Karnataka Launches Tech-driven Solution to Manage and Mitigate Floods

A mobile app and a portal offering technology-driven solutions to manage and mitigate
floods in urban areas were launched here on Saturday by Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka.

The mobile app 'Bengaluru Megha Sandesha' was developed to disseminate information on rainfall and flood forecast, location-specific dynamic weather directly to the public.

"The in-built features of the app and the information provided for a city is the first of its kind in the country," a press release said.

This is a system of providing rainfall, flood forecasts and early warning to the officials of government agencies in the city through SMS to their mobile phones, social media platforms and a dedicated web portal, the release said.

The information provided would help the civic authorities act in advance and manage the floods, it said.

The portal 'Varunamitra' is for information on the weather. The information provided is based on real-time data from 100 telemetric rain gauges installed and maintained at various locations across the state, it said.

Rainfall forecast is based on the weather research and forecast models developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ahmedabad, the release said.

The information on flood forecast is based on the hydrological model, hydraulic routing and automation of the results.

The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, along with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), took up this project on the urban flood model for Bengaluru city.

The project was funded by the Central government's department of science and technology, the release added.

Govt Launches App 'AarogyaSetu' to Assess, Alert People about Coronavirus Patient

The government on Thursday launched a mobile app to help people assess themselves the risk of catching coronavirus infection and alert authorities if they have come in close contact with a person infected with the deadly virus.

According to a ministry official, the app will detect only fresh cases and will send out alerts to only those who have been nearby the infected person.

"The App, called 'AarogyaSetu' joins Digital India for the health and well-being of every Indian. It will enable people to assess themselves the risk of catching the coronavirus infection. It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence," an official statement said.

If a person is clinically tested positive with coronavirus infection, the mobile number of the infected person is included in the register maintained by the health ministry and will be updated on the app as well, an IT ministry official explained.

"Once installed in a smartphone through an easy and user-friendly process, the app detects other devices with AarogyaSetu installed that come in the proximity of that phone. The app can then calculate the risk of infection based on sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts are tested positive," the statement said.

The government has announced a 21 lockdown starting March 24 and appealed to everyone to maintain social distancing to avoid the risk of getting infected with the deadly virus which has killed over 40,000 people globally and 50 in India.

As on date, 2,116 people in the country have been diagnosed with the coronavirus infection out of which there are 150 have been cured or discharged and 1,764 cases remain active.

"The App will help the government take necessary timely steps for assessing the risk of spread of COVID-19 infection, and ensuring isolation where required," the statement said.

The government said that privacy is priority for the app users and the personal data collected by the app is encrypted and will stay secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating medical intervention.

"Available in 11 languages, the App is ready for pan-India use from day-1 and has highly scalable architecture," the statement said.

The mobile app has been developed in a public-private partnership to bring the people of India together in a resolute fight against COVID-19, the IT ministry said. PTI PRS

Driver Seva Mobile App, A Lifeline for Drivers Stranded on Highways Due to the Lockdown

Locus, a global B2B SaaS company that automates human decisions in supply chain, has initiated the ‘Driver Seva mobile app’ project along with Highway Delite, a travel app startup, to do its bit in easing the situation for the truck drivers who are stuck on highways due to the lockdown. This project is supported by the Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, in association with the All India Motor Transport Congress. Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd (APML) is also a partner in this initiative.

The country-wide lockdown in India has had an impact across industries, but at the heart of it all is logistics and supply chain. Drivers, who are the lifeline of this industry, have been deeply affected right now. A sizable population of drivers have nowhere to go to and not many resources to survive with.

 



This app aims to help drivers in the current lockdown with information regarding food, water, and safe parking near their location, across the country.

“Highway Delite has added more than 400 BPCL Pumps (140 BPCL Company owned pumps), 6 APML Hubs, and 30+ dhabas. The Highway Delite team is working to increase this count to 1000+ within 4 days by listing more pumps and dhabas, where food facilities will be available to drivers,” said Rajesh Kumar G, Founder, Highway Delite.

“We heard from a lot of clients about their drivers being stranded on highways with nowhere to go and bleak availability of essentials like water and food. We immediately got into the act and reached out to Highway Delite to set this up. Once again, I am glad that technology is acting as an enabler in these uncertain times. We all need to come together and help each other out in the present situation,” said Nishith Rastogi, CEO and Co-founder, Locus.

The petrol pump owner and dhaba owner can also update the availability of food and water on a real-time basis by logging into the same application.

To download the app:

• Visit https://digipitstop.com/driverseva


• Go to https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lnIRje9bDeeFYEnzT8Fsq7zdqRADWR8e

Download the APK File and Install the APK on your Android device. (Please allow the browser to download and install the APK File).

“We would like all of you to help us spread the word to companies that their on-ground fleet and their driver partners can depend on the app to help them access facilities until the situation improves,” added Nishith.

About Highway Delite:

Highway Delite is trying to solve problems faced by commuters on Indian highways by providing verified and reviewed database of restaurants and other necessary services required while commuting (medical facilities, petrol stations, repair shops, toilets, lodge/hotels), through an mobile application which can provide the above services on a real-time location basis.

