Music and love kept her strong in her darkest hour Lakshmi Khanagar loves to sing. Her clear, lilting voice belies the struggles this 27-year-old has already seen in her young life. Born into a family that was facing financial challenges in a small village in Gokak Taluk of Belgaum district, she has always had to fend for herself. As a child, Lakshmi was forcefully sent away to Goa to work for an affluent family, but she refused to spend the rest of her life as a stay-at-home maid, and fought her way back home, against everybody’s wishes. She then joined a hostel meant for backward classes in Gokak with the intent of finishing schooling without being a burden on her family. These years proved to be more arduous than she had thought.... https://yourstory.com/2016/12/music-and-love-kept-her-strong-in-her-darkest-hour/
5 tourist hotspots that can provide home to startups Goa is known as a tourist hotspot for fun, entertainment and beach-time. However, the infrastructure and quality of life are very high in this state on the west coast of India. With the large floating tourist population and the generally laid-back atmosphere, Goa is a prime candidate for startups involved in event management, music, adventure sports and the food and beverage sectors looking to set up shop in a location that has the advantages of industrialisation without the cons of overcrowding, bad infrastructure and high pollution that are found in big cities. https://yourstory.com/2016/10/tourist-hotspots-startup-hubs/ When inmates of Goa jail signed up for Bachelors and Masters degrees Breaking the prison cycle with higher education, the inmates of Colvale jail, Goa, made productive use of their time by signing up for Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Arts (MA) courses. On the occasion of the Goa Statehood Day on Monday, 21 of the 48 inmates who had enrolled in various educational courses last year were felicitated by the prisons department. The inmates completed their courses through a special study centre of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at the prison. https://yourstory.com/2016/06/colvale-jail-goa-education/ Konkan Railway witnesses record 22% growth in earnings; declares Rs 120 crore profit https://yourstory.com/2016/06/konkan-railway-profit/ How a team of young architects is giving back to their hometown with ‘Houses of Belgao’ Enter Cicada, a team of three 23- year-old classmates, friends and ultimately partners – Mohit Yalgi, Suyash Khanolkar and Tanvi Dhond. Born and raised in Belagavi, the three young architects decided early on that they would never stray far from the place that two previous generations of their family had always called home. The town has always been a collective of their stories from the past and the ones that they themselves created. The built environment – especially the homes have been narrators of these stories and hence an integral part of the heritage for us.” they say. https://yourstory.com/2016/05/cicada-houses-of-belgao/ Bringing the world together through music – the Jazz Goa story A decade of gigs six nights a week and collaborations with musicians from different genres to play all over the world. Colin D’Cruz,well-known Goa-based jazz musician,continues to have a busy and exciting career in music. But what makes his story special is the studio he owns and runs. https://yourstory.com/2016/02/jazz-goa/ Will hyperlocal services find success in tier 2 cities? Three-month old startup Freshboxx – which delivers organic fruits and vegetables to the customers’ doorstep – has had the advantage of a cheaper labour force too. Founder Rohan Kulkarni says: “We could move to metro cities too, but there are many hyperlocal startups already. I first want to move to other Tier II cities – namely Belgaum, Dharwad and Karwar – and then Goa, where nothing is really cultivated.” https://yourstory.com/2016/02/hyperlocal-services-tier-2-cities/ [Techie Tuesdays] Meet the Android man of Goa, Prajyot Mainkar Next time you go to Goa, don’t be surprised to see a bunch of coders busy with their work at the beaches. You can partly blame it on Prajyot Mainkar and his continued work on building the Android community in the tourism destination of the country. Prajyot is the founder of Androcid Media, a company that works primarily on the development of Android applications and Content Management Systems. This Goan developer has five years of experience in android technologies and more than 8 years in IT. But what sets him apart is his effort to take community support and learning to the next level by building a world class ecosystem of seamless transfer of technical knowledge and innovation. He has been a mentor for mobile app building strategy and initiatives around India, with his experimental approach. Meet our Techie Tuesdays for today, Prajyot, in the following conversation. https://yourstory.com/2015/09/techie-tuesdays-prajyot-mainkar/ The Woman behind ‘You are My Sonia’: Merlin, the Musical-Magician If you are a 90s Indian kid, you’ve subconsciously hummed ‘You are my Sonia’ through more years than you would like to admit. Haven’t you always fancied the person behind this particular song to be someone as spirited, feisty, and teeming with joie de vivre as Kareena herself? Merlin D’Souza turns out to be just that. She’s a prodigy