could within 12 months, be completed by just nine.

However, he also spoke of the shortcomings of AI as it stands now-it cannot identify basic images, it does not have fundamental human traits, there are trust issues and he reminded the audience of a twitter account created by Microsoft, run by AI, which tweeted racist and bigoted tweets and eventually had to be taken down.

Ananya Birla introduced the importance of human-tech synergy, when she said that consumer behaviour was the biggest challenge when moving towards a cashless economy. Her micro-finance company Svatantra Microfinance functions on a completely cashless process and creates a link between the user’s adhar payment scheme and their bank account. The primary challenge to a cashless economy is consumer behaviour. People are so used to cash that they have trust issues and there are literacy problems, she said.

From demonetisation, the conversation moved to autonomous vehicles. While saying that the idea of autonomous cars is ‘cool’, Manasi Kirloskar dismissed any prospect of such cars in India in the foreseeable future. ‘70 per cent of electricity in India is generated from coal fire, which leaves harmful emissions. Electric cars are not eco-friendly‘, she said. She also expressed concern over issues of interrupted broadband systems, virus attacks and hacking, all of which could pose a serious threat to the efficient functioning of autonomous cars. She also brought up ethical concerns-‘In case of an accidents, who does the car protect? The passengers or the pedestrians?‘ she said.

While humans are better off behind the steering wheel for now, truly riving the retail sector is e-commerce, said Shashwat Goenka. ‘Ecommerce is the inevitable future, since we are impatient as consumers. But, we are Indians and our purchase psychology is tuned into touch and feel,’ he said. ‘Brick and mortar will continue to exist,’ he added. Goenka also spoke about the need for re-skilling employees in a tech enabled environment and how it’s the need of the hour. The women ended the session on an astute note. ‘We need technology that will facilitate the efficient access to food, water, shelter, education and healthcare,’ said Kirloskar. ‘The vision is to reach a platform where technology and human beings optimize each other’, Birla concluded.

Big Ideas

Artificial Intelligence

While artificial intelligence can take over a lot of conventionally human activities such as exploring their place in the universe, making art and improving efficiency [a task completed by 1,000 people, could within 12 months, be completed by just nine], it still lacks basic human traits and the lack of trust towards AI poses a great challenge.

Self-driven cars

It is necessary to create a system and set policies for self-driven cars. Presently, they are neither eco-friendly, nor does India have the physical or ethical infrastructure in place to make them a reality.

Going cashless

Consumer behaviour needs to be addressed in order for the country to go completely cashless. Trust, literacy and the need to touch and feel a transaction are impediments. Svatantra Microfinance creates a cashless process where Aadhar payment schemes are linked with the user’s bank accounts. They use the biometric system and eventually work towards reducing KYCs etc.

About India Today Conclave

Started as part of India Today’s 25th anniversary, India Today Conclave was designed as a meeting point for the best minds from India and around the world to map the geopolitical and economic future of the country. In its inaugural year the theme was India Tomorrow 2002: Opportunities and Threats with Vice President of the USA Al Gore as the chief Guest. The speakers who have been part of this conference each year are current and former heads of state, Nobel Laureates, spiritual leaders, industry captains, social workers, economists, authors, academics, scientist, strategists, activists, cine directors, actors and sportspersons. The past conferences can be accessed here

Indian cinema has seen a major shift with movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Gangs of Wasseypur-II, Ugly, Shahid, Udta Punjab, etc. They also proved that good script backed by awesome performance can win audience’s hearts as well as garner appreciation by critics [and be a box office phenomenon]. When was the last time when you read a book and got an adrenaline rush as you encountered when you watched these movies. Most of the movies in this genre clicked with the audience since the story was told with panache ensuring that the local flavor, be it language, clothes, etc. of the characters were retained in order to make it look authentic!

The Jeera Packer by Prashant Yadav, a first-time author and entrepreneur narrates a story that sticks well with the audience since it is a story of each one of us, at some point in our lives. So, let’s go ahead and review The Jeera Packer. The publisher is Fingerprint! Publishing.

About the Author

Prashant Yadav is an entrepreneur and founder of BodhiSutra. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur, IIM Ahmedabad and Stockholm school of Economics. For more information, please visit his LinkedIn Profile.

