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Swiggy, Hotstar bowl cricket lovers over
MUMBAI: As the cricket frenzy reaches a crescendo this March, Swiggy lives up to its promise of providing unparalleled convenience to its consumers yet again. In what is potentially a global first, Swiggy and Hotstar are coming together to allow consumers to order their favorite meal from Swiggy, without taking their eyes off a single ball. Swiggy POP, Swiggy’s curated single-serve meals from top restaurants across the neighborhood, will be integrated on the Hotstar App making for a pleasurable viewing as well as food ordering experience.
Commenting on this integration, Swiggy VP marketing Srivats TS said, “Our collaboration with Hotstar aims to satisfy the insatiable love we Indians have for cricket and food. We believe a nail biter of a match accompanied with great food is a delicious combination to serve up this cricketing season! We are extremely pleased to present this innovation in association with Hotstar. Through this, we hope to build a deeper bond with our cricket crazy fans by offering them an uninterrupted viewing and extremely convenient food ordering experience.”
Swiggy’s food ordering analysis from the cricketing season last year indicated an increase in online orders during the period. Considering the sporting event is all about action, suspense, drama and food, last year, Swiggy saw a 25 percent increase in order numbers during the season, compared to pre-season, with the highest number of orders received on the day of the finale.
This integration with Swiggy is part of Hotsar’s bid to provide viewers with an engaging experience for VIVO IPL 2019. With the motto of ‘Koi Yaar Nahi Far’, Hotstar is rolling out a first-ever social cricket-watching experience which will provide viewers the opportunity to invite, chat and compete with their friends and family. On the back of this, the streaming giant expects to reach over 300 million viewers, about 50 percent more than last year. For Swiggy, which has millions of users itself, this would mean an opportunity to innovatively engage with their existing customers whilst tapping newer ones as well, serving everybody their favourite dishes with absolute ease.
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OpenAI hires Nitin Bawankule as head of enterprise sales, India
Former AWS, Google and Disney+ Hotstar leader to drive AI adoption at scale
MUMBAI: OpenAI has appointed Nitin Bawankule as head of enterprise sales for India, strengthening its leadership bench as it deepens its push into one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets.
Bawankule, who will join in mid-May, brings more than two decades of experience across cloud, media, and digital ecosystems. Most recently, he served at Amazon Web Services, where he led multiple high-growth verticals and helped accelerate enterprise adoption of cloud and AI solutions in India.
Announcing the move, OpenAI head of enterprise sales, India Nitin Bawankule said he is looking forward to helping organisations transition from “isolated AI pilots to company-wide transformation” and embedding AI into everyday workflows to unlock productivity and better decision-making.
Before AWS, Bawankule held senior leadership roles at The Walt Disney Company, where he led ad sales for Disney+ Hotstar and television networks, driving revenue growth across major sporting and entertainment properties. He also spent over eight years at Google, including a stint as country director for Google Cloud in India.
His appointment comes at a time when Indian enterprises are rapidly scaling AI adoption, moving beyond experimentation to integrating AI into core business functions. OpenAI’s decision to bring in a seasoned enterprise leader signals its intent to capture this opportunity and build deeper partnerships across industries.
With a strong track record in navigating major technology shifts, Bawankule is expected to play a key role in translating AI’s promise into practical, business-ready solutions for Indian companies.
As the race to operationalise AI gathers pace, OpenAI’s latest hire suggests it is gearing up not just to participate, but to lead from the front in India’s enterprise AI story.
