If IITians are so intelligent and can earn lakhs in their            placements, why do they sponge off taxpayers' money?

 

Dear Smt Smriti Iraniji,

At the drop of a hat, every government, including yours, says that subsidies are bad for the economy and should be done away with.

Many of the subsidies in your ministry are going to those who don't deserve it. IITians are the most guilty of this pilferage. To make things worse, they hardly do anything for the country. Best-selling fiction is not known to help farmers.

1) To begin with, this is what they cost usWhile it takes over Rs 3.4 lakh to educate an IITian per year, the student pays only Rs 90,000 per year. The rest is borne by the government. That is close to Rs 2.5 lakh per student per year, which is being paid by the tax payer. If one extrapolates this to all the 39,540 students in the Indian Institute of Technologies, the cost borne by the tax payer on educating IITians extends to 988.5 crore annually.

According to budget estimates, Rs 1703.85 crore is to be allocated to the IITs for 2015-'16.

2) What do we get in return for the Rs 1,700 crore we spend on them?Inspite of producing 9,885 world-class engineers in computer science, electrical, electronic, chemical, mechanical, production fields every year...

a) The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, though successful with the Russian Cryogenic Engine, has time and again failed with the indigenous cryogenic engine. We have succeeded only once with our indigenous cryogenic rocket.

b) Indigenous submarines are still a distant dream because of the technological complexity in building them. Though many projects are coming up in our own shipyards, they are happening because we are merely manufacturing them in India with foreign technology.

c) The indigenous Indian Small Arms System rifles for our army, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, have always been reported as problematic, and we import assault rifles from Israel.

Why could our world-class engineers, who are educated with tax payers' money, not have built them?

3) This is what our top IITians gave a missA Right to Information application that was filed recently has shown that less than 2% of engineers at the Indian Space Research Organisation are from IITs and the National Institutes of Technology. Our best space programme doesn't get our best engineers every year.

The army doesn't get engineers and officers from the IITs. Between 1986 and 2006, not a single IITian has joined the Indian army.

The DRDO has a shortage of more than 2,700 scientists, and it is stretched and overworked, but our world-class engineers don't find it challenging.

4) If an IITian wants to run an online shop, then why do I, a taxpayer, have to pay for his chemical engineering degree?Going by 2013 figures, Flipkart, the online mega-store, recruited seven students from IIT Madras in 2013.

One can understand the logic behind Flipkart hiring a computer science engineer. But six of the hires had studied aerospace, chemical, metallurgy, bio-technology and engineering physics.  What specialist knowledge will they bring to Flipkart?

These students do not have any interest in what they learnt in their four-year undergraduate programme, and want to erase their history by moving to a different field.

5) Why did I pay for Chetan Bhagat's mechanical engineering degree?I have nothing against Chetan Bhagat, but I do know that Indian taxpayers paid to make him a mechanical engineer. He has done everything but engineering.

Another RTI filed with IIM Bangalore has revealed that out of the current batch of 406 students, 97 students are from IITs. Fifty-six of these are students with less than two years work experience.

If all these engineers wanted to be was managers, why does the tax payer need to pay for their engineering education at the IITs?

6) Get a loan, why seek a subsidy?All students from IITs can get collateral-free loans from nationalised banks for upto Rs 20 Lakh.

And IITians are obviously so awesome that companies are eager to pay them crores of rupees.

Then why should a world-class engineer who makes crores of rupees and adds no value to India be given a subsidised education at the IITs? Can't they get educated with a bank loan of their own and repay it after getting their huge salaries?

7) Remittances help forex? Nope, not really.Whenever there is a debate on brain drain from the IITs, the remittances issue pops up. Many believe that IITians who go abroad send back remittances and contribute to foreign exchange reserves. However, it is a pittance for India.

A report in the Economic Times shows that out of the total remittances of $70 billion to India, the remittances from IITians who go to developed countries is much lower than the remittances from the Middle East to the state of Kerala.

Most of the Malayalis in the Gulf are blue-collar workers, not IIT engineers.

So, why should the common man subsidise an IITian's college fees?

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Naa se haan tak: Co-founder of Orobind shares his journey of strong resolve

This article has been sponsored by Haywards 5000 Hausla Buland Academy.

In early 2015, there was a lot of buzz about how a startup had raised $200,000 within three months of its launch. The startup in question was Orobind – an ‘at-home’ personal fitness tech startup. Behind the glitzy headlines and all the hullabaloo was a story of rejection, a near-death experience and a strong resolve to make the idea work.
Founded by IIT-Roorkee graduates Satya Vyas and Shubhanshu Srivastava in December 2014, the startup was rejected 52 times by investors before getting their first yes. During this period, it came agonisingly close to going bankrupt at least twice. Co-Founder Satya Vyas recalls, “In 2014, when we were trying to raise funds for Orobind, no one was even considering us. It was a really testing phase.”
Looking back on how he managed to stay afloat and keep the team together, Satya says, “I saw every ‘no’ as a challenge. I was determined. But that being said, I also put a lot of rational thinking in place. After every meeting, I would sit in a coffee shop or some place that offered solitude. I would then dissect and analyse what made them say no. I would try and reason if the problem was with the idea, the way it was presented, or the sales pitch. And then, I would try and improvise.”

