⚡️UPI goes international, Samsung accused of tax evasion

🤩 The Good

NPCI enables UPI transactions for international mobile numbers in ten countries. The National Payment Corporation of India has enabled UPI transactions for NRIs who hold bank accounts in India and use international numbers. This is available in Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the UK. Paytm, Google Pay, and other UPI participants implement mechanisms for the same by April 30.

Infosys’ Q3 net profit grew 13.4% YoY to ₹6,586 crore from ₹5,809 crore. Consolidated revenue increased 20.2% to ₹38,318 crore from ₹31,867 crore in the same period last year, beating estimates of ₹37,613 crore.

PVR-INOX merger gets regulatory approval. The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal approved a merger between the top two multiplex chains, PVR Limited and INOX Leisure. PVR-INOX, the merged enterprise, will become India's largest film exhibition company, operating 1,546 screens at over 341 facilities in 109 cities. The merger will be completed by the end of this financial year.

👿 The Bad

Advertising Standards Council of India highlights dramatization of education, gender imbalance, and other issues with edtech ads. In its EdNext report, the ASCI flagged several concerns with ads shown by edtech companies, including making misleading claims and placing excessive emphasis on marks. The analysis also found that 37% of ads featured boys and only 20% depicted girls. None of the ads used endorsers or role models from academia. ASCI proposed creating a framework to address such issues.

Alibaba sells a 3.1% stake in Paytm for $125M, as per a source. Alibaba sold the shares for ₹535.95 apiece. The Chinese group held a 6.26% stake in Paytm as of September-end. The fintech company’s stock price fell ~9%, the biggest drop since November 2022. Last year, Softbank sold a 4.5% stake for $200M at ₹555.67 per share.

🤔 Wait-and-Watch

Samsung is accused of evading taxes worth $212M. A show cause notice issued by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has accused Samsung India of skirting customs duty by misclassifying devices called remote radio heads to obtain an undue tax exemption. Samsung said it was reviewing the notice and exploring a legal opinion.

JioGames inks a 10-year partnership with French firm Gamestream for cloud gaming. The French company, which offers clients white-labeling cloud gaming solutions, will work with Jio to make an "ambitious" play at reaching India's 1.4 billion people. The partnership will help Jio scale its cloud gaming platform, JioGamesCloud, which is currently available to users in beta.

Amazon is summoned by the Pune Labour Commissioner over a complaint about India layoffs. In November 2022, the company announced a Voluntary Separation Program to reduce headcount, offering 22 weeks of base pay and other perks to staff who took up the offer. An NGO working for the welfare of Indian IT employees complained that the program was illegal. The Pune Labour Commissioner has called for a meeting on January 17.

The CCI wants Google to remove pre-installed apps, remove search exclusivity, allow third-party app stores, and more. The Competition Commission of India fined Google ₹936.44 crores and ₹1338 crores in October 2022 for anticompetitive practices. The antitrust authority wants Google to change several aspects of how it runs Android and Play Store. This includes: not compelling device manufacturers to pre-install Google apps like YouTube and Chrome; letting users pick a search engine when setting up their phone for the first time; allowing third-party app stores on Play Store; letting users delete pre-installed apps like Maps and Gmail; and more.

🌎 International

The best place to work in 2023 is San Francisco-based Gainsight followed by Box and Bain, as per Glassdoor. The recruiting platform released its annual list of top places to work in the US. Customer experience-focused software company, Gainsight, topped the list. Box, Bain and Company, McKinsey and Company, and Nvidia rounded off the top 5. Tech giants such as Meta (47 in 2022), Apple (56 in 2022), and Zoom (100 in 2022) did not make the top 100 this year.

Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest man, appoints his daughter Delphine Arnault as the head of Dior. The promotion was made as a part of a reshuffle at LVMH. The billionaire’s other children also hold management positions in the group, which includes luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Bulgari, and Tag Heuer.

Apple might be making touchscreen MacBooks. According to sources, Apple is working on adding touchscreens to its MacBooks, with a potential launch in 2025 as a part of the new MacBook Pro lineup. The company has long maintained an orthodox stance towards touchscreens, with Steve Jobs calling it “ergonomically terrible.”

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