Stock investment firms eye tax relief on foreign equity purchase; Indian-American Neal Mohan is new YouTube CEO

Also in this letter:
■ IT firms upskill staff to prepare them for generative AI
■ B2B startups cornered $8.5B over past eight years: Matrix report
■ Over 2,700 complaints against influencers processed: ASCI

New-age investment firms to approach CBDT on hike in TCS

Hi, it’s Tarush in Bengaluru. Fintech firms have been grappling with a barrage of regulations and policies over the last year or so. Now, new-age stock investing platforms are faced with a sharp rise in TCS rate on foreign remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

Some of them, including Vested Finance, IndMoney and Stockal, are planning to approach the government seeking redressal on the issue of proposed levy of 20% on foreign remittances.

What’s the issue? Budget 2023-24, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has proposed raising the TCS rate to 20% from 5%. The proposal has come as a disappointment for several US equity investing platforms as they feel the move will make the overall asset class expensive for retail investors.

Sources told us that these firms want the foreign equities investment use case to be exempted from the new TCS regime and it be restricted to only high-net-worth individuals (HNIs).

Next step: Around eight companies are expected to jointly write to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and other government stakeholders soon. They have also sought the support of the industry body, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), people in the know said, requesting anonymity.

Point of view: New-age investment platforms in their recommendations are likely to argue that foreign equity investment under LRS is a closed loop as gains come back to India. Also, 50% of retail investors on these US equity platforms are not HNIs and earn under Rs 15 lakhs annually, according to sources. Hence, a 20% TCS levy leaves less liquidity for the investor to invest.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki to step down, Indian American Neal Mohan to take over

YouTube chief executive officer Susan Wojcicki will be stepping down from her role after serving at the helm of Alphabet’s video streaming platform for the last nine years.

Wojcicki will be replaced by Indian American Neal Mohan, who is currently the chief product officer at YouTube.

Early Google employee: Wojcicki has been one of the few women leading a major tech company. Interestingly, Wojcicki in 1998 had rented out her garage in Silicon Valley to Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Also read | Who is Neal Mohan, the new Indian American CEO of YouTube?

She joined Google as its 16th employee the following year. As the leader of YouTube, Wojcicki placed a strong emphasis on making the platform more attractive to advertisers, while also managing a vast, and sometimes difficult-to-manage, group of video creators who were essential to the site’s success.

Indian-American successor: Mohan has worked alongside Wojcicki for 15 years. They collaborated on building Google’s display advertising business, which is now facing a federal antitrust lawsuit. She called Mohan an excellent leader, saying he understands the creator community and their needs. In an open letter to YouTube’s content creators, Wojcicki said she plans to stay around for some time to help Mohan transition into the role.

B2B startups cornered $8.5B over past eight years: Matrix report

Indian B2B (business-to-business) startups have cornered over $8.5 billion in equity funding from investors across 500 funding rounds since 2015, according to a report from venture capital firm Matrix Partners India titled ‘Digitizing Make In India’.

Details: In the past eight years, six unicorns – privately held startups valued at $1 billion or more – have been created in the segment, including Ofbusiness, Moglix, Zetwerk, and Elasticrun. The total investment in B2B startups has grown 46% annually since 2015 to stand at $3.5 billion in 2021, the report said. Overall equity investment in B2B startups stood at $2.1 billion in 2022 amid a broader slowdown in investments.

Quote unquote: “There is a unique situation in play in India, where we are pushing manufacturing, and agriculture, and are fast becoming a digital economy. Our digital infrastructure is the best in the world,” Avnish Bajaj, founder, and managing director, Matrix Partners India, told us in an interview.

Amid ChatGPT buzz, IT firms add courses in generative AI

Top Indian IT firms TCS and Infosys, along with global tech consultants like Accenture, are including training and skilling modules for beginners on ChatGPT and other similar AI technologies to prepare for the disruption the technology might bring along in the IT sector.

What do they want to do? TCS plans to add generative AI-themed courses to help employees become aware of the themes and upskill them to handle operations where AI is used.

Infosys, which made a small investment in ChatGPT’s developer OpenAI in 2015, also conducted a five-day virtual workshop last week titled ‘Introduction to ChatGPT & related Infosys Solutions’.

Falling market share: In a recent note brokerage firm, JP Morgan stated that consulting heritage companies like Accenture and Deloitte and digital native companies are expected to increase their market share over Indian technology firms due to AI integration.

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Over 2,700 complaints against influencers processed: ASCI

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) said it processed 2,767 complaints since it came up with influencer guidelines in May 2021.

Most violations on Instagram: More than half of the violations were found on Meta-owned Instagram, followed by YouTube which contributed a third of them, the self-regulatory organisation for the advertising industry said. Modifications are needed in over 90% of the cases, it added.

Disclosure norms: ET reported last month that social media influencers will soon have to mandatorily disclose sponsored posts as paid content if there is a material connection between them and a brand, failing which, they can be prohibited from publishing for six months and face a penalty of Rs 10 lakh and upto Rs 50 lakh for repeated offence, according to the new social media influencer guidelines published by the government.

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Global picks we are reading

■ Arvind Krishna: If AI can replace labour, it’s a good thing (FT)
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■ How AI chatbots could change online search (The Economist)