Bullets

Apple is in talks with conglomerate Murugappa Group & Tata Sons’ Titan for iPhone camera parts. The discussion would include assembling & producing the components for the iPhone's camera.

This step would reduce China’s standing in the global market and will align with Apple’s vision of shifting half of its supply chain to India.

The final decision has not been announced by the parties involved, but if confirmed, this news would be another shock for China.

Samsung grabs the top spot for phone manufacturing and selling as iPhone shipments drop 10% in the first quarter of 2024.

Samsung has a 20.8% market share and finally reached the top as Apple dropped back to a 17.3% share.

With the news that Apple devices face the threat of mercenary spyware and competitors like Huawei gaining traction, iPhone shipments dropped.

Tata's super app, Tata Neu, is now piloting food & beverage ordering on ONDC in parts of Delhi-NCR & Bengaluru. This is the first time Tata has entered ONDC as a buyer.

Other Tata enterprises, such as BigBasket and StarQuik, are also participating in the pilot and have been available on ONDC as sellers.

Out of the 7.68 million monthly orders in ONDC, 9.55% are from the food and beverage sector. It appears that Tata Neu has great potential on ONDC.

2024 is going to witness many major Mergers & Acquisitions on the horizon. As per a report, business M&A saw a jump in 2024’s first quarter, reaching a near two-year high. 

This was driven by the massive Reliance-Disney deal, even though the overall number of deals only increased slightly to 427 from 422.

The values of these deals surged by 4% to $20.416 billion (around ₹1.69 lakh crore).

Ola & Uber are testing subscription plans for auto rickshaw drivers in some Indian cities. This follows similar plans by competitors like Namma Yatri and Swiggy-backed Rapido.

Drivers pay a fixed fee (weekly or monthly) for unlimited rides, potentially saving on commission fees, which is a part of the 5% GST applicable by the companies.

A smart subscription model that reduces costs for the company. Competitors should take note!

Indian stock markets boomed on Monday. For the first time, the total value of all listed companies on the BSE stock exchange reached a record ₹400 lakh crore. 

In just nine months, the market cap grew ₹100 lakh crore from its last peak of ₹300 lakh crore on 5 July 2023.

This surge is partly due to retail investors moving their money from traditional savings to the stock market.

Byju Raveendran, the founder of ed-tech firm Byju's, lost his position on the Forbes Billionaire Index 2024. His net worth dropped from $2.1 billion (₹17,545 crore) to 0.

Raveendran’s Byju’s has been suffering from multiple crises, including issues with shareholders, declining finances, and downgrading valuation (now $1 billion).

The rising unpopularity of Byju’s and regular criticisms from all directions played a major role in this outcome.  

Well-known startups like Lenskart, Purplle, and Healtkart are looking for funds to boost their valuations. Lenskart is eyeing a $6 million valuation, and Purplle is to raise a $100 million investment.

In the same context, Swiggy-backed Rapido and Temasek-backed Healthkart are discussing fresh funding rounds.

Most deals will happen through a secondary route as existing investors sell stakes to new investors to generate returns.

India’s new unicorn, Zepto, is planning a fundraising of $300 million, which is over ₹24,000 crore from global investors. The fresh funding would contribute to Zepto’s plan to shift from quick commerce to e-commerce.

This investment would take Zepto’s valuation from $1.4 billion to somewhere near $2.5-3 billion. Zepto also aims to accomplish a positive EBITDA for the September quarter.

Looks like Zomato & Swiggy are going to have a major competitor in the new unicorn Zepto.

Infosys got a surprise tax refund of ₹6,329 crore for the past 11 years, but the taxman isn't done yet. The refunds are from the assessment years 2007-08 to 2018-19 (excluding 2016-17).

They also owe a tax demand of ₹2,763 crore for 2022-23 and ₹4 crore for the year 2011-12.

Regardless, Infosys paid ₹7,474 crore in taxes for the first 9 months of 2023, so this refund is a big boost.

The securities broking and merchant banking subsidiary of ICICI Bank, ICICI Securities, is all set to bid adieu to the stock market.

The company announced its delistment from the indices in June 2023, and now shareholders have waved the green flag for the move.

The approval brought a 4% slip in the early hours of the company’s stock price on 28 March intraday.

Read about when and why ICICI Securities is delisting and how it could affect you from this article.

The beta version of the T+0 settlement system will launch from 28 March onwards for 25 selective stocks. This initiative of the Indian stock market is a unique step to reduce a shorter trade settlement cycle.

Here, the funds and shares would be sent to the seller and buyers’ accounts on the same day (T = Trade Day and 0 = no. of days). 

SBI, Ambuja Cements, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Tata Communications, Bank of Baroda, BPCL, etc. are the few selective stocks for the beta version.

With the profound success of the Tata Technologies IPO, which was oversubscribed 69 times, Tata Group has multiple similar plans for the near future.

Tata Capital, Tata Autocomp Systems, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, BigBasket, Tata Digital, Tata Electronics, Tata Housing and Tata Batteries are included for to-be publicly listed companies.

Tata Group wishes to expand into new sectors such as digital, retail, semiconductors, and electric vehicle batteries.

Which of these would make the final list is yet to be seen.