Capital Quotient launches a First-of-its-Kind App for the MSME Workforce

Capital Quotient launches a payroll-based programme aimed at helping employees of small and medium sized enterprises in tier II and III cities of India. IDFC Bank is their tech integration partner for nodal accounts.

A first-of-its-kind, employees of small enterprises can now hope to create a savings fund with little contribution per month and get a contribution from their employers as well. The app would be available in English, Hindi and Kannada.

“Capital Quotient as a company aims to spread financial literacy. With only 4 per cent of MSMEs having access to formal source of finance and even fewer with knowledge of saving options, creating awareness on the importance of saving is absolutely the need of the hour. With this vision, we have launched Siply, so that even workers of small businesses can start saving and have financial security.”, said Sousthav Chakrabarty, Co-founder and CEO of Capital Quotient.

He further added, “A significant percentage of the population fall under the salary bracket of less than Rs 10,000, which is below the PF threshold and are generally overlooked by wealth management firms and agents. This is the section we are targeting with Siply. Our first step is to educate the business owners, who we hope will help us reach out to a larger section of the population, clearing misconceptions of locking away a big chunk of one’s income to have a contingency fund”.

An IDFC Bank official said, “We are happy to associate with Capital Quotient to make a difference to the lives of the employees of small and medium enterprises. Business owners, specially from the manufacturing industry across the country have rolled out this programme for their employees with the objective of giving them a secured financial life. “

About Capital Quotient: Capital Quotient is a SEBI Registered Investment Advisor, whose revenue is generated directly from customers paying for their advisory services. Prominent investors include senior executives from Accenture, Marriott International and Ola. The company has its headquarters in Bangalore and is planning to expand to 10-12 Tier 2 cities.

Capital Quotient provides a full stack service covering 20 asset classes including Mutual Funds, Asset Allocation, Tax Loss Harvesting, Retirement Plans, Stock Recommendations and Inception and Period Performance of Portfolios. Capital Quotient has bank-grade security, multi-factor authentication and a private server behind firewall architecture to protect the data of their customers. Unbiased advice, multi-asset consolidation (assists in consolidating any type of investments into our platform, irrespective of where it is held or managed), last mile connect (brings together the best of technology and personal connection to offer a unique technology-assisted personalized wealth-advisory service) are some of the USPs of Capital Quotient.

Soon an App-based Digital Platform to Rope in Social Volunteers from IT Firms

To promote effective volunteering by working professionals and companies for social causes, PM Modi will soon launch a mobile app based digital platform.

Professionals keen on doing volunteer work in their free time will be provided a platform by the government through an app, 'Self4Society', developed by MyGov, a citizen engagement platform founded by the Government of India.

Currently available as a website, Self4Society, the platform is the premiere workspace for Electronics and IT corporates to organise employee engagements (Initiatives) for social work. The organisation can create their own Initiatives under the identified National Causes.

In addition, the soon to be launched Self4Society App (available on Google Play Store and App Store) will be for employees, who will volunteer for Initiatives and contribute their time to tasks on-the-ground.

Initially aimed at IT companies, the app will have incentives, gamification and intra- and inter-company competitions, and social networking. Eventually the app will be joined by employees of other sectors as well.

The voluteers from organization will receive Goodness Points for their work. These Goodness Points are a mechanism to credit the Organisation and its employees who volunteer for Initiatives, for the ground work they have executed. By earning greater goodness points, Organisations and their employees have the opportunity to be part of the New India Champions Leader board on the Self4Society platform that features the top five contributors among organisations and individuals.

[caption id="attachment_126789" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Image - self4society.mygov.in/faq/[/caption]

The app is reportedly an outcome of conversations between Mr. Modi and several corporate leaders who had said that their employees wanted to do volunteer work but did not have any guidance.

With the launch of the app, the volunteer time for the government’s flagship programmes such as Swachh Bharat and Digital Literacy among others, is expected to increase.

“A lot of companies run volunteering initiatives. This platform will help to create better synergies among so many initiatives and lead to a much better outcome of the efforts of professionals. Companies have observed that a spirit of service and volunteering improves employee satisfaction and reduces employee attrition. This app comes after discussions with companies from the information technology sector on these lines,” a source said.

The app launch will happen in a town hall style event, which is expected to be attended by around 2,000 people. Around 1,000 others will join via a video link from other cities.

8 Viral Fashion Retail App Technologies In 2018

One of the fastest growing and evolving industries of our times is the fashion industry. With the huge market and new fashion brands coming up every then and now, shopping and marketing tactics have undergone a sea change. For instance, the shift towards mobile commerce, or m-commerce as it is popularly known as, is one of the most remarkable actions the fashion industry has seen in the recent years. Features like that of easy navigation, loyalty programs, fast delivery, and push notification have made mobile shopping really easy and convenient.
Brands like that of H&M, Klothed, Dior, and ASOS are going with the latest technologies to bring in new innovations by the day. The unique solutions that they come up with lead the industry to new heights and make the shopping experience highly fulfilling. Let’s take a look at the present retail technologies that are being implemented by renowned brands and the app features that are going to rule the year.

1. Barcode scanners have taken the top spot

One of the most fascinating trends in the fashion industry is the barcode scanning. Whether it is to buy your next pair of trendy shoes or blazers, you just need to scan the barcode of the product to get the product details easily. The fashion app from H&M used this technology in aiding the customers to get endless options for discounts and coupons and also to find the store locations. The brand provides relevant and latest updates to the users through this app.

2. Selling of products through videos

Online shopping has taken a completely different direction in the product displays. You will find online stores featuring their products by showing catwalk videos for each of the products. It has emerged as one of the best ways to build up brand trust and showcase their products more lucratively. The runaway videos that are a part of the ASOS app run for not more than 11 to 12 seconds and watching them feels like you have the front row seats at a fashion show.

3. Try on the outfits virtually

Why stand in long queues at the stores when you can save time and hassle using virtual dressing rooms? The retail stores now have apps that let you choose patterns, sizes, and colors using hand gestures. You can share the look on social media for feedback and plan the wardrobe more effectively. The Klothed app has made this a reality by providing you with a virtual avatar of yourself to dress up using clothes from different retailers.

[caption id="attachment_124854" align="aligncenter" width="995"] Image - http://blog.mocaplatform.com[/caption]

4. Selling through social media

Retailers have been taking the advantage of social media for quite some time now. The social media has infiltrated the luxury industry in a big way leading to an increase in their customer base. At present, the top brands have collaborations with major technology giants to sell their products through social platforms like WeChat and Snapchat. Dior recently welcomed social selling to engage the customers of China through WeChat and registered a hugely successful campaign.

