Budget 2024 expectations from EV sector; Unlock your inner Sherlock with AyeVee

Hello,

A giant once, BYJU’S is staring at insolvency.

The NCLT has admitted bankruptcy proceedings against the company due to an outstanding debt of Rs 158.9 crore owed to the BCCI for sponsoring the jerseys of the Indian cricket team. 

The edtech firm is in deep waters, fighting multiple legal battles with its investors and lenders. 

New reporting also shows that the company allegedly hasn’t remitted the TDS to the government since July last year. It has also been reportedly locked out of over 100 tuition centres over unpaid rent and electricity dues.

ICYMI: What edtechs seek from the upcoming Budget.

Meanwhile, trouble is brewing for Paytm yet again as its parent One97 Communications Ltd received a warning letter from SEBI for unapproved related party transactions. The market regulator also warned the company to improve its compliance.

The slap on the wrist cost the company in the stock markets, with its shares diving 2.46% on the NSE.

This follows SoftBank exiting the company just days earlier, incurring a loss of $150 million on its investments.

The investment company has been weighing its investments carefully—exited PolicyBazaar earlier this year—as it looks to step up bets on AI infrastructure and industrial robotics.

Lastly, Tamil Nadu Story 2024, YourStory’s flagship event that strives to empower startups and homegrown brands of Tamil Nadu, is just around the corner. 

From former Cognizant CEO Lakshmi Narayanan to space tech startup AgniKul Cosmos’ Srinath Ravichandran, a stellar lineup of speakers will talk about the trends shaping the startup and industrial ecosystem of the state on July 19. 

Check out the agenda here.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Subsidies, lower tax on EV sector’s mind
• Unlock your inner Sherlock with AyeVee
• Giftolexia’s way to overcome learning disorders

Here’s your trivia for today: If you suffer from Chirospasm, what do you have?

In-depth

Subsidies, lower tax on EV sector’s mind

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s interim, pre-election Budget offered much-awaited support for EV charging infrastructure, especially on the manufacturing side. It also zoomed in on public EV infrastructure to boost the adoption of e-buses.

With the full Budget 2024 now on the anvil under the newly-formed government, industry stakeholders have renewed their expectations for a new phase of the FAME scheme.

Many asks:

• The EV industry’s biggest expectation from Budget is an advancement on the FAME scheme as the second iteration expired on March 31, 2024.
• The scheme is expected to have a Budget outlay of around Rs 10,000 crore, the same as FAME II, according to two sources YourStory spoke with. It will continue to offer purchase subsidies on electric two- and three-wheelers.
• Beyond manufacturing and sales subsidies, EV players also reckon it would help if the government actively boosted usage, especially in commercial sectors.

Funding Alert

Startup: Tekion

Amount: $200M

Round: Equity

Startup: Namma Yatri

Amount: $11M

Round: Pre-Series A

Startup: Icanheal

Amount: Rs 15 Cr

Round: Seed

Startup

Unlock your inner Sherlock with AyeVee

Chennai-based Asiaville has launched AyeVee Interactive and Gamified Experience, an interactive gaming platform that lets users make choices to shape the narrative in different ways. Currently, the platform has two shows—a whodunnit and an escape feature film. 

Features:

• Working on similar lines as Netflix’s Bandersnatch, the AI-powered platform offers immersive 360-degree AR/VR experiences, all while you watch a short film. 
• The inspiration for the platform came from a live-streaming session held last year. AyeVee’s team live-streamed a murder mystery to engage with the audience. A scene was enacted, clues were provided, and the audience was asked to solve the mystery.  
• AyeVee is available on iOS and Android platforms, and the games are streaming in Tamil and Malayalam, with English subtitles. There are plans to add more languages soon. 

Women Entrepreneurs

Giftolexia’s way to overcome learning disorders

After Teena Paul’s son was diagnosed with dysgraphia—a learning disability that concerns impairments in written expression—she came across a gaze pattern-based screening tool from Sweden for learning disabilities.

Paul explains, “One cannot discern a learning disability by looking at a child. This is not an intellectual issue, but a processing difference, and one needs screening to identify this.”

Helping children:

• In 2017, she started Giftolexia with seed funding from NSRCEL to help children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties with methods and tools for early identification and remediation. 
• She found a collaborator in Cyclops Medtech—a Bengaluru startup known for its eye-tracking device. The partnership led to an application that captured gaze data, which it initially tried out with children. 
• With this deeptech tool, the screening age is reduced to eight years from the current average of 12 years, and the screening time to five minutes per child from 30 minutes taken for a pen-and-paper screening. It can screen for specific learning disabilities.

News & updates

• Tech M&A: Google owner Alphabet is reportedly in advanced discussions to buy fast-growing cybersecurity startup Wiz for roughly $23 billion. A takeover of Wiz, which makes cybersecurity software for cloud computing, would mark the tech giant’s biggest-ever acquisition.
• Design change: Elon Musk granted his engineers at Tesla more time to finish the development of a robotaxi prototype, pushing back the model’s heavily anticipated unveiling. While the CEO has unveiled little information, Tesla will own and operate some of the self-driving vehicles, while others will be privately owned but available for rent through Tesla's network.
• Protect wildlife: Over 100 companies, including Unilever, L'Occitane, and Iberdrola, have called on governments to enact tougher policies to reach a UN goal of halting nature loss by the end of the decade. In 2022, the world agreed to a landmark deal to protect biodiversity, including a pledge to protect 30% of the world's natural ecosystems.

If you suffer from Chirospasm, what do you have?

Answer: Writer’s cramp, or a spasm of the hand muscles.

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