Indian restaurants are grappling with a severe LPG shortage due to the West Asia conflict, forcing them to innovate with menus and cooking methods or face potential closures, impacting the food industry and consumers across the country.
Dining today isn't just about food -- it's about the experience and the story.
The restaurant chains are riding the Hallyu wave -- a phenomenon about the growing global prominence of South Korean pop culture.
The court upheld the guidelines and imposed Rs 1 lakh cost each on the petitioners to be deposited with the CCPA towards consumer welfare.
A Competition Commission probe has found that food delivery platforms Zomato and Swiggy indulged in unfair business practices, including alleged preferential treatment to some restaurant partners, according to sources. The detailed investigation was ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in April 2022 and the probe report was submitted to the regulator earlier this year. Under the norms, CCI director general's report has been shared with the parties concerned and later, they will be called for hearings by the watchdog.
Indian food services sector is expected to grow at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 8.1 per cent between 2024 and 2028 on the back of rapid urbanisation, robust GDP growth, a rising younger population, and greater exposure among consumers, said a new report. The India Food Services Report-2024, brought out by the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), states that the sector contributes 1.9 per cent to India's GDP and is projected to grow to Rs 7.76 trillion by 2028 from Rs 5.69 trillion currently.
In the first quarter (Q1) of the ongoing financial year ending June 