India’s first Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO)

Good Morning,

Decision-making across companies are almost always centralised, i.e. stakeholders with voting rights come together to make important business decisions.

However, in August this year, in a first-of-its-kind move among Indian startups, Bengaluru-based blockchain firm Polygon (previously Matic Network) announced it is building a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).

In an interaction with BlockchainStory, Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder and COO, Polygon, says:

“So far, the prominent way for humans to interact and communicate has been through centralised institutions such as banks, companies, government bodies, etc., but this has given rise to a number of instances of malpractice and corruption. DAOs are a radical, paradigm shift where everyone in the organisation can participate in decision-making transparently on blockchain.”

What is a DAO? Essentially, it is an organisation where certain decisions are taken by communities of users or participants, and votes or actions are represented by some form of a blockchain transaction.

Forming a DAO for Polygon’s decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem is "the next logical step" to aiding collaboration between blockchain-based systems, believe the founders.

A DeFi ecosystem is a network of financial products and services that are decentralised, don’t rely on centralised entities like banks and governments, and make use of blockchain technology.

Click here to see the full interview.

The Interview

Students in India often lack industry-relevant skills despite the presence of 50,000 higher education colleges across the country. Sunstone Eduversity, founded by Ashish Munjal and Piyush Nangru, is looking at bridging this very gap with a data-centric and scientific model. 

The duo believes students are now looking for more outcome-based learning, which makes Sunstone an ideal choice. In this chat with YourStory, the Sunstone co-founders talk about their vision, evaluation metrics, growth, and more.

Editor’s Pick: Starting Ayurveda company Rasayanam

Ayurveda, which was once considered a “sunrise sector,” has today entered people’s daily vocabulary. Until a few years ago, the market only had a handful of prominent names such as Baidyanath, Patanjali, Emami, and Hamdard, but today, the scenario seems to be changing. 

Launched in February 2020 by Ayush Aggarwal, Faridabad-based Rasayanam is an Ayurveda company that is navigating its way into this market. It manufactures and sells products such as Nano-curcumin, Kashmiri saffron, Ajwa dates, Ashwagandha, etc. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

How Maavni Designs is promoting Odisha handicrafts and empowering artisans

Entrepreneur Smaranika Mohapatra has always been inclined towards handicrafts. After working for almost a decade in the IT sector in Bangalore with several companies, including TCS and JP Morgan Chase, she returned to her hometown, Bhubaneswar, and took the entrepreneurial plunge to work in the handicrafts segment.

With an aim to promote Odisha’s handicrafts across the country, Smaranika launched Bhubaneshwar-based Maavni Designs in 2019. Read more.

News & Updates

• Logistics unicorn Delhivery announced that it received an investment of $125 million from Lee Fixel’s venture capital firm, Addition. Lee remains a long-term backer of Delhivery and has been investing and re-investing in the company since 2015.

• Paytm's founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma will get employee stock options (ESOPs) for the first time as a reward to drive the company into a leadership position in the digital payments and financial services space.

• The BSE Sensex made history by reaching the 60,000-mark for the first time ever as investors continued to accumulate banking, finance and auto stocks. It took a little over 31 years for the Sensex to traverse from 1,000 points to the historic 60,000 level.

• A report by NASSCOM, in association with the Indian crypto exchange WazirX, revealed that the crypto tech market in India has the potential to create an economic value addition of $184 billion by 2030 in the form of investments and cost savings.

• Artha Venture Fund announced the Artha Access programme to make early-stage investments in Indian startups from its recently closed fund of Rs 225 crore. The firm plans to invest in 40 startups, with a limit of up to Rs 25 lakh per deal, by 2025.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Food is an important part of our cultural identity and we are in danger of losing a part of ourselves if we don't document those recipes. That is how Recipes For Life came along.”

— Sudha Menon, Author

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