Also Read - Amazon Has Developed An AI Fashion Designer

5. Use of beacon technology

The beacon technology is another major step in improving the shopping experience. The retail shopping industry has been using the beacon technology as a crucial part of customer engagement. You can think of this as the part m-shopping that finally completes the puzzle. Macy is the best example of using beacon in its stores and more than four thousand of its shoppers receive notifications via beacons. Macy’s makes it more exciting by using beacons to announce sales, discounts, and prizes.

6. Investment in security of personal data

Securing personal data online like credit card details, usernames, and passwords are crucial to the retail apps. The threat to personal data increases in tandem to the growth of mobile commerce. To ensure the safety of the users, the Bulgari app collaborated with the Swiss online security agency known as Wisekey. Together, they came up with the Bulgari vault which stores all the personal data of the user and ensures security for the mobile payments.

7. The implementation of visual search

Visual app is the cool new feature of the fashion retail apps whereby you can take picture of any product that you liked and then search it using the app. The customer will immediately be provided with product details related to the search to help them make a purchase of whatever coveted fashion item that they are after. JC Penney is one of the first brands to have implemented this feature in their mobile app.

[caption id="attachment_124855" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image - http://retail-innovation.com[/caption]

8. A listing of retail stores through an app

Zomato has made life so much easy for the foodies by helping them locate and know the details of all local restaurants in every city. You no longer need to ask friends or look around to search the perfect outlet to shop for the latest trend. An app called SummerLabel is all set to do the same for the fashion lovers of the country. It provides a listing of every major and minor branded store within a given area. Thus, the retail app technologies are no longer limited to being viable only for the online shoppers.
You can expect many more remarkable changes and innovations in the fashion retail apps as more and more startups keep on emerging. The trends are all about adding new value to the name of retailers by enabling the customers to benefit from new and exciting shopping experiences.

[Top Featured Image Via - WTVOX.com]

8 Viral Fashion Retail App Technologies In 2018

One of the fastest growing and evolving industries of our times is the fashion industry. With the huge market and new fashion brands coming up every then and now, shopping and marketing tactics have undergone a sea change. For instance, the shift towards mobile commerce, or m-commerce as it is popularly known as, is one of the most remarkable actions the fashion industry has seen in the recent years. Features like that of easy navigation, loyalty programs, fast delivery, and push notification have made mobile shopping really easy and convenient.
Brands like that of H&M, Klothed, Dior, and ASOS are going with the latest technologies to bring in new innovations by the day. The unique solutions that they come up with lead the industry to new heights and make the shopping experience highly fulfilling. Let’s take a look at the present retail technologies that are being implemented by renowned brands and the app features that are going to rule the year.

1. Barcode scanners have taken the top spot

One of the most fascinating trends in the fashion industry is the barcode scanning. Whether it is to buy your next pair of trendy shoes or blazers, you just need to scan the barcode of the product to get the product details easily. The fashion app from H&M used this technology in aiding the customers to get endless options for discounts and coupons and also to find the store locations. The brand provides relevant and latest updates to the users through this app.

2. Selling of products through videos

Online shopping has taken a completely different direction in the product displays. You will find online stores featuring their products by showing catwalk videos for each of the products. It has emerged as one of the best ways to build up brand trust and showcase their products more lucratively. The runaway videos that are a part of the ASOS app run for not more than 11 to 12 seconds and watching them feels like you have the front row seats at a fashion show.

3. Try on the outfits virtually

Why stand in long queues at the stores when you can save time and hassle using virtual dressing rooms? The retail stores now have apps that let you choose patterns, sizes, and colors using hand gestures. You can share the look on social media for feedback and plan the wardrobe more effectively. The Klothed app has made this a reality by providing you with a virtual avatar of yourself to dress up using clothes from different retailers.

[caption id="attachment_124854" align="aligncenter" width="995"] Image - http://blog.mocaplatform.com[/caption]

4. Selling through social media

Retailers have been taking the advantage of social media for quite some time now. The social media has infiltrated the luxury industry in a big way leading to an increase in their customer base. At present, the top brands have collaborations with major technology giants to sell their products through social platforms like WeChat and Snapchat. Dior recently welcomed social selling to engage the customers of China through WeChat and registered a hugely successful campaign.

Also Read - Amazon Has Developed An AI Fashion Designer

5. Use of beacon technology

The beacon technology is another major step in improving the shopping experience. The retail shopping industry has been using the beacon technology as a crucial part of customer engagement. You can think of this as the part m-shopping that finally completes the puzzle. Macy is the best example of using beacon in its stores and more than four thousand of its shoppers receive notifications via beacons. Macy’s makes it more exciting by using beacons to announce sales, discounts, and prizes.

6. Investment in security of personal data

Securing personal data online like credit card details, usernames, and passwords are crucial to the retail apps. The threat to personal data increases in tandem to the growth of mobile commerce. To ensure the safety of the users, the Bulgari app collaborated with the Swiss online security agency known as Wisekey. Together, they came up with the Bulgari vault which stores all the personal data of the user and ensures security for the mobile payments.

7. The implementation of visual search

Visual app is the cool new feature of the fashion retail apps whereby you can take picture of any product that you liked and then search it using the app. The customer will immediately be provided with product details related to the search to help them make a purchase of whatever coveted fashion item that they are after. JC Penney is one of the first brands to have implemented this feature in their mobile app.

[caption id="attachment_124855" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image - http://retail-innovation.com[/caption]

8. A listing of retail stores through an app

Zomato has made life so much easy for the foodies by helping them locate and know the details of all local restaurants in every city. You no longer need to ask friends or look around to search the perfect outlet to shop for the latest trend. An app called SummerLabel is all set to do the same for the fashion lovers of the country. It provides a listing of every major and minor branded store within a given area. Thus, the retail app technologies are no longer limited to being viable only for the online shoppers.
You can expect many more remarkable changes and innovations in the fashion retail apps as more and more startups keep on emerging. The trends are all about adding new value to the name of retailers by enabling the customers to benefit from new and exciting shopping experiences.

[Top Featured Image Via - WTVOX.com]

ixigo Introduces India’s First Augmented Reality Feature For Train Passengers

ixigo, India’s leading travel marketplace, has introduced India’s first augmented reality (AR) feature on its trains app. The AR Coach Position feature will enable train travellers to accurately locate their coach positions for over 13,000 passenger trains at more than 7,000 railway stations across India.

With the Coach Position feature, iOS users using the iPhone 6+ and above just need to use their smartphone in order to have their coaches instantly categorized and labeled, thereby identifying how far away they are from their intended coach. ixigo’s AR feature leverages ARKit, Apple's augmented reality (AR) technology toolkit, that delivers engaging experiences through the seamless blending of virtual objects with the real world. Users with the ixigo trains app need to grant camera access to the app, point it at the railway platform, and the app will overlay coach positions of their train on the phone screen.



