From Joe Biden to Jack Ma, there is a meme for everything

A picture may say a thousand words but memes definitely say more.

This week, as a lot of people across the world, breathed a collective sigh of relief as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take oath as the President and Vice President of the United States, and as Alibaba’s Jack Ma appears in public after months of speculation around his whereabouts.

Many people flocked to social media to express their delight. And many others did what the internet does best — make memes.

Even as Biden and Harris made history, it was US Senator Bernie Sanders with his colourful and very practical mittens — made by a teacher in Vermont — that stole the show.

Jack Ma's return on Wednesday not only quelled rumours about his well-being but also helped Alibaba's stock price to climb over four percent in US trading. He had appeared on a live stream to address rural teachers in an online event.

And the memes say it all.

The Interview 

After India opened up its economy in 1991, Edelweiss Group Chairman Rashesh Shah quit his job in the mid-90s to start the homegrown professional financial services group, becoming one of the early local disruptors in the space. Starting with just about a crore rupees, today the conglomerate has equity capital of more than Rs 8,000 crore, employees over 11,000 people, and caters to two million customers.

Here are some key takeaways from the interview:

• What went right for Edelweiss Group
• Investing in human resources
• The growth story of India
• How India can reduce uncertainty for entrepreneurs
• Strengthening the MSME sector

Startup Spotlight

Health education startup Virohan is fighting COVID-19 by training healthcare workers

At the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, India's healthcare system came under duress as healthcare professionals worked round the clock to contain the outbreak despite the shortage of workforce. To not let such a situation repeat, Gurugram-based health education startup Virohan launched a curriculum to train qualified healthcare professionals to manage COVID-19 patients. Read more.

Editor’s Pick: App Friday

How Indian language storytelling platform Pratilipi scripted success with over 25M readers

As per the 2011 Census, India has 15 major language families spoken by over 1.3 billion people. With the country being so diverse, the consumption of vernacular multimedia content has also shown significant growth in recent years. Tapping the space is Indian language digital platform Pratilipi which focuses on text and audio storytelling, with more than 2.7 lakh writers who have published over 27 lakh stories in 12 Indian languages. Read more.

News & Updates

• After SEBI gave a nod to Reliance Industries' Rs 24,713 crore-deal with Future Group, company stock jumped more than three percent on Thursday. This also coincided with the stock market rally that saw the BSE growing 300 points to breach the 50,000-mark for the first time.
• Five persons died and nine were evacuated after a fire broke out at one of the buildings at Serum Institute of India, Pune. However, the Covishield vaccine production won't be affected due to the fire, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said.
• CRED Founder Kunal Shah has backed OnePlus Co-founder Carl Pei's unnamed upcoming venture. Pei, who resigned from OnePlus last year, is cooking up something in the music and audio products space, and has already raised $7 million in seed funding.
• Foodtech unicorn Zomato posted a wider loss of Rs 2,385.6 crore in FY20, on the back of increased expenses, and a pandemic-induced lockdown, which hit the online food delivery business. Its consolidated revenues, however, jumped 96.3 percent to Rs 2,742.7 crore.
• Amplus Solar launched The MILES (M+Innovation Lab for Energy and Sustainability) Challenge for startups that are aligned with and are ready-to-deploy clean energy solutions in India. The Gurugram startup will support the winners of the challenge through seed capital to help them scale up.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Focus on creating value, focus on creating meaningful value, and valuation will follow.”

— Bhavin Turakhia, CEO, Flock

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