Electric three-wheeler manufacturers push for 50% increase in government subsidies; ADIA buys back 10% of Lenskart shares

Manufacturers of three-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs) have asked the government to increase subsidies under the Faster Introduction of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles (FAME) – II policy to at least 50%, several industry sources told us. This and more in today’s ETtech morning newsletter.

Also in this letter:
■ India is a key talent ecosystem for IBM Consulting: Senior Vice President
■ UIDAI makes Aadhaar online update free
■ India had over 700 million active internet users in 2022: Nielsen.


Exclusive: Electric car makers push for at least 50% increase in FAME II subsidy

FAME II subsidy

Even though FAME subsidies for electric two-wheelers will soon be phased out by the Indian government, Manufacturers of three-wheeled electric vehicles sought to increase subsidies to at least 50%.multiple industry sources told us.

Why ask? Three-wheeler manufacturers are currently receiving a subsidy of Rs 10,000 per kilowatt hour (kWh) and are asking for surcharges to be increased to Rs 15,000 per kWh under the FAME-II policy. This will equalize it with electric vehicle subsidies given to two-wheeler manufacturers.

Jargon Buster: kWh stands for battery size, which means the larger the battery, the higher the subsidy.

Major players: Major manufacturers of three-wheel electric vehicles include Mahindra Electric, Bajaj Auto, Kinetic Motors, Piaggio and Euler Motors.

Under consideration: The Ministry of Heavy Industry (MHI) has organized stakeholder consultations and is currently considering the same, a senior government official said.

“Three-wheeler buyers are hesitant to buy electric three-wheelers due to the difference in initial cost compared to ICE (Internal Combustion Engine),” said Sulaja Motwani, founder and CEO of Kinetic Green. “They either stick with CNG or diesel products or opt for non-FAME approved e-rickshaws.”

Background: Notably, the government investigation of companies such as Hero Electric, Okinawa and Ampere following whistleblower complaint it states that these companies do not meet the required localization and domestic value-added norms to receive the subsidy.


ADIA acquires a 10% stake in Lenskart for $500 million, valued at $4.2 billion.

Lenskart funding ADIA

Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund, The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) has agreed to invest $500 million in eyewear retailer Lenskart. at a valuation of $4.2 billion. This will see the sovereign wealth fund become one of the biggest investors in the multi-channel eyewear brand.

ET first reported Dec 12 that ADIA is in talks to invest $400 million in the company.

Lenkart’s abilities: SoftBank, which invested in the company in 2019, remains its largest investor with a nearly 19% stake. Other major investors are Kedaara Capital and Premji Invest, which own 9% and 10.4% of the company’s shares, respectively.

Rapid expansion: Company acquired the Japanese company Owndays last Juneto focus on expansion in the Southeast Asia region. Lenskart is expanding its manufacturing operations with a fully automated facility in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, which will be the largest eyewear factory in the world.

This will allow the company to supply up to 50 million pairs of glasses annually. However, the expansion came at a cost as the company posted a loss of Rs 102 crore in the fiscal year ending March.


ET Ecommerce Index

We launched three indexes – ET Ecommerce, ET Ecommerce Profitable and ET Ecommerce Non-Profitable – to track the performance of newly listed technology firms. This is how they have lived so far.

ET e-commerce tracker

Tier 2 growth in India is integral to IBM strategy: John Granger

John Granger

India continues to play a strategic role in IBM Consulting’s growth plans. and it houses a third of its 160,000 employees, senior vice president John Granger told us in an exclusive interview.

“Innovation Center”: “We rely heavily on our teams in India, especially our global innovation hubs. India has never been a game of labor arbitration, it has always been a game of talent,” Grainger said.

IBM Consulting, which competes with consulting solutions from big IT services like Accenture and TCS for large enterprise deals, generated a third of IBM’s $60 billion in 2022 revenue.

This segment was rebranded as IBM Global Business Services in 2021 prior to IBM’s split from Kyndryl.

On slowing down technology spending: Granger said that global corporate clients continue to spend money on technology despite inflationary fears to cope with cost pressures on their businesses.

“Technology transformation is what’s important to customers right now, it’s not discretionary spending, and it should be good for the industry,” he said.

Earlier Monday, IBM announced that IBM Consulting had received a mandate from Bestseller India to consolidate its IT landscape on hybrid cloud platforms.


India had over 700 million active internet users in 2022: Nielsen

India internet

More than 700 million Indians aged 2 and over are actively using the Internet. as of December 2022, according to the Nielsen India 2023 Internet Report.

Rural and urban: According to the report, 425 million Internet users were registered in rural India, which is almost 44% higher than in urban areas, where there are 295 million active Internet users.

The study also showed that almost 90% of Internet users were daily users. The gap between urban and rural residents has also narrowed compared to the previous year, with 93% of urban and 86% of rural users using the Internet on a daily basis.

There were over 450 million smartphone users in the country, with just over a third of Indians owning smartphones.

By numbers: The study also showed that there is much room for growth in rural markets, as nearly half of the rural population is still not actively using the Internet.

The base of active internet users aged 12 and over has grown over 20% year-on-year to reach 595 million in 2022. The report states that rural areas have eclipsed urban areas with a 30% increase in active Internet users. On the other hand, urban India grew by 10%.

In addition, the number of female users grew by 27%, while the number of male users increased by about 18%.

Tweet of the day


UIDAI updates online documents at Aadhaar for free

Adhara update

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday said it had decided to allow residents to update documents online for free on their Aadhaar card.

Authorities are encouraging Aadhaar owners to update their identity and proof of address documents to verify their demographics again, especially if they haven’t been updated in the past 10 years.

Time window: UIDAI stated that the service will be available for the next three months, from March 15 to June 14, 2023. However, Aadhaar Physical Centers will still be subject to a fee of Rs 50 for renewal.

How can I update my details? Aadhaar owners must visit https://myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/ and sign in with their Aadhaar number. The One Time Password (OTP) will be sent to the registered mobile phone number, after which you just need to click “Update Document” and the existing resident data will be displayed.

After verifying the data, the Aadhaar owner must select an identity document and an address proof document from the drop-down list and upload copies of them to update their documents.


Other top stories from our reporters

hybrid work

The delivery departments of the Big Four accounting firms are going hybrid: India-based back offices of at least two of the The Big Four professional services firms advised selected teams to return to the offices. which indicates that they may move to a hybrid workplace model in the near future. EY Global Delivery Services (EY GDS) and KPMG Global Services (KGS) employ approximately 50,000 people in India providing services to member companies of their parent companies, EY and KPMG, worldwide.

PUBG creator Krafton invested $10 million in One Impression: One Impression marketing firm, founded by brothers Apaksh Gupta and Jivesh Gupta,raised $10 million in Series A funding led by South Korean gaming giant Krafton.

$3 million Yellow Metal bags: Golden credit startup Yellow Metal raises $3 million from investors led by global venture fund MSA Novo, the company said on Wednesday. Bangalore-based Yellow Metal offers gold loan services in seven cities in Karnataka.

OpenAI launches latest GPT-4 chatbot: Artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI has launched GPT-4, the latest version of its hugely popular ChatGPT chatbot. Sam Altman, CRO of OpenAI, said the GOT-4 is the most powerful and consistent model from the company. Read our explainer to learn more about it.


The Global Elections We Read

■ Bosses catch applicants using ChatGPT for promotions (WSJ)
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(Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasti)