< 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 India's PNG pipe dream 17 Apr 2026 Despite two decades of effort, only 16.2 million Indian homes, about 5% of all households, are connected to PNG, while over 330 million still rely on LPG. India consumes 26.5 million metric tonnes (mmt) of LPG annually but produces only 12.8 mmt. Since 90% of crude is imported, even domestic LPG is indirectly tied to global volatility. Although PNG networks are authorised across 307 geographical areas covering 98% of the population, last‑mile challenges, such as road digging, permissions, building constraints, and landlord approvals, slow actual household onboarding. Only 63% of installed PNG connections are active. City Gas Distribution (CGD) companies, operating as local monopolies, prioritise industrial and CNG demand over households due to better economics. Meanwhile, domestic APM gas, critical for affordable PNG, is limited and declining, thus pushing companies toward costlier LNG. The recent West Asian war disrupted the LPG supply chain, prompting several Indian states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Gujarat, to accelerate PNG network expansion. However, until infrastructure, supply, and economics align, PNG for every kitchen will remain aspirational. Check out my new book, THE FLAMES TURN WHITE – THE BLACK FLAMES SERIES BOOK II . A gripping, high-stakes mystery. Previous Next

An inspiring woman in sales, read Aditi's key learnings as a Salestor and her thoughts on how selling techniques have changed in the post-pandemic era. ADITI AGGARWAL Scaling New Heights With a Masters in Marketing from Manchester Business School, UK, Aditi has been a Salestor working across countries and industries for a decade and a half. She started her career with Manchester United and British clothing giant Primark. She happened to be among the first recruits hired to conceptualise India’s first F1 Racing Track Buddh International Circuit. She then moved on to American Express as Centurian Ambassador before joining the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) for strengthening the association between India and Australia in the Education sector. Now Heading Growth for Recur Club, Aditi has had a remarkable journey as a Salestor. An inspiration to Women in Sales, we caught up with her in Women’s Week 2022 to ask her opinion on these two key questions. How has your relationship with Sales been? Can you share some key learnings that Sales has taught you that changed your outlook in personal life? If you are good at sales one day, you would want to be the best as that’s what sales teaches you – to think on your feet, never rest. Targets and incentives keep me excited. Sales taught me perseverance and planning and that if you don’t have a sold pipeline, it will be harder to convert targets. How do you think Sales has changed in the post-pandemic era? The pandemic has made sales more relationship-driven. We all saw a time when the transanctional relationships were gone from our lives, and what prevailed was sales that were need-based, customer-centric and after-sales customer service driven. Let's Get Social Home

< Back Amazon sues Perplexity over agentic shopping feature 10 Nov 2025 Perplexity’s shopping AI assistant uses automation to place orders on behalf of others. Amazon sued Perplexity AI in the US District Court, Northern District of California, for misconduct. It alleges that Perplexity’s AI agent and Comet browser illegally accessed Amazon’s confidential customer data to enable shopping assist and complete purchases in Amazon store. It also claims that Perplexity disguised automated activity as human browsing. Amazon issued several requests to stop, which, it says, were ignored. Perplexity accused Amazon of bullying by sending a legal threat asking it to block Comet AI from accessing the shopping portal. It calls this Amazon’s bid to protect its dominance. Comet browser’s AI assist helps users make product comparisons and complete purchases. The Amazon app has Rufus, an AI assistant, that recommends items and manages carts. The company is developing tools like ‘Buy for me’, which allows users to shop across brands within the app. Check out my new book, THE BLACK FLAMES , on Amazon Kindle. A gripping, high-stakes novel. ⭐⭐⭐⭐.6 stars on Amazon ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on Goodreads Previous Next

< Back Govt rejects DIAL’s proposal to levy Airport Dev Fee for air train corridor 5 Jan 2024 Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) planned to levy an Airport Development Fee (ADF) to fund its latest ₹3,500 crore air train corridor project connecting all three airport terminals. The Ministry of Civil Aviation rejected GMR Group-operated DIAL’s plans to charge an Airport Development Fee (ADF) to fund its latest project of an Air Train Corridor connecting all three terminals. The ministry directed the organisation to levy a User Development Fee (UDF) instead once the train is operational. DIAL is now looking to raise funds via debt or equity. Passengers currently rely on cabs and buses to travel between terminals, and this project will reduce travel time. ADF pre-funds airport infrastructure projects and allows operators to charge passengers for infrastructure upgrades. A UDF is levied after project completion if the airport fails to generate adequate returns. The earlier proposal included four stops at T1, T3, cargo terminal, and Aerocity, which may increase to six to attract more paying customers. Airports Authority of India supported levying UDF, which guarantees 46% of revenue to be shared with the airport operator. Previous Next

