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The Covid-19 pandemic has made RoI on AI redundant. The worldwide adoption of AI has busted the myth that AI requires intensive investment on infrastructure, process changes, and manpower. It has been seen that AI-powered solutions have become the determining factor of an enterprise’s survival. Enterprises have realigned their priorities to survive the pandemic. Several start-ups sprang into action and created AI-powered solutions that helped every sector.

In manufacturing sector, for instance, in order to achieve social distancing, only 50-75% of employees are allowed to come to factories. These employees need to follow the rules of social-distancing and mask compliance. Keeping the assembly line running, while ensuring health safety among the workforce, is an extra responsibility that enterprises are dealing with.

The fear of manufacturing premises getting sealed in case multiple positive cases are detected among employees, also looms large. Monitoring social distancing and mask compliance, at all time is not humanly possible even with CCTV surveillance. The possibility of human error and subsequent blame game in a workplace only adds to the pre-existing stress.

It is now more than ever when enterprises need to place their trust on an AI solution. Computer vision, for one, is an AI solution that analyses live CCTV camera feeds and raises alerts real-time. It can plug into the pre-existing CCTV infrastructure and help employers monitor face mask alongside social distancing non-compliance, all in real-time. Unlike humans, technology is binary. If a person is not wearing a face-mask, whether they be the CEO or the intern, the system will raise an alarm.

This helps keep the manufacturing premises safe as it reduces the spread of the virus as well as boosts the morale of the workforce. Enterprises can choose to display the percentage of face-mask or social distancing compliance followed on their website or send messages to employees with data analytics at the end of their shift. Computer Vision solutions make managing crowds in places like canteens easy, and creates shift-rotations to ensure maximum productivity. AI also helps the enterprise stay afloat, create safe premises for work and also help boost employee morale.

What you can measure, you can manage. Facts and figures emerging from industries that have invested on AI from a B2B standpoint, particularly in regard to tangible ROI, clearly show a trend. For many industries, this RoI is subjective. For example, HSE solutions use AI that helps in preventing accidents, disability and deaths. Lives are saved because AI-based solution are monitoring forklift path and raise a real-time alert when a pedestrian is in its way.

Identifying near- miss, monitoring PPE, fire and thermal compliance are just some facets where AI has been able to provide a high level of accuracy by preventing accidents. The tangible part varies from actionable insights which lead to a robust sales channel for a product company by simply identifying habit patterns of people in retail and, in turn, enhancing the shopping experience. The pandemic has caused an unprecedented surge in online shopping, providing companies with data to analyse shopper’s choices. The use of AI, in this case, will lead to a more accurate profiling of people and targeted advertising.

The ethical implications may be considered questionable but it is a necessary evil. The digital footprint has always existed, the AI recognizes uses it to understand patterns and provide insights that are, otherwise, invisible to the human counterpart. AI has galvanized various facets of a gamut of industries like healthcare, retail, education, supply chain and manufacturing. Be it process efficiencies, safety, wastage, market prediction or resource planning, AI has a strong footing in all these functions.

While the actual statistics of ROI for enterprises that adopted AI in 2020 are yet to emerge, a 2019 survey by Gartner gives a realistic picture. About 37% of organizations have implemented AI in some form or the other across 89 countries. This equates to an approx. 270% increase over the last four years. It is predicted that by 2021, 80% of emerging technologies will have some form of AI foundation.

The challenges are highlighted in a report by AI Stats News. It claims that about 65% of companies have not seen business gains from their AI investments. It has also been recognized that R&D in this domain is yet to reach its full potential. This discrepancy can be attributed to a number of elements that factor in different stages of the AI deployment process, coupled with acute talent shortage and time management issues.

The ROI Race

The emergency adoption of AI would definitely bring its share of troubles, such as overlooking important parameters like protection of employee privacy. However, enterprises should not treat AI as a single, homogenous entity. Identification of the right implementation is critical to attaining tangible ROI for every new-age technology in the business ecosystem around the globe. Each industry and organization is different and the key is to identify the right fit for their requirements.

R&D for any AI project is often cost extensive. A large amount of data is required to train the AI algorithm. One major hurdle that the organisations face is not having the right dataset to train their AI. Incorrect labels or missing values eventually result in discrepancies in the outcome.

According to the MIT Sloan Management Review and BCG survey, around 40% of the organizations making “significant investments” in AI do not report business gains from AI. It is critical to be informed about what AI can and cannot do. It is still difficult to provide a human-like personalised experience with NLP based chatbots, as AI is unable to mimic human emotion and empathy. Transparency is crucial; if people know that they are talking to a chatbot, they would not expect it to have human emotions and will be more factual in their conversation.

A lot of banks have already started a form of mixed chat experience wherein a chatbot first takes in the details like name, problem faced and other details before bringing in a person to take the conversation forward. This helps save the organisation’s time and money, as the no. of employees lessen. The more the data permeates the system, the better equipped NLP bots become at handling more complex questions.

Business leaders that have realistic expectations from AI, fare better in the long run. The basic protocols that help them understand and utilize AI better are:

• Organisations must engage in strategic data acquisition
• The need for unified data warehouses
• Pervasive automation
• Acceptance and awareness of new roles in the field like – data scientist, data analyst, ML Engineer
• Division of labor based on subject-matter expertise for new roles

Three Pillars To Successful AI Deployment

Domain experts like Andrew Ng, insist that the three pillars of intelligence for successful AI deployment in any organization, are business, technological and ethical diligence. The sales and marketing team, with intuition and experience, should give equal weight to data-driven analytics when making business decisions. Ethics, in terms of data privacy, confidentiality and educating the end-users builds the foundation of any AI-driven organisation.

When used ethically, AI has the potential to democratize the world. It is important to build cross-functional teams where the domain knowledge overlaps. This helps experts strategize better on the basis of a holistic perspective. It is a long-term asset that helps organizations plan and prioritise KPIs in a more data-driven way.

To build strong traction and effective ROI, organizations must set pragmatic goals when it comes to adopting AI in the company’s operations. AI is an emerging field and currently, it is evident that due to the lack of understanding the AI usage, many organizations are not aware of how to leverage it properly. Organizations need to adopt these small yet effective protocols in order to channel success. These are:

• Prioritise AI pilot projects
• Build an in-house AI team
• Provide basic AI training to cross-functional teams in the organisation
• Develop internal and external communication: Align your stakeholders on how your company is navigating and strategising on the integration of AI in operations.

There are common misconceptions surrounding AI investments. It is claimed that AI requires intensive investment on infrastructure, process changes and manpower. Similarly, one often hears that it is usually not before several years that organizations see a ROI. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Modern AI engines can run on-premise using accelerators like GPU from NVIDIA to access the data at site.

This could be visual data from CCTV footages, operational data from machines and their controllers. Modern AI engines are also fast, supple and extremely lightweight. Complex AI pipelines around tracking, detection and classification on 8 camera streams at 30 FPS, can run on an edge device that costs under USD 100 and can be deployed in a few weeks.

It is becoming a lot simpler for organizations to define and build pipelines tailored to their needs. The insight that is available from AI enables an organization to cut costs, ensure safety and improve quality all leading to tangible ROI.

Conclusion

Economies across the world are tanking, clouds of recession are looming large. AI provides a silver lining in these dark times. The pandemic created powerful artificial intelligence ecosystems across the world. It has helped logistics, supply chain distribution, and sales, allowing organizations to perform as close to optimum as possible post lockdown. Enterprises have started functioning and several lives are saved. For every rupee invested in an AI system that’s right for an organization, it has helped save much more.

In time the real statistics will emerge. The new world will also require different parameters for judging everything, including RoI for the implementation of an AI solution. As of now, the spotlight shines on AI. Though a few people expect thorns, the world can clearly see a halo.

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Over the last two decades, cancer treatment has seen tremendous progress. A deeper understanding of the biological basis of cancer and faster adoption of technologies like Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning has redefined cancer care. Technology has become a key force in improved diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Other than increased awareness, advancements in science and technology have caused huge breakthroughs in breast cancer treatment over the last 50 years.

Here are ways in which technology is changing breast cancer treatment and diagnosis

The Role Of Technology In Early Detection And Improved Access To Cancer Care

Introduction of screening programmes involving annual mammograms in many countries has had a positive effect on the number of people being diagnosed earlier. Patients detected in the early stages of breast cancer are those most likely to experience improved outcomes as a result of catching the disease early. Some of these cancers have an almost 100% survival rate if detected very early.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women worldwide. In India, with 160,000 new cases every year, breast cancer accounts for 14% of cancers in Indian women. There is also high breast cancer mortality in India largely due to the fact that 50-60% cases get detected in later stages (Stage III and IV).   The country has only about 2000 trained oncologists to treat 11.5 lakh new cases of cancers plus millions of survivors.

Many Indian oncologists consult more than 1000 new patients per year, and their workload is among the highest globally. Tools like tele-medicine have really helped patients in remote areas to get access to cancer care. Mobile van-based screening programs using sensitive 2D/3D ultrasound can go to small villages/door steps and diagnose breast cancer early. Tele-medicine has also really helped all cancer patients during the ongoing pandemic.

