1 sad thing: It's the end of the Elizabethan era. Britain's longest-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96 yesterday night, thrusting a bereaved country into a major transition at a time of political and economic upheaval.

• Here's a throwback at her major milestones and some lesser-known facts about the Queen.

In today's newsletter:

• The house always wins in tech
• Tata to make iPhones in India?
• IMF backs India on crypto

Payday for executives. Mayday for investors. That's how many would characterise the share-based payments grants that some of India's listed tech startups are awarding their top brass.

Take, for instance, Policybazaar. Three of its top executives – Chairman and founder Yashish Dahiya, chief financial officer Alok Bansal and CEO Sarbvir Singh – were granted employee stock options (ESOPs) worth more than Rs 1,044 crore in FY22 when the company went public.

• Meanwhile, its shares are trading at Rs 512 apiece, down 48 percent from its initial public offering (IPO) issue price of Rs 980 apiece last year. The company incurred a net loss of Rs 833 crore in FY22 on revenue of Rs 1,425 crore.

Of the 18 million plus ESOPs granted by the company during FY22, around 61 percent were awarded to PB Fintech Chairman Yashish Dahiya, CFO Alok Bansal and Policybazaar.com CEO Sarbvir Singh

• Dahiya was granted 7 million ESOPs in FY22, Bansal got 3 million units and Singh 1 million.

• The exercise price of these stock options were set at Rs 2 apiece.

The stock grants are subject to the condition that the company’s market-capitalisation is above $5 billion (around Rs 39,800 crore at prevailing exchange rates) on an average during the vesting year.

But, the stock options won’t lapse in case the m-cap goals are not achieved. They would simply be carried forward to the coming years and vest whenever the average yearly market valuation is above $5 billion.

• The current market capitalisation of PB Fintech is Rs 23,050 crore.

Employee benefits expenses, which include the cost incurred by the firms on account of stock options to employees, have ballooned for listed tech startups.

• For Zomato, the cumulative ESOP cost on account of such rewards to three key managerial personnel (KMPs) of the company was Rs 779 crore in FY22.

• Fintech major Paytm also saw its ESOP expenses of the KMPs surge 50 times to Rs 567 crore in FY22, up from Rs 11.2 crore in the previous financial year.

India's plan to become a global electronics manufacturing hub could receive a massive boost from one of its oldest Indian industrial conglomerates.

Tata Group is in talks with Apple supplier Wistron to establish an electronics manufacturing joint venture in India that could assemble iPhones in the country, according to Bloomberg.

• If successful, Tata Group could become the first Indian company to assemble iPhones, primarily done by Taiwanese manufacturing giants such as Wistron and Foxconn at present.

According to the report, Tata could buy equity in Wistron's India operations or the companies could build a new assembly plant.

• The new venture aims to ramp up the number of iPhones assembled by nearly five-fold of what Wistron currently builds in India, it said.

In recent years, Apple has been looking to diversify its manufacturing capabilities beyond China amid rising geopolitical tensions between the country and the United States. China's strict Covid-19 measures also resulted in months of supply chain disruptions for the Cupertino tech giant.

• India has emerged as a key alternative for Apple, with the iPhone maker reportedly narrowing the production gap between both the countries to about two months from the traditional six to nine months period.

Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran has previously said that electronics and high-tech manufacturing are key focus areas for the company, with the market opportunity pegged at about $1 trillion.

• The group acquired a majority stake in telecom product major Tejas Networks in July last year.

For a long time, India's banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been in favour of banning cryptocurrencies in its entirety, including the trading that is currently permissible.

• Since the past two years, the Government has been working on a bill to regulate the space, but with no timeline in sight, it has often seemed like policymakers themselves are unsure of what route to take.

Meanwhile, the government’s decision to just impose a hefty tax without regulating the space has drawn criticism from the whole crypto community. Many have also questioned RBI’s stance asking how a global phenomenon such as crypto be banned.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had recently said that RBI's plans will require global support to be effective. It seems like we have the first green signal of global support.

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18, International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that her thoughts align with India's with regard to crypto regulations and that the pros and cons must be balanced.

"India is right to call on the IMF for regulations so crypto does not become like the wild, wild west" she said, adding that the IMF will dedicate a team to work on balancing the pros and cons of cryptocurrencies.

The IMF Chief laid down how India can play an important role in driving dialogue at a global level and elaborated on IMF's plans to support India's views to manage the growing worries arising from cryptocurrencies.

• On India's role, she said that India will be speaking on behalf of all emerging markets on a global platform and the IMF will be supporting it.

• Secondly, she added that India was right to seek IMF's support because cryptos remain unregulated in a rapidly changing digital world. In her view, the space needs to be regulated to be able to manage risks.

• Lastly, she said that India can play a major role in debt sustainability and advancing the work.

• Mysten Labs, a platform that provides infrastructure to accelerate web3 adoption, raised $300 million in a funding round led by cryptocurrency exchange FTX, valuing the firm at more than $2 billion.

• Blockchain gaming developer Animoca Brands has raised $110 million from investors. The company has invested in more than 340 companies to build its vision of a "metaverse" based around blockchain technology, in which users can buy and trade digital assets in the form of NFTs.

• Companies that help facilitate transactions in the cryptocurrency market should register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just like other market intermediaries, the agency’s chair Gary Gensler said.

Marvel fans are in for a treat this week! The fourth solo Thor movie "Thor: Love and Thunder" has finally made it to streaming platforms.

Starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, the movie is perhaps the silliest and the funniest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. What's also worth watching out for is how Natalie Portman's character Jane Foster becomes the female version of the hammer-wielding god the Mighty Thor.

Watch on Disney+ Hotstar