One thing that makes Bengaluru [formerly Bangalore] unique from other cities in India is the awesome climate and the greenery, but that differentiation seems to be dwindling very fast. There was a time when you would not even need to switch on the fan even during summer, but lately the temperatures have been higher during winters as well. Huge amount of urbanization in the city [which could have resulted diminishing amount of greenery], rising population [due to the opportunities it provides to the IT engineers], increasing number of apartments [resulting in a concrete jungle] and Global Warming are some of the factors that have added woes to the rising temperature in the city.
The scene is no different in other cities in South India where they experience a high amount of humidity, due to which the residents require Fans/Air Conditioners to be constantly running to keep themselves cool in the scorching summer. However, constant use of these equipments adds up to the overall electricity costs and since Air Conditioners require much higher voltage, they might not function when your house/flat is getting power from the generators. Though air coolers have become a source to maintain cool temperatures, they can never replace the age-old reliable ‘Fan’. It is a known fact that operating the ceiling fans could keep the room cool, but operating them at higher speeds results in more noise and disturbance. Higher speeds mean a significant increase in the power consumption.
Due to these factors and changing customer demands, the overall ceiling fan market is inching towards the super-efficient ceiling fans due to the push of Bureau Of Energy Efficiency, India [BEE] for super-efficient appliances in India. By saving some electricity by using smart appliances, we can do our bit in contributing to the noble initiative of Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana [SAUBHAGYA] that aims to connect thousands of villages with power.
Electric Fan Market in India
The electric fan market is broadly divided into the organized and unorganized category where the organized segment is largely dominated by the Indian companies where the unorganized segment is led by the Chinese competitors. The revenues for organized electric fan market are growing with a CAGR of 12.29% from the last five years.
Higher disposable incomes, increased availability of continuous power & a faster shift to the organized sector has propelled the electric fan market in India, with much of the growth has been through organized players now as consumers move towards branded and more technologically efficient fans [Source]. With the central government’s push towards ‘Electricity For All’, a significant amount of effort and money is spent in marketing & distribution by the companies to reach their every expanding rural customer base.
In terms of revenue share, South India is the largest market followed by the West and North. Due to this, companies in the Fan Market are making a conscious effort to listen to the changing market demands & consumer’s requirements, particularly in the Southern part of India.
Orient Electric, a significant player in the Ceiling Fans & Home Appliances category has some interesting findings on the customer’s needs in South India:
Major parts in South India have a huge amount of humidity where air-coolers do not work effectively, due to which there is an increasing demand for Table Wall Pedestal [TPW] fans along with the normal ceiling fan.
Though there is no load shedding in many parts of South India yet there is an increasing number of power cuts [especially during the rainy season and sometimes in the summer season as well].
TPW Fans that are available in the market provide high air-flow but also make a lot of noise causing disturbance. They also consume a huge amount of electricity.
Wind Pro Series – Fan with High Performance, Less Power Consumption
Based on the customer inputs mentioned above, one thing was clear that there was a pressing need for a TPW Fan that could deliver high air-flow with low-noise and consume less electricity than its existing counterparts. All these requirements needed to be achieved without compromising on the quality and reliability.
The answer to all these requirements is the recently launched ‘Wind Pro Series’ by Orient Electric.
Features Overview
The current breed of portable three blade high-speed fans available in the market may have higher RPM but give out lesser CMM of air with lesser thrust and come with lots of noise. To counter this problem, Orient Electric has launched its 5 blade Wind Pro range of portable fans which delivers 95 CMM of air delivery with high thrust and has far lesser sound levels and also consumes less power.
A unique combination of Motor and Impeller.
More Air thrust, 20% lesser power consumption and improved thermal overload protection that other High speed fans.
Refreshing white body with stellar looks.
Performance Overview
Wind-PRO has the highest air velocity or Air Thrust; it is 26% more than normal speed fan and 5% higher than a high-speed fan.
Air Delivery also is highest for Wind-Pro fan; it is higher by about 16% than normal speed fan and by about 4% higher than a high-speed fan.
In terms of power consumption, wind-PRO is 20% more efficient than a high-speed fan
In terms of noise as well, wind-PRO performs significantly better [around 9 dB less] than a high-speed fan.
Formats, Pricing, and Availability
The Wind Pro range of portable fans come in a table, stand and wall mounted versions and aptly provides a long-awaited solution for the consumers in southern India which is the key focus market for Orient Electric. Orient Wind Pro fans have a sweep of 400 mm and give an impressive air delivery of 95 CMM/5700 CMH and have oscillation & speed control. An important feature of Wind Pro fans is concentric winding which eliminates electrical imbalance at low and medium speed, thus reducing the motor noise. This is the first time that concentric winding is used in the Indian manufacturing sector.
