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The national executive meeting of the Shiv Sena is underway at the party’s headquarters in the city on Saturday, where Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is also the party president, is expected to take a decision on the action against the rebel MLAs, including Eknath Shinde. Thackeray was supposed to chair the meeting virtually from his residence ”Matoshree”. However, he reached the party headquarters – Shiv Sena Bhavan – at Dadar in central Mumbai. The party’s national executive is expected to authorise Thackeray to take decisions regarding the organisation in view of the rebellion by Shinde. Along with Shinde, another disgruntled party leader and former minister Ramdas Kadam, is expected to face action. Both of them are members of national executive. Kadam’s son MLA Yogesh Kadam has joined the rebel camp in Guwahati. The Shiv Sena has already filed a petition seeking disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs. Talking to reporters outside the Sena Bhavan, Rajya … [Read more...] about Amid Maharashtra crisis, Uddhav Thackeray chairs Shiv Sena’s national executive meet; all eyes on action against rebels

In those first few fraught hours of February 24th, after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Anastasiia Smyk, CEO and co-founder of aviation software startup Input Soft , recalls being in a state of shock and incredulity. She was in Kyiv at the time, but her 11-strong team was scattered around the country. advertisement advertisement “The first week we were just thinking about how to survive at a human level,” says the 25-year-old entrepreneur. “So we decided to rent a house for our team in the Carpathian mountains, in the [safer] western part of Ukraine, and told them they could go there with their families to wait until we knew more about what was happening. Some of them went. Others were unable to get out.” One of those left behind was the startup’s accountant, whose home town of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, has been under Russian occupation since early March. On May 3rd, when the internet and mobile communications went down, she decided to risk her … [Read more...] about The war in Ukraine hasn’t ended. Here’s how these founders continue to build their businesses

Representative image Some corporate leaders are grasping at whatever they can to get back to the way things were. But they might find themselves fighting a culture shift beyond their control. As long as work has existed, employers have tried to size up their employees’ commitment to their jobs. Are you on the fast track? The mommy track? The leadership track? Now, if some corporate leaders have their way, there will be a new test for workplace devotion — and anyone who opts for remote work gets a failing grade. But can C.E.O.s really claw their way back to 2019? This past week, Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to Tesla and SpaceX employees requiring them to return to the office for at least 40 hours per week — or lose their jobs. Mr. Musk, who is known for having camped out for weeks at Tesla factories, thinks remote work is an affront to productivity and personal commitment. Last month, he praised Chinese workers for “burning the 3 a.m. oil,” comparing them with … [Read more...] about The Office Monsters Are Trying to Claw Their Way Back to 2019

- A + A (June 25): UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who survived a confidence vote just two weeks ago, is facing fresh threats to his leadership after his Conservative Party lost two key parliamentary seats, according to reports. Tory rebels seeking his ouster want to scrap the party’s rule that prevents another leadership poll from taking place for a year, the Times and the Telegraph reported. They’re organising to take over an internal panel of backbenchers known as the 1922 Committee that sets party rules on confidence votes, according to the reports. Andrew Bridgen, a Tory lawmaker, told GB News on Friday (June 24) that he would stand for the election to the executive of the 1922 Committee to try and change the rules. Nominations open next week and the vote could be the following week, he said. The rules can be altered at any time by a simple majority of the typically 18-member executive, according to the Telegraph. Graham Brady, the chairman of the … [Read more...] about UK PM Johnson may face new ouster effort after election loss

- A + A (June 25): Just days after saying Singapore is “brutal and unrelentingly hard” on bad behaviour in the crypto industry, Sopnendu Mohanty, the chief fintech officer of the city’s regulator, struck a cordial tone. Mohanty, in a LinkedIn post summarising his thoughts from the Point Zero Forum in Switzerland, commended the leadership of some of the biggest firms in the sector. “Leaders from the crypto/token space (Binance, Crypto.com, Ripple and others) are fully committed to building a secure and sustainable innovation solving real problems, and identifying real-economy opportunities,” said Mohanty of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). “It is heartening to see the clarity among chief executive officers (CEOs) on the need to create a responsible and compliant industry. The future is on the right path.” Mohanty’s praise comes as the digital currency market continues to spiral downwards following a broad-based sell-off in digital assets and the collapse … [Read more...] about Singapore regulator praises leaders of crypto firms like Binance

Ukrainian service members walk in the industrial area of the city of Sievierodonetsk, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine June 20, 2022. (REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo) KYIV/POKROVSK, Ukraine — Russian forces have fully occupied Sievierodonetsk, the mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city said on Saturday, confirming Kyiv’s biggest battlefield setback for more than a month, after weeks of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting. Ukraine called its retreat from the city a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking Lysychansk. The fall of Sievierodonetsk — once home to more than 100,000 people, now a wasteland — was Russia’s biggest victory since capturing the port of Mariupol last month. It transforms the battlefield in the east after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had yielded only slow gains. Russia will … [Read more...] about Ukrainian city falls to Russia in one of war’s bloodiest fights

The larger job market in India remains buoyant across sectors – even amid layoffs by a clutch of startups in recent months – and employees will generally continue to call the shots through FY23. “We see FY23 to remain an employees’ market with some amount of adjustments. Employees still have the bargaining power, opportunities and enjoy the benefit of demand,” said RP Yadav, chairman of Genius Consultants, a staffing and human resource company. While information technology and IT-enabled services will continue recruiting, e-commerce, logistics and export-oriented sectors including textiles and leather goods are doing well in terms of hiring. The consumer goods sector will increasingly do well, as will the retail and hospitality segment, according to staffing firms, HR experts and talent managers. The near-normal level of economic activity in retail and hospitality is indicative of a revival in these sectors after a prolonged phase of weakness due to the pandemic and offers a … [Read more...] about Amid startup layoffs, larger job market remains buoyant across sectors

Representative image Walmart Inc-owned payments unicorn PhonePe's consolidated net loss for 2020-21 (FY21) remained largely unchanged, even as the company reported a sharp rise in revenues, as its employee costs surged over two times during the period. PhonePe reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,728 crore for FY21, against a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,771 crore a year earlier, according to financial data accessed by the business intelligence platform, Tofler. During the year, the company reported an 85 percent rise in its revenue from operations to Rs 690 crore, the data showed. PhonePe's employee benefit costs for the year jumped to Rs 1,235 crore from Rs 480 crore a year earlier, the data showed. According to Tofler, the share-based remuneration to the key management personnel for FY21 was Rs 608 Crore. However, the company halved its advertising and promotional expenses to Rs 535 crore from Rs 1,017 crore a year earlier. The payments company, in April, had said … [Read more...] about PhonePe’s FY21 loss little changed even as revenues soar 85%

Deepinder Goyal. Zomato announced on June 24 that its board had approved the acquisition of quick commerce company Blinkit for Rs 4,447 crore. According to the terms of the agreement, Blinkit shareholders will get a cumulative stake of 6.88 percent in Zomato and the target company’s leadership team, including co-founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa, will stay on to run the ship. But, questions still remain about how Zomato, a company that registered losses of Rs 1,223 crore in FY22, plans to derive value from acquiring another loss-making delivery startup. The food delivery major’s top executives put out a ready reckoner laying out the rationale behind the deal. From having a Blinkit tab on the Zomato app to sharing delivery fleets to cut costs, here are some of the important reasons that came through from what they said: Increased customer wallet share Close “Quick commerce will help us increase the customer wallet share spent on our platform and … [Read more...] about Seven reasons for Zomato’s Rs 4,447-crore Blinkit buyout deal

BRAND STRENGTH Fashion and décor brand Narda’s has exported woven textiles and garments that blended art and utility. —EV ESPIRITU BAGUIO CITY—Imelda Cadaweng, a Baguio-based weaver who hails from Mountain Province, has matched a terra-cotta art piece rendered by Luisa Galang with a woven tapestry that is on display at the University of Baguio. Cadaweng belongs to a group of weavers trying their hands at producing woven art for a project called, “Art Weave,” which features handwoven tapestries that interpret nine paintings being exhibited at this year’s crafts show, “Mandeko Kito” (Ibaloy for ‘Let’s sell’). In a video documentation, Cadaweng admitted being a little apprehensive about producing a companion tapestry for Galang’s piece, which has snake-like terra cotta heads leaping off the canvas. With the help of fellow weaver Leticia Bacolong, Cadaweng’s “translation” was a brown woven textile embossed with cartoon-like brown heads attached to elongated necks. Intricate … [Read more...] about Cordillera weavers as visual artists