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.
'As our per capita income increases and various demographic segments emerge, the need for various kinds of protection and risk covers will become even more explicit.'
Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia and Tech Mahindra have joined hands to deploy 5G-based solutions for business organisations, according to a joint statement by the two companies. Under the collaboration, Tech Mahindra will leverage Nokia's private wireless DAC (digital automation cloud) solution for customers across industries and facilitate in automating 5G private wireless network management on a cloud computing system and enabling them deploy internet of things like technology.
It has been seven months since the iconic motorcycle manufacturers, Harley-Davidson and Triumph, embarked on their journey in India with the backing of partners Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto. According to data shared by the Indian majors, both brands are already creating ripples in the above 350cc category. The increase in sales has prompted a ramp-up in production and even the doubling of retail touchpoints for one of them.
FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa) hosted its annual investor day recently. The responses were positive from analysts. Although some analysts pared FY25 and FY26 estimates, the bulk continued to issue 'buy' calls after the stock rose 2.5 per cent. The management expects the Beauty & Personal Care (BPC) business to grow at a 25 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during FY24-28.
India has been a tea sipping society. But the aromatic wave of coffee culture is wafting across it.
Legendary Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist believes Nepal and the Netherlands could surprise teams like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Tailored luxury experiences with the most minute of details charted out for discerning travellers is the way forward, says Nikita Puri.
Gen Z, don't shy away from expressing your ideas, and millennials, be receptive to new perspectives, suggests Sonica Aron, founder of the HR consultancy firm, Marching Sheep.
'Hacking of an ID or an account will have the same impact on a user in a city and one in a small town.' 'Security is like a railroad, you create it to last for every customer.'
Tata Motors on Monday announced the demerger of its commercial and passenger vehicle segments into two separate listed entities to better capitalise on growth opportunities. The commercial vehicles business and its related investments would be housed in one entity while the passenger vehicle business, including electric vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and its related investments, would be part of the second entity, the auto major said in a regulatory filing. Tata Motors chairman N Chandrasekaran said that Tata Motors has scripted a strong turnaround in the last few years.
Rehana Sultan was all set to be a path-breaker. The time was right. Hindi cinema had emerged from the 1960s musicals era. But somehow, leading film-makers of the time did not believe Rehana had that cachet. It was Zeenat Aman who ended up being the definitive taboo-trasher of the era. Dinesh Raheja salutes the trendsetter of the 1970s, Rehana Sultan.
Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced that it has scrapped the minimum recharge plan of Rs 99 in seven circles -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Northeast, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh (West). In these circles, the price of the entry-level plan now would be Rs 155. This 57 per cent increase in Airtel's entry-level plan comes two months after the telco discontinued the Rs 99 plan in Haryana and Odisha in November last year.
'The private sector believes that some enablers in labour-intensive sectors like apparel, toys, tourism, and media retail, can unlock a lot of jobs.'
Tata Sons on Thursday announced the appointment of Campbell Wilson as chief executive officer and managing director of Air India. Wilson is the founding CEO of low-cost airline Scoot.
Accenture Services is looking graduates/ diploma holders to join their Customer Contact Service team.
Customs sleuths will be posted in London, Hong Kong, Dubai and Brussels in an effort to check trade-based money-laundering among others.
Banking technology start-up Zeta is the latest entrant to the unicorn club after raising $250 million in its Series C round from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Sodexo participated as an additional minority investor in the round. Founded by serial entrepreneur and billionaire Bhavin Thurakia, the startup is now valued at $1.4 billion. It is the 14th company this year to cross the $1 billion valuation mark after Meesho, Cred, Pharmeasy, ShareChat, Moglix and others.
Follow these steps to avoid last-minute surprises while claiming your mediclaim -- via cashless or reimbursement method, says P V Subramanyam
With iYogi's 'Digital Services Cloud', telecom companies, original equipment manufacturer, technology retailers and business process outsourcing companies can address new opportunities and generate revenue, while enhancing customer experience and reducing costs.
With the banking regulator lifting restrictions on HDFC Bank's digital initiatives, the largest private sector lender is now girding up to launch a clutch of customer-facing applications (apps), which will act as stepping stones in its journey to morph into a technology (tech)-led bank from a conventional one. Following repeated outages in its digital offerings, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had barred HDFC Bank from issuing new credit cards in December 2020 and prevented it from going ahead with its digital launches. The embargo on issuing credit cards was lifted in August 2021 and the ban on digital launches was lifted last week.
If RBI's recommendations are finalised, it will give more teeth to the existing fair practice code
On May 28, following the bomb threat, which later turned out to be hoax, all the passengers were evacuated through emergency slides from the aircraft at the Delhi airport.
Tata-owned Air India has launched a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for its employees- in the airline's first drive to reduce headcount. The salt-to-steel conglomerate acquired the carrier last year. As of November 2019, the airline had 9,426 permanent employees.
The management of Tata Communications presented its product-to-platform strategy and explained how it hopes to grow its new products and portfolios, and geographies. The management targets doubling of data revenue by FY27 to ~28,000 crore (implied 18 per cent annual revenue growth). The DPS (Digital Platform & Services) segment is likely to contribute over 60 per cent of data revenue.
Recruit Mantra requires Senior Customer Care Executives and Customer Care Executives for voice processes. \n
Adani Group's market capitalisation on Wednesday regained $200 billion-mark (Rs 16.9 lakh crore) after its listed firms gained Rs 11,300 crore as investors reposed faith on the company denying any wrongdoing in supply of coal to Tamil Nadu power company. With Rs 11,300 crore gain on Wednesday, the apples-to-airport conglomerate gained Rs 56,250 crore in market capitalisation in the last two trading sessions, stock exchange data showed.
Through Manorathangal, M T Vasudevan Nair makes himself available to a whole new generation of uninitiated viewers, who can familiarise themselves with his rich body of work and hope to learn a thing or two about life in all its messy grandeur and flawed imperfections, notes Arjun Menon.
Ahead of the end of his term as the Kotak Mahindra Bank's chief executive and managing director, Uday Kotak has said he will be a "non-executive board governance member and a strategic shareholder" going ahead. In the private sector lender's annual report, the last such message from him as the MD and CEO before he relinquishes the position at the end of 2023, Kotak reminisced about the institution's journey, pointing out that Rs 10,000 invested in 1985 is worth over Rs 300 crore today. "Going forward, I see my role as a non-executive board governance member and a strategic shareholder with a long term perspective of nurturing a world class institution," Kotak said in the annual report.
Maruti Suzuki has topped the after-sales customer service satisfaction.
'At the policy's maturity, the total premium is refunded.'
'We have essentially tried to set out an agenda for the next five years and it, in essence, represents the political commitment to that agenda.'
After incurring losses for two years on the trot, German luxury automotive company Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (abbreviated as BMW) has posted net profit in India in 2021-22 (FY22), primarily due to high demand of its top-end vehicles, cost optimisation, and price hikes, Business Standard has learnt. BMW India said in its FY22 financial statement that the company is focusing on growth and achieving profitability through induction of new products in the market, strengthening its dealership network, and improving customer satisfaction while reducing costs. The company posted its highest-ever revenue in India in FY22 at Rs 4,365.8 crore.
The fresh meat and seafood delivery startup Licious plans to set up 500 stores nationwide within the next five years as part of an omnichannel strategy. The aim is to attract new users in the offline channel and encourage them to transact online as well. The move would also help the company in its efforts to achieve profitability and go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the next 24 months, according to the sources.
A remarkable story which helped in transforming a bureaucratic organization, to a customer centric organization. This experience may inspire several government / private organizations to modify or adopt digitisation to transform their business, notes Professor N Ravichandran (retd).
The writing has been on the wall for some time and it showed up prominently during the festival-season sales last year, when Meesho toppled Amazon to become the second-largest player in order share. During the sales season, 60 per cent of the orders Meesho received were from tier-4 cities and beyond. According to a report by consulting firm Redseer, festival-season sales last year were driven primarily by tier-2 and tier-3 cities, with 64 per cent of the shoppers coming from those.
The show-cause notice dated February 8 by DCGI V G Somani cited a Delhi high court order dated December 12, 2018, which prohibits online sales of medicines without a licence.
WhatsApp on Wednesday announced the expansion of its payments service in India to make it easier for people transacting with businesses to pay for purchases directly in the chat, with a choice of UPI apps, including rival digital payment options, as well as credit and debit cards. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserted that India is leading the world in people and businesses embracing messaging. WhatsApp said it is working with partners Razorpay and PayU "to make paying for something as simple as sending a message", as the Meta-owned platform unveiled a host of new features to woo businesses in India's booming commerce market.
Yes Bank customers will be able to access full banking services from Wednesday evening, as the moratorium will be lifted earlier. The RBI had on March 5 put a moratorium on Yes Bank restricting withdrawals to Rs 50,000 per depositor till April 3. However, the government in a notification on Saturday said the moratorium will be lifted by 18:00 hrs on March 18.
Each bottle of pickle that leaves FarmDidi, headed to a consumer, has a little kahani behind it -- it's linked to the tale of a life, the life of a simple, striving village woman who created it, and that's what gives Manjari Sharma satisfaction and happiness.
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