About |

Started by budding entrepreneurs and college students, Hungry N Foolish aims to be a one-stop portal covering social media, technology, mobile, and startups in India. Apart from profiling startups and breaking tech news, we also write on tips for budding Indian entrepreneurs. And if you are someone keen to learn and stay updated, you will find Hungry N Foolish helpful.

Our motto

To empower the people of India to utilize Social Media and the Internet to create a better society to live in.

The Hungry N Foolish Code of Ethics

We report on companies and individuals without bias. Wherever needed, we quote the source of the news. Also, as part of the ethical guidelines, we do not accept gifts, freebies or travel expenses from sources or subjects.

The Team

Abhineet Kumar
Abhineet Kumar is the founder of The Noob Diary, which strives to fulfill the dearth of good Indian blogs on the scene targeting a global audience. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Apart from blogging, Abhineet is involved in various college startups. They’d be listed here soon.
Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays

Ankit Kumar
Ankit is Co-founder of HungryNfoolish. A student of Software Engineering. He is a passionate writer who loves writing about anything and everything related to Technology. Ankit aims to be at the top in every field he is involved in.Catch him on Twitter @techpil

Kshitij Agrawal
A student, blogger, tech freak, music lover. Loves to travel and explore new and exciting places. An entrepreneur by heart, he enjoys working on challenging projects. You will generally find him doing nothing but hanging out with friends. Follow him @kshitijagrwl

Nishant Garg Currently pursuing Engineering in Information Technology from IIIT-A, Nishant loves spending time reading novels and is currently working on his maiden work as a novellist. He’s an avid blogger and a programming enthusiast. He firmly believes in protecting the environment which is mortifying at an alarming rate. A staunch Roger federer fan and a movie buff, he has tried his hand at everything he can lay them on. Wishes to make it BIG in life which acording to him is too short to do everything that he wants to.

Read his personal musings on jack & spades

Follow his tweets on @nishant0garg

Sana Khan
Sana is the co-founder of The Noob Diary and loves connecting with her friends on Facebook. Currently she’s focussed on blogging and some entrepreneurial ventures of her own. A student of Banasthali University, she plans to use her MBA education to do good for the poor and the downtrodden by opening up an NGO/Social Enterprise of her own.
Stalk her on Twitter @khansana

Why Apple iPhone is Still Lagging in the Indian SmartPhone Market |

A budget iPhone! Too good to be true? Well, the rumour mill has been predicting something similar for quite some time and going by recent reports on how iPhone market hasn’t really picked up in India as yet, it sure would not come as a surprise if we see Apple announcing the same sooner than later.

A Bloomberg report says:

Smartphone shipments in India are slated to rise by 70% by 2015. Considering this, if we go by the report suggesting that Apple ships fewer handsets to India, the world’s second-largest mobile-phone market, than it does to Norway, is alarming indeed.

Going by Bloomberg’s numbers, Apple sure has to do a lot of stuff and act fast in order to level with the likes of Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry in the Indian market.

But iPhones have been touted as the most promising technology developed recently. With its revolutionary iOS, high quality video calling web browsing features and easy synchronisation abilities, does it’s slow growth in the Indian market sure come as a surprise to you?

Also, if Apple lowers the price, then it will have to scrap some of the promising features. Is lowering the price the only option Apple has for surging ahead in the booming Indian mobile market?

Here we discuss some fronts in India on which Apple needs to do more work. Actually, the issues with the popularity and sales of iPhones in Asia in general are much the same:

• The price : The first and foremost and probably the most obvious reason for iPhones lower success rate in Asia and in India to be specific is it’s cost ceiling. As a developing nation, the majority of the population still can’t afford to pay $750 for the 16Gb iPhone.
• Competition: The smartphone user base in India still prefers a BlackBerry, Nokia and an Android over an iPhone. These companies provide similar features as an iPhone at nearly a fraction of its price.
  • RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger : BBM has a dominance over the Indian app market with its excellent marketing and performance since its launch in 2008. The messenger works with majorly all operators in India and provides instant messaging on networks with speeds incomparable to those provided in the US. People who want to buy a smartphone prefer BB simply because their friends have one too and choosing the same would offer better connectivity through the messenger.
  • Android OS : Being open-source offering easy app integration and installation features, inclusion of Flash and a better notification system than iPhone and of course being cheaper, Android smartphones provide a stiff competition to the Apple product.
• Poor Networks : India has recently started the third generation networks. The networks are yet to provide the services fast enough for an iPhone to function properly and to it’s full capability. Majority of iPhone apps and functionality relies on wi-fi which is yet to fully kick start in the Indian networks. 2G services are simply incapable of providing an experience that an iPhone promises to offer.
• Poor Marketing : People in the country know more about Samsung Galaxy Tab than they know about the iPad. The other companies seem to have spent a lot of money on advertising and marketing in India. Apple, on the other hand has not done any kind of marketing. I agree that people have started identifying Apple products, but I am not too sure if they realise what value it has when compared to a BlackBerry, Nokia or a Samsung product. For many of them it is something expensive with the same features as an Android phone.

