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Also in this letter:
■ India will frame crypto law only after global consensus
■ Consumers in India lead intent to use ‘buy now pay later’
■ Higher standards, more road testing of imported cells must for EV safety: Ather
BharatPe appoints interim CFO; eyes IPO in 18-24 months
BharatPe board chairman Rajnish Kumar
BharatPe has appointed an executive from consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) as its interim chief financial officer, said Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the fintech company which has been embroiled in controversies since January this year. A&M was also brought on board BharatPe to conduct an independent probe which found financial irregularities.
Past troubles: With founder Ashneer Grover and wife Madhuri Jain exiting BharatPe’s management following allegations of financial irregularities, the company is in search of a permanent CFO and Kumar said the process was in an “advanced stage”.
- “On governance, we have put an interim CFO. We are recruiting a CFO; the process is on and there is a shortlist,” Kumar said.
Eyeing an IPO: Kumar said the board, management, founders, and chief executive Suhail Sameer were aligned on the company’s growth plan and wanted to take it public in the next 18-24 months. The board will be expanded with more independent directors in future, he said. Kumar said that over the next three months, there would be significant changes across processes as part of a comprehensive action plan.
Watch ETtech exclusive interview: BharatPe Co-Founder Ashneer Grover on how he was pushed to resign
Catch up quick: On March 2, BharatPe had said Grover and his family members were engaged in extensive misappropriation of funds and siphoned money away from the company’s accounts and “grossly abused company expense accounts in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles”. Grover, who was managing director at the company, sent his resignation letter to the board at midnight before BharatPe issued the statement.
Boardroom drama: Grover had attacked Kumar in one of his letters to the board in February, saying the entire governance review was a “façade” and that it was “riddled with premeditation, bias, and prejudice”. Kumar declined to respond to individual remarks during the interaction with ET.
India will frame cryptocurrency law only after global consensus
The government will frame legislation for cryptocurrencies only after a global consensus emerges on regulating such assets, Bloomberg reported. The report, citing people familiar of the matter, said that the government isn’t planning a law soon to either regulate or tighten provisions.
A global uniform approach to cryptocurrencies is needed and steps by one nation will not be sufficient, Modi said in his address to the World Economic Forum in January.
A new chapter: After years of back-and-forth, the government announced a 30% tax on income from digital assets from April 1, making it costlier to trade and bringing such transactions at par with activities like horse racing and lotteries.
Period of uncertainty remains: As the new tax regime comes into effect, retail investors and crypto trading exchanges are bracing for a sluggish period ahead, we reported earlier today.
Exchange executives warn that an even greater impact on crypto trading volumes will become visible when the 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) is levied from July. The industry — through the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council, a part of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, and startup industry body Indiatech — has been lobbying with the government to reduce TDS to 0.01%, we reported on March 15.
Industry view: Crypto entrepreneurs are of the view that if the tax laws do not allow expenses to be deducted, it will discourage organised trading, leading to reduction of liquidity in the market, and stunting the growth of India’s VDA ecosystem.
Indian consumers lead intent to use ‘buy now pay later’
India tops the list of consumers who intend to use ‘buy now pay later’ services (BNPL) this calendar year – finds to a new report which tracked shopping data across 18 countries.
The report also suggests that Indian consumers were the third-highest globally to shop using BNPL services after Indonesia and Mexico in the period between October-December 2021, along with Australia and China.
The main triggers: The crucial agents behind the response, according to the report, are an increase in digital payments, tax-free loans, and a rise in online shopping induced by the pandemic. While other consumer keys behavioural factors indicate that Indian consumers are not worried about being and debt and believe that some personal debt is normal.
Let’s break it down: More than half (54%) of the respondents said they tend to make impulsive purchases using BNPL. The report also suggests that more percentage of men (33%) opt for BNPL compared to women (22%).
Going ahead: Internet-focused research firm, Redseer estimates India’s BNPL market will shoot to $45-50 billion by 2026. It also estimates that the number of BNPL users in the country may rise to 80-100 million customers by then.
ETtech Deals Digest
Wealth management platform IndMoney and online gaming platform Games24x7 were among the startups that raised funds this week. Here’s a look at the top funding deals of the week.
Higher standards, more road testing of imported cells must for EV safety: Ather
After fire accidents involving e-scooters sparked alarm among consumers, Bengaluru-headquartered Ather Energy has said regulators need to raise mandatory safety standards for electric two-wheelers to make the battery-run vehicles safer on roads.
Quote: “At Ather, we have adopted more stringent internal standards to ensure the safety and reliability of our scooters and have thoroughly tested them for 100,000 kilometers. We design our batteries to prevent the initiation and propagation of thermal runaway (fire) than what AIS 156 mandates,” it said.
Also Read: As EVs catch fire, makers look for ways to cool batteries down
Burning issue: Videos of an S1 Pro of Ola Electric catching fire in Pune went viral on social media on last week. The same day, another electric scooter caught fire leading to two casualties in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
While Ola Electric is investigating the issue and is yet to find the root cause of the problem, other EV companies plan to work closely with component and battery manufacturers to get to the bottom of this safety issue. The Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had told Lok Sabha on Thursday that action would be taken after receiving the forensic report of the probe into the fire incidents over the last week.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Arun Padmanabhan in New Delhi and Aishwarya Dabhade in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
