Innholdsfortegnelse for 4-Nov-2018 i Business Today

TWO DECADES AGO when private insurance companies made their entry into India’s then under-penetrated insurance sector, there were many apprehensions as state-owned companies like Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and others ruled for decades. They were all big companies, backed by the government and were trusted brands in the market. “Who will trust private insurance players?” people would ask. Today, things are different. ICICI Pru, ICICI Lombard, HDFC Standard Life, HDFC Ergo, Max, Max Bupa and Apollo Munich are big names in life, general and health insurance. However, they cannot rest on their laurels as the insurance industry is facing yet another disruption, from fully-digital insurers. Mumbai-based Acko General Insurance, founded by Varun Dua, is running a totally digital platform based on risk-based pricing…

LALIT KESHRE IS a start-up junkie. In 2010, he founded a marketplace for teachers and students, EduFlix, where teachers could stream videos. The company ran for over two years but hit the bandwidth challenge as video transmission, five years ago, was not fast enough for uninterrupted streaming. The company shut down. Keshre joined Flipkart in 2013 as part of a team that launched its marketplace. Later, he incubated a company within Flipkart to solve last-mile delivery problems. Flipkart is also where Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal worked. The four quit to start Groww in 2016. The idea was to start a company that leverages technology to create an impact in the consumer space. The founders saw a huge gap in delivery of financial services in India. The penetration…

IN THE EARLY DAYS of e-commerce, buying a product on online marketplaces was an experience full of uncertainty. While you could buy the product in one click, getting delivery was an entirely different story. Those days, you had no idea when the product would land at your doorstep and whether you would be home then. Kushal Nahata, founder and CEO of FarEye, describes a routine early morning scene witnessed at a logistics centre in the early years of this decade. “Around 20-25 people would show up between 9 and 9.30 am for delivery of products. No one had any idea who was going to deliver what and where. They would manually sort it out and decide to deliver to addresses closer to them.” In the evening, Nahata says, all delivery…

UNTIL A FEW YEARS BACK, Indian start-ups were dubbed copycats. Most firms’ copy-pasted ideas from the west, did little innovation, recycled technology available elsewhere or just bought it off-the-shelf. Indeed, there were very few hardcore technology start-ups. If you read up on the founders of Netradyne – Avneesh Agrawal and David Julian – you would know that landscape has passed by a mile. Agrawal, the company’s CEO, is the former president of Qualcomm India & South Asia. He has been granted over 150 US patents. Julian, the CTO, had earlier supported the Voyager and Cassini Deep Space programmes at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also worked at Qualcomm; has 107 US patents. “NETRADYNE HAS OVER 20 FLEET CUSTOMERS, MOSTLY ABROAD. IT HAS LAUNCHED IN INDIA, BUT THE COMPANY IS SHY…

A BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR CHILDREN can be a dull affair for adults, but one such party in Mumbai brought together Tushar Amin and Apoorv Gupta, who observed the short attention span that children had with some toys. “Kids would open something, figure out how it works and then lose interest. There was no constructive engagement,” recounts Amin. This observation led Amin, who was then working with kids’ social network Worldoo, to research more about toys available and he realised that not much innovation had taken place in the segment and children were increasingly preferring the digital medium, which was a cause of concern for parents. Amin and Gupta bounced around ideas for a while and were soon joined by Gupta’s flatmates Ashwini Kumar and Rajat Jain, all three from IIT…

IN JIM COLLIN’S BOOK Great by Choice, the author describes Amundsen’s and Scott’s radically opposite approaches in their race to the South Pole. More than a century ago, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and four teammates attained the distinctive title of being the first men to reach the South Pole, claiming victory five weeks ahead of Robert Scott. The Amundsen crew returned safely to its base, but Scott and his four British companions died on the return journey, succumbing to exhaustion, frostbite, starvation, fatigue and less foreseeable causes such as poor organisation, lack of planning and overconfidence. Amundsen’s approach was to use a combination of skis and dogs, select a champion crosscountry skier on the team and carry enough food, but most importantly, ensure a large margin of safety. Scott, on…

