All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

In recent announcements, Dell Technologies has elevated its yearly premier technology conference, Dell EMC World, to Dell Technologies World. This has been done in view of evolving demands of customers and their urgent requirements to transform digitally. The annual partner and customer event is now better and bigger than ever.

Here are the top 7 reasons why this event is a must-attend

#7 Discover what’s next. – “We’re entering the next era of human-machine partnership, a more integrated, personal relationship with technology that has the power to exponentially amplify the creativity, inspiration, intelligence and curiosity of the human spirit.” – Michael Dell, CEO

#6 Boost your career – With so many innovations at Dell Tech World, you can get practical insights and actionable next steps to improve your processes, organizational speed and meet customer demands anytime/anywhere. Equip yourself with new skills and strategies, achieve technical certifications and expand your network.

#5 Find innovation everywhere – This conference is all about finding and meeting the people who are the brainchild behind the technology/s we use every day. Learn about strategy and products for the future and meet peers from around the globe.

#4 Meet new tech – Last year, Dell EMC World was bigger and this time after transiting to Dell Technologies World, expect it to be more lively and experiential. See live product releases and get hands on with interactive demos

#3 Collaborate with gurus – Everybody is present, from peers to Dell Technologies Leadership team. If you are a technology enthusiast or a leader, this can be a technical opportunity for your or your organization to get insights and learning from the leadership team. These people not only are excited to share what they are doing, but would be willing to understand what your needs are.

#2 All in one place – A platform that will host and showcase the power of seven technology leaders, all in one place. Dell, Dell EMC, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream and VMware. Together, they are #1 in everything and ready to help transform your business and shape your future.

#1 Make it real – The only conference that makes it real; where you can see, touch and discover products and solutions to enable real transformation from the edge to the core to the cloud. Be a part of this experience and pave the way for making transformation real.

Registration for the event is ongoing. Get ready to sharpen your technology DNA and make digital transformation work for your organization.

To know more about the event – https://www.delltechnologiesworld.com/index.htm

Register here – https://delltechnologiesworldonline.com/2018/portal/newreg.ww

Looking forward to seeing you at Dell Technologies World!

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Mojro, a smart urban logistics platform has raised $650K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community. The investment will be used for technology development, team expansion for marketing and building partnerships with fleet owners.

Image Source – Mojro

As Urban Logistics is a growing and sizable problem, Mojro’s offers a machine learning driven intra-city logistic planning and optimization platform. The platform can be used by large and medium businesses to optimize their logistic needs in terms of fleet utilization, space utilization and cost optimization. Mojro has also struck partnerships with fleet owners providing them modern day techniques to improve service quality and providing businesses the opportunity to plan and execute for their logistic needs through a single platform.

Kishan Aswath, CEO, Mojro, said

Mojro envisions to be the world’s largest technology enabled Logistics Platform that seamlessly automates end to end logistics needs of business entities and provides them an efficient & effective means to store, package and move goods.

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has more than 600 investors, 70 mentors and has made over 13 investments since March 2016. With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.

Anup Kuruvilla, Co-Founder of 1Crowd, said

Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Mojro addresses key modern day challenge of urban logistics. While there are several players in the logistics market, Mojro has the unique value proposition of being the only player in the market that has Optimization and On the Ground Execution as two cornerstones of its platform. The company has positioned itself as a technology-assisted platform solution company solving several issues of fleet capacity, route planning and Fleet Supply & Operations, helping fleet owners maximize the benefits from their assets.

The startup was founded in 2016 by Kishan Aswath, Amit Kulkarni, Ranganath Seetharamu and Swaminath Jeyachandran all having significant years of professional experience. Veteran banker M.A. Ravi Kumar and angel investor Sounder Kannan would join the Board of the company.

Sounder Kannan, Director, Naga Limited said

With a clear focus on optimizing the fragmented intra-city supply chain, Mojro aims to be providing world class solutions with aright blend of Physical & Digital services at scale.

About Mojro

Mojro aims to bring efficient planning, optimization of resources complemented by transparent execution to intra-city logistics. The platform uses machine learning, big data analytics, heuristics, and cognitive science for optimization of route, vehicle, space utilization and cost taking into account various constraints for both shipper and receiver including time, SLAs, type of goods & load distribution. For more information, please visit Mojro

About 1Crowd

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on investing in early stage ventures. 1Crowd and its investor community has made 15 investments in the early stage startup segment. 1Crowd has close to 600 investors on board and over 70 eminent people as mentors. For more information, please visit 1Crowd

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Uber announced the launch of its new driver app, rebuilt completely from the ground up, for and with drivers. The new app provides a more simple and personalized experience, designed to support drivers and delivery partners on every moment of their journey.

Pradeep Parameswaran, Head of Central Operations, Uber India & SA, said

The launch of the new partner [drivers and courier partners] app is a key milestone for Uber. It truly reflects our commitment to the people who have been our partners in growth. We have built this app by listening to what they needed and shaped it alongside them – over 100 partners from Bangalore were a part of the global beta launch. Every piece of their feedback was important and it was incorporated into building an app that meets their needs, every moment of their journey.

Key product features of the new Uber Driver App

Earnings tracker – The new real-time Earnings Tracker lets drivers know – at a glance – how much they earned on their last trip, and makes it easy to track progress toward their goals.

Status bar – Provides real-time updates on market conditions around them and opportunities for more trips nearby. When a driver taps an opportunity, the app will provide optional navigation to the recommended area.

Notifications – This feature lets drivers see messages about upcoming earning opportunities, feedback from their riders, and information about their account.

Driver profile – Gives drivers the opportunity to showcase what they do outside of Uber, and allows riders to learn more about their driver and find new ways to connect.

Driver App Basics – A comprehensive guide to getting started with Uber that will be available to drivers in the coming months.

In India, the app is currently available to select driver partners in Kochi and courier partners in Chennai. It will be rolled out in a phased manner to driver and delivery partners across the country over the coming months.

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Retirement planning is like jogging. You know you start doing it today but you keep postponing it. Your retirement may be decades away but that doesn’t mean you ignore it. Proper planning today can help you enjoy a great retirement life in the future. However, many people make a lot of mistakes when it comes to retirement planning.

Image Source – Retirement Planning

Here are a few you should avoid:

Late start

Many investors avoid retirement planning until the last moment. This can negatively impact your retirement corpus. There is a common saying when it comes to road trips: start early, drive slowly and reach safely. This principle can be applied to retirement planning too. The earlier you start investing, the greater will be your final corpus. Even a difference of ten years can make a huge difference to your retirement fund.

Take the following example:

Suresh starts investing for his retirement at the age of 30. He regularly invests Rs 10,000 per month in a SIP. The fund earns him 15% rate of interest. His colleague Giridhar starts investing at the age of 40. He invests Rs 12,000 per month. Both of them retire at the age of 60. At the end, Suresh has amassed a corpus of Rs 7 crore. On the other hand, Giridhar has earned only Rs 1.8 crore.

Lack of proper planning

Not many people know how much money they need for their retirement. So even if they invest for retirement, the returns they earn can be much lower than what they would actually need. For example, Sanjay creates a corpus of Rs 4 crore for his retirement. He expects that this amount will be enough to finance his expenses for 20 years. But what if the funds are not enough?

The first step is to identify your needs and requirements during your retirement. How much money do you need to maintain your lifestyle? Once you retire, your income stops but your expenses continue. In fact, they may even increase during the retirement phase. You need to account for all these expenses and provide for them.

Underestimating cost of health care

In this current day and age, the cost for quality health care is sky rocketing. Older people are more exposed to health concerns. And as a retired person, it is extremely important to ensure that you are prepared to meet these expenses. Otherwise, your hard earned savings can quickly go toward medical expenses leaving your finances depleted.

Make sure that you buy a good health insurance plan for yourself and your spouse for the retirement phase. Also create an emergency fund in case you need to pay for medical expenses urgently.

Poor investment decisions

If you have Rs 1 Lakh to invest for your retirement, you can invest it anywhere you choose. But remember that different investment avenues offer different returns. For example, bank savings accounts offer around 4% returns while fixed deposits give around 8%. In comparison, equity mutual funds and stocks offer anywhere between 10~15%. Sometimes, these returns can be even higher.

By choosing a wrong investment avenue, you can lose out on good returns in the long term. It is ideal to invest in equity funds for retirement. This way, you can benefit from high returns at a faster rate. And as for the risk, it shouldn’t be a great issue since the long investment term can help you comeback from any downfalls in the market.

Dipping into your retirement fund

Praneet had been meticulously saving for his retirement when his son announced that he was going to do an MBA course in Australia. The course cost around Rs 20 Lakh rupees. Not wanting to disappoint his son, Praneet decided to dip into his retirement savings to fund his education.

A lot of parents dip into their retirement funds to finance other financial goals that come along the way. This is not a wise step. This is because it is possible to finance your son’s education through other sources such as bank loans. But once you take out money from your retirement fund, it may not be possible to rebuild the corpus. This can be especially problematic if you are close to retirement. As a result, your fund would be depleted and you wouldn’t be able to enjoy your retirement as you hoped. Always seek out better alternatives to finance your other goals. Don’ dip into the retirement fund unless it is absolutely necessary.

Conclusion

Retirement is like a second childhood. People discover new hobbies and a new zest for life. But to make it truly special and comfortable, you need to have a solid financial backup. And for this, you need to start planning for your retirement today.

