Twenty years after India's insurance sector was opened up, unshackling the control of state-owned companies, as many as 50 private players have set up shop. Along with their foreign partners, private players have brought about a sea change in the product offering, distribution and underwriting processes, and services levels. Yet, India's insurance penetration needle has not moved much.
Joveo is not like Monster or Naukri.com!
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has signed a pact to invest an undisclosed amount in a giant petrochemical hub being built in the UAE. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate will join the recently-formed Ta'ziz joint venture of Abu Dhabi state energy giant Adnoc and state holding company ADQ for developing the Ruwais Derivatives Park in western Abu Dhabi. A company statement said an agreement has been signed for Reliance to invest in the project but did not give details. Unconfirmed reports put the investment at about $1.5 billion.
Speaking at the forum, Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) representative director and president Toshihiro Suzuki said, "Suzuki's future mission is to achieve carbon neutrality with small cars. "We will continue active investment in India to realise Self-reliant India (Atma-nirbhar Bharat)." Under the MoU, the company's wholly-owned arm Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd (SMG) will invest Rs 7,300 crore for the construction of a plant for BEV batteries at a land neighboring to SMG's existing plant by 2026.
A joint venture of Reliance Industries Ltd and BP of the UK on Wednesday said it has signed an agreement with the Mahindra Group to explore EV and low-carbon solutions, including battery swapping technology options, for electric 3-wheelers. Besides exploring creation of EV products and services, the non-binding MoU signed by Reliance BP Mobility Limited (RBML) and Mahindra Group would look for identifying synergies in low-carbon and conventional fuels, the company said in a statement. "The MoU also covers evaluating charging solutions by Jio-bp for Mahindra vehicles including electric 3 and 4 wheelers, quadricycles and e-SCV (Small Commercial Vehicles - sub 4 ton)," it said.
Venture capitalists are leveraging their experience to build something new.
New models of skilling will provide both jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities to inspire recipients to capture the jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities they seek and provide them the agency to stay on and improve on their skills on the job, says Ganesh Natarajan.
Mumbai-based Indian Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ISMC) and Singapore-headquartered IGSS Ventures have one strategy in common: They have told the government in their application for semiconductor fabrication plants that they will export the bulk of the chips they make in India in the initial five or 10 years. The third applicant, Vedanta-Foxconn, which is also building a fab plant, has said it will concentrate on the needs of consumer electronics and mobile device markets, and earmark 80 per cent of output for domestic consumption, but has not specified its customers. Finding a viable domestic market could well be the biggest challenge for India's renewed tryst with semiconductors. Fab plants do not sell directly to end users but to intermediary chip design companies - such as Qualcomm or MediaTek.
'Should we shortchange our investors by exiting early?'
When things get really tough, it doesn't matter if one has been good strategist managing big companies or if one loves management. It all comes down to grit and passion says Satanik Roy.
'I got the script of OMG: Oh My God and I believed in it so much that I quit my job. Singh Is Bliing was a success but it was not a film that made a difference.' Meet Ashvini Yardi.
Tucked away at a lane in Arehalli Guddadahalli, a small village in Bengaluru Rural district is a nondescript factory of LaundryMate, one of India's first organised technology-led online laundry services firms. The company has built the country's largest laundry facility, which is spread across 53,000 square feet - the size of a football field. Inside the hangar-like building, one can hear the whooshing and humming sound of big hi-tech washing machines being operated by the newly-recruited staff of LaundryMate.
Swiggy, a Bengaluru-based food ordering and delivery start-up, says it aims to revolutionise this segment.
The start-up works with 2,000 owners and hosts 10,000 tenants across four cities - Bengaluru, the National Capital Region, Hyderabad and Pune.
This marks the second billion-dollar investment by Silver Lake in a Reliance subsidiary after the $1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms.
Bulk of the medicine sales in the $22-24 billion domestic pharma market happens through offline retail chemists. With the entry of online pharmacies, this space has started to witness a shake-up. Sample this: Dawaa Dost, a Rajasthan based digital health start-up, generates medicine orders from 'kirana' stores and women self-help groups (SHGs) that operate in villages, and then service these orders through its affiliated network of pharmacies. Biddano, another health-tech start-up, has a platform that acts as an aggregator for neighbourhood chemist shops.
