The central government is reportedly trying to restart Aadhaar services in nearly  3 lakh Common Service Centres (CSC), in rural areas across the country, the minister for electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad reportedly said on Tuesday (November 27).

Prasad said that the CSCs are playing a significant role in the process of ensuring that government welfare schemes and services are available to every citizen at their doorstep. He added that there is no other model which can support people living in rural areas.  

CSCs were initiated under the Digital India programme to act as access points for social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial, educational and agricultural services in remote areas. With the drive to integrate government schemes under Aadhaar, CSCs were also entrusted with Aadhaar registrations and its related biometric data.

However in February, the Aadhaar-regulatory body Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) refused to renew the registrar agreement of CSC Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC SPV), which manages the implementation of the CSC scheme, citing a rise in allegations of corruption by CSC operators.

This year, several of the Aadhaar leak instances happened via the common service centres across the country.

Earlier in January an investigative report from The Tribune revealed that some unidentified groups were selling confidential Aadhaar data including biometrics at just $7.07 (INR 500).

In May Aadhaar data of thousands was leaked from the servers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). However, the government organisation denied the data breach  and said that in order to ensure data protection, EPFO had closed down the server and host service through CSC pending vulnerability checks.

The CSC scheme along with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had together launched  the Aadhaar-enabled payment system to provide social security pension, handicap, and old age pension via Aadhaar authentication.

[The development was reported by ET]

The post Govt Will Try To Restore Aadhaar Services At Common Service Centres, Says IT Minister appeared first on Inc42 Media.

VC firm Sequoia Capital has reportedly invested $8 Mn in personal investment platform Smallcase and around $6 Mn in insurance portal Turtlemint.

Sequoia declined to comment on the development. Email queries sent to Smallcase did not get answered till the time of publication.

Smallcase is a kind of thematic investing platform, which allows an investor to invest in a portfolio of stocks based on a ‘theme’, such as ‘GST Opportunity’. It is backed by brokerage platform Zerodha, with which it also integrated for trading. The Bengaluru-based company was setup by three IIT-Kharagpur graduates – Vasanth Kamath, Anugrah Shrivastava, and Rohan Gupta in 2015.

On the other hand, Turtlemint was founded by former Quikr executives Dhirendra Mahyavanshi and Anand Prabhudesai in 2015. It had earlier raised funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. It offers clients advice based on algorithm and data analytics and connects customers to offline facilitators for insurance purchase and claims assistance.

Sequoia Capital raised its sixth fund with a $695 Mn corpus in August this year with the focus on India and South East Asia. It currently has $3.9 Bn in assets under management. With this fund, Sequoia India will double down its investments in early and growth stage startups. It is targeting technology, consumer and healthcare sectors.

With the Indian fintech sector predicted to cross $2.4 Bn by 2020, according to a report by KPMG India and NASSCOM, Sequoia has recently increased its bets on the sector. Most recently, it backed  FreeCharge founder Kunal Shah’s new fintech startup Cred and online finance platform Drip Capital.

BankBazaar, Capital Float and MobiKwik are a few other leading companies in its fintech portfolio.

Overall, Sequoia has made over 200 investments in India and SEA so far. This includes notable names such as Prataap Snacks, Zilingo, Bira, Byju’s, One Championship, Zomato, Mu Sigma, Freshworks, Druva, Freecharge, Five Star Finance, Pine Labs, Go-Jek, GlobalLogic, OYO Rooms, Practo, JustDial, and Tokopedia.

Other leading investment and wealth management platforms in Indian market include names such as OroWealth, Scripbox, Fisdom and Upwardly. Recently ETMONEY and Paytm Money also joined the wealth management bandwagon while Walmart-owned Flipkart has entered the insurance division starting with mobile phones.

The post Sequoia Capital Adds Fintech Startups Smallcase, Turtlemint To Portfolio appeared first on Inc42 Media.

On November 16, Inc42 organised The Ecosystem Summit (TES), where we unveiled our flagship report — The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018. Through TES, Inc42 put into motion its vision to create a platform that is the ultimate destination for all categories of stakeholders of the Indian startup ecosystem and where they would get answers to all their questions on entrepreneurship, investing, policy, networking, and more. We dreamt, and, finally, we saw it all turn into a reality.

The first-of-its-kind summit in the Indian startup ecosystem, TES received overwhelming support and was graced by 250 eminent delegates and 40 key speakers — all well-known names across domains. And all of this would not have been possible without your support, dear partners.

So, here’s raising a toast to our partners who made The Ecosystem Summit a reality, and a resounding success:

Sponsors

Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS is a cloud services platform, offering computing power, storage, content delivery, and other functionalities that enable businesses to deploy applications and services in a cost-effective manner along with greater flexibility, scalability, and reliability.

Times Internet: Times Internet is the largest digital products company and the digital venture of The Times of India. Times Internet helps global organisations expand their reach in India using its online media platforms.

Kerala Start-up Mission: Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM): KSUM plays a pivotal role in the development of the startup ecosystem in Kerala. KSUM addresses challenges including enterprise, market, product, knowledge, idea, and culture. It aims to create the infrastructure and environment required for promoting entrepreneurial activities.

Drivezy: Drivezy is India’s first aggregator service in the business of car rentals. It aims to be a one-stop destination offering services such as renting cars and bikes. Drivezy offers self-drive cars and bikes for hire by the hour, day, or week and delivers the vehicle at consumers’ doorsteps.

Adobe: Adobe provides all the tools that anyone — from emerging artists to global brands — needs to design and deliver digital experiences. In recent years, it has also attempted to diversify into other verticals like digital advertising and cloud-based commerce.

Gifting Partners

boAt: Launched in 2016, boAt is a lifestyle brand that offers consumer electronics products. boAt lists its products on ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, etc, and also retails offline through Croma stores.

Sleepy Owl: Sleepy Owl Coffee aims to redefine the in-home coffee experience. The coffee is freshly made on a daily basis and shipped across India or stocked at retail stores across Delhi NCR.

BrewHouse: Brewhouse is India’s first real-brewed bottled ice tea brand. Currently, the products are available at over 2,000 offline locations. Their products are also available on Amazon and BigBasket.

The Black Box Co: The Black Box Co is becoming the go-to place for personalised gifting. It also curates theme-based boxes for different categories such as travel, office, etc.

Imithila: Imithila is one of India’s leading brand for Madhubani Painting. The company is continuously working towards creating handloom and handicraft masterpieces and expanding its reach by introducing the world’s oldest art form based designs in contemporary everyday usage products.

