InBrief: Ola looks to go public in 2021; regulation norms may apply only to big social media firms

Bengaluru-based ride-hailing major Ola is looking forward to going public by 2021, The Inc42 reported. The company has been restructuring to streamline its business in recent months, the report said. The company lost nine of its top executives last year in October. Two more top-level executives -- Ola Mobility’s head of products Naroo Krishnanthe and Ola’s vice president for engineering Sanjay Kharb -- have now confirmed their departure. Public transport ticketing app Ridlr’s co-founder Brijraj Vaghani will be taking over the engineering and product verticals as CTO for the mobility business, the report said.

Govt may apply tough regulation norms only to big social media firms

The government is planning to change the proposed rules for policing online content so that tough monitoring measures and takedown rules apply only on big social media firms, The Economic Times reported. MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) had said in an affidavit to the Supreme Court last year that the notification of the new rules is likely to be completed by January 15, 2020, the report said. The industry associations and cloud companies have objected to the proposed rules, it added.

DPIIT checks FDI compliance for cloud kitchens 

The government may clear the air on whether cloud kitchens and private label brands started by food aggregators Swiggy, Zomato and Uber Eats violate foreign direct investment rules governing e-commerce, The Economic Times reported. The DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) will soon share a note with its comments on the issue shortly after it was decided at a meeting of all stakeholders, the report said. The meeting had members from online food ordering firms Zomato, Swiggy and Uber Eats, the National Restaurant Association of India, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Law, it added.

SoftBank in talks to sell majority stake in India renewables JV

Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank is looking to bring on board a partner in its renewables joint venture in India SBG Cleantech by selling a majority stake, The Economic Times reported. This move comes as SoftBank reviews its businesses around the world in a bid to increase liquidity, the report said. The company has been in talks with a group of sovereign wealth and pension funds from the far East and Gulf regions, some of whom are limited partners of SoftBank Vision Fund, besides Silicon Valley-based technology giants, it added.

ClimaCell enters into strategic partnership with Google Cloud

Boston-based weather technology company ClimaCell has entered into a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to deliver free access to high-fidelity weather forecasting models in geographies that lack such services. The models’ outputs will be made accessible through Google Cloud’s public dataset programme, ClimaCell said. “For the first time, a private company is offering a full-blown operational numerical weather prediction model for an entire country, working continuously and providing high-resolution forecasts for up to 48 hours ahead. Not only is it a historic milestone, but we are also providing it completely free of charge,” Shimon Elkabetz, CEO and co-founder, ClimaCell. ClimaCell’s models will be available first in India, the statement said.

Tata Mutual Fund launches Tata Quant Fund 

Tata Mutual Fund has launched the Tata Quant Fund, an artificial intelligence- and machine learning-powered fund. The fund is aimed at maximising returns during up-trending markets, while minimising losses during down-trending phases, it said in a statement. The company said that Tata Quant Fund portfolios are rebalanced monthly for optimal performance at low risks. The fund would invest in equity and equity-related instruments, which form part of the S&P BSE 200 and equity derivative segment, the statement said.

Microsoft Azure has an edge over Amazon Web Services: Goldman Sachs survey

Microsoft is the most popular supplier of public cloud services, even as Amazon leads the market in terms of revenue, showed to a Goldman Sachs survey, a CNBC report said. The results show that Microsoft may continue to grow its share in the cloud market. The study by Goldman Sachs surveyed 100 IT executives at Global 2000 companies, based on information technology spending. The survey revealed that 56 executives are using Azure, compared to 48 executives using Amazon Web Services, the report said.