Once when Orobind was running out of cash, the investor that Satya was banking on said he needed more time to deliberate and decide. Satya immediately lined up one more meeting, which was very critical because if this second investor said no, it would have been all over for Orobind. “So before the second meeting, I just sat in a small tea shop at the corner of the street for 10 minutes. These 10 minutes were the loneliest moments I have ever experienced. When I looked up my mobile to see if I could call someone to calm myself down, I realised it was my own fight and I needed to deal with it myself. So all I did was have a cup of tea and walk into the meeting.” It was this meeting that led to Orobind getting funded.

It took 53 presentations to break the jinx: “My instinct always told me that getting the first yes for funding was critical, and from then on, it would be easier to get more funding,” Satya shares. This turned out to be true. In March 2015, Orobind closed its angel funding round from Harpreet Singh Grover (leading a group of angels) and Zishaan Hayath (leading Powai Lake Ventures), who led a $200,000 investment round.
“We initiated discussions at the end of 2014. Initially, we couldn’t convince them about our idea, but we didn’t let go, and we kept the conversation going until they finally agreed to invest – four months later,” says Satya.
In February 2016, Amazon-backed home services provider Housejoy saw Orobind’s potential and acquired the young company. Talking about his future plans, Satya says, “Post the acquisition, we are working towards how best we can come together to capitalise not just the fitness category, but the entire home-services category. This is a brilliant opportunity for startups like us to work with some of the big names in the industry.”
Reflecting, he says, “As an entrepreneur, the hardest part is not just about dealing with rejection, but how you continue to channelise your efforts until you get the yes.”
Entrepreneurs know that rejection and discouragement from investors, family and friends, are part of the journey. Orobind is not Satya’s first venture and he has lost track of the number of rejections he has dealt with.
“Though I have faced ‘no’ numerous times, the most ridiculous one was in 2008, when I was running my first venture – dietz – a healthy food delivery startup. Back then, most investors didn’t think an engineer could sell salads. Some even said, ‘Kya yehi karne ke liye IIT gaye thhe? (Did you study at IIT to do just this?) Leave this for hotel management graduates.’” Flash-forward seven years, and suddenly food delivery startups were in favour with investors.
Those who have tried their hands at entrepreneurship, or worked with an entrepreneur, will agree that it is a tumultuous life. Working days and nights straight without a day off, making sacrifices of all sorts, and yet having to face rejection and disappointment. It is during these times that an entrepreneur’s ‘hausla’ plays a big role. When translated into English, the closest equivalent of hausla is probably a strong resolve. Satya believes it is this haulsa that enables entrepreneurs to live through rejections and still have faith in their ideas. In most instances, it is also the differentiating factor between people who make it in and those who don’t. 
Sharing his take on what #NaaSeeHaanTak means to him, Satya says, “I don’t have ‘na’ or ‘no’ in my vocabulary. I don’t take ‘no’ for an answer, and that is also how I have nurtured my team – to never take ‘no’ for an answer. For me ‘no’ is just how a conversion often begins. If I want something, I will hustle my way to turn that ‘na’ into a ‘haan.’”
Haywards 5000 Hausla Buland Academy
Entrepreneurs always find ways to turn a “no” into a “yes”. It is to enable such entrepreneurs that the Haywards 5000 Hausla Buland Academy (HBA) was launched in 2012. It provides online skills development courses and training through workshops. In the last four years, it has reached out to over 100,000 entrepreneurs.
To take the vision of HBA forward, Haywards 5000 launched yet another initiative titled Hauslay ki Udaan in 2015 on ABP News – India’s first startup reality TV show. Entrepreneurs across 10 cities in India auditioned and competed over three months to win the title and a seed fund of Rs 15 lakh.
This year, the second edition of Hauslay Ki Udaan is getting even more bigger. You could live your dream of becoming an entrepreneur by participating in the show. All you need to do is give a missed call to **5000 or register online.
Watch the video and see how a strong resolve can make your dreams can come true.
Register now for the second edition of Hauslay Ki Udaan.

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How can  a begger can make a 30 cr industry please read this story ?

By Himansu

His company today has a turnover of Rs 30 crore and employs 150 people. This by no means is the finishing line even though 50-year-old Renuka Aradhya started life’s race with a major handicap.

Renuka Aradhya in his office.

Renuka was born poor. Very poor. He has seen the kind of poverty that put him on the streets to beg. The poverty that kept him hungry both literally and metaphorically.

Where does one begin to tell this entrepreneur’s story? From pushing a handcart under a blazing sun to now owning a fleet of 1000 plus cars? Or from transporting 300 dead bodies to ferrying foreign tourists who left tips in dollars? Or from failing to clear class X exams to now rubbing shoulders with the industry’s who’s who?
Or the fact that with his foresight he was able to ward off Uber and Ola poaching his business, and is making the next generation ready to dream big by bringing his daughter-in-law (who comes from a poor family) into the business.
Ernest Hemingway wrote a long time ago, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
Here’s Renuka’s roller coaster journey in his own words because no other words will do it justice.

