Digital Financial News

Spotify has not seen any drastic change in revenue numbers or its user base in the country and is focused on striking a balance between its free and premium services, a senior executive of the music streaming platform said. “We always want to offer a great free service and will obviously keep calibrating because ultimately, we are also running a business here. So, we are going to calibrate between free and paid in such a way that we want to keep our free business growing and also keep our premium business growing,” Amarjit Singh Batra, managing director of Spotify India, said during a fireside chat at the India Digital Summit 2024 in Mumbai.

RBI) has released a detailed framework for a ‘regulatory sandbox’ which will provide a safe and protected environment for innovative fintech startups to test their product hypothesis before taking it to the market. In a note released on Wednesday, the central bank said a sandbox environment allows the regulator to engage with startups and “develop innovation-enabling or innovation-responsive regulations that facilitate delivery of relevant, low-cost financial products”. The sandbox will be supervised by the fintech department of the RBI.

Reliance Industries Ltd on Wednesday informed exchanges that the company has inked a binding agreement with Walt Disney Co to merge their media operations in India. Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”), Viacom 18 Media Private Limited (“Viacom18”) and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) (“Disney”) today announced the signing of binding definitive agreements to form a joint venture (“JV”) that will combine the businesses of Viacom18 and Star India. As part of the transaction, the media undertaking of Viacom18 will be merged into Star India Private Limited (“SIPL”) through a court-approved scheme of arrangement. In addition, RIL has agreed to invest at closing Rs 11,500 crore (~US$ 1.4 billion) into the JV for its growth strategy.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday hailed Bengaluru tax payers for their contributions in building a strong and 'Viksit Bharat', and said the Department of Revenue is running its entire national faceless income tax assessment scheme from Karnataka's capital city. Speaking after laying the foundation stone for the upcoming complex «HONGIRANA» for Income Tax officers and staff here, she said the tax payers of Bengaluru have been absolutely giving us the buoyancy, and thanked all individual and corporate taxpayers in this region for making sure for building a strong and 'Viksit Bharat'. «Your contribution is relentless. There has never been a dip. So thank you very much Bengaluru for keeping that momentum up», she said. Sitharaman also emphasised the investments that the Central government is making in Bengaluru.

BENGALURU : Accenture Plc will acquire Mindcurv, German IT services and data analytics firm, to expand its commercial services globally, the US company said in a release. Accenture Song, the parent company’s digital agency, agreed to acquire the Essen-headquartered IT services company for an undisclosed amount. Mindcurv provides digital services to clients in the manufacturing, retail, consumer goods, life sciences and chemicals sectors, most of whom are based in Europe.

NEW DELHI : New Delhi: The crisis in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade corridors, hit global merchandise trade volumes in 2023, according to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general, World Trade Organization (WTO). These disruptions, coupled with a global economic slowdown, likely led to a less than 0.8% increase in global merchandise trade volumes in 2023, falling short of the WTO's April projection, Okonjo-Iweala said while speaking at the business forum on the third day of the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi.

Meme coins have carved out a unique niche in the evolving crypto sector that combines digital currency with internet culture. The meme coin market is constantly expanding with a $23 billion market cap, and it’s getting bigger every day with new innovative tokens arriving on the scene.

Jamaica, that launched its JAM-DEX central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2021, is “determined” in getting through CBDC challenges.

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren has emphasized the need for a legal “level playing field” in the cryptocurrency industry and has called for restrictions on major tech companies’ development of artificial intelligence (AI) models. 

Private equity firm Lighthouse Funds, which has backed consumer brands such as Bikaji Foods, Wow Momos and Nykaa, has invested Rs 284 crore (around $34 million) in fashion and silver jewellery brand Kushal’s. The investment round also includes a secondary buyout, allowing a partial exit for Kushal’s first institutional investor, India SME Investments.

