Archive: January 31, 2022

What’s triggering such an impressive growth in the powdered antacids market?

By – Joy Chatterjee, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma

One may not acknowledge gut-related discomforts as often as others, but we all will agree that it can immensely impact our day-to-day activities and leave a lingering sense of uneasiness throughout the day. Talking of gut-related health issues in the Indian context, the incidence of acidity, gas, and indigestion are the top problems that come to mind . and it has also come to light, that in recent times, the sensation of bloating, gaseousness, acidity, acid reflux & heartburn have increased considerably across all age groups & demography.

The root cause for our deteriorating gut health can be attributed to the sedentary lifestyle of the general population; this along with unhealthy eating habits, erratic sleeping cycles & insufficient water intake, consistently puts too much pressure on the digestive system, which eventually leads to some of the other gut-related chronic disorder.

Thus the persistent occurrences of acidity, gas & indigestion in peoples’ regular life, calls for an easy solution that can provide quick relief on the go. Antacids perfectly fill this demand gap. It suits the consumers & fits into their pace of life; especially powdered antacids, which have been widely accepted as an easy, convenient one-stop solution to all gut-related problems. Additionally, the growing geriatric population is inherently impacted by gastrointestinal problems too.

Therefore this category has slowly evolved into an absolute necessity in every other household thereby providing the desired demand push that has led to the growth of the OTC antacids market and will continue to do so on a larger scale throughout 2022-2031.

Interestingly, amongst all the gut health countering life choices made by antacid consumers, there is also a growing rise in awareness & collective consciousness about what people consume. While seeking instant relief from increased acidity levels causing gastroesophageal reflux sickness, consumers nowadays are more receptive to a natural/ ayurvedic remedy over others. Hence, even though the majority of the brands in the category resort to artificial/ synthetic flavouring, antacids with natural ingredients are now strongly gaining momentum. To meet this evolving preference of the consumers, the antacids market not only offers acid neutralizers which treat a wide range of problems from neutralizing stomach acid, to treating acid flux, curing heartburn, and indigestion but also caters to the demand of going with natural ingredients through Mankind Pharma’s antacid brand Gas-O-Fast, having real Jeera and Ajwain, which is taking care of all the regular gut issues like acidity, heartburn, gas, ingestion and become India ke Acidity ka Indian Solution.

Lastly, the upward swing of the powdered antacids market is further strengthened with the strong & steady emergence of the category in all major e-commerce platforms. This too has provided the category with an incremental push, driving towards the open headspace for further growth.

EyeMyEye launches sustainable eyewear frames in India

Mumbai, 31st January 2022: Taking a leap towards adopting eco-friendly fashion, EyeMyEye- India’s most loved eyewear platform takes pride in presenting an excellent collection of distinctive sustainable eyewear frames, the ‘Bamboo Eyewear Range’ in India. Designed from 100% pure & organic bamboo material, this collection offers a range of unique Eyeglasses & Polarized Sunglasses that will stay fashionable for ages to come.

The Bamboo Eyewear Frames are handcrafted with durable and long-lasting bamboo material that can withstand the test of time and lend nature’s aesthetics to one’s look, 365 days a year. Made with Bamboo that grows in nature’s several shades, the collection features exclusive designs that ensure that no two frames look alike. Each pair further comes with a protective case exquisitely designed with bamboo.

The range of Bamboo Eyeglasses is designed meticulously to adorn one’s face, simultaneously offering utmost visual clarity and comfort while the Polarized Bamboo Sunglasses offer 100% UVA & UVB protection. A step-ahead in both style & sustainability, this range is a great choice for the ones who would like to rule the boardroom and the beach with equal elan.

Mr. Ganesh Iyer, Founder & CEO, EyeMyEye says, “The eyewear market in India has progressed over the years to cater to the needs of its evolving customer base. With the world’s increasing inclination towards sustainability and environmental wellbeing, sustainable eyewear is the next positive step towards a cleaner environment. Each piece of EyeMyEye’s Bamboo Eyewear Range has an element of style inspired by nature. We are confident that this collection will be well received by our discerning customer base”.

Look at the world from Nature’s eyes! Shop the Bamboo Eyewear Range at www.eyemyeye.com.

