Brands
ASICS launches online marketplace in India
MUMBAI: Fitness brand ASICS has announced the launch of its e-commerce website for the Indian market. The newly launched website is a one-stop destination for all ASICS products across its categories and has been specifically introduced to meet the growing demand in the country with a focus on catering to the fast-paced lifestyle of millennials.
A company statement shares that the e-commerce site is a step to make the brand more accessible to consumers in tier II and III markets, strengthening its reach in the country by extending a safe avenue to access authentic brand offerings. The new e-commerce portal is designed to make ordering, deliveries and payments easier and faster for all ASICS consumers.
ASICS India MD Rajat Khurana said, “With the launch of the website, we are looking to rapidly expand our consumer base and delight users across new and upcoming markets. The launch of the website allows us to be a step closer to our consumer so that we can directly and constantly communicate with them.”
ASICS brand ambassador Bhuvaneshwar Kumar said, “It is very important for an athlete to have the right kind of fitness gear for an effective training and ASICS not only provides the necessary support but has also devised path-breaking technologies which can impact one’s performance greatly. Considering the fast-paced lives in today’s world, it’s of great convenience to everyone to be able to shop the best – quality and authentic ASICS products online. The launch of the retail website makes it easier for fitness enthusiasts to shop for good sportswear at their ease.”
The new ASICS website will host all the latest collections and favourites from the brand portfolio, including many global top sellers, like GEL Kayano, Hyper GEL, GEL KENUN, GEL Nimbus among other popular styles.
In the future, the website will have an ASICS One ID integrated on the website, which will enable consumers to buy apparels and shoes from all three brands; ASICS, Onitsuka Tiger, and ASICSTIGER all in one cart.
Brands
Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
