Good morning. Boy do we have news for you — served on a platter and picked from the best of Indian business, tech, and startups.

In this edition:

• 🔥 Don’t open a coal plant past April

• 🥡 Unicorn Deliveroo is hiring

• 💵 PwC fined $8M

MARKETS

*Stock data as of market close. Source.

• Markets: The Indian stock market opened on a positive note with the Sensex crossing the 51,000 mark, driven by gains in heavyweight stocks like Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.

LOGISTICS

Deliveroo to expand India Development Center

🥡 Deliveroo, a UK-based food delivery company, plans to expand its India Development Centre by the end of 2023. The company, which currently has a team of 140 and plans to reach 200 software engineers, data scientists, product managers, and other experts over the next 21 months.

The new hires will focus on developing new products and services for the platform, as well as expanding Deliveroo’s capabilities in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

🦄 Just unicorn things. The company, which was valued at $7.6 billion, is one of the world's largest food delivery platforms, with operations in over 200 cities across 12 countries.

➡️ Looking ahead. With its expanded India Development Centre, Deliveroo hopes to continue its growth trajectory and expand its reach in the highly competitive food delivery market.

ENERGY

New coal and lignite plants will have a 40% renewable purchase obligation

🔥 The Indian Ministry of Power has mandated a 40% renewable purchase obligation (RPO) for new coal and lignite-based thermal power plants commissioned after April 1, 2023. This is part of the country's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and boost its renewable energy capacity.

Key info

• The 40% RPO will be applicable to all new coal and lignite-based thermal plants that come online from April 1, 2023.

• The RPO will be based on the total energy generated, and not just the energy consumed, by these power plants.

• The power generated by these plants will be procured by the distribution companies through competitive bidding.

• The new regulation is expected to encourage the development of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydro power, and reduce the country's dependence on coal-based thermal power.

Other programs in the mix. In addition to setting ambitious targets for renewable energy capacity, India has also launched initiatives such as the National Solar Mission and the Green Energy Corridors project to promote the use of renewable energy. The new RPO mandate for new coal and lignite-based thermal power plants is another step in this direction.

CRYPTO

India applies anti-money laundering laws to crypto trading

🪙 The Indian Finance Ministry has applied anti-money laundering legislation to crypto trading, safekeeping, and related financial services. The move is in line with global trends that require digital-asset platforms to follow anti-money laundering standards similar to those followed by other regulated entities like banks or stockbrokers.

⏪️ The previous episode. The Ministry of Finance previously informed parliament in December that significant international cooperation is necessary for any legislation on the topic to be effective in order to prevent regulatory arbitrage.

🔭 What’s up ahead. Despite the foreseen impact on trading volumes, the government's efforts to establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in India are expected continue, along with more global talks around the effective regulation of digital assets.

INDIA EDITION: WHAT ELSE IS ON THE BIRDWATCH

• 🌾Flipkart cultivates goodwill with new pro-farmer program. Flipkart has launched its Samarth Krishi program, aimed at supporting farmers and farmer producer organizations (FPOs) by providing them with access to supply chain infrastructure, logistics, and digital payment solutions, among other benefits

• 🧪 IOC to flip Haldia refinery to petrochemical complex. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has announced plans to convert its Haldia refinery in West Bengal to increase its petrochemicals production capacity and help meet the growing demand for chemicals in India.

• 📡 Jio expands 5G network coverage to 27 new cities. Jio, India's largest telecom operator, has extended its 5G network coverage to 27 additional cities, bringing the total number of cities covered to 331.

• 🍰 Slice takes a slice of North East Small Finance Bank. Fintech startup Slice has acquired a 5% stake in North East Small Finance Bank for Rs. 25 crore ($3.4 million), marking its first strategic investment in a bank.

FUNDING DEALS

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

• Mintifi has secured $110 M in a funding round led by Premji Invest, as the supply chain financing startup seeks to expand its reach and bolster its digital lending platform.

• Bicara Therapeutics, a Bengaluru-based biotech firm that spun off from Biocon last year, has raised $108M in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital India and other prominent investors.

• Annapurna Finance, an Indian microlender, just received a $15M debt investment from French impact investor Proparco to boost its microcredit and microinsurance services to underserved communities in rural and semi-urban areas of India.

WORLD

Headline Explorer

🪧 The Restaurant Group hangs ‘closed’ sign on 35 of its restaurants. The Restaurant Group, the British owner of popular chains such as Frankie and Benny's and Chiquito, is set to close up to 35 more of its restaurants due to rising running costs and customer cutbacks.

💻️ Slack to incorporate ChatGPT. Slack, the popular workplace messaging app, is set to launch an integration for ChatGPT, which uses OpenAI's GPT-3 language model to provide users with instant conversation summaries and research tools.

👓️ UK watchdog fines PwC $8M. PwC, one of the world's biggest accountancy firms, has been fined over £7M ($8M) by the UK accounting regulator for serious audit failings related to Babcock, a defense company.

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