The election of Tytler as an AICC delegate drew strong reactions from Delhi's ruling AAP and the BJP, which said it exposed the opposition party's character of creating division and chaos in the country.
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.
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.
The turmoil, if you read the headlines, is about the so-called funding winter. Deep down, though, the question is one of the common direction in which founders and investors need to pull, points out Suveen Sinha.
The first step to keeping your job safe, experts tell Rediff.com's Divya Nair, is understanding why layoffs happen.
A common mistake students make is either they don't have a focussed strategy or there are too many gaps in the study plan, warns Dr Rajesh Pandey, Academic Head, Engineering, Aakash Byju's Digital.
The reopening of schools and colleges has sparked a crisis in the edtech sector with falling valuations, slowing funding rounds and faltering investor sentiment. In a totally altered, post-pandemic landscape where students are back at school and colleges, companies are scrambling to revert to bricks-and-mortar tuition centres and adopting a hybrid model of offline and online education. Demand for online tuition has fallen, affecting the revenue of edtech companies in recent months. After two years of booming revenues, some experts say the sector is looking at a possible meltdown.
At a time when there is a growing number of edtech companies laying off employees in a bid to conserve cash and focus on profitability amid a funding winter, Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad is expanding its facilities and hiring talent. The company plans to hire over 1400 team members between November 2022 and March 2023 in India and at offices outside the country. upGrad has also signed new leases in the past few months for 335,000 sq ft of space across four cities -- Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Noida.
The PE biggie has committed to pumping money into Jio Platforms, Byju's and Reliance Retail so far this year - all marquee names in their respective sectors.
Anurag Tiwari, National Academic Director, Medical, Aakash+BYJU'S, will address your queries and offer expert advice.
The plea was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, which said it would be listed on February 24.
Despite the recent turmoil in the Indian markets after a scathing report on the Adani group from Hindenburg Research, American private equity major Blackstone is "bullish" on the India growth story and plans to invest more in the country's infrastructure and real estate projects. "We have a long-term view on India, as growth will be higher here. We have invested half of our Asia exposure in India. "Our extraordinary performance in India has made us bullish," said Jonathan Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone.
A long and bitter funding winter in the start-up world is beginning to take its toll on start-up advertising across properties. Earlier this week, Mastercard replaced Paytm as the title sponsor for all international and domestic cricket matches organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). But this is just one part of the story. The other side is that organisers of high-impact shows and events on Hindi general entertainment channels, too, are feeling the winter chill.
Byju Classes' founder Byju Raveendran, Zomato co-founder Gaurav Gupta, CEO of Antara Senior Living, Tara Singh Vachani, Vinati Organics' MD & CEO Vinati Mutreja and Swapan Mehra, CEO of Iora Ecological Solutions are among 115 young leaders.
It's also among the top five most valuable Internet companies in India, reports Yuvraj Malik.
Indian startups have raised $42 billion in 2021, up from $11.5 billion in the previous year, a report by Orios Venture Partners said. The report titled 'The Indian Tech Unicorn Report 2021' said India saw 46 unicorns (companies with $1 billion valuations) in 2021 alone, more than doubling the total number of unicorns to 90. These include ShareChat, Cred, Meesho, Nazara, Moglix, MPL, Grofers (now Blinkit), upGrad, Mamaearth, GlobalBees, Acko, Spinny and others. India - with 90 unicorns - is the third-largest unicorn hub behind the US (487) and China (301), and ahead of the UK (39).
Keep in mind that JEE Main is all about speed and accuracy, advises Nitin Arora.
On the whole, the case for Period Leave is compelling. It may well bring more women into the workforce. But the concept will likely be hostage to the whims of enlightened companies, notes Kanika Datta.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a direction to all the states to frame rules for menstrual pain leave for female students and working women at their respective workplace, observing that the issue falls under the policy domain of the government.
Next month, the edtech start-up, that teaches coding to kids online, is launching operations in five new markets - the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Shahrukh Khan is one of India's most loved "human brands", and while the drug controversy may have paused his endorsement engagements, it has not dented the superstar's popularity among corporate, as per industry experts. Right after the controversy around his son's arrest in an alleged drug case broke out, many companies halted ads featuring King Khan. Many of them are now back on screens.
A slew of Indian firms, including Flipkart, Byju's and Zomato, is building a path to profitability and diversifying into newer business segments ahead of mega-IPO plans.
On a cloudy Monday this month, Mohammed Irshad flew from Kochi to Gurugram to attend an exclusive investor networking event. Among a handful of founders selected for the event, Irshad was to pitch his peer-to-peer learning start-up Notespaedia for funding in front of top venture capital investors such as AngelBay, Elevation Capital, and Inflection Point Ventures. He failed to woo them, but the feisty entrepreneur was determined to continue his hunt.
