Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi, which was once a start-up, has now grown to become the third largest consumer electronics firm in the world. It has gained a foothold in its home market as well as the native markets of other renowned electronics titans. The tech major is working towards turning every budding business into an empire.
According to a recent report, Xiaomi is betting on emerging businesses to help them copy the growth model of the company. The CEO of Xiaomi has announced that the company plans to invest in hundred startups to help them financially. This step is in accordance with the earlier move to back 20 startups that has shown productive outcomes.
Lei Jun commented about its plan that Xiaomi’s strategy is to enable the company into an “ecosystem empire” with major focus on software firms. He further stated –
We plan to move full steam ahead in its quest to become an ecosystem empire.
Investing in software firms would help Xiaomi link anything; consequentially aiding its product portfolio expansion.
Recently Xiaomi’s backed robotics manufacturer Ninebot acquired Segway. The buyout seized the attention of the industry-watchers as a small industry is expanding rapidly, but more than that, it was a call for big celebration for Xiaomi. Late last year, Xiaomi became the world’s most valuable technology start-up after gaining$1.1 billion from investors.
Xiaomi has made use of its small associates and has launched a bunch of smart products such as air purifiers, smart bulbs, smart televisions, etc. With its new approach to software firms, we may soon hear of some unconventional innovations amongst their smartphones.
Meanwhile, Xiaomi has shown significant interest in the Indian market. It has announced to establish a physical warehouse and an R&D center in Southern parts of India.
The Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley, today unveiled the Union Budget for the year 2015-16. This budget was even called the make or break budget for India. There were a slew of initiatives offered to boost the growth of the tech sector in India and to promote job creation amongst the youth. The present government is known to be tech savvy, and so we look at how the budget affects the tech sector.
For the Consumer market
Mobile tariff’s may increase following increase in service taxes.
The budget decreased custom duties on a variety of consumer goods including refrigerator parts, telecommunication grade optical fiber cables and LCD/LED TV panels. Duties on components of solar water heaters, tablets, and LED lights have also been slashed.
On the other hand, the mobile phone rates will see an upwards trajectory as the government has raised the service tax from 12.36% to 14%.
Fuel For Startups
The Indian IT sector employees a massive number of people. In his speech, the finance minister stated that the sector employs 40 lakh people and has garnered revenues worth US$119 Billion. The sector has seen a proactive growth in new startup companies that are formed by young entrepreneurs. The government has recognized the potential of this market to transform young people from job seekers to job creators, and so it has allotted Rs.1000 crores to boost startups. According to the Economic survey of India, has become the fourth largest force in the startup market and is home to 3100 of such budding companies.
The 1000 crore will go towards establishing a mechanism called Self Employment and Talent Utilisation(SETU). It will be a techno-financial, Incubation and Facilitation Program to support all aspects of start-up businesses and encourage cutting-edge innovation.
To get India’s massive youth population ready for 21st century economy, the government will be launching National Skill Mission.
Boost for Hardware Manufacturers
Indian hardware makers appreciated the removal of Special Additional Duty (SAD)
The Finance Minister’s announcement of the removal of Special Additional Duty (SAD) on IT products was well appreciated by the industry. This move will benefit the Indian hardware makers. There has also been a decrease in the tax for technical services that will also help the manufacturing industry in the country.
Renewable Energy
There is a proactive approach in the budget towards renewable energy.
The government also stressed on green renewable energy and has set a target of 1,75,000 MW from green sources by 2022. Out of this, a massive share of 1,00,000 MW will be derived from solar power from the current 3,000 MW. At present renewable energy sources contribute 5.6 percent of all the electricity, which will be raised to 12 percent in the coming three years. The boost in investment in renewable sector will also lead to a lot of jobs in the green energy space in India.
Digital India Governance
The Digital India program that was unveiled last year got a mention this time around. It is 1.13 lakh crore project to make India a connected nation. This project will make it easier for the citizens and their government to connect and get access to various services. The project is expected to attract massive investments and create a massive amount of jobs in the country. The Finance Minister said in clear words that
Overall the budget is said to be a progressive one that is expected to give a push to manufacturing and growth in India. It will be making many consumer goods a bit expensive, but the growth in the tech and other major sectors can create the revenues that can bring the costs down, in the long run. Let’s hope it’s the year of growth for India, Jai Ho!
Startups are the foundation of a developing nation and such businesses need to be encouraged. Indian Government has taken a praise-worthy step and is ready to extend support to the India-based startup companies. The Union Government is planning to exempt the budding firms from service tax and exercise duty for a specific period, so that they don’t fail because of money issues.
As per a report by Economic Times, an inter-ministerial group is considering a one-stop registration scheme that will make them eligible for government grants. The group includes Ministry of Science and Technology, Corporate Affairs and the Department of Electronics and IT, and was chaired by Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance. Meanwhile, the proposal is under consideration.
Under this scheme, the startups that are registered under Department of Science and Technology and the ones certified as ‘bonafide’ will be exempted from the above said taxes. This tax waiver will be applicable until they reach certain revenue. Meanwhile, these tech startups pay service tax at the rate of 12.36% along with exercise duty and income tax. Also, if the proposal is enacted, the startups will become eligible for grants up to Rs. 10 crore from the government’s science and technology department.
Nasscom has proposed a three-year moratorium on quarterly regulatory filings and taxes to the government. This will give a boost to the India’s young companies. “Service tax exemption is a much needed proposition. But sops should be more broad-based as majority of successful start-ups are not registered with DST affiliated incubators,” commented Nasscom Product Council Chairman Ravi Gururaj.
The startups in India are burdened by bad regulations and the pattern needs to be altered. The new proposal will have flexible regulations for budding as well as failed start-ups. The failed ones can shut down in a day with just a single page submission. Moreover, it would be a big step in favour of low-budget budding firms to grow and flourish in their respective industries without any pressure.
Polaroids are one of the best things to happen to photography including cheap DSLRs. They were a revolution when they first rolled out. Polaroids deleted the waiting period, and their hand prints were easy to store and flaunt around. Well, with the advent of camera-induced smartphone age, Polaroids have become an affair of the past. But one company has introduced a unique mobile case that might just bring back the era of printed photos that can be viewed without a battery-powered device.
A French startup Pryntcases has introduced a phone case that converts your phone to a Polaroid camera. Presently, the device can only take one polaroid film at a time and takes a minute to print the image, but is still a great case to have. The appeal of physically holding a photograph can’t be matched with the tonnes of electronic images.
The case comes with an accompanying camera app, which has a cool feature. It takes video while you are taking a picture. Then, when you hold the developed picture in front of the case, it will start playing the video.
The developers of the case are working towards making the device faster so that it can deliver an image in half the present time. They will also work towards allowing the case to hold at least ten films at a time. They have expressed their views to set up a Kickstarter page to further develop the device and sell their product. The case is expected to cost $99 and this price makes it a must-have.
Polaroid images have a unique character that just make them visually appealing. It’s great to see that this medium is making a comeback in the digital age. We hope that an improved version arrives soon.
Thanks to government laws, we have nutritional labels on packaging on most store-bought food. They give you a quick run down of their contents: fat, sugar, calories, and so on. But what about the melon in your fridge or the fresh cheese you bought from supermarket or the RO water in your glass?
A new handheld gadget called SCiO takes the guesswork out of analyzing your food. The device can be used to scan almost any food or beverage, analyze its chemical make-up and send the data to your phone.
SCiO contains a tiny optical sensor, called a spectrometer, which reads the molecular fingerprint of an object by shining an infrared light on it. The gadget then sends the data to the cloud for analysis and forwards the results to your phone, all in seconds. An accompanying SCiO app, which can be downloaded, then displays fat, protein and carbohydrate levels down to the milligram.
Touted as the world’s first affordable molecular sensor, it fits in the palm of your hand. The same technology has been used for decades by corporations in quality control of oil and chemicals, although SCiO is being pitched as the first portable spectrometer for consumers. The sensor can only detect materials and objects that were previously uploaded to its database. But the device is so smart that the more items you scan with it, the more it learns to recognize items and their ingredients.
Company highlighted some use of the this portable sensors like:
Get nutritional facts about different kinds of food: salad dressings, sauces, fruits, cheeses, and much more.
See how ripe an Avocado is, through the peel!
Find out the quality of your cooking oil.
Know the well being of your plants.
Analyze soil or hydroponic solutions.
Authenticate medications or supplements.
SCiO was one of the biggest project on Kickstarter, where its creators pledged for $200,000 and reached their goal within 24 hours. They eventually raised more than $2.7 million, and have promised to deliver the first SCiOs, for $149 apiece, to early backers by the end of the year.
A company based in Grenoble, France called Iskn has developed an iPad cover that lets you mimic your physical doodlings in the digital realm called iSketchnote. Iskn’s mission is to combine the natural experience of familiar tools with the power of digital technology. They have successfully accomplished this by giving us this amazing iPod cover.
This could be the perfect cross-platform product for those individuals who prefer to use pen and paper instead of digital words, but they’d also like to have a digital copy for easy sharing. The iSketchnote can be connected to a PC or a Mac via USB, so those who don’t own an iPad will still be able to use the product. The company is soon planning to offer bluetooth services as well.
The iSketchnote is equipped with an array of sensors inside it to catch each and every stroke your pen makes on the paper placed on the iPad cover. You can use any kind of paper on this cover, while you have to use special kinds of pens that come with a ring-shaped magnet embedded in them. These special pens look like regular ball-point pens but work in unison with the cover that can also detect the color and tip of the pen being used.
Once you are finished with whatever you were doing on the notepad or paper, you can save the digital copy of your work, watch replays of your scribbling process and you can easily share it through e-mail or social media.
The start-up spent two year to develop the prototype of the iSketchnote. They have raised funds for the production through Kickstarter with the pledged goal of $35,000. The product can be pre-ordered on their official sitefor $358 USD.
Watch the video below to understand the technology better:
