All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

CropIn Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an agriculture technology startup, has raised INR 58 crores [$8 million] in Series B financing from Chiratae Ventures [formerly IDG Ventures India] and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Strategic Investment Fund [London and Seattle]. The financing will scale CropIn‘s ‘SmartFarm‘ technology platform in India and globally to expand its reach from 3 million acres across 2 million farmers to more than 10 million actively monitored acres across 7 million farmers.  With this capital infusion and its increasingly rich data-set, the Company will further develop its machine-learning-based SmartRisk platform to achieve unprecedented levels of plot-level crop detection and yield prediction.

Headquartered in Bengaluru with 180+ customers across 29 countries, CropIn enables businesses in the agriculture-ecosystem to adopt a data-driven approach through its ground-to-cloud technology platform. It thus empowers agribusinesses to ‘grow more with less‘, and drive initiatives around Digitization, Traceability, Predictability, Sustainability and Compliance. CropIn’s client portfolio includes many large global agribusinesses, banks, government bodies and development agencies. Through its product platform, CropIn addresses a global market of digital-based agriculture services that is estimated to hit $4.5 billion by 2020.

[L-R] Krishna Kumar, Kunal Prasad, and Chittaranjan Jena of CropIn

The company’s initial product, SmartFarm, is a highly customizable mobile app and web interface for farm management deployed across agribusinesses’ own field agents allowing for business-to-business-to-farmer plot-level farm management.  Because data is collected and curated by agribusiness employees active at the plot-level and scrubbed for any inconsistencies by CropIn, there is high-confidence that the information accurately reflects what is happening on the farm representing ‘ground-truth’ data. CropIn then builds on this data to enhance traceability and monitoring for its agribusiness clients through various Software-As-A-Service [SaaS] offerings.

CropIn Founder & CEO Krishna Kumar, said

To feed the 9.7 billion people in the world in 2050, agriculture efficiency must increase  by 35% – 70% and technology is the key. India’s rich mix of farming practices and small landholdings provide a massive data set to inform our models. Further, as a SaaS company, geography has never been a limiting factor for expanding our customer base. We are currently active in 29 countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America and in select European markets. As ground-truth information from these geographies continues to fill our data lake, it provides insights that create a paradigm shift in the agriculture ecosystem globally.

At the back end, CropIn’s data lake amplifies this ground-truth data with local weather information and high-resolution satellite imagery, which form the foundation of machine learning. By analyzing and interpreting this data for the 265 crops with nearly 3,500 variants on its platform across billions of data points that grow every day, CropIn is building an agri-information highway that will detect patterns and predict the future of the crop highlighting the risk and opportunity for agri stakeholders. CropIn provides near-real-time actionable insights to agriculture processors, distributors, inputs providers, lenders and insurers through its connector APIs. Additionally, CropIn’s algorithms can establish historical performance of every pixel at farm and regional level.

Karan Mohla, Executive Director, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors, said

We fundamentally believe in the Founders’ vision of creating a global agri-tech leader, while partnering with multiple stakeholders including agri-businesses, farming companies, financial lending & insurance companies. The sheer impact of CropIn for their global customers across 29 countries based on the unique data sets captured by the platform, is staggering. The potential to revolutionize agriculture leveraging technology and machine learning has never been greater, and we believe Krishna and Kunal will continue to pioneer this industry for years ahead.

With this investment, CropIn has raised a total funding of $12 million till date.

|In: Hackathon|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

ITC Infotech, a specialized global technology services provider and a fully-owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd, today announced the fourth edition of its flagship annual Co-creation and Technology Innovation Platform ‘iTech 2018‘. The event will take place at the ITC Infotech corporate headquarters in Bengaluru on 8th and 9th of December, 2018.

Speaking about the initiative, Sushma Rajagopalan, MD & CEO, ITC Infotech said

As a technology company and a differentiator in the digital era, it is imperative for us to collaborate with our employees,  our clients,  global technology platform majors & ISVs, and the world of startups, in order to  identify and brainstorm innovative and fast solutions through  new-age and superior digital technologies. Our flagship annual event iTech promotes this through co-creation, co-innovation and collaboration.

Aimed at boosting digital talent amongst technology enthusiasts and providing a platform for aspiring startups, ITC Infotech will run two parallel tracks, a Startup ‘Showcase’ segment and a programing ‘Codeathon’.