About Locus:

Locus is a deep-tech platform that automates human decisions in supply chain to provide efficiency, transparency, and consistency in logistics operations. Locus solutions automate human decisions required to transport a package or a person, between any two points on earth.

The platform uses deep machine learning and proprietary algorithms to offer smart logistics solutions like route optimization, real-time tracking, insights and analytics, beat optimization, efficient warehouse management, vehicle allocation and utilization. Locus’ customers include Blue Dart, Bigbasket, Myntra, Unilever, Tata Sky, Urban Ladder, and Lenskart, among others. Locus last raised $22 mn in their Series B round backed by major investors like Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global, and Blume Ventures, taking the total funds to $29 million to date. Since its inception in 2015, Locus has grown rapidly and remarkably, expanding teams internationally and capturing markets in North America, Southeast Asia, and India

Rajasthan Police launches Mobile App for Permitting Movement During Lockdown

Rajasthan police on Saturday launched a mobile app to enable individuals and company employees in the state take permission for venturing out in necessary conditions.

The RajCop citizens app has been launched on Android Play Store in English but every day it will be modified to suit the need of people especially those at the bottom of the pyramid, Sharat Kaviraj, DIG, State Crime Record Bureau, Rajasthan told PTI.

#RPFightsCorona 💪~ #Episode18#RajasthanPolice has brought easier solution to get lockdown pass online. Download the #RajCopCitizen App & apply for lockdown pass.#LetsFightCovid19 together,
You 🙏 keep supporting #Lockdown21, We 👮 keep serving you better!#Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/8xQrTaa4xO

— Rajasthan Police (@PoliceRajasthan) March 29, 2020

"Right now we are using both technology and humanitarian approach to control the lockdown. This app will help law-abiding citizens to go out of their home in case of emergency or essential services during the lockdown with a valid permit," Kaviraj said.

The permission is being sent on email of the applicant but from Sunday onwards it will be also available inside the application to help people who don't have knowledge of using e-mail.

"We will also start Hindi version of the application from tomorrow," Kaviraj said.

Many companies involved in essential services have complained about police on road punishing their employees during the lockdown.

The developer of the app Data Ingenious GLobal Limited said that the launch has been done to address the immediate need of the people during the lockdown and its team is working from home to bring changes that will be asked by the government.

"In this difficult time of coronavirus impact, we were asked to do the lockdown pass work by the government. We took it as a challenge and our team worked from home continuously for four days and I am glad that we could deliver an advance lockdown pass system to ease the life of people involved in essential services," Ajay Data CEO, Data Ingenious GLobal Limited said.

~ With Major Inputs from PTI

Kerala CM Launches "Yodhavu" Mobile App to Combat Drug Menace

'Yodhavu' (Warrior), a mobile app through which the public can inform police about drug abuse
and its distribution, was launched by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Saturday as part of efforts to curb the growing menace in the State.

Vijayan said a special feature of the application, introduced by the Kochi city police, was that the informer's identity could be kept secret.

Drug abuse among youngsters was painful, Vijayan said and wanted people to extend support to the police and excise departments in curbing the menace.

The chief minister urged people to fight against the growing drug menace in the state.

The chief minister also inaugurated a most modern cyberdom cyber crime police station, new building of the Infopark police station and regional forensic science laboratory's upper and lower subordinate quarters at the TCS auditorium at Infopark here.

The chief minister also unveiled the model of Kochi city police's new police complex being constructed at Marine Drive here.PTI TGB

Kredent InfoEdge Launches Kolkata's 1st Goal based Financial Planning App

Mr. Ramesh Damani, a reputed investor in India and also an investor in Kolkata based fintech firm Kredent InfoEdge launched the application

Kredent InfoEdge Pvt Ltd, a leading FinTech company from Kolkata, launched their goal based financial planning App, Kredent Money, at a Seminar on stock markets organized by the company in association with Motilal Oswal. The Seminar was conducted by Ace Investor Mr. Ramesh Damani followed by the launch of Kredent Money. Apart from Mr. Damani, the seminar was also addressed by Kredent InfoEdge Founder Mr. Vivek Bajaj and Mr Chandan Taparia, Motilal Oswal’ s Market Expert . 

Initially Kredent Money will be offering goal based financial advisory and transactions in mutual funds and gradually will add other financial instruments. The App will be available on both IOS and android. The users can share their financial goals and receive personalized artificial intelligence (AI) driven advisory for free.

The app will recommend investments in regular plans of all categories of mutual funds, including equity and debt schemes. The app also offers users to choose from plans like Education, Marriage, Be Wealthy, Vacation, Car, Buy a Home, Start Business. One can start investing in the plan of their choice from within the app. Kredent Money is registered with Association of Mutual Funds in India.

Commentating on this launch Mr. Ramesh Damani, Pre-Series A investor in Kredent Info Edge - “Kredent Money is a completely transparent system. You can track and manage your investments from within the app. What’s more, it contains knowledge content for users to learn about goal planning for free."

[caption id="attachment_135161" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Mr Ramesh Damani[/caption]

Further commenting on the launch, Founder Kredent InfoEdge Pvt Ltd Mr. Vivek Bajaj “Amid the rising demand for higher returns in slowing markets, retail investors can now find an unbiased and personalized advisor. Kredent Money is your personalized robo advisor that uses its algorithms to understand your goals, analyse the market and recommend financial instruments to meet those needs.’ – added.

