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<ul><li>India’s hotel industry is headed for a slow recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, it is also poised to be a major contributor to <keyword id="977682" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-travel">online travel</keyword>’s doubling growth over the next five years. </li><li>A Goldman Sachs report pegs hotels to be the fastest growing segment within the sector with a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 20%.</li><li>Even with the hopeful outlook, hoteliers will have to be patient as the recovery is expected to be slow in the near-term.</li></ul>The battered Indian hospitality industry can make room for growth over the next five years, if they survive the low phase during the pandemic and the key to survival is a robust digital strategy. India’s millions of hotel rooms will have to opt for a digital transformation. Even though the situation looks bleak, Goldman Sachs believes that ‘all hope is not lost’ for hotels in the online space. The report dated July 2020 says that the online travel industry in India is expected to double in the next five years. <div type="image" title="travel." msid="77670730" hostid="261"></div> And hotels will be the fastest-growing segment within the sector with a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 20%. “We estimate hotels alone will contribute c.47% of the online travel revenue pool in India by FY25 (36% in FY20), making it the key battleground within the space,” said the report. Adapting technology and joining branded hotel chains will be key to survival India’s current online penetration is one of the lowest in the world at just 22%, according to the report. Out of the 2 million rooms accounted for hotel rooms in India, only over 140,000 are affiliated with hotel chains. Long-term growth will be driven by budget hotels falling under the unorganized category, who are deeper in the Indian market and can be brought online, believe analysts at Goldman Sachs. “These last few months have proved that branded hotels are and will continue to be the safest environment even in the worst pandemic. Along with safety, hotel brands that figure out how to offer meaningful experiences will lead the way,” said Ankur Gupta, Managing Partner &amp; Head of India Real Estate, Brookfield Asset Management in a report by JLL. All hope is not lost While hotel chains like <keyword id="74790" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lemon-Tree">Lemon Tree</keyword>, Indian Hotels Company, which is a subsidiary of Tata Group, EIH which runs Oberoi and Trident, and hospitality unicorn <keyword id="2808667" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="OYO">OYO</keyword> are all set to benefit from it, the biggest beneficiary could be <keyword id="54613" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="makemytrip">MakeMyTrip</keyword> which currently accounts for 50% of the online hotel aggregator market. For the first three months of the year, MakeMyTrip had reported a 15.9% fall in adjusted revenue to $137.2 million. The NASDAQ-listed company also posted an adjusted operating loss of $10.3 million. MakeMyTrip, which is set to announce its earnings results today, had said during the last earnings call that the current quarter might see its losses ballooning to over $20 billion, but over the next few quarters they will bring down the loss to the $10 million range before targeting breakeven. Recovery will be slow The Hotels Association of India recently requested the <a href="http://bwhotelier.businessworld.in/article/Indian-Hotel-Sector-will-collapse-if-not-supported-by-the-Govt-and-RBI-HAI/28-07-2020-302439/">government</a> to step in to help the sector citing losses to the tune of ₹90,000 crore this year. With hotels being shut for over three months and now opening gradually across the country, the listed hoteliers have all gone to report massive losses for the first quarter of the financial year. Patanjali Keswani, Chairman &amp; Managing Director, Lemon Tree let out a word of caution even said that while he is hopeful for a gradual recovery in the second half of the year, he is still shoring up cash for the next one year, "assuming the worst-case scenario." MakeMyTrip has liquidity of nearly $168 million as of 31st March which will help them survive for two years. But despite the weak beginning to the financial year, the Unlock India phases and the gradual opening of hotels, most recently in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/delhi-allows-re-opening-of-hotels-and-weekly-markets-gyms-to-remain-closed/articleshow/77634741.cms">Delhi</a>, has revived the hopes and the optimism reflects in share price of the listed hoteliers this month. . <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 468pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Hotel Chain </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Stock action in Aug so far </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Lemon Tree </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">+35% </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Chalet Hotels </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">+17.9% </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">EIH </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">+35.7% </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Indian Hotels Company </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">24.8% </td></tr></tbody></table> Revenge travel will help the battered industry recover <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/revenge-travel-is-the-only-way-indian-hotels-can-make-money-but-it-will-take-over-two-years-to-even-match-pre-covid-levels/articleshow/77586911.cms">Revenge travel </a>will help the hotel industry recover. The term gained popularity in <a href="https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3080361/chinas-airlines-are-poised-bout-revenge-travelling-bookings">China</a>, after people having been stuck in a lockdown, started travelling within the country, to be able to just to get out of their homes. A <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-transport-infrastructure/our-insights/the-way-back-what-the-world-can-learn-from-chinas-travel-restart-after-covid-19">Mckinsey</a> report says that the end of lockdown would mean the first thing people would want to do is eat out, and the second thing is travel. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ola-is-staring-at-an-internal-crisis-with-seven-cxo-level-exits-in-eight-months/articleshow/77670080.cms">Ola is staring at an internal crisis with seven CXO level exits in eight months</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/google-eyes-indias-sharechat-as-microsoft-goes-after-tiktok-in-the-us-heres-why-it-makes-sense/articleshow/77667345.cms">Google eyes India’s ShareChat as Microsoft goes after TikTok in the US — here’s why it makes sense</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/tiktok-instagram-and-youtube-data-leak-exposes-data-of-235-million-users/articleshow/77668688.cms">TikTok, Instagram and YouTube data leak exposes data of 235 million users</a>