The Startup ‘Showcase’ has been designed with the objective of providing innovative technology startups a platform to present their solutions directly to businesses. ITC Infotech will invite established and early-stage startups to demonstrate solutions leveraging emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Augment Virtual & Mixed Reality, Blockchain, IoT, etc across Industry 4.0, HealthTech and Fintech. ITC Infotech also seeks to partner with relevant startups to help develop the solution, create a joint go-to-market and provide market access.

The Codeathon segment will see teams solving programing challenges that includes – building interactive mobile UI component using platform specific SDK, offline analytics for mobile app, offline app sync, process automation, and labor matching for farming. An open innovation category has also been created for Blockchain Solution across select industry verticals. Three winning teams will get a chance to win a prize money of Rs. 2,00,000, Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs. 50,000.

The event is free and open to all students, professionals, developers and technology startups. To register for iTech 2018, please visit iTech 2018 HomePage.

About iTech 2018

iTech, an ITC Infotech initiative, is an annual technology innovation platform. The platform focuses on leveraging emerging and disruptive technologies to create business-ready solutions, to address some of the most challenging problems faced by the industry.

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Thinking of buying a two wheeler but not sure when to buy one or what is the best time? We are here to clear the confusion. While there is no harm in buying a two wheeler whenever it is you wish, if there is a good season one must choose, post Monsoons are a great bet.

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The end of monsoons mark the start of the festive season in India. From Navratri to Diwali to Christmas, the whole country is in a festive mood. To make this mood merrier, companies come up with huge discounts on their products. Two wheeler sales benefit greatly from this. There are huge discounts during Diwali which you can take advantage of. Besides, avoiding the monsoons allows for easier maintenance and lesser hassle. Here is how you can use your finances to buy your dream two wheeler.

  • You can start saving from your monthly income
  • You can ask for a loan from friends or family
  • You can take a two wheeler loan from a lender

If you opt for a two wheeler loan, you can save on a lot of things. Here’s how.

  • Availing a two wheeler loan is no longer a tedious process. With the advent of apps, you can apply and get your loan money in your bank account in minutes.
  • There are lenders who provide you a loan for a higher amount than the price of your two wheeler
  • If you take a loan for a higher amount, all your expenses such as the registration, insurance, buying accessories etc. are taken care of
  • Many lenders do not charge you a prepayment fee if you want to pay your loan before the tenure ends
  • You do not need to keep your two wheeler as a collateral or security
  • Many lenders give you attractive EMI options
  • There is zero paperwork in case of an online two wheeler loan.

As technology is bringing about comfort in people’s lives, many processes such as taking loans have become easier. Online applications have made it easy to avail loan and disbursal of money into your account in just a few minutes. If there are so many positives then why not buy a two wheeler soon?

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Travelling to the USA is a coveted dream that many possess. The country is full of beautiful places, filled with history and has some of the best known national parks. It’s one of those few places that is best for a solo trip, a family vacation or even a honeymoon. The United State of America has it all!

However, travelling to the United States does not come cheap. This is an expensive as well as a rather time-consuming dream to fulfill.

Planning a holiday to the US will take a lot of time. This is especially true when it comes to planning the trip itself. Now, you must be wondering why we are not talking about the financial aspect of your travel to the United States. Well, that’s because you can avail a travel loan for that.

Your travel loan is your personal loan for the purpose of sponsoring your travel and stay. Availing a holiday loan is rather easy, actually. NBFC’s like Tata Capital are known for their personal loans for travel. The entire process is extremely easy and hassle-free.

You don’t even need tons of documents to apply for this kind of a Travel Loan at Tata Capital. All you need is your basic KYC documents and passport size photographs to apply, and your personal loan will be disbursed in less than 72 hours. It’s faster than getting a visa approval!

If you are worried about the EMI, then before applying for the loan, check a personal loan EMI calculator to get an idea about how much you might be needed to repay per month once your loan is sanctioned. A travel to the US could be a costly affair so take into account all kinds of foreseeable situations and expenses before you arrive at the final figure which you want to take as a personal loan for the purpose of your vacation.

Like we said, getting your finances in order will be the easy aspect of your trip. Now let’s take a look at how you should go about planning the trip:

Visa matters

Getting a US visa is not easy, and requires a lot of effort in terms of documentation, formalities, fixing an appointment and giving the visa interview.