Kredent InfoEdge is a forerunner in simplifying investing in India, Kredent InfoEdge Pvt. Ltd. has been successfully democratising financial information since its inception in 2008 through its verticals Kredent Academy , Elearnmarkets.com and StockEdge App. Currently they have One million plus downloads for StockEdge and 150,000+ registered users in Elearnmarkets. The company is now preparing for its Series A round to strengthen its offerings. Mr. Ramesh Damani was a Pre-Series A investor in the company.

A Smartphone App to Help Curb Mental Health Issues by Monitoring User’s Speech Patterns.

Developed by a team led by Vishal Rana in Adelaide, South Australia, the Watchyourtalk app is a SaaS-based platform which runs in the background to a user’s usual smartphone activity and collects data surrounding their word choice, semantic content, vocal tone and cognitive and linguistic state.

Rana said the data is then funnelled it into an algorithm which can predict whether someone may develop depression up to 12 months in advance.

The technology is rooted in research surrounding textual analysis and the science’s ability to forecast suicidal ideation and depression.

“Watchyourtalk is based off 30 years of research from Professor James Pennebaker from the University of Texas,” said Rana, who is also a lecturer at the Australian Institute of Business in South Australia.

“What he discovered was within text, there were certain words people could use in their speech – specifically some pronouns like ‘I’ ‘me’ ‘myself’ ‘he’ ‘herself’ ‘she’ – which predicted whether you’re going towards depression.

“The more you focus on yourself during your speech the more it can actually predict the likelihood of you developing depression in the future.”

Rana has developed the prototype of the app and is seeking funding to commercialise the product.

Once fully funded, Watchyourtalk will also operate as a tele-health service to connect users to nearby psychologists.

Watchyourtalk will be free for users to measure their words but a monthly subscription of $49 is required to unlock the other features, such as self-administering mental health tests.

Rana first developed the app to tap into the global $25 billion self-improvement market, offering a way to change users behaviour from negative to positive. He changed the focus to mental health care after pitching the idea at the annual Rise conference in Hong Kong.

“When I pitched it last year in Hong Kong I was approached by people who wanted to use it as an app, but there were industries – insurance companies, and telecommunications companies – that face a lot of mental health issues for the staff members.”

Rana was also motivated to create a predictive mental health device after he lost a friend to suicide.

“This app might not be useful for the people who are already facing depression, but for the people who in the future might be likely to develop depression, we want to be preventative,” said Rana.

While the Watchyourtalk prototype is available to download on Android devices, Rana said the product will be completely commercialised 18 months after investment funding is secured.

~ Angela Skujins

AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu Launches Mobile App For Farmers In India

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday launched an innovative multi-lingual plant disease and pest diagnostic app ‘Plantix’  for farmer’s mobile phones. This app would help farmers to identify pests and diseases in their crops and will also suggest remedies for the same. Initially launched in the Indian regional languages of Telugu and Hindi, the app will soon be available in other regional languages.

The crop-damage diagnosis app Plantix was developed by the German startup Progressive Environmental & Agricultural Technologies (PEAT) in collaboration with its knowledge and extension partner, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University.

Commenting on ICRISAT’s partnership in the development of the app, Dr David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT, said “The app could prove to be a game-changer in the field, providing farmers free, reliable and quick diagnosis of crop damage. The simplified dashboard with easy-to-use features helps the app take on the role of an extension worker as well. The app is a novel experiment in using digital technologies for agriculture.”

How Does It Work?

App is easy and simple to use. Farmers just need to take pictures of the affected crop and upload them on the app. The photographs are analyzed using artificial intelligence algorithms and results returned immediately to the individual farmer.

Critical information on symptoms, triggers, chemicals as well as biological treatments is provided. All pictures sent via the app are geo-tagged thereby enabling real-time monitoring of pest and diseases. The resulting metadata provides valuable insights into the spatial distribution of cultivated crops and most significant plant diseases e.g. in the form of high-resolution maps.

Furthermore, the app encompasses a weather information system specific to the farmer's’ location and a community feature that facilitates interaction with other players interested in plant protection services.

“Every time there were pests in our field, we would go to the fertilizer dealer for help. The dealer would suggest remedies using a combination of 3-4 types of pesticides based on their experience.
However, results were not guaranteed, and while sometimes the recommendation worked, often it didn’t. Now with this app, we can find reliable advice at the click of a button,” said Chandra Mohan Reddy, a farmer from Chagantipadu village in Krishna district.

Its USP?

App provides following benefits to the farmers:

Real-time diagnosis: Uploaded crop photos are analyzed using image-recognition technology that uses a database of half a million pictures covering 30 crops and offers prescriptions for over 120 crop diseases
Smallholder farmers as end-users: Free of cost, with an easy-to-use dashboard in local languages
Successfully tested: Recently demonstrated successfully with farmers at several sites, including Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh

“The early recognition and tailor-made treatment plans for every plant damage are particularly important for farmers’ success and these are the main advantages of Plantix. We also offer information about preventive measures, which should help to avoid plant damage in the first place,” said PEAT’s CEO Simone Strey.

Currently, the database has half a million pictures covering 30 crops worldwide and offers prescriptions for over 120 crop diseases. Demonstrations with farmers held recently in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was very successful.

