doola Launches DAO LLC Offering and Announces Partnership with Syndicate to Bridge Web3 with Web2

doola launches DAO offering and partnership with Syndicate:

• doola helps global web2 and web3 entrepreneurs easily set up an LLC, C Corp, or DAO LLC in the U.S. (Wyoming, Delaware, and all other states) with support including EIN, U.S. address, U.S. bank account, payment gateway, and ongoing state compliance and IRS tax filings.
• Syndicate is building web3-native infrastructure and tools to create and manage investing DAOs. Syndicate’s first product is Web3 Investment Clubs, which allows anyone to create and run an investment club on Ethereum.

 doola announced today that they have launched full support for forming DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) LLCs in the U.S., including Wyoming, Delaware, and all other U.S. states. Founders globally can now register a DAO LLC through doola remotely, without visiting the U.S. doola also announced a partnership with Syndicate to enable investing DAOs on Syndicate to get legal entities, open fiat bank accounts, submit state compliance filings, and issue K-1 tax forms easily and affordably. This is a game-changer—and it’s just the beginning of deeper integrations and capabilities that they’ll be bringing to businesses on doola and DAOs on Syndicate together.

A DAO is a digitally-native mechanism for coordination. At a fundamental level, you can think of DAOs as internet-native constitutions. But unlike regular constitutions, DAOs run as code enabled by smart contracts, hard-coded rules that are then deployed on blockchain networks like Ethereum. These smart contracts allow a DAO to run “autonomously” without necessarily relying on individual human decision-makers in the organization. This decentralization easily allows online communities to form and coordinate economically. On July 1st, 2021, Wyoming became the first U.S. state to legally recognize DAOs and grant them the same rights as limited liability companies. Many DAOs are now forming in Wyoming and other U.S. states like Delaware.

“Within the next decade, investing will be decentralized, democratized, and community-driven. Syndicate is building web3-native infrastructure that will empower communities to raise, coordinate, and invest capital like never before. However, many investing DAOs need a way to easily create a legal entity, get a U.S. bank account, and manage ongoing state compliance and tax filings. We’re excited to partner with doola so DAOs on Syndicate can do what they love and are best at, investing, while doola handles the rest,” said Ian Lee, Co-Founder of Syndicate.

Arjun Mahadevan, CEO of doola, said, “Legal legislation enabling the creation of LLCs and C Corporations radically increased the scale at which humans were able to cooperate as well as the amount of capital that organizations could then raise and deploy. DAOs are a digital-first mechanism for coordination and the next step in this evolution. Together, we are bridging Web3 to Web2 by providing the ‘real-world’ tooling DAOs need, including limited liability protection, fiat banking, tax filings, and more.”

About doola

doola helps global entrepreneurs form U.S. LLCs, C Corps, and DAO LLCs by supporting customers through the incorporation process so they can confidently collect payments, build credibility, stay legal, and make more money. doola provides company formation, an EIN, a U.S. address and bank account, access to U.S. payments, tax consultations, U.S. tax support, $50,000 in startup perks, and more. Today, hundreds of companies have launched with doola, and these founders didn’t need a U.S. social security number to benefit from doola’s products and services. doola was founded in late 2020 by Arjun Mahadevan and JP Pincheira, with its H.Q. in New York City. Learn more at www.doola.com and on Twitter at @doolaHQ.

About Syndicate

Syndicate is radically transforming investing through accessible, effortless, and social web3 technologies. Syndicate is building decentralized investing and social networking protocols, advanced legal tech solutions, and a next-gen social networking platform that empowers communities to raise, coordinate, and invest capital like never before. Syndicate was founded in early 2021 and is backed by over 300+ founders, operators, investors, and communities in web3 and web2. Learn more at www.syndicate.io and on Twitter @SyndicateDAO.

What is Web 2.9 ?

The Web 2.0, a term coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2005, is a next version of web, www or the Internet. The next version a.k.a 'Stage 2.0' of Internet since it was born or brought into this world by Tim Berners-Lee, who in 2018 in interactions with media personals said that he is "quite upset and concerned about the where his creation is taking the world as we know it today." 

The earliest version of Web, when it was invented, can be referred as Web 1.0 --  the era of web when the users was consuming and only consuming the content and had no rights to create, engage or contribute in the digital world they see through their Web browsers.

The real Web 2.0 era came in 2005 when YouTube was launched as users become creators with uploading video content and allowing others to engage by watching, commenting and liking. 

The 2.9 version was started to build up when Google bought it. "Why ?" of this will be discussed later.

Technically, Web 2.0 is next generation of Web where users can not only consume the content they see but can engage with it and can even create. Engaging in form of discussion forums and comments on blogs created by others. And, creation started with blogging followed by YouTube, which was the then-major example product of web 2.0.

The 2.9 is the next hypothetical version this www, where content becomes 9aid and manipulative. The content creation is being carried out to manipulate events like political elections, building public images of people & personalities, manipulating behaviors of users who are consuming this content, strategically created to infuse or trigger emotions like patriotism in order to deflect attention from primary issues of society, country or the world.

In simple words, Web 2.9 can be referred to Manipulative Web or Web with high disorder-ness. 

In a real life example as how this disorder-ness can confuse & manipulate your thought patterns is -- when you "Google" you illness or disease you're suffering from and input your illness symptoms there's high probability that every-time do this it might end up with serious disease or even cancer. 

Web 2.9 is a version in between  Web 2.0 and latest Web 3.0, which would sustain itself in every future versions of web.

Though Web 3.0 again has its own anomalies and controversies.

💯 https://t.co/YaEO5tLlWl

— jack⚡️ (@jack) December 21, 2021

The Debut of Web 2.9

Facebook (pre GDPR ), can be a classic example of Web 2.9 between 2013 to 2016.  In this, user-data is being gathered, with or without the consent of its consumers, to analyze the behavioral features or personality traits/features of its users so that a customized digital content can be served to either suppress or trigger a particular behavior and even emotions of users accordingly. 

This year it was alleged that Facebook, in a bid to grow its user bases, is allowing the minors to sign up for the Instagram and for this minors need to agree to the permissions like adult users need to do, signing the same contract.

Almost every agreement made between a social media company and a minor/children is technically unenforceable — meaning all of the content Facebook is collecting from children is obtained unethically, if not illegally.

9aid Web

Photo by Mohammed Suhail from Pexels

In a developing country like India, its a new-normal too see hundreds of similar-tweets from different twitter accounts, targeted to either troll or favor an individual or brand [example]. Same texts but from hundreds of different accounts and questions arise as where these social media user accounts created for & from ? --  Some alleged that these are created by Paid IT-cells of propagandists while some are certain that these are just spammy internet bots.  

That said, the 9aid manipulative content creation don't stop stop here. Comments section are flooded all over social media with curse words to target certain section/community or media banner or even an individual. Accounts are created to specifically use for this purpose and target, troll, or praise the "client" or "the victim".

