Manan Kathuria is a  Golden Youth for Child Rights Award 2018 winner for his short film 'Chiraiya Chaahe Aasmaan' at the Jharkhand Children Film Festival 2018, presented by UNICEF and Prabhat Khabar. His Second Short film, 'Kon Shudh, Kon Ashudh?' has bagged two International Selections at the Lift-Off Network, 2019.

Manan is a 100% Scholarship holder, as a B.A. (Journalism and Mass Communication) student at Amity University, Noida with an experience of over 5 years in the field of Film Production, Photography and Writing. He is  always travelling in different directions of life. The journey includes some artistic and aesthetic roads, creative mountains to climb and beautiful memories to write and document. He find stories when he is lost in this phase, which comes in terms of films, photographs and poetry.

He has also worked on 3 other film projects, which are yet to be released.

In this era of technological advancements where there is an app for almost everything, managing everyday tasks and communication within student housing facilities or hostels should be a seamless process. However, most hostels and student housing communities follow archaic methods of data management,  reporting, maintenance of paper records,  and other standard practices. These old school methods result in ineffective and chaotic operations and communication between educators, students, parents and hostel administrators. In addition to this, due to these manual processes, key decision makers at educational institutions do not have the required data driven insights for forward planning, leading to very costly errors and wastage.

SpaceBasic is an AI enabled digital data platform to automate everyday tasks and simplify communication within educational institutions and their student housing communities. SpaceBasic was started with a two fold goal in mind - One, to do away with redundant and time- consuming management processes by automating daily repetitive tasks for educators, administrators and students in student housing communities and hostels. Secondly, to provide educational institutions a mechanism to analyse meaningful data sources to gain actionable insights, leading to cost reductions and streamlined operations.

SpaceBasic was founded in 2017 by Madhavi Shankar and Silicon valley based serial entrepreneur Indu Navar to help educational institutions to automate everyday tasks and communication within their hostels and student housing communities. Headquartered in Los Altos, California, and with an office in Bangalore, SpaceBasic has a highly accomplished founding team with over 60 years of global experience in building and scaling SaaS based enterprises with successful exits. Prior to co-founding SpaceBasic, Indu was the Founder and CEO of Serus Corporation, USA. She has previously worked at NASA in Moffett Field California. On the other hand, Madhavi was named as one of the top 30 women transforming India by Niti Ayog and the United Nations. She was among the top young entrepreneurs of the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 List chosen in the category of enterprise technology. An active advocate of women employment and equal opportunities, Madhavi was also one among the 8 youth leaders chosen for the launch event of  UN’s One million Youth leaders event that was held at United Nations Office in Geneva.

For 50-year-old Sangeetha Jairam, yoga instructor and motorcyclist, life’s lessons have always been through motorcycle metaphors. She got her adventure streak while growing up in the hills of Kodagu (formerly Coorg) and the motorcycle bug from her motorcyclist father, who, by the way, rode his BMW R25 all the way from Munich to India in the 1960s. Following in his footsteps, she learned to ride on the classic bike while she was still in her teens. Sangeetha lives in Udhagamandalam (formerly Ooty) and teaches yoga to young children at The Lawrence School, Lovedale, the same school she went to. It’s here that she learned the most valuable lessons of life, especially about the wonder of nature and to have the courage to live up to the school’s motto: “never give in”. In fact, the biking enthusiast is also seen practising yoga asanas (postures) in all the exotic locales that she has been to. Often spotted doing headstands on the motorcycle as well.

She has dirt biked in Cambodia, been a Race Official for the MotoGP in Australia, ridden with wildebeests in Africa, through the dreaded ‘Tunnel of Death’ in Tajikistan, and along the length of the Pamir Highway (the world’s second highest altitude international highway), and accomplished more awe-inspiring motorcycling feats than one can imagine. Sangeetha has had no dearth of motorcycling adventures. Her passion has taken her to Bhutan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kenya, Australia, Finland, and Norway and to Ladakh, Nagaland and Meghalaya amongst other states, in India.

I hope her story inspires you!

Many women across India hesitate to seek help when it comes to their menstrual, reproductive and sexual health. For some, it’s the absence of a trusted physician but for many, it’s the uneasy and  judgmental questions on marital status, pregnancy termination and pre-marital sex that they are asked. From puberty to menopause, women are exposed to a number of health risks during their lifetime. The stigma attached to seeking help has stopped many women from being proactive in managing their menstrual, sexual and reproductive health issues.

Proactive For Her was founded with an aim to empower women to learn about their sexual and reproductive health in a holistic manner. The early stage health tech startup offers accessible, confidential and personalized healthcare solutions. It’s a one-stop platform for women to access handpicked doctors and medical experts who can offer holistic care. These experts not only offer tele-consultations but they also interact with each other to develop a holistic care plan for the patient. In addition to this, the patients are provided with regular follow ups and access to concierge services.

Proactive For Her was founded in August 2020 by Achitha Jacob who dropped out of Harvard Business School with a vision to build a healthcare brand exclusively for women by women. An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Achitha has previously worked with Fortune 500 healthcare and healthcare startups. The team at Proactive For Her has 70+ years of cumulative healthcare experience, including 15+ years of global healthcare experience.

Chatted with Achitha and I hope you enjoy conversation!

Nitin D.C. is a professional coach certified by the ICF and is a leadership development expert at Samsung. He is a post-graduate in Human Resources Management, a graduate in Mechanical Engineering with a post-graduate certificate in Advanced Software Engineering. He has been working for 15 years at Samsung Research in Bangalore. Recently, he was interviewed on America Tonight with the Emmy-award-winning journalist, Kate Delaney.

