Sapere Aude #2

Quizarc
Oct 30, 2024
10 min read

This is business!

⭐ JioHotstar domain was bought by an app developer who wants Reliance to sponsor his higher studies. He sold the website to two UAE kids later.

Quizarc Insight:

Reliance had struck an $8.5 billion deal with Walt Disney to merge Star India and Viacom18 in February this year. In the merged entity, Reliance will hold a 56% stake, Walt Disney will retain 37%, and Bodhi Tree Systems, owned by Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, will hold 7%.

📃 Ratan Tata Will: Loan waiver for Shantanu Naidu and lifelong care for German shepherd, Tito.

Quizarc Insight:

Tata also relinquished his stake in Naidu’s companionship venture, Goodfellows which aims at providing meaningful companionship to seniors through young, educated graduates (Not to be confused with Martin Scorsese’s gangster film Goodfellas).

✈️ Boeing workers have rejected the new contract and extended their strike.

Quizarc Insight:

More than 33,000 machinists at Boeing are currently on strike, demanding better wages. Boeing also reported a $6 billion quarterly loss. New CEO Kelly Ortberg acknowledged the challenges and is planning layoffs and funding strategies to avoid bankruptcy.

The Boeing Airbus duopoly resulted from a series of mergers within the global aerospace industry, with Airbus beginning as a pan-European consortium while the American Boeing absorbed its former arch-rival, McDonnell Douglas, in 1997. Other manufacturers, such as Lockheed Martin and Convair in the United States, and British Aerospace and Fokker in Europe, were no longer able to compete and effectively withdrew from this market.

🚗Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automaker, is planning to shut down factories in Germany and lay off thousands of employees because of Chinese competition.

Quizarc Insight:

In May 1937, Adolf Hitler's party founded a state-owned company that was later named Volkswagen, or 'The People's Car Company'. Hitler himself asked Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the Porsche car company, to design it.

‍⚖️ SC sets aside NCLAT order on Rs 158-crore settlement with BCCI.

Quizarc Insight:

In July, the NCLT had started the insolvency proceedings after BCCI alleged that Byju’s had defaulted on ₹ 158 crore. But the NCLAT halted the proceedings after Byju’s claimed that it had reached an agreement to pay BCCI towards outstanding dues. But Glas Trust, while alleging that the money was siphoned from them, had moved the apex court.

The Indian team was sponsored by BYJU's from September 2019 until March 2023, OPPO from May 2017 until August 2019, Star India from January 2014 until March 2017,Sahara India Pariwar from June 2001 until December 2013 and ITC Limited (with Wills and ITC Hotels brands) from June 1993 until May 2001.

🏎️ Raymond chairman Gautam Singhania slammed Lamborghini for not responding to his complaints.

Quizarc Insight:

The origin story of Lamborghini also started with a dissatisfied customer. Ferruccio Lamborghini, a successful tractor manufacturer and a Ferrari owner, was not satisfied with his Ferrari and walked up to Enzo Ferrari with suggestions to improve the car. The discussion was short and unpleasant, driving Ferruccio furious enough to start his own car manufacturing.

🛻 Tesla’s Cybertruck has reached profitability for the first time.

Quizarc Insight:

According to Musk, the design of the Cybertruck was inspired by Blade Runner and "Wet Nellie", the Lotus Esprit driven by James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, which doubled as a submarine.

📱 Indonesia has banned the sale and use of iPhone 16 series as a direct result of Apple's unmet investment commitments in the country.

Quizarc Insight:

The first public call made from an iPhone was made by Steve Jobs during the live demo of the first iPhone. He called a Starbucks and ordered 4,000 lattes; then said 'just kidding'.

🤳 China's first fully home-grown mobile operating system HarmonyOS NEXT was launched by Huawei.

Quizarc Insight:

Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in the People's Liberation Army.

