From deals and innovations to mass layoffs, 2022 was marked by contrasts

In a year marked by contrasts, the world saw huge deals and innovations; it also saw mass layoffs in the tech and start-up space, and administrative failures that impacted firms.

If one man hogged the headlines in 2022, it was Elon Musk. His Twitter saga and accompanying flip-flops had everyone’s attention. The controversies, agreements, disagreements, and his eventual takeover of the microblogging site triggered one of the worst layoffs of recent times. Firms like Meta and Amazon followed suit, with the scale of firings surpassing the layoffs during the 2008 global slowdown. The year also saw Musk become the world’s richest person, though he’s lost that position in the past few weeks.

In the end, it was over within seconds. Where once stood the Noida twin towers — the centrepiece of a nine-year-long legal battle — only rubble remained. The towers — Ceyane (29 floors) and Apex (32 floors) — were found to be in violation of multiple construction regulations. On August 28, the buildings, which were taller than the Qutub Minar, were demolished through a ‘controlled implosion’ via strategically placed explosives.

In another step towards revolutionising the payments system, the Reserve Bank of India released the Central Bank Digital Currency, an electronic version of cash, as a pilot on December 1. To be issued in the same denominations as paper currency, the e-rupee can be used for retail transactions. Dubbed as an ‘official cryptocurrency’ by many, the first phase covers four cities and four banks — SBI, YES Bank, ICICI Bank and IDFC First Bank.

FOR AIR INDIA, the year dawned with Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 27 before the official handover of the airline. And after nearly seven decades, Air India was back with the Tata group, which got down to carving out an ambitious flight path for it. Vistara’s merger with Air India was announced. This would make Air India the second largest player in the domestic market . AirAsia India’s stake from its Malaysian parent was bought. Air India, meanwhile, posted the best on-time performance among all airlines in October after years. Aiming to grow its fleet , it’s now close to  placing orders for 500 jetliners. But there have been controversies, too, with the pilots’ associations writing to the top brass about their punishing schedules and work fatigue.

On October 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi drove a car in Sweden while in Delhi, courtesy 5G. He also tried other 5G tech while inaugurating the India Mobile Congress, which ushered in the 5G era — with peak internet speeds of 10 Gbps compared to 4G’s 100 Mbps. To start with, Reliance Jio and Airtel began providing the services in over a dozen Indian cities.

FOR FLYERS, THIS  was a turbulent year, with many airlines facing technical snags — from bird hits to smoke inside the plane. One airline, SpiceJet, also invited scrutiny by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which directed it to operate only 50 per cent of flights pending a safety audit.

“As The son grows older, he acquires the father’s business; that’s all that is happening,” said HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh on April 4 as the merger of housing financier HDFC Ltd and lender HDFC Bank was announced in a $40-billion deal. The merger — the biggest in corporate India — is expected to be completed by the second or third quarter of FY24, subject to regulatory approvals.

Dubbed India’s ‘Aramco moment,’ the LIC IPO came with big expectations. Pegged at nearly $2.7 billion, it was India’s biggest public issue. The price band for the initial share sale was set at Rs 902-949. After listing on the Indian bourses on May 17, its share was trading around Rs 661 on December 23

SHE WAS A member of the team that helped build NSE. But this year Chitra Ramkrishna, former CEO of NSE, was in the news for her alleged involvement in the NSE co-location scam. She allegedly took decisions after discussing official information with “a formless yogi”, inviting penalties from the Sebi, a CBI arrest and an Enforcement Directorate investigation.

Last year, Ashneer Grover was in the public eye, courtesy Shark Tank India. This year, he continued to be in the news, first for an abusive video, and then with BharatPe accusing his family of siphoning off company funds, charges he denies. He was ousted from the fintech firm after a public spat. The unicorn also filed an arbitration suit to claw back Grover’s restricted shareholding and founder title.

The world’s largest coffee chain, Starbucks, named Indian-origin Laxman Narasimhan as its next CEO. He will take charge of the firm, which has nearly 35,000 stores and 383,000 employees, in April 2023. This comes at a time when Starbucks has seen unionisation efforts and faces inflation concerns. Naramsimhan was earlier CEO of Reckitt Benckiser and has been in leadership roles at PepsiCo.

The year saw Gautam Adani on a roll. He overtook Mukesh Ambani to become the wealthiest Indian in February, and then went on to become the world’s third richest person — the first Asian to hit that spot. Buying Holcim’s cement assets — ACC and Ambuja Cements — for $10.5 billion, he debuted in the cement space as the second biggest player by capacity. He also bought 49 per cent stake in Quintillion Media’s BQ Prime, and is on course to own media company NDTV. To cap the year, he also bagged the tender to give Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, a Rs 5K-crore makeover