New Delhi: Social e-commerce company DealShare on Wednesday announced the appointment of former Big Bazaar CEO Kamaldeep Singh as its president of retail.
Singh’s deep knowledge of Indian consumer behaviour, building sourcing organization, vast network of brands, and building talent and team fits well for DealShare’s next phase of growth, the company said announcing the appointment.
The move comes after DealShare, a Jaipur-based social commerce startup owned and operated by Merabo Labs Pvt Ltd, raised an additional $45 million from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), as an extension of its Series E round, in February this year.
DealShare is present in 150 cities across eight states and caters to about 4 lakh orders daily. DealShare procures products from local manufacturers and provides them with a platform to digitize their business.
In his prior role, Singh served as the CEO of Big Bazaar, where he was responsible for retail operations, organizational transformation, and business strategy execution.
“We have cut down our monthly burn to less than 50% over the last 4 to 5 months without much impact on our scale. We will continue to focus heavily on profitable growth in future and Kamaldeep’s deep operational experience will help us speed up this journey,” Sourjyendu Medda, founder and co-CEO, DealShare, said.
The company has made a few top hires over the last 12 months.
“With a slew of recent top level hires to strengthen our core team over the last one year, Kamaldeep will take our leadership pool a notch higher and support our vision to be India’s largest mass market player for FMCG and grocery retail. We have been growing exponentially over the last 4 years and this growth is a testimony of the high potential of our business model in capturing a large share of mass market retail in India,” said Vineet Rao, founder & CEO, DealShare.
With the recent appointment, DealShare moves a step closer to strengthening its presence, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
“Over 75% of the products are sourced from DealShare’s large MSME network across the country. It has also received an overwhelming response for its recently launched private label brands. DealShare has reached over 2 crore households and fulfills four lakh orders every day across eight states and 150 cities & towns,” the company said.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal is struggling to find financial backers for a planned semiconductor factory in India with an investment of as much as 1.54 trillion rupees ($18.6 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.
Agarwal’s representatives met with large funds from the Middle East, Singapore, and the US over the past three months to garner financing commitments for the manufacturing business, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not public. All the funds gave the opportunity a pass leaving them with almost no backers for the project, they said, without providing further details.
The tycoon had announced in September that his Volcan group had joined forces with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the assembler of most of the world’s iPhones, to build a chipmaking facility in the state of Gujarat. The partners, with little experience running large chip operations, were betting on rising semiconductor demand while announcing the plan.
Volcan Investments Ltd., the family trust of Agarwal, is not looking for any external investors to finance the semiconductor and display project, its spokesman said in an emailed statement.
The investors to whom Agarwal pitched the plan raised concerns about the group’s limited experience in the sector, and its stretched financial situation, they said.
While Agarwal had initially tweeted that Vedanta Ltd., his India unit, was making the chip plant investments, he backtracked a few days later to say that the manufacturing business would fall within the purview of Volcan.
To be sure, the venture plans an initial investment of $2 billion for the plant that is expected to be set up in two years. The Indian government is also offering to bear half the costs for such projects under a production incentive plan.
While Vedanta Ltd. boasts an investment-grade rating, Moody’s Investors Service classifies its majority owner, Vedanta Resources Ltd., as high-yield. Volcan is the ultimate parent of both entities.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
DALLAS — A massive storm blowing across the country spawned tornadoes that wrecked homes and injured a handful of people in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest braced Tuesday for blizzard-like conditions.
An area stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado was under blizzard warnings, and the National Weather Service said that as much as 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Ice and sleet were expected in the eastern Great Plains.
In the south, a line of thunderstorms that moved across North Texas and Oklahoma in the early morning hours brought tornadoes, damaging winds, hail and heavy rain, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Bradshaw. Authorities on Tuesday reported dozens of damaged homes and businesses and several people injured
In the Fort Worth suburbs, photos sent by the North Richland Hills police department, showed a home without a roof, a tree that had been split in half and an overturned vehicle in a parking lot. About 20 homes and businesses were damaged in the storm, the police said.
In nearby Grapevine, police spokesperson Amanda McNew said there have been five confirmed injuries, yet no fatalities and no life-threatening injuries, from the storms.
“So the main thing is that we’ve got everyone in a safe place,” McNew said just after noon. “And so now we’re starting the process of going through the city looking at damage to property, to businesses, homes and then roads to see what needs to be closed, what we can open and how soon we can open them.”
