Govt notifies online gaming rules; Binny Bansal’s fund leads Rs 300 crore infusion into Curefoods

Also in this letter:
■ Curefoods gets Rs 300 crore in round led by Binny Bansal’s Three State Ventures
■ White-collar jobs are the next gig thing
■ Layoffs in 2023: Indian startups and tech companies that have cut jobs

Programming note: The ETtech newsletter team will be off on April 7, on account of Good Friday. There won’t be an edition of Top 5 tomorrow. See you all with a brand new edition on Monday.

Government notifies rules for online gaming, to appoint multiple SROs

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Thursday notified the final rules for online gaming. Draft regulations had been issued in January.

The development comes after Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar last week said the rules were being scrutinised after “extensive consultation” and would be notified soon.

What’s in the new rules? As per the final rules, the government will appoint multiple self-regulatory organisations (SROs) comprising industry representatives, educationists and other experts such as child experts, psychology experts, and so on. To begin with, the government will notify three SROs. Further, the new rules define an ‘online game’ as “a game that is offered on the internet and is accessible by a user through a computer resource or an intermediary”.

SRO role: SROs will be responsible for declaring online games permissible on the basis of whether games allow wagers. The SRO can declare online real money games as permissible if it is satisfied that “the online real money game does not involve wagering on any outcome”. Apart from the SRO, the IT ministry has also notified a mandatory KYC verification of online gamers.

Quote, unquote: “We are only regulating real money games that involve wagering. By process of exclusion, all other kinds of games will be permissible,” MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, addressing reporters.

Won’t allow firms to ‘hijack narrative of self-regulatory body’: Chandrasekhar had said in January that the government would not allow companies and intermediaries operating in the gaming sector to control or dictate the narrative at self-regulatory organisations. The SROs would be adequately represented by all stakeholders, he had said.

Also read: ETtech Explainer: timeline of India’s draft online gaming rules

Binny Bansal’s Three State Ventures leads Rs 300 crore funding in Curefoods

Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods, owner of brands like EatFit and Sharief Bhai, said it has raised Rs 300 crore in funding, in a round led by Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal’s Three State Ventures.

Bansal’s second time: Bansal had invested in the cloud kitchen firm back in 2021, when he was a part of a $13 million round in Curefoods led by Iron Pillar. Curefoods was hived off in October 2020 from Cultfit, which was founded by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori in 2016. Nagori is a former Flipkart executive.

Binny Bansal’s Three State Ventures has invested Rs 240 crore in this round along with existing investors IronPillar, Chiratae Ventures, ASK Finance and Winter Capital. This will increase Bansal’s stake in the company to over 12% from the current 5%. ET had reported on the development last month.

Going hybrid: Curefoods, according to a company statement, plans to use the new capital to expand its geographical reach and diversify its brands into offline formats from the current online-only cloud kitchen model. The Bengaluru-based startup is aiming to expand to tier 1 and tier 2 cities in the North and West of India.

White-collar jobs are the next gig thing

The participation of high-skill or white-collar workers in the gig economy went up by almost 240% last year from the year before, according to a report by gig platform Awign. This comes amid growing demand for tech roles such as full-stack developers, data scientists, React and Java developers, mobile app developers and cloud engineers, according to a survey of 1.2 million workers by Awign on its platform.

Sectors with high demand: According to the report, companies in the ecommerce, fintech, healthtech, edtech and quick commerce sectors have been leading demand for ‘gigification’ in recent years.

Jargon buster: Gigification refers to the process of breaking down critical work into smaller tasks to overcome the challenge of talent utilisation.

More Workers from Tier III Cities: Awign reported a 148% increase in demand for gigification of digital work in FY22, over FY21. The company also saw rising participation by gig workers from tier III cities. As of December 2022, 41.3% of Awign’s gig workforce came from tier III cities, while 35.6% and 22.9% came from tier I and II cities, respectively. There was also an almost 3x growth in registrations from women gig partners in FY22, over FY21.

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Layoffs in 2023: Indian startups & tech companies that have cut jobs

Amid the prolonged funding winter and uncertain macroeconomic conditions, several Indian startups have resorted to reworking their business models, cutting costs and even laying off employees in droves over the past few months.

This follows major tech firms, including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet, announcing massive job cuts.

Also read: Layoffs in 2023: full list of companies that have announced job cuts amid the economic downturn

Swiggy, Zomato, Byju’s, Unacademy, GoMechanic and Vedantu are among the companies that have announced layoffs in the past few months. In some cases, startups have announced several rounds of job cuts to rein in costs amid lower funding activity.

Here is a list of major Indian companies that have announced layoffs

Dunzo lays off 30% of staff: Quick commerce startup Dunzo has announced a fresh round of layoffs just three months after firing around 60-80 employees.

This time around, the Bengaluru-based startup has fired 30% of its employees, in a move that is likely to impact around 300 jobs.

Interestingly, the fresh layoffs at the Reliance Retail-backed quick commerce startup came even as it secured funding of $75 million through convertible notes, ET reported on Thursday, citing people aware of the matter.

From mobiles to TVs, Indians are buying ‘smart’ gadgets

Be it smartphones, smart televisions or smart appliances, Indian consumers are shifting towards smart electronic products, in a trend that accelerated during the pandemic with premiumisation and longer time spent at home.

Smart and in-demand: Per data from market tracker Counterpoint Research, the share of smartphones in total mobile phone sales increased from 59% in 2019 to 72% in 2022, while that of smart televisions rose from 52% to a whopping 90% over the same period.

Even purchases of smart appliances such as smart ACs, smart water purifiers and smart washing machines have gone up over the same period, leading overall premium products to outsell the mass range. The share of smart appliances has doubled in total sales compared to pre-pandemic days, according to industry estimates.

Quote, unquote: “The price difference between a smart product and regular product is just Rs 500-1,000 now, compared to Rs 3,000-4,000 pre-pandemic, which is driving the adoption,” said Haier India president Satish NS. “Consumers also feel proud owning a smart product, apart from having the convenience of operating it from anywhere,” he said.

5G to boost demand: Industry executives said the affordability of internet packs, wider availability of high-speed internet, and the launch of 5G services will further drive adoption of smart electronic products. Companies have also started trimming their non-smart portfolio in segments where adoption is high, such as televisions, air-conditioners and water purifiers.

Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Siddharth Sharma in Bengaluru and Erick Massey in New Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.