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|In: JustRide|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

JustRide, an emerging player in the self-drive car rental industry announced its ambitious plans of altering the way cars are driven in India with its cutting-edge Smart Vehicle technology (SVT). The in-house concept built to assess and rank customers based on their driving skills has been augmented to power JustRide’s latest innovation- Yabber. Yabber is a comprehensive device that is based on the principles of ‘Connected Cars’, and is first of its kind in the Indian market. The concept will work where a connected car platform will enable vehicles to communicate with external devices.

One needs to download and install Yabber on his/her smartphone and install the device in the car’s on-board diagnostics (OBD) port which relays essential performance parameters, which help map how well the car is being driven. By processing the incoming data, the system is able rate customers on a scale of 1 to 5. So, a good driver may get a discount on the rentals for subsequent trips while a poor or bad driver may even be rejected.

This app will also help you connect with fellow drivers in the city and compare scores, and these score cards and achievements can be shared on social media. The company is planning to gamify the entire driving experience by rewarding individuals who are good with the wheels and incentivizing them to improve further.

The technology allows car owners in locating their cars understand its performance, secure their vehicles, drive it safe and economically, pre-schedule maintenance with service stations and much more. Yabber was launched on the sidelines of the company expanding its operations in the Indian market. Drivers can also use various features such as keep checks of trip duration, average speed and mileage, real time notifications of over speeding, excessive breaking and acceleration which can stress engine, review trip history and much more. The app can rate each trip, keep track of cumulative score and also give tips to improve driving skills. In essence your cars lets communicates and lets you know what’s the best way to drive it.

Ashwarya Pratap Singh, CEO, JustRide, said

With the advancement in technology, the sophisticated components and software will allow vehicles to seamlessly communicate with various external devices and servers via the internet which we believe is going to be the future in India. We are quite hopeful that we are on the right growth path considering the car rental market is poised to grow and touch INR 800 billion by 2019.

During the launch Hemant Kumar Sah, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), JustRide said

With digitization taking place at every nook and corner, we saw a need gap for a sustainable credible system to rate performance of drivers, driving rented cars. With our device, we not only have precise understanding of the car’s performance, but also the driver’s skills. Before this, the only perquisite to drive was to have a driving license. Once our device is out in the market, it will become a benchmark for others to follow suit.

One can also Track the location of on one’s car on your cell phone in real time, create a virtual perimeter to know when the car leaves your premises, set places of interest and get notified when your car reaches the spot, set custom theft alarm when car is parked in an un-secure location, get notifications when ignition is switched on and also get alerts when device is plugged off from car.

JustRide has ambitious plans for its SVT system. The highly versatile system can be easily implemented in alternative modes of transport over water and air and the company is currently analyzing future prospects for the same. Since April this year, JustRide has gained 40,000 customers and generated over 1 lakh transactions.

The company recently has raised seed funding round led by India Angel Network Co-founder Alok Mittal, Niraj Singh of Outbox Ventures, Nikunj Jain of Frankly.me, Zishaan Hayath of Toppr.com, PunitK Goyal from PLG Clean Energy Projects, Anirudh Damani from Artha India Ventures, Rohit Chokhani of White Unicorn Ventures, and Palaash Ventures. Justride is the only company which is being mentored both by Y Combinator and Google.

About Just Ride

JustRide is into renting/hiring self driven cars in India. It caters to vendors and peer to peer individuals as well. The concept of self driven car rentals is yet to spread its wings in India. As pioneers in the Indian self drive car rental industry, we believe in the mantra- “Why buy a car, when you can rent one?”

JustRide’s focus lies in redefining the way cars are made, purchased and rented. The company has constructed a Smart Vehicle Technology (SVT) which is crucial for the implementation of a hyper local service model. SVT taps into a vehicle’s electronic system and provides a real-time access to the location and performance parameters of the vehicle, ranging from tire pressure to the current load on the engine to the G-force experienced on each of the individual suspensions. For more information, please visit JustRide

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Gaana, India’s largest online music broadcasting app, is expanding its mix of unique and exclusive audio content, by adding Mirchi Murga and Hansi ke Phuwarey, two of Radio Mirchi’s most popular humor shows.

