Smart Metering Groundwater, Olina Banerji, 25 April’19

By 2020, large parts of the country will be water starved. Groundwater, in over 20 cities, will plummet to
zero. Where other nudges and incentives have failed to conserve water, smart meters seem to succeed.
But smart metering, with IoT sensors and real-time updates, comes with a sizeable price tag.

Water conservation, so far, has been a litany of well-meaning nudges. Taking shorter showers. Harvesting
rainwater. Making taps trickle. However, most measures have focused on increasing supply. Smart
metering finally breaks that jaded model of thinking and focuses on curbing demand.
Smart water meters: (A potential solution). To break it down, any smart metering system is a mix of a
couple of components–IOT-based sensors which wirelessly transmit consumption data to the cloud,
which in turn sends updates to individual customers’ smartphones. Smart meters can also be remotely
controlled through the app to shut off water supply from an inlet, in case a tap’s been lef running.
Players: 1. Shukla, an entrepreneur, teamed up with his ex-Wipro colleague Kasturi Rangan in 2014, to
launch Smarter Homes—a start-up that supplies high-tech water meters-which can accurately measure
consumption at an apartment level. However potent the promise of metering, flipping crisis to
commercial opportunity has been far from easy. Over a few hundred thousand installations, smart
metering start-ups have had to tailor their meters, their pricing plans and business model, and buttress
their operational costs by raising investments from a variety of funders—real estate giants, landscaping
companies, banks and even tech firms. And at an average of Rs 8000 ($115) per meter, return on
investment is still a pipedream. When Shukla first tested the waters with smart metering, he did so with
a one-time purchase model. But with the Elster priced at upwards of Rs 10,000 ($143), this became a
daunting proposition for homeowners. “No one wanted to pay Rs 30,000 ($430) for water meters,” says
Shukla. Afer trying their luck as vendors, two years ago, Smarter Homes pivoted to a service model and
launched a monthly subscription plan for residential homeowners. For a two-bedroom apartment, says
Pradeep S, Smarter Homes charges Rs 1800 ($26) per installation, with a subscription plan of Rs 90
($1.29) per meter per month. “In total, we end up spending about Rs 6000 ($86) upfront and Rs 180
($2.6) month-on-month [per apartment]. Smarter Homes has taken a 15-year maintenance contract to
fix any errors in the metering system,” adds Pradeep.
2. WEgoT Utility, a smart metering start-up based out of Chennai. Like Smarter Homes, WEgoT’s meters
also transmit daily usage data to each resident’s phone. Haridas decided to build his sensor-based meter
from scratch. “The residential market is an extremely price sensitive one. If you’re a large business, you
can afford to pay Rs 2,00,000 ($2864) per meter. But for the residential market, we had to build keeping
the price in mind,” adds Haridas. Along with his two co-founders, he engineered a light, coin-shaped
ultrasonic sensor in-house, which costs Rs 6500 ($93) to make.
WEgoT, which competes with Smarter Homes to get residential metering contracts, also had to pivot to a
subscription model. WEgoT’s Venaqua charges Rs 149 ($2.13) monthly to maintain meters and give real-
time feedback on cosumption per apartment, Rs 199 ($2.85)to measure water consumption at a
community level (gym, pool, overhead tanks) and for Rs 299 ($4.28), WEgoT can ascertain water quality
as well.
Retro-fix: difficult for older buildings. Fix buildings under construction more feasible. Have deals with real
estate developers causing a rise in prices by Rs. 23 per square feet.

Surogacy’s ashes to IVF fertility, Ruhi Kandhari, 26 April’19

Surrogacy for international couples was banned in 2016 and a bill banning commercial surrogacy was
passed by the Lok Sabha in 2018. However, it was not passed by the upper house before elections began
earlier this month, leading to the bill lapsing. Infertility clinics and investors that The Ken spoke to,
however, concur that the size of the fertility market in general and surrogacy, in particular, has shrunk
considerably over the last two years. The perception is that it has been made illegal, which is why
queries from patients have come down, and the number of surrogacy cases has significantly reduced.
It is the same story across infertility clinics known for surrogacy in metro cities. Take, for example,
Surrogacy Centre India and International Fertility Centre, both located in Delhi. Surrogacy contributed to
the majority of their revenue—estimated somewhere between 70% to 90%. Not because of the volumes
but the value. Consider this. Every cycle of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)—a series of procedures used to
treat infertility—could cost between Rs 1-2 lakh ($1,430-$2,860). In the case of surrogacy, however, the
entire treatment could be priced anywhere between Rs 10 lakh ($14,300) to Rs 20 lakh ($28,600). clinics
charge a lot more for surrogacy as the clinic manages everything. From finding the surrogate to hiring
her and providing her with food, supplements and accommodation until the baby is delivered. In 2017,
the government estimated that about 1,500 fertility clinics existed in India, with around 2,000
babies born out of surrogacy in the preceding three years. The sector was growing at over 20%, but in
the last two months, the growth is now at about 15%, he said. One of the reasons, he believes, is the Lok
Sabha passing the surrogacy bill. The second reason is that the number of centres outstripped the
demand for them, with many now struggling to break even, he added. The problem, he said, is that
almost every gynaecologist built an infertility clinic on the side as it seemed very lucrative. The IVF
market comprises 500 centres that conduct IVF cycles every day and are focused on IVF, along with 1,000
centres who conduct IVF occasionally. The market will evolve to favour the chains, he says, as the
majority of these 1,000 centres do not have strict standards to survive impending regulation.

