Hello,
Payment companies Razorpay and Cashfree have received notices from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to withhold onboarding any new online merchants to their platforms, pending their audit for the payment aggregator/payment gateway licenses (PA/PG), sources told YourStory.
The embargo will be in effect only until the companies submit an audit report to the RBI showing they have complied with its rules and regulations for the PA/PG licences.
Meanwhile, trading volumes at digital-asset exchanges are being halved amid a loss of confidence in the crypto sector following FTX’s fall into bankruptcy.
Daily average trading volume slid to $13.1 billion in the week through December 11 versus $26.7 billion in the seven days to October 30, according to Bloomberg calculations on data from research firm Kaiko.
Moreover, Bitcoin fell below $17,000 on December 16 as traders warned of overreaction to “FUD” involving exchange Binance and others.
In other news, the “AquaDom”—which contained 1,500 tropical fish in a million litres of water in the lobby of the Radisson Blu in Berlin—has burst, flooding the hotel and nearby streets. The giant aquarium was described as the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world.
ICYMI: Do you know which was the worst food trend of 2022? Here’s a hint: It’s related to one of the global K-pop band BTS’ songs!
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- Freshworks’ product reorg
- Homegrown liquor brands to try in 2023
Here’s your trivia for today: When was the first issue of Vogue published?
Review
If Avatar was all about Pandora’s sweeping mountains and lush forests, its sequel–Avatar: The Way of Water–drowns you in stunning visuals of the sea and its beautiful flora and fauna as James Cameron continues to build a fascinating and rich world.
Cinematic sorcery:
- At the core, the story remains a typical good vs evil narrative, with themes of love, loss, spirituality, and nature.
- Cameron’s much-awaited masterpiece shines best during its silent moments—in scenes of nature that grab your full attention with dazzling visuals—with a new motion capture system.
- As for performances, Zoe Saldhana as Neytiri and Stephen Lang’s antagonist Colonel Miles Quaritch stand out.
Top Funding Deals of the Week
Startup: Bumble Bee Flights
Amount: Rs 300 Cr
Round: Undisclosed
Startup: Virgio
Amount: $37M
Round: Series A
Startup: NeoGrowth
Amount: Rs 300 Cr
Round: Series D
SaaS
Freshworks is bringing one of its newer products Freshteam, an HR software suite, under Freshservice, its fast-growing IT service management (ITSM) tool, Girish Mathrubootham, Co-founder and CEO of Freshworks, has said in an email to employees.
Key takeaways:
- Freshservice, which has been the biggest contributor to the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth in recent quarters, helps mid-market customers automate and simplify internal IT operations.
- In October 2022, the company launched Freshservice for Business Teams to extend the scope of the product to support non-IT functions such as legal, HR, and finance.
- Freshworks is letting go of 90 employees globally, of whom about 60 are based in India. These employees accounted for 1.7% of the company’s 5,200-strong workforce.
Alcobev
Homegrown liquor brands to try in 2023
The year 2022 was an interesting one for the Indian alcohol industry, with local brands stepping up their game to produce interesting intoxicants like Prohibition Era-inspired gin and pure cane juice rum.
Bottoms up:
- Experts suggest that the next big movement in the Indian alcoholic beverage segment will be the emergence of new-age rum and tequila brands.
- John Distilleries, the company behind Paul John Whisky, launched the first gin in its portfolio in October.
- Earlier this year, from the house of Anheuser-Busch inBev, came the first Made-in-India beer–the Seven Rivers Beer. Made with locally sourced ingredients, the beer is curated to specifically suit the Indian palate.
News & updates
- No Spaces: Twitter has apparently pulled its Spaces group audio feature, at least temporarily, after Elon Musk joined a group conversation that included journalists that had been banned from the platform. The latest drama comes after Twitter suspended several prominent journalists who had covered an earlier story about the Elon Jet Twitter account.
- Currency trade: India’s rupee trade settlement mechanism, a means of using rupees instead of dollars and other big currencies for international transactions, is attracting interest from more countries. Tajikistan, Cuba, Luxembourg, and Sudan have begun talking to India about using the mechanism. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set up the mechanism in July.
- Superman to Amazon: Amazon has struck a deal with the high street games chain Games Workshop to create a series based on its hit franchise Warhammer, the science-fiction fantasy miniature war game, potentially featuring the former Superman star Henry Cavill.
When was the first issue of Vogue published?
Answer: December 17, 1892. Initially, a weekly high-society journal, Vogue became a hugely influential American fashion and lifestyle magazine.
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