THE MERCURIAN TIMES

               CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DIWALI Diwali,the festival that marks the victory of light over darkness, the triumph of good over evil , the everlasting win of hope over despair,is a festival of many meanings.The word Diwali is derived from the Sanskrit word  ‘deepawali’ which means ‘rows of ight’. The festival of Deepawali has various cultural connotations for different religious sects in India.According to the hindu legend, this festival marks the victorious return of Lord Rama and Devi Sita to Ayodhya after their 14 years of exile in which Lord Rama defeated the Lankan king Ravana who had abducted Sita  and restored the  victory of good over evil.The people of Ayodhya celeberated this return by lighting earthen lamps and expressed their joy through fireworks. In some parts of India ,like Bengal diwali is associated with goddess Kali killing the demons , Shambhu and Nishambhu, wh...

TRACXN Tracxn, a Palo Alto based start-up, is on a mission to create the world's largest analyst team that tracks start-ups for newbie capital firms, investment banks, corporate developments and universities. It tracks and curates data of millions of start-ups and sectors of interest effortlessly-anything from enterprise security, 3D printing and bitcoin to mobile payments. They mine thousands of signal and bring them together. Started in 2012 by Abhishekh Goyal and Neha Singh, registered in Banglore, operates at both California and Banglore, Tracxn develops and provides a next generation competitive intelligence platform to private companies . It addresses a crucial point of information and connection in the start-up ecosystem. At present, this IT-cum-finance firm works with over 50 venture funds. They aim to position themselves as 'Gartner For Start-ups Information.' Venture funds and corporate development teams subscribe to their coverage based on the are...

POM POM PomPom is a web based recycling company, started by CEO DeepakSethi, 36, who earned an MBA degree from Australia’s Deakin University and Kishore K. Thakur, 56, a commerce graduate from Delhi University. PomPom was established in November 2015. It  reminds people that recycling one tonne of paper can save 17 trees, and recycling one aluminum can save enough energy to run a TV for three hours! The founders invested about Rs. 1 crore in the venture, initially in app development and branding and later in vehicles, manpower, and warehousing. The revenue model is based on sale of recyclables. On the ground, they presently have 11 vehicles, one large Tata cantor, 10 Maruti Eco cars, around 30 staffers and other call centre employees. They are focusing on Delhi at first and are in early talks with schools and hospitals for the initiative. “The inspiration for PomPom came from our experience in the waste management sector,” says Deepak. They noticed that some ef...

InstaCar  Indore-based InstaCar is playing a monumental role changing road travel in India 'ride by ride.' Founded by Ishan Vyas, Anurag Gupta and Priyanshi Choubey, it is a fast-growing taxi rental marketplace with one dream: making each road trip happy. InstaCar became the first start-up in Madhya Pradesh to have received foreign direct investment after it raised $1 million in a seed funding round from Hong Kong-based Swastika Co. Ltd.  The experience of travelling out of town in taxis in India is less than standard. The company that was established with the mission to simplify car rentals for everyone by helping them find the most suitable car in a quick, smart and easy way has brought a revolution in this regard. InstaCar only allocates people who are responsible and trained in quality customer service to drive their cars. According to co-founder Choubey,“ We have trained the drivers to make the experience for the customers memorable. We provide on-the-go sn...

RAW PRESSERY  RAW Pressery was born when Mr Anuj Rakyan suffered from a football injury and was advised by the doctors to increase the intake of vegetables, fruits and proteins. He came up with the idea of  blending different fruits and vegetables in a hydraulic press to prepare fresh juice, the nutrition of which would be directly absorbed into the bloodstream. The former Investment banker, under the guidance of expert nutritionists and dietitians, prepared various recipes specialising in different areas like weight loss, immunity, glowing skin and energy. Raw Pressery came up with a very innovative idea of selling an entire day’s diet plan in bundles. These bundles include different juice bottles labelled with the specific time at which they are supposed to be consumed as per the diet plan and are delivered fresh on the day you want to do a detoxification diet.  The ‘All Good. No Bad.’ message that Raw Pressery spreads is implemented when it comes to t...

FABALLEY In the world of e-commerce, we all know names like Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Amazon, Snapdeal. Manufacturers sell products under private labels on these websites. FabAlley.com  is a private brand whose products can be found across all online marketplaces. FabAlley was started by Tanvi Malik and Shivani Poddar, who quit their high-paying jobs in Titan Industries, Unilever and Avendus Capital to follow their dream of entrepreneurship.   “We were both working in the corporate sector and we found a huge gap in terms of fast fashion which was not available in India at affordable prices." Indian women normally prefer buying things for regular wear in the price range Rs 900 to Rs 1000, and Malik says there was a gap there. Nothing was available in that space, either online or offline. Besides their personal experience, the duo also conducted a market survey with 500 women whom they spoke to either directly or surveyed through a questionnaire. And 60%...

STARTUP STORY – OYO ROOMS Ever wondered where to shelter when in a new city? Here is the answer- Oyo room Oyo is considered to be one of the most rapidly growing start-ups in recent times. But the most amazing part is that it was founded by a person who is very young and hasn’t even studied beyond school i.e. a college dropout at 17 and a millionaire at 22. Well that’s inspirational. Ritesh Aggarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms. He hails from Odisha but left home in his teens in search of a better future and landed in Delhi. At the age of 18 he founded ‘Oravel Stays’ which was a home sharing portal. But after staying in different rooms and hotels he discovered an issue with these portals that these portals were not standardised. It was then that he started OYO in 2013 only to make it India’s fastest growing network of hotel chain. Aggarwal was named in the Forbes list of achievers under 30. It started with a single hotel and has lately spread over 6500+ hotels ...

IndiBlogger : a Rs 1 crore venture For most people, blogging serves as a good pastime, to air or read views and opinions. However, for four brilliant youngsters from Chennai, harnessing the power of blogs has proved to be a money- minting venture - a Rs 1crore business, to be precise. "We were all avid bloggers and saw the potential early, so we based our business idea on it," says 33- year - old Renie Ravin, managing director of IndiBlogger. Launched in August 2007, IndiBlogger.in started as a free blogging platform for Indians. However, the founders - Renie Ravin, Karthik DR, Vineet Rajan and Anoop Johnson -  had a bigger game plan: to mobilise the blogosphere, a nascent field at the time, so that companies and brands could engage with their customers. The idea was conceptualised by the founders (barring Rajan), all in their 20s at a party in early August 2007. At the time, Karthik and Johnson were selling security solutions for ostsold Software, and Ravin...

ShoeKonnect : "Footwear Businesses closer to each other like never before." ShoeKonnect is a B2B commerce mobile application designed specifically to cater to the needs of the footwear industry. ShoeKonnect helps footwear enterprises to connect and communicate with each other and expand their business.This marketplace for leather products has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the Indian Angel Network (IAN). The Agra-based start-up, whose founders have a family-background in footwear manufacturing, aims to make it easy for retailers to source products from manufacturers, reducing logistic hassles and cost. It aims to connect 5,000 footwear businesses, including manufacturers, suppliers, traders, and retailers from India and neighbouring countries.    It also provides a free Footwear Community Platform where you can freely share your samples and get enquiries. One can 'Search' suppliers and new samples according to location, profile type etc. ...

LIST OF NOBEL LAUREATES' The  Nobel Prizes are prizes awarded annually by the  Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , the  Swedish Academy , the  KarolinskaInstitutet , and the Norwegian Nobel Committee  to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in the fields of  chemistry ,  physics ,  literature ,  peace , and  physiology or medicine . [1]  They were established by the 1895 will of  Alfred Nobel , which dictates that the awards should be administered by the  Nobel Foundation . The  Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences  was established in 1968 by the  SverigesRiksbank , the  central bank  of  Sweden , for contributions to the field of economics. Each "laureate", receives a gold medal, a  diploma , and a sum of money, which is decided by the Nobel Foundation. Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology   Fukuoka, Japan-born scientist, Yoshinori ...

The Savouring Japanese Cuisine A Kubhakaran exists inside all of us – eat plentiful and later fall flat on bed. All of us love food and sometimes it happens to be the solution of many problems. Let’s talk about a few mouth watering Japanese dishes. Japanese food is widely recognized for being refined and elegant and for its over-the-top presentation. It's all about flavour, texture and colour. While talking about Japanese food the first thing that comes to our minds by default is Sushi. It is raw fish served on vinegared rice that also includes cooked seafood, vegetables and eggs. Then there is Tempura , that contains seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. Shabu-shabu is the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of thin slices of beef or pork being swished around chopsticks in bubbling broth.  Okonomiyaki is definitely on my to-eat-list. A kind of  Japanese pancake containing a variety of ingredients. Other dishes include Ramen, unagi,...

Down the lanes of Mahrashtra … Beaches and mountains, caves and temples, forests and cities - Maharashtra is abundantly blessed with natural wealth and cultural heritage. Food proves to be an integral part of Maharashtra’s cultural heritage, and no visit to the state can be considered complete without sampling a variety of its specialties. We bow down to the almost inexhaustible variety of street foods that the local and exotic kitchens offer in Marathi lanes: 1.       Vada Pav   It’s soft, it’s crunchy …it’s a Vada Pav! Aamchi Mumbai’s favourite, Vada Pav is a potato patty dipped in batter, deep fried, and served sandwiched in a sliced bun-shaped Indian bread, with a spicy red chutney, made of garlic and dry coconut and fried green chillies. Gaining global recognition as the ‘Indian Burger’, Vada Pav fills your tummy and keeps your pockets happy as well! 2.       Thalipeeth Thalipeeth is a savoury, three-f...