Ola has been experimenting with ONDC since August and has embedded a new ‘ONDC Food’ feature within the Ola app itself, available only for company employees This comes a week after Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal publicly said that the company plans to join ONDC but had refrained from divulging details While it was largely expected that Ola would join ONDC as a mobility player, the move to take the food delivery route appears to be the company’s latest attempt to dabble in the foodtech space.  Update | September 1, 08:33 PM Ride-hailing major Ola has reportedly joined the state-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and is piloting a food delivery platform.  Sources told The Economic Times that the startup has been experimenting with ONDC since August and has embedded a new ‘ONDC Food’ feature within the Ola app itself. As per the report, the feature is currently available only for Ola employees. The pilot enables Ola employees to access multiple restaurants listed on the network and order from them via Ola app. This pits the ride-hailing giant directly against foodtech giants Zomato and Swiggy.  Meanwhile, the company management reportedly sent an email to all its employees on August 24 seeking their feedback on the trial run.  “This ONDC integration works out great for Ola because now they do not have the hassles of figuring out integration of the restaurant partners and consumers. The next step would be to open the food delivery to consumers beyond employees,” a person privy to the development told ET.  While it was largely expected that Ola would join ONDC as a mobility player, the move to take the food delivery route appears to be the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company’s latest attempt to dabble in the foodtech space.  Be it launching the food delivery service called Ola Cafe in 2015 or the acquisition of Foodpanda India in 2017, all major attempts by the company to establish itself in the space have largely failed. The company shut Foodpanda in 2019 and subsequently wound up its quick commerce arm Ola Dash in 2022.  Now, ONDC seems to be the new experimenting ground for the company to realise its foodtech dreams. The sector is currently largely a duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy.  Original Story| August 31 , 10:05 PM Ride-hailing giant Ola is reportedly planning to jump on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) bandwagon.  As per Medianama, Ola’s chief executive officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal, while addressing the India Internet Day event held on August 24 in Bengaluru, said that the company was planning to join the state-backed network. He, however, did not divulge any details. Inc42 has reached out to the company for a comment on the matter, and the story will be updated accordingly. The development comes five months after ONDC forayed into the mobility space to enable smaller local players to compete with behemoths such as Uber and Ola. With this, Ola could be looking to tap into the growing ONDC ecosystem, which counts Namma Yatri, the Juspay and Beckn Foundation-backed ride hailing app for autos, as the sole mobility player on its platform.  While Namma Yatri currently offers services only in Bengaluru, Ola could be looking at a pan-India offering on ONDC, with its eyes set on getting the first-mover advantage. As and when Ola debuts on ONDC, the drivers of Ola may benefit from the high discoverability aspect of the network. Simply put, the state-backed initiative will allow participating platforms (in this case mobility players) to broadcast their services across all apps on the network. As a result, a user looking for rides will simply be able to compare prices from both Namma Yatri and Ola and choose accordingly.  As adoption grows and more and more players join the network, users could see more competitive pricing as companies undercut each other for a bigger pie of the ride-hailing market. This could pose a threat to the duopoly of Ola, which it enjoys with Uber in the ride-hailing space.  On the other hand, Namma Yatri has so far banked on the zero commission model for drivers to drive adoption but the platform will begin charging drivers beginning September 1.  Besides, buyer apps such as Paytm, Pincode and Spice Money may also potentially hold the key and emerge as an avenue for users to book rides on ONDC. Paytm, too, has plans to roll out support for booking rides, while other players may also follow suit.  At a time when the ride-hailing giant is struggling with several issues, including increasing losses, customer complaints about its subpar services and growing competition from new and existing players, the move to list on ONDC may bode well for Ola. This comes days after ONDC CEO T Koshy said that the platform is merely ‘creating sparks’ right now, adding that an ‘explosion’ would happen when the platform gathers volume.  Brainchild of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the network aims to ramp up ecommerce penetration to 25% in the next two years. At stake is the growing ecommerce opportunity, which is projected to reach $400 Bn by 2030. 

Investments in space equipment have seen an uptick in recent years and with more frequent launches as well as a number of missions lined up in the near future, the area is evidently seen as a cash cow by the likes of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. Amid this, an Amazon shareholder has filed a lawsuit against Bezos and the Amazon board on awarding contracts to Blue Origin and not SpaceX.According to a report by Reuters, the shareholder has alleged that Bezos and company directors awarded launch contracts worth billions of dollars for the company’s Project Kuiper satellite project to Blue Origin, and did not consider rival Musk’s SpaceX as an alternative launch provider despite its track record.SpaceX’s rockets are being used by NASA to launch space missions. The company is also launching Starlink satellites aboard the rockets. What is Amazon’s Project KupierAmazon’s Project Kuiper is a planned network of over 3,000 satellites designed to beam internet to remote regions. This is similar to Musk’s Starlink network of satellites.According to the lawsuit, the launch contracts were the second-largest capital expenditure in Amazon’s history at the time; the acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion is the first.It also states that Amazon has already paid about $1.7 billion to the three launch providers in the project, including $585 million to Blue Origin directly. The company has not yet launched a prototype of its Kuiper satellite into orbit.Amazon has already said that Project Kuiper will begin mass-producing the satellites later this year and beta testing with commercial customers in 2024.The company will also invest $120 million in a satellite processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and it will serve as a last stop before sending the satellites into space. Amazon will have to launch half its entire Kuiper network of satellites by 2026.What Amazon has to sayAn Amazon spokesperson said the claims are without merit. “The claims in this lawsuit are completely without merit, and we look forward to showing that through the legal process,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

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A Frenchman’s Co-living Adventure In Bangalore | The Tenant In this episode of The Tenant, embark on a captivating journey with a Frenchman living in a cozy 300-400 square feet co-living space in the aerospace hub of Bangalore. Dive into his experiences, from job opportunities and navigating chaotic traffic to savouring the incredible cuisine and challenging misconceptions about women’s treatment. Explore the unique blend of privacy and community in co-living, where you pay only rent, inclusive of all charges. Gain valuable insider tips on surviving India’s paperwork challenges and why he chose a prepaid SIM card. Join us as he unravels the mysteries of life in India during a 6-month contract, paying Rs 45,000 monthly.

Founded in 2016 by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan, Ultraviolette took six years to launch India’s first lineup of high-performance electric motorcycles In the performance bike market, Ultraviolette bikes compete with quarter-litre or half-litre categories (300 to 500 CC) and counts players like Kawasaki, KTM, and BMW as its competitors The global electric two-wheeler market is set to reach $121.08 Bn in 2030, with electric motorcycles expected to cherish almost half the market during this period At a time when the adoption of electric cars and escooters has been well received in the realm of electric vehicles (EVs), electric motorcycles have yet to become a common spectacle – both on roads and race tracks. While the earliest reference to electric motorcycles can be traced back to the late 1800s, internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycles manufactured by Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Royal Enfield, Hero, BMW, Harley Davidson, and Ducati have continued to rule roads worldwide. The situation is no different In India, where the EV market is more nascent than some of its peers like China, the US, and Europe.  Though India’s electric two-wheeler adoption has jumped by almost 4-5X year-on-year since 2020, helped by hundreds of escooter OEM players entering the market, electric motorcycles have yet to receive this boost. This is because there are fewer players in the market that want to entertain the intricacies, complexities and costs associated with building top-notch products to rival traditional ICE motorcycles. Amid this, Bengaluru-based Ultraviolette Automotive has emerged as one of the pioneering startups to begin the production of high-performance electric motorcycles in India. Founded in 2016 by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan, Ultraviolette took six years to launch their first flagship vehicle, F77. Before embarking on their entrepreneurial journey, Subramaniam and Rajmohan served the automotive sector for almost a decade, working with global tech companies. Their tech backgrounds have played a crucial role in paving the way for Ultraviolette, which today boasts India’s first lineup of high-performance electric motorcycles — F77 Original and two special editions, F77 Recon and F77 Space Edition. Ultraviolette’s Race Has Just Begun From building the core IPs for most technologies used in F77, including the battery tech, drivetrain, and software to establishing a well-integrated servicing network, Ultraviolette’s vision since its inception has been to create ‘top-of-the-line mobility solutions driven by progressive design and energy efficient technology’. “Our focus has always been on innovation,” said Subramaniam, the cofounder and CEO of Ultraviolette. We were told that Ultraviolette draws inspiration from the aviation and aerospace sectors, which is evident in the design philosophy of its bikes. All the standard and special edition bikes under its F series showcase jet-inspired design.  