Explained: Sri Lanka’s food shortage and dwindling economy

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

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Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency over a shortage of food. As private banks in the country have run out of foreign exchange to finance imports, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Tuesday ordered emergency regulations to ensure traders don’t hoard essential food supplies like sugar, rice and oil.

President Rajapaksa has appointed a former army general to the post of commissioner of essential services, who will now have the power to regulate prices of essential commodities and also seize them from traders and retailers.

“The authorised officers will be able to take steps to provide essential food items at concessionary rates to the public by purchasing stocks of essential food items including paddy, rice and sugar,” President’s media office said in a statement.

Also Read: Sri Lanka declares economic emergency to contain food prices amid forex crisis

The items will be provided at government-guaranteed prices or based on the customs value on imported goods to prevent market irregularities, it added.

What led to shortage?

The Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka said that the increase in foreign exchange rates was one of the reasons for the price rise of essential items.

This increase over the last 12 months directly contributed to rising inflation in Sri Lanka, which increased from 5.7 percent in July to 6 percent in August, according to data from the Department of Census and Statistics.

Pandemic-induced problems

Sri Lanka, which is a net importer of food commodities, has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. COVID-19 has decimated the tourism industry, which is one of the main sources of foreign currency in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan economy shrank by a record 3.6 percent in 2020 due to the pandemic and in March last year, the government banned the import of vehicles and even staples like turmeric and cooking oils to save on foreign exchange.

Sri Lanka is also the first country in the region to raise interest rates amid a pandemic to help shore up its currency, the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR), BBC reported.

The foreign reserves fell to $2.8 billion at the end of July 2021 from $7.5 billion in November 2019 when the new government took office. Bank data also indicates that the LKR lost more than 20 percent of its value against the US dollar in the same time period.

Sri Lanka’s dependence on IMF

Since 2012, the Sri Lankan GDP growth rate has plummeted continuously and the manufacturing output has also not seen any growth, maintaining a flatline. It was amid these fragile conditions that the pandemic struck Sri Lanka.

In an Oxfam paper titled “Adding Fuel to Fire: How IMF demands for austerity will drive up inequality worldwide” published in August, researchers studied the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on the economies of developing nations, including Sri Lanka.

The paper argued that one of the reasons that the pandemic hit underdeveloped nations like Sri Lanka harder than others is the underinvestment in state capacities and social services. This underinvestment in public services can be traced to the IMF mandates of fiscal consolidation when it approves loans to Sri Lanka. The paper also noted that Sri Lanka has resorted to the IMF bailouts in 16 different instances throughout its history.

It added that the adoption of laissez-faire trade policy, by which the Sri Lankan government did not apply any tariffs on imports or exports, could also be one of the reasons for the current economic crises.

While it is not the only country to be impacted by the pandemic, industrialised nations like Japan, Korea and China could mobilise their resources to fight the pandemic better than services and tourism dependent economies like Sri Lanka.

Currently, Sri Lanka is facing a surge in COVID-19 cases that has severely impacted the tourism sector in the island nation. The government has also declared a 16-day curfew until September 6.

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Bharat Biotech aims to deliver 3.5 crore Covaxin doses in September, likely to scale up to 5 crore by October

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

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At a time when several experts raised questions on the availability of Covaxin vaccine against the coronavirus disease and the slow-paced manufacturing, Bharat Biotech’s CMD Dr. Krishna Ella in an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18 said that the company is soon going to scale up the production from current two crore doses in August to 3.5 crore doses in September.

National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI) chief, Dr. NK Arora had recently told CNBCTV-18 that September is likely to be “game-changer” for Covaxin with supply touching 10 crore per month. However, this looks like a tall claim as contradictory to him, Ella shared that if all goes well, the pharmaceutical firm will be able to ramp up production to 10 crore doses per month by December.

That is much later than the timeline shared by Dr Arora, who headers the government’s vaccine advisory group.

