| | | Good morning Opening thoughts. The mutant wolves of Chernobyl have genetically evolved enough to be protected against cancer. I landed on a report that biologists from Princeton University have studied wolves in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) for a decade, and found they’re thriving compared to neighbouring wolf packs. One of the reasons, of course, is limited human interaction. The main one, as it turns out, are genetic mutations that protect against cancer. Why is this important, you may ask? In many habitats, including the context underlining the CEZ, wolves sit at the top of the food chain. This means, these wolves have been eating irradiated prey that also ate irradiated plants that grew out of irradiated soil. It’s a complete circle. The next step is to work with cancer specialists to see how these cancer immune response or anti-tumor immune response findings could be relevant for humans, if at all. Not the first study in the CEZ. In 2023, scientists from the University of South Carolina and the National Human Genome Research Institute analysed the DNA of 302 feral dogs living near the nuclear fallout area, and when compared with others habitating 10 miles away, notable genome alterations became clear. In 2016, scientists had also noted that the Eastern tree frogs (Hyla orientalis), usually green in color, have a black colour within the CEZ — the theory being this mutation in melanin helps reduce the effects of surrounding radiation. Some context, it was on April 26, 1986, when disaster struck the Ukrainian-Belarusian border town of Chernobyl, then part of the Soviet Union. It's been 40 years since, the CEZ as it is called and roughly 1,000 square mile perimeter around the disaster-hit nuclear plant, has become a real-world science experiment towards understanding any long-term effects of radiation. Humans abandoned the area in the tragedy's aftermath, but generations of animals have remained over time. They now provide the answers scientists seek. Last week on Wired Wisdom: Paying more for OTT, PC ownership question and expensive memory | | EDITOR’S CORNER: RAZORPAY’S LEAP FORWARD Razorpay POS, the offline payments arm of fintech major Razorpay, has received the Offline Payment Aggregator (PA-P) licence from RBI. This may not seem like a major development at first glance (or at the most, a regulatory headline), but I’ll tell you exactly why it is. At a basic level, the licence allows Razorpay to legally collect, route and settle offline, in-store payments, that is POS terminals, QR payments, card-present transactions, within the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. In the past few years, the regulator has tightened rules for the payments net, particularly around security, and only the most robust have remained in the space. Razorpay now holds all three foundational RBI permissions — online payment aggregation, offline aggregation, and cross-border payments. Only a few players can say that today. In the Indian context, this is a big win for Razorpay since this is still largely an offline-first economy. Offline payments aren’t just about accepting money, because they can be as much about understanding consumer habits, offering credit, and managing settlements. This now pits Razorpay in direct competition with Pine Labs, PayU, PhonePe, Paytm and others, for India’s offline transaction gateways. Pine Labs remains the heavyweight, with significant presence at large retail formats (I’m sure you’d have noticed those white coloured POS machines), while Paytm and PhonePe dominate UPI-driven merchant acceptance. On the cross border payments front, Razorpay continues to compete with the likes of PayPal, Stripe and others. The PA-P license gives Razorpay a certainty, a broader product portfolio, and the chance to be a payments backbone for its merchant and enterprise customers. That’s no mean feat. | | CAR CORNER: HARMAN’S POWERING THE TATA SIERRA IN-CAR EXPERIENCE I’ve often talked about the synergies between tech companies and auto makers. Here’s another example. The new Tata Sierra, which we spoke about a few weeks ago, finds a rather significant foundation of the in-cabin experiences, in the prowess of HARMAN. The brand, in case you hadn’t realised, is the one behind iconic names such as Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, and the more familiar JBL as well as AKG. Tata Motors says that everything from 5G-ready telematics, safety features including emergency calls and stolen vehicle tracking, infotainment that includes HD streaming, connected services for over-the-air updates and remote diagnostics, as well as the smart conformal antenna that improves network performance, are all part of the HARMAN Ready Connect suite. Think about it, more and more vehicles are now claiming a lot with their in-cabin experiences, but I firmly believe what you draw value from and therefore the choice of buying a car remains subjective. I may not want gaming support with game controller compatibility in my car’s infotainment system, but you may. We may all find MapmyIndia’s native in-vehicle maps solution very relevant. That’s the variety Tata is going for, in the Sierra, with HARMAN’s partnership. As Suman Sehra, VP, Portfolio Management, Connectivity at HARMAN International, aptly summarised it, “This partnership demonstrates how a modern, product-driven approach and collaborative engineering can unlock transformational value for global automakers and consumers alike.” Do check out my other newsletter, Neural Dispatch | | SECOND THOUGHTS: MICROSOFT REDESIGNS “OPT-IN” Two things before I inevitably talk about Microsoft messing things up, again. And no, I’m not talking about the third major bug that the Windows 11 update for January has introduced — this one breaks a PC’s ability to boot up (Bless us all). I am specifically talking about the automatic update of your work location on Microsoft Teams, a feature that hasn’t really impressed anyone, and is now delayed till March of this year. “When users connect to their organization's Wi-Fi, Teams will soon be able to automatically update their work location to reflect the building they're working from,” notes the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Basically, this is the chronology - don’t worry, it's “off by default” > oh hang on, I can’t enable or disable it > No, the admin in your organisation’s IT can. The end user has zero control. That’s perhaps the new definition of “opt-in”, as designed by Microsoft. They are on a roll. | | | | Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | Written and edited by Vishal Shanker Mathur. 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