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<keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> is well placed to grow at a "moderately brisk rate" in the coming years on the back of macroeconomic stability, despite the global monetary tightening, a finance ministry report said on Thursday. It further said inflationary pressures will ease in the coming months with the arrival of <keyword id="50318" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kharif" source="Orion">Kharif</keyword> crops and at the same time, job opportunities will increase with improvement in business prospects. <br /><br /> The 'Monthly Economic Review for October 2022' also cautioned that the US monetary tightening is a "future risk" which could lead to a dip in stock prices, weaker currencies and higher bond yields, resulting in higher borrowing costs for many governments around the world. <br /><br /> It said a rapid deterioration in global growth prospects, high inflation, and worsening financial conditions have increased fears of an impending global recession. <br /><br /> The spillovers of the global slowdown may dampen India's exports businesses outlook. However, resilient domestic demand, a re-invigorated investment cycle with a strengthened financial system and structural reforms will provide impetus to economic growth going forward. <br /><br /> "In a world where monetary tightening has weakened growth prospects, India appears well placed to grow at a moderately brisk rate in the coming years on account of the priority it accorded (to) macroeconomic stability," the report said. <br /><br /> The ministry said, so far in the current year, India's food security concerns have been addressed and will continue to receive the utmost priority from the government. <br /><br /> "Easing international commodity prices and new Kharif arrival are also set to dampen inflationary pressures in the coming months," it said. <br /><br /> India's wholesale and retail price inflation fell in October after remaining high for the most part of the year mainly due to supply chain disruptions following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February. <br /><br /> Retail or CPI inflation fell to a 3-month low of 6.7 per cent, while wholesale or WPI inflation was at a 19-month low of 8.39 per cent. <br /><br /> Russia and Ukraine are among the most important producers of essential agricultural commodities, including wheat, maize, sunflower seeds and inputs like fertilisers. <br /><br /> Together with other countries bordering the <keyword id="391209" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="black-sea" source="Orion">Black Sea</keyword>, they constitute the world's breadbasket. <br /><br /> Along with an uncertain macroeconomic outlook, the year 2022 also brought to the fore the vulnerability and interconnectedness of the global food system to shocks, the ministry said. <br /><br /> India's grain availability was impacted by the untimely heatwaves and deficiency of the southwest monsoon in the current year. However, export restrictions have ensured that the country's needs are fully met, it added. <br /><br /> With regard to the job situation, the ministry said in India the recovery in economic activities across sectors has improved the overall employment situation in the country. <br /><br /> Net payroll additions in <keyword id="6372438" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="epfo" source="Orion">EPFO</keyword> have witnessed double-digit growth in September 2022, reflecting improved formalisation of the economy. <br /><br /> "Hiring by firms is likely to witness an improvement in upcoming quarters driven by a rebound in new business hiring as firms continue to benefit from the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions and optimism engendered by the vigorous sales volumes experienced during the festive season," the ministry said. <br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/853-tech-firms-lay-off-over-137492-workers-globally-more-job-cuts-coming/articleshow/95741115.cms">853 tech firms lay off over 137,492 workers globally, more job cuts coming</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/indian-startup-using-vegan-leather-raises-4-5-million-funding-led-by-sig-venture-capital/articleshow/95741255.cms">Indian startup using vegan leather raises $4.5 million funding led by SIG Venture Capital</a></strong>

India well placed to grow at a 'moderately brisk rate', inflation to ease says a Finance Ministry report