Significant market size in these countries would help in biz expansion
A long and bitter funding winter in the start-up world is beginning to take its toll on start-up advertising across properties. Earlier this week, Mastercard replaced Paytm as the title sponsor for all international and domestic cricket matches organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). But this is just one part of the story. The other side is that organisers of high-impact shows and events on Hindi general entertainment channels, too, are feeling the winter chill.
Mukesh Ambani, who took over the reins of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) after the sudden demise of his legendary industrialist father Dhirubhai Ambani, completes 20 years at the helm during which the company saw a 17-fold jump in revenues, 20-times surge in profit and has become a global conglomerate.
The Kunal Bahl-led firm wants to add 1,000 sellers every three months in its loan scheme.
Veterans in the travel industry, a well-known corporate lawyer, and a marquee US-based hedge fund have backed the upcoming low-cost airline Akasa Air. Founded by former Jet Airways chief executive officer (CEO) Vinay Dube, the venture counts ace stock trader and investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as its biggest financial backer with an investment of around Rs 300 crore. A person with knowledge of the development said most of the people were well known to Jhunjhunwala and Dube, who approached them during the conception stage.
Cooperatives which earlier found it difficult to sell their wares have now found an online market via several e-commerce websites.
Though e-commerce opens a new world for the handicraft industry, empowering craftspersons still remains a real challenge.
Three business houses are likely to be in the final race to strike a deal with Germany's Metro AG for investing in its India unit -- Metro Cash & Carry. Industry sources in the know named Reliance, Adani Group, and Thailand's conglomerate Charoen Pokphand (CP) as potential frontrunners to acquire a partial or full stake in the Gurugram-headquartered Metro Cash & Carry, which has 31 stores and 5,000 direct employees. Around 20 companies, including strategic and private equity investors, were approached by the German chain, inviting them to bid for the Indian wholesale business, according to a source aware of the M&A developments.
GE Money India is looking for a strategic partner to drive scale just as it did with the State Bank of India (SBI) for its card business. It is trying to replicate its card model in its joint venture with Wizard Home Loans, a non-banking finance company from Australia.
In India, he has already made investments in both his personal capacity and through DST Global, his venture firm.
Bengaluru has emerged as the world's fastest-growing mature tech ecosystem in the world since 2016, followed by the European cities of London, Munich, Berlin and Paris, with India's financial centre of Mumbai in sixth place, according to new research released in London on Thursday.
The company has been a part of the start-up ecosystem in a big way from early stages right up to when the companies start achieving full scale.
Hyderabad-based Pi Datacenters wants to be the first destination of choice for enterprises in data and cloud services.
By all accounts, the car industry in India is about to acquire serious scale, as new car plants start dotting the maps of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttaranchal.
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.
Making a strong case for approval of their proposed airline JV, Tatas and Singapore Airlines have said that the venture would create significant job opportunities in India and would boost the country's image as an international investment destination.
Investors seem to be very keen on investing in startups.
23 Yards will include body wash, beard oil, shaving gel, deodorant and sanitizer.
JRG Securities Limited is a brokerage in India, and Baring will invest through a preferential issue and warrants for a minimum stake of 44.8% in the company.
Besides growing tech and digital enhancements, the firms are ramping up the hiring of more delivery partners and reinforcing existing Covid protocols.
LocalOye is a Bengaluru-based marketplace for local household and personal service providers.
IFFCO is reaching out to the young Indian urban professional.
In 2020-2021, the amount of foreign direct investment into India from China and Hong Kong plummeted to just $200 million -- its lowest in the recent past. In the first half of 2021-2022, FDI investments through these two nations stood at just $36 million.
It's the first time in its 178-year-old history that the iconic British motorcycle firm owned by the Bloor family has got into an alliance. Three years after announcement, the two companies formally signed on the dotted lines on Friday for a long-term partnership, which aims to achieve global scale in a segment in which Royal Enfield has head-start.