Every day is a winding road

I belong to a village called, Gopasandra, in Anekal taluk near Bengaluru. My father was a pujari at a temple allotted by the state government though he did not get any fixed salary. After conducting the puja, he would go to nearby villages to beg for ragi, jowar, or rice. He would then sell the grains in the market and with the money that he got from the sale he would take care of us. We were three children, two boys and one girl.

I would go begging with my father to these neighbouring villages, which is now Electronic City.

After I finished Class VI, my father thought that he would put me in somebody’s home as a domestic help to make ends meet. My school fee till Class X was taken care of by my teachers because they would get me to do their domestic work like washing utensils and dusting and sweeping.

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Related read: How this school dropout rose from the footpaths to helm Rs 60-cr businesses

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I started working for an old man who had a severe skin ailment. I would tend to him, give him a bath, and apply skin ointment all over his body. Since I belonged to the pujari clan, I also had to perform puja at a nearby temple. After that, I would go to school. I lived there for one whole year.
Soon after, my father admitted me to a boys’ ashram in Chickpet, where I remained for three years. The hostel would give us two meals a day, one at 8 am and the other at 8 pm and nothing in between. I remember I was always hungry. I could not focus on my studies at all and my mind was occupied with trying to find how I could lay my hands on some food.

A young Renuka.

It was mandatory in this ashram to learn Sanskrit and the Vedas. I quickly picked this up because I realised that if I could accompany the seniors in some naming ceremony, weddings, or pujas I could eat at those events. But it was not very easy to get hold of these opportunities. I had to placate my seniors by offering to do their personal chores like washing their clothes.
As a result, I failed in Class X, passing only in Sanskrit. I then had to return home as my father passed away and the responsibility of my mother fell on me. My older brother was married and not keen on taking care of her or my sister and me.

In poverty, there is no unity. Lack of money can make people selfish and mean. If people lived happily together in the midst of poverty then they are gods.

I soon started working in a factory in Audgodi. I was there for a year. This was followed by a stint in a plastic manufacturing company and then an ice-making factory. I then found a job as a sweeper in an AdLabs branch. My mind is sharp. I soon got a hang of printing and helping out with the work. I was there for three years and had to quit because I was getting drawn into nefarious activities by some employees, who expected me to join them as well. I am glad I quit because I heard later that they were found out and sacked.

Road to nowhere

I joined Shyam Sunder Trading Company where I started working as a helper. The company was into making and trading in bags and suitcases. I had to load a handcart with suitcases. Another helper and I took turns pushing and pulling it through the city roads and transported them from the factory to the shop. Soon, I was promoted to a sales position.
After working there for a few months, I thought ‘why not start my own business?’ Since I was familiar with this business, I decided to make covers for suitcases and vanity bags. I would take my bicycle and go around the city shouting for customers who wanted covers stitched for their suitcases and bags. It did not work out well for me and I lost some 30,000 rupees.
I was back to square one. My brother, who was a security guard, found me a job as one.

The reason I kept moving and starting all over again is because I wanted to achieve something. I did not have any educational background. I was not even a high-school pass. I had no money and no family connection. I did not have any mentors, no one to guide me. But I was always in search of opportunities.

I was around 18 when I got into bad company — drinking and gambling. Thankfully, the older boys I used to hang out with moved out and I escaped a life that would not have taken me anywhere.

Renuka’s early driving days.

When I turned 20, I told my mother I wanted to get married. I thought that marriage would make me more responsible and focussed. I was earning Rs 600 as a security guard, so to make a few extra bucks I started taking on odd jobs like that of mali, or climbing coconut trees. I remember that I charged Rs 15 per tree and I would climb 20 trees per day.

A bend in the road

Not satisfied with what I was doing, I decided to become a driver, though I did not know how to drive. I did not have any money to learn driving and to get a driver’s licence. So I borrowed some money from my brother-in-law and pawned my wedding ring.
All went well and I got my driving licence. But the first day of my driving job was a big nightmare. I was meant to reverse the car and park it, instead, I banged it into the gate. That job lasted only a few hours. I was back to being a security guard.
It was very depressing. I would go to the temple and bang my head on the steps lamenting my destiny and how God was being so unkind to me. I wanted to drive and yet here I was going back to doing what I thought I had come out of.
Since I was always looking out for an opportunity, I met a taxi operator who decided to give me a break. He told me not to worry if I banged the car. ‘Just run away from there,’ he told me. I was so grateful that I told him he needn’t pay me till I can prove myself. I’ll manage with the driver ‘batha’ (per day charges on an outstation trip), I told him.

I remember carrying large stones in the car. Whenever I had to halt at an incline, I would pull the handbrakes and quickly place the stones next to the rear wheels to prevent the car from rolling back. Imagine how many stones I must have left behind me in a trail (laughs).

I was determined not to go back to being a security guard this time. In the nights, I would practice reversing the car, parking it, and managing inclines on the road without the stones. Slowly, my confidence grew.
My first outstation trip was to Gokarna. I learnt that if you drive slow and steady then everything works out well. So that’s what I did. I was so nervous that I did not dare press on the accelerator too hard. Imagine my surprise when I got this feedback from the guests saying that I was a very good driver (laughs).

