Category: interview

ActionAid India Addresses Global Loss and Damage to Environment…

Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid Association and Co-chair of the World Urban Campaign, UN-Habitat

In an exclusive interview with Shreyas Webmedia Solutions (SWS), Mr. Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid Association and Co-chair of the World Urban Campaign, UN-Habitat discussed issues associated with Climate change, measures to be taken to effectively tackle the global challenge of climate change and many more…

SWS: According to you, who is responsible for the current damage and loss to the environment and how can we address the same?

Sandeep Chachra: The IPCC Sixth Assessment Round, Working Group 1 report of 2021 clearly states that “human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land since pre-industrial times”. It is the development pathways pursued by the global north have led to current situation of climate change and unprecedented ecological impacts. If we see the data on historic emissions, it is clear that only a handful of industrialised nations have been responsible for half the emissions since 1850. In recent years, emerging economies like that of China, India, Brazil and Indonesia have been contributing a lot to the global carbon footprint. However, on a per-capita level, these nations do not feature on the list of the biggest emitters. Moreover, recent studies also show that only a 100 corporations, all dealing with fossil fuels, from across the globe are responsible for more than 70% of carbon emissions since 1988. It is thus clear that rich countries and corporations are largely responsible for climate change, and hence responsible for damages and loss to the environment.

SWS: How can we prevent further loss and damage to the environment in India?

Sandeep Chachra: Climate change impact is happening faster than many scientists anticipated, so it would be wrong to say that further loss and damages to the environment in India can be prevented very easily. Climate scientists have already warned of the irreversible impacts of the climate change given the steady increase of global temperatures above the pre-industrial levels. Even if all countries stay on track of their current commitments to limiting global warming as per the Paris Agreement, then also it is impossible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial levels. Therefore it is given that India and much of the world is going to face further loss and damages to the environment. What needs to be done is to restrict it and prepare for such adversities so as to ensure that the communities who have had no role to play in causing the crisis, do not inadvertently bear the cost of the crisis.

With their current and long history of emissions, developed countries are primarily responsible for the current climate crisis. Climate justice entails they bear a differential responsibility for dealing with the problem. Current global models of climate finance remain inadequate. Therefore, developed countries must honour past commitments and recognise, assess, compute and compensate for the loss and damages that the poor and marginalised continue to suffer in the developing world, including India.

SWS: Please share some insights on the recently released report on “The Long Shadow of Climate Crisis”.

Sandeep Chachra: “The Long Shadow of Climate Crisis” outlines how the impacts of climate disasters can cast a long shadow in low-income climate-vulnerable countries, for years, decades or even generations. The current devastating drought across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia is leaving communities at the mercy of the global food crisis, with fatal consequences. People losing their crops and livestock are unable to afford to buy food due to high prices triggered by the war in Ukraine. Price rises at local level in drought-affected areas of the Horn of Africa are far, far steeper than global averages, and cruelly affect those most desperate.

The report also highlights the issue on how climate disasters are making nations poorer and pushing them deeper into debt, emptying the public purse and cutting off access to education, healthcare and other public services which act as key lifelines out of hardship and poverty. It looks at how the long-term effects of climate disasters on the public purse disproportionately impact women and girls.

The report finally describes how developing countries facing climate disasters are being left to deal with the crisis on their own, even though they have rarely been the ones to contribute to the problem. The UNFCCCC currently only facilitates climate finance flows to address adaptation and mitigation. There is still no UN system to provide climate finance to those suffering climate-induced loss and damage, to be able to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of climate disasters. This lack of funds means that there is no systemic approach to intervene, respond, rebuild and recover

SWS: What measures can be taken to improve the condition of workers and farmers due to climate change?

Sandeep Chachra: Climate change is universal and it does not distinguish based on the socio-economic identities of human beings. However, the historical burden that these identities bring with them, paves way for the differential impact that different communities would face due to the changing climate. Therefore, in order to ensure that workers and farmers are not further impacted by the climate crisis and their conditions are improved, historical injustices must be addressed first and additional measures arising due to the climate crisis can come as necessary second.

First and foremost, the longstanding demand of ‘land to the tiller’ must be addressed if farmers’ conditions are to be improved. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s population. The average size of landholding is 1.08 hectares, according to the latest agricultural census (2015-16). Landless, small and marginal farmers constitute 93.7% of India’s total agriculture workforce. The economic survey of 2017-18 cautioned that climate change might be reducing annual agriculture income in the range of 15% to 18% on average and up to 20% to 25% for unirrigated areas. But land reforms are only the means and not the end to addressing climate related challenges that farmers face. Additional compensation must be provided to address issues related to water availability, changes in the intensity and frequencies of drought, effects on microbial population, soil organic matter reduction, yield reduction, depletion of soil fertility as driven by soil erosion, etc.

SWS: What are the highlights you are looking forward to at COP27 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt?

