In the latest episode of Shark Tank India 2, Niharika Jain, Vaibhav Agrawal and Saurav Kumar introduce their brand. It’s a platform for hiring trained house help, cooks, babysitters etc. It offers transparent pricing. They reveal they offer services in 150 + pin codes across Delhi NCR. They ask for Rs 80 lakhs for 2 percent equity. Sharks acknowledge the househelp business as a genuine problem and ask more about their business. The founders explain their business strategy, equity division, mechanism for complaints and competition among other things. Namita Thapar and Aman Gupta offer Rs 80 lakhs for 3 percent. Vineeta Singh says it will be complicated to execute the business and opts out. Anupam Mittal offers what they asked ie., Rs 80 lakhs for 2 percent. Namita and Aman match his offer. Peyush suggests he could come with Aman and Namita for 3 percent. The founders ask if four of them can come for Rs 2 crore for 5 percent. Anupam says he is out. Aman, Namita and Peyush give their offer of Rs 80 lakh for 3 percent. The founders ask for one crore for 3 percent. The sharks agree and the deal is done.
Next is haircare brand founder Ayush Sharma who claims they follow clean beauty standards for their products that are made in India. Ayush says people buy different shampoos for different problems but he has customised hair products to meet their needs in one product. He shares the process of customisation through the website and reveals over two lakh people have brought his products. He asks for Rs 75 lakhs for 2.5 percent equity. Aman and others are surprised to learn his growth story. After Ayush explains his business, sharks point out what they like and don’t like about the product and the business. Aman finds it like a half-baked cake and asks him to do more research in the industry. Namita says she has already invested in a skincare, haircare and body care business in the first season. So she is out. Vineeta elaborates on the challenges in the industry. She opts out. Peyush finds a lag in branding. He opts out. Anupam asks why he needs investment. Ayush says he needs guidance. Anupam gives his two cents and feels profitability will take a hit. He gives a conditional offer of Rs 75 lakhs for 10 percent and says his offer is non-negotiable. Ayush takes it.

Hardik and Kashyap Joshi introduce their honey brand to sharks. It’s pure, natural and unique flavours and promotes sustainable farming. The two talk about honey bees and what prompted them to start their business. They don’t kill bees and make their products. They are B2B bulk suppliers but want to make it a B2C brand. They explain their business – when they launched, their annual sales, their future plan of action. Aman says he has no interest in honey. He is out. Namita says she is not sure what they want especially in a cluttered and unorganised market. Peyush also opts out. Anupam feels it’s an opportunity to create an ecosystem and they shouldn’t run after becoming B2C which is more in fashion. He asks their plans to export in the coming years. Anupam enumerates their challenges. He and Vineeta offer Rs 50 lakhs for 20 percent and Rs 25 lakhs in debt at 12 percent interest. The founders give a counter offer but eventually take their offer.

NEW DELHI: Indian-American Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, is likely to launch her campaign for Republican nomination for 2024 presidential election on February 15.
Born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, Haley has previously served as governor of South Carolina. She was seen as close to Donald Trump and backed the former president on several contentious issues. However she had cast doubts on Trump’s political future after the Capitol riots of Jan 6, 2021.
Haley had previously stated that she would not run for the White House in 2024 if Trump was aslo in the race. The speculated February 15 campaign launch would be a departure from Haley’s earlier position. Asked about that statement, she recently told Fox News that “a lot has changed,” an apparent reference to the changed political and economic scenarious in the US.
Haley would be up against Trump himself, who launched his third consecutive run for the White House on Nov. 15.
Donald Trump’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 got off to a modest fundraising start, with his campaign ending the year with about $7 million on hand while his Save America fund had about $18 million, according to financial disclosures released on Tuesday.
Trump remains the Republican party’s most popular figure and is the only major candidate to have declared his intention.
But Haley could also face challenge for the nomination from incumbent Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis already has the backings of several prominent Republican donors, who have clearly backed away from supporting Trump.
(With agency inputs)

Railway Budget 2023 live: Indian Railways is expected to focus on the rollout of hundreds of new Vande Bharat trains as part of the Budget announcements. Railway Budget was merged with the Union Budget in 2016 and is now not presented separately. Reports suggest that Railway Budget 2023 may see an allocation of Rs 1.9 lakh crore.

Railway Budget 2023: Vande Bharat trains

Indian Railways has been focussing on the rollout of 75 Vande Bharat trains by August 2023. Meanwhile, the tender for the manufacturing of 200 Vande Bharat sleeper trains is expected to be awarded soon. The Vande Bharat Express trains are chair car services that are slowly replacing Shatabdi Express trains on the Indian Railways network. The sleeper versions of Vande Bharat Express will look to replace the premium Rajdhani Express trains.
Railway Budget 2023 is expected to see an announcement of 400-500 semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains. Railway experts have stressed on the need to upgrade major tracks to 160 kmph speed potential to be able to run the Vande Bharat trains to their full potential.
Economic Survey 2023 has also acknowledged the introduction of Vande Bharat trains as a major initiative by Indian Railways. “Semi High-Speed self-propelled Vande Bharat Trainsets were manufactured by Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, with indigenous efforts. These trains have ultra-modern features like quick acceleration, substantial reduction in travel time, having maximum speed of 160 kmph, on-board infotainment and Global Positioning System (GPS) based passenger information system, etc,” the Survey says.
Apart from this Railway Budget 2023 is also expected to highlight Indian Railways’ efforts towards 100% electrification and shift towards green energy initiatives. Railway station redevelopment is also likely to feature prominently in the Railway Budget apart from updates on the dedicated freight corridor projects.

Most of the dollar bonds issued by the Adani group of companies gained for a second day Wednesday after its flagship sold $2.5 billion worth of shares in a fully subscribed follow-on offering.
The 2024 note of Adani Green Energy Ltd. gained nearly 5 cents on a dollar to 80.9 cents as of 9:35 a.m. in Hong Kong, recovering from a slump to a record low earlier this week. Eleven out of 15 dollar-denominated bonds by the group tracked by Bloomberg were also higher.
The offering by flagship company Adani Enterprises Ltd. was India’s largest follow-on share sale, and was fully subscribed on the final day. It may help ease investor concerns faced by Adani after fraud allegations from short seller Hindenburg Research sent the group into turmoil.
The conglomerate, backed by Asian’s richest person, have also put up millions of dollars worth of shares to maintain its collateral cover on a $1 billion loan after a steep selloff in shares across the business empire, according to people familiar with the matter.
Still, even after the rally, the yield on the 2024 Adani Green Energy bonds is still close to 20%. The group may struggle to tap the bond market in the near term, given concerns about governance, according to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence.

WASHINGTON: India and the United States have elevated their strategic partnership with the launch of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology or iCET, the White House said as national security advisor Ajit Doval met his US counterpart Jake Sullivan here.
“We are committed to fostering an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, based on mutual trust and confidence, that will reinforce our democratic values and democratic institutions,” the White House said in a fact sheet following the conclusion of the iCET inaugural meeting between Doval and Sullivan on Tuesday.
iCET is being launched at the direction of US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who after their Tokyo meeting in May 2022 had announced to elevate and expand the strategic technology partnership and defense industrial cooperation between the governments, businesses, and academic institutions of the two countries.
“The United States and India affirm that the ways in which technology is designed, developed, governed, and used should be shaped by our shared democratic values and respect for universal human rights. We are committed to fostering an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, based on mutual trust and confidence, that will reinforce our democratic values and democratic institutions,” the White House said.
Doval and Sullivan were joined by high level officials from both sides in the meeting.
The US delegation included the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, director of the National Science Foundation, executive secretary of the National Space Council, and senior officials from the Department of State, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, and National Security Council.
The Indian delegation included Ambassador of India to the United States, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, Scientific Advisor to the Defense Minister, Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organization.
Senior officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the National Security Council Secretariat also participated in the talks.
The two sides discussed opportunities for greater cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, co-development and co-production, and ways to deepen connectivity across our innovation ecosystems. They noted the value of establishing “innovation bridges” in key sectors, including through expos, hackathons, and pitch sessions. They also identified the fields of biotechnology, advanced materials, and rare earth processing technology as areas for future cooperation, the White House said.
“This is about taking those (existing) kinds of efforts to a different level and having it come from first and foremost from President Biden and Prime Minister Modi, from the leader level directly down to their national security advisors helps to energise our respective bureaucracies and establishments that this is a serious business and that we need to ensure that we are eliminating obstacles and barriers that stood in our way in the past and moving forward because a strategic decision that both countries have decided is for mutual benefit, really for the benefit of the world,” a senior administration official told a group of Indian reporters after the conclusion of the inaugural session of the iCET dialogue.
Following the dialogue, a senior administration official said, they expect an intensified pace of high-level engagements along the way.
The first category is focused on strengthening innovation ecosystems in both India and the US. As part of this, the two countries announced a new invitation arrangement for a partnership between the National Science Foundation and the Indian science agencies to expand collaboration in a range of areas including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and advanced wireless technologies.
This was signed by the principal scientific adviser of India, the National Science Foundation director at the White House.
The arrangement also announced the establishment of the joint Indo-US Quantum Coordination mechanisms that will facilitate greater collaboration between consortium of leading researchers and quantum industry players in the United States with their counterparts in India.
“We will accelerate some work to develop common standards and benchmarks for trustworthy artificial intelligence, work together in related standards and technical standards bodies,” said a senior administration official, noting that the intention of the two countries to promote collaboration on high performance computing, including by working with the Congress to lower barriers to the US exports to India for high performance computing technologies.
On the defence side, the iCET announced a new bilateral defence industrial cooperation roadmap that will be intended to accelerate defence technology cooperation for joint development and production with an initial focus on exploration related to jet engines and other technologies.
The official noted that the United States has received an application from General Electric to jointly produce jet engines that can power jet aircraft operating conditions in India. The US is committed to an expeditious review of that application, he added.
There are other items in the defence bucket as well, such as launching a new innovation bridge to connect the US and India.
“On semiconductors, the US has welcomed the establishment of Indian National Semiconductor Commission, sees our shared interest in diversifying semiconductor supply chains globally, as well as enhancing the flow of talent between both countries given the United States also with its chips bill is focused on semiconductor manufacturing and research and development,” the official said.
“We are going to welcome a new task force that’s organised by the US Semiconductor Industry Association in partnership with the India Electronic Semiconductor Association to develop a readiness assessment and identify opportunities for industry to cooperate for industry in the United States semiconductor industry here to invest in Indian and support the national mission there.
“They will make recommendations both to our Department of Commerce which runs the US CHIPS programme as well as India’s semiconductor mission. That task force will also report to the US FDA commercial dialogue on space,” the official said.
“On space, we strengthen our cooperation on human spaceflight by establishing a new exchange to include advanced training for Indian astronauts at NASA Johnson Space Center, which is very exciting. We’re also looking at ways to identify opportunities for commercial space actors in both countries to collaborate, especially with respect to activities led to NASA’s Commercial lunar payload services project,” he said.
The NASA administrator is scheduled to travel to India later this year.
As part of iCET is the exciting initiative in higher education where the administration welcomes a task force that’s being led by the Association of American Universities in conjunction with Indian counterparts to make recommendations for research and university partnerships in consultation with leading Indian universities including the Indian Institutes of Technology, the official said.
This, he said, the US hopes will lay the groundwork for an extended presence of American universities in India, more research exchange and student exchanges.
Finally, the two sides announced a new public-private dialogue on advanced telecom and related regulation, as well as new cooperation on research and development and technologies, the official said.

Income Tax slab 2023-24: Whether you pay your income tax through the regular tax regime or the new income tax regime, today is an important day since FM Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2023.
Changes in the personal income tax slabs and income tax rates are announced, if at all, in the speech. Every year the individual taxpayers and common man have expectations that the Finance Minister will provide significant income tax relief. Tax experts are particularly expecting income tax measures this year, since putting more disposable income into the hands of the salaried taxpayers will spur growth.

Income Tax Slabs 2023-24:

Tax experts are of the view that the income tax slabs for 2023-24 should be revised, especially at the Rs 10 lakh income level where the 30% tax slab is applicable. Most personal tax experts say that the income tax slabs should be reworked so that the 30% income tax rate is applicable for income levels above Rs 20 lakh. The present income tax slabs under the regular income tax regime are:

Income tax slabs 2023-24: Recommendations

New income tax regime: Slabs and rates

Two years ago, the new income tax regime or the alternate concessional tax regime was introduced. Reports suggest that the new income tax regime with lower income tax rates has not been opted by too many taxpayers.

Income tax slabs 2023-24 for new income tax regime: Recommendations

The buzz is that today FM Sitharaman may announce some changes in this new income tax regime. The new income tax regime for 2023-24 may see a hike in basic tax exemption limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. There are also expectations that the income tax rates under this new regime may be rationalised.