LetsShave: This is an Indian e-commerce startup that delivers innovative shaving and grooming products for men and women. It has more than 450,000 customers and is growing about 45% year-on-year.

Brandless: Brandless aims at making a statement with accessories for both men and women. Aanchal Mittal, the founder and creative director of the brand, chose to create products that reflected minimalistic design and quality of product while seamlessly blending in aesthetics.

Inc42 thanks each one of you, once again, for being a part of The Ecosystem Summit. To many more such successes to come!

The post Thank You, Partners, For Making The Ecosystem Summit A Success appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Sweden-based music streaming platform Spotify will reportedly launch its operations in India within next six months and has already secured deals with some of the popular music companies.

According to reports, Indian music record label, T-series has also made a deal with the company. The platform will offer an extended free trial period after its launch in India.

Spotify has its presence in 78 markets around the globe, after recently expanding its services in 13 markets across Middle East and North Africa.

The platform also had recorded 83 Mn paying subscribers on its platform as of June this year.

Spotify was launched in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. The company has been considering an India launch since March this year after it reportedly hired former OLX India CEO Amarjit Singh Batra as its country head and also got Saavn executive Gaurav Malik on board.

However in July, American music labels Warner, Sony and Universal had reportedly held up Spotify’s expansion in India by not giving the company a  licence to use their music in the country.

According to a report by Statista, the revenue from the digital music segment is projected to reach $246 Mn by 2023 from $231 Mn in 2018.

With its India launch delayed, Spotify will face stiff competition for market share as many local and foreign companies such as Gaana, Amazon Prime Music, Saavn, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Hungama have already entered the online music streaming sector in the country.

Recently, US-based entertainment platform Gracenote also launched its global music metadata service in India.

[The development was reported by ET]

The post Music Streaming Platform Spotify Targets India Launch Within Six Months appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In December 2013, Mumbai-born serial entrepreneur Divyank Turakhia would have sold his adtech company Media.net for $180 Mn to Yahoo (now known as Altaba Inc), if it weren’t for a temporary “optics” issue. Well, good for him the deal fell through.

It made him richer by over $700 Mn! In three years time, Turakhia grew the company to a valuation of $900 Mn and, in 2016, he sold it to a Chinese consortium led by Beijing Miteno Communication Technology chairman Zhiyong Zhang.

Turakhia disclosed this during a fireside chat with Inc42 CEO Vaibhav Vardhan at The Ecosystem Summit (TES), organised by Inc42 on November 16 in New Delhi. Turakhia flew down to Delhi all the way from London just for a day to attend TES.

Turakhia (36) is an entrepreneur with a history of running many internet businesses — such as domain registry and website hosting companies LogicBoxes, Webhosting.info, ResellerClub, and BigRock — since he was just a teenager, along with his brother, Bhavin Turakhia.

In the fireside chat, he shared his entrepreneurial journey with the audience along with his “awesome moments”.

Eureka Moment!

It seems one such “awesome moment” was Media.net’s deal with Yahoo falling through — it led him to greater glory at a later stage. Turakhia said he was thankful to the-then Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, for the failed deal.

“That deal did not happen because of a temporary reason. There was an optics issue that existed,” Turakhia said, adding, “And our deal wasn’t the first one she (Mayer) was going to look at… at least they told us to look at this deal later, saying that we already have a commercial deal but we can’t do this right now.”

It had taken six months for Yahoo and Turakhia to come to negotiate the acquisition terms for Media.net at $180 Mn. At the time, Media.net was raking in about $78 Mn in revenue and $7 Mn profit, Turakhia said.

We later asked Turakhia over email what he meant by the “optics issue.” He explained that Yahoo was about to announce that its location strategy was Sunnyvale in California. Although Media.net had around 500 employees at several locations globally, it did not have employees in the Bay Area at that time.

According to Turakhia, Yahoo was going to consolidate its staff in Sunnyvale as far as possible and a big number of layoffs would be made across its other offices. “Adding more than 500 employees via an acquisition, and at the same time announcing layoffs by saying that it (Yahoo) was consolidating at its HQ in Sunnyvale, was the optics issue,” said Turakhia.

The result: the deal between Yahoo and Media.net never materialised.

“And, thank you for that, because that made me $700 Mn more when I sold it for $900 Mn,” Turakhia said.

Turakhia also feels that Mayer is not a supporter of entrepreneurs selling their brands.

“Why would we give our brand to anybody else?” was the first reaction from Mayer to Turakhia when he told her about the deal. “And she comes from Google, and I can understand her reaction,” he added.

A computer scientist and a coding geek like Turakhia, Mayer was part of the team developing the adtech platform Google AdWords and went on to become Google Search’s vice-president. She then led Yahoo as CEO for five years until it got acquired by a communication technology company in June 2017. Mayer now co-owns Lumi Labs Inc, a technology incubator focussed on building artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled consumer applications.

Biggest Acquisition In Global Adtech History

Turakhia’s relationship with Yahoo dates back to 2012 when the internet services giant agreed to run a contextual advertising programme for Media.net in association with Microsoft’s search engine Bing. The programme correlates ads according to the content running on the website, helpful for content creators, bloggers, media, and entertainment companies.

The commercial partnership was going well for both Media.net and Yahoo. Meanwhile, the deal falling through gave Turakhia the time and opportunity to grow Media.net to a valuation of $231 Mn by 2015.

In a follow-up of the deal, Yahoo had a second chance of buying Media.net at $350 Mn, Turakhia claimed. “But, by then, they had paused most acquisition activity and Media.net had become too large a deal for what they were doing and then they went through their own sale process,” he added.

In late 2015, Media.net received an inbound interest from another company and Turkahia did not revisit the deal talks with Yahoo. By 2015-end, Media.net was among the fast-growing adtech companies in India. He ran global processes hiring bankers Merrill Lynch in the US and another boutique banker in China.

“When I ran the process, we met 40 to 50 different people. Of them, we got initial term sheets and eventually finalised seven term sheets. We had five of them in the $800-$900 Mn range and two in the $700-$750 Mn range. At the end, we went with someone whom we felt good for business and people in the long-term,” said Turakhia.

The offer he chose was made by a consortium led by Zhiyong Zhang, the chairman of Beijing Miteno Communication Technology. The 2016 deal, in which Media.net was acquired in an all-cash transaction valued at about $900 Mn for, was touted as one of the largest deals in adtech history.

