Start-Ups

Alibaba shares slumped 9 per cent to their lowest since June on Monday, as the firm's upsized $10-billion buyback programme failed to ease concerns about a regulatory crackdown on co-founder Jack Ma's e-commerce and financial empire. A sharp selloff over two sessions has knocked almost $116 billion off the tech giant's Hong Kong-listed shares. The downward spiral intensified when Chinese regulators...

China's central bank disclosed on Sunday it had asked the country's payments giant Ant Group to shake up its lending and other consumer finance operations, the latest blow to its billionaire founder and controlling shareholder Jack Ma. The announcement came more than a month after Chinese regulators abruptly suspended Ant's blockbuster $37 billion initial public offering in Shanghai and...

Jack Ma-led Alibaba Group is being investigated under the anti-monopoly law, a measure seen as an effort by ruling Communist Party to control fast-growing tech industries. “China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has started investigation on Alibaba Group for alleged monopoly conduct including implementing an ‘exclusive dealing agreement',” according to Xinhua. The announcement shook several investors who dumped shares of...

Linking the grant of additional borrowing permissions by the Government of India (GoI) to the States, to reforms in various citizen-centric sectors has motivated the states to undertake reforms to promote Ease of Doing Business, according to the Ministry of Finance. Five states have so far completed the stipulated reforms in the Ease of Doing Business. These states have been...

Startups and venture capital are pouring into what might seem an unlikely place: India's vast, outdated agriculture industry. Seizing on controversial new deregulation, entrepreneurs are selling farmers apps to connect them to big buyers nationwide and using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the rickety supply chains that lose one-fourth of India's produce to wastage. Enormous amounts of India's grain,...

The partnership to provide more transparency, reliability and assurance to import and export shipments Mumbai:  To bring more transparency and reliability in import and export shipments, India’s leading digital forwarding startup Freightwalla has partnered with Maersk to offer spot rates on its platform. Inaccuracy and un-reliability were the two significant challenges that are being solved by Freightwalla while providing end-to-end supply...

Manish Mehra, owner of Washex Hospitality, an industrial laundry service, recently flew from Delhi to Jodhpur to win a contract to service a large, government-run hospital - a move essential to kickstarting his business. "For a new relationship, it is essential to know each other before you can establish the trust and confidence to work online and that need is...

Online grocery startup BigBasket is in advanced talks to sell a majority stake for about $1 billion to salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, the Economic Times reportedon Wednesday, citing three sources familiar with the matter. The century-old group has been planning to launch a "super app", one that will tie in all its consumer businesses, several media reports have said, as...

Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, lost almost $7 billion from his net worth as Reliance Industries Ltd.'s shares tumbled the most in over seven months following a drop in quarterly profit. The stock of India's most-valuable company closed 8.6% lower in Mumbai on Monday, slipping the most since March 23. It was the day's worst performer on the benchmark S&P...

Industry body PHDCCI expects India's GDP to contract by 7.9 per cent in the current financial year and grow by 7.7 per cent in 2021-22, assessing that the worst is over and the economy is on the verge of a slow recovery. The chamber, however, stated that unemployment remains a key challenge to be addressed by the government. The PHDCCI drew...