Pricing for the new range of 5-Blade Wind-Pro fans starts at an MRP of Rs. 2,370. The fans are available at all leading outlets across India and can also be bought online at Orient Electric’s e-commerce portal
Orient Electric’s long-standing brand ambassador MS Dhoni features in the new campaign for Wind Pro fans emphasizing on high air thrust.
With Wind Pro series, the company plans to consolidate its portfolio and also strengthen its presence in South India. From a consumer’s perspective, it is a product that could beat the burning summer heat with something that is #SuperQuietSuperPowerful.
What is your take on the TPW market and the Wind Pro Series, do leave your feedback in the comments section.
The impact that technology has on our lives today has been growing with each passing day. A domain which is seeing tremendous amount of advancement is the field of Communication and Devices. Tracing back to several decades earlier, who would have known that mobile phones would become so popular, and that the means of communication would change so drastically over a period of time. Not only have consumers benefited positively from these advancements, but even traditional businesses have had to embrace this change in order to stay relevant and be ahead of the curve. IoT, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Chat Bots, etc. are some of the technologies that are fueling this growth. Enterprises, irrespective of the size & scale have to embrace the change and evolve alongside it. This is where a company like Sasken that has a product development DNA can help global leaders drive product development, commercialization, customization and maintenance.
Sasken specializes in verticals such as Semiconductors, Automotive, Enterprise Grade Devices, Smart Devices and Wearables, Public Safety, Satcom, Telecom, Industrial and Retail. They partner with their customers to provide full life-cycle product engineering capability including sustenance of existing product lines. Sasken enables its customers to build innovative products and solutions that transform human life.
Ajit Singh, Global Head of Communications & Devices business unit, Sasken Technologies Limited is focused on channelizing Sasken’s Chip to Cognitive experience towards the success of its customers. His rich experience in managing 360-degree alliance partnerships and innovative business models have enabled mutual success with customers. More details about him can be found here. Today, we have a chat with Ajit Singh, about communication trends, security, 5G, impact of Machine Learning & AI on technology, etc.
Please give a brief insight into the work that has been done at Sasken ?
I am responsible for the Communication and Device business unit at Sasken and I took over this role a little less than a year ago. This business unit contributes approximately to one-third of the organization’s overall revenue.
As far as Sasken is concerned, we continue to be focused on product engineering, the areas that we are working on, and are currently seeing market growth particularly in the Industrials and Auto segment. We are leveraging our chip to cognition experience and our competency in newer solutions and taking them into new segments. So, while we are strengthening the expertise we have in the communications space, we are also leveraging it in newer market segments.
Our investors are elated with the quarter-on-quarter growth, and we continue to be debt free and profitable.
Can you comment on the business unit that you are heading, and what are some of the ways in which Sasken is helping its customers in that particular segment ?
Our Communication and Devices BU is divided into devices and wireless sections. While the devices section includes all kinds of devices – be it smartphone or any other IoT device – wireless includes our key satellite communication customers and some network infrastructure work that we have done for our wireless customers.
On the devices side, we are helping our customers differentiate their products in the market. While it is becoming easy for OEMs [device manufacturers] to adopt the latest platform from Google and bring best features to the market instead of getting standardized, it is increasingly becoming a challenge for them to still differentiate and come out with the premium features that they want from the customers and consumers. We are helping our customers adopt the new Google OS as well as maintain their legacy products in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors. There are a lot of new things we are working on in the areas of Machine Learning and AI which are now slowing getting integrated into new products.
We are using our embedded engineering knowledge to help our customers incorporate the benefits of newer technologies into their products as well. This is happening across different business segments and is not solely confined to the smartphone market. We are seeing clear adoption of new technologies in the Automotive and Industrial IoT [IIoT] segment as well.
In the wireless segment, Sasken has been unique in India through its global satellite communication customers. In my 20+ years of experience, I haven’t seen any company come close to the competency and offerings that Sasken has in this segment. We have customers who have been associated with us for the last 15+ years and we have helped them bring about new products that enhance the speed, ruggedness, and stability, along with the new Use cases & Applications.
We are working with a leading North American system integrator to develop a next generation LTE based satellite communication device; a first of its kind in the industry when it is commercially launched. We are also working with a customer in the networking side where we are helping the customer migrate from existing GSN-based [Gigabyte System Network] BTS [Base Transceiver Station] to a faster 5G/LTE-based networking product.
From a digital standpoint, we are bringing in expertise from helping them on the revenue side of the business to gain a better insight for customers and consumers. This thereby sharpens their products and service strategy.
You mentioned about Android, and how exactly it is streamlining with the latest trends. Can you comment on how exactly IoT, AI, machine learning, and Cognitive Computing is changing the way it is affecting the industry and the devices that are existing in the market ?
It is an evolving field. There are multiple leading players in the market, whether it is Google, Amazon or Facebook. Multiple players are shaping the way the industry moves for their own competitive advantage.
