Indian Innovators by Akshat Agrawal Page A

independent consulting practice of his own and ensured him global TI clients.
     
    “I never planned to start a company and knew very little about it. However, this choice was made for me by someone else. I could not continue working at TI, Japan; if I wanted to continue working on the same technology, this was the only route available to me. It was like a golden parachute (an agreement between a company and an employee, specifying that the employee will receive certain benefits if employment is terminated, usually due to change in control).
     
    I took up the challenge and moved back to Bengaluru in 2007.”
     
    Sriram named his consulting firm Nivaata, which means “infinite armor” in Sanskrit. Proving to be true to its name, the firm did an infinite amount of work on a variety of mobile technologies over the next two years.
     
    “One of the most memorable experiences was working with i2i Telesource, a company that focuses on integrated solutions in the wireless domain and offers content management services for mobile advertisements, mobile entertainment and mobile commerce. We worked with them to develop telemedicine applications, especially tele-ophthalmology. In short, it means technology that can help people consult a virtual doctor by using their phone. It was during this time that I came across the idea of using cellphone towers for location tracking.
     
    In those days, my father used to travel every fortnight from Chennai to Bengaluru to meet me. I used to pick him up at Whitefield station. The train usually reached the station around 3 AM, but given the nature of the Indian rail system, nothing could be said with certainty. The train would abruptly halt for long periods at stations or crossings. So, if my father set an alarm, he may wake up too early, in case the train was late. If he took the usual delay into account (which, in any case, was difficult to predict), he may miss the station if the train had not been delayed en route. As a result of this anxiety, he stayed awake all night, so that he could call me up in time for me to reach the station to pick him up.
     
    I thought that for someone who is supposedly solving problems for several big mobile companies, why couldn’t I solve my own problem? It occurred to me that if I could set up a piece of software on my father’s phone that would let me track his position and also automatically message me when he reached a certain place, our problem would be solved. Neither of us would need to be up all night. I could then wake up a little before 2 AM, check his current position and prepare accordingly. If he was on time, I would proceed to the station. If not, then I could simply go back to bed and wait for the wake-up SMS. My father could also sleep peacefully, as I would be able to call him to wake him up when I left for the station. He would not need to be awake to see where the train had reached.
     
    I had a Nokia E72 phone that ran on the Symbian operating system (OS). So, I wrote the code for a piece of software and installed it on my phone. I then took a trip from Bengaluru to Chennai. Every time I reached a station, I prompted the software to save its name and the location (based on the nearby cellular towers).
     
    I then installed the same piece of software on my father’s Symbian phone, and now, my father’s cellphone immediately sent me a message as soon as it reached a certain station. Moreover, the software let me monitor the current location of my dad’s cellphone via my cellphone and the server installed at my home.”
     
    So far, the project was only for personal use and Sriram had not thought about its commercial potential. However, he soon realized that several people were facing a lot of problems with GPS. “GPS drains the battery very quickly, because it consumes a lot of power. Moreover, not all phones are GPS-enabled, and even if they are, reliable GPS coverage may not be available at all places. Attempts to achieve non-GPS based