Category Archives: digital

EVC announces $50m fund for Indian startups, plans to invest in IoT, ad-tech and e-commerce

Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital (EVC), a global venture capital firm has announced to invest a fund of $50 million in India. The organisation aims to build and support technology ventures in sectors such as the Internet of things (IoT), mobile space, ad-tech, e-commerce, gaming, wearables and education.

Entreprenuership

The venture capital fund also operates EVC Accelerators in the United States and India where it provides capital and mentorship to help entrepreneurs turn ideas into unicorns.

EVC is likely to invest between $100,000 to $5,000,000 from its fund EVC II in exchange for equity in growth-stage companies that fit its investment criteria.

Anjili Jain, Managing Partner, EVC said,

Today, India has emerged as one of the most assuring entrepreneurial landscapes. We have launched the fund looking at the opportunities that Indian ecosystem has to offer. We also aim to bridge the existing gap in the ecosystem by supporting new businesses that can put India on the global entrepreneurial map.

The VC firm says that it sees IoT, ad-tech, e-commerce, gaming and education are the main sectors where the business growth lie.

According to a report by IDC, the global IoT market is expected to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020. Devices, connectivity, and IT services are expected to account for two-thirds of the IoT market by 2020. Google has also shown keen interest in this space. In 2014, the search engine acquired smart thermostat maker Nest Labs for $3.2 billion.

Gaming is another potential industry which is waiting to take a giant leap. According to a report, the gaming industry earned a total of $10.5 billion in revenue in 2009. In 2014, that figure quadrupled– the gaming industry had raked in over $46 billion.

The VC firm says that e-commerce is one of the sectors which holds the largest business potential; and it’s impossible to avoid this sector. Besides, various studies have also predicted the potential growth in the e-commerce sector. Recently, as per industry body Assocham, the e-commerce industry in the country is likely to be worth $38 billion by 2016, a 67 per cent jump over the USD 23 billion revenues for 2015.

Early investment

During February this year, EVC supported Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCOE) with $ 4 million for its Innovation in Mobile App Development Ecosystem (I-MADE) program.

Innovation in Mobile App Development Ecosystem (I-MADE) framework is a 5 year program in which one hundred (100) institutes will be selected to be a part in Phase I of the program. Phase II will include up to 3000 institutions. The goal of the program is to help Indian entrepreneurs build 1 million mobile app start-ups which can eventually become Indian unicorns.

This post is cross posted from YourStory.com / with lead from EVC.

#TweetToFarmer an initiative by Mother Dairy Milk!

That was simply great to be able to ‪#‎TweetToFarmer‬ courtesy Mother Dairy Milk 🙂

Happy to be featured in the video by way of a tweet and love the happiness of the farmers featured there, without whom we wont have our daily food or rather daily milk!

This was a part of celebrating the Birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien the Man who made the Operation Flood a success that has made India the largest milk producing country in the world.

It feels lovely to see the video and those smiles and heartfelt messages, from them that they will keep them safe and cherish those messages made me overwhelmed. It was humbling to see those faces.

#MotherDairy celebrated India’s Milkman – Dr.Verghese Kurien’s birthday, by connecting urban consumers to the dairy farmers with a social initiative called #TweetToFarmer.

I loved tweeting to Farmers and for all we know we don’t give them their due. Happy to be a part of the video!

mothers dairy1 mothers dairy

This is the video for you 🙂

Senthilkumar

#MadeForIndia 360 Security Lite App – a must have app!

There was a question on what are the basic necessities for human being to lead a life on earth, normally the answer used to be clothing, shelter and food, these days it is actually mobile phone then clothing, shelter and food. The journey of the phone has also come a long way and the present set of users are directly graduating to use the best of the features. A smart phone is one of the best inventions ever since the telephone was invented if you ask me.

There is a reason that the phone with multiple features in your hands is called a smart phone. It’s  just that the smartness is on us to take advantage of the phone and every day we come across some of the best apps that we believe can change the way we look at the phone perhaps the way, even life itself.

Then there is an appworld out there where every app maker is churning the best and sometimes try to push you to get to use it. But rarely do we get solutions as a part of the app. On such app is the 360 Security Lite app.

There are two important things for your phone to be a smart phone, a nice memory management and then the most important power management.

360 Security Lite app makes that possible getting you the fast memory and an efficient batttery. That’s the first part of boosting the phone in literal terms. The junk files are nothing but junk and then you need it to be out of the system. Junk shud be where it belongs never in your system. Easy way to be clean was just a tap in the circle to clean it up.

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And when you want to clean your phone off any unwanted files that keep your power and perfomance on wane, without your knowledge you have an important task that happens when you use the Clean tab. Scan it and make it clean.

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And to talk of virus that enters stealthily and makes it worse for us to use the phone. this tab scans for malware and virus and those software that takes your privacy and trasfer them without your knowledge.

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So now I have complete control of getting into slick power management mode with a tap in the app. I know what is wrong and how its tampering with the performance of the phone and its shows!

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You also get to see which are the apps consuming memory and draining battery.  The suggest cleaning gives a lot of information on what is making it slow.

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There are a lot of features like Cleanup reminder and UNinstall reminder a very simple thing that will make a lot of difference. I should give it to the giy who came up with uninstall reminder. Kudos team. The ofcourse you have a Boost Charge and Real Time Protection and App Installation alert.

All in all really a lite app and I am sure this is a must have app that every Phone user read Smart Phone user should have. I would rather put it like this, your phone may be a smart phone but installing this app would make you smart.

Some other apps that make to my list of 4 must apps after 360 Degree Security Lite app are the ones given below:

1. Walnut app: I got to know of this app from my cousin once. I installed it and it went on an overdrive and know what, analysed all the messages in the inbox and gave a nice account statement. I had also made it mandatory on me that i would only use the card to do the transaction and mark the cash accordingly wherever i was going to use it or add it with a bill. It’s given a new way of looking at finances and expenses and where to cut the long rope that i have been giving to some heads of the expense statement.

This is must have app and I believe that this will be one of the most important apps that we should have to keep the checks and balances in life literally. You could rephrase that too keep your cash and balances in life.

2.  WowApp: An all new messenger that not only gives you the easy to use calling features but also gets you to have a network of your own that you can monetise, please check them at https://wowapp.com/w/wsenthilkumar.rajappan and join in from my side.

3. True Caller: An app that lets you see who is calling and if the person actually is connected to you by someone who you know. That has actually made me take a call on whether I should really take a call. Try it for sure.

So it was nice reviewing the app and I believe this is a nice and neatly designed on and then there is 360 Box in case you are interested to see how the new market place ofr apps will look like.

I am reviewing the 360 Degree Security Lite App for the #MadeForIndia activity at BlogAdda.”

Senthilkumar

Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL launched in India

New Delhi, India – November 30, 2015 – Microsoft today announced the launch of Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, the first Lumia phones to come pre-loaded with Windows 10, in India. Designed to offer consumers the best of Windows 10 combined with powerful and performance driven technology, the new flagship devices include innovative features like Cortana, Windows Hello beta for Lumia and Continuum for phones. With stunning HD displays, new PureView cameras with 20 megapixel sensors and triple LED natural flash that shoots 4K video, as well as the latest in processing power, the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL represent the best innovation from Microsoft.

Starting today, the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL will be available for pre-booking at Microsoft Priority Resellers across the country, Microsoft Store on Amazon.in and retail chains of Croma, Reliance and Sangeetha at a best buy price of INR 43,699/- and INR 49,399/- respectively. Consumers will get Microsoft Display Dock free as a limited period offer.[i]Airtel consumers can double their data for free on purchasing their Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XL.

“With the launch of Windows 10, we have ushered in an era of more personal computingwhich is all about interacting more easily, more naturally and more securely in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. Now, with Windows 10 on Lumia we take innovation to the next level and build upon the unique experiences of Windows 10 for phone users,” said Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India. “Designed for Windows fans and mobile professionals who desire a premium phone that takes full advantage of Windows 10, the new flagship devices are powerful, performance-driven, unique and innovative he added.

“We built Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL for people who want the most productive smartphones running the most productive operating system,” said Ajey Mehta, Country General Manager, Microsoft India. “The Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL deliver a familiar and consistent experience that extends across your Windows devices, including innovative features like Cortana, Windows Hello beta for Lumia and Continuum for phones, taking innovation to the next level.”

Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL: The Most productive smartphones on the Planet

  • Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are the first Lumia phones to come pre-loaded with Windows 10 – delivering on our promise of one familiar and consistent experience that transitions seamlessly across Windows devices from key apps like built-in Office to access all your files, both personal as well as professional, via OneDrive and the cloud.
  • Both Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL feature Continuum for phones, enhanced by the optional Microsoft Display Dock accessory. This Windows 10 feature allows people to use their phone like a PC by connecting it to a monitor and transforming it for larger-screen entertainment, or adding a keyboard and mouse to work like a PC with Windows 10 apps like Microsoft Office, while simultaneously taking calls or performing other tasks[1].
  • As the latest premium handsets, these phones boast superior performance. Both devices feature a QuadHD AMOLED display featuring 518 ppi for Lumia 950 XL and 564ppi for Lumia 950, which means photos, videos and even simple reading show up well, even in sunlight.
  • Microsoft’s PureView technology is built into both Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL cameras, boasting a 20MP sensor and triple LED natural flash. The camera captures the perfect image, even in the most challenging conditions, and those photos can be automatically synced across all Windows 10 devices with the Windows Photo app and shared easily with friends and family.Both Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL come with 5MP wide angle front camera.
  • Integrated with Cortana, these phones are perfect for those who want to stay organized and efficient. Cortana works across your entire Windows 10 device family, but is with you all the time with these phones. Set her up to give news updates, calendar reminders, messages, appointments or even flight information.[ii]
  • To make this all possible, both phones also have the latest-generation Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processors to get these things done faster.
  • Full device specs are available here and here.

About Microsoft India

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 6,500 employees engaged in sales and marketing, research and development, and customer services and support across 10 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

[1] Sold separately.Best buy price: Rs. 5,999/-

[i]Sold separately. Best buy price: Rs. 5,999/-

[ii]Cortana experience may vary by region and device

What India reads! A page on Flipkart app

The book lovers have a new tool, well a page on their book section on their favorite shopping app  from folks at Flipkart. The book was the first love of flipkart, well things have changed but then they have tried to please you the book reader with this page!

“What India Reads” is all about what you read or would like to read. The app is designed basis genres for now and will soon feature what celebrities and authors read as well.

The idea of the app is to make readers aware of what books are right at the top and also to help them discover books they might have not known of earlier. There are sections to it, the genres and you could check out the books on the shelf, read about it and well get to buy them ofcourse.

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The chances are you can check out the best of the titles and the promising ones, as you see the title rise to prominence in a day or so post launch.

There is an all book offers that will let you know what are the offers that you have at the present moment.

I was wondering on a title Aarushi under Autobiographies, may be it was a a mistake so i clicked on it to find the Autobiography titles there. Not Aarushi.

The pages instead of going to normal pages at Flipkart could be better be designed to the flow of the app interface for the What India reads page and continue with the shopping experience. I am thinking native probably because of my work and professional background.

Another aspect could have been that they have a notification for you to check the What India reads page updation of new titles so that I get to go there quite often.

A nice attempt from Flipkart, hope it helps the readers in you and me and as a start it definitely looks nice to have it.

Senthil

 

 

The Lumia 535 Smart Buyback Offer” Buyback at Rs. 5,999*

Lumia Buy Back offer

Lumia has announced a buyback offer!

What’s the offer?

  • Exchange your old phone and buy new Lumia 535 for Rs. 5,999*
  • The offer is valid from 7th August 2015 for a limited period till stock lasts.

This offer is available on purchase of Lumia 535 at all the authorized re-sellers of Lumia devices across India.

What’s more?

Consumers can also get a cash back* of up to Rs. 3,600 in their Mobikwik wallet

Devices that the offer is valid on:

  • Lumia 535, 540, 640, 640 XL, 730 and 430.

The cashback offer can be redeemed over a period of one year, Rs.300/- per month. Use code <LUMIA300> to avail the offer.

#AchieveMore with Lumia 535

  • Front camera: 
5MP wide angle
  • Flash type: 
LED flash
  • Processor type: 
Quad-core 1.2GHz
  • Maximum talk time (3G): 
13 h

Achieve more with built-in OneDrive, 5 MP wide-angle front facing camera & 5″ (12.7 cm) screen.

Lumia 535 comes packed with premium features, the Lumia 535 Dual SIM sports a colorful design, easy readability in sunlight on a large five-inch display and a quad-core processor for a smooth smartphone experience. And if the built-in 8 GB of internal storage up to 30 GB of free OneDrive storage isn’t enough, bulk up to an additional 128 GB by adding a microSD card.

The Lumia 535 Dual SIM comes with the latest version of Windows Phone. And with regular over-the-air updates, you’ll always have the newest software. In class or at work, with Microsoft Office built in, and quick access to your files through OneDrive, viewing and editing your documents is easy. And you get up to 30 GB of free OneDrive storage – upload your photos and share them with friends in a private folder.

The GOQii The coaching fitness band

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There are wearables and there are wearables with a human touch and a human connect. We are afterall human beings and have this tendency to be in touch, irrespective of all the tech jargons thrown at us.

I was thrilled when I got a chance to be a part of the review program for GOQii. I have always had Vishal Gondal as an inspiration for what he has been to the Indian startup ecosystem.

Having been a part of his timeline, I have always wondered how GOQii was setting the standard as a fitness wearable in the worlds of other wannabes including tidfit and the like.

So when the mail came I was all pumped up and then there was another thing happening in Coimbatore. The city was hosting its signature marathon – Coimbatore Marathon on Oct 4th and this was a best way to use the stuff review and then enjoy the three month subscription period for free.

So whats special with GOQii you ask. The appearance of the health band is a visual delight, the black core ensemble inside a red black band.

The digital band has all the features which appear at the touch of your finger. Ofcourse you cannot work on the core independently. You got to do everything when connected to the GOQii app in your smart phone. With every touch on the core you get the time, steps taken, distance covered, calories burnt and the karma points added that day. This can also track your sleep.

The installation and conection is easy, this one band came with a 3 months subscription to a personal coach. You get to choose who you want to work with according to your goals and fitness regime that you want to take.

This is the USP of GOQii that unlike other fitness wearable this comes with a personal touch of a coach who monitors you and yeah keeps in touch with you on mail, chat or a skype if you want. The best part is that it can actually get you to be like an offline stuff being at the gym watched  by the personal gym instructor to an extent.

Have a look at the ecosystem of the GOQii in here. Did I tell you that you can get all the karma points for all the actions that you do and then  you can transfer or donate for free.

 

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Now to the usage, the food and water component of your daily activities need to be added manually, I think this can be from a already existing stuff because its very predictable. And Water intake could be a question format to click on how many liters we drank with a median in there.

GOQii can connect to all the app except that we need separate accounts to each of those apps to sign in and get it there.

The personal coach take their work seriously and that makes us to really get on with what we want. There’s someone watching you and that gives you a reason to be on the road, hit the road and run literally.

You need to connect to the Bluetooth everyday and update and this sends your info to the personal coach.

The battery lasts for over 3 days in my case a starter perhaps, and it needs to be in the adapter to be charged say may an hour or so.

Overall a nice experience compared to the other ones that have features but here it makes it up with a personal touch. May be this will come with the better features on the other aspects of health and fitness and will be a force to reckon with.

#BeTheForce

ELUGA ICON – Panasonic’s new phone is exclusively available on Amazon!

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New Delhi, 10th August, 2015: Panasonic India has exclusively tied up with Amazon.in, India’s largest e-commerce online portal to launch its latest Smartphone, the Eluga Icon. ELUGA Icon went live today on Amazon India’s ‘Exclusive’ page. With this exclusive collaboration, The new Smartphone equipped with a large 5.5 HD IPS screen with enhanced colours promises an unparalleled visual delight for its consumers.

The Smartphone with India 4G/LTE band network support is equipped with an outstanding processing power with a superfast 1.5 GHz True Octa Core Processor providing an effortless experience when it comes to playing games, watching videos and switching between apps. In addition, the device has a powerful 8 MP Front camera and a superb 13 MP rear Camera with auto focus and LED flash. The Icon is also equipped with cool features like ICON User Interface providing single access to apps, iSense – a unique hand hover gesture based functionality, Smart Awake – Double Tap to wake-up screen, Air Swipe Unlock, Mediatek Hot-Knot and Blink Play feature for taking selfies or groupies with a blink of an eye. . On Battery capacity, the Icon supports a powerful 3500 mAh battery providing longer battery durability than available in other products in this segment and weighs only 147gm. Overall, the 7.9mm Uni-body Eluga Icon is a perfect unification of sleek & appealing aesthetics and innovative interface with a multitude of inbuilt applications.

