Siddharth Junjurde to play regional HR head for Zomato. Junjurde was earlier with Delhivery as senior HR manager By HRK News Bureau October 14, 2026 2 Mins Read 171 Views Zomato, the online food ordering, delivery and restaurant-discovery platform, has picked Siddharth Junjurde for the role of regional head-human resources. This engineering graduate began his tryst with HR as an HR partner with Amazon in 2017. Over five and a half years into this role, he moved to JLL as administrative business partner. Curefit appointed him human resources business partner in February of 2024. Soon, he was roped in by Zocdoc in a similar capacity. His association with Delhivery, the logistics services provider, began in July of 2025. With a background in Mechanical Engineering, Siddharth Junjurde sure has managed to make a mark in the HR space, and that too, in a short while. Those who have worked with him are impressed by his knowledge of HR and labour laws. He has made the most of the opportunities that have come his way to hone his expertise in talent development and foster an inclusive workplace culture. Siddharth Junjurde journey from engineering into HR, across logistics, healthcare and tech platforms, shows adaptability and depth. For Zomato, this appointment signals a focus on talent optimisation and inclusive culture - critical levers for sustaining growth in a competitive, fast changing food tech environment. He himself is looking forward to drawing from his experience to "optimise talent, drive positive change, and enhance organisational growth". Here's hoping that he gets ample opportunity to do that at Zomato!

Zomato and Blinkit host third EV Bazaar to boost electric mobility. By TheCSRUniverse Team · 09 Oct 2026, 05:36 PM New Delhi | October 9, 2026: Eternal's Zomato and Blinkit hosted the third edition of EV Bazaar at KD Jadhav Stadium in New Delhi, bringing together 2,500 delivery partners, more than 20 electric vehicle original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other ecosystem partners to encourage the adoption of electric two-wheelers among delivery workers. The annual event provided delivery partners with opportunities to explore, compare and test-ride electric two-wheelers, while learning about vehicle rental, financing, charging and battery-swapping options. More than 30 electric two-wheeler models were showcased at the event. Shri Mahmood Ahmed, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Roads and Transport, Government of India, attended as the Chief Guest. Shri Jitender Patil, Head - EV Cell, Transport Department, Government of Maharashtra, was the distinguished guest, while former Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan attended as the celebrity guest. Speaking at the event, Shri Mahmood Ahmed, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Roads and Transport, said: "The electrification of the transportation section is a critical contributor to India's energy security and air pollution control. The adoption of EVs by delivery partners is important to accelerating the transition since charging, swapping and servicing networks will expand for the industry and benefit other users as well. I appreciate this proactive initiative by Zomato and Blinkit to further the gig ecosystem's shift to electric mobility and enabling a better future for India." According to Eternal, more than 200,000 delivery partners across Zomato and Blinkit were using electric two-wheelers as of September 30, 2026. During FY26, electric vehicles powered 228 million deliveries across the two platforms, avoiding approximately 9,926 tonnes of CO[2] emissions. Anjalli Ravi Kumar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Eternal, said: "For our delivery partners, the performance of their bike is critical to their ability to earn efficiently. Delivery may only be one of their many responsibilities on the same day. That makes the move to electric a practical and financial question as much as an environmental one. EV Bazaar gives delivery partners a place to evaluate their EV bike purchase options by directly interacting with companies who build, rent, finance and charge EV bikes. We thank each of them for being part of the third edition." The companies have also introduced options to help delivery partners try electric vehicles without the upfront cost of ownership. The "Rent a vehicle" feature on the Zomato and Blinkit delivery partner apps allows users to rent electric two-wheelers and locate nearby charging and battery-swapping stations within their delivery zones. More than 23,000 delivery partners used this feature to rent EVs for deliveries in FY26. In June 2025, Zomato Local Services Private Limited launched its own electric vehicle rental fleet. More than 1,500 electric two-wheelers had been deployed across Delhi and Chennai as of March 2026. Sheetanshu Tyagi, co-founder and CEO, EMO Energy, EV Bazaar's powered-by partner, said: "EMO Energy brings advanced batteries and 20-minute charging together to keep last-mile vehicles moving. With Zomato and Blinkit, we are enabling riders to charge faster, operate with zero downtime, and have greater vehicle availability." The third edition also recognised delivery partners contributing to electric mobility adoption. Three partners received new electric two-wheelers, another received a one-year free rental plan from the EV partner network, and selected delivery partners were presented with mementos for their performance. Top stories. Featured. Latest Coverage

