Wealth tax: Elon Musk spars with Elizabeth Warren, calls her “Senator Karen”

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk engaged in a Twitter spat with US Senator Elizabeth Warren over tax payment. It started on December 13 when Warren attacked Musk, who has recently been named the “Person of the Year” by Time magazine, saying, “Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.”

Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else. https://t.co/jqQxL9Run6

— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 13, 2021

A day after, billionaire Musk responded to Warren’s tweet by posting a 2019 Fox News opinion piece that talks about her ‘fake’ claims regarding the Native American ancestry. He captioned the news piece: “Stop projecting”.

Stop projecting! https://t.co/Kibp6aS9vL

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021

Along with posting the news article, Musk wrote, “You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason.”

In another tweet, Musk took a swipe on Warren saying, “Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen.” In the United States, the word “Karen” is used as slang to refer to a middle-aged white woman who is angry and entitled.

Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021

The spat comes in the wake of an ongoing debate over wealth tax in the United States. Senator Warren has been a vocal supporter of an annual tax targeting billionaires.

A 2019 survey by think tank Cato Institute had revealed that 82 percent of Americans—including 73 percent of Democrat voters—believe that it should be possible to become a billionaire and that the idea of forcing billionaires to pay a very hefty tax is at odds with the American Dream.

Musk has recently been on a spate of share sales, selling a total of 11.9 million shares, according to InsiderScore. The share sales have been spread over a total of 680 sales. The total proceeds from the sale amount to about $12.7 billion. Musk sold most of his shares in order to have enough proceeds to pay the taxes on his stock options that expire in 2022.

Also Read | A tale of two markets: Promoters in US selling furiously; Indian peers on buying spree  

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

WhatsApp launches ‘Digital Payments Utsav’ to enable financial inclusion across 500 villages in Karnataka, Maharashtra

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Messaging platform WhatsApp on Wednesday said it has rolled out a pilot program across 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra, aimed at empowering villagers with access to digital payments through ‘payments on WhatsApp’. The announcement was made at Fuel For India 2021 – Meta’s annual event in India.

WhatsApp India Head Abhijit Bose said the pilot aims to effect a behavioural transformation to digital payments at the grassroots. “At WhatsApp, we are committed to help accelerate financial inclusion in the country. We have started this pilot program in 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra as part of our mission to onboard the next 500 million to the digital payments ecosystem,” he said.

WhatsApp’s ease of use and reliability can promote the adoption of UPI with users across, including those at the bottom of the pyramid, he added. “We will continue to contribute meaningfully in this journey of educating users at the grassroots, so they can trust digital payments, as they gradually make the transition from a ‘cash-only’ way of financial life,” Bose said.

Also Read | RBI to allow UPI-based payments through feature phones; here’s what it means for you

The pilot called ‘Digital Payments Utsav’ started rolling out on October 15, in Kyathanahalli village in Mandya district of Karnataka, where on-ground facilitators familiarised villagers with various aspects of digital payments including – signing up for UPI, setting up a UPI account and safety best practices of using digital payments. WhatsApp said the initial results from the pilot program have been encouraging and people have begun adopting ‘payments on WhatsApp’ as a new mode of payments.

Business owners and scores of people are accepting and receiving payments digitally using ‘payments on WhatsApp’. As part of WhatsApp’s India roadmap for payments, the platform will continue to make significant investments behind ‘payments on WhatsApp’ over the next six months, in order to accelerate its growth across India.

Payments on WhatsApp is a key partner to NPCI and RBI in achieving the shared objective of scaling the adoption of UPI and enabling financial inclusion for those most in need, it said. In November, the Meta (formerly Facebook)-owned company had announced that it has been granted permission to double its user base for the payments service to 40 million by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

WhatsApp has over 400 million users in India and competes against players like Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Lenskart set to close $250 million funding round at $5 billion valuation: Report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Softbank-backed unicorn Lenskart is planning to scale up globally in the next two-three years before hitting the market with a public issue, media reports said.

The eyewear brand is close to sealing a $250 million funding deal at a $5 billion valuation, just five months after raising $315 million, Economic Times reported.

The funding is not a pre-initial public offer round, the report said quoting people aware of the matter. The deal is likely to be a primary fund infusion, they said.

