India added over 1,300 active tech start-ups to its ecosystem in calendar year 2022, taking the total tally to between 25,000-27,000, according to a recent report. The country continues to be the world's third largest tech start-up ecosystem. The Nasscom-Zinnov Indian Tech Start-up Landscape Report 2022 found that India added the second highest number of Unicorns - companies with a valuation of at least $1 billion - in the world, with over 23 added in CY2022.
Food aggregator platform Zomato has discontinued its 10-minute delivery offering, Zomato Instant, as the business has struggled to grow and faces challenges in turning profitable, media reports said. The company has denied these claims, stating that the business is just being rebranded. This comes as the company's CEO Deepinder Goyal announced 800 job vacancies across 5 roles via a Linkedin post.
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales in rural areas witnessed a sequential recovery in the latter half of December, according to data by retail intelligence firm Bizom. Also, demand witnessed in the previous month compared to November was higher from tier-3 cities than mega cities. Overall demand from rural areas declined 0.2 per cent on a month-on-month basis in December while it was down 17 per cent in November, according to Bizom's data.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will engage stakeholders in the e-commerce space to establish standards with the objective of self-regulation, said its deputy director Parul Gupta at the Internet Commerce Summit 2022 in Bengaluru. "Standardisation will allow parties to transact qualified commodities and services at any location and time," said Gupta. BIS recently released standards for e-commerce players, travel portals, and food delivery platforms that publish consumer reviews online, as part of the government's efforts to crack down on fake reviews, said Gupta.
Lakme, India's first make-up and beauty brand, turned 70 this year and is also present in Hindustan Unilever's club of brands with a turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore. Over the past seven decades, the brand has evolved and is no longer just a beauty brand, but has also transformed into a skincare brand. Lakme has increased its digital presence as well as innovations and now sees a third of its growth come from new innovations.
The pharmaceutical and the consumer durables sectors, which depend on China for imports, have not been impacted yet due to unrest in China with people protesting against lockdowns. But the lockdown could have an impact on the supply of components used in consumer durables if it continues for the next fortnight. In the pharmaceutical industry, Indian players import 66-70 per cent of their bulk drug requirements from China.
'It's a big technology company and may offer good remuneration, but stability in my career is equally important to me.'
It is the season of cooking and baking, but with Amul Butter in short supply, consumers aren't like the cat that got the cream. A shortage only means market shelves without butter on them. "There is a supply-side deficit. "We are now able to procure only two packs of butter a day, as opposed to three packs (each containing 30 packets of butter) in a day," says a salesman at Modern Bazaar, a departmental store in New Delhi's Greater Kailash.
With the fashion world blurring the lines between innovation, technology and reality, shopping is all set to be revolutionised.
If you are a budding developer and interested in Web3, chances are that you will be headed to one of India's largest-ever meetings of Web3 developers, being held by Polygon, a Web3 platform. The company's ongoing "Web3: Made in India Tour" is expected to see close to 4,000 developers coming together at the inaugural Polygon Connect event in Bengaluru on December 1. The event highlights the growing dominance of Web3 developers from India, as well as the sector's rising interest to investors, who continue to invest in startups despite a funds crunch.
With the festival sales in full swing, e-commerce firms are ramping up hiring to meet the increasing consumer demand. Close to 300,000 new jobs have been created in the sector so far and over 500,000 more jobs are expected to be added till Diwali, according to a report by TeamLease. The demand for gig workers is, however, not restricted to tier-1 cities. Tier-2 and tier-3 cities have seen an increase of 40 per cent, with a higher demand for delivery workers, according to a TeamLease report.
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), one of the country's largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) players, is learnt to have cut prices of its leading soaps and detergents this month by 2-19 per cent, according to the company's distributors. The cuts come after consistent price increases by the company as well as its peers, following the sharp rise in raw material prices in the past several months. It is only recently that prices of raw materials have started to correct from peak levels in the June quarter.
Feeble demand in rural areas of the country has affected sales of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in September as compared to August, which saw heavy stocking ahead of the festival season, according to the data of Bizom, a retail intelligence platform. Sales in rural India fell 14.3 per cent while urban sales growth stood at 1.1 per cent in September as compared to the previous month. Overall FMCG sales fell by 9.6 per cent in September as compared to August.
Flipkart claims that over one billion customers visited its platform during the eight-day-long The Big Billion Festival. Amazon's Great Indian Festival 2022, which will go on for a month, is throwing discounts at customers that can hardly be ignored. But some of the stories that are coming out from these sales are not so great.
Reliance Retail's digital commerce platform JioMart will morph into an e-marketplace offering multiple brands - from electronics, consumer durables, fashion and lifestyle, beauty, home, kitchen, and grocery - as it girds up to take on the likes of Amazon and Flipkart ahead of the festival season sales. India's largest retailer was in the process of onboarding third-party sellers these past few months, further increasing its selection across categories multifold. Its website and application offers general merchandise as well.
Reliance Brands is in advance stage of talks to take over the India rights for premium makeup and beauty retail chain Sephora, from Arvind Fashions, according to two persons in the know. The Mukesh Ambani-led retail company is already in talks with developers to lease out stores for Sephora, said one of the above mentioned sources. While Reliance Brands was yet to answer Business Standard's query, an Arvind Fashions spokeperson, in an e-mailed response, said: "As per company policy, we do not comment on market rumours and speculation."
The festival season has already begun in the west and south of India with Ganesh Chaturthi and Onam, respectively, and consumer companies are witnessing a pick-up in sales compared to pre-Covid levels. Retailers, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables companies expect their sales to grow in double digits this festival season compared to pre-pandemic times, as there are no curbs on movement now. Adani Wilmar expects sales volume to be higher by 15-20 per cent as rural India has largely witnessed good monsoon rains, and employment has picked up in urban areas.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is India's most-valuable brand in 2022 replacing HDFC Bank, which held the number one spot since 2014, according to Kantar BrandZ report on India's most-valuable brands. TCS was able to grab the top slot due to rising global demand for automation and digital transformation, following the pandemic. Indian brands have bounced back from the pandemic to increase their brand value by 35 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2020.
Consumer durable companies will again start to face a supply issue of components as China extends lockdown due to its zero Covid strategy. This will impact the flow of finished products into the Indian market, unlike last year, this impact will be felt post Diwali. While supply chain issues have been a problem since the start of the pandemic, China's zero Covid strategy has also posed another risk for consumer durable companies.
"It went up to 20-odd per cent in 2019 and to 25 per cent a year later. "That's when we decided to pull the plug; it was not sustainable for our business," says Chadha. Madison & Pike, instead, turned to Mumbai-based start-up Thrive, which provides third-party delivery services to restaurants at a much lower commission - three to five per cent.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances