In a span of three years, Go-Jek has expanded from one service to 22 different categories, and is forever on the lookout to meet all the daily needs of a consumer.
The cloudy Bengaluru weather could not dampen the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs, techies, investors, and corporate honchos, who turned up at Techsparks 2018, YourStory's flagship tech conference, to hear stories of success, and determination and grit. And Go-Jek, the unicorn from Indonesia, is exactly that: a bright and shiny success story.
Go-Jek, which started operations as a ride-hailing app in 2015, has now grown into 100 million monthly orders spread across 22 products or services. To talk about this scale was Ajey Gore,Group CTO, Go-Jek, on the topic 'Culture and Scale'.
He explained the attitude and culture at Go-Jek which makes it the success story it is in Asia. “At the core is the attitude to make things happen, which is positive and impactful,” he said.
Ajey added Go-Jek is not just a business enterprise. “We are social at heart and have to do things that make people trust us,” he added.
Go-Jek encompasses a mind-boggling array of services: transport, logistics, food, payments, lifestyle, and digital solutions. It is one of the largest massage and beautician services companies in Indonesia.
As a company that is deeply connected to the everyday needs of the consumers, Go-Jek believes its employees are its first customers. “Drivers are our first-class end users,” Ajey noted. This culture actually saw Go-Jek undertaking many pioneering initiatives such as introducing the fixed price concept and providing tips to drivers.
Go-Jek has disbursed $20 million in tips in the last 18 months, and every month it averages around $1.5 million. These measures have also had a larger impact on the economy in Indonesia as it has helped reduce unemployment by 0.5 percent, and around 75 percent of its drivers earn an income that is higher than the national average. It has one million drivers on its platform. Ajey said the company takes pride in the fact that its pioneering efforts have been aped by others in the market.
Today, Go-Jek has seen 100 million downloads of its app, which has resulted in the delivery of 30,000 tonnes of food, and its fleet covers eight million km per day. Through its myriad services, the company is touching eight million lives.
According to Ajey, Go-Jek's USP is its ability to look at the unorganised sector, make sense of it, and remove any friction.
Go-Jek has ambitious plans ahead, including foraying into newer countries. It recently launched its Vietnam operations and will soon move into Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.
At the end of the third quarter of 2017, Go-Jek had a monthly booking of 90 million. However, its tech team is still small. The ratio is one engineer for half a million orders.
YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policymakers and, of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.
Nadia Murad’s journey is one of true determination as she fought to defend the dignity of women captivated by ISIS.
I want to be the last girl in the world with a story like mine.
Recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad, makes this powerful statement in her recently published autobiography, “The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State”.
Nadia and Dr. Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist helping victims of sexual violence in the Republic of Congo, are co-winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Nadia, of the Yazidi minority, was among the thousands of women and girls from her community who were kidnapped by the ISIS in 2014. In her documentary titled “On Her Shoulders”, she says 3,400 Yezidi women are still being held captive.
The 25-year-old Iraqi was named the UN’s first Goodwill Ambassador for Dignity Survivors of Human Trafficking in 2016 and was also awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, she said,
We must work together to put an end to genocide, hold accountable those who commit these crimes and achieve justice for the victims. So far, we have not seen justice for Yazidis, especially the victims of sexual slavery, the IS militants should be stood for trial for the crimes they have committed.
Both Nadia and Denis were awarded the Nobel for their ‘efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war’.
On August 3, 2014, Nadia's home in Kojo, Northern Iraq was ransacked by ISIS militants. Kojo was among the first Yazidi villages in Northern Iraq to be attacked by ISIS claiming ‘ethnic cleansing’.
Men were separated from women who were kept in a local school. Later, as the men were executed, 7,000 Yazidi women and girls were forced to a slave market. Nadia was sold to an ISIS judge and was subjected to brutal violence. She tried escaping once but was captured and brutally tortured. When she finally managed to flee, she embarked a journey to start a worldwide campaign and spoke against the barbaric crimes against Yazidi women.
I was an ISIS sex slave. I tell my story because it is the best weapon I have.
From being a sex slave to becoming the face of the campaign against sexual abuse, Nadia’s story is one that inspires.
Do you have an interesting story to share? Please write to us at tci@yourstory.com. To stay updated with more positive news, please connect with us on Facebook and Twitter
Bengaluru-based digital platform PhonePe announced a partnership with Mumbai Metro One to facilitate smartcard recharge option.
Mumbaikers spend a substantial amount of their time on local trains and metros, owing to the city's crazy traffic and long distances between its different parts. The over-reliance on the city's metro and train services means commuters have to wait in long queues to recharge their Mumbai Metro One smartcards. But this problem is soon set to be a thing of the past.
Digital payments platform PhonePe promises to solve this problem by allowing its users to recharge their Mumbai Metro One smartcards through its app. The company today announced its partnership with Mumbai Metro One and officially launched the smartcard recharge option via its mobile app.
Founders of PhonePe (L to R): Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari
The partnership between Bengaluru-based PhonePe, which drives the highest number of merchant UPI transactions in India, and Mumbai Metro One, facilitates the adoption of UPI as a payment mode for smartcard recharges.
PhonePe, which also has partnerships with Delhi Metro, Ola, Oyo and Redbus, is accepted as a payment option across 3 lakh online and offline merchants outlets covering food, travel, groceries and movie tickets.
This partnership is in addition to the company's travel and commute partner stores. Last month, Goibibo partnered with PhonePe to allow flight bookings on its platform; in July, Goibibo had launched its offering of hotels on the same platform.
Rising competition in the foodtech space is leading to the industry's growth, but it is important to differentiate your brand, feels Rashmi Daga, FreshMenu Founder and CEO .
There's no greater love than the love of food. And nowhere is it more apparent than in India, the sixth largest food industry in the world. The entry of tech into the industry has led to the mushrooming of foodtech startups across the country. Be it food delivery, personal chefs, or box meals, a host of startups are cooking up new ideas. But how does one stand out in this over-crowded market?
At TechSparks 2018, Rashmi Daga, Founder and CEO, FreshMenu, speaking on the topic of “How to differentiate in a crowded market”, said good supply is both good food and good delivery.
Talking about the journey of her four-year-old startup, Rashmi said,
“The food industry worth is $50 billion industry and growing at 25 percent CAGR. And the insight to start up was realising that 'Staying in is the new going out – the new normal'.”
She added that another big insight was that young India is looking for meal options that would be guilt-free, exotic, and memorable. “Individuals and young couples are opting out of full-time kitchens and grocery hoarding,” she said.
India is short of food brands at a time when consumers are getting used to the convenience of home delivery, Rashmi added. “It started with perceiving a real need. We decided to bring 15 minutes of pure joy in people’s stressful lives. Good food on demand.”
The startup tries to bring the world on a customer’s plate. “Today, the biggest aspiration is where are we travelling. We bring a part of the world’s food to them and let customers explore palates – feel, try, and experiment the world of food.”
Rashmi also stressed the importance of good marketing, stating good photography and packaging could help hardsell the brand.
The FreshMenu Model
FreshMenu operates on a cloud kitchen model where food is cooked and delivered. It saves on rentals and passes the benefits of saving operating costs to customers.
The Bengaluru-based firm raised $5 million in Series A funding round from Lightspeed Venture Partners in early 2015; it subsequently raised another $17 million in a round in 2016 that was led by Zodius.
A recent media report said that online food ordering startup Foodvista India Pvt. Ltd, which operates FreshMenu is in talks to raise $25-30 million from new and existing investors.
YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policy makers, and of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.
Funny, witty, unconventional, and oh! not so politically correct, yet right! That is perhaps the first impression one has when they interact with the ‘Most Sane’ YouTuber, Prajakta Koli.
