Arjun Mohan, CEO of India operations of Think and Learn, which owns Byju's brand, has resigned from the beleaguered firm, which on Monday also announced a business rejig consolidating its operations into three verticals. Mohan had joined Byju's in July last year as the CEO for international business after quitting rival UpGrad in February as CEO. Later, he was given charge of India operations in September after Byju's then CEO Mrinal Mohit resigned. After taking over the charge, Mohan undertook restructuring of the organisation which led to layoffs of around 4,000 employees at Byju's.
Advertising is always done with the target audience in mind and considering the local culture and milieu, it is not about one size fitting all, says ace ad man Nagesh Alai.
Apollo HealthCo Ltd (AHL), a subsidiary of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (AHEL), on Friday entered into a binding agreement to raise equity capital of Rs 2,475 crore from Advent International (Advent), one of the world's largest private equity (PE) players. The transaction will also see the merger of two units under Apollo Healthco - its wholesale pharma distribution unit Keimed Pvt Ltd and online healthcare business Apollo 24'7. The merger will take place in a phased manner over the next 24-30 months.
Bandhan Bank's managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Chandra Shekhar Ghosh (pictured), who has decided to step down, on Wednesday said the bank will need at least three months to identify his successor. He has also written to his employees, asking them "not to worry" over his surprise decision. "Whatever, our experience in the earlier selections, when we selected two executive directors on the basis of that experience we need a minimum three months of time for selection of candidates and then it will go to RBI and then whatever is the time taken by RBI for approval," Ghosh said.
Though Dentsu Aegis says C P Arora left the business in July 2016, his Twitter handle and LinkedIn profile continue to refer to him as Group CFO of Denstu India.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) is seeking rapprochement with Sony Group as it makes a last-ditch effort to resurrect a $10 billion merger, according to industry sources. After the Japanese multinational firm pulled the plug on its $10 billion merger deal in January, the Indian company reached out again to Sony to reconsider the termination and offered for talks this month, a source said. On the other hand, Sony is understood to be evaluating the proposal from Zee.
Licence suspension would be revoked only after stakeholders are convinced of the airline's revival plan, say sources.
Audit firm Deloitte has resigned as auditors of Byju's citing a delay in submission of financial statements while almost simultaneously three of the edtech firm's board members have quit in what is being seen as a deepening crisis at the decacorn. Deloitte Haskins & Sells, which was slated to audit Byju's until 2025, stepped down with "immediate effect" mid-term stating that "the financial statements of the company are long delayed. In a letter sent to the board of Think & Learn Pvt Ltd (known as Byju's), Deloitte said it has not been able to start an audit due to the delays and that will have a "significant impact" on its ability to "plan, design perform and complete" the audit as per standards.
Sources within the Congress, including those who have been members of the teams that drafted its 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifestos, said the Karnataka government decision lacked any empirical basis.
Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy stirred a storm on X when he said young people should work 70 hours a week to level up the country's productivity. In a conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai in the inaugural episode of 3one4 Capital's podcast 'The Record,' Murthy said that youngsters should put extra hours at work to compete with leading economies. "India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity...we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress," he said, comparing India with China, Japan and Germany.
How much do you know about the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024?
'If you look at assets truly working for us, you should look at Aakash and Great Learning.'
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh inaugurated the 5-day long event.
These top level changes have come soon after Flipkart co-founder and Group CEO Binny Bansal resigned over allegations of serious personal misconduct in November.
BlackRock has again reduced the valuation of its share in edtech firm Byju's - this time to about $1 billion, TechCrunch reported on Friday, citing disclosures made by the US-based asset manager. This is 95 per cent less than its peak valuation of $22 billion in 2022. The markdown comes at a time when the company is facing a multitude of challenges, including securing fresh capital, delays in financial reporting and legal disputes with lenders.
Housing sales jumped over 4.5 times year-on-year in April-June across eight cities to 74,330 units on lower base effect, while demand was up 5 per cent from the previous quarter, according to PropTiger data. Housing sales stood at 15,968 units in the April-June period last year and 70,623 units in the January-March quarter of 2022. The price of residential properties rose 5-9 per cent annually, driven by rise in input costs, inflationary pressures and premium attached with ready-to-move-in inventory. Pune and Chennai saw maximum appreciation at 9 per cent each.
An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of Byju's shareholders got underway on Friday to vote on a resolution brought by some investors to ouster founder CEO Byju Raveendran and his family over alleged "mismanagement and failures". Raveendran and his family stayed away from the EGM, calling it "procedurally invalid."
Adani Total Gas Ltd, the joint venture of billionaire Gautam Adani's group and French energy giant TotalEnergies, will invest Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore in the next 8 to 10 years to expand infrastructure for retailing CNG to automobiles and piping gas to households and industries, its CFO said. The company retails CNG to automobiles and pipes gas to household kitchens for cooking purposes in 52 licences that cover 124 districts of the country. It has 460 CNG stations in the country and about 7 lakh consumers of its piped cooking gas.
The police said they have lodged an FIR and launched an investigation into the matter after a representative of the TV channel, located in Sector 16A Film City, approached them Tuesday evening.
Former Walmart India head Raj Jain has been roped in as an advisor by the Bharti Group, which on Wednesday parted ways with the US retail giant to operate stores independently in India.
After clocking losses for seven straight quarters, Tata Motors on Wednesday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,043 crore in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022-23. This came on the back of a strong order book, better semiconductor chip supply, tempered commodity prices, and a better product mix. "We remain cautiously optimistic about the demand situation, notwithstanding the global uncertainty.
Regional and local fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands are gaining momentum at the cost of national brands for the second quarter in a row. Consumer brands are now losing out on share, especially at the mass end of the market. Local brands have been able to capture market share as prices of raw materials are lower.
'Enterprises have become more demanding in terms of their productivity expectation from their employees.'
RBI, Enforcement Directorate to see if money was sent to tax haven
Amid better semiconductor chip supplies, the Indian automotive industry posted an 8 percent growth in production of vehicles across categories for the month of May, with three-wheelers (20 per cent) and passenger vehicles (16 per cent) leading the pack. Exports, however, dipped 21 per cent at an industry level. The industry also recorded its highest-ever May wholesales of domestic passenger vehicles (334,802 units), riding on high demand for sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and better supplies of semiconductor chips.
Founders have made it very clear that their only interest lies in protecting core values of the company and do not have any interest in running the company, he pointed out.
TCS will continue to play aggressive in the domestic market and has the requisite set of skills to execute complex projects, he said, adding the company would continue to hire in its on-shore division.
Byju's, India's most-valued startup, has decided to put two of its key assets -- Epic and Great Learning -- on the block to generate $800 million-$1 billion in cash, with an aim to meet the edtech firm's various commitments, including repaying the entire $1.2 billion term loan B (TLB) within six months, according to sources. The cash-strapped company has proposed repaying $300 million of the $1.2 billion loan in the next three months, depending on whether the lenders accept Byju's amendment proposal, said the people familiar with the development. "This loan repayment proposal has been submitted to the lenders and conversations are going in the right direction," said a person in the know.
Earlier this year, Kingfisher Airlines had acquired 26 per cent stake in low-cost carrier Deccan Aviation for Rs 550 crore (Rs 5.5 billion). The company also made an open offer for another 20 per cent stake in Deccan Aviation. The open offer was oversubscribed. It received bids for 35 million equity shares against the issue size of 27 million shares.
Together, the top 10 business groups reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 19,342 crore during the January-March 2020 quarter, as against a profit before tax of around Rs 48,500 crore in the year-ago period and Rs 39,600 crore during the December quarter. While Vedanta was the worst hit. others included Aditya Birla, Bharti, Adani, Mahindra, and Tata.
Mphasis BFL Ltd on Wednesday announced the appointment of Alok Misra, as chief financial officer and Abnash Singh, as chief information officer of the company.
At a time when the overall narrative is around India being an attractive investment destination, the two American multinationals are more specific in projecting India as their centrepiece.
'We created war rooms -- from an IT perspective and also a customer war room -- to address any challenges that come up.'
Both Jet Airways and Go First have met with a similar fate of landing up in insolvency, albeit for different reasons. Whether Go First will be able to avoid the sharp erosion in value like in the case of Jet, experts say, will depend on how quickly it is able to restart operations and retain its slots at airports. Go First, owned by the Wadia group, filed for voluntary corporate insolvency resolution on May 2 due to inadequate capacity utilisation that led to a cash crunch.
CEOs have complained that high interest rates have blocked their investment decisions. At the same time, customers are also deferring their purchases for new consumer durables, cars, and homes.
In our mystery the watchdog agencies are silent, but it is the market that has barked and has not stopped barking. Till such time as it continues to do so, this headache will not go away, notes Aakar Patel.
Lenders to Venugopal Dhoot-founded Videocon Group will eventually take 50-55 per cent haircut and not 95 per cent as is being reported after considering about Rs 15,000 crore expected from the sale of the group's overseas oil and gas assets, its former CFO Rajneesh Gupta claimed. Videocon Industries Ltd, which is comprised of its consumer electronics business and interest in the Ravva oil and gas field, and its overseas oil and gas assets, mainly comprising of oil blocks in Brazil, are being auctioned separately to recover unpaid loans. While Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group has picked up Videocon Industries for Rs 2,962 crore, the bids for overseas assets are yet to be decided.
There is a dearth of talent in the Indian banking industry. A testimony to this is the two new CEOs in the private sector -- Sandeep Bakhshi in ICICI Bank Ltd and Amitabh Chaudhry in AXIS Bank Ltd -- have come from the insurance sector, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
