This 23-year-old electronics engineer’s innovation looks to minimise road accident deaths

Prateek Kumar, Founder and Director, Vida Salvateur International Pvt Ltd

This feature first appeared in www.YourStory.com on Sunday, November 3, 2019.

When Prateek Kumar suffered a road accident while doing his BTech at the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE), it turned out to be a major turning point in his life. That experience in November 2016 not only changed the way he approached life, giving him a larger impetus to observe safety, but also gave him a purpose – to make a device that would ensure timely help in cases of road accidents.

“We all know someone who has lost a family member in a road accident because help did not arrive in time. It’s quite unfortunate and the sad reality that we are living in. This needs to change. I wanted to contribute towards bringing this change through my extensive experience in building solutions based on Internet of Things (IoT) and software, from conceptualising to production,” says Prateek.

Convalescing after the accident, Prateek set his mind on building a device that would be capable of sensing the intensity of an accident, sending out relevant information to the nearest hospital or other healthcare service provider, and also intimating the victim’s family members – all within seconds or minutes of the accident occurring.

The germ of an idea that the 23-year-old entrepreneur alighted on was a smart helmet integrating a chip or device, with the technology being retrofitted into existing headgear.

“I looked up sources online and came across some sporty helmets in the European markets featuring a GoPro camera and other gizmos; those didn’t align with what I had in mind and were quite expensive too. I wanted to make a cost effective smart circuit/ chip / device that can either be embedded or retrofitted in the helmet. More importantly, the technology solution had to be thought of keeping in mind the Indian road/ driving conditions. Then, in 2017, along with some friends, I began working on finding a viable offering for the Indian market. As it called for significant investments, I also wrote a software program and sold it to my college to raise money for this project,” recounts Prateek.

In February 2017, the team also received some funding from the Spark-up Idea Fund hosted by iCreate, the technology business incubation centre of the Gujarat government.

“Students and innovators at various engineering colleges across India can apply for the Spark-up Fund directly via https://icreate.org.in/spark_up. The entries are opened at regular intervals and details regarding participation are posted on the website. Applications submitted by various participants are scrutinised and shortlisted by a group of experts. This is followed by a few interview rounds over Skype or a telephone call. Winning entries are then offered up to Rs 50,000 in funding to enable students/ innovators take their respective projects to the next level of development,” said Prateek.

After graduating in 2018, Kumar registered his venture, Vida Salvateur International Pvt Ltd (VSIPL), under the government’s Startup India scheme.

The company’s name literally translates to life-saving in Spanish and or French -- Vida is Spanish for ‘life’ and Salvateur is French for ‘saving’ / ‘life-saving’). 

The smart helmet and the chip/device will be marketed under the brand Motobuddy. In fact, VSIPL is in the process of registering the trademark/ copyright for the brand and its handcrafted logo design.

So far, approximately Rs 25 lakh has been invested in the business, including a grant of Rs 10 lakh received in July last year under the Nidhi Prayas scheme of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India via IKP Eden, Bengaluru, which is India’s first hardware product incubator.

“Every year, two batches are rolled out for this scheme. One can directly apply to incubators that are listed under this programme. The funding offered is a huge support for innovators wanting to start their entrepreneurial journey,” he said.

When Prateek and his friends started developing the smart helmet’, the circuit designed to power the device was so large that it covered an entire helmet. Streamlining the device to an optimal size and making it aesthetically appealing was critical to ensure the headgear would be marketable.

After two years of hard work and numerous iterations, Prateek was successful in reducing the bulky circuit to a coin-sized chip.

Over the last two years, the company has worked extensively to fine-tune the innovation to accurately detect and send out alerts on an accident.

“It was quite a challenge to reduce the circuit to its present size. A lot of prototyping with the right set of manufacturers and components went into making this happen,” says Prateek.

The startup currently has 18 members handling various operational functions. The core team comprises Prateek who brings extensive experience in software development, Drones and IoT solutions to the table. Holding the chief technology officer (CTO) position in the company is Dr. Manoj Saxena, a gold medallist from DCE, masters from IISc and, a PhD from IIT Delhi and Stanford University. Armed with an MBA from INSEAD, Venugopal Gupta is associated with the company as a business advisor and mentor. The author of Business Parables, Gupta is currently the director at Toilet Board Corporation in Europe.
Vida Salvateur is now looking to raise a fresh round of funding of about Rs 1 crore to go into production.

How the device works

Motobuddy’s technology can be paired with a mobile handset via bluetooth. A mobile application has been developed already for this purpose and will be made available for downloads on Google Play Store and iOS App Store at the time of commercial launch. The user can then populate emergency contact numbers and personal health-related details such as allergies, specific medical conditions, and any existing ailments after registering on the app.

The basic reason for integrating the device in helmets is to motivate users to remember their headgear on every ride, Prateek explains. The device also emits a red light using LEDs, thereby enhancing the visibility of the rider on the road.

