Experian Appoints Vaishali Kasture to Head its Businesses in India

Experian, the global information services company, today announced the appointment of Vaishali Kasture as Managing Director and Country Manager, Experian India with immediate effect. In her current role, Vaishali will be responsible for all management and operations in India and will help the organization implement its short and long-term plans. Based in Mumbai, Vaishali will report into Experian Asia Pacific.

Vaishali comes with a rich experience of 24 years in the banking, consulting and financial services industries, having most recently worked at Deloitte Consulting in India where she was the Partner for Banking and Financial Services. At Deloitte, she set up the Robotics Process Automation practice and Blockchain practice for India. Prior to this, she was the Managing Director for Goldman Sachs based in Bangalore where she led regional teams and carried global functional responsibilities. Vaishali has an MBA in Finance and is also a gold medallist from JBIMS, Mumbai.

In recognition of the outstanding growth and development in India over the recent past, Mohan Jayaraman has now been appointed to take on regional responsibilities in his new role as Regional Managing Director for Decision Analytics (DA), Business Information (BI) and Data, Experian Asia Pacific. He will facilitate greater collaboration across Experian's Product, Consulting and Analytics business.

Talking about this appointment Ben Elliott, Chief Executive Office, Experian Asia Pacific said, “We are pleased to welcome Vaishali to Experian. At Experian, we are focused on accelerating the execution and realisation of our Asia Pacific and global strategy, and these changes demonstrate the commitment we have made to creating significant development opportunities for our people, and show the ongoing focus on strengthening our capability. India is an exciting market that requires constant focus on the ability to accelerate.”

Vaishali Kasture, the new Country Manager of Experian India said, “With financial inclusion and digitisation seeing exponential growth in India, backed by the fintech revolution; this is an interesting time for the industry to scale new heights in data and analytics. I am looking forward to execute the growth strategy for Experian in India considering the vast opportunity in this market.”

Uber Launches Its First Integrated Marketing Campaign in India

Uber, the ridesharing app that is redefining urban mobility across the world, today announced the launch of its integrated marketing campaign in India. With the idea of Apnapan as its core theme, the campaign aims to build everyday brand relevance and reframe personal mobility. This also marks the launch of Uber’s first TVC in India.

Sanjay Gupta, Head of Marketing, Uber India, said, “At our scale, there are millions of amazing stories that we hear each week – stories of heart-warming experiences that take place between riders and driver-partners across the country. It’s these stories that keep people coming back to ride and drive with us. Over the last four months, we’ve spent hours listening to our riders and driver partners across the country to co-create our communication strategy, and build out the idea of Apnapan in the truest sense. We’re super excited to launch this campaign, as it’s our first step towards reframing the narrative around personal mobility and freedom for millions in India. So when you use Uber next, Isey Apni hi Gaadi Samjho.”

Reinforcing that Uber is everyday, for everyone, the campaign conceptualized by Taproot aims to build a deeper brand connect. Inspired by real rider and driver partner stories, the simple narrative highlights experiences that every Uber rider can relate to. With Apnapan being the umbrella theme, it brings to life the underlying emotional connect between Uber, its riders and driver partners by reinforcing that it’s a service one can rely on as if it were their own - true to the tagline Isey Apni Hi Gaadi Samjho.

Speaking about the campaign, Pallavi Chakravarti, Executive Creative Director, Taproot Dentsu said, "Being a regular Uber user, I can vouch for the fact that it’s changed my life. It’s rare to work on a campaign where the idea is true to the brand and the service, where you don’t have to create a story because the real thing IS the story. The Uber experience is as good as having your own car, and sometimes even better. And this experience is something we think everyone should enjoy. So we’ve attempted to capture the Uber way of life through a simple thought around Apnapan."

Uber recently partnered with Madison to execute the media strategy. A multi-platform campaign, Uber’s digital-first approach will see Facebook and Youtube as primary channels, television for broader air cover and radio to communicate with the commuting audience. Given the scale and geographic footprint that the business has achieved, the TVC and radio campaigns will be available in multiple languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.

Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, Madison added, "With the launch of this campaign, we expect more people to connect and use the convenience provided by Uber in the Indian context -  just like it it is being appreciated and used by people in various countries across the world "

The Digital Milkman Startup, Doodhwala, Secures Pre-series A Funding

The digital milkman startup, Doodhwala, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its pre-Series A round from investor Tom Varkey, a partner at Stonehill Capital, USA.

The app delivers over 70 varieties of milk while allowing users to shop ad hoc everything from meat, vegetables, and fruits to shelf-stable items. Since deliveries are between 4am to 7am shoppers receive fresh milk and groceries.

“Doodhwala is set to digitize the milk delivery system.  We are the first in Bengaluru to provide fresh farm milk directly to houses. We have achieved this using a hybrid delivery model of part time delivery boys and existing doodhwalas who have a milk delivery network,” said Ebrahim Akbari, Co- Founder, Doodhwala.

“The infrastructure of fresh milk delivery in India is haphazard despite high demand and a shortage of supply. This gap makes us essential to milk suppliers and creates dependency on our delivery network. Customer acquisition is also very easy and cheap. Customers love the ease of receiving their daily essentials along with milk, and the comfort of getting in touch with their doodhwala.”

Founded in 2015, Doodhwala is progressing steadily with over 1,00,000 monthly deliveries.  The startup has expanded operations to Pune while other cities are in its pipeline. The company will be operationally profitable by the end of 2017.

“Doodhwala has an exceptional approach to the daily needs market. Their unit economics are healthy, as they have an impressive delivery infrastructure with a 25 percent month-on-month growth rate,” said Investor, Tom Varkey.

“By lowering its delivery costs to Rs 3–5, Doodhwala is uniquely positioned in a sector where lots of E-commerce players are struggling. I am excited about our partnership and look forward to seeing this promising company expand”.

Doodhwala is soon looking to close its Series A round. The startup will use its current funding to upgrade its technology, further penetrate the market, and grow its team size.  

“Morning delivery is an efficient model as it’s becoming the answer for consumers to buy products they need daily. We have 80 percent customer retention, and we are expecting the figure to increase in the next few months,” said Aakash Agarwal, Co Founder, Doodhwala.

“Our subscription model is the magic formula for customer loyalty, predictable income, user information and low inventory. It, additionally, gives customers the assurance that they will have what they need before they need it.  

Think Time’ with Nandan Nilekani for Winning Startups of #BuildOnIndiaStack

#BuildOnIndiaStack, a recently launched venture-pitch competition, has announced ‘Think Time’, a mentorship session with technology evangelist, Nandan Nilekani. This one-on-one mentorship time will be offered to all winners in addition to prize money of Rs 8 lakhs in total, coaching and exclusive collaboration opportunities.

Organized by iSPIRT and Dalberg in collaboration with Bharat Innovations Fund, Omidyar Network and Unitus Seed Fund, #BuildOnIndiaStack is open to all innovations that leverage the India Stack (a set of open APIs released by the Government of India) to unlock new business models and/or reach previously underserved, new customer segments across diverse sectors, including financial services, education and healthcare amongst others.   

"India will go from a data-poor country to a data-rich one in three years. India has a unique digital infrastructure, a set of well developed public APIs, such as eSign, Unified Payments Interface, Bharat Interface for Money, the Goods and Services Tax Network and eKYC, developed as public goods. It also has a robust authentication infrastructure. India is the only country in the world that can empower every resident with her own data, thanks to the technology infrastructure for inversion of data available due to Aadhaar and India Stack. We should ensure this data wealth will translate into real wealth for users. The innovation ecosystem around the India Stack to do this and this venture pitch competition is the first step towards that", said Nandan Nilekani who is looking forward to interact with the winners in a mentorship session.   

Some core focus areas for the competition will also include digital lending and supporting activities such as, alternative credit scoring; sector specific digital services such as health insurance, education loans, skilling and certification, property registration agreements, patient-centric healthcare management; and SaaS platforms “as a service” that support the development of other India Stack based innovations such as Digi-locker or e-sign providers.

The startups that qualify will be in teams of minimum two to maximum four members, including the founder. They will also have to be early stage startups, that have received only seed or limited angel funding.  Further, they need to meet the three point criteria of being tech-enabled, leveraging India Stack platform and serving the underserved.

Shortlisted ventures will pitch to some of the leading investors and thinkers in the Indian start-up ecosystem, including the Bharat Innovations Fund, Omidyar Network and Unitus Seed Fund. The investor group will provide strategic business support to their investees. The network of investors will also provide mentoring through their specialists and experts. The ventures also stand to interact with select India Stack network of investors and operators, entrepreneurs and technologists, designers and engineers, academicians and policy makers, with the singular mission to solve some of India’s toughest problems.

Lenovo’s New K8 Note “Killer Note” has Dual Cameras, Stock Android and 10 Core Processor

Lenovo India has launched the latest edition of its bestselling K Note series, the K8 Note. Targeted at the young and spirited, who want more from their device at a pocket-friendly price, the K8 Note makes history by being the first device in Lenovo’s K Note series to run on stock Android and offer dual cameras. Designed with metal body available in two colors: Venom Black and Fine Gold, the K8 Note comes powered with a 10 core processor, backed by 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (and a dedicated memory card slot), Dolby(R) Atmos(R) sound, as well as a large 4000 mAh battery. It comes with Android 7.1.1 out of the box, with at least one OS upgrade.

“We know that millennials expect nothing but the latest from their phones,” said  Sudhin Mathur, Country Head, Lenovo Mobile Business Group, India. “Which is why the K8 Note comes packed with everything that our consumers would expect from a smartphone today - an eye-catching design, dual cameras, 10-core processor, great sound, and of course, the TheaterMax technology that is the hallmark of the Note series.  It is also the reason why we have brought pure Android to the Note series, ensuring that the user gets total control over the device and their experience.”

Manish Tiwari, Vice President – Category Management, Amazon India said, “Amazon.in has been an exclusive partner to Lenovo since 2015 – a partnership we continue to cherish. With the launch of Lenovo K8 Note, both Lenovo and Amazon.in aim to take this partnership to the next level by providing a best-in-class smartphone at a very competitive price point. We are determined to bring customers more innovation, superlative choices and a richer shopping experience on Amazon.in.”

The purity of stock Android

The Lenovo K8 Note runs on Android 7.1.1 without any bloatware. This makes it the first device in the legendary Killer Note series to run on pure or stock Android. It is smooth, secure and stable, giving consumers the best of Android experience with all of Google’s services including Google Assistant. And will receive at least one OS upgrade.

The magic of dual cameras..and a great selfie camera too

The most outstanding hardware feature of the K8 Note is its dual camera set-up, which comprises of a 13.0-megapixel primary and 5.0-megapixel secondary depth sensor for great quality pictures and enhanced depth of field. These two work in seamless combination allowing users to take photographs with amazing depth of field (up to virtual DSLR-equivalent F/1.2) and bokeh, making it one of the best cameras in its class. Samples of images taken by a select group of photographers using the new Killer Note can be seen at @KilerShots/ . And for those who love snapping themselves, there is a 13.0-megapixel selfie camera with a full light LED flash.

The power of ten cores

Powering the K8 Note is a 10-core processor that is designed for those seeking high-performance with no short cuts. A 64-bit processor, it comes with four power efficient cores clocked at up to 1.4 GHz, four powerful cores clocked at up to 1.85 GHz, and two high performance cores clocked at up to 2.3 GHz. Also on board is an ARM Mali T-880 MP4 graphics processing unit. It is perfected to eliminate lags. 

No shortage of memory or battery

The K8 Note comes with an option of 4GB or 3GB RAM along with 64GB or 32GB of storage. And to ensure that users are never short on space, the device comes with a dedicated microSD slot that supports up to 128 GB, so that you do not have to sacrifice a SIM card slot for storing your information. Battery life is not an issue either - there is a 4000 mAh battery under the hood with a 15W Turbo Charge. With this, consumers will not be short of battery juice or memory space on the K8 Note.

Big sight and big sound 

The K8 Note comes with a bright 13.97cm (5.5”) full HD display protected by Gorilla Glass and with sunlight visibility, it gets a whole new dimension with TheaterMax and Dolby Atmos. TheaterMax allows you to view all the content on your phone on a much larger virtual screen once you put on a VR headset and Dolby Atmos ensures that you get high quality sound from your device - whether it is the thump of a drum or the buzzing of a bee in a forest. The phone even has a dedicated music key to play/pause music and switch tracks.

..And no fear from water 

A splash of water will not kill the Killer Note. It comes with an advanced water repellent coating that protects it from spills, splashed or getting caught in the rain!

Pricing and availability

The Lenovo K8 Note will be available starting Rs 12,999 for 3GB+32 GB variant and Rs 13999 for 4GB+64 GB variant. Sale opens August, 18 at 12 noon, exclusively on amazon.in. Visit amazon.in to get sale notifications.

Vikram Hospital Bengaluru Donates Wheel chairs to Multiple Sclerosis Society of India

Vikram Hospital, Bengaluru, the trusted multi-specialty healthcare facility organized a workshop on multiple sclerosis (MS) in the city today along with free consultation for MS patients. On this occasion, Vikram Hospital, Bengaluru donated specialized wheel chairs to Multiple Sclerosis Society of India (MSSI) for MS patients. The program was aimed at sharing recent advances in the understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS) and its therapy, which would ultimately benefit families and patients affected with this chronic disorder.  There were additional lectures on mechanism of MS disease, Memory issues in MS followed by group yoga activity, relaxation and physiotherapy.  The workshop was attended by over 75 patients and their family members. 

Following this, free consultation with Neurologists, Physiotherapist , Nutritionist & Ps

ychologist was made available for all MS patients.