In the last 10 years, various new screening modalities have been developed, to help expand access to screening and boost early detection. These newer techniques using thermal imaging and piezoelectric technologies are non-invasive, portable and can be easily deployed in Tier 2 and 3 cities in developing countries like India.

Going one step further, we are now learning to predict who might develop breast cancer in the future. The effects of Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are visible in many industries, and healthcare is certainly no exception.  A recently published study by a leading US university on a new deep learning-based prediction model can forecast the development of breast cancer up to five years in advance is one such example.

The Role Of Technology In Reducing Side Effects Of Cancer Treatment

Radiation therapy has a vital role in the treatment of cancer. Especially in breast cancer, increased availability of radiation therapy machines has let more and more women opt for breast conservation surgery (BCS) rather than mastectomy. Both BCS and mastectomy have similar long-term outcomes in terms of patient survival, but BCS really impacts the psycho-social aspect of treatment. Women who are able to conserve their breasts report better body image scores and higher levels of satisfaction.

Recent advances have improved the effectiveness and at the same time decreased the complications of radiation therapy. These advances include stereotactic, intensity-modulated, brachytherapy and intraoperative radiotherapy. The new techniques involve improved ability to focus radiation on target tissues, sparing nearby healthy tissues. The way radiation therapy is administered has also undergone changes. Partial breast irradiation and use of shorter hypo-fractionated schedules are other advances that improve the patient’s quality of life.

The Role Of Technology In Improving Patient Outcomes

Increasingly, we are seeing a more personalized approach to cancer treatment, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Personalized medicine works by analyzing patient-specific information and prescribing them therapies best suited to treat their cancer and prevent it from returning.

Personalization of treatment can be game-changing in many ways

• It can lead to improved outcomes for patients by ensuring they get the right treatment
• Can improve quality of life for many patients by helping them avoid overtreatment
• It can lead to huge cost savings for the patient in a country like India where most healthcare expenditure is out of pocket and it can lead to more optimized use of healthcare resources.

One example is the use of prognostic tests in early-stage breast cancer. Mounting evidence that all early-stage breast cancer patients don’t benefit from chemotherapy lead to the development of prognostic tests that profile the tumour biology of breast cancer patients.  Most women suffering from breast cancer, prior to prognostic tests being available, would have been recommended chemotherapy based on cancer practice guidelines.

Now prognostic tests can help doctors determine which patient can avoid chemotherapy, saving them from the physical and financial toxicity of chemotherapy.  Use of chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer has significantly declined in the Western world due to the use of these prognostic tests. This kind of technology really helps improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients.

Targeted cancer therapies are another great example of technical advancement in breast cancer. Targeted therapies or drugs block the growth and spread of cancer by attacking specific biomolecules that are involved in cancer signaling pathways, versus most standard chemotherapies which act on all rapidly dividing cells whether cancerous or not. Many targeted drugs have been approved by the FDA to treat specific types of cancer. Another promising area of targeted cancer treatment is immunotherapy which taps into the ability of using a person’s own immune system to fight cancer.

Cancer vaccines are another topic of great interest. For cancers caused by viruses such as hepatitis B that can cause liver cancer and the human papillomavirus that can cause cervical cancer, vaccines already exist which prevent infection with these cancer-causing agents. By blocking the viruses from infecting body cells, these vaccines prevent the development of subsequent virus-associated disease.  For cancers not caused by virus, researchers are working to develop vaccines that they hope will activate the immune system to attack cancer cells reliably and effectively. If successful, these cancer vaccines can be a big game changer in the future!

Cancer is a life-altering disease that impacts a patient physically, emotionally and financially. With modern science and technology, treatment of cancer isn’t as frightening as it might have been earlier. The new technological developments in breast cancer treatment and diagnosis provides a ray of hope for those affected by the disease.

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In a world with social and physical barriers, even more, defined due to Covid-19, technology is now gaining centrestage as a solution to bridge this gap and bring people together. The Digital India programme was started with a vision to ‘transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy’. The programme completed five years in 2020.

The current pandemic has greatly influenced behaviour change. We have seen a 24% increase in internet consumption, indicating an overall penetration of 41% in 2019. India internet consumption is expected to reach 639 Mn by the end of 2020. This has catalysed the consumer to be more connected with the devices, payments, shopping, e-medicines, etc. All these factors are contributing towards Digital Transformation wherein digital technologies are being used to create game-changing business innovations that disrupt and reimagine existing industries or create whole new ones, and it is this transformation that we see happening in the retail world.

The retail industry is most impacted by consumer demand as today’s consumers want immediate, easy, 24/7 shopping experiences. The global retail industry has also undergone many changes and transformations, and most of these changes have been facilitated by technology. This allowed brands to carry out a better consumer experience, gather valuable feedback from users and even anticipate and customize trends well in advance.

One of these technological changes has been the advent of augmented reality (AR), a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world. The fashion retail industry is, in many respects, suited to augmented reality. Until now, buying clothes, trying on jewellery, watches, rings, bracelets meant visiting our favourite store to try on clothes, or one had to order online, but wait for days for the package to arrive before trying it on.

Augmented reality is being harnessed across the globe to enable try ons because it works in real-time. The technology is so powerful that it has the ability to automatically recognise and snap the face as soon as the interaction is initiated! Advanced technologies need no manual adjustment and transports the users to the closest digital possibility of an in-store experience, thereby giving these brands a stronger market positioning, increased sales & higher customer engagement.

AR comes with all the strengths to give physical stores a high level of liveliness and speed as people have in an e-store, such as checking hundreds of products, keeping them in the wish list and then making the final list to buy the ones selected. In addition to that, AR technology goes a step further than a physical retail store and enables consumers to virtually try on accessories, jewellery, watches, makeup, clothing etc. It allows consumers to superimpose a product in an actual physical setting, providing them with a precise understanding of its look and feel. This instills confidence in the users about their purchase and significantly helps to reduce return rates.

Having said this, many still believe that the technology of augmented reality is just limited to fun and entertainment. However, that’s not the case. Today’s Augmented Reality technology has come a long way since it was introduced in the market. Businesses in the retail industry recognise the value that it brings and are even looking at the practical requirement of an AR app development.

The rise of global connectivity means consumers are no longer bound by location. On comparing both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, research has shown that 20% of companies have plans to adopt AR in the next year, compared with 13% who are looking at VR. That number goes to 10% for both in the next three years and 37% for AR and 25% for VR with regards to long-term adoption.

There are still shoppers who favour physical stores to online ones, as is apparent from just 11.2% ecommerce sales out of the total retail sales in the last quarter of 2018. Currently, retailers are taking one step forward in modernizing with Augmented Reality (AR) to bridge this divide between online and offline shopping.

As the Digital India programme is reaching out to more people in Tier II and Tier III cities, digital technologies are being increasingly used by us in our everyday lives. The rapid consumerism of technology has impacted the Indian retail industry and the current landscape is marked with developments that are as shocking as real.

This technological evolution of ecommerce, digital and mobile wallets, mobility, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), emergence of social media in past few years, real-time analytics, automated personalization has completely changed the way retail business is being conducted. With the current times, the retail outlets are now going digital by introducing virtual trial rooms, augmented reality, and the use of artificial intelligence, etc. The idea is not just to optimize the in-store experience but also to offer a combination of aids that can help you to quickly take the right purchase decision.

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“ Solar energy is bound to be in our future. There’s a kind of inevitability about it.” – Jim Inhofe

Solar energy is at the forefront of today’s renewable energy arena, making use of the widely abundant and easily available energy of the sun. It is the fastest-growing renewable energy source in the world, increasing in worldwide capacity by an average of 40% every year. Many energy companies are expanding to offer solar, as it’s the best way to utilise sustainable energy-efficient sources to help provide cost and energy-saving benefits.

Solar Technology: What’s New?

Recent trends in the technology utilised within the solar power industry are providing more easily accessible energy-efficient solutions to a broader range of businesses. Also, as technology continues to evolve and increase in popularity, so do the benefits that it provides in saving costs and the use of energy.

There are two foremost types of solar technology: photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP). Solar PV technology captures sunlight to produce electric power, and CSP harnesses the heat of the Sun, which in turn, generates thermal energy powering heaters or turbines. With these two forms of solar energy combines, a wide range of opportunities for technical innovation rises.

Let’s see some other prominent role of technology and IoT in solar energy and solar panels.

Implementation Of IoT

The applications of IoT in renewable energy production involve sensors that are attached to the generation, transmission, and distribution equipment. These devices help companies monitor and control the working of the equipment remotely in real-time. It causes a reduction in operational costs and lowers our dependence on the already limited fossil fuels. The use of renewable energy resources already provides several perks over conventional ones. The implementation of IoT helps to avail of these clean energy sources to a further extent.