Sandeep Chachra: One of the biggest debate to look forward to at COP27 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt is the one on global climate financing pathways. Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries had agreed to provide $100bn per year in climate finance from 2020 onwards, so that developing countries can undertake climate “mitigation” activities to transition to greener pathways, as well as “adaptation” actions to strengthen resilience to the future impacts of climate change. This target has been criticized as insufficient. Nonetheless, developed countries failed to meet this target, and instead of providing finance in the form of grants the majority of finance provided is in fact in the form of loans which must be repaid. According to the OECD, 60% of bilateral climate finance and 88% of multilateral climate finance between 2013 and 2019 was in the form of loans. The lack of grant-based finance has been heavily criticised by developing countries and civil society. In addition to this funding gap, however, there is currently no international mechanism to provide real climate finance to help countries address climate-induced loss and damage, so that they can recover, rebuild or even relocate after they have suffered from the impacts of disasters or slow-onset events.

SWS: What measures can be taken to effectively tackle the global challenge of climate change?

Sandeep Chachra: The global challenge of climate change cannot be addressed without furthering the idea of climate justice. The costs of ecological distress and climate change are frontally and disproportionately borne by those lowest in class, caste, and gender hierarchies, and it is on these shoulders that the burden of climate action is also being passed on. Climate justice requires us to take an intersectional approach to the climate crisis. Poverty compounds the effects of historically rooted sources of social marginalization (age, gender, caste and class exclusion or cultural and religious othering), making marginalized communities more vulnerable to climate change impacts. Social justice, then, should not remain an add-on to climate action, but should be a central component of any climate adaptation design.

Climate action must prioritise locally-led people-centric mitigation and adaption solutions. The climate-change discourse has long been elitist, focused on energy transitions and macroeconomic views of carbon intensity. Instead, we must recognise vulnerable communities’ silent and unassessed contribution to climate action. These include indigenous communities, fisherfolk, pastoralists and many informal workers such as waste pickers. These communities continue to provide ecological services, help protect carbon sinks in the form of natural resources and provide waste management services. We need to help these communities deliver these services with dignity and rights protection.

TECH XR talks About How AR/VR technology is Democratizing Education Sector

Prashant Mishra – Founder & CEO – TechXR Innovations Private Limited

1.  Why is AR-VR considered to be more productive in education than conventional ways of teaching?

Initially we started with text based learning, it was not that effective. Then after the innovation of cameras and the software’s we started creating pictures and 3D content which again solved some of the problems. After some time, videos were introduced resulting in more interest in the learning process and easy to understand difficult concepts. So here we can see how we have evolved in search for better and easier conventional ways of learning and teaching. The next thing is Immersive learning, which can be achieved with the help of AR-VR technology resulting in the full immersion in the content leading to better understanding of the concepts.

2. How do you see the adoption new technologies for Education in India market?

India is a developing nation and with the new technologies, the adoption rate is not very high but eventually in the education sector, new technologies are getting adopted. Digitalisation plays an important role in adoption of the new technologies. But now with the upcoming
technologies like AR-VR, Metaverse and blockchain. Adoption is very slow due to lack of resources and unaffordable hardware. But if the resources are provided, India will surely adopt the technologies faster than others. That’s what we are trying to do at TechXR. With our patented hardware we have not only made the technology affordable but also accessible to the masses and with this in the coming 10 years India will be the leader in adoption of these technologies.

3. How can India become a global leader in AR-VR content / solutions?

India has always been dominating in the service based industry. We have a very talented pool of software engineers. Even in the big MNCs, Indians are at the highest level. But in AR-VR there is not such a pool of engineers and the only reason is the learning resources, hardware and lack of AR-VR companies. There are course and learning resources available in the global market but they are not that affordable that can be afforded by a normal engineering student. India can become a global leader in AR-VR content if the proper resources are available and provided to everyone at an affordable price with a good level of interaction. In the software industry, nobody can beat the talent we have and with the proper resources we can definitely become the global leader in this AR-VR industry.

4. What are the major challenges for AR-VR based classrooms?

Though AR-VR based classrooms can turn simple learning into a revived experience, the process of developing AR-VR classrooms is very tedious. First of all, each student shall require a VR headset to experience learning in the virtual realm. The cost of a simple interactive VR headset could go up-to 40,000 Rs which is not a pocket friendly option. Secondly, AR-VR classrooms require the entire educational content to be recreated and remodeled in 3D according to the Virtual realm, which is an intensive and time consuming process. Moreover, wearing heavy VR headsets for a long time is not a healthy option for young students. And the AR Glasses which can be more easy to use also come at a very high cost. Although the solutions are there but they should be affordable to bridge the digital divide.

5. What are key solutions being offered by TechXR?

With a multidimensional approach , helping the XR Ecosystem to expand. With patented affordable hardware and SDK , developers are learning and creating quality content in our AR/VR Course floated with iHUB IIT Roorkee. Our low code platform XR Blocks allows school students and non coders to kick start their journey as AR/VR Developer. Our device is seamlessly integrated with Smart-Classrooms and converts them to AR-VR powered classrooms, that too at the cost less than 2% of other solutions. By making XR development and experience affordable, we are reducing the entry barrier.

6. How this technologies may harm kids if exposed to an early stage?

Yes, according to AICTE and the Ministry of Education, vocational and skill development training should be introduced and everyone should learn about this technology. Universities should have an AR-VR Course in which they can learn how to create AR-VR Content.Schools to have vocational training, rather than just being a consumer we should focus on becoming the creator. If the appropriate resources are provided, students in India will definitely come out with extraordinary talent. There is always a limit for everything, it’s not only about AR-VR, if the kids are exposed to any technology at an early stage then the extensive use will obviously lead to harmful consequences. But the important thing is that students should know about this technology because this is going to be the future.

