Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (October 22, 2025)

From Stardour’s multipurpose space taxi for orbital logistics to OpenAI taking on Google and Perplexity in the AI browser race, YourStory brings you today’s headlines with the latest developments across sectors.

Featured stories

How Mishika Singh is cutting through India’s legal red tape to make rights real for citizens

In a country where laws promise protection but access remains a privilege, Mishika Singh's Neev Foundation is a rare bridge cutting through the procedural grind that defines most legal processes in India.

The Delhi-based lawyer says Neev grew from a simple yet unaddressed understanding that the law, while meant for everyone, is accessed by only a few. Singh’s organisation steps into that gap—meeting women, workers, and families—where rights exist only on paper, and helps translate them into reality.

When the Delhi riots broke out in February 2020, Singh had already begun mobilising volunteer lawyers to help detained protestors during the Citizenship Amendment Act demonstrations a few months earlier. Read more.

How Kulsum Shadab Wahab is giving acid attack survivors a second chance at life

In 2009, in the corridors of Bengaluru's St John’s Hospital, while organising an art therapy session for disabled children, Kulsum Shadab Wahab came across a woman whose face told a story of horrific violence. She was an acid attack survivor, a term unfamiliar to Wahab at the time.

“I was so naive that I didn’t know what an acid attack was. I asked the nurse, ‘What is that? How does it happen?’ We are so privileged that it happens in our own backyard and we have no idea of what’s going on,” Wahab recounts to HerStory. Read more.

Building a multipurpose 'space taxi' for orbital logistics

Hyderabad-based Stardour Aerospace’s goal is not only to make space more accessible but also to accelerate innovation.

“No one is doing real research. Everybody is making just cheaper copies of technologies which are already available. But that wouldn’t be a problem in the traditional sense for the world because it is not an investable problem,” said Founder Sankarsh Chanda, highlighting a major challenge faced by the Indian space-tech industry.

The startup, which develops reusable in-space logistical vehicles, was founded in 2020 by Chanda. Read more.

Insights

How India can become a key player in the global semiconductor industry

The global semiconductor industry is poised to cross $1 trillion in size by 2030. India can carve a strong niche for itself owing to four elements: talent, domestic demand, government policies, and startups.

Endiya Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm, in its report 'India’s Semiconductor Moment: Perspectives from DEMO', noted that the country is poised to become a critical node in the globe’s technology supply chain. DEMO stands for Deeptech Exponential Market Opportunities. Read more.

Basement charging restrictions put another road bump to EV adoption in India

Earlier this month, proposed amendments to the National Building Code sent shock waves across the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem for introducing stringent regulations that might stall the adoption of EVs in the country. According to these proposed amendments, restrictions would be placed on where electric and hybrid vehicles can be parked and charged.

Citing fire safety concerns, the provisions permit EV charging only at the ground level, or within the first basement level, if allowed, and that too in compartmentalised spaces not exceeding 200 square metres. These provisions are expected to throw a wrench in the urban mobility landscape that is increasingly becoming electric. Read more.

Battery Aadhaar is India’s attempt at tracing a battery’s life cycle, but challenges persist

In May this year, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) launched Battery Aadhaar—an initiative designed to bring transparency, traceability, and trust into India’s expanding battery ecosystem. 

Under this initiative, every battery would be equipped with a digital passport that logs where it came from, how it is used, and where it ends up. This could help address one of the biggest challenges that the battery recycling industry is facing—sourcing. Read more.

Latest news

OpenAI takes on Google, Perplexity in AI browser race with ChatGPT Atlas

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser that embeds ChatGPT directly into the browsing experience and aims to turn the browser into a personal assistant that can act on the user’s behalf.

The launch heats up the AI-powered web browser space, intensifying competition among OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity as each races to define what the next generation of internet navigation will look like—one where search, browsing, and productivity increasingly merge under the guidance of conversational assistants. Read more.

Other news

DGCA approves AVPL International’s Hisar drone RPTO

The drone RPTO (remote pilot training organisation) of AVPL International in Sisai, Hisar has received official approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), marking a key milestone for drone training in North India. 

The RPTO now features 10 dedicated flying zones, offering extensive hands-on training for students. It offers students hands-on experience in flying and maintaining drones, adhering to national safety and training standards.

The RPTO aims to empower young men and women with drone skills for sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, logistics, security, and environmental projects, while positioning Hisar as a hub for skill development and employment opportunities.

Atlys partners with Jar to offer digital gold referral rewards

Atlys, a visa-processing platform, and Jar, a gold technology company, have announced a joint customer reward initiative that converts referral rewards into digital gold. 

The programme runs on a first-come, first-served basis and concludes once one kilogram of gold has been distributed.

Verified customers who refer new users to Atlys receive digital gold allocations once the referred person completes and pays for a visa application. The reward value depends on the visa destination, ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000, and is converted to gold at the market rate on the payout date. 

(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)