On the other hand, if both the proposed laws—Assisted Reproductive technology (ART) and surrogacy—
are enforced, they would boost the professionally managed IVF chains, which currently have around 150
centres between them.

Decathlon: Sports Dominance, Harveen Alhuwalia, 29 April 2019

Decathlon recently became the largest sports retailer in India, leaving Nike, Adidas, and Puma behind.
From just four stores in 2012, it closed 2018 with about 65 stores. By 2040, it aims to have 1,000 stores
across the country in addition to a global turnover of $12.8 billion in 2018 and 1,511 stores across 51
countries. In the year ending March 2018, Decathlon recorded a revenue of Rs 1,278 crore ($183
million), according to data sourced from Tofler. A few years afer the advent of the global athletic wear
boom in 2014, Indian retailers began fighting for a larger share of the Indian activewear pie. Data from
consulting firm Technopak Advisors values India’s activewear market at Rs 5,000 crore ($715
million). Decathlon, forged its own path, cutting through the celebrity noise and high marketing spends
with a simple proposition. Come to us for the cheapest, most complete active lifestyle. or any given
product, Decathlon prices are at least 20-30% lower than those of its competitors. And the company is
constantly looking to better its pricing proposition. Every few months, it looks to revise its pricing. As a
company executive in the production department said, “Prices at Decathlon for any given item have
never gone up.” In fact, there is a mandate to focus on an annual price reduction of 5% across categories,
according to another Decathlon production executive. It spends almost nothing on advertising, has
stores outside the city to reduce rentals and basically has a no-frills approach. The entire revenue for the
sale of any product goes to Decathlon since it does not have to pay anything to its partners.
The Reverie Revenant, Sumanth Ragavendra, 30 April 2019
Reverie offers local language solutions, delivering solutions to customers across 100 million mobile
devices. Reliance looks to advance into the Indian language ecosystem, Investment in KaiOS to bypass
android completely. Reliance is also said to be exploring building a whole raf of local language apps not
only to allow users to consume and create content but also to replace the likes of cab company Ola and
music app Gaana. Reverie addresses this issue and has real time language translation. Using Reverie,
Reliance can build an ad engine that is primed for local languages—keyboard data and voice inputs can
be analysed and monetised. The value that Reverie brings to Reliance is unique in many ways and
therefore the value that Reliance would ascribe to acquiring Reverie would in turn also be much higher
than what any other potential investor or acquirer would assign.

