Bullets

The Indian unemployment rate rose to 8.30% in December, reaching a 16-month high. When bifurcated into urban and rural unemployment, the former rose from 8.96% to 10.09% and the latter from 7.44% to 7.55%.

Government officials related to the matter stated that employment rates rose in December, too, reaching 37.1%, the highest it has been since January 2022.

So overall employment rose while urban unemployment rose more than rural. Makes sense, startups don't hire from the rural environment after all.

Steel and mining giant group JSW is planning to enter the EV space soon as the CFO of the group, Seshagiri Rao, could be quoted saying that plans to enter the EV market are in "advanced stages".

The move is not a shocker as major auto manufacturers like Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland saw a rise of 10% and 45% in just December sales.

So enough steel clashing. It is time for the giants to play bumper cars.

Rolex watches have beaten gold, shares and real estate performance in the last ten years. The major part of 2022 saw Rolex prices go up in the secondary market before settling a bit during the year's end.

The average price of a Rolex watch has gone from $5,000 to $13,000 over the decade.  According to McKinsey, the total market value of second-hand luxury watches stands at around $20 billion. Is it time for a new asset bubble already?

Reliance is gearing up to enter the retail business with much gusto. After Campa Cola, RIL is set to acquire a 51% stake in Lotus Chocolates. While Campa Cola was acquired for ₹22 crore, the chocolate-y acquisition is worth ₹74 crore.

The deal will be executed by Reliance Consumer Product Limited acquiring 65,48,935 equity shares at ₹113.00 each. The aim of the capital infusion (on paper) is to help Lotus grow and expand its business into consumer and industrial markets.

Amongst the ongoing startup downturn, Flipkart seems to have flipped the layoff cart! The Walmart-owned e-commerce website is the recipient of a $700 million windfall gain as a result of its sale of stake in PhonePe.

As Flipkart exited PhonePe recently after major fundraising from General Atlantic, the payment intermediary's shares held by the Flipkart employees through ESOP doubled in value. Ex-employees, top 20 employees and senior staff will receive up to $200 million out of the $700 million.

Venugopal Dhoot, CEO and founder of Videocon Group, has been arrested by the CBI in relation to the ₹3,250 crore loan fraud from ICICI Bank. The arrest was made 3 days after former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochar and her husband, Deepak Kochhar, were arrested.

We would tell you the state of the company's shares due to the TV chief's downfall, but that is not possible anymore either. The shares bit the dust in June last year.

NDTV founder Prannoy Roy has sold 27.26% of his 32.26% shareholding in the media company. Adani Group will become the single largest shareholder with a 64.71% share. Adani Group started NDTV's acquisition through a company with stakes in the network and then by buying publicly traded shares.

The founder said that he is proud of what NDTV has become and that the network met their hopes.

Wonder why they are letting it turn into a corporate PR platform, then...

Russia and Sri Lanka are set to be the first two of many countries to enter international trade with India using the rupee. This move by India aims to support countries that have low dollar reserves, which stop them from being able to engage in international trade.

Russia suffers from sanctions, and Sri Lankan dollar reserves shrunk as the pandemic struck the country's export inventory. Countries such as Tajikistan, Cuba, Luxembourg, and Sudan are also trying to enter similar agreements.

Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. has confirmed its purchase of 100% stakes in Metro AG's cash and carry business in a deal worth ₹2,850 crore. The goal behind the purchase is to integrate Metro's 31 large stores spread across 21 cities in India.

With this purchase, Reliance aims to create fulfilment centres for its online stores using Metro's intricate network of stores.

With Reliance plugging itself into the retail supply chain, the Kirana Dukaan's bread and butter may be in danger.

Paytm has declared a buyback of its shares at ₹810 each, with the buyback value standing at ₹850 crore. The total number of shares being bought back will stand at 1,04,93,827. The current stake being sold will stand at 1.62%.

The payment intermediary's liquidity is unlikely to be affected, as its current position is at ₹9,182 crore.

