Live with Rohit Bhatnagar- Director of Garage plug

The interview was conducted by Infieon Supermileage’s Power Train Lead, Atmodeep Sen on Instagram Live. The session started with the interviewer and the interviewee discussing about the current scenario of covid-19 in their respective cities. As the session was held on the auspicious day of India’s 74^th Independence Day, Mr. Bhatnagar expressed his greetings to the viewers. The session proceeded and Mr. Bhatnagar enlightened the viewers with the background of his start-up Garage Plug. The automotive business was set up in 2017 for which the work started approximately 1 year back. The company specializes in Aftermarkets such as garages, OES, OEMs parts etc. They have a tie up with 1 million plus multi-brand shops in India and Middle East. They have established themselves in more than 12 countries and hope to expand further in The United States and UK.  

Thereafter, the interviewer started asking questions to Mr Bhatnagar. The first question being “How do the consumers establish a partnership with you?” To which Mr Bhatnagar replied “They can reach out to our site, through which they can get in contact with our team and the procedure would be explained thoroughly. Basically, the sales are mostly done online which we call inside sales. The good will gives us about 30-40% of the business.” 

Later, on being asked about goals and objectives of Garage Plus Mr Bhatnagar gave a quick insight on it. He laid down the following points: 

• They help the multibrand workshops to grow in business. They help them in making a comeback if something unexpected has happened. They try to make a healthy and connected ecosystem by including all the consumers throughout the world. 
• They provide their aid to even the smallest of the manufacturing companies. They not only help them to get on board with the online platform, but also conduct webinars and meetings to help them generate their revenue. Due to the covid-19 crisis the consumers faced severe setbacks but Garage Plug provided them financial aids also and luckily all of them have survived and thriving.  
• In the start they met 300-400 owners who were not well educated. They were even scared of using technology. So, providing them with online method was very difficult for Mr Bhatnagar and his team but they worked hard for it and provided ease of use to their consumers. 

Then the question came about how the start-up has altered its proceedings and style of work since the start of the pandemic. To which Mr Bhatnagar replied “Adapting to situation is very important for a start-up. So, we are providing touchless automotive platform with zero touchpoints.”  Then the speakers talked about the recession that is occurring throughout the world with major automotive industries declining, cancellation of various automobile events. Showrooms footfall etc. Mr Bhatnagar made us familiar about the isolation economy and how the masses are planning to go solo and aiming on less use of share autos and taxis. 

On being questioned about the future of the automotive sector Mr Bhatnagar replied “As the economy is going cashless rapidly so it is the need of the hour for every business to move online. People who are trying to innovate during these times will thrive in the future. The real picture will be out in about 12-24 months but one thing likely to happen until then is that the businesses will go slow.” The future plans for garage plug was to expand in USA but due to the pandemic it has been delayed for another 2 years. They are now planning to expand more in India and Middle East.    

The innovative entrepreneur then gave out some important tips and suggestions for our career prospects. He motivated us by saying “If you really want to do something do not wait too long. If you wish to become an entrepreneur do not work too long for any company to gain experience, as not much of it would count in the long run. We can try to provide solutions even to the most trivial problems and earn millions. Student epoch is the best time to take the maximum risks. We have problems all around us, we just need to learn to identify them.” He told us that we should overcome our fears, family pressure, job pressure etc to fulfil our dreams. We should start working towards our goal as soon as possible. We should try and learn from the experienced achievers in our field. He said “When recessions and depressions have occurred in the past all great businesses evolved. So today is the time for innovation.” 

Mr Bhatnagar then portrayed his journey in reaching this milestone. He said that this start-up was his 6^th venture. The previous 5 failed because although he had some consumers, the start-ups were not worth for monetary support. So, he had to let them go. One of which was mobile based CRMs which was completely on-site basis. According to him the start-up failed as he wanted to make millions by himself. So, overconfidence let him down. Then he started enlightening us about his journey for the current successful venture. When he launched Garage Plug they only had one feature yet in the very first week, they got 3 customers who signed for an annual pack. He was motivated for this start-up when he used to work in automotive field and saw closely the difficulties faced by his co-workers. They have also contributed towards nature by going paperless and working totally digital.  

Someone from the audience asked Mr Bhatnagar that “how should we work to get funding as it is the greatest hurdle?” To which Mr Bhatnagar replied “I disagree with the point that getting a funding is the greatest hurdle. A start-up faces much greater hardships at later stages. If you have a good product you do not have to go to investors, they will approach you. Funding is not the success. It is just the first step to add value.” 

