At a time when generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has taken the world by storm and continues to grow by leaps and bounds everyday, the technology found prominent mention in the Economic Survey 2024-25.

The Survey, tabled in the Parliament by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday (January 31), a day before she will present her eighth Union Budget, called for developing robust institutions to protect the country’s labour market from AI’s disruption. 

The Survey said that AI can cause large-scale labour market disruptions. Highlighting researches from the International Monetary Fund, the International Labour Organisation, Goldman Sachs, among others, it said that AI-led automation can prove to be challenging for the Indian economy. 

“Protracted labour displacement is something that a labour-surplus country like India cannot afford. Our primary challenge is the challenge of numbers… India is a majorly services driven economy, with a significant share of the IT workforce employed in low value added services. Such jobs are the most susceptible to automation, as firms in a bid to cut costs may substitute labour for technology… India is also a consumption based economy, thus the fall in consumption that can result from the displacement of its workforce is bound to have macroeconomic implications. If the worst-case projections materialise, this could have the potential to set the country’s economic growth trajectory off course,” the Survey said. 

Highlighting the need to take into consideration the potential adverse consequences of AI, the Survey said that establishing new and upgrading existing institutions will play a pivotal role in addressing the “structural issues that can intensify the impact of AI on India’s labour market”.

It is pertinent to note that the impact of AI advancements on jobs was also highlighted by last year’s Survey. Back then, the Survey said that advances in AI over the coming decades threaten to leave workers across skill levels exposed to job losses, which can create barriers for sustainable growth of the Indian economy. It is worth mentioning that in the past year or so, many companies, including Paytm and InMobi, have undertaken layoffs citing AI-led automation. 

The Economic Survey 2024-25 called for a sharp focus on building strong institutions to counter the effects of AI. It said there is a need for three different types of institutions. 

Firstly, India needs enabling institutions to facilitate a transition of the workforce to the new job market and equip people with skills critical for long-term employment. Such institutions are critical to block the AI threat to India’s vast “low-skill and low-value-added services”, the Survey said. Secondly, it called for insuring institutions that help secure a standard of living during the shift, keep inequalities in check and aid in keeping the social fabric cohesive.

The survey proposed a third type of institution – Stewarding Institutions. In essence, these institutions will be responsible for designing approaches towards AI and other such technology in a way that balances public welfare and doesn’t stifle innovation.

“The products of science are neither good, nor bad and what determines their net-impact on society is how they are applied… It implies that policymakers demonstrate a certain degree of cognisance when it comes to emerging technologies, so that when the need arises, they stand well-placed to mitigate any adverse effects that emerge as by-products of technological applications. These institutions would be agile, crosscutting across sectors and up to date on the latest developments, so that they are equipped to identify both opportunities and threats,” the Survey added. 

Besides, such institutions will also be required to increase social acceptability of AI by promoting the right levels of transparency and accountability in AI applications. 

However, the Survey also said that India has time to build its institutional capacity aligning with its “social structures, regulators, cooperatives, and policymaking institutions”, as AI is still in its nascent stage and every nation is still finding their footing in the space. 

The Survey’s analysis of the disruption capabilities of AI comes at a time when it seems that there is no ceiling for innovations in the space. While it was believed that Microsoft-backed OpenAI is leading the AI space, the release of its latest models by Chinese AI company DeepSeek, earlier this month, sent shockwaves across the global technology ecosystem.

As for India, the country is likely to soon have its own domestic large language model (LLM). On Thursday (January 30), IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Centre has selected 10 companies that will supply 18,693 graphics processing units or GPUs — high end chips needed to develop machine learning tools that can go into developing a foundational model.

He also said that with all the support the Centre is providing to build India’s own AI model, the cost will be the lowest in the world. Soon after this, the IndiaAI Mission floated a proposal inviting applications from startups, entrepreneurs, and researchers to collaborate on building foundational AI models trained on Indian datasets. 

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Mumbai-based device management startup Servify has begun the preparations for its initial public offering (IPO) by roping in three investment bankers.

The startup plans to raise $400 Mn to $500 Mn through the public issue at a valuation of $1.5 Bn, sources told Inc42.

About 55-60% of the public issue likely to be an offer for sale and the remaining would be a fresh issue of equity shares, the sources added. It is looking to file the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with markets regulator SEBI by August this year, and is eyeing a listing in 2025 or in the first quarter of 2026. 

Servify is also in advanced discussions with existing as well as new investors to raise $100 Mn in a pre-IPO round before filing its draft papers. This funding round will make the nine-year-old startup an unicorn. Mint was the first to report about the startup’s plans to raise pre-IPO funding. 

Servify declined to comment on its IPO plans. 

Founded in 2015 by Sreevathsa Prabhakar, Servify offers device management services like device protection, product buyback, and device exchange. The startup earns a majority of its revenue from sale of services such as device protection plans and platform licences.

Servify’s revenue breached the INR 1,000 Cr mark in the ongoing financial year (FY25), the sources said, adding that it has also achieved EBITDA profitability.

In FY24, the startup’s operating revenue rose 23% to INR 754 Cr from INR 611 Cr in FY23. Net loss declined 59% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 93.81 Cr in FY24.

Servify has raised a total funding of about $130 Mn to date and counts marquee investors like BEENEXT, Blume Ventures, DMI Sparkle Fund, Iron Pillars, among others, as its backers. It last raised $65 Mn in its Series D funding round led by Singularity Growth Opportunity Fund.

Servify only operated in India in its first three years, but later expanded into international markets. It operates in three continents and has regional offices in the US, Canada, China, the Middle East, among others, besides India.

With the latest development, Servify has joined the growing list of B2B Indian startups heading for a public listing. OfBusiness, Zetwerk, Capillary Technologies are among the other such startups eyeing an IPO. 

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Bhavish Aggarwal’s AI unicorn Krutrim is now hosting open source AI models of Chinese GenAI company DeepSeek on its cloud platform. 

“Krutrim has accelerated efforts to develop world class AI. As a first step, our cloud now has DeepSeek models live, hosted on Indian servers. Pricing lowest in the world,” Aggarwal said in a post on social media platform X.  

Further hinting on the open source efforts, Aggarwal said that the details on its “AI lab, state of the art (SOTA) model and research progress, open source drops on 4th Feb!”

As of now, five models of DeepSeek are available on the platform, ranging from 8 Bn tokens to 70 Bn trained models. 

Apart from the main model DeepSeek R1, which came into the news for beating OpenAI’s GPT-4o in many benchmarks, Krutrim also hosts distilled versions like DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B, DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-14B, DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B,  DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B. 

Overall, DeepSeek has launched six distilled models based on Alibaba and Meta’s open source models Qwen and Llama, respectively. 

Model distillation is a process of transferring knowledge from a large model to a smaller model. DeepSeek says that R1-Distill models are fine-tuned based on open-source models, using samples generated by DeepSeek-R1. 

Notably, the R1-Distill-Llama-8B model on Krutrim’s cloud only costs about INR 10 per 1 Mn tokens generated. The costliest DeepSeek model costs about INR 60 per 1 Mn tokens. 

For context, tokens are a fundamental unit of text that LLMs generate. 

Founded in April 2023, Krutrim offers a foundational generative AI model, GPU-as-a-service, model-as-a-service, along with different no code platforms. It became a unicorn in January last year after raising $50 Mn in a round led by a clutch of investors including Matrix Partners India.

The update comes as the recent launch of DeepSeek’s R1 model has shaken the tech industry worldwide, with its model costing about 95% cheaper than OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. Further, while GPT-4 training cost was about $100 Mn, DeepSeek claims that its model cost only under $6 Mn. 

After DeepSeek’s launch, Nvidia’s stock tumbled– along with most of the US tech stocks. 

Meanwhile, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said that India is also planning to build a domestic LLM as part of the INR 10,037 Cr IndiaAI Mission. Along with this, he also said 

that India will also host DeepSeek on local servers to address the privacy concerns regarding the cross-border data transfer. 

On the same day, IndiaAI Mission sought proposals for Indian foundational models, which will be shortlisted on factors like innovativeness of the approach, scalability and sustainability, financial viability, ethical considerations, among others.

Under the plan, the Mission will offer “milestone-based disbursements” in the form of a direct grant and compute credits for AI Compute.

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The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) has imposed a monetary penalty of INR 9.3 Cr on crypto platform Bybit due to the violations of Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005.

“Bybit kept expanding its services in the Indian market without securing mandatory registration with the FIU-IND. The persistent and continuous non-compliance caused FIU-IND to block their websites to stop operations,” FIU said in a statement. 

The agency said that after conducting a thorough examination of written and oral submissions from Bybit, it found the crypto platform liable of the charges for various violations.

“In an order dated January 31st, 2025, and exercising authority under Section 13 of the PMLA, it was unequivocally established that Bybit was in violation of Section 12(1) of the PMLA read with Rule 2(1)(h), Rule 7(2), Rule 8(2) Rule 8 (4), Rule 3(1)(D) and Rule 7(3) of PMLR, 2005. Consequently, a total penalty of INR 9,27,00,000 was imposed on Bybit,” said the FIU. 

It is pertinent to mention that earlier this month, Bybit announced a temporary restriction on its services for Indian users. In the statement, the FIU said that the persistent and continuous non-compliance caused it to block Bybit’s websites. 

Notably, in March 2023, the Indian government brought crypto businesses under the provisions of the PMLA, mandating them to report suspicious transactions and conduct customer due diligence among others.

Later that year, all virtual digital asset service providers were asked to register as reporting entities with the FIU.

The same year, nine offshore crypto exchanges received show cause notices in December from the FIU for illegally operating in the country and running afoul of anti-money laundering laws. 

After the notices, the apps of these platforms were delisted from Google and Apple’s app stores. 

However, in 2024, Binance, which was one of the apps which received a penalty and a show cause notice from the FIU, paid INR 18.82 Cr to the agency and resumed its operations in the country after registering with it.

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SaaS major Unicommerce’s consolidated net profit zoomed 62.1% to INR 6.29 Cr in the third quarter of the ongoing financial year (FY25) from INR 3.88 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

Sequentially, profit increased 40.7% from INR 4.47 Cr. The company’s adjusted EBITDA for Q3 FY25 increased 63.5% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 8.88 Cr, while adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 620 basis points YoY to 27.1%.

The robust jump in its bottom line came on the back of an over 26% jump in revenue from contract with customers to INR 32.74 Cr from INR 25.96 Cr in Q3 FY24. Sequentially, the company’s top line saw a rise of 11.7% from INR 29.31 Cr. 

Including other income of INR 1.50 Cr, Unicommerce’s total income for the quarter stood at INR 34.24 Cr. 

Meanwhile, total expenses grew 14.4% YoY and 4.5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to INR 25.68 Cr during the quarter under review.

The company, which claims to be the largest ecommerce enablement SaaS platform by revenue, expanded its services this quarter with the acquisition of Shipway. The acquisition increased the total addressable market for Unicommerce to over $1.15 Bn at the end of the quarter. 

The company now claims to provide solutions across the full-stack of ecommerce enablement. It said that it is serving over 7,000 clients including the likes of Lenskart, Mamaearth, Sugar, Healthkart, Urban Company, among others. It said its annual transaction run rate crossed the 1 Bn mark during the quarter.

“This quarter, we continued expanding our enterprise client base, onboarding marquee brands such as Hidesign and Hummel while strengthening our engagement with existing clients like SUGAR Cosmetics… Our strategic acquisitions of Shipway and Convertway have strengthened our position as a leading e-commerce enablement platform. With a combined customer base of 7,000+ across the three platforms, we are unlocking upsell and cross-sell opportunities, further enhancing the value we deliver across the e-commerce ecosystem,” Unicommerce’s MD and CEO Kapil Makhija said. 

Here’s a breakdown of the company’s three businesses at the end of the quarter:

• With its marketing automation platform Convertway, Unicommerce provides services like live WhatsApp Chatbot, targeted campaigns and customer segmentation. Unicommerce said that the platform had an annual run rate of 110 Mn+ notifications at the end of the December quarter. 
• Its transaction processing layer software, Uniware, provides warehouse and inventory management system, omnichannel retail solutions and seller management panel. It had an annual transaction run rate of 1,036 Mn for the 11,860+ client facilities it served in the quarter. 
• Unicommerce’s recently acquired logistics management platform, Shipway, had an annual shipment run rate of over 7 Mn between November 17 and December 31. The acquisition was completed on December 17. 

Shares of Unicommerce ended Friday’s (January 31) trading session 4.29% higher at INR 144.65 on the BSE.

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India has traditionally been a less-credit market. True, there had been a frenzy during the Covid years and even post-Covid times, leading to credit card adoption and spending. But banks are now curbing new issuances due to rising delinquencies. September 2024 saw a 30% MoM decline per the RBI data, and the central bank continues to clang the cautionary bell against unsecured credit. In fact, credit growth is seeing a slowdown amid projections of lower economic growth (6.5–6.8%) in FY25. This could be a cause of concern as healthy credit growth tends to spur the economy.

If the credit industry landscape is not too satisfactory even when India is reportedly half a decade away from turning into a $5 Tn economy, imagine the ground realities a decade ago. As of December 2011, there were around 1.8 Cr cards in India, which reached 2.03 Cr by the end of 2014. Stringent eligibility criteria and lack of financial inclusion caused the sluggish growth.

The Wharton alumnus, who worked as an investment banker and a private equity investor with stints at organisations like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and General Atlantic, faced an unexpected hurdle after returning to India in 2011. Despite his global credentials, he was deemed ‘new to credit’ and struggled to obtain a credit card.