Union Budget 2022: Realty continue to seek long standing demands for pushing sustainable recovery in business

– Authored By: Manpreet Singh Wason, Director, Maasters Infra

Real estate sector has been a growth driver and employment generating channel for a nation like India for a very long time. However, even after so many years of valuable contribution it still hasn’t been able to procure industry status from the government authorities. This one single move has the capability to spiral a rippling effect among the important industry stakeholders, and associated industries.

Getting Industry status remains the top priority in order to establish a smooth inflow of capital, thereby facilitating faster construction, smoother deliveries of projects and more infrastructure being developed at a faster rate. Therefore, the sector is pinning hopes on the upcoming budget for other alternatives like stimulus packages, and streamlined GST rates if possible. One of the recent real estate index report by a reputed consultant highlighted that positive sentiment is at an all-time high of 65 in Q4 2021.

Value of owning an asset

This spike can be attributed to the fact that the pandemic has reinstated a mindset that ownership of a financial asset is a must to build a secure future. There is no asset better than investing in real estate presently as it comes with a cushion of appreciating returns. Pandemic has proven an encouragement to the fence sitters who were planning on investing later in their lives. In terms of commercial real estate, the sector has been exhibiting strong standing from the previous year, as multinational and national corporations are profoundly signing up for new premises.

Wave of Expansion and Acquisitions

A wave of future expansion and acquisition is apparent in the market with almost every player scouting for as much growth as possible to stand still even during adverse times of lockdown or a vast virus spread. The circle of strong hiring in the last three to four quarters has also been a major driving factor.

Real estate has been a major contributor to the nation’s GDP. Industry status will reduce cost overruns, industry players have been raising their concerns about raw material price rise and demanding cement cartelization to be removed. Issues like price hike can prove to be a major hurdle, which will limit passing on the benefits to end-users and investors. Thereby, to ensure sustainable revival in the industry of real estate, a little push from the Finance Ministry in the upcoming budget can reap long-term benefits and sustainable growth.

Budget Expectation Quote – Aparajitha

-Ramya Subramanian, Chief Strategy Officer, Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited

With the pandemic scare still looming around, healthcare expenditure needs to be a priority…it has to be atleast 3 percent of the GDP (presently it’s only 1.26 percent). Also, the National Health Protection Scheme should be extended to cover the migrant workers, in addition to the BPL populace.

The new tax regime did not have the expected impact and acceptance from tax payers. Hope to see the budget make the new tax regime more attractive with lower rates and incentivise tax payers to move out of the old regime. This will help phase out myriad exemptions and simplify the tax regime. It will also be a win-win situation for taxpayers on account of lower tax rates and lesser ambiguity.

Am happy to note that this year too the Union Budget is going to be presented in a paperless format, as started last year. Physical to digital is indeed quite the way to go in these ‘new normal’ times.

The Union Budget should create a roadmap for economic revival amidst the slowdown and the adverse impact of COVID-19 related disruptions. The budget needs to address economic growth and focus on job creation by driving consumption led growth, demand creation and investment growth. Emphasis on growth in production capabilities with a thrust on Atmanirbharta needs to continue.

Today the biggest challenge Corporates face is the increasing amount of legal and compliance requirements they must meet across different segments, geographies and jurisdictions. Having said that, companies can actually mitigate regulatory and compliance risks through automation. Compliance automation, or automated compliance can use AI (artificial intelligence) features and technology to simplify compliance procedures. In this regard, the Government should implement effective policies to create a robust technology infrastructure and environment that supports innovation. Data centres and cloud services are today undoubtedly the backbone of Digital India…hence it becomes imperative to speed up investment in these sectors, and also go the extra mile by providing infrastructure status to data centers.

Budget Expectation: Curated Living Solutions

 –Mr. Jai Kishan Challa, CEO, and Founder of Curated Living

“The upcoming budget brings high hopes for the realty sector as well as rebates in taxes. We expect the budget will have a renewed focus on rental housing so that the current financial system can be strengthened to provide liquidity to the already stuck real estate projects.

The government is expected to continue the promotion of affordable rental housing schemes followed by tax exemptions to notify rental housing products. It will further enhance the pace of investments in this scheme in order to achieve the ‘Housing for all’ mission.“

Celcius Logistics and Shriram Transport Finance Company join hands to fund Transport Entrepreneurs

Mumbai, January 31, 2022: Celcius, a SaaS-based cold chain marketplace startup, announced its financial tie-up with Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC), India’s largest commercial vehicle financier, to fund vehicles and working capital financing for the cold supply chain market. Celcius also announced the launch of Vahan Vikas Samriddhi programme. The programme will financially support aspiring regional entrepreneurs in the transportation sector.

