Angel Tax still haunts startups, self-publishing platform Pratilipi raises $4.3M

> Still in trouble, say startups: 

Startup founders who have received an ‘Angel Tax’ notice, and have filed an appeal, tell Radhika P Nair they are still in trouble over the tax when asked about reports saying the Government has asked the Tax Department to not pursue cases against startups. Following reports, YourStory spoke to multiple entrepreneurs who said that when they reached out to tax assessment officers in their circles, "They all say they have not got any communication from the Government," says a founder.

> Funding for self-publishing platform: 

Nasadiya Technologies’ self-publishing platform Pratilipi announced it had raised $4.3 million in Series A round of funding led by Omidyar Network with participation from existing investors, Nexus Venture Partners, Atul Goel, Contrarian Capital and Times Internet Limited, and new investors Shunwei Capital and WEH Ventures, reports Harshit Mallya. The company had previously raised $1 million in its seed round in February 2016 led by Nexus Venture Partners.

> Centre's NE push: 

The Centre is looking to get down to business with its plans to set up five lakh WiFi hotspots in rural areas, helping villagers gain access to broadband internet. And this push will start with the Northeast, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Alphons Kannanthanam, told Darlington Hector.

> Sentiment index for SMBs: 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has launched CriSidEx, a sentiment index for SMBs developed in association with CRISIL and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). CriSidEx will be a composite index based on eight parameters. It will measure business sentiment on a scale of zero (extremely negative) to 200 (extremely positive), writes Vishal Krishna.

> Payments push: 

Online payment service provider, PayU, said it will launch an innovative capability via Microsoft Excel for its merchants, reports Tarush Bhalla. According to a company statement, the plug-in will allow merchants to send payment collection requests to their customers directly using SMS, e-mail or both, from Microsoft Excel.

> Smartphone tales:  

After trailing Samsung in the first three quarters of 2017, Apple surpassed the Korean manufacturer in the December quarter to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor, finds Sohini Mitter. While global smartphone shipments declined on year in the December quarter, Apple accounted for 19.2 percent of overall quarterly shipments. iPhones accounted for 77.3 million of the 403.5 million smartphones shipped, while Samsung shipped 74.1 million units.