|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Confederation of All India Traders [CAIT], the country’s largest trade body, Acer, one of the largest PC companies in the world and Tally Solutions, India’s leading business software provider, have announced the launch of BIZGURU, a one-stop plug and play business solution for all accounting and GST compliance needs.

BizGuru comes with Acer’s world-renowned PC products and pre-installed Tally.ERP 9, the country’s preferred business software. The initiative is supported by CAIT, who have been helping Indian traders embrace new technology for the last decade.

The introduction of Goods and Services Tax [GST] is a remarkable step in the reform of indirect taxation. It offers a great opportunity to organizations of all sizes and sectors to transform and enhance their shift into the digital economy. One of the biggest challenges for the small businesses and traders is to understand the enormity of GST and adopt real time implementation of it. Therefore, there comes the need of a comprehensive IT solution that would enable smooth implementation of GST and will help businesses in digital transformation.

Acer and Tally have been pioneers in introducing innovative products and solutions while CAIT brings with it the country’s largest network of traders. With GST coming in, considering a dire need to upload digitized transactions for invoice matching; they have joined hands to introduce – BizGuru. This solution will cater to all small businesses and traders across India who are currently using manual methods of accounting.

From Left Harish Kohli, Managing Director at Acer India, Praveen Khandelwal, General Secreatary at CAIT, Tejas Goenka, Executive director at Tally Solutions

Acer’s GST customized range of computers perfectly complements Tally’s software, Tally.ERP 9 which will be pre-installed and give businesses peace of mind that by merely switching on the solution, they can get up and running with accounting and GST compliance. This will make BizGuru a compelling GST solution in the market.

Furthermore, CAIT will lead the way in reaching out to the traders and small businesses with the solution and helping the community get GST ready. Tally’s education arm will also provide a certification programme to train the traders on the solution.

Speaking on the occasion, Harish Kohli, President and Managing Director, Acer India said

We are excited to bring in an exclusive GST Solution, BizGuru, along with CAIT and Tally to offer a unique Plug and play solution to the customer. We are committed towards providing innovations that will help all businesses to expeditiously become accustomed to GST requirements, thus enabling them to focus on their core business and accelerate their growth journey in this digital era.

Tejas Goenka, Executive Director, Tally Solutions added

As the GST journey began in the country, we realized that many traders have not felt the need to automate but with GST this will be difficult to live without because of the need to upload transactions for invoice matching. We are happy to have come together with CAIT & Acer to deliver Biz Guru, a complete and affordable plug and play solution which will help the trader community automate their business and comply with GST. Pre-installed Tally which accountants are well versed with means that there are no hassles for the business owner and even if they want to learn an otherwise easy solution, we will extend support there too.

B.C Bhartia, President CAIT and Praveen Khandelwal, General Secretary, CAIT added

The GST taxation system is completely different from the earlier taxation system and hence a comprehensive, easy to use solution is the need of the hour. It is imperative that small businesses and traders adopt technology and understand procedures of compliance. At a time when the Government is moving towards e-governance, the businesses cannot remain aloof from technology. BizGuru is infused with a wide range of features that will meet the business requirements and customer expectations with the GST roll-out.

|In: Digital|Last Updated: | 2 Comments

National Payments Corporation of India [NPCI] has launched a dedicated website for Bharat Interface for Money [BHIM] to facilitate customers with information about BHIM app. The website can be accessed here

Considering that certain queries from customers are generic in nature with regards to BHIM, NPCI has developed a common website for dissemination of information through videos and infographics.

Mr. A. P. Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI said

The website will meet the needs of the customers for general information on BHIM and incentive programmes launched by the government in the form of BHIM referral programmes. Through simple tools like product videos, customer can have self-learning instead of calling banks and NPCI.

Customers can be benefited by knowing how to transact online using BHIM App through their mobile phones along with information pertaining to the number of banks and merchants live on BHIM. Currently there about 50 banks availing UPI services and customers of these banks can make use of any UPI application. BHIM is a generic UPI application developed and supported by NPCI. Once the customer downloads the application, the customer can customise it for his/her bank.