Along with the Coach Position feature, ixigo is rolling out other key updates such as Station Alarm and Rescheduled trains. These new features will provide users with live updates and instructions to improve their train travel experience. The Station Alarm feature will alert users as they approach their destination station, ensuring that users can sleep worry free. The Rescheduled trains feature will allow users to easily check if their train is cancelled, diverted or rescheduled. ixigo has also added a host of interesting iMessage stickers to help users communicate on the go.

Commenting on the development, Rajnish Kumar, CTO & Co-founder, ixigo said, “At ixigo, our constant endeavor is to use innovation to improve traveller experience and diminish pain points. Due to overcrowding at railway stations, passengers often worry about not having the right information with them when needed, leading to anxious moments before they board their train. To curb this, we worked on developing our AR Coach Position feature. We are quite excited about being the first in the indian travel services market with an AR use case that will greatly ease passenger pain.”

ixigo trains app has become India’s most used train travel app with over 7 million monthly active users. It now helps close to 1 million train travellers every single day across 200+ Indian towns to book train tickets, check train schedules, get live train running status, get PNR status predictions and to view crowdsourced platform numbers, coach positions and train ratings & reviews for all trains in India.

ixigo Introduces India’s First Augmented Reality Feature For Train Passengers

ixigo, India’s leading travel marketplace, has introduced India’s first augmented reality (AR) feature on its trains app. The AR Coach Position feature will enable train travellers to accurately locate their coach positions for over 13,000 passenger trains at more than 7,000 railway stations across India.

With the Coach Position feature, iOS users using the iPhone 6+ and above just need to use their smartphone in order to have their coaches instantly categorized and labeled, thereby identifying how far away they are from their intended coach. ixigo’s AR feature leverages ARKit, Apple's augmented reality (AR) technology toolkit, that delivers engaging experiences through the seamless blending of virtual objects with the real world. Users with the ixigo trains app need to grant camera access to the app, point it at the railway platform, and the app will overlay coach positions of their train on the phone screen.



Along with the Coach Position feature, ixigo is rolling out other key updates such as Station Alarm and Rescheduled trains. These new features will provide users with live updates and instructions to improve their train travel experience. The Station Alarm feature will alert users as they approach their destination station, ensuring that users can sleep worry free. The Rescheduled trains feature will allow users to easily check if their train is cancelled, diverted or rescheduled. ixigo has also added a host of interesting iMessage stickers to help users communicate on the go.

Commenting on the development, Rajnish Kumar, CTO & Co-founder, ixigo said, “At ixigo, our constant endeavor is to use innovation to improve traveller experience and diminish pain points. Due to overcrowding at railway stations, passengers often worry about not having the right information with them when needed, leading to anxious moments before they board their train. To curb this, we worked on developing our AR Coach Position feature. We are quite excited about being the first in the indian travel services market with an AR use case that will greatly ease passenger pain.”

ixigo trains app has become India’s most used train travel app with over 7 million monthly active users. It now helps close to 1 million train travellers every single day across 200+ Indian towns to book train tickets, check train schedules, get live train running status, get PNR status predictions and to view crowdsourced platform numbers, coach positions and train ratings & reviews for all trains in India.

Launched By Array of Celebrities Like Shahid Kapoor, LIKE App Reached A Whopping 1 Mn Downloads

Celebrity Launch of the app ‘LIKE’ by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor, followed by his array of celebrity colleagues, has made news in the entire entertainment and tech industry.

The app Like went viral in no time with massive downloads both on Android and IOS platforms. The within a week the app reached a whooping number of one million downloads and is a product of Asia’s biggest live streaming APP company, BIGO LIVE.

The country that has been the hub for entertainment reality shows for quite sometime now, and has welcomed the app LIKE as a blooming platform for screenagers who are always enthusiastic about shooting videos and posting them on online platforms. The APP allows the broadcaster to make videos infused with embedded effects such as LASER EYE, BUTTERFLY, HEART, FROZEN etc.. Besides these effects, the app alsu lets the user can also lip sync to his or her favorite dialogues or songs to make the video more appealing.

The App is available on iOS and Google Play-Store in 10 different languages- English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu and Punjabi. The app is developed by BIGO Technology Pte. Ltd.

LIKE APP is technically upgraded with the most modernistic features that includes high performance client architecture to guarantee fluent user experience even on low end mobile phones, fancy video processing effect and fast and fluent video play technology that defines the word best across a plethora of networks and tech arenas. An enticing amalgamation of lip sync videos and magical effects, APP LIKE is a complete stress buster and is a tech masterpiece for not just entertainment enthusiasts but for those who always seek an enticing equation of configurations everyday.



App is lightweight and measures roughly 50-60 mb and has easy sharing options.

The Spokesperson for the LIKE App Mr. Aaron Wei quoted "With India being the youngest nation of this world where the youth is so much in love with dance, music and colors, LIKE intends to create a community of common people who find happiness in entertainment and socializing."
He further added that "currently LIKE is focusing on building an entertaining online community for the talented users. We aim to become the biggest online video community in India where youths can create amazing and inspiring content."

LIKE is another app in the category of Dubsmash, smule and snapchat, however these magical effects are what make it celebrates its edge over others. With a rich literature of effects and never seen before editing tools, LIKE has managed to raise eyebrows of its old gen competitors with an over-night viral tale that it has been able to knit for itself.

LIKE App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tagsutils&hl=en

Don't Have Tech Skills To Build A Mobile App? Then Use These 4 Platforms

The future of enterprise tech lies in apps -- largely mobile apps that deliver the same functions across virtually every platform for mobile devices, desktops and online. Small business owners are unable to fathom the magnitude of impact and traction an app can bring to their businesses and do not even have the technical skills to have it in place.

No longer do they need to be some elite programmer in order to have a viable business app. But you do need some understanding of the app creation process and willingness to work and spend.

Here are the 'four platforms to build a mobile app with no tech skills':

ShoutEm- An App Builder

ShoutEm offers an app builder with complete content management, user engagement tools and monetization options, coupled with a publishing process, to provide a robust solution for most requirements. The interface builder offers many customization options, and each app can be tightly integrated with existing content sources such as WordPress, Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud and more. The multiple monetization options mean you can quickly create a revenue stream from your app, providing an e-commerce experience, in-app subscriptions, deals and coupons, with support for all major ad networks included.

You can publish your apps under your developer account to both iTunes and Google Play, and update your app or content in real-time. ShoutEm also offers regular auto-updates, to ensure your app is always ahead of new iOS and Android updates.