The Jeera Packer – Trailer

As mentioned earlier, The Jeera Packer is Prashant Yadav’s debut novel. It is a story of a former dreaded gangster who once changed the history of Uttar Pradesh with a gun and a finger. However, this was around thirty years ago. He now packs jeera in a basement. His life takes a sudden twist when one of his former companion reaches out of him with a task to assassinate the Chief Minister (CM) of UP. What happens next? Will he take up the assignment, will he be caught, whether he would be successful in assassinating the CM? You would find answers to all these hindering questions in The Jeera Packer.

Politics, UP and Crime are three keywords that makes The Jeera Packer an intriguing read !!

The Jeera Packer – Detailed Review

The Jeera Packer is a fiction with politics as its backdrop. Of late, politics has become very interesting with social media adding some more flavor to it 🙂 Politics in Uttar Pradesh [UP] has always been closely watched & followed even by non-UP residents, recently concluded UP elections proves that point!

In order to weave a very good story centered around crime and politics in UP, the author has chosen a Jeera Packer. The main protagonist was once the best sharpshooter in the state. Fast-forward thirty years, he now lives a normal happy, stable life with his wife and a college going son. He now runs a small kirana shop in Ghaziabad. His wife manages the daily operations of the store and he packs jeera in the basement. He is going through a mid-life crisis and is not happy leading a common man’s life. Due to these problems, he is now loosing confidence as well as self-esteem. He comes to the conclusion that in order to be happy he needs to take control of his life.

As they say fortune favors the brave, a chance encounter with his older acquaintance could turn to be a stepping stone for him. He is handed the task of assassinating the Chief Minister who is himself a notorious man and has committed many crimes. For the Jeera Packer it is not only the question of regaining his self-confidence but also the question of doing something good for the people of UP. So, would he be able to pull off this one last act? Will he able to brush away the jeera dust and rediscover himself or has the sharp-shooter already left his soul ? The remaining 320+ pages of the book answers these questions in a very effective manner.

Though the central protagonist of the book is a dreaded gangster, he manages to leave a mark on the readers. The writing is very lucid and Hindi is used at appropriate places. As a reader you can easily co-relate to the instances with the drama that normally unfolds in UP politics. Other than the Jeera Packer, other characters are politicians namely Lal Mani, Nawab Sahib, Nanhe Samrat. Every character is crafted with detailed perfection and the suspense keeps the readers hooked on to The Jeera Packer. The plus point of the story is that these characters can be easily visualized especially in UP politics.

The ‘Suspense Element’ reaches a new height when it is revealed when not only the Jeera Packer, there are others also who plan to kill the Chief Minister and it is a matter of self-respect as to ‘Who will kill the Chief Minister first’. The book also sheds light on the corrupt political system and how power-hungry politicians can ruin the entire state/country.

Closing Thoughts

The Jeera Packer is a well-etched political crime thriller where each character is crafted to perfection. Being a thriller, it was very important that there are few characters in order to stick to the story-line and Prashant Yadav has managed to deliver the same with The Jeera Packer.

The book comprises of 41 chapters and each chapter deliveries the story with a punch. Through the last few chapters, the story becomes a bit predicable but it manages to recover the lost mojo quickly. Each one of us do a self-introspection to assess ourselves in life and hence you can easily co-relate to the central character of the book.

If you have liked loved Bollywood movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Udta Punjab, NH10, etc. then you would love reading The Jeera Packer. Barring aside a few shortcomings, The Jeera Packer has the perfect ingredients for hit Bollywood movie 🙂

You can purchase The Jeera Packer by Prashant Yadav by clicking on the link below

Thanks Prashant for sending us the review copy of The Jeera Packer, we enjoyed reading the book…

How many of us have landed in a cash-crunch situation where you wanted a certain amount of cash as a short-term loan but felt awkward to borrow from your friends/relatives or they refused to lend due to some unimaginable reasons! With growing disposable income, rising expenses, etc., such scenarios are very common, especially with the urban population. You might require a loan for paying your rental deposit, starting a business, shopping, going on a vacation, buying home appliances or simply because you have run out of cash towards the month end.

Image Source – MoneyControl

Opting for a bank loan or securing an unsecured personal loan [from P2P companies] might not be feasible due to the higher interest rate. What if there existed a solution where borrowers can opt for loans based on their Line Of Credit.

Line of Credit and its advantages

A line of credit, abbreviated as LOC, is an arrangement between a financial institution, usually a bank, and a customer that establishes a maximum loan balance that the lender permits the borrower to access or maintain.

