India Business

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer said Tuesday it reached a deal to sell 40 E175 passenger jets to US airline SkyWest for nearly $1.7 billion.

Mexican telecommunications giant America Movil says it has agreed to buy US mobile operator Start Wireless Group for an undisclosed amount.

India needs to take sector-specific action and develop a mechanism to track the achievements in each area to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions, says a study conducted by WWF-India. The Indian government aims to reduce carbon emissions by 20-25 percent from the 2005 levels by 2020.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced Tuesday that the government would ban online lottery "Online lotto".

Works for the Rs.200-crore proposed integrated check post at Petrapole on the India-Bangladesh border are slow moving due to problems regarding land acquisition and obtaining clearances from different agencies, an official said Tuesday.

Kolkata-based non-banking finance company Srei Infrastructure Finance Tuesday said its board has okayed to raise funds up to Rs.1,500 crore by public issue of debentures in one or more tranches this fiscal.

Here is a great way to integrate an online shopping experience into people’s offline world.  Popular online fashion and lifestyle portal Yebhi.com has followed the footsteps of Homeshop 18 and rolled out 30 virtual stores across Café Coffee Day outlets in two cities — Delhi and Bangalore. The stores boast of a virtual wall that showcases the range of products offered by the portal, along with their QR codes and Near Field Codes (NFC). Customers can view, choose and buy these Yebhi merchandise directly through scanning the product codes with their smartphone. Giving further insights about the launching these stores,  Manmohan Agarwal, Founder-CEO, Yebhi.com said, “We are adding another service level by introducing a virtual wall. The idea is to make shopping simple, quick and easy. Also, with smart-phone penetration increasing, we see more online purchases happening through the mobile phone.” The online portal aims to target students as well as office goers and has partnered the coffee stores near college campuses and corporate offices. As a promotional initiative, Yebhi has also come up with INR 200 discount to the customers who purchase from these stores . Yebhi’s new Chief Business Officer, Nikhil Rungta said that that nearly 10 per cent of Yebhi.com’s business comes through mobile devices as users spend a lot of their time on them. So, engaging with users on this platform is necessary. Hence, he believes such an initiative will take online shopping to next level by touching base with Yebhi’s customers and allowing them to shop from anywhere, anytime. The virtual store concept started in 2009 when the British grocery chain Tesco launched its HomePlus service in South Korea, which installed posters that look exactly like a grocery store aisle onto the walls of subway stations. Commuters could actually buy the groceries while waiting for their train and the items would be delivered home. There were reports recently that suggested Yebhi was in for another round of funding. The portal introduced it own Wallet service for users in January this year. I believe this is a great initiative by the company and people especially youngsters would at least out of curiosity want to try them. This might take some time until people will adapt to this form of shopping. However, as smartphone and mobile internet penetration surges, so does the mobile commerce market. Retailers that implement mobile as part of their strategy will have an early advantage in a market that’s growing faster than online commerce. What do you think of the initiative? Let us know with your comments. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Over 125 jewellers from India and abroad will showcase their exclusive diamond and gold jewellery at the sixth edition of the Hyderabad Jewellery Pearl and Gem Fair (HJF) here June 7 to June 9.

Sociomantic Labs, which provides solutions for eCommerce marketers, has extended its operation in India with a new office in Mumbai and has appointed Mahesh Narayanan as Managing Director, India. He will be responsible to build the team and manage growth in India. Narayanan joined AdMob as Country Head for India in June 2009. Following Google’s acquisition of AdMob in 2010 he worked at Google as Country Head, Mobile. Prior to AdMob, he was the founding member of Google India’s direct sales operations in 2005. He has also worked with companies such as Rediff.com, Bidorbuyindia.com, Baazee.com, Mediaturf Worldwide and Times Now. Sociomantic Labs claims that it displays campaigns for eCommerce advertisers in more than 50 countries. Sociomantic Labs has offices in Berlin, Warsaw, Paris, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, Moscow, New York, London, Madrid, and now in Mumbai. The company has an  has employee count of 100 people and hopes to double its employees in the next 12 months. Sociomantic Labs provides an interface for streamlined real-time display of ads. It provides services such as Real time bidding of ad impressions, global RTB reach, and ability to create personalized creatives for ads.

Tata Motors, under its new management, has been trying hard to revive the sales. The management is conducting several changes in the company’s plans and one of the prime initiatives is to introduce aggressive products in the current lineup. The SUV range from Tata will be the first to get and overall change in the process. The introduction of the Tata Safari Storme was one of the biggest initiatives by the company and the next vehicles in the line are Sumo Gold, Tata Aria and even the Sumo Grande. The Aria facelift is still on the cards but it may appear soon. Facelift from the Sumo is almost ready. Tata has introduced several changes in the products and is even planning to price them aggressively. The Tata Sumo Gold will also be receiving several top of the line features and will appear in the market by June. On the other hand Aria may receive a new touchscreen infotainment system that has already been witnessed on Indica D90 and Indigo Manza. The new system will provide satellite navigation, Bluetooth connectivity and USB support. Company is also planning to price it aggressively as it is planning to dazzle the market with the product. The Aria may arrive with the 6 speed automatic ZF transmission. Company is planning to reveal additional variants for Safari Storme, one a more powerful version that will be producing about 165 bhp of power and peak torque of 400 Nm. There is also a possibility of the automatic offering on the Storme platform with the same 6 speed ZF transmission. Those who put style more, they will have a more stylish version of Storme with 10 speaker Harman Kardon music system and with touch screen infotainment system. Tata motors is also said to be working on the next generation of the vehicle with the Land Rover team. The next gen vehicle will be sharing the Land Rover technology, which can surely make things difficult for the competitors. But that is a long road to go and will take lot of time until the vehicle reaches the production stage. So, for now major focus will be on the current product line up and their expansion and revival.