Hello,
The Paytm stocks recovered slightly after three days of being in freefall.
Yesterday, reports emerged that CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma met the RBI, followed by a meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss regulatory concerns.
Simultaneously, founders of several prominent startups wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, expressing concern about the recent sanctions against Paytm Payments Bank and calling for a more collaborative approach between the government and the fintech industry.
At market close, Paytm shares were up 3.02% at Rs 451.60 apiece on the BSE, while it was trading at Rs 452.80 per share, an increase of 3.26%, on the NSE.
In other news, Tata Group is reported to venture into online food ordering through Tata Digital’s super app Tata Neu using ONDC. Speaking of Tata Digital, the Tata Sons subsidiary has appointed Naveen Tahilyani as its new CEO and Managing Director.
Elsewhere, Kunal Shah-led CRED acquired Kuvera, an investment and wealth management platform, through a mix of cash and stock.
Lastly, the futuristic $1.9 billion Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile—which took nine years to build—is set to survey the night sky in unprecedented detail.
Fun fact: With the completion of the Rubin project, Chile will become the leading destination of astronomical observation, generating about 70% of data seen from Earth by 2025!
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Festive season adds glitter to Nykaa’s Q3
- KRAFTON’s gameplan for India
- Young hip-hop artists of Dharavi
Here’s your trivia for today: Traditional wind instrument didgeridoo belongs to which country?
Ecommerce
Festive season adds glitter to Nykaa’s Q3
Beauty retailer Nykaa recorded its highest-ever quarterly profit in the third quarter of financial year 2024, driven by strong festive season demand. FSN E-commerce Ventures—the parent company of Nykaa—reported a quarterly profit of Rs 17.4 crore in Q3 FY24, up by a whopping 105% from Rs 8.4 crore in the same period last year.
In green:
- Nykaa’s Pink Friday Sale, held in November last year, saw a record number of unique visitors, the company said, with gross merchandise value (GMV) witnessing a 67% YoY growth.
- Beauty and personal care—Nykaa’s biggest revenue generator—recorded a 25% YoY rise in GMV to Rs 2,369.7 crore in the October-December quarter.
- Meanwhile, total expenses surged to Rs 1,769.8 crore, up 21% from Rs 1,455.7 crore in the year-ago period.
Gaming
KRAFTON’s gameplan for India
KRAFTON will adopt an India-first approach as the country is a priority for the company, says Anuj Sahani, the head of KRAFTON’s incubator programme and the lead for the company’s latest game, Garuda Saga.
This approach involves launching game titles specifically for the Indian market, he elaborates in an interview with YourStory.
Playbook:
- South Korea-headquartered KRAFTON’s most popular title in India currently is Battleground Mobile India (BGMI), a battle royale title, where several players can get together and engage in head-to-head play in real-time.
- The company’s latest game, Garuda Saga, draws inspiration from Indian mythology to build a compelling narrative.
- In August 2023, KRAFTON said it plans to invest $150 million over the next two to three years to boost the gaming and startup ecosystem in India. It had earlier invested $140 million in 11 Indian startups.
Inspiration
Young hip-hop artists of Dharavi
Ten years ago, the late Samir Bangara and Dolly Rateshwar, with the help of two hip-hop crews from Mumbai, set up a community centre in Dharavi inside a shanty for kids to drop in after school and bounce their musical talent off each other.
Today, The Dharavi Dream Project (TDDP) has grown into a full-fledged movement of young poets, songwriters and artists driven by the fire to tell their stories their way.
On beat:
- Out of the 150+ kids and young adults who have become the voice of this movement, two—Saniya M (18) and Ayush aka Kavikaar (19)—have emerged as the first duo to release an EP (a small collection of music).
- Tiger Baby Records, a joint venture by music composer Ankur Tewari and filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, have produced the EP.
- For Tiger Baby Records, which has been exploring a plethora of sounds from India and giving them a global platform, Saniya and Kavikaar’s songs offered a new and refreshing lens into the Indian hip-hop scene.
News & updates
- India bet: A momentous shift is underway in global markets as investors pull billions of dollars from China’s sputtering economy, two decades after betting on it as the world’s biggest growth story. Much of that cash is now heading for India, with Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley endorsing the country as the prime investment destination for the next decade.
- Buying back: Founder Adam Neumann is trying to buy back bankrupt real-estate company WeWork, which he was ousted from in 2019. Neumann had tried to arrange financing of up to $1 billion in October 2022 but was rebuffed by former CEO Sandeep Mathrani.
- Disclose: Meta will start labelling AI-generated photos uploaded to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads over the coming months as election season ramps up around the world. The company will also begin punishing users who don’t disclose if a realistic video or piece of audio was made with AI.
Traditional wind instrument didgeridoo belongs to which country?
Answer: Australia. The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia at least 1,000 years ago.
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