It’s almost March 2020 and Jammu and Kashmir is about to enter the eighth month of internet shut down. Even though the Indian government restored 2G services in Jammu and Kashmir on January 25, 2020, the services are limited to only whitelisted websites, which also don’t function properly due to the restrictions on other sites. Meanwhile, the internet services in the union territory of Ladakh were restored in December 2019. With the internet being the basic ingredient for tech startups, how are the J&K and Ladakh startup ecosystem surviving through this blackout? We spoke to startups in all the major regions — Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh — to understand the severity of the situation.

In the almost eight months of internet ban, several startups had to wind up operations in both UTs. While some managed to get back on track after the prolonged forced slumber, others had to shut their businesses down for good.

That includes an edtech startup based out of Srinagar. The founder, who chose to remain anonymous, told Inc42 that the startup had spent close to INR 25 Lakh to INR 30 Lakh on establishing the business and was about to expand operations. With the abrogation of Article 370, all cellular and internet services shut down, which killed the hopes of scaling up the startup.

While agreeing that there are long term benefits to the revocation of Article 370 and J&K becoming a union territory, the edtech startup’s founder added, “In the long run, it does not matter, if everything has fallen apart now.”

UT Status Brings Hope For J&K, Ladakh Startups?

Meanwhile, there are others that are willing to overlook the current disruption in the hope for a better future. With the revocation of Article 370 and J&K becoming a union territory, the startups in the region are rooting for central government’s intervention in the otherwise-slow startup ecosystem in J&K and Ladakh, several entrepreneurs told Inc42.

The startups in the region believe that the J&K Startup Policy, which is applicable in Ladakh even after the separation, has been just doing well on paper. Raghav Sharma, founder of ecommerce platform Golden Kashmir, told Inc42 that the J&K and Ladakh region are in dire need for “infrastructure development, better policy and tech sandboxes.”

Meanwhile, Sahil Verma, founder of Pure Mart, also questioned the focus areas mentioned in the J&K Startup Policy. The J&K Startup Policy of 2018 has focussed on seven key areas. These include:

• Food processing and allied activities
• Agriculture including horticulture and floriculture
• Textiles, apparel & fashion technology
• Renewable energy
• Handicrafts & handlooms
• Electronics systems design and manufacturing
• Information technology-enabled services

Verma noted that the sectors mentioned are “not really startups, but are businesses”. He further emphasised that the J&K startup ecosystem, “needs policymakers that understand startups, and not just any bureaucrat.”

Meanwhile, Irtif Lone, head of the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Business modelling at JKEDI (Jammu & Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute), disputed this notion. He told Inc42, “I believe there is a misconception about the startups registered. All the startups registered are technology-driven in various fields and have some serious innovation at the core.”

Challenges, With Opportunities

Owing to the policies and the available ecosystem in the region, several startups have decided to move out and start their operations in other states, Verma stressed. As many have left, some have decided to arrive to take what J&K has to offer.

Ram N Kumar, founder of NirogStreet, a Gurugram-based cannabis-focussed healthtech startup, decided to incubate in J&K’s Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), ignoring all the challenges of the infant startup ecosystem. Kumar highlighted, “Challenges are everywhere, but J&K also has a lot of opportunities, especially for the biotech startups.”

IIIM has also incubated Gurugram-based HempStreet, which is another cannabis-focussed healthtech startup. The startup recently raised $1 Mn in Pre-Series A funding round led by Pharmacon Holdings.

Here’s taking a closer look at some of these prominent startups from J&K and Ladakh region:

Pashmina Goat Project:  Founded by Babar Afzal and Henna Anjum in 2009. Afzal is a pashmina activist raising awareness regarding the endangered Pashmina goats. The company works will craftspeople from the Kashmir and Ladakh region to design and sell pashmina shawls in boutiques of Paris and New York. Each piece may take up to two years to develop.

Kashmir Box: Kashmir Box is an ecommerce platform that sells handicrafts and handlooms. The company was founded by Muheet Mehraj in 2011 and has been one of the most-funded startups from Jammu & Kashmir.  The company brings local artisans and farmers, producers, and local brands from far-flung areas of Kashmir on one platform, allowing them to sell their products to clients from 40 countries.

viaENS: viaENS is an edtech startup that provides digital marketing courses to build and grow blogs, websites and social media handles. The company was founded in 2014 by Arush Mahajan.

Fast Beetle: Founded by Sami Ullah and Abid Rashid in 2018, Fast Beetle is Kashmir’s first logistics company. The company also facilitates the growth of other startups in the new union territory by providing end-to-end service to the entrepreneurs, specifically women business owners.

Jos&Fine: Jos&Fine is a Kashmir and France-based startup that was founded by Aaditya Kitroo and France-based Safia Igranaissi. The company manufactures and sells authentic Ladhaki Pashmina. The company’s design studio and offices are set in France; meanwhile, the craftsmanship is conducted through its operational headquarters and team in Kashmir.

PureMart: Founded in 2012 by Sahil and Rajani Verma, PureMart is an ecommerce portal based out of Jammu. The company deals in exotic products from Jammu and Kashmir. This includes cold-pressed oils, Kashmiri saffron, Himalayan Honey, mountain garlic, and nuts, seeds and dry fruits and other products.

Go Kash Adventures: Founded by Danish Mir in May 2015, Go Kash is a tour and travel startup that offers small-group tours, expedition, and safaris across popular historical and geographical destinations across Jammu and Kashmir. Its packages include major tourist attractions, hotel accommodations and transport facilities.

KartFood: KartFood is an online food delivery service in Kashmir, which was founded by Furqan Qureshi and Amir Bashir. Initially, the company used to take orders through phone calls, but the company launched its website for online orders in February 2017. KartFood rolled out its mobile-application in April that year. The company also plans to diversify its services to include other items as well.

INR Deals: Founded by Siddharth Gupta in 2016, INR Deals is online deals and discounting platform. The company aggregates current deals being offered on ecommerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Zivame, Ajio and others.

Sesti: Sesti is an agriculture-focused startup that is looking to bridge the gap between the producers and the market through digital intervention. For this, the company is developing a mobile-based application. Sesti is founded by Ashraf Wani in 2019. The company is also partnered with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to set up an institute of vocational studies for curriculum related to agriculture.

SozialeSack: SozialeSack is a public relations and communication startup that started its operations in 2017. The company offers services like social media management, digital marketing, business incubation and website development. So far, the company has handled 53 projects, creating 1,200 visual content. Its clientele includes The Shri Ram Universal School, CII’s Big Picture Summit, Advancells and A Cup Of Tea.

Nentoir: Founded in 2018 by Ishan Verma, Nentoir is an SMVDU-TBIC incubated B2B startup that focuses on making supply chain processes that are involved in developing integrated tech platforms.

TravelersDost: TravelerDost is a destination management company that offers travel services for Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh. The company also has a brand called The Himalaya 360.  The company was founded by Vaibhav Sharma, Sonali Bhatia and Vinod Kashyap in 2015.

Looms of Ladakh: Looms of Ladakh is a women’s cooperative skill development initiative that aims to bring unemployed female artisans from the remote villages of Ladakh region. The company sources Changthangi Pashmina, Bactrian camel wool, yak wool and sheep wool from the artisans and sells it across the world. The company was founded by G Prasanna Ramaswamy and Abhilasha Bahuguna.

In a bid to improve fitness levels of Indians, the Indian Railways has set up a new ticket vending machine which dispenses a free ticket to individuals for doing squats in front of it.

The Fit India Squat Machine dispenses a free platform ticket worth INR 10 if a person completes 30 squats in 180 seconds in front of it. The machine starts counting the squats when a person stands on a spot which has an impression of footprints. The sensors attached to the machine count the number of squats.

As of now, this machine is only installed at the entrance of the Anand Vihar Railway Station in Delhi. In a tweet, railways minister Piyush Goyal said that the machine will help in savings along with health benefits. Goyal’s tweet also had a video which showed how the machine actually works.

फिटनेस के साथ बचत भी: दिल्ली के आनंद विहार रेलवे स्टेशन पर फिटनेस को प्रोत्साहित करने के लिए अनूठा प्रयोग किया गया है।

यहां लगाई गई मशीन के सामने एक्सरसाइज करने पर प्लेटफार्म टिकट निशुल्क लिया जा सकता है। pic.twitter.com/RL79nKEJBp

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) February 21, 2020

According to FE, this is the first such machine in India and similar ones have been installed in other countries which are making travel cheaper and healthier.

Ahead of the 2013 Winter Olympics, similar machines were installed at Vystavochaya station in Moscow. However, it was more difficult to impress this machine as  one had to complete 30 squats under 120 seconds — no mean feat. In the same year, a similar machine was also installed in Mexico which offered users a free metro ride for doing 10 squats.

The installation of this machine also comes in lines with the Indian government’s flagship programme Fit India Movement. Launched in August 2019, the programme aims to encourage people to remain healthy and fit by incorporating physical activities and sports in their busy lives.

Railways Betting On Technologies

In the recent past, Indian railways has adopted several new unique technologies, even if they may be different in nature than the squat machine.

In a bid to improve security at railway stations across India, the Indian Railways, in January 2020, said that is planning to install an internet protocol-based video surveillance system (VSS). The intelligent surveillance system will be using video analytics and facial recognition features to monitor and track suspicious activities across stations, including waiting halls, reservation counters, parking areas and others.

