For almost two decades now, all of us at Digit have been driven by one single goal – to be India’s technology navigator. We just want to do our bit towards making our nation the technology superpower we know it can (and should) be.
As a home-grown, Indian brand, Digit owes everything to the love and support of Indian technology enthusiasts like you. Over two decades, our small team of passionate technology lovers got together and built the most trusted technology media brand in India. And now it’s time we paid back some of that love…
The current system in which technology brands are built is flawed. Instead of being a meritocracy, it’s become a fiefdom of many gatekeepers, all working to hide those who can’t cough up an entrance fee. We all know who the gatekeepers to information are – search giants, social media giants, and media companies (including us).
While there are still exceptional success stories of beating all the odds that come from every corner of our great country, we can do better. We believe that there are many more brilliant products and services, and gems of ingenuity and innovation hiding amongst 1.3 billion Indians, but perhaps they can’t afford the gatekeeper’s fees.
This has to change.
It should be you, the consumer, who takes the final call on whether a product or service is good or not. Every decent Indian company should be able to reach out to you and at least inform you about its offerings. While Digit exists to test products and help you navigate through the cacophony of marketing and advertising, we also have a duty to make sure you’re informed of all your options.
We wanted to find a way for us Indians to be able to help Indian entrepreneurs and Indian startups flourish in India, and eventually make a mark on the global scale as well. The first step towards that is to inform you of the amazing work that many Indian companies are doing, but just the odd article isn’t going to cut it. Advertising is something that companies pay us (and all other media companies) for, because it works – it’s how information of new products reaches most of you. Thus, in true Digit fashion, we decided to find a way to make less money, in order to help deserving entrepreneurs make more.
Starting in September 2020, we invite small technology businesses in India who have an innovative idea, and are just getting started (under 5 Cr in turnover), to get in touch with us (write to us at india@digit.in) to avail of Rs 1.5 million worth of advertising and promotions across all of Digit’s platforms… for absolutely free! Yes, there are no catches here, we’re not going to charge Indian entrepreneurs and companies a single paisa, and will help promote them to you, our readers.
While we were discussing this idea, we found out about Nexus. The Nexus Startup Hub is an innovation hub and business incubator that is a collaboration between the US Embassy (New Delhi) and ACIR (The Alliance for Commercialisation and Innovation Research). Nexus basically identifies promising Indian startups and entrepreneurs and mentors them, for totally free, thanks to sponsorship by the US Government, in order to promote innovation in India, and help prepare and train entrepreneurs using learnings from the world’s biggest market and companies in the US.
As soon as we heard that there was someone else also trying to help Indian companies, for free, we had to get in touch with them and join forces. We’re happy to announce that we will start off #IndiaProject with all of the startups who have been and are being incubated by Nexus. All of those startups automatically qualify for the 1.5 million in advertising from Digit, across all of our platforms.
We also want to make sure that all of you budding entrepreneurs out there know of Nexus now, and can apply to them for mentorship. You will still have to go through their selection process of course, but considering almost all the mentorship programs we have heard of are paid, or profit-sharing, it’s refreshing to find like-minded people who only want to help. Nexus is now accepting applications for its 11th pre-incubation program for startups. To apply, click here. To know more, write to Nexus at info@startupnexus.in.
Not all of us are cut out for business or entrepreneurship, and in fact most of us are consumers who just love buying technology and products. So how can we, the majority of India, help an initiative like #IndiaProject?
Honestly, this whole thing falls flat on its face without you. For months now people have been looking for Indian companies to support, or Made in India products to buy, and we’ve all complained about the lack of proper Indian options in almost every product segment. Well, this is your chance to change that.
While nothing happens overnight, what India will look like a decade from now depends totally on what you do when you read this article, and what you do from now on.
If you share this article with your friends, or if you inform them of #IndiaProject, we can help spread the word. Very soon you will see #IndiaProject ads start to show up on our website, in our magazine, inside our videos, social media posts and everything we do. These ads, posts and articles will be promoting Indian companies, Indian ideas and fellow Indians, and you can help by clicking on those ads or posts, reading about them, sharing them with your friends on whatever communication channel you like and already use.
Every advertisement or social post or article that we write for #IndiaProject will carry the hashtag and the #IndiaProject icon/logo. In this way, you can easily know when we are promoting this initiative, and easily identify #IndiaProject content, in order to share it far and wide with friends.
The success or failure of this initiative lies solely with you. What will you do with this power?
This is not some gimmick we wanted to create in order to try and benefit our brand. To prove that, we want to release this idea as copyleft (public domain) instead. We actively encourage all other media houses to do this themselves. We encourage influencers in every vertical and on every platform (Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, etc), to do the same thing. We encourage popular actors to support small Indie film producers, sports persons can adopt and promote a local team. All across India, we’re hoping fellow Indians will support one another, and promote businesses they like, instead of being jaded and only speaking up to complain when things go wrong.
If anyone wants to use the same hashtag as us – #IndiaProject – we welcome them to do so, because we do not want this to belong to Digit. If someone wants to come up with their own initiative, we welcome that as well, let us know, we’ll help promote your initiative, with your own catch phrase or hashtag as well! As long as we’re all building Indian success stories, we support you 100% and we love you for it.
Now please share this article, and if you don’t want to do that for any reason, please at least pass on the general idea to your friends and family.