All Posts in Review

|In: Galijob|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The ‘On-Demand economy’ has definitely been a game changer in today’s fast paced environment and it is here to stay! Online medium is no longer restricted to shopping, mobile recharge, travel, etc. but it has many more dimensions. In fact, it acts an effective medium to reduce the demand-supply gap.

Image Credit – Blue Collar Worker

Blue Collar Recruitment : Bridging demand-supply gap

For skilled jobs, portals like Elance, Fiverr, etc. act as marketplaces that help to fill the Demand -Supply gap but Unskilled/Semi-skilled workers (blue-collar workers) like drivers, cooks, cleaners, delivery boys, etc. have to still rely on their acquaintances when they are looking out for a job. If they do not have any reference, they need to rely on agents who take huge amount of commission from them. Though the blue-collar job market is highly unorganized, driven by the urbanization coupled with growing internet penetration, huge market size & fragmented demand-supply, many startups are solving the problem of connecting skilled low-skilled workers with potential employers.

Industry estimates put the demand for blue-collar and entry-level white-collar jobs at 20 crore a year, and the market at USD 15 billion [Source]. Apart from the demand-supply gap, a shorter lead time is also required to identify potential employee for an employer e.g. There is a huge demand for part-time delivery boys during the Big Billion Days, Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale,etc. and any delay in on-boarding or shortlisting potential candidates could have significant business impact [Source].

Though vertical job sites e.g. Quikr Jobs, Naukri,etc. are trying to solve this problem, there are startups solely focused to simplify Job search for blue-collar job seekers. Today, we have a look at Galijob [‘Gali’ means ‘Lane’ in Hindi] that can help potential job seekers find a job in 24 hours.

GaliJob – Job marketplace for entry level & blue-collar job seekers

Galijob is a mobile-first (and mobile-only) marketplace for entry level and blue-collar job seekers. It is loosely based on a tinder-like matching service where the job seeker can get a job in 24 hours and likewise the employer can get potential candidate in the same time period!

For job seekers – Job seekers can create a profile on Galijob at the tap of a button and apply for a job in minutes. In order to maintain the 24 hours promise, Galijob ensures that the candidate receives a response within that time frame else application gets withdrawn from the employer’s list of candidate profiles. They encourage employers to be proactive and adhere the 24 hour deadline which ensures they stay at the top of Galijob’s preferred list of employers & receive good ratings. Once the profile is shortlisted by an employer, the candidate can call/chat with the employer in order to get further details about the position.

For employers – Similar to a job seeker, an employer needs to just post his requirement along with the location on Galijob. Once the requirement is posted, he can check the list of potential candidates on the platform & arrange for the next steps of recruitment. Galijob encourages shortlisted candidates with a positive rating to turn up for interviews which ensures they are always at the top of rating table and receive call from many potential employers. The concept of Rating ensures transparency in the entire recruitment process!

While reviewing the app, we browsed through the list of candidates (as a guest and with location turned on) and the results were accurate (shown in ascending order of distance). Since messaging has become so prominent, Galijob also supports Chat where potential job seekers can have a one-to-one chat with employers on the platform.

To summarize, the key features of Galijob are free job listing, One-click apply, Hassle free process, transparent rating policy, advanced semantic search to find what you are looking for and secure chat.

GaliJob – App Review

The app is currently available on the Play Store and on installation it takes around 14 MB of storage. Memory footprint is very critical for an app that caters to a market segment that might have Android phones with less internal storage (and many of them might not be using an external SD Card).

Though the app supports 5 regional languages along with English, it still is not 100% regional since the job description still appears in English. Once the language is selected, user needs to categorize himself as Job Seeker or Employer. There is also a guest mode which is like a read-only mode. Profile creation as a job seeker/employer takes only few minutes and once profile creation is complete, a job candidate would be shown with relevant recommendations based on his expertise & area of residence. We tried couple of searches in Whitefield area and results were favourable though results might vary based on locality.

The design of the Galijob app is simple and creation of profile on the platform is very easy! For reviewing the app, we did a chat with couple of candidates and the chat worked without any issue. Job seekers & employers can also do a search filtered by pin-code which comes in very handy while selecting a candidate.

GaliJob – Team, Competition and more

Galijob is founded by Ajay Anandteertha & Saurabh Saha and their startup is mentored by DAIICT Incubation. In terms of competition, Galijob competes with the likes of Babajob, Aasaan Jobs that are also horizontal-marketplaces for blue-collar recruitment. There are also vertical job sites like Quikr jobs addressing the same problem. It is currently bootstrapped. Galijob is currently operational only in Bengaluru and has received recognition from the Karnataka government for their unique initiative.

Conclusion

Currently only 49 percent of Indians own mobile phones and the data penetration is only 21 percent. However reducing prices of data, wider adoption of 4G [particularly Jio] and the push for Digital India can result in wider smart-phone adoption. Galijob follows App-Only approach, a strategy which was not well received by the users of Flipkart and Myntra [Source], though the model of app-only market place for blue-collar recruitment is already proven by the likes of Cornerjob, JobToday.

Though there is a huge difference between app-only for e-commerce vis-a-vis app-only for job marketplace, only time can tell whether India is ready for an app-only mobile marketplace! If you are an employer looking to hire the best talent in your industry, do give Galijob a try and share your feedback in the comments section…

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

There is a very famous quote-Risk and Rewards are two sides of the same coin and one area that this is very apt is Investing. Higher the risk, more are the chances of yielding better returns and hence when it comes to investments there is certain amount of risk and with that risk can come pain, but also some gain. However, when we talk about investments, returns, risks, rewards, etc. those terms are very relative since the personal financial portfolio of each investor might look very different.

Image Source - GPS
Image Source – GPS

The primary reasons why the portfolio looks different is because it is dependent on factors namely investor’s age, liabilities, assets, financial goals, existing portfolio, market trends, market volatility, etc. Last few weeks, news has been abuzz with #Demonetisation due to which large number of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes have been deposited into the banks. As per estimates, banks have received deposits worth Rs. 4.5 Lakh crore [Source]. With ample amount of deposits, banks have started cutting fixed deposit rates. PPF, Fixed Deposits and Recurring Deposits are some of the safest options for investments and mostly suited by passive investors. In such unplanned scenarios [like Demonatisation], even the safest of the investment options do not work and hence, it is always advisable to ‘Not put all your eggs in the same basket‘

Though maintaining a balanced portfolio is always on high priority of every investor’s list, for some novice investors the financial terminologies itself seem very confusing! This is where Edelweiss Financial Services, one of India’s leading financial services group aims to bring simplicity & intuitiveness in the entire process of investment.

Edelweiss : Decipher investment terminologies

Edelweiss recently launched the new avatar of http://www.edelweiss.in that is designed to make investment appear simple and intuitive, even a first time investor can navigate through the platform with ease and build his portfolio. The platform has sections catering to different investor sets, be it the experienced investors or the new ones.

There is an increased focus on financial content in the insights section which will help investors meet deeper understanding of financial markets, macroeconomics and investments. There is content for a wide range of audience, whether you are looking for research report or looking for personal finance views or seeking macro updates.

Edelweiss Guided Portfolios : Mutual Funds meets Artificial Intelligence

As mentioned earlier building a balanced portfolio is a daunting task since it takes time to master the market and market volatility is one factor that can play a spoil-sport in creating one. What if you could get tailor made portfolios that is built by experts in that domain! Sounds, great ain’t it? This is what Edelweiss Guided Portfolios is all about-Mutual Funds that suits your requirements.

It is an algorithm based intelligent system which designs mutual fund portfolios for investors and guides them towards their financial goals through systematic investments. Some of the salient features of Edelweiss Guided Portfolios is below:

1. Guide investors to achieve financial goals using algorithm driven systematic investment approach
2. Proprietary algorithm for asset allocation depending on investor risk profile
3. Fund selection based on internal scoring mechanism
4. Periodic monitoring and re-balancing on investor portfolios
5. Paperless mutual fund account opening process
6. Intuitive platform design

Having a Paperless approach to Mutual Funds is a very bold step that has been taken by Edelweiss, it definitely increases efficiency of their staff and simplifies customer on-boarding process! Lot of effort has been put by Edelweiss to keep the platform simple to understand and convenient to use so that anyone with any level of financial expertise can transact on it. Using Edelweiss Guided Portfolios, an investor can build his portfolio sitting in front of his desktop or mobile, open his account in a paperless manner and start investing!

The next question that you would have in mind is how does it work, so let’s have a look into it.

Edelweiss Guided Portfolios : How it works

As discussed earlier, it is powered by internally developed proprietary asset allocation and mutual fund allocation algorithm. Based on financial goal and risk profile of the investor, the Artificial Intelligence [AI] driven system selects the best performing mutual funds for the investor as per the suggested asset allocation and internally assigned score of the selected mutual funds.

The system selects the best performing & best suited mutual funds from a pool of around 2000 funds. The pool of funds is also periodically updated based on the market performance. In order to keep the investment process transparent and to allow investors to make informed decisions, the platform also highlights the key reasons behind adding the selected funds in the investor’s portfolio.

Entry Strategy – Risk Appetite is the key factor on which it’s algorithm draws an entry strategy.

Portfolio Rebalancing – The algorithm comprises dynamic rebalancing algorithms that keep track of changing market conditions and performance of the selected mutual funds. The primary objective of this strategy is to help the investors so that they keep the best performing funds in their portfolios in order to get maximum returns.

Edelweiss Guided Portfolios is the result of Suno (listen to customers), Samjho (understand customer requirements) and Suljhao (solve customers’ problem by providing efficient solution) philosophy adapted by Edelweiss and the result definitely shows in their strategy.

Edelweiss Guided Portfolios : How to invest & it’s USP

With India marching it’s way towards being a Digital Nation (with Financial Inclusion being at fore-front), Edelweiss ensured that the barrier-to-entry i.e. tedious paperwork is completely eradicated when a prospective investor signs up for this product. For the very first time, Edelweiss has launched an Aadhar based paperless process for mutual fund account opening for new clients. The account opening process uses Aadhar based e-KYC for non KRA [KYC Registration Agency] verified participant. This step ensures that investors can sign-up for it in a hassle-free manner.

There is a question that comes to mind-How is Edelweiss Guided Portfolios different from other Portfolio Management Services [PMS] and the answer lies in the flexibility that investors get with the product. In the case of Portfolio Management Services, investors don’t have a say in the selection of stocks or funds. With Guided Portfolio from Edelweiss, you are allowed to control and monitor your investment at all times.

We are sure that there would be many more lingering questions in the minds of the investors like Who manages the portfolio, Are there any add-on charges for it, etc. The FAQ on Edelweiss Guided Portfolios provides the key to all these questions.

Conclusion

Guided Portfolios from Edelweiss is an interesting financial product that would appeal to both newbie as well as seasoned investors. Since AI being the key pillar of the product, it brings a whole new dimension to investments!

If you have tried Edelweiss Guided Portfolios then please leave your feedback/experience on the product in the comments section…

Disclaimer – Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.

|In: QuickCompany|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

KhanMarketOnline, does this name sound familiar to your ears? It is a site that is linked to the famous Bollywood actor, Salman Khan 🙂 Though most of his films score exceptionally well at the box-office, this online venture from him had landed into controversy since the name KhanMarketOnline is very similar to 65 year old famous Khan Market in Delhi [Source]. Yes, it all boiled down to the name and there is a possibility that Khan Market could be a registered trademark and the name of the online venture resulted in Copyright/Trademark Infringement

Image Source – Team

On a similar lines, Swedish home products retailer IKEA that had planned for it’s foray in India lost a trademark infringement case against Bengaluru-based Quess Corp that runs recruitment and staffing businesses under the brand IKYA Human Capital Solutions [Source]. This is just one-off news about Copyright/Trademark/Patent infringement and it is become very critical to protect them since they are an intangible asset for any organization [be it startup or an MNC].

