Mahua spirit making a comeback; Meet India's newest crush Vihaan Samat

Hello,

Dreaming of You.

In what looks straight out of the movie Inception, A San Francisco startup says it has broken the dream barrier.

REMSpace claims that it has achieved “new dimensions of communication” between two humans who were sleeping, by sending messages while both were in a lucid dream state, Futurism reports.

Speaking of tech and communication, artificial intelligence could help people find common ground during a mediation process, researchers claim. The system works by taking the written views of individuals within a group and using them to generate a set of group statements designed to be acceptable to all. 

In other news, a team of researchers in Japan has found that an obscure fungus called Phanerochaete velutina can not only recognise shapes but even communicate information about its surroundings throughout its entire fungal network.

Moving on, while the world is still a long way off from its climate goals, even small wins in restoring biodiversity are worth celebrating.

From a major whale comeback in Seychelles to Montana's prairie lands seeing a rise in native species, here are five nature restoration plans that have worked. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Mahua spirit is making a comeback
• Meet India's newest crush Vihaan Samat
• Making waves in the incense market

Here’s your trivia for today: Who wrote the 1956 novel "The Hundred and One Dalmatians"?

Lifestyle

Mahua is making a comeback

Mahua or mahura (as it is called in Maharashtra), a tropical tree native to India and its neighbouring countries, has been long used for multiple purposes. 

Maharashtra’s South Seas Distilleries, run by the Chinoy family, aims to make the indigenous spirit relevant again. Can mahua be India’s very own global spirit, comparable to tequilas and mezcals?

Heritage:

• Recently, in a closed-door event in Mumbai, mother-son duo, Rupi and Hamavand Chinoy revealed the Six Brothers 1922 Resurrection—considered the world’s oldest matured mahura spirit, and Six Brothers Small Batch (Original), touted to be India’s first luxury heritage spirit. 
• Founded in 1922 by Hamavand’s great-grandfather, Jehangirji Behramji, South Seas Distilleries introduced the mahura spirit—distilled entirely from flowers, before the entry of the foreign liquor category in India.
• Back then, the spirit was highly popular among the royal families and aristocrats of Aswa, Dahanu. But then came the Maharashtra Prohibition Act of 1949, putting an abrupt end to South Seas Distilleries’ operations. 

Interview

Meet India's newest crush Vihaan Samat

There's a certain ease with which India's newest crush Vihaan Samat presents himself. Even after the recent success of two back-to-back projects Call Me Bae and CTRL, he's grounded to a fault. 

Instead of being fixated on the outcome of his work, the Mumbai-based celebrity quickly deviates the conversation to the preparation and hard work that goes behind the making of each character in an interview with YS Life. 

CTRL:

• Samat’s range as an actor is visible in both projects–Call Me Bae and CTRL–as they are poles apart from each other. “Both characters live somewhere within me. I don't necessarily operate like that daily but it's about what side of myself I want to bring out,” he explains. 
• He is keen on playing different characters and showing his versatility on screen. Next, he wants to be in larger-than-life, masala films.
• As for future projects, Samat says The Royals with Netflix is in the pipeline. There's no release date so far but the actor hopes it will be out next year.

SMB

Making waves in the incense market

India’s incense market is huge. According to IMARC Group, the Indian incense (agarbatti) market is estimated to be around Rs 10,000 crore, and is expected to record a CAGR of 8% between 2024 and 2032. It has several legacy brands such as Cycle Pure Agarbatti, Mangaldeep, HEM, Zed Black, and Phool, as well as unorganised players. 

One more contender in this market is the 40-year-old Bengaluru-headquartered Shalimar Incense Pvt Ltd, founded by Vinod Shah.

Sweet smell of success:

• In 1976, Shah branched out independently from his family-owned textile business to start Shalimar.
• Shalimar has over 300 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in its portfolio, sold under various sub-brand names, including Shalimar Retra, Shalimar Shubhakti, and Shalimar Kamal. Its price points range from Rs 35 to over Rs 1,000, depending on the pack and quantity.
• As part of its future plans, Shalimar is planning to expand its reach into southern Indian states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It also aims to double the number of countries it exports from the present 20 to 40.

News & updates

• Stock rally: Nvidia dethroned Apple as the world's most valuable company late last week following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialised artificial intelligence chips.
• Lawsuit: Delta Air Lines on Friday filed a lawsuit against CrowdStrike in Georgia, accusing the security software vendor of breach of contract and negligence after an outage in July that brought down millions of computers and prompted 7,000 flight cancelations.
• Monopoly: China's Alibaba has agreed to pay $433.5 million to settle a US class-action lawsuit filed by investors alleging monopolistic practices by the e-commerce giant. Alibaba denied wrongdoing, saying it entered the settlement to avoid the cost and disruption of further litigation.

Who wrote the 1956 novel "The Hundred and One Dalmatians"?

Answer: Dodie Smith

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