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ISRO to Use US Rocket to Launch GSAT-20

Presently ISRO has the LVM3 rocket with a maximum carrying capacity to four ton and GSAT-20 is heavier by 700 kg….reports Asian Lite News

With the development of a rocket that can lift above four ton still a work in progress for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India will be using a US rocket for the launch of communication satellite GSAT-20 (renamed as GSAT-N2).

According to NewSpace India Ltd, the 4,700kg GSAT-20 built by ISRO will be orbited by Falcon-9 rocket belonging to Elon Musk’s SpaceX sometime during the second quarter of 2024.

Presently ISRO has the LVM3 rocket with a maximum carrying capacity to four ton and GSAT-20 is heavier by 700 kg.

The satellite is to offer cost-effective Ka-Ka band high throughput satellite (HTS) primarily for meeting the broadband, as well as IFMC and cellular backhaul service needs.

Bulk of the HTS capacity on-board GSAT-20 satellite has already been secured by Indian service providers, NSIL said while remaining silent on the customer names.

GSAT-20 offers Ka-Ka band HTS capacity with 32 beams having Pan-India coverage including Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.

According to NSIL, the satellite offers HTS capacity of nearly 48Gpbs. The satellite has been specifically designed to meet the demanding service needs of remote/ unconnected regions.

Earlier India was using the Ariane rockets of Arianespace to launch its communication satellites weighing four or over four ton.

And now it has moved to SpaceX.

Couple of private satellite players from India have used SpaceX’s rockets to launch their small satellites, saying the cost is much cheaper than that of ISRO.

Meanwhile ISRO has to realise its semi-cryogenic engine so that the rockets fitted with it can carry over four ton payload.

The Indian space agency will be testing its semi-cryogenic engine this year.

The semi-cryogenic engine utilizes a propellant combination of Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Kerosene.

On July 1, 2023, ISRO conducted the first hot test on an intermediate configuration of the semi-cryogenic engine, known as Power Head Test Article (PHTA) at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.

The test was conducted towards developing a 2000 kN thrust semi-cryogenic engine to power the booster stages of future rockets. During the test, an unanticipated spike in the turbine pressure and subsequent loss of turbine speed was observed and the test was terminated.

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Flipkart Co-founder Launches ‘OppDoor’

Binny Bansal. (File Photo: IANS)

According to the filings, the company is registered in Singapore and was founded in May 2021….reports Asian Lite News

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has come up with a new venture – ‘OppDoor’, which will help e-commerce companies expand operations globally by providing them with end-to-end solutions, a media report said on Tuesday.

According to the filings, the company is registered in Singapore and was founded in May 2021.

OppDoor was previously known as Three State Ventures Pte Ltd, reports Moneycontrol.

OppDoor will first target e-commerce businesses in the US, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Japan, and Australia.

India does not find a mention on the website yet, the report noted.

According to the company’s website, OppDoor provides “a comprehensive suite of services.”

It adds that OppDoor’s services “span a brand’s complete lifecycle, from birth to exit. Hence, we provide both fully managed operations and business advisory services”.

The website also mentioned, “OppDoor delivers fully-managed Amazon services aimed at expanding your private label brands across multiple regions globally.”

“Brands with multi-region presence walked away with 3x higher exit multiples compared to brands selling in only one or two Amazon regions,” it added.

Three State Ventures is Bansal’s Singapore-based venture capital firm. The firm has backed various firms in India, including Curefoods, Scapia, and others, the report mentioned.

Last year, Bansal sold his remaining stake in Flipkart and received about $1-$1.5 billion from his shareholding in Flipkart.

Binny, along with Sachin Bansal, exited Flipkart after selling it to Walmart in 2018 for around $16 billion. Binny has backed around 60 startups, like Acko, Ather Energy, Curefoods, Cultfit, BrightChamps, Unacademy, Yulu and others.

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Samsung Vows to Keep Tech Crown

For its mobile, home appliances and software division, a customer-first strategy was emphasised, with a focus on performance and quality…reports Asian Lite News

South Korean tech behemoth Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced its strategic priorities for the new year, emphasising the strengthening of the company’s competitiveness through technological supremacy and adaptability to future changes.

In a joint New Year’s message, co-CEO and Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee and co-CEO and President Kyung Kye-hyun outlined the strategic focus on core values, including the pursuit of “super-gap technologies,” to maintain a competitive edge, reports Yonhap news agency.

“We will prioritise strengthening our fundamental competitiveness, including the core values that have guided Samsung Electronics, such as super-gap technologies,” they said.

They urged its signature chipmaking business, a leader in semiconductor technology for the past five decades, to further enhance its position by improving and widening the technological cap with its competitors.

For its mobile, home appliances and software division, a customer-first strategy was emphasised, with a focus on performance and quality.

The two leaders also called for proactive measures to address future changes, such as artificial intelligence (AI), eco-friendly practices and lifestyle innovation, calling for a need for a fundamental shift in thinking and the application of generative AI to work processes.

“We should revolutionise the way we work and our device experience by applying generative AI to work,” said the message. “Moving from the passive green response of the past, we should pull off a fundamental shift in thinking and discover the green products of the future.”

Samsung Electronics posted a cumulative 191.2 trillion won ($147.2 billion) in sales for the three quarters of 2023, down 17.5 per cent from a year ago.

Its operating profit tumbled 90.4 percent on-year to 3.74 trillion won over the cited period due largely to waning semiconductor demand. Its chip division reported its first financial loss in 14 years in the first quarter.

As the world’s largest memory chip maker and smartphone provider, Samsung Electronics is expected to release its fourth-quarter earnings report later this month.

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Ola Electric Sets Record

The company posted a year-on-year growth of 74 per cent compared to the same month of 2022…reports Asian Lite News

Ola Electric on Monday announced that it clocked its highest ever monthly registrations in December 2023 — recorded 30,219 registrations and captured a 40 per cent market share in the EV 2W segment (as per VAHAN Portal).

The company posted a year-on-year growth of 74 per cent compared to the same month of 2022. In addition, it posted a quarter-on-quarter growth of 48 per cent with 83,963 registrations during the quarter ended December and a year-on-year growth of 68 per cent when compared to the same quarter of 2022.

“We believe that we have continued our market leadership for yet another quarter on the back of our strong product lineup comprising the S1 Pro, S1 Air, and the S1 X+. Our ‘December to Remember’ campaign has been a massive success, bringing thousands more under the EV fold,” Anshul Khandelwal, Chief Marketing Officer, Ola Electric Technologies Private Limited, said in a statement.

Moreover, the company mentioned that Ola Electric achieved yet another achievement in December by reaching an industry-first production milestone of 4,00,000 scooters in the span of just two years.

The company has also emerged as the first-ever EV 2W manufacturer to record over 2.65 lakh registrations (as per VAHAN Portal) in a calendar year.

Ola Electric has recently expanded its scooter portfolio to five products. Priced at Rs 1,47,499, the S1 Pro (2nd Generation) is the company’s flagship premium EV scooter, while the S1 Air is available at Rs 1,19,999.

It has additionally introduced the S1X in three variants — S1 X+, S1 X (3kWh), and S1 X (2kWh) to cater to the requirements of riders with diverse preferences.

Meanwhile, Ola Electric has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

According to Moneycontrol, citing sources, the fresh issue component will consist of Rs 5,500 crore and the balance would be the OFS (offer for sale) category, around Rs 1,750 crore.

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HDFC Securities CEO Optimistic About 2024

Dhiraj Relli said that later we may have bouts of volatility due to elections, timing and quantum of rate cuts, and valuation concerns….reports Asian Lite News

The year 2023 has been a great year for markets — for both the frontline indices and the broader markets. It once again showed the impact of Retail/HNI buying and when the FPIs also turned buyers there was no going back, says Dhiraj Relli, MD & CEO at HDFC Securities.

“In 2024, we are beginning on a high base and hence it may be difficult to expect a similar performance by the time 2024 ends,” he said.

He said that however, the resurgence of FPI buying and placement of India as an attractive market, despite the seeming high valuations, may help our markets register some more gains in the early part of the year.

He said that later we may have bouts of volatility due to elections, timing and quantum of rate cuts, and valuation concerns.

He said that the retail Indian has truly woken up and will drive the markets whenever the macros are favourable.

As 2023 draws to a close, the most significant feature of the year’s rally is the sharp outperformance of the broader market, says V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

He said that the midcap index is up by almost 45 per cent and the small cap index is up by 55 per cent leaving the Nifty far behind with appreciation of around 20 per cent.

He said that this trend is likely to be reversed in 2024 since the mid and small caps are overvalued and large caps are relatively fairly valued.

He said that the autos, construction and financials are set to do well in 2024. Autos are in a cyclical rebound, financials are fairly valued even after the recent run up and the prospects for construction related segments continue to look good. Capital goods will continue to do well in 2024 too.

He said that January is normally a poor month for the market while Q3 results and management commentary will be keenly watched by the market.

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Google Settles Lawsuit Accusing Chrome of Tracking Browsing Data

Now, Google and the plaintiffs have agreed to terms that will result in the litigation being dismissed…reports Asian Lite News

Google has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit in the US over its Chrome browser’s incognito mode.

The lawsuit was filed in 2020, alleging that the tech giant “track, collect, and identify browsing data in real time” even when the users open incognito mode.

Now, Google and the plaintiffs have agreed to terms that will result in the litigation being dismissed, reports Ars Technica.

