Hush Puppies, the global footwear brand exclusively retailed in India by Bata. A brand long synonymous with premium comfort and everyday wearability, reimagines bounce technology to it’s the Office Sneaker Collection. Designed for professionals navigating fast paced, hybrid workdays, the collection brings together refined office-ready aesthetics with enhanced cushioning that keeps pace with modern work lives.

Hush Puppies Brings Bounce Technology to Its Office Sneaker Collection

Film Reel Link: youtu.be/oScsNwC5qec

As workplaces evolve and workdays grow increasingly dynamic, comfort is no longer a luxury; it’s essential. The Office Sneaker Collection addresses this shift by seamlessly blending professional styling with advanced comfort technology, enabling effortless movement across meetings, commutes, and long hours on the go.    

Hush Puppies Brings Bounce Technology to Its Office Sneaker Collection

At the sole of the collection is reinvented Bounce Technology, an enhanced two layer cushioning system that delivers superior responsiveness, shock absorption, and all-day comfort. Built to support continuous movement without compromising on structure or style, the technology elevates the everyday office shoe into a performance-driven essential.
 

“With the Re-introduction of Bounce technology in our Office Sneaker Collection, we are responding to the growing sneakersation of workwear. We are evolving the legacy for today’s workplace where movement, versatility, and comfort are essential to how professionals work and live,” said Badri Beriwal, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, Bata India.
 

The collection reflects Hush Puppies’ deep understanding of modern professional needs, a footwear that transitions effortlessly from desk to dinner, meetings to movement, without losing its polished appeal. Clean silhouettes, versatile colourways, and refined detailing ensure the sneakers pair as seamlessly with tailored workwear as they do with relaxed, after-hours looks.
 

The collection features refined uppers, versatile neutral tones, and streamlined profiles that transition effortlessly from meetings to after-hours engagements. Available in lace-up and slip-on styles for men and women, the range delivers comfort that works as hard as you do.
 

The Hush Puppies Office Sneaker Collection with Bounce technology is available across select Bata stores, Hush Puppies exclusive outlets, and bata.com/in.

Jaipur-based edtech venture CODE – Centre for Originality, Design & Expression (CODE Edu) launched its AI-powered creative learning platform EnCODE at the AI Impact Summit 2026 held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, positioning the platform as a multidisciplinary education ecosystem designed to integrate creativity and cognitive learning into mainstream higher education.

Government, academia and tech leaders call for creativity-driven education as CODE Edu unveils AI-enabled EnCODE platform

The launch formed part of a broader conversation at the summit on the future of education and the skills required for India’s emerging Orange Economy, where creativity, design, culture, and technology increasingly intersect.

As part of the launch event, CODE Edu hosted a panel discussion titled “Educating for Viksit Bharat: Why Creativity, Cognition & Culture Matter,” bringing together leaders from government, academia and the technology ecosystem to discuss how India’s education system must evolve to prepare the workforce for a rapidly changing global economy.

The panel featured Piyush Nangru, Co-founder of Vedam School of Technology at Sunstone; Satya Narayan Meena, Additional CEO of the Government e-Marketplace (GeM); Gyan Prakash Upadhyay, Director General associated with the Ministry of Power; and Dr. Ashish Gupta, Senior Associate Professor at South Asian University. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Shweta Choudhary, Founder and Director of CODE Edu.

During the discussion, panelists emphasized that while artificial intelligence will transform industries and workflows, the next generation of talent will require strong creative, cognitive, and interdisciplinary capabilities to remain competitive in the global knowledge economy.

The newly launched EnCODE platform aims to address this shift by embedding creative learning pathways within traditional academic education. Through an AI-enabled learning ecosystem, the platform offers enrichment courses, minor programs and specialization tracks across creative domains including fashion design, textile design, interior design, product design, architecture, graphics, communication design, AVGC-XR, VFX, animation, and design thinking.

Unlike conventional edtech platforms that typically focus on individual disciplines, EnCODE is designed to bridge academic silos, enabling students from engineering, business, humanities and science backgrounds to integrate creative and design-driven thinking alongside their primary degrees.

Speaking at the launch, Dr. Shweta Choudhary, Founder of CODE Edu, said the platform aims to make creative education more accessible across institutions.

“Artificial intelligence will transform how we work, but human intelligence will define how we innovate. Creativity, cognition, culture and collaboration are the capabilities that will shape the workforce of the future. Through EnCODE, we aim to democratize creative education and make design thinking accessible across disciplines and institutions,” she said.

At the summit, CODE Edu also announced partnerships with Knimbus, Sunstone, New Age Academy by CTPL.io, and MEC Connect by Singularis Oman to expand interdisciplinary learning opportunities and strengthen institutional collaborations.

The platform is additionally supported by Adobe and the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF), enabling learners to access industry-standard creative tools and global design communities.

With its AI-enabled creative pedagogy and multidisciplinary approach, EnCODE aims to contribute to developing a future-ready creative workforce aligned with India’s long-term vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, where innovation, creativity, and technology play a central role in economic growth.

Multimodal logistics the coordinated use of multiple transport modes under a single logistics plan is increasingly becoming a cornerstone of India’s strategy to enhance supply chain efficiency and strengthen economic competitiveness. As the country continues to expand its manufacturing capacity and trade networks, the ability to seamlessly integrate road, rail, ports, and inland waterways is gaining importance.

In a geographically vast and diverse market like India, manufacturing hubs are often located far from major export gateways and consumer markets. This physical distance creates logistical challenges that can increase transportation costs and extend delivery timelines. Experts note that improving coordination between different transport modes is critical to overcoming these challenges and ensuring smoother movement of goods across the country.

Industry analysts say that multimodal logistics systems can significantly reduce transit times, optimize freight movement, and lower overall logistics costs. By allowing goods to move efficiently through interconnected transport networks, such systems also help businesses improve supply chain reliability and operational efficiency.

As India seeks to strengthen its position in global manufacturing and trade, the development of integrated logistics infrastructure is expected to play a crucial role in supporting domestic producers as well as exporters. Better connectivity between industrial clusters, logistics hubs, and ports can help unlock growth opportunities and enhance the competitiveness of Indian goods in international markets.

Arvind Devaraj, COO, NICDC Logistics Data Services Limited (NLDSL)

Why Multimodal Matters for India

India’s logistics costs have historically been higher than global averages due to fragmented transport modes and an overreliance on road freight. Integrating multiple modes such as rail and waterways with trucking helps utilise the cost and fuel efficiency of rail for long distances while retaining the flexibility of roads for first/last-mile delivery. This balance is vital for connecting hinterland production centres with ports and urban markets.

Digital Enablement Strengthening Multimodal Efficiency

Alongside physical infrastructure, digital integration is becoming a critical enabler of multimodal efficiency. The Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) facilitates secure, API-based data exchange across government systems and logistics stakeholders, enabling real-time visibility and interoperable coordination across transport modes.

The Logistics Data Bank (LDB) enhances container-level tracking across ports, ICDs, and rail networks, improving transparency in EXIM cargo movement and reducing uncertainty in intermodal transfers. Complementing this, the Track Your Transport (TYT) application supports vehicle and cargo visibility, compliance verification, and trip-level monitoring, strengthening first- and last-mile connectivity within multimodal chains.

Together, these digital interventions help reduce information asymmetry, improve planning accuracy, and support intelligence-led logistics management across interconnected transport networks.

Connecting Growth Markets with Export Gateways

For India’s growth markets including electronics, automotive, textiles, and perishables multimodal logistics bridges the gap between producers and global supply chains. By linking manufacturing clusters in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities with major ports and inland logistics hubs, multimodal systems help reduce both transit time and inventory costs for exporters, making Indian products more competitive internationally.

Government Initiatives Supporting Integration

Policy measures have played an important role in scaling multimodal logistics in India. The National Logistics Policy (NLP) and PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan aim to unify planning across ministries and projects, creating digital infrastructure and physical connectivity to support multimodal operations. The development of Multimodal Logistics Parks (MMLPs) is central to this vision, bringing rail, road, and ports into shared hubs with tracking and handling facilities designed to streamline freight movement.

