Brands
Keto shifts into high gear with Rs 300 crore EV bus push in Telangana
MUMBAI: When Telangana said “go electric”, Keto Motors didn’t just step on the pedal, it hit turbo mode. The Telangana-headquartered EV player announced a Rs 300 crore expansion at the Telangana Rising Global Summit 2025, sealing the deal with a Government MoU in the presence of industries & commerce minister D. Sridhar Babu.
The company will set up a Greenfield electric bus manufacturing facility at Jadcherla, rolling out 9-metre to 13-metre buses for both intra-city and inter-city routes. Over the next three years, the project is expected to create 2,000 plus direct and indirect jobs, further cementing Telangana’s growing reputation as India’s electric-mobility powerhouse.
Calling the move a milestone in the state’s EV ambitions, minister Sridhar Babu said Telangana is “rapidly rising as the EV capital of India”, backed by progressive policies and a world-class industrial ecosystem.
But Keto’s ambitions don’t end at manufacturing. The group is also developing a unified digital ticketing platform, enabling commuters to use a single ticket across autos, cars and buses, a long-awaited fix for India’s fragmented public-transport grid.
Explaining the strategy Keto Motors Group chief marketing officer Rajeev YSR noted that public transport still functions in disconnected “first-mile, middle-mile and last-mile silos”. Keto aims to bridge these gaps with a seamlessly integrated multimodal electric ecosystem, complementing its existing Trilux passenger and Bulke Plus cargo three-wheelers with a newly designed electric bus lineup.
Keto Motors director Venkatesh Challa highlighted a major industry bottleneck, a nationwide shortage of electric buses. To tackle this, the Jadcherla plant will begin with 1,000 plus buses per year, with room to scale as demand rises. The company, he added, is committed to timely delivery, reliability and strengthening India’s domestic EV manufacturing base.
With this MoU, Keto Motors doesn’t just enter the electric-bus market, it plugs into one of the biggest opportunity gaps in Indian public mobility. And this time, the charge is very much electric.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