The point in contention is whether startups need to worry about patents, copyrights or trademarks. There are always long-term tangible benefits in protecting company’s intellectual assets, the startup world has two kinds of entrepreneurs-those who patent their ideas and those who don’t.

As part of the Startup India Action Plan 2016, the Government of India has given significant amount of importance in promoting Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) awareness and registration. Major push has been given to remove/limit the number of hurdles for facilitation, registration of trademarks, patents, etc. for startups. These are very critical for product startups since their USP is the IP and this can effectively be a part of long-term brand building strategy!

As the serial entrepreneur Elon Musk rightly says

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product [Source]

Though India ranks 130 in the Ease of Doing Business i.e. moving up four places from last year’s adjusted ranking of 134, there are a lot of lingering questions in the minds of entrepreneurs about company registration [Sole Proprietorship/Limited Liability Partnership/Private Limited Company], Trademark/Copyright registration, etc. This is a very important problem to solve since entrepreneurs can work on their path-breaking ideas (without any distraction) and leave this job to experts!

This is where startups like QuickCompany can come to your rescue. QuickCompany is a technology startup based out of New Delhi aims to make registrations as quick and transparent as possible. It is co-founded by Manmeet Singh who started QuickCompany when he faced innumerable hurdles in registering his previous startup. He wanted entrepreneurs to be more productive (by focusing on their idea) and leave trademark, registration, patent, etc. related work to QuickCompany!

QuickCompany : Registrations, Trademarks and much more…

QuickCompany provides the following facilities for businesses

Trademarks – A trademark helps you to not only create a distinctive identity for your business but also to avoid incurring any damages. It offers Trademark registration, Trademark Objection, Trademark Assignment, Trademark Renewal. Along with clear indication of the price, Requirement of documents and Filing Time for each & every process; there is a vast amount of knowledge base about Trademarks on QuickCompany that would be very helpful for a first-time entrepreneur. This article about trademarks highlights know-how about trademarks for tech entrepreneurs.

Copyright Registration – Copyright is defined as a property right of an original work owned by an individual which is fixed in a physical medium of expression, thereby giving the holder an exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display the work. Whether you are into tech, music, drama, writing, films,etc. now get legal rights for your original work for use & distribution. For more details on the cost, time frame for registration, etc. please visit this page

Design Registration – Design registration is the process by which a design can be registered thereby acquiring legal rights to own that design. The website demonstrates every stage of design registration and it is great to see that they are offering Money Back Guarantee (in case customer is not satisfied with their service). For more details, please visit this page.

Company related services – Whether you are planning to register a company/planning to add a new director to your company (and want to get the DIN)/converting your company from LLP to Pvt. Ltd or vice-versa/planning to go Public/planning to close your business, etc.; Quick Company offers these services for startups as well as growth stage companies. The Company and Trademark Data can come in very handy in case you plan to use these services.

Tax related services – Planning to export goods from India or import goods to India, than you could apply for IEC Number by using their Import Export Code registration facility. If the turnover of your business is more than 9 Lakhs and plan to apply for Service Tax, QuickCompany can do that work for you so that you can focus on expanding your business footprint!

QuickCompany : Design, Extensive Knowledge-base

The overall design of QuickCompany is very simple and we liked the fact that the Search Box (to register Trademark or Company) is given more prominent space. Since the charges are mentioned up-front, it definitely builds more customer confidence.

Since QuickCompany is also a startup, it becomes very important to have details about the Team, Customer Support details, etc. very evident in the site. However, we found that the Team Section is not mentioned in the Main Menu (Header) but is located in the footer, same is the case with Refund Policy!

The growing knowledge-base about companies, trademarks, taxes, etc. is definitely good starting point for anyone who is planning to register his/her company or trademark.

QuickCompany : Closing Thoughts

Though there are many other companies that operate in more or less similar space as QuickCompany, it would all boil down to the QoS (Quality Of Service) and the one who provides better service would win more customers! Unlike their competitors, QuickCompany is yet to enter into Patent Filing. It would have been interesting if they also had a Package Deal (for Startups) i.e. Registration+Trademark since it would be a win-win for both the stakeholders! Initiatives like Startup India, Digital India, Startup India Fund, etc. has definitely resulted in more people taking the entrepreneurial plunge and hence services provided by QuickCompany are need of the hour.

If you are an entrepreneur and plan to register your company or trademark your idea, please head to QuickCompany to avail their services…

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

There is a very famous quote by Plutarch – The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled and it is upto our mind on how to act in case of adverse situations! As per a recent study by the UN, there are close to one billion specially-able people  globally out of which 40~80 million people are living in India.

If you are able bodied and want to accomplish something with or without your body, achievement of the end goal only depends on the effort that you put. However for a person with physical disability, the whole life becomes a challenge though some of these challenges can still be overcome only with sheer will and passion to move ahead in life. Though specially abled people do face many obstacles, they still have the will and motivation to succeed and the very first step is to remove the specially abled tag from their minds!

There are many inspiring stories where specially abled people have achieved greater heights (that even a normal person wouldn’t have been able to do) like How Kargil War Hero Major D.P.Singh became India’s first blade runner and did not let his disability affect him to push harder to realize his potential, How Srikanth Bolla built Bollant Industries by fighting odds against his blindness and the list just keeps on growing! As mentioned by the late Stella Young – The only disability is the brain disability and disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.

