e-commerce
Paytm appoints Alibaba’s Bhushan Patil as new president
MUMBAI: Paytm, mobile payment and commerce platform, has appointed Bhushan Patil as its new president. Patil will focus on building the company’s cross border commerce. Paytm’s Indian business aims to sell $2 billion worth of products in 2016 and is looking at growing its sellers to 5 lakh from 1.7 lakh currently. Paytm has a current user base of more than 12.5 crore, and is on a mission to bring about 50 crore Indians to the mainstream economy using mobile payment, commerce and soon-to-be launched payment banking services. Through the hiring, the company also aims at expanding outside India
Patil has served for over five years and held the position of head of wholesale business at Alibaba Holdings group (the Chinese online e-Commerce giant alibaba.com). As a major accomplishment Patil has incepted, led and launched B2B Trade-Trust products across 50 countries in Asia, Europe and America and was instrumental for developing new India plans for Alibaba.com’s B2B business.
“It is indeed an honour to be a part of the Paytm vision and strategy, both towards national cashless economy, and the plan to take Paytm overseas. I’m thrilled to come on board at one of the fastest scaling payments and commerce platforms in the country and look forward to a mutually successful tenure at Paytm,” said Patil.
Talking about the new appointment, Paytm CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “We want to offer Indian merchants a compelling commerce platform and Bhushan brings incredible experience of building cross border commerce. It will help Indian merchants to sell globally too. As Paytm continues to grow at an exponential pace, it is important for Paytm to expand its operations outside India for further development. We welcome him to be a part of Paytm’s go big, go global strategy”.
e-commerce
Instamart and Duolingo launch street spell check campaign for Instaprint
Duo the owl fixes signboard typos across cities to showcase instant printing.
MUMBAI: If spelling mistakes had a sworn enemy, it might just be a bright green owl with a printer. Instamart has teamed up with language learning platform Duolingo for a quirky nationwide campaign that turns everyday spelling errors into a public spectacle while promoting its instant printing service, InstaPrint. The playful activation takes aim at the many misspelled shop boards and public signs scattered across Indian streets. From “saloons” that promise haircuts rather than drinks to menus and posters peppered with punctuation mishaps, the campaign sends Duolingo’s mascot Duo on a mission to restore linguistic order.
Armed with Instamart’s instant printing feature, Duo prints corrected versions of the mistakes on the spot and pastes them over the originals. The result is a series of humorous street interventions that have quickly begun circulating on social media.
Photos and videos of the grammar correcting owl have been widely shared online, with amused users reacting to the unexpected spell check patrol. One user joked, “Ab ayega na maza bhidu,” capturing the internet’s delight at the unusual campaign.
Behind the humour lies a practical message. The activation is designed to showcase the capabilities of Instaprint, Instamart’s printing service that allows users to print documents and posters almost instantly.
The company says the feature is meant for everyday needs such as printing resumes, visa documents or last minute posters without the usual scramble to locate a print shop.
Instamart introduced Instaprint in 2025 across select metropolitan cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The service allows users to order printed materials directly through the platform, extending the quick commerce model beyond groceries and household essentials.
By combining Duolingo’s famously persistent owl with India’s street level spelling quirks, the campaign taps into the internet’s long running fascination with grammar mistakes while demonstrating a real world use case for instant printing.
After all, in a world full of typos, sometimes what you really need is a quick printer and a very determined language teacher.