Mirchi Murga with Naved is Radio Mirchi’s most popular comedy segment, having won the best Radio Sparkler Award at Indian Excellence in Radio Awards (ERA 2015). Naved has donned many different avatars for years, with his jokes taken sportingly by some (and not so sportingly by others).

In addition, Hansi Ke Phuwarey with Sud, by comic Sunil Grover, is a very popular series known for its deadpan humour. Hansi ke phuwarey has Sudarshan aka Sud reading out jokes from a book with the same title (HKPh). On Gaana, a new joke will be released every day, building a daily listening habit.

These two programs are now live on Gaana, and Radio Mirchi and Gaana intend to add more original content soon. These offerings will also be promoted across Radio Mirchi’s 44 radio stations across India.

Along with its extensive music catalog, live radio stations, and other music experiences, Gaana has been expanding its original content library, with over 10 new series. With specials such as Sit Down Comedy with Rajneesh Kapoor, or The Asha Verdict with Asha Bhosle, Gaana’s specials add a new dimension to the product.

Prashan Agarwal, COO Gaana said

Radio Mirchi’s humor content is some of the best out there, and we’re excited to share it with our consumer base. Gaana is becoming a home for all premium audio content, with millions of listeners starting with music, and finding more and more everyday on the platform.

Prashant Pandey, MD and CEO of ENIL (Radio Mirchi) said

Mirchi has created some very good on-air personalities and in digital media with its RJs. We are happy to have this partnership with Gaana, where Mirchi’s prank calls can now be heard by his global fan base. We expect as much consumption to come outside India as from India as well.

About Gaana

Gaana.com, India’s No.1 music streaming service from Times Internet offers a vast repertoire of more than 1 crore songs across 21 languages. It has generated over 48 million+ downloads on the mobile making it India’s most popular and fastest growing music service. For more information, please visit Gaana

|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: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Unocoin, a Bangalore based Bitcoin startup, has raised $1.5 million in a Pre Series-A round, the highest total raised for a digital currency venture in Indian history. Funding was sourced from well-known Indian entities such as Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures along with prominent international investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future and FundersClub.

Unocoin co-founder and CEO, Sathvik Vishwanath said

We are honoured to have this type of support from top investors. We started from my small hometown called Tumkur near Bangalore and our goal from the beginning was to make it easy to get bitcoin in India. A few years later, we are now headquartered in Bangalore with 30+ employees, serving more than 100,000+ customers across the country and growing exponentially. Given our steep growth rate, we’re looking to serve millions more in the coming years.

These are exciting times. India has the largest gold, inward remittance, and IT markets in the world, all of which make it a perfect home for Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Blume Ventures, headquartered in Mumbai, has played a pivotal role in leading the Unocoin Pre Series A round. According to Karthik Reddy from Blume Ventures, it was the belief in the team at Unocoin that encouraged Blume to participate.

Karthik Reddy from Blume Ventures said

In Sathvik and team, we discovered not only the leading Bitcoin company in India, but a determination to educate all stakeholders, simplify Bitcoin’s usage, and bring another frictionless layer to payments and commerce. We are confident that Unocoin will further alter the landscape and make additional inroads into remittances and e-commerce in India.

Unocoin Co-founders: Sunny Ray (President), Sathvik Vishwanath (CEO), Harish B V (COO) & Abhinand Kaseti (CMO)
Unocoin Co-founders: Sunny Ray (President), Sathvik Vishwanath (CEO), Harish B V (COO) & Abhinand Kaseti (CMO)

Digital Currency Group, based in New York City, supports Bitcoin and blockchain companies by leveraging their insights, network, and access to capital with over 80 investments in more than 25 countries.

