Earnings watch: IT services company Tech Mahindra saw a 24.8% sequential decline in profit to 1,132 crore for the quarter ended June 2022 from Rs 1,506 crore in the previous quarter, due to pressure in margin performance amid wage hikes and increase in travel and visa costs. Revenue grew 5% sequentially to Rs 12,708 crore.

• Attrition rate declined to 22% for the quarter as compared to 24% in the previous quarter. The firm added 6,862 new hires in Q1, taking its total headcount to 158,035. 

In today's newsletter:

• Zomato's stock hits all-time low
• Digit Insurance's IPO plans
• Elon Musk-Sergey Brin drama

Also! We have a special series that takes you inside the coaching nerve centre of India, starting tomorrow. Scroll below for more deets

Last year, food delivery and restaurant discovery platform Zomato made news for its blockbuster public listing. Cut to today, the firm is still making news but for an altogether different reason.

Zomato shares fell as much as 14 percent to Rs 46 today as the one year lock-in period for pre-IPO investors ended. The stock later recovered slightly to close at Rs 47.55 -- down 10.37 percent from its previous market close.

• As we had reported last week, a big sell-off pressure was on the cards, given that 613 crore shares or 78 percent of Zomato's stock would be free to be traded from July 23.

"As there is no promoter, all shareholders, including the founders, collectively owning 77.87 percent who were locked-in would be free to sell the shares without any disclosures on July 23. This would be a big overhang on the stock price," Shriram Subramanian, founder and MD of proxy advisory firm InGovern, told Moneycontrol last week.

"Even when the anchor investor lock-in period ended one month after listing, the stock fell 8 percent on a single day," he recalled.

• Read: Zomato's share sale likely in tranches as lock-in for pre-IPO investors ends

If you thought a falling stock, stagnating growth and selling the acquisition of loss-making Blinkit to shareholders were Zomato's only concerns, you couldn't be any more wrong.

• The Gurugram-based company is also working hard to refurbish its dine-in business to make it more palatable for customers and restaurants as offline consumption makes a comeback.

After pausing new subscriptions to the Zomato Pro loyalty programme in May, the company is now piloting a new dine-in scheme called Zomato Pay.

Meanwhile, arch-rival Swiggy is also taking a shot at the dine-in segment. According to official communication reviewed by us, the SoftBank-backed food delivery platform is migrating restaurant clients from Dineout to its own platform.

• Swiggy had acquired Dineout in a deal reported to be around $150 million in May 2022.

Restaurants are wary of signing up for the customer loyalty programmes because they will have to bear the discounts.

"Both the platforms have been reaching out to restaurants since June to join their pilots. They are routing the customer payments in dine-ins through their apps and taking a cut from the amount paid," said a restaurant owner in Hyderabad.

The spate of tech IPOs we saw last year are all currently not looking as good as they did last year when markets were doing great. One of those you just read about (Zomato).

However, insurtech firm Digit Insurance has set its eyes on going public within just five years of starting up. That said, timing may not be on its side with inflation and recession fears playing spoilsport.

Founder Kamlesh Goyal tells us in an interview that they are working towards a public listing but will take a final decision based on market conditions after October this year, when the company completes five years.

Unlike the ones that went public last year, this company is profitable as per the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) accounting rules. Also, Goyal is an industry veteran with 32 years behind him in general and life insurance.

As per Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) norms, promoters cannot sell a stake before five years.

Crowned the first unicorn of 2021, Digit is one of few insurance manufacturers that was part of the funding wave last year. However, Goyal has larger plans – to build an insurance conglomerate.

Digit has applied to the IRDAI seeking licences to set up a life insurance and a reinsurance entity. Both companies will function as separate companies with their own management teams at the helm. However, both spaces are not going to be easy for Digit to break into – with behemoths enjoying a sizeable market share already.

"We are very conscious of the challenges any new company entering the space will face. But on the other hand, when you start a new company, you also have some advantages in terms of flexibility of how to build your operating model, your tech platform etc," Goyal said.

• Goyal predicts the industry's growth to slow down by almost half in the current quarter owing to inflationary pressures

• Health insurance is slowing as Covid-19 fears recede.

Read our full interview with Digit Insurance founder Kamesh Goyal

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have been longtime friends. However, a new development has allegedly ended their friendship.

Musk had a brief affair with Brin's wife Nicole Shanahan last year, which led to the Google co-founder filing for divorce earlier this year, according to a The Wall Street Journal report. The couple had cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for divorce in January 2022.

• With growing tension between the two men, Brin has reportedly ordered his financial advisers to sell his personal investments in Musk's companies. 

Musk refuted these allegations on Twitter, calling the story "total bs"

"Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night! I've only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic" he said.

This development is the latest on the series of reports over Musk's personal life. Earlier this month, Insider had reported that Musk had twins last year with a female executive at Neuralink, one of the companies he has co-founded.

In May, a former flight attendant at Musk's space transportation company SpaceX accused the firm of paying $250,000 to remain quiet about an incident he had reportedly exposed himself. Musk has since denied these claims.

These reports come at a time when Musk is also involved in a high-profile legal battle with Twitter after backing out of a $44 billion deal to buy out the social media firm.

• Related: Twitter says it has spent $33 million in Q2 2022 on pending acquisition by Elon Musk

The tech mogul also mentioned on Twitter today that "the character assassination attacks have reached a new level this year"

Development economist Jahnavi Nilekani, the daughter of tech czar Nandan Nilekani and philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, noticed some stark differences in maternal care she realised when she was shuttling between the US and India, and had made up her mind to give birth in India.

It inspired her to start the Aastrika Foundation, an NGO set up in 2019 under Nilekani Philanthropies to skill healthcare workers in midwifery, and later a private-sector spinoff as the Aastrika Midwifery Centre.

Professional midwifery is needed in urban India because every woman, regardless of her wealth, ought to have a right to high-quality treatment and respectful maternity care, she says.

Do read our special story

• A buzz is building in crypto-investor circles and on Twitter about Bitcoin’s stealth July rally, which has beleaguered investors starting to ponder whether the largest digital asset has found a bottom.

• Crypto platform Voyager Digital said a joint offer proposed by FTX and Alameda is a "low-ball bid" that disrupts the bankruptcy process.

• Crypto venture funding, which saw a record Q1 in 2022, witnessed the deal pace of Coinbase Ventures slowdown in the second quarter, with the total count decreasing 34 percent, from 71 to 47.

Moneycontrol takes you inside Kota, the coaching nerve centre of India where lakhs of students flock to every year, dreaming of making it to the IITs.

In recent months, a raft of changes have been sweeping across this town thanks to a high-pitched battle between incumbent coaching academies and a scrum of disruptors.

The Notes from Kota series delves into the significance of this battle, its impact on teachers and students and what it means for the various businesses that have mushroomed around the coaching industry. A Moneycontrol special. Stay tuned tomorrow!