Payment aggregator CCAvenue has seen an 18% jump in new merchant sign-ups in the October-December period, while merchant addition tripled in six months for Pine Labs’ Plural. The increase in the share is pursuant to Razorpay, Cashfree Payments, PayU and Paytm pausing new sign-ups following an order from the Reserve Bank of India which has also rejected payment aggregator licence applications of some of these players. ■ Govt hopeful of work starting on at least one semicon unit by year-end ■ Tata-Uber deal biggest for any ride-hailing platform: Uber India president ■ Here’s what Microsoft Bing looks like Payment aggregators such as CCAvenue and Pine Labs' Plural after top payment gateways, including Razorpay, Cashfree Payments, PayU and Paytm paused new sign-ups following the Reserve Bank of India order and rejection of payment aggregator (PA) licence applications by the regulator. Sources told us that CCAvenue has seen an 18% jump in new online merchant sign-ups on its platform in the October-December quarter. Pine Labs, which entered the payment gateway space in October 2020 with Plural, has been a strong beneficiary from the pause by rivals, chief executive Amrish Rau told us. Also read | According to sources, existing merchants are also migrating to newer payment gateways from Paytm, which in its recent earnings call said that it “purged hundreds of various kinds of merchants if they were not profitable”, as rates offered to them (merchants) over time did not change in line with rate changes of issuer banks. “In the short term, there is little material impact, as new merchants don’t add immediate value. However in the mid to long term, some of these startups signing up PG partners also tend to hyper-grow which will lead to opportunity cost loss for these gateways,” an industry executive told us. According to another industry executive, RBI’s move has made it clear to new-age brands that they cannot just rely on the top five payment gateways in the country. “RBI ban on new onboarding will cost perception, trust, and valuation for some of these companies,” an executive working with D2C brands said. Following allegations of financial irregularities and corporate governance lapses at Targetone Innovations Private Limited, . Last week, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) issued a notice to the startup over an insolvency plea filed against the company. Last month, GoMechanic's cofounder and confirmed that the company will fire roughly 70% of its employees. In a LinkedIn post, Bhasin said the founders got “carried away”. “Our passion to survive the intrinsic challenges of this sector, and manage capital, took the better of us and we made errors in judgment as we followed growth at all costs, including regarding financial reporting, which we deeply regret,” he wrote. Also read | “After last month’s disclosure, the RoC started studying their filings. There are certain financial irregularities and corporate governance issues that require thorough investigation… hence a proposal has been sent to the ministry (MCA- Ministry of Corporate Affairs) to conduct an investigation,” a person privy to the development told us. “Once the order comes through, the RoC can summon the company’s board and even inspect the premises while conducting the inquiry into the affairs of the company. ” We had earlier reported , but the deal was called off due to accounting irregularities. Due diligence conducted by EY for prospective GoMechanic investors alleged that the firm had inflated its revenue. The Centre is hopeful that at least one among the “few” semiconductor manufacturing projects that it expects to approve by year-end will , a top official told us. “We kept asking the group of experts about how the proposals can be improved. We had set ourselves a timeline of 14 to 16 months. There will be announcements on the final names soon,” said the official. “They had a look at all the proposals and are satisfied with the details being provided by the applicants,” the official added. So far, the government has received three proposals for chip manufacturing, including from the International Semiconductor Consortium (ISMC), led by Abu-Dhabi-based Next Orbit Ventures. The other two applicants are Singapore-based IGSS Ventures and the Vedanta-Foxconn combine. Rajesh Exports and Vedanta-Foxconn are proposing to set up display fabs. Also read | Ride-hailing company Uber to induct 25,000 electric vehicles (EVs) into its fleet. Uber will deploy Tata Motors' Xpres-T EVs by partnering with fleet operators in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad. Tata Motors will begin the EV deliveries to Uber fleet partners in a phased manner, starting this month. “This is the largest four-wheeler EV memorandum of understanding and this will likely catalyse further acceleration of the EV ecosystem,” Prabhjeet Singh, president of Uber India and South Asia, told ET. Bike taxi operators such as Ola, Uber, and Rapido as it violates motor vehicle laws. These companies will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh, as the use of bikes for commercial purposes violated the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the transport department said in a public notice. The insurance industry is especially vulnerable to cyberattacks mainly because of the sensitive information it stores, suggested a recent report by Indusface, an application security SaaS company. On average, the insurance sector faced 4,30,000 attacks per application in January 2023 alone. “The rise of bot attacks on the insurance industry is concerning as these tend to be more sophisticated and surgical. The potential risks that Indian insurers face range from unauthorised access to financial data and other sensitive information, or even the internal systems of the insurance company itself,” said Ashish Tandon, founder, and CEO, Indusface. We tested the “new” Bing, which comes integrated with ChatGPT. After using it for a few days, this is . We asked ChatGPT if it can end up replacing Google, and the answer was “no”. On being asked to write a 300-word review of a newly launched phone, there were quite a few glaring errors. If you ask it to write a movie script about, say, two friends moving into a new city, the result is rather mediocre. Also read | This is what it said when we asked if Elon Musk was a genius. Elon Musk’s IQ is reported to be 155, which is very high compared to the average of 100. He has also achieved remarkable success in various fields such as engineering, entrepreneurship, and invention. Some people consider him to be a genius, while others question his decisions or ethics. Meta Inc-owned Facebook and Instagram , as it follows in the footsteps of popular microblogging site Twitter. Mintoak, a Software-as-a-Service platform focused on merchant services, with participation from British International Investment, and existing investors HDFC Bank and Pravega Ventures. ■ Disappearance of dealmaker Bao Fan casts chill across China’s tech sector ( ) ■ AI is starting to pick who gets laid off ( ) ■ How to Make Data Privacy Real ( ).