Short news aggregator Inshorts on Thursday said it has secured $60 million in funding from <keyword id="2603376" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vy-Capital">Vy Capital</keyword> with participation from existing investors.<br /><br />Inshorts, which also operates location-based social media platform Public, has raised $140 million in the last one year from investors including Addition, <keyword id="526777" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tiger-Global">Tiger Global</keyword>, <keyword id="857014" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="SIG">SIG</keyword>, A91 and <keyword id="7316344" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tanglin-Venture-Partners">Tanglin Venture Partners</keyword>.<br /><br />"The world is changing every minute, and each one of us has an inherent desire to remain updated about these changes. Both <keyword id="11645814" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="inshorts-app">Inshorts App</keyword> and Public App are aimed to help some of these people in their quest of keeping themselves informed," said Azhar Iqubal, Co-Founder and CEO.<br /><br />Inshorts has more than 10 million users on its platform. The app curates the most significant news items of the day, across categories like national, world, politics, business, sports, technology and entertainment, in just 60 words.<br /><br />Inshorts said it has more than 3 billion page views per month.<br /><br />"We are excited to partner with Azhar and team in their journey to build one of the largest content platforms out of India, running two market leading properties with a rapidly growing user base," said Vamsi Duvvuri, Partner, Vy Capital. <br /><br />The company launched Public app two years ago. The app has over 50 million active users and sees one million videos being created every month. <br /><br />It is available in all major languages including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, <keyword id="62349" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Odia">Odia</keyword>, Assamese, Gujarati and Marathi.<br /><br />Public has amassed a large user base in the Tier 2, Tier 3 cities.<br /><br />Public earlier raised Rs 260 crore in funding led by Addition, along with SIG and Tanglin Venture Partners.<br /><br />It is a social network for hyper-local updates and happenings to hyper-local commerce, jobs, classifieds and more.<br /><br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/windows-365-operating-system-can-be-accessed-from-an-android-device-mac-ipad-or-even-linux/articleshow/84436022.cms">Windows 365 lets you use the Windows operating system from any device, anywhere</a><br /></strong><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/twitter-says-goodbye-to-fleets-within-months-of-its-rollout/articleshow/84435334.cms"><strong>Twitter says goodbye to Fleets within months of its rollout</strong></a><br />

News aggregation app Inshorts raises $60 million from Vy Capital and existing investors

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>CastBox</span></p><p class="caption">Castbox founder and CEO Renee Wang.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Castbox is a podcast player that gives curated recommendations based on each user's listening behavior. So it's like Netflix for podcasting.</strong></li><li><strong>Renee Wang, founder and CEO of Castbox, sold her home to fund the company. In the early days, she slept on a bed in Castbox's offices.</strong></li><li><strong>Castbox just raised $13.5 million in funding to fuel growth.</strong></li></ul><p> </p><p>When Renee Wang quit her job at Google to launch a new podcasting app, she knew zero investors, making it much harder to get the cash to get a startup off the ground.</p><p>Her solution? Sell her home in Beijing.</p><p>"At that time, I didn't have an alternative solution," Wang told Business Insider.