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Hello,

Often, there are more than two sides to a debate, and in India Inc, there are more debates than one can count.

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu recently seconded Elon Musk who famously claimed that attending a college is overrated. The Indian entrepreneur noted that India currently needs more electricians, plumbers, welders, and nurses.

However, many on his post noted that such blue-collar jobs in India lack dignity. A WorkInIndia report released earlier this year revealed that 58% of all blue-collar workers only earned Rs 20,000 monthly, which is close to the minimum wage.

Meanwhile, some in the startup ecosystem are debating whether long working hours should be encouraged after an anonymous Reddit user, claimed to be a Zepto employee, recently critiqued the company’s “toxic work culture”. ICYMI.

Elsewhere, it’s the battle of the ‘6Es’.

IndiGo Airlines filed a lawsuit against a Mahindra & Mahindra subsidy over the name BE ‘6e’, which is the name of Mahindra’s newly launched electric coupe SUV. 6E also happens to be the callsign of the low-cost airline.

The airline is fighting on multiple fronts after it was ranked among the world’s worst airlines by AirHelp, securing 103rd place out of 109, due to underwhelming customer satisfaction and poor handling of flight disruption claims. However, IndiGo cast doubt on the survey’s credibility.

And lastly, it’s Ola Electric versus the consumer watchdog. The EV maker has received a second show-cause notice from the Central Consumer Protection Authority over mounting consumer complaints. The full impact of the development can only be ascertained after the stock market opens.

Interestingly, SEBI is considering introducing a separate call auction session after market hours to determine the closing price of stocks in the equity cash market. This practice would be on the lines of mechanisms followed globally.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Climes’ plan to foster sustainability
• Empowering India’s new-age economy
• Batting for children’s safety

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the world’s fastest internet speed ever recorded?

Startup

Climes’ plan to foster sustainability

With climate change threatening to disrupt economies, climate finance has become an urgent necessity to support action to mitigate its effects using private capital.

Understanding the growing need for effective climate financing solutions, In 2021, Anirudh Gupta, along with his then acquaintance Siddhanth Jayaram (formerly with Kalaari Capital), founded Climes, a Delhi-based climate tech startup that has developed a digital finance engine to facilitate the flow of capital into climate projects.

Carbon capture:

• Climes generates revenue by facilitating the exchange of carbon credits in partnership with brands through its products Climes API, which the brand calls a ‘carbon neutral checkout experience’; Climes LITE, a gamified product for purchase and distribution of carbon credits; and carbon-neutral events. 
• So far, Climes has partnered and collaborated with more than 60 mid-market and enterprise-level clients, including the likes of UAE Carbon Alliance, Wipro, WeWork India, and CoreNet Global, among others. Gupta adds that the climate tech startup has over 12 recurring clients. 
• Backed by Peak XV, Nithin Kamath’s Rainmatter Capital, Avaana Capital, and Aureolis Ventures, Climes raised $1.2 million in its pre-seed round in July 2022. The startup was part of the 2024 Tech30 cohort of most promising startups, compiled by YourStory.

Funding Alert

Startup: Ultraviolette

Amount: 130 Cr

Round: Undisclosed

Startup: NODWIN Gaming

Amount: Rs 64 Cr

Round: Private financing

Startup: The Money Club

Amount: $2.5M

Round: Series A

News

Empowering India’s new-age economy

Former Peak XV executive and public policy expert Shweta Rajpal Kohli has launched Startup Policy Forum (SPF), an initiative to empower and boost the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem. SPF is tentatively expected to launch on National Startup Day, January 16, Kohli told YourStory. 

Representing startup interests:

• The initiative aims to bring together founders, policymakers, and regulators to help bolster the government’s initiatives to support Indian startups.
• SPF will limit its members to 100 selected startups in its initial phase and has onboarded 30 startups as its members. These companies include fintech giants Razorpay, CRED, and Pine Labs, on-demand food and grocery delivery platform, Swiggy, and omnichannel retailer Bluestone.
• The forum has also established four councils for sector-specific initiatives which include the Fintech Policy Council, Consumer and Commerce Council, Emerging Tech and AI Council, and New-Age Public Companies Council.

Social Impact

Batting for children’s safety

Vishali Kola’s journey of coming into her own in her 30s, making a mark as a fashion designer and establishing an NGO to raise awareness against child sexual abuse is a story about determination and fortitude.

She channelled all the pain of her earlier years of abuse into writing about it, which eventually laid down the foundation for Tejobarath, an NGO in Srikalahasti that works to prevent child sexual abuse at its root and protect the psychological health of children.

Stacked odds:

• In 2012, Tejobarath launched the campaign, Safe India, Happy India, where they printed 50,000 pamphlets on child safety and reached out to all schools in Srikalahasti to spread the message to around 30,000 people, Kola said. 
• The NGO has launched an interactive app, Body Safety, for children which teaches them the importance of “good and bad touch.”
• Tejobarath has also tied with social startup Menstrupedia and distributed comics on menstrual hygiene and organised the ‘Safe Periods, Happy Periods’ in several parts of South India and Assam. It also distributed free sanitary napkins to over 6,000 girls and women.

News & updates

• Euphoria: Bitcoin has topped $100,000 for the first time, buoyed by United States President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate a cryptocurrency advocate to lead the country’s securities regulator. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency peaked above $103,000 on Thursday.
• AI warfare: OpenAI is partnering with Anduril Industries to incorporate its artificial intelligence technology into the weapons maker’s anti-drone systems, marking the AI developer’s most significant push yet into the defence sector.
• Easy-peasy: Google Photos is rolling out a new feature called “Undo device backup,” designed to make managing cloud storage and photo backups easier. Currently, deleting backed-up photos from your phone also removes them from your device storage.

What is the world’s fastest internet speed ever recorded?

Answer: 402 Terabits per second (Tbps). It was realised by researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology using standard commercially available optical fibre.

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