Good morning. It’s Earlybird here with your daily olive basket of all things business, tech, and startup — all wrapped in a pretty bow. Even the bad news.

In this edition:

• 🚨 SEBI bans 6 entities for front running

• 🛍️ More retail spaces for lease in top cities

• ✋ Tech leaders urge AI labs to pause at GPT-4

MARKETS

*Stock data as of market close. Source.

• Markets: The Sensex rose by 346 points and the Nifty hovered around 17,100 as mid and small caps outshone the market. The happy swingers — auto, FMCG, PSU Bank, capital goods, real estate, and metal indexes, which were all up 1-3%. Congrats to them.

SECURITIES

SEBI bans 6 front runners, sequesters Rs 2.23 Cr

One does not mess with SEBI

🚨 The Securities and Exchange Board of India has not been happy and it shows, having recently banned on six entities from participating in the securities market. Here’s the scoop:

• The regulator has impounded Rs. 2.23 crore of ill-traded gains made by the six entities through front-running.

• Front-running refers to the practice of placing trades based on inside information before clients' orders are executed, thereby profiting from the price movement.

• In detention: Banhem Stock, Ninja Securities, Kaushal Chandarana, Manish Mehta, Kashmira Mehta, and Sumatilal Mehta.

Bottom line. SEBI's ban on six entities for engaging in front-running and impounding their illegal gains sends a strong message to market participants that these sorts of practices will not just be frowned upon.

MANUFACTURING

Locally made iPhones shoot up to 25%

📱 Watch out, China. Apple's efforts to manufacture smartphones in India under the "Make in India" initiative have resulted in a significant milestone. The value of Apple's locally manufactured smartphones in India has reached 25%, up from a mere 2% in 2016.

Additional stats. Apple's 'Made in India' exports increased by 66% (year on year) in volume and 162% in value.

Meeting the demand. India's smartphone market is one of the largest in the world, and Apple's increasing investment in local manufacturing is seen as a smart move to tap into the growing demand for smartphones in the country.

The Road Ahead. Analysts expect the country to reap the benefits of the PLI scheme, and even branching out further in terms of exports.

REGULATION

Google wins partial victory in Indian antitrust case

🔎 Google has scored a partial victory in an antitrust case in India, as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) dismissed complaints against the company's use of its Android mobile operating system.

What’s been lifted?

• The CCI made a take backsie on their previous order to Google to offer third-party app shops within the Play Store.

• Google is no longer obliged to give users the option to uninstall pre-installed programs like Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.

• Google can also now resume measures against “sideloading“, i.e. downloading apps without an app store.

What's Next for Google?

Google's victory in the Android case is certainly good news for the company, but it is not completely out of the woods yet. The ongoing investigation into its digital advertising practices could result in other significant developments. However, for now, Google can celebrate this partial victory in India's antitrust arena.

INDIA EDITION: WHAT ELSE IS ON THE BIRDWATCH

• 🛍️ More retail space in India’s top 8 cities. According to a new report by CBRE, the leasing of retail space in India's top eight cities is expected to increase by 17-28% this year, reaching a whopping 55-60 lakh sq ft.

• 💰️ Gomechanic and the saving grace of acquisitions. Gomechanic, the Indian automotive service startup facing financial difficulties, has been acquired by a consortium led by Lifelong Group. In the previous episode, Gomechanic (backed by Sequoia) had fessed up over having “grave errors” in their financial reporting.

• 🔥 We’ll be sending out coal in 2 years. India's coal minister, Pralhad Joshi (and not Santa), has announced that India plans to start exporting coal by 2025-26. From humble beginnings as a net importer of coal, India will be kicking the soot to other countries soon.

FUNDING DEALS

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

• UpGrad, the Indian edtech behemoth, just raked in a sweet Rs 300 crore in a rights issue led by its own co-founder Ronnie Screwvala and a host of other investors.

• The Souled Store, a Mumbai-based e-commerce startup selling pop culture merchandise, is putting its thug shades on after raising $16M in funding. The new financing will be used to fuel the company’s expansion plans and employee buyback scheme.

• Plutus, a creator-focused platform for content monetization, has raised $280k from Campus Fund and other investors.

WORLD

Headline Explorer

🍏 Buy now, pay later with Apple. Apple’s springtime offering will be its new Buy Now Pay Later service, which will allow customers to finance their purchases with monthly installments. The feature comes complete with "guardrails" to prevent debt from spiraling out of control.

✋ Tech leaders urge AI labs to pause at GPT-4. Where’s the fire? Elon Musk and 999 other bigshots in tech, have called on top AI labs to halt the training of AI beyond GPT-4. The worried lot of open letter signatories have cited mounting concerns over our unreadiness as species to let bots take over the world (just yet).

🪟 Microsoft launches new AI cybersecurity aid. Microsoft has launched Copilot, its first generative AI cybersecurity assistant designed to make it easier to respond to threats and not get beaned by pesky malware.

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