Though there are innumerable stories of inspiration, Commute is one area that needs to be solved for those who are living with physical disabilities/challenges. People with disabilities have consistently described how transportation barriers affect their lives in important ways. This is where self-driving can make a huge difference and this is the problem that social entrepreneur Harish Kumar’s venture Ability On Wheels is aiming to solve (Earlier coverage here)! Ability On Wheels is an effort to encourage the people with disabilities (PWDs) to take a big leap towards leading a normal life by being able to drive on their own.

Today, we review his book Ability On Wheels which is a book that provides Hope! It is an effort to spread awareness and provide useful information on disability and driving

About the author

Harish Kumar was born with the absence of right arm. He did his M Sc from IIT Roorkee & M Tech from IIT Delhi. In 2012, he became the first physically challenged person in the country to complete a Solo All India Driving Expedition thereby creating a new National Record and one more record in the next year. You can find more information about him here

In order to go ahead with the review, it is very important to look into the aspect – Why Ability On Wheels.

Many people expressed their desire to drive but there was not even a single driving school for them in the entire country. This is where Harish fore-saw an opportunity and gave up his career in telecom with the sole mission : Provide driveway for people with disabilities. After six months of detailed study, multiple iterations, follow-ups and negotiations with the government, etc. Ability On Wheels, India’s first driving school for people with disabilities was born!

Detailed Review

Today the disability sector in India is at the stage where maximum visibility and focus on the potential of the person with disabilities is very much required. This is what Ability On Wheels caters to. The book is enriched by personal experiences of Harish in his quest to provide disability is only in mind and we become what we think.

The book has experiences that are faced by Harish Kumar and how he overcame those hurdles to learn driving. In addition to his own experiences, the book cites real life examples of the following:

Navin Gulia, a gentleman cadet who became paraplegic during a freak incident encountered during is training.

Satendra Singh, a doctor & polio survivor who has been highly vocal on barriers that plague the people with disability.

Kavita Modi & Pallav Pathak, students at the motor driving school for the physically challenged who learnt driving despite all odds!

These are just a few real life case-studies of grit & determination that have been covered in the book. It is a short read of ~150 pages and each chapter covers one specially-abled driver, his/her driving strategies, insights into traffic rules, types of vehicles, Process for obtaining a driving license, general Do’s & Dont’s for driving, driving under different climatic conditions, etc.

Who should read this book

Most of the times we are motivated by looking at other’s actions or by following their journey (and how they became successful by beating all challenges that came their way). They could be an entrepreneur, film-star, sport-star, your fellow colleague or anyone from whom you can draw inspiration! If you are the one who is looking for motivation and love reading stories about grit & determination, then Ability On Wheels definitely should be in your collection.

Ability On Wheels book would also be of immense interest to someone with disabilities, disability advocates & researchers, researchers, travel enthusiasts, car dealers & sales representatives of car manufacturers, officials of transport department, etc. It provides tips for safe driving, customizations/modifications required in a vehicle, related rules, etc.

Closing Thoughts

The book Ability on Wheels is an attempt on visualizing how society can be more inclusive to specially-abled persons by opening up driving for not just their mobility but also for their emotional, social and financial empowerment.

The intent of the publisher Artson Publishing to make a difference by publishing Ability On Wheels is also note-worthy since they are a start-up and inspite of focusing solely on monetization, they chose to focus on such social causes; kudos to them! The book Ability On Wheels is available exclusively on Amazon for Rs. 150.

I would close the review with a motivational quote by Harish

Driving requires mental strength, so use it. Forget about your disabilities – just drive

|In: LastMinuteKeys|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Internet has become an integral part of consumer’s life and before online shopping became more mainstream, travel triggered the e-commerce boom in India. Companies like MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Yatra are some of the prominent  players in the Online Travel Aggregator (OTA) segment. These companies are the pioneers in the Horizontal Travel Segment and are online travel agencies that enable customers booking of flight, hotels, tours, recreational activities etc. There are other players like OYO Rooms, WudStay, Treebo Hotels, Vista Rooms etc. that are a part of the Online Budget Segment and act as enablers for hotel discovery and rentals.

Credit to the rising internet penetration, the online hotel booking sector is rapidly growing and is set to become USD 1.8 bn in 2016. There is a significant headroom for growth in the sector, with the ease of access to information and details online propelling consumer confidence to book hotels online [Source*].

The Opportunity – Last minute hotel deals

Though the hospitality industry is growing at a burgeoning speed with new hotels being launched every month, global investments being made; there is still a huge imbalance in the demand-supply cycle. Due to excess supply of hotel rooms inventory, an average of 40% of hotel rooms are unsold in India.

As Budget accommodation is fastest growing segment in India, most of the Online Travel Aggregators are looking at grabbing a piece of the market share [Source*]. However, this also involves an overhead cost of property inspection, standardisation, training hotel staff etc. Hence, there is still lot of room for disruption in the last minute 3*, 4* & 5* hotel booking space, as there are no very few startups that service the needs of the millennial , SME & Corporate travellers. Be it business trip, personal trip; travel can be impulsive and customers would look out for last minute hotel deals.

This is where Mumbai based Last Minute Keys sensed an opportunity and wanted to provide a platform for travellers so that they do not loose out of ‘Deals’ for un-planned trips and for Hotels so that they can liquidate their inventory for today, tomorrow  and day after on a real time basis, which is not available with other OTA’s

Last Minute Keys has partnered with quality 3*, 4* & 5* hotels thus ensuring that there are low no overhead costs since these top-rated quality hotels already maintain high standards!

Let’s have look into Last Minute Keys’s differentiators, market size, funding plans etc.

Last Minute Keys – Presence and Key differentiators

As mentioned earlier, Last Minute Keys is dynamic platform for hotels to liquidate their inventory for today, tomorrow & day after on a real time basis. Customers can only do the booking three days prior to their travel and enjoy awesome savings on last minute booking.

