All posts by Neel Achary

Bangalore, India, 22 May 2025 – Le Wagon, one of the world’s leading coding bootcamp is making its debut in India with the launch of its first campus in Bangalore. With over 30,000 alumni across 40+ cities worldwide, Le Wagon delivers industry-focused bootcamps designed to equip career changers, entrepreneurs, graduates and aspiring tech professionals with the practical skills and real-world experience needed to excel in today’s fast-paced tech landscape.

To mark its arrival in India, Le Wagon hosted an exclusive launch event on 21st May at The Chancery Pavilion, Bangalore, featuring the keynote address by Boris Paillard, Executive Chairman & Co-founder, Le Wagon and a panel discussion on “Unleashing India’s Talent for Global Innovation.” The event was moderated by Ruth D’Souza Prabhu, and attended by leaders from the tech, education, and media sectors.

Le Wagon’s first cohort in India will begin on July 7, 2025, in Bangalore with a 9-week, full-time, in-person Software Development & AI Bootcamp. The program is tailored for beginners and focuses on hands-on coding, real-world project development, and AI-driven application building. Applications are now open.

Le Wagon’s globally recognized curriculum empowers learners to build functional applications, navigate AI tools with confidence, and transition into tech careers or entrepreneurial ventures. With a strong emphasis on foundational technology concepts, the program enables participants to deepen their domain expertise, harness AI platforms more effectively, and contribute meaningfully in tech-driven environments. Delivered through immersive workshops and hands-on, project-based learning, the curriculum equips learners with practical, industry-relevant skills aligned with international standards.

“India represents a critical growth market for us due to its rich talent pool and vibrant tech ecosystem,” said Boris Paillard, Executive Chairman & Co-founder, Le Wagon “Our mission is to empower the Indian talent with the expertise and mindset to build, launch, and scale innovative technology products that make a global impact.”

Susanna Jacob, India Partner, Le Wagon added, “Bangalore is the perfect launchpad to connect India’s growing tech talent with global opportunities. Our programs are designed to fast-track industry readiness while fostering diversity and inclusion, ensuring that talent from all backgrounds can participate and thrive.”

Le Wagon India is committed to making tech education more inclusive and accessible. To support a diverse range of applicants, the program offers early-bird discounts, and exclusive introductory offers. These include a 10% launch discount for all early applicants and an additional 5% scholarship for women, aimed at encouraging greater female participation in tech.

Bootcamp graduates gain entry to Le Wagon’s extensive global hiring network of over 7,000 hiring partners, connecting them to impactful tech roles worldwide.

Mumbai, 22 May 2025 – Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, Avaada Group, India’s leading integrated clean energy company, has launched a powerful new climate awareness film as part of its campaign #MissionImPossible.

The campaign encourages everyone to see climate change not as a distant threat, but as something we are already experiencing, through rising temperatures, polluted air, and changing weather around us.

This is an initiative by Mr. Vineet Mittal, Chairman Avaada Group, instead of using future predictions, data points or dramatic visuals, the film focuses on what people are feeling every day: discomfort, disruption and uncertainty caused by a changing climate. 

#MissionImPossible aims to make climate action personal and challenge people’s disinterest and ask them to take personal responsibility: Climate Change is no longer abstract, it’s showing up in our food, our breath, and our day-to-day discomfort. It highlights how our daily choices – How we consume, How we waste and How we live; are shaping the future we are stepping into.

The campaign is being amplified across digital platforms, employee networks, and media touchpoints leading up to World Environment Day, driving home the message that what they call impossible, we call necessary. 

It is Mission ImPossible, It is I’M, It is I’M Possible 

This campaign was conceptualized and Initiated by Mr. Vineet Mittal, Chairman Avaada Group and executed by Avaada’s Inhouse Marketing and Corporate Communications team with help of Big Trunk Communications.

