Category business

LONDON – Feb 23:: Yellow Capital, a leading market-making firm with a venture arm focused on supporting Web3 projects, today announced the launch of TradePoint, a proprietary platform for token distribution, CEX visibility, and algorithmic liquidation.

The platform addresses persistent challenges faced by projects for token distribution through unlocks, airdrops, or treasury sales. Manual selling can trigger sharp price declines, while working with traditional market makers may require giving up custody and accepting opaque processes. These approaches frequently result in wider spreads and damaged market confidence.

TradePoint provides an alternative through programmatic distribution connected directly to trading algorithms. The platform monitors real-time market conditions and releases tokens only when sufficient buying activity is present. This non-custodial approach allows projects to maintain control of their assets while executing distributions that align with natural market demand. 

The TradePoint platform provides full execution visibility and automated settlement infrastructure, enabling projects to track every token movement in real time. It replaces manual selling with algorithmic liquidation that responds to live market conditions, distributing tokens efficiently to minimize price impact.

“We built TradePoint because the existing options for token distribution were fundamentally broken,” said Diego Martin, CEO of Yellow Capital. “Projects need no more choosing between crashing their own market or handing over custody to opaque intermediaries. TradePoint gives them a third option – an algorithmic distribution that works with market conditions. The vision is to empower projects with the infrastructure they need to manage token supply efficiently.”

This launch is part of Yellow Capital’s broader offering to support Web3 projects across their full lifecycle. The firm provides liquidity solutions across more than 140 centralized exchanges, combining market-making services with treasury management and strategic advisory. TradePoint completes this offering by addressing the final critical challenge, managing token supply during distribution events.

New Delhi, Feb 23: Anytime Fitness, India’s fastest-growing fitness franchise and part of the world’s largest gym chain, has further expanded its footprint in Delhi with the grand opening of its newest club in Mayur Vihar Phase 2. This milestone reinforces the brand’s commitment to making world-class fitness accessible across emerging cities and communities.

The newly launched club is owned and operated by Mr. Rishabh Sanehwal, Ms. Rosy Gaur and Ms. Sadhvi Gaur, marking their third Anytime Fitness franchise and reflecting their strong partnership and continued belief in the brand. It also highlights the growing demand for structured, premium fitness solutions, along with increasing awareness around preventive health and active lifestyles.

The Anytime Fitness Mayur Vihar Phase 2 club features state-of-the-art cardio and strength equipment, dedicated functional training zones, certified personal trainers, and Anytime Fitness’ signature 24/7 access, offering unmatched convenience and flexibility. Members will also benefit from access to the brand’s global network of clubs and its holistic approach to fitness, which combines personalized coaching, community engagement, and safe workout environments.

Speaking on the expansion, Mr. Vikas Jain, Managing Director, Anytime Fitness India, said: “The launch of our Mayur Vihar Phase 2 club marks another important step in Anytime Fitness India’s growth journey. This expansion reflects our continued commitment to making premium fitness more accessible across key urban communities. We are proud to partner with driven entrepreneurs like Mr. Rishabh Sanehwal, Ms. Rosy Gaur and Ms. Sadhvi Gaur, who share our vision of empowering communities through fitness.”

Anytime Fitness has built a strong presence across India through its rapidly expanding network, serving a growing community of fitness enthusiasts. Delhi remains a strategic focus market for the brand, driven by rising health awareness, rapid urbanisation, and increasing demand for premium fitness experiences. Since entering India in 2013, Anytime Fitness has grown to 180+ clubs nationwide, redefining fitness with its accessibility, inclusivity, and innovation. Beyond gyms, the brand has fostered community-driven initiatives like FitCraft and Be Fit Fest, bringing together members, trainers, and fitness enthusiasts to celebrate active living.

The new launch aligns with Anytime Fitness India’s vision to strengthen its presence in high-growth markets and contribute to building a healthier, fitter India.

From sunrise balloon ascents over ancient desert landscapes to moonlit cinema beneath some of the clearest skies in the region, the AlUla Skies Festival is set to transform the heavens into a stage from 17 April to 26 April 2026.

Recognised as Saudi Arabia’s—and the Gulf’s—first officially certified International Dark Sky Park, AlUla offers a rare celestial canvas protected from light pollution. For adventurers, culture seekers and stargazers alike, the 2026 edition promises perspective as grand as its landscapes.

SKYRISE: Mass Morning Hot Air Balloon Flights

One of the festival’s most anticipated highlights, SKYRISE, will see 30 hot air balloons ascend together in a breathtaking coordinated display. Ten balloons will accommodate paying guests, who will be collected from 4- and 5-star hotels in AlUla and transported to the launch site before dawn.

The flight path offers panoramic views over the UNESCO-listed Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first World Heritage Site. From intricate Nabataean tombs carved into sandstone cliffs to sweeping desert valleys, the experience delivers unmatched photographic opportunities before guests are returned to their hotels.

Hot Air Balloon Glow Show

17 & 18 April | 24 & 25 April 2026

As daylight fades, the sky transforms into a luminous theatre. The Glow Shows combine music, acrobatics, projection mapping and choreographed light displays with up to 12 illuminated hot air balloons firing their burners in synchronised rhythm. The result is a dramatic spectacle of light, sound and fire set against AlUla’s iconic desert backdrops.

VOX Moonlight at Maraya

Cinema meets desert magic at VOX Moonlight Cinema, hosted at the world’s largest mirrored building, Maraya. Guests can enjoy the latest film releases under open skies, surrounded by panoramic desert views.

Classic VOX favourites—popcorn, sliders, soft drinks and slushes—are available, while those seeking an elevated culinary experience can dine at Maraya Social by Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton.

Tethered Hot Air Balloon Experience

17–26 April 2026

For visitors seeking a shorter yet equally thrilling experience, tethered balloon rides at Al Manshiyah Plaza will lift guests up to 50 metres into the air, offering panoramic views of AlUla’s dramatic sandstone formations and oasis landscapes.

House of Constellations

17 April – 02 May 2026

Returning to AlUla Old Town, the House of Constellations blends astronomy with storytelling heritage. This immersive activation features:

• Interactive installations
• A 360° planetarium with specially narrated content
• Telescope observations from Old Town Fort
• Guided celestial storytelling sessions led by Rawis

Anchored in AlUla’s historic amphitheatre, the experience bridges science and culture under pristine night skies.

Festival Concert: Nancy Ajram Live at Thanaya

23 April 2026

Arabic pop icon Nancy Ajram will headline a major festival concert at Thanaya. With 11 studio albums, multiple chart-topping hits and over 4 billion YouTube views, Ajram is widely recognised as one of the most influential female artists in the Arab world. A three-time World Music Award winner, she has helped elevate Arabic pop to global audiences and continues to shape the region’s contemporary music landscape.

About AlUla

Located approximately 1,100 km from Riyadh in north-west Saudi Arabia, AlUla spans 22,561 km² of extraordinary natural and cultural heritage.

Its highlights include:

• Hegra – Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Dadan – Capital of the Dadan and Lihyan kingdoms
• Jabal Ikmah – Home to thousands of inscriptions and rock art carvings
• AlUla Old Town – A labyrinth of over 900 mudbrick homes dating back to the 12th century
• Hijaz Railway – A key chapter in regional history

With towering sandstone mountains, lush oasis valleys and archaeological treasures spanning millennia—including Nabataean and Roman eras—AlUla is fast becoming one of the Middle East’s most compelling cultural destinations.

Ras Al Khaimah, 23 February 2026: Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Environment Protection and Development Authority (EPDA) to establish a structured and efficient approval framework for new industrial activities across priority sectors in the emirate.



The MoU was signed by Ramy Jallad, Group CEO of RAKEZ, and H.E. Dr. Abdulrahman Al Shayeb Al Naqbi, Acting Director General of EPDA. The agreement introduces a streamlined verification and environmental approval process covering the cement, chemical, and general industrial sectors. The framework has been developed in close alignment with RAKEZ’s HSE Department to ensure seamless coordination between regulatory and operational functions. The collaboration aims to enhance regulatory clarity, accelerate licensing procedures, and ensure full compliance with environmental standards while supporting sustainable industrial growth in Ras Al Khaimah.