Benefits for Regional and Small-Scale Markets

Efficient multimodal logistics can significantly benefit regional and smaller markets that are otherwise cost-constrained. By reducing reliance on costly long-haul trucking and encouraging rail and waterways usage, producers in interior regions gain better access to national and international markets at competitive freight rates, improving profitability and spurring local economic growth.

Challenges on the Path to Seamless Integration

Despite progress, multimodal logistics in India faces persistent challenges. Infrastructure bottlenecks such as port congestion, limited inland waterway capacity, and uneven intermodal terminals constrain seamless transfers. Regulatory complexity across agencies and states also adds to delays and costs, and uneven technology adoption among smaller operators hinders real-time visibility and coordination. Addressing these hurdles is essential to fully realise the potential of multimodal networks.

A Strategic Lever for Sustainability and Growth

Beyond economic efficiency, multimodal logistics supports sustainability goals by enabling a shift away from carbon-intensive road freight towards greener alternatives like rail and waterways. This transition is critical for India’s commitments to reduce emissions and build resilient supply chains. Furthermore, smarter modal integration can help reduce urban congestion and create more predictable transit times, benefiting industries and consumers alike.

Conclusion
Multimodal logistics holds the promise of transforming India’s logistics landscape by bridging the efficiency gap between its growth markets and the broader economy. Through strategic infrastructure development, policy harmonisation, and technology adoption, India can reduce logistics costs, enhance connectivity, and strengthen its role in global supply chains. However, sustained focus on addressing structural bottlenecks from regulatory simplification to last-mile connectivity will be crucial to ensure that multimodal logistics not only bridges gaps on paper but delivers measurable gains on the ground.

Rodic Consultants, a leading engineering and digital infrastructure consulting company, has received the prestigious Great Place to Work® Certification 2026 by the Great Place to Work® Institute. The certification, based entirely on employee sentiment, experience, and feedback, reflects that 87% of Rodic employees confirmed it is a great place to work, significantly above the average for Indian workplaces.
 

Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and the leadership behaviours proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation. The certification is awarded to organizations that meet rigorous standards in trust, respect, credibility, fairness, and pride as reported by employees.
 

“Earning the Great Place To Work Certification™ is a milestone that reflects our unwavering dedication to establishing a gold standard in employee practices,” said the Aayush Raj, Chief of Staff at Rodic Consultants.
 

“We have always believed that exceptional work emerges from environments where people feel valued, heard, and supported. This recognition validates our commitment to best employee practices not as policies on paper, but as lived experiences. When employees tell us they feel respected, when they say leadership is accessible, when they confirm that fairness is not just promised but practiced, that’s when we know we are building something meaningful. For Rodic, this certification is a commitment to continue evolving a workplace where every individual is empowered to realize their full potential,” added Aayush.
 

Reinforcing its commitment to performance-driven workplace culture, Rodic is strengthening its people strategy in line with its AI-first vision through accelerated upskilling initiatives. A cornerstone of this commitment is the Rodic AI Challenge, which encourages employees to develop AI-driven solutions for infrastructure challenges from predictive maintenance algorithms to project management optimization tools. These initiatives reflect Rodic’s commitment to continuous learning, digital transformation, and empowering its people to lead change in an increasingly technology-driven infrastructure sector.
 

Over the last 25 years, Rodic has continuously focused on employee engagement through programs including the Rodic Balance initiative, which incorporates sports and wellness programs, learning and development opportunities, transparent communication channels, and comprehensive health benefits fostering a workplace built on trust, collaboration, and employee empowerment.

Cashfree Payments, India’s leading payments platform, has launched its latest brand campaign, ‘One of Your Kind’ – celebrating the one-of-a-kind journeys of the category-shaping businesses it powers.

The campaign features companies such as BigBasket, Third Wave Coffee and Redbus, focusing on the different business realities across sectors

B2B fintech advertising has long addressed businesses as uniform friction points to be solved for. The campaign shifts this lens. When category disruptors across E-commerce, Travel, F&B, SaaS build against fundamentally different challenges – the payments infrastructure supporting them becomes a critical layer in navigating those realities.