YouTube uses its own algorithm infused with artificial intelligence and/or machine learning to show you videos based on your past videos you've watched, liked or made one or more comment into. For an instance, if you have watched horror videos much in a day then as you scroll down the video platform will predict and serve you more horror-related videos. Regardless of the fact that if the videos you're watching may or may not have psychological effect -- short or long term -- subjected to analysis.

Its not just Youtube though as in September this year, a report claimed that Facebook leadership was long known of the fact that its subsidiary Instagram was harmful to teenage girls’ mental health.

Fake News

Photo by Connor Danylenko from Pexels

Ask yourself, who would have time to create misinformation and propagate it all over the internet and not caring about that "killing of time in this absurd way" wouldn't earn his/her living for bread-n-butter. A substantial part of this fake news stream comes from 9paid version of web, which (who) create these social media accounts, websites and even fund (directly or indirectly) start-up companies to establish their lies in an authentic way. 

 

According MIT scientists, news that is likely to be false will spread more widely and travel deeper into the network than news with higher credibility -- quite an Irony.

Fake news gave a new industry vertical called "Fact Checking" websites and apps. From Google's own fact check tool to numerous other online entities launched solely for purpose to allow online users to check facts and identify fake news.

But this fact checking business has their own hidden purpose to exist, that will be discussed later in this post after sometime soon.

New Initiative by Dell Technologies, UNESCO MGIEP to Enable School Teachers with Technology

New partnership focused on disseminating quality education training that promotes learning and building 21st century skills among children. The association addresses the teaching community as its primary audience.

Dell Technologies today announced a new partnership at TECH 2019 between its Dell in India operation and UNESCO MGIEP to enable school teachers to adopt technology in classrooms. Through this partnership, ‘Dell Aarambh’ a PC for education program by Dell and UNESCO MGIEP’s ‘FramerSpace’ platform, will collaborate to train identified teachers. This partnership is a resultant of meeting the common objective of equipping teachers with the requisite knowledge to implement technology in classrooms.

Quality education is the foundation of sustainable development and is a force multiplier which enables self-reliance, boosts economic growth by enhancing skills and creating better livelihoods. In India, Dell is addressing the challenge of quality education and digital literacy through Dell Aarambh – a program instituted to help schools, teachers and parents understand PC technology and its use in education. Digital literacy will play a key role in catalyzing the growth of India's digital economy and bridge the digital divide.

This partnership enables the global community in achieving the UN Sustainable Goal 4.7 towards education for building peaceful and sustainable societies and UNESCO MGIEP in its mission of building social and emotional learning, innovative digital pedagogies and empowering youth.

Dell Aarambh intends to provide a springboard for teachers in ICT and to help them kickstart their digital learning journeys; and UNESCO MGIEP FramerSpace helps teachers with rich content creation abilities coupled with analytical insight to elevate the education quality. Given the commonality of purpose of both the organizations and synergy in their offerings to teachers, the proposed engagement between Dell Technologies and UNESCO MGIEP will be spread across three phases. In the first year of engagement, teachers across Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka will be trained.

FramerSpace is an AI-powered digital platform that helps teachers conceive, implement and monitor personalized learning plans for their students. The training will focus on teaching them the use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and frontier technologies to stay relevant and invest in the sole purpose of achieving Quality Education, as outlined under Sustainable Developmental Goal 4 (SDG 4) by Member States of United Nations. Since its inception in 2016, Dell Aarambh has provided ICT training to more than 85,000 teachers across 4,530 schools in nearly 80 cities in India.

The engagement will be spread across three stages:

Phase 1: Teachers who have completed Dell Aarambh foundation certification and are ready to create customized content for their learning audience would be trained further to use FramerSpace to create content. They can then become ambassadors of this learning methodology in their respective schools and regions.

Phase 2: A 200-hour training on FramerSpace divided into face-to-face familiarization training followed by completion of online training material, will be offered to 45-50 Dell Aarambh shortlisted teachers. At the end of this familiarization training, teachers will be awarded joint certification from UNESCO MGIEP and Dell Aarambh.

Phase 3: On achieving its goal of impacting 4,000 teachers over a period of 12 months, UNESCO MGIEP and Dell Aarambh will endeavor to create a joint impact assessment to explore the short and medium-term difference to learning outcomes.

Commenting on the partnership, P Krishnakumar, Senior Vice President, Consumer and Small Business, APJ, Dell Technologies, said, “In an increasingly digitized India, emerging technologies will play a pivotal role in what the future of work will look like. Teachers will be at the forefront of this revolution as they educate tomorrow’s digital workforce, today. We see our partnership with UNESCO MGIEP as an elevation of our intent and support to building capability among teachers who are educating the future workforce. With this positive step, we look forward to addressing a unified goal of achieving quality education in India.”

According to Anantha Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP said, “Digital media is the reality of today and tomorrow, hence there is an urgent need to build our capacities in order to provide a meaningful and relevant education to the younger generation. We need to forge partnerships and collaborate with all stakeholders to achieve our vision of transforming education for humanity by bringing in digital pedagogies, trained teachers and quality content into the classroom.”

Through 2019, along with UNESCO MGIEP, Dell has organized ‘PolicyHack’, a forum for teachers, schools and education experts, to present real-life solutions for the advancement of the education system in India. At TECH 2019, findings of the 4 series PolicyHack were presented, and some highlights include:

• Lack of access to technology-enabled interventions holds teachers from gaining mastery over newer pedagogical tools


• Teachers are as keen as students to invest in on-going learning, but means to invest in similar programs are limited


• Even with little resources, there is a concerted effort on being innovative and relevant – peer learning sessions with guided efforts could be low cost-high return proposition.

The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace (MGIEP) and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) is UNESCO’s category 1 Research Institute that focuses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 towards education for building peaceful and sustainable societies across the world. In line with its vision of ‘Transforming Education for Humanity’, the institute’s programmes are designed to mainstream Social and Emotional Learning in education systems, innovate digital pedagogies and to put youth as global citizens at the centre of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development.

Sambaddha Global To Provide Entrepreneurship Platform To The Rural Youth

• The social enterprise plans to create huge sales force in Uttarakhand.


• Plans to launch over 650  franchise and company owned Sambaddha Kendras in the state of Uttarakhand. 

To provide urban amenities to rural India, Sambaddha Global, a social enterprise start-up unveiled its expansion plans for Haridwar and whole of Uttarakhand. Sambaddha, which launched its first Centre in Laksar in September this year plans to expand to the entire state operating through 650 Sambaddha Kendras. These Kendras will provide an entrepreneurship platform to the aspiring young entrepreneurs of the city in Haridwar. 

Sambaddha Kendras will be managed through franchise and company owned model thus appointing 650 franchisees managing the rural retail chain. For this expansion, Sambaddha Kendras will create skilled workforce employing over 3000 sales personnels thus providing entrepreneurship opportunities to the village/micro town level entrepreneurs who can set up these Kendras in their respective areas and operate it as a service provider.

