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India may be grappling with the second wave of the coronavirus, rising unemployment, and a dwindling economy, but the South Asian nation’s burgeoning startup ecosystem has never had it better.
High-profile investors in India have long aggressively chased growth-stage, and late-stage deals, pouring record amounts of capital into the country. But in a sign of the growing investor bullishness regarding Indian startups, even early-stage companies that have largely been bereft of much similar attention in recent years are now sharing the limelight.
More than 70 early-stage Indian startups are currently in advanced stages of talks to raise money, according to sources familiar with the matter. The size of the investments vary from a few million dollars to up to $100 million. TechCrunch is reporting some of the more notable deals today.
The usual caveat that many of deals haven’t yet closed, and that their terms could change or the talks may not materialize into an investment applies in our reporting. The deals described below have not been previously reported.
Sequoia Capital India, the most prolific investing firm in the country, is in talks to place capital in over two-dozen Indian startups including Register Book, a firm that operates an eponymous bookkeeping app; Vah Vah, which runs an app to educate people about makeup from artists; SaaS platform BambooBox, and email marketing software provider MailModo.
The firm is also in talks to back, alongside venture fund Nexus, OneCode, a startup that runs an app to connect digital-first brands with sellers. Sequoia Capital India, which <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/sequoia-surge/" target="_blank">launched a dedicated fund for early stage startups called Surge</a> two years ago, is also in talks to invest in Probo, an app that rewards users for sharing their opinion; and Rattle.
Vaibhav Domkundwar, who runs Better Capital, said the early-stage startup scene in India has never been this hot.
“Pre-seed and seed stage momentum is at its peak, but we are also seeing pre-emptive rounds at Series As and Bs now,” he told TechCrunch.
Domkundwar, who has backed over 140 startups including Khatabook and neobank Open, attributed some excitement to the new generation of founders in India, who he said are building product-first and distribution-first companies. “We are seeing the fastest pace of investment in these teams,” he said.
A different investor, who requested anonymity, said second time founders are able to raise on a deck or a Notion doc from elite angels, unicorn founders and microVCs. The pace at which these founders are able to close the deal, the investor said, was &#8220;stunning.&#8221;
The frantic pace of investments in early-stage deals come as many of the more mature bets have become unicorns in India and many established startups are finally exploring taking the public markets.
India has birthed <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/home-services-platform-urban-company-raises-255-million-at-2-1-billion-valuation" target="_blank">14 unicorns this year</a>, up from 11 last year and just 6 in 2019. High-profile investors such as Tiger Global and Falcon Edge Capital have <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/tiger-global-goes-super-aggressive-in-india" target="_blank">increased their focus on India</a> this year and winning founders with their large size of checks, higher valuation, access to resources, and quick turnaround time.
Many established firms are now chasing early-stage deals.
GSV is in talks to invest in Filo, a startup that operates an eponymous tutor app; and payments stack startup Inai has closed a new round from Better Capital and others and will be part of Y Combinator’s next batch. (Speaking of which, Y Combinator’s previous batch featured its <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/y-combinators-new-batch-features-its-largest-group-of-indian-startups" target="_blank">largest cohort of Indian startups in history</a>.)
One-year-old startup BrightCHAMPS, which has built a coding and math platform for kids, is currently in talks with GSV and Tiger Global to raise about $70 million.
Indiagold, a startup that allows people in the South Asian nation to <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/former-paytm-execs-team-up-indiagold" target="_blank">access credit against their gold reserve</a>, is in talks to close a new round with two high-profile foreign investors that have traditionally backed growth and late stage deals.
Germany’s Razor Group is in late stage talks to invest in Upscale, a startup that is attempting to replicate the Thrasio model in India.
