In Brief: Y Combinator picks 28 Indian startups for its winter batch; India, Sweden to work on transport innovation and safety platform

California headquartered accelerator platform Y Combinator has doubled the number of startups in India to around 28 from 14 previously, for its winter batch, The Economic Times reported. The move came at a time when the accelerator has decided to exit China, the report said. The YC batch usually consists of about 180-200 startups, out of which about 40% are from outside the US. The report revealed that the Indian startups will have a larger share among international startups of about 15% in the winter batch, as compared to 7% in the previous batch. Y Combinator’s portfolio includes 2,000 companies and over 20 unicorns including Airbnb, Stripe and Dropbox.

Y Combinator has backed several startups in their early stages. Last month, three Indian startups which include payment gateway Razorpay, income tax return filing platform Cleartax and social commerce platform Meeesho,  made it to the US-based Y Combinator’s top companies list of 2019.

Also Read: Y Combinator to hold India-specific interviews for Winter 2020 batch in Nov

IIM Calcutta conducts the second edition of entrepreneurship event Converge 2.0

Agriculture startup Yogitha Biofarming has won an award at the second edition of the Indian Institue of Management, Calcutta’s (IIM-Cs) flagship event Converge 2.0, run by IIM Calcutta’s entrepreneurship cell (E-Cell). The entrepreneurship event in Eastern India aims to influence and inspire budding entrepreneurs in the country, IIM-C said in a statement. The theme for the event was Transforming GenZ to job creators from job seekers. Yogita Biofarming is involved in promoting organic farming technology through the promotion and formation of Jaivik Seva Kendra (JSK). JSK is the one-stop agri-business centre which addresses catering and farming needs of farmers in remote areas

India, Sweden to work on transport innovation and safety platform

India and Sweden have come together to establish the Sweden-India Transport Innovation & Safety Platform (SITIS) as a long-term platform for innovation and a center for excellence in traffic safety research. The partners of the initiative come from a mix of universities, companies and technical authorities which include, Volvo Group, Autoliv, Ericsson, Manipal Hospitals, Altair, Saab and Tech Mahindra, India Institute of Science (IISc), Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Program, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (TRIPP, IIT-D) and  the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), the statement said. The platform aims to become a prominent platform for applied research and innovation in the area of safe and sustainable transport. The countries claim that SITIS will bring down over 150,000 road fatalities in India each year, it added.

Milkbasket to move into in-hand delivery services for fresh meats

Micro-delivery startup Milkbasket is rolling out its in-hand delivery service for fresh meats. The move came after the company had offered over 9,000 products across fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), dairy, fruits, vegetables and other household essentials, Milkbasket said in a statement. The company will charge a nominal price of Rs 9 per delivery and there will be no minimum order. The company claims that its competitors are charging much higher at Rs 70 per delivery and a minimum order set at Rs 800.

Mphasis Inducts Quantel AI into Sparkle Innovation Ecosystem

Bengaluru-based IT services firm Mphasis has struck a deal with Quantel AI, Inc, a tech startup focused on building products for risk management across various industry verticals. Under the partnership, the IT company will induct Quantel AI into Sparkle Innovation Ecosystem, a global innovation program, the companies said in a statement. The companies will jointly work towards building contextual solutions for their clients across multiple industries. Sparkle Innovation Ecosystem is designed to help deliver innovation-as-a-service to its clients. Quantel AI’s flagship product EagleAI is a fully autonomous anomaly detection engine that can be added to enterprises' current environments without disrupting existing business workflows.