⚡️Google continues its legal battles, India to escape a recession?

🤩 The Good

Cabinet approves a ₹2,600 crore incentive scheme for RuPay and BHIM-UPI. Under the scheme, banks will be provided financial incentives to promote transactions using RuPay debit cards and BHIM-UPI to merchants. This is an attempt by the government to address concerns by banks about the financial viability of UPI. Currently, UPI charges are nil for users and merchants, which means banks are unable to charge for the transactions.

WazirX’s profits grew ~6.4x to ₹53.2 crore in FY22 from ₹8.36 crore in FY21. The Indian crypto exchange’s revenue jumped to ₹823 crore from ₹112.5 crore in the same period. The company claims to have 15M+ users. These numbers, however, are prior to WazirX facing an Enforcement Directorate probe and India imposing a 30% crypto tax which led to a drop in crypto trading volume.

👿 The Bad

Tata Neu sees sales of ~$4B in its debut year, below an $8B target. The ambitious super app is expected to meet only 50% of its sales target till March 31. According to sources, the company is overhauling its digital strategy to be able to scale up profitably. The app, modelled on the lines of China’s Alipay and WeChat, faced glitches and complaints soon after launching.

UpGrad's CEO Arjun Mohan quits the edtech startup. Mohan resigned in December after being at the helm for almost three years. The reasons for the departure aren’t clear and it is coming as the Indian edtech sector struggles to grow. A source claimed that the company has been trying to cut costs and become profitable. upGrad raised $225M at a $2.25B valuation in June 2022.

Google tells the Supreme Court that the CCI’s antitrust order will slow Android’s growth in India. While challenging the ~$162M fine levied by the Competition Commission of India, Google warned that advancement for device manufacturers, app developers, and users “is at the verge of coming to a halt.” The company told the Supreme Court that the CCI’s order will require “far-reaching changes” to the Android ecosystem which has been in place for 14-15 years. Android powers 97% of smartphones in India.

🤔 Wait-and-Watch

World Bank warns the global economy will come “perilously close” to a recession in 2023, but projects India to grow at 6.9%. Global growth this year is expected to slow to 1.7% from 3% estimated six months ago, according to the World Bank. Economic growth in India is projected to drop from 8.7% in FY22 to 6.9% in FY23 and further to 6.6% in FY24. India is expected to be the fastest growing economy among the seven largest emerging market and developing economies, which includes Brazil, China, Russia, and others (p. 4).

Ashneer Grover promises a Mercedes to staff who complete five years at his new startup. BharatPe’s founder, whose exit was marred by controversy, announced a teaser for his current startup called Third Unicorn. While the company’s product/service isn’t publicly known, Ashneer claimed to be targeting a revenue of $1B while remaining bootstrapped. BharatPe had made the news in 2021 for providing BMW bikes for new tech and product hires.

The NCLAT refuses to grant Google interim relief in its second CCI case. In addition to the Android case, the CCI had imposed a fine of ₹936.44 crore on Google for abuse of dominant position with its Play Store policies. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal refused to stay the penalty but admitted the appeal provided Google deposits 10% of the fine. The next hearing has been fixed for April 17.

🌎 International

Nothing major happening around the world today!

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