e-commerce
Paytm is Forbes India’s ‘Outstanding Startup for the Year’
MUMBAI: Paytm, the Noida-based e-commerce platform which would be the biggest gainers of the government decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, has pocketed the ‘Outstanding Startup for the Year’ award at the Forbes India Leadership Awards (FILA) here yesterday. India Inc’s brightest, biggest and bravest entrepreneurs were honoured at FILA.
Lupin’s Vinita & Nilesh Gupta won Forbes India ‘Entrepreneur for the Year 2016’ award and YK Hamied was conferred the Lifetime Achievement award.
The awards across nine categories acknowledged the outstanding contributions of CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders who have built enterprises that have had a deep and enduring impact on the economy and the wider society.
“As chroniclers of entrepreneurial capitalism, Forbes India has been celebrating leadership for years. FILA is a one important way we do this where we honour a set of such inspirational business leaders. Now in its sixth year, the awards celebrate those who, by their actions, have made a difference to their organisations, their employees and also to the business segments in which they operate,” said Forbes India editor Sourav Majumdar.
The achievements of this year’s winners assume significance since many of the business leaders felicitated have braved difficult local and global economic conditions to steer their organisations towards operational excellence.
Winners of the FILA 2016:
Outstanding Startup for the Year
Vijay Shekhar Sharma – Paytm
Nextgen Entrepreneur for the Year
Pranav Amin & Shaunak Amin – Alembic Pharmaceuticals
Entrepreneur with Social Impact
P Namperumalsamy – Aravind Eye Care System
Conscious Capitalist Company for the year
Mahindra Finance
Best CEO – Multinational Company
Kenichi Ayukawa – Maruti Suzuki India
Best CEO – Public Sector
Sutirtha Bhattacharya – Coal India
Best CEO – Private Sector
KBS Anand – Asian Paints
Lifetime Achievement Award
Yusuf K Hamied – Cipla
Entrepreneur for the Year
Vinita Gupta & Nilesh Gupta – Lupin
The selection process started with an extensive research along qualitative and quantitative parameters. The long list of nominees for each category was narrowed down to a strong set of three to five nominees per category. A jury headed by Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico Ltd, examined the nominations and selected the winners.
Other members of the jury were — AZB & Partners founder and senior partner Zia Mody, TeamLease Services co-founder and chairman Manish Sabharwal, McKinsey India managing director Noshir Kaka, KKR India managing director Sanjay Nayar, and Omidyar Network partner and Omidyar Network India Advisors managing director Roopa Kudva.
KPMG, Forbes India’s knowledge partners for the event, helped with the
nomination process.
Transformational leadership, which the 2016 edition of the Forbes India Leadership Awards seeks to honour, includes individuals and organisations who have achieved success through their vision, foresight, and business ethics.
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.
