The CEO Magazine April 2016

RNI No. DELENG18953

Rs. 50

India

www.theceo.in

Vol. 1, Issue 10

April 2016

Magazine for Business Leaders & Decision Makers

Vol: 1 Issue: 10 April 2016 Publisher: Shrikant Pandey Editor: Ram Avtar Morya Editorial Team: Kaushal Kumar, Aditya Gupta, Jyoti Sharma Editorial Associate: Ayanangsha Maitra Advertisement: Priya Mishra, Amit Singh, Rupesh Gupta, Mayana Khan, Sudeep Bhattacharya Online: Vijay Sen Design & Graphics: Sunil Kumar , Suman Thakkar Circulation & Subscription: Amardeep Singh HR Department: Sanjay Verma Office: Indiamanthan Magazine Dept: The CEO Magazine L-29, Bal Udyan Road, Uttam Nagar West, New Delhi - 110059 Ph.: 011-25338219 Mob.: +91-8585-95-4745 Email : shrikant@theceo.in Cover Price: Rs.50/Follow us on https://www.facebook.com/theceo.in/ @TheCEO_Magazine

The CEO Magazine does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. All unsolicited material should be accomplished by self addressed envelops and sufficient postage.

Printed published and owned by Shrikant Pandey and printed at Tanuj Process, A 21/27 Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi:-110020 and published at L-29, Bal Udyan Road Uttam Nagar West, New Delhi - 110059 R.N.I No: DELENG18953 Executive Editor: Ram Avtar Maurya. ŠPublisher, Reproduction in whole or a part, including images text or anything without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. All right reserved.

15th August of 2015, the sixty ninth independence day was somewhat different than the other days to the aspiring entrepreneurs of India, who prefer an independent work life. Addressing the nation from Red Fort, Prime Minister Modi announced his ambitious Startup India programme on the day. Startup India encourages the youths to involve in the entrepreneurship for better future. Releasing the Action plan for Start-up India in January 2016, PM endeavours to fill the gaps in the economy for the growth of startups and aims to boost digital entrepreneurship at the grassroots. Finally announcing budget proposals for tax exemption on profits, one-day registration of companies and exemption of capital gains tax on startup investments, NDA government motivates and encourages impassioned entrepreneurs to "stand up''.

Presently India's rank in World Bank's list of doing business is 130.

Surprisingly enough, Indian-origin startup founders in the United States, have been living prosperously, leading their enterprise, doubling growth and expanding presence. Though various issues are preventing growth and sustainability of startups, India has moved up to the third position with nearly five thousand start-ups, just after the US and UK, in the rank of global start-up ecosystem. R Chandrasekhar, President of NASSCOM has asserted, "We are the fastest growing ecosystem in the world - so the first big wow number. Compared to last year, we have moved up from being the fourth largest ecosystem in the world to the third largest. If all goes well, next year by this time we should be the second largest."

Startups are heterogenous, they are located in different parts of the country and focused in different sectors. Though entrepreneurs are the key actors of startup ecosystem, the ecosystem is deeply depended on different kinds of financial support such as debt finance, equity investments, grants etc and non-financial support like motivating, mentoring etc. A suitable, startup-friendly and incubative policy can accelerate the growth of startups and develop startup culture in the country.

To fill the crucial gap in the startup ecosystem, the publication unit of The CEO Magazine is releasing a new magazine, StartUp City in next month. This issue of The CEO Magazine is themed to tell the tales of expeditiously growing startups like Tudip, Collegedunia and talent21. Offering a variety of services in the domain of personal genomics, cancer genomics, and molecular diagnostics, why Positive Bioscience dedicates itself to make a difference in patients' lives and how online crowd testing platform 99tests is catering to market segment from small start-ups to major enterprises like P & G - this issue reveals. The article EPS, the Company behind ATM Revolution in India revolves around the evolution of EPS. The issue brings up the story of NASSCOM 10,000 Startups program partner Career Anna.

The issue also inspects and includes the reason of growth and failure of startups.

The cover story explores the journey of California based Office Beacon and narrates how its Indian-origin founder Pranav Dalal became millionaire.

Regards, Ayanangsha Maitra Editorial Associate The CEO Magazine New Delhi @Ayanangsha ayan@theceo.in

Content

10

aglasem.com - the Friend, Philosopher and Guide of Students

6-7

World Bank Signs US$1.5 Billion Agreement to Clean India

8-9

Cover Story

10-14

Pranav Dalal, Founder & CDO Career Anna Creates Job Oriented Education Ecosystem Transparency is the USP of their Products, tells Crowd Testing Platform 99tests

16-17

18-20

Pranav Dalal Founder & CDO

25 Fastest Growing

STARTUP

22-23

Cover Story

Companies in India

Global Real Estate Brand Awards 2016

25

We Compete With Ourselves, says talent21's 26-27

CEO Gurinderpal Singh

Praveen Singh Co-Founder and CEO

Varun Saxena

Collegedunia Lists 15000 colleges, Reaches out Students in Every Corner of Country

28-29

Biggest Problems faced by Startups in India

30-31

Positive Bioscience's Genomics Services Make Difference in Patients' Lives

32-33

Tudip Technologies is Known for Integrity Innovation and Serenity

34-35

Acquisition News

36

Funding News

37

Electronic Payment & Services (P) Ltd (EPS) 38-39 The Company behind ATM Revolution in India Visit Ladakh in this Summer Anand Meena

Samarth Jain CEO and co-founder

IMF and India Set Up Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center to help Six SAARC Countries

40-41 42

aglasem.com - the Friend, Philosopher and Guide of Students Our Staff

New Delhi

A

s the numbers of colleges and coaching centers are rapidly growing, student guidance portals are also increasing. But when students or their parents inquisitively browse the web for an institution or courses, most of the portals make them confused. Many websites carry information which are not authentic. It may ruin a child's career. Realizing this reality, Anwesha Bose and Anand Meena, two alumni of Delhi College of Engineering founded aglasem.com in 2009, to make the information freely available at fingertips of students and job seekers. This portal presents a unique match, provides updates and preparation material of school studies, entrance exams, college admissions, government jobs, talent search exams on time.

With access to information online, the students now have the freedom to be more aware and informed before taking any decision. This platform guides the users providing free access to updated and authentic information for the benefit of all student community.

In the journey of making it big in life, succeeding in the arena of education and career, Aglasem will be friend, philosopher and guide of students. From class notes for school students to entrance examination preparation

and career guidance, users will find it all in one place.

Challenging mock tests help the students in determining strengths and weaknesses.

Having 25 Million page views in each month, aglasem.com ranks among top 500 websites in India as per Alexa. Their offices are located in Netaji Subhash Place and Rohini area in the NCR region, where nearly thirty employees have dedicated themselves for a greater mission to provide unbiased and authentic information. Recently the company has launched digital books for GATE, AFCAT and other exams to kick-start product division. To stay one step ahead in this competitive market, aglasem has adopted an user friendly technology which can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

Aglasem is featured in course book of IIM Calcutta by name "Case Studies in Marketing Managment." It has also been featured as a study under "Marketing in Start Up Companies" in this casebook. Earning via a simple ad-based model, the company has also made a platform India

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for information sharing and discussion regarding government jobs. " What makes us stand aside is that we have been consistent and have been growing. Also, what makes our end users happier is that we provide everything for free.

