India’s startup growth story lacks fundamentals - Part 1 Indian tech startups and consumer internet companies have—or will—hit a wall. We look at why, sector by sector.
 https://themorningcontext.com/internet/indias-startup-growth-story-lacks-fundamentals-part-1/ The Morning Context... The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates seven times since 2022 and continues to be hawkish to control inflation. That put a hold on much of the money supply allocated to emerging markets like India. As…

NASSCOM TECH START-UP REPORT 2022 – RISING ABOVE UNCERTAINTY: THE 2022 SAGA OF INDIAN TECH START-UPS February 15, 2023

Key Highlights:

Strong ecosystem with New Gen tech start-ups base broadening:

1300+ new tech start-ups, 23 new unicorns (2nd highest in the world)
2022 funding at $18.2 Bn is 30% lower than 2021, higher than last 4-year average in value terms
3-4X growth in investments for critical areas like EnvironmentTech, Lifesciences, Aviation, Maritime & Defence
Decline in late-stage funding but more investment in early-stage start-ups:

>40% drop in late-stage funding, led by reduction in mega deals
>30% increase in seed and early-stage funding
>1.6X increase in 2022 over 2021 in unique and active venture capital and private equity firms
Indian entrepreneurs’ laying emphasis on fundamentals

More than half of the tech start-ups in 2022 saw an increase in revenue of>20% (survey findings)
Overall, half of the tech start-ups continued or increased hiring in 2022
25% of mature start-ups are either EBITDA positive, or expect to be by mid-2023
Diversity of Indian tech start-up ecosystem continues to expand:

39% of tech start-ups founded in 2022 from emerging locations in India, up from 34% in 2021
18% start-ups in the ecosystem with at least one-woman founder/co-founder
36 unicorns and potential unicorns with at least one women founder/co-founder

Gujarat High Court Quashes CIC’s Order Directing Gujarat Varsity To Provide Info On PM Modi’s Degree; ₹25K Imposed On Delhi CM Kejriwal https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/breaking-gujarat-high-court-quashes-cics-order-directing-gujarat-varsity-to-provide-info-on-pm-modis-degree-under-rti-act-225260 Sparsh Upadhya 31 Mar 2023 The main plank of the University's argument was that the University was holding the information (PM’s degree) in a fiduciary capacity and as per Section 8(1)(e) of the Right to Information Act, the information held in fiduciary capacity cannot be disclosed "unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information". During the hearing in the case, appearing for Gujarat University, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the RTI Act was being "misused to settled scores and taking a childish jab at opponents". It was also submitted that hat the University had already put the certificate in the public domain, however, the matter was being argued by the University in principle to address the question as to whether RTI Act be applied for extraneous purposes to satisfy someone's curiosity.

Gujarat High Court Quashes CIC’s Order Directing Gujarat Varsity To Provide Info On PM Modi’s Degree; ₹25K Imposed On Delhi CM Kejriwal  https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/breaking-gujarat-high-court-quashes-cics-order-directing-gujarat-varsity-to-provide-info-on-pm-modis-degree-under-rti-act-225260  Sparsh Upadhya 31 Mar 2023 The main plank of the University's argument was that the University was holding the information (PM’s degree) in a fiduciary capacity and as per Section 8(1)(e) of the Right to Information Act, the information held in fiduciary capacity cannot be disclosed "unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information". During the hearing in the case, appearing for Gujarat University, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the RTI Act was being "misused to settled scores and taking a childish jab at opponents". It was also submitted that hat the University had already put the certificate in the public domain, however, the matter was being argued by the University in principle to address the question as to whether RTI Act be applied for extraneous purposes to satisfy someone's curiosity.

Why is the Modi Government And the BJP So Obsessed With Rahul Gandhi?  https://youtu.be/l2e880YvERU?t=98 , Prof Suhas Palshikar, gives four separate but very substantial answers. They lead to the conclusion that the challenge from Rahul Gandhi has firmly placed the Modi Government and the BJP within the horns of a difficult dilemma. Neither the government nor the party are confident about what to do

Suhas Palshikar writes on Rahul Gandhi’s conviction, disqualification: Why BJP loves to hate Rahul  March 25, 2023 https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/rahul-gandhi-conviction-disqualification-why-bjp-loves-to-hate-rahul-8517128/  To ignore Rahul Gandhi would mean conceding space to him and to a counter-ideology. But to continue to target Rahul can only lead to expanding the space he can occupy

https://youtube.com/embed/l2e880YvERU?start=544&end=715 Indian public is not sleeping they are being put to sleep. There is a kind of hynotism that this leader is the final word of wisowm.  What Rahul is doing is break the spell of this hynoptism. 

Tavleen Singh writes: Rahul Gandhi may not be the most skillful politician, but it’s hard to see him as a criminal https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/tavleen-singh-writes-criminality-or-politics-rahul-gandhi-defamation-case-8518988/ March 28, 2023 20  Meanwhile, the Budget got passed last week without debate because Parliament has not functioned in the hope that Rahul Gandhi will apologise for saying that Indian democracy is under threat. Why does the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament last week have the reek of dirty politics? Why does a Prime Minister with the highest approval ratings of any world leader seem afraid of a man his spokesmen routinely dismiss as a goof? Why does the most powerful political party in the world seem suddenly unsure of its stature? If you think I have the answers to these questions, you are wrong, but they are questions that are being asked and should be asked.

 Revisiting Dharampal  https://www.samanvaya.com/articles/revisiting-dharampal  Our work with the village community coincided with the bloom of Globalization in India which resulted in further transfer of ownership of even the industries in the metropolis to that of ‘foreign investors’ which were the modern corporates. One of Dharampalji’s oft repeated quotation was how the then American President in the 1940s wrote to the British Prime Minister, seeking that the British ensure ‘’India remains in the Western orbit’’. Globalization renewed Indian subscription to western orbit through diverse treaties, agreements, opening up to investments in all kinds of areas, subsidies in terms of land, resources, manpower and market privileges provided to such investors while imposing restrictions on our own industries, relaxing of regulatory regimes to suit profit making of foreign corporates and calling all of these as “development” and “progress”. Whether it be the medium of instruction, choice of careers, technology, defence, development, economic power, policy or even a sense of what constitutes dignity, if India merely subscribed to the Western orbital idea post Independence, the globalization agenda made us own up to the identity of being modern and western completely. Once in a conversation someone mentioned, ‘’but Dharampalji our people are employed in NASA and other big technological establishments’’ to which he responded, ‘’but what do they do? Can they actually change the way NASA or any of these companies work? Can they have a say in what gets done in the societies they live in or are they in these positions only because they are hard-working employees?’’.

Samanvaya Periodic Paper by Ramasubramanian 31st March 2023
1
Academic Elites and their Climate Indifference…
Unforgivable sloth of Indian academia towards impact of Climate Change on rural India and
its practices that could contribute towards the knowledge to save the planet…

Greendex was an interesting consumption-based study that rated the greenest consumer base in the
world. This annual rating was by the National Geographic magazine and strangely (or not)
discontinued some years ago. This study ranked India as the No#1 country in the world as green
consumers. We as a consumer base adopted green building techniques, food production practices,
transportation, and materials more than any other in the world. We, as in the majority of India that
continues to live in the villages, not the urban population that irresponsibly consumes at par with
Europeans or Americans. Something must be right and sustainable among the village people of this
land. Who has studied these and why is it that we do not get to hear on these in the mainstream
academic discourse or even among the popular opinion generating media?
Academia in India is an elite that continues to look up to the western universities to generate
knowledge, even if it is knowledge about the CC resilience of communities in India. We do not have
the courage to theorize our own people’s customs, practices, or systems in place. for full text

Read more …

The curious case of Cash App; Hindenburg’s latest victim https://www.cenfa.org/the-curious-case-of-cash-app-hindenburgs-latest-victim/

As we move from traditional banking to mobile banking apps, this is a cautionary tale of what could go wrong. These apps do come with several security concerns. Recently, in Mumbai, cybercriminals robbed Rs 1 crore from 81 people using the UPI app. Last year, Paytm was in trouble for flouting data storage laws. The money routed through the apps is difficult to trace, unlike in traditional banks. Digital literacy is a must to know and understand fintech; and though it is growing, our everyday life is fraught with rising digital payment frauds! Hope the regulators are paying heed. 

Should India break up its big conglomerates? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65108865 30.3.23  India should dismantle its large conglomerates to increase competition and
reduce their ability to charge higher prices, former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Viral Acharya has argued in a new paper for Brookings Institution, an American research group.

According to Mr Acharya, who is now a professor of economics at NYU Stern, "industrial concentration" - which refers to the extent to which a smaller number of firms account for total production in a country - fell sharply in India after 1991 when the country opened up its economy and state-owned monopolies began giving away their market share to private enterprises. But after 2015, it began rising again.

Read more …

दवा, पेट्रोल, गैस, टोल महँगा - मिडिल क्लास चुप | Inflation soaring across sectors  https://youtu.be/WFaa_IJip8U?t=704

Essential medicines including painkillers, antibiotics to get costlier by 12% from Saturday
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/essential-medicines-including-painkillers-antibiotics-to-get-costlier-by-12-from-saturday/articleshow/99069108.cms

Commonly used medicines to get 12% more expensive from April https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/many-commonly-used-drugs-may-see-a-12-price-hike-the-highest-ever-come-april-1-10322941.html
Prices of non-scheduled drugs, on the other hand, are set to go up by up to 10 percent as per government rules.

Life insurance to get expensive:  https://www.financialexpress.com/hindi/investment-saving-news/life-insurance-is-going-to-get-expensive-why-and-what-should-you-do/2990489/   महंगा होने जा रहा है Life insurance, जाने क्यों और क्या करने की है जरूरत अगर आप पहली बार लाइफ इश्योरेंस कवर लेने की योजना बना रहे हैं या मौजूदा कवर के आकार को बढ़ाने की सोच रहे हैं, तो आपको देरी नहीं करनी चाहिए क्योंकि लाइफ इश्योरेंस पॉलिसी का प्रीमियम अब महंगा हो सकता है.

https://themorningcontext.com/business/the-adani-group-does-not-own-ambuja-cements-and-acc

https://the-ken.com/story/the-adani-group-repaid-its-loans-against-promoters-shares-but-the-disclosures-dont-add-up/

102% rise in average cost of electricity purchased from Adani Power between 2021 & 2022: Gujarat govt https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/adani-power-gujarat-govt-rise-in-cost-of-electricity-8479214/ Between 2021 and 2022, the average cost of electricity bought from Adani Power went up 102 per cent from Rs 3.58 per unit to Rs 7.24 per unit in 2022, data tabled as a part of the reply reveal.
 March 5, 2023  Comment In Whatsapp what would be the higher biil for the street lighting on the occassion of G20 in different cities?