Founded in 2015, Lithium Urban is a zero-emission transport service that provides connected EV fleets and associated charging infrastructure to institutions, companies and other private entities.

Moreover, Lithium Urban is planning to deploy SUVs for inter-city corporate transportation services or for the use of senior officials of its clients.

Recently, Tata Motors has also partnered with Lithium Urban to provide 400 Tigor electrics for the latter’s fleet by the end of this fiscal year.

Further, Lithium Urban is also eyeing an opportunity to foray into the public transportation system through a public-private partnership model.

For the EV charging infrastructure in the country, Lithium Urban has incorporated a joint venture to set up EV charging hubs from early next year. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575966607.5008647/Lithium-Urban-To-Expand-Its-EV-Fleet-To-Expand-Into-New-Segments?ref=audio_experience

Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who recently launched his AI startup Vianai Systems, has been nominated to the board of directors of global technology major Oracle.

Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka.

"The digital transformation of an enterprise is enabled by the rapid adoption of modern cloud applications and technologies, said Oracle CEO Safra Catz.

"Vishal clearly understands how Oracle's Gen2 Cloud Infrastructure, Autonomous Database and Applications come together in the Oracle Cloud to help our customers drive business value and adapt to change," he said.

"I am excited to have the opportunity to join the Oracle Board and be part of this journey," Sikka added. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575964807.7078629/Vishal-Sikka-joins-Oracle's-board-of-directors?ref=audio_experience

Bengaluru-based insurtech startup, Digit Insurance, is said to be in talks to raise a fresh funding round of up to $80 Mn-$100 Mn.

Prior to this round, Digit has received total funding of $95 Mn from Fairfax Holdings.

Founded in 2016 by Kamesh Goyal, Digit Insurance is a tech-driven general insurance company building a technology platform that can offer customised insurance products at reduced costs and provide efficient customer service as well.

Yet the high customer acquisition costs and heavy regulations are a plague to the growth of digital insurance players amid the traditional players like LIC and GIC.

Here, Digit Insurance competes with the likes of Coverfox, Acko etc as it tries to gain a larger market share in the competitive landscape. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575963006.6834555/Digit-Insurance-May-Raise-Up-To-$100-Mn-At-A-Valuation-Of-Nearly-$900-Mn?ref=audio_experience

According to a MoneyControl report, the newly launched PCI Contactless Payments on COTS (CPoC) Standard and Supporting Validation Program will help merchants to use lab-tested PCI SSC’s NFC solutions to protect payment data.

Explaining about the new standard for COTS payments, PCI SSC officer Emma Sutcliffe said that PCI CPoC Standard provides security and test requirements for solutions that enable contactless payment acceptance on a merchant COTS device using an embedded NFC reader.

The PCI CPoC Standard also includes security requirements for vendors on how to protect payment data in CPoC solutions.

Moreover, PCI SSC has also published validated CPoC Solutions as a resource guide for merchants and users of the contactless payments service.

Another startup that is working in the contactless payments domain in the country, ToneTag, has also raised $1.3 Mn from an overseas investor, Tropical Star Limited. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575961205.8655343/PCI-SSC-Launches-New-Standards-To-Secure-NFC-Contactless-Payments?ref=audio_experience

Noida-based Mall91, a social commerce platform for vernacular users across Tier-II, III, IV, V cities, is set to acquire an ERP solutions provider StompMarket in a cash-and-stock deal.

Through this acquisition, Mall91 said it aims to empower its seller community with StompMarket’s state-of-the-art solutions including cloud-based inventory management, cross-channel selling support, procurement, order fulfillment, warehouse management, and more.

Nitin Gupta, Founder and CEO, Mall91, said,“With its strong co-founder team and tech-backed solutions, StompMarket is well-positioned to aid Mall91 in its push towards creating a holistic seller ecosystem.

With this acquisition, StompMarket will extend its robust tools and technologies to Mall91, allowing it to deploy high-quality ERP solutions and improving efficiencies for its sellers.

We aim to offer superior cataloging, channel management, inventory management, and warehouse management solutions to the company, considerably enhancing its value proposition. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575959405.5099154/Mall91-set-to-acquire-StompMarket-to-empower-its-sellers-with-ERP-solutions?ref=audio_experience

To change this narrative, blockchain and healthcare enthusiasts Gourish Singla and Axel Schumacher teamed up and formed Shivom three years ago.