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

On the heels of the successful launch of its redesigned app, Abra, the first and only all-in-one app allowing users to buy, sell and hold across 20 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies, announced the availability of the seven remaining altcoins to its platform. With Abra, users can exchange across any currency with no deposit or exchange transaction fees, at any time with no limitations.

Image Source – ABRA

Bitcoin Gold [BTG], Stellar Lumens [XLM], DigiByte [DGB], Augur [REP], Status [SNT], Stratis [STRAT] and 0x [ZRX] will now be available on the Abra app in addition to Bitcoin [BTC], Bitcoin Cash [BCH], Dash [DASH], Dogecoin [DOGE], Ethereum [ETH], Ethereum Classic [ETC], Golem [GNT], Litecoin [LTC], OmiseGO [OMG], Qtum [QTUM], Ripple [XRP], Vertcoin [VTC] and Zcash [ZEC].

Bill Barhydt, Founder & CEO of Abra, said

Since launching the new version of our app in March, we have seen a tremendous amount of interest and support for the cryptocurrencies we added to our platform, especially from India, which is an extremely attractive market for Abra. We were pleased to see that a large share of our downloads and user base originated from there. Just in the last 2 weeks, users in over 70 countries have transacted on the Abra app with Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, Litecoin and OmiseGO leading the way in transaction volume. We will continue to expand our global presence to give our users around the world a truly seamless experience.

How Abra works

Consumers can add money to their wallets using a US bank account, a supported American Express card or using bitcoin purchased outside Abra from anywhere in the world. They can then invest in any of the 20 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies offered on the Abra app, quickly, easily and safely. To develop the new wallet and integrated exchange, Abra built a first-of-its-kind platform using price-stabilized crypto tokens, called stablecoins, that facilitates holding both fiat coins as well as cryptocurrencies through a combination of litecoin and bitcoin based smart contracts.

This unique multi-sig smart contract based investment platform uses P2SH scripts on the litecoin and bitcoin blockchains that simulate investment contracts the way a gold ETF is a contract based on USD. Abra acts as the counter-party (i.e. the other signatory) to the P2SH scripts, and the company runs a market making operation that hedges away its counter party risk on these contracts.

Through the use of its stablecoin platform, Abra can quickly add additional cryptocurrencies to the app once they pass the platform’s rigid analysis around liquidity, contract market making and other factors. Additionally, consumers in any country will eventually be able to invest in other asset classes regardless of where the asset originated. This model can be extended to stocks, bonds, commodities and more with minimal to no changes to the existing Abra app. Finally, Abra can be used today to send money to any other Abra user or to any bitcoin wallet in addition to investing, allowing Abra to become a crypto bank.

Bill Barhydt, Founder & CEO of Abra, added

Our goal is to be a simple app for retail investors to get exposure to assets that are difficult to access. Ultimately, in addition to the top 20 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiats, we want to open up our platform to different asset classes including stocks, commodities and more. Our vision is to build a non-custodial cryptocurrency bank that democratizes access to financial services for every consumer on the planet.

About ABRA

Abra is the first and only all-in-one global app offering a true crypto to crypto exchange and digital wallet in one place – making cryptocurrency investing simple. Abra empowers consumers to buy, store, invest and hold 20 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies on a single app. Exchanges between multiple cryptocurrencies or fiat are quick, easy, and safe. Plus, with the Abra app, consumers can manage all crypto investments in one screen. Abra was founded in 2014 by Bill Barhydt, a veteran in the cryptocurrency space and an early Netscape employee. Abra app for Android can be downloaded from here and for iOS from here.

|In: CoWorking|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

CBIX, a premier office-leasing platform in Delhi-NCR has launched its dedicated Co-Working & Business Centres vertical  – to help clients looking for flexible and managed office options. CBIX claims to have mapped out all possible serviced office options across Delhi-NCR and provide it in a usable, easy to browse manner to clients.

Image Source – CoWorking

The company says around 30% of its incoming leads are for flexible and co-working spaces. With the huge increase in demand for such spaces, a number of co-working and managed office options have sprung up in all major cities in India. Established brands like Awfis, Innov8 and 91Springboard operate multiple locations that run to full capacity.

Recently global majors WeWork and Spaces have also launched services in prime locations. To make sense of the whole range of options customers have, CBIX  provides an aggregated platform and gives clients a personalized dashboard with shortlisted options as per their requirement. CBIX is not a marketplace connecting clients to brokers or service providers, but works with clients to narrow down best options and helps with negotiations and leasing right until move-in.

For more information, please visit CBIX

|In: Business|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The ICICI bank Videocon Loan controversy is much talked about recently. One of the burning and the most discussed topics shared its screen space in almost all the news channels and print media. As the latest business news highlights, the case was under CBI that went on to interrogate the ICICI Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar’s brother-in-law, Rajiv Kochhar too. He was asked to explain his role in the bank’s loan transaction to Videocon. The bank has reportedly given a loan of a massive Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon Group in the year 2012.

