Ideate, September 2014 Issue by SummIT NMIMS

EDITOR’S NOTE

TEAM SUMMIT

Dear Readers, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” ― Arthur C. Clarke, British writer and inventor

Can we use this magic to make every aspect of our life more productive, effective and fruitful? We have tried to explore some of the best uses of this magic of technology in this edition.

President S. K. ARJUN Vice President PRATYUSH PANDA Creatives Head MEGHNA GUPTA Editorials Head VIBHU VATSALA SOOD Treasurer & Events Head

SummIT- The Technology Cell of NMIMS, presents to you our September newsletter ‘IDEATE’ on the theme “Technology Unlimited- Making the world a better place”. We received several interesting articles from many B-Schools for the featured article space, we are glad to present the top three for your perusal. For our guest speak section, we are immensely gratified to have an insightful interview with Mr. Amrit Pal, Product Head, Kopo Kopo Inc.,covering various aspects on financial inclusion and the opportunities surrounding it. SummIT always strives to get the best for its readers and this edition is no different. We bring you scintillating products making their way in the markets, innovative companies and a new section – Meme Corner. For the Meme contest we saw a huge participation with fascinating and wacky entries by students from NMIMS; we present to you the top entries.

RIDDHI KUNDU New Initiatives Head TARUN GUPTA

We thank the authors and the esteemed guest for their valuable contributions. We are also grateful to our readers’ constant patronage which has encouraged IDEATE to reach new heights. For feedbacks and suggestions, kindly drop a mail to summit@nmims.org. Happy Reading!! -The Editor, SummIT

IDEATE SEPTEMBER 2014

WHAT IS IN STORE...

GUEST SPEAK IMPROVING GOVERNANCE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON INCLUSIVE GROWTH TECHNOLOGY’S VIEW FROM THE GRASSROOTS

STARTUP TECH-SHOTS MEME CORNER IDEATE SEPTEMBER 2014

ADVERTORIAL

IDEATE SEPTEMBER 2014

GUEST SPEAK

Mr. Amrit Pal is the Head of Product, Kopo Kopo Inc. He leads the global product roadmap in the firm, serving tens of thousands of merchants integrated with several telecom networks. SummIT team is delighted to present to you the highlights of our insightful interaction with Mr. Pal regarding the firm, its work and its scope in India. Kopo Kopo is a Kenyan company that provides business management software and serves 10,000+ SMEs throughout East Africa. It helps the SMEs to accept mobile payments and build relationships with customers. It has also collaborated with Safaricom to bring the M-PESA service to small and medium businesses throughout Kenya. Building the world's first mobile money platform for merchants in the emerging markets, is also in progress. SummIT: How did Kopo Kopo get started and what do they do? Mr. Amrit: Kopo Kopo is a USincorporated company, with a Kenyan DNA and global ambitions. It was born in the country of Sierra Leone with an intent to help traditional microfinance institu-

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tions use mobile payments. The name Kopo Ko po originates from 'KobbohKobboh' a word used for money, in the Kriolanguage. Over the last 3 years of its journey, KopoKopo has identified merchants as an under-served segment and hence, it aims to help them grow their 1

GUEST SPEAK business through a suite of products surrounding electronic payments.

SummIT: How does the M-PESA payment system work? Mr. Amrit: M-PESA is simply the storage of electronic value of money on a phone's SIM card. One can draw parallels with a prepaid phone balance, which can be treated as a currency. If made freely fungible between two people, this balance money can act as any currency would. Mobile operators in emerging markets build networks based on this idea and call it mobile money. Starting around 2006, mobile money has seen a rapid growth across scores of countries, especially in the southern hemisphere. The model of working is amazingly simple. One can deposit cash at any one of the several thousands of 'mobile money agents' operated by telecom operators, very similar to paying a visit to a nearby mobile agent to recharge balance. Next, the agent sends back the electronic equivalent of the cash deposited, directly to the SIM card of the depositor. Both the parties receive confirmation messages on their phones. Further, one can choose to send electronic money to any phone number or buy coffee at a local shop. Or, if the depositor wants, he/she can withdraw cash at any of the agentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; shops.

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SummIT: How has your product and services helped SMEs and start-ups? Can you share some success stories? Mr. Amrit: Our mission is to help our merchantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; businesses grow and prosper in East Africa, and soon, across the world. Kenya's biggest pizza delivery chain does not have to worry about change, because their delivery personnel can accept payments right at a customer's doorstep in his mobile. A shoemaker in Kibera can travel downtown and walk back home, without worrying about his cash being stolen. More recently, we have started lending to our merchants based on their transaction histories. Our merchants use the cash to grow their businesses and we are delighted to support them in their journeys.

SummIT: A few weeks ago, KopoKopo processed their 1,000,000th payment. Tell us something about this journey. Mr. Amrit: We were knee-deep in launching our latest product and clueless about this milestone of a million payments flying past us. It's frankly, unbelievable! I distinctly recall the moment we built our first data dashboard. Ben, Dylan and I would rejoice on every single payment we received. Starting at about three payments a day, we now process a few million dollars every month. We 2

GUEST SPEAK have gone from 6 employees in a tiny of- fraud, but the extent of fraud. If we can fice to 43 employees spread across three keep in check the extent of these frauds in countries. It may all just be a dream, that our payments, we can assure our customwe haven't woken up from yet. ers safe transactions. As technologies mature and big data beSummIT: What do you think is the future comes pervasive, fraud detection becomes of the payments industry in India? incredibly sophisticated. We keep pace Mr. Amrit: Traditionally, regulators in India with these front edge technologies. have been rigid about payments. As a result, the uptake has been slow and organic. India's extreme diversity also makes SummIT:What prospects are there in this it a difficult market to scale. However, it’s industry for B-school students like us? only a matter of time when such payments What skills are required to enter in this take flight. We are already witnessing a segment? huge uptake in card usage, thanks to ubiq- Mr. Amrit: It's a fledgling industry, with a uitous e-commerce services like Flipkart unique mix of experienced professionals and Uber. More recently, the RBI an- and rebellious upstarts. It's also incredibly nounced a tailor-made category of complex as you are dealing with people's 'payment banks', dedicated to payment money. Hence, the growth has been slow services. We can actually witness that it's till now. However, we are witnessing a renall coming together –Vodafone M-PESA aissance with new technologies like the and Airtel Money, which are already pre- Bitcoin disrupting legacy institutions. Also sent in India, are waiting to contribute to with increased mobile penetration, this inthe ecosystem. dustry is set to rise in the future. SummIT: What is your take on the security of such payments in an era of hacking? Mr. Amrit: The threat of security breach is real and omnipresent. Like all other things, technology can be used for productive or destructive works. It will be incorrect to claim that mobile payments guarantee safe and secure transaction every time. The idea is to keep striving to make each payment as secure as possible. Like spam in your email inbox, it’s not about the presence of IDEATE SEPTEMBER 2014 3

To enter this segment, specifically in skills, finance, technology, product and design all contribute in their own unique ways. MBAs have a thorough understanding of finance; this skill can be leveraged as the core operation of this sector is to handle payments. In Indian market, since this sector is yet to gain pace, a good deal of marketing skills are also required to convince the customers to use such products. Skills can be learnt over time, but a genuine passion for technology, tolerance for uncertainty and trust in your colleagues, go a long way.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Improving Governance through Technology - RAVI SINGH ,SBM, NMIMS MUMBAI

The saying that, India lives in its villages is close to reality even now, after more than 6 decades of independence. India, according to the 2011 national census, has a population of 1,201 million people, 1/6th of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population, living in 5000 towns and cities and 5,81,000 villages. This population has grown by 9.21% over the past decade. Among the countless serious challenges the nation faces, managing & improving the quality of life of the rapidly growing and changing rural communities, is one that requires our utmost attention.

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In the past decade, the Government of India had launched a number of egovernance projects. These projects help the GOI to increase the reach, enhance the base, increase transparency, minimize costs and decrease cycle times of government service delivery. State Governments have also initiated creation of State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) to facilitate electronic access of the state and district administration services to rural citizens.

FEATURED ARTICLE GOI provides e-Services through physical facilities in rural and remote locations called Common Services Centres (CSC). The CSCs (SarvaSeva Kendra) started as part of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in 2006. They provide cost effective and high quality video, voice and data content, in the areas of e-governance, health, telemedicine, education, entertainment as well as other private services. They also offer web-enabled egovernance services including application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, water & telephone bills.

Ravi Singh is a second year Marketing student at NMIMS, Mumbai. His hobbies include swimming, reading and following technology Almost all the rural e-governance projects, including news. CSC centres are public-private-partnership (PPP) contractual arrangements. From design, development & content creation in regional languages for the software applications to installation of networking and computer systems, these PPPs have helped in reducing the burden on the government. Private partners bring in expertise, offer better value proposition and an enhanced speed of implementation. Currently, 1.3 lakh CSC centres have been opened across rural India. The rollout has been fairly successful in the north-east. The CSC Framework is 3-tier: 1) At the 1st (CSC) level is the local Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE- similar to a franchisee), to service the rural consumer in a focused cluster of 5-6 villages. 2) At the 2nd level is an entity termed the Service Centre Agency (SCA â&#x20AC;&#x201C; similar to a franchiser); to train, manage & build the VLE businesses 3) At the 3rd level is the agency designated by the Statethe State Designated Agency (SDA); to facilitate the implementation of the Scheme within the State, and to provide policy, content and financial support to the

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FEATURED ARTICLE SCAs. VLE is key to the operations of a CSC. A good VLE would be expected to have not only financial power, but also entrepreneurial spirit, a strong social commitment as well as respect within the community to make the CSC sustainable. The entire implementation of CSCs and their running is monitored online through various tools: A) CSC Smart is an application that tracks rollout progress from the block level up to the stage where CSCs are finally commissioned. This application tracks CSCs over stages, such as selection of SCAs, choice of CSC sites, identification of VLEs, setting up of IT infrastructure, online connectivity, commissioning and the final certification of CSCs. In addition, the system also tracks status of BSNL connectivity at various CSCs and provides useful performance information. B) Post CSCs are commissioned; the online CSC monitoring solution application helps in registration of CSC IT terminals and tracks uptime of these terminals. Each CSC Computer is required to install and register the online monitoring tool. The registration process serves as a proof of availability of CSC IT

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terminals as authenticated by their unique Machine IDs and internet availability for delivering digital services. C) The CSC Online Dashboard provides MIS system for registration and uptime status of CSCs across India and tracks the performance of CSCs, SCAs and States based on uptime

logs created and disseminated by the online monitoring tool. D) CSC Connect is another facility that is available to various Service Access Provider (SAP) Portals to allow CSCs to login to their portals using their unique CSC ID / password combination obtained through the CSC Online Monitoring System. This facility saves the CSC from the trouble of registering their profiles and remembering their IDs and password with multiple SAPs. This application creates a centralized database of CSCs, VLEs with their

FEATURED ARTICLE SehatSathiTM – Portable Model for Primary Healthcare Delivery provides a contact through a trained non-medical person and back-end support from doctors, pathologists and other healthcare professionals for diagnosis and treatment. Currently, tele-ophthalmology module is deployed at 16 remotes centres in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan with front end services provided by Venue Eye Institute & Research Centre, New Delhi. addresses, email and contact details. Access to the system depends on the stakeholder’s role and geographic usage. For the Government it provides a single waterfall view of CSCs from All India-State- DistrictBlock to the ultimate CSC. There are various services being provided through this route. These include Agricultural Services where information about Agriculture (eKrishi), Horticulture, Sericulture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, and Veterinary are disseminated to the farmers. CSCs also provide basic IT/Computer Training to villagers, vocational training and even help them prepare a resume and upload it so that they are able to apply for jobs online. Basic e-mail services and the online booking of tickets are included in the services. Healthcare services like Tele-medicine has helped in providing state of the art medical services reach remote villages.

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eDhanwandhariTM – Rural Telemedicine System, facilitates the treatment of rural patients by connecting primary health centres/CSCs/remote hospitals to speciality hospitals. Today, it is accessible to 1.7 lakh people in Tirur Taluk of Kerala. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to citizens, as articulated in the Vision Statement of NeGP"Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man" The next step of major transformation in service delivery through e-governance is going to be brought through the unique identification card “Aadhaar”. Aadhaar UID will be used for direct delivery of benefits to millions of recipients, bypassing the gov

FEATURED ARTICLE -ernment officials. These services will include subsidy in cash for BPL Population, transfer of MGNREGA benefits to the Aadhaar linked bank accounts rather than through manual rosters, provide basic banking services through CSCs and streamline the issuance of passports. Even today, E-governance has not reached its true potential. For a vast and diverse country like India, it is important that each State modify a National Programme to suit the needs of the people. However, the current system has led to the creation of discrepancies of service delivery across states. Each State has focused on creating programmes focusing on specific sectors like Agriculture, Healthcare, Vocational Training or a combination of these sectors. But the service delivery methodology also differs. There have been pilot programmes on similar lines being launched in different parts of the same State. As the myriad pilot programmes expand across Rural India – Integration of the services and Quality/Standard maintenance of service delivery is going to be a major issue.

