Ather Energy Sets Up 19 Charging Stations in B'lore; Ather EV Bikes Launch Likely in June

Ather Energy has launched their charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs), AtherGrid, which is open to all EVs. The company, known for their intelligent, electric scooter S340, has begun installations of the intelligent and connected charging stations across the city of Bangalore. 30 charging points will be set up by the end of May 2018. By the end of the year, 60 charging points will be available in Bangalore. With this, there will be a charging station within 4 km driving distance from any point in the city.  This is the largest charging infrastructure effort in an Indian city. The firm is also plans to roll out its Ather EV bikes in the city by June 2018.

Installed at malls, cafes, restaurants, tech parks, multiplexes and gyms, they have been selected to cater to both, four wheelers and two wheelers. For this, Ather has partnered with host locations, who have installed Points pro-bono at their premises to offer a convenient experience for all EV owners in the city. To improve EV ownership experience and increase adoption, AtherGrid and its accompanying app will be offered for free for the next 6 months to all electric vehicle owners. Using cloud connectivity, consumers can find the nearest Point available and navigate to the charging location using the app. Remotely monitoring charge status and integrated payment options offers EV owners a seamless charging experience.

Commenting on the launch, Tarun Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, Ather Energy said, “Electric vehicles cannot become a viable alternative without making charging infrastructure availability a greater priority. It is critical for us to make public charging convenient and accessible. This is an important step towards increased adoption and acceptance of electric vehicles and in the long run will have a positive effect on the cost of the vehicles themselves. The number of entrepreneurs and businesses that have come aboard to be a part of AtherGrid is also a testament to the future of electric vehicles. As we prepare ourselves for the launch of the Ather S340, Bangalore was a natural choice to be the home city for AtherGrid. Range anxiety and the inconvenience associated with charging will not be a deterrent to adoption, as the industry grows.”

Ather’s Points have been designed and manufactured in India, keeping in mind the needs of the domestic power grid. Safety features ensure that electricity is drawn only when connected to a vehicle and protects vehicles from overcharging with auto power cut off. Electric vehicles will be protected from undervoltage, overvoltage and overcurrent.  And with an IP55 rated body it is safe to use in any weather.

Uber Sets to Launch Auto Rickshaw Service in Gurugram Shortly

Autorickshaw has been a major mobility option for the urban commute (especially shorter route) in metros as well as tier I cities. Despite government regulated meter-based fare system, three wheel drivers often find leeway and dictate their own fare structures.

Solving the pain of exorbitant pricing, indigenous on-demand cab-hailing major Ola added autorickshaw in its native app. Besides cab, autorickshaw has been the most successful category for the SoftBank-backed company.

While Uber tried the segment in early 2015, a year later it halted autorickshaw aggregation citing it as an experimental move. Realising the importance of three-wheel in urban commute, the Dara Khosrowshahi-led company had made a re-debut in the segment in January with operations in Pune and Bengaluru.

Betting further on the segment, Uber is adding three wheel-hailing option to its app in Gurugram from this week. Entrackr has confirmed this with several autorickshaw drivers who are switching to Uber from Ola as the former is offering lucrative incentive structure in the Millenium city.

“Since Uber has aggressively been onboarding auto rickshaws for past one week, it would likely to add the three wheel-hailing service in Gurugram by Wednesday,” says one of the autorickshaw unions comprised of app-based drivers in Gurugram.

Like cabs, Uber AUTO will include all safety features available for its cab rides and will onboard pre-verified driver partners accredited by the authorities, confirm several drivers who joined Uber AUTO.

To poach existing fleet of auto-rickshaws on Ola, the San Francisco-based company is offering incentive up to Rs 5,500 on successful completion of 40 rides in a fortnight. Multiple drivers have confirmed the incentive structure to Entrackr.

“Preliminary drive to bring three wheel service on Uber app is also ongoing in Noida and Delhi. However, Uber would start it from Gurugram,” adds the aforementioned union.

Meanwhile, Ola has been operating Ola Auto for over three years. The company claims to have 1,20,000 auto rickshaws registered on its platform across 73 cities and had completed 2 million rides  in 2017.