Barry Silbert, Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, said

Since making our first investment in Unocoin, it has been tremendous to see the company solidify its position as the leading Bitcoin company in India, as well as emerge as one of the fastest growing companies in DCG’s global portfolio of 80 Bitcoin and blockchain companies.  We are thrilled to welcome this fantastic group of new investors to Unocoin and look forward to many more years of rapid growth and industry leadership by the company.

Commenting on their investment into Unocoin, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures said

It’s no secret that usage of bitcoin is picking up rapidly and the concept has seen a warm welcome from freelancers and retailers in India. That’s when Unocoin, a venture backed by a strong team with industry acumen and a rocketing number of users, caught our attention. We believe Unocoin will continue to be one of the strongest players in India’s booming crypto-currency market.

ah! Ventures is India’s first full-spectrum (seed, angel & VC) investment network and platform comprising of over 850+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs. Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted the early stage funding ecosystem of India through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks), have brought together and integrated the previously segregated startup funding lifecycle, under one roof. CLUB ah! platform today has over 15000+ startups, 750 seed/angel investors and over 90 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also last year secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. ah! Ventures has till date syndicated close to INR 100 crores in over 30 investments spread across varied industries and domains.

Boris Silver, Co-Founder and President of FundersClub, said

We are thrilled to partner with and back Unocoin as a portfolio company in the FundersClub community. We were impressed with the company’s vision, team, growth, and large market opportunity. Blockchain technology has tremendous potential and we’re excited to support Unocoin as they continue to innovate, lead, and execute in the space.

FundersClub focuses on backing disruptive, technology-enabled startups starting at the seed stage. Their portfolio holdings include fast-growing, disruptive technology companies like Slack, Instacart and Coinbase. Over the past 4 years, the FundersClub portfolio has attracted >$1.2B of follow-on capital from other top VCs.

Addressing the role of Bitcoin in the Indian economy, Simon Dixon, CEO of Bank to the Future and fund manager of Bitcoin Capital, said

In India, 95% of the people do not have credit cards and 50% are unbanked due to the country’s poor financial and payments infrastructure. We believe Bitcoin has a role to play in India in the long term and are happy to join the round of the leading bitcoin company in India.

Sharing the story behind Unocoin, Co-founder and President of Unocoin Sunny Ray said

We started this company with the mission to bring bitcoin to billions. Bitcoin opens up a world that simply wasn’t possible before. When we got started four years ago, we saw a once in a lifetime opportunity to build out a secure platform for people to easily access bitcoin. Empowered with our current round of financing from many of the best investors in the world, we believe that Unocoin is strategically positioned to reach millions of people in the next few years. In the near future, we believe that bitcoin has the potential to take market share from gold, substantially reduce the cost of remittance and potentially bank the unbanked.

When we first learned about Bitcoin back in 2012, we knew that Bitcoin was going to be a big deal. The question we kept asking ourselves, however, was: ‘How do we bring the benefits of Bitcoin to Indians while systematically protecting against the downside risks?’ In the absence of clarity, we were the first company in India to seek out and work closely with top techno-legal firm in the country, Nishith Desai and Associates. We were also the first Bitcoin company in India to implement a comprehensive compliance and banking like framework to address these challenges.

Unocoin’s Vishwanath added

We believe that we’re at the dawn of a new evolution where money itself is being reinvented. We love seeing so many of the smartest cryptographers, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world working together to scale Bitcoin to the masses. Over the past year, we’ve also been innovating at light-speed: we’ve recently launched a merchant point-of-sale (POS) app, a mobile trading app, an auto-selling feature for remittance users, systematic investment planning (SIP) to mitigate against volatilty risk, integration with NETKI to simplifly Bitcoin addresses, created an over the counter (OTC) desk for large traders,integrated with purse.io for discounts on Amazon, launched an API for developers and more. Over the coming months and years, we’ll continue to build practical, useful features and tools on top of Bitcoin.