Mumbai, 22 May 2025 – Highways Infrastructure Trust (HIT), a SEBI-registered infrastructure investment trust, announces the addition of 10 operational Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) highway projects from PNC Infratech Ltd to its portfolio. The projects, totalling ~3400 lane km, are HAM assets strategically located across key economic corridors in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

Post this acquisition, HIT’s Assets Under Management (AUM) is expected to be ~₹25,000 crore, an increase of ~2.5x compared to March 2024. With the addition of these assets, HIT expects the annuity projects (including HAM) to contribute ~40% to its revenue and ~32% to its AUM.

Acquired projects include:

• PNC Rajasthan Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“RHPL”)
• PNC Chitradurga Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“CHPL”)
• PNC Bithur Kanpur Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“BKHPL”)
• PNC Triveni Sangam Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“TSHPL”)
• PNC Aligarh Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“AHPL”)
• PNC Gomti Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“GHPL”)
• PNC Unnao Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“UHPL”)
• PNC Meerut Haridwar Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“MHHPL”)
• PNC Bundelkhand Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“BHPL”)
• PNC Khajuraho Highways Pvt. Ltd. (“KHPL”)

These assets are part of the transaction announced in January 2024 for acquisition of a 12-road project portfolio from PNC Infratech Ltd and PNC Infra Holdings Ltd, one of the largest deals in the Indian roads sector.

The balance two projects, Bareilly Nainital (“BN”) and Chalkere Hariyur (“CH”), will be acquired post receipt of respective authority approvals and fulfilment of condition precedents as included in the share purchase agreement.

Commenting on the deal, Gaurav Chandna, Executive Director and Joint CEO, Highways Infrastructure Trust, said, “The successful addition of these 10 projects from PNC Infratech Ltd. marks a significant milestone in the journey of HIT, solidifying our position as one of India’s leading highway InvITs. It significantly expands our footprint, adding ~3400 lane km of key highways to our portfolio, and increasing our total AUM to ~₹25,000 crore. With this transaction, we shall achieve a healthy mix of annuity and toll projects, aligned with our goal of curating a diversified and balanced portfolio.” 

Adding to this, Dr. Zafar Khan, Executive Director and Joint CEO, Highways Infrastructure Trust, said “At HIT, our vision is to operate an efficient and resilient road network that strengthens connectivity, fuels economic growth, and drives regional development. We continue to gain from economies of scale and innovative technologies that enhance our asset management capabilities. Each new addition to our portfolio reflects our unwavering commitment to improved road safety, best-in-class operation and maintenance, and holistic community development along these corridors. As we grow, we remain focused on disciplined execution and operational excellence — delivering resilient and sustainable value for all stakeholders.” 

Overview

Cloudflare’s Cloudforce One and Trust and Safety team participated in a coordinated disruption effort targeting the Lumma Stealer malware operation. Lumma Stealer (also known as LummaC2) is part of a broader class of information-stealing malware that poses a serious threat to both individuals and organizations. By exfiltrating credentials, cryptocurrency wallets, cookies, and other sensitive data from infected machines, Lumma facilitates a wide range of downstream criminal activity, including financial fraud, identity theft, and enterprise breaches that can lead to ransomware. Disrupting this ecosystem is critical to protecting users, undermining the cybercrime economy, and preventing further harm.

Lumma Stealer attempted to abuse numerous service providers’ infrastructure, including Cloudflare, to support their malware operations. Cloudflare detected Lumma Stealer’s abuse and participated in a Microsoft-led disruption effort. As part of this effort, Microsoft collaborated with other private industry partners, both those directly impacted and those providing intelligence and technical support, along with the U.S. Department of Justice, Europol’s European Cybercrime Center (EC3), and Japan’s Cybercrime Control Center (JC3).

Executive summary

• Lumma Stealer is Malware-as-a-Service offering that allows criminals to rent access to an administrative panel, where they can retrieve stolen data and generate customized builds of the malware payload for distribution to victims worldwide.

• Like most other information stealing malware, Lumma Stealer is spread primarily through social engineering campaigns that lure targets into following instructions that result in the download and execution of malware.

