AI for waste reduction; An OTT audio platform for kids

Hello,

India’s hiring outlook weakens.

Weak global cues and a cut in discretionary spending by clients are expected to sharply reduce campus intake by the Indian IT industry this year with market watchers saying that Infosys and HCL Tech's subdued take on hiring signals a tough road ahead for freshers in the near term.

Meanwhile, India’s first electronic chip manufacturing plant is expected to be in place within a year, said Union Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The government has initially earmarked a $10-billion incentive for setting up a semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in the country including a wafer fabrication plant. The wafer fabrication plants are the first building block of physical chips that are used in all high-tech electronic products.

ICYMI: Where do the world’s 25,000 centi-millionaires holiday?

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• AI prediction for waste reduction 
• An OTT audio platform for kids 

Here’s your trivia for today: Which is the world's most traded spice?

Technology 

AI prediction for waste reduction 

Varun Khurana and Prashant Jain co-founded Otipy in 2020 to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and business intelligence to anticipate demand and minimise wastage in the modern food supply chain. 

The Gurugram-based B2B2C community-based agritech platform connects consumers, resellers, and farmers to bring fresh produce to consumers’ doorstep within 12 hours. 

Bridging the gaps:

• Otipy’s model uses data regression and machine learning to calculate demand based on more than 40 parameters. With 500+ employees today, it operates an ecommerce app, which provides farm fresh vegetables and fruits.
• The startup has tied up with over 20,000 small farmers and 100 farmer-producer organisations to assist with accurate demand forecasting, provide insights for crop planning and harvesting cycles, and enable informed decisions. 
• It uses a blockchain-based traceability system that enables farmers to track the source of each item and the produce's journey from farm to warehouse.

Content

An OTT audio platform for kids

In 2022, Neha Sharma and Sowmya Jagannath launched Vobble, an audio OTT platform that has over 1,000 minutes of content available for kids. 

After a year of testing and getting feedback on the product, the Bengaluru-based company has fetched 200 subscribers and Rs 6 lakh in revenue since this August.

Curtailing screen time:

• Each month, Vobble adds 250 minutes of original, in-house-made content and an additional 250-300 minutes of content from other publications, including Harper Collins India, Amar Chitra Katha, Scholastic Tulika, and more.
• At first, parents create their child’s profile on Vobble and add how often they listen to audio. Based on this, the platform determines the child's age and shows only age-appropriate content on the home page. 
• The company offers a starter pack worth Rs 3,500, which includes a parent-controlled app with six months of free audio content, kid-friendly headphones with volume limiters capped at 90 dB for safe listening, and two activity books.

News & updates

• Victory: A state judge threw out most of the claims but said she’ll allow the lawsuits to advance based on a claim that the companies were negligent, or knew that the design of their platforms would maximise minors’ use and prove harmful.
• Penalty: An Australian regulator has fined Elon Musk's X $386,000 for failing to cooperate with a probe into anti-child abuse practices, a blow to a company that has struggled to keep advertisers amid complaints it is going soft on moderating content.
• Higher: The prices of your streaming video subscriptions are going up. Again. The cost of major streaming services has risen by about 25% over the past year or so, and companies are already planning future increases.

What you should watch out for

• Earnings: Several companies to announce their second-quarter earnings this week, including One97 Communications, Wipro, Jio Financial, Yatra Online, Happiest Minds, HDFC Bank, and PVR Inox.
• Standstill: Ola and Uber car drivers in Chennai announced a two-day strike starting today, reported The News Minute. Nearly 80 percent of drivers working with cab ride aggregation platforms will not function on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, they have called to organise a protest at Egmore’s Rajarathinam stadium.
• Unfold: OnePlus is entering the world of foldable smartphones, with the launch of its highly anticipated 'OnePlus Open' in Mumbai on October 19.
• Liftoff: ISRO Chief Dr S Somanath announced that the ‘TV-D1’ (Test Vehicle Development Flight 1) for the Gaganyaan mission is set for its inaugural test flight on October 21. 

Which is the world's most traded spice?

Answer: Black pepper. In fact, the value of the spice trade is dependent on pepper prices. 

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