Telecommunication (DoT) initiative, the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeiTY) will be tasked to migrate all government department’s online functions to a cloud platform. The implementation will be in a phased manner. DeiTY is planning to develop a National Data Centre which will be a repository of egovernance applications. There is no precedence of such a large scale project to connect 1.2 billion people living in such a diverse landscape. The implementation of an integrated national framework will be the key for the sustained development e-governance in Rural India.

References 

ICT and e-Governance for Rural Development by Prof. T.P. Rama Rao, Center for Electronic Governance, IIM A

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CSC Website : www.csc.gov.in

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Census of India : www.censusindia.gov.in

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Archive: http://www.archive.india.gov.in

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National Informatics Centre : http:// informatics.nic.in

In addition, there is a lack of proper legal framework for data sharing between PPP players and GOI through CSCs. As egovernance projects expand, data privacy will also gain importance. To address these issues the Department of

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FEATURED ARTICLE

Impact of Technology on Inclusive Growth -Palak Vasa & Kalpak Chavan,WE School Introduction to Inclusive Growth Our honorable President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, aptly quoted, “Inclusive growth should not be a mere slogan but a fundamental driving force for sustainable development.” Consistent growth and its sustainability have been the focus areas all across the globe, and inclusive growth has been identified as the key element in a nation’s progress. The optimal path to obtain this goal is through technological innovations. Inclusive growth has been one of the main subjects of discussion amongst the decision makers across the continents. This has resulted in corporations being increasingly

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encouraging and operational in R&D of technology globally. This will provide impetus to technological growth which will benefit society at large. Technology as an instrument Technology has been a privilege for most of us but it also has the ability to be a key catalyst in the upliftment of the lower strata of the society by injecting knowledge and useful data and rescue them from the darkness of ignorance. Ironically, the global leaders are facing the fact that behind the veil of this progress lies a bitter truth of severe unequal distri9

FEATURED ARTICLE -bution of development. One of the major challenges is to achieve the Millennium Development Targets by 2015 by introducing incremental technological improvements and facilitate the poor with the right technology. Present economic scenario in India Although India has been one of the fastest growing major economies in the world, the downward pointing curve of economic growth recently has been destructive. The current growth rate of 5.4 percent - a 10 year low- is not living up to the country's true potential. India as a country has made considerable investments in sophisticated technology and education, but is struggling with complexities that will need concrete solutions to resurrect its lost growth. Some of them include the staggering inflation levels and the weak exchange value of Indian Rupee vs. US Dollar. It is not only expected that India achieves the projected growth rate of 8-9% but also includes the poorer parts of India in the growth which make up one-third of the one billion people living in poverty around the world. How Technology can benefit Agriculture? In spite of it being the largest agricultural economy, India's agricultural productivity remains low, and the farmers remain poor. Most farmers are ignorant to the global demand and supply conditions affecting the local prices of crops. They have limited access to information such as crop management, weather forecasts, and upgradations that impact agricultural operations. If available, then such information can transform their low-yielding plots to productive

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Palak Vasa has 1.5 years of industry experience out of which one year was with Euclid Infotech Pvt. Ltd. as International Business Development Executive and 6 months at Ernst and Young as Client Support Specialist. His interests include playing football and cricket, reading books and percussion.

Kalpak Chavan has worked as a Software Application Engineer and Analyst with BNP Paribas for around 3 years. He considers himself a voracious reader and loves to write as well, be it fiction or nonfiction. He also indulges in lots of trekking activities as and when possible. 10

FEATURED ARTICLE farms. Adding to their problems, farmers are constantly battling with an expensive, fragmented supply chain with underdeveloped infrastructure. This supply chain is majorly controlled by middlemen, who pass on only a small portion of the profit to the farmer. Together, these problems restrict them into a trap of low income and low productivity. However, one of the examples of incremental technology is ITC e-Choupal which has led to empowerment of farmers on a large scale and has shown a pathway to accelerate the growth of farmers. This initiative is an efficient platform for essential information delivery to the farmers. It enables market place to come to the farmer and not vice-versa. This lessens the exploitation from the traders and leads to better produce and profit. Hence, eChoupal has contributed in exterminating the barriers of technological difficulties and incomplete market awareness. IT and Analytics for Growth The Indian IT offshore services industry offering technological solutions to the customers all over the world, is the largest contributor to the inclusive growth of the nation. The sector has increased its contribution to India’s GDP from 1.2% in 1998 to 7.5% in 2012. Innovation in analytics will help in inclusive and sustainable growth too. Highperformance analytics can provide that in-

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novation by leveraging big data, hyper connectivity and speed to intelligence. Efficient use of big data will play a key role in overcoming the current economic inertia and achieving the objective of inclusive growth. As per the Gartner Reports, by 2015, big data will directly create 4.4 million IT jobs globally, of which data could change the very nature of economic activity itself. Government is one of the largest users of data. It must now take the lead both as an exemplar and as an enabler of big data best practices. E-governance – A Bridge between Government and Bharat E-governance offers a gamut of opportunities for accessible services to the poor and the lower strata. UN’s e-governance Readiness Report (2005) ranks India 87th with an e-government Readiness Index score of 0.4001 against a world index of 0.42. Further progress depends upon three fundamentals: technological infrastructure, human capital and e-connectivity for everyone. E-government readiness initiatives will be an effective tool of inclusive growth only if, people have at least basic education, which includes knowledge of computer and internet usage with seamless connectivity. Technology and Banking Easy access to finance is a major driver of poverty reduction. This is vital for India‘s 11

FEATURED ARTICLE inclusive growth. The aim is to lengthen the scope of the financial services of the organized financial system to contain within its realm the low income groups. One of the technologies used for mitigating poverty, is mobile banking which provides low transaction costs. The mobile banking ser vices such as MPesa of Kenya, Paise of Pakistan and GCash of Philippines are breakthrough examples. Thus, mobile banking acts as a synergy of technology, financial services and inclusive growth. Education + Technology = Growth For any country to experience economic development, the policy makers need to invest in education. Organizations like Edusat and Eprashala have already pioneered the task of delivering quality education to the remotest parts of the country through the use of e-learning. Their goal is to make use of online videos and software applications in the rural segments so that the best teachers are available to them. For instance, Coursera is one such application that can reach the students with the basic primary and secondary level education via mobile. Healthcare â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the largest consumer of Technology One of the most prominent sectors which use technology on a large scale is health care. The re-

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port

Global Healthcare Spending

(Smith et al. (2000) and Cutler (1995) are cited in the CBO report) and the 2009 paper by Smith, Newhouse, and Freeland clearly underlines the increased significance of health care and technology in the health spending growth. As observed in the chart above, technology is a large factor in all the studies. Inadvertently, income and technology interacts with each other. As wealth grows, so does the ability to afford more rapid technological change. Health care is now growing substantially thus helping to make the economy stronger. It creates employment opportunities, thus encouraging further economic growth. Internet Penetration â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Connecting the dots In the latest Union Budget (2014), the Government has allocated Rs.500 crore for the 12

FEATURED ARTICLE

Technology’s view from the grassroots - Arathi Mohan, IIM K “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”- Arthur C.Clarke Technology is the ideation, creation and application of machines and processes in order to solve a new problem or to improve upon an existing method. It may range from anything as basic to human survival as agriculture (think tractors and crossbreeding) to exploring uncharted territories such as space (think spaceships and interplanetary missions). The use of technology is meant to save lives and improve the quality of living. It should be able to alleviate human suffering. Technology should

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be able to reach out and lend a helping hand to those who need it the most. At the grassroots level, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the efficient use of technology could prove to be the magic wand to ward away the evils of poverty, illiteracy and corruption and to shower the blessings of good health, education and prosperity. Consider the e-Panchayat initiative launched by the Government of India as per the Part IX (Panchayat) of the Constitution and PESA Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996. Under this, the Panchayats, the nodal points of administra14

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Arathi Mohan has worked for 16 months in TCS, where she was involved in a project handling Big Data (Apache Hadoop). Her hobbies include solving crossword puzzles, writing poetry and listening to music.