File photo (2016): Zhiyong Zhang (left) & Divyank Turakhia

“I have always felt that the highest number does not always make the most sense…as long as the numbers are close enough, you can leave some money on the table because you want the right deal,” said Turakhia on the Media.net acquisition.

Can India produce companies like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook?

“Never say never to any country,” Turakhia replied, to the question above, asked by Vardhan during the fireside chat.

“I think what you are asking is if India can produce companies that have a market cap of over a $100 Bn? I think we have TCS, which obviously got started much earlier,” he says.

As Turakhia told the audience at TES, if India wants to build companies such as Google, Facebook, etc — both of which started in the US — Indian companies need to go global faster, as this is the only way to get to a market cap of $100 Bn.

“You can build from India but you’d have to market not just within the county but also figure out how to make money from other countries, which essentially TCS might have done and they are where they are,” explained Turakhia.

He also looked at the startup ecosystems in India and the US through the economic standpoint. “The big advantage the US has over us is that our per capita income versus their per capita income — the multiple is 20+X. They have a natural advantage in the local economy, which allows them enough ability to grow much larger before they move to foreign markets in order to get the growth. In India, the market is unfortunately not big enough yet,” he said. In 2017, the GDP per capita income of India and the US stood at $1.9K and $59.7K, respectively.

Turakhia’s Investment Views & Success Mantra

Turakhia and his brother, Bhavik Turkahia, own stakes in several startups including calling app Ringo, communications app Flock, digital tax saving solutions business Zeta, and Internet domain name registration company Radix.

Turakhia, however, isn’t fond of investing in early-stage startups. He instead invests in late-stage companies.

“I understand financial models, late-stage models, which are my core expertise. I think everybody should stick to what they do best and double down on what they do best. That is how they become successful,” he said.

On the Indian startup ecosystem, Turakhia said that the number of startups created over the past year “is questionable in terms of how it is calculated here versus how it is calculated elsewhere. That way, we might still be at the early stage.”

Turakhia said a better way to evaluate the Indian startup ecosystem would be to look at the numbers of unicorns India has created in the past 12-18 months and the time taken by each of them to achieve the billion-dollar mark.

Till August this year, India had created six new unicorns — food delivery startup Zomato and Swiggy, edtech platform Byju’s, ecommerce company Paytm Mall, fintech startup Policy Bazaar, and SaaS-bases startup Freshworks.

“Keep figuring out how to replace yourself because your time is most valuable in this process. Once you figure out what you’re passionate about and as long as you’re doing it, you’ll be successful in doing that one thing and you keep doubling down yourself learning more,” he said.

This is true. Entrepreneurs must keep their sights set on the goal, irrespective of the challenges that come along the way. As they say in Latin — ‘admaiora’ or ‘to higher things in pursuit of excellence.’

The post How A Failed Acquisition Deal With Yahoo Made Media.net Founder Divyank Turakhia A Billionaire appeared first on Inc42 Media.

With many parts of Delhi registering severe levels of air pollution, the state government has announced ‘The Draft Delhi EV Policy 2018’, to speed up the adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The policy aims to make 25% of all vehicles to be EVs by 2023.

“This policy will also seek to put in place measures to support the creation of jobs in driving, selling, financing, servicing and charging of EVs,” the draft said.

To be notified by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), the draft policy will remain valid for five years (2018-2023) from the date of notification.

The draft policy “will apply exclusively to Battery Electric Vehicles (as defined in Annexure -1, FAME India). Mild Hybrid, Strong Hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles will not be targeted by this policy.”

Main Objective & Key Incentives

Currently, two-wheelers account for two-thirds of new vehicle registrations in Delhi, with the most popular segments being motorcycles between 110-125cc and scooters between 90-125cc. Along with this, a large number of commuters use public transport.

Thus, the draft policy will focus on incentivising the purchase and use of electric two-wheelers and supporting the electrification of public/shared transport.

For instance, owners of two-wheelers which are not BS [IV] certified will get an incentive of up to $212 (INR 15,000) for scrapping and deregistering their vehicles. Further, the buyers can avail an incentive of INR 11,000-22,000 per vehicle for specific vehicle categories (i.e., High power with Advance Battery).

The policy further encourages the usage of electric rickshaws, three wheeler goods carriers, app-based e-autos and e-cabs. For all for short first and last mile connectivity trips on e-cab/e-auto rides taken through an app-based aggregator, GNCTD plans to offer ‘cash back’ rebates. These rebates will be capped at a maximum of 20% of the trip cost and an absolute value of ₹10 per ride.

“The objective of the rebate will be to make an e-cab/e-auto ride at least 10-20% cheaper than an equivalent ride in an ICE cab/auto,” the report said.

Delhi government has also committed to induce at least 1,000 pure electric buses by 2019. This will help achieve a target of making 50% of the public transport bus fleet zero emission by 2023.

State EV Fund

According to the report, a ‘State EV Fund’ will be set up to fund a large part of the incentives proposed in this policy. GNCTD will be using the ‘feebate’ concept of adopting measures by which inefficient or polluting vehicles incur a surcharge (fee) while efficient ones receive a rebate (bate). This includes elements such as:

Pollution Cess: All petrol and diesel-powered vehicle users will pay a ‘Pollution Cess’ on the sale of fuel beginning with April 2019.

Parking surcharge: An air quality parking surcharge will be levied on Base Parking Fees -BPF (as defined under the draft Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Rules, 2017) and will be applicable to petrol and diesel burning vehicles only.

Road tax: Additional road taxes will be levied on diesel and petrol vehicles, especially luxury
cars.

Congestion fee: A congestion fee up to 2.5% on fare will be levied on all trips originating or terminating within Delhi and will be charged through cab aggregators and ride-hailing services. This fee will be waived for rides taken in an e-two wheeler, e-auto or e-cab.

Charging Infrastructure: Key Driver Of EV Adoption

The policy also takes into account charging infrastructure as a key driver of EV adoption and will work towards enabling both private and public EV charging points. The policy paves way for 100% subsidy on installation of charging point up to INR 30,000 per charging point for the first 10,000 points at residential or non-residential buildings.

For the bidding and operational convenience, the city will be divided into 11 ‘travel districts’ mapping onto existing revenue districts. Bids for ‘Energy Operators’ (EOs) will be invited to set up charging stations in each of the travel districts. The purpose is to install public charging facilities at every three kilometres.

“Successful bidders will be given the exclusive right to operate public charging stations within the assigned travel district for a period of 10 years subject to meeting the conditions laid out in the bid documents,” the report added.

GNCTD will also invite bids from battery manufacturers and others interested in setting up a battery swapping business. Bids will be invited for up to three ‘Battery Swapping Operators’ (BSOs) who can operate across Delhi. The selected BSOs will have the right to set up and operate battery swapping kiosks/points within public parking zones bus depots and terminals, metro stations, and other GNCTD identified locations.

An open, publicly owned database will be developed by Transport Department, offering users up-to-date and real-time information on public charging infrastructure (location, number, and type of swapping kiosks/chargers, queue lengths/availability and pricing).

The Draft Delhi EV Policy is currently under a 30-day consideration period from the date of issue (November 27, 2018) and has invited suggestions from the concerned departments and the public.

The post Delhi Govt Launches Draft EV Policy, Aims To Have 25% EVs By 2023 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based online classifieds marketplace Quikr has announced the launch of Quikr Assured to win the trust of customers when choosing used products.

Under the Quikr Assured scheme, the company said it will offer products which are checked for quality and come with a one year warranty. The scheme will also allow three day replacement policy to the users.

India’s second-hand markets, which comprise mostly of vehicles and refurbished electronics, are usually unorganised and lack transparency. This makes customers hesitant of choosing used products.

To address these concerns, Quikr said it will also take the responsibility of completing transactions for its customers under the new programme.

The Assured scheme will cover all of Quikr’s verticals such as co-living, real estate, cars, bikers, beauty, and home services.

Quickr was launched in 2008 and is now present across 1200 cities in India. The company claimed that nearly 30 Mn people use their services in a month.

The company also clocked in a revenue of $24.54 Mn (INR 173.49 Cr) for the year ending March 2018, recording a 95% rise from 2017.

It also announced that its real estate vertical had tripled its revenue in the last 12 months and is now is expecting to grow more than 100% within a year.

Since its inception, Quikr has raised a funding of over $430 Mn in 10 rounds. It is backed by some of the major investment companies including Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, and Norwest Venture Partners.

Nearly 55% of Quikr’s revenue comes from the 13 acquisition deals it has made so far including HDFC Developers, Babajob, Hiree, Zimmber, and ZapLuk.

Currently Quikr faces competition from Olx, 99acres.com, Housing.com, Proptiger.com.

The post Quikr Launches Quikr Assured To Build Trust In Used Products Market appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bitcoin, widely considered to be the world’s first blockchain, may be sinking, but the demand for blockchain developers is skyrocketing. With ads for blockchain developers increasing by 2,000% to 6,000% on job search sites, it is definitely a good time for those who understand how to work the technology.

And the proof, as they say, is in the eating. EY, one of the world’s Big Four consulting firms, is now looking to hire 2,000 developers with skills in blockchain, AI, analytics, and big data technologies.

In a report in Livemint, Incrypt Blockchain founders Tanvi Ratna and Nitin Sharma write about how the technology holds the promise of a new internet and a potential economic impact of $3 Tn in the next decade.

In Abu Dhabi, the government-backed Al Hilal bank executed a Sukuk (Islamic bond) transaction using blockchain technology. A Sukuk is structured in such a way as to generate returns to investors without infringing the Islamic law.

“Al Hilal Bank is aiming to transform the Sukuk market by embracing blockchain and integrating it into their infrastructure, paving the way for innovative digitised Islamic Sukuk,” the bank said in a statement according to Reuters. 

While some governments have taken a rather prudish view of virtual currencies, Ohio became the first US state to accept bitcoin for tax payments. So, from Monday (November 26), businesses that want to take part in the programme simply need to go to OhioCrypto.com and register. 

Meanwhile, South Korea is set to test a blockchain system next month in an effort to improve the reliability and security of online voting. The country’s National Election Commission (NEC) reportedly announced the news on Wednesday (November 28), saying it will begin the pilot in December with development assistance from the Ministry of Science and ICT. 

For those interested in blockchain events, the creators of the International Blockchain Congress (IBC) announced the launch of Genesis hack, claiming to be world’s largest blockchain hackathon programme, at the 10K NASSCOM Startup Warehouse in Bengaluru. “Genesis Hack 2019 will change this by congregating over 65k developers from all over India,” said Raghu Mohan, CEO of IBC Media. The event, which kicked off on November 21, will span over six months, and will get blockchain developers to brainstorm and create innovative technologies.

The post Blockchain This Week: Bitcoin Sinks, A $3 Tn Opportunity, And Blockchain Voting appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a new twist to the Paytm data theft case, one of the accused, Rohit Chomal, said that founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and his brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma had expressed their “thankfulness and gratitude” to him on WhatsApp messages.

Chomal made the claim in a 14-page petition submitted to the Allahabad High Court earlier this month, according to a media report.

Chomal, who has received protection from arrest until the police find credible evidence against him, said that the Sharmas had thanked him for helping them reach company vice-president for communications, Sonia Dhawan, and others involved in the data theft case.

However, the Uttar Pradesh Police has termed him the main accused and say that Chomal had reportedly made extortion calls to the Sharma brothers for $2.71 Mn (INR 20 Cr).

Chomal has denied this accusation, claiming instead that he was “an instrument” in helping the Sharma brothers reach the accused, Dhawan, her husband Roopak Jain, and a Paytm employee, Devinder Kumar.

Notably, Jain had also said that he was a victim of blackmail and claimed to have received a call demanding $711.8 K (INR 5 Cr) on September 22. He had also claimed that he “did not know of anyone named Rohit Chomal.” Jain’s family maintained that the husband-wife duo was innocent.

As Inc42 reported earlier, on the morning of October 22, police arrested Dhawan, alleged to be the mastermind behind an extortion plan, and two of the other three accused in the case. They had allegedly planned to extort money from Vijay Shekhar Sharma using stolen personal data from his computer and mobile phone and were threatening to leak it.

An FIR was then filed by Paytm founder’s brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma, who reportedly received an extortion call from Rohit Chomal. Inc42 has a copy of the filed FIR.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Paytm Extortion Case: Vijay Shekhar Sharma And His Brother Thanked Me, Says Rohit Chomal appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a bid to motivate its employees, hospitality chain OYO has approved a proposal to add 2,000 stock options to its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).

“The approval and consent of company members be and is hereby accorded for increasing the employee stock option pool of the company by adding 2,000 stock options from the present limit of 6,893 stock options of the company, which upon exercise shall become an aggregate of 8,893 shares,” according to a resolution passed by the OYO board on October 3.

