Diffusing good karma to people and nature

BY CAMILIA REZALI

The first-ever deed digitising phone application, Karma Pluss, made its debut on Feb 12, 2021. Karma Pluss is an app developed by two innovative young entrepreneurs, Puranam Pradeep Picasso and Rajashekar Kokkula.

They are founders of Imbuedesk, a startup company that has been operating for almost eight years. Since its establishment, it has finalised nearly 40 projects.

Imbuedesk Managing Director Puranam Picasso, 28, completed a six-year study in computer engineering. His work mainly involved local and international project management in the development of digital mobile applications.

Its Operations Director is Rajashekar Kokkula, 30, is a Computer Science Postgraduate with a seven-year of experience in the industry. He is tasked with managing the operational side of Imbuedesk.

Karma Pluss is the brainchild of investor and biotech entrepreneur EL Law, who is also the CEO of Revongen Corporation.

Ground plans

The app envisions to build a more extensive community that adopts a sustainable lifestyle to contribute to make the earth a healthier place. Karma Pluss enables people to connect on a global scene and turn vision into reality.

Puranam said: “We have done a lot of research into developing the app. We took into consideration some major adverse events even before the pandemic, such as global warming, bushfires in Australia, volcanic eruptions in the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as the Amazon rainforest wildfires.”

“We saw these natural disasters happening more often, so we thought better care for the environment was needed. That’s the idea behind Karma Pluss digital application – to educate the public and create awareness.”

The application also functions to establish awareness and educate the public into better care for nature. The target group is the young ones.

Earning karma points

Karma Pluss is an international application based on three concepts – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

The world population has grown tremendously in the last 20 years. At the same time, technology advancement was mounting very fast. Due to this, the use of transportation has increased and caused more carbon emission. Hence the concept of ‘Reduce’ is instituted in Karma Pluss to encourage users to minimise activities that might cause carbon emission.

“By having this app, users will know how much carbon emission they produced. The app will then suggest or provide advice on how they can reduce it.”

Every single contribution by a user will be awarded ‘karma points’. The karma points will allow users to trade in the points for used items. In fact, users with soaring points will be presented with a certificate of karma.

Puranam explained: “Let us say you want to buy a new handphone. The existence of new phones itself contributes to carbon emission. So, here on Karma Pluss, we allow users to sell used items.

“Users can put in a request for product exchange and state why you need the item. The seller will have the leverage to choose to whom they want to sell because there may be several buyers.”

Sealing three concepts

The benefit ‘Recycle’ similarly applies. Through the Karma Pluss app, vendors can see how many users want to recycle items. These recycled items cover all nine different groups, including glass, paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, tires, textiles, batteries and electronics.

Apart from putting in efforts to reduce carbon emission, purchasing used items and recycling waste products, the app was also designed to create awareness through stories related to the green environment.

“Just by reading the posted articles may help users to gain karma points. The user who wrote the article also earn points for helping to educate the public,” he said.

The three concepts sealed together into the Karma Pluss application simply alleviate the goal drawn by Imbuedesk, helping people help nature. And we know, better nature brings better wellbeing for people. This is how ‘karma’ works.

The application’s user interface is configured in a way that is easy on the eyes. It plays around with exquisite colours and appealing icons and projects a simple layout. Below are some of the interfaces in the application. — @Forest

The Karma Pluss digital application is a green IT project meticulously crafted by two young entrepreneurs in India.

The project was initiated by EL Law, CEO of Revongen Corporation. The technical expertise came from Puranam Pradeep Picasso, the Managing Director of Imbuedesk and Rajashekar Kokkula, its Operations Director.

The app is based on three significant values used by major Go Green campaigns – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Karma Pluss is considered the first of its kind, placing all these values together.

Law said: “This is considered my first IT project, and I am not an IT guy. But I like working with the two young founders from Imbuedesk. They put the ideas together into an application within nine months.”

Law added they started promoting the digital application in India. Once they hit the required numbers in India, then the app would be promoted in other countries.

“Initially, we wanted to do marketing in Malaysia. But I don’t think Malaysia has good numbers. India will be better. Plus, the term ‘karma’ is easier accepted in India.

“As a funder, when we decided on the project, we examined how we were going to put all the ideas together into a digital application and make sure it is widely used. We were practical when putting the ideas together as certain ideas can become irrelevant,” he added.

Educating the young

The application’s soft launch was on Feb 12, 2021. Law agreed that attaining and maintaining app users would be a more significant challenge.

“It will actually be a challenge for us to get people to stay with us and use the app. This is our biggest challenge. People may download it, but they may not use it. Even after we get support from the authorities, we still need people to sign up and really use the app.

“For now, Imbuedesk’s target is to get at least 1,000 downloads per week,” shared Law.

Law saw the app as an ideal tool to educate the young ones on the 3Rs. Other potential users would be the environmentalists and major green campaigns.

“Eventually, we are trying to convince the authorities, such as the Ministry of Education (MoE) or GreenTech, to collaborate,” shared Law.

There are several other recycling apps are in the market but probably none that links the three values like Karma Pluss. The application was designed to allow the users to gain ‘karma points’ with any good initiatives. The points can then be used either to donate to green programmes or even purchase used items.

A feature of the Karma Pluss application is that “karma certificates” will be given to users when they have gained a certain number of points. The certificate will help to show how much the user has contributed to protecting the environment.

Law linked the idea of owning a Karma Pluss account as being similar to owning a record book which notes down the good that one does.

“We want people to start looking at themselves. At some point, it will be difficult to prove to people how good you are. So, the karma certificate will perform that function.

“I am looking forward to tying in this project with my other initiatives, such as tree-planting projects. For example, people can use the points gained through the application to donate money into planting trees.” — @Forest