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Josh, Dailyhunt parent VerSe raises $805 mn, takes valuation to $5 bn

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Giving a much-needed boost to the Indian startup growth story, leading local language technology platform VerSe Innovation on Wednesday announced that it has raised $805 million from global investors, taking its valuation to $5 billion.

VerSe Innovation, that owns popular short-video platform Josh and local language content platform Dailyhunt, has raised $1.5 billion in the past year.

The investment, said the company, will be focused on strengthening its leadership position as the largest, fastest growing local language AI driven content platform in the country.

“We have raised this significant funding at a time when both private and public markets are facing a slowdown and founders are finding it difficult to raise capital. It is a single-largest investment in any of the startups in India, further validating our work to date and the robust business model,” Umang Bedi, Co-founder, VerSe Innovation, told IANS.

VerSe Innovation has proved its worth across key metrics like user growth, engagement, monetisation and scale, and “we are helping millions of creators monetise their content in vernacular languages”, Bedi added.

The $805 million funding round was led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), along with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), Luxor Capital, Sumeru Ventures and others.

Existing investors Sofina Group, Baillie Gifford and others also participated.

VerSe now plans on both deepening and broadening its AI/ML and data science capabilities to further cement its leadership position across all user, engagement and retention metrics, drive deeper monetisation including influencers, e-commerce and live streaming and forays into Web 3.0 experiences.

It currently has a local language creator base of over 50 million creators as well as its local language content ecosystem which experiences over 80 billion video plays per month.

“India’s digital content is experiencing phenomenal growth, and VerSe Innovation is well positioned to be one of the leaders in the fast-growing short video and local language content space,” said Frank Su, Managing Director, Head of Private Equity Asia, CPP Investments.

Josh currently has over 150 million MAUs (monthly active users) while Dailyhunt serves over 350 million users every month, offering content in 15 languages from a licensed creator ecosystem of over 100,000 content partners and individual content creators.

Another app ‘PublicVibe’ from the company serves over 5 million monthly active users (MAUs) and 1 million daily active users (DAUs) and has over 6 million downloads on the Play Store.

“With a strategic focus on video content and building for India, we have seen explosive growth emerging from the next billion users coming out of regional India,” said Virendra Gupta, Founder, VerSe.

“It is a big day, not only for us but also for the Indian startup ecosystem, as we create world-class products at the home turf,” Gupta told IANS.

Crime

CBI court sentences former Punjab cops in 2007 sex scandal

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Chandigarh, April 7: A CBI court in Mohali on Monday sentenced Punjab’s former Senior Superintendent of Police Devinder Singh Garcha and former Superintendent of Police, Headquarters, Paramdip Singh Sandhu to five years of rigorous imprisonment each, in connection with the 2007 sex scandal in Moga.

Besides the imprisonment under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the court imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh each.

Garcha and Sandhu were arrested and charged with blackmailing influential persons to extort money.

Former Inspector Amarjit Singh was sentenced to six-and-a-half years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 2.5 lakh, while former Sub-Inspector Raman Kumar was sentenced to eight years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 3 lakh.

Both were found guilty of implicating prominent businessmen in a false gangrape case to extort money from them.

CBI Special Judge Rakesh Gupta pronounced the verdict after convicting Garcha, Sandhu, Raman Kumar, and Amarjit Singh under Sections 13(1) (D) and 13 (2) of the PC Act on March 29.

Besides corruption, Raman Kumar was also convicted of extortion, while Amarjit Singh was convicted of attempting extortion.

The CBI court acquitted Barjinder Singh, alias Makhan, the son of former Punjab minister Tota Singh, and Sukhraj Singh of all the charges.

The CBI took over the probe on the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s direction on December 11, 2007. A day later, the central probe agency registered a fresh FIR in the case.

The sex scandal involved high-profile politicians and senior police officials extorting rich people by trapping them in a flesh trade case.

As per the investigation, the accused public servants abused their positions and entered into a criminal conspiracy to obtain undue pecuniary gain by corrupt and illegal means.