In 2022, USA banned sales or import of equipment made by Huawei out of national security concerns, and other countries such India, Japan, and ten European Union states have since also banned or restricted Huawei products

🏦 Indian fintech Slice completed its merger with North East Small Finance Bank.

Quizarc Insight:

Slice was founded by Rajan Bajaj in 2016 and was named so because of the unique feature of slicing a particular amount or bill into three without having to pay anything extra.

North East Small Finance Bank Limited is the wholly owned subsidiary of RGVN Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN) Microfinance Limited.

🍦 Hindustan Unilever has decided to spin off its ice cream business amid strategic restructuring.

Quizarc Insight:

HUL’s lineup includes well-known brands like Kwality Wall’s, Cornetto, and Magnum, which together contribute around 3% of its annual revenue of over ₹60,000 crore.

HUL was established in 1931 as Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Co. and Dalda was one of their most profitable brands.

📍 City Guide app by Foursquare is going to be replaced with new Swarm app.

Quizarc Insight:

Foursquare was created in late 2008 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.

Official foursquare day is celebrated every year on April 16th (because 4^2 = 16, geddit?)!

🤖 OpenAI has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) system called Strawberry which is capable of reasoning!

Quizarc Insight:

The name “Strawberry” as the code name for OpenAI's model is linked to the question “How many r's are in the word Strawberry” which the AI didn’t seem to get correctly!

🥤 Keurig Dr Pepper is buying the Henderson-based energy drink brand GHOST in a deal valued at $1 billion.

Quizarc Insight:

GHOST is an American brand of supplements and energy drinks founded in 2016 by Ryan Hughes and Daniel Lourenco. Their trendy-style marketing targets fitness enthusiasts, gamers, and thrill seekers.

MELA

🍿 Serum Institute of India’s Adar Poonawalla, via Serene Productions bought 50% stake in Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions.

Quizarc Insight:

Serum Institute of India is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume. It partnered with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and University of Oxford for developing the Covishield vaccine.

🕵🏻 CID will return on Sony TV soon after six years.

Quizarc Insight:

Created by B. P. Singh, CID is one of the longest-running television series in Indiawith 1547 episodes in the first season.

️ ▶️ CarryMinati leads India’s biggest YouTube collab with 14 creators in hilarious Mr Beast parody.

Quizarc Insight:

Real name of famous Youtubers:
CarryMinati: Ajey Nagar
MrBeast: James Donaldson
Technical Guruji: Gaurav Chaudhary
Beer Biceps: Ranveer Allahbadia
PewDiePie: Felix Kjellberg

🎭David Dhawan was ready to leave Varun Dhawan on London streets because he wanted to watch Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and not Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.

Quizarc Insight:

KKHH won 8 Filmfare Awards and was the only film to win all four acting awards (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress) until Gully Boy achieved the feat in 2020.

🍿 The Lady Killer, one of Bollywood's biggest flops in recent years, lands silently on YouTube.

Quizarc Insight:

Made on a budget of ₹45 crore, it only earned ₹0.01 crore in its lifetime of one week. Director Ajay Bahl admitted that his movie was incomplete: “To confirm, yes the movie is incomplete. 30 pages of the 117 page screenplay were never shot.”

💦Singles got free water bottles from Jeevansathi at Diljit's Delhi concert.

Quizarc Insight:

In April 2023, Dosanjh performed at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, making him the first Indian artist to do so.

📺 ‘Bluey’ Is most-watched Show in U.S. For 2024.

Quizarc Insight:

The adventures of Bluey, an anthropomorphic six-year-old Blue Heeler puppy has racked up 35 billion minutes watched in 2024 alone.

🧛 Tom Holland is going to star in Christopher Nolan’s next film, rumored to be a vampire movie set in the 1920s.

Quizarc Insight:

Christopher Nolan’s last venture, the global blockbuster Oppenheimer, headlined by Cillian Murphy, was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, winning seven in prominent categories, including Best Director– the first ever for the filmmaker.

👨 Ron Ely, best known for playing the role of Tarzan in the 1960s television show has died aged 86.

Quizarc Insight:

Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes.

Tarzan’s origin story goes like this: soon after his parents' death, Tarzan became a feral child, and his tribe of apes is known as the Mangani, great apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother.

🧙🏻‍♀️ Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, a spin-off and sequel to Wizards of Waverly Place series featuring Selena Gomez, premiered on Disney Channel.

Quizarc Insight:

The series revolves around a powerful young wizard named Billie, who comes to Justin Russo in search of training. Selena Gomez resumes her character of Alex Russo.

🎤 Google Doodle paid tribute to KK on his Bollywood debut anniversary.

Quizarc Insight:

On October 25, 1996, the late singer's first Bollywood song, Chhod Aaye Hum, was released. The song was featured in Gulzar's political thriller Maachis.

It’s in the game!

⚽ Spain and Manchester City midfielder Rodri won the 2024 Ballon d’Or award in the male category.

Quizarc Insight:

Aitana Bonmati won the women’s Ballon d’Or after having led Barcelona Femeni to a treble winning season and having won the Women’s World Cup with Spain.

Lionel Messi has won Ballon d'Or award for the most times (8) while five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo earned the most nominations with eighteen.

🏏 Australia's captain in last India tour, Matthew Wade retired and was immediately announced as Australia's keeping and fielding coach.

Quizarc Insight:

At the age of 16, Wade was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and received two rounds of chemotherapy before he was cleared of the disease.

🏏 Zimbabwe sets the record for highest T20I total.

Quizarc Insight:

Zimbabwe posted a record-breaking total of 344/4, led by Sikandar Raza's unbeaten 133 off just 43 balls in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Africa Sub-Regional Qualifier B match against Gambia. India’s recent 297/3 against Bangladesh is now the third highest T20I score.

🎾 Armaan Bhatia defeated American star Dusty to win the first major pickleball event in India.

Quizarc Insight:

Pickleball was created in 1965 by Joel Pritchard and two of his friends, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell. According to Joan Pritchard, Joel Pritchard's wife, "The name of the game became Pickle Ball after I said it reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats." Similarly, the game of pickleball was created from leftover equipment from several sports; a badminton court, table tennis paddles, a wiffle ball and a net height like that of tennis.

🏑 Hockey legend Rani Rampal announced her retirement from hockey.

Quizarc Insight:

Hockey India has retired the Jersey No.28 to honor Rani.

🏁 Carlos Sainz Jr. claimed victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix, marking his second win of the season.

Quizarc Insight:

Sainz will leave Ferrari at the end of the 2024 season to join Williams, a British Formula One team and constructor founded by Sir Frank Williams and Sir Patrick Head.

⛹🏾‍♂️ Teammates LeBron and Bronny James make history as the NBA's first father-son duo.

Quizarc Insight:

The elder James, who was in his second NBA season when Bronny was born, began his record-tying 22nd season this week. The 39-year-old is the league’s all-time leading scorer with four NBA championships and four NBA MVP titles under his belt.

🧢 Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run baseball sold at an auction for a record-breaking $4.39m.

Quizarc Insight:

Ohtani played as designated hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers and became the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season.

💪 TKO Group, which owns WWE and UFC, went on a $3.25B acquisition spree, buying three sports businesses including Professional Bull Riders, the world’s largest bull riding league.

Quizarc Insight:

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel is the CEO of TKO and Mark Shapiro serves as president and chief operating officer. Nick Khan became the president of WWE post-merger and Dana White has since served as CEO of the UFC.

💃 Viral Olympian Raygun ranked No. 1 breaker in the world by sport’s governing body.

Quizarc Insight:

Rachel Gunn claimed the top spot in the latest women’s rankings released by the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) – the governing body of breaking and other dancesports.