The internet of things provides excellent tools for monitoring power consumption in solar panels. Electricity suppliers and utility companies can get an exceptional degree of control over their resources using IoT solutions. This, in turn, provides valuable insights to companies to make data-driven business decisions. Also, power distribution companies can define and analyze users’ power consumption patterns using data generated through IoT. Utilities can balance the supply based on the demands of consumers. This eventually leads companies to cut down on the wastage of electricity and save a lot of money.

Solar Energy Monitoring Systems

The solar power monitoring device is important to stay informed about what the system is producing and how well it’s performing. Picture a solar array on a roof or in a field that is made up of thousands of solar panels. All of them are wired together back to a mid-point, where solar inverters convert the direct current (DC) energy produced by the panels into alternating current (AC) energy which can be utilised to power building elements. To monitor several aspects of this process, most systems take the benefit of wired sensor networks.

The success of the monitoring system depends in part on the reliability of the communication network—how well the gateway can transfer information to the cloud. If for some reason the network fails, your devices won’t be able to transmit data, which could cause you to miss important data indicating performance issues, or misinterpret other available data. Most all the monitoring systems have been comprised of wired sensors/components to date. While efficient, the cost and maintenance expense has restricted the number of sensors that one would place into service on a given system.

Automation

Efficiency proves to be a major hurdle in harnessing renewable energy. This especially holds true for methods that depend on variable resources like wind and solar energy. A technology-built IoT solution enables the implementation of automated controls to enhance efficiency with such methods of electricity production. With the help of these controls, energy from renewable resources can be harnessed with maximum efficiency. An IoT device can be useful to detect the most favorable conditions for energy production. The equipment can be adjusted accordingly to generate maximum output. The major benefit of IoT devices is that they generate data in real-time, which helps minimize wastage if any.

BIPV Solar Technology

Building-integrated photovoltaics, as the name suggests, seamlessly blend into building architecture in the form of roofs, canopies, curtain walls, facades, and skylight systems. Unlike traditional solar PV panels, BIPV can be aesthetically appealing rather than a compromise to a building’s design. BIPV solar panel systems enable homeowners to save on building materials and electric power costs. By substituting BIPV for standard building materials, you can cut down on the additional cost of solar panel mounting systems. Also, it is clean and free power output from the Sun and also provides a zero carbon footprint.

The Future Of Solar Looks Bright

Solar power was earlier produced only by means of ground-mounted or rooftop panels. But thanks to all the advancements mentioned above, solar is set to become lighter, more flexible, and applicable everywhere.

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Done right, work from home (WFH) could be the best thing to happen to many organizations. But it requires a magic mix – company culture, employees and process.

Organisations are months into the “pandemic WFH way of life”. Most companies have addressed the basic needs of setting up a home office for their employees. Many have swiftly transitioned to a digital workforce. Others stepped up their technology and digital requirements–think apps, remote work tools and online platforms.

Now that companies know remote works, what are they up to next? You’d be hard-pressed to find organizations that aren’t talking about enhancing their WFH culture – collaboration, employee engagement, productivity and accountability – all while they turn to digital apps for help.

Below, you’ll find some of the software capabilities we use at Hubbler to make sure that our people are able to collaborate with ease and feel good during this period of remote work. While we have all these features available to us inside the Hubbler app, I have listed multiple alternatives so that you’ll have many options to choose from here. Here we go.

Schedule Meetings, Effortlessly

Multiple emails, back-and-forth messages and guesswork to find a time slot that works for everyone – scheduling meetings shouldn’t seem like solving the Rubik’s cube where every cross, corner and layer come together after a lot of shuffling. The need: the right kind of meeting scheduler app with some/ all of these key features:

• Allows all remote workers to vote for their preferred time slot
• Features a comment section to discuss meeting agenda
• Enables to jot down minutes and share with every attendee

Some apps: Calendly, Doodle and x.ai

Lead With Video 

Leaders might be playing the toughest of roles – energising teams, setting clear directions, sharing realistic perspectives while communicating effectively. Upping the levels of and ways of remote interactions can be a crucial factor.

Text-heavy email messages might seem impersonal. Put a visual spin to key messaging: candid video communication from leaders. Whether these videos communicate leaders’ reasoning for decisions taken, intentions for or expectations from their teams, the medium of communication could be the most vital aspect for messages from leaders.

Many apps let you create, share and communicate via video: VivaVideo, Livestream and Lightworks

Put The Fun Back Into Work

Having fun at work increases overall productivity; it’s proven by research. 95%  of employees enjoy using gaming-inspired elements in their work. What if you gamify tasks for your employees? Choose metrics, pick parameters, give points for meaningful actions or rewards for completing tasks first. Set targets aligned with company goals, track KPIs – keep remote teams happy, on their toes, motivated and competitive. Apps can set up leaderboards with goals that matter to teams. That helps:

• Reinforce behavior that contributes to company culture
• Instill friendly competitiveness
• Track micro KPIs (such as the number of tasks one completed)
• Measure macro KPIs (such as targets met)
• Foster remote team spirit

Some popular apps: Spinify and Mambo

Make Work Visible 

For those who can’t adjust to working without leaning on co-workers’ cubicles and peeping into their screens, apps that bring visibility might do the trick. Research reveals two characteristics critical to efficient teams: the degree of interdependence among team members and how well they coordinate with each other. Lack of coordination might impact information sharing among team members, making decisions and completing tasks. Over-coordination might lead to a waste of time and effort and slowing down of functions.

Remote teams could improve coordination with the help of apps that allow visibility of every team members’ activities. When each user’s actions are logged onto an activity trail, it makes coordination easy. Choosing a business app that comes with an activity trail can help users – you’ll always have a clear picture of who did what (and when).

Some key features of activity trails:

• Gives a birds-eye view of tasks of all team members (who’s responsible)
• Has a clear record of every action by every team member (what they did)
• Clear task status indication (what’s the status of the task)

Some popular apps: Zen Desk, Basecamp and Toggl

Gather Feedback, Increase Employee Engagement 

As days of video calls and virtual meetings turn into weeks and months, companies often neglect the individual needs of remote employees, like boosting their confidence, keeping them motivated and energized to work remotely. Apps could help managers and leaders engage employees and boost morale with these key features:

• Allow micro-polls and zap surveys
• Gather feedback at regular intervals
• Allow every employee to be heard
• Gather information about the support needed

Some popular apps: Kudos, Officevibe and Motivosity

A Combination Of Engagement And Productivity

The solution to succeeding at remote work lies in focussing on people, processes and culture. Any application that you choose should be able to impact all those 3 areas of your organisation. Over the years, I’ve also realized that both productivity and engagement activities should be married to get the best from your people.

In A Nutshell

Squeezing out inefficiencies, plugging in engagement, boosting morale, making teams accountable – there’s a lot that goes into making remote teams work and the best part – apps do help make it happen.

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The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had a deep economic impact on every organisation. And as every sector and every industry prepared itself to deal with this situation, the role of HR underwent a paradigm shift! HR function and leaders are no longer just about who is good with people interactions and manages the processes; HR now is a function that understands how to win with talent, which has become of utmost importance in today’s scenario.

With the industries and sectors going through their own curves of economic recovery, the HR function has to focus on ensuring that the people are engaged, reskilled and upskilled to cope with this change is the necessity of the hour.

Each sector will have its own recovery journey and HR function will have a key role to play there. While some sectors may have a V-Shaped recovery, others may look at a U-shaped or even a Z-Shaped recovery. To give you a little more detail on the different economic recovery curves, a V-shaped recovery means that once the lockdown ends, the customers will return immediately and employees need to be ready and able to provide products and services.

For example, the ecommerce industry. A large number of ecommerce companies are in the process of capacity building and reskilling their employees to meet the expected surge in demand. For these sectors, HR function was step in step with business, they were constantly hiring and adding numbers to their employee strength so as to meet the demand.

Amazon, for instance, has hired 175,000 employees during the pandemic, which translates to $4 Bn investment in Covid-19 related spending on employee benefits and safety measures included $500 Mn bonus for the front line workers and delivery personnel. Imagine the type of upskilling and onboarding process which the HR function would have to continuously clock throughout the pandemic!

Some economies and industries have a U-shaped recovery. This means that these businesses were never out of the market. Though they had few customers, the demand was still there. But, post lockdown uplift, the demand for these industries has gained again. For example, food and beverages sector. While during the lockdown, they could only do home delivery, the demand for which was also low due to fear of pandemic.

However, post lockdown, they are back in business with takeaways, DIY kits etc! These employees who had to be furloughed, have come back with the new skills on making contact-less deliveries yet ensuring customer delight. And the HR leaders of these industries had to ensure that their employees’ mental wellbeing was given utmost importance and a safe and secure environment was created.

Further, for some more industries the recovery expected is to be L- shaped. Simply put, their business have dropped off and it is unclear if it will ever recover. For example, Entertainment, Tourism and Hospitality. The employees of this sector have seen the worst side of the pandemic. There has been no business and the profits have simply plummeted.

