Largest listed financial firm🤲🏻, Flipkart joins live commerce🤳🏻, FM on crypto💁🏻‍♀️

LIC to be India's largest listed financial firm, Flipkart joins live commerce, Banning or not banning crypto will come later, Funding Deals & more.

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Feb 14, 2022

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LIC IPO to turn the insurer into India's largest listed financial firm💰

The government plans to sell as much as 5% of its stake in Life Insurance Corp of India in the biggest initial public offering in the country to raise up to Rs 65,000 crore, making the insurer the biggest listed financial services provider ahead of HDFC Bank.

IPO documents filed with the regulator indicate the insurance behemoth may be valued in the excess of Rs 12.5 lakh crore, making it more valuable than all other listed government-owned companies.

When the IPO is complete, it would surpass the previous record set by Paytm’s owner, One97Communications, which raised Rs 18,300 crore last November, valuing it at Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Paytm’s shares have since slid nearly 58% from the IPO price.

LIC, once listed, would become the fourth publicly traded life insurer in India, after HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential and SBI Life. It could also become one of the most valued companies in India with the likes of Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC Bank.

Flipkart joins live commerce rush driven by influencers💃🏻

Flipkart has hopped on the live commerce bandwagon, making it one of the latest ecommerce firms to experiment with the new sales format.

Flipkart now conducts live shopping streams on its app with social media influencers. It has also created a feed similar to Instagram’s, where prominent influencers showcase fashion wear that can be bought directly from the feed.

Meanwhile, Flipkart's partnership with regional language social media platform ShareChat has also gone live. In it, influencers conduct live sessions on its short video app Moj, from where their followers can buy goods directly.

Before Flipkart, ecommerce players such as Meesho, Myntra, Nykaa and short video platform Roposo dipped their toes into influencer-led live commerce.

The efforts of these companies are grounded on the assumption that live shopping will take off in India just as it did in China.

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Banning or not banning crypto will come later, says FM💁🏻‍♀️

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government has only decided to tax cryptocurrency transactions and hasn’t done anything to legalise or ban or regulate these assets.

"I am not going to legalise it or ban it at this stage. Banning or not banning will come subsequently when consultations give me input," Sitharaman said.

The Reserve Bank of India, which may launch India’s official digital currency this fiscal, remains vehemently opposed to what it calls “private” cryptocurrencies, terming them a threat to India’s financial stability.

The cryptocurrency tax comes at a time when the government is considering the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill. The bill didn't find mention among the list that will be taken up during the Budget session.

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