The 25-year-old, who started her personal YouTube blog in 2015, has a whopping 2 million subscriber base.
“It is all about being consistent with your content and being yourself. You can only get to a certain extent if you copy others. Your audience will know when you copy someone or if you use a fake accent. It is absolutely essential for you to be ‘you’ on your videos and slowly people will start to resonate with you, if you regularly connect with them.”
Expressing her views on important issues such as mental health, girl child education and hate speech, Prajakta believes conversations are important, and that we need to speak to our audience, rather than preach.
Addressing issues that matter
Prajakta, the YouTube sensation, believes the internet is the medium for gen X to drive conversations and shed light on issues that matter.
The youth spend a lot of time on the internet and are losing touch with friends. Today, a seven-year-old is on YouTube and the more time kids spend on the internet, the more they are becoming distant from real-life conversations, said Prajakta.
In 2017, on World Mental Health Day, Prajakta started her campaign —#PledgeToBeMe — to address mental health issues among the youth. Within 10 days, she received over 8,000 mails. And thus began her journey of addressing issues like body shaming, self-image issues, and depression through video blogs.
“Today being depressed has become ‘very cool’. A lot of these kids are not even clinically tested and it is just a teenage phase, yet they openly say that they are undergoing depression. It is because kids are exposed to terms such as anxiety and panic attacks. Hence, I feel it is important for influencers to talk about depression and try to erase the stigma around mental illness and create awareness about the gravity of mental illness,” she said.
Battling stereotypes
An advocate for body positivity, Prajakta discourages the youth from stereotyping an individual based on their “shape and size”. Terming it as an example of “hate speech”, she believes comments have become so casual that we don’t realise the damage it causes to one’s self-esteem.
So much so, that Prajakta makes a conscious effort to be ‘normal’ in her videos, devoid of makeup, wearing casual clothes or even pyjamas, discussing issues in a “relatable” way.
Her audience ranges from teenagers to a 50-year-olds. Refusing to tie down to the genre of content, Prajakta believes that being a social media influencer comes with a huge share of responsibility.
“I always try to make content such that no one is uncomfortable when they watch it. I make a conscious effort to not cross the line,” she said.
Prajakta is also the Indian ambassador for YouTube’s global initiative ‘Creators for Change’ along with 50 other inspiring creators from over 16 countries.
YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policymakers and, of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.
Investors share insights on how learning new ideas and job creation through investee companies was what they felt proud of, and how refusing entrepreneurs was the hardest job.
It is not easy to get investors together to the table, but when that happens, there is free-flowing exchange of ideas, moments of pride and some challenges. A panel discussion on “The changing face of the Indian investor in 2018” had noted investors candidly agreeing they all had learned much from entrepreneurs who pitched to them.
When YourStoryFounder and CEO Shradha Sharma asked what they enjoyed about being an investor, the answer was almost unanimous - meeting a lot of interesting people who were lively and energetic with a mission to create a successful business.
The investors all also said that one of the toughest parts of their job was refusing investment to an entrepreneur.
Naganand Doraswamy, Founder and Managing Partner of Ideaspring Capital, said the quality of entrepreneurs has been improving over the last three to four years and that excited him about this space. "Though technological innovation is still farther away, product innovation has picked up. Acceptability of Indian products in the Indian market has improved.”
Sateesh Andra, Managing Director of Endiya Partners told the auditorium packed to capaciy with entrepreneurs that they should ahve a roadmap to go international. He said, “Competitors are not only from local market. Founders have to be aware of their competitors - both local and foreign because tomorrow, foreign competitors can come to India. Some of the startups also go global gradually after getting critical mass and some go global from day one. Entrepreneurs should have the ability to morph. Competition is now global. Don’t just look at India market.”
Indian startups have, of late, seen a rise in the number of investments from Japan and China, and on this, Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, said, "Investors from China are very keen on betting on scale after seeing success in their home market. The earliest they come is Series A.”
Karthik said Japanese investors were similar to corporate VCs. “Before they take a leap of faith, they want a financial investor from India to handhold them because either they don’t have people on the ground or they don’t understand India from a regulatory perspective.”
The panel members also advised startup founders to actively network in the ecosystem, and not wait for the right VC. “If you are credible entrepreneurs, go and take funds from friends and family members," said Karthik.
Talking about who to pitch to, Sateesh said, “The early stage ecosystem has evolved in the last five years. There is a plethora of investors for early-stage startups. Accelerators, incubators, corporate accelerators, angel networks, dedicated seed funds, sometimes Seed A investors and many more. Do your homework and approach the right guy. Doing a lot of due diligence is a must. Bad money for good company is bad.”
YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policy makers, and of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.
Deep science is powering path-breaking research to solve difficult problems in various areas, but scientific innovation must be combined with humanity and the spirit of sharing in order to succeed, said Bugworks Co-founder Anand Anandkumar at YourStory's recently concluded TechSparks event.
Anand Anandkumar, the co-Founder of biotech startup Bugworks Research, is a passionate scientist as well as a humanitarian at heart. Anand believes that for science and scientific innovation to be at its best, it must be driven by the values of compassion and humanity.
He said,
“You cannot succeed in science without having humanity at heart. Be it the Dalai Lama or Mahatma Gandhi or the principle of Ubuntu, they all preach the same thing.”
Ubuntu is a traditional African concept that embodies the virtues of harmony and the spirit of sharing among the members of a society, explained Anand to an enraptured audience at YourStory's recently concluded TechSparks event.
Anand Anandkumar speaking at TechSparks 2018 event
Anand said that it was when he combined biotechnology, engineering, and computing, with the values of humanity and compassion that he was able to solve a global problem. He co-founded Cellworks Research, Bugworks Research and OP, designing therapeutics with an engineered precision.
“I moved to India in 2000. Personal experiences made me realise that I wanted to do something valuable to society and I decided to pursue science innovation in the healthcare system and come up with affordable, accessible yet differentiated outcomes,” he said.
Anand, who previously worked in the U.S. semiconductor industry before pivoting to biotech in 2008, today runs three startups focused on biotechnology, one of which is drug discovery startup Bugworks. Bugworks, for instances, aims to discover a novel antibiotic to fight superbugs, which are strains of bacteria that are resistant to several types of antibiotics.
“It was in 1952, that the last antibiotic was developed. Since then, no new antibiotics have been developed. Certain bacteria are now unbeatable. The reason being the massive abuse of antibiotics,” said Anand.
The fight to defeat superbugs
Antibiotics are bacteria-fighting drugs but when taken in inappropriate dosages, they create other groups of resistant bacteria, which are today known as ‘superbugs’. Some of the numbers thrown by the founder are even unnerving, as he highlights how bugs have mutated over the years and become immune to antibiotics.
“Today superbugs are causing seven lakh deaths per year and by 2050, this number could rise to 10 million.”
To fight these superbugs, Anand is seeking to emulate the success of the simulations that he used at Cellworks to find a new antibiotic.
“I found a similarity between semiconductor-chip designs and bacterial colonies and then used those equations to model biochemical pathways for bacterial population,” he added.
Anand Anandkumar speaking at TechSparks 2018 event
An enabling "deep science startup" ecosystem
India offers a perfect ecosystem to power solutions for many global problems today, said Anand.
“Today’s India, with all the incubators, government support and funding, seems to be the Silicon Valley of 1980s,” he added.
Today, there are more than 300 tech startups and some of them are moving into deep science, thanks to the help of various incubators across the country such as C-CAMP, BBC, and IKP Eden.
“The Indian ecosystem today is perfect for contextual innovations. With all the support from the government, best solutions are becoming affordable,” says Anand.
Anand was speaking on the second day of the ninth edition of YourStory'sTechSparks 2018 event. His talk followed that of Nisha Holla, founder of Biomoneta Research, who defined deep science innovation as one that utilises fundamental scientific principles of chemistry, biology, physics etc to bring in effect a paradigm shift to the regular functions.
YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policy makers, and of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.
Governments have to put their best feet forward to attract startups into their region and this was visible from the policies of Rajasthan and Sweden.
As the second day of TechSparks 2018 drew to a close on Saturday, the energy level and participation from the audience still remained high with the platform set for ambitious startups who were looking to scale not just in India but across the globe with policy makers and enablers welcoming them with open arms.
At the panel discussion on the topic “How policy can propel global growth for startups?”, Manu Shukla, project officer, Department of Information Technology and Communication, Government of Rajasthan, described the current period as the golden age for startups.
The panellists were not just from Rajasthan but came all the way from Sweden. They were keen to strengthen the partnerships between the two countries and leverage the technology strength of India.
Talking about the business environment in Sweden which encourages creation of new business, Anna Kinberg Batra, former member of Parliament, Moderate Party Sweden and Swede-India Business Council, said, “It is about creating an environment where startups can thrive. It is not a question of regulating them but enabling them to grow and reach out to world.” Incidentally, Anna had written a book talking about the potential of India 13 years ago.
There were offers on stage to aspiring entrepreneurs with Manu stating that in Rajasthan it is a completely paperless system where the startup does not have to interact with the government system.
Ariana Pousette, Project Director – Startups, Invest Stockholm said, “We are interested in startups that are focused on clean tech, AI, AR & VR. Please come to Stockholm.” Sweden has already set a target of being free from fossil fuel by 2025.
Arianna explained how the groundwork for entrepreneurship was fuelled in Sweden more than 30 years ago when the government created the largest open fibre network and provided computers to all employees - from the cleaning lady all the way up to the CEO.
The representatives from Sweden emphasised that their country was very welcoming to both – startups and technology professionals while adding that there was also a high quality standard of living.
From left: Anna Kinberg Batra of Swede-India Business Council, Manu Shukla of Department of IT & Communications, Rajasthan government, Ariana Pousette of Invest Stockholm, Aravind Raman of Bosch and YourStory’s Vishal Krishna
Even as these country representatives were making the right pitches, Bosch, the global automotive and industrial MNC talked about how it engages with startups. Aravind Raman, Country Head for Strategy & Business Development, Bosch said, “Under our discover, nurture and align (DNA) startup programme, we give our business technology challenges to startups and both are learning from each other.”
Bosch is focused on startups from the segments of AI, blockchain, clean tech, energy analytics among others. Aravind said, “We constantly look at startups with a strong USP rather than someone with a "me-too" concept.”
Manu explained the various benefits awaiting startups willing to set up shop in Rajasthan. These include a incubation centre, which can house 700 entrepreneurs with hardware provided free of cost; startups can get government work without going through a tender route, a separate venture fund for social, women and green startups, etc. This was also applauded by the packed audience. One entrepreneur remarked that the fastest response from any government in India came from Rajasthan.
Anna was very clear that entrepreneurship can flourish with the right culture. “Subsidies and government programmes are one thing but what matters is the culture. In Sweden, we provide the tax breaks and the support system is there," said.
YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policy makers, and of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.
Venture capital firm IDG Ventures India has rebranded itself, and will now be called Chiratae Ventures, it said in a release. The firm, which has assets under advisory at over $470 million, said the move signifies its focus on staying agile and sharp, like a ‘Chiratae’, or leopard, in the everchanging startup ecosystem.
Team Chiratae Ventures
It added that several members from the team were wildlife enthusiasts, and the new branding resonated with them.
IDG Ventures was founded in 2006 by Sudhir Sethi and T.C. Meenakshisundaram, and has so far backed 76 companies including Flipkart, Myntra, FirstCry, XpressBees, Newgen, Lenskart, Manthan, NestAway, PolicyBazaar, and Yatra, among others.
On the new branding, Founder and Chairman Sudhir Sethi said, “The Indian ecosystem is fast evolving. India is reinventing itself at every level... Our passion is to back Indian entrepreneurs repeatedly, and grow with world-class entrepreneurs in India... The last decade saw a growth of 10X, the coming decade will see 20X in entrepreneurial activity in India.”
At the unveiling of the new branding
He added that investors need to reinvent for the new India, and Chiratae Ventures recognises that India is changing rapidly, and the coming years will need the venture capital firm to be more agile and innovative. "As investors, we will not only scale our investments rapidly, but also our exits and returns to our LPs. To reflect the essence of this change, we are changing our identity."
Founder and Managing Director T.C. Meenakshisundaram said Chiratae Ventures' rupee capital from domestic investors constitutes over 40 percent of the funds raised today, and that gives the firm a deep India expertise.
"While we become more and more deeply rooted as Indian, our footprint stays global. Many of our companies are based outside India, many are expanding to multiple new geographies: Be it HealthifyMe in Asia, Unbxd in US, CloudCherry in Middle East. We are Indians at heart and at the same time global in our approach with a strong footprint in the US, India, Middle East and South East Asia”.
"Hey, Portal, call mom!" Move over smartphones, because you can now use Facebook’s very own ‘video chat device’, Portal and Portal Plus. Designed with Facebook's very own AI software 'Smart Camera', these devices sense movements and automatically zoom and pan a video. They also have a 'Story Time' feature that lets parents tell children stories over video chat with enhanced digital filters. Neat, right?
The Portal and Portal plus mark Facebook's foray into the devices space
In less than 10 years of entering the market, Dentsu Aegis Network dislodged an old rival to become the second largest advertising company in India. Led by Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO, South Asia, DAN bet on the digital space before anyone else did, and hit the bull's eye! With 13 acquisitions under his belt, Ashish has made many millionaires. In fact, DAN is known to be the type of acquirer that entrepreneurs love to work for – many founders whose companies it acquired have stayed on, and continue to thrive.
Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO, South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network
Launched in 2016, this startup was initially written off before Flipkart bought it. Now, UPI-based payments app PhonePe has over 100 million customers. How? "By not going after valuation," says Founder and CEO Sameer Nigam. Keeping away from raising large amounts of capital, staying lean and growing fast, PhonePe is focussing on the cost of acquisition, and what it is capable of building and scaling up.
Sameer Nigam, Founder and CEO of PhonePe
HDFC Bank launched an Accelerator Engagement Programme (AEP) under the Bank’s Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) to gain early access to potential fintech ideas and innovative solutions in the areas of AI, ML, analytics and RPA. The programme hopes to create a mutually beneficial ecosystem with leading global startup accelerators to work as a partner in the digital ecosystem and encourage the spirit of innovation.
HDFC Bank's AEP will help it gain early access to potential fintech ideas and innovative solutions
Where will the next startup destination be? According to Minister Rohan Khaunte, Goa has plenty of sunshine to be the next IT hub of India. Already a globally acknowledged tourist hotspot, the state is now on a mission to showcase its other side – as the go-to destination for IT firms and startups. Planning huge policies and incentives to support ideas and innovations, Minister Khaunte's goal is to create a startup culture in Goa where the youth can become job creators, and not job seekers.
Goa can be the next IT hub, says Minister Rohan Khaunte
Two months ago, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave the Indian startup community a chance to stand up and defend their country by solving challenges like developing see-through armour, laser weaponry, unmanned surface and underwater vehicles, and AI in logistics. Already several startups are working in the defence sector with unmanned aerial vehicles, and IoT powered border control - we bring to you five.
