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Religare Broking taps Vijay Kumar Goel as managing director
Veteran banker to scale broking, wealth distribution and digital capabilities
NEW DELHI: Religare Broking has appointed Vijay Kumar Goel as managing director, reinforcing its leadership as the firm steps up efforts to scale its core broking business and expand wealth product distribution.
Based in New Delhi, Goel will lead the company’s strategic growth agenda, with a focus on client engagement, digital platforms and research capabilities, as India’s capital markets are reshaped by rising retail participation and accelerating digitisation.
A chartered accountant and cost accountant, Goel brings more than three decades of experience across broking, retail NBFCs, asset management, investment and insurance distribution, private wealth management and affordable home finance.
He spent over 14 years at the Motilal Oswal group, serving as managing director and chief executive officer across its broking and distribution, private wealth management and home finance businesses. Earlier, he spent 11 years with the Aditya Birla group, where he began his career in 1994 across multiple financial services verticals.
Most recently, Goel worked independently as an executive coach and business growth consultant, advising financial services firms and mentoring senior leadership teams.
Religare Enterprises group CHRO Indranil Choudhury, said the appointment underlined the group’s focus on strengthening its broking and wealth distribution engines while deepening customer-centric, technology-led capabilities.
Goel said India’s capital markets were entering a phase of structural growth, driven by expanding investment products and higher retail engagement. He added that Religare Broking’s platform and legacy provided a strong base to build differentiated and scalable growth through sharper product propositions and deeper client relationships.
Religare Broking is a wholly owned subsidiary of Religare Enterprises, with a presence across more than 400 cities and a customer base exceeding 1 million.
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MakeMyTrip partners with OpenAI to boost AI-powered travel planning
Conversational AI now guides travellers from inspiration straight to booking
GURUGRAM: MakeMyTrip, India’s leading online travel company, has teamed up with OpenAI to bring a fresh twist to AI-driven travel planning. The collaboration integrates OpenAI’s APIs into MakeMyTrip’s app, making it easier than ever for travellers to move from chatting about dream trips to booking them.
The move centres around MakeMyTrip’s Myra interface, a GenAI trip planning assistant that now handles over 50,000 conversations a day in languages ranging from English and Hindi to Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. Myra helps travellers explore options, create itineraries and book flights, hotels and extras without the usual hassle of searching and filtering.
MakeMyTrip co-founder and group CEO Rajesh Magow said, “With OpenAI, we turn curiosity into confident decisions. When travellers start their journey through conversation, MakeMyTrip becomes a seamless extension of that discovery process. AI combined with our travel data makes it possible to deliver personalised, bookable options at scale.”
OpenAI managing director- international Oliver Jay added, “MakeMyTrip is showing how AI can make travel planning feel more like a conversation than a chore. Advanced AI isn’t just about back-end efficiencies, it’s about transforming the way travellers experience and engage with the platform.”
MakeMyTrip has long invested in AI across the travel lifecycle, from inspiration and discovery to booking and post-sales support. Nearly half of Myra’s queries now come from tier-2 and smaller cities, and voice interactions are booming outside metros, making AI travel assistance more accessible than ever.
With this partnership, MakeMyTrip is not just keeping up with AI trends, it’s aiming to lead the way, turning every traveller’s whim into a smooth, bookable adventure.
