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Noel joins board of Tata Sons; first Tata family member since 2011 to serve on both boards at once

Noel Tata, newly appointed chairman of Tata Trusts, has joined the board of Tata Sons as a nominee director. This marks the first time since 2011 that a Tata family member holds positions on both boards concurrently. Tata Trusts, with its 66% stake, is the largest shareholder in Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group.




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Many retailers offer 'returnless refunds.' Just don't expect them to talk much about it

Returnless refunds are a tool that more retailers are using to keep online shoppers happy and to reduce shipping fees, processing time and other ballooning costs from returned products. Companies such as Amazon, Walmart and Target have decided some items are not worth the cost or hassle of getting back. Think a $20 T-shirt that might cost $30 in shipping and handling to recover.




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Prices up, but wedding season boosts demand for kirana items

Indore's Siyaganj market is experiencing a surge in demand for groceries ahead of the wedding season, despite significant price increases in edible oils, pulses, and grains. Traders anticipate an 8-10% rise in business compared to the previous year, driven by bulk orders from caterers and increased individual purchases.




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Premiumisation holds its ground amid inflation spike across Indian consumer market

Despite the persistent inflation and sluggish demand, several leading FMCG and retail brands are doubling down on their premiumization strategies, reshaping their approach to appeal to discerning customers.




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Reliance Retail shutting down Centro outlets temporarily

Reliance Retail is temporarily closing its Centro stores across India to revamp the format. The company plans to prioritize its own brands, like Azorte and Yousta, potentially phasing out some of the 450 local and global brands currently sold.




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2024 festive season sees highest gig workers demand driven by logistics, retail sectors: Report

India witnessed a surge in gig employment opportunities during the 2024 festive season, with over 1.2 million roles posted. This growth, a 23% increase from the previous year, was fueled by e-commerce expansion and a shift towards flexible work arrangements. Tier II cities are emerging as new gig hubs, while higher pay is attracting skilled professionals.




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Dulux Paints maker Akzo Nobel India's Q2 profit rises on automotive sector demand

Akzo Nobel India reported a 14% increase in net profit to Rs 108.7 crore in the fourth quarter, driven by higher demand from the automotive sector. Despite muted retail demand due to higher rainfall and price hikes, the company's revenue from operations rose 3% to Rs 9.82 billion.




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Asian Paints Q2 net profit falls 42% on subdued demand

Net profit after minority interest declined to ₹694.60 crore in July-September quarter from ₹1,205.40 crore during the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Consolidated net sales decreased 5.3% to ₹8,003.0 crore from ₹8,451.9 crore.




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Swiggy’s IPO to unlock Rs 9,000 crore in Esop wealth for 5,000 employees

Swiggy's IPO, set to be the largest tech offering since Paytm in 2019, is expected to unlock Rs 9,000 crore in employee stock ownership, creating hundreds of crorepatis among its 5,000 current and former employees.




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Godrej Industries to buy Savannah Surfactants' food additives, emulsifier biz for Rs 76 cr

Godrej Industries is set to acquire the food additives and emulsifier business of Savannah Surfactants Limited for Rs 76 crore. The deal will see Godrej Industries expand its product offerings to the Food & Beverages segment. Savannah Surfactants Ltd has a manufacturing capacity of 5,200 tonnes per annum of finished products.




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Pernod Ricard emerges as largest Indian spirit maker with Rs 26,773 cr revenue in FY24

Pernod Ricard India Pvt Ltd (PRI) has reported an overall 6.9 per cent increase in its revenue from operations for FY24, and its profit rose 20.9 per cent to Rs 1,620.58 crore, according to the Registrar of Companies data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler.




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Swiggy shares list at 8% premium over IPO price

Food delivery giant Swiggy debuted on the stock market with a premium over its IPO price, despite ongoing financial losses. Analysts expressed caution, citing market volatility and the company's negative earnings, while acknowledging its revenue growth. Swiggy plans to use the IPO proceeds for investments in subsidiaries, technology, and marketing.




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Bajaj Electricals posts Q2 profit fall on weak demand

Bajaj Electricals experienced a 59% drop in second-quarter profits, attributing the decline to weaker demand for cooling products due to monsoon rains. Despite a slight revenue increase, the company's profits were impacted by reduced demand and cost-of-living pressures. Analysts anticipate a demand resurgence in the December quarter, fueled by festive season promotions.




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India emerging as good opportunity market for Sony's gaming biz, says India MD

Sony India, experiencing substantial growth in its gaming sector due to the PlayStation 5's success, is now eyeing India as a key market. Despite anticipating moderated growth this fiscal year, the company remains committed to expanding its gaming presence, including software and peripherals. Sony India last week filed its annual returns to report over 50.1 per cent growth from its 'other business' segment at Rs 1,363.54 crore, which houses its gaming and B2B business.




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Your new premium smartphone could get more expensive

Industry executives said the latest generation chipsets, set to power high-end Android handsets, are already around 20% more expensive than their predecessors due to a more complex circuitry and advanced manufacturing process. High demand for premium handsets is also contributing to improving the product mix of chipset makers towards more high-end chipsets.




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Growing our online channels further remains a priority for us, says Manos Nikolakis, GM, BIC Cello

Manos Nikolakis, GM, BIC Cello, said, "While e-commerce is growing significantly across the country, the landscape of the Indian market is still heavily reliant on traditional trade. Accordingly, this remains our main sales driver. The lack of digital penetration in semi-urban and rural areas can sometimes create a challenge in the e-commerce space, which means that e-commerce is mostly relevant in bigger cities with a more mature infrastructure."




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Bombay HC grants temporary relief to Pidilite in Dr Fixit trademark dispute

Mumbai-based Pidilite Industries, the maker of Fevicol and M-Seal adhesive brands, has approached the court to restrain Dubond Products from allegedly infringing its registered trademarks, copyright and passing off for its waterproofing brand Dr Fixit LW.




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Trademark dispute over tiffin box: Delhi HC takes notes of CELLO's intent to resolve suit amicably

Shree Vallabh Metals in October 2023 had secured an injunction from Delhi HC against the use of the MAX FRESH trademark by Cello Plastic Industrial Works.




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India remains fastest growing paper market in world: Report

India's paper market is experiencing rapid growth, with packaging paper and paperboard consumption rising at 8.2% in 2023-24. The market, driven by demand from FMCG, textiles, pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, and healthcare sectors, benefits from the ban on single-use plastics. Overall paper demand in India grows at 6-7% annually.




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Pidilite invests Rs 5 crore in home improvement & maintenance platform Wify

Pidilite Industries has invested Rs 5 crore in Wify, a home improvement and maintenance services platform. This pre-series A funding round was led by Capria and Mount Judi Ventures, with participation from Blume Ventures. The investment aims to boost Wify's growth by enhancing its tech stack, expanding services, and strengthening its market position.




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Jockey India licensee posts Q2 profit rise on premium demand

Page Industries, the company that holds the license for Jockey and Speedo in India, saw its profit increase by 30% in the second quarter. The company's profit reached 1.95 billion rupees. This growth was driven by higher sales of premium athleisure wear. Despite a general slowdown in consumer spending, demand for these products remained strong.




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Cartier owner Richemont's profit miss, China caution hit luxury shares

Richemont, the owner of Cartier, fell short of profit projections for the first half of the year and expressed caution regarding China's recovery, causing a decline in European luxury stocks. The company's sales were impacted by a downturn in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in China, where consumer confidence remains low.




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Secret Alchemist onboards actress Samantha Prabhu as co-founder

Secret Alchemist, a wellness startup focusing on aromatherapy, onboards actress Samantha Prabhu as co-founder after securing $500,000 in seed funding led by Inflection Point Ventures. The company, co-founded by Ankita Thadani and Akash Valia, plans to expand its product line and enhance brand reach with pure-grade essential oils for holistic wellness.




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Boldfit gets Rs 110 cr investment from Bessemer Venture Partners

The startup backed by cricketer KL Rahul will use the funds to enhance product innovation and expand its brand presence. The brand sells its products on ecommerce marketplaces, quick-commerce platforms and through its own D2C channel. It plans to open offline stores within the next 12 to 18 months.




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Coty sees annual profit at low end of forecast as mass beauty demand slows

Coty expects lower annual profit than previously forecasted. Demand for beauty products is slowing down in the US and Australia. Consumers are choosing essential products over beauty items. Coty's prestige fragrance segment, however, reported a 9% rise in sales. This is due to new launches such as Burberry Goddess and Marc Jacobs Daisy Wild fragrances.




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Elf Beauty lifts annual forecasts on resilient cosmetics demand, shares up

Net sales rose 40% to $301.1 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with analysts' average estimates of $285.8 million, as per data compiled by LSEG.




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FirstCry refiles IPO papers, reports December revenue at Rs 4,841 crore

FirstCry’s IPO size will be the same, as per the IPO papers. It intends to raise $218 million (about Rs 1,815 crore) in primary funding through issuance of new shares and divestment of 54 million shares from existing investors.




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Johnson & Johnson reaches $700 million talc settlement with US govt

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay a $700 million settlement to resolve a probe by 42 US states and Washington, DC. The inquiry examined the marketing of their baby powder and other talc-based products, which have faced allegations of causing cancer. The settlement addresses claims that Johnson & Johnson deceived consumers about the safety of its talc products.




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Emerging Groups

Cumbia Ninja and its album The álbum, as a result of the join between Fox and Sony Music, it will include 17 songs written by the scriptwriter of the series, Andrés Gelós. Mexico City (04/OCT/2013) . The songs more representatives of the series “Cumbia ninja” will can be able acquired by the album that will be produced in the middle of this month. As an advance of this new record production, the songs “Ojos en la espalda” and “Ceviche” can be acquired by a download portal for throughout Latin...





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Sneak Preview: Removing the Friction of Content Discovery on CTV

On Thursday, November 14, media and entertainment technology strategist Chris Pfaff will moderate the panel "Removing the Friction of Content Discovery on CTV." Incorporating viewership data into the content discoverability process can remove the pain points that have bubbled up in the new streaming landscape, lead to more engagement with the content, and open up more opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences. This panel of experts from NBCUniversal, Pluto TV, Revry TV, and Gatsby TV looks at the success of genre channels and provides attendees with insight into how they help their viewers find their content faster.




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Google Facing a Googol in Russian Fines for Kremlin YouTube Takedowns

Big fines by regulators on tech companies are nothing new, but the scale of one imposed by a Russian court on Google is astronomical. For removing Russian state-run channels and pro-government accounts from YouTube in the wake of the country's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia is demanding that Alphabet pay up 20 undecillion rubles ($2.5 decillion USD) or face its being blocked from doing business in the country indefinitely.




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Sneak Preview: Measurement Matters - Delivering Better Audience Data to Streaming Advertisers

On Thursday, November 14, industry thought leader Erin Firneno will moderate the panel "Measurement Matters: Delivering Better Audience Data to Streaming Advertisers." The promise of streaming as a boon to advertisers has always been its potential to help them target audiences more precisely by delivering more substantive audience data than broadcast can offer. But even as streaming's audience share has grown to justify substantial migration of CTV ad dollars from broadcast to digital, when it comes to quantifying audiences and measuring engagement, the lack of consistent and easily translatable measurement standards?not to mention the sheer number of measurement options?continues to frustrate ad buyers. How can streaming move toward the proposed "single source of truth," or is that even the answer? Confirmed panelists include experts from Vevo, Warner Bros Discovery, and Revry.





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Japanese speaker (Remote)

We (two non-Japanese speaking Americans) will be traveling in Japan in mid-November and are looking for a Japanese speaker to help us make a few restaurant reservations by phone or email/fax ahead of time, since we won't have a concierge who can do it for us. Ideally, we'd make the reservations by the end of the first week of October.




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Setting up and moderating a Mastodon instance (but not hosting) (Remote)

This is very speculative. I am assisting a faculty member where I work with the idea of establishing a Mastodon server (hosted by the university) to support a specialized intersection of a particular equity-seeking group and an area of study. The work would be to help run the server, and possibly promote it -- a combination moderator and marketer, both making sure the community is running smoothly and also reaching to people to encourage them to join. If this seems interesting to you, and in full knowledge that this might go nowhere, I'd love to hear about your moderation experience, how many hours a week you think you'd be able to put into the project, and your pay per hour expectations (in USD).




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Senior Backend Developer (Node.js) (Remote)

Looking to hire as an independent contractor a highly experienced backend software engineer with extensive experience with Node.js, and preferably with MongoDB as well. Familiarity with GCP would be a plus. This is a part-time, remote contract that will probably be for a minimum of three months and possibly a good bit longer. You must be a true high senior or expert level developer with extensive Node.js experience. A qualified candidate will most likely have at least ten years of solid software development experience. If you are not the right person but know somebody who might be, please feel free to have them contact me. Thank you.




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Writers/editors for translating blog to English, German and French (Remote)

Snabblån Express is a Swedish-based website looking to expand into the global audience. We specialize in money-management and personal economy. Our aim is to increase knowledge about money-lending and educating the public to avoid taking unnecessary risks. This is done via our vast knowledge database. We are now looking for editors who can read and write in English and German (Dutch), as well as Swedish. We have several hundred articles in the database, both published and ready-for-review status, which needs translating as we will launch our website on an international domain soon. The work is done remotely and we seek driven individuals who has the minimum of the following requirements met: You are a social and engaging person with high motivation and ability to perform your tasks individually. You have advanced knowledge from the field of finances and economy in the west, and know how to write compelling economy and finance articles. You are self-driven and efficient, and a fast writer :) - Experience in using Wordpress - Experience in writing before (add references) - Experience in SEO - Fluent in English, German languages - Advanced in Swedish language The payscale varies depending on the output of the work you provide. We are open to suggestions.




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Cinema Chat: Cinetopia starts tonight, plus 'Inside Out 2' hits the multiplex

It's Night 1 of the highly anticipated return of Cinetopia! Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins and Marquee Arts cinema program director Nick Alderink join WEMU's David Fair to chat about this year's Cinetopia Film Festival, along with the latest Pixar film that opens at your favorite multiplex!




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Cinema Chat: Cinetopia 2024 continues with the world premiere of 'Love & Vodka,' plus much more!

The 2024 Cinetopia Film Festival rolls on in Ann Arbor! Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins joins WEMU's David Fair to provide an update on the film fest and the new films opening downtown. Plus, Russ brings along filmmaker and Eastern Michigan University alumnus Heidi Philipsen, who talks about her film "Love & Vodka," which closes out Cinetopia this weekend!




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Cinema Chat: 'MaXXXine' and 'Fancy Dance' open downtown, plus a bunch of special screenings throughout July!

When it comes to the 4th of July, fireworks and film go hand-in-hand! Both David Fair and Russ Collins are on vacation this week, so WEMU's Mat Hopson and Marquee Arts cinema programming director Nick Alderink meet up to chat about the newest films and special screenings coming your way this Independence Day weekend!




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Cinema Chat: 'Fly Me to the Moon' and 'Longlegs' open at the Michigan Theater, and 'The Lion King' returns to the multiplex

July is well underway, and more movies keep coming to the big screen! WEMU's David Fair is joined by Marquee Arts cinema programming director, Nick Alderink, to talk about the new films and special screenings coming to downtown Ann Arbor and your favorite multiplex!




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Cinema Chat: 'Touch' and 'Twisters' open downtown, plus free organ concerts for Ann Arbor Art Fair goers

The Ann Arbor Art Fair kicks off this week, and the Michigan and State Theatres will bring along some great movies to go with it! WEMU's David Fair meets up with Marquee Arts cinema programming director Nick Alderink to chat about all of the cinematic happenings for the coming weekend!




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Cinema Chat: 'Deadpool & Wolverine' opens nationwide, plus 'Widow Clicquot' opens at the Michigan Theater

An exciting weekend is coming to the movie world, including one of the most anticipated superhero matchups ever! WEMU's David Fair mets up with Marquee Arts cinema programming director, Nick Alderink, to give you a rundown of upcoming films and special screenings!




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Cinema Chat: 'Trap' hits the multiplex, 'Kneecap' and 'Coup!' open at the Michigan Theater

After a month-long vacation, Russ Collins made his return to the WEMU studio for Cinema Chat! Along with a few travel stories, Russ shared what's coming to the silver screen in the coming days with WEMU's David Fair.




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Cinema Chat: The Michigan Theater hosts two 50th high school reunions, plus 'Cuckoo' and 'Borderlands' hit the big screen

Summer may be winding down a bit, but the summer movie season is still going! WEMU's David Fair meets up again with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins to chat about the latest films and special screenings coming to a theater near you! Plus, the Michigan Theater is hosting not one, but two huge high school reunions!




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Cinema Chat: 'Sing Sing,' 'Didi' and 'Alien: Romulus' open downtown

We're halfway through August, so there's still time to catch a summer flick! WEMU's David Fair is away this week, so Mat Hopson steps in to discuss the newest movies and upcoming special screenings at your favorite downtown movie houses with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins!




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Cinema Chat: Take a trip to Broadway courtesy of Marquee Arts, plus 'The Crow' and 'My Penguin Friend' open downtown

After a week away, WEMU's David Fair returns to chatting about cinema with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins. As they do every week, they deliver all of the details on new films and the many special screenings coming to Ann Arbor!




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Cinema Chat: 'Reagan' movie hits theaters, 'Between the Temples' and 'Good One' open in Ann Arbor

WEMU's David Fair was joined by Marquee Arts executive director, Russ Collins on a pre-Labor Day edition of "Cinema Chat". They took time to discuss the new films and special screenings landing on the big screen for your holiday weekend viewing pleasure.




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Cinema Chat: 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' opens nationwide, plus see 'The Room' and 'The Front Room' in downtown Ann Arbor!

It's the first week of September, and we have plenty of movies to chat about! WEMU's Mat Hopson sits in David Fair to share all of the movie news and info on special screenings and events you could ask for with Marquee Arts executive director Russ Collins!