IN THE NEWS : BUDGET 23 , Agri-Focused Accelerator Fund, Tesla records $204M loss

INDIA ECONOMY

Budget 2023: FM says, Centre will recruit 38,800 teachers next 3 years

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced that the Centre will recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for the 740 schools in Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS). The recruitment plan will be carried out for the next 3 years.

In her Budget 2023 speech, She said, "To improve the socio-economic conditions of particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), Pradhan Mantri PVTG development mission will be launched.

She also said , an amount of ?15,000 crore will be made available to implement the mission in the next 3 years under the development action plan for the scheduled tribes.

Budget 2023 : In ‘highest-ever outlay’, FM says Rs 2.40 lakh crore allocated for Railways

FM Nirmala Sitharaman said that Rs 2.40 lakh have been allocated for Indian Railways. She stated that this was the “highest-ever outlay”, nine times the outlay made in 2013-14.?

Meanwhile, the capital investment outlay has been increased by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore, which will account for 3.3 per cent of the GDP.?

The Budget 2023 focuses on seven priorities, which the Finance Minister called the “Saptrishis guiding us through Amrit Kaal”. These are inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector”.?

Budget 2023-24: FM Sitharaman Announces Agri-Focused Accelerator Fund To Encourage Startups

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her speech for Union Budget 2023-24, announced an agriculture-focused accelerator fund to encourage agritech startups in the rural parts of the country.

FM said that, The fund will be using for the farmers to give them innovative and affordable solutions.

This will help to transform the agricultural practices, increase productivity and profitability.

Besides, the minister also said that digital public infrastructure for the agriculture space will?be built from ground up.

Budget 2023-24: National Digital Library For Children & Teens On Cards To Make Up For Pandemic Years

In her Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced to set up a National Digital Library for children and adolescents will be set up for facilitating the?availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels and device-agnostic accessibility.?

Sitharaman also announced that the National Book trust, Children Book trust and others will be provide the books to the digital library and the physical libraries that would be established.?

To inculcate financial literacy, financial sector regulators and organisations will be encouraged to provide age-appropriate materials to these libraries,” She added.

STARTUP ECOSYSTEM

The Esports Club Secures Funding To Build Sustainable Ecosystem

The Esports Club (TEC) has raised $3 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round. And the startup wants to expand its operations to Middle East and Southeast Asia and “build a state-of-the-art esports platform”.

Vamsi Krishna, founder of The Esports Club, said, Esports is a rapidly growing industry, and we are excited to be at the forefront of it. We are committed to building a strong and sustainable esports ecosystem, and this funding will allow us to do just that.

Recently, the government has also integrated esports with mainline sports in the country, giving the segment an official recognition.?

MapmyIndia’s Q3 FY23 Profit Zooms 1.6X YoY To INR 29 Cr, Revenue Up 56%

Geo-tech start-up MapmyIndia has reported a consolidated profit after tax?of INR 29.66 Cr for the third quarter of the financial year 2022-23 .?

Revenue from operations zoomed 56% to INR 67.66 Cr in Q3 FY23 . Overall, total income surged to INR 78.27 Cr in the period under review.

The company claims to be the market leader for maps and geospatial offerings in India. So far, the start-up claims to have mapped 63 lakh kms of roads in more than 7,900 towns, covering 98.5% of India’s total road network.?

In its quarterly report, the start-up said that just 35 clients contributed around 80% to its total revenues.?

MakeMyTrip In The Black, Posts $0.2 Mn Profit In Q3 On Recovery In Travel Demand

Indian traveltech company MakeMyTrip received a profit of $0.2 Mn in 2022-23 (FY23) as against a loss of $9 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year on the back of increase in travel demand during the festival and holiday season.

Led by the seasonal growth across air, hotels, and bus bookings, the companies gross bookings rose to $1,738.2 Mn in Q3 FY23 from $1,155.7 Mn in the corresponding quarter last year.

On the expenditure side, MakeMyTrip saw a 29.9% increase in marketing and sales promotion expenses to $28.9 Mn in Q3 FY23 from $22.2 Mn reported in the corresponding quarter of the prior fiscal.