Here's why MakeMyTrip, OYO, Lemon Tree and likes may reap the most out of the long-term recovery in hotels

<ul><li>In our last feature from the series where we crystal-gazed into 2022 and brought to you some key trends that will impact the industry, we speak to experts from the Indian <keyword id="6357332" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gaming" source="Orion">gaming</keyword> industry.</li><li>They share their thoughts of a few big trends that will dominate the industry in 2022.</li></ul>As we enter 2022, we can only look back and wonder at the meteoric rise online gaming has seen in India in the past two years. While gaming had been witnessing growth, albeit a relatively slow one, before the lockdown, it was during the locked-at-home phase that many across the country not only discovered the joys of gaming, but also realised they could make a healthy living out of it. If most reports coming out in the last one year are to be believed, India will see an even faster growth for the industry in the next few years, and now Bharat is joining in this growth. A recent report by <keyword id="7087972" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mobile-premier-league" source="Orion">Mobile Premier League</keyword> (MPL), an <keyword id="2440542" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="esports" source="Orion">esports</keyword> and skill gaming platform revealed that India’s tier-III cities and towns have witnessed a significant rise in the number of online gamers in 2021. The top 30 of them reported up to 170% more gamers compared to 2020. Some of the small towns have more than 100% to up to 200% growth in online gamers. Another report by Sequoia India and BCG said that while the gaming industry in India is currently smaller than that of the US and China and is 1% of the global gaming market, it is generating $1.5B revenue and is expected to triple to over $5 billion by 2025 on the back of the ‘mobile first’ phenomenon. This massive growth has also led to a new breed of influencers who are being followed by hundreds of thousands of engaged audiences. YouTube’s recently released list of top Indian creators on its platform featured 5 gamers. And things are just about starting to get heated. To understand where this highly dynamic industry is headed in this next year, we reached out to a few prominent voices from the industry and this is what they had to say: Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India &amp; Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF) India was a sleeping giant till Covid-19 happened, and now we have established ourselves as a market that cannot be ignored; Stakeholders like the brands, investors, authorities and so on, were just sitting on the fence and observing. But with a market of at least 450 million online gamers, the potential of video games and esports cannot be ignored. The year 2021, has been the inflection point for video games in India. While esports evolves itself into various business models, Non-fungible token (NFT) will be one big trend to watch out for in 2022. Video Games is the best use case for NFTs, customization of the skins, virtual avatars, in-game items/rewards etc. all this already exists in video games (so-called metaverse) and is now starting to be converted into NFTs. One of the key drivers for the meteoric growth of Video Games has been live streaming and esports, and such content creators and/IP holders will eventually look at converting the best of gameplays/streaks/moments into NFTs, which not only help increase monetization for content creators, video game developers etc. but also be a catalyst in terms of retention of fans and users respectively. Anirudh Pandita, Founder, <keyword id="820765" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Loco" source="Orion">Loco</keyword> Gaming has now arrived as a truly mainstream entertainment experience and has become the primary source of entertainment for India’s young generation. 2021 saw the rise of esports and game streaming, and 2022 will see this multiply. In 2021, we saw the arrival of BGMI which all Indian fans were waiting for and in 2022, we will see multiple big publishers release games for India. In 2021, we saw esports go to new heights and we will see continued growth in the sector in the next year as prize money as well as number of games will increase. Game streaming saw the entry of hundreds of thousands of new streamers and millions of viewers, and this trend should accelerate in 2022, with individual streams rivaling those of major traditional sports. Lastly, with blockchain providing interesting use cases, we expect to see interesting new use cases come out to help creators and consumers. We, at Loco, have always aimed at paving the way for gaming to go from a niche hobby to a mainstream national interest- which the year 2021 has helped realize. We are confident that with this, India will cement its place on the global gaming map in 2022. Abhishek Aggarwal, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, <keyword id="12415204" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="trinity-gaming" source="Orion">Trinity Gaming</keyword> The gaming industry is progressing, taking complete advantage of the latest developments in technology, software, better internet services, gadgets, cloud technology and more. In the Indian scenario, there is an explosive growth of gamers in this booming industry with creative and engaging content being an important aspect of the system. With more games introduced and with more people joining the pool, more brands are shifting their focus on marketing their brands through these young creators who have an enormous fan following across the age group of 15-30 which is the most targeted audience in advertising terms for both endemic and non-endemic brands. Gaming content has begun to penetrate the Tier II, Tier III locations, and beyond, giving vernacular content creators a chance to grow. With Hindi &amp; Tamil being the two most popular languages in streaming in India, it will surely gain more prominence in the coming time. More people will watch game streaming. Audiences tend to admire their creators and feel more connected to them due to their high level of engagement. The future of gaming beholds a lot and a stronger and classified gaming ecosystem is on the rise. Tarun Gupta, Founder, <keyword id="10820861" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ultimate-battle" source="Orion">Ultimate Battle</keyword> Games and gaming content are highly engaging and we're seeing a huge spike in average and concurrent viewership for gaming content. The consumers are very dynamic and their attention span size has decreased noticeably in GenZ. We see short gaming video content to witness a never seen before hype in the gaming community. The mobile gaming market is expanding in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and we'll witness a rise in engagement in games, viewership, and content creation. Young gamers will play engaging games, consume fast-paced engaging content, and want to socialize with gamers often simultaneously. This will lead to more virtual world socialization among the young generation and higher consumption of gaming content. As such, 2022 will usher higher inclination by brands into the gaming industry to target the young age group of 18 to 25. With many startups and organizations focusing on gaming and esports, we'll see a spike in Esports events and team IPs being created. This will boost the gaming ecosystem in India and open multiple opportunities in careers for gamers and IT professionals. Roland Landers, CEO, <keyword id="3634002" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="All-India-Gaming-Federation" source="Orion">All India Gaming Federation</keyword> The Indian gaming industry along with the M&amp;E segment has now become one of the fastest growing sectors in India with around 7.3 Bn downloads in recent years. It has emerged as an important avenue due to a multitude of favorable factors such as young and tech-savvy population, affordable availability of feature-packed smartphones, better internet connectivity, and an overall technological development. The move has also accelerated the growth of multi gaming format in the online gaming space. The Indian gaming industry is expected to reach 3 billion by 2025 and is now projected to grow faster than the global online gaming segment. The industry currently employs 40,000 people in direct jobs and by 2024 the online skill gaming industry is expected to employ around 2 lakh people. This growth will further lead to revenue generation for the country, driven by ease of payment, better security and instant withdrawal of winnings etc. As the regulatory landscape is also evolving and positive judgments are expected from many states, we as an industry leader look forward to an exciting year for this sunrise sector. With its exponential growth, the gaming industry will also attract international investors to invest in the Indian market. Sameer Barde, CEO - E Gaming Federation <div type="image" title="IMG-20220110-WA0005" msid="88826278" hostid="261"></div> Online gaming will become increasingly mainstream and find acceptance as a source of entertainment in 2022. This year, we anticipate a growth rate of over 35 % for the sector as a whole. However, for this to happen, we hope to see government stakeholders accepting the need for regulation to protect the player and industry interests. Increasing monetization and adoption of new-age technology including blockchain and NFTs in the gaming ecosystem will be seen. We expect a larger number of players moving from free-to-play to paying-to-play, in-game purchases, and skill gaming. Industry players will develop new and exciting games for users based on traditional games and Indian themes, keeping the PM’s vision in mind. Additionally, e-Sports being a medal sport in the forthcoming Asian Games in September will result in a significant increase both in terms of acceptance and interest. All in all, we at EGF are excited and believe that this will be a bellwether year for the entire industry. Bhavin Pandya, CEO and Co-Founder, <keyword id="8913431" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Games24x7" source="Orion">Games24x7</keyword> The Indian online skill gaming industry is poised for tremendous growth. With the right support particularly in the form of progressive policy structures, gaming can spur a second software revolution in India. As of today, this industry offers direct employment to almost 50,000 people. It is also a major source of taxation for the exchequer. In addition, the sector has multiplier benefits for several other domains including fintech, banking, semiconductors, animation, and other aspects of Information Technology. The sector has witnessed significant investments from marquee international investors and accounts of several Unicorns. With the right encouragement and support, India can emerge as a global pioneer in gaming technology. Ankur Singh, CEO and Founder, Witzeal We believe that the gaming sector will continue to expand with the high end adoption of AI and data science to understand and provide users experiences they wish for. Future of gaming will likely be based upon newer technologies like Blockchain and its active usage would prove fruitful in the years to come. Another key trend to look forward to is the penetration of gaming in rural areas because the penetration of internet and smartphones is on a gradual rise. Yashash Agarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, <keyword id="3212361" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gamezop" source="Orion">Gamezop</keyword> <div type="image" title="RIC_8498" msid="88758667" hostid="261"></div> Blockchain gaming is shaping up to be a very interesting space. We are already seeing very interesting games emerge with blockchain and NFTs at the heart of all the action. Games like Axie Infinity have popularized the Play to Earn mechanic and they have been able to scale engagement as well as monetization to huge numbers. Take it one step further and we see that decentralization is fundamentally changing how companies operate: all the way from raising money, to day-to-day governance. This is most notable in DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organisations), which follow a bottom-up, community-driven management style. We are excited to see the blockchain gaming projects that emerge from India! Vaibhav Odhekar, COO &amp; Co-Founder, <keyword id="2734866" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="POKKT" source="Orion">POKKT</keyword> The gaming industry is constantly evolving, and its popularity will continue to rise. In the last three years, the sector has welcomed 500 million new gamers globally. New technological breakthroughs such as virtual reality have provided another dimension towards entertainment in this domain. For many young folks, the industry has also become a viable career option. Talking about the trends- The audience will continue to diversify in the coming years. So, instead of a male/female audience bias, we'll have a nearly 50-50 gender split, with a lot more older people joining the online gaming space. India is expected to create more global content. Although the percentage is extremely low right now, as more high-quality content is created in India, the trend will improve. Also, e-Sports as a category will grow in popularity. In 2022, there will be a significant increase in the number of movies released worldwide. So, the biggest trend we anticipate to see is a lot more games based on movie franchises. Gaming has its own history of adapting films and gamers are enthralled by such games. Video games are a vast medium that covers a wide variety of genres and experiences that can only be experienced in games, along with contributions from a population from all over the world. Even while many modern games are inspired by movies, they are nevertheless unique in their own way and we expect them to expand in the coming years.

