Indian Businesses

"Overall economic activity in India remains strong, with upbeat consumer and business confidence and upticks in several incoming high frequency indicators," it said. "On the vaccination front, India has made rapid strides. On the Omicron variant, the recent data from the UK and South Africa suggest that such infections are 66 to 80 per cent less severe, with a lower need for hospitalisation. This has brightened near-term prospects and financial markets reflect this optimism."

Exports during December 2020 stood at $27.22 billion. The data by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that in comparison to December 2019, last month's exports rose by 39.47 per cent. "Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in December 2021 were $28.92 billion, registering a positive growth of 29.67 per cent over non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports of $22.30 billion in December 2020," the ministry said.

India is one of the fastest-growing regions for Amazon's third-party marketplace, making it enticing for aggregators. "We couldn't be more excited to work with Lifelong Online and, together, take our proven model to India," said Carlos Cashman, CEO of Thrasio.

The acquisition, said Flipkart, will augment its existing refurbishment business in the smartphone category. "Through the acquisition of Yaantra, we are enhancing our capabilities in a domain that is critical for the growth of the digital economy in India, as well as developing a comprehensive service ecosystem to support its expansion," said Ravi Iyer, Senior Vice President and Head, Corporate Development, Flipkart.

Besides, persistently high energy costs could subdue the rupee bulls. However, re-commencement of FIIs inflows will arrest any major fall in rupee's value vis-a-vis the US dollar. "Rising trade deficit as well as concerns over US Fed's taper measures and rising yields can put pressure on rupee in coming year," said Sajal Gupta, Head, Forex and Rates at Edelweiss Securities.

According to the report, a high-level meeting was held between top government officials and the senior functionaries from Apple. The iPhone maker company was asked to develop India as a global sourcing base and manufacture fully-built products in the country that could later be exported from India to countries across the world, similar to its operations in China.

This was nearly 4.5 times Rs 26,613 crore raised through 15 IPOs in 2020 and almost double of the previous best year 2017 in which Rs 68,827 crore was raised. IPOs from new age loss-making technology startups, strong retail participation and huge listing gains were the key highlights, according to Pranav Haldea, Managing Director, Prime Database Group.

The traders' body's letter to the Centre comes just two days after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of Rs 202 crore on Amazon and suspended its approval for its deal with Future Coupons. "CCI order for imposing 202 crore penalty on Amazon exposes fraudulent and mischievous attempts by it to control e-commerce and retail trade. No more evidence needed after CCI order," CAIT General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal said in a tweet.

Flipkart invested in Ninjacart for the third time and the fresh produce supply chain company has also been investing in several tech platforms and supply chain infrastructure over the past two years, as per reports.

According to Motherboard, the digital mortgage company's board of directors said in an email that the company has also hired an outside firm to "do a leadership and cultural assessment". The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.