Lastly, as we concluded the session Mr Atmodeep thanked Mr Bhatnagar on behalf of the audience and himself for the wonderful forty minutes, we all witnessed. The session was truly a combination of knowledge and motivation for all. 

Bio-mimicry

The world is very chaotic and humans are trying to impose standards and regularity in designing to get rid of understanding this chaos, biomimicry is a step taken to remind the greatest minds that the world is very poorly designed and the answers to that lies just around us.

Bio-mimicry is innovation inspired by nature, an idea of implementing nature’s design to solve the challenges in architecture, transportation, materials etc. speaking about the examples of bio-mimicry there are various in the modern world, for instance the aerodynamic design of the famous Japanese bullet train was inspired by the shape of a kingfisher birds beak.

 how?

The problem with the previous designs was – whenever the train comes out of a tunnel the shape of the train was so that it creates a sonic boom causing a loud noise not bearable by the human ears, the idea of finding the solution in a kingfisher was remarkable as to catch fish by diving into the water the kingfisher needs to be very quiet in this process otherwise the food is gone

Life uses sunlight low pressures low temperature and a handful number of elements from the periodic table to create what’s needed to survive, we on the other hand use energy stored in the fossil fuels, every element from the periodic table even the toxic ones with brutal processes, temperature and pressure. For example, the spider’s net fibre has 5 times more strength then steel

These kinds of biological blueprints have been successful over the years in developing ground breaking ideas faster. We do not need to remake the strategies which are already present we just need to learn from and adapt to them.

If the history of life on earth were put on a 24-hour clock, humans would have been here for mere seconds. As latecomers its time to begin asking the rest of our complex planetary family how to build a more resilient, regenerative, and beautiful world.

Many discoveries are yet to be made and many are on their way to reality, nature has always inspired humans since the time immemorial and will continue to do so in the coming future. The modern technology has to be driven with the help of bio-mimicry to make this world a better place to live in.

Coronavirus: The way the global pandemic has affected the automobile industry and the future scenario.

Coronavirus spread threatens Auto industry’s Supply Chains

Till date, the world is facing devastating crisis due to the contagious spread of the deadly coronavirus. With the declaration of the Novel coronavirus as global emergency by WHO in later half of January, the industries have declined in a fatal manner.

One of the most affected monopoly is the automotive industry, that has to go through tremendous losses. The productivity declined and lot of jobs disappeared. Every day the auto industry has to face cancellation of operations to keep the virus at bay. Manufacturing units around the world have been shut down, footfall in showrooms have taken a huge hit.

Major automobile events across the globe have either being canceled or postponed, notably 2020 Geneva motor show, Qatar Grand Prix, New York International Auto Show etc. 

On the positive side the return of manufacturing activities to near normalcy in China and South Korea gives hope for a U-shaped economic recovery. Post covid, the main focus of the consumers will be towards personal health,hygiene and cleanliness. This will encourage the consumers to switch more towards personal mobility. A survey was conducted in India which yielded a possibility for a positive outcome. It stated that 75% of those surveyed were willing to buy a vehicle once the lockdown is lifted. 66% of the enquirers were willing to purchase within 3 months of the end of lockdown.

As of now, the businesses should ensure continuity planning, wherein they should set-up instant response team, define and align leaders, review co-working guidelines in critical positions and support supplier stability. Organizations should assess risk exposure regarding financial implications and stabilize cash flow.

Indian Auto Industry has suggested various steps to revive the sector post lockdown  such as GST rate cuts, employment support, retail chain support, supplier support, liquidity support. A few important steps for battling covid-19 were also suggested such as batch testing of employees before joining, social distancing etc. The automobile sector may have to take a backseat when it comes to the government’s push policies but with some of the above mentioned solutions, the industry aims to recover strenuously  in the future with a greater workforce and greater advancements as, every setback is just a setup for a comeback. 

Shell Eco-marathon and International Day for the preservation of Ozone Layer

The United Nations has designated September 16 as the official ‘International Day for the preservation of Ozone layer’. Let us fundamentally try to understand how the Shell Eco Marathon contributes in its own unique way to this day which largely bypasses the attention of the global community as a whole.

