Personally Tech With SapnaOnline's Nijesh Shah

In our weekly column on people and gadgets - Personally Tech - we look at the apps and gadgets that people in different walks of life love and live by.

This week, we spoke to Nijesh Shah, the CEO of SapnaOnline.com. It is the e-commerce arm of Bangalore-based Sapna Book house. SapnaOnline also recent acquired Bookadda, an online bookstore that has a catalogue of 12.5 million books across both fiction and non-fiction trade books.

Shah is a former professional cricketer, who now runs technology companies and says that he's still learning new things thanks to apps on his phone that help him to do his job better.

1. Describe your technology setup - what computer/ phone/ tablet/ camera/ gaming console/ other gadgets do you use?

Nijesh Shah: I am currently using an iPhone 5. It's incredible speed and performance makes work on the go easy and reliable. I had picked up a MacBook Pro with Retina Display from Hong Kong a few years back and it is undoubtedly the best machine I have used so far. It sports a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 processor with a 8GB RAM. The sync between the iPhone 5 and the MacBook Pro is so seamless.

2. What are three apps (mobile/ tablet or PC/ Mac) you couldn't live without?

Nijesh Shah: There are three apps that I can't do without. I keep checking the TOI app to keep myself updated all the time with the latest news. I also rely on Udemy Web analytics online courses - since we run four Internet companies, tracking analytics on the go is important. Udemy offers excellent teaching for this. Quora, the question and answer app that aggregates questions and answers to a particular topic of your interest, keeps me engaged for hours.

3. What is the one gadget (other than your phone) you never travel without?

Nijesh Shah: It has to be my Macbook Pro! It's one mean machine with incredible performance. I cannot live without it. It has all my software, movies, music and games.

4. What is your dream gadget/ technology setup?

Nijesh Shah: My dream set up would be to have the technology set up Tony Stark had. Imagine if you were surrounded with robots with electronic information available on the fly... if you were able to get analytics and data from around the globe by just the twisting and turning of fingers in thin air. Imagine if you had a talking robot with the power of 1,000 super computers as your assistant.

5. How has technology changed the way in which you work?

Nijesh Shah: Immensely. Technology makes things faster and easier. It makes you target your end user in a more sophisticated and informed way. Big data is possible through technology, internal operation flow is smoothened through technology, cost cutting and overall robust display of your work is possible through technology. Technology as simple but as powerful as 'WhatsApp' makes communication very easy and makes the world smaller.