“Inactivated vaccine is one of the toughest vaccine to produce in the world. We are doing our best. We geared up Hyderabad, now Ankaleshwar and Bangalore. Bangalore little let down us, but now it is back in action. Most important is that we need good facility and good human resource. In September, we are going to do 3.5 crore doses of Covaxin. And by October we are going to reach 5 crore, by what we had anticipated, it got delayed,” Ella told said.

He added that Bharat Biotech has got the license for both drug substance and fill and finish, so it is doing both in Ankalswar. In Bangalore, the firm only has drug substance and not fill and finish, so drug substance will move either to Ankaleswar or to Hyderabad for fill and finish.

Enlisting the challenges the company is facing leading to delay in production, Ella said, “There is a lot of human resource crunch, training needs to be done. Human resource is equally important as a lot of virology is involved, more than 200 tests need to be done for quality control.”

Meanwhile, talking on the technology transfer that the company is doing to ensure more companies can begin manufacturing Covaxin to help India fight the pandemic, Ella said, it is not easy to do technology transfer and ask someone to produce as it is a highly skill-oriented job. “Everyone is asking me to do technology transfer, yes I am doing that, but their capacities are very miniscule and a lot of them do not have good human resource to get into the program. We are doing both training of human resource and doing the technology transfer also,” he explained.

The government had earlier announced that as part of its policy to augment the domestic production of COVID-19 vaccine, it has proactively encouraged Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) as well as private companies to enter into technology transfer agreements with Indian vaccine manufacturers.

Two Central government PSUs, namely Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) and BIBCOL have entered into a technology transfer agreement with Bharat Biotech. In addition, one state government undertaking Haffkine Institute, has also entered into an agreement with Bharat Biotech.

All these technology transfer agreements have been actively promoted and assisted by the Central government, which has also extended substantial financial assistance to all the 3 Undertakings. As a result of the proactive intervention, Indian Immunologicals Limited will be in a position to start production of Covaxin from September while Haffkine Institute and BIBCOL will begin production from November.

The government currently engaged in proactive dialogue with Bharat Biotech and some other PSUs as well as private companies to execute technology transfer agreements. This would further enhance and augment the production of Covaxin in the country.

Commenting on the tie up and the firm’s ability to augment manufacturing of the vaccine, Ella said that “We are very much interested in the country, it is not that we are selfish people and we want to make just money. We want to be in the business and we want the people on the other side to be able to absorb the technology.”

He added the pharma firm is working with a lot of other companies like Haffkine, BIBCOL, Indian immunologicals, and if all of them come well and partner to produce the doses, the 10 crore doses by December target should be achievable.

Bharat Biotech had in May end said that is has submitted an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) application with the World Health Organization (WHO) and expects the regulatory approvals by the July-September quarter.

Commenting on the additional information sought by WHO, Ella said, “We are a private company in India, where we have done everything ourself, right from development to trials, of course ICMR and NIV helped us. But all the trials were done by ourself, so do not compare us with multi nationals like Pfizer, Moderna or an Astra Zeneca. We are an Indian company, we are learning the game, meeting the global standards. We have answered all the questions WHO asked, it is a procedural issue now. They will go through the document, they will ask questions, we are happy to answer them , whatever they asked we have answered all of them.”

Apart from the currently available injectable dose of Covaxin, Bharat Biotech is also working on introducing a nasal vaccine, which is currently under trials. Ella shared further details on the vaccine and if it will be made available for children. He said, “We have not tested the nasal vaccine on children , it is only for adults and Phase2 and 3 trials are going on right now. We will come back on trying the nasal on the children after seeing the success of nasal vaccine on adults.”

He added that Covaxin trials, both Phase 2 and 3, for children between 2 and 18 years have just got completed. The blood samples are now going back to the plant to be analysed. By September end the the vaccine maker will be able to submit the dossier to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) with all the data points on trials on children, he said.

According to Ella, Bharat Biotech is the “first company to do the trial on children between 2-18 yrs, safety profile data has been submitted to DCGI, It is probably the best and safest for children.”

Bharat Biotech is also working on another innovation, in which it plans to experiment with a two dose vaccine, where one dose will be nasal and the other will be the injectable Covaxin. Ella said, “It is for the first time in the world that we are able to do a clinical trial like this. Give us 2 months time, we will be able to tell you whether it is working or not working.”

He said if it works, then it is a revolutionary concept, because dose one will be injectable protecting lower lungs and down and then the second dose will be nasal, which will help in stopping the transmission.

“So this is a new research. Give us the time to understand the science. Unless we know the patients and till the clinical data comes out I cannot answer any questions. Certainly, this is a radical thinking. We are thankful to the regulatory authorities to allow us to carry out such clinical research, to look at this positively,” Ella said.

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Paytm to transfer online payments business to subsidiary

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

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Digital payments and financial company Paytm is looking to hive off its payment aggregator business into a new subsidiary Paytm Payments Services Limited, according to a notice sent to shareholders for approval.

The company is seeking approval of the same from its shareholders through an extraordinary general meeting on September 23.

“To consider and approve transfer of Payment Aggregator business to Paytm Payments Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, to comply with Reserve Bank of India guidelines, being considered as sale of undertaking,” the EGM notice issued on August 31 said. The new entity will include Paytm’s online payment gateway business.

RBI guidelines for regulation of payment aggregators (PAs) requires their business to be regulated and run by a separate company, after obtaining the license from RBI. Indicative book value of the new entity is in the range of Rs 275-350 crore which will be paid to the parent firm One9 Communications (OCL) in five equal annual installments.

Also Read: IT ministry joins hands with Paytm to support deep-tech startups

The actual consideration will be the derived basis book value appearing as of August 31, 2021. OCL’s Paytm provides digital and payment services to 33.3 crore consumers and over 2.1 crore merchants, as on March 31, 2021.

The company has reported gross merchandise value of over Rs 4 lakh crore for the financial year 2020-21. The company is likely to launch its Rs 16,600 crore-IPO in October for which it has already filed draft papers with SEBI.

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RBI imposes Rs 25 lakh penalty on Axis Bank

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

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The RBI on Wednesday said it has imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on Axis Bank Limited for contravention of certain provisions of Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.

The RBI said a scrutiny was carried out during February and March 2020 in a customer account maintained with Axis Bank, and it was observed that the bank had “failed to comply” with directions contained in the Reserve Bank of India KYC Direction, 2016.

“…the bank failed to monitor/carry out ongoing due diligence in the said account to ensure that the transactions were consistent with its knowledge about the customer, customer’s business and risk profile,” it said in a statement. A notice was issued to the bank, advising it to show cause why the penalty should not be imposed on it for contravention of the directions.

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After considering the reply to the notice and oral submissions made during the personal hearing, the RBI said it “came to the conclusion that the charge of contravention of/non-compliance with the aforesaid RBI directions was substantiated” and warranted imposition of monetary penalty. The RBI, however, added that the penalty is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.

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India’s economic fundamentals in good position to withstand tapering, says CEA Subramanian

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

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As the Indian economy grew by 20.1 percent on a low base in Q1FY22, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian on Tuesday said the figures are indicative of economic recovery.

“Q1 GDP reaffirms the government’s prediction of an imminent V-shaped recovery,” Subramanian said, adding that India’s economic fundamentals are much better now and it is expected that the economy will be in a very good position to withstand taper tantrum.

In an exclusive interview with Shereen Bhan and Latha Venkatesh, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser said fiscal deficit is lower because of Rs 5 lakh crore additional revenue that has come in. He highlighted that governments focus is to ensure spending is well directed to get bank for the buck.

“The fiscal deficit is lower because Rs 5 lakh crore additional revenue has come and that is the primary reason why the fiscal deficit is lower. So I do not read that as caution, I read that as us following what we projected in the Budget for both capital expenditure and revenue expenditure. One of the key aspects that we have focused on is to ensure that the spending is well-directed. The reason our macro fundamentals are looking so good now is because we have not spent just because there is money to spend, it has to be well directed so that it generates a bank for the buck.”

