The Supreme Court on Friday stayed showcause notices issued by GST authorities worth over Rs 1 lakh crore to online gaming companies and casinos over alleged tax evasion.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said the matters required hearing and all proceedings against the gaming companies should remain stayed in the meantime.

Additional solicitor general N Venkataraman, representing the GST department, said some showcause notices would come to an end in February.

The matter was posted on March 18.

GST authorities in October 2023 issued showcause notices to online gaming companies for tax evasion.

The government amended the GST law, making it mandatory for overseas online gaming companies to register in India from October 1, 2023 onward.

In August, 2023, the GST council clarified 28% GST would be levied on the full value of bets placed on online gaming platforms.

Gaming companies moved various high courts against such GST demands, contesting the claims of the revenue authorities.

The top court last year allowed a petition of the Centre and transferred to itself pleas, challenging the imposition of 28% GST on e-gaming firms, from nine high courts for an authoritative pronouncement.

Many online gaming firms like Games 24×7, Head Digital Works, Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports had moved the top court challenging the GST imposition.

The top court had stayed the Karnataka High Court verdict quashing the GST intimation notice to the tune of Rs 21,000 crore issued to an online gaming firm.

Indian crypto investment platform Mudrex on Friday said it saw a 200% rise in its user base in 2024 as the company doubled down on building customer relationships and focusing on educating its users.

“A lot of these (education, partnerships) initiatives finally started to bear fruit over the last year. We put in a lot of effort in helping people understand what crypto is, demystifying crypto, giving them a sense of how they can participate in investing in crypto without risking a lot and figuring out what’s the right balance between risk and reward so that they can invest with confidence and invest with the right outcomes in mind, “ said Edul Patel, Co-founder and CEO at Mudrex in an interview with YourStory. “That, I think, was a journey that we spent time on over the last year and I think that  has helped us to our milestones today.”

Mudrex has also clocked in a 20X surge in monthly trading volume, touching $200 million. This refers to the total value of all trades executed on the platform.

The company aims to onboard 10 million users by the end of 2025 by entering new markets and catering to a wider range of audience.

Mudrex will continue to focus on spreading the word about crypto through its many offerings which includes ‘Learn with Mudrex’, a programme that offers insights into crypto trading through various courses. The company is also looking to introduce certified learning courses in the coming months.

The news comes amidst rising action in the global crypto landscape as Bitcoin prices touched all time highs after Donald Trump’s re-election. Trump has promised to roll out strategies that would benefit the ecosystem and has been a supporter of the digital asset. This along with rising institutional interest has resulted in an ongoing bull rally.

When asked if this influenced the rising number of customers on Mudrex’s platform, Patel said, “I think our growth has been consistent throughout the year. Having said that, whenever prices jump, of course, things move. For example, we saw a reasonably large spike in March, then we saw another reasonably large spike in July, August, and then of course, November, December. But I would say the spike is noticeable, but it’s not something that is an outlier.”

The company, which has received the Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration in the European Union, is now in the process of applying for MiCA licence which is a permit to operate crypto-related services in the European Union.

However, Patel added that India remains the company’s primary focus. “Our primary focus right now continues to stay in India. And we want to double down and first grow in India. And then as time progresses, take steps to move out. We will likely move out, if we do, we will likely move out to more developed economies.”

The company, which was founded in 2018, has announced a fee-free trading day on all coins on January 12 to mark seven years of operations.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) LVM3 rocket will launch in March a communication satellite of a US-based firm AST SpaceMobile that plans to provide space-based cellular broadband network services on smartphones.

“The commercial LVM3-M5 mission, set for March, will deploy BlueBird Block-2 satellites under a contract with the US-based AST SpaceMobile,” an official statement said.

The statement came after Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh reviewed the functioning of the Department of Space with senior officials, including the outgoing ISRO chairman S Somanath, his successor V Narayanan and Pawan Kumar Goenka, Chairman of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe).

Narayanan, who will succeed Somanath on January 14, during the meeting outlined a strategic roadmap for expanding the ISRO’s global footprint.

The joint NASA-ISRO satellite – NISAR – and a navigation satellite NVS-02 are set for launch in February on board two separate missions of the GSLV rocket, it added.

With ambitious projects on the horizon, including the first “uncrewed” orbital mission under “Gaganyaan”, India’s space exploration efforts are poised for groundbreaking achievements.

The ISRO has lined up significant missions showcasing technological prowess and international collaboration, which include the launch of Gaganyaan’s uncrewed orbital test mission.

“This critical endeavour will pave the way for India’s human spaceflight program, aiming to validate systems for crew safety and recovery,” the statement said.

In addition, two GSLV missions, a commercial launch of LVM3 and the much-anticipated ISRO-NASA collaboration on the NISAR satellite are slated for the coming months.

The GSLV-F15 mission in January will carry the NVS-02 navigation satellite to augment the NavIC constellation, bolstering India’s positioning and navigation capabilities with indigenously developed atomic clocks.

In February, the GSLV-F16 mission will launch NISAR, a sophisticated Earth observation satellite co-developed with NASA.

Equipped with advanced radar imaging technology, NISAR will provide critical data on agriculture, natural disasters and climate monitoring.

Singh lauded the ISRO’s strides in fostering innovation and advancing India’s position as a space-faring nation.

He emphasied the importance of public-private collaboration in fuelling the country’s space ambitions.