A structure is damaged after a tornado touched down in Wayne, Okla., early Tuesday. Millions of people in the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest are bracing for blizzard-like conditions from a massive storm blowing across the country.
KOCO via AP
Near Decatur, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Dallas, the Wise County Office of Emergency Management said one person was injured from flying debris while traveling in their vehicle and the other was injured when their vehicle overturned due to high winds. One person was taken to the hospital and the other was treated at the scene.
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Meanwhile, a tornado damaged the Oklahoma town of Wayne shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday. There were no deaths or injuries due to the tornado, McClain County Sheriff’s Capt. Bryan Murrell said. But as authorities began assessing its impact Tuesday morning, it was clear there was widespread damage to Wayne, which is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City.
“We’ve got multiple family structures with significant damage … barns, power lines down” in and around the town, Murrell said.
National Weather Service meteorologist Doug Speheger said wind speeds reached 111-135 mph (179-211 kph) and the tornado was rated EF-2. It was likely on the ground for about two to four minutes, according to the weather service.
In parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, the National Weather Service warned that up to about half an inch (2.5 centimeters) of ice could form and winds could gust up to 45 mph (72 kph). Power outages, tree damage, falling branches and hazardous travel conditions all threatened the region.
All of western Nebraska was under a blizzard warning from Tuesday through Thursday, and the National Weather Services said up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of snow was expected in the northwest. Winds of more than 50 mph (80 kph) at times will make it impossible to see outdoors, officials said.
Evan Freedman, from Los Angeles, puts snow chains on his vehicle as heavy snow falls on Highway 2 near Wrightwood, Calif., on Monday.
The Nebraska Department of Transportation closed stretches of Interstate 80 and Interstate 76 as heavy snow and high winds made travel dangerous. The Nebraska State Patrol, which was called to deal with several crashes and jackknifed semitrailers overnight, urged people to stay off the roads.
“There’s essentially no one traveling right now,” said Justin McCallum, a manager at the Flying J truck stop at Ogallala, Nebraska. He said he got to work before the roads were closed, but likely won’t be able to get back home Tuesday. “I can see to the first poles outside the doors, but I can’t see the rest of the lot right outside. I’ll probably just get a motel room here tonight.”
In Colorado, all roads were closed in the northeast quadrant of the state. And a 260-mile (418-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 90 across western South Dakota was closed Tuesday morning due to “freezing rain, heavy snow, and high winds,” the state’s Department of Transportation said. Interstate 29 was also expected to close and secondary highways will likely become “impassable,” the department said.
Xcel Energy, one of the region’s largest electric providers, had boosted staff in anticipation of power outages. A middle school in Sioux Falls lost power Tuesday morning and sent students home early. Power outages affecting about 1,700 customers in the eastern part of the state were reported by utility providers Tuesday.
In southern Minnesota, winds gusting up to 50 mph (80 kph) had reduced visibility and in the Twin Cities metro area, sleet and gravel mixed with rain on the roads.
National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye in the Twin Cities said this is a “long duration event” with snow, ice and rain expected to last at least through Friday night. Minnesota was expecting a lull Wednesday, followed by a second round of snow.
Wet roadways are just as dangerous when temperatures hover around freezing, Dye said.
The storm system was expected to move into the Northeast and central Appalachians with snow and freezing rain by late Wednesday, forecasters said. The severe weather threat also continues into Wednesday for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
The weather is part of the same system that dumped heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada and western U.S. in recent days.
The northern Rocky Mountains are predicted to get over a foot of snowfall, a boon to ski resorts that dot the range. But in Utah, search and rescue crews on Tuesday located the body of a skier who had gone missing at Solitude Mountain Resort a day earlier as snow continued to blanket Utah and the state’s ski resorts throughout the Wasatch Range.
When sorrows come, Shakespeare observed, they come not single spies, but in battalions. The same goes for former US president Donald Trump’s legal troubles.
The latest trouble for Trump strikes at the heart of his identity as a wealthy businessman who wrote the bestselling book The Art of the Deal. On Tuesday his company was convicted of a 15-year criminal scheme to defraud tax authorities.
“Add tax fraud to the long list of Trump’s accomplishments,” tweeted Adam Schiff, chairman of the House of Representatives’ intelligence committee.
The case centered on charges that the Trump Organization, which operates hotels, golf courses and other assets around the world, paid personal expenses like rent and car leases for top executives without reporting the income, and paid them bonuses as if they were independent contractors.
