Indian IT services firms may invest aggressively in acquiring smaller firms in 2017 to enhance digital technology capabilities. A large chunk of these acquisitions by companies such as Wipro, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, others will be driven by the need for transformation as…
Gurgaon gets its first start-up incubation hub
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar launched Gurgaon’s first incubation centre on December 25 during an event organised to observe Good Governance day at Haryana Bhawan in the capital. Termed as ‘innovation campus’, the centre in the city that works on a plug-and-play mod…
Govt launches portal to facilitate jute bag purchase
Textiles Minister Smriti Irani launched several initiatives, including an online portal, to facilitate purchase of jute bags from the industry by state procurement agencies with an overall aim to promote good governance. Besides the portal Jute Smart, the Minister launched a dashboard for Integra…
Demonetisation could be a blessing in disguise for SMEs
According to Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, SME sector contributes 45% of the country’s industrial output, 40% of India’s exports, employs 60 million people, creates 1.3 million jobs annually and produces high quality products for the Indian and international markets…
‘Google Tax’ detrimental to start-up ecosystem: Experts
The equalisation levy, also known as ‘Google Tax’ which the government is imposing on online advertising revenue by non-resident e-commerce companies earned in India, is expected to adversely affect the startup ecosystem going forward, according to tax experts. The levy which is at 6 …
Bengaluru based beverage start-up takes to publishing new authors
Author and adman Anand Suspi, remembers how during his growing-up years in Shivamogga he wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi asking if he ate only chapattis and never rice. “Being in South India, it was unimaginable to me that people could survive without rice. There was …
As valuations plunge, start-ups asked to shell out more in tax
Startups that have seen marked down valuations in subsequent funding rounds have been ordered to pay tax on the grounds that the first round of investment was made at a premium. The Income Tax department has issued such orders or adjustments in about 100 cases across India between November 30 and…
Start-ups home in on co-living trend
When 26-year-old Mani Sharma moved from Jaipur to Gurgaon last month to take up a job as an analyst with CarDekho, her biggest worry was how to find a decent place that she could afford. It turned out to be far easier than she had imagined.She went online, and quickly found a new concept thatR…
How start-up speak changed in 2016
The startup vocabulary of 2016 has been markedly different from the glory years of 2014 and 2015 when unicorns were born every other week, and sky-high valuations meant scale and size won over strategy and solid business models. This year as funds dried up, a number of promising startups of 2015 …
An anti-volatility shield for small players to manage risk
Amidst all policy efforts came one of the results of a litmus test, which showed India jumping 16 ranks to occupy the 39th rank on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index 2016-17, becoming the second most competitive BRICS economy. One of the factors on which countries were …