MAM
Disney India’s associate director, e-commerce, Akshat Srivastava moves on
Mumbai: The Walt Disney Company’s associate director, e-commerce for India, Akshat Srivastava has announced his departure from the organisation. He was based out of Disney’s Bengaluru office. Srivastava updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect the development.
With more than 6.5 years long tenure at the company, Srivastava was responsible for the D2C and third-party e-commerce channel for Disney consumer products business in SEA, India, and MENA.
He had joined Disney in November 2014 as a category manager, following which he was elevated as head, e-commerce Disney consumer products India in 2017. He became head of e-commerce, South East Asia, India, and the Middle East in December 2018.
“It’s still surreal !! Last friday after 6 and a half amazing years at Disney, I was no longer a cast member. I have just been so grateful for the people and the experiences at Disney, it has really been the ride of a lifetime. I had the best people and the best teams to share this journey and all the success, which made it even more enjoyable and it is the people I shall miss the most,” his LinkedIn post read.
Prior to Disney, Srivastava has had stints with companies like EY, ITC, and L’Oréal.
Srivastava has yet to share his next joining update.
Brands
Apple bites back: the $599 MacBook Neo is the cheapest Mac ever made
The tech giant unveils a budget laptop that packs a punch — and a lot of cheek
CALIFORNIA: Apple has never been shy about charging a premium. So when Cupertino rolls out a MacBook at $599 (approx. Rs 55,000) , it’s worth sitting up straight.
The MacBook Neo, unveiled Tuesday, is Apple’s most affordable laptop to date — undercutting its own MacBook Air and taking a sharp swipe at the budget PC market in one fell swoop. It starts at $499 for students, which, for a machine with Apple silicon inside, is frankly a steal.
At the heart of the Neo is the A18 Pro chip — the same muscle that powers the latest iPhones. Apple claims it is up to 50 per cent faster for everyday tasks than a rival PC running Intel’s Core Ultra 5, and three times quicker on on-device AI workloads. Fanless and featherweight at 2.7 pounds, it runs silently and promises up to 16 hours of battery life. Try doing that on a Chromebook.
The 13-inch liquid retina display clocks in at 2408-by-1506 resolution with 500 nits of brightness and support for billion colours — sharper and brighter, Apple says, than most rivals in this price band. It comes dressed in four colours: blush, indigo, silver, and a zesty new citrus, with matching keyboard shades to boot.
Connectivity is modest — two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 6 — but this is a budget machine, not a pro workstation. The 1080p FaceTime camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and Spatial Audio speakers round out a package that punches well above its weight class.
Apple senior vice-president of hardware engineering John Ternus alled it “a laptop only Apple could create.” That’s the kind of line that makes rivals wince — because, annoyingly, he might be right.
The Neo runs macOS Tahoe, with Apple Intelligence baked in for AI writing tools, live translation, and the sort of on-device smarts that keep user data away from the cloud. It also boasts 60 per cent recycled content — the highest of any Apple product — for those who like their bargains with a side of conscience.
For $599, Apple isn’t just selling a laptop. It’s selling an argument — that good design and real performance needn’t cost the earth. The PC industry had better have a decent comeback ready.
