A web of innovations for Indians on Internet

The Indian mind is intelligent. It's another story the Microsofts and the Googles of the world have a substantial Indian population but on the other side there isn't a shortage of ideas cropping up from the Indian soil. Innovation in India is happening. You just need to be open and see.

The Indian mind is intelligent. It's another story the Microsofts and the Googles of the world have a substantial Indian population but on the other side there isn't a shortage of ideas cropping up from the Indian soil. Innovation in India is happening. You just need to be open and see.

This week I witnessed a few technologies that truly have the potential to transform a lot in the ecommerce space in India and the other technology that can truly solve a lot of security problems in India.

Let's start with PayuPaisa.com
This was launched recently. In ecommerce one of the most important aspects is the way transactions are handled. The cash on delivery model has done great so far. Yet payment processing is a problem for many who want to set up their stores. Paypal in India in its current avatar is tied with RBI restrictions. You cannot buy online. You cannot accept this currency, that currency etc. eBay has its own set of limitations which include multiple levels of fees and premium fees going as high as ₹ 3999. The alternative is payment gateways which not only cost a bomb from anywhere ₹ 5000 to ₹ 2,00,000 but are also time consuming in terms of documentation and the transaction costs are on the higher side.

Payupaise.com comes as a pleasant surprise in India. It enables anyone, everyone and just about any person or organization wanting to sell anything a payment gateway within minutes as simple as signing up for Gmail.com. India hasn't had any funding models such as Gofundme.com in the US or even donation enabling. Payupaisa.com enables invoicing, donation, even paying school fees. As a content company their system even allows you to collect donations, fees or just about anything. Definitely, one of the most flexible payment systems to have ever come in India.

'For a country like ours which has a population of over 1.2 billion out of which more than 300 Million have a bank account, and an internet penetration which exceeds 150 million; only fewer than 7 million people actively buying online is a miniscule number. What is even more disappointing is that with over 30 Million SMEs and around 5 Million freelancers in India, fewer than 10,000 people sell online today. PayUPaisa was born out of these needs and intends to solve the above problems. Our objective is to enable 1 million sellers and 20 million buyers on PayUPaisa platform in the next 3. We will redefine the way payments will happen in this country " quoted Nitin Gupta, Co-founder and CEO at PayUPaise.com

Kids Security
With the kind of news that comes in newspapers security is a major concern. As parents each time your child goes off to school somewhere at the back there is a concern until he comes back home. What if the kid could be tracked right from the time he steps out of the house, into the bus, to school and back?

A Gurgaon-based company, SmartAutomation.in, has enabled a wonderful solution in this which ensures complete protection of children on the move in the bus.

How it works?
Tracking and regular notification happens through combination of advance GPRS, GPS and IP related technologies and RFID tags. The USP of this system interface is that it can be accessed through a mobile device with active internet connection. So you can track your child on your smart phone with ease. It also has an integral SMS system facilitating quick SMS based information is an added advantage.

Benefits
The biggest benefit is you as a parent get SMS Notifications of kid's whereabouts. The other benefits are attendance monitoring and easy access to student reports from any remote source. Costing at around ₹400- ₹500 per month, it is perhaps one of the best solutions in terms of security for kids.

Making Transport More Secure
The Nirbhaya case happened in a moving bus in the capital of this country. By now it must be clear in a growing population such as India, security is a domain which simply police alone cannot provide. Technology is perhaps the answer. London is a great example of this. Did you know that the London tube network was covered by as many as 11,000 cameras? According to Vintechnology.com there are an estimated 1.85 million cameras, or one camera for every 14 people. Security is the primary need of humankind. Better security will only lead to better growth and things in life.

Imagine if every bus in Delhi has a CCTV. Since 3G has some restrictions on the amount on transfer of data that maybe required for this project, what if at every red light signal had a Wimax or a Wifi gateway stationed, which transfers the data from the bus to a centralised monitoring center. So let's say you step into the bus at Janpath. At the Rashtrapati Bhawan signal the wimax transfers the data from the CCTV in bus to the Central Monitoring Room. Think of about it, in terms of cost all that is being is required is a basic CCTV and a wifi or wimax point in the bus. Not even ₹ 20,000 per bus in terms of investment, less than the cost of tyres of a bus. The cost of Wimax or Wifi gateways at signals also will not be much considering the pillars are already erected and electricity connection already exists. Imagine the lives this could save. Considering the amount of money govt. spends on projects such a project would be the cost of peanuts for them. Yet the safety it could be provide may simply be unparalleled.

Puneet Mehrotra writes on business and technology. puneet.im puneet@tbe.in