BCCL, the parent company of Times of India, has taken an undisclosed stake in Culture Holiday, the parent company of online travel portal TravelChaCha.com, adding to more crush in the now-crowded online ravel sector in the country. Terms were not disclosed. More details here.

Cleartrip has launched Cleartrip Videos gleaned from the Short Flicks Festival which had been sponsored by the DAG, KPCB and Sherpalo funded online travel portal. The one to three minutes long user submitted videos are across multiple cities. This is a good addition to the Lonely Planet content tie-up feature,…

—Lakshmi Narasimhan, Head of Business Development for Network18, has been appointed CEO of Infomedia India. Readers will remember that Network18 acquired Infomedia last fiscal. Narasimhan will expand the portfolio of Infomedia titles. Prakash Iyer, who was CEO & MD of Infomedia will now be MD. [more at exchange4media]—Mohit Gupta has…

Corrigendum: It had appeared to me (Nikhil Pahwa, Editor, contentSutra) that Ezeego1 had repositioned itself as a travel meta aggregator. The company informs us, and on checking we’ve verified that, Ezeego1 was launched as a travel Meta aggregator. It’s not a case of repositioning, and the error is regretted. Original…

Cleartrip has tied up with Star India’s mobile application PLUS, to deliver travel related information to users. The service allows users to access travel information and make reservations via the client’s interface. The release has Sandeep Murthy, CEO, Cleartrip, stating their tie-up with PLUS will give them access to 200…

—Indiatimes Travel has inked a deal with the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Italy’s largest privately owned line, and has launched a cruise booking service for customers in India. Given that IT has entered the cruises segment, there should be more deals in the offering with other cruise lines - why…

Online Travel co MakeMyTrip has recorded sales of Rs. 1000 crore for the financial year ending March 2008, as per a release. The company, which claims a 45 percent marketshare in terms of net revenues, and is expected to break even by the end of 2008, adds Eyefortravel. As per…

Expedia India has announced the launch of its India operations, with Sharat Dhall as its Managing Director. The site Expedia.co.in (Expedia.in redirects to it) is currently focusing on hotel bookings and travel deals. That’s a fairly limited segment—Cleartrip CEO Sandeep Murthy had said recently in an interview that the market…

Cleartrip has raised a third round of funding of $18.5 million, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson which has put in $10 million. The Mahindra Group and existing investors Sherpalo Ventures and Kleiner Perkins have together put in $8.5 million, report Mint and VC Circle. In an interview, Sandeep Murthy, CEO…

Ixigo.com, a travel meta search company, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from BAF Spectrum, a Singapore based investment fund. The funding was reported by VCCircle yesterday, and we received a release later in the day. There are several online travel agents (OTA) in India, several of them funded…

—redBus, an online bus ticketing company funded by Seedfund, has gone multilingual by launching Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi versions of their site. CEO Phanindra Sama says that a large segment of their users - agents, distributors and end consumers - prefer local language to English. [via release] —MakeMyTrip.com…

Just when you thought the online travel space was packed to capacity, here’s another one: Atyourprice.in, a distressed inventory travel site has received an undisclosed amount of funding from the Mumbai Angels, reports VC Circle. The site allows users to bid for a flight ticket, a reverse auction model. It’s…

Rediff (NSDQ: REDF) and Sify are mandated to list in the Indian stock exchanges, reports Reuters; this is primarily because of a government rule that requires that they list locally within three years of reporting profits. Both companies reported profits in the 2006-07 fiscal. Last July, CNBC-TV18 had claimed that…

By the middle of 2008, Indian Railways is looking to allow travel agents, including online travel agents, to sell railway tickets online. They’re going to start with a selective rollout, Nalin Shingal, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has told TravelBizMonitor (via AlooTechie), and will…

$25 Million (around Rs. 100 crores) is the amount that Online Travel Agency (OTA) TravelGuru is paying for B2B hotel portal Desiya.com, reports ET. The acquisition had been reported a couple of months ago, but appears now that the deal has been done. The report doesn’t specify the cash and…

Deccan has launched a mobile booking initiative called m-Fly, which allows users to pay for tickets via their mobile phone, reports India Aviation. The account, however, will have to be a prepaid account, and involves internet and offline components - users will have to register online and top-up their prepaid…

Yatra has announced a tie-up with Sify, offering its travel related services - booking of hotels, flights and travel packages - via Sify’s 7000 retail points in 220 cities. I wonder how many of the Sify retail points and cybercafe franchises are really running…a couple of months ago, while searching…

Cleartrip.com CEO Sandeep Murthy has said that of the $11.7 million they had raised from venture capitalists like DAG Ventures (and Sherpalo), they’ve utilized around $8 million. I wonder if the company is looking to raise more funds to stay in the game, as most Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are…

Global Online Travel company Expedia reportedly has plans to launch its portal India in Jan 2008, offering both domestic and international travel, reports Mint. I just checked and the company has registered the domain Expedia.in. Expedia and Travelocity, which has plans for offering air tickets by next month, are entering…