On everybody's mind: COVID-19 vaccines, Elon Musk’s Tesla and WhatsApp

Good morning!

Early yesterday morning, Serum Institute of India began dispatching the first batches of its COVID-19 vaccine Covishield to several cities across India, ahead of the government’s January 16 immunisation drive to 30 crore people. 

On Tuesday morning, as the temperature-controlled trucks loaded with Covishield, the Indian variant of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, left the SII gates in Pune, CEO Adar Poonawalla rightly called it a “historic moment” and an emotional one for him and his team.

The excitement and sense of purpose was palpable as the airlines, state and central government officials, local police, and airport and local authorities all came together to ensure the safe transportation of the vaccines in multiple locations.

They were all one with Adar Poonawalla in recognising this as a historic moment in the fight against the coronavirus.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling it the world’s largest inoculation programme, the government has already ordered 11 million doses, which will be first administered to frontline and healthcare workers. 

Tesla in India

Tesla has finally arrived in India. Elon Musk’s electric vehicle giant has made its much-awaited entry and registered its India subsidiary — Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited — in Bengaluru, reveal RoC filings.

This comes after several indications of a Tesla foray into India by Elon Musk — starting way back in 2018. Last year, he confirmed his plans to expand to India by 2021, and the launch of Tesla’s newest unit in India will, no doubt, bolster India’s plans to become a global EV manufacturing hub in the next five years. 

The Interview 

Multinational human resource consulting firm Randstad’s India CEO Paul Dupuis has come a long way, from having to sleep on a park bench to becoming a corporate honcho. What was supposed to be a six-month stint in Asia turned into a 30-year adventure for Paul, with his career arc spanning management consulting to recruitment roles, to becoming a CEO.

Here are some key takeaways you shouldn’t miss out on:

• Lessons from Canada
• Focusing on the job at hand
• Paul Dupuis’ leadership principles
• On writing about critical aspects of leadership

Startup Spotlight

SaaS startup GetNatty pivoted to roll out video-first shopping app amid lockdown

When the country was under lockdown and shopping spaces were closed, buyers and sellers were forced to find alternative means to connect. This led Kaizad Hansotia and Bheshaj Joshi to pivot GetNatty to develop a video-first shopping app. GetNatty.Live aims to position itself as a brand and sector-agnostic, vertical SaaS live video shopping solution.

News & Updates

• Online upskilling platform upGrad announced its entry into the Asia-Pacific region and appointed former Disney Head Zubin Gandevia as the chief executive for the forthcoming unit.

• The Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the three farm laws and set up a committee to resolve the impasse between the Centre and farmers' unions protesting at Delhi borders.

• Tata Motors said it will focus on launching several variants of affordable EVs as its market share in the overall passenger car segment rose to 7.7 percent. This helped the automobile manufacturer's stock price to jump 9.7 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

• Flipkart Leap, the startup accelerator programme of India’s leading ecommerce marketplace Flipkart, announced its first cohort of eight startups selected from 920 applications across five categories.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

"Somehow rejection doesn’t bother me. Even if someone says no to me 50 times, I will keep trying...You've to shamelessly pursue a goal and not worry about what the others are saying."

— Gaurav Munjal, Co-founder and CEO, Unacademy

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