If you were a pre-IPO shareholder or someone who entered below the ₹810 mark, congratulations. Everyone else, maybe look for cashbacks on Paytm?

iPhone fanatics all across the country have something to look forward to as Apple Inc's focus shifts from China to India, and the company that made the country's most affordable car takes a crack at the premium mobile.

Tata Group has decided to open 100 new stores selling Apple Inc products exclusively under the Infiniti Retail chain of stores. The conglomerate also plans to increase its workforce in its factory in Hosur, which produces iPhone chassis.

Covid-19 really beat the semiconductor industry up, but India finally seems able to say goodbye to it. Or rather, they can say "Tata" to the problem.

Chairman N Chandrasekaran said that Tata Group plans to invest ₹7.4 lakh crore and establish Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd, a greenfield venture in tech, EV and semiconductors.

Both our country and the company could benefit greatly as the semiconductor industry is poised to achieve a market size of ₹5.2 lakh crore by 2026.

A year after declaring its IPO, dwindling e-commerce website Spandeal has finally decided to retract its $152 million IPO. A person directly related to the matter said that the reason for this withdrawal is the declining market sentiment for tech stocks.

While the dates are not disclosed or even seemingly decided, the e-commerce platform has been reported to be planning to refile in the future.

With sharks like Amazon and Flipkart around, Snapdeal is right not to dip its toe.

The RBI, in its Monetary Policy Committee meeting on December 6th, 2022, hiked the repo rate to 6.25%. This was the fifth rate hike for FY2022, with the repo rate at 4.40% on May 2022.

As pre-empted by many financial experts, this MPC meeting marks a slowdown in the rate hike at 35 basis points as opposed to the four 50 basis point hikes for FY2022.

Among slowdowns, the RBI also reduced the GDP growth prediction from 7% to 6.8%.

TVS Motors stocks fell by 3% after a promoter, Srinivasan Trust, sold their share in the company in a bulk deal. Srinivasan Trust sold 25,69,726 or 0.54% stake in the motor company for ₹262.12 crore.

The dump took place at a price of ₹1,020.03 per share, and post-sale, the prices fell to ₹1,009.80 per share.

Is TVS beginning to lose promoter trust?

According to the Finance Ministry, India collected ₹1.46 lakh crore in GST for the month of November. This has been the 9th consecutive month when GST collection has crossed ₹1.4 lakh crore.

While the 3.9% fall was in comparison to last month's collections, the YoY collection has grown by 10.9% from ₹1.31 lakh crore in November 2021.

So the numbers that would be pushed would be the "10.9% increase" and not the 3.9% fall, right?

A month has passed since the release of the e-Rupee in the wholesale segment. Today, the retail segment shall receive the digital currency through a pilot phase. The four banks that will participate in the first phase of the retail launch will be SBI, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and IDFC First Bank.

The digital rupee shall be a cash equivalent, and won't earn any interest when in the user's wallet. It can, however, be converted to other forms and deposits.

Tata gained its prodigal airline back, and it seems intent on taking over India's skies now.✈

Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines (SIA) declared that they will merge Vistara into Air India by 2024. Post-merger, Tata Sons will hold a 74.9% stake, and SIA will be a 25.1% stakeholder in the new entity.

The merged entity, named AI-Vistara-AI Express-AirAsia India Pvt Ltd (AAIPL) will be worth around $1 billion with SIA investing $250 million in the entity.

While experts may claim that the Indian economy will come out of the possible global recession unscathed, the various startups in India sing a different song.

The company behind media and news aggregator platforms Josh, PublicVibe and Dailyhunt, VerSe Innovations, is set to lay off 150 employees. This layoff will compromise 5% of the company's current workforce. The company is also going to be reducing salaries by 11% for personnel with annual incomes above ₹10 lakh per annum.

Apple's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, is looking to hike employee salaries by up to $1,800 to retain them amidst violent protests in China against the rising Covid threat. Foxconn reported around 20,000 employees leaving after the protests.

Due to Apple's dependence on a single point of production, the phone manufacturer has warned customers of reduced shipments. As the peak holiday season approaches, this fall in sales is expected to cut Foxconn's iPhone revenue by 36% and overall sales by 20%.