The business of rating is very subjective, especially when it comes to sovereigns. Fitch has retained the rating of India at BBB- but given a negative outlook compared to the other two agencies that think it is stable. Hence, Fitch’s view comes as a disappointment for sure.

India is probably going to be one of the best-performing economies in the world this year. This has been done without the government going in for excessive fiscal spending as the western nations have done. This factor has been appreciated by S&P and Moody’s. The way in which we have rebounded has been remarkable, with the government following a rather unique route since the pandemic began of ushering in some tough reforms in the last 18 months. It has been ably supported by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Fitch’s main grievance appears to be on the side of public debt, which admittedly is high compared to the median of comparable countries. Ideally, credit rating agencies (CRA) need to give more weight to the underlying as well as the efforts being put to get things back on rail. The Union Budget has laid down the fiscal path for the centre and this is also being pursued by the states under the revised FRBM guidelines. The focus has been on galvanising investment as seen by the higher capex. There have been limited giveaways on the tax front and the government has taken the bold step on not compromising mulch on taxes on fuel. To top it all, the asset monetisation plan lays down the roadmap for revenue to be garnered and the sale of Air India bears testimony to the urgency on disinvestment. Hence, we do have reason to be disappointed in the view taken by the CRA.

Notwithstanding the view taken by these rating agencies, the relentless flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) is a vindication of reforms and how investors see India and its future. The government has ushered in reforms that have the potential to change the landscape in the medium term. The balance of payments has been positive as seen in the continuous growth of forex reserves with exports riding the wave of global trade.

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Walmart-owned digital payments firm PhonePe said that it has processed over 2 billion transactions on its platform in October this year. PhonePe is the market leader in UPI transactions, driving the highest number of peer-to-peer(P2P) and merchant transactions in the country. It also has the pole position in Recharge and Bill Payment transactions via Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). PhonePe had crossed the 1 billion monthly transaction mark in February this year, and has now hit the 2 billion milestone in just 8 months, cementing its position as India’s leading Fintech platform. PhonePe competes with players, such as Google Pay, Paytm and Amazon Pay.

“Last month was phenomenal for PhonePe, as we processed our highest ever transactions till date, cementing our position as India’s leading payments platform,” said Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO, PhonePe.

PhonePe’s phenomenal growth comes on the back of rapid traction across tier-2, tier-3 cities and beyond. This remarkable growth is a clear indicator of strong user preference for the platform with the highest end-to-end success rates and superior product experience.

“The fact that 80 per cent of our transactions come from tier-2, 3 cities and beyond, shows that digital payments have truly penetrated across the length and breadth of the country,” said Nigam.

PhonePe has over 145 million monthly active users, $600 billion annualized Total Payments Value and digital transactions from over 19000 pin codes, constituting more than 99 per cent of the country.

“We will continue to build the most preferred digital payments and financial services destination for a billion+ Indians while transforming lives positively,” said Nigam.

PhonePe now has over 335 million registered users. It is also accepted at over 22 million merchant outlets across India.Using PhonePe, users can send and receive money, recharge mobile, DTH, pay at stores, make utility payments and also buy and invest in gold and silver. PhonePe forayed into financial services in 2017 with the launch of gold providing users with a convenient option to buy 24-karat gold, and recently also launched silver on its platform. It has since introduced several Mutual Funds and Insurance products like tax-saving funds, liquid funds, international travel insurance, life insurance, and insurance for the Covid-19 pandemic.

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India’s wearable market grew 93.8 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the July-September 2021 quarter, shipping 23.8 million units, as per data from IDC India.

Despite the logistic challenges and increase in freight costs, vendors remained aggressive in their shipments and were able to manage the inventory for the upcoming month-long festival sales, IDC said.

Shipments in September surpassed 10 million, growing two-fold from the same month last year, resulting in a record quarter for wearable devices in India, it added.

Watches continued to be the fastest-growing category with 4.3 million shipments in the third quarter, while wristbands saw a seventh consecutive quarter of annual decline to 738,000 units, IDC said.

Truly Wireless (TWS or earbuds) devices reached a 39.5 per cent share of the earwear segment (18.73 million units shipment) in the quarter under review, but the market remains dominated by over-the-ear and tethered devices, it added.

While seasonality made Q321 the biggest quarter for wearables, the influx of devices at the entry-level was the key growth factor. Throughout the quarter, Indian vendors were aggressive with their launches and channel expansion,” IDC India Market Analyst (Client Devices) Anisha Dumbre said.

Aggressive intent to maintain their lead helped them to further reduce the average selling price of watches to USD 73, putting immense pressure on a struggling wrist band category, she added.