Trump himself was not charged but prosecutors alleged that he “knew exactly what was going on”. During his closing argument, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass showed jurors a lease Trump signed for a company-paid apartment and a memo Trump initialed authorising a pay cut for another executive who got perks.
“Mr Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud,” Steinglass argued.
In a normal political universe, such a revelation would sink Trump’s hopes of a White House comeback in 2024. But given that he once boasted he could shoot someone in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes, explicitly sanctioning tax fraud might not quite cut it.
Indeed, as comedian Dave Chappelle noted in a recent Saturday Night Live monologue, Trump has turned his ability to bend and break rules into a political virtue. “He said, ‘I know the system is rigged because I use it.’” When Hillary Clinton accused him of not paying taxes, Trump retorted: “That makes me smart.”
In Chappelle’s view, this rare willingness to expose what goes on behind the doors of the rich man’s club endeared Trump to working-class voters in 2016. The implication is that you would do it too, if you could, so good on him.
But six years later, the political landscape is different and the act is looking tired to many, even – increasingly – in his own party. No previous former US president, and no previous presidential candidate, has faced such a mountain of allegations and investigations.
The Trump Organization also separately faces a fraud lawsuit brought by New York state attorney general Letitia James. She wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: “Today’s guilty verdict against the Trump Organization shows that we will hold individuals and organizations accountable when they violate our laws to line their pockets.”
Trump himself is being investigated by the justice department over his handling of sensitive government documents after he left office in January 2021 and his attempts to overturn the November 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
A prosecutor in Georgia is scrutinising Trump and his allies over an attempt to subvert democracy in that state. Last month the US supreme court cleared the way for the handover of the former president’s tax returns to a congressional committee.
In the attrition of legal trench warfare, these cases may be gradually wearing down Trump’s political resilience, especially combined with three successive elections that suggest he is more of a loser than a winner.
His winning argument in 2016 was that, having cultivated the image of a successful businessman on his reality TV show The Apprentice, he could now bring the same acumen to governing the country. And in a sense, he did: with fraud, deceit and contempt for the rule of law.
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The Democratic incumbent, Raphael Warnock, has fended off a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker and won the Georgia Senate runoff, securing his first full term and delivering a 51st seat to bolster his party’s majority in the chamber.
The Associated Press called the race about three-and-a-half hours after polls closed in Georgia, as Warnock led Walker, by approximately 40,000 votes.
Shortly after that, Warnock took the stage at his campaign’s victory party to thank his supporters. A pastor at the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr once preached, Warnock has held one of Georgia’s two Senate seats since winning a special election in 2021. As he began his remarks in Atlanta, supporters chanted: “Six more years!”
Warnock told the crowd: “After a hard-fought campaign – or should I say campaigns – it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: the people have spoken.”
How did Walker respond? Walker conceded, acknowledging that his campaign had fallen short and expressing gratitude to his team. The Republican explicitly thanked election officials who ensured the runoff was managed effectively, quelling concerns he might refuse to accept the result.
Is Walker’s loss a bad omen for Trumpism? In a normal political universe, David Smith writes, Walker’s defeat would be the final nail in Trump’s political coffin. The former American football star was the ultimate Trumpian candidate. Trump, however, arguably remains the favourite for the Republican nomination in 2024. The next election could spell the rebirth or the death of Trumpism.
Trump Organization guilty of tax fraud, New York jury finds
A jury in New York has convictedthe Trump Organization of criminal tax fraud in a stinging rebuke of the former US president’s company.
Although Donald Trump was not personally on trial, prosecutors in the case brought by the Manhattan district attorney insisted he was fully aware of the long-running scheme in which they said executives were enriched by off-the-books perks to make up for lower salaries, reducing the company’s tax liabilities.
“This was a case about greed and cheating,” Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said in a statement celebrating the guilty verdict. “In Manhattan, no corporation is above the law.”
The 12-person jury in New York’s state court was sent out to deliberate on Monday morning after a six-week trial in which Trump Organization lawyers pinned blame for the fraud solely on the greed of longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
How has Trump responded? In a statement yesterday, the Trump Organization denounced the verdict, which could carry a fine of up to $1.6m, a relatively negligible sum for such a large company though it could affect future business dealings. A lawyer for the Trump Organization vowed to appeal.
Twenty-five people including a 71-year-old German aristocrat, a retired military commander and former MP for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have been detained in Germany on suspicion of a terrorist plan to overthrow the state and re-negotiate the country’s post-second world war settlement.