OYO has more than 10K employees. The resolution comes after the company’s board approved the new ESOP 2018 plan in July with an aim of “motivating employees and giving them a chance to enjoy the benefits of phenomenal growth the firm foresees.”

An OYO spokesperson reportedly said, “We introduced the ESOP plan for OYOpreneurs in July 2018 and keeping in mind our growth trajectory, have strengthened the existing ESOP pool by adding more options to it.”

Launched in May 2013, OYO is currently present in more than 350 cities globally, with over 12,000 asset owners spread across India and the world. It has about 270K franchised and leased rooms as a part of the chain. OYO claims to host more than 125K stayed room nights every single day. After a $1 Bn boost from SoftBank in its latest funding round, OYO is said to be valued at $5 Bn.

The company has been expanding its global footprint across countries like Indonesia, Japan, China, Malaysia, etc, and has also been extensively expanding its portfolio with acquisitions such as Mumbai-based Weddingz, an online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors; Chennai-based service apartment operator Novascotia Boutique Homes (in March), and IoT technology venture AblePlus (in July).

To reduce attrition rates and get employees invested in the company’s growth, many startups are awarding stock ownership in form of ESOPs.

Earlier this month, nearly 140 employees of Bengaluru-based Razorpay participated in an ESOP plan at a 50% premium to the valuation.

In May, food delivery unicorn Swiggy’s board had approved its first ESOP, estimated at over $4 Mn (INR 27 Cr), to be implemented in June.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post OYO Adds 2,000 Stock Options To Its ESOP 2018 Plan appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Noida-based electric vehicle (EV) startup EV Motors India is reportedly planning to raise a funding of about $200 Mn to set up nearly 6,500 electric vehicle charging stations in India in the next five years.

The charging stations will be provided by Switzerland-based automation company ABB and Taiwan-based electronics company Delta Electronics.

The announcement came soon after the company launched its first public EV charging outlet, PlugNgo, in Gurugram on November 28. It plans to set up 20 more such outlets, consisting of four or five charging stations, within the next six months in residential areas, office buildings, malls, etc.

The founder and managing director of the startup, Vinit Bansal, said in a media statement that the charging stations will comply with both the Indian and international standards, including the Bureau of Indian Standards, the Combined Charging System (CCS), and the Charge de Move (CHAdeMO).

He added that the EV market in the country will pick up pace by the end of 2019, around the time global automakers such as Maruti Suzuki, Nissan and BMW are expected to bring their EV models to India.

This development comes at a time when the Centre is taking many initiatives to encourage e-mobility in the country. Recently, the investment for the first phase of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) scheme was increased to $126.74 Mn (INR 895 Cr).

Further, the Centre is also considering a proposal to mandate setting up of charging stations at residential, commercial buildings, and parking spaces so as to develop the required infrastructure.

The development of EV charging stations is an important factor for the adaptation of EVs so as to reduce the feeling of “range anxiety” among users. Range anxiety is fear that their car’s EV battery will lose its power before reaching the destination or charging point.

To achieve this, the power ministry is planning to introduce the EV charging infrastructure policy, which will also allow individuals to set up charging stations for commercial use.

Earlier this week, the Delhi government launched its draft EV Policy which aims to have EVs as nearly 25% of all vehicles on the roads by 2023, thus marking an important milestone in India’s target to have 30% electric vehicles on the roads by 2030.

The post EV Motors India To Set Up 6,500 Charging Stations In 5 Years appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Mumbai-based digital payments company BillDesk reported a revenue of $132.6 Mn (INR 929 Cr) for the year ending March 31, 2018, aided by the rapid growth in India’s fintech sector. This is a 15% increase over the same period in FY17 when it reported revenue of $135.7 Mn (INR 950.6 Cr).

The company has managed to keep a check on its expenses, bringing them down by a whopping 77% to $25.2 Mn (INR 177 Cr) this fiscal as compared to $110.2 Mn (INR 772.2 Cr) in FY17.

According to company filings accessed via Tofler, a business intelligence platform for India, BillDesk’s net profit for 2018 was $20.9 Mn (INR 148 Cr), a 15% rise over the previous financial year, when it recorded a net profit of $19.6 Mn (INR 137.9 Cr).

In March this year, reports surfaced that BillDesk was in sale talks with PayU, American Express, and PayPal. However, the negotiations fell through as the companies could not agree on Billdesk’s valuation.

BillDesk is a payment processing platform that allows businesses and individuals to send and receive payments. Founded in 2000 by three former Arthur Andersen executives — M N Srinivasu, Ajay Kaushal and Karthik Ganapathy — BillDesk is one of the rare profitable internet companies in India.

The company is backed by TA Associates, General Atlantic, venture capital firm Clearstone Venture, and Singapore’s state-held investor Temasek Holdings.

Earlier, in November this year, BillDesk (IndiaIdeas Com Ltd) raised an undisclosed amount of funding from global payments processor Visa (link), which took a minority stake in the company at a valuation of  $1.5 Bn -$2 Bn.

BillDesk claims to processes payments worth almost $50 Bn every year and reportedly leads the charts for online bill payments. At present, it competes with players such as PayU, CCAvenue, Razorpay, Instamojo, among others.

By 2020, transactions in Indian fintech sector are expected to cross $73 Bn, growing at 22% CAGR, according to a KPMG report. The demonetisation effect is now fading away at a steady pace and digital payment companies are looking for new and larger revenue channels.

While BillDesk still maintains its early mover advantage in the payments space, the company is now staring at a market crowded with not just domestic and foreign companies with deep pockets, but also government-backed payments platforms.

The post BillDesk Drops Expenses By 77% In FY18, Increases Net Profit By 15% appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Yebhi cofounder and Paytm’s ex-VP Danish Ahmed has started a new venture called Hospals, a medical tourism startup, along with cofounders Obaid and Alok, who were the CEO & COO at Al-Shifa, a medical tourism company. Prior to building Al-Shifa, Obaid was at Apollo Hospitals, while Alok was at Fortis.

The startup has recently raised $1.5 Mn in funding from Spiral Ventures and Venture Catalysts (VCats) and is targetting a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $10 Mn by the year-end.

Hospals was incubated at Technology9labs. The startup aims to combine technology and operations to build a one-stop shop for international patients, connecting them to the best hospitals, providing long stay accommodations and other services, to ensure a great experience. The platform also offers value added services such as manage cabs, hotels, and flights etc; provide auxiliary services such as estimates of medical procedures, visa service, and translators among others.