IN AN IDEAL WORLD, gadgets should be completely integrated for seamless access and control. Quite often, you may feel the need to access your phone data when typing away at your computer. It could be an important presentation stored on your phone, a crucial text message or just a peek at the recent vacation snapshots. Fortunately, all that content locked in your smartphone need not be transferred to your PC before it can be accessed. You can easily find a number of apps which not only mirror your phone’s display right on your desktop or laptop, but also enable you to back up the phone content on your PC. In most cases, the phone and the PC connect wirelessly. Here are a few options worth trying out. Windows Connect: A…

FOR THE current NDA government, the 8.2 per cent GDP growth clocked in the first quarter of this fiscal along with the lower than anticipated inflation should have been a reason for comfort. But over the past few weeks, bad news on the economic front – both macro and micro – has far outweighed any good news. Crude oil prices have been rising inexorably and many analysts expect it to cross $100 a barrel. Meanwhile, the rupee has been plunging in value, and it has been the worst performing currency in Asia since the beginning of this year, having dropped below ₹74 to a dollar at the time of going to press. If this had helped spur exports, it would have been some consolation but exports have been sluggish while…

BJP-AND NDA-ruled states have been hit the hardest by the Centre’s decision to cut fuel price. Take Uttar Pradesh – the state will take a ₹20,000 crore-hit in VAT collection to facilitate a ₹2.50 reduction in per litre rates of petrol and diesel. Central devolution will claim another 0.90 paise per litre. Most NDA-ruled states are finding it tough to manage – they have to fund UDAY electrification, infrastructure augmentation, and rural penetration while absorbing losses from fuel price slashes. With elections around the corner, NDA-ruled states are a worried lot indeed.…

THE SALE PROCESS of Essar Steel under the insolvency law may face either of two eventualities - sale at discount or inordinate delay. The Supreme Court recently asked two lead bidders, Numetal consortium and ArcelorMittal to pay off their dues to qualify for Essar bidding. Numetal will have to pay the entire debt of Essar Steel (around ₹49,000 crore) to qualify for the bid since Essar’s defaulter promoter Rewant Ruia was one of its stake holders. The cost for ArcelorMittal would be ₹7,000 crore. If both the bidders don’t find any merit in such a bid, they will back out, leaving Vedanta alone in the fray. It will reduce the sale value. Inviting fresh bids will be another option. JSW Steel and VTB group (promoter of Numetal) are exploring opportunities…

WHEN AN ARMY OFFICER who had been posted in Siachen told IIM Calcutta alumnus Puneet Gupta, who was working with a defence start-up then, that he had once not taken a bath for 90 days, Gupta felt he should find a solution. He explored alternatives and landed on waterless technology. His start-up Clensta International, founded in February 2016, offers bathing products that do not need any water. Both its products, body wash and shampoo, are alcohol, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and gluten free, making them suitable for all skin and hair types. “Water is only a rinsing mechanism. So the idea is to maintain personal hygiene, without using water. We thought that molecules of dirt, oil and grease can easily be removed without water; when you take a normal bath,…

TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING healthcare delivery systems globally and Qure.ai, a Mumbai-based start-up, is at the forefront of this movement in India. The company has developed artificial intelligence (AI) assisted tailored algorithms to help diagnose diseases and recommend personalised treatment plans, based on readings and interpretations of X-rays and CT scan images. Qure.ai’s software assists radiologists and doctors to diagnose diseases more accurately and with more ease, and improve their productivity. Prashant Warier, co-founder and CEO of the company, is an IIT-Delhi B.Tech graduate, with an MS degree and a PhD in operation research from Georgia Institute of Technology. He was part of the team building SAP’s data science practice, before he moved to India to become an entrepreneur. He started a data analytics firm Imagna Analytics, which was acquired in…

NISHITH RASTOGI AND Geet Garg, the founders of Locus, were working on a safety app for women, which they called RideSafe. The app could detect deviation of a vehicle from the route and raise an alarm. Restaurants and food-tech companies learnt about the app and started using it to track delivery boys. A big business was in the offing. The two realised that Indian logistics and delivery were old world and there was no way to track packages and people. This meant lack of planning. And without planning, there couldn’t be optimisation of operations. In 2015, Locus started with the idea of optimising last-mile operations — the package delivery — using automation, but quickly moved on to other areas such as automatic sorting and packing and salesforce optimisation. The company’s…

