Business Today 29 January 2017

Two years can make all the difference. If start-ups – especially those with Internet business models – were riding the crest of the roller coaster till early 2015, they are now nearing the trough in early 2017. During the heady days of 2014 and early 2015, many start-ups had got accustomed to raising money from venture capital (VC) funds at ever higher valuations. In turn, VCs hunted out start-ups beginning to gain traction and practically begged them to take more money. The easy funding environment had set off its own chain reaction. First, every start-up was expected to scale up exponentially in double quick time. It did not matter how much cash they were burning up or how much red ink they were accumulating on their balance sheets. What mattered…

For a Better India This refers to your 25th Annivesary Issue of Business Today (Jan 15). It was a compendium of smart ideas, smarter concepts and smartest presentations of grand strategies and pragmatic solutions for a better India. The editorial sheds light on contemporary economic history, weak economic growth of India in the past, scope for sustaining high growth rates in future and challenges emerging from technological disruptions. The successful industry captains have placed their unequivocal views based on their personal experience. The entire exercise was highly commendable. Indian policy-framers must extrude an inclusive plan to take the nation forward. Even Niccolo Machiavelli has ruled that nothing can be more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order…

570 croregross earnings for Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal. The film in its second week is closing in on Salman Khan’s Sultan, which grossed 584.15 crore since its release last July. In the domestic box office Dangal earned `410 crore and `158.7 crore from international theatres, according to indiatoday.in $61.44bn, or about 4 lakh crore, was the worth of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in India in 2016. According to a News CorpVCC Edge report, the deal value is not only at a five-year high, but is 159 per cent more than the $23.71 billion witnessed in 2015 GST DELAYED The rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) is likely to be delayed by at least two months. The government will, however, be well within the mandatory deadline of September 2017…

13 AS ONE WOMAN WHAT: BIMSTEC-SAARC Women Economic Forum WHEN: January 13, New Delhi WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The Ministry of External Affairs and Assocham conference will address women’s issues through training, information and participation in decision-making and advocacy, and debate gender inequality in South Asia, despite the changing social norms 18 SAFETY NET WHAT: Securing the Cashless Economy WHEN: January 18, New Delhi WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The Assocham event will debate whether India is ready with a full-proof infrastructure and adequate measures for cyber security as the government’s demonetisation initiative is expected to speed up deployment of digital services and enable transition towards a cashless economy 20 A NEW DAWN WHAT: Renewable Energy Summit WHEN: January 20, New Delhi WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The conference organised by CII…

$ 359.7 BILLION FOREX RESERVES WERE AT ITS LOWEST LEVELS SINCE APRIL 2016 IN THE WEEK-ENDED DECEMBER 23, 2016 TAKING A HIT WHEAT STOCKS held by Food Corporation touched a 5-year low in 2016, a consequence of two successive droughts SLIDING AGRI EXPORTS The year also saw AGRI EXPORTS falling to a five-year low because of rupee’s comparative strength and collapse in agri prices globally BETTING ON FUNDS MUTUAL FUNDS found favour with investors. Assets under management touched an all time high of `16.5 trillion A BEEHIVE The IPO market was abuzz with activity LOSING MOMENTUM The benchmark SENSEX saw rangebound trade A MIXED BAG M&As declined in volumes - but not value - after three years of growth LOSING GROUND Strengthening dollar, capital outflows and demonetisation weakened RUPEE in…

India recently amended its tax treaty with Singapore – the third such amendment this year after introducing changes to the treaties with Mauritius and Cyprus – to plug a loophole that was being used to funnel unaccounted money into the country in the form of foreign direct investments (FDI). While the government has hailed the move as another milestone in the fight against black money, it could impact the quantum of FDI flowing into India in the short term. A major chunk of investments routed through these destinations were often not genuine FDI, but round-tripping of funds. Therefore, going ahead, FDI data may not look as impressive as it is now. However, future data would reflect genuine investments. The amended treaties seek to tax any capital gains from sale of…