After Freshworks, we have more listing news. This time, on the Indian exchanges. Hospitality unicorn Oyo Hotels & Homes has appointed bankers eyeing a domestic public listing—the firm is looking to raise $1.2 billion. Oyo, obviously, wants to capitalise around the positive IPO wave for new age companies but experts advise caution. What’s for Oyo is its brand, much like Zomato. What’s against it? Well, the company continues to be plagued by hotel owners complaining about lost deposits. That might not ring well with public market investors.

Scroll down for our top stories of the day. The stock markets are on fire, Zee and Sony have a plan, Google has an issue with the Competition Commission, and Bollywood got to reimagine its scripts. Also, don’t miss a piece on the campaign to preserve vanishing food.

BSE Sensex 59,885.36 (+1.63%) NIFTY 17,822.95 (+1.57%)

Dollar/Rupee ₹73.64 (-0.31%) Gold ₹46448 (-0.48%)

Crude oil ₹5310 (-0.26%) Bitcoin ₹34,15,679.88 (+2.94%)

*As of 6 PM 23 September; MCX, CoinDCX

Investors shrug off Fed taper signals, Sensex nears 60,000

India’s benchmark Sensex came within sniffing distance of the 60,000 milestone on Thursday as stocks rallied to fresh highs after concerns about payment defaults by China’s Evergrande eased. Investors reacted calmly to the US Federal Reserve’s commentary that it will start reversing its stimulus programme in November, throwing none of the tantrums that were visible when the Fed decided to taper its bond-buying programme in 2013. Nasrin Sultana reports. Read more.

Zee-Sony will eye aggressive bid for IPL tournament rights

While the proposed merger of Zee and Sony still need to gain approvals from courts, shareholders and competition regulators, the business plan that got the thumbs up from the boards of Sony and Zee envisages the combined entity making an aggressive bid for the rights of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament. IPL auctions are coming up in December. The cash that will be available to what will be a zero-debt business, including the $1.5 billion that Sony will be investing, will be leveraged so that the combined unit’s bid will be competitive. Lata Jha and Anirudh Lashkar report. Read more.

Google files writ in Delhi HC against competition panel

The Indian unit of Google on Thursday filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court against the Competition Commission of India (CCI) after the contents of an adverse investigation report by the country’s competition regulator found their way to the media. The report by CCI’s director-general, part of a probe ordered by the CCI in a 2019 case against Google, was reported by multiple publications last week. Prasid Banerjee reports. Read more.

Why B-town is back at the drawing board (premium)

Indian movie viewers have discovered a plethora of new content via over-the-top (OTT) platforms during the interminable months when cinema theatres were shut. The taste, preferences, and viewing patterns may have changed massively. As a result of this fog of uncertainty, many Bollywood producers are still unsure about the wisdom of relying on star power and big budgets. They are reviewing costs, putting high-risk, big-budget projects on the back burner. Filmmakers are also reviewing scripts to ensure there’s enough appeal to bring audiences back to the theatres, writes Lata Jha. Read more.

There’s déjà vu in Goa over an open season for tourism

A distinct pall of dread gripped Goa this week, after its state government abruptly threw open casinos, spas and massage parlours that had been closed since April. It may be politically convenient to re-open Goa for tourist gaiety and talk up the Goan mood ahead of polls but laxity on covid protocols has revived memories of the second wave’s horrors—India’s smallest state went rapidly downhill from being hailed the country’s first covid-free “green zone” to a full-blown pandemic emergency, with some of the highest positivity numbers, writes Vivek Menezes. Read more.

A campaign to preserve Indian foods in the danger of vanishing

Have you heard of Kumatiya? Unlikely. It is a shiny flat seed of the small, thorny deciduous tree Acacia Senegal and is used in Rajasthani panchkuta, a mixed vegetable preparation. Many such ingredients and food are vanishing fast with commercial agriculture and monoculture gaining ground. Various movements around the world are now making efforts to reverse this. Kumatiya and seeraga samba rice from Tamil Nadu will be in the spotlight during one such upcoming campaign in October, writes Prachi Joshi. Read more.

Global business news from WSJ

India’s much-improved covid-19 vaccination effort rests on a boost in the supply of jabs. That wouldn’t be enough—India needs the right infrastructure, too. That’s improving. India, on an average, had 65,780 functional vaccination centres this past week, almost double the figure two months ago, data analysed by Rashmi Kundu shows. Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Telangana, Gujarat and Haryana saw the biggest ramp-up.

In Plain Sight

A police procedural with a twist, In Plain Sight is set in India’s business capital, Mumbai, also famous as the hotbed of the underworld, where author Mohamed Thaver works as a crime reporter. Apart from his insider’s knowledge of the beat, his insights into the working methods of the police play a role in shaping the plot—especially those cruxes that make or break a crime thriller. Read more.

The earliest tattoo

Tattoos on the Predynastic female mummy from Gebelein. (British Museum)

The word ‘tattoo’ has more than one origin and multiple usages—it has a military connotation, for instance. Most of us know it as a permanent mark on the skin. In this context, tattoo comes from the Tahitian word tatau, meaning to hit or strike. The word first appeared in English around 1769, following British explorer Captain James Cook’s expedition. However, the practice of making permanent, figurative designs in the skin dates back thousands of years. One of the earliest has been traced to two mummies from Egypt, between 3351 to 3017 BC. The designs discovered were that of a wild bull, a sheep and S-shaped motifs on the upper-arms of the mummies.

Contributed by @sidart_misra

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Written and edited by Goutam Das. Produced by Nirmalya Dutta. Send in your feedback to goutam.das@htlive.com or nirmalya.dutta@htdigital.in.