NITIN TANGALI, a 22-year-old commerce graduate from Ganjam, Odisha, is the eldest among the three siblings and looking for a job. His family, however, is fixated on the Indian gold standard for employment – a sarkari naukri. There are two hurdles. First, recruitment exams that require smart preparation. But most aspirants from small towns and remote areas do not have the means to attend high-end coaching classes in the metros. Second, national-level job tests are held in English or Hindi, and the likes of Tangali, not well-versed in either, are at a disadvantage. “Every year, five-six crore applicants write these exams and put their money into offline recruitment-preparation companies. This market is now worth ₹1 lakh crore. But that is not the way to go in this digital age,” says…

THE SAFDARJUNG HOSPITAL in Delhi got a new potable water ATM in September. Within 10 minutes of its installation, there was a 200-meter-long queue of people. “Such instances tell us how acute the problem of accessible clean drinking water is. It hits the ones at the bottom of the pyramid the hardest,” says Vibha Tripathi, founder CEO of smart water purification solution company Swajal Water Pvt. Ltd. A series of events during Tripathi’s life led her to empathise with those who struggle to get potable water. One was losing her two-year-old cousin to diarrhoea. And outside her house in Hyderabad, she would see people queue up every day to get water. This led her to drop her research in IIT-Kanpur on affordable organic solar cells and start Swajal Water in…

CASUAL WEAR Celebrate It with Ralph Lauren AS RALPH LAUREN celebrates its 50th year, it is only fitting that the brand should make its debut in India now with the launch of Polo Ralph Lauren and the designer’s eponymous label Ralph Lauren. The brand, which has been defining contemporary luxury for five decades, is well-recognised, thanks to its logo that is both timeless and modern. Inspired by the American West and Hollywood, the casual wear is sporty and can be worn by men across ages. The Polo Ralph Lauren store was launched at The Emporio in New Delhi in September and its second outlet, the Ralph Lauren store, will be opened at The Chanakya in the capital city by October end. With a range that is both fun and smart,…

Q. The biggest challenge you faced in your career A. We were the first company to launch digital maps in India in 2004, but it was an uphill task to get people to use those maps. Add to that the entry of global biggies. But even with limited resources, we have successfully withstood the MNC might. Moreover, global competition gave us credibility. Their (MNCs) marketing muscle helped catapult the demand for digital maps, and we were able to leverage the momentum to expand our reach. Q. Your best teacher in business A. Very early on, I have learnt to listen to customers and understand their pain points. This customer-centric, problem-solving approach has percolated down across all levels and helped us build lasting and remunerative relationships with our customers. Q. Key…

WITH THE RUPEE weakened, the Narendra Modi government is again exploring the feasibility of non-dollar trade with friendly nations. At a recent meeting, Prime Minister Modi broached the possibility of a Government-to-Government (G2G) mechanism with visiting Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two commodities that Russia has in abundance - oil and precious stones - constitute 45 per cent of India’s total import bill. This may seem to be a terrific way to reduce India’s dollar dependence but the problem lies in implementation. Trade with Russia accounts for less than 2 per cent of India’s merchandise trade at the moment, though both countries have a long-standing friendly relationship. The $7 billion India-Russia defence deal was definitely the high point of Putin’s visit, but oil and diamonds can be the real game…

Government initiative Startup India has approved 8,625 applicants as of March 30, 2018, to get various benefits Start-ups incorporated year-wise Consistent increase in % of women entrepreneurs since 2015 Classification of Enterpreneurs (in %) 1,000+ Start-ups added in 2017, registering 30% CAGR since 2012 70% Share of total startups in India focussed on B2C in 2017 against 77 per cent in 2016 32 yrs The median age of founders of Indian start-ups in 2017; 50 per cent of founders are engineers. $1.8 BILLION Total funding raised by start-ups. Average funding per funded start-up was $6.2 million in H1 2017 0.1-0.15 MILLION Total talent employed by start-ups as of 2017, 325 of these are focussed on solving core India problems India ranked 37 in Startup Ecosystem Rankings October 2017 Rank and…

