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< Back Credit card unicorn Slice merges with North East Small Finance Bank Ishita Nigam 6 Oct 2023 The alliance of the fintech unicorn with the Guwahati-based small finance bank received a surprise RBI approval. Slice had earlier acquired a 10% stake in the bank. In a first of its kind deal, credit card offering fintech unicorn Slice is merging with Guwahati-based North East Small Finance Bank (NESFB). The alliance received RBI's nod and announced the merger on Wednesday. Slice owns a 10% stake in the NESFB and has held the Non Banking Financial Company (NBFC) license for five years. The approval is unprecedented since RBI rarely allows fintech startups to acquire banks and NBFCs to obtain banking licenses. It recently rejected the application of Flipkart Cofounder Sachin Bansal’s Navi to obtain the permit. It was later sold to Svatantra Microfin in August this year for $178.5 million. On October 31st, 2022, the latest RBI guidelines stopped Slice from selling credit cards, thus pushing the company to crash to zero from the earlier feat of 400,000 credit card sales in a month . As a bank, Slice can now accept customer deposits at lower interest rates. Previous Next

< Back Satcom an expensive alternative to broadband, fibre cable 9 May 2024 Bharti Airtel-backed OneWeb partnered with ISRO to launch 36 satellites into Earth’s orbit. Reliance Jio bought a majority stake in Skytran and SES for equipment. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are engaged in a war to introduce Satellite Communication (Satcom) in India. Airtel invested USD3.3 billion in OneWeb that tied up with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch 36 more satellites into the Earth’s lower orbit, bringing the total to 618. Reliance Jio acquired a majority stake in US-based Skytran in 2020 and bought Luxembourg-based SES in 2023 for USD 100 million for equipment and gateway. A Satcom 1 GB plan can cost the user ₹5,000 and the equipment ₹60,000. Hence, only big businesses may initially invest in this tech. Satcom is expected to offer good connectivity to remote areas, especially where fibre cable cannot reach. However, its signals travel large distances, thus taking time to reach the user and causing delays in live communication. Also, bad weather or dense green coverage can cause problems in transmission and communication. Previous Next

< Back The secret behind IndiGo's choice of int'l destinations Ishita Nigam 28 Aug 2023 IndiGo's interesting choice of first international destinations in its portfolio - Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kenya, Georgia, and Indonesia - makes one wonder why these? IndiGo currently owns 15% of the market share of flights to and from India and 60% share domestically. But it makes us wonder why it chose Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kenya, Georgia, and Indonesia as the first direct international destinations. The company will add 174 more weekly flights to these routes until September 2023. While international routes offer airlines better fares and revenue margins, they face stiff competition. These less popular routes are witnessing a growing demand, and targeting these destinations will help IndiGo raise its 15% market share. It will then dive into the popular Middle East and Southeast Asia routes. It currently uses a codeshare arrangement with Turkish Airlines to serve Europe. It plans to expand soon to North America using this agreement. IndiGo’s parent company, InterGlobe Aviation, reported its highest ever profit of ₹3,089 crores in Q1 FY24. It achieved a 30% higher year-on-year revenue of ₹17,160 crores. Previous Next

< Back Japan Air flight plummets nearly 26,000 feet midair 2 Jul 2025 The Boeing 737-800 Dreamliner fell from 36,000 feet to almost 10,000 feet due to a sudden cabin pressure failure. On June 30th, 6:53 p.m. local time, Japan Airlines flight JL8696 experienced a cabin pressure failure, causing it to fall nearly 25,000 feet in under 10 minutes. The plane was flying under a code-share agreement between Japan Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary, Spring Japan, from Shanghai Pudong to Tokyo’s Narita. It was carrying 191 passengers. One passenger heard a “muffled boom”, after which oxygen masks were automatically deployed, and the flight attendants panicked. The plane made an emergency, safe landing at Kansai Airport, Osaka, at 8:50 pm local time. Japan Airlines offered ¥15,000 (around $104) and overnight accommodation as compensation. Air India Boeing 777 flight from Delhi to Vienna on June 14th faced a similar malfunction, after which the plane dropped 900 feet mid-air. The flight landed safely in Vienna. Mumbai-bound Ethiopian Airlines B787 Dreamliner made an emergency landing on June 29th after seven passengers fell sick due to depressurisation. Never miss another post from SalestorrsNews150. Follow Salestorrs on WhatsApp , LinkedIn , Facebook , X , and Instagram . Previous Next

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< Back Wipro wins $500 mn contract from Nokia for five years 12 Jun 2024 Wipro will offer managed services for some Nokia products and industry solutions for five years. On June 6th, Wipro announced securing a $500 million contract from Nokia, a leading American communication services provider. As per the contract, Wipro will build a customised cloud-based AI-powered solution for Nokia’s 86,700 employees across 130 countries. The solution will provide faster, smoother, and real-time IT support and an improved service desk for Nokia’s employees. The software will be omni-channel, always on, and experience-driven. It will be powered by Designit, a Wipro company, and facilitate a hybrid work environment. In the last quarter of FY2024, Wipro won deals worth $3.6 billion while its order book for the whole year was $14.9 billion. Wipro closed 18 big deals in Q4 compared to 14 in Q3. The deal happened two months after Srinivas Pallia became the new CEO. Last December, the departure of Wipro’s Chief Growth Officer and Head of Large Deals, Stephanie Trautman, made it challenging for the company to secure big deals. Previous Next

< Back Maharashtra CM inaugurates Nifty WAVES Index 2 May 2025 Launched by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the WAVES Index will track the performance of the creative economy. The World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) Summit 2025 aimed at establishing India as the global epicentre for the creative streams. The new WAVES Index launched during the Summit includes 43 listed companies from the creative sector, including Zee Media, Hathway Cable, PVR Inox, Saregama, Network18, and TV Today. It has been set with a base value of 1000 beginning from April 1st, 2005. The new index will organise performance tracking of India’s creative industries. India’s creator economy employs 8% of the workforce and contributes $30 billion to the GDP. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis announced MoUs worth ₹8,000 crore for the sector development aimed at positioning Maharashtra as a global hub in the storytelling domain. Godrej is developing a ₹2,000 crore studio in Panvel to attract global post-production work. The government also established the Indian Institute of Creative Technology in Mumbai to train professionals in creative fields. Never miss another post from SalestorrsNews150. Follow Salestorrs on WhatsApp , LinkedIn , Facebook , X , and Instagram . Previous Next

< Back Quick commerce apps to start delivering electronics, white goods by Diwali 18 Jun 2024 By Diwali, quick commerce apps like BBNow, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Zomato’s Blinkit plan to start selling electronics and appliances in 10-45 minutes. As companies experience up to 45% sales through quick commerce, electronics brands are also partnering with quick commerce apps. Tata’s Croma is partnering with BBNow to sell smartphones. If apps can offer exchanges and EMI buying options demanded by customers, this will be a significant revenue stream. These products are expected to bring in much more revenue and enhance customer stickiness than other products bought on these apps. However, for large appliances, these apps will sell only 4-5 top-selling models or the ones in high demand, as per customer reviews, and not as wide a range as Amazon or Flipkart. Big appliances will consume larger warehousing spaces and four-wheeler deliveries. Blinkit ran a pilot selling iPhone for a limited period last year. Havells sold air coolers and fans in a pilot program this year. Q-commerce apps also sell small products like Bluetooth speakers, smartwatches, fans, and steam irons. Previous Next

< Back Maruti, Audi to hike car prices from Jan 2024 28 Nov 2023 Spike in inflation, including commodity prices, are pushing Maruti Suzuki to raise prices across its range of cars. Spurred by the hike in inflation and raw material expenses, Maruti Suzuki and Audi plan to raise their car prices starting January 2024. Both car makers plan to increase the cost across their range of models. Maruti raised prices twice this year, in January and April. However, that did not impact its sales, which rose 11.4% between April and October this year. October 2023 turned out to be the best month for Maruti so far. It experienced a 20% hike in sales compared to the same period in 2022, and its market share increased to 43%. Citing rising operational costs and supply chain inputs, Audi announced plans to hike car prices by 2% next year. The German car maker had reported an 88% boost in sales from January to September this year. Previous Next

< Back Merchant fees on UPI, RuPay debit cards may return 12 Mar 2025 Banks submitted a formal proposal to the government to reintroduce the charges. UPI and RuPay transactions are controlled by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Merchants pay the MDRs to banks for real-time payment processing. Before 2022, merchants had to pay banks a discount rate below 1% of the transaction value. It was removed in the FY2022 budget to promote digital payments, and it worked as UPI became the most widely used payment mode. The government is considering introducing a tiered pricing mechanism to charge the fee only to large businesses with annual GST turnover over ₹40 lakhs. The fee will be lower for smaller merchants, and free for those with a yearly turnover of less than ₹40 lakhs. Big retail businesses mostly use credit and debit cards for over half of their payments and pay MDR for the transactions. A minor fee on UPI payments would not have any significant impact. MDR can help payment aggregators make their businesses profitable. Never miss another post from SalestorrsNews150. Follow Salestorrs on WhatsApp , LinkedIn , Facebook , X , and Instagram . Previous Next

< Back US Department of Justice launches antitrust probes against NVIDIA 7 Aug 2024 In the first probe, the Department of Justice (DOJ) will scrutinise NVIDIA's buyout of Run:ai, and the second probe will evaluate if it abuses its dominant position in AI Chips. In July, US, UK, and EU regulators pledged to “safeguard against tactics that would undermine fair competition” in the AI world. Since then, international regulators have been closely monitoring significant tech acquisitions. That’s why NVIDIA’s $700 million acquisition of the Israeli GPU management startup Run:ai caught the attention of the US regulator. The DOJ is also evaluating NVIDIA’s global dominance in the AI chips market. After receiving several anti-competitive complaints, the regulator is assessing whether NVIDIA misuses its dominance to discourage customers from using its competitors’ products. There have been claims that the AI chip maker overcharges customers for networking equipment if they buy AI chips from its competitors, like AMD and Intel. It may also face French antitrust charges for anti-competitive practices. NVIDIA owns 70 to 95% of the market for chips used to train AI models. In June, it briefly overtook Microsoft as the world’s most valuable company. Previous Next

< Back Govt assessing 3D Scanners' utility for Indian airports 16 Dec 2024 It is evaluatin how useful the 3D computed tomography X-ray (CTX) and Full Body Scanners (FBS) will be for Indian airports. 3D CTX scanners, commonly used in the US and Europe, allow passengers to keep liquids and electronics in their cabin luggage while screening. While earlier these were expected at Indian airports by May 2024, an influential multi-agency committee set up by the government is evaluating whether 3D CTX and FBS scanners can address the nation’s specific security and cultural requirements. Indians often wear religious items like metallic bangles, which are sometimes difficult to remove. The agency is in discussions with the manufacturers about making India-specific scanners and guidelines. Their utility guidelines will also be customised to suit the Indian perspective. The committee is evaluating an FBS especially tailored for India that will promote less intrusive security checks and eliminate the need for physical pat-downs. Indian airports face long queues and a constant supply of plastic trays, which increases during winter when an additional tray is needed to keep the jackets. Previous Next