Also Read: Government intends to spend strongly on infrastructure, says Sanjeev Sanyal

He expects inflation to stay between 5-6 percent till December.

Also Read: No positive surprises on Q1FY22 GDP; experts discuss reasons

“I expect going forward up until the month of December inflation to stay between 5-6 percent. Compared to the global financial crisis period when inflation was in double digits, we now have inflation at 6.1 percent over the last one year. So we have to keep these aspects in mind because the counterfactual is this is all because of the supply side measures that have been taken. In the global financial crisis response was only demand driven, no supply side measures and that is why you had double digit inflation but now because of the supply side measures, despite the lockdowns, we have kept inflation between 5-6 percent. So I do think that the policy has really played out the way we would expect it to on the inflation front.”

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Coal India production rises 15% to 43 million tonnes

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

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State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) produced 42.6 million tonnes of coal in August, registering an increase of 14.6 percent over the corresponding month of the previous fiscal.

The rise in production comes at a time when there are reports of thermal power generation units across the country grappling with coal shortages.

Coal India produced 37.2 million tonnes of coal in August last fiscal, the maharatna firm said in a filing to BSE.

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Coal production by CIL also increased to 209.2 million tonnes in the April-August period of the current fiscal, over 195.5 million tonnes of coal produced in the year-ago period.

Coal India accounts for over 80 percent of domestic coal output.

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Top news of Sep 1: Automakers post robust sales growth, ICICI Bank shares hit record high and more

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

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The Centre has hiked the price of non-subsidized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder Rs 25 per cylinder with effect from today. The demand for air travel has shown a slow but consistent recovery over the last three months with daily passenger traffic in August rising to an average of over two lakh passengers. Maruti Suzuki India, the largest passenger car maker, on Wednesday reported a total sales of 130,699 units in August 2021. For all these stories and everything in between, here are some top news of the day.

ECONOMY

IHS Markit India PMI stands at 52.3 in August; manufacturing sector activities moderate

MARKET

ICICI Bank market value tops Rs 5 lakh crore, second Indian lender to hit milestone

Subscription update: Day 1 of bidding for Ami Organics and Vijaya Diagnostics

Ami Organics’ initial public offer (IPO) was oversubscribed (1.81 times) on Wednesday — the first day of the bidding process. On the contrary, The IPO of Hyderabad-based diagnostic chain operator Vijaya Diagnostic Centre has been subscribed 30 percent on the first day of bidding.

Maruti Suzuki total August sales rise nearly 5% to 1.30 lakh units

Maruti Suzuki India, the largest passenger car maker, on Wednesday reported a total sales of 130,699 units in August 2021. It clocked a growth of 4.8 percent this month, as compared to 124,624 units sold in the same month last year. Analysts in a CNBC-TV18 poll had expected the carmaker to post sales of 1.33 lakh units in August 2021. Continue reading

YOU & ME

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G launched in India; price starts at Rs 35,999 

Google Search, Maps and Assistant to now offer detailed info on vaccine availability 

Google on Wednesday said users will be able to get more information about vaccine availability and appointments for over 13,000 locations in the country across its three products – Search, Maps and Assistant – starting this week. For more information, click here.

Microsoft to offer free upgrade to Windows 11 from October 5 

INTERNATIONAL

US committed to safe passage for last 100-200 Americans left in Afghanistan: Joe Biden

Speaking at the White House, Joe Biden told reporters that most of those people were dual citizens and longtime residents, who had earlier decided to stay in the country given their family roots in Afghanistan. Continue Reading

OPEC+ raises 2022 oil demand growth forecast

On Tuesday, OPEC+ experts revised the 2022 oil demand growth forecast to 4.2 million bpd, up from a previous 3.28 million bpd, potentially building the case for higher output in future. Continue Reading

Does China really have the upper hand in Afghanistan?