Unlike the other last minute players in the market that have either integrated API’s of other online portals & have merely just positioned themselves as last minute players, Last Minute Keys have one on one contracts with each and every hotel that are listed listed on their platform.

Currently Last Minute Keys has tied up with more than 400 hotels in 12 cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Jaipur, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Cochin & Goa) & plans to expand to 1000 hotels in over 25 cities in India in a short span of time.

Last Minute Keys – Key benefits for Hoteliers and Customers

Hoteliers: There is a huge demand-supply gap in the hospitality industry due to which at times there would be huge unsold inventory particularly in off seasons. Hotels would be open to offer rooms at a discounted rate in order to minimize losses by increasing the overall occupancy ratio.

Last Minute Keys offers the hotels a cutting edge extra-net platform, through which the hoteliers are able liquidate their last minute inventory dynamically based on supply & demand.

Customers: Last Minute Keys offers guaranteed lowest prices to their customers for last minute bookings (bookings over next 72 hours) as the platform only lists deals offered by hotels for their unsold inventory, which are the sold at rock bottom rates.

Hotel rooms are perishable in nature, hence any unsold rooms sold through the hotels on Last Minute Keys platform is additional revenue for them, customers on the other hand, land up getting a great deal at the last minute, hence making it a win-win situation for all.

Last Minute Keys – The team

Last Minute Keys team comprises of veterans that bring in tremendous experience from the Travel & Tourism Space and also have close knit relationships with hoteliers throughout India as well as International hotel chains. They have deep rooted understanding of the nitty-gritties of the hospitality industry.

Manoj Gursahani, Co-founder & CEO: He has over 3 decades of experience in the Travel & Hospitality segment and has a complete 360 degree understanding of how the dynamics of the Industry works including e-commerce, MICE segment etc. Read more about Manoj here

Mahesh Shirodkar, Co-founder: He is the Managing Director of Tamarind Global, one of the largest hotel room consolidators in India. Read more about Mahesh here

Naveen Varadharajan, Co-founder: He is spearheading and overseeing the technology innovations at Last Minute Keys. He also heads the InsatiableGroup and BOB Tech Solutions as Director & CEO. Read more about Naveen here

Last Minute Keys – Technology

It is a mobile-only travel marketplace and it is currently present on the Play Store. Customers can book a last minute discounted room in just a few taps on their mobile. The hotels present on their platform are hand-picked and have excellent ratings on TripAdvisor which is a seal of Quality Guaranteed.

In contrast to other online travel agencies and travel marketplace, prices displayed on Last Minute Keys are Final Prices (with no hidden charges).

Last Minute Keys – Marketing

The team at Last Minute Keys believes that a good product can speak for itself. They are relying on good customer reviews and ensuring that the customer gets an awesome stay at the best price! They are now marketing the product via Digital Media so that they can reach to potential customers.

Last Minute Keys – Funding

Last Minute Keys is currently self funded and is looking to raise funds for further expansion. Post funding, they plan to launch Last Minute Keys for B2B market segment. There is also a plan to have a Day Room Use & Night Room Use Tariffs integrated in all their platforms (existing & forthcoming)

As per Traxcn, USD 8 bn has been globally invested in online travel in 2015~16 with Horizontal and Accommodation being the top funded sectors [Source*]

Last Minute Keys – Scaling up and Customer Acquisition

Travellers can book hotel-rooms via the Last Minute Keys app. Since their potential partners are boutique and premium hotels, an iOS app would be a must-have for further customer acquisition.

There is a plan to cater to the B2B segment with the following offerings:

Travel agents: Last Minute Keys plans to offer web based platform to Travel agents, along with offering attractive commissions as a major chunk of hotel rooms are still sold through the travel agents. Hence, it is very critical to have a Travel agent facing platform as well in order to increase the conversion rates.

SME’s/Corporates: A tailor-made solution for HR’s of Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) as well as large corporates. Attractive loyalty programs would be a major playing factor in the corporate ‘Customer Segment’

In our opinion, since most of the SME’s & large Corporates manage their employees’ travel through their Travel Desk (or Corporate Travel Agencies), last minute Lead Generation for corporate travel agencies could also be a model to explore!

Last Minute Keys – Expansion Plans

Many of the impulsive travellers might require a stay only for a day, Last Minute Keys plans to introduce Day & Night use Room Tariff’s where customer can book a hotel room for minimum period of 10 hours (10 am~7 pm or 9 pm~8 am).

Other future plans are Tie-up with international last minute hotel players via API integrations. This would be a win-win situation for both the parties since international last minute deal companies can enter the Indian market & service their Indian customers whereas Last Minute Keys can expand its services to more than 300 cities worldwide! Selling last minute hotel deals on e-commerce websites is another area that is to be explored.

Since travel does not only involve stay, hence it is important to address all the touch-points that deal with unplanned & impulsive travellers. Hence, they also plan to tie-up with Taxi Aggregators in order to ease their journey.

Last Minute Keys – Competition

Better pricing strategy is definitely a key USP for Last Minute Keys. Though online travel sites like MakeMyTrip (via its Last minute deals), ClearTrip (via Quick keys), Yatra etc. also cater to the impulsive traveller but that is not their key area of focus.

The Last Minute Keys team consistently monitor rates & maintain rate comparative analysis with other OTA’s. At times they offer deals that are more than 50% cheaper than their competitors. There is definitely a huge rate advantage, since it gets great deals from hotels, as hotels sell their unsold inventory at rock bottom rates on their platform.

Last Minute Keys – Conclusion


Be it individuals or corporates, there is a definite need to cater to the impulsive travellers even though it is still in it’s nascent stage. With their B2B plan, Last Minute Keys has a clear winner in terms of addressing the requirements of the corporate travel segment.