IDC said India-based brands have captured over two-thirds of the watch market with their aggressive offerings and marketing spends on digital platforms.

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Shares of TV Today Network were locked at the 20 per cent upper circuit at Rs 413.15 on the BSE on Tuesday amid heavy volumes. Over 5 per cent equity of the company has, so far, changed hands on the counter. The stock of the broadcasting & cable TV operator was trading at its highest level since October 2018.

Till 11:53 am, a combined 3.27 million equity shares, representing 5.5 per cent of total equity of TV Today Network, has changed hands on the NSE and BSE. Moreover, there were pending buy orders for a combined 568,002 shares on both the exchanges, data shows. The names of the buyers and sellers could not be ascertained immediately.

In the past one month, the stock has outperformed the market by surging 43 per cent on strong set of numbers for the quarter ended September (Q2FY22). In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 1.2 per cent during the same period.

For Q2FY22, TV Today Network’s consolidated net profit rose 69 per cent year on year (YoY) at Rs 46.98 crore as against Rs 27.74 crore in the year-ago quarter. Revenue from operations grew 28 per cent YoY to Rs 226 crore from Rs 177 crore in Q2FY21.

“Television segment revenues are expected to grow at a CAGR of 7 per cent to reach Rs 84,700 crore by 2023 driven by increased base of subscribers as households continue to get televised and TV’s price competitiveness as against [OTT + data] alternatives. Subscription income would grow 5 per cent to reach Rs 45,600 crore on the back of fresh content, several marquee sports events and pending movie releases, though ARPUs may face regulatory hurdles,” TV Today Network said in FY21 annual report.

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Two of the world’s richest men, fighting over a near-bankrupt Indian retailer, have made so much noise that its board has woken up super cranky. In less than a week, the three independent directors of Future Retail Ltd. have shot off two letters to the country’s competition authority, alleging that Amazon.com had deliberately misled the regulator about the true nature of its 2019 investment in a related entity. They want the antitrust watchdog to cancel the transaction.

The 2025 dollar bonds of Future Retail rose a little Monday, though they still trade at 61 cents to the dollar. Based on what an arbitration tribunal in Singapore has had to say on the issue of alleged misrepresentation by Amazon, the maneuver looks like a long shot. But one never can predict the course of regulatory action in India. If the gambit succeeds, Asia’s wealthiest businessman, Mukesh Ambani, may be able to get his hands on Future’s retail stores after all, a deal Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has so far managed to block using judicial proceedings. A scrapping of Amazon’s investment would leave the U.S. retailer with no valid contract to stop the sale of assets to Ambani.

It’s rare for Indian boards to question the legality of agreements that they’ve been involved in. But then, the stakes are high in the Ambani vs. Bezos battle. The outcome could go some way toward determining which of the two billionaires would ultimately control India’s $800 billion retail market. This isn’t a war the directors can sit out — not with Future sinking under the weight of 190 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) of liabilities, and relentless losses that jumped 80% from a year earlier in the six months through September.

ALSO READ: Amazon never intended to invest in FCPL: Future Retail directors to CCI

The unraveling of Future, a pioneer of modern mass retailing in India with 1,500-plus stores spread across 16 million square feet, began some time ago. The $192 million Amazon paid for a 49% interest in founder Kishore Biyani’s Future Coupons Pvt. translated to indirectly owning roughly 10% of the publicly traded Future Retail, at a premium to the prevailing share price. Amazon, which gave the money expressly for Coupons to invest in the debt-laden Retail, insisted on a list of restricted parties to whom the physical stores couldn’t be sold without the e-commerce giant’s go-ahead. Ambani’s name was on the list, and that’s why Bezos initiated arbitration proceedings for breach of contract when Future brought in India’s No. 1 retail tycoon for a fresh $3.4 billion rescue after it was hit hard by last year’s pandemic.

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Cairn Oil and Gas, a unit of Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta, announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a partnership with Halliburton. A statement from Cairn Oil and Gas said that under the alliance, Cairn will work with Halliburton to pursue the target of increasing its recoverable reserves from offshore assets to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). This is a 10-fold increase from the present cumulative of 30 mmboe.

The offshore assets include Ravva, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, Cambay, on the western coast, and several newly acquired Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) blocks.

“This partnership for offshore assets will evolve through three distinct stages of conceptual design, conceptual detailing, and execution. This will include geological and seismic studies, well-designing and engineering, and drilling to determine recoverable reserves,” the statement said.

