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Hello,

So far, earnings season isn’t faring well.

After TCS, Infosys posted below-par Q4 results, reporting a rise of just around 8% in net profit. In addition, the company estimated an annual revenue growth in the range of 4-7% for FY24 in constant currency terms—a pessimistic outlook considering it actually registered 18% growth in FY23.

ICYMI: The world’s most expensive sandwich is a grilled cheese, slathered with white truffle butter and brushed with white truffle oil mixed with gold flakes. 

Oh, and it comes with a luxurious South African lobster tomato bisque on the side. The cost, you ask? A whopping $214, i.e. almost Rs 17,500.

Lastly, it turns out that rainbows are actually circles…not arcs.

And there’s a lot of science involved.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Can India’s power grid support EVs?
• Ethereum’s transition to PoS complete
• Building a bridge across borders

Here’s your trivia for today: How many parts is a typical piano made up of?

Electric Mobility

Can India’s power grid support EVs?

As the number of electric vehicles on the road goes up, concerns mount about their load on India’s already strained power grid. Potential solutions include smart charging, efficient batteries, and interconnectivity between grids—but will these be enough to mitigate the stress?

Power play:

• In FY 22-23, 1.17 million EVs were sold across categories, accounting for more than half of the cumulative 2.27 million EVs on road in India, according to the government’s Vahan database.
• EVs are expected to draw 120-332 GW by 2030, making up the majority of the load on India’s power grid.
• At present, the power grid is more than able to support the charging of EVs, given they’re still just a fraction of the total 362 million vehicles on the road in India. However, the situation will likely change.

Funding Alert

Startup: Proost Beer

Amount: Rs 8.5 Cr

Round: Pre-Series A

Startup: Barcelona

Amount: Rs 5 Cr

Round: Equity-free

Blockchain

Ethereum’s transition to PoS complete

Ethereum has successfully integrated its Shanghai and Capella upgrades (collectively known as the ‘Shapella’ upgrade), allowing users and validators to withdraw their staked ether (ETH) from the network. This marks the completion of the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which began in September 2022 with ‘The Merge’.

Key takeaways:

• As part of the Shapella upgrade, a hard fork was implemented with Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, allowing network participants to withdraw their staked ETH.
• Ethereum’s primary chain (running on Proof of Work) had merged with the Beacon Chain, bringing PoS functionality to the network.
• The Beacon Chain was running since December 2020 and had accumulated stakes of 18 million ETH (worth $33 billion). 

Community

Building a bridge across borders

Shreya Mazumdar grew up hearing about the long-drawn conflicts between India and Pakistan. However, in 2014, she was moved when she saw the countries come together and pray for Pakistan during the Army Public School attack in Peshawar. Touched by this solidarity, she wanted to stir a dialogue around the persistent hostility between the two nations by bringing to light their commonalities.

Harmony at fore:

• In 2015, she started Paaq Bandhu—or pure friends—an online forum for people in India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue and activities based on various forms of art to promote harmony and understanding through shared interests and experiences.
• Mazumdar, who has a background in filmmaking and works as a communication officer, believes that art is a conduit that connects people on a deeper level, and Paaq Bandhu embodies the same.
• She has been drafting a petition and plans to soon appeal to the government to allow Pakistani artists into India again. 

News & updates

• Bridging gaps: Amazon did not grant CEO Andy Jassy any new stock in 2022, shrinking the pay gap between the online retailer’s top boss and rank-and-file employees. At the same time, it awarded more than $40 million each to the recently elevated CEOs of ecommerce and cloud businesses, at 2022 share prices.
• Go driverless: DiDi Global is developing its own self-driving taxis alongside and plans to roll them out in 2025 on its ride-hailing service. On Thursday, it showed off a concept robotaxi, or driverless taxi, called DiDi Neuron and also announced an autonomous trucking business named Kargobot.
• Made in India: Apple assembled more than $7 billion of iPhones in India last fiscal, tripling production in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone arena. The company now makes almost 7% of its iPhones in India through expanding partners from Foxconn Technology Group to Pegatron Corp.

How many parts is a typical piano made up of?

Answer: Over 12,000, of which almost 10,000 are moving parts.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

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