Redefining fashion for the disabled; A tête-à-tête with comedian Daniel Sloss

Hello,

That was a quick U-turn for Zomato!

The foodtech company has rolled back its decision to distinguish its pure-veg delivery fleet with a green uniform instead of its trademark red uniform. The new uniform, designed for the new vegetarian food delivery service, Pure Veg Mode, had raised safety concerns for delivery partners and customers.

Swiggy, too, was caught in the crossfire after many shared a poster on social media that showed Swiggy taking a dig at its rival’s initiative. Swiggy denied putting out any such ad. 

Meanwhile, Snapchat’s popularity in India is for all to see. The instant messaging app has acquired 200 million users in India since entering the country in 2019. 

Also, 85% of Snapchat users in Bengaluru use the app every day.

Elsewhere, India’s electric two-wheeler (e2w) market is booming, with the number of startups in the sector having grown from 54 in 2021 to 150 at present, according to a report by Bernstein. It predicted that annual sales of e2ws will reach 15-20 million units over the next decade.

In other news, Bitcoin slipped further on Wednesday, briefly slipping below the $61,000 mark before recovering lost ground as the volatile cryptocurrency comes off a high of $73,800 recorded last week.

ICYMI: Meet Mustafa Suleyman who’ll spearhead Microsoft’s new AI division.

Oh, and take a look at the innovative robot dog designed by Pune-based Muks Robotivs that enthralled students at IIT Kanpur. 

However, stray dogs weren’t impressed.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Redefining fashion for the disabled
• A tête-à-tête with comedian Daniel Sloss
• Tips for effective waste management

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the average speed of a human sneeze?

SocialStory

Redefining fashion for the disabled

Project DesignAbility, an initiative of SciArtsRUs—a California-based non-profit creating inclusivity and accessibility in arts and fashion, creates clothes specifically designed for people with disabilities (PwDs). It designs outfits that are accessible, adaptive, and can be worn easily.

Inclusive:

• Ranjini Kaushik started Project DesignAbility after watching her mother with arthritis struggle and run out of breath while attempting to wear a saree. It made her wonder how cumbersome this experience must be for PwDs.
• To make clothing accessible to PwDs, SciArtsRUs has crafted churidar bottoms with elastic fastening along the legs that make them resemble regular churidar pants.
• The project was launched on International Women’s Day 2023 at Vidya Sagar, a Chennai-based non-profit working to educate, rehabilitate, and offer lifelong support to PwDs.

Funding Alert

Startup: Pocket FM

Amount: $103M

Round: Series D

Startup: Ultrahuman

Amount: $35M

Round: Series B

Startup: Optimo Loan

Amount: $10M

Round: Seed

Interview

A tête-à-tête with comedian Daniel Sloss

At a time when the world debates freedom of speech and expression—and its limitations—Scottish stand-up comedian Daniel Sloss remains unbothered. “We don’t have to agree on everything to have a similar sense of humour,” Sloss tells YS Life when we asked him about his infamous dark humour.

Insights:

• Sloss is presently in India for an eight-city tour, Can’t—the country’s biggest by an international comedian—produced by DeadAnt Live. 
• The tour is part of The Loop, a new DeadAnt Live IP, and will go to Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, and Kolkata. 
• “I think the understanding of English in India is better than a lot of European countries in terms of live comedy…I find the audience to be very comedy-literate. But also more sensitive to certain topics than others,” Sloss said.

SheSparks

Tips for effective waste management

The need for an efficient approach to recycling, particularly as urbanisation accelerates, is critical, emphasised Poonam Bir Kasturi, Founder and Designer of Daily Dump, at SheSparks 2024. She also spoke about the importance of community involvement and active participation in the waste recycling process to achieve success.

Key takeaways:

• Kasturi recalled that in 2005, she noticed that nearly 60% of the household waste by weight was organic and could be used to make compost at home instead of being thrown out. 
• Daily Dump, started in 2006, makes a range of composting products designed to change mindsets around waste and the ease of composting in India. 
• She believes that when it comes to waste, there is a need for individual action, distributed action, decentralised action and a centralised system to manage medical waste, hazardous waste and e-waste.

News & updates

• Chip plans: The US will award Intel $8.5 billion in grants and as much as $11 billion in loans to help fund an expansion of its semiconductor factoriesand reinvigorate the American chip industry. At the same time, the US is considering blacklisting a number of Chinese semiconductor firms linked to Huawei Technologies Co.
• Fines: Google was fined €250 million ($271 million) by France’s competition watchdog for failing to keep its pledge to broker fair agreements with media outlets for publishing links to their content, including by plundering press articles to train its AI chatbot, Gemini, without informing them.
• Luxe: Shares of French luxury group Kering plunged 14% after it warned that Gucci sales were set to fall 20% year-on-year in the first quarter amid declining Asia transactions. The warning forecasts overall group revenues to drop 10% in the first three months of 2024 on a comparable basis.

What is the average speed of a human sneeze?

Answer: 160 km/h.

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