[caption id="attachment_138792" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Narayanan Rajagopalan, Founder & President, Sambaddha Global and (R) Aditya Nagar, State Franchise Uttarakhand at Sambaddha Kendra Press Conference at Press Club, Haridwar[/caption]

The Kendras will provide products and services ranging from financial services to healthcare, FMCG to Consumer Goods, Agricultural products to Educational services to the rural populace. These Kendras will act as a nodal point for villagers who will provide them with education, nutritional food, healthcare and other basic villagers’ requirements (except the government services like PAN card, Aadhar card, etc.) at very affordable prices.

According to Narayanan Rajagopalan, Founder & President of Sambaddha Global,“The philosophy of Sambaddha Kendras is not only to provide the product and services to the rural population but it also aims to provide holistic development to rural individuals from entrepreneurship to employment to millions of youth. He further added that with Sambaddha Kendras first launch in Laksar in September, we plan to add 650 number of Kendras in Uttarakhand thus making rural populace empowered”.

 

About Sambaddha Kendra

Sambaddha Kendra is a social enterprise start-up that provides urban amenities in rural areas. It aims to connect rural and urban India to deliver healthcare services, financial services, consumer products, skill development centers, upgraded farming tools & machinery and digital marketing services to rural India.

Inspired by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s vision of economically developed India, it is founded by Mr.Narayanan Rajagopalan, Founder of LaMarca Group of Companies who has a proven track record of developing unique and sustainable business models in the areas of rural as well as urban India.

Venture Garage Announces the FY2019-20 Edition of the “Find Your Investor” Programme Supported by Kotak

On the back of a successful Find Your Investor (FYI) series in 2018, Venture Garage, in association with Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak), has announced the FY2019-20 edition of the power-packed fund raising platform for start-ups. FYI is the annual fundraising program organised by Venture Garage where they take start-ups through the journey of raising capital, including aspects such as legal, banking and documentation requirements during fundraising; one-on-one interactions between start-ups and investors; discussion on the investment views of leading VC/angel investors of India; networking and much more.

Find Your Investors Series 2019-20 in 5 Indian cities



At each of the five cities, 50 carefully selected start-ups from all across India get a chance to pitch their business ideas to investors to raise capital. The FY2019-20 edition of FYI will take place in Hyderabad on 29th November, 2019; in Bengaluru on 13th December, 2019; in Mumbai on 10th January, 2020; in Pune on 23rd January, 2020, with the final chapter of the series taking place in Chandigarh on 7th February 2020. The FY2019-20 FYI series will host 500+ entrepreneurs and 40+ Investors, including India’s most active VCs such as Inventus Capital Partners, Matrix Partners, Artha Venture Fund, 7 Gate Ventures, RPSG Ventures, Orios Venture Partners among others.

Puneet Kapoor, Senior Executive Vice President, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “It’s a daunting task to be an entrepreneur with a number of obstacles to be overcome, especially in the initial stages of a start-up. Kotak has always worked to fulfil the aspirations of entrepreneurs who dare to dream big. Every dream involves money and the Kotak Start-Up Current Account is customised to meet the unique requirements of a start-up and help it realise its full business potential. We are pleased to be associated with the FYI series by Venture Garage.”

Aanchal Saini, CEO of Flyrobe, India’s number 1 fashion renting platform said, ”Venture Garage has been associated with us for over two years now and I am glad I joined them for the Find Your Investor series in all the four cities last year. Venture Garage has mastered the recipe for a perfect start-up event with their FYI series where early stage start-ups get to learn about the nuances of fund raising like how to pitch to investors, how to make your business plan/financial projections, legal and banking needs during the fund raise process, networking with investors and other things that an entrepreneur requires to fulfil his/her dreams. The most exciting part is the opportunity to pitch to investors in a one-on-one format to raise funding and see your dreams as an entrepreneur come true. I wish all the start-ups participating in FYI all the very best. Do make the most of it.”

Rahul Nehra, Co-founder & CEO of Jadooz, a cinema and entertainment chain backed by Artha Venture Fund, TV Celebrity Rannvijay Singh and Actor Ravi Kishan, said, “This platform that Venture Garage is giving to start-ups is exactly what an entrepreneur needs to enable his vision. FYI was our first serious pitch across the table with some of the leading VCs of India and today we are funded by Artha Venture Fund & Celebrity Rannvijay Singh. Venture Garage took care of the entire fund raising process including finding investors and managing the transaction, while Kotak fulfilled all our banking needs. If you are a start-up raising your 1st or 2nd round of capital, then FYI is the place to be.“

“India is an emerging market for start-ups and VC investments. Most start-ups are still struggling to make themselves funding ready and then find the right platform to connect with investors. At FYI, we have a simple goal of making fundraising easy for start-ups. The 4-hour journey at each FYI event is about a deeper dive into fundraising, followed by interactions between the most promising start-ups and VC/angel investors to drive early-stage start-up investments. Start-ups that pitched at the FYI FY2018-19 series raised a cumulative of INR 18 crore+ in seed/angel/pre-series A investments from investors and we hope to deliver an equally exciting FY2019-20 series,” Vivek Kumar, Co-founder & CEO, Venture Garage.

FYI FY2018-19 was a huge success with over 50 VCs/angel investors and 700 entrepreneurs attending the programme in Delhi, Gurugram, Jaipur & Chandigarh. Some of the investors who participated included Ravi Kaushik, WaterBridge Ventures; Girish Shivani, YourNest Venture Capital; Pranav Gupta, Carpediem Capital; Kunal Khattar, AdvantEdge VC; Rajesh Sehgal, Equanimity Investments; Addison Appu, ThinKuvate; Aayush Jain, Ex-Unicorn Ventures; Ojasvi Babber, Amity Capital Ventures among many others. The total funding raised by start-ups that pitched at FYI FY2018-19 stood at over INR 18 crore.

For more details on FYI FY2019-20 and to register, please visit www.venturegarage.in/fyi.

About Venture Garage

Venture Garage handholds startups to help them raise capital from its network of 700+ Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, Strategic Investors and Family Funds. Venture Garage specializes in early-stage investments across Seed to Series B stages starting from $100K to $5mil. Established in 2015 and with offices present in Mumbai, Bengaluru and NCR, Venture Garage also manages a network of 30,000+ entrepreneurs.

For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.venturegarage.in.

About Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

Established in 1985, Kotak Mahindra Group is one of India's leading financial services conglomerates. In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. (KMFL), the Group's flagship company, received banking license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), becoming the first non-banking finance company in India to convert into a bank - Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

The Bank has four Strategic Business Units – Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking and Treasury, which cater to retail and corporate customers across urban and rural India. The premise of Kotak Mahindra Group’s business model is concentrated India, diversified financial services. The bold vision that underscores the Group’s growth is an inclusive one, with a host of products and services designed to address the needs of the unbanked and insufficiently banked. As on 30th September, 2019, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd has a national footprint of 1,512 branches and 2,429 ATMs, and branches in GIFT City and DIFC (Dubai).

For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.kotak.com.

Postman Follows Successful $50 Mn Series B With Two Key Hires

Postman, the leading collaboration platform for API development, today announced the addition of Nick Tran, vice president of marketing to its executive team and Kin Lane as chief evangelist.