Leo Mavely, Founder Axio Biosolutions, which has a haemostatic dressing that can stop severe external bleeding in less than five minutes
A team has been working behind the scenes for the last six months to make sure the ecommerce behemoth has a flying start on D-Day.
It is that time of the year again. The bugle has been sounded, the warriors are on the battlefield - Over the next five days, Indian ecommerce giants Amazon and Flipkart will go head-to-head for the festival shopper!
The sales that began on October 10, will see both companies hoping to dominate every session and in fact, every minute of each day.
A product being packed at Amazon FC
When Amazon India invited journalists to give them an insight of the 'behind the scenes' preparation it has been doing or the festival season, Amit Agarwal, head of Amazon India, joked he did his shopping before the sale, and not during, as he wants a few more items to be available to customers.
Subtle indeed, to drive home the volume of demand seen!
Significance of Day 1
Well begun is half done, so says the old adage, but the message conveyed to Amazon employees is a bit different. A few quotes by Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, are pinned on the walls of the sellers’ war-room.
One reads: “Here’s a starter pack of essentials for Day 1 defense: customer obsession, a skeptical view of proxies, the eager adoption of external trends, and high-velocity decision making.”
The second says: “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”
This sums up the importance of Day 1 for Amazon.
A team of employees, who Gopal Pillai, general manager of seller services at Amazon India calls Jedi, has been working behind the scenes for the last six months to ensure the company will have an edge over competitors.
Increased capacity
Speaking to YourStory, Amazon India Vice President for India Customer Fulfilment Akhil Saxena, said that ahead of the festival season, the e-tailer hired around 50,000 seasonal associates at various positions to help scale up operations.
Akhil added that the fulfilment centre's capacity has been increased to 20 million cubic feet, and the number of stores under the “I Have Space” programme has been increased to 20,000 this year from 17,500 last year. Even the number of stations under “Service partner program” has increased to 700 now from 350 last year.
Under both these programmes, small stores and entrepreneurs sign up as partners for last mile delivery.
Removing barriers
Amit says he hopes Alexa will remove barriers for many customers as they can shop using voice commands if they are not really comfortable typing. The focus at Amazon now is also to get the Indian accent on its voice platform. He also said the recent launch of the Hindi version of its website is getting more customers from the Hindi belt.
According to a recent National Mental Health survey, approximately 150 million people in India need care for their mental health condition.
This is mental health week and October 10 is Mental Health Day. It is time for us to spread awareness about mental disorders, for survivors to tell their stories, for battlers to come forth and talk about their concerns, for specialists to share our clinical learnings and help each other grow stronger. It is time also to reflect upon some of the challenges we face as a society in India.
We are quick to rush to the hospital if we experience chest pain; we are ready to pop in pills for conditions like high BP, high cholesterol, and diabetes. But we are reluctant to seek treatment for mental health issues. Emotional stress and other mental disorders are a major contributing factor for all of these physical illnesses.
Why are we so reluctant to seek help? Why do we shy away from speaking about mental disorders? Instead of encouraging people to seek help and supporting them, many of us prefer to judge, label and belittle people suffering from mental disorders. Why don’t we behave in a similar fashion when it comes to physical health and wellbeing?
We don’t laugh at people for joining a gym or attending yoga classes, but, we judge them for seeing a counsellor or a mental health specialist!
But logically if we go for an annual physical health checkup, we should also go for a mental checkup. Most mental health practitioners would agree that seeking help early can help avoid many future health complications. At present, we do not have a cure for many mental health conditions, but we can treat the illness and prevent further damage from taking place.
Mental health and wellbeing are by far one of the most neglected areas in our country. According to a recent National Mental Health survey, approximately 150 million people in India need care for their mental health condition. The same survey also discovered that between 70 and 92 percent of these cases failed to receive treatment. The World Health Organisation says India has the highest number of teenage suicide rates globally.
It is also to be noted that one-third of India’s population (more than 11 billion) continues to live below the poverty line. A large percentage of these 11 billion people live in absolute poverty (in need of food, shelter and without any source of income).
Research findings in developing countries like India have highlighted financial hardship, physical illness (lack of quality health care), lack of education/skill, lack of basic resources, inability to provide for self and for one’s family, and unfulfilled desires in life to be major factors that contribute to mental illness and suicide among the poor and the underprivileged.
If the primary bread earner of a poverty-stricken family falls physically or mentally ill, it tends to affect the entire household, leading to an increase in stress levels and a range of other mental disorders. It is common for members of such families to resort to violence, substance abuse, petty crimes, and turn to prostitution to survive.
Lack of medical facilities and skilled mental health professionals, the inability to pay fees due to poverty, lack of awareness of common symptoms of mental illness and when to seek help, lack of trust and faith in psychiatric treatment, compliance with treatment, and what to do if there is a relapse in the condition are all imperative factors for us, as a society, to consider and to act upon.
So here are some of the things we should STOP doing:
Stop discounting mental illness
Stop discouraging people from seeking treatment
Stop telling people to be strong and to snap out of their condition
Stop labelling and judging people
Stop shying away from seeking treatment
Stop self-treating yourself and others after online research
Stop seeing mental illness as a sign of weakness
Stop blaming yourself or others for the cause of the condition
What are some of the things we need to START doing:
+ Start taking mental illness seriously
+ Start encouraging people to seek help
+Start to see mental illness as a medical condition that requires treatment and not something a person can snap out of
+Start talking about mental illness. If you have been helped by a mental health professional, share their details with your friends and family. If you have come across something that has helped you overcome your anxiety or depression, share your findings with others.
+Get a mental checkup done from a mental health specialist.
+ Go for therapy to learn new skills and ways to stay mentally fit. The wonderful thing about psychotherapy is that a person does not need to be mentally ill to see a psychotherapist. It’s about taking precautions, enhancing your life and building resilience to some of life’s stressors.
+If you or a loved one is on medication for their condition then they must visit their psychiatrist in at least 6 months to a year to get their condition and medication reviewed.
+Have faith in your mental health professional and comply with the process of treatment to reap full benefits.
What are some of the things we are in desperate need of in our country?
+ Acceptance of mental health
+Increasing our knowledge base and awareness of mental disorders
+Increase our number of mental health professionals
+Become more structured and standardised with our diagnoses of mental illness and with psychopharma interventions
+State-of-the-art rehabilitation centres for people suffering from substance abuse
+More mental health hospitals for psychiatric patients
+Mental Health First Aid officers in communities, schools, colleges, and organisations. These members will need to be trained and certified to handle mental health emergency situations like meltdowns and suicide prevention.
+Become aware of treatment options available to treat mental disorders
+Educate the poor and people with lack of resources about the importance of mental health. Stress that they must comply with the line of treatment to get better.
+Make quality care and treatment easily available and accessible to one and all.
There is much to be achieved and progress to be made in almost all aspects of the mental health framework in India. Adaptation of therapeutic techniques to Indian sub-cultures, temperaments, and cognitive biases needs to be addressed for us to stay ahead of the challenges we as professionals are currently faced with.
Intensive research and qualitative surveys need to be done to learn and grow in this field. We must focus, but not only on the pressing issues of suicide and serious mental illness. We also need to pay attention to the preventive measures one can take to bring down the number of suicides and increase the overall mental well-being of our citizens.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
The dam has burst with women calling out men from the media, film, and entertainment industries, and we hope the floodgates remain open.
Till now, sexual harassment was all in a day’s work for working women across the globe. But with skeletons falling out of the closet, hushed whispers are turning into loud voices. India’s own #MeToo movement is gathering momentum since it broke on social media last week, with names from the media, film, and entertainment industries being called out.
