Business

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Zomato-owned quick grocery delivery platform Blinkit has launched Brand Stores, where companies can showcase their products in a way that is tailored to their style.

At Brand Stores, companies also have the avenue to create custom pages or flows on the page that allow them to highlight different products or engage with customers if they want to deliver a message about the brand.

More than 20 brands are now part of the initiative, according to Blinkit.

"At this point, we are operational in over 500 localities giving access to our customers of over 13,000 unique items," said the company.

Once set up, brands can also look at real-time analytics around performance of their pages, what is working and what is not.

Brands can create different kinds of content and sections according to what they feel is more relevant to their presence on the platform, or what their customers might like, said Blinkit.

"Brands can also utilise their own design language and design assets to make the brand store experience more immersive for their new or loyal customers," it added.

The quick commerce platform reported Q3 FY23 losses at Rs 288.5 crore, according to Zomato's quarterly results.

Blinkit managed to narrow its adjusted EBITDA to Rs 227 crore from Rs 259 crore on a sequential basis.

The instant delivery platform recorded 31 lakh transacting customers in Q3, up from 26 lakh in the previous quarter.

Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa had said these macro slowdowns are not likely to have a large-scale impact on the company's growth metrics.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Feb 16 (IANS) World's largest crypto exchange Binance is likely to pay "monetary penalties" to settle investigations into its business in the US, the media reported.

Binance chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann told the Wall Street Journal that the exchanges' executives were "unfamiliar with laws and rules written surrounding bribery, corruption and money laundering".

"Binance is working with regulators to figure out what are the remediations we have to go through now to make amends for that," he was quoted as saying in the report.

The outcome could range from "like a fine" to "could be more", Hillmann said.

Binance is reportedly facing a probe by the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has also reportedly sent at least two trading firms subpoenas in recent months, requesting records of their past dealings with Binance US.

Hillman did not estimate the size of the fines or a timeline for when the investigation might be settled, according to the report.

He said he was "highly confident and feeling really good about where those discussions are going".

The regulatory scrutiny on Binance has increased after the collapse of FTX last November.

Since the bankruptcy of FTX, Binance has been seeking to prove it has all of its customers' reserves.

In December, customers withdrew $1.14 billion in just 12 hours from Binance.

According to its CEO Changpeng Zhao, the massive withdrawals were "handled with ease" and "things seem to have stabilised".

--IANS
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New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Industrial manufacturing major Siemens on Thursday announced the launch of private industrial 5G router, a critical component for the manufacturing industry in its digital transformation journey.

If there is no available 5G network, the device switches automatically to 4G or 3G networks.

The applications on private industrial 5G offer long-term benefits to a wide range of customer segments such as intra-logistics, autonomous machines, industrial edge, remote diagnostics, augmented reality, assisted work, wireless backhaul, edge computing and mobile equipment.

While in most consumer applications the focus is mainly on high data rates, industrial networks tend to focus more on low latency and high availability.

"This is where private 5G networks step in as they can be configured to suit the requirements of the manufacturing industry. Private 5G networks also offer data security," said Suprakash Chaudhuri, Head -- Digital Industries, Siemens Limited.

Siemens' industrial 5G routers — Scalance MUM856-1 and MUM853-1 will enable enhanced Mobile broadband transmission, massive machine type communication and ultra-reliable low latencies.

The routers connect local industrial applications to public 5G, 4G (LTE) and 3G (UMTS) mobile wireless networks.

These can be used to remotely monitor and service plants, machines, control elements, and other industrial devices via a public 5G network -- flexibly and with high data rates.

‘Scalance MUM856-1' offers high bandwidths of up to 1000 Mbps for the downlink and up to 500 Mbps for the uplink -- providing high data rates for data-intensive applications such as the remote implementation of firmware updates.

The devices can also be implemented in modern communication networks.

Various security functions are included in order to monitor data traffic and protect against unauthorised access, said the company.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Feb 16 (IANS) Cloud infrastructure provider DigitalOcean is laying off about 11 per cent of its workforce, or nearly 200 employees, the media reported.

About 100 employees were let go immediately and another 100 will be sacked shortly, reports The Register, citing sources.

The report said the company showcased a slide to employees about the staff reduction at a meeting late on Wednesday.

"Our goal was to do this once so we would move forward towards business as usual again. Ongoing reductions are disruptive to the business and more importantly our employees, and we would like to minimise this as much as possible," said the company.

"There is no plan at this moment in time to conduct future reductions in force," according to DigitalOcean.

The company did not officially comment on layoffs.

Some of the employees, who were fired, posted about their layoffs on social media sites, including LinkedIn.

According to the report, DigitalOcean "also conducted a management reorganisation".

DigitalOcean reported $152.1 million in revenue for its third quarter of 2022, an increase of 37 per cent year-on-year.

The Cloud fire reported gross profit of $97.6 million. The company was likely to report its Q4 2022 results on Thursday.

DigitalOcean is headquartered in New York City, with several globally distributed data centres.

DigitalOcean provides developers, startups, and SMBs with cloud infrastructure-as-a-service platforms.

It also runs Hacktoberfest, a one month-long celebration of open source software held in October.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Feb 14 (IANS) US-based cloud communications company Twilio has announced to lay off about 17 per cent of its global workforce amid cost-cutting measures.

In addition, Twilio will reorganise its internal organisation and create two business units -- Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications.

"We have to spend less, streamline, and become more efficient. To do that, we're forming two business units: Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications. And today, I'm unfortunately bearing the news that we're parting ways with approximately 17 per cent of our team," Twilio co-founder and CEO Jeff Lawson wrote in an email sent to all Twilio employees.

In September last year, Twilio sacked 11 per cent of its employees -- more than 850 people from its 7,800-strong workforce globally.

All affected employees will receive health coverage and career resources, as well as 12 weeks of base pay plus one week per year of service, according to the company.

Moreover, the company is ending some benefits, such as book and wellness allowances, as well as Twilio Recharge, a four-week paid sabbatical offered to employees every three years.

Twilio also plans to close some of its offices over the next few months.

"As part of our shift to remote work, we plan to close some Twilio offices over the next few months, with the intent of maintaining at least a handful of global hubs and satellite offices," said Lawson.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Feb 14 (IANS) In more bad news for global workers, tech and biotech companies in the Silicon Valley in the US are preparing for multiple rounds of fresh job cuts, the media reported.

To date, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Twitter, Salesforce, PayPal, RingCentral and Zymergen have all filed WARN notices that reflect at least two distinct rounds of layoffs.

Six of the eight companies filed disclosures of planned job cuts this year, a review of the WARN notices showed.

"As of February 9, these were the 10 most recent WARN notices that tech or biotech companies filed to disclose job cuts in the Bay Area," the report mentioned.

Tech and biotech companies have filed plans that cut at least 19,500 jobs in the Bay Area, "with no indication that the job losses have begun to abate".

The unsettling news came to light after Microsoft reported it would cut 62 jobs in Mountain View a" the second time the tech titan filed layoff notices with the state's labour agency, the report said.

More than 17,400 employees in the tech industry have lost jobs in the month of February globally to date.

In 2023 so far, around 340 companies have laid off more than 1.10 lakh employees worldwide, and there appears to be no respite from job cuts.

In January, close to 1 lakh of them lost jobs in the month of January globally, dominated by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others, according to layoff.fyi, a website that tracks job cuts globally.

More job cuts are likely coming in days to come amid recession fears.

So far, more than 2.5 lakh tech employees have lost jobs.

--IANS
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Hyderabad, Feb 14 (IANS) The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) will operate as many as 2,427 special buses from various districts in Telangana and neighboring Andhra Pradesh on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.

The state-owned transport operator announced that the special buses will be operated from February 17 to 19.

Maha Shivratri is scheduled to be celebrated on February 18.

TSRTC officials said the buses for the devotees will be operated to 40 Shaiva Kshetras located in various parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

As many as 578 services will be operated to Srisailam, 481 to Vemulawada, 239 to Keesaragutta, 497 to Edupayala, 108 to Velala, 51 to Kaleshwaram, 52 to Komuravelli, 37 to Kondagattu, 16 to Alampur, 15 to Ramappa and 14 to Uma Maheshwaram.

Special buses will be available for devotees from MGBS, JBS, Dilsukhnagar, IS Sadan, KPHB, BHEL in Hyderabad to Srisailam. Advance reservation facilities will be available for these bus services.

Officials said the corporation will run more services, if required, for the convenience of devotees.

TSRTC Chairman Bajireddy Govardhan stated that the management is taking all measures to ensure that devotees do not face any difficulties on the occasion of Maha Shivratri. "It has been decided to run special buses to the 40 famous Shiva temples across the state," he said

TSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director V.C. Sajjanar said that instructions have been given to the officials to arrange more special buses according to the traffic.

The TSRTC is also providing a 10 per cent discount on rented buses. Sajjanar advised devotees to use this rental bus facility.

The corporation had operated about 4,000 special buses during Sankranti last month. Over 2.8 crore people had earned the services. The TSRTC had earned more than Rs 165 crore by operating the special services in a span of 11 days.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS) Global technology brand OnePlus on Friday announced its schedule of pop-ups across seven cities in India, which will take place on February 11, where attendees will be the first to get their hands on the newly launched products OnePlus 11 5G and the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, starting at 11 a.m.

At the OnePlus pop-ups, the first 11 people to buy the all-new OnePlus 11 5G will receive exclusive OnePlus 11 goodies, such as OnePlus products and merchandise.

In the seven major cities, the pop-ups will take place at OnePlus Experience Store, Phoenix Palladium, Mumbai; OnePlus Boulevard, Brigade Road, Bengaluru; Select Citywalk Mall, Saket, New Delhi; OnePlus Experience Store, JM Road, Pune; OnePlus Nizam Palace, Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad; OnePlus Experience Store, Phoenix Market City, Chennai; and OnePlus Experience Store, CG Road, Ahmedabad.

At the Cloud 11 launch event, OnePlus announced an array of its products -- 11 5G, 11R 5G, Bus Pro 2, TV Q2 Pro, Pad, and 81 Pro keyboard.

The new line-up of products is distinguished by purposeful designs, industry-leading technology, and advanced interconnectivity, which is set to take the brand's fast and smooth experience to all new heights.

The OnePlus 11 5G was launched at a starting price of Rs 56,999 which comes in two colourways -- Titan Black and Eternal Green.

It features a 6.7-inch display that comes with a refresh rate of 120 Hz.

The smartphone comes equipped with the 3rd Generation Hasselblad Camera for Mobile with a "three-main-sensor" triple-camera system -- 50MP+32MP+48MP.

The smartphone also comes powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset with up to 16GB of RAM.

OnePlus has also designed the ideal companion to the OnePlus 11 5G -- the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, which promises to deliver a full-bodied, stereo-quality audio experience with crystal clarity.

The Buds Pro 2 is the second generation of its flagship earbuds, which is priced at Rs 11,999.

Apart from the first 11 buyers, other buyers will get an instant discount of Rs 1,000 on the OnePlus 11 5G, on purchase through ICICI Bank Credit Cards and EMI transactions, and up to 12 months No-Cost EMI on purchase using major credit cards.

--IANS
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Washington, Feb 10 (IANS) The number of individuals in the US who applied for unemployment benefits early this month climbed to 196,000, an increase of 13,000, according to government figures.

New unemployment applications edged up from 183,000 in the previous week, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the Labor Department, this was the first increase in claims since December 2022.

Economists in a Wall Street Journal survey had predicted that new jobless claims would amount to 190,000 for the seven days before February 4.

Meanwhile, inflation continues to hurt the wallets of millions of Americans.

Polls find that 50 per cent of Americans said they are financially worse off than a year ago.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS) Chinese short video-making app TikTok has reportedly sacked its entire India staff -- about 40 employees -- and February 28 will be their last working day.

According to a report in The Economic Times, the ByteDance-owned platform, banned in India in June 2020 over national security concerns, told its employees they would receive up to nine months of severance package.

However, most of the staff will only get three-month severance.

In June 2020, the government banned TikTok along with 59 other Chinese apps citing security concerns.

Since then, the country has banned over 300 Chinese apps, including WeChat, Shareit, Helo, Likee, UC News, Bigo Live, UC Browser and many more.

The Centre last week blocked over 230 apps, including 138 betting and about 94 loan apps, which were traced to Chinese links.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was recently instructed by the MHA to ban such apps, which operate through a third party link.

All these apps were found violating Section 69 of the IT Act and contained materials which were deemed as a threat to India's sovereignty and integrity.

Meanwhile, US Senator Michael Bennett has urged Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to immediately remove TikTok from their app stores, calling it an unacceptable risk to American national security.

The US plans to ban Chinese short video-making app TikTok nationwide, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a vote next month on a bill to completely block the platform.

--IANS
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