12 minute read
New Avenues 38 Startup 40 Campus
Lighting up Spaces
Vibgyor Light Design Studio boasts of having the best of lighting equipment and promises to meet the needs of every home and commercial project
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By SYBIL RODRIGUES
Light is one of the most important elements in interior design. Lighting creates unique experiences, can completely change a design and has the capacity to create an atmosphere much more than furniture or an accessory can.
Keeping this is mind; Shaikh Abdul Majid came up with the concept of Vibgyor Light Design Studio. A lawyer by profession Shaikh has experience of working in different spheres having been a fashion designer and worked in Paris and the Middle East for seven years before coming back to Goa in 2002. He got into his core family business of lighting and electricals in the same year. Having been in the lighting business for a long time now, Shaikh has his own brand, Marichii, wherein he designs and manufactures his own lighting equipment.
“People wanted a place where all their lighting needs would be met. There is no lighting showroom which caters to the needs in Goa and I wanted to give people an option where they could get their requirements all under one roof”, he adds while speaking on the idea behind starting Vibgyor.
The showroom is 400 sq. mts and has around 3000 points with a wide array of decorative, architectural and utility lights. There are wall lights, floor
Shaikh Abdul Majid
lamps, lamps and shades and every other lighting design one needs for small or large space. Every aspect of lighting here is remote controlled.
“A customer is given the remote and he can switch on the light and see if it suits his taste. If he likes a particular design he approaches a salesman to go ahead with the sale. I plan on giving touch pads to the customers in the near future so that they can order on their own if they are comfortable with that,” Shaikh explains.
Shaikh says the showroom is equipped with every kind of lighting. “You name it and we have it. We have wall lights from `500/- to `50000/-. We have chandeliers ranging from `5000/- to `50 lakhs. There are no limitations in the lighting system that we have here. There is commercial lighting where we can design your 5-star or 7-star properties, villas, mansions, outdoor lightings and so on. We can also take on bigger projects if given the opportunity. We have our electrical engineers on site management systems and we have a technical team here at the Studio.”
Vibgyor can cater to the needs of everyone right up from a small studio apartment to a 7-star property. “If a consultant comes in or even if an international light designer comes in here, he will find what he is looking for. We have not restrained ourselves to Goa or India only,” Shaikh says.
The latest development and technology in lighting can be seen at the showroom. Shaikh states that he makes sure to obtain the most recent technologies in lighting whenever he travels abroad. “We can program everything when it comes to lighting. We can change the lighting depending on the time of day where the lighting will take its own course according to the natural light coming in from outside. The light will dim or brighten up as the day progresses. This is what I want to introduce to Goa, soon.”
Vibgyor has some of the best brands stocked when it comes to lighting. There are Indian brands like Ledos, Pasolite, HYBEC, Lafit, Changi, LED Lum, Fumagalli from Italy, the automation by Vimar from Italy, Phillips, Blossoms, Aerglow, Artisan, and PHILOMINA Collections when it comes to decorative lighting .
Vibgyor has its own technical team. Shaikh goes on to explain, “If a customer wants us to visit the site we send our technicians so that they can share their recommendations and suggestions. Our technicians are well trained and we do not engage in unethical practices like overselling just because a customer is ready to spend.”
Speaking on his future plans, Shaikh says that he would like to work on the automation part of lighting. “The need for automation has yet to come about in Goa. The first thing I want to do is create awareness about automation in the lighting market. We plan to get in touch with engineers, architects and interior designers to make them aware of the automated aspects of lighting. Specialised lighting is still in its nascent stage and we want to set up an academy soon. We are working towards developing a crash and diploma courses. We will mostly be affiliated to the German University which is the highest ranking university for lighting systems.” To conclude Shaikh mentions, “We hope to be the largest lighting showroom in the world in Goa. I want to see Goa as a hub and a trendsetter for lighting systems across globe”
Revolutionising the night life scene in Goa
Rajesh Sukhamanchi aims to bring about a change in the entertainment industry in Goa with his platform, Clubr
By SYBIL RODRIGUES
Clubr is a nightlife discovery platform which connects the entire nightlife ecosystem to offer you real time information on the party scene. The startup believes in spontaneity, and has hence equipped clubs with the necessary infrastructure to help them connect with audience in real time by directly channeling information from their platform.
For the first time, Clubr has empowered nightclubs to roll out last minute deals and last-minute tickets ensuring successful nights for partygoers and themselves as well. They aim to redefine the clubbing experience by curating the best gigs in town and help clubbers discover information about table reservations, offers, book deals and tickets with ease as and when required.
The man behind Clubr is Rajesh Sukamanchi who wished to offer holistic solutions for nightclubs and party venues. “If one were to look at any nightlife venues or live entertainment scenes, the
Rajesh Sukhamanchi
organisers do not have access to every aspect like selling tickets or table reservations. We come in as a platform and provide them with complete technologies to address all their issues like reservations, selling tickets and offer a holistic brand experience. We also complement it with our discounted platform by bringing in more traffic for them and enable organisers to make more sales.”
Rajesh has been in the digital space for more than ten years and owns Purple Syntax, a company which provides software and digital marketing solutions for various brands.
The idea of starting Clubr came about when Rajesh was working on one of the multiple projects in his portfolio. “I was looking into launching a startup and wanted to do something for a space that has lot of scope for improvement and development. When I saw the state of the live entertainment scene everything was fragmented and was controlled by individual promoters or PR managers. The major players were consolidated and very few people were in a position to solve core problems which were faced by various venues and organisers. This is where I saw a significant need for improvement, began working on it which led to the launch of Clubr.”
