Elon Musk Challenges Twitter’s CEO for a Public Debate  

Here are the top trending stories from the world of technology. News that we feel every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.

1)

Elon Musk Challenges Twitter’s CEO for a Public Debate  

Elon Musk has thrown an open challenge to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to have a public debate over the issue of fake accounts. Tweeting on his Twitter handle, the Tesla CEO further said that if Agrawal is able to prove during the public debate that fake accounts on Twitter constitute not more than 5% then he will go ahead and buy the company on the original terms. Agrawal has still not responded to Musk’s open challenge. Irrespective of whether this public debate takes place or not, Musk will have to fight a legal battle against Twitter in the courtroom. The much-anticipated legal battle is all set to start in October this year.

2)

Binance cut ties with Wazrix after money laundering charges

The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance has categorically said that it does not own crypto exchange company Wazrix. Binance’s CEO said on Twitter that Wazrix shares were never transferred to the company and nor does Binance has any control over the day-to-day operations of Wazrix. Binance has further stated in its official blog that the 2019 agreement was only meant to acquire Wazrix’s certain ‘assets’ and ‘intellectual property’ and not the entire company. This surprising disclosure comes in the wake of an ongoing ED investigation against Wazrix over money laundering charges. It now appears that Binance wants to distance itself from Wazrix due to ongoing money laundering investigation.

3)

Paytm’s loss swells by 69% in 1^st Quarter

India’s largest digital payment company Paytm clocked a loss of over Rs 600 crore in the 1^st quarter of FY22, which is nearly 69% increase on a year-on-year basis. Although Paytm saw a quantum jump in its loss on account of higher expenses, its revenue grew by an impressive 89% on a year-on-year basis and clocked a consolidated revenue of Rs 1,679 crore during the 1^st quarter. Despite clocking a loss in the first quarter, Paytm’s CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that he is confident that Paytm will achieve operational profitability by September 2023. Paytm’s stocks made debut on the Dalal Street in November last year with much fanfare but its IPO proved to be a disaster.

4)

Apple planning iPhone 14 Production Simultaneously in India and China  

In a first, the tech giant Apple has reportedly planned a simultaneous production of its upcoming iPhone 14 both in its India and Chinese plants. Usually, manufacturing plants based outside China take several months before they are given green to produce new models. If there is any truth in this report then it is pretty clear that India now assumes greater importance in Apple’s manufacturing plan. Apple’s long time manufacturing partner Foxconn is also reportedly planning to set up a chip manufacturing plant in India. All these obviously spells good news for the Indian government’s made-in-India ambition.

5)

Now book an Uber cab directly from WhatsApp

Ride hailing major Uber has struck a partnership with instant messaging platform WhatsApp. Thanks to this partnership, now WhatsApp users in India can directly book an Uber ride from WhatsApp itself. The users need to just drop a request for a ride and a WhatsApp’s chatbot will ask required details for booking a ride. This obviously means that you now don’t have to separately go to the Uber app and book a ride for yourself. However, mind you, this feature is currently in beta testing and is available only in a few pockets of Delhi NCR region. Whatsapp is apparently planning to diversify its features beyond instant chatting. Last year, the platform rolled out the much awaited UPI payment feature.