All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: HealthCare|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Healthhunt, a leading and highly-engaging online platform in the health and wellness  launched India’s most premier wellness event and experience, the Future of Wellness. With the intent of creating a pioneering gathering of India’s foremost health, nutrition, fitness,and wellness brands, experts, workshops, and celebrities under one roof, the annual event is steadfast in establishing the most extraordinary wellness experience India has ever seen. The event is scheduled for 17th Nov 2018 at World Trade Centre, Mumbai.

Image Source – Wellness

With lifestyle diseases rapidly taking shape of an epidemic, it is pertinent to educate people on important of work life balance and its impact on overall well-being. Complementing Government of India’s initiatives of making India healthy, the first edition of Future of Wellness is a stepping stone towards empowering people in their quest of adopting a healthy lifestyle. The event will highlight various contemporary issues ranging from nutrition, fitness, beauty, mental well-being, relationships, lifestyle and family.

The unique event has already garnered recognition from both Industry and celebrities, with confirmed participation from leading luminaries such as Milind Soman, Sonakshi Sinha, Kanika Kapoor, Namrata Purohit, Amrita Raichand, Shree Akshar, to name a few. Over 100 leading brands in the country have already begun to charge togetherwith the common goal that is the Future of Wellness. With an expected footfall of a staggering ten thousand people, along with millions of audience engaged through digital medium, Future of Wellness has emerged as perfect platform for both brands and influencers to magnify their reach.

According to Pooja Duggal, Founder & CEO, Healthhunt, said

Rising India requires a healthy populace in order to emerge as a world leader. Today, 1 in 20 searches in India alone on Google are related to health matters and unfortunately 90% of the information available on the internet is not fact-checked or verified. At Healthhunt, it is our mission to provide credible information produced and verified by the world’s leading experts.

We are proud to be helping some of the largest corporates, schools and colleges through our unique tool called ‘The HealthNOW’. We want to further power our mission of disrupting the understanding of daily well-being, through our flagship event ‘The Future of Wellness’.

More details about Future of Wellness schedule, speakers, booking a booth as well as discounts for people attending the event can be found here.

About Healthhunt.in

Healthhunt is a fully-integrated SaaS wellness platform to empower businesses with verified, fact-checked information related to health and wellness fortified with the right products and services. They are powering some of the largest corporate’s schools and colleges. healthNOW is unique and unrivaled in its ability to create a personalized experience for every user, delivered straight to their inbox! With over 250 experts on board,3500+ brands and products, Healthhunt is one of the fastest growing wellness websites across Southeast Asia.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Since CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made safety Uber’s top priority, the company has been working constantly to raise the bar to protect drivers and riders. As part of this effort, the company announced today that it will open its first Technology Development Center in Latin America, focusing on safety and will be based in São Paulo. The center will start its operations in the fourth quarter of this year.

About 150 specialists will work at this new center to develop technologies that may become new features and functions globally. With an investment of BRL 250 million [~USD 63 million] in five years, the site will also be Uber’s first technology center in Latin America. The other existing tech centers are in Louisville, New York, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Seattle, in the US; Amsterdam, Paris, Sofia, and Vilnius, in Europe; and Bangalore and Hyderabad, in India.

The Development Center in Brazil will initially focus on advanced technologies to improve safety around the world, working with advanced telematics, machine learning, high scale distributed systems, real time data processing and mobile development, among others.

Pradeep Parameswaran, President – Uber IndiaSA, said

We believe that technology can play a critical role in solving for some of modern day mobility’s greatest safety challenges, worldwide. Across emerging markets like Brazil and India, there is an acute need and shared responsibility to deploy the best of engineering talent towards innovations that can make our cities more liveable and improve outcomes around road, rider and driver safety as well as towards reducing congestion and pollution. A dedicated tech center echoes our deep and enduring commitment to safety as a company.

Uber has constantly introduced new functions to improve rider and driver safety. Two recent examples include a machine learning model to reduce safety risks, and the Safety Toolkit released in July which works as an one stop-shop for all Safety features in the Uber app.

|In: AI|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

As part of Microsoft’s AI Network for Healthcare initiative, Microsoft India and Apollo Hospitals announced the launch of the first ever AI-powered Cardiovascular Disease Risk Score API, designed specifically to predict the risk of Cardiovascular Disease [CVD] in the Indian population. Doctors across the Apollo network of hospitals can now leverage this AI-powered API to predict risk of CVD and drive preventive cardiac care across the country.

According to the National Family Health survey by the Union Health Ministry, one in every eight Indians suffers from high blood pressure. Despite the enormous number of cases, doctors in India are unable to identify the probability of cardiovascular disease, while there are various CVD risk models available worldwide, these do not cater specifically for the Indian population. 

