One important thing: After entering Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, and Zomato's territory, ONDC is now looking to drive in the same lane as Ola and Uber. 

• ONDC has onboarded Namma Yatri onto its platform as part of its open mobility initiative. The open mobility foundation will eventually allow customers to book rides from multiple apps and will also become multi-modal.

In today’s newsletter: 

• Accenture to layoff 19,000 employees 
• PhysicsWallah eyes big money, bigger valuation
• Techies rejoice: Metro coming to Whitefield

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IT services firm Accenture will slash 19,000 jobs in the next 18 months, a sign of worsening stress in the IT sector.

Why is this important?

Over 3 lakh of the company’s 7.38 lakh employees are in India. Additionally, the company's earnings are usually an indicator of how its Indian IT counterparts will perform, whose results are due to be announced in April.

Accenture said it is seeing wage inflation like never before, which it was addressing so far through a combination of improved pricing and cost efficiencies. The leadership said they are now looking to make changes to the company’s structural costs. 

• The company saw its revenue increase sequentially by 0.4%. Net income fell 22.46% from the last quarter
  
  
• The IT services firm expects to incur $1.2 billion in employee severance and other personnel costs — $500 million in FY23 and $700 million in FY24

Accenture beat its own revenue guidance for the quarter. However, for the full year, it slashed its guidance at the upper end, now forecasting revenue growth at 8-10%. 

• It also saw record deal bookings of $22.1 billion. 

While the management says that the deal pipeline is strong, bookings are expected to be lighter next quarter. In strategy and consulting, the company’s leadership said there is a slower deal conversion.

Read more

PhysicsWallah might just bag the largest funding round raised by an edtech company in the last 12 months. 

It will be interesting to see if this will restore confidence in India's edtech sector. The sector has experienced a lull over the past year due to the reopening of schools, colleges, and physical tuition centres.

PhysicsWallah is in initial talks to raise at least $250 million at three times its existing valuation of $1.1 billion, in what will be a huge markup for an Indian edtech startup.

• PhysicsWallah is in the market and is talking to multiple private equity investors, sources told us
  
  
• The company’s existing shareholders GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital will also double down on their bets

If the funding goes through, it will be the first instance of a test prep edtech company seeing a valuation markup since March last year, when Byju's announced $800 million in funding at a 20% higher valuation.

PhysicsWallah reported a whopping 10x growth in its operating revenue and a manifold increase in its net profit in FY22 (2021-22) 

• PhysicsWallah is currently India's only profitable edtech unicorn

This year, the edtech firm expects another 6x growth, which could push its revenue past that of its biggest rival, Unacademy, sources told us.

• PhysicsWallah is eyeing revenue of Rs 1,200 crore with an EBITDA margin of 40-45% in FY23

PhysicsWallah is raising the new round, not because it needs the funds, but rather to increase its valuation. With the fresh funds, the company will also be exploring opportunities for mergers and acquisitions, sources told us.

Great news for techies and residents travelling to and from Bengaluru's tech hub, Whitefield! Traffic congestion will no longer be a concern as the long-awaited 13.7 km Whitefield-KR Puram Metro section is finally set to be inaugurated this weekend by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Byappanahalli-Whitefield section, spanning 15 km, was scheduled to be completed by 2020, but the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has missed several deadlines. The Byappanahalli-KR Puram section, however, may take some more time.

• Whitefield will become Bengaluru's first tech corridor to be linked by Metro on March 25
  
  
• Bengaluru, which is South India's first Metro rail system, will overtake Hyderabad in terms of network length once the new route is operational (healthy competition is never a bad thing)

While the Whitefield-KR Puram route will provide some relief for techies and residents, it currently lacks a critical 2 km link.

• Whitefield - KR Puram line may be a game-changer, but connecting KR Puram to the existing Byappanahalli station may be a life-changer.

Go deeper

Ashok Jhunjhunwala has been a driving force in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship for over 40 years. He has held various roles, including being a faculty member at IIT Madras, an advisor to the government of India, and the president of the IIT-M Research Park, which has successfully incubated over 200 deep tech startups.

In an interview with us, the 70-year-old said that he will step down from his executive role at the IIT-M Research Park in June 2024. He does, however, hope to continue his work as a mentor for young people in order to motivate them to do better.

• Jhunjhunwala praised IIT Madras for breaking away from the stereotype of scientists getting stuck in research and development, but said that the institute needs to do more

• He hopes that more efforts will be made to develop inexpensive technologies that reduce greenhouse gases 

Read the full interview

After more than 15 years in orbit, the Russian space station Mir was brought down in the Pacific Ocean near Fiji on March 23, 2001.

The station, which was launched in 1986, far outlasted its five-year lifespan. Mir hosted 104 cosmonauts and astronauts from 13 countries and space agencies during its lifetime. (Picture credit: Wikipedia)

• The US Securities and Exchange Commission has threatened to sue Coinbase over some of the crypto exchange's products. Following the news that the regulator had issued a Wells notice to Coinbase, the company's shares fell almost 13% to $67.33 in extended trading.
  
  
• Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX is looking to claw back $460 million from venture capital firm Modulo Capital, which received a large investment from Alameda Research last year.

Cricket is undoubtedly a religion in India, and the Indian Premier League (IPL) is its grand carnival. Over the years, IPL has not only captured the hearts of millions of Indian cricket lovers but has also managed to woo a global audience.

As per a recent report, IPL achieved a remarkable feat by becoming a decacorn with a valuation of $10.9 billion, after starting as a unicorn with a valuation of $1.1 billion in 2008. 

• In fact, it is the oldest unicorn in the current set of unicorns in India, surpassing even the likes of InMobi (2011) and Flipkart (2012).

The IPL owes its financial success to media rights, which have emerged as the most significant source of revenue for the league. And when it comes to profitability, IPL outshines all other startups in the country.

Find out more

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