In a bid to provide more connected vehicles in the future, Audi has signed a memorandum of understanding with Deutsche Telekom and Ingolstadt City. According to the press released by the German carmaker, this agreement will enable Audi to use 5G Technology in its cars in the future. The primary aim of the agreement is to provide safe urban mobility with the help of 5G and to aid the overall sustainability of transportation in the coming years. Recently Deutsche Telekom Organization hires a blockchain professor in association with a berlin-based university.

Connected Cars

Audi is planning to use 5G Technology in its future vehicles significantly, and the use of this higher bandwidth will help the occupants to have data access on a real-time basis. 5G will open new avenues of communication between the vehicles on the road, and it could pave the way for the number of future driving technologies included in the automated one. Along with 5G Technology, the internet of things (IoT) will also play a crucial role in providing real-time data to connected vehicles.

Speaking on the development, Managing Director of Audi Electronics Venture GmbH, Peter Steiner, said that the company is working on the theme of “consistently connected” technology and aims to contribute towards improving the urban mobility across the globe. Together with its partners, Audi aims to develop sustainable solutions for safe transportation.

Future Scenarios

One possible future scenario of connected vehicles could manifest in the form of an exchange of information about the traffic and the parking spaces at various road junctions. That will help to streamline the movement of the vehicles as divers can fine-tune their movement according to the available information. Even cyclists and pedestrians are going to get benefited from the adoption of technology, and the overall exchange of information on a real-time basis will help save not only a lot of time but also cost associated with traffic jams and congestions.

The government is coming up with new initiatives so as to simplify the carrying business and to minimize the cost of doing business in Dubai. With these initiatives, Dubai’s economy is entering into a new development stage. Dubai is on its way to becoming a progressive base for all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Expo 2020 project of Dubai focuses on offering new opportunities to SMEs. World Expo first of its kind will be hosted in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The main goal of the Expo 2020 is to give 20 percent of all contracts value to SMEs. As of now, Expo 2020 has invested around AED2.4 billion in the SME sector and is planning to launch a new round of tenders; these tenders will mostly rely on SMEs for delivery.

The important agency that is supporting the growth of SMEs in Dubai is ‘the Dubai SME’- it is the Department of Economic Development agency responsible for developing the SME sector in Dubai.

Dubai SME CEO, Abdulbaset Al Janahi, mentioned,

“Dubai offers a unique model for creating a vibrant SME sector. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has set ambitious development goals in the 50 Year Charter including the establishment of the world’s first virtual trade zone targeting 100,000 companies, as well as the transformation of universities into free zones in order to promote economic growth and innovation. These goals offer exceptional opportunities for promising small and medium enterprises.”

He later mentioned, Dubai SME will continue to provide more opportunities to its members and also boost SME capacity by offering training and consultation and also support collaborations with the private sector and the government. Financial support is one of the important elements of Dubai’s offerings for small-medium sized enterprises.

The objective of the Dubai Plan 2021 is to increase the GDP contribution of SMEs to 45 percent within 2021.

Department of Finance Launches New packages

Back in May 2019, Dubai’s Department of Finance introduced five new incentive packages. These packages were launched to assist SMEs and to promote public-private collaborations.

The first incentive package, within this package, SME suppliers to government departments will receive a payment within a month and need not wait for 90 days for payments as earlier, so as to offer SMEs with more liquidity of AED1.6 billion per year.

Previous, SMEs primary insurance value was between 2 to 5 percent and within the second initiative, the value has been reduced between 1 to 3 percent.

Within the third initiative, ‘performance insurance’ – the final insurance rate has been reduced to 5 percent from 10 percent on every supply.

The fourth initiative allows 5 percent of government capital projects to be provided to SMEs.

The last and fifth initiative consists of providing AED1 billion to public-private based projects.

The first incentive package was launched in 2018 and Dubai had introduced various steps to minimize costs and promote business reliability and it is also building a new specific SME cluster that aims at business innovation.

Recently, Dubai SME, Merras and the Department of the Economic Development collaborated to introduce Al Seef SME District- an innovation center across Al Seef.

The emergence of Fintech and technology into the financial world has been a big jolt to banks that had enjoyed a near monopoly for decades. However, the easy availability of the internet, cheap data plans, and internet-only banks have the potential of completely upending the banking sector in a way that was thought unimaginable even a decade ago. In fact, some of the biggest banks in the world risk surrendering a chink of their market share if they do not move quickly and it seems JP Morgan is currently in the process of taking on that challenge head-on.

According to sources close to the developments, the bank is currently developing a range of digital-first products under extreme secrecy in London, United Kingdom. Moreover, it would also help JP Morgan in gaining market share from its own rival banks that might not have the same level of digital services on offer. Although the sources which spoke to a leading tech magazine could not specify the exact nature of the products that are being built, it has emerged that JP Morgan is hiring personnel with skills in cloud computing and full stack development.

However, it is the secrecy element that makes this an intriguing project. People who are being hired have been asked to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), and JP Morgan is going to run this particular division like an independent startup with no contact with the current tech initiatives that are being pursued by the bank at this point of time. That being said, it is being speculated, that the project in question is possibly a competing product of Marcus, the digital bank that was created by fierce rivals Goldman Sachs. Marcus is engaged in offering savings services and attractive interest rates to the clients. On the other hand, the launch of such a service by JP Morgan will also see it going head to head against companies like Atom and Raisin among others. Needless to say, it is an intriguing project, but everyone will be waiting for the eventual results with impatience.

One of the most important developments over the past half a decade or so has been the breakneck speed at which financial technology or Fintech has developed into one of the world’s most important industries. The scope of the industry is immense, and now many of the world’s biggest banks are taking notice of the sector, after being largely aloof to the transformational potential of Fintech for years. In a new development, British banking giant Standard Chartered has stated that its subsidiary SG Ventures is currently exploring options regarding Fintech investments in startups in the financial sector.

The bank is also looking for partners and co-investors in Africa and the Middle East, in order to invest $100 million in at least three such startups. The chief of SC Ventures, Alex Manson, stated that the fund does not want to invest a large chunk of money in one company and are instead looking to help three startups scale their businesses up steadily. As far as partners and co-investors are concerned, Standard Chartered is aware that the Fintech sector is ready for an explosion in the years to come and for a bank of its size, it is only natural for it to invest heavily in the sector. SG Venture has already met with potential clients and co-investors regarding the project, and Manson stated that the potential for growth in the Fintech space is substantial in the UAE.

SG Ventures was established by Standard Chartered with a view to gathering minority stakes in upcoming Fintech companies. The investments are made through the innovation investment fund, which has a corpus of $100 million, and Manson has stated that the entire amount is going to be invested by the end of next year. Nowadays, banks are looking to have a dominant presence in the digital services space, and the investments in the Fintech space is only going to rise in the years to come. In this regard, Standard Chartered is moving aggressively. Manson added,

I anticipate that at any point in time we will have 10 to 15 ventures in our portfolio [in different stages of growth]. But we are at an early stage of building that portfolio.

In the industry of blockchain intelligence, Chainalysis is one among many high-profile companies and a well-known blockchain analytics firm that is situated in New-York. To allow law enforcement agencies, companies and governments to supervise transactions done by blockchain and keep track of any suspected illegal activities, it offers technology tools like proprietary Know Your Transaction. Illegal activities such as offering finance to terrorist and money laundering are tracked by this tool.

There were claims made that this type of firms that offer such tools might be circulating their user’s details. This allegation came to light in February last week when the controversy about acquisition made by Coinbase about Neutrino which is another blockchain analytics firm backlashed. In an interview, the senior executive of Coinbase gave the justification about the acquisition by claiming that their Coinbase’s previous intelligence tool suppliers had intentionally sold their users’ database to the third parties.

This allegation made by Coinbase about Chainalysis was clarified when Chainalysis issued an official statement which stated that their tool neither collects nor sells user’s personal information while it is providing services to digital currency exchanges.

To give the details about the service operations to the exchanges that are their clients there is a phrase known as Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) in Chainalysis. The clients are supposed to submit their transaction details by entering into this programme so that they can plug-in to the Chainalysis’s dataset.

Quite unambiguously Chainalysis had written on the topic of personal information of customers’ users that any connection from the transaction that happens among the person or the people who are involved in that transaction should be done externally and not on Chainalysis since the personally recognizable information from the client exchanges is not collected by them.

The executive of Coinbase did not express exactly which of the past intelligence companies had sold the data, but Chainalysis made it very clear that their firm does not need to store any information to carry out transaction analyses. Hence, there is no chance of them circulating any sort of personal information.

The statement made by Chainalysis continued further to say that they are focusing on targeting transactions depending on “indicators of risky behavior.” This type of destination addresses is known as ‘illicit entities’ such as terrorist funding organization or darknet market. Therefore, the main motive of the company’s blockchain analytics tools is to monitor transaction database of service-level and not to label each wallet of every user.

Bahrain is planning to grow and endorse themselves as a ‘financial tech hub,’ therefore, they went and approached Middle Eastern nations looking for participants. They are looking for Indian companies to participate in the fintech industry so that they can grow it in this region. Bahrain plans to develop the technology of blockchain in India as per the report of March 3^rd by the Economic Times.

All the different types of options related to blockchain technologies like open banking, remittances, robot advisory, and crypto assets, Bahrain has planned to offer the Indian firms in an attempt to enhance fintech in this country. Dalal Buhejji, Senior Manager of Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), said that since after oil and gas the second highest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product is the financial service zone they want to grow this zone more.

Dalal Buhejji reported that in December 2018 few Indian firms had put an application on Bahraini fintech sandbox. On the other hand, there was a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between EDB and the Maharashtra government. In order to promote fintech simultaneously at once on both the markets, they signed the Memorandum and developed the framework.

Dalal said that in the financial service sector innovations, Bahrain behaves like a test bed because this nation offers a lot of advantages which consist of doing business at low costs, appropriate accelerator, and incubators. These are just a few among many other advantages, she said.

She added that the proper ecosystem had been put together by Central Bank of Bahrain so that it supports growth and innovation. She added that they have recently witnessed various new regulation that is emerging to support digital assets, open banking and a draft regulation on robot advisory.

In February 2019, the new regulatory sandbox was launched which will permit blockchain and cryptocurrency firms to work in Bahrain. A formal regulation has not yet been passed. The firms have the permission to test their solution and speed up the firms’ entry within the market as the initiative is all set. They can test it on only a few users and can perform limited transactions.

Sandbox is usually looked at like a safe area for testing financial revolutions as it sees a limited raise of new products to choose consumers. In December 2018, a roadshow was done in Mumbai to attract fintech firms as India was considered as the key market.

Since the time digital currencies and assets have come into existence, firms that deal with them, have found it very difficult to get funds from traditional financial institutions as they have been resistant about offering bank services to them. There is one bank, however, which is going against the conventional way and offering banking services to cryptocurrency firms in Bermuda that is a US-based Signature Bank. They are going to offer services to both financial firms as well as cryptocurrency startups that have been struggling to get accounts from traditional banks.

Cryptocurrency industry that has needed financial services has been avoided by banks in Bermuda as reported by Royal Gazette. It has been agreed by Signature Bank that whichever firms are meeting the standards of both Bermuda and Signature Bank will be getting a complete range of financial services as per the report announced by the government.

There was a press release on 27^th February where it was announced by the government of Bermuda that fintech companies that have a license would be offered banking services by Signature Bank which would include 66 startup firms that are already incorporated in the nation.

The Vice-Chairman of Signature Bank, John Tamberlane said that they were overwhelmed with the advancement Bermuda had made concerning the regulatory front and looking forward to work to get support from the Government of Bermuda to grow and expand fintech and crypto asset industry in Bermuda. In order to assist cryptocurrency, fintech and blockchain businesses, Bermuda rebuilt their regulatory structure. The Banks and Deposit Companies Act 1999 was revised by the government in July 2018.