Image Source – ICICI

The time is going tough for the ICICI Bank. Chanda Kochhar is accused of having personal interest and making gains in loans worth Rs 3,250 crore which was given to the Videocon Industries. The CBI is busy finding the necessary documents of the transactions to identify any wrongdoing. An ICICI Bank shareholder, Arvind Gupta, had written to the PMO and FM about the Kochhar’s wrongful gains from the Videocon loans. ICICI Bank was part of a total loan ofRs 40,000 crore extended to Videocon by a consortium of 20 banks. As per his letter, Deepak Kochhar was benefitted from this as his company NuPower Renewables was set up as a JV between the Kochhars and Dhoots, who are actually the members of the Videocon Group. Chanda Kochhar is accused of benefiting and favoring her husband.

The prime accused, Rajiv Kochhar, marked his presence at the Mumbai office of CBI. The news say that he was asked to detail about the loan and his connection with the promoter of the Videocon Group – Venugopal Dhoot, and also with the company itself. The sources also say that he was detained at the Mumbai airport recently when he was trying to fly to South East Asian country. He was detained as per the look out circular which was published by the bureau. He was interrogated at the airport itself and at the CBI office too.

The central bureau of investigation or CBI has filed for a preliminary enquiryin the name of Venugopal Dhoot, the Videocon Group promoter and Deepak Kochhar. This is probably the first stage of the interrogation by the CBI as they wish to collect some more data regarding the accusations. After the enquiry, if the CBI is confident that there lies some prima facie material in this regard, it may file a regular case in the name of the accused.

Dhoot’s connection with NuPower Renewables, which is a company founded by Deepak Kochhar, Chanda Kochhar’s husband and Rajiv Kochar’s brother, was questioned. But, ICICI Bank board is in full support of Chanda Kochhar. The bank says that they will stand by her as the bank has complete trust and confidence in her. The bank went on to say that the reports of the credit disbursement to Videocon Group that are against her are nothing more than the malicious and unfounded rumors.

As per the private sector lender, when CBI examined the bank’s internal procedures of the credit approval, they were found hearty. It also clarified that the bank’s current exposure was syndicated consortium arrangement. Another thing that was clarified was that no investors of NuPower Renewables were the borrowers of the Bank.

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The real estate share market is not driving a lot of investors currently but one does need to remember that it is a cyclic sector. In the recent few years, the real estate market in India has undergone massive changes.  This is in a large part due to the regulatory reforms implemented through frameworks as part of the Real Estate Regulatory Act [RERA], and Goods & Services Tax [GST] as well as an inability of many builders in delivering projects in time.  However now it is mandatory for all the real estate projects to be in compliance with the provisions of RERA, which attempts to address a majority of consumer interest.

Image Source

This will now make it quite difficult for fly-by-night operators to be in the market and only the professional and committed players will be able to navigate the roadmap. This is expected to benefit both buyers and sellers, in the long term and thus create positive sentiments for the sector.

The implementation of the regulatory mechanisms has inspired a higher level of confidence from the global investor community. As per certain reports the real estate sector may receive Private Equity [PE] investments amounting to more than US$4 billion during the current fiscal year.  In parallel, global sovereign wealth funds which are traditionally quite risk averse and conservative in their investing approach have also begun increasing their exposure to the market. All these together augur well for the sector. Some key stocks that investors can opt for in this scenario are:

  1. Prestige estates projects ltd Share price – 309

The company with over 23 years of experience in real estate development is among the  leading real estate development companies in south India. It has completed 142 real estate projects of approximately 27.09 million sq. Ft. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 11420.63 crore. The company has seen decent share price growth and is giving positive signals.

  1. Sobha ltd Share price – 550

Analyst reports suggest that this stock is expected to deliver above-industry growth with it being poised to deliver close to 20% growth over the next couple of years compared to the industry’s growth rate of 11 to 12 %. Recent quarterly sales results have also boosted the stock.

  1. Indiabulls real estate Share Price – 190

Indiabulls Real Estate recently registered growth riding on positive investor sentiments following the announcement of a business restructuring which is part of strategy to have a focussed approach on segments. The company’s profits are expected to grow by a double-digits  over the next couple of years and thus the outlook is positive for Indiabulls Real Estate. Also higher cash flows is on the cards which is a good sign.

  1. Oberoi realty Share Price – 508

Oberoi realty with its market capitalization of IN?159.94B is in the league of established companies and has been showcasing positive stock performance.  IT is a low beta stock and is expected to perform consistently.

  1. Brigade enterprise Share price – 262

The shares of the Bengaluru-based Brigade Enterprises (Brigade) are a good bet right now. . The company develops and sells both residential and commercial property and owns and operates hospitality assets, offices and malls. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 3398.46 crore. The shares of the company are expected to bring in positive returns riding on the growth planned by company.