Also, Apple does not sell its products through private retailers – thus deterring many buyers. One should notice that quite a number of rich Indians are in small towns where Apple products are not sold. And, since Indians cannot buy Apple products online as well – the only way to buy an iPhone is to go to a Reliance Digital store (which might not have what you need) or a Tata Croma store in a metro. A few private stores have started selling Apple products (again in metros), but they remain few in number. A better distribution channel will surely dish out brighter fortunes for the Cupertino-based giant.

Considering the above stated issues, if Apple does come up with something like a budget iPhone on 5th October (proposed date for the launch of iPhone 5) or in the near future, it will definitely be an event which will change the current Smartphone market on its head.

The thing to watch out for here would be how Apple would go about achieving this without compromising with the quality and performance that it boasts of. Reducing some specifications or features could be one way of approaching this. However nothing can be said as yet since no official announcement has been made by Apple, until then, speculations would continue.

If Apple comes comes out with something to cater to the Indian market it shouldn’t forget the youth. Microsoft, to lure the college students attention recently came out with an app development competition and another video-making contest. Apple could come out with similar campaigns as well. Plus, the Apple social media team needs to work the hard way in India. Facebook and Twitter are turning out to be marketers’ battlegrounds in India as in other nations, and Apple needs to concentrate here – the Indian public till now has not interacted much with Apple on social media

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Pharmacy Chain Medplus Launches MedplusBeauty.com, for Beauty andPersonal Care Products |

Sooner or later all the offline retailers will have a full-fledged online business i.e. an e-commerce store. The latest company to foray into e-commerce is the pharmacy chain MedPlus with MedplusBeauty.com, an online portal for beauty and personal care products. It already has more than a 1000 stores across the country which will surely help in the supply chain management of the products

MedplusBeauty Virtual Studio

It indeed is a virtual studio where the customer can upload one’s image and then try out various products and their reformed look after using them. People may try this out and can be a very handy feature for the company, helping it have its own distinct identity from other online beauty product retailers.

Get Home Delivery or Else Pickup From a Nearby MedPlus Store

Yes, that’s another advantage of having so many outlets in different cities. MedplusBeauty offers home delivery (on the same day in most metros) or you can pickup your order from a nearby MedPlus store as well.

Our View

Being an offline retailer, and that too a biggie in the field is going to help Medplus’ e-commerce venture scale fast. The money invested into all of this is also less as they do not have to worry about warehousing or supply chain management. Many offline retailers should be following suit soon, especially when it comes to home products where big online players havent yet established a foothold.

Abhineet Kumar is the co-founder of Hungry N Foolish. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays.

Why IAN had to redo its funding strategy? |

The Indian Angel Network, which is a major angel investor in the Indian startup scene, has decided to modify its funding strategy by lowering the minimum amount it invests in startups from Rs 2-3 Crore to Rs 75 Lakh.

IAN used to invest somewhere around Rs 5 Crore (preferably 2-3 Crore) in upcoming startups, and now has reduced the amount stating that there are a lot of firms which need lesser amounts as seed investment. It said:

Indian Angel Network has therefore re cast its strategy for funding and mentoring early stage start ups in mobile, Internet space and proposes to fund around Rs 75 lakh each for the first about two dozen start ups.

 

Why did IAN lower the funding amount?

• IAN says that there are many startups which require lower funding than Rs 2-3 Crore. So to accommodate their demands the minimum funding given out was lowered to Rs 75 Lakhs.
• Although its my guess but could be a possible reason – there are too many startups worth investing in the Indian sphere as of now. Now, IAN could have lowered the limit in order to have a chance of investing in each one of them before their fund dries up. I know it is totally baseless without any proof, but don’t you think it could be true?

Here is a list of IAN’s portfolio i.e. the companies in which the Indian Angel Network has invested in currently.

Here’s what IAN provides to entrepreneurs:

• Mentoring
• Help in growing the business
• Angel funding

The Indian Angel Network is India’s oldest angel investment firm. It was established in the year 2006, which is not too old in terms of years but in terms of the work done it has been the most fruitful period. This is possibly the best time for an Indian entrepreneur with a good number of angel and VC firms around.

Source

 Abhineet Kumar is the co-founder of Hungry N Foolish. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays.

BlackBerry Bold 9780 Review |

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 looks identical to its Bold 9700 predecessor, but features more memory and the new BlackBerry 6 OS. A refreshed home screen, various software enhancements and a better web browser are improvements.

Despite a small, 2.4in display, the Bold 9780′s screen is one of the best we’ve seen on a BlackBerry phone; it is bright and possesses good viewing angles. Like most BlackBerry smartphones, the Bold 9780 has a best-in-class physical keyboard that provides great tactility and is comfortable to type on for long periods.

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 is controlled mainly via an optical trackpad. It has no moving parts and you simply glide your finger across an almost flat surface. The speed of on-screen movement and scrolling using the trackpad takes a little getting used to, but it is responsive; its sensitivity can be changed in the settings menu.

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 runs BlackBerry 6 OS. The home screen looks attractive, and uses a very handy notifications bar that drops down when you select it. This shows all your notifications including e-mail, calendar, text messages, and social network updates. The BlackBerry OS 6 also integrates “Social Feeds,” aggregating feeds from Facebook, Twitter, RSS and BlackBerry Messenger among others.

The BlackBery Bold 9780 uses what RIM calls a “drawer” to store applications. Swiping across the screen will access different draws; all of your applications (main menu), your favourite apps (user definable), media, downloads from BlackBerry App World, and frequently used applications. Unfortunately, these drawers can’t be edited or modified, apart from choosing what to place in each one.

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 has an excellent universal search tool, and the handset offers a much better Web browsing experience than previous BlackBerry devices. Zooming in on a block of text automatically makes it fit to the width of the screen, and you can open new Web pages in tabs (then scroll through them using an excellent Cover Flow–like view). Panning around a page using the cursor and clicking links is still inferior compared to other handsets. There is also no Flash support.

Though many aspects of BlackBerry OS 6 have been improved we still feel it is best used with a touchscreen. For example, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 enables you to tap the notifications bar for notifications, the clock to set an alarm and the speaker to access sound profiles; all more intuitive than using the trackpad to scroll around the screen.

Being a BlackBerry device, e-mail support is as strong as ever. The BlackBerry Bold 9780 supports e-mail services through the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES). Microsoft Word and Excel documents can be edited and viewed thanks to the on-board Word To Go and Sheet To Go applications. In addition to 3G connectivity, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 has Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth capabilities.

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 provides access to BlackBerry App World, RIM’s third-party app store. It doesn’t boast the same number of apps as Apple’s App Store or Google’s Android Market, but paid apps can be purchased in Australia (using PayPal) and most of the popular apps (such as Facebook, Twitter, eBay and Windows Live Messenger) are available.

The Bold 9780 is also capable media player that features a refreshing interface, and the 5-megapixel camera also doubles as a video recorder. One real positive is the BlackBerry 9780′s battery life — it often lasted almost three days during testing, placing it far ahead of most of its rivals and making it a handy device for road warriors.

Google introduces ‘Search, plus Your World’ |

Team Google are constantly working out on ways to improve the ‘search experience’ for their users. In the past, they did so with several additions like +1, social search, among other things. Doing all this, they tried to bring the function more closer to the user.

Now, through an official blog post, Google has introduced – Search, plus Your World feature to its users. With this, Google confirms that they are looking at integrating their primary function – Search, with their social site, Google+. Result? A more personalized, more relevant stream of search links. Simply put, the next time you try to make a search query on Google, you will notice that the search stream will include a lot of posts, content in general from the people you know, and have shared with on Google+, instead of public posts. The personalized content on the results page will be visible to the user alone, thus leaving no room for safety hazards.

In this latest update to its search function, Google has rolled out 3 features: Personal Results, Profiles in Search and People and Pages. Personal Results will see Google, like mentioned above deliver more personalized results, in the form of text, images, among others making it more meaningful to the user and not just any random collection of links. Via Profiles in Search, users will be able to locate their contacts, or those whom they would like to follow right from their search page. With introducing People and Pages feature, Google will throw in people profiles and Google+ pages during searches that match to the user’s area of interest.

Briefly describing the latest from Google, the post states,

“We named our company after the mathematical number googol as an aspiration toward indexing the countless answers on webpages, but that’s only part of the picture. The other part is people, and that’s what Search plus Your World is all about.”

Users can choose to view personalized content on their search pages, or continue to have their searches in the same way as they always did by managing their preferences on a prominent new toggle on the upper right hand side of the results. Google will begin rolling out Search, plus Your World in a few days from now, and it will be available to those who’re signed in and are searching https://www.google.com in English.

Faster than Chrome, Maxthon Browser now Available in Indian Languages |

The amazing Maxthon Browser is very simple to use and very reliable when it comes to crashes. Maxthon is famous for its super speed browsing which they have maintained through out their journey of making a better browser.Maxthon being such amazing browser, never tried to advertise or promote their product via ads or reviews in the Internet.

First look of Maxthon Browser in Hindi only on HungryNFoolish

 Beijing based Maxthon, a browser that claims to be 200% faster than Chrome is now available in Hindi and Bengali language for Indian users (download link).

  Maxthon 3 comes with a browser engine that draws web pages 200%   faster than Google Chrome and offers useful free cloud services like   storing bookmark/notes, screen grabs etc.

New Maxthon  Browser Features :

•  Maxthon Passport login which allows you to login from any part of   the world to sync your settings.
• An Inbuilt URL Alias features which automatically displays the typed URL which saves your time and energy.
• Inbuilt Calender to organize your daily schedules and meetings.
• Multiple sessions at a single time, Best for gamers where you can login with different accounts in same browser.
• Multi Search which combines all search engines at one place.
• Drag and Drop commands to search a URL or words and open them directly in web search via address bar.
• Cool mouse gestures where you can make shapes with your mouse and trigger commands.
• Group feature which allows you to add pages onto favorites with a new folder.
• Full page zoom in and zoom out feature which is really amazing to try.
• In built Mute icon which allows you to shut noise web pages and ads.

Maxthon Browser Tools :

•  Download sniffer which automatically detects all the images, videos, audio of a webpage to download them  directly.
• Pop-up video tool which offers you to open and watch a video in a separate window or download it later.
• External tool which gives you instant access to your favorite program where you can add, delete and sort them accordingly.
• Get a clear knowledge of what you are browsing with the new status bar.
• Split screen to split the browser into two different windows side by side.
• Amazing screen shot tool which can capture a screenshot instantly and allow you to edit it your own way.

Maxthon Browser Safety and Security :

• With amazing private browsing feature you can leave no tracks to your browsed history.
• Ad hunter block unwanted blocks and advertisements. You can edit to hide any elements in a page.

Apart from these features, now you can get the Maxthon Browser in    Portable version with in-built theme changer and customized avatars  and skins. You can completely customize your user interface in  Maxthon. The Maxthon Portable

 Browser is available in 23 different languages and the new in-built Spell  checker offers many international languages.

Maxthon Portable Browser which was released recently with 3.2.2 as its current version. Many people have already downloaded the Maxthon portable browser and started using in their USB drives and other portable devices(download Maxthon Portable) so what’s about you ?

An IT student from CEM,Kolaghat. A Blogger, little bit of Web Developer, and a future Software Engineer. Love to spend time on social networking sites. Inspired by a single person who rules the tech world for many years with a single english letter ‘ i ‘.

Free Windows 7 phone for student app developers |

To compete and surpass the present dominance of Android and iOS in mobile operating Systems market, Microsoft has come up with a brand new, “i unlock joy” program under which it’ll offer free Windows 7 phone to student app developers.

First and foremost, the basic rules of the program .

You are eligible to participate only if :

1.  You are 18 years of age or older; and
2. You have been actively enrolled as a student at an accredited educational institution that grants high-school or college/university (or equivalent) degrees for at least 3 months between 1st January 2011 and 18th November 2011; and
3. ou are not an employee or intern of Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. or
   Microsoft Corporation, or any of their affiliates; and
4. You are not involved in any part of the execution or administration of this
   Program; and
5. You are not an immediate family member of (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft affiliate, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Program.
6. You are a registered member of Microsoft DreamSpark Program for students.

Now that the rules are stated, if you are eligible all you need to do is :

1. Register for the i unlock joy campaign before 18th November 2011.
2. Download the latest Windows Phone Developer Tools are available free for students.
3. Submit your app at the AppHub. After successful certification, your app will be listed on the Windows Phone Marketplace.
4. Claim your goodies by providing details of your certified apps before 18th December 2011.

Now comes the reward part, this is what you get :

1. Get a Merit Certificate, a Windows Phone T-Shirt and a 2GB USB Flash Drive for 1 app published on Marketplace
2. Get a cool new Windows Phone for 4 apps published on Marketplace.

Our Take

It’s obvious that Microsoft wants to leave no stone unturned in publicizing the Windows 7 phone. Considering the well-established developer communities for Android and iOS this surely doesn’t come as a surprise. The thing to notice here is the fact that the contest is open only for Indian students and not worldwide. This makes for an excellent opportunity for all you app developers out there to brush up your Developer Quotient and start winning!

 Student of Information and Technology at IIIT-Allahabad. A programmer by chance and a blogger by heart. Staunch Roger Federer fan and loves reading novels. Wishes to make it BIG in life which acording to him is too short to do everything that he wants to. Read his personal musings on jack & spades Follow his tweets on @nishant0garg

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.

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Attend Startup Weekend! |

In their own words, Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more. It is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking, unique facilitation technique and letting the founders show what they can do. The program has already met with success in Toronto, New York, Hamburg, Houston, West Lafayette, Bangalore, DC and more.

Not enough? Need more reasons to join? Here are the TOP 10 reasons why you should attend Startup Weekend:

1. Opportunities:  The primary reason why Startups are such a touch nut to crack, especially in India, is the lack of opportunities. Startup Weekend provides an unprecedented level of networking, team building, learning, and life changes for its attendees and their communities. Sometimes a company emerges, sometimes one doesn’t, but every time people leave with more experience, insight, knowledge, friends, and resources than they came with.
2. Implement theoretical knowledge: Startup Weekends are all about learning through the act of creating.  Don’t just listen to theory, build your own strategy and test it as you go. It gives people a chance to experience what a high-octane startup experience is like without risking their day jobs.
3. Easy to find co-founders or Partners: We all know it’s not just about the idea – it’s about the team. Startup Weekend is hands down the best way to find someone you can actually launch a startup with. It’s easier to find a co-founder for a business when there are so many entrepreneurs, designers, and developers working over the weekend to launch an idea. There’s a tremendous amount of camaraderie that develops, even between competing teams.
4. Building ever lasting relationships: This isn’t just a happy-hour. Startup Weekend attracts your community’s best makers and do-ers. By spending a weekend working to build scalable companies that solve real-world problems, you will build long-lasting relationships and possibly walk away with a job or even an investor.
5. Risk free environment to work in: Startup Weekend gives people with ideas a risk free opportunity to test out these ideas and potentially build a prototype in just one weekend, while also being able to present the idea and the minimum viable product (MVP) to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs and investors.
6. Experience the mini-version of the startup life: build a real product out of an idea & sell it to real customers, meet potential team members (may be launch a real startup with them!), work with some awesome mentors, learn a hell lot of stuff, join over 30,000 Startup Weekend alumni, all on a mission to change the world and most importantly – have a good time.
7. Actual business launches: Over 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still going strong after 3 months.  Roughly 80% of participants plan on continuing working with their team or startup after the weekend.
8. Meet the who’s who of the industry: Local tech and startup leaders participate in Startup Weekends as mentors and judges. Get some one-on-one time with the movers and shakers in your community.
9. Monetary savings: Startup Weekends cost between $75 and $99 (less for students).  Your ticket covers seven meals, snack, access to exclusive resources from our global sponsors, a book from O’Reilly Media and all the coffee you can drink.
10. Amazing prizes: One team will be invited to send two people to Agra with Geeks on a Plane to be a part of “Geeks at the Taj”. You will be given an opportunity to pitch your idea and spend time traveling with the Geeks to and from one of the wonders of the world. Another absolutely amazing prize will be automatic acceptance into The Morpheus’ next batch starting 2nd of January 2012 and continuing till 3rd of May 2012. TM is a seed accelerator, which focuses on working with super early stage startups; provide 5 L of funding & 4 months of intensive support as a limited co-founder.

So what are you all waiting for? Come and experience the startup life for yourself. As a popular saying goes “all it needs, is one good idea” and you never know what you might end up achieving. Being Startup Weekend Delhi and Startup Weekend Gurgaon media partners we’ll try keeping you abreast with any new updates as well as provide you with full coverage of the events.

For more information about SW Delhi, you can check their Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter.

Student of Information and Technology at IIIT-Allahabad. A programmer by chance and a blogger by heart. Staunch Roger Federer fan and loves reading novels. Wishes to make it BIG in life which acording to him is too short to do everything that he wants to. Read his personal musings on jack & spades Follow his tweets on @nishant0garg

Aakash Tablet: Product Review, Specs, Pics, Price and Insights From theMaker Himself |

There has been much fanfare and buzz surrounding the launch of Aakash Tablet. Luckily we at Hungry N Foolish managed to get our hands on the device. Here is our review:

Hardware:

First glance: Impressive. The device we have is black in colour on all sides. Actually, black is the only colour the device is going to be maufactured in. There are absolutely no buttons anywhere on the front side except for a thin elongated one at the left end. This single button is used for multiple purposes such as sleep mode deactivation and navigating back to desktop. If you hold it up for a few seconds it’ll display options of switching to: previous folder, recent places you visited or the desktop.

The overall look is aesthetically clean and pleasing to the eye. The back side which as of now is covered with stickers of Aakash and Datawind maufacturers, has a speaker output and a tiny reset button hole. The screen is protected by a dual layer of plastic, possibly for reducing the gloss.

There are two Standard USB ports, a feature that we are yet to experience in an iPad. A microSD card slot is available on the top edge. A microphone and a 3.5mm stereo Earphone jack are provided on the two sides of the lower edge of the device and the power button and charger slot occupy the left side. Overall, build-wise the device feels solid and durable. As the trainers from IIT Rajasthan elaborated, it can withstand slight mishandlings and quite a few falls!

256 MB of RAM is provided, which might sound pretty less initially but since the Tablet is aimed for educational purposes only, it might just have enough on it to cope up with the functionalities. The Samsung Galaxy Tab has a 512 MB RAM. A 2 GB internal flash storage and up to 32GB external storage is supported. Aakash runs on a Conexant 366 Mhz Processor with a Graphics accelerator and an HD Video processor.

Screen:

The major point of debate surrounding the launch and probably even in the coming months would be its screen – which is TFT resistive unlike other higher end tablets which have a capacitive touch screen. So, the feather like movements in a capacitive screen that the smartphone and tablet users have got accustomed to, won’t be possible with Aakash.

Its 7 x 3.5 inch wide display while offering a resolution of 800×480, looks somewhat dull as compared to tablets currently available in the market which have a more glossy look and feel.

We talked to Mr Tuli about it, and he explained how it was one of his prime areas of concern while developing the Tablet:

The price for a resistive screen when imported in the quantity that the government required came about $4 each. Whereas, the same would have gone upto $22 if capacitive ones were used instead.

However, he assured that the Datawind team is working on creating economical capacitive touch screens which when manufactured in large quantities would almost cost the same as the resistive ones.

Software:

The Operating System is Android 2.2 Froyo OS. Not much to be said here. We all know what Android is and it’s usage. What would be interesting to see would be how upgradation to a newer version of the OS would be implemented by the makers with time.

The Basic functionalities and Apps:

WiFi connectivity is supported by the tablet. The Bluetooth application has been listed but is currently not working on the device. Perhaps we will see it functioning in the public release. There is no accelerometer, a camera app is provided but again it is useless since the tablet doesn’t come with an in-built camera.