According to the charge sheet, two women, including Manjit Kaur, in connivance with the police officers and Barjinder Singh, extorted money from influential people by threatening to frame them in sexual abuse cases if they refused to pay up.

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National

J&K L-G gives assent to three bills passed by Assembly

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Jammu, April 7: The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly was informed on Monday that Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha has given assent to three bills passed by the House earlier.

Manoj Kumar Pandit, secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, informed the House that three Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly were assented to by the Lt Governor on March 25.

The Secretary read out in the House: “Three Bills, passed by the Legislative Assembly, have been assented to by the Lieutenant Governor on the 25th of March, 2025. The Bills include The Jammu and Kashmir Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025 (L.A. Bill No. 1 of 2025), The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2025 (L.A. Bill No. 2 of 2025) and The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2025 (L.A. Bill No. 3 of 2025).”

The House resumed question hour after ruckus marred the proceedings in the morning, forcing Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather to adjourn the House for 15 minutes.

National Conference MLAs Nazir Gurezi and Tanvir Sadiq demanded that the question hour be deferred to allow a discussion on the Waqf Amendment Act.

The demand was supported by Congress, PDP and some other members, while the BJP opposed the move.

The Speaker ruled that since the matter is sub judice, he cannot allow a debate on the subject.

Former Chief Minister and PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti termed the rejection of the adjournment motion on the Waqf Amendment Act “profoundly disappointing” and accused the NC government of yielding to the BJP’s “anti-Muslim” agenda.

“It’s profoundly disappointing that the speaker J&K Assembly has rejected the motion on the Waqf Bill. Despite securing a strong mandate, the government appears to have completely yielded to the BJP’s anti-Muslim agenda, cynically attempting to appease both sides,” Mehbooba Mufti wrote in her post on X.

Senior religious and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also criticised the Speaker’s decision. The Mirwaiz said on X: “It is ridiculous and condemnable that Tamil Nadu which only has 6% Muslim population, passes a strong anti Wakf resolution in it’s assembly, while the Muslim majority J&K assembly speaker is struggling and refusing, by hiding behind technicalities, to discuss this deeply concerting issue for the Muslims of the state. The speaker would know that the strong peoples mandate given to his party was precisely for the reason that the party had promised to safeguard the interests of the people being trampled upon since August 2019 and take a stand for them in critical matters. Why is he capitulating so meekly?”

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Business

Google to empower 20 AI-powered Indian startups

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New Delhi, April 7: Tech giant Google on Monday announced that it is all set to empower 20 Indian startups through the second edition of its ‘Google for Startups Accelerator: Apps’ programme.

The initiative, supported by Google Play, is designed to help app-based startups in India make the most of artificial intelligence (AI) and scale their products effectively.

The programme is being run in collaboration with the MeitY Startup Hub, whose support, Google said, has played a key role in extending the reach and impact of the initiative.

In a statement, Google said India’s startup and developer ecosystem is a ‘hotbed of innovation’ and the company is proud to support its growth.

With the accelerator, the US-based tech major aims to equip emerging app startups with cutting-edge AI tools, expert guidance, and mentorship from its top engineers and researchers.

The programme will run for three months and is open to Indian startups that are already using AI or are looking to integrate AI into their apps.

“To be eligible, startups must have a published app on the Play Store, be incorporated in India, and be funded between Seed and Series-A stage,” said Paul Ravindranath, Programme Manager, Google for Startups Accelerator India.

The second cohort will focus heavily on AI, recognising its growing importance in the future of app development.

Through personalised mentorship and collaboration with Google experts, these startups will receive support to improve their AI capabilities, enhance user experience, strengthen security, and accelerate user growth.

Google highlighted that the first cohort of 20 startups saw major progress in technology, design, and engagement, thanks to hands-on mentorship and access to Google’s resources.

The upcoming cohort will also benefit from similar support, including custom reports to help them perform better on Google Play.

Applications are open until May 15 and the programme will begin in July with a week-long bootcamp. During the application period, interested startups can also attend weekly virtual open forums every Thursday to learn more and ask questions, according to the company.

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