If there’s one thing that’s fast, it’s time. It was like we all woke up to new year 2017 and before we know it, there’s just one month left of it. November is fast passing by too, with the first week of it already coming to an end. As a ritual, we have compiled the latest news in the Indian startup and business scene.
The month has already begun on a good note, with the release of the annual Ease of Doing Business Index by World Bank. In the list of top countries to foster business, India plunged 30 steps to become one of the top 100 countries to provide a good ecosystem for starting businesses. You can read the entire article here (link to the ease of doing business article).
Harley Davidson, one of the premier heavyweight motorcycles, is all set to face the heat as India’s most popular and crowd-favorite motorcycle mammoth Royal Enfield is all set to enter the 650cc market. The twin-engine bike that got recently launched arrives as India’s answer to the Street 750 from Harley Davidson. It’s going to be interesting to see if Royal Enfield’s decision to send 10 of its new launch to across 700 showrooms each to meet Harley’s annual sales.
Ola, on the other hand, is taking tech upgrades seriously as it recently tied up with none other than Microsoft to develop a connected-car platform. With Microsoft being the cloud service provider, Ola will make use of IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the tech support of Microsoft to roll out smarts cars for a better driving experience. Such cars are eyed by automobile companies and can give drivers and passengers crucial information on vehicle diagnostics, efficiency, enhanced navigation, predictive maintenance and more.
The India software giant Infosys is all set to open an innovation hub in the US, specifically Indiana. Mr. Nandan Nilakeni shared that he is aiming to set up many more hubs in the future, starting off with the one in Indiana. The company will be hiring over 2000 employees from the local universities there and also recruit experienced people.
Companies that believe competition is from within have always succeeded in the market. One such company to grow rapidly in the recent times has been Paytm. Coming under the limelight during the demonetization period, Paytm quickly surged ahead in terms of market share and userbase. Now, it aims for further growth and is geared up to invest another 5,000 crores on mobile payments. Vijay Shekhar Sharma believes that the biggest threat to Paytm is itself and that when more foreign companies enter the mobile payments market, there will be full-fledged benchmarking of products and increased expectations. In an attempt to stand tall in the market, the investment of this huge funding would help. This comes after news on Apply Pay coming to India with rumors and speculations claiming that it would debut by Christmas 2017 in our country.
With this week gotten over, we will have to patiently wait and watch what the second week of November has to offer Indian startups and business. What prediction do you have in mind?