Niki.ai, BookMyShow Partnership Provides Smart Movie Booking Experience To Its Users

AI startup, Niki.ai has partnered with online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow. Fulfilled by BookMyShow, Niki users can now search and book movie tickets across the country at their preferred cinema venues, while simply chatting with Niki. The Artificial Intelligence powered chat experience provides easy discovery and a host of options to the customers.

Commenting on the development, Parikshit Dar, Director, BookMyShow said, “BookMyShow has always been keen to partner on initiatives that promote new technologies and we are now excited to take lead in exploring the potential of chatbots in movie ticket bookings in India. With 75% of transactions coming through mobile on BookMyShow, we understand the importance of a ‘mobile first strategy’ and believe that our association with Niki.ai is a step forward in this direction.”

How does it work?
Want to watch a movie today with your office colleagues? But you can only watch after work and for the convenience of everyone, you want to watch it in a theatre near your office. For this you just need to type ‘Show English action movies near MG Road after 8 PM for today’ on Niki app and by applying multiple filters, such as movie name, genre, show timings, theatre location and more, easily in a single text message to Niki to can get your movie ticket booked.

Niki, while using emerging technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, makes the whole movie booking process as simple as talking to a human booking agent since chatbot ‘Niki’ has the capability to understand complex queries.

It understands that users have multiple preferences while booking movie tickets and makes it extremely simple to work around these by presenting the users with options and recommendations that best suits their needs.

“With our vision to provide consumers with the most natural, simple and intelligent mode of transacting online, we have leveraged our technology of artificial intelligence combined with tackling consumer problems to build a one of a kind conversational theatre discovery and ticket booking experience,” said Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, Niki.ai.

Founded in 2015, and funded by Ratan Tata and Unilazer Ventures, Niki.ai envisions to provide one shop for everything commerce. Niki is an AI bot who converses to help its users shop for products and services and makes the whole journey from discovery to transaction fast, convenient and extremely simple. The company provides a simple and easy to use chat interface to shop for products and services. To the businesses, it provides a plug and play technology that can be easily integrated everywhere including operating systems, on messaging platforms messenger, and on the brand’s applications (app and web).

With a 35% month-on-month revenue growth, the company has 50+ partners on board, with much more in the pipeline. On the customer front, the company claims to have more than 400,000 customers using Niki.

The company plans to integrate many more services on its platform. It also plans on being on a lot more platforms like iOS and messaging platforms like Slack.

BYJU’S Launches Parent Connect App, Offers Real Time Update On Child's Learning Progress

Edtech startup, BYJU’S has launched a new version of its learning app to enhance personalised learning experiences for its users. Featuring unique learning journeys, guided paths, actionable feedback and intelligent recommendations, this version of the app will be very interactive in nature.

Taking personalised learning to a whole new level, BYJU’S has leveraged big data analytics to trace the learning fingerprint of every student and create a personalised learning experience on its platform. The app creates personalised learning journeys for individual students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities which help them learn at their own pace and style.

Commenting on the development, Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU’S said, “At BYJU’S, we have successfully transformed the one-to-many learning model to one-on-one personalised learning experiences through our app. With high engagement and renewal rates, we have set a new benchmark in education technology nationally as well as globally. In this upgrade, we have personalised the app interface to determine every student’s capability and recommend the right ‘Learn Journey’. Based on the level of understanding, ‘Learn Journeys’ will be tailor-made to every student’s individual requirements to ensure a seamless learning experience. We are also creating learning products in local languages to reach out to students across regions.”

Not only this, BYJU’S has also launched ‘Parent Connect’ app that offers a real-time update on every student’s progress. This app will help parents stay up-to-date and be more involved in their child’s learning journey.

Byju, Parent Connect app will allow parents to get regular updates via the app which will enable every parent to play a proactive role in appreciating the child. Team BYJU’S comprises of an in-house team of engineers, data scientists, animators, artists and teachers who have studied and consolidated behavioural learning patterns of students to create this enhanced application.

Talking about the technology and product prowess at BYJU’S, Ranjit Radhakrishnan, Chief Product Officer, BYJU’S said, “This new update has added a whole new personality to the application. We have created unique learning journeys for students which will offer them a completely personalised learning experience. We are able to build an extensive learning profile for every student. With an in-depth understanding of their learning gaps and strengths, we provide actionable feedback along with highly personalised learning journeys and recommendations tuned specifically for each student. Technology and data are being utilised to build a truly digital personal teacher who understands the student intricately and crafts the best learning experience automatically.”

Across subjects, grades and chapters, Byju’s claim that they have created a powerful knowledge graph with over 50,000 concepts and relationships. With a reach of over 1700+ towns and cities, the team at BYJU’S is also working on learning products in local languages to expand and reach out to students across regions.

Launched in 2015, BYJU’s is the creator of K-12 learning app which offers learning programs for students in classes 4-12 (K-12) and competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT.it boost to have become the most loved and preferred education app for students across age groups with 8 million users and 4,00,000 annual paid subscriptions.

Earlier in March 2017, Startup had raised $30 million from Verlinvest, a large Belgian family-owned, consumer-focused, diversification investment holding company.

BYJU’S Launches Parent Connect App, Offers Real Time Update On Child's Learning Progress

Edtech startup, BYJU’S has launched a new version of its learning app to enhance personalised learning experiences for its users. Featuring unique learning journeys, guided paths, actionable feedback and intelligent recommendations, this version of the app will be very interactive in nature.

Taking personalised learning to a whole new level, BYJU’S has leveraged big data analytics to trace the learning fingerprint of every student and create a personalised learning experience on its platform. The app creates personalised learning journeys for individual students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities which help them learn at their own pace and style.

Commenting on the development, Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU’S said, “At BYJU’S, we have successfully transformed the one-to-many learning model to one-on-one personalised learning experiences through our app. With high engagement and renewal rates, we have set a new benchmark in education technology nationally as well as globally. In this upgrade, we have personalised the app interface to determine every student’s capability and recommend the right ‘Learn Journey’. Based on the level of understanding, ‘Learn Journeys’ will be tailor-made to every student’s individual requirements to ensure a seamless learning experience. We are also creating learning products in local languages to reach out to students across regions.”

Not only this, BYJU’S has also launched ‘Parent Connect’ app that offers a real-time update on every student’s progress. This app will help parents stay up-to-date and be more involved in their child’s learning journey.

Byju, Parent Connect app will allow parents to get regular updates via the app which will enable every parent to play a proactive role in appreciating the child. Team BYJU’S comprises of an in-house team of engineers, data scientists, animators, artists and teachers who have studied and consolidated behavioural learning patterns of students to create this enhanced application.

Talking about the technology and product prowess at BYJU’S, Ranjit Radhakrishnan, Chief Product Officer, BYJU’S said, “This new update has added a whole new personality to the application. We have created unique learning journeys for students which will offer them a completely personalised learning experience. We are able to build an extensive learning profile for every student. With an in-depth understanding of their learning gaps and strengths, we provide actionable feedback along with highly personalised learning journeys and recommendations tuned specifically for each student. Technology and data are being utilised to build a truly digital personal teacher who understands the student intricately and crafts the best learning experience automatically.”

Across subjects, grades and chapters, Byju’s claim that they have created a powerful knowledge graph with over 50,000 concepts and relationships. With a reach of over 1700+ towns and cities, the team at BYJU’S is also working on learning products in local languages to expand and reach out to students across regions.

Launched in 2015, BYJU’s is the creator of K-12 learning app which offers learning programs for students in classes 4-12 (K-12) and competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT.it boost to have become the most loved and preferred education app for students across age groups with 8 million users and 4,00,000 annual paid subscriptions.

Earlier in March 2017, Startup had raised $30 million from Verlinvest, a large Belgian family-owned, consumer-focused, diversification investment holding company.

How This Startup Is Helping Commuters To Cut Time By Using GPS Feed From Buses

CarWale Founder and CEO, Mohit Dubey, Nikhil Aggarwal and IIT Delhi alumni, Vinayak Bhavnani realised that not more than 5% percent of Indians would own a car or any form of private transport at any point in their lives. Even from an infrastructure perspective, they recognized that most of the cities in India are not equipped to handle car ownership beyond these levels. Hence the majority of Indians will continue to rely on public transportation as their primary mode of transit.

Further, they witnessed that alternate ways of travelling within a city were emerging (shared bikes, shuttles etc) and getting more and more dynamic in terms of availability, pricing, etc. implying the need for a single platform that can provide information on all these different options so that a commuter can plan the most efficient trip.

However, the experience of public transit is extremely broken and has tremendous frictions. Sensing the need to address this daunting problem and tap the untapped market, the trio founded Zophop in 2014.

“With an intention to make everyday city commute hassle-free and convenient for the majority of the population in the country, Zophop was launched in 2014 to address, best multi-modal trip, real time information on availability and digital, smart ticketing for public transportation,” says Nikhil Aggarwal, COO, Co-founder, Zophop.

Mumbai-based startup is a mobile application targeted at making daily commute easier for people using public modes of travel. Zophop 1.0 was a multi-modal trip planner for 15 cities in India covering local trains, city buses, metro, cabs and autos. Zophop 2.0 was launched in early 2016 after the team realized that within urban transit, the biggest problem is the 15 min+ waiting time taken by buses with absolutely no visibility on arrival.

“In order to facilitate multi-modal transit and make lives simpler, the team decided to inform people about their ‘next bus’ and started providing real time information on buses on Zophop. It is the first and only platform to have a sizeable fleet for ‘live’ ETA as compared to both their local and international competitors. Zophop 3.0 now takes the consumer proposition from information to transactions and facilitates end-to-end seamless transit experiences,” says Nikhil.

Meet The Brain Behind It

27 year old Vinayak has worked on chat and voice products and did his thesis on LTE/4G. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Vinayak worked with Directi on mobile chat and voice products for 2 years. At Zophop, IIT-Delhi grads have been responsible for charting the product roadmap of the company. Through a combination of a deep understanding of the consumer need and technology, Vinayak has ensured that Zophop is the first-to-market globally with product features.

Whereas if we talk about Nikhil, prior co-founding Zophop, he had worked with Morgan Stanley's investment banking team in India for 6 long years where he used to cover fields like technology, automotive and real estate sectors. At Zophop, Nikhil plays an instrumental role in architecting the strategic roadmap for the company and building a robust business model. Nikhil is responsible for growing the information supply-side of the business and overseeing operations.

A Bumpy Ride

The biggest challenge during the early day was to develop a deep understanding of the market and understand what their target audience needs. Equally challenging during the early days was to build the right team. “Over the last few years, the additional challenge has been to aggregate data of buses especially when in most cases it simply doesn’t exist. We have been successful in deploying some innovative go-to-market strategies and technology to address this,” says Nikhil.

In its journey of building the consumer proposition, the company also realised the need to build and deploy enterprise tools at the bus operators end. “Zophop has installed GPS in 1,000+ buses and deployed dynamic scheduling tools so that it can generate real-time information. As a sector, public transit has limited or unused technology infrastructure and Zophop has taken a lead in deploying this infrastructure to power the consumer proposition,” says Nikhil.

Today, Zophop has associated with around 10 transport providers in cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Nagpur and Indore to offer either real-time information or mobile ticketing. It has also partnered with private transportation companies Jugnoo, Uber, Prasanna Purple and Bhagirathi Travels to allow users to search for and choose their services as alternative transit options.

Understanding Technology More Closely

Zophop often install GPS on buses which enable commuters to track the real position of a bus, it's time of arrival at any bus stop on a route. “We call this the Uber+ experience and allow commuters to spend their valuable time with friends and family instead of standing in the heat or rain at a bus stop. We use the GPS feed from the buses and combine it with dynamic scheduling information i.e which bus is on which route in real time, then predict the ETA using a proprietary algorithm to all stops on the route based on current vehicle movement, historical data, traffic information etc, explains Nikhil.

Not only this, with Zophop, commuters can also purchase tickets on its app which is very similar to booking a movie ticket. Users can purchase a mobile pass or ticket directly on Zophop - anytime, anywhere. “As a transit company it is important to also make the entire journey comfortable, hence we provide the following additional key features - multi-modal journey planning, voice alerts on next stop arrival, ability to share trip from a safety perspective,” says Nikhil.

Funds Flowing In

Zophop, which just returned from attending Innotrek this year after interacting with prominent Silicon Valley investors and experts, tech campus visits to global giants, had raised angel funding from leading technology entrepreneurs and investors such as Anupam Mittal (Founder, Shaadi.com), Satyan Gajwani (MD, Times Internet) and Amit Singhal (Previously SVP, Google) in year 2015.

Road Ahead

Currently, Zophop is present in around 15 cities in India but at different stages of deployment. They have claims that most of its traffic is generated from Mumbai and it’s suburbs, Nagpur and Kolkata.Currently providing live bus tracking information for 5,000 buses and have 50,000+ monthly active users,

Currently providing live bus tracking information for 5,000 buses and have 50,000+ monthly active users, Zophop is planning to bring 1 lakh live buses for ETA or ticketing on its platform in the next two to three years. Further, it aims to provide users with options to choose and combine these buses with other modes of transportation.

“The team envisages Zophop as a public transit assistant to every Indian. Zophop plans to create a seamless payment experience across modes in the same way that exists in other countries through smart cards.In the future, it also plans to leapfrog smart cards and enable payment via mobile phones,” concludes Nikhil.

How This Startup Is Helping Commuters To Cut Time By Using GPS Feed From Buses

CarWale Founder and CEO, Mohit Dubey, Nikhil Aggarwal and IIT Delhi alumni, Vinayak Bhavnani realised that not more than 5% percent of Indians would own a car or any form of private transport at any point in their lives. Even from an infrastructure perspective, they recognized that most of the cities in India are not equipped to handle car ownership beyond these levels. Hence the majority of Indians will continue to rely on public transportation as their primary mode of transit.

Further, they witnessed that alternate ways of travelling within a city were emerging (shared bikes, shuttles etc) and getting more and more dynamic in terms of availability, pricing, etc. implying the need for a single platform that can provide information on all these different options so that a commuter can plan the most efficient trip.

However, the experience of public transit is extremely broken and has tremendous frictions. Sensing the need to address this daunting problem and tap the untapped market, the trio founded Zophop in 2014.

“With an intention to make everyday city commute hassle-free and convenient for the majority of the population in the country, Zophop was launched in 2014 to address, best multi-modal trip, real time information on availability and digital, smart ticketing for public transportation,” says Nikhil Aggarwal, COO, Co-founder, Zophop.

Mumbai-based startup is a mobile application targeted at making daily commute easier for people using public modes of travel. Zophop 1.0 was a multi-modal trip planner for 15 cities in India covering local trains, city buses, metro, cabs and autos. Zophop 2.0 was launched in early 2016 after the team realized that within urban transit, the biggest problem is the 15 min+ waiting time taken by buses with absolutely no visibility on arrival.

“In order to facilitate multi-modal transit and make lives simpler, the team decided to inform people about their ‘next bus’ and started providing real time information on buses on Zophop. It is the first and only platform to have a sizeable fleet for ‘live’ ETA as compared to both their local and international competitors. Zophop 3.0 now takes the consumer proposition from information to transactions and facilitates end-to-end seamless transit experiences,” says Nikhil.

