Bullets

Taking a “reverse flip”, Razorpay plans to return to India. After flipping to the USA as part of the Silicon Valley Y Combinator’s 2015 batch, Razorpay is now planning to move its branch again.

This seems to be the result of the Indian government’s efforts to bring back fintech companies as well as Razorpay’s chance to secure licences from RBI.

Does this transition open the gates for Razorpay’s IPO? Who knows!🤔

Fashion and beauty brand Shopper's Stop is planning to open India's biggest beauty store in Kolkata. The details of the store are still being kept a secret.

Reliance recently entered the beauty segment with its 4,300 sq. ft. "Tira" store in Mumbai. With Shopper's Stop drawing 17% of the company's revenue from beauty segment, it wasn't going to lose its place in the game!

Now it's only a matter of time to see if cash burn will beat market loyalty.

Flight regulator Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered insolvency-bound airline Go First to halt bookings of its flights indefinitely, effective immediately. The aviation regulator had also issued a show-cause notice to Go First under the provisions of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, for its "failure to continue the operation of the service in a safe, efficient and reliable manner".

From the top 3 in budget carriers to carrier budget troubles, why did Go First crash? Find out here.

Paytm is aiming to turn "Free-Cash-Flow positive in the near future", as well as integrate Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) into its processes. The declarations come through a letter to the shareholders from the CEO.

Paytm recorded ₹2.3 thousand crore in Q4 revenue, a 51.5% increase from the previous year as a result of a growing loan book. Paytm's losses have also narrowed to ₹168.4 crore.

So, is Paytm getting ready for a comeback, or is this just smoke and mirrors?

Cognizant’s CEO Ravi Kumar S finds his first 4 months in the US-based IT firm to be historic. With a 3% rise in Q1 (Jan-Mar) net profit, Cognizant now plans to improve by making a structural cost shift.

Cognizant is letting 3,500 employees go, as well as cutting down on millions of square feet of office space.  

Hiring & laying off is a company’s routine, it’s only the employees who suffer from this never-ending to-and-fro between jobs.

SoftBank-backed e-commerce platform Meesho has decided to remove 251 employees in a third round of layoffs.

The firm previously conducted layoffs in April and August last year, axing 150 employees and 300 employees in each round. These previous layoffs were in relation to the rebranding and closure of their grocery arm Farmiso.

Co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey, in a note to the employees, mentioned "judgment errors" as the reason for these firings. At least one of them admits their fault.

Adani Entreprises shares rallied 4% in today's trading session as the company declared a 137% net profit growth for Q4 2023 and a 120% dividend at ₹1.20 per share.

The company also showed growth in its operating revenue. The quarterly numbers went up from ₹24,865.52 crore during Q4FY22 to ₹31,346.05 crore during Q4FY23, while the annual numbers went up from ₹69,420.18 crore during FY22 to ₹136,977.76 crore during FY23.

Just remember, growing traders' confidence does not a good company make!😈

Ajay Banga, a US citizen of Indian origin, has been appointed as the upcoming president of the World Bank.

Banga was nominated by Joe Biden in February and was elected after a four-hour interview. His five-year tenure will begin on June 2. Since his nomination, he has met with officials from 96 governments, which shows his commitment to building strong relations with member countries.

Let’s see what the future holds for the World Bank under his leadership.

SpiceJet is looking to get 25 of its grounded planes back in the air. The airline is reportedly looking to mobilise ₹400 crore for this plan and will also draw funds from the government's Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.

SpiceJet's 6.9% was behind Indigo's 55.7% and Go First's 7.8% market share of domestic flights.

With Go First crashing and burning, the airline industry could get a bit bland, no wonder SpiceJet is trying to bring back some flavour.

After ChatGPT alternatives from Microsoft & Elon Musk’s X.AI, India is joining the AI race. Tata Consultancy Services plans to introduce its generative AI platform utilising the internal code, data and resources they have.

TCS COO Subramaniam claims that this project is bound to create new roles for prompt engineers to supervise contextual queries in enterprise requirements to large language models.

