📉 The Gensol scandal continues

Good morning. Potentially the last working day of the week for most of us, with the Good Friday holiday tomorrow - make it count 💪 

Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 📉 The Gensol scandal continues

• 🚀 India wants Open-Source consent tech

• 🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

  • 📊 Global slowdown?

  • ✈️ SpiceJet is back

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

• 🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

MARKETS

🇮🇳 India

• Indian markets ended mostly higher for the third straight session, buoyed by gains in banking and financial stocks and positive foreign inflows. IndusInd Bank surged more than 7%, while most sectors finished in the green.

🌍️ International

• US stocks fell sharply as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned about the unprecedented and uncertain economic impact of President Trump’s tariffs. Tech stocks led the decline, with Nvidia plunging over 6% after announcing a $5.5 billion loss from new US chip export restrictions to China.

GENSOL SCANDAL

📉 The Gensol scandal continues

I know, I know - we have been covering this for 3 days straight now - but there’s so much tea we have to share.

The scandal surrounding Gensol Engineering deepened this week, as SEBI’s interim order laid bare the meticulously layered financial diversion orchestrated by its promoters, Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi. Instead of using funds for their stated purpose — procuring EVs for BluSmart — the brothers rerouted the money for personal luxuries, real estate, and speculative investments.

The numbers behind the scam

• Loan Secured: ₹977.75 crore from IREDA and PFC

• Target Deployment for EVs: ₹829.86 crore for 6,400 EVs

• Actual Deployment: ₹567.73 crore for 4,704 EVs

• Unaccounted Amount: ₹262.13 crore

But how did they do this?

1. Gensol transferred funds to Go-Auto for EV procurement.

2. Instead of buying vehicles, funds were routed back through nine entities — all related parties, including one undeclared (Wellray Solar).

3. Money was then funneled into personal accounts, family members, and luxury purchases.

💸 Where the Money Went

Oh, and btw - this wasn’t all:

• ₹42.94 crore was paid to DLF for an apartment in The Camellias, Gurgaon.

• The property was initially allotted to the Jaggi brothers’ mother, and later transferred to Capbridge Ventures, a related entity.

Along with all this, Gensol allegedly forged “no overdue” letters to ICRA, misleading credit rating assessments, which ultimately led to a credit downgrade to “D”, indicating default.

• Gensol’s stock has crashed 83% YTD, closing at ₹129 on April 15.

• SEBI has barred the promoters from key roles and suspended trading of Gensol and affiliated entities.

Overall: This scandal isn’t just about diverted funds — it’s a textbook case of corporate governance breakdown. Investors, rating agencies, and even institutional lenders were blindsided by a carefully veiled siphoning scheme operating under the guise of a promising green energy startup.

Read more: Economic Times

TECHNOLOGY

🚀 India wants Open-Source consent tech

India is making moves to roll out its Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, and the latest one is pretty exciting - MeitY Startup Hub has announced an innovation challenge for Indian startups and MSMEs to build open-source consent management systems.

The goal? Create plug-and-play solutions that help organizations, especially small businesses, startups, and government departments, easily manage user consent and stay compliant with the DPDP law. Think: multilingual support, full consent lifecycle management, secure login, immutable audit logs... the works.

The best part? The winning solutions will be turned into digital public goods. That means anyone can download them from MeitY’s online repository, customize them, and use them for free. It’s a huge step toward standardizing how digital consent is handled across the country.

Who can apply? If you're a DPIIT-recognized startup, an MSME in IT/software, or a company/LLP registered in India with majority Indian ownership—you’re eligible.

What’s in it for you?

• ₹1 lakh for each of the top 6 architecture proposals

• ₹25 lakh and ₹15 lakh for the coding round winner and runner-up

Registrations are open till April 27, so if you’re building in this space, now’s the time to jump in.

What does this mean for India?

This isn’t just about compliance—it’s about building privacy infrastructure that’s open, scalable, and inclusive. By turning consent tools into public goods, the government is giving smaller players a real shot at keeping up with data privacy rules without burning cash.

Plus, it strengthens India’s push toward open digital ecosystems, much like what we’ve seen with UPI and Aadhaar. If done right, this could become the backbone for privacy-first innovation across sectors like fintech, healthtech, and edtech.

Read more: Economic Times

GENERAL OVERVIEW

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

📊 Global slowdown? - Fitch Ratings has lowered its global growth forecast, predicting the slowest economic expansion since 2009 (excluding the pandemic years). The agency now expects world growth to dip below 2% in 2025 due to rising global trade tensions. It also cut growth estimates for the U.S. (to 1.2% annually and 0.4% by Q4) and China (below 4%), while eurozone growth is expected to stay under 1%. These downgrades reflect growing economic uncertainty and slowing momentum in major economies.

✈️ SpiceJet is back - SpiceJet's revival is on track, with Chairman and MD Ajay Singh stating the airline plans to double its fleet within a year. Since October 2024, it has added 10 planes, including leased and reactivated grounded aircraft. The airline, which faced financial and legal challenges, is now seeing steady progress. Of its 62 aircraft, only 28 were operational as of January. Singh also noted that the airline is monitoring the impact of China’s possible ban on Boeing deliveries and may explore opportunities arising from it. The overall goal is to strengthen operations and continue the company’s turnaround.

HEADLINES

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

What’s happening in India (and around the world 🌍️)

• Why do UPI payments fail and what is NPCI doing to check these failures?

• ICICI Bank joins peers in cutting savings account interest rates.

• Yes Bank gets demand notice of Rs 244 Cr. from I-T dept.

• China halts critical exports as trade war intensifies.

• OpenAI is building a social network. Is Sam Altman ready to up his rivalry with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg?

• Trump threatens Harvard’s tax-exempt status after school’s rebuke.

CULTURE

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• Jewel Thief - The Heist Begins starring Saif Ali Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat amongst others to release on Netflix on April 25th - trailer out now.

• Another Simple Favor trailer: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick headline a gory murder mystery.

• IPL 2025: DC beat RR in the Super Over. Leaderboard here.