AI is shopping for you now. What does that mean for ecommerce in India? AI agents could soon handle shopping decisions and transactions for consumers, forcing ecommerce, travel, and insurance platforms to rethink pricing, customer engagement, and security. Representative Image India's digital commerce companies are preparing for a future in which personal artificial intelligence (AI) assistants could increasingly make online shopping decisions and carry out transactions on behalf of consumers. Ecommerce platforms, online travel agencies and insurance marketplaces have begun reassessing product pricing, customer acquisition costs and bot-verification systems as AI agents capable of operating with a degree of autonomy gain ground, The Economic Times reported on Saturday. These personal assistants can book restaurant tables, schedule product returns, find savings on car insurance and negotiate for services. This could increase transaction volumes for online businesses, but also reduce opportunities for platforms to interact directly with consumers. With less human interaction, real-time offers, personalised discounts, cross-selling and up-selling opportunities could take a hit. AI agents could also misinterpret a user's instructions and make an unintended or potentially costly decision. Companies are working on technical and legal safeguards to address these risks, industry experts cited by The Economic Times said. Some have also approached lawyers to assess changes required to their privacy policies to comply with India's data protection law and obtain consent for transactions carried out by AI agents. Personal AI assistants have not yet become widely popular in India. However, preparations among Indian companies have accelerated following the launch of Meta's Muse in the US. Muse can autonomously handle tasks ranging from scheduling meetings to cancelling forgotten subscriptions. It was downloaded 902,000 times in the six days following its September 8 launch, according to Sensor Tower data cited by The Economic Times. The app reportedly surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT, xAI's Grok and Anthropic's Claude in downloads during that period. Muse is not available in India yet. But its potential to scale rapidly through Meta's distribution network in a country with 958 million internet users has put technology companies on alert. AI already entering the shopping cart. Some Indian companies have already started enabling agentic shopping on their platforms. Zomato, the Eternal-owned food delivery platform, has released a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants to discover restaurants, browse menus, build carts and place orders. Online travel agency MakeMyTrip has announced a collaboration with OpenAI that allows travellers to make bookings through its Myra interface. Financial services platform Groww also offers an MCP connection that allows users to track and query their portfolios through AI tools. Industry experts said AI agents could help increase transactions, but could also disrupt the direct relationship between platforms and consumers. Companies may therefore have to rethink how they market products and retain users. "Agentic transactions can be both disruptive and opportunistic for consumer tech companies," Ritika Rathi, executive director leading the retail and consumer practice at PwC India, told The Economic Times. Marketplaces may need to reconsider commission-sharing arrangements with sellers and retrain recommendation engines, Rathi said. Advertising spending and services such as push notifications, email, loyalty programmes and app engagement could also change as companies seek to bring consumers back to their platforms. Meesho sees agentic shopping as an opportunity, but has also introduced safeguards to manage potential abuse, according to Kiran Kumar, head of platform engineering and AI at the ecommerce platform. Security concerns, high costs. AI assistants are emerging as a new area of competition among leading technology companies. Gartner expects global spending on AI assistants to rise from $16.5 billion in 2025 to $29.2 billion in 2026. JPMorgan has forecast that Meta's Muse could become the most-used AI application since ChatGPT. Security concerns have also grown as AI agents such as Muse, Instinct, Grokbot, OpenClaw and Hermes gain traction in the US. Their emergence is prompting technology companies to reassess existing policies and business strategies around autonomous AI systems.