Chahiye is the latest venture focussed on services for the corporate. Their motto stresses the fact of connecting to ethical providers. Currently they provide dedicated service apartment rentals for the corporates. Chahiye makes rentals easy by coordinating apartment visits to suit your schedule, organizing a car for these visits and offering you the lowest brokerage fees.

The other area is filling up job vacancies in companies from a pool of known people. They have a talent scout network comprised of alumni of IIT’s, IIM’s, ISB and other top schools which would provide a decent and always available pool of resources for recruiting. They also act as connecting points and consultants.

They are based out of Gurgaon. And looks like a small sized outfit trying to spread its wings.

Global human resource consultancy major Manpower brings out that every 4 people out of 5 are willing to relocate from their current homes for a increase in pay package. It goes without saying that it’s turning out to be an uber mobile world with more and more people looking out for greener pastures, better opportunities and improved living conditions. Technology coupled with Internet spread is contributing in great proportions to an unprecedented situation where information is accessible and relocation is a matter of just choice. More than 3 billion people are connected with the numbers rising, a never before scenario in human history. This is the case not only with countries but across international borders. The effects are very much visible even in India.

More about findings and opinions below.

( via business-standard )

The Manpower survey of nearly 30,000 people revealed that 79 per cent of candidates are willing to relocate for work, with increased pay accounting for motivating factor for over 82 per cent of those looking to move.

“Todays labour force is highly mobile in a way the world has never seen before. Talent is on the move, both within and across national borders; and as a result, the face of the global workforce is changing dramatically,” Manpower India Managing Director Naresh Malhan said.

The factors behind this trend ranges from shifts in demography, job requirements and a growing shortage of talent but mainly due to the fact that individuals are open to the idea and are also able to find employment far away from their homes.

Relocating for work has many benefits whether they are financial, cultural or career and business-related but in all cases workers need to carefully consider the implications of their relocation on every aspect of their lives.

Artha Yantra Inc is a privately held company, in startup phase started this year and is based out of Hyderabad. Artha Yatra aims to be a startup focussed on providing cutting edge web based financial services products to the people of India. The focus is on creating and fostering comprehensive, end-to-end financial solutions to address the growing working class people in the country. Well, that’s for starters and more things can be done on similar lines to branch out into different niche domains. The company was started by Nitin, Sunil and Anant graduated from Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.

More about the management team here, and advisory team here

Taxyantra is one of their first products for the purpose of solving the problem of filing tax returns, it is one of the first online tax filing websites in India. This makes the job of physical filing easier and relinquishes arduous tasks on the way. All one has to do is register with Taxyantra, fill up personal and professional details, income details, disclose tax and saving related information, fill up Section 80 A, C etc data, verify the taxes, make payment towards the services as listed and get ITR1, or ITR2 documents. Additionally, one can save online repository of tax filing details and related information at Taxyantra. One can also get answers to tax related queries online, that too from experts. The chances of learning accurate tax related information is increased and all these can lead to better tax planning for individuals. Taxyantra provides physical support in the following three cities - Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Contact details of offline centers here. Also, the taxes can be filed from anywhere in the world and services are open to NRI as well.

As for tie-ups and expansion offline, Future Money will be delivering Taxyantra.com services across India through its stores .

Business Model

Taxyanta has nominal charges for the services offered online. Charges range from Rs 100 to Rs 300 to Rs 450 depending on plan.

They have two plans retail basic and retail deluxe, the basic plan covers
- Income tax from Salary (single/multiple form-16s)
- Interest Income
- Tax saving investments/expenses
- No other income to report

The difference being deluxe allows for following extra requirements:
- Income from single/multiple house properties
- Capital gains/losses from securities
- Simple case of capital gains/losses from house property
- Tax saving investments/expenses

For more details please visit their website.

They also provide special corporate plans for companies [ not sure if they provide special services for startups as such ]. Currently they are running offers for companies registering their employees in getting discounts. For this please contact sales@taxyantra.com to register.

