India is projected to surpass China this year to become the world’s largest two-wheeler (2W) market, a report said on Friday. The robust economic growth, consumer preference for 2Ws for short-distance commutes, and increasing 2W demand in the shared mobility space will help India overtake China, according to Counterpoint Research.

The electric E2W market is growing at a rapid clip, with 2024 sales penetration expected to be 1.5 times that of four-wheeler passenger EVs.

The two-wheeler sales grew by less than 1 per cent YoY in 2023. Going forward, it is the electric two-wheeler (E2W) segment of the market that will see more growth, with over a quarter of 2Ws sold in 2024 expected to be battery-powered.

Senior analyst Soumen Mandal said that the 2W market is heading towards maturity, but the adoption of electrification is expected to rise significantly, particularly after 2025. “Especially, Southeast Asian countries and India will witness mainstream adoption of E2Ws with a faster transition to EVs in these markets,” he mentioned.

PhonePe on Friday announced the launch of a ‘pre-approved term life insurance’ feature on its platform.

The feature aims to make insurance coverage more accessible and affordable for millions of Indians by waiving the requirement for proof of income at the time of policy purchase.

With this launch, PhonePe ushers a new era of financial inclusion in India by making insurance products inclusive with the added advantage of quick and convenient access to life insurance coverage, without requiring extensive income verification.

The company has partnered with leading insurers to enable this feature on its platform. This partnership also supports insurance providers to now serve more users, specifically over 30 million individuals, who previously could not avail of term insurance due to the lack of income proof.

Sam Altman-run OpenAI has admitted that its new artificial intelligence (AI) model shows “medium risk” when it comes to persuading political opinions via generated text.

The company evaluated the persuasiveness of GPT-4o’s text and voice modalities. GPT-4o was launched publicly in May this year.

“Based on pre-registered thresholds, the voice modality was classified as low risk, while the text modality marginally crossed into medium risk,” the company revealed in a research paper.

For the text modality, the AI company evaluated the persuasiveness of GPT-4o-generated articles and chatbots on participant opinions on select political topics.

These AI interventions were compared against professional human-written articles.

Life Insurance Corporation of India on Thursday reported a 9 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 10,544 crore for the April-June quarter of the current financial year from Rs 9,635 crore in the same quarter last year, the company stated in a regulatory filing.

The government-owned insurer's net premium income rose 16 per cent to Rs 1.14 lakh crore in the first quarter of 2024-25 as compared to Rs 98,755 crore in the first quarter of 2023-24.

New Business Premium Income (Individual) increased by 13.67 per cent to Rs 11,892 crore. Overall annual premium equivalent (APE) jumped 21.28 per cent to Rs 11,560 crore. Individual Business Non-Par APE increased by 166 per cent to Rs 1,615 crore. Group Business APE increased by 34 per cent to Rs 4,813 crore. Non-Par APE share within Individual business was at 24 per cent for Q1 FY25 as compared to 10.22 per cent in Q1 FY24.

Value of New Business increased by 24 per cent to Rs 1,610 crore with the net margin increasing by 20 bps to 14 per cent, the company said.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday said the unique registered investor base on the exchange has crossed the ten-crore mark for the first time.

The total number of client codes (accounts) registered with the leading exchange stands at 19 crore, the NSE informed.

“Following the achievement of the nine-crore mark in late February, it is commendable that the number of investors on-boarded on the exchange has increased by an additional crore within just over five months,” said Sriram Krishnan, Chief Business Development Officer, NSE.

This growth can be attributed to several key factors, including the streamlined Know Your Customer (KYC) process, enhanced financial literacy facilitated by stakeholder-led investor awareness programmes, and enduring positive market sentiment.

The wearable device market in India declined for the first time by 10 per cent year-over-year (YoY) to 29.5 million units in the April-June quarter, an IDC report said on Thursday, adding that the smart ring category continues to grow.

The market in the first half declined by 4.7 per cent, shipping 55.1 million units. The average selling price (ASP) for the overall wearable also hit a record low, declining by 10.3 per cent from $21 to $18.8 in Q2.

Smartwatch category continued to struggle, declining by 27.4 per cent YoY to 9.3 million units. The share of smartwatches within wearables dropped to 31.5 per cent from 39 per cent in the same quarter last year.

India's foreign exchange reserves reached a historical high of $ 675 billion, as of August 2, as overall, India's external sector remains resilient with key indicators continuing to improve, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday.

"We remain confident of meeting our external financing requirements comfortably," he said.

Das also said that India’s current account deficit (CAD) moderated to 0.7 per cent of GDP in 2023-24 from 2.0 per cent of GDP in 2022-23 due to a lower trade deficit and robust services and remittances receipts.

The Centre on Thursday said it will provide basic and advanced training to 2,100 tribal students in semiconductor technology over the next three years, as the country aims to create a skilled workforce for chip design and manufacturing.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, in collaboration with IISc Bangalore, will provide basic training to 1,500 tribal students and advanced training to 600 tribal students in chip technology.

All tribal students who possess a degree in one of the engineering subjects, are eligible to apply for the programme, the Parliament was informed.

The number of public battery electric vehicle (BEV) charging stations in India expanded significantly from 1,800 in February 2022 to 16,347 in March this year, marking nearly a nine-fold increase, a report showed on Thursday.

The EV infrastructure market in the country is witnessing unprecedented growth, according to the report by global advisory firm Forvis Mazars in India.

The report mentioned that this robust infrastructure expansion is crucial as it aligns with the increasing demand for EVs driven by heightened environmental awareness, rising fuel prices, and supportive government incentives, setting the stage for a more sustainable transportation future.

“By 2030, electric vehicles are projected to make up almost one-third of India's passenger vehicle market, highlighting the significant infrastructure requirements,” said Rohit Chaturvedi, Partner, Transport and Logistics sector, Forvis Mazars in India.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) invested Rs11,763 crore ($1.40 billion) in July, according to NSDL data.

It is the highest investment since April 2022 when a new sectoral classification was implemented in the market by NSDL.

After this exercise, the number of sectors on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was reduced from 35 to 22.

Earlier, IT was divided into three sectors: Software, services and hardware.

The reason for buying IT shares by FPIs is the possibility of the rate cut by the US Fed in September.

If it happens companies' IT spending will further increase.