Built on Microsoft Azure, this API aims to determine a more accurate CVD risk score for the Indian population. It has been developed using a combination of applied AI and clinical expertise on a large sample of retrospective data on health checks and coronary events. The scoring considers risk contributors including lifestyle attributes such as diet, tobacco & smoking preferences and physical activity as well as psychological stress & anxiety as reflected via rate of respiration, hypertension and systolic & diastolic blood pressure. The score categorizes risk into high, moderate and minimal and also provides insights on the top modifiable risk contributors, thereby assisting physicians to consult patients in a more holistic way, while providing insights to patients for lifestyle modification and timely interventions.

Commenting on the initiative, Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals said

This partnership is part of our continuing endeavour to design new tools and equip our doctors in the fight against non-communicable diseases. The amalgamation of artificial intelligence and machine learning with the global expertise of our doctors will help prevent heart disease, save lives and ensure those with heart disease can make informed choices on their health. We are confident that the combined power of Apollo and Microsoft can make a meaningful impact to stem the rise of heart disease in India.

Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited, said

We believe in the impact technology can have, specifically how Microsoft AI, Azure and collaboration with our partners like Apollo, can come together and transform the healthcare sector. This heart risk score for Indian populace is a true example of how precision healthcare can accelerate prevention of cardio vascular disease and reduce disease burden.

The risk score model continues to be validated across multiple private and public health systems. Apollo and Microsoft are also engaging global consortium partners to calibrate and scale this intelligent system for other population groups. 

Microsoft AI Network for Healthcare aims to maximize the ability of artificial intelligence and cloud computing to accelerate innovation in the healthcare industry and improve the lives of people around the world. Introduction of this intelligent system in partnership with Apollo Hospitals is a huge step in this journey.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Enakshi, an online apparel brand for women has closed their first round of seed fund of 80 Lakhs from a private investor. The brand is also in talks with a clutch of other investors to secure a total funding of $1 million over the next two years to build on its distribution network.

Image Source – Funding

Founded in March 2018, by young founders in their early 20s, Maharsh Shah & Namya Patel, launched Enakshi, a virtual boutique for modern women that offers only exclusive pieces of garments with no two pieces alike. The brand plans to utilize the funding amount to increase the brand’s visibility, improve their existing logistics & technology and to empanel more designers from across the nation. Enakshi also plans to expand their business into brick and mortar stores as a next step to giving its customers a first-hand experience of their favorite Enakshi garments.

Enakshi was launched to address two primary concerns of modern women

  • Their everyday worry of ‘what to wear tomorrow’
  • Their need for exclusivity and novelty in their wardrobe

The virtual boutique helps women explore and discover fashion that is as unique as their individuality. With efficient logistics in place, the brand promises a quick turnaround time by ensuring dispatch on the very same day so that the customers get the garment of their choice sooner than anticipated.

Enakshi ensures novelty by launching a new collection every 21 days, where each collection is designed by a different pool of designers, empaneled by the brand from across the nation. Through this unique approach, the brand also aims at disrupting the fashion industry by providing a platform to many talented yet underappreciated designers from across the nation, to collaboratively showcase their creativity befitting the theme of the collection.

Enakshi Founders – Maharsh Shah [R], Namya Patel [L]

Maharsh Shah, Co-founder Enakshi, said

With the largest social media savvy youth population in the world, India as a market is becoming increasingly fashion conscious. With decades of experience in the women apparel industry through our parent brand Deepkala in Ahmedabad, we noticed that increasing number of women have now started seeking novelty in their every buy and aspire to create a wardrobe that showcases their own individuality. This catapulted the launch of brand Enakshi.

Namya Patel, Co-founder, Enakshi further added

At Enakshi, we brief our empaneled designers to create designs to suit the modern women’s preferences. Our primary target audience is women in the age group of 18-48 yr, that don many hats in their daily lives and pride over their individuality. Our designs, therefore, are fluid, to adorn the multiple roles of these women and our philosophy of ‘One Woman, One Design, One Garment’ ensures that there is only one distinctive piece per design. Our tech ensure that every design ordered is altered in the requested size and dispatched for delivery the same day to keep up with the paced life of a modern woman.

About Enakshi

Enakshi is an apparel brand catering to the modern women. The brand offers a virtual boutique for women to explore and discover fashion that is as unique as them.The designs on order have been created by a hand-picked pool of designers shortlisted by Enakshi and then further curated to suit the brand’s style and vision. Enakshi offers only fresh designs and no two designs are alike, which means only one distinctive piece per design. The company was launched in March, 2018 and is headquartered in Ahmedabad. Enakshi was conceptualized and created by Nilay Shah, Maharsh Shah, and Namya Patel. The early twenties Founders chose to launch from Ahmedabad since it is the hub for fashion designing and also their hometown.

|In: EduTech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Lingokids, an English language-learning platform has reached over 5 million downloads worldwide with the most number of downloads from India with over 4,00,000 users followed by Brazil and Mexico since its launch in 2016.  The percentage downloads from Maharashtra are at 22.9% being highest in India, 16.4% in Delhi followed by 10.5% in Karnataka.

The online Education market In India is expected to touch $1.96 billion by 2021 and witness a 8x growth in the next 5 years according to a recent report by Google, KPMG. The reason for demand of online education has been the growth in Internet penetration and easy accessibility to affordable and quality education online. Lingokids offers complete English courses with lots of activities for every learning style for kids from 2 to 8 years and offers well-researched, superior educational content through ELT, a division of the esteemed Oxford University Press and a global leader in multimedia English language teaching.

50% of the ability to learn is developed in the first years of life and Lingokids immersive program encourages early learning and development for children by constantly exposing children to various grammatical structures and more than 3,000 vocabulary words, the apps hits-and-errors algorithm adapts each lesson to the child’s learning speed and the curriculum follows a methodology guided by a prestigious Board of Educators from diverse backgrounds in the field of education with expertise in literacy instruction, vocabulary development, child psychology, ESL instruction, and educational technology.

Cristobal Viedma, CEO and Founder, Lingokids said

The response from India for has been very positive and Lingokids has reached a milestone of over 400000 users.  The English language opens doors to the world and prepares children to become global citizens and our mission is to take down language barriers and provide equal opportunities for children across cultures. Lingokids is a perfect platform to give children a headstart at learning in a 100% ad-free and safe environment.

About Lingokids

Lingokids is the best way to teach kids languages in a fun and natural way. Lingokids offers an adaptive language-learning platform to teach English to children from 2~8 years of age, designed with Oxford University Press content.

Lingokids is a complete language-learning course, with activities that adapt to your child’s learning style. Our curriculum includes exciting educational games and a recommended playlist of activities based on your child’s level in a 100% ad-free and safe environment.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ralph Pierre, a new fast fashion watch brand by Incosi Fashions is bringing transparency in the Indian fast fashion market to end customers. The brand has launched a premium collection of Men and Women watches that people can easily buy at affordable prices. The watches are inspired from trending European designs and are powered by Japanese CITIZEN Miyota Movement and SONY battery to make them one of the best products in the market segment. Ralph Pierre watches comes with 1 year manufacturing warranty.

Indian youth is demanding quality products at the best prices. With an improved living standard and exposure to worldwide fashion, there is a growing demand for fashion goods that meet international standards both in quality and design.

Ralph Pierre products are available on their website and all the popular market places. One can find the details about the cost of each and every part that goes into the making of the respective watch. By doing this, Ralph Pierre is helping people in understanding that they don’t have to pay through their nose to own a Premium Quality watch. Generally, an end customer pays a hefty amount owing to the several intermediaries and their respective markups. Ralph Pierre is cutting down the middleman and hence bringing a Premium watch to the end customer at an affordable price.

Shubham Khare – Cofounder, Ralph Pierre said

We believe in transparency and that’s why we reveal every small step to our customers. Ralph Pierre bridges the gap between the quality and affordability in the fast fashion segment. It has been launched with watches for now and soon other fashion categories are to be added. With trendy international designs and aggressive pricing, Ralph Pierre provides a viable option to users to own quality trendy fashion goods at reasonable prices.

About Ralph Pierre

Ralph Pierre is a fast fashion brand offering on-trend style watches catering to both young men & women. It is a flagship brand of Incosi Fashions Pvt. Ltd. Ralph Pierre watches offers high-performance features in trendy colors & design. It is designed to bring stylish & premium quality fashion goods at aggressive prices for today’s impulsively fashionable Indian youth.

About Incosi Fashions Pvt. Ltd

Incosi Fashions is an Indian Fast Fashion e-commerce company created by Fashion and Technology enthusiasts. It is a house of brands created with an aim to make innovative fashion and lifestyle technology products to fit all pockets. The current portfolio includes brands like Crossloop and Ralph Pierre that bring the latest technology fashion products at guilt-free prices. These two brands are dedicated to pushing the boundaries of fashion & lifestyle technology in Indian Market.

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Alluma, the leading cryptocurrency exchange for the emerging market of India, has announced the launch of its Beta platform offering crypto-to-crypto trading, with Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] as the base currencies. In addition, the Alluma Beta exchange will also support the trading of other coins such as Ripple [XRP], Bitcoin Cash [BCH], and the FUEL token by Etherparty. The exchange is also currently testing 10 more tokens which will be added to the platform during the course of the beta launch period.

Alluma is also the first exchange in India to introduce the FUEL token by Toronto-based Etherparty, to trade in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Etherparty is a tool that allows users to create smart contracts on the blockchain. It removes the complexity of creating, managing and executing smart contracts on any blockchain network, allowing non-domain experts to build smart contracts with ease. Fuel is the token offered by Etherparty that supports the creation of these smart contracts.

Boasting a simple, intuitive user-friendly interface, Alluma’s exchange promises a smooth and hassle-free trading experience to Indian traders. It offers a superior liquidity through partnerships with other leading exchanges, a loyalty program powered by the proprietary LUMA token, and best-in-class compliance and security frameworks. The platform is supported by a six-layered security architecture, as well as robust localized KYC & AML [Anti Money Laundering] policies based on financial industry international best practices, and a multi-layered corporate governance structure.

Akash Aggarwal – Founder & CEO, Alluma said

After several months of product development and enhancements, we are proud to launch our Beta exchange for Indian cryptocurrency traders. With the launch of the platform, we have aimed to solve one major problem crypto traders face in India is the time it takes from account registration to first trade, which we have brought down to as little as 5 minutes. Alluma’s fast, paperless Know Your Customer [KYC] process has got some great initial feedback. The platform has also been well-received by customers and we look forward to adding many other tokens and token pairs over the next few weeks.

Kevin Hobbs – CEO, Etherparty said

Fuel has been a successful token targeted at helping ICOs create smart contracts. While looking for potential exchanges for the distribution of our token, we found Alluma’s team, vision and the quality of the product they have created is particularly impressive. Asia is a key market for us and we are pleased to work with Alluma in introducing the token into the Indian market, helping us to expand our global reach.

Alluma connects traders with a global order book to trade multiple currencies quickly and competitively. Traders have access to advanced trading options such as limit and stop orders not found on many domestic platforms.

About Alluma

Alluma is the emerging market exchange for cryptocurrencies, which has been specifically designed for the needs of Indian and Southeast Asian users. It is an institutional grade crypto to crypto and fiat to crypto platform where a wide portfolio of cryptocurrencies can be traded, with fast, simple e-KYC functionality, as well as 24-7 monitoring, multi-signature wallets and cold storage for coin security.

About Etherparty and the Fuel token

Etherparty is a tool that allows users to create smart contracts on the blockchain. It removes the complexity of creating, managing and executing smart contracts on any blockchain network, allowing non-domain experts to build smart contracts with ease. Fuel is the token offered by Etherparty that supports the creation of these smart contracts.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The Central Board of Secondary Education [CBSE] has partnered with Microsoft India to digitally encrypt question papers for Class X and XII examinations. This initiative was undertaken to enhance security and seamless distribution of the papers. The solution was successfully tested as a pilot project in the recently held Class X compartmental examinations, across 487 examination centers with approximately 4,000 students.

The Controller of Examination can track the entire process using a software solution built on Windows 10 and Office 365. The overall process was automated to be highly secure with encryption, two-factor authentication and access to download the exam papers at the examination center only 30 minutes prior to start time. The solution leverages features in Office 365 to encrypt and watermark the papers.

The watermark has the individual center’s code imprinted on it which allows for localization and traceability in the eventuality of a paper leak. A CBSE administrator initiates the distribution of exam papers, which results in the generation of emails to the respective centers with a link to One Drive where an exam paper, specific to the exam center can be downloaded. This digitization process saves significant time and cost for exam administrators due to online paper generation, automated delivery process and reduction in approval cycles.

Commenting on the partnership, Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited said

A strong education ecosystem is key to our nation’s development and Microsoft and CBSE are deeply committed to digitally transform the sector. Innovative implementation of technology has the potential to solve some of the most pressing issues faced by the sector. The success of this partnership with CBSE is proof of that potential. I am confident we are well on the way towards a digitally empowered education ecosystem.

For the pilot test, multiple mock trials were conducted before the Class X compartmental examination date, with the entire CBSE team including various exam centers along with Microsoft experts to ensure seamless adoption and familiarity with the process. The solution was deployed by CBSE without a security breach. Widespread adoption of this solution can transform the education sector and essentially change the way students in India take their exams.

Microsoft is working closely with public and private institutions to help modernize education, impart ICT skills training and provide low or no cost technology that helps students with immersive learning, educators with engaging teaching methods, and administrators with efficient management tools.