Hello,
The RBI’s made itself clear: keep the status quo.
The Reserve Bank of India kept its key repo rate unchanged at 6.5% on Friday but cut the cash reserve ratio (CRR) that banks are required to hold, effectively easing monetary conditions as economic growth slows.
The CRR cut will infuse Rs 1.16 lakh crore into the banking system, which will soften short-term interest rates and reduce the pressure on bank deposit rates. The move is also expected to boost liquidity that is under strain following RBI’s interventions to keep the rupee from falling.
Even as India’s growth rate fell unexpectedly to its slowest pace in seven quarters in the recent quarter, the country’s booming IPO market is still luring new entrants, both domestic and foreign.
The latest contender: LG Electronics, which will sell as many as 101.82 million shares of its Indian unit in what is likely to be one of the biggest IPOs in Indian history.
Meanwhile, Paytm Singapore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of parent parent One 97 Communications, is set to sell its stake in Japan’s PayPay to SoftBank for approximately $250 million.
This will be the second major monetisation move by the company this year after selling its entertainment ticketing business to Zomato in August for Rs 2,048 crore in cash.
The stepping-out sector is an increasingly lucrative market in India, as young, well-to-do Indians’ booming appetite for live entertainment attracts global music stars seeking out new audiences.
Dua Lipa and Maroon 5 performed in India’s financial capital Mumbai in the past seven days, while Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes and Green Day have concerts planned over the next three months.
At the current pace, the estimated concert-linked spending could total between Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 8,000 crore on an annualised basis over the next 12 months, according to a Bank of Baroda report. And with Tier II and Tier III cities also showcasing a strong demand for live events, the number is only set to grow.
The show must go on, after all!
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Dealing with chaos in the startup ecosystem
- Indian philosophy for mental health
Here’s your trivia for today: Author Daniel Handler is best known for his children’s books published under which pseudonym?
Interview
Dealing with chaos in the startup ecosystem
Shyam Bhat, the Founder of Nirvikalpa: The Mind-Body Centre and Chairperson of Live Love Laugh, has a radical approach to improving the mental health of Indian entrepreneurs: taking a break.
He says he’s seeing a troubling pattern among ambitious founders–and it’s not their work ethic. The problem, Bhat explains during a conversation with YourStory’s Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma, lies in how modern entrepreneurs view themselves.
Breathe:
- To build a successful life, Bhat emphasised, one should focus on finding something that one can invest their time on. “Don’t wait for passion… focus on finding something that you least dislike and spend enough time on mastering it, then success is inevitable in today’s world.”
- Additionally, Bhat said that while many young people believe that they need to be confident to achieve success, it is usually the other way around—you get confidence from your success.
- The journey towards self-awareness involves working on ourselves, engaging in self-discovery, and committing to personal growth—which can be significantly attained through therapy.
<Top Deals of the Week>
Startup: Vastu Housing Finance Corp
Amount: $100M
Round: Equity
Startup: Mintify
Amount: $80M
Round: Equity
Startup: Ultraviolette
Amount: Rs 130 Cr
Round: Undisclosed
Women entrepreneurs
Indian philosophy for mental health
Frustrated by the gaps in Western psychology, Shilpa Datar delved into Indian philosophy, studying ancient texts such as the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita. Her PhD research led to her creating the Mysore Tridosha and Mysore Triguna—personality scales that integrate Ayurveda and Sankhya philosophy into personality assessments.
Holistic:
- Tools created by Datar assess individuals holistically, considering physiological, psychological, and ethical dimensions—which she says is a unique approach in psychometrics.
- In 2021, she founded Swayam Analytics. The company works with students, educational institutions, and corporates, providing personality and career guidance assessments as well as recruitment tools.
- For students, Swayam Analytics offers tailored recommendations, such as diet changes, yoga practices, and curated resources like books and podcasts. In the corporate sphere, the focus shifts to recruitment and employee development, aligning individual traits with organisational goals.
News & updates
- Ultimatum: A US federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban.
- Rolling out: Uber Technologies has begun offering its first autonomous rides outside the US in Abu Dhabi, making good on an earlier partnership struck with Chinese vehicle partner WeRide Inc.
- Shutting out: OpenAI is in discussions to ditch a provision that shuts Microsoft out of its most advanced models when the start-up achieves “artificial general intelligence”, as it seeks to unlock billions of dollars of future investment.
Author Daniel Handler is best known for his children’s books published under which pseudonym?
Answer: Lemony Snicket.
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