Mutual funds' average cash holdings in equity schemes topped 6 per cent in February as fund managers went slow on deployment of new inflows on expectations of better buying opportunities amid uncertainties in the market.
Four Indian-American politicians from the ruling Democratic Party, including Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal, were elected to the US House of Representatives on Wednesday and many others won across the country to state legislatures in the highly polarised midterm elections.
With the Nifty50 just about 3 per cent away from its all-time closing high of 18,812 points, analysts at BofA Securities suggest investors book profit. Their reasons for the advice include risks like the possibility of a cut in corporate earnings growth forecasts, high valuation (one-year forward P/E of 19.5x), interest rates staying elevated for longer-than-expected and credit tightening. Going ahead, they expect the Nifty50 index to drop to 16,000 levels - down nearly 12 per cent from the current level of 18,255 points, which they believe would be a good time to buy.
The collapse of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in the US might create temporary liquidity issues but will not have any significant impact on the Indian crypto market in the long run, officials from several exchanges told Business Standard. All three banks are considered crypto-friendly. SVB offered services such as cryptocurrency custody and lending.
Facebook's parent company Meta announced on Tuesday it will fire another 10,000 people, implementing a second round of jobs cuts after it slashed 11,000 positions in November last year, to improve its financial performance in a "difficult environment". Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a post that overall "we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven't yet hired." The company has said that in its "Year of Efficiency", the company aims to make itself "a better technology company and to improve our financial performance in a difficult environment so we can execute our long-term vision."
Gandhi said the govt "tried everything to stop" his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', but nothing was working against the "effect" of the foot march.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said that the focus of the Trinamool Congress government will be on industrial development in the state for which packages will be drawn up. Speaking at the inaugural session of ABP Infocom virtually, Banerjee said the target of the government now is to promote development of industry in West Bengal and all industries will be given equal importance. "Our state is number one in imparting social justice. "Now our target is industry. More importance will be given to it now. Packages for the industry will come", she said adding that West Bengal will be the new industrial destination in the country.
... And it's not just fear of job losses, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
India's economy continues to be robust, but downside risks such as rising crude oil prices, adverse weather conditions, and the global banking crisis outweigh the upside potential in gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the current financial year (FY24), the finance ministry said on Tuesday in its Monthly Economic Review for March. "We reiterate that downside risks to our official forecast of 6.5 per cent for real GDP growth in FY24 dominate upside risks," the review said. "Opec's surprise production cut has seen oil prices rise in April, off their lows of low-seventies per barrel in March.
After raising Rs 10 crore in seed funding last week from investors like Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Freshworks founder Girish Mathrabootham and Silicon Valley based venture capitalist firm Hourglass Venture, Chennai-based social media startup Pepul told Business Standard that it is looking to raise around Rs 200 crore by June this year for expansion. The social media platform, focused on online ethical practices, will be launched by 1,000 entrepreneurs across the country on January 26. Pepul, founded by G Suresh Kumar, will be using an Aadhaar-based user verification system to get rid of fake accounts on its platform. "We are planning to raise around Rs 200 crore by June this year.
Family offices are increasingly looking to invest directly in start-ups rather than through investment in venture capital (VC) firms. The shift is happening because of multiple reasons. Next-generation scions of wealthy families are conversant with how the start-up world works after they have spent time in Silicon Valley; start-up investment is rising to 10-15 per cent of family offices' portfolios from single digits; and they do not want to share gains of investment with VC firms. "While earlier they would prefer to invest in this asset class via venture capital (VC) funds as LPs (limited partners), now they are making direct investment in start-ups.
Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook are both a boon and a bane for angel investors, VCs as well as start-ups. If the Big Tech companies get broken up and their powers to acquire get significantly curbed therefore, the whole ecosystem will need to change, says Prosenjit Datta.
'While we may speculate about personality politics, the reality is that there are more important issues that drive the India-US relationship.'
Always acknowledge what you don't know and know that there are many paths to an end goal, says three-time founder and CEO Neha Sampat.
Those close to Khanna, 46, say he is keeping his options open ahead of a potential presidential run in 2028 or beyond. But others in his orbit are talking about an even more compressed timeline: running in 2024 if President Joe Biden, 80, decided not to, according to Politico, a political newspaper company based in Arlington County in the US.
