- Monday, March 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Here are news in brief related to Indian economy and business for Thursday, March 30, 2023:
Unacademy, an Indian edtech startup, is laying off 12 per cent of its workforce, citing a funding winter and pressure to turn profitable, an internal mail from the company’s chief executive seen by Reuters on Wednesday, said. “Today… funding is scarce and running a profitable business is key,” CEO and co-founder Gaurav Munjal said in the email to all employees. A spokesperson for the company refused to comment on the layoffs. It also did not disclose the number of job cuts or the current headcount, the report added. Indian business news publication Moneycontrol reported earlier that the SoftBank-backed startup laid off about 380 employees, reducing its total employee count to below 3,000.
India’s demand for stainless steel, which was four million tonnes in 2022, is projected to log a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 per cent in the three fiscals through 2025, according to a CRISIL Ratings report, ANI reported. It is estimated that the demand for the metal will be double the 4.5 per cent pace of the past five fiscals. The report attributed the rise in demand to the increasing adoption of stainless steel in railways — a focus area for government infrastructure spending — and rising application in the automobile and construction sectors.
Cryogenic liquid storage, distribution and re-gassification solutions provider InoxCVA will set up a manufacturing facility in Vadodara with an investment of Rs 200 crore (£19.6 million), PTI reported. The 20,000 tonne per annum plant will come up at Savli, and will be the company’s largest unit, according to a statement on Thursday. The ground-breaking for the project follows an MoU signed by the company with the Gujarat government last month.
PepsiCo India, through its brand Lay’s, on Thursday announced a crop and plot-level predictive intelligence model to help farmers with real-time tracking of the health of potato crop, PTI reported. Launched in collaboration with global agri-tech firm Cropin, the predictive and plot intelligence models are fine-tuned for specific crop varieties, conditions, and locations, it said in a release. The initiative is part of PepsiCo’s precision agriculture model for India and is being implemented as a pilot project in demo farms in the states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
India’s defence ministry has signed 10 contracts totalling Rs 5,498 crore (£584.9 million) with state-owned aerospace and defence electronics company Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for Indian armed forces, the public sector undertaking said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges on Thursday, ANI reported. For the Indian Air Force, a contract was signed to supply 90 units of Electronic Warfare (EW) Suite Equipment for Medium Lift Helicopter. Another contract for Akash Missile System was signed for the maintenance of two squadrons.
To scale up ease of doing business and minimise the delay in getting requisite approvals, the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh government is set to establish an Investment Bureau, chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, ANI reported. The bureau would replace the old ‘single-window’ system and would be vested with powers to approve investment proposals, said the chief minister. The chief minister made the announcement on Wednesday while presiding over a meeting to discuss the modalities of the proposed investment bureau.
The MD and CEO of PTC India Financial Services , Dr Pawan Singh, has won the title of Most Iconic CEO at The Iconic Platinum Awards, ANI/PNN reported. The awards recognise, celebrate and honour iconic excellence across all industries, as well as the most outstanding entrepreneurs and leaders within high-growing businesses. PTC India Financial Services, a leading non-banking financial company, has also won two other awards. The company was recognised for Excellence and Leadership in BFSI for Resource Mobilization and Treasury Management at the same ceremony by The Iconic Platinum Awards.
