Metkonnect-Emerging Global Maharashtra: A startup-investor meet organized by The Lets Rise Up Foundation and MetKonnect

Niharika Tewari
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Metkonnect-Emerging Global Maharashtra: A startup-investor meet organized by The Lets Rise Up Foundation and MetKonnect

The entire startup ecosystem has gotten a lot of boost in the past couple of years. Platforms where startups, investors, and entrepreneurs get to connect and share their knowledge ultimately build successful businesses.

The Foundation in association with Metkonnect organized an event for social entrepreneurs and startups to connect and strategize on making our society and businesses better. Titled ‘Empowering Social Entrepreneurs and Startups of the New Age’, the event is powered by Touchwood Incubation and Innovation Platform for Startups (TIIPS). The chief guest of this event was Mr. Rohit Pawar, MLA, and CEO of Baramati Agro.

It was initiated by the Lets Rise Up Foundation, in association with the Bombay Industries Association (BIA) and the Indian Chambers of International Business (ICIB). This event was held at The Club, Mumbai on 17th June 2022 and supported by eRoyal, Nobel Hygiene, Khushi Axis World, and HashTech Ventures. Free Press Journal covered the event as the official Media Partner.

The event promoted and encouraged entrepreneurs and personalities that are helping the world become a better place. It also helped in recognizing potential startups and giving them access to the right resources at the right time.

Lamp lighting ceremony by Dr. Srinivasan .R Iyengar, Mr. Bhagwan Gawai, Mr. Peshwa Aacharya, and MetKonnect Founders

Motivating Keynote Speakers

The event began with Mr. Vedang Dongare addressing the audience and offering a warm welcome to the honorable guests, investors, entrepreneurs, startups, and attendees. It was proceeded by the lighting of the lamp by, Dr. Srinivasan .R Iyengar, Director of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mr. Sushil Vaishya, Founder Of MetKonnect, Mr. Vedang Dongre, Co-Founder Of MetKonnect, Mr. Bhagwan Gawai and Mr. Peshwa Aacharya.

Dr. Srinivasan .R Iyengar also addressed everyone as the keynote speaker in the crowd and motivated the startups before the commencement of their pitches. Each startup was allotted 12 minutes to present its pitches and was then questioned by the panel of investors. Mr. Nayan Bheda, a BIA member and a Startup Advisor and Investor also spoke about how startups can better manage the funding that they secure.

Startups and Investors at the Event

14 startups from different industries presented themselves at the event, this included De Vagabond, TeachUs, WE The Recycling Company, Aliste Technologies, Opportune Technologies, Connect Club, Echoboom Management & Entrepreneurial Solutions Pvt. Ltd., E-Bike Go, Woofit Pvt. Ltd, Tvashtra, PetChef, Filicious, Hobby Tribe, and Influenxing.

In Picture: Honorable Guest and MLA Rohit Pawar at MetKonnect

The investors’ panel included investors from, Venture Catalysts, Fiery Ventures, and 100XVC. It also included personalities like Mr. Aaditya Sheksharia, Mr. Peshwa Aacharya, Mr. Rajesh Modi, Mr, Ignite Dave, Mr. Narendra Ruia, Mr. Ajaykant Ruia, Mr. Rajesh Mishra, Mr. Prasanna Dongre, Mr. Anil Goyal, Mr. Aditya Pathak, Mr. Nevil Sanghvi, and Mr. Kartik Johari.

Networking Session and Award Ceremony

The event also included a power networking session in between the pitches and after the end of the event. Networking sessions played a vital role in creating valuable connections that can lead to growth in the long term. It also consisted of the ‘5 Minutes to 5 Lacs’ program, where students from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management (JBIMS) and Welingkar Institute of Management presented exemplary pitches in five minutes, and investors present from Vodafone Idea Foundation offered to fund the most brilliant idea. Prince Chaudhary from Welingkar Institute of Management won this program.

After energetic and innovative pitches by the startup, Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai addressed the crowd by highlighting the importance of an R&D budget while formulating your business model. This was followed by a pitch by the youngest entrepreneur, Krivi Nandurkar. Everyone present at the event took a look at the heartwarming journey of Nobel Hygiene, which is striving to eradicate the taboo about adult diapers.

In Picture: Mr. Ganesh Gokhale and Mr. Shubh Bansal, Founders of TIIPS with Mr. Vedang Dongare, Founder of MetKonnect

The event concluded with an award ceremony where the platform appreciated prominent personalities like Mr. Satyajit Hange- From Two brothers organic farm who won the title of ”MetKonnect Emerging Startup”, and Mr. Jaimin Shah and his team, from the edtech startup, Teach Us, also won the title of “MetKonnect Emerging Startup”. Kartik Johari- Vice President of Nobel Hygiene was awarded the “MetKonnect Social Entrepreneur”. The “MetKonnect Global Social Entrepreneur” in the men’s category was awarded to Mr. Darasing, and the women’s category was won by Dr. Rekha Chaudhari. The “MetKonnect Social Entrepreneur of Maharashtra” male and female award was titled to Mr. Mansoor Ali and Savita Tai Vora, respectively. Mr. Anil Valiv, the Founder of Positivesaathi.com, a matrimonial site for HIV Positive people, won “Maharashtra’s Lifetime Achievers Award”. Mr. Bhagwan Gawai won the “MetKonnect Global Citizen” award. Mr. Ganesh Gokhale and Mr. Shubh Bansal, Founders of Touchwood Incubation and Innovation Platform for Startups (TIIPS) also won the title of “Support for The Event” and “Esteemed Guest”.

This event helped create an engaging atmosphere between the startups, investors, and all the other prominent personalities. The ideas pitched by the startups also helped us realize what can be done to ease our everyday lives in the modern world.

Is Elon Musk really an advocate of free speech? His actions speak otherwise

Niharika Tewari
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Is Elon Musk really an advocate of free speech? His actions speak otherwise

Elon Musk makes it to the news even if he tweets or reacts in the simplest way possible. One smiley emoji from the Tesla owner and the next thing you know he is rocking headlines. He has always advocated and practiced free speech, especially through the social media platform Twitter.

In fact, to make free speech available to everyone, including Donald Trump who has been banned from the platform, Musk also made a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. One can only imagine to what extent he might be supporting free speech but the actual story seems to be a little different.

“You may have received an unsolicited request from a small group of SpaceX employees for your signature on an ‘open letter’ yesterday and your participation in a related survey. Based on diverse employee feedback, this has upset many.”