About TechXRi

TechXRi, a start-up floated by a team of IITians, is on a mission of democratizing access to emerging technologies like Augmented and Virtual reality. The company has devised a patented product SenseXR Controller, which works as a 3D mouse in the VR world.

Ask Meera Hopes to Resolve 5 Million Queries in the Next 3 Months: Deepankar Biswas

Phishing messages or social engineering has become common these days to trick people and make them part with financial information. Ask Meera, a citizen safety initiative by Clear Trust is a service provided free of cost to end consumers to help prevent phishing messages. The chat bot has so far help identify 100,000 phishing messages and aims to solve more than 5 million queries in the coming quarter. Deepankar Biswas, Co-Founder & CEO of ClearTrust said this in an exclusive interview with Business News This Week.

Excerpts of the interview:

Business News This Week (BNTW): What are phishing messages and what are the risks involved with such messages?

Deepankar Biswas: Phishing messages are messages intending to trick you so you can give them your personal and financial information. Phishing is a part of a technique called as Social Engineering.

These messages can steal your passwords, account numbers, and cvv code and essentially harvest it. The messages often tell you a story and are evolving to be incredibly genuine, to play with you.

The risks are multifold. You lose your credentials, money and as a business you lose data.

BNTW: How does your chatbot Ask Meera prevent phishing messages? What is the modus operandi?

Deepankar Biswas: AskMeera is a Citizen Safety Initiative by ClearTrust. It is a Whatsapp chatbot to find phishing messages. All you have to do is to save our Whatsapp number and interact with the chatbot by saying “Hi”. On the chatbot, you will get an option for verifying any message. Once you click on verify, you need to copy-paste any message and within few seconds you will get to know whether the message sent is fraud or clean.

BNTW: How many queries have you resolved till date?

Deepankar Biswas: We have scanned more than 100K messages. We are looking to scan more than 5 Million messages in the coming quarter. This will help us to make the system more smarter and improve the accuracy rate.

BNTW: As a start-up founder, what is your success mantra?

Deepankar Biswas: The bottom line for any startup would be – Don’t give up and keep innovating.

Given the fact that the digital ecosystem is evolving at an astronomical speed, it’s important for a startup to be razor-sharp focused and score high on customer success.

BNTW: How much investment have you put into Ask Meera? What is your business model?

Deepankar Biswas: We’ve invested ₹10 lakhs into version 1 of AskMeera. Since it’s a citizen safety initiative, the service provided by Ask Meera is free of cost for the B2C version. Having said that, we offer a Phishing Security solution for businesses and that is available on subscription pricing in a SaaS model.

BNTW: How big is your team?

Deepankar Biswas: In total, we are 10 in number. It includes the founders, tech,  marketing and a couple interns who work with us in the hybrid mode. (Work from home and office)

BNTW: What other services does Clear Trust offer besides Ask Meera?

Deepankar Biswas: We are a SaaS Cyber-Security Company and we provide two products. One is an Invalid Traffic Management Software for AdTech and the other is a Phishing Security Solution for businesses.

BNTW: What are the future plans for your company?

Deepankar Biswas: We have the vision to make the digital journeys of businesses safe and secure.  To that effect, we look at innovating in areas where cyber safety is either getting breached on a daily basis or is going to be a hotbed for fraud. Our products are a testament to that fact.

Exclusive Interview with Shiv Gupta, Founder & CEO of Incrementors

In an exclusive interview with Shreyas Webmedia Solutions (SWS), Mr. Shiv Gupta, Founder & CEO of Incrementors discussed his successful journey from a freelancer to an entrepreneur and many more…

Where did the idea for Incrementors come from?

At just 17, I started my journey into the Digital Marketing world. For the initial three years, I worked as a freelancer. Together with that, I did my own research-based projects and grabbed deep knowledge of the industry. During that time I gained a lot of technical skills and market knowledge and unknowingly, I learned good client management skills. Later one of my First clients, Robe Noguria encouraged me to create my own digital marketing agency to serve people at a larger level and be a guide to my own team. It was there that I decided to create Incrementors.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

My typical day is scheduled well in advance. My goal for every day is to make sure that I create a balance between my personal and my professional life. If I talk about work, my sole aim is to serve clients and make them happy. And, the same goes for the family, that it’s my prime responsibility to keep them happy.

On a typical day, In the morning, I spend several hours meditating and researching the latest trends to update my marketing knowledge. Additionally, I am focusing on making new business calls and following up with existing clients. I manage my current accounts consistently. That’s how I am able to maintain that long-term relationship with so many of them.

To strengthen my productivity, I ensure to learn at least one new insight to Digital Marketing and bring it to application. I always believe that for growth, one needs to keep updating his knowledge.

How do you bring ideas to life?

“Action”, I focus on goal setting and leverage my experience and the experience of those in my community and support system to take an idea from concept to creation. I follow the concept of the “law of attraction” and apply the law of positivity to everything I do. I strongly believe that to achieve something, all you need is “a belief” that it’s already yours. I have learned a lot from this.

What is one trend that excites you?