Meet The Brain Behind It

27 year old Vinayak has worked on chat and voice products and did his thesis on LTE/4G. Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Vinayak worked with Directi on mobile chat and voice products for 2 years. At Zophop, IIT-Delhi grads have been responsible for charting the product roadmap of the company. Through a combination of a deep understanding of the consumer need and technology, Vinayak has ensured that Zophop is the first-to-market globally with product features.

Whereas if we talk about Nikhil, prior co-founding Zophop, he had worked with Morgan Stanley's investment banking team in India for 6 long years where he used to cover fields like technology, automotive and real estate sectors. At Zophop, Nikhil plays an instrumental role in architecting the strategic roadmap for the company and building a robust business model. Nikhil is responsible for growing the information supply-side of the business and overseeing operations.

A Bumpy Ride

The biggest challenge during the early day was to develop a deep understanding of the market and understand what their target audience needs. Equally challenging during the early days was to build the right team. “Over the last few years, the additional challenge has been to aggregate data of buses especially when in most cases it simply doesn’t exist. We have been successful in deploying some innovative go-to-market strategies and technology to address this,” says Nikhil.

In its journey of building the consumer proposition, the company also realised the need to build and deploy enterprise tools at the bus operators end. “Zophop has installed GPS in 1,000+ buses and deployed dynamic scheduling tools so that it can generate real-time information. As a sector, public transit has limited or unused technology infrastructure and Zophop has taken a lead in deploying this infrastructure to power the consumer proposition,” says Nikhil.

Today, Zophop has associated with around 10 transport providers in cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Nagpur and Indore to offer either real-time information or mobile ticketing. It has also partnered with private transportation companies Jugnoo, Uber, Prasanna Purple and Bhagirathi Travels to allow users to search for and choose their services as alternative transit options.

Understanding Technology More Closely

Zophop often install GPS on buses which enable commuters to track the real position of a bus, it's time of arrival at any bus stop on a route. “We call this the Uber+ experience and allow commuters to spend their valuable time with friends and family instead of standing in the heat or rain at a bus stop. We use the GPS feed from the buses and combine it with dynamic scheduling information i.e which bus is on which route in real time, then predict the ETA using a proprietary algorithm to all stops on the route based on current vehicle movement, historical data, traffic information etc, explains Nikhil.

Not only this, with Zophop, commuters can also purchase tickets on its app which is very similar to booking a movie ticket. Users can purchase a mobile pass or ticket directly on Zophop - anytime, anywhere. “As a transit company it is important to also make the entire journey comfortable, hence we provide the following additional key features - multi-modal journey planning, voice alerts on next stop arrival, ability to share trip from a safety perspective,” says Nikhil.

Funds Flowing In

Zophop, which just returned from attending Innotrek this year after interacting with prominent Silicon Valley investors and experts, tech campus visits to global giants, had raised angel funding from leading technology entrepreneurs and investors such as Anupam Mittal (Founder, Shaadi.com), Satyan Gajwani (MD, Times Internet) and Amit Singhal (Previously SVP, Google) in year 2015.

Road Ahead

Currently, Zophop is present in around 15 cities in India but at different stages of deployment. They have claims that most of its traffic is generated from Mumbai and it’s suburbs, Nagpur and Kolkata.Currently providing live bus tracking information for 5,000 buses and have 50,000+ monthly active users,

Currently providing live bus tracking information for 5,000 buses and have 50,000+ monthly active users, Zophop is planning to bring 1 lakh live buses for ETA or ticketing on its platform in the next two to three years. Further, it aims to provide users with options to choose and combine these buses with other modes of transportation.

“The team envisages Zophop as a public transit assistant to every Indian. Zophop plans to create a seamless payment experience across modes in the same way that exists in other countries through smart cards.In the future, it also plans to leapfrog smart cards and enable payment via mobile phones,” concludes Nikhil.

Indian University Students Test An App For Controlling Stress

Stress is a devil that has become an integral part of our lives in the 21st century. Most of the time, we're taking stress about what would happen in the future, while totally ignoring to live our present. This is a problem not only faced by the working class but also the young reserves of our country, our children.

In order to help the young minds of the nation, focus more on things that matter, a San Francisco-based start-up called Lantern has introduced an app that will provide the students with simple coping strategies to deal with stress.

The startup introduced the app in India in a three-month pilot project this year, where about 200 students of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Hyderabad, and another city university used the mobile app to monitor their mental health and communicated with the counsellors via phone and text.

India is a country where mental and physiological diseases are considered a big taboo. It comes as no surprise that the country which has about 16% of the world's population, has one-third of all the globe's recorded suicides, according to World Health Organization statistics from 2012.

Hence, the app was surely a much needed initiative in the country.

The person responsible for bringing the San Francisco app to India is Nitya Kanuri, a 25-year-old research assistant at the Stanford School of Medicine. Her Mana Maali (A hindi phrase which means 'gardner of mind') initiative, which translates to "gardener of the mind," in English, aims to increase access to mental health services for Indian university students. Kanuri is overwhelmed by the response the app has received from the Indian students.

In the pilot program, the students were first required to complete a survey on their phones to measure their stress levels and then do daily exercises on the app, like deep breathing and muscle relaxation. Counsellors recruited from Hyderabad and other Indian cities would then conduct phone conversations with students and checked on their progress through text messages.

