Good morning. We’d make you a coffee if we could, but for now, do enjoy your daily digest of business, tech, and startups — all in the palm of your hand. Coffee causes palpitations anyway.

In this edition:

• 🛵 Get your free scooter part from Ola

• 💵 Government nopes rollback on high-value insurance tax

• 🪙 Euler Finance’s $1M bounty on stolen funds

MARKETS

*Stock data as of market close. Source.

• Markets: The Indian stock market saw yet another close in the red, with both Nifty and Sensex dropping like it’s hot. Nifty breached below 17,000, which is not quite what investors were hoping to see. Meanwhile, JSW Steel, Maruti, CCL Products and PVR are pinned on the watchlist.

EV

Ola is giving out a free scooter upgrade to calm safety worries

🛵 Ola Electric, the electric vehicle arm of ride-hailing giant Ola, has announced that it will offer free replacements of a crucial part on its new S1 electric scooter amid safety concerns.

😌 Why Ola thinks people should chill. Ola was also quick to forward the baselessness of these concerns, claiming that they extensively test all scooter components, especially those related to road safety.

🔧 A free upgrade anyway. In the same vein, the company claimed that the continuous development of their scooters had produced a recent upgrade to the part in question. The company therefore offered customers the option to upgrade their S1s with the new front fork, free of charge.

➡️How to avail. The new upgrade will be available starting March 22. Interested motorists would need to book a slot with the nearest service center to arrange the swap.

STARTUPS

Report: Indian startups got to bail out $300M from SVB

🛟 According to a recent report, Indian startups were able to withdraw up to $300M from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the US-based lender that had recently collapsed (leaving oodles of turmoil in its wake).

Exposure. The report tallied over 1000 startups from India to have had exposure to SVB in some capacity.

The final leg out. The funds have yet to make it ashore as all the affected would need to register at another US bank to land the rescued withdrawals and send them back to India if they so choose.

Checking in. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, met with over 100 entrepreneurs and venture capitalists (VCs) on Tuesday, assuring them of the government’s support in the midst of the current crisis.

TAXES

The Indian government is likely to reject a rollback on high-value insurance tax

💵 The Indian government is unlikely to roll back a tax plan on high-value life insurance policies despite industry pressure, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The industry’s plea. The Life Insurance Council, an industry body, has argued that the tax will discourage people from buying insurance and hurt the industry.

What’s likely to push on. The government is expected to hold firm on its decision, citing the need to raise revenue and curb tax evasion. The tax on high-value life insurance policies is one of several measures introduced by the government in its recent budget aimed at boosting tax collections.

Impact on policyholders. The new plan would undermine tax exemptions for maturity returns garnered from policies with premium aggregates higher than Rs. 5M.

↘️ Bottom Line. While the tax is expected to raise revenue for the government, it may also discourage people from buying life insurance policies with high premiums. Policyholders who have already purchased such policies will need to factor in the tax when considering the payout they will receive.

INDIA EDITION: WHAT ELSE IS ON THE BIRDWATCH

• 🔎 Dyninno India on the hunt for top tech. US-based tech firm Dyninno has announced plans to increase its tech workforce in its Indian arm by 50%, with the goal of hiring over 150 employees this year.

• ✈️ Air India ups customer care with Salesforce. Air India has partnered with Salesforce to improve its customer service operations, as the airline looks to fly high and provide a better experience for its passengers.

• 🍰 A 15% slice of the Shriram pie might be up for sale. Shriram Finance, one of India's leading non-banking financial companies, is reportedly considering the sale of a 15% stake in its housing arm.

FUNDING DEALS

Catch up on the Indian funding flows from the past 24hrs:

• HealthPlix, a healthtech startup, just secured $22M of Series C funding to bring a new level of efficiency to Indian healthcare. The Avataar Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital.

• One Impression, a marketing tech startup, has impressed the likes of PUBG creator Krafton — enough to gain a $10M injection in its Series A round.

• Gynoveda, a women’s care D2C startup, has raised $10M in funding from India Alternatives Fund and company.

WORLD

Headline Explorer

• 🪙 Euler Finance’s massive bounty on stolen funds. British crypto lender Euler Finance is offering a $1M reward for information that will help them recover funds lost in a recent $200M exploit.

• 🪟 Microsoft is gearing up Xbox with cloud gaming. Microsoft is Microsoft has partnered with Boosteroid, a cloud gaming service that will help make Xbox games a breeze to play across multiple devices. It’s still really wants its acquisition of Activision Blizzard to be approved though…

• ✂️ Another 10k to be cut from Meta’s staff. Meta is set to lay off another 10,000 employees in yet another round of job cuts, as the social media giant continues to restructure its workforce.

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