A day after Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal announced an unconventional opening for a Chief of Staff (CoS), the role has already received over 10,000 applications.

The surge in applications reflects a diverse mix of financial backgrounds, which Goyal categorised them as those who have all the money, those who have some of the money, those who claim they don’t have the money, and those who genuinely don’t have the money.

In a follow-up post on X, he stated that the application inbox will close at 2 PM IST on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Goyal shared a post on X that he is looking for a Chief of Staff, but with a unique catch: the candidate would receive no salary for the first year. Instead, the selected individual would be required to pay Rs 20 lakh as a donation to the company’s Feeding India initiative.

“Second year onwards, we will start paying you the usual salary (definitely more than Rs 50 lakh, but something we will only talk about at the start of the Year 2,” he added.

Goyal outlined his expectations for the role, stating, “Someone who is hungry, with common sense, empathy, and little experience (no conditioning/baggage), down to earth, with zero entitlement, willing to do the right thing even if it displeases others, has Grade A communication skills, and most importantly, a learning mindset,” he said.

He further said the job will offer 10 times more learning than a two-year degree from a top management school as the candidate will work with top CXO and stakeholders in consumer tech.

Billionaire Gautam Adani has been charged by US prosecutors over his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay $250 million bribe to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts.

US prosecutors charged Adani, 62, his nephew Sagar, and other defendants for paying over $250 million in bribes between 2020 and 2024 to Indian government officials to win solar energy contracts on terms that could potentially bring in more than $2 billion in profit.

This, they alleged, was concealed from the US banks and investors from whom the Adani group raised billions of dollars for the project.

US law allows pursuing foreign corruption allegations if they involve certain links to American investors or markets.

The Adani group did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

“The defendants orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars,” Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which brought the case, said in a statement.

Adani, Chairman of the ports-to-energy Adani Group, his nephew Sagar R Adani, who is an executive director at the conglomerate’s renewable energy arm Adani Green Energy Ltd, and its former CEO Vneet Jaain were charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and wire fraud conspiracy. The Adanis were also charged in a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil case.

The five-count indictment also accuses Sagar and Jaain of breaking federal laws.

The US authorities also charged three former employees of a large Canadian pension fund, CDPQ, in connection with the alleged scheme, saying they obstructed an investigation into the bribes by deleting emails and agreeing to provide false information to the US government.

CDPQ, which invests in infrastructure projects, is a shareholder in Adani companies.

The indictment may throw the conglomerate again in a turmoil just as it rebounded from US short-seller Hindenburg Reserach’s damning fraud allegations.

Hindenburg allegations of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud” in January 2023 had led to the conglomerate seeing $150 billion wipeout in market value at its lowest point. The group stocks have since recovered most of the losses.

Adani Group had denied all allegations made by Hindenburg.

A school dropout, Gautam Adani founded his namesake group in 1988 as a commodities trading firm, and built a business empire that now spans airports, shipping ports, power generation, energy transmission, and mining companies.

“Specifically, on or about March 17, 2023, FBI special agents approached Sagar Adani in the United States and pursuant to a judicially authorised search warrant, took custody of electronic devices in his possession,” the court document said.

Some conspirators, according to the documents, referred privately to Gautam Adani with the code names “Numero uno” and “the big man,” while his nephew allegedly used his cellphone to track specifics about the bribes.

“On or about March 18, 2023, the defendant Gautam S Adani emailed himself photographs of each page of the search warrant executed and grand jury subpoena served on the defendant Sagar R Adani,” it said.

Others who were criminally charged include Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, respectively former CEO and former chief strategy and commercial officer of Azure Power Global, which authorities said agreed to pay some of the bribes.

The complaint charges them with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and seeks permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and officer and director bars.

During the alleged scheme, Adani Green raised more than $175 million from US investors and Azure Power’s stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the SEC said in a statement.

Simultaneously, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed criminal charges against Adani and Sagar Adani, Cyril Cabanes, and others linked to Adani Green and Azure Power.

The federal indictment unsealed in a federal court in Brooklyn charges five others with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the bribery scheme, involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects.

Amidst extensive reach into India’s Tier II+ cities and high quality content, the country’s short-form video (SFV) market has seen a 3.6x increase in daily active users, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants.

In a report titled “India SFV in 2024: From ‘Likes’ to Monetising Millions”, the firm has identified four main user archetypes driving SFV engagement, namely value seekers, digital innovators, household stewards, and career mavens.

“India’s digital advertising market is set for exponential growth, projected to nearly double by FY 2029 to reach $16–17 billion, with video advertising leading the way as the fastest-growing ad format,” said Mukesh Kumar, Associate Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants.

More than 50% of SFV users are monetisable, the report noted. The discretionary spending of these users are often directed towards e-commerce, OTT, in-app purchases, and paid gaming services.

India’s SVF platforms are now generating $95-$100 million in FY24 with ad revenue currently representing 1%-2% of its digital ad spend.

The influencer marketing space is estimated to grow at 40-45%, and is likely to touch $3-$4 billion by FY29.

In addition to advertising, the student highlighted potential for new revenue streams like virtual tapping and video commerce.

Currently, over 63% of the SFV engagement is coming from Tier II+ regions, with platforms like Josh and Moj tailoring content for local languages and preferences. On an average, users now spend about 30 minutes per day on Indian SFVs platforms, said the report.

According to the report, the focus on quality is a key factor in user retentions, particularly in Tier II+ regions, and with growing maturity of users and user-influencer connections, video commerce is expected to touch $5 billion by FY29.