Gaming: What to expect from the Indian gaming and e-sports industry in 2022

India is about to sign two new defense deals with Israel before PM <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/topic/Narendra-Modi">Narendra </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/topic/Narendra-Modi">Modi</a>'s visit in July, thus strengthening the ties with the middle eastern nation. 
 
These deals include Spike anti-tank missiles for India's army and and Barak-8 air defense missiles for its navy, people told Bloomberg requesting anonymity since the information is private. Modi will be the first Indian PM to visit Israel, and this indicates the increasing ties that Delhi has with Israel, other than being just the largest buyer of its military hardware. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/india-has-signed-defence-deals-worth-over-2-billion-with-israel/articleshow/58065210.cms">India has signed defence deals worth over $2 billion with Israel</a> 
 
"The visit is a big milestone," Shailesh Kumar, senior Asia analyst at political risk firm Eurasia Group, told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-11/modi-s-israel-visit-said-to-spur-missile-deals-as-ties-deepen">Bloomberg</a>. "Officials in both countries believe they face a common external threat: terrorism. Working with Israel fits into Modi's bigger pivot of deeper relations with the U.S. given the U.S.-Israel friendship." 
 
The new deals are expected to be finalized in the coming two months, and are reported to be worth $1.5 billion. Two years after the contract is signed, India will see the delivery of the 8,000 missiles, which are a part of Modi's $250-billion plan to modernize the armed forces by 2025 to tackle tensions with China and Pakistan, bordering countries with which India shares a war history. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Indian-Air-Force-under-threat-from-China-and-Pakistan/articleshow/51585929.cms">Indian Air Force under threat from China and Pakistan, says US think tank</a> 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/military-defense/army-asks-defence-ministry-for-18000-new-personnel-to-secure-camps-and-military-establishments/articleshow/58124226.cms">Defence Ministry</a> spokesman Nitin Wakankar has not issues any statement on the deals. 
 
As per a report from the Indian parliament, Israel has been the third-largest arms supplier to India for three consecutive fiscal years ending March 2016, and deals worth a total of 76 billion rupees ($1 billion) were signed between the two nations. Only the U.S. and Russia made more defense deals than Israel in this period. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/finally-indian-army-is-going-modern-with-its-ammo/articleshow/57407027.cms">Finally! Indian Army is going modern with its ammo</a> 
 
"<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/politics/India-Israel-Ties-To-See-An-Upswing-Going-Ahead/articleshow/44744306.cms">India-Israel ties</a> have always been strong but never have they been widely publicized,, said Ankur Gupta, New Delhi-based vice-president for Aerospace and Defence at Ernst &amp; Young. "There is great strength and value in this relationship as Israel is one of India's foremost supplier of weapons and related high-end technology." 
 
(Image source New Indian Express)

Modi's $250-bn plan to take on neighbour enemies includes 8000 Israeli missiles

Gaming Company <keyword id="3514214" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="scopely">Scopely</keyword> Raises $55M Led by Greycroft Growth Fund 
 
Mobile gaming company Scopely has raised $55 million financing in series B round of financing led by Greycroft Growth Fund. The round also saw participation from Elephant Partners, the new fund of Warby Parker co-founder Andy Hunt and former Highland Capital colleague and partner Jeremiah Daly; Evolution Media Partners, a partnership of CAA-backed Evolution Media Capital, TPG Growth and Participant Media; Highland Capital; Sands Capital Ventures; and Take-Two Interactive. Greycroft Partner Mark Terbeek and Scopely President and COO Javier Ferreira will join the company’s board as a part of deal. 
 
Founded by Walter Driver, Eytan Elbaz, Eric Futoran and Ankur Bulsara in 2011, the company released two games last year- The Walking Dead: Road to Survival and Yahtzee with Buddies, which were both ranked among the top grossing games on the Apple App Store and Play Store. 
 
<keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> CFO Invests in Cyber Security Startup Lucideus 
 Delhi-based Cyber Security Startup has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Flipkart CFO <keyword id="2028511" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sanjay-Baweja">Sanjay Baweja</keyword>. Founded by <keyword id="9832" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Saket-Modi">Saket Modi</keyword> in 2012, this cyber security company offers consultancy, training and solutions to counteract cyber attacks. The company aims to offer generic and customized products and services to keep web spaces and networks protected. 
 
