MAM
Karnataka gold festival 2005 to kick off on 4 April
BANGALORE: The World Gold Council (WGC) and The Art of Jewellery magazine are coming together to conduct Karnataka Gold Festival 2005 in Bangalore.
The event is slated over 50-days starting 4 May to 25 May coinciding with the South Indian festivals of Ugadi and Akshaya Tritiya and the wedding season as well.
Buoyed by its success last year, the event is going to be held on a larger scale this year. Last year in Bangalore alone more than 1.6 tons of gold in all forms were sold during the festival, which was held between 4 April and 23 May.
The event is co-sponsored by ICICI Bank, Diviniti, Vijay Times, Airtel and Malaysia Tourism. Popular singer-actress Vasundhara Das has been signed as the Brand Ambassador for the Gold Festival.
More than 500 major jewelers across Karnataka are participating from their respective outlets in the new avatar of the festival. All the jewellery associations of Karnataka are supporting the festival.
The most striking feature of this event is the 5 kilos gold prize for the consumers, spread across 246 lucky draw winners including 1 Kilo gold bumper prize. Three prizes are assured for each participating district. Last year, the prizes totaled 1 kilo of gold. On every purchase of jewellery worth Rs. 2000 and multiples thereof, the consumers are eligible for free lucky draw coupons.
An added feature this year is Malaysia Tourism’s sponsoring a free holiday package for five couples (three among the participating jewelers and two among the customers).
“The response from the jewelers all over Karnataka has been over-whelming and we sincerely believe that the jewelery trade in the State will immensely benefit by this combined initiative,” says WGC VP K. Shivram.
The Art of Jewelery magazine chief editor and executive publisher Sumesh Wadhera, adds, “We are very happy to bring the entire jewelery trade in the State on a common platform to promote and drive the jewelery sales. Karnataka Gold Festival 2005 will be one of the biggest jewelery shopping festivals in India.”
Brands
India’s fastest-growing credit-on-UPI platform Kiwi appoints Sumeet Basrani as chief business officer
Fintech shifts from early adoption to mass distribution through bank and ecosystem partnerships
BENGALURU: Kiwi is gearing up for its next growth sprint, bringing in Sumeet Basrani as chief business officer to turn early traction into mass-market scale. The credit-on-UPI platform is now pivoting from product adoption to aggressive distribution, betting on deeper bank and ecosystem tie-ups to widen access.
Basrani arrives with over 15 years in cards and payments, with stints at CRED, OneCard, ICICI Bank and Visa. At CRED, he helped build and scale partnerships across credit cards, payments and lending with banks and financial institutions, experience Kiwi is now counting on as it looks to expand its footprint.
The mandate is clear: take credit on UPI from a promising innovation to a mass product. Kiwi is aiming to unlock access for millions, aligning its push with shifting consumer behaviour while moving from product strength to market scale.
“This is a natural next step for us. As we grow, it becomes important to have leadership that can translate market shifts into clear business and product decisions. Sumeet understands how banks, networks and consumer platforms intersect, which is exactly where Kiwi is building. His experience in scaling businesses will be critical as we take credit on UPI to a much larger audience,” Siddharth Mehta, co-founder, Kiwi, said.
Basrani sees a market on the cusp. “Credit on UPI is at an inflection point; early adoption is visible, but the real opportunity lies in embedding credit seamlessly into everyday payments, while expanding access to credit. Kiwi is well-positioned to lead this shift, and the next phase will be about scaling distribution and unlocking new use cases for credit,” he said.
Founded as Gokiwi Tech, the startup is positioning itself at the centre of India’s evolving payments stack. It was the first to offer credit on UPI via RuPay cards in partnership with banks, and has already issued over 2 lakh such cards in under two years. The ambition is blunt: become the leading issuer of RuPay credit cards by 2026.
With leadership muscle added and distribution in focus, Kiwi is no longer just testing the waters. It is diving headfirst into the race to own credit on UPI at scale.