The depletion of Ozone layer takes place in major part because of the Carbon Dioxide which is emitted from the burning of fossil fuels. So logic points to the simple fact that the lesser fossil fuels we burn, in turn leads to the lesser amount of Carbon Dioxide which is emitted in our atmosphere. This has a major positive impact on our environment as our Ozone layer depletion reduces.

The ozone layer, as we know is critical for our environment because it blocks the harmful ultra-violet radiations coming from the sun. In the absence of Ozone layer, various problems such as loss of eye-sight, skin diseases etc. can occur. The ‘International Day for Depletion of Ozone layer’  is probably one which you have never heard of. However, Shell Eco Marathon which is an international event that takes place each year in different continents across the globe is striving to achieve incredible fuel efficiencies.  Universities from Americas,  Europe and Asia compete in separate categories such as prototype, urban concept etc.  in their respective regions. Infieon Supermileage believes that it is one of those initiatives which are directly helping in the preservation of Ozone layer as the amount of fossil fuels in our environment decrease.

Let us pledge to be the harbingers of change by not just relying on events like Shell Eco Marathon to be the sole stakeholders in this change-process,  but do our bit to ensure that that the ‘International Day for preservation of Ozone layer’ becomes a  benchmark in our society to ‘pledge the change’  which make our society a better place.

Celebrating Engineer’s day in India

India is a nation which takes pride in its army of Engineers, from a few IITs which existed a few years after India became Independent, today there are a number of National, state-run and private Engineering colleges which are constantly contributing to India’s Engineering prowess. From Satya Nadella of Microsoft,  Rajiv Suri of Nokia, to Neil Mohan of Google.. Indian Engineers have made their presence felt Internationally.

So it is quite apt that September 15 has been designated as Engineer’s day in India.  Engineering is one of the world’s most prestigious occupations and parents in India love to see their children take-up this field.  While earlier Engineering was a male bastion, but today girls have made inroads in Engineering with scores of them securing top ranks in India’s top engineering entrances.  In 2010, a girl named Aakanksha Sarda became the first Indian girl to secure a gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad, just another example of how Indian women are globally making a mark in the field of Engineering.

At Infieon Supermileage, we appreciate our engineers and have absolutely no discrimination between men and women engineers in our team. As our engineers work day in and day hard to build highly fuel efficient vehicles for the Shell Eco Marathon, we respect them from the core of our heart for putting in  a lot of effort for delivering engineering marvels which are set to make a mark in our society.

As the engineers of Infieon Supermileage gear up for the 2015 edition of Shell Eco Marathon, this day is dedicated to all of them, for the great work they have done in the past and will continue to do in the future.

Happy Engineer’s Day.

Infieon Supermileage – Shell Eco Marathon Essay Writing Competition

Infieon Supermileage-Shell Eco Marathon Asia Essay Writing Competition

The topic for the essay writing competition is “The importance of Energy Efficient vehicles in the future and the role played by Shell Eco Marathon in the advancement of such vehicles”
Infieon Supermileage is the official team of SRM University participating in Shell Eco Marathon-Asia 2015. We aim to build highly fuel efficient vehicles. 

In order to spread awareness about the same, and how Shell Eco Marathon is contributing to the growth of such vehicles, we are organizing this essay writing competition.
Rules : 
1) The word limit for the essay on the mentioned topic is 1000 words.
2) Candidates are not expected to exceed the specified word limit.
3) The essays must be stored and sent in .doc/.docx/.pdf format only.
4) The .doc/.docx/.pdf file must be stored in the following format NAMEOFAPPLICANT_ESSAY e.g Daniel_Essay

5) The .doc/.docx/.pdf file must be sent to the email address corporate.infieonsupermileage@gmail.com with the subject NAMEOFAPPLICANT_ESSAY

6) The .doc/.docx/.pdf file must contain the following details –

1) FULL NAME of the applicant
2) COMPLETE ADDRESS of the applicant with PIN/ZIP Code
3) DATE of BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY)
4) Contact Number
5) Name of institution/Organization the applicant is associated with.
6) A Short Bio Data of the applicant.
The following points can be considered while writing the essay- 

1) The essay must be an original work of the author and any act(s) of plagiarism will be very strictly deal with.

2) The candidates are expected to research well on the core topic as well as Shell Eco Marathon to be able to link the two.

3) Relevant facts, figures and data can be included in the essay to improve the chances of winning.