A lot of research is happening right from the institute to the corporate level. If you look at any technology leading corporate group, you will see a lot of R&D investment going towards AI or Machine Learning. We are seeing early adopters and products entering the market, while the technologies involved are getting stabilized.
At Sasken, our CTO office is led by an industry veteran. We are doing our own bit in terms of investing in Machine Learning and AI. We are also grooming a competency center within the company which is working on different aspects and use cases. We successfully demonstrated some of these use cases at Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona which was well-received by customers and prospects. In summary, things are evolving and there are contributions being made by different players in the market; some of them are existing partners or customers that we are associated with. Using this, we are helping customers adopt and adjust their devices or their overall product strategy.
In terms of how it is impacting the market, time will only tell, but the one thing that comes out clearly is that devices no longer have a standard interface with humans and are constantly evolving. Some of them are becoming physical and some non-physical. From an engineering standpoint, a lot of interesting work is happening, but I foresee that most of the devices will have multiple interfaces to interact with humans as well as themselves. Different interfaces will come through whether visual, audio, multimedia, or in terms of impact of pressure, temperature, etc. It is quite exciting for a company like Sasken, which is so strong embedded in its engineering knowledge, to work with some of the leading semiconductor and OEM customers in today’s evolving environment.
You spoke about how security & battery life holds a very important aspect in the lifespan of any device. Off late, a lot of people are more concerned about security, especially about their own data [after data leak by major social networking giant]. What are some of the steps that are taken by the silicon manufacturers to ensure that there is good enough security on the device, and the data is kept secure ?
Let me first talk about security and then I will come to power management or optimizing the battery. So, from a security aspect let me divide it into two parts. One is creating a machine that behaves the way it has been designed where the security is not at all compromised. Once you give an instruction to the machine, it should deliver an expected output and also be resilient enough to push back any other command not written on it. From an engineering standpoint this means that you create a product that is not hackable to the maximum extent possible.
Today consumers are aware, educated, and much more intelligent to know about what they are using or getting into. At the same time corporates should also own the responsibility of making sure of what they are committing and promising, in order to maintain the integrity and discipline, and that has got nothing to do with product engineering. From Sasken’s standpoint and a product engineering perspective, we are making joint R&D development programs with customers, which is an integral part of making sure that the products that we create are secure and behave the way they are designed to.
Coming to the power management aspect that you touched upon, obviously when you try and insert a multiple application for multiple things that a device has to do, it needs power to run. Multiple challenges are also involved with regard to the way the device functions, and temperature of the device, especially in the Satcom domain. I think we understand it better than many other players because of our expertise in creating a 100% rugged device that is able to withstand non-friendly environments and higher limits of shock.
On one hand you have to create such a device, and on the other hand it has to be very easy to use, hold and be comfortable for the consumer. At the same, the teams need to enhance and improve the performance, speed, and bandwidth to such a large extent that some of these things start playing a role. We have been able to so far figure out the best balance through our competency in terms of maintaining good battery life, without compromising on the performance of the device or the aesthetics or weight etc. We completely appreciate this aspect, and are constantly ensuring that this is all taken care of when we do our development programs.
Ajit Singh, Global Head of Communications & Devices Business Unit, Sasken Technologies Limited
Although lots of things are being spoken and written about IoT, it is still highly under penetrated. Can you comment on some of the reasons or some of the aspects on why exactly it is like that, and what should be done so that there is more and more penetration of IoT and have more devices connected together ?
From my perspective, the key issue is monetizing all the investments. R&D is currently going into this phase, and I feel that the returns will start coming not from the consumer side but from the industrial side, or state or the government agencies. This comes from the fact that they will use these technologies to enhance public safety or deliver better citizen services. That is where I feel the starting point will be, on the industrial side where corporates will see merit in improving their safety, efficiency, of employing things that were earlier difficult to do from a manual standpoint. That is where I think there will be major adoption of IoT.
Here are a couple of examples where I see it actively getting incorporated. One is in the mining area, where devices are evolving and reaching areas that aid humans in a safe environment, thereby helping the corporates who are investing to improve the revenues and reduce their cost or health hazards. The other sector is in the area of the utility, where things like smart meters are getting adopted to reduce power losses. From a consumer perspective, I feel it will take a while before we put our money onto such enhancements. Consumer and commercial models will be very different, and I am hoping some great innovations evolve in in the commercial model department. It might not be straightforward like paying little extra to use IoT applications and then get that additional cost on the cellular bill.
How important is the services aspect of IoT since right now even though we have devices, services are the one that contribute a major part of the revenue. So how exactly should the company go about monetizing the services aspect of an IoT device ?
I recently attended the demo of a company at the Mobile World Congress, and they had an IoT product focused on the agricultural segment. That device essentially was almost free; it was close to a dollar or even less than that. The device basically helps the farmer optimize the water supply that it has to give to his crops, and also gives a bunch of analytics because this device runs on a narrow band IoT, that eventually goes back to the cellular network and connects to the cloud.
