Kasauli for solo travel; A personal touch to luxury items

t was a good week for the Indian startup ecosystem.

The third week of April saw the highest amount of venture capital (VC) funding flow into the Indian startup ecosystem so far this year. Total VC funding stood at $339 million cutting across 34 deals compared with $66 million raised across 15 deals a week ago.

Meanwhile, Wipro, one of India's top IT services companies, continues to struggle as both its net profit and revenue declined for the fourth quarter of FY24, prompting the company to provide weak growth guidance for FY25.

In other news, fintech firm CRED has received in-principle approval for a payment aggregator licence from RBI–a move that will help the Bengaluru-based startup launch new products, TechCrunch reports.

Elsewhere, Telegram users can now start making stablecoin USDT payments to each other through the encrypted messaging service’s linked blockchain.

ICYMI: Speaking of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin “halving” is here. 

The halving, which happens roughly every four years, was written into Bitcoin’s code at its inception by pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto as a way to reduce the rate at which bitcoins are created.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Why pick Kasauli for solo travel?
• A personal touch to luxury items
• Empowering women leaders in politics

Here’s your trivia for today: Before being known as Adobe Photoshop, an early version of the software was called by what name?

Travel

Why pick Kasauli for solo travel?

Scenic pathways, stunning views, and old-world charm make the cantonment town of Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh an easy choice for those seeking peace and solitude. And if it gets too quiet, the bustling marketplace and the vibrant cafés will liven things up with their sights and sounds.

Wanderlust:

• The hill station—which is reminiscent of its colonial past—is about 77 km from Shimla and 65 km from Chandigarh. 
• Kasauli is a walker’s paradise. So, if one’s idea of a solo trip involves long walks in tranquil settings and breathing in cool and clean air, then this is the place to be. 
• If one is in the mood for some adventure, Gilbert Trail is worth checking out—it’s a unique nature and trekking trail with refreshing, lush green sights. 

<Top deals of the Week>

Startup: Parsons Nutritionals

Amount: Rs 700 Cr

Round: Private Equity

Startup: GPS Renewables

Amount: $50M

Round: Debt

Startup: Altum Credo

Amount: $40M

Round: Series C

Art

A personal touch to luxury items

Kanika Ranka Adani, a Mumbai-based artist who runs The Studio Project, is adding a touch of personalisation to several products—from expensive bags to passport covers and suitcases to sneakers. 

YS Life speaks to Adani to understand her love for wearable art, her creative process, and what makes personalised products from The Studio Project splurge-worthy. 

Dabble in colours:

• While personalisation already exists in high luxury brands, like Salvatore Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, and Goyard—back in 2016, brands were only doing initials and stripes that eventually became common.
• Today, Adani takes up individual requests, where her clients give their personal high-end luxury products and she customises them. 
• Adani has worked with Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Sonam Kapoor, Nita Ambani, and Ayushmann Khurrana. 

Women leaders

Empowering women leaders in politics

She Represents, started in 2020, is one of the programmes run by the Indian School of Democracy, a not-for-profit organisation, which enables people interested in politics to understand how to go about it from a grassroots level in a principled manner. 

She Represents is a seven-day leadership programme, exclusively designed for locally elected urban and rural women representatives.

Make a change:

• Its first two cohorts consisted of both elected women representatives and aspiring women politicians. 
• In 2022, it decided to narrow down its approach and create a specialised cohort for only elected women representatives from rural and urban local governments.
• While the seven-day programme cannot entirely change things, Senior Program Associate Pousali Ray believes it sows seeds of curiosity, good leadership, and knowledge, which would help women leaders shape their immediate political plans better.

News & updates

• Profits: Netflix’s profits have soared more than $2.3 billion in the first three months of this year, partly thanks to a crackdown on password sharing. The streaming giant added 9.3 million customers in the first quarter, bringing its total number of subscribers to almost 270 million.
• First hire: ChatGPT developer OpenAI hired its first employee in India, appointing a government relations head just as the country votes for a new administration that will shape AI regulations in the world’s most populous nation.
• Blocked: Apple has removed WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China, following an order from the country’s internet watchdog, which cited national security concerns. Other popular social media apps, including X, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, are still available on Apple’s China app store.

Before being known as Adobe Photoshop, an early version of the software was called by what name?

Answer: ImagePro

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