The employees have been laid off and there is a clear uncertainty as to whether the business will ever be the same again. Due to travel restrictions, there are simply no people planning their holidays. Further, the restriction on maximum number of 50 in a gathering, has ruined the event planning and entertainment industry. In such a scenario, the role of HR has to take the empathetic view and handle the employees with a lot of sensitivity.

Then there are industries that have a W-shaped recovery. W-shaped recovery is quite a roller coaster ride with ups and downs until the uncertainty ends. For instance, the Real Estate sector. While buyers view this economic downfall a great time to invest in the sector, sellers see it as a huge loss on the profit ratio. So, there are days when the demand is a lot and the sector sees a surge but then there are days when the demand is low and the curve comes down.

In such a scenario, ensuring that the employees stay motivated and strong, emotionally resilient to deal with the bumpy ride is a challenge that every HR professional in this industry has to be equipped to handle.

There is also a Swoosh Curve, similar to the ‘Nike’ symbol. This recovery model is characterised by a steep drop and a gradual recovery. These sectors will take longer to return to the pre-crisis growth than it took to fall. A classic example for this is the Aviation sector. Though, during the lockdown, due to restrictions, the demand completely fell flat.

With the lockdown partially relaxed, the demand has gone up again and the sector, though not posting high profits, is gradually coming back to its feet. The employees in this sector, in order to sustain, have been majorly reskilled into different roles and departments, will need to build psychological safety and emotional resilience.

And lastly, there is a Z-shaped recovery model. This type of recovery model is specific to industries which suffer from a downturn during the pandemic but then bounces back up above the level it would have been in the pre-pandemic baseline, before going down again to normalcy. The Automobile sector is characterised by this recovery model.

With no sales during the lockdown period, the sector saw a big decline curve, which quickly went up as soon as the government relaxed the lockdown restrictions. Due to unavailability of public mode of transport, people were left with the option of purchasing a new or pre-owned vehicle. However, once the saturation is reached, the demand will hit a normal level on its own.

According to second-hand car dealer Cars24, the first time buyers are opting for pre-owned cars and the demand in the month of June 2020 was at 134% as against 46% in the month of May. So while the HR might have had to hire new employees to meet the growing demand, they will have to ensure that once the demand normalises, these new employees are also provided with an alternative role within the organization.

Hence, whatever recovery model and route we might undergo, the role of an HR remains extremely crucial and guided by the rules of VUCA 2.0. Irrespective of the sector we are in, staying relevant to business and employee needs through tweaked HR policies and practices, judicious investment in capabilities, emotional resilience and psychological safety, restructuring and building an agile structure with empathy are some underlying themes.

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We have often heard of sovereignty in the context of nation state, as the authority of a State to govern itself. If we dwell more on the concept, in terms of International law and the relation between States, it lends States with the freedom to handle their own internal affairs and restricts them from controlling those of another.

Before the inception of Constitutional democracies, International law construed sovereignty as an absolute concept wherein the State had the absolute freedom to adjudicate and unlimited power to decide upon any issue. However, with the advent of Constitutionalism and the framing of the United Nations Charter, the concept of absolute sovereignty diluted and gave way to the theory of relative sovereignty. However, with the rise of technology, a new concept called ‘data sovereignty’ has emerged in India’s technology policy discourse.

The way governments apply this notion is to mention that since the State has sovereign rights, it should decide where the data is stored and processed. The logic applied here states that since India has sovereignty over its data, data must be stored within its territorial boundaries.

‘Data Sovereignty’ Must Flow Through The Constitution

As per the Lockean Social Contract, which is considered the foundation of the modern State, people have vested limited rights in the Sovereign to build a civil society and to punish those who violate the norms of this society. In India, the Constitution is the guiding document, the social contract, which reads that ‘We the people of India …. adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution’. In S.R. Bommai v. Union of India the Supreme Court reiterated that the people are the ultimate sovereign in India and all power belongs primarily to the people.

As per the Apex Court, State institutions are sovereign in the ambit of the fields given to them. The powers of the State institutions are subject to Constitutional limitations and Constitutional amendments itself is subject to the Basic Structure doctrine. Both, the International law and the Supreme Court recognise people as sovereign entities.

The Puttaswamy judgement held that the citizens have a fundamental right to privacy and are the owners of their data. Not all rights were vested to the State, the fundamental rights were never given up. Citizens thus have a fundamental right over their data. Now, this fundamental right can be reasonably restricted by the State but only in exceptional circumstances envisaged in the Constitution and not as a norm. The ‘right’ is the ‘norm’, and people are the owners of the data, the ‘restriction’ is just an ‘exception’.

As sovereignty in modern democracies came to mean that the power truly lies with the people as opposed to the authority, then, wouldn’t the ideal interpretation of data sovereignty imply the enhancing an individual’s control and privacy over their data and access to data? The true realisation of data sovereignty would be when individuals’ privacy is protected.

The Constitution of India is the governing document of defining India as a republic which has sovereignty over its territory and people, and therefore the right to govern the state of India flows from the Constitution. Just like territorial sovereignty flows from the Constitution of India, so should data sovereignty, which is, the right of ownership of data vested in the individual.

How Recent Policy Proposals Stifle Individual’s Ownership Of Data

Today, data sovereignty has largely come to mean achieving the objective of data being treated as a sovereign asset. In a bid to retain control over data, governments often turn to localisation or data residency mandates. However, the creation of data silos on the basis of national borders will only hamper the ability of local, Indian businesses and governments from tapping into the full potential of data. At present, globally such an approach is considered to be set back for economic growth.

India’s data governance laws over the last year have challenged the notion of a citizen’s fundamental right to data ownership, thereby restricting people’s rights over their data. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 under Clause 35, exempts government from seeking consent of citizens for accessing their data for national security purpose, which erodes the rights guaranteed to the citizen under the Constitution and also weakens her ownership of the same, thereby reducing the fundamental right of the citizen, who is the ultimate sovereign, to control how her data should be processed.

Moreover, mandating broad localisation measures with an attempt to process and store locally also erodes the freedom of citizens of having a choice, that is, to take a call on how her data should be processed. If data sovereignty is about restricting data flows, then are we arguing that the state should restrict the flow of people across borders to protect national sovereignty?

The deployment of broad localisation norms through the personal data protection framework is rather misplaced, as it merely facilitates further the transfer of rights from foreign entities to Indian entities, rather than increasing protection available to citizens.

Data by its nature is fluid, it is constantly flowing, through various hands across borders. The nature of the internet is such that data must flow to generate the maximum commercial output for industry and startups based out of the home state.

Realising ‘Data Sovereignty’ In Light Of Privacy And Individual’s Right Of Ownership

It is time that the Government begins to view the concept of data sovereignty in a new light, as one of handing more control to individuals over their data and their data rights. By providing citizens with state of the art protections in terms of cybersecurity and a robust personal data protection framework, one could facilitate the flow of this ‘sovereignty’ through individuals. Wherein people are more empowered with respect to their data rights and are protected from exploitation, be it from private entities or state interests.

If India truly intends to protect itself from data colonisation, the first step in any revolution, would be to empower the people – in this context this may be achieved through empowering a citizen to have more control over their data. The first step in this direction, would ideally be for the proposed data protection framework to deliver upon the right to informational privacy as envisioned in the Puttaswamy judgement that truly seeks to empower an individual while addressing legitimate state interests with relevant checks and balances.

The Government must also acknowledge that an Indian citizen is as much a citizen of the world in today’s global economy. By employing restrictions on cross-border data flows these individuals are being deprived from the benefits that can be reaped from the free-flow of data, in terms of economic growth, competition and innovation.

India at present is at an opportune junction where it has the freedom to create a data protection framework from scratch. It has the privilege to learn from pre-existing models and work to create a framework that empowers and protects its citizens, while at the same time facilitates international cooperation and trade.

[The article was co-authored by Kazim Rizvi and  Shefali Mehta, strategic coordinator and research management, The Dialogue]

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The parliamentary standing committee on information technology has decided to look into the allegations that Facebook does not take any action against the hateful comments posted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators to seek favors from the Indian government.  The committee is led by Kerala member of parliament and member of Indian National Congress, Shashi Tharoor.

Thanks. I am aware of the @WSJ article. I will look into the issues raised & of course seek to hear from those named.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 15, 2020

The allegations were made in an article published on August 14 in the Wall Street Journal and noted that T. Raja Singh, a BJP politician from Telangana representing the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, had put up a Facebook post that called Rohingya immigrants from Myanmar Muslim traitors and threatened to destroy mosques. Facebook took down the post, which was made in 2018, this Sunday (August 16, 2020).

Despite the post being in violation of Facebook’s hate speech rules and qualified as dangerous due to Singh’s off-platform activities, the company chose not to take any action against him till the report emerged. Citing the WSJ article, social activist Saket Gokhale had written to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who leads the parliamentary panel, on Saturday, August 15.

The report specifically names Facebook India’s head of public policy Ankhi Das, whose job description includes “lobbying India’s government on Facebook’s behalf”. Das has allegedly prevented takedown of hate speech content posted by members of the ruling BJP, even if it conflicted with the organisation’s global guidelines on hate speech.

