Welcome to the world of facts and news: April 2022

As NFT prices drop, taxman could come knocking

The tax department is sure to question the sharp drop in the valuation of these virtual digital assets, tax experts said. The department would scrutinise NFT transactions on suspicion that some of the money may have been accepted in cash to reduce the tax outgo.

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As NFT prices drop, taxman could come knocking

The tax department is sure to question the sharp drop in the valuation of these virtual digital assets, tax experts said. The department would scrutinise NFT transactions on suspicion that some of the money may have been accepted in cash to reduce the tax outgo.

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Chips are like oil, India will need at least 10 fab units, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

India cannot always keep importing chips, Vaishnaw said, expressing disappointment over comments by former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan that the country should not get into chip manufacturing.

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EV makers asked to submit quality control details to the government

Following a meeting on April 25-- attended by two and three-wheeler electric vehicle manufacturers—the ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has written to original equipment manufacturers asking for details of specific quality control measures.

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EV makers asked to submit quality control details to the government

Following a meeting on April 25-- attended by two and three-wheeler electric vehicle manufacturers—the ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has written to original equipment manufacturers asking for details of specific quality control measures.

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India remains trigger-happy on internet shutdowns

By the end of the year, India was responsible for at least 106 such incidents, making it the worst offender on internet shutdowns for the fourth year in a row. India accounted for almost half (47%) of the 182 internet shutdowns worldwide in 2021.

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Swiggy to pilot drone-based deliveries for its grocery service Instamart

Swiggy has selected – Garuda Aerospace, Skyeair Mobility, the consortia between ANRA Technologies and TechEagle, as well as Marut Dronetech– for the pilots.

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Apple reports slower Q2 sales growth, but results top estimates

The technology giant reported quarterly earnings of $25 billion, up 5.8% from the year-ago period as revenues rose nine percent to $97.3 billion.

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Govt easing compliances to exit business, data privacy, cyber security key: Piyush Goyal

“There’s been huge growth in manufacturing investment of late. I can see the green shoots of investment coming back to India in a big way particularly private investment,” Goyal said at the Global Unicorn Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

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CCI raids top ecommerce sellers; Snap CTO calm on short-term volatility

Cloudtail has disappeared from Amazon’s platform. There are currently no listings under the giant seller, which was crucial to Amazon’s early success in India.

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Can’t throw money at problems when building a business, says

“There are funds that have raised a lot of money and India's seeing a lot of high-quality startups,” he said. “Early-stage valuations in India have not corrected. Maybe it will come down a little but right now, it's still quite expensive.”

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Can’t throw money at problems when building a business, says Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham

“There are funds that have raised a lot of money and India's seeing a lot of high-quality startups,” he said. “Early-stage valuations in India have not corrected. Maybe it will come down a little but right now, it's still quite expensive.”

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Massive growth in electronics production is fuelling semiconductor demand: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

ET reported on Thursday that Apple's contract manufacturers are expected to make iPhones worth ₹47,000 crore in India this fiscal, the second year of the production linked incentives (PLI) scheme that started in April. This will be almost five times the ₹10,000 crore worth of iPhones made in the country in FY22 by Foxconn and Wistron.

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Massive growth in electronics production is fuelling semiconductor demand: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

ET reported on Thursday that Apple's contract manufacturers are expected to make iPhones worth ₹47,000 crore in India this fiscal, the second year of the production linked incentives (PLI) scheme that started in April. This will be almost five times the ₹10,000 crore worth of iPhones made in the country in FY22 by Foxconn and Wistron.

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Snap leaning on AR to drive its India business, says cofounder Bobby Murphy

“We are really excited about the momentum and the growth in India, and I know that with our AR platform, in particular, it's been amazing to see so much enthusiasm from the community there,” Murphy said.

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Meta shares surge after Facebook ekes out user growth

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said that the company would scale back costs and was investing in artificial intelligence tools to improve recommendations and ads, a sign Meta is buckling down to make money while working on its long-term ambitions to build the metaverse.

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Elon Musk's criticism of Twitter staff triggers backlash

Musk tweeted he disagreed with a decision Twitter made in 2020 to restrict the distribution of a New York Post article about U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter. The billionaire, who has about 87 million Twitter followers, called the company's decision to lock the Post's account on the platform "incredibly inappropriate."

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Meta shares surge after Facebook ekes out user growth

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said that the company would scale back costs and was investing in artificial intelligence tools to improve recommendations and ads, a sign Meta is buckling down to make money while working on its long-term ambitions to build the metaverse.

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Amid startup layoffs, IT firms plan 8-10% hikes

. This has prompted several new-age companies, from Unacademy to Meesho, to lay off employees as they look to cut costs and get back to basics now that the Covid-fuelled funding party is well and truly over.

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Labour ministry issues notice to Infosys on non-compete clause issue

Infosys’ group head for human resources, Krish Shankar, and Harpreet Singh Saluja, the president of Pune-based labour union Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate, which had filed the complaint, have received the communication from the ministry.

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Startups shed flab amid slowdown in large funding rounds

The trend is likely to play out further, though the early-stage funding ecosystem has yet to significantly taper off. Investors have begun to ask high-growth companies to go back to basics — chase profits and reduce their cash burn, multiple people told ET.

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Online delivery companies rush to hire women riders amid increasing attrition

Companies such as Zomato, Swiggy, Ecom Express and Shadowfax are among those looking to induct more women in their last-mile delivery fleet.

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Twitter abuzz with posts, memes, hashtags after Elon Musk takeover

Lakhs of trending posts were generated on the platform ranging from hashtags like #TwitterSold, #TwitterTakeover to #CEOofTwitter, the latter mulling the fate of Indian origin CEO Parag Agrawal with some users even declaring Musk as the new CEO.

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TCS' Krishnan Ramanujam appointed Nasscom chairperson for 2022-23

Krishnan, who is president - enterprise growth group at TCS, was earlier vice-chairperson of Nasscom.

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Twitter employees take to Twitter to debate Elon Musk takeover

There have been a wave of sarcastic tweets and memes from employees on the offer, prompted by the fact that Musk's companies Tesla and SpaceX have been called out in the past for their alleged discriminatory and abusive work culture and an uncertainty with respect to the management changes that his leadership would bring to Twitter.

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Twitter employees take to Twitter to debate Elon Musk takeover

There have been a wave of sarcastic tweets and memes from employees on the offer, prompted by the fact that Musk's companies Tesla and SpaceX have been called out in the past for their alleged discriminatory and abusive work culture and an uncertainty with respect to the management changes that his leadership would bring to Twitter.

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Gaming sector needs a regulatory structure, says Games24x7 CEO Bhavin Pandya

The gaming sector needs a regulatory structure because legitimate operators are struggling as several companies were offering real money games of chance under the guise of “games of skill”, Bhavin Pandya, cofounder and chief executive of newly minted gaming unicorn Games24x7 told ET in an interview.

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Gaming sector needs a regulatory structure, says Games24x7 CEO Bhavin Pandya

The gaming sector needs a regulatory structure because legitimate operators are struggling as several companies were offering real money games of chance under the guise of “games of skill”, Bhavin Pandya, cofounder and chief executive of newly minted gaming unicorn Games24x7 told ET in an interview.

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Indian companies filed 9,500 patents in the US in last six years: NASSCOM report

The report is an analysis of the patents filed in the US by India-domiciled companies as the country remains a major export market for the Indian technology industry. US accounts for close to 62% of tech exports in FY2022, and would continue to drive share of tech patents as it reflects a start-up promotive and IP-right friendly environment, the report said.

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Indian companies filed 9,500 patents in the US in last six years: NASSCOM report

The report is an analysis of the patents filed in the US by India-domiciled companies as the country remains a major export market for the Indian technology industry. US accounts for close to 62% of tech exports in FY2022, and would continue to drive share of tech patents as it reflects a start-up promotive and IP-right friendly environment, the report said.

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Consumer sector-focused fund Venturi Partners raises $175 million

Founded by Cator, the investment platform will look to back high-growth Asian consumer companies with an online or offline presence in sectors ranging from FMCG to education and healthcare services.

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Veranda Learning to acquire test-preparation institute chain TIME for Rs 287 crore

The acquisition will be in phases, with Veranda taking over 80% of the outstanding capital along with management control in the first phase, it said in a statement.

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Paytm brings in new group head for regulatory affairs

Yanamandra joins the Noida-based financial services company from the New Development Bank in Shanghai, where he served as chief of the compliance division.

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Going Public on our horizon: Chargebee's Krish Subramanian

Subramanian is one of the four cofounders of the San-Francisco headquartered company which belongs in the crop of VC-backed decade-old Indian-origin SaaS companies hitting key revenue and market milestones globally.

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Amazon to absorb all Cloudtail, Prione employees, JV CEO tells employees

Cloudtail, set up in 2014 as a joint venture between Amazon and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, is one of the largest sellers on Amazon India.

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Jack Dorsey is now Block's Head, drops CEO title

Despite the new title, the Twitter cofounder's job at Block will ultimately remain the same: there will be "no changes in Dorsey's roles and responsibilities, and he will continue to serve as principal executive officer of the Company".

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Mann Ki Baat: PM Modi pitches for cashless transactions, urges people to go for 'cashless day out’ experiment

PM also talked about that the recently-inaugurated Pradhan Mantri Sangrahalaya (prime minister's museum) and highlighted that it is becoming the center of attraction for the youth, which is "connecting them with the precious heritage of the country".

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Mann Ki Baat: PM Modi pitches for cashless transactions, urges people to go for 'cashless day out’ experiment

PM also talked about that the recently-inaugurated Pradhan Mantri Sangrahalaya (prime minister's museum) and highlighted that it is becoming the center of attraction for the youth, which is "connecting them with the precious heritage of the country".

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Ola Electric recalling 1,441 units of electric two-wheelers

As a pre-emptive measure we will be conducting a detailed diagnostic and health check of the scooters in that specific batch and therefore are issuing a voluntary recall of 1,441 vehicles."

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Ola Electric recalling 1,441 units of electric two-wheelers

As a pre-emptive measure we will be conducting a detailed diagnostic and health check of the scooters in that specific batch and therefore are issuing a voluntary recall of 1,441 vehicles."

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EV battery explodes, killing 1 and injuring 3 in Andhra Pradesh

The incident was similar to the one that happened three days ago in Nizamabad town in neighbouring Telangana where an electric vehicle battery exploded killing an 80-year-old man.

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EV battery explodes, killing 1 and injuring 3 in Andhra Pradesh

The incident was similar to the one that happened three days ago in Nizamabad town in neighbouring Telangana where an electric vehicle battery exploded killing an 80-year-old man.

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India will witness significant increase in frequency and duration of internet access: study

The study has identified some trends that will shape the digital ecosystem over the next three years. E-governance and agri-tech are likely to grow significantly, it said.

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India will witness significant increase in frequency and duration of internet access: study

The study has identified some trends that will shape the digital ecosystem over the next three years. E-governance and agri-tech are likely to grow significantly, it said.

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Data protection, privacy laws, skilling key for Indian tech to become $1 trillion contributor: business leaders

Accenture India chairperson Rekha Menon, Adobe India’s vice president and managing director Prativa Mohapatra, and Indiaspora founder M R Rangaswamy expressed confidence that the $227-billion Indian IT services and technology industry can raise its level of play to contribute $1 trillion in total revenue to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s $5 trillion economy target.

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Data protection, privacy laws, skilling key for Indian tech to become $1 trillion contributor: business leaders

Accenture India chairperson Rekha Menon, Adobe India’s vice president and managing director Prativa Mohapatra, and Indiaspora founder M R Rangaswamy expressed confidence that the $227-billion Indian IT services and technology industry can raise its level of play to contribute $1 trillion in total revenue to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s $5 trillion economy target.

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TCS inaugurates opens co-innovation centre at Carnegie Mellon University

The centre specializes in innovation in the manufacturing and utilities sectors, providing enterprises with new ways to tap the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence domains, according the company's statement.

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Amazon gets social (again); Razorpay’s $80-100 million secondary share sale

This is the first inorganic bet that Amazon is taking on the social commerce space where sellers use platforms like Whatsapp and Facebook to sell their wares. The acquisition is Amazon’s attempt at getting a foothold in this buzzy segment, where many new players have emerged over the past few years, two people aware of the matter told us.

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BharatNet, 5G, cloud policy would erase classes in Indian Internet ecosystem: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

He said a 'perfect storm" of innovation and enterprise is headed towards the Indian tech ecosystem. India's inherent strengths in software and electronics design are converging with a policy push towards local manufacture, such as the $10-billion semiconductor policy, creating synergies.

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Lightspeed may invest in Razorpay’s $100 million secondary share sale

The startup’s angel investors, employees and some other investors are offloading shares in what could be one of the company's largest secondary sale deals since it was founded. In a secondary share sale, new investors buy shares from existing investors but the money doesn’t go to the company.

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Yellow.ai deploys 30% of global generative AI bots domestically

While markets like the US are mostly using GenAI for customer support in a bid to cut costs, India Inc. is using them as an opportunity to g...