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Laqshya Event Capital founder Deepak Choudhary joins Live 101 board
Mumbai: Homegrown digital platform Live101 has announced Deepak Choudhary as a new addition to its board of directors.
Choudhary commands over 19 years of experience in the events industry and he is the founder & director of Laqshya Event Capital and EVENTFAQS.
“Deepak’s extensive experience and expertise in the events industry coupled with his experience as a serial entrepreneur in the F&B and event media space, is sure to add immense value to Live101’s future,” said Live101 co-founder and director Sachin Bhandari. “We look forward to Deepak becoming a part of the Live101 family,” he added.
Founded in 2017, Live101 is India’s premier, tech-based, on-demand live entertainment platform, that provides artists anywhere, anytime. The digital-only platform was founded with the aim of eliminating middlemen when it comes to hiring artists for live events. It aims at supporting local artists as well as provide entertainers for live-at-home and outdoor events, said the statement.
“I am extremely humbled to be joining Live101 as a director. Their journey as a company in the entertainment space has been anything but ordinary because they have helped hundreds of artists to connect and explore opportunities to showcase their work,” said Choudhary. “I am eagerly looking forward to my time at Live101 and I hope I can contribute to their ongoing growth story.”
Choudhary made a foray into the events industry back when it was in its infancy in the early 2000s. From education and the F&B businesses to founding Laqshya Event Capital and EVENTFAQS, and even co-authoring his first-ever book on the Indian live events space “Staged”, he dons multiple hats.
“Deepak comes with decades of experience in the events space and we are pleased to have him on board,” said Live101 co-founders and directors and sibling duo Harmeet Singh and Manmeet Singh. “We are sure that Live101 will benefit from his depth of knowledge and vast skill set that he has honed over the years as an event industry expert.”
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PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
