NEWSINDIA360

Big boost to Byju’s, big blow for edtech

Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran. Mint

Online education startup Byju’s raised $500 million from a group of investors, including private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, sending the valuation of the company founded by a star math teacher from Kerala to nearly $11 billion.

Existing investors Tiger Global, General Atlantic and Owl Ventures also participated in the investment round, Byju’s said…

IL&FS completes stake sale in education business, cuts consolidated debt by Rs 650 crore

The sale was completed pursuant to the approval granted by the National Company Law Tribunal’s principal bench through its order dated August 31.

Sale of SIL will reduce operating cost for IL&FS Group by nearly 19%.

The IL&FS Group on Wednesday completed the sale of a 73.69% stake in its education business, held under Schoolnet India (SIL), to Falafal Technologies (FTPL).

The transaction…

SC directs Mahagun to deposit Rs 240 crore by March for plot sold by Amrapali

During the hearing, the counsel appearing for NOIDA opposed the proposal of Mahagun that it be allowed to mortgage the plot after the initial payment of Rs 35 crore/ It said the land cannot be mortgaged.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday asked real estate firm Mahagun to deposit Rs 240 crore with the apex court registry by March 31, 2021 for the 40,000 square metre land sold to it by Amrapal…

After Cutting Ties With Zomato, TechEagle Set For Drone Delivery In Ethiopia

Gurugram-based drone startup TechEagle Innovations will begin drone delivery of healthcare and other essential items in Ethiopia by partnering with an Ethiopian ecommerce company Addis Mercato.

This is the first commercial drone delivery service in Ethiopia. TechEagles is currently underway to seek all necessary regulatory approvals in the country and plans to start these operations in the…

Nexus-Backed Hasura Raises $25 Mn In Series B Funding From Lightspeed, Others

The funding was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures US, Nexus Venture Partners, Strive VC and SAP.iO Fund

The company’s technology automatically creates realtime GraphQL APIs, granting customers instant access to their data via secure APIs

With this funding, Hasura aims to accelerate hiring and investment in its open-source and commercial product development

San Francisco…

Finmin clarification: ‘We haven’t delayed payments of Rs 7 lakh crore’

As on March 31, 2020, state discoms had owed Rs 91,860 crore to power generating companies; the dues increased to Rs 1.17 lakh crore as on July 31.

The power ministry proactively conceptualised Rs 90,000 cr worth of liquidity infusion scheme to ease the liquidity position of the above -mentioned generators in two equal tranches.

In response to the news report ‘Forget the stimulus, just…

UiPath sees 20% YoY growth in India since February on increased demand

UiPath provides robotic process automation (RPA) technology which involves use of software robots (bots) to automate business processes that are currently managed manually by human workers.

Tech firm UiPath on Tuesday said it has seen a 20 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in India since February on the back of significant demand for its solutions from various segments, including government…

Kamath panel framework better than CDR, but may just postpone recognition of stress: Analysts

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has operationalised the guidelines from Tuesday, which give relief to 26 listed sectors affected by the coronavirus pandemic and stress on banks factoring in leverage, liquidity and debt serviceability before admitting a case.

“The Kamath committee recommendations induce a degree of uncertainty in the credit market as banks work out restructuring plans with…

StartupXseed Announces First Close Of INR 200 Cr Fund To Back Deeptech Startups

StartupXseed Ventures is looking to increase the corpus to INR 200 Cr over the next 6-9 months.

It will focus on deep technology, including, semiconductor, cyber security, drone and aerospace sectors

Fund-II also has a green shoe option of INR 50 cr.

StartupXseed Ventures, that launched Aaruha Technology Fund for burgeoning startups in deep tech, has made the first close of its…

SBI Plans To Hire 14,000 Staff, Says VRS Is Not Cost-Cutting Exercise

A customer uses an automated teller machine (ATM) at a State Bank of India Ltd. (SBI) branch at night in Bengaluru, India. (Photographer: Karen Dias/Bloomberg)

The State Bank of India on Monday said it proposes to recruit 14,000 employees during the current year and its ‘on tap’ voluntary retirement scheme is not a cost-cutting exercise. The country’s largest lender has planned a voluntary…

Raghuram Rajan calls economy a patient that needs emergency treatment now, not later

Raghuram Rajan said that if one thinks of the economy as a patient, relief is the sustenance the patient needs while on the sickbed and fighting the disease.

Without relief, households skip meals, pull their children out of school, and send them to work or beg.

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that the government’s reluctance to do more at present to conserve resources for a possible…

Emobility Startup BluSmart Bags $7 Mn For Expansion

Existing investors Mumbai Angels, Inflection Point Ventures and others participated in this round

The company had raised $2.2 Mn from JITO Angels, MayFiels, Micromax and others last year

It looks to add 1K electric vehicles and charging stations to its fleet by 2021

Delhi-based electric mobility startup BluSmart has raised $7 Mn (INR 51 Cr) in funding from multiple investors including…

Startup Street: Covid-19 Fails To Dampen Fintech Investments In India

This week on Startup Street, a look at how the Covid-19 crisis has impacted fintech funding in the first half of 2020. The IIT Alumni Council says it’s setting up six research centres for startups across the country. And a famous Indian cricket commentator backs a fantasy gaming startup. Here’s what went on:

Fintech Investments Remain Solid In India

Investments in India’s financial…

Branded plot sales up amid Covid-19 pandemic

Given the desire to own land in south India, several Bengaluru-based developers, including Sobha Ltd, Puravankara Ltd, Salarpuria Sattva Group, Shriram Properties Ltd and Century Real Estate Holdings Pvt Ltd, are either venturing into “plotted development” or looking to monetize more land parcels with only plots for sale.

Branded plots, priced in the range of ₹30-75 lakh each, have found…

WhatsApp improves Payments, adds new voice calling features for iOS users

WhatsApp’s latest iPhone beta release suggests that the messaging app is upgrading its UPI-based Payments feature.

WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp keeps on bringing up new features or changes in the app for the convenience of its users. We recently reportedthat WhatsApp has launched a dedicated security advisory website which will inform users about the security updates, and also about…

Hotels, restaurants tell FinMin banks not cooperating in loan restructuring; may ‘succumb’ by year-end

Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Ever since the lockdown was enforced by the government in March, the hotel and restaurant sector has been seeking necessary support from the government to help overcome the Covid burden. The sector, which largely has MSMEs, accounts for 12.75 per cent of India’s employment.

Hotels and restaurants sought rationalizing and cutting down the number of licenses…

FAU-G, an Indian Alternative to PUBG, to Launch by October-End, Will Include a Level on Galwan Valley

nCore’s FAU-G aims to tap into patriotism and 20 percent of its net revenues will be given to a state-backed trust.

HIGHLIGHTS

India has hit Chinese tech firms that dominate India’s Internet economy

Indian government has outlawed 118 mostly Chinese-origin apps

nCore’s Vishal Gondal expects to win 200 million users in a year

The launch of FAU-G comes at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment is…