Also in this letter:
■ Bulli Bai app: Three arrests in three days
■ Starlink’s India head Sanjay Bhargava quits
■ Zupee raises $72 million and other done deals
Delhi High Court halts Amazon, Future arbitration in Singapore
On Wednesday evening the Delhi High Court halted arbitration proceedings in Singapore between Future Group and its estranged US partner Amazon in light of the fact that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) recently suspended a 2019 deal between the two sides.
Legal standing: The long-running dispute is being heard by a Singapore arbitration panel, but the so-called “seat of the arbitration” is New Delhi, meaning proceedings are governed by Indian law.
Blow for Amazon: The decision is a setback for Amazon, which had successfully used the terms of its 2019 investment in a Future Group subsidiary to block the Indian company’s attempt to sell retail assets to Reliance.
But after the CCI suspended the 2019 deal last month, citing suppression of information by Amazon while seeking clearances, Future argued there was no legal basis for the arbitration between the two sides to continue.
A two-judge bench led by Chief Justice D N Patel of the Delhi High Court agreed with Future’s arguments, putting the arbitration proceedings on hold. If the proceedings are not halted, Justice Patel said it would cause an “irreparable loss” to Future.
“We hereby stay further proceedings of arbitral tribunal till next date of hearing,” said Patel, adding the court will hear the case next on February 1.
Appeals incoming: A source familiar with the case told Reuters that Amazon was likely to legally challenge the Delhi High Court’s decision. It has previously said it will also challenge the CCI’s suspension of the 2019 deal.
Backstory: Amazon has long argued that Future violated the terms of its 2019 deal in deciding to sell retail assets to market leader Reliance. Its position had so far been backed by the Singapore arbitrator and Indian courts.
The dispute over Future Retail, which has more than 1,500 supermarkets and other outlets, is a flashpoint between Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, as they vie for the upper hand in Indian retail.
Future had approached the Delhi High Court after the Singapore arbitration panel did not agree to its immediate demands to terminate the proceedings after antitrust suspension of the 2019 deal. It said it was staring at liquidation if the deal with Reliance fell through, as its retail businesses were hit hard by the pandemic.
3 arrests in 3 days over Bulli Bai app; Sulli Deals case gathers dust
The Mumbai cyber police made a third arrest in the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case early on Wednesday morning. Mayank Rawal, a 21-year-old student, was arrested in Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, the six-month-old Sulli Deals case continues to gather dust.
Rawal is the second person arrested from Uttarakhand in the Bulli Bai case. On Monday, the Mumbai police had arrested 18-year-old Shweta Singh from the state. The following day they arrested Vishal Kumar Jha, a 21-year-old student from Bengaluru.
The police have said that Singh seemed to be the mastermind behind the crime. She allegedly uploaded pictures of Muslim women on the app, hosted on GitHub, using three different accounts.
Govt blocks Telegram channel: Meanwhile, the government has blocked a Telegram channel that allegedly targeted Hindu women by circulating obscene photos and abusing them online, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology blocked the channel after news about it went viral on Twitter. Vaishnaw added that the government was co-operating with state police officials on the matter.
Timeline of Sulli Deals, Bulli Bai cases: News about the original Sulli Deals incident broke in early July last year, sparking widespread outrage on social media. But six months later, there has been no progress on the case. The Bulli Bai case, on the other hand, has now seen three arrests in three days.
Here’s a timeline of both incidents:
July 4, 2021: Several Twitter accounts posted screenshots from an application titled ‘Sulli Deals’, which was sharing photos and social media handles of more than 80 Muslim women in India. The application was presented as an auction in which users could “claim a Sulli” (a derogatory term for Muslim women), as the “deal of the day”.
July 5: Erica Brescia, GitHub’s chief operating officer, posted on Twitter that the app had been removed.
July 8: The National Commission for Women, citing a media report, asked the Delhi Police to file FIRs in the case. The police registered an FIR the same day. The Delhi Commission for Women also issued notice to the Delhi Police and asked for a detailed action-taken report.
October 29: The Internet Freedom Foundation wrote to the Delhi Police, saying that no arrests had been made more than 110 days since the incident came to light and that there were “no clear reasons which can explain this lack of progress”. IFF asked the Delhi Police to issue a progress report of the investigation so far.
There has been no progress on the investigation to date.
January 1, 2022: Six months after the Sulli Deals incident, the photographs of about 100 Muslim women were again listed for “auction” on a GitHub app, this time called ‘Bulli Bai’.
January 3: Two FIRs were registered – in Mumbai and Delhi – against unknown persons. The same day, the Mumbai Police made their first arrest – that of 21-year-old Jha from Bengaluru.
January 4: The Mumbai Police arrested 18-year-old Shweta Singh from Uttarakhand and said that she seemed to have masterminded the crime.
January 5: The Mumbai Police arrested Mayank Rawal, a 21-year-old student, from Uttarakhand.
Tweet of the day
Starlink India head Sanjay Bhargava resigns
Sanjay Bhargava, the India head of Elon Musk’s satellite Internet firm Starlink, has resigned. His resignation comes soon after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the sector regulator rebuked the US firm’s Indian arm for taking pre-bookings from customers without a licence or authorisation to offer satellite broadband services in the country.
Starlink has started refunding the $99 (₹7,400 approx) it had collected as deposits from each of the 7,000-odd Indian citizens who had pre-booked its upcoming broadband from-space services.
Starlink’s decision to refund customers came just over a month after the communications ministry barred the company from seeking any pre-bookings for its service as it still does not have a local licence or the necessary authorisation.
What did Bhargava say? “I have stepped down as country director and chairman of the board of Starlink India for personal reasons… my last working day was December 31, 2021. I will have no comments,” Bhargava wrote on LinkedIn late on Tuesday evening.
Short stint: Bhargava’s stint as Starlink’s India head began on October 1. He had previously worked with Musk as part of a global team that had founded the electronic payments firm PayPal.
A senior DoT official said, “They (Starlink) are in the process of refunding… somebody from their organisation came and met us a few weeks back and told us so”. The official added that Starlink is also in the process of applying for a licence.
Quote: “We want to ensure we welcome investments into the country, so refund, make your applications, get your clearances and then please do what you want to,” the department official said.
No clear signal: In a separate communication to some 7,000 Indians who had pre-ordered Starlink services, and seen by ET, the company hinted at uncertainties around the availability of its services in the country, citing multiple unresolved issues within India’s licensing framework.
ETtech Done Deals
■ Online real-money gaming platform Zupee raised $72 million from Mumbai-based Nepean Capital as part of a larger funding round, the company said. With the fresh fund infusion, Zupee has closed its latest funding round totalling $102 million, valuing it at $600 million. Its existing investors include Orios Venture Partners and Matrix Partners India.
■ IPO-bound Delhivery said it has made an investment in Falcon Autotech, a Noida-based maker of warehousing automation products. The investment is likely to be in the range of $20-30 million, sources told us. Delhivery said the investment is in line with its strategy to back ‘future-ready’ hardware solutions in its operations. Falcon Autotech offers intralogistics automation solutions, sortation systems among other services in the logistics and warehousing space.
■ Bolo Live, a social live-streaming app, has raised $4.2 million from Orios Venture Partners and others ahead of its Series A funding round. SOSV, Tremis Capital, LPA Ventures participated in the fundraising, as did existing investor Eagle 10 Ventures and several high networth individuals. The company has now raised a total of $3.5 million.
■ The Bombay Shaving Company, which has pivoted from a men’s grooming firm to a hair removal brand, has raised Rs 160 crore in a Series C funding round led by Malabar Investments, a hedge fund based in India. Patni Advisors, Singularity AMC, and others also participated in the fundraising. It also paved the way for exits and employee stock ownership plan (Esop) sales worth Rs 45 crore for some of its employees and early investors, the company said.
■ Fresh food startup Living Food has raised $7.5 million in a round led by Amasia, a US-based venture capital firm. SOSV and Blume Founders Fund participated in the fundraising, as did angel investors such as Xander Group founder Sid Yog and Nexus Venture Partners cofounder Sandeep Singhal.
■ Direct-to-consumer innerwear, loungewear and activewear brand Freecultr has raised $5 million led by Sixth Sense Ventures as it looks to make a comeback amid a rush of activity in the consumer brand sector.
More than a third of India’s urban dwellers oppose crypto law: survey
More than a third of India’s urban dwellers oppose the government’s plan to regulate cryptocurrencies, according to a survey by market researcher YouGov.
Tell me more: Those opposed to regulation cited concerns ranging from heavy taxation to a potential outright ban on non-exchange-traded tokens, the London-based firm said. More than half of people who invest in crypto are against regulation.
Also read:Defining moments in India’s crypto saga in 2021
Uncertainty: The country’s crypto industry is anxiously awaiting details of a proposed bill that could go as far as banning off-exchange cryptocurrencies. Any draconian clampdown could have far-reaching implications, as India has the second-fastest rate of crypto adoption behind Vietnam, according to Chainalysis.
By the numbers: Out of 1,225 respondents in the YouGov survey, 36% don’t want crypto tokens to be regulated, compared with 52% of those who own cryptocurrency. More than half of crypto investors said they’ll hold off on buying or selling until markets stabilise.