Thousands of police carried out a series of raids across Germany on Wednesday morning in connection with the far-right ring.
Federal prosecutors said 3,000 officers had conducted searches at 130 sites in 11 of Germany’s 16 states against the group, whose members it said adhered to a “conglomerate of conspiracy theories” including the QAnon cult and the so-called Reich Citizens movement.
Prosecutors said 22 German citizens had been detained on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organisation”. Three other detainees, including a female Russian citizen, were suspected of supporting the organisation, they said.
Who is behind the ring? German media have identified as the group’s ringleaders as Heinrich XIII, 71, a descendant of the noble Reuß family that used to rule over parts of eastern Germany in the 12th century, and a former senior field officer at the German army’s paratrooper battalion named only as Rüdiger von P.
The round of 16 in Qatar had progressed smoothly and with a distinct lack of upsets until Tuesday. That all changed when Morocco knocked out 2010 champions Spain in a penalty shootout, in which the visibly nervous Spanish players failed to convert a single kick. Spain are making a habit of this: they went out at this stage in the last World Cup on penalties, too. Morocco are only the fourth African team to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup and the first since Ghana in 2010. Their fans were understandably ecstatic.
The day’s other game was slightly less tense as Portugal thrashed Switzerland 6-1. It was a formidable performance from the Portuguese and all the more remarkable given that Cristiano Ronaldo, who has dominated the team for nearly two decades, was benched before the game. How did his replacement, 21-year-old Gonçalo Ramos, fare? He scored a brilliant hat-trick.
Elsewhere at the World Cup
There are two soccer-free days in Qatar now before the quarter-finals, which take place on Friday and Saturday. First up on Friday is Croatia v Brazil (10am ET) followed by Netherlands v Argentina (2pm ET). Saturday’s first game is Morocco v Portugal (10am) before England v France (2pm ET) rounds things off.
There’s been a minor storm around Brazil’s samba-inspired celebrations against South Korea on Monday. The former Ireland midfielder turned TV pundit Roy Keane thought the dancing was disrespectful to the Koreans. That has made Keane very unpopular in Brazil. The Guardian’s Ed Aarons breaks down the intertwined history of soccer and samba in Brazilian life.
Stat of the day: Is Facebook losing its $100bn gamble on virtual reality?
What a difference a year makes. Last October, Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg could barely wait to show the world what he was up to as he guided us through his vision for the virtual-reality future. This
month, we saw a more subdued Zuckerberg on display: “I wanna say upfront that I take full responsibility for this decision,” he told employees morosely. Meta was laying off 11,000 people – 13% of its workforce. After poor third-quarter results Meta’s share price dropped by 25%, wiping $80bn off the company’s value. Reality Labs, Meta’s metaverse division, has lost $3.7bn in the past three months, with worse expected to come.
Don’t miss this: Kirstie Alley was celebrated not because she was flawless – but because her flaws were so visible
Kirstie Alley was so widely celebrated not because she was flawless but because her flaws were so visible, writes Veronica Esposito – she was among those celebrities who are compelling because they eschew the carefully managed image of the famous in favour of offering something that feels completely unfiltered and thus far more intimate. Alley achieved prominence at a time when actors such as Roseanne Barr and Rosie O’Donnell courted controversy in large part by defying sexist expectations of how a female celebrity should come off in public life, and how she should portray characters in film and TV.
Climate check: Humanity has become ‘weapon of mass extinction’, UN head tells Cop15 launch
Humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction and governments must end the “orgy of destruction”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said at the beginning of the biodiversity Cop15. “We are out of harmony with nature. In fact, we are playing an entirely different song. Around the world, for hundreds of years, we have conducted a cacophony of chaos, played with instruments of destruction. Deforestation and desertific
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In New York City, politicians are not bound by party affiliation. However, they still try to put the people first, by doing their best for the city and its residents. This isn’t always easy, as there are often partisan factions within the city government. But despite this, the politicians still try to get things done for their constituents. They don’t ignore the interests of the common people, but they also make sure to put the needs of their constituents above those of other parties. This is why there are so many political parties in New York City. Some may be small and local governments; others may have a national presence.
Party affiliations don’t necessarily mean that New York’s politicians won’t be influenced by their constituents.
The role of lobbyists: One of the few things that New York’s politicians are likely to be more beholden to than their constituents is the lobbyists that come with their party affiliation.
