Bihar’s women powering the economy; Learn spoken English with AI
One of JEEViKA’s most radical features is its trust-based lending architecture built entirely without paperwork, collateral, or credit scores.
Hello,
Amazon Now is expanding its footprint.
After going live in Bengaluru in June, the ecommerce giant’s quick service arm is now offering its services to a few pin codes in Delhi.
Moving on, beauty is big business for Nykaa.
FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, the parent of beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa, expects consolidated net revenue for the first quarter of FY26 to grow in the mid-20% range, according to a regulatory filing.
The uptick is powered by continued strength in its beauty segment, even as its fashion business shows early signs of a turnaround.
Meanwhile, Go Digit General Insurance has received a significant reprieve in a tax dispute worth over Rs 170 crore after the Bombay High Court overturned a previous demand raised by tax authorities and ordered a fresh review.
ICYMI: Mysterious Bitcoin whales—aka people with large cryptocurrency holdings—have woken up after waiting for 14 years.
Elsewhere, Alphabet’s AI drug development subsidiary, Isomorphic Labs, plans to start its AI-developed cancer drugs on humans.
Colin Murdoch, Isomorphic Labs president and Google DeepMind’s chief business officer, believes using cutting-edge AI in pharma could not only accelerate drug development but also cut costs, Fortune reported.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Bihar’s women powering the state’s economy
- Learn spoken English, but with AI
- Finding freedom in one’s skin
Here’s your trivia for today: Which is Steven Spielberg’s only musical film?
Inspiration
Bihar’s women powering the state’s economy
A quiet revolution in Bihar is turning into one of India’s most successful grassroots development models. Led by 1.3 crore women, many of them never formally employed, this transformation is driven from Bihar’s smallest panchayats through the state’s flagship rural livelihoods programme: JEEViKA.
The architect of the programme, Himanshu Sharma, IAS, CEO of the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS), outlines its growth.
Key takeaways:
- So far, in 2025, JEEViKA has created over 10.6 lakh SHGs and reached more than 1.35 crore women, with total credit flows exceeding Rs 78,000 crore.
- One of JEEViKA’s most radical features is its trust-based lending architecture built entirely without paperwork, collateral, or credit scores.
- Unlike conventional banks or even microfinance institutions, SHG loans aren’t delayed by documentation or bureaucracy.
<Funding Alert>
Startup: Khetika
Amount: $18M
Round: Series B
Startup: InPrime Finserv
Amount: $6M
Round: Series A1
Startup: Yulu
Amount: Rs 25.7 Cr
Round: Series B
Startup
Learn spoken English, but with AI
The inability to speak fluent English despite being highly educated is a common frustration shared by many students, job seekers, and professionals alike in India. While most edtech tools focus on teaching the language, four students from IIT-BHU spotted a deeper problem—fluency, not literacy, which was holding people back.
Determined to change that, Akshay Akash and his college mates Anesh Srivastav, Ankit Kumar Pandey, and Akshat Baranwal founded Stimuler in 2022. Stimuler is a voice-first app that helps users improve spoken English through AI-powered phone call simulations followed by detailed feedback and personalised practice exercises.
Key takeaways:
- Unlike typical chatbot-based apps, Stimuler mimics a real phone conversation. Users can select topics such as hobbies, workplace small talk, or job interviews, and engage in a voice-only exchange with an AI bot.
- After the call ends, the app generates a “speech report card” instantly that highlights areas for improvement. The app also recommends personalised practice exercises to help users improve specific weaknesses.
- Stimuler operates on a freemium model. Free users get limited daily practice; premium plans start at $3/month depending on region, with annual options available. The app is used by over 4 million people, with paying customers mainly in India, Latin America, and Indonesia.
Social Impact
Finding freedom in one’s skin
For many queer individuals, the body holds memories of violence—both overt and subtle. It isn’t just gender dysphoria they battle, but also the slow erosion of self that comes from bullying, childhood trauma, stigma, and being made to feel different long before they had the words for it.
As puberty hits, bodies change, often deepening the disconnect. And yet, through community, therapy, literature, gender-affirming care, and personal rituals—queer people across the spectrum are reclaiming their bodies as sites of agency and pride. In these voices, we hear of healing as nonlinear, messy, and powerful; and of bodies once burdened with shame now becoming canvases of pride, resilience, and radical self-definition.
News & updates
- Big Tech: Apple took a challenge against EU regulators to Europe’s second-highest court on Monday after they fined it 500 million euros ($587 million) earlier this year for breaching landmark rules aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech.
- Acquisition: CoreWeave will buy crypto miner Core Scientific in an all-stock deal valued at about $9 billion, the company said on Monday, as AI infrastructure firms race to secure power supply to support their surging workloads.
- Tariffs: President Donald Trump said the US will impose an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning with the “anti-American policies” of the BRICS group of developing nations, whose leaders kicked off a summit in Brazil on Sunday.
What is Steven Spielberg’s only musical film?
Answer: West Side Story.
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