In a stock exchange notice today (28 February), the board said it would present the proposed changes for shareholder approval at a general meeting on 25 March, having already secured the green light from the Financial Conduct Authority and its lenders.  The directors said the move is required to facilitate the managed wind-down, which was announced on 29 January following the board's two-month strategic review launched to «maximise shareholder value». DGI9 is proposing that the trust will be managed by either a third-party investment manager or internally by the board of directors wit...

Jesper Brodin, Global CEO of Ikea's franchisee holding company Ingka Group. Acknowledging that India is a "challenging market", Brodin in an interview with The Economic Times said it is tough "keeping up with the rapid development of digital and physical infrastructure in the country". “It has been interesting to see the speed of development over the last five to ten years.

₹1,57,427 for the Pulsar NS200, ₹1,45,792 for the Pulsar NS160, and ₹1,04,922 for the Pulsar NS125, all based in Delhi. One of the standout features of the 2024 Pulsar NS range is the updated lighting system. The motorcycles now boast a new LED headlamp with integrated LED Daytime Running Lamps, replacing the halogen turn indicators with modern LED units.

India’s position remained unchanged at 42 at the International IP Index 2024 compared to 2023, with no change even on the index score which stood at 38.64% since 2022, the US Chamber of Commerce said in a report released on Wednesday. The index ranks 55 countries on their intellectual property (IP) regime. The top countries on the index were the USA (95.48%), UK (94.12%), France (93.12%), Germany (92.46%), Sweden (92.12%), Japan (91.26%), Netherlands (91.24%), Ireland (89.38%), Spain (86.44%) and Switzerland (85.98%).

Mahesh Patil, CIO, ABSL AMC, talking to ET Now at the sidelines of ABSL Voyage 2024, says “the theme of our event is Dominant Bharat. If you really believe that Bharat is going to be the third largest economy in the next seven years, and the GDP is going to grow at 7% plus, then you will see a lot of opportunities emerging. Corporate India growth has been very strong in the last two years and will continue to grow at a double digit rate. If that is the case, then while markets might consolidate a bit in the near term because of the huge outperformance, you will still make the long-term returns the markets have given.” 30 years of wealth management, 30 years of superlative CAGR returns. They say good news and good prices rarely come together. Right now, the news is great. But when the news is great, prices are bad. What is the way forward? What should be the message from Birla AMC? And what should be the takeaway for them? Mahesh Patil: Yes, good morning and welcome to this voyage event. I think we have been through this occasion and we have been trying to put forward our views. Okay, every time we come, okay, and talk over here, we are always worried. The market has reached a peak now. That is a common question which is there. But you are right, Last one year has been unprecedented. The kind of returns that we have seen and the market has been climbing the wall of worry.

Wendy’s is planning to roll out dynamic pricing for its fast-food offerings starting as early as next year.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin price is showing signs of a significant uptrend, currently trading around the $57,200 mark with a notable increase of over 1.25%. This surge comes at a pivotal moment, as industry insiders and investors closely monitor Bitcoin price predictions, especially with the upcoming halving event poised to potentially reshape the market landscape.

Polygon-backed Humanity Protocol has secured strategic investments from over 20 crypto venture capital firms for its privacy-centric Web3 identity solution. Hashed, CMCC, Cypher Capital, Foresight Ventures, and Mechanism Capital are among the few crypto VCs that invested in Humanity Protocol, as per a press release shared with CryptoNews.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said on Tuesday that it hired two crypto industry executives to aid in digital asset reporting, compliance, and enforcement programs.

Russian allies are “interested” in using CBDCs like the digital ruble for cross-border settlements, a lawmaker said on February 26.

Naveen Patnaik, and attend other functions related to the ‘Jaga Mission’ (scheme for development of slums), the ‘Mukta’ scheme (localised employment opportunities for the urban poor) and ‘Mission Shakti’, officials said. Since 2017, Odisha government’s Department of Agriculture and Farmer Empowerment and the Fisheries and Animal Resource Department have collaborated with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for innovation in data-driven decision-making, they said.