Sharleen D'Souza &Amp;Amp; Peerzada Abrar

Stories by Sharleen D'Souza &Amp;Amp; Peerzada Abrar

Festive Hires: 1 Million Gig Workers, 250,000 Contractual Workers

Festive Hires: 1 Million Gig Workers, 250,000 Contractual Workers

Rediff.com   17 Aug 2024

Companies like Flipkart, Amazon and Meesho as well as quick commerce ones like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart may create hundreds of thousands of seasonal jobs for the coming festival season.

Retailers see light at the end of tunnel as I-Day sales provide much-needed boost

Retailers see light at the end of tunnel as I-Day sales provide much-needed boost

Rediff.com   16 Aug 2024

Retailers are set to end a prolonged period of sluggish sales as the end-of-season sales (EOSS) coincide with the upcoming long weekend. Apparel and lifestyle retailers have faced challenges since the festival season last year. However, with EOSS, which began in June, sales have started to recover, showing noticeable improvement in July and August.

Flipkart's Shopsy intensifies efforts to tap into Bharat

Flipkart's Shopsy intensifies efforts to tap into Bharat

Rediff.com   8 Aug 2024

Flipkart's hyper-value e-commerce platform Shopsy is intensifying efforts to tap over half of the 821 million internet users (about 442 million) in rural India. These efforts are being led by Prathyusha Agarwal, who recently joined as business head at Shopsy. The aim is to become the go-to destination for consumers seeking entry-level products across various categories.

Competitors unfazed by Flipkart's 10-min delivery foray

Competitors unfazed by Flipkart's 10-min delivery foray

Rediff.com   7 Aug 2024

At a time when Flipkart has entered the quick-commerce race with a service called "Minutes", executives at rival players said they are in a wait-and-watch mode. They said they would be concerned only once the e-commerce firm is able to succeed in this space. The Walmart-owned firm's quick-commerce service has gone live in some parts of Bengaluru, putting it in competition with firms such as Zepto, Swiggy's Instamart, and Zomato's Blinkit.

Amazon India Head Quits

Amazon India Head Quits

Rediff.com   7 Aug 2024

Manish Tiwary plans to take up a new role at another firm.

Budget Encourages Gold Rush

Budget Encourages Gold Rush

Rediff.com   26 Jul 2024

'Customers are coming in; if they aren't buying, they are at least visiting the stores, which was not the case before the Budget.'

Consumer goods firms likely to see an upswing after year of lull

Consumer goods firms likely to see an upswing after year of lull

Rediff.com   24 Jul 2024

The Budget proposals are expected to boost the fortunes of consumer goods and fast-moving consumer goods companies, which have been struggling with poor consumer demand for more than a year. The Budget announcements, such as the increase in standard deduction by Rs 25,000 for income-tax payers and slab revisions, will put more money in their hands, boosting consumer demand. Private consumption is also likely to benefit from a new scheme to offer internships to 10 million youths in the country's top 500 companies.

Kishore Biyani's nephew Vivek launches retail chain for D2C cos

Kishore Biyani's nephew Vivek launches retail chain for D2C cos

Rediff.com   19 Jul 2024

Vivek Biyani, the nephew of retail veteran Kishore Biyani, will launch a retail chain focused on direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands under the name Broadway, along with actor Rana Daggubati, Apurva Salarpuria of Salarpuria Group and Anuj Kejriwal of Anarock Retail. This new retail format is a multi-brand outlet, which will house D2C brands under one roof. The first store is set to open in Delhi in August this year, and subsequent store launches in Hyderabad and Mumbai are slated in September 2024 and March next year, the company said in its release.

Byju's may move NCLAT against insolvency order

Byju's may move NCLAT against insolvency order

Rediff.com   18 Jul 2024

Edtech company Byju's parent Think & Learn will challenge the National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT's) order on insolvency proceedings and may approach the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in the next few days, a source claimed. With the NCLT appointing Pankaj Srivastava as the interim resolution professional (IRP), time is running out for Byju's as the committee of creditors (CoC) begins to be formed.

Google Unveils AI For India's Developers

Google Unveils AI For India's Developers

Rediff.com   18 Jul 2024

Developers in India now have expanded access to Google's powerful AI models with the 2 million token context window in Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemma 2, the next generation of open models.

Ola Electric likely to drive in IPO at a lower valuation of $4.5 billion

Ola Electric likely to drive in IPO at a lower valuation of $4.5 billion

Rediff.com   17 Jul 2024

Ola Electric, the SoftBank-backed electric vehicle (EV) maker, is likely to pursue a valuation of approximately $4.5 billion in its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), marking about 18 per cent decrease from its last funding round valuation of around $5.5 billion, according to industry sources. The Bhavish Aggarwal-founded firm aims to file for the IPO by next month, according to people familiar with the matter. "The strategy is to price the IPO attractively for investors, fostering long-term growth and wealth creation," said a source.

Subhash Dandekar: The man who brought colours to artists and students!

Subhash Dandekar: The man who brought colours to artists and students!

Rediff.com   17 Jul 2024

Subhash Dandekar, chairman emeritus of Kokuyo Camlin and the man known for bringing colours to artists as well as students in the country, passed away on Monday at 85.

Unilever job cuts: HUL to assess parent's global initiatives for its biz

Unilever job cuts: HUL to assess parent's global initiatives for its biz

Rediff.com   15 Jul 2024

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) will closely assess the global initiatives of its parent under the productivity programme and evaluate what works best for its business and people, said the company. The statement from HUL comes after its parent Unilever recently told its employees that it will cut a third of office-based jobs in Europe by the end of 2025. "We will closely assess the global initiatives of Unilever under the productivity programme and evaluate what works best for our business and our people," HUL told Business Standard.

Gig workers Bill: Unease among startups

Gig workers Bill: Unease among startups

Rediff.com   15 Jul 2024

A group comprising top tech startups and unicorns has raised several "serious concerns" over a platform-based gig workers Bill proposed by the Karnataka government, saying it would hurt the ease of doing business. They told the state government the Bill in its current form would hamper operations and increase regulatory and compliance burden on the nascent gig and startup economy, according to sources.

Ola Maps navigating beyond 'western apps'

Ola Maps navigating beyond 'western apps'

Rediff.com   9 Jul 2024

Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer of Ola, is encouraging developers to switch from Google Maps to Ola Maps. Ola is offering developers a year of free access to Ola Maps on the company's Krutrim Cloud and over Rs 100 crore in free credits. This initiative comes after Ola replaced Google Maps with its own Ola Maps, leading to annual savings of around Rs 100 crore.

Unacademy hands pink slips to 250 more employees

Unacademy hands pink slips to 250 more employees

Rediff.com   3 Jul 2024

Edtech firm Unacademy has laid off 250 people across verticals, according to people familiar with the matter, reducing its employee strength by 50 per cent from what it was two years ago. Of those, 100 are from core functions such as marketing, business, and product, while the rest are from sales.

Aim to make India core in global energy revolution: Ola Electric

Aim to make India core in global energy revolution: Ola Electric

Rediff.com   1 Jul 2024

In March 2021, Ola Electric founder Bhavish Aggarwal was seen surveying an empty 500-acre land surrounded by shoe factories, temples, bakery shops, coconut trees and dusty roads in Pochampalli town of Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu. Many excavators and workers were busy at the construction site to build the Ola Futurefactory for electric vehicles.

Byju failed because he didn't listen to anyone: Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal

Byju failed because he didn't listen to anyone: Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal

Rediff.com   29 Jun 2024

Byju Raveendran, the founder of the beleaguered ed-tech firm Byju's, put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening to anyone, said Gaurav Munjal, the chief executive officer of edtech firm Unacademy. Munjal highlighted the importance of 'blunt feedback'. In a post on X, he alleged that Byju's founder stopped listening and failed to have people who could give him the right feedback.

Early 'end of season' sale amid muted demand

Early 'end of season' sale amid muted demand

Rediff.com   26 Jun 2024

The spring/summer end-of-season sales have been advanced by a week with brands having high inventories due to weak demand in May because consumers avoided shopping in the hot month.

Bidders of Haldiram Snacks Foods seek clarity on ownership of the brand

Bidders of Haldiram Snacks Foods seek clarity on ownership of the brand

Rediff.com   26 Jun 2024

The prospective bidders of Haldiram Snacks Foods (HSFPL), a leading food firm, have sought clarity on the ownership of the brand as it is currently owned by different family factions. The Delhi and Nagpur families have decided to merge their operations and formed a joint venture to sell part of their stake. On the other hand, the Kolkata family runs its separate, independent operations. Bankers said prospective bidders of the company do not want any confusion over the brand in future. They have sought clarity over usage of the brand.