Artificial intelligence is being built into a lot of marketing now, and I find that exciting. There’s now a lot of deployment of AI in digital marketing to help automate some of those processes. It’s exciting but also a little scary in terms of how it may play out over time. Google has so much information about us that how they market to us when you really start to look at it, is extremely scary. Same with Facebook. Technology is always exciting, but it’s also a bit concerning.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

Ultimately, it comes back to the same thing, which is to never put off tomorrow what needs to be done today. That really is my basic philosophy. It keeps me updated and going forward.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I would tell myself to stay focused and keep it simple. I have always had a keen focus on marketing. I knew what the expectation was, and I went after it at a full run. Most of the time, I have focused on what the client needs and presented the best way to get it. ieve when I was younger, I made many mistakes. With my expertise now, I am able to determine quickly what the most effective strategies are and put them into play. I have spent time researching best practices in many different fields and I use that to my advantage when presenting to clients.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I see life literally as a “400 trillion to one chance to be born as a human being” miracle. My solo travels often result in people telling me they have never encountered anyone else. Most people are satisfied with their lives or just fine with their lives, and seldom meet those that live life in the digital age; they should be digital natives.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

As an entrepreneur, I never stop improving myself in my soft and hard skills. I recommend all entrepreneurs to always challenge themselves to take the next step, the next risk that will take them to the next level of their perceived success. There is always room for improvement in all areas of life and we should always remember to put some quality time aside and treat ourselves nicely like we are the most important people in our life. We are!

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

As an SEO optimizer and digital marketer, I mainly provide full project management services. Sometimes I very selectively do private in-house SEO seminars (on demand) or give speeches about SEO and this has helped me grow my business. Sometimes I personally help my working communities to solve their problems. Other than this, My curiosity to learn new things and update my knowledge keeps my business in the growth pipeline.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

Losing your highest talented performing specialist just as a new project enters and the company is just beginning to prosper. And the problem is not a lack of resources, but the loss of a valuable team talented, a great specialist, an experienced employee, and a trustworthy person.

In such a situation, professional business owners know it was their fault because they did not provide the employee with the possible conditions for development and well-being. And due to that, the project is threatened. In my case, we parted in full agreement and understanding, but this event has taught me more than all my previous years of work. I learned how to manage and work with a team better.
We failed to complete an important project because of excessive workload and responsibilities. I learned that employee satisfaction is crucial for the success of your business in the future. Listen to your team and discuss their needs to take care of it. You cannot succeed without it.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

In my organization, I am implementing new techniques to optimize blogs where I post success stories of projects and responses of a few selected entrepreneurs. This helps me elevate my brand in other spheres of marketing that are not related directly to my actual business (SEO).

What is the most valuable $100 you have ever spent? What and why?

I have recently bought 10 more plants for our office. I am very satisfied with this purchase as plants in the workplace make you feel more relaxed and focused. It is just good for everybody to be around something green.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

I use SEMush. This is real-time software that I use daily. It gives me the ability to see what my clients, as well as their competition, are doing in their field. It allows me to see the budget I have and from that information, I am able to determine the best course for my clients.
What is the one book that you recommend our community read and why?

“The Monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. There are many life lessons to be learned from this book, which is one of my favorites. For example, empty your cup so you can fill it with new ideas, you must open your own heart before you can touch other people’s hearts, and many more.

What is your favorite quote?

My favorite quote is “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” By Lou Holtz. With a positive attitude, anything is possible!

Key Learnings:
● One of the most valuable things I learned was that you can never give up on your dreams. Persevere, persist, and stay humble.
● Stay focused on one thing until you’re really proficient at it and then build from there.
● Always improve your soft and practical skills in what you choose to do.
● Invest in free or inexpensive tools that make your life easier and stress-free. It’s worth it every single time. One example is Discord, which        allows quick communication between online communities!

About Shiv Gupta, Founder & CEO of Incrementors

Shiv Gupta started his journey in the digital marketing world at the age of 17. He has over 13 years of experience as a marketer and currently specializes in SEO. Additionally, he has extensive experience in digital marketing strategy, customer relations, strategic planning, execution, and promotions. He acquired deep knowledge of the industry and was rewarded with top prizes in many areas. He began his professional career as a small business owner. At that time, he and his team had tremendous success in the marketing of the business and developing the field.

Shiv Gupta founded his company to provide the most effective marketing solution. He wanted to show the exact tips, strategies, and techniques needed to get higher sales and conversions. He focuses on creating brand content that is conversational, engaging, and adds value to people’s lives. Incrementors, and developed my own website. Incrementors is made up of two words, Increment, and Mentors, where Increment means a sales increase, and Mentors are the people that guide you to further increase your sales.

At Incrementors, his goal is to keep the company’s “connected customer” experience growing. He is an integrated marketing communications leader with a passion for building relationships between brands and customers through the combination of technology and communications. He has many specialties including digital strategy, social media strategy, and community management. In his perception, business is all about fulfilling the needs of people and by the people. He is very enthusiastic about digital marketing and building connections with people to serve them. He enjoys helping the clients. The idea of collaborating with like-minded and more challenging people always pushed him to serve with even better results. The combination of his love for the dynamic Digital Marketing world and serving people in them, is what struck him and he planned to start his business.

