MAM
Lifestyle and Flipkart Group enter into a strategic partnership in India
MUMBAI: Lifestyle, India’s leading fashion destination for the latest trends, today announced a strategic partnership with India’s leading eCommerce marketplace, Flipkart Group (Myntra, Jabong & Flipkart). The partnership between the leading fashion player and leading eCommerce marketplace will enable consumers to access the best in fashion, in a seamless manner across the country. This partnership will bring together the unmatched combination of the premium shopping experience of Myntra along with the reach of Flipkart Group, ensuring the right growth for Lifestyle’s wide fashion offering, from its successful portfolio of brands.
Consumers today are seeking a unified shopping experience. As leaders in their categories, both Lifestyle and Flipkart Group bring unique capabilities including relevant customer insights, Flipkart’s vast reach and Myntra’s deep understanding of the fashion business. Through this partnership, Lifestyle will take its wide selection of product ranges including its fashion private label brands across womenswear, menswear, kidswear, footwear, handbags, fashion and accessories, to newer geographies, while helping serve the over 160 million consumer base of the Flipkart Group.
Having completed 20 successful years in the industry, Lifestyle currently has a network of 78 stores in India and is growing rapidly by adding one store every 45 days, aiming to have 100 stores within the next two years. Flipkart Group’s expertise in using innovation and technology to create best-in-class customer experiences combined with an unmatched reach has helped establish it as the partner of choice for Lifestyle. The move also complements Flipkart Group’s strategy to bring a wide range of branded offering in important segments like women’s ethnic wear, kidswear and men’s formal wear. This partnership between the two players aims to provide a seamless shopping experience to customers, while exploring the strategic collaborations on loyalty programs and exciting customer engagement activations.
Speaking about the partnership, Mr. Vasanth Kumar, Managing Director – Lifestyle International Pvt. Ltd. said, “This collaboration brings together Flipkart Group’s extensive reach and Lifestyle’s high fashion offering, thereby enabling us to serve a larger number of fashion-conscious consumers, across the country. Our strong private label offering with a wide variety of styles and trends across categories of apparel, footwear and fashion accessories distinguishes us from the rest in the market. United by a common goal of providing customers with a unique & memorable shopping experience, we are confident this partnership will help to further expand our brands’ reach, catalyzing a sharper growth trajectory for these brands.”
Speaking about the strategic partnership, Rishi Vasudev, Senior Vice President and Group Head – Fashion (Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong) said, “At the Flipkart Group, we believe in collaborating with the best in the industry and this partnership with Lifestyle is a strategic move to enhance our customers’ shopping experience, by offering a seamless partnership between the country’s leading fashion retailer and India’s leading marketplace. With Myntra’s extremely engaging fashion-conscious customer and Flipkart’s pan-India reach, Lifestyle will be able to take their offerings to an even larger consumer base. Lifestyle’s wide range of brands across fashion categories which highly complement our platforms will enable growth for both players. This partnership further strengthens our position as the leading fashion destination in India and is a testament to our vision in bringing the best of fashion to millions of Indian consumers. We are very excited about this partnership”
Consumers will now be able to access the latest styles from Lifestyle on both Flipkart and Myntra.
Lifestyle’s private label brands are curated for addressing wardrobe needs of a wide consumer base, for every occasion. Melange, which is amongst the leading ethnicwear brands in the country, has been endorsed by leading celebrities in the past and currently by style icon, Taapsee Pannu. Melange offers contemporary ethnicwear and represents the style sensibilities of modern Indian women, whose fashion choices are eclectic and inspired by global trends. Ginger, a westernwear brand inspired by the young girl of today, caters to the wardrobe need for the bold, young and independent. While Forca, endorsed by Bollywood superstar Tiger Shroff, offers feature rich denim-wear at highly attractive price points.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