Renuka with a group of tourist.

One more thing I learnt was that if you take care of your customers, then you’ve won the battle. I got very good reviews from my customers and because of this, I was always in demand.
I worked at a transport company for four years. Besides ferrying passengers, the company also provided vehicles to hospitals like Nimhans to transport dead bodies back to their homes for the last rites.

I have transported approximately 300 dead bodies across India. And many times, I have done so alone because there was no one from the deceased family to accompany the body.

And look at the irony, immediately after I came back from one of these trips there would be a group waiting to go on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala. I would sprinkle some holy water on the vehicle and get on with the next journey.

This also taught me the impermanence of life. That nothing is enduring. That life and death are nothing but two ends of a long journey.

You know the most important learning for me in my journey has been that to earn money you must have a vision. And to make that happen, you must make the best of opportunities that come your way. You must do whatever you are doing with total dedication and keep a good track record. One day, fortune will surely smile upon you.

Two-way street

My wife used to work in the garment industry. First, she was a helper and then she went on to become a tailor. Together, we would earn Rs 900.
I was soon upgraded to another travel company. Here I got an opportunity to drive foreign tourists. I would get good tips in dollars. Over the four years that I worked there I had a neat sum saved up from these tips. I got my wife to withdraw her PF money, and together with the amount I had saved I started a company called City Safari with some other people.
Once the company started doing well, I was made the manager. When I was only a driver, I would often think that one day instead of submitting a trip sheet I should be the one collecting it. And that dream came true with my new post as manager (smiles).

Renuka with his wife and the first car he bought.

Around this time, I bought my first car. It was an Indica. I had to take a loan from the bank. My older brother refused to be a guarantor, and I had to seek someone else’s help. In another year-and-a-half, I bought one more car. With these cars, I went to work for two years with Spot City Taxi.
As you can gather, I wanted to build my own travel/transport company. A company called Indian City Taxi was on a distress sale. I did not have any knowledge of merger and acquisition, just paisa de do, company le lo. I bought that company in 2006 with Rs 6.5 lakh. I had to sell all the cars that I had by then to produce this money. The company had 35 cabs attached to it and they would make Rs 1000 commission per vehicle, so in a month Rs 35,000 was assured.

I took a lot of risks, which thankfully paid off.

I had earlier registered the name ‘Pravasi Cabs’ when I had three cars of my own. So I now called my new company that. I was an entrepreneur now. The name came to me from the foreign tourists and expatriates I drove around. Pravasi is the Sanskrit word for expatriates.

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Related read: Ramesh Babu, the barber who owns a Rolls Royce

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However, it was not all that easy. There were a lot of complications. Anyway, to cut a long story short I soon got my first client – Amazon India. When they were setting up their Chennai office, they also helped me expand my business there.
Now the thing with corporates is they pay after three months, and I did not get my payments even after six months. So I took loans, and through the years have ended up paying lakhs as interest. But mind you, the money was not for me. I would give my wife Rs 20,000 every month to run the house. The rest was all for the company. I poured my days and nights with hard work. Slowly, revenue started coming in.
I thought of expanding my business and getting more clients. What if Amazon withdrew? I would end up on the streets. Hence, I slowly got more clients like Walmart, Akamai, General Motors, and others. I did not have a sales team, no marketing team, nothing.

I never lost an opportunity even if my cut was three percent, I did not care. I just wanted to get into operations. I had to increase my turnover, only then would I get funding from the market or banks. But if I concentrated only on profits, my turnover would decrease.

At this time, we were in on-call service, employee transport service (ETS), and train/bus ticketing (which I left after a year). I owe a lot to Amazon for supporting my growth.
I do not have any barrier to starting operations. I just look for three things: the attitude of the local drivers, their behaviour towards customers, and vehicle availability.

Are we nearly there, yet?

I learnt English by conversing with tourists. When the car would be parked while the tourists did the sightseeing I would wait in the car either trying to read from an English newspaper or write passages from it. I did not waste time gossiping with other drivers or smoking. I would either read or catch up on my sleep.

As my business grew, I felt the need to attend networking sessions, workshops and talks on marketing, customer retention or economics of running a business. A lot of my personal growth happened this way. The other advantage I had was that I am very tech-savvy; I can work any gadget.

Three years ago, I started providing buses to schools. Initially, the understanding was that we had to manage with the transport fee that the school charged. The first year, I lost Rs 10 lakh. I made an agreement with the school that I would give them 35 percent for the next 10 years. So I would invest in the buses. This is the first year that I am going to break-even. I started this because I could not rely on only ETS.

And, surely, when Ola and Uber came along, it impacted the taxi industry greatly.

But I escaped because I had around 700 cabs attached to me. I lost about 200 to them. But I was still left with 500. My idea was if I had more than 500 vehicles then no one can touch me. But if I had 100, 200 cars, then certainly I would have had reason to panic. In fact, many taxi operators had to shut shop when Ola and Uber speed chased them.

I believe that because I dreamt big, I managed to escape. If I had a small cab agency and was satisfied with earning Rs 40,000 a month, my business would certainly have been punctured.

