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Footprints on the Moon—sings India as the Pragyan rover imprints the Indian emblem and the ISRO logo on the lunar surface. And Indian spacetech startups are excited to see what the future holds as far as India’s space programme is concerned. 

The Chandrayaan-3 mission also underscored the important work done by the country’s manufacturing industries, especially the several MSMEs that have contributed to this achievement. 

Noida-based Omnipresent Robot Technologies also developed Perception Navigation Software for the rover. Further, Pune-based heavy engineering firm Walchandnagar Industries manufactured and tested critical booster segments used in the Chandrayaan-3 launch vehicle at its facility.

Moving on. Infosys has appointed tennis legend Rafael Nadal as its brand ambassador. The three-year partnership will also see Nadal in the role of ambassador for the tech giant’s Digital Innovation.

Meanwhile, Mamaearth is reportedly planning to raise about $120-150 million in a new funding round ahead of its planned IPO. The D2C firm is targeting a valuation of $1.5 billion, largely on the back of a secondary share sale.

As per Moneycontrol, the D2C brand has held preliminary discussions with investors, including SoftBank, Singapore’s GIC and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and pre-IPO investors, including Fidelity Investments. 

Moreover, QIA—which is looking to invest further in the fast-growing Indian economy—has infused Rs 8,278 crore (about $1 billion) in Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. RRVL is now valued at $100 billion, or Rs 8.27 lakh crore. 

ICYMI: After its captivating dance routine at this year’s Oscars, RRR has now bagged the best choreography award at the 69th National Film Awards. 

From Alia Bhatt and Allu Arjun to Rocketry and Gangubai Kathiawadi—meet all the winners from this year’s awards ceremony. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Building smart home devices in India
• Push Protocol’s pan-India tour
• Supreme Court challenges gender stereotypes

Here’s your trivia for today: Which fruit, popular in parts of Asia, is notoriously smelly?

Startup

Building smart home devices in India

Launched by Hero Electronix, the consumer technology arm of automobile behemoth Hero Group, Qubo aims to offer smart home devices to Indian households that want enhanced security along with the aesthetics of a modern home. It offers over 30 products, including doorbells, indoor cameras, smoke sensors and car dash cameras.

Homegrown tech:

• Qubo’s components—which are sourced from around the world—are designed and controlled by the company through three production facilities in Bengaluru, Noida, and Tirupati.
• The startup ships more than 40,000 products every month with an average ticket size of Rs 5,000.
• Hero Electronix has invested about Rs 200 crore in Qubo so far and expects to achieve an annual run rate of Rs 130 crore soon.

Funding Alert

Startup: GradRight

Amount: Rs 50 Cr

Round: Series A

Startup: Weekday

Amount: $2.2M

Round: Seed

Startup: 13SQFT

Amount: $1M

Round: Pre-Series A

Web3

Push Protocol’s pan-India tour

Web3 communication network Push Protocol will embark on a tour across India, covering as many as 18 cities with the aim of creating awareness among India’s top developers. The Billion Reasons to Build tour is likely to showcase some of the best Web3 projects in the country.

“We identified 18 cities where we could do the length and breadth of India and go to the nearest city that we know has interest in areas related to Web3,” Richa Joshi, Co-founder of Push Protocol told The Decrypting Story.

Spreading knowledge:

• Push Protocol has partnered with 12 other prominent Web3 players including Ethereum Foundation, ETHGlobal, Polygon, Filecoin, The Graph, Aragon, and Alchemy.
• The Web3 communication network will distribute about $50,000 in bounties to promising talent.
• Global projects continue to be a challenge for developers based out of India, which is what this tour plans to solve.

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Legal

Supreme Court challenges gender stereotypes

Last week, a 30-page handbook was released by the Supreme Court of India in an attempt to eliminate “archaic ideas with patriarchal undertones” reflected in legal discourse in the country. Women in various leadership positions have welcomed the progressive guide to rights and issues concerning them, but say a shift in mindset is the larger goal.

“There continue to be very bigoted views on women, gender minorities, and sexuality in courts, and while this handbook is a starting point, big changes need hard, persistent efforts in application,” says filmmaker Divya Bharati.  

Politically correct:

• Advocate and gender-rights crusader Sudha Ramalingam says calling out terms and usages will make lawyers and judges think twice before using them.
• The handbook replaces the words ‘prostitute’ and ‘hooker’ with ‘sex worker’. It risks appropriating certain terms that have connotations already defined in the legal framework, says Sunitha Krishnan, a human rights activist.
• Mala Bhandari of Social and Development Research & Action Group took the handbook to a Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) training to study “casual sexism that is prevalent in workplaces and educational institutions.”

News & updates

• Sell off: Sandwich chain Subway is set to be bought by US-based private equity firm Roark Capital, ending six decades of family ownership. The chain did not reveal the terms of the sale, but Reuters reported it has been valued at more than $9 billion (£7.1 billion).
• GenAI: South Korean internet search company Naver rolled out its own GenAI tool, HyperCLOVA X. The company’s large language model (LLM) offers services such as a ChatGPT-like AI chatbot, CLOVA X, and a GenAI-based search engine Cue, equivalent to Microsoft Bing. 
• Welcome: The five BRICS developing nations will admit Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates, they said on Thursday, a move aimed at growing the clout of the bloc as it pushes to rebalance the prevailing world order.

Which fruit, popular in parts of Asia, is notoriously smelly?

Answer: Durian. 

The large fruit, which looks like jack fruit or a green porcupine, smells so pungently bad that many public places, such as hotels, flights, and bus stations, prohibit people from carrying it.

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