The need for bipartisanship: It seems like every time there’s a new issue or controversy in the city, one side or the other starts coming up with ways to try and sway the politicians in their favor.
Inexcusable decisions: One of the biggest problems that New York’s politicians have is that they often make terrible, inexcusable decisions without any real consideration for how they’ll affect the people around them .
The article discusses the fact that New York’s politicians are not influenced by party affiliations, but they stil
l care about the people. This is a good thing, as it means that they are not only competent and effective officials, but they also have a sense of civic duty.
The problem with political parties:
Party affiliation is important to some New York politicians, but it is not as important to the people. This creates a conflict between the politicians and the people, as the politicians want to cater to their party members, while the people want the politicians to do what is best for them.
The solution: One way to solve this conflict is for the politicians to focus on what is best for the people. This can be done by changing the voting system to make party affiliation less important for the people so that they feel more involved and are more likely to vote for the parties that represent them. The key is for politicians to make sure that what they do is in line with what the people want.
New York City politicians have always been known for their independent thinking and unabashedly pro-active
work in the community. However, this has not always been the case. In the past, many of these same politicians have taken sides with either the city or its political party. This lack of allegiance to one’s constituency has had a major impact on their ability to effectively represent the city as a whole.
The recent mayoral race: After years of being without a clear victor, Mayor Bloomberg finally won in 2011 against longtime incumbent Michael Bloomberg. It was clear that he had troubles with Albany, which is where his power came from. Albany was built on patronage and was not willing to give him what he wanted. This caused Bloomberg to try and New York City’s politicians have always been independent, but this has not always stopped them from giving a damn about the people. In fact, many of them have even stated that they believe in democracy and want to see it reinstated in the city. While their party affiliations may not be influenced by it, they still care about the people and their interests.
Afghanistan falls to Australia in the T20 World Cup final on Wednesday, with theScore giving the match to the Australians. Australia was leading by 9 runs at the end of their innings, but lost their next 3 wickets for just 45 runs. Mohammad Nabi and Usman Khawaja both took 4-for-15 from the innings, while Nathan Lyon made an unbeaten 58 from 52 balls.
In the T20 World Cup final, Afghanistan fell to Australia by 16 runs.
Afghanistan’s downfall: Australia took control from the start and never looked back.
Australia’s bowling attack: The Indian side was not able to cope with the new ball.
The key element: Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s batting.
Australia and Afghanistan reached the final of the T20 World Cup, but it was Afghanistan who came out on top. Australia had looked impressive throughout the tournament, but they were unable to put away their opponents.
Afghanistan: Afghanistan reached the final of the T20 World Cup after topping their group with a score of 184/8. They played well against some of the stronger teams in the tournament, but they ultimately lost to Australia. This was their first ever T20 World Cup Final.
Australia: Australia reached the final of the T20 World Cup, but it was Afghanistan who came out on top. They had looked impressive throughout the tournament, but they were unable to put
Australian cricket team defeats Afghanistan in T20 World Cup final
Theussie cricket team’s victory over Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup final
Australia’s successful T20 World Cup campaign
Afghanistan’s defeat in the T20 World Cup final
Australia won the T20 World Cup by defeating Afghanistan in the final. Australia’s captain, David Warner, was the player of the tournament with a century and five sixes. This victory gives Australia their fourth world title and their first in fifteen years. The team finished with a total of 613 for 5, and was led by Warner, who scored a century, five fours and six sixes. Afghanistan were unable to put Australia out on top.
Afghanistan falls to Australia in the T20 World Cup final
Australia’s transformation from ” Legends” to ” Champions”
How Afghanistan Struggle in the T20 World Cup
Australia’sT20 Winning Streak Begins with the T20 World Cup
Australia legends Darren Lehmann and George Bailey made history as they both captained their country to their first World Cup final in over a decade, but Afghanistan was the more complete team and deserved the win. Afghanistan had never losing to Australia in T20 internationals, but this match was different as Australia were without some of their key players. Lehmann and Bailey led the way for the Aussies, while Afghan’s power-house Mohammad Arif led from the back.
The Afghans had a strong attack with captain Mohammad Shahzad and Shafiqullah Roshan scoring a quickfire 5-wicket haul.
onclusion: Australia ran out victorious by 16 runs. Australia won the T20 World Cup final against Afghanistan by 7 runs with captain Deonarine D’Souza scoring the winning run. Australia has now completed their third world cup title in as many years and first since 2006.
