e-commerce
Flipkart appoints Gunjan Bhartia as senior vice president for business finance
BENGALURU: Flipkart has appointed Gunjan Bhartia as senior vice president, business finance, adding a heavyweight finance operator to its leadership ranks as the company tightens its focus on scale, discipline and transformation.
Bhartia brings over 28 years of global finance experience across Asia, South Korea, the Middle East and South Asia, with a track record built in complex, high-growth and highly regulated environments. He has held senior leadership roles at GE, Coupang, Esyasoft Technology, Engineer.ai and IndoTech Transformers. At Coupang, he led finance for a $23.6 billion e-commerce business, turning losses into profitability, driving operating cashflows from negative $312 million to $2.7 billion, and overseeing strategy, inventory management, pricing policy, promotions, vendor funding and CRM across multiple countries.
Earlier, Bhartia spent over two decades at GE in roles including CFO of GE South Asia, CFO of GE Bangladesh and SVP of commercial finance, managing multi-billion-dollar portfolios, building a $17 billion order backlog, refinancing $250 million in debt, securing credit rating upgrades, and leading landmark gas power projects across the MENASA region. He also held board positions at CFlo World, Doctor Sand and GE Power Services India, bringing governance experience and strategic insight.
His recent stints include global head of finance at Engineer.ai, focusing on financial controllership and systems to take the AI-powered software platform to public markets, and group CFO at Esyasoft Technology, where he scaled operations organically and through cross-border acquisitions in Indonesia, Romania, India and the Netherlands.
At Flipkart, Bhartia is expected to strengthen financial strategy, sharpen capital allocation, and support the next phase of growth in one of India’s most competitive digital markets.
For a company where margins matter as much as momentum, the message is clear: Flipkart is doubling down on financial muscle to stay ahead of the curve.
e-commerce
Instamart gold dig event at Hussain Sagar goes viral
Hyderabad activation ties to gold price lock offer ahead of Akshaya Tritiya
MUMBAI: All that glitters isn’t just gold, it’s also great marketing. A quirky on-ground activation by Instamart at Hussain Sagar Lake has turned into a viral spectacle, with videos of people digging for gold coins flooding social media feeds this week. The campaign, executed in collaboration with Moms, transformed a patch of the city’s iconic lakefront into what online users quickly dubbed a “mini gold rush”. Armed with spades, participants dug through a mud-filled pit in search of hidden gold coins, an activity that drew crowds, cameras and plenty of commentary online, ranging from amused disbelief to outright fascination.
At the heart of the frenzy was a promotional push for Instamart’s ‘Gold Price Lock’ feature, which allows users to secure prevailing gold rates between April 10 and April 16 and complete their purchase later during Akshaya Tritiya, a period traditionally associated with high gold buying. The mechanic cleverly blended physical participation with digital conversion, turning curiosity into a potential transaction.
Branded as ‘Gold Diggers’, the activation leaned into gamified engagement. Those who struck lucky walked away with coins, those who didn’t were nudged with a simple message: lock the price now, buy later. The result was a steady stream of footfall and a surge in user-generated content, as onlookers and participants alike documented the spectacle.
The timing is significant. India remains one of the world’s largest consumers of gold, with demand peaking around Akshaya Tritiya. Data from the World Gold Council suggests the festival alone accounts for roughly 25–30 tonnes of gold purchases annually, making it a high-stakes window for brands looking to tap into consumer sentiment.
As the ‘Gold Price Lock’ feature remains live until April 16, the campaign has already done its job turning a simple product feature into a citywide moment. Because sometimes, the quickest way to get people talking about gold isn’t to sell it, it’s to make them dig for it.
