Agritech Firm Arya Launches A2ZGodaam, An Aggregator to Locate Agri-Warehouses in India

Omnivore and Lightstone Aspada backed post-harvest agri-tech startup Arya Collateral has launched A2ZGodaam, a one-stop comprehensive digital platform for search, discovery and fulfilment of warehousing for farmers, FPOs, Corporates and other stakeholders like traders and small aggregators. Launched on the occasion of Independence Day, the platform aims to empower farmers, and their organizations to gain freedom from the tedious activity of accessing warehouses, finance and other post-harvest services. For Corporates and other private players, the tech-enabled platform facilitates an end-to-end process for warehousing of agri-commodities.

This simple, integrated and easy to use platform helps users choose ancillary services like warehouse management, finance, transportation, labor, quality testing and commodity preservation services, through a robust technology-enabled back-end ecosystem. It also enables users to sell their stored produce on the platform by accessing multiple buyers across the country with complete assurance on quality.

A2ZGodaam envisages democratizing available agricultural storage infrastructure in the country through imparting discovery and transparency. It provides savings for all stakeholders by cost optimization in various services such as warehouse management services, financing solutions, quality assayers, insurance, and logistics through economies of scale. These savings will get passed down to users resulting in income appreciation for them.

Anand Chandra, Executive Director, Arya

Anand Chandra, Executive Director at Arya shared, “This Independence Day, we are helping the backbone of our society to gain independence from the rigid and complex system of Post-Harvest storage services. The inclusion of technology into the system is very crucial. Warehousing and storage of commodities cannot be a standalone offering. Apart from democratizing the available agri storage infrastructure in the country, a unique proposition offered by A2ZGodaam is the integration of the platform with other ancillary services along with financial and market linkages. The service will help all users for a seamless experience regarding warehousing and other post-harvest services.”

India has about 143 million tonnes of constructed warehousing capacity. Studies suggest that as a country, India has a storage gap in excess of 35%. This is further acute if we consider requirements versus availability in primary agriculture centers which are closer to the farm gate. On the other hand, it is also ironic that despite the aforementioned shortage of space, large warehousing spaces remain unutilized. The platform is an online aggregation solution for agri-warehouses and other post-harvest solutions to address the needs of farmers, FPOs and other value chain stakeholders. The platform aims to organize the traditionally unorganized warehousing sector.

A2ZGodaam is a digital extension of Arya’s current business model and has been tested across a wide range of customers. It currently has more than 2000 warehouses listed with an aggregated area of about 30 million sq. ft. These warehouses store over 2.5 million tonnes of agri-commodities and have enabled finance of Rs. 2000 Crores from various Banks and Aryadhan Financial Solutions, Arya’s NBFC subsidiary. The platform is expected to facilitate the discovery of over 20000 agri-warehouses in the country and enable finance in excess of Rs.15,000 Crores.

The platform supplements the government's objective of helping farmers and FPOs to access warehouses and other post-harvest services at the click of a button. It also allows farmers to access newer buyers for their produce in line with the recent relaxations in the APMC Act. The platform is also in line with the government’s recently approved near farm Agri-Infra fund which will help to address the problems of infrastructure in the agricultural sector. It gains immense relevance in the post-COVID neo normal.

In March 2020, Omnivore and Lightstone ASPADA participated in a pre-series B funding round of USD 6 million in ARYA to support its Agritech and Fintech offerings. The company is now in the process of raising an additional USD 15 million to strengthen and scale these initiatives.

About Arya Collateral Warehousing Services: Arya was incorporated in 1982. In 2002 it forayed into agribusiness with a core business of warehousing and collateral management and is now present across 20 states of India. The company is a significant player in the post-harvest agriculture ecosystem. It is a prominent service provider to agriculture corporations and the FPO ecosystem in catering to their warehousing and post-harvest needs. Arya manages 2.7 Million Tonnes of commodities through its network of 1,500 warehouses with an AUM of INR 55 Bn. It also has a 100% owned NBFC, Aryadhan, with a strong client base covering farmers, FPOs, processors and corporates and completed loan disbursements over Rs 220 Crores and has already turned profitable. Arya has raised $9M funding by strong investors in the Agri-tech space including LGT Lightstone Aspada and Omnivore till now.

Markivis Launches Mondayjoining.Com To Accelerate Employment in India During Pandemic

Markivis Pvt. Ltd today announced the launch of MondayJoining.com, a recruitment portal to facilitate people who have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic. The portal intends to connect people who are out of jobs or available to join within 14 days to connect with recruiters. The portal is free for candidates and recruiters, helping companies reduce their cost of hiring. 

“Monday Joining is our way of giving it back to the community in these unprecedented times. We wanted to help people who lost their jobs and businesses by reducing their cost of hiring.”

said Amit Khanduja, the CEO of Markivis Pvt. Ltd.

With MondayJoining.com, candidates do not need to spend endless hours on job hunting and filling out numerous applications for each job post. The platform allows recruiters to reach out to job seekers almost instantly by looking at their experience, skills and expertise updated within extensive candidate profiles. In addition, the platform reduces the effort of recruiters from creating lengthy job descriptions and going through the hassle of receiving hundreds of non-suitable resumes, and most importantly worrying whether a candidate will join after making them wait for 2-3 months. 

“We used to see so many posts and media news every day about people losing their jobs but on the contrary we were also hearing a completely different story from HR Leaders, who we work with regularly in the Employer Branding space. Companies were unable to source the right candidates who were available to join quickly. That is when we thought of connecting these two sets of audiences using a portal for all those individuals who were seeking a job and the countless recruiters who were hiring,” he added.

What differentiates mondayjoining.com from other platforms is one it’s zero subscription fees and some of the unique features that have been built and are in pipeline for recruiters such as:

1. Track and report candidates who accept an offer and do not join
2. Getting an offer acceptance within the portal 
3. Only allowing candidates who can join within 14 days to register 
4. Adding background verified/ Reference Checked profiles to shorten candidate on-boarding

The portal intends to launch operations in Australia and the UK in the next few months. The website’s soft launch two weeks ago drew over 35,000 candidate profiles who are ready for immediate hiring, and 213 verified recruiters who are actively hiring. The platform aims at increasing its reach with the official launch. 