Plan a little less, live a little more. Be spontaneous! Use Last Minute Keys

|In: Review|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

There is a famous saying by the philosopher Heraclitus – The only thing that is constant is change. The ‘thing’ in the saying could be an individual, organization, team, technology or any term that you can think about. In today’s fast paced life, technology and its growing use across various sectors is acting as a Change Agent.

Image Source – First Mover Advantage

Technology: Adapt, Innovate or Perish

Nokia, once an unprecedented pace-setting phone maker lost the race to its competitors, since they totally failed to keep track of their competitors’ strategies and could not adapt at the right moment of time. Like Nokia, you would find many such companies that were once market leaders in their respective segments, but have now lost the race since they could not adapt to the rapid market demands.

Housing Sector: Mounting challenges

Urban Housing has been facing numerous challenges like rising infrastructure costs, increasing inflation, maintaining construction quality, increasing manpower costs and so forth. Raising funds is the biggest challenge for most real-estate developers. It is labor and capital intensive industry and rise in the overall costs makes it very difficult for developers to offer homes at affordable prices.

Prolonged regulatory processes also lead to delays in project launch and project completion. This is where the Real Estate Regulator Bill (RERA) would play a critical role in streamlining these processes. To keep costs down, technology has played a vital role in each sector including housing.

Technology: Usage in the Housing sector

Technology has become an integral part of the housing eco-system as well. Smart security systems, intelligent heating and cooling control systems, advanced construction techniques, etc., not only generates a WOW factor, but also helps the housing developers minimize construction costs. To counter attack the mammoth problem of ‘project delays’, developers are now adopting new technologies in order to reduce the turnaround time.

Sobha: Torchbearer in technology adoption

Talking about technology in the field of construction, one company that has been spearheading this race is Sobha Limited. Sobha Limited’s project Sobha Habitech is touted as Bengaluru’s first Smart Home. With their latest project – Sobha Dream Acres, they have taken a huge leap forward, thanks to the use of #Precast #Technology.

With precast technology, Sobha Dream Acres has been able to reduce the overall cost without compromising on quality. Sobha Limited has managed to complete the first 200 homes of Sobha Dream Acres, 20 months prior to its completion date, which is way #AheadOfTime.

Sobha Dream Acres: Advanced Technology. Better homes, faster delivery

Sobha is one of the very few builders in the country to use Precast Technology in the residential segment. Use of precast could minimize projects costs and also offer best-in-class homes to customers at an affordable price.

Sobha is the only construction company in the country to have all its activities backward integrated. They are experts in their field; be it architectural, mechanical, electrical, etc., which is why their brand builds trust in the minds of customers.

Sobha Dream Acres: Precast Technology, the game changer

There might be a question in the minds of customers about the durability of Precast Technology. The team at Sobha has ensured that they effectively communicate its value to customers via videos and blogs.

Let’s look into how Precast technology has helped Sobha to take the huge technological leap!

Precast concrete is produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold. It is cured in a controlled environment, transported to the site and lifted into place. Sobha has a precast plant that spans over an area of 76,000 square feet. The in-house precast plant has helped Sobha complete construction 25% faster than the normal conventional methods.

This video from Sobha Dream Series Youtube channel dives deep into Precast technology and it’s benefits for home buyers:

From the customer’s perspective, the advantages of using Precast technology is given below:

Image Source – Sobha Dream Acres

Sobha Dream Acres: Conclusion

With Precast Technology, Sobha has started a new chapter in the book of Budget Housing segment. Though many of Sobha’s competitors spend huge money on marketing, Sobha’s superior products and technological advancements do the talking.

To conclude, Sobha Dream Acres is a game-changing project not only for Sobha Limited but for the customers too, since Precast technology and further advancements could be a big boon to those willing to buy ‘Quality Affordable Homes’!

If you are a proud flat owner in Sobha Dream Acres or plan to buy a home or want to know more about Precast technology, please leave your question/feedback in the comments section…

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

It is the season of filing taxes and at least during this period of time, Tax and Savings momentarily become buzz words. One of the main reasons why it is momentary is because just like ‘New Year Resolutions’ that sometimes get fulfilled, our investment plans rarely take shape as per the plan. Investment plans many times change based on investment priorities, assets & liabilities, risk-taking appetite (which is based on your current stage of life, your current savings, dependents etc.).

Investments could take either form – Investments in Stock Markets [market dependent, volatile & investor needs to be updated with the market scenario’s] or Investments in Mutual Funds, ULIP (Unit Linked Insurance Plan), Life Insurance etc. In the latter case, investment situation is very different since in case of Mutual Funds/ULIP’s, you as an investor need to keep a Check on Market Up’s/Down’s but in most cases, there would be a flexibility to switch between your fund options in order to maximize returns. Such investment options are best suited when you have a bird’s eye view of the capital market (not in-depth knowledge) and do not have risk-taking appetite !!

Image Source* – Online Term Plan

We had also mentioned about one very important investment – Life Insurance that can be termed as Life Assurance. It is an assurance that if some un-toward incident occurs in your life than your dependents do not have to take the brunt on it (from financial aspects). We insure our cars, house, bike and even mobile phones these days. In today’s fast paced world, life has become uncertain, so each one of us would definitely have a Life Insurance. With rising inflation, change in our life-style patterns, shift to nuclear families, Life Insurance is a must-have in your financial planning book !!!

Most of the Life Insurance policies in the market offer only ‘Life Cover’ i.e. the opportunity for wealth-creation is negligible. If you are an average Financial Maverick (i.e. you keep a check on market scenario on regular-basis) & require a Life Insurance that also creates Wealth than ULIP (Unit Linked Insurance Plan) provides you that option (Life Cover + Wealth Creation). There are many financial companies offering the same and Canara HSBC & OBC is set to launch a ‘Part Protection‘ and ‘Part investment plan‘. The plan provides protection features through different benefit options to suit your needs.

