Safety alarm for women; Homemakers aren’t ‘idle’

Hello,

Online stockbroking company Groww on Saturday unveiled a new range of products to leverage AI to expand its business. The products include an AI investing assistant, which reads markets, tracks news sentiment and provides personalised insights based on users’ portfolio, and Groww Prime, which is designed to help users better manage their investments in mutual funds.

Elsewhere, Berkshire Hathaway, in its fourth quarter and the final one under Warren Buffett as CEO, reported a decline in operating earnings. This was largely due to a slowdown in the conglomerate’s insurance business. Earnings from operations were at $10.2 billion in Q4, a drop of 29% from $14.56 billion in the year-earlier period, CNBC reports.

Moving on to the world of technology, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said late last week it has reached an agreement with the US Department of War. As part of the deal, the company will deploy its AI models on classified cloud networks. 

The news comes at a time when AI company Anthropic is in a tough spot as the US President Donald Trump has said he would direct every federal agency to immediately stop using technology from the company. Anthropic previously refused to give the US military complete access to its AI tools.

Lastly, while ChatGPT has emerged as one of the most visited websites in the world recently, Google and YouTube remain the backbone of the internet. Google alone draws more traffic than the next five platforms combined. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Safety alarm for women
• Homemakers aren’t ‘idle’

Here’s your trivia for today: What nationality was author Jules Verne?

Social Impact

Safety alarm for women

Women across India are conditioned to stay vigilant at all times and avoid public spaces at certain times of the day. For generations, advice on personal safety has been about not doing things, with restrictions often cloaked in protection.

Sindhuja Sura, a young entrepreneur from Bengaluru, wants to change this. Her startup, BoomBird, launched India’s first rechargeable personal safety alarm brand in May 2024. It emits a 130-decibel siren, loud enough to disorient an attacker, create panic, and buy a woman the critical seconds she needs to escape.

Stay safe:

• BoomBird comes in three variants—BoomBird Echo, BoomBird Aero, and BoomBird Pebble. These can be easily clipped onto handbags or clothing without drawing attention.
• Safety alarms were not new to India when BoomBird launched. But Sura identified a critical flaw in every existing product on the market: they all used replaceable batteries.
• BoomBird’s alarm is rechargeable, with a low-charge indicator and up to 120 minutes of siren time on a full charge.

Insight

Homemakers aren’t ‘idle’

The Delhi High Court recently observed that the assumption that a non-earning spouse is ‘idle’ reflects a misunderstanding of domestic contribution. The court order read, “A homemaker does not ‘sit idle’; she performs labour that enables the earning spouse to function effectively. To disregard this contribution while adjudicating claims of maintenance would be unrealistic and unjust.” 

The observation did more than correct a legal argument. It called out bias when it comes to non-paid labour at home.

Key takeaways:

• Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma was dealing with a case of maintenance in a matrimonial dispute, in which the husband’s counsel argued that the wife cannot sit “idle” and claim maintenance. 
• The court upheld the wife’s plea, setting aside the magistrate’s and appellate court’s orders under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act that had denied her interim maintenance.
• The Time Use Survey, conducted by the Government of India, has repeatedly shown that women spend significantly more hours on unpaid domestic and caregiving work than men do. 

News & updates

• Truth social: Trump Media & Technology Group is considering spinning off its social media platform Truth Social into a publicly traded company. The company is in discussions with TAE Technologies and Texas Ventures Acquisition III about the proposed transaction.
• Health: According to a study that looked at data of 1.8 million people over many years, vegetarians have a substantially lower risk of five types of cancers. The research found that vegetarians had a 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer, a 12% lower risk of prostate cancer and a 9% lower risk of breast cancer compared with meat eaters.

What nationality was author Jules Verne?

Answer: French

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