The application enters analytical data and feeds it back to the consumer or end user using these IoT devices. So, the device as such almost comes free, but the person who is using it pays for the subscription. They were test marketing the solution in a couple of countries in Europe, and their intention was to broad base it to more countries across the continent. This would be more towards addressing the B2B rather than the B2C market.
How important is data analytics when we talk about all these connected devices, and how exactly is Sasken helping its customers in that area ?
The number of apps and devices are increasing on the planet. You will agree that the data generated is exponentially increasing. In a second, billions of data packets are getting generated. Today, the way data is getting collected and moving to the data center, cloud or private premise, majority of the data capture and consolidation is happening in a very crude form.
There is a lot of work happening in data analytics and in terms of building intelligence on the edge. Anything that goes on the Wide Area Network [WAN] is expensive. It is being charged against cost and planned for its network capacity. Our embedded engineering expertise brings intelligence into the edge whether it is the device, edge router or switch.
The other is our knowledge on the cognition part of the digital segment, which we are able to marry through and help prospective clients by building equipments that are intelligent at the edge. In terms of the data being generated through this, it becomes useful for multiple stakeholders.
On one hand, the consumers or customers who are generating the data from this device can give feedback on consumption models with parameters like time, day, temperature, weather, or season. This helps create a benchmark on what the average consumption is, compared to what the consumption levels he or she is at. This helps give relevance to the consumers generating this data, and in modifying his or her user behavior to his advantage.
Secondly, the data is also important in giving insights on all the equipments being used in the value chain, right from the device to the network, cloud, data center etc. This in turn provides insights on how well the performance levels of the device is, its consumption, the network resources that are draining the battery, and if so, the reasons of failure as well. This data can be used for predictive fault management and planning the customer support or customer service strategy based on this insights derived. So that is the second stakeholder.
The third stakeholder is the network itself. The network provider operates itself in order to make their billing plans more intelligent to the people who are behind their network. For one of our clients which is a Virtual Network Operator buys bulk bandwidth from a large operator in Europe and then sells retail packages to people who want a temporary mobile connection.
We are currently engaging with a customer, wherein we are helping them find out what is the best volume of bandwidth that we should buy, and which best combination of packages should be created and sold to the retail market. For example, if they are buying 100, they can they sell at 120 or more, so that they can completely utilize or even over utilize to maximize the profits. Coming back to the IoT environment, the operator can also use the insights from the data that is being generated to change its billing plan to people who are buying. We have multiple stakeholders and everybody has some use of this data which comes for different purposes.
Please touch upon how you are building Sasken into a Center Of Excellence [CoE] in emerging technologies ?
Within Sasken, we have largely two areas where we are investing in. One is on the engineering side with newer technologies like Machine Learning, AI, as well as 5G, from a communication standpoint. The other areas are on the digital front, which is largely around data and analytics. We are ensuring that it aligns with our engineering strategy.
We are not a typical, large IT services company. We are niche, focused, and are trying to excel in areas around engineering and digital that helps us transform the engineering cycle for our customers. We are doing things that are more pertaining to the technology center.
Please share your thoughts on the road ahead for Sasken, and where exactly you see the industry evolving in couple of years down the line, and what are some of things that you want to see a change in with respect to technology, and Sasken could be an enabler in that area ?
I do not see the fundamentals changing for the road ahead. The fundamentals are in terms of stability, performance, security, etc. which have become more like organizational values in an engineering development cycle that we have imbibed. So, these bits are not going to change.
What will change is the way that the devices will interact with machine or with humans. We have all the building blocks and are enhancing them with the latest technologies for our existing customers or numerous prospective clients. In my personal belief, we are in the right spot and we should be able to leverage the way the market is moving to our advantage. By bringing the digital story in, it widens our ability to be sharp, and help customers predict revenues as well as cost models, and generate different commercial models to gain insights that goes right back into product.
I think that is social responsibility is something that the corporate leaders will have to be more conscious of. From a consumer standpoint, I think consumers cannot externalize it. They are equally learned, educated, responsible, and know what they are taking and not taking on.
Recently there were a couple of mishaps that happened in the connected car segment. Can AI take over completely, or should it be a combination of human and AI for a more ideal approach ?
It is an iterative journey, and is not binary that today we can say that if there are ‘x’ number of mishaps per million vehicles on the road, then the next would become ‘0’. I don’t think it will happen that way. I recently read an article that said that even now AI based connected cars are struggling to reach the efficiency level or the average accidents on the road level for which they are modeled.
So, it is iterative and will get evolved. We will get there, and the technology will improve. Today all the solutions are not there and many are getting worked up, but eventually we will get there.