AppMakr- No Coding Knowledge Required To Create A Platform

AppMakr is a DIY app creation platform that lets anyone craft iOS, Android and HTML5 apps, with no coding knowledge required. It was founded in 2009 and recently acquired by Infinite Monkeys, to now form one of the largest DIY app publishing platforms worldwide. You can make as many apps as you want, with unlimited updates, and utilize a number of features, including push notifications, high resolution photo galleries, live updates, music and video streaming, chat rooms, Google Maps integration, shared events calendars, in-app shopping, and much more.

You keep track of all your apps through the Dashboard, easily customize your app's looks and functionality, add content with tabs, preview your app in real time and publish it to the markets with a single click.

With AppMachine You Can Build & Design Professional Native Apps

AppMachine is an easy-to-use platform to build and design professional native apps for both iOS and Android. Using the drag-and-drop interface, you can combine different building blocks that offer a variety of features, such as information, photos and video. The building blocks also let you link your app to Facebook, Twitter, or online stores. You can design the app in your own unique style and choose your navigation paths, colours, fonts and icons, taking complete control of layout and watching your progress using the Previewer.

Test your app as you build it and check its progress on your computer, mobile or tablet. Once your app is fully tested and ready to go, you can publish and promote your app, and analyse the user data. AppMachine takes care of everything you need to get your app into Apple's App Store and Google Play.

TheAppBuilder- Providing Its Users With A Window Into Multiple Apps

TheAppBuilder provides a suite of apps to suit employees, clients, events and brochures, with two different approaches available. You can build the app using the online toolkit, and either the training provided or TheAppBuilder itself will work with you to define and build the structure of the app and populate it with initial content.

Using the dedicated AppLibrary, you can provide your users with a window into multiple apps and even customise it with your own branding. You can protect both public and private apps with usernames and passwords, and distribute them via the app store, making use of TheAppBuilder's Active Directory integration to enable login with existing credentials and user groups.

ISRO Launches Solar Calculator App

While turning to a renewable resource like solar energy is the need of the hour, but unfortunately, a lot of people in India shy away from doing the same as they are apprehensive if solar energy has the potential of meeting all their energy needs. Further, since installing the whole solar energy setup like solar panels etc. is predominately an expensive exercise, people don't wish to just take a chance and install it and find out if it works for their area or not. In order to solve this situation and encourage more usage of solar energy in the Indian subcontinent , Isro has come up with an innovative app called the Solar Calculator app using which anyone can accurately and easily calculate the benefit of installing solar panels at any location in the country.

The app, which is available on the web and for the Android platform, can prove to be extensively beneficial when it comes to setting up photovoltaic solar panels. In order to make things easier, Isro has also provided with a drop down menu of a number of locations in the country. The app also makes its possible for its users to directly click on a location in a map, or navigate using precise geographic co-ordinates. If the app is successful in acquiring the user's accurate location using GPS, the solar potential of that particular area is calculated using data processed from Indian satellites, including the Insat-3D, the Insat-3DR and the Kalpana-1, which is a matter of huge achievement and pride for the entire country. The solar energy potential of a particular location is shown to a user in kWh/m2 or mJ/m2.

[caption id="attachment_116166" align="alignnone" width="640"] A map of yearly solar insolation along with temperature
[/caption]

The app, which provides almost similar functionality as Google’s Project Sunroof, not just plainly blurts out the information of the solar energy potential. Along with the potential information, it also provides the user with other useful information that they might be needing in order to setup solar panels in their area.

A solar energy potential report of a particular area is can be easily exported from the application and shared with anyone and everyone in a .pdf file. The report contains extensive visualisations and tables for the duration of the days over the course of a year (365 days). If there is an obstacle to the sunlight in an area because of the terrain, the app is capable of accurately calculating that as well by using its digital elevation model. In addition to all this, it also provides suggestion for the optimum angle to set up the solar panels as well.



A solar potential report churned out by the Isro Solar Calculator application can be viewed in three ways, as a graph, as a map and as a table. In the map view, the direct satellite imagery is basically overlaid on the map along with the calculations of solar potential.

So, if you're an individual, a society, a community or an organisation considering setting up solar panels in your area, installing this app is the first step in realising your mission.

ISRO Launches Solar Calculator App

While turning to a renewable resource like solar energy is the need of the hour, but unfortunately, a lot of people in India shy away from doing the same as they are apprehensive if solar energy has the potential of meeting all their energy needs. Further, since installing the whole solar energy setup like solar panels etc. is predominately an expensive exercise, people don't wish to just take a chance and install it and find out if it works for their area or not. In order to solve this situation and encourage more usage of solar energy in the Indian subcontinent , Isro has come up with an innovative app called the Solar Calculator app using which anyone can accurately and easily calculate the benefit of installing solar panels at any location in the country.

The app, which is available on the web and for the Android platform, can prove to be extensively beneficial when it comes to setting up photovoltaic solar panels. In order to make things easier, Isro has also provided with a drop down menu of a number of locations in the country. The app also makes its possible for its users to directly click on a location in a map, or navigate using precise geographic co-ordinates. If the app is successful in acquiring the user's accurate location using GPS, the solar potential of that particular area is calculated using data processed from Indian satellites, including the Insat-3D, the Insat-3DR and the Kalpana-1, which is a matter of huge achievement and pride for the entire country. The solar energy potential of a particular location is shown to a user in kWh/m2 or mJ/m2.

[caption id="attachment_116166" align="alignnone" width="640"] A map of yearly solar insolation along with temperature
[/caption]

The app, which provides almost similar functionality as Google’s Project Sunroof, not just plainly blurts out the information of the solar energy potential. Along with the potential information, it also provides the user with other useful information that they might be needing in order to setup solar panels in their area.

A solar energy potential report of a particular area is can be easily exported from the application and shared with anyone and everyone in a .pdf file. The report contains extensive visualisations and tables for the duration of the days over the course of a year (365 days). If there is an obstacle to the sunlight in an area because of the terrain, the app is capable of accurately calculating that as well by using its digital elevation model. In addition to all this, it also provides suggestion for the optimum angle to set up the solar panels as well.



A solar potential report churned out by the Isro Solar Calculator application can be viewed in three ways, as a graph, as a map and as a table. In the map view, the direct satellite imagery is basically overlaid on the map along with the calculations of solar potential.

So, if you're an individual, a society, a community or an organisation considering setting up solar panels in your area, installing this app is the first step in realising your mission.

This Site Lets You Earn ‘Hard Cash’ Almost Every Time You Shop Online

Cashback, quite simply, is a form of incentive over and above the discount price offered to customers as a refund in their online wallets which they can use to either shop for more products, buy vouchers or for any other services like paying utility bills, recharging mobile phones etc.