It was announced by the Government of Bermuda that services were available and can be applied effectively immediately. To “promote Bermuda as the destination of choice for FinTech companies looking for a place to domicile,” Bermuda’s government was working on it as per stated by Premier David Burt. Further, Burt said that the success of the FinTech industry worldwide would depend on the capability of the business working in this industry so that the required banking services can be enjoyed.

For initial coin offerings in July 2018, a new regulation was proposed by the government which said that the person who issues ICO in Bermuda should issue information in detail regarding the projects which should include ‘all persons involved with the ICO.’ In October 2018, the very first certificate was awarded by the government under the new authorities.

On Sunday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the third time interrogated the former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and meanwhile convicted Nishant Kanodia, the chairman of Matrix Fertilizer. Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot were deeply questioned by the ED, and after completing the process of interrogation for the day, they left the investigating agency after Sunday midnight. Earlier on Saturday, the ED had the former CEO and MD of ICICI Chanda Kochhar for questioning along with her husband Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot for questions because of their connection with the conflict of interest in which the loan was extended to Videocon Group.

Chanda Kocchar and her Husband Deepak Kocchar were present at the investigating agency before the investors at 11. A.M and Venugopal Dhoot had been before the investigating officer at 2 P.M. While, Chanda Kocchar left the investigating office by half an hour, but Deepak Kocchar and Venugopal Dhoot both were interrogated by the officer for several hours.

Their statements were recorded by the ED, and the documents which were seized by the agency were placed before them during the interrogation process. This move comes just weeks after the ED had registered a criminal case against Deepak and Venugopal over money laundering charges. The case has been registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had summoned Chanda Kocchar, Deepak Kocchar and Venugopal Dhoot in their quid pro case of worth Rs 3,250 crore on Saturday. The investigation by ED alleges that NuPower Renewables run by Deepak Kocchar had received 64 crore rupees in the year of 2010 through a maze of shell companies from Venugopal in return to this, he received a loan from the ICICI Bank during 2009 to 2011 of amount more than Rs 1,575 crore. While in 2010, the NuPower Company received 325 crore rupees from a Mauritius firm, Firstland Holdings which is acquired by Nishant Kanodia, who is not only the owner of Firstland Holdings but also the son-in-law of Ruia, who is the founder of the Essar Group.

On Friday, the ED had searched the properties related to Chanda Kocchar and Venugopal Dhoot in Mumbai and also in Aurangabad. Due to the money laundering case, the search operation was carried out, the authorities stated. Raids were conducted by the ED on the houses of Chanda Kocchar and in offices. A team of investigators were supported by police and initiated their search operation. The search operation was carried out in 5 offices along with other locations. With Chanda, Dhoot and Deepak, the investigating agency also quizzed Mahesh Puglia, who is the close ally of Venugopal Dhoot and also a relative of the Kochhars.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had released lookout circulars (LOCs) against the former ICICI Bank MD & CEO Chanda, her husband Deepak, and Venugopal Dhoot –the chairman of Videocon Group.

The official mentioned that the FIR was filed in the case and only then the LOCs were issued. LOCs are very much essential and needed in such cases where economic offenses are found.

The CBI probe alleges that six loans amount to 1,875 crore rupees has been approved to Videocon Group from June 2009 to October 2011, during the time when Chanda Kocchar was the CEO and MD of ICICI Bank, and she was also a key committee member.

Arvind Gupta, who is the shareholder activist in May 2018, had raised the issue about the deals that took place between NuPower Renewables and Videocon Group and had complained to the Prime Minister Office (PMO) that the investment of worth 453 crore rupees from the Essar Group was directed via Kanodia’s Matix Group and its entity, Firstland Holdings.

The criminal case was registered by ED in previous month against Chanda Kocchar, Deepak Kocchar, Venugopal Dhoot and others so as to investigate the irregularities and corrupt practices that were claimed while approving an amount of worth 3,250 crore loan by the ICICI Bank to the firms.

CBI further claims that ICICI bank had sanctioned a loan of worth 1,575 corer rupees to Videocon Group and later changed into non-performing assets (NPA). The CBI also claims that via Dhoot’s Company, Venugopal Dhoot had made investments in Nupower Renewables which is owned by Deepak Kocchar, which were validated by ICICI Bank and cleared.

