Digital Financial News

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has planned to employ the Water Corporation of Odisha (WATCO), a non-profit under the Odisha government, to address the problem of loss of drinking water during transmission, reported TOI. About 58 per cent of water is wasted in transmission in the city, much higher than the national average of around 20 per cent. WATCO has been able to address a similar problem by bringing the loss of water rate down to 15 per cent from 50 per cent, said officials.

Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda, says the steps announced by the government cover both crops – horticulture as well as allied activities – and this is required for overall enhancing and creating more steady growth and output as well as income for farmers. Today when we are talking in terms of rural consumption lagging, one of the factors behind it is that we are not seeing a commensurate increase in terms of income. Sabnavis also says that we may not see the impact in the immediate quarter. 3.5% to 4% should be the trend growth that we should see in the case of overall GDP growth of 7% to 8% at the aggregate level. It will take a couple of years before all these pieces are put together.

Jignanshu Gor, Group Analyst, Bernstein SocGen, believes that discretionary spending is waiting to grow at the bottom of the pyramid or in the middle of the pyramid and outside of metro cities. It is not just a metro story. It is a story of the affluent, in both urban and rural India. The recovery for the discretionary from a narrative perspective is going to happen in the next 12 to 18 months, which makes him confident of the prospects of this sector itself. At a time when people are looking at staples, talking about rural recovery, monsoon, election, and all of that, you have initiated coverage on urban discretionary stocks, which were well for the last couple of years. What makes you sanguine about retail, and restaurant over staples? Jignanshu Gor: If I look at how the discretionary spending in India is construed today, the coverage for the sector across retailers, and restaurants, including digital and offline, is restricted to the top 10% of the population. We think that as the increasingly affluent people, both in the top of the pyramid and the middle of the pyramid, are looking to express themselves, that is being expressed in eating out and buying trendier clothes.

₹98,924 crore in FY23. China’s electronics conglomerate BBK Group, which operates five gadget brands in the country, maintained steady revenue at ₹81,870 crore in FY23 despite sales volumes falling significantly. Apple India clocked ₹49,321 crore in revenue in FY23.

Mumbai: The newly merged entity of Star India and Viacom18 will boast a strong cash position exceeding ₹19,000 crore, factoring in Viacom18's current cash reserves and investments of ₹7,829 crore, and an infusion of ₹11,500 crore from Reliance Industries (RIL), officials close to the development said. Star is, however, unlikely to have any cash reserves currently, the people said. The cash pile will empower Star-Viacom18 to make major investments in its digital and sports businesses, which are anticipated to be loss-making in the short term. As per the agreement with Walt Disney, RIL will inject ₹11,500 crore into Star-Viacom18, gaining a controlling 56% stake.

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ministry of labour and employment has reached out to several ministries including the ministry of panchayati raj (MoPR), ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) and the ministry of rural development (MoRD) among others to register the unorganised workers under their ambit on eShram portal, at the earliest. The drive to fast-track onboarding of unorganised workers on the portal is being done as the ministry develops the e-Shram portal as a one-stop solution to extend all scheme benefits to these workers. The portal has over 300 million unorganized workers registered till date since its launch in 2021. The ministry had initially estimated 370 million unorganised workers in the country.

Cabinet led by PM Narendra Modi on Monday announced the launch of Digital Agriculture Mission with an outlay of Rs 2,817 crore, in an attempt to improve farmers' lives through technology. The government has given its nod to a total of seven agriculture projects worth Rs 13,966. «Today, 7 major decisions have been taken in the cabinet meeting for improving the lives of farmers and increasing their income,» Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a media briefing. A major component of this mission is the creation of an Agri Stack, which includes a Farmers Registry, Village Land Maps Registry, and Crop Sown Registry.

Cabinet on Monday gave nod to seven decisions focused on boosting farm-related activities in India, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced, while addressing a press conference. While announcing the key decisions, Vaishnaw said, «Today, Seven major decisions have been taken in the cabinet meeting for improving the lives of farmers and increasing their income...The first is Digital Agriculture Mission. This is being developed on lines of the structure of Digital Public Infrastructure for agriculture. A few good pilot projects have been taken up and we have achieved success. On that basis, with a total investment of Rs 20,817 Crores, Digital Agriculture Mission will be set up...» Here are the major decisions taken by Prime Minister Modi-led Cabinet:

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Shalini is a crypto reporter who provides in-depth reports on daily developments and regulatory shifts in the cryptocurrency sector.

Shalini is a crypto reporter who provides in-depth reports on daily developments and regulatory shifts in the cryptocurrency sector.