In December last year, the Indian Railways installed a first-of-its-kind ‘atmospheric water generator’ (AWG) system called ‘Meghdoot,’ which converts humid air into potable water, at Secunderabad railway station in Telangana.

“Real money gaming has huge scope in India and the biggest example of that is Dream11” —   Raj Kundra

Being an entrepreneur for over two decades now, Raj Kundra knows a thing or two about starting new ventures and this time he’s stepped back into real money gaming with Housie Quiz. Housie or Lotto or Bingo, popularly known as Tambola in India, has been around for decades and is seen as a game of chance.

However, Kundra has found a way to make this game of chance a game of skill under the definition of real money gaming in India right now. Housie Quiz is an online version of the popular housie game. On the online application, a player can purchase up to two tickets that cost INR 25 each and play housie via the live streaming feed.

What differentiates the online and offline version is that with every number, the gamer has to answer a question with 15 seconds on the clock. If the answer is right, a user gets the point otherwise it is marked Red, which reduces the player’s chances of winning the game.

Talking to Inc42, Kundra explained that the company has based the questions on the average IQ in India, which according to World Data organisation is 81. “So we formed the questions following the average IQ of 81 which are general knowledge and everyday questions. It’s Bollywood, cricket all questions that can be easily answered,” he explained.

Raj Kundra has invested INR 3 Cr in Housie Quiz himself and has INR 10 Cr before going for external funding. “The idea is to give out the proper concept and get a million users base and later we will look at going for rounds of funding,” Kundra added.

Tier 2 And Beyond: Bringing Vernacular Spread

At present, the app is available in English and Hindi. With time, Kundra said, that the company wants to enable multiple vernacular languages as the focus is on tier 2 and tier 3 markets.

“Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets for sure, because the entry in this game is probably one of the cheapest as compared to other real money gaming. It’s just INR 25 a ticket. So, there is definitely a lot to win, you are just paying the minimum. The more people join the more you win,” he explained.

The company is currently hosting three live games daily which starts at a price of INR 10,000 for 1 pm and 4 pm game and INR 20,000 for the 8 pm game.

Leveraging Offline Touchpoints For Housie Quiz

As for ensuring the reach in these markets, which are still getting online, Kundra said that the company has built a huge offline retainer distributor base.

“There are about 5000 touchpoints for real money games like GOD (Game of Dot). So through those retail distributors, we will be putting in this game as well, so people pay their INR 50 in person at the shop and their tickets are transferred into the account. So we have a good offline market and it’s going very handy,” Kundra told us.

The app is currently under beta testing and Kundra claims that it can handle upto a million users at once. He wants to reach 1 Mn users on the app in the next six months with a team of around 30 employees, half of which are in tech-end.

“Once we touch a million users we expand the languages. At the end of the day, it’s all about user experience. Housie as a game has so much nostalgic value so we are going to make sure that the essence of the Housie doesn’t vanish when the questions come up and people enjoy the game,” Kundra said.

Real Money Gaming Goes Old School

The recent trends have evolved in skill-based games which are now uplifting the reach and creating a collective base for the players. The Real Money Gaming (RMG) online market is estimated to be around INR 2,200 Cr and is pegged at a growth rate of 30% per annum.

“For me, I wanted to create a real money game which is a game of skill which basically has nostalgic value and a game that can go out beyond male predominate audience and basically where families can play. So right from 18 – 70 years old, our research shows that the most loved game has always been housie and it comes under games of chance and not skill,” Kundra said.

The country’s rising middle class is actually willing to pay for the content and the experience that they get from online and mobile gaming.

“There is a fine line between a game of chance and a game of skills. The Indian rules are still not properly set. In terms of games of skill, I would love to see some change that would define the game of skill more appropriate. But we are definitely seeing some changes happening; there have been various bodies that have been set up in Indian gaming that are setting new rules and guidelines in place. So we are seeing that change happens and also there is great acceptance on real money gaming sports,” Kundra said.

Citing the example of Dream11, Raj Kundra said that people are accepting real money gaming. Going forward, Housie Quiz is planning to bring celebrities on board to maximise its user base.

India has always relied on other countries for meeting the demands for lithium, a major element used to manufacture lithium-ion batteries which power electric vehicles. As the government is pushing for early adoption of EVs in the country, the demand for lithium is growing to demand in the near future and luckily India has now found a new lithium reserve inside the country.

According to ET, a lithium reserve has been discovered by the researchers of the Atomic Minerals Directorate, a unit of India’s Atomic Energy Commission at Mandya, a city located 100 Km away from Bengaluru. The researches have estimated that Mandya has around 14K tonnes of lithium reserves. The finding of this study is going to be published in the Current Science journal’s upcoming edition. PV Thirupathi is the lead author of this research.

An EV expert and a retired professor at the Indian Institute of Science N Munichandraiah said that the data provided by the researchers estimate that a total of 30K tonnes of lithium oxide is spread over an area of 2.5 sq Km. “Out of this lithium ore, around 14K tonnes of lithium metal can be extracted,” he added.

Though the discovery of lithium ore in India can be of a significant importune, the overall quantity of the mineral that can be extracted from it is still very small as compared to other countries. Munichandraiah said that Chile has around 8.6 Mn tonnes, Australia has 2.8 Mn tonnes, Argentina has 1.7 Mn tonnes and even Portugal has around 60K tonnes of lithium deposits. “If we compare the Indian find to other countries, it is not large,” he added.

While this is the first time a lithium ore has been discovered in India, industry experts have complained that not much of the government effort has been towards this direction. President of India Energy Storage Alliance told ET that India has not explored so far whether the country has adequate reserves of lithium because of concerns of radioactivity.

From the financial year 2017 to 2019, the imports of lithium-ion batteries in India have tripled from $384 Mn to $1.2 Bn, according to CleanTechnica. As of now, India imports lithium from Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.

Moreover, impressed with India’s EV growth in the recent past, many companies are investing in India to build a lithium-ion manufacturing plant. In September 2019, venturing into the production of lithium-ion batteries and electrode, Japenese automobile major Suzuki Motors has formed a consortium with Japenese automotive component manufacturer Denso and multinational conglomerate Toshiba to set up a manufacturing unit in Gujarat. The batteries will be used to power electric vehicles (EV).

In March 2019, South Korean tech giant Samsung was planning to invest INR 2,500 Cr ($360 Mn) to transform its India operations into a hub for components business such as lithium-ion batteries for smartphones.

With increasing digital adoption, online learning has become the defacto method of gaining knowledge for school and college students in most Indian cities and larger towns. Live interactive sessions are becoming the unique selling proposition (USP) these days, with the likes of BYJU’s, Vedantu, Unacademy and Toppr setting the ball rolling. Led by these startups, there has been an influx of edtech startups which are ready to grab their share of the massive Indian market.

Deeper internet penetration and the rampant use of smartphones and other connected devices have exponentially increased the capitalisation opportunity in Indian edtech. This trend is gaining investors attention resulting in huge funds coming in Indian startups way. In FY 2018 alone, the gross merchandise value of edtech startups was above $120 Mn, which is a surge of 48% compared to the previous year.

This indicates that edtech startups are poised for bigger growth as the market conditions and reception for the products and services are likely to increase. With technology spreading its wings across every sector, edtech is another new thing which is gaining attraction and is on the rise.

From online test preparation to experience learning using AR/VR, edtech is gaining its momentum. So here’s a look at what trends one can expect to see within edtech in 2020.

Online Test Preparation To Continue Its Edtech March

Online test preparation is easily the most prominent and aggressively-growing segments in the Indian edtech landscape. The combined market size of the online test preparation and certification segments is estimated at $978 Mn by 2021.

According to DataLabs By Inc42’s The Future Of India’s $2 Bn Edtech Opportunity Report 2020, capital inflows into the test preparation and online certification segments are significantly higher relatively speaking to other edtech sub-sectors. Together, these two make up for 88% of the total funding in all edtech startups in India.

This is expected to continue into 2021 as the flexibility, low cost of learning and convenience continue to drive the adoption of products and services in these two sub-segments. But within these, we can identify a few isolated trends.

Adaptive Learning On The Rise

Given the ever-increasing cost of education in terms of tuition fees or school fees in the private arena, there is a high need to condense the cost of education bringing online learning products into the picture. The support of the government in encouraging online education, rise in mobile usage, strong internet infrastructure in terms of high-speed internet are other strong factors that capitalise on the growth of online learning in terms of online test preparation and online certification.

Anywhere, Anytime Learning

Supported by cloud computing and storage, study material will continue to become more easily accessible from anywhere — despite geographical disparities within the Indian territory and political hurdles that block the movement of students such as the recent protests in colleges.

AR/VR Learning Models Demand Boom In K-12 Domain

The AR/VR technology has the potential to be the biggest breakthrough in edtech this year when it comes to school-level products or K-12 edtech products. Experiential learning through AR/VR is being implemented in India in various forms such as virtual spaces in terms of classrooms or labs and gamification of learning.

Technology has made headway in revolutionising learning and teaching methods. There was a time when augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology was extensively used in the gaming arena. But, as we step into the next phase of digital transition in terms of media transformation, AR/VR is becoming the hottest tools in learning technology.

