Latest news with #Karandikar
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
AI startup Airial turns travel TikToks into bookable itineraries. Read its pitch deck that helped it land $3 million.
Airial has raised $3 million in seed funding to help vacationers distill social content into actionable travel plans. Montage Ventures led the round, which included participation from South Park Commons and Peak XV. In addition to deriving itineraries from TikToks, Instagram Reels, and travel blogs, users can make and refine plans by entering information about their interests, budgets, and schedules. "People don't want cookie-cutter trips," Airial cofounder and CTO Sanjeev Shenoy told Business Insider. "They want all of this heavily customized, and they want the rest of the pieces to be handled seamlessly." The roughly two-year-old company was cofounded by Shenoy and Archit Karandikar, both avid travelers who left their engineering jobs at Meta and Waymo, respectively, to build Airial. The San Francisco-based company, with offices in India, has nine employees. After launching a public beta last year, a mobile app will come in the third quarter, said Karandikar, Airial's CEO. Rather than producing a basic list of activities, Karandikar said Airial uses AI reasoning, which drills down into "the hundreds of little constraints and dependencies that come up" while planning a trip. This includes logistics like choosing the closest airports and hotels to desired sites and the best connections for buses and trains. Airial isn't the only startup looking to use AI to change the massive online travel agencies market. AI competitors include Mindtrip and Layla, while established players like Expedia are also forging partnerships with OpenAI and Google. Karandikar said Airial focuses on user growth and eventually plans to make money by sharing revenue on hotel bookings and flights. It's also exploring advertising, freemium AI features, and a creator program where influencers can sell their itineraries. Here's a look at the pitch deck that Airial Travel used to raise $3 million in seed funding. "Just imagine your trip, and Airial it!" "Retention is key to both margin and scale. The personal touch drives retention in travel." "We understand AI, Optimization, and Social Products."
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
AI startup Airial turns travel TikToks into bookable itineraries. Read its pitch deck that helped it land $3 million.
Aspirational travel content runs rampant on social media, and now, an AI startup called Airial Travel wants to help bring the wanderlust offline. Airial has raised $3 million in seed funding to help vacationers distill social content into actionable travel plans. Montage Ventures led the round, which included participation from South Park Commons and Peak XV. In addition to deriving itineraries from TikToks, Instagram Reels, and travel blogs, users can make and refine plans by entering information about their interests, budgets, and schedules. "People don't want cookie-cutter trips," Airial cofounder and CTO Sanjeev Shenoy told Business Insider. "They want all of this heavily customized, and they want the rest of the pieces to be handled seamlessly." The roughly two-year-old company was cofounded by Shenoy and Archit Karandikar, both avid travelers who left their engineering jobs at Meta and Waymo, respectively, to build Airial. The San Francisco-based company, with offices in India, has nine employees. After launching a public beta last year, a mobile app will come in the third quarter, said Karandikar, Airial's CEO. Rather than producing a basic list of activities, Karandikar said Airial uses AI reasoning, which drills down into "the hundreds of little constraints and dependencies that come up" while planning a trip. This includes logistics like choosing the closest airports and hotels to desired sites and the best connections for buses and trains. Airial isn't the only startup looking to use AI to change the massive online travel agencies market. AI competitors include Mindtrip and Layla, while established players like Expedia are also forging partnerships with OpenAI and Google. Karandikar said Airial focuses on user growth and eventually plans to make money by sharing revenue on hotel bookings and flights. It's also exploring advertising, freemium AI features, and a creator program where influencers can sell their itineraries.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Need to address statistical issues in entrance, recruitment exams: NSC Chairman to government
The government has been called on to form a comprehensive policy on certain statistical issues related to entrance and recruitment exams by Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar, Chairman of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), who argued on Sunday that different agencies conducting their own exams have their own methods that can lead to dissatisfaction among candidates and legal proceedings. Speaking at the 19th Statistics Day organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Karandikar said statistical issues such as negative marking and normalisation of marks in examinations that are being conducted online and see lakhs of candidates should be addressed 'appropriately'. 'The fact that when such a large number (of candidates) appear (for exams), we don't have computer systems which simultaneously 27 lakh candidates can write,' Karandikar said, referring to an earlier recruitment exam held by the railways. 'So we have parallel exams, or exams in phases, different question papers. Then the question comes: how do we compare them? This is a strictly statistical question.' 