Wrapping up

We are seeing trends where one by one, the normal physical services are getting converted to some form of online interaction or completely a replacement in the form of web service. Filing tax returns is one such and the team at Taxyantra has hit on making this a hassle free, pleasurable experience. Look forward to more offerings from them in near future.

Picsquare the online photo management startup has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Karnataka based Bhola Digital Lab. This will help them to expand their offerings in the offline space and spread across India. Photo printing is a niche area in India and one of the prime options for monetization.

More here.

( via Indiaprwire )

Picsquare, India’s first and leading online photo portal today announced, that Bangalore based Bhola Digital Lab, a leader in professional photography using state of the art printing technology offering high quality print solutions spread across Karnataka, has made an investment in the company. The capital raised will primarily be used in deploying latest technologies in design and printing, expanding product portfolio, market reach, business partnership and new market & business opportunities.

Picsquare has been using Bhola’s highly advanced printing services and the tie-up with the Bangalore based brick and mortar company, will help Picsquare leverage the expertise of a 2-decade-old industry leader and share product strategy. The strategic alliance will solidify Picsquare’s dominant position as one of the largest photo sharing company in India having presence both online and offline.

“Defining and delivering compelling and innovative user experiences has been our underlying mantra since inception and we are honored to partner with Bhola Digital Lab,” said Manish Agrawal, cofounder and Managing Director, Picsquare. “Our strategy was clear that we partner with the leaders in the photo industry to deliver the best combination of online photo services with traditional processing and printing,” he added.

“Our relationship with Picsquare is an extension of our commitment to the customers, guaranteeing them the next level of dedication and service,” said Mr. Pankaj Parikh, Managing Director, Bhola Digital Lab.

Founded in 2005, Picsquare has attracted over 1.5 lakhs users and a very high customer loyalty. The company also uses the most sophisticated technology in its space. Today the company offers the most innovative and cost effective option of printing and delivering photographs and a host of merchandise across the nation.

vunitemedia.com is a Salt Lake City, Utah, based startup focussed on website design and management including hosting services [ not sure what exactly they mean by hosting here, whether they give hosting space and server, b’cos they don’t appear to be a hosting provider or just help the customer end-to-end in setting up a website including hosting ]. They manage and support the website, give coding hand, provide design and development services, ad management. The high end package also includes site analytics and monitoring.

They have three packages from starter to intermediate to high-end. For more details please visit their website.

Vunite is trying to build a business by providing their services of desinging websites. They could be a nice option for people in need of prototyping and testing designs before launching campaigns. Also, they have a few wordpress theme designs.

Lifeblob gets $1mn funding from Seedfund, the Google backed India based funding company.

Lifeblob was earlier covered on our blog here. The concept is of a personal digital diary sprinkled with all kinds of content like blog, images, videos, comments etc that goes on to build a timeline of people, events and tags.

BIGFlix is celebrating the Independence Day Josh with the campaign “Azaadi Ke Rang”, offering free movie viewing via their website until August 31st. Twelve independence related movies are on offer for being streamed to a worldwide audience including the Indian diaspora abroad and the masses in India with broadband and these will be free.

It looks like a good way to kick in the Azaadi josh amongst people and reach out for newer audience while consolidating the existing user base.

More below.

( via Indiaprwire )

BIGFlix.com, a part of Reliance BIG Entertainment, India’s largest online and offline movie rental service, unfurls the colors of freedom on the eve of Independence Day with 12 best and all time popular patriotic movies for free until 31st August.

The movies offered on this eve include movies like Rang De Basanti, Swades, Leader starring Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu, Nehru, The Jewel of India, other patriotic movies in regional languages like Veera Pandiyan Kattabomman, Ranangan and Kapalotiya Thamizan and many more.

