Agriculture: Dwindling bee pollination serious concern for sustainable agriculture and food production

#agriculture #yield #organicfarming #pollination #bees #honeybees

A large proportion of agricultural yield in crop farming, gardening and fruit production depends on pollination by bees. The crop yield is significantly higher with pollination by bees. This applies to all kinds of fruit such as apples, strawberries and cherries, almost all oilseeds such as rapeseed, linseed and safflower, and all kinds of vegetables such as beans, peas and cucumbers. The seed production of fodder crops and vegetables also benefits from bee pollination.

The flowers that are pollinated by bees form fruit that is much larger, heavier and better shaped. They are also much better quality.

The increase in yield in some of the crops due to bee pollination:-

1. Mustard - 43%

2. Sunflower - 32-48%

3. Cotton - 17-19%

4. Onion - 93%

5. Apple - 44%

With increased use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, bee population has been declining effecting our food production. So, natural organic farming combined with placing bee hives in proper place in the agricultural fields improves yield drastically.

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TNAU Agritech Portal :: Sustainable Agriculture

Bee visits plants for its food, nectar and pollen. This floral fidelity of bees is due to their preference for nectars having sugar contents and pollens with higher nutritive values. Besides getting food for the bees as a result of their visit pollinate a number of crops.

Agricultural Tech: This MeitY-backed deeptech startup AIGROEDGE uses IoT sensors to monitor farms and improve crops

#agritech #farming #IoT #startups #agriculture #deeptech #ai #artificialintelligence #dataanalytics #saas

Delhi-based deeptech startup AIGROEDGE Technologies, co-founderd by Mayank Rajput, ABHAI TIWARI, and Akshay Taneja, has built a proprietary #IoT sensor that monitors agricultural lands in real-time and improves crop visibility for farmers.

AIGROEDGE has built a proprietary intelligent farming kit, which includes an Internet of Things (IoT) based sensory device known as ‘KRAASHAK’ and a #SaaS-based analytics platform called AgriVitals.

The Delhi-based startup measures soil parameters (temperature, moisture, conductivity, pH level, moisture absorbance rate); environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, light intensity, CO2 level, and weather data from external stations); and geographic parameters in real-time by deploying multiple sensor nodes across agricultural fields. Typically, one acre of land requires five sensors to capture adequate data.

AIGROEDGE operates on a B2B model; its customers include farms and agritech firms, genetic and plant breeding companies, and government and farm finance providers.

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This MeitY-backed deeptech startup uses IoT sensors to monitor farms and improve crops

Serial entrepreneur and innovator Mayank Rajput has dabbled in sensory systems, electronics, and material design for almost seven years. This is the electronics engineer's second entrepreneurship stint after StretchSkin Technologies, which he founded in 2018. The Singapore-based startupbuilds stretchable and wearable sensory systems for physical rehab, gaming, and training.

Neobanking Space: Credit Sesame's banking service uses i2c payments platform

#fintech #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #startupstrategy

Credit Sesame, the California-based credit and loan finder, has chosen payments solution provider i2c Inc. to power its digital banking service, Sesame Cash.

Sesame Cash, launched in March this year, uses the insights it has gathered on users’ banking habits to promote healthy credit behaviours and good cash management.

Silicon Valley-headquartered i2c Inc. offers payment solutions based around credit, debit, prepaid and lending. Sesame Cash will use i2c’s platform to set and control all its card, banking and payments programmes.

The fintech wants to offer a smart bill pay service, savings round-up of transactions to save or pay down debt, reward programmes and credit-building features.

Other features will include early paydays, direct deposits, the ability to freeze or unfreeze the debit card in-app, and virtual card integration with “most major mobile wallets”, the fintech has said.

Founded in 2010, Credit Sesame claims to monitor more than $35 billion in loans. Its business model gives its members free access to credit score monitoring, credit reports, and identity protection tools, as well as recommendations regarding a variety of loan types.

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Credit Sesame's banking service uses i2c payments platform - FinTech Futures

Credit Sesame, the California-based credit and loan finder, has chosen payments solution provider i2c to power its digital banking service, Sesame Cash.

Startup Success Stories: Only the adaptable survive (and thrive) - Dailyhunt

#vernacular #content #startupstories #startupstrategy

The startups betting on consumption by vernacular customers will benefit a lot, as the language is only the barrier for outsiders to garner this huge market. Today 64% of India’s 510 million internet users speak primarily in their local language, while 36% are English users; by 2025, the number of internet users is expected to hit 906 million, 77% of those will be vernacular-first, according to a report by Google and KPMG.

Please read the success story of Dailyhunt harping on vernacular content.

Only the Adaptable survive (and thrive)

By Mohit Bhatnagar As the Covid-led recession sets in, I've started to reflect on a company metric that I had never spent much time thinking through before: Adaptability. How does one even measure that in a company? What makes one company more adaptable than the other? Speed of execution? Intellect

Court Litigation: Google Pay says it works with banks to allow payments via UPI, transactions fully protected

#GooglePay #UPI #RBI #NPCI

Google Pay says it works with banks to allow payments via #UPI, and all transactions made through its platform are fully protected by redressal processes laid out by guidelines of RBI and NPCI.

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Google Pay says it works with banks to allow payments via UPI, transactions fully protected

Google Pay on Wednesday said it works with banks to allow payments via UPI, and all transactions made through its platform are fully protected by redressal processes laid out by guidelines of RBI and NPCI. The clarification came after a buzz on social media that issues arising while transferring money through Google Pay are not protected by law as the app is unauthorised.

Startup Tools: AngelList Launches Cap Table Management Platform For Indian Startups, EquityList

#captable #startups #esops #employeestockoptionplan

AngelList, a US-based curated closed marketplace for startups and investors, has launched a cap table management product for India — EquityList. In addition to enabling cap table management, this free product will also help startups create stock option programs and issue grants.

As companies grow and multiple investors join the company’s board, cap tables tend to become complex and managing them on spreadsheets makes them prone to errors. EquityList aims to automate this process for Indian startups and reduce inefficiencies.

Earlier this year, the Bengaluru-based deal-making platform LetsVenture also launched an ESOPs management tool called MyStartupEquity. Speaking about the existing ESOPs management tool in the market like MyStartupEquity, Sumukh Sridhara CEO of EquityList agreed that there is a growing market for such tools in India as more companies adopt ESOPs and employees begin to expect them.

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AngelList Launches Cap Table Management Platform For Indian Startups, EquityList

EquityList will also help startups to create stock option programs and issue grants Aims to provide Indian startups with a caliber of cap table software that is used in Silicon Valley LetsVenture also launched an ESOPs management tool MyStartupEquity in Jan 2020 AngelList, a US-based curated closed marketplace for startups and investors, has launched a cap table management product for India - EquityList .

Startup Funding Alert: Gaming startup Bombay Play raises $1.5M from Leo Capital

#fundingalert #startupfunding #games #gaming #startups

Gaming startup Bombay Play, co-founded by Abhas Saroha and Oliver Jones, has raised $1.5 million in its Pre-Series A round. The investments came in from Leo.Capital, along with angel investor and Co-founder of Livspace, Ramakant Sharma.

Bombay Play designs and creates online multiplayer games. Before Bombay Play, Abhas was leading engineering teams at Zynga, Moonfrog Labs and MakeMyTrip. Oliver, on the other hand, is the former co-founder of Moonfrog Labs and had directed games at Zynga and Glu Mobile.

Its most popular games include Pokemon Tower Battle, Card Party and 29 Card Games. The startup soon plans to launch a Battle Royale Game, later this month.

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[Funding alert] Gaming startup Bombay Play raises $1.5M from Leo Capital

Gaming startup Bombay Play has raised $1.5 million in its Pre-Series A round. The investments came in from Leo Capital, along with angel investor and Co-founder of Livspace, Ramakant Sharma. According to a statement issued by the startup, Bombay Play will be using the funds for hiring talent and geographically expanding its reach.

Startup Funding Alert: Playbook Raises $3M to Help Fitness Instructors Monetize through Remote Workouts

#fitness #startups #fundingalert #startupfunding

Playbook Technologies Inc. raises $3M to help fitness instructors monetise through remote workouts. Playbook is a mobile marketplace enabling top fitness instructors to turn their iPhone content into a subscription income. Instructors can create content (workouts, programs, challenges, nutrition, etc) on their terms. Consumers get access to a world of instructors for a single cost. CEO Jeff Krahel shares more about empowering fitness instructors to build their businesses without depending on studios.

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Playbook Raises $3M to Help Fitness Instructors Monetize through Remote Workouts - AlleyWatch

As a consumer, especially the younger consumer, you want to emotionally connect with and have content from our favorite instructors. You don't want a DVD (a video filmed 14 months ago you're forced to watch on repeat). Like social media, you want fresh authentic content and community engagement directly from the source (the creator).

Fintech Card Solutions: Mastercard set to acquire Finicity for $825m

#fintech #openbanking #lending #mastercard #visa #mergersandacquisitions

Mastercard has agreed to buy Finicity, a financial data aggregation start-up Plaid, for $825 million.

If performance targets are met, Finicity’s existing shareholders will earn up to $160 million on top of the sale price, taking the total value of the deal to $985 million.

This follows a similar move by rival Visa in January, which saw the card issuer giant buy data aggregator fintech Plaid for five times the price of Finicity at $5.3 billion.

Much like Plaid’s open banking services, Finicity allows financial services firms to gain financial insights around payments, account and asset verification, and transactions.

The card issuer giant also wants to focus on improving credit decisioning, and envisions that the integration of Finicity’s account owner verification tools will speed up automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time payments.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Visa’s acquisition of Plaid is being investigated by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). This raises questions over Mastercard’s acquisition of Finicity, and whether it too will fall under regulatory scrutiny over potential impacts to competition.

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Mastercard set to acquire Finicity for $825m - FinTech Futures

Mastercard is buying Finicity, a financial data aggregation start-up, for $825m. Existing shareholders will earn up to $160m on top of the sale price.

Startup Stories: Jupiter wants to put grocery delivery on autopilot

#grocery #food #delivery #ecommerce #startupideas

Somebody in India can try similar model as Indian affluent also want their grocery and vegetables delivered automatically every month or week as per standard menu (which can be edited till a date every month or week), not only at their doorsteps but also to be stuffed in fridges and other cup boards within their homes.

It is asset heavy due to central warehouse hubs and may be capital intensive to expand to more than one city.

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Jupiter wants to put grocery delivery on autopilot

Amid shelter-in-place, grocery delivery has had a huge spike in popularity, leading investors to take a look at services that approach the market differently than incumbents like Instacart. Jupiter is a grocery delivery and meal planning startup that's approaching the market with an eye towar...