Canara, HSBC and OBC : Overview

Canara HSBC and OBC is a joint collaboration of Canara, HSBC, Oriental Bank of Commerce and it caters to the Life Insurance sector. It uses industry-accepted best security practices, controls and have a robust information security framework and underlying infrastructure that works round the clock towards protecting customer’s sensitive information.

Canara, HSBC and OBC : ULIP Plans

As mentioned earlier, ULIP is a good product that offers you the benefit of investment in capital markets along with insurance. One of the major advantages of ULIP is that you can expect higher returns based on your scheme. With GST Bill passed by Rajya Sabha and overall reactions being ‘Positive’, I invested in a ULIP plan from this company based on consultation with my financial advisor.

Source – CanaraHSBCLife

Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance has some interesting ULIP Plans which an investor can look into based on his/her current investment portfolio. Some of the plans are below:

  1. Grow Smart Plan
  2. Dream Smart Plan
  3. Future Smart Plan
  4. Smart Goals Plans

You can more information about these plans & many other plans in the ULIP section of CanaraHSBCOBC The company has come up with new ULIP Plans – iNVESTSHIELD Plan and Assured Nivesh Plan.

Canara, HSBC and OBC : iNVESTSHIELD Plan

In line with the philosophy of ULIP Plans, #InvestShield Plan is a Value for Money Investment combined with Protection for your Family. The most promising aspect of the plan is that it is Highly customizable and you have the flexibility to do Partial Withdrawals.

In order to apply for the #InvestShield Plan, you need to follow these steps:

  1. Decide on your Premium and Choose your options
  2. Complete the Proposal
  3. Make Payment
  4. Submit the Documents

The entire process looks hassle-free and less cumbersome !!! Based on your risk-taking appetite, you can opt for a plan that suits your current & planned future requirements.

Image Source* – InvestShield Plan

In order to Apply for the #InvestShield Plan, please visit InvestShield Plan Application Page

Canara, HSBC and OBC : Assured Nivesh Plan

Assured Nivesh Plan is a plan with fixed Policy Term of 15 and 20 years. Depending on the Policy Term, you need to pay premium for 7 or 10 years. At the end of every year, the company would declare bonus throughout the policy term and that would be added to the sum assured.

CanaraHSBCOBC-AssuredNiveshPlan-1

On survival of the Life Assured to the end of the policy term the below defined maturity benefit is payable to the Policyholder provided the policy is in-force: Guaranteed Sum Assured at Maturity + Accrued Annual Bonus (If Any) + Final Bonus (If Any) where Guaranteed Sum Assured at Maturity is equal to Sum Assured. Please refer to BENEFITS section of Assured Nivesh Plan to get details about Life-Cover Benefits and Death Benefits.

We are sure that there would be lingering doubts about the returns, benefits to family members in case of un-timely demise of the policy holder etc. The HOW IT WORKS section provides an answer to all your questions :

CanaraHSBCOBC-AssuredNiveshPlan-3

The Insurance Calculator section can definitely be a useful tool in case you have the initial doubt of “How much insurance you need ?” With an upswing in the market, increase in FDI, Passage of the GST Bill coupled with positive reactions from industry experts; this might be the right time to invest in a ULIP Plan 🙂

If you an investor in any policy from Canara HSBC OBC, please leave your review in the comments section…

Disclaimer : Information provided in the article is based on my research and I do not have any holding. Investment in stocks/ULIP/Mutual Funds involves risk, so consult your financial adviser or do your own analysis before making any investment.

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Few weeks back, we received the Swipe Elite Plus, the latest smartphone from Pune based Swipe Telecom & the journey of it’s usage has been great so far. The review is based on the useage of the phone [as Primary Device] for more than three weeks. Today we have a detailed review of the Swipe Elite Plus, so let’s get started…

Swipe Elite Plus : Overview

Swipe Elite Plus is a Android [5.1] Lollipop based smart-phone that runs on the Freedom OS [tweaked version of Android]. Freedom OS offers an extremely personalized experience. The device sports a 5 inches Full HD IPS Capacitive Touchscreen with pixel resolution of 1920*1080.

Swipe Elite Plus : What’s in the Box

The box consists of the following items:

  • Handset
  • USB Charging cable
  • Travel Adapter
  • Quick Start-Guide

There are no headphones included in the box !!

Swipe Elite Plus : Specifications

  • Display : 5 inch Full HD [1920*1080] IPS Capacitive Touchscreen
  • OS : Android 5.1 Lollipop with Freedom OS
  • CPU : 1.5 GHz QC Snapdragon MSM8939 Octa-core Processor
  • GPU : Adreno 405
  • Storage : 16 GB internal memory [Expandable upto 64 GB]
  • Cameras : 13 MP Rear Camera with LED flash + 8 MP Front Camera
  • Connectivity : Wi-Fi, Dual SIM (LTE & GSM), GPS, Bluetooth 4.0
  • USB : No USB OTG Support
  • Battery : 3,050 mAh
  • Dimensions [W*H*D] : 69.6*139.8*8.9 mm
  • Weight : 131 grams

The Swipe Elite Plus is available exclusively on Flipkart and the 16 GB version costs Rs 6,999 [Without Exchange] and Rs 5500 [With Exchange].

Swipe Elite Plus : Design

The Swipe Elite Plus is sleek and has a light body. The phone weighs around 131 grams which makes it very light in your hands. Since the device sports a 5 inch display hence, it can easily fit in your pocket. The back of the smartphone is made up of plastic and the center sports the Elite branding in a metallic like circular frame. Though the back cover is removable, the battery is non-removable. The device has a metal frame around it in grey kind of gunmetal colour.