</p><p>Now, three years after its founding in 2015, her startup Castbox is on the rise, as it today announces a $13.5 million Series B round of financing led by SIG China. That brings Castbox's total funding up to $29 million, helping fuel its operations as it reaches over 1.5 million users. </p><p>Wang refers to Castbox as the "Netflix of podcasting." Castbox makes it easy for users to discover relevant podcasts by giving curated recommendations based on each user's unique listening behavior. Plus, Castbox creates original podcasts of its very own.</p><p>While there are plenty of podcast apps - including the one that comes built into the iPhone - Castbox has one killer feature: It uses machine learning technology to help you search its library of 50 million podcast episodes for one specific keyword or phrase. The results pop up from a search bar, and you can hop right to the part you need.</p><p>The company is announcing that will allow it to invest further in original content and bring new audiences into the fold, Wang said.</p><h2>She bet the house on Castbox</h2><p>Wang used to spend hours a day commuting between her apartment in Tokyo and the offices of Google Japan, where she worked as an account manager in the mobile apps division. She started listening to podcasts to study Japanese and pass the time, but struggled to find a player that supported different languages and gave relevant recommendations. An idea sparked.</p><p>"Maybe I can develop my own," Wang remembered thinking to herself.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Castbox app screenshots</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>She left Google and returned to her home country of China, where she built Castbox and hired the first few employees with the money she made from selling her one-bedroom condo in Beijing. She slept in shifts on a shared bed in the company's offices to save time and money.</p><p>The app was an instant hit. Two months after launch, Castbox saw over 100,000 downloads.</p><h2>'Netflix for podcasting'</h2><p>Castbox grew quickly, and it needed more financing to grow the team and expand its features.</p><p>The company landed its first investment in 2016 when a Chinese investment firm, <span>ZhenFund</span>, heard Wang's pitch, made some calls to check her references, and returned with a term sheet within a half hour - an unusually speedy turnaround in traditional venture capital. Wang walked away with $1 million.</p><p>Podcasts have been "having a moment" since 2014, when blockbuster podcast "Serial" introduced the format to a broader audience. <a href="http://www.edisonresearch.com/infinite-dial-2017/">More than a third</a> of Americans have ever listened to a podcast, an increase of 13% over 2013, according to a survey by Edison Research.</p><p>With the podcast renaissance showing no signs of slowing, Wang imagines that, someday, people will turn to Castbox for "on-demand audio" in the same way they binge TV and movies on Netflix.</p><p>Her goal for 2018 is to launch several more original programs, with an emphasis on giving a voice to female hosts. (In 2017, women hosted just <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/05/broad-casting">13%</a> of the top 100 podcasts in the US.)</p><p>Today, Wang alternates working in Castbox's offices in San Francisco and Beijing. She does, indeed, sleep and have an apartment, Wang said. She converted the company's old office in Beijing into an apartment, which gives her a one-minute commute to the new office nearby.</p><p>When Business Insider spoke with Wang, it was 11:30 at night in Beijing. We heard rumblings in the background, which Wang said was her team members in the office hard at work on the app.</p><p>"This is how we work. I believe there's a lot of smart people who are much smarter [than me]. If we want to deliver, I need to pay more effort and try my best," Wang said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-ferriss-tools-titans-podcaster-successful-friends-tony-robbins-mullenweg-kevin-rose-2016-12">Tim Ferriss's top self-improvement tip stresses the importance of who you surround yourself with</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

