Brands
SPH Aviation to showcase homegrown drones to Army, J&K Police
MUMBAI: If the skies had a heartbeat, it would be thumping a little louder this month. SPH Aviation is preparing to put its latest homegrown drones through their paces for the Indian Army in Spiti Valley and for the J&K Police at TCIL, marking a fresh chapter in India’s race to build its own defence UAV ecosystem.
The company plans to demonstrate two of its newest creations, a fixed wing kamikaze drone and a high altitude multicopter UAV, both designed and built in India. The upcoming trials are expected to underline the country’s growing confidence in indigenous defence technology at a time when demand for tactical drones is rising across the forces.
This push has already gathered momentum. Earlier in November, SPH Aviation unveiled five new Indian made drones at Haryana Bhawan in New Delhi in the presence of Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, turning the spotlight on the state’s growing role in shaping India’s aerospace ambitions.
The company has also delivered its Hawk training drones to the 02 Maratha LI Regiment to support field training and on ground preparedness.
SPH Aviation chairman Deep Sihag Sisai, said the company’s mission is driven by a simple idea. “We want India to stand on its own feet in defence technology. The vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat belongs not just to the government but to every Indian innovator. We are committed to building drones that serve our forces with speed, precision and reliability. We will keep pushing until India takes the lead in global UAV innovation.”
Behind the scenes, the company is strengthening its research engine through collaborations with IIT Kanpur, IIT Ropar, Becil and ITI. These partnerships support advanced R&D, prototype development and scaled manufacturing pathways.
With its DGCA certification and a strong track record of training hundreds of drone pilots across the country, SPH Aviation is now expanding confidently into tactical UAVs. The move signals India’s readiness to field more indigenous drone systems across its armed forces and security agencies, while giving a timely boost to the Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat missions.
Brands
Uber launches hotel bookings feature in partnership with Expedia
From hotel bookings to room service at your door, the ride-hailing giant is making its boldest push yet into everyday life
CALIFORNIA: Uber is done being just a taxi app. At its annual GO-GET product event, the world’s leading mobility and delivery platform unveiled a sweeping set of new features designed to plant itself at the centre of how people travel, eat and shop, hotel bookings included.
The headline move is a partnership with Expedia Group that lets Uber users in the United States book hotels directly within the Uber app, with access to a catalogue that will eventually grow to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 10 per cent back in Uber One credits on all hotel bookings and savings of at least 20 per cent on a rolling list of more than 10,000 hotels globally. Vacation rentals from Vrbo, Expedia Group’s home-rental brand, will be added later this year. The partnership is expected to expand beyond the United States. From June, Uber rides will also be integrated directly into the Expedia app, with push notifications sent to travellers ahead of hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for the duration of their stay.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, framed the expansion in terms of the modern condition. “Uber is becoming an app for everything, helping people go, get, and now travel all in one place,” he said. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time, spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
Ariane Gorin, chief executive of Expedia Group, struck a similarly ambitious note. “Travel should feel effortless, and this partnership gets us one step closer to offering a seamless traveller experience,” she said. “By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia Group’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology. Together, we’re helping travellers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
Beyond hotels, the product announcements come thick and fast. Travel Mode, available within both the Uber and Uber Eats apps, offers curated recommendations on local favourites, tourist destinations, OpenTable restaurant reservations and on-demand delivery to hotel rooms. Uber One International means the membership programme now works globally, allowing members to earn credits on rides abroad that can be redeemed once back home. A new Shop for Me feature lets users request items from any store, even those not listed on the app. Eats for the Way allows riders in select cities booking an Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to have a drink or snack waiting for them in the car. Voice Bookings, powered by artificial intelligence, lets users book a ride conversationally, without touching their phone. And a redesigned One Search bar consolidates results for places, food and items across the entire Uber platform in a single query.
Uber has now logged more than 72 billion trips since it launched in 2010. The question it is now answering is what comes after the ride. The answer, apparently, is everything else. Whether users want a hotel in Paris, a coffee in the back of a car or a snake plant from the local garden centre, Uber would very much like to be the one to provide it. The app economy’s land grab has a new front-runner.
NOTE: The image used is AI generated and only for representational purposes.
