A road trip for social change; India powering the growth of Atlassian

Trade talks have never been this uncertain. 

After the US Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, India has now delayed plans to send a trade delegation to Washington this week—one of the first concrete reactions among Asian nations to the decision. 

The Indian delegation was set to leave on Sunday, February 22, for talks to finalise an interim trade deal, where US tariffs on Indian goods were set to be cut to 18%, while India agreed to buy US items worth $500 billion over five years.

According to Bloomberg, the European Parliament’s trade chief, Bernd Lange, will propose freezing the ratification process of the European Union’s trade deal with the US until they’ve received details from the US administration on its trade policy.

In other news, here’s a cautionary note from a Google VP. Darren Mowry, who leads Google’s global startup organisation across Cloud, DeepMind, and Alphabet, says startups with these hooks have their “check engine light” on.

Lastly, before you plan your travels for this year, don’t forget to check out these latest air travel hacks that may help you save thousands of rupees!

Friday is the new Tuesday to book air tickets!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• A road trip for social change
• India powering the growth of Atlassian

Here’s your trivia for today: What can one figure out about the weather by counting the cricket chirps?

Social Impact

A road trip for social change

On March 3, a convoy of auto rickshaws will start from the Chennai suburb of West Tambaram, with 35 women entrepreneurs from the United Kingdom, embarking on a 1,000-kilometre journey to Goa. Its mission: women steering their own three-wheelers across Indian cities and highways to raise funds.

The ‘Let’s Goa 2026 Rickshaw Rally’ marks the second collaboration between Madras Midtown Round Table 42, Madras Midtown Ladies Circle 7, and the UK-based Sisterhood Group—a collective founded in 2006 that has raised over £1 million through endurance challenges ranging from dragon-boating across the English Channel to desert marathons, for various charitable causes.

Driving change:

• Siddharth Shankar, Chairman of MMRT42, says travellers, who are also donors, first review the proposed projects, study the needs, and then visit sites to see conditions firsthand before contributing. “It’s a bit of both research-based planning and experiential learning.”
• This year, the group is smaller, with 35 women entrepreneurs—and largely new ones—led by Sisterhood Founder Emma Sayle.
• Much of this rally’s mission centres on education infrastructure. Shankar says MMRT42 has built more than 75 classrooms, impacting over 3,000 students, alongside smart classrooms, science labs, and computer labs in Chennai-area schools.

Interview

India powering the growth of Atlassian

Young tech talent is what attracts global collaboration software company Atlassian to India as it deepens its engagement with the country. The desire to learn, adapt, and explore is a key driving force of tech professionals in India, according to Shamik Sharma, Head of Product – IT Service Management (ITSM), Atlassian India.

“The younger demographic in India is eager to learn new things and wants to explore different areas. They are always keen to take up new technologies and platforms,” Sharma said in an interview with EnterpriseStory.

Talent power:

• The expanding talent pool in the country has expertise in the mobile-first approach, design thinking, software engineering, and product development, making them an attractive proposition to Atlassian.
• Today, AI is a dominant theme for enterprises across the world, and Atlassian is no exception. Its India team is focused on building products that enhance the value of teams through collaboration.
• The company has built its own GenAI platform, Rovo, which is focused on enterprise search, with in-built AI agents aimed at solving the challenges of collaboration.

News & updates

• Leaders: Microsoft’s gaming head Phil Spencer is retiring after 38 years at the software maker, in a major leadership shake-up. The company named insider Asha Sharma as the executive VP and CEO of the gaming division. In her previous role, Sharma led product development for AI models and services at Microsoft.
• Buy-out: The US Justice Department’s investigation of Netflix’s proposed $72 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. includes scrutiny of the streaming giant’s behaviour and whether it wields anti-competitive leverage over creators in negotiations for acquiring programming.
• App store: EU citizens are now allowed to access alternative app stores thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a regulation designed to foster increased competition in the app ecosystem. To run an alternative app marketplace, developers must accept Apple’s alternative business terms for DMA-compliant apps in the EU.

What you should watch out for

• India’s next quarterly GDP estimates based on the New Series will be released on Friday, February 27.
• Investors turn to financial results from AI bellwether NVIDIA in the coming week to steady a US stock market that has been rocked by AI-related worries and is digesting a US Supreme Court overturn of President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade tariffs.

What can you figure out about the weather by counting the cricket chirps?

Answer: Temperature. The phenomenon is called Dolbear’s Law.

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