For the uninitiated, Danish started his first venture, Yebhi.com, when he was just 21 years old. Yebhi went on to raise $40 Mn and later sold its operations to Flipkart, now a Walmart company.

In 2015, Danish started his second venture, Shopsity, which was later acquired by Paytm in 2016 and he joined the digital payments company as Vice President- Omnichannel Commerce. In April 2015, he also launched a startup Feedsomeone.

Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President – Venture Catalysts, believes that, while Danish has proven experience on product and user experience, Obaid and Alok bring 15 years of leadership experience in the medical tourism space.

“We’re confident that within the next 12 months, Hospals will reach $20 Mn in revenues, making it the front-runner to emerge as Asia’s largest medical tourism company,” he added.

Hospals: Targetting $100 Bn Cross-Border Tourism Market

According to Danish, cross-border healthcare is a $100 Bn market globally, and India, the fastest-growing country in this space, is expected to generate $9 Bn in revenues by 2020. That’s a huge opportunity, but the market is still very unorganised & disconnected.

Yasuhiro Seo – Partner at Spiral Ventures further added that Hospals’ team has made significant headway here by connecting doctors in the Middle East, Africa, former CIS countries, China and SE Asia to Indian surgeons and hospitals for their patients in their respective countries.

He shared that with a multilingual, tailored mobile-technology based platform, Hospals has successfully created the solution which addresses the pain points in this ecosystem.

“Japanese corporates too, are extremely bullish for partnering with healthcare companies in India and Spiral Ventures can be the vital facilitator for building possible partnerships bringing immense value to Hospals,” he added.

Plans Ahead

Hospals is already managing over 200 patients per month and has till date served over 6000 patients from 14 countries. It has already expanded across CIS countries, building on its strong reputation for transparency and its dedicated focus on ensuring high customer satisfaction.

The investment from VCats and Spiral Ventures will help Hospals to expand its presence within India, as well as to scale its operations in lucrative international medical tourism markets such as the Middle-East and Africa.

The post Yebhi Cofounder Danish Ahmed Launches Medical Tourism Startup, Backed By Spiral And VCats appeared first on Inc42 Media.

US-based Snap Inc. has introduced its Discover feature in India as the image sharing app fights off Instagram’s rising popularity in the country.

The Discover feature, which was first introduced by the company in the US in 2015, allows Snapchat users to view news in the form of Snapchat Stories. After 24 hours, the stories disappear and are replaced with fresh content.

To cover a wide range of interests, Snapchat has partnered with CNN, Vice, Yahoo News, Comedy Central, National Geographic, Daily Mail, ESPN, Food Network, and Cosmopolitan.

In India, the social media platform has partnered with Brut. India, HuffPost India, The Logical Indian, The Quint, VICE India, and TVF to produce video content covering news, current events, culture and lifestyle.

This is the first time Snapchat is bringing local content to India. In the last month, the company has launched the Discover feature in UK, France, Germany, Norway, and the Middle East.

According to an ET report, the total time spent on watching shows on Snapchat has globally tripled since the beginning of the year.

Snapchat Vs Instagram

Snapchat has been losing ground to Instagram in India where its number of daily active Indian users reduced by 1.5% to 188 Mn in the second quarter of 2018 from 191 Mn in the last quarter.

Meanwhile, Facebook-owned Instagram launched IGTV in June this year. The feature, which is accessible both through the app and as a standalone app, allows users to stream videos in vertical format.

Though Snapchat and Instagram now share a lot of the same features, Instagram’s stories feature alone has grown to 400 Mn daily users worldwide — more than Snapchat’s total users.

With about half a billion Internet users in India, Snapchat is now focussing on grabbing market share by producing regional content to woo new users as well as stay relevant with existing users.

The post Snapchat Introduces Its Discover Feature In India With Local Content appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The year 2018 brought an amazing upturn to the Indian ecommerce sector. Flipkart is now a Walmart company, which means that the earlier debate on Amazon having an edge as it is a deep-pocketed player is now over.

Both companies have been extending their arms in similar directions such as digital payments, groceries, and private labels, among others. Whether it’s logistics, fulfilment centres, or technology, both Amazon and Flipkart have been expanding aggressively with a view to dominating the Indian ecommerce sector.

As the year approaches its end, analysts such as Barclays, Redseer, and Counterpoint Research, among others, are busy analysing the answer to the big question: Who won the Indian ecommerce battle 2018: Flipkart or Amazon?

Overall, this year’s ecommerce battle was a close one, with neither company emerging as a clear winner. While Amazon led in GMV at $7.5 Bn, Flipkart was not too far behind if the GMV of its fashion subsidiaries Myntra and Jabong are counted. Flipkart, meanwhile, notched up a higher revenue and led in smartphone sales.

Here is a detailed comparison across some key parameters:

Gross Merchandise Value

Global ecommerce company Amazon’s Indian unit, Amazon India, has overtaken Flipkart with $7.5 Bn in gross merchandise value (GMV) in the financial year ending March 31, 2018, according to a recent report by investment bank and financial services company Barclays entitled ‘Amazon Races To The Top Of India ECommerce.’

Flipkart, meanwhile, had a GMV of $6.2 Bn on a standalone basis (excluding its subsidiaries Myntra and Jabong). If these fashion units are included, Flipkart is neck-and-neck with Amazon India in terms of GMV.

Also, it’s worth noting that India contributes only 2% of Amazon’s global GMV. “Admittedly, in the current tape where investors are de-risking for other reasons, the 2% of GMV that comes from India isn’t going to move the needle on the narrative,” said Barclays.

Revenue

“Flipkart continues to be bigger than Amazon in terms of revenue ($3.8 Bn vs $3.2 Bn), although Amazon is catching up quickly and continues to grow much faster (82% vs 47%),” the report said. Its operating losses could be in the $1.5 Bn range for the year ending January 2020, it added.

The report also noted that Amazon is rapidly increasing its investments in its India unit (India represents 7% of Amazon’s international retail operational expenses in the calendar year 2018).

Festive Sales

For the festive sale days, a Redseer analysis shows that Flipkart accounted for more than half of the GMV of the entire ecommerce industry. Between Flipkart and Amazon, the sales GMV share was 62% and 38% respectively. Flipkart’s higher share was driven by its substantial sales figures in mobiles and fashion verticals.

