Paytm ropes in ex-Citigroup executive Madhur Deora as CFO

NEW DELHI: Mobile payments and commerce company Paytm today said it has appointed Madhur Deora as its Chief Financial officer (CFO) and Senior Vice President.

Formerly with Citigroup Investment Banking as Managing Director, Deora brings experience in identifying new opportunities for emerging businesses and contributing to their growth, Paytm said in a statement.

At Paytm, he will also be responsible for building and managing the company's newly formed financial services business, it added.

With over 17 years of investment banking experience, the Wharton School graduate has led several important transactions in the internet space.

In 2015, he led the fund-raising discussions for Paytm with Ant Financial.

"Madhur has been a long-term friend and partner of Paytm. I am extremely happy to welcome him onboard. His expertise will help us to build our newly formed financial services business into one of the largest from India," Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said.

The Alibaba-backed firm also has a payments bank license and plans to roll out operations soon. The company had recently raised USD 60 million (about Rs 400 crore) from Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek.

Its other investors include Ant Financials (Alipay), SAIF Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank. PTI Food, top
Coke, Pepsi say soft drinks safe ; reacting to Government report
ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Coca-Cola and PepsiCo on Thursday said their soft drinks are safe, reacting to a Government body report that their PET bottles have toxins.

A government study revealed that PET bottles of soft drinks from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo five different types of toxins, media reports said. The tests were conducted this year during February-March by All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH&PH) under Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), under the aegis of the Health Ministry. The report showed increased amount of leaching with the rise in room temperature.

A PepsiCo spokesperson said: "We have received no intimation nor a copy of the cited test reports and without an understanding of the methodology used, would be unable to comment on the reports. Having said that, we would like to reiterate that all our products conform to Food Safety and Standards Regulations. We would like to emphatically reiterate that our products comply with the permissible limits for heavy metals as laid down by these regulations.”

A Coca-Cola spokesperson too said the company had not received any communication or notice from any of the concerned Government departments. " We would like to reiterate that all our products including those referred in this report are absolutely safe and well within the safety norms prescribed, including those for heavy metals, by the Indian regulatory bodies . The PET packaging is safely used across the world in similar and more extreme weather conditions without any food safety issue. We will be able to comment in details once we receive the said report.”