A waterless ‘public toilet’

Hello Reader,

“I shop, therefore I am.” 

India is one of the largest retail markets in the world. After all, we love to shop!

Increased digital adoption and restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic also led more and more people to shop online. India’s ecommerce market is projected to grow to a whopping $120 billion by 2026—up from$38 billion in 2021—revealed a report by industry body FICCI and consultant firm Anarock. 

And one of the key drivers of this exponential growth is the burgeoning D2C ecosystem, with 10,000+ direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands across the country that cater to even the smallest of needs and wants of consumers. In fact, we are spoilt for choice—with both large and small players vying for a slice of the D2C pie.

At YourStory, we are looking for the country’s 500 most promising players—Challenger Brands—and if you think you have what it takes to propel India’s D2C ecosystem to the next level, sign up here.

Meanwhile, more than 100 of Delhi’s brightest and innovative minds joined us at an exclusive meetup for Web3 founders, investors, and developers. Stay tuned for and follow The Decrypting Story on Twitter to join us when we come to your city!

A waterless ‘public’ toilet

Public toilets—two words enough to make many shudder in fright, especially women.

For Siddhant Tawarawala, a frequent traveller in his college days, the issue of non-availability of clean restrooms led him down the path of entrepreneurship. 

Deciding to find a viable solution after attending a workshop for entrepreneurs during his third year of engineering, he launched Peeschute in 2017. The startup makes unisex paper-based disposable urine bags to help people relieve themselves.

The sell-factor? Peeschute's pocketsize bags solidifies the urine immediately to keep it leakproof and odourless so that it can be disposed of at one’s convenience. 

Key takeaways:

• Peeschute aims to solve larger issues like open urination, adequate public urinal facilities, reducing the UTI risks, and improving sanitation standards.
• The urine bags, which are available on its website as well as on Amazon and Flipkart, costs just Rs 15. 
• The startup, realising that lack of privacy can make it difficult for people to use the bags on some instances, also launched Peeschute Baksa, a plug-and-play unisex urinal solution.

Peeschute recently found an investor on Shark Tank with Aman Gupta, Co-founder and CEO of boAt Lifestyle, who invested Rs 75 lakh in the company.

What are you signing up for?

How many of us read the terms and conditions (T&Cs) when we sign up for yet another app or online service? Most of us may think—the worst that could happen is the company could (and mostly, will) sell our data.

But when it comes to credit services, not knowing the T&Cs could prove to be a lot more trouble. 

As buy now pay later (BNPL) services come under the scanner, a recent study by Chennai-based policy research institution Dvara Research reveals that most BNPL products lack measures to protect customers. 

In fact, in some cases, customers may find it difficult to even locate and access T&Cs, further exacerbated when BNPL products are embedded as a payment option at the point of sale.  

Hidden cracks:

• Researchers at Dvara Research reviewed T&Cs of 10 popular BNPL providers—Ola Money Postpaid, Amazon Pay Later, Paytm Postpaid, LazyPay, Unicard, Flexmoney, ZestMoney, Slice, Simpl, and Kissht—to identify the clauses that diverged from regulations or raised consumer protection concerns.
• Most of the players place the “burden” of ensuring the “suitability of the credit” on the buyer. Some providers like Amazon Pay Later and Unicard explicitly place the responsibility of assessing the suitability of the credit line on the customer. 
• While it is disclosed that platforms could access customers’ credit information for making credit assessments, none of the providers who were studied, barring PayTM PostPaid, disclosed whether they report customers’ repayments to credit bureaus. 
• Further, the customer is expected to periodically visit the provider’s website to review the changes in the T&Cs, if any, rather than be informed of the changes they tend to agree to upon sign-up.

Hack your brain to lose weight

New and innovative ways of losing weight keep propping up every year or so. From going on extreme diets to hiring personal trainers, there are numerous ways to achieve your weight goals. 

However, research shows that 80 percent of people who shed a significant amount of body fat can’t maintain their new weight for 12 months.

But what if you could lose weight without any diet or exercise? Shivanshi Verma and Sandeep Kumar have been working on this vision through the Yoboshu app. 

Initially launched as a fitness centre aggregator platform, Yoboshu pivoted to focus on diet and nutrition in 2020. It designed a "habit building" programme with the help of behavioural therapists, psychologists, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, lifestyle coaches, as well as physicians. 

Tricks to follow:

• 10-5-10 rule: Eat for 10 minutes, take a break, and then finishes off the rest of the meal.
• Divide and conquer: Divide meal into portions and eat one at a time.
• Three-week rest: Avoid sugar and caffeine for three weeks.

“When you manage your time, portion, activities and sleep, you can effectively lose weight,” says Shivanshi.

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