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Hello,

India scripts history!

On Wednesday, India became the first country to successfully reach the Moon’s south pole, a little-explored region believed to contain water ice.

Chandrayaan-3 landed at 6:04 pm IST, over a month after its launch. The mission makes India only the fourth nation globally to make a soft landing on the Moon.

“Chandrayaan-3 is a result of the work done by thousands of scientists, engineers, our staff and industries and support teams across ISRO and other places, other institutions,” ISRO chairman S. Somanath said while addressing the audience after the successful landing.

Further reading: Here’s all you need to know about ISRO’s upcoming space missions. 

ICYMI: YourStory’s flagship event and India’s biggest startup-tech conference, TechSparks, is back with its 14th edition in Bengaluru! Hurry and book your tickets now!

In other news, Reliance Industries on Wednesday said that Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), through a wholly-owned subsidiary, will invest Rs 8,278 crore in its retail arm, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL).

Also, Gautam Adani’s conglomerate, Adani Group, clocked a 42% year-on-year growth in pre-tax profit as businesses ranging from airports to power and sea ports registered impressive growth, the group said.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Helping EVs become affordable
• Nasscom’s GenAI focus
• Adventure sports for specially-abled

Here’s your trivia for today: When was the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) founded?

Startup

Helping EVs become affordable

At present, electric vehicles can cost 1.2 to 2.5 times higher than an ICE vehicle. Bengaluru-based clean tech startup MiniMines’ solution is reducing battery costs with a more efficient, environment-friendly process to extract and recycle lithium and other precious metals from batteries and other industrial byproducts.

Fuelling EVs:

• MiniMines says its proprietary hybrid-hydrometallurgy process can extract elements such as lithium and precious metals with 96% purity.
• Kumar says that for every $4,000 it spends on the extraction of precious metals, it recovers $8,820 worth of metals.
• The extraction technology has been validated by the NITI Aayog. The startup also received a grant of $500,000 from Oil India Ltd.

Funding Alert

Startup: SuperBottoms

Amount: $5M

Round: Series A1

Startup: Portkey.ai

Amount: $3M

Round: Seed

Startup: ZEVO

Amount: Undisclosed

Round: Angel

Technology

Nasscom’s GenAI focus

With generative AI becoming the ‘next big thing’ in the startup ecosystem, tech body Nasscom is setting up a GenAI foundry to help startups in this segment create successful products.

“The most important thing for the Indian GenAI startups is global market access and we are engaged with large enterprises to help them in this aspect,” Ankit Bose, Head of AI, Nasscom, tells YourStory.

Responsible AI:

• Nasscom has partnered with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) which will provide free graphic processing unit power for six months to chosen startups.
• GenAI foundry will also provide other resources such as data, access to the venture capital community and collaborations with global technology companies like AWS and Microsoft.
• In June 2023, Nasscom released guidelines for the responsible use of AI where the ethics of deploying such technology is the primary concern. 

Social Impact

Adventure sports for specially-abled

Special Forces operative Major Vivek Jacob started C.L.A.W Global (Conquer Land, Air, Water) as a social impact venture aimed at rehabilitating people with disabilities through adventure sports.

“At CLAW Global, we aim to diffuse and institutionalise the ‘Special Forces Mindset’ to enable growth and freedom for one and all, with a special focus on disabled people,” Jacob tells SocialStory.

Testing the limit:

• Under Operation Blue Freedom programme, C.L.A.W trained specially-abled people in adaptive scuba diving in swimming pools.
• The team also launched an expedition to Siachen Glacier with a group of eight specially-abled individuals who ascended to the Kumar Post.
• It also conducted Soul of Steel, a competition for able-bodied people that focuses on skill and endurance, set against the high altitudes of the Uttarakhand Himalayas.

News & updates

• Privacy rules: Meta Platforms is breaking European data privacy rules in Norway, the country’s data regulator told a court on Wednesday, in a case that could have broader European implications.
• Doubling down: Germany plans to almost double its public funding for artificial intelligence research to nearly a billion euros over the next two years as it attempts to close a skills gap with sector leaders China and the United States.
• Positive outlook: Nvidia shares rose 0.5% on Wednesday on growing expectations that the chip designer will deliver another strong outlook and boost markets as it reaps the benefits of early investments in artificial intelligence.

When was the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) founded?

Answer: 15 August, 1969.

ISRO was previously the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), set up by the Government of India in 1962, as envisioned by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. ISRO was formed on August 15, 1969 and superseded INCOSPAR with an expanded role to harness space technology.

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