The main advantage of a line of credit is its built-in flexibility. Borrowers can request a certain amount, but they do not have to use it all. Rather, borrowers can tailor what they spend to their needs, and they only have to pay interest on the amount they spend, not on the entire credit line. In addition, consumers can also adjust their repayment amounts as needed, based on their budget or cash flow. For example, borrowers can repay the entire outstanding balance at once, or they can opt to just make the minimum monthly payments [Source].

Loan based on Line of Credit : A market opportunity

As mentioned earlier, young Indian urban population is and will continue to be driven by aspirational living and the basic standard of living will increase drastically. On similar lines, Indian consumers are also extremely credit-starved; they are either denied or pay a heavy premium for accessing the financial services due to sparse data, high transaction costs and poor trust infrastructure.

Many salaried urban Indians can easily co-relate to the situation shown in the video below

Unsecured personal loans offered by banks is still relatively slow-growing credit product that stands at around Rs. 45,000 crores. The informal market that includes moneylenders and family is roughly estimated to be around 50~100 times bigger. Some of the primary reasons for the gap are below:

  • Lack of reliable credit information available for banks to be able to offer credit
  • Credit cards, even when available only solve the ‘Shopping’ problem. Day-to-day needs like paying school fees, emergency expenses, rental deposits, etc. are largely cash-based
  • Applying for an unsecured personal loan is time-consuming for the consumer and expensive for the banks to process. Banks then prefer giving higher ticket loans to fewer people.

There clearly existed a market opportunity if a Bank/NBFC could provide an efficient solution to provide personal loans to Indian consumers based on their line of credit and solve the existing credit problem for Indian middle-income group. This is the opportunity that led way to the founding of MoneyTap, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup that has stellar serial entrepreneurs-Bala Parthasarathy, Anuj Kacker, and Kunal Varma as it’s founders. MoneyTap is India’s first startup that provides loans based on consumer’s credit line. A couple of months back, the MoneyTap app crossed 100K installs in three months since launch.

Today, we review the MoneyTap Android app from the perspective of usability, ease of securing a loan, communications with the customer-support team, etc.

MoneyTap : Money on your tap

MoneyTap is India’s first App-based credit line. Currently, it is open only to salaried professionals and loan is given to the consumers in partnership with banks. Unlike loan process which is very tedious, MoneyTap makes the entire process painless since it all happens on the app including the verification of eligibility, eKYC, etc.

The app is built on patent-pending technology, it is very secure and uses AI, NLP, ChatBot, etc. for providing a better experience to its customers! Some of the salient features of MoneyTap are below:

  • Credit Limit – Minimum credit limit of Rs. 3000, maximum credit limit of Rs. 5 Lakhs.
  • No Usage, no interest – Interest is charged only on transfer or EMI conversion. The remaining limit is available to the customer at no additional cost.
  • Low Interest – Interest rates vary from 1.25%~1.5% per month with no hidden charges.
  • Decide your own EMI – Customers can choose the tenure from 2 months to 36 months
  • Rewards & Benefits – MoneyTap credit card is loaded with rewards and other benefits
  • No collateral, no guarantors, 100% unsecured
  • Swipe, Tap and Convert – Customers can shop online or swipe at a store, one tap to transfer money instantly to the bank.
  • Keeping track of the transactions – EMIs and available credit can be tracked right from the app. It combines the best of personal loan, cash, and credit card, all under control through the mobile app!

There is a one-time setup fee of Rs. 499 plus taxes and the customer would get a MasterCard powered credit card by RBL Bank. The lingering question that comes to mind is ‘Why should someone pay for a credit card in times when other banks are offering credit cards for free‘. I checked with the RBL bank executive as well as customer happiness team at MoneyTap and they informed that customer would receive equivalent credit points that can be redeemed across retail outlets or on e-commerce platforms [so ideally the credit card is free].

MoneyTap : Detailed Review [Product Flow, Security, Customer Support]

As mentioned earlier, any salaried employee [with a monthly salary above Rs. 20000] can avail loan via MoneyTap. The immediate question that comes to mind is “Why only salaried professionals?”.

We had posted this same question to Bala Parthasarathy, CEO of MoneyTap and the answer lies in ‘Probability of guaranteed repayment’. He also informed us that since ‘Unsecured loan based on credit line’ is a relatively new concept in India hence, partner banks, as well as MoneyTap want to ensure that they create a market ‘one customer segment at a time’. Bala Parthasarathy did inform us that soon entrepreneurs, freelancers, designers, etc. could avail loans via MoneyTap but for the time being their target market segment is salaried professionals.

Once the user downloads the MoneyTap app from the Play Store, (s)he needs to upload a selfie for the application form, PAN card photo and current residence proof for eKYC. The MoneyTap app has three main sections:

  • Profile creation
  • Credit decision
  • Loan Amount

Profile Creation

The app is built on a patent-pending chat bot interface and would ask for all the relevant information that is required by banks. However, unlike traditional loans from banks where you need to fill a lot of information & submit tons of documents, with MoneyTap the process looks fast & breezy. You need to also enter the purpose for which you require a loan [further studies, business, house deposit, pay existing loan, etc.].

If you have an Aadhar Card, things become much easier since you could simply scan the Aadhar card bar-code and all the relevant information would be fetched from the card. Bala Parthasarathy’s learnings during his tenure with UIDAI would have come in handy during the development of MoneyTap!

Credit Decision

Once the eKYC is done than the app takes the user to the next step where important decisions are taken and the customer would come to know about the eligibility for the loan [as well as sanctioned amount]. You need to enter your PAN details, current organization & residence type. Once these details are submitted, the patent-pending algorithms fetch your Credit [CIBIL] score, social score, etc. in order to perform ‘Eligibility Check’.

For some reason, if you fail to pass the eligibility criteria e.g. here, here you need not proceed to the next step. Similar to traditional bank loans, CIBIL score might be the first data point used by MoneyTap for checking eligibility for a loan.

Once the first step of eligibility check has passed, the user/loan applicant would need to submit last six months bank statements [salary account preferred]. The user has the option to either ‘Login to net-banking account’ inside the context of MoneyTap or upload bank statements via secure upload link provided by MoneyTap. Immediately, a lingering question about security would come to your mind since you are uploading your bank statement but as stated in the T&C of MoneyTap, their team takes security very seriously and all the back-end APIs comply with mandated security standards and robust protocols.

Security & Protection of Privacy

Protection of your privacy and your data security is our primary concern. Our back end APIs comply with mandated security standards and robust protocols. Our security measures have been tested and certified by our partner bank’s IT team. Your credentials are only used to retrieve your bank statements for verification. Alternatively, you can also upload a PDF of your bank statements which is eco-friendly and time-saving [Source]

MoneyTap has tied-up with a 3rd party company through which ‘Net Banking Login’ as well ‘Secure Bank statement upload’ is made possible. In order to test the security of the app, I downloaded my bank statement and uploaded the pdf after removing the password and the MoneyTap app rejected the bank statement since there was an author signature mismatch. When I dropped an email for the rejection, the MoneyTap customer success team member called me and clarified the reason for rejection.

Once I uploaded the proper bank statement, the application got approved after a couple of days. In this entire process, there was no interaction with the bank partner and entire process took place on app & email.

Loan Amount

Once the important steps of eKYC and Credit Decision are complete, the final step is disbursal of approved loan amount. As mentioned earlier, interest is only charged on the amount borrowed with interest rates as low as 1.25~1.5% per month. The customer would also receive a Credit Card from RBL Bank and this is the only step where you have to interact with the bank executive.

During the interaction that I had with the executive, he called me from his mobile phone & asked me to send bank statement over WhatsApp which is against security norms of the bank. Since MoneyTap acts as an ‘Unsecured loan enabler’, it becomes important for their customer success team to ensure that the bank officials adhere to all the necessary standards since as a customer you are dealing with MoneyTap with RBL Bank being a black-box. The official did call me from bank’s landline after which communication was smooth.

Even though the technology behind MoneyTap app is awesome and the entire approval process was completed with a blink of an eye, efficient communication with bank partners holds the key else it could result in negative reviews More details about the RBL MoneyTap credit card can be found here

Image Source – MoneyTap RBL Credit Card

MoneyTap:Scope for improvements

Currently, MoneyTap is available in Bengaluru, Delhi NCR [Delhi, New Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon], Hyderabad and Mumbai [Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane] and Chennai. However, there are requests from users from other cities and in order to track the incoming requests, MoneyTap could add a Notify Me page where the user enters his/her city information which can act as important data for their team to identify next logical expansion [coupled with data from their partner banks].

As mentioned earlier, detailed communication about the application status [from MoneyTap Team] could be very important for creating a WoW factor. Though my application was processed in a couple of days, sometimes the partner banks might take more time in processing the application which might act as a spoil-sport. Hence, timely communication becomes a very important factor!