Speaking on the occasion of this announcement, Mr. Murtuza Kagalwala, Business Head - Video on Demand, BIGFlix.com, said, “This is a part of our ongoing initiative to help the masses connect with us through movies in their daily lives on all occasions, important festivals and historical days. Currently we are reaching a strong 25 million NRI audience across the globe and with this initiative we are confident that we will have 3 million users accessing our website who will watch atleast 3 to 4 movies. With this we will have around 15 – 20 million free streaming coming from worldwide with this promotion alone. We will continue to introduce such initiatives to allow our fellow Indians and other Bollywood cinema lovers to enjoy the spirit of our Independence Day and other occasions away from home all times”.

Bloggermoms.com - A site for moms…

Bloggermoms.com is not exactly a startup or a straight entrepreneurial venture, nevertheless it’ a nice concept to create a community of immigrant moms to share tips, experiences and ideas. Founded by an Indian couple resident in the US, the site is a simple wordpress blog open for registration to anyone interested. The tribulations of kids trying to adapt to two more cultures, multicultural ethos, the experience of raising kids in an immigrant country, networking and sharing between at-home moms as well working moms is a prerogative with this community.

The site is becoming quite popular around the world and is spreading to Oceania, Asia, Latin America, North America etc.

It’s also featured in the recent edition of India Today : http://woman.itgo.in/woman/story.jsp?sid=6105

This is a BOP ( bottom of the pyramid ) focussed venture.

GreenMango is based out of Hyderabad and is a young and upcoming startup catering to the needs of really small time, low income groups businesses like plumbing, carpentry, tailoring, mechanical workshops, electrical helping etc. The data and service is also concentrated to Hyderabad. It looks like the service has been operational recently with some more work to be put in. The web service is minimal and provides an interface to search for local businesses, three types - search based on business type or business name, or the location of area and pin codes. Other than this, the front page also lists recent shopper or customer reviews with ratings. They also put up the featured business listing as an introductory help for that business.

There is also a “Write Review” section but looks like it’s not yet operational currently. The site adopts a three pronged approach -
Find - local businesses from word of mouth
Review - Share reviews from as wide a reach of workers and entrepreneurs as possible
Connect - In the process connect the people who require services with the people that provide them

However there is no web interface for the third part, that is connecting. Maybe the site and service will be more full fledged in coming months.

The idea behind Green Mango is similar in vein to Babajob that’s more of a portal cum career networking site for similar people in low end jobs. Green mango could well turn out to be a competitor to Babajob.

More about the management team : http://www.greenmangoindia.com/about_us.html 

More about the awards, and press : http://www.greenmango.co.in/betagreenmangoshoppersite/aboutus.action

‘

Forum NOKIA, the developer arm of NOKIA is holding the USID Foundation Design Challenge 2008 as part of the USID 2008, 2nd India International HCI Conference. The central theme for the year is design innovation and user experience - transforming businesses in new economy.

Dates : 4 - 6th September 2008

Location : The Leela Palace Kempinski, Airport Road, Bangalore, India

More details can be found here.

“Reminder Planet” is a free sms & email reminder service available to anyone with an email address & mobile number. With today’s busy schedules, it’s quite easy to let important dates slip our minds.

“Reminder Planet” helps you manage your life, business, and family. Set up unlimited reminders for appointments, meetings, birthdays, anniversaries, bill payments, premium renewals or anything else that you may forget about! We’ll remind you via email so you can go on with your life!

Schedule reminders days, weeks, months, or even years in advance.
Setup one time or recurring notifications.
Never forget a birthday, meeting, bill pay or other important date again
Password protected members area
Build your finance planning
Build your wealth

You are about to experience an easier way to keep track of your bills, receive reminders before they are due, and make sense of them once they are paid. With Reminder Planet, one can always know exactly what you have to pay, and when you have to pay it.

Now registered users can send free sms in India & group sms with in India.
http://www.reminderplanet.com
http://www.rpsms.com

A blend of features from kyakare.com and smsgupshup.com to form a digital personal diary via sms and email to alleviate the problems of forgetfulness and overcrowded appointment tracking etc.