Fintech investor RTP is in talks to invest in Fleek, a startup that is building “a payments system for subscription economy.” Falcon Edge’s AWI is in talks to invest in fitness subscription platform Ultrahuman, while SaaS platform AccelData has been approached by Bessemmer and WestBridge.
For high-profile investors with billions in dry powder, there are many rewards for spotting a promising startup in its initial years. One can buy a much larger stake in a startup for lower prices before the valuation of the startup &#8212; assuming things work out well &#8212; soars. Investing early also reduces the amount an investor may lose should things with the portfolio firm goes south.
But not everyone is happy with the new dynamics.
An investor with a micro fund told TechCrunch &#8212; on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly &#8212; that involvement of bigger investors in early stage deals has made it tougher for smaller firms to source new deals as the bigger investors are now aggressively trying to close entire rounds by themselves.
The investor said there is an additional competition in the market now: groups of high-profile founders, who tend to collectively back startups.
The investor cited earlier in the story termed these investments as &#8220;optionality cheques.&#8221; These optionality checks &#8212; that usually back second time founders or first time founders who previously worked at a unicorn or soonicorn &#8212; started with the Series A crowd such as Sequoia Capital India, Matrix, Lightspeed India Partners, he said. Now, the investor said, Tiger and Falcon / AWI are doing it, too.
There are two implications of these optionality checks, the investor said. &#8220;They make life more difficult for microVCs / seed VCs as they cannot compete with the Tigers or Falcons or Series A funds who can cut &#8220;smaller&#8221; checks with impunity, and perhaps even dilute less.&#8221;
But the investor cautioned the founders who are raising such optionality checks. &#8220;If the same fund doesn&#8217;t back them in the next round, then the negative signal can imperil their chances of raising from other VCs. Second, the excess money that they get can sometimes encourage faster expansion and higher spends.
A survey by InnoVen Capital, results of which were published on Thursday, said that over 80% of the investors it had surveyed said their dealflow for early-stage startups had increased this year, compared to last year.
Over 75% of the respondents in the same survey said the valuations in recent deals were on the “higher side” because of the “intense competition for high quality deals and entry of large established VCs in this space.”
Lightspeed India Partners, best known for its investments in unicorns Oyo Rooms and e-commerce platform Udaan, is in talks to back Vegrow, a startup that partners with farmers; 100ms.live, which operates an eponymous tool to help developers add video conferencing features to their apps, as well as edtech startup Kalaam Labs.
Dyte, which is building a “Stripe for live video calls,” is in talks with Nexus and Sequoia Capital India. Elevation Capital, which is also in talks to invest in VeGrow, is inching closer to investing in FamPay, which offers credit cards to teens at about $150 million valuation. Bangalore-based Chiratae Ventures is in the final stages of talks to invest in AeroLeap and analytics startup Locale.ai.
Fanplay, a platform for social media influencers to monetise via mobile games, has already raised from several American microVCs, but the round hasn’t closed yet. Mumbai-headquartered due diligence and monitoring platform Advarisk has been approached by “several investors” but has yet to close the round.
Trading signals provider Tradex is in talks to raise from Leo Capital. Audio social media app Frnd, radio and podcast aggregator app Kuku FM, and crop management platform Bharatagri are also in advanced stages of talks with investors to raise capital.
Plug and play payments provider Card91 has been approached by several investors, but hasn’t closed the round yet. Tournafest has closed a round from a clutch of angel investors, and so have Easy Eat and Stockgro. Kosh has raised from YC, and VentureSouq among others.
Tech veteran Nandan Nilekani’s firm Fundamentum is in talks to back Bijak, which operates a business-to-business marketplace to trade agricultural commodities, and supply chain startup Reshamandi.
&#8220;Early-stage investment activity has proven to be resilient despite the pandemic, with bigger transaction sizes and higher valuations, a clear sign of a maturing early-stage ecosystem,&#8221; said Tarana Lalwani, Senior Director at InnoVen Capital India.