-Gwynne Shotwell, COO of SpaceX

Recently, it was reported that Elon Musk fired some SpaceX employees that signed an open letter criticizing Musk’s behavior on Twitter. It is still unclear how many employees have been fired but as of now, five employees have been cited who were removed from the company. All of us have to accept that since the Twitter deal and maybe even before that, Musk has reacted and tweeted in an unimaginable manner where we saw a different side of him. The very statement that he didn’t buy Twitter to make money explains that Twitter is just a playground for him.

Gwynne Shotwell, the COO of SpaceX said in an email, “You may have received an unsolicited request from a small group of SpaceX employees for your signature on an ‘open letter’ yesterday and your participation in a related survey. Based on diverse employee feedback, this has upset many.” The email sent to SpaceX employees also stated that the letter “made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views.”

The letter reported by TheVerge read, “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”

“It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”

– Letter circulated by SpaceX employees

It was also reported that this letter was circulated to around 2,600 employees of SpaceX on SpaceX’s Microsoft Teams channel and it not only generated more than 100 comments but employees also accepted of being embarrassed by their head’s behavior.

The letter also listed three ways or “action items” that can address this situation. One, to publicly address Musk’s behavior and condemn it; two, hold the leadership equally accountable for it; or three, define the company’s ‘no-asshole’ and ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, and enforce them accordingly.

It looks very simple that the employees simply did not like their CEO’s behavior and speaking of free speech, they were putting it out to the world. Getting fired for this seems too extreme for a reaction.

Elon Musk previously has made jokes or commented in ways on certain situations that are usually not to be joked about. Recently, a controversy relating to Elon Musk was circulating over the internet that alleged the Tesla owner of flashing himself in front of a flight attendant in 2016. He also offered to buy her a horse if she agreed to engage sexually with him. To this, he responded on Twitter, “Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It’s kinda perfect.” replying to a tweet that he posted from 2021 saying, “If there’s ever a scandal about me, please call it Elongate.” It is also said that the company paid $250,000 to settle and silence the flight attendant and this is not the only sexual misconduct story that has emerged with the company’s name attached to it.

Looks like Musk wants free speech just for himself. Can you also imagine a world where Twitter is run by Musk? Sounds a little dangerous. The word ‘free speech’ seems too little convenient for Musk and nobody likes that which is also why he is being called a hypocrite for all the right reasons.

How to create your digital avatar on Instagram

Aniruddha Narkar
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How to create your digital avatar on Instagram

Instagram now gives you the ability to create your own 3D model to represent yourself. You can go crazy with customizations on this one. The company has given its users the liberty to choose from what their character’s hair would be like to the lines on their skin.

Users will also be able to dress their character the way they like and can choose to edit their appearance, hairstyle, or clothes as and when they want. This is Instagram’s version of Snapchat’s ‘Bitmoji’ which is quite popular.

Here is how you can create and use Instagram’s digital avatar:

1. Open your Instagram profile and click on the three horizontal lines in the top right corner of the screen.

2. Choose the settings option from the pop-up menu.

3. In Settings, Click on the Account settings.

4. There you will come across the Avatar option.

5. Here, you can get quite a lot of customization options from hair, nose, body, and outfit to even ear piercings. 

6. After you are done with making your Avatar, press done and then save changes to use your Avatar. 

This Avatar of yours can also be shared on stories and DMs. On Instagram stories, your Avatar can be found in the stickers option. Similarly, on DM, you can access your Avatar through the sticker icon in the textbox at the right corner.

Instagram is doing a great job of learning from other companies and trying to make their product better and more relatable. With the addition of these digital avatars, users and especially young users will be able to express themselves in a newer, more fun way.

This news also comes in after Instagram’s parent company, Meta, announced that they will be starting their own digital clothes stores where people can buy branded clothes for their avatars in exchange of real money. It’s going to be interesting to see where does this go from here and what commodities will be available to us in the future through these apps.

Featured Image Credit: Meta

Google contractor claims he was fired for reporting cult activity

Aniruddha Narkar
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Google contractor claims he was fired for reporting cult activity

Google has been in deep waters lately regarding the legal issues they are facing. The woes began for the tech giant when reports came out of them firing an engineer, among many other things, who claimed that he came across a sentient AI on the platform. Their reputation further derailed when they had to pay a whopping $118 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit.

Yesterday, A former Google contractor filed a lawsuit against the company, stating that he was wrongfully fired. He says that the reason behind him getting fired is that he called out eccentric cult-like activity in the company. Kevin Llyod, the former employee in question, talks about a weird group in the lawsuit. (voiceoverherald.com) He claims that there are at least 12 members in this religious sect known as the ‘Fellowship of Friends’ (FoF).

The lawsuit talks about how this group of people seems to have an extremely high level of influence in the company. Fellowship of Friends is a religious organization that is based in a tiny town in the Sierra Nevada. It seems that the organization has somehow found its way into the company as well. According to Llyod, there are around 12 fellowship members who have worked for the Google Developer Studio (GDS). 

The religious group in question believes that higher consciousness can be achieved by embracing fine arts and culture. Due to these exclusive practices, the group has come under the radar of an investigative Spotify Podcast, which promises to reveal the cult’s secrets. Lloyd’s report talks about his wrongful termination because of calling these practices out, he mentions both Google and his contracting agency ASG in the lawsuit. He also specifically talks about the emotional distress he faced as well as the company’s failure to protect him against discrimination. 

A Times report talks about how the fellowship members hold roles at Google’s company events. These roles include working the registration desk, taking photographs, playing music, providing massages as well as serving wine. It also alleged that Google buys this wine from a winery run by one of the members of the fellowship. With this news out, another contractor Erik Johanson told Times about Google’s partnership with ASG that helps the GDS team to hire more FoF members. Apparently, these contractors are hired with far-less scrutiny and a far less rigorous onboarding process.

Lloyd claims in his report how he was immediately fired after he complained about the group. His complaint was met with indifference and there was no help or explanation provided to him. Google, responding to Llyod’s claims says that he was fired for performance issues, refuting any other allegations. Lloyd has also spoken about his experience in a Medium post.

Top 9 Edtech startups that are revolutionizing education in India

Angel Dias
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Top 9 Edtech startups that are revolutionizing education in India

Education is irreplaceable, even though many people underestimate its value these days due to the “dropout” label. Instead of just acquiring a degree, people should update their talents.

Schools and universities are vital, but so are the skills that they do not teach us. India’s premier edtech startups are transforming the country’s educational landscape. They’re changing the way people learn. And this helps to ensure that Indian children and youth have a bright future.

India has a persistently unbalanced pupil-to-teacher ratio, which jeopardizes pupils’ learning opportunities in schools. Technology-driven learning apps are leveraging gaming features like point-scoring, interaction with others, personalization, and data-driven insights to enhance the learning process for students and refine their fundamentals in many disciplines to counteract this skewness. These apps are well-known for their services to help students perform better in class.