In the last few years, cashback companies in India have seen significant growth and more than $4 billion in venture capital investment. A Cashback Industry Report of 2015 identifies that 64% of online consumers belong to a loyalty rewards site while 71% of online shoppers want products with high cashback rebates. India is the most exciting market in the global cashback industry at the moment.

One such cashback website in India is Zingoy.com, which not only gives cashback on a shopper’s purchases but also on the purchases of the user’s friends, done using the users’ Zingoy shopping links. With over 2 lakhs users, already on board, it is now the fastest growing cashback site in India with almost Rs 1 crore cashback rendered in its first six months of operation.

At the time of writing this article, Zingoy had already rewarded Rs 17,050,730 as cashback to 216,193 users.

Founded in 2015 by Mehul Jobanputra and Jimish Jobanputra, Zingoy faces competition from other cashback sites like Coupondunia, CashKaro, GoPaisa. However, Zingoy is different from them in the sense that its users can also earn cashback on things other than their personal online shopping because it offers cashback to the users even on the shopping of their friends and family. A user can create his or her own Zingoy shopping links for a store or offer or product and share them with whomever they want. If a purchase is made using their link, they get a commission of the sale made. Thus, Zingoy users keep earning cashback as long as the deal lasts.

Another extremely interesting USP of Zingoy is that it lets its user earn ‘Hard Cash’. All the cashback earned by the user, while shopping with Zingoy, is stored in their Zingoy account. Once the validated amount of cash in the user’s Zingoy account reaches Rs 250, users can transfer it to their bank account and use all that extra cash to shop some more … and obviously, to earn some more!

Users can also redeem that cashback in form of gift vouchers. Zingoy charges no additional fees for such redemptions.
Recently, Zingoy has launched instant cashback on purchase of vouchers and gift cards, too. Users can now buy online as well as offline vouchers from Zingoy and earn cashback on them immediately.

A year ago, Zingoy had also launched its mobile app to bring heaps of cashback for its customers on the go, almost every time they shop online. The cashback platform also has a nifty Google Chrome extension called Zinni, which when downloaded and activated on the browser, reminds the user of any cashback, they can avail on a site that they are visiting. It then automatically tracks the cashback if the user makes a purchase.

Zingoy offers cashback from over 200 stores including Amazon India, Paytm, Flipkart, Jabong, AskMeBazaar, Snapdeal, eBay and others. Receiving positive response, there are now 350+ merchant partners on Zingoy, and its user base is growing by 50% every month. Also, Zingoy has contributed 40 Cr to the total GMV of e-commerce websites in just 180 days after launch.

Read 65 Lakhs of Books for Free with This App Developed by IIT Kharagpur

With everything going digital nowadays, it was high time that someone did the same for our libraries. And, thankfully, one of India's premier institute, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has developed an app for the same.

The institute has given bibliophiles around the world the gift of accessing 65 lakh books, research papers, theses, journals and periodicals absolutely free of cost with the help of just one app. Called the National Digital Library of India (NDL), the exhaustive knowledge repository can be accessed by anybody owning a smartphone or desktop.

In a statement given to TOI, P P Chakraborty, director of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur says, “With the exponential growth in mobile usage, the NDL app will enable access to rich digital content of libraries across the country and even foreign repositories to users even in the remotest of areas, which is unique not just in the Indian, but also in the global context. The world has never seen a digital repository like NDL, which is focused on education.”

The app, which comes with features to search, browse, filter, tag, comment and view metadata, has already recorded 9 lakh users. It also comes with an 'Advanced Search' feature which will help bibliophiles find the exact book/information they're looking for.

The project, which was started by India's Ministry of Human Resource Development, now houses NCERT textbooks, textbooks from eight state education boards, previous years exam papers of UPSC, JEE and GATE, NPTEL and spoken tutorials, papers and theses from IISc, ISI, nine IITs, two IIMs and three IISERs, publications from eight laboratories of CSIR, publications from two laboratories of ICAR and Krishikosh, IEEE, PubMed, LibriVox (audio books), South Asia Archive, World e-Book Library, Satyajit Ray Society, OECD, INFLIBNET and more.

The National Digital Library of India has also joined hands with Europeana, which is the umbrella library of Europe for Culture & Museum. There was an initiative called the Digital Library of India, which was started more than decade back with a charter to digitise one million rights-free books and make them available. This has also now been integrated in National Digital Library.

The app, which was launched a month ago and is currently available only for Android users, has been downloaded more than 1,00,000 times from Google's Play Store. An iOS version of the app is also in the making.

BHIM App will be Available on iOS in 10 Days

BHIM, the unified app for UPI-based payments launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 30th last year, has been generating a lot of buzz since its launch. According to a recent tweet put up by Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog, the BHIM app has been successful in crossing 3 million downloads in just five days since its launch with over 500,000 transactions done. But, unfortunately, iOS users have been missing out on all the action since the app was only available for Android users. Well, not anymore.

The BHIM app, which has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is expected to make its iOS debut in about 10 days from now. Along with the iOS version, the app, which is currently only available in Hindi and English, will also come out with several more multilingual versions.

BHIM in the BHIM app stands for Bharat Interface for Money. The app, which is topping the Google Play Store charts in India just a few days after its launch, has been named BHIM after Babasaheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.

The app allows payments via the United Payments Interface (UPI), which makes sure that money is debited or credited directly to a user’s bank account. For those users who don't have UPI on their bank accounts yet, BHIM also supports transfers via MMID and IFSC code. UPI payments is preferred as against any other method as it only requires a Virtual Payee Address and a user doesn’t have to remember and share his/her bank details, thus reducing the risks of any fraud or theft. BHIM is also expected to support Aadhaar-based payments in the future.



The BHIM app binds together with the user’s device and mobile number. The users are required to set up a pin to login into the BHIM app each time they want to use it. There's another pin called the UPI Pin, which is required to carry out the transactions on the app.

For those sceptical about using the app due to the recent fraud and theft cases regarding mobile payments, the BHIM app developers have a three factors of authentication at place. There's one that binds the app with the device and mobile number, the second one that requires a login pin, and finally, the third one in which a separate authentication pin is required. To make the security tighter, even for regenerating their UPI Pin, a user is required to have access to their debit card details.

The government has also decided to provide UPI payments integration to USSD platform where a user can just simply dial *99# from their feature phones or even smartphones and carry out UPI based transactions without having to depend on the internet. Since India has an internet penetration of just 34.8 %, this move was well-needed.

