Meet Flipkart's playing 11; ICICI Bank places its bets on Blockchain

Rome wasn’t built in a day. And neither was India’s most famous startup, Flipkart. Every successful entrepreneur swears by his or her team working through the ups and downs together. The story holds true for Flipkart as well. While Co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal (not related) are praised for opening up ecommerce in India and inspiring a generation to start up, the Flipkart success story is one of team-work. A few people stand out with their innovative work during Flipkart’s early years; some of them are entrepreneurs now, the rest are building technology elsewhere.

When one speaks about Blockchain, the first thing that comes to mind is the disruption it can bring to the banking sector. In May this year, Infosys, along with seven Indian banks, set up the India Trade Connect, a Blockchain-based trade network. The aim was to increase transparency, and better manage risks in trade finance operations. Abhijit Singh, Head of Technology at ICICI Bank, says it’s still early days for the technology, but remains positive about the mass impact it can have.

Content factory Pepper was founded in the hostel rooms of BITS Pilani in 2017. Four engineers - Anirudh Singla, Adit Mittal, Rishabh Shekhar, and Parv Panthari - formed the startup to produce content for a variety of commercial purposes, and most importantly, serve as a “mediation platform that connects talented writers to organisations that require content”.  Pepper focuses on written content that includes blogs, press releases, corporate website information, social media campaigns, and more. In about a year, it has on-boarded over 50 brands, and is hitting 900 to 950 “pieces a month”.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje exhorted young entrepreneurs to use digital technologies to not just transform their own lives, but also transform the state. Speaking at the inauguration of the Bhamashah Techno Hub, a state-of-the-art facility in Jaipur that can house up to 700 early-stage startups, she asked entreprenuers to make the best use of the facilities on offer. Rajasthan launched its Startup Policy in 2015, and has allocated Rs 500 crore for investments in early-stage startups. It also has a dedicated fund for women entrepreneurs and for green initiatives.

Market research – which includes all forms of the market, opinion, and social research and data analytics – is all about analysing and interpreting data to obtain information and knowledge that can be used to predict future events, actions, or consumer behaviour. Market research helps companies understand and interpret an increasingly complex world and develop a successful business plan.

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