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Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius Expects Daimler to Export Mercedes-Benz Cars from India

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India has a large and growing automobile manufacturing industry, which has in recent years showed much promise. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a decline in sales for large manufacturers. However, the industry is looking for ways to grow past this slight hiccup. It might have received such an invite through the Daimler CEO’s recent statement. As per CEO Ola Kallenius’s interview with the Times of India, the auto giant is looking to source specific components exclusively from India. Here’s a look at the major highlights of the interview, and how Daimler has positioned itself as an automotive ally in the last few years.

Validation for India

India’s the automobile and manufacturing industries have grown exponentially in recent years. This move by Daimler serves as a significant validation for its growth and reliability. As per the interview, the Daimler CEO has stated that the company would use India as an exclusive base for global sourcing of specific important components and software. Furthermore, he also said that Daimler was considering plans to export cars from India on a large-scale. However, the final plans regarding these projects will depend on their economic feasibility and financial viability.

More Praise for India

Ola Kallenius also had a lot of praise and good faith for India, expressing how he was an “Indian fan”. He also described how the movement of the manufacturing of individual parts to India permanently had been a good move. As a result, the company would remain focused on making more such engineering efforts to better their production, and ally with India strategically. However, the CEO was unclear to what extent such a partnership or alliance would grow as that depends on several factors. The CEO was in Germany, unveiling a new S-Class limo while making these statements.

Ola Kallenius
Image Source: ttnews.com

Furthermore, he was also clear about how the growth of software development in India also poses favorable conditions for the expansion of such alliances. He also made it clear that expansion in India could be for more than bare vehicle engineering, but also the IT side of things. He was also quick to point out that India has been a “solid pillar of their house” for several years.

Presence in India

Daimler has two active and functioning factories in India. Their factory in Pune houses and creates Mercedes-Benz cars, while the one in Chennai churns out their Bharat Benz range of trucks. Furthermore, the company also has a large Research and Development centre based in Bangalore, which focuses on global R&D. Kallenius also stated that the export of Mercedes-Benz cars from India would serve as a purely economic decision. As a result, the project depends heavily on the economic feasibility and viability of the decision. However, Kallenius also stated that such a case had never come up till now and that he isn’t sure when such an opportunity would arise. He also reiterated that if and when they do have to make such a decision, it would rely heavily on the financial aspect of things.

Previous Plans for the Future

The German auto legend set up the factory in Chennai, which produces trucks and buses to help with serving its Latin American market from 2022.  Earlier reports had stated that shipments would start going out to Brazil, Chile, and Mexico between 2021 and 2022. The reports for the same had come in September of last year, following the Indian government’s move towards BSVI technology. Around that time, the company also stated that globally it had sold over 1.4 million vehicles which are Euro-VI, or BS-VI equivalent compliant. The company has also invested about INR 500 crores in India to localize, test, and improve its Euro-VI technology.

Two years ago, Daimler exported the GLC SUV, which is an Indian-made vehicle to the US. The company went on to mention that their Indian plant was a back-up set up to help deal with a rise in global demand for their vehicles. Furthermore, on being asked about the low sales of luxury vehicles in India, the Daimler CEO said that numbers did not do any justice to the true size of India, it’s economy and the population. He concluded by stating they had a fair market position but just had to work some things out. The analogy he employed included shaking a good ketchup bottle but having difficulty with bringing out the ketchup. It will be interesting to see whether the deal goes through after financial analysis, as it could breathe some much-needed life into India’s automobile manufacturing industry.

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GoIbibo : An Indian Startup Helping you Explore the World

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If you love travelling, then chances are that you swear by GoIbibo! But do you know how GoIbibo got to where it is now, and who made that possible? This time around, we will be looking at Ashish Kashyap’s story and understand how working with multiple large companies helped give Ashish the experience he needed to launch something as massive as Ibibo.

Kashyap’s story has a familiar pattern to it; one we have seen countless times when it comes to Indian entrepreneurs. After getting a business degree from a good university, freshers join large corporations as managers and product designers. After gaining experience working under company greats, they exit a few years down the line to start their own company and turn entrepreneurs! Ashish did the same, as he launched Ibibo in 2007, after heading Google India’s operations and having worked as the General Manager for Indiatimes.com.

