India's electric two-wheeler (E2W) sector is expected to cross the one million mark in 2024 fuelled by rising demand, increased production, and affordability, industry experts said, even as several original equipment makers are expanding their penetration to rural areas. Improved battery technology and innovative features are also likely to fuel growth, they said. "E2W sales will breach the 1-million mark in 2024 as the demand for electric two-wheelers is expected to continue growing due to factors such as environmental awareness, government incentives, and improvements in technology," Hyder Khan, chief executive officer (CEO), Godawari Electric Motors, said.
Catamaran, the family office of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, is targeting 15 per cent returns on its portfolio investments per annum as it shifts focus from early-stage investments to growth and late-stage bets. This would double the firm's assets under management (AUM) from the current $1 billion to $2 billion over the next five years. "For direct investments, we are focusing on growth-stage investments and very selectively on early stage," Deepak Padaki, president, Catamaran, told Business Standard. "(This is) primarily because the early-stage space in India, in the last three-four years, has completely changed. "There has been a huge influx of capital in the last two years. It has become a very crowded space for early-stage investment," he said.
In 2020-2021, the amount of foreign direct investment into India from China and Hong Kong plummeted to just $200 million -- its lowest in the recent past. In the first half of 2021-2022, FDI investments through these two nations stood at just $36 million.
Some lessors have even taken the airline to court.
Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com travels to Pullampara to discover how it became India's first digital literate village.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw talks to Nikita Puri about her book Mythbreaker.
'When I was toying with 10 different ideas, my father was diagnosed with lung fibrosis and his condition deteriorated so badly that we lost him in six months. He was very unsatisfied with the lack of proper diagnosis.' 'It made me think will anyone do a biopsy if there is no symptom? Why is it that we do not have any non-invasive diagnostic method?' 'This idea was the strongest out of the ten, and with Snahlata Singh with her cancer biology background joining me, the idea got a real boost.'
US-based co-working operator WeWork, Lowe's India, SpiceJet and startups like CureFit stepped in to offer employment to the distressed workers at Jet.
In India, thousands of lives are lost every year because of unavailability of organs
Start-up entrepreneurs Arun Shenoy and Mandar Kaprekar share their vision of becoming a Rs 1,000 crore company in ten years.
The prime minister took no names but made an apparent reference to reports about "rate card" for different government jobs in the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and prevalence of "cut money" in the state.
The defence budget was on Thursday increased to Rs 6.21 lakh crore for 2024-25 in a modest hike of 4.72 per cent from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore amid India's continuing border row with China in eastern Ladakh as well as concerns over evolving security situation in the strategic waterways.
Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress alleging that the opposition party has become outdated and has always been against any kind of reservation.
EazyDiner will be a restaurant reservation platform offering reviews, reservations, deals and a concierge services
Gopalakrishnan, who is the immediate past President of CII, is the Chairman of the summit.
The 6-metre tall launch vehicle Vikram-S is named after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the country's space programme and lifted off at 11.30 am.
Swiggy, a Bengaluru-based food ordering and delivery start-up, says it aims to revolutionise this segment.
'Those who want stability in life have started looking at opportunities outside of the start-up ecosystem.'
Indo-Pacific region. Senior officials from the ministries of External Affairs and Defence, and the US departments of Defence and State met here for the India-US 2+2 Inter-Sessional meeting.
One hundred and forty nine new individuals joined the rich list club of 1,103 Indians across 122 cities who cumulatively accumulated a wealth of Rs 100 trillion. Bengaluru -based Kaivalya Vohra, 19, of grocery delivery application Zepto is the youngest self-made and the youngest rich individual, according to IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022. The report found 1,103 Indians with a networth of Rs 1,000 crore each - an increase of 62 per cent over five years. There are 221 billionaires (Rs 100 crore networth) in India on the 2022 list - down 16 compared with last year, while 13 people born in the 1990s made it to the list, all self-made.
Modi's emphasises on transit for trade comes amid Pakistan's reluctance to provide such a facility for two-way trade between India and Pakistan.
If we work together with dedication, concentration and effort, we should be able to achieve our aspirational growth target of double-digits for a very long period of time, suggests K V Kamath.
The new year will witness two unmanned missions under the "Gaganyaan" project, deep ocean exploration project, "Samudrayaan" and many more.
Japanese tech investor SoftBank may end up investing around $1 billion in India in 2022, nearly a third of what it did last year, according to people closely tracking its plans. Last year, SoftBank undertook investments of $3.2 billion in 12 deals. In the first five months of CY22, the giant investor has invested $400-500 million in five deals.
A few days back, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged the start-up community and public to deal in cryptocurrency with caution because everything that was floating around was not currency. In the first week of August, the country's top nine crypto exchange platforms were summoned by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in Hyderabad. The exchanges were questioned for money laundering, especially over a number of Indian non-banking financial companies and their fintech partners for predatory lending practices in violation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and by using tele-callers who misuse personal data and use abusive language to extort high interest rates from the loan takers.
His presence matters more than the money he brings.
If you have seen Zwigato, Param Kumar's story will sound familiar. Laid off from his job as a repairman at a Gurugram-based water purifier provider, he now delivers groceries and food for a mobile-based delivery app, in Delhi. Kumar, who started making deliveries last August, told Business Standard that he is working longer hours than his older salaried job as an RO repairman, and has no paid leaves or health insurance. Kumar is part of India's estimated 7.7 million-strong force of gig workers.
Live commerce, quick commerce, group buying, WhatsApp commerce, dukaantech have made their mark.
Experts are betting big on the clause that talks of capital gains.
Even three decades after Infosys, India's second-largest software service provider, was founded by middle-class engineers, the country has failed to create an enabling environment for first-generation entrepreneurs.
Chanda Kochhar said the only comforting factor is that investors pouring in money into such startups are 'mature'.
Venture capitalists and seed fund providers receive around 500-1,200 business plans every year. The trend continued even among the student fraternity. Venture firms such as Morpheus Venture Partners and Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship that work closely with students and incubator centres have seen a spurt in activity.
Modi said the young and aspirational India understood the need for political stability to achieve faster development and had ended three decades of instability by mere touch of a button.
Most great ideas fail due to lack of vision and execution, writes Bharati Jacob, founder-partner, Seedfund, one of India's leading early stage investors.
EduBridge is emerging as a strong player in training unemployed youth.
'A start-up with 100 people has reduced the strength to 60-80 people to reduce cost.' 'Even if there is attrition, they prefer not to replace them.'
The Union Budget on Wednesday outlined several initiatives to drive India's technology agenda and boost digital infrastructure, including new centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, National Data Governance Policy, and Entity DigiLocker.
Lamborghini is focusing on bringing its new car models to India faster after the global launch of its Huracn Tecnica, its country head Sharad Agarwal said on Thursday, adding there is a lot more scope for the company to expand in tier I and II cities. "Typically, in the premium and luxury car segments, there is a lag of six to 18 months between a global launch and India launch," he said in an interview to Business Standard. The Italian carmaker launched the two-seater track-focused performance car - the Huracn Tecnica - here on Thursday four months after its global unveiling.
Tiger Global-backed Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, has laid off 30 per cent of its workforce of 260 employees in the last year as the budding firm, like many other start-ups in the country, battles global headwinds. "It's important for businesses of all sizes to adopt efficient and conservative approaches to see this period through. "In line with this, we have acted on some role redundancies by letting go of 30 per cent of our workforce over the course of the year," said a Koo spokesperson.
In his latest monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat, Modi said that India is capable of providing solutions to the varied challenges being faced globally.
