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Hello Reader,

The Reserve Bank of India may not like crypto but it sure has no reservations when it comes to blockchain.

The central bank has given Bengaluru-based startup Open Financial Technologies the go-ahead to work on a new product that will ensure tamper-proof monitoring of overseas transactions using open-source blockchain technology.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola is going green by ditching the green… Sprite will soon be retiring the trademark green bottles that have been around for more than six decades now. Starting August 1, the company will instead use clear bottles. 

Last but not least, one unidentified bidder has paid a whopping $2.8 million for the space jacket worn by Buzz Aldrin while flying to the Moon. Sold by Sotheby’s, it has become the most valuable American space artefact ever sold at auction.

Clothes maketh the man but how many space jackets can make your wardrobe out of the world? 

Data breaches: What should startups do?

Data breaches can “pinch” a startup more than a traditional business because of its sensitive relationship with customers. For a new business, trust building is a continuous exercise and such incidents could weaken this connect. 

The issue becomes even more serious, given the lack of investment made by startups in securing their systems or putting cybersecurity higher on their priority list. Experts told YS that a lot of startups do not invest in cybersecurity due to varied reasons, particularly lack of resources, and most of them continue to operate their systems at high risks. 

What can startups do:

• Red team security testing: Ethical hackers pose as attackers to gauge vulnerabilities and risks.
• Vulnerability assessment: To be done every time there is a major change or update in tech infrastructure.
• Disclosure policy: To encourage people to become aware of vulnerabilities in an agency’s website or ICT system and report them to the agency.

Inside the new hybrid model

The hybrid work model is here to stay. In the aftermath of the pandemic, companies are now incorporating remote work into their office policies, according to WorkInSync’s ‘Hybrid Work Trends Report’.

The report indicated that people had started returning to offices between the pandemic waves, with 26% of those surveyed in December 2021 commuting to work.

However, employees aren’t going to offices every day. A majority of the employees (43%) worked out of their offices anywhere between 1 to 5 days a month. The report also suggests a trend around what time employees like to check-in.

“In the pre-COVID-19 era, there was a lot of variability in terms of the time people came into work. In the post-COVID-19 era, people are generally coming in at the same time and leaving at the same time,” says Deepesh Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO of WorkInSync.

Hybrid model trends:

• The BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector had the highest percentage of people going to the office, at 84%.
• Mumbai topped all cities with 100% of employees going to office in June 2022.
• Globally, employees preferred to travel to work on Wednesdays (25%), Thursdays (23%), and Tuesdays (20%).

Parenting your plants

Why have children when we can have plants? However, being a plant parent can also be exhausting as they require a lot of care, especially around watering, lighting and fertilising.

Enter Planta, a plant care app that helps plant parents, across levels of expertise, understand their watering, fertilising, misting, repotting, and cleaning schedules.

Depending on your plant-parent level of expertise, it also tells you if a particular plant can thrive under your care—a feature that can help you shop for the right plants.

Planta’s features:

• The app auto-detects the temperature and climate conditions around you, and optimises the watering schedules.
• It gives you a checklist of pending tasks that you can tick as you finish them.
• The “dead” plant section enumerates which plants you’ve killed and must steer clear of in the future.

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