Amazon to spin-off India unit; WazirX appoints new custodian

Hello,

Ola Electric's troubles keep mounting—the latest being the threat of insolvency for one of its units.

Shares of the company slid more than 6% after it said one of its units faced an insolvency petition from a creditor, which alleged a default in payments. Since its high-profile debut, Ola Electric’s shares have seen quite the nosedive, now down 38% from its IPO price of Rs 76 apiece in August 2024.

Meanwhile, other automakers are taking steps to offset raw material and operational costs. Tata Motors will hike the prices of its commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, by up to 2% from April, while Maruti Suzuki said it will increase car prices by as much as 4% next month.

Elsewhere, Google DeepMind’s CEO already has a timeline for artificial general intelligence’s emergence—something that was the product of science fiction a few years ago.

Demis Hassabis said that he thinks AGI—which is as smart or smarter than humans and can match them at any task—will start to emerge in the next five or 10 years.

To that effect, Google has already started preparing to manufacture the next version of its AI chips, and it may partner with Taiwan’s MediaTek to do so.

The future is here and now. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Amazon to spin-off India unit
• WazirX appoints new custodian
• Faster AI adoption in India

Here’s your trivia for today: Where does the name for the candy brand M&Ms originate from?

Ecommerce

Amazon to spin-off India unit

Ecommerce major Amazon is looking to spin off its India entity and list it here in the country, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told YourStory. 

Amazon, currently second in terms of market share in the country after Flipkart, has begun deliberations with investment banks in India. The ecommerce giant invited investment bankers from the country, while it discussed the plan with JP Morgan, its banker on Wall Street, the people added.

All the details:

• “Amazon invited 8-10 investment banks last week for a call with their management. Top officials from India and the US were present and these were very preliminary discussions,” the source added.
• Although Amazon may not be able to transition to an inventory model immediately, spinning off and listing its India unit would pave the way for attracting more domestic shareholders. Over time, this could lead to majority ownership by domestic investors, a lawyer explained.
• Meanwhile, Flipkart, Amazon’s biggest rival in India, has also started early discussions with bankers for a potential listing in the next 12-15 months.

Funding Alert

Startup: Binance

Amount: $2B

Round: Institutional investment

Startup: Chai Kings

Amount: $3M

Round: Series A

Cryptocurrency

WazirX appoints new custodian

Crypto exchange WazirX has appointed Zodia Custody as custodian as it hopes to restart its operations soon, pending its creditors voting on the recovery scheme. 

The announcement comes after WazirX and its previous third-party custodian, Liminal Custody, crossed swords after a cyberattack that stole assets worth about $234.9 million.

Moving forward:

• Zodia Custody is a digital assets platform, backed by Standard Chartered, in association with  Northern Trust, SBI Holdings, National Australia Bank, and Emirates NBD.
• In November, YourStory had reported that according to a chargesheet filed on the initial findings from the investigation launched into the cyberattack, authorities had sent two notices to Liminal seeking information but the firm did not adequate information.
• In an interview with YourStory earlier this month, Shetty confirmed that all of WazirX’s assets have since been moved out of Liminal.

Enterprise

Faster AI adoption in India

Ramesh Jampula, Vice President, IT, India and APJC Regional CIO, Dell Technologies, believes AI is a “transformative force” for Indian enterprises, fostering long-term innovation and efficiency as businesses expand and harness their full capabilities.

Elaborating on how Dell helps businesses embrace the potential of AI, Jampula says, “We are innovating at every level of the AI technology stack and across the AI estate to provide customers with a modern data centre of the future—replumbed and redefined at every level, from the node to the rack to the full data centre.”

Key takeaways:

• Sectors, including BFSI, ITeS, healthcare, education, defence and manufacturing, and global capability centres, will see increasing AI adoption, Jampula said.
• On how Dell empowers customers with the right infrastructure to support AI workloads, he said, “As the market demand for AI-enabled solutions continues to climb, we will continue to capitalise on opportunities within four areas: AI-In, AI-On, AI-For, and AI-With.” 
• “The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA speeds AI adoption by delivering integrated capabilities of Dell and NVIDIA to accelerate AI-powered use cases, integrate data and workflows, and enable customers to design their own AI journey for repeatable, scalable outcomes,” Jampula said on Dell’s partnership with NVIDIA.

News & updates

• Economy: Global growth is expected to slow from 3.2% in 2024 to 3.1% in 2025 and 3.0% in 2026, according to the OECD. It had previously forecast 3.3% global economic growth this year and next. It also cut India’s growth forecast to 6.4% for FY26 from 6.9% projected earlier.
• Gaming: Discord launched its Discord Social SDK, a free toolkit that allows developers to leverage the platform’s social infrastructure to enhance their games’ social and multiplayer experiences. The toolkit allows developers to improve their in-game experiences, whether players have a Discord account or not.
• Homecoming: US astronauts, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams, stuck for over nine months on the International Space Station will be returned to Earth on Tuesday evening. They will be transported home with another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft, which arrived at the ISS early on Sunday.

Where does the name of the candy brand M&Ms originate from?

Answer: The two Ms represent the names of its creators—Forrest E. Mars Sr, son of the Mars Company founder, and Bruce Murrie, the son of the president of Hershey’s Chocolate. 

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