Greaves Cotton, a leading diversified engineering company, has announced the appointment of Ramachandra Puttanna as the new Business Head for EV Solutions & New Businesses within Greaves Retail.

In his new role, Puttanna will be responsible for driving the strategic growth plan for Greaves Retail’s electric vehicle (EV) components and new verticals. He will report to Narasimha Jayakumar, CEO, Greaves Retail, as Greaves continues to advance its strategy in sustainable mobility solutions across India.  

Greaves Retail is focussing on being a fuel-agnostic provider, delivering comprehensive sales, service, and spare parts solutions across three-wheelers (3W), two-wheelers (2W), small commercial vehicles (SCVs), electric vehicles (EVs), and construction equipment.

The company specialises in ensuring high vehicle uptime and maximised asset productivity, positioning it among the top three in the aftermarket segment. 

Puttanna come with over 35 years of extensive experience and has worked with companies such as Fenner India, Bosch India, Oman Trading, Magneti Marelli, and ZF Group.

Most recently, he served as Vice-President of the Aftermarket business at ZF Group, where he managed operations across India and the SAARC regions.

He is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from Mysore University, Puttanna has furthered his education with a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (Marketing) from Bangalore University and an Advanced Program in Business Management from IIM Bangalore.  

“I am honoured to join Greaves Cotton at this pivotal stage in the company’s journey towards sustainable mobility. I look forward to leveraging my experience to drive the growth of Greaves Retail’s new businesses and enhance our offerings for a broader range of customers,” said Puttanna.

Narasimha Jayakumar, CEO, Greaves Retail, said, “We are thrilled to have Ramachandra join us. His proven track record aligns well with our commitment to customer-centric, innovative solutions. Ramachandra’s leadership will be instrumental in advancing Greaves Retail’s new businesses.”

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Bengaluru-based electric mobility startup E3 Electric.Ai has raised INR 1 billion in a Series A funding round led by BluVenture Holdings. The company intends to use the capital to support product development and expand its presence across India ahead of the launch of its E3 TRION scooter.

The start-up focuses on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into electric scooters to manage safety, reliability and charging. Its platform utilises modular architecture to produce variants from a single chassis and incorporates AI for maintenance and routing.

E3 Electric.Ai maintains an R&D team and holds a portfolio of over 18 patents in modular architecture, battery systems and safety. The company positions its scooters as an alternative to the 110cc internal combustion engine segment.

P Sanjeev, Founder & CEO, E3 Electric.Ai, said, "At E3, we believe electric vehicles should predict, learn and continuously improve, making mobility safer, more reliable and affordable over time. E3’s DNA is defined by 3 words, Modular + AI + Human. Our Modular platform enables us to build multiple scooter variants from the same chassis. E3’s patented AI stack enables preventive maintenance check and smart routing to address range anxiety. E3 TRION is crafted with care and introduces best in class anthropometry-based ergonomics for a very comfortable ride. This investment enables us to accelerate our vision of making intelligent mobility accessible to millions of Indian families."

Shaun Dawson, LP with BluVenture Holdings, said, "As the world’s largest two-wheeler market, India is at an inflection point in its EV transition journey. E3 has built an impressive technology platform combining modular engineering with software-led intelligence that is tailor-made for electric scooters. Sanjeev’s deep expertise enabled E3 to build a profitable, sustainably scalable operating model instead of the industry's typical heavy-burn approach. E3 is smartly leveraging AI to track performance and health parameters, delivering predictive maintenance & value. We see the opportunity to build a category-defining company."

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Bengaluru-based electric vehicle maker Ather Energy has announced that the fourth edition of its community event, Ather Community Day, will take place on 29 August 2026 in Bengaluru.

On 29^th August, Ather Energy will unveil its first e-scooter built on its EL platform, marking its entry into the mass-market scooter segment.

The EL platform is a vehicle architecture designed for versatility, scalability and manufacturing efficiency. The upcoming scooter is intended to address the price segment of INR 100,000 to INR 125,000. In addition to the vehicle, Ather will showcase innovations in technology, charging and ownership systems.

In what can be seen as a further interesting development, Hero MotoCorp, which was amongst the earliest backers in the EV maker, has approved an investment of INR 10 billion in Ather Energy.

At present, Hero MotoCorp holds 29.48 percent stake in the company. The new investment will further see subscription to equity shares or other eligible securities, including compulsorily convertible preference shares and warrants to be issued by Ather Energy on a preferential basis.

Ather Community Day serves as an event for owners, enthusiasts and partners to view product developments and company strategy. The 2025 event, held on 30 August, hosted over 4,000 attendees and featured the unveiling of the EL platform, the Redux concept vehicle, fast-charging technology and AtherStack 7.0.

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Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), one of the leading Oil Manufacturing Companies (OMCs), has conducted a series of inspections to monitor ethanol-blended petrol across its retail network.

Between 3 July and 13 July 2026, the company performed 1,385 regular field inspections, alongside 2,173 surprise inspections between 7 July and 13 July.

Additionally, HPCL’s Quality Assurance Cell completed 93 surprise inspections and 49 fuel samples were tested in mobile laboratories. According to HPCL, no irregularities, contamination, or issues regarding quality compliance were detected during these checks.

HPCL maintains a quality assurance system that includes field inspections, surprise checks and laboratory testing to ensure fuels meet specified standards.

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Kazam has introduced a seven-day programme to assist Charge Point Operators (CPOs) in connecting their existing networks to the Unified Bharat e-Charge (UBC) platform at no initial cost.

The initiative utilises Kazam’s Beckn Provider Platform to facilitate the onboarding of CPOs to the interoperability layer developed by the Ministry of Heavy Industries, BHEL and NPCI.

Unified Bharat e-Charge is designed to provide an open network that allows users to find charging stations, check availability, compare prices and manage payments through compatible applications. CPOs with OCPI-compatible systems can integrate their current management systems, applications, and pricing models into the network.

Akshay Shekhar, Co-Founder and CEO, Kazam, said, “India does not need every charging operator to build another consumer application. It needs every reliable charger to become accessible through an open and trusted network. Through this programme, we want to ensure that the cost of integration does not prevent capable CPOs from participating in Unified Bharat e-Charge. Kazam will provide the provider-side infrastructure so operators can connect their existing ecosystems without rebuilding them from the ground up.”.

Participating CPOs will receive support for network assessment, OCPI integration, protocol enablement, sandbox testing and transaction validation. By joining the network, operators can improve the discoverability of their charging stations while retaining control over their assets, pricing and customer relationships. Kazam is already live on the network, supporting transactions through BHIM and other participants.

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