Home Rental Service Startup Fella Homes Closes $2M from Undisclosed Investors 
 
Gurgaon-based funished home rental service company Fella Homes recently raised $2 million from undisclosed investors. Founded by IIT Roorkee batch mates Virender Pratap Singh,Yadwinder Paul Singh, Digendra Singh Rathore, Kunal Singh and Amit Gupta, the startup provides ready to move in homes on rental basis for professionals working in metro cities. It provides fully equipped homes with standardized furniture, appliances and kitchenware, rented on per bed / per room basis.

FundUp: Scopely
Raises $55M, Flipkart CFO Invests in Cyber Security Startup & More

To open new horizons for the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Indian+Defence">Indian Defence</a> and aerospace manufacturing sector, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Defence+Ministry+">Defence Ministry</a> has introduced some major retrospective changes in the offset policy. The move, as reported by Economics Times, will provide more flexibility to the foreign companies in choosing partners and allocating work shares. 
 
As per the new policy, which covers all defence contracts with offset obligations, the ministry suggests an investment of minimum 30% of the contract value into the Indian defence manufacturing sector. Also, the ministry has now allowed foreign companies to change their Indian partners. 
 Earlier, any such changes require an approval at multiple levels and after that were finalized by the high powered <keyword id="2654333" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Defence-Acquisition-Committee">Defence Acquisition Committee</keyword> (DAC), the deciding authority, which now has been changed to the Secretary, Defence Production. The changes, which were planned three years in advance due to a long process, are now much easier and flexible. 
 
With the amendments, foreign companies will now be able to select partners and contracts at the 'execution stage', instead of a few years in advance. 
 These amendments, with retrospective effect, should clear most bottlenecks in offset execution on the ground as well as spur high-technology work flowing into the country for the purpose of discharging offsets. OEMs will be far more comfortable in proposing work-packages, that if required it is not an insurmountable task to change the same," Ankur Gupta of <keyword id="234222" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ernst-and-Young-India">Ernst and Young India</keyword> told ET. 
 
Industry experts say that a prime reason for a deadlocked offset policy — close to $4.5 billion of work has been signed under offsets since 2008 but less than a quarter has actually been executed — was the requirement of providing detailed work-packages at the time of the submission of initial bids itself. 
 
"The time gap between the signing of the contract and the freezing of offset work share could easily stretch to 2-4 years and by that time the requirements of the companies would change as technology evolves swiftly," an industry insider said. 
 
Image: indiatimes

Defence Ministry introduces changes in policy to attract more foreign players!!!

In a season of great initiatives, discussion, debates kick-started by the <keyword id="6360789" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi-Government">Modi government</keyword> on the startup community, both the <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="venture-capital">venture capital</keyword> community as well as the entrepreneur club in India have pinned hopes on Mr <keyword id="42575" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Arun-Jaitley">Arun Jaitley</keyword>’s <keyword id="6360189" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Union-Budget">Union Budget</keyword> scheduled to be announced this February end. The recent Startup India, Standup India event has further risen hopes among the community of a similarly encouraging Budget too. 
 
It is a fact that there needs to be a robust evaluation of prior period performance coupled with a reasonably realistic short- and long-term forecast, for a government to be able to bring out a thought through Budget. 
 
Before the D-Day approaches, we spoke to a couple of start-ups in different sectors to understand their hardships and learn their expectations from Mr Arun Jaitley’s Budget this year. Here’s what they are: 
 
Ankur Saigal, Chief Business Officer, Funtoot 
 
Q) What are the hardships in terms of stringent or restrictive govt policy they face in their respective sectors as of now? 
 
There is no differentiation between software product and software service; therefore there is lack of clarity over applicable service tax and VAT on sales of software product. At the same time it is a little unfair to apply same service tax and VAT rates (if at all applicable) to educational software products. 
 
There is a lack of focus on learning outcome in education sector. Focus is entirely over inputs (infrastructure, teachers, etc.) rather than the results being produced, especially in primary and middle education, which in turn doesn’t create conducive environment for innovative solutions. 
 
Q) What are their expectations from the govt’s ‘upcoming budget’ to do away with these problems? 
 
Government should clearly distinct between software service and product and define appropriate tax rates for both of them. Government should also set up lower rates (if any) for educational software products to promote innovations in the field. This will go long way in addressing the lack of quality education in India. 
 