About Markivis: 

Markivis is a Marketing Consulting Agency which offers services across Employer Branding& Marketing to leading B2B companies. Founded in 2018, the company was recently recognized as the “Employer Branding company of the year”. They have created a niche for themselves in the B2B industry and today work with 5 of the top 10 leading IT / ITeS companies, with client presence across India, U.S., Canada, Japan, U.K. and Australia. 

About Monday Joining:

Monday Joining is a platform ‘Beyond Job Descriptions’. It was essentially brought to life with the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating its impact on employment, where thousands of people were losing jobs for no fault of theirs. The platform is developed keeping in mind the need for an immediate hiring and is exclusive for professionals who can join a role within 0-14 days after an offer is made. Monday Joining aims at saving time and money for everyone - candidates and recruiters alike.

About the Founder: 

With more than 16 years of experience in B2B Marketing, Amit Khanduja is currently the CEO of Markivis Pvt. Ltd. He has held several senior-level positions in IT and ITeS organizations. His last position was with EXL where he was the Vice President for Marketing, leading the Digital Marketing function and responsible for the Marketing Technology Stack. He has also held senior positions in Innodata, Genpact, and HCL Technologies.

Amit has experience in services, solutions, and product marketing activities across global markets. Adept in defining and building go to market strategies, planning, and executing marketing campaigns. 

Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches Exclusive Website for its Chemical Business Offerings in India

Equipped with customized search, customers can explore on-demand seminars and technical literature.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, announced the launch of a new website for its chemicals business offerings. This website will serve as a dedicated platform towards an extensive range of Laboratory and Production chemicals. The new website will bring all major chemical brands from Thermo Fisher Scientific including Alfa Aesar, Acros Organics, Fisher Chemicals, Qualigens, Fisher Bioregaents and Maybridge under one umbrella.

Qualigens, the locally manufactured brand in India, will have its first online presence through this website. This will enable customers to explore the chemicals portfolio and have a consistent digital experience.

Thermo Fisher invites customers from various segments including educational institutions, research and development, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, food & beverage and environmental sector, to get acquainted with the capabilities that the new website will offer. The website is equipped with customized chemical search capabilities like structure search and element search and options to view availability and pricing for specific brands. The website has also been designed to cater to distinct purchase lifecycles of buyers and customers, who can also explore on-demand seminars and technical literature.

"At Thermo Fisher, we offer a robust portfolio of chemicals that are used from bench to production spanning across industries. I am delighted that this website is getting launched at a time when our customers need us more than ever digitally. Customers can now access our chemical brands and experience our entire portfolio offering, all in one place.With this new platform we are now one step ahead in serving our customers better.” said Amit Chopra, managing director, India and Middle East, Thermo Fisher Scientific

“The global coronavirus outbreak is a powerful reminder of the importance of our mission- to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We are profoundly aware of our obligation towards our customers as essential partners and these initiatives reinforce our commitment to serve our customers”, said Amit.

The website is exclusive to India. Login to the new website to explore the company's solutions at https://www.thermofisher.in/chemicals/en/home.html

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $25 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 75,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon.

Online Platform AskGandhi.in to Promote Mahatma Gandhi’s Ideology Amongst Youth

iTV Network and The Sunday Guardian Foundation in association with Believe Foundation (India) and Dr. Raman Bhai Patel Foundation (South Africa) celebrated victory of Love over Hatred and celebrated the 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi and 100 years of Mandela’s inspirational lives. The event ‘Gandhi Mandela Peace Initiative’ held at Hotel Imperial, holds some important panel discussion on the topics related to Global Peace for Youth, Women, Environment, Education, Health, Gender Sensitivity, Arts and Cinema with powerful keynotes delivered by great thought leaders.

During the Gandhi Mandela peace initiative event, Mr. Kartikeya Sharma honored Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela and 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

In his address, Mr. Kartikeya Sharma asserted that it is the right time to profess the teachings of both the iconic leaders. He said that the two exceptional leaders have shown the world a way of change, peace and social fabric. He added that the two leaders have also highlighted the importance of co-existence, animal protection and the environment in their teachings.

Shri Kartikeya Sharma, Founder & Promoter, iTV Network during his key note speech said “The way Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela's approached social problems were impressive and revolutionary.” Further he announced, iTV Network initiative of the formation of AskGandhi.in to spread the teachings and ideologies of Mahatma Gandhi. He said “It's a great opportunity to profess the teachings of both the iconic leaders, AskGandhi.in is an interactive platform for the current and future generations to engage with the ideals and principles on every facet Mahatma Gandhi’s life. Both Gandhi and Mandela showed the way of change, peace and social fabric to the world."

There was another interesting session on environment and sustainability which was attended by Mr. Walter Lindner, Hon. German Ambassador of India, Govt. of India; Mr. Kartikeya Sharma, Founder and Promoter, iTV Network; Mr. Ricky Kej, Grammy Award Winner and Environmentalist; Mr. Sudhir Mishra, Environmental Lawyer Committee member of Ministry of Environment and Forest and Dr. Devendra Kumar Agarwal, Expert Member, National Green Tribunal. During the session, Mr. Kartikeya Sharma spoke about the teachings of both the iconic leaders who gave messages for peace, mutual co-existence, protect animals and environment and taught us about non-violence, sustainability and life Eco-system. While, Mr. Ricky Kej said that, “Human beings should live life is close to nature to avoid pollution and other problems."

In another interactive session on Education system in India, the panelists including Mr. Adi Godrej, Chairperson Godrej Group; Mr. Ghanshyam Tiwari, SP, Co-founder, Harvard India, Conference; Mr. Kartikeya Sharma, Founder & Promoter, iTV Network; Dr. Aseem Chauhan, Chancellor, Amity University; Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University; Kunwar Shekhar Viendra, Chancellor, Shobhit University. During the session, Mr. Kartikeya Sharma, said “Education, teaching process is changing fast along with technology and new ways to educate children is needed.” While, Mr. Adi Godrej said “Gandhi and Mandela fought hard for the education to all.”

3 Things to Consider when working with BlueHost

Bluehost is one of the biggest web hosting companies on the market. It is also one of the most popular, because it is cheap, and very efficient. Their client-base speaks volumes about their capabilities in the web hosting space. When you choose to work with BlueHost, you have the option to choose a plan that best fits your budget. That’s part of the reason why it is so popular on the market. However, before you move to host your website with them, here are 3 things to consider when working with BlueHost.

1.    Their competitiveness in the market

Before you start working with BlueHost, compare their services to other web hosting companies.  A quick BlueHost comparison with other companies will help you appreciate their services, especially in terms of quality. For instance, when you compare it to GoDaddy, another industry leader, you will realize that BlueHost is much cheaper. It also has more resources for single site hosting. These are things you wouldn’t be aware of, without a comprehensive understanding of where BlueHost stands, relative to other companies in the market.

2.    Their pros and cons

Before you move to work with BlueHost, look at its pros and cons, just like you would do with any other company.  By doing this, you will be more aware of what to expect from their service. For instance, by reviewing them, you will quickly realize that one of the best aspects of this company is security. BlueHost is a large company, and has been in existence for a very long time. This means that you can count on its stability, which makes it reliable for hosting websites that handle sensitive data. With such knowledge, you are better positioned to use BlueHost for maximum benefit for your online business. Understanding its pros and cons can help you in creating websites that have a high ROI.

3.    Your knowledge level in matters to do with websites

Unlike in the past when creating and hosting a website was a complicated process, nowadays the process is pretty straightforward. However, there are aspects to it that might still need a professional. Nonetheless, if you don’t have that skill, or the money to pay a developer, then it would be prudent to put this into consideration when choosing this web host. That’s because, one of the best aspects of this company is its education center. This center is quite helpful, and can save you the money of having to go hire someone else to do the job for you. Besides, even when things get tough, and you don’t understand the process, you can count on their customer service for help. The BlueHost customer service is one of the best, and they have customer representatives who are always ready to help you out. But, even before you get to this stage, you will realize that, you can resolve most issues by yourself at the education center.

When you put these factors into consideration, you are unlikely to go wrong with web hosting.

Govt Oders ISPs To Block 827 Porn Websites

The Indian government is going tough on porn, as it has directed Internet service providers (ISPs) to block 827 websites that host pornographic content following an order by the Uttarakhand high court, said a PTI Report.

While the Uttarakhand high court has asked to block 857 websites, the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) found 30 portals without any pornographic content.

A high court imposed a sweeping order which will ban people from accessing a whopping 827 porn websites.

ISPs have been told to take “immediate necessary action” to block the websites after the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) issued the Department of Telecom (DoT) with a notice to do so, Indian news agency Press Trust of India (PTI reports).

All providers must immediately remove pornography so they can comply with the “Hon'ble High Court order,” issued at the end of September, the DoT said in its instructions for the servers.

It comes just after Nobel laureate and prominent Indian rights activist Kailash Satyarthi called for a strong legislation to crackdown on online child pornography amid concerns it may encourage sexual abuse offences.

In a bid to exemplify the grave repercussions of online pornography, he described how a 12-year-old boy and his friends had watched a porn movie the night before they gang-raped his sister.

“The business of online pornographic films is flourishing unabated,” Satyarthi, who previously blasted child pornography for “creating so many evils in India,” said.

According to Meity, Uttarakhand HC has ordered blocking of 857 websites contained in an old notice of DoT dated July 31, 2015.

To recall, in August 2015 too India called for a online porn ban when Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directed ISPs to block around 850 websites citing Section 79 of IT Act. However in that year, government eventually withdrew the ban from all websites.

Reliance Jio had already banned hundreds of popular adult websites in India including Xvideos and Pornhub. Although, there is no official statement from Jio on the development so far but many Jio users pointed out on Reddit that several porn websites are no longer available on Jio network.

Since the ministry had asked all the telecom operators to ban these websites, more telcos might follow Jio’s footsteps in the coming days.

Source - RT.com, Hindustan Times

Online Website Builder: Which One Is Best For You?

Owning an e-commerce store is more than a necessity in days when the thrust for web traffic replaces and that of footfalls. The best part -- these days, you really don’t need much technical know-how to build or run the platform. Ecommerce website builders help build online stores easily, and the choices for you to get rolling, are many.

Here are some of the top e-commerce software solutions that you should audit before you draw up further plans:

Top Online Store Building Software 2017

Based on the current needs of e-commerce stores these days, such as a reasonably priced platform with a variety of features, modern and user-friendly design, ease of access for scaling up, and a great support team, some of the best online store building software solutions are:

Shopify

With more than 325,000 active online users, Shopify is undoubtedly one of the best software for e- commerce in the market today.

Ideal for startups and large businesses alike, Shopify users are selling products and doing brisk business in the ecommerce arena. Shopify offers you scalability, meaning your online store’s capabilities grow as your business expands in size.

Inherent benefits include:

• 100+ ready-to-use, professional, and beautiful mobile-friendly themes to choose from to ensure that your store looks great, regardless of the device of browsing


• More than 1,500 apps are available that you can add to your store and enhance its functionality


• 24x7 technical support


• You can try the software free for 14 days

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is another option you have, if you want to stay away from the technical tangles of online store building. BigCommerce is suitable for both small and large business.

Key highlights of this software are:

• Comes with a comprehensive set of tools that help you to build your own ecommerce store


• Integrated with several social media platforms ensuring more sales and profits


• Just like Shopify, they too have an app store and you can increase the functionality of your store by incorporating the apps


• 24x7 support team at your service

Weebly eCommerce

Weebly has the reputation of being one of the most user-friendly website builders in the market. With an intuitive drag and drop feature, building an ecommerce store is a breeze when you use this software. However, it is ideal for stores selling about 20 products.

This is an ideal pick for beginners and though this software is not as comprehensive as BigCommerce or Shopify, it lets you run your online store seamlessly as well.

Key features include:

• You can insert multiple products along with variations of a standard product


• Most administrative processes are automated

Wix eCommerce

This is the perfect example of drag and drop online website builder.

As a website builder, you have more creative freedom while building your store, as you can drop content anywhere on your e-commerce site. None of the other software solutions can give you the publishing capabilities that Wix offers..

It is less advanced compared to Shopify and BigCommerce and ideal for owners who need simple store configurations. You can sell 20 or so products and not more than that.

Key benefits of Wix eCommerce include:

• Great looking design templates to choose from


• Pure drag and drop platform - ease of use


• You can insert multiple products along with multiple variations of one standard product


• Offers fully integrated shopping carts

SquareSpace Commerce

If you want your website to be image-rich, SquareSpace lets you do that. SquareSpace websites are beautiful and offer stunning templates. You can have full control over your product variants, and it offers you a whole list of tools to manage inventory, generate coupons, configure taxes and shipping options, manage email lists, and build a complete online store.

SquareSpace is ideal if you want a simple, yet good-looking online store.

In a nutshell, if your budget is low and you want to open a small store, and have no plans to expand your business, Weebly, Wix, and SquareSpace fit your bill. However, if you already have a big store or you’re looking for scalability on your ecommerce software, Shopify and BigCommerce are your best choices.

Official 'Start-Up India' Website Has Hidden Virus That Can Steal Your Private Information

Every one is aware of PM Modi's ambitious 'Start-up India' initiative and its government run website startupindia.gov.in. To everyone's surprise its recently been discovered by a security analyst that the official website is infected with a hidden Trojan virus.

A Trojan is a type of malware that is often disguised as legitimate software. Trojans can be employed by cyber-thieves and hackers trying to gain access to users' systems.

Surya Pratap Singh, director of Aezowie Infotech Services and a security analyst himself, recently got recognition from 'Start-up India' for his new company and while browsing the Startup India official website he found a critical security problem, which he further explored to conclude that one of the website’s PDF files was infected by a Trojan in the Information page of the website.

In order to be sure, he checked that PDF file against his anti-virus programs and ran it through VirusTotal, and these showed that the file contained a Trojan virus (maybe the urlmal Trojan). To understand the issue more clearly Surya Pratap has also created a video of his findings.

This type of virus is generally used to control and steal sensitive information from a user’s systems. Thus, the systems of many users who downloaded this file from the website were at risk.

"From my point of view, that PDF file was probably uploaded to Startup India website without doing any security check or scanning and it may have been infected through a Heap Spraying technique or urlmal Trojan. I suspect this was the case as files can ‘go bad’, rather than it being uploaded by an an attacker," wrote Singh in an article at InfoSecurity Magazine.

"If this file had existed longer on the official Startup India website for downloading then it would be unsafe, it is also not good for Startup India website because very soon anti-viruses would blacklist that URL", he added.

Surya Pratap has later wrote and informed to the Startup India team along with CERT-India, who has developed the website. Both have acknowledged the same and working to resolve this serious security issue in the website.

NDTV launches online wedding platform Bandbaajaa

One of the leading Indian  broadcaster NDTV has launched its online wedding platform Bandbaajaa.com.

The site boasts of marquee designers like Neeta Lulla, Anju Modi, Kisneel, Prama, Kylee & Neha Mehta. It has also a listing of over 1,500 best vendors and lifestyle professionals, and has over 5,000 products.

Through the Bandbaajaa, users can get assistance to ideate wedding ideas, manage budget and  find vendors according to their preferred location. The platform provides assistance on venues, photography, DJ & entertainers, wedding decor, makeup artists, invitation cards, caterers, etc. It also provides retail options for wedding dresses and delivers an end-to-end solution to the customers.

The development comes four months after the company raised an undisclosed amount in funding from US-based CerraCap Ventures for the new platform at US$20 million valuation.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lbs3XW9EC4?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0]

“We have curated a selective list of elite vendors. Our focus is to help the customers with the perfect mix of right products, best vendors and amazing ideas in order to make their journey to the big day hassle free and memorable", said Sachin Singhal, CEO, Bandbaajaa.com .

“Weddings are a recession proof business, the current generation of young Indians will find everything they need to plan a perfect wedding with minimum fuss. The idea has been very well received by the market. It’s a hugely exciting space to be in,” said Smeeta Chakrabarti, Managing Director, Bandbaajaa.com:

Earlier this year in February 2016, NDTV’s ethnic e-commerce venture, IndianRoots, launched Fashion Business Accelerator in partnership with 6Degree, to boost budding fashion professionals. Other ventures by NDTV include online health product marketplace SmartCooky, an ecommerce venture for gadgets, named Gadgets 360° and Fifth Gear Auto, an auto portal complementing NDTV’s car and bike shows.

Government To Launch A Website For Innovators In India Seeking Govt. Help

Yesterday, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at the Intel DST Innovate for Digital India Challenge that the Government will set up a dedicated website for innovators in India seeking government help to transform their ideas into reality.

"I have decided that there will be a separate, dedicated portal of my ministry dedicated to the innovators of India," IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at the Intel DST Innovate for Digital India Challenge event in Delhi.

Hailing "jugaad", or the frugal innovation India has come to be known for in the course of its development, Prasad said the government plans to double the number of Common Service Centres (CSC) or information and communication technology (ICT) access points created under the National e-Governance Project.

Notably, under government's India Innovation Growth Programme there's already a website (since 2014) called IndiaInnovates.in which is a joint initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI); Stanford Graduate School of Business and the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas.

The website (IndiaInnovates.in) allows innovators in India to submit their innovations and expression of interest. The aim of India Innovation Growth Programme is to accelerate innovative Indian technologies into the global markets.

