Platform Financial News

Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab are prohibiting clients from investing in money-market ETFs on their trading platforms, an unusual move for the financial powerhouses who typically permit easy access to funds that already trade on an exchange. The two firms are blocking purchases of three exchange-traded funds offered by BlackRock and Texas Capital, the first to track money-market securities such as Treasury bills and other government-backed debt in an ETF structure. The new funds serve as a direct challenge to mutual-fund providers, who have long been big, established players in money-market products. Fidelity and Schwab alone manage trillions of dollars in money-market assets, and this month, Schwab filed plans to launch its own government money-market ETF.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced access to the Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching (NDS-OM) platform for non-bank brokers with an aim to boost retail participation in the trading of government securities during its February monetary policy.

Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he was inadvertently included in a Signal messaging group wherein discussion of US military strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels was underway. The messages, Goldberg said, were exchanged between top officials of the Trump administration and outlined the plans for March 15 attacks. Goldberg detailed the incident in an article titled The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans. In the report, published on Monday, he disclosed that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz invited him to join a Signal group named Houthi PC small group on March 13—just two days before the strikes took place. As per the report in The Atlantic, initially skeptical, Goldberg suspected that the group was part of a disinformation campaign. He stated that he had strong doubts about the legitimacy of the texts in the group because he could not believe that national security leadership of the US would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. However, the journalist was soon convinced of its authenticity. He saw real-time discussions involving senior officials of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Finance Ministry has launched a revamped e-auction portal named 'BAANKNET' to further streamline the listing and auctioning of banks' assets, Parliament was informed on Monday. The revamped e-auction portal was launched on January 3, 2025, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. The platform 'e-BKray' was launched in February 2019, he said. The BAANKNET portal is specifically designed to enhance transparency and speed up the process of disposing of non-performing asset (NPA) cases, he added.

Quick commerce platform Swiggy Instamart on Monday said it will now deliver smartphones in 10 major cities. According to the platform, these cities include Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Faridabad, Noida, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Pune, with plans to expand to more cities. The smartphone brands available include the iPhone 16e, Samsung M35, OnePlus Nord CE, and Redmi 14C. Quick commerce platforms have been continuously expanding their offerings by partnering with brands and introducing products that were previously sold on ecommerce platforms. Rivals Zomato-owned Blinkit and Zepto are also offering electronics and phones, in addition to items such as fashion, accessories, beauty, and personal care products.

DEX+ allows users to trade directly on decentralised exchanges (DEXs) through the MEXC app and website, offering access to a wide range of on-chain assets. The initial version of DEX+ will support the Solana ecosystem, enabling users to trade over 10,000 tokens available on Raydium and pump.fun, with future expansion to additional DEXs and blockchain networks, with support for the BSC chain launching on March 26, allowing users to trade trending assets on BSC soon.

Sunil Gupta, Co-Founder, Managing Director & CEO, Yotta Data Services

Registering for GST as a freelancer or small business owner seems simple on paper. A quick look at the mandatory requirements on the official website shows that you need just two documents–your picture and proof of the residence where you will conduct your business, like an electricity bill or a rent agreement.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The World Development Report 2024 by the World Bank highlights a critical issue: emerging economies like India risk being caught in the ‘middle-income trap’, where stagnant productivity and an inability to harness innovation hinder their transition to high-income status.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The battle for India’s most rewarding credit card is heating up. As premium customers chase higher returns on travel and shopping, banks are stepping up with exclusive reward platforms.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. There are five pillars of the creator economy. So far in this book, we have been talking from the point of view of the creator, but the remaining four pillars govern how the creator interacts with the other parts of the ecosystem—of how the creator is making money, where the brands are coming in and how the ecosystem functions for the tech that is enabling all of this, with the audience never leaving the centre stage.

Ola Electric's extensive store network and direct-to-home services. The S1 X Gen 3 is available in four variants, including the S1 X+ (4kWh) and S1 X (4kWh, 3kWh, and 2kWh). Compared to Gen 2, the Gen 3 platform delivers 20% more peak power, an 11% cost reduction, and a 20% increase in range, the company added.

AI models that would cut costs by 20%, according to people familiar with the matter. Ant used domestic chips, including from affiliate Alibaba and Huawei Technologies, to train models using the so-called Mixture of Experts machine learning approach, the people said. It got results similar to those from Nvidia Corp. chips like the H800, they said, asking not to be named as the information isn’t public. Ant is still using Nvidia for AI development but is now relying mostly on alternatives including from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Chinese chips for its latest models, one of the people said. The models mark Ant’s entry into a race between Chinese and US companies that’s accelerated since DeepSeek demonstrated how capable models can be trained for far less than the billions invested by OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. It underscores how Chinese companies are trying to use local alternatives to the most advanced Nvidia semiconductors. While not the most advanced, the H800 is a relatively powerful processor and currently barred by the US from China.

