Sapere Aude || The Quizarc Newsletter. Vol 8
Eighth edition of Quizarc's "week in review" newsletter
This is Business
🧮Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist.
Quizarc Insight
Willow, Google's quantum computing chip, takes five minutes to solve a problem that would currently take the world's fastest super computers ten septillion years to complete.
⚱ Donald Trump unveils new fragrance line 'Fight, Fight, Fight'.
Quizarc Insight
The fragrance has been cheekily named "Fight, Fight, Fight" - the famous words uttered by Trump after he was shot at during campaigning for the presidential elections. He had previously launched 'Never Surrender' gold sneakers.
₿ Bitcoin surpasses $100K in value for the first time.
Quizarc Insight
In 2021, El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender and their current investment is valued at over $600 million.
🚘 General Motors announced it will stop funding its Cruise robotaxi project, citing competition, costs, and time required to scale the business.
Quizarc Insight
GM, which owns Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac was the largest automaker in the world for 77 years before losing the top spot to Toyota in 2008.
🚘 Amazon, Hyundai team up to start selling cars online.
Quizarc Insight
The name "Hyundai" is a Korean word that translates to "modernity" in English.
📦 Amazon to launch 'Tez' for 15-min deliveries of daily products.
Quizarc Insight
In similar vein, Blinkit has launched Bistro, a 10 minute food delivery app.
🛒 Federal judge temporarily halts supermarket chain Kroger's proposed $25B acquisition of rival Albertsons.
Quizarc Insight
Kroger was founded in 1883 by 23-year-old Bernard Kroger, the fifth of ten children of German immigrants, with his life savings of $372.
🖥 Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, has been named Time's CEO of the Year.
Quizarc Insight
AMD stands for Advanced Micro Devices and was founded in 1969 by Jerry Sanders.
֎ OpenAI rolls out editing tool Canvas for all ChatGPT users.
Quizarc Insight
OpenAI also introduced Sora, a cutting-edge AI tool that transforms written commands into videos for premium ChatGPT users.
𝕏 X launches Aurora, a new image generator for Grok.
Quizarc Insight
Aurora follows in the footsteps of the company's earlier image generator, Flux, which was introduced in October.
▶️ MrBeast and T-Series subscribe to each other, ending their years-long subscriber rivalry.
Quizarc Insight
MrBeast is the only channel that has more than 300 million subscribers (336 million subscribers currently). T-series with 281 million and Cocomelon with 186 million subscribers completes the top 3 most subscribed channels on YouTube.
🤖 Reddit launches its in-house AI-powered search tool, Reddit Answers.
Quizarc Insight
Reddit's logo consists of a time-traveling alien named Snoo, a play on "What's new?"
📖 Shantanu Naidu, assistant to Ratan Tata, launched Bookies.
Quizarc Insight
The project encourages community reading to combat distractions from mobile phones and foster a reading habit.
📱 OnePlus commits Rs 6000 cr to India with Project Starlight.
Quizarc Insight
OnePlus was founded on by former Oppo vice-president Pete Lau and Carl Pei. Pei left in 2020 to start a new venture, Nothing.
✨ Carlos Tavares abruptly resigned as Stellantis CEO.
Quizarc Insight
The name of the company comes from the Latin verb stello, which means "to brighten with stars".
🚙 The Indian steelmaker JSW will launch its own electric-vehicle brand.
Quizarc Insight
JSW had earlier announced a $1.5 billion joint venture with SAIC Motor, the Chinese automaker behind the MG brand, to produce and sell MG EVs in India.
📢 Omnicom announced that it will buy rival Interpublic Group in a deal worth $13.25 billion.
Quizarc Insight
Omnicom and Interpublic Group are currently the third- and fourth-largest advertising companies respectively, behind Publicis and WPP.
🔎 Project Astra, Google’s previously announced answer to Siri or Alexa, is getting better at understanding text, audio, and visuals in real time.
Quizarc Insight
Astra uses Gemini 2.0’s built-in agent framework to answer questions and carry out tasks via text, speech, image, and video, calling up existing Google apps like Search, Maps, and Lens when it needs to.
🏍️ The Ultraviolette F99 is the fastest Indian-made motorcycle, with a top speed of 265 Kmph.
Quizarc Insight
Ultraviolette is a Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler, backed by TVS and Malayalam film actor Dulquer Salmaan among others.
🍕 Pizza Hut unveiled a new design concept that features a pizza-making station at the center of the restaurant, allowing customers to see employees make their orders.
Quizarc Insight
The iconic red roof has been the Pizza Hut's symbol since the 1970s and has been patented by the brand.