Unacademy on Monday said it has raised $440 million (about Rs 3,270.8 crore) in funding from a clutch of investors including Temasek, General Atlantic, and Softbank Vision Fund, valuing the edtech major at $3.44 billion. The investment is expected to help Unacademy expand its offerings, deepen its presence and compete more aggressively against rivals such as Byju's in the burgeoning ed-tech space in India that has been witnessing strong uptake amid the pandemic. The series H round was led by Temasek, with super pro-rata participation from General Atlantic, Tiger Global, and Softbank Vision Fund, a statement said.
This is the first investment in Asia from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which was founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan
Trends that added colour to workplace culture in 2022.
Byju's, Flipkart, PharmEasy and CRED, among others, have taken the acquisition route to grow
It is recommended to allocate a minimum of 3 to 4 hours for studying over the weekdays and maximise effort during the weekends, suggests Sarmad Mehraj, teacher and VP, product (UPSC) at BYJU'S.
Unacademy may see a funding dry spell for at least next 12-18 months and even last till 24 months and will cut costs to weather the lean period, said the chief executive of the education technology unicorn that recently laid off more than 600 employees. "This is a test for all of us. We must learn to work under constraints and focus on profitability at all costs. We must survive the winter," said Unacademy's co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal in a letter to the employees. "Winter is here. We are looking at a time when the funding will dry up for at least 12-18 months.
Indian startups received about $6.5 billion in funding in the April-June 2021 quarter, while 11 of them entered the coveted unicorn club, a report by Nasscom-PGA Labs said. During the second quarter, 160 funding deals were closed -- up 2 per cent from the January-March period. "Q2 2021 has been impeccable for the start-up growth story. From being the most funded quarter, it has also added the most number of unicorns. "Standing tall during the pandemic second wave headwinds, Indian start-up ecosystem has shown a strong resilience in this quarter," the report said.
ICAI on Tuesday said it is setting up a fast-track cell to deal with cases against chartered accountants involved in incorporating shell companies in India with Chinese links and it would aim to dispose them of by the end of the year. Those found guilty can face a lifetime ban, among other actions. The apex bodies of chartered accountants and company secretaries, ICAI and ICSI, have together received around 400 complaints on the issue and necessary actions have been initiated.
Amazon India has decided to shut down 'Amazon Distribution', according to sources. This follows its recent decision to shut its food delivery and edtech offerings. The moves are part of the annual operating planning review process amid global macroeconomic uncertainty. The e-commerce giant is looking to focus on its core businesses, sources said.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is India's most-valuable brand in 2022 replacing HDFC Bank, which held the number one spot since 2014, according to Kantar BrandZ report on India's most-valuable brands. TCS was able to grab the top slot due to rising global demand for automation and digital transformation, following the pandemic. Indian brands have bounced back from the pandemic to increase their brand value by 35 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2020.
Edtech unicorn Vedantu has laid off 424 employees, about 7 per cent of its workforce, according to a blog post shared by the Bengaluru-based firm. This comes as the focus in the edtech space has shifted to profitability, according to experts. The lay-off comes days after the company fired 200 contractual and full-time employees, at a time when offline schools and colleges are opening up and learning is evolving into a more nuanced blended delivery model with a mix of online and offline.
The country needs 100 million jobs in the formal sector in the next decade to take advantage of its demographic dividend. Also, it should get into the global supply chain to generate many of those by negotiating trade deals effectively, industry players and experts have said. "We need something like 100 million jobs in the next 10 years, which means that the non-agriculture sector has to generate 14 per cent job growth every year," said Aditya Ghosh, co-founder of Akasa Airlines, at the Global Economic Policy Summit organised by the CII.
'There is no doubt at all that Jio's disruption of the mobile broadband market was a turning point for India's digital economy.'
In the past few days, many companies, including fashion e-tailer Nykaa, food delivery platform Zomato, logistics and delivery firm Delhivery, insurance discovery platform PolicyBazaar, eyewear retail chain Lenskart, and edtech and online tutoring firm Byju's, have openly spoken about their IPO plans.
The key to scoring good marks in the Common University Entrance Test (CUET UG) lies in identifying target courses and then effectively strategising the preparation to achieve the desired goal.
The Chinese government is imposing severe restrictions on their tech companies - whether it is on data security, marketing practices or floating an IPO. Should this be music to the ears of Indian start-ups and home-grown private equity (PE) funds? Ask Indian start-ups and the answer is a resounding "yes".
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