The initial public offering (IPO) market has seen some momentum of late with robust responses to recent issues. However, only some have been able to ride the wave. So far in 2023, 23 companies have let their approval granted by the markets regulator - the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) - lapse.
If you are interested in working with OpenAI, feel free to email Sam Altman. In a free-wheeling fireside chat with university students on Thursday in Delhi, the CEO of OpenAI and his team seemed eager to welcome bright young IT practitioners of India into the OpenAI work space. Asked about the steep degree requirements for applying to tech giants such as Microsoft and Google, Altman said that his company was open to hiring undergraduates and even college drop-outs.
While asserting that the CoWIN portal is completely safe with adequate safeguards for data privacy, it said an internal exercise has been initiated to review the existing security measures of CoWIN.
The stock of Divis Laboratories is up 10 per cent over the last couple of trading sessions on expectations that the worst is behind and the company could see a sequential growth in the March quarter of the 2022-23 financial year (Q4FY23). The stock witnessed the highest downgrades among Nifty50 index stocks with earnings cuts over a third after the Q3FY23 results. The company had posted a 32 per cent drop in revenues over the year ago quarter in Q3FY23 and 8 per cent sequentially, which was sharply lower than Street expectations.
SoftBank-backed hospitality major OYO is planning to reduce the number of shares it aims to sell through public listing because of reduced capital requirements and technology headwinds. This comes at a time when valuations of start-ups, including that of OYO, have taken a hit. "OYO earlier filed papers for its IPO (initial public offering) based on its funding requirements at the time.
A critical drug developed on a DRDO technology for radiological and nuclear emergencies has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
Walmart-owned digital payments app Phonepe on Thursday said it has raised $350 million at a valuation of $12 billion in a funding round led by private equity firm General Atlantic. "Marquee Global and Indian investors are also participating in the round," PhonePe said in a statement adding the investment marks the first tranche of an up to $1 billion total fundraise that commenced in January 2023. The fundraise follows PhonePe's recently announced change of domicile to India and full separation from Flipkart.
Global private equity investor Advent International on Monday said it is acquiring a significant stake in Suven Pharmaceuticals from its promoters, the Jasti family. The PE major said this will be followed with an open offer to acquire 26 per cent more in the listed contract development and manufacturing organisation from public shareholders, and also merge the company with investee company Cohance Lifesciences, as per an official statement. Media reports on a Monday morning pegged the acquisition at Rs 6,300 crore, and that Advent had pipped rival Blackstone for the acquisition.
The pharmaceutical and the consumer durables sectors, which depend on China for imports, have not been impacted yet due to unrest in China with people protesting against lockdowns. But the lockdown could have an impact on the supply of components used in consumer durables if it continues for the next fortnight. In the pharmaceutical industry, Indian players import 66-70 per cent of their bulk drug requirements from China.
Markets watchdog Sebi on Friday directed stock exchanges to impose "financial disincentives" on stock brokers for technical glitches at their end, amid instances of snags at the brokers' end impacting the overall trading system. Besides, the stock brokers would have to inform the bourses within one hour of any glitch happening in their trading sysstems as well as submit a preliminary incident report in one day. As part of tightening the regulations, Sebi also said that the bourses should disseminate on their websites the instances of technical glitches occurring in the trading systems of stock brokers along with the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of such issues.
The digital transformation should not be confined to a small part of the "human race" and its greater benefits will be realised only when digital access becomes "truly inclusive", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the G-20 summit on Wednesday. Modi also strongly pitched for a pledge by the G-20 leaders to work for bringing digital transformation into the life of every human being in the next 10 years so that no person is deprived of the benefits of the new technologies. In a session on digital transformation, the prime minister also said that principle of "data for development" will be an integral part of the overall theme of India's upcoming G-20 Presidency.
Siva Prasad Nanduri, chief business officer, TeamLease Digital, outlines the skills that will help you get a job in 2023.
Despite the demonetisation of 2016 and the rise in digital transactions that followed, the economy's dependence on cash has remained as high as ever. So when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced a pilot project of its version of digital cash - called the central bank digital currency (CBDC) - on December 1, many questions were asked. Can the CBDC replace physical cash, even partially? Can it match cash in terms of convenience? Are CBDC transactions truly anonymous?
Modi accused previous governments of not providing people with facilities that were available to people elsewhere in the world even in the 20th century and in Gujarat a few years back.
Maharashtra is the BRS' first target.
It has been a slow 2022 thus far for the primary markets. In the last 8 months, only 16 companies have raised Rs 40,311 crore via the initial public offer (IPO) route, data from PRIME Database suggests. In comparison, 63 companies had raised a cumulative Rs 1.18 trillion via the IPO route in 2021. A large part of the funds raised in 2022 were on account of the two IPOs - Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and logistics firm Delhivery - that raised a total of over Rs 26,000 crore between themselves.
The Income Tax department Wednesday conducted searches at the premises of Bengaluru-based pharmaceutical company Micro Labs Ltd, the manufacturers of Dolo-650 tablet that was widely used by COVID-19 patients during the last over two years, on charges of alleged tax evasion. Officials said the department is looking at financial documents, balance sheets and business distributor networks of the company as part of the searches. The PTI has sent queries on the action to the company and a response is awaited.
The central government has for the first time allowed a private company, Bajaj Healthcare, to process opium to extract alkaloids used to make pain-killers, cough syrups, and even cancer drugs. Two government factories in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, and Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, do the work yet, processing some 800 tonnes of opium gum annually to extract alkaloids. The government on Tuesday gave Thane-based Bajaj Healthcare an initial contract to process 500 tonnes of opium gum annually and wants production to be at 800 tonnes per annum (tpa) in the next five years, indicating the state's exit from the highly-regulated sector.
Indian drug firms get a shot in the arm in the $12 bn Australian drug market as the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia agrees to accelerate the drug approval process in that country for Indian players who already have an approved plant and product from one of the stringent regulatory authorities like US, EU or Canada. From current sales of $340 mn, the Indian firms can see a significant upside in sales; felt Dinesh Dua, former chairman of the Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), and the MD of Nectar Lifesciences. He highlighted that only 12 percent of the Australian drug market is generic, as against 80-90 per cent in the US or EU. Of this $1.5 bn generic drug market in India, Indian companies have a small share.
'Periods of high volatility are usually bad for mid-caps and this is something that has to be kept in mind.' 'Focus on quality is of paramount importance.'
Once stability returns to the secondary market, companies that have obtained approval from Sebi will start tapping the market.
'The world over, everybody is asking for the same medicines, same APIs, same KSMs.' 'However, there is just one supplier -- China -- for the entire world.'
'EV-charging is the next big opportunity after fuelling'
The Union health ministry said the emerging scenario calls for immediate measures by states and UTs to ensure optimal availability of medical oxygen at all health facilities.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is looking to collaborate with foreign countries and international organisations to build digital identity systems across the world, a top official said on Friday. UIDAI CEO Saurabh Garg during a panel discussion with Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma at the Infinity Forum said the authority is also exploring emerging technology to enhance security and increase the number of transactions that can be done by using Aadhaar. "We think going forward we will be happy to collaborate with other nations...We would like to collaborate with international organisations also in building international institutions for standards for national identity.
Mumbai police also asked its counterparts in Navi Mumbai to investigate how the two managed to speak to each other and that too for so long.
Star Health and Allied Insurance's Rs 7,250-crore initial public offering (IPO), the third largest this year and eighth largest ever, just about managed to make it despite a poor response from investors, garnering just 79 per cent subscription, forcing the investment bankers to prune offer for sale (OFS) component. This is the second large offering after digital payments major Paytm this year to receive a lukewarm response from investors, a sign that despite the IPO frenzy investors are discerning when it comes to pricing. As Star Health didn't meet the profitability criteria, its IPO required a mandatory 75 per cent subscription from qualified institutional buyers (QIB).
Markets regulator Sebi's proposal of treating all orders emanating from application programming interface (API) as algorithmic or algo order can restrict the growth of such trading in India, brokerage houses said on Monday. In market parlance, algo trading refers to any order that is generated using automated execution logic. The algo trading system automatically monitors the live stock prices and initiates an order when the given criteria are met.
'There will be partnerships between banks and fintech firms, but there will also be areas where they will be direct competitors.'
India will need $8 trillion (around Rs 588 lakh crore) of gross capital formation or new greenfield assets to become a $5 trillion (around Rs 368 lakh crore) economy by FY2027, a report said. The report by Deloitte said despite the COVID-19 disruption, FDI inflow into the country provides necessary optimism and display underlying strengths of the Indian economy. In FY2020-21, FDI inflows (including equity, re-invested earnings, and capital) amounted to a record $81.72 billion, 10 per cent higher than the previous financial year, it said.
Besides Waze, former 'encounter specialist' Pradeep Sharma and a few other former police personnel are also accused in the case.
Poornima Indrajith, who acted with Nedumudi Venu in the daily soap Oomakkuyil for three years, shares lovely memories of the legendary actor, who passed into the ages on October 11.
Police have filed an extortion case against Mumbai Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan and two other cops, one of them arrested for the killing of businessman Mansukh Hiran, on a complaint by a man who is an accused in a cheating case, an official said on Thursday.
The IPO rush will continue in September with two more companies Vijaya Diagnostic Centre and Ami Organics launching their initial share-sales on Wednesday to raise a total of Rs 2,465 crore. This comes after eight companies including Devyani International, Nuvoco Vistas Corporation and CarTrade Tech floated their initial share-sales last month to mobilise Rs 18,243 crore. So far in the current fiscal, a total of 20 companies have mopped up more than Rs 45,000 crore through IPOs. This is much higher than Rs 31,277 crore raised by 30 firms in the entire 2020-21.
Postman, a leading application programming interface platform, has secured $225 million in a Series D round, placing its valuation at $5.6 billion. With this, Postman has emerged as the most-valued software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm started by Indian founders, overtaking web and mobile testing firm BrowserStack, which was valued at $4 billion in June. The valuation of the San Francisco-headquartered firm with offices in Bengaluru, where it was founded, has almost trebled in just about one year and risen multi-fold since 2019. Postman, with team members spread across four continents, had secured $150 million in a Series C investment round led by Insight Partners at a $2-billion valuation last summer.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea by former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a corruption case.
Exports of 13 APIs - including paracetamol, tinidazole, metronidazole, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, acyclovir, progesterone - along with formulations made from these APIs, would be restricted.
After a long wait, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group has closed the sale process of its consumer durables business under the Eureka Forbes label by picking the American private equity fund Advent International's Rs 4,400-crore offer for a 72 per cent stake. The sale process, which began in November 2019, will help the over 156-year-old SP Group pair the debt pile and sharpen the focus on the flagship construction and engineering business under Afcons. The valuation of Rs 4,400 crore for a 72.56 per cent stake is is at an enterprise level and subject to closing adjustments and also includes an open offer for the remaining stake after the demerger and listing of Eureka Forbes, the SP group said in a statement on Sunday.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, allies in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Viaks Aghadi government in Maharashtra, on Monday demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation reveal its final finding into the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
'We need to retell this history from many different perspectives.'