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New Delhi, May 28 : Eastman Impex, a player in India’s automotive components and manufacturing sector, has announced an aggressive expansion roadmap with a planned investment of approximately  INR 40 crore year-on-year over the next three years. The investment will be directed towards strengthening its aluminium fabrication and axle assembly parts manufacturing capabilities, further reinforcing its position in the domestic and global markets. 

With a current turnover of INR 700 crore, the company is targeting a significant scale-up to INR 1,200 crore in revenue by 2029. As part of its long-term strategic vision, Eastman Impex is also preparing for a potential IPO by 2030.

The upcoming investments will primarily focus on expanding advanced aluminium fabrication facilities and enhancing production capacity for axle assembly components—key segments that are witnessing strong demand across the automotive and industrial sectors.

Speaking on the development, Gaurav Singal, CEO, Eastman Impex, said,

“We are focused on building a future-ready manufacturing ecosystem by consistently investing in innovation, capacity expansion, and people. Our ₹40 crore annual investment plan reflects our long-term commitment to scaling our aluminium fabrication and axle assembly businesses. With a clear roadmap to achieve ₹1,200 crore in revenue by 2029 and a planned IPO in 2030, we are confident of delivering sustainable growth while contributing to India’s manufacturing ambitions.”

In line with its growth strategy, the company is also strengthening its human resource vision with a strong focus on inclusive hiring and local employment generation. Eastman Impex currently employs over 2,200 workers, including approximately 230 women employees. The company is actively promoting women workforce participation and prioritising recruitment from the local Punjabi talent pool, contributing to regional economic development.

Additionally, Eastman Impex is leveraging various Punjab government schemes to enhance its operational efficiencies and support its expansion initiatives.

With a robust investment pipeline, a clear growth trajectory, and a strong focus on workforce development, Eastman Impex continues to solidify its position as a key contributor to India’s evolving manufacturing and automotive ecosystem .

New Delhi, May 28: Redcliffe Labs today announced the appointment of Vijay T. S. as Chief People Officer (CPO), as the company continues to strengthen its organizational foundation to support its next phase of growth and expansion across India.

In this role, Vijay will lead the company’s people strategy across talent management, leadership development, organizational culture, performance excellence, and capability building to support Redcliffe Labs’ long-term growth and operational excellence.

Vijay, an ISB alumni, joins Redcliffe Labs with over 28 years of experience across healthcare, edtech, technology, manufacturing, and global business environments. Over the course of his career, he has led work across human resources, organizational development, business operations, change management, talent strategy, and leadership capability building. He brings deep expertise in organizational design, performance management, employee engagement, leadership hiring, and building scalable, high-performing teams.

Most recently, Vijay served as Chief People Officer at CureBay, where he worked on organizational design, leadership hiring, performance-linked rewards, and policy frameworks to support the company’s expansion across rural India. Prior to this, he spent nearly eight years at Chegg as Managing Director – India, leading a significant phase of operational growth and organizational scaling for the business in India.

Earlier in his career, Vijay held leadership roles at DuPont, Birlasoft, and Hyundai Motor India, where he built extensive experience across HR transformation, compensation and benefits, employee engagement, capability building, and strategic business partnering.

Commenting on the appointment, Aditya Kandoi, Founder & CEO, Redcliffe Labs, said, “Vijay brings a strong blend of strategic leadership, operational depth, and transformational people experience built over nearly three decades across diverse industries. As Redcliffe Labs continues to scale, strengthening leadership capability and building an agile, high-performance organization will remain a key priority for us. Vijay’s experience in building scalable organizations and aligning people strategy with business priorities makes him a valuable addition to our leadership team.”

On joining Redcliffe Labs, Vijay T. S., Chief People Officer, Redcliffe Labs, said, “After decades of building organizations, I have learned that purpose is what truly sustains growth. What drew me towards Redcliffe Labs was the sincerity behind its vision. A vision shaped by real experiences and a genuine commitment towards making preventive healthcare more accessible for millions of Indians.

My conversations with Aditya Kandoi reflected deep clarity of thought about building an organization that balances growth and impact while remaining equally committed to its people and culture. It feels great to join Redcliffe Labs at this phase of its journey and contribute towards building a strong, purpose-driven organization focused on Better Health Everyday.”

With this appointment, Redcliffe Labs continues to strengthen its leadership team and organizational capabilities as it expands its preventive healthcare ecosystem across India.

National, May 28: Leap Scholar, South Asia’s largest AI-powered study-abroad ecosystem, has released new data showing that Indian students are widening their study-abroad choices by increasingly looking beyond traditional destinations. The data shows rising demand for New Zealand, Italy, Singapore, France and wider Europe, as students evaluate global education through a sharper lens of career outcomes, specialised courses, affordability and long-term ROI.

The shift indicates that destination choice is becoming more strategic. Students are no longer looking only at the most popular countries; they are comparing markets based on what they offer in terms of future-ready courses, employability, lower-cost public university options and post-study value.

A strong example of this shift is New Zealand, where AI-led education is gaining significant traction. The University of Auckland’s Master of AI programme saw demand rise by 33,800% YoY, contributing to the university’s 865% overall growth. This highlights how a sharply positioned programme in a high-demand field can quickly influence destination preference among Indian students.

Singapore is also emerging as a serious contender. It appeared in 26.6% of student conversations, making it the second-most discussed destination after the UK in this dataset. Its proximity to India, strong academic ecosystem and technology-led job market are making it increasingly relevant, though students still need clearer India-specific guidance on costs, jobs, PR pathways and long-term outcomes.

Italy is gaining ground as a fresher-STEM destination. Freshers account for 65.8% of STEM demand, while STEM fields make up 52.9% of all fresher demand for the country. This positions Italy as a strong high-ROI option for Indian engineering and science students, especially due to its lower-cost public university ecosystem.

France is moving beyond its MBA-led perception, recording 541.8% YTD growth, driven by specialised non-management degrees such as MSc Finance and MSc Marketing.

Interest is also building across Europe beyond the UK and Germany, with the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and other destinations appearing in 17.6% of student conversations. However, students continue to seek clarity on tuition, language requirements, work rights, PR pathways and job-market realities.

A separate destination-wise cost comparison for Singapore, France, Italy and New Zealand can also be shared with journalists as background data, for reference and publication at their editorial discretion.

Methodology

This trend report is based on anonymised lead-generation and student-interest data from Leap’s internal database. The insights have been drawn from a relevant subset of students within Leap’s overall database of 1.1 million+ students, filtered basis the specific geography, time period, destination interest, course preference, and student behaviour patterns analysed for this report.

The data has been reviewed to identify directional shifts in study-abroad intent, emerging destination preferences, course-level demand, and student decision-making trends. The report is intended to provide a timely view of how Indian students are evaluating global education opportunities and the factors shaping their choices.

 

Mumbai, May 28 : Equirus Securities, in its latest 4QFY26 result review on Varroc Engineering, noted that the company delivered an operationally steady performance with revenues and EBITDA surpassing estimates, although higher taxation resulted in a miss at the profit-after-tax  level.

Varroc Engineering reported consolidated revenue of Rs 23.7 billion for 4QFY26, marking a growth of 13% year-on-year and 4% quarter-on-quarter. The performance came approximately 3% ahead of Equirus Securities’ estimate of Rs 23.1 billion.

EBITDA stood at Rs 2.2 billion, up 1% year-on-year and 6% sequentially, surpassing estimates by around 6%. EBITDA margin came in at 9.4%, ahead of expectations, supported by improved operational efficiencies and stable gross margins.

Gross margin for the quarter stood at 35.8%, while employee costs increased 11% year-on-year to Rs 2.4 billion. Other expenses rose 22% year-on-year to Rs 3.9 billion, reflecting continued investments and operational scaling.

Profit before tax  grew 4% year-on-year to Rs 1,074 million, slightly ahead of estimates. However, recurring PAT declined 10% year-on-year and 27% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 693 million, primarily due to a significantly higher tax outgo during the quarter. The effective tax rate rose sharply to 35.7% compared to 23.5% in the corresponding quarter last year.

The company also reported improved contribution from joint ventures and associates, with profit from JV operations rising to Rs 14 million during the quarter compared to Rs 3 million in the year-ago period.

Interest expenses declined 14% year-on-year to Rs 349 million, while other income increased 14% year-on-year to Rs 55 million.

On the cash flow front, cash flow from operations  for FY26 stood at Rs 5.4 billion compared to Rs 7.4 billion in FY25. Capital expenditure during FY26 increased to Rs 4.0 billion against Rs 2.8 billion in FY25, indicating continued focus on capacity enhancement and growth investments.

Equirus Securities maintained that the quarter reflected a “decent operational performance,” though elevated taxation weighed on net profitability.

At the current market price of Rs 589, Varroc Engineering trades at FY27E and FY28E P/E multiples of 21.2x and 16.2x respectively.

SINGAPORE, Thursday, May 28: Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., a global leader in workforce readiness solutions, today announced new research showing that organisations across Asia-Pacific and Japan are losing millions of dollars each year to preventable workforce capability gaps tied to culture.

The report, The Hidden Number: The Economic Value of Culture and Capability, finds that for every 1,000 employees, the cost of unaddressed culture and capability failures is estimated at SGD 1.25 million in Singapore, INR 7.03 million in India, JPY 62.38 million in Japan and AUD 1.64 million in Australia. Notably, around 85% of these costs are tied to retention and absenteeism, pointing to existing teams rather than hiring pipelines as the largest source of workforce cost.

The research measures workforce capability across six pillars to highlight where organisations are losing value and demonstrate how culture and capability investment translates into commercial outcomes. The findings expose a consistent disconnect between how leaders perceive their organisations and how employees actually experience them.

HR leaders across Asia-Pacific and Japan rate their organisations’ workforce capability significantly higher than employees do in every market surveyed, a gap that holds whether the market is high-growth or mature. Researchers warn the disconnect may be distorting strategic decisions on AI investment, restructures and hiring.

Among the report’s findings:

●    APJ HR leaders rate workforce capability at 81.5 out of 100, while employees rate it more than 15 points lower across every market surveyed, a consistent gap regardless of market maturity.

●     Around 85% of the economic cost tied to capability gaps comes from retention and absenteeism rather than hiring inefficiency.

●    AI and Workforce Planning is the most significant blind spot region-wide, with employees reporting far lower confidence in their preparedness for automation and role change than HR leaders assume.

●     Indonesia and India lead the region in HR leader confidence but record the largest disconnects between leadership and employee perceptions.

●     Japan posts the lowest capability maturity score in the region and the weakest employee confidence in AI readiness.

●     Capability gaps widen in larger enterprises, where organisational complexity amplifies disconnects in leadership credibility, workforce planning and internal talent mobility.

The findings echo a separate Cornerstone study recently released, which found that in a survey of 2,000 US and UK employees, 46% reported using AI tools at work without any formal training from their employer, and 65% were building AI skills independently outside of work.The consistent pattern of employees navigating AI adoption without adequate organisational support points to a structural gap in how organisations globally are managing the human side of AI deployment.

 “The most important drivers of performance in modern organisations have historically been invisible. They sit across attrition, lost productivity, delayed hiring, contractor reliance and failed transformation outcomes, but are rarely measured as one workforce lever,” said Brenton Smith, Vice President, Asia-Pacific & Japan at Cornerstone OnDemand.

 

“This research gives APJ leaders a new way to see their Invisible P&L. The organisations that will outperform over the next five years are those that treat workforce capability as a measurable commercial system, not a soft HR metric.”

To help organisations address these gaps, Cornerstone launched Cornerstone Workforce AI™, the intelligence platform for workforce readiness, designed to deliver the insights leaders want, the skills people need, and AI agents that make action easy.

At its core are the Cornerstone People Graph™ and Cornerstone Skills Engine, which combine to turn two decades of workforce data across 45 million users, terabytes of labour market intelligence, a taxonomy of more than 55,000 skills, over 1 billion workforce profiles, and signals from systems-of-record into an inference layer that powers every decision. 

 

The rich, dynamic context this creates, coupled with agentic orchestration, makes Cornerstone Workforce AI a powerful ally for organizations who want to deliver strategic outcomes faster and turn continuous workforce readiness into a competitive advantage.