Elon Musk has challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a public debate about the percentage of bots on Twitter amid the ongoing legal battle over $44-billion buyout deal. "Let him prove...that Twitter has <5% fake or spam daily users," Musk tweeted. He also started a poll asking users whether less than 5% of Twitter's daily users are fake or spam.

Apple is likely to launch iPhone 14 in September this year and the phone will reportedly be manufactured in India simultaneously with China. Apple started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 with iPhone SE and currently manufactures iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13 in the country. Apple's production in India is reportedly a quarter less than China's.

Tom Alberg, the Founder of Seattle-based venture capital company Madrona Venture Group, has passed away at the age of 82 after suffering a stroke last month. Alberg was an early Amazon investor and served as its board member for 23 years. Condoling his death, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos tweeted, "Tom was a visionary and also just a wonderful, good man."

Billionaire Jack Ma-founded tech conglomerate Alibaba has laid off over 9,000 employees in three months to cut expenses amid slowing sales, South China Morning Post reported. The company's employee headcount fell from 2,54,941 in March to 2,45,700 at the end of June, its quarterly results showed. This marks Alibaba's first drop in payroll size since March 2016, the publication said.

Billionaire Robert Brockman, who was charged in the largest-ever tax evasion case against an individual in the US, has passed away aged 81. Brockman was a software entrepreneur and was suffering from dementia. In 2020, the US government had charged Brockman with 39 counts of tax evasion, wire fraud, and money laundering for concealing about $2 billion in income.

Tata Motors on Sunday announced that it has signed an agreement to buy Ford Motor's manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat for ₹726 crore. The agreement between the two companies includes land, assets and transfer of all eligible employees. The development comes nearly a year after Ford Motor said it will cease local manufacturing in India due to operating losses.

SoftBank Group has reported a record loss for the second straight quarter amid a selloff in global tech stocks. The Japanese conglomerate's net loss for the quarter ended June stood at 3.16 trillion yen ($23.4 billion). Meanwhile, its Vision Fund unit posted a quarterly loss of 2.33 trillion yen ($17.23 billion). SoftBank has backed several Indian startups, like Paytm, PolicyBazaar.

Sri Lanka has given approval for Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) to open 50 new fuel stations to help reduce severe fuel shortages in Sri Lanka. LIOC already has 216 fuel stations in Sri Lanka and will invest about ₹200 crore on the expansion. We're more than willing to support and work with Sri Lanka, said LIOC MD Manoj Gupta.

A German hotel group, Ruby Hotels, is offering new recruits up to €500 (around ₹40,000) to get a new tattoo, piercing or haircut once they complete six months of employment. While the group launched the scheme in June, Ruby Hotels has seen a 25% jump in its job applications. The hotel group has 16 properties across Europe.

The Indian government is reportedly considering banning Chinese smartphone makers from selling devices cheaper than ₹12,000. The move is reportedly aimed at giving a boost to homegrown brands. As per a report, smartphones under ₹12,000 contributed to a third of India's sales volume for this financial year's second quarter, with Chinese firms accounting for around 80% of those shipments.

Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani, in a letter to shareholders, wrote, "The process of globalisation, which drove the global economic growth over the last four decades, appears to have hit a wall." He said that geopolitical tensions have exposed fault lines in global economy. "The cause of economic inter-dependence that globalisation promoted...has taken a back seat," Ambani added.

IDFC First Bank, Yes Bank and state-owned Indian Bank have reportedly put loans issued to SpiceJet in the high-risk category. As per a report, the lenders are concerned about the airline's cash flows as it is behind on payments to some aircraft lessors. Meanwhile, SpiceJet denied the report and said, "Loans are being serviced as per the agreed terms."

Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani drew no salary for the second year in a row in 2021-22. The 65-year-old had voluntarily given up remuneration during the last fiscal in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ambani is the second richest person in Asia with a $90.5 billion fortune, per Bloomberg. Previously, his salary had been capped at ₹15 crore since 2008-09.

Berkshire Hathaway, led by the world's eighth richest person Warren Buffett, reported a $43.8 billion loss in its second-quarter earnings. The company attributed the loss to disruptions caused by COVID-19 and geopolitical conflicts including Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Berkshire also repurchased $1 billion of its own stock in the quarter and has repurchased $4.2 billion this year.

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said what India has done with digital identity and payment systems is a clear opportunity for Singapore. "We're reviewing ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement to facilitate trade, to facilitate customs clearance and to reduce friction for goods' movement between Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. We have got quite a lot of work there," he added.

Singapore-based Hodlnaut has halted withdrawals, token swaps and deposits due to recent market conditions, it said on Monday. Hodlnaut has also informed the Monetary Authority of Singapore of its intention to withdraw its application for a license to provide digital token payment services. The firm said it made the move "to [also] focus on stabilising [Hodlnaut's] liquidity and preserving assets".

One97 Communications Ltd, Paytm's parent company, saw its shares surge nearly 6% on Monday. The development comes after it reported a net loss of ₹644.4 crore in the quarter that ended in June, as compared to net loss of ₹761.4 crore recorded in previous three months. Rise in subscription revenue, growth in bill payments helped narrow the loss, Paytm said.

The US dollar recorded its biggest daily percentage gain since mid-June against the yen on Friday and rallied across the board. The US dollar was up 1.3% against the yen for the week. The dollar index extended gains following a US payrolls report that showed non-farm payrolls surged by 5,28,000 jobs in July, which is the largest gain since February.

Nearly 1,400 flights in the US were cancelled and 6,300 flights were delayed on Friday after thunderstorms hit the East Coast, according to tracking service FlightAware. Most cancellations were recorded at the three major airports in the New York City area and Reagan National Airport outside Washington, DC. About 250 flights each were cancelled by American Airlines and Republic Airways.

SEBI has given its nod to 28 companies to raise ₹45,000 crore in funds through IPOs in April-July 2022. So far in FY23, 11 companies have launched their IPOs to raise ₹33,254 crore. Of this, the largest share (₹20,557 crore) was raised by Life Insurance Corporation's IPO. A total of 52 companies launched IPOs worth ₹1.11 lakh crore in FY22.

Among the top 10 most valued firms, eight companies together added ₹98,234.82 crore in market valuation last week. While the market valuation of Infosys jumped by ₹28,170.02 crore to reach ₹6,80,182.93 crore, TCS' valuation jumped by ₹23,582.58 crore to ₹12,31,362.26 crore. M-cap of LIC also surged by ₹6,008.75 crore to ₹4,34,748.72 crore.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the firm is planning to cut headcount at its Vision Fund investing arm after the conglomerate reported a record quarterly net loss. Vision Fund reported a $23.1 billion loss in the April-June quarter. It had approved just $600 million in new investments in the first quarter against $20.6 billion in the same quarter last year.

US employers hired more workers than expected in July with non-farm payrolls adding 5,28,000 jobs, the US Labor Department's report showed. This led the unemployment rate to decline to a pre-pandemic low of 3.5% from 3.6% in June. All the 2.20 crore jobs lost in March and April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US have reportedly been recovered.

India's foreign exchange reserves rose by nearly $2.4 billion to $573.9 billion during the week ending July 29, according to the Reserve Bank of India's weekly supplementary statistical data. The rise was led by positive inflows by foreign investors in the Indian equity market. It had been witnessing a fall for four consecutive weeks prior to that.