4) The essay must not only inform, but should also be thought provoking to the readers urging them to initiate some sort of change.

Eligibility : The event is open to everyone.
LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSION – 6th November, 2014

Infieon Supermileage – Shell Eco Marathon Essay Writing Competition

Infieon Supermileage-Shell Eco Marathon Asia Essay Writing Competition

The topic for the essay writing competition is “The importance of Energy Efficient vehicles in the future and the role played by Shell Eco Marathon in the advancement of such vehicles”
Infieon Supermileage is the official team of SRM University participating in Shell Eco Marathon-Asia 2015. We aim to build highly fuel efficient vehicles. 

In order to spread awareness about the same, and how Shell Eco Marathon is contributing to the growth of such vehicles, we are organizing this essay writing competition.
Rules : 
1) The word limit for the essay on the mentioned topic is 1000 words.
2) Candidates are not expected to exceed the specified word limit.
3) The essays must be stored and sent in .doc/.docx/.pdf format only.
4) The .doc/.docx/.pdf file must be stored in the following format NAMEOFAPPLICANT_ESSAY e.g Daniel_Essay

5) The .doc/.docx/.pdf file must be sent to the email address corporate.infieonsupermileage@gmail.com with the subject NAMEOFAPPLICANT_ESSAY

6) The .doc/.docx/.pdf file must contain the following details –

1) FULL NAME of the applicant
2) COMPLETE ADDRESS of the applicant with PIN/ZIP Code
3) DATE of BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY)
4) Contact Number
5) Name of institution/Organization the applicant is associated with.
6) A Short Bio Data of the applicant.
The following points can be considered while writing the essay- 

1) The essay must be an original work of the author and any act(s) of plagiarism will be very strictly deal with.

2) The candidates are expected to research well on the core topic as well as Shell Eco Marathon to be able to link the two.

3) Relevant facts, figures and data can be included in the essay to improve the chances of winning.

4) The essay must not only inform, but should also be thought provoking to the readers urging them to initiate some sort of change.

Eligibility : The event is open to everyone.
LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSION – 6th November, 2014

Happy Teacher’s day.

September 5 marks ‘Teacher’s Day’  in India every year. It is a day when students across the country thank their teachers for their support and kindness in nurturing their future.
It is also a day, we at Infieon Supermileage believe, when teachers realize the great role that they play in the lives of their students.

Teachers are the ones who mould students into more responsible citizens of the society and various problems which plague the society such as depletion of our resources is something about which teachers tell their students. In short, teachers facilitate change through their students. This is extremely critical and underlines the fact that as mentors,  teachers have a responsibility of utmost importance to fulfill along with their students.

As Infieon Supermileage gears up to participate in Shell Eco Marathon –  2015, we remember all our teachers who taught us before and those who continue to teach us now. The ones who taught us the nuances of Engineering and also made us realize the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility in the society. The know-how given by our teachers has helped the Engineers of Infieon Supermileage to build and engineer highly fuel efficient vehicles for Shell Eco Marathon.  But the roles which teachers play doesn’t just stop here, as the team looks back to its participation in 2014 edition of Shell Eco Marathon,  the team faced an uphill task of not being able to derive the expected performance from the vehicle on their arrival in Manila. But it was the support of the visiting faculty, and professors back home, which motivated them to not give up and Infieon Supermileage could successfully participate in the 2014 edition.

This season, with the blessings of our teachers, we aim to go one step further and make a mark in Shell Eco Marathon’15.

Pledge to change- Online Campaign

A few days ago,  Infieon Supermileage started an online campaign entitled ‘Pledge to change’  which is described in the info graphic above. A number of people have asked us as to why we started the online campaign.

The answer to all those questions is that, there are a number of people who wish to support Infieon Supermileage in their own way from far off places. We have already received entries from Canada and the USA which we will soon be putting up on our website.  Seeing the great surge in the number of people who are supporting us for building a highly fuel efficient vehicle for SEM’15 and promoting the vision of the same for the role we play in energy conservation and building better engineering products, Ms. Prerna Bindra,  one of India’s most renowned conservationists also supported us by mentioning us on her personal facebook timeline.

This is not the end, our online campaign is for engaging people from not just India but across the world. We believe that a great engineering product also comes along with great corporate social responsibility which is what we seek to achieve through our campaign.

It is a humble appeal to the masses to seek all details from the info graphic and join us in our social cause. It is only when we work to achieve something, we attain the right results. Support us and be a part of history!

