It’s getting easier to do business in India, Zomato and Swiggy talk merger, and more trending news

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A man drove a truck down a busy pedestrian and bicycle path in lower Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight and injuring at least 11 in what officials have called the deadliest terror attack in New York City since September 11. The 29-year-old driver, a US permanent resident from Uzbekistan named Sayfullo Saipov, was shot by an officer and taken into custody. Authorities later found a note by Saipov indicating allegiance to ISIS. ? This story is developing: #ManhattanIncident

It’s becoming much simpler to do business in India. For the very first time, India has leaped 30 notches — the highest-ever jump for any country, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley — to take the 100th position on the World Bank’s ranking of countries by ease of doing business. In a nod to Modinomics, the Bank called out the accelerating pace of reforms, in particular steps the country took to protect minority investors, advance its taxation regime and improve access to credit. The Centre has a target of hitting the 90th rank in 2017-18 and 30th by 2020. 

India’s largest food tech firms Zomato and Swiggy are talking about a merger, Times of India reports, quoting unnamed sources. But the loss-making rivals are stuck on valuation and the deal contours: Zomato wants a stock-based merger while Swiggy prefers to acquire and run the latter’s food delivery business. If the talks succeed, the combined entity would be in a better financial shape to take on Google and UberEATs in the country’s hypercompetitive food-delivery space. Alibaba’s Ant Financial could invest in the combined entity.

Bitcoin hits a new high — and gets a big vote of confidence: The CME Group, the world’s biggest exchange operator, announced plans to introduce bitcoin futures by the end of the year, pending US regulatory approval. The move would make it easier for institutional investors to get involved in the bitcoin market. The largest cryptocurrency (which is not currently listed on any major exchanges) hit a new record on the news, passing $6500. Here, the Reserve Bank of India is reportedly exploring a policy on cryptocurrencies, but has said it is “not comfortable” with unregulated ones like Bitcoin.

Now AI can outsmart Captchas. While a computer might be able to memorize thousands of variations of the letter A, they can still be stumped with a novel squiggle or slant. But AI firm Vicarious, backed by Wipro and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is teaching machines to recognize images the way the human brain does: by breaking those images into pieces and putting them back together, like examining clues to solve a puzzle. The researchers developed AI that could detect Captcha codes with 66.6% accuracy (humans do it with 87.4% accuracy), reports Axios. This approach could allow computers to teach themselves to recognize objects without having to absorb massive amounts of data in advance.

Idea of the Day: There’s a right way and a wrong way to give feedback, says author Andy Molinsky. One of the ways to ensure your feedback improves performance is to deliver it ASAP.

“Your impulse might be to wait — or even to avoid, but it's critical to seize the moment and provide feedback when memory is fresh and a person can better appreciate the impact of the advice you're giving.”

What are your thoughts? Share your thoughts on today’s stories in the comments.

• Disha Sharma & Adith Charlie  / Share this using #DailyRundown