HDFC Bank, Paytm to launch co-branded credit cards

HDFC Bank will partner with payment company Paytm to launch co-branded credit cards powered by Visa, it said in a statement.

With the Paytm partnership, HDFC Bank seeks to gain lost share in the credit card segment. The Reserve Bank of India had banned India's largest private bank from issuing new credit cards as a penalty for its outages. It lifted the ban in August after more than eight months.

HDFC Bank and Paytm will launch the co-branded credit card in October to coincide with the festive season. Paytm has a reach of over 330 million consumers. The tie-up will enable a deeper reach for the bank in Tier II and Tier III markets.

MKS Instruments signs up HCL Technologies

HCL Technologies has signed a five-year deal with MKS Instruments, a global provider of instruments, systems, subsystems and solutions for advanced manufacturing processes, to digitally transform and improve its performance, productivity, and speed to market.

“MKS Instruments looks forward to partnering with HCL to enhance its end-user experience by automating operations and migrating us toward a hybrid cloud journey,” said Connie Flynn, Chief Information Officer, MKS Instruments.

The Indian IT company will use cloud solutions for AI/ML-led automation, better user experience, digital workplace services, and IT transformation of MKS Instruments.

Oracle releases Fusion Marketing

Oracle Corp unveiled its Fusion Marketing service on Monday, which will use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate key parts of digital marketing campaigns. The service is part of Oracle's Advertising and CX business.

"Fusion Marketing uses AI to automatically score leads at the account level, predict when consumers are ready to talk to a salesperson, and generate a qualified sales opportunity in any CRM system," the company said in a press statement.

“It is time for our industry to think differently about marketing and sales automation, so that we can transform CRM into a system that actually works for both the marketer and the salesperson,” said Rob Tarkoff, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience, in the press statement.

Tata Communications launches BoD

Tata Communications launched a pay-as-you-go model to help enterprises in India meet their short-term bandwidth needs conveniently through a self-service customer portal.

The ‘Bandwidth-on-Demand’ (BoD) feature on ethernet services helps customers manage scalable and resilient data centre connectivity, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.

“With this feature, Tata Communications powers enterprises to move closer to achieving their digital-first ambitions,” the company said in the exchange filing. Its ethernet network is built on Tata Communications’ data centre ecosystem infrastructure. 

Eureka Forbes' new owner

Private equity firm Advent International said on Sunday that it has signed an agreement with the SP Group (SPG) to acquire a majority stake in Eureka Forbes.

Eureka Forbes, a 100 percent subsidiary of Forbes & Company, will be demerged and listed on BSE, as per the arrangement. The transaction values Eureka Forbes at an enterprise value of Rs 4,400 crore, subject to closing adjustments.

“Upon listing of EFL, Advent will purchase up to 72.56 percent of the company's then outstanding stock on a fully diluted basis from SPG,” said the companies in a joint statement.

Amazon.in expands regional language play

Amazon India said on Monday that customers can use its website in Marathi and Bengali in addition to the five previously available languages: Hindi, English, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.

The ecommerce giant also plans to launch voice-shopping experience in Hindi in the coming weeks, Amazon India said in a statement. “These launches break the language barrier, and make ecommerce more accessible and convenient for millions of customers across India,” the company said.

Amazon India has worked with linguistics experts to develop an accurate and comprehensible user experience in each of the languages, it added.