Circular economy with spent grain; Zoho to offer POS solutions

Hello,

India loves OTT platforms.

The country currently has over 800 million internet users, with 86% of them, or 707 million people, using the service to consume audio-video content on OTT platforms. 

On the contrary, just 24 million or 3% of users use the Internet for online learning, according to the Internet in India 2023 joint report by data and analytics company KANTAR and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Moving on, the fintech sector continues to be in the limelight. 

The RBI granted a payment aggregator licence to Amazon Pay, the fintech arm of the ecommerce company. The approval enables it to conduct business as a payment aggregator and facilitate ecommerce transactions through its app.

Speaking of fintech, shares of One97 Communications Ltd, the owner of the Paytm brand, jumped another 5% on Tuesday to hit the highest trading permissible limit for the day. The stock climbed 4.98% to Rs 449.30—its upper circuit limit—on the BSE even after a muted opening to the trade.

ICYMI: From a robotic dog and a transparent laptop to a flying car, MWC Barcelona displayed some interesting tech. 

Lastly, we are just one day away from TechSparks Mumbai!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Circular economy with spent grain
• Zoho to offer POS solutions
• Taking the plunge at 49

Here’s your trivia for today: What newspaper does Peter Parker work for in the "Spider-Man" comics?

Sustainability

Circular economy with spent grain

Elizabeth Yorke first came across the concept of spent grain in 2016 while interning with food historian William Rubel, who was recreating bread from the 13th to 16th century. Spent grain is a by-product of the brewing industry and could be repurposed into flour.

She started Saving Grains in 2021 that upcycles beer waste generated by breweries into flour, which, in turn, is used to make crackers, cookies, bread, rotis, and even ladoos.

Repurposing:

• According to Yorke, many people believe spent grain is a waste product and do not like to consume it. Also, not many breweries understand the potential of this by-product. 
• Yorke did not want to create another product-based business but intended to engage with people and foster a closed-loop system.
• For this, she collaborated with Kutumba Community Centre in Bengaluru, where Saving Grains has set up a micro-unit that makes flour from spent grain.

Technology

Zoho to offer POS solutions

Chennai-based SaaS unicorn Zoho Corporation has launched ZAKYA, a modern point-of-sale (POS) solution to streamline daily operations and centralised monitoring for small and medium retail stores. 

The solution enables improved inventory management, omnichannel sales, and customer experience, is ideal for businesses with extensive inventories, and can be implemented in under an hour, the company said in a statement.

Key takeaways:

• Zakya will also offer a POS billing application, which can enable uninterrupted billing, even in offline mode. 
• During peak hours, sales personnel can use the mobile Zakya POS billing app to simultaneously process transactions, thus reducing checkout queues, the statement said.
• Apart from English, the app currently supports 10 Indian languages–Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, and Gujarati.

Women entrepreneur

Taking the plunge at 49

Uma Mani made her first underwater dive at the age of 49. Since then, she has been relentlessly championing the need for ocean conservation, throwing light on the plight of dying coral reefs. Coral Woman is an award-winning documentary on her life and experiences under and above water.

Into the depths:

• Her transition to Coral Woman is a lesson in optimism, rooted in her never-say-die-attitude that led her to take up swimming and scuba-diving in her late 40s. 
• Mani reminds us that the 2004 tsunami did not affect the Maldives as much as it impacted India because the coral reefs acted as a buffer and reduced the water pressure.
• Now based in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, Mani continues to raise awareness, talking to students in schools and colleges, and even corporate organisations, about ocean conservation and the effects of climate change.

News & updates

• Crypto rally: Bitcoin hit a two-year high on Tuesday, on track for its biggest two-day rally this year, on signs large players were buying the cryptocurrency, while smaller rival ether topped $3,200 for the first time since 2022.
• Layoffs: Sony Interactive Entertainment on Tuesday said it will lay off about 900 employees in its PlayStation unit, or 8% of its global workforce, becoming the latest technology company to announce headcount trims.
• No space: A shortage of space in European data centres is worsening, industry participants said, as booming demand for AI collides with limited expansion possibilities. Data centre operators such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle, and TikTok owner ByteDance are expanding as quickly as they can but challenges remain.

What newspaper does Peter Parker work for in the "Spider-Man" comics?

Answer: The Daily Bugle. 

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