Vishwanath concluded, “We have a clear vision here at Unocoin: let’s Make Money Simple.”

About Unocoin

Started in 2013, Unocoin is a Bangalore based technology startup and is India’s first entrant into the bitcoin industry. The company operates India’s largest BTC-INR trading platform which enables Indians to buy, sell, store, use and accept bitcoin. Every month, Unocoin processes transactions worth more than INR 200M for its 100,000 customers. In just 3 years since inception, the company has drawn more than 30 top investors from 5 countries. Unocoin is responsible for industry leading innovations such as the Bitcoin Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), Bitcoin Point of Sale (POS) App and Bitcoin Over-The-Counter trading (OTC).  For more information, please visit unocoin.com

About ah! Ventures

ah! Ventures is a growth catalyst that brings together promising businesses and investors by creating wealth creation opportunities for both. ah!’s unique model serves investors, entrepreneurs & enablers through a unique blend of customised services, skill, and industry & domain experience. Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted the early stage funding ecosystem of India through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks), have brought together and integrated the previously segregated startup funding lifecycle, under one roof. This, coupled with ah! Impact network, an impact investment network for investing in social enterprises and ah! Mentors network, a mentor network to engage with startups in their growth and expansion, has today made ah! Ventures one of India’s most respected change leaders and a formidable industry force to recon with.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

G7CR Technologies have announced the launch of its Business Enablement & Automation Program (BEAP) for SMEs, the world’s first free suite of custom solutions for SME automation. The ITaaS based solution is aimed at enabling SMEs turn digital disruption into competitive advantage by offering business process automation in an innovative business model giving them the experience of customized as well as standardised low-cost end to end managed solutions scalable to their growing business needs.

Image Source – LinkedIn

Leveraging Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, G7CR would provide software development, migration, adaption, implementation and 24*7 support for SMEs at no cost, while the client would pay only on the cost per click basis for cloud usage, at actuals. BEAP provides an ideal way for an SME to obtain a custom developed business automation application or existing standard solution depending on their specific needs from G7CR at affordable price points.

With capital investment on non-core functions such as IT, being eliminated completely, automation will enable SMEs shift focus more on their CORE business functions while becoming more productive and competitive. G7CR provides solutions across industries as well as the entire stack of industry-agnostic horizontal services to meet the needs of SMEs.

Dr. Suraj Baliga, Founder, Clinikk Healthcare said

G7CR’s delivery excellence coupled with innovative and scalable solutions for IT led innovation is working as the backbone for SMEs such as Clinikk with its mission of providing accessible, affordable and high quality supervised care as the healthcare buddy for physicians and patients alike.

Christopher Richard, MD & Chief Software Architect, G7CR Technologies said

Lack of financing coupled with fast paced digital disruption are proving to be major constraints for most SME’s today as they try to scale up and become increasingly competent. The IT-as-a-Service offering for SMEs would help accelerate their growth while freeing up vital resources such as financing for core business functions.

About BEAP Solution Offering

BEAP is a SaaS-based solution offering for the SMEs and is available on a pay-per-click basis, at Microsoft cloud actual rates, with no solution development, maintenance or support cost. It enables small businesses to adopt Cloud-based IT capabilities and optimize their overall IT and infrastructure cost while focusing on profitability and core business growth.

About G7CR Technologies India (P) Ltd.

G7CR Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. is a global leader in Consulting, Outsourcing, Technology, Cloud Sales & Support, and Corporate Training. The company has its headquarters in Bangalore, India and serves across the globe with over 700+ employee strength. With a proven record of achieving customer success in various industry verticals such as telecom, healthcare, education, IT, consulting etc., G7CR has seen more than 500% growth in size and turnover in past 3 years and is currently one of the fastest growing companies in India. For more information, please visit G7CR

|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: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Focusing on the evolution of the Indian Business Process Management (BPM) sector and the role of new technologies in creating a strategic road-map for the future, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) kick-started the two-day NASSCOM BPM Strategy Summit 2016 in Bengaluru. Growing at a CAGR of over 8%, the BPM industry clocked a total revenue of USD 28 billion during FY-2016. With a share of over 25% of the total IT-BPM exports, the industry added 49,000 employees to its workforce, at a rate of 4.7%, taking the total no. of employees to 1,086,000.