We thank Ajit Singh for sharing his insights with our readers. If you have any questions for him about communication technologies, technology trends, etc. please email them here or share them via a comment to this article.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. announced the launch of the world’s first Artificial Intelligence based brand engagement platform – JioInteract. The first of many services to be launched on this platform is the Live Video Call that featuresIndia’s favourite celebrities. To kick-start, Jio has on-boarded none other than Bollywood’s biggest star, Amitabh Bachchan, who will promote his upcoming comedy-drama film ‘102 Not Out’ in the most innovative way.
Image Source – Reliance Jio
With Jio’s base of over 186 million subscribers and another 150 million smartphone users, JioInteract is poised to become the largest platform for movie-promotion and brand engagement. Over the next few weeks, Jio will introduce services such as video call centres, video catalogue, and virtual showrooms to the forefront redefining customer experience.
Such use of artificial intelligence is a first across the world and will reposition the way brands and customers think of engagement.
About JioInteract’s Live Video Call
JioInteract’s first service ‘Live Video Call’ will allow all Jio and other smartphone subscribers to make a video call with their favourite superstar, Amitabh Bachchan anytime during the day, starting on 4th May 2018.
Users can ask questions related to his upcoming comedy drama film, 102 Not Out and even book their movie tickets in real-time through the ticketing-partner BookMyShow.
Start your video call and chat with Amitabh Bachchan
Additionally, subscribers can also share their video call experience with their family and friends using the ‘Share’ option.
This unique and innovative service uses a powerful AI based platform to listen to user questions and respond to them in the most appropriate way. In addition, the platform has a unique auto-learning feature that helps improve the answering accuracy. Leveraging the strength of Jio’s strong mobile video network and its 186+ million strong subscriber base along with new technologies like Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, JioInteract has created a compelling brand engagement solution for businesses.
Positioned as VCBaaS [Video Call Bot as a Service], JioInteract with its full scale multimedia capabilities attempts to democratize Artificial Intelligence & Video Call technologies in a simplified way for effective brand engagement. This technology has wide scale applications across B2C space. Using it, Jio is also tapping developer ecosystem to create innovative applications like virtual showrooms, product demonstrations, ordering cart for e-commerce, etc.
Setting an example on how grass-root level innovation propelled by disruptive technologies in the traditional banking space, can simplify complex financial procedures for the entire nation, Rubique Technologies Private Limited, India’s largest online financial matchmaking platform has today announced the start of its new journey with Rubique 2.0; unveiling its new brand identity. Currently, clocking $7.2 Mn [INR 47 Crore] revenue in March 2018, with a monthly revenue of INR 3.5 Crore, the company aims to reach an INR 100 crore month on month revenue by 2021 and plans to break-even by 2019.
Laying out its 2.0 vision, as initial steps, Rubique will sharpen its focus on creating a robust technology based financial ecosystem in the markets, earlier untouched by Fintech and further strengthen its technological and analytics capabilities to expand its credit product offerings to deepen its reach to small enterprises and underserved micro enterprises. As a part of its ambitious growth targets, the company has planned to heavily invest in newer products and partnerships under its Insurance segments, and further expand its product distribution into 100 more cities in India this year.
Bringing alive its renewed brand identity, Rubique Technology has unveiled its new logo which enshrines its core values and mission statement, to fulfill every financial aspiration in the Simplest, Shortest & Speediest way possible. The new logo represents the three pillars of the company- FIs, Customers and influences: Integrating deep technology and domain expertise, Applying insights from across industries, and Consistently delivering world-class integrated, end-to-end solutions for all financial services. It also highlights Rubique’s strong technology heritage, signifying a higher level of engagement and brand permission that helps all stakeholders leverage its technology expertise to address their business and financial requirements and drive future opportunities in this digital era.
Speaking on the occasion, Manav Jeet, MD & CEO, Rubique, said
Almost around four years back we started a journey with a vision to disrupt Indian banking sector with cutting edge technology and frugal innovation to simplify finances for individual and MSMEs. We stumbled, learned and grown into one of the foremost success stories driving India’s rapidly-growing digital financial services sector.
We now introduce, the second leg of our journey, Rubique 2.0, leapfrogging into the future of banking with a renewed and re-imagined focus; delving deeper into newer and underserved markets with the power of technology enabled financial inclusion. Rubique 2.0 encapsulates what we do and mean, for our partners – FIs, Customers and Business Associates – and these values find expression in our new brand identity.
In its constant endeavour to stay ahead of the technology innovation curve and bring a symbiotic relationship between traditional lending institutions and technology, the fintech major plans to develop technology products for the ecosystem to add push for digital adoption & facilitate new technologies into bankinge.g. TAB solution facilitating finance for SME customers, alternate data based credit scoring mechanism to facilitate underwriting for first time borrowers using machine learning and big data analytics; create infrastructure to mitigate fraud with deepen security and data privacy and leverage alternate data, image recognition and video analytics on SPOT to automate data filling and verification thus making customer on boarding seamless and hassle free.