While the number of rides happens through Ola Auto isn’t public, it seems to have picked up significantly. Users tend to prefer auto for a shorter distance over cab service.

While the Uber mobile app is yet to get integrated with the AUTO option in Gurugram, the re-entry of Uber in auto vertical ensures a good time for users and drivers as it’s likely to engage in discounting and incentive battles with local competition Ola. Nevertheless, subsidised autorickshaw rides are just beginning for commuters in Gurugram.

Chatterbox Launches Marketing Platform with 150,000+ Influencers – Chtrbox.com

Indian Influencer Marketing company, Chatterbox, has unveiled its latest technology-backed solution with Chtrbox.com. With advanced ML (machine learning), smart-data driven influencer-search, proprietary matching algorithms, gamified mission modules, real-time performance tracking & more, Chtrbox.com now offers complete end-to-end solutions that make Influencer Marketing more automated, intelligent & cost effective for brands & agencies.

Today, brands are shooting in the dark when it comes to knowing which influencers to tap. Influencer marketing is the fastest growing marketing approach being favoured by brands, but a majority of brand budgets for it are not spent efficiently. There is a rising class of new influencers, from which there is very little past performance-data. While the Chatterbox team helps brands craft their influencer strategy, the Chtrbox.com platform now offers brands over 150K mega to micro influencers with deep data to make the right selection, enables push-campaigns and missions to relevant influencers to get their word out & get the biggest bang for their buck.

Speaking on the launch, Pranay Swarup, Co-Founder & CEO @Chatterbox stated "While brands leverage the human intelligence & authentic chatter of social media influencers, Chtrbox.com leverages artificial intelligence at its very best to ensure brands find the right influencers first. With the rise of social media content consumption in India, Chtrbox.com's access to 150,000+ influencers with a cumulative followership of 3.5 billion is all set to further elevate the emerging industry." 

Akhil Mordia, CTO at Chatterbox, adds on “Chtrbox.com’s engine has analysed more than 24 million content pieces by top & emerging influencers, across categories & geographies. For each content piece, our proprietary technology allocates a unique score basis its context & performance, generating every influencer's Social Media Value. This helps identify the relevant influencers with the best RoI.”

Influencer marketing is nothing but Word of Mouth 2.0 in our digitally advanced & ever-so-connected world. Today it's not just a celebrity, but a social media star, your college mates, colleagues & family members that you listen to the most. Chtrbox.com helps brands & agencies construct & optimize this very piece, and let's data validate gut-calls.

Indian Government May Give Rs. 2 Lakhs Subsidy for Buying an Electric Car

The Indian government is making a renewed push for electric vehicle adoption. It has earmarked about Rs. 9,000 crores in the latest set of subsidies for electric vehicles. What this subsidy means is that electric car buyers will get a rebate of up to Rs. 2 lakh from the government, which wants more people to buy electric cars rather than the ones running on petrol or diesel. The Indian government also plans to support electric two-wheelers by offering a rebate of up to Rs. 30,000, on purchase, to buyers. However, these rebates do come with terms and conditions.

The government plans to give 50,000 electric car owners, the Rs. 2 lakh rebate but cars bought under this scheme cannot have a price of more than Rs. 15 lakhs. Similarly, the Rs. 30,000 rebate for high-speed electric two-wheelers is for 1.5 lakh owners, but the two wheelers need to be priced below Rs. 1.5 lakh, to be eligible for this scheme. For low-speed, electric two-wheelers, the government will offer a Rs. 20,000 rebate, but here again, the maximum price of the two-wheeler has been capped to the sub-Rs1 lakh mark.

This scheme will also be offered to three-wheelers, buses, trucks and light commercial vehicles. All in all, the Indian government hopes that such discount schemes/rebates on electric vehicles will entice buyers to opt for these vehicles. Moreover, the government is in the process of reducing GST on batteries for electric vehicles, which is likely to make electric vehicles sold in India cheaper than before. Such rebates are also likely to encourage car and two-wheeler makers to come up with more attractively priced electric vehicles.