When I was discussing this piece with my 19-year-old son, he insisted I watch a half-hour John Oliver show on Brett Kavanaugh bluffing this way to the Chief Justice position in the US top court. His accuser, Dr Christine Blasey Ford, knew she would be “annihilated” in the process – it did happen - but her courage to speak up must be lauded.
Actor Tanushree Dutta, who unwittingly laid the foundation for the movement sweeping across the country, came out against her accusers, veteran actor Nana Patekar and director Vivek Agnihotri, both Bollywood bigwigs, after 10 years. This time, people stood up and took notice.
Recounting the horror to journalist Barkha Dutta at the WeTheWomen event held in Bengaluru on Sunday, the actor said, “When I initially spoke up, my complaints were rejected outright. Most media reports were either salacious or discriminatory. The film industry and organisations were silent and I chose to walk away. I could not trust myself to walk into a film set again.”
Ten years later, not much has changed. The film industry is polarised, with prominent actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan refusing to comment and younger ones like Sonam Ahuja, Richa Chaddha, Parineeta Chopra and others coming out in her support. The perpetrators, meanwhile, have sent her legal notices.
The battle may have just begun, but Tanushree now has the backing of hundreds of women.
A few days after she called out the “perverts” in Bollywood, Twitter was abuzz with news of stand-up comedian Utsav Chakraborty propositioning minors with inappropriate images and lewd comments. This brought Utsav’s former employers, AIB, especially its co-founder Tanmay Bhatt who admitted to being informed about Utsav, into the spotlight. They came up with a half-hearted apology.
On Friday, Bengaluru-based journalist Sandhya Menon opened the biggest can of worms, yet.
She tweeted:
Since I'm calling them out.
Let me tell you about @KRSreenivas who is currently resident editor @toi Hyderabad (I think) who offered to drop me back after a day's work.
We were about to launch Bangalore mirror back in 2008 and I had just moved to this city.
After a trial print run, late at night he offered to drop a few of us. I was living the farthest so I was dropped last. I get to my house, we're chatting. He lays his hand on my thigh and goes, "my wife and I have grown apart. She doesn't understand me."
This opened up an avalanche of accusations against senior editors, writers, and celebrities as she opened up her DM for women to post messages anonymously, or otherwise.
In two days, #MeTooIndia had become a movement. Screenshots, messages, and conversations that were until now part of the whisper network became public.
Those named include senior journalists Gautam Adhikari, Anurag Verma, Mayank Jain, CP Surendran, authors Chetan Bhagat and Kiran Nagarkar, and photographer Pablo Bartholomew.
Veteran journalist and politician MJ Akbar was also accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour by as many as six women, including journalists Priya Ramani, Prerna Singh Bindra, and Kanika Gahlaut. Vinta Nanda, writer of TV show Tara, accused actor Alok Nath of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions 19 years ago. Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu has also been accused of sexual misconduct.
I began this piece with my MJ Akbar story. Never named him because he didn’t “do” anything. Lots of women have worse stories about this predator—maybe they’ll share. #ultihttps://t.co/5jVU5WHHo7
Despite this, many women failed to come forward for various reasons. Many were just starting their careers and did not want to stand up to powerful people in their organisations and lose their jobs.
As one journalist (who sought anonymity) pointed out, “We were in our early 20s, naïve, and - as women do - placed the guilt on ourselves. We were afraid of the consequences and did not have the recourse to social media that we do now.”
The fear of retribution also led to silence. For calling out comes with consequences. Speaking about a senior editor at a TV channel, a former journalist said:
I was so scared to talk about this all these years because there were times when he would make sure I replied to his advances on texts. And that made me so ashamed of myself. One day I just quit the job and never went back to journalism. My fault was that I complied. #metoo
As #MeTooIndia gathers steam and more secrets spill out, action is being taken. FIRs are being filed and prominent lawyers are offering their services pro bono to victims. Large media organisations are issuing statements that complaints will be looked into.
Some of the accused have deleted their Twitter accounts; others have apologised publicly. AIB issued a statement that its co-founder Tanmay Bhat was stepping away from his association and the other co-founder Gursimran Khamba was taking a leave of absence. The Editors Guild India also released a statement condemning sexual harassment in newsrooms.
Actor Nandita Das summed it up perfectly.
The hushed whispers are getting louder and are finally being heard. We all need to be in it together. Let’s give courage to those who want to speak up but haven’t felt able to yet.
Sandhya Menon, at the WeTheWomen event, said: “Women feel most vulnerable between the ages of 19 and 25, when they are either interning or starting their careers. But this is also the time when they must speak up because they have less to lose.”
Tanushree believes that “secrets are never healthy for a human being and one must talk about the poison in the system”.
For women to feel secure, organisations must also ensure safe workplaces, where women are given a just hearing when they complain about sexual harassment.
While many accusations may be dismissed in a “she-said, he-said” context, it’s important to maintain the momentum. A movement like #MeToo will only work if collective anger and rage is channelised into positive outcomes.
This may be a small beginning, but it will hopefully bring about a change in the way we look at different things – consent, entitlement, prejudices, patriarchy, and - most of all - the ability to speak up and be heard.
While we celebrate Flipkart's $16-billion exit to Walmart, let's also start looking at exits in the range of $40 million-50 million where the capital raised is almost next to nothing (compared to the big rounds we keep hearing about), and where every stakeholder involved makes money. I am talking about the sale of Mettl to Mercer. It's an exit where everyone involved has won. Even 60 of Mettl's employees are making some money.
YourStoryhas learned from sources close to the deal that the acquisition closed at approximately Rs 300 crore, which is 7x the $4.2 million-$4.8 million (about Rs 33 crore, depending on what conversion rate you apply) that the startup raised in equity funding over the years. The exit is also one of the first successful ones for a SaaS business from India. For early investor Blume Ventures, the aggregated returns (seed and pro rata in the Series A round) is 7x the investment they made.
Karthik Reddy, who wrote the first seed cheque (incidentally, just the second cheque that Blume Ventures issued soon after starting operations) says, "Look at the cycle. To me, the end state is the most important, where everyone gets an outcome, be it Mercer who will get to build globally on the assessment play, be it the founders, key employees, or all the investors. It's the Indian ecosystem of SaaS startups that wins. And it's not just one exit. Look at the outcome it will drive further; we will make more investments in this space, founders will plow (money) back to the ecosystem, Mercer will find an upside."
It is an outcome we need to reflect on. How do you raise a limited amount of money, exercise fiscal discipline, quickly turn profitable and then take advantage of the right opportunity to exit?
From left: Siddhartha Gupta (Chief Revenue Officer), Guneet S Sahai (CTO), Tonmoy Shingal (Co-founder and COO) and Ketan Kapoor (Co-founder and CEO)
Vani Kola of Kalaari Capital, who was the first investor to write the Series A cheque for Mettl, told me that she found Ketan and Tonmoy highly committed entrepreneurs from the early days and what got her excited enough to invest was that they brought the conviction to build a great product business. "We are proud to partner with them," she said.
Mettl started out with $80,000 in seed funding in 2010, put together from family and friends, including InMobi Co-founder Naveen Tewari, angel investor Sasha Mirchandani, and others. The next angel round of $350,000 came just eight months later in 2011 from Blume Ventures and a Series A round from Kalaari Capital ($4 million) followed in 2012.
Mettl reported revenues of Rs 38 crore (~$5.1 million) in FY 2017. Going by the growth achieved by the company historically, the revenue in FY 2018 can be estimated to be closer to Rs 55 crore (~$7.5 million).
But like all good stories, Mettl did not have it easy. After raising the Series A round, they decided to expand to the US market and soon realised that the money burns very fast in the US market while you are fine-tuning the product-market fit. In 2013, they came back to India with a clear focus to consolidate their early wins and grow big here itself. "And that clarity of staying focused and winning the market in India, and that too frugally, was a key journey we made," says Ketan, adding:
"When we tried raising money in 2013-14, the investors were not excited enough to consider us (and it showed in the no or low valuations we were being offered). Once we became profitable, things changed, but by then we decided not to raise further money. We had developed a rigor that comes from running a profitable venture with extreme focus."
Ketan says that to win in the Indian market, you need to have to have the product, tech, and sales all working in tandem, and, a bit of luck too: "You will get business because of a good product, and for the product to get inroads to customers, you also need a solid sales team."
Mettl's talent assessments are built around secure and scalable software as a service (SaaS) platform and use big data analytics. According to a note from the company, "The platform includes proprietary content to measure personality, ability and job-specific skills. Mettl also licenses its platform as a stand-alone technology for clients’ own content."
Adding a tailwind to Mettl's flight was the current government's drive of Skill India, which helped propel them to a new set of customers. With a current paying-customer list of over 2,000 companies and 94 percent retention, Mettl's journey, according to the founders, has just begun.
We seem to have two templates of startups maturing. One is the kind that continues to raise huge rounds of funding (think $500 million, $1 billion or more) in a bid to either eventually go public or wait for a global player to come acquire it (like Flipkart/Walmart).
The other template - and we hope to see more of these - is the one that Mettl has created. Where you raise only a limited amount of money but you set up a successful, scalable business built on a solid technology foundation, which gets sold for a huge multiple. Not only have the founders made money, but the deal has also created real wealth for many of its employees.
So why sell now? Ketan agrees that the huge upside is to be built now, and they could have very well chosen to continue running Mettl independently. But they didn't.
"For the vision and huge global potential that we see, Mercer will be our best partner to make it happen, they are present in 130 countries, and we will go everywhere with them."
Ketan adds he and Tonmoy are excited about this new inning with Mercer.
According to Ilya Bonic, Global President of Mercer’s Career line of business, the acquisition gives Mercer an entry into the rapidly-growing global talent assessment market and further enhances its position as a trusted strategic talent advisor to companies.
Anish Sarkar
When I asked Anish Sarkar, Mercer’s India CEO on why they chose Mettl, he remarked,
“Mercer’s acquisition of Mettl, after having evaluated several assessment companies, is a testament to the high quality of enterprise and innovation that exists in India. We strongly believe that Mettl’s platform is world-class and our vision is to take it to our clients in other emerging markets, and beyond to mature markets as well."
Anish also tells me that Mercer has a strategic partnership with another startup, HealthifyMe, and ends by saying that Mercer continues to closely track India’s vibrant digital startup ecosystem for future partnership opportunities.
In 1991, India embarked on a journey of economic liberalisation. From then on, the journey has been mostly upwards, with a few hurdles in between. Yet, even as India ranks among the world’s fastest growing economies today, becoming a key destination for global and local businesses, and attracting investments in billions, two key challenges continue to worry India’s policymakers and administrators – rising unemployment and underemployment.
In its attempt to address these, the government is creating meaningful and sustainable employment and skilling opportunities. At the heart of these initiatives is the unwavering focus on job creation, growth-oriented investment and skilling and upskilling of the work force. Looking specifically into skill development, the government instituted the National Skills Development Policy, established skill development centres and partnered with private players to engage in skill development initiatives. Private players, in addition to bringing in their expertise in mobilising trainees and developing standardised and scalable content, have the capacity to absorb the skilled talent into their workforce. Goa is among the many states that are helping write India’s new narrative, and the launch of the Cipla Training Academy is a key step in this direction.
When the Government of Goa’s Labour and Employment Department collected data to check the ratio of unemployment with regards to the contractual and permanent workers, it noticed that the numbers were startling, not just in terms of skill gaps but also the presence of opportunity gaps for people who needed to be skilled.
To bridge the skill gap and open up employment opportunities, the Government of Goa reached out to different industries, including pharmaceutical giant Cipla. Leading the initiative is Rohan Khaunte, Goa’s Minister for Revenue, Information Technology and Labour & Employment. Rohan has been championing technology to drive economic growth as well as bring in greater transparency in governance. He has been instrumental in organising key events such as International Blockchain Conference, Goa IT Day, among many others. An ardent believer in the power of startups and businesses as growth catalysts, Rohan says, “We have always seen businesses not just as revenue per square feet but employment per square feet. While Goa offers numerous incentives for businesses to thrive and flourish, businesses in turn generate viable employment opportunities and thereby play an important role in the growth of the local economy. And, now we are looking at businesses to add value beyond just generating employment. We believe they have the expertise and capability which when shared can further boost the job economy in the state.”
Driven by this thought and belief, he has been instrumental in bringing the pharma giant on-board for a skilling programme. Cipla has collaborated with the state government to launch the Cipla Technical Academy. The Academy has two key focus areas – a skill development programme and a pharma industry related training programme.
The skill development programme will enable people who have completed education till Class 10 or Class 12 become industry-ready by helping them learn basic soft skills and essential skills to work in the organised sector. The programme is a combination of classroom training and hands-on training.
The aseptic techniques programme is a training programme specifically related to the pharma industry and is designed for people with a background in science. Freshers who hold BSc, MSc and BPharm degrees or diplomas will undergo a six-month long training at the Cipla Academy, followed by an onsite training.
Following completion of the programme, Cipla will review the participants’ performance to check the possibility of absorbing the candidates into their workforce. The Labour & Employment Department will assist participants who are not absorbed by Cipla to get suitable placements in other organisations.
The Cipla Training Academy model is expected to pave the way for other leading companies to start similar skill development initiatives as the government continues to work closely with industry partners to share their expertise in skilling talent, sharing technical know-how, and creating employment opportunities for the skilled workforce.
This is among the many initiatives that the Goa government is leading to further strengthen the local economy by onboarding ecosystem players as key partners in this journey towards sustainable and holistic growth.
Zomato Pickup will let users order food on the app and pick it up at their convenience; the service is currently available in 13 cities.
Deepinder Goyal, Co-founder and CEO, Zomato, on Wednesday announced on the company blog that they had launched Zomato Pickup, a new product feature. This feature lets users order food on the app and choose to pick it up whenever they want. The blog stated: “Now, you can get food as quick as 15 minutes while enjoying exclusive offers from restaurants.”
Deepinder explained that the feature combined the ease of ordering through the app, and also provided the user the flexibility of grabbing the meal whenever s/he wanted. Once the user chooses to place an order on the Zomato App, s/he can select the Pickup Your Order option. After this, s/he can pick a restaurant, place the order, and then go to pick up the food.
Zomato Pickup offers all the benefits that one gets while ordering food online, be it piggyback coins or restaurant offers. The feature is currently available in 13 cities, and the team is working to add more cities to the list.
Deepinder added: “Also, we have around 20,000 restaurants where you can place your pickup orders from – out of which 18,000 are committed to offering this service exclusively with us.”
Late last week, Zomato also announced that they had hit 21 million monthly orders and had an online food delivery presence across 41 cities. Deepinder wrote: “This past Sunday, we crossed over a million orders — our greatest delivery milestone so far.”
It is interesting to see that both foodtech unicorns, Swiggy and Zomato, are in an aggressive growth battle. Swiggy has acquired 48East and Mumbai-based Scootsy, and has also launched Swiggy Access, Capital Assist, and Packaging Assist.
Recognising that the mental health of employees is crucial to their physical health, productivity, and engagement, companies and startups are focusing on initiatives that support mental wellbeing and mindfulness.