The Founder

After finishing his Honors in Economics from the University of Delhi, Ashish went ahead to procure a Masters in Practicing Management from Insead, France. Once he was done with his studies, he joined the prestigious Times Group, and slowly worked his way up the corporate ladder, finally becoming the General Manager of E-Commerce at Indiatimes. Even there, Ashish was looking for new opportunities and successfully launched several e-commerce applications.

Goibibo founder
Image Source: techcircle.in

Similarly, while heading Google India’s operations, Ashish focused on creating a lively and active entrepreneurial environment by building and designing product launches and establishing and building the business. Later, Ashish served as a senior member of PayU global, Netherlands, and helped the conglomerate by spear-heading some well-timed exits to generate income and increase company value. He is also the co-creator of PayU India, which in 2016 acquired CitrusPay. The more Ashish helped businesses grow, the more he realised that this is something he loved to do. It was this realization that led him to found the Ibibo group.

Founding Ibibo

As the internet grew, more websites and applications sprouted, and this led to the creation of a whole new customer segment. As more entrepreneurs burst into the tech field, it opened up avenues for several B2B and B2C companies to come forth and seize the opportunities available. One such service sector, that Ashish felt needed a revamp was the tourism and travel industry. Applications like redBus, GoIbibo and MakeMyTrip have forever changed the way people travel, and none of this would have been possible, if not for Ashish.

When it came down to choosing a name for his company, Ashish drew inspiration from the very movement that made its creation possible; the internet and the power it gave consumers. As the internet grew more popular, it helped shift power to the consumers, and hence, he felt his company’s name should focus on “I build”. The internet also helped people create pieces, connect with others and really made the world a smaller place. This brought together the ‘I bond’ and ‘I build’ elements, which went mashed together to become ‘Ibibo’!

While the company was backed by Napster, it was seen more like a social media experiment, rather than a company. Starting out with just eight employees in 2007, the company soon grew from being an experiment to one of the largest names in the field of travel and tourism, in just five years! It is interesting to note that the company started out with just $50k as seed capital, but by the end of the grew, and became a 15-member team.

The Success

Being the first person in India to sell a plane ticket online, in 2002, Ashish knew how to turn Ibibo into a multi-million-dollar company, and that is exactly what he did. Within a span of two years, the travel agency had its own payment portal that turned out to be a huge success. By 2011, Ibibo had grown by 180% and had become the first online travel agency to assure complete refund on cancellation of bookings. They also partnered with big brands like Citibank, MasterCard and HDFC to better their payment portals.

The same time next year, the company had launched a bus booking option and had even acquired redBus for 600 crores. By 2013, the company was growing at 130%, after having launched its own app for Android and iOS. The same year, the company expanded into the field of hotel bookings, which of late have been able to generate significant amounts of revenue for the company. GoIbibo also launched their engine for flights, Flight Advice in 2013, to help customers choose the best airline service. Since then, they have enjoyed over 140% growth, and even acquired YourBus in 2014. With a team of over 200 professionals, the team also launched a Windows app goCash, to help customers cancel tickets and bookings easily.

In 11 years, the Ibibo Group went from being a small team of employees to a conglomerate that had sizeable properties such as Goibibo.com, redBus.in, YourBus, and Travelboutique with a reach that extended to countries such as Indonesia, Singapore and even Columbia. With over 25 million app downloads and transactions that went over 24 Million USD, the Ibibo group established itself as a stalwart in the field of travel and tourism.

GoIbibo became a pillar for the travel industry in India after Ashish launched Redbus and Rightstay, and soon enough, in 2016 the Ibibo group merged with MakeMyTrip via a deal which was estimated to be worth around $1.8-$2 billion. This, in turn, brought all the businesses under the GoIbibo bracket, under the umbrella MakeMyTrip, whose largest shareholders are Naspers and Tencent.