In India, edtech startups are becoming a key business sector. The Indian education sector was valued at $91.7 billion in FY18 and is predicted to grow to $101.1 billion in FY19, with the edtech market expected to grow to $4 billion by 2025. Here is the list of the top 9 edtech startups in India:

Byju’s

According to the company, 93 percent of parents noticed a significant improvement in their child’s grades after using the Byju’s app. Byju’s has 15 million registered users, 900,000 of whom have paid annual subscriptions, with an 85 percent renewal rate. According to the firm, the average app engagement rate is 53 minutes per day.

Byju’s is a Bangalore-based edtech business created by Byju Raveendran in 2011. It currently has $5.4 billion in total equity. BYJU’S has also received numerous accolades, including the CRISIL Emerging India Award and the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award. It’s available for both Android and iOS.

Unacademy

Hemaash Singh started Unacademy as a YouTube channel in 2010, and it has since grown to become a household name in India’s education technology sector. It is a well-known e-learning startup and one of Bangalore’s leading edtech firms.

To date, Unacademy has taught more than 30,00,000 (3 million) students. It has partnered with some of the most knowledgeable teachers to provide tutoring to its pupils. There are approximately 2400 online courses available. The majority of the courses on this platform are free; however, certifications may need payment.

The purpose of Unacademy is to provide free education. It has also dabbled in a variety of industries, including banking, CA, CAPF, UPSC, CLAT, CAT, JEE, pre-medical, and others. Students can follow teachers to get direct courses from them, and the video tutorials are available in a variety of languages. Unacademy’s business plan is mostly focused on the platform’s plus subscription function.

Unacademy is a Bangalore-based edtech startup that acts as an online learning marketplace for courses. Heemash Singh, Sachin Gupta, and Gaurav Munjal founded it. In 2015, the YouTube channel was converted to an online learning platform. Unacademy’s YouTube channel still has a lot of videos.

iQuanta

The largest online CAT preparation community in India is iQuanta. Mr. Indrajeet Singh, the founder, and CEO of iQuanta is one of India’s top five young entrepreneurs. He was dubbed the “Wizard of Quants” for his ingenious shortcuts and unusual ways. iQuanta’s mission is to make high-quality education and its unique pedagogy affordable to anyone interested in taking competitive tests. iQuanta is a start-up Edtech firm.

iQuanta was founded in 2017 and has since grown to a community of 3.5 lakh+ aspirants from over the world, with 10,521+ IIM calls and 1000+ IIM converts in just 5 years.

TrainerCentral

TrainerCentral is a Zoho app that seeks to revolutionize how people educate online. This all-in-one online training platform gives solopreneurs, edupreneurs, and anybody else who wants to share their knowledge with learners all over the world the tools they need.

With extensive integration features, the platform provides tools to enable teachers to construct a fully prepared online training business. Trainers may use one unified platform to construct their own website, add content, develop course curriculum, host live classes, manage learner communications, and certifications, collect learner fees, and much more.

TrainerCentral aims to reduce inefficiencies created by fragmented products as well as the technical challenges of launching an online training firm. The built-in live classroom feature, which includes chat and payment gateway integration options, benefits both instructors and students. TrainerCentral is a hit with online trainers all across the world, as seen by its 30 percent month-to-month growth. TrainerCentral offers a free 15-day trial to let you get to know the platform.

UpGrad

UpGrad is an edtech portal that offers higher education courses online. It offers a fully immersive learning experience by utilizing cutting-edge technology to power well-designed courses. Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgum Komapalli, and Ravijot Chugh created UpGrad in 2015.

Next Education

Next Education is a Hyderabad-based learning website that caters to K-12 children through technology-based education solutions. It was created in 2007 by Beas Dev Ralhan and Raveendranath Kamath.

TeachNext, LearnNext, MathsLab, ScienceLab, and EnglishLab are just a few of the top products available on Next Education’s platform. More than 6,000 schools across the country use these items.

The study materials and products are written in 8 major Indian languages and cover the CBSE, ICSE, and 23 state boards’ syllabuses. The technology platform used by Next Education is built on Linux and open-source resources.

2D and 3D visuals, interactive content that meets international standards, voice-overs, clear sound, and a unique course design that is conveniently accessible via an included IR remote are among the other technological advancements on the app. The corporation has spent over Rs. 400 crores on R&D alone, as well as more than Rs. 30 crores on marketing.

Leverage Edu

In less than a year, Leverage Edu has evolved from a college admissions portal to a full-stack marketplace. Akshay Chaturvedi and Aman Arora established Leverage Edu in 2018.

Through mentorship products, end-to-end college entrance counseling, programmes to help students become first-job ready, and one-to-one virtual advisory for numerous career streams, the platform employs an AI tool to assist students in their careers.

The app features over 1500 mentors, including people from Ivy League universities and companies like Apple and Goldman Sachs. “The platform is in the process of executing an inspiring product plan,” the creator was reported as saying. “We will continue to aggressively scale and bring aboard amazing talent, invest in consistently bettering our experience, and do more of what we are strong at!”

NoPaperForms

NoPaperForms is a SaaS-based enrollment automation service firm to revolutionizes the admission process in Indian and international educational institutions.

The platform enables institutions to improve their outreach skills, recruitment efforts, customer service offers, and overall outcomes. The whole thing is completely transparent.

NoPaperForms claims to have worked with over 190 universities and processed over 350k queries. It has got more than 1.2 million applications and has risen to over Rs 100 crores in a year. After raising Series B funding in December 2018, NoPaperForms was able to achieve this valuation.

Quizizz

Quizizz is an interactive teaching tool that enables teachers to create interesting student-paced formative evaluations for students of all ages. Any browser, PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone can access the website.

Teachers can use the platform to turn their students’ assignments and assessments into self-paced games by combining game design components. Then there’s the option of receiving immediate feedback. Teachers can build their own quizzes or choose from millions of quizzes provided by other educators.

Quizizz’s goal is to motivate students and assist them in their development. Quizizz has over ten million users, and its solution is widely used in schools in the United States.

This brings the list of India’s top 9 edtech companies to a close. Although India’s education system is undergoing a seismic transition, Indians continue to face outmoded teaching methods and ineffective learning strategies. In addition, the system encourages unhealthy competitiveness among students. Edtech startups are slowly but steadily altering everything for the better.

TikTok responds to Facebook’s potential redesign

Aniruddha Narkar
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TikTok responds to Facebook’s potential redesign

The long-drawn battle between TikTok and Facebook to become the number one app with the most engagement continues. Previously, TikTok and Google were at loggerheads as Youtube announced their staggering number of active monthly users.