The hires follow Postman’s $50 million series B funding in June of this year to extend its leadership in the API collaboration space. Postman is methodically building the backbone of the API industry of the future. Organizations of all sizes trust in Postman to create the product and workflows they need to design, develop, launch and maintain APIs.

Tran brings more than 20 years of experience in technology, marketing and software to his new role. He will head up worldwide marketing for Postman, including product marketing, creative, developer relations, and documentation.

Lane is a preeminent API evangelist in the industry. He has spoken at numerous API academic and industry events, was involved in the European Commission’s API research program, and received a Presidential Innovation Fellowship in 2013. He will help share the story of how Postman is the next generation of API development platform.

“Postman is scaling from a development environment to a robust platform that meets the needs of the entire API lifecycle,” said Abhinav Asthana, Postman CEO and co-founder. “Nick and Kin bring extensive experience as we structure our organization to meet the needs of the API community of tomorrow.”

Tran was previously vice president of marketing at Akamai, where he directed the developer brand and product marketing of developer-facing products and features. Before Akamai, Tran worked at Salesforce as the vice president and COO of developer marketing, where he led a global team in the U.S., EMEA and India that market Force.com and Heroku to developers and partners worldwide.

“Joining Postman made a lot of sense,” said Tran. “There’s an amazing community of 9 million developers that love the product and the company. This is a dream come true.”

Lane was most recently an API architect for F5 Networks and an API evangelist at Mimeo. He has a reputation in the API industry for developing an understanding of the common building blocks API providers are using across the API lifecycle.

"I have joined Postman because I've witnessed first-hand how ubiquitous the platform is across almost every business sector,” said Lane. “Postman is the future of how developers, and non-developers, will collaborate consistently across the entire API lifecycle."

About Postman: Postman is the leading collaboration platform for API development, used by more than 9 million developers and more than 400,000 companies worldwide. Postman is an elegant, flexible platform that is used to build connected software via APIs – quickly, easily and accurately. Postman is headquartered in San Francisco and has an office in Bangalore, where it was founded. Postman is privately held, with funding from Nexus Venture Partners and CRV.

Now purchase FASTag at Airtel Payments Bank and enjoy exciting benefits

Airtel Payments Bank, in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL), has made FASTag available across its digital and retail touch points. FASTag enables automatic cashless payments at toll plazas across India, making road travel frictionless and time efficient.

FASTag can be purchased in a matter of few clicks on the Bank section of Airtel Thanks App. Airtel Payments Bank is offering a special benefit of Rs 50 cashback on FASTag purchase made via the app. Airtel Thanks customers will soon be able to enjoy an additional benefit of Rs 50 cashback on the online purchase.

FASTag can also be purchased from select banking points of Airtel Payments Bank. To buy a FASTag customers need to share a copy of the vehicle’s Registration Certificate (RC) and registration number.

FASTag is linked to a registered Airtel Payments Bank account or wallet to enable instant automatic deduction of toll charges. There is no need to recharge FASTag separately and bank/Wallet balance is good enough. FASTag users also get 2.5% cashback from NHAI on all Toll payments done using FASTag.

Mr. Ganesh Ananthanarayanan, Chief Operating Officer, Airtel Payments Bank, said, “We are delighted to partner with NPCI to offer FASTag as part of our endeavour to bring a range of popular services to our digital platforms and promote cashless payments. We believe that upcoming use cases from NPCI such as digital parking payments and even challan payments will add to customer convenience and add to the vibrant digital ecosystem that India is building."

Ms. Praveena Rai, Chief Operating Officer, NPCI said, “It is good to witness that Airtel Payments Bank is making FASTag available to vehicle owners for convenient and seamless toll plaza experience. Given the fact that we are just few days away for the mandatory FASTag implementation on 528+ toll plazas, it becomes crucial to create awareness among vehicle owners about its process and advantages. We would like to acknowledge the efforts of Airtel Payments Bank for creating a platform for its customers by giving them a hassle free toll payment experience with FASTag, and also contributing towards digitisation of toll payments."

Airtel Payments Bank Ltd.

Airtel Payments Bank, launched in January 2017, now boasts of a physical presence in all 29 states of the country through its 500,000+ banking points. Out of these, over 60,000 focus on insurance and pension products in an attempt to reach the underserved. India’s first payments bank, it currently facilitates transactions worth 500 billion annually with a user base of over 40 million customers. In addition to its physical banking points, Airtel payments Bank also offers its banking services through its Android and iOS apps. In line with the Government’s vision of Digital India and Financial Inclusion, Airtel Payments Bank is striving to take digital banking services to the doorstep of every Indian, even in the remotest of rural areas.

For In-Car Voice Assistants, India Consumers willing to Pay Highest Premium - Capgemini Research

With decline in auto sales in the month of September, India recorded robust sales in the month of October, driven by high discounts during the festival period. Irrespective of the sales figures, India consumers are willing to pay the highest premium for the voice assistants embedded in a car than consumers in other countries.



For instance, voice assistants will be useful in case of an accident. Consumers want voice assistant to automatically launch the emergency number.

• Ford is gearing up to launch models with Alexa as the in-car assistant in India by 2020. Amazon is training Alexa to understand Indian dialects for this launch.


• Leading automakers are already experimenting with sensor data such as physical location, past searches and application activities etc.


• In-car voice assistants are being widely used, a trend set to accelerate.

The key highlights of Capgemini’s "Voice on the go" report are:

• Three years from now, 50% of consumers expect to use conversational voice assistants, to access information inside the car, explains Capgemini report.


• India ranks first among the consumers willing to pay a premium of 68% for voice assistants, according to a research report by Capgemini. While other countries are willing to pay around 38% premium.

Almost every driver (95%) will be using a voice assistant in the next three years, but automotive companies must improve the experience to meet user expectations, a new research report from the Capgemini Research Institute has found.

The “Voice on the go: How can auto manufacturers provide a superior in-car voice experience” report looks at the consumer adoption of the in-car voice experience and their expectations. It identifies the opportunities for automotive companies to grow revenues and boost engagement through voice technology, but also finds that the industry rates the current performance of voice assistants more highly than consumers.

Key points from the study include:

In-car voice assistants are being widely used, a trend set to accelerate

Almost half (49%) of consumers surveyed are using voice assistants in their vehicles for a variety of functions; this figure is expected to surge to 73% in the future. At present, 77% of consumers use voice to play music and check directions (this is expected to rise to 85% in the future), 46% book appointments for their vehicle to be serviced (set to rise to 74%) and 45% order specific services such as food (set to rise to 72%). Within the next three years, 95% of consumers expect to be using a conversational assistant, including a voice assistant in the car to access information, 54% of them “all the time."



Consumers want the user experience to improve, but have security concerns

When asked to rate their experience using in-car voice assistants, only 28% described it as “great,” with 59% agreeing that “it was satisfactory, but the experience needs to be improved.” A clear majority believe improvement is needed when using voice assistants to integrate with at-home systems such as temperature control (63%), providing feedback or making complaints (61%), ordering specific mobility services (60%) and booking vehicle service appointments (60%). 



