All posts by Neel Achary

Business World

The increasing prominence of Aluminium in the Medical Segment

Oct 14, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #Mr. Naveen Mehta, #Sr. Vice President – Extrusion Operations at Jindal Aluminium Limited

By Mr. Naveen Mehta, Sr. Vice President – Extrusion Operations at Jindal Aluminium Limited

Aluminium is an industry-friendly metal used in industries for decades due to its mechanical and other properties like lightweight and tensile strength. Not only in the medical segment but also the many devices that are altering healthcare; thanks to aluminium, people across the globe are living healthier lives. The aluminium industry in our country can witness a strong growth prospect in the upcoming years. While the national aluminium demand has been rising at the rate of 10% every year, it is predicted that aluminium consumption will double in the subsequent five to seven years.

Aluminium is categorized with properties of ductility, malleability, and high conductivity. It also features distinctive physical properties when compared with other metallic materials. While some aluminium alloys outshine due to their high strength-to-weight ratio, thermal and electric conductivity and resistance to corrosion, and also properties like flexibility, elasticity, and reflectivity. These properties have been accountable for driving the application of aluminium in vital sectors like healthcare and pharmaceutical. The sustainability and biodegradability of aluminium has also optimally leveraged its application in the medical segment. It has resulted in an increased production of the metal and also contributed to the growth of the global aluminium market.

As per industry experts, it has been researched that the global aluminium market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% between the years 2017 and 2025. Developing at this rate, the market will be valued at US$249.29 bn by the end of 2025 from US$143.87 bn back in 2016.

Extensive usage of the metal in the healthcare domain accounts for its dominance:

In the domain of healthcare, technological developments of medical devices are an important aspect and this has been a major reason for the increasing dependence of the metal. There is no room for inaccuracies when it comes to medical care since lives are factually at stake. Hence, for any material to be fit for application in this sector, it mandatorily has to meet extremely high standards of performance, functionality, and dependability. This is where the metal predominantly outrivals its equivalents. The extruded aluminium shapes are extensively used in manufacturing a wide range of machines, devices, and other medical instruments like stethoscopes, surgical trays, bedpans, cans and containers, medical diagnostic equipment like MRI/ CT scan machines, X-ray machines, and others.

Medical device OEM’s turning to aluminium over other metals during the pandemic:

As an effective strategy to cope with the current world crisis, the usage of surgical respirators and facemasks has become a chief part of a larger strategy to create physical barriers between infected and uninfected individuals. The sharp rise in the demand for masks and respirators has brought about awareness of the materials that go into its making. Medical face respirators require the appropriate type of accessories to offer comfort on the mouth, as these are worn for a longer interval of time. Aluminium strips also named as 90 mm aluminium nose wire used on the nose wire of the face masks to support the mask on the bridge of the nose. Although the nose pin used on masks is available in both plastic and aluminium, the latter is used to offer higher rigidity in masks and is a significant metal component, particularly in a cup shape mask.

Aluminium usage in pharmaceutical packaging to have steady future growth:  

Pharmaceutical packaging is an important part of the manufacturing process that enables in securely transporting drugs from producer to patient. Dynamics like growing population, rise in disposable income and an upward focus to discard plastics in packaging is expected to drive the growth of aluminium for the Pharmaceutical sector in India. The aluminium foil packaging market across the globe is confident to reach US$ 40 Bn by 2030, with a steady growth rate of 6% over the forecast period. Increasing demand for ready-to-eat consumables and pharmaceutical products, amid the global crisis, is driving significant growth opportunities for the aluminium foil packaging market in our country. Moreover, the growth of the foil-wraps aluminium packaging market is due to the ability of the metal to lend water-resistance and cost benefits over other alternatives like plastic. It indicates that Aluminium foil packaging used in the pharmaceutical industry will claim the market pie, accounting for more than one-third of the total market share, with a 4 percent growth rate over the estimated period.

High-quality medicines require packaging that protects against ecological influences like moisture. The demand for aluminium foil for the drug blister packaging is gradually rising. Blister packs for tablets consist of a moulded foil having cavities for the separate tablets, along with a push-through closure composed of aluminium foil, which is known as blister film or lid film. Due to this, the capsules and tablets remain hygienic and have a longer shelf life. Both soft and hard aluminium foils are useful for the cover foils of the push-through packaging. Additionally, the sustainable nature of aluminium foil enables the pharmaceutical packaging sector to contribute to plummeting carbon emission without causing any harm to the planet.

Ongoing technological innovations and mounting awareness about the benefits of aluminium earned it a preference in various industrial set-ups establishing it into a super-material suited for any application.

Business World

How to Scale Your Startup Sales in 2020

Sep 19, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #businesses, #startup

Growth is the goal for every company that exists.  Unfortunately, a big mistake many businesses make is thinking that their advertising and lead generation can run the same way despite the size of the company changing.  You can scale your scales, your advertising,  and your customer relations with a few changes that put value back into your company.

Here’s how to scale your sales and encourage that growth to keep going as your company picks up pace.

Think About Your Company’s Purpose

What is the root belief, skill, or item that your company offers?  Consider how this differs from other companies and consider how you can make this clear to your leads and customers.  You will need to prove your company’s worth in a way that you can believe in, and your potential leads will be more likely to have faith in it as well.

Make a mission statement out of this purpose, and use the ideals you set to advertise your company effectively.

What’s Your Demographic?

This information is something you should consider before you start up your company.  Who are you trying to sell your product?  Who could most benefit from your service or product?  From there, research what platforms or sites these people would use, what time of day they’d be more active, and what kind of advertisements would work best on them.

This information is vital since you’d want to advertise to women over fifty on Facebook, but younger people of any gender are more easily caught on TikTok or Twitter.  Advertise in a way your audience would connect with, and find them at their level.

What Image or Personality Does Your Company Show

Your advertisements should show some flavor of personality.  Think about what attitude your company gives off, and how you can make that into almost a character with which your customers can interact.  You don’t have to be as sassy or extreme as Wendy’s is on twitter– but you can use an artificial personality like this to garner attention and give your leads an emotional connection to your company.

Work On How You Bring In Leads

There are dozens of ways to bring in leads; it’s vital that you think about passive ideas that inspire leads to click your website.  These include SEO, PPC, and things like social media integration.

Search engine optimization will pull in leads faster than any other type of advertising.  This plan can be achieved by hosting articles on your site, creating guest articles on other sites, or riddling your website with searchable terms.  Companies that have blogs on their site get clicked more often and are more likely to turn those clicks into customers.

Pay per click is even more passive since it’s classic advertising that finds your customers and pulls them in.  With proper advertising, from short videos for youtube ads to static images to go through Google Adsense, you can see which type of advertisements work best for your company.

Social media is vital for every startup.  Twitter and Instagram are like storefronts for many companies, that help funnel customers directly to their websites.  This type of advertising means that they can reach a possibly unlimited number of leads, and will open options for how to advertise.

Look At Past Data

Review what types of advertising has worked for your company in the past.  This option will also help you see what hasn’t worked and can give you the push you might need to drop advertising or communicating styles that don’t work for your company.

If you don’t have much information on your advertising practices and results yet, now is the time to collect it.  Knowledge is financial power and will give you the support you need to feel confident in any changes.

Check Your Pricing

If your sales are going up, now is the time to review your product and pricing.  Your business isn’t a can of Arizona tea that permanently has a price stamped on it.  As you grow, rework your product, or have the power to revalue it- your price should increase to some degree.  This work will give your company more money to invest back in itself and give you the chance to think about whether your product can be improved.

Retrain Your Team

No change is complete until your entire team has been trained on it and understands the transition.  Take ideas from your unit, anything from how they would approach advertising, to how your sales meetings can become a personalized experience.  Explain how any changes you’re making will help the company and let them know what steps to implement these changes and do their part.  Your company is only as reliable as its least informed employee.

Follow Up To Ensure Changes Work

Once your changes are completed or are well underway, go over what information you gather from your changes.  If the changes don’t seem to be working right off the bat- give them a little more time.  Don’t wait longer than a quarter before declaring something successful or not, but also don’t waste time on anything that may damage your business.  You have to think about what will benefit your company in the long term and groom your advertisements and company to fit that mold.

Health

Pre book your vaccination through WondRx app

Sep 16, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #health-tech start-up, #irector of WONDRx, #Mr Pankaj Agrawal, #Pankaj Sindhu

September: A Mumbai-based health-tech start-up launched an application for Indian citizens to book an appointment with the nearest doctor or the vaccination clinic to get themselves vaccinated. Bringing in much needed convenience and transparency, this platform will ensure vaccination reaches every nook and corner of India. The health-tech firm, WONDRx, has tied up with doctors and qualified healthcare service providers across the country to ensure easy accessibility of the vaccine to the concerned citizens through an app. WONDRx has already curated and listed 180K plus healthcare providers on its WONDRx consumer app, making it the largest healthcare providers’ aggregator in India.

Speaking on the occasion, the co-founder and Director of WONDRx, Mr Pankaj Agrawal said, “Our app would list the details of all vaccination clinics that we are curating, along with the fees to be paid for availing the vaccination at a pre-booked time slot. Vaccination booking via pre-booked slots will ensure crowd management as well while maintaining social distancing aspects. People from every nook and corner of this country would be able to take an informed decision based on the details provided.”

“Our app would act as a bridge between the residents of each state and the vaccination clinics. This would help the people to schedule their appointment with the vaccination clinics of choice and do away with waiting in uncertainties and long queues,” he added.

The app would be compatible with Android phones in the first phase and iOS versions would be launched at later stages. This app would be available as a free download from Google Play Store for every consumer and healthcare provider of this country. Dwelling on the advantages of this product, the Founder and Director of WONDRx, Mr Pankaj Sindhu, stated, “This product will make the vaccination journey highly convenient for every stakeholder — consumer, doctors, vaccine distributors and manufacturers — while ensuring required transparency and control around vaccination. It would give control and visibility right from the manufacturer to the end consumer at the last mile and ensure a controlled supply chain.”

WONDRx is a made in India health-tech start-up working on Digital India mandate augmenting AtmaNirbhar concept across the healthcare stakeholders in the country.

Business World

DBS Bank unveils hassle-free, online SME loans; Offers in-principle sanctions up to INR 5Cr in 24 hours

Sep 16, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #DBS Bank India, #DBS Digital Business Loans, #Head - Business Banking, #Managing Director & Country Head - Institutional Banking Group, #Niraj Mittal, #Sudarshan Chari

MUMBAI, September 16, 2020: Driven by its constant focus on building seamless, intuitive and hassle-free banking solutions for customers, DBS Bank India today unveiled its online credit solutions platform – DBS Digital Business Loans for SMEs. This segment-flagship platform from DBS improves the ease of accessing business credit for the entire spectrum of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, offering credit up to INR 20Cr.

The loan application process is simple and can be done online by just uploading bank statements, and IT Returns (financial statements for loans above INR 5Cr). The data-driven platform then pulls in credit-related information at the backend and runs a financial health analysis on the overall business of the applicant. The platform is enabled to auto-generate an e-offer letter if the lending criteria is met.

Enterprises with a turnover of up to INR 25Cr can receive in-principle approval for loans of up to INR 5Cr within 24 hours* subject to completion of the loan application and fulfilment of the lending criteria. Subsequently, a final e-offer (subject to a successful verification process) for credit up to INR 5Cr for a company with a turnover up to INR 25Cr, can be sanctioned in just 5 working days*. Once the customer accepts the offer, DBS starts the valuation process. The disbursal can be made in as less as a week after the final sanction. DBS offers both, a DBS Relationship Manager (RM) – initiated self-serve (in select locations) as well as an RM-assisted credit application on the DBS Digital Business Loans platform.

Commenting on the offering, Niraj Mittal, Managing Director & Country Head – Institutional Banking Group, DBS Bank India, said, “It is more important now than ever to support our customers, especially the micro & small enterprises, to navigate the challenging business environment. DBS Digital Business Loans proudly underscores the bank’s commitment to supporting lives and livelihoods. We are attempting to leverage the true potential of our online credit platform, and have continued to disburse credit, even amidst the lockdown. DBS has also been offering the ‘Guaranteed Emergency Credit Line’ scheme in line with the government’s Covid-19 relief efforts.”

“Boosting credit access to businesses has been our top priority, and DBS Digital Business Loans for SMEs is another step towards reshaping the future of business banking by leveraging digitalisation. DBS will continue to support enterprises to unlock new opportunities through this solution. DBS Digital Business Loans further strengthens our existing suite of business banking offerings, such as Payments & Collections, Remittances, Forex Solutions including FX Booking & FX Forwards, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integration, APIs, Trade Solutions including DBS Network Letter of Credit, etc.”, Mittal added.

Speaking about the nuances of the online credit platform, Sudarshan Chari, Head – Business Banking, DBS Bank India, said, “We always strive to sanction the adequate quantum of funding with competitive interest rates, to help customers grow their businesses. Leveraging DBS Bank’s technology prowess, we are setting a new industry benchmark with DBS Digital Business Loans. Through this platform, we are sanctioning e-loan offers in a matter of hours, significantly faster than the current market standard of over a week. We require minimal documentation for our decisioning and have even disbursed loans, end-to-end, in under 10 days*. The process is completely transparent, and the borrower can check the status of their loan application online, anytime.”

The bank has completed the pilot run for the DBS Digital Business Loans platform in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Surat, Nashik, Kolhapur, and Kolkata. Loans worth INR 1,000Cr have already been disbursed via the platform to various businesses engaged in trading, manufacturing and services in these markets. Going forward, the bank will also offer the online credit platform to businesses in Gurugram, Noida, Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Nagpur, and Bhubaneswar.

With the establishment of a locally incorporated, wholly-owned subsidiary in 2019 – DBS Bank India Limited, the bank has accelerated its growth plans in the country and is building a greater scale by adopting a ‘phygital’ model. The bank has a total of 35 branches in 25 cities across India. DBS has designed end-to-end digitised solutions to seamlessly interweave banking into everyday life of customers by making it a part of their ecosystem. In keeping with this ethos, it has harnessed the power of technology to design solutions that make banking simpler and invisible for time-strapped business owners. The solutions eliminate the need for cumbersome documentation and offer a seamless and paperless banking experience.

Business World

“Atmanirbhar spirit will result in India coming out much stronger after Covid-19,” says minister Hardeep Singh Puri

Sep 16, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #and the Minister of State, #Atmanirbhar Bharat, #Ministry of Commerce and Industry, #Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation

Kolkata: “The Atmanirbhar Bharat spirit will result in India coming out much stronger after Covid-19 because we are unleashing our animus spirits in terms of self-reliance and work. Some of this is in reaction to global trends. If the global supply chains are unduly dominated by a particular country, and you apprehend difficulties, well thats the genius of the Indian people to quickly rebound and the results are heartwarming,” said Mr Hardeep Singh Puri at a special online session of The Write Circle and in conversation with former diplomat, author and foreign policy analyst, T C A Raghavan, organized by Prabha Khaitan Foundation of Kolkata. The Write Circle is a forum that brings top minds and experts to share perspectives and deep insights from diverse fields and spheres of activity.

Mr Puri, who currently holds three portfolios as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation, and the Minister of State, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in response to a question by Mr. Raghavan further said, “Atmanirbhar Bharat is not intended to be an inward-looking excuse to close our borders to the world. It is a spirit and a resolve to make us more productive and better members of the International Community and the global system. We are on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution with the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and artificial intelligence, and the spirit is to make sure we don’t become a lego or just nuts and bolts. Atmanirbhar will resonate strongly because we want to take advantage of the other supply chains in the world.”

As a career diplomat for 39 years, Mr. Puri has held many important posts including former Representative of India in the United Nations, President of UN Security Council and Chairman of UNSC Counter-Terrorism Committee and others. Mr. Puri has also authored two books Perilous Interventions and Delusional Politics.

Commenting on various challenges and struggles of the COVID pandemic, Mr. Puri said, “Since 6th May India has now (in the fifth phase) brought back over 1.4 million citizens from across the globe during the pandemic. I can say with a sense of confidence that this is the largest evacuation and repatriation mission undertaken at any point of time in human history and the rate at which things are moving we shall set a new record. We were able to do it within reasonable arrangements of social distancing and other safety quotients.”

Touching upon different topics he said that the lockdown has helped us to create necessary infrastructure – the number of beds required; PPEs, ventilators, medicines, etc., that have been exported to many countries in the world, including the developed West.

Puri lauded the Prime Minister for the foresight and courageous steps to combat the pandemic. “The decision to prioritise life and livelihood is a difficult one. Domestic civil aviation was opened on 22nd May and in the pre-COVID days India was handling 2.5 to 3 lakh passengers per day. By Diwali we hope to handle 1.5 to 2 lakh passengers per day and hopefully, by the end of the year we would go back to the pre-covid days,” Puri said.

Talking about his other ministry, he said that they have built more than 6,00,000 public toilets and more than 66,00,000 toilets in individual households. This has helped to reduce the open defecation in India and also helped in gender empowerment by providing safety and security to the girl child. The Yojanas that helped micro industries has played a huge role in tackling covid.These micro industries produced crores of face masks, lakhs of PPE kits and thousands of litres of sanitisers.

Even though a scheme such Awas Yojana shouldn’t be a factor in deciding who to vote for, there is some sort of correlation according to Puri. Even in the case of youngsters who faced job problems came in and voted for Modi ji because there was a clear outline of the plan.

Business World

Informa Markets in India and KDCL Unveil INFRACONEX

Sep 16, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #Atmanirbhar Bharat, #Informa Markets in India, #Managing Director, #MSMEs, #Yogesh Mudras

Gandhinagar, September 16th, 2020: Informa Markets in India, (formerly UBM India), India’s leading B2B exhibition organiser, and K and D Communication Ltd. ( KDCL ) in a Joint Venture, today unveiled a brand new Exhibition ‘ INFRACONEX’ that will cater to the Indian construction equipment sector. The three day Expo slated for 6th-8th August 2021 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, will focus on new launches, automation technology in construction, provide solutions to the industry drivers, and forecast the challenges of the India construction equipment market through high content-driven conference, seminar & product presentation. The announcement was virtually marked by the presence of Shri Satin Sachdeva-Founder President- Construction Equipment Rental Association (CERA); Shri Arvind Patel Chairman Gujarat Contractors Association (GCA); Shri Sanket Shah- Hon. Secretary, GIHED CREDAI, Shri Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, Informa Markets in India, and Shri Samir Kapoor- Head Projects – KDCL at the Virtual Press Conference.

The country’s economy and the construction industry both have faced adversity following the COVID-19 enforced lockdown. This unprecedented scale of events had forced the industry to come to a halt forcing the migrant labour to return to their hometowns as private businesses had pessimistic views and reduced spending. The timing of the expo is in sync with the movements in the market especially in the current pandemic scenario where industries are looking forward to revival. According to a recent research report by GLEEDS, general sentiments in the market show the business to be slowly picking up, however, Q4 2020 shows a poor to moderate returns and a sense of normalcy would be expected to return only in Q2 2021, provided the vaccine is found and distributed in India by year-end 2020.

With the Government’s mission of ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT and vision to increase MSMEs’ contribution to India’s GDP to over 50% from the current 29%, the event will also facilitate the MSME companies with special pricing at the MSME Pavilion and will allow meeting the policymakers & buyers. Apart from providing ease of doing online business, the expo will act as a catalyst for global networking with foreign manufactures.

Speaking at the virtual Press Meet of the unveiling of INFRACONEX 2021, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, Informa Markets in India said, “The Indian road infrastructure and highways construction industry, including the equipment and materials, are the biggest component in driving the economy and the second-largest employer after agriculture. With the government’s projection of ₹111 trillion investments for 2020-25 to develop social and economic infrastructure to boost economic growth, allied industries such as the construction equipment market will be augmented. InfraConex aims to create a business /experience for all the industry stakeholders such as construction equipment companies, distributors, policy makers, government, financial institutions, associations, organizations, forums, and alliances related to the construction equipment market. The expo will also help the MSME companies from the construction sector to connect with the financial institutions to better understand the government policies of funding MSME. This would be especially useful given that 30 % of equipment manufacturers in India comprise Gujarat based MSMEs. Special products zone will be created to display the innovative products manufactured by the MSMEs.”

“We are extremely proud to partner with KDCL for InfraConex that will support us with their worldwide networking, pre-emptive planning, and execution. With a strong base in the western region, our collaboration with KDCL will raise the platform for the construction equipment sector. We look forward to a prolific partnership with them.” He further added.

The expo will be a catalyst in the growth of the construction equipment market by creating meaningful interaction between various stakeholders of the industry such as manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, policymakers, investors, nodal agencies, and associations. It will provide a platform to showcase the path-breaking technologies, automation, and solutions for the industry to ascend to the next level. It will help industry stakeholders explore the latest products and technologies and thereby help them in CAPEX related decision making. The expo will also host a knowledge forum by key influencers of the industry through conferences and seminars and will facilitate mind-stimulating discussion on challenges and way forward for the industry.

Infraconex is well received by associations such as Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association-I-CEMA; Construction Equipment Rental Association- CERA; Crane Owners Association Of India- (COAOI); Builders Association Of India- BAI; Maharashtra Chamber Of Housing Industry- CREDAI- MCHI; Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI); CREDAI Gujarat; National Real Estate Development Council- NAREDCO; Tunneling Association OF India- TAI; Gujarat Contractors Association; Ready Mix Concrete Manufacturers Association -RMCMA and Fluid Power Society Of India.

Exhibitors at the event will be from various industries related to construction such as Earthmoving, Demolition & Transport Equipment; Roads, Ports & Foundation Equipment, Building & Concrete Sector; Lifting, Handling & Hydraulic; Automation & IT; and Safety Equipment. The first physical expo of the construction industry after the COVID pandemic is likely to attract Architects, Builders / Developers, Consultants, Contractors, Distributors /Retailers, Large EPCs, Financial/Leasing Companies, Government Officials, Industry Associations, Mining Companies, OEM Manufacturers, Oil Refineries, Port Companies, Power Plants, Public-Sector Decision Makers, Rental Companies, Safety Companies, and Spare Parts & Component Manufacturers.

Technology

5 go to digital platforms for Hindi & regional content

Sep 13, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #netflix, #Roposo

The lockdown period has led to a boom in Hindi and regional content consumption all over the nation, the consumption of Indic language content, especially Hindi, is the most popular choice during this period. Realizing the enormous potential of native content and its popularity with the masses, there are platforms that have disrupted storytelling on digital platforms by bridging the gap between useful native content and community.

Here are the lists of 5 go to digital platforms for Hindi language:

Netflix:

Netflix is the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with 193 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Netflix has recently launched its user interface in Hindi to enable users who prefer the most-spoken language to easily discover access and enjoy their favourite streaming content in the country.

Momspresso:

Momspresso is India’s largest user-generated content platform for women. The platform produces over 20,000 hindi content pieces on a monthly basis in formats like blogs, Vlogs and 100 word stories. In fact, the platform has revealed that its Hindi page views per user is 2.8 times of english and  with a 18 times higher interaction rate as compared to english. The unique platform that empanels moms to churn out relevant content for women, also partners with global brands like Dettol, Dove, Nestle, which attracts the audience towards the local content. Brands are increasingly leveraging India’s linguistic diversity to connect with consumers and Momspresso is an instrumental driver of such linguistically diverse content. Momspresso has 25000 content creators creating content in 10 regional languages.

Sharechat:

In an attempt to leverage and drive the number of vernacular content users, ShareChat proposes to be India’s answer to Facebook, Twitter and similar social networking platforms. Headquartered in Bengaluru, ShareChat was founded in 2015 by IIT-Kanpur alumni Bhanu Singh Pratap, Farid Ahsan and Ankush Sachdeva. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, ShareChat enables users to post and share videos, songs, images and other content, as well as discover content that is topical and trending. Users can interact with content in several Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Telugu, etc.

Hubhopper:

Hubhopper is India’s largest podcasting and audio-on-demand platform. It has over a million hours of audio content spread across twelve vernacular languages. It has also launched Online Studio for the potential audio content creators in India, and has seen a good traction of storytellers from towns like Bihar, Assam, etc. With 70,000+ daily active users on its platforms, Hubhopper helps brands target the right audience by streaming advertisements on selective regional and community-focused podcasts. Some of its leading podcasts are Paranormal Reality,  Spanecdotes by Sonata and Kachi Mitti – A Body of Barefoot Stories.

Roposo:

Roposo is a social media sharing platform that lets its users create images, video and other shareable content using editing tools. Based out of Gurugram, Roposo was founded in 2012 by IIT Delhi alumni Avinash Saxena, Mayank Bhangadia and Kaushal Shubhank. The app is currently available in 8 languages namely Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali, for users to explore and expresses themselves in. Roposo further plans to introduce languages like Odiya and Assamese among others and state that users can share content on their app without the risk of their message being lost in translation.

Business World

StartupXseed Launches Second Fund of Rs.200 Crores for investing in Seed and Growth stages in Deep Tech space

Sep 8, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #Aarav Unmanned Systems, #Mr. B. V. Naidu, #StartupXseed Ventures

StartupXseed Ventures, announces an Rs.200 Cr Fund II, focussed at investing in Deep Tech, B2B focussed companies, from Seed to Early Growth Stages. The Fund announced its first closing with Rs.65 Crores of Commitments from Existing & new LPs and plans to complete the fundraising in the next 6-9 months.

