India to provide incentives to companies making EVs; Facebook to launch its Clubhouse-like audio chat rooms
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Climatic & Ecological Trauma: The Story Behind The Inception Of Zerodha’s Rainmatter Foundation!
When Zerodha decided to commit $100 million funds towards initiatives to combat climate change, it wasn’t just a random (or namesake) CSR act ― it was their love, responsibility and pain for this planet that made them support grassroots individuals and organisations working on problems related to climate change.
“Climate Change is no longer a problem for just researchers and governments to deal with and solve. We’re seeing an impact from it in a variety of ways. There is a strong belief in the team that this is our responsibility, too and much beyond mandatory CSR levels. It’s not just a “domain” to address or profit from,” says Sameer Shisodia, CEO, Rainmatter Foundation. [Read]
#IndiaTech
Nandan Nilekani encourages Indians to have cryptocurrencies as an asset class; His stance is seen significant as he has played a major role in building Aadhaar, the UPI, GST or FASTag infrastructure. (MC)
India to provide incentives to companies making EVs as part of the $27 billion broad auto sector scheme; for Electric Vehicles' components, there is an additional 2% "growth incentive" to promote electric mobility with the usual 4% to 7% government cashback. (MC)
Digital wallets become the second-most popular in-store payment method in 2020 with a share of 22% after cash payments; Debit cards and credit cards had a share of 20% and 12%, respectively. (FE)
Paytm payment interface continued to remain the distant third player in UPI transactions in February 2021; It claims to have recorded 750 million monthly transactions post-Covid, which also crosses its mark of the pre-covid level. (FE)
Piaggio plans to launch an electric version of the Aprilia scooter in India after Vespa; The performance-oriented Aprilia scooter known for its 'racing' heritage company promised. (MC)
#GlobalTech
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sells the NFT of his first tweet for $2.9 mn; He tweeted that the proceeds would be converted to Bitcoin and given to the nonprofit GiveDirectly’s Africa Response. (HT)
Microsoft in discussions to acquire Discord for over $10 billion; Xbox chief Phil Spencer is said to be talking to Discord about the deal, albeit the speculation says that Discord is likely to take itself public rather than seek an acquisition. (VE)
Russia launches 38 satellites for 18 countries; among them is Challenge-1, the maiden satellite from Tunisia, which was created by the Telnet telecommunications group.(HT)
Facebook shows to have taken down more than 1.3 billion fake accounts between Oct-Dec 2020; It also said that the company had built a global network of over 80 independent fact-checkers who review content in more than 60 languages.(HT)
IBM announced the launch of 'Call for Code Global Challenge' initiative to combat climate change; It invited global software developers and innovators to fight against climate change with open source-powered technology.(HT)
Facebook to launch its Clubhouse-like audio chat rooms; the new audio rooms feature currently in testing and yet to have an official launch for all users.(HT)
#BusinessNews
SEBI orders market entities to be ready with their backup sites in case of sudden disruptions in NSE; it said institutions must declare a “disaster” within 30 minutes and be ready with a risk management enterprise which includes going to a backup within the next 45 minutes.(MC)
Tata-led consortium bags Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail's PMC deal. The project's total estimated cost is around Rs 1.08 lakh crore, which includes a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Rs 88,000 crore.(MC)
Parliament passes the 'Mines and Minerals-Development and Regulation' bill to raise private investment in mining; This move aims to create employment opportunities and allow private players in mining activities to bring in modern technology.(MC)
Delhi HC halts the order restraining Future Retail from going ahead with the Reliance deal; Amazon may appeal to Supreme Court; Delhi HC also stayed the order asking for the attachment of assets of Future Group's Kishore Biyani and others. (HT)
NHAI registers a toll revenue loss of Rs 814 crore in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan due to farmers' protest; the revenue loss at Rs 487 crore was the highest in Punjab, followed by Rs 326 crore in Haryana and Rs 1.40 crore in Rajasthan. (MC)
#COVID19
Punjab reports 2,319 fresh cases, 58 deaths in the last 24 hours, while the total cases stand at 2,15,409, and the total recoveries have gone up to 1,90,399. (IE)
All Holi gatherings have been banned in Chandigarh; the Chandigarh Administration also ordered all restaurants and eateries to shut by 11 pm. (IE)
India registers more than 40,000 daily cases for the fourth consecutive day; WHO data once again shows Brazil, the US, and India are topping the world in daily cases. (TOI)
#AajKaGyan
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