AR and VR are credit with creating an engaging and integrated learning experience without paper-based or device-dependent textbooks and barriers of physical entry. With such technology coming into the picture, learners are free to explore content that cannot be adequately represented in textbooks and choose to learn newer concepts in a more conducive and almost-live environment.

For instance, students can be taken on a virtual tour to any place or to anything using a smartphone app or VR glasses without having to step out of the classroom or their home, thus exposing them to an active learning environment.

“For more advanced ages, we are already seeing a lot of hardware development being done in terms of AR glasses. These will enable grasping and practicing concepts more profoundly with the help of life-size 3D animated content that students can manipulate and observe in their learning space,” said Vivek Goyal, cofounder of AR edtech startup Playshifu.

In addition to K-12, AR/VR modules will also be used in training for jobs such as pilots, emergency services and engineering as has been demonstrated through some of the existing applications geared towards entertainment.

Demand For Casual Learning Platforms Set To Rise

For anyone trying to pursue some off-beat fields or learn unconventional skills, edtech has come as a boon as it removes many of the physical and economic barriers. Anyone can start a new career through online casual learning — just search for any topic on YouTube, and one is likely to find many how-to videos to start with.

Apart from serving specific skills, the online casual or hobby courses are in high demand as modern-day Indians strive for continuous personal growth and enrichment outside of work. For some, it can become the means to earn extra income or branch off independently into new businesses.

However, the market for casual learning is seen as a nascent market. Currently, there are limited Indian startups exploring this trend with plenty of free players such as YouTube making hay through ad revenue. That’s the chief problem that Indian startups have to solve — how to convince an unwilling population to pay for such courses, which are largely available for free.

The market size for language and casual learning is predicted to grow by 42% CAGR from 2016-2021. The market is mainly driven by English language learning and is dominated by B2C with some C2C presence in respect of platforms acting as enablers for C2C interaction as per a KPMG study.

As per The Future Of India’s $2 Bn Edtech Opportunity report by DataLabs, User-generated content will occupy a large proportion of the overall content volume in this domain as proven by 3 times surge in the viewership of hobby-related YouTube videos from 2017 to 2018.

Supporting the causal learning online trend, there is another pattern to look for, which is the rise in popularity of short-length explainer videos

With ever-growing social media penetration, the popularity of short-length video is on the rise; In 2018, the average video length was 4:07 minutes compared to 6.07 in 2017, indicating a plunge of 33%.

TikTok is a major driving force in the edtech market, as it had more than 240 Mn downloads in India as of 2018. K-12 supplementary education will be the primary target for short-length content and TikTok is cleverly tapping into this with its #EduTok campaign and investment. So 2020 may yet deliver some surprises in this regard for the edtech ecosystem.

DataLabs has analysed the future of educational technology and has recorded the growth prospects, the market and consumer-related insights from the booming Indian edtech market in its latest report — The Future Of India’s $2 Bn Edtech Opportunity Report 2020.

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

In one of the biggest funding rounds this week, food delivery giant Swiggy has raised $113 Mn as part of its Series I funding round led by existing investor Prosus N.V. The latest funding round also saw participation from existing investors Meituan Dianping and Wellington Management Company.

The online food aggregator will be using fresh capital to further develop its new lines of business, addressing visible gaps in the market. The company will continue to invest in new growth areas such as Stores, Go and SuprDaily.

Overall, startups raised 15 around $332.35 Mn funding and five startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. 1. 1. Swiggy: $113 Mn
      2. Unacademy: $110 Mn
      3. Whatfix: $32 Mn
      4. OnsiteGo: $19 Mn
      5. Carbon Clean Solutions: $16 Mn
      6. Dunzo: $11 Mn
      7. Zvesta: $5.5 Mn
      8. MaxWholesale: $3 Mn
      9. InVideo: $2.5 Mn
      10. Prayaan Capital: $1.2 Mn
      11. Sanfe: $1.1 Mn
      12. Go Desi: $630K
      13. PlanetSpark: $450K
      14. AvalonMeta: $420K
      15. Near.Store: $300K
      16. Genius Corner: $250K
      17. ElecTorq: Undisclosed

• Unacademy

Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy has raised $110 Mn in a Series E funding round from social media giant Facebook, General Atlantic, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital and Blume Ventures. Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart and Sujeet Kumar, cofounder, Udaan also participated in this round of funding. Unacademy said it will utilise the funding to further penetrate into the test preparation categories, launching more exam categories, acquiring top educators, and creating exceptional learning experiences for the learners through great content and product. In addition to raising the funding, Unacademy also provided exits to some of the angel investors.

• Whatfix

Bengaluru and San Jose-based enterprise tech startup Whatfix has raised $32 Mn in Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital India. Whatfix’s existing investors Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Cisco Investments also participated in the round. With this funding, Whatfix will drive product development and expand into new markets such as Europe and Australia. The company is also looking to address the growing demand for its digital adoption solutions (DAS) which help businesses update their operations and increase the ROI on technology.

• OnsiteGo

Mumbai-based extended warranty and device protection services provider, Onsitego, has raised $19 Mn (INR 136 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by Zodius Growth Fund. Onsitego’s existing investor Accel India has also participated in the funding round, along with Accel US. Onsitego is planning to use the funding to develop stronger marketing strategies and branding activities.

• Carbon Clean Solutions

London-headquartered and IIT Kharagpur-incubated cleantech startup Carbon Clean Solutions has raised $16 Mn in a fresh round of funding. The investment came in from WAVE Equity Partners, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Marubeni Corporation.

• Dunzo

Bengaluru-based hyperlocal services provider Dunzo has raised $11 Mn in a debt funding round from Alteria Capital. With this funding round, Dunzo is looking to scale up its operations in profitable locations.

• Zvesta

Gurugram-based proptech startup Zvesta has raised $5.5 Mn from media company Hindustan Media Ventures. With the recently raised funding, the company is planning to invest in brand building and collaborative marketing of real estate properties across the country. Zvesta also wants to focus on building pan-India partnerships with real estate builders and brokers.

• MaxWholesale

B2B ecommerce platform for kirana stores, MaxWholesale, has raised $3 Mn in Series A funding round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) Fund I and Abu Dhabi-based private family office Al Falaj Investment Company (AFI). MaxWholesale is planning to use this funding to hire talent, develop technology, accelerate growth and expand the network of kirana stores. Prior to this, the company has raised $1 Mn in Pre-Series A funding round led by IAN and Maple Capital Advisors.

• InVideo

Video editing and content creation software maker InVideo, has raised $2.5 Mn in a round led by Sequoia Capital India’s early-stage accelerator programme Surge. Former Facebook exec and Five9’s Anand Chandrasekaran, and DoorDash’s Gokul Rajaram have also invested in the round. So far, the company has raised $3.2 Mn. InVideo plans to use the funding to scale up its platform for a global audience, “while investing in its community and expanding the current product pipeline.”

• Prayaan Capital

Fintech startup Prayaan Capital Private Limited has raised $1.2 Mn in a seed funding round led by Accion Venture Lab. With the recently raised funds, the startup plans to improve its technology and expand its operations.

• Sanfe

Female hygiene brand Sanfe has raised $1.1 Mn (INR 8 Cr) in a Pre-Series A funding round from SucSEED Venture Partners, BIRAC, Elixir Pharma and Titan Capital, an investment arm of Snapdeal cofounders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. The company is looking to take its products to European and African markets in the next phase.

• Go Desi

Bengaluru based FMCG startup Go Desi has raised $630K (INR 4.5 Cr) in a funding round led by New Delhi-based Rukam Capital. Other investors who participated in the round are AngelList and Upaya Social Ventures. The current round of funding will help the company expand operations, launch a larger portfolio of products and spread geographically. The last round of funding raised by GO DESi was in September 2018.

• PlanetSpark

Gurugram-based edtech startup PlanetSpark has raised $450K (INR 3.2 Cr) Pre Series A from Indian Angel Network, Lead Angels and Hyderabad Angels with participation from existing investor FIITJEE Limited. The company will use the funds in expanding its business into new geographies and increasing enrolments over the next 12-15 months.

• AvalonMeta

Edtech startup AvalonMeta has raised $420K in a funding round led by gaming company Peerplays. Chicago-based venture capital firm Purvi Capital and former Unacademy’s design head Abhinav Chhikara also participated in this round.

• Near.Store

Mumbai-based Near.Store has raised $300K as seed funding from Sauce.vc and other angel investors. Near.Store enables a shop to create an online presence and makes the shop products easily discoverable in simple steps. Near.Store is currently in a pilot stage and is present in two cities. The startup aims to expand to over 10 cities in the next six months.

• Genius Corner

Noida-based edtech startup Genius Corner has raised $250K from Singapore-based angel investors Mahesh Mohta, Jyoti Arora, Nachu Subramanian and Srivats. The funds raised by Genius Corner will be utilised to on-board 30K students on the platform.

