Digital Financial News

Arriving at a decision was difficult in the backdrop of a year which has been fraught with challenges for the venture capital industry as valuations and fundraising saw a major hit. Exits became scarce and the IPO market dried up.

OfBusiness was voted as The Economic Times Startup of the Year 2023 surging ahead of competition on the back of strong revenue backed by handsome profits. The eight-year-old venture was feted for its value proposition and focus on SMEs, which are regarded as the backbone of India’s fast-growing economy. The eleven-member jury chose the B2B venture, which is currently valued at about nearly $5 billion, over eyewear retailer Lenskart in a closely fought contest that included detailed discussions on the relative merits of both companies.

ET Startup Awards (ETSA) have stood out amid a crowded ecosystem and have gone on to become successful businesses. We look at a few of them from previous editions of the awards.Atomberg Technologies – Best on Campus (2019)

ZopSmart emerged as the hands-down winners of the Comeback Kid category at ETSA 2023. Hailing the team of Mukesh Singh, Raj Pandey and Vikash Kumar as role models for their sheer hard work, grit and perseverance, the star-studded jury unanimously voted for ZopSmart’s founders in the secret ballot on Tuesday.

The new leader of state securities regulators said states have an important role to play in protecting investors from the potential dangers of digital assets.

Westpac CEO Peter King and Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh met Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday evening to ask the federal government to implement a new policy the banks are calling the “regulatory grid”.

The move to expand the programme follows an earlier pilot in 2022 conducted by EY and a subsequent 'Discovery Phase' held in consultation with market participants, including Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, Santander and Visa. It follows a recent PoC run by the Federal Reserve with a clutch of top banks that demonstrated the feasibility of an interoperable network for wholesale payments operating on a shared multi-entity distributed ledger. While the UK Discovery Phase explored the delivery of a RLN for wholesale paymnts, the PoC will track the retail consumer market. This would test the use case for a RLN that would provide commercial bank money with the equivalent programmability of a future digital pound, in this way ensuring competitive consistency in the event of a full scale CBDC roll out. The importance of this was emphasised in a speech given in July by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, who stated: "We want to encourage more thinking and action in the world of enhanced digital bank deposits - sometimes call tokenised deposits.

SBI Remit, part of Asian fintech powerhouse SBI, has been tapping Ripple for its international money transfer service since 2017.In 2021 it began using XRP as a bridge between two fiat currencies to perform cross border remittances from Japan to a digital wallet in the Philippines. From this month, the effort will be expanded to bank accounts in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

ANZ, National Australia Bank and Westpac have joined Commonwealth Bank’s calls for global digital platforms to be regulated as payment service providers, pushing back on recent arguments by Apple and Google that they’re merely peripheral players.

NEW DELHI : Real estate assets hidden abroad may come under scrutiny after a global framework of real-time data sharing by national authorities takes effect, marking the next frontier in governments’ efforts to combat tax evasion and money laundering. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) report to the leaders of G20 nations at the New Delhi summit has made proposals with far-reaching implications for tax compliance related to overseas property holdings.

NEW DELHI : India will introduce an import management system to permit the import of laptops, servers and other IT hardware products from trusted jurisdictions, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of electronics and IT, said. Imports from non-trusted jurisdictions—read China—will be limited to a certain number of units. The framework, expected to be put in place this month, aims to exit the ‘non-sustainable’ model of relying on imports, the minister said in an interview.

Amidst the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for August, the Bitcoin price prediction landscape is under scrutiny, prompting a critical question: Is it opportune to consider buying the dip? 

Digital payment services provider Paytm on Wednesday said its shareholders have approved the appointment of a new statutory auditor, S.R. Batliboi & Associates LLP, for five years. S.R. Batliboi & Associates LLP has been approved as the new statutory auditor of Paytm for five years in the 23rd annual general meeting held on September 12, Paytm said in an exchange filing.

In a world of fast-fashion, the next generation of designers wants to slow down. Fresh out of the world’s top design schools, they’re employing time-intensive techniques that reflect the value of natural resources and honor their cultural traditions. Some of their methods are high-tech; others hark back to ancestral handicraft.

NEW DELHI : The union cabinet on Wednesday cleared the third phase of the eCourts project with an outlay of ₹7,210 crore and allocated ₹1,650 crore for providing 7.5 million additional free cooking gas connections. In another meeting the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared a proposal for foreign direct investment of up to ₹9,589 crore by Cyprus-based Berhyanda Ltd in Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

NEW DELHI : JSW Infrastructure Ltd, the Sajjan-Jindal-led port business, has received the approval to launch its ₹2,800 crore initial public offering (IPO) and is likely to finalize the launch by the end of this month, a person close to the matter told Mint. The port business of the $23 billion group had earlier in the year filed draft papers for a ₹2,800 crore IPO with an aim to retire the debt and furthermore fund the capacity expansion plans of the company. The entire IPO consists of a fresh issue of equity shares and there will be no dilution of the promoter’s existing equity. As of 31 December 2022, the company’s debt stood at ₹2,875 crore.

Skill India Digital, a digital public infrastructure (DPI), that will bring together all government initiatives related to skilling, education, employment and entrepreneurship in the country on one platform. “The state-of-the- art platform will be a breakthrough in accelerating skilled talent hiring, facilitating lifelong learning and career advancement,” the ministry said in a statement. “It is also a comprehensive information gateway for all government skilling and entrepreneurship initiatives and aligns perfectly with the vision articulated in the G20 framework for building DPI and the digital economy to promote digital skills and digital literacy,” MSDE added. “MSDE has created an open-source platform to address the skilling needs of India’s diverse demography. Skill India Digital is one more step towards harnessing our demographic dividend and establishing India as a global skills hub,” Dharmendra Pradhan, minister for skills development and entrepreneurship, said. According to MSDE, the Skill India Digital aims to remove existing obstacles by offering an easy-to-use interface which is adaptable to various devices. “It will ensure that eople from diverse backgrounds can access the platform effortlessly, regardless of the technology as it will support multiple Indian Languages,” it added. As per the statement, one of the key strengths of Skill India Digital is its comprehensive approach to training and skill development.

The National 4-H Council is growing in a new direction – online – by launching its e-learning platform Clover with a collaboration with Netflix and its new movie “Spy Kids: Armageddon.”

French regulators have ordered Apple to stop selling the iPhone 12, saying it emits electromagnetic radiation levels that are above European Union standards for exposure

Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that integrating advanced technology will make our judicial system more accessible and transparent. «With the Cabinet approval of eCourts Project Phase III, we are ushering in a new era of justice delivery in India. Integrating advanced technology will make our judicial system more accessible and transparent,» PM Modi posted on X (Formerly Twitter). Earlier today, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in its weekly meeting approved the eCourts Project Phase III. The project will have a financial outlay of Rs 7,210 crore.

Wipro on Wednesday announced the launch of its cyber defence centre (CDC) in Dusseldorf, Germany. Wipro’s CDCs globally provide localised support and fulfil customers’ cybersecurity and compliance requirements. This addition takes the number of such Wipro centres globally to 17.