MAM
MS Dhoni backed Garuda Aerospace launches DRONI, India’s smartest personal drone
Mumbai: After having cemented market dominance in the Agri Drone Segment with a staggering 55 per cent share, India’s largest drone start-up Garuda Aerospace now launches Droni. Droni is the company’s first product into the consumer photography and cinematography drone sector which has been dominated by the DJI drones for several years. Currently available on Amazon for purchase in India and across the globe, Droni was also launched on the social handles of investor Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Chennai Super Kings.
“This launch is an exciting one for us. Besides being out first B2C product in the market, it is a product that is cutting-edge, and purposefully designed for convenience and quality. Moreover, it strengthens our partnership with our brand ambassador Mahendra Singh Dhoni and offers consumers an opportunity to own a product that is created in association with him. The product is a game-changing one in the aerial photography and videography market and we are confident that it will empower users to push creative boundaries.” said Garuda Aerospace CEO & founder Agnishwar Jayaprakash.
Launched as India’s smartest personal drone, Droni is a compact small-sized foldable quadcopter nano drone weighing under 250 gms which can effortlessly fit into ones pocket. The drone is integrated with 11 intelligent flight modes including intelligent follow-me features, circling, fading, soaring, time-lapse, tail flicking, broad and straight forward shooting, etc. It is also integrated with target management, level 7 wind resistance and has intelligent voice somatosensory control making way for one hand control when required. Its three-axis mechanical stabilized pan tilt ensure perfect stable shots.
Droni boasts of a high-quality 48 MP camera with wide angle lens optical flow positioning and delivers an impressive 60 minutes of flight time, thus elevating the overall user experience Despite being feature rich, Droni is easy to use, and has a seamless user interface.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
