One important thing: 2 penalties in 2 weeks. That is the Competition Commission of India's current hit rate against tech giant Google. 

The country's competition watchdog has fined Google Rs 936.44 crore for abusing its dominant position with regard to its Play Store policies. This comes a week after it imposed a penalty of Rs 1,337.76 crore for antitrust practices related to Android mobile devices ecosystems.

In today’s newsletter: 

• What Rishi 'Raj' means for India 
• Nothing is easy for PharmEasy
• Now, Byju’s to stop biz in Thiruvananthapuram

Rishi Sunak shattered many glass ceilings when he became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid challenging times. He is the first non-white, Indian-origin, Hindu PM to occupy 10 Downing Street, a feat that no doubt will inspire a generation of expats, not to mention raise expectations of Indian parents.

Any passing reference to an ‘Indian origin’ person making it big evokes instant euphoria in India and it is no different for Sunak. There is heightened interest around his elevation for a couple of reasons- his ethnic identity coupled with his ties with Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, one of India’s most prominent business leaders. 

• Sunak is married to Murthy’s daughter Akshata, who has a stake worth $700 million in Infosys
  
  
• Akshata and Sunak, who met while studying at Stanford, married at The Leela Palace in Bengaluru in 2009 and have two children

True to their style, NRN Murthy and family played it safe. No overt celebrations, hoopla or interviews, Instead he sent a carefully worded quote that conveyed in equal parts- his pride in Sunak and the fact that Sunak’s duty is first of all, to the UK. 

“Congratulations to Rishi. We are proud of him and we wish him success. We are confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom.”

It was a sentiment that Murthy’s good friend and former Infosys board member TV Mohandas Pai echoed. 

"As far as India is concerned, we can rejoice to say a person of Indian ethnicity has become the PM of a country that once colonised India. But we need to temper our enthusiasm and joy with the understanding that Rishi Sunak is a British Indian," he wrote in an opinion piece. Read more

As for Infosys, which came under pressure to shut down its Russia office the impact is likely to be neutral. Unless it gets caught in a political crossfire, where it will be held to account for actions involving its shareholder, Akshata Murty. 

Last year, it gobbled up diagnostics company Thyrocare for $613 million. Now, it is having a tough time raising even one-third of that amount.

The writing on the wall for PharmEasy is clear: things will get worse before they get better. After shelving its public issue due to choppy markets, the company is now getting hammered in the market for unlisted securities.

No big investor wants to touch the company at this point, according to an analyst who advises several HNIs (high net-worth individuals) and ultra-HNIs in the unlisted market.

• Last year, the stock was trading at Rs 135-140 a share on the unlisted market, but it is now available at Rs 30-35 per share

• Some HNIs who actively trade in the unlisted market believe that the shares could fall below Rs 15-16 levels

Rising competitive intensity in the online pharmacy industry as a result of Apollo Healthcare's rise, Reliance Industries' acquisition of Netmeds, and Tata Group's acquisition of 1MG has increased investor concern over Pharmeasy’s profitability.

• In FY22, its loss widened to Rs 3,981.89 crore from Rs 644.83 crore a year ago because of one-time expenses and charges

• Revenue for FY22 increased to Rs 5,728.82 crore from Rs 2,335.27 crore in the previous year

• The firm hopes to turn profitable at the EBITDA level in the next 4-5 quarters

Amid a drawdown on new-age stocks, the share price of FSN E-Commerce Ventures, the parent of Nykaa, fell as much as 3 per cent on Tuesday to drop below its initial public offering price of Rs 1,125 as the end of pre-IPO lock-in looms.

Byju's $22 billion edtech empire is crumbling like a house of cards day by day.

Following the announcement of over 2,500 layoffs and raising a new round with no new investors on board at an unchanged valuation, the company is now shutting down its operations in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

After over 170 employees were forced to resign abruptly, a group of Byju employees approached Kerala's labour ministry.

• The employees approached the labour ministry through Prathidhwani, a welfare organisation for techies.

Byju's employees met with Kerala's labour minister, V Sivankutty, and Prathidhwani members today to seek 'amicable solutions.'

However, no one from Byju's senior management was present for the meeting today, therefore a decision would be made next week, according to Vineeth Chandran, Secretary, Prathidhwani, who was present at the meeting.

"In this ongoing organizational restructuring for profitable growth, Byju’s is making every attempt to offer relevant relocation opportunities to the affected employees. In this regard, while we are discontinuing our Trivandrum operations to reduce redundancy, we are also offering the entire Trivandrum team an opportunity to relocate to Bengaluru," the company said in a statement.

Byju's has also claimed that they have come up with exit packages to all employees impacted by the restructuring, including extended health insurance benefits, outplacement services and garden leave.

Find out more about the demands of the employees, what caused it, and why everyone is starting to worry about India's most-valued startup.

Unacademy, India’s second-most valued edtech startup, reported widening losses for FY22 on account of a massive rise in its ESOP (employee stock ownership plans) costs.

• The company, however, reported strong revenue growth for the year as its revenue grew over 80 percent on a consolidated basis.

• Unacademy reported a loss of Rs 2,848 crore for FY22, almost two times its FY21 loss of Rs 1,537 crore. 

• The company’s ESOP costs surged over twofold to Rs 1,235 crore in FY22 from Rs 481 crore a year earlier.

Unacademy’s consolidated revenue grew 81 percent to Rs 845 crore during the period from Rs 464 crore in FY21. Read more about the company’s financials here.

• There has been a lot written on crypto and its potential. However, it is still very confusing with polarising opinions. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Matt Levine has written an entire cover-to-cover issue on this topic (almost 40,000 words), covering where it came from, what it all means and why it still matters.
  
  
• Apple Inc. updated its App Store policies on cryptocurrency trading and non-fungible tokens with new and clearer language. The Cupertino-based company now permits apps to trade in digital tokens and currencies if the exchanges have the necessary regional licences to operate in the location where the app is distributed.
  
  
• Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, took another shot at the crypto industry, criticising what he sees as centralised cryptocurrency exchanges wielding disproportionate control in the sector.
  
  
• With its institutional-grade service, Coinbase will hold $1.6 billion worth of MarkerDAO's USD Coin (USDC) treasury, allowing the DAO to earn up to 1.5% rewards on the funds. After Coinbase Institutional submitted the proposal on September 6, it was approved with 75% of the votes in favour.

It seems like even WhatsApp couldn't deal with the onslaught of people trying to send Diwali wishes or forwards about Rishi Sunak becoming the first Indian-origin prime minister of the United Kingdom. 

• The messaging service was down for nearly two hours earlier today. 

After the outage, users flocked to social media platform Twitter, turning it into a meme bonanza. On Twitter, hashtags like #WhatsAppDown and #WhatsApp started trending. 

Several users also reported that they thought there was a problem with their internet connection before checking on Twitter that WhatsApp's services were down.

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