An ex-Googler sold her home to fund her startup - now she got $13 million to build the 'Netflix of podcasting'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Two of tech's biggest venture capital funds, Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, are investing $1 million into OpenBazaar, a wildly ambitious bitcoin startup that aims to create a decentralised, police-proof online marketplace where users can sell literally anything using bitcoin.</p><p>However, the company is at pains to make clear that it isn't trying to create a "Silk Road 3.0." Lead developer Brian Hoffman spoke emphatically against "misuse" of the platform when I talked to him, instead arguing it has the potential to revolutionise online commerce - a next-generation Etsy with no transaction fees whatsoever. Early press focused on its potential criminal implications, but Hoffman says he is determined to "change the conversation."</p><p>But with an uncensorable structure, Hoffman concedes, comes the risk that it could also be used to <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">distribute illegal contraband and immoral products with little risk to the seller. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It is, in the words of the company, "a </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">decentralized network for peer to peer commerce online - using Bitcoin - that has no fees and cannot be censored. Put simply, it's the baby of eBay and BitTorrent."</span></p><h3>OpenBazaar is bitcoin taken to its logical conclusion</h3><p>To understand how OpenBazaar works and where it came from, you need to understand a little about digital currency bitcoin. Unlike other currencies, it has no central authority regulating or controlling it - it is totally decentralised. Users of bitcoin instead contribute their processing power to the upkeep of the network, and a public ledger (required to avoid double-spending) of all transactions is shared between users on the network. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Bitcoin transactions can't be blocked by any authority, offering users a way to buy absolutely anything - provided they can find a seller. In the early days, the digital currency rose to prominence in part because it helped facilitate an unprecedented online drug trade, principally through online contraband market Silk Road. </p><p>But while bitcoin is decentralised, and impossible to stop without shutting down every computer on the network, Silk Road the marketplace <em>was not</em>. Although it obscured its location from authorities through use of anonymising software Tor, it was ultimately tracked down, shut down, and its creator - <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-silk-road-founders-life-sentence-appeal-2015-6">the 31-year-old Ross Ulbricht - was jailed</a>.</p><p>OpenBazaar takes bitcoin's decentralisation to its logical conclusion - by decentralising the market itself. The project has no central server to be seized; instead, it is distributed between every member of the network, all jointly responsible for its upkeep.</p><p>On eBay, there's a central authority that moderates the network, monitors for illicit items on sale, arbitrates disputes, and holds funds in escrow. On OpenBazaar, however, there is none of this. Instead it makes use of "multi-sig" bitcoin transactions that require a third-party (it could be anyone the other two parties agree on) to sign off on transactions, to prevent fraud. And it offers a rating system through which users can gauge the trustworthiness of others, in lieu of any official stamp of approval.</p><p>As for removing illicit or illegal items on sale? It's very simple. They can't be removed.</p><p>In short: It can't be shut down, and it can't be censored. </p><h3>The next Silk Road - or the next Etsy?</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Created by bitcoin developer Amir Taaki in 2014, the project was initially called DarkMarket, and explicitly positioned itself as a successor to Silk Road. <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/04/darkmarket/">Taaki told Wired that he was</a> "in an arms race to equip the people with the tools needed for the next generation of digital black markets."</p><p>It subsequently rebranded as OpenBazaar, and Taaki stepped aside to pursue other projects - principally Dark Wallet, a bitcoin money-laundering app.</p><p>Then, Brian Hoffman - who had previously worked at the management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton - took over, precipitating a change in rhetoric. "We're not the 'Super Silk Road,'" <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/08/openbazaar-not-for-drugs/">operations lead Sam Patterson told Wired in September 2014</a>. "We're trying to replace eBay in a better form ... We recognise that people may choose to use that technology in a way we see as distasteful, immoral, and illegal, but we're giving them the option to engage in a kind of human interaction that doesn't exist right now."</p><p>More than 100 developers have contributed to the project since its inception, and there's now a core team of five full-time employees and one contractor, who have - up until this point - been supported by donations from the bitcoin community. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>OpenBazaar is currently still in a beta stage, and solicits contributions from the community as both funds and code - the project is open source, after all. Hoffman told me that we should expect to see a more polished version released in a timeframe of "months."</p><p>Speaking over the phone from his home in Fairfax, Virginia, Hoffman frames OpenBazaar as more like Etsy than anything else. After all, it's an online marketplace where anyone can list items, with a review system - but without any burdensome transaction fees.</p><p>"I use Etsy is because that's what is primarily considered a market leader in what we know as peer to peer commerce online at the moment," he told me in a follow-up email. "I think the decentralised model where 'take rates' (the percentage cut the marketplace takes) are eliminated will force the incumbents to have to rethink their strategy for capturing profit from consumers. It will force them to have to think about new ways to provide value-added services rather than just raising fees on customers to make more money."</p><p><strong>Here's how a shopfront on OpenBazaar looks:</strong></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><h3>There are no issues with law enforcement - yet</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Though still in its infancy, goods are already being sold through OpenBazaar. Hoffman brings up the honey he has bought, as well as a pen made from a bullet - one of his first purchases on the platform.