Peerzada Abrar And Shivani Shinde

Stories by Peerzada Abrar And Shivani Shinde

Consumer protection agency sends notice to Ola, Uber

Consumer protection agency sends notice to Ola, Uber

Rediff.com   21 May 2022

CCPA said the primary issues raised in the notices included 'deficiency in service'. This includes lack of proper response from customer support, driver refusing to take payment by online mode and insisting for cash only.

Vedantu lays off 424 employees as it expects a scarcity of capital

Vedantu lays off 424 employees as it expects a scarcity of capital

Rediff.com   20 May 2022

Edtech unicorn Vedantu has laid off 424 employees, about 7 per cent of its workforce, according to a blog post shared by the Bengaluru-based firm. This comes as the focus in the edtech space has shifted to profitability, according to experts. The lay-off comes days after the company fired 200 contractual and full-time employees, at a time when offline schools and colleges are opening up and learning is evolving into a more nuanced blended delivery model with a mix of online and offline.

Is the pace of unicorns in India slowing down?

Is the pace of unicorns in India slowing down?

Rediff.com   13 May 2022

The Indian startup ecosystem recently celebrated the 100th unicorn milestone. It came after a month of no big fund announcements. Compare this to 2021, when three to four unicorns were being added every month. Nevertheless, the 100th unicorn needs to be celebrated since the first unicorn was announced in 2011 - 11 years ago.

Uber to hire 500 engineers for its India tech centres

Uber to hire 500 engineers for its India tech centres

Rediff.com   13 May 2022

Uber Technologies said it is doing a fresh round of recruitment for its India tech centres and is planning to hire 500 more tech employees by December. The app-based mobility and delivery company has a 1,000-member tech team across its centres in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The firm said the hiring plan is a testament to Uber's commitment to India, and its recognition of the engineering talent in the country. Uber hired 250 engineers to its India teams in 2021.

2nd innovation hub in US to strengthen TCS position

2nd innovation hub in US to strengthen TCS position

Rediff.com   12 May 2022

IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), in its Q4FY22 results, said the company's banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI) crossed the $10 billion milestone. This includes revenue from financial products, services and platforms. For Suresh Muthuswami, who recently took over as Chairman of North America, one of the focus will be to grow this percentage going ahead. The first step to grow the US market is hiring. Muthuswami said that the company will be hiring more in the US, especially from the campuses. In FY22 TCS hired over 7,000 people in the US and going ahead too the numbers will be similar.

Why cybercrime is running rampant in India and how to stay secure

Why cybercrime is running rampant in India and how to stay secure

Rediff.com   9 May 2022

Do you suspect that your partner is cheating on you and want to find out the truth by installing spyware on their phone? Or, perhaps you are a student who wants to get out of an online classroom so you can play an online game with friends? How about some Zoom raiding for a mere Rs 50-100? Or, are you a person who wishes to hack into someone's phone or laptop, and steal their financial details? Crimeware-as-a-Service (CaaS) allows you to do all this and more.

45% growth in active internet users in rural India since 2019

45% growth in active internet users in rural India since 2019

Rediff.com   6 May 2022

There has been a 45 per cent growth in 'active internet users' in rural India since 2019, according a study by Nielsen, a global company for audience measurement, data and analytics. The Bharat 2.0 Internet report said that female active internet users grew by 61 per cent since 2019. The report said that India has 646 million active Internet users aged 2 years and above as of December 2021. Rural India has 352 million internet users--almost 20 per cent higher than urban.

Apple stops accepting payments using credit cards issued by Indian banks

Apple stops accepting payments using credit cards issued by Indian banks

Rediff.com   6 May 2022

Tech giant Apple has stopped accepting payments via debit and credit cards in India. Apple has stopped accepting cards for subscriptions, and purchases using credit cards issued by banks in India. Apple will also not accept payments for ad campaigns on Apple Search using credit cards issued by Indian banks. All campaigns will be put on hold from June 1.

TCS, Infosys come to terms with reality of real-time recruiting

TCS, Infosys come to terms with reality of real-time recruiting

Rediff.com   3 May 2022

Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software exporter, hired 100,000 freshers in the financial year 2021-22, more than in any other year. That means an average of 8,300 trainees joining the company every month. This is not merely a mathematical calculation: hiring of freshers at the top IT companies is no longer a compressed affair confined to the campus season.

IT companies may not follow HCL Tech on freshers' salary

IT companies may not follow HCL Tech on freshers' salary

Rediff.com   2 May 2022

It has taken a pandemic to move the needle on the salary packages for greenhorn engineers hired by the Indian IT services sector. The country's third-largest IT services player, HCL Technologies, has decided to boost the entry-level packages from Rs 3-3.6 lakh to Rs 4.25 lakh for FY23, in a bid to attract fresh talent and keep them for longer to counter the impact of rising attrition. This new package would also be applicable to those freshers who joined the firm in FY22.

Strong rebound in India's job market post pandemic

Strong rebound in India's job market post pandemic

Rediff.com   20 Apr 2022

The job market saw an uptrend in the March quarter (Q1), with job interviews increasing 13.71 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to over 30 million, according to Apna.co, India's largest jobs and professional networking platform. It recorded a 42 per cent QoQ growth in its employer base. As a result of the second wave of Covid-19 last year, sectors such as healthcare, delivery, and e-commerce were booming while others had fairly low employment.

