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Freshworks and Zoho «mafia» that led to several employees of these companies branching out to start their own firms — some of which have become extremely successful. Chennai's success in SaaS is known but there's a silent movement happening across the smaller cities across the country that can be dubbed the early makings of a 'tier II mafia,' industry watchers said. SaaS startups like Responsive in Coimbatore, Supersourcing in Indore, Appointy in Bhopal, DreamCast in Jaipur, Dhiwise in Surat or CallHippo in Ahmedabad — these are all examples of companies that are slowly scaling and becoming the anchor companies in these regions. «There are SaaS startups that are maturing and reaching a certain scale and size in a number of emerging cities,» Avinash Raghava, CEO of the industry collective SaaSBoomi told ET. «This is happening across the board where there are anchor companies emerging that are having their employees leave to start their own SaaS firms. It is still in the nascent stage but we are seeing it happen increasingly now wherein I believe the next Freshworks or Zoho will not come from Chennai or Bangalore but will be from one of these emerging cities.”

Persistent Systems is seeing more interest in outcome-based (fixed price) deals than deals that are priced based on time and material, said its chief executive Sandeep Kalra. Kalra told ET that with the maturing of artificial intelligence (AI) firms like Persistent Systems are building more Intellectual Properties such as the SASVA platform, GenAI Hub and iAURA, and creating greater value for customers. More discussions on the outcome-based pricing model have led to an increase in deals on this model, he said. “For example, on the SASVA platform in the enterprise software space, we are now picking up deals which are outcome-based more and more,” he said. “Whether it is doing end-to-end sustaining engineering of a product, which is basically nothing but support of a product, we are picking it up and saying it is not a price into quantity. It is basically what is the outcome and service level. Here is where we are taking it on a fixed bid or an outcome kind of thing.”

International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday's arrival of a SpaceX capsule. SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana. NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots' return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.

mattress and furniture maker Wakefit reported a 24% year-on-year increase in revenue to Rs 1,017 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2024. The company said it returned to profitability during the financial year, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of Rs 65 crore. It had been profitable on during its first four years of operation. Operating revenue during FY24 was around Rs 985 crore, up from Rs 813 crore in the previous year, it said. Wakefit cofounder Chaitanya Ramalingegowda attributed the increase in revenue to the company’s focus on strengthening its omnichannel presence, with some stores reaching maturity and a new wave of outlets opening, along with the benefits of an automated mattress factory.

Online retailers like Flipkart and Amazon are poised to record 20-25% growth in festive season sales this year, gauging from response to the first three days of sale, according to estimates from Datum Intelligence and senior industry executives briefed on the sale trajectory. During September 26-28, online retailers clocked about 26% rise in sales compared to last year, at about Rs 26,500 crore ($3.2 billion), as per Datum Intelligence, which tracks ecommerce data. The market researcher estimates gross sales of $12 billion this festive season, a growth of about 23%, including discounts and returns. Etail major Flipkart is on track to hit its internal targets for this festive season based on the first three days of sale. The first day of sale was only open to paid VIP and Plus members, similar to Amazon Prime. “Day 1 is usually for the high frequency buyers and the next day it opens to all…Now, with three days of trends in, their (Flipkart) sales remain on target,” said one of the executives cited above.

Policy push by various countries and stricter emission norms are fuelling electric vehicle sales every year across key global markets, shows data from the International Energy Agency. However, penetration of hybrids (including strong hybrids and plug-in hybrids), driven purely by consumer choice, are climbing up at a faster pace. Since 2021, hybrid vehicle sales have been rising steadily in China, Japan, Korea, UK, France, and US, underscoring growing consumer preference for this technology, shows data collated by Nomura Research Institute. China leads the trend with a nearly fourfold surge in hybrid penetration levels to 19.9% in the first half of 2024 from 5.3% in 2021. Korea too has seen a big jump — to 25.2% from 11.8% in the same period. Other markets have shown a similar growth trajectory.

Union home ministry has extended the validity of FCRA registration for non-governmental organisations with pending renewal applications until December 31. The notice cautioned NGOs whose renewal application has been either denied or their FCRA licence cancelled from receiving or utilising foreign grants. In a public notice, the ministry said the validity of the registration of those FCRA entities whose validity had been extended till September 29 and whose renewal application is pending, will stand extended up to December 31 or till the date of disposal of renewal application, whichever is earlier. It also said the validity of those entities whose five-year validity period expire by October 1 to December 31, but have applied for renewal before expiry of the validity period, will stand extended up to December 31 or till the disposal of the application, whichever is earlier.