pianist turned music professional who has laid her hands on everything one can do in the musical spectrum- be it singing, composing, producing, arranging or playing an instrument for that matter. Her bustling studio in Bandra, a suburb in the heart of Bombay where she grew up, is a soothing chaos of melodies and notes. She has more than a full plate right now, what with her all-girls band ‘Indiva’, her venture with a fellow veteran musicienne and her solo album all on the anvil. Turns out, the roots of her work as well as her personality can be traced back to a jolly-good childhood spent in equal parts in Goa and Bombay. “Mom and dad are from Goa. Every Goan has at least a piano, a trumpet and a violin. We are all forced to learn music, rather than study. We bought a piano when I was six. Without being taught, I was playing it away to glory, when my dad realized I was gifted.” https://yourstory.com/2015/08/merlin-dsouza/ How a Goan startup founder created a hostel chain and then did something unexpected The Hostel Crowd gives the picky backpacker a feature-rich hostel experience Jason Noronha’s path to starting up almost entirely follows the hero’s journey template. Jason had a great job, but felt something was missing. So, he went travelling, found his calling, and came back home to start up. But the story doesn’t end there and it even has a twist. To find out, read on. https://yourstory.com/2017/01/the-hostel-crowd/ Started in Goa, how this bootstrapped startup has expanded its presence in six cities within four months Whether it is to beat traffic, exploring a new city or even a road trip, today the need to take your own vehicle or mode of transport is increasing. Amongst the options of hiring chauffeurs or drivers, taking a cab or self-driving, reports say that 60 to 70 per cent of Indians prefer to self-drive. Looking at this opportunity, several startups like Cartisan, Zoom Car, and Let Me Drive are opening up venues to make it easier for people to book and hire their own vehicles. https://yourstory.com/2016/04/ziphop/ BITS Pilani Goa students develop a virtual reality headset, launch a startup Absentia BITS Pilani is known for its entrepreneurial culture. The college has many successful alumni in the startup industry like the founders of redBus, Exotel, Zivame, and Blume Ventures, etc. It also has a course in ‘New Venture Creation’ which is supported with a fund to invest in startups from BITS. This culture has allowed the students to dream and go after them. To demonstrate what we’re talking about, meet Shubham Mishra, Vrushali Prasade and Harikrishna Valiyath, students from third year at BITS Pilani Goa Campus. The trio has built a Virtual Reality Headset- Tesseract under the company name Absentia. https://yourstory.com/2015/06/tesseract-absentia-virtual-reality/ Sattva MedTech’s Sattva Fetal Life is a portable healthcare device weighing less than a kilo and uses advanced sensors to acquire physiological data. Designed for Indian conditions, the device is non-invasive and compliant with IEC standards for medical diagnostic equipment. Co-founders Vibhav Joshi and Sumedh Kaulgadh, both electronics engineers from BITS-Goa, have previous entrepreneurial experience with the New Venture Creation Program and startups like Jana Care. https://yourstory.com/2015/10/tech30-2015-top-30-startups/ Husband-wife duo launches online craft supplies CraftGully from Goa With an eye on the estimated $5 billion-dollar market, India’s largest online-only craft store started up in early 2014. Less than two years down the line, they have over 1500 products (and growing) and have clearly emerged as one of the preferred craft needs destination. What started as a random idea to make craft tools accessible soon metamorphosed into a mission to make art and craft supplies available to artists and crafters across the country. Thus CraftGully.com was born. Interestingly, CraftGully has its warehousing and operations based in Goa while the administrative offices are in Mumbai. The range of creative products at Craftgully. Why Goa? “Why not Goa,” pat comes the reply from Dhirender. “With such a picturesque locale and everything soothing around us, Goa was an automatic choice for us to start operations,” he says . Since the time they started, they have shipped to every state in the country - right from Andamans to Arunachal Pradesh to even far off Jammu and Kashmir. he husband-wife founder duo has interesting profiles too. The head and heart of CraftGully respectively Dhirender and Kunjal Nirwani gave up their lucrative careers to invest in CraftGully. Kunjal has an avid interest in all things craft. She was always creatively oriented towards workshops on craft. It was during one such time that she realised that there was no online quality craft supplier in India. https://yourstory.com/2015/05/craftgully/ Startup Event 2015 http://www.startupsuccessstories.com/startup-india-rocks-in-goa-on-7th-and-8th-october-2015-indias-first-ever-global-startup-event/ -- _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ Frederick Noronha http://about.me/noronhafrederick http://goa1556.in _/ P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twtr @fn Fbk: fredericknoronha _/ Goa,1556 shared audio content https://archive.org/details/goa1556 _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/