That's the promise, misleading for some, of "vibe coding," the latest Silicon Valley catchphrase for an advance in generative AI that some say makes computer programming as simple as chatting online. «You fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists,» OpenAI cofounder and former Tesla employee Andrej Karpathy described in early February, in a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), using the term for the first time.

peer-to-peer lending industry has slumped to a major slowdown with most of the large players in this space staring at an uncertain future, after the Reserve Bank of India came down heavily on the sector last year for not properly abiding by regulatory guidelines. The P2P sector’s assets under management (AUM) have shrunk to less than Rs 3,000 crore from around Rs 10,000 crore a year back, according to two founders of P2P lending startups, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There are hardly any new loans that are being done by the platforms; most of the large platforms have stopped onboarding so business is staring at a major uncertainty,” said one of the founders.

Amazon India will eliminate referral fees on over 12 million products priced below Rs 300 from April 7, in its largest seller fee reduction till date, to support small businesses selling on the platform. The fee waiver will apply across more than 135 product categories including apparel, shoes, jewellery, grocery, home décor, beauty, toys, and kitchen products. Currently, referral fees – a commission sellers pay Amazon on each sale – range from 2% to 16% in these categories. The Indian arm of the ecommerce major also announced a reduction in national shipping rates for sellers using external fulfilment channels like Easy Ship and Seller Flex to Rs 65 from Rs 77. It will also cut weight handling fees for items under 1 kg by up to Rs 17.

Sunil Gavaskar brushed off speculations regarding Indian legend MS Dhoni's retirement from the Indian Premier League (IPL), and said every time people raise this question, the former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain proves them wrong. Lauding Dhoni, he said age is just a number for him, and he still has the ability to hit the ball into the stands «Why should we even ask that question? Why put pressure on him? Every time people question MS Dhoni, he proves them wrong. Don't doubt his ability. Even at this age, he's hitting sixes not just past the boundary but into the stands during practice. Age is just a number when it comes to Dhoni,» Gavaskar, who is a Jio Star expert said on Jio Hotstar. The former India captain also spoke about the attacking mindset displayed by batters in the IPL he said they understand how to catch the powerplay when only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle. He also talked about batters' mindstep of scoring 10-12 runs per over which gives their team a strong platform for 180-200 runs. «Batters are getting more adventurous and aggressive. They understand that the powerplay--where only two fielders are outside the inner circle--must be capitalized on. You have to aim for 10-12 runs per over and reach around 60-75 runs in the first six overs, even if you lose just one wicket. That creates a strong platform to push towards 180-200 runs.» he added.

Delhi Legislative Assembly will commence on Monday, at 11:00 AM, and the first budget of the newly elected Delhi government will be presented a day later. Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta said that the session will commence tomorrow in the Assembly Hall, Old Secretariat in the national capital. «Tomorrow is the first day of the Budget Session. The budget will be presented on March 25. The CAG report will also be tabled during the budget session,» Vijender Gupta told media here on Sunday. The Budget Session is a crucial period in the legislative calendar, during which key financial and policy matters will be discussed and decided upon. The session is tentatively scheduled to run from March 24 to March 28, 2025, with provisions for extension if required. Notably, in the Budget session, the CAG report on the functioning of DTC will be tabled in the House, the Delhi Assembly Secretariat said in a statement. This would be third CAG report which will be tabled on Monday in the House

freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev on Sunday, remembering their supreme sacrifice for India's freedom. PM Modi took to social media platform X and said their «fearless pursuit of freedom and justice» continues to inspire everyone. «Today, our nation remembers the supreme sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev. Their fearless pursuit of freedom and justice continues to inspire us all,» the Prime Minister wrote, reflecting on their significant contributions to India's independence movement. Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi also paid tributes to the three martyrs on, remembering their contributions to India's fight for freedom. «On the martyrdom day of Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru, I pay my humble tribute to them,» he posted on X.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For startup employees wanting to rant about their bosses or run a digital reconnaissance on a company before joining it, Grapevine has been a go-to platform for the past few years, allowing it to amass a significant number of users. Now, Grapevine and other similar platforms just a few years in existence are nursing grander ambitions—to transform into a LinkedIn for startups.