Investors like Temasek, KKR, Chiratae Ventures, Falcon Edge Capital and Bay Capital who had participated in the earlier round of funding is likely to be part of this one too along with two-three other funds like Fidelity.

At $5 billion, the company is seeking a valuation close to that of American online retailer of prescription glasses and sunglasses Warby Parker that recently hit the market.

“The company will use the funds to open up some more technology centres around the world, including the US, and it will also invest about $100 million in developing the US market,” Economic Times quoted a fund manager with knowledge of the deal as saying.

Apart from this, about $200 million capital will be used to set up another facility for global delivery.

“Since they operate on an integrated model — from frame to lens — they will have to build two-three plants at least, such as the demand situation,” the fund manager said.

Lenskart is also raising funds, both internally as well as externally, for its subsidiary Neso Brands, which will house international direct-to-consumer eyewear brands. It plans to have a total outlay of $100 million.

“Bansal wants to create a business that is born in India but successful globally. His ambition is to build a $50 billion kind of business out of India and he has found investors who are ready to back up his vision,” Economic Times quoted a fund manager aware of the Lenskart round of funding.

Lenskart will also acquire brands from overseas, including fashion houses, and build more brands like John Jacobs, which is now worth Rs 700 crore.

Lenskart co-founder and CEO Peyush Bansal did not comment on the development and investors could not be reached.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

HP Adhesives IPO: Issue price, lot size, dates and other key things to know

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

HP Adhesives’ initial public offering (IPO) to raise about Rs 126 crore opened for subscription on Wednesday. Mumbai-based HP Adhesives is a manufacturer of adhesives and sealants. The IPO is a combination of fresh issuance of shares worth Rs 113 crore, and an offer for sale (OFS) of equity worth Rs 12.5 crore by promoters and existing shareholders.

Here are key things to know about the HP Adhesives IPO:

Important dates: HP Adhesives shares will be available for bidding from December 15 to 17. Shares are likely to list on stock exchanges BSE and NSE on December 27.

Issue price: HP Adhesives shares are available for bidding in a price band of Rs 262-274 under the IPO.

Lot size: Shares are available for bidding in multiples of 50. At the upper end of the price band, one lot is valued at Rs 13,700.

Investor categories: Out of the total IPO, 75 percent is reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), 15 percent for non-institutional investors and 10 percent for retail investors.

Fund utilisation: HP Adhesives aims to utilise the proceeds from the IPO to fund its working capital requirements, and capex for capacity expansion.

Company profile: HP Adhesives has a wide portfolio of adhesives and sealants with applications across varied industries. The company has a pan-India distribution network of over 750 distributors catering to more than 50,000 dealers. Its product portfolio includes solvent cement, silicone sealants, contact adhesive, white glue and plumbing accessories. HP Adhesives’ products have applications in multiple industries such as plumbing and sanitary, drainage and water distribution, general construction and interior operations.

Financials: The company’s net profit stood at Rs 10.1 crore in FY21, as against a net loss of Rs 4.7 crore in the previous year. Revenue from operations was at Rs 118.2 crore in FY21, as against Rs 84.5 crore in FY20.

Catch latest stock market updates here

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Juspay raises $60 million from Softbank Vision Fund

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Juspay Technologies has announced it raised $60 million in Series C funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from existing investors VEF and Wellington Management.

Founded in 2012, Juspay processes 11 million transactions per day, including those for leading merchants like Amazon, Flipkart and Swiggy.

The company’s offerings include Juspay Safe, a payment browser that simplifies payment authentication, HyperSDK, a payments SDK distribution installed across 250 million mobile phones, and Express Checkout, a payments orchestration platform to boost transaction success rates.

“Juspay has been in the forefront, building foundational infrastructure by unifying and enhancing hundreds of diverse payment options in a neutral way. We believe in ecosystem innovations like UPI and OCEN (Open Credit Enablement Network) and have built a deep value-driven culture to support such initiatives. This funding will help us scale up our mission in India and expand globally,” said Vimal Kumar, Founder and CEO of Juspay.

Vishal Gupta, Director, SoftBank Investment Advisers, said, “Juspay is one of the most innovative deep tech companies in India’s fast growing digital payments market. It is solving the complex needs of an evolving fintech ecosystem. We believe in Juspay’s vision to simplify payments for billions of people globally and deliver higher revenue at lower cost for merchants.”