I realised the best solution was to have a new scheme for my drivers, which was an owner-cum-driver scheme. The deal was that for an advance of Rs 50,000, I would buy them a new car. He had to work for 36 months, and after that, the car would be transferred to his name. Whatever he earns, he keeps, we just deduct the EMI for the vehicle. We now have 300 vehicles like that, and I have the liability of all those vehicles on my head.

An all-women group picked Renuka to drive them because of the trust they had in him.

Besides this, we also provide training to the drivers regarding behaviour and how to manage their finances.

You know, my growth has been only this much because I wasn’t educated enough. I do not know the planning and strategies like the IIT and IIM guys.

I am also a director in three startups. Along with six other directors, I sit on the board of loaddial.com. It is an aggregator of goods vehicles. I am also a director in a company that will provide affordable housing to people like drivers and garment workers. I have a few other concepts like having a Foodpanda like app for smaller cities and towns.

In three years, once I cross Rs 100 crore I will go for an IPO.

As a social responsibility, I want to encourage women drivers. I am ready to even waive the Rs 50,000 advance if women come forward saying they want to become owner-cum-drivers. We have also created an all-women call centre for Pravasi in Karwar.
I believe in the power of the mind. What we think, we become. How many times will you say ‘I do not have any experience so how will I do this?’ Initially, there will be more criticism and less goodwill. But slowly the criticism will fade away.
Whatever God has given me, I have shared with everyone. And I firmly believe that because of this I have managed to get myself educated and get rich. I took my chances and during all those times when I picked up an opportunity even though it was not financially viable, I firmly believed that one day God would give me back double. Otherwise how else can a security guard today drive a Rs 23-lakh car?

 

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With half a million registered users, Hitwicket lets you ‘own’ a T20 cricket team and call the shots 

By Himansu

In the run-up to any sporting event between multiple parties, there is a ‘game before the game’ that plays out internally, where coaches and higher management strategise and galvanise players into the best course of action.

In India, where cricket is a religion, most viewers watching a live game have strong opinions and arguments on how a team could do better and what they would have done instead if they were in charge. Hitwicket, a Hyderabad startup, has tapped into this fervent devotion by coming up with an online, strategy-based cricket simulation game. The game caters to the primal need of all the armchair thinkers and future general managers who yearn to be a part of the game and, better still, call the shots.

The Hitwicket team

Warming up

Hitwicket was founded by college buddies Kashyap Reddy and Rishav Rastogi. Kashyap, the CEO and an avid Football Manager games player, was always intrigued by their popularity and potential. So along with Rishav, he conceptualised the idea for a strategy-based cricket game way back in 2009. However, the product’s scope was just too large for them to handle at that stage, so they took up web services projects for clients to raise capital to fund their idea.
In 2011, they hired two more developers, Rajat Singhal (CTO) and Saurabh Maheshwari from VIT, to work with them on Hitwicket. The following May, they finally launched Hitwicket in private beta and six months later, at the end of 2013, opened it to public users.

In Hitwicket, users take managerial control of a fictitious T20 cricket team and then make ‘real world’ decisions similar to managers of IPL teams such as negotiating deals with players, selecting the players for a match, finance management and so on, which directly impact the game’s outcome.
Considering cricket is a mind game too, users must make decisions based on economics, probabilities and statistics to compete with and beat other users in the league. Keerti Singh, who heads operations at Hitwicket, explains,

You control a team of players, each of whom have varying levels of batting, bowling and fielding skills. Hitwicket’s proprietary Match Engine algorithm simulates the entire match based on the player’s skills and the match lineups set by you.

Cool innings

By May 2014, Hitwicket had 34,000 active users and they held regular offline meet-ups in different cities in India as also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates to connect their community and get feedback from them. After bootstrapping and growing organically since inception, Octathorpe Web-Consultants Pvt. Ltd., Hitwicket’s parent company, raised $250,000 from The Chennai Angels (TCA) to help fuel further growth.
Hitwicket has now grown to a 14-member team, six of whom are developers while the others look after marketing, design, finance and operations. The game works on a freemium model and monetises through purchasable game currency and premium content like statistics, team logos and in game currency and so on.

Sector overview

Once considered a juvenile pastime, video games have evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry over the past four decades. With the rise of multiplayer games for PCs, consoles like XBox and PlayStations and games specifically designed on smartphones, they now have a dedicated following among the adult demographic too.

Games can range from simple visual scenarios to complex strategic environments and hence appeal to a wide spectrum of users. ‘Managerial games’ like FIFA’s Football Manager have achieved mainstream popularity globally because of their inherent appeal at both primeval and intellectual level. There are even reports that premier league clubs utilise Football Manager to help identify and recruit new signings. It is still early days for Hitwicket but it will be interesting to see how the cricket fraternity adopts it along with other fantasy leagues, which have also gained popularity.
Favourable pitch Keerti points out that Hitwicket is seeing good organic growth and its current average user time per session is 21 minutes. Unsurprisingly, fans from cricket-playing nations such as India, Bangladesh, United Kingdom and also some from NRIs based in the United States form the bulk of its user base.
Going forward, the Hitwickets team aims to enter other promising markets like Australia, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and South Africa. Out of its 5,00,000 user base, Keerti estimates that 80 percent is now active on the mobile app. The team believes that unlike other niche games that risk losing user interest quickly, a game based on sports will remain popular as long as the sport itself is popular. And with a billion fans in India alone, the game will be around for a long, long time. As for long-term plans, Keerti says,

Once we establish ourselves as the Premier Cricket Game, we will use our platform and proprietary algorithms to build similar games for other sports like hockey, tennis and Formula One.

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Indians, passion and the startup revolution: what a French student learnt while interning at a Bengaluru 

By Himansu 

 

One of the first things I understood during my internship at an Indian startup was that knowledge grows when it is shared and not hoarded. Hence, here I am sharing my journey with you.
During my first year of engineering at Telecom Lille, France, I had the opportunity, to spend three months in India, interning at Synup.

Synup was founded two years ago and now employs almost thirty people. The company offers a tool to manage local marketing. It’s a fast-growing company that went cashflow–positive a few weeks ago.
This was my first real work experience and I was really happy to do it in such a small structure and, moreover, in a new country and a bustling city like Bengaluru. I was curious to learn and eager to share.
Initially, I was concerned about how I could make my mark here, and not be just a typical intern who does work rejected by other people. But after working with the team for a few days, I got clarity about how my journey would be.

A totally flat company

When I first came in, I only knew the two founders of the company — Ashwin, the CEO, and Mohan, the CTO. Apart from them, I couldn’t figure out the company’s hierarchy; even the distinctions between the teams were difficult to find. I could just see a bunch of people sharing a workspace to make one idea reach maturity.
The best part about this company was that even I, an intern, who had just joined a few weeks ago, was able to share his idea without any fear of being judged or classified. After a few days I already had the feeling of being a part of the company in the same way the developers that worked there for a year might feel.
In the first week, I was working at one corner, when Ashwin brought the entire team in for a meeting. As I was just the intern I continued working, but he didn’t start before having my attention.
On that day, he shared that the company was in debt and that he wouldn’t give himself a salary before the company got cashflow positive — he even stopped shaving during this period to give a physical reminder. The entire team knew that it would take a lot of sacrifices, hardwork and cost-cutting to go positive. That was the day I really felt like I was an integral part of the team.
Everyone was really concerned about this announcement and I really felt an engagement from the entire team. We went positive a month later.

Transparency is the key

There is no distinction between different parts of the company. We work together; we are a team, we share everything.
Everyone here is aware of the health of the company, the product and the different projects everyone is working on. The sales of each day are on a whiteboard in the middle of the office and shared with the team. Everyone feels concerned about how the company is doing.

Always bringing new ideas

After a few weeks, I had plenty of time to fit in and get a better sense of working for an Indian startup.
There’s this urge to always bring something new to the company.
My idea of the startup spirit can be summed up in one example. One morning while I was doing some work, Akash, our best developer, said to another developer, “Let’s build something today.” It doesn’t mean that this guy is relaxing every day but that that day he had a bit more time to try something new.
And that’s the whole point of living in a country of opportunities like India; “let’s try, if it does not work, we will try something else”. Always finding new ideas, and trying them before asking questions.
This, I learnt, is an intrinsic part of Indian culture. . This possibility to try new things, to fail without being judged, and give wings to anyone who comes up with new ideas. India is really the country of possibilities. Creating a startup or an app has become so easy that everyone is trying his luck. We can see this at the number of service apps that are available here. You need a cab? You have an app. A cook? You have an app. Someone to get your clothes to the laundry? You have an app for that as well! I almost never went out for lunch because of the numerous food delivery apps available here. And if most of those startups don’t survive after a few years, it is not because people didn’t try.

India at work

The experience was also chock full of surprises. People spent so much of their time in the office, coming in at 10 in the morning and sometimes leaving at midnight. Sometimes, even sleeping in the office.
Further, it made me question the competitive spirit in Europe. We are 700 million people working an average of 40-hour week, while in India 1.3 billion people spend 50 to 60 hours a week working. And people are doing their best not just to build their company, but to build a global business in India. They don’t work only for money; they work because they have this feeling of building something great. My whole idea of what working is has totally changed because of this internship.
But this gap in people’s minds came along with the Indian culture, living in a country where things still have to be done for the country; where you can help your people by trying to figure out a solution to difficulties.

Figure it out

I’ve been told this by coworkers almost every day — “figure it out”; learn, work, but do it yourself.
And if you are confronted by a difficulty, don’t try to avoid it. Fail if you have to, but try again.
Failing means learning, and learning is a major part of the Indian startup spirit .
One of the first things my mentor at the startup asked of me was to not waste time if he did not give me work. I was learning HTML/CSS at that time. He pushed me to create my own website, to document myself on my free time, so I could contribute more to the company. I thank him for this.
Moreover, everything possible was done to keep people in the office happy and motivated. During my first week, one person arranged everything I needed: a place to stay, a new SIM card etc. Everything is done to keep employees focused.
I’ve been doing a lot of things here at my internship, but I didn’t come to learn new skills. When I told my school that I wanted to do an internship in an Indian startup with some marketing expertise, they told me that the best thing I could do was learn to make a poster. Instead, I met passionate people loving their work and watched them grow. I came to learn from them and learn I did, more than I ever envisioned.
I will have a new internship come September and I think this experience will be extremely valuable. I came with a certain idea of what a startup is, of what working really means and of the engagement you can have with your company, and I leave with a completely different one.