He further adds “Our mission is to organise nightlife information and make it easily accessible to clubbers. We believe that we can leverage the latest technology to achieve this and are passionate about combining the better of two great worlds of nightlife and technology. We aim to be the go-to application for clubbers for real time information of the party scene and redefine clubbing experience for them.”
Till a certain stage, Clubr was bootstrapped by Rajesh but recently he received a small seed fund from Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship (FiiRE). Clubr has already begun generating revenue and is in the growth phase. FiiRE, a selected incubator to implement the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme by the Government of Goa, selects startups for funding based on qualifying parameters and their pitch to the Incubator Seedfund Management Committee (ISMC) of FiiRE.
Clubr is not a regular online discovery platform. It offers much more through: • Clubr: A dedicated nightlife discovery platform for users, where deals and packages, subscriptions and venue details can be found and tickets can be booked directly from. • Clubr Backstage: A whitelabel solution for venues and organisers, with tailored web/mobile applications to sell merchandise, tickets, deals and RSVP directly enhancing their brand experience. • Clubr Onelink: A social media integration link that offers digital engagement capabilities and social media marketing to showcase, upsell and capture customer base through social media. • Clubr Tribe: A community of nightlife influencers, enthusiasts and professionals aimed at creating a network to connect and collaborate.
As far as future plans are concerned, Rajesh says, “Now that we have a significant product with us, we have been getting a lot of traction from our users. We want to focus more on growth and add multiple markets. Currently we are in Hyderabad, Goa and Bangalore and would like to explore more markets in the coming year.
Market trend analysis for the nightlife industry estimates a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.28% with the concept of multi-faceted venues, and experiences ruling the roost.
Clubr comes at a ripe, right time and shows promise to revolutionise and disrupt the nightlife industry
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DRUG DISCOVERY (ICDD-2022) INAUGURATED AT BITS PILANI GOA CAMPUS
Paul Davie, Vice President, Schrodinger addressing the conference
The fourth edition of The International Conference on Drug Discovery - 2022 (ICDD2022): Success Stories - From Computation to Clinical Trials jointly organised by BITS Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus and Schrödinger (www. schrodinger.com), opened to a grand audience of 1300 participants at the auditorium of BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus.
The conference was inaugurated in a glittering ceremony which was graced by Dr. Karen Akinsanya, (President, R&D, Schrodinger), Paul Davie (Vice President, Schrodinger), Dr. Raghu Rangaswamy (Vice President, Schrodinger India), Prof. Suman Kundu (Director, BITS Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus) and Dr. Sumit Biswas, Convener.
In her address, Dr. Karen talked about the vast potential of drug discovery and the broad supportive platform provided by Schrodinger towards the same.
Prof. Suman Kundu, in his address, expressed optimism on the emergence of India as a drug discovery hotspot and stressed on the genesis of a centre of excellence in human disease and drug discovery in the state.
The conference is being attended by top scientists from pharmaceutical companies, such as Glenmark, Gilead, Eli Lilly, Syngene, Jubilant, Aurigene, Aragen, Sun Pharma etc. and leading academic institutions (like NCBS, NCL, InStem, IISc, IMTECH, Bose Institute, BITS (Pilani and Hyderabad campus).
The conference has also attracted a very interested audience with 700 thematic posters being presented over a span of 2 days. The speakers and panelists included Directors of CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), CSIR – Central Drug Research Institute, North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST), Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIMJammu) and eminent chief scientists from organisations engaged in active drug discovery. Spread over multiple sessions, the conference was vastly popular with the unique theme and global participation. The conference highlighted the growing aspects of drug discovery platforms and the promise of a bright future in the years ahead
Conference participants
‘Make-The-Case’, an initiative by Centre for Social Sensitivity and Action (CSSA) at the Goa Institute of Management has been chosen as good practice by the United Nations Office of South-South Cooperation and has been included in the compendium entitled ‘Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development – Volume 4’.
In 2020, the ‘Make the Case’ competition was introduced. It was developed and put into action by the Goa Institute of Management’s Center for Social Sensitivity and Action (CSSA), Commitments Accelerator for Plastic Pollution (CAPP), Ocean Recovery Alliance (ORA), and Indian Plastic Institute (IPI).
The competition’s goal was to raise awareness of plastic waste in India and to encourage discussions on its solutions. The objective was to persuade young people to become interested in issues of sustainable development and to make them green crusaders of their respective institutes.
Dr. Ajit Parulekar, Director of GIM said, “I am very happy to note that the collaborative effort of CSSA has been recognized by UNOSSC as evidence-based good practice for SDG 12.
The volume released showcased over 130 development solutions that have demonstrated crossboundary cooperation and knowledge transfer between countries of the global South and which are highly adaptable to local economic and social conditions. I am pleased to know that from India, we are probably the first Business School who have been recognized for our effort by a UN entity”.
The ‘Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development publication series documents the incredible work that is currently happening in the global South. Two seasons of the Make-The-Case competition have been held so far. Instead of concentrating on completely fresh startup concepts, the competition in Season 1 (2020) focused on programmes and innovations that have already been implemented and have the potential to be scaled. In total, 165 teams signed up for this contest. Moving this initiative to a national platform, students from across the country had the opportunity to participate in season 2.
CSSA Chairperson Prof. Divya Singhal communicated that “The objective of the competition was to generate awareness about and discuss ways to tackle plastic waste in India. The aim was to nudge youth to take an interest in issues related to sustainable development and make them the green crusaders in their respective institutions”.
The competition is distinctive because it involves knowledge creation, knowledge transmission, and action. The competition's lessons have successfully demonstrated that plastic waste significantly affects public health