Raygun’s performances failed to score any points across her Olympic battles against breakers from the United States, France and Lithuania in August, losing 18-0 in all three rounds.

General

🧑‍⚖️ Justice Sanjiv Khanna is going to be the 51st Chief Justice of India.

Quizarc Insight:

Khanna is the nephew of a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Hans Raj Khanna, who propounded the basic structure doctrine in 1973 and famously delivered the lone dissenting judgement in the ADM Jabalpur v. Shiv Kant Shukla case, popularly known as the Habeas Corpus case.

🔢 After a four-year delay, the Indian government is set to launch the next census in 2025.

Quizarc Insight:

Originally scheduled for 2021, the census was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first complete census of India was taken in 1872 under Viceroy Lord Mayo.

🌲 India ranked 176 of 180 in 1st-ever Nature Conservation Index.

Quizarc Insight:

The top-ranking countries were Luxembourg, Estonia, and Denmark and Kiribati took the last spot. The report was released by Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change and BioDB.com.

🌍 NATO’s head warned that North Korea’s deployment of troops to a combat zone in Russia marks “a dangerous expansion” of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Quizarc Insight:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance of 32 member states established after World War II.

🎙️ Trump’s interview on The Joe Rogan Experience outperformed the World Series opener, attracting more viewers than the Yankees vs. Dodgers game.

Quizarc Insight:

The Joe Rogan Experience is the most popular podcast in the world with more than 11 million listeners per episode.

🔭 India inaugurated world’s highest imaging Cherenkov MACE telescope in Ladakh.

Quizarc Insight:

The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) observatory in Hanle is positioned at an elevation of over 4,300 meters, and aims to investigate cosmic phenomena such as supernovae, black holes, and gamma-ray bursts.

🕰️ A “leap second” may have to be subtracted from our clocks for the first time because the Earth’s rotation has sped up slightly since 1990.

Quizarc Insight:

A leap second was blamed for a major Reddit outage and airline delays in 2012 when computer systems glitched.

🌀 Severe cyclonic storm Dana spared Odisha, crossing the coast in Kendrapara district with a much-weakened intensity.

Quizarc Insight:

Cyclone Dana, named by Qatar, carries the meaning of "generosity" in Arabic. The name also symbolises "the most perfectly sized, valuable, and exquisite pearl" in Arabic.

Australian meteorologist Clement Wragge is credited with starting the tradition of naming tropical cyclones in the late 19th century.

🛣️ Brazil became the second BRICS country after India not to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative(BRI).

Quizarc Insight:

BRI, also referred to as the New Silk Road is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government to invest in more than 150 countries. The BRI is composed of six urban development land corridors linked by road, rail, energy, and digital infrastructure and the Maritime Silk Road linked by the development of ports.

Brand in focus!

🍲 Campbell's

Campbell's drops 'soup' from its company name

After more than a century, The Campbell Soup Company, whose soup cans were famously rendered iconic by Andy Warhol, is dropping "Soup" from its corporate name and adding an apostrophe.

The company was founded in 1869 as Anderson & Campbell and adopted its current name in 1922.

This rebranding is similar to Dunkin' Donuts became just Dunkin' back in 2019.

In addition to soups, Campbell's also owns a variety of familiar brands including Pepperidge Farm, Goldfish crackers, Prego and V8.

AD in focus

🥗Zomato

Zomato’s ‘Mission Diwali’ shows India shining brightly when food and fun come together.

Zomato’s Diwali ad, featuring Piyush Mishra looks behind the iconic ‘India on Diwali’ NASA photo, revealing the real-life stories that make it so special.

The quirky ad begins with a humorous exchange between a space-bound NASA astronaut and his boss, as the astronaut searches for India's Diwali lights. An elderly man and his grandchildren escalate their efforts to brighten their home, each attempt met with a disappointed ‘negative, sir’ from above. The arrival of a Zomato delivery partner, bearing a box of mithai, changes everything.

Pop culture recommendation:

👧🏻Dust Child

Set during the Vietnam war and in present-day Vietnam, this novel is a suspenseful and moving saga about two Vietnamese sisters, an American veteran, and an Amerasian man whose lives intersect in surprising ways. This book by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, the author of the bestseller, The Mountains Sing explores nuances of human emotion in the backdrop of turbulent times, making it an enticing read.

Bonus: If you want to know about the contentious origins of Kaju Katli, head over to our Instagram page!

And that’s a wrap for this edition of Quizarc’s Sapere Aude newsletter. Let us know about your opinions about it in the comments or by emailing at query@quizarc.com.

Subscribe to the newsletter and share it with your friends and family!

Wishing all the readers a very Happy Diwali!

Until next time.

Team Quizarc.

This is business!

⭐ JioHotstar domain was bought by an app developer who wants Reliance to sponsor his higher studies. He sold the website to two UAE kids later.

Quizarc Insight:

Reliance had struck an $8.5 billion deal with Walt Disney to merge Star India and Viacom18 in February this year. In the merged entity, Reliance will hold a 56% stake, Walt Disney will retain 37%, and Bodhi Tree Systems, owned by Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, will hold 7%.

📃 Ratan Tata Will: Loan waiver for Shantanu Naidu and lifelong care for German shepherd, Tito.

Quizarc Insight:

Tata also relinquished his stake in Naidu’s companionship venture, Goodfellows which aims at providing meaningful companionship to seniors through young, educated graduates (Not to be confused with Martin Scorsese’s gangster film Goodfellas).

✈️ Boeing workers have rejected the new contract and extended their strike.

Quizarc Insight:

More than 33,000 machinists at Boeing are currently on strike, demanding better wages. Boeing also reported a $6 billion quarterly loss. New CEO Kelly Ortberg acknowledged the challenges and is planning layoffs and funding strategies to avoid bankruptcy.

🚗Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest automaker, is planning to shut down factories in Germany and lay off thousands of employees because of Chinese competition.

Quizarc Insight:

In May 1937, Adolf Hitler's party founded a state-owned company that was later named Volkswagen, or 'The People's Car Company'. Hitler himself asked Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the Porsche car company, to design it.

‍⚖️ SC sets aside NCLAT order on Rs 158-crore settlement with BCCI.

Quizarc Insight:

The Indian team was sponsored by BYJU's from September 2019 until March 2023, OPPO from May 2017 until August 2019, Star India from January 2014 until March 2017,Sahara India Pariwar from June 2001 until December 2013 and ITC Limited (with Wills and ITC Hotels brands) from June 1993 until May 2001.

🏎️ Raymond chairman Gautam Singhania slammed Lamborghini for not responding to his complaints.

Quizarc Insight:

🛻 Tesla’s Cybertruck has reached profitability for the first time.

Quizarc Insight:

According to Musk, the design of the Cybertruck was inspired by Blade Runner and "Wet Nellie", the Lotus Esprit driven by James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, which doubled as a submarine.

📱 Indonesia has banned the sale and use of iPhone 16 series as a direct result of Apple's unmet investment commitments in the country.

Quizarc Insight:

The first public call made from an iPhone was made by Steve Jobs during the live demo of the first iPhone. He called a Starbucks and ordered 4,000 lattes; then said 'just kidding'.

🤳 China's first fully home-grown mobile operating system HarmonyOS NEXT was launched by Huawei.

Quizarc Insight:

Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in the People's Liberation Army.

In 2022, USA banned sales or import of equipment made by Huawei out of national security concerns, and other countries such India, Japan, and ten European Union states have since also banned or restricted Huawei products

🏦 Indian fintech Slice completed its merger with North East Small Finance Bank.

Quizarc Insight:

Slice was founded by Rajan Bajaj in 2016 and was named so because of the unique feature of slicing a particular amount or bill into three without having to pay anything extra.

North East Small Finance Bank Limited is the wholly owned subsidiary of RGVN Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN) Microfinance Limited.

🍦 Hindustan Unilever has decided to spin off its ice cream business amid strategic restructuring.

Quizarc Insight:

HUL’s lineup includes well-known brands like Kwality Wall’s, Cornetto, and Magnum, which together contribute around 3% of its annual revenue of over ₹60,000 crore.

HUL was established in 1931 as Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Co. and Dalda was one of their most profitable brands.

📍 City Guide app by Foursquare is going to be replaced with new Swarm app.

Quizarc Insight:

Foursquare was created in late 2008 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.

Official foursquare day is celebrated every year on April 16th (because 4^2 = 16, geddit?)!

🤖 OpenAI has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) system called Strawberry which is capable of reasoning!

Quizarc Insight:

The name “Strawberry” as the code name for OpenAI's model is linked to the question “How many r's are in the word Strawberry” which the AI didn’t seem to get correctly!

🥤 Keurig Dr Pepper is buying the Henderson-based energy drink brand GHOST in a deal valued at $1 billion.

Quizarc Insight:

GHOST is an American brand of supplements and energy drinks founded in 2016 by Ryan Hughes and Daniel Lourenco. Their trendy-style marketing targets fitness enthusiasts, gamers, and thrill seekers.

MELA

🍿 Serum Institute of India’s Adar Poonawalla, via Serene Productions bought 50% stake in Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions.

Quizarc Insight:

Serum Institute of India is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume. It partnered with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and University of Oxford for developing the Covishield vaccine.

🕵🏻 CID will return on Sony TV soon after six years.

Quizarc Insight:

Created by B. P. Singh, CID is one of the longest-running television series in Indiawith 1547 episodes in the first season.

️ ▶️ CarryMinati leads India’s biggest YouTube collab with 14 creators in hilarious Mr Beast parody.

Quizarc Insight:

Real name of famous Youtubers:

CarryMinati: Ajey Nagar

MrBeast: James Donaldson

Technical Guruji: Gaurav Chaudhary

Beer Biceps: Ranveer Allahbadia

PewDiePie: Felix Kjellberg

🎭David Dhawan was ready to leave Varun Dhawan on London streets because he wanted to watch Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and not Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.

Quizarc Insight:

KKHH won 8 Filmfare Awards and was the only film to win all four acting awards (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress) until Gully Boy achieved the feat in 2020.

🍿 The Lady Killer, one of Bollywood's biggest flops in recent years, lands silently on YouTube.

Quizarc Insight:

Made on a budget of ₹45 crore, it only earned ₹0.01 crore in its lifetime of one week. Director Ajay Bahl admitted that his movie was incomplete: “To confirm, yes the movie is incomplete. 30 pages of the 117 page screenplay were never shot.”

💦Singles got free water bottles from Jeevansathi at Diljit's Delhi concert.

Quizarc Insight:

In April 2023, Dosanjh performed at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, making him the first Indian artist to do so.

📺 ‘Bluey’ Is most-watched Show in U.S. For 2024.

Quizarc Insight:

The adventures of Bluey, an anthropomorphic six-year-old Blue Heeler puppy has racked up 35 billion minutes watched in 2024 alone.

🧛 Tom Holland is going to star in Christopher Nolan’s next film, rumored to be a vampire movie set in the 1920s.

Quizarc Insight:

Christopher Nolan’s last venture, the global blockbuster Oppenheimer, headlined by Cillian Murphy, was nominated for 13 Academy Awards, winning seven in prominent categories, including Best Director– the first ever for the filmmaker.

👨 Ron Ely, best known for playing the role of Tarzan in the 1960s television show has died aged 86.

Quizarc Insight:

Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes.

Tarzan’s origin story goes like this: soon after his parents' death, Tarzan became a feral child, and his tribe of apes is known as the Mangani, great apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother.