Sunday, 28 June 2020

Startup Technology - Can We Build Homes the Same Way We Build Cars? - Pininfarina


David Carvalho, SVP Experience Design & Industrial Design at Pininfarina explains how we can build affordable prefab homes the same way they build cars.

Affordable housing is a challenging crisis. Prefab housing can be the solution. The concept of prefab housing is not new; in fact, it’s been around for centuries. They’re often seen as costly, unattractive and overly uniform. But using design and technology, we can make create housing that’s affordable, sustainable, attractive, and comfortable.

How car manufacturers have done this?

Create a base and then add mass customization in terms of body style, color, features, etc. It is not difficult to translate this idea to housing development. Pininfarina can cross-fertilize their deep experience in car manufacturing and architecture to provide a scalable solution that can be sustainable, budget-conscious, and still fully customizable with high quality standards.

He says that Pininfarina can design a new generation of homes aligned to future generations’ needs and expectations of a connected and sustainable lifestyle.

Any founder interested in these technologies can talk to Pininfarina further to offer a Pininfarina design to it.

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Can We Build Homes the Same Way We Build Cars? - Pininfarina

While the current crisis caused by the global coronavirus pandemic has demanded our attention in recent months, there are two crises that have been rapidly developing in recent years. If left unaddressed, we will likely see human suffering on an even larger scale than we have during the current situation.

India: 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. 

"Some quotes on social media, wrongly attributed to the RBI, claim that issues arising while transferring money through Google Pay are not protected by the law, since the app is unauthorised. This is incorrect and can be verified on NPCI's website," a Google spokesperson said.

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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.

StartUS Insights Research: 5 Top Emerging Speech Recognition Startups


StartUs Insights analyzed 109 speech recognition startups. Speak, MeetScribe, gnani.ai (from India), Picovoice, and AudioTelligence develop 5 top solutions to watch out for.

The Indian startup gnani.ai creates a speech-to-text engine that decodes speech and transcribes it in English and multiple Indic languages. The engine also detects dialects and separates the agents from the customers. Using advanced analytics, the engine measures sentiment predicts churn rate and tracks agents’ performance to provide useful insights for management.

Learn more in StartUs Insights' Global Startup Heat Map!

5 Top Emerging Speech Recognition Startups | StartUs Insights Research

Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups. As there are many startups working on a variety of applications, we want to share our insights with you. This time, we take a look at 5 promising speech recognition startups.


Startup Payment Technology: PayID - Open Source, Universal Payment Identifier


In June, leading technology, finance and nonprofit companies announced the launch of PayID, a universal payment ID to simplify the process of sending and receiving money globally – across any payment network and any currency. GoPay, Ripple, Blockchain.com, BitPay, Brave, Flutterwave, Mercy Corps and others have collaborated on the development of PayID.

PayID allows individuals to send and receive money across any payment network using an easy-to-read address versus one that’s awkward and unintuitive - such as a bank account, routing or credit card number. With PayID, sending money is as simple as sending an email directly to friends and family, no matter which provider is used, at a lower cost.

Whether a bank, payment provider or processor, digital wallet, or remittance provider, PayID is designed for any business that sends or receives money. Implementing PayID is simple.

For money transfer across currencies, Indian companies need to take Full Fledged Money Transfer (FFMC) license from RBI. More details about FFMC license at: https://lnkd.in/gBgzr2K

Read more about PayID at

Open Source, Universal Payment Identifier

PayID provides a single ID for anyone needing to send or receive money. Learn about PayID's open-source protocol & how to connect users on any payment network.

Startup News: Edtech startup Bada Business aims to train 10M entrepreneurs in 6 months


Education technology startup Bada Business on Friday said it aims to train 10 million entrepreneurs over the next six months as part of its 'India Revival Mission' for micro, small, and medium enterprises.

Addressing a virtual press conference, Bada Business founder and CEO Vivek Bindra also said it plans to double its presence to 150 offices in the country by the year-end, from 75 offices at present.

The 'India Revival Mission' offers hand-holding solutions to MSMEs and skill training for digital transformation to lakhs of such businesses.

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Edtech startup Bada Business aims to train 10M entrepreneurs in 6 months

Education technology startup Bada Business on Friday said it aims to train 10 million entrepreneurs over the next six months as part of its 'India Revival Mission' for micro, small, and medium enterprises. Addressing a virtual press conference, Bada Business founder and CEO Vivek Bindra also said it plans to double its presence to 150 offices in the country by the year-end, from 75 offices at present.

Startup Technology: Physiotherapy could be done at home using virtual reality


Virtual reality could help physiotherapy patients complete their exercises at home successfully thanks to researchers at WMG, University of Warwick, who managed to combine VR technology with 3-D motion capture.

Currently prescribed physiotherapy often requires patients to complete regular exercises at home. Outside of the clinic, patients rarely receive any guidance other than a leaflet of sketches or static photographs to instruct them how to complete their exercises. This leads to poor adherence, with patients becoming anxious about not getting the exercise right, or simply getting bored by the repetitiveness of the movements.

Key takeaway:

They found that participants struggled to keep in time if only visual information was present. However, when they added realistic footstep sounds in addition to the visual information, the more realistic multisensory information allowed participants to accurately follow the virtual avatar.

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Physiotherapy could be done at home using virtual reality

February 28, 2020 University of Warwick Virtual reality could help physiotherapy patients complete their exercises at home successfully thanks to researchers at WMG, University of Warwick, who managed to combine VR technology with 3-D motion capture. Currently prescribed physiotherapy often requires patients to complete regular exercises at home.

Forbes: We’re About To See The Golden Age Of Drone Delivery – Here’s Why


The way the world views drones is changing. Once a nuisance buzzing around our heads, drones are now life-saving tools in the battle against Covid-19. Instead of nuisance or novelty, drones are becoming necessary.

New aerial technologies are set to play a major role in an economy looking for innovative ways to meet the demands of the coronavirus crisis – and looking toward a global reset.

The times call for new technologies that connect the disconnected, provide resilience to at-risk supply chains and promote social distancing in last-mile delivery.


Giving Back to India: IIT Alumni Council launches Rs 21,000 Cr fundraising for MegaLab


The #IIT Alumni Council, which is setting up the world's largest viral infection testing lab, MegaLab Mumbai, with one crore monthly capacity in Mumbai, on Thursday launched the country's largest social initiative with a targeted investible corpus of Rs 21,000 crore for the proposed MegaLab.

The #IIT Alumni Council, along with its institutional partners Mumbai University and the ICT Mumbai, which are the two initial institutional partners for the MegaLab project, has over five million alumni and the corporate investment vehicles managed and controlled by these alumni have assets under management of over Rs 5 lakh crore, the council said.

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IIT Alumni Council launches Rs 21,000 Cr fundraising for MegaLab

The IIT Alumni Council, which is setting up the world's largest viral infection testing lab with one crore monthly capacity here, on Thursday launched the country's largest social initiative with a targeted investible corpus of Rs 21,000 crore for the proposed MegaLab.