• ElecTorq

Delhi based electric vehicle startup ElecTorq has raised an undisclosed investment from AdvantEdge. ElecTorq is a design and technology developing startup which is focused on building India specific solutions for micro-mobility.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Chennai-headquartered conglomerate TVS Group’s automobile solutions division has acquired Mumbai-based automobile after-sales services startup CarCrew for an undisclosed amount. CarCrew was founded by Vikul Goyal and Vikram Sharma in 2016. With a presence in 20 cities and more than 2,000 workshops in India, the startup offers a technology platform for aftermarket sales and services of automobiles.
• Bengaluru-based fashion retailer Voonik has now merged with Bangladesh-based social commerce platform ShopUp. Founded in 2013 by Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan, Voonik began as a personal shopping app for women, which allows them to buy apparels from multiple stores, according to their body type, lifestyle and budget.
• Auction platform for used vehicles Shriram Automall India Limited (SAMIL) has acquired New-Delhi based online car selling portal BlueJack at an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will help Shriram Automall enhance its offline auction market with online used car sales. BlueJack’s team will join Shriram Automall.
• Gurugram-based PreLoved Device has acquired Overcart in a cash and stock deal. Post this acquisition, Overcart, backed by JSW Ventures, Omidyar Network, Sattva Capital and Venture Works will be operated under the PreLoved Device brand name.
• Noida-based skilling platform Digital Vidya has acquired Delhi School of Internet Marketing (DSIM) in an all-cash deal. Digital Vidya with this acquisition will expand its reach in the major cities by delivering high-quality offline digital marketing certification programs at affordable prices on a large scale.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures has announced the final close of its Fund III at $102 Mn. The fund has been raised from anchor investors in India, US, Japan and Asia, along with existing limited partners who have invested in the firm’s previous funds.
• Bengaluru-based insurtech startup Digit Insurance has raised INR 2.5 Cr ($340K) from the celebrity couple of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma in the recently closed $84 Mn funding round.
• Mumbai-based fantasy gaming startup Dream11 is now looking to double up its valuation to $2.5 Bn after the latest funding round.
• Petrochemical major Shell has announced the 10 mid-stage startups shortlisted for its flagship incubation programme E4 Scale Track 2020. Selected shartups — Energos, IOTomation, LogicLadder, Jal Technologies, Go GreenEOT, Eee-Taxi, Commutec, Offgrid, Magenta Power, and APChemi.
• US-based investment firm Falcon Edge Capital has set up a new venture capital fund of $300 Mn for India. Backed by limited partners (LPs) from the UAE, the new fund will also invest in Southeast Asia.
• Mumbai-based JioSaavn has received INR 140.35 Cr ($19.6 Mn) infusion from parent entity Reliance Industries Limited. According to the Ministry of Corporate filings accessed by Inc42, Reliance picked up 10K equity shares at a nominal value of INR 1 with a premium of INR 1.4 Lakh worth INR 140.35 Cr earlier this month.

We bring to you the latest edition of movers and shakers of the week in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Delhi-NCR headquartered online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar has shuffled its top-management including cofounder in line with its plans for international expansion.

Former managing partner of WaterBridge Ventures, Sarbvir Singh has been appointed as the CEO, replacing cofounder Yashish Dahiya, who is now group CEO. Further, the new CEO will be reporting to cofounder Dahiya. At the same time, PolicyBazaar has also appointed ex-Yatra COO Sharat Dhall as company’s COO. He is replacing Dhruv Sarin, who now leads international expansion for PolicyBazaar.

In his new role, Dahiya will now have a broader role within the EtechAces group. Dahiya will undertake a more strategic role within the group, working across companies, with a focus on mentoring.

Here’s a look at the other important movers and shakers of the week

Chiratae Ventures Appoints Dr Ferzaan Engineer

Chiratae Ventures has appointed cofounder and chairman of Cytecare Hospitals Dr Ferzaan Engineer to Chiratae Ventures India Advisory Council.

Engineer has an experience of over 30 years in the healthcare industry. In his new role, he will help Chiratae Ventures in building a sustainable strategy in the healthcare segment.

Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors (formerly IDG Ventures India) is a technology venture capital funds advisor.

ShareChat Strengthens Leadership Team

ShareChat has appointed Satyajit Deb Roy, Satyen Kishan, and Debasmita Ghosh as directors of North & East, West, and South respectively.

The appointment will ShareChat to continue monetisation plans with brands and agencies partnership in their respective zone, and will be reporting into Sunil Kamath, chief business officer, ShareChat.

Roy has joined ShareChat from JioSaavn where he was an AVP, heading sales nationally for top categories at Jio Saavn. He has also worked with ESPN Digital Media and was responsible for monetisation for the property.

Kishan has an experience of over two decades. Satyen moved to ShareChat from MXPlayer where he was the national sales head. He has also held Key positions with Network18 and The Chernin Group where he was responsible for driving revenue functions.

Prior to ShareChat, Ghosh was leading the sales effort for Twitter in South India as part of Twitter’s catalyst team, Httpool Digital Pvt Ltd. She has also managed various portfolios in companies like Times Internet and Network 18, among others.

ShareChat is an online platform that allows users to create, discover, and share content with each other in several Indian regional languages.

Zoomcar Appoints Markish Arun

Zoomcar appointed Markish Arun as its vice president (VP) of engineering. In his new role, Markish will be responsible for all engineering initiatives and will also build respective teams with high levels of motivation and competency.

Arun has over decades of experience. Prior to this, he has worked with Goibibo and Makemytrip as the senior director of engineering and product initiatives.

He has also cofounded Magicrooms.in, a real-time inventory distribution engine for hotels in India, which he sold to Yatra.com in 2011. He also cofounded Koruko.com in 2013, an IoT-based retail engagement platform, which was later pivoted as Trip38.com.

Zoomcar is a self-drive car rental startup which lets customers rent cars as per their convenience, be it hourly, weekly or daily.

Skootr Appoints Prashant Datta

Gurugram-based Skootr has appointed Prashant Datta as its head of marketing to expand its presence across India. With over 14 years of experience in marketing communication and brand management across luxury and lifestyle segments, Datta is expected to help Skootr to improve brand presence.

Prior to this, Datta was working with Safilo Group as head of marketing, India and communication and PR manager. Prior to that, he had worked for Swatch Group & Bose Corporation.

Skootr is a coworking startup which is providing office spaces in Delhi-NCR. It claims to have an office space of 500K sq. ft.

Blackhawk Network India Appoints Radhakrishna Venketeshwaran

Bengaluru-based Blackhawk Network India has appointed Radhakrishna Venketeshwaran as the vice president – head of strategic development centre of product & engineering.

In his new role, Radhakrishna will head the strategic development centre and will report to Harel Kodesh, chief technology officer, Blackhawk Network.

Radhakrishna has held key leadership roles in the field of technology during his 15-year tenure across different industries. Prior to joining Blackhawk Network, Radhakrishna worked with Wibmo as a vice president of mobile payments and commerce.

Blackhawk Network delivers payments solutions through the prepaid products, technologies and network that connect brands and people.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Movers and Shakers of the week!

Wherever you look in today’s time, technologies have shifted the marketing as well as advertising to a great extent. Consumers are habitual with the process of decision making through content, smartphones, social media, influencers, and many more. Digital marketing has made the brands to deal with the competition, economic challenges, changing preferences, attention spans with excellence.

What Is The Importance Of Digital Marketing?

You can engage with the targeted audience correctly through digital marketing. It is the fastest-growing subset which helps you to interact with mobile consumers. It helps in enhancing the marketing efficiency, customer satisfaction by improving the retention rates of your brand. A well-developed plan for digital marketing helps in achieving success for your brand.

Why Is It Essential To Make A Structured Digital Marketing Plan?

• Every brand needs a full proofed strategy for creating awareness, getting the leads, and converting the ideas to customers.
• A proper structured digital marketing plan helps in defining your primary goals as well as objectives.
• It helps in providing crucial answers to the questions like budgets, target audience, frequency, and direction.
• The time plus energy which you are spending on the making of the digital marketing strategy will help your brand to enhance more customers.
• A well-defined digital marketing plan keeps the customer as well as their habits at the center and aware of them with unique ideas.
• You can offer the customers with interactive stories, personalization, and useful content through the well-structured digital marketing strategy.
• It becomes easier to explore new ideas and execute the strategy effectively when you have prepared a fantastic digital marketing plan.

What Are The Challenges Faced While Creating A Digital Marketing Strategy?

The most common problem faced by beginners is where to start the digital marketing plan. The second challenge is the sheer scale or the scope of the digital marketing plan. Several digital marketing techniques ranging from socializing, searching, and email helps you to improve your experience of the personal website.

Whether you can create a well-structured digital marketing strategy or not, it is beneficial if you try to make at least a plan. It can help you in managing different marketing techniques, customers, and activities efficiently.

What Can Be The Best Digital Marketing Plans For Executing In 2020?

• You can never ignore the benefits of investing in digital marketing. There are several digital marketing strategies which are on the trend for taking your business at the top:
• The next phase of digital marketing evolution can get considered as automation in marketing. With the vast quantities of the available data, the focus has increased on the automation as well as personalization.
• The future of digital marketing lies in the relationship between technology and marketing. Customer experience and marketing insights are providing a holistic experience to the marketing customers.
• The social networking sites are providing the marketers with better services which they can further transfer it to the customers.
• Today chatbots are gaining high popularity. They can continue to be at the top list by answering questions on your behalf.
• Many of the customers like the personalized or unbiased attention given by the software programs. So, you can take help from the generalized content for making it outstanding.
• Due to the high popularity of brands, several private messaging apps are becoming popular. The customers start feeling a great experience when they get the responses on time and through the innovative marketing channel.
• Social media will always remain a crucial channel on which you spend your tough time. It is a fantastic way which can enhance your creativity by creating a secure brand connection.

It can be a challenging task to plan effective digital marketing strategies for implementing in 2020. However, it is recommended to build a proper digital marketing plan by the appropriate experiment and implementation.

[The article is authored by Aarti Sharma, Founder of Thunder Brand Solutions.]

Technology today has taken over every aspect of our lives in a way that we could have never imagined it to be. From the way, we order food to entertainment, household functions, and even our business operations. Everything we do today is data-driven, and solution-based, analytics, and machine-generated information. However, what will always remain timeless, is one’s instincts and the importance of domain knowledge, especially in the realm of entrepreneurship.

The entire startup innovation seems to be driven by young entrepreneur’s out of college and one keeps wondering what’s happening to the existing entrepreneurs who already have a steady successful business. Shouldn’t they be innovating, especially when they had a head start in entrepreneurship? Why is it that existing entrepreneurs fail to create disruptive businesses when they have the domain knowledge, experience and resources to create a disruptive business?

Let’s take a non-attractive industry as air-conditioning, all of the service providers including the large ones are family-owned. These businesses are profitable but not scalable to be super large enterprises. It involves partnering with large air conditioning brands and offering customers system integration for air conditioning. A mom and pop shop business of consulting, contracting and customer services.

With technology disruption, the question you want to ask is, what would disrupt such a business and a whole lot of fears set it for someone in this business. Disruption by itself is such a negative thought that most running businesses fail to understand how to deal with the situation. Such thoughts are parked aside with a thought that, we will deal with it when it happens.

Now let’s change the thought of disruption to,” What can transform the entire industry to become efficient and scale-up”. This is the positive approach where existing businesses can get thinking with all the domain experience. Competition is not seen as a threat but a resource that can be aggregated. A non-attractive business-like air conditioning looks exciting, consider the inefficiencies a customer, a service provider and a manufacturer has to deal with.

Can we use technology to fix these problems? A customer has the challenge of identifying a reliable service provider, an IoT device (Internet of Things) can solve this by auto-generating trouble tickets to a platform that auto allocates to a skilled technician based on Location. Service providers can track their trouble tickets, human resources and customer data on a tech platform.

A manufacturer who never had access to the equipment once installed can now get real-time data and do product improvement based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. To top it all you ask a difficult question why is it in a tropical country like in India only 8% Indians can afford air-conditioning. With an efficient services ecosystem can we increase the air-conditioning penetration to 45% by offering Cooling as a Service.

For existing entrepreneur’s, the need is to believe in their domain expertise, to dream bigger, overcome their fears of technology disruption, let the youngsters be the disruptors. We have the opportunity to be technology enablers to transform our industries with our domain expertise, experience and create large enterprises.

India’s hospitality unicorn OYO has been involved in restructuring its business to move towards profitability. The latest step in that direction has been layoffs in the United Kingdom (UK) market.

A report by Yahoo Finance UK said that OYO was involved in a 30-day consultation with UK staff and concluded the process last Friday. As a result, around 50 to 100 staff have been let go, which is 10-20% of the company’s UK workforce.

The report added that more exits can be announced in the next few weeks— either due to layoff or due to failing ‘performance improvement plans’, which report claims is due to “unrealistic” targets.

OYO reportedly said that everyone affected by the layoffs has now been informed. An OYO spokesperson reportedly said that the group “is doing everything we can” to help and support staff “going well beyond our legal obligations.” Following a similar process to what has been done in India and other markets. OYO is offering two-months severance and is also offering to counsel employees and support them in applying for new jobs.

Ritesh Agarwal, founder and group CEO, had sent a video to staff this week talking about the layoffs in OYO UK, “I know recently there have been some tough moments for the team. This has been the case not just in the United Kingdom but across the world. These tough moments, when we have to say goodbye to other OYOpreneurs, are very emotional moments.”

The development is also being seen in the light of exit of OYO’s UK head Jeremy Sanders. He had joined OYO in August 2018 to launch the business in UK, however, Sanders left the company in January 2020.

An OYO spokesperson said Sanders left to spend more time with his family saying, “There’s no story behind his departure.”

Within the first month of 2020, OYO has seen a major restructuring leading to several layoffs across its home and international markets. While in India, the company has laid off around 3000 employees, 5% of its staff in China, and over one-third of its employees in the US.

Agarwal had issued a public statement saying that he believes OYO is going through its most important phase as it looks to supplement its strong business plans with an uncompromising commitment to building an employee-first culture, with significant investment in continually improving its governance framework.

OYO chief said that the company will be committed to growing OYO the right way. “As we move forward in our journey, we will do so by staying focused on our first principles of ensuring trust, being respectful and resilient at all times,” he added.

In a bid to promote innovations based on internet-on-things (IoT), the ministry of information and technology (MeitY) has partnered with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) to set up a centre of excellence (CoE) for IoT at the Andhra University in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

The officials of Nasscom and government have already started scouting for the land at the university campus for the CoE. For this project, Nasscom and MeitY will provide a grant of INR 22.5 Cr and INR 9.5 Cr respectively.

The CoE will promote innovations in IoT by helping the startup community to build unique applications based on this technology. Other tech companies are also expected to join the CoE to help these startups with resources, training, and domain expertise. These companies will help young entrepreneurs to promote innovation in healthtech, agritech, robotics, mobility, among others.

Additionally, the CoE will also help these startups to build a client base and explore business opportunities. The strategic partners of the centre will also help to raise fundings by connecting these startups with angel investors as well. The startups will also receive business development support in the form of market research and business model refinement.

According to TOI, the grants from neither Nasscom or the government have been released till now as they are yet to finalise the location for the CoE. While it was sanctioned several months ago, the construction of CoE is yet to start. MeitY has given the responsibility of setting up similar CoEs across India to Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). An official announcement from the STPI is yet to be made about this CoE.

Prior to this, STPI, in December 2019, had set up an IoT-based CoE — IoT OpenLab — at Bengaluru. The developed IoT-based solutions at IoT OpenLab are expected to find their use-cases in sectors such as defence, aeronautics, industrial, agriculture, health, automotive and education, among others. IoT OpenLab is also getting support from India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) and TiE Global for providing network opportunities to startups.

Besides these two centres, STPI is in the process of opening around 21 CoEs in emerging technologies across the country. According to STPI, three such CoEs at Delhi, one at Chennai and Mohali each are already functioning and the rest of them would be operational in the coming two years.

In addition to setting up CoEs, STPI is also going to launch a MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) in the country. MSH hub has been set up in order to facilitate MeitY’s vision of promoting technology innovation, startups and creation of intellectual properties.

The ministry of corporate affairs has sought public comments on the proposed Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 by March 6. The bill gives more power to the competition commission of India (CCI) to oversee mergers and acquisition deals between tech companies.

The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 has been drafted to carry out the amendments made in the Competition Act, 2002. The ministry of corporate affairs has constituted a Competition Law Review Committee (CLRC) in October 2018 to review and recommend a “robust competition regime”.

CLRC, chaired by the secretary of corporate affairs ministry Injeti Srinivas, has also taken the views of stakeholders into consideration. The committee had submitted its report in July 2019,  and recommended amendments to acts and subordinate legislation. The ministry of corporate affairs had released the draft of the amendment on February 12, 2020.

The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 suggests that the central government will have the option to prescribe new criteria for mergers, depending on company-to-company. So far, the asset size and revenue of the company was the only criteria. The corporate affairs ministry specified that the existing criteria are not adequate for tech companies with high valuations.

The Bill specifies, “the Central Government may in public interest and in consultation with the Commission prescribe any criteria other than those prescribed in clauses (a), (b) and (c), the fulfilment of which shall cause any acquisition of control, shares, voting rights or assets, merger or amalgamation to be deemed to be a combination.”

The draft bill also seeks to empower the director-general for the investigation to send a person home for up to six years or impose a fine for up to INR 1 Cr. The director-general can use the power if the party has refused to produce any book, paper or documents the governments have asked for. Currently, the CCI imposes penalties on matters related to flouting of competition rules in terms of turnover.

Moreover, CCI has also decided to penalise cartels. Cartels are associations of producers, buyers, sellers, distributors, traders or service providers. The corporate affairs ministry has also sought to empower the director-general to penalise such buys monetary or through penal powers.

“Provided that in case any agreement referred to in sub-section (3) of section 3 has been entered into by a cartel, the Commission may, unless otherwise provided under this Act, impose upon such person a penalty as it may deem fit which shall not exceed ten percent of the income for each year of the continuance of such agreement.”

Launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Smart Cities Mission is a programme aimed at developing 100 cities into so-called smart cities. In the last four years, some cities have developed more because they used new-age technologies better than others. And now, to improve the development pace of the laggard cities, the government has devised a new 20:20 model.

Under this model, the top 20 cities, which have shown better development by leveraging new-age technologies, will share the know-how of implementing these technologies, financial management support, detailed project reports, feasibility studies, and impact assessments to the bottom 20 cities.

For this programme, a 100-day challenge has been introduced by the ministry of housing and urban affairs to improve the conditions of these cities. The challenge will conclude on June 25, 2020, which is also the fifth anniversary of the Smart India Mission.

Each city will also sign a formal memorandum of understanding of one year with its partnering city. Both of them will work together to improve the ranking of the city which is ranking in the bottom 20. To map the progress of the Smart Cities Mission over the last five years, the government is also going to publish a report card for the 100 selected smart cities in June 2020. These 100 cities would be ranked on three parameters — ease of living, municipal performance index and climate.

Top-ranked Ahmedabad will help Chandigarh, which is at the 81st spot. Second-position holder Nagpur will develop 96th ranked Port Blair. Other upper ranked cities which have partnered under this 20-20 model are Tirupur, Ranchi, Bhopal, and Surat which will help in improving the development pace of Silvassa, Shimla, Aizawl, and Saharanpur respectively.

Under the Smart India Mission, the government had shortlisted 100 cities. For developing them into smart cities, the government had approved INR 2 Lakh Cr for 5,151 projects.

According to ET, tenders for around 80% of these projects have been assigned and around 60% of them are completed by now. Out of these, the bottom 20 cities account for only 10% of these tendered projects.

A government official said that once the cities handhold each other, the ranking would change and then the government will focus on helping another 20 which falls at the bottom of the list.

Besides these 100 cities, the government is also looking to develop five new smart cities under the Smart Cities initiative. This announcement was made by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget 2020 speech.

TikTok’s ByteDance seems to be putting eggs in too many baskets to protect itself from any market risk or changing trends. After the massive success of TikTok, especially in India, the company is reportedly looking to launch new apps and expand into ecommerce, games and other areas.

With this, the company is trying to compete against tech giants globally. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Beijing-based company has launched a financial-services app and has acquired game developers in China, among other moves.

“As for TikTok, advertising executives have speculated that ByteDance could introduce a subscription service, with viewers paying for more access or additional content from preferred creators,” it says.

The company is reportedly also in talks with big music labels to enter the online music streaming space. The move is expected to drive the market for music streaming in India. The company is in talks with Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music for global licensing deals to include their songs to its new music subscription service.

The app will have on-demand music along with a library of short video clips for listeners to search through and sync to songs as they listen.

In India, TikTok will be competing with the likes of Spotify, JioSaavn and Gaana. The idea is to launch it in emerging markets including India, Indonesia and Brazil initially, before entering the United States.

TikTok had earlier come under the scanner for allegedly promoting the sharing of pornography and obscenity. The app was temporarily banned by the Madras High Court. The company then introduced bite-sized online learning content across India to gain back its popularity. More than 10 Mn pieces of content were created and shared using the #EduTok hashtag within a short span of time.

TikTok now also reportedly allows some users to add links to ecommerce sites to their profile biography. The platform also offers them the ability to easily send their viewers to shopping websites. The company said the move is part of its experimentation to improve the app experience for users

“We are always experimenting with new ways to improve the app experience for our users. Ultimately, we are focused on ways to inspire creativity, bring joy, and add value for our community,” a spokesperson of ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok had said.

India has been leading the charts ever since it was launched in September 2017, in terms of the number of installs, the reasons being the increased internet penetration driven by low-priced data offered by Jio and the short-video format liked by tier 2 and tier 3 cities. According to Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report, global internet users touched 3.8Bn, which is more than half of the world’s population. Indians spent 5.5 Bn hours on TikTok in 2019, a startling increase from the 900 Mn hours spent in 2018. This is likely to go up if it adds ecommerce and gaming features.

The number of monthly active users (MAUs) on TikTok increased by 90% to 81 Mn as of December 2019, as compared to the same period in the previous year, according to data of Android users assessed by mobile and data analytics firm App Annie.

The firm also reported that TikTok’s India numbers have outstripped its global growth numbers, where time spent on the app grew over two times, while MAUs went 70% to 717 Mn, with a large majority in China.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) in partnership with other government departments and private companies has launched 5G Hackathon to identify and promote India-centric uses cases of 5G technology.

Launched on February 21, the 5G hackathon will conclude at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) on October 16, 2020, and will be conducted over three phases. In the first phase, the hackathon will accept and shortlist 100 ideas. The second and third phase will involve mentoring and shortlisting of 30 startups. The shortlisted 100 ideas will share a prize pool of INR 2.5 Cr. In addition to startups, developers, students, SMEs, academic institutions and Indian registered companies can participate in the hackathon.

Startups can send their ideas based on 5G technology across categories such as healthtech, education, governance, agritech, environment, public safety and disaster management enterprise, smart cities and infrastructure, cybersecurity, banking, finance and insurance, logistics and transportation, media and broadcasting, among others to participate in the 5G hackathon.

These innovations of these 30 startups will be then tested on 5G trial network followed by felicitation of the three best ideas during IMC. These startups will also get market opportunities to scale and implement their developed 5G applications.

Besides DoT, the ministry of information and technology (MeitY), Digital India, Startup India, ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises, department of science and technology, Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE) India, Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC), Telecommunications Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI), the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), India Mobile Congress, KPMG, various IITs and IIMs are also backing this hackathon.

5G or the fifth generation technology increases the downloading and uploading speeds over the mobile network. Moreover, by reducing latency, 5G offers a more stable network across connections.

While 5G networks are expected to be launched in India by 2020 there is still no concrete date or timeline in this regard. In December 2019, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that the centre is looking to finalise its framework for 5G technologies.

Prasad also announced that the field trials of 5G services will begin in the last quarter of FY20 i.e. January to March this year. As of now, the government is looking to sell the 5G spectrum in the bands of 3.3-3.6 GHz and the 700 MHz.

However, the cellular operators association of India (COAI), representing private players Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, said that India’s prices for the 5G spectrum are much higher than the international average. The discussions over prices of 5G spectrum might delay the launch of 5G even further.

We bring to you the latest edition of News Roundup: Indian Startup Stories Of The Week!

In one of the most important developments this week, the US-based research firm, World Population Review, in its report announced that India is the world’s fifth-largest economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.94 Tn, followed by the UK and France, where the economy stood at $2.83 Tn and 2.71 Tn, respectively.

The report also revealed that India has emerged as an open-market economy from its previous ‘autarkic’ policies. In other words, the country has evolved from a self-sufficient nation to becoming a country with purchasing power parity of $10.51 Tn, which is comparatively more than that of Japan and Germany. It further said that the GDP per capita income of $2,170 has been achieved due to the higher population. However, India’s actual GDP has witnessed a massive decline since the last three years from 7.5% to 5%.

In another update, Cisco Annual Internet Report (2018-2023), revealed that with the increased penetration of affordable smartphones and low-cost internet plans, India is set to cross the 900 Mn mark of internet users in the next three years. The research further pointed out that the country will have 1.42 Bn users and 2.1 Bn internet-connected devices by 2023.

The Department For Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has urged the government regulatory bodies to set up startup cell to ease access to funding and mentoring startups. The startup cell will be engaging with new companies and help them resolve any regulatory and compliance issues in a transparent manner.

In an attempt to push the Make in India initiative in the Indian domestic manufacturing space, DPIIT has also decided to cancel tenders worth INR 30K Cr to international companies that follow discriminatory practices. This decision comes as a deliberate measure to create a level-playing field to Indian companies.

On the flip side, the DPIIT backed startups which had earlier requested an extension of concessions on employee stock options, have reportedly been denied such extension by the central board of direct taxes (CBDT).

The Indian government has set up a technology group which consists of a 12-member team consisting of principal scientific advisors. The group will now provide timely policy advice on the latest technologies, commercialisation of dual-use of technology developed in national laboratories and government research and development organisations, curate technology roadmap, and select appropriate programmes leading to technology advancements. With this, the group will be addressing various problems related to technology impact, standards, commercial viability and others.

Let’s have a look at other happenings in the Indian startup ecosystem:

Unicorn Roundup:

OYO: Financials, SoftBank Case & Agarwal’s Confession  

Gurugram-based hospitality unicorn OYO reported consolidated revenue of INR 6619.26 Cr, a 3.5x growth in FY19, with expenses of INR 8946.8 Cr leading to a loss of INR 2332.7 Cr, which grew 5.47x. In India, the company earned a revenue of INR 3749.13 Cr in FY19 with expenses of INR 4204.6 Cr leading to a loss of INR 455.5 Cr. The company witnessed a 46% increase in losses compared to FY18.

Aditya Ghosh, who now sits on the board of OYO and also an ex-CEO said that the relationship with SoftBank is purely transactional and denied any kind of speculations. Ghosh further clarified that no particular stakeholders, including SoftBank, gives the company any guidance. “You put up an annual operating plan and work very hard to deliver it,” he added.

Further, FabHotels has been allowed to present its opinion in an ongoing investigation case against hospitality companies, including MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and OYO over business models, predatory pricing, high commissions and non-uniform rates. The Competition Commission Of India (CCI) has also told FabHotels to serve a public version of its applications to all the parties involved in the investigations.

OYO chief Ritesh Agarwal recently said that the issues with the hotel partners have been raising across the markets, be it pricing, control, the process to exit and no refunds on cancellations, and the company is willing to lose all pricing control if the hotel partners are willing to give up on the minimum revenue guarantee OYO provides.