₹1.92 crore on NDX P2P Pvt Ltd, also referred to as LiquiLoans, for non-compliance with some provisions of the P2P and digital lending norms. On the same day, the regulator also slapped a fine of ₹1.99 crore on Innofin Solutions Pvt Ltd, also known as LenDen Club, for the same reasons. Experts said that while the digital lending opportunity is huge, it has of late faced regulatory hurdles, leading to slowdown.

MUFG), Japan's largest mega bank with close to $3 trillion in assets, last week placed its biggest bet in India: It doubled an existing investment with a further commitment of ₹4,712 crore on DMI Finance. Masakazu Osawa, Asia Pacific CEO for the bank, tells Joel Rebello the group has only started its investment journey in India and would increase exposure in the economy tipped to be the world's third biggest soon. Edited excerpts: You doubled down on your investment in DMI Finance last week. What is the strategy for investments in India?

₹51,261.63 crore in FY24, primarily caters to food and FMCG customers in the western, central and northern India. "The group is planning to acquire a company from southern India engaged in the spices and ready-to-cook food business. Another company the group plans to take over is from eastern India.

artificial intelligence (AI), GitHub chief executive Thomas Dohmke said. Dohmke told the ET World Leaders Forum that tens of millions of developers in India are creating the digital public infrastructure of the future, fueling economic growth. GitHub is a developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage and share their code. The company was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. «Developers drive GDP growth and technological progress to the tune of trillions of US dollars. And the opportunity goes further because software developers are adopting AI faster than any other sector of the global workforce,» Dohmke said.

India's growth is driven by investment in infrastructure, inclusive development, manufacturing, and simplification of laws, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, union minister for electronics and information technology, information and broadcasting, and railways. When it comes to infrastructure, the government is investing not just in physical and digital assets but social resources as well, he said at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum on Saturday. Medical colleges for example have nearly doubled to 706 in the last 10 years, while the number of premier All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have gone to 22 from seven, he said Vaishnaw. On the manufacturing side of things, a key driver of new jobs, Vaishnaw said the government is focusing on creating new industries through programmes such as production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes. The PLI for mobile phone manufacturing has generated 1.2 million direct and indirect jobs in the past decade, he said. The total production value of mobile phones manufactured in India has risen from $2.3 billion in 2014 to $50 billion in 2024, he said.

«The regulators and government are balancing a lot of things, some of which we are not privy to… I don't see a challenge with this issue of market share because there are a large number of players operating and there is scope for everyone,» he said. Kenghe, who helms Google Pay in India and Asia Pacific region, was in conversation with ET's Samidha Sharma at the ET World Leaders Forum on Saturday.

RBI is poised to roll out its next major financial innovation, a technology platform that enables 'frictionless credit'. The platform, proposed to be called Unified Lending Interface (ULI), aims to facilitate a seamless and consent-based flow of digital information, including land records, to lenders from multiple data service providers. This, Das added, would reduce the time required for credit appraisal, particularly for smaller and rural borrowers. Coincidentally, his statement comes at a time when the account aggregator (AA) framework — created by the market-led industry alliance Sahamati and launched three years ago by RBI — has logged a record 100 mn consents. AA is using a framework like ULI to shift away from collateral-based lending to one premised on cash flows, addressing the formal credit needs of millions of underserved Indians. In short, India is poised to roll out another initiative to democratise access to credit. In the last decade, India banked the unbanked, whereby 80% of adults today own a bank account. Now, by seeking to enable universal lending, RBI is breaking down barriers to provide financial resources to a broader spectrum of borrowers. The impending convergence of fintech and AI will only accelerate this trend of serving the underbanked.

Spider-Man 4 has not yet been officially announced, but fans of the web-slinger need not worry about Tom Holland's return. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed in July 2024 that he is actively working on the next installment with long-time Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal. Feige revealed that the writing team is expected to deliver a draft of the screenplay soon, as per a report by Digital Spy. However, there may be changes behind the scenes for this new chapter. Jon Watts, who directed the first three Spider-Man films, is reportedly occupied with other projects, which could mean a new director for the fourth installment. Although there is no confirmed release date for Spider-Man 4 as of now, Sony has scheduled an untitled Spider-Man Universe film for June 27, 2025. This date could potentially be earmarked for Holland’s return, though given the tight turnaround and Holland’s recent commitments, including his role in Romeo & Juliet on the West End, this schedule might be optimistic, according to the Digital Spy report.

Dogecoin (DOGE) price today is $0.1009. Right on the edge of burning back a zero, the cryptocurrency is down -10% on the week and nearly -20% on the month. Looking to scale back on some losses, it looks like some holders are following the Dogecoin Killer token investors trend. Some small crypto shrimp investors from the $DOGE crowd have begun migrating funds into the Bitnance token presale.