Connect with us

Published

2 years ago

on

India is set to propose a new cryptocurrency bill in parliament, and investors are trying to make sense of what this might mean for the future of virtual coins in South Asia’s largest economy.

Lawmakers may ultimately opt to impose tough regulations on the crypto market instead of an outright ban on private coins, according to a top executive at Zebpay, one of India’s largest crypto exchanges.

“My belief is that we will have some kind of coherent regulation, but on the tougher side,” said Avinash Shekhar, co-CEO of Zebpay, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.

A parliamentary bulletin dated Nov. 23 showed that the government plans to introduce a new bill aimed at regulating digital currencies when Parliament begins its winter session starting Monday.

Through that bill, India is seeking to ban most private cryptocurrencies as well as to establish a framework for creating an official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India. However, it will allow “for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses,” the bulletin said.

… the feelers which we are getting from the government is that they’re looking for some kind of regulation, strict regulation, but not a complete ban.
Avinash Shekhar
Zebpay

The central bank is considering a digital Indian rupee that could reportedly launch a pilot in the second quarter of 2022.

Shekhar told CNBC that in the last eight to nine months, the government’s stance on cryptocurrencies changed after officials consulted with various stakeholders including crypto exchange operators.

“There has been lots of positive vibes from the government. We met the finance committee of Parliament around two weeks back,” he said. “The message or the feelers which we are getting from the government is that they’re looking for some kind of regulation — strict regulation, but not a complete ban.”

In March, India was considering a law that would ban cryptocurrencies, fine anyone trading in the country or even holding such digital assets, Reuters reported, citing a senior government official.

Since then, New Delhi has changed its stance slightly and is now trying to discourage trading in crypto by imposing hefty capital gains and other taxes, according to the news agency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi this month gave a keynote address at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Sydney Dialogue where he said all democratic nations must work together on crypto to “ensure it does not end up in wrong hands, which can spoil our youth.”

When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was asked by the Hindustan Times if India should have its own cryptocurrency, she reportedly said, “We have to be cautious; but we have to think it through.”

Shekhar from Zebpay said officials have been talking about tough regulations because “they want to obviously control this and don’t let crypto become a currency, so to say.”

He explained that potential regulations would have to address the needs of India’s retail investors — while there is no official data currently available, media reports suggest there are about 15 million to 20 million crypto investors in the country.

“The other side, which is not being talked about too much, is innovation in the technology,” Shekhar said, adding that many innovators are still waiting to enter the crypto market.

“With regulation coming in, I think that will be a major area where I think multibillion dollar companies will be created in India,” he added.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Technology

Drone startup Zipline hits 1 million deliveries, looks to restaurants as it continues to grow

Published

4 hours ago

on

April 19, 2024

By

Drone startup Zipline hits 1 million deliveries, looks to restaurants as it continues to grow

Autonomous delivery drone startup Zipline said Friday that it hit its 1 millionth delivery to customers and that it’s eyeing restaurant partnerships in its next phase of growth.

The San Francisco-based startup designs, builds and operates autonomous delivery drones, working with clients that range from more than 4,700 hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, to major brands such as Walmart and GNC. It’s raised more than $500 million so far from investors including Sequoia Capital, a16z and Google Ventures. Zipline is also a CNBC Disruptor 50 company.

The company said its zero-emission drones have now flown more than 70 million autonomous commercial miles across four continents and delivered more than 10 million products.

The milestone 1 millionth delivery carried two bags of IV fluid from a Zipline distribution center in Ghana to a local health facility.

As the company continues to expand, it will bring on Panera Bread in Seattle, Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, and Jet’s Pizza in Detroit.

Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton told CNBC that 70% of the company’s deliveries have happened in the past two years and, in the future, the goal is to do 1 million deliveries a day.

“The three areas where the incentive really makes the most sense today are health care, quick commerce and food, and those are the three main markets that we focus on,” Rinaudo Cliffton said. “Our goal is to work with really the best brands or the best institutions in each of those markets.”

The push into restaurant partnerships marks an “obvious transition” he said, due to the continuing growth in interest in instant food delivery. Zipline already delivers food from Walmart to customers.

