Google is investing $350 million in India's Flipkart

Morning! Mom was right: we do spend a lot of our time in front of screens.

Netflix’s latest report called "What We Watched" revealed that in the last half of 2023, people worldwide spent around 90 billion hours watching Netflix.

Can’t wait to hide our faces the day Instagram decides to release its report for Reels 😶 

In this week’s edition:

🛒 Google went shopping

👎 FBR sucks at its job

👀 Bad day week

💸 Pak govt and taxes: a love story

- The Itla Squad 💼

Business

Global 🌎️

Google just added an Indian e-commerce to its cart

Google is investing $350 million in Walmart-backed Flipkart, valuing the Indian e-commerce firm at $37 billion, meaning: Google wants a front-row seat to India's booming digital market.

The details:

• Flipkart holds almost 48% of India's e-commerce market, well ahead of Amazon, which came to India in 2013.

• Google will provide cloud services to Flipkart, helping to upgrade and expand its digital infrastructure.

• Google has a history of investing in e-commerce, like its $550 million investment in China's JD.com and partnerships with Shopify.

• Google has committed $10 billion to boost India's digital economy, previously investing $4.5 billion in Jio Platforms and $1 billion in Airtel.

Big picture: This investment is part of a larger funding round led by Walmart, which invested $600 million in Flipkart last year and is waiting for regulatory approval. But Google isn’t the only tech giant having eyes on the South-Asian country. Last year, an Indian government minister said Apple was looking to eventually manufacture 25% of all of its iPhones in India. But don’t worry, we will take revenge where it truly matters: tech the bat and ball game in June. Pakistan Zindabad!!

TLDR: Google is investing $350 million in Flipkart, Walmart's top e-commerce platform in India. Flipkart holds 48% of India's e-commerce market, far ahead of Amazon. Google will also provide cloud services to modernize Flipkart's infrastructure.

What else is new in news

✶ Maybe it’s time for American TV shows/movies to cut down on scenes of characters popping up wine bottles in every other scene. Studies show that Americans are now choosing marijuana over alcohol for their daily or almost daily use.

Local 🇵🇰

FBR sucks at its job? How unsurprising

A recent survey revealed what we already knew: FBR sucks at its job.

It revealed that the board was unaware of 55% of production lines in key sectors like cement, fertiliser, sugar, and tobacco. This came to light after Authentix Inc won a multibillion-rupee contract to monitor production in these sectors, raising concerns about tax evasion.

• Authentix discovered around 649 production lines across the four sectors, far more than the approximately 290 lines the FBR knew about when the contract was awarded.

• Because of this lack of oversight, products are leaving factories without the right tax stamps, which means the government isn't getting all the money it should.

• Even though the contract anticipated selling a specific number of products, only around five billion stamps were sold over nearly three years. This happened partly because there were delays in finalizing agreements and setting up the tracking system. So, the slow start meant fewer products were tracked and taxed as planned.

• Currency depreciation has further complicated matters, with the contract awarded at a different exchange rate than the current value, leading to profit losses during currency conversion for the contractor.

Moving ahead: Former central bank governor Tariq Bajwa said it wasn’t me and instead pointed fingers at the contractor, the FBR, and the industry for the system's ineffective implementation.

TLDR: The FBR was unaware of 55% of production lines in key sectors like cement, fertiliser, sugar, and tobacco, leading to concerns about tax evasion. Authentix Inc discovered more production lines than the FBR knew about, causing products to leave factories without proper tax stamps, resulting in revenue loss for the government.

News Flash

✶ Pakistan's economy grew by 2.09% in the third quarter of the 2023-2024 fiscal year, mainly due to better agricultural performance. The estimated GDP growth for the entire fiscal year ending in June 2024 is 2.38%, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The central bank predicts a 2-3% real GDP growth for the fiscal year 2024.

Tech

Global 🌎️

It’s been a bad day week

Googlers might have low-blood pressure nowadays - thanks to some recent f*ckups by them - and even their free snacks won’t be enough.

Just a few days after the tragedy that was AI search engine (where Google AI’s search feature started showing wrong information), the tech giant's in-house bot accidentally revealed the longest-held secret in the history of tech: how Google decides which websites show up first when we search for something and much like its AI engine, Google has been lying to us all.

• The leaked documents include over 2,500 pages tell us about more than 14,000 things Google looks at when deciding which websites to show first.

• The leaked documents suggest that Google considers metrics like good clicks (when users find what they're looking for) and bad clicks (when they don't) when deciding which websites to show first. This contradicts Google's previous denial of using such metrics for ranking.

• They also indicate that Google uses data from the Chrome browser, like the websites users visit, as a signal of website quality (spoiler alert: it also denied using this score in ranking).

• Google also considers how recently a webpage was updated or published.

Moving ahead: Finding out how Google ranks websites is like finding a hidden treasure map for internet marketers. But still these leaks don’t reveal if it’s the latest update. Also, experts like Rand Fishkin and Michael King argue that these leaks show Google has not been entirely truthful about its ranking practices.

TLDR: Google’s in-house bot has accidentally let slip how Google decides which websites rank first in searches. The leaked documents, over 2,500 pages long, reveals more than 14,000 factors that Google considers, including user clicks, Chrome browser data, and content freshness. Despite Google's previous denials, these leaks suggest they've been less than honest about their ranking criteria. 

What else is new in news

✶T-Mobile is purchasing U.S. Cellular's wireless operations and some of its spectrum assets for $4.4 billion. This deal means T-Mobile will gain over 4 million new customers and take over U.S. Cellular's wireless operations.

Local 🇵🇰 

Pak govt and taxes: a love story

The additional $$ you have to borrow from your dad because you forgot to add it into the cost of using the device on your hand is being decided nowadays.

Recently, the government of Pakistan suggested adding an 18% tax on mobile phones, worrying the Mobile manufacturers in Pakistan, and much like Lady Whistledown from Bridgerton, The Pakistan Mobile Phone Manufacturers Association (PMPMA) wrote a letter to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which decides on taxes for the next budget, to explain their concerns.

The details:

• Right now, it's cheaper to import finished phones than to assemble them locally because of high taxes on parts (adding about 10% to the cost.). This makes it hard for local companies to make phones in Pakistan.

• If the government puts an 18% tax on all phones made in Pakistan, it would be a challenge for the industry because most phones sold here are cheaper models that are exempt from taxes.

• The timing of the proposed tax is worrying as Pakistan is transitioning to higher technologies like 3G and 4G, while 40% of users still rely on 2G phones. This tax may slow down this transition by making advanced phones less affordable.

Moving ahead: Experts say the government already makes a lot from SIM card taxes, so they should find other ways to make money. The PMPMA wants the government to keep giving tax breaks to companies that assemble phones in Pakistan. Without these breaks, phone prices could go up. In 2020, a policy said phones under $350 wouldn't have sales tax, covering most phones used in Pakistan.

TLDR: Pakistan is considering an 18% tax on mobile phones, worrying local manufacturers. The Pakistan Mobile Phone Manufacturers Association (PMPMA) is concerned about the impact, especially since most phones sold in the country are cheaper models exempt from taxes.

Tech tour of news

✶ You thought swiping left and right on people in dating apps was weird? This Eid, you will be swiping left and right on sacrificial animals. The Punjab government has launched an online portal for buying sacrificial animals, making it easier for people to shop for Eid-ul-Adha without leaving home. This portal lists animals with details like age, weight, and price, and officials ensure its security for transactions.

More interesting Itla (اطلاع) we consumed:

🎾 Can Richard Williams offer lessons in manifestation? We watched possibly the best sports film ever called "King Richard" where we saw how Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus Williams, made his girls the tennis superstars. Our favorite quote were "We had the kids' futures planned before they were born. The first day I took Venus and Serena to the tennis court, I knew I had champions. Venus and Serena are going to shake up this world". He also accurately predicted that Venus Williams would become the world's first number one, and Serena Williams would become the GOAT.

Fun fact: Will Smith also won Best Actor for this at the Oscars moments after the infamous slapping-Chris-Rock incident.