As per the founders, what sets Ultraviolette’s approach apart is its application of principles from aircraft engineering, encompassing mechanics, electronics, and architecture, in building emotorcycles. Further, the F77 lineup has been built keeping the future needs of the users in mind — as they are expected to use the product for at least 7 to 10 years. Given that the EV technology is growing and changing at an unprecedented scale, the founders told Inc42 that they have tried to make their motorcycles future-proof by selecting components that are durable and deploying technology that doesn’t become obsolete soon. In addition, to ensure quality control and affordability once rolled out, the startup has built the entire vertical integration, including battery technology, drivetrain electronics, the cloud-connected system, the architecture, vehicle chassis, and charging system over the years. Ultravoilette’s F77s Get Ready To Race The pivotal moment arrived in late 2019 when Ultraviolette introduced its F77 model with a range of 150 km. However, with the emergence of the pandemic in 2020, the company halted production and directed all its efforts towards enhancing battery technology. Between 2019 and 2022, F77 underwent a whole revamp to achieve a range of 200 km for its Original model and later touched the 300 km mark for its F77 RECON limited edition. This transformation encompassed both architectural changes and the adoption of a new cell format to enhance the battery performance. In November 2022, Ultraviolette finally launched its motorcycles in Bengaluru.  But why did the startup choose the high-performance emotorcycle segment? “In a diverse country like India, the first challenge is to make people excited about EVs. People still hold many misconceptions about this technology. So, we understood that if we had to change their mindset, it would be better to start with a segment that is exciting, engaging, and nuanced,” said Subramaniam, adding that it was a very calculated decision to start with the aspirational segment. In the performance bike market, Ultraviolette bikes compete with quarter-litre or half-litre categories (300 to 500 CC) – a segment that alone witnesses sales of 1-2 Lakh ICE motorcycles per month in India. So far, the startup has raised around $60 Mn in multiple rounds from Exor, TVS Motor Company, Qualcomm Ventures, Lingotto, and Zoho Corporation, among others.  This financial support extends beyond capital infusion as many of these investors are actively engaged in augmenting Ultraviolette’s technological capabilities and expanding its market presence that would soon transcend beyond India. Today, the startup’s emotorcycles run in six Indian cities — Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, and Hyderabad. The startup believes that the pure D2C approach cannot work for motorcycles. Hence, the first step to expanding into these markets was establishing after-sales servicing facilities in each of these cities. These servicing stations are directly managed by Ultraviolette. Taking On Global Players With Competent Price Point Ultraviolette does not compete with players that offer commuter bikes in the range of INR 1 Lakh to INR 2 Lakh, but rather the players that offer high-performance ICE motorcycles. In its segment, the company counts players like Kawasaki, KTM, and BMW as its competitors. Ultraviolette F77 starts from INR 3.8 Lakh onwards, ex-showroom. According to Subramaniam, Ultraviolette’s ebike may seem more expensive in comparison to its ICE counterparts, however, it costs quite less in the long run since it is an EV.  “Also, if compared

Apple has added the 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to its list of vintage products. Apple may no longer have spare parts available for repair.The 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar was first released in June 2017. It featured a redesigned keyboard with butterfly switches, a Touch Bar along the top of the keyboard, and a Touch ID sensor.The 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar was discontinued in July 2019. It was replaced by the 2019 MacBook Pro with a Magic Keyboard, a larger Touch Bar, and more powerful processors. The Touch Bar was a feature that divided opinion and in the last few years, Apple has completely phased it out. What are vintage Apple products? A vintage Apple product is one that doesn’t get regular software updates. A standout feature about the iPhone, iPad or Mac is that it continues to get software updates for a minimum of five years. But a Vintage product doesn’t stand to get any updates and Apple also doesn’t promise repairs or service to these products. On its support page, Apple explains, “Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago.” This doesn’t mean that the device will stop working but it’s just that the shelf life is further reduced when a user doesn’t get regular updates. What does this mean for users? The 2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is still a capable computer, but it is no longer the latest and greatest from Apple. But keep in mind that there will be no more software upgrades available for it. There are chances that Apple could update one of the older versions of macOS that may run on the 2017 MacBook Pro. However, that’s not entirely sure.

It has just been a day before the ChatGPT is down again. The AI-powered chat tool was down again for a couple of hours today. The outage was reported by several users across the globe and OpenAI’s Status page also marked ChatGPT as down. OpenAI mentioned the outage as “major” on the website. It’s back online nowThe outage reported by OpenAI lasted for almost 2 hours 37 minutes. The same was also reported by Downdetector, the outage tracking website. According to Downdetector, the outage started around 6:19pm and around 92% of people reported being unable to access ChatGPT service. However, both now show that the ChatGPT is back online and is operational.TOI-GadgetsNow also checked the same and it seems to be working fine now. Reason behind the outage Well, OpenAI hasn’t officially revealed the exact reason behind ChatGPT’s outage. However, the Status website clearly mentions the timeline of the outage along with the issues faced by users and all the way to the resolution. Resolved Status Description Posted Time Resolved The ChatGPT is stable for all users, and the issue has been resolved. 12 minutes ago (Aug 31, 2023 – 11:03 PDT) Monitoring A fix has been implemented, and normal usage of ChatGPT has resumed. Monitoring is ongoing. 2 hours ago (Aug 31, 2023 – 09:29 PDT) Update User logins are limited to address the ongoing issue. Remediation is ongoing. 3 hours ago (Aug 31, 2023 – 08:28 PDT) Update Efforts are underway to remediate and recover service. 3 hours ago (Aug 31, 2023 – 07:58 PDT) Identified Some users face issues with conversation history and new conversations. The issue has been identified, and remediation is in progress. 4 hours ago (Aug 31, 2023 – 06:52 PDT)

UPI logged 1,024.1 Cr transactions till August 30, up 2.8% MoM from 996 Cr in July 2023 The payments systems recorded transactions worth INR 15.18 Lakh Cr in the month, declining around 1% from INR 15.34 Lakh Cr in July 2023 UPI achieved the milestone in a span of seven years since its inception in 2016 with NPCI setting a target of 100 Cr daily transactions in near future The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) processed more than 1,000 Cr monthly transactions in August 2023 for the first time in its seven-year history. “Drumroll please! UPI has just shattered records with an astonishing 10 Bn plus transactions. Join us in celebrating this incredible milestone and the power of digital payments. Let’s keep the momentum going and continue to revolutionize the way we make transactions with UPI!,” the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a tweet.  UPI logged 1,024.1 Cr transactions worth INR 15.18 Lakh Cr till August 30 banking on the second consecutive month of growth in numbers. Month-on-Month (MoM), transaction count rose 2.8% from 996 Cr while transaction value declined around 1% from INR 15.34 Lakh Cr in July 2023.  However, the number of transactions and value is expected to go further up with one day remaining for the current month.  UPI also logged a 55% year-on-year (YoY) growth rate in terms of transaction count, jumping from 658 Cr in August 2022. On the other hand, transaction value soared more than 41% in August 2023 from INR 10.73 Lakh Cr in the year-ago period.  The numbers are testament to the growing popularity of UPI as a digital payments tool. From crossing the 100 Cr monthly transaction mark in October 2019, the platform has scaled 10X in a span of just four years. Meanwhile, NPCI has set its eyes on growing the platform to accommodate 100 Cr transactions on a daily basis. The payments corporation is yet to disclose the app-wise data of the UPI transactions for the month of August 2023. PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm are likely expected to continue their dominance over the digital payments system. In July, the three players together accounted for 95% of the total transaction count on the UPI network.  Curiously, UPI also somewhat bucked the general trend of slowing MoM growth every alternate month. Building on the positive growth in July, the platform yet again clocked hefty growth in terms of count but recorded negative MoM growth in value. Despite this, UPI continues to see widespread adoption amid a major push from the government.  Just days ago, it was reported that India was in talks with New Zealand to introduce the payments system in the Pacific country to improve trade, tourism  and the ease of business between two nations.  In August, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also proposed two new technology additions for the UPI which would enable users to make payments via mere conversation and through Near Field Communication (NFC). RIght afterwards, the central bank also increased the per transaction limit for UPI Lite to INR 500 from INR 200.