'Somehow, each agency goes on its own way to define the policy: there is a question of negative marking, normalisation. And each agency declares its own formula which is different. That leads to dissatisfaction, especially from the candidates that don't make it, some of them making it to the court system,' the NSC Chairman added. In 2019, Karandikar was part of an expert committee constituted by the Supreme Court to suggest ways to deal with fraud in online examinations. The committee – led by retired Supreme Court justice GS Singhvi – was formed after the alleged leak of the Staff Selection Commission's Combined Graduate Level 2017 question papers, which led to massive protests. On Sunday, Karandikar said the expert committee had written a report just before COVID 'and perhaps that report is lying somewhere'. 'The point is that normalisation and negative marking, both are statistical questions. And perhaps – which body in government, I don't know, because there are multiple stakeholders – comprehensive effort should be made to create one group which gives thought to all this, brings in all the stakeholders, and comes out with one policy,' Karandikar added. 'Precision policymaking' Moderating a panel discussion at the Statistics Day event – held to commemorate the birth anniversary of famed statistician PC Mahalanobis – Shamika Ravi, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said India was moving into an era of 'precision policymaking'. According to Ravi, given the size of the country, indicators such as the infant mortality rate and even the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) don't mean much at an all-India level, although such measures are needed for comparisons. 'But the reality is, policymaking largely depends on highly localised estimates, which is the effort we are now doing. We are moving towards district-level estimates because a lot of policymaking requires local, unbiased, as precise or as close to the truth – that's what an unbiased estimate is… We are moving into the realm of what is called precision policymaking. And precision policymaking, then and therefore, requires data which is representative at the local level, whatever local we define. We have now moved beyond aspirational districts to aspirational blocks,' Ravi said. Also speaking at the same event, MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg said it was essential the statistics ministry produces data which is 'machine readable' given the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning and follows basic standards and norms so that data can be more effectively used for decision making. Towards this, the ministry is looking at data and statistics at a much broader level, Garg said, with a focus on ensuring that the data produced by different departments and ministries within the government – or administrative data – is focused and usable. Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy. ... Read More
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Come up with uniform policy on normalisation of marks: NSC chief Karandikar
In a move that may benefit millions of students appearing for various recruitment and entrance examinations across the country, National Statistical Commission (NSC) chairman Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar has urged the government to come up with a uniform policy for the normalisation of marks and negative marking. 'A comprehensive effort should be made to create one group... which will bring all stakeholders on board, give thought to this [problem] and come up with one policy [on normalisation]. This is strictly a statistical issue and should be addressed appropriately,' said Karandikar while speaking at the 19th National Statistics Day on Sunday. Normalisation of marks is a statistical process used to adjust scores in exams conducted in multiple shifts or sessions, where different question papers may have varying difficulty levels. The process aims to ensure a level playing field for all candidates by accounting for these variations in difficulty, so that students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the specific paper they received. 'Millions of candidates appear for exams. It is not possible to conduct such examinations at one place in one sitting in the traditional way. Hence, computer-based exams become the norm and these often stretch over multiple days and sessions. This means different question papers for different students. So, the question arises as to how we should compare it. Somehow, each agency goes on its own and declares its own formula, which is different. This leads to dissatisfaction among people who don't make it, leading to litigation. This has been going on for [many years],' added Karandikar. In December last year, thousands of students had come out in protest against the anticipated normalisation process in the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam. Earlier, in August, students had also staged protests in the wake of the normalisation process used to announce the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) results. Highlighting the current malaise where the normalisation process often leads to litigation from disgruntled candidates, Karandikar told Business Standard that devising a 'good' formula is important as students cannot be engaged in incessant litigation. 'Sometimes, it has been observed that the selected candidates belong to those appearing in one or two particular shifts and days, while some sessions remain highly under-represented. Hence, coming up with a uniform formula is important at least for central government-conducted examinations,' he added. Besides, Karandikar also proposed the User Verifiable Digital Audit Trail (UVDAT) mechanism to validate votes for online corporate voting and recommended the formation of a dedicated panel to address this issue. Also speaking at the event, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) secretary Saurabh Garg said that by the end of this year, the ministry will begin releasing quarterly data on the informal economy, based on its Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE). 'The ministry has also reduced the timeline for releasing reports to 45 days now, which was earlier anywhere between 8–9 months,' added Garg.
Hindustan Times
20-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
How IPS officer Rashmi Karandikar finds herself in the midst of a legal wrangle
Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Karandikar, 51, is in the midst of a maelstrom of legal disputes, with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police investigating two First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against her husband Purushottam Chavan, 53, in January and February, 2025, for his alleged role in defrauding six people of ₹7.42 crore on the promise of securing for them government plots at cheap rates and giving them the contract to supply T-shirts and hoodies to Nashik Police Academy between 2015 and 2024. In another instance, he had also promised 19 individuals cheap flats through various government schemes between 2019 to 2014 – he had collected funds to the tune of ₹24.78 crore from them. The cases unravelled in May 20, 2024, when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched Chavan's residence in Colaba for a money laundering probe related to alleged fraudulent withdrawal of TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) refunds worth ₹263.95 crore from the Income Tax (I-T) department. 'When ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and carried out searches at their Colaba residence, the agency had found several documents and agreements, which were forwarded by them to the EOW, which in turn registered the two FIRs based on the documents,' said a police officer investigating the case. In the twin cases of alleged promise of land parcels and homes, police have now summoned Karandikar's driver, house guards and house orderlies to record their statements. The EOW has secured Chavan's custody on remand up to June 24 on Thursday; and though Karandikar is not named in any of the FIRs, police are investigating financial transactions through her bank accounts and have written to the Director General of Police (DGP) Rashmi Shukla, to ascertain if she had declared the transactions as part of her assets. Karandikar and Chavan's paths converged in 2004 at an institute that mentored civil services aspirants for competitive exams. Karandikar was preparing to take the exams after completing a PhD in Sociology; she had a BSc in Statistics from University of Mumbai followed by MA in Sociology and Anthropology earlier, said a police officer, who is in the know of things. She had earlier cleared an examination for a desk officer's post under Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC). The officer however could not furnish details about Chavan's background, except for the fact that like Karandikar, he also grew up in western Maharashtra between Mumbai and Pune. The couple wed a year after they met in 2005. Subsequently, while Karandikar joined the services, her husband dropped the idea of serving the government and joined a financial broker with whom he went on to work for several years. 'He made a handsome living,' said the police officer, adding that the couple has no children. As a state-cadre police officer, she has worked in highway traffic police, as a deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in the Cyber-crime division and as DCP Port Zone. She is presently DCP, Civil Defence. Through her time in the department, Karandikar is known to have solved many notable cases. The Bulli Bai case of 2022 was one, where the accused were arrested for posting photographs of Muslim women, including well-known personalities, activists and professionals, on an app called Bulli Bai where they were declared available for 'auction.' She was also instrumental in solving a Nigerian job fraud and Pradhan Mantri Yojna loan fraud cases during her tenure as DCP, Cyber-crime. She is now in a legal wrangle because of her husband's alleged misdeeds. Insiders in the police department said, while he chose to drop out of the civil services race, Chavan did not think twice of artfully using his wife's position to carry out his businesses. He used his Karandikar's official vehicle – a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga – when he showed aspiring investors plots under the Mumbai Port Authority (MbPA). He would be driven by her official driver, while a uniformed constable accompanied him in the vehicle. He struck a deal for a batch of T-shirts with prospective businessmen in the presence of Karandikar at her official residence in Colaba, thereby winning their confidence, said an investigating officer. Chavan had also claimed that his wife was a member of the visiting faculty at the academy. 'We have arrested Chavan in the second case registered against him and have got his police custody till June 24,' said a police officer aware of the investigation. Sources in the department said that Karandikar, who was also questioned by the EOW, purportedly filed for divorce from her husband after his arrest, citing mental cruelty and financial harassment, and for concealing his business activities. EOW officers told HT that they have found transactions by which Karandikar had received ₹2.64 crore in her bank account from the account of her husband, who had made several foreign trips and who is also being investigated by the ED for money laundering charges. 'We have written to the DGP's office to check if she has declared the banking transactions in her assets disclosure, and are awaiting a response,' said the EOW officer, adding if they find her guilty of doing so, they may refer the case to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. 'The probe is at a nascent stage now,' the officer added.