The community that we focus on is demanding.

Students already know about many websites, have access to social networking where they can discuss and explore opportunities with their friends. Providing them with just what they need, at the right time is what we do," Aglasem expressed The CEO Magazine.

Key Officials Anand Meena The idea of an online education community was formed in Anand's mind, much before the world of internet had taken the gigantic shape that it has today. He studied in the Delhi College of Engineering after completing school education from Gujarat and Rajasthan. Anand likes to keep things simple and uncomplicated, something that has been incorporated in the core functioning of AglaSem as well.

Anwesha Bose Giving shape to words and creating crisp designs are some of the things she likes to do. She has studied in the

Delhi College of Engineering after completing school education from the NCR. Her vision is to see the company grow into the ranks of the internet giants, and is actively working to make that happen.

Both the founders were batch mates and have been working together to create a free and easily accessible online system wherein the student community can benefit the most.

India

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World Bank Signs US$1.5 Billion

Agreement to Clean India New Delhi: According to World Bank , of the 2.4 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation globally, more than 750 million live in India, with 80 per cent living in rural areas. More than 500 million of the rural population in India continue to defecate in the open, suffering from preventable deaths, illness, stunting, harassment and economic losses. On March 30 Government of India and the World Bank signed a US$1.5 billion loan agreement for the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Support Operation Project to support India's efforts to ensure that all citizens in the rural areas have access to improved sanitation with a focus on changing behaviour and eliminating the practice of open defecation by 2019.

Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of India and Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director, India signed the loan agreement for the project. The loan

from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ( IBRD ), has a maturity of 18 years including a grace period of 5 years.

"The Government of India's Swachh Bharat Mission is the country's largest-ever drive to improve sanitation. The SBM aims to end open defecation and improve the management of liquid and solid wastes. The project will promote behaviour change among rural communities and help accelerate results in India's states by giving performance-based incentives," said Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

It is said this project will support the rural component, known as SBM Gramin (SBM-G), over a five-year period using a new performancebased program which links funds directly to results, ensuring that benefits are delivered to the people India

in need - more than 60 percent of India's population that resides in rural areas.

Under this project, state wise performance will be gauged through certain performance indicators, called the Disbursement-Linked Indicators ( DLIs ). Which are the following, i.

Reduction in the prevalence of open defecation: The funds under this result area shall be released to the States on the basis of reduction in prevalence of open defecation amongst rural households in the State, compared to the previous year, ii. Sustaining Open Defecation Free ( ODF ) status in Villages: The funds under this result area, shall be released on the basis of estimated population residing in ODF villages, iii. Increase in percentage of rural population served by improved

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S o l i d and Liquid Waste Management ( SLWM ): The funds under this DLI will be based on the population served with acceptable level of SLWM services.

The States will pass on a substantial portion (more than 95 percent) of the Performance Incentive Grant Funds received from the MOWS, to the appropriate implementing levels of districts, Blocks, GPs etc.

The end-use of the incentive grants will be limited to activities pertaining to the sanitation sector.

The project will accelerate efforts to achieve sustained outcomes in sanitation by 2019.

National Annual Rural Sanitation Surveys will be carried out annually by a third party. The project will also finance specific activities to strengthen the current monitoring and evaluation system to capture timely, relevant, and reliable information on the program's progress. Support will be provided for systematic knowledge sharing and innovation, as well as capacity building and partnership.

"One in every ten deaths in India is linked to poor sanitation. And studies show that low-income households bear the maximum brunt of poor sanitation. This project, aimed at strengthening the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Initiative of the government, will result in significant health benefits for the poor and vulnerable, especially those living in rural areas," said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director for India.

"Incentivizing good performance by states and the focus on behavioural changes are two important components of this project," he added.

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) will oversee and coordinate the project and support the participating states.

Funds will also be used to develop the capacity of MDWS in program management, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation.

"This program, built on lessons learnt from global and national sanitation projects, represents a fundamental change in approach

India

and recognizes the importance of coupling investments in the construction of toilets to its usage.

For it to succeed, large-scale social mobilization for behavior change is critical at the community level," said Soma Ghosh Moulik, Lead Water and Sanitation Specialist and the project's Task Team Leader. "Third party assessments and regular monitoring will provide reliable information on the project's progress," she added.

Since poor sanitation is the cause of ill-health, malnutrition, poor education and poverty; achievement of the project will have a beneficial effect on all of these. It will therefore ensure a better quality of life for the rural population. The World Bank has also announced to provide a parallel US$25 million technical assistance to build the capacity of select state governments in implementing community-led behavioural change programs targeting social norms to help ensure widespread usage of toilets by rural households.

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Article courtesy: Communication team Office Beacon

Career Anna Creates Job Oriented Education Ecosystem Jyoti Sharma

New Delhi

S

itself to compete with Mock Bank and Online Tyari. Career Anna was the only Ed Tech company to make the cut to top 10 of the BITS Pilani Conquest 2015 and is also the part of NASSCOM 10,000 Startups Program.

tudents come from different backgrounds in India. To be job-ready in this competitive age, everyone has to go through certain challenges. They need someone to guide them throughout the preparation process. Career Anna has strong mentorship program on board where credible experts come forward to help students get through the exams. This Gurgaon based Career Anna offers live classes, recorded classes, assessments and personal mentorship at an affordable cost to enable students get strong hold of core subject areas like English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning and General Awareness for their career growth. The company assists students to leverage the power of Analytics, Mobility, Social Collaboration and Vernacular to prepare effectively with a customized approach.

Now it is planning to launch mobile devices like Tablets, SD Cards, Pen Drives etc.

It also aims to go global i n emergin g and dev

Career Anna commenced its education and training business in 2004. As a leader in career education, it has over 25,000 unique customers so far. Since eighteen months of its inception, they have collaboration with more than 100 educational institutes and 175 products. The company boasts of over 5.42 lac registered users and more than 160 mentors and faculties. Having eighteen workers, the company has well established

eloping economies in two years time, since these countries still have the dearth of quality training in core subject areas needed to excel in career.

"When we started off, our purpose of having strong in-house content team was mainly on India

providing customized study modules. As we grew and engaged with customers more, we realized the need of transitioning education training from push-based model to pull-based. Now, students suggest us what course material they need and we are able to serve them in a quick timeframe possible (within 5

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days). We are closely engaged with our students and we gather their feedback and improve our content quality and delivery," a spokesperson of Career Anna told The CEO Magazine.

Key Official Varun Saxena, who started Career Anna, holds a B.Tech degree from a premier government institute. He has worked in industry as SAP Consultant for couple of years and pursued MBA from NITIE Mumbai.

He has served Business Wipro Technologies before starting Career Anna. He has also authored couple of books on banking and MBA preparation. He had been associated with multiple online education forums before starting Career Anna and hence he understands what the student needs when it comes to the Banking, Government Jobs and MBA exams.

Most of the existing online and offline players are dependent on outsourced content and are not able to serve the students properly.

Career Anna is the only platform where students get what they need and not what platform has. The courses offered at Career Anna are extremely state-of-the-art and industry relevant. This high-growth, end to end career commerce platform helps career dreamers realize their career aspirations.

