A virus has upended the world as we know it. It has emptied out entire cities. It has cleared out schools and shopping places. It has transformed the way we live and work. Now, will it change what we have always believed is the unchangeable feature of Indian democracy: how its Parliament, the supreme law-making […]

SoftBank Vision Fund has picked up an additional stake for $130 million in EtechAces Marketing and Consulting, which owns online financial services portals PolicyBazaar and Paisabazaar, according to three sources familiar with the development. The new investment will give it an over 15% stake in the company and value it at about $1.5 billion, according […]

Global investment bank Goldman Sachs has bought out key angel investors in JSW Ventures-backed Purplle, a beauty products e-tailer, in a Rs 60-crore transaction that closed recently. The secondary transaction, which values the company at Rs 1,100 crore, also includes a small component of ESOPs offloaded by a clutch of ex-employees, sources close to the […]

Following the salary cuts which have been implemented across functions and putting some employees on a leave with limited benefits plan, SoftBank backed Oyo Hotels & Homes has sent off a letter to employees stating they have decided to make every employee a co-owner and shareholder of the company by granting them ‘deeply discounted ESOPS.’ […]

The government aims to provide nearly 500,000 fibre-to-home (broadband) connections by September, a top executive told ET. The Ministry of Electronics and IT’s rural network of 400,000 Common Service Centres has rolled out the facility after the Department of Telecommunications entrusted it to take the ambitious BharatNet fibre optic network to every last mile in […]

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has called a meeting of leading e-commerce companies on July 8 to take forward its discussion on getting the online platforms to display the ‘country of origin’ of goods that they sell. The discussion comes at a time when the government has clamped down on […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Even as India’s e-commerce sector is yet to fully recover its revenues post the lifting of the lockdown, a large number of consumers continue to prefer ordering online or through contactless deliveries from local stores, as the number of Covid-19 cases in India continues to rise. According to a survey by community […]

Over 250,000 fertiliser retailers will have to accept Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments at their distribution points soon. The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers’ (MoCF) directive comes amid the crucial Kharif cropping season and is aimed at promoting digital payments in the largely cash-dominated agricultural trade markets. The objective could also be to provide millions […]

Reliance Industries’ digital unit Jio Platforms has landed another strategic investor, weeks after the oil-to-telecom conglomerate had announced that its fundraising milestone from financial investors was achieved as it became debt-free. Meanwhile, Pine Labs is eyeing the Asian business of beleaguered German payments company Wirecard. Jio Platforms fundraisingThere is a saying among startup founders: You […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi On Monday evening, India banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, WeChat, UC Browser, Club Factory, Shareit and CamScanner citing threats to the country’s “sovereignty and security”. The ban was imposed under Section 69A of the IT Act amid rising tensions between India and China, following a military standoff in Ladakh. The government […]