Year-Ender 2022: From RBI repo rate to tech lay offs; Big news that dominated the Biz world in 2022 - In PICS

The spillover effect of Covid-19 battered economy could be seen this year as well. High Inflation and Unemployment remained the key concern for the government and RBI entire year. The Central bank used monetary tools such as Repo rate to keep the inflation under control. It had raised repo rate five times this year to make it 225 basis points higher than the start of the year. In December MPC meeting, RBI hiked repo rate by 35 basis points.

The Reserve Bank of India today (Thursday, December 01) launched the first pilot for retail digital Rupee (e₹-R). The pilot would cover select locations in closed user group (CUG) comprising participating customers and merchants. The e ₹-R is a virtual token that can be used as a legal tender, according to the RBI.  It would be issued in the same denominations that paper currency and coins are currently issued. It would be distributed through intermediaries, i.e., banks. 

In a rollercoaster saga unfolded throughout the year 2022, tech billionaire finally bought microblogging platform Twitter at a whopping cost of $44 billion in October end. The deal remained clouded in uncertainty over Elon Musk’s whims on whether to buy it or not. However, after some coercion and legal battle, he had got ready to buy it.

The entire year passed with a grim reminder of imminent recession round the corner. The recovering economies around the globe faced multi-pronged challenges including Russia-Ukraine conflict, Supply-Chain constraint, more. Hence, many big tech companies laid off some portion of their workforce in order to cut cost and make themselves prepared for recession. Facebook, Meta, BYJU’s, Disney, and Salesforce were some of them which cut 1% to 13% of their staff this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 1, inaugurated the sixth edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC). PM Modi also launched 5G services in India on that day. Soon many telecom companies including Airtel and JIO have brought their 5G plans. At the end of year, Airtel 5G service is available in over 50 cities across the country.

Artifical Intelligence-based new prototype chatbot ‘ChatGPT’ made the sensation this year in the world for its advanced capability of understanding natural language and responding in a natural language. The prototype based chatbox was developed by Artificial research company OpenAI.  

Crypto exchange FTX filed for US bankruptcy proceedings on November 11 and Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO, after a rapid liquidity crisis at the cryptocurrency group that has prompted intervention from regulators around the world. FTX`s collapse also led to the spectacular fall in the fortune of its founder Bankman-Fried.