Michael Schumacher- Live, Die, Repeat.

Imagine the fastest driver on the planet, the man the world associates with thrill and speed. The person whose very mention evokes awe-inspiring charm. The man with perhaps the best reflexes who is regarded as the best and most dominating racer who had driven on the F1 tracks.

He will forever remain an invalid now, at least as per reports from doctors. Yes, that means even though our beloved Michael has come out of coma, but forget being the good old Michael that we remember him to be, he won’t even be able to do anything by himself and will more or less be dependent on others for everything else. Currently, he is said to be communicating through gestures and kept his eyes open for most of the time while he was transported from the hospital back to his home.

Schumacher has been extremely dominating throughout his career, let’s take a look at his career time line to five you a glimpse of his superiority :

1969: Born on January 3 in Huerth-Hermuelheim, Germany.

1973: Makes his racing debut in a kart race at the age of four

1987: Wins German and European kart championships.

1988: Finishes fourth in German Formula Ford championship and second in the European series in first year of car racing.

1990: Wins first major single-seater title, clinching the German Formula Three crown. Steps up to sports cars, driving for Mercedes.

1991: Makes Formula One debut for Jordan in Belgium, qualifying seventh before retiring. Poached by Benetton for the rest of the season.

1992: Takes first grand prix win in Belgium on his way to third in championship.

1994: Wins title, with eight wins to his name, after controversial last-race clash with Damon Hill.

1995: Retains world crown, taking nine victories.

1996: Moves to struggling Ferrari and manages three wins on his way to third in championship.

1997: Wins five races but is stripped of second in the championship for attempting to take out title rival Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez.

1999: Breaks his leg at Silverstone when easily leading the championship.

2000: Finally wins Ferrari’s first world title since 1979, amassing nine wins on the way.

2001: Another nine wins and another title, setting a new record for all-time victories on the way.

2002: Wins championship in record time, setting a new mark of 11 victories.

2003: Wins title by a point after six victories, breaking Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five championships.

2004: Breaks his own record for wins in a season to take title number seven.

2006: September 10 – Announces his retirement at end of 2006 season after winning Italian Grand Prix.

2009: July 29 – Announces his plans to make a shock return to Formula One with Ferrari, deputising for Felipe Massa until the Brazilian has recovered from injuries suffered in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

August 11 – Decides against an F1 comeback due to a neck injury sustained in a motorbike accident in February.

December 23 – Signs a three-year contract with Mercedes GP, ending three years in retirement.

2010: Aug 1 – Incurs a 10-place grid penalty for subsequent race in Belgium after coming within inches of running former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello into a wall during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Overall, struggles in his return year, never qualifying any higher than fifth, whilst in races is no higher than fourth on three occasions. Finishes 70 points behind team-mate Nico Rosberg, and ninth in the standings.

2011: September 25 – Runs into the back of Sauber’s Sergio Perez, sending his car up in the air before crashing into a barrier, in the Singapore Grand Prix.

One fourth-placed finish is the highlight of another tough year in which he finishes eighth in the drivers’ championship, 13 points down on Rosberg.

2012: May 27 – Shows a glimpse of the old genius as he sets fastest time in qualifying, but denied pole due to him serving a five-place grid penalty for running into Williams’ Bruno Senna in previous race in Spain.

June 24 – Collects his one and only podium in three years and 58 races with Mercedes when he finishes third in European Grand Prix in Valencia.

September 23 – A repeat incident in Singapore, this time into the back of Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne, collecting a 10-place grid penalty for the following race in Japan.

September 28 – Mercedes confirm signing Lewis Hamilton on a three-year deal, so signalling the second ending of Schumacher’s F1 career.

November 25 – Schumacher bows out of F1 on the back of his worst season, finishing 13th with 49 points.

2013: December 29 – Management company confirms Schumacher is in a critical condition in hospital after a skiing accident in the French Alps.

This is the legend  who defied all odds to wake up once again for his millions of fans who wanted him to race with F1 drivers once again.  While that may surely not be possible, it is indeed a blessing of God that Michael Schumacher is out of coma.

Given the fighter the 7-time world champion is, we hope that his remaining years are a lot more than plain ‘invalid‘ and that he continues  to inspire millions across the world.
Infieon Supermileage wishes Schumacher all the best for the future.

*source of timeline-The Mirror