Though he began his professional career as a small business owner he and his team had tremendous success in terms of marketing the business and developing field. He is a positive thinker and for his company, he believes that, “Incrementors don’t give fluff or “high-level” advice. They just give insanely actionable advice that works.”

An insightful interview with Ruchika Bhangdiya- the founder of Ruchoks

Snacking nowadays plays a vital role in everyone’s life. A small quantity of makhanas or dry fruits will give you enough energy and satisfy your cravings. A snack should be healthy, tasty, satisfying, and filling as well.

We got some candid moments with Ruchika Bhangdiya, the co-founder of Ruchoks and she answered some of our question and cleared our doubts below-

Q1: What is your brand’s objective?

A: Ruchoks was established with an objective to serve each client with best quality products, unique concepts, and efficient services. We believe in understanding every requirement precisely and providing the most creative solutions, resulting in long term happiness, satisfaction, and loyalty of clients. Our core objective is to constantly innovate new concepts and create designs to set trends in the market. With our brand ‘Healthy & Honest’ snacking brand Dibha, we aim at promoting physical and mental health care and healthy lifestyle choices.

Q2: After 2 years of global pandemic, what is your brand position at the moment?

A: During the pandemic we launched a new brand called ‘Dibha’, which focuses on healthy lifestyle and honest snacking options. Dibha provides a wide range of products like dry fruits, dehydrated fruits, green teas, flavoured coffees, snacks like makhanas, oats puffs, chips, and many more. Today, post the pandemic phase, folks are health conscience and are constantly looking for ways to improve their immunity and wellbeing. Speaking of Ruchoks, everyone is overwhelmed to celebrate the festivities this year, giving us an exciting opportunity to cater to every client with our innovative and attractive Diwali special products and Premium hampers.

Q3: How does your product or service benefit your customers?

A: Ruchoks is a one stop shop, providing unique ‘Concept Gifting’ and ‘Premium Gifting’ options for all. The wide range of products which includes flavoured assorted chocolates, truffles, almond pralines, pizza chocolates, date dips and many more options, is a great advantage to the audience to select their perfect gifts. Dibha offers healthy snacks options and variety of nuts, which have great health benefits and immunity boosting properties resulting in healthy life choices and selfcare of every customer.

Q4: What are your strengths? Who is your competition?

A: Our product diversity, extraordinary designs, packaging ideas, exotic flavours, high quality checks and hygiene standards are our greatest strengths and factors we take pride in. The Diwali special ‘Kandil hampers’ and ‘Cracker Chocolates’ are copyright and patent products of Ruchoks. Our presence on 30+ e-commerce websites, social media and delivery services Pan India has given us a competitive edge in the market. We have been working with mega brands from corporate gifting industry since the past 13 years. The association and support we receive from such mega brands are truly our strengths.

Q5: How is your business different from competitors?

A: Ruchoks started in a home kitchen by a professional Architect, Mrs. Ruchika her husband who is Chartered Accountant by profession, Mr. Dinesh who together dreamt of fulfilling their entrepreneurial dreams. The passion to create the best and the spirit of providing beyond exceptional services is the recipe of our success today. We have been in the corporate gifting market since 2009 with an ever-growing customer base and customer brand loyalty. Our creativity, novelty and dedication towards quality and service is what sets us apart from others in the gifting market.

Q6: Are you planning to expand globally? If yes, please share the plan.

A: We are extremely optimistic on our global expansion plans. Both brands, Ruchoks and Dibha, are soon going to implement exporting strategies. Promoting ‘Made in India’ and giving an opportunity to the natives of foreign land to taste Indian flavours and creatively is our biggest motive to spread our horizons globally. With our colossal product profile, strong domestic market presence, and advanced infrastructure, we are ready to conquer the world!

Q7: What are your expansion plans? Where do you see yourself 5 years down the lane?

A: Today, Ruchoks is associated with many major organizations from pharmaceuticals, banking, finance, IT, and other industries, based on its unique products, creative ideas, and competitive pricing. We are completely focusing on growth and expansion strategies through well-established target markets.
A whole new universe of opportunities is waiting for Ruchoks in the global market. We plan on making our valuable products available to all worldwide with accurate and competent export strategies in the coming years.

Q8: What is your brand personality?

A: Ruchoks is the synonym for excellence, novelty, and great taste. Our concept creation techniques, packaging and designing methods and lip-smacking taste of chocolates is what defines our brand. So, this upcoming festive season, gift your loved one’s scrumptious chocolate treats and personalized gift hampers from Ruchoks.

Q9: Which values will guide your business?

A: Morals, ethics, and values have been an integral part of the Ruchoks foundation. We abide by providing good quality products, standard manufacturing techniques, high quality checking standards and fair-trade practices. Employee and labour welfare is very important to us, as we focus on women empowerment by providing employment opportunities to aspiring women. We promote societal and environmental welfare with our ‘Smoke free Diwali’ concept based on our patent ‘Cracker Chocolates’.

Q10: What is your Unique Value Proposition?

A: Our assorted chocolate flavours including paan masala, chai masala, pani puri, crunch punch and mix nut are a must try in the confectionery industry. Our unique branding, client base and online presence has led to tremendous increase in brand value. Our customised and personalized gifting hampers are a huge success. We look forward to creating more ‘never seen before’ products in the gifting market.

It was an insightful interview with Ruchika. In our own consulting experience with business owners we’ve found that the above traits are characteristics of successful business owners along with a profound view that they have ownership and are accountable for their own success.

Exclusive Interview- Visakh Sasikumar, CEO & Co-founder, Fyn Mobility

In an exclusive interview with Shreyas Webmedia Solutions (SWS) , Mr. Visakh Sasikumar (VS), CEO & Co-founder, Fyn Mobility discussed various aspects such as the company’s vision, prospects of EV Industry, the company’s USP and revenue model and many more .

SWS: When were you founded & What is the product/service you provide?

VS: We started out in 2017 under the name of Pi Beam Electric as an EV OEM and while building EVs for India we noticed that the EV-as-a-service industry was broken. There was a lack of understanding of EVs that led to multiple EV fires and accidents. The logistics industry was still very traditional in its approach with no processes in place or trackability of the fleets and hence giving clients no clarity on their fleets.

We had the solutions as we came from EV Manufacturing as well as Data background. The year 2021 was a gradual progression for Fyn Mobility to step into the Logistics industry with the growing need for deliveries as most of the world came to a halt. With this move we started working on a platform that would give all stakeholders clarity in the process of EV deployments.

We have now successfully stepped into India’s Last-mile logistics & provide EV fleets to businesses that need last-mile connectivity for logistics & commute. We are working towards rede-fyn-ing the logistics industry with the help of our EV know-how, IoT & Technology.

SWS: What is the company’s long and short-term vision?

VS: Fyn mobility aims to be India’s largest EV ecosystem platform for last-mile logistics and commute. This means, seamless operations and real time trackability of our EV fleets that help keep up with deployments and new demands through our internal tech dashboard.

We are expanding our fleet 10X to 2,000 by FY 23 and 10,000 vehicles by 2023-24. Currently, we are present in Bangalore & Chennai and we will be starting operations in Gurgaon & Hyderabad soon.

SWS: Where do you see the EV industry in the next five years?

VS: In the next 5 years we hope to see 100% adoption of EV 2 & 3 wheelers by businesses dealing with deliveries on the Indian roads. Most e-commerce, quick commerce as well as grocery businesses have plans of having 100% electric fleets by 2030. This will not only help in bringing more EVs to the Indian roads but will also give the B2C clientele confidence in the EV ecosystem and help them realise the benefits of electric vehicles in the long run.

As the businesses progress towards a green future, we can see EVs dominating the Indian roads in the next 5 years. A push from the government is also helping this EV ecosystem accelerate. With the government’s support and the businesses promising green fleets, we are spearheading toward our goals much faster than we had anticipated and see a future where there will soon be more EVs on the roads than their ICE counterparts.

SWS: Where did you get inspiration for the Company? How did you go about researching and validating the idea?

VS: Rather than getting inspiration for the company, the company came to us.

With the lock down bringing the world to a pause & everyone becoming immobile for over 4 months, the delivery industry boomed and we were approached by businesses looking for sustainable delivery solutions to help them cater for this need-of-the-hour. We saw a great opportunity here that would help us make a bigger impact towards our long term goal and hence we decided to move from manufacturers to EV-as-a-Service for the last-mile logistics. This helped us understand the last-mile logistics industry closely and identify the loose ends.

SWS: Is the company funded? If yes, how many rounds & how much funding.

VS: Fyn mobility has raised around $3M till date from leading investors such as IPV and participation from prominent family offices such as Sattva Group & Nanavati family, syndicates including Sincere Syndication and Conscience Multi-family Office. Industry stalwarts Arshad Sayyad, Vijay Ratnaparke, Shaji Koshy and professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala have also invested in these rounds.

Our funds have been utilised to develop the deployment platform, expand the team, scale operations to multiple cities and develop new products.

SWS: How does Fyn’s product work & what problems does it solve?

VS: The current logistics industry is very traditional and also has a lot of interdependencies among vendors leading to no transparency in the overall process. We have understood this, and are bringing in a vertically integrated approach through EV fleets that are supported by our tech dashboard, providing us with the visibility to track each step of the deployment process.

Fyn is also addressing the problem of last-mile emissions using IoT, data tracking, and optimal cross-utilisation of its EV fleet to reduce idle time. We are able to give clarity to our clients, similar to what courier tracking services do but for the delivery of EV fleets. With such clarity in place, our clients are able to maximise the utility of these EV fleets leading to higher revenues.

SWS: What is your USP and innovation? How are you different from your competitors?

VS: When we gradually moved our business to the logistics industry, we realised that even the businesses who were adopting EV fleets were facing problems with the EV-as-a-Service ecosystem as this was very new to India.

Safety & trust was a big concern with the recent EV fires. The EV fleets and their deployments were also not timely and scalable as there was a lack of funds and supply issues. Another factor that contributed to this list was the driver churn along with a lot of interdependencies within the system before the fleets were deployed to the clients. Above all, there seemed to be no clarity in these deployments due to lack of data and no clear timelines.

We built our company not only to solve for these issues at hand, but also to create a sustainable EV-ecosystem with the help of our EV know-how, Data and Technology:

We are building a vertically integrated EV Platform connecting stakeholders to make EV deployments frictionless.

