Tête-à-tête with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali; Noise, boAt clock flattish growth in FY24

Hello,

If you fear losing your job, you’re not alone.

According to a recent LinkedIn survey, 74% of Indian professionals are increasingly concerned about job security. There’s now even a term for it—FOGLO, or fear of getting laid off.

This concern is genuine given the global jobs market instability.

While some companies like NVIDIA rival AMD and General Motors are axing jobs as competitors are creeping up on their bottomline, Seimens, Lufthansa, and Boeing have a bigger worry—how to manage automation with the changing markets.

But are emerging technologies like automation and artificial intelligence really job killers? Marc Andreessen thinks not.

The Silicon Valley investor believes that rather than AI-driven unemployment, the world is witnessing an AI hiring boom. However, after an intense boom, AI appears to be losing steam—and that has to do with limitations of data.

“Basically, the big models are trained by scraping the internet and pulling in basically all human-generated training data, all human-generated text, and increasingly video and audio and everything else,” Andreessen said in his podcast. “And there’s just literally only so much of that.”

Still, there’s a huge potential when it comes to integrating AI with cloud, interoperability, and edge computing, believe software industry stakeholders at the Cloud & Data Centre India 2024 conference. Moreover, only 18% of companies in India are fully prepared to deploy and use AI-powered technologies, according to Cisco AI Readiness Index 2024.

Ready or not, AI is here and now.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Tête-à-tête with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali
• Noise, boAt clock flattish growth in FY24
• A genie for the ultra-rich

Here’s your trivia for today: Cinnamon was discovered by Egyptians as early as 2000 BC. But where is it actually from?

Interview

Meet filmmaker Imtiaz Ali

There's a certain quality in the characters crafted by ace Indian filmmaker Imtiaz Ali. Whether it was Jordan from Rockstar, Jai Vardhan Singh from Love Aaj Kal, or Geet from Jab We Met—each of these characters fits in a realm where reality meets fantasy. 

Besides the poignant storytelling, it's the attention to detail—from costumes to songs—that make his cinema so relevant. Through each of these aspects, Ali brings out the depth of human emotions in his lead or supporting cast. 

Love for art:

• Ali, who hails from Jamshedpur, was always drawn to the arts. Previously, he would enjoy reading books but since he's begun writing for films, he doesn't get much time to, he says. 
• Despite being a filmmaker of his stature, Ali has never shied away from drawing inspiration from other filmmakers. Some of the maestros he looks up to include Vijay Anand, Bimal Roy and Raj Kapoor, he tells YS Life. 
• In an earlier interview with another media outlet, he had also spilled the beans on some films that had a strong influence on him. Unsurprisingly, The Godfather, Sholay, Seven Samurai, Enter The Dragon, and Naya Daur feature on the list. 

<Top Funding Deals of the Week>

Startup: SarvaGram 

Amount: Rs 565 Cr

Round: Series D

Startup: UnifyApps 

Amount: $20M

Round: Series A

Startup: Bhanzu 

Amount: $16.5M

Round: Series B

Startups

Noise, boAt clock flattish growth in FY24

Audio wearable peers boAt and Noise both witnessed marginal to flat increases in their topline in FY24, although on widely different bases according to data from RoC filings. 

Bose-backed gadget and wearables brand Noise posted an operating revenue of Rs 1,430.8 crore in FY24, marginally higher than the Rs 1,426.4 crore that it clocked a year ago. Its bigger peer, Aman Gupta-led boAt clocked Rs 3,117.6 crore in revenue from operations, a decline of 7.6% from Rs 3,376.7 crore it clocked in the previous year. 

Key takeaways:

• In FY24, Noise posted a loss of Rs 20 crore while boAt witnessed a loss of Rs 79.6 crore.
• However, boAt managed to pare its losses from Rs 129 crores, and Noise slipped into red after clocking a profit of about Rs 1 crore in the previous year.
• Amit and Gaurav Khatri founded Noise, originally a tech accessory company, in 2014. In 2018, they pivoted to focus on smart wearables.

Women entrepreneur

A genie for the ultra-rich

Started in 2022 by Karan Bhangay and Advita Bihani, Goa-based Indulge Global Concierge Service acts like a genie for ultra-rich individuals, catering to their every desire. It has over 1,000 customers in 180 countries. The company charges Rs 4 lakh for yearly subscriptions. 

“These high-net-worth individuals are rich in resources but short on time. They have the means, and we step in to make their lives seamless, handling everything from the every day to the extraordinary,” Advita Bihani says, “The goal is simple: to save the most valuable asset—time—and offer convenience.”

Living large:

• “From shopping, and booking private jets to booking global music events and reservations, we offer everything and anything under the sky,” Bihani tells HerStory.
• Bihani explains that each client is assigned a dedicated team of seven to eight people, all accessible via WhatsApp. This team further gets in touch with their associates for specific requests. The startup has a team of 30 people.
• Recently, the startup received its concierge license in Dubai and plans to expand its clientele to 10,000 in the next two years across India, London, Singapore, and Dubai.

News & updates

• Crime and punishment: A hacker has been sentenced to five years in a US prison for laundering the proceeds of one of the biggest-ever cryptocurrency thefts. Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty last year in the case involving the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange being hacked in 2016 and the theft of almost 120,000 bitcoins.
• Sales sentiment: Chinese ecommerce behemoth Alibaba beat profit expectations in its September quarter, but sales fell short as sluggishness in the world’s second-largest economy hit consumer spending. Alibaba said net income rose 58% year-on-year to 43.9 billion yuan ($6.07 billion) in the company’s quarter ended September 30.
• Stock woes: Samsung Electronics will buy back its own shares worth a combined 10 trillion won ($7.16 billion) over the next year as part of efforts to boost its shareholder value following a recent slide in its stock price. In the buyback plan approved by the board of directors, a combined 3 trillion won of shares will be bought back within three months starting Monday.

Cinnamon was discovered by Egyptians as early as 2000 BC. But where is it actually from?

Answer: Sri Lanka.

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