Over the past year or so, you’ve probably had conversations with friends, family, and coworkers about the rise of generative AI capable of making convincing text and imagery—but perhaps also about the hype and fear swirling around the technology. A poll out this week finds that worry over harmful effects of AI is outpacing the wow of helpful AI. A majority of Americans say their concern about artificial intelligence in daily life outweighs their excitement about it, according to a Pew Research Center survey of more than 11,000 US adults. The results come at a time when a growing number of people are paying attention to news about AI in their daily lives. Pew has run this survey twice before and reports that the number of people more concerned than excited about AI jumped from 37 percent in 2021 to 52 percent this month. The balance of concern and excitement people reported varied between different use cases for AI. When asked how they felt about the police using AI for public safety, roughly half of respondents said they weren’t sure, with the rest evenly split between saying the technology would help or hurt. Many more people believed that AI would help doctors to provide quality care to patients, but it’s likely people would have different feelings about some specific applications of medical AI. Many would probably feel uncomfortable with a triaging algorithm making life-or-death decisions about who receives what treatment. Pew found the largest swing towards concern about hurtful AI when asking what impact the technology would have on the ability to keep their information private. That fits with how US activists, policy experts, and researchers who want to protect civil rights and hold businesses and governments using AI accountable often call for comprehensive data privacy protections. So far, Congress is yet to pass a privacy and data protection law. One impact of AI on daily life the survey didn’t ask about is the technology’s potential to help or hurt discrimination. Years of evidence show that AI systems can reinforce or amplify racism, sexism, or discrimination against the poor and people who identify as queer. But AI can also detect bias and prevent discrimination. Sennay Ghebreab, director of an AI lab at the University of Amsterdam, told me last year, “I’ve been working on this topic for a decade, and although it can be harmful to people, AI presents an opportunity to uncover hidden biases in society.” Pew’s findings raise the question of how people not working on AI themselves can retain any feeling of autonomy as the technology becomes more visible and powerful. I was struck by remarks earlier this month by former US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice, who at a recent Stanford event on AI described meeting a group of students visiting from Latin America who told her that AI feels like something that’s happening to them rather than technology they’re playing a role in shaping. That feeling, Rice said, may be more pronounced for people outside China, Europe, and the US. But plenty of people in those countries feel they don’t have enough agency in their own lives. And even people active in the fight against AI that enables human rights abuses can feel helpless or lose hope.

Microsoft has announced its decision to not offer its video-conferencing platform Teams with its productivity suite Officein the countries that are part of the Europe Union. The move is reportedly aimed to avoid a possible EU antitrust fine. In 2020, Salesforce-owned competing workspace messaging app Slack filed a complaint against Microsoft for bundling its products.After this complaint, theEuropean Commission started investigating the tech giant’s method of offering Office and Teams together. According to a report by Reuters, the proposed changes came a month after the investigation started. The company has decided not to offer Teams with its Office product to make it easier for competing products to work with its software. Microsoft’s latest move is similar to preliminary concessions that the company had offered last month when the EC investigation started. The report notes that these concessions failed to address regulatory concerns. The EU competition watchdog also said it took note of the company’s announcement.Last month, sources claimed that the European Commission could impose formal charges against Microsoft in the autumn unless the company improves its offer. Microsoft added Teams to Office 365 in 2017 for free. The video conferencing service replaced Skype for Business and gained in popularity during the pandemic.How this change will affect usersThese new changes will be effective October 1 and will apply in the European Union (EU) and Switzerland. Microsoft’s core enterprise customers include most of the company’s commercial businesses in Europe. The company will allow customers to switch to the version of Office that excludes Teams. However, the monthly subscription of this version will be 2 euros cheaper than the one that comes with Teams. New enterprise customers will also be able to buy Teams standalone and separately for 5 euros per month.To assist customers and independent software vendors in removing data from Teams and using it in another product, the company will introduce new support resources. Microsoft will also develop a new method for hosting the Office web apps. Just like Teams, these apps will be hosted within competing apps and services.What Microsoft said about the situationIn a blog post, Microsoft’s VP for European government affairs, Nanna-Louise Linde stated: “Today we are announcing proactive changes that we hope will start to address these concerns in a meaningful way, even while the European Commission’s investigation continues and we cooperate with it.”Linde added that the changes seek to address two EU concerns, “that customers should be able to choose a business suite without Teams at a price less than those with Teams included and that we should do more to make interoperability easier between rival communication and collaboration solutions and Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites”.