Brands
Tata CLiQ Luxury & American Express tie up to dominate luxury market
MUMBAI: Tata CLiQ Luxury and American Express have inked an exclusive partnership aimed at premium and aspiring clientele of luxury experiences. This first of its kind strategic partnership between a global payments company and Tata CLiQ will capitalise on the demand for trusted and secure shopping experiences, especially with contactless shopping gaining prevalence and preference over the past year.
Throughout the year, both brands will introduce initiatives to encourage luxury consumption across India, including access through the pan India distribution reach of Tata CLiQ Luxury. The partnership will offer unique experiences and thoughtfully curated services for American Express’ premium customers which include bespoke shopping experiences, access to stylish events, thought leadership gatherings, white glove delivery services, a dedicated concierge desk and unique privileges and including membership of Tata CLiQ Luxury’s exclusive by-invite-only privilege program – the Select Club.
Special offers will be introduced to increase trials, services to promote online adoption of high-ticket purchases and conversations with taste makers around luxury trends. Additionally, centurion and platinum card holders will receive access to shopping on Tata CLiQ Luxury in a manner second to none. For example, the company said, Tata CLiQ Luxury will create a behind the scenes access to a special American Express desk for preferred / privileged customers.
Tata CLiQ CEO Vikas Purohit said, “At Tata CLiQ Luxury, we are committed to nurture and foster the luxury market in India. It gives us immense pride to partner with American Express in bringing the best to Indian consumers. We aim to provide luxury consumers with benchmark (contactless) luxury experiences irrespective of where they reside. Our overall purpose is to make luxury accessible in hassle free manner and enable the luxury ecosystem in India take the leap.”
American Express Banking Corp India, SVP & CEO Manoj Adlakha said, “Various industry reports peg India’s luxury market at $50 billion in 2020 and growing at 15 per cent plus annually. As a brand catering to premium lifestyle expectations, we are continually innovating and investing in capabilities and partnerships to enhance our card members’ experience. We are focused on delivering exclusive access and experiences to our card members, and this partnership with Tata CLiQ Luxury will further strengthen our suite of offerings. Providing a seamless omni-channel experience is critical for brands to build engagement and loyalty as customers increasingly crave experiences which foster connections and digital solutions that make their personal and professional lives easier.”
Traditionally, demand for luxury retail has been in the main metros. With this partnership, both Tata CliQ Luxury and American Express will work together to enable luxury households across the far reaches of the country to enjoy iconic global and Indian luxury brands and labels.
Brands
Google secures AP discom licence to power $15bn Vizag AI hub
First-of-its-kind move gives tech giant grid control for massive 1GW campus
VISAKHAPATNAM: Google has secured a rare electricity distribution company licence in Andhra Pradesh, marking a decisive shift from being just a power consumer to becoming a power distributor for its upcoming mega data centre hub in Visakhapatnam.
The move effectively rewrites the rulebook for hyperscalers in India. Instead of relying on state utilities, Google will be able to procure electricity directly from generators, including its own renewable sources. This not only cuts out intermediaries but also gives the company tighter control over supply, reliability and long-term costs.
For a business where electricity can account for up to 60 per cent of operating expenses, the economics are hard to ignore. Even more critical is uptime. Data centres demand near-perfect reliability, and owning the distribution layer allows Google to manage outages and load balancing with far greater precision.
At the heart of the plan is a sprawling 1-gigawatt data centre ecosystem spread across more than 600 acres in three locations near Vizag. With an estimated investment of $15 billion over five years, the project is set to become India’s largest single foreign direct investment and Google’s biggest AI-focused facility outside the United States.
The campus is being designed with artificial intelligence workloads in mind, housing the company’s custom tensor processing units to power services such as Gemini, Search and Google Cloud. In scale, the planned capacity is comparable to powering a small city.
Google is not building alone. It has partnered with Adani Infrastructure to develop the physical campuses, while Bharti Airtel will set up an international subsea cable landing station. This connectivity backbone is expected to link the hub directly to a dozen countries, ensuring low latency for global data traffic.
Vizag’s coastal location plays a key role in that strategy. It enables direct access to subsea cables and provides the large volumes of water needed for cooling data centre operations. Equally important is policy backing from the Government of Andhra Pradesh, which fast-tracked approvals and granted the uncommon discom licence to anchor the investment.
Groundbreaking is scheduled for April 28, 2026, with phased commissioning expected to begin by July 2028.
The broader signal is clear. As AI workloads surge, hyperscalers are no longer content plugging into existing infrastructure. They are beginning to build and control it. In Vizag, Google is not just setting up a data centre, it is wiring up its own future.
