Brands
Urban Company offers domestic help in 15 minutes
MUMBAI: Home services giant Urban Company has muscled its way into the quick commerce arena with a service that promises to deliver maids to your doorstep faster than a pizza. The cheekily named “Insta Maids” service, currently being trialled in Mumbai, offers desperate homeowners salvation when their regular help does the bunk —all for the bargain basement price of Rs 49 per hour.
“Your maid left you hanging? We leave your home spotless!” proclaims the company’s rather saucy advertisement, which depicts a flustered woman receiving the dreaded text from “Sunita maid” announcing her sudden departure to the village—a scenario all too familiar to India’s middle classes.
The 15-minute booking service offers everything from utensil scrubbing and floor mopping to chopping vegetables, effectively turning domestic labour into an on-demand commodity that can be summoned with the tap of a finger.
Urban Company’s foray into what might be dubbed “maid commerce” has sparked a right proper row on social media, with critics accusing the platform of exploiting workers and trivialising domestic labour. The advert’s tone, which some have labelled “bloody tone-deaf,” hasn’t helped matters.
Responding to the backlash with the corporate equivalent of “keep your knickers on,” Urban Company has trumpeted the “overwhelmingly positive response” to the service. In a bid to counter the criticism, the company insisted its service partners earn Rs 150-180 per hour—substantially more than the customer pays—alongside perks like health insurance and accident cover.
“Partners working for 132 hours per month are assured earnings of at least Rs 20,000,” the firm claimed, adding that the current pricing is merely an “introductory offer” designed to hoover up customers before inevitable price hikes restore “viable economics.”
Industry watchers note that Urban Company’s venture represents the latest frontier in India’s booming gig economy, where everything from food delivery to taxi services has been disrupted by tech platforms offering convenience at rock-bottom prices.
Whether “Insta Maids” will clean up or find itself in hot water remains to be seen, but one thing’s certain—for Mumbai’s harried homeowners, the days of being held hostage to their domestic help’s village calendar might be numbered.
Brands
MS Dhoni joins Cars24’s Crashfree India as Goodwill Ambassador
Cricketing legend lends his voice to the fight against road fatalities in India.
MUMBAI: MS Dhoni has traded his cricket whites for a new kind of captaincy, one that aims to save lives on India’s roads. The former India captain has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Crashfree India, Cars24’s national road safety initiative. The move brings one of the country’s most trusted and disciplined public figures to a cause that desperately needs both credibility and urgency.
India continues to record the highest number of traffic fatalities globally. In 2024 alone, 1,80,000 people lost their lives on Indian roads, one every three minutes. The country has roughly 1% of the world’s vehicles but accounts for 11 per cent of global road deaths. Shockingly, 66 per cent of those killed were between 18 and 34 years old, the most productive age group, and nearly 10,000 were school students. Seven in ten fatalities were linked to overspeeding.
Dhoni, known for his calm judgment under pressure, did not mince words when speaking about the issue. “A vehicle gives you freedom, but it also gives you responsibility,” he said. “On our roads, too many people still see safety as a rule to follow only when someone is watching. That mindset has cost us far too much.”
He added: “We already know what is going wrong. We know how many lives are being lost. What we need now is not more excuses. We need more responsibility, more discipline, and more respect for life.”
For Cars24, the association goes beyond a celebrity endorsement. Founder and CEO Vikram Chopra described Dhoni’s involvement as a game-changer: “His understanding of Indian roads is grounded in lived experience. He holds us to a higher standard and his involvement challenges us to push this mission further.”
Crashfree India aims to shift the national conversation on road safety from reaction to prevention, from accepting deaths as routine to treating them as the urgent failure they are. With Dhoni on board, the initiative gains a powerful, trusted voice that transcends statistics and connects directly with millions of Indians.
In a country where dangerous driving is too often mistaken for confidence, Dhoni’s message is refreshingly clear: true strength lies in control, discipline, and respect for life. When one of India’s most respected captains decides to lead this fight, the conversation suddenly becomes much harder to ignore.
The roads just got a new captain. And this time, the goal is not to win a trophy but to save lives.
