NEW DELHI: Renowned wellness guru Deepak Chopra and former Nortel and Motorola executive Poonacha Machaiah have joined hands to launch Jiyo , a health and wellness startup Based in Bengaluru, Jiyo is described as a community-based, wellbeing network that operates on, both, mobile and web platforms, providing awareness to consumers about stress-related and lifestyle diseases in particular, such as Diabetes, among others."We see ourselves as creating a social platform, which is global, but also facilitates physical spaces that has everything to do with prevention and treatment of chronic illnesses," Chopra told ET."By creating these virtual experiences, you can change your biology or even change the expression of your genes," he added.The Jiyo platform also connects users to medical experts, and has tied up with a number of fitness and lifestyle experts as well, who can provide users with dietary and exercise tips.The startup, which launched operations earlier this month, has partnered with super-speciality hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals, and is targeting the country’s corporate sector as its core clientele.Jiyo, which follows a B2B model, and has a subscription-based revenue model, has also tied up with noted non-profit, academic medical centre, Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi, and is targeting a million users within the year.According to the founders, Jiyo, which registered in the US, will provide corporate organisations with a customised web presence to manage their employees wellness, and along with its panel of experts and Apollo-approved physicals, will provide employee health risk assessments and personalised care in the form of virtual physician consults and diagnostics"Chronic diseases are preventable, predictable, you have to personalise the treatment and be able to make people participate…It’s not just about the healthcare system, but about lifestyle modification," said Machaiah.According to healthcare data, India, which is known as the diabetes capital of the world, has almost 50 million citizens suffering from type-2 diabetes.According to a World Health Organisation fact sheet on the disease, 80% of diabetes deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, with diabetes-related deaths projected to double between now and 2030. India is estimated to see an increase of type-2 diabetes patients to 87 million over the same period.This is the third startup for Machaiah, who post Motorola, came on board as the CEO of Qyuki, the new media venture floated by film director Shekhar Kapur and music director AR Rahman. He also runs Bengaluru-based product engineering company Above Solutions.