CHENNAI: A Chennai-based start-up is in the race to help the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) develop a local secure video conferencing solution to make India a global player in development, production and supply of innovative and efficient software products.
Meity is developing the solution as more companies are opting for ‘work from home’ practices. It had launched the ‘Innovation Challenge for Development of Video Conferencing Solution’, where in 1,980 entries from leading corporates and start-ups were screened.
Instrive Softlabs Pvt Ltd CEO Ashok Kannadasan said their one-year-old company presented its product ‘HydraMeet’ and has been selected as one of the top five firms that will now be competing in the final round shortly.
“We are the only company from Tamil Nadu to qualify for the finals. If our product Hydrameet (www.hydrameet.com) is selected, the government will support our software development,” Ashok added. “The product will be secure and integrated into various platforms.
It will also be user-friendly for differently abled persons,” the company’s head of operations S Sowmya said. “We will reach out to both Indian and overseas clients,” she added. The start-up was launched by a four-member team operating from Kotturpuram. According to Meity, Covid has made ‘work from home’ a household usage across the country, and video conference applications are an integral part of this working method.
CBDT refunds Rs 71,229 crore to taxpayers
Chennai: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued refunds worth Rs 71,229 crore in more than 21.24 lakh cases up to July 11 2020, to help taxpayers with liquidity in Covid-19 pandemic days, since the Government’s decision to issue pending income tax refunds at the earliest.