For now, the electric car space in India has just two offerings, both from Mahindra Electric. The E20 4-door is one such offering while the other is the eVerito. Tata Motors is likely to introduce the electric variants of the Tiago and Tigor soon. Next year, Hyundai plans to bring in the Kona Electric SUV. Mahindra’s future plans include the electric variants of the KUV100, the XUV Aero and the S201 compact SUV. Maruti also has plans to enter this space in 2020, with a new electric car developed in collaboration with Toyota.

Pefect Shuruaat for Wonder Cement Limited: Bags 'Asia’s most Promising Brand' Award

Wonder Cement Limited, a leading cement company catering to markets across India, part of RK Marble, a leading name in the marble industry, was awarded the Asia’s Most Promising Brand at the recently help 5th edition of UK Asia Business Summit 2018. The award was received by Vivek Patni, Director, Wonder Cement, Rishabh Patni, Director,

Wonder Cement and Tarun Singh Chauhan, Management Advisor, Wonder Cement, at a grand ceremony held in London.

Vivek Patni, Director, Wonder Cement, said, “We are a young company with a motto to provide the best quality products. This commitment to always do better reflects in our growth that the company has experienced, in such a short span of time. It is our aim to continue serving our existing customers, and reach out to new ones across the country. Nothing would make us happier than to help be a Perfect Shuruaat for every home builder and owner.”

Tarun Singh Chauhan, Management Advisor, Wonder Cement, added “It is a huge honor for us to have been recognized with this award as well as tremendous motivation to continue the work we have been doing. We are glad that our hard work and dedication is rewarding us with such a huge demand from across the nation and I hope we sustain this to further benefit our customers. It has been a tremendous journey of building an exciting young brand backed by a great organization in such a short period in an evolved category with old & established players”

Asia Business Summit is one of the most prestigious and biggest multi-platform global projects on brands & leaders that celebrates the most promising brands from across 18 Asian Nations. Asia’s Most Promising Brands is the foremost brand research and recognition intellectual property in the world in terms of research process, mega events globally, number of research editions across the continent. The research for 2017 includes brands across South East Asia, GCC and Indian Sub-Continent. Asia’s Most Promising Brands is a research Intellectual Property of World Consulting & Research Corporation.  

Asia's Most Promising Brands has been awarded to more than 750 brands from 21 different Asian countries in the last four editions and is the biggest multi-platform global project on brands and leaders across print, portal and electronic formats. The awards are selected based on the most transparent selection process which involves research, jury and validation.  

NeoStencil.com Tech Brings Best and Affordable Online Classrooms for Civil Services and Competitive Exams to Students’

Ed-tech platform NeoStencil organised an IAS toppers seminar in Bangalore on 20th May. The seminar hosted their IAS students such as Suman Sourav Mohanty (All India Rank 9, 2016), Rishi Raj (AIR 27, 2017) an Akshat Kaushal (AIR 55, 2017) and a partner teacher Praveen Kishore, Director of Nice IAS. The seminar was attended by over 350 serious UPSC aspirants and parents. Attendees asked preparation related questions of all the speakers. 

Exam preparation in India has always been concentrated to a few cities. Top teachers in these cities have always been a valued commodity. With aspirants relocating to Kota for IIT/PMT, Delhi for IAS/IES and the like, as a norm.

Many have tried to address this in different ways. Quite a few have set up VSAT centres, franchise in other cities. Some existing institutes have gone online with their own content.  A few have created open online marketplaces while targeting to enable more than 10,000 teachers to come and teach.
Despite these being around, more than 90% serious aspirants still continue to relocate to the same cities, to study from the same teachers.

NeoStencil.com, an Ed-tech venture set up by IIT, AIIMS and IIM alumni, realized this pattern. And realized the core of the problem was never lack of quality teachers. The core was always accessibility to these quality teachers.

NeoStencil decided to approach the problem differently. The company decided to enable existing top teachers of the country to conduct their classes online through its Live-Learning platform.

To ensure that students saw value in this, and did not need to relocate any longer, NeoStencil conducts these classes Live. A student sitting in a remote corner of the country can attend a class by Hyderabad’s top teacher as and when the teacher is teaching in his classroom. So, the syllabus is up-to- date and current. Moreover, with live classes, student’s studying is in-sync with offline world and it is easier to manage the learning pace. If a student misses LIVE classes, he also gets the flexibility to attend the class later, 24x7 and any number of times. Study material, regular tests, toppers seminar are other features of this comprehensive one-stop platform of NeoStencil.

This allows students around the country to get access to teachers of their choice, without needing to relocate any longer. Students can now continue with their jobs, continue living with their families. They do not need to spend lakhs on rent and living expenses. We take pride in the fact that we have been able to create a level playing field among aspirants as more than 50% of our students are from Tier III, IV towns and beyond with parental income less than INR 2.5 Lakhs – who otherwise couldn’t have afforded to relocate to Delhi and aspire for their IAS officer dream.

Also, women in our country need to take into account additional factors – such as safety – before deciding to relocate. With a platform like NeoStencil getting established, women do not need to compromise on safety at all, and can access best education simply through their laptops.

Today NeoStencil has become one of the preferred online platforms for Civil Services exams aspirants as it grants access to top teachers and their classroom programmes across India, through its Live-Learning platform.  NeoStencil has tied-up only with top teachers of their field. Teachers who have vast experience, and have delivered stellar results throughout are on-boarded through well defined criteria. The Company has partnered with the most recognized and trusted teachers and coaching institutes such as Prof Majid Husain, Pavan Kumar IAS, Lukmaan IAS, Mitrapal, Alok Ranjan, Rajnish Raj, Praveen Kishore, Venkat Mohan among 40+ Institutes from across India.

A graduate of IITB and IIMC, Kush Beejal, the Co-Founder of NeoStencil, said “The cost incurred towards Exam preparation is not only the course fees, but also the dilemma of leaving jobs, and the relocation expenses candidates have to bear to move to coaching capitals. With technology evolution, internet penetration and affordable IT hardware at NeoStencil we have bridged the geographical challenges for student and teachers to facilitate comprehensive preparation of competitive exams and within affordable range. We aim to delink aspiration and affordability”.

“Many students have started using online platforms, such as NeoStencil, to connect with teachers and select their classroom of their choice. We are super excited and happy that almost 1 in every 2 successful candidates is a student of our partner institute. 102 of our online students made it to the 2017 final UPSC list including AIR-5, AIR-9 and so on. This is a testimonial to the acceptance of our platform among serious aspirants and the quality of education we enable through our platform," shares, Beejal.

As per the sources, the Edutech market is further pegged to have a potential to touch $1.96Bn by 2020 from current size of $247 Mn.

Bangalore City Accounts for 50 Percent of IE20 Startup Winners

The IT capital of India, Bengaluru, has accounted for 40% of the winners in the India Emerging (ie) 20 competition for startups organised by Mayor of London.

Out of the 326 startups that applied for the awards, 20 winners are selected. Bengaluru accounted for eight winning startups, followed by seven startups from Delhi.

The IE 20 programme was launched by the Mayor of London’s official promotional agency, London & Partners, in collaboration with BDO and Lalit Hotels, with the aim to identify some of India’s most ambitious companies that are considering international expansion. Among the prominent startups from the city that won the award, include famous tea company and a cafe chain with focus on the tea-based beverages - Chai Point.

The companies selected to join this year’s programme will receive help in setting up or expanding their business in London. The winners will also have the opportunity to benefit from discounted rates on a London office and tailored expert advice on marketing, access to finance.

Last December, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan visited India on a trade mission in which he announced a number of Indian investment deals for London, including 400 new tech jobs for the capital.

“London is a truly global business centre and presents lots of opportunities for Indian companies looking to expand their business overseas. I am delighted that my India Emerging 20 programme is helping some of India’s fastest growing companies with their international growth and London remains open to investment, talent and collaborations with India,” Khan said.

Further analysis of London & Partners investment data shows that 2017 was a record year for foreign direct investment from India into London.

“London & Partners launched their proprietary property - IE 20 with BDO as the nominating partner and has successfully completed 3 years of identifying high growth Indian companies,” Arbinder Chatwal, Partner and Head of India Advisory Services team at BDO said.