Paytm Eyeing Profitability, Expands To International Markets 

After reporting higher losses of INR 3960 Cr in FY19, compared to INR 1491.23 Cr in FY18, India’s fintech unicorn Paytm said that it has a three-pronged approach to getting to profitability. Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that the company has identified the areas of improvements. He said that YoY, the company has been able to cut down their EBITDA losses by half. In the next two years, Paytm is optimistic about becoming profitable, said Sharma.

Paytm Mall, an ecommerce wing of One97 Communications, is now looking to tap India’s potential for exports. The company is planning to add ‘Made in India,’ products which include perishable goods such as rice, spices, tea, dry fruits, millets, essential oils among others. In the coming days, the company is planning to expand the market for Indian products in Southeast Asia, Middle-east, USA, Canada and Africa, thereby increasing the business opportunity for Indian sellers.

Fraud, Coliving Business Downturn Leads To 45% Devaluation For Quikr

Quikr’s major investor AB Kinnevik said that fair value of its 17% stake in Quikr is worth SEK 941 Mn, which makes the entity’s value worth $568 Mn. It is to be noted that in Q3, Kinnevik said that fair value of its stake is SEK 1.7 Bn ($177.02 Mn) for the quarter ended September 2019 (Q3FY19). This brought the valuation of the Pranay Chulet-led company to $1.04 Bn.

But the question is what changed in a quarter? Kinnevik said that Quikr had discovered that certain dealers and vendors within the managed rentals and car trade segments posted fake or misrepresented transactions on its platform. Kinnevik said that this had a dual effect of potentially overstating the value of transactions and revenue generated in these categories while introducing risk on the recoverability of receivables.

Fintech Roundups:

SEBI Approves Sandbox For Live Testing Of Fintech Products 

The fintech ecosystem in India gets a boost from SEBI as it has approved the regulatory sandbox programme for live testing of new products, services and business models developed by startups, particularly in the fintech space. The regulatory body is said to provide the necessary guidelines and regulations for startups to experiment with its products. However, the startups that are not regulated by the regulatory authority, will not be allowed to participate in the later stage of the sandbox programme. The selection criteria for this programme will be around existing investor protection framework, KYC and anti-money laundering rules among others.

Paytm Outspaces Payments Bank, Yes Bank Leads The UPI Wave 

Earlier last month, Paytm Payments Bank recorded large volume of transactions on unified interface payments (UPI), where it registered 13% of the total UPI transactions. Similarly, YES Bank also registered 514 Mn transactions and accounted for 39% of all UPI transactions. In the last four months, the bank has had an upper hand over other banks in terms of the total number of transactions. Since October last year, YES bank has had a 45% share of the total UPI transactions. Now, it is upping the UPI game by partnering with two payments platform, PhonePe (B2C) and BharatPe (B2B & B2B2C). Other banks including SBI, HDFC and ICICI registered a total of 141 Mn, 131 Mn and 124 Mn UPI transactions, respectively.

NPCI Makes It Tough To Earn For PhonePe, Paytm, Others

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) recently announced to remove payment service provider (PSP) fees for all domestic UPI peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions till April 30, 2020. Prior to this, payments gateways like PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, Amazon Pay and BharatPe used to earn money for each and every UPI transaction. For instance, for INR 1 and INR 5, the payments platform used to get transaction fees worth INR 0.25. For the next two months, the payments platform will not be earning any money from P2M UPI transactions. This also means more transaction failures.

Ecommerce Roundups:

IAMAI Comes Against TDS On Ecommerce

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) recently wrote to the finance ministry stating that the deduction at source (TDS) over and above tax collected at source (TCS) deduction under the GST, is yet another compliance burden on digital ecommerce platforms. IAMAI said that this is a regulatory bias against online platforms as the deduction of TDS is not applicable for offline retailers. Currently, most ecommerce platform in India follows the marketplace model where they only sell products listed by third-party sellers, therefore, collecting and depositing taxes will impose more liabilities on digital platforms, said IAMAI.

According to the Budget 2020, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had inserted a new section 194-O to provide a new charge of TDS at the rate of 1%. Accordingly, the ecommerce platforms should make the deduct the TDS based on the gross amount of sales and services.

Tax Department Behind Flipkart, Runs Pilot Test To Set Up Wholesale Stores

The IT department has moved the Flipkart’s 2018 case of tax classification to Karnataka High Court, which issued a notice to the Indian ecommerce giant last month to appear and represent its case. The department had been questioning Flipkart over the reclassification of marketing expenditure and discounts as capital expenditure, which involves INR 110 Cr tax penalty on Flipkart for the tax assessed for FY15-16.

Also, Flipkart has been planning to launch its own wholesale business in the financial year 2020-2021. With this, the company plans to strengthen its supply chain capabilities and engagements with manufacturers. Flipkart has been working on this in Delhi NCR, where it has started supplying to kirana stores. The ecommerce giant is looking for potential investment and strategic partnership to take this forward.

CCI Fails To Find Evidence Against Amazon & Flipkart 

In an ongoing investigation case against ecommerce platforms — Amazon and Flipkart, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) have failed to find any evidence proving their involvement in making exclusive deals with smartphone manufacturers. The CCI investigation began last month, January 13, 2020, where it alleged the two companies for being involved in unethical practices in violation of the competition law. But now it looks like it is business as usual since there is no solid evidence found as of now.

Flipkart has also raised an objection on the same, where they have filed a legal challenge against the ongoing investigation, and it claimed that CCI order was perverse (and) passed without any application of mind. Further, Flipkart said that CCI has failed in its duty to close the frivolous complaint and an investigation would harm the company’s reputation, leading to significant resource losses.

International Roundup:

Trump In India: Trade Deals, Meeting Rich Indians And More

Ahead of the US President Donald Trump’s visit to India between February 24 and 25, there has been a lot of speculation that the two countries will be discussing various norms around trade deal, tax regimes, ecommerce policy, data localisation among others. In addition to this, Trump will also be meeting various industry thought and business leaders, includes Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, Mahindra Group head Anand Mahindra, Larson and Toubro chairman A M Naik and Biocon MD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and others.

Facebook, Google & Co Joins Forces To Fight Fake News, Zuckerberg Blames Telcos

In an attempt to control the spread of harmful content, including fake news and hate speech in India, the social media giant Facebook has decided to partner with Google, Twitter and others. The tech companies have formed an alliance called the Information Trust Alliance (ITA), where the group consists of digital platforms and publishers, civil society and academia, fact-checkers and others.

Sharing its concern related to the personal data protection (PDP) bill, the internet giants have taken the concern before the Joint Parliamentary Committee to review the bill. The association that represents these companies will be highlighting their concerns with written submissions next week.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zukerberg sharing his concern over the regulatory issues said that the rules should be somewhere between the newspaper business and the telecom industry. He further said that the regulators don’t hold it on telecom companies if someone says something harmful on a phone line, and the data just flows through them.

Twitter Account Of Olympics, Barcelona FC Hacked

A group of Saudi Arabia hackers called OurMine have constantly made headlines for hacking social media accounts of celebrities, private companies and educational institutes. Earlier this month, the group had hacked Facebook’s Twitter account. But now, the same group has hacked Twitter accounts of the Olympics and football club FC Barcelona. Twitter claimed that OurMine used a third-party platform for breaking into the accounts of Barcelona FC and the Olympics. Once the hack was identified, Twitter said that it locked down both the accounts. Currently, the social media platform is working with other partners to restore the accounts.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Roundup! 

Read Inc42’s latest Blockchain Roundup, Funding Galore and EV Roundup

Delhi-based digital payments platform BharatPe is raising Series C funding round from new investor Coatue Management and existing investors.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, BharatPe on February 18 passed a resolution to approve, offer and issue 6,917 Series C preference shares and 1 equity share to the investors to raise INR 534.9 Cr.

The details further show that the investors include Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Steadview Capital, Amplo, and Grace Software, who have picked the shares at a nominal value of INR 10 with a premium of INR 7.73 Lakh.

The company said that these funds will be used towards the “expansion and growth of the company particularly for growing the GMV and revenue of the payments business.” The development was first reported by Entrackr.

The filings further showed that with this investment, Grace Software and Ribbit will hold 11.01% and 11.42% stake in BharatPe, followed by 5,88% stake of Coatue and 4.57% stake of Steadview.

BharatPe’s filings further showed that the company has increased its ESOP pool from 638 shares to 1550 shares, subject to the Series C funding.

Prior to this, BharatPe has raised over $68 Mn from Ribbit Capital, Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital, Beenext Capital and Insight Partners among other investors.

Envisioned as a single-window for all existing UPI apps, BharatPe was launched in 2018. The company supports Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, Mobikwik, Freecharge, Truecaller and other apps through its service.

Using BharatPe, merchants can track their transactions and settlements across these apps, manage sales record and also claim cashback. The company claims to have over 1.8 Mn merchants on board. BharatPe claims to have achieved $1 Bn annual total purchase value (TPV) and facilitates over 18 Mn UPI transactions monthly.

The company has started lending working capital in partnership with banks. It is now being reported that it has also applied for an NBFC license to start lending from its own books. BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover said that the company also has a deposit product, giving high interests back in the tune of 12%.

In terms of financial performance, in FY19, the company had no operational revenue but only INR 39,641 in interest income, which was its total revenue for the year. Further, in terms of expenses, the company’s total expenses were INR 23.02 Cr which was almost the entire loss of INR 23.02 Cr for the year ending March 31, 2019.

