A Singapore court on Thursday granted a four-month moratorium to Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, a period which the embattled firm will use to restructure its business without worrying about legal proceedings. A moratorium offers applicant temporary relief from legal proceedings. WazirX, India's biggest crypto exchange, suffered a major hacking attack in July this year losing close to $230 million.
Quick commerce (Qcom) platforms are bringing upon a rapid change in the behaviours of online shoppers, with 31 per cent of buyers relying on the fast delivery option for grocery needs, according to a new study.
The Indian arm of the Norwegian investment company Orkla ASA, which owns spice brands like MTR and Eastern, is exploring the possibility of launching an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025, said a top company executive. "The ASA board just cleared the proposal. "We had done a pre-IPO study last year to understand what we need to do and based on that the board said, 'okay, let's go ahead and explore capital markets'," Sanjay Sharma, CEO, Orkla India, told Business Standard.
Global cryptocurrency giant Binance has asserted that it never owned or controlled WazirX before or after the embattled Indian exchange was hacked in July that led to a security breach of more than $230 million. Binance added that there was no legal basis for the firm to be liable for claims made against the embattled crypto exchange. It refuted WazirX's claims that the global exchange owns the company, adding that it does not operate the platform.
French wine and spirits maker Pernod Ricard expects to report low double-digit growth in India in the medium-term on the back of a strong premiumisation trend emerging in the country. "We are now the second market worldwide for Pernod Ricard and India continues to be a big growth engine for the group. "Our compoun annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past five years was 8 per cent, which is robust and was maintained at a rather high level," said Jean Touboul (pictured), chief executive officer, Pernod Ricard India.
Flipkart-backed fintech firm super.money is aiming to be among the top five players on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) leaderboard by the end of this year, a senior company executive has said. The company, which rolled out its beta version in June this year, has processed about 10 million transactions till date. "We have a target of 100 million transactions for the end of the year.
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal's recent comments on large e-commerce players have reignited the debate about their impact on smaller offline retailers. On Wednesday, Goyal said that the rapid growth of e-commerce in India is a "cause for concern" and is diminishing the market share of small, mom-and-pop stores by offering high-margin products such as consumer electronics and apparel at discounted rates.
In the first quarter (Q1) of the ongoing financial year ending June 30, Westlife Foodworld, which operates McDonald's outlets in the South and West, reported an 88 per cent drop in net profit. While net sales remained flat, its same-store sales growth (SSSG) fell by 6.7 per cent, impacted by "subdued in-store business, although the off-premise segment saw positive same-store sales", the company said.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday released draft guidelines for streamlining the onboarding and monitoring of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) operators to counter frauds perpetuated through the ecosystem. Banks and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) are required to comply with these directions within three months from the date of issue of the guidelines.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday issued a draft framework for alternative authentication mechanism for digital payments, wherein it has mandated that all digital payment transactions would have to be authenticated with an additional factor of authentication (AFA), except small value contactless card payments for up to Rs 5,000 at point of sale terminals, e-mandates for recurring transactions, and small value digital payments through offline mode, among others. Additionally, it has said that all digital payment transactions, other than card present transactions, have to ensure that one of the factors of authentication is dynamically created, i.e., the factor is generated after initiation of payment; is specific to the transaction; and cannot be reused.
WazirX lost about 45 per cent of its crypto assets to the security breach. People privy to the discussions say North Korea has been mentioned.
The Budget proposals are expected to boost the fortunes of consumer goods and fast-moving consumer goods companies, which have been struggling with poor consumer demand for more than a year. The Budget announcements, such as the increase in standard deduction by Rs 25,000 for income-tax payers and slab revisions, will put more money in their hands, boosting consumer demand. Private consumption is also likely to benefit from a new scheme to offer internships to 10 million youths in the country's top 500 companies.
'A lot of them are converted to other tokens, and since crypto is dealt with internationally, it can go to any exchange in any country.'
'A credit line on UPI is going to make banks think about credit fundamentally as they digitise the credit process entirely.'
The swindled amount is nearly half of WazirX's total assets.
Major credit issuers, including the largest - HDFC Bank - have integrated their systems with the Bharat Bill Payment Systems (BBPS) for receiving credit card repayments via third-party applications.
Food and grocery delivery major Zomato has pulled the plug on its plan to enter the lending business. Zomato Financial Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zomato, has withdrawn its application for a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), stating that the company does not have plans to pursue lending in the future. "There is no material impact on the revenue/operations of the company and this disclosure is being made voluntarily," the Gurgaon-based company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Some of the fintechs that will get impacted include Cred, Paytm, Phonepe and Amazon Pay, among others.
Raising toast to 25 successful years, India's largest wine maker Sula Vineyard is eyeing a sustained double-digit growth in revenue over the next five years, buoyed by growth in the premium and elite categories and expansion of its new ranges. It was during Covid that the vineyards shifted focus to its own brands and pivoted towards growing the premium and elite segment of the market.
Paytm, the country's leading fintech player which had to shut its payment bank business following regulatory action, is revisiting its business strategy including partnership with lenders. Also, the company's founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Vijay Shekhar Sharma has decided to oversee the day-to-day operations with all the major verticals reporting directly to him now. "The thing on top of everyone's agenda is getting the core businesses back on track," a person in the know said.
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