Shuttle services in Delhi, which had been temporarily halted after the Transport Department had raised concerns about their legality, can breathe a sigh of relief. The Delhi government appears to be softening its tone on these services, with the Vice Chairman of the Delhi Dialogue Commission calling them “completely legal.”
India’s fledging unicorn club – startups that attain a mythical $1 billion valuation – has a new member. E-retail site Shopclues is now worth $1.1 billion following an undisclosed funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. Interestingly, GIC also backs Shopclues’ rival Flipkart.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma comes across as mild and soft-spoken in his interviews. But there’s a side to his personality that only his company’s employees are privy to. While speaking at a company event, Sharma let loose. Here’s how.
After grocery delivery service Grofers had withdrawn its operations from 9 Tier 2 cities last month, Zomato has shut down its food ordering service in Lucknow, Kochi, Indore, and Coimbatore.
India’s largest e-commerce giant, Flipkart, is in for some organizational change. Co-founder Sachin Bansal, who has been the CEO since the inception of the company in 2007, will step aside. His cofounder, Binny Bansal will take his place. Sachin Bansal will in turn become the Executive Chairman.
There’s no surer sign of the changing times. Until recently, a job with the Indian Administrative Service meant the pinnacle of professional success – it represented status, great money, and an opportunity to touch the lives of millions. But 24 year old IAS officer Roman Saini had other ideas. He’s quit his job as the assistant collector of Jabalpur to launch his own startup.
The Indian entrepreneur community is early awaiting the announcements that are expected to be unveiled at the Start India event to be organized in New Delhi on the 16th of this month. Such is the interest around that event that an astonishing 1,00,00 people have registered for the passes. Sadly, there are as few as 1,500 passes available.
Mumbai taxi drivers haven’t been the biggest fans of cab hailing companies Uber and Ola. Seeing their business slip away from beneath their feet, they’ve resorted to protests, strikes, and political posturing to get these companies out of Mumbai. But their efforts have been in vain – consumers have responded with their feet, and Ola and Uber have made rapid inroads into the city.
But now Mumbai’s iconic “kaali-peeli” taxi owners are trying to take on cab hailing startups at their own game.
Startup offices are getting swankier by the day. After Flipkart and Snapdeal had unveiled grand offices that would put luxury hotels to shame, smaller startups too have begun sprucing up their workspaces. Delhi based dating app TrulyMadly has a new office, and it looks pretty spectacular.