👓 Lenskart is building world’s largest eyewear manufacturing facility in Telangana’s Fab City.
Quizarc Insight
Peyush Bansal, a former Microsoft employee, founded Lenskart.com in 2010 along with Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi.
🛵 Bajaj Auto's CEO Rajiv Bajaj calls out Ola Electric after winning the Outstanding Company of the Year 2024 by remarking: “Ola to Ola hai, Chetak to shola hai”.
Quizarc Insight
Bajaj Chetak is the largest-selling EV scooter in Indi, having sold more than 3,00,000 units to date.
🥫 Veeba Foods' founder Viraj Bahl joins Shark Tank India.
Quizarc Insight
Founded in 2013, Veeba Foods began as a B2B supplier, providing sauces and condiments to major QSR chains such as Domino's.
𓇲 Chinese authorities launched an antitrust probe into US chip giant Nvidia.
Quizarc Insight
China is specifically looking at Nvidia’s acquisition of Mellanox Technologies — a $6.9 billion deal that closed back in 2020.
💸 MobiKwik's IPO, valued at Rs 572 crore was oversubscribed 119.38 times.
Quizarc Insight
MobiKwik was founded in 2009by husband and wife team Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku.
🪟 Microsoft’s latest data center design requires no extra water for cooling.
Quizarc Insight
This new design recycles its cooling water in a closed loop, meaning that after it is filled during construction, it should require no new input.
💲 David Bonderman, a private-equity pioneer who co-founded TPG, died at age 82.
Quizarc Insight
He was also one of the minority owners of the NBA's Boston Celtics as well as the co-founder of the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League.
📺 Warner Bros. Discovery restructures to split up streaming and cable businesses.
Quizarc Insight
This follows a similar split of Comcast which we covered in an earlier edition of Sapere Aude.
📰 BuzzFeed sells 'Hot Ones' studio in $82.5 million deal.
Quizarc Insight
BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti (brother of Chelsea Peretti of B-99 fame) and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content.
🛰 Sky Elements, a US-based drone company, has set a new Guinness World Record by orchestrating one of the largest drone light shows ever recorded.
Quizarc Insight
This marks their 11th Guinness World Record, surpassing their own record of 2,500 drones set just a week earlier.
MELA
🍿 Netflix got 900 people to play the Squid Game's iconic 'Red Light Green Light' game on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Quizarc Insight
You can play the Red Light Green Light game when you type Squid Game in Google!
🎄 Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the first song to top the Billboard Hot 100 in six distinct runs on the chart, and in six distinct years.
Quizarc Insight
Due to the song's lasting impact, Carey has been dubbed the "Queen of Christmas".
🎬 Payal Kapadia is the first Indian filmmaker to be nominated for Best Director at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards.
Quizarc Insight
The Malayalam-Hindi movie follows Prabha played by Kani Kusruti, a Mumbai nurse whose life is thrown into disarray when she receives a rice cooker from her estranged husband.
🍿 As per Google's Year in Search report, Stree 2 is the Most Searched Indian Film in 2024.
Quizarc Insight
It was followed by 12th Fail, Kalki 2898 AD, Laapataa Ladies and Hanu-Man.
⭐ Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directorial Heeramandi topped the IMDb's list of top 10 most popular web series of 2024.
Quizarc Insight
Prabhas and Deepika Padukone-starrer Kalki 2898 AD topped the list of top 10 most popular Indian movies this year
🧟 Danny Boyle's upcoming zombie flick, 28 Years Later, was shot over the summer with a bunch of adapted iPhone 15s.
Quizarc Insight
It follows the movies 28 days later and 28 weeks later (directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo).
🧙♂️ LOTR's anime prequel, The War Of The Rohirrim released in theatres.
Quizarc Insight
The War of the Rohirrim is set 183 years before Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and tells the story of Helm Hammerhand, a legendary king of Rohan, and his family as they defend their kingdom against an army of Dunlendings.
🎭 The Railway Men was awarded the best series at Filmfare OTT Awards 2024.
Quizarc Insight
Amar Singh Chamkila won the best film award.
📕 Haruki Murakami’s latest novel The City and its Uncertain Walls posed a significant translation challenge about how to represent the several words that mean “I” in Japanese with just the one in English.
Quizarc Insight
The book switches between two narrators, a teen and an adult. In the original, the first-person pronoun alternates between boku, representing the teen, and the more formal watashi for the man.
🤡 Stephen King's Maine radio stations will go silent on New Year's Eve.
Quizarc Insight
King used to perform with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band that featured literary icons.
🎸 After nearly two years and 152 shows across five continents, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour took its final bow in Vancouver.