New education policies should start measuring learning outcomes at each grade level and budget allocation for schools and districts should be based on the demonstrated results. 
 
Suman Howlader, CEO &amp; Founder of CarZippi (Bangalore based start-up in car care segment) 
 
Hardships: As of now, if we raise any invoice which attracts Service Tax, we need to deposit the service tax amount with Govt of India as per invoice amount. However, at times, you end up having bad debts on few invoices as startups may not have a robust and well defined collection system in place. Primary focus during the initial days is to get a foothold in the market and most of the efforts are directed towards it. So, if Govt makes necessary changes to the rule and makes it necessary to deposit the ST only post collection, it will take away lot of hassle and stress factor from the startups. 
 
Expectations: Most of the startups run on bootstrap funding resulting in a stressed budget hiring to onboard an skilled employee. So, if there is any relief in terms of flexibility to decide on the contributing amounts in the areas of provident fund and ESI both for employees and employers and if organizations/candidates are allowed to choose ESI vs other health plans, it will be a boon for the startups as they can choose options based on budget and available funds. 
 
Lokesh Bevara CEO &amp; Co-founder of 360Ride 
 
Hardships: Keeping the positives of "Startup action plan" event into consideration I strongly feel government should allocate a decent amount of budget for startups. The fund which will be allocated should vary from startup to startup based on the stage in which they are in. 
Early stage startups need more support with fund.The funds which are allocated should reach startups on time and the process should be clear and transparent with out having any hurdles. 
 
Expectations: In ride sharing industry rules should be revised in such a way that sharing a seat even in commercial format should be allowed.Any rule has can become an old rule if it is not helping any startups/enterprises in solving the real world problem. 
 
Sudarshan Purohit, Co-Founder of Zenify.in 
 
Hardships: ROC (Registering of a company) is a lengthy process which consumes 50 % of our time to understand and signing the documents. 
 
FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) drafts the FDI policies but we are not able to approach FIPB with grievances. Whenever we approach them with grievances, they are re- directing us to the government stating that it does not have an adequate data to answer for grievances which really slows down the process and creates confusion. Moreover FIPB does not have a physical centre in other cities except the NCR region which creates a gap between the start-ups and FIPB. 
 
Expectations: During the budgeting, we expect the allotment of special funds for the start-ups and “CREDIT SECURITY BOND” from the government which can be a security to receive an initial loan from the Banks 
 
Draft liberal FDI policies in order to reduce FDI gap for the start-ups; 100 % tax holidays on direct (Corporate, MAT), indirect tax, surcharge tax for first 3 years; Government needs to define and categorize the start-ups based on which all provision and taxes needs to be re- structured. 
 
Akhil Gupta, Co-founder of Bumper 
 
Hardships: Incentivising and giving tax breaks to early stage startups will pave way for a new breed of fearless entrepreneurs. Angel investors should be incentivised and given a tax benefit. By providing a waiver on service tax for 3 years can help a startup in their capital requirements. The 2016 budget will be the one keenly followed by the startup community and we can only hope it ushers in a new era of entrepreneurship. 
 
Expectations: Government should ease the qualification of Angel money, often the lifeline for entrepreneurs. Tax breaks and incentivization to individual investors will be a welcome move. Waiving off service tax for a period of 3 years will give a huge relief to Bootstrapping startups. Scrapping unnecessary paperwork and a fast track documentation process will help save precious time of an entrepreneur, allowing him to expend his energies on the right things. 
 
Mukesh Singh, Founder &amp; CEO, ZopNow 
 
Hardships: The typical hardships faced by startups like ours are mostly around tax regulations - which get too intricate at times. We have been eagerly waiting for a uniform tax structure that GST was expected to bring in. The delay there has definitely pushed back lot of investment that India could have otherwise gained from - considering the prevailing slowdown that the world economy is going through. 
 
Expectations: 
 
- Simplification of tax laws for startups operating in e-commerce 
- Tax Incentives for employees working in small scale enterprises - including startups 
- Policy framework on supporting startups trying to list themselves with an IPO 
 
(image credit: reuters)

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