India will have over 250 unicorns by 2025

India will have over 250 unicorns by 2025

Rediff.com   19 Apr 2022

Since then, 129 startups have joined this star status, of which 100 were added from January 2019, generating a total value of $535 billion. Entrepreneurs are building bigger enterprises at a faster rate -- 50 per cent of the 130 companies reached unicorn status in the first five years after their initial institutional fundraising.

Not big players, but small brands catering to the needs of India: CAIT

Not big players, but small brands catering to the needs of India: CAIT

Rediff.com   18 Apr 2022

Thousands of small brands are ruling the consumer market despite the predatory pricing and deep discounting by foreign e-commerce companies and efforts of certain FMCG companies to sideline the distributor network, said the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents about 70 million traders in the country. "If the government gives support policies to non-corporate sector and tighten the e-commerce companies to obey the policy and the law both in letter and spirit, the retail trade of the country is bound to blossom in pursuance of the vision of PM Narendra Modi for Make in India and Atmnirbhar Bharat," said CAIT national president BC Bhartia and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal.

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal to focus more on long-term strategy

Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal to focus more on long-term strategy

Rediff.com   13 Apr 2022

Ola founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal will step back from day-to-day operations to focus more on engineering functions, team building, and products, apart from focusing on long-term strategic projects, such as two-wheelers, cars, and innovations in quick commerce and international expansion. "I'll be spending more time with all engineering functions, team building, and on products," said Aggarwal in an internal note, adding, "I'll also be increasing my focus on our longer-term strategic projects, including new two-wheeler products, our car project, innovations in quick commerce, electrifying ride-hailing, our cell research and development (R&D), international expansion, building our Pune technology (tech) centre, and Futurefoundry UK." To drive scale, speed, and quality, Aggarwal said he is expanding Ola Group's chief financial officer (CFO) G R Arun Kumar's role to help him steer 'day-to-day operations' across the group.

Attrition at TCS touches record high; it may get worse, warns management

Attrition at TCS touches record high; it may get worse, warns management

Rediff.com   13 Apr 2022

For Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - India's largest and the world's second-largest IT services provider - the attrition rate touched an all-time high of 17.4 per cent in Q4FY22. The management, following the announcement of the Q4 results, has warned that the attrition situation could become even worse before any improvement. According to analysts, the short term, the attrition rate at TCS could even touch 20 per cent.

SoftBank-backed Meesho lays off 150 employees from grocery vertical

SoftBank-backed Meesho lays off 150 employees from grocery vertical

Rediff.com   12 Apr 2022

SoftBank-backed internet commerce firm Meesho has downsized its grocery vertical Meesho SuperStore (formerly Farmiso) in an attempt to drive efficiency. The Bengaluru-based firm did not reveal the number of laid-off employees. However, the company officials said that about 150 employees have been laid off.

Q4 preview: IT companies may beat Ukraine crisis, inflation worries

Q4 preview: IT companies may beat Ukraine crisis, inflation worries

Rediff.com   11 Apr 2022

The results of Indian IT services players in the just-concluded fourth quarter of 2021-22 are expected to reveal continuing growth momentum as demand surges on the back of digital transformations and the cloud shift, but analysts anticipate margins to be under pressure due to supply challenges. Analysts covering the sector expect revenue commentary should be strong despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict and inflation. Top-line growth will be driven by broad-based demand with a strong uptick for cloud, digital, cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence, among other services.

Tata Neu in numbers: 120 mn customers, 2,500 offline stores, 80 mn downloads

Tata Neu in numbers: 120 mn customers, 2,500 offline stores, 80 mn downloads

Rediff.com   8 Apr 2022

Shivani Shinde reports. The youngest member of the Tata group, the much-awaited Tata Neu, has finally been launched for people across the country. The 'super app' offers a number of services ranging from financial services to tech, travel and even groceries. The app takes off with a customer base of 120 million, with 2,500 offline stores. According to the Tata group, the app will be a one-stop destination for all consumer needs. The super app also offers a bouquet of financial offers like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), bill payments, loans and insurance. Tata Neu will also provide other services like fashion, gadgets, groceries, travel and health.

Zomato, Swiggy hit by hour-long technical glitch on April 6

Zomato, Swiggy hit by hour-long technical glitch on April 6

Rediff.com   7 Apr 2022

Food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy reported a nationwide outage on Wednesday. Both the platforms witnessed technical glitches and were unresponsive for almost an hour. Downdetector, a platform that collects status reports from a series of sources, recorded about 3,619 reports of outage against Zomato at 2:05 PM and about 771 reports of outage against Swiggy at around 2:21 PM. According to the sources, the outage was caused by Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud-services platform, which runs both platforms. Though Swiggy and Zomato are working now, some customers reported that the issue has not been solved completely and they are not able to place orders and there are payment related issues.

Under India's digital infra hood: Growing data centres

Under India's digital infra hood: Growing data centres

Rediff.com   1 Apr 2022

As India builds its data centre capabilities, it is imperative that it is supported by green energy. This is because data centres are guzzlers of energy.