As well as improving the experience across key use cases, automotive companies must address concerns over privacy and data security, cites the report: 50% of consumers said they do not trust voice assistants with their personal data, and 48% that they are too intrusive and seek too much personal information.

“Voice assistants are becoming an essential part of how people experience cars, and safely manage their lives while on the move,” said Markus Winkler, Global Head of Automotive at Capgemini. “This report demonstrates how the automotive industry should be using voice as a strategic asset both to build customer engagement and grow revenues with connected services over time."

“To make further progress, the industry needs to educate consumers about voice capabilities and data security. It must build adaptability and personalization but also more intelligence to achieve better situational relevance and better integration between in-car and at-home voice assistants to maximize value,” he further added.

Voice offers revenue and customer engagement opportunities

According to the report automotive companies that can improve their voice assistants stand to benefit from both higher customer engagement and improved revenue opportunities. Customers who have a good experience with a voice assistant said they are likely to tell their friends and family (73%), rely more on the voice assistant over traditional customer service systems (65%), and subscribe to other services offered by the same automotive company (58%).

In addition, that greater engagement has the potential to translate into revenue gains. Globally, over a third of consumers (37%) said they would be willing to pay a premium or monthly subscription price for a voice subscription installed or embedded in their car and 48% said they might consider this in the future. Younger drivers were most likely to be willing to pay, including 47% of those aged 22-31 compared to 29% of 45-59 year-olds and 18% of over-60s.

The industry overestimates the capabilities of its voice assistants

Automotive executives understand the strategic importance of voice assistants, with 72% saying they are a key enabler of the organization’s business and customer engagement strategy. However, the report highlights that they are currently out-of-tune with their customers about the capabilities of voice assistants. The vast majority, 81%, said that assistants “understand the consumer’s needs and preferences when making suggestions,” a view endorsed by only 59% of consumers. There was also a gulf between the proportion of executives (84%) and consumers (65%) who believe assistants keep improving based on a user’s personalized suggestions; and on the question of whether they take context into account when interacting (74% of executives compared to 59% of consumers). 

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Report methodology

For this research, Capgemini Research Institute surveyed:

• Over 7,000 consumers using in-car voice assistants across France, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States.


• 300 executives from large automotive organizations, across these ten countries, with revenues of more than 1 billion US dollars


• Conducted more than ten in-depth interviews with senior auto executives and voice-service providers.

IIM Bangalore launches Digital Disruption and Fintech program with Gabelli School of Business in NYC

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore has announced an Executive Education Programme in ‘Digital Disruptions and Emerging Technologies in Financial Services’, along with the Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University, in New York City (NYC).  

The 15-day programme has a five-day module at NYC with the rest of the course being delivered at IIMB. As a hub of innovation in Fintech, NYC offers an ideal opportunity for programme participants to interact with some leading startups in the Fintech space. 



Professor Pulak Ghosh from IIM Bangalore and Professor Sudip Gupta from Gabelli School of Business will lead the programme through its design and delivery phases. 

To register, please go to:  https://bit.ly/2JvPXQQ

“The programme, with its accent on conceptual building blocks and immersive learning experience through field trips and projects, will fill the long-felt need for a quality programme in the Fintech space in India,” said Madan Mohan Raj, Chief Programme Officer, Executive Education Programmes at IIMB. 

The programme has adopted a pedagogical style that requires the participants to work on a digital disruption project relevant to his/her field guided by a faculty mentor. 

A seminar, a panel discussion with leading industry experts, and project presentations will be part of the concluding module of the programme.

Digitalization is bringing in new-age business models aided by technology in all sectors of the economy, and even more so in the Financial Services industry. The banking industry as we know it is set to change forever. The application of blockchain and cryptocurrencies to financial services opens the door to offering these services in a secure, reliable, manner and at a lower cost, thus creating more value. These changes have implications for the existing players in the financial services industry, as well as for startups and entrepreneurs. IIMB has been doing cutting-edge research in Business Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and its application to Fintech. As a logical next step, IIMB has launched the programme, ‘Digital Disruptions and Emerging Technologies in Financial Services’, along with the Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University, in New York City (NYC).  

Armsprime Media Launches the Official App of Viral Bhayani, the Most Followed Paparazzi Photographer

Armsprime Media Pvt. Ltd. a tech-based media company that builds and produces apps for celebrities and social media influencers proudly announces the launch of “The Viral Bhayani App”. One of the world’s most followed paparazzi photographers launches an app that promises to be your one stop destination for Bollywood entertainment.

Saurabh Kushwah, Founder & CEO quotes: “It gives us great pleasure to announce the launch of The Viral Bhayani App. As a company, we look to diversify our portfolio of social influencer offerings. Our key focus is the unique technology we have created and the level of customization we can do in break-speed time. We give the power to content creators to increase their fan engagement, monetize their content and own the channel they operate. We have a lot of exciting features in-store and with our AI-backed tech, content creators now have the opportunity of defining the value of their content and monetizing it. It helps creators decide price points of their own content and enables us to produce hyper-personalized and exclusive content for them."

About The Viral Bhayani App

Viral Bhayani is one of the most followed paparazzi photographers in the world, with over 1 million followers on Instagram. His app boasts of a lot of exciting features and content such as unseen footage, exclusive interviews, live videos and all the latest Bollywood news, updates and gossip. The Bollywood buffs are in for a treat with an intriguing Fan Leaderboard that promises exciting prizes for the Fan of the Month. Welcome to your one stop destination for Bollywood entertainment!

About Armsprime Technology

In the ever-changing world of social media and influencers, Armsprime puts the powers in your hand to create and manage your own content. We offer a 360-turnkey solution from designing your app, customised features, content, production to marketing and getting the maximum out of your content.

We drive engagement and make sure you are compensated and not the networks. Where communication is direct, and the control is in your hands.

Download The Viral Bhayani App: http://onelink.to/eacq5x

Airtel Launches 1Gbps ‘Airtel Xstream Fibre’ with Unlimited Ultra-Fast Broadband At Just Rs 3999

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday launched its broadband offering, 'Airtel Xstream Fibre' promising 1Gbps speed for Rs 3,999 a month, raising the competitive heat in a market that has recently seen commercial roll-out of Jio's fibre based services.

"Starting today (on Wednesday), Airtel Xstream Fibre is available to Homes, SOHO (Small Office Home Office) and small commercial establishments in Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Indore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad," Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

In the coming months Airtel Xstream Fibre will be rolled out in more markets, the statement added.

"Airtel Xstream Fibre offers unlimited broadband at 1Gbps for just Rs 3,999/month. It also offers unlimited landline calls to any network in India along with exclusive 'AirtelThanks' benefits...," it said.

The benefits include three months Netflix subscription gift, one year Amazon Prime membership and access to premium content from ZEE5 and Airtel Xstream app.

