Good Morning Folks!!! Good Morning Folks! Welcome to the newest, most latest edition of Snapglobs- your daily newsletter. Today, we will be revisiting the journey of a retail giant that kindled a new innovation in the coffee industry -now helming itself as the pioneer of a self-indulgent and premium coffee experience, would you believe at all that this behemoth of a brand was once at the verge of collapse, with death knocking on its door? In 2009, Starbucks laid off 19,000 employees and shut down 970+ stores. Customer experience dwindled, and stocks plummeted. It took the return of its ex-CEO, Howard D. Shutlz to save the salvage of the company and refocused the brand's attention on things that actually mattered- customer experience.

SCIENCE
India Conducts Sequencing of 10,000 Genomes Of The Indian Population

One Liner: Having successfully completed the genome project- Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, lauded the initiative at the event where it was first presented, underscoring the need for “Indian solutions using Indian problems.”

Being the world’s largest genetic laboratory, the fruition of this project marks an end to the concentrated and joint efforts by more than 20 institutions, including professors from IISc who gathered gene samples from across the country, conducted whole genome sequencing on them which were then stored at Indian Biological Data Centre(IDBC) at Faridabad.

GAMING
Sony’s Missed Sales Targets

One Liner: Sony’s annual profit dropped by 7%, impacted by weaker financial services and falsely revised targets.

Sony reported an annual profit drop to 1.2 trillion-yen for fiscal year 2023. The company missed its revised PlayStation 5 sales target, shipping 20.8 million units instead of 21 million. Quarterly revenue increased 14% year-over-year, while operating profit rose 57%. Sony forecasts a 5% revenue decline to 12.3 trillion yen for 2024. The finance units saw a 22.5% drop in operating income, and the Imaging and Sensing Solutions business experienced a 9% decline. PlayStation 5 sales are expected to drop to 18 million units by March 2025, amid a management reshuffle.

Business Administration
Government To Clamp Down On Unsolicited Commercial Promotions

One Liner: The new rules, as notified under “Guidelines for unsolicited and unwarranted business communication,” will serve as a protocol to bolster data privacy and ensure a safety net for consumers seeking relief from unsolicited promotional calls from third-party agencies of companies.

The proposed guidelines will respond sharply to unregistered calls made by commission agents of companies that violate the number code. What’s more, the telecom operators have been strictly instructed to display information to the consumer, including the agent's name and the business sector in which the company operates. This move is said to empower consumers with the right to choose, the violation of which will cause penalties.

WORLD

Air India is in line to integrate 7,000 Vistara employees as part of its merger endeavor by year-end. The integration is slated to begin in June. The Tata Group is looking to accelerate the merger process of its duo full-service carriers. The two CEOs have added that the preliminary assessment of 7,000 Vistara employees has already been culminated, and their fitment is currently placed at advanced stages.

Tata Consultancy Services is going global by launching the Global AI Centre of Excellence in Paris. The Centre, stationed in the forthcoming TCS PacePort, precisely in the La Défense area, aims to tap into human-centric AI technologies, like advancing AI into territories of art, culture, and empathy. It is scheduled to begin operations in June of this year. This facility will be the 7th on the list of TCS PacePort avenues after Amsterdam, London, Toronto, Tokyo, New York, and Pittsburgh.

The Australian Government has grabbed international graduates' attention by announcing momentous changes to the Temporary Graduate Visa Program. The changes to be operational from July 1 are interspersed to smooth out the visa application process. Some notable changes include setting the age limit for applicants at 35 in addition to the choice of visa stream that is in close consonance with their qualifications.

Watch: OpenAI to Release ChatGPT 4o

Read: Why the new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to have one less camera than its predecessor

Mind Blown: Wait, you can you start investing with just Rs.10 now?

 Did You Know??

Civet Coffee, priced at a staggering 700$ per kg, is the world’s most expensive and premium coffee bean. The twist? Its exorbitant price is attributed to a very unconventional production process- obtained from the excreta of partially digested coffee bean of an animal native to South Asia, called the Asian Palm Civet.