QBiz: Google Takes Over Halli Labs; Retail Inflation at 5-Year Low
The Quint brings to you the important business stories from the previous day.
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1. With Halli Labs, Google Makes Its First Indian Acquisition
Global internet giant Google has made its first acquisition in India by taking over Halli Labs, a four-month-old artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) start-up that was looking to build solutions for the Indian masses.
"We are excited that the Halli Labs team is joining Google. They'll be joining our team that is focused on building products that are designed for the next billion users coming online, particularly in India," said a Google spokesperson in an emailed statement.
It did not disclose the value of the deal.
(Source: Business Standard)
2. Flipkart Could Offer $900-950 Million for Snapdeal
E-commerce major Flipkart is expected to make a revised offer of $900-950 million for buying rival Snapdeal, according to sources.
The new offer almost matches the initial asking price of $1 billion for acquisition of the beleaguered e-commerce marketplace, sources privy to the development said.
They did not wish to be identified as discussions are still on and the deal has not been signed yet.
(Source: Economic Times)
3. Amazon's Prime Day Generates Estimated $1 Billion in Sales
Amazon.com Inc. said its third annual Prime Day sales event was the biggest day ever for the e-commerce giant, with revenue surpassing traditional retailing blowouts like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The 30-hour sale, featuring discounts on a broad assortment of goods, generated about $1 billion in revenue for the Seattle-based web retailer, according to separate estimates from analysts at Cowen & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.. That’s triple its average daily e-commerce revenue in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The most popular purchase during the sale was Amazon’s Echo Dot mini-speaker, which was discounted by 30 percent.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
4. Retail Inflation at 5-Year Low, but Factory Output Dips to 1.7%
Factory output turned in sluggish numbers in May, while consumer inflation eased to its lowest level since the index’s inception in January 2012, prompting hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its policy review next month.
Consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 1.54 percent in June from 2.18 per cent in May as food items such as pulses and vegetables became cheaper. The CPI stood at 5.77 percent in June 2016.
(Source: The Hindu BusinessLine)
5. First Collection Numbers Show GST off to a Smooth Start
The first set of numbers after the rollout of the goods and services tax should calm any jitters about its prospects. Integrated goods and services tax (IGST) collections on imports in the first 10 days of the new regime crossed Rs 4,000 crore, in line with expectation and suggests that the rollout has been largely smooth.
“Collections would have crossed Rs 4,000 crore... Data is pouring in and final tabulations will be available in some time,” a senior government official told ET.
These collections exclude levies on petroleum and natural gas products, which aren’t covered by GST in any case. Besides, the final numbers will include collections from manual filings. GST came into effect 1 July.
(Source: Economic Times)
6. GST Rate of 3% for Selling Old Jewellery: Hasmukh Adhia
Selling old jewellery or bullion will attract a 3 percent goods and services tax (GST) on the value realised, revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia said on Wednesday. But, if the jewellery is sold and new one bought through the proceeds, the 3 percent tax paid will be deducted from the GST payable on buying new jewellery.
“Supposing I am a jeweller. Somebody comes to me with old jewellery, it is as good as buying gold. You can later claim input tax credit,” he said at the GST master class.
Explaining further, Adhia said a jeweller buying old jewellery from someone will charge 3% GST under reverse charge.
(Source: Livemint)
7. Paytm Buys Majority Stake in Ticketing Platform Insider.In
India’s largest digital payments startup Paytm has acquired a majority stake in online ticket booking platform Insider.in as it looks to take on the country’s largest events and movie ticket booking service, BookMyShow.
Paytm said the partnership would enable its 218 million registered customers to discover a wide range of events and book them instantly.
The financials of the deal or Paytm’s overall holding in Insider.in were not disclosed.
(Source: Business Standard)
8. RBI Still Counting Deposited Banned Notes, Urjit Patel Tells Panel
The Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel appeared before a Parliamentary panel for the second time and is understood to have said that he was not in a position to give a figure for scrapped currency that has come back into the system as deposited banned notes were still being counted.
In an over three-hour long meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Patel took a lot of questions but members, who did not want to be named, said he did not provide any "specific number" on the amount of money that came back to the system after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on 8 November.
The Committee is chaired by senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily.
(Source: BloombergQuint)
9. Reliance Jio Data Leak: Police Dub It Unauthorised Access, Not Theft
A day after it arrested a computer science dropout in the Reliance Jio (RJio) data breach case, the police today said it was a case of “unauthorised access” into the company’s database and “not a theft.”
“It is not a theft, even though while filing the complaint they (RJio) had stated it as a theft. Now it is almost sure that he (the arrested person) was actually accessing the data in an unauthorised manner,” Navi Mumbai Deputy Commissioner of Police Tushar Doshi told PTI.
The Rabale (Navi Mumbai) MIDC Police had on Monday registered a case against unidentified persons. RJio is headquartered at the satellite city.
(Source: Financial Express)
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