SIMRAN: No, she's not a girl - She'll Help You Track Your Train |

When I sat down to write about SIMRAN, I was thinking how well i could relate to this topic! Here’s how well: My morning train usually gets delayed by 3 or so hours which I have to catch on my way back college from my hometown. Last time I travelled, I didn’t want to leave my cozy bed to wait at the station for a delayed train in the least but couldn’t help it as during the odd hours of the morning as no one picks up the phone at Railway enquiry counters. The railway officials are too busy snoring on their comfy chairs.

This is a problem which happens with most of us. Time immemorial, technology has played a significant role in our lives and has contributed towards the betterment of mankind solving its enormous problems. I guess the same thought has struck the mind of the officials of Government of India who now are on the path of launching a new satellite-based technology which would track the exact location of trains by capturing their images and hence telling the commuters whether they could board the train on time or not. This project is called Baby Simran.

What is SIMRAN?

Said to be a Rs.100 crore project, it is based on the principle of Global Positioning System (GPS) and radio frequency and is going to be launched soon. All you have to do is dial a number or SMS and you would be informed about the exact location of the train. Indian railways plans to launch this project known as Baby Simran which stands for Satellite Imaging Rail Navigation (Simran) in Rajdhani express trains.

Here’s what a Railway official was quoted saying:

“The Research Designs and Standards Organisation and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have been working on the project, which will be launched soon. Four trains would initially be installed with Global Positioning System equipment.

The 100 crore project involves GPS navigation and radio frequency, with digital mapping of stations. Through this, a passenger will be able to know the exact location of his train, henceforth making him plan beforehand.

I just can’t wait for SIMRAN to open for public use. I’d get a better sleep this time around. It’d definitely help all of us to know when we have to leave for the station. Here I’d like to mention Pyka, an Indian startup which is also helping Railway passengers a lot. By sending an SMS to Pyka’s number, you can assign the station where you wish to alight from the train. Pyka will call you 20 minutes before you are about to reach your destination.

IndianCollegeSearch.com Helps Find Colleges and Just Recevied Funding |

Yesterday we reported how and why the Indian Angel Network has lowered the minimum amount it invests (to Rs 75 Lakh now) as angel funding in startups. Now, the IAN is in news again as a startup incubated by it IndiaCollegeSearch.com has raised Rs 5.8 Million (58 Lakh) from seed funding firm VAS Capital.

So What is IndiaCollegeSearch.com?

IndiaCollegeSearch.com is a web portal which assists students find out more about colleges. The college search is currently aimed at engineering colleges only. A prospective student can use the site to filter out colleges on the basis of location, course, examination name (AIEEE, JEE, CEE, etc.), fees and the type of college (public, private or both). The site boasts of more than 1000 colleges being listed on it right now.

Although Pluggdin (they broke the story) mentioned that the startup has done a lot of SEO, the keywords I searched for did not bring out the site in the results. Nevertheless, the funding will surely be used to improve he site’s search rankings as well as to add other features to it.

The co-founder Anirudh Motwani has certain plans for the site:

• Having all colleges and courses in India listed at once place. The current site is only a prototype and we’d soon see an improved site by December.
• More info about each college such as placement, infrastructure, faculty, etc. is lacking as of now. The team will be working on those aspects

Our Take

Frankly speaking – it is the first time I have seen a site of IndiaCollegeSearch’s niche raise a funding round. It certainly means that the team behind it is a good one and has some impressive plans ahead for the site.

I’ve only one question for the team and that is – the revenue model comprising of advertisements might not be enough to get a lot of revenue and something more could be done here. What do you guys think?

Also, I’d like to see some power features added to the site like – I should be able to see a video of the whole college. Kind of a college tour. Hope they’d think of more such power features. If implemented properly, the site will be a winner in its niche. And yeah, who wouldn’t love to see what happens behind the gates of far-flung colleges.

Source

WestWing Home & Living Launches Heaven and Home |

A home décor and furnishings e-commerce firm, Westwing Home & Living, launched their site Heaven and Home yesterday. Founded by four Indian entrepreneurs : Tushar Ahluwalia, Nishrit Shrivastva, Sunnyraj Agarwal and Tara Kaushal, Heavenandhome.com is an online home and living ecommerce portal that aims to bring the highest quality of home and lifestyle products to Indian consumers within an exclusive environment at discounted prices.

Backed by an undisclosed European Venture Capital fund, Heavenandhome.com provides a platform for great Indian as well as international brands to showcase their variety and style to the Indian homeowner. It is a holistic, end-to-end home and lifestyle experience that aims at revolutionizing Indian homes and lifestyles.

Apart from the online portal, they have included a magazine which sets the tone for the shopping experience, where a range of personally selected products from internationally acclaimed brands are available through an exclusive shopping club. The online magazine, makes it a breeze to browse through innovative ideas to make living a luxurious experience every day.

The products on offer are varied weekly. The consumers are required to be members of the Shopping Club to purchase products. Registered members also receive exclusive discount coupons and Gift vouchers through SMS and E-Mail. Currently the firm offers delivery in metros with plans to extend its reach in the near future. The Payment procedure accommodates Credit Cards and Cash on Delivery options and intends to include other options like Debit Cards and Net Banking soon.

A dedicated online portal for home Décor and furnishing is yet an unexplored area in terms of online shopping. How successful it turns out eventually, only time will tell. Do let us know what you think about the website or if you know of anything similar, in the comments section below.

India Shining: 104 Indian Companies Nominated For the Red Herring 100Asia Awards |

I saw my RSS Feeds (I use Google Reader) and came to know about Red Herring, and that they have a Red Herring 100 List for North America, Europe and Asia respectively. After some scrutiny of their website, I found out an interesting point which the other blogs and media publications seem to have missed while talking about the Asia list:

104 Indian companies were nominated for the Red Herring 100 Asia list: India Startup Scene is Shining

It’s good to see that entrepreneurs here are taking the initiative to dare. We need more such people, after all these startups 5 years down the line will be full-fledged companies giving back a lot to the Indian economy. Out of a total of 227 companies who are going to vie to be in the final 100 at the award ceremony in Hong Kong from 17-19 October, 104 Indian companies will participate – a staggering 46 percent of the total. What happened to China? Perhaps, many startups there did not nominate theselves. Still, India being right on the top shows that we have a glorious future ahead.

Although I would have loved to write about each Indian company nominated, the list is a little too long (makes me happy though) and this does not seem to be the right place to go telling about each one. You can check the list of companies nominated here.

For our readers, we will try covering one Red Herring nominated startup each day as our Red Herring featured post.

Enough. What is the Red Herring 100 Asia Award?

In case you don’t know, Red Herring is a media company which hosts technology-centric events and publshes a magazine on technology. The Red Herring editorial team has been hosting Red Herring 100 Awards for three different regions – Asia, Europe, North America as well as has a global version of it, for some years now. The award is given to the top 100 companies in their respective regions. The companies are evaluated on the basis of:

• Their financial performance
• Innovative use of technology
• Quality of management
• Execution of strategy
• Disruption into their respective industries

Frankly speaking, there are more than just 104 startups in India who are doing some kind of innovative work or the other – using technology or not, to better the society. Still, the Red Herring recognition is something big. We at Hungry N Foolish will try covering startups (even the ones in colleges of India) so that it could inspire others to start and give back something to the eco-system. We need to provide students with more exposure towards entrepreneurship from an early stage, and that’s what we have set out to do.

If you’re a startup and would like us to review you, get in touch. Even if you just have an idea or a piece of advice for youngsters reading this blog, don’t shy away from sharing it with the world.