Tuesday, 18th August ’20
Good morning, welcome to TMT Tuesday. India is evolving into a land of multiple opportunities in business and growth impact. A lot of FII investments along with Private Equity money is flowing in. In this regard, it is paramount for our readers to understand the latest developments and the opportunities that lie in this space to make maximum impact. TMT ensures that we bring you what is hot in a crisp manner.
Here are a few words of wisdom from former late President, Shri APJ Abdul Kalam to start your day,
Luxury and Lies have huge maintenance costs. But truth and simplicity are self-maintained without any costs.
MIND MONK
Memorize the tough!
Whether you’re a student, a professional, a parent, or a retiree — all of us are learning new things everyday. Undeniably, learning new skills can be frustrating and time-consuming, but what if science could help speed the process up a little?
There are a number of ways to train your brain to memorize things faster and optimize learning:
1- Exercise to clear your head: Exercise can improve learning and memory, so if you’re having writer’s block or just can’t seem to get through that tough math problem, try walking it off or squeezing in a quick gym session.
2- Write down what needs to be memorized over and over: It can seem like a lot more work to continuously jot down the same thing over and over, but this simple activity can work wonders for your memory recall.
3- Do yoga: Yoga is an easy way to improve your brain’s grey matter, which is involved in muscle control and sensory perceptions like speech, memory, decision-making, and seeing.
4- Study or practice in the afternoon: Even if you consider yourself a “morning” or “nighttime” person, at least one study has shown that buckling down and focusing on a task in the afternoon can have a greater effect on long-term memory training than other times of the day.
Happy Memorizing!!
MARKETS
Markets: Nifty closed its losing streak and closed at 11,200 levels. RIL stock falls 2% amid reports firm in talks to buy Urban Ladder, Milkbasket. Markets today will react to the outcomes of the AGR hearing. Globally, the US-China tussle will be eyed closely, as the upcoming OPEC meeting is also on the radar. US stocks start the week on a high note while the European stocks fell flat as the travel stocks plunged. Coronavirus cases continue to keep the markets cautious.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
Freshwater fish and seafood supply chain platform Captain Fresh has raised $2.3 million in a funding round led by Ankur Capital, as it looks to build intelligence in demand-supply matching, enabling e-auctions for sourcing, standardizing supplies and maintaining digital traceability systems.
Samsung has submitted estimates of making smartphones worth over $40 billion to the government under the PLI scheme after Foxconn. Out of this, phones with factory price of over $200 could account for over $25 billion and most of phones manufactured in this category will be exported.
Voodoo, the French company behind a slew of popular casual games like Helix Jump, announced Monday that Tencent has become a minority shareholder in its business valued at $1.4 billion. Tencent gets to circumvent getting government approvals concerning in app purchases and Voodoo gets access to the Asian market.
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
The UK launches a £3 million innovation challenge fund in India: The UK government has launched a £3 million innovation challenge fund in India to support scientists in academia and industry to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. The fund invites tech innovators with connections to the AI-Data cluster in Karnataka and the future mobility cluster in Maharashtra to submit research and development proposals for tackling COVID-19 or which promote a greener planet.
Tata Sons leads title sponsorship race for IPL 2020: Tata Sons is leading the race to bag the title sponsorship of the IPL, a month before its scheduled start in the UAE. Others in the race include Patanjali Ayurveda and Jio, besides e-learning platforms Byju’s and Unacademy and fantasy sports firm, Dream11. All the companies have submitted the expression of interest (EOI) with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The brand value of IPL stood at $6.8 billion in 2019 up 7% from 2018, according to consultancy firm Duff and Phelps.
Ester Filmtech to set up ₹1,350 cr manufacturing plant in Telangana: Ester Filmtech is planning to set up an advanced polyester film manufacturing facility in Telangana with an investment of ₹1,350 crores. The project will create direct employment potential for about 800 people while the end products will be used in packaging material. Ester Industries is one of India’s leading producers of polyester films, engineering plastics, and specialty polymers. The company exports about 30% of its production with a sales and distribution network in more than 56 countries.
BUSINESS LOUNGE
Gymsharking
Despite the thorough details on the home bodyweight workouts for specific muscle groups that Obi Vincent talks about in his videos, I couldn’t help but notice the word “Gymshark” branded across his tank top. On further investigation, it turned out that Gymshark was perhaps the most ballsy startup I’d come across in a while. Forged in a basement by a plucky Brit, Gymshark is challenging entrenched giants like Nike, Lululemon and Underarmour – one tank top at a time.
Gymshark is a men’s and women’s gym clothing brand which sells exclusively on the internet. Ben Francis was only 19 in 2011, when his side hustles stopped making him whole. He had to find something big, something that aligned with his values to build a business out of. He zeroed in on health supplements and went door to door for a bit only to be appalled by the miserly margins.
So he switched to clothing. Why? Because the then crop of available gym clothes didn’t appeal to him. So he made some from scratch and put those at a distance to assess exactly how much he’d be willing to pay for them himself. £20. That’s it. That’s how Gymshark was born. No big boy B plan, no fancy pitch deck, no vacuous elevator pitch. Francis was going to find his way to the cheese, sniff by sniff.
After pouring out his entire savings on procuring a trade show stall where he ended up selling “garms” worth £40k as opposed to his usual daily revenue of £400, Francis knew that he’d finally caught his great white. Gymshark had taken to the high seas. Since then they’ve grown 200% YOY to see revenues reach £258 Million. The company recently raised £200 Million from General Atlantic to see its valuation soar past the billion mark – heralding the latest unicorn.
TMT VARSITY
Varsity: Agile Methodology(#2 of 4)
User Story and Tasks
- User Story: It talks about what needs to be done wrt the user’s needs. They are further broken down into tasks. Stories are validated using acceptance tests.
- Tasks: Tasks talk about how functionality should be implemented. Tasks are typically from 2 to 12 hours. Tasks can be further classified as sub-tasks.
A story is completed when
- All tasks are completed
- All acceptance tests are running and passed
- No open defect
- Product owner has accepted the story
- Delivered to the end-user
Acceptance Criteria: This defines the performance and functionality that is required of a feature before it is approved by the product owner.
The requirement is defined by a user story broken up into tasks and with acceptance criteria.
Agile Characteristics
- Iterative, Incremental, and ready to evolve: Breaking a product into smaller features helps in replacing the long-term planning with short iterations, usually ranging from 1to 4 weeks.
- Face to face communication: Better communication in an agile team following the agile process and meetings.
- Feedback loop: Daily scrum, review, and retrospective to ensure a continuous feedback mechanism.
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, and Shashank Dobhal
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