GetActive launches personal health and activity tracker GetActive tapp

Bangalore-based 2mpower Health Management Services, makers of the GetActive series of fitness trackers, has launched a new personal health and activity tracker called GetActive tapp. The product which claims to follow WHO guidelines to benchmark activity levels will be available exclusively via Myntra at a price of Rs 4,999, the company said. However, it seems one can also buy it directly from the company’s website.

The device will track daily physical activity like steps taken, calories burnt, non-sedentary time spent in the day and distance covered in kilometers etc. It will then connect to the users smartphone using low-energy bluetooth and sync live fitness data to its app, which can then be accessed or downloaded from the app dashboard. The app is currently available for iOS and Android phones.

In addition to its other features, the GetActive tapp will also let users accumulate currency for every step taken, which it claims can be redeemed via its partner ecosystem. However, the company failed to mention which partners or what it can actually be redeemed for. The company currently also offers a variety of differently colored wristbands, priced at Rs 499, for the device.

The company had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services TV Mohandas Pai and former Infosys CTO Sharad Hegde, in May this year. At the time the company had said the funds will be used to provide holistic disease management solutions and expand applications in areas such as retail and financial services.

Other products offered by 2mpower health management services under its ‘GetActive’ branding include, a clip-on fitness tracker with a sleep monitor called GetActive Slim priced at Rs 2999 and GetActive eZ, another fitness tracker with a large b/w lcd screen and a pager like form factor priced at Rs 1999. GetActive also has a community platform where users can compete and challenge each other and ‘get rewarded’ for being active. The company claimed that its community platform will eventually comprise of medical experts, nutritionist, hospitals, insurance companies and lifestyle companies, although it didn’t specify a timeline for the same.

Other than retail customers, the company partners with corporates, hospitals, fitness clubs etc. to offer its services. At the corporate level, it claims to increase employee engagement with activities like groupathons, virtual walkathons and other challenges and claims to have tie-ups with 28 corporates for the same. The company claims to have 15,000 users at present, which it aims to bring up to 100,000 with the launch of ‘tapp’ and to 10 million in the next 30 months.

Other players in the fitness tracking segment

- Vishal Gondal’s fitness tracking solution GOQii was officially launched in India and raised undisclosed amount in angel funding last month, after debuting it on a limited pilot basis earlier this year in February. What differentiates it from other fitness solutions like Fitbit and Jawbone is that GOQii provides access to human coaches and experts.

- Ahmedabad-based Azoi Mobile Technologies had launched a mobile case called Wello that also worked as a health tracker earlier this year. Pre-orders for Wello, which is priced at Rs 12,350 ($199) is closed at the moment. Besides India, Wello also targets other markets like USA, Canada, UK, EU, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.

- In June this year, Google launched its health and fitness platform Google Fit, through which it provided app developers a single set of APIs that can be used to manage fitness data from apps and sensors on cross-platform devices and on wearables. Apple had also launched a similar Healthkit platform earlier in the month.

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Gujarati community ready for ‘Navratri’ to add colour to festivity.

Garba is a staple of Gujarati which needs no real reason but with Navratri, Garba holds special significance as the circular movement of a group of dancers refers to the Hindu view of time from birth to death and rebirth as the cycle of life represented by Dandiya-Raas dance popular in Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra especially Mumbai.

What we have here is basically the stereotypes in Gujaratis which you inevitably hear if you have been to a garba dance with the inevitable majority of Gujjus circling you as they indulge in their special Navratri sweet talk.

Download Latest Gujarati garba 2014

Download Tahukar 2

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Sabarmati riverfront preparedness for Chinese President’s visit

Presented above are the photographs issued by the Government of Gujarat featuring Riverfront park located at Sabarmati riverfront, developed during Narendra Modi’s rule in Gujarat. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take dinner here in the backdrop of lit up Sabarmati Ashram which is located across the river opposite Riverfront park.

A star like attractive formation you may have noticed in the aerial pictures above is actually a border of sun clock. Look at the ground picture of sun-clock below.

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66 lions died in Gir forest in one year

Total 66 Asiatic lions died in Gujarat in last one year, In his written reply, state Forest and Environment Minister Ganpat Vasava said today in the state Legislative Assembly during the question in reply to Congress MLA’s question.

Out of total of 66 Asiatic lions (21 adult males, 16 lionesses and 29 cubs) died in the past one year in Junagadh, Amreli and Gir Somnath districts, 55 died natural deaths, while three were run over by speeding trains in Amreli district, eight others died in various incidents, like falling into open well, but not a single lion was poached.

2 lion cubs found dead near Rajula on 7 july.

Wildlife activists and nature lovers along with officials are concerned over the large number of lion deaths in the last five years. Sources said more 255 lions have died in the last five years in and around Gir wildlife sanctuary, the last abode of Asiatic lions in the world. According to the May 2010 census, there were 411 lions in the state. Experts say that many of the lions have 

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NID: Pradyuman Vyas, Director of NID Ahmedabad

National Institute of Design(NID) will receive the status of ‘Institute of National Importance’ soon.