Xiaomi India internet services

02/05/19
Xiaomi plans to ramp up its internet services business in India, taking a cue from China where it has done
it well. This is imperative for the current Indian smartphone market leader as it is coming under threat
from Samsung and newbie Realme. India, though, is very different to China, and Xiaomi may find the
going tough. Its approach to internet services may also compromise both user experience and privacy.
Since entering India in July 2014, it has grown to control 29% of the Indian smartphone market, boasts of
75-80 million users, and accounts for the bulk (57%) of online smartphone sales. 7 manufacturing
locations churning 3 phones per second. In under a year, Realme has become the fourth largest
smartphone brand in India, commanding 7% of the market. Faisal Kawoosa, founder of technology
consulting firm techARC, estimates that at least half of the 6 million smartphones Realme sold in the last
one year were bought by Xiaomi users changing brands.
While it made Rs 23,061 crore ($3.3 billion) in revenue for the year ended March 2018, it made only Rs
293 crore ($42.11 million) in profit. founder Lei Jun saying that Xiaomi will never go beyond a 5% profit
margin on its devices. Xiaomi has two parts under control: retail and devices, it now needs to look at the
third part – internet services.
The Apple model: Apple continues to draw value from customers long past the sale of its devices.
Through iCloud, the App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, and more recently, its news offering News+ or
gaming service Arcade. For the second quarter of the financial year ending in September 2019 (Apple’s
financial year ends in September), Apple’s services segment brought in an all-time high $11.5 billion in
revenue. (up 21% from last quarter when both profits and revenue fell) But Apple isn’t the rule, it’s the
exception.
Xiaomi doesn’t have these traits, but that’s not to say it hasn’t also enjoyed success in services. It has.
These services come pre-installed on its devices. Apps such as its music streaming service Mi music or Mi
video, its video streaming app. In 2018, Xiaomi’s global smartphone business grew 41.3% year-on-year
(YoY), reaching $23.53 billion. In the same period, its internet services business grew even faster—
reaching $2.38 billion, a YoY growth of 61.2%. While this makes it seem like Xiaomi has a firm handle on
internet services, this mostly holds true for just China.
The content trident
These days, you are nothing without a content play. When it comes to content, Xiaomi has taken a three-
pronged approach. The first, most basic part of its content trident is its browser app. Similar to other
mobile browsers like Chrome or Opera, the Mi Browser aims to be a hub of content curation.
The lack of original content is one drawback, the quantity is another. In a market with many
competitors, the need for a differentiator is paramount.
While reports peg both Mi Video (100 million-plus downloads on the Play Store) and Mi Music at around
40 million monthly active users (MAUs) each, this doesn’t leave Xiaomi with a lot of room for growth in
terms of its device users. Xiaomi’s user base in India is between 75-80 million. In comparison, Gaana, the
Times Internet-owned music app claimed 100 million MAUs recently, while Hotstar, the Star Group-
owned video OTT platform is understood to have 300 million MAUs.
Xiaomi has invested in two fintech startups—Zest Money and Krazy Bee. Zest Money offers loans to
customers who have no credit card and credit score for lifestyle purchases. Krazybee, however, is a
student credit platform that helps college students buy now and pay later via EMIs.
Experts believe that the platform will offer micro-loans from Rs 1,000 ($14.38) to Rs 1 lakh ($1,437.50).
While the obvious offenders are its music and video apps, there are ads even in the MIUI security
app. Many of Xiaomi’s system apps, such as the File Manager, Mi Apps, and Themes contain ads. The Mi
Store app repeatedly pushes notifications for upcoming flash sales. “The value- conscious user will not
pay extra money for an ad-free experience as the expectation is that it is supposed to be ad-free. What
they will instead do is buy some other brand,” says Kawoosa.

India’s digital bet paid off: Charting the payments story 04/05/19
India has over the past three to four years seen a digital payments system evolve that’s unlike nearly any
other market in the world—driven heavily by regulation. This is in stark contrast to China, the other
hotbed of payments and fintech, which has grown its own digital finance ecosystem with barely any
regulatory oversight. Consumers have got both increasing convenience and a bevvy of cashbacks from
eager startups, and electronic payments have soared. From two-factor authentication to eKYC to
demonetisation to UPI, we trace how policy decisions have reshaped the payments landscape—in eight
charts.
The past five years in India have been a rollercoaster ride for companies from card networks like Visa and
Mastercard to Paytm and Mobikwik to banks to card payments firms like Pine Labs and Ingenico to
payment gateways like BillDesk and PayU. (There are now 375 payments companies in India, according to
a report by Medici, a fintech-focused consultancy firm.) Payments is not an easy business, for companies
or for regulators. In the end, though, the fast-evolving nature of payments in India is changing the very
way we deal with money—and even shaping consumer behavior.

The establishment of the NPCI by a consortium of banks more than a decade ago sowed the seed for
large-scale changes in how payments worked in India. The non-profit entity is owned by banks, but
answers to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government in general—and ofen acts as a quasi-
regulator for payments.
The freshly-pivoted wallet companies splurged on cashbacks and incentives to get users on board. And it
worked. Paytm, by 2015-16, became one of the market leaders, helped in no small part by its
partnership with cab aggregator Uber.
The growth of mobile wallets using PPI licences also affected how the central bank planned payment
banks—the next stage in India’s payments evolution. They were specialised banks that could accept
small deposits (up to Rs 1 lakh or $1447) and provide payments services, but not issue loans. The tumult
of demonetisation drove panicked, cashless Indians to electronic payment; and wallets, payments banks
and cards saw a sharp spike in usage. As did UPI—a new interbank transfer system built on IMPS. Instead
of getting a person’s bank account number and branch details—a cumbersome process—UPI allowed
consumers to use virtual IDs for their accounts.
It would prove to be a game-changer—but not quite immediately. Because the only major apps offering
UPI payments in the first year were PhonePe (owned by e-commerce company Flipkart) and the
government’s own BHIM app. In late 2018, the Supreme Court put a ban on the use of Aadhaar by
companies.
For now, it’s a three-cornered fight between Google Pay (formerly Tez), Paytm and PhonePe. But with Mi
Pay from Xiaomi and Amazon Pay joining the fray in recent months, and WhatsApp and Jio waiting in the
wings to launch public UPI services, it’s anyone’s guess.
 India’s EV ambitions?
India’s EV ambitions have long been throttled by a lack of public charging infrastructure

