1 thing to watch: It's a big day for Apple fans across the world. The Cupertino giant is set to unveil the next generation of its flagship product, the iPhone 14, along with a range of new Apple Watches and perhaps a new pair of earbuds. Here's a quick primer on what to expect from the event and how to watch it. 

In today's newsletter:

• RBI is watching PhonePe, Google Pay
• India’s 3D ride to space
• It will soon rain tech laws

Also, the private equity market has seen an unusual high-profile entry. Scroll below for more deets!

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has largely been a two-horse race - Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay - for a long time now despite 65 other apps offering the same payment system.

Now, this is not necessarily news and it has been a cause of concern for National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for a long time, although it doesn't seem much of a problem for customers itself.

To remedy this, the NPCI had announced in late 2020 it will mandate a cap on onboarding of new users for UPI players with more than 30 percent market share, although it has not been implemented as yet. Moreover, NPCI has never been able to answer how such a cap can be realistically implemented.

While the market share cap is under question, it still seems to be a cause of concern for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). At an event in Delhi, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said that the regulator is looking at how this 'issue' can be addressed.

"About 80 percent of transactions in UPI are concentrated in two entities. The United States is addressing the issue (of the market dominance by big tech platforms) now. We are also looking at Europe to see how we can address this issue," he said.

The Deputy Governor's comments are in line with RBI's views on how the presence of Big Tech players like Alphabet, Meta, Amazon in the Indian fintech space is a cause of concern.

• With Walmart-owned PhonePe and Alphabet's Google Pay managing a huge chunk of transactions for India's homegrown payments system, this falls right in the bag.

In June, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that Big Tech in fintech can create systemic concerns, including those pertaining to overleverage. RBI had also proposed a discussion paper on the need for proportionate regulation of Big Techs in its roadmap to 2025 on digital payments.

Spacecraft being thrusted into the atmosphere with the help of 3D-printed rocket engines may sound like stuff of the future, but it is happening now, and in India.

Chennai-based space tech startup Agnikul Cosmos has secured a patent from the Indian government for Agnilet, which they claim to be the world's first single-piece 3D printed rocket engine.

This essentially means that, unlike conventional rocket engines which require hundreds and thousands of parts for it to be operational, Agnilet is made in one shot with a 3D printer. 

The rocket engines are being manufactured in Chennai, where Agnikul established its Rocket Factory 1 in July this year.

• It is being manufactured with Germany-based EOS' 400mm x 400 mm 3D metal printer. Agnikul had entered into an agreement with EOS in this regard in 2021.

Agnikul is making a small private satellite rocket called Agnibaan with the aim of providing customers the option of scalability.

"One can probably come down from a 1 tonne capacity vehicle to a 100 kg vehicle. But what do you do when someone wants only 30 kg? So that's when we decided that.. we should have an inherent core architecture where the vehicle itself is scalable,” Agnikul co-founder, Srinath Ravichandran had earlier told us in an interview.

There has been a lot of dilly dally around tech policies in India for the past several years. At last, a set of these laws might be ready.

The amendments to the Information Technology Rules, 2021 will be brought in the next few days while a series of new legislation will be brought out in the next few months such as a revised bill on data protection, the Digital India Act, and a data governance framework.

"You will see these being rolled out in quick succession over the next 3-4 months. However, they will be subject to intense stakeholder consultation," said Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

• These new laws will supersede current rules. If there are any contradictions with earlier laws, they will be amended or repealed.

The regulation will be geared towards realising PM Narendra Modi's vision of a 'techade' – driving the technology economy towards the goal of accounting for a quarter of India's GDP.

Meanwhile, the industry and the Indian government have been exploring the idea of establishing internal appellate committees at digital 'intermediaries' like Facebook, Google and Twitter, sources tell us.

• Essentially, this would be a two-tier grievance redressal system where an intermediary would establish the committee at a level above grievance officers.

• If a user is aggrieved by the decision of a grievance officer, then they can appeal it at this proposed committee of an intermediary, sources told us.

The need for this stems from the proposed amendment to the Information Technology Rules 2021, where government-established grievance appellate committees were proposed as the Centre felt that the platforms' own redressal mechanisms were not working properly.

• The IT ministry later clarified that it was also open to the formation of an industry-established self regulatory body.

• Deliberations have been underway since then, with industry association IAMAI spearheading the creation of this self-regulatory body.

• RBI is "looking forward" to the internationalisation of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as they will sharply reduce settlement costs and time for international transactions.

• Kids in the Philippines were earning hundreds of dollars from a play-to-earn Minecraft game, until new rules gutted the community.

• Crypto lender Voyager Digital will hold an auction of assets next week, more than two months after filing for bankruptcy.

The latest entrant to private equity is ... the reality star-entrepreneur Kim Kardashian.

Kim Kardashian has teamed up with Jay Sammons, a former partner at Carlyle Group, to launch a private equity firm called SKKY Partners. It plans to make both controlling and minority investments in high-growth consumer and media companies.

• Famous for her reality shows "The Kardashian" and its predecessor "Keeping Up With the Kardashians", Kardashian has been steadily growing her business empire over the past few year, with one of her brands Skims recently valued at $3.2 billion.