Speaking about the wave of change, Mr. R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM said

Automation, Digitalized processes and new business models are enabling the BPM sector to take a step forward in adopting a more strategic role as compared to being just another outsourcing platform. The next wave of growth for the industry will come from increasing demand of technologies like advanced analytics, social media, mobility and other new technologies, driving demand for specialised services. The BPM sector has always been a major contributor towards the growth and the industry today has a more strategic and intellectual role to play, gravitating towards global competitiveness.

NASSCOM also discussed the preliminary recommendations of its Consumer Interest Protection Task Force (CIPTF) in dealing with reputational risk. These recommendations will be shared with the Government and other relevant agencies in greater detail. The recommendations identify the following intervention points to address cases of tech fraud, and enhance consumer interest protection.  

i. Prevention via development of a common code of practice featuring standards security, privacy and ethical practices

ii. Detection & Reporting by setting up an accessible whistle-blowing mechanism for registering complaints

iii. Investigation through an independent govt. investigation agency with the jurisdiction and power to co-ordinate between governmental agencies and departments

The Indian BPM industry is a leader in the outsourcing business with revenues of US $28 billion, this leadership position is built by providing high quality services as-well-as confidence to overseas clients that data of their customers would be safe and secure in India.

The recommendations and action points put forth by NASSCOM Consumer Interest Protection Task Force, will help create a more secure ecosystem for the industry, enabling it to focus on growing from strength to strength. For the BPM industry to grow to USD 50 billion by 2020, the BPM Council has taken certain focused initiatives to enable this progress. The BPM Council has focused on re-branding and re-positioning the industry from the supply and demand side respectively. In addition to this, the Council is working on building a Centre of Excellence on data sciences and capacity development for emerging players and skill and talent.

NASSCOM also announced the Top 10 BPM exporters in India for the year 2016. Genpact Ltd. leads as top exporter followed by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Wipro BPO in second and third places respectively.

About NASSCOM

NASSCOM is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPM industries in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 2100 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM’s member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPO services, e-commerce & web services, engineering services and animation and gaming. NASSCOM’s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 3.5 million professionals.

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Intex Technologies, one of the leading consumer durable & IT Peripherals brand, has roped in Indian cricket player and captain of Gujarat Lions Suresh Raina as the brand ambassador for its new range of Speakers segment.

The Star face has been signed for 1-year. During this period, Suresh Raina will be seen in a series of brand campaigns and activations for Intex Speakers.

Nidhi Markanday, Director & Business Head, Consumer Durables & IT Peripherals, Intex Technologies said

We are delighted to have our captain, Suresh Raina, as the brand ambassador for the speakers segment, which made Intex a household name for more than two decades and still continues to do so. Suresh Raina is a brilliant sportsperson & team leader that makes him the perfect choice to endorse our long-standing speakers segment and further enhance the consumer connect.

Expressing his excitement on the association with brand Intex, Suresh Raina, Indian Cricket Player and Captain of Gujarat Lions said

I am very happy to begin a fresh chapter with brand Intex. Apart from the love for cricket, music is what unwinds me and Intex speakers have been a predominant name for years. I am looking forward to this association and endorsing the new range of Intex speakers.

The oldest category in Intex product portfolio, IT Peripherals, had been the mainstay of the company in the initial years and continues to remain strong in face of changing consumer preferences. Intex has a rich portfolio of B2B and B2C speakers with over 70 models. Intex still enjoys a commanding position in Speakers, headphones, UPS and Power Bank.