• Investment in Bharat by other countries

1. [Funding alert] Edtech startup StayQrious raises $2M in seed round

Key points:

1. Bengaluru-based edtech startup StayQrious on Tuesday announced that it has raised $2 million in seed funding round led by some of the leading early-stage investors. These includes Learnstart, the dedicated seed fund of Learn Capital and other global investors such as Draper Associates, Y Combinator, Nitin Sharma (First Principles VC), Lavni Ventures, and Dream Incubator (Japan).
2. According to the company statement, the startup will primarily use the fresh funds to build the product, coach tools, and instructional content that will enable its ‘classroom of the future’.
3. Established in 2020 by Aanand Srinivas, StayQrious is India’s newest learning platform for students, with a focus on STEM foundations, starting with coding literacy. With a unique teaching and learning approach – ‘Learn to code and then code to learn’, StayQrious focuses on coding fundamentals for students in the age group 8-14, with an initial focus on metropolitan cities, Tier-I and select Tier-II cities.

(Your Story, 29 September 2020) News Link

• [Funding alert] Edtech startup Codeyoung raises seed round from Guild Capital

Key points:

1. Edtech startup Codeyoung will use the fresh funds to scale up in international markets, as well as strengthen academics research, technology, and product teams.
2. Codeyoung, a Bengaluru-based startup that provides live online coding classes to K12 students, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding led by US-based VC firm Guild Capital.
3. The raised funds will be used by the edtech startup to scale up in international markets, as well as strengthen academics research, technology, and product teams. (Your Story, 29 September 2020) News Link

• [Funding alert] EV startup Etrio raises $3M in Series A round

Key points:

1. Etrio, an EV technology and product startup, has raised $3 million from a set of HNI investors in Singapore. The company will drive customer acquisition, customer retention, product development, and sales through this fund raise.
2. The Hyderabad-based startup’s funding round was led by serial investor Janardhan Rao, Founder of Triumph Global Group – a Singapore-headquartered international commodity trading house with a consolidated revenue of over $900 million.

(Your Story, 29 September 2020) News Link

• Taiwanese suppliers for Apple to invest US$900 million in India

Key points:

• Three Apple suppliers in Taiwan are reportedly planning to invest a total of US$900 million in India in the next five years under the Indian government’s new incentive plan for large-scale electronics manufacturing.
• The three Taiwanese contract manufacturers — Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron — all plan to participate in India’s US$6.65 billion production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, according to Reuters. The scheme is expected to help add 0.5 percent to India’s economic growth in five years by encouraging local electronics production and attracting large investments from major global manufacturers.
• The report said that Foxconn has already applied to invest US$542 million, while Wistron and Pegatron have committed to invest US$176 million and US$163 million, respectively. Although it is unknown whether all the investment will go towards producing Apple products, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the majority of it will be used to expand iPhone manufacturing in India.
• The investments highlight a potentially seismic shift as Apple diversifies its supply chain beyond China to evade the impact of the ongoing trade war. Meanwhile, the Indian government has capitalized on the fallout and pledged to transform the South Asian country into the world’s No. 1 in mobile manufacturing by 2025, reported Tech News.

(Taiwan News, 29 September 2020) News Link

• Planning of investment in BHARAT

1. France’s Groupe PSA announces entry into aftermarket biz in India

Key points:

1. The €75 billion French auto major Groupe PSA has announced a major expansion of its business in India with its entry into the Indian independent aftermarket segment through its global multi-brand label Eurorepar, a move aimed at attracting more customers and establishing the brand firmly in the country.
2. The company enters the Indian independent aftermarket with a sales and distribution tie-up with GoMechanic, a technology-enabled aggregator of local car workshops for multi-brand car servicing.
3. “This is a unique strategy that we are creating the aftermarket ecosystem before the launch of our first car, which will be rolled out early next year. We will come out with a full range of quality parts with the service support from GoMechanic,” Roland Bouchara, Senior Vice- President-Sales and Marketing India, Groupe PSA, told
4. As per the agreement, PSA India will provide the Eurorepar parts to GoMechanic, which will then distribute the parts through its warehouses and parts distribution logistics platform to all the workshops and retailers within its network. Groupe PSA will provide support in terms of marketing, training, brand building, besides providing a very strong product range.

