Hello there! We wish all our readers a happy Janmashtami. We have a short, concise edition today. We will be back with our regular edition on Monday (June 29).

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Today’s top stories

• Bengaluru-based EtherealX is taking aim at the one thing SpaceX hasn’t yet achieved: full rocket reusability. The Bengaluru startup is building a medium-lift rocket around a new engine cycle designed to make the upper stage reusable. 
• Adobe has named Anil Chakravarthy, an Indian-origin executive who leads its Customer Experience Orchestration business, as the company’s next president and chief executive officer, succeeding Shantanu Narayen who announced he would step down earlier this year.
• Bodhan AI, the Centre of Excellence in AI for Education incubated at IIT-Madras, has
• launched four foundational artificial intelligence models for Indian languages as part of an effort to build a sovereign technology layer for India’s multilingual education ecosystem.  
• Karnataka’s government-backed venture capital funds have invested Rs 171 crore in 59 companies through six funds since 1999, supporting startups across sectors including IT, semiconductors, biotechnology, AI, deeptech and animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC).  Of the 59 investments made so far, the funds have exited 34 investments, generating cumulative realisations of Rs 129 crore. 
• Payment aggregators have requested the Reserve Bank of India to extend the September 15 deadline for re-KYC of merchants, sources aware of the development told us. Payment Aggregators are struggling to clear the backlog running into thousands of merchants across the offline and online sectors that could potentially disrupt digital payments. 
• YouTube has struck a strategic partnership with veteran television and film producer Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms to launch five exclusive original shows on the platform. As part of the tie-up, Ekta Kapoor will lead the creative vision and own the intellectual property, while YouTube will provide global distribution and monetisation opportunities. 
• Ultrahuman has raised $70 million in funding led by Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from Labcorp, Alpha Wave, Blume, Nexus, Alteria and other investors. It comes as Ultrahuman looks to expand beyond its smart-ring business and build a broader health intelligence platform centered around continuous physiological data. 
• OpenAI has released GPT-6 Astra, the next major version of its AI model that President Greg Brockman believes could eventually be remembered as the model that ushered in the era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
• Accel India-backed Rentomojo, the Bengaluru-based furniture and appliance rental platform, is opening its Rs 1,255-crore IPO for public subscription on September 9, with a price band of Rs 384-404 per share. 
• Regional films are filling seats and delivering surprise hits but the segment’s hopes of reclaiming a larger share of box office may have dealt a blow with the Yash-starrer Toxic failing to emerge as the pan-India hit many expected.

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