Indian Premier League Governing Council (IPL GC) has increased the total salary cap for the 2025 season by 33% year-on-year to ₹146 crore, up from ₹110 crore in the 2024 season. The salary cap will rise further to ₹151 crore and ₹157 crore for the 2026 and 2027 IPL seasons, respectively. The total salary cap now includes the auction purse, incremental performance pay, and match fees. For the 2024 season, the total salary cup did not include match fees, which has just been introduced. The auction purse for the franchises has been set at ₹120 crore for IPL 2025. These decisions were made at an IPL Governing Council meeting held in Bengaluru on Saturday, where the Player Regulations for 2025-2027 were finalised. The IPL GC's decision followed a constructive dialogue with the owners of the 10 franchises in July at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters.

advanced light helicopter (ALH) programme, the chopper has been chosen to undertake offshore missions for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), beating several foreign competitors for the requirement to fly out personnel and equipment to oil rigs in the open seas. The helicopters will be operated by Pawan Hans Limited, which will initially place an order for 10, with the total requirement expected to cross 28 in the coming years. The order will open up a new civilian market for the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) chopper that is extensively used by the armed forces, with over 340 of the machines flying all over the country — from naval ships to high altitude helipads on the northern borders. Sources said the bid by Pawan Hans, offering ALH for offshore missions, emerged as technically compliant and the lowest priced, and has taken major foreign suppliers who dominated the market in the past by surprise.

Bosch, a leading appliance brand from Germany has established itself as one of the leaders of the mixer grinder market in India. They make use of the innovative HiFlux motors in their mixer grinders to deliver a best in class performance. If you too have been looking for a similar appliance for your kitchen, then do not forget to check out the list of 10 best Bosch mixer grinders.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Burman family, the largest shareholder in Religare Enterprises Ltd, has called for removing its chairperson Rashmi Saluja from the board of subsidiary Care Health Insurance Ltd, ahead of the insurer's annual shareholders' meeting on Monday. In a 27 September letter to the board of Care Health citing the insurer's Articles of Association, the Burman family wrote that a recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation against Saluja makes her unsuitable for the post of director.

Pope Francis implored bishops not to cover up the sexual abuse of children, during an open-air mass on Sunday that capped a three-day visit to Belgium, which is still struggling with the legacy of past scandals. Gathered in bright morning sunshine, about 40,000 faithful, some waving Belgian and Vatican flags, packed the King Baudouin stadium north of the capital to hear the 87-year-old pontiff. «There is no place for abuse, there is no place for covering up abuse,» Francis said during a homily.

hotel bookings around the India Expo Mart. According to a press release, exhibitors and visitors attending the International Trade Show got reserved accommodations in Greater Noida, resulting in a display of “fully booked” boards in all the major hotels. This led to demands of rooms in hotels based in Noida and Delhi, the release, issued by the state government, further claimed. Most exhibitors were happy with the success of the trade show, organized by the Yogi government in Greater Noida. The release claimed that the event brought good business opportunities for the exhibitors who participated in the show. The businessmen, who are associated with the hotel sectors, are hopeful that they would be benefitted by the conducive atmosphere for the trade and tourism available in the state in the current regime, according to the release.

While Jammu has arguably been a bigger gainer of the removal of special status as the power balance with the Valley has ostensibly been reduced, there are many issues that plague the minds of people living in the lower altitudes. High unemployment and lack of jobs commensurate with the education levels is a big worry for the youth. Many young people that ET talked to said they and their peers are working in other parts of the country or going to Singapore, Australia, Canada and the European countries for low-end jobs. Agniveer has also caused a lot of resentment. “Earlier there used to be so many boys running on the roads early in the morning to practice for joining the army but now you hardly see any youngsters doing so. There is not much interest in becoming an Agniveer,” said Narendra Sharma, the PDP candidate in RS Pura, Jammu.

Israel's killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike on Friday was a feat of spycraft capping days of operations highlighting its deep infiltration of the Iran-backed group. Here's what we know about how Israel marshalled its intelligence resources to pull off the attack: The buildup

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. North Korea’s rulers have always had strong views on art. Kim Il Sung, the regime’s founding despot, said artists should “arouse burning hatred for the enemy through their works".

the fighting. Both sides pummel the enemy with cheap kamikaze models and use long-range craft to strike targets far from the front lines. In the Black Sea Ukrainian naval drones have helped to inflict serious damage on Russia’s fleet.

At oil and gas giant Shell, Cindy Taff was in charge of drilling wells that are considered unconventional because the oil or natural gas is difficult to access