RE YOU MY FRIEND OR ENEMY,” Ravi Ramaswamy Parthasarathy, or RP as he was called, often joked when asked about floating an IPO of the three-decade-old Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS). Till a few months ago, this Mumbai-headquartered infrastructure financing institution was like a black hole. RP used to share information on a ‘need to know’ basis with the outside world. Today, this ₹1 lakh crore-asset size institution is threatening a contagion in the financial market. Almost a decade ago, when the Lehman Brothers collapse created havoc across the world, India took pride in its banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). IL&FS is no Lehman, but has emerged as a ‘too big to fail’ institution. At stake is ₹91,000 crore of debt; nearly two-third of which…

BUSINESS TODAY STARTED identifying India’s most happening start-ups well over a decade ago in 2007. This year we had a little over 100 start-ups that filed nominations. The start-ups have been divided into two categories, based on when they were set up — those that are 0-2 years old and those that are 2-4 years old. The senior editorial team of BT vetted the applicants to eliminate those that had exceeded the age limit. We ended up with 43 companies in the 0-2 years’ category and 36 in the two years-plus category. It is this list of start-ups that was placed before a jury comprising Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures; Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners; Abhinav Chaturvedi, Principal at Accel; Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures; and Murali…

AYUSHI GUDWANI, working at McKinsey & Company as a Senior Manager, faced a problem that most of us would be familiar with. She found it difficult to find well-fitted office clothes. She would shop abroad, but even those clothes were not a perfect fit. So, when entrepreneurship beckoned, she knew what she would like to do. Gudwani left her job in 2015, and with an inch-tape in her bag, went on a discovery of why clothes don’t fit. She measured close to 300 women and sat for hours with well known tailors and designers. The end-result was FableStreet, an online premium work-wear brand. “The idea was close to my heart. I personally associated with it,” she says. But she knew that only passion won’t be enough. The idea had to…

A TONE CORNER OF THE BUSY factory, near Bangalore, is the tailoring department of Wakefit Innovations, a ‘sleep company’. A bit ahead is a stack of tins with raw material. About 10 chemicals, mixed with colour and water, go into a batch foaming machine — a queen-size die that resembles an extra large baking tin. Indeed, the chemicals poured in rise like a cake up to 40 inches as the temperature in the machine touches 110 degrees centigrade. Blue, pink, and white foam formed then takes about 48-72 hours to dry, before it is cut into a more manageable shape. The foams are then assembled into a mattress. Wakefit also makes foam pillows and mattress protectors but the mattress is their primary product. Behind the promise of pain-free sleep is…

THERE IS A REASON why the entity that owns the vernacular social media app, ShareChat, is called Mohalla Tech Private Ltd. Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Pratap Singh were studying at IIT-Kanpur when, at Yahoo Hack U, a hackathon event, they discovered their love for building products. They worked on 13 products from their dorms. The first was a real estate portal, similar to Housing.com. The name, Mohalla, comes from there, and although the portal and the dozen products that followed didn’t go anywhere, the founders stuck with the name. ShareChat, their 14th, came in 2015 and is probably their coolest. Also, the most successful, thus far. The social media company has around 25 million monthly active users, growing at 20 per cent a month. If you download the…

“WE ARE OPERATIONALLY PROFITABLE AND LOOKING TO GENERATE NET PROFIT IN FY 2018/19”Raghav Verma Co-founder, Chaayos IT FILLS THE MANDATORY CUP many of us reach for first thing in the morning; it lifts mood, banishes languor and speeds up bonding with co-drinkers. India is a tea-drinking nation, consuming – according to National Sample Survey Organisation data – 15 times more tea than coffee, but until recently, the number of upmarket cafes in the country emphasising the variety and quality of their tea were just a handful. Tea was usually prepared in homes, or bought dirt cheap from roadside chaiwallas. This was in striking contrast to coffee, which following the rise of Café Coffee Day, Barista, Costa Coffee and others in the past two decades, has become an aspirational drink, for…