Uber to double down on hiring techies in India, files for IPO
The Sunday Guardian caught up with Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson, who was in New Delhi this week with a business delegation. His visit also marked the beginning of the operations of Iceland’s low-cost long-haul airline, WOW air, from India. WOW air’s inaugural flight was flagged off from Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday. The airline will operate three weekly flights from New Delhi, connecting passengers to North America and Europe through their hub in Iceland. Q: What brings you to India? A: This is the first direct flight between India and Iceland. I am here on an official visit and also have a business delegation of about 50 people from more than 20 companies. We are interested in doing more trade with India. Q: What sort of business relationship can India and Iceland have? A: Lots. First, we can name tourism—both ways. Also, trade in seafood. We export high quality seafood and lamb meat. We are interested in the Indian market but there has been a bit of problem because of bureaucracy. But we are hoping to solve it. There is a huge potential when it comes to renewable energies. For almost 100 years, Iceland has used geothermal and hydro energy. Our 90% energy consumption is renewable. Geothermal energy can be used to heat up houses and to generate electricity. Hydro power is also used for this. This is an experience we are sharing with countries all around the world. The good thing about geo-thermal and hydro energy is that it is reliable. It is 24/7. For example, in China, we have cleaned up cities there in cooperation with Chinese firms—where you have a lot of pollution because of heating up of houses. But there is no pollution now. It’s the same you will find in Iceland. There is no pollution. This is the biggest thing in fighting climate change. Also, there are Indian films’ shooting in Iceland. There is a lot opportunities that we can work on like sports and education. There are plenty, so the question is how we are going to use it. Q: What made WOW air come to India? A: Because of the interest from Icelanders to come to India. Also Iceland has been a hub between Europe and North America for decades and now the aim is to connect it also to Asia. We have a population of 350,000, but 10 million go through our airport every year. For example, we have more direct flights to North America today than the Nordic capitals combined in a week. So to have New Delhi in this connection makes a lot of opportunities. A lot of people travelling between Europe and North America stop in Iceland for a few days, including Indian tourists. BENGALURU/SAN FRANCISCO: Online ride-hailing platform Uber has announced to double its workforce in the product and engineering departments—from over 500 to more than 1,000 ‘technologists’—at its Bengaluru and Hyderabad facilities next year.
Uber India aims to hire full-stack teams that include product managers, product designers, data scientists, user researchers, mobile, front-end and back-end engineers, as well as Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts, the company said in a statement late Friday.
“In 2018, our tech teams grew by 150% and we are focused on doubling down again in 2019,” said Apurva Dalal, Head of Engineering, Uber India.
According to the company, its tech centres in Bengaluru and Hyderabad are critical to the global mission of developing urban mobility solutions for everyone.
“Engineers are working on exciting areas of Customer Engagement, Rider access (next billion riders), Uber Eats, Maps, Marketplace and Data platforms,” informed Dalal.
Uber Engineering India has developed some key innovations such as Uber Lite which is a lighter and faster version of the main app. Uber currently operates in 31 cities in the country and aims to take its services to other, deeper parts of the country.
The sanction letter obtained through the psbloansin59minutes.com (public sector bank loans) portal—dedicated to enable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) entrepreneurs to access loans of up to Rs 1 crore—does not seem to be enough to secure loans from banks, as the number of cases of banks refusing loans under this provision has significantly increased.
On 2 November this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a slew of announcements aimed at reviving the country’s MSMEs. One of these was about a dedicated digital platform— psbloansin59minutes—to enable people to access loans of up to Rs 1 crore in just 59 minutes.
Santosh Kumar, a Mundka resident who has crockery making business in the area, In the last two years, nearly 2 lakh vendors from across the country have got an opportunity to do business on the “Government e-Market” (GeM) portal.
Till November this year, they managed to receive contracts for providing goods and services worth Rs 14,874 crore to different government departments. This information is based on the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s report on GeM.
According to the Ministry’s report, starting from 2016 till November this year, as many as 1.89 lakh individual vendors have been registered with the GeM from across the country. These venders were allotted tenders worth Rs 14,874 crore in two years to supply goods and services of common use in various government departments.
Functioning under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the GeM is the national public procurement portal which offers an online, end-to-end solution for procurement of goods and services of common use by government departments. The GeM provides an open, inclusive, transparent and efficient online marketplace.
The GeM made it mandatory for Central government