The minister, this time, however announced a different website from this one and it would be interesting to how the newly announced website and government's plan is different from what is already existing one and all it requires is little push and efficacy.

"We propose to double the number of Common Service Centres that number 126,000," the minister said in yesterday's

"There is a plan to convert the existing 125,000 post offices across the country into common service centres," he said.

"Frugal innovation along with government support will result in the turning of India," he added.

The purpose of the CSC project is to provide much-needed information and services to under served Indians in rural areas.

Speaking earlier at the event, senior vice-president of Intel Corporation Gregory R. Pearson said: “The Intel mission is to use the power of Moore's Law to bring smart connected devices to every person on earth.”

"Besides the democratisation brought on by digital, now it has also become affordable," he added.

10 Essential Things Your E-Commerce Website Should Have

Running an Ecommerce website is not always an easy task. There are sales to make, order to fill and payments to receive. This is why it is necessary to make sure you have your bases covered when it comes to running a good Ecommerce website.

We have to look at things from a visitor's point of view. We have to start with the beginning, when the user visits an Ecommerce website, and goes through to the very end, when that user place an order. We won't be getting into every details of an ecommerce site. Instead, we are going to give essential things for your Ecommerce site in order to maintain continued success and meet the ever changing needs of consumers.

Here are 10 essential things for your Ecommerce site should have:

1. Good Experience for Mobile Shoppers

In today's world 75% of people purchased from mobile devices rather than personal computers and laptops, so main motive to your ecommerce websites is mobile friendly, that is must. Your website ensure checkout cart functions easily on mobile, keep your mobile version simple with clear links.

For example - ReefaNext is the shopping websites and have mobile version. Customers can access their site on smartphones with affirm swift. They have easy and convenient way of searching and browsing. Customers can simply browse, compare offers and shop online from anywhere and anytime.

2. Easy Checkout Process

Checkout process is a striking balance between good functionality, usability and trust building key that offers a good checkout experience. If the checkout is poorly designed you could easily losing up to 67% of customers. To make checkout more attractive you have to display security logos, show shipping clearly, ensure it is fast particularly on mobile and show images of the products in the carts.

For example - OrderVenue is an online store and offer their customers a real shopping experience with the products that can exclusively available for them. Their checkout are attractive, they show shipping clearly.

3. Good Quality Product Pictures

Product picture could be the most important thing in your ecommerce website. It gives user the first experience of your product. So your pictures should be high quality with good lighting. Include a gallery of pictures to show all features of the product. Let customers see a larger version of the photography in zoom function.

For example - SnapDeal is a very famous online shopping, their products are genuine. They have gallery of pictures to show all features of the product. They provide the larger version of the product images in zoom function.

4. Have a Clear Returns Policy

People return products when they're disappointed or the product is not up to the mark. So first part of a ecommerce website that a good return policy. This Policy can actually help your customer to make the decision to purchase. Make your policy easy to find and write it in easy language, no legal or internal policy jargon. Don't include hidden return cost, be explicit and clear about costs. You have to be clear about whether the returns is for cash, exchange or credit.

For example - ShopClues will replace any order within 10 days of delivery and with free return shipping if customers receive a product which is not as per the specifications ordered by them.

5. Detailed Product Descriptions

Give clear and accurate descriptions about your products. This help buyers to make decision of purchase easily. Descriptions is like your store's sales staff so it needs to be more informative. Give FAQ's section too, to help peoples who have any issue about your products.

Product description should have size, texture, dimension, colours and warranties.

For example - Flipkart they give brief information of their products like features, warranty and dimension etc.

6. Low cost or Free Shipping Charges

Low cost or free shipping is the number one method for making a purchasing decision on a websites. This is the main information. The ability to get products delivered within a particular time frame, and for a cost that the customer considers reasonable is a huge part of a shopper's purchase decision.

If your business model does not allow you to make the shipping cost completely free, the least you can do is reduce costs to a minimum, or offer free deleivery once a customer orders over a certain amount.

For example - Ebay provides low cost and free shipping which leads this website to the world's top 5 online shopping websites.

7. Define your Unique Selling Points (USPs)

If you are making an ecommerce website you need to define USPs. To make difference from yours competitors, and it help to attract the buyers. If you want to know what's your USPs are, firstly ask yourself what makes you different from your competitors? And why customers will buy from you and not from your competitors?

If you have the answers of these questions then you know your Unique Selling Points (USPs).

For example
Planetjashn have made their USPs as an online business obvious across their website:
1. Same day shipping; 2. Free shipping

8. Latest news and most popular products

When there are new items, news, a sales that the buyers should know about the product, the home page is the best way to house them. Make simple way for buyers to find new deals and hot prices. Customers will more likely look through new items on sale rather than spending half an hour searching through the full list for something new and trendy.

For example - amazon provides all its latest product list, sales to their home page.

9. Shopping Cart, Login Box and Search Box

The search box, login box and shopping cart are normally located next to one another at every e-Commerce website. It’s almost unreasonable to imagine a store without a shopping-cart function included. The shopping cart icon is clear and simple so it makes sense to buy or choose something similar for your site. Various stores also give their customers private accounts where it is possible to review all their previous and current orders.

Every customer who signs up in their account can choose a personal login and password for further access. Besides, owners of such accounts can receive notification of special discount offers from the storeowners and participate in various promotions or sales.

For example - Alibaba site provides search box, login box at top of the website.

10. Social Media Links

Social media sites give almost 20% of online purchases after accomplished the surfing. People are interested in public opinion to buy anything in online. Social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are the best, it is a fastest source to get the information you need on about everything.

Moreover, social media accounts bring excellent opportunities for self-promotion and online communities can help to identify the most active and experienced customers, or find new ones who are not aware with the web store yet. For online shops, it’s a good way to keep customers up to date of the latest news, or special deals which leads towards Facebook or Twitter followers only.

For example - benetton provides social media links like facebook, twitter, google plus, pinterest and instagram.



