Category: Business

Mumbai, July 11: Chupps footwear, India’s fast-growing D2C open footwear brand, announced a year-long partnership with the P. Gopichand Badminton Academy , one of India’s high-performance badminton institutions, as its official footwear recovery partner. The partnership was made jointly by Yashesh Mukhi, founder, Chupps footwear, and Pullela Gopichand at a press meet in Hyderabad.

At the centre of this collaboration is Pullela Gopichand, the legendary coach behind the Olympic success of Saina Nehwal and Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu, All England Open champion, and one of India’s most respected coaches, who will work closely with Chupps footwear to bring greater scientific rigour to its recovery footwear category. By entering one of India’s most demanding training environments, where athletes train for long hours and recovery is a critical part of their routine, the partnership enables players to use Chupps footwear during off-court time, allowing the brand to gather direct feedback on comfort, cushioning, fit and recovery  through everyday use.

This ongoing input from athletes and coaches will contribute to how Chupps footwear approaches product design and development, particularly as it builds out its recovery and athleisure category.

The P. Gopichand Badminton Academy, known for producing top international players, operates with a strong focus on performance, discipline, and consistency. The partnership aligns with the academy’s emphasis on overall athlete well-being, including recovery and foot health.

Beyond product integration, the partnership will be activated through:

•  On-ground branding at PGBA to build strong visibility  

•  Co-branded digital content with authentic, athlete-led stories  

•  Direct feedback loop with Gopichand and athletes shaping product development

Speaking on the partnership, Pullela Gopichand said,

“Recovery is an essential part of every athlete’s journey, yet it often doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. Comfortable, supportive footwear plays a meaningful role in helping athletes recover between training sessions. I’m pleased to partner with Chupps footwear, a brand that is taking a thoughtful approach to understanding athlete needs and using real feedback to improve its products.”

Speaking on the association, Yashesh Mukhi, founder, Chupps Footwear, said,

“As more people take up sports and fitness, recovery is becoming an important part of the conversation. For us, this partnership is an opportunity to understand real usage better and continue improving the product in a meaningful way.”

This partnership marks a strategic step for Chupps footwear in building credibility within the evolving recovery and athleisure segment, supported by structured athlete feedback and real performance validation. The brand continues to strengthen its omnichannel presence across D2C, marketplaces like Myntra and Amazon, and a growing offline footprint.

India, July 10: Grahaa Space, a Bengaluru-based spacetech company focused on developing earth observation nanosatellite for geospatial video data from Low Earth Orbit, is preparing to launch SOLARAS – an experimental nanosatellite, on Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram–1 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. 

The mission, named SIDDHI, marks an important milestone for the company as it seeks to demonstrate its stackable nanosatellite bus and platform in Low Earth Orbit. 

In addition to validating some of the systems and subsystems designed for its future satellite programmes, the mission will also demonstrate an academic research payload VISWA-M, developed by VIT-AP University, Amaravati. The company intends to demonstrate a hosted payload architecture designed to support research and academic missions.

 This mission is also aligned with Grahaa Space’s larger vision of building cost-efficient, scalable nanosatellite platforms that can make space-based data more accessible for scientific research, earth observation, disaster management, agriculture, climate monitoring and emerging commercial applications. Through SOLARAS, the company aims to take a step closer to enabling faster, flexible, and application-led satellite missions from India.

India’s private space sector is entering a new phase of growth, driven by innovation, collaboration and a shared ambition to build world-class space capabilities. Missions like Vikram–1 are creating opportunities for emerging space companies to demonstrate technologies and accelerate innovation.

For Grahaa Space, SOLARAS is an important milestone as we demonstrate our stackable nano satellite bus and platform in Low Earth Orbit and validate our tech stack that will support our future missions, said Ramesh Kumar V, Co-founder and CEO, Grahaa Space.

New Delh, July 10: New Zealand has welcomed the expansion of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), describing it as a significant step towards modernising its digital economy and strengthening financial connectivity between the two countries.

Speaking on the growing partnership in digital payments, New Zealand’s Trade Minister said the introduction of UPI would make transactions more seamless for businesses, tourists, students, and the Indian diaspora, while supporting greater economic engagement.

The move is expected to simplify cross-border digital payments, improve convenience for travellers, and encourage stronger trade and investment ties. It also reflects the increasing global recognition of India’s digital public infrastructure and its role in enabling secure and efficient financial transactions.

The collaboration marks another milestone in India-New Zealand economic relations, with both countries looking to deepen cooperation in digital innovation, fintech, and technology-driven commerce.

The adoption of UPI in New Zealand is expected to enhance payment accessibility while reinforcing efforts to build a more connected, inclusive, and digitally enabled economy.

Global, July 10: Bitget, the world’s largest Universal Exchange (UEX), has rolled out two major upgrades to its CFD trading platform, introducing an integrated copy trading experience alongside a new tiered margin system. The launch simplifies how users discover experienced traders, manage copied positions and allocate capital across leveraged CFD markets. This reduces the number of steps between market analysis and trade execution.

As trading activity expands across multiple asset classes, users increasingly expect faster access to information and clearer portfolio management without switching between multiple interfaces. At the same time, fixed margin models can apply the same capital requirements regardless of position size. Bitget‘s latest product update addresses both challenges through workflow improvements and a more flexible margin framework across forex, precious metals, commodities and stock indices.

“As more traders diversify across markets, the trading experience needs to become simpler without sacrificing transparency or risk management. Accessing market information, evaluating experienced traders and managing positions should happen within the same workflow. Capital requirements should also reflect the size of a position. These updates make CFD trading efficient while giving users greater clarity over how they deploy capital and manage risk,” said Gracy Chen, CEO at Bitget.

The copy trading upgrade introduces a Popular Traders section directly on the candlestick chart page for each CFD asset. Users can discover traders with strong performance on the selected market while viewing price action, eliminating the need to move between the chart and a separate copy trading interface. Each profile includes key metrics such as 30-day returns and copier activity, allowing users to compare strategies before choosing to follow a trader. When no traders meet the selection criteria for a particular asset, users are directed to the broader copy trading leaderboard.

Bitget has also introduced a dedicated Copy Trading Positions module within the CFD trading interface. The feature separates copied positions from manually opened trades and groups positions according to each trader being followed. Users can sort positions by unrealized profit and loss or position value, providing a clearer view of portfolio performance across multiple trading strategies from a single page.

Alongside the interface upgrades, Bitget CFD has adopted a tiered margin system that calculates required margin according to the total notional exposure of an account. Lower exposure tiers continue to benefit from lower margin requirements, while larger positions gradually move into higher margin brackets designed to better reflect risk. During the 30 minutes before market close and after market open, predefined margin ratios apply across supported CFD instruments to help account for periods of heightened market volatility.

The latest release expands Bitget‘s multi-asset trading infrastructure as the platform continues to bring together cryptocurrencies, tokenized stocks, commodities, foreign exchange and precious metals within a unified trading environment. By simplifying execution and introducing exposure-based capital management, the upgrades are designed to help users navigate increasingly diversified markets with greater efficiency.

July 10: Investors continued to show strong confidence in equity mutual funds, with inflows rising 26 per cent to Rs 28,973 crore in June, according to data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

The increase reflects growing participation from investors despite changing market conditions. Equity mutual funds have remained a preferred investment option for many individuals seeking long-term wealth creation through market-linked instruments.

The data showed continued interest across different categories of equity schemes, supported by regular investments through systematic investment plans (SIPs). The steady flow of funds highlights the growing acceptance of mutual funds among retail investors.

Industry experts said the rise in inflows indicates improved investor awareness and confidence in disciplined, long-term investing. Mutual funds have increasingly become an important avenue for households looking to participate in India’s capital markets.

The latest figures underline the expanding role of mutual funds in India’s financial landscape and the increasing involvement of individual investors in equity markets.

New Delhi, July 10: The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has said that the TReDS settlement mandate will help accelerate payments to small businesses and improve their access to working capital.

The Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) enables MSMEs to convert their unpaid invoices into immediate funds by allowing them to receive payments from financiers before the actual due date. The new settlement mechanism is expected to make the process faster, smoother, and more efficient.

The ministry said the move will address one of the biggest challenges faced by MSMEs — delayed payments — and provide businesses with better liquidity to manage operations, expand capacity, and invest in growth.

Officials highlighted that improving cash flow for small enterprises will strengthen the MSME ecosystem and support entrepreneurship across the country.

The initiative is part of the government’s broader efforts to create a more supportive business environment for MSMEs and ensure timely access to finance for small and emerging enterprises.

New Delhi, July 10: lendingplate, a pioneering digital lending platform under Unifinz Capital India Limited (UCIL), has unveiled its latest brand campaign, ‘Time Hi Time Hai’, a humour-led digital film that transforms familiar short-term cash crunch situations into a relatable story. Through slice-of-life storytelling, the campaign highlights how quick and hassle-free access to digital personal loans can help individuals navigate temporary financial shortfalls without disrupting their everyday lives.

Featuring actor Vijayant Kohli, widely recognised as Mama from the popular web series Sapne vs Everyone, the campaign moves away from conventional financial advertising by replacing product-led messaging with humour rooted in everyday experiences. The film captures a relatable moment that resonates with working professionals who often find themselves juggling monthly expenses until their next salary arrives, positioning lendingplate as a brand that understands their everyday financial realities.

Speaking on the launch, Ankur Koul, Chief Marketing Officer, lendingplate, said, “With ‘Time Hi Time Hai’, we wanted to tell a story that millions of salaried Indians can relate to. Instead of focusing on product features, we chose humour to highlight everyday financial situations while reinforcing lendingplate’s promise of providing quick and seamless access to credit when it’s needed most.”

The campaign film follows an ordinary man who has simply miscalculated his monthly budget and suddenly finds himself dealing with an unexpected expense. Instead of exaggerating the situation, the story draws humour from an experience that many individuals can relate to. Through its light-hearted narrative, ‘Time Hi Time Hai’ reinforces LendingPlate’s promise of providing a seamless digital borrowing experience exactly when customers need it most.

Sharing his experience of being part of the campaign, Vijayant Kohli said, “What I loved about the film was its simplicity and relatability. It’s a story about an everyday situation that many people have experienced, and that made the character both authentic and enjoyable to portray.”

The digital-first campaign is being rolled out across YouTube, Meta and Connected TV (CTV), supported by influencer-led content and performance marketing initiatives to engage digitally savvy salaried professionals across the country.

With ‘Time Hi Time Hai’, lendingplate aims to strengthen its brand recall among young salaried professionals while making digital credit more approachable through relatable storytelling and a customer-first borrowing experience. The campaign reinforces the brand’s belief that financial support should be available when life throws unexpected expenses your way, without unnecessary complexity or long waiting periods.