His book is called "Human Connect Through Emotional Intelligence". This book is for any reader irrespective of the field of work or background they come from. It is a book written straight from the heart, relating to every bit of experience I could gather, in the course of my work and personal life The book has a simple tone to it, to understand and realize the concepts without any difficulty. It is all about bringing to attention those subtle aspects, which often may hit our blind spots, thereby creating awareness that can help our mind maintain peace.

Spoke with him on the show and I hope you enjoy conversation!

The Greater Chennai Corporation on Saturday started using drones, on an experimental basis, to spray larvicide along the waterbodies to control the mosquito menace.

The civic body was collaborating with Dr. Kalam Advanced UAV Research Centre on the MIT campus of Anna University for this activity.

Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi and other senior officials monitored the spraying through drones along the Cooum near Langs Garden Road on Saturday. With the help of drones, he said that spraying of the anti-larval oil can be done in a faster and safer manner.

K. Senthil Kumar, Director, Dr. Kalam Advanced UAV Research Centre, said such drones were first used by Agriculture Department for spraying pesticides, when Mr. Bedi was the secretary.

Bangalored explores the fledgling romance between the protagonists in the backdrop of Bangalore.

Radha Iyer is battling to make her mark in the male-dominated world of the IT industry as she straddles the two worlds of traditional and modern India. She is fiercely independent and has strong views on things she cares about. When she works on a big sales deal for the sake of a friend, she encounters James Rutherford, devilishly handsome, infuriatingly superior and blatantly flirtatious.

James Rutherford is visiting India from England on work. Circumstances throw him together with Radha Iyer, a vexing and opinionated girl in the partner company he is visiting. She is engaging, and her world-view is refreshing. An inexplicable attraction develops as they form a strange friendship based on their mutual love for literature.

The romance blossoms amidst the age-old charm of meals together, but also in the brave new world of WhatsApp. Along the way, friendship, family and heartbreak are entwined into the lives of Radha and James in a slice-of-life narrative that warms the heart.

Spoke with Gayatri Chandrasekharan about her fictional novel and enjoyed conversation! Book is available everywhere! Do pick it up!

Six directors have come together to roll out a new Netflix series, Feels Like Ishq, to show us what love feels like with relatable and heartwarming episodes. The anthology series streamed on Netflix on July 23. I caught up with Saba to chat about it all!

Saba Azad is an Indian actress, theatre director and musician. She is one half of Mumbai-based electro funk duo Madboy/Mink. Saba is known for her leading role in the romantic comedy film Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge (2011). The film was a sleeper hit in India, gaining a cult following among college students all over the country. She also played the role of Dingo in the Y-Films web series, Ladies Room in the year 2016. She made her Bollywood debut as one of the leads Raaga in the indie film Dil Kabaddi (2008). She has featured in commercials for Cadbury, Pond's, Maggi, Tata Sky, Google, Kit Kat, Vodafone, Sunsilk, Nescafe, Airtel as well as print campaigns for Clean & Clear, Westside and Amway and many more.

She's super sweet and down to earth and I enjoyed every bit of this conversation!

India is the largest provider of generic medicines globally, and the Indian pharmaceutical sector supplies over 50 percent of global demand for various vaccines. Globally, India ranks third in terms of pharmaceutical production by volume and 14th by value.

However, despite this, the pharmaceutical supply chain in the country has been underutilised and scattered, according to 23-year-old Anshuman Sahoo.

To solve this problem, Anshuman, along with his friend Ashish Rawat, started Impact Health in 2020. The startup aims to connect end-to-end points in the public healthcare system and make it affordable and accessible for everyone, especially for Tier II, III, and rural India.

The Bhubaneswar-based healthcare logistics and technology startup has created a platform for end-to-end health journey. It has services providers, doctors, pharma companies, and diagnostic labs on its platform. Through its flagship Patient Support Program (PSP), the startup ensures the patient gets diagnosed with a problem and ensures they get follow-up check-ups, medicines, tests, and even injection directly at their doorstep.

The founders aim to make healthcare accessible, especially for Tier II, III, and rural India, and at the same time make it affordable with quality making it inclusive for everyone.

Quixy is a cloud-based no-code application development platform that allows business users with no coding skills to automate workflows & processes, and build enterprise-grade applications, using simple drag and drop design, ten times faster compared to the traditional approach. Quixy provides dozens of pre-built solutions for various sector from education to finance and FMGC to Tech. Quixy, an industry and department agnostic, no-code platform is a tool that can be used to build and develop software applications without the need for coding or having to hire a software developer. While digital transformation doesn’t happen overnight, no-code platforms can help financial organisations to achieve scalable digital transformation that allows businesses to seize opportunities while meeting customer demand.

Quixy was established by Mr. Gautam Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO who has 13+ years of technology experience. He was last working as the CEO of Navayuga Infotech. In a short journey, Quixy has achieved quite a few recognitions being named in Gartner Peer Insights “Voice of the Customer” Report for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAP), rated ‘Leader for Asia Pacific for No-Code Application Development’ in G2's Fall 2020 report; named as one of the ‘Top 10 Best B2B Software Companies’ in Hyderabad by G2, apart from earning various community review badges, including Best Est. RoI, Easiest To Use, Easiest Setup, Best Support, and Best Results.

Enjoyed having him on the show and I hope this conversation brings value to your life!