On the other hand, MakeMyTrip spent $56.5 Mn as procurement cost of hotels and packages services during the reported quarter as against $29 Mn in Q3 FY22.

Digit Insurance To Refile DRHP For IPO As SEBI Flags Compliance Issues

The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) has reportedly returned the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed by insurtech unicorn Digit Insurance for its initial public offering due to compliance issues.

The report cited sources as saying that Digit Insurance’s IPO will be on hold until it changes its stock appreciation rights to employee stock option plans (ESOPs) and refiles documents with the SEBI.?

The insur-tech giant also confirmed that it was?“currently evaluating amendments to its employee stock appreciation rights scheme”, adding that it would refile its DRHP with the regulator in due course.

INVESTMENT

Tesla records $204M loss from bitcoin in 2022

Tesla recorded a $204 million impairment loss in 2022 on its bitcoin holdings, according to regulatory filings.

In March 2021, CEO Elon Musk said Tesla would start accepting bitcoin as payments for Tesla vehicles, causing the price of the crypto to boom.

Tesla sold 75% of its bitcoin holdings and used the proceeds to buy traditional currency.?

The crypto market has experienced a dramatic drawdown over the past year. Today, bitcoin is trading at $23,045.50, which is about 66% below the all-time high of $68,789.63.?

Snapchat now has more than 2 million paid subscribers

Snapchat has more than 2 million paid subscribers on its Snapchat+ program, the company said during its latest earnings report.?

The social network first launched Snapchat+ in June 2022 in countries like the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates. Later, it expanded the subscription service to India, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and more.

In the last quarter, the company introduced new things to the subscription such as custom notification sounds, story expiration controls, customizable chat wallpapers, and a plan gifting option.

The company noted that its annual revenue jumped 12% from $4.1 billion to $4.6 billion. It also had a 17% bump in daily active users to get to the 375 million mark.?

Roadside Assistance Startup ReadyAssist Acquires Servicing Platform SpeedForce For $10 Mn

Roadside assistance startup ReadyAssist has acquired Gujarat-based two-wheeler servicing chain SpeedForce for $10 Mn in a cash and stock deal.?

Further, the startup said it plans to strengthen SpeedForce’s franchise chain by establishing 700 workshops for two-wheelers and 72 workshops for four-wheelers this year to take the total workshops to 1000 by the end of March 2024.?

ReadyAssist is very successful in operating a PAN India roadside assistance and doorstep service to our 800,000 subscribed customers,?Said, Vimal Singh SV, founder and CEO of ReadyAssist.?

The development comes two months after ReadyAssist raised $5 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Howen International Fund.

Budget 2023: Capital investment outlay increased by 33% to Rs 10 lakh crore, says FM Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said capital investment outlay has been increased by 33% to Rs 10 lakh crore, which will be 3.3% of GDP.?

She also said, outlay for PM Awaas Yojana has been increased by 66% to Rs 79,000 crore. Effective capex will be Rs 13.7 lakh crore, forming 4.5% of GDP.

The aim is to have strong public finances and a robust financial sector for the benefit of all sections of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman said.

She added that despite a global slowdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Indian economy was "on the right track".

POLICY

Govt announces hike in basic customs duty on silver to 10 pc to check imports

The government on Wednesday announced increasing the basic customs duty on silver, both in done and semi-manufactured form, to 10 per cent in order to curb imports.?

The basic customs duty on silver done is 6.1 per cent, while on silver unwrought or semi-manufactured items it is 7.5 per cent.

Finance Minister said, "I now propose to increase the duties on articles made therefrom to enhance the duty differential. I also propose to increase the import duty on silver dore, bars and articles to align them with that on gold and platinum."

The basic customs duty on both silver done and semi-manufactured items will be increased to 10 per cent, as per the Budget document.

Govt announces slew of tax relief to cooperative sector; budget outlay at Rs 1,150.38cr for CO-OP ministry

To promote the cooperative sector, the government on Wednesday announced a slew of measures, including a concessional tax of 15 per cent to promote new societies focusing on manufacturing and a higher limit of Rs 3 crore for TDS on cash withdrawal.?