According to some existing and former Facebook employees, Das reportedly told staff members that punishing the violations by leaders from BJP would damage the company’s business prospects in the country. Notably, India is the biggest global market for Facebook in terms of users, with 336 Mn active Facebook users and over 400 Mn WhatsApp users.

A Facebook spokesperson, Andy Stone, acknowledged that Das had raised concerns about the political fallout that would result from designating Singh a dangerous individual. But Stone also mentioned that her opposition wasn’t the sole factor in the company’s decision to let Singh remain on the platform. The spokesperson said Facebook is still considering whether a ban is warranted.

Facebook India maintained that it prohibits hate speech and content, and enforces its policies globally. A spokesperson said, “We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation. While we know there is more to do, we’re making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy.”

This isn’t the first time Facebook has been accused of promoting hate speech in India, especially against the minority community. Last year, a report by non-profit rights group Avaaz suggested that Facebook was letting many incidents scot-free, even as the company claimed to have taken action against  65% of the hate speech on its platform before anyone reported it.

Avaaz revealed that Facebook is letting anti-Muslim hate speech spread unchecked across Assam, where the minority community is already being dogged by the National Registrar of India (NRC) issue. According to Avaaz, it reported 200 such cases of hate speech to Facebook. However, the social media company has removed less than half of them for breaching its community standards. The report from the group further highlighted that these hate speech abuses often label Bengali Muslims as criminals and terrorists, among other derogatory terms.

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Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is reportedly in talks to acquire online furniture startup Urban Ladder and milk delivery platform Milkbasket in a bid to expand its ecommerce offerings. Besides this, the company has previously been reported to be in talks with epharmacy startup Netmeds as well.

These developments coincide with Reliance Industries’ plans to expand its digital ventures, including grocery delivery platform JioMart’s offerings.

Ambani, during Reliance’s 43rd annual general meeting (AGM), had announced that it will be expanding JioMart to include all possible products like electronics, fashion, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. This will bring the company in direct competition with online delivery services across segments, including Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, Grofers, 1mg, and others.

Urban Ladder Talks In Advanced Stages Now With Lower Valuation?

According to a Times of India report, Reliance Industries and startup Urban Ladder have been holding talks since the last few months. The companies are currently in the advanced stages of the deal-making process. People close to discussion pegged the deal at around $30 Mn (nearly INR 224 Cr in the current exchange rate) including further infusion in the business and earn-out for the management team.

Though Inc42 could not independently verify the report, a $30 Mn buyout seems to be lower for Urban Ladder as the company was valued at $119 Mn  (INR 776 Cr) in 2018. The company had gone on to raise another round participated by SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Steadview Capital in 2019.

Notably, Urban Ladder had turned profitable in the financial year 2019 by reporting a profit of INR 49.4 Cr. The company had managed to narrow down its expenses by 64% and hence cut down its losses of INR 118.66 Cr of FY18. The company had also noted a 1.87x jump in its revenues In FY19 from INR 151.21 Cr to INR 434 Cr in the same time period.

Founded in 2012 by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa, Urban Ladder offers over 3000 products across 35 categories including wardrobes, beds, sofas, dining tables, and coffee tables. The company offers its services in more than 90 cities and has also set up offline stores in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR. It has raised $112.8 Mn from investors such as Kalaari Capital, Steadview Capital, Trifecta Capital and others.

Reliance Outbids Amazon, BigBasket To take Over Milkbasket 

Over the last couple of months, MilkBasket has reportedly been in talks with Amazon and BigBasket for a potential buy out. But the recent report highlights that the milk delivery startup Milkbasket is inching closer towards Reliance Industries now that the company has fresh capital to have a longer runway.

The company had raised $5.5 Mn in fresh funding led by Inflection Point Venture with participation from existing investors— Blume Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Mayfield India, Unilever Ventures and BeeNext. Anant Goel, cofounder and CEO, Milkbasket, said that this was the last fundraise for the company on its path to profitability in 2020.

“Our Gurugram, Noida and Bengaluru operations are already breaking even with other cities on an accelerated track. These funds will provide a further boost in our efforts to achieve the same and necessary buffers to deal with any eventualities,” Goel added.

MilkBasket was founded in 2015 by Goel, Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain, and Yatish Talvadia. It works on a subscription-based model to deliver daily essentials like milk, vegetables, beverages, cleaning accessories and dairy products early in the morning, which gives it a slight edge over competitors Bigbasket and Grofers. Earlier this year, the startup had launched the delivery of fresh meat as well. The company has successfully completed over 40 Mn micro-deliveries to date.

On average, Milkbasket clocks around 40K-50K deliveries per day and serves over 130,000 households. Most of these orders come from certain regions of Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The company has raised nearly $26 Mn till date from investors like Kalaari Capital, Unilever Ventures and Beenext.

The post Reliance Eyes Urban Ladder, Milkbasket To Expand Ecommerce Footprint appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Google is in talks with regional language-focussed social media platform ShareChat for investing, according to a recent report. The Bengaluru-based company is looking to raise $150 Mn -200 Mn and is holding discussions with investors and technology giants. 

The news comes in at a time when ShareChat is preparing to battle it out with over a dozen rivals to fill the gap left by banned Chinese apps, including TikTok and Helo. The company recently launched TikTok rival called Moj.  

Last week it was reported that Microsoft might invest $100 Mn in the social media platform. The company’s last funding round was in August last year, when it raised $100 Mn in a Series D round led by Twitter, with existing investors Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital also investing further. That funding pegged the company’s valuation at $650 Mn. 

JPMorgan is advising ShareChat in raising funds.

Till date, the company has raised $222.8 Mn in eight funding rounds, according to data available on Crunchbase. ShareChat is amongst the 53 startups that have the potential to become unicorns by 2022, according to DataLabs by Inc42+. 

“A process is on to raise funds. We have reached out to funds as well as strategic investors like Google. The talks are still at a preliminary stage and will take some time to conclude. As Chinese tech applications are banned, we expect larger investor traction for ShareChat, which directly competes with ByteDance’s Helo,” one of the people told ET.

“Given how things have changed, especially after the ban, ShareChat benefits a lot in terms of time spent, in terms of revenue, in terms of daily active users. We are suddenly a lot more valuable than our previously thought valuation. We have got a lot of inbound interest and we are talking to everyone, including all the global players,” ShareChat chief executive Ankush Sachdeva told the publication.

The development comes as ShareChat has started getting more traction after the exit of 59 Chinese apps, including its rival Helo. The company registered over half-a-million downloads every hour after the ban of 59 Chinese app, taking its total to 15 Mn downloads in 36 hours. The company was founded in 2017 by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan. In the short video space, ShareChat competes with Instagram Reels, Mitron, Bolo Indya and Chingari. The Bengaluru-based company has Shunwei Capital, Xiaomi, Lightspeed India Partners, SAIF Partners, Google Launchpad Accelerator as its key investors. To date it has received $222 Mn funding from its investors. 

Earlier, in May 2020, ShareChat announced layoffs of 101 employees or nearly one-fourth of its workforce due to the Covid-19 pandemic and local market uncertainties.

ShareChat cofounder and CEO Ankush Sachdeva told his employees that 101 employees are being let go and shared various cost-cutting measures.

Confirming the layoffs, the company spokesperson told Inc42, “The global pandemic along with various local market uncertainties has had an impact on our business plans. This has pushed us towards certain tough decisions including a revised leaner structure while we continue to grow. We’ve had to let go of 101 of our employees who’ve been part of our startup journey. This was not an easy decision to make.”

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The India-Japan Fund of Funds in which Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF Fund is a part of has infused nearly $6.6 Mn (INR 50 Cr) in Hyderabad-based early-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners’ Fund II.

Overall, Nippon is looking to invest in approximately 15-20 venture capital funds in India across various verticals — manufacturing, electric vehicles, automobiles, financial services, healthcare, education, eCommerce, retail, pharma and others. It will also focus on multiple horizontals including robotics, automation, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, machine learning, and consumer technology.

The partnership with Nippon’s Digital Innovation Fund will provide Endiya portfolio companies with financial and strategic support resulting in increased access to growth opportunities and sustainable scalability, the homegrown investment firm has claimed. The digital innovation fund is managed by Japan-based Nippon Life India AIF Management Limited (NIAIF), a 100% subsidiary of Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited (NAM India).

Nippon Looks To Boost India-Japan Investment Streak

Commenting on the development,  Nippon India Alternative Investments’s fund manager Sachin Bid, said, “We are excited about this partnership and look forward to sharing our resources, particularly supporting Endiya’s portfolio companies in their market development and future financing efforts in Japan through the presence of our investor base.”

“We believe the partnership between India and Japan is of strategic national importance because it’s a perfect blend of Indian enterprise, its frugal innovation, and software skills with Japanese capital and their hardware prowess. We believe access to “friendly” Japanese capital is paramount to long term growth of Indian start-ups” he added.

