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Hello,

Circuit hits a break! Well, from stock trading.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has penalised Bollywood actor Arshad Warsi and his wife Maria Goretti Warsi in relation to a share “pump and dump”, or stock manipulation case. 

The market regulator came down heavily on YouTube channel creators, traders, and market analysts—a nexus of 31 players—for “misleading videos and paid marketing campaigns”, leading to stock manipulation for listed entities Sharpline Broadcast and Sadhna Broadcast. 

But coming back to the flavours of the season—ChatGPT and its maker OpenAI. 

OpenAI has now launched Whisper AI, an automatic speech recognition system, which it claims enables “robust” transcription in multiple languages as well as translation from those languages into English. 

Bringing competition to ChatGPT is “A.”—SK Telecom’s artificial intelligence chatbot. 

Albeit, it’s a little different. 

The company launched a beta version of “A.”—pronounced “A dot”—in South Korea in May last year. Eric Davis, VP at SK Telecom, says its integration with music streaming services, as well as ecommerce and payment apps, makes it very different from ChatGPT.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Celebrate women achievers at SheSparks 2023
• Smoother supply chain for MSMEs
• Window shopping in new avatar

Here’s your trivia for today: What instrument was featured on the Belgian note before the Euro was adopted?

SheSparks 2023

Celebrate women achievers at SheSparks 2023

Women are shaking up the world like never before. At SheSparks 2023, we celebrate inspirational women spearheading major corporations with their innovative ideas, fearless leadership, and unwavering determination. Join us today at the Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Celebrating changemakers:

• From Kalaari Capital MD Vani Kola and OfBusiness Co-founder Ruchi Kalra to Kinara Capital’s Hardika Shah, catch women leaders talk about breaking stereotypes and changing the status quo.
• The event will also feature workshops SALT Co-founder Chaitra Chidanand, ExpandAI CEO Amritagandha Dutta, and Megha Agarwal, Head of Brand and Marketing, WeWork.
• We will also honour 20 women leaders across fields of politics, policymaking, business, entertainment, social impact, sports, and more with SheSparks Awards 2023.

Funding Alert

Startup: Betterhalf.AI

Amount: $8.5M

Round: Series A

Startup: Store My Goods

Amount: $1M

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: Voiceoc

Amount: Rs 3 Cr

Round: Undisclosed

Supply chain

Smoother supply chain for MSMEs

B2B unicorn OfBusiness has launched a new app to help MSMEs procure raw materials and gain access credit. OfBusiness will act as an aggregator for buyers, procuring raw material from the manufacturer and shipping it to the buyer without any collateral.

Targetting micro-enterprises:

• The app will enable OfBusiness to expand its services by delving deeper into the supply chain ecosystem and penetrating Tier III and IV towns.
• It allows business owners to compare prices with vendors across India, manage orders, and track the live location of the shipment.
• It supports 10 regional languages and the built-in AI allows the user to have a conversational interaction.

App

Window shopping in new avatar

Downtown Club is built to give users the feeling of window shopping, replete with several new-age digital brands and promises to connect you with labels.

Interactive shopping:

• The interactive interface includes giving a complete description of the product, brand, and offers.
• The app presents interesting collections in categories like home décor and jewellery, but not so much in others.
• It does not help with buying or delivery and redirects users to the partner brand’s website.

News & updates

• Plunge: Silvergate Capital Corp. is studying whether it’s still viable and reviewing its financial controls, following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX. It sold additional debt securities in January and February, and losses related to its securities portfolio besides other factors could impair its ability to operate as a going concern.
• Brain chips: Elon Musk had said Neuralink would soon start human trials of a revolutionary brain implant to treat intractable conditions such as paralysis and blindness. Yet the company didn’t seek permission from the US FDA until early 2022—and the agency rejected the application.
• Dealings: The Supreme Court has asked SEBI to investigate Adani Group for “whether there has been a failure to disclose transactions with related parties”, “whether there was any manipulation of stock prices”, and whether public shareholding rules have been violated.

What instrument was featured on the Belgian note before the Euro was adopted?

Answer: A saxophone. The saxophone was invented in Belgium by Adolphe Sax.

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