An Indian travelling to the United States for tourism needs a visitor visa or B-2 visa. The maximum duration of stay on a B2 visa is six months. The application fee is around 160 dollars or Rs 11,803 approximately. You can log on to the US Travel docs website to check the detailed procedure. You can then fill the DS-1600 application form, submit it and pay the visa fee online. Next, you have to schedule an appointment at your desired consulate, and once you are given the date you have to visit there for your biometrics on one day, and finally the visa interview on another day.

Booking the tickets

The next step is to book a ticket. If saving cost is your idea, you can book cheaper tickets starting Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000, but be prepared for multiple layovers and a total travel time of more than 55 hours. But why be so tight-fisted when you have already taken a travel loan? A 55-hour journey is no easy feat, and by the end of it you will be tired beyond imagination and will end up sleeping and wasting two more days at your hotel in the bargain.

So be a little generous and take a direct flight or one with a single layover and a total duration of 15-17 hours. It will cost you between Rs 60,000 to 70,000. Your two-way travel will be sorted in less than Rs 1.5 lakh.

Finding accommodation

Research well and look around for good deals. These days’ homestays and shared apartments are a hit compared to high-end hotels. You can either book one of them or simply go the tried and tested way and book a plush hotel.

Read up reviews of the place, look for safety, convenience, proximity to bus stops and train stations, closeness to city centers. If central regions are costing you a bomb, find a quaint place in the downtown, if you don’t mind the travel. Research, research and research until you seal the deal. Once you have a fair idea about the per night charges, you can then add up your nights to come to a tentative figure about your accommodation cost.

Take this into account when you apply for the personal loan for your holiday because right after airfare, what takes up the maximum amount of your expenditure is hotel accommodation. Considering it is the US, it’s safe to assume that it is not going to be a cheap deal unless you have discovered a couch surfing arrangement.

Crafting the itinerary

If you have taken a holiday loan, then the sky is the limit as far as your travel destinations are concerned because you don’t have to bother about the expenses at every step. However, before you start, make a rough plan about the cities you want to stop by and what all you want to do there. Research by reading through various blogs, reviews and guides. Book tickets in advance online for art galleries, museums, studios and parks wherever possible so that you don’t have to stand in queues. Read up on the dos and don’ts of every place you wish to visit. Enroll in online forums on social media, and take tips from fellow travelers.

If it is your dream to visit this coveted country, then you should not let anything, especially your finances, stop you. A simple check on the internet will give you an idea about travel loans and with institutions like Tata Capital, it becomes easy to apply and avail the loan.

|In: General|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Who would have thought that one fine day we would be paying for consumption of clean water? Whenever someone steps out of the house, one item that is always kept in the travel bag is the ‘Water Bottle’. Though you can buy mineral water from outside, you would still have more trust in the ‘pure water’ that you have got from home. Normally when you spend money on a particular product, you have more trust on the brand & the product. But the same may not be true for packaged drinking water. There is a common misconception that consuming tap water directly is safe, doing so is like giving an open invitation to water-borne diseases. Bacteria, nitrate, lead, etc. are some of the common contaminants present in water. Due to water pollution & contamination, there are impurities in water and hence it is always recommended that you & your loved ones consume water from RO Water Filter or RO Purifier.

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Let’s have a look at purifiers in some more detail. If you are searching for the most economical solution for water purification, you should use ‘Water Purifiers’. However, the disadvantage of using Water Purifier is that it does not remove all the impurities in the water. There are better options like RO Water Purifier and UV Water Purifier that are more suitable for Indian homes and offices. RO Water Purifier from a reputed company like LivPure has multistage water purification process. Advanced RO Water Purifiers have 7 stage water purification process, namely

  • Pre-Filter – This stage is used for purification of physical impurities present in water.
  • Sediment Filter – This stage is used for removal of sediments.
  • Pre-Activated Carbon Granular Filter – This stage is used for removal of pesticides, chlorine, etc. present in the water. It also removes bad odor and bad taste in the water.
  • Reverse Osmosis (RO) Membrane – RO membrane removes the heavy metals, pesticides, and other salts in the water. This is the main stage in the case of RO Water Purifier.
  • Ultra Violet (UV) Disinfection Column – Ultra Violet rays are used for removal of waterborne disease causing microbes.
  • Ultra Filtration Cartridge – This stage is used for removal of suspended particles present in the water.
  • Silver Impregnated Post Carbon Cartridge – This final stage removes the remaining impurities in water and improves the odor of the water.