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Why Myntra bows to desktop 

By himansu

A year ago, a few days before converting itself into a mobile-only app platform, Myntra sent an email to consumers and said, “We believe fashion is a very personal experience. The best fashion experience, therefore, is a truly personalised and engaging one that is only possible through the device that is closest to you (mobile phone).”

Fast forward to May 2016, Myntra has stated that  it is going to reinstate its desktop version from June 1.
In a statement, Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan said,

The premises of going on an App only strategy were based on mobiles being personal devices that enable a tailored experience unlike desktops… Despite the many clear positives, we’ve decided to revisit our decision. The biggest reason is that the feedback from consumers, especially women. According to our data, women customers, who are a key area of focus for us, in particular, want to have the option of shopping across channels. In addition, as we enter the next phase of our rapid growth, we’re launching home furnishing and jewelry [sic] where viewing intricate patterns lead to better purchase decisions.

The early move was based on the traffic Myntra received via its mobile app. Last year, when it shut down its desktop version, it was generating more than 90% of traffic and 70% of orders from its mobile app. With 235 million people accessing the Internet only via mobile, a large part of online commerce in India is surely ‘app-commerce’. Considering a smartphone is the most personal of all devices and is with a user almost all day, apps help e-commerce players understand consumers better and target them with relevant products based on their browsing history.
Yet, Wishy Arora, VP (Products) at mobile deals marketplace Little, proposes mobile-only, not app-only, approach for e-commerce. “Data connectivity is poor in India. So it is not always feasible to install the app. They need to be able to buy without a 20MB app. Even if only 20% of customers are coming through mobile website and desktop, don’t close that door,” he said.
Kashyap Deorah, entrepreneur and author, said Myntra’s app move was an experiment and a bold move by the firm then. He, however, added that it’s premature to think for the mobile app-only world as consumers haven’t made a complete shift from desktop to mobile only. They are simultaneously
available on both platforms.

Prasad Kompalli, Mukesh Bansal, Sachin Bansal, Shamik Sharma (L-to-R)

Also Read: Polemics and Panegyrics – why Myntra’s move to app-only may have nothing to do with mobile“I believe it was not a wise decision for Myntra to shut down its desktop version. Even if it was receiving only 10 percent of traffic from desktop, it was making 30 percent of its sales via the desktop website. Besides, it also took away choice from consumers,” said Gaurav Dahane, Co-founder and CEO, Buyhatke, a price comparison platform. He added that smartphones have the upper hand in various areas, but are yet to make the desktop redundant when it comes to shopping experience and in other segments as well.
This is a view echoed by Angshuman Bhattacharya, Managing Director at advisory firm Alvarez and Marsel.  According to Angshuman as online shopping habits grow, it is extremely important to channelise a larger pool of customers through multiple interfaces. While app-only approach helps better conversion, he added that it excludes a section of shoppers who use computers. “This is all the more pronounced in apparel and fashion as smart phone devices may not have the same visual and functional experience as a computer.”
During October last year, Flipkart went app-only for its mega sale Big Billion Day but reversed the decision for its Republic Day sale in January this year.
“Pushing people to use just one channel was not a right decision by the company. Everywhere around the world, most of the e-commerce websites run on both the channels. User behaviour, broadly on e-commerce category, is the combination of various access strategies,” said Dheeraj Jain, investor and Partner at Redcliffe Capital.
He added that there’s a lot of competition from other e-commerce companies as well, which are running on mobile and desktop platforms and getting traffic from both the channels.
It was only last year when enthusiasm around ‘mobile-only’ grew. The exuberance was based on the increasing number of mobile internet users in India. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), mobile internet users in India grew from 173 million in December 2014 to 213 million by the end of June 2014, and that number is expected to go up to 314 million by 2017.
Experts say traffic and installation don’t give the real numbers and are useless for the company. What matters is how many people actually transact and buy repeatedly.

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A taste of what it is like to ‘Start Off as CEO’: Five youngsters tell their story 

BY HIMANSU

 
Lenovo’s ‘Start Off as CEO’ contest helps aspiring entrepreneurs take the first step on their entrepreneurial journey

(L to R) Vishal Patel, Adarsh Srivastava , Abhishek Bagde, Sagar Ravindra Thoke, Shubham Upadhyay

