Issue #2: Aug 30, 2020
World and Indian Politics, BigTech and Startups and Culture Summarized
A collection of interesting and insightful information from around the world for Indians. This weekly newsletter is a 10 mins read. In this second edition, I went in-depth for 2 articles, one each on politics and tech. Subscribe to receive regular updates.
World:
Scottish Wikipedia edited by non-speaker.
A Redditor discovered that 20,000 articles (35% of total) in Scottish language wiki were written by an American teenager with no knowledge of the language. Using a few scot words and replacing key letters to look Scottish, he got away with it for so long due to less traffic and fewer volunteers and editors for non-English internet. Imagine the stereotypes reinforced and bad AI training this had led to. Link
In another whimsical episode from the UK.
PM Boris Johson unknowingly met his match. As you can see the tweet below the titles on the top shelf is ‘The Twits’, ‘Betrayed‘, ‘Resistance’, ‘Fahrenheit 451‘, ‘Subtle Knife‘, ‘Glass Houses‘, ‘The Toll‘, ‘Guards Guards‘. Imagine pulling something like this here?
Shinzo Abe, Japanese PM resigns citing ill health.
It’s longest serving premier, Abe came to power in 2012 promising revitalization of the economy from its long slumber (popularly Abenomics - 3 Arrow strategy). A nationalist coming from a family of premiers (his grandfather and great uncle were PMs earlier), he had to tackle China’s growing might and aggressive moves on the seas with an active foreign policy that India benefitted. A quick snapshot of his actions at-home and global stage:
He re-interpreted the Japanese post-WWII constitution, from the military being purely for self-defense purposes to actively engaging in conflict for the defense of their allies. While this precludes any offensive action, the move is not popular with China and support at home is still weak for a constitutional amendment
He initiated the QUAD (India, Japan, US, Australia) an Indo-Pacific strategic and military cooperation framework in 2007, and continued to build on it in his second stint as PM. This framework can be the anchor for Indian naval operations with the potential to include other Southeast Asian nations
He initiated family-friendly policies to increase its low population growth rates and made programs to bring more women in the workforce, which this mature economy is notoriously poor at. While results are yet to fully show on the economic, social and demographic end, it is a path Japan must follow
He will be remembered as a great friend of India, with his contributions to QUAD and his continuous vocal support to India on territorial altercations with China. Link
India:
Who’s the next Congress President?
Let’s understand the process. All India Congress Committee (AICC) whose members are elected from the regional bodies, elect the influential Congress Working Committee (CWC) and President. Last CWC elections were held in 1992 and they were nullified. Last Presidential elections were held in 2000. Usually, they are pre-determined (are you a Gandhi?) and unopposed. But now in its historic slump, an election with few suitors is what Congress needs. Link
Bihar polls will be first post-lockdown elections.
When someone complains about the electoral process you can with reasonable confidence conclude they are losing. The opposition wants it delayed due to the pandemic. Supreme Court answered a petition that its Election Commissions’ prerogative, so the elections will be held in Oct. Link
Remember the Assam Oil Fire, its still active.
Recent efforts to kill the well using high-pressure mud failed. About 1600 displaced families are still in camps awaiting compensation and return to their homes. Link. A friend of mine shared this image from her home 45kms away.
Big Tech:
Its IPO Time.
Here is the long list of companies planning to go public in 2020. Ant Financials (FinTech), Amwell (TeleHealth), Asana (Project Mgnt), JFrog (DevOps), Palantir (Data), Snowflake (Cloud), Sumo Logic (Data), Unity (Gaming). Link
Spotify’s first big podcast loss.
While it has tied up exclusives with Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, Joe Rogan among others recently, it lost its original exclusive in Joe Budden, who is apparently overworked, underpaid, and hates Spotify for being concerned more about the platform than him. Big-tech (Apple, Spotify) was slow in adopting podcasts, and the eco-system matured to be open and remarkably independent. Now its changing and fast. Link
Wirecard insolvent and CEO among others arrested for fraud.
Germany’s Payments & Financial Services provider seen as a rare European tech success and whose market cap exceeded that of Deutsche Bank is now forced to sell its assets as an external auditor found €2Billion missing. Markus Braun, CEO championing technology, envisioning a cashless society (even dressing up in turtle-necks), and made aggressive global expansion moves impressing investors and the stock market. But allegations of fraud persisted throughout.
Their inflated acquisitions of little known companies in India and Asia-Pacific a few years back were questioned. Financial Times has been reporting irregularities in Wirecard’s financials with whistleblower accounts for a while, but all opposition was hounded by lawsuits, dismissed as speculative with an intention to manipulate stock prices and even targetted hacking-for-hire scams. But mounting pressure, investigations across the globe have finally brought forth the truth and fall. FT created an excellent timeline and story of frantic last few months. Great reporting.
Startups:
Paytm Payments Bank applies for a Small Finance Bank license. In the long road to emulate its investor Alibaba and Ant Financial (which coincidentally is going for the biggest IPO ever this year) model in India, this move allows Paytm to disperse loans. Link
Sachin Bansal’s Navi eyes Life Insurance Cos. How does a successful entrepreneur build their second company? They outsource non-core functions and acquire other companies for faster go to market. Navi a fintech startup with deep pockets, invested in Kissht (instant loan company), acquired MavenHive (development consultancy), Essel Mutual Fund (Wealth Mgmt), DHFL Insurance (Health Insurance) and now is eyeing life insurance cos. Way to build a stack! Link
Celebrity fan engagement startup raises Seed. For a country obsessed with sports and movie stars, there isn’t a successful company in this space. TrueFan joins Wysh in this space offering personalized messages from stars by playing quizzes or for money respectively. To truly scale, these companies need a sticky product and big stars to increase userbase which then attracts more stars and gets the flywheel going. They can get inspiration from American sports teams and how it nurtures a secondary economy outside TV and tickets. Link
Culture:
Twitter: How do you build credibility over video calls? A bookcase. Check this amazing collection of credibility shots with bookcases. Link
Instagram: Legendary illustrator Chris Riddell’s collection of absurd, imaginative and pointed drawings.
Youtube: Learn about history-making figures by these epic rap battles. Link