Being established veterans in funding the dry logistics industry, this joint venture marks the expansion of Shriram Transport Finance Company’s services into the cold supply chain sector. Through this partnership, STFC and Celcius will provide LCV and HCV segment vehicles (ranging between 10-50 lakhs) to the cold chain industry. Also, Celcius’s Vahan Vikas Samriddhi will address the reefer supply gap and empower aspiring entrepreneurs to establish operations in the cold chain sector to transport items like the COVID-19 vaccines, perishable fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy and other pharmaceutical products across the country, including remote locations.

Commenting on the prospects of this tie-up, Swarup Bose, Founder and CEO, Celcius said “The cold chain industry has had to accommodate for the lack of assets and infrastructure by working overtime for the last two years. Onboarding native entrepreneurs and helping them start their cold chain journey will give the industry more assets to work with. STFC’s expertise in the organised finance sector will help fund upcoming cold chain transporters, enabling them to kick-start their business. On the other hand, Celcius will provide them with their own- FDA compliant cold chain fleet and increase the visibility of their business through our SaaS-based cold chain aggregator platform.”

An official statement from Shriram Transport Finance Company said, “Our tie-up with Celcius will help us collaboratively improve the cold chain logistics sector. Efficiency is at the core of everything we do and this joint effort will aid us with streamlining vehicle financing, fuel financing and bill discounting solutions.”

Celcius has been empowering regional transporters since May 2021 with their programme, Vahan Vikas Yojana. Early last year, the startup received funding in a seed funding round from Mumbai Angels Network, along with Huddle, Lumis Partners, Eaglewings Ventures Alliance Network (EVAN), Venture Capital & Private Equity firms MaGEHold, Keiretsu Forum and other investors from Malaysia, Nigeria and the US. Since then, Celcius has directed a lot of their funds towards empowering up-and-coming transporters. By providing benefits like monthly assured income, consistent year-round business, funding, and growth opportunities, the startup aided numerous businesses in 2021.

“Vahan Vikas Samriddhi will be an extension of Vahan Vikas Yojana,” added Swarup. “Businesses can enroll by registering onto our platform and uploading their KYC credentials. From there on, STFC will assist them with funds while Celcius will streamline the process of securing RTO registered vehicles as per their requirements. We wanted to ensure that the registration process is as convenient as possible.”

Celcius and STFC’s unique venture and their well-rounded solution could pave the way for similar financing tie-ups within the cold supply chain industry in the future.

EFFORT partners with IPM India Wholesale Trading to augment water harvesting in villages of Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, January 31, 2022: EFFORT, a non-profit organisation committed to empower rural communities for sustainable development has successfully completed a water harvesting project in collaboration with IPM India Wholesale Trading across key water distressed regions of Andhra Pradesh. With an aim to improve water resource management, the project has focused on conserving rainwater by developing relevant infrastructure as well as educating local communities.

Today, India is on the brink of a water crisis. The 2030 Water Resources Group estimates that if we continue to consume water as per the current rate, India will have only half the water it needs by 2030, a possible reality which is only ten years away. Additionally, 60% of India’s districts have been declared critical on groundwater. This means that people either have scarce supply or poor quality of groundwater, or both. A NITI Aayog report also indicates the severe water scarcity which will eventually lead to a 6 percent loss in the country’s GDP.

Marking a step in this direction, EFFORT has successfully implemented a water harvesting/ conservation project across 12 villages of Guntur and Prakasam Districts in Andhra Pradesh. Through concerted efforts, the project has seen the construction of a percolation tank in 1 village, check dams in 2 villages, rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures in 6 schools and provision for water purifiers in 6 RWH schools.

Commenting on the project progress, Dr. Hari Babu Pokuri, Project Director of EFFORT, said “While India receives ample rainfall, 95% of this rainwater is lost owing to lack of harvesting and poor management leading to an alarming depletion of ground water and significant wastage of this precious resource. Moreover, with unpredictable monsoons, many villages face water scarcity through the year which makes it difficult to sustain a normal life. In partnership with IPM India Wholesale Trading, we are proud of the positive impact we have been able to create to serve the needs of the local communities and better support them in water resource management. EFFORT endeavors to sustain its efforts of working closely with local communities to spread awareness against wastage of water and implement better conversation best practices.”