This makes the water safe for consumption hence, you no longer be worried about waterborne diseases. As discussed above, advanced RO Water Purifiers even have RO, UV, UF, and Taste Enhancer. If you are looking for a more economical option for RO Water Purifier, you can choose RO Water Purifiers with Stage-5 water purification process. A known brand like LivPure has different varieties of RO Water Purifiers namely Livpure Pep Star RO Water Purifier, Livpure Touch 2000 RO Water Purifier, Livpure Eco Touch RO Water Purifier, etc. Customers can also opt for UV Water Purifier for home, which is more cost-effective and gives instantly purified water. Though UV Water Purifier is an inexpensive option for water purification; the disadvantage is that it does not remove dissolved impurities, requires electricity, and the rays do not remain when the water is purified.

Based on your requirements, customers should buy best water purifier from a reputed brand like LivPure since they have good customer service and good after-sales service. Many customers who plan to purchase Water Purifier RO or RO Water Purifier check the RO price in offline stores and purchase from the LivPure’s online store. The primary advantage of using the online medium is convenience and even consumers from tier-2, tier-3 cities are using online commerce to buy Water Purifiers, along with checking online purifier price. As it is said – Water is Your Best Friend for Life and it is always recommended to have pure water to lead a ‘healthy life’!

|In: DataScience|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

According to a recent Indian jobs study, data science is one of the topmost and fastest growing field in India and its relevance is increasing in almost every sector. Reports from NASSCOM suggests that India’s data industry would reach $16 billion by 2025 from the present level of $2 billion. At the core of it, data science is the science of examining raw data and applying statistical techniques for the purpose of drawing business related conclusions and predicting business outcomes. In every organization, there are opportunities to implement data science and transform the way business is carried out.

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Leading analysts like Gartner and Forrester have quoted 2018 as a milestone year for organizations, with over 70% of them expected to leverage data science for Business Optimization.  It is one of the most talked about topics in the CxO community.

In today’s era, all small and large corporates are sitting on a gold mine of data, however, the biggest challenge they are facing is to use these data to get business insights which they can implement to make effective business decisions and optimize their business. In the Indian context, below are the industries adapting data science to gain the competitive advantage

  • Financial institutions are optimizing price, improving customer satisfactions, predicting risk of defaults, optimizing underwriting process
  • Hospitals are increasing diagnoses accuracy, providing physicians with accurate sickness’s causes for individual patients, preventing patient readmissions, predicting risk of infections
  • Retail chains are increasing occasional and loyal customer satisfaction, optimizing campaigns, offering the right price for products, preventing inventory shortage
  • Manufacturing organizations are predicting machine failures, providing predictive safety alerts, building accurate pro-active maintenance plan

However, applying traditional data science methods to real-world business problems is time-consuming, resource-intensive, and challenging. It also requires experts in the several disciplines, including data scientists.

Enterprises leveraging Automated Data Science to achieve efficiencies

Automated data Science represents a fundamental shift in the way organizations of all sizes approach machine learning and data science. Automated data science platforms are bringing the advanced AI techniques into reach for the mainstream. Organizations are finding that with automated data science they can make progress in AI without hiring new data scientists or embarking on expensive, time-consuming training for their employees. Instead, almost anyone with domain experience and a familiarity with data can build predictive models without writing a single line of code or having deep knowledge of machine learning algorithms.

With automated data science, AI innovation is not just exclusively in the realm of the data scientists, but can now be shared with those that best understand the business needs. The main obstacle to AI success is no longer capability, but rather a refusal to embrace new methods and new approaches. Automated data science platforms removes many of these obstacles, and with a sound data science strategy will accelerate your success.

Automated data science saves up to 80% of time in model building, cuts 90% of the learning curve time, delivers 20~40% more accurate and stable models and lastly zero preparation time for production deployment of models, thereby giving the utmost advantage to organizations to adapt data science.

The world is being disrupted by visionaries. Combining the power of AI and automated data science with a sound strategy is helping build a future that is smarter, more efficient, and fairer for everyone. The companies that take advantage of automated data science will succeed and prosper. Those that don’t will be left behind.

About the Author

Srinivasan Rengarajan is the VP & Global Head – Data Science and Analytics at 3i Infotech. You can know more about him here.

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The business world has its own complicated language which is better understood by experts. The common man is not well-versed with many business jargons, and this could lead to confusion while applying for a business loan. Some terms within the business loan context are easy to understand. However, there are many specific terms that can be easily misinterpreted or misunderstood.