Established in the year 2014, Rubique with its technology thinking of financial services, has proven itself as one of the fastest growing Fintech companies in India, witnessing 4x growth YoY. Currently, serving more than 2 Lakh customers with offerings varying from Loans, Credit Cards to Insurance, the company has helped facilitate a massive disbursement of INR 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups, till date through its platform, almost 65% of which is targeted to SMEs in India.
Speaking on the renewed brand identity, Sheetal Mayekar, Founding Member and Strategic & Commercial Intelligence, said
The new brand identity marks our journey of transformation in the digital world. Our brand refresh signals an even closer engagement with customers, focusing on millennials with greater innovation in bringing advanced technologies to access deeper markets and ease credit access to the country and focus on entire ecosystem growth working as a collaborator.
With constantly innovating & evolving industry, the futuristic technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data and AI used by Rubique analyses multiple data points to assess the creditworthiness of the customers and provide them the offers they are eligible for, thereby removing the manual efforts in the loan processing system.
The digital access to finance will continue to massively impact all individuals and businesses in the country. Undoubtedly technology will play a vital role in uplifting the Indian economy over the next five years, and therefore Rubique has taken a holistic approach to introduce tech intervention at all possible touch points. Implementation of disruptive technologies blockchain. Smart KYC & Paperless loan process is nothing but one step towards creating a unified flow of information to make the transactions simpler, and reduce the processing time for customers.
With the recent close of its new funds led by two of the world’s largest corporate and investment firms, the investment subsidiary RSP India Fund, LLC of Japan’s Recruit Co. Ltd. and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital, along with Blacksoil and existing investor Kalaari Capital, Rubique is planning to invest heavily in Data Science methodologies and leverage insights generated to build stronger business propositions.
The company has recently built a data science team which leverages its rich customer data and bank credit policies to build a proprietary AI based Matchmaking and ranking algorithm that provides a customized list to each consumer based on his/her needs and profile.
Focusing on maintaining a tech-led asset-light model, while remaining unit economics positive at the transaction level, Rubique 2.0 to have a renewed focus on innovation, marketing and strategic partnerships, particularly in the B2C segment, bring advanced technology features at every stage of loan processing cycle through its Online Plus Model, Improving operational efficiency & reducing cost of acquisition, creating easy access to finance with a focus on bridging financing gap and make finance easy & accessible to the customers.
About Rubique
Rubique was formed in November 2014, with a vision to fulfill every financial aspiration in the customer’s life cycle in the simplest, shortest and the speediest way through a wide range of loan, credit card and insurance products. Built on a proprietary AI based recommendation engine, Rubique’s marketplace platform has been integrated with financial institutions’ systems for real-time processing and providing online approvals to the customers. The advanced technology solution not only reduces the processing time significantly, but the data analytics done on multiple data points helps bring predictability and assess creditworthiness offering best deals to the customers.
Xploree AI Keyboard [earlier review here], a smart mobile app powered by KeyPoint Technologies, announced that users can now follow the T20 2018 on the Xploree AI Keyboard app. A first of its kind initiative taken by the mobile keyboard, users can now watch T20 matches seamlessly while multitasking. This new initiative will take the users’ experience of watching cricket matches on a mobile device to a new level altogether.
Xploree AI keyboard has a unique cross app feature that enables users to do different kinds of things simultaneously, without having to leave the current activity on mobile. This comes as a boon to all, who keep using several features on their mobile phones at the same moment. They can now chat, browse and follow T20 matches seamlessly, in real time. Users can access multiple apps and still stay connected to T20 without any interruption.
Speaking on this development, Nutan Chokkareddy, CEO, KeyPoint Technologies said
We are delighted to announce that customers can now follow T20 matches through Xploree. The keyboard’s ability to understand and communicate in 28 Indic languages will enable users to type in their native language and stay updated with T20 scores in real time. Our aim is to proactively provide the latest updates to users, without having to download or tap multiple applications.
Keeping the T20 fervour in mind, Xploree has also launched T20 themes on the keyboard. Users can now reflect their mood, show support for their favourite teams on the keyboard. Xploree has added 8 new themes, dedicating each of them to every team.
Deepti M Saxena, VP Product, Sales & Marketing, KeyPoint Technologies, said
Themes are an exciting way to engage users on the keyboard app. Approximately 1.5 lac users change their keyboard themes on the Xploree app, in a short span of one month. This encouraged us to build topical keyboard themes, this time, based on the T20 series. We are sure users will love this new addition.
Xploree is the world’s first mobile keyboard application that understands user’s intent and gives real time recommendations. Currently, on 20 million devices, Xploree allows users to receive relevant recommendations and content while they chat, search, browse apps, etc. The keyboard understands and identifies user intent, preferences, interests and maps them to real time discoveries. The app’s brand partnerships and the ability to bring value to users with 150 global and Indic languages, is being leveraged by brands across all verticals, to establish direct engagement with consumers, including those associated with this T20 season.
About Xploree AI Keyboard
Xploree is world’s firstAI powered mobile keyboard application that understands user intent & suggests recommendations in real time. KeyPoint Technologies is the leader in AI, NLP, input & language technology space. We are trusted partners to OEMs, Operators, and App Developers for developing intelligent interfaces, engines & input experiences. Xploree AI Keyboard app for Android can be downloaded from here.
Subex, a pioneering entity in the cyber-security space, hosted the first edition of its Cyber-security Symposium with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University [NTU]. The Symposium aimed towards creating a collaborative platform for the industry and academia to discuss ideas and initiatives around cyber-security education.
Representing NTU Singapore was esteemed NTU Academician and cyber-security practitioner Prof Lam Kwok Yan, who provided his overview of the cyber-security landscape in Singapore and perspectives on how the lessons learnt can be applied to the Indian ecosystem.
Also taking place on the same day was the launch of Subex’s IoT Security Lab, which will solve threats specific to IoT Industrial Control Systems [ICS] and IT Systems. Using the world’s most comprehensive IoT and ICS focused honeypots of over 400 different architectures and over 4000 devices, Subex IoT Lab collects threat intelligence across multiple verticals including Telecom, Academics, Enterprises, Defense and Smart City projects.
As part of the lab inauguration, Subex also announced that it will be opening its lab up to Public-Private Partnerships with universities such as NTU and other colleges in Bengaluru with a goal to create specific IoT security threat detection and prevention mechanisms for IoT ecosystems.
The Cyber-security symposium also witnessed the formation of a Cyber Security Academic Forum with the objective of establishing an ecosystem in the country for cyber security research to emerge and grow, with the main mission to foster ‘A Safer Cyberspace’. This forum will provide a unique opportunity to meet and discuss the current issues of cyber disruption and the ever-changing landscape of cyber security and IoT security related threats.
Speaking at the Cyber-security Symposium, Vinod Kumar, CEO and MD, Subexsaid
With increasing threats in the Indian and Global cyberspace, we believe that education and awareness around cyber-security will play an important role towards preparing and securing our critical assets against these threats.
However, the topic of cyber-security is yet to gain prominence within colleges in India, leading to gaps in the available talent pool. We are extremely proud to be partner with NTU Singapore to host the cyber-security symposium, and play a part in addressing this gap. The symposium witnessed collaborative discussions and brainstorm sessions between the industry and academia to identify ways to improve cyber-security education in the country. Having Prof. Lam Kwok Yan provide his expertise on the topic was of tremendous value.
Further, we also inaugurated our IoT Security Lab that will now be open to public-private partnerships with universities. The lab provides research opportunities on IoT Security threat intelligence using a one-of-its kind honeypot network. This along with the continuous monitoring of over 8.5 million customer devices have enabled us to obtain 30% more IoT and ICS threat signatures and thereby offer a comprehensive IoT threat intelligence and prevention solution to our customers.
About Subex
Subex is the market leader in the products Security and Fraud Management market, with over 180+ customers in total. Subex is a pioneering entity in the Cybersecurity space involved in multiple public and private partnerships in India. The company runs the world’s most comprehensive IoT and ICS focused honeypots of over 400 architectures in 32 locations around the world.
On-demand services are catching momentum across various cities in India. It is a well-known fact that the with the penetration of mobile internet daily requirement services are not only limited to metropolitan cities now, tier II & III cities are now becoming a larger playground for all the leading service providers across India. While the unorganized sector i.e. your local dhobi, still rules the roost, organized players are slowly making inroads into the industry.
It is estimated that by the end of 2020, more than three million Indian households would be requiring laundry services on a weekly or even daily basis. However, Laundry market in India has always lacked structure and has been lacking in terms of quality and commitment for an average.
To cater to this rapidly rising demand, DhobiLite is launching its Laundry and Dry cleaning operations in Lucknow.
DhobiLite is a Noida based cleaning service startup that has its footprints all across Delhi & NCR. DhobiLite having around 7 years of expertise in Laundry business is the pioneer of Online Laundry in India. Besides Laundry, DhobiLite provides Premium Laundry, Premium Dry Cleaning, Dry Cleaning, Organic Laundry services for garments.
Dhobilite wants to make laundry a hassle-free chore for consumers along with bringing a structured approach to the present market, a market with a 2x growth trend. Dhobilite with its Android based application and website provides end-to-end solution for all your laundry needs from placing order, tracking order, rate list, payment solutions & integration with PayTm, history, complaints, rating, referral and coupons. Dhobilite not only provides end-to-end solutions to its customers but also to vendors it is associated with. Everything is at one place.
We are focused on making our services affordable to every middle household in India. Owning the entire supply chain is critical for this. This helps us provide the best possible customer experience. It’s not rocket science, people wear clothes and they get dirty. With busy schedules it is getting frustrating for people to do these jobs at home, hence this is a daily need and not a need of some specific segment.
May be at this stage only a % of population can afford but like food, laundry is a day to day thing. So, if there is a need there has to be a service catering to that need. A very important aspect of any service based business is to deliver quality service every time and for this DhobiLite has used technology in day to day operations right from customer placing order to processing the order and then to delivery and feedback. With the help of this fully integrated in house developed solution, DhobiLite ensures that the franchise partner doesn’t have to worry about maintaining accounts or tracking orders or communication channel with the customer.
We entered the market at the right time in 2011 that allowed us to have valuable experience regarding market and technology. Now the market is set to explode and Dhobilite is best placed to completely exploit the fruits of expansion. Market need is simple, they want laundry. Technology, branding and other things is not what they are looking for.
For us technology is the enabler to meet customer expectations, other competitors are facing issue in expansion because of this reason. We are providing our services to vendors as well which is helping them increasing operational efficiencies by at least 20~25% thereby resulting into reduced costs and better profitability for vendors and creating a win-win environment for all.
After expanding its services in every nook and corner of Delhi NCR region, DhobiLite is now opening in Lucknow and inviting people for franchise opportunities.
DhobiLite has a different model of franchising where entry ticket to open franchise is small and subsequent payouts are based on Pay-as-you-grow model. DhobiLite views its franchisees as partners in growth and if franchise succeeds than company succeeds automatically. Experience of more than 6 years in industry has helped them to develop a unique understanding of laundry process and have been able to bring gross profit margin at 38% which gives enough room of profitability for franchisee and franchisor. Small entry ticket and a low royalty fee of 8% gives the franchise owner a flexibility to utilize the funds for marketing which helps in scaling the business faster.
Depending upon the interest of business owner, DhobiLite offers a range from pure offline model franchise [in Delhi NCR region and Lucknow] to a fully owned master franchise. Each franchise model is uniquely designed after study of the demographics of the area, the geographical spread of the area and then arrive at the fee structure.
Uber, the world’s largest on-demand ride-sharing company marked the 29th National Road Safety Week by announcing a slew of initiatives for driver partners, to spread road safety awareness. Reiterating its commitment to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Uber will conduct free medical and eye check-ups for over 4.5 Lakh driver partners over the next 6 months in-line with this year’s theme of ‘Sadak Suraksha – Jeevan Raksha‘.
Speaking on the launch of its initiative, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport & Highways pointed out
Ensuring road safety is a key priority for the government and we are committed to reducing fatal road accidents by 50 percent by 2020. The endeavor to make our roads safer has to be a collaborative multi-pronged initiative that needs joint action from policymakers, civic authorities, companies such as Uber and commuters in general.
Reinforcing Uber’s commitment towards road safety awareness, Pradeep Parameswaran, Head, Operations, Uber India & South Asia said
Safety is an on-going endeavor and we work tirelessly towards that goal. We are proud to be a part of the Ministry’s effort to curb road accidents and fatalities on Indian roads which constitutes to nearly 5 million annually.
Taking our collaboration, a step ahead, we aim to create a comprehensive safety ecosystem for our driver partners. We believe improving driver wellness and health is critical to making our roads safer as well as ensuring a comfortable driving experience. By rolling out free medical check-ups, for driver partners, we hope to strengthen existing efforts towards improving driver well-being.
India accounts for 12.5% of global road accidents, with 55 accidents & 17 deaths occurring every hour. In 2016 alone, 68% victims in road mishaps were between the age group of 18-45 years and almost 97% of the road accidents are caused by negligent driving including drunken driving. It, therefore, becomes imperative to spread awareness against the menace of driving under influence. Consistent with their partnership with Ministry of Road Transport and Highways [MoRTH], Uber also unveiled an impactful public interest campaign on “Don’t Drink and Drive” which will be showcased on various social media platforms.
Another initiative by Uber to raise road safety awareness is the development of learning aids on road safety for budding drivers enrolled in driving schools including Driver Training Institutes [DTIs] run by the government. With these learning aids, Uber will hope to sensitize drivers operating across four-wheelers, two-wheelers and auto rickshaws in over 200 driving schools across the country. Utilizing interactive mediums and animated content to stimulate maximum absorption of these learning aids, Uber aims to leave no stone unturned in spreading the importance of road safety.
Over the years, Uber has launched various initiatives to re-affirm its commitment towards its driver partners including UberBADD [Bars Against Drunk Driving] in Kolkata, the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ campaign in Pune, UberBAZAAR – a one-stop shop for driver partners – to access services ranging from car maintenance to health camps across 11 cities. In August 2017, Uber also rolled out India’s first ride-sharing insurance program in partnership with ICICI Lombard General Insurance for over 4.5 Lakh driver partners with free coverage for accidental death and disablement, hospitalization, and outpatient medical treatment in case of an accident while online on the Uber App.