Meta, Facebook & Instagram’s parent company, has decided to take TikTok heads on. Facebook is planning to redesign its feed and make it more videos oriented. They are also planning to tweak their algorithm a little bit. This does sound a lot like TikTok, and that’s what the company is trying to do here by competing directly with the Chinese media giant.

Currently, Facebook’s home page feed only focuses on showing the users, people, and pages they follow.  They plan to tweak the app in such a way that the algorithm will push new types of content or new creators to the users. The promoted content will still be something that the user cares about. Reports state that Facebook’s goal here is to shift the app into a ‘discovery engine’, similar to TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed.

“a lot of where we’re going with Facebook is trying to bring you the best content that’s going to really cater to your interests, but then making it super easy to share that and discuss and connect with other people in your network over that.”

Tom Allison told The Verge.

This design change also looks to bring back Facebook and Messenger as one entity, as they were separated to be two apps, eight years ago. The interface of the app will be made more visual and appealing aesthetically as well as Facebook’s main tab will have a mix of stories and reels above recommended posts. Instagram has already taken this route and has started emphasizing on videos more. Recently, they extended the reel time and also introduced a new feature of pinning your posts on your profile. 

Speaking about the same to CNBC, TikTok’s president of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee, spoke about this comparison and said, “ Facebook is a social platform. They’ve built all their algorithms based on the social graph. That is their core competency. Ours is not. We are an entertainment platform; The difference is significant.” Mr. Chandlee, before moving on to TikTok in 2019, was an executive at Facebook for more than 12 years, leading their global partnerships.

Tom Allison, Meta VP in charge of Facebook, believes that their company failed to take notice of just how big of a threat TikTok was becoming. It’s interesting to see this race between the top apps in the world, trying their best to get their user’s undivided attention. TikTok is smartly trying to avoid the situation by stating that they just want to entertain people and nothing else.

Meta’s new fashion store will sell Balenciaga and Prada

Aniruddha Narkar
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Meta’s new fashion store will sell Balenciaga and Prada

If you have a fashion bug in you and you have wondered, how would I dress the digital version of me, then Meta has the answer for you.

The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is going to start its own digital marketplace. This digital marketplace in Metaverse will sell clothes and will boast big brands such as Prada, Balenciaga, and Thom Browne. Coincidentally, when Meta changed their name they tweeted at Balenciaga saying “Hey @Balenciaga, what’s the dress code in the metaverse?”. And now that the brand is in partnership with Meta, Balenciaga CEO Cedric Charbit stated that

“When Meta tweeted, we were instantly into it. Web3 and Meta are bringing unprecedented opportunities for Balenciaga, our audience, and our products, opening up new territories for luxury.”

Meta is coming out with its online fashion store next week. Mr. Zuckerberg and Eva Chen who is Instagram’s vice-president of fashion partnerships even flaunted a few of the fashion options on Instagram Live. These clothes will be available for your digital avatar in the Metaverse and you can customize them as you want. Maybe a digitally-rendered, cooler version of yourself, the sky is the limit here.

The store will offer you branded clothes which you can buy for your character using real money. With this, your digital versions can be dressed the way you want,  across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne are the first big fashion brands that are going to come aboard the Metaverse fashion ship when it’ll launch. Users will still be able to access the current free clothing items.

Image Source: Meta

The items in the store will range from $2.99 to $8.99 and of course the price fluctuates according to the brand name. Mark Zuckerberg talked about their new project and said, “We want to create a marketplace so creators, over time, can design clothing and sell it. A lot of the dream is to make it accessible to anyone.”

Users from The United States, Canada, Thailand, and Mexico will be the first ones that will get to use these features. Meta plans to expand with more brands and also bring the touch of virtual reality to it with the help of its Quest headsets.

Ukraine takes help of NFTs to save their Cultural ‘DNA’

Aniruddha Narkar
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Ukraine takes help of NFTs to save their Cultural ‘DNA’

We are all familiar with the conflict happening between Russia-Ukraine on the global front. Ukrainian property is being destroyed and it’s an ugly sight to behold. Amidst all this, the blockchain community of the country has taken it upon themselves to preserve the cultural heritage of their country, with the help of NFT technology.

Michael Chobanian, President of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine talked about how the country is planning to digitize every piece of art and history. Last weekend, the Consensus 2022 event was held in Austin, Texas. This is where Mr. Chobanian announced the new blockchain-related project.

“Today we are announcing a new project [aimed at] how we can save the DNA of the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian culture, and Ukrainian history.”

Michael Chobanian said

“Right now, they are bombing museums, churches, and cultural sites. So before they are destroyed, we’ll digitize every piece of art or history we have in museums. We’re going to NFT it and put it on the blockchain,” he further stated.

Since the start of this invasion, hundreds of cultural heritage sites and objects have been damaged or completely destroyed, as per the  Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. The widespread damage is a huge concern for the country as Ukraine’s identity is at the stake here.

The above-mentioned blockchain project will provide interested people with a digital window into Ukraine’s cultural DNA. The main advantage of blockchain technology will be that, once all the heritage items are digitized, it’ll be impossible to destroy them. Chobanian states that not only will this help in preserving their heritage but due to the digitalization of these artifacts, a widespread of people will become aware of it. More importantly, Ukrainian citizens will have better access to their history and traditions.

Ukraine has already raised funds over $135 million in crypto from donors all around the world. This shows that they are using crypto and blockchain as a tool to finance their defense against Russia’s invasion. It’s also interesting to note that this is an initiative taken completely by the blockchain community of the country and the government is not involved in this. 

This is also a good step toward the digitalization of these artifacts as NFT on a blockchain. This will be a testament to the fact that the artifact existed in the first place. Ukraine’s first government-led NFT project was MetaHistory NFT Museum.

TCS, Infosys, LIC and HDFC join the list of Kantar’s 100 most valuable global firms

Aniruddha Narkar
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TCS, Infosys, LIC and HDFC join the list of Kantar’s 100 most valuable global firms

TCS, Infosys, LIC, and HDFC were recently featured in Kantar Brandz, 2022 Most Valuable Global Brands report. These four Indian companies have joined the elusive list with companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

TCS took the crown of the most valuable global brand coming out of India as they came in at the 46th spot on the list. Kantar Brandz made out the company’s brand value to be somewhere near $50 billion in their report. Significant progress can be seen here from the company as in 2021 they were ranked at 58. They have come up with 12 positions since.

Infosys, a debutant on the list was ranked at the 64th position. Its brand value is estimated to be close to $33 billion, 33 percent more than before. Wipro, however, was missing from the top 100 list. HDFC too saw an increase of 35 percent in its brand value while it ranked up five positions and stood at the 61st position as the second biggest brand in India. 

Strangely, LIC lost its footing as it saw its rank falling by 19 positions and coming in at 92. The brand value of the life insurance company stood at $23 billion while its brand value was down by 4 percent compared to 2021.

“The presence of TCS and Infosys in the APAC Kantar Brandz Top 10 is not a fluke. Indian-born consulting companies have combined high-quality of human resources in India with innovative technological platforms, which unlock their employees’ capabilities. Today, India ranks number two on funded unicorns and number one in soon-to-be unicorns.”

Wayne Levings, President APAC, insights division, Kantar.

TCS was the second biggest brand in the Asia Specific Region, second only to Samsung. Samsung has a brand value of $54 billion. India, as a country has had a huge growth in stable and profit-generating home-grown businesses. The report talks about the Indian Detergent brand Ghari and talks about how they have used aggressive pricing and trust-building quality controls to become the biggest detergent brand in India. That too they achieved this feat in less than a decade. 

This comes in as a piece of good news amidst the talks of Indian startups and companies making losses in 2022.

Snapchat Plus: Snapchat’s soon-to-be paid subscription plan

Aniruddha Narkar
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0
Snapchat Plus: Snapchat’s soon-to-be paid subscription plan

It looks like Snapchat is likely going to be added to the list of social media platforms that provide you extra features for a paid subscription.

Liz Markman, the spokesperson of Snap (Snapchat’s parent company), confirmed on Thursday that they are going to introduce a new subscription plan to the service. According to Markman, the service is already under internal testing. The service is going to be called Snapchat Plus.

“We’re doing early internal testing of Snapchat Plus, a new subscription service for Snapchatters. We’re excited about the potential to share exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features with our subscribers, and learn more about how we can best serve our community.”

Liz Markman, spokesperson of Snap.

In a strange turn of events, it was not the Snap spokesperson but a mobile developer and reserve engineer named Alessandro Paluzzi who revealed more about the product. As stated in the information and pictures that he posted on his Twitter, Snapchat Plus will be giving you the ability to pin 1 of your friends as your “#1BFF.” 

The company is planning to charge 4.59 euros for a one-month subscription and 45.99 euros for a one-year subscription. In this premium plan, Snapchat Plus also plans to give you exclusive Snapchat icons for your devices and a badge will be displayed on your profile, probably to distinguish your profile from others. 

You will also have the ability to check who are the people that rewatch your stories and if a friend chooses to share their location with you, you will get access to their whereabouts over the last 24 hours. Telegram too, confirmed that it has been working on a premium subscription. This will also be the first subscription product for Snapchat. 

Meet the co-founder of JingleBid and First Feet, who is now venturing into NFTs

Niharika Tewari
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Meet the co-founder of JingleBid and First Feet, who is now venturing into NFTs

Can you imagine a marketplace where you put in your desired specifications and price and buyers display options like that? The concept of reverse auction can also work on electronic goods, automobiles, etc. with the help of JingleBid.

JingleBid is an e-commerce platform where buyers can buy goods for a quoted price from their nearby retailers. The company is not only beneficial for buyers but also for sellers as they are getting enlightened with the power of data.

Team Sociobits connected with the Co-Founder of JingleBid to know more about how the company works. Apart from that, Mr. Srivas Anantharaman is also the founder of First Feet and is now planning to venture into the world of NFTs to utilize his expertise.

Team Sociobits: Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Mr. Srivas Anantharaman: I am Srivas and I run a couple of ventures. One of them is First Feet, which is an engineering company and we help manufacturing companies save cost by localizing their machinery and spare parts. I have a factory unit in Coimbatore and we operate from there. Another company that I am the co-founder of is JingleBid. We are India’s first reverse auction e-commerce marketplace wherein we help customers get the best price of the desired product they are looking for.

JingleBid Co-Founder- Mr. Srivas Anantharaman

Team Sociobits: Could you explain how reverse auction works?

Srivas Anantharaman: Suppose you need to buy anything, in today’s times, you will either search it online or go to the nearby retail store to purchase it. You compare the prices and try to negotiate the offer the online store offers with the retail store. You can do the same thing through our application as well.

So, if you are a customer looking for a particular product, you can select that item and start an auction with your desired specifications. You will receive the prices listed by the sellers that are near you and you can get the best price for it.

Team Sociobits: How does the concept of the reverse auction benefit the seller?

Srivas Anatharaman: As a retailer or a corner store, the biggest myth that we have as a consumer is that retailers cannot match the price of online stores. The corner store guy is not aware of the price at which products are being sold online and if you tell him, more often he will oblige and match the price or even offer you a better price. So, we are enabling these sellers by sharing the data and making them more intelligent about the products that are popular and the price they can sell them at. This is becoming a great marketplace. The sellers and the retailers who avidly want to be a part of this are our backbones. As of now, we are predominantly in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and we are looking to expand one step at a time.

Team Sociobits: How did you come up with the idea of JingleBid?

Srivas Anatharaman: One day, one of my founders wanted to buy a fridge so he went to the nearest retail chain in Chennai and found out its price. He went to another retail chain and negotiated the price, and he went again to the first store to ask why can’t they match their price so they agreed to sell him the fridge at this price.

“Our core aim is enabling the retailers so we are reaching major tier-two, and tier-three cities. On boarding maximum retailers from these places, we will similarly go about in different cities.”

-Co-Founder or JingleBid

That is when he realized that there is a big economy yet to be explored in this transaction and it could be done online. Another thing is, that the retailer was not aware of the price at which the fridge was being sold online. If he was aware, he wouldn’t have offered the product at that price. This is when they started ideating JingleBid.

I joined the team as one of the co-founders when they were launching the application to get going with the operational and strategic aspects. We are trying to support the ‘Vocal for Local’ cause by giving local stores the power of data and it is a decentralized platform. Today, we have 150-200 sellers on board with us and they have been able to utilize the data to get the extra turnover.

Team Sociobits: Do you have any competitors?

Srivas Anatharaman: For us, every e-commerce platform is directly or indirectly a competitor but in this specific business model, there are only two or three players. For the customer, it doesn’t matter as long as you offer loyalty, and to achieve that loyalty, is far-fetched as of now.

Team Sociobits: How do you plan to move forward with JingleBid?

Srivas Anatharaman: No we are moving forward with a two-pronged approach. Our core aim is enabling the retailers so we are reaching major tier-two, and tier-three cities. On boarding maximum retailers from these places, we will similarly go about in different cities. We are focusing on these cities because the power of the internet can be felt more in these cities as compared to tier-one cities.

