Infosys only Indian co in Ethisphere 2022 list; crypto startups dismayed over tax clarification; CommerceIQ turns unicorn

Infosys has been recognised as one of athe World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2022, the second year in a row, by Ethisphere Institute, which works in the area of defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. A clarification on disallowing offset of loss against profit in crypto transactions in India has caused much consternation among startups, TechCrunch reports. Plus, ecommerce automation SaaS company CommerceIQ turns unicorn. Infosys has been recognised as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2022, the second year in a row, by Ethisphere Institute, which works in the area of defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. It is also the only company from India, and one of four such honourees globally, in the software and services industry, the company said in a press release. In 2022, 136 honourees were recognised from 22 countries and across 45 industries. India’s proposed taxation law of virtual digital assets won’t permit individuals to offset the loss from one asset against the profit of another, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday, causing dismay among the country’s crypto startups, TechCrunch reports. This move is “detrimental for India’s crypto industry and the millions who have invested in this emerging asset class,” Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch, one of India’s largest crypto exchanges, said in an email. CommerceIQ, which helps retailers automate various ecommerce processes, has raised $115 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, at a value of more than $1 billion, making it the 12th Indian startup unicorn of this year, Economic Times reports. Qualcomm has launched a Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, established to invest up to $100 million in developers and companies building unique, immersive XR experiences, as well as associated core augmented reality and related artificial intelligence technologies, the company said in a press release. nurture.farm, a digital platform for sustainable agriculture, has generated and forward-sold 20,000 carbon credits through its alternate wetting and drying and dry seeded rice project, the company said in a press release. Its benefits included 15-30 percent of water savings, according to the release. Snowflake, a data cloud provider, has launched a healthcare and life sciences data cloud to offer customers a single, integrated, and cross-cloud data platform that eliminates technical and institutional data silos. PhonePe, a payments platform provider that is part of Walmart’s Flipkart unit, has acquired GigIndia, a network for freelancers, to help corporates and enterprises acquire more customers and scale up their distribution channels, the company said in a press release. Bizongo, a B2B trade enablement platform provider, has acquired Mumbai based IoT and location services provider Clean Slate Technologie. Bizongo aims to equip more than 100 Indian factories with its IoT powered cloud factory solution by 2023. PolygonLEAP 2021 Accelerator has announced its first cohort of 31 startups. It will support the 31 solutions, selected from over 270 applicants globally, in building their innovative decentralised ideas in the boot camp phase. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds