Business

New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday urged the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to create an interface with the startup ecosystem. This will help them grow faster and encourage domestic capital into the startups, he said.

Goyal said this while attending the listing celebration of the 400th company in BSE SME platform in Mumbai.

With the listing of eight new companies in the exchange's SME platform, the BSE SME platform has achieved the milestone of 400 listed companies.

The minister also rang the ceremonious bell to mark the special occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Goyal said: "Indian investors are able to hold the Indian market strong. This has demonstrated the equity culture and that capacity of Indian investors to take risks has increased."

BSE could also offer technology services to the companies which could add lustre to the SME exchange, he added.

BSE Ltd had set up the BSE SME platform in March 2012 as per the rules and regulations laid down by SEBI.

It offers an entrepreneur and investor friendly environment, which enables listing of SMEs from the unorganised sector scattered throughout India, into a regulated and organised sector.

The listed SMEs step into the threshold of BSE SME Platform and foray in to the world of finance for further growth and development.

BSE SME assists small and medium enterprises in raising equity capital for their growth and expansion, which would help them turn into full-fledged companies.

In due course, this would enable such entities to migrate into the Main Board of BSE as per the existing rules and regulations.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday said that a bank loan rating by rating agencies not having lenders' names won't be considered for capital computation by banks.

Such loans will have to be treated by banks as unrated and they will assign risk weights to them.

In a circular issued to all banks on Monday, the RBI noted that disclosures relating to lenders' details are not available in a large number of Press Releases (PRs) issued by external credit assessment institutions (ECAIs) due to the absence of requisite consent by the borrowers to the ECAIs.

"It is, therefore, advised that a bank loan rating without the above disclosure by the ECAI shall not be eligible for being reckoned for capital computation by banks... They (banks) shall treat such exposures as unrated and assign applicable risk weights," the RBI said.

It cautioned that if the relevant information is not provided, then banks would have to assign risk weights to such unrated exposures.

This could further lead to lowering of provision for capital and underpricing of risks, the central bank cautioned further.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) MG Motor India and its consortium members on Monday launched the fourth edition of its Developer Programme and Grant (MGDP) to accelerate, mentor and incubate innovative Indian startups in the field of electric mobility, as the country aims to obtain 50 per cent of its installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.

Over the course of its previous three editions, the programme received entries from over 830 auto-tech startups. Out of these, around 180 startups including Koinearth, Electreefi, Voxomos, Redbot Technologies, and Mihup were identified, encouraged, and mentored by MG and its consortium members.

In the fourth edition, the carmaker has partnered with Invest India and Startup India as lead partners and Jiobp, Exicom, Fortum, CESL, Attero, MapmyIndia, and Bosch as the technology partners.

"MGDP Season 4 aims to facilitate a positive change in the industry by creating a space for EV innovators from across the country to collaborate and develop novel solutions. This is a platform that seeks to unite the best brains of the industry to come together and innovate ideas that have the potential to change the EV landscape," said Rajeev Chaba, President, and Managing Director of MG Motor India.

This year's MG Developer Programme will focus on areas such as charging infrastructure, fleet management, electric components, electric batteries, green energy solutions, EV battery life cycle management, connected car solutions, and Battery-as-a-service (BaaS).

"Furthermore, it will stimulate the development of innovative concepts in the Indian automotive industry, leading to further progression and growth. We look forward to uncovering some innovative solutions through this initiative," said Deepak Bagla, Managing Director and CEO of Invest India.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Oct 8 (IANS) Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that he finds it vaguely therapeutic to express himself on Twitter and the platform is a way to get his messages out to the public.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the world's richest man said: "I play the fool on Twitter and often shoot myself in the foot and cause myself all sorts of trouble."

"Aren't you entertained?" Musk replied with a roar of laughter when asked why a serious guy with serious ideas indulges in silly Twitter games that could also cost his followers dearly.

According to the report, he is a serial tweeter to his more than 108 million followers "who flouts convention, revels in outrageous outbursts, fights with regulators and staff, and taunts competitors".

"It is fair to say that Musk is obsessed with Twitter, so much so that he's been embroiled in an epic on/off buyout of the platform that has captivated Wall Street and the tech industry for months," the report said.