“We are trying to support the ‘Vocal for Local’ cause by giving local stores the power of data and it is a decentralized platform.”

– Srivas Anantharaman

Team Sociobits: Apart from JingleBid and First Feet, what is new with you?

Srivas Anatharaman: Apart from these ventures, I am currently a part of The Meta Renaissance which is in the space of NFT studio and marketplace. I thought of exploring the world of NFT because I feel NFTs are the future as they could be interlinked to any business, be it brick and mortar or online. The transaction economy five years down the line can be changed, at least that’s what the tech industry is portraying to us.

At the Meta Renassaince Labs, I am a part of the team as a mentor and I help the team to figure out strategies and achieve the targets set. We are also looking for another round of funding.

JingleBid is changing the way India shops by introducing a reverse auction concept in the market. Mr. Srivas also believes that the NFT space holds a lot of value in the future because of how the projections are being played.

Top 20 Inspirational Facebook Quotes About Life To Post in 2022

Aishwarya Kuriakose
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Top 20 Inspirational Facebook Quotes About Life To Post in 2022

Feeling low about yourself? Every one of us needs a push some time or the other. It is only with this vigor we are able to do justice to our existence.

What is better than starting up your day with a motivational quote? It keeps you alive for the whole day or at least freshens your mind to start the new day with new enthusiasm.

Here are 20 famous motivational quotes on Facebook which are sure to push your gear to the right stage.

Top Facebook Quotes

#1. Bill Gates was a dropout, Yeah but he dropped out of Harvard not 11th-grade intensive reading.

#2. I can. I will.
END OF STORY.

#3. Your past doesn’t decide you.
Each struggle is a STEPPING BLOCK to reach your true potential.

#4. Don’t blame people for disappointing you.
Blame yourself for EXPECTING too much.

#5. If you don’t like where you are, MOVE.
You are not a tree

#6. At any moment you have the power to say, this is not how the story is going END.

#7. Don’t let society manipulate you.

#8. The 3 C’s of life: CHOICES, CHANCES, and CHANGES.
You must make choice to take a chance or your life will never change.

#9. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the FIRST STEP.

#10. THINK BIG and don’t listen to people who tell you it can’t be done.
Life is too short to think small.

#11. If all you can do is crawl, START CRAWLING.

#12. The past is where you learned the lesson.
The future is where you apply the lesson.

#13. It’s time to breakout your shell and show the world who you really are and what you are really made of.
LIVE YOUR DREAMS.

#14. Some people came in your life to teach you valuable lessons.
Time teaches you why!

#15. Tough times don’t last but tough people do.

#16. STAND UP for what you believe in even if it means standing alone.

#17. There’s no need to be perfect to inspire others.
Let people get inspired by how you deal with your imperfections.

#18. MAGIC HAPPENS only when you fill up your own heart not when you wait for someone else to fill it up for you.

#19. Push through the pain because giving up hurts more.

#20. Destroy negative thoughts when they first appear, this is when they are weakest.
These are sure to create an impact on your mind and keep your mind stable.

So, here you go with boosted spirits and ready to face the challenges with greater zest.

Here are some more resources you could use to post on Facebook.

Image Credits: constantcontact.com

BharatPe’s ex-MD Ashneer Grover to raise investment for a new startup

Niharika Tewari
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BharatPe’s ex-MD Ashneer Grover to raise investment for a new startup

Recently, BharatPe’s Co-Founder and his wife were removed from the company after getting involved in a controversy. They were alleged of financial irregularities and governance issues. If you thought this is the end of Shark Ashneer Grover, then you are wrong.

On 15th June 2022, it was the 40th Birthday of the Founder and ex-MD of BharatPe. As uninteresting as it sounds, the brutal Shark of Shark Tank India Season 1 seems to be set to form his third unicorn and “disrupt another sector”.

In a tweet on the same day, Ashneer Grover mentioned, “Today, I turn 40. Some will say I’ve lived a full life and experienced more things than most. Created value for generations. For me, it’s still unfinished business. Time to disrupt another sector. It’s time for the Third Unicorn!!”

Mr. Grover has played a major role in the formation of unicorns like Grofers and BharatPe and according to reports, now he is planning to raise around $200-$300 million for yet another startup. He may sell his 8.5% stake i.e. valued at $3 billion in BharatPe or raise funds for its new venture. According to two anonymous resources, he is currently in talks with US-based offices and private equity players to raise this amount. He also has buyers for his BharatPe stake.

“He may use some of his personal wealth to start with. Eventually, he may either sell a part of his stake in BharatPe or raise fresh capital by issuing a stake in the new company.”

The industry or any details about this startup is unknown but he has spoken to six investors for the same deal already. One of the people who chose to stay anonymous told the Mint, “He may use some of his personal wealth to start with. Eventually, he may either sell a part of his stake in BharatPe or raise fresh capital by issuing a stake in the new company. He has met at least six investors regarding his new venture. Discussions are preliminary right now.”

Featured Image Credits: Ashneer Grover- LinkedIn

YouTube Shorts claim to have 1.5 billion users, directly competes with TikTok

Aniruddha Narkar
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YouTube Shorts claim to have 1.5 billion users, directly competes with TikTok

TikTok, by the end of 2021 left behind Google to become the world’s most popular website. The numbers the short-form content app was bringing were unreal. With a user base of 10 billion+ monthly users, TikTok was the reigning king of this market.

To counter this, Youtube yesterday revealed that Youtube Shorts, their own short-videos feature, now has over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month. This comes just after two years of having launched the service. If we compare both the services now, Tik-Tok announced only 1 billion monthly users. 

Youtube has made it clear that while they prioritize short-form content, this will in no shape or form hurt creators who post long-form content. In fact, they recently talked about how channels that upload both long and short-form content are comparatively seeing more growth in views and subscribers than channels that only upload long-form content. This also shows how Youtube’s investment in the short-video content paid off as it is driving more and more consumers toward creators’ long-form videos as well. 

The genius here from Youtube is that they came out with Youtube Shorts as a built-in feature in the Youtube app, as opposed to Meta’s Facebook which came out with their separate app, Lasso, which turned out to be a failure. Youtube capitalized on the already humongous userbase that they enjoy for a long time. This also gives viewers on Youtube the privilege to scroll through shorts if they have a little time to kill or watch long videos from the creators they like or the topics that interest them. 

“While we’re still at the beginning of our journey with Shorts, we know the product will continue to be an integral part of the YouTube experience moving forward.” 

Neal Mohan, Youtube’s Chief Product Officer.

YouTubers such as Rosanna Pansino, talk about how their channel’s growth has increased exponentially since she started uploading shorts as well. As a result, shorts today are the biggest source of traffic on her channel. This model is tried and tested and works well, so much so that even Facebook now has done the same and came out with reels. Tik-Tok, looking at the benefit of having both sorts of content, has now given its users the feature to upload a 10-minute video. This feature however is not differentiated as a separate product in the app.

Tik-Tok’s decision to increase its video duration is also an attempt to attract people who like to see long-format videos about varied topics. With this change, they give the users the ability to express more without the worry of wrapping it up in 60 seconds. Youtube, on the other hand, is currently using its short-form content just as a passage for its viewers to find new long video creators. Basically, an eco-system where everyone thrives.  

Apple Inc faces a new UK lawsuit for misleading iPhone users

Aniruddha Narkar
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Apple Inc faces a new UK lawsuit for misleading iPhone users

Apple Inc is the newest addition to the list of companies that are facing some or the other legal issue these days. The tech giant is facing a lawsuit in the UK which states that the company has been misleading its customers. Further, if this lawsuit actually materializes into something big, Apple might have to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation, similar to Meta’s case.

The said lawsuit blames Apple for having lied to its customers about the software updates it provides. The company is said to have abused its dominant market position to reassure its customers in believing that software updates from late 2016 improved the battery life of their devices, whereas, in reality, the updates made it worse. Apple, because of this fiasco, is facing a lawsuit in the UK which is seeking $935 million in damages.

The lawsuit is being filed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London. It was done on behalf of close to 25 million UK iPhone users. The users had used around 10 different models of the iPhones ranging from iPhone 6 to iPhone X. Justin Gutmann, a consumer rights campaigner, filed this as the representative action. The suit called out the company for unfair commercial practices.

If the lawsuit is to be believed, the company released a power management software update, first released in January of 2017. This was the update that was said to affect the performances of all the previously mentioned iPhones. Gutmann also states how Apple kept a power management tool from the updates under the covers just to hide that the phone’s batteries couldn’t handle the new software processing demands, which in turn caused the shutdowns and glitches.

“I’m launching this case so that millions of iPhone users across the UK will receive redress for the harm suffered by Apple’s actions. If this case is successful, I hope dominant companies will re-evaluate their business models and refrain from this kind of conduct.” 

Justin Gutmann, when asked about why he chose to stand up now.

The dispute is being led by a litigation funder called Balance Legal Capital. The advantage here for the customers is that this is opt-in opt-out litigation. This means that although the consumers will need to provide their details at a given date if the suit prevails, they don’t need to actively sign up to be a part of the representative suit. A website has been launched just so that the general public is in sync with what’s happening with the claim.

He also added, “Instead of doing the honorable and legal thing by their customers and offering a free replacement, repair service or compensation, Apple instead misled people by concealing a tool in software updates that slowed their devices by up to 58%.”

Justin Gutmann and his lawyers are determined to get the consumers the compensation that they deserve. It will be an interesting battle to see between these lawyers and big tech firms, as it plays like a classic David vs Goliath story. 

Instagram tests ‘Remix for photos’ feature

Niharika Tewari
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Instagram tests ‘Remix for photos’ feature

You may soon be able to remix photos posted by your friends or any public profiles on Instagram. Remix, originally introduced in March 2021, allowed users to remix reels to compete with TikTok’s Duets feature and later expanded to any public videos posted on Instagram.

The new test allows users to record their reels alongside a photo from another user or use that photo as a virtual background.

Instagram Photo Remix Feature

Remix for Photos on Instagram

Instagram started testing this feature in February this year as spotted by the app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi. Users can turn off remixing in their account settings or for individual posts.

Instagram Remix for Photos - Settings
Image credits: Alessandro Paluzzi/Twitter

To use the new feature, users have to tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner of any photo published after this update goes live. From there, you’ll choose “Remix This Photo” and record a video. Users can put a video alongside the photo or use the photo as a virtual background. The resulting remixed video will then be visible anywhere you share your reels.

Instagram Reels, launched in 2020 has been taking inspiration from TikTok for several features since launch. While the concept of Reels itself is copied from TikTok, several features including Remix, the ability to respond to comments with Reels, and more have been taken from TikTok. Instagram even started experimenting with full-screen vertical home feed to make the app look even more like TikTok.

Meta comes out with new parental controls for Instagram and Quest VR Headsets

Aniruddha Narkar
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Meta comes out with new parental controls for Instagram and Quest VR Headsets

Meta recently has been facing a lot of wrath from all across America as they have been hit with multiple lawsuits by parents who claim that their apps have a negative influence on their kids. For this, they even had to monetarily compensate some individuals who said that they got mental stress due to the platform.

In the middle of all this, Meta announced yesterday, its new set of parental supervision tools for Instagram and Quest VR headsets. These tools will give parents additional supervision controls. Parents or guardians can send invitations to their teens to initiate these supervision tools. Meta is currently just expanding on the parental supervision features they previously worked on and released in March.

Parents will now be able to accept or reject purchases, block apps, view all the apps that their teenager owns, and receive notifications about any new transactions.  This will be possible as they will have the access to the software that’s controlling Meta’s Quest VR Headset. Parental control also gives you the ability to monitor how much time your kid is spending on these apps. They will also have the access to see who the child has added as a friend and can block content for their children from a PC, directly to the VR headset.

These helpful tools are currently available in the USA and will soon be rolled out for Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan, and, the UK. Meta aims to come out with the update globally by the end of this year. Additionally, parents and guardians are given a feature called ‘nudge’. And it does what it means, helps the parents in giving their teens little digital ‘nudges’ to take a break from social media. The ‘nudge’ can even help the teen discover something new on Instagram if it sees them consuming the same type of content or something that it doesn’t want the kids to see.

Image Source: Meta

Meta has not even been spared by politicians recently, as it is in deep waters right now due to the lawsuits. Meta aims to discredit the leaked information by one of its former employees by releasing these new safety measures.  Instagram now allows parents to set a time limit on their kid’s weekly usage of the app, and the nudge feature will also help curb the kid’s time if they watch too many reels. Last year in a similar effort, Meta had come out with the “Take a Break” feature to remind users in between to take a break from Instagram.

Image Source: Meta

The company also stated how they are going to come up with a new  “Parent education hub” that will hold the parent’s hand through all the supervision tools. Meta also notes how this is just a starting point and together with the parents, they will continue to make the platform a better place. 

Mumbai, Delhi & Bengaluru rise up global startup ranks at London Tech Week

Aniruddha Narkar
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Mumbai, Delhi & Bengaluru rise up global startup ranks at London Tech Week

Bengaluru has once again been successful in holding on to its title of “The IT Capital” of India.

As per new research released at the London Tech Week, Bengaluru along with Delhi and Mumbai are making a huge mark on the global startup market. Not just these tier-1 cities, but states such as Telangana and Kerala too have been active and thriving in the startup space.

Startup Genome, a separate Global Startup Ecosystem stated that the Asian sector which was once dominated by the likes of Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Korea is now being thrown into disarray by Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi. Mumbai ranked at No.36 in the global startup ecosystem index while Delhi moved up a grand 11 places to come in at No.26. It was Bengaluru however that ranked the highest among these cities coming in at No.22. It was able to do so due to the improvements made in its market research and access to funding.

Research available from Dealroom.Co for London & Partners London’s business growth agency showed that Bengaluru is leading amongst all Asian cities and is the fifth-ranked hub in the world for venture capital (VC) investment in 2022. This comes as a sigh of relief for the startup space as a few days ago there was news about Indian startups laying off thousands of employees.

“It’s fantastic to see startup growth across the whole of India as this creates lots of opportunities for collaboration with London.” 

Hemin Bharucha, the Director of India for London and Partners.

According to reports, Bengaluru in 2021 left behind both Bejing and Shanghai in the amount of venture capital raised and the number of rounds. The Indian city is also quite famously known for being the home to the Research and Development centers of some of the world’s largest companies. The investment research report also revealed that Bengaluru’s tech firms have raised . (bettysco.com) 5 billion in VC funding in the first five months of this year. A number considerably higher than the previous record of $5.2 billion in the first six months of 2021. 

The Global Startup Ecosystem report also made sure to highlight the strong foothold of Bengaluru as the tech capital of India, with an eco-system valued at $105 billion higher than Singapore ($89 billion) and Tokyo ($62 billion). The reason for Bengaluru’s humongous growth in 2022 is largely linked to the major funding rounds they had in 2022 for scale-up tech companies, including Swiggy’s $700 million round in January. 

London Tech Week is the UK’s flagship event that brings 20,000+ global government and corporate leaders, inspirational start-up founders, senior investors, and rising stars in tech together to discuss the power of technology for societies. 

RBI allows credit cards to be linked with UPI, BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover reacts

Aniruddha Narkar
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RBI allows credit cards to be linked with UPI, BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover reacts

The Reserve Bank of India has recently decided to allow the linking of credit cards to UPI (Unified Payments Interface). This means that now you can now make your payments through any UPI app and the app can be linked to a debit card or a credit card based on your convenience. 

According to the monetary policy announcement which took place last week, RBI said that they will allow the linking of Rupay cards to UPI. For this, they will also come up with a new credit payments facility on the interface. There still are a few questions that remain unanswered as this decision comes to us. There is the issue of how credit card issuers will cover their cost of capital, who will bear the merchant discount rate (MDR), and more. To add to this there is also the lengthy process for UPI apps to replicate the stern know your customer (KYC) which is followed meticulously by the credit card ecosystem.

Talking about MDR, think of it as a fee that the merchants and vendors have to pay in exchange for the bank services that they get. Currently, the merchants are not charged for receiving payments on UPI. Now that credit cards are in the picture, MDR charges will apply. So from now on, for every credit card transaction that will happen, the merchant will have to pay the bank a certain amount of fee. The RBI also stated that right now they have just decided on the structure, the pricing for the same will be decided later. 

Former BharatPe Co-founder and one of Shark Tank India judges, Ashneer Grover too had something to say about the decision. BharatPe is the first Fintech startup in India that enabled merchants to pay online. Mr. Grover, himself a co-founder of the app tweeted, “Linking of credit card on UPI is a great move by RBI. Unfortunately, it’ll be a non-starter unless issuers, especially banks understand that merchants will not pay MDR. So there is no interchange to be made on UPI.”

Fintech platforms such as Paytm and Mobikwik have always allowed their users to add money from their credit cards to their digital wallets. But that also limits the user as the wallet amount can be used only on the wallet of the same company. Ankit Gera, the co-founder of digital payments firm Junio, said, “Linking credit cards with UPI means users can now pay at any UPI QR whether it’s BharatPe UPI QR, PhonePe, or GooglePay.”

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the following in his monetary policy speech, “UPI facilitates transactions by linking savings or current accounts through users’ debit cards. It is now proposed to allow linking of credit cards on the UPI platform to begin with the RuPay credit cards will be linked to UPI. This will provide additional convenience to the users and enhance the scope of digital payments.”

The RBI right now has only informed us about this implementation that will first begin with the linking of RuPay cards. It will then be followed by other card companies such as Visa and MasterCard.

Google agrees to pay $118 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit

Niharika Tewari
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Google agrees to pay $118 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit

Google’s work culture has been under scrutiny for a long time. For a while, the company has been highlighted for its toxic work culture on multiple grounds. Employees have complained about facing sexism, racism, and queer bias.

In 2017, three ex-Google employees filed a lawsuit against the tech giant claiming that the company paid its women employees less than their male counterparts for the same job profile, violating California’s Equal Pay Act. Subsequently, a fourth plaintiff was added to this list. The complaint also accused the company of locking women’s careers in lower career tracks, as a result of which they get paid less and earn fewer bonuses compared to the men of the organization. (https://blogs.20minutos.es) They also cited a wage gap of approximately $17,000.

According to the California Government’s Department of Industrial Relations, “The amended Equal Pay Act prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees wage rates that are less than what it pays employees of the opposite sex, or of another race, or of another ethnicity for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and performed under similar working conditions.”

“After nearly five years of litigation, both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone, and we’re very pleased to reach this agreement.”

– Google Spokesperson

Finally, the company has agreed to pay $118 million in monetary relief and will also need an independent labor economist to evaluate their hiring and pay practices and also improve them.

The lawsuit, Ellis v. Google LLC covers around 15,500 women that have been employed by Google California in 236 job titles, dating back to September 2013. The terms of this settlement need to be approved by a judge in a hearing that has been scheduled for June 21st.

This is not the first time that this tech giant has faced a lawsuit due to its work culture. In 2021, Google paid $2.5 million in order to settle a complaint that alleged the company of underpaying its female engineers and also ignoring Asian job applications. On the other hand, after receiving several formal complaints, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has been asking employees questions about discrimination and harassment against black female employees.

A Google spokesperson said in a comment to The Verge, “While we strongly believe in the equity of our policies and practices, after nearly five years of litigation, both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone, and we’re very pleased to reach this agreement.”

Google is not the only tech company that is facing lawsuits targeted at pay gaps. Companies like Twitter, Oracle, and Microsoft have also faced similar lawsuits with mixed outcomes.

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