We are able to bring quality EV Fleets to the roads with our EV know-how & an internal R&D team that helps in intensive testing of these vehicles before they hit the roads. We are a data driven team and hence bring out smart fleets that are trackable and have automated cross-utilization to maximise the use of each vehicle. With these fleets Fyn Mobility is able to empower their clients with a dashboard that helps them manage, track and plan the deployments of new fleets into their businesses.

SWS: Briefly explain your revenue model?

VS: With EV fleets in the last-mile sector our major revenue comes from last-mile logistics and commute. We are able to provide not only our in-house vehicles but also high speed 2 wheelers and 3 wheelers through our partnerships with some leading names in the Electric industry to our end clients. With our ever expanding fleets and tech enabled operations, we give our customers clarity, timely EV & Driver fleet deliveries and a great deal.

SWS: What difficulties did you encounter when you started the company & how were you impacted by the Covid outbreak?

VS: When we started out with manufacturing of EVs, very few people in India knew and understood the long term benefits of such vehicles. We wanted to bring our Made in India vehicles on the roads to make our country green. While we were working towards introducing EVs as a solution to India’s growing pollution, Covid-19 set in.

With the onset of Covid, the world came to a halt and everyone was subjected to stay at home, there were many problems that arose due to the lockdown. We realised we could solve last-mile connectivity and immediately started working towards the same. We started out with grocery deliveries in gated communities and soon started gaining traction from other businesses that dealt with last-mile deliveries. This led us to the last-mile logistics sector and we soon recognised the opportunity at hand that would allow us to deploy a higher number of EVs faster while helping us realise our goals sooner than we ever anticipated.

SWS: Future product launches?

VS: We are always building or innovating at Fyn Mobility.

Currently our team is working towards building India’s first Fuel Cell 3 wheeler. We are also under the prototyping stages of our in-house EV, PiMO-Premium which is set to redefine the B2B 2-wheeler category in the logistics sector.

While EVs are the future of Indian logistics, charging stations are its backbone. With the growing fleets we need more charging stations and hence are working towards our first vehicle agnostic charging station which should be ready in the coming months.

Exclusive Interview – Closeloop Technologies

Assim Gupta, founder & CEO, Closeloop Technologies

In an exclusive interview with Shreyas Webmedia Solutions, the spokesperson, Closeloop Technologies discussed various aspects such as the company’s business model, brand’s USP, various software development projects, and many more . 

Let’s know more about the company’s success story and its vision. 

– Can you tell us about the company’s founders and culture? 

Assim Gupta is the founder and CEO of Closeloop Technologies. He was born and brought up in India, where he pursued a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), a degree course in Electronics and Computer Science, back in 1993. In the subsequent years, he completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in International Marketing & Finance (1994-1996), followed by an Advanced Project Management Certificate from Stanford University.

His work experience includes working with top-grade companies in the technology space, namely Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Essar, SGI, Oracle, and VMWare. He worked as a software engineering professional and a product manager in the aforementioned companies before starting his own ventures; Closeloop Technologies is one of them.

Besides managing Closeloop, he is a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs and an investor too. He has been a member of Keiretsu Capital and Band of Angels for a few years as an Angel Investor and a panelist at PitchForce, a platform for startups to raise funds.

– What is your business model? 

Closeloop is a service-based company delivering avant-garde digital solutions to clients around the world. The goal is to deliver the desired solution to the client that empowers business digitally through software, mobile app, or enterprise solution. We follow an agile approach to building customized solutions for our clients with complete transparency and integrity. We help businesses achieve digital excellence through advanced software engineering, automation techniques, and emerging technologies like Artificial intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, and Cloud Computing, to name a few. We primarily work on two business models, fixed pricing and dedicated hiring models.

– Share briefly about how you took the entrepreneurial path? 

Everyone desires to own a business and build a lifestyle around it. I was no exception; however, the difference was I made serious efforts toward my goal of becoming an entrepreneur. Though the journey wasn’t plain sailing, it was undoubtedly exciting. In my early professional life, I realized that I had entrepreneurial grit, which kept me going and also introduced me to a lot of like-minded people who became my inspiration and helped me throughout the journey. One piece of advice they gave me was to believe in yourself. It has exceedingly helped me in my professional as well as personal life. Regardless of the challenges that came my way, I hustled my way to becoming an ambitious entrepreneur.

– What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors? 

Closeloop is a client-focused company that has always placed the needs of its customers at the top of its list of priorities. Regardless of the nature, size, or sector of your organization, we provide unmatched services to all. The following distinguishing qualities make us unique in the software engineering business:

1. C-level Consulting: You get expert recommendations from our CTO (Chief Technical Officer), Head of Marketing, and even Chief Executing Officer (CEO). You can imagine how valuable their experience would be to your business, considering their extensive industry experience.

2. Seed to Enterprise Assistance: We make startups grow into enterprises.

3. Full-stack development and innovation: We provide innovative end-to-end solutions.

– How many projects have you executed till now? Please explain.

We have successfully delivered numerous software development projects that upgraded the client’s business and, more importantly, positively impacted the industry. While you can have a look at our projects under the portfolio section on our website, the following are some of our completed projects:

● HomeRun, a FinTech web application for seamless and hassle-free home loan processing, was made from scratch by Closeloop.

