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India requires a corporate mandate on research and development (R&D) similar to CSR to promote a technology innovation culture, which will help build critical technologies here in the country, Zoho’s Founder Sridhar Vembu said.
The Padma Shri awardee said India lacks a culture of its own R&D and pointed out that merely having manufacturing facilities of global tech product companies like Apple will not bring “high-income jobs” for people at large in India.
Talking of Apple. Remember the Apple AirPower charging mat? Announced in 2017, the device was supposed to recharge three devices simultaneously, but Apple never released it, citing engineering issues.
Now, Tesla is giving something similar a shot with the just-announced Wireless Charging Platform. Inside the Cybertruck-inspired aluminium casing is a wireless charging platform named FreePower from a startup called Aira.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Inside Snapdeal’s House of Brands
- Vir Das ‘Landing’ on Netflix
- New ways to hook OTT viewers
Here’s your trivia for today: Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics?
Ecommerce
Inside Snapdeal’s House of Brands
Snapdeal, the New Delhi-based ecommerce platform, is betting on its House of Brands strategy to create loyalty with its value-conscious customer base to stay in the running. The House of Brands strategy adopted by Snapdeal found a mention in its December 2021 Draft Red Herring Prospectus under the head of Power Brands.
Key takeaways:
- While Snapdeal has shelved its Rs 1,250-crore IPO plans, owing to macroeconomic conditions, it is hoping to grow its portfolio of mass brands under the subsidiary—Stellaro—to break even.
- In its current avatar, Snapdeal wants to be a platform for value shoppers, capping its price range between Rs 299 and Rs 999 across specific categories. It has also stayed away from low-margin businesses, including grocery, electronics, and white goods.
- Snapdeal licenses its brands under Stellaro to select sellers who are required to comply with brand standards, and the company holds the brand rights and IP. Creating these brands is central to ensuring repeat customers for the assured quality and fit.
Celebrity
Vir Das ‘Landing’ on Netflix
Standup comic Vir Das’s new special was released on Netflix. Landing, the global comedy star tells, is about “a flight home, the central feeling of what it feels to have a home and be safe.”
Comedy for all:
- Comedy as an art form is going places. According to a BookMyShow report, three of the top ten ticket sales went to comedy shows, and Vir’s Wanted tour was at number two.
- Vir believes it’s hard to determine or predict what people are going to be mad at anymore; there’s no such thing as safe comedy, and reactions are so random.
- He feels that tribalism is very much like a social media thing. And if you are blessed enough to have a large audience, you’ll see real people. And if you take the social media glasses off, then you’ll really see India.
OTT
New ways to hook OTT viewers
Streaming platforms and content producers of Indian shows are experimenting with longer seasons and trickle-feeding an episode every day or every week. Can this sustain user interest and buzz around the shows? Here’s what we found:
Key takeaways:
- Rakesh CK, Head of SVOD (subscription video on demand), Aha, a streaming platform with Tamil and Telugu content, says when there are more episodes per season, more characters and plotlines can be delved into.
- On the flip side, content makers have to make sure there is enough meat in their content, or else they run the risk of stretching it too thin.
- When more episodes are created in a given budget, the cost gets amortised. “Instead of taking one scene at a location, we film more scenes at the same location. This helps in saving cost,” says Palki Malhotra, who has created shows such as Dil Dosti Dance, for the now defunct Channel V.
News & updates
- Explosive numbers: Chinese officials estimate about 250 million people, or 18% of the population, were infected with COVID-19 in the first 20 days of December, as Beijing abruptly dismantled restrictions that had contained the disease for almost three years.
- Of critical nature: Twitter Inc has restored a feature that promotes suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from some users and consumer safety groups over its removal.
- Downward spiral: Tesla is on pace for its worst annual stock performance on record as investors bristle at Elon Musk’s Twitter ownership, as well as declining demand for the car company’s electric vehicles and slumps in the broader market in a higher interest rate environment.
Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics?
Answer: Marie Curie, in 1903.
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