(The Hindu Business Line, 29 September, 2020) News Link

1. Govt plans special scheme to promote startups founded by disadvantaged communities

Key points:

1. The planned programme called Ambedkar Social Innovation Mission will look to encourage startups founded by the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community in the country, according to reports.
2. Towards this end, Centre will set up Rs 100 crore fund to support the startups founded by these disadvantageous communities. This will target the students with the motive to encourage them to run their own business rather than taking up employment, says a report in Economic Times.
3. The Social Welfare and Empowerment Ministry, under whose aegis the VCF-SC was set up, has already modified the relevant government guidelines to ensure equity support to entities/companies of young SC entrepreneurs working on innovative and technology-based ideas.

(Your Story, 29 September 2020) News Link

1. अरुणाचल प्रदेश के एक कपल ने 16 बीघा जमीन दान कर आदर्श गांव की स्थापना की, यहां रहने की पूरी सुविधा देने के लिए पिछले 3 साल से कर रहे मेहनत

Key points:

1. इस गांव में जल्दी ही ये कपल प्रेयर रूम भी बनवाएंगे। साथ ही गांव वासियों के लिए जंगल की लकड़ी का इंतजाम भी किया जा रहा है।
2. इस कपल के बारे में जब अरूणाचल प्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री पेमा खांडू को जानकारी मिली तो उन्होंने अपने टि्वटर अकाउंट के जरिये इन दोनों के काम की सराहना की

(Dainik Bhaskar, 29 September 2020) News Link

• Women from Madhya Pradesh village cut hill to resolve water crisis

Key points:

• About 250 women from the Angrotha village in Madhya Pradesh dug up a nearby hill for a half a kilometre stretch to direct a waterway into a pond in the village.
• Speaking to ANI, one of the women involved in the initiative, Babita Rajput said, “We have been working for over 18 months to channel water into the village, the water used to freely flow in the forest and thus could not be used.”
• The women in the village formed a group, and decided to cut the hill to a length of about 0.5 kilometres, and make way for the water to fall into a pond in the village, she further added.
• Another villager, Ram Ratan Singh Rajput said, “For the past 18 months, women in the village have decided to provide water to Angrotha. They have cut a hill and made a waterway. The women are also working on removing several stones that are present in the path of the water flow, as reported by Business World.

(Your Story, 29 September 2020) News Link

• Startup in Bharat by Bhartiya
  • फैशन ग्रेजुएट एकता जायसवाल का स्टार्ट अप ‘हस्तकथा‘, अपने ब्रांड के जरिये दे रहीं हैंडमेड गारमेंट्स को बढ़ावा ताकि बुनकरों को रोजगार के अवसर मिल सकें

Key points:

1. एकता डाइंग, एंब्रॉयडरी और प्रिंटिंग में भी हैंडमेड तकनीकी का सहारा लेती हैं
2. एकता ने अपनी सहेली दिव्या के साथ मिलकर 2016 में अमेरिकन ई-कॉमर्स वेबसाइट ‘इट्सी’ पर ‘हस्तकथा’ की शुरुआत की थीी

(Dainik Bhaskar, 29 September) News Link

• बेकार कांच की बोतलों से क्राफ्ट आइटम बना शुरू किया स्टार्टअप, महीने की कमाई 40 हज़ार रुपये

Key points:

• बीएड पास अपर्णा पिछले 3-4 सालों से बेकार पड़ी और फेंकी गई काँच की बोतलों को अपसाइकिल करके खूबसूरत और अनोखे होम डेकॉर प्रोडक्ट्स बना रही हैं। वह जो भी क्रॉफ्ट आइटम बनाती हैं, उसके लिए कोई वेस्ट बोतल ही इस्तेमाल करती हैं। अपसायकल्ड क्रॉफ्ट के प्रति अपने प्यार के चलते उन्होंने पिछले साल एक झील की सफाई भी करवा दी।
• अपर्णा ने शौक-शौक में आर्ट एंड क्रॉफ्ट शुरू किया और फिर जब उनका हुनर निखरता गया तो उन्हें ऑर्डर भी मिलने लगे। तरह-तरह के क्रॉफ्ट ट्राई करने वाली अपर्णा वेस्ट काँच की बोतलों को अपसायकल कर खूबसूरत रूप भी देने लगी। वह मन्रोतुरुत्तु में रहती हैं जो कोल्लम से थोड़ा दूर है और एक टूरिस्ट प्लेस है।
• अपर्णा अंत में बस इतना कहती हैं कि त्यौहारों पर हम तरह-तरह के प्लास्टिक डेकॉर का इस्तेमाल करके सिर्फ अपने घर का वेस्ट बढ़ाते हैं। इससे अच्छा है कि हम थोड़ा-सा वक़्त निकालें और खुद कुछ करने की कोशिश करें। कुछ ऐसा जिससे कि पर्यावरण भी सुरक्षित रहे और हमारा हुनर भी निखरे।

(The Better India, 29 September) News Link

• Why Pacific Gaming startup believes it has an edge over other gaming studios

Key points:

1. Founded by Arvind Balakrishna and Archit Narayan, the Bengaluru-based startup uses a quantum random number generator (QRNG) to make its online games secure and scalable.
2. Founded in 2017 by Arvind Balakrishna and Archit Narayan, Pacific Gaming is one such startup that is riding the industry boom, and has amassed over five million followers who play its games. The team includes Kshitij Anilkumar, Rajesh Dembla (investor), and Dharmendra Saxena as co-founders who have experience in varied businesses. It is being operated by 20 game developers.
3. Pacific Gaming was conceptualised as a gaming studio when Arvind Balakrishna and Archit Narayan realised the need to create a one-stop gaming platform. They theorised that by introducing the ‘Instant Cashout’ feature, they could enable users to claim their winnings into their accounts within 60 seconds, all year round. While existing operators used to process winnings within three to six days, they were able to reduce this wait time drastically, which attracted many users.
4. “Pacific Gaming follows a systematic approach to all the solutions that we provide in the gaming space. All transactions on the platform pass through a minimum of three layers of checks on both deposits and withdrawals. This is how we ensure payment security to consumers and offer safe, secure and seamless gaming experience to our consumers,” says Archit.

(Your Story, 29 September) News Link

1. तीन साल पहले कपड़ों का ऑनलाइन बिजनेस शुरू किया, कोरोना आया तो लॉन्च की पीपीई किट, 5 करोड़ रु पहुंचा टर्नओवर

Key points:

1. दिल्ली की वंशिका ने 2017 में बिजनेस शुरू किया था, आज 200 से ज्यादा होटल्स, स्कूल और रेस्टोरेंट के लिए यूनिफॉर्म तैयार करती हैं, उनके साथ 200 से ज्यादा लोग जुड़े हैं
2. दिसंबर 2019 में शादी के बाद वंशिका मुंबई शिफ्ट हो गईं, अभी मुंबई और गुजरात में उनकी कंपनी काम कर रही है

(Dainik Bhaskar, 29 September 2020) News Link

• वैशाली प्रिया ने बिहार के हरिहरपुर गांव की महिलाओं को केले के तने से कपड़ा बनाना सिखाया, अपने प्रोजेक्ट के जरिये लोगों को दिए रोजगार के अवसर

Key points:

1. अपनी टेक्सटाइल डिजाइनिंग में वैशाली ने कपड़े का सही उपयोग कर कई लोगों को रोजगार के अवसर दिए हैं
2. वैशाली ने ‘सुरमई बनाना एक्सट्रेक्शन प्रोजेक्ट लॉन्च’ किया है। अपने प्रोजेक्ट के माध्यम से वे ग्रामीण महिलाओं को ऑर्गेनिक और नैचुरल फाइबर प्रोडक्ट बनाना सिखाती हैं

(Dainik Bhaskar, 29 September 2020) News Link