On September 5, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio had announced launch of its fibre-based broadband service, offering minimum internet speed of 100 Mbps for Rs 699 a month.

JioFiber will offer free voice calling anywhere in the country, unlimited data and video conferencing. All subscribers will get 4K set top box, for streaming TV channels, free while a 4K television set would be complimentary with annual plans with higher payouts such as 'Gold' and above. PTI MBI DRR

*FUP applies. For more details www.airtel.in/broadband

AutoTech Firm Truebil giving Car Buyers 'Money-back' offer Even after a Week of Buying A Car

From clothes, home décor to electronics, now trying out your dream car for a week, with the assurance of getting your money back is now a reality! Truebil, India's leading auto tech company has announced the launch of its money-back guarantee, a first of its kind offer. This will augment customer experience by providing flexibility and 100% assurance to buyers who are often sceptical while making heavy investments.

Under this offer, buyers will have a whole week to test-drive the car as part of their daily routines and see if it meets their needs. If for any reason, the buyer is not satisfied with the car, they will be able to get a full refund on their purchase amount. All they have to do is make sure the car is returned within 7 days from the date of purchase and has been driven under 200km. Additionally, they must ensure that none of the car parts have been damaged or replaced, i.e. they should be returned in the same condition that they were received in.

[caption id="attachment_134348" align="alignleft" width="298"] Shubh Bansal, CoFounder, TrueBil[/caption]

Speaking on the launch of the new offer, Shubh Bansal, Co-Founder, Truebil said, “Despite the sluggish growth in the automobile industry over the last few quarters, the used car market has continued to witness accelerated growth and is now booming. With the introduction of our first-of-its-kind money-back-guarantee, we aim to increase the transparency and credibility in our relationship with our customers to propel further growth. The offer will give our customers a unique opportunity to experience the cars first-hand for a week before their final decision. We believe that this move will help our customers to make better-informed decisions and encourage more people to choose our platform for a seamless buying experience.”

Currently a leading online retailer for used cars in India, Truebil has been able to effectively tap into consumer needs by leveraging cutting-edge technology for its service offerings. The company has been able to seamlessly integrate online to offline channels through its full-stack model, Truebil Direct. At present, it operates in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi with plans in place for further expansion, both within these cities as well across other parts of the country. With an array of unique services pertaining to used or pre-owned cars, Truebil is able to provide customers with flexible and innovative solutions that enhance their overall car buying and selling experience.

About Truebil:



Rapid technological adoption has been the backbone of Truebil's massive growth. Truebil, India's leading auto tech company has managed to achieve precious insights on rapidly changing consumer preferences and consequent increase in demand for used cars in recent years. The company leverages this information gathered to build state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms.

Following a seamlessly integrated online and offline model, Truebil has developed proprietary tech-enabled evaluation mechanisms such as Recommendation System for personalized user experience, TruePrice to predict the accurate selling price, Procurement Score to determine the right procurement price, and Dynamic Pricing to change the price based on a car's demand in the market.

TrueScore, Truebil’s super-efficient rating meter. The comprehensive measure gives the customer a fair idea of the condition of the used car. It takes into account several factors like the brand, age, price, mileage, history,etc.and provides a numeric index on the scale of 0-5. Every used car on sale on the Truebil site is given a rating between 0 and 5, which helps a customer to take the right decision. The higher the index, the better the car.

Startup Boom helps Bengaluru beat Delhi, Mumbai to become India's Costliest Office Space

Mumbai, Aug 27 (PTI) With a 9 percent spike in rentals in Q2 2019, Bengaluru's Central Business District (CBD) has unseated Connaught Palace and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), to become the costliest prime office space in the country, and the fifth across the Asia-pacific region.

Bengaluru CBD saw the highest annual growth in rental values in India, with current rentals at Rs 125 per sq ft per month, according to a survey conducted by Knight Frank.

The report said, the BKC and Connaught Palace, which make up the prime office markets in Mumbai and the NCR respectively, were ranked 8th and 12th at the end of Q2 2019.

The Knight Frank Prime Office Rental Index tracks rental levels of 20 frontline cities across the Asia-Pacific region.

Mumbai's BKC registered a growth of 5 per cent in the quarter and was recorded at Rs 300 per sq ft a month. New Delhi's Connaught Place recorded a rental value of Rs 330 sq ft a month also recorded an annual rise of 1.4 per cent during the quarter.

Cities like Melbourne saw the highest rental growth y-o-y at 16 per cent, while Tokyo (12 per cent), Bangkok (10.4 per cent) and Singapore (10.3 per cent) were the other prime office markets that saw higher y-o-y rental growth rates ahead of Bengaluru.

Indian office rents remained stable in Q2 as the market saw an influx of new supply in H1 2019, with 23 million sqft being added during the period.

"The office markets of India have withstood headwinds from global and national economic conditions and depict an impressive growth story. The leasing volumes have grown consistently and are at historic highs, which indicates a high level of confidence that the corporate world has in the India story, especially from a long-term perspective," Knight Frank India chairman and managing director Shishir Baijal said.

He further said the IT/ITeS sectors continue to absorb the lions share of new space coming online, accounting for 35 per cent of all transacted volumes in H1 2019 but has started to show signs of slowing on lower corporate spending and moves towards in sourcing.

"However, this weakness has been offset by strong demand from co-working operators; co-working transaction volumes rose 42 per cent year-on-year to 4 million sqft in H1 2019," Baijal added.

He further added that a strong rental trend will be a force majeure for the growth of investments in this segment going forward. PTI PSK

India and Bahrain to Partner in the areas of Space Technology, Solar Energy

MANAMA, Aug 25 (PTI): India and Bahrain on Saturday agreed to collaborate in the areas of space technology, solar energy and culture exchange as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held comprehensive talks with his Bahraini counterpart Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa to give a major boost to the entire spectrum of bilateral relations.

Modi, the first Indian prime minister to visit Bahrain, and Prince Khalifa after the delegation-level talks witnessed the exchange of MoUs in the areas of culture, space, collaboration with International Solar Alliance (ISA).

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Bahrain's National Space Science Agency agreed to collaborate in the area of space technology.

The two sides agreed on collaboration of the kingdom with International Solar Alliance (ISA).

The ISA, launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Modi and then French President Francois Hollande at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, is a major global initiative for contributing to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement through rapid and massive deployment of solar energy.

The two countries also agreed on cultural exchange programme.

"Honoured to have met HH Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Our talks were comprehensive and included a wide range of subjects concerning India-Bahrain relations," Prime Minister Modi tweeted after the talks.

Both leaders expressed their commitment to give a boost to the entire spectrum of bilateral relations.

Before the talks, Modi was extended a ceremonial welcome at Al Gudaibiya Palace here.

Modi, was received by Prince Khalifa at the airport.