< Back Cropin launches micro-language model, Aksara, for climate-smart agriculture 17 Apr 2024 Micro model is cheaper and better energy efficient than large language models. Bengaluru-based Agriculture intelligence company Cropin launched an open-source microlanguage model, Aksara, to facilitate smart agriculture practices. The model will address farmer problems in the Global South regions, which includes Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia excluding South Korea and Japan, and Oceania, excluding Australia and New Zealand. It is based on Mistral’s seven billion parameters foundation generative text model. It offers best practices and ideas for proper seeding, nursery preparation, and water conservation. It covers nine crops, including millets, maize, paddy, wheat, cotton, soybean, barley, sorghum, and sugarcane, cultivated in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan. The model will accommodate more languages besides English, more regions, and crops in the next six months. Founded in 2010, Cropin sells agriculture-intelligent solutions in over 103 countries. The model promotes sustainable agricultural practices and energy efficiency. It can enable underserved farmers to create cost-effective, scalable AI-based smart agriculture solutions. Previous Next

< Back India-UK deal most important for Britain after Brexit: PM Starmer 28 Jul 2025 The negotiations began in January 2022 and culminated on May 6th, 2025. India and the UK signed the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) on July 24, following over three years of negotiations. It aims to double the bilateral trade of goods and services by 2030 from the current $56 billion. 99% of the Indian exports, including auto parts, engineering goods, textiles and leather, footwear, organic chemicals, and toys, will gain duty-free access. India has halved the tariff on scotch whisky to 75% with immediate effect and will reduce it to 40% over the next decade. PM Modi says the deal will benefit Indian farmers, MSMEs, footwear and jewellery exports, and seafood and engineering goods sectors. The UK’s aerospace parts and medical devices will face lower tariffs and be available at a cheaper price in India. The UK is the first country to sign a trade deal with the US in May; India is currently in the process of signing one. Never miss another post from SalestorrsNews150. Follow Salestorrs on WhatsApp , LinkedIn , Facebook , X , and Instagram . Previous Next

< Back What made Meesho the most downloaded shopping app globally? Ishita Nigam 23 Aug 2023 Meesho, backed by Meta, surpassed amazon and Flipkart as the fastest growing app with 500 million downloads in 2022. Meesho, launched in 2015, has defied the eCommerce norms to become the most downloaded shopping app in the world. Unlike amazon and Flipkart, that aim at the top 5% buyers of home appliances and smartphones, Meesho focuses on unbranded items like jeans, kurtas, gadgets, and footwear for the non-metro, small town audience. It offers branded products too, like boAt, Paragon, Zebronics, Decathlon, and Portronics in its app-in-app 'Meesho Mall'. What sets it apart from competitors is that it permits users to resell their purchased items to family and friends by posting product listings on WhatsApp. Moreover, its zero commission model allows sellers to offer their products at much cheaper prices. But that's not it. To strengthen its reach in small towns, it reduced the size of its app to 13.6 MB so it can be easily downloaded and installed in areas with limited internet connectivity. It reached 500 million downloads in 2022, surpassing Amazon and Flipkart. Previous Next

Sales Talk with a Sales Person who has achieved great heights in a career spanning over a decade, across industries. Sales talk with Aditi Aggarwal Director - Education, Australian Trade and Investment Commission, South Asia With a Masters in Marketing from Manchester Business School, UK, Aditi has been a Salestor working across countries and industries for a decade and a half. She started her career with Manchester United and British clothing giant Primark, happened to be among the first recruits hired to conceptualise India’s first F1 Racing Track, working with American Express (AMEX) as Centurion Card Ambassador for almost 6 years and now working with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) for strengthening association between India and Australia in the Education sector, Aditi has had an impressive journey as a Salestor. For my next piece, I thought of connecting with her to map her journey and get some key takeaways as a fellow Salestor. Hi Aditi! Thanks for agreeing to be my first guest Salestor for the blog. The beginning of your career really stands out. You did Masters in Marketing from UK and have worked in both the countries, India and the UK. Why did you choose Sales over Marketing? I had a flair for promoting something I had confidence in. It was easy to get a sales job in the beginning and marketing seemed more like a desk job to me. Can you briefly share some similarities and differences in selling in the two countries? UK is very professional and systematic. Cultural differences in the sales process affect and create differences. India is more relationship oriented. You mostly make a network first and then sell in it. You then joined the Jaypee Group to build India’s first F1 Racing Circuit and were among the first recruits for the job. For Buddh Int’l Circuit, how easy was striking the first deal, or getting the first client on board as a Salestor? Very difficult as it was something new for the country. To make a sale, I had to make so many calls, hear a hundred no's before one yes . But perseverance helped. I kept at it and got my first client. You have switched many industries in your career as a Salestor, which many people find difficult. Which key traits helped you adjust to the different demands of Sales in different industries? Getting trained for the industry, understanding the role and passion to sell anything. You have worked in both B2C and B2B industries. What similarities and differences exist in sales in the two domains? What are the key pointers to keep in mind when transitioning between B2B and B2C industries? B2B is harder, has a longer sales cycle and is more relationship oriented than hard core sales. B2C, I found easier. It requires less planning and decision makers are fewer. Two years back, you joined Australian Government (Austrade). The profile here is different from sales as it involves more of government liaison. What was the transition like from a B2C Salestor to a Government official? Very tough. I had to do lot of unlearning and learning at the same time. Work is very different, is more protocol driven and the environment is very different from corporates too. Promotion and selling of a country happens very differently than that of a product or a service. What was that one deal or one client that really gave you sleepless nights for onboarding or closure? How long did it take and what was a key trait that helped you sail through the process? Can you share the key takeaways from the experience? It was for three Owners/Directors/Chairman of Muthoot Group when I was a Centurion Ambassador with AMEX and they made me really work hard for that deal because initially they were not convinced what Centurion could really add to their profile. There were a few challenges like connecting with the decision maker, which happened through their team so there was a time lag in reaching out to them. Then they were from a traditional background and Centurion is a luxury product, not very easy to understand and not a product which shows a money benefit at the first glance. It does come with monetary features but you got to compliment it with other features which are value for the buck. So you try to understand it and sometimes it is hard to put a price to those features. That deal was very hard but perseverance and developing a relationship with the juniors helped me get those clients on board. I remember I was in Australia with my husband on a holiday, but I was in touch with them all the time. I remember it was the New Year’s eve when they wanted to get on a call to finalise it and I was up for it because it was important to me. So I did it. Perseverance, great follow up and making sure I knew each and every detail of the account helped me. There was an incident wherein one of the directors had a sour experience so I ensured it did not repeat and the Relationship Manager kept me updated with entire detail on a regular basis. That is when I pitched again and kept my graceful follow up without intruding. Honestly speaking, did you prepare for every client meeting? Did you ever warm up before an important client meeting? So preparation is very important, even if being a great Salestor comes naturally to you. You really got to believe in the product and your product knowledge has to be thorough as the confidence to sell comes from it and nothing else. Some people say that they don’t prepare for a client meeting. Of course you prepare! If you don’t, you’re a fool. You can’t be sitting across the table without it. I converted about 1200 centurion clients across the country. I could not have sat across the table with the Ambani’s or Birla’s of the industries pretending I know it all without actually knowing about my product and their business. It is like spoiling a chance. Even if it is not necessarily for your product, but knowledge about the person, their business, what are they up to, their lives is important. It tells the person that you are worth their time. Closure comes in the end, but all that goes before is your preparation. So, I did thorough preparation before every client meeting and sometimes I also rehearsed. All my pitches were very different. Any tips or key traits of business you may like to share with our fellow Salestors, who are anxious or grappling with present tough times of a pandemic? Try to find a niche for yourself, like industry, sector, product which excites you and you are inquisitive to know about. Which will drive you out of bed every day. I was always curious to know what does a billionaire do in the morning and what could my company give him that would interest him. It kept me going, enquiring more. Pandemic is a very interesting time. While industries have suffered, but there are sectors like software, SaaS, social media who have come up with interesting opportunities for Salestors. Explore those, be in the direction of the wind. There are upcoming sectors which have evolved in the past 8-9 months. Keep an eye on them. You have worked with some market leaders of their respective industries while your better-half is a budding entrepreneur. What are your thoughts over working with established brands vs. start-ups ? Me and my husband are a duo and our careers are planned. The maths behind it is that one person is exploring and the other person has a fixed income, which in such a volatile environment comes from a settled job. I explored a lot of sectors, but I made sure that not even a day was wasted because my husband was exploring entrepreneurship. It is a very high road to take and very tough as initially you are not sure when the money would start flowing in. for the initial years, he didn’t take a single buck home. Even if he got any salary, he reinvested it in the company, people or better software products. The two environments are extremely different. A start-up gives you the kick, lets you explore since the processes are not defined and offers excitement of the room full of opportunities and possibilities. In a large company, processes and protocols are set. Established brands are driven by strategies and prior successes. The room for trying out something completely new is less when you are playing with a big load of money and brand value. It is a lot of responsibility. You decide what you want based on the opportunity in front of you. You did your Masters from an internationally accredited university and are now working closely with the Australian government in the education sector. Any advice to the budding students who are in the process of charting out their career paths? Education is a key pillar, but choosing your own domain, investing your time in one certain direction determines how well can you blend in. World is full of opportunities and they are closer in the virtual world. Try to be flexible in widening your horizon and then see how can you make a difference. Start working in that direction then, even though it may take time. Whatever helps you get up every morning and stay excited. And then there are myths like I love my job and everything about it. I don’t think something like that happens every day. Ultimately, it should inspire you and keep you going. *** Also read: Sales Disasters: Learnings from the Past 5 Habits that Help Salestors Sail Through the Lean Periods We would love to know what you thought of this interview. Please share your comments below!

< Back IndiGo to launch business class seats this year 24 May 2024 The low-cost carrier announced this plan along with its record profit figure of ₹8,172.50 crore in FY2024. IndiGo announced on Thursday its plans to introduce business class on the busiest routes in India before the end of 2024. Thirty-five of IndiGo’s planes will be fitted with eight rows of business-class seats. The company will release further product details around its 18th anniversary in August. Its low-cost model and charging for all extra services and food on board catapulted the airline to the top position in the country with a 60% market share. The airline management wants to leverage this position to scale up in the international market. Currently, only Air India, Vistara, and Air India Express’ 737 MAX8 operate business-class seats in India. Previously, Jet Airways alone offered over 10,000 business class seats per week before its closure in April 2019. This number has plummeted to around 7,000 now. Last month, IndiGo surpassed American Southwest Airlines to become the world's third-largest airline by market capital. Previous Next

< Back EPFO may allow PF withdrawal via an ATM card from Jan’25 13 Dec 2024 The Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is upgrading its IT infrastructure to be at par with banking systems. By January 2025, EPFO plans to upgrade its IT infrastructure to improve service delivery, simplify claim settlements, and streamline PF withdrawals. The new system 2.1 will offer a PF withdrawal card that can be used in ATMs to pull out up to 50% of the PF balance. Under the new system, a beneficiary, claimant, or insured person will be able to withdraw PF money from the ATM. Beneficiaries will be able to use it in case of the member’s death. This may be possible once beneficiaries connect their bank accounts with the deceased member’s PF account. However, the overall PF rules remain unchanged. Employees cannot withdraw PF while employed. 75% of their PF becomes available if someone is unemployed for a month. 100% is available for withdrawal after two months of unemployment. Members can withdraw a part of PF in case of a medical emergency, marriage, house purchase or renovation. Previous Next

< Back Meesho to enter fintech, build a credit marketplace 6 Feb 2024 It will launch a credit marketplace for borrowers on behalf of banks and Non-Banking Financial Corporations (NBFCs). Another eCommerce industry unicorn, Meesho, plans to diversify its portfolio by entering the fintech and e-grocery business. It will launch a platform for borrowers on behalf of lending partners like the banks and NBFCs in FY2025. It will earn a commission on every loan disbursed. It will begin with offering merchant loans and slowly move to consumer lending, focusing on smaller cities. At present, 80% of Meesho’s sellers are retail business owners. The brand earns through advertising and seller services. Its competitors, Amazon, Flipkart, and Tata Neu, already offer consumer and merchant lending services. Meesho intends to build an entire credit offering system, including credit underwriting and fraud detection. It will build an in-house credit risk and data science team, too. Meesho scaled down its grocery business in 2022 and rebranded it from Farmiso to Meesho Superstore. It cut 48% losses in FY2023 and turned profitable in July 2023. Previous Next