• The Lumma Stealer disruption effort denies the Lumma operators access to their control panel, marketplace of stolen data, and the Internet infrastructure used to facilitate the collection and management of that data. These actions impose operational and financial costs on both the Lumma operators and their customers, forcing them to rebuild their services on alternative infrastructure.

What is Lumma Stealer?

Lumma Stealer was first observed posting to the Russian language crime forums known as Exploit and XSS in February 2023. Most of Lumma’s business is now conducted on Telegram where criminals can purchase access to the admin panel using a variety of cryptocurrencies. Lumma’s original sales thread, as shown below, appeared on crime forums and was linked to a website that has been offline for some time prior to the current disruption effort.

The stolen credentials collected by Lumma’s operators, called “logs”, were parsed and indexed for Lumma’s own marketplace where criminals could buy credits with cryptocurrency and search for lucrative credentials. Lumma’s logs were also collected by other criminals who sold access to their collections on Telegram.

Methods of infection

Recent information stealer campaigns typically involve social engineering rather than the exploitation of a vulnerability. Microsoft and other security researchers have documented a technique known as ClickFix. In this approach, users who visit compromised websites or encounter malicious ads are presented with a deceptive modal popup, warning them of urgent issues with their computer. The popup instructs users to execute keyboard shortcuts that launch a remote PowerShell script, which then downloads and runs a payload, such as LummaC2.

Lumma’s payloads are typically spread using pay-per-install (PPI) networks or traffic sellers that deliver installs as a service. The price typically depends on the location of the install and if the target device is a mobile phone or a desktop computer. Lumma and many other information stealers are often bundled with cracked versions of popular commercial software, targeting users looking to avoid paying for legitimate licenses. To make matters worse, the operators behind LummaC2 invest significant effort into ensuring their malware evades detection by popular antivirus solutions.

Mitigating Lumma Stealer activity

Properly defending against Lumma Stealer involves a layered security approach, since it’s a fast-evolving infostealer often delivered via malvertising, phishing, or compromised software. Enterprise defenders should carefully restrict access to new domains, as newly registered domains (NRDs) are a common tactic extensively used by LummaC2. Users outside of an enterprise may consider limiting or preventing the execution of PowerShell and other scripts if it is not required. Enterprise defenders should also consider the following:

Endpoint protection and hardening

• Do not permit users to download executable files from untrusted websites

• Do not permit users to download or execute scripts or Microsoft Office macros that were downloaded from the Internet, are unsigned, or that are not explicitly allowed by policy

• Use reputable endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools that can detect suspicious behaviors, like credential scraping or unauthorized file access

• Application allowlisting to prevent unknown executables (including downloaded payloads) from running

• Disable PowerShell for non-administrative users, or use Constrained Language Mode to reduce abuse risk

Browser and credential hygiene

• Avoid saving passwords in browsers—use a dedicated password manager instead.

• Clear autofill data and browser caches regularly

• Disable autofill for sensitive information like names, phone numbers, or addresses, especially on corporate machines

Patch and update regularly

• Keep browsers, operating systems, and all software up to date to reduce exploitability via known vulnerabilities

DNS and network filtering

• Use secure DNS filtering and threat intelligence-based blocklists to prevent connections to NRDs, known C2 servers, malware delivery domains, and Telegram APIs used for data exfiltration

Email and web filtering

• Implement malicious attachment and link detection in email gateways

• Deploy browser isolation or sandboxing to reduce the risk of drive-by downloads from malvertising

User training

• Educate users about malvertising, fake software installers, and browser scareware tactics like ClickFix, which are common delivery mechanisms

• Warn users not to run PowerShell scripts or click on scare popups instructing them to “fix” computer issues

Detection and threat hunting

• Monitor for unusual outbound connections (especially to Telegram or rare domains)

• Monitor for unauthorized credential access from browsers

• Monitor for suspicious PowerShell or process spawning activity (e.g., explorer.exe spawning powershell.exe)

