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Hello,

India’s first nasal vaccine against the coronavirus is here.

On Thursday, Bharat Biotech’s iNCOVACC was launched by union ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Jitendra Singh. It is the first intranasal vaccine in the world to get approval for use as both a primary series and heterologous booster. Each injection will cost Rs 325 for government purchases and Rs 800 for private immunisation facilities.

Meanwhile, Tiger Global and Accel, two early backers of ecommerce firm Flipkart, are in talks to sell their remaining stake in the company to Walmart for approximately $1.5 billion, reported The Economic Times. If the talks go through, Walmart’s stake would increase in Flipkart by about 5%.

In other news, Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback movie has made quite the splash at the box office as Pathaan recorded the biggest-ever Hindi debut, clocking more than Rs 55 crore in ticket sales. For Bollywood, this is a breath of fresh air as the industry has been inundated with a string of underwhelming projects in recent times.

Last but not least, here are the top most listened-to artists and songs in every country according to YouTube’s geographic streaming data.

Spoiler alert: Alka Yagnik topped the list as the most listened-to artist in the world with 14.8 billion YouTube streams.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Milap’s journey in India’s cosmetics market
• FNP’s aggressive plan to win over Gulf
• Stargazing using your phone camera

Here’s your trivia for today: Outside the polar region, which country is home to the most glacial ice?

Beauty

Milap’s journey in India’s cosmetics market

One of Delhi-based cosmetics company Milap’s bestseller products in the 1980s was a box for vermillion with a small figurine of Ganesha. The 37-year-old brand today is available in 20,000 retail stores across 19 states.

Brand-building:

• Milap’s B2B network includes stockists, distributors, retailers, and sales representatives.
• While it sells products in the price range of Rs 10 to Rs 200, it sells higher online owing to customer acquisition costs.
• In FY21, Milap reported 37.50 YoY growth in revenue. It grew by 40.91% and 60.84% in FY22 and FY23, respectively.

Gifting

FNP’s aggressive plan to win over Gulf

Ferns N Petals (FNP) started as a flower shop in South Delhi in 1994 and became popular for its same-day gifting service. It entered the UAE in 2015 and today, the Gulf market contributes almost 10-25% of the company’s overall ecommerce business.

Entering UAE:

• FNP currently has both an online and offline presence in the UAE, Qatar, and Singapore.  
• The company collaborated with several local organisations, including charities and law enforcement agencies in the UAE to understand the market.
• The team had to change the entire product line, and introduce new verticals and catalogues to cater to the country. It has collaborated with logistical partners like DHL to import flowers.

App Friday

Stargazing using your phone camera

When urban dwellers look at the night sky, all they see is darkness with maybe one or two stars twinkling. Stellarium app allows users to track stars, planets, constellations, and galaxies in real-time. 

Starry night:

• Stellarium currently has over one crore downloads, with a 4.7 rating on Google Play Store. 
• The app asks for your location to show the night sky as it would be visible from your place if it were clear.
• It doesn’t offer any information on constellations or any other celestial objects in the sky.

News & updates

• Not very mobile: Global smartphone shipments suffered their worst quarterly drop on record. Shipments declined 18.3% in the December quarter compared to a year earlier while there was an 11.3% decline annually.
• Winning markets: Nokia beat quarterly operating profit expectations and forecast higher 2023 sales as the Finnish telecom equipment maker said it had been able to gain market share, benefitting from the 5G roll-out in countries such as India.
• Layoffs continue: Dow Inc, IBM, and SAP announced plans to cut thousands of jobs to prepare for a darkening economic outlook, as the current wave of corporate layoffs spreads beyond high-growth technology companies.

Outside the polar region, which country is home to the most glacial ice?

Answer: Pakistan, which has more than 7,000 glaciers.

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