Brands
Skybags packs its bags with CSK as cricket gets a stylish carry-on
Youth brand enters sports with co-branded luggage as CSK’s official partner.
MUMBAI: When cricket fever meets travel style, even luggage gets a team jersey. Skybags has stepped onto the sporting field by launching its official licensed Chennai Super Kings merchandise, becoming the team’s official luggage partner for the 2026 season. The move marks Skybags’ strategic entry into sports marketing, beginning with cricket, often described as nothing short of a national obsession in India. The partnership will see Skybags retail an exclusive range of co-branded luggage and backpacks inspired by CSK’s iconic visual identity, blending team pride with practical design for today’s always-on-the-move consumers.
The association also strengthens the sports-focused ambitions of VIP Industries Limited, Skybags’ parent company, as it looks to engage younger audiences through high-energy platforms and fan-led cultural moments. Skybags will be integrated into CSK’s fan engagement activities throughout the 2026 season, while the official merchandise will continue to be sold even after the cricket league concludes.
Pricing has been positioned to appeal to a wide fan base. The co-branded luggage range will start at Rs 4,590, while backpacks will be available from Rs 1,999, making team colours accessible beyond the stadium.
VIP Industries Limited managing director and CEO Atul Jain said the partnership reflects a natural alignment. Cricket, he noted, is deeply woven into India’s cultural fabric, and CSK’s reputation for consistency, excellence and talent development mirrors Skybags’ own brand values. He added that this collaboration is intended as the first of several meaningful sporting associations for Skybags.
From the franchise’s side, Chennai Super Kings managing director KS Viswanathan said the partnership adds a new dimension to fan engagement. By extending CSK branding into everyday travel products, the collaboration gives supporters another way to express their loyalty beyond match days.
The Skybags x CSK range will be available across more than 500 retail outlets nationwide, all major e-commerce platforms, and through the CSK website, CSK app and the Skybags online store. As India pushes towards becoming a global sporting powerhouse, Skybags is betting that fandom does not stop at the boundary rope and that even a suitcase can carry team spirit.
Brands
Samsung certifies 1,000 Maharashtra students in AI and coding
The South Korean electronics giant marks its first large-scale skilling push in the state, with women making up nearly half the national programme’s enrolment
PUNE: Samsung has put 1,000 students in Maharashtra through a certified training programme in artificial intelligence and coding, the largest such drive the South Korean electronics company has run in the state and a signal that corporate India’s skilling ambitions are moving well beyond the boardroom brochure.
The certifications were awarded under Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC), the company’s flagship corporate social responsibility programme, which launched in India in 2022 with the stated aim of democratising access to future-technology education. The 1,000 graduates were drawn from four institutions: 127 from Savitribai Phule Pune University, 373 from Pimpri Chinchwad University, 250 from D.Y. Patil University’s Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology and 250 from Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus. All completed training in either AI or coding and programming, the two disciplines Samsung has identified as the critical pillars of the digital economy.
The programme does not stop at technical training. Soft-skills development and career-readiness modules are baked into the curriculum, a deliberate attempt to close the gap between what universities teach and what employers actually want.
“India’s digital growth story will ultimately be shaped by the quality of its talent pipeline,” said Shubham Mukherjee, head of CSR and corporate communications at Samsung Southwest Asia. “As technologies like AI move from the periphery to the core of industries, skilling must evolve from basic training to building real-world capability. This milestone in Maharashtra reflects how industry and academia can come together to create a future-ready workforce that is both globally competitive and locally relevant.”
The Maharashtra drive sits within a rapidly scaling national effort. Samsung Innovation Campus trained 20,000 young people across India in 2025, hitting its stated target for the year. Women account for 48 per cent of national enrolments, a figure the company cites as evidence of its push for an inclusive technology ecosystem. The programme is implemented in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India and the Telecom Sector Skill Council.
Samsung, which is marking 30 years in India this year, runs SIC alongside two other initiatives, Samsung Solve for Tomorrow and Samsung DOST, as part of a broader effort to build what it calls a generation of innovators with both the technical depth and the problem-solving mindset to thrive in a fast-moving digital world.
A thousand certified students is a tidy headline. Whether they find jobs that match their new skills is the harder question, and the one that will ultimately determine whether corporate skilling programmes like this one are genuine pipelines or well-photographed gestures.