Kisanwala secures a funding of $1 Million in an Angel round

Kisanwala secures a funding of $1 Million in an Angel round to build tech to provide holistic one stop solutions for agriculture ecosystem and social selling concept in India

Hyderabad-based Kisanwala (https://kisanwala.com), India’s leading Agri-Tech Solutions startup, has raised around $1 million in an Angel round led by veterans from the tech and Agri industry as investors are betting big on the Indian Agriculture space. This funding will be used towards building the tech to provide holistic one stop solutions for the agriculture ecosystem and building the flagship initiative “social selling concept called Market on Wheels “of the company. The Startup was bootstrapped for the most part of its 1st year, they developed the early MVP, set up the marketing programs as well as developed early relationships with the key stakeholders.

Kisanwala aims to change the way Agri supply chain operates both on the Input & output side and focus on helping farmers increase their income based on different services and partnerships that they run with the Agri community. Some of the key pillars of this ecosystem – supply chain, technology, financial Services, Agronomy Advisory need revolutionary changes and different monetization mechanisms. The growth needs to be inclusive by supporting the current players to evolve to new and better roles and business models. The farmer is at the pivot of everything that the company is building.

The main aim of the company is to be the largest platform & Marketplace in the Agri ecosystem which is a trillion dollar market just in India. The company aspires to have a predictable & higher income for the farmers while enabling them to produce more to meet the food security needs of India & the world. The company wants to achieve all this by setting up a Brigital (brick & mortar + Digital) mechanism called Market on Wheels. Over and above providing personalized and high touch service to the farmer, the company also intends to create employment for Agri Graduates by helping them become Agripreneurs and providing services to the farmer using the Kisanwala platform.

The Kisanwala app has 50,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. The Kisanwala Farmer app is localized and personalized so that the farmer gets an advisory that is local to their region, see content and information that is pertinent to their region & products and services that they see are personalized based on the crops they grow and the time in the crop cycle. The farmer can log onto their app and search for inputs like seeds, crop protection, crop nutrition, implement items based on various parameters, read the product description in their local language and then order the products with a single click.

Farmers can look for advice on the app as the company builds their machine learning algorithms, today they can even call the call centres of the company and get advice from qualified Agronomists who are Agri Graduates having field experience.

Currently the company has Fifty thousand Farmers (App downloads) on the platform and they are about to reach a million farmers by 2023 and be able to provide high quality services to them. In the coming 3 years the company would like to be able to support & provide services to about 9 Million farmers, develop agronomy solutions using AI / ML technology that will be available free to small and medium size farmers. On their Social Selling side, the Market on Wheels, A flagship initiative of the company, they would like to get to about 3000 Market on wheels in 3 years and have enabled about 5 thousand Agripreneurs to start their businesses and support farmers to improve the quality, predictability of their produce and in turn increase their income.

On the latest fundraiser, Co-Founder of Kisanwala, Parag Modi said, “Having worked in the technology & blue collared space for many years, I could clearly see that farmers life and income levels could be alleviated by access to technology and using it to solve problems around access to high quality agronomy, quality products at their doorstep, agri services like drone based spraying, financial services etc.. Agri-Tech Solutions platforms like Kisanwala can bring about a huge difference in the farmers’ lives. With the largest customers in our belt and with the best team on board, we aim to reduce market information asymmetry in order to help farmers work more efficiently and produce better yields. We are thankful to all our incoming investors who have believed in us and our growth vision.”

Talking about the potential of the Agriculture market, Co-Founder of Kisanwala, Mr. Suresh Alturi said, “88% of Indian farmers fall under low-income groups who are small and marginal. Rural economy is the backbone of India which contributes 30% of India GDP which will be around $5 trillion by 2025. We felt that our theme gels very well and addresses the needs of these neglected communities which has a huge impact on the overall rural ecosystem through our ‘Inclusive Business Model’. Our farmer-centric digital tools are designed in a way to provide a one-stop solution for all farm needs as an easy, accessible and intuitive single neutral platform. We offer services including soil testing, crop protection, crop nutrition, seeds, implements to improve the productivity of farmers and to make them sustainable in the face of threats to agriculture due to climate change.”