India may be grappling with the second wave of the coronavirus, rising unemployment, and a dwindling economy, but the South Asian nation’s burgeoning startup ecosystem has never had it better. High-profile investors in India have long aggressively chased growth-stage, and late-stage deals, pouring record amounts of capital into the country. But in a sign of […]

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Investors race to win early-stage startup deals in India

Flying Eze

The <a href="https://globalnews.ca/tag/world-health-organization" target="_blank" rel="noopener" target="_blank">World Health Organization</a> (WHO) has introduced a new naming convention for the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/tag/coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener" target="_blank">coronavirus</a> variants of concern, in a move aimed at eliminating the potential stigma around places where those mutant <a href="https://globalnews.ca/tag/covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener" target="_blank">COVID-19</a> strains were first identified.
The new <a href="https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" target="_blank">convention</a> uses letters from the Greek alphabet to identify the various variants, which up to this point have been identified with a clunky string of letters and numbers — or by the problematic convention of referring to the geographical origins of where they first emerged.
		
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				Lit cigarette, hand sanitizer ignite major car fire in Maryland			</a>
		
	
The WHO says it came up with the new labels after several months of discussion and criticism around some nations being stigmatized for identifying new strains.
The organization has repeatedly urged people not to refer to the variants by profiling people or nationalities, especially in the wake of a surge in anti-Asian racism around the world.
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Nevertheless, some politicians, including former U.S. president <a href="https://globalnews.ca/tag/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a>, have used terms such as &#8220;the China virus&#8221; in order to smear rival nations. Certain countries have also been used as a shorthand to refer to the variants of concern, in lieu of their more awkward scientific designations.
The variants will now have names that evoke late-season hurricanes or fraternities, rather than being referred to by a string of numbers or a country of origin.
		
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				COVID-19 vaccine inequality in India causing millions to fall through gaps			</a>
		
	
&#8220;While they have their advantages, these scientific names can be difficult to say and recall, and are prone to misreporting,&#8221; the WHO said.
&#8220;No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants,&#8221; said WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove.
Here&#8217;s how the new names will be applied:
<ul>
<li>Variant B.1.1.7, which first emerged from the United Kingdom, will be known as Alpha.</li>
<li>Variant B.1.351, which was first detected in South Africa last May, will be known as Beta.</li>
<li>Gamma will be used to refer to P.1, the variant first detected in Brazil last November.</li>
<li>Delta will be the new name for B.1.617.2, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/04/24/988744811/people-are-talking-about-a-double-mutant-variant-in-india-what-does-that-mean" target="_blank" rel="noopener" target="_blank">poorly nicknamed</a> “double mutant” strain that was first identified in India last October.</li>
</ul>
The WHO has also applied letters to six variants of interest, and will continue to move through the 24-letter Greek alphabet as other variants emerge.
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The WHO considered using the names of Greek gods or pseudo-classical monikers, according to Mark Pallen, a bacteriologist who was involved in the talks. That approach was thrown out as many of those were already used as brand names. They also considered using the names of plants, fruits or lost religions but decided against it, the WHO said.
		
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				A look at who the provinces plan to vaccinate against COVID-19 in the coming weeks			</a>
		
	
Some scientists were already using bird names as unofficial terms for the variants, but that naming scheme was also dismissed amid fears that certain birds would be unfairly blamed for the variants.
Some past diseases have been named for the locations where they were first identified, such as the Ebola virus, which is named for a river in Congo. Such names have proven to be problematic, as they have led to groups of people being stigmatized and unfairly blamed for diseases.
— With files from Reuters

The WHO will use the Greek alphabet to label coronavirus variants, rather than referring to countries where they were first detected.

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Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta: WHO officially names COVID-19 variants of concern