● Ajna is a new-age recruitment software and one-of-its-kind in the industry that promotes unbiased hiring and boasts client-specific features like appropriate candidate matching, automated interview scheduling, and others.

● Omnidian is an analytics software for solar systems that gathers data and determines and manages solar panel readings in real-time.

For more projects, you can check out our portfolio on the website.

– Success story of Closeloop in few words 

Success is when our clients secure funding for their business based on collaborative efforts and groundbreaking, flawless products or solutions. For instance, one of our clients from the US secured funding of $1,000,000 from the industry’s reputed investors for the loan portal for homeowners that works on clean energy. Visit our website- https://closeloop.com/

Aditya Vikram Daga – Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Purpos Planet

1. Tell us about your journey to becoming the no.1 perfume brand in India.

The Journey of Riya dates back to 1997 when my father Mr. NK Daga and Mr. LK Soni with a capital of INR 1 lakh from Kolkata started the brand. The aim was to provide every household in India with world-class perfumes at extremely popular prices. The founders shifted their base to a rented place in Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar in 2000. Our revenue clocked 5cr in 2000 and in 2021 we have become the no. 1 perfume brand in India.

2. What is so unique about Riya is that makes it different from other brands in the market?

Riya is hyper-local, we did not limit ourselves just to metros and catered to the needs and sensibility of tier 1, 2, and 3 markets. While Riya is available at an attractive price, we never compromised on its quality. This makes Riya different from other brands in the market.

Interestingly, we never spent a penny on advertising. People of India have embraced Riya for its unique fragrance and world-class quality in the last 25 years.

3. What made you start your business in the perfume industry?

Perfume is our legacy business and I have been growing up in a house where my father used to talk about perfumes, their processes, and various experimentations with the smell and fragrance. In fact, we are familiar with the aroma of various perfumes since our childhood. When I grew up, I also took a keen interest in the sector. Officially I have been with Riya for the last three years, but I have been working in Riya and learning various nuances of the business for the last six years. When I passed out from London Business School in 2019, instead of searching for a career in any other MNCs, I opted to join the family business of perfume. Now, I am in the process to restructure, diversify and grow the business.

4. Tell us about your expansion plan for the future.

In 2019, we founded Purpos Planet to restructure, diversify, and grow the brand Riya with offices in Kolkata and New Delhi. Currently, we are into perfume, deodorant, room fresheners, and air fresheners.

We are present pan-India except for Kerala. We will intensify our business where we are already present and expand to areas that are yet to be tapped.

We are planning to diversify our business and enter into various segments which we will disclose in time. There are some plans for ecommerce as well.

5. Can you brief us about the Perfume business in India and the growth opportunities?

Perfume business in India is 790 cr industry excluding E-commerce as per Nielson IQ Retail Audit Report, Jan-Dec 2021. The industry is expected to be 1200 cr by 2025 including e-commerce.

6. 25 years into the business. Looking back on when you started, it must have been a tough path for you. How did you face the hurdles that you came across?

Yes, Riya was started by capital of just 1lakh. This was an untapped and unorganised market. Basically, it was completely unknown territory for the founders. It was completely their natural instinct that guided them to do business in the perfume sector. In 2000, Riya started distribution from Delhi and achieved a turnover of 5 cr.

In twenty years’ time, when the brand became no. 1 in India, the Covid pandemic hit the business. I traveled to most of the parts of the country and tried to revive our business as well perfume scenario in India. It gave us some good results. Despite, the pandemic our turnover was 80cr for FY 20-21.

7. What is your 2025 goal?

We are now enjoying a market share of 10.8%. By 2025, we see ourselves occupying 20% of the total market share.

8. Do you sell your products online? If yes, can you give us some numbers about your sales percentage for both online and offline channels?

We are currently available only offline. So, it’s 100% offline. This is a strategic decision as we don’t wish to create conflict with our general trade channel partners and our hyper-local price-sensitive consumers.  However, the brand is indirectly sold by resellers on leading platforms.

9. What is your Customer acquisition cost?

We don’t do advertising; hence customer acquisition cost is almost zero.

10. According to the Nielson IQ Retail Audit Report, Jan-Dec 2021, Riya was certified to be the Perfume Segment Leader in India by Value Share. Tell us something about it.

We are happy to be certified as the market leader for the third consecutive year by Nielsen IQ.

Riya market share by value has consistently grown in the last three years. At MS value 10.8% in YEC 2021, it is reportedly ahead of other top players

Hinterland, wherein Riya has a strong focus, performed better than urban India according to our feedback in last few quarters.

Riya perfume are quality perfumery products that have been ranked first in value sales in the Perfume segment as per Nielsen IQ which is the industry leader in global measurement and data analytics and the most trusted source for retail and consumer intelligence. The retail index service covers “Grocers, General Stores, Chemists, Cosmetic Stores, Paan Plus Stores and Modern Trade Stores”.

11. What is the current “EBITDA” for the company?

In spite of the last 2 tough years being ‘covid stricken’ with all businesses being affected, including perfumes, we still managed to fare well. The current Turnover of the company is 80cr. The company is doing very well, and earning a lap ahead vis a vis the competitors.