1.TCS levy: Indian Government announces 3-month extension for implementing revised rates, will apply from 1 October.

The finance ministry issued a notification on Wednesday in which it said that the increased TCS rates will come into effect from 1 October this year giving an extension of three months as the earlier notification said that the increased rates will be applicable from 1 July this year.

2.India’s power sector, which has grappled with multiple challenges over the past years, is seeing renewed interest from global private equity (PE) investors keen to capitalise on the vast potential of smart meter manufacturers

I Squared Capital, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (Omers), OTPP, Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Brookfield, Macquarie, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), the World Bank’s private investment arm International Finance Corp. (IFC) and multilateral development lender Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are among the potential investors evaluating firms in this sector, four industry experts said.

3. Veteran investor Kanwal Rekhi interviewed on India’s VCs and startups. 
   Kanwal Rekhi of Inventus Capital Partners reckons more foreign VCs will follow the Sequoia Capital route and pull out of India

   The veteran investor is a vocal critic of hyper-valued ‘unicorns’ and believes that easy money inculcates bad habits

   Rekhi reveals how PolicyBazaar (which Inventus backed early on) was "pushed to spend" and grow faster by SoftBank when it was on the brink of profitability

   He adds that investor-driven valuations of startups are untenable in public markets, which will eventually force corrections

   Read on

4. “The government (through holding company Temasek) has a minority stake in DBS Bank which is the largest company on the Singapore Exchange. The government has a majority stake in the two largest telecom companies: Singtel and Starhub, it has a majority stake in the flag carrier Singapore Airlines and it is the owner of CapitaLand (the largest real estate company in Singapore).

   Out of the 25 largest companies listed on the Singapore Exchange (as of 26th June 2023, (excluding real estate investment trusts) 9 companies were started by the government. It still maintains at least a minority stake in all of them and a majority stake in Singapore Airlines and ST Engineering. For most of them, it is still the largest shareholder.

   Singapore’s Government Linked Companies do not appear to get any special advantages according to this 2003 study, and some of them – like SIA, Singtel, DBS and Keppel – have achieved success out of the home market.

   Along with this, the government of Singapore owns the vast majority of land in Singapore. (this 2021 article says over 80% while this OECD site says 90% without citing it), but it is likely to be above 80 or 90%. Nearly 80% of Singaporeans live in government built housing

5.An Indian court's recent verdict that significantly expands the rights of homemakers over their husband's property has been hailed as a positive sign by women's rights advocates.

On 21 June, the Madras high court - in the southern state of Tamil Nadu - passed a verdict in a domestic dispute case that allowed a housewife equal share in her husband's property.