Startup news and updates: daily roundup (June 19, 2021)

Grofers Co-founder Saurabh Kumar steps down from operational roles after 8 years

Gurugram-based online grocery delivery startup Grofers on Friday announced that co-founder Saurabh Kumar will be stepping down from his operational roles at the company and will only remain as a shareholder and board member.

In a blog post, Albinder Dhindsa, Founder and CEO, Grofers, said, “Over the last six months SK (Saurabh Kumar) had been yearning to invest in his own personal evolution — to grow beyond a growth driver to become a designer, enabler, and coach. And diving deeper has convinced him that this is another area he can have a huge impact on if he can build on it from scratch.”

India hopes to resume vaccine exports once domestic needs are met: Covid task force head

India, the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines, wants to resume exports of coronavirus doses but can't do so until its domestic needs are met, the head of the country's COVID-19 task force said on Friday.

Dr Vinod K. Paul said once India's immediate need of vaccinating a significant proportion of its people is achieved, and vaccine stockpiles are visible from multiple sources, the nation would then like to play the role of serving others and providing vaccines to them.

RBI allows Centrum to take over PMC, re-launch it as a small finance bank in joint venture with BharatPe

Diversified financial services player Centrum Group on Friday said it has received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take over the troubled cooperative lender PMC Bank and re-launch it as a small finance bank.

Centrum hopes to complete the licence terms and conditions within the next 120 days, and seek RBI's final approval to launch the small finance bank and take over PMC, Centrum Group Executive Chairman Jaspal Bindra said.

WHO accepts Bharat Biotech's expression of interest for Covaxin, pre-submission meeting on June 23

In a major boost for Bharat Biotech, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted its Expression of Interest (EoI) for COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin and scheduled a pre-submission meeting on June 23, a step that will take the vaccine maker closer to a WHO's emergency use listing (EUL).

Though the meeting will not be a detailed review of the product, the vaccine maker will have an opportunity to submit a summary on the overall quality of the jab, according to the WHO.