Samidha Sharma is an Editor at The Economic Times. She specializes in business and economics, focusing on finance, financial technology (fintech), and the banking and telecommunications sectors, with a keen interest in corporate finance, entrepreneurship, and startups. Samidha's insights and analyses have been featured extensively in The Economic Times and other platforms such as Share Market Updates and MSN.
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India (National)
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Samidha Sharma's coverage primarily focuses on the technology and business sectors, with an emphasis on investment analysis and exclusives. She is likely to be responsive to pitches that offer exclusive insights into the Indian tech industry, including startups, investments, IPOs, and developments related to prominent companies such as SoftBank.
Given her interest in investment analysis and citing data in her articles, she may particularly appreciate pitches from experts who can provide detailed financial or market analyses within the Indian tech and startup ecosystem. Additionally, providing exclusive news or access to key figures in the Indian tech scene could also capture her attention.
As Samidha's geographic focus is national (India), it would be beneficial for outreach efforts to align with this regional perspective when offering insights or stories about the Indian technology and startup landscape.
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By: Deepshikha Sikarwar, Samidha Sharma
India may reintroduce merchant discount rates for large businesses on UPI transactions. This move aims to address the financial sustainability of digital payment providers. Small merchants and transactions below a certain threshold will likely remain exempt from these charges.
By: Deepshikha Sikarwar, Samidha Sharma
The move would mark a significant shift in India’s digital payments policy, six years after the government made UPI and RuPay debit card transactions free to drive digital adoption. The levy is expected to apply only to large merchants, those with annual turnover of Rs 1-1.5 crore or more while peer-to-peer transfers and payments to small merchants will remain free.
By: Pranav Mukul, Samidha Sharma
Flipkart, which flipped back its domicile to India from Singapore in March, was preparing to tap the domestic capital market, according to people aware of the matter. Krishnamurthy pushed back on a pre-IPO fundraise said to be aimed at ascertaining valuation.
Flipkart group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said the online retailer has no timeline for a public listing while positioning its quick commerce business as part of its broader marketplace rather than a standalone bet amid rising competition in the cash-guzzling sector.
By: Anshul Dhamija, Samidha Sharma
INDIA-DEBT/BORROWING-ICICI BANK (PIX)ICICI Bank prices $1 billion debt in largest dollar issue by Indian private lender
By: Pranav Mukul, Samidha Sharma
People aware of the discussions told ET that the company has received a formal price indication from large institutional investors and is negotiating for a week or two before deciding whether to proceed. A deferment is on the table if the price gap does not close, though the company would prefer to list, they added.
Quick commerce firm Zepto is negotiating the pricing of its initial public offering (IPO) and could defer the share sale in the next couple of weeks, according to people in the know, as the valuation being offered is sharply below its last private funding round.
By: Samidha Sharma, Pranav Mukul
The Silicon Valley-headquartered VC firm is betting on India’s IPO-led liquidity opportunity. Accel aims to invest early and help companies scale to $1-2 billion-plus businesses. Portfolio companies such as Zetwerk, Infra.Market, Acko, Curefit, and Spinny are among those in the pipeline to go public over the next year.
Banks are set to take the largest share of the merchant discount rate (MDR) being worked out for Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions under a structure that would price the fee at about 40 basis points and split it three ways, people aware of the discussions told ET.
By: Samidha Sharma, Nikhil Patwardhan
The issuing bank would retain 40% of the fee, sources said. Third-party application providers such as PhonePe or Google Pay, and the acquiring bank would take 30% each. On a 40 bps MDR, that works out to roughly 16 bps for the bank and 12 bps each for the app and the acquirer. One basis point equals 0.01%, so a 40 bps MDR translates to a fee of 0.4% on the transaction value.