NPCI has also increased its social media presence by consistently updating information through our verified social media handles. Customers can also make use of the dedicated phone number for BHIM 022 – 45414740 and verified social media Twitter page @NPCI_BHIM for their queries.

About NPCI

National Payments Corporation of India [NPCI] was set up in 2009 as the central infrastructure for various retail payment systems in India and was envisaged by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the payment utility in the country. For more information, please visit NPCI

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Flipkart announced a one-of-a-kind hackathon to crowdsource innovative, implementable solutions from the tech community and concerned citizens, that could help ease Bengaluru’s perennial traffic problem. Termed Gridlock Hackathon, the initiative marks the start of the ‘Month of Innovation’ at Flipkart, a part of its 10 year anniversary celebrations.

Image Source – Flipkart Gridlock Hackathon

The contest will run from June 7, 2017 until June 21, 2017 and is open for technology centric solutions, as well as those that partially leverage technology through out-of-the-box thinking.

Key Highlights

  • Hackathon to crowdsource innovative tech solutions to help ease Bengaluru’s traffic issues
  • Participation is free & open to all
  • Register and submit entries on Flipkart Stories

Ravi Garikipati, CTO and Head of Engineering, Flipkart said

Flipkart was born in Bengaluru as an innovative tech company that has over the years changed the way India shops. We believe in open innovation which means that society at large should benefit from whatever we do as a company.

Gridlock Hackathon is an important part of our 10th anniversary celebrations and we want to engage with tech folks as well as citizens to try to collectively find some innovative solutions to Bengaluru’s traffic woes. The idea is to give back in some way to the city we all love, and ensure it retains the vibrant ecosystem that has been a major catalyst in the growth story of Flipkart and so many other companies.

The hackathon will initially run online and participants can submit tech or partially-tech solutions for macro problems like Bengaluru’s overall traffic, or traffic snares in specific areas like Silk Board, KR Puram, etc. All entries will be judged on parameters like impact, feasibility, scalability and sustainability, and completeness. The teams or individuals with the best entries will get a chance to present their solutions to a panel of esteemed jury, who will pick the best 3 ideas.

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 2 Comments

One of the primary reasons book addicts prefer biographies, diaries, etc. is the vast amount of learnings embedded in the biography. You can learn on how the personality [on whom the biography is based] dealt with ups & downs, his personal life, how he made his important career decisions, etc. In almost all the cases, biographies are based on lives of the rich & famous e.g. Steve Jobs, Dhirubhai Ambani, Elon Musk, etc. Contrast to biographies, people who pen down their own autobiographies have an interesting story to tell about their lives, learnings, etc. Many times, authors who write their autobiography might not be that rich & famous but they have encountered ample amount of learnings that can definitely be of help to the readers!

Mr.Bhadani with Jimmy Wales [Source]

One such autobiography is that of Mr. Gangadhar Bhadani who was once described by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, as the most prolific Indian Wikipedian. He was in the top ten worldwide contributors for months. He is around 65 years old and has lived in 17 places & 24 dwellings across India. He is a retired bank officer but unlike other bank officers, his life is full of interesting happenings 🙂 At a tender age of 55, he started contributing to Wikipedia and his book Choice in Chaos: A Wikipedian’s Autobiography is the first attempt by an English Wikipedian to share his life story.

About the Author

Mr. Gangadhar Bhadani is a retired bank officer and a prolific Wikipedian. In ‘Choice in Chaos’, he shares his life story, a tale spanning six decades of his life so far. Post-retirement [i.e. at the age of 55], he started contributing actively to the English version of Wikipedia and this according to him has been a life changing moment. You can connect with him on Facebook here.

Choice in Chaos: A Wikipedian’s Autobiography – Detailed Review

Since Mr. Bhadani has lived in seventeen different places across India, the book takes us back in time and a young Indian of this era can paint a picture of India along the way. Being an autobiography, in Choice in Chaos, Mr. Bhadani has touched upon various aspects of his life – Childhood, multi-dimensional adulthood, life as a banker and his experience as an active Wikipedian where he is passionately contributing since 2005.

The book starts off with the post-independence era in the chapter – Arrah Zila Ghar Ba. In this chapter, he recollects all his childhood memories of celebrating independence with fervor in the Arrah city that belongs to Bhojpur district. We loved the overall references that he has brought out throughout the book, example below

A human being is a creature encapsulated in his past. Despite all attempts, one does not forget many things and probably every incident, every word, every scene, sight, and smell continues to reside, consciously and sub-consciously, like granite granules inside one’s psyche not to be destroyed despite all efforts.

There is a lot of reference to Hindi words since Mr. Bhadani has mainly stayed in the northern regions of India [a couple of years were spent in Chennai when he was employed with Chennai Zonal Office]. Each chapter [Chapter 1~ Chapter 17] has a collection of memories, learnings, etc. where these chapters document his life in 17 different places in India e.g. Chapter 1: Arrah, Chapter 2: Tatanagar, Chapter 3: Muzaffarpur…. In the initial chapters, he has focused on his childhood, how living in a different set of conditions [and with a variety of people] shaped his thinking and adulthood. He has beautifully documented different facets of relations, be it with his parents, his elder brother, his daughters, etc.

Though each of these chapters has a beautiful connect where he walks us through his childhood, adolescence, multidimensional adulthood; the fascinating chapter of his life starts when he starts contributing actively to English Wikipedia. Mr. Bhadani recounts the moment when he was awestruck as soon as he started exploring Wikipedia while he was posted in Chennai. That Aha! moment is recounted in Chapter 21: Armenian Street to Mount Road where he mentions how he felt rejuvenated and blissful in the company of English Wikipedia.

Within a period of few weeks, Mr. Bhadani had already created many new pages and his edits caught the attention of other members of the Wikipedia Community. Some of the articles that were initiated by him are Chennai Central, Chennai Port, EID Party, Guindy National Park, etc. According to him, Armenians in India is the most significant article created by him. Subsequent chapters describe his interesting journey as a Wikipedian and how he networked & learnt from fellow contributors.

He even recounts his encounter with Kiruba Shankar, social media entrepreneur from Chennai where Mr. Bhadani was invited to participate and guide participants in an event named the Wikipedia Academy. There are references to Wiki Conference, the flagship conference of Wikimedians held in association with the Wikimedia Foundation. The autobiography closes with a chapter on Jharkhand where Mr. Bhadani currently resides and spends his time on different assignments.

Closing Thoughts

Choice in Chaos – A Wikipedian’s Autobiography is an interesting book that has many learnings from each one of us. The key takeaway is ‘Passion can be followed at any age since age is just a number’. At 24 Chapters and 284 pages long, it is definitely a good read where you can experience/feel the various phases of life in various parts of India!

You can purchase Choice in Chaos – A Wikipedian’s Biography by Gangadhar Bhadani by clicking on the link below

Thank you Mr. Gangadhar Bhadani for sending us the review copy of Choice in Chaos, we enjoyed reading the book …

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

GST Suvidha launches E-book on “GST at a glance“; a simple guide to better understand new tax regime. As India moves towards a 4 slab goods and services taxation policy called ‘GST’, many still struggle to understand the intricate details entailing GST and how to go about with the various taxation details. Bringing forth the many details that the new tax regime will be offering to the Indian masses, this is going to become the future guide and reference point for all students, citizens, organisations and other entities.

The book written by non-other than the Shyam Kedia, owner of GST Suvidha, the book is written with a view to give practical exposure in goods and services tax to professionals like chartered accountants, cost accountants, company secretaries, lawyers and students of these courses as well as MBA, B.COM, BBA and other graduate/post graduate students.

Any reader can gain basics to advanced insight of the new indirect tax regime while reading this book. It a comprehensive guide, covering nearly all the dimensions in GST. It will be a big resource for the public to understand GST. This book is written considering the demand and needs in industry and to make the economy GST Ready.

E-Book on GST launched by Shyam Kedia, CEO GST Suvidha

There is a huge demand in the industry for people with knowledge on GST. This certification will help job-seekers in getting jobs in the industry and adding a value to their resume. The certification mentioned in their resume will give them an added advantage over other candidates for a given position in an organisation.

Commenting on the launch of the E-book, Shyam Kedia, owner of GST Suvidha, said

I am excited and delighted to have authored this e-book. It has been done keeping in mind the multitude of questions that we as Indians will be asking chartered accountants and our taxation officer soon when GST is in motion. It will serve as a handy book and guide for the many student and young officers looking for jobs. It is a revolutionary product. With new tax regime – GST comes a huge change to the economy of the country and I am so happy to be a part of this changing face of India.

About GST Suvidha

GST Suvidha, a complete GST Solution is a startup, founded in December 2016 by a cross functional team of experts including CA, CS, CMA & IT Professionals. It is working for a smooth transitioning in the GST tax regime from current tax regime and GST Post Implementation handling. GST Suvidha was founded in December 2016 by a cross functional team of experts including CA, CS, CMA and IT Professionals.

Introduction of GST will turn Indian indirect tax structure into a wholly IT based Network. GST Suvidha is catering to the complex and tedious concepts of GST. It has a regular and constructive engagement with Central government, State governments, industry bodies and think tanks. It brings the latest thinking and experience with an agile approach to address the evolving GST landscape. For more information, please visit GST Suvidha

|In: Ola|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ola, India’s most popular mobile app for transportation, flags off World Environment Day by announcing the tremendous growth witnessed by its shared mobility offering Ola Share.

Image Source – Ola Share

Registering a 500% growth in last one year; Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata have emerged as the top 5 cities for Ola Share. On the eve of this announcement, Ola also launched a year-long campaign titled #FarakPadtaHai to create awareness about shared mobility. The campaign was launched on a social media platform over the weekend by renowned cricketer-turned-commentator, Virender Sehwag.

As per the methodology designed by World Resource Institute [WRI], a global research organisation working towards catalyzing a global transition to a low-carbon economy, Ola Share has effectively reduced 12 million kilograms of carbon dioxide and saved over 7 million litres of fuel with the distance travel by cabs reduced by 84 million kilometers, since its inception.

Vishal Kaul, COO at Ola said

Ola Share is one of our flagship products and is poised to bring down traffic congestion on roads, which means that people in our cities will spend less time in traffic. We have seen a high uptake for the category on both the customer as well as the driver partner side, that has been a key element in its success.

Cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata are the biggest users of Ola Share, and to keep the momentum going, we are selling Share Pass at a flat Re.1 in all our Ola Share cities. Share Pass, one of our recent and most popular product innovations, has seen phenomenal growth since its launch in November last year. Currently, Share Pass has already pre-sold 20 million+ Ola Share rides.

The unprecedented success of Ola Share has been driven by innovative technology that benefits both; customers and driver partners, and has resulted in the expansion of the category from 7 to 26 cities in only 19 months. Ola’s best-in-class ‘user matching algorithm‘ ensures that commuters sharing a ride are travelling in the same direction, so that Ola Share users are efficiently picked up and dropped off with their co-passengers.

With the added benefit of Share Pass, a subscription product, that allows customers to take Ola Share rides at a flat fixed price, Ola Share becomes the most consistent, convenient, and affordable shared mobility offering in India.

As a part of the #FarakPadtaHai campaign, Ola partnered with Traffic Police Departments across key cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Noida. During the drive, senior traffic police officials handed out saplings to commuters across key traffic junctions in the cities and reminded them to share rides and help decongest city traffic and reduce pollution.

Ola has joined hands with e-commerce giant Flipkart, Shopclues, Gaana – India’s favourite music app, IndusInd Bank & WWF who will be supporting the cause of #FarakPadtaHai campaign by endorsing shared cab rides to their users.

About Ola Share

Launched in October 2015, Ola Share is operating in 26 cities and has been specially designed to enable citizens to ride together and contribute to reduction in pollution and congestion in their city. Much like the customers, Ola Share has received tremendous acceptance from driver partners as well as they get to do more rides and make better utilization of their vehicle. All of Ola’s security features like Track your Ride, Share Ride Details, SOS, Emergency Contacts, 24×7 Customer Support and Number Masking are available for users on Ola Share.

|In: Education|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Capturing the growing influence of the Internet on the education industry in India, Google and KPMG released a joint report titled; Online Education in India : 2021. The report reveals that the online education industry will grow at a healthy rate of 8x, to become a USD 1.96 billion industry by 2021. The report is based on a comprehensive market research conducted by KPMG, along with a primary research and combined with insights from Google search. The report finds that the paid user base will grow 6x from 1.6 million users in 2016 to 9.6 million users in 2021.

The report revealed that over the last two years, there has been a 2x growth in online searches for education and a 3x growth in searches from a mobile device. Also, 44% of education searches are now coming from beyond the top 6 metros and there has been a 4x growth in education content consumption on YouTube in the last one year.

Highlighting the segment wise growth in the online education space, the report highlights that re-skilling and online certification is currently the largest. In 2016, it was valued at USD 93 million, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 38% to reach 463 million by 2021. As per the report, the primary and secondary education category has the largest addressable audience with a student base of around 260 million when compared to the other categories. Owing to this, the primary and secondary supplementary education segment was the second largest category in 2016, and will grow at a CAGR of 60% to reach USD 773 million, making it the largest category in 2021. The test preparation which is a small segment as of today is likely to grow at an impressive CAGR of 64 per cent to become a USD 515 million category in 2021.

Speaking about the key findings of the report, Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director, Google India said

The online education segment is set to become a multi-billion dollar opportunity in India. There are many factors driving this growth including the perceived convenience, increased reach and personalization offered by online channels. It is also interesting to note, that high growth in education search queries is now coming in from Tier 2 and 3 cities such as Patna, Guwahati, Aligarh and Kota – which points to the opportunities that growing penetration of smartphones and improving quality of internet have opened up.

Talking about the future of the online education industry in India, Sreedhar Prasad, Partner, KPMG India said

There are several evolving trends in the Indian online education segment that are contributing to the growth opportunities ahead. These include emergence of hybrid learning channels, continuous need for working professionals to learn new skills as well as emergence of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence that is enabling online education vendors to design customized content. At the same time, it will be critical for players to deliver differentiated offerings for consumers to see continued value in online education channels.

The complete report Online Education in India : 2021 can be downloaded from here

Report Methodology

The Online Education in India: 2021 report is based on a primary qualitative and quantitative research that covered over 3,600 respondents across 27 geographies including metro and non-metros to understand the growth of consumer paid online education market in India by 2021. The respondents are in the age group of 16-45 years, both male and females, who are online/ offline course takers/intenders and parents of primary/secondary courses. Insights from the primary research have then been combined with KPMG India’s proprietary sizing model as well as Google search trends and KPMG India’s industry intelligence.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Uber, the world’s largest ride-sharing app that connects riders with drivers to provide convenient, reliable and affordable rides at the push of a button, announced the launch of the Driver Compliments feature. Through this feature Uber aims to make it possible for riders to positively reinforce good behaviour and in the process humanize the relationship between the riders and driver partners.

Pradeep Parameswaran, Head, Central Operation, Uber India said

Last month, we launched community guidelines with the objective of encouraging mutual respect, and we are now excited to introduce ‘Compliments’. Our driver partners deliver millions of safe rides everyday and in many instances go beyond their call of duty. We hope our riders take a moment to express their appreciation by using this feature. It will encourage our driver partners to do even better!

Once a rider leaves a compliment, drivers will get a notification in app, taking them to the message and the compliments badge they have collected – whether that’s for expert navigation, great music choice or excellent service – because sometimes the little things make all the difference, and 5 stars are not enough.

For more information, please visit the Uber Blog on Driver Compliments