Modi, who is on the third leg of his three-nation tour to France, UAE and Bahrain, will also hold talks with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. On Sunday, he will witness the formal beginning of the re-development of the temple of Shreenathji -- the oldest in the Gulf region.
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My11Circle onboard Sourav Ganguly to give Cricket Fans chance of a Lifetime to Engage and Play

With an objective to give every cricket fan the best experience of fantasy cricket in India, My11Circle, one of India’s best fantasy cricket platforms, recently brought ex-cricketer and former Indian team Captain Sourav Ganguly onboard as its brand ambassador. Proving to be a valuable addition to the My11Circle fraternity, the renowned cricket player is helping Play Games scale up significantly. Sourav Ganguly will also announce and felicitate the winners of the World Cup fantasy league challenge ‘Beat the Expert’ along with having a meet-and-greet session with the top 50winners.

A product of Play Games24x7 Pvt. Ltd., a pioneer and leading player in the Indian online and mobile gaming space, My11Circle gives cricket fans the platform to put their knowledge and skills to test. The players form their own teams and earn points as per the collective performanceof the team players, with those having the maximum points winning the cash rewards.

Adding to the thrill, registered players can also play with Sourav Ganguly, fondly called ‘Dada’, at a competitive level on My11Circle and win 5 times more cash rewards, amidst the limitless possibilities of the digital world. For instance, in the recentWorld Cup fantasy league challenge, the league winner of the ‘Beat the Expert’ contest Tufan Ghosh from Birbhum, West Bengal, took the mega prize money of INR 1 crore home, whereas the first runner-up Maidul Ali secured INR 25 lakhs.

My11Circle has managed to get over 4 million installs post launch of the platform earlier this year with over 2 million installs during the world cup alone. Over 4 million teams competed with Sourav Ganguly’s team during the world cup as part of the special league “Beat The Expert”.

At the winner felicitation press event, Sourav Ganguly said, “Being a part of My11Circle has been an exciting journey so far. The levels of engagement brought about in this game have made me feel very involved, and I believe that the rest of the players on the platform enjoy the game just as thoroughly. I had a great time participating in the contest and I would like to heartily congratulate all the winners of this fantasy tournament."

Acknowledging the success, Saroj Panigrahi, Vice-President & Avik Das Kanungo, Brand Head from My11Circle remarked, “Taking fantasy cricket to the next level we are the only platform where one can play with the champions of the great game in real time.It is really heartening to see how My11Circle has had a great run in this World Cup season. Major credits to this scale-up go to Mr. Sourav Ganguly, who took Indian cricket to new heights during his prime, and is helping us with the same in the digital world now. My11Circle is all about cricketing knowledge, strategizing skills, and most importantly—passion. We are thrilled to have Souravas a part of the My11Circle family, and we hope to continue engaging our users with loads of action and fun in this limitless world of online fantasy games.”

Since its inception in 2009, Play Games24x7 has been at the forefront of online gaming in India and has succeeded in being India’s highest-grossing mobile gaming business with its six games. The company hasalready seen key investments such as that from Tiger Global Management, a leading US-based technology-focused hedge fund, in the past. But launching ‘Fantasy Cricket’ on My11Circle this year and bringing Sourav Ganguly onboard has enabled the company to witness a steady scale-up. My11Circle received tremendous traction during the World Cup season with over 2 million registrations and downloads within a span of 45 days. Moreover, there has been no decline in the platform’s popularity post the World Cup season. Armed with such positive developments, Play Games24x7 is set to shape the realm of online fantasy games in India while providing a personalized gameplay experience to all.

Aneesh Karma of Uttar Pradesh wins Universal Design Award for creating Orthotic with 135 degree Flexion

Aneesh’s KAFO (knee ankle-foot orthosis) innovation has won multiple awards

The story of Aneesh Karma, an innovator from BETiC IIT-Bombay, winner of the 10th NCPEDP Mphasis Universal Design Awards is one of courage.

Coming from a humble background, born to illiterate parents, Aneesh was afflicted by polio in his childhood. His innovation, the knee ankle-foot orthosis (KAFO) offers a solution for those affected by polio, paralysis, cerebral palsy, neuromuscular disorders and accidents.

The device is superior to the free drop-lock callipers provided by the Government. The drop-lock callipers are uncomfortable and stiff, they do not allow activities such as climbing stairs, boarding vehicles or cycling. They weigh 3 kgs and also result in an abnormal gait.

Aneesh’s KAFO is versatile, with a 135-degree angle flexion for squatting, walking and cycling. It weighs only 1.3 kg, and can provide support to an individual weighing up to 120 kg. Along with all of this, it is multiple footwear compatible and affordably priced. Imported orthotics, with intelligent sensor systems which control the knee joint through pneumatics, linear springs, hydraulics and torsional rods are too expensive.

On receiving the award, Aneesh, who has completed his education only unto his 12th standard shared that “In India there are 1.2 million Polio patients, while in the world, there are over a 100 million patients with Cerebral Palsy, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis. However, only 40,000 calipers have been supplied per year in India by ALIMCO, BMVSS & NSS. This is due to how expensive it is."

In 2015, Aneesh filed a patent with the help of the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC). In 2018, Aneesh joined the BETiC Lab to further develop his design of the advanced knee ankle-foot orthosis. Aneesh went on to file his second patent in the same year and bagged the BIG Idea Summit 2018 Award. In 2019, Aneesh also won the BIRAC Biotechnology Ignition Grant.

Arman Ali, ED of NCPEDP says '' the mechanically-actuated stance-controlled KAFO is an innovation with potential. It gives independence to those with impaired mobility and allows them to earn a livelihood and live with dignity.”

Aneesh’s mentor at BETiC IIT Bombay, Prof B Ravi says,” Even 72 years after independence, 78 % of these products are imported. Indigenous medical device innovation like KAFO can bridge this gap.”

“I could not finish my education due to our poor financial condition. But I didn’t want to bow down to fate. Any kind of disability should not become an obstacle to success. It was my dream to invent better callipers for myself and others like me,” sums up Aneesh.

Aneesh is now also looking to develop prosthetics for individuals with spinal conditions. He is also looking to incubate a start-up company to scale up innovation in order to benefit many others.

NBFC-P2P Firm IndiaMoneyMart Appoints two Industry Veterans to its Advisory Board

IndiaMoneyMart, a leading NBFC-P2P startup, proudly announces the joining of two industry veterans — Mr. Arup K Ganguly and Ms. Vridhi Kheria — to its advisory board.

Both industry veterans bring in humongous professional experience and expertise. Mr. Arup K Ganguly is a renowned finance industry expert with 30 years of experience. He has played pivotal roles as a banker, investor, and entrepreneur in UK and India. He is also a seasoned professional in the Blue-chip Companies like Goldman Sachs where he spent over 15 years as an Executive Director.

Ms. Vridhi Kheria has proved her mettle with both academic and professional excellence. She was not only an All India Rank holder in chartered accountancy and company secretary exams but has also been a partner to a CA firm for the last 18 years.

“I am thrilled to be given this opportunity. The most impressive part of IMM services is that besides conducting regular business, they are also providing financial counselling to distressed borrowers and become a part of their financial journey. I look forward to working with the team for deeper penetration in tier 2 & tier 3 cities for financial awareness and help make financial tools easily accessible” said Mr. Arup K Ganguly.

