US, China's surprise climate change pact; Twitter's crypto team; Rivian surges on Wall Street debut; and a chat with Prateep Basu at SatSure

The US and China made a surprise joint announcement on Wednesday at the ongoing COP26 UN climate summit, pledging to work together to find concrete measures to combat climate change, Bloomberg reports. The two sides agreed to accelerate their efforts to cut emissions—including methane gas—and curb illegal deforestation, China’s special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua told reporters, according to Bloomberg.  Rivian Automotive, an electric pick-up truck and SUV maker backed by Amazon and Ford Motors, raised $11.9 billion in the biggest US IPO this year. The strong listing also valued the company at about $100 billion, taking its market capital higher than Ford. The company, started in 2009 by RJ Scaringe, has beaten rivals including Ford and General Motors to design and make a pick-up truck, and is due to start rolling out its SUV in December and a delivery van in 2023, BBC reports. Amazon will be the first to buy the delivery vans. In more IPO news, FSN E-Commerce Ventures, more popularly known for its online beauty and fashion brand, Nykaa, made a spectacular debut in Mumbai on Wednesday, making its founder Falguni Nayar the wealthiest self-made billionaire woman in the country. Nykaa’s shares opened at Rs. 2001 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, which was a 79 percent premium on the issue price of Rs. 1125, MoneyControl reports. The listing valued the online beauty and fashion business at more than Rs. 1 trillion, or about $13.4 billion. The European General Court upheld a €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) antitrust fine against Google’s parent company Alphabet for anti-competitive behaviour, rejecting the internet giant’s appeal against the 2017 fine. The court ruled that Google abused its dominance in online search to illegally promote its own shopping comparison service over rivals and upheld the EU’s fine, Courthouse News Service reports. Twitter is putting together a team to build crypto, blockchain, and other decentralized technologies, Tess Rinearson, the engineer who’s joined the company to lead the team, tweeted. Twitter Crypto will serve as a centre of excellence for all things blockchain, Rinearson said. To start with, the team will look into how Twitter can support the growing interest among creators to use decentralised apps and virtual goods and currencies. Twitter is hiring for roles in engineering and product development in this team. (4:00) Interview: Prateep Basu, co-founder and CEO of SatSure on plans ahead at the space tech startup in Bengaluru Prateep Basu was an ISRO engineer for a few years before turning entrepreneur with SatSure, the satellite services company he co-founded. In today's interview, Prateep gives us a quick update on the company's efforts thus far, in building a decision intelligence platform for multiple sectors that uses satellite data.