I hope you like these tips and may it help in your eCommerce store an ultimate destination for buyers.

If you have any other ideas or tips, feel free to mention in comment section.

Flipboard Launched Full Web Version Of Its Magazine App

To all the readers out there, there’s good news in store for you. Flipboard has traded its signature flipping pages for a fully functional, user-friendly web interface. The web interface will have a plethora of content to offer to its readers which can be accessed here www.flipboard.com

Founded in 2010, Flipboard is a social magazine application for Apple’s iPad tablet computer. The app collects content from social networks and other websites and then presents them in the format of a magazine. The California based company’s app allows its users to flip through the feeds from their social networking sites and other websites that have partnered with the company.

Flipboard unveiled the full version of its magazine aggregated application on the web earlier this week. The new interface is extremely sleek and looks like an interesting mix between Pinterest and Medium.

The magazine like reading platform has had a web version since the mid 2013, but back then, it was more of a placeholder than a fully functional web application. The older version didn’t allow users to log in and get access to their magazine collections. It also had the signature flipping pages of its mobile application, which offered a clumsy experience on the web.



The new web version is completely different from the older version. Rather than flipping pages, the new version has content in modules containing headline, pictures and a leading sentence.  The Hipster by Gus Gostyla, Designica by Flipboard’s CEO Mike McCue and The Explorer by Leland Melvin are some of the examples that show off Flipboard’s new visual capabilities.

The magazine like platform has had some web magazines out on the web earlier too, but the readers would often jump off the pages while flipping pages as it didn’t give them a natural experience of reading a magazine. Flipboard 3.0, which was launched in October last year, focused on creating a product that is native to the web.

Currently, Flipboard has some 50 million active monthly readers who have access to about 15 million individual magazines. The figure has gone up by 5 million since the launch of Flipboard 3.0.

In order to provide a richer experience to its user on the web, Flipboard has added a section called “Explore” for content discovery on the web.  Flipboard has an aim of growing its audience to over 100 million active readers and the web version will only help the company in achieving that.

Flipboard Launched Full Web Version Of Its Magazine App

To all the readers out there, there’s good news in store for you. Flipboard has traded its signature flipping pages for a fully functional, user-friendly web interface. The web interface will have a plethora of content to offer to its readers which can be accessed here www.flipboard.com

Founded in 2010, Flipboard is a social magazine application for Apple’s iPad tablet computer. The app collects content from social networks and other websites and then presents them in the format of a magazine. The California based company’s app allows its users to flip through the feeds from their social networking sites and other websites that have partnered with the company.

Flipboard unveiled the full version of its magazine aggregated application on the web earlier this week. The new interface is extremely sleek and looks like an interesting mix between Pinterest and Medium.

The magazine like reading platform has had a web version since the mid 2013, but back then, it was more of a placeholder than a fully functional web application. The older version didn’t allow users to log in and get access to their magazine collections. It also had the signature flipping pages of its mobile application, which offered a clumsy experience on the web.



The new web version is completely different from the older version. Rather than flipping pages, the new version has content in modules containing headline, pictures and a leading sentence.  The Hipster by Gus Gostyla, Designica by Flipboard’s CEO Mike McCue and The Explorer by Leland Melvin are some of the examples that show off Flipboard’s new visual capabilities.

The magazine like platform has had some web magazines out on the web earlier too, but the readers would often jump off the pages while flipping pages as it didn’t give them a natural experience of reading a magazine. Flipboard 3.0, which was launched in October last year, focused on creating a product that is native to the web.

Currently, Flipboard has some 50 million active monthly readers who have access to about 15 million individual magazines. The figure has gone up by 5 million since the launch of Flipboard 3.0.

In order to provide a richer experience to its user on the web, Flipboard has added a section called “Explore” for content discovery on the web.  Flipboard has an aim of growing its audience to over 100 million active readers and the web version will only help the company in achieving that.

Fundlined wants to be KickStarter for Indian Crowdfunding

Fundlined is a Crowdfunding Platform, just for India. Anyone who has an Idea, Project, Startup or Cause can raise Funds on Fundlined.com. The portal looks promising and close and it won't be an exaggeration if we say that it is about to become KickStarter of India.

Goa based crowdfunding portal wants to empower people by democratising funding and with this belief the portal claims to revolutionise crowdfunding in India, forever. The portal is currently in beta state.

Fundlined has been developed for artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, designers, entrepreneurs, inventors, event organisers, social-organisations, software developers, anyone and everyone, to help you make great things possible.

Similar to KickStarter.com FundLined takes zero set-up for creating funding campaigns and when your campaign raises funds the portal takes mere 5% from successful funding campaigns and 15% from unsuccessful campaigns.

Fundlined founder Siddharth Shetty founded the crowdfunding platform at just 18 years of age, the portal was released officially in May 2014 and in less than a month, the portal already become one of India's Largest Crowdfunding Platforms, claims Siddharth. Currently, FundLined is organising India's biggest crowdfunding contest - With over 20 Lakhs worth of extra funding up for grabs.

The team behind this new crowdfunding platform is a Pan India team, with members based in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur, besides other cities.

The crowdfunding portal is currently organising India's Biggest Crowdfunding Contest - With over 20 Lakhs worth of extra funding up for grabs! You may visit contest.fundlined.com for further information.

The portal aims big, but comparing other crowdfunding platforms Fundlined currently have very few funding campaigns probably it was released officially just five months back (May 2015). Recently another crowdfunding platform for India called Wishberg.com has just announced to shutdown in coming days. Wishberg lived just for couple of years which raises questions on sustainability for crowdfunding platforms just for India. When it comes to online crowdfunding interested individuals/teams based out of India eye towards crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo.com.

Biotecnika Labs Catering To The Needs of Bio-Industry in India

Biotecnika Info Labs Pvt Ltd is an eight year old organization which effectively caters to the needs of Bio-industry in various forms such as job portal, coaching, magazine and web TV. Started by Shekhar Suman and his sister, Dr Neha Suman, the company aims to strive towards making 'life science' sector a better and a more hopeful sector for graduates.

