e-commerce
Baazee.com & eBay Co. donate Rs 12.5 million to PM relief fund
MUMBAI: Baazee.com- an eBay company, eBay and the eBay Foundation has announced a joint contribution to the prime minister’s national relief fund of approximately Rs 12.5 million towards the Tsunami Relief Operations in India.
According to a company release, the funds, which represent a month’s fees of Baazee.com plus contributions from its parent company eBay and the eBay Foundation, were generated in response to the magnitude of the disaster.
Baazee.com company spokesperson Deepa Thomas stated, “All of us have been deeply saddened by this tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. In addition to our donation, we are also offering our online marketplace as a place where Indians can make their own contributions towards the relief and rehabilitation of people affected by this disaster.”
Additionally, Baazee is also going to support the CRY Tsunami Relief Fund by involving its more than 1 million strong community of users in a fund raising drive from 6 January to 20 January.
The fund raising drive will involve CRY Child Art Wallpaper being sold on the site against fixed donation slabs from Rs 100 to Rs 5,000.
The amount generated will go to the relief efforts, and donors will be acknowledged in the specially created CRY – Baazee Valued Contributors page.
Baazee will make a matching contribution to CRY equaling the money donated by its users through this effort. The special fund raising drive will run unto 20 January and the total amount raised will be contributed to the prime minister’s Relief Fund and the CRY Tsunami Relief Fund immediately thereafter.
Baazee is also offering its platform to leading Bollywood producers to come forward and auction movie costumes and merchandise to raise money for the CRY Tsunami Relief Fund. Vashu Bhagnani has already agreed to donate 10 costumes for the cause and more producers are expected to join in shortly.
The media release also informs that in addition, both Baazee and eBay are offering links to major humanitarian organizations and charities for those visitors who wish to give directly the charities themselves. eBay has set up a special page for this purpose at www.ebay.com/tsunamirelief.
MUMBAI: From flights to tracks, Cleartrip is now trying to keep every journey on the same ticket. Cleartrip, part of Flipkart, has launched train ticket bookings through a partnership with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, marking its entry into India’s vast rail travel ecosystem.
The integration allows users to search, book and manage train journeys directly within the app, as the company pushes towards becoming a unified, multi-modal travel platform. The move plugs Cleartrip into one of the world’s largest transportation networks, where over 800 million reserved passengers travel annually, alongside a daily footfall of around 23 million across Indian Railways.
The offering includes bookings across routes nationwide, covering General and Tatkal quotas as per Ministry of Railways guidelines. Users can also access real-time seat availability, fare insights, PNR status tracking, berth preferences and digital payment options within a single interface.
The expansion reflects a broader shift in travel platforms from specialising in a single mode to stitching together end-to-end journeys. For Cleartrip, the bet is not just on scale, but on simplifying a system often seen as complex and fragmented.
Company executives said the focus is on embedding predictive intelligence and personalisation into the booking journey, aiming to make everything from discovery to post-booking support faster and more intuitive.
The train booking feature is currently live on the app, with plans to extend it to the web platform soon, signalling a push towards a seamless cross-platform experience.
In a country where railways move billions each year, the next battleground for travel apps may well be decided not in the skies, but on the tracks.
