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Bata India partners with Zepto for ten-minute footwear delivery
MUMBAI: Imagine rushing to a wedding and realising your shoes don’t match your outfit. With time running out, a quick solution is all you need.
With Bata India’s collaboration with Zepto, such worries could soon be a thing of the past. Bata India has teamed up with the quick commerce platform to deliver fashion and festive footwear to customers within minutes, marking a significant shift in how footwear is purchased in India.
The partnership, launched in Delhi-NCR, leverages the growing quick commerce market, which has been expanding at a compound annual growth rate of over 4.5 per cent. It aims to cater to the rising demand for on-the-go shopping experiences, with plans to expand to major metropolitan cities across India. With an estimated 48 lakh weddings expected in the coming months, this initiative promises convenience for customers needing footwear at short notice.
Bata India CEO Gunjan Shah expressed the importance of this collaboration saying, “At Bata, we’re constantly transforming & innovating to meet the needs of our customers, and our partnership with Zepto marks a significant step in that journey. We wanted to strengthen our omni-channel presence to ensure that customers can shop for our stylish and high-quality footwear in the way that best suits them—whether online, in-store, or now, with rapid doorstep delivery. Today’s consumers seek the convenience of having everything delivered to them, and this collaboration perfectly aligns with our mission to enhance accessibility.”
Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha echoed similar sentiments saying,“We are excited to partner with India’s leading footwear brand, Bata, and bring their stylish & comfortable range of footwear to our customers at lightning speed. This collaboration is all about convenience, speed, and making a wide variety of styles available to our consumers. We are united in our goal to enhance the shopping experience, redefining how quickly people can access stylish and quality shoes, making it easier for them to express their personal style on the go.”
The partnership underscores Bata’s commitment to adapting to the evolving retail landscape, ensuring its customers have seamless access to a wide range of stylish and comfortable footwear options at their convenience.
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Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