China has at least two challenges before it with implications for its security. One, in managing the Taliban itself, and the other in terms of impact on its other neighbours. Continue Reading

INDIA

IMD revises down rainfall in June-September to 96% from 101%

While India is likely to receive above-average rainfall in September, monsoon rains continued to be weak in July and August. Overall rains were 9 percent below average since the four-month rainy season began in June. Continue Readiing

Bharat Biotech aims to produce 10 crore Covaxin doses by December, says CMD Krishna Ella

India has administered almost 66 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses so far. Of these, the share of Serum Institute’s Covishield stands at around 57.5 crore while Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin’s share is less than 8 crore. Continue Reading

August auto sales: Commercial vehicles see improvement; tractor demand inching up

The auto sales for the month of August have been a mixed bag. However, there is some recovery in the economy, things are opening up, construction activity has picked up and that is reflected in the numbers. Continue Reading

ALSO READ | Economy grows 20.1% in Q1; here’s what experts make out of the number 

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

FUNDING RUNDOWN: Skit raises $23 mn in Series B, Picsart now a unicorn, Tiger Global in talks to fund Apna at $1B+ valuation

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

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Here are the top deals locked in the startup universe.

Picsart turns unicorn with $130-mn funding led by SoftBank

Picsart, a photo and video editing app, turned unicorn after SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $130-million funding round, valuing the company at over $1 billion.

Venture capital firms GSquared and Tribe Capital also took part in the Series C round, along with existing investors Sequoia Capital, DCM, Graph and Siguler Guff

With more than 150 million monthly active users spanning 180 countries, Picsart has raised $195 million in capital since its launch in 2012 and recorded more than $100 million in annual revenue run rate.

Picsart was also among the top 20 apps in terms of worldwide downloads on Google Play in the first quarter of 2021, according to a report by analytics firm SensorTower.

The company said funds raised from the latest round will be used for acquisitions, developing user tools and for expanding its artificial intelligence-driven technology. The company plans to hire up to 100 employees for its India operations.

Apna in talks to raise fresh round at over $1-bn valuation: Report

Professional networking platform Apna is in late-stage talks to raise a new round that is likely to push the company’s valuation to over $1 billion, according to Entrackr.

Tiger has been in conversation to lead over $100 million in Apna. Existing backers Lightspeed, Sequoia, Insight Partners will also double their stake in the company, the report added.

This is the third round of funding for the Bengaluru-based startup in 2021. It has already raised $12.5 million Series A in March and $70 million Series B in June.

With the fresh round, Apna will gain the status of a unicorn. So far, the Indian startup ecosystem has seen 26 unicorns this calendar year.

Skit raises $23 mn in Series B led by WestBridge Capital

Voice AI company Skit (formerly called Vernacular.ai) has secured $23 million as part of its Series B funding, led by WestBridge Capital.

Kalaari Capital, Exfinity Ventures, AngelList syndicate led by Aaryaman Vir Shah from Prophetic Ventures, and LetsVenture syndicate led by Sense AI too participated in the funding round.

The capital will be used for sales and marketing, building delivery capabilities and R&D. The company plans to scale operations in both Indian and global markets.

“We want our product to be the best in the segment and we want to build the technology further. In South East Asia and the US we are investing in expansion,” said Sourabh Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, Skit.

The fundraise follows a Series A round last May, led by Exfinity Ventures and Kalaari Capital, AngelList, with IAN Fund and LetsVenture also participating. The latest funding brings the startup’s total raise to $30 million.

Skit claims to have increased its revenue and customer growth by over 4x, building a strong partner network across industries such as banking, insurance, ecommerce, consumer durables, travel and logistics, among others.

Fintech startup Skeps raises $9.5 mn

Global PoS fintech startup Skeps has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding led by Bertelsmann India Investments. Existing investor Accel also participated in the round.

The startup will use funds to expand the sales, marketing, engineering, and product teams; grow its merchant and lender client base; and broaden services offered to their customers.

“With this latest fundraise, Skeps will continue to serve clients by providing them the next generation in POS financing solutions that can be readily deployed on their own merchant site, physical stores, or any partner platform where their customers are shopping,” said Tushar Srivastava, CEO of Skeps.

