News Roundup: 11 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [6July – 11July]

Housing.com, this week named its chief operating officer Rishabh Gupta as the interim chief executive, a week after the former CEO Rahul Yadav got fired from the company.

Lets have a look at the important developments of the week:

Taxiforsure CEO Arvind Singhal quits

He resigned from the company and Pallav Singh who is one of the early employees at Ola as the CEO while the former will be working in a consulting role over the next three months. The resignation comes four months after Ola acquired TaxiForSure for $200Mn.

Flipkart’s CTO Amod Malviya and Engineering Head Sameer Nigam Quits

Amod Malviya, who joined the company in 2011, has been moved to an advisory role while Senior Vice President of Engineering, Sameer Nigam has left Flipkart.

Microsoft Ventures Launches @cceler8

Microsoft Ventures has decided to streamline their application process and include their partner programs like ISDI, Reliance GenNext and Deshpande foundation’s Sandbox into one and call it @cceler8. Whatever stage the startup is in, the application will find the right accelerator program for it. The accelerators under this program are Accelerator, Accelerator Plus, Scale Up, Hi Po, BizSpark, BizSpark Plus, GenNext Innovation Hub, Sandbox Startup.

High Court revokes Ban on Uber

The Delhi High Court has lifted the eight month long ban on Uber taxi service in Delhi. Uber has again asked the state transport department to issue the company a fresh radio taxi license. The taxi service was banned in the capital after one of its drivers had allegedly raped a girl last december.

Paytm to invest $100Mn to go big on seller’s platform

Paytm, an mcommerce platform had announced an investment of $100 Mn into its “Go Big” platform to help small and medium sellers go online and leverage the benefits of selling through its marketplace. The platform can help merchants avail services including content writing, cataloguing, online marketing and imaging.

Uber to set up its Biggest International Office in Hyderabad

The app-based taxi hailing company will invest $50Mn in Hyderabad to set up its biggest global office housing around 500 employees in the next five years. The American company has signed an agreement with Telangana government for setting up the state-of-the-art facility, as it is ramping up Indian operations. It has expanded its services in seven Indian cities, making India the company’s largest geographical market outside the United States of America. Uber will collaborate with the Telangana Academy for Skills and Knowledge (TASK) to identify and train over 2,000 candidates by the end of 2016, who will then drive on the Uber platform.

Paytm Launches P2P Fund Transfer Service For Its Users

The new peer-to-peer fund transfer service will enable users deposit and transfer money into another person’s Paytm wallet.

Shaadi.com Founder Anupam Mittal Steps Down

Founder and CEO of Shaadi.com, Anupam Mittal stepped down from his role as the CEO to focus on company’s corporate developments, new businesses and international expansions. Gourav Rakshit, former chief operating officer will take over Anupam’s role as CEO of Shaadi.com.

Flipkart to Go App-Only, This September

Within two months of Myntra going app only, now Flipkart plans to follow the suit. Flipkart’s app will allow e-tailers to create personalized shopping experiences through user’s location, preferences and purchase patterns, a feature not available on website.

Ex Vodafone CEO Arjun Sarin Joins OLA Board

Ola has appointed ex-Vodafone CEO, Arjun Sarin as an independent director. Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of Ola said, “The Vodafone brand under his leadership was serving over 300 million customers globally, with a market capitalization of $150bn.”

Lets have a look at other developments of the week

Healthstart Partners With HITLAB For World Cup 2015

The aim of this partnership is to promote the rapid diffusion of health technology based startups that will improve global public health. The World Cup will be held at IIT Delhi on 7th August.

Voxpop Ties Up With Threadless, design crowdsourcing portal

This association will allow customers to access up to 220K artist and over 400K original designs, giving an exposure to the artists. VoxPop already holds partnerships with brands like Marvel, Disney, DC/WB, Star Wars, Warner Brothers.

Snapdeal has appointed Govind Rajan as its Chief Marketing Officer

Govind Rajan, who has earlier served in Airtel as Chief Marketting Officer, will be joining Snapdeal in August. In July last year, he took the charge as CEO of Airtel, taking the charge from Sriram Jagannathan. Rajan has also worked in Hindustan Unilever (HUL) for 15 years at various positions including regional vice president of south Asia for skin cleansing and vice president of the skincare business.

Zomato has appointed Surobhi Das as its new COO

Surobhi Das, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, has replaced Pankaj Chaddah who is tasked to lead a new food-ordering and table-bookings business at Zomato. Deepinder Goyal, chief executive officer (CEO) of the company said, “With this realignment, Pankaj will be able to find product market for all new products and then move these businesses over to Surobhi as soon as possible.”

Twitter India appoints Mahima Kaul as its Public Policy Head

Mahima Kaul had a stint at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), where she worked as a fellow for over 2 years has a experience in leading the cyber and new media initiative and was on the CyFy committee.Her journalism experience includes being an online video editor and Senior sub editor at The Indian Express, anchor and correspondent at NewsX. Before this, Kaul worked as a researcher at Centre for Policy Research.

Square Yards Sold Flats Worth $40 Mn Online In Less Than 19 Hours

This real estate advisory with its  recommerce platform had sold 350 flats worth $40Mn on 5th July, for Antriksh Group’s project, Urban Greek through augmented reality platform ‘Scapes’ and online booking engine, becoming the  third company in India to sell homes online after Housing.com and Snapdeal.

Practo Introduces Online Diagnostic Lab Search

Users can search labs on the app, check their quality  and also apply filters to see which labs offer a digital report. Practo expanded its offering to find the closest diagnostic center in eight cities, namely Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik and Trivandrum and will later expand to 35 other cities in India and international markets.

Edutor Partnered With Pearson, A  Global Education Company

This collaboration will enable Pearson to provide digital textbooks to over 11000 students across 13 campuses at CTI Education Group (CTI) and Midrand Graduate Institute (MGI) in South Africa. This will offer students access to requisite textbooks anytime, anywhere without internet access with the help of ‘Ignitor’ platform which converts tablet into educational device. The gadget comes with an integrated epub3/pdf reader with built-in annotations and note taking.

Ixigo launched PNR Prediction for Railways

Ixigo will now be able to show the near accurate probability with which the ticket will confirm, so that travellers may decide whether or not to book a waitlisted ticket. PNR prediction feature also shows the probability of getting the ticket confirmed if already booked.

Spice Digital Went Into A Partnership with Ezetap

This partnership will help consumers in availing the services of travel bookings, mobile & DTH recharge, domestic money transfer, bill payments by card payment instead of the existing cash payment.This solution is comprised of a secure and lightweight card reader, a configurable mobile application, and a flexible platform that allows Ezetap to provide customized value-added services and integrate with a merchant’s existing systems.

Meru becomes the 1st Cab in World  to Partner with Multiple Wallets

Meru cabs has announced partnership with two more mobile payment service providers –Mobikwik & Paytm after tying up with Citrus last year, to offer its customers cashless travel.  The revised app is now available for Android Devices, iPhones, Windows Phone and Blackberry smartphones.