Coordinating our Lumma Stealer response

Cloudflare’s services protect its customers’ Internet properties from DDoS and other attacks. In order for Cloudflare to provide this protection, Cloudflare’s customers’ origin IP addresses are not necessarily visible to website visitors. Lumma Stealer abused that feature of Cloudflare’s infrastructure to hide the origin IP address of the server that criminals used to collect files and credentials stolen by malware. Cloudflare’s Trust and Safety team repeatedly flagged domains used by the criminals and suspended their accounts. In February 2025, Lumma’s malware was observed bypassing Cloudflare’s interstitial warning page, which is one countermeasure that Cloudflare employs to disrupt malicious actors. In response, Cloudflare added the Turnstile service to the interstitial warning page, so the malware could not bypass it.

Cloudflare’s role in the disruption included placing a new, Turnstile-enabled interstitial warning page in front of the malicious actors’ command and control server domains and Lumma’s Marketplace domains, as well as taking action against the accounts that were used to configure the domains. Normally, if a criminal actor attempts to abuse Cloudflare’s name services but not Cloudflare’s registry services, they can recover control of their domains by changing the Start of Authority at the registrar. Microsoft coordinated the takedown of Lumma’s domains with multiple relevant registries in order to ensure that the criminals could not simply change the name servers and recover their control.

Mumbai, 23 May 2025: Venture Catalysts, India’s leading integrated incubator and accelerator platform, has participated in BlackCarrot’s seed funding round, an innovative dinnerware brand redefining the Indian dining experience with a focus on health and contemporary design. The round also saw participation from notable investors including We Founder Circle, EvolveX Accelerator, GX Ventures, and Suraj Nalin, Co-Founder of PlaySimple Games, alongside celebrity investors Neha Dhupia and Agnello Dias, who bring valuable expertise and visibility to support BlackCarrot’s growth trajectory.

Founded by Yadupati Gupta (Ex-J.P. Morgan and Avendus Capital Investment Banker) and Vishal Gupta (former Head of Marketing and Sales at Wipro Consumer Care and VIP Luggage Group Company), BlackCarrot has quickly established itself as India’s first mass premium dinnerware brand dedicated to health-conscious consumers. The company offers a comprehensive range of products, including bone china (animal bone ash)-free ceramics, lead-free glassware, and 304 food-grade stainless steel cutlery, serving a growing customer base through a robust omnichannel presence across leading e-commerce platforms such as Tata Cliq Luxury, Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart, and Nykaa Fashion, as well as offline retail chains like Nature’s Basket and Food Square. The company has also partnered with Zepto for fast delivery through quick commerce.

Commenting on the investment, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder and Managing Director from Venture Catalysts++, said, “BlackCarrot represents a new wave of consumer brands in India that combine health consciousness, design innovation, and scalable business models. The company’s impressive progress in building a strong omnichannel presence and its commitment to eliminating harmful materials from everyday dining products position it well for rapid growth. With the Indian dinnerware market undergoing a shift toward wellness and sustainability, we see immense potential in BlackCarrot’s vision to become the go-to brand for modern households. This investment aligns with our strategy of backing companies that are transforming traditional sectors through innovation and consumer focus.”

Yadupati Gupta and Vishal Gupta, Co-founders of BlackCarrot, said, “At BlackCarrot, our mission is to make every dining experience safer and more enjoyable for Indian families. With the support of our investors, we are poised to accelerate our expansion, invest further in product innovation, and reach new markets nationwide. We are grateful to Venture Catalysts and our investor partners for believing in our vision and joining us on this journey to redefine how India dines. This funding will be used to accelerate growth across D2C, marketplaces, offline retail, and quick commerce. We have already initiated conversations for a larger fundraise in our next round to support the fast-scaling momentum.”

India’s tableware market is witnessing significant transformation, with increasing consumer awareness around health and material safety driving demand for premium, sustainable products. The dinnerware sector is poised for significant growth over the next few years, with mass premium dinnerware emerging as one of the fastest-growing categories in the broader home lifestyle segment. This growth is being driven by consumers seeking high-quality, design-forward options that do not compromise on safety or aesthetics. BlackCarrot’s product philosophy aligns with this demand, providing safer, toxin-free alternatives to conventional dinnerware. The company’s innovative approach has earned it recognition from the Government of India as a promising startup, further validating its vision and potential in a rapidly evolving market.

The seed funding will enable BlackCarrot to expand its footprint across key markets, enhance its product offerings, and strengthen its position as a leader in the health-conscious dinnerware segment. The company plans to focus on scaling its distribution, deepening its retail partnerships, and investing in new product development while maintaining its commitment to quality and consumer well-being. Venture Catalysts’ strategic backing of BlackCarrot aligns closely with the firm’s mission to cultivate groundbreaking ideas and propel high-potential ventures shaping the Indian as well as international marketplace. 

New Delhi, May 22, 2025 – Poonawalla Fincorp Limited (PFL), a Cyrus Poonawalla Group-promoted NBFC focused on Consumer and MSME lending, today announced the deployment of AI-powered solutions in its marketing and compliance functions, reshaping the way it engages with customers digitally and responds to regulatory requirements with greater agility. 

As part of its marketing transformation, PFL is developing a suite of AI-powered solutions to build a robust and scalable data-driven ecosystem, redefining customer engagement and marketing strategies. These solutions aim to enhance customer targeting precision, optimize acquisition costs, and deliver personalized experiences, driving efficiency and growth.

PFL has deployed an AI-driven customer targeting solution to identify and engage high-quality borrowers with precision. Through an AI-driven tool, the company has created over 100 cohorts and personas, continuously enhancing them with each iteration to sharpen its focus on attracting high-quality borrowers across various digital platforms. This targeted approach has strengthened performance marketing efforts and enhanced organic conversion efficiencies, driving better engagement and sustainable growth.

To drive efficiency at scale, PFL is using AI for performance marketing optimization and has launched 80-100 automated retargeting campaigns across its web and app platforms. By using real-time data and insights, the company is developing multiple communication strategies tailored to specific customers, locations, languages, and other factors. 

PFL has undertaken a website transformation, revamping its digital presence to offer seamless experiences. New features such as a self-serve customer portal, QR-code-based referral journeys, and credit score checks provide customers with greater control and convenience. In phase 2, the company plans to introduce 24-hour support powered by conversational-AI and integrate a multilingual interface with 5 new languages for broader inclusivity. Additionally, the company will leverage Gen AI based content creation platforms to support a 10X increase in generating high impact customized content for customer engagement across website and app. 

Simultaneously, the company has unveiled an AI-powered compliance solution built fully in-house to modernize its regulatory response infrastructure. The solution analyzes new advisories issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), maps them to internal company policies, and identifies areas requiring immediate action. It works by scanning regulatory inputs, flagging impacted policy clauses, and offering actionable recommendations to the compliance and business functions for swift closure. In the initial phase, PFL will combine human review of full documents with AI-generated output to ensure accuracy and quality. 

In its next phase, the compliance AI platform will be able to auto-generate comprehensive compliance notes — a process that previously took two to three days. The system is designed to work in tandem with the compliance team, providing insights and recommendations while ensuring human oversight and control at every stage. 

Commenting on the developments, Mr. Arvind Kapil, Managing Director & CEO of Poonawalla Fincorp said, “At Poonawalla Fincorp, we view AI as a catalyst for responsible innovation. Our aim is to develop an accurate, future-ready model that delivers unbiased and consistent output. We are anticipating customer needs and moving with agility in a fast-changing environment. This is not just digital transformation—we are making a deliberate effort to strengthen our marketing and compliance functions by combining predictive technology with human oversight. We have laid the foundation for future-ready models with human oversight to increase speed and transparency.” 

PFL’s dual-track investment in front-end personalization and back-end governance reaffirms its commitment to becoming a future-ready lender that delivers both experience and integrity at scale. The company has already deployed AI-powered solutions across key functions including debt management, HR, underwriting, audit, and governance. 

Through its risk-first approach, PFL continues to focus on simplifying lending, creating customer delight, and enhancing experiences, which remain its top priorities.

Bengaluru, May 22nd, 2025 – Celonis, a global leader in Process Mining, who recently announced that they are expanding their operations in India, hosted the first Process Intelligence (PI) Day in Bengaluru. Alex Rinke, Celonis co-CEO and co-Founder, Carsten Thoma, President and Board Director at Celonis, and Malhar Kamdar, Chief Customer Officer and President, Celonis India, were in Bengaluru to mark this milestone event, demonstrating the company’s focus on India as a key hub for innovation, talent, and go-to-market (GTM) execution.

“India is the future for AI + PI,” said Kamdar during the PI Day keynote. “India is the epicenter of Process Excellence in the world and is becoming the epicenter of process-powered enterprise AI. Celonis Process Intelligence will be imperative to achieve this as it provides AI with the process knowledge and business context to make it effective in accomplishing business-critical tasks, like mitigating supply chain disruptions, optimizing inventory, and managing tariffs. That’s why we strongly believe that for enterprise scale deployment ‘there’s no AI without PI’.”

Kamdar cited India’s continued growth momentum and unique potential in his remarks:

• India is home to over 2,000 global capability centers (GCCs) – 60% of the world’s GCCs, driving innovation and value across the enterprise on a global scale.
• More than 1,000 global systems integrators (GSIs) and consulting firms have a growing footprint in India, helping global companies drive their most strategic transformation and AI initiatives.
• India has the world’s largest talent pool and future-ready workforce driving AI adoption at incredible speed.

“With its significant size, abundance of talent, and entrepreneurial culture, India has the potential to become a global leader in the development and use of AI,” said Vasant Rao, Managing Director, IDC India & South Asia at IDC.

Sandeep Ramakrishna,Vice President, Digital Foundations at Diageo, comments: “Celonis is a key partner for Diageo as we work to navigate the complexities of high-growth markets. Celonis provides the intelligence we need to optimize our processes and prepare for an AI-driven future. We are excited about their continued expansion in India and look forward to working with them to deliver value for Diageo.”

Process Intelligence Day in Bengaluru

On May 22, Celonis hosted its Process Intelligence Day in Bengaluru which was attended by over 500 domestic enterprises and GCCs. Taking place in more than 20 cities around the world, this event series offers insights into the latest developments around Process Intelligence, AI, and data-driven process optimization. In addition to keynotes and live demos, PI Day in Bengaluru gave attendees the opportunity to network with peers across several industries such as Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing, Automotive, Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Technology, as well as key players and power users from India’s GCCs. Visit the Celonis Event Hub to learn more about Process Intelligence Days and other upcoming company events.

22 May 2025, Bengaluru: The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore is pleased to announce the appointment of Pattabiraman A as the Director of Food & Beverage. With over two decades of experience in hotel administration and F&B operations, Pattabiraman brings exceptional expertise in driving revenue growth, enhancing customer satisfaction, and elevating employee engagement across leading hospitality properties in Middle Eastern countries and India.

 Pattabiraman A as Director of Food & Beverage

Pattabiraman has established himself as an innovative and creative leader through his career, holding key positions at prestigious hotels. Most recently, he served as the Director of Food and Beverage at Park Hyatt Chennai, India, where he demonstrated excellence in operational leadership and strategic management.

“Throughout my career, I have championed the philosophy that exceptional dining is an art form requiring both passion and precision,” says Pattabiraman A. “At The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore, I look forward to crafting immersive culinary journeys that honor local heritage while embracing global innovation. True luxury in F&B lies not just in what we serve, but in how we make guests feel with each interaction, creating moments they will treasure long after each course of meal.”

In his role at The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore, Pattabiraman will oversee all food and beverage operations, focusing on culinary innovation, service excellence, and strategic growth. He will collaborate closely with the hotel’s leadership team to ensure that dining experiences reflect the luxury standards and cultural richness for which The Ritz-Carlton is renowned globally.

