Elevating Bengaluru’s beer experience; Advocating for gender equality

Hello,

Despite a funding winter, weekly venture capital flow into Indian startups in the month of March continues to remain steady, thanks to a few large deals. In the third week of March, the total VC funding stood at $225 million across 20 deals. 

Speaking to Reuters, Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner at Blume Ventures, said the VC plans to do about eight new deals this year compared with 12 last year. It will invest larger sums in firms it is confident about, instead of spreading funds across more companies.

"When your existing portfolio is not showing gains, it is hard to be excited to do more," he said.

In other news, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd picked up a 6.44% stake in AI and ML startup Amlgo Labs for Rs 1.99 crore through its Maruti Suzuki Innovation Fund.

Meanwhile, Apple Inc. is winding down a long-running project to design and develop its own smartwatch displays, putting an end to another pricey research and development initiative and cutting several dozen engineering roles in the process. 

ICYMI: Here’s an explainer on the recent lawsuit by the US Department of Justice against Apple. 

Elsewhere, in a bizarre incident, a baby in China was born with a 4-inch long tail! 

Scientists finally have a reason why humans don’t have one! 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Elevating Bengaluru’s beer experience
• A peek into Samukha
• Advocating for gender equality

Here’s your trivia for today: Bovinophobia is a fear of what?

Wine and Food

Elevating Bengaluru’s beer experience

The consistent growth of the IT sector in Bengaluru has attracted a largely cosmopolitan workforce. And beer appears to be their favourite companion—as can be gauged from the number of breweries crisscrossing the length and breadth of Bengaluru. 

Ever since the BLR Brewing Co opened in 2020, its co-founder Prasanna Kumar has been giving the city a taste of unique offerings through craft infusions and eclectic Indian and global dishes.

Brewing:

• The theme at BLR Brewing Co across locations is inspired by the five elements of nature–air, water, fire, earth, and space. 
• Among the beers, Dunkelweizen (a dark wheat beer brewed with a blend of wheat and malted barley), Belgian Wit (an ale from Belgium), the American Pale Ale six decades (a limited-edition beer brewed by Geist), and the India Pale Ale are popular. 
• One of their most popular concoctions is Chikmagalur, inspired by the region of the same name–often called the cradle of Indian coffee.

Travel

A peek into Samukha

Boasting beautiful restaurants offering culinary extravagance, high-end designer stores, and luxury accommodations, Assagao is today a glamourous neighbourhood attracting the creme de la creme of the tourist crowd that flocks to Goa all through the year. 

Owing to the area’s gaining popularity, Varun Maheshwari and Gaurav Khandelwal, Co-founders of villa developers Aranayam, decided to develop and launch Samukha–their first real-estate project in Assagao.

Quiet getaways:

• Located in one of the two arterial roads of Assagao, Samukha—a luxurious four-bedroom villa—beautifully fuses the heritage of age-old Indo-Portuguese architecture with modern opulence and amenities. 
• As one enters through a rustic blue wooden door, they are welcomed by a traditional balcao or verandah with solid teak wood columns, which leads guests to an embellished main entrance door.
• To ensure minimum use of artificial lights and cooling agents, the villa has high ceilings and tall windows, facilitating cross ventilation throughout the day.

SheSparks

Advocating for gender equality

A large number of marginalised adolescent girls get caught up in the “cycle of denial” and lose control over their own life decisions, which perpetuates gender inequality in society, Anusha Bharadwaj, Executive Director of VOICE 4 Girls said at SheSparks 2024.

At SheSparks 2024, Bharadwaj emphasised the need to eliminate gender inequality and create safe spaces for women to grow.

Key takeaways:

• The VOICE 4 Girls NGO uses education and awareness camps to empower marginalised women and eliminate gender inequality.
• Bharadwaj pointed out that one in five adolescent girls in India are married before 18 years of age, and one in five girls undergo childbirth before they are physically and mentally prepared for it.
• According to Bharadwaj, the organisation forms peer groups among these girls who can then return to their friends or communities and spread awareness, empowering other women.

News & updates

• Firsts: British runner Jasmin Paris became the first woman ever to finish the legendary Barkley Marathons on Friday. Paris finished the gruelling course in a time of 59 hours, 58 minutes and 21 seconds, just 99 seconds before the 60-hour time limit lapsed.
• Lift off: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is finally ready for launch, targeting a liftoff date in May. It’s been a struggle to get to this point for Boeing’s crew vehicle, which suffered from a series of unfortunate delays over the years, the last of which had to do with two major safety hazards discovered on the spacecraft.
• Honours: The International Astronomical Union has named an asteroid after Prof. Jayant Murthy, who was acting director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics before his retirement in 2021. The asteroid 2005 EX296 has been designated as (215884) Jayantmurthy.

Bovinophobia is a fear of what?

Answer: Cows.

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