Under the new framework, industrial companies will benefit from a faster and more streamlined environmental approval process, making it easier to move projects forward with greater clarity and efficiency. The MoU also ensures coordinated handling of expansion and modification requests, with clear guidance on environmental requirements from the outset. This structured approach enhances transparency for investors, and strengthens collaboration between EPDA and RAKEZ HSE to support sustainable industrial growth.

Beyond approvals, the partnership enables enhanced knowledge sharing, technical alignment, and joint training initiatives between EPDA and RAKEZ’s HSE teams to further strengthen environmental governance and promote best practices across the industrial ecosystem.

Commenting on the partnership, Ramy Jallad, Group CEO of RAKEZ, said, “This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to balancing industrial growth with environmental responsibility. By aligning processes and enhancing coordination with EPDA, we are creating a more predictable and efficient framework that benefits investors while upholding the highest environmental standards.”

H.E. Dr. Abdulrahman Al Shayeb Al Naqbi, Acting Director General of EPDA, added: “This Memorandum of Understanding with RAKEZ represents a significant step forward in our shared vision of integrating world-class environmental stewardship with streamlined industrial development. By establishing clear, time-bound approval frameworks, we are not only enhancing regulatory clarity for investors in the cement, chemical, and industrial sectors but also reinforcing our commitment to protecting Ras Al Khaimah’s environment. This collaboration ensures that as we facilitate faster business setup and expansion, we do so with the highest standards of compliance and technical oversight, ultimately fostering a sustainable and competitive industrial ecosystem for the emirate.”

RAKEZ is home to nearly 40,000 companies across diverse sectors and continues to strengthen its ecosystem through strategic partnerships that enhance operational efficiency, regulatory clarity, and long-term sustainability.

Every house party follows a familiar pattern: it starts with polite smiles, small talk, and awkward silences before warmth and laughter truly set in. Connections don’t happen instantly, and these intimate gatherings need that perfect ice-breaker to lift the mood and spark real warmth.

McCain Foods India has unveiled its #PartyShuruWithMcCain campaign, addressing this common challenge at house parties: breaking the ice. Created and conceptualised by Schbang, the campaign positions McCain as the perfect ice-breaker through their golden, crispy snacks working in tandem with a catchy jingle that serves as the party anthem to ease awkward tensions and get celebrations started.

With this campaign, McCain strengthens its leadership in the growing in-home celebration and sharing occasions category, reinforcing its role beyond everyday snacking. #PartyShuruWithMcCain is as much a strategic brand move as it is a creative one, expanding the at-home snacking occasion and cementing McCain’s place at the centre of how India actually celebrates at home.

McCain acts as the magnet that brings everyone together. Just like good music transforms the energy of a room, McCain’s restaurant-style snacks, universally loved and instantly shareable, get the conversation flowing, turning hesitation into ease and silence into genuine connection. The McCain jingle becomes the party anthem that, paired with crispy, golden snacks, sparks real warmth and transforms gatherings into lively McCain-wali parties.

At the heart of the campaign is a film that captures this transformation perfectly. It opens on a house party filled with polite small talk and stiff silences. The host, with her sixth sense for bringing ‘maza’ to any gathering, reads the room. Instead of simply asking if everyone’s bored, she breaks into a song sequence with the McCain jingle, a familiar device the audience instantly recognises. The moment McCain snacks are served and the jingle plays, the atmosphere shifts entirely, turning the slow-starting get-together into a lively, warm celebration. It’s a narrative choice that shows the host intuitively understanding what the party needs. This core narrative was amplified through a strategic social media execution across Instagram and Facebook, with content designed to reinforce McCain’s role as the ultimate party catalyst and encourage audiences to make the jingle their own celebration anthem.

Behind the creative execution lies a deep-rooted insight about party dynamics: the #PartyShuruWithMcCain initiative recognises that parties inevitably have that initial lull when people just arrive, combining an infectious musical hook with smart positioning that makes McCain the signal that celebration has officially started. The campaign’s warm, playful approach resonated strongly with young adults and families in top metros who value hosting comfortable yet fun celebrations at home.

Across Instagram and Facebook, the #PartyShuruWithMcCain campaign generated over 12.1 million views and reached 7.9+ million people. The content sparked significant engagement with 4M+ engagements across formats, demonstrating that the campaign’s culturally relevant approach to party ice-breakers genuinely connected with audiences.

Shreyashi Kesari, Head of Marketing at McCain Foods India, says, “#PartyShuruWithMcCain celebrates how Indian families actually celebrate: at home, with people they love, over food that brings everyone together. Our jingle became the party anthem because it captures that crucial moment when a gathering transitions from polite to genuinely fun. Paired with our golden, crispy snacks that deliver restaurant-style taste, we’ve made breaking the ice effortless and turned initial awkwardness into memorable warmth.”

Jitto George, President of Solutions at Schbang, says, “At Schbang, we wanted to tap into a universal truth about house parties. They all have that slow start, that initial lull when people just arrive. We decided to own that moment through McCain’s incredibly catchy jingle, making it the anthem that signals the party has officially begun, paired with their crowd-favourite snacks. Because while every party needs that ice-breaker, only McCain combines the perfect snack with the perfect soundtrack to get celebrations truly started.”

The #PartyShuruWithMcCain campaign establishes McCain Foods India as a snack brand that thinks differently about celebration. One that understands the at-home gathering occasion deeply, and has the creative ambition and strategic clarity to own it.

Hyderabad, Feb 23: A roundtable was organised by Telangana Tourism, bringing together senior representatives from government and industry. The discussion focused on deliberating the institutional role, governance structure, and long-term direction of the proposed Telangana State Medical Tourism Society (TGMTS), while also examining a framework for establishing an integrated Medical Value Tourism (MVT) hub in Hyderabad. The initiative aims to position Telangana as a leading destination for structured and coordinated medical tourism. 

The first session focused on industry expectations from the Telangana State Medical Tourism Society (TGMTS) as the proposed central coordinating body for Medical Value Tourism in Telangana. The discussion examined the envisioned role of TGMTS in stakeholder alignment, facilitation, governance, and long-term sectoral coordination. Participants underscored Hyderabad’s competitive strengths, including strong clinical outcomes, advanced healthcare infrastructure, cost advantages, and a seamless healthcare-hospitality-aviation ecosystem. These assets position the city to capture a larger share of the global medical tourism market. Key deliberations focused on establishing a Telangana Medical Tourism Society to effectively drive policy, global branding, international outreach, ethical self-regulation, and unified industry representation. They emphasised a comprehensive framework featuring transparent grievance redressal, targeted familiarisation programs for global delegates, and a formal licensing system for facilitators to uphold ethical practices, credibility, and consistent patient experiences. 

The second session involved a detailed deliberation on a recommended framework for establishing an integrated MVT Hub in Hyderabad, proposed as one of the five national MVT hubs outlined in the Union Budget. The group deliberated on a green field medical city hub to be created that in a PPP model with hospitals, wellness providers, ayurveda institutes, medical college, research centers, tourism faciliation among others. A detailed recommednation paper would be created for the same. 

India’s medical value travel sector continues to expand under the national Heal in India initiative, with industry estimates placing the market at USD 20.4 billion by 2026 and USD 25–28 billion by 2030, driven by rising global demand, improved visa facilitation, and integrated care delivery.

While Delhi and Chennai have traditionally led the sector, Hyderabad has consistently ranked among India’s top three medical value travel destinations and now seeks to move into a leadership position through the proposed TGMTS. International patient inflows to the city have more than doubled over the past decade, supported by 50+ NABH- and JCI-accredited hospitals, approximately 12,000 hospital beds, strong tertiary-care capabilities, competitive accommodation options, a well-developed tourism ecosystem, and global connectivity through Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, which handles over 31 million passengers annually.

Chairperson of the round table discussion, Ms V. Kranthi, Managing Director, Telangana Tourism Development Corporation, said, “Hyderabad stands institutionally and operationally ready to scale as a globally trusted medical value tourism destination. With our integrated healthcare-hospitality-aviation ecosystem and clinical excellence, we are poised to lead as one of India’s five Regional Medical Value Tourism Hubs under the Union Budget 2026 vision.”

Moderator of the round table discussion, Mr Shaaz Mehmood, industry expert and founder, Medijourn, added, “Hyderabad’s advanced infrastructure, cost competitiveness, and integrated ecosystem make it ideally positioned as one of India’s five Regional Medical Value Tourism Hubs. The proposed Telangana Medical Tourism Society will be at the forefront for policy advocacy, and enable joint international outreach.”