"This is something to be proud of," said Raj Panjabi, who is currently serving as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefence on the White House National Security Council.
It is no secret that software engineers at the Silicon Valley in the United States are paid good salaries.
Modi is the first Indian premier to visit the Silicon Valley and meet its top CEOs
She was found guilty in January of duping investors and lying about the technology after a three-month trial.
The Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship is a national Twenty20 cricket competition for 27 city-based teams from across the United States, launched this summer. More than 200 games will take place at 26 venues, featuring more than 400 players.
'The story is for the first time, Silicon Valley is mobilising locally to have a voice in American politics. The national Asian American-South Asian Diaspora with the Swadesh Chatterjees and Deepak Chopras and Vinod Khoslas, and Romesh Wadhwanis, and Arshad Zakarias and Mahinder Taks are mobilising in a way that has never happened before.' Ro Khanna, who hopes to represents Silicon Valley in the United States Congress, speaks to Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa.
'If because of El Nino, the monsoon is affected adversely in the current year, naturally it will affect income projections and consequently Budget numbers.'
The US is planning to resume the process of domestic visa revalidation in certain categories, like H-1B and L1 visas, on a pilot basis later this year, a move that will benefit tens of thousands of foreign tech workers, particularly from India. Until 2004, certain categories of non-immigrant visas, particularly the H-1B, could be renewed or stamped inside the US. After that, for the renewal of these visas, in particular, those on H-1B, the foreign tech workers have to go out of the country, mostly to their own country to get the H-1B extension stamped on their passport.
The race for space has got real, and it is attracting funding like never before. In 2022 so far, funding to private players in the space sector has jumped a whopping 61.5 per cent - soaring to $108.52 million compared to $67.2 million in 2021. Propelling it is the government's decision to open up the space sector to private players and the work done by companies like Skyroot Aerospace, the Hyderabad-based start-up behind the launch of India's first privately developed rocket on November 18.
The fall of the rupee has just become a symbol of all that has gone wrong with India lately.
Brainchild of Silicon Valley VC Asha Jadeja, the programme would fly entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley on a two-week visit.
US' IT industry wants a cap on H!B visas.
'It will send a very strong signal that it is now our time to grow.'
A record five Indian-American lawmakers from the ruling Democrat Party, including Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal and Ami Bera have been elected to the US House of Representatives, while several others were elected in state legislatures, in one of the most polarised midterm elections in the country.
It's a honour to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Silicon Valley, says Sundar Pichai.
Indian immigrants were the leading company-founding group. They founded 13.4 per cent of Silicon Valley's startups and 6.5 per cent of those nationwide.
Those on H-1B visas have to find a new job within 60 days or head back to India.
For the banking system a new cycle starts in FY2024. It's fraught with fresh challenges on asset quality and profitability, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
In January, Visa's chief executive officer, Al Kelly, said during an earnings call that "there's been a burst of the balloon in valuations in the fintech world". Noting that the trend of lower valuations "is a helpful characteristic of the current environment", he added: "We will look for capabilities and management teams that will bring more value to Visa than we can bring ourselves." Data from KPMG's Pulse of Fintech H2'22 shows that global fintech investment - via mergers and acquisitions (M&As), private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms - at $164.1 billion in 2022, was down 31 per cent over the year before. Indian fintechs held up better during this timeframe, attracting $6 billion, or a fall of 24 per cent.
Indian-American Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and his wife Neeru are among the latest billionaires to have pledged half of their vast fortunes to charity either during their lifetime or after death.
Two Indian Americans -- Congressman Ro Khanna and Vijaya Gadde -- prominently figure in United States President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden's laptop story whose full disclosure Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced would be released on the microblogging site.
'It was a harrowing experience to witness the level people stoop to in an election campaign. The Indian election process needs a total revamp if it wants honourable people to enter politics.'
India's Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, which has a high population of expatriates driven by the information technology sector, is getting more reasonable on cost of living
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'We are calling for democratic accountability even as we talk about Digital India.' 'We are not against Digital India and it is important for India, but the government should not see what is applicable just to entrepreneurs but also to the vast majority of Indians who do not have the kind of advantages that many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have.'