According to Musk, "Twitter is certainly an invitation to increase your pain level."

"I guess I must be a masochist".

Musk, however, said that "I'm not doing Twitter for the money. It's not like I'm trying to buy some yacht and I can't afford it".

"But I think it's important that people have a maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas and that it should be as trusted and transparent as possible," said the Tesla CEO.

A US judge in the Twitter-Elon Musk case has now put the trial on hold till October 28, as both the parties deliberate on how to close the $44 billion takeover deal.

The stay was granted over the protests of Twitter's lawyers.

Twitter has received a letter from Musk to go ahead with their original deal of $54.20 per share (or $44 billion).

In a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk's legal team has also asked the court to adjourn the trial and all other proceedings.

However, the deal still may not go through.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) The Finance Ministry on Friday invited expression of interest (EoI) for strategic disinvestment in IDBI Bank, a move which would allow sale of a joint stake of the government and LIC of up to 60 per cent in the bank.

As per the bid details issued by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), LIC will cut its stake in IDBI Bank to 19 per cent from 49.2 per cent, while the government will cut its share to 15 per cent from 45.5 per cent at present.

According to the conditions of the EoI, private sector banks, non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), foreign banks and even alternative investment funds registered by SEBI can bid for IDBI Bank.

The successful bidder has been mandated to scale down equity to 26 per cent in 15 years.

However, in the first five years starting from the date of acquisition, 40 per cent of equity capital would remain captive or locked, according to RBI guidelines.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) Almost 35 per cent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India are spending over 10 per cent of their revenue on technology (in comparison to global counterparts) and 26 per cent of SMBs are early adopters of new technologies, a Microsoft report said on Friday.

At least 27 per cent of SMBs are all or mostly cloud-based, a percentage that is expected to be global average in two-three years, according to the Microsoft's 'SMB Voice and Attitudes to Technology Study 2022' prepared by Analysys Mason.

SMBs are contributing approximately 30 per cent to India's GDP and providing employment to over 114 million people in the country.

"It is evident that linking technology investments and adoption with business strategies, as well as close collaboration with partners are crucial to deliver success for SMBs," said Samik Roy, Executive Director, Corporate Medium, and Small Business, Microsoft India.

Organisations, big or small, that are rooted in technology and committed to harnessing its full potential, will be able to stay ahead of the curve by becoming more agile, resilient, future-ready businesses," he added.

According to the report, SMBs in India look to technology to help them to grow their customer base (39 per cent) and improve customer retention (38 per cent).

SMBs in middle-income markets (27 per cent) are more concerned about cloud migration than their counterparts in high income markets (22 per cent).

"SMBs in India are the most likely to view competition intensity as a major obstacle (35 per cent)," the findings showed.

At least 25 per cent of SMBs surveyed in India prefer working with application developers/independent software vendor (ISVs).

SMBs in India (45 per cent) are most likely to want to improve environmental sustainability in comparison to SMBs across the markets, the report mentioned.

--IANS
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Seoul, Oct 7 (IANS) LG Electronics said on Friday that its preliminary third-quarter operating profit jumped around 25 per cent from a year earlier.

The tech company said its profit for the July-September period was predicted to come in at 746.6 billion won ($529 million), up 25.1 percent from 540.7 billion won from the year-ago period.

But LG's quarterly profit, in fact, declined on-year after taking into consideration a recall provision of 480 billion won for General Motors Co.'s Bolt electric vehicles during the year-ago quarter, reports Yonhap news agency.

Sales are estimated to have increased 14 percent to hit a record high of 20.9 trillion won, surpassing the 20 trillion won mark for the first time in the company's history, on the back of robust sales of high-end home appliances and electric vehicle (EV) components business.

The data for net income was not available.

Like many other electronics makers, continued macro economic woes paint a gloomy picture for LG's bottom line for the remaining year and into the next year.

Pandemic-driven pent-up demand for home appliances, including TVs, has lost steam and aggressive rate hikes in major economies to bring inflation under control significantly weakened consumer spending power.

High shipping costs amid supply chain disruptions are expected to continue hurting the company's performance.

For the three months to end-June, LG's home entertainment division logged an operating loss of 18.9 billion won, turning to losses for the first time in 28 quarters, as marketing costs rose and people spent less time at home.

LG's EV components business, however, is likely to turn to profit for the year for the first time since the company entered the market in 2013, on growing demand amid the gradual easing of the auto chip shortage and a subsequent rise in auto production.

The division logged 50 billion won in operating profit in the second quarter, turning a profit for the first time since 2013, except for the fourth quarter of 2015.

In the first half, LG secured 8 trillion won worth of new orders for EV parts and solutions, and the company expected its accumulated order backlog to top 65 trillion won by the end of the year, up 8 percent from a year ago.

The company will announce its third-quarter earnings results at the end of this month.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) Data storage solution company Western Digital on Friday launched a new SSD (solid-state drive) to provide a seamless experience for hardcore gamers in the country.

The SSD, titled 'SN850X NVMe', comes in three capacities -- 1TB, 2TB and 4TB -- and can be purchased at a starting price of Rs 13,119, the company said in a statement.

Powered by an internal PCIe Gen4 SSD, the new drive delivers speeds of up to 7,300 MB per second for better gaming experience.

Gamers can get an amazing gaming experience with quick load times, rich visuals, and uncompromised thermal performance thanks to decreased latency, predictive loading, and adaptive thermal management, the company said.

New Game Mode 2.0 offers extra capabilities to increase PC performance that is included with downloadable WD BLACK Dashboard.

To help maintain top performance, an optional heatsink (1TB and 2TB models) is also available. It incorporates RGB lights to match any gaming computer.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) The world saw crypto losses up to $428 million in the third quarter (Q3), down 36 per cent from Q2, from hacks and frauds, a new report has shown.

An analysis of the crypto losses by bug bounty platform Immunefi found that fraud accounts for only 7 per cent of the total losses in the Q3 2022, while hacks account for 93 per cent.

"The global Web3 space was valued at $3 trillion in 2021, and with billions locked across different smart contracts, this capital represents an unparalleled and attractive opportunity for blackhat hackers," the report mentioned.

The researchers saw a loss of $399 millions to hacks across 30 specific incidents, and a loss of $29 million to fraud across nine specific incidents.

"Most of that sum was lost by 2 specific projects, Nomad Bridge, a cross-chain communication standard that enables transfers of tokens and data between chains, and Wintermute, a global crypto market maker," the report said.

In the Q3 of 2022 DeFi (decentralised finance) continues to be the key target for exploits as compared to CeFi (centralised finance).

DeFi represented 98.8 per cent of the total losses, while CeFi represented 1.2 per cent of the total losses.

The two most targeted chains in Q3 2022 were BNB Chain and Ethereum.

BNB Chain suffered the most individual attacks with 16 incidents, representing 28.6 per cent of the total losses across targeted chains, and Ethereum witnessed 13 incidents, representing 23.2 per cent, respectively.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Oct 5 (IANS) Twitter on Wednesday said it has received a letter from Elon Musk to go ahead with their original deal of $54.20 per share (or $44 billion). Twitter shares went up 22 per cent after the news.

In a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk's legal team has also asked the court to adjourn the trial and all other proceedings.

"We received the letter from the Musk parties which they have filed with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). The intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share," Twitter said in a statement.

Musk tweeted: "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app. Twitter probably accelerates X by 3 to 5 years, but I could be wrong."

The surprising development led to the micro-blogging platform's share jump 22 per cent after it reopened as trading of Twitter shares was briefly halted.

According to the letter sent to Twitter, "the Musk Parties provide this notice without admission of liability and without waiver of or prejudice to any of their rights, including their right to assert the defenses and counterclaims pending in the Action, including in the event the Action is not stayed, Twitter fails or refuses to comply with its obligations under the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement or if the transaction contemplated thereby otherwise fails to close".

In the new US SEC filing, Musk's legal team said that "On October 3, 2022, they "sent a letter to Twitter... notifying Twitter that the Reporting Person (Musk) intends to proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement."

The team said that the offer means that the Delaware Chancery Court should "adjourn the trial and all other proceedings related thereto pending such closing or further order of the court".

Twitter shareholders had earlier voted to approve Musk's $44 billion takeover bid.

--IANS
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