The government made a total budget outlay of Rs 1,150.38 crore for 2023-24. The government also provided an opportunity to sugar cooperatives to claim payments made to cane growers .

The government will also facilitate setting up of a large number of multipurpose cooperative societies, primary fishery societies and dairy cooperative societies in uncovered panchayats and villages in the next five years, she added.

Domestic manufacturing gets a push in Budget with changes in custom duty?

The government has given a fresh push to make in India for the electronics sector in the Budget by lowering custom duties on several components.

?To boost local production of kitchen chimneys, the government has reduced custom duty on heat coils for use in the manufacture of electric kitchen chimneys from 20% to 15%.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech

that as a result of various initiatives of the government including the phased manufacturing programme, mobile phone production in India has increased 31 crore units valued at over Rs 2,75,000 crore in the last financial year.

Standard deduction, default tax regime and other Budget 2023 proposals that change your cash in hand

Sandeep Agrawal Director & Co-founder Teamlease Regtech said, That the Budget has reduced the tax liabilities for middle class individuals with revisions to the number of tax slabs (reduced from 6 slabs to 5 slabs) & increase in the limits within each slab in the new tax regime .

Now, an individual with an annual income up to Rs. 3 Lakh will not have to pay any tax, as against an earlier limit of Rs. 2.5 Lakhs.

Nirmala Sitharaman today presented in the parliament India's Budget for the next fiscal year starting April 1. The Budget today proposed to extend the benefit of standard deduction to the new tax regime.

Among other measures, FM Sitharaman proposed to reduce the highest surcharge rate from 37% to 25% in the new tax regime.

TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft To Remove Several Games From Xbox 360 Marketplace Soon: What It Means

Microsoft has revealed that on February 7, it will take down a number of popular titles from the Xbox 360 Marketplace in India, as well as in the US and the UK.

In India, several popular games will no longer be available on the Xbox 360 Marketplace from February 7, 2023, including?The Stick of Truth, Prince of Persia, LIMBO, Left 4 Dead and many more.

Similarly, in less than two months, Nintendo, too, will close its eShop on the Wii U and 3DS systems, Microsoft itself has removed several Forza titles from its platform.

Samsung’s New 5G Plan May Be A Big Relief For Smartphone Buyers In India

Samsung Company?has launched under Rs 10,000 or above Rs 1.5 lakh, smartphones across all price ranges. the company has confirmed that it will continue to follow this strategy, which will surely come as a relief for buyers in India.?

Samsung is not quitting the budget smartphone market and will aggressively focus more on offering ‘value for money’ 5G smartphones in 2023.

Samsung with its Galaxy A series smartphones claim to offer Indian buyers reliable 5G smartphones within their budgets. Aditya Babbar, Senior Director, Mobile Business, Samsung India said.

Netflix Explains How It Will Prevent Account Password Sharing

Netflix announced that it will begin cracking down on password sharing in the first quarter of this year.?

According to a post on the Netflix FAQ page, a single Netflix account will now only be accessible by people living in a single household and people who do not live in the same address as the primary account holder.

If a new device associated with the primary account is in a separate location, Netflix will demand a temporary 4-digit verification code that needs to be entered within 15 minutes of requesting access.?

According to the company , to ensure smooth Netflix access, a user must connect to Wi-Fi from their primary location at least once every 31 days.

Moto E13 With 5,000mAh Battery, 4GB of RAM Tipped to Launch in India on February 8

Moto E13 was recently launched across select markets in Europe the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It is the latest entry in Motorola's budget-friendly E series of smartphones.?

According to a tweet by tipster Mukul Sharma , the Moto E13 could be launched in India on February 8. This Motorola smartphone is expected to be priced under Rs. 10,000.

The Moto E13 sports a 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen with an HD+ (720x1,600 pixels) resolution, a 60Hz refresh rate, and a 20:9 aspect ratio.

Meanwhile, the Moto E13 packs a 5,000mAh battery, which is claimed to offer up to 36 hours of battery life. The Moto E13 also supports 10W wired charging.