Healing mental health with community; Indian chaat gets a makeover

Hello,

It was an India vs Pakistan match unlike any other!

While cricketers waited for the drizzle to end, Indian startups were on the top of their game on social media. 

Zomato, in a post, took a dig at Pakistan for being defeated by US’ ‘NRI’ team. Meanwhile, Swiggy offered Pakistan Cricket Board a Red Bull energy drink to help lift those TVs they would have to throw when they lose. On the other hand, Blinkit found it best to hang nimbu-mirchi ahead of the match.

All in good fun!

In other news, foreign investors withdrew nearly Rs 14,800 crore from domestic stocks in the first week of June. This followed a net outflow of Rs 25,586 crore in May, and more than Rs 8,700 crore in April.

ICYMI: Meet Ashok Elluswamy, the first person hired for Tesla’s autopilot team. 

Lastly, Japan’s birth rate fell to a new low. Tokyo hopes a government-backed dating app can turn things around.

And if you are looking for in-depth research and analysis, here's a steal deal. A subscription to The Captable, our premium news website on the Indian startup ecosystem, is available at Rs 999 Rs 1,999 for the next three days. Hurry up and get the deal now!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Breaking stigma around mental health
• Indian chaat gets a makeover

Here’s your trivia for today: When was the first smartwatch launched?

100 Emerging Women Leaders

Breaking stigma around mental health

Realising the need of the hour and inspired by the growing shift in people’s perception towards mental health, Leanne Pais decided to train a few therapists and took her practice online. She founded The Unopened Box in 2020 to offer quality mental health services from trained and qualified professional therapists.

Letting it out:

• Incubated at IIM Bangalore under NSRCEL’s Women Startup Programme 3.0, The Unopened Box believes in infusing creativity into therapy through workshops on art therapy, clay workshops, storytelling, dance classes, and more.
• To date, the startup has conducted 368 hours of workshops (both free and paid), and expanded from offering a single type of training to 12 types of training courses for therapists and individuals.
• “Working with the community is the biggest part of our jobs. We want to bring systemic change to mental health in homes, take it into schools, teaching, and much more,” says Leanne.

Wine and food

Indian chaat gets a makeover

The humble Indian street food has gotten premium with interesting twists such as the pani puri with seabuckthorn at Mumbai’s Masque, and the Jhalmuri Posto Chaat at IHCL’s Yellow House in Anjuna, Goa. 

But are Indian diners ready for this dining revolution?

Tangy and spicy:

• At Indian Accent, the team has gone the extra mile to curate a dedicated chaat-tasting menu that elevates the street food while keeping its essence intact. 
• At Taupe by Titlie in Goa, the Creamed Burrata Papdi chaat with achar purée, jalapeno, amchur, and sev, takes the cake. There's also the humble palak patta chaat where the spinach has been replaced with micro greens.
• “Elevating chaat is a winning streak for global diners. The variety, familiar ingredients, and vibrant presentation offer an accessible and perfect entry to Indian cuisine," believes Shikha Nath, Culinary Director, Bombay Brasserie. 

News & updates

• Clean energy: Swiss voters backed a government plan to boost domestic renewable energy, a decision that will make the construction of solar and wind plants in the Alps easier and ensure continued subsidies. The law aims at accelerating the development of renewable energy as the country targets carbon neutrality by 2050.
• Greasy economy: Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product dropped by 1.7% year-on-year (YoY) in the first quarter of 2024, data issued by the General Authority for Statistics showed. Oil activities declined by 11.2% during the three-month period, while non-oil and government activities rose by 3.4% and 2% YoY, respectively.
• Water fossil: Ancient grains of zircon crystals contain evidence suggesting dry land and freshwater may have existed on Earth 4 billion years ago, scientists report. The ratio of light to heavy oxygen isotopes detected suggests the zircons' precursor magma once interacted with freshwater deep below Earth's surface.

What you should watch out for

• Public issue: After Go Digit Insurance and Awfis, now it's online travel aggregator ixigo's turn to list on the stock exchanges. Its parent Le Travenues Technology's IPO will open for bids on June 10 and close on June 12. The company has priced its share in the range of Rs 88 to Rs 93. ixigo is planning to raise Rs 740 crore through this IPO, which will be through a combination of an offer for sale and a fresh issue of shares. Ahead of the IPO, it has already raised Rs 333 crore from anchor investors through the allocation of 3.5 crore equity shares at a price of Rs 93 per share.
• Tech festival: Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference kicks off on Monday, with the smartphone maker set to unveil its generative AI plans. While there have been no official announcements, analysts expect a big iOS update, a long-awaited refresh to Siri to make it more compatible, intelligent search on Safari browser, as well as Mail which may get new AI-enabled features, like asking Siri to make emails sound more professional.

When was the first smartwatch launched?

Answer: The first smartwatch was the Seiko Ruputer, which was launched in 1998. It could run applications and connect to a PC via a docking station.

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