Tête-à-tête with Konkana Sen Sharma; Swarathma's push for sustainable music

Hello,

Go First is facing further turbulence.

The defunct airline, whose fleet was grounded in May last year, is headed for liquidation after EaseMyTrip Founder and CEO Nishant Pitti withdrew from the airline’s bidding process in his personal capacity to focus on the online travel platform’s long-term vision and growth. 

The decision followed EaseMyTrip’s January-March 2024 earnings where it slipped into a loss due to write-offs of amounts to be recovered from Go First (formerly GoAir).

Speaking of earnings, gaming and entertainment company Nazara Technologies’ profit for the January-March 2024 quarter dipped to a mere Rs 18 lakh due to write-offs of legacy businesses and corporate restructuring. Its revenue also slided 8% YoY to Rs 266 crore in Q4.

In other news, Reliance Industries has sought approval from the Competition Commission of India for an $8.5 billion merger between Viacom18 and Star India. The merger would result in the joint media conglomerate owning 100 TV channels, two OTT platforms, and a viewer base of 750 million.

And lastly, though India is in the midst of an infrastructural upgrade, it is also leading to traffic bottlenecks. A solution can be a mobile overpass bridge which allows work to continue without traffic being disrupted.

Here’s a video of how it can work.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Tête-à-tête with Konkana Sen Sharma
• Swarathma's push for sustainable music
• Work-life balance vs synergy

Here’s your trivia for today: Which year's Lok Sabha elections were the shortest in history?

Interview

Tête-à-tête with Konkana Sen Sharma

Seated in an electric blue pantsuit, Konkana Sen Sharma is exactly how you would expect her mother, celebrated actor and director Aparna Sen, to be—poised, elegant, and yet, authoritative. 

YS Life caught up with Sen Sharma on the sidelines of the launch of P&G Shiksha’s latest campaign around #StandUpForLearningGap—aimed at spreading awareness about the learning gap in schools. 

Accidental actor:

• “I didn’t want to become an actor, nobody ever said it to me or forced me to become one…I was quite a drifter, a dreamer…And spent a lot of time on my own reading, spending hours day-dreaming, and accompanying my mother to film sets..." Sen Sharma recalls.
• Usually with an inclination towards ‘artistic’ scripts, she explains, “I really go with my gut (when selecting scripts). It (the script) has to be believable, interesting, and engaging.” 
• In 2017, Sen Sharma made her directorial debut with A Death in the Gunj. “It is really like a stamp of my personality, my world. It is the closest to me, and will give you more of an insight into me than any other work that I have done.”

Upbeat

Swarathma's push for sustainable music

Breaking away from the norm of relying on diesel power generators in music events, legendary folk-rock band Swarathma has come up with an alternative, cleaner solution. 

The band is all set to embark on India's first-ever solar-powered concert tour between May 25 and August 3, 2024, with the support of Sustain Plus Energy Foundation, SELCO Foundation, and AmpereHour Energy. 

New album:

• Swarathma is known for its meaningful compositions that touch upon socially-driven issues like Ghum, Aasman ki Dukaan, Aaj ki Taaza Fikar, or Topiwalleh.
• “One of our songs, Ee Bhoomi, is all about Earth becoming a paradise. Some of our other songs are about a world that we wish to live in. This is our endeavour to try and bring together the world of our songs and the real world,” says Jishnu Dasgupta (bass guitar and vocals).
• “The title of the album as well as our first song is Raushan, which means light. It emanates a positive feeling because it's the light that we look for in our everyday lives,” says Vasu Dixit (vocals and rhythm guitar).

Mindfulness

Work-life balance vs synergy

In environments where employees are expected to be in an ‘always on’ mode, the pursuit of work-life balance can be challenging. This is where work-life synergy can help.

"It offers employees the flexibility to decide when they want to work and when they can be productive. It is about making work a part of your life,” says Bhakti Talati, an independent work-life balance coach from Mumbai.

Work priorities:

• Work-life synergy is more feasible in modern, flexible work environments where hybrid and remote work is common and the lines between personal and professional life are blurred.
• “It could mean an equal division of time between work and personal activities for some. For others, it could be three days of work and four days for personal projects and growth," says Talati.
• Companies must go the extra mile to offer stress management workshops, fitness programmes, and access to counselling services to help employees deal with work stress, believes Ruchi Ruuh, an independent counselling psychologist.

News & updates

• Stock sale: GameStop Corp announced the successful completion of its "at-the-market" equity offering programme. It involves the sale of 45 million shares, allowing the company to raise approximately $933.4 million before commissions and offering expenses. GameStop stock surged 18.5% in after-hours trading.
• Data scraping: Meta Platforms has offered to limit the use of certain data from all advertisers on its Facebook Marketplace platform, as part of amendments to the proposals accepted by the UK's Competition Market Authority that would prevent the social media giant from “exploiting” its advertising customers’ data.
• Tax equity: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US won’t sign an agreement to finalise a still-pending global tax deal targeting highly profitable multinational corporations until India and China agree to key unresolved issues. The Pillar 1 negotiations primarily focus on redistributing the taxing authority concerning US-based digital giants.

Which year's Lok Sabha elections were the shortest in history?

Answer: 1980. The voting period lasted only 4 days.

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