The February 5th trial date is now off and the parties present a formal agreement for court approval within the next 60 days.

“Through mediation facilitated by the Layn R. Phillips, Plaintiffs and Google have agreed to a binding term sheet that would resolve the claims in this litigation, pending the Court’s approval,” the judgement read.

The lawsuit was filed by Florida resident William Byatt and California residents Chasom Brown and Maria Nguyen.

The lawsuit also alleged that websites using Google Analytics or Ad Manager collected information from browsers in Incognito mode, “including web page content, device data, and IP address”.

The plaintiffs also accused Google of taking Chrome users’ private browsing activity and then associating it with their already-existing user profiles.

In August, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in a California court denied Google’s push for summary judgment in the lawsuit, which claimed the tech giant is tracking and collecting data even when people use the private ‘Incognito’ mode on its Chrome browser.

Google Chrome’s ‘Incognito’ mode gives users the choice to browse the internet without their activities being saved to either browser or devices.

However, the judge pointed to statements in the Chrome privacy notice, Privacy Policy, Incognito Splash Screen, and Search & Browse Privately Help page about how incognito mode limits the information stored or how people can control the information they share.

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Tech Titans Break Records

This marks the best first half performance in the last four decades….reports Asian Lite News

The Big Five tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta collectively added a whopping $3.9 trillion to their stock value in 2023, the highest figure in the market’s history, a new report revealed on Thursday.

Tech stocks have dominated the 2023 stock market performance. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), combined with the improving economy and slowing inflation, has helped the sector come into the spotlight, with many investors jumping back on the tech train, according to Stocklytics.com.

The Nasdaq experienced a significant increase of 32 per cent in the first half of the year, which can be attributed to Apple’s rapid growth and Nvidia’s success.

This marks the best first half performance in the last four decades.

Additionally, the upward trend in the stock prices of tech companies has continued, leading to the largest players in the market adding trillions of dollars to their stock values.

According to YCharts data, the combined stock value of Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta amounted to $6.17 trillion in December last year.

Since then, this figure has surged by 62 per cent or $3.9 trillion and hit more than $10 trillion, representing the biggest annual increase so far.

In 2019, their combined stock value grew by $1.73 trillion. In 2020 and 2021, when the tech market boomed due to Covid-19, the market’s largest players increased their stock value by $2.6 trillion.

Moreover, the report showed Meta was the best performer in the Big Tech group this year.

After losing two-thirds of its stock value in 2022, Meta’s market cap has surged by an impressive 188 per cent (year-over-year), the biggest increase among the Big Five tech giants.

In December 2022, Meta’s stock value was $315.5 billion, and now it’s over $908 billion. Amazon has witnessed the second-largest increase of 84 per cent, driving its market cap to over $1.5 trillion, the figure last seen in mid-2022, the report mentioned.

Microsoft and Alphabet’s market caps jumped by 55 per cent (year-over-year), helping the two companies add more than $1.6 trillion in value.

Apple stocks have jumped 45 per cent since last December, crossing $3 trillion in market cap.

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Amazon’s Climate Pledge Advances

The one-megawatt (MW) proton exchange membrane electrolyser is the first for Amazon and is producing low-carbon hydrogen to fuel more than 225 hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklift trucks at the site….reports Asian Lite News

Amazon has announced plans to produce hydrogen fuel at its fulfillment centres and has partnered with hydrogen company Plug Power to install the first electrolyser (equipment that can split water molecules to produce hydrogen) at a fulfillment centre in the state of Colorado in the US.

The one-megawatt (MW) proton exchange membrane electrolyser is the first for Amazon and is producing low-carbon hydrogen to fuel more than 225 hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklift trucks at the site.

“Hydrogen is an important tool in our efforts to decarbonise our operations by 2040 in support of The Climate Pledge, and we’re excited about our ability to produce hydrogen at Amazon facilities through this partnership with Plug,” said Asad Jafry, the director of global hydrogen economy at Amazon.

“On-site production will make the use of hydrogen even more energy efficient for certain locations and types of facilities,” he added.

The Plug 1MW electrolyser, which uses electricity and water to produce hydrogen, is able to support up to 400 hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklift trucks.

The hydrogen produced by the electrolyser will be compressed on site and stored in a gaseous hydrogen storage tank for use by the forklift trucks.

“In Amazon, we have a true partner that recognises the essential role hydrogen plays in our collective energy future,” said Plug CEO Andy Marsh.

“This project demonstrates Plug’s ability to execute across the full hydrogen value chain, and shows how we can design and implement end-to-end solutions for our customers.”

To date, Plug has collaborated with Amazon to deploy more than 17,000 fuel cells to replace batteries in forklifts in more than 80 fulfillment centres in North America.

For most of these locations, hydrogen to power the forklifts is produced elsewhere, liquified, and delivered by trucks to an on-site storage and dispensing system.

