FinTech Hub- Inviting EOI

Government of West Bengal is now inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) for office space in the newly established “Fintech hub” in Newtown, Kolkata. Situated just 12 km from International Airport the hub can boasts of Business Club, Convention Center, multiple business hotels and a sizeable talent pool in close vicinity.

State Govt has created the “Fintech Hub” with the vision of establishing Bengal as a leader in driving innovation and transformation in Financial Sector. Companies doing disruptive work in Digital Banking, Alternative Lending, Process Automation, Blockchain, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are welcome to apply.

An app has been launched to keep users updated with “Fintech hub” related developments. The app provides medium for national and international firms to know more about the opportunities here and express their interest in being part of the growth story in Bengal

To explore further download app from the below link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wbhidcoltd.fintech_app

Healthy they, healthy we

West Bengal population is about 9.2 Crore of which about 9% i.e. 81 lac people are above 60 years of age. This percentage is expected to further rise in coming years keeping with the trend in last few decades.

Old age comes with a lot of ailment and diseases. Spending on health care increases with the increase of average age of population. Medical Insurance is an important instrument to cover treatment related expenses at this age. However, for an insurance firm, greater the payout in settling claims, greater is the premium they would charge for their schemes. Hence higher claims of coverage makes insurance more costly and less accessible.

On the other hand when the quantum of medical claims is less and well spread out - insurance prices are lower, larger population is covered, and society enjoys a larger security net. This means more affordable healthcare schemes for younger generation as well.One way to achieve this is to put focus on timely care and early diagnosis. It is estimated that healthcare costs can be reduced by about 30% by focusing on preventive health care.

Case well established right? Now comes the difficult part. Every big idea, every noble intention, needs innovative yet pragmatic execution. Specially if it is about changing consumer behavior and lifestyle. Can you get people to adopt a healthier lifestyle, can you help elderly take care of themselves better?

Challenge is not in why, but in how.

This is where we invite you - the thinkers, the doers the achievers. Come present your solution and create a social change for good #Bengalathon2018 #Transformation

To participate visit bengalathon.wb.gov.in

Reference – Report from Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt. of India

Story of Seenu

Every evening around 6 pm the streets liven up with hustle and bustle of its daily actors. Teenagers returning after a game of cricket or football, day scholars returning from colleges, scores of professionals returning from office. Each day the commotion continues for about three hours before things quieten again.

It is these evening hours that Seenu, the local phuchka vendor gets to dish out his offerings to people. Now Seenu on good days is kept quite busy by his demanding customers, but even on such days the demand peaks and dies during those three hours.

Seenu has tried to diversify his dishes, has attained expertise in dishing out phuchkas at an appreciable speed, but still there is only so much he can do during the limited time he gets. This is the limitation that he has to tackle every day. The whole day is near zero demand with sales suddenly picking for 2-3 hours where he himself becomes a bottleneck in operations.

Can you help Seenu? Can our local phuchka walas, chat wallas enabled by modern day technology cater to larger set of customers; maybe deliver at their doorsteps and earn more in the process? Is there a way to rationalize demand and optimize their operations?

That should help customers as well as they have to wait less and probably get better customized products.

Your solution can put a smile on face of Seenu and many others. If you are upto the challenge participate in #Bengalathon2018 and drive the #Transformation

To participate visit bengalathon.wb.gov.in

Introducing Bengalathon 2018

On 3^rd Nov, in an event held at Jibanananda Sabhaghar, Bangla Academy, statewide launch of Bengalathon took place in the august presence of Shri Bratya Basu, Hon’ble Minister of Information Technology & Electronics-Government of West Bengal, Shri Debashis Sen (IAS) Additional Chief Secretary, DITE, Shri Kaushik Halder (IAS) Webel MD & Commissioner, DITE, and Shri Ambarish Dasgupta, Principal Advisor - IT to Government of West Bengal. Also present were representatives from Industry Associations such as NASSCOM, members of media, and participant community.

For the uninitiated, Bengalathon (Bengal + Hackathon) is a challenge thrown at the technology professionals and students to solve pertinent problems impacting lives of millions. This year the challenge is to devise solutions in areas of fintech, tourism, last mile delivery and support for elderly using new age technologies such as Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Block chain etc.

Seventy-eight teams participated in the pilot phase of Bengalathon conducted in June, where teams from Salt-lake Sector V were given similar problem statements. The winners came up with inspiring solutions in the fields of Disaster Management and Car parking. Department of IT&E is giving them required support to actually implement their idea in real world.

Success of the pilot phase has encouraged State wide roll out of Bengalathon to tap the innovation potential across the State. The event would culminate with winners being felicitated in Bengal Global Business Summit 2018.

Bengalathon is the latest in a series of initiatives by Government of West Bengal in encouraging technology based innovation. Now it is for the bright minds of Bengal to ensure the results live up to the expectations.

Let the spirit of innovation fly.