“I am delighted to be joining the advisory board of IndiaMoneyMart, Company is also working towards the user’s wealth creation & financial inclusion. I am excited and looking forward to playing a meaningful part in enhancing company’s vision of financial inclusion,” said Ms. Vridhi Kheria.

"We are pleased to welcome Mr. Arup and Ms. Vridhi to the IndiaMoneyMart's advisory board and especially value the constructive visions they bring to the table. The addition of these members complements our advisory board skills and experiences, and we are confident they will provide valuable perspectives as we continue to execute our strategy, drive profitability and enhance value for all our customers. New members’ addition will help us in making some path-breaking decisions and will certainly play a key role in fulfilling our vision of wider financial inclusion & financial literacy.” said Mr. Sangeet Modi, Co-Founder IndiaMoneyMart.

About IndiaMoneyMart:

IndiaMoneyMart, (a FairVinimay Services Pvt. Ltd. initiative), an RBI registered NBFC-P2P (peer-to-peer) lending marketplace, is a robust digital lending platform enabling individuals to borrow and lend money on mutual terms. The tech-driven solution helps people seeking alternative sources of funding to meet emergency requirements which are not serviced by banks and other traditional lenders.

Our peer-to-peer platform eliminates the need of a middle man from any transaction. Globally, P2P lending system has shown consistent growth in countries like the US, the UK and China as the concept is for the masses and not restricted to select few. Thus, IMM enables businesses to flourish through a people-to-people contact helping create wealth using the power of compounding.

E-Grocer Grofers Hires 5000 Employees to Cater Increasing Demand

Online grocery retailer Grofers has hired 5000 employees in its warehousing and front-end operations to cater growing demand, a top official said o Wednesday.

The online grocery startup is also planning to expand its footprints in the tier-II cities next year and will later evaluate whether the retailer will go into the territories of Jammu and Kashmir, the company official said.

"We are growing strong and have added 5,000 employees in the warehousing and front-end operations, ahead of our second Grand Orange Bag Days (GOBD) sale from August 10 to 18," Grofers founder Saurabh Kumar told PTI. They will mostly be engaged in 15 new warehouses and help increasing its delivery staff strength, he said.

"We are also planning to expand in the tier-II cities next year and then territories of Jammu and Kashmir will be evaluated," Kumar said.

Grofers hired around 400 women employees keeping the demand for GOBD, a customer acquisition strategy, in mind, he said adding the retailer has all-women warehouses in Bangalore and will have such storehouses soon in Gurgaon before extending it to Kolkata.

At present, the company has 45 warehouses to feed 16 cities across the country.

"During the first edition of the GOBD sale in January this year, the company had acquired 2.5 lakh new consumers to online grocery shopping. It sold 1.81 crore items worth Rs 207.5 crore," Kumar said.

He said the retailer is expecting to acquire 3 lakh new customers in the upcoming sale. Grofers was pursuing profitability by consolidating its operations and focusing on doubling its sales to Rs 5,000 crore in the fiscal 2019-20. PTI BSM BDC

UK to Set up Tech Hubs across India to Boost Ties: Envoy

The United Kingdom would set up Tech Hubs in India as part of move to nurture tie-ups with Indian companies and promote bilateral investments between the two countries, a British envoy has said.

British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith said, "What we wanted to do is expand the knowledge of potential partners -- investors or exporters and that is why we will be shortly establishing Tech Hubs across the country."

The Tech Hubs (Technology Hubs) would be set up in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and in Hyderabad, he told PTI.

Elaborating on the initiative, he said, the Tech Hubs would look at the strengths and interests of the technology industry in both countries (United Kingdom and India) and would look at areas the companies in two countries can converge together.

To a query about the trade relations between the two countries, he said India was second largest trade market for United Kingdom and the two-way trade was just over USD 20 billion. "Trade has been growing very consistently over the last nine quarters and it is on track", he said.

In order to boost trade exports, he said, one of the things the UK High Commission organised was a roadshow in the United Kingdom in summers.

He said the UK High Commission would alert the companies that opportunities exist in India, which includes Tamil Nadu and build sort of knowledge to overcome some of the preconceptions they may have.

Noting that over 30 British companies participated in the Global Investors Meet conducted by the State government in 2015 and in 2019, he said, "we have companies in health, automotive and fintech (financial technologies)" .

Aske about the the labour unrest witnessed in Tamil Nadu last year, he said UK looks at opportunities which exist. "problems may arise in any commercial relationships. Managing those sensitive issues so that it does throw us off the direction we want to move ahead which is to develop more investment and trading relationships both ways", he said.

It may be recalled that in 2014, when TechHub (different from current announcement), which is a community and workspace for technology entrepreneurs, was launched by the UK government in Bangalore as TechHub Bangalore, with a mission of supporting some 1,000 startups in India over the period of next three years

Online Learning Combined with Games to Grow by 38% in 2-4 Yrs

The combination training method, involving online learning and games, is gaining momentum and is expected to grow by up to 38 per cent in the next 2-4 years with corporates trying to enhance skills of their workforce, according to industry experts.

"Learning in the context of work, though essential, isn't always enjoyable and engaging, therefore, new models of training, more relevant to the workforce of today and tomorrow are being explored and games-based learning is one such model," Schoolguru Eduserve CEO and founder Shantanu Rooj told PTI here.

"The combination method of skilling, a recent henomenon in corporates, is used across sectors providing play-like simulation with the additional learning or improving functional proficiency and social interaction. I expect 38% growth in the segment to about Rs 3,000 crore in the next two years," he added.

As newer generations enter the workforce, technology adoption into learning is no longer just a need, but also a demand and corporates are advancing rapidly towards blended learning modules, he added.

Michael Page India Regional Talent Development Facilitator Dhruv Srivastava opined that gaming and simulations have been utilised across organisations to drive learning impact, however, as newer generations enter the workforce, technology adoption into learning is no longer just a need, but also a demand. "Corporates are advancing rapidly towards blended earning modules," he said.

Companies have been combining technology as well as games to impart skill in almost every sector for an improved engagement and performance, however, it is predominantly present in manufacturing companies, banking, pharmaceutical organisations and even the retail sector, he added.

Echoing a similar view, Mercer|Mettl CEO Siddhartha Gupta said most of the employees are already too tired before they take any traditional online training course. Games and technology provide the option to make training interesting, fun and can be measured, he added.

"I see a 30 per cent increase in the combination method for training in the next 3-4 years as industry-specific skills change quickly. So every industry is in expanding their budgets for training differently," he said adding that BFSI, IT/IteS, internet and electronic, services and HR and
consulting firms will gain from such a development.

Udacity India managing director Ishan Gupta opined that traditional training requires a lot of investment in the form of time, money and efforts from the corporate.

"Moreover, in a traditional training set up updating the course content regularly is a major challenge. Hence, the demand for online training is picking up fast. The benefit of having an online and gamified training platform is that it can help corporates to manage their ever-changing skill requirements quickly," he added. PTI SM