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Hello,

The Indian bourses are flush with investments from abroad.

The month of July saw a net infusion of Rs 45,365 crore from Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) in Indian equity markets on stable macroeconomic fundamentals and steady earnings growth. This is the third straight month when net flows have surpassed the Rs 40,000-crore mark.

However, the combined market cap of seven of the top 10 most valued firms fell by Rs 77,434.98 crore last week. While Infosys, SBI and Bharti Airtel made gains, the main laggards included ITC, HDFC Bank, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Speaking of TCS, its new CEO K Krithivasan has created a new organisation structure and rejigged senior leadership. The software company elevated Harrick Vin as the new CTO and Abhinav Kumar as the interim head for marketing. 

ICYMI: Meet a couple from Brazil who replanted an entire forest.

And for pet parents, here’s a list of India’s 10 most pet-friendly homestays.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Dubbing movies with generative AI
• All about endometriosis
• A platform to democratise education 

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the only rock that can float on water?

Startup

Dubbing movies with generative AI

Content owners and distributors dub content in several languages but often the dubbed content doesn’t offer a cohesive viewing experience. NeuralGarage aims to address this issue with its flagship product VisualDub, which reduces the audio-visual disparity in dubbed content using generative AI.

“Our vision at NeuralGarage is to make communication seamless across all barriers of language visually through the power of AI,” says Mandar Natekar, Co-founder and CEO, NeuralGarage.

Proprietary tech:

• VisualDub runs on proprietary algorithms that map phonemes, the lowest bit of human sound, with visemes, the corresponding lip shapes.
• NeuralGarage offers this technology through API integration, SaaS, and desktop software. It uses Amazon Web Services for client delivery and to ensure security and privacy.
• The startup generates business from verticals such as advertising, influencer marketing, content creation, OTT, and films.

Health

All about endometriosis

When she was 25 years old, Palak Agarwal was diagnosed with endometriosis—a disorder wherein tissue similar to the uterus lining grows outside the uterus. She is determined to help as many women as she can by spreading awareness about this often overlooked condition, referred to as the ‘missed disease.’

Maternal health:

• In India, one in ten women suffer from endometriosis, says Manoj Saxena, Managing Director at Bayer Zydus Pharma. However, hardly 20% of women are aware of this condition.
• Dr Hemanadini Jayaraman, Consultant at Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru says pregnancy is not a treatment for endometriosis though there is a likelihood of the disease being dormant.
• Early diagnosis and treatment can slow or halt the natural progression of the disease and reduce long-term symptoms.

Edtech

ICYMI: A platform to democratise education

Modelled on the ONDC project that transformed the ecommerce landscape, Open Network for Education and Skilling Transactions, or ONEST, aspires to democratise the education sector. The interoperable, platform-agnostic and decentralised network seeks to offer users access to diverse educational content, skill development programmes, scholarships, internships, and mentorship.

“Largely the idea is to take the ONDC model and apply it for education and skilling,” Sujith Nair, Co-founder and CEO of Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy (FIDE), tells YourStory.

Collaboration is key:

• Students and other learners can access diverse courses and training opportunities while educational institutions, edtech firms, and training providers can offer a diverse catalogue of educational content and skilling programmes.
• The ONEST ecosystem currently comprises ONDC as the network facilitator, EkStep as the network incubator, FIDE as the protocol partner, and network participants including Vedantu, Protean, ShikshaLokam etc.
• ONEST plans to provide open-source sandboxes and developer access to support providers who wish to learn the Beckn Protocol and link their products/services to ONEST. 

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Image credit: Nihar Apte

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News & updates

• Apple vs X: While Elon Musk may have rebranded Twitter to X app, Apple’s App Store still lists the app under the name Twitter because it requires all apps to be listed with at least two characters. However, it does show up as X in the Google Play Store.
• Good to go: Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken said that issues with cryptocurrency Ethereum’s funding gateway have been resolved. It had earlier informed that it was investigating a “temporary hiccup” affecting funding gateways and that it could cause a delay in deposits and withdrawals.
• De-dollarisation: Bolivia’s government is curbing dependence on the US dollar for foreign trade, instead turning to the Chinese yuan, officials said. This is a part of the global challenge to the US dollar as Iraqi banks were also hit with a dollar ban imposed by the government to boost the use of dinar.

What you should watch out for

• Deadline for filing Income Tax Return (ITR) for FY 2022-23.
• Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission, Maruti Suzuki, and GAIL among others to release Q1 FY24 results.

What is the only rock that can float on water?

Answer: Pumice. It forms from froth at the top of the lava flow that cools down rapidly, trapping air inside.

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