One important thing: BillDesk is preparing to sue Prosus for walking away from the $4.7 billion acquisition deal, sources aware of the company’s plans tell us. 

• Yesterday's announcement came as a surprise to PayU's executives in India, as well as the BillDesk team and shareholders, who were told only hours prior.

In today's newsletter:

• Wipro, TechM freshers in despair 
• VLC parent takes on Indian govt
• Euler bags funding from GIC

Throughout the pandemic, IT companies hired in record numbers and prioritised fresher hires as the sector faced a talent shortage.

However, those very freshers, many of whom graduated this year, are in despair because companies such as Wipro and Tech Mahindra have repeatedly delayed onboarding them.

Many candidates who were hired by Wipro both on and off campus told us that while they had completed all formalities, they had received no communication from Wipro about when they might actually join.

• One such BTech graduate, who received his offer in January, is now working as a daily wage labourer for Rs 300 per day in order to pay off his education loans.

While Wipro aspirants graduated in 2022, some Tech Mahindra aspirants graduated in 2020 and 2021 and are yet to hear about a joining date. Despite receiving a confirmation in May of this year, one aspirant has no idea if his job offer is on hold.

Candidates regret the months they squandered and the job offers they turned down while upgrading their skills and completing unpaid internships to be eligible for higher salaries. Due to the difficulty in finding alternative work, they are currently in a precarious situation.

There have also been a few candidates whose job offers have been withdrawn at IT firms, either for alleged noncompliance during the hiring process or because they did not meet assessment guidelines.

Candidates who are awaiting offer letters and onboarding are also concerned about a new class of graduates entering the workforce and competing for the same jobs.

• The most common complaint among candidates is a lack of communication from the company, as well as uncertainty about the future.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Wipro has told its employees that its offices will be open four days a week, and “encouraged” them to work from office for three days a week. Those in leadership roles at the company will work out of offices thrice a week.

Navaratri may be in full swing, but the last few days have not been a time of celebration for the Indian government in terms of its technology policy, as two fresh legal challenges have emerged in the space of a week.

First, the Pune-based SnTHostings petitioned the Delhi High Court challenging the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team's (CERT-In) cybersecurity directives. Now it is a legal notice from VideoLAN, the Paris-based developer of the popular open-source media player VLC Media Player.

VideoLAN has issued a legal notice to the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in response to the blocking of a website (www.videolan.org) from which users can download VLC Media Player.

• The website was blocked in response to a MeitY order in March 2022, with no prior notification from the Indian government to VideoLAN.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the president and lead developer of VLC, in the legal notice, said that the blocking was in violation of freedom of speech and expression as recognised under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

• Kempf expressed his shock to have discovered VLC, an open-source media player to have been blocked by the same government which promotes open-source software as part of the Digital India initiative.
  
  
• He also claimed that the government's blocking order violated its own rules (Blocking Rules 2009), which require concerned parties to be given a hearing and notice about the orders.

VideoLAN urged the Indian government to provide a hearing and a copy of the blocking order. Failure to do so, the legal notice said, will result in further legal proceedings against the government. 

Read the story

The electric vehicles (EV) sector, particularly the three-wheeler EV automakers, must be beaming with glee as investors pour in capital. 

Commercial EV manufacturer Euler Motors has raised $60 million in a Series C fundraise led by GIC Singapore.

Founded by Saurav Kumar in 2018, Euler Motors has deployed EV fleets for companies such as BigBasket, Ecom Express, Amazon, and Udaan. 

• The Faridabad-based company hopes to sell 6,000 vehicles this fiscal year. In addition to bulk orders, it has launched franchise models in Delhi and Haryana.

The startup has allocated roughly Rs 200 crore to build a 12-acre plant in Haryana that will eventually have an installed capacity of 3,60,000 units per year. 

• Euler Motors is looking to earn Rs 300 crore in FY23, which will be a ten-fold jump from the turnover it registered during the last financial year.

There has been a lot of investor interest in the space, especially, the three-wheeler segment, despite mounting concerns of increasing EV fire accidents in India and a likely slowdown in retail demand. 

• India's sovereign wealth fund and Hero MotoCorp led a $128 million funding round in Ather Energy in May.
  
  
• Battery Smart landed $25 million financing from Tiger Global in June.
  
  
• EV charging infrastructure company Exponent Energy bagged $13 million in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in August.
  
  

Simply put, no investor wants to be left out of this rapidly expanding market that many believe is the future of automobiles.

Read: Moneycontrol Masterclass: Five most important questions on EV fires answered

Have you ever wondered how a number of coaching institutes in our country use the same topper's face?

It’s very unlikely that you can skip it since these commercials are everywhere these days. You might have seen it either in a newspaper, on a billboard, a banner, or a social media feed. However, we often shrug it off, saying "everything is a scam these days."

Some of these 'scams' are, however, harder to let go of than others. For instance, this so-called "scam," in particular, is about education, which is a very sensitive topic that cannot be ignored.

 In our special story today, we did some digging on how and why multiple education companies promote the same topper as their student. While the 'why' is a no-brainer, the ‘how’ is murkier than one can imagine, and it needs to stop!

Here’s what we discovered.

Jason Oxman, CEO and President of lobby group Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), believes the new licensing requirements in the upcoming Telecom bill could dampen competition and innovation. The lobby group has members such as Meta, Twitter, Google, and Amazon, among others. 

"..we want the Indian government to take a fresh look at the definition of regulated telecom companies," Oxman said. 

The new bill proposes to broaden the definition of telecommunication services to include OTT service providers, internet-based communication, and other services. Read our explainer.

Oxman also spoke about the upcoming Digital India Act, Data Protection Bill, and India’s semiconductor manufacturing plan among others. 

Read the interview

• Mastercard is introducing Crypto Secure, a new software programme intended to assist banks and other card issuers in identifying and blocking erroneous transactions coming from cryptocurrency exchanges.
  
  
• In a recent report, US federal regulators and experts warn that the growth in scale or interconnections between digital assets and the traditional financial system might threaten the stability of the US financial system without "proper supervision."
  
  
• Binance opens two offices in Brazil in a move to expand in the country and to grow crypto adoption in Latin America.

Think of a world trying to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic without any understanding of the microscopic life that exists all around.

People only knew what they saw with their own eyes until the 17th century. But then a Dutch cloth merchant came along and changed everything.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who had no formal scientific training, became the most famous lens maker of his time, discovered microscopic life, and is now recognized as the "father of microbiology."