Music Broadcast Private Limited ( MBPL ) the parent company of RadioCity 91.1 FM has been gradually expanding presence from select cities to a large number of cities in India. In it’s expansion initiatives online, they have launched an all inclusive web portal Planetradiocity.com

From their website -

Planet Radio City is India’s first all-inclusive Music Portal that offers users information, entertainment and interactivity The site is targeted not just at the passionate, serious music lover, keen on information and discovering new music but also musicians and music enthusiasts - experts and amateurs. The website offers unique applications and features hitherto missing from the music websites of Indian origin. In short, Planet Radio City is a one-stop shop for music lovers and musicians

Some of the features on this site include -

(a) Artist space - One can connect with all the new and upcoming or submitted artists. Here’ a place for all new artists to register or enroll themselves to submit and popularize their meetings. You can also see new audio, have a taste by playing and rate them. The place to showcase a musician, singer or an upcoming band.
(b)  Friends of Music - The part of this site contributes to the social-networking aspect ( Web 2.0 so to say ), one can network with like-minded people regarding music taste, review albums and new releases, form groups and create personal radio stations.
(c) Lyrics Finder - Find the latest and up-to-date lyrics of your popular favorites
(d) Musicopedia - Claimed to be the biggest collection of music encyclopedia sorted by genre, dates and categories
(e) Music reporter - Latest buzz and news about new music, looks like there is lot of content from outside India under this section
(f) Planet Radio - Create your own radio station
(g) Video Lounge - Video clippings that can be browsed by music releases, location, interviews, contributions, events & concerts, music videos, live acts, and exclusive stuff.

We have covered quite a few India oriented music submission cum music-networking sites in earlier posts here and here.

A new addition and competition on way to existing players. Does Radio City has the teeth to muzzle in higher participatory penetration from the audience? it’s to be seen.

EXIMIUS is the first ever entrepreneurship summit at IIM Bangalore, a two day event to be held on August 22nd - 23rd 2008. An event to bring together aspiring entrepreneurs, students, VC community, corporates and industry experts.

Eximius is organized by the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Cell at IIM Bangalore in association with Educomp, and has Yahoo as the Innovation Partner. The event is supported by NASSCOM and the NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore.

There will be an innovation challenge with prizes and idea valuation by VC firms and reputed entrepreneurs.  There will also be panel discussions and idea presentations for evaluation. For more details please visit http://www.iimb-eximius.com/

Finally, LinkedIn which was recently valuated at $1 billion is looking at worldwide expansion. And India alone has the potential to contribute around 20 million subscribers, where the current LinkedIn members stand at 25 million, out of which 1 million are Indian accounts.

( via LiveMint )

World’s largest professional networking website LinkedIn is scouting for partners in India as it aims to bag a lage mindshare for the brand in the country.

“We will be looking for a few strategic local players as partners to further stimulate our growth and solidify our brand in India,” LinkedIn director, International, Elisabeth O’Donnell told PTI.

Talking about the revenue generation model for LinkedIn, which has been valued at over $1 billion by some PEs, O’Donnell said the company makes money through online job listings, subscriptions, advertising, and corporate solutions among other sources.

The company has a monetization strategy in place to further their expansion plans and has about 325 employees worldwide catering to the huge subscriber base. She said the company expects to clock a revenue between $70-100 million this year.

Rupeetalk.com is one of the companies funded by the venture Seedfund and is dedicated to provide services for the masses in the area of personal finances. It aims to be a one-stop shop for users financial needs.

Rupeetalk deals in giving tips and searching in the area of credit cards, loans and insurance. The loans include home loans, business loans, personal loans and loans against property. The credit and debit cards can be sorted based on the interest rates, annual fee and balance transfer rates. One can also avail comparison services on the site. Another feature is the calculator, that includes EMI calculation, projected debt and payback periods, networth calculator, and calculations fulfilling the needs of home budgeting. The site includes options for the users to share their views, opinions and experience.

But it not easy to guage how active the site is or how many people use the servcies. The website looks very rudimentary and Web 1.0- ish, and the services provided can be availed from most other banking and finance houses.