Smartphone Sales

With India accounting for around 300 Mn smartphone users and 460 Mn internet users, the ecommerce platforms registered a massive 46% Y-o-Y growth in sales volumes and contributed to half of the overall sales in the country, according to Karn Chauhan, the research analyst at Counterpoint.

He said, “Flipkart stood out due to the most number of exclusives while Amazon benefitted some from the launch of OnePlus 6T.”

Our Two Cents On India’s Ecommerce Market

Flipkart and Amazon India have come a long way in the Indian ecommerce space, which is expected to grow from $18-20 Bn in 2017 to $40-45 Bn in 2020. Ecommerce users are expected to more than double in the country from 80-90 Mn in 2017 to 180-200 Mn in 2020.

This growth is said to be driven by factors such as rising internet penetration, diverse payment options, and growth in delivery infrastructure, among others. Going forward, with millennials being extremely well-informed and discerning consumers, the upcoming strategies of these companies will play a key role in ascertaining who dominates the market.

With the Flipkart cofounders out of the company’s mainstream operations, Walmart plans to play the Indian ecommerce market with its own rules, with the aid of showrunner Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the current Flipkart CEO. Amazon India, meanwhile, continues to invest heavily in the country despite on the loss front. This year, Paytm Mall emerged as a distant third competitor but is eyeing the top slot with its aggressive sales strategy. Paytm Mall is backed by Chinese behemoth Alibaba.

With so much happening in the sector, the Centre is keen to roll out the final guidelines for the draft ecommerce policy. If passed in its current form, the policy takes a tough stand on matters such as GST, TCS, FDI, and the massive discounts offered by ecommerce platforms, particularly during the festive months.

With a new year almost upon us, will Amazon India maintain its prime position or be ousted by the Flipkart-Walmart combination? Will Paytm Mall be successful in gaining a substantial share of the market. Or will we see the rise of new or existing players such as Snapdeal, which claimed profitability this year?

Whatever the case, in 2019, as in 2018, ecommerce’s fab duo — Amazon and Flipkart — are expected to continue their battle of one-upmanship in Indian ecommerce.

[With inputs from Bhumika Khatri]

The post Flipkart Vs Amazon India: Who Won The Indian Ecommerce Battle In 2018? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India and Russia agreed to increase cooperation in using technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, according to the joint statement released by the two countries after the first India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue held last week at St Petersburg.

The summit was led by Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar and minister of economic development of the Russian Federation Maxim Oreshkin.

The dialogue focussed on five core areas – transport infrastructure, agriculture and agro-processing sector, small & medium business support, digital transformation and frontier technologies, and industrial and trade cooperation.

The event followed a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and president of the Russian Federation Vladimir V. Putin in October. The two countries have agreed to increase two-way investment to $30 billion (INR 2096.25 Cr) by the year 2025.

It was decided that the next round of the Strategic Economic Dialogue will be held in India in July/August in 2019.

In September, India approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) brought out by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) for exploring research in distributed ledger technology such as blockchain, and see where it could be implemented for operational efficiency.

The post India, Russia Agree To Partner On Blockchain, AI Projects At St Petersburg Summit appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“UPI (Unified Payments Interface) did 485 Mn transactions last month (October) and it is growing at a reasonable 20% per month. With over 500 Mn transactions this month, UPI transactions have now exceeded what American Express (Amex) does worldwide, which is 7 Bn transactions per year,” said Sharad Sharma, cofounder of iSPIRIT Foundation.

This was his “I told you so” moment — Sharma said he had forecast this long ago, on January 16, 2016, when he was moderating a session during a Startup India-related policy announcement.

Sharma, who identifies as an entrepreneur, an adviser, and a software developer, said he had also forecast that India would significantly go cashless by 2021 and he still stands by this.

Sharma was speaking on Startup Policy Architecture and Innovation at The Ecosystem Summit, organised by Inc42 on November 16 in New Delhi. Inc42 also launched its flagship report — The State of The Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018 — at the event.

‘One Reform Can’t Change India’

India is too big a country to change with a single reform. For bring about any big change or revolution, market participants, technology, and policy reforms need to come together on the same page, said Sharma. He elucidated this point with a detailed explanation on how TV has transformed in India.

In 1987-1988, there were hardly 34 TV towers across 34 cities in India and that too with limited transmission capabilities. This meant that if there was a TV tower in Bengaluru, while Bengalureans could watch TV (which had only one channel — Doordarshan), people residing in areas like Rampur, a Karnataka village about 73Km from Bengaluru, couldn’t watch TV.

Sharma said that between 1988 to 1995, TV viewership grew 25X. This explosion took place due to a host of changes in terms of policy reforms, which allowed the epic programmes such as Mahabharata and Ramayana to be made, technology (Insat, Pamsat), and new market participants.

Sharma called it an ‘India to Bharat’ change, adding that some of the most-watched Youtube channels in the world are T-Series, Sony, and Zee.

‘UPI Transactions To Grow, 10X At Its Best, 3X At Worst’

India is fast moving towards being truly cashless. Currently, UPI transactions comprise one-eleventh of the total transactions that VISA does worldwide. It is estimated that UPI transactions will rise 3X, 6X, or 10X in the next 12 months, depending on how good its (UPI) growth is, said Sharma.

He added that achieving a significantly cashless India has been possible only because of the emergence of new market participants (banks and payments companies), technology such as BHIM UPI and policy reforms like streamlining of MDR (merchant discount rate) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD).

Similarly, India is now witnessing a change in lending as banks, NBFCs, and lending startups are increasingly embracing India Stack solutions.

There is a unique problem in lending. India is one of the few countries in the world where even if you are considered big enough to file taxes, you may not be considered big enough to get a loan from banks. — Sharad Sharma

Further, India now has a GST system. There are 10.1 Mn businesses registered with GST of which 8.8 Mn are big enough to file GST. However, only 1.2 Mn of these 8.8 Mn businesses can avail bank credit. The rest 7.6 Mn rely on formal credit, Sharma informed the audience.

“Like I said earlier, India is too big to be changed by one reform. The lending issues could not be alone fixed by NBFCs, which have been in India for the past 15 years. However, the problem is now getting sorted as banks and NBFCs, backed by policy reforms, are fast adopting localised and cutting-edge solutions,” explained Sharma.

He is of the opinion that there are several numerous tectonic forces at work, which work slowly, but bring about significant patterns. The only way to understand the future is to unfold the changes happening at the tectonic level, he believes.

Sharma rightly made a point at The Ecosystem Summit. In the last couple of years, there has been a series of policy reforms across the sectors. And, more importantly, as is the case with payments solutions, ecommerce and drone regulations, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and technologists have been working side-by-side for this.

The sectors have been further supported by entrepreneur-friendly state and central policies. With 20 states out of 29 having released their own startup policies, the tectonic changes can be seen in the startup sector as well.

The post UPI Transactions Exceed Amex Global Figure, Sharad Sharma Calls It ‘India To Bharat’ Change appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Last week, the Delhi government released a draft policy on electric vehicles (EVs) called the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 2018. If passed, this policy will aim to ensure that at least 25% of all the automobiles in the national capital are EVs in five years’ time.

For a city that has been ranked one of the most polluted city in the world by WHO and whose real-time air quality index (AQI) shows a dangerous deep red, is the EV policy too little too late?

(Considering that the NCR had about 11 Mn registered vehicles in March 2018, the government’s policy may be as realistic as the science in those Back To The Future movies)

And is just having an EV policy enough in the first place? EV policy initiatives are not doing that well at a national level as well.

Since the launch of the Centre’s FAME [Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India] scheme, the first phase has been extended four times and received an additional $14.3 Mn (INR 100 Cr) for the purchase of EVs, including hybrid electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers.

Are We Infrastructure Ready?

One of the biggest challenges in switching to EVs is the lack of charging stations across India. Looking to address this problem, a Delhi-based EV startup, EV Motors India, has announced that it will set up 6,500 charging outlets in cities all over India by 2023 in partnership with DLF, Delta Electronics India, and ABB India. It plans to set up 20 such outlets in the Delhi-NCR region in the next 12 months.

Down south in Bengaluru, a renewable energy service company, Magenta Power, plans to set up EV charging station across the city by December. Another EV startup, SmartE, will be using SUN Mobility’s charging infrastructure, including a battery-swapping system, for its three-wheeler electric vehicles. The startup claims to have served over 30 Mn pollution-free rides since its inception in 2015.

(Artistic rendering of India in 2030 once everyone buys an EV)

In International News

No conversation on EVs can be complete with mentioning Tesla. At the 2018 LA Auto Show, the company showcased three electric cars — a white Model S, a red Model 3, and a midnight silver Model X. Earlier, in November, the company’s flamboyant CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla may look at a “partial presence” in India on Twitter — the preferred medium for making important announcements for influential corporates and world leaders these days.

(Elon Musk smoking marijuana on a live web show.)

Not to be left behind, BMW announced its own fully electric, fully autonomous concept car called Vision iNext, at the LA Auto Show. In an interview with The Associated Press, CEO Harald Krueger said that while there is nothing one can do about the British decision on Brexit, the company plans to continue to increase its production of electric vehicles.

On a more serious note, Donald Trump, president of the US threatened General Motors chief Mary Barra that he would withdraw the subsidies given to GM, including its “electric car subsidies” because the company announced that it is shutting down factories in the US. As expected, it was done on Twitter.

No, we are not joking, here are the tweets:

Still not convinced EVs are the way to ride into the future? We get it. Change is hard. Also, there’s nothing quite like the comforting sound of a fossil fuel-powered engine purring as you cruise along a highway. Still in case you were wondering, Overdrive Magazine investigated what it feels like to live with an EV. It’s not as bad as you think. (Click here if you are curious.)

The post Electric Vehicles This Week: Delhi Finally Wakes Up, But Is It Too Late? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Our vision for 2020 is Karnataka be the first choice of innovation and technology globally and, therefore, all our initiatives are aimed at driving and strengthening the innovation and startup ecosystem in the state,” said Karnataka IT/BT minister KJ George on Thursday (November 29), at the 21^st edition of the Bengaluru Tech Summit, being held from November 29 to December 1.

George said that Karnataka was the first state in the country to recognise the growing importance of information technology (IT) and biotechnology (BT) and that emerging disruptive technologies have been taken into consideration while framing the state policies for IT, BT, electronics, and animation and gaming.

With an aim to house 20K startups and generate a revenue to the tune of $167 Bn only from technology sector by 2020, Karnataka is taking measures to boost the creation of new tech markets. For example, it will organise night drone racing and a global diversified hackathon. Besides, the Bengaluru Tech Summit has provided a Startup Innovation Pavilion for startups to showcase their latest technologies.

Innovate Karnataka

Karnataka has rolled out its startup policy, ‘Startup Karnataka’, which covers the period up to 2020. With a view to meet the policy objectives, the state government has now launched Innovate Karnataka, a new campaign to promote and boost innovation and impact in the state.

“We have adopted ‘Innovate Karnataka’ as our new brand this year and are vigorously pursuing initiatives that will take the state to a position of global leadership in innovation and entrepreneurship,” KJ George said.

The minister said that disruptive technologies such as AI, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, blockchain, robotics, and drone tech are going to drive the digital economy in the years to come. The government has taken initiatives to set up centres of excellence (CoEs) in these disruptive technologies to prepare the state to ride on new technologies and accelerate the growth of the economy.

“Innovation is the mainstay of our economy,” George added.

The post Want To Make Karnataka First Choice For Tech And Innovation Globally: IT Minister KJ George appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Income Tax (I-T) Department has issued notices to overseas shareholders of Flipkart who sold their stakes partly or fully during the $16 Bn Walmart takeover of the homegrown ecommerce company. The notices have reportedly sought details of their holdings, the sale value, and the tax liability discharged in India.

This comes on the back of the news that the income tax (I-T) authority has issued notices to Flipkart cofounders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal along with 35 other stakeholders. The Walmart-Flipkart deal was announced in May 2018 and the acquisition was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in August 2018.

In May 2018, the I-T department had started its enquiry to assess the capital gains that have accrued for the stakeholders who sold their shares to Walmart. The Walmart-Flipkart deal is expected to bring over $1.3 Bn (INR 10,000 Cr) in taxes into government coffers.

The I-T department has been examining Section 9 (1) of the I-T Act, which deals with indirect transfer provisions, to see if the benefits under the bilateral tax treaties with countries like Singapore and Mauritius are applicable to foreign investors who sold their stakes to Walmart.

In a notice served to Walmart previously, the tax department had asked it to furnish details of 44 shareholders of Flipkart and how much each of them gained from the deal.

Due to Flipkart’s complex structure of investments and backers, the tax department has been chasing all those connected with the deal to identify the taxes they’re due to pay.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Walmart-Flipkart Deal: I-T Dept Slams Notices On Flipkart Shareholders Abroad appeared first on Inc42 Media.