Japan and India have a decades-long history of friendly trade relations which has also shaped how the two countries startup and investor ecosystems are working together. In May 2018, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry set up a joint “Japan-India Startup Initiative”.

METI had also launched the “Japan-India Startup Hub” at the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) Bengaluru, a Japanese public sector company to connect Indian startups and Japanese companies. Besides this, it had also launched a fund of funds, Indo-Japan Emerging Technology & Innovation AIF, last year, to invest in Indian startups and manage a portfolio through 15 to 25 dedicated VC funds.

The Indo-Japan Fund of Funds aims to invest in 200 startups through its massive network of institutional investors, conglomerates, and Japanese VCs. The targeted Indo-Japan Fund of Funds size is $187 Mn, but the eventually raised amount could be higher. The METI, Nippon Life Asset Management, TV Mohandas Pai, angel investor and chairman, Aarin Capital Partners and R.K. Mishra (non-resident scholar at Carnegie India) have facilitated the participation of investors from both India and Japan.

Endiya Partners Looks To Invest In B2B Startups

Last week, Endiya Partner Fund II had also raised $10 Mn (nearly INR 75 Cr) from World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), who has also committed an additional $10 Mn for direct co-investments alongside the Hyderabad-based fund.

Endiya Partners is a B2B-focused early-stage investment firm that has made investments across healthcare, enterprise technology solutions and consumer services sectors. The company’s portfolio includes deeptech startup Myelin Foundry, health and fitness startup Cure.fit, healthtech startup ekincare and cloud kitchen Innerchef, among others.

Till date, the company has announced two funds to invest in Indian startups. It closed its debut Fund I at INR 175 Cr 2017, whereas the first close of the Fund I was announced in 2016 at INR 100 Cr. Currently, Endiya Partners is working on its INR 500 Cr Fund II, which had announced its first close in May last year at INR 303 Cr ($40 Mn).

The early-stage VC firm usually invests between $500K to $1.5 Mn in Seed or Pre Series A funding rounds, but with the new fund it may invest up to $5 Mn per startup. Endiya team includes Sateesh Andra, Ramesh Byrapaneni, Abhishek Srivastava and Abhiram Katta along with Lakshmi Kancharla and Dipesh Chawla.

The post India-Japan Fund Of Funds To Push Investments In Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Hotel and hospitality unicorn OYO’s CEO and cofounder Ritesh Agarwal has gone bullish on funding Indian startups across several domains, business models and also regions. The 26-year-old entrepreneur has not only set up an investment firm in Singapore called Aroa Ventures to invest in early-stage startups, but has now also joined Mumbai-based integrated incubator Venture Catalysts as an advisor.

While several other successful entrepreneurs like Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Cred’s Kunal Shah, Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, and Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl have gone ahead with investing in startups in their personal capacity, OYO’s Agarwal is planning to go the VC way. However, individual investments are not completely out of the picture for Agarwal. Last year OYO’s top executives, including founder Agarwal, had pooled their individual angel investments into a limited liability partnership firm Raaga Partners LLP to invest in early-stage startups.

With his latest sprint at Venture Catalysts, he plans to boost entrepreneurship across Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and beyond. Agarwal, who comes from a small district Rayagada in Odisha, realises the importance of mentorship and guidance for young and early-stage founders, especially from Tier II and Tier III cities. He went on to grow budget hotel startup OYO into a $10 Bn business spread across 80 countries within a span of seven years.

Agarwal emphasised, “I started OYO at a very young age and at a time when the ecosystem was not fully developed. I was fortunate enough to get some great mentors like Dr Apoorva (Dr. Apoorv Sharma of Venture Catalysts), Bejul Somaia, and many others, who guided and supported me in my start-up journey… Now that I have established myself as an entrepreneur, I think it is time to give back to society and support entrepreneurs like them.”

Now, with his collaboration with Venture Catalysts, Agarwal plan enables young entrepreneurs from small towns, who do not get similar opportunities that their peers in bigger cities or metros get. Sharma, founder of Venture Catalysts, added, “his (Agarwal’s) learnings will also help many upcoming entrepreneurs that have potential to become the next Unicorn but have very limited access to the right support and mentorship.

Tier II, Tier III Try To Set Mark In Indian Startup Ecosystem

While Agarwal managed to find his way to the top, several Indian entrepreneurs coming from Tier II, Tier III do not have the same opportunities to grow in the startup ecosystem that have an inclination towards repeat founders, people with exponential education backgrounds, and the IITians in the industry.

Analysis by Datalabs by Inc42 shows that only 20% of the total startups in India are based in Tier II and Tier III cities, with over 5,800 startups in Tier II cities alone. The total funding for startups from Tier II cities alone is $1.3 Bn (2014-Q1 2019). However, when compared to Tier I, there is a clear imbalance in startups and funding in Tier II and Tier III cities.

Tier 1 startups accounted for 96.54% of total funding in Q1 2019. While Tier II did fine with two deals in Jaipur and one deal each in Surat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kochi and Ahmedabad, there was a sharp decline when compared to Tier III deals. Besides the difference in funding amounts, the average ticket size for investments in Tier I startups was also higher than investments in startups from Tier II and beyond.

Further out of approximately 338 active angel investors in India, only 5.92% were active in Tier II cities.

The post After Setting Fund To Back Startups, Ritesh Aggarwal Wants To Boost Entrepreneurship In Tier 2, 3 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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India is the world’s largest exporter of frozen seawater shrimps and prawns and the fishermen and seafood farmers plays a vital role in keep the global seafood supply chain going. With the pandemic impacting sea routes too, the shrimp industry has suffered major losses in the past few months, but tech startups are helping revive supply now. Looking to capitalise on the opportunity, freshwater fish and seafood supply chain platform Captain Fresh has raised $2.3 Mn in Pre-Series A funding led by Ankur Capital with participation from Incubate Fund India and Silicon Valley based angel investors.

As per marine feed supplier Avanti Feeds, India’s shrimp farming sector, which has seen production grow by around 21% per year over the last decade, is expected to cut down production by 20% due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With an estimated $4.44 Bn worth of exports in 2018, India is not only the biggest exporter of frozen shrimp and prawns but a vital link in the global food chain. Here, agritech and supply chain startups are helping farmers predict demand and adjust inputs and thereby manage operations more efficiently in low-demand situations. Startups such as Aquaconnect and Captain Fresh use the tech that powers logistics platforms and apply it to freshwater fish, seafood and farm-produced fish and shrimps to retailers and around the world.

Founded in April 2019 by former investment banker Utham Gowda, Captain Fresh offers technology solutions for demand-supply matching, e-auctions for sourcing of produce, creating a standardised supply flow as well as maintaining digital traceability across the chain. The company also claims to be helping suppliers receive timely payments by offering visibility per order. Supply chain inefficiencies between source to plate lead to an estimated value erosion of 30-50% annually, the company claimed.  It said the proceeds of the round would be used to build its plans around computer vision, Internet of Things, automation bots, data analytics to digitise and drive efficiencies across the seafood supply chain. Additionally, it will expand to new cities and add key hires.

Captain Fresh works with brands across retail and trade channels as well as online meat and seafood delivery startups. The company has previously raised seed funding from Nekkanti Group and Sandhya Aqua, two leading exporters of frozen shrimp in the Indian market. The Bengaluru-based startup claims to be serving more than 120 retail businesses.

In the press statement about the fundraise, Gowda said, “We started with a simple vision to build a fresh fish and seafood platform that the ecosystem could completely trust and rely on for their daily needs. We want to nurture our retail partners’ businesses by providing full availability, range and high-quality fresh supplies on a daily basis. For suppliers, we want to provide the comfort of working with a trustworthy partner who consistently delivers on payment promises. Our traction and positive customer feedback in the last 12 months have validated the real need for what we are building. It has boosted our confidence in playing an active and critical role in uplifting the overall ecosystem.

Investors Taking Captain Fresh Global

Incubate Fund India founder and general partner Nao Murakami added that fresh fish and seafood is an inefficient and unorganized industry with space for technology to disrupt the market. The fund is looking to connect Captain Fresh to the Japanese market, which has the second highest country-wise seafood consumption in the world.

“As Incubate Fund is a Japanese-origin fund, we can bring best practices in supply chain innovations and support potential collaborations between Captain Fresh and Japanese companies. We are excited to join Captain Fresh’s journey.”

In terms of competition, Captain Fresh will have to contend with Chennai-based Aquaconnect, which is backed by agritech investors Omnivore and HATCH. Aquaconnect raised a seed round of $1.1 Mn in September 2019 to build on its big data and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled mobile application FarmMOJO, which advises farmers on their pond operations based on constant monitoring of the pond and other data capture by IoT sensors. Selected by Inc42 as part of the agritech startup watchlist for 2020, Aquaconnect is currently in the process of setting up Aquaconnect stores around the shrimp farm regions of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

The post Seafood Supply Chain Startup Captain Fresh Looks To Take On Aquaconnect With $2.3 Mn Funding appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Swiggy delivery executives in Chennai have been on strike since last Thursday (August 13), in response to the food delivery company’s recent cut on delivery executives’ pay. They have alleged that the foodtech unicorn has brought down their per order pay from INR 35 to INR 15. Similar concerns have been raised by delivery executives in Hyderabad as well.

