The common man has his eyes set on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's second Budget next month for relief in income tax, but an economic slowdown and a sharp reduction in corporate tax rates hint that she has very little flexibility to dole out a big largesse.

The twin impact of tax rate cuts and a slowdown in collections due to shrinking consumption in a sagging economy may reflect in unachieved revenue targets.

Companies in China, South Korea and Indonesia pay 25 per cent tax, while those in Malaysia pay 24 per cent.

Hong Kong has the lowest corporate tax rate of 16.5 per cent while Singapore has 17 per cent rate and Thailand and Vietnam levy 20 per cent tax on companies.

Following the sharp cut in the corporate tax rate, there has been a clamour for relief in the personal income tax. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577953808.946899/All-eyes-on-Sitharaman's-second-Budget-for-tax-relief?ref=audio_experience

Delhi-based WealthBucket, which runs an online platform for mutual fund investments, raised $3 million (Rs 18 crore) from NorthStar, angel investor Vinod Khatumal and other HNIs.

WealthBucket was founded by Himanshu Jain and Pulkit Jain in 2018 with an initiative to provide a platform that connects the customers looking to invest in mutual funds.

Mutual funds come on the top of the list.

Previously, only high-commissioned shares and mutual funds were sold through financial advisors.

Pulkit Jain is a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years of experience. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577952007.0336125/[Funding-alert]-Mutual-fund-investments-platform-WealthBucket-raises-$3M-in-Pre-Series-A-round?ref=audio_experience

While the final figures vary, the amount of PE investments in the year gone by is estimated to be more than the total inflows recorded in 2017 and 2018.

Prashant Mehra, Partner at leading consultancy Grant Thornton India LLP, said PE investments would have been more than USD 31 billion in 2019.

"We think we will end the year (2019) at $48-50 billion of PE/VC investments, which is around 1.7-1.8 percent of GDP.

The growth in PE investments was aided by deal sizes becoming larger owing to increasing number of buyouts.

In 2019, there have been at least 99 large deals, valued at more than $100 million, aggregating $32.9 billion. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577950207.043259/Private-equity-party-set-to-continue-in-New-Year;-may-see-15-20pc-growth-in-investments?ref=audio_experience

As India buckles up for its upcoming ambitious space missions, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has decided to send four air force pilots to Russia to train them as astronauts for the country’s maiden human spaceflight, Gaganyaan.

Costing approximately $1.4 Bn, the Gaganyaan mission is expected to be ISRO’s most expensive space mission of all time.

The mission, which will include only one lander and one rover, has been approved by the government, Sivan added.

One of the successes of the mission was that the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter made it successfully into the lunar orbit.

Other upcoming projects for ISRO for 2020 include SSLV, GSLV, GSAT-20 satellite, NavIC with indigenous atomic clocks, Indian Data Relay Satellite System, Aditya-L1, and XPOSAT. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577948407.9558444/ISRO’s-Gaganyaan:-4-Air-Force-Pilots-To-Undergo-Training-In-Russia?ref=audio_experience

On Wednesday (January 1), the Ministry of External Affairs announced that it has set up a new, emerging and strategic technologies (NEST) division, which will reportedly act as a nodal division for issues pertaining to new and emerging technologies.

Moreover, the NEST division will help in collaboration with foreign partners in the field of 5G and artificial intelligence.

It has been said that NEST’s mandate shall include, but not be limited to, evolving India’s external technology policy in coordination with domestic stakeholders and in line with India’s developmental priorities and national security goals.

Further, the newly set up division will also help in assessing foreign policy and international legal implications of new and emerging technologies and technology-based resources, and recommend appropriate foreign policy choice.

Further, NEST will negotiate technology governance rules, standards and architecture, suited to India’s conditions, in multilateral and plurilateral frameworks. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577946606.1442034/External-Affairs-Ministry-To-Focus-On-New-Age-Technologies-With-NEST?ref=audio_experience

About half of the startups dealt in innovative products and over 20 percent had filed patents for their products, a survey by the Reserve Bank of India based on responses from 1,246 startups has found.

The pilot survey on the Indian startup sector was conducted from November 2018 to April 2019.

Startups in six sectors - agriculture, data and analytics, education, health, IT consulting/solution and manufacturing - accounted for nearly 50 percent of the survey respondents.

Also, almost 58 percent of the startups had plans to get listed on the Indian stock exchanges in the next five years, it added.

Future plans of the startups included hiring staff for supporting business expansion, getting listed on the Indian stock exchanges and seeking acquisition, among others. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577944806.7461603/Nearly-50-pc-startups-dealt-in-innovative-products:-RBI-survey?ref=audio_experience

The Harvard Business School has built a case study on Gurugram-based OYO.

Now a part of the Harvard Business School curriculum, the case study, titled OYO: Creating Effective Spaces, talks about the company’s journey, challenges, and growth.

Abhinav Sinha, Global Chief Operating Officer, OYO Hotels & Homes and Partner, OYO USA, said: “At OYO, every OYOpreneur has worked passionately and with utmost dedication towards the company’s mission.

It makes us immensely happy and proud that OYO’s journey and mission-driven approach to business has led to it being included as a case study at the prestigious Harvard Business School.”Ritesh Agarwal's OYO is now a part of the Harvard Business School's curriculum as a case study.

Funding for the development of this case was provided by Harvard Business School and not by the company. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577943006.4028554/After-Byju’s,-OYO-is-now-a-Harvard-Business-School-case-study?ref=audio_experience

Presented by Pegasus Tech Ventures2020 — it’s when the world will see transformational changes in how technology impacts our lives.

In 2020, emotion recognition and computer vision will scale and AI will have a breakout moment in manufacturing.

Trend 4: Commercialization of quantum computing usage in mass scaleWe expect 2020 to begin the quantum computing era.

Trend 8: Evolution in Agriculture – technology to Grow Crops EfficientlyIn agriculture, companies that offer products using computer vision, AI, and big data stand out.

While there are concerns about workforce impact, there is little doubt that 2020 will be a time of innovation as people better leverage technology. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577942129.956563/10-technology-trends-that-will-impact-our-lives-in-2020?ref=audio_experience

Krishna spoke to various travel agents and realised that about 1.2 million of them were on the verge of closure due to the rise of online travel booking applications.

The team at TravelSpoc“Most travel agents were not using the latest technologies and there was no common online platform for them to sell their products.

The startup is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based ecosystem that makes the best travel experience available to travellers – sourced from multiple travel agents.

It is a collaborative common platform for tour operators and travel intermediaries across the world to showcase their tour packages and travel products, and sell online in their brand and identity.

It has tied up with 200 registered travel agents globally. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577939720.178467/[Startup-Bharat]-This-online-travel-platform-helps-users-customise-their-holidays-and-trips-the-old-fashioned-way?ref=audio_experience

We asked investors what they think lies ahead for the Indian startup ecosystem and their forecast is that 2020 will be a year where everyone will be 'cautiously bullish' and there will be a bigger focus on more capital-efficient business models.

Later-stage funding may slowThis makes it important for startups to put defensible business models and plans in place.

“You may need both on-premise and SaaS models, but you can’t get away without a SaaS strategy,” he says.

Increased focus on financial inclusion, social entrepreneurs, and agritechThe year 2019 saw Tiger Global investing in NinjaCart and others like DeHaat raising funding.

“They're trying to build business models to address some of these problems. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1577937817.3579888/[2020-Outlook]-What-investors-expect-for-the-Indian-startup-ecosystem-in-the-year-ahead?ref=audio_experience