Speaking on the appointment, Reuben Kataria, General Manager, said, “As we reimagine the food and beverage experience at The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore, Pattabiraman’s expertise arrives at a pivotal moment. His deep understanding of global trends and local flavours will help us craft elevated dining moments that are both innovative and rooted in tradition. We are delighted to welcome him as we continue to shape the city’s most refined culinary destination.”

As he takes the helm of the Food & Beverage division, Pattabiraman will bring his signature blend of creative vision and operational mastery to elevate the hotel’s diverse dining concepts. His strategic approach aims to showcase the finest global cuisines while celebrating Karnataka’s rich culinary heritage, positioning The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore as the city’s epicenter of gastronomic excellence and innovation.

The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore is delighted to welcome Pattabiraman A to its distinguished leadership team, confident that his wealth of international experience and passion for culinary artistry will inspire new heights of luxury dining that resonates with both international travelers and local connoisseurs alike.

New Delhi | May 22, 2025: OnGrid, a leading digital trust and background verification platform, has flagged one of the most extreme cases of moonlighting witnessed in India. Through its Employment History Check (EHC) solution, OnGrid identified a candidate with a staggering 141 overlapping employment records in just seven years, as captured in verified EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) data.

Between 2018 and 2021, the candidate was simultaneously employed by up to 10 organisations at once, without a single day’s gap between roles. In 2020, while the world grappled with layoffs and employment uncertainty, this individual clocked 50 new jobs, switching between startups, large enterprises, and MNCs.

“As remote work, freelancing, and hybrid models become the norm, employment risks are also evolving. Traditional background checks are simply not enough anymore,” said Piyush Peshwani, Co-founder & CEO, OnGrid. “This case is a wake-up call. It underscores why reliable employment history verification like our EHC is now indispensable for modern hiring.”

OnGrid’s Employment History Check (EHC) is built to close these verification gaps by leveraging direct integrations with government data sources. With EPFO as a backbone, EHC offers hiring teams a powerful lens into a candidate’s employment journey, highlighting overlaps, inconsistencies, and red flags, all in a compliant and scalable manner.

Mumbai / Ahmedabad, India, May 22, 2025: Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI), Honda’s motorcycle production and sales subsidiary in India will build a fourth production line at its fourth plant (Vithalapur, Ahmedabad district, Gujarat). Planned to begin operation in 2027, the new line will have an annual production capacity of 650,000 units, bringing the total capacity of the fourth plant to 2.61 million units, making it Honda’s largest assembly plant for Honda motorcycles in the world.

HMSI currently has four production plants in India with a total annual production capacity of 6.14 million units. In addition, the cumulative production volume reached 70 million units in April of this year, after 25 years since start of production in 2001.

The fourth plant started operation in February 2016 with an annual production capacity of 600,000 units, and in June of the same year, the company expanded its capacity to 1.2 million units with the start of its second line. Furthermore, the third line started operation in January 2024, taking annual production capacity to 1.96 million units.

Honda will be investing approximately 9.2 billion rupees (1 rupee = 1.75 yen, and approximately 16.1 billion Japanese yen) to construct a fourth line capable of producing 650,000 units of 125cc class motorcycles per year on the premises of the fourth plant.

This will bring 1800 new jobs and increase the total production capacity of the fourth plant to 2.61 million units, making it one of Honda’s largest assembly plants for motorcycles in the world. In addition to the fourth production line at the fourth plant, HMSI’s total annual production capacity is expected to increase from the current 6.14 million units to approximately 7 million units in 2027 through further expansion of production capacity planned for other plants in India.

■Tsutsumu Otani, President & CEO, HMSI

“Honda has long been investing and expanding its production capacity in India, the world’s largest motorcycle market, to bring joy to its customers. 25 years on, with much support, HMSI has reached the milestone of 70 million units of cumulative production. With the additional investment in our fourth plant, Honda will continue to deliver attractive products and services to its customers around the world who have higher expectations and trust in the company, and further solidify its Indian motorcycle business.”