Dr Rajesh B Iyer, Consultant Neurologist and Epileptologist, Vikram Hospital, Bengaluru said, “Being a prolonged disease that affects individual at their prime, the socio- economic burden of MS is vast in the country. We have seen rise of MS cases in Bengaluru in the last one year. During our regular screening, we come across a minimum of 20 MS patients per 1000 neurology cases in Vikram Hospital. On an average, there are about 1000 MS patients in Bengaluru alone”. 

He further added that “our main objective is to spread awareness about MS in society, as early diagnosis can result in better prognosis. MS, if left untreated can lead to disabilities. Early treatment can prevent disability. Also we need to improve the quality of life of MS patients, who already have disabilities. ”

MS is a chronic central nervous system (CNS) disease, which affects the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Even in the absence of new symptoms, the disease is a continuously active. Treatment is available in the form of injectable and oral medication, but is not affordable by all as it is expensive. Symptoms of MS includes  Blurring of vision, double vision, tingling numbness of any part, imbalance of body while walking and as the disease progresses, there could be bladder dysfunction, cognitive changes and difficulty to walk.

Dr Somesh Mittal, CEO Vikram Hospital Bengaluru said, “Awareness about Multiple Sclerosis and early treatment  is the need of the hour in today’s age and time. Vikram Hospital has been supporting MS patients by arranging logistics support as well as running specific programs for MS patients within the hospital. We have customized our diagnostic packages for MS patients like the MRI - MS protocol etc. This coupled with the fact that we have neuro - radiologist who are able to identify changes in the disease. Staff nurses here have been trained to administer the MS medications appropriately. We provide free injection room services to MS patients.  

He further added “It has always been our constant endeavour to offer affordable healthcare and with our expertise in the field of Neurology, we would like to extend it to all.

Prasad K and Rani, of MSSI said, “We are glad that Vikram Hospital, Bengaluru has continued with its support for spreading awareness on Multiple Sclerosis. This is the third year of our association and we are thankful to them for donating specialised wheelchairs and for conducting the free camp for MS patients. Their commitment is a step forward in realising the dream of providing affordable healthcare and access to treatment for MS patients to reduce MS-led disabilities. We extend our deepest gratitude to the team at Vikram Hospital for their unhindered support to the cause.

India is Not Economically Rich But Emerge Data Rich Over Next 3 Years: Nandan Nilekani

India is not yet economically rich but will emerge data rich over the next three years, said Nandan Nilekani, chairman, EkStep, and former chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India.

He was addressing the sixth C K Prahalad Memorial Lecture organised by the

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) spoke on the ‘strategic implications’ and ‘the right strategy’ to be adopted by the country to use the data for the public good. “It is not a technology issue, but a policy issue. There are three main components — data colonisation, privacy and a ‘winner takes it all’ approach.”

The amount of data in the world today is equal to every person in the U.S. tweeting three tweets per minute for 26,976 years and every person in the world having more than 215 million high-resolution MRI scans a day, according to data collated by U.S.-based Waterford Solutions, e-mail and file management solutions company. 2.7 zettabytes of data exists in the digital universe today.

“A tsunami is going to hit us,” Nilekani said. “Most Indians will be digitally rich before they become economically rich.”

“There is a knowledge asymmetry when it comes to giving loans to the poor. Now with GSTN, Aadhaar and UPI, one can find out if a small businessman is worthy of being given a loan as his banks can digitally look at the performance of his business. The GSTN network will lay a large platform for businesses through its e-way bill and BharatBill payments. The Aadhaar will provide the base. India has a robust authentication structure in place, like PAN, which can safely authenticate a person. India is in a unique position.”

India is working on a paperless and cashless service delivery system that will enable the government, citizens and entrepreneurs to interact with each other through an open digital platform. The India Stack programme is the largest application programming interface that is being developed in order to enable 1.2 billion Indians to get access to goods and services digitally.

“The right thing to do is to enable the data to empower its user. It can be used for reskilling them. Also, the government can manage its economic data. For example, it can say whether the demand for cold rolled steel has gone up or down,” Nilekani said. “For digital democracy, government must unlock public data and bring in a new law to prevent misuse of data.”

Globally, more than 200 billion high definition movies, which would take a person 47 million years to watch, have been created and, according to estimates, the volume of business data worldwide, across all companies, doubles every 1.2 years, says Waterford Solutions. YouTube users upload 48 hours of new video every minute of the day. 571 new websites are created every minute of the day.

He also gave examples of companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google which have a reservoir of data and with use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are able to build new businesses much faster than others. This could threaten incumbents and make it difficult for other players to enter into a new segment due to lack of data.

Nilekani cited the example of Netflix, a company which until fours years ago was in the business of distributing content from others.