Ajay, a 35-year-old professional who worked at an MNC, was struggling with work-life stress and performance issues, which led to depression and alcoholism.
Shilpa, a 25-year-old working at a Bengaluru-based startup, would wake up every few hours at night to check work emails and respond to WhatsApp messages.
Rajat, a 29-year-old working at an MNC in Gurugram, faced multiple problems including sleep disorder. He tried medication, which made him lethargic and reduced energy levels, thereby affecting his performance at work.
Stories like these are common among today’s working population. But what is to blame for the onslaught of stress? Is it the fast-paced nature of our lives, the competition at work, deteriorating relationships, or the pressure to live Insta-perfect lives? It’s a combination of all these, and more, and is leading to a rise in mental stresses at the workplace.
Amit Malik, Cofounder of InnerHour, a data analytics-driven mental health platform, said employers and corporates are realising the importance of their employees’ wellbeing.
“Employers are also recognising that productivity and engagement at work thrive when employees are mentally well. It also leads to lower iteration rate and reduced absenteeism. Investments in mental health also provide a very good ROI for employers.”
Many corporates and startups are now investing in mental healthcare programmes, which offer employees a holistic lifestyle choice. The services range from yoga, meditation, nutritious diet, and even campaigns and workshops on mental health illness.
Startups like NuPay, Life n Colors, LNC Private limited, and Adtingo Technologies have partnered, for over a year now, with Elate Wellbeing, a startup that provides counselling and support to improve psychological health. Other startups working with corporates include InnerHour, Trijog and EPsyClinic.
Microsoft launched Microsoft CARES in 2017, a platform to enhance employees’ emotional wellbeing and raise awareness about physical, emotional and financial health.
“At Microsoft, we recognise that mental health and wellbeing is not a reason to exclude people from achieving their professional goals. We believe in taking a holistic approach to wellness by looking at the physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing of our employees. Subscription to wellness benefits at Microsoft India continues to grow and we believe it is a significant part of the deal that employees have at the company,” said a spokesperson from Microsoft.
Participants at the Distinguished Gentlemen's Ride. Image Credit: Blackberry Menswear
In September, corporates like Blackberrys Menswear supported a global ‘Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride’ in multiple cities of India, where tens of thousands of men dressed in their finest attire rode their motorcycles to raise funds and awareness for mental health among men.
“Blackberrys wants to encourage conversation and end the stigma surrounding mental health. We want to make mental health services more accessible. Talking about it openly and raising awareness is the first step to support,” said Ramesh Kaushik, Vice President Brand Experience, Blackberrys.
The need to address mental health problems
Dr Udaya Kumar Maiya, Medical Director at Portea Medical, said the extent of the challenge that India faces on the mental health front is huge and requires urgent and impactful interventions.
“Unfortunately, access to care for those with mental health issues has been abysmally poor until recently,” he said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 7.5 percent of Indians suffer from major or minor mental disorders. The global body also estimates that between 2012 and 2030, the Indian economy may incur a loss to the tune of over a trillion dollars due to mental health-related issues. Industry body Assocham claims 42.5 percent of corporate employees in India suffer from some form of depression.
Ashutosh Panday, Cofounder, Elate Wellbeing, said: “The key problems faced by professionals include poor health, work-life balance, relationships, drop in job performance and alcoholism/smoking. Freshers are not able to sleep well and have immense stress. Employees who are married and have children struggle with work-life balance. All this takes a toll on their body and mind, leading to decreased performance at work.”
InnerHour conducted free workshops, across Mumbai, for organisations discussing stress management, mental health awareness and suicide prevention in the workplace. Image Credit: InnerHour
A study covering more than 500 people and conducted by the Elate Wellbeing team on sleep quality of people staying in large cities and working in the corporate sector, revealed that approximately 67 percent get less than 6-6.5 hours of sleep on an average every day against the required 7-8 hours. This can lead to insomnia (difficulty falling or staying asleep), obstructive sleep apnea (disordered breathing that causes multiple awakenings), various movement syndromes (unpleasant sensations that prompt night fidgeting), and narcolepsy (extreme sleepiness or falling asleep suddenly during the day).
“The insights clearly point to a bad quality sleep, which is affecting employee health and corporate performance because of reduced productivity, absenteeism etc,” he added.
However, there are signs of positive change too. Mental health awareness is growing and the discourse around mental health is getting more structured. From celebrities sharing personal stories of dealing with the crisis to Twitter threads on managing stress and anxiety, to the recently passed Mental Healthcare Bill, India is slowly making progress in this space.
Good emotional health has spillover effects
With increased awareness, Amit said people are now not questioning why a programme for mental healthcare is required for employees.
“There is a lot of data around about the positive impact of these programmes. Companies realise the multiple benefits of addressing an employee’s mental health— from increased productivity to better company engagement. They are ready to invest,” Amit added.
At an workshop, InnerHour asked, "How many of us know someone who has experienced an emotional difficulty?" These employees at an organisation raised their hands.
Microsoft, for instance, has leveraged technology for employee ease and access to multiple facilities such as face-to-face sessions, webinars, live chats, and e-workshops, which employees can access from their desks. This makes health-related content open and accessible to all through a dedicated website.
The Microsoft CARES initiative focuses on the emotional wellbeing of all employees and their family members too. The company believes that by enabling employees to take care of themselves, they are empowering them to “take care of everything else, too”. A confidential counselling service has been designed to help employees through life’s challenges in a mature and balanced manner. Professional counsellors and wellness coaches are available 24/7, through easy access chats, e-workshops, and mobile apps, to assist in developing necessary coping skills to maintain balance in life. Besides this, every month Microsoft partners with 1to1help.net counsellors to conduct Skype sessions on a variety of topics based on employee interests.
Ingersoll Rand, a global manufacturing company, offers its employees access to multiple facilities such as counselling, Ingersoll Rand’s global health challenge, annual health check-up, awareness sessions and financial planning. They have also started an Employee Assistance Program where professional experts assist employees in managing their personal issues that may adversely affect work and performance. The program offers counselling, legal and financial consultation, and crisis intervention services in a confidential manner.
Building a strong workforce
“Startups offer to sponsor half the cost involved in mental healthcare programmes. They share the content and videos on various stress and mental-health coping mechanisms with employees. In fact, one company is planning to offer our programme as a Diwali gift to employees,” Ashutosh said.
Mental health and wellness is a sector that is going to attract more attention in the coming years as stress and depression increase. Most people will seek help as awareness increases.
“People are our asset; so we lend extensive support and investment to take care of their emotional wellbeing. At Blackberrys, we have an open work culture and a strong HR vertical that regularly organises workshops for the employees applying the 'play-and-work theory'. We have open discussions regularly where employees are asked to raise concerns or share problems,” Ramesh said.
(Some names have been changed to protect identity.)
Design4India, a NASSCOM initiative in partnership with Facebook, aims to create massive transformational value for the product and startup ecosystem of India. The NASSCOM DESIGN4INDIA Design Summit, in the last two editions, brought together designers, entrepreneurs, designers, corporate leaders and academicians from all walks of life to discuss ways to promote India’s design quotient.
If you missed out on last year’s design summit coverage, you can read it here.
The 3rd edition of the NASSCOM Design4India Design summit took place on September 26, 2018 at JW Marriott, Bengaluru. In this edition themed “EMBED 2.0: Where design becomes a universal language”, a confluence of discussions took place revolving around topics, Democratization, industrialization & augmentation: Where design craft & creativity is going next; Humanize and How to educate game changers. As emerging technologies disrupt today’s infrastructure, the discussions revolved around the importance of how these technologies will act as a catalyst to create better user experiences.
