Business Today 28 April 2024

November 8, 2016. The day the Narendra Modi government announced the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes would be one India’s erstwhile fintech poster boy Vijay Shekhar Sharma, 46, would not forget in a hurry. That move bolstered the digital payments business of Paytm, Sharma’s fintech brand, like no other and the company, backed by SoftBank and Alibaba, went on a growth and expansion spree. But a few years later, as Paytm went beyond payments into financial services and marketing (commerce and cloud) riding on the massive customer base he was acquiring, One 97 Communications Ltd (OCL), the company that owns Paytm, began running into problems. The first big hit was when OCL was listed in November 2021, and the stock, which had an IPO price of ₹2,150, tanked the…

A view of Mundra Port, India’s largest container dock SOURCE: CMIE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, PIB, REPORTS, INDIAN PORTS ASSOCIATION 140 MILLION TONNES Rise in cargo traffic in the past three years. In FY24, till February, cargo traffic rose to 744.7 million tonnes 16 SPOTS Improvement in India’s ranking (38) on the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, among 139 countries 67.1 MILLION TONNES Of cargo was moved via major ports in the country in February 2024, compared to 65.5 million tonnes a year ago…

INDIA IS SEEING A RISE IN CYBERCRIMES AND THE GOVERNMENT IS FOCUSSED ON FIGHTING THIS THREAT. THERE HAS BEEN A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR CYBERSECURITY IN THE INTERIM BUDGET 2024, WITH THE FIGURE TOUCHING ₹999 CRORE—NEARLY FIVE TIMES THE BUDGET ALLOCATION (ACTUAL) IN FY23. AND THERE’S GOOD REASON FOR IT. ACCORDING TO RECENT FIGURES RELEASED BY THE HOME MINISTRY, INDIANS INCURRED LOSSES TOTALLING ₹7,500 CRORE DUE TO CYBER FRAUDS IN 2023. PWC’S 27TH ANNUAL GLOBAL CEO SURVEY ALSO RANKED CYBER THREATS AS THE SECOND MOST SERIOUS RISK IN THE COUNTRY, BEHIND INFLATION. HERE’S AN OVERVIEW OF INDIA’S CYBERSECURITY LANDSCAPE: SPAM AND SCAM CYBER FRAUDS COST MAHARASHTRA MORE THAN ₹990 CRORE IN 2023, WITH THE STATE REPORTING THE SECOND-HIGHEST NUMBER OF CASES AFTER UTTAR PRADESH SOURCE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS…

MADHABI PURI BUCH, the first woman chief of India’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), is not known for pulling punches. If proof was needed of that trait, there was her speech at the CII Corporate Governance Summit on April 2. “There was a time when we, as Indians, used to sit in the last row of global forums. Today we sit centre stage… People turn to India and ask us for guidance and advice. We sit there as panellists in discussions. We are not in the last row. We are sitting in centre stage, receiving awards and giving guidance to the rest of the world on how we have implemented cutting-edge technology.” That statement came less than a fortnight after Sebi approved the T+0…

SIX YEARS AFTER the electoral bonds scheme was launched as a mechanism to cleanse the system of political funding, the Supreme Court held it as unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary, mandating the disclosure of all details of bond purchases and their redemptions by political parties. In the process, this has brought donations by corporate houses to political parties out in the open. An analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-profit organisation, which was also one of the petitioners in the case, revealed that out of the total 18,871 bonds worth ₹12,155.51 crore purchased between April 12, 2019, and February 15, 2024, 16,631 were bought by corporate and business houses and 2,240 bonds by individuals. In all, corporate and business houses purchased electoral bonds worth ₹11,780.0297 crore or 96.91%…

THE RESERVE BANK of India (RBI), in its maiden Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of financial year 2024-25, kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% as it sought to maintain its focus on strengthening the economy. This is the seventh consecutive policy meeting where it has chosen to keep the policy repo rate unchanged. That’s because it is treading cautiously since retail inflation has remained above its 4% target, though it was well within the 2% margin at 5.09% in February. Besides, it is also keeping an eye out on the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Inflation was the ‘elephant in the room’ two years ago, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said at the post-policy press conference on April 5. “The elephant has now gone out for a walk and…