When Shubham Upadhyay, an Arts student at the Ewing Christian College in Allahabad, read about a 10-year-old boy who designed an app and became an entrepreneur, he wondered ‘Why can’t I?’ And a few days later, he came across a pamphlet at his college asking youngsters to share a business plan for the Lenovo ‘Start Off as CEO’ contest.
Shubham is one of five bright youngsters from India’s small towns, not one of whom would have dreamt that 2016 would be the year their dreams of becoming a CEO would take concrete shape. At an age when most youngsters think about asking their parents for more pocket money or coax their parents to buy them the newest iPhone, these youngsters bubbling with entrepreneurial spirit want to prove their mettle.
The ‘Lenovo Start Off as CEO contest’ not only gave these youngsters from India’s non-metros a platform to showcase their next big idea, it provided the much-needed mentorship and technology to take their ideas forward.
Leading the Marketing function of Lenovo India across all its segments is Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director-Marketing, Lenovo India. Talking about the intent of the campaign and how it has a direct connect with Lenovo’s philosophy in India, he says, “The Lenovo Start Off as CEO contest was designed to give an impetus to youth who are passionate and uninhibited about what they do.  We believe IT enablement can open up a window of opportunities especially for the youth in smaller towns. Echoing this thought, we wanted to help them transform their aspirations into businesses by giving them a platform like the ‘Start Off as CEO’ contest. Additionally, through the contest, we are encouraging awareness and adoption of technology to create a more digitally enabled India.”.
The contest held in December 2015 and early January 2016 saw participation from thousands of youngsters from places like Kolhapur, Nashik, Pune, Nagpur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, and Jaipur.
Collaborating with the Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Mumbai, Lenovo provided the participants an opportunity to participate in a day-long workshop and also present their business ideas at the National Entrepreneurship Challenge at IIT Mumbai. Choudhuri added, “Lenovo will provide these aspiring entrepreneurs access to training and mentoring to make their ideas a viable business model.”
Discovering the entrepreneurial spirit
The excitement among the winners is palpable.  Shubham whose idea to develop an application that helps students develop their soft skills is among the Top 5 says, “Winning the Lenovo contest was ground-breaking.  I got the opportunity to move out of my comfort zone and hone my skills. The day-long workshop boosted my self-confidence too.”
Adarsh Srivastava, who attends the same college as Shubham, is also among the five winners. His idea was to connect people with similar skill sets.  Talking about the practical usage of his app he says, “For instance, if we connect people from the cottage industry, they can collaborate to enhance their products or skills and even get their products online.” For Adarsh too, this was his first foray into the entrepreneurial space.
A platform to live a cherished dream
Much like Shubham and Adarsh, Abhishek Bagde, a student at the Priyadarshini Institute of Engineering and Technology in Nagpur, wanted to utilise his core strength – a strong understanding of computer science –to design what he calls a ‘blind pad’ – an add-on device that will help the visually challenged use laptops and mobile phones.   He is thrilled about winning the contest, and says, “It is for the first time I have been recognised at a such a prestigious platform. Now, I know I can achieve my dream.”
Taking care of another need in an increasingly cosmopolitan India is Sagar Ravindra Thoke. He had moved to Coimbatore to learn more about the coal industry and start his own venture. But during his stay, he couldn’t find a reasonably-priced meal that catered to his palate, and when he did savour the local cuisine, he fell sick. This incident was a turning point for Sagar. He says, “A lot of students and working professionals are based out of towns and cities where they don’t get their regional cuisine. At the same time, they cannot adapt to the local cuisine, which often affects their health.  I realised that a solution to this micro problem could transform into an opportunity. While it solves a critical issue, it also makes a good business proposition.”
A few months later, it was this idea he presented at the Lenovo contest – an app-based tiffin service that provides standardised meals catering to authentic regional cuisines at reasonable rates.  The contest gave him the push he needed to usher his dream forward.  This student from Late G. N. Sapkal College of Engineering, Nashik, Sagar says, “I got an opportunity to listen to some of India’s leading entrepreneurs live in action and network with some of the mind minds at IIT Bombay.”
Hundreds of miles away, it was a similar experience for Vishal Patel, a student of MIT School of Telecom Management in Pune. Born into a business family, he says, “It was a natural progression for me. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.” While keeping a close watch on some of the new developments, he observed that e-waste was becoming a huge problem, ending up in landfills and causing pollution. He also saw that players in the e-waste disposal and collection sector in India were largely unorganised.
So Vishal began preparing a business plan on starting an e-waste recycling plant and was looking for a platform to showcase his idea. At his college fest, he saw a stall hosted by Lenovo and came to know about the ‘Start Off as CEO contest.’ He applied, won and headed to Mumbai to be part of the day-long workshop, and subsequently presented his idea at the National Entrepreneurship Challenge. He says, “I learnt how to grab the audience’s attention and present my ideas convincingly. I also learnt to communicate concisely. All of which is important if I have to realise my dream of becoming an entrepreneur.” Post the contest, he has taken his dream one step closer to making it happen. He is in talks with relevant manufacturers and is also studying the Startup India initiative closely to see how to leverage the opportunity.
Nourishing the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, today
If there’s one message that resonates in the stories of these spirited youngsters, it is this – they are armed with the right attitude; all they need is a combination of a good platform and the technology to kick-start their entrepreneurial journey. Congratulating the winners, Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director Marketing, Lenovo India, said “We are happy that this contest has succeeded in reaching out to the youth in smaller cities and given them the impetus to pursue their interests. We look forward to seeing these promising entrepreneurs, as they achieve their dreams.”
This is part of a series featuring winners from the Start off as CEO contest organized by Lenovo in collaboration with the e-cell of IIT Bombay.

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