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DTDC Express arrives on the ONDC track.

The courier service is the latest company to join ONDC, days after beverage maker Coca-Cola and logistics unicorn XpressBees onboarded the government-backed open protocol for ecommerce. 

DTDC will begin operations by serving over 5,000 pin codes in 100+ Tier I, II, and III cities “based on the demand pattern”, and will be going live on all 14,700+ pin codes in the next phase.

Elsewhere, edtech firm BYJU’S has elevated Jiny Thattil, who was serving as its Senior Vice President of Engineering, to its new CTO, replacing Anil Goel. 

Thattil’s appointment comes amid strategic restructuring at the company, including changes in its leadership. BYJU’S has also seen several high-level exits in the recent past.

Meanwhile, homegrown True North is entering the private credit space. It had set up a fund in 2022, which has already raised over Rs 1,000 crore and intends to close it by the end of this year.

Lastly, here’s a deep dive into how time travel works in movies.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Gear up for TechSparks Delhi
• Inside upGrad’s H1 report
• Skydiving over Mt Everest

Here’s your trivia for today: What are the only two mammals that lay eggs?

TechSparks

Meet India’s technocrats at TechSparks Delhi

The first-ever Delhi edition of India’s most influential startup-tech event, TechSparks, is all set to welcome the finest of India’s technocrats and serve up yet another stunning line-up of speakers this year.

Book your tickets now.

Star-studded line-up:

• T Koshy, CEO of ONDC, will talk about democratising ecommerce, making it accessible for smaller businesses without restricting it to platforms. 
• Radhika Ghai, India’s first woman unicorn founder, is the co-founder of ShopClues and Kindlife. She will talk about enabling commerce through the community.
• Kunal Bahl, who co-founded Snapdeal, is now the co-founder of Titan Capital, an early-stage VC firm that has invested in Ola, Urban Company, Mamaearth, Bira, and Shadowfax, among others.

Funding Alert

Startup: EMotorad

Amount: $20M

Round: Series B

Startup: Elivaas

Amount: $2.5M

Round: Seed

Startup: Frendy

Amount: $2M

Round: Bridge

Edtech

upGrad’s platform sees 300% hike in remuneration

Edtech startup upGrad has recorded remuneration hikes of up to 300% in the first half of 2023, with data and digital marketing fields having the highest salary jumps.

“The amount of opportunities talent has today is in abundance, but the process is getting tougher. One needs to be a specialist and understand market-ready tools to be able to make the cut,” said Mayank Kumar, Co-founder and MD, upGrad.

Upskilling focus: 

• upGrad’s year-on-year placement counts saw a 16% increase in the first quarter (Jan-March) of 2023.
• Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai emerged as the top job hubs for data analysts, digital marketers, data scientists, data engineers, and business analysts.
• Nearly half of all professionals took the initiative to upskill themselves in the past 3-5 years, primarily through professional certifications and online courses.

Inspiration

Breaking barriers to skydive over Mt Everest

Skydiver Shital Mahajan recently became the first woman in the world to jump off a helicopter from a height of 21,500 ft in front of Mount Everest. She also became the first woman in the world to skydive over the three poles—North Pole, South Pole, and Mount Everest.

“I had heard enough of, ‘you are a woman, why do you want to do this’ or ‘you cannot do it’ and I wanted to prove to the world that I could do this,” she says.

Biggest frontier:

• Mahajan holds 25 national records, two Asia records, and eight world records and is also a Padma Shri award winner.
• For the Everest dive, she received a few sponsorships, out of which the Reliance Foundation formed a major part, and she put in 20% from her own pocket.
• “I want to be the first woman to skydive in space. I hope to achieve this in the next two years,” she says.

News & updates

• Deal alert: Salesforce will begin selling most of its best-known apps on AWS’ marketplace as the company seeks to expand “self-service” purchases and cut down on costs. Salesforce customers will be able to pay using credits on AWS Marketplace.
• Shut down: ByteDance plans to wind down its Nuverse gaming brand and retreat from mainstream video games. The company will stop working on unreleased games by December and will look for ways to divest from titles already launched.
• Investment: Foxconn Technology will invest more than $1.5 billion in an Indian construction project to fulfil the Apple supplier’s “operational needs”. The investment was made through a Foxconn subsidiary, Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development.

What are the only two mammals that lay eggs?

Answer: Platypus and echidna. They fall under the category of monotreme and are found in Australia and New Guinea.

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