Shivom is a platform which stores people’s DNA data, grants them complete ownership of their DNA, and set a marketplace for interested parties to approach DNA owners.

People can store their DNA data by uploading the file using a home testing kit.

One they have stored their DNA data, they will have the liberty to set permissions through Shivom’s explicit consent mechanism.

Shivom has created a brilliant ecosystem of genomics and is empowering the DNA owners by keeping their DNA knowledge secure and creating a marketplace for it. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575957607.9452977/There’s-money-you-can-make-selling-your-DNA.-Shivom-will-help-monetise-it?ref=audio_experience

BENGALURU: Global payments solution company Mastercard is hunting for talent in the field of artificial intelligence AI ) as it sees a steady growth of digital payments in India in the coming year.The company is looking for experienced professionals as well as beginners to fill new positions at its AI Garage, a newly-created strategic business unit based in Gurugram.Mastercard is also embarking on an expansion and reskilling programme focused on AI.

The India Technology Hub’s 2,200-strong team works with financial institutions, merchants as well as the fintech community to build future technologies in areas including digital payments, data solutions, financial inclusion, alternative payments and cybersecurity.“As the world makes a big shift towards all things digital, we are looking for talent mainly in AI.

We are putting employees through innovation forums, training them bottomup, so that they can build solutions for the company,” Misra said.Earlier this year, Mastercard said that it will invest an additional $1 billion in its India operations over the next five years, and about $350 million of that would go into setting up a local payments processing centre.

This centre, which is expected to be the first such outside the US, would be built to service markets including Southeast Asia and the APAC.

This investment will be on top of the $1 billion that Mastercard has already invested in India.Earlier this year, Mastercard had said that it will invest an additional $1billion in its India operations. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575955808.9873822/Mastercard-begins-hunt-for-AI-talent?ref=audio_experience

The first ever space mission to remove man-made debris from Earth’s orbit is due to launch in 2025 as part of an initiative that could herald the cleanup of more than 3,000 defunct satellites.

Swiss startup Clearspace was selected for the mission by the European Space Agency following a competitive tender, ESA said on its website Monday.The firm will embark on the project in March after submitting final proposals, with the initial contract aimed at establishing a new market for debris removal and in-orbit servicing, according to the agency.“Imagine how dangerous sailing the high seas would be if all the ships ever lost in history were still drifting on top of the water,” ESA Director General Jan Wörner said in the release.

“That is the current situation in orbit, and it cannot be allowed to continue.”Clearspace was founded by researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, or EPFL.

Chief Executive Officer Luc Piguet said space-debris removal is becoming increasingly pressing with the impending launch of mega-constellations made up of hundreds or even thousands of satellites.There are almost 2,000 live satellites in space, compared with 3,000 failed ones, ESA said.

Including all debris, there are about 21,000 pieces of at least 10 centimeters in size, according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575952225.0903385/There-are-about-21,000-pieces-of-space-debris.-Swiss-startup-Clearspace-will-lead-the-cleanup?ref=audio_experience

Now, as a boss, it is your responsibility to ensure your virtual teams work effectively and are productive.

However, in some cases, a leader may have little knowledge of how to handle his or her virtual teams to produce quality work.

Are you worried that no quality work will be delivered if your employees work from home?

However, on the side of virtual employees, communication is a bit tricky because the employees are based on different localities.

The system you choose should allow all the virtual teams to understand what others are doing. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575950410.7209346/Getting-Your-Remote-Team-To-Work-Effectively---Young-Upstarts?ref=audio_experience

The players are also trying to understand how their platforms can process anonymised personal dataIn the ongoing winter session of the parliament, the government is expected to table the draft of Personal Data Protection Bill.

The latest in the line are epharma startups, who have spent crores on marketing in the past few months.

It has been reported that the epharma startups are now concerned about the definition of ‘sensitive personal data’ which may impact how they seek information from their users.

For the uninitiated, the draft Personal Data Protection Bill had defined personal data as any data of a natural person which allows direct or indirect identifiability.

Sensitive personal data includes financial data, biometric data, positive additions such as religious and political beliefs, caste, intersex/transgender status, and official government identifiers like PAN etc. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1575948607.9632947/Sensitive-Data-Clause-In-Data-Protection-Bill-Worries-Epharma-Startups?ref=audio_experience