Sahjik Finserv and Realty Blogs

  Did Qatar waste money on the World Cup? The Story $200 billion. That’s the kind of money Qatar is estimated to have spent in the run-up to the World Cup. They built massive expressways, subsea tunnels, state-of-the-art hospitals, swanky hotels, and upgraded their airports. The whole shebang! For context, Russia spent just $16 billion in 2018. Brazil — about $20 billion in 2014. And South Africa sunk $7 billion in 2010 to get everything in order. So the first question is — why on earth did Qatar spend over ten times the money other countries seem to have spent? Well, it’s complicated. Because you see, even though there’s a lot of money in the World Cup, it doesn’t go to Qatar. For instance, TV broadcasting rights were estimated at $2.64 billion. But that money didn’t go to Qatar. It went to FIFA. Okay, what about ticket sales? Well, that’s run by a company that’s 100% owned by FIFA, so Qatar doesn’t see a penny here also. Then there are the operational costs associated with runnin...

  Why has PhonePe returned home? The Story Indian startups like Singapore. It’s easier to raise funding when you’re headquartered there. Simply because there are a lot of VCs who’ve set up base in the island nation. Singapore has a lower corporate tax of 17% compared to over 25% in India. So that’s always appealing. And most importantly, investors in companies don’t have to pay a tax on capital gains when they sell shares. That’s an added bonus. Also, it’s just easier to do business in Singapore.  In 2020 , the World Bank ranked India 63rd in terms of ease of doing business. But Singapore snagged the 2nd spot. So it’s no wonder that in the past two decades,  over 8,000 Indian companies  have made Singapore their official home. But, things could be changing… PhonePe, the Bengaluru-incubated fintech startup (now owned by Walmart), is saying goodbye to Singapore. It has come back home. In fact, it’s the first big startup to return to its home base. And guess who’s lovin...