Rise in air travel lifts ride-hailing apps; Karnataka IT minister wants moonlighters to leave
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Also in this letter:
■ K’taka IT minister asks people moonlighting to leave the state
■ Beepkart raises $9 million in funding and other done deals
■ By the numbers: India’s Web3 story
With the number of daily air passengers nearing pre-Covid levels, Uber India saw increased traction in airport operations last quarter.
The number of airport trips is set to rise further as the festive season gathers steam, spurring the ride-hailing firm to work on expanding its footprint in terms of both geographical reach and services.
Airport trips currently account for 10% of all 4-wheeler trips in the country for Uber, and it expects this number to rise by as much as 50% over the next three years.
Quote unquote: “Our goal is to maximise our airport footprint over the next 2-3 years, both in terms of services (product lines) and geographical reach (number of airports) so that we can serve all customer segments through the wide array of our offerings,” Abhilekh Kumar, director (Business Development), Uber India & South Asia, told us, stressing that airport travel is a key focus area for the company.
Current tie-ups: Uber India recently tied up with Adani Airports in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Lucknow and Jaipur for airport operations.
Airports — where the ride-hailing firm has partnerships with operator companies — account for roughly 70% of all its passenger pick-ups and drops across the country for cab aggregators. Overall, Uber India has airport partnerships across 12 cities in the country.
Transition to EV? Uber India is engaging with stakeholders, including government departments, EV OEMs, banks and NBFCs, fleet partners as well as charging infrastructure operators on ways to accelerate the transition to e-mobility in the B2B segment.
Kumar said the company has agreed to work on scaled pilots to test out key operating parameters. Uber India has partnerships with Yulu, Mahindra, SUN Mobility, Lithium and Moove, among others on the EV side.
C N Ashwath Narayan, the IT minister of Karnataka, has said that those who moonlight should leave the state.
Throwing his weight behind Indian IT giants such as Infosys and Wipro, which have been opposing the concept of moonlighting, Narayan said paid freelancing beyond office hours is “literally cheating” and professionals wanting to do so should shift out of the state.
Ethics lesson: “As a policy and ethically, how can moonlighting be allowed? It is not fair in any way to moonlight. That’s not the way forward… It is literally cheating,” Narayan told TOI, while criticising those looking to work extra hours beyond their regular jobs.
Performance anxiety: He even asked sarcastically, “How can you perform? Is he a superman or what? Does he not have a family?”
It’s the company’s call: Asked whether the companies have raised the matter with the state government, he said, “When they have the power, why should they come to us? They are dealing with it in their own ways.”
Industry opinions are divided over moonlighting, a challenge that has arisen in the wake of the Covid pandemic. While Wipro has sacked 300 employees for moonlighting, Infosys has sent out an email to workers, saying dual employment is in violation of the employee code of conduct.
Taking a contrarian view, Tech Mahindra’s C P Gurnani says he is not concerned by the challenges posed by moonlighting. TCS, meanwhile, is planning a platform for internal “gigs” for its over 600,000 employees. The platform, which is at an initial stage, could be expanded down the road to include the external workforce as well
Also read | IT industry could fall apart due to moonlighting, says TCS’ Subramaniam
ETtech Done Deals
Two-wheeler e-marketplace Beepkart raises $9 million in round led by Vertex Ventures: Venture capital firm Vertex Ventures, backed by Singapore’s state-owned investment arm Temasek, has invested in Beepkart, a second-hand two-wheeler seller. The round also saw participation from existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures, which had led the company’s $3 million seed round in September 2021. The company competes with the likes of Bikewale, Credr and Droom, among others.
ITC invests Rs 13.5 crore in D2C babycare brand Mother Sparsh: The mother and babycare startup is looking to raise Rs 100 crore in series B funding, with ITC already infusing Rs 13.5 crore in the round. The funding announcement comes close on the heels of the brand’s entry in the diaper segment, which constitutes a major chunk of the babycare market. In a filing, ITC said its shareholding in the brand will rise to 22% from 16%. The acquisition is in line with the company’s continued interest in the fast-growing D2C space in the personal-care category
Mistry.Store, a D2C home interiors material supplier, raises $2 million in seed funding: Mistry.Store has raised $2 million from social impact-focused investment fund Omidyar Network, as well as angel investors such as Oyo’s Maninder Gulati, Cars24 founder Vikram Chopra and Swiggy Food Marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor. The Delhi-NCR-focused startup enables home interior professionals such as architects, interior decorators and contractors to procure building materials on behalf of their customers.
By The NumbersIndia, considered a late adopter of new technologies, has seen Web3 adoption progressing at a rapid pace
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Tweet of the day
Sharechat asks The Wire to take down story on Tek Fog app
Sharechat, a short-video social media platform owned by Bengaluru-based Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd, has asked independent Indian news organisation The Wire to take down its January 2022 report on an app called Tek Fog, which it said had been published without any supporting evidence.
The report claimed that Tek Fog enabled the spread of fake news and political propaganda through Sharechat.
Why now? This comes after The Wire had to take down its investigative report on social network Meta about how certain individuals from the ruling party at the Centre had a say in removing content from Meta’s platforms.
That story was taken down by The Wire after a strong rebuttal by Meta, which claimed that the report was fake and that the documents furnished by the news outlet were ‘fabricated’.
Sharechat’s views: “We urge The Wire to take down this previous report by Mr Devesh Kumar and others from public consumption, especially given that our severe reservations about the motivations and practices followed by Mr Kumar and others are now shared by many across the world and The Wire team as well,” it said in a statement.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai and Gaurab Dasgupta in New Delhi. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
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