Jai Kisan, an Indian startup that is attempting to bring financial services to rural India, where commercial banks have a single-digit penetration, said on Monday it has raised $30 million in a new financing round as it looks to scale its business.
Hundreds of millions of people in India today live in rural areas. Most of them don&#8217;t have a credit score. The professions they work on &#8212; largely farming &#8212; isn&#8217;t considered a business by most lenders in India. These farmers and other professionals also don&#8217;t have a documented credit history, which puts them in a risky category for banks to grant them a loan.
Much of the credit these people do raise ends up getting invested in unproductive usage, which leads to higher interest and default rates.
Three-year-old Mumbai-headquartered <a href="http://jai-kisan.com">Jai Kisan</a> is attempting to address this by treating farmers and other similar professionals as businesses instead of consumers.
The startup has developed its own system &#8212; which it calls Bharat Khata &#8212; that is helping individuals and businesses access cheaper financing and ensures that the money they raise is being used for agri-inputs and equipment and other income generating purposes and enablement of rural commerce transactions.
Arjun Ahluwalia, co-founder and chief executive of Jai Kisan, said financial services is crucial for these individuals as their entire economy runs on it. &#8220;The ability to buy now and pay later is how most people shop for things in India. Credit is an expectation by the Indian customer &#8212; it&#8217;s not a value added service,&#8221; he told TechCrunch in an interview.
&#8220;If there is availability of formal financing to customers, it&#8217;s not just customer who does well. The entire ecosystem that revolves around that customer benefits,&#8221; he said, pointing to the rise of Bajaj Finance, which has helped several businesses flourish in India by giving credit to customers, and Xiaomi, India&#8217;s largest smartphone vendor, which moves a significant portion of its inventories on monthly instalment plans.
Bharat Khata service, which was launched in April last year, had captured more than $380 million of annualized GTV run-rate across over 25,000 storefronts by March of 2021, the startup said.
&#8220;Jai Kisan has financed over 15% of the transactions which portrays the monetizability and quality of commerce being captured. The ability to have visibility and virality of high-quality transactions has enabled Jai Kisan to scale business by over 50% in 3 months. The unprecedented growth trajectory stands testament to Jai Kisan’s capabilities to deploy capital efficiently by focusing on core customer credit needs,&#8221; the startup said.
The startup, which operates in eight Indian states in South India, is now looking to scale its presence across the country and also increase the headcount. On Monday, it said it had raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Mirae Asset, Syngenta Ventures, and existing investors Blume, Arkam Ventures, NABVENTURES, Prophetic Ventures and Better Capital. An unspecified amount of the financing was raised as debt from Blacksoil, Stride Ventures, and Trifecta Capital.
&#8220;Jai Kisan is at the cusp of disrupting the rural financing industry and we’re glad to be a part of their growth story. Jai Kisan’s stellar growth, excellent asset quality and expanding footprint make them a highly differentiated player in the segment,&#8221; said Ashish Dave, chief executive of the India Venture Investments for the South Korean firm Mirae Asset.
&#8220;Mirae Asset has always believed in backing companies which aim to become category leaders which is evident from our other investments and we believe Jai Kisan is on the journey of doing so for rural finance,&#8221; he added.
As part of the new investment, Jai Kisan will also be providing financing through its own books. (Like most fintech startups, Jai Kisan has so far relied on its banking and other financial institutions to finance credit to businesses. Which is why it is also raising some money in debt in the new round.)

Jai Kisan, an Indian startup that is attempting to bring financial services to rural India, where commercial banks have a single-digit penetration, said on Monday it has raised $30 million in a new financing round as it looks to scale its business. Hundreds of millions of people in India today live in rural areas. Most […]