India is expected to clock the fastest growth in digital payments in terms of transaction value between 2019 and 2023 with a compounded annual growth of 20.2%, according to an Assocham-PWC India study. It said that the exponential rise in online transactions is due to the dual factors of demonetisation and discounts through digital payment options on ecommerce platforms.

Ban on the use of plastics, implementation of the odd-even traffic scheme or clean-up drives across the world, every move aimed at saving our environment revolves around reducing the world’s carbon footprint. Data from the Global Carbon Atlas analyses that India stands third after China and the USA in terms of carbon emissions across the globe.

The way humans commute generates humongous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to the International Energy Agency, transportation is responsible for 24% of direct CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. Road vehicles – cars, trucks, buses, two and three-wheelers – account for nearly three-quarters of transport CO2 emissions. This makes electric vehicles the focal point for clean mobility in commercial as well as private use-cases.

Without EVs, vehicular transportation generates a substantially high amount of greenhouse gases which are responsible for environmental degradation. Emissions from the sector come primarily from burning gasoline and diesel used to power cars, trucks, ships, trains, and planes. Emissions from commercial vehicles are also rising due to the rampant culture of same-day or priority deliveries while increasing vehicle sales in developing nations are also adding to the pressure on the environment.

Big Ambitions, But Slow Movement

India has made multiple projections in the electric vehicle market space, both — private and commercial. On the policy front, the country has implemented a number of regulations, some of which include the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme and the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 among others.

India’s entry into the electric market was with the introduction of Reva in the early 2000s. From then to now, almost every top auto manufacturer has produced an electric vehicle for the Indian markets with varying degrees of success. In the Indian context, electric two-wheelers are setting the pace when it comes to sales. While this has impacted the private use of electric vehicles in a positive manner, when it comes to commercial electric vehicles, India is a largely untapped market. This can be attributed to the higher challenges for this segment to adopt the electric route.

“The Indian EV industry is still very nascent. Every revolution has to cross certain hiccups and takes its own course and time. And lithium-ion batteries happen to be at the centre of the entire EV revolution that the automotive industry is aiming at,” said Jeetender Sharma, Founder and Managing Director of Okinawa Autotech that manufactures electric two-wheelers.

Sharma believes that adequate policies are needed to drive EV adoption up in the commercial space. “Lithium-ion battery manufacturing has three major parts- cell to battery-pack manufacturing; cell manufacturing and battery chemicals. As per the NITI Aayog report, cell to pack manufacturing plants have started functioning, the others still need to be encouraged.”

The Million-Dollar Infrastructure Question

While the benefits of electric vehicles can be huge, so are the power and infrastructure requirements. Private vehicles find easier acceptance due to the availability of charging points in homes but the power requirement of commercial vehicles can put a much larger strain on the electrical grid. The challenge is amplified when multiple electric trucks or buses need to be charged at the same facility, an issue not experienced by many private EV owners, who often only need to worry about charging one vehicle at a time.

Sharma from Okinawa says, “EVs for private, like e-scooters, bikes, cars, and others have a range that might serve the day-to-day travel requirements of individuals. Also, now there are detachable batteries in EVs. Apart from ease of charging, government incentives like the reduction of GST on EV and chargers and tax exemption on interest on EV loans are also incentivizing demand.”

That does not apply for commercial electric vehicles, which need bigger infrastructure. Increasing the adoption of EVs in the commercial segment would require more robust easy charging facilities on roads along with more range per charge, which is where technology needs to mature.

Commercial EVs Take Their First Steps In The India Journey

A major component in manufacturing electric vehicles is the battery, in terms of the cost and technological dependency. As India’s battery market builds up capacity, many observers expected prices to fall in the next couple of years. Will this sput on higher demand for EVs in the commercial space?

Ravneet S Phokela, chief business officer at Ather Energy told Inc42, “The shortcoming is not the battery but lithium-ion cells. If India aims to go 100% electric then it must adopt the strategy of going back into the value chain and reduce dependency on others to enable cost benefits.”

Reports by Techsciresearch state that India’s electric commercial vehicle market is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 70% during 2020-2024 owing to the growing need for controlling GHG (Greenhouse gases) emissions emitted by vehicles.

The government has launched various schemes and incentives for the adoption of electric vehicles in India. The NEMMP 2020 aims at sales of 6-7 Mn units of electric vehicles in India by 2020.

High subsidies provided by the government and increasing electric vehicle infrastructure development in the country are said to be the two crucial growth factors for the commercial electric vehicle market. The likes of Tata Motors, Olectra Greentech, Mahindra Electric, Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, JBM Auto, among others are already working in this regard.

In September last year, Chinese automobile manufacturer BYD launched two new electric vehicles — T3 MPV and T3 minivan. The Chinese automobile maker also supplies the nine meters long K7 and 12 meters long K9 — in India. Both vehicles can run for 250 km on a single charge.

Gurugram-based fleet service provider Infraprime Logistics Technologies (IPLT) launched its first electric commercial vehicle — Rhino 5536. The 60-tonne truck will be used in the construction industry and is powered by a 276 kWh battery, that should enable a range of 200 Km with load and 400 Km without load, with a top speed of 90 kmph.

In Auto Expo 2020, Tata Motors unveiled Ultra T.7 Electric, touting it as India’s first intermediate commercial electric truck. The Ultra T.7 Electric is the latest offering from Tata Motors in the ILCV segment under the vehicle range of Ultra Platform. “It is developed for Indian roads, redefining the transportation industry leveraging enhanced technologies, blending ideally both technology and economy of operations,” said the company.

Future Uncertain For Commercial EVs In India

In the Indian market, among hybrid, plug-in and battery-operated electric vehicles, the latter is expected to grow faster due to greater government support under the FAME-II scheme. While this does not necessarily mean slower growth for commercial vehicles (or vehicles that cover larger distances) as they cannot depend entirely on batteries, it does mean that the growth in vehicles covering comparatively shorter distances can be expected to be higher.

On the tussle between private and commercial vehicles in the EV market, EY’s India’s EV ecosystem report states that passenger vehicle fleets are likely to be more willing to adopt EVs as the vehicle running cost (which is lower for an electric vehicle) is a key influencer in purchase decisions for private use. EY says the cost dynamics of running an EV for commercial purposes, with a high vehicle utilisation, are quite favourable with almost a similar total cost of ownership (TCO) for internal combustion engine vehicles as well as EVs.

“For a commercial user, the differential in acquisition cost can be recovered in around 5 years due to lower operational expenses. However, for a private user, the TCO for an EV remains much higher.”

India’s NITI Aayog reports that the prevalence in India of small vehicles such as two-wheelers, three-wheelers, economy four-wheelers, and small goods vehicles is unique among large countries and as such these are expected to drive the next generation of mobility advancement as well as determine industrial capabilities. The focus on small vehicles not only helps meet domestic demand, the government body said, but can also place India in a position of global leadership in the EV market.

Bombay Suburban Electric Supply (BSES) distribution company (Discom) has started using drones to ensure reliable power supply for its customers in Delhi. For this, BSES Discom has partnered with Noida-based drone service provider GarudaUAV.

GarudaUAV designs drones for visual and thermal mapping of the electrical infrastructure. The company’s services include construction survey, railway inspection, disaster relief activities, tower inspection, solar thermal inspection, aerial videography, aerial photography and power line inspection.

BSES Discom will be using drones to map the distribution assets, detect power theft, inspect the rooftop solar installations, besides other functions.

The drones used for the initiatives are fitted with high definition cameras and an infrared camera for thermal imaging to identify the hotspots. The dual cameras will allow BSES to inspect overhead lines and equipment, grid-substations, connections, damaged switches, capacitors, detection of theft of equipment and profiling intelligent lines, a BSES spokesperson told Mint.

The drones are capable of accurate assessments of rooftop solar potentials and pointing out the vegetation encroachment around the power infrastructure, the spokesperson added. The body also conducted inspections in the BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) areas in East Delhi.

“Through thermal scanning, drone assessment was able to determine the health of the network and identify several hotspots, which if unchecked could have caused problems in subsequent months. It was also able to determine the physical condition of the towers and identify deterioration,” the spokesperson added.

Besides this, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) has also conducted a pilot in 66 kV Paschim Vihar Grid station, 66kV Bodella 1 – Paschim Vihar Circuit 1 and 2 and 33 kV Mukherjee Park Circuit 3 near Chaukhandi in Delhi. With the success of the pilot testing, BSES has decided to go ahead with the plans to use drones for operations and maintenance activities.

A BSES spokesperson said that the company “continuously” looks for state-of-the-art technologies and innovations to better serve its 43 Lakh customers. The company believes that the use of drones will act as a major step in preventive maintenance exercise and ensuring reliable power supply.

Indian Govt Leading The Way For Drones

As per ‘Make in India for Unmanned Aircraft Systems’ report by EY, Indian government bodies are leading the way for the application of the drones system in India.

Highways Authority of India, along with several Indian startups, conducted a digital 3D mapping of the Raebareli-Allahabad highway. The data collected by the drones played an important role in the computation of compensation for the people, whose property rights were affected by the projects.

In addition, The state-owned power corporation, National Thermal Power Corporation, also got the approval from the ministry of defence and power to use drones for monitoring project development.