Equipped with personalized 24x7 student mentoring, high quality IPprotected in-house built content (in more than 7 Indian languages including English) that can be accessed even with limited internet access, Career Anna is building a job oriented education ecosystem. It delivers products through both web and mobile app. It uses hybrid model of Gamification, Intelligent Algorithm and Data Mining to make learning more efficient and innovative.

Speaking about robust personalised platform, Career Anna said, "Today we have equal focus on products and services, with the aim to learn as we provide services, and use this learning to launch breakthrough products substituting

India

services in near future. Gradually replacing the word "automation" with "personalized automation" in online coaching space.

Simultaneously, introducing courses in vernacular languages to assist those students who take exams in regional languages."

Career Anna team believes that the students will earn much higher returns on their investment through their integrated Ed-tech platform. It not only helps them save money, but also in getting the value add which transforms to achieving desired results. Career Anna has quite a few expansion plans to serve this sector and is seeking continuous support and guidance from all the stakeholders who are bullish on the education system.

The company is moving towards a mission to improve the quality of education and heightening the probability of a better employment opportunity to the youth.

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Transparency is the USP of their Products, tells Crowd Testing Platform 99tests The CEO Magazine

Bengaluru

N

ecessity of software testing is becoming more important and i n e v i t a b l e a s technologies are accelerating the growth of any business. With an invincible and indispensable strategy to provide clients the access to the right crowd-sourced testers online, 99tests came into existence in 2011. Since then, it supports clients to define their projects and manage the execution of projects.

Over five years 99tests has assembled over 15000 testers across the globe, skilled in various aspects of testing. Nonetheless, over four lakh testing engineers are beneficiary of this platform. Their quality control and assurance platform have helped over 300 businesses meet their expected standards for software applications.

Mentored by legends like Kris Gopalakrishnan, founding member of Infosys, Steve P Coles CIO of Allianz and Teruhide Sato, founder of Beenos group (a global Ecommerce and venture capital firm), this online crowd testing platform provides economical and effective crowd sourced testing solutions that enable individuals

and businesses to pursue excellence in technology. To ensure that the testers chosen for the project fit within the client's way of testing to minimize costs and hassles at the client side, 99tests follows a particular system. As a result their customers get the results they are looking for, within the time frame they want.

Headquartered in Bangalore, the company has partnership and strong presence in US, UK and Australia. Since the workforce of fourteen employees creates success stories, 99tests has invested in various employee engagement and development activities to hone the skills of the team. Their monthly employee events calendar constitute of two full day sessions on leadership and soft skills development a i m e d t o empower the team. Their goal is to create keep the work environment happy and productive.

99tests provides quality India

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testing services that can improve software quality at every stage of the product life cycle. Its global network of professional testers have helped startups, SMBs and big enterprises to improve the quality of their web, mobile and enterprise Apps.

Currently, these are the software testing services that they provide: 1.

Automation testing: Makes testing simpler with automation services for Mobile and web apps to uncover issues quickly without breaking things.

2. Functional Testing: Functional testing is crucial to ensure that your App works great everywhere all the time. Make your Apps better with expert insights.

3. Usability testing: Prepares your App to meet client expectations. Get insights to understand your App's user experience to make your UX addictively good.

4. Security Testing: Protects your brand's reputation by ensuring the security of your customer information.

Discovers issues in time with a global team of professional testers.

5. Load Testing: Gains insights to understand your Apps performance under load. Unleashes your App's true potential. Be ready to handle big days every day.

6. Localization testing: Their global community of crowd sourced testers enable testing of your Apps by location, by your target market. It ensures success globally with localization testing.

Whether it is a new web application or an app, testing is a crucial step that ensures the functionality and quality of the application. Their crowd testing platform enables enterprises to access quality testing solutions at reasonable prices. One of the key advantages, they have is the domain experience they bring. It gives them the competitive edge to tackle many of the issues including coming up with the right algorithms which is the basis for a crowd based platform. They feel the USP of their product is the transparency it offers to the clients. Clients get the power to create the test plan, track the progress of their projects and turn off the service at their discretion.

Crowd testing works beautifully for consumer faced testing for applications that are used by many individuals. With the booming app industry and the positive feedbacks,

99tests is receiving from their existing clients, they are very optimistic about the growth potential for crowd testing platform in the coming days.

One example would be the way we handled the project for our client, Flipkart. When Flipkart approached us for testing their first smartphone app for shopping, we knew the criticality of finding & fixing crucial bugs before the public launch of their app.

The speedy & effective delivery of results helped Flipkart's developers immensely. With our results, their engineers were able to write user accepted scripts without using codes. We helped them in detecting and fixing crucial bugs in time to enable the successful launch of the Flipkart app, " says 99tests.

Their pricing plans are segmented to cater to the four major kinds of clients:

Enterprise:

Partnership:

n Designed for large corporations

n Sign up for Partnership plan

n Suitable for Enterprise applications

n Partner in the crowd testing success story

n Secure, Enterprise class testing service

n Gain new customers in new segments

n Test across multiple languages & countries

n Delight customers with quality software

India

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Praveen Singh Co-Founder and CEO Praveen Singh, a start-up evangelist is the Co-Founder and CEO of 99tests. He has worked earlier with leading software companies like Oracle, Webmethods and VMLogix (now acquired by Citrix). He brings in the business strategy, marketing and sales experience of running a startup. He tweets at @praveensinghhv .

Naveen Kumar Co-Founder Naveen Kumar, IIT Bombay alumnus is the Co-Founder of 99tests. He has worked with SAP and has also founded Foodtang, a food delivery start-up in the past.

He brings in the technical skills, algorithms and operations experience of running a start-up. He can be followed on twitter @naveenkr59.

"We feel the biggest merit our clients gain, is the easy access to skilled testers at economical prices, which is hard to get in the marketplace today. In contrast to crowd testing, traditional software testing options cost you a hefty price. An added advantage here is that you pay only for outcomes that are produced. That is, you pay only for the bugs found or for the test cases executed. This ensures that

the system is transparent, and you know exactly what you are paying for. Clients also get the option to test in various geographies, on different devices, platforms and other variables as per their needs. We let them prioritize the features that they want to test and give them full control over the process. While clients on the platform enjoy the benefit of fast and economical testing solutions, testers get the chance to hone their skills and earn through paid projects from anywhere in the world. We are moving to a new era of innovative solutions for testing that will enable companies to meet their software quality requirements faster and with more ease," a spokesperson from 99tests said.

Mentors Kris Gopalakrishnan Co-Founder of Infosys Kris Gopalakrishnan, IIT Madras, alumnus, and one of the founding members of Infosys, is among their leading mentors. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan award for his role in research, Kris drives their passion for technology.

Steve P Coles CIO at Allianz

international financial services company is a key mentor at 99tests.

With an experience of over a decade in technology, he is passionate about innovative tech aided business transformations.

Teruhide Sato Founder of Beenos and Beenext Teruhide Sato, founder of Beenos group, a global E-commerce and venture capital firm is one of their key mentors. Serial entrepreneur Teruhide is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs who solve problems and bring fruitful changes.

Steve P Coles, CIO at Allianz, an

India

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25 Fastest Growing

STARTUP Companies in India

Company

Person

Designation

99tests

Praveen Singh

Co-Founder & CEO

AasaanJobs

Dinesh Goel

CEO

AglaSem

Anand Meena

CEO

BabaJob

Sean Blagsvedt

CEO

Careeranna.com

Varun Saxena

Founder & CEO

CollegeDunia

Sahil Chalana

Founder

ContTree

Deepanshu Saini

CEO

Electronics payment & services Mani Mamallan

Founder, Chairman & MD

Heads Up For Tails

Rashi Sanon Narang

Founder & CEO

KisanServe

Praveen Tiwary

Co-Founder

Merit Nation

Pavan Chauhan

CEO India

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Company

Person

Designation

Policymantra

Anshul Anand

CEO

Practo

Shashank ND

Founder & CEO

PriceBaba

Annkur P Agarwal

Co-Founder & CEO

PrimeABGB

Gulbir Bhatia

Managing Director

ROPOSO

Avinash Saxena

CEO

SoftwareSuggest

Ankit Dudhwewala

Co-Founder & CEO

Swiggy

Sriharsha Majety

Co-Founder

Talent 21

Gurinderpal Singh

Founder & CEO

TechiesTown InfoTech

Himanshu Mistry

CEO

Toppr

Zishaan Hayath

Co-Founder

TravelKhana

Pushpinder Singh

Co-Founder & CEO

Tudip Technologies

Dipti Agrawal

CEO

Urban Ladder

Ashish Goel

Founder & CEO

Voonik

Sujayath Ali

Co-Founder & CEO India

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Next Issue Magazine for Business Leaders & Decision Makers

May - 2016

Presenting IT Services Special, wherein we will be listing

25 Fastest Growing

IT Services Companies in India 2016 To nominate your company please send us an email to shrikant@theceo.in or call us on +91-8585-95-4745, +91-9241-53-1205, 011-25338219.

You can also nominate through our website: www.theceo.in/nominate Office Address: L-29, Bal Udyan Road, Uttam Nagar West, New Delhi - 110059

Global Real Estate Brand Awards 2016

T

o recognize and honour valuable contributions of real estate professionals, Exhibition Asia organized Global Real Estate Brand Awards programme at Hotel Lalit in

Bangalore on March 11. GREBA celebrates the highest levels of achievement by companies and individuals operating in all sectors of the property and real estate industry.

Recipients of Global Real Estate Brand Awards at Hotel Lalit, Bangalore.

India

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We Compete With Ourselves, says talent21's

CEO Gurinderpal Singh Aditya Gupta New Delhi

M

r. Gurinderpal Singh, CEO of talent21, has over eighteen years of experience in corporate world at various leadership positions across different geographies.

He founded talent21 in 2010 with a distinguishing vision to assist clients in acquiring leadership talent through outstanding research capabilities and access to global talent pool. Headquartered in India, the company is young and fast growing executive search organizations, having offices in Hyderabad, Bangalore, New Jersey and Dubai.

This organization operates through a matrix structure (organized by geography), industry specialization and functional expertise as well as by additional leadership services. talent21 helps clients thorough assessment methodology and in depth reference checking. At talent21 the consultants are committed to provide highest level of service, delivering utmost expertise, results in the acquisition and development of world-class leadership teams.

Proving their excellent capability in Professional Services, Business Consulting and HR Process reengineering, talent21 has created foot marks in The Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and China. Their global presence

allows them to serve companies around the world - covering all the major industry sectors. Their clients, whether large or small, global or local, benefit greatly from this structure as they have access to the most relevant resources and relationships wherever clients may exist. This enables talent21 to understand clients' cultures, operations, business strategies and industries thoroughly. Sixty employees of talent21 are encouraged to challenge opinions and ideas, and to push the boundaries of what is possible. As the Managing Partner, Mr. Dhanu Laxmi heads operation and delivery teams in India. talent21 owing to its growth in recent times, has set its mission be global organization in the field India

of recruitment and business consulting. "talent21 endeavors continually to surpass client and candidate expectations. Our consultants are committed to providing the highest level of service, delivering utmost expertise and results in the acquisition and development of world-class leadership teams. We are proud to apply the ethics, and standards prescribed," talent21 expressed. " We have implemented these guidelines with our own stringent quality standards and procedures in our everyday working processes and procedures. This way we are able to guarantee that each and every one of

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our offices meets a specific standard of service excellence. Merely implementing these measures is not enough as we strive for not only client satisfaction but also client loyalty - that is why each of our offices conduct a quality performance review after completion of our searches. The results are published annually. We are proud to say that more than three quarters of our clients have indicated that they will use our services again and have given us the highest rating in our surveys, " the company added.

Major Milestones Ø 2010 Started with one person

Ø 2014

Started in USA, Team of 40 Ø 2015 Started in UAE ,Team of 60 Talent21 assists and advises a large number of clients from different sectors. One of their client was faced the challenge of strengthening the team for their startup to a substantial figure of 100 in four weeks. Another challenge was eighty percent of these had to be lateral resources with similar experience. Entire HR functions and leadership and Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) teams were also to be hired. After all, the biggest challenge was that getting resources on board with in a month .

with an office Ø 2011 20 members in Hydrabad Ø 2013 Started office in

Bangalore, Team of 30

"When this organization approached us we knew that this was critical position and would need

India

at least 15 to 20 days for initial screening. However time was scarce to spare, we also knew that conventional sourcing will not help us with getting right candidate for this position. So we decided to get u n conventional and used our specialized service Refer a FriendTM , By this we did not look just for active job seekers we were also able to reach the passive job seekers, we spread the word with all our contacts who were hold similar positions in various organizations and explained about our Refer a FriendT, " said talent21.

According to talent21, the company competes with themselves. This organization is known by its customers for its flexibility and delivery excellence with continued efforts to innovate its services.

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Collegedunia Lists 15000 colleges, Reaches out Students in Every Corner of Country

F

ounded by Sahil Chalana, Collegedunia is an education search engine, where students can explore and compare their future study destinations. Leaving its competitors behind, Collegedunia.com today has become a leading education portal of the country. It provides information of about 15000 colleges across country and aims to double this figure by year end. Having competitors like Careers360, Shiksha and clients like NIIT Group, Educomp Business Schools, NMIMS, Alliance Business School IDP Global, this Delhi based education portal enables users to view state and city wise listing of top colleges and universities with reviews and ratings.

Collegedunia reaches out students in every corner of the country and helps them find the information that isn't easily available and make an informed choice. Students can explore and compare their future study destinations using this education search engine.

At the first creative instinct of Sahil Chalana, encouraged him to start getmyforms.in, a startup that provided assistance for online filling up of admission forms. Unfortunately, this startup firm did not take off.

But, the whole experience brought Mr. Chalana in close proximity to huge gap that existed between the available data about colleges and the quality of information as

sought by the college aspirants. He started Collegedunia with only five people, which has now grown into a hundred- employee team. This number is increasing with more experienced members joining the team. With time Collegedunia has realized the need of a product absolutely catering to the needs of the aspiring college candidates, their parents and peers. Putting strenuous effort to maintain high standards in UI and UX, Collegedunia.com has seen a massive increase in its user base. Number of first time users for Collegedunia.com took a multifold leap from 15000 per month to 1200000 per month. These numbers speak a lot about the company's growing market share. Presently their only source of revenue is advertisement but they are planning to move for user payments with an online marketplace for preparation material. The company has successfully launched its Mobile App on Android owning to high mobile traffic. Since a big chunk of its user base is from mobile platform, they have a plan to launch an app for iOS. Its Personal Admission Assistant both on Mobile and Desktop, works together in the admission starting from Exam Preparation to College Selection.

This portal has three major sections to cater : College Section, Exam Section and Course Section. The college India

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page offers info on Courses, Fees, Placement, Admission Updates and Reviews. It also has an exam section listing exam from over 18 streams. It offers Practice Papers, Preparation Tips from Expert and Toppers. Its Course Section is still in the development phase but currently it is offering info on over 6000 courses across India with info of average fee, eligibility, course structure, syllabus and career opportunities.

The Maverick behind the Company Sahil Chalana Sahil Chalana is the founder of collegedunia.com. He completed his MSc (Tech) Information Systems from BITS Pilani, one of the premier technological institutes in the country. He went onto become a co-founder in zoutons.com, 3.14 digital, rocketstores.in before setting up collegedunia.com.

High standard design, availability of most credible, updated and authentic information are the reasons behind the success of the company. Collegedunia has more than 30000 genuine reviews spread across 9000 colleges, which means visitors can make an outlook critical during admission. Collegedunia is held in its strong vision to reach out students in every corner of the country and help them find the information that isn't easily available and make an informed choice. The

vision is also rooted in the opportunity this sector entails. With college admissions a $45 billion market, collegedunia.com aims to sweep a major chunk by making the admission process as smooth as possible and not only in terms of information but also application procedure. The company has changed its model and worked on lead generation instead. It is also renovating its portal for exam preparation and study material. Raising Rs 3 crore (in pre-Series A round) fund from Umang Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Gaadi.com, the company plans to offer students such a product which can fulfill every needs of a student looking for admission in India. Collegedunia also plans to replicate the same model for Study Abroad and Online Counselling.

India

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Biggest Problems faced by

Startups in India I

n India the number of startups is growing at an exponential rate. Silicon Valley has huge impact on startup ecosystem in India. Current startup ecosystem in the country consists of a lot of young talent coming out with some very unique ideas. Prime Minister Modi's Start Up initiative has influenced many of them. But the reality is only few startups are reching their mission.

The road to building a startup in India is filled with hurdles and challenges. This article is to highlight the reasons why most of the Indian startups fail.

Selling Product Though India is a big country and large market, to break into the Indian market with a consumer product is very tough. Consumers

are very price-sensitive. When you will try to sell your product to large organizations, you have to send them the quote. Then after a long time, the organization may tell that they no longer need the product.

Marketing Strategy This follows the above challenge.

Many startups struggle to build a marketing strategy for their businesses. Just like the fact that every product is not meant for every location, every marketing strategy will not work in every region. Just because of poor marketing strategy, startups face several roadblocks and ultimately fail. Lack of an effective branding strategy is yet another issue that bars startups from flourishing speedily. Good marketing strategy ensures rock solid foundation.

India

Funding Capital has always been a crucial problem for startups. Though angel investors, venture capital and private equity help startups grow, most of the startups struggle to raise fund from an indivitual or institute.

Funding challenge is not only limited to seed rounds, but also for vital Series A and B rounds. The challenge is not to merely generate enough seed capital but also to support in expansion and sustenance and maintenance. There are only a few big investors in the country, who are ready to support startups. It becomes very hard for the startups to raise fund from them.

Hiring People Hiring right people for startup is an herculean task. To find and hire the

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right kind of talent for the business with skills to match growing customer expectations is one of the biggest challenges. Startups may not be able to offer good salary and facilitties to those people. Offering less salaries in comparison with big firms, hiring skilled manpower may not be possible for startups. So startups may have to convince right people to join their organization.

Policies and Procedure

g ove re nme nt has take n fe w initiatives. Start Up, Stand Up initiative has addressed various issues. The budget 2016-17 has allocated huge fund for startups. In this regard it will be interesting to see the contours of the recently announced Startup Fund.

Culture It is only in the last decade and half that a large number of Indians have moved from being job seekers to job creators. So, entrepreneurship and startups are only a recent phenomenon in the country. Many startups have failed to survive.

Many of them have faced monetary crisis. Starting a business is tough and every country sees more failures than success. India lacks proper business culture.

Government has huge role in ease of doing business and helping companies start. Government is the supreme authority to monitor entrepreneurial activities and ecosystem. The legal procedure is not friendly towards the startups in India. The government has lot to do and understand the importance of entrepreneurship in economic development.

Mentorship

The government's role is very limited for grants. According to World Bank, India ranks 130 in Doing Business 2016. But Modi

Lack of proper guidance and mentorship is one of the biggest problems that exists in the Indian startup ecosystem. In our country lots of talents aspire to be an

India

entrepreneur, choose an independent work life. They come with different ideas. The ideas are enough to achive great success. But implementing the idea is a real big challenge which gradually gives rise to a chain of challenges. To forward an idea in the right direction,they need a good mentor. One of the biggest factors that slows the growth of these statrups, is the poor quality of mentorship. Most of these organizations are good with their ideas or products, but have no business and market experience to effectively get their products out. In the US there are lot of reputated organizations for mentorship.

They guide to propel wannabe entrepreneurs. Only in the last few years,a few such organization have sprung up in India. It is a matter of hope that to mentor budding entrepreneurs and help the emerging organizations access best technology, IT major Oracle will set up nine startup incubators across the country.

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Positive Bioscience's Genomics Services Make Difference in Patients' Lives The CEO Magazine New Delhi

H

ealthcare sector in our country is primarily focused on treatment rather than prevention.

This approach has several drawbacks like increased treatment costs, higher mortality rates, lack of effective care etc. With a holistic mission to bring a change in healthcare sector, Positive Bioscience helps an individual understand their health at a molecular level, gives them necessary recommendations to reduce their risk for diseases and also advises a personalized treatment strategy.

Though clinical genomics is already popular in the western countries where about 1 in every 10 cancer patients are undergoing genetic testing to guide their treatment, in India this number is extremely poor. Only 1 in 10, 000 patients undergo genomic testing. Positive Bioscience aspires to expand in the cancer genomics space and wishes to sequence 2 in every 10 cancer patients in the next three years in the country. Dedicating itself to make a difference in patients' lives, Positive Bioscience offers a variety of services in the domain of personal genomics, cancer genomics, and molecular diagnostics. Their genetic tests provide insights into the genetic basis for health, informing the individuals about their risk for diseases, responses to drugs and their lifestyle habits. By combining this genetic information with health history and appropriate

genetic counseling, they also provide actionable steps for a healthier life. Positive Bioscience also offers interpretational analysis of DNA based diagnostic tests for Cancer patients and healthy individuals. This analysis helps clinicians personalize the clinical management of cancer and other health conditions.

This Mumbai based company's India

business strategy for future growth is focused on various key initiatives.

They are developing the business nationally, with tie ups with hospitals. The company is using research for interpretation of genomic testing. Expanding sample collection network, is also a part of their business strategy. They also provide genetic counseling to grow

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and expand their existing products and markets.

The company's business model is based on two product categories: Cancer Genomics for cancer patients and Personal genomics for healthy individuals.

Personal Genomics: The company offers personal genomics tests that can detect your risk profile for various diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases, different cancers, lifestyle diseases and neurological disorders.

Cancer genomics: They provide physicians with important information through our proprietary systems that analyze genetic reports to guide the healthcare management of their patients. Physicians, hospitals and medical practitioner as part of their practice of Precision medicine, request the test and analyses. Applying their deep data expertise and research to genomic testing analysis, Positive Bioscience provides medical experts with the information they need to make decisions on the treatments. The company's expertise in Cancer genomics has seen great success. " All our tests are carried out in NABL/CAP/CLIA accredited

laboratories in USA, Korea, China while few tests are also done in India. Once we process the genomic data and produce the reports, our genetic counselors help the patients understand the significance of their genetic findings and correlate these with their health history, " said Positive Bioscience.

Key Officials Samarth Jain CEO and co-founder

27 year-old visionary entrepreneur Samarth Jain is the CEO of Positive Bioscience, who founded this company in 2012. He has BA degree in Economics from University of Illinois Urbana Champagne. He has served Mckinsey & Co. and Wall Street prior to Positive Bioscience.

Mrs Bapsy Jain, 58 CFO and co-founder Mrs Bapsy Jain holds CA degree from The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. She worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers pvt. Ltd, prior to which she was Financial director at S. P. Jain Global Management School.

Dr Meetha Medhora has a Ph.D. From Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and teaches radiation

India

oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin in the United States.

Positive Bioscience has more than 40 experts from various areas of expertise including highly qualified data scientists, bioinformaticians, computational biologists, scientific officers, marketing and sales professionals. The core team consists of talented doctors and experienced industry professionals like Dr Gowhar Shafi (Head of Bioinformatics), Dr Swapnil Jaiswal (Head of Medical Affairs) , Manisha Sonavadekar (Vice President, Oncology) and Shantanu Parihar (Head of Marketing & Business Development).

Positive Bioscience was the first company to launch RNA-sequencing, which also launched India's first personal genomics clinic at Medanta, The Medicity, Gurgaaon in August 2014. The company is well positioned in the market to compete with Foundation Medicine for Cancer genomics product and with Mapmygenome and Xcode for Personal Genomics product. Owing to its growth in a short span of time, Positive Bioscience has achieved several prestigious prizes and position.

It ranked in the amazon.com's global listing of top 6 start-ups in 2012.

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Tudip Technologies is Known for Integrity Innovation and Serenity The CEO Magazine New Delhi

In 2010, Dipti Agrawal and TusharApshankar both decided to quit their jobs and open an enterprise which would focus on the client and its needs and provide world class nearshoring services.

Their mission was to build a different software services company, that will focus on high integrity and stringent quality implementation. Founded by them, Tudip Technologies is a value driven software services company, incorporated with innovation and expertise as the key features, that delivers excellence in terms of dedicated and business-centric web and mobile solutions.

Headquartered in Pune, the organization is strategically transforming their clients. It offers flexible, customized and cost-effective nearshoring solutions. The company

ensures the utmost confidentiality of the sensitive business data and ontime and in-budget delivery. Having a strong track-record of industry expertise, over 150 employees, footprint in California and channel partner in Netherlands, Tudip works as an extension to the client's team.

Tudip Technologies has competencies in Web Applications Development, Mobile Applications both native & cross platforms, Quality Assurance (Testing manual & automated), Customized ERP & CRM Implementation and maintenance, Development Operations, Consulting across domains, Cloud Computing and Big Data. With frequent health checks with its clients on the project progress, Tudip bridges the gap and helps set the right expectations

India

around the go to market strategies.

The company follows the agile methodology and has its own project management system named SteerSimple, that helps track task's

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priority and real time progress anytime. It also follows "Near Shore" methodology, where the team constantly interacts with a client.

Team at Tudip works as an extension to the client's team. This is a client focused company, where "Client is the King." Tudip has client base ranging from East to West Coast of US, Canada and Europe.

For 6 years, they tried to assess their capabilities, test water, learned from their mistakes and every passing year, they stood stronger and proved their mettle.

"We are not just a vendor but we are technology partners for our clients. We are a core technology company. Our hard work speaks for itself, as our clients had been driving the strogenst referral traffic towards us. " said Tudip.

"We believe in our own competencies and making ourselves stronger."

Key Officials

Dipti Agrawal, CEO and Co-Founder, Tudip Technologies Dipti Agrawal is a visionary entrepreneur with a belief that it's all about providing value to its clients and money is just a byproduct of that process. She has a great domain expertise along with right kind of exposure to international markets.

Dipti has worked with various multinational billion dollars + club companies.

TusharApshankar, CTO and Co-Founder, Tudip Technologies

key strengths. Tudip's high quality, cost effective, reliable and scalable services helped it in building an enduring relationship with its clients. The company is known for Integrity and Innovation. It differentiated from others as by being a strategic forward thinking consulting & development group, defining complete business solutions, processes, technologies, metrics and revenue. By the end of this year Tudip would be venturing into new markets like UAE, South America and partnering with different technology partners and funding product companies.

TusharApshankar brings over 15 years of technical experience. He continues to be a kickass hands on coder. He holds MS degree from the prestigious Louisiana State University, USA. TusharApshankarhas been part of quite a few successful product startups in his career.

It is this unique blend that made Dipti and Tushar, a perfect match to build a world class enterprise. An amazing positive energy, vibrant office, and smart developers are its India

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Acquisition News

Flipkart acquires PhonePe

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n April 1 Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart announced acquisition of PhonePe , a Bangalore based mobile payments company.

Co-founded by ex-Flipkart employees Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, PhonePe is building India's first Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based product. UPI will provide a highly secure hasslefree digital payments experience.

Anyone holding an active bank account will be able to perform instant transactions by simply using

their mobile phone.

Following this acquisition, PhonePe team will transition to Flipkart but will function as an independent business unit.

Commenting on this acquisition, Binny Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, said, "Payments has been one of the biggest hurdles for mass adoption of online shopping in India. UPI has the potential of transforming the entire payments ecosystem in the country. The acquisition of PhonePe is in-line with Flipkart's focus on driving innovation on the payments

front. I am delighted that two Flipkart veterans - Sameer and Rahul are at the helm of this initiative."

Sameer Nigam, Co-founder, PhonePe commented, "PhonePe's mission is to significantly improve the online and offline digital payments experience for millions of Indian customers. We are really excited to merge with Flipkart and get access to one of the largest consumer bases in the country, which will allow us to realize our vision at a much larger scale."

GCPL acquires Strength of Nature, focuses on Africa

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odrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) announced on April 1 that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Strength of Nature LLC (SON), a leading company of hair care products for women of African descent. This acquisition is a further step to accelerate GCPL's global 3 by 3 strategy and scale up its presence in Africa by being at the forefront of serving the hair care needs of women of African descent.

"Over the past few years, we have been scaling up our international presence with acquisitions that fit well in our 3 by 3 strategy - a presence in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America through 3 core categories - hair care, home care and personal care," explained Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group. "These strategic acquisitions have strongly aided our growth story. Through them, we have both extended our core businesses and implicitly broadened our presence to a wider canvas."

"We are delighted to welcome Strength of Nature into our fold.

Strength of Nature enables us to further strengthen our foothold in Africa," Godrej added.

SON, a USA based company with a significant presence in Africa and the Caribbean, is one of the fastest growing companies in the hair care category for women of African descent, which has a seasoned management team with over 100 years of combined experience in the industry. SON has a compelling portfolio of heritage, category-leading brands in Wet Hair Care, across relaxers, maintenance, styling and shampoos.

This includes iconic hair care brands with affordable and innovative products, which have been serving women of African descent across 50 countries.

Annualised CY 2015 revenues for the company were USD 95 million.

Commenting on the acquisition, Vivek Gambhir, Managing Director, GCPL, said, "Strength of India

Nature has a strong track record of serving consumers across Africa and the USA through its robust portfolio of heritage, category leading brands. We look forward to leveraging its strong brand equity for our business."

One month back, GCPL acquired majority stake in Canon Chemicals in Kenya. Speaking on GCPL's focus on Africa, Godrej said, "Africa is a key part of our growth strategy and we strongly believe that it holds tremendous potential. Africa has more than half of the world's fastest growing economies, a fast growing middle class population and increasing urbanisation. Our operating model has enabled us to build a strong business presence in Africa. We have a good understanding of the African market and know what it takes to be successful in the region.

Our businesses in the region have been outperforming and we aspire to now double our business in Africa in the next four years."

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Funding News

Process 9 Raises Fund from IAN and Alok Sharma

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urgaon-based Process 9, has raised an undisclosed amount in funding led by IAN on April 1. Process 9 offers online translation and transliteration from English to Indic via a cloud-based Application Program Interface (API). The undisclosed amount in funding is led by IAN and Alok Sharma, CEO of Nature Eco Ventures and ex-CEO of Apple India, with participation from IAN investors Kris Gopalakrishnan, Saurabh Srivastava and Ajai Chowdhry, on a personal level. Following the investment, Alok Sharma has joined the board of the company. The funds will be invested in further developing 'IndicaWave' and 'IndicaMobile' products, digital marketing and to scale the delivery capacity of Process 9's translation business.

"Process 9 is an idea that emerged out of the necessity of the Indian

market for a localised customer interface. I see potential in the startup and the team, and with its expertise, Process 9 has an opportunity to be the market leader in India and globally," said Alok Sharma.

developing products and solutions in Natural Language Processing (NLP) space and providing localisation solutions & services to a number of industry verticals such as retail, music & entertainment, travel, eGov, etc.

It aims to make all the websites that are in English accessible to the nonEnglish literate consumer/audience.

Process 9's API integrates with the customer's web or mobile-based applications. It currently supports regional languages like Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali .

"With Process 9, we aim to enable our customers to reach the top 35 per cent non-English literate population of India quickly. IAN's support is the first round of funding that we have received and will be used to further develop IndicaWave and IndicaMobile products and to scale the delivery capacity of our translation business. We plan on investing in digital marketing and acquisition of key customers, as well as in further enhancing the technology to improve quality and efficiency of the services," added Rakesh Kapoor, Director of Process 9.

Process 9 was founded by the duo of Kapoor and Devendra Joshi. They have been a part of the Indic ecosystem for over two decades and involved in development of fonts, keyboarding software, spell checks, transliteration, etc. The firm is

Hungama Bags Rs 170 crore from Xiaomi

C

hinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has made its first investment in India, leading a Rs170 crore( $25-million ) funding round into Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, an aggregator and publisher of entertainment content on the web.

With this round of funding on April 4, the company will expand the content library and further invest in technology on its mobile app platforms Hungama Music for music and Hungama Play for premium video including movies, television, and original series. The company has a plan to add over

1500 hours of television content, along with original content to its current Hungama Play offering of over 8000 movies in English and 12 Indian languages.

Speaking about the investment, Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi stated, "We think of smartphones as a platform for us to deliver internet services, and this includes content.

We are investing in Hungama not only to start integrating content into our smartphones, but also to grow together with them and deepen our understanding of the content sector in India. We have carefully selected

India

Hungama because of what they are doing in terms of aggregating large amounts of content and delivering an amazing user experience."

Indian digital media entertainment company, Hungama started journey 17 years ago. Since then, it has constantly innovated and delivered differentiated, premium audio and video content to its consumers across web and mobile platforms. It has over 65 Mn monthly active users across all its platforms, consuming a content base of over 3.5 Mn premium digital units across audio and video.

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Electronic Payment & Services (P) Ltd (EPS) The Company behind ATM Revolution in India The CEO Magazine Mumbai

O

ver two decades, ATMs have changed the landscape of banking industry in India. It is Prakash Joshi, the COO of Electronic Payment and Services (P) Ltd, who has revolutionized the banking scenario in our country by introducing innovative ATM services, thus catering to the need of under and un- banked mass. Having hands- on experience in the ATM business and a keen focus on the Financial Services sector, Mr. Joshi brings

over 25 years of credible experience supported by overseas exposure in various trainings and workshops.

With a mission to be a leading provider of banking terminals (ATM) by providing cost effective banking and transaction related services and to establish a dependable electronic payment network, EPS has become a leading retail banking technology and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) services provider. With a collective employee experience of about 150 India

years, EPS offers a holistic range of ATM Outsourcing operations and Managed Services enabling banks to concentrate on core banking functions. The organization believes in developing strong relationships through transparency and fairness in their dealings with clients, and is committed to a high standard of integrity. Its core values include their ability to understand, deliver and determine what their clients' needs are, as trust and respect are an integral part of their teamwork.

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Headquartered in Mumbai, with a strength of over 180 employees, the team of specialists and professionals driving EPS have pioneered various initiatives in the ATM & Payments industry in India by i.e. first ATM installed in India for HSBC in 1987, first shared ATM network 'Swadhan' by India Switch Company in 1997, first of its kind transaction based ATM business model for Brown Label ATMs in India etc. It is also the first company to deploy live ATM in Mumbai for the project of Ministry of Finance in July 2012.

Under the aegis of Prakash Joshi, EPS has built a firm reputation on delivering results, reliability and dependability, having successfully deployed over 5,000 ATMs for 26 public, regional rural and cooperative banks across 28 states in India, in support of the Ministry of Finance (Govt. of India) led mission to drive 'Financial Inclusion'. The company also holds the record of deploying 1000 ATM machines in sixty days in India in 2013.

The organization conducts rigorous market research to locate a terminus where there are highest footfalls, so that ATM machines have the highest transactions.

Serving clients like State Bank of I n d ia, Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India, Bank of India. The company follows a Pay-Per-Use transaction based revenue model, key performance parameters being the transaction success rate and percentage uptime which is different from fixed monthly rentals for ATM outsourced Services. This was an innovation in itself by a start- up first time ever in the global ATM / Payments systems space.

EPS became the first Regional Board Member (India Chapter) of the global ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) in 2015. It also featured in the cover story 'Enterprise Start-ups to Watch in 2015' of a leading B2B magazine , for stellar working methodologies and unique innovative practices that can stand the test of time.

It went on to win the 'ATM Consultant of the Year 2015' award by Consultants Review, India. The recognition as 'India's Most Trusted Brand Awards 2015' was a prestigious award in the category of 'India's Best Electronic Payment Services'

by IBC InfoMedia Pvt. Ltd., (a

India

division of USA TV News Corporation). The organisation has been awarded as the 'Best ATM Services Provider 2015' at Financial Inclusion & Payment Systems Conference & Awards, India, and 'Best ATM Managed Services Provider' in the Payment & Cards Awards 2016, India.

Acquiring 100% stake in CISB ATM Services Pvt. Ltd, EPS is now known as EPS ATM Services Private Limited. Recently, EPS was honored with Achievement award by Hughes Communication for successfully deploying over 5000 ATM machines in the shortest span since inception.

Along with delivering value to their clients, they ensure that they do not lose focus of the need to give back to society. Aimed in accordance for development and well-being of the underprivileged, EPS intends to contribute towards the society.

They continue to expand their reach and make a difference to society by empowering people and communities at the bottom of the pyramid and providing opportunities to improve standards of living, through reputable NGO's across India.

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Visit Ladakh in this Summer

S

ince the temperature is soaring to unprecedented high in India, many people are now planning to visit some places where they can beat the heat. When the sun beats down, Ladakh is one of the biggest crowd puller. If you love the chilly cold and snow-capped mountains, Ladakh is the perfect place for you to visit in this summer. The high altitude cold desert will be your once in a lifetime experience.

In the 19th century, Adventure tourism was stared in Ladakh. Since 1974, the Government of India has been encouraging tourism in Ladakh. Indian portion of Ladakh comprises of Leh and Kargil districts. Leh, the largest district of India, covers more than half the area of Jammu and Kashmir.

Ladakh is well connected by air with New Delhi, Jammu and Srinagar.

Jammu Tawi is the nearest rail

station, which is connected with all major cities and towns in India. If you travel in Ladakh by road, you will be crossing some of the highest motorable mountain passes in the world. Ladakh by road offers spectacular sights of barren mountains in Greater Himalaya and Zanskar range, sweeping valleys and stunning panoramas. Known as the "Little Tibet", Ladakh is also emerging as a center for leading edge astronomy, because of its high altitude and clear skies. Indian military maintains a strong presence in the region.

Lots of famous festivals are celebrated in Ladakh. One of the biggest and most popular festival is Hemis festival, which is celebrated in June to commemorate the birth of Guru Padmasambhava.With the help of local authorities, Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department organizes Ladakh Festival in the India

month of September. The state government also organizes the Sindhu Darshan festival at Leh in the month of May- June. This Festival is celebrated on the day of Guru Poornima.

Yaks or Dong safari in the desert land is a memorable experience as you get to enjoy the pristine and marvellous beauty of the nature.

Motor Biking expedition is another exiting activity. At a height of 18,380 ft. Khardung La pass is the highest motorable road in the world. From June end up to mid October, treks are open. The passes for trekking are as high as 5,000 m in altitude. Paragliding, Indus river rafting, cycling, skiing etc attract large number of tourists.

Razi Khar is situated on the highway from Kargil to Leh, is the first Palace of the then ruler Thatha Khan. It is believed that the Leh

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Palace was built by the same architect after the completion of the Razi Khar, with his left hand because the king than cut his right hand so that he cannot built such a beautiful palace after it. The Leh Palace, is situated behind the main market is a nine-story structure. It is similar to the Potala Palace of Lhasa and still belongs to the royal family of Ladakh. It has a museum which displays rare collections of ceremonial crowns, dresses, jewelleries, ornaments etc. Here you will find Chamba Temple, which is a one roomed shrine that has a huge icon of Maitreya. Also in the bazaar, at the top of the street, one can see the Jama Masjid.

Situated in the city, Sankar Gompa is one of the oldest structures of this region. Here the monks are very hospitable. They offer yak butter tea to the tourists.

Tso Moriri Lake is situated at an elevation of 15,000 ft. It is a fresh water lake unlike the Pangong lake which has saline water. Near to Leh, Shanti Stupa is situated at a height of about 4267 metres, and offers a magnificent panoramic view of Leh

and the snow-clad mountains. The sunrise and sunset are worth-seeing from this Stupa. There is also a Buddhist temple with the Shanti Stupa,which was inaugurated by Dalai Lama in 1991.

Zanskar valley is sandwiched between the Great Himalayan ranges and the Zanskar mountain ranges.In this isolated place mainly Buddhists live. Zanskar valley surrounded by lofty mountains and deep gorges is closed for about eight months in a year due to heavy snowfall in the region.

Situated at an elevation of 5,353meters, Tiger Hill in Drass Valley is a strategically important mountain peak overlooking National Highway 1D, serving as a gateway to Siachen Glacier and connecting Leh to Srinagar. Located around 163 km north-west of the town of Leh, the village settlements of Dha and Hanu are placed on the meeting points of Indus and Shyok Rivers in the Kargil region. Nubra Valley or the Valley of Flowers, is about 150 Kms. away from Leh, the capital town of Ladakh. The Diskit monastery in the Diskit village of India

Nubra valley is a 14th century structure and is considered to be the oldest monastery in the Nubra valley.Tourists of different parts of the world flock at different other monasteries like Shey monastery, Alchi monastery, Lamayuru Monastery. Hemis monastery is considered to be the one of the richest monasteries in India with some very rare and exquisite antique collections like the copper statue of Buddha, inctricately carved gold and silver stupas and some exotic Thangkas. Near to this monastery, Hemis National Park is located, which houses several endangered and rare animals such as Snow leopards. This National Park of Ladakh, is also called the Snow Leopard Capital of the world.

Hall of Fame close to Leh, is a museum dedicated to the Indian army's heroic struggles during war in Kargil and Siachen sectors. There is a museum which displays multilayered shoes of soldiers, the weapons employed during the Kargil war and belongings of the enemy soldiers including their outfits found after the Kargil war.

www.theceo.in

Vol. 1, Issue 10

April 2016

41

IMF and India Set Up Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center to help Six SAARC Countries

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s. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley signed a Memorandum of Understanding in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on March 12 to establish a capacity development center in New Delhi.

The South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) will help address existing training needs and respond to the demand for IMF training in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, while bringing the region's training volume on par with those of other regions. The Center is expected to become the focal point for planning, coordinating, and implementing the IMF's capacity development activities in the region on a wide range of areas, including macroeconomic and fiscal management, monetary operations, financial sector regulation and supervision, and macroeconomic statistics.

SARTTAC will offer courses and seminars for policymakers and other government agencies from the six aforementioned countries. It will build upon the IMF's in-depth experience with capacity development by drawing on the experiences of the IMF's Regional Technical Assistance Centers and Regional Training Centers, which have a proven track record of delivering technical assistance on economic institution building.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Lagarde said "I would like to thank Prime Minister Modi, Finance Minister Jaitley and the Indian Government for offering to host the center and for their substantial financial commitment.

This will be the First center that fully integrates training and technical assistance and is a model for our future capacity development work. I would also like to express my appreciation to the other member countries for joining with India, the IMF, and partners like Australia

and the Republic of Korea, in making this exciting initiative happen."

The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding represents a key step toward a fully integrated capacity development center in New Delhi, and demonstrates the shared commitment between the IMF and its membership in using technical assistance and training as vehicles for economic stability and inclusive growth.

The IMF offers technical assistance and training to member countries in addition to economic and financial surveillance, and lending operations. The IMF's technical assistance helps member countries develop institutions that are more effective, and legal frameworks and policies that can be used to promote economic stability and growth, while training strengthens the capacity of member countries' officials to analyze economic developments and formulate and implement effective policies.

Funds will be raised from contributions by regional member countries and development partners. The Australian Agency for International Development, the Republic of Korea and India have pledged financial support for the Center. (Courtesy PIB, IMF) India

www.theceo.in

Vol. 1, Issue 10

April 2016

42

RNI No. DELENG18953