One important thing: India has told Meta it can push for innovation-friendly regulations by using its position as Chair of the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence if the social networking giant becomes MeitY’s trusted AI partner, sources tell us.

• Sources said that the government advised Meta to consider making AI investments in the country in order to 'catch' its attention

In today’s newsletter: 

• Snapdeal snaps IPO plans
• BharatPe wants Ashneer Grover's shares 
• Bengalureans taken for a ride, but no autos

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Snapdeal is the latest startup to feel the chill of the tech funding winter.

A year after filing its initial public offer prospectus with SEBI, the e-commerce company has reportedly shelved its plans given the global meltdown in tech stocks.

Last year, the e-commerce company claimed that 70 percent of its customers came straight from Tier 2 towns, and as a result, it focuses on selling affordable products with value for money all under Rs 1,000.

• Valued at $6.5 billion in 2016, Snapdeal has seen its popularity dwindle over the years as competition has increased

• It was hoping to raise $152 million in fresh funds through an IPO at a $1 billion valuation

Snapdeal is not the only company that has deferred its IPO plans due to the funding winter; Mobikwik, OfBusiness, and a number of others have done the same.

• Snapdeal's plans have changed at a time when Indian tech stocks listed in 2021 and 2022, such as Paytm, Zomato, and Nykaa, are facing investor wrath.

• Paytm, down 75 percent from its IPO valuation, has been compelled to float a buyback proposal so as to support its falling stock price

BharatPe has gone all guns blazing at estranged founder Ashneer Grover!

Not content with filing a criminal complaint and seeking Rs 88 crore in civil damages, the company has fired the third bazooka at Grover this week.

Now, the fintech unicorn has filed an arbitration plea to claw back the former managing director's unvested shares and strip him of his founder title.

• Grover holds a roughly 8.5 percent stake in BharatPe, of which 1.4 percent was not vested at the time of his contentious departure from the company.

• The company has also urged that SIAC award Grover's unvested shares to BharatPe co-founder Shashvat Nakrani for a cash consideration of Rs 33 lakh

• Grover's 1.4 percent unvested shares would be worth approximately Rs 320 crore based on BharatPe's $2.8 billion valuation in its last funding round

The fintech unicorn's 2,800-page lawsuit detailed numerous instances of Grover and his family misappropriating company funds.

• The lion's share of the alleged wrongdoing — approximately Rs 72 crore — was due to payments to nearly 30 'non-existent' vendors

• In another instance, BharatPe paid Rs 7.6 crore to 8 vendors related to the Grover family for recruitment services. However, these firms never provided those services 

• Contracts to renovate the BharatPe office were awarded to Madhuri Jain, Grover's wife and former BharatPe head of controls

• The lawsuit alleged that Grover's family used company funds to pay for a duplex in South Delhi, vacations, skincare, and appliances

Dear readers, start appreciating small wins and small joys in life!

Sorry for sounding like Thich Nhat Hanh today, but looks like we took the easy-peasy Ola, Uber or Rapido auto-hailing for granted. Jokes aside, Bengalureans are extremely frustrated by the inability of these apps to provide easy and timely rides.

It's stressful, and people in different parts of Bengaluru have told us about issues like long wait times when trying to book a ride, problems with making online payments, frequent requests to cancel, and demands for payment above the estimated fare from drivers.

When we asked Uber about this, we learned that one out of every six Uber auto driver partners has left the platform to street hail, and there has been a threefold increase in rider complaints about auto drivers forcing riders to take offline trips.

• To back this up, many of the auto drivers we spoke with said they are either taking trips on the street or have moved to a newly developed app called Namma Yatri

These ride-hailing apps and the Karnataka state government are at odds over commission fees and licence renewals. The state government at first banned such services, but the Karnataka High Court later allowed them to resume operations subject to a price cap.

• But companies are not happy with this price cap. As a result, in order to cut costs, they have reduced services in some areas.

On this day in 1987, Microsoft released version 2.0 of its Windows operating system.

It was also the first version to support the High Memory Area when running on an Intel 80286 compatible processor. When Windows 2.1 was released, this edition was renamed Windows/286. 

• Binance's Changpeng Zhao accuses FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried of orchestrating trades to destabilise the industry in a group chat with crypto leaders. The text messages between Zhao and Bankman-Fried that The New York Times was able to obtain show that key crypto leaders feared that things might get even worse.
  
  
• Coinbase, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is encouraging users to switch from Tether's USDT to Circle's USDC with no fees. Coinbase announced today that it will no longer charge fees for global retail customers converting USDT to USDC.

We all remember reading the story of Pinocchio as kids. 

But now, thanks to Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, you can witness the story of a wooden puppet come to life with a twist in a breathtaking stop-motion musical.

Pinocchio has a star-studded voice cast, led by Gregory Mann as Pinocchio and David Bradley as Geppetto.

Watch it on Netflix

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