Founded by Mr. B. V. Naidu (Former Director STPI) and Mr. Ravi Thakur, along with Mr. Mohandas Pai (through Aarin Capital), V. Balakrishnan, and other like-minded leaders from the Industry, in a short span the fund has found its niche in investing into 12 Deep Tech, disruptive companies and also exited 3 investments. Fund – I returned 35% of the principal much before it had completed the final drawdown and investment cycle.

The Fund I investments include Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS), AIBono, Anlyz, AlphaIC, Bellatrix, CloudSEK, DarwinBox, ShieldSquare, Siliconch Systems, Singularity Dynamics, SmarterBiz, and Steradian Semiconductors. The portfolio continues to be healthy and these companies are on a growth path despite the current pandemic situation.

Building on the track record, Fund II will invest Rs 3 Crores to Rs 10 Crores per round in emerging deep tech start-ups from SaaS to SpaceTech including the areas of Cyber Security, Silicon IP, HealthTech, FinTech, AgriTech, and AI/ML.

The Investor base includes successful Tech Entrepreneurs, HNI’s, and Family offices. Despite the pandemic affecting the broader sentiment, several of the existing Investors participated with higher commitments.

Mr. B.V. Naidu, Managing Partner, StartupXseed, commented, “In Fund II, we will continue to focus on Deep Tech companies with capital-efficient business models. Our strategy has worked out very well in the Fund I and is reflected in the performance. Over these years, we have built a team, quality deal flow network, deal evaluation framework, post-investment hand-holding and demonstrated exits.”

Commenting on the occasion Mr. T.V. Mohandas Pai said, “StartupXseed has found its niche and unique positioning amongst venture funds. It will continue to build on its Fund I performance. India is today at the cusp of building technology innovations and start-ups are at the core of it playing a pivotal role and Venture funds like StartupXseed catalyzes the growth of these start-ups.”

Mr. Ravi Thakur, Co-founding Partner, StartupXseed, said, “We have been investing in good companies even during the COVID–19 and the horizon is looking good for investment with many advanced technologies being developed locally. With this new landscape, Fund II will continue the momentum to find exceptional leaders working on the greatest of ideas.”

Jayant Paleti, Co-Founder, DarwinBox, (StartupXseed Fund I Portfolio Co) said “The StartupXseed team has demonstrated great commitment towards the startup ecosystem and have always kept the interests of founders at the forefront in every decision they make. They have exhibited great sensitivity & care while working with us and we have benefited immensely from their involvement.”

Business World

cemX launches new credit feature in India

Sep 8, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #cemX, #India’s pioneer e-commerce cement firm

cemX- India’s pioneer e-commerce cement firm has joined hands with ZestMoney, to launch a first-of-its-kind holistic approach for quick and affordable EMI options for their end customers. This will be the first time when an EMI credit option shall be offered to any Building Material customer to cope up with the financing challenges of small and medium builders in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India.

Commenting on the occasion, Ashutosh Kumar Jha (Founder & CEO), cemX, said, “We are excited to have taken up this new opportunity for our e-purchasers. Our vision is to empower the community by enabling them easy to pay EMI options. This will immensely benefit the tier two and tier three customers by reducing their financial burdens while keeping their dream of building a house unimpaired.”

Adding to the same, Sourav Chakraborty (Co-Founder & CBO), cemX, said, “We at cemX, are trying to ensure payment feasibility for our clients by introducing the credit options. This will not only help us enrich our clientele but will also unleash our clients’ financial predicaments.”

The e-commerce store facilitates and aggregates cement procurement while ensuring cost-effectiveness for the BOP sections of tier 2 and tier 3 cities to provide hassle and bargain free cement deals. Through this partnership with ZestMoney, customers acquiring cement online will be able to overcome the inconveniences of bank loans seamlessly, thereby supporting the Indian MSME companies. The minimum amount of loan is as low as five thousand with a capping of two lakhs, where the interest rate is 0.75% per month.

Business World

VOICE aims to restore lost shine of global jewellery industry

Sep 8, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #global jewellery industry

The jewellery industry across the globe suffered a major setback due to the COVID 19 pandemic. In countries like India, especially, it has been hit hard owing to a long list of cancelled or postponed events like weddings.