The Acquisition

Once the acquisition, which was deemed one of the largest ever made in India, came through, Ashish Kashyap stepped down as president of MakeMyTrip, in 2017. He even signed an agreement that forbade him from soliciting and forming a rival company until September 30, 2019. MakeMyTrip which is listed on the American NASDAQ is the ultimate travel application offering everything from flight booking to hotel reservations and car hires.

As the agreement comes to an end this year, it is safe to assume that Kashyap will be back with some new creation soon enough. GoIbibo which started as a social media campaign idea became one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the span of a mere five years. Having grown 200%, just a year after its launch, GoIbibo provides the kind of success story that inspires us to take chances and go after our dreams!

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Meesho : India’s First Facebook-Backed Startup Emerged out of a Failed Business

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The world has already created a rough background framework in the mind of every young entrepreneur out there. If you are a good programmer and a tech guy, you are surely a potential entrepreneur, or that is what everyone thinks. But, there is always this one person who burst our bubbles and brings us back to the real world. Sanjeev Barnwal, the co-founder of Meesho, an online e-commerce platform created for the resellers in 2015, believes that it is always not coding that opens the scope of doing good business. One of the most important criteria for fueling a business is to know your clients. So, meeting the clients in real life, interacting with them contributes to one’s successful business as well. Let us know more about this platform, and its founders, Sanjeev Barnwal and Vidit Aatrey.

Sanjeev Barnwal

Belonging to a middle-class family from Ranchi, Barnwal was always influenced to do well in his academic life. In his 10+2, he opted for computer science only to get rid of biology. Since, he chose to study pure science, like most of the students these days, he also wanted to pursue engineering, and not to mention from the best institution of India, i.e., IIT. After passing his twelfth standard, he went straight to Kota to prepare for the entrance exam, and next year, he made it to IIT Delhi, Department of Electrical Engineering. After getting into college, Barnwal realized the power technology and coding is acquiring in our lives.

During his days in the IIT, he met Vidit Aatrey, his classmate. But these four years were absolutely not the time when they sat together and planned their own start-up. After completing his BTech, Barnwal moved to Tokyo, Japan and started working for Sony Corporation. After working there for a couple of years, Barnwal was really inspired by the start-up community growth in India and wanted to join in. So, he called up Aatrey, his IIT Delhi batch mate, to ask if there is any start-up which he could possibly join. But, Aatrey was very much interested to create a start-up of his own, rather joining one. And this is how it all began.

Meesho founders
Image Source: angel.co

Vidit Aatrey

With an AIR of 182, Aatrey was admitted to the Electrical Engineering department of IIT Delhi in 2008. After graduating, while Barnwal moved to Tokyo, Aatrey joined ITC as Supply Chain Manager and worked there for a couple of years. He switched to InMobi in 2014 and moved to Bangalore. He was doing really well in this company, until one fine day he received a phone call from his old batchmate, Sanjeev from IIT Delhi. Over a single conversation, both of them decided to quit their jobs for something which was as uncertain as an exit poll in India.

Anyway, both of them resigned, and Barnwal returned to India in June 2015 to start his new venture with Aatrey.

And, the End Result was Meesho!

At first, both of them decided to open a fashion-based online marketplace that would remap all the shops for customers, and through the app, the user could actually try the product before buying it. They named their start-up FashNear and launched it in mid-2015, but unfortunately the idea back-fired.

So, they came up with another idea of a start-up and created a platform where offline retailers could take their business online, and sell through different social platforms like Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook etc. After they came up with the idea of this new business, they worked day and night to create this online premise. Their office was their 2-BHK apartment in Bangalore and weekends meant nothing to them except coding more and more. After a long month, they finally set up the company and launched Meesho in December 2015. This is how Meesho was born, from a failed business to the first Indian start-up Facebook invested in. The co-founders performed diligently and made their comeback in the same year.

Where Meesho Stands Today?

Meesho has received a robust response from the customers of India as it has turned the table for many young businessmen/businesswomen of India who basically gave their business a face due to this entire online social media marketing.

