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How An Automobile Engineer Is Helping To Fight Against COVID-19

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How An Automobile Engineer Is Helping To Fight Against COVID-19

The world is currently going through an unprecedented crisis in the modern times.  A highly infectious virus named COVID-19 has been spreading throughout the world with almost every country in the world reporting positive cases.  The virus attacks the respiratory system and the infected person exhibits flu-like symptoms and can be fatal to old people or people with weak immune systems.  The virus spread so quickly that healthcare professionals are unable to keep up with the influx of cases and hospitals are filled to the brim with no room to accommodate more cases in some countries.  In the midst of this, there is an acute shortage of medical masks which come under personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and nurses. A normal surgical mask does not help with keeping the virus at bay and healthcare professionals require an N95 mask.  An N95 mask or N95 respirator is a particulate-filtering facepiece respirator that meets the N95 standard of the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health air filtration rating, meaning that it filters at least 95% of airborne particles.

The COVID-19 virus made its way to India and the central government sprung to action and imposed a nationwide lockdown for three weeks which began on March 24th,2020.  India also has a severe shortage of PPEs with many doctors and hospitals complaining about a lack of the masks. The shortage is partly due to the panic buying indulged by the public and also due to unavailability of masks.

Times like these always give way to extraordinary individuals who rise up to the occasion.  Abrar is one such individual who rose to the occasion. It all began when Abrar noticed the strain on the medical fraternity and the healthcare infrastructure due to lack of resources and PPEs.  This prompted Abrar into action and got him thinking about how to create a face shield at home with simple raw materials easily available. After some initial brainstorming and research on the internet, it took Abrar 24 hours to come up with a working design for a face shield.  

Abrar then put the prototype design on his Instagram handle and asked for feedback and support from his friends.  What began as a simple post ended up becoming something bigger as it garnered more and more attention, friends and strangers ended up contributing money to help Abrar produce more such face shields.  It took just one Instagram post for Abrar to collect two lakh rupees within 24 hours. Abrar has raised 3 lakh rupees so far which is roughly enough to produce 30,000 masks.

Abrar and a group of friends then came together to fine tune the design and with constant feedback from doctors, they were finally able to come up with a product that can be used by medical professionals.  However, increasing production comes with its own set of problems as it severely restricts logistics and manpower mobility due to the lockdown set in place. Abrar is however hopeful that he could obtain official passes which would let manpower to venture outside.

Abrar believes that public health care units are the highest priority when it comes to delivering his face shields.  The product received positive feedback and a lot of corporate companies working on essential services have contacted Abrar to buy the product for their on ground and field employees.  Abrar sells the product to corporates at double the cost of raw materials and the profit will be used to make more products to be given away for free to public healthcare units. Abrar wants to connect with representatives from each state to teach them how to make the face shield themselves and cater to their local markets and Bombay is already on board.  All communications happen via WhatsApp.

The team is currently working on two more designs which are costlier and involve higher quality raw materials.  Abrar is an automobile engineer based out of Bengaluru and works for Ather Energy and has a passion for racing bikes.  Abrar believes that more people need to be aware of how to make PPEs at home in order to help people who need it the most.

If you would like to be a part of this movement, you could contribute or get in touch with Abrar on his Instagram handle.  There is also a handy guide to make a face shield by yourself on a link on his profile.

https://www.instagram.com/abrar_bin_ayub/

 

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From Digital Wallet to Stock Market: MobiKwik Expands Its Horizons with New Brokerage Venture

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From Digital Wallet to Stock Market: MobiKwik Expands Its Horizons with New Brokerage Venture

MobiKwik is venturing into the stock broking sector with the launch of its subsidiary, MobiKwik Securities Broking Private Limited (MSBPL), following approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on March 3, 2025. This move aims to diversify MobiKwik’s offerings beyond its core digital payments services and compete with established players like Zerodha and Groww.

MSBPL will provide a range of brokerage services, including trading in shares, securities, commodities, and derivatives. The subsidiary has an initial capital of Rs 1 lakh, with plans for an additional Rs 2 crore investment to support its operations.

As MobiKwik enters this competitive market, it brings a substantial user base of 172 million and a merchant network of 5 million. Despite recent financial challenges, including a reported loss of Rs 55.2 crore in Q3 FY25, the company aims to leverage its existing infrastructure and user engagement to capture a share of the growing investment technology market, projected to reach $74 billion by 2030.

This strategic expansion aligns with MobiKwik’s broader goals of enhancing its financial service

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Strategic Shift: Nazara Sells Entire Stake in Sports Unity Amid Financial Challenges

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Strategic Shift: Nazara Sells Entire Stake in Sports Unity Amid Financial Challenges

Nazara Technologies has sold its entire 71.54% stake in Sports Unity Private Limited, the company behind the multiplayer quiz game ‘Qunami’, for INR 7.15 lakh. This divestment, effective March 25, 2025, signifies a strategic shift for Nazara, which had previously acquired a controlling interest in Sports Unity in 2019 for INR 7.5 crore.

The decision to offload the stake comes as Sports Unity has faced financial difficulties, reporting no active business operations and a negative net worth of INR 0.45 crore at the end of FY24. This move aligns with Nazara’s broader strategy to streamline its operations and concentrate on more profitable ventures within the gaming sector.

This sale follows Nazara’s recent divestment of a 94.85% stake in another subsidiary, Open Play, to Moonshine Technologies for INR 104.33 crore. Despite reporting record quarterly revenue of INR 544.7 crore in Q3 FY25, Nazara experienced a 53.5% decline in net profit year-over-year.

Nazara continues to focus on enhancing its portfolio through strategic acquisitions and investments in high-potential gaming platforms while navigating the competitive landscape of the gaming industry.

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Bengaluru’s Hypergro.ai Raises Rs 7 Crore to Enhance AI-Powered Advertising Solutions

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Hypergro.ai, a Bengaluru-based marketing technology startup, has raised Rs 7 crore in seed funding led by Silverneedle Ventures, with participation from Huddle, TDV Partners, HME Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, FiiRE, and angel investors. Founded in 2022 by Rituraj Biswas, Neha Soman, Abhijeet Kumar, and Arijit Mukhopadhyay, the company aims to revolutionize digital marketing by addressing challenges like high Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) and low Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

 

The startup leverages AI to create hyper-personalized video ads using user-generated content (UGC). The fresh capital will be used to enhance Hypergro.ai’s AI capabilities, expand operations, and build a specialized team focusing on data analysis, predictive algorithms, and automation.

 

Since its inception, Hypergro.ai has collaborated with over 70 brands, including several from Shark Tank India. The company’s innovative approach has led to its selection for Google’s Startups Accelerator: AI First (India) program in July 2024, providing access to critical training, mentorship, and state-of-the-art AI tools.

 

Hypergro.ai’s platform now supports a community of over 300,000 creators across India and has partnered with more than 100 brands, significantly enhancing its AI model’s accuracy and improving revenue generation for clients. As it continues to expand and refine its AI-powered marketing solutions, Hypergro.ai is set to transform the digital advertising landscape, offering businesses more effective and efficient customer acquisition and engagement strategies.

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