</p><p>He says there has, as yet, been no problem with illegal goods being traded on the platform. But the 32-year-old computer science major is also realistic about the fact that there almost certainly will be, given time. </p><p>For now, OpenBazaar is trying to "curb blatant misuse," namely by not yet directly integrating support for anonymising software Tor. That's not to say users couldn't mask their identity before booting up the platform, however.</p><p>Hoffman is also careful to define OpenBazaar as a protocol, rather than a product - a distinction essential for keeping his hands clean of any potentially illegal activity carried out using the software. While the owner of a file-sharing site is responsible for any illegal content on it, the creator of the decentralised BitTorrent file-sharing protocol isn't criminally liable if it is used for illegal activity. They have no control over it - it's just a piece of code - and the same is true of OpenBazaar.</p><p>One wonders, however, if this distinction will be lost on the authorities. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/fbi-encryption-going-dark-isis-apple-facebook-whatsapp-steinbach-lieu-2015-6">Law enforcement is currently waging a concerted war on strong encryption products</a>, despite the urgings of security experts and tech companies, claiming that secure messaging aids terrorists and paedophiles. An online market that has the capacity to be used by drug dealers, criminals, and even terrorists to evade capture is guaranteed to come under very heavy scrutiny.</p><h3>Enter, Andreessen Horowitz</h3><p>Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures are two of tech's most-respected venture capital firms, and they're getting into bed with a project whose lead developer readily acknowledges may be used to distribute possibly illegal material.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Hoffman says he wasn't actively seeking venture capital investment, and their investment came almost "by accident," after being introduced by a mutual connection. </p><p>Chris Dixon leads the investment for Andreessen Horowitz, and managing partner Brad Burnham does the same for Union Square Ventures. Both are investing $500,000 in this seed round, and are joined by angel investor and board member William Mougaywar, who is investing $10,000. Neither Burnham nor Dixon are joining the board, which Hoffman concedes is likely because of the controversy the project has the potential to ignite.</p><p>While OpenBazaar is a non-profit project, the funds are being used to create OB1, a for-profit company that will build revenue-generating value-added services - such as shopfronts or escrow services - on top of the OpenBazaar protocol layer.</p><p>Burnham told me in an emailed statement that "OB1 will, of course, never knowingly offer its value added services to anyone using the OpenBazaar protocol to engage in illegal or morally questionable activities."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>But, he goes on, "the harder question is how to support the development of an open protocol, one that OB1 does not control, without encouraging, or endorsing, or even facilitating the misuse of that protocol. This calculus is further complicated by the fact that many contributors to the open source project are likely motivated by a mistrust of political or economic power. We do not have an easy answer. It would be disingenuous for us to say the OB1 team has no influence over the open source project. They are respected code contributors and are likely to encourage the development of the protocol through their own work and will now be in a position to offer bounties to encourage the development of specific features.  But there is no design principle that we can encourage, that would eliminate the possibility of misuse, without undermining the value inherent in a free and open marketplace, so the best we can do is aggressively advocate for the responsible use of the OpenBazaar protocol, be open and transparent ourselves, and be an example for others. "</p><p>Chris Dixon did not respond to a request for comment.</p><h3>What lies ahead for OpenBazaar?</h3><p>OpenBazaar, if it proves successful, is an obvious competitor to the likes of Etsy and eBay. But Hoffman suggests that rather than disrupting established businesses, companies could potentially implement the OpenBazaar protocol into their own services. "Our hope is [other businesses] don't view it as a competitor but as a technology to embrace and integrate within their existing platforms how they see fit. As OB1 we will attempt to work with those interested to discuss how that's feasible as well."</p><p>But it's an open question whether public companies worth billions of dollars would want to be associated with a technology like OpenBazaar. And similarly, it's up for debate whether normal consumers will want to use the network - knowing that, by doing so, they are helping keep online a market that could sell immoral contraband. Hoffman suggests that potentially objectionable content could be hidden from users unless they actively hunt for it. But whether "out of sight, out of mind" is enough remains to be seen.</p><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/08/openbazaar-not-for-drugs/">In an interview with Wired in September 2014</a>, Hoffman suggested that if OpenBazaar became overrun with illicit or immoral materials, he would "be willing to walk away from it." I asked him if he still held by that. "Yes, absolutely."</p><p class="tagline">Disclosure: Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, is an investor in Business Insider.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/supermarkets-shopping-tricks-layout-grocery-food-2015-1">5 Ways Supermarkets Trick You Into Spending More Money</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1iYW41bzr_vjHXCsCd2rpQ8gbIyrNecc" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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India well placed to grow at a 'moderately brisk rate', inflation to ease says a Finance Ministry report

PTI

News aggregation app Inshorts raises $60 million from Vy Capital and existing investors

IANS

An ex-Googler sold her home to fund her startup - now she got $13 million to build the 'Netflix of podcasting'

Melia Robinson

Some of tech's biggest investors are funding a police-proof marketplace that lets you sell literally anything

Rob Price

Apple, Amazon, Google, and hundreds of businesses vowed to meet Paris climate goals on their own 'in the absence of leadership from Washington'

Biz Carson

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