Quick Ride pins profitability on EVs; Reshaping pharma sector with tech

Hello,

After 11 days of scientific exploration and leaving ISRO’s imprints on the Moon, Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover is now put to sleep. Now, the rover hopes to be back up again on September 22 with the next sunrise.

Meanwhile, the market cap of seven of the top 10 most valued firms eroded by Rs 62,279 crore last week. Reliance Industries took the biggest hit with its valuation falling by Rs 38,495 crore.

Also, market regulator SEBI has proposed measures to curb the mushrooming number of finfluencers, preventing them from partnering with mutual friends and stockbrokers for promotional activities. It also floated a consultation paper last month proposing to restrict the association of regulated entities with unregistered influencers.

ICYMI: Here’s a look at 5 restaurants in Kolkata where you can have a hearty meal for just Rs 3.

Oh, and Google turns 25 today! Born in the garage of Susan Wojcicki on September 4, 1998, Google is now the world’s largest search engine and it’s hard to imagine a time without it. 

Its next focus? Generative AI with its Bard model and building data centres to power up AI tools.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Quick Ride pins profitability on EVs
• Reshaping pharma sector with tech

Here’s your trivia for today: Which Bollywood movie holds the Guinness World Record for having the maximum number of songs?

Mobility

Quick Ride pins profitability on EVs

Quick Ride started as a carpooling service in 2015 and has since made many pivots, including offering airport rides and providing employee commute services. The KNM Rao-founded company is now betting on EVs as it expanded its EV fleet size to 200 in Bengaluru while non-EV business hit breakeven in March.

“EV is going to be a big business for us. We want to scale to 500 vehicles by the end of the current financial year and 1,000 by the end of the next fiscal year,” Rao, Founder and CEO of Quick Ride, tells YourStory.

EV strategy:

• At present, Quick Ride does 15,000 carpools per day. However, the number of registered users on its platform has jumped to 48 lakh, thanks to its EV initiative.
• The company charges only 20% over and above the normal fare during peak times—a stark contrast to the 300% to 400% charged by Ola and Uber.
• “Quick Ride’s commissions are more reasonable,” says Raj, an EV owner driving for the company. He adds the company only pockets a 10% commission and deposits money in the account quickly. 

Startup

Reshaping pharma sector with tech

Jaswinder "Jassi" Chadha started Axtria as a sales consultancy that helps pharmaceutical companies keep track of their sales and marketing operations while fast-tracking drug development cycles. It made the transition to a SaaS model in 2013 and launched Sales IQ to help pharmaceutical companies track the performances of their sales representatives.

Improving performance:

• Axtria's DataMAX, a cloud-based platform, helps pharmaceutical companies extract data from their own processes, store it, examine the quality, and process it.
• Its learning and development centre, Axtria Institute, has more than 400 trainers and has awarded more than 50,000 certificates for technical skills.
• The company will hire 1,000 people for its new Pune office, many of whom will work on product-based activities like innovating new use cases and perfecting existing offerings.

News & updates

• Shiba fest: Shibarium, Shiba Inu's Layer 2 network, crossed the 1 million mark earlier today, less than a week after the mainnet bridge began functioning optimally. Before its August 28 relaunch, it encountered problems such as transaction delays and temporarily inaccessible funds.
• Green manufacturing: The UK government is in advanced funding talks with Tata Steel to operate the Port Talbot plant which offers greener ways of producing steel. Tata Group has reportedly committed £700 million of capital expenditure while the UK government will £500 million.
• Golden investment: Indonesia will issue golden visas allowing foreigners who make substantial investments worth $350,000-$700,000 to remain for between five and 10 years, in an effort to boost the country’s economic development.

What you should watch out for

• G20 Leaders' Summit: India, the current president of the G20, will host the G20 Summit scheduled for September 9 and 10 in New Delhi. The theme of this year's G20 is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “One Earth, One Family, One Future”, with discussions expected to be held on a range of issues—from the Russia-Ukraine war to climate change and economic disparity. A bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden is expected to be held on September 8.
• Free Trade Agreement talks with the UK: Senior officials of India and the UK will start the 13th round of negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal earlier said the talks are progressing well, with India expected to seek easier immigration rules for skilled professionals.
• Services PMI data for August: The domestic PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) data for the services sector will be announced on September 5. The indicator for July was at a 13-year high of 62.3, pointing to the substantial growth of India's service sectors.

Which Bollywood movie holds the Guinness World Record for having the maximum number of songs?

Answer: Indrasabha. Released in 1932, the movie had 72 songs in it, including 9 thumris, 31 ghazals, and 4 Holi songs.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.