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Familiarity with some of the terms is necessary before you apply for business loan. Following are some of the loan terms with their corresponding meanings:

  • Amortization – It refers to the manner in which the borrower pays off his lender. If your loan is amortized, it means you have to make equal amounts of cyclic and timely payments regularly till your whole loan, including the interest amount, is paid off in full.
  • Blanket lien – If one of the conditions of your bank loan is blanket lien, it implies that the bank can confiscate any of your business properties if you fail to repay the loan.
  • Cash flow statement – It simply refers to the inflows and outflows of the cash transactions of your business. It is a statement regarding your income and expenses within a given period.
  • Consolidation – When you pay off multiple loans by utilizing the money obtained from a single loan, it means you have consolidated your debts. This will help you avoid additional interest and manage your finances better.
  • DSCR – The full-form of DSCR is Debt Service Coverage Ratio. It is used to gauge whether your business has the resources to pay off the debt. You are safe if your DSCR score is above 1.
  • Entity type – This refers to the legal category your business falls under. When you classify your business as a particular type, corresponding laws will apply.
  • Five C’s – These are five conditions that you need to fulfill before you apply for a bank loan for business. They stand for character, capacity, capital, conditions and collateral.
  • Insolvency – It’s a state in which the borrower is unable to repay debts.
  • Long-term – It generally refers to debts whose repayment period is more than one year.
  • Maturity – When you have completely paid-off your loan, it means that your loan has matured.
  • Prepayment Penalty – It’s a fine that you will be required to pay if you pay off your debt before the scheduled payment cycle.

These are just some of the jargons you may come across while applying for a loan for your business. However, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with as many terms as possible, so that you can better understand the loan agreement thoroughly. If you still need a little help, you can always reach out to your bank manager. Only once you’ve understood all the terms and conditions should you agree to the loan.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Nielsen and Microsoft released details around a newly developed enterprise data solution that democratizes one of the largest consumer data sets in the world.  This strategic alliance has been brought to life through Nielsen Connect, powered by Microsoft Azure, the trusted and global-scale intelligent cloud platform.

In today’s rapidly changing marketplace, Microsoft and Nielsen are together focused on helping Fast Moving Consumer Goods [FMCG] and retail companies find growth and accelerate innovation within an open data environment.

Already, Nielsen Connect is inspiring companies to glean more value from their data and sparking a movement for the industry to re-imagine its approach to data strategy.  Through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence services built on Azure, Nielsen Connect is helping companies integrate data assets to more easily spot emerging trends, diagnose performance gaps, and act faster on opportunities to grow. Most notably, this platform enables clients to use their data as an enterprise asset across all parts of their organization.

John Tavolieri, President, U.S. FMCG & Retail and Chief Technology and Operations Officer at Nielsen, said

Nielsen’s powerful data is as much of an enterprise asset as people and products,” said . “It’s our priority to make sure clients are maximizing their data assets, so Nielsen and Microsoft are breaking down the silos of the status quo. We are helping the retail industry reimagine its approach to data by creating a truly open and global environment of collaboration, encouraging companies to evolve beyond mere data management. Adopting a holistic data strategy will be the only way to win in FMCG and retail.

Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business, said

The first critical step toward digital transformation, especially among retailers, is breaking down the barriers between customer and operational data to fuel insights for the business. Because retail happens wherever customers are and whenever they choose, Nielsen Connect provides high reliability at a global scale 24/7. Microsoft is a natural partner for Nielsen, trusted by global enterprises to protect their data and power their critical business solutions.

Grounded by the richest data available in the fast-moving consumer goods space, Nielsen Connect brings clarity to what’s happening in the market from every angle.  Nielsen’s deep media and consumer measurement [including retail point-of-sale data, consumer panel, e-commerce, fresh food and cross-platform media data], is integrated with a robust variety of data sources, including  data provided directly from clients as well as from Nielsen Connect Partners.

Nielsen’s reference data, which provides structure to the world’s most robust retail and shopper information, powers this system to make integration across data sources and countries simple. Within this open and agile platform running on Microsoft Azure, customers can easily access data sets via APIs and connectors, allowing them to extract the data they need to fit their own technology strategy.

The joint Microsoft and Nielsen solution is live today and will serve as a one-stop-shop in creating scalable, high-performance data environments that enable greater real-time collaboration for faster results. Through this strategic alliance, the two companies will continue to work toward a mutual vision of an open and connected data universe, empowering a new generation of solutions for the FMCG retail marketplace.