"I still remember the day when I had to convince my father that my soul lies in being an entrepreneur. I was still pursuing my Bachelors from Krupanidhi College of Pharmacy. Belonging from the bio-science sector I completely understood the intricacies woven around the biotech employment sector. I wanted to bring in a solution to this prevailing problem," says Shekhar. This is when he came up with the idea of Biotecnika. While Shekhar was still pursuing his studies in pharmacy, he made a team of 14 people. This entire team composed of research fellows and scholars working from different places across India to make the best portal for life science students.

8 years ago, there was a dearth of services which could help the bioscience students to be on par with the sector. Shekhar dedicated the initial 12 months just to letting people know about Biotecnika. "As the entire domain was looking for a resource where they could browse for bio-jobs, we received commendable response from all quarters. The philosophy was simple. Being a doctor myself, I wanted to dedicate myself to the sector and extend support for its unfaltering progress," says Neha.

Biotecnika's CSIR NET coaching, runs all around the country, in the form of online classes, a unique feature making them stand out of the many competitors. "We, at Biotecnika, see to it that no bioscience individual who come to us, either seeking for mentorship or guidance, leave in disappointment," says Shekhar, proudly.

A team of 30 members is dedicated towards maintaining and improvising the services that they offer. Biotecnika is based out of Bangalore, a city which is popularly considered to be the ‘heart’ for biotechnology sector. Throughout these eight years in the industry, Biotecnika has aided the bio-community and have recently expanded their reach to the city of Noida.

The company plans to expand to all the corners of the country and help out every biotech individual seeking our assistance at every level. As a message for future entrepreneurs, Shekhar says, “Measure your stamina and then jump. Swimming in the entrepreneurial pool is awesome.”

Public E-Commerce Comparison Engine Dotmic Simplifies Online Shopping

Dotmic is an e-commerce search engine that helps people search and compare prices of products from different online stores. The founder Dipin Prakash initially wanted to work for Google, but decided to make his own e-commerce search engine in 2012. In a conversation with Dotmic, we learn about the company and their future plans.

"Dotmic is one stop solution for online shopping in India. The user gets to search and compare hundreds of stores along with checking the product and store reviews. It’s the google for shopping," says Dipin. They have high speed search algorithms that enable its users to search across millions of products from hundreds of stores. Wider product range and much faster processing helps customer browse, compare, select and continue with their online shopping experience compared to any other online store in India. They use self-developed web crawlers called dotbot to gather product information form 460 stores with about 7 million products.

"We have partnered with 59 stores and is our main source of revenue. These stores include amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra and all other major stores operating in India," says Jiji Sukumar, their CMO. Dotmic operates on 3 servers in the US and 2 in India. "We consume 7TB of data every month. Most of the bandwidth is consumed by Dotbots (automated web crawlers developed by the company)," he adds.

A large product collection poses the big challenge for searching. When a user enters a query Dotmic has to search all 7M products for the occurrence of these keywords and it has to do this in a second or less. For this they have developed a new search algorithms. "We have recently integrated Hadoop into our server to calculate the search relevance. Though our algorithms are fast enough to deliver thousand of results in milliseconds, we are working on even faster once that can manage our future demands," says Dipin.



This 2 member team based out of Kochi wants to capture the data from all 900 e-commerce stores in India before expanding to other countries. Dotmic got selected to be incubated at Startup Village last year. Startup village is the country's first not-for-profit Public Private Partnership (PPP) telecom business incubator. The promoters of Startup Village are Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Technopark, Trivandrum and MobME Wireless.

Dotmic recently released its first free API. The API enables users to get product data feeds, which can integrated into both web and mobile platforms to build search, comparison engines or as a source of information in blogs. The API makes it easier for programmers to build product search platforms and saves the trouble in managing and searching millions of products online. The information provided by the API includes product name, price, image, seller info, description, product link and date of update.

As a message for future entrepreneurs, Dipin said "Never wait for the perfect plan. Work out a rough for a year, another clear plan for the first 3 months and then start executing your plan. Improvise your plan on the go."

Now See How Many Govt. Employees Logged Into Work, Real Time!

An inexpensive attendance system has been launched lately by Indian Govt. for India's central government employees that is publicly available on the internet-and potentially, a simple tool that could revolutionize governance in the country.

The online attendance portal is available at - attendance.gov.in essentially called as Real time Biometric Attendance System (BAS) , the portal is said to have attendance data of more than 50,000 government employees in New Delhi which shows data in real-time.

The system will not only help track the number of registered organisations and employees, but also give a dynamic interface to know the number of people attending office and the count of active devices.

The entire system is searchable, down to the names of individual central government employees, moreover all the data is available for download as well. The system cannot track people leaving in between the check in and check out. But it can track chronic late comers. And the public reporting of data creates pressure on supervisors to ensure compliance.



Network connectivity will be essential for marking attendance. Therefore, two types of connectivity are being planned with each attendance terminal; one wi-fi connectivity on NICNET/broadband and other SIM based GSM connectivity in the tablet.

The whole system had been developed under the guidance of Ram Sewak Sharma, secretary of information technology and communications.

This real time attendance system is modified version of prototype developed for Jharkhand state - attendance.jharkhand.gov.in, it was launched in Jharkhand in January 2014 which used to track around 34,000 employees, across 69 departments and 24 districts.

However initially in January this year former AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) government in Delhi had decided to introduce biometric attendance system in the Secretariat and all government offices in the New Delhi to ensure "effective functioning" however AAP govt. resigned off and it finally came into existence after 8 months.

[Top Image - The Logical Indian FB Group]

Mechjunction, India’s first mechanical engineering platform for students and professionals

Mechjunction was founded in year 2013 with an intense vision of helping mechanical engineering students and professionals in best possible ways. A platform which is a job portal, provides Industrial training, skill development programs, online magazines etc. all for Mechanical Engineering Students. In a conversation with the 3 founders, Satwik Mishra, Abhinav Kishore and Harsh Vardhan we learn about the journey of this startup.