At a time now when the Indian, as well as global industry eye revival amidst lockdown relaxations, Italian Exhibition Group (IEG), as organizer of Vicenzaoro – among other shows –,, has announced an extraordinary event titled VOICE to be held at the Vicenza Expo Centre from Saturday 12th to 14th September 2020. VOICE, in precedence of a trade show re-boot with Vicenzaoro in January 2021, will reunite the gold and jewellery sector to relaunch businesses and export activities around the world. The event is curated by IEG in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Italian Trade Agency and will specifically focus on innovating, organizing and acting responsibly. The event will take place guaranteeing full health protection of companies and visitors in compliance with IEG’s #SAFEBUSINESS project (https://www.iegexpo.it/it/safebusiness), providing more than fifty guidelines, from the digitalization of tickets and payments, to temperature controls, to a sanitization route. IEG has furthermore chosen the GBAC STARTM program to reach the international standard of sanitation for the Vicenza exhibition center. Set to usher in the industry’s global re-start, VOICE will be presented in a unique format with “phygital” — physical and virtual — realities coming together.

Italy is known for its handcrafted jewellery with the “Made in Italy” hallmark being synonymous with excellence in jewellery craftsmanship. The country is looked up to as an international centre for design, fashion and style and Italian-made jewels are among the most sought after in the world. Italy is also known to be at the forefront of manufacturing technology for jewellery.  Hence, an event that comes from this rich and varied heritage is being viewed as landmark.

For countries like India, VOICE holds increased importance as an event that will re-instill a fresh lease of life for its jewellery business against the backdrop of global issues like surging gold and silver prices, and huge uncertainty across the retail landscape. In India, the jewellery industry has suffered a massive damage as mass shopping came to a standstill and no footfalls were witnessed at jewellery stores despite the scheduled peak wedding season. March 2020 was the 12th consecutive month that did not witness any positive YoY exports growth. In FY20, gross exports of gems and jewellery fell by 10 per cent YoY to $35,531 mn. Key commodities such as cut and polished diamonds, rough diamonds, gold medallions and coins and coloured gemstones witnessed declining exports demand.

The industry was already facing challenges in the form of customs duties and fall in exports amongst others. The sudden rise in pricing had resulted in a drop-in sales in the past few months. The pandemic outbreak further led to huge losses given that all retail stores were shut during the lockdown. The world’s second biggest gold consumer saw demand tumbling down as it witnessed the slowest pace of growth in the last decade.

At a time like this, platforms like VOICE are slated to go a long way in helping the Indian jewellery industry look towards revival with lockdowns gradually easing and the market opening up.

‘VOICE’ will aim to give a voice to the Indian as well as global jewellery world, acting as a trend inversion and economic reactivation point. Events will unfold via cutting-edge integration with the most sophisticated television broadcasting systems and digital instrumentation to ensure that all sessions and seminars will be broadcast live on platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook to be viewed all over the world.

Over three days, VOICE will act as a summit where opinion leaders from the international jewellery fraternity: From Damiani Group’s CEO to the Executive Director of De Beers, from the President of the World Diamond Council to the President of the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), from the Executive Director of the Responsible Jewellery Council to CEOs from all the most esteemed Italian gold and jewellery companies, including Bulgari and Pomellato, will discuss and deliberate over various topics including state of the industry and the upcoming challenges. Jewellery brands and designers will also be able to present their new collections, latest design trends and most contemporary procedures and processing innovations. An elegant and essential outfitting context will welcome those buyers who are physically participating in the event. Meanwhile, a Buyer Virtual Room will be set up for virtual participants who may find it difficult to travel to Italy.

Marco Carniello, Group Brand Director Jewellery & Fashion, Italian Exhibition Group said, “Businesses across the world are gradually picking up and are looking for revival. After months of not having live events, VOICE will present a robust platform that will be a mix of live and digital. It aims to offer a voice to stakeholders from the global jewellery industry to present their new collections, latest design trends and contemporary processing innovations. We are excited to bring the international jewellery industry together again.”

VOICE will also be a showcase for products, with trade contacts readily provided to stakeholders to pursue business opportunities. The summit will be a mix of education and insights to help create future trade and solve existing challenges.