Brands
Maruti charges ahead with electric ambitions
NEW DELHI: The elephant in India’s automotive room is finally dancing. Maruti Suzuki, the lumbering giant that’s sold more cars to Indians than anyone else, has decided it’s time to go electric—and it’s doing so with the subtlety of a Hindi cinema production number.
On 2 December the company announced it had cosied up to 13 charging-point operators and aggregators, promising to transform India’s patchy EV infrastructure into something resembling a proper network. The ambition? Enable access to 100,000 public charging points by 2030. That’s a lot of juice.
For now, Maruti is rolling out 2,000 of its own charging stations across its dealer network, spanning more than 1,100 cities. Hisashi Takeuchi, the firm’s managing director and chief executive, called it a “historic step” into electric mobility. He’s not wrong—Maruti has been notoriously late to the EV party, watching rivals like Tata Motors gobble up market share whilst it dithered.
The company’s weapon of choice is the e Vitara, a made-in-India electric SUV that’s been tested from “sand to snow” across temperatures ranging from -30°C to 60°C. It promises a driving range of 543 kilometres on a full charge. Whether Indian roads will be quite so accommodating remains to be seen.
To prove the charging network isn’t vaporware, Maruti staged what it calls an “e drive”—four e Vitaras flagged off from Gurugram towards India’s four corners: Srinagar up north, Kanyakumari down south, Bhuj out west, and Dibrugarh in the east. It’s part publicity stunt, part stress test.
The centrepiece is an app called “e for me” (someone in marketing clearly had fun). It promises to locate charging points, handle payments through UPI or “Maruti Suzuki Money” (powered by Razorpay), and even let owners remotely manage their home chargers. One card does it all—”tap n charge” functionality that might actually work.
Senior executive officer for marketing and sales Partho Banerjee was positively buzzing. “Today is the dawn of a new era for electric mobility in India,” he declared. The company has trained 150,000 workers specifically for EVs and converted 1,500 service workshops across 1,100 cities to handle electric vehicles. In the top 100 cities, charging points will sit every 5-10 kilometres. DC fast chargers are being planted along major highways like motorway service stations.
Whether this charging offensive will be enough to convince India’s notoriously price-conscious buyers to go electric is the billion-rupee question. Maruti’s petrol-sipping hatchbacks have ruled Indian roads for decades precisely because they’re cheap to buy and run. EVs remain considerably pricier, even with government subsidies.
But Maruti clearly reckons the current is shifting. And when India’s car colossus finally plugs in, the entire market pays attention. Charge on.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
Brands
Brnd.me enters Europe as haircare brands power global expansion
Bengaluru: Brnd.me, the global consumer brands company formerly known as Mensa Brands, has entered the European market following strong momentum across the Middle East, the United States and Canada.
The company has launched across the UK, Germany, France and Spain, with plans to expand into Italy, the Netherlands and Poland over the next year. The push is being led by its haircare and aromatherapy brands, Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure, marking Brnd.me’s first structured expansion into Europe.
The European beauty market represents a total addressable opportunity of over $4 billion across haircare and aromatherapy, supported by high digital adoption and demand for accessible, performance-led products.
Brnd.me’s hair care and aromatherapy business currently operates at an annual run rate of around $6 million, with Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure delivering roughly 10 per cent month-on-month growth, driven by expansion and rising repeat demand.
To support regional growth, the company has appointed a general manager based in Germany and is evaluating investments in warehousing and local team expansion.
Early traction has been strong. Within weeks of launch, Botanic Hearth’s rosemary hair oil ranked among the top five hair oils in Germany, signalling strong consumer pull in a competitive market.
Brnd.me founder and chief executive officer Ananth Narayanan, said Europe represents the next phase of the company’s international strategy. He added that the European business is expected to scale to a $10 million annual run rate by the end of 2026, with long-term ambitions to reach $60 million over the next six years.
The company’s Europe strategy centres on digital-first distribution, repeat demand and TikTok-led discovery, alongside direct-to-consumer expansion to strengthen brand equity and margins.
The move also aligns with growing EU–India trade engagement, supporting long-term sourcing and cross-border supply chains.
Brands
TechnoSport taps quick commerce with launch on Slikk’s 60-minute platform
NATIONAL: TechnoSport has launched on Slikk, the ultra-fast fashion app offering 60-minute delivery, as the activewear brand accelerates its push into quick commerce to capture Gen Z and young millennial shoppers.
The debut brings more than 150 high-performance styles to Slikk’s platform, with an average selling price of Rs 450, expanding TechnoSport’s reach across over 80 pin codes.
The partnership follows strong momentum for TechnoSport across Q-commerce channels, where the brand has recorded around 60 per cent volume growth over the past six months. The company expects quick commerce to contribute nearly 20 per cent of its revenue in the coming years as hyperlocal delivery gains scale.
Slikk, which recently raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed, has rapidly gained popularity among youth consumers seeking speed, trend relevance and impulse-led shopping experiences.
Activewear remains one of Slikk’s fastest-growing categories, driven by shoppers increasingly treating fitness-led fashion as an everyday essential. The platform has reported a 30-fold year-on-year increase in items sold, reflecting rising demand for performance wear that blends comfort with style.
TechnoSport chief executive officer Puspen Maity, said the collaboration would help the brand engage more closely with young consumers whose fashion choices are shaped by instant needs and lifestyle aspirations. He added that rapid delivery bridges the gap between intent and purchase, allowing shoppers to access activewear exactly when they want it.
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