“This announcement follows Cairn’s commitment of doubling its capacity, contributing 50 per cent to India’s domestic crude production,” it added.

Commenting on the development, Prachur Sah, CEO at Cairn Oil and Gas, said, “To increase domestic production, India needs to encourage exploration of new fields, increase investment and technology for ageing fields, and also incentivise unconventional options like shale and gas.”

Sid Whyte, senior vice president of Middle East North Africa and Asia Pacific region for Halliburton said, “We believe our collaboration with Cairn and engineered solutions will maximize their asset value and increase overall production growth for the country.”

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Krafton Inc, the South Korean video gaming giant, said it has removed 2.5 million accounts in just over a month to eradicate cheating on Battlegrounds Mobile India, the exclusive Indian version of PUBG.

While it permanently banned 2,519,692 accounts, it temporarily banned 706,319 accounts between September and now.

Among the steps it has taken to eradicate cheating and cheaters on BGMI are stronger cheat detection and banning mechanisms, permanent bans, manually verifying and banning any accounts that use or promote illegal programs among high-rankers, and blocking YouTube channels that promote illegal activity on BGMI.

Krafton is working with YouTube on the removing these accounts, it said in a statement.

“If you are using cheat tools, you will get banned eventually, if not immediately,” said Krafton in a statement on its website.

It also cautioned users against sharing their accounts, encouraged them to keep reporting misuse on the platform.

Last week, Krafton launched the next game in its PUBG franchise, PUBG: NEW STATE. The game has been released on iOS and Android devices in more than 200 countries following its final technical test, which took place in late October.

Developed by PUBG Studios, the same company that created the highly successful PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS battle royale video game that has sold more than 70 million copies on PC and consoles, PUBG: NEW STATE is a free-to-play next-generation mobile game playable in 17 different languages.

Set in the year 2051, PUBG: NEW STATE brings the full, uncompromised battle royale gaming experience currently available in PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS to iOS and Android, making it one of the most realistic and technologically advanced mobile games to date.

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American tech-giant Google says that it is bringing a fix for the update to Google Photos removed one of the Pixel 6’s big features

As per The Verge, an update to Google Photos removed one of the Pixel 6’s big features: the Magic Eraser tool that lets you remove unwanted objects or people from your photos.

If you are also among those whose Pixel downloaded the affected version (5.67, according to Android Central), fear not: Google says it’s working on a fix.

Google spokesperson Alex Moriconi told The Verge that the company “identified an issue early in the rollout of [its] latest Photos update and are providing a fix shortly.” Google also says that the issue didn’t affect everyone.

The update seems to be no longer available, but it was one of Google’s main selling points when it launched the phone around a month ago.

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Tech giant Google is highly unlikely to launch a new version of the Pixelbook in 2022, a media report says.

A statement at a recent Qualcomm press event in London hints that there will not be an update to the original “premium” Pixelbook until 2023 at the earliest, reports 9To5Google.

“Next year (2022) there won’t be anything coming. In future I don’t know,” said Chrys Tsolaki, Retail Manager for Chromebooks at Google, when asked about a potential 2022 Pixelbook release.

The original Pixelbook was launched in 2017 with high-end internals for a Chromebook but has since been discontinued through the Google Store.

While this is bad news, the introduction of the internally developed Google Tensor chip might provide some hope for a high-end all Google-powered Chromebook at some point down the line.

Chromebook sales have slowed after a boom in 2020 and 2021 as the pandemic forced an exponential rise in work-from-home and at-home learning.

This initial sales increase has since slowed, but a high-end Pixelbook in 2022 would have no doubt been a welcome option for those holding out with the original model.

While the Pixelbook Go includes an Intel i7 processor configuration, it includes a touchscreen but lacks the two-in-one form factor that was found on the 2017 version. The closest on the market right now is the Acer Chromebook Spin 713.

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Tech giant Apple is likely to launch the next version of its AirPods Pro in the third quarter of 2022, media report says.

According to AppleInsider, it is already two years since AirPods Pro were launched in October 2019.

Previous rumours from the likes of analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have said the “AirPods Pro 2” will be released in early 2022. Now, though, a new report pushes that back to the third quarter of 2022 instead, the report said.

A prominent Twitter user has posted an amended timeframe with the sole detail being the change to 2022 Q3.

However, this tweet was first spotted by MacRumors and the user has reportedly told the publication that the source comes directly from the supply chain.

This claim follows a recent one which purported to show leaked images of the forthcoming earbuds, the report said.

The images, if accurate, show few design changes since the original AirPods Pro, while other previous reports have claimed that Apple will reduce the stem.

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