Round The Universe

  Amazon India on Sunday announced the launch of its ' Mentor Connect ' programme, which is aimed at accelerating the growth of startups and emerging brand owners enrolled under its Amazon Launchpad initiative. Through the programme, startups and emerging brands will gain access to guidance from venture capital firms, industry veterans and Amazon leaders through expert knowledge sharing sessions, networking events and 1:1 mentorship sessions, a statement said. Mentors from educational institutions and VC firms like Fireside Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, Elevation Capital, Tomorrow Capital have already signed up for the programme to contribute to the Indian startup growth story, it added. "Startups and emerging brands enrolled in the Amazon Launchpad programme can access guidance from these mentors through various ways. This includes one-to-one mentorship with chosen mentors over a three-month period, ongoing networking opportunities with a wider pool of industry experts...

  As the second wave of  Covid-19  intensifies, the Centre has said that onboard meals will not be allowed on flights with duration of under two hours, with a set of guidelines including staggered service, use of only disposable utensils, etc. to be followed by airlines in case of flights that are two hours or longer in duration. For flights longer than two hours, the government has asked airlines to serve meals in a staggered manner for adjacent seats as far as possible to reduce the incidence of a larger number of people in a flight removing masks together. “In all classes, tray set-up, plates and cutlery will be completely disposable with no re-use, or cleaned and disinfected rotables will be used,” the ministry noted in its order. Airline executives expressed displeasure at the move but said they would implement the government’s orders. “On board meals is a significant revenue stream for airlines,” a senior executive at a low-cost airline said.

  With a focus on innovation and acquisitions, the $10 billion HCL has scaled up its presence in the global information technology services space. In the first quarter of FY19, HCL Technologies pulled off a rare feat that the information technology (IT) industry has not seen in the recent past. It disrupted the pecking order, replacing Bengaluru-based Wipro as India’s third-largest IT services player.

HIGHLIGHTS 1. LG will shut down its smartphone business and focus on EV components, IoTs, and more. 2. The winding down of the smartphone business will be completed by July 31st. 3. The company will continue providing software updates and support to existing LG users. LG Electronics has officially confirmed that it will be shutting down its smartphone business worldwide. The company’s board of directors came to this decision as the mobile phone division had been incurring severe losses for several years in a row. LG’s smartphone business didn’t take off and had cost the company nearly USD 4.5 billion in revenue. LG will now focus its resources on other growing areas such as EV components, IoT, AI, and more. LG, which maintained No. 3 spot in the smartphone market in the U.S. for a long time, said it will continue to sell handsets until the inventory lasts, and will provide software support for an existing lineup of smartphones for a certain period of time that would vary by region. The...

  Visa Inc said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry. The company told Reuters it had launched the pilot program with payment and crypto platform Crypto.com and plans to offer the option to more partners later this year. Bitcoin, the most popular crypto coin, jumped to a one-week high on the news, rising as much as 4.5% to $58,300 and heading back toward a record-high above $61,000 hit earlier this month. The USD Coin (USDC) is a stable coin cryptocurrency whose value is pegged directly to the U.S. dollar. Visa's move comes as finance firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock Inc, and Mastercard Inc take steps to make more use of cryptocurrencies for investment and payment purposes. Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk , a major proponent of cryptocurrencies, said last week that customers can buy its electric vehicles with bitco...

  IndiGo has partnered with CarterPorter , an on-demand platform to launch ‘6EBagport’, to provide door-to-door baggage delivery service. The service starts at a rate of Rs 630 for one way. Passengers can book the service from the comfort of their home, said IndiGo in a press statement issued on Friday. The airline commenced the service on Thursday in New Delhi and Hyderabad and will subsequently launch it in Mumbai and Bengaluru for delivery to and from home and airport, it added. The customer baggage gets picked and transported with tracking from the first destination to the last one. The service can be availed up to 24 hours prior to the departure of the flight and anytime on arrival. It also includes service insurance of Rs 5000 per baggage item for the contents and container, said the airline. As per the CSRO, Indigo said that the service will bring relief to customers who may want to travel with additional baggage from home to the airport or would like to go for a meeting dir...