The phone supports Dual SIM, only one SIM slot supports 4G. The device has 16 GB internal memory that is expandable upto 64 GB via a micro-SD card. The Back & Menu button are Back-lit whereas the Home button has a Sliver ring around it. Overall from the design point of view, the phone looks elegant [even though there is an era of Metal Body phones] as Swipe Elite Plus is light weight and comfortable in your hands.

Swipe Elite Plus : Memory

As discussed earlier, the device comes with a 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM. Swipe Elite Plus comes with a micro-SD card slot and the maximum expandable memory is 64 GB. The Freedom OS looks very breezy and there was no lag observed while using the phone. By default, the phone comes with Swipe Elite Plus’s proprietary launcher called the ‘Swipe Launcher’. The launcher is very similar to the Nova Launcher or the Google Launcher and hence there is no learning curve involved in getting used to the features of the Launcher.

There is some bloatware in the phone with Pre-installed apps like DailyHunt, Swipe Elite PlusBox [Swipe Elite Plus’s Own version of store to download apps]. As seen in the Swipe Elite Note review, this phone also comes with Swipe Elite Plus Finder which searches for content on the phone as well the internet.

At times, we observed some apps getting automatically installed on the phone or some random advertisements opening in the Browser as soon as the phone is unlocked. Looks like this is due to a service com.sts that is part of the ROM, hence it is advisable to kill it as soon as you power up the phone !!!

Swipe Elite Plus : Display

Swipe Elite Plus sports a 5 inch Full HD [1920*1080] with IPS Capacitive Touchscreen. Dragon trail glass on the display ensures that there are no scratches, we used the phone without any screen guard under tough conditions but there was no wear & tear of the display. The display has amazing clarity, great picture quality [both indoors and outdoors] and viewing angles.

We enjoyed watching 4K & HD videos on this device since the experience becomes better due to the amazing display of Swipe Elite Plus. Touch Screen is very responsive and we did not face any lags during normal operations of the phone.

Swipe Elite Plus : Camera

Elite Plus has a 13 MP f/2.0 rear camera and 8 MP front camera. On the outset, there are lot of improvements in the Camera when compared to the Swipe Elite Note. There are different camera shooting modes namely Auto, Panaroma, Manual etc. Auto Focus on the phone is pretty quick. Photos captured in the HDR Mode come out really well. There is also a QR code scanner in the camera app. Photos clicked in daylight are of good quality though the quality deteriorates a bit in low-light conditions.

The 8 MP front camera is a treat for all the ‘Selfie lovers’. Photos clicked using the front camera are of awesome clarity. Overall, we are thoroughly impressed with the improvements on the Camera front on Swipe Elite Plus, definitely a big Thumbs Up !!!

Some of the sample images are below:

IMG-20160809-WA0004

Swipe Elite Plus : Battery

Swipe Elite Plus is packed with massive 3,050 mAh battery unit which is great for a 5 inch smartphone. The phone lasted for around 16~17 hours on moderate useage [with 3G ON] and minimal amount of gaming. Due to the Adreno 405 GPU, even 3D gaming was a delight on the phone. The device did get over-heated at times when it was continuously used for a huge amount of time especially with GPU intensive apps like 3D games.

Major downside is that the device does not support ‘Quick Charge’ [though there are very few devices in this price segment that support Fast Charging]. Charger that comes along with the phone only has output capacity of 1A and hence takes more than 2 hours for full-charge.

Swipe Elite Plus : Software

The Swipe Elite Plus runs on the Freedom OS [customized version of Android] though there are traces of stock Android. The launcher used on the device is the Swipe Elite Plus Launcher which used to show some lags when there are apps running in the background. Talking about the Freedom OS, it comes with lot of customizations. You can add your picture on the App Drawer Icon, change text colors, background colors etc.

Having reviewed the Swipe Elite Note, we definitely see that Swipe has again done considerable amount of work on the Freedom OS and made it much more snappy. We liked the default Icon Pack as well, Icons look nice and crispy.

There are handful number of pre-installed apps on the phone – DailyHunt, Swipe Elite PlusBox, Swipe Elite Plus Finder etc. As mentioned earlier, Swipe Elite Plus Finder searches for content on the phone as well on the internet. We saw considerable amount of lag when Swipe Elite Plus Finder was running in the background and once that app is killed, there was good improvement in the device performance.

Swipe Elite Plus : Connectivity

The Swipe Elite Plus comes with Dual-SIM [One SIM with 4G LTE support, other SIM with 3G support]. It has WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. The USB port on the device is not OTG compliant which was bit of a let-down since now all sub 5K phones also come with OTG capability.

The device comes with Accelerometer, Light Sensor, G-Sensor, Proximity Sensor. We were able to use the device for 14~15 hours while on 3G with stable network conditions. There were no call-drops observed when 3G Data was ON while the calls are active [which made 3G much more usable].

Swipe Elite Plus : Suggested Accessories

Screen Guard – Option 1

Back Cover – Option 1, Option 2

Swipe Elite Plus : Verdict

Vibrant display quality, great camera unit and good battery backup makes Swipe Elite Plus a good buy at Rs. 6,999. Given that the device comes with micro-SD card slot [expandable upto 64 GB] ensures that the user is left with more internal memory.

As discussed earlier, after disabling Swipe Elite Plus Launcher, Force Closing some in-built apps; performance of the Swipe Elite Plus was even better !! We even tried the Swipe Elite Plus Customer Service and their response was very prompt. We visited one service center in Marathalli and staff there was good. After sales-service is very ciritical for the success of any smartphone.

Pros
Vibrant 5 inch 1920 x 1080p Display
Good Camera
Excellent Battery life
Availability of FM Radio
Free 100 GB Cloud Storage (through Swipe Elite PlusBox)

Cons
No USB OTG Functionality [I personally use it a lot :))
No fast charging

Barring aside couple of minor issues, Swipe Elite Plus is definitely worth a buy !!!