Itzz.Me - A Smart Way To Send Messages That Your Friends Will Definitely Read

Well you know how you have to open your email inbox to check an email on your phone? or you have to open up your text message inbox to read a text. Well none of that is needed with a push message. It appears right on the home screen and is fastest way to read a message is reading without unlocking your phone. It wont cost more than 5 secs to read a push message, so anyone will be ready to spend that tiny factor of time for a message. Which means whatever message you send get's seen 98% of the time

Till now a lot of Advertisers used to nag mobile users with 'Push Messaging' now you can use this Push Messaging technology to send your friends messages with a new messaging app called - IttzMe, this app will send messages as push notifications. Itzz.Me is available in both Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Itzz.Me allows its users to send push messages to their friends. You can send message to your friend just by @mentioning his/her handle in the message (Eg: "Hi @vasanth"). You can send group message just by @mentioning as many recipients as you want. You can even add a new contact just by sending a message to that handle, for example - "Hi @tom @thomas @vasanth how are you guys?"



Your message is not stored anywhere in any server, not even temporarily. If you didn't receive your messages in a day then they are lost forever.

Other messaging apps like WhatsApp, Line, WeChat and Viber require internet connection via WiFi or 3G/4G services whereas IttzMe doesn't require internet connection and moreover when you send messages via WhatsApp or other such services the recipients requires to open app and then go to inbox to read the messages which is not in the case of ItzzMe, recipients do not require to open the inbox the message flashes on home screen however unlike WhatsApp you cannot send pictures or videos via IttzMe, this is one demerit that IttzMe have.

Google Collaborate to Develop a Mobile App for the PM's Office

Technology giant Google is currently working with the Government of India in order to launch a nationwide contest for developing a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office. This contest is an initiative undertaken by the government to support its Digital India programme.

The search giant released a statement saying, "MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the Government and Google are collaborating to launch a nationwide contest to develop a mobile application for the PM's office".

According to Google, the main aim of the application would be to bring the Prime Minister Office closer to each and every citizen of the country. The contest will showcase the country’s talent and how Indians are also capable of building a world class application.

Google has plans of launching a number of initiatives as a part of supporting the PM’s vision, these include programmes such as getting Indian SMEs online, helping more and more women get online, showcasing the country’s rich culture and heritage online which will result in the digital empowerment of the citizen’s of the country.

According to the tech giant, it will continue to help the government’s transition into an increasingly ‘mobile’ India by building a vibrant language ecosystem online.

Google is all set to introduce curriculum for officials, schools and elected representatives in order to encourage internet safety and digital literacy among the citizens.

The tech giant is also working closely with the country’s Department of Information and Technology and other state governments in order to develop such initiatives for them.

According to RS Sharma’s statement to PTI, “I’m happy Google is coming forward to roll out initiatives that will contribute to the Digital India vision. I’m sure others will come forward and join this moment”. RS Sharma is the Secretary at Department of Information and Technology.

According to Rajan Anandan, Google India Vice President and Managing Director, with over 245 million users as of June 2014, India has now become home to the third largest number of Internet users all over the globe. It can be expected to acquire the second position by next year and have a 500 million user market by 2016.

He further adds, “Yet, there are more than a million a billion people who will need to be brought online for India to realize the vision of connected, knowledge economy”. According to Anandan, Narendra Modi’s Prime Minister Digital India Programme can play a transformational role in getting more and more citizens online and changing the face of the country.

Google Collaborate to Develop a Mobile App for the PM's Office

Technology giant Google is currently working with the Government of India in order to launch a nationwide contest for developing a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office. This contest is an initiative undertaken by the government to support its Digital India programme.

The search giant released a statement saying, "MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the Government and Google are collaborating to launch a nationwide contest to develop a mobile application for the PM's office".

According to Google, the main aim of the application would be to bring the Prime Minister Office closer to each and every citizen of the country. The contest will showcase the country’s talent and how Indians are also capable of building a world class application.

Google has plans of launching a number of initiatives as a part of supporting the PM’s vision, these include programmes such as getting Indian SMEs online, helping more and more women get online, showcasing the country’s rich culture and heritage online which will result in the digital empowerment of the citizen’s of the country.

According to the tech giant, it will continue to help the government’s transition into an increasingly ‘mobile’ India by building a vibrant language ecosystem online.

Google is all set to introduce curriculum for officials, schools and elected representatives in order to encourage internet safety and digital literacy among the citizens.

The tech giant is also working closely with the country’s Department of Information and Technology and other state governments in order to develop such initiatives for them.

According to RS Sharma’s statement to PTI, “I’m happy Google is coming forward to roll out initiatives that will contribute to the Digital India vision. I’m sure others will come forward and join this moment”. RS Sharma is the Secretary at Department of Information and Technology.

According to Rajan Anandan, Google India Vice President and Managing Director, with over 245 million users as of June 2014, India has now become home to the third largest number of Internet users all over the globe. It can be expected to acquire the second position by next year and have a 500 million user market by 2016.

He further adds, “Yet, there are more than a million a billion people who will need to be brought online for India to realize the vision of connected, knowledge economy”. According to Anandan, Narendra Modi’s Prime Minister Digital India Programme can play a transformational role in getting more and more citizens online and changing the face of the country.