What's interesting to note is that Paytm, one of the most famous and used mobile wallets in India after the demonetisation phase is also supporting UPI to let users load their wallets. As previously stated, UPI is a direct bank-to-bank payment method, but for now the BHIM app has put a daily limit of Rs. 20,000.

[Top Image: digit.in]

Two Ex-Executives of RockeTalk Launches 'VOIZD' - A World’s First Audio Based Anonymous Social Networking App

It's 2016, and it's no secret that the world has become a place where no one can voice their opinions without being judged or trolled by people holding different point of views. Whether its politics, a social subject or any other topic; you just can't escape the wrath of the people having different ideologies than yours. This is the very reason that many of us prefer keeping quite or just distance ourselves from expressing ourselves altogether.

This is the very dilemma that Sameer Agarwal, co-founder, VOIZD, faced during the 2013 general elections and post elections phase, which prompted him to start working on a mobile app called Voice Without Fear. A part of parent company Voizd Inc., Voice Without Fear, is an anonymous mobile app which gives everyone and anyone a platform to freely express their opinions and thought in their own voice without the fear of getting judged, labeled or trolled.

The USP of the app is that the users get to share their views/opinions anonymously and in voice without the entire persistent real name trapping of other networks. A user can upload a 30-second anonymous (optional) audio clips to express their thoughts.



The app, which is being touted as a network of real people expressing their real thoughts, makes sure that their users' identity remains fully protected, so that they can be 100% themselves without having to filter their opinions according to society rules. Users get a non-judgemental platform to divulge their deepest of secrets to an unknown audience, and respond to each others secret confessions or questions. The app, which was beta launched in Sep 2016, comes with content discovery based on trending topics, emotions, proximity, and relevant topics.

It was during the much-hyped 2013 general elections and post elections phase that Sameer realised that openly expressing his view points about the elections was inviting him death threats and troll attacks. At first, he thought it was a one off thing and would boil down in a few days. But, he soon realised that our country has become intolerant towards opinions and thoughts which are divergent from mainstream.

While this particular incident did motivate him to start working on the app on paper, what really pushed him to bring it from paper to reality was a conversation he had with a close acquaintance. During his conversation, he realised that almost all the traditional social spaces that are live today are owned by English speaking Audience and people who are not very comfortable with English or written form get hard end of the stick. This is why he decided to have Audio/ Voice based expression as the mainstay of the App, so that everyone gets to speak their mind. In addition to giving everyone an opportunity to speak, what voice also does is, it keeps the essence, emotion, tonality of the person's opinion/view fully intact, which leads to a deeper connect between the poster and the listener.

About the Founders

Sameer Agarwal, Founder, VOIZD, holds a MBA in Internal Business and Marketing, and has a 10 year experience in entrepreneurship. He was most awarded winner in Mobile Marketing in the earlier venture (2013-14). Some of his professional accomplishments include acquiring 20-million users for RockeTalk as it’s CMO, with a hyper-lean budget and achieving a $ 2million revenue as Ad Sales Revenue Head within 16 months. He also has coss function experience in Mobile Tech, Marketing and Sales

Pooja Daswani, Co-Founder, VOIZD, is a specialist in Campaign and Audience Management with a 6 year experience in Mobile Social Media and a 3 year experience in Design and User Experiences.

Journey till now...

The VOIZD beta app, which was only exposed to just 100 people in mid Sep this year, has now organically grown to over 2000 users. It is now doing over five thousand posts and over one lac public conversations, from topics ranging from Relationships, Gender issues, Fashion and Abuse. According to their trends, 70 % of their current users are women and are highly vocal.

VOIZD is currently bootstrapped by the founders, though the team is meticulously working towards growing the network further and is looking for funding.

One of the best things about Voice Without Fear app, is that it is completely sign up hassle free. This means, all one has to do is download the app and start expressing themselves and get the true taste of freedom of speech.

Government to Launch E-Payments and PoS App Linked With Aadhaar Next Week

Have you got an Aadhaar card to your name? If yes, then here's some good news for you which will help you through this tough post-demonetisation phase.

The Indian government has announced that it will be soon launching a mobile application that will facilitate Aadhaar-linked digital payments. The program will be rolled out on a nation-wide level and will include training over 1 crore people about the ABC of e-payments.

According to IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the government will be promoting Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) in coordination with the Finance Ministry. Till now, about 40 crore bank accounts have been linked to Aadhaar cards. The government is currently working towards connecting the rest of the accounts in the country with Aadhaar. He said, that there are biometric devices which can be easily connected to smartphones to convert them into a Point of Sale (PoS) machine.

"We are developing a UPI enabled mobile application. It will be available in 2-4 days," said CSC SPV CEO Dinesh Tyagi in a statement. He further added, customers can feed their Aadhaar number, scan their finger on the biometric device, approve the amount on the app that they have to pay and then the payment gets directly transferred from the user's account to the merchant’s account.

The process won't require the customer to enter their bank account details as the app will itself detect the bank account linked to the Aadhaar number with help of Unified Payment Interface (UPI). Common Service Centers all across the country are already successfully carrying out AEPS transactions, and the government is now in the process of converting the same in to a mobile application.

In addition to launching the app, the government will also be training people about e-payments. It is planning to conduct workshops for 14 lakh Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) across 500 districts and 6500 blocks around the country on how to carry out digital transactions. These workshops will also have Members of Parliament in attendance.

Each of the 14 lakh VLE will be further training 40 individuals, which will result in training over 80 lakh individuals and at least 10 shopkeepers. The government targets to cover a total of 25 merchants across country.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is also in the process of organising a two-day long event at Delhi's Major Dhyanchand National Stadium. The aim is to increase the general public's knowledge about digital payments and also help more and more people to open bank accounts and enroll for Aadhaar. There will be 27 banks having their stalls at the venue. In fact, even private mobile wallet companies will be helping people in making digital payments.

[Top Image: pbs.twimg.com]

Amid Demonetization, PayTM Delists Its App From Apple Play Store

Trying to find PayTM on your iOS device? Well, keep trying but you ain't going to find it. The popular e-wallet app whose popularity grew off the charts after November 8 demonetisation announcement has delisted its iPhone and iPad apps on the Apple’s App Store after it came across some bugs and technical issues.

The latest from the company on the issue is, that it has pushed an update for the app and is just waiting for Apple's approval now.

Enjoying the position of India’s largest mobile wallet app with over 170 million registered users, PayTM was very enthusiastic about the whole demonetisation drive and pledged its support the very next day of the announcement when it printed page long advertisements regarding the same in almost all national newspapers. But, now it seems, the e-wallet app hasn't been successful in managing such a large inflow of new users.

The disappearance of the app from the Apple App Store came just a few hours after the service suffered from an outage on Tuesday. In fact, the service wasn't so smooth for some users even yesterday.

The delisting of the app from the App Store has sent almost everyone in a tizzy as even when an update is awaiting an approval from Apple, the app's older version still remains available in the Apple store for download. So, why did PayTM go with the delisting option is indeed a curios puzzle.

According to company's statement on its blog,"Today we found a bug in our iOS App where certain app users were not able to pay thereby hanging their app. Soon the system logged them out preventing them from further accessing their account."

"We have currently removed the app from the App Store to stop adding incremental new users to our existing base," said a PayTM spokeswoman.

Well, it seems, there's no end to the troubles of the Indian population dealing with the demonetisation surprise sprung on them by the Indian government.

Meet COO-Paisa - A Digital Currency Launched By An Indian Co-Operative Bank

It has been more than a month since the demonetisation surprise was dumped upon us by the Modi government. Whether we will be able to see all the long term benefits promised by the government is something that only time will tell, but for now the country is deeply bearing the brunt of the temporary cash scarcity created with 86% of liquid currency out of circulation.

In order to help out the Indian cooperative sector during this cash crunch period, Thenhipalam Cooperative Bank, a primary cooperative bank in Malappuram, Kerala, has come up with its own digital currency app CooPaisa. With the app, the bank is directly taking on the currently visible hegemony of e-payment wallets in the country which requires a smartphone and internet connection to operate.

The CooPaisa mobile application facilitates e-payment service to hundreds of people who have accounts at the Thenhipalam Cooperative Bank. In an effort to provide a smooth experience to its customers, the Malappuram branch of the bank has made arrangements with taxis, local shops, autorickshaws, and fish vendors within a 20 km radius of the bank.

The innovative e-payment payment solution has successfully enabled more than 21, 000 bank customers and 1000 merchandise shops in the bank's perimeter to make day-to-day purchases or pay for a taxi ride without making use of any currency.



The mobile app can be used by both vendors and customers. In order to pay for a purchase, the customer is required to scan the QR code available at the vendor's shop and type in the amount to be payed to the vendor. Once typed and okayed, the amount gets instantaneously transfered from the customer's bank account to the vendor's bank account. If in the case, the customer is a little apprehensive of the method, the vendor can help in the payment solution without compromising the security. Both the parties will be sent SMS confirmation about a successful transaction.

Since CooPaisa deducts the amount to be paid directly from one's bank account, it is much easier to use when compared to mobile wallets which need to be constantly filled when they run out of balance. Further, one other point which makes COOPaisa better than the e-wallets is the fact that it can also work without smartphones, by authenticating transactions by using one-time-password (OTP) alone.

For now, Thenhipalam Cooperative Bank hasn't set any minimum limit for the transaction using the COOPaisa app, and customers can easily make purchases for ₹1 to ₹10,000 per day.

While card payments might prove to be more profitable for retail chains and a number of other establishments, but when it comes to small businesses, the high cost of the device and service tax involved makes it a not so lucrative option to implement. In addition to this, the transaction charges that are applied by the card networks act as a major hindrance for the general public to make a switch from hard cash to card payments. The CooPaisa mobile app manages to solve all these aforementioned problems associated with card payment system all at once.

Currently, the app is available for customers in six panchayats - Chelembra, Vallikkunnu, Pallikkal, Thenhipalam, Munniyur and Peruvallur.

According to Thenhipalam Cooperative Bank, it had originally ended up mooting the CooPaisa mobile app project about 3 months back as they had never even thought about such a contingency at the stage of planning. However, the demonetisation drive immensely helped them in popularising CooPaisa.

The bank predicts that about more than 4000 of its customers will make use of the facility as within just three days of the app launch, it received more than 1,200 downloads.

This App Lets You Earn Free Recharge Every Time Your Phone Rings

A majority of us often get irritated when our phone rings and keep it on silent most of the times, but what if I told you that you now have an opportunity to earn free recharge every time your phone rings. Sound too good to be true, right? But, Rappio, an app by a Mumbai based startup is actually making this almost unbelievable scenario possible.

Rappio is basically a mobile audio advertising platform in which a user earns money on every incoming call where the ringtone is replaced by an ad jingle.

One can even earn a free mobile recharge by inviting friends to download Rappio, the Free Recharge App. If you're thinking the app is only gold for people with postpaid connections, then you're wrong. You can even let Rappio pay your postpaid bills by letting it customise your phone’s ringtone. Once you sing up for an account on the app, you will get greeted with a cool ringtone every time along with a free recharge. What's the icing on the cake is that the app also provides its users opportunity to win more prizes by participating in their weekly contests.

How to use Rappio

1. Install the Android app and register for an account.

2. Once registration is done, you will be asked to select the ringtones of your choice to get free recharge.

3. Set the priority of ringtones to get the free mobile recharge.

4. On every incoming call, you will hear a ringtone and you will earn free recharge.

5. Once you have accumulated some significant amount, you can redeem for free recharges or pay your phone’s bill on the Redeem page.

The app has almost all popular operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Tata Docomo, Tata Indicom, Idea, Aircel, BSNL, MTNL, Uninor etc. on board, so you need not to worry if your operator is going to participate in the app's service.

Rappio's team of four founders, Nirav Shah, Ishan Doshi, Sahil Mehta, and Anuj Shah, is an interesting mix of experience, entrepreneurs mindset and young minds. Out of the 4 friends, 3 are hardcore techies, while Nirav Shah is the business brain behind the startup.

Launched in April this year, the startup's mobile app has been able to garner Over 40K downloads and more than 100K daily ringtone plays. The unfunded startup plans to increase these numbers to upto 1 million downloads in next 6 months with a daily gross revenue of 3 lakhs.

Zoro.im- An App Like Skype, Viber and WhatsApp; Only Better

Communication is an art which can break or make a product/service and in today's age of technology, communication has acquired even more importance. Releasing the space that communication technologies have acquired and will be acquiring in the coming years, Jimmy Padia founded Bhavnagar-based startup zoro.im.

An all-in-one app for businesses as well individuals, zoro.im promises to deliver the best unified communication and collaboration experience. All this in addition to the calling and international roaming features that the app provides.

As mentioned above, zoro.im is available in two variants:

Zoro.im for individuals

• Free Sign-up from web or mobile device


• Chat or video call with your friends, family


• Call any where in world and pay as you go


• Roam free with zoro.im

Zoro.im for businesses

• Setup enterprise pbx in less than minutes


• Free sign-up for upto 10 users


• Complete unified communication and enterprise collaboration platform


• Works behind firewall or blockages

In order to make the app standout from its competitors like Skype For Business, Dialpad etc., the founder of zoro.im has consciously focused on architecting an app for mobile first users. Developed with next generation communication technologies, zoro.im for businesses is extremely easy to setup and use when compared to Skype for business. Further, the international calling feature offered by the app is also significantly cheaper when compared to its Skype counterpart. In addition to this, zoro.im also offers its users with integration with document management system feature, something which is yet not available in Skype. Zoro.im also offers it users with a low bandwidth option for audio and video calling.