This year, the event showcased 40 global speakers spread across various keynotes, panel discussions, product showcases, workshops led by design experts, immersive experience zones and ended with a pub crawl. Participants got a chance to connect with industry experts from the design and technology community to understand the value of design and what works and what doesn’t in the design and technology space.
Shining light on innovative designers through Design Awards
Ahead of the summit, the first edition of NASSCOM® Design4India Design Awards was hosted on September 25, 2018 with the objective to spur innovation with a focus on technology product design that is simple, yet powerful.
Deloitte, Accenture Open Innovation, NASSCOM Foundation, StartupIndia and Adobe were some of the leading partners. The application process was open to corporates, startups, design studios and students.
The product design submissions were in the categories of web, mobile, immersive, connected and intelligence, or digital ergonomics products. They also had to be fully commissioned and available in the market at the time of entry. The applications were screened, shortlisted and presented to the 25-member jury panel, who evaluated and the finalists were announced on September 20, 2018. The evaluation criteria included the level of product differentiation in the market; level of innovation; how the product ensured environmental sustainability; level of creativity and overall appeal; user-friendliness, functionality and aesthetics.
Kala Form by Pramod Priya Ranjan, MIT Institute of Design
Mobile:
Company/Startup award
Indus OS
BYJU'S
Student award
Neev by Madhushree Kamak, Chetna Meena & Sayani Sinha, National Institute of Design
Immersive:
Company/Startup award
Tesseract Imaging Pvt. Ltd.
Trestle Labs Pvt. Ltd.
Student award
Eduloom by Sagar Sharma & Ashish Dubey, National Institute of Design
Digital Ergonomics Products:
Company/Startup award
Yostra Labs Pvt. Ltd.
Student award
Pebble - Wearable for Visually Impaired by Jason Vikram Mariadas, National Institute of Design
Connected and Intelligence:
Company/Startup award
Artoo
eMotion Motors
Student award
ARO by Nayla Masood, National Institute of Design bagged the student awards.
The winners of NASSCOM Design4India Design Awards took home several benefits. Apart from being felicitated at the award ceremony, they were provided with digital badges, which could be used for marketing purposes for one year. They were each given an Adobe Creative Cloud account to help hone their skills. It doesn't end there! The winners were also showcased on the NASSCOM Design4India Design Awards portal and got visibility through social media promotions.
Impacting the startup innovation ecosystem through design
In recent years, design has evolved as a tool for innovation and is only rapidly growing by the day. Organisations are embracing strategic design and design thinking to move forward in the innovative ecosystem. NASSCOM Design4India is fostering this change by bringing together the best of the technology, product, innovation and design ecosystems in India.
The vision is to enable 2500+ startups and train 10,000+ design professionals to leverage technology in design and take forward the growing startup ecosystem in India.
After launching RajMegh - free cloud services for businesses - and subsequently Bhamashah Techno Hub, which is the country's biggest incubation centre, earlier this year, the State Government of Rajasthan is outdoing itself with the launch of India’s largest data centre – Bhamashah State Data Centre (BSDC).
The Bhamashah State Data Centre
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje inaugurated the Bhamashah State Data Centre on October 6, 2018, in the presence of a host of government officials, including Akhil Arora, Principal Secretary, Information Technology and Communication, Department of Rajasthan (DoIT&C).
With a 25,000 sq ft server farm area, the eight-storied Bhamashah State Data Centre has 600 rack space capacity and will provide common IT infrastructure to host new e-Governance initiatives and facilitate web-enabled 24x7 access. The Bhamashah State Data Centre project was completed in a record time of six months after the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone on Rajasthan IT Day in March 2018.
Startups part of the iStart programme can avail the facilities of the data centre free of cost
Conceptualised and developed by the Department of Information Technology & Communication, Government of Rajasthan, the Bhamashah State Data Centre is India’s biggest and most advanced government owned, operated, controlled and managed data centre.
To top it all, it is said to be the most secure data centre in the country, and the only Tier 4 Data Centre in the government space in India that is Uptime certified. It has been integrated with automatic asset management using RF code technology, fire hazard automation systems, and high-tech physical security. Another interesting feature is that Bhamashah State Data Centre a completely green data centre, certified by Green Building Rating Systems.
Built with globally certified IT infrastructure, Bhamashah State Data Centre will play a key role in boosting the digital development of Rajasthan and the country. Through the data centre, the state government will offer numerous IT services and infrastructure to other state governments, union departments, PSUs, corporations and private organisations. In addition, startups part of the iStart programme will be eligible to avail the facilities free of cost.
E-governance pioneer
The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has identified multiple mission mode projects along with various e-Governance initiatives at the state level to provide better digital services, and State Data Centres have been identified as one of the three infrastructure pillars to facilitate web-enabled anytime, anywhere access. State Data Centres have been conceptualised to provide a common enabling infrastructure to the state’s e-governance numerous e-governance initiatives.
A view of the Bhamashah State Data Centre
While Rajasthan established a Data Centre way back in 2004-05 following the guidelines of DeitY and NeGP, another Data Centre was established in the year 2011 to scale up the capacity of the existing Data Centre.
With the Government of Rajasthan going big on driving digital services, there was a need for a dedicated and world-class infrastructure and the BSDC was conceptualised to meet this very objective while also enabling ease of integration and efficient management of the increasing line up of G2G, G2C and G2B e-services.
BSDC will be the third government-owned-and-managed data centre in Rajasthan, and the three data centres will together contribute to Rajasthan’s digital journey.
Google is tightening control around all its products and services in the wake of the Google+ security breach that led to its shutdown.
Following a massive security breach at Google+, Google’s just-shuttered social networking platform, the tech giant has announced a change in Play Store policies to arrest the leak of sensitive user data.
Starting today, all Play Store apps that seek access to call logs and SMS data from users need to be the default phone, SMS, or Assistant app on their devices. Until now, several apps compelled users to grant access to such data. If a user denied permissions, the app would restrict usage.
In India, popular payments apps like Mobikwik, Paytm, ticketing apps like BookMyShow, GoIbibo, MakeMyTrip, entertainment and OTT apps like JioTV, SonyLIV, food delivery apps like Swiggy, Zomato, shopping apps like Amazon, Paytm Mall, and several others fall under this category.
“Going forward, Google Play will limit which apps are allowed to ask for these permissions. Only an app that has been selected as a user's default app for making calls or text messages will be able to access call logs and SMS, respectively.”
Essentially, Google doesn’t want apps whose “core functionality” is not calling, messaging or voice to have access to user call logs and SMSes. It has given app developers a period of 90 days to comply with the updated policy.
“We'll be working with our developer partners to give them appropriate time to adjust and update their apps, and will begin enforcement 90 days from this policy update,” Google stated.
Google also revealed it is open to exceptions, and will collaborate with developers whose apps require call log or SMS information for “core app functionality”. These include caller ID services like Truecaller, SMS management apps like Textra, call recording apps, and so on.
Developers who do not comply with the policy by January 6, 2019, will not be allowed to publish their apps on Play Store. They could, however, continue asking for call log and SMS access on the Amazon Appstore, and in the overall Android ecosystem.
In the wake of the Google+ data breach, the search giant intends to tighten security around all its consumer products.
Paul Bankhead, Director, Product Management, Google Play, said,
“In the coming months, we'll be rolling out additional controls and policies across our various products and platforms, and will continue to work with you, our developers, to help with the transition. The trust of our users is critical and together we'll continue to build a safe and secure Android ecosystem.”
India has one of the largest Android user bases in the world. It would be interesting to see how top consumer apps and services in the country go about complying with the updated policies, and if this would have any impact on app usage.