Quizarc Insight
It is the highest-grossing tour of all time, the second-most attended (after Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour) and the first to earn over $1 billion in revenue.
⚔️ Lucasfilm has cast the Emmy-winning star of The Bear, Jeremy Allen White, in The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Quizarc Insight
The actor will voice Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba the Hutt,
🎥 Jude Law was honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Quizarc Insight
He was named after the Beatles' song "Hey Jude"
It’s in the game
⚽︎ LA Galaxy claim sixth MLS Cup with 2-1 Win over New York Red Bulls.
Quizarc Insight
Dejan Joveljić recorded the game-winning goal, while Inter Miami star Lionel Messi was named the 2024 MLS MVP.
🏆 Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 football World Cup.
Quizarc Insight
It was the only country to submit a bid in time for FIFA's deadline of 31 October 2023.
🏀 Time magazine named WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark as its 2024 Athlete of the Year.
Quizarc Insight
Since her college career, she has helped popularize women's basketball, a trend known as the "Caitlin Clark effect".
⛏ World’s first entirely AI-Generated game Oasis is now online.
Quizarc Insight
The game, lets players explore a 3D world filled with square blocks, mine resources, and craft items, just like the popular game Minecraft.
♟️ D Gukesh was crowned the youngest World Chess Champion after defeating China's Ding Liren.
Quizarc Insight
He earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 12 and remains the third-youngest grandmaster in the history of chess after Abhimanyu Mishra (USA) and Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine).
♞ Nine-year-old Delhi boy Aarit Kapil has become the youngest Indian to beat a chess Grandmaster.
Quizarc Insight
The youngest player in the world to beat a GM is Indian-origin Singapore boy Ashwath Kaushik who won against Jacek Stupa of Poland when he was just 8 years and six months old earlier this year.
🏏 Smriti Mandhana became the 1st woman cricketer to score 4 ODI centuries in a calendar year.
Quizarc Insight
In the inaugural WPL auction held in 2023, she was offered ₹3.4 crores by RCB, making her the highest-bid player in the auction and was also elected as the team's captain.
🏏 Jay Shah, Secretary of BCCI, has begun his tenure as ICC Chairman at 36, becoming the youngest to hold the position.
Quizarc Insight
He took over from Greg Barclay.
🏏 Bangladesh beat India by 59 runs in U19 Men’s Asia cup final.
Quizarc Insight
Bangladesh were the defending champions, having won their maiden title in 2023.
🏏 KKR’s most expensive pick In IPL 2025, Venkatesh Iyer revealed that he is pursuing PhD in finance.
Quizarc Insight
VVS Laxman Studied at a medical school for his undergraduate studies but chose cricket as a career.
🏏 England made history by becoming the first team to score 500,000 runs in Test cricket.
Quizarc Insight
Australia ranks second with 428,000 Test runs, while India is third with 278,751 runs.
⚽︎ Pavan Kampelli won India's first-ever bronze medal in eFootball at the 2024 Asian Esports Games in Bangkok.
Quizarc Insight
Pavan is known as ‘Mr Tomboy’ in gaming circles.
🏸 PV Sindhu claimed her 3rd title at the Syed Modi International Super 300.
Quizarc Insight
Lakshya Sen won his first Syed Modi title in men's singles, beating Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore.
🏎️ Lewis Hamilton ended his 12 years tryst with Mercedes with a fourth-place finish in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Quizarc Insight
Hamilton is set to join Ferrari from 2025 onwards.
⚾ Juan Soto has signed the richest contract in professional sports history.
Quizarc Insight
The MLB superstar agreed to a 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets, surpassing the 10-year, $700 million contract Shohei Ohtani received from the Los Angeles Dodgers last year.
General
🏦 India’s revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra has been chosen as the new governor of the RBI.
Quizarc Insight
Malhotra will replace Shaktikanta Das who was the second-longest-serving RBI Governor, behind Benegal Rama Rau who served for 7.5 years. Malhotra is an IIT graduate and an Indian Administrative Service Officer of 1990 Batch, Rajasthan Cadre.
₹ To tackle liquidity concerns, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) was reduced by 50 basis points to 4% by RBI.
Quizarc Insight
Cash reserve ratio is a certain percentage of cash that all banks have to keep with the RBI as a deposit.
👱 Donald Trump was named Time Person of the Year for the second time.
Quizarc Insight
While many people have been given the title twice, only Franklin D. Roosevelt has won it three times
🥐 France's National Assembly voted to oust conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
Quizarc Insight
Barnier's government lasted only three months—the shortest-lived government in France's history.
🕍 Notre-Dame Cathedral rises from the ashes in grand reopening ceremony.
Quizarc Insight
The Crown of Thorns, an ancient relic said by some to have been placed on the head of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion was also returned to Notre-Dame.
🗳 The Union Cabinet approved the implementation of the ‘One Nation, One Election’ bill.
Quizarc Insight
It aims to conduct simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, and local bodies in a phased approach.
💧 The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered frozen water in a distant protoplanetary disk, located outside our Solar System.
Quizarc Insight
The protoplanetary disk, designated as 114-426, is situated in the Orion Nebula, a vast star-forming region approximately 1,300 light-years away from Earth.
☄️ Scientists say that earth’s oceans were formed by comets.
Quizarc Insight
A new study suggests that comets, particularly those from the Jupiter family, may have played a significant role in delivering water to Earth.
🤘 Dharmendra Pradhan launched India's first sign language TV channel, Channel 31, to promote accessible education for students with hearing disabilities.
Quizarc Insight
This was done as part of the PM-eVidya initiative.
☭ Kyrgyzstan announced that it would change its national anthem, saying the one it has is too Soviet.
Quizarc Insight
After Kyrgyzstan became independent following the fall of the USSR in 1991, it changed the lyrics of its existing anthem, but the country’s president now says the words are too limited, only celebrating independence, not the “5,000-year-old history” of the Kyrgyz people.
🐅 Bangladesh has begun the process of erasing the image of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from its currency notes.
Quizarc Insight
Bangladesh Bank is printing new notes featuring the July uprising, the student-led protests that forced Mujibur’s daughter Sheikh Hasina to flee to India.
👨🏻🍳 Vikas Khanna’s restaurant Bungalow wins Michelin 2024 Bib Gourmand Award.
Quizarc Insight
Chef Vijaya Kumar’s South Indian restaurant Semma in New York City has retained its Michelin star.
🏛️ Following S.M. Krishna’s death Karnataka government declared three-day State mourning.
Quizarc Insight
Former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna considered ex-US President John F Kennedy as his 'political guru'. When Kennedy was elected President, he remembered the support of SM Krishna.
▲ Construction uncovers a 1,375-year-old pyramid in central Mexico; structure dates to the pre-Hispanic Metztitlán kingdom.
Quizarc Insight
Sudan has the most pyramids in the world, with around 220 known pyramids
🗺️ Austria dropped its veto on Bulgaria and Romania fully joining the European Union’s Schengen free-travel area.
Quizarc Insight
The Schengen zone first became a reality in 1985 and now includes most EU nations, as well as some non-EU countries, including Norway and Switzerland.
🌐 India joins 196 nations at the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh.
Quizarc Insight
The UNCCD, one of the three agreements from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, entered into force in 1996.
🌉 The New Pamban Bridge, India's first vertical lift railway sea bridge, is replacing the 105-year-old Pamban Bridge.
Quizarc Insight
The 2.05 km bridge, costing Rs 535 crore, features a fully automated vertical lift span for 22 meters of air clearance for ships.
☪ Syrian government falls in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family.
Quizarc Insight
Syria’s capital Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital for the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt.
🛢️ The Indian government abolished the windfall tax on crude petroleum, petrol, diesel, and Aviation Turbine Fuel.
Quizarc Insight
Introduced in July 2022 to curb excessive profits from oil companies during the Russia Ukraine war, the tax aimed to stabilize domestic supplies and fund welfare programs.
ོ Wisdom, the world’s oldest wild bird at 74 years old, a Laysan albatross, has made history by laying her first egg in four years.
Quizarc Insight
She laid the egg in Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in Hawaii.
Brand in focus
🦁Publicis
Snoop Dogg crowns Publicis as the top agency holding company. In addition, he suggested swapping the lion in Publicis’ logo for a dog wearing sunglasses!
Ad in focus
😴Wakefit and Prafull Billore collaborate to show how good sleep can turn bad luck around in an ad.
The panauti tag attached to MBA Chaiwala Prafull Billore kicked off after a viral selfie with cricketer Suryakumar Yadav. The following day, Yadav managed to score only 6 runs in India’s T20 match against Bangladesh.
Wakefit is now riding on this trend for its latest ad. In the ad, Billore, dressed as Santa gifts people a Wakefit mattress to ensure that they have good sound sleep in the New Year.
Pop culture recommendation
💯One Hundred Years of Solitude
Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, based on the 1967 novel by Gabriel García Márquez is a faithful adaptation. The series was filmed with the support of García Márquez's family, who requested that it be shot in Colombia, with Colombian actors, and in Spanish.
Bonus: What did the king of horror do with his paycheck for a prison escape masterpiece? Head over to Quizarc’s Instagram page to know more!
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!