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Performance beyond boundaries

The Eluga Icon is really iconic when it comes to performance. The large 2GB RAM makes it the best choice for uninterrupted performance and its 16 GB ROM expandable upto 32 GB provides ample of storage capacity.

Catch the speed

For a blazing fast experience, The Eluga Icon comes with superfast 4G LTE capability which makes this a beast of a device. Hence, streaming and downloading wouldn’t be a time consuming task anymore.

Icon user interface

The refreshingly new Icon User interface gives a “Single Tap” access to all applications, automatically arranges apps in thematic folders & complex functional menus are made simple yet topped with beautiful interface. Adding to that, the Smart iSense technology from Eluga Icon is equipped with a bouquet of gesture based features to provide convenience like never before.

Speaking on the launch, Mr. Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India said “Increased internet penetration and growing popularity of online shopping, combined with the upsurge in smartphones has fuelled the growth of online retailing in India. In line with this, Panasonic India has exclusively tied up with Amazon in order to cater to the changing needs of the Indian consumers. With an aim to make technology accessible to all, this partnership not only reinforces our commitment to meet the consumer demands on-the-go but also amplifies our reach to a larger audience.”

Sharing his thoughts, Mr. Pankaj Rana, Business Head – Mobility Division, Panasonic India, further added,- “At Panasonic, we believe in incorporating phenomenal features in our devices which cater to the changing customers demand. In line with this, we have come up with our new Eluga Icon which offers advanced features like the Smart iSense Technology which supports Single Tap & Blink Play which in turn enhances user experience.”

Airtel rolls out 4G with a challenge for a lifetime!

This is definitely a great news in more ways than one. India just shifted gears officially so to say with Airtel going 4G. This will open up a new set of internet users who are on the move and have always wanted speed more than anything else.

The best part here is the definition of speed, some of my test with Airtel across the country have given me speeds at 35Mbps imagine a 100 Mb file downloaded in 4 seconds! And rendering a HD video without any buffering and smooth as butter loading and you wont know the full movie is up for you to see.

Now the best part is I have been using 4G for sometime and have had different experiences across different parts of the city – reference is Coimbatore here and some places away from the city say Goa too.

The testing was on a Galaxy A5 and a Mi4i handsets.

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As I have already told you this is better than those early days and I did have some difficulty in connecting to normal voice at times when they might have been working on the migration part.

So you want to know how the world will change for you with 4G here’s the TVC that was unveiled today!

The pricing is the key probably for us in India we are very price conscious at every thing that we come across, kitna deti hai types. But the catch is its at the same 3G price.

The thing is we would be easily be driving the bandwidth usage given that 4G can drive upto 30 plus Mbps and thats just 10 instances of 100 Mb downloads for 1 Gb usage!

But you know the life changes for you with so much speed you can do a lot more things faster and take time off for yourself. The transfers that we had officially has now become easier than ever and have time to stretch ourselves for a chai at the canteen.

I think we have been lucky to transfer ourselves from 3G which we have not seen the full potential and to 4G is as insane as it can get. This will have real impact on education and health and other important applications and that can have far reaching impact on the society. I look forward to the positive things that this can drive about.

The consumption of video thats happening and the information search will be interesting to see and how this can enable a brand to reach out to the customers is a big challenge that I can foresee. This is a nice opportunity that way for every one trying to reach out with the power of 4G.

Welcome to a new life of 4G and I have a word of caution, the speed are too hot to handle in literal sense that you would have finished your quota of 2Gb 3G bandwidth in no time!

A colleague of mine went without internet on data mode for 5 days because of testing 4G and exhausting the data! But yeah revel in it till the prices hold to the 3G days!

It almost looks like 3G was so very slow, ask me I started with the 128 kbps telecom connection some 15 years back, upgraded to ISDN courtesy my work at a medical transcription unit and then to the normal broadband, mobile 2G then the 3G which was not fully utilised.

Even the cat look on!
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Forget Buffering! Picture6

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Only on Airtel 4G the speeds are redefined for 4G!Picture10

Are you ready to take the challenge? Life time free mobile!Picture11

Welcome again to a new way of life called Airtel 4G!

Senthilkumar