Moderate Show

A total of 81.8 million e-way bills were generated in February, marginally down from January but staying above the 80-million mark for the fourth straight month, showed data from the Goods and Services Tax Network. The figure indicates a mid-quarter dip, but year-end inventory clearance by companies could boost goods shipment in March. The number of e-way bills tends to go up in the last month of every quarter. Festivities in March and April could also boost consumption.

Hit a Bump

Total vehicle sales in India grew by 16% year-on-year in February, showed data from Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations. The industry body said sales were expected to grow well in March amid festivals and ahead of the introduction of new rules for vehicles from April. But dealers told Mint that growth would be weaker than usual for Navratri period due to patchy supply of new emission norms compliant vehicles, a chip crunch, and Holi falling in the middle of a working week.

Troubleshooting Move

$250 million: This is the amount that edtech firm Byju's is seeking to raise through the issuance of convertible notes by its tutoring service unit, Aakash Educational Services, reported Bloomberg. Aakash Educational Services will issue the notes that will convert into equity at a discount of 20% to the listing price of its planned initial public offering. This pre-IPO round is expected to help the startup tide over a liquidity crunch, according to Bloomberg.

Comeback Trail

India's services exports made a comeback in February, with the new export orders index rising to 50.7 from 49.6 in January, showed the purchasing managers index (PMI) data released by S&P Global. A reading above 50 indicates expansion. In contrast, the same measure for the manufacturing sector dropped to 50.5 from 51.2 in January. However, the PMI's composite future output index showed Indian firms were least confident about business prospects compared to Asian and global peers.

Bucking the Trend

Amid concerns of a funding winter in the startup ecosystem, women-led startups appear to be gaining traction. The share of funding in startups having at least one woman as founder or co-founder, as a percentage of overall total funding, rose to 16% in 2022 from 11% in 2021, noted a Tracxn report. The number of active investors funding women-led startups has seen a steady increase since 2010, and the year 2021 saw the highest funding in such startups in a decade.

Debt Woes?

$1.9 billion: This is the amount of foreign currency bonds due for repayment in 2024 by the Adani group, PTI reported. The repayments due are: $750 million and $500 million by Adani Green Energy and $650 million by Adani Ports. Adani group is under the scanner after allegations made by Hindenburg Research in January. Between 2015 and 2022, the group had borrowed over $10 billion in foreign currency bonds, of which around $1.15 billion matured in 2020 and 2022.