The Paytm 'Build For India' initiative has now progressed into the fourth month of its journey of nurturing open-source projects and start-ups. We attended another event held by the initiative to find that many of the teams and individuals who are a part of the open source incubator have progressed rapidly towards shaping their ideas into reality. However, there are still a long way to go before a start-up can call itself truly successful. In order to graduate from the nascent stage of development to the final deployment phase, there are many hurdles which a start-up has to clear. In order to help them meet their goals, Paytm held a Mentor Day event session of its 'Build For India' initiative, where the company called upon experienced professionals from the tech industry to educate start-ups about the importance of UI/UX designing, Agile product development methodology, and about Open Source software and its licensing.
Saurabh Jain, head of ‘Paytm – Build For India’ initiative kicked off the event and called upon Nishesh Bhatnagar, Product Designer at Paytm, who explained the role of UI/UX development and how one needs to be aware of designing their products with minimal friction as it impacts the users who are experiencing the product, be it software or hardware. This was quite an informative session as it covered almost all aspects from the user’s standpoint, which is usually gained after years of experience and interaction with the end user.
Next up was an eclectic session on Agile product development, delivered by Srinivas Mothey, Vice President at Paytm. He emphasised on various aspects of the latest product development strategy which deviates from the norm of sequential or relay race approach for developing a product. Naba Magrabi, Open Source Senior Consultant for Lyra Infosystems then informed the attendees about Open Source software. She delved into the history and development of Open Source software and spoke at length of the various licenses involved with and to keep in mind while using Open Source software, the categories in which their licenses are divided into and more.
Some of the startups also got the chance to display how far their ideas have progressed and what they are all about. The BlockChain group in the Paytm Build For India event showcased their idea of leveraging the latest technologies for transforming the used car market. One of the group members said during the presentation (the quote has been edited for clarity), “It’s difficult to keep track of trustable data when buying a used car. However, using blockchain technology, one can be assured that the statistics of the second-hand car in question is as close to the real metrics as possible.” The team says that the technology is currently in Alpha testing phase and they are aiming for entering Beta testing in three months. They are also looking forward to apply the same technology to other areas like real estate, medical records, the stock market and more. Overall, the event was successfully pulled off and all the groups present at the event surely got to take away new information and advice from industry professionals, which will surely help them in their endeavours.
Disclosure: Digit is the media partner of Paytm ''Build For India' initiative.