Founded in 2018, Skeps is a cloud-based modular platform, used by merchants and lenders to help identify the potential credit solutions for their customers with the highest likelihood of conversion.

Rattle secures $2.8 mn from Lightspeed & Sequoia India

BizOps automation and orchestration startup Rattle raised $2.8 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital India.

The round also saw participation from angel investors including Amy Chang, EVP at Cisco and Disney board member; Ellen Levy, an early investor in Outreach; Jake Seid, an early investor in Brex and Carta; and Krish and Raman, Founders of SaaS unicorn Chargebee.

“We are in the early stages of a generational shift in how work gets done in the modern enterprise and are very excited to build this new stack from the ground up,” said Sahil Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Rattle.

The San Francisco-headquartered startup is attempting to build software that makes it much more convenient to engage with business services. Rattle is building a real-time and collaborative “connectivity tissue” to address the nature of modern record-keeping and intelligence platforms.

The startup, which launched its offering in March, has amassed over 50 customers, including Terminus, Olive, Litmus, Imply and Parse.ly.

Rattle aims to use the funding to modernise and amp up its enterprise sales stack.

Neobank platform moneyHOP raises $1.25 mn in seed round

moneyHOP, a cross border-neobank based in the UK, has raised $1.25 million in a seed round from UK-based investors and managing directors from various investment banks.

The company will use funds to strengthen its team, pursue growth targets, venture into the cross-border MSME payment space and expand its international presence.

“This funding will fuel our mission of providing businesses and individuals with a unified platform that makes international payments and remittances paperless, presence-less, and cashless while also being cost-effective,” said Mayank Goyal, CEO and Founder, moneyHOP.

Goyal added, “We are excited to relentlessly pursue our aim to revolutionise cross-border banking for millennials and businesses in India and globally.”

Founded in 2019, moneyHOP offers HOPRemit platform which helps customers to send money abroad. The firm claimed it has seen 100 percent month-on-month growth since its launch.

Codingal raises $1.2 mn in seed round

Edtech startup Codingal has raised $1.2 million as a part of its seed funding round, led by Y Combinator, Summer Capital, Day One Syndicate, and Rebright Partners.

Prominent angel investors including Nate Lipscomb, Senior Product Counsel, YouTube; Ganesh Rengaswamy, Managing Partner, Quona Capital, and Peter Weck, Co-Founder, Simply Hired, also participated in the round.

According to the company, it will utilise the fresh funds to grow, nurture and empower the company’s rapidly growing community of kindergarten to grade 12 students and teachers. The funds will also be used to develop their proprietary platform for an improved and personalised learning experience.

The startup aims to add 500,000 new students to its platform over the next 12 months.

“Codingal plans to build a robust passion economy marketplace for coding education that brings together the best-in-class educators and students who are eager to learn to code,” said Vivek Prakash, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Codingal.

The company claims to have clocked 30 percent month-on-month growth since its launch in September 2020, and currently generates over 20 percent revenue from international customers.

Peppermint secures Rs 5-cr funding from Venture Catalysts, others

Peppermint, an industrial robotics startup, has raised Rs 5 crore in a new financing round from Venture Catalysts and Indian Angel Network.

The round also saw participation from Vinners Group and a group of angel investors led by Naveen Kumar Kshatriya.

The capital will be used to enhance the production facility and ramp up its production capacity, a part of the funds will be allocated towards R&D, the company said in a statement.

The firm will also scale its business in India and the Middle East.

“We have the first-mover advantage in the commercial robotics space in India and our robots have been tested and deployed in various sectors, including pharmaceuticals, logistics, manufacturing and hospitality. We are looking at aggressive growth and we have our eyes set on the European market as well,” said Runal Dahiwade, CEO and Founder, Peppermint.

Found in 2109, Peppermint builds an industrial floor-cleaning robot that leverages a combination of physical scrubbing, chemicals and ultra-violet light to facilitate seamless cleaning of floors.

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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