Mr Tuli mentioned that Aakash tablet might include a possible SIM card inclusion in the future:

Further development process includes the possible inclusion of sim card for 3G services and enhancing its capability to work as a mobile telephonic device too. The GPRS connectivity is yet to be achieved as well and is high on the priority list.

The built in apps, which are shipped with the device, are quite basic. There is an Advanced Task Manager with Applications, Services and Systems tabs and options of killing or ending them. For an avid reader like me, an app like Aldiko Premium is a must. It has a cool interface with customizable wooden touch shelves, depicting your recently read books. This app will also come in handy for the students, as it will enable them to read quite comfortably on the tab.

The Android Office should be the primary app as far as educational services of the tablet are concerned. Its loaded with spread-sheets, text, presentations and Database features and a file explorer for browsing saved files. There is also an APG encryption app. Some basic apps like a web browser, calculator, calendar, clock, converter, quick search, contacts are there. There is a Facebook and an E-mail app for internet users. There are two apps for picture viewing namely gallery and Quickpic, the latter being Mr Tuli’s personal choice.

The FDroid app shows the installed Android apps, the list of available apps that can be downloaded and updates of newer versions for current apps. Three gaming apps namely Mini Golf, ZumZum and Open Sudoko complete the Tablet. The Speech Recorder has been included for use once the 3G sim services have been included for voice calling.

The OS supports multiple desktops. Videos can be played directly from the pen drive plugged into the USB slot. There is a touch and hold feature which shifts the app onto the desktop, or wherever intentioned. There are developmental tools and a packet Manager provided by Datawind itself. The internet browsing experience is quite satisfying indeed. The browser is quick and responsive and the onscreen keyboard seems pretty well integrated and easy to use.

Performance and Battery Life:

Since the device has limited RAM available, running multiple apps simultaneously will not prove to be a good idea. The device has not yet hung up while running 6 simultaneous apps that I had a test run with. But I would suggest that users keep minimal apps running, to improve the functioning of the device.

As far as battery life is considered, the battery backup is 180 minutes or 3 hours as listed on the pack. How much of it will it be able to retain with constant use is yet to be seen though.

Our Take

We would come up with more analysis of the Aakash tablet as soon as we are able to test it more. Meanwhile, we’d like to say just one thing: A lot of pre-launch and post-launch talk has been about how the tablet is Chinese-made and how it is a no-use piece. Our take:

We feel that coming up with such an initiative is in itself something big. You shouldn’t expect an iPad killer from a $50 tablet. The tablet has the potential to provide a low-cost platform for accessing the internet, which if used in the right manner will go a long way in creating awareness amongst the youth of the country. It is poised to provide a useful source of information to students of India, where sometimes basic infrastructure like libraries are lacking.

It is being said that the the tablet is being built in Datawind’s unit in Secunderabad, India. The price of Rs 2200 for a tablet is still extemely less, and I hope that the tablet will be bought by many across the country. The government and the team behind Aakash should be lauded for such an initiative. After using it, all I can say is that the device can have a wide reach, and probably see more rural penetration than any other device due to its low cost.

Could it be India’s answer to provide education to students (urban and rural) using the internet at a low price? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.

Google Earth Number of Downloads |

Well, I still remember the day when I was introduced to this unique tool – Google Earth. At first, when my friend told me about it, I laughed over it that theirs such a tool on the Internet which can locate and show your very own home and may be click pictures of it. It appeared to me as a fantasy. But all thanks to Google which has always been successful in making such dreams true.

Today, while covering this post, when I came across this Google update, I feel no wonder in saying that this tool is being used by one billion people world-wide. Google made a wonderful video depicting the achievement. Have a look:

Some fast facts about Google Earth:

• The present Google Earth was not started by Google. It earlier used to be another company – KeyHole Inc, before being acquired by Google in 2004.
• You can make your own map in Google Earth.
• You can also see beneath the surface at times. Actually, there is a layers feature which can be enabled at disabled according to choice.
• The satellite images you see are not of today, but are of sometime back. Some are even 3 years old.
• You can also view other planets using Google Earth.
• A professor in Perth used the service to find ancient tombs and geolyphs dating back to 2000 years ago in Egypt. He achieved this feat from Perth itself. Another professor used Google Earth to scan thousands of kilometres of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Find more information here.
• When earthquake struck in the Italian town of Laquila, the people there used Google Earth to rebuild the town in 3D. Find more information here.

Other Google Earth Stories can be found on this website. All these stories prove how in-valuable Google Earth is. You can download it here, and try for yourself. Maybe, you’d be able to justify whether it deserved 1 billion downloads or not. I’m sure your answer will be positive.

SnapGhar, a Group Buying Platform for Real Estate: Look at the PremiumProduct Group Buying Sites |

SnapGhar is a group-buying site in the real-estate domain and is based on the fact that a group of like-minded customers come together on a website and avail of discounts on a real-estate project of a company/builder. The real estate developers are encouraged to give discounts when they see a large group ready to buy property in their project and the buyers also get the same property for a lesser price than what they have got on buying separately. It actually is a win-win situation for both the buyer and the seller.

How does it work?

Real estate projects are listed on the site and they get active only when they attain a minimum number of buyers showing interest before the expiry date. Currently, the site lists properties in Jaipur, Karjat, Thane and Mumbai. People interested in buying either need to show interest online or by making a call. It is more like putting the real-estate business online, but with a twist which helps customers get discounts in a group.

SnapGhar is a relatively new startup on the scene and its Facebook Page consists of only 101 fans and the Twitter profile is yet to get active. Also, with a poor Alexa rank of 1564734, the site traffic is meagre. All these facts show that the aggregated deals domain business in the higher priced product ranges is not run through an online medium but more of through an offline medium.

A Look at the Group Buying Space of Higher-end Products

The Group Buying craze in India is huge. Many startups have come and gone, all trying to sell goods and services at discounted prices. Some of the popular sites in the group-buying domain in India currently are: Snapdeal, Mydala, and Dealsandyou. With effective strategies and some luck these companies have survived and done exceedingly well in the Indian market till now. There is also a long queue of failed startups in the domain as well.

All the startups in the group-buying domain are trying to capitalise on the fact of frugality being a part of the culture in India. With the mainstream group-buying space flooded with more than 20 competitors, the recent trend in group-buying ideas has been towards a pull-based model where customers are given discounts on expensive products like a LCD TV to an apartment in Mumbai. Here are the sites which are working in the non-mainstream deal domain:

• Groffr – They give both real estate deals as well as deals on lifestyle products like electronic products like LCD TVs, etc. Groffr gives real estate deals in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Goa, Kochi, Nagpur and Pune. Groffr has been in the news recently for getting funding from IAN
• Mobstreet.in – Acquired by Groffr.
• GrtDeal – 15 days ago they were functional in the real estate domain in only Mumbai. Now, on seeing their site, one can see offers listed for not only real estate but other high-priced categories like cars, bikes, electronics, and travel in as many as 8 cities- Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, and Thane.
• Runpapa – An Ahmedabad-based startup applying the pull-based model to cars and bikes, including insurance and loans for automobiles.

This model of generating value to the consumers through aggregated deals is going to be very beneficial for the common man in this time of exceedingly high rates of interest in loans, esp. housing loans. As far as I can understand, this domain cannot be limited to online marketing but will need an offline lead generation strategy as well. Thus, the need for large investments.

Abhineet Kumar is the co-founder of Hungry N Foolish. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays.

Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Dealsandyou, Delhi, Goa, Groffr, GrtDeal, Hyderabad, India, Karjat, Kochi, Mobstreet.in, Mumbai, Mydala, Nagpur, Pune, Runpapa, Snapdeal, Snapghar, Thane

How to Land a Job in Facebook, Google and Apple? [Infographic] |

All of us must be aware that recession has slapped companies on its face. But instead of going slow, the technology industry seems to be doing good. Apple, Facebook and Google all of them have come up with new products. While Apple has launched the new iPhone 4S, Facebook also came with it’s new Timeline feature integrated with music services from Spotify. Google as always seems unaffected from the word recession as it continues to launch new products and rope in new celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan to promote them.

So guys – what could be better than a day when you could work for your very own Facebook or Google – whose products you use daily. Not many get a chance to work with the global internet giants. Although you might find many Indians working for Google and a few for Facebook now as they’ve hired a lot of tech students from India, still getting into these biggies is a big thing. I for one haven’t met any Indian from either of the IITs or any other college in India who went off to work for Apple though. Possibly because Apple is yet to set its foot in the Indian market.

Okay, now to what we are here for. How do we get a job in Facebook, Google or Apple?

Just go here and apply for jobs at Facebook, Google, and Apple:

• Facebook jobs
• Google jobs
• Apple jobs

Btw, if you are not interested in joining Facebook, Google, and Apple, and aim to replicate their success, you could always check out our startup related articles.

Or else:

Here’s what I’ve got for you – a cool info-graphic from the guys at Masterdegree.net making your way easy through such companies.

Will You Download the UC 8.0 Browser, Launched Yesterday in India? |

UCWeb is a mobile internet browser, which has seen rapid growth in the past two years. The company is based out in China recently launched its UC 8.0 browser in India. Here are some interesting statistics about the UCWeb:

1. Occupies 20 percent market share in the Indian mobile internet browser market
2. More than 200 Million users

More on UCWeb 8.0 –

1. Based on the U3 kernel technology
2. Smart zoom mode
3. Automatically fits the screen
4. Fast speed
5. Smart screen adapting
6. Blocks trojan attack
7. Consumes less phone battery

One key feature of UCWeb 8.0 is its speed. It is faster than most of the browsers as claimed by the company and survey findings –  50 percent faster while using 3G and 30 percent faster while using Wi-Fi than other browsers. So if I use the Wi-Fi/3G and UC 8.0 then for sure I’d save a lot of time and my phone’s power as well.

Now that you know a bot of stats and key features of UCWeb 8.0, do give it a try and tell us how you found out the web browsing experience different from the normal browser you use. I used Opera in my last mobile device, but for now I find the default Samsung browser in my Galaxy Fit to suffice my requirements till now.

India being one of the countries with rapid internet scalability probability considering its huge population, it was imminent for UC Web to target it in a bigger way. We might get to see more and more internet software companies setting a sales shop here.

Abhineet Kumar is the co-founder of Hungry N Foolish. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays.

UnwrapIndia: A 100% Made-in-India e-Store |

The novelty and ingenuity of Indian art and craft has been globally recognized. However, the superior artistic products produced by Indian artisans are losing out to the mediocre but well advertised and readily available assembly line products in the market today. Thus, the lack of a proper platform to showcase and sell their wares is limiting these handicrafts from reaching a wider audience.

UnWrapIndia aims to bridge this gap and provide that much-needed platform between rural artisans and urban consumers, essentially bringing India’s best handicrafts from the remotest interiors of our country to your doorstep. Selling crafts home decor and furnishings to accessories and artifacts, UWI is perhaps the first-of-its kind e-commerce site.

UWI was founded in July this year by a team of professionals coming from backgrounds like travel, media, technology, sales, and marketing. The UnWrapIndia.com portal is elegant and aesthetically designed and provides a very professional outlook.

“The entire solution has been built from scratch and this allows us to play around with the look and feel as and when we want and incorporate features very quickly”, says Suhas Kamath, COO UnWrapIndia.

One distinguishing factor, other than their merchandise, is that UWI partners with 75 suppliers which include rural artisans from places like Manipur and Assam, or NGOs selling just one product. They have already launched COD to suit the Indian markets, and at the same time looking at foreign shores.

What Parkal Suhas Kamath, COO, UWI has to say about this website :

What is your target market? Who are your buyers?

Our target market is anyone who has a second thought about buying foreign products. Currently domestic, very soon we will start international and we have already got ample queries to ship to the US and UK. Currently about 70% of our buyers are women.

What is your delivery model?

 Without compromising on costs, we have gone ahead with the best logistics provider, BlueDart to make sure there are no damages and customers receive the products asap. We also go one step further in training rural artisans on very small things like avoiding usage of certain chemicals in the paints to make the products export compliant.

How did you manage to partner 75 suppliers in four months of founding?

We have a team scouting for talent both online and offline. Our merchandising head has spent about a fortnight each in the North east and Kashmir. I have personally traveled to Ghaziabad, Haryana, Manali, Chennapatna, Hassan etc. We travel a lot.

How does the supplier login work? Can they directly add items to your shelves?

The supplier login is a fantastic feature. You can add/modify products at your convenience. You can manage stock, feature products, have a landing page that talks about your company, give discounts as and when you want for selected products and selected time periods. It’s like you have your own website. Soon, they will be able to manage even their in house inventory through our portal.

What has been your traction so far?

We are growing at 40% month over month. Within four months of launch our alexa rank is about 50k which is great for a new comer in this business.

UnWrapIndia discourages foreign products and promotes Indian alternatives. UWI works on the philosophy that if everyone buys Indian, Indian manufacturers will get the volumes and customers will get the price advantage as well. Be Indian Buy Indian is their motto.

A well-made product, launched with quite some planning, and good execution is what I could attribute the rapid growth of UWI. The business looks promising, but reminds of Brooklyn-based Etsy, that recently received $20 millioninfunds while launching a social commerce platform.

What is your opinion? Do you think UnWrapIndia will carve out a niche among the Flipkarts and Infibeams and Myntras?

Indian School Kids Get a Chance to Participate in YouTube Space Lab |

YouTube Space Lab is a competition where 14-18 year old school kids can participate by sending videos of experiments they’d like astronauts to perform at the International Space Station (ISS). The experiments selected will be performed in space, and will be live streamed on YouTube for school students across the world to see them.

The contest has been opened to Indian school students as well, where they could submit their entries on the YouTube channel. The YouTube Space Lab team will be visiting 10,000 schools across India encouraging students to enter into the competition. I’d advise enthusiasts to checkout the competition’s rules before submitting a video though.

Students don’t have to actually record themselves doing an experiment, and have to record a video where they’re explaining the experiment they want the ISS team to perform. YouTube Space Lab has collaborated with Lenovo, Space Adventures, NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on this project. The competition is a good one considering if you get selected you have a chance to win the following:

1. ZERO-Gravity flights
2. Lenovo IdeaPad laptops
3. Trip to Tanegashima Island, Japan to watch rocket bound to the ISS takeoff.
4. Astronaut training experience in Star City, Russia – training center for Russian cosmonauts.

Phew. Those prizes make me feel bad that I’m in a college and not a school kid. How badly I would’ve wanted to enter into this competition to win such awesome prizes. But, I’m happy for the current crop of kids who’d get such an opportunity.

I wish folks interested should give it a best shot. The last date for submission is 7th December, 2011 and your entries will be judged by an eminent panel of scientists, astronauts and will also include Professor Stephen Hawking. Good luck!

Abhineet Kumar is the co-founder of Hungry N Foolish. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays.