Brands
IndiaMart clocks 60% traction on mobile
MUMBAI: Online marketplace IndiaMart has said that 60 per cent of its visitor traffic is coming from its mobile app and mobile website. In line with the company’s mobile first strategy, IndiaMart launched the mobile app in March, 2013 and have registered 25 lakh downloads till date.
Apart from the top eight cities, IndiaMart’s mobile app has witnessed significant traffic from cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Indore and Surat. India is a mobile-first internet country for a large portion of the population. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities along with other parts of rural India have been witnessing phenomenal growth in smartphone usage, helped in a major part by improvement in internet penetration and affordability.
IndiaMart director Dinesh Gulati said, “The user base on IndiaMart’s marketplace comprises of over two crore buyers. B2B buying is following the B2C buying trend where mobile is becoming the dominant medium for accessing internet. As per the recent IAMAI report, year on year growth in Mobile Internet users has been 65 per cent in urban areas and 99 per cent in rural areas. Interestingly, now 90 per cent of users who access internet through mobile consider it as the primary device for accessing Internet. While the mobile internet brings a lot of opportunities to the SMB community, we will be present wherever our customers are, both online as well as on the app.”
The average time spent on the app is measured to be seven – eight minutes per user everyday. Android followed by iOS and Windows have seen maximum number of mobile app usage.
Brands
Trump announces $300bn Texas oil refinery with Reliance, calls it the biggest in US history
First new US refinery in 50 years planned at Brownsville port with Reliance
WASHINGTON: The United States may soon see the first brand-new oil refinery built on its soil in half a century.
Donald Trump announced a proposed $300 billion refinery project in Texas, calling it a landmark moment for American energy production and jobs.
Posting on Truth Social on 10 March, Trump said the facility would be built at the Port of Brownsville and developed by a company called America First Refining, with major investment from India’s Reliance Industries.
The announcement frames the project as a centrepiece of the administration’s push for “energy dominance”, with Trump claiming it would deliver thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity to South Texas.
If realised, the plant would mark the first all-new major refinery constructed in the United States since the 1970s. In recent decades, oil companies have largely chosen to expand existing facilities rather than build new ones, citing high costs, regulatory hurdles and environmental scrutiny.
Trump described the proposed investment as the “biggest in US history”, positioning it as proof that policy changes such as streamlined permits and lower taxes are drawing large-scale energy investments back into the country.
The refinery is planned for the Port of Brownsville, a strategic Gulf Coast location that provides easy access to shipping routes and export markets.
A key partner in the project is Reliance Industries, controlled by billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani. The company already runs the world’s largest refining complex in Jamnagar, India, making it one of the most experienced operators in large-scale petroleum processing.
The Texas venture would mark a significant step for the group into America’s domestic refining sector, potentially strengthening industrial ties between the US and India.
The proposed refinery is being promoted as a next-generation facility capable of processing American shale oil while maintaining high environmental standards. Trump said it would be “the cleanest refinery in the world”, although the specific technologies behind that claim have not yet been detailed.
Industry observers also note that the $300 billion figure is unusually large for a refinery project, and analysts are waiting for more clarity on whether the number reflects total construction costs, long-term infrastructure investment, or broader economic impact estimates.
As of 11 March, Reliance Industries had not publicly confirmed the investment size or the structure of its involvement.
For now, the announcement has sparked equal parts excitement and curiosity in energy markets. If the plan moves from promise to pouring concrete, the refinery could reshape the Gulf Coast energy landscape, and reopen a chapter in American refining that has been quiet for nearly fifty years.
