Travel Search Engine Kayak Enters India
- Global travel search engine KAYAK has announced its entry into the Indian market with initiall offer on information of hotels, flights &car rental providing innovative travel tools to help people search, plan & manage their travel.
- The company helps travellers get the information they need before they book & offers tools & features to assist them throughout their trip.
McDonald's sell China Operation for $2.08 Billion
- US fast-food giant McDonald’ announced to sell its businesses in mainland China and Hong Kong for $2.08 billion to Citic, a state-owned conglomerate, and the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm.
- Citic Limited, Citic Capital Holdings, Carlyle Group and McDonald's will form a company that will act as the franchisee responsible for the chain's business in mainland China and Hong Kong for 20 years.
- Citic and Citic Capital will have a stake of 52%, Carlyle will take 28%, and McDonald's will hold 20% of the new company.
ISRO, CNES Ink Pact on Satellite Launch
- Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, and French Space agency (CNES) has signed a partnership agreement in satellite launch technology.
- ISRO is the second partner of CNES, in terms of volume, after NASA.
HMD Global Launches Nokia 6
- HMD Global, the Finnish company that owns the rights to use Nokia’s brand on mobile phones, announced its first smartphone, targeted for Chinese users that priced at 1699 Yuan ( Rs 16,000 approx).
- The new device, Nokia 6, runs on Google’s Android platform and is manufactured by Foxconn.
S. Padmanabhan set to become Chairman of Tata
- Tata Power has notified that S Padmanabhan has been nominated as chairman of the board of directors of the company.
- Last month, Padmanabhan was appointed the Additional Director.
Amazon Wins Patent for Flying Warehouse to Deliver Parcels via Drones
- The U.S. e-commerce giant, Amazon has been awarded a patent for launching a giant flying warehouse that would act as a launch pad for drones to deliver items within minutes.
- The U.S. e-commerce giant described plans for an "airborne fulfilment centre" (AFC) such as an airship or blimp that would float at an altitude of around 45,000.
IBM India names Karan Bajwa as MD
- Technology giant IBM said it has appointed Karan Bajwa Managing Director of its India operations. He was previously with Microsoft as a India’s managing director.
- Bajwa joined IBM last year as Executive for Strategy and Transformation in the Asia Pacific region and succeeds Vanitha Narayana, who has been elevated as Chairman of IBM India.
Bank of Baroda Ties up with CNX Corporation
- Public sector lender Bank of Baroda has entered into a partnership with CNX Corporation (CNX) with an objective to provide collateral management services towards the loans against warehouse receipt sanctioned to the farmers through the network of the bank’s branches.
- CNX is engaged in providing warehouse management services relating to commodities and inventories.
Paytm received final approval of the Reserve Bank for Payment Bank
- Paytm on 3 Jan 2017 notified that it has received final approval of the Reserve Bank to formally launch its payments bank and it expects to start operations next month.
- Payments banks can accept deposits from individuals and small businesses up to Rs 1 lakh per account.
- A total of 21 entities were given in-principle nod last year, including 11 for payments banks. Later, three entities -- Tech Mahindra, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company and a consortium of Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor Financial Services -- backed out of the payments bank licensing.
- Currently, Airtel is the only player that has commenced Payments Bank operations. Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank is expected to launch services in the first half of 2017.
Mother Dairy Launch Aadhaar-enabled Mode
- Mother Dairy has introduced Aadhar enabled payment system(AEPS) in more than 1,000 milk booths & ‘Safal’ retail stores which does not require any physical cash or card to make the transactions.
- The service was commissioned in association with CSC e-Governance Service India Ltd under the aegis of Department of Electronics and Information Technology (Deity).
