Arvind's NewsletterIssue No. #1064

1.Struggling Akasa Air signs pacts with investors to infuse fresh capital into airline

Akasa Air, which began operations in August 2022, announced that it has signed agreements with investors, including Premji Invest, Ranjan Pai's investment office, and 360 ONE Asset, to infuse fresh capital into the airline.

Moreover, the Jhunjhunwala family—which already holds about 40 per cent stake in the airline—has also committed to infuse additional capital into the airline, it mentioned. The airline did not disclose the investment amount or the stake to be sold. However, sources indicated it plans to raise about $125 million.

The airline’s net loss more than doubled in 2023-24, soaring to Rs 1,670 crore from Rs 744 crore in the previous year. Meanwhile, its total income saw a sharp rise, reaching Rs 3,144 crore in 2023-24 compared to Rs 778 crore in 2022-23.

2.India’s Finance ministry asks employees to avoid AI tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek

India’s finance ministry on Wednesday warned employees against using DeepSeek (and ChatGPT), a day after Australia banned the Chinese AI startup’s chatbot from government devices over security concerns. Italy, Taiwan, and the US have also banned or limited its use, as have “hundreds” of companies, with officials citing unacceptable risks.

3.India’s ‘De Minimis’ Rules

It’s a threshold set by each country that determines when customs duties and taxes should be applied to imported goods.

India’s de minimis threshold is significantly lower compared to many other countries. Goods valued at Rs 5,000 or less can be imported without incurring customs duties when shipped via courier or postal services.

When we look at a comparison with other major economies, the differences in de minimis thresholds are quite stark. Australia - AUD 1,000, European Union - €150, Canada - CAD 150, and the United States - $800.

In a dramatic twist to the ongoing tariff war between the US and China, the US Postal Service had shut down parcel services from China and Hong Kong to the US. However, this decision was later reversed in a typical Trumpian flip-flop.  

4.Google’s got a new AI model for everyone. 

Gemini 2.0 Pro, once for advanced users only, is now available the Gemini app.

The tech giant said that users of its Gemini app can now try the 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental AI model — which ranks as the best model in the world on the community-driven Chatbot Arena.

Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental is trained to “strengthen its reasoning capabilities” by breaking down prompts step-by-step and showing users its “thought process” to understand how it came to its response. Through this process, users can see “what its assumptions were, and trace the model’s line of reasoning,” Google said.

5.Degenerated Muscles Restored

A trio of patients suffering from spinal muscular atrophy saw significant improvements in their muscle function while receiving electrical stimulation in their lower spine , according to research released yesterday. The process is the first neuro-technology to reverse the decay of nerve circuitry and revive cell function in patients with a neurodegenerative disease. 

Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare, inherited disease that gradually kills off spinal nerve cells responsible for muscle movement. As the so-called motor neurons die, the muscles they control wither, causing significant mobility issues. There is currently no cure, though treatments exist to slow the disease's progression.

In the trial, two spinal cord stimulation electrodes implanted in three individuals with the disease's milder form (Types 3 or 4) were stimulated for four hours at a time over 29 days. During the test period, each patient saw gains in leg strength, walking distance, and more, though upon removal, the implant's benefits faded. Larger clinical trials are expected, as well as applications to other neurodegenerative diseases.

6.Diamonds are no longer De Beers’ best friend. Bloomberg

A slump in demand for the precious stone has left the influential corporation floundering—and threatens to throw a wrench in owner Anglo American’s plans to sell what was once a titan of the industry.

The growing estrangement between De Beers and its buyers is just one symptom of the crisis gripping the $80 billion diamond industry, which stretches from the mines of Botswana to jewelry stores on New York’s Fifth Avenue. What started as a post-pandemic slump has spiraled out of control so that even in a market renowned for boom and bust cycles, industry veterans say the crisis is the worst they’ve ever seen.

For cheaper diamonds, a flood of lab-grown gems is rapidly squeezing out natural stones, especially in fashion jewelry and low-end engagement rings, and raising sweeping questions about the future shape of the diamond mining industry. At the same time, the industry is reeling from a collapse in China, the second-largest diamond market, where demand has plunged by 50% since before the pandemic

7.These drones are launching drones to attack other drones

Ukraine is continuing to produce innovative battlefield technologies.

In terrifying drone developments in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainians were dropping molten thermite along Russian trench lines and attaching surface-to-air missiles to naval drones.

Possessing a far smaller population than Russia, Ukraine has pinned its hopes in significant part on drone warfare, and hundreds of companies and organisations across the country are building everything from tiny aerial attack drones to massive ground-crawling, machine gun-toting minelayers.

Here are just a few of the drone warfare innovations that have appeared in public sources over the last few months.

Mothership Drones

Ukraine has, for some time, fielded large "mothership" drones that can carry and eventually deploy a set of smaller attack drones. This approach can, for example, get light and fast FPV attack drones behind the front lines before releasing them, thereby extending the attack drones' limited range.

Shotguns

Since the start of the war, the Ukrainians have been strapping everything imaginable to their drones, from grenades to mines to RPGs to thermite. Given their recoil, guns have been a bigger challenge, but this hasn't stopped drone makers from trying.

Recent footage suggests that real advances have been made in stabilizing the drone platform while firing; one viral video shows not one but two shotguns mounted to a drone, which zips around blasting three Russian drones before targeting an infantry member on the ground. Given the presence of two shotguns going off simultaneously, the drone's stability is impressive.

8.The World Health Organization began an Ebola vaccine trial in Uganda this week, with recent medical advances raising hopes in the battle against the disease. 

The first Ebola vaccine was approved in 2019, but a real-world trial during the 2018-2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that so-called “ring” vaccination of patients’ contacts or at-risk groups dramatically reduced transmission. The new trial will test a vaccine designed for the Sudan strain of the virus that has hit Uganda. Ebola is unlikely to ever be eliminated — it is endemic in various animal species and occasionally leaps to humans — but reducing the risk of widespread outbreaks is increasingly plausible.

9.Goa Property market -is the boom over ?

ET Prime spoke to multiple stakeholders in the Goa property market and learnt that business owners did see a fall in the demand for rental properties, but they see it as a normalisation of abnormal growth brought about by remote working from Goa and ‘revenge tourism’. 

In addition to this, the supply of properties is increasing. In FY24, the number of tourists grew 11% while the supply of beds (since Goa has many Airbnbs and not just hotels) rose by 13%, shows official tourism statistics.

The Goa dream

Higher supply of houses, increasing competition among property-management services, and shaky tourist stats does sound like a cocktail that’s bad for Goa’s property business. But property-management entrepreneurs believe that homeowners may face the consequences of correction more sharply. Property owners, on the other hand, feel that the pressure of making Airbnbs profitable is more on property-management service providers who have leased properties from owners on 1-3 year contracts.

Realty developers feel that while rental yields can correct, long-term property value will increase due to the scarcity of land combined with Goa being one of the most desirable locations in India.