Nutrition leaders fight malnutrition; Odisha’s plans to become a startup hub

Hello,

Soon, it won’t be just The Jetsons where cars fly in the sky.

Chennai-based startup The ePlane Company expects to develop a certifiable prototype of a flying electric taxi by March next year. Incubated at IIT Madras, the startup also intends to debut its drones, capable of carrying payloads ranging from 2-6 kg, for commercial use.

Meanwhile, startups are lining up on the bourses.

After Swiggy, consumer-tech brand Boult Audio is gearing up to go public this fiscal year, targeting a revenue milestone of Rs 1,000 crore in FY25. The startup is also planning an expansion into international markets and new product categories.

Speaking of the stock market, the combined market valuation of six of the top 10 most-valued firms increased by Rs 1.3 lakh crore last week, with SBI and ICICI Bank emerging as the biggest gainers. 

ICYMI: The Boring Phone is a new, featureless flip phone for younger people who want to bin their smartphones amid data privacy concerns.

And lastly, here’s an incredible story of how two iPhones survived after falling 16,000 feet from an aeroplane.

That’s some warranty guarantee!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Empowering women to fight malnutrition
• Odisha’s plans to become a startup hub

Here’s your trivia for today: How many voters chose the None of the Above (NOTA) option when it was first introduced in the 2014 Indian general elections?

Social impact

Empowering women to fight malnutrition

Sumati Pradhan is among the eight women trained through an initiative of Mumbai-based non-profit Vitamin Angels India (VAI) to address malnutrition in vulnerable communities, including tribal women in Odisha’s Kandhamal district. 

“We also chose to train the community women in large groups, which inspired them to exchange knowledge and ideas, and experiment with what they learnt in their kitchens," says Dinbandhu Maharana, who works with NGO Kandhamal Jilla Sabuja Baidya Sangatha to implement the programme.

Self-sustenance: 

• Pradhan is a Poshan Ma’eli, or ‘nutrition leader’, elected by her community to the post as she was among a handful of women to graduate from school.
• Women share their lands to collectively grow and take home vegetables like carrots, long beans, radishes, tomatoes, spinach, and drumsticks. VAI provided the community with organic seeds at the beginning of the programme.
• Over the last year, VAI has upskilled women to recognise the region’s rich natural resources and the health benefits of consuming locally grown fruits and vegetables. 

Startup

ICYMI: Odisha’s plans to become a startup hub

Odisha aims to be among India's top three startup destinations, with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik envisioning the growth of at least 5,000 startups by 2025. 

The startup boom is not limited to major cities; emerging ventures are thriving across the state, including Rourkela, Balasore, Berhampur, Sambalpur, and Bargarh.

Key takeaways:

• The role of Startup Odisha in nurturing companies can not be overstated. It has fostered over 1,800 startups across sectors such as agritech, IT, artificial intelligence, healthcare, fintech, and biotechnology. 
• Dr Omkar Rai, Executive Chairman of Startup Odisha, says the state is focusing on creating incubators to ensure startups get funding as well as market access.
• The state hosts 27 incubators, and among them is Odisha Startup Hub (O-Hub), the Government of Odisha’s incubator. 

News & updates

• Stoppover: Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an unannounced trip to China, a week after postponing a visit to India to handle pressing issues at the automaker. He is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of full self-driving software and permission to transfer data overseas.
• U-turn: Germany is considering scaling back plans to tighten government screening of Chinese investments, the Wall Street Journal reported. A decision to ease back from a planned foreign investment-screening law had become likelier due to fears that scrutiny of Chinese investments could hurt Berlin’s efforts to revitalise Germany’s economy.
• A big hit: The Manor Lords video game released this weekend by a small independent studio in Poland has sold more than a million copies, giving a timely boost to the country’s computer entertainment industry. The medieval city-building game was a top seller on the Steam distribution platform. At the peak, about 170,000 people were playing the title at the same time.

What you should watch out for

• IPO buzz: Swiggy is expected to file papers for a $1.2 billion IPO with the SEBI. The foodtech decacorn has taken the confidential route for the public issue, which allows it to share its draft red herring prospectus with only the market regulator and stock exchanges and not release it to the public. The company received the shareholders' nod last week to raise Rs 3,750 crore in fresh capital and sell shares worth Rs 6,664 crore as part of the offer-for-sale component. Prosus, which has a 33% stake in Swiggy, and SoftBank are among investors expected to sell a part of their stake. Swiggy is also reportedly planning to raise Rs 750 crore through a pre-IPO round.
• Regulatory caution: The RBI had earlier deferred the deadline to implement new rules for exchange-traded forex derivatives to May 3. With the new rules, proprietary traders and retail investors are required to demonstrate contracted or prospective currency exposure to participate in the currency derivatives segments. The rules are expected to force out most of the market’s most active players, drying up volumes that reached $5 billion a day. Brokers, including Zerodha, had asked traders to close open positions to be compliant with RBI rules. 

How many voters chose the None of the Above (NOTA) option when it was first introduced in the 2014 Indian general elections?

Answer: 6 million, or 1.1% of all votes.

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