The bill proposing same has been passed unopposed by Rajya Sabha today.

The bill will now go to Lok Sabha for discussion. As ruling BJP and opposition Congress both parties are in favor of the bill, it is very clear that bill will sail through.

When asked to react to today’s development, NID Ahmedabad Director Pradyuman Vyas who was in Delhi in connection with bill told DeshGujarat: This is the thing which we were trying for NID. The bill passed in Rajya Sabha is a big land mark for NID. After Rajya Sabha, the bill will go to Lok Sabha for approval. Once it is passed in Lok Sabha, NID will be able to offer Degree of Bachelor of Design, Master of Design and PhD, which will be very good thing for students for their future.

When asked whether existing students will benefit from the bill, Vyas said, “we will have to workout on the details including the legal position, once the bill is passed in other house. We will work on the rules and regulations later on and enact an ordinance.”

Vyas sounded excited about soon to be gained enhanced stature for NID.

He said: only forty institutes across India are given the status of ‘institute of national importance’.

He further said, “for now, the NID is capable to offer only Diploma, but once it is in position to award degree, it will be easier for students to apply for admission in foreign university and also for government jobs.”

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KE FANG Surprises on his Return Visit to Gujarat after 2008

http://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/are-you-kidding-me-surprises-my-return-visit-gujarat-after-six-years?cid=EXT_WBBlogSocialShare_D_EXT

A few weeks ago, I travelled to Gujarat to attend the project launch workshop for the second Gujarat State Highway Project (GSHP-II). It is a return visit to Gujarat after my last visit in 2008. I was the task team leader for the first Gujarat State Highway Project (GSHP) during 2005-2008, so I knew the state quite well and I expected to see a lot of changes during this new visit. But when I got there, I was still surprised.

Our team first went on a site visit first. We passed one road section which was improved in 2006 under the GSHP. The road will looked new.  My colleague Arnab Bandyopadhyay, who is the Project Leader for GSHP-II, asked the engineers from the Roads and Buildings Department (R&BD) whether they have rehabilitated the road recently. The answer was no. “You must be kidding,” I said to them. “How can an 8-year old road still look so new?”  But they were very firm. “No. We have not done any new works on those GSHP roads since they were constructed.”

On the second day, while we were standing outside the R&BD office in Gandhinagar (the center of the state administration), I saw a large 4-story building right in front of the R&BD office building. “Oh, yes, this and another one behind are new buildings,” the chief engineer of R&BD responded to my inquiry, “and actually they were completed within 8 months.” “Only 8 months?” I cannot believe what he said, “Are you kidding me? It cannot be done so fast in India.”  But he was very firm. He counted his fingers, saying “yes, from awarding the contract to move-in, 8 months in total.”

The next day morning, we had a project review meeting with each contractor. One common question we asked to every contractor was how long it took for them to get payments after they submitted invoices. “About four days” the first contractor answered. “Are you kidding me?” I said to them. “No, sir.” the contractor replied, after checking with his engineers and his accountant. One by one, all eight contractors said the same thing: 3 or 4 days. “This was really super!” I said to myself. Delay in contractor’s payments was a big problem in India before. Sometimes it took weeks or even months for the contractors to receive their payments.

Our last day in Gujarat was the project launch workshop. After a beautiful traditional lighting ceremony and speeches by R&BD minister, R&BD secretary, and other leaders, a training workshop was provided by World Bank experts on various topics related to the project.  Participants include R&BD engineers, contractors, consultants, and NGO representatives. It is a classic World Bank training workshop, but there was still something that surprised me. I remembered that in the past, at this kind of occasions when senior officials were present, R&BD engineers normally kept quiet, and they would not stand up and speak out without being called by those officials. This time, however, many R&BD engineers (including junior engineers) raised their hands to question or comment. There were thus very good interactions between Bank experts and audience.  From their questions and comments and from their confidence in speaking, I could feel the quality of R&BD engineers has improved enormously, particularly compared to 9 years ago when I first visited Gujarat.

By the end of the workshop, I started to realize that the R&BD has been significantly transformed from a traditional public works department, which executed government funded projects in a very slow and poor quality manner, to a new type of government agency that can effectively and efficiently plan, deliver and manage high quality road infrastructure and services. (See details in a World Bank publication, Institutional Development and Good Governance in the Highway Sector – Learning from Gujarat).

On my way back to Delhi, I was told by my colleagues that similar transformations have been taking place in some other Indian states in recent years.  “You may feel you are kidded again when you visit other states,” my colleagues joked to me.

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Jagannath mandir, Ahmedabad. Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel Took arti day before 137 Rath yatra 2014.

momentum present to CM by Mahant dilip das bapu

 B S F Javan Pray At Jagannath mandir

Narend Modi Fever In Rath yatra 2014 

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