Movers And Shakers Of The Week [December 14-December 19]

We bring to you the latest edition of movers and shakers of the week in the Indian startup ecosystem.

This year saw massive protests from gig workers who are engaged with startups and companies such as Swiggy, Ola and Uber in India. They complained about a fall in wages amid the pandemic and the lack of a social security net for them and their families.

Echoing the same voice, a recent report titled, Fairwork India Ratings 2020: Labour Standards in the Platform Economy, ranks some of the prominent Indian companies based on the working conditions prevalent there for temporary workers and it assesses companies against five principles, namely, fair play, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management and fair representation.

The latest findings of the report revealed that the foodtech unicorns Swiggy and Zomato, as well as cab aggregator Uber, have been scored a paltry 1 out of 10 based on the criteria mentioned above. 

Among the other companies who’ve been assessed for the report, Ola, Housejoy, BigBasket and Amazon scored 2 out of 10, Grofers and Dunzo managed to score 4, Flipkart at 7 and Urban Company ranks at the top with a score of 8 out of 10. 

Meanwhile, as the inclination towards a digital workplace has become a new normal, Gen Z employees are constantly getting used to frequent messaging and important notifications. Therefore, Human Resource Platforms are also changing religiously to keep up with their speed and in the future, they will undergo a shift from cloud to mobile; aggregates into analytics, quantitative to qualitative, and work-based to behavioural economics.

Venkatesh Tarakkad Joins Ecom Express

 

Ecom Express has appointed Vankatesh Tarakkad as the chief financial officer who will be responsible for the company’s finance, accounts, legal, secretarial, commercial and administration functions besides spearheading business goals, including the profitability of the company.

With over 25 years of experience, he has worked with several retailers and wholesale brands, including TCNS, Metro Cash & Carry and Siam Makro. Venkatesh also served in finance positions at Coca Cola and Ernst & Young.

Milk Mantra Appoints Biswajit Mishra

 

Milk Mantra has appointed Biswajit Mishra as the chief financial officer (CFO). Prior to this, he was the chief financial officer for Aussee Oats Milling Pvt. Ltd.- a joint venture entity of Future Group.

He comes with more than 20 years of leadership experience and expertise in multi-functional CXO positions within the financial domain across the Indian subcontinent. Mishra has completed his management programme from IIM-Calcutta.

Harappa Education Expands Senior Leadership Team

Harappa Education has made key appointments in its senior management. It has appointed Kanika Mathur as chief marketing officer, Nilanjan Kar as President, Institutions & Enterprise; Mudit Shekhawat as chief consumer officer; Priya Krishnan as Vice President, International and Praveen Bahl as Vice President, Institutions.

Kanika Mathur who has joined as the CMO, comes with her over three years of company expertise, constructing manufacturers and enterprise advertising and marketing. Mathur was EVP, Client Partnerships & COO, China for the Mullen Lowe Group.

Nilanjan Kar, Harappa’s new President brings along 23 years of expertise as an enterprise chief and has previously served as the President, Enterprise Business at UpGrad and Vice President at StackRoute, an NIIT initiative.

Mudit Shekhawat, Chief Consumer Officer at Harappa, comes with 10 years of management expertise in advertising and marketing communications and he was the chief marketing officer of Yatra India.

Priya Krishnan comes with several years of experience in rising worldwide companies in South Asia, Europe and other regions. Previously, she was Director – Business Development & Marketing, South Asia, at IMAX Corporation.

MobiKwik Appoints Siddharth Dhamija

MobiKwik has appointed Siddharth Dhamija as CEO of Zaakpay. With a total of 23 years of experience and five years in payments, he led the enterprise business at PayPal India and was part of the founding team that launched PayPal’s domestic payments business.

He was also responsible for growing cross-border payments business and managing partnerships with global merchants present in India. Prior to PayPal, Siddharth was a part of the founding team at Razorpay as its chief growth officer.