Mittal: integrated solutions

Ashish Mittal is the Noida-based Founder-Director of Innovatiview India Ltd (IIL, estb.2017), a pan-India integrated security and surveillance solutions company which supervises examinations, elections, and large events. With six offices countrywide and a network of over 5,100 vendors across 28 states and eight Union territories, IIL provides AI-driven CCTV surveillance, touchless biometric verification, GPS-based secure logistics, and on-site OMR scanning, among other services to curb exams and other malpractice.

During the past few years, IIL has also developed a profitable and scalable pay-per-use model that enables examination boards and public authorities to avail advanced security infrastructure without capital investment. This model has proved very popular. On the company’s 234-strong clients’ list are 32 Central government and 126 state government organisations, five public sector undertakings, and 71 private institutions including the National Testing Agency (NTA), UPSSSC (Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Service Selection Commission), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Newspeg. Late last year, Mittal filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus with the Securities Exchange Board of India, a statutory requirement for companies aspiring to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

History. An engineering (electronics & communication) alum of Delhi University, Mittal is a first generation entrepreneur who “started nation building” much before he left campus. Along with his batchmate Ankit Agarwal they co-developed the robotic version of Shera, the official mascot of the Commonwealth Games 2010, staged in Delhi, which drew the attention of Central government officials and led to the project receiving state funding.

While studying at Delhi Technological University (formerly Delhi College of Engineering), Mittal turned his attention to a systemic problem that was receiving scant attention: widespread cheating in examinations. In 2015, IIL won a contract from AIIMS to provide communication service management for its examinations. That assignment laid the foundation of a larger mis-sion: strengthening the integrity of critical high-stakes examinations. In 2017, the duo promoted Innovatiview India Ltd.

Direct talk. “Examination malpractices including impersonation, copying, cheating, tampering with OMR sheets, and misuse of electronic devices have been a long-term problem in India necessitating huge financial and emotional costs of re-examination. While national, state and institutional examinations, elections and large events are conducted at massive scale, security, invigilation and surveillance were fragmented, manually managed and reactive. IIL’s business is to bridge this gap using technology, process discipline and a service mindset. Our employees are drawn from engineering, technology, banking and networking backgrounds, and have pooled their experience to build a specialised, tech-led company that works to deter and detect malpractice at every stage of any given exam,” says Mittal.

Future plans. Mittal has ambitious plans for IIL. “Looking ahead we plan to establish technology-enabled test centres across India to conduct examinations within controlled and standardised environments. Simultaneously, building on our experience in ancillary security solu-tions, we will continue to strengthen our integrated security solutions for elections and large-scale public events. With established presence in several states, we are now focused on expanding our client base, and deepening our partnerships with exam boards and events companies nationwide,” says Mittal.

Time running out for exam cheats!

– Paromita Sengupta