Home Assistant Echo From Amazons Alexa Based For Indian Market Soon

At roughly Rs. 3500 to Rs.10000 you can have the luxury of Amazon’s Alexa doing all the mundane work for you. That is the initiative Amazon is taking to compete with Apple, Microsoft, and Google. The expected launch is by this year end. Amazon is gearing up for Indian languages to have a deeper penetration. In this age of IoT (Internet of Things) and Internet of all things, can Amazon be left behind, that too in India, the place of emerging technologies?
When they introduced Alexa Home speaker about two years back in the US, the response was overwhelming. And soon there were series of technological advances in AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented reality). And the home automation took a new turn with the IoT emergence.
The AI-based device can accept your voice commands and execute a variety of errands, including booking a cab for you and playing music. Of course, ordering on Amazon would be the logical turn. The voice command can be further extended to cope up with Internet of all Things. The local language addition would enable Amazon to increase the customer base. Amazon looks like in a hurry as they are test marketing the product now. Seems the feedback they get, will be utilized for forming the marketing strategy.
Echo speaker shall converge into a broader spectrum and Amazon. They are looking for partners in different services under one umbrella. Indian market is ripe for challenges for such products. Amazon can boast of a customer base for their e- commerce platform including Prime. That would help them in launching the product. The loyalty can be translated for better market penetration for Echo.
Amazon Echo can send email and text messages, set up of reminders, even help with your children’s lessons and so on. The requirement of Wi-Fi is also getting streamlined.

Reference URL: http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/amazon-set-launch-alexa-enabled-home-assistant-echo-india-year-end-64420

Solar Power Brings Light to the Dark Continent

It is a different kind of race happening in Africa. The social entrepreneurs and start-ups are vying one another to empower people without access to electricity. The magic of Solar Power is becoming a reality in Africa. In another one and half years or so, those who are off the grid will be provided with solar power. At last, a renewable solution to fast depleting natural resources is in sight.
The perennially hot cacao-farming community of Daban in Ghana got solar power through a micro-grid established by an American Start-up. Daban is seven degrees north of the equator, and without electricity life is miserable.
Now you can see solar panels all over South Africa which was not so a few years back. The landscape is changing rapidly due to three factors:
The worldwide drive towards renewable energy,
A highly strained local electricity supply, and
A steady drop in solar panel prices.
Africa has taken a twenty-year initiative called Integrated Resource Plan from 2010, and the result is fantastic. The ambitious plan is to generate 9600 MW of solar power capacity by 2030 from the small units of 2010.
The power grid operated by the state-owned utility Eskom will be connected with solar power. Solar tracking is a new technique for ‘following the sun’ to maximize the generation.
The solar concentrator or CSP technologies are based on the redirecting of sunlight usually by mirrors, to a common focal point, which as a result becomes extremely hot. Another technology is ‘parabolic trough technology.’
Solar energy almost completely avoids emissions, uses an unlimited energy resource and is becoming increasingly inexpensive. Solar powered phone charging stations in Rwanda, solar mobile phone charger, and kids studying under solar powered lights are now common in Africa.

Reference URL: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/the-race-to-solar-power-africa

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International Ideas Festival Impact 2- Aline Sara

The famous fashion brand ELLE promotes women entrepreneurs- ‘Shark Tank’-Style Social Entrepreneurship Competition. The annual ELLE Impact Award dedicated to helping women run businesses that make a real difference for society selected Aline Sara. This annual award is in partnership with Nicolas Hazard, the founder of In, a coalition that works to promote new sustainable and inclusive global businesses
Aline Sara, whose start-up shrewdly found a way to provide some relief to the Syrian crisis, which, with its 11 million–plus refugees, is arguably the direst humanitarian emergency facing the world today. Her social entrepreneurship NaTakallam, (Arabic for we speak,) liaises with NGOs in countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, and Brazil to recruit refugee instructors. One hour session cost $15, of which $10 is the share of the instructor.
The US is having a maximum number of Arabic-language students. The English-proficient Syrian refugees are needed for tutoring via Skype, the much needed English education is usually expensive, but NaTakallam offers same at the most affordable rate. Also, they get a personal instructor.
Sara’s parents fled civil war in Lebanon for New York in the ’80s. She too suffered the problem of coping with English from her native Arabic. Finding an affordable class was tough. She said, “I couldn’t imagine if my country was up in flames—and I couldn’t even apply for work”. But in spite of these problems, she graduated from Columbia University with a master’s in International Affairs with flying colors.
NaTakallam is giving language learners a chance to interact in colloquially spoken Arabic — something often lacking in U.S. language courses teaching classical Arabic. She realized that there is an increase in demand for the spoken version of the tongue.
Sara stressed that NaTakallam shouldn’t be thought of as a comprehensive Arabic course, but rather as a complement to the more formal study of the language. NaTakallam is already eyeing expansion, as the demand becomes more and the refugee crisis is worsening.