“We need to start using vehicles that are light, fast, autonomous and zero-emission,” Rinaudo Cliffton said. “Delivering in this way is 10 times as fast, it’s less expensive … and relative to the traditional delivery apps that most restaurants will be working with, we triple the service radius, which means you actually [get] 10 times the number of customers who are reachable via instant delivery.”

Zipline deliveries for some Panera locations in Seattle are expected to begin next year, the Panera franchisee’s Chief Operating Officer Ron Bellamy told CNBC. Delivery continues to grow for its business, even in an inflationary environment, he said. Costs with Zipline are anticipated to be on par with what third-party delivery is now, he added, with the hope of that cost lowering over time. 

“I’m encouraged about it, not just even in terms of what I can do for the business, but as a consumer, I think at the end of the day, if it is economical, and it delivers a better overall experience, then the consumer will speak,” Bellamy said.

Continue Reading

Technology

Super Micro plunges as investors rotate out of red-hot AI stock ahead of earnings later this month

Published

5 hours ago

on

April 19, 2024

By

Super Micro plunges as investors rotate out of red-hot AI stock ahead of earnings later this month

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Super Micro Computer shares plunged 18% on Friday as investors scaled back their holdings of one of the market’s hottest stocks ahead of earnings later this month.

Shares of Super Micro, which joined the S&P 500 in March, are still up about 168% this year after climbing 246% in 2023. The server and computer infrastructure company is a primary vendor for Nvidia, whose technology is the backbone for most of today’s powerful artificial intelligence models.

Super Micro said in a brief press release on Friday that it will report fiscal third-quarter results on April 30. The company broke from its pattern of providing preliminary results. In January, Super Micro increased its sales and earnings guidance 11 days before announcing second-quarter financials.

The stock is on pace for its steepest drop since Feb. 16, when it fell about 20%.

While Super Micro is getting a big boost from its ties to Nvidia, the market remains highly contested, with competitors including Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise planning to build systems using Nvidia’s latest generation of Blackwell graphics processing units.

Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO:

A quiet meme stock rally? Reddit, GameStop and Supermicro surge

Continue Reading

Technology

Dutch government says it may stop using Facebook over privacy concerns

Published

5 hours ago

on

April 19, 2024

By

Dutch government says it may stop using Facebook over privacy concerns

Morning traffic outside Meta headquarters, in Mountain View, California, U.S. November 9, 2022.

Peter Dasilva | Reuters

The Dutch government said Friday that it may be forced to stop using Facebook after a warning from the Netherlands’ privacy regulator about the Meta-owned social media platform’s privacy risks.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued a statement advising the Dutch Interior Ministry not to rely on Facebook pages to communicate with citizens if it doesn’t have a clear idea of how Facebook uses the personal data of people who visit government pages.

The Interior Ministry had previously asked the DPA to advise on whether the government could use Facebook pages in a compliant way.

The government wants clarity from Meta “as soon as possible, at the latest before the summer recess, on how they are addressing our concerns,” Alexandra van Huffelen, the Dutch Minister for Digitalization, said in a statement.

“Otherwise, in line with the advice of the DPA, we will be forced to stop our activities on Facebook pages,” she added.

Dutch finmin says he's confident 'crown jewel' ASML will remain in Netherlands

The Dutch DPA’s chairman, Aleid Wolfsen, said in a statement that “people who visit a government page trust that their personal and sensitive information is in safe hands.”

“The fact that this can also involve information about children and young people makes this even more important. They are vulnerable online and need extra protection,” Wolfsen said in the statement, which was translated to English via Google Translate.

A Meta spokesperson told CNBC: “We fundamentally disagree with the assessment that underpins this advice, which is wrong on the facts and demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding as to how our products work.”

“We review all Meta products to ensure they comply with laws in the regions in which we offer our services, and will continue to engage with the Government to ensure they can use social media to communicate with people,” the Meta spokesperson added.

The DPA advice serves as further evidence of “growing distrust between European regulators and Meta,” Matthew Holman, a tech, privacy, and AI partner at law firm Cripps, told CNBC via email.

Holman said that the Dutch regulator’s concern is likely to be that user data “is shared with government departments on Meta’s platform and could still be subject to security issues, monitoring or access by US federal agencies.”

– CNBC’s April Roach contributed to this report

Continue Reading

Trending