Mumbai-headquartered software testing platform BrowserStack has launched a $125 million employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback programme, providing liquidity to its employees and early investors. Under the latest buyback, nearly 500 current and former employees will be eligible to sell their shares back to the company. Around half of the total buyback amount has been earmarked for employees, while the remaining portion will be allocated to early backers, including Accel. With this round, BrowserStack’s total capital returned to shareholders across three buyback programmes will rise to approximately $275 million. The company had previously executed ESOP buybacks worth $50 million in…
Author: Adarsh Kumar
India is aiming to manufacture advanced 3 nanometre (nm) semiconductor chips by 2032 as part of its long-term strategy to become a globally competitive player in the semiconductor ecosystem, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said. In an email interview, Vaishnaw said the global semiconductor industry is witnessing rapid expansion, driven by rising demand from artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles, consumer electronics and smartphones. Against this backdrop, India has made a “strong start” by approving 10 semiconductor manufacturing units across the country. According to the minister, four semiconductor plants CG Semi, Kaynes Technology, Micron Technology, and Tata…
India’s upcoming Union Budget for FY27 is likely to assume a nominal GDP growth rate of around 10%, up from an estimated 8% in the current fiscal year, according to officials aware of early budget discussions. The higher projection reflects the government’s confidence in economic resilience, even as inflation is expected to inch up due to base effects. Nominal GDP growth, which combines real economic expansion and inflation, is a critical parameter in budget planning. It directly influences tax revenue estimates, fiscal deficit calculations, and overall spending capacity. A stronger nominal growth assumption allows the government to mobilise higher resources…
Walmart Inc. is set to join the Nasdaq 100 Index, replacing AstraZeneca Plc, Nasdaq Global Indexes announced on Friday. The change will take effect before markets open on January 20, while US markets will remain closed on January 19 due to a public holiday. Walmart’s inclusion comes after the retail giant shifted its primary stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq last year, marking the largest exchange transfer on record. The move paved the way for the company’s entry into the tech heavy benchmark, although timing issues had caused it to miss the annual December reconstitution. According…
The Indian government is considering legal action against Elon Musk-owned artificial intelligence chatbot Grok for alleged non-compliance with laws governing the generation of objectionable content involving women and children, a senior government official said. According to officials, the issue centres on Grok’s image generation capabilities, which were found to produce content that violates Indian legal standards. The government is currently seeking legal opinion on the appropriate course of action under existing information technology and content regulation frameworks. “We are taking legal opinion on how we should proceed with this. Our view is that, like many other accounts on X, the…
India’s foreign exchange reserves declined sharply by $9.8 billion to $686.8 billion in the week ended January 2, marking the steepest weekly fall in more than a year, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The sharp drop was primarily driven by a fall in foreign currency assets, which decreased by $7.6 billion to $552 billion during the week. Gold reserves also slipped by $2.1 billion amid a decline in global gold prices. Economists attributed the decline to active intervention by the central bank to manage volatility in the currency market, as well as valuation losses.…
Reliance Jio Platforms is evaluating plans for an initial public offering in 2026 that could see the company float around 2.5% of its equity, according to people familiar with the matter. If executed, the listing could become India’s largest-ever IPO, potentially raising over $4 billion. Jio Platforms, led by Mukesh Ambani, is the parent company of Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator with a user base exceeding 500 million. The IPO is among the most anticipated public listings in the Indian market. In November, global investment bank Jefferies pegged Jio Platforms’ valuation at around $180 billion. At that level, a…
The central government is likely to open a new round of bidding to onboard around 12,000–15,000 advanced graphic processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia under the IndiaAI Mission, according to sources. The upcoming bidding round will focus on Nvidia’s latest B100 and B200 GPUs, which are based on the company’s cutting-edge Blackwell architecture. A senior government official said a fresh tender is required to discover new L1 prices for these next-generation GPUs. “The GPUs that were bid for in the first round will continue to be onboarded under the IndiaAI Mission at the L1 prices already discovered. However, a separate bidding…
Hyderabad-based dairy brand Sid’s Farm reported strong topline growth in FY25, but rising operating costs pushed the company deeper into losses during the year. Sid’s Farm’s operating revenue grew 38% year-on-year to ₹168 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2025, up from ₹122 crore in FY24, according to financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Including other income of ₹2 crore, the company’s total income stood at ₹170 crore in FY25. Founded in 2016, Sid’s Farm operates as a mass-premium dairy brand and follows a fully integrated model, sourcing milk directly from farmers and controlling the entire…
SoftBank has pared its holding in Ola Electric Mobility Ltd by selling a 2.15% stake through open-market transactions, according to regulatory filings with stock exchanges. The stake sale was executed by SVF II Ostrich (DE) LLC, a SoftBank investment vehicle, which offloaded nearly 9.5 crore equity shares between September 3, 2025, and January 5, 2026. The cumulative sale crossed the 2% disclosure threshold under takeover regulations, triggering mandatory reporting. Before the divestment, SVF II Ostrich held 69.16 crore shares, representing a 15.68% stake in Ola Electric. Following the transactions, its shareholding has declined to about 59.7 crore shares, reducing its…