Reference URL: http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a44884/elle-impact-awards-2017/

Aman Foundation Technology

The Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneurs Award of the Year 2017 includes 17 outstanding leaders at the helm of 13 organizations. They are exploring solutions for social and environmental challenges. They cover varied fields right from disrupted families, refugee crisis, human right violations, water resources, energy crisis, etc.
One among them is Aman Foundation; the Pakistan-based Social entrepreneurship initiated by Malik Ahmad Jalal (www.theamanfoundation.org) and Fayeeza Naqvi. They are focussing on Healthcare, Technology, and Education.
Aman’s community health care program, Sukh, is a very innovative move in Pakistan- family planning. As per the religious norms followed by Pakistan, curbing population is a taboo. But surging population has affected the country’s economy very badly.
The reproductive and child health supports 1 million people in the country. Besides, the almost unknown field of ambulance services ‘Aman ambulances’ did a great job, especially in rural areas. They have assisted close to 100,000 cases a year. That works out to be addressing 46 percent of Karachi’s medical emergency needs within a response time of under 12 minutes.
The entrepreneurship approach, ‘Aman Foundation’ is through seed capital input. Using this novel technique of incubation, funding partnership and sustainability with Government involvement, Aman could change the entire scenario. The scaling up of the whole arrangement is the logical outcome.
The 27-years-old Kulsoom Malik continues knocking on the doors and changing lives of mental health patients of Karachi’s poor and uncared population. Community Health Workers (CHW) is an initiative of Aman Foundation, and Kulsoom Malik is a volunteer. While ‘Sukh’ is focussing on the mother, child care, and family planning, CHW is helping mentally ill. Aman Community Health Workers Program (ACHWP) oversees both these wings. Poverty is the underlying cause of frustration, depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. Also, arthritis aches and pains, fatigue, and high blood pressure are common in this community.

Reference URL:http://www.theamanfoundation.org/knocking-on-doors-and-changing-lives/

Meruyert Argimbayeva Opens Radost “Joy” Charity Shops

In Karaganda, Social entrepreneur Meruyert Argimbayeva started a charity shop named Radost, (“Joy”) three years back. Radost is a traditional charity shop in line with the goodwill stores. Radost receives items from the people, sorted out and distributed for free to the needy. These items include bed linens, towels, medicaments, and dishes. Over a thousand families are benefitted by this innovative venture in the Karaganda region. Not necessarily all products are used, new unused products are also sold in this shop.
At the joy stores, the prices are much lower than the market. Second-hand jeans are sold at 50% of the market rate. The shop sells only clothing, souvenirs, handmade items, jewelry, shoes, toys and bed linens. The revenue fetched from the shop goes to critically ill children, like the brain and central nervous system affected children only from Karaganda. Radost is the first of its kind venture in Kazakhstan.
Karaganda region is comparatively poor. The climate is oppressive, and the area is underdeveloped. This is a charity with a difference. Her background as a classical volunteer, helping deaf and dumb children was advantageous. She could find sponsors and resolve the problem efficiently. The project inspired many social entrepreneurs outside Kazakhstan. She assisted several of them by sharing her experience in the business. Sustainability and scalability are critical. Maybe, other corporates can sponsor on the projects too. Radost, (“Joy”), is indeed lighting up the horizons of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
It is all about secondary consumption and saves ecology. People are encouraged to do charity rather than just dumping the surplus and used items. Argimbayeva plans to open branches in the remote area of Karaganda in other fields, like the development of sports. The ultimate goal is to make the country financially better off.
The shop’s Facebook page suggests ‘region’ and is referred to as ‘the heart, soul, and brain of the project.’

Reference URL: http://astanatimes.com/2017/05/social-entrepreneurship-develops-in-karaganda/