“We did not fight back when they brought it down to INR 35. But now, it has further dropped to INR 15. How can we feed our family with this?,” a delivery executive told Indian Express. Further, Swiggy also allegedly reduced overhead incentives such as long-distance delivery, services during rains, monthly and weekly incentives.

The delivery executives are demanding that the old wage structure should be reinstated and the basic wage per day should be introduced. “We have been risking our lives during the pandemic to ensure that people do not go hungry. We need to have minimum wages in place,” the delivery executives added. 

Since the coronavirus lockdown, overall ordering-in sentiment in the country has gone down. Curefit’s cloud kitchen brand Eat.fit has also scaled down operations from 15 cities to three South Indian cities (as of August 2020). 

An Inc42 query to Swiggy did not elicit a response till the time of publication.

Commenting on this scaling down, Curefit cofounder Ankit Nagori told Inc42 that “Supply chain disruptions were not the biggest reason for the fall (in the volume of food orders), I think the overall sentiment around ordering in has gone down in the country,” said Nagori. 

He added that even a Twitter survey today will show that 50% of people have not ordered in since the lockdown, and even the ones who are ordering in, are doing so at a much-reduced frequency. 

Swiggy also seems to be battling this sudden shift in consumer sentiment. The company has laid off about 1350 employees since the pandemic. The realignment exercise at the company started in May with the hope that the business will recover the Covid-induced loss in a few months. However, in July, the company said that the foodtech industry still only had recovered to about 50% of its peak. 

Another foodtech major, Zomato also laid off more than 5000 employees citing a fall in revenue. Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal had said that the company did not have “enough work for all our employees. We owe all our colleagues a challenging work environment but we won’t be able to offer that to 13% of our workforce going forward.”

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After Dunzo, Bengaluru-based B2B ecommerce startup ShopX has now collaborated with aerospace and robotics company Omnipresent, to kickstart its last-mile drone delivery trial from September 1.

In a press statement, ShopX and Omnipresent said that it has developed a drone delivery system called ‘AirTrain,’ which would bridge the logistics gap from the warehouses to retail outlets in a seamless manner. With this, small retailers and kirana stores will be able to choose ‘Drone Delivery’ as an option and get a wide range of products delivered in 30-60 minutes.

It further stated that these drones can carry goods in their limited shelf space, and would typically fulfil retailers’  conventional supply chains, once a week.

With over 2 Lakh retailers on its technology platform, ShopX will now leverage Omnipresent’s drone delivery solution to serve its retail customers. In the past, Omnipresent had conducted trial drone deliveries for medicine to AIIMS in Delhi.

Founded in 2010, Omnipresent Tech was founded by Aakash Sinha. The company claims to be affiliated with several state government agencies for drone-based services in agriculture, oil and gas, telecom, survey applications, policing, inspecting structural damage, among others. It has also developed an inhouse AI engine called the ‘Nerve Center,’ which provides details of end-to-end operations of drones, right from scheduling, planning, detection and classification.

For instance, Omnipresent was part of Chandrayaan Mission’s Prgyaan Rover, where it had developed AI software for navigation and communication; and also worked for Clean Ganga Mission, where it had deployed its Drone Boat (Ro-boat) for cleaning the river.

ShopX, on the other hand, was founded by Amit Sharma and Apoorva Jois in 2014. The company looks to provide technology to kirana stores and small and medium retailers, thereby helping them in their logistics and procurement process among others. It is backed by investors like Fundamentum’s Nandan Nilekani, Fung Strategic Holdings; a London-based angel investor Rajesh Ranavat and former chairman of Crompton Greaves Kewal Nohria and others.

Dunzo Flying High, Omnipresent And Jabong Tie-Up 

The ShopX and Omnipresent drone delivery update comes at a time where hyperlocal startup Dunzo recently announced that it will start conducting its first drone delivery trials in partnership with management consulting firm Alternative Global India (AGI), sometime last month. At the time, the managing partner of the AGI, had said that the Dunzo Air Consortium has submitted all necessary documents to the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and are awaiting flight clearance.

In 2013, Omnipresent had also conducted a feasibility test on drone deliveries for Jabong. Speaking on the recent development, Praveen Sinha, cofounder and MD of Jabong, in a press statement, said that drone deliveries would disrupt the retail logistics space in the country, particularly in the B2B space, pointing at his predictions made seven years back.

In May 2019, the government had sought the applications for BVLOS drone experiments. Under this, only seven companies were shortlisted and many were rejected. The selected companies for the trails include ShopX, Throttle Aerospace, Zomato, Swiggy, Dunzo, Redwing among others.

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In an attempt to scale its business impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Walmart-owned fashion ecommerce platform Myntra has been experimenting with a hyperlocal model of fashion retail by partnering with several brands to facilitate the same day or next day delivery.

This model will allow Myntra to build an omnichannel network, enabling it to directly deliver orders placed online by sourcing the product from the nearest offline stores. The company has also run a pilot with several high street and mall stores including Arvind and Aditya Birla Fashion Retail, Fossil, Anita Dongre, Mango, Charles and Keith, Globus, Iconic and Red Tape. Each of these brands have anywhere between 20 to 200 stores each.

Now, Myntra aims to launch over 150 brands from more than 3000 high street and mall stores in the next six months. It estimates 20-30% sales for brand stores will come from this channel in the next 6-12 months. The company believes that the model will give them a nationwide demand for their catalogue and a unified view of its inventory.

Myntra Plans Out Hyperlocal For Customers, Stores

“Even before Covid-19 we had been working on how to bring offline and online (retail) together and to augment the experiences that one will get in a store. We could actually expose an inventory of a store in Kolkata to somebody in Chennai. So all of these investments happened and then Covid-19 hit us. We went back to the whiteboard to figure out how we can help our brand partners. We helped them with all the data insights about what consumers are thinking and new normalcy,” Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram told Business Standard.

Currently, the buyers are not aware about where their product is shipped from. But Myntra plans to give them more information about the store where their product is being sourced from as the hyperlocal model expands. The company also said that its platform is optimised to seamlessly onboard hundreds of brands or stores.

Besides this, it also does mapping for store serviceability, availability of selected products at the store and proximity to delivery points. Every order is processed in real-time through a decision engine to identify the most suitable store for the customers. This includes speed, quality and availability, converting each store turns into a mini fulfilment centre. Myntra has also set up a ‘hyper care team’ that works closely with every store for remote assistance through a central store monitoring system.

As the footfall in retail stores and malls have fallen due to the pandemic, brands are likely to be receptive to this model. “We also realised that offline stores are suffering because of the lockdown and safety apprehensions. So we wanted to actually take this investment (omnichannel network) to reality even much faster than we initially thought,” Nagaram said.

Reliance-Owned Fynd’s New Competitor In The Market

As Myntra unveiled with this hyperlocal model, it has entered into direct competition with O2O fashion ecommerce platform Fynd. The company, which was acquired by Reliance in 2019, sources clothing, footwear, jewellery and accessories from prominent brands from over 8K outlets in India, and lets merchants serve customers better by acquiring new products. Customers too can place an order through the website directly.

It claims to have about 8,000 outlets on board for about 500 clients. Fynd’s in-house product the ‘Fynd Store’ helps brand stores save their in-store sales data. Fynd Store helps store managers place orders on behalf of walk-ins, in case the desired product is not stocked or not available in the right size in the store.

In general, the hyperlocal or quick delivery services have really played in favor of ecommerce platforms. While Amazon offers one-day or next-day delivery through its Prime membership, Flipkart has recently launched a hyperlocal delivery service called Flipkart Quick. Unlike Dunzo, the company allows users to book a 2-hour slot for nearly 2,000 products across several categories — grocery, fresh, dairy, meat, mobiles, electronics accessories, stationery items and home accessories.

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Bengaluru-based video-first experience discovery platform Trell has raised $11.4 Mn (nearly INR 85.3 Cr) in Series A funding round led by KTB Network.

Other marquee investors Samsung Ventures; Teachable CEO Ankur Nagpal; Pinterest, Square and DoorDash board member Gokul Rajaram; and former head of Google Play Store Development Vineet Buch also participated via Firebolt Ventures. Even existing investors Sequoia’s Surge, Fosun RZ Capital and WEH Ventures joined this funding round.

Founded in August 2017 by a team of IIT Bombay alumni Pulkit Agrawal, Prashant Sachan, Arun Lodhi and NITIE alumni Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Sequoia Surge startup Trell is a community-based platform enabling lifestyle discovery through video-based content in various Indian languages. It enables people to create visual collections of their travel and local experiences and share it as a classic slideshow video or copyrighted-images on other platforms.

Chinese App Ban Boost Trell To Another Level

The company has raised nearly $16.95 Mn till date. It has also noted a 500% growth rate since the Indian government decided to ban 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, in June 2020. Trell has over 15 Mn creators on its platform receiving more than 5 Bn views since the Chinese apps ban.

Commenting on the same, Trell cofounder Sachan said, “We are glad to see the rapid growth and consumer love at Trell. Even today, over 500Mn Indian language internet users are struggling with lifestyle inspiration and purchase decisions. With more regional key-opinion-leaders (KOLs) coming on Trell, our aim is to become the most relatable lifestyle community commerce platform for our users.”

Overall, the company has 75 Mn downloads and 25 Mn monthly active users on its app. In the last 12 months, the company claims to have grown 27x, emerging as one of the prominent lifestyle social platforms in India.

“Trell has shown incredible growth over the last few months and we believe it’s only the beginning of what will come in the future. We were especially impressed by how the team dealt with unexpected user growth during the Covid-period. It’ll soon be a most prominent lifestyle social discovery platform in India and we’re happy to ride on a rocketship,” said Hyesung Kim, KTB Network.

Chingari, Mitron In Competition Too 

Trell is not the only Indian application reaping the benefits of the government’s ban on Chinese apps. The ban on TikTok, which had more than 200 Mn active users in India as of June 2019, left a gaping hole in the short-video sharing platform space. Indian apps such as ‘Mitron’ and ‘Chingari’, billed as Indian alternatives to TikTok, have seen a huge uptick in terms of users and video uploads.

Homegrown short video platform Chingari has raised INR 10 Cr (nearly $1 Mn) in seed funding from LogX Ventures, AngelList’s Utsav Somani, NowFloats’ Jasminder Singh Gulati, AL Trust (Vistra ITCL), Village Global. Mitron had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by 3one4 Capital and a LetsVenture syndicate list led by Arun Tadanki, only two days after the Chinese app ban. The company is reportedly in talks to raise another $2 Mn from Nexus Venture Partners, former Commonfloor co-founder Sumit Jain, and PineLabs’ CEO Amrish Rau.

In terms of numbers, Chingari recorded more than 23 Mn downloads in the month since the ban, while 17 Mn downloads in a span of a few weeks since launch.

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US-based venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners’s Indian unit, Lightspeed India Partners, has raised its Fund III with a commitment of $275 Mn (nearly INR 2,055 Cr at current conversion rate) from global institutional limited partners. Overall, the early-stage VC firm has invested nearly $750 Mn in India since its inception in 2007.

Lightspeed India Partners’ portfolio includes some imminent startups such as edtech giant BYJU’S, energy marketplace Indian Energy Exchange, healthcare SaaS Innovaccer, hotel and hospitality company OYO, social media platform Sharechat, B2B commerce Udaan, conversational AI Yellow Messenger, digital ledger startup OkCredit, software maker Setu, hyperlocal discovery platform Magicpin, among others.

The VC firm had invested nearly $28 Mn in OYO and got somewhere between $800 Mn to $850 Mn from the partial exit in 2019. Currently, it still holds 5% stake in OYO. It also got a partial exit of around $70 Mn to $80 Mn in BYJU’S after the edtech company raised fundings from Qatar Investment Authority in July 2019. The company has got a successful exit from TutorVista and Indian Energy Exchange as well.

Lightspeed focusses on direct and cross-border businesses, generally investing $1 to $25 Mn in growth or early-stage startups seeking to disrupt or transform large markets in the domestic economy.

In 2015, the company announced its first India fund which was closed at $135 Mn. The first fund was followed by the second fund in 2018 and was closed at $175 Mn. Besides these two funds, Lightspeed has also invested in Indian startups from its global fund to participate in bigger funding rounds of these companies.

With this fund, as with each of its previous funds, Lightspeed remains committed more than ever, to its mission of partnering with bold entrepreneurs building exceptional companies of tomorrow, the company said in its press statement. Further, it will continue to work with founders to support them through their growth lifecycle – including the growth capital pool of over $3 Bn raised recently in its global funds.

In preparations, Lightspeed has also expanded Lightspeed India Advisors partnership to six partners, comprising of Harsha Kumar, Vaibhav Agrawal, Akshay Bhushan, Hemant Mohapatra, Dev Khare and Bejul Somaia.

Even Hyderabad-based early-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners is currently raising its fund II to invest in B2B startups across healthcare, enterprise technology solutions and consumer services sectors. The firm has already raised $10 Mn (nearly INR 75 Cr) from World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and $6.6 Mn (INR 50 Cr) from Japan-based Nippon India Digital Innovation AIF Fund.

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After Amazon India, Walmart-owned Flipkart is reportedly looking to enter the epharmacy space as the demand for online medicine delivery services has grown stronger due to the ongoing pandemic. While Flipkart is building its team internally, it may also partner with Mumbai-based epharmacy startup PharmEasy for its latest venture.

According to the latest Economic Times report citing sources, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy has held multiple rounds of discussions with PharmEasy’s founding team led by Dharmil Sheth. Since the epharmacy segment lacks clear guidelines, Flipkart wants to be sure about all legal frameworks before rolling out the service, and avoid any clash with traditional chemists, a person aware of the matter told the publication.

Flipkart is also open to any investment opportunity in PharmEasy, but the details for the same have not been finalised yet. Without commenting on the discussion for a partnership, Flipkart spokesperson said, “We are not in talks with any epharma player with an investment view as of now.” Meanwhile, PharmEasy’s Shah said, “as part of the industry, we keep talking to everyone.”

Reportedly, PharmEasy is also in advanced discussions to sign a merger with Bengaluru-based rival Medlife to get a larger pie of the market. According to a Business Standard report citing sources, the duo has been in talks for a merger deal valued at $200 Mn to $250 Mn to create one of the largest healthcare companies. With this, Medlife will retain 20-30% stake in the combined entity, the report has added.

Meanwhile, Flipkart’s US-based rival Amazon India launched its online pharmacy service named ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ last week. The online pharmacy will be piloted in Bengaluru first and will be expanded to other cities later. However, this has not gone down well with All Indian Organisation of Chemist and Druggists (AIOCD), who wrote to CEO Jeff Bezos calling out the launch of Amazon’s epharmacy business as “illegal”.

The association, which has nearly 850K Indian chemists, noted that the government had only allowed sale of medicines online during the lockdown as it amounted to an emergency, and that home delivering medicines would be in contempt of the Delhi high court’s decision that put a stay on online pharmacies. Besides this, the association noted that there is no criteria for epharmacies under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940.

“We have also given you enough evidence above to prove our point. We also have a full dossier ready on this subject and entering this space can bring on legal implications which can bring disrepute to Amazon’s name,” the organisation said.

Even Reliance is looking to expand its grocery delivery venture JioMart to include other categories including medicines. According to media reports, Reliance is also in talks to acquire NetMeds for somewhere between $130 Mn to $150 Mn.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on August 15, launched National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) to revolutionise the Indian health sector. Under this, the government will allow the patients to access health services remotely through teleconsultations and epharmacies while offering other health-related benefits.

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Facebook has found itself in the eye of a fresh storm in India following reports last week about its alleged inaction in certain hate speech cases involving BJP politicians and leaders. The social media giant now faces the prospect of being summoned by the parliamentary standing committee on information technology to answer questions on the alleged collusion.

“The panel would like to hear from Facebook in the normal course, consider testimony under the topic ‘safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms,” the committee’s chairman Shashi Tharoor was quoted as saying by the Times of India. The committee is slated to meet on September 1-2.

While Facebook, which over 300 Mn active users in India, has acknowledged there was “more to do” on prohibiting hate speech and it was “making progress on enforcement and conducting regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy”, the company has been under fire for filling its ranks with those close to India’s policy makers and ignoring content and posts which can be considered derogatory or inflammatory. 

The political slugfest embroiled Ankhi Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South and Central Asia, who filed a police complaint in New Delhi, citing “violent (online) threats to life and body.”  Das is said to be close to the higher-ups in the current BJP government and many of the cases reported by the original WSJ article involve BJP leaders. 

Facebook’s Wall Of Controversies

Last year, another alert raised by non-profit rights group Avaaz claimed that Facebook was letting many incidents scot-free, even as the company claimed to have taken action against  65% of the hate speech on its platform before users flagged them.

Avaaz claimed that Facebook is letting anti-Muslim hate speech spread unchecked across Assam, where the minority community is already being dogged by the National Registrar of India (NRC) issue. 

The social media company was said to have removed less than half of the 200 posts flagged by Avaaz. The group further highlighted that hate speech abuses often target Bengali Muslims.

Mired In Political Battles In US

The most recent issues in India bear a striking similarity to other reports earlier this month where Facebook’s vice president of global public policy Joel Kaplan was said to have intervened to “remove strikes” against conservative pages in the United States. 

In June 2020, dozens of Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout in protest of the company’s decision not to take action against incendiary posts that President Donald Trump had made in the last week of May. 

These controversial posts included one post that seemed to threaten violence against protestors by saying, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” 

Twitter determined that the same message violated its rules against the glorification of violence and limited the concerned account’s ability to view, like, reply, and retweet the post on its platform. 

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