Friday, 3rd July ’20
Good Morning everyone! With the hope that you have an awesome and safe weekend up ahead of you, we wrap up an eventful week with this Friday edition of The Morning Tea.
On this day, in 1997, California’s ergonomic standard law took effect, dictating what employers must do to ensure that their workplaces prevent repetitive motion injuries. Seems like a minor thing but a major step in ensuring a healthy workplace. Want to know more about how to stay healthy at work? Check out this article from our Office”seers” series to adopt a more healthy office workstyle.
MARKETS
- India’s trade deficit with China comes down by 9% in FY20. India’s trade deficit fell to $48.66 bn in 2019-20, as compared to $53.56 bn and $63 bn in 2018-19 and 2017-18 respectively. This is due to decline in imports, Indian govt. framing technical regulations and quality norms, and implementation of anti-dumping duties.
- CBI books GVK for fraud, GVK power declines 5%. GVK group was accused by CBI for alleged money laundering of Rs. 705 crores in running the Mumbai airport. GVK allegedly used bogus contracts to companies, owned by promoters’ relatives and siphoning off excess funds. Shares of GVK Power & Infra reached the lower circuit of 5%, at Rs. 3.23 per share.
- Rating firms seek to withdraw half of Indian debt ratings. This move is at the back of many companies falling in the “non-cooperating” category, especially after the Covid-19 scenario. This has led to ratings firms seeking withdrawal of debt ratings of many companies to avoid repeat of any IL&FS sort of situation.
- JSW to boycott $400 mn worth of imports from China. Parth Jindal, MD of JSW Cements, in a tweet said “We The JSW Group have a net import of $400 million from China annually and we pledge to bring this down to zero in the next 24 months.”
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
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- Facebook will boost the news articles or content which has the most originality for them to get more distribution after the advertisers boycott. They will check the transparency of the editorial staff by reviewing news articles for bylines or a staff page on the publisher’s website.
- A 20 minute covid 19 test that uses gene editing tech is being brought to the market by Rahul Dhanda led Sherlock biosciences. The Sherlock diagnostic platform uses Crispr to identify highly specific genetic sequences. It’s the perfect tool for diagnosing Covid-19 by the presence of the novel coronavirus, which is discernible by its specific RNA sequence.
- BMW will let you enable vehicle functions and optional equipment on demand and over the air. The company started offering some features like active cruise control with stop and go functionality, seamless access in company garages and automatic switch to electric mode in low emission areas. The cloud based BMW maps will find parking spaces for you by aggregating sensor data from across its fleet.
PRODUCTS & STARTUPS
- Flinto Learning Solution, a Chennai based startup for early childhood education has raised $7.2 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Lightbox Ventures. They offer hybrid pre-school education to the doorstep, allowing children to learn from the safety of their homes. It improves the monotonous online classes into multi-sensory experiences.
- Ken42, a Bengaluru based Ed-tech startup has raised Rs. 11 crore led by Turbostart, a national program for young startups. Ken42 provides an integrated education platform and caters to schools and universities.
- Zetwork, an Indian B2B marketplace for manufacturing items has raised $21 million in a new Series C funding round led by San Francisco based investment firm GreenOaks.They have raised $62 million to date. Zetwork connects the Original Equipment Manufacturers(OEMs) and Engineering Procurement Construction(EPCs) to the small businesses and enterprises.
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
- Vladimir Putin to remain Russian president till 2036: Russia voted in favor of the country’s political status quo. According to a recent set of amendments, Putin would be eligible to run for the presidency again in 2024.
ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar Steps Down, Deputy Chairman Imran Khwaja takes over as interim: Amidst BCCI losing its influence in the world body, Chairman Manohar leaves the reins after serving 2 years as its head. ICC Board will decide on a fresh election process within next week. Former ECB chairman Graves and former Indian skipper Ganguly are the main contenders for the chairmanship. The “BIG 3” model scrapped under Manohar’s leadership, will also be re-examined.
Chinese Hegemony grows stronger with the new Hong Kong security law: China’s new national security law for Hong Kong passed on 30th June, 2020, sees “Secession, Subversion, Terrorist Activities, and Collusion with a Foreign Country or with External Elements to Endanger National Security”, life-imprisonment invoking offences. China further plans to establish an ‘Office for Safeguarding National Security’ in Hong Kong to rule over the island’s independent law courts.
India’s first plasma bank for COVID patients becomes operational: On 2nd July, 2020, Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated India’s first plasma bank for COVID patients in Delhi. Plasma donation by COVID recovered patients will take 45 minutes, and donors will get a “Gaurav Patra” acknowledging their service. To register as donors, you need to call on 1031 or whatsapp on 8800007722.
MORNING TEA LISTICLES
The Most Innovative Companies Of 2020 According To BCG – Top 10 list
The Boston Consulting Group has come out with the list of top 50 most innovative companies of 2020 in its 14th Annual Report. The methodology is based on the firm’s annual survey of more than 2,500 global executives on innovation trends and its global innovation performance database of more than 1,000 firms. Today, we present the companies that made it to the top ten.
- Apple
- Alphabet
- Amazon
- Microsoft
- Samsung
- Huawei
- Alibaba
- IBM
- Sony
BOOKS AND MOVIES
- Recommended Book- The Elephant in the Temple by J. Lockwood Kipling– this book presents an opportunity for the aficionados of Indian history and animal lovers to understand the sympathetic engagement between humanity and beasts through a naturalist’s lens. Kipling’s narration of the religious myths and traditional folklore surrounding the majestic mammal and its imprint on human civilization gives a great glimpse of an India which is seldom reminisced.
- Recommended Movie: Nothing. That’s right. It’s your weekend. We wouldn’t recommend spending your time by doing anything other than relaxing in a manner you deem fit or reconnecting with loved ones if you aren’t home. If you’re home and you’d really like to watch something, and you insist that’s what you’d like to do then we would recommend… Aha. Nice trick. We won’t fall for that. Go live your life. Smell the flowers. Walk bare feet on grass. Breathe fresh air (devoid of suspicious droplets) and prance around.
Menace. The machine learning tic tac toe game does what it’s supposed to. It learns your patterns as long as you keep winning, eventually turns into the Terminator and comes out of your phone. No it doesn’t. But it becomes smarter with each game
Bonus: User Inyerface is a challenging exploration of user interactions and design patterns. Someone says this is how grandma feels while going on the interwebs on her own. To play you only have to fill a form.
YOU SHOULD KNOW
- Peloton is a fitness company that offers health services and is also a health media company. The journey of Peloton’s founder John Foley had been a series of “no” before he met with investor Lee Fixel. Fixel is a key figure in the investing world and has invested in Flipkart and Freshworks in India. He has done a series of interesting deals and has a few good bets under his belt.
MORNING TEA CHALLENGES
- Learn a Language: Learning a new language can be awesome. It can boost your creativity, make you smarter, looks great on your CV, opens up new opportunities, and most importantly, gives you an opportunity to meet new people. Choose your style – be it on Coursera, Audio-books or DuoLingo app. Want to know more about DuoLingo? Check out our review of DuoLingo here. And happy learning!
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, Piyush Vijayan and Shashank Dobhal.