MoneyTap:Conclusion

The overall experience of using the MoneyTap was great. The technology behind MoneyTap makes the entire loan application process less cumbersome. Banks and financial institutions are bullish on chatbots and MoneyTap uses chatbot technology very effectively. Though P2P lending, loans on credit line and other mechanisms of obtaining unsecured loans are still in nascent stage, MoneyTap does have a first-mover advantage since it is India’s first app-based credit line and provides loans at lesser interest rates!

If you have used the MoneyTap app, please leave your feedback/reviews in the comments section…

Megasoft Limited, a leading technology company, have announced the award of cloud-enabled solution & services contract by the Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. [BELTRON]. The state Government of Bihar, through BELTRON, plans to establish state-of-the-art cloud computing facility for use by its various e-Governance programs and other IT-driven initiatives.

The cloud-enabled State Data Centre [SDC] named ‘Bihar Cloud’ is one of the important elements for supporting initiatives of National e-Governance Plan [NeGP]. The primary purpose of the cloud computing solution is to establish a viable ‘Private’ cloud environment for use by the various e-Governance applications of Bihar.

Megasoft, acclaimed for its sophisticated cloud deployments, will provide state-of-the-art infrastructure and technology solution and services to address various needs of multiple line departments within the state that come under the purview of Bihar Cloud. While the solution is focused primarily on Infrastructure-as-a-Service [IaaS], other services such as Platform-as-a-Service [PaaS], Data-as-a-Service [DaaS] & Software-as-a-Service [SaaS] will complement and be deployed on top of the basic IaaS services.

Rahul Singh, Managing Director, BELTRON said

In the past, applications and websites of state departments were hosted on different servers. In such a scenario, introduction of a new application or website required all other applications and websites to be brought down. With ‘Bihar Cloud’, sufficient space will be allocated to various state Government departments based on their requirements.

The unique feature of this project is that the cloud-based implementation will also further strengthen the security aspect of all the applications. The inauguration of the solution is planned shortly.

G V Kumar, CEO & Managing Director of Megasoft said

Virtualization and the cloud mean much more than mere consolidation. Our Infrastructure-as-a-Service [IaaS] solution will not only ease BELTRON’s infrastructure management efforts but also provide them the ability to automatically scale-up or scale-down services hosted in the cloud, based on user demand.

By addressing the systems and information technology needs from a holistic perspective, our delivery model will ensure that BELTRON implements ‘Bihar Cloud’ in the most effective manner.

Megasoft cloud-enabled solution is agnostic to the underlying hardware, storage, network and operating system. Besides enabling end customers to automatically provision services via a web portal it provides service assurance for maintenance & operations activities performed by the users.

About BELTRON

Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. [BELTRON] is the nodal agency of the Bihar state working towards promotion & implementation of IT and e-Governance. It is the single-point of access to any IT business opportunity in Bihar and encourages various players in the field of IT to come forward and invest in the state.

BELTRON is committed to generate IT business for the public / private sector with a mandate from the Government to develop IT in the state. For more information, please visit BELTRON

Aeries Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a fin-tech company promoted by serial entrepreneur and private equity investor V. Raman Kumar, announced that CASHe, India’s fastest loan giving app for young salaried professionals, has entered a strategic partnership with Rubique, India’s leading online marketplace for financial products.

In this collaboration, Rubique will enlist CASHe on its online platform for borrowers to avail viable short-term loan products from CASHe. CASHe disburses multiple loan products ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1,00,000 payable over 15, 30 & 90 days. CASHe now disburses loans well over 1 Crore per day in less than a year of operations. With an average loan processing crossing 500 loan applications per day, CASHe is now India’s leading and most preferred fintech company in the personal lending space.

V. Raman Kumar, Chairman, Aeries Financial Technologies said

We are thrilled to partner with Rubique, India’s leading fintech company in marketplace lending. Rubique’s online platform with its unique matchmaking algorithm is an industry first, and with CASHe now being enlisted on its platform, the prospective borrowers will now have access to CASHe’s short-term loan products available through its app. The application will be directly integrated to Rubique’s platform for the users to download and avail a loan within minutes on their smartphone. Rubique’s large customer base will now have access to quick and easy credit without any collateral, physical documentation or verification. This indeed will be an exciting proposition for young salaried professionals. With our strategic partnership with Rubique, we hope to increase our customer base exponentially.

