💰️ Top-up’s

PLUS: Startups are not for the faint of heart

Author

Ruchirr Sharma
June 10, 2024

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Good morning. What a time to be an Indian Cricket team fan.

After an intense 4-hour game, Team India came out on top, backed by the heroics of Jasprit Bumrah with the ball and Rishabh Pant with the bat.

Looking forward to team India’s real kryptonite - the ICC knockout stages - here’s hoping they bring the cup home 🏆️ 

Let’s go boys.

- Ruchrngd Sharma & Shatakshi Sharma  

🧵 In today’s issue:

  • 📊 Markets recap

  • 💘 Startups are not for the faint of heart

  • 💰️ Top-up’s

  • 🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

    • Modi retains his seat

    • Elon won’t get his payday

    • Blinkit gets raided

  • 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’? (quick links)

  • 🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

📊 Markets

🇮🇳 India

Data as of market close on 7/6/2024

  • Indian indices attained new highs on Friday, spurred by RBI's unchanged interest rates and an increased GDP forecast. All Sensex stocks, led by Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, and IT, rose due to expectations of stable governance and future rate cuts. As investors anticipate the forthcoming budget, all market and sector indices joined the rally.

🌍️ International

Data as of market close on 7/6/2024

  • Wall Street dipped due to strong U.S. jobs data raising doubts over Fed rate cuts. Even with the S&P 500 hitting a new high, it finished lower with utilities, materials, and communication sectors lagging. GameStop dropped 39% upon "Roaring Kitty's" YouTube return, Nvidia fell with its market cap under $3T, while Lyft rose, forecasting yearly booking growth.

Here’s an interesting trend. 

In the past year, several startup founders have stepped back from active leadership roles to take on advisory or board positions within their companies. 

One of the latest examples is Hemesh Singh, co-founder of edtech unicorn Unacademy, who stepped down as CTO after nearly 9 years to move into an advisory role - and he isn’t the only one: 

  • At news aggregator Inshorts, co-founder Azhar Iqubal transitioned from CEO to chairman, handing over the reins to Deepit Purkayastha. 

  • MyGate's Vijay Arisetty moved from CEO to chairman, with Abhishek Kumar taking over as chief executive. 

  • Third Wave Coffee founder Sushant Goel took a board role, bringing in Rajat Luthra as the new CEO.

  • Logistics startup Porter saw Pranav Goel become executive vice chairman as Uttam Digga took over as CEO. 

  • At snack brand Epigamia, Rohan Mirchandani moved to executive chairman, promoting Rahul Jain to CEO. 

  • Social commerce platform Dealshare elevated Kamaldeep Singh to CEO after the exits of three co-founders.

Overall: This churn underscores the maturing startup ecosystem's focus on strong governance, fresh leadership perspectives, and founder roles evolving beyond the initial venture-building phase. As companies scale, many founders are transitioning to strategic advisory or board roles.

Read more: Economic Times

💰️ Top-up’s

Life is all about the small conveniences.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently proposed allowing automatic replenishment of UPI Lite, FASTag, and National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) wallets. 

What does this mean? It would enable customers to set a threshold balance below which their wallets would automatically top up.

Here’s why this is a big deal: 

  1. For UPI Lite, currently capped at ₹2,000 with a per-transaction limit of ₹500, the auto top-up aims to make small-value digital payments seamless. Customers can set a threshold balance, and the UPI Lite wallet will automatically reload from their bank account when the balance drops below that level.

  2. Similarly, for FASTag vehicle toll payments and NCMC transit card recharges, the RBI plans to introduce an auto-reload facility triggered when the balance falls below the customer's preset threshold. This eliminates the need for manual top-ups.

Plus, the central bank is waiving additional authentication and pre-debit notification requirements for these auto-reloads, as the funds remain within the customer's accounts.

Overall: This move aligns with the RBI's focus on improving the security of digital payments in India. It is establishing a digital payments intelligence platform to combat rising cybercrime threats in the ecosystem.

Read more: Inc 42

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

💺 Modi retains his seat - Narendra Modi was sworn in for an unprecedented third consecutive term as India's prime minister in a grand ceremony in Delhi. Though his BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won the election, it fell short of an outright majority, securing 293 seats amid a resurgence of the opposition which won 234 seats. While regional allies helped the BJP alliance cross the majority mark, the opposition INDIA alliance led by Congress has termed the result a mandate against Modi's government, setting the stage for an assertive opposition role in parliament.

🤑 Elon won’t get his payday - Norway's $1.7T sovereign wealth fund, Tesla's eighth-largest shareholder, plans to vote against ratifying CEO Elon Musk's $56B pay package at the upcoming annual meeting. The fund considers the amount excessive and lacks risk mitigation, despite appreciating Musk's value creation at Tesla since 2018 when the pay was approved. However, it will support Musk's proposal to transfer Tesla's incorporation to Texas from Delaware after a judge invalidated his pay there. The fund also backed a shareholder proposal for Tesla to adopt policies supporting labour rights like collective bargaining, as the company faces strikes by mechanics in Sweden over this issue. Additionally, it will vote to re-elect Kimbal Musk from Tesla's board.

🛒 Blinkit gets raided - The Telangana Food Safety Department raided Zomato-owned Blinkit's warehouse near Hyderabad and found multiple violations including expired products, unhygienic storage conditions like dust and disorganization, lack of proper licensing, untrained food handlers without protective gear, and improper storage of food & non-food items together. Blinkit responded that it is working with the authorities to implement corrective actions. The department seized some expired and potentially contaminated products worth thousands of rupees. Such violations can lead to serious health risks like infectious diseases, allergies, asthma exacerbations, and long-term respiratory issues from exposure to unclean conditions, dust and mould.

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

What’s happening in India (and around the world 🌍️)

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

  • Roland Garros finals took place this weekend, here’s the TL;DR:

  • T20 World Cup weekend rundown:

    • Canada beat Ireland by 12 runs;

    • Afghanistan beat New Zealand by 84 runs;

    • Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka by 2 wickets;

    • South Africa beat the Netherlands by 4 wickets;

    • Australia beat England by 36 runs;

    • West Indies beat Uganda by 34 runs;

    • India beat Pakistan by 6 runs;

    • Scotland beat Oman by 7 wickets

  • Puja Tomar makes history as the first Indian fighter to win at UFC.

  • Vikrant Massey’s Blackout reviews aren’t looking too good.

  • Horror comedy Munjya reviews are in and the consensus is that it doesn’t hit the mark.

  • Deepika Padukone’s first look for Kalki’s 2898 AD has us all thinking ‘stunner’ (much like her hubba hubba Ranveer Singh).

And that’s all for today folks - have a lovely day and we’ll see you tomorrow.