ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, India’s largest gathering of soonicorns, returns on August 22 in Bengaluru. With AI as the core theme, it brings more than 200 startups, investors, and policymakers to chart the path from lab innovation to revenue. Keynotes, panels, and showcases will highlight India’s deep-tech rise, ethical AI policies, and funding trends driving the next wave of unicorns.

The Banga family, which includes shipping tycoon Harindarpal Banga and others, will soon launch block deals to sell nearly 2% of its stake, or half of what it owns in Nykaa, Moneycontrol reported. Nearly 16 million shares will change hands at a discount of 4-5% from July 2 levels. The family will continue to hold the remaining stake in Nykaa.

Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey opened up about the initial days of the e-commerce company that he co-founded along with Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015. "In the early days, we used to sit in tiny kirana shops, helping them get online with…their smartphones," Aatrey said. "We never imagined we’d be serving hundreds of millions of customers a decade later," he added.

In 2016, Pawan Kumar, a farmer from New Delhi, decided to start growing mushrooms. He invested ₹5 lakh in the venture and set up a unit in a small room. Nine years later, his brand High-Tech Mushroom Farm produces 170 kilograms of button mushrooms every day and clocks a monthly revenue of ₹7 lakh.

Balaji Srinivasan, who bought an island near Singapore for startup founders, is an Indian-origin technology entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Counsyl, served as CTO of Coinbase, and was a General Partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Born to physician parents who migrated from Tamil Nadu to US, Srinivasan holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford.

Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the Centre won't convert Vodafone Idea (Vi) into a PSU, even as the telecom firm explores equity conversion options. "There can't be equity conversion by government to over 49%" Scindia stated. He further said that every operator has the right to seek equity conversion, but final call rests with the DoT and Finance Ministry.

Hotmail Co-founder Sabeer Bhatia has called the traffic situation in Bengaluru "insane" and compared it to the traffic in San Francisco's Bay Area, where he's based. "I ride...same distance on my bicycle in 1/3 the time in...Bay Area. How do people tolerate this every day?" he said. "We've to start boycotting Bengaluru," entrepreneur Akshay Shah said, reacting to the post.

Analyst Aditya Thukral sees fresh upside in Nippon Life India AMC as the stock breaks out from a cup pattern after consolidating in the ₹735-800 range. With RSI strong near 60 and price above key EMAs, he targets ₹950 in 6-8 weeks. A stop-loss is set at ₹712 on a weekly close. Stock will go ex-dividend (₹10) on July 4.

Despite the US dollar weakening sharply, the Indian rupee hasn’t appreciated as much as other Asian currencies. This is because the RBI is still unwinding large forward sell positions from late 2024. Experts say this deliberate strategy keeps rupee volatility low, helping attract long-term investors, though it also slows any short-term gains.

RITES Limited, through its JV with Aryan, secured a Letter of Acceptance from South Western Railway for redeveloping Tumakuru Station. The ₹37.81 crore project includes civil, signalling, and electrical works, to be completed in 540 days. This adds to RITES’ ₹7,978 crore order book as of 9M FY25, reinforcing its focus on turnkey projects and FY26 growth targets.