“When he couldn’t secure a credit card on his own and had to ask his company to get him one, he realised that the system was fundamentally flawed, especially for middle-income Indians,” said his spouse, Shruti.

But unlike those who blamed the system, the couple took action and set up Stashfin, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) offering consumer loans to improve lives.

Shruti, a Columbia University alumnus and a chartered accountant by profession, had earlier seen the ease of accessing credit in the US. “If the West can do it, why not the East,” she mused, aligning naturally with Stashfin’s mission and joining the founding team.

It was another garage startup; only the couple ran it from Shruti’s father’s basement in Delhi. But within months, the venture saw rapid growth, moved to a proper office, and the team expanded 6x, from 20 to 120. By 2019, Stashfin’s assets under management (AUM) grew to INR 500 Cr, and the fintech firm leased an even larger office.

How Stashfin Grappled With Covid-19 To Recover And Grow

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic forced the startup to scale down. Loan disbursements were halted entirely, with INR 100 Cr retained as a cash reserve to service basic operations. Although the pandemic had hit the NBFC-MFI sector hard, a supportive policy framework ensured a partial recovery. Liquidity was managed by rationalising expenses, leveraging moratorium on borrowings and financing support extended through the RBI until collections started to come in.

Stashfin adopted a lean, tech-first model (more on that later) and an agile approach to endure the crisis in a risk-averse market. “Embracing change proactively and using smart technology helped us control costs and remain cash conservative,” said Shruti.

Stashfi’s prudence and credit discipline worked well in challenging times. Today, it empowers millions of Indians with easy access to credit. The platform offers loans of up to INR 5 Lakh with flexible repayment terms extending to 36 months and competitive annual interest rates starting at 11.99%.

Its core customers are professionals aged 28-35 who rely on these loans for practical requirements like home improvement, educational expenses (tuition fees) and upskilling costs. These finances come in handy when credit cards fall short in areas like medical bills, travel, wedding, gadget buying and more.

With more than 4 Cr app downloads and 40 Lakh approved users in 1K+ cities, Stashfin has rapidly aligned with growing consumer needs and emerged as a full-stack financial services platform in 2024. It has now diversified into insurance, curated solutions for bonds, payments and commerce and eyes a third-party application provider (TPAP) licence from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for UPI-based payment and credit solutions.

“These milestones have strengthened our market position while driving digital innovations and inclusion across India’s growing economy,” the cofounder said.

The outcomes were impressive post-pandemic. Backed by INR 6K Cr in funding from global investors, Stashfin clocked INR 800 Cr in revenue, INR 68 Cr in net profit and INR 2K Cr in AUM in FY24. In the past three years (FY22-FY24), its user base grew fivefold and it currently serves more than 30 Lakh customers. Loan disbursements during this period surged 14 times, surpassing $1 Bn, with repeat loan rates at 90%.

Revenue rose from INR 21 Cr in FY21 to INR 49 Cr in FY22, an impressive 133% increase, and soared further to INR 216 Cr in FY23, marking almost a 4x YoY growth. In FY24, the NBFC further grew its revenues to INR 800 Cr, an almost 3x YoY increase.

The fintech recently announced ESOP allocations worth INR 5 lakh and INR 3 Lakh for employees who completed five and three years, respectively. These initiatives are part of the venture’s INR 600 Cr ESOP pool.

Lean, Tech-First & Agile: The Three Pillars Building Stashfin’s Growth Momentum

From the outset, Stashfin prioritised a streamlined approach to achieve sustainable growth. For instance, it raised $5 Mn in a Series A round in 2017, one of the largest in the ecosystem at the time, but the team was cautious about how it spent the money.

Instead of scaling rapidly through mass hiring, the NBFC built a lean, adaptable team of growth-oriented professionals and implemented robust SOPs to maximise operational efficiency. Its current team of 170 is significantly smaller than most NBFCs, which are similar in size and scope. “For us, lean and agile was the way to go. We wanted to stay flexible and adapt quickly,” affirmed Shruti.

Another pivotal choice was to develop its core systems in-house. Rather than purchasing business software off the shelf, it built technology tools from the ground up, including a loan management platform, a ticket management system for grievance redressal and a CRM for customer outreach. Additionally, big data-based machine learning models are integrated into its decision and risk assessment engines for rapid evaluation of credit risks, speedy loan disbursals and enhanced efficiency.

Stashfin’s multi-cloud, highly scalable infrastructure is designed to handle a large volume of concurrent requests, ensuring smooth service even during high-traffic periods. It can handle 44 Mn API calls annually. Simply put, these are data or service access requests a software application makes to another for seamless operations.

With a microservice-driven architecture in place, Stashfin can continuously innovate and quickly roll out new products and features to meet market demand, claimed Shruti, adding that its in-house tech stack is the critical backbone that gives the company greater control, helps it scale rapidly and build better products.

The NBFC initially invested heavily in technology and marketing to solidify its position. While the marketing expenditure was around INR 8-9 Cr during pre-pandemic times, its technology input nearly doubled.

“But during Covid, our proprietary tech and agile approach kept the business up and running during the pandemic. It helped us focus on customer requirements, manage resources efficiently and streamline marketing efforts without overspending,” said Shruti.

“With the right tech and optimised processes in place, the economies of scale began to materialise after FY21, and our investments in strategies and team paid off,” she reflected. “We maintained a flat burn rate throughout but enhanced our technology to cater to more customers seeking financial flexibility. On average, satisfied users interact with the platform 10 times annually, reflecting one of the industry’s highest lifetime value (LTV) metrics.”

Consumer-Centric Innovations: The USP That Makes Stashfin Stand Out 

Despite Covid setbacks, Stashfin has emerged as an outstanding player, offering its borrowers convenient features similar to credit cards or what Bajaj Finserv offers via its Insta EMI Card.

The appeal lies in its user-centric model, ensuring that people can raise small and manageable amounts instead of taking out the minimum loan (often INR 50K or more) typically provided by a lender. This means people have greater control over borrowing costs and repayments.

At Stashfin, the minimum loan starts at INR 30K, but borrowers can withdraw as little as INR 1K depending on their requirements. For example, a customer with a credit limit of INR 5 Lakh but needing only INR 1.5K for a specific expense can withdraw that precise amount. This kind of incremental lending means interest is charged only on the amount used. As Shruti pointed out, why pay for the whole pizza when you only want a slice? This encapsulates the ethos of the flexible credit model.

This model is a financial lifeline for managing recurring expenses like tuition or course fees. Borrowers can secure a higher overall credit limit but have the flexibility to withdraw and repay smaller, manageable amounts as needed.

Besides, Stashfin offers loans without foreclosure fees and ensures an interest-free period for repayment, typical advantages extended by lending banks and credit cards. In the first case, borrowers can repay their loans anytime, allowing early closures with no added cost.

About 40-50% of its customers also take advantage of a 30-day interest-free period. Users pay a transaction fee of 1.8% for short-term borrowing and can repay within 30 days without any interest.

“If you need INR 30K for a personal expense but know your salary will arrive in three days, you can draw the amount, pay just 1.8% and settle the loan when your salary arrives,” explained Shruti. “This free credit period is a game changer, delighting customers, driving higher transaction volumes and boosting revenue.”

It has also developed the Sentinel Program tailored for army personnel and veterans, which now accounts for 20% of its portfolio. Although it is challenging to onboard these people serving in remote areas, they are high-quality borrowers as the government guarantees their salaries. Hence, the project thrives.

Strong Unit Economics & Risk Management Curb Non-Performing Assets

The founders claim Stashfin has been profitable from the beginning based on unit economics. Revenues are generated through interest incomes, application processing and transaction fees, late payment penalties, investment and asset management, cross-selling financial products and more.

Also, it is the first NBFC to offer non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on the BSE to grow its capital pool. The move came after capital market regulator SEBI amended its regulations on the issue and listing of NCDs in July 2024 and reduced the face value of debt securities from INR 1 Lakh to INR 10K. Stashfin’s initiative aims to democratise bond investments and increase retail access, strengthening its vision to enable financial inclusion.

Investing in an NBFC bond involves lending money to the issuing NBFC for a fixed period. In return, investors receive regular interest payments or coupons and the principal at maturity. “The interest rate is predetermined and fixed, providing a predictable income stream,” explained Tushar.

Stashfin’s robust risk management strategy has kept its non-performing assets (NPAs) below 5%, with its lifetime losses (write-offs/bad debts) also remaining around that number.

The platform employs a mix of in-house and outsourced processes for its operations. A 45-member internal collection team and a 16-strong legal team handle its core activities. On the other hand, external vendors manage fieldwork and customer outreach with the help of stringent protocols to make sure customer data is protected throughout. Payments via the app are fully digitalised, and borrowers can use UPI, debit cards or net banking for the same. This digital-first approach has minimised risks of fraud and improved operational efficiency.

In essence, Stashfin’s disciplined focus on unit economics, technology-driven growth and risk management underscores its ability to scale up sustainably while maintaining a customer-centric focus.

Of Star Endorsements And Marketing Drive

Now that it is business as usual, Stashfin has brought together the Bollywood glitterati, including Anil Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Kartik Aaryan, to lead the fintech’s marketing campaigns. The platform spent INR 70-80 Cr in marketing in FY24 out of a total expedite of INR 700 Cr across diversified channels.

However, some celebrity endorsements averaged 20 Mn views or more, underscoring the impact of celebrity endorsements. The platform also spent on referral programmes, gold or cash rewards, newspaper callbacks and the Sentinel Program – sessions on financial education across army cantonments – generating widespread enquiries, attracting attention and building trust to tap into unserved and underserved markets.

The pandemic tested the survival skills of most NBFCs in India, bringing critical activities such as debt servicing, repayments and liquidity to an abrupt halt. Stashfin was no exception, but its founders showed exceptional grit in several areas to stay afloat.

“Resilience is the key. But there are fundamental challenges in this domain, and we have learnt to cope with them to pave the way for the future,” said the Agarwals.

From Recovery To Growth & Beyond: The Challenges & The Roadmap 

The pandemic tested the survival skills of most NBFCs in India, bringing to an abrupt halt critical sectoral activities such as debt servicing, repayments and liquidity. Stashfin was no exception, but its founders believed it had not merely thrived due to resilience. “Instead, there are fundamental challenges in this domain and we have learnt to cope with those to pave the future path,” said the Agarwals.

As of now, the loan approval rate is 2% or so. Most applications get rejected due to unmet credit criteria, fraud or other red flags identified during a rigorous approval process. Stashfin conducts thorough credit checks, ensuring borrowers are not overleveraged or behind on payments. This vigilance sometimes leads to cancellations of previously approved credit lines if financial behaviours cause concerns.

The next most critical factor is dealing with fraud. Many applicants reside in shared accommodations without formal lease agreements, thus complicating address verifications. Others may game the system by claiming high salaries while using burner phones.

“Our data analytics reveal that in India, people often spend three times their monthly salary on their phones. So, the use of burner phones is a strong fraud signal. What they claim does not match with their low-cost devices,” said Shruti.

To counter these risks, Stashfin dives deep into anomalies like incongruent customer behaviour, phone model and bank statements rather than physical address or credit scores. It also uses tools like device binding and IP tracking to identify multiple applications from the same source.

However, a low credit score is not always a deterrent. A consistent income for the past six months is a more reliable indicator of a person’s financial position. Therefore, credit limits are adjusted – increased or decreased, as the case may be – depending on the history of prior credit repayment and other critical factors.

Despite these challenges, the founders are confident that the demand for NBFC credit will remain critical for economic growth and the share of retail credit in the total NBFC space is projected to reach 56% in FY25. This augurs well for Stashfin and its peers.

The platform eyes steady growth in the next fiscal year based on new product launches. The only glitch: The RBI’s relentless move to curb the rise of consumer loans and the way many NBFCs were charged with and heavily fined for non-compliance in areas like KYC, anti-money laundering and more.

Meanwhile, Stashfin aims to serve its aspirational customer base and ensure that they access credit responsibly. As Shruti put it, “Our goal is to serve customers who value their credit history and use it as a stepping stone to bigger financial goals like home or car loans.”

When the country grappled with the pandemic, experts noted that no matter how formidable the headwinds were, NBFC players consistently transformed risks into opportunities. If Stashfin and its peers continue along that path and adapt to fast-evolving compliance norms, they can enhance consumer convenience and strengthen their foothold in the competitive financial services market.

[Edited By Sanghamitra Mandal]

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Tata Technologies, the engineering arm of Tata Group, faced a ransomware attack on Friday (January 31) which led to the company suspending some of its services.

In an exchange filing, the company said that the incident affected a few of its IT assets while its client delivery services “remained fully functional and unaffected throughout”.

“As a precautionary measure, some of the IT services were suspended temporarily and have now been restored. Our client delivery services have remained fully functional and unaffected throughout,” the company said. 

However, Tata Technologies did not disclose specific details about the attack.

“Further detailed investigation is underway in consultation with experts to assess the root cause and to take remedial action as necessary. We remain committed to the highest standards of security and data protection and are taking all necessary steps to mitigate any potential risks,” the filing added. 

A ransomware attack typically involves malware that encrypts files such that users are barred from accessing them. Hackers restore user access if they are given ransom in return of a decryption key. 

This development comes amid a surge in ransomware and cyberattacks targeting Indian entities and institutions. In 2024, India ranked as the second most targeted country for cyberattacks globally, behind the US.

According to a report by non-profit Prahar, the country witnessed 500 Mn cyberattacks in the first quarter of 2024, followed by nearly 750 Mn more in the second quarter.

In August last year, a ransomware attack at C-Edge, which provides services to cooperative and regional rural banks, led to the NPCI temporarily isolating the service provider from accessing its retail payment systems.

Another such major cyberattack led to the personal data leak of millions of Star Health’s customers on Telegram in September last year.

A leak of 278 GB of sensitive user data of state-run telecom company BSNL, the exposure of personal information of 7.9 Mn customers of broking platform Angel One, and a breach at WazirX, which affected 15 Mn users are among the other major cyber breaches in India in recent times.

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Indian Railways is piloting a super app ‘SwaRail’ to bring all railway-related services under one roof.

Launched for beta testing on Friday (January 31), the super app integrates various railway services like reserved and unreserved booking tickets, parcel and freight enquiries, train and PNR status enquiries, ordering food online on trains, and registering complaints. 

This comes four months after railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in September 2024, said that the ministry was developing such a super app. 

The app is available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The railways ministry said that the offering will be rolled out for the general public after a thorough evaluation and trial run. 

Developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the super app integrates offerings of all public-facing apps of the Indian Railways into one single platform. The ministry has also sought public feedback on the app’s user experience in the beta phase to improve its functioning. 

“This initiative is a significant step toward leveraging technology to enhance convenience for railway users. The super app provides smarter, simpler, and more efficient access to Indian Railways services. The super app beta testing phase is being closely monitored by the CRIS team to ensure timely resolution of user feedback and suggestions,” the ministry said in a statement. 

It also outlined the key features of the new app:

• Users will be able to access the services using a single set of credentials
• All services offered by various apps of the railways ministry will now be accessible through a unified app
• Services will be integrated to deliver comprehensive information from multiple sources in a cohesive and unified manner
• The signup process has been simplified to enhance the user experience and make the app easily accessible
• Multiple login options have been provided to improve user experience

The development also comes a month after Vaishnaw reiterated in the Parliament that the ministry was working on a super app which will allow users to book unreserved tickets, file complaints and check availability of trains and their schedule. 

Previous reports claimed that the super app would be developed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). 

The latest development comes at a time when many players in the startup ecosystem are moving towards super apps. Fintech giants such as CRED, PhonePe and Groww have bundled all of their offerings into a single app.  

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Hero MotoCorp chief executive Niranjan Gupta will resign on April 30, the auto giant informed the exchanges today (February 1).

“Niranjan Gupta has decided to pursue other opportunities and is stepping down from his role as chief executive officer,” Hero MotoCorp said in a regulatory filing.

Vikram Kasbekar, who is the executive director of operations, will take over as acting chief executive officer from May 1.

Based on his LinkedIn profile, Gupta has been with the company since April 2017. He served as the chief financial officer for more than six years before taking over as the CEO. He has been with Hero MotoCorp for nearly eight years. 

Gupta handled various leadership roles for about 25 years across FMCG, mining, automobile industries in Indian and overseas markets. He has worked with brands such as Vedanta Resources, Unilever and Hindustan Unilever Limited.

“Gupta has strengthened our financial resilience, forged global alliances and laid the foundation for the House of Strategy that defines our future growth journey,” Pawan Munjal, executive chairman of the company, said.

Kasbekar, as per his public profile, has been with the company for nearly two decades serving as its head of operations and supply chain.

Besides Gupta’s exit, Hero MotoCorp has also announced a few other leadership changes. It has elevated chief procurement officer Ram Kuppuswamy to the position of chief operations officer in manufacturing, effective April 1, while national sales head of its India business unit Ashutosh Varma is promoted as the chief business officer from May 1.

Hero MotoCorp’s EV and Emerging Mobility Business Unit (EMBU) will transition to a fully independent and empowered unit from today (1 February), leading the EV revolution and next generation mobility, the company said in the filing.

This transition comes two months after the motorbike manufacturer launched an accelerator programme, Hero For Startups, to identify and fund promising startups across India which have the potential to transform the future of the automotive industry.

Updated at 01:08 PM

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The government will provide access to key data and maps from the PM Gati Shakti portal to support public-private partnerships (PPPs) and assist the private sector in project planning,  finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

“For furthering PPPs and assisting the private sector in project planning, access to relevant data and maps from the PM Gati Shakti portal will be provided,” the finance minister said during her Union Budget 2025-2026 speech.

In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched PM Gati Shakti – National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity. It is a digital platform to bring 16 ministries, including railways and roadways, together for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.

As per media reports, since the inception of the PM Gati Shakti portal, the government has been aiming to make relevant data accessible to the private sector. However, national security concerns had to be addressed first, necessitating the implementation of stringent security measures to safeguard the data.

In her budget speech, the finance minister also said that the government will set up a National Geospatial Mission to develop foundational geospatial infrastructure and data.

The government will use PM Gati Shakti to facilitate the modernisation of land records, urban planning and design of infrastructure projects.

The geospatial space is growing in India and has seen companies like MapmyIndia and other emerging players such as LocaleAI, SatNav, SatGuide, and Aarav Unmanned Systems make major breakthroughs in the sector.

For startups, the finance minister also announced a new fund of funds with an allocation of INR 10,000 Cr.

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A revamped Central Know Your Customer (KYC) registry will be rolled out in 2025 in order to simplify the KYC process, said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her Union Budget 2025 speech on Saturday (February 1).

The Central KYC Registry is a centralised database of all KYC records of customers in the financial sector. The objective of this repository is to reduce the burden of producing KYC documents and getting those verified each time the customer creates a new relationship with a financial entity.

“To implement the earlier announcement on simplifying the KYC processes, the revamped Central KYC Registry will be rolled out in 2025,” said Sitharaman.

The Centre also plans to implement a streamlined system for periodic updating.

Ravi Kumar Jha, MD and CEO at LIC Mutual Fund, said in a statement that these measures will ease the entry of new investors under financial inclusion.

The finance minister said that this year’s Budget aims to initiate transformative reforms across six domains for the next five years — financial sector,  power sector, mining, urban development, taxation, and regulatory reforms.

Besides revamping the CKYC registry, the Centre also increased the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit for the insurance sector to 100% from 74% earlier.

“This enhanced limit will be available for those companies which invest the entire premium in India. The current guardrails and conditionalities associated with foreign investment will be reviewed and simplified,” Sitharaman said.

For startups, the FM also announced a corpus of INR 10,000 Cr for a new fund of funds (FoF) for startups.

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Shares of Bhavish Aggarwal-led electric vehicle maker Ola Electric surged nearly 8% at INR 80.75 apiece during the intraday trading on the BSE today (February 1).

As of 01:09 PM, the stock pared some gains to trade 3% up at INR 77.01, compared to its last close of INR 74.79 from January 31, on the BSE.

The market capitalization of the EV maker currently stands at INR 33,967.80 Cr.

However, the stock closed marginally in the red as it fell 0.68% at INR 74.28 apiece on the BSE.

This comes a day after Ola Electric unveiled 8 new escooters across mass and premium segments, built on the advanced Gen 3 platform, claiming it will give a 20% boost to peak power, reduce costs by 11%, and increase range by 20%.

Its expansion of portfolio led to the stock’s upsurge of 14.43% in early trade to INR 76.50 apiece on the BSE yesterday.

Earlier this month, the electric mobility company also kicked off the production of its ‘Roadster’ electric bike, which was initially unveiled in August last year.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Union Budget 2025 speech today announced exemption of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on cobalt powder, scrap of lithium-ion batteries, LED, zinc and other critical minerals.

To note, earlier this week, the stock slumped to hit an all-time low of INR 64.68 apiece on the BSE, extending their losses for the sixth consecutive session.

Earlier in January, markets regulator SEBI sent an administrative warning to the electric mobility company for flouting disclosure regulations by announcing material information about its planned store network expansion on social media before informing the exchanges first.

Updated at 04:54 PM

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Shares of Unicommerce surged as much as 13.37% to INR 164.00 during the intraday trading on the BSE today (February 1) after the company announced positive quarterly results for the third quarter of the ongoing financial year (FY25). 

However, the stock shed some of the gains and was trading 10.58% higher at INR 317.45 at 1:05 PM. 

The company’s market capitalisation was at INR 1,638.43 Cr at the above-mentioned time and as much as 1.8 Lakh shares traded hands by then. 

The SaaS major announced its Q3 results yesterday (January 31), with consolidated net profit climbing 62.1% to INR 6.29 Cr in the quarter under consideration from INR 3.88 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Sequentially, profit increased 40.7% from INR 4.47 Cr. 

On similar lines, its top line also jumped over 26% jump to INR 32.74 Cr from INR 25.96 Cr in Q3 FY24  driven by revenue from contracts with customers.  Quartely, the company’s top line saw a rise of 11.7% from INR 29.31 Cr.

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The government has announced new reforms in Budget 2025 to improve the ease of doing business. The focus is on modernising regulations and creating a trust-based framework.

In her budget speech 2025 on Saturday (February 1), finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said a “light-touch regulatory framework” will keep up with technology and global trends. She said it would create a business-friendly environment.

Four key steps will be taken in this direction:

High-Level Committee For Regulatory Reforms: A high-level committee will review regulations, licences, and certifications in the non-financial sector. It will submit recommendations within a year. The goal is to streamline compliance and inspections. States will be encouraged to take part.

“We want a trust-based economy. Outdated rules must not hold back business growth,” Sitharaman said.

Investment Friendliness Index Of States: The government will launch an Investment Friendliness Index in 2025. This will promote competitive cooperative federalism among states.

Financial Regulations Review Mechanism: A new mechanism under the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) will assess financial regulations. It will ensure better regulatory responsiveness and financial sector growth.

Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0: The Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0 will further simplify laws. It will decriminalise over 100 provisions across various laws. This follows the Jan Vishwas Act 2023, which decriminalised over 180 provisions.

Further, the government has introduced key reforms to facilitate trade and ease regulatory compliance. A two-year time limit, extendable by one year, will now apply to provisional assessments under the Customs Act, 1962, reducing uncertainty for businesses.

A voluntary compliance system will allow importers and exporters to declare material facts and pay duties with interest but without penalties unless under investigation.

Additionally, the time limit for the end-use of imported inputs has been extended from six months to one year, and importers will now file quarterly instead of monthly statements, easing administrative requirements.

Not only this, the government is also pushing for a fully digital tax system within two years, and the Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme has already helped settle disputes for 33,000 taxpayers.

To boost startups and investment, tax benefits under Section 80-IAC will be extended for five more years, covering startups incorporated before April 1, 2030. Capital gains tax rates will be standardised for non-resident investors, including Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

Charitable trusts and institutions will see streamlined regulations, with smaller entities now enjoying a 10-year registration validity instead of five. Minor defaults, such as incomplete applications, will not result in automatic deregistration.

“This budget is about removing barriers and fostering trust. A modern regulatory approach will boost productivity and create jobs,” said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

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Shares of online travel aggregator EaseMyTrip surged 10.45 % to INR 14.90 during the intraday trading on the BSE today (February 1) after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union 2025 Budget speech promised investment for employment-led growth in the tourism sector.

However, the stock paired back and was trading 7.93% lower at INR 14.56  at 2:00 PM.

The New Delhi-based startup’s total market capitalisation is pegged at INR 5,138.92 Cr.

The finance minister announced a plan to develop 50 tourist destinations across India in coordination with state governments to expand tourism, generate employment, and improve infrastructure.

The surge in stock prices also comes on the back of the company’s expansion into overseas markets. Today (February 1), the company announced its incorporation with its wholly owned subsidiary, Easy Trip Planners Do Brasil Ltda, in Brazil.

The subsidiary has been set up with an Initial subscription of 1,000 shares at 1,00 Brazilian Real each. Easy Trip Planners Do Brasil Ltda will own 100% stake in the venture.

In fact in recent times, the company has doubled down on its efforts to venture into new terrains. With a slew of acquisitions, it entered the hospitality industry by acquiring a non-controlling stake of about 13% in Eco Hotels and Resorts in a share-swap deal to enter the hotel and hospitality industry.

Also, two weeks back the company forayed into the insuretech sector with EaseMyTrip Insurance Broker, incorporated as a distinct entity under the parent entity.

The listed traveltech player also picked up majority stakes in Mumbai-based Guideline Travels Holidays, Jammu & Kashmir-based TripShope Travel Technologies and New Delhi-headquartered Dook Travels.

The company recorded a 42.8% decline in its consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at INR 26.8 Cr in the second quarter (Q2) of the financial year 2024-25 (FY25) from INR 46.9 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

Moreover, its topline also remained flat for the quarter in review rising a nominal 2.1% to INR 144.6 Cr in Q2 FY25 from INR 141.6 Cr in the September quarter last year.

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Bengaluru-based B2B seafood startup Captain Fresh has secured INR 250 Cr ($28.8 Mn) as part of its ongoing pre-IPO funding round led by existing investors Prosus Ventures, Accel and Tiger Global.

The round also saw participation from leading domestic family offices, including Swiggy cofounder Sriharsha Majety’s family office; Sid Khanna, chairman of India Equity Partners; Sona Comstar chairman Sunjay Kapur and apparel maker Shivalik Prints among others.

“Current funding enables us to exceed $1 Bn revenue in the next 12 months, which puts us among the top 25 seafood players in the world,” said Utham Gowda, founder and group chief executive of Captain Fresh.

Gowda also said that the fresh capital will strengthen the startup’s balance sheet and serve as a strong foundation for its upcoming IPO.

Founded in 2019 by Gowda, Captain Fresh is a farm-to-retail platform specialising in seafood. The startup sources produce from farmers and agents. The company claims to also have operations in Chicago, West Palm Beach, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Oslo, Gdynia, and Dubai. 

The company, currently valued at $500 Mn, is also looking to raise up to $100 Mn in a pre-IPO funding round amid increasing interest from domestic and overseas investors.

It has so far mopped up nearly $46 Mn from a clutch of investors for this pre-IPO round.

The startup last raised INR 100 Cr (about $12 Mn) in a funding round led by Motilal Oswal Wealth Limited, only a month ago. 

To note, Captain Fresh was eyeing an IPO at a valuation of $1.3 Bn to $1.5 Bn, as per reports. It was also said to have picked Axis Capital and Bank of America as the bankers for its public issue.

The startup said in a statement that it is actively preparing to file for its IPO by the end of this year, while also scaling up its operations and bolstering its market position.

Updated at 04:30 PM

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Chinese artificial intelligence chatbot DeepSeek has become the most downloaded mobile app across 140 markets, with India contributing the largest pie of new users.

According to data from Appfigures, as cited by Bloomberg, India accounted for 15.6% of all downloads across platforms since the app’s launch in January and became the number one android app on the Google Play Store in the US this week.

Within 18 days of launch, DeepSeek garnered 16 Mn downloads, nearly doubling the initial adoption rate of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which saw 9 Mn downloads in the same period.

The app climbed to the top spot on Apple Inc’s App Store on January 26 and has maintained its position globally and became the top-ranking app on Alphabet Inc’s Google Play Store in the US as of January 28.

While officially available in China, US, and Vietnam, the app has gained widespread adoption across 140 markets despite minimal advertising.

This comes at a time when India is aiming to build a low-cost AI model, in line with DeepSeek. Also, yesterday, (January 31), Krutrim founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced that his AI unicorn has begun hosting DeepSeek’s open source models on Indian servers.

“Krutrim has accelerated efforts to develop world class AI. As a first step, our cloud now has DeepSeek models live, hosted on Indian servers. Pricing lowest in the world,” Aggarwal said in a post on X.

Krutrim currently hosts five DeepSeek models, including its flagship DeepSeek R1 and four distilled versions. The pricing ranges from INR 10 per million tokens for the R1-Distill-Llama-8B model to INR 60 per million tokens for the most expensive variant.

This also comes close on the heels of India advancing its data localisation efforts. Recently, union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that India would host DeepSeek on local servers to address privacy concerns regarding cross-border data transfer.

The post India Takes Top Spot In DeepSeek AI App Downloads: Report appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Shares of Mamaearth parent Honasa Consumer surged 6.9% to INR 235.70 during the intraday trading on the BSE today (February 1).

The stock pared some gains to rise 3.2% at INR 227.70, as of 03:31 PM, compared to its previous close of INR 220.55 from January 31, on the BSE.

The company’s market capitalisation currently stands at INR 7,396.24 Cr.

The stock gain comes after Mint reported that ICICI Prudential has raised its stake in Honasa to 7.6%. 

As per Honasa Consumer’s shareholding pattern on the BSE, ICICI Prudential’s stake in the company was at 7.36% in the quarter ending December.

This too was an increase from its 6.04% stake in the company during the September quarter. 

As of the filing on the quarter ending December 2024, ICICI Prudential held 2.39 Cr shares in the company.

ICICI Prudential previously raised its stake in the company to 5.48% in the September quarter, from 3.81%.

It is to note that the parent of Mamaearth marked a fresh all-time low yesterday, after it dipped by 6.10% to INR 205.05 apiece during the intraday trading on BSE. However, it covered some of its loss by ending the session in green at INR 220.55, after ending five preceding sessions in red.

The stock surge comes as a relief at a time when the company has been strained in the past year, as it was troubled by its offline distribution and lost the unicorn tag.

On the financial front, Honasa Consumer posted a consolidated net loss of INR 18.6 Cr in the quarter ended September 2024 (Q2 FY25). The company reported a net profit of INR 29.4 Cr in the year-ago quarter and INR 40.3 Cr in the preceding June quarter.

Its revenue from operations declined nearly 7% to INR 461.8 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 496.1 Cr in Q2 FY24. 

Updated at 05:44 PM

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It’s not surprising that the biggest headlines from the Union Budget 2025-26 are all around the relief for salaried individuals with the reduction in income tax, but there was plenty in it for the Indian startup ecosystem as well.   

In her Budget 2025 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned startups six times, a lot more than last year, and there were some concrete announcements that could spur the tech ecosystem even further. 

Sitharaman’s eighth consecutive budget address had plenty to ponder for the domestic manufacturing ecosystem, deeptech startups, for MSMEs and retail brands focussing on exports and more. But there was also a spotlight on AI and research and development in key sunrise sectors. 

Here’s a breakdown of the key takeaways from the Union Budget 2025-26 for the Startup ecosystem: 

Budget Boosts Startup Fundraising Outlook 

From a startup perspective, the biggest announcement was the extension of the Startup Mission’s flagship INR 10K Cr fund with a fresh contribution of another INR 10K Cr. In her speech, the FM reasoned that government-backed alternative investment funds (AIFs) for startups have already received commitments of over INR 91K Cr overall from other LPs. 

From a taxation lens, Sithraman has proposed extending the benefits provided under Section 80-IAC (which allows startups to apply for tax exemption) for another period of five years. Startups incorporated before April 1, 2030 will be able to receive the tax exemption benefits.

Besides, the government also enhanced the credit guarantee cover for startups operating in 27 focus sectors important for Atmanirbhar Bharat from the erstwhile INR 10 Cr to INR 20 Cr. These include startups in the aerospace and defence tech, IT, logistics, renewable energy, financial, education services, among others. 

Electronics, EV Manufacturing Take Front Seat

Not unlike last year, the government’s push to fortify domestic manufacturing took the centre seat in this year’s budget announcements. Domestic assembly and manufacturing of devices has been given a bigger platform in this year’s budget. 

In what seems to be a bid to further promote the electric vehicles (EV) sector, the Centre has exempted basic customs duty (BCD) on the import of critical minerals for EV batteries including cobalt powder and waste, the scrap of lithium-ion battery, Lead, Zinc, among 12 other critical minerals. 

While custom duties on electronics namely interactive flat panel display (IFPD) —  essentially touch screens — has been increased from 10% to now 20%, BCD for open cell, which is a foundational component for LEDs, and other components has been reduced to 5%.

The FM also included 35 capital goods for EV batteries and 28 capital goods for mobile phone batteries to the exempted capital goods list. 

While the government maintained a bullish stance on promotion of India’s manufacturing capabilities, it simultaneously made a push to uplift the country’s export capabilities. 

The FM announced the incorporation of a new Export Promotion Mission under the joint supervision of Ministries of Commerce, MSME, and Finance. The said mission will help businesses get easy access to export credit and cross-border factoring support. Besides, the  Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) will be aided in tackling non-tariff measures in overseas markets.

Finally, to expedite exports from India and imports from international markets, the FM announced the establishment of a digital public infrastructure named BharatTradeNet (BTN). BTN will be set up as a unified platform for trade documentation and financing solutions and complement the Unified Logistics Interface Platform.

Backing R&D And Deeptech Innovation

While speculations as well as demands for a dedicated deeptech fund have been ongoing for some time, the budget presentation was the first time when the Centre gave a confirmation of the same. Though it must be noted that this is still in the early stages. 

The FM said that the government will be exploring the establishment of a deeptech fund of funds to “catalyse the next generation of startups”. 

Further, the government also set up a nuclear energy mission for R&D of small modular reactors with an outlay of INR 20K Cr. With this, it aims to have at least five indigenously developed reactors operational by 2033.

Energy security and self-reliance is a big theme in the AI revolution as most data centres require several gigawatts of power to operate at full capacity. Nuclear power is being seen as an alternative to the traditional grid as power demand goes up.    

“Development of at least 100 GW of nuclear energy by 2047 is essential for our energy transition efforts. For an active partnership with the private sector towards this goal, amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act will be taken up,” Sitharaman said. 

Industry experts believe that the nuclear energy project in particular should act as a catalyst in attracting private sector participation and foreign direct investment in energy projects, thus enhancing India’s energy security and reducing import dependency.

While a deeptech fund of funds was not officially announced, the finance minister did allocate INR 20K Cr to boost R&D in sunrise sectors.

To deepen India’s R&D prowess, the FM also incorporated a new PM Research Fellowship scheme to provide 10,000 fellowships for technological research in IITs and IISc over the next five years. 

Will Tax Cuts Boost Consumer Economy?

In what was perhaps the most salient announcement of the budget, the FM reduced the tax payable for individuals, exempting all taxes for individuals making under INR 12.75 Lakh per annum. 

Besides, the centre also revised tax slabs and rates to benefit tax-payers across the spectrum for those earning more than INR 12 Lakh per year. 

The revised tax rate structure is as follows: 

“The new structure will substantially reduce the taxes of the middle class and leave more money in their hands, boosting household consumption, savings and investment,” Sitharaman claimed.

Lower taxes will undoubtedly also be good news for consumer services startups, B2C tech companies and brands, who would be hoping to get a bigger share of the consumer’s wallet from the increase in disposable income. 

It remains to be seen which categories or consumer services get the biggest boost from this potential surge in discretionary spending. Higher traction can be expected for D2C brands, ecommerce marketplaces, consumer services (quick commerce, food delivery, mobility) and other B2C segments. 

The Grassroots Push: What’s In Store For Agriculture & MSMEs

As is the case for India’s economy, Sitharaman’s budget had heavy emphasis on “building rural prosperity and resilience” in the next fiscal year. 

These are the five components of the government’s plan to bolster the agricultural ecosystem of the country:

• A new program, Building Rural Prosperity and Resilience, will be launched to foster entrepreneurship and employment for rural women and modernise agriculture to boost productivity.
• A new Mission for “Aatmanirbharta in Pulses” has been set up to promote climate resilient seeds, increase productivity and improve management post harvest. 
• The government proposed to expand the services of India post into institutional account service, provide credit services to micro enterprises, and assist in digital services, among others. 
• Kisan Credit Cards expansion and enhanced limits for farmers to access credit through institutions
• Manufacturing Mission with a mandate of ease of doing business, building a future ready workforce, building a vibrant MSME sector, expanding tech capabilities and bringing forth quality products was announced. 

While Sitharaman identified agriculture as “the first engine” of India’s development journey, she dubbed MSMEs as the second engine for India’s economic growth. 

Highlighting that the growth spurt in the number of such entities has crossed 1 Cr employing 7.5 Cr people, Sitharaman said that MSMEs are now responsible for 45% of India’s exports. 

To boost their growth, the government enhanced the investment and turnover limits for MSMEs 2.5X and 2X respectively. Further, it also enhanced availability of credit to these entities from erstwhile INR 5 Cr to INR 10 Cr which is projected to increase additional credit of INR 1.5 Lakh Cr in the next five years. 

For “well-run exporter” MSMEs, term loans were also extended to INR 20 Cr. Additionally, the government also introduced credit cards for micro enterprises with a limit of INR INR 5 Lakh. The Centre intends to distribute 10 Lakh cards in the first year of the credit card scheme. 

[Edited by: Nikhil Subramaniam]

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The Startup India Fund of Funds (FoF) must be commended on galvanizing 9 times its initial corpus as capital available for investments in Indian startups. The FoF acted as a nucleus around which rupee capital poured into startups and helped reduce the Indian startup ecosystem’s dependency on foreign capital. The boldness of the decision in 2016 for such a model has helped seed many of today’s unicorns and startups looking to IPO.

The renewal of this FoF by an additional INR 10,000 Cr will see an increased focus on women entrepreneurs. This shows the government’s commitment to increasing women participation in the economy. The Economic Survey noted that close to half of all DPIIT registered startups have at least one woman director and such measures will boost itself.

Startups also saw the window for their tax holiday expand to all startups incorporated until March 31, 2030. In order for startups to get any of the tax benefits mentioned in the Income Tax Act, 1961, they need to be:

• DPIIT registered startups
• Incorporated after April 1, 2016 & before March 31, 2030
• Be granted a certificate by the Inter Ministerial Board (IMB)

The IMB has been a dismal failure of an initiative, having deprived numerous startups of tax benefits through an opaque process. The tax holiday can be done away with, but the other benefits around deferred ESOP taxation, carry forward of losses are important to early-stage startups. 

Reforming this IMB certification to make it more objective and driven by market participants will be crucial for the Indian startup ecosystem as countries in the Middle East look to attract Indian startups through tax breaks.

Indian startups will also benefit from the strategic use of India Post as a force multiplier for the rural economy. India Post will now provide services such as:

• rural community hub colocation; 
• institutional account services; 
• DBT, cash out and EMI pick-up; 
• credit services to micro-enterprises; 
• insurance; and 
• assisted digital services. 

Which will allow D2C brands to reach all the pincodes of India. Even Amazon uses the USPS for its last-mile delivery. Allowing startups to do so will democratise access to their products. This, along with the tax changes, which render income up to INR 12.75 Lakh as tax-free, will help boost domestic consumption.

Electronics manufacturing will see a boost through policy interventions. The decrease in inputs for domestic manufacturing shows how the government wants to boost this industry.

Measures For AIFs

Classifying securities held by an Indian AIF as a “Capital Asset” under Section 2(14) will ensure that all gains from their sale will be taxed as capital gains, not as “Business Income”. This was offered to FPIs in 2014 to reduce litigation. Indian AIFs now have the same clarity. Capital formation through AIFs should increase.

Budget 2025 also removed the TCS provision which could have been applied to the sale of securities. This provision was ambiguously worded to bring AIFs under its ambit and led to friction and uncertainty around exits. Its removal will increase the pace of exits and give tax clarity.

The government’s moves to reduce tax litigation and provide tax certainty may not be as glamorous as big bang allocations; but the ease of doing business is a fundamental driver for capital formation and economic growth. Budget 2025 has provided this.

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