Manavjeet Singh, Founder & CEO of Rubique said

Partnering with a fintech product like CASHe complements our business model and vision to provide easy & quick access finance to the borrowers through advanced technology. We believe that for every borrower there is lender in the market. But there is no common place where both can discover each other. By creating this common platform for discovery through advanced technology, it’s our endeavour to reduce the processing time significantly. We would like to integrate with lenders with various risk appetite to ensure each of our customer find the right fit of products on our platform.

Products offered by CASHe’s unique mobile-enabled short-term loan offering is an apt solution towards growing consumer segment which demands quick loan disbursals. In terms of growth rate, both of us have witnessed impressive growth & there is absolute alignment on technology focus in the process implemented. With CASHe’s integration, we are now able to offer a wider range of personal loan products to our customers which can disbursed quickly. We are very excited to work with CASHe as we see a huge demand for a loan product offering like this which is hassle-free and convenient.

CASHe provides hassle-free loans with its app enabled documentation and loan disbursal/repayment process. Powered by its industry-first algorithm driven credit scoring platform, The Social Loan Quotient [SLQ], CASHe quickly determines a user’s credit worthiness by using multiple unique data points to arrive at a distinct credit profile of the customer.

SLQ is transforming the traditional credit rating measurements thereby providing immediate loans to the under-served young professionals who are kept out by traditional credit rating and banking systems. CASHe is completely automated and requires no personal intervention and no physical documentation. The average time taken for a loan to be disbursed is about 8 minutes, subject to proper submission of all documents.

About CASHe

CASHe, a fin-tech product of TSLC PTE. LTD., promoted by Aeries Financial Technologies is as unique as the young professionals it serves. In a smart digital world, CASHe offers millennials quick and easy personal loans through processes that are transparent, innovative and tuned to the times. CASHe utilises sophisticated algorithms and machine learning capabilities to deliver an amazing and improved lending experience to our customers, thereby helping young professionals achieve their financial goals effortlessly. CASHe app is available on Google Play and iOS app store

As part of its expansion drive, Wheelstreet a bike rental aggregator has announced its plan to launch its services across tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India. The company will initially roll out its services in 12 cities which include Amritsar, Baghdogra, Jaisalmer, Ooty, Mysore, Jodhpur, Nainital, Srinagar, Pondichery, Guwahati, Manali, and Raipur.

Moksha Srivastava, CoFounder, CMO, Wheelstreet.com said

We are already operational in 13 cities in India including all the metros with over 160 plus vendors actively operating on our platform.  Our experience over the recent months has shown us a massive potential residing in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India. We believe that there are over 40 cities in India which currently have an unorganised two wheeler rental market and we plan to expand our presence to cover all these cities by this year end.

We are currently operating in 13 plus cities without a single Wheelstreet employee on the field. It is a complete technology platform, wherein vendors and customers can avail the benefits seamlessly.

The market has grown in terms of vendors and in terms of customers as well. People have now started going on road trips with their friends and have started using their bike as a functional element and as a style statement. This segment has emerged in recent years into a unique platform as we were the first in this segment to start the bike rental aggregator model.

The market size of bike rental segment is very huge and the total Serviceable Available Market [SAM] is estimated to be around USD 4.6 billion. The market has been growing rapidly from when Wheelstreet began with only 200 bikes in Bengaluru to over 4000 today featuring on the platform.

Wheelstreet has also standardized the pricing towards helping the vendors in the long run. The vendors associated with Wheelstreet earn up to Rs 2 Lakhs a month. Along with this the technology that the company has incorporated into this model and the way they have dealt with potential loopholes has helped Wheelstreet scale in a short period of time.

About Wheelstreet

Wheelstreet.com is a bike rental aggregator that works with independent vendors enabling them to offer personalized services including different pricing structures for the same bike, multiple pickup locations, a huge fleet of the latest bikes and real time availability on the platform. It is a marketplace for vendors and people looking to rent bikes.

Wheelstreet.com was launched in November, 2014 and is headquartered in Bangalore.  They have a presence in most major cities across India including, Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Darjeeling, Jaipur and Hyderabad. The company was founded by Moksha Srivastava and Pranay Shrivastava, two friends in their early twenties. With a fair amount of market research backing the need for an organized two wheeler rental marketplace, they initially began operations in Delhi as the first of its kind in India. For more information, please visit Wheelstreet