There were complicated web transactions taking place between the Nupower owner and Supreme Energy owner, the CBI claims.

On Wednesday, the domestic airline firm in India, Jet Airways has grounded seven more aircraft as the carrier has failed to make the payments to its lessors, taking the tally of planes hamstrung by the defaults to thirteen. On an official press release, “Jet Airways is currently is actively engaged with all its aircraft lessors,” adding that its aircraft lessors have been supportive of the company’s efforts to improve liquidity.

Jet Airways is now having debts of more than 1 billion dollars, Jet has defaulted on loans and has not paid pilots, leasing firms and suppliers for many months. The loss-making Indian airline approved a rescue deal in mid of February after months of talks to plug an 85 billion rupees ( which approximately equal to 1.2 billion dollars) funding hole.

The plan has been approved by the shareholders of Jet Airways that includes selling off a majority stake to a consortium led by State Bank of India, the airline’s biggest creditor, at 1 rupee. Reuters had previously reported that international lessors had grounded more Jet Airways planes before potentially moving them out of India, as skepticism built over whether the bailout of the carrier can clear their dues on time. However, on Saturday the airlines revealed that it had grounded two more aircraft in addition to the four earlier this month over default to its lessors.

According to the sources, currently, Jet Airways has a total of 123 fleet that includes most of the Boeing planes, including 16-owned aircraft. However, the rest are leased from a range of lessors including GE Capital Aviation Services, US-based BBAM and Japan’s SMBC Aviation Capital.

Swiggy is reportedly closing on a deal to acquire Uber Eats, the food delivery arm of online cab booking company Uber. The business was launched in January 2017 and is currently worth over $330 million.

At the time of launch, Uber India had high hopes from Uber Eats, however stiff competition from established giants like Zomato, and Swiggy made the journey quite difficult. Therefore, the San Francisco based company has decided to sell the ailing business to curb losses. The move will also help the Uber go for IPO with a targeted valuation of $120-$150 billion. Apart from Swiggy, reports have suggested that Gurugram based Zomato is also in contention to acquire Uber Eats. Swiggy and Zomato are arch-rivals in the online food delivery space; both of them are fighting very hard to increase their market share.

Uber Eats India is currently executing around 150,000 to 250,000 deliveries per day, generating around $200-$300 million in sales. On the other hand, Swiggy and Zomato manage to squeeze out business almost four or five times of Uber’s numbers. Uber’s delivery arm is currently ranked 3^rd, ahead of Foodpanda, owned by rival ride-booking company Ola.

Uber reported a loss $1.8 billion for 2018, and it desperately wants to shed loss-making units away before it goes for the IPO in India. Reports have surfaced that Uber Eats in India was losing about $15 to $20 million per month. Contrasting to the recent developments, Uber Eats had said last year that India is one of the fastest growing markets, claiming that it was adding 4,500 delivery personnel per week, an adding 100 restaurants a day in the country.

India is one of the markets where Uber still suffers high losses. It has already sold businesses in China, Russia, and Southeast Asia to rivals, to curb losses. Contrastingly the market leaders, Swiggy and Zomato are reportedly losing $30-$40 million each month. The two main reasons for these losses are the regular discounts given to customers to attract them, and high incentives to delivery personnel.

Experts have been projecting a market consolidation, sooner or later. The food delivery space offers razor-thin margins; large scale competition is causing companies to bleed. Uber Eats was also rumored to consolidate with Ola’s Foodpanda, as both have a common investor in Softbank which holds substantial shares in both firms.

The transaction, if completed, will be the first move towards sector consolidated of food delivery space in India. Though Zomato is trying too, Swiggy is expected to close the deal as early as next month. This will be the Bangalore based company’s largest acquisition till date, and will also be Uber’s first divestment of its food business globally. Uber its is estimated to be valued at around $20 billion, and the business generates $1.5 billion in revenues.

The transaction is most likely to be structured as a share-swap deal, with Uber accepting shares in Swiggy as contract remuneration. Uber is expected to get 10% shares in Swiggy. The Indian food delivery service company is valued at around $3.3 billion.