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Mid and Small Caps Outshine Nifty in 2023

The trend is likely to be reversed in 2024 since the mid and small caps are overvalued and large caps are relatively fairly valued…reports Asian Lite News

As 2023 draws to a close, the most significant feature of the year’s rally is the sharp outperformance of the broader market, says V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The midcap index is up by almost 45 per cent and the small cap index is up by 55 per cent leaving the Nifty far behind with appreciation of around 20 per cent. This trend is likely to be reversed in 2024 since the mid and small caps are overvalued and large caps are relatively fairly valued, he said.

Autos, construction and financials are set to do well in 2024. Autos are in a cyclical rebound, financials are fairly valued even after the recent run up and the prospects for construction related segments continue to look good. Capital goods will continue to do well in 2024 too.

January is normally a poor month for the market. Q3 results and management commentary will be keenly watched by the market, he added.

BSE Sensex is down 174 points at 72235 points. SBI, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, NTPC are down more than 1 per cent.

PSU and oil and gas indices are trending lower.

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Gujarat on Tesla’s Radar

With its strategic location and favourable business environment, Gujarat has emerged as the “preferred destination for Tesla’s manufacturing plans”….reports Asian Lite News

Elon Musk’s Tesla may finally end its dry run in India and announce to set up an Electric Vehicle (EV) supply system manufacturing plant in Gujarat during the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit’ next month. The announcement is likely to be made in the presence of Tesla CEO and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the flagship event from January 10-12, according to media reports.

With its strategic location and favourable business environment, Gujarat has emerged as the “preferred destination for Tesla’s manufacturing plans”.

According to Ahmedabad Mirror, the state government has suggested Sanand, Becharaji and Dholera as the site for Tesla to set up its manufacturing plant.

Earlier, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were being considered by Tesla to set up its EV plant.

Tesla has been engaged in intense negotiations with the Union Government, seeking concessions that would facilitate a smoother entry into the Indian market.

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in November visited Tesla’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Fremont, California.

Goyal said it was “extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers and finance professionals working at senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility”.

“Also proud to see the growing importance of auto component suppliers from India in the Tesla EV supply chain. It is on its way to double its components imports from India. Missed Elon Musk’s magnetic presence and I wish him a speedy recovery,” the Union Minister posted on X.

Musk, had apologised to Goyal for not being able to meet him as he was keeping unwell.

“It was an honour to have you visit Tesla! My apologies for not being able to travel to California today, but I look forward to meeting at a future date,” Musk replied.

Goyal and Musk were scheduled to meet during the Minister’s US visit, after the SpaceX and X owner met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US in June, and revealed he was keen to make significant investments in India.

According to earlier reports, the automaker asked the Indian Government for an initial tariff concession that would offset India’s steep customs duties of 70 per cent for cars under $40,000 and 100 per cent for cars above $40,000.

Tesla had asked for the concession as a condition for constructing a plant in the country. The reduced tariffs would apply to all EV manufacturers.

India’s EV market has the potential to achieve over 40 per cent penetration with $100 billion revenue by 2030.

This growth is expected to be driven by strong adoption (over 45 per cent) in both two-wheeler (2W) and three-wheeler (3W) categories, with four-wheelers (cars) penetration projected to grow to more than 20 per cent, according to a recent report by Bain & Company and Blume Ventures.

Xiaomi Enters Auto Sector, Unveils 1st EV

Global technology brand Xiaomi on Thursday announced its entry into the automotive industry by unveiling its long-awaited first electric vehicle.

The company launched two EVs — XiaomiSU7 and XiaomiSU7Max.

“#XiaomiSU7 makes a significant Stride as Xiaomi expands from the smartphone industry to the automotive sector, completing the Human x Car x Home smart ecosystem,” the company posted on X.

“#XiaomiSU7 will forever journey alongside those steering toward their dreams,” it added.

According to the company, the XiaomiSU7Max goes from 0-100km/h in 2.78 seconds, while the XiaomiSU7 reaches 0-100km/h in 5.28 seconds. The top speed of the SU7 is 210km/h and for the SU7Max, it is 265km/h.

“#XiaomiSU7 goes from 0-100km/h in 2.78 seconds, officially joining the ‘2s Supercar Club’ with a single step,” the company wrote.

Moreover, the company said that the new EV will be available in three colour variants — Aqua Blue, Mineral Gray, and Verdant Green.

The five core technologies used in EVs are E-Motors, battery, HyperCasting, autonomous driving, and smart cabin.

While the price of the EV is unknown, many expect the SU7 to fall into 200,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan (around Rs 25 to 35 lakh).

The sale of the SU7 is likely to start next year. It will be produced by a unit of China-owned automaker BAIC Group in a Beijing factory with an annual capacity of 2,00,000 vehicles.

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