After all, why should foreign companies have all the AI fun?

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna recently revealed to Bloomberg that the company plans to temporarily halt hiring for positions that are likely to be automated in the near future, particularly in back-office functions like HR.

According to McKinsey Global Institute, up to 800 million jobs are predicted to be displaced by 2030.

I guess the potential impact of automation and AI on the job market is becoming increasingly evident, which highlights the need for workers to acquire new skills.

Vedanta Resources’ mission to cut short its debt of $6.8 billion with assistance from Hindustan Zinc has hit a roadblock. Hindustan Zinc failed to get approval from its minority shareholders to purchase Vedanta Ltd. international zinc assets at $2.98 billion.

The Indian government is the largest minority shareholder of Hindustan Zinc, with 29.54% stakes.

With falling stock prices & disadvantageous investment choices, no wonder government wishes to sell its stake in Hindustan Zinc.

The Wadia Group-owned airline Go First is in a financial crunch! The aerospace company Pratt & Whitney has not supplied engines, leading to the grounding of more than half of its fleet (28 planes).

The company announced the suspension of its flight for May 3rd and 4th due to failure in following the cash-and-carry approach. This has led Go First to file for voluntary insolvency.

Oops, Go First got grounded before Take-Off.

Broadcaster NDTV reported a consolidated net profit of 59 lakhs in the final quarter of the fiscal year 2022-23, which is 97.6% lower than the previous year.

Adani Group now holds 64.7% of NDTV after a controversial takeover battle last year. This past quarter, which is the first full one under Adani’s ownership, was challenging due to the difficult advertising environment.

Seems like Adani has the reverse Midas touch.

The fall of Silicon Valley Bank & Signature Bank started a domino effect as another lending bank, First Republic, went under. The San Francisco-based bank saw a 50% decline in its shares after customers withdrew more than $100 billion from their accounts. 

Despite a $30 billion investment from 11 banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Citibank, First Republic fell under JP Morgan’s Authority.

Looks like Chase’s investment is finally paying off in the form of First Republic’s assets and deposits.

Eicher Motors' Royal Enfield saw an 18% increase in monthly sales for April, going from 62,155 to 73,136.

The increase in numbers is not all "fast bikes and bright lights", though. The rise was seen in bikes with engines smaller than 350 cc and domestic sales, with numbers going up 26% and 28%, respectively, while bikes with engines larger than 350 cc and international sales went down by 21% and 49%, respectively.

Bikes come and go, but the lifestyle stays.

Ban on Russia from European countries due to the Ukraine fiasco has benefitted India. As per Analytics company Kpler’s data, India is now the largest supplier of refined fuel for the EU.

Interestingly, India gets about 44% of its oil imports from Russia. Due to discounted prices, India is now close to exporting 360,000 barrels a day, crossing the EU’s largest exporter, Saudi Arabia.   

India, with Russia's oil right now.

Sequoia Capital and Mastercard-backed Pine Labs, a leading merchant-commerce platform in Asia, has decided to defer its IPO. With promising financial stability, the company was able to raise over $1.1 billion.

But, amid the decline in worldwide financial markets and the desire to wait for more favourable conditions, the company is not currently in a rush to proceed with the IPO, as stated by CEO Amrish Rau.

They have not yet announced a new timeline for its IPO.

Announcing another update, Elon Musk tweeted that media publishers can now charge users per article. This payment for one article would be higher for users who don’t have Twitter’s monthly subscription. 

Calling the decision a win-win for both media organisations and the public, Musk hinted towards more monetising opportunities in future. After all, the platform plans to get a 10% cut on content subscriptions by next year.

Insider Elite articles cost less than Twitter perks. Just saying!😉

Market regulator SEBI has asked for an extension of six months for the probe on Adani Group and its collapse as a result of short-seller Hindenburg Research's report.

According to the regulator, "given the complexity of the matter, SEBI in the ordinary course would take at least 15 months," but the 6 member team "is endeavouring to conclude the same in not less than six months.”

So far, 12 suspicious transactions have been uncovered that require further investigation.