“Being a mechanical engineer, I faced many problems during and after my college life. I had to waste considerable amount of time to get my educational requirements fulfilled. Hence I planned to develop a platform where all the requirements can be furnished at a single platform for mechanical engineers. This led to the foundation of Mechjunction,” says Satwik, who got rewarded as a fellow by SAM Global Organization.

The website provides the following services to the mechanical engineers:

1) Projects
2) Opportunities Information/ Job Openings
3) Software Guidance
4) E Books
5) Video Tutorials
6) Info about related organizations
7) Discussion Forum
8) Recent Updates
9) PSU Exam's Details

They have partnered with many organizations for the workshops and opportunities. Few of them are Letonyx Technologies, Fyrsta, Unmanned Engineeria, SourceNXT. They are a team of 3 co-founders with a few interns. Though they are not yet funded, they have conducted workshops, partnered with events and benefited over 8000 students from their webpage. They have an internship program in the pipeline starting in December.

They are looking to launch book publication in coming days. "We are looking forward to set up publishing industry in the same domain, under same brand name. We are also planning to start production of robotics related parts and instruments," says Abhinav, a passout form VIT, Vellore. They have been conducting workshops with trainers from Italy providing international exposure to the students. They plan to tie up with colleges and provide training t students on a regular basis.

As a message for future entrepreneurs, Harsh says, “Don’t think much about the consequences, just start up! Either you win or lose, you are going to achieve something positive in both the cases. Don’t wait to get the perfection before you start. If you do so, you are late in this world. Just start up and keep on running until and unless it becomes the perfect one.”

New Travel Portal 'Travelaero' Synchronizing travel - Hotels, Flights & Car Rentals

Another travel portal has been launched in the market. Travelaero.com, which is a Mumbai/Dubai based startup, announced the launch of its portal on 17^th September, 2014. The startup has partnered with some of the leading brands and will provide the users with travel itinerary, online booking facility and easy car rentals etc. with the launch of its online portal. The main focus of the startup is to cover the resident expats in United Arab Emirates, Dubai and international travelers visiting Dubai. The startup wants to provide the users with complete travel solution ranging from Flights, Hotel and car rentals.

Travelaero.com has since long been evaluating strategies to establish its brand value in the market. As a part of its plan, it has for now launched a very easy and user friendly portal which will be further enhanced in the near future by introducing more customer centric approach based on the usability.

According to Mr. Rakesh Uthaman, CEO of Travelaero.com, "Travelaero aims to become one of the top travel portals in the region by 2015. As the product is very young and under development, our concept for travel holds lots of potential for the Global markets as well. We are doing a series of action to get in quick launch of the customer centric travel platform with lots of features, meanwhile keeping it simple". He also added, "At present we are open for online bookings, soon in a couple of months, we would be ready to take up telephone and direct bookings as well. Having studied the market potential, we are planning to open offices in multiple metropolitan cities in India and United Arab Emirates".

The portal describes itself as a "One-Stop" travel portal for cheap Airfares, best Hotel accommodations and lowest Car Rentals. Further, Vacation packages, Tour packages and Travel store will be launched soon.

The new portal might give competition to established travel portals in India such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com or ClearTrip, as Travelaero is different in a way that along with flight and hotel bookings it also have an extra feature of booking/renting cars. However what is available in MakeMyTrip is not there in Travelaero i.e. Bus ticket bookings. Moreover, Makemytrip and other established travel portal in India has large loyal user-base so Travelaero has to have something different which can pull those loyal customers from other portals.

The portal has very strict cancellation and refund policies. In some of the cases, the bookings are non-refundable and further, if you don't cancel in advance you may also incur a "no-show" fee in addition to any other supplier fees charged.

New Travel Portal 'Travelaero' Synchronizing travel - Hotels, Flights & Car Rentals

Another travel portal has been launched in the market. Travelaero.com, which is a Mumbai/Dubai based startup, announced the launch of its portal on 17^th September, 2014. The startup has partnered with some of the leading brands and will provide the users with travel itinerary, online booking facility and easy car rentals etc. with the launch of its online portal. The main focus of the startup is to cover the resident expats in United Arab Emirates, Dubai and international travelers visiting Dubai. The startup wants to provide the users with complete travel solution ranging from Flights, Hotel and car rentals.

Travelaero.com has since long been evaluating strategies to establish its brand value in the market. As a part of its plan, it has for now launched a very easy and user friendly portal which will be further enhanced in the near future by introducing more customer centric approach based on the usability.

According to Mr. Rakesh Uthaman, CEO of Travelaero.com, "Travelaero aims to become one of the top travel portals in the region by 2015. As the product is very young and under development, our concept for travel holds lots of potential for the Global markets as well. We are doing a series of action to get in quick launch of the customer centric travel platform with lots of features, meanwhile keeping it simple". He also added, "At present we are open for online bookings, soon in a couple of months, we would be ready to take up telephone and direct bookings as well. Having studied the market potential, we are planning to open offices in multiple metropolitan cities in India and United Arab Emirates".

The portal describes itself as a "One-Stop" travel portal for cheap Airfares, best Hotel accommodations and lowest Car Rentals. Further, Vacation packages, Tour packages and Travel store will be launched soon.

The new portal might give competition to established travel portals in India such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com or ClearTrip, as Travelaero is different in a way that along with flight and hotel bookings it also have an extra feature of booking/renting cars. However what is available in MakeMyTrip is not there in Travelaero i.e. Bus ticket bookings. Moreover, Makemytrip and other established travel portal in India has large loyal user-base so Travelaero has to have something different which can pull those loyal customers from other portals.

The portal has very strict cancellation and refund policies. In some of the cases, the bookings are non-refundable and further, if you don't cancel in advance you may also incur a "no-show" fee in addition to any other supplier fees charged.