Between charging points and battery-swapping, the pendulum has shifed ever so slightly towards the
latter
Companies like SUN Mobility have sprung up, with sophisticated battery tech and the promise of
extensive grids
The lack of standards, however, may play spoilsport for third-party energy providers. Is a standards war
brewing?

India’s had a decade-long tryst with electric mobility, but the lack of charging infrastructure has stunted
the sales of EVs. However, the latest bend in the road—a shif from private to public electric mobility—
has introduced a sense of urgency to the space. It has also rejigged the infrastructural priority from
setting up stationary charging stations to battery-swapping. The problem here is that companies cannot
expand delivery distances to a scale where they are not sure whether they can make a trip back in a
single charge. The only viable option then becomes to switch the battery. There are plenty of use cases
for battery-swapping. E-rickshaw companies like SmartE, delivery businesses like Swiggy and Milkbasket,
and ride-sharing platforms like Bounce, are increasingly going electric. Afer all, EVs are eco-friendly and
have cheaper running costs. SUN is a high-tech, battery-swapping platform for electric scooters, three-
wheelers and buses. Launched in 2016, SUN manufactures its own Internet Of Things (IOT)-enabled
battery packs, whose charge, range and efficiency can be controlled remotely. A 50-50 joint venture
between EV manufacturer Virya Mobility 5.0 and private equity firm SUN group, this nascent battery-
swapping startup already has an experienced set of leaders at the helm—Chetan Maini (who co-owns
Virya) and Uday Khemka, an angel investor from the Khemka family-owned SUN Group. On the SUN
platform, customers don’t own the battery. Instead, a pay-as-you-go system helps them stay asset-
light. With four swapping stations already functional, SUN’s aiming to be what CNG stations are to autos
and taxis. The biggest issue with the growth of battery-swapping is the powerplay behind establishing a
common battery standard. SUN has also planned to raise investments from large institutional investors
worth Rs 1,670 crore ($241.4 million) over 3-5 years to build out its swapping infrastructure across India.
Though in its nascency, SUN is in talks with 9 OEMs to create a common battery standard. If charging an
electric two-wheeler takes eight hours, swapping takes less than eight minutes. In fact, as Maini claims,
the downtime for a vehicle is closer to 3 minutes. it costs anywhere between Rs 30,000 to Rs 3,00,000
($433-4,340) to set up 3-pin charging ports for 200-300 small vehicles, exclusive of the cost of land and
power. These stations would also need to be large enough to park hundreds of scooters or rickshaws. In
contrast, swapping stations are thrify in terms of both space and power. A shiny, compartmentalised
box, the SUN Quick Interchange Station (QIS) looks a bit like two mid-sized washing machines welded
together. One QIS station houses about 20 swappable batteries, and can serve 150-200 two and three-
wheelers a day. Fify such stations can cater to around 5,000-7,000 vehicles, accounting for battery
downtime. Maini’s leverage of already existing two and three-wheeler OEMs and fleets is a sound
growth strategy. But tying up with fleets also means that SUN’s swapping solutions are currently only
applicable to hyperlocal loops like, say, a 20-kilometre radius around a metro station. The current closed-
loop nature of charging points to a much larger problem at hand. All batteries are not created
equal. Some are heavy, some as light as 7 kilograms. Some can hold a full state of charge, while others
drain out in a matter of hours. Some can support a 48-volt charge, others are highly unstable at a
stronger current. And almost all Li-ion batteries are highly combustible at high temperatures. While
OEMs like Hero are more than happy to outsource the task of battery management to a third-party, says
Gill, this is only true for EVs that make up the lower end of the market. Say, Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000
($10,120-11,560) a piece. “As the price point increases, the battery goes from being a commodity to an
asset. That’s when Hero would want to control the standard. Swapping has a low entry barrier.
Standards, on the other hand, are designed to level the pitch. In the long run, for swapping to succeed—
to break out of its hyperlocal existence—a winner must emerge in this thorny contest.