RBI to strengthen compliance culture; Education in exchange for plastic

Hello,

Nykaa’s Hot Pink Sale delivers. 

On Friday, Nykaa said its beauty and personal care segment—its largest revenue contributor—saw a 20% rise year-on-year in net sales value in the second quarter of FY24, boosted by its flagship sale that started on July 21.

The beauty ecommerce company added that the festive season is a big driver for lifestyle categories and has witnessed a delay this year. “This shift has a base impact on the Q2 FY24 growth to some extent,” it cautioned investors.

Meanwhile, Ola has ventured into parcel delivery services using electric two-wheelers in Bengaluru, competing with Uber and Swiggy Genie. 

Speaking of deliveries, India's third-party logistics sector is poised to benefit from the country's booming D2C market, which is estimated to reach a GMV of $30-35 billion by 2027, predicts a Redseer report. 

Elsewhere, Walt Disney is reportedly in early talks with potential buyers for its streaming and television business in India. 

As per Bloomberg, senior executives from the US entertainment giant have gauged the interest of private equity funds. The evaluation comes as Walt Disney explores various options, potentially entailing the sale of a portion of its Indian operations or a combination of unit assets, including sports rights and its regional streaming service Disney+ Hotstar.

Last but not least, the Indian contingent will breach the triple-figure mark in the Asian Games medal tally for the first time ever. This is also the first time the country has won more than 20 gold medals in the history of the Asian Games.

A glittery victory, indeed!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• RBI to strengthen compliance culture
• Education in exchange for plastic
• Decking celebrities in 'exotic leather'

Here’s your trivia for today: In the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup, in 1975 and 1979, India managed to win only 1 match each—against the same team. Which team was it?

Finance

RBI looks to strengthen compliance culture

The RBI will soon come out with a draft framework for recognising Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs) for banks and NBFCs. The framework shall prescribe the broad objectives, functions, eligibility criteria, governance standards, etc., which will be common for all SROs, irrespective of the sector. 

SROs are non-governmental organisations that set and enforce rules and standards relating to the conduct of the member entities.

Other announcements:

• The government has decided to extend the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund Scheme by two years besides expanding its coverage to include the beneficiaries of the PM Vishwakarma Scheme. 
• The fund would enable the deployment of emerging payment modes such as soundbox and Aadhaar-enabled biometric payment acceptance devices.
• The RBI has proposed to allow cardholders to create Card-on-File (CoF) tokens directly at the issuer bank level instead of creating the same through the merchant’s application or webpage. 

Top Deals of the Week

Startup: iLink Digital

Amount: $75M

Round: Equity

Startup: Mensa Brands

Amount: $40M

Round: Debt

Startup: Bolt.Earth

Amount: $20M

Round: Series B

Sustainability

Education in exchange for plastic

The Akshar School in Guwahati, Assam, offers students free education in exchange for recycling plastic waste including discarded bottles and wrappers. So far, the school has collected and recycled about 1,200 bottles and more than 640,000 plastic wrappers.

"A few months ago, we decided to implement a 'plastic waste fee' to encourage parents and children to responsibly manage and dispose of plastic waste,” says Mazin Mukhtar, who started the school with Parmita Sarma in 2016.

No to plastic:

• Students are taught to recycle it for small construction projects like eco-bricks, plant guards and other products.
• The school also has a recycling plant in camps. They pay weekly "plastic school fees" for waste plastic from their homes, and work in the plant to create new products from waste plastic.
• Mukhtar's Akshar Foundation has tied up with private schools to collect plastic. So far, they have collected 1 tonne of plastic waste from 12 such schools in a month.

Splurge

Decking celebrities in 'exotic leather'

Jalandhar-based brand Brune and Bareskin offers handcrafted leather apparel and accessories, along with bespoke services. It uses "exotic leather" sourced from animals like ostrich and stingrays to create leather jackets, men’s shoes, women’s apparel, shoes etc.

It also decked the Indian cricket team for the World Cup 2019.

Craftsmanship:

• The stingray collection is priced between Rs 9,999 and Rs 79,999 while the ostrich leather products start from Rs 4,999 (for the keychains) and can go up to Rs 99,999 (for the backpack). 
• With leather sourced from the Middle East, South Asia and Australia, Brune and Bareskin’s collections are designed in-house, and are inspired by nature, art, and cultural influences.
• The brand handcrafted a Kolkata Knight Riders-themed purple backpack with golden accessories and initials for SRK and also made backpacks in yellow and blue for Chennai Super Kings.

News & updates

• Custom chips: OpenAI plans to develop its custom AI chips due to the high costs and scarce availability of Nvidia's compute GPUs and other processors for AI inference and training. It is also reportedly considering potential acquisitions to obtain the necessary IP and speed up the process.
• Internet access: Amazon is set to launch its first-ever internet satellites as the company looks to rival SpaceX’s Starlink. This space internet service, known as Project Kuiper, will connect to remote terminals on Earth allowing for internet access to be provided to remote locations. 
• Tay-Tay mania: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concert film has become a box office blockbuster a week before hitting cinemas. Its distributor AMC says global advance ticket sales have topped $100 million. Swift's global tour, scheduled to continue until late 2024, is also on track to become the biggest in history.

In the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup, in 1975 and 1979, India managed to win only 1 match each—against the same team. Which team was it?

Answer: East Africa, which was a makeshift team assembled with players from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. It ceased to be a member of the ICC in 1989.

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