MotoBuddy Smart Helmet

In case of an accident, the IoT-enabled device detects it but doesn’t send out an alert for 30 seconds. During this brief period, if the accident isn’t serious, the rider can cancel the automated activation process. If the alerts aren’t cancelled, the device sends out a message to the nearest hospital with details of the accident, its intensity, and location. Based on this intelligence, the hospital will be able to send emergency services, either an advanced one or a basic ambulance, to the accident spot.

Motobuddy is working on developing a network of hospitals in Noida, in other parts of Delhi- NCR, and eventually across the country. The company is also in the process of onboarding emergency ambulance service providers into its system, says Prateek, adding, “In case the nearest hospital is not in our system, our executives monitoring the system will call and inform a hospital about the incident. If the hospital doesn’t act within a set period of time, the system will send another message to alert the next-nearest hospital.”

The device simultaneously sends out a message to the rider’s family and friends entered as emergency contacts, with all relevant information about the accident.

The way ahead

The team has conducted on-road trials over the past month, with 25 of the chips tested on the road already. The data from these rides and simulated accidents has been fed into the system and analysed, and the devices have been tweaked according to the findings.

”For instance, the motorcycle / scooter rider could experience a big jolt by running into a pothole or on irregularly shaped speed breakers. Such incidences could be misread by an ordinary sensor as an accident. To tackle this situation, special sensors have been designed to accurately identify accidents from incidences of jolts and bumps. Similarly, there are a few other things that are very unique to the smart chip/ device. I can’t share more details at this stage though,” he said.

The startup has applied for patents for the chip and the smart helmet about 18 months ago, and is likely to get them by the end of this year. These patents are India-specific as getting global patents would be a cost-intensive exercise, Prateek points out, adding, “However, once the additional funding comes in and the smart chip gets good traction in the market, we plan to apply for global patents and secure the intellectual property too.”

The company initially plans to roll out the smart chip priced at Rs 1,200, while the retrofitted helmet priced at Rs 2,500 will be introduced at a later stage. The company also plans to offer an AI-driven engine that will provide advanced driving analytics (ADAs), including driving speed and behavior, and location tracking.

An annual subscription-based service, ADA will be offered to Motobuddy users at a very nominal cost, which will be disclosed at the time of launching the product in the market. Future plans of VSIPL include tying up with general insurance companies and bundling a health and or a personal accident insurance policy to be sold along with the device/ smart helmet. This is being done mainly to facilitate cashless claims at various hospitals in the network. Taking the Motobuddy product and service offerings international also forms a part of the company’s business expansion plans.  

“We have streamlined everything that’s required to commercially produce the chip and the smart helmet. We should be able to hit the market within three months from receiving the funding,” he said.
(The writer is a Mumbai-based independent business journalist and has extensively covered diversified consumer businesses over the last two decades. He can be reached at hello@ashishktiwari.com)

Godrej Consumer sees gradual recovery in FMCG sector over coming quarters

This story first appeared in The Free Press Journal on Thursday, November 7, 2019.

The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry in India, according to Godrej Consumer Products, is hopeful of a gradual recovery over the coming quarters.

The Godrej group company has reported 7% volume growth in India business for the July to September quarter of fiscal 2019-20.

Vivek Gambhir, managing director and chief executive officer, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), said, the 7% volume growth was its highest in the last five quarters and was broad based across categories. “We have seen a sequential pick up in volume every quarter, for the last few quarters.

Picture Courtesy: www.godrejcp.com

The growth was led by new product launches, strong marketing campaigns and consumer offers. Our expectation is to ride on the gradual recovery that we see in India and improve our volume growth momentum,” he said during an earnings call on Wednesday.

To achieve this, the company will be intensifying its thrust on innovation and new product launches. In the pipeline are a slew of disruptive offerings including the Good Night Gold Flash, which it claims to be its biggest innovation in the category over the last decade. Another offering is HIT rat glue pad that’s available only in a select few markets at present.

GCPL has also entered the anti-mosquito racquet space under its HIT brand. This product category has been largely dominated by Chinese products and private labels thus far. The company is looking to disrupt this segment with a branded offering via the e-commerce distribution channel.

At Rs 399 a piece, the pricing of this product however is significantly higher compared to what’s already available in the market at present. Abneesh Roy, executive vice president - institutional equities (research), Edelweiss Securities noted that since the product is only available through e-commerce the company may need to look at physical retail stores going forward.

In fact, GCPL is planning to launch the anti mosquito racquet in modern trade and based on the market response will extend it to premium general trade and other outlets in the next phase of its distribution strategy.

“We are quite happy with the initial success and the plan is to scale up across other channels as well. As for pricing is concerned, this is a product with a much longer warranty and is much superior versus some of the unbranded and private labels that you’d see (in the market).

Our hope is that with the kind of trust and equity HIT commands in the market, we should be able to sustain the premium pricing (Rs 399) of the product,” said Gambhir.

Among other new products to be launched will be in the hair colour space including the relaunch of Expert Creme hair colour and Godrej Anoop Ayurvedic anti hairfall oil through the e-commerce channel. This apart, a bunch of new offerings are in experimental stage and will either be launched on e-commerce or sold through modern trade channels.

(The writer is an independent business journalist and can be reached at ashishktiwari.1976@gmail.com)

Titan cuts H2 FY’20 growth guidance to 11-13% from over 20% earlier

A version of this story first appeared in The Free Press Journal on Wednesday, November 6, 2019.

Stressed consumer sentiments coupled with growing tendency for conserving cash in hand is likely to impact growth targets for consumer companies in the remaining quarters of the current fiscal. And as demand environment continues to be sluggish, consumer companies could be looking to revise their growth guidance for the second half (H2) of fiscal 2019-20 (FY’20).

Taking a lead in this direction is Tata Group’s jewellery, watches, eyewear and fashion accessories business vertical, Titan Company Ltd (TCL). The company management said in an earnings call on Tuesday evening that it has revised jewellery business growth guidance for the period between October 2019 to March 2020. Taking a cautious approach Titan Co. management had in August 2019, said that it was targeting over 20% revenue growth keeping the wedding and festive season in mind.

C K Venkataraman, managing director, Titan, said, “The guidance has been revised to between 11% and 13% now from the earlier over 20% growth levels.” The downward revision has been done after taking into account that overall market situation and consumer buying behaviour, said the top company executive.

Analysts tracking Titan are of the view that the premise of over 20% growth talked about earlier was based on company’s execution of business and not necessarily relying on overall macro market conditions. However, the change in the guidance now is an indication of concerns in this industry as a result of which Titan management has made a significant correction in its growth numbers going forward.

Abneesh Roy, executive vice president - institutional equities (research), Edelweiss Securities, said that the brokerage has been pointing that achieving 20% guidance in H2FY20 is very difficult in jewellery business given weak sentiments, high base of 36% in Q3FY20 and 21% in Q4FY20. “For FY21, the company is yet to change guidance from current 20%. By next quarter, Titan said they will have more clarity,” said Roy.

 
While Edelweiss expects Titan to correct 5-6% in near term, from longer term perspective, the brokerage maintains a BUY on dips given huge retail expansion, struggling competitors and increasing formalisation of jewellery sector.

Elucidating the reasons that led to revising the guidance, Venkataraman said, the company had set out a growth table for five years based on positive sentiments in the business environment. Growth may have been sluggish, in single-digits or flat during the fiscals 2018 and 2019 owing to certain migration that started happening as a result of a lot of structural changes, demonetisation, Nirav Modi scam and so on.

”The trust factor started kicking in, in favour of Tanishq and we were able to deliver a 20% plus growth rate with a certain set of initiatives and certain level of excellence in our execution. Our internal research with consumers done earlier in January and February 2019, indicated positive sentiments. However, what’s appearing now after six - seven months, is that the sentiment is actually worse than what we had measured then.

“As a result, the overall industry has witnessed 70% decline in imports, every single jeweller that we are aware of, is talking about a decline, vendors are talking about big drop in supplies. Regional jewellers are talking about a 12% and 22% decline in business during the festive period as opposed to 10% positive growth that has been achieved by Tanishq. So, obviously the strategies and standards of excellence in our execution are happening in a circumstance that’s less in our favour than a year ago,” he said.

Taking into account the market conditions, the company had to go back to the drawing board, expand the number of weapons that required (to deal the market conditions) or create fresh ones. That, as per Venkataraman, will take a little more than a few months and hence the change in guidance for October 2019 to March 2020 period.

“It is our intent to keep gunning for the over 20% growth number for fiscal 2021. For the moment though, it can only be about tweaking of the arsenal that we already have. And we are going by the more recent growth performance over the last three to four months,” he said.

While companies like Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) operating in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector are optimistic about overall business, the company management had earlier said that near-term demand outlook, especially in the rural markets, remains challenging.

Among India's leading Ayurvedic and natural health care companies, Dabur said that it is working on achieving its annual growth target of mid to high single digits for the full year.

On the possibilities of revising the guidance for the second half of current fiscal, Mohit Malhotra, chief executive officer, Dabur Ltd, said, there was no need to do it. “We will work to achieve the targeted growth rates for the fiscal 2020,” he said in the earnings call on Tuesday.

(The writer is an independent business journalist and can be reached at ashishktiwari.1976@gmail.com)

Ever heard of an EMI facility for dental treatments?

Dental treatments are not just painful but expensive as well. In fact, given a choice between a root canal and removing the tooth, a lot of people may choose the latter given the several sessions of unbearable pain and the extent of money involved in this treatment or for that matter any other dental procedure.

Funding dental treatments at times become very challenging as most health insurance plans do not provide any coverage in their schemes. However, there is a new option that can be availed now. An equated monthly installment (EMI) facility to be precise.

While Bajaj Finserve has been offering an easy EMI facility with Lifecare Finance, across 400 cities and 2,700 partner clinics and hospitals but it's restricted to their EMI network. Similarly, dental clinic chain Sabkadentist has partnered with players like Bajaj Finserv, Capital Float and Snapmint EMI network to offer premium plans varying from three, six, nine, to 12 months of EMI payments.

A recent entrant in this space is Aditya Birla Finance Ltd (ABFL) that has partnered the Indian Dental Association (IDA) for an easy EMI facility to make dental treatments more accessible and convenient in the country. The initiative was made public at the recently concluded 11th World Dental Show 2019 in Mumbai. The easy EMI facility will have options starting at 0% interest. ABFL is the lending subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Ltd.

Rakesh Singh, managing director and chief executive officer, Aditya Birla Finance Ltd (ABFL), said, the scheme will provide customers with great value in the form of hassle-free credit with easy installments for their dental treatments. “It will be a seamless, fast and convenient transaction which is a win-win for both doctors and patients,” he said.

Rakesh Singh, MD & CEO, ABFL

The EMI facility is aimed at helping dentists with flexible monthly payment options thereby enabling patients to take avail dental treatments by making dental financing accessible, cashless, and convenient. Currently the programme pilot has been launched in Mumbai and Delhi with limited IDA dentist members and will be implemented Pan India in a phased manner.

Dr. Ashok Dhoble, secretary general, Indian Dental Association, said, easy EMI facility for dental treatments is an important step in facilitating and boosting the dental practice in India. “A much-needed service, this will ease the patients in terms of easy financing options on EMI basis. This facility is indeed a need of the hour to encourage people to willingly undertake oral treatment. Gearing-up on similar lines as in some of the developed countries,” he said.

Seeing early signs of declining trends in rural growth being arrested, says Nielsen's Sunil Khiani

While rural slowdown was seen impacting growth for the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the June quarter of fiscal 2020, the situation has only become worse in the September quarter that's showing significant stress in the rural markets.
Earlier this week FMCG market leader Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), which reported domestic consumer growth of 7% on year and underlying volume growth of 5% on year, said that rural growth was 0.5 times that of urban. This basically meant that rural, that was growing at par with urban in the April to June quarter of fiscal 2020, has slowed down further and was now growing at half of urban rate.
According to Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director, HUL, the near term demand outlook, especially in rural India, remains challenging.
A recent Nielsen report, however, makes it very evident that while companies are taking a very conservative view on the rural slowdown, the ground scenario there is way beyond the estimates. In fact, Nielsen did not shy away from making it very clear that 'for the first time in the last seven years, rural growth has dropped below urban'.

Rural is growing at 5% in Q3’19, which is 1/4th as compared to 20% in Q3’18, while Urban is growing at 8% as against 14% growth in Q3’18. The report further said that rural India that contributes 36% to overall FMCG spends has historically been growing around 3-5% points faster than urban. This has been on account of increasing affordability, availability and conversion of commodity to branding resulting in higher demand. However in recent periods, rural growth is slowing down at a much faster rate compared to urban. 
The report said, growth in Q3’19 sales per store in rural areas has become 1/4th versus Q3’18, which reflects a significant drop in demand amongst rural consumers. In addition, rural distribution growth has continued to inch downwards. Small manufacturers have seen the biggest drop in cumulative distribution growth where it has moved from 18% in Q3’18 to no growth in Q3’19, while for large manufacturers cumulative distribution growth has halved.
Small players that account for nearly 1/3rd of the sales in rural India through better value for money offerings now grow at a similar rate versus large manufacturers. This is in contrast to Q3'18 which was an inflection point for the growth rates of small and large manufacturers.
The growth rate for small manufacturers has slumped by 23%. Small player exits have increased by 33% and new entrants in the market have fallen owing to strong inflationary pressures and increasing input prices. 

There are early signs of the current declining trends getting arrested, according to Sunil Khiani, head – retail measurement service, Nielsen South Asia, as far as outlook for the second half of fiscal 2020 is concerned. "FMCG growth for Q3 2019 stands at 7.6% as against a prediction of 7% to 8% range. This is so far in line with our forecast. With the growth in the e-commerce sector the year end forecast for all India FMCG continues to be in the 9% to 10% range. While we expect Q4 2019 to be in the 6.5% to 7.5% range, we are now finally seeing early signs of the declining trends being arrested. The growth forecast for Q1 2020 (Jan-Mar 2020) stands in the range of 7.5% - 8.5%," Khiani said in the report.