Juspay has a suite of UPI products for merchants, banks and ecosystem players. Its product “UPI In a Box” offers a UPI stack which powers Amazon, Cred, Swiggy and others. It also offers On-Cloud UPI PSP which powers the UPI stack for banks like Axis Bank and Yes Bank.

Juspay intends to invest the funds in technology and product development to scale its business in payments and product adjacencies like credit both in India and globally. Avendus Capital has advised Juspay in this funding round.

Juspay counts Amazon, Flipkart, Cred, Swiggy, Tata, Airtel, Vodafone, Jio, ICICI Prudential, BigBasket, PharmEasy, Ola, Uber, MPL, UrbanCompany, Digit, Acko, MakeMyTrip, RedBus, BookMyShow, PhonePe and Unacademy among others as its customers.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 11, iPhone SE available on sharp discounts on Flipkart Big Saving Days sale; check details

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Omicron threat: Fortis Healthcare, Narayana Health say India better prepared; oxygen infra ready

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

At a time when the number of cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has surged past 40 in India and several experts suggest the cases are going to spike further, two major hospital companies Fortis Healthcare and Narayana Health are of the view that the nation is better prepared to deal with the fresh wave, if any.

Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD and CEO at Fortis Healthcare, told CNBC-TV18 that he is not witnessing any increase in the number of cases as of now. He said that non-COVID occupancies have gradually improved and are near normal levels. Nonetheless, oxygen infra has been prepared and the availability of drugs and pharma is better too, he said.

Viren Shetty, ED and Group COO of Narayana Health too said he is not seeing many COVID-19 patients as of now. However, there have been a lot of queries on booster doses.

Also Read: Global hotel cancellations rise ahead of holidays due to Omicron, says Trivago

Earlier on Tuesday, a large-scale analysis in South Africa was released, according to which a two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination provides just 33 percent protection against infection by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, but 70 percent protection against hospitalisation.

Speaking about vaccines, Shetty said some people who have recently travelled have got booster doses. However, it is likely that a large number of people have antibodies to fight the disease.

Also Read: India needs to set policy for boosters as Omicron cases likely to rise significantly, says Dr Shahid Jameel

Raghuvanshi, on the other hand, reflected on the business aspect of vaccines and said that revenue from vaccination has been low. He acknowledged that the immunisation campaign was a social programme and not necessarily a revenue driver.

Watch the accompanying video for more details 

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Shriram Properties IPO share allotment likely today. Here’s how to check status

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Shriram Properties is likely to finalise the share allotment for its initial public offering (IPO) today. The affordable housing developer had fixed the price band at Rs 113-118 per share for the public issue. The issue had opened for bidding on December 8 and closed on December 10. It is expected to list on the exchanges on December 20.

The company will announce its share allotment today and those who applied for the public issue can check the status on the registrar’s website as well as on the BSE website.

The status will only appear if the details are entered correctly. In the case of non-allotment, the blocked amount will be refunded to your bank account.

Here’s how you can check the allotment status:

Through the website of registrar – Link Intime

1) Visit the website: https://www.linkintime.co.in/IPO/public-issues.html

2) Select IPO name from the dropdown

3) Enter application number or DP ID/Client ID or PAN

4) In the case of application number, select application type (ASBA or NON-ASBA) and ‘Enter Application Number’. In the case of DPID/Client ID, select Depository “NSDL or CDSL” and enter “DP ID/Client ID”.

5) Enter ‘Captcha’ and submit

On BSE:

1) Visit the website: https://www.bseindia.com/investors/appli_check.aspx.

2) Select ‘Equity’ and then from the dropdown, select issue name

3) Enter your application number and PAN

4) Click on the “Search” button

After the allotment is finalised, unsuccessful bidders will get their funds back on December 16 and the successful investors will get the shares on December 17.

The issue received a good response from the investors and was oversubscribed by the final day of bidding. The offer has received bids for 13.5 crore equity shares against the IPO size of 2.9 crore equity shares. The portion reserved for retail investors has been subscribed 12.72 times while that for non-institutional investors 4.82 times, as per the subscription data available on the exchanges.

On the grey market, the shares of Shriram Properties are trading at a premium of Rs 15 to the issue price, as per data from IPO Watch.

Stay tuned with stock market updates

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow