Closing the loop

We bring stories from the past week (and beyond) to a logical closure.

Happy weekend! Every Saturday, we try to bring stories from the past week (and beyond) to a logical closure rather than rushing off to the next big thing. If you haven’t read these stories yet, now’s the perfect time to quickly catch up over a cup of chai!

A Shot at Outsmarting Cancer

Let’s start with some good news!

In just three months since its launch, India’s HPV vaccination drive has administered nearly 50 lakh free doses of the cervical cancer vaccine to 14-year-old girls. That covers over 40% of the target group of 1.15 crore girls across the country. Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have achieved full coverage of their targets, while Mizoram has reached about 93%.*

What exactly is this HPV?

Why only 14-year-old girls? Does HPV affect men too? (Yes.) Should you consider taking the vaccine? What exactly is this virus? And how can a vaccine stop cancer? Find all answers in “The Cancer We Can Outsmart”.

Can You Block a Leak?

Earlier this month, in “Diagnosing the NEET Leak”, we walked you through how India’s largest medical entrance exam was compromised (yet again).

Now, ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination scheduled for tomorrow, the government has taken an unusual/bold step. Access to Telegram has been restricted across the country for the day of the exam and will remain limited until a day after.

There’s more. Telegram has also been instructed to temporarily disable its message-editing feature for already-posted messages until the end of the month. This will supposedly prevent people from editing older messages to falsely claim they had access to leaked question papers after the exam has taken place.*

Supporters of the move see it as a tough but necessary step to protect the integrity of a high-stakes national exam. Critics, however, question whether blocking platforms addresses the real problem, or just treats the symptoms.

In our story “Net Won’t Work”, we looked at the latest Internet Shutdown Report, which found that India recorded 65 internet shutdowns last year. This was the highest among democracies, and the second highest globally. Is cutting off the internet a necessary evil, or just a bad habit governments can’t quit?

And if you are still trying to figure out what the NTA, the agency currently under fire, is, or what the NEET exam is all about, head over to “Diagnosing the NEET Leak”.

Trillions, Takeovers, and Takeoff

In our story “The Biggest IPO in History”, we told you how Elon Musk’s SpaceX went public in what turned out to be the largest IPO ever. It raised a staggering $85 billion, $10 billion more than originally planned.

By the end of its first week of trading, SpaceX’s stock was up roughly 35% from its listing price of $135 per share. That surge pushed its total market cap to around $2.4 trillion, making it the sixth-largest company in the world.

And what does a company do when it suddenly finds itself sitting on that kind of valuation? It goes shopping!

SpaceX is acquiring Anysphere, the company behind the popular AI coding tool Cursor, for $60 billion. Cursor competes with heavyweights like Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI coding space. With this move, xAI (SpaceX’s AI arm) strengthens its foothold in one of the first areas where generative AI has managed to generate meaningful business revenue.

There’s another headline-grabbing development.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO and largest shareholder, has now become the world’s first trillionaire. He is far, far ahead of the second person in the race, Alphabet co-founder Larry Page, who has “just” $300 billion. The only other person to reach such heights is Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who was worth $400 billion.*

How do billionaires get so rich and stay that way? Is the world becoming more unequal? If it is, does that mean the system is unfair or broken? The answer may surprise you. We talked about it in “Is Being Filthy Rich Filthy?”

And if you’re still wondering what makes SpaceX so valuable, why it needed to raise so much money, or what exactly it does, head back to “The Biggest IPO in History”.

Now, over to you

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Curious? Read or listen to stories from the past week and beyond on Dot.

Find the full story here: https://www.dot.news/post/6a35647bc094c100023ea8bc

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