Meesho raised good funding in these few years as well as many prestigious awards. After a year of its launch, Meesho was selected by the Y-Combinator and earned $120,000 from there. The latest investment by Facebook was in June 2019, and the last month Meesho raised $125 million from series D funding.

Today, Meesho has over 500 members inspiring every commoner of India with a passion to create something of his or her own.

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Sorav Jain : An Indian Entrepreneur Crusing Down the Bay of Digital Marketing

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The traditional ways of marketing have been outweighed by digitalized promotions as soon as we stepped into the era of digitalization. But, since the last few years, online marketing space has been overcrowded by people with low experience and claimed professionals. The presence of such freelancers, who have a very minimal idea about digital marketing and social media, creates confusion among the customers which reduces trust in the long run. So, the effectiveness of a good digital marketing company gradually loses its demanding position while people with basically no knowledge-creating havoc in the digital world.

And, to clear the mind of people and help them chose the best, Sorav Jain, a young Indian entrepreneur created some offbeat strategies for his digital marketing company, echoVME. He built the company out of pure passion, as he was ever really into studying biotechnology, though he pursued it. But, later he made his mind to create something of his own, like his father and uncles and went abroad to study marketing management.

Family Background and Early Life

Sorav Jain belonged to a family where creating your own ship cruise was appreciated more than working on a royal one. His father and uncles were established businessmen, so going the unconventional way and turning down tempting jobs were absolutely supported by his family members.socialsamosa.com

Sorav Jain
Image Source: digitalscholar.in

Sorav went to Loyola College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology in 2007. While being an undergraduate student, he already mastered the art of SEO, and hence, joined Contempo Technologies as an SEO and Content Executive in January 2006. By this time, Sorav already chalked out his plan to start off his venture and explore the entrepreneurial endeavours. He went to the University of Leeds to complete his master’s degree in International Marketing Management and joined CMO Axis as a Digital Marketing Specialist after graduating. Working for CMO Axis, a global digital marketing firm fascinated him even more about the world of advertising.

Setting up echoVME

Sorav Jain still continued working at CMO Axis, while he was building his own empire. Quite a business mind!

An entire plan was set up, and Sorav started assembling the building blocks of the company from December 2009. The company became operational from March of the next year, a couple of months after leaving CMO Axis. So, like any other young entrepreneur, Sorav dived into his business with the utmost passion and energy to bring a significant change in digital marketing.

The company started with a team of 10 members operating from Mumbai and Chennai.

At People’s Best Interest

echoVME wasn’t established with the regular idea of going around, convincing people, taking in clients and earning money. Sorav really wanted to put some effort to make young minds, especially college students, learn about digital marketing so that the quality of freelancers available in the marketplace improves and more students get exposed to the light of digital marketing.

Since its establishment, a lot of training sessions and workshops are conducted by echoVME. Apart from covering major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, echoVME has also spread its wings to Sri Lanka. It was a really smart strategy from the owner to conduct such workshops, as they received humungous positive feedbacks, even from CEOs, CMOs, and Executive Officers of many famous brands.

Within few months of founding the company, it made deals worth $10 million through corporate blogging strategy.

Obstacles and Competitors

For Sorav Jain the hardest challenge was time management and implementing every theoretical statement from the heavy books of business administration in real life. He said that when you set up a business, it is more than just the bookish definition of the business terminologies, as you have to deal with real people and real crisis. But, that’s how one learns, isn’t it?

Sorav gives very vague answers, every time it comes down to mentioning echoVME’s competitors. In an interview, he said that every company that is trying to reach a standard position in digital marketing, especially blogging-centric marketing, are the competitors.

Success of echoVME

Presently, echoVME has trained more than 2000 professionals and brands through their training programs and workshops. More than 100 workshops have been conducted echoVME in major cities of India till date. The training sector of echoVME, SOCIALME has gained unexpected popularity from the very first day.

What after echoVME?

Sorav founded Digital Scholar, an agency-based learning institute in July 2019. Apart from this, Sorav has also been a guest lecturer at many famous educational institutes, like IIT Madras and Leeds Metropolitan University.

Kailasavadivoo Sivan

Kailasavadivoo Sivan : The Rocket Man of India

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Amongst the innumerable number of successful entrepreneurs, and tech-savvies, there always emerges out a legendary person who creates history and breaks the records. Flourishing in the business world is not a big deal today given that we have developed so much in terms of technology, but how many of us dare launch spaceships and fly into the space to explore the galaxy?

All these sounds very astronomical, especially, for a developing country like India, isn’t it? Particularly, if the person behind the successful Indian space missions is a farmer’s son. A far-fetched dream, it seems like but turned into reality by none other than Kailasavadivoo Sivan, the chairperson of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization). Today, because of this Indian scientist, India’s second mission to the moon was successfully launched. Outweighing other developed and superior nations of our world, Sivan is really creating a new era for India.

A Farmer’s Son

Born on 14th April 1957 in a small village called Tarakkanvillai in Kanyakumari district, Sivan belonged to a very poor household. Sivan’s father, Kailasavadivoonadar Sivan, was a farmer, so his family couldn’t afford a very good school for him.

Kailasavadivoo Sivan
Image Source: thehindu.com

He went to a government-sponsored school in his village, and later, went to ST Hindu College in Nagercoil for his graduation. Unable to afford any tuition or proper coaching, Sivan was a self-supported student and turns out, was the first graduate in his family.

After completing his undergraduate degree, he pursued aeronautical engineering from Madras Institute of Technology. After graduated from there in 1980, he received a master’s degree from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1982. Sivan took one more step forward towards his bright future, and also our nation’s when he completed his PhD from IIT Bombay in 2006. Sivan also received an honorary doctorate in science from Sathyabama University.

Journey to ISRO

Sivan joined ISRO long before completing his PhD, that is, in 1982. Sivan was a part of ISRO’s many projects, but one of the significant projects he participated in was the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project. This was his first project after joining ISRO. Another big project where he made a significant contribution is the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), and, later, he became a project director of GSLV. He majorly worked with designing and development of space vehicles for ISRO’s missions.

Sivan is famous all over the nation as ‘Rocket Man’ because he is probably the best-known scientist in India and has a significant contribution in building cryogenic rocket engines. Sivan became the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center on 1st June 2015, and before that, he served as the director of ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Center.

On January 2018, Sivan was declared as the ninth chairperson of ISRO after A.S Kiran Kumar.

Sivan’s Contribution to India’s Space Missions

Sivan’s unparallel contribution and untamed determination for the space missions of India led him to launch 104 satellites in one single mission. Had it not been for this devoted scientist, India would be still struggling to launch a successful moon mission for the second time.

Kailasavadivoo Sivan has been working for ISRO for more than three decades now. But, before Sivan became the chairperson of ISRO, he served at many powerful positions like Secretary of Department of Space, Chair of the Space Commission, Deputy Director (ISRO), Project Director (ISRO), and many more.

Today, due to Sivan’s sheer dedication, India is known as the first country in the entire world that is preferred for a soft landing on the moon. ISRO’s biggest mission, after Sivan became the chairperson, Chandrayaan 2 was launched on 22nd July 2019. But this braveheart shattered into pieces when the Lander lost all communications, but still, the mission was 95% successful, only because of this man.

Awards and Achievements

Since 1999, Sivan has been the recipient of many prestigious awards starting with Shri Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr Vikram Sarabhai Research Award. In 2007, he received ISRO merit award, followed by Dr Biren Roy Space Science Award in 2011. In 2019, he was awarded A.P.J Abdul Kalam Award from Tamil Nadu’s government.

Sivan is also a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Aeronautical Society of India.

Personal Life

Kailasavadivoo Sivan is married to Malathi Sivan, and he is the parent to two kids, Siddharth and Sushant Kailasavadivoo Sivan. The family lives in the Bengaluru City of India.

naukri.com

Sanjeev Bikhchandani : The Man who Gave Hope to New India with Naukri.com

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India is pioneering in the business world not recently but from a long good time. Maybe the number of successful Indian start-ups has increased in recent times, but our country has many influential businessmen who have been changing the economic status of our country from time bygone. Employment is one of the key ways to improve the economic status of a nation and delving deeper into this mission, Sanjeev Bikhchandani founded Naukri.com in 1997. Naukri.com is an online job portal under Info Edge, which was also founded by this very person.

Bikhchandani came up from an economically “not-so-stable” family. So, because the circumstances of his upbringing, he had the vision to build something big for himself from a very young age.

No Business Background

sanjeev bikhchandani naukri.com
Image Source: forbesindia.com

It is a common perception in India that the People from Sindhi descent always belong to a lavish business background, but there are exceptions in every situation. Bikhchandani is also an exception when it comes to his family background, as he was raised by a government-employed father and a housewife mother. His father was a government doctor, but life was definitely not a bed of roses for Bikhchandani, as he grew up in a government colony with a middle-class lifestyle.

Born in 1963, he completed his schooling from St. Columbus’s School, Delhi in 1981 and pursued a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. After he graduated in 1984, he went to IIM Ahmedabad to complete his MBA.

Bikhchandani was impressed and fascinated by the entrepreneurial side of the professional world, and hence, he decided to create his own business after getting a taste of corporate life.

Stepping into the Work-life

Before joining IIM Ahmedabad, he worked as an Account Executive at Lintas for three years. After post graduating with a Diploma in Management and Entrepreneurship, he started working for HMM Hindustan MilkFood Manufacturers), now known as GlaxoSmithKline. He worked there as a Product Executive and controlled the marketing of Horlicks.

While working at the company, Bikhchandani was paid Rs. 8000 per month, which was not at all an unsatisfactory amount in that period of time. But, he eventually got sick of the monotonous life given that he had bigger things on his mind from a very young age. Bikhchandani quit the job in 1990, and the next phase was definitely very difficult for him.

Starting the Entrepreneurial Journey

Since Bikhchandani was prepared for a long time to start his own business, he knew life was going to be rough. He is grateful to his wife for being supportive of him as after Bikhchandani left his job, the family completed relied on his wife. His wife, Surbhi, worked at Nestle, and this young couple was totally fine with the idea of being dependable, as they knew what it is going to take to become successful, and kudos they did it!

Bikhchandani founded two companies, Landmark and Info Edge in 1990, with another business partner. The former company dealt with the database of trademarks, while the latter dealt with salary surveys. After three years, with both the companies and a partner, they decided to split with each one getting to keep one company. So, in late 1993, Bikhchandani settled with Info Edge and started everything from scratch.

Founding Naukri.com

Since Bikhchandani needed to make a fresh start, he kept his expenses low for the next four years. The idea of Naukri.com burst in his mind after he attended an event of IT Asia Exhibition in Delhi. He planned to create a website and start executing what he had in his mind.

Since the internet just arrived in India then, all servers were US-based. It was not possible for him to create a website, and thus, he called up his brother, who was a professor in the US and hired a server. Bikhchandani also took capital from his brother to start the business, and that is how he founded Naukri.com. He provided his father with a 5% stake in the company.

The company was all about resumes, jobs and recruitment consultants, that lured both the unemployed and the employed in search of better jobs. Within a couple of years, Naukri.com made around INR 22 lakhs and gave 15% stake of the company to ICICI Ventures for INR 7.3 crores.The company was all about resumes, jobs and recruitment consultants, that lured both the unemployed and the employed in search of better jobs. Within a couple of years, Naukri.com made around INR 22 lakhs and gave 15% stake of the company to ICICI Ventures for INR 7.3 crores.

This was the turning point of the business, after which, the growth curve was never disappointing. In 2004, the company made Rs INR crores, and in 2006, it became country’s first Dot Com Company to make its place in the list of Bombay & National Stock Exchanges.

Apart from Naukri.com

The parent company of Naukri.com is Info Edge which also established Shiksha.com, Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com, Quadrangle and many other websites as well. Bikhchandani’s Info Edge also holds stakes in Zomato, Meritnation, Policybazaar, Happilyunmarried, etc. Bikhchandani is also the recipient of the award Ernst and Young- Entrepreneur of the Year 2008.