tion in Indian villages, were introduced to the Information Technology (IT) revolution to promote greater decentralisation, lesser bureaucracy and more efficiency in the implementation of Govt. programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), SwarnaJayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SJGSY), SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA), Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), etc. As a result of this scheme, there is increased transparency in the everyday working of the Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) by helping to bring down corruption and by increasing accountability in governance. Take the case of Radio Udaan, a pan-Indian online radio initiative, which aims to include the visually challenged part of our population into the mainstream by providing them with a forum to network, counsel and motivate each other. The lowpriced Aakash tablets and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) schemes are being introduced to extend a helping hand to underprivileged students in the developing world and to fan the flames of their quest for knowledge. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the prize-winning microfinance institution founded by the Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, has found an enterprising way to harness the power of mobile phones in the hands of the poor. The idea is to allow the poor to lease and purchase cellular phones. This provides a good business opportunity and serves as a window of information on the outside world. A mobile phone is placed under the supervision of a woman, popularly called the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Telephone Ladyâ&#x20AC;?, from the poorest communities in remote villages

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FEATURED ARTICLE of the country. This woman provides telecommunication services to the entire village and makes a small profit for herself as well. It is a seemingly risky thing to do, by the standards of the major telephone network operators. However, the years of experience of lending to the poor, especially women, has provided Grameen the upper hand by providing it the possession of the knowledge that the poor can be very reliable debtors, more so than the rich in some cases. The ITC e-Choupal is a favourite case study in top Indian business schools. The technology initiative of providing an online platform on which farmers can network and share information regarding the weather, crop quality and prices, best farming practices, etc. has helped them in improving market knowledge and increasing collective bargaining power. The pesky middlemen have been tamed to some extent and the farmers are able to command better prices for their hard-earned produce at the village mandis. Last but not the least, the Aadhaar scheme for Direst Benefits Transfer, launched by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is designed to make the process of cash transfers such as pensions and subsidies hassle-free and less prone to corruption, by eliminating the middle-man to the largest extent possible.

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The outlook in the technology sector looks promising, thanks to the provisions in the 2014-15 Union budget for a pan-India programme “Digital India” with an outlay for Rs. 500 crore. This programme aims to ensure broadband connectivity at village level, greater transparency in government processes and increased indigenous production of IT hardware and software for exports. There is a special focus on supporting software product start-ups. There are plans to set up a National Rural Internet and Technology Mission for services in villages and schools to impart training in IT skills. An E-Kranti scheme for government service delivery and governance has also been proposed. A programme for promoting “Good Governance” has also been announced with an outlay of Rs.100 crore. There is no doubt that investment in technology at the grassroots level is bound to give good returns. It is the responsibility of the Government to implement such policies and schemes so as to unearth such treasures as are hidden at the bottom of the pyramid.

STARTUP HAPTIK other information.

The Eureka Moment

The Three C's (Connecting Customers and Companies) Messaging space, plays a very important role in our lives in the modern era. With the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook, the competition has intensified further. The acquisition has brought the whole messaging space to the forefront and alternatives like Telegram, Hike, Line and Viber have also seen an uptake. A new app called Haptik has been launched with the view of putting an end to automated customer support machines, by using texting instead. What was the reason behind naming this app Haptik? The answer is simple. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hapticâ&#x20AC;? is the science of applying touch sensation and control to interact with computer applications. As the name suggests, in Haptik, you apply a touch sensation to talk to solution providers rather than having them on call. The app lets users chat with experts and get help on customer support issues, FAQs and

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Mr. AakritVaish, one of the earliest employees of Flurry, a mobile application analytics and data-powered advertising company based out of San Francisco, started the operations of Flurry in India, in 2011. While at Flurry, he noticed the high growth of messaging services around the globe. He attributed the reason of this growth in messaging by users to tendency of being more thoughtful while writing. The asynchronous nature of messaging really ticks, especially when a person is dealing with brands and companies. The clubbing of these two ideas (to contact companies via messaging) was the Eureka moment. Getting the required information from companies, without having to call them, was like a dream come true.

Problem Redressal According to a recent infographic published by ShankmanHonig, a New York based customer service consultancy, only 8% of customers believe they experience "superior" service from companies; and 73% of this support happens via voice. The basis on which Haptic works is that, all these activities will eventually move away from voice communication and messaging would 17

STARTUP HAPTIK seem to be the best and quickest bet in time to come. The other key area Haptik addresses is search. Many users spend a great amount of time in searching for information on the web about services provided by companies. This process is tedious and even more cumbersome on the mobile. With the help of Haptik, users can access this information easily. Just by typing the name of the company, they will be able to access all vital information related to that company like office locations, board numbers, services offered, etc.

minute. Future Plans Currently available only on iOS and Android platforms, the plan is to integrate the app with various other mobile operating systems. Also, more and more companies are being brought on board. With such a large clientele base, the app is expected to change the messaging landscape in mobile communication.

Value Addition Haptik currently partners with over 200 brands and employs over 20 agents who are available throughout the day to offer customer support. The app caters to brands across all sectors like banking, aviation, entertainment, media, retail, healthcare, telecom and many more. Haptik guarantees a response within one to four minutes from the time a user initiates a chat with the company. Haptik is not completely dependent on the companies to respond, but has its own layer of executives in between who help expedite the process. Also, strategic partnerships with most of the companies are in place, and that is the primary reason for such quick responses. The objective is to bring down the response time, to less than a

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TECH-SHOTS STARTUP

From foldable chairs to foldable television sets Arguably, the greatest and most influential invention of the 20th century, perhaps with the exception of the Internet, the television began with humble beginnings and was met with scepticism. However, since its inception, almost 75 years ago, the entire world has been captivated.

We have heard of history repeating itself time and again. Did we ever imagine that we will have parchment-like foldable displays to view movies, videos etc.? The space and time crunch in our metropolitan lives have led to many innovative inventions! A funny situation would be a mother picking up a television set, folding it and telling her ward to finish his/her homework first. Now, the electronic industry has come up with a technology to realize our imaginations, a technology, which allows displays to be bent while they are

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exhibiting images. A recent report said that a gigantic eighteen inches screen by LG could be wound up into a cylinder with an inner radius of about three inches! Over and above this, the transparency level of this screen is much higher than its previous versions. In the coming days, they aim to launch a 60-inch OLED screen with the same properties. Gone are the days of flat screens thanks to the upcoming technology and research on OLED e-papers. 19

TECH-SHOTS OLED e-papers (Organic Light Emitting Diode electronic papers) were used by Samsung & LG to portray this phenomenon at an International event. In the popular LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), there is a light emitting unit behind the screen. Although a lot of circuitry is used in order to implement this design; the components are so tiny that they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t visible to the naked eye. The only effect they have is that they make the screen hazy. While OLEDs use an organic component in each and every pixel so as to reflect light and display the desired image, the epapers make use of the ambient light to reflect the images. Polyimide - an extremely robust and tensile plastic material- is used for the back panel for allowing the screen to be bent, folded and flexed The roots of the very idea of having paper -like displays can be traced right back to 1970s when various companies were trying to come up with such displays. Xerox, HP, ASU are few names who have been working on this for quite a while now. Although a flexible device is an aspired good that all of us would like to be in possession of someday, the fact that the screen is only a part of an incomplete picture remains to be questioned. What about the powering methods for such a device? Methods for developing wireless powering systems are being developed

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and there are hopes that these two developments will culminate into a great leap for the human race in the field of technology. Incidentally, OLEDs offer a low cost energy solution for lighting. Currently, the implementation of OLED is limited to smaller screen sizes, for example- cell phones and digital cameras. The future has lots more in store for us with LG coming up with a gigantic 60 inch OLED screen T.V. With time, billboards, automotive dashboards, lightings for residential and commercial use etc. will all use this technology. Another major reason supporting the high possibility of the replacement of LCD with OLED is that the OLED screens refresh at least thousand times faster than their LCD counterparts which makes them capable of changing the displayed information almost real time. The flexible and paper-thin display will help save immense amount of space as well. Flexible screens are about to become a glaring reality in a few years. The affordability factor will be a major concern for all of us for sure. So, if you desire to be the master of a 60-inch flexible OLED screen, be prepared to forgo your exotic vacations for a few years!

TECH-SHOTS STARTUP

A new entrant in the world of smart things - The Smart Shoe Lechal footwear was born out of a simple impulse to use technology to help the visuallyimpaired navigate their worlds better. This impulse continues to guide Lechal’s design philosophy and aesthetic, which is one that puts inclusivity and accessibility first. For all those who think that gadgets wearable on your face make you look geeky and stupid, here is a smarter alternative –

be brought separately. The shoe operates on removable and rechargeable batteries, which will last for a couple of days.

the Lechal Smart Shoe. The product has been conceptualised and built by Ducere Technologies and will be available at a cost of around 100 to 150 dollars. The smartshoe can be brought in two variants – a pair of shoes fitted with the “smart” insoles or for those of you who would not want to separate from your beloved shoes, the “smart” insole pair can

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The smartshoe uses a Bluetooth connection to work synchronously with an application installed on your iOS, Android or Windows device. The insole contains sensors allowing the companion app to track accurately the number of steps you have taken, the amount of calories you have burnt and so on.

TECH-SHOTS This feature of vibration allows the smartshoe to be used in a plethora of cool ways. For instance, if you want to walk to a particular destination, the directions obtained from the Google Maps app can be communicated to the smartshoe. As you walk towards you destination, the smartshoe vibrates to indicate to you the direction in which you should proceed. This ability makes the smartshoe a blessing of sorts for the visually challenged people. It can go a long way in making their lives much easier. The smartshoe, in conjunction with the app and GPS on your smartphone, can provide information on your current location, which will be handy when travelling to new places. When you are near a certain place which matches your preferences (as stored on the smartphone), the smartshoe vibrates to indicate that such a place is nearby. You can save the location of a particular place on the map by simply tapping your foot on the ground when you are at that location. The companion application can record the route to a certain destination for future reference. For the party-lovers, organising a party becomes easier. All you need to do is share the place with your friends and the smartshoe will direct all them to the desired location.

smartshoe is the ease with which its data integrates with applications on the smart devices. This combined with the way technology has percolated into our lives, will make the smartshoe worth buying for many. It is due for release in September, 2014 and initially will be available only in India.

The Lechal Smart-Shoe Insole The smart shoe is Indian at heart - the fact that it comes from India is a matter of great pride. However, only time will tell whether this “smart” product can really make a place for itself in the heart of the “smart” Indian.

The unique selling principle of the

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ALUMNI STARTUP SESSION Briefing On Alumni Session with Mr. Sachin Kelkar and Mr. Anurag Chandra Dr. Nilay Yagnik introduced the attendants to our distinguished alumni, Mr. Sachin Kelkar and Mr. Anurag Chandra. Mr. Sachin Kelkar is currently the Head of APAC Scale programs at Intel and has to his credit more than two decades of industry experience. Mr. Kelkar also helps in designing the IT curriculum at NMIMS, making sure it is in alignment with the needs and trends of the industry. Mr. Anurag Chandra is currently heading the Global Growth Strategy division at Tech Mahindra. He also has around 2 decades of industry experience. Mr. Chandra is also an avid traveler and motorcycle enthusiast. Mr. Kelkar and Mr. Chandra highlighted the importance of IT management in today’s business world as business enabler. They further gave insights into how IT is different from IT management, and how IT management is different from other conventional management trades. They discussed skills that are necessary in order to excel in the IT industry.

order to do well in the ever changing IT industry, one needs to keep abreast of the latest trends in the industry. He stressed the importance of having the foresight and knowledge about the “The Next Big Thing” in the industry. Mr. Chandra gave us an insight into the importance of strategic planning for any company. He then went on to talk about the skills required for a job in the strategy profile, highlighting its core requirement as having an inquisitive and questioning mind. He also discussed different kinds of strategic planning required by the companies. The duo also discussed growth opportunities in IT and Consulting companies and the flexibility of working and gaining experience across various segments in IT and consulting. All in all, it was an enlightening session – even more so for students who have just stepped into the business world! We hope to have more of such enlightening sessions with our alumni.

Mr. Kelkar shared with us his interesting experience of witnessing the evolution of IT networking and telecom industry, from the very preliminary days in India to the advent of cloud-computing and 4G. Considering the fact that IT industry is one of the most dynamic and fastestgrowing industry, he emphasized that in

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MEME CORNER

Akshat Agrawal

Pratik Nandekar

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THE TECHNOLOGY CELL School of Business Management, NMIMS V. L. Mehta Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 400056

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