Conceptualised by Talented and produced by At All Odds, ‘One of Your Kind’ spotlights the real ecosystems of people, hunger, and grit that shape every business’s journey to be unique – establishing Cashfree Payments as a payments gateway built around the distinct realities of each category it enables.

Aditi Olemann, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Cashfree Payments said, “Ten years. A million businesses. And the single most important thing we have learned is that businesses that shape markets are, without exception, one of a kind. Each arrived at the problem differently and built something entirely their own. When you have witnessed these journeys, you stop thinking about payments as a uniform layer, but as something that must adapt to unique business ambitions. The One of Your Kind campaign is our way of saying: we see you, not as a transaction category, but as a company that built something no else built, in a way no one else would have. And these businesses deserve payments that are built to be One of Your Kind.”

The film sidesteps corporate polish to showcase raw, lived-in growth journeys of Cashfree Payments’ long-standing partners, including BigBasket, Third Wave Coffee, and Redbus. The narrative reframes success and growth as less of a spectacle, and more of a story of becoming – with Cashfree Payments’ robust infrastructure as the invisible backbone that powers it all.

Akshat Chaturvedi, Karthik Nambiar and Nikhil Unni, Brand Strategy & Creatives, Talented said, “In a category where capabilities converge, we recognised an opportunity to differentiate through perspective. Payment gateways compete on features, but businesses are rarely spoken to in ways that reflect how differently they operate. ‘One of Your Kind’ became a platform to shift the narrative – from feature-led storytelling to an archive of ambition rooted in the larger philosophy of how Cashfree builds around each business’s individuality.”

Sanjana Krishnan and Rohan Shetty, Directors add, “This was one of those rare film shoots where we didn’t have sets to build – we had to inhabit real warehouses, offices, and store outlets. We moved like flies on the wall, letting the rhythm of the environment dictate the frame. The mixed-media documentary style became a careful choreography of photographs, paperwork, everyday objects, and candid human moments. Every detail had to feel intentional, even when the moment itself was unscripted.”

One of Your Kind signals how Cashfree Payments sees its role – not as a uniform layer across industries, but as infrastructure shaped around the specific pressures each category carries. Whether improving checkout conversion and managing COD risk in E-commerce, enabling seamless pre-authorisations in Travel, building robust subscription suites for SaaS, or expanding access through EMI for Education, Cashfree Payments builds around context, rather than conformity. A business shaped by the businesses it serves.

Watch the film here: youtu.be/EHXJRi9YzrY

About Cashfree Payments

Cashfree Payments is a leader in payments in India. Founded in 2015, Cashfree Payments processes transactions worth $80B annually for more than a million businesses.

Businesses use Cashfree Payments to collect payments from 100+ payment methods, make payouts, make cross border payments, improve conversions with a one-click checkout, recover abandoned carts, and predict and reduce returns. With an easy onboarding and integration process, and compatibility with popular merchant platforms like Shopify, Wix, WordPress, WooCommerce, WhatsApp, Cashfree Payments enables businesses to start transactions within a day. Cashfree Payments directly connects with all payment networks and owns its payment processing technology end-to-end, ensuring higher success rates and reliability. Built for scale, it enables businesses to process an industry-leading 12,000 transactions per second, handling peak demand effortlessly.

Alongside payments, Cashfree Payments offers SecureID, an identity verification stack with a comprehensive suite of APIs and KYC components. SecureID enables fintechs and startups to streamline compliant onboarding and KYC flows by minimising user inputs, thus reducing drop-offs, intelligently verifying identity documents, and detecting fraud and anomalies with high accuracy.

Cashfree Payments is authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a payment aggregator for both domestic and cross-border payments, and was one of the first entities to be authorised. It is also authorised to issue Prepaid Instruments. Cashfree Payments is backed by Silicon Valley investor Y Combinator, Apis Partners, State Bank of India (SBI), KRAFTON, and was incubated by PayPal.