While like zoro.im, other companies are also offering cloud based communication platform (pbx), but their mobile apps are very basic in design and interface and only offer calling features. On the other hand, zoro.im offers feature-rich apps, chat, app to app calling, RCS and collaboration.

One can Login or sign-up to zoro.im from multiple devices at the same time. It offers a truly all-platform support and works in Web browser, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, Mac.



In order to make sure that the app doesn't end up taking a lot of space in its user's phones, Jimmy has kept the app feather-light. The app takes only 15 MB of a user's mobile memory as compared to 100+ MB of skype. Further, while the technical architecture of Skype ends up gobbling a lot of CPU and network resources, zoro.im consumes less battery and CPU.

The app, which was launched in September this year, has managed to attract more than 400 downloads till date, a number which is quite decent.

The startup, which hasn't received any funding as of now, is currently doing beta testing of the app. It is interacting with 5 partners with combined capacity of 100,000+ enterprise users.

[caption id="attachment_111396" align="aligncenter" width="700"]                                                                       Jimmy Padia at THE INDIA IT SHOW 2016[/caption]

According to Jimmy, who has a versatile experience of over a decade spanning more than 20 countries and 5 continents, having made a significant impact in fortune 100 companies, the startup aims to have a global presence as their solution caters to an international/global market. Jimmy is quite hopeful that being a part of Barclays Techstar accelerator program will help them build their reach, reputation, and better their services to a global quality level.

Jimmy is an engineering graduate from one of the oldest Engineering colleges of Asia and ranked amongst top 10 colleges in India, V.J.T.I. Ex-General Electric IT Project leader with experience in delivering complex IT projects involving multiple Technologies and cross-location team. Being part of GE's elite IT leadership program, Jimmy has got opportunities to work across several top technology platforms. He is also a trained black belt in Lean and a Six Sigma and certified Green Belt in Six Sigma. He is also the CEO and Founder of JPC Technologies.

[Top Image: zoro.im]

Top 15 best business apps for Android Devices

Our mobile apps have the power of acting as our true friends when dealing with the day-to-day workload of office. With the corporate world progressing at an accelerating rate, humans do require help from time to time in order to surf through the hectic schedules and physically drowning times. Here's our pick of the top 15 Android apps that every working professional must have on their smartphones.

1) Docs To Go Free Office Suite

If making power-point presentations, excel sheets, word documents is an important part of your job, then this particular app is a must download. The app allows its users to view the native Microsoft documents which are of type: power-point presentations, excel and word etc. In order to have an access to all the features of the app, one will have to pay a small amount.

2) CamCard Free - Business Card R

The app not only acts as a business card scanner but also as a reader. It helps its users to search LinkedIn, make notes, and group the contacts etc. All that the user is required to do is to use the Smartphone to click a picture of the business card and it will automatically have the information in the address book. Currently, the app, which is capable of recognising 16 different languages, occupies 15 MB memory on the phone and requires an Android version 2.0 to function properly.

3) Advanced Task Manager

A business app which not only helps a user in listing and running all their tasks on time, but also makes sure that it doesn't drain out their phone's battery while in the process. In order to kill a particular task using the app, all that the user has to do is long press on that task and just click the button “force stop.”

4) Business Calendar

Being on time is considered as a good quality, especially in the professional world. While there are a number of calendar business apps available, this particular business calendar application comes with both graphical and textual presentation. The app provides its users a choice to view events based on a specific day, month or week. The app requires an Android version of 2.1 or higher to run and will occupy 1.6 MB memory in the device.

5) Box

The app allows its users to not only edit and share Microsoft documents but also stay connected with their team from anywhere, at anytime. It also allows users to save important documents in external memory and view them whenever they want without an internet connection.

6) File Manager

If you have an android version of 1.6 or above, then this particular app is a must download. The File Manager App is supportive of 19 different languages, allows the user to search as well as share different files, supports remote as well as local file systems, file shortcuts and many more. Further, it would just acquire 2.3 MB space in the phone's memory.

7) Google Drive
Everyone is acquainted with the Google Drive, but did you know that it also comes as an app? Probably the best business Android app in the free category, the Google Drive business app allows its users to store as well as access all their important files from any place, at anytime. The app, which requires 7.2 MB memory space and an android version of 2.1 or higher to function, allows its users to even share their music files, video files, pictures and various other documents as well.

8) Skype

Since nowadays businesses are no longer limited to one particular place/location, the Skype app allows people to be in touch with colleagues, vendors and customers from all around the globe. By using Skype, one can save a hefty amount of money as the app allows one to make free video calls and voice calls anywhere around the world. Not only this, one can also send send pictures, files and videos using the Skype app. The app would acquire just 15 MB of your phone's memory space.

9) Dropbox

Yes, your favourite Dropbox also comes in the form of an Android app. It allows it users to store and share hefty documents with one or more than one person anywhere, at anytime.

10) Splashtop 2 Remote Desktop

The app is considered as the fastest remote desktop app to allow access to Windows, Mac and Ubuntu from either an android phone or tablet. It acquires just 12 MB space and is compatible with all the desktop applications and PDF documents. In fact, it allows a user to use 5 computers together with one splashtop account.

11) Astro File Manager

The free business app allows its users to manage as well as organise all their files and other stuff like: music, videos, pictures, videos, and documents on one's Android phone as well as tablet.

12) Google Maps

One of the most important business apps which makes sure that you're always on time for all your important meetings. It does so by suggesting routes which are the shortest and have the least traffic.

13) Facebook Pages Manager
If you're a social media manager with the responsibility to handle multiple Facebook pages, then this particular app will sort your life forever. The app allows one to add multiple Facebook pages under one umbrella. Using the app, one can post, schedule pictures, statuses, videos and events etc. Not only this, one can even change a page's profile picture and cover picture right from the app.

14) WPS Office + PDF

If you have an android version of 2.1 or higher, then this particular app is a must have. The app, which will occupy just 13 MB memory space, is supportive of 23 different file formats. It even supports cloud-storage, mail integration and has many more such features on offer. The app comes with an excellent user-interface and can function on both Android phones and tablets.

15) SMS Backup & Restore

The app,which requires an android OS of 1.6 or higher, allows its users to restore and delete all the messages. It also comes with the ability of exporting data to HTML or web page format. Using the app, one can even merge multiple conversations of the people who have more than one phone number.