Photocopying for free, yet raking it in

It started with a handful of IIT students — now it caters to as many as 60,000 students across 30 Delhi University colleges. An IIT student’s initiative, Phokatcopy provides free photocopy services to college-goers, subsiding it with advertisements on the back of each photocopied page. Ritika Chopra tells more...

It started with a handful of IIT students — now it caters to as many as 60,000 students across 30 Delhi University colleges.

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An IIT student’s initiative, Phokatcopy provides free photocopy services to college-goers, subsiding it with advertisements on the back of each photocopied page. Students are reimbursed with points equivalent to the bill they’d run up at any other photocopy shop, which they can redeem in various ways.

“Personally, I get a lot of notes photocopied and it’s quite expensive. Phokatcopy was born out of that dilemma,” said founder Harsh Narang (22), a final year

student of Masters in Mathematics and Computing.

Though just six months old, the venture gets ads from sponsors such as Café Coffee Day, Vodaphone, Care-er Launcher and Nirula’s.

Buoyed by its initial success (close to 4 lakh sheets supplied across colleges), the venture is now ready to move outside the Capital. “By July, we hope to launch in Ahmedabad, Manipal, Pune and Mumbai,” Narang said.

Shri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Shri Ram College, Hindu College and IIT-Delhi are among the institutions Phokatcopy
currently operates in.

What students earn in return depends on the sponsors. With Vodaphone, they earn free prepaid talktime while Nirula’s treats them to hot chocolate fudge.

Piyush Taneja, a third-year IIT student, got talktime worth Rs 120 in six months. “For IITians this is a boon,” he said.