‘gyaniki’, a content rich knowledge platform focusing on the automotive and mobility domains was launched by Devise Electronics Private Limited in an online event just before the last quarter of 2020. The launch event featured industry innovation leaders and EV Industry visionaries including Mr. Rajat Bhargava from Hero Motocorp, Mr. S A Sundaresan from Ashok Leyland, Dr. Shankar Venugopal from Mahindra Research Valley and Mr. Abhilash Savidhan from Tata Motors.
While passing through one of the most challenging years, the automotive industry finds itself at the threshold of significant technological changes. Coupled with this, the global response to COVID has caused a huge impact on early-stage development projects, launches and the supply chain. One of the key gaps to be overcome is the knowledge deficiency of the new technologies. ‘gyaniki’ aims to provide a common technology platform covering the future of mobility including Electric, Connected, Shared, ADAS and Autonomous vehicles.
The platform provides insights into manufacturers ranging from 2-Wheelers to commercial vehicle and also covers niche applications like Automated Guided Vehicles and Aero Mobility. Detailed technical descriptions of all the components involved is structured into different technologies and more than 500 suppliers and their offerings are detailed on the platform. Dedicated areas focusing on Industry Processes, Standards and Regulations and Development Processes further aid start-ups and small companies in the ecosystem.
Speaking at the launch event, Dr. Shankar Venugopal from Mahindra Research Valley, expressed his excitement for ‘gyaniki’, “With the rapid changes in the automotive ecosystem and transition towards Electric Vehicles and Shared Mobility, the landscape of suppliers and technologies involved is undergoing a change. A platform like ‘gyaniki’ to keep our engineers abreast with the latest technologies can be an add-on to organization’s Learning Management System.” Mr. Rajat Bhargava from Hero MotoCorp expressed his admiration towards the ‘5 click process of gyaniki, which ensures agility and usefulness of the platform’ Mr. Shekhar Malani, Director, Devise Electronics Pvt. Ltd., indicated, “It took us considerable effort to digitalize the knowledge that our team members and industry experts working closely with us possessed. The lockdown and ‘work from home’ phases provided the final shape to ‘gyaniki’. The accessibility of the information remains our focal point – based on which we created a user-centric platform devoid of promotional content.”
With startups and the push for Atmanirbhar Bharat – the speed at which the industry needs to evolve is significant. ‘gyaniki’ is working closely with incubation centers like Symbiosis Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SCEI), Atal Innovation Center – MIT ADT and research institutes like Global Automotive Research Center (GARC) in order to provide seamless knowledge flow.
Mr. Keshab Chandra Sen, Project Head – Electric Vehicle Technology at Ramkrishna Forgings Limited, and Senior Industry Member, covers the 3 critical aspects of the platform:
- One stop knowledge center which presents in-depth knowledge in a simplified way
- Aids knowledge of the latest technologies, while also helping clarification of existing concepts
- Provides extensive coverage of the EV ecology
Since its launch, ‘gyaniki’ has been gaining lot of traction from the professional community. The platform also hosts Tech Talks session every Saturday which has seen industry speakers like Mr. Sandith Thandasheery, Founder, Navalt Solar and Electric Boats Pvt. Ltd., Sunil Nagpal – CTO, Ix Energy Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Chandresh Sethia – Co-Founder, Amplify Mobility and Mr. Christie Fernandes – Founder, SOOORYA EV among others. For many of the regular attendees, Saturday 10 am has become the ‘thought provoking’ time, as noted by Mr. Pradeep Chandrasekaran, General Manager, R&D at Force Motors Ltd.
‘gyaniki’ has added deeper content areas including ‘Case Study based thought experiments’, ‘Component Teardown and Benchmarking’, ‘Should Cost Exercises’ and more than 100 hours of recorded training content.
Way Forward
With its early success, ‘gyaniki’ has already received interest from investors and is actively moving towards a global launch in January 2021. With rapid database development for covering Autonomous and ADAS ecosystem players, ‘gyaniki’ is all set to become a cross-technology, cross-geography platform.