Jai Kisan, a fintech startup aimed at rural India, raises $30 million

Twitter called the recent visit by police to its Indian offices a form of intimidation and said it was concerned by some of the requirements in New Delhi’s new IT rules.
Speaking for the first time since a special squad of Delhi police <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/delhi-police-run-by-indias-central-government-raids-twitter-offices-over-manipulated-label" target="_blank">made a surprise visit to two of its offices</a> on Monday, Twitter said it is “concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve.”
The company also said that it joins many organizations in India and around the world that have “concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service, as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules.”
A Twitter spokesperson added: “We plan to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government and believe it is critical to adopt a collaborative approach. It is the collective responsibility of elected officials, industry, and civil society to safeguard the interests of the public.”
Tension between American tech giants Twitter and Facebook and the Indian government has been brewing for months. Twitter faced heat from politicians after it <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/twitter-takes-actions-on-over-500-accounts-in-india-amid-government-warning" target="_blank">refused to block accounts</a> that criticised New Delhi’s reforms and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India is one of the largest markets for American tech firms that poured billions of dollars in the country in the past decade to get more people online. According to Indian government estimates, Twitter has 175 million users in India, while WhatsApp has amassed over 530 million users.
The tension escalated Wednesday after WhatsApp <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/whatsapp-sues-india-government" target="_blank">sued the Indian government</a> in a court in Delhi over the new IT rules that it said would compromise users’ privacy and give New Delhi the power to conduct mass surveillance.
India announced the new IT rules in February and gave firms three months to comply. The deadline expired this week, and on Wednesday the Ministry of Electronics and IT <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-asks-social-media-firms-if-they-have-complied-with-the-new-regulations" target="_blank">asked social media firms for an update on their compliant status</a>, TechCrunch first reported.
Twitter said Thursday that the new IT rules’ requirements to make a compliance officer criminally liable for content on the platform, proactive monitoring, and blanket authority to seek information about users represented a dangerous overreach that was inconsistent with open and democratic principles.
The microblogging platform also requested New Delhi to consider granting a minimum of 3 months extension to comply with the new IT rules and publish Standard Operating Protocols on aspects of compliance of public consultation.
Twitter said it was recently served with another non-compliance notice in India and withheld a portion of the content identified in the notice under. The content identified in the notice, Twitter said, was originally reported in the blocking orders since February 2021.
It said in recent months it has been compelled to withhold content in response to a non-compliance notice. Not doing so, it said, poses penal consequences with many risks for Twitter employees.

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="KIbpENoURR"><a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-says-whatsapps-lawsuit-over-new-regulations-a-clear-act-of-defiance" target="_blank">India says WhatsApp&#8217;s lawsuit over new regulations a clear act of defiance</a></blockquote>
<iframe class="wp-embedded-content" sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" style="position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);" title="&#8220;India says WhatsApp&#8217;s lawsuit over new regulations a clear act of defiance&#8221; &#8212; TechCrunch" src="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-says-whatsapps-lawsuit-over-new-regulations-a-clear-act-of-defianceembed/#?secret=KIbpENoURR" data-secret="KIbpENoURR" width="800" height="450" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Twitter called the recent visit by police to its Indian offices a form of intimidation and said it was concerned by some of the requirements in New Delhi’s new IT rules. Speaking for the first time since a special squad of Delhi police made a surprise visit to two of its offices on Monday, Twitter […]

Government

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Twitter says concerned with India intimidation, requests 3 more months to comply with new IT rules

WhatsApp has launched legal action to stop India from enforcing new social media rules that would break its privacy guarantees, the messaging platform told AFP on Wednesday.
The regulations, which took effect the same day, come at a time of growing tensions between social media giants and the Indian government, which has demanded tech companies remove content critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
WhatsApp told AFP it had filed a case in the Delhi High Court.
The Facebook subsidiary did not give details of the legal action but made clear its opposition to the new guidelines that would also affect Twitter, Instagram and other platforms.
The new rules demand &#8220;traceability&#8221; of messages, which requires social media companies to give details of the &#8220;first originator&#8221; of posts deemed to undermine India&#8217;s sovereignty, state security or public order.
They also require platforms to take down posts depicting nudity or manipulated photos within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.
&#8220;Requiring messaging apps to &#8216;trace&#8217; chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people&#8217;s right to privacy,&#8221; WhatsApp said in a statement.
								
									
										
										
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WhatsApp, which claims 500 million users in India, said it would keep cooperating with &#8220;valid legal requests&#8221; for information from authorities.
Facebook and Google have said they are working towards complying with the guidelines.
India&#8217;s government has said it wants rules that make social media companies more accountable and stop the spread of &#8220;fake news&#8221;.
But it has been accused of seeking to crack down on criticism from the public.
Police this week visited Twitter&#8217;s offices in New Delhi as part of an investigation into the company&#8217;s move to mark a tweet by a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as &#8220;manipulated media&#8221;.
Sambit Patra had shared a document that purported to be a plan from the opposition Congress party to malign the government&#8217;s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Congress said the document was a fake.
						
							
								
								
									
									
								
								
								
							
						
					
The government last month ordered Twitter and Facebook to remove dozens of posts critical of Prime Minister Modi&#8217;s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Twitter had earlier agreed to a government request to ban some accounts criticising new agricultural laws that have sparked six months of protests by disgruntled farmers.
The platform reversed the ban in February.
AFP

WhatsApp has launched legal action to stop India from enforcing new social media rules that would break its privacy guarantees, the messaging platform told AFP on Wednesday. The regulations, which took effect the same day, come at a time of growing tensions between social media giants and the Indian government, which has demanded tech companies…

Technology

Whatsapp sues India over privacy rules

India said on Wednesday <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/whatsapp-sues-india-government" target="_blank">WhatsApp’s lawsuit challenging the new local IT rules</a> is an “unfortunate last moment” attempt to prevent new regulations from going into effect in a clear act of defiance, and said the Facebook-owned firm didn’t raise any specific objection in writing to the traceability requirement after October 2018.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s Electronics and IT Minister, said WhatsApp’s refusal to comply with the guidelines, the deadline of which expired Wednesday, is a “clear act of defiance of a measure whose intent can certainly not be doubted.”
“Any operations being run in India are subject to the law of the land. At one end, WhatsApp seeks to mandate a privacy policy wherein it will share the data of all its user with its parent company, Facebook, for marketing and advertising purposes. On the other hand, WhatsApp makes every effort to refuse the enactment of the Intermediary Guidelines which are necessary to uphold law and order and curb the menace of fake news,” the statement read.
This is a developing story. More to follow&#8230;

India said on Wednesday WhatsApp’s lawsuit challenging the new local IT rules is an “unfortunate last moment” attempt to prevent new regulations from going into effect in a clear act of defiance, and said the Facebook-owned firm didn’t raise any specific objection in writing to the traceability requirement after October 2018. Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s Electronics […]

Apps

India says WhatsApp’s lawsuit over new regulations a clear act of defiance

India has asked social media firms to provide specific details about how they are complying with its <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-announces-sweeping-guidelines-for-social-media-on-demand-streaming-firms-and-digital-news-outlets" target="_blank">new IT rules</a> by &#8220;as soon as possible&#8221; and &#8220;preferably today&#8221; even as the new regulations are being <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/whatsapp-sues-india-government" target="_blank">challenged by WhatsApp</a>.
In a letter to &#8220;significant social media intermediaries&#8221; &#8212; which New Delhi defines as social media firms with over 5 million registered users in India &#8212; on Wednesday, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked the firms to share the names of their apps, websites, or services that will come under the scope of the new IT rules.
The letter, obtained by TechCrunch, also asks the firms to provide name and contact details of chief compliance officer, nodal contact person, resident grievance officer, and physical address of the office in India and share the compliance status of the rules. The new rules mandate that firms have enough nodal officers in India to address on-ground concerns.
The letter also implies that India doesn&#8217;t plan to give social media firms any extension on the deadline to comply with the new regulations.
f&#8221;If you are not considered as SSMI, please provide the reasons for the same including the registered users on each of the services provided by you,&#8221; the letter adds. &#8220;The government reserves the right to seek any additional information, as may be permitted within these Rules and the IT Act.&#8221;
Earlier on Wednesday, WhatsApp sued the Indian government challenging the second largest internet market’s new regulations that it said could allow authorities to make people’s private messages “traceable,” and <a href="https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/what-is-traceability-and-why-does-whatsapp-oppose-it" target="_blank">conduct mass surveillance</a>.
This is a developing story. More to follow&#8230;

India has asked social media firms to provide specific details about how they are complying with its new IT rules by “as soon as possible” and “preferably today” even as the new regulations are being challenged by WhatsApp. In a letter to “significant social media intermediaries” — which New Delhi defines as social media firms […]

India asks social media firms if they have complied with the new regulations

WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over new regulations in India that could allow authorities to make people’s messages “traceable,” conduct mass surveillance and undermine users’ privacy.
The instant messaging service, which identifies India as its biggest market, said it filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Delhi on Wednesday. It said New Delhi&#8217;s “traceability” requirement, <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-announces-sweeping-guidelines-for-social-media-on-demand-streaming-firms-and-digital-news-outlets" target="_blank">unveiled in February this year</a>, violated citizens’ constitutional right to privacy.
“Civil society and technical experts around the world have consistently argued that a requirement to ‘trace’ private messages would break end-to-end encryption and lead to real abuse. WhatsApp is committed to protecting the privacy of people’s personal messages and we will continue to do all we can within the laws of India to do so,” WhatsApp said.
India first proposed WhatsApp to make software changes to make the originator of a message traceable in 2018. But its suggestion didn’t become the law until this year.
This is a developing story. More to follow&#8230;

WhatsApp is suing the Indian government over new regulations in India that could allow authorities to make people’s messages “traceable,” conduct mass surveillance and undermine users’ privacy. The instant messaging service, which identifies India as its biggest market, said it filed the lawsuit in the High Court of Delhi on Wednesday. It said New Delhi’s […]

WhatsApp sues India government over new regulations

Heavy rain and a high tide lashed parts of <a href="http://globalnews.ca/tag/india" target="_blank">India&#8217;s</a> eastern coast as a <a href="http://globalnews.ca/tag/cyclone" target="_blank">cyclone</a> pushed ashore Wednesday in an area where more than 1.1 million people have evacuated amid a devastating coronavirus surge.
Cyclone Yaas already had caused two deaths and damage to homes as severe weather and rains affected Odisha and West Bengal states before the storm began making landfall in the late morning.
The &#8220;very severe cyclonic storm&#8221; has sustained winds of 130-140 kilometers per hour (up to 87 mph) that are gusting up to 155 kph (97 mph), the India Meteorological Department said.
&#8220;The landfall process of the storm has started, centered nearly 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Balasore in Odisha state,&#8221; it said. Heavy rain and the sea tide flooded parts of coastal areas in West Bengal and Odisha states.
		
			Read more: <a class="c-readmore__link" href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-cyclone-yaas" data-track-region="content-read-more" title="Thousands evacuated as India braces for 2nd cyclone to hit country in 10 days" target="_blank">
				Thousands evacuated as India braces for 2nd cyclone to hit country in 10 days			</a>
		
	
Television images showed knee-deep water flooding the beach area of Digha, a resort town in West Bengal state. Palm trees were whipped back and forth by strong wind gusts.
A tornado snapped electricity lines that electrocuted two people and damaged 40 houses in West Bengal&#8217;s Hooghly district on Tuesday, the top state elected official Mamata Banerjee said.
Kolkata airport is shut until 8 p.m. and train services were canceled before the storm as a precaution, the railroad department said.
The cyclone has dumped more than 17 centimeters (6.5 inches) of rain in Chandabali and Paradip regions of Odisha state since Tuesday, the meteorological department said. Tidal waves of up to 4 meters (13 feet) are likely to flood some low-lying areas.
At least 20 districts in West Bengal state were expected to feel the brunt of the storm. Fishing trawlers and boats were told to take shelter.
The cyclone coming amid a devastating coronavirus surge complicates India&#8217;s efforts to deal with both after another storm, Cyclone Tauktae, hit India&#8217;s west coast last week and killed more than 140 people.
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Odisha&#8217;s chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, appealed to people being moved to cyclone shelters to wear double masks and maintain social distancing. &#8220;We have to face both the challenges simultaneously,&#8221; Patnaik said.
Thousands of emergency personnel have been deployed to help evacuate people and prepare for possible rescue operations, said S.N. Pradhan, director of India&#8217;s National Disaster Response Force. India&#8217;s air force and navy were also on standby to carry out relief work.
A year ago, the most powerful cyclone in more than a decade hit eastern India. Nearly 100 people died in Cyclone Amphan, which flattened villages and destroyed farms in eastern India and Bangladesh.
&#8220;We haven&#8217;t been able to fix the damage to our home from the last cyclone. Now another cyclone is coming, how will we stay here?&#8221; said Samitri, who uses only one name.
Some of the deadliest tropical cyclones on record have occurred in the Bay of Bengal. A 1999 &#8220;super&#8221; cyclone killed around 10,000 people and devastated large parts of Odisha. Due to improved forecasts and better-coordinated disaster management, the death toll from Cyclone Phailin, an equally intense storm that hit in 2013, was less than 50, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The 1999 super cyclone reached wind speeds of 260-280 kph (161-173 mph).

The deaths, along with damage to several homes, came before the cyclone began making landfall late Wednesday morning as severe weather pummelled two eastern states.

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Cyclone Yaas brings heavy rain, high tide to eastern India after killing 2

Investors are backing Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, with large size checks at a time when tension is brewing between the American social network and New Delhi.
The Indian startup said on Wednesday it has raised $30 million in a financing round led by Tiger Global Management. Mirae Asset and IIFL&#8217;s venture capital fund and existing investors 3one4 Capital, Blume Ventures, and Accel also participated in the round, which valued the Bangalore-based startup at over $100 million, up from about $25 million in February.
Like Twitter, <a href="http://kooapp.com" target="_blank">Koo app</a> allows users to send out posts in English and half a dozen Indian languages. The app has gained popularity in India in recent months following flare-ups between Twitter and the Indian government after the San Francisco-headquartered firm <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/twitter-takes-actions-on-over-500-accounts-in-india-amid-government-warning" target="_blank">refused to block accounts that criticized</a> New Delhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year.
(The Indian government, like Singapore&#8217;s, also ordered Twitter and Facebook last week to <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-twitter-politicians-tweets-manipulated" target="_blank">take down posts</a> that identified a new variant of the coronavirus as &#8220;Indian variant&#8221;. Also last week, New Delhi objected to Twitter&#8217;s <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-twitter-politicians-tweets-manipulated" target="_blank">labeling of some of its politicians&#8217; tweets as manipulated media</a>. Earlier this week, police in Delhi <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/delhi-police-run-by-indias-central-government-raids-twitter-offices-over-manipulated-label" target="_blank">visited Twitter offices</a> to &#8220;serve a notice.&#8221;)
Several prominent government officials &#8212; including Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, Union Cabinet Minister Smriti Irani, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad &#8212; and many celebrities have signed up on Koo in recent months and urged their followers to follow suit.
Though the app, co-founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna (who also co-founded TaxiForSure, which was <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/02/olaforsure/" target="_blank">sold to local giant Ola</a>; and is a prolific angel investor), has won the trust of investors, it is yet to gain ground.
One-year-old Koo app had fewer than 6 million monthly active users in India in April, according to mobile insight firm App Annie (data of which an industry executive shared with TechCrunch).
The startup says it aims to build a social network for the entire nation and not just a fraction of it. Twitter remains largely popular among users in urban cities in India.
Koo, whose initial traction has been <a href="https://restofworld.org/2021/how-koo-became-a-right-wing-darling-in-india/" target="_blank">credited to Hindu nationalists</a>, is currently one of the handful of social networks that has complied with <a href="https://www.flyingeze.com/news/india-announces-sweeping-guidelines-for-social-media-on-demand-streaming-firms-and-digital-news-outlets" target="_blank">India’s new IT rules</a> that grant New Delhi greater power to take down posts it deems offensive.
The revised IT rules, announced in February, would put an end to “double standards” by making platforms more accountable to the local law, government officials said then. Failure to comply might bereft social networks of safe harbor protection.
The deadline to comply with the new rules expires on Wednesday. Facebook, which identifies India as its largest market, said it “aims to comply” with the new rules, while Google said in a statement that it “respects” India’s legislative process.
Koo is the latest investment from Tiger Global in India this year. The hedge fund, which has backed over 20 Indian unicorns, has emerged as the <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/11/tiger-global-goes-super-aggressive-in-india/?tpcc=ECTW2020" target="_blank">most prolific investor in Indian startups in recent months</a>, winning founders with its pace of investment, check size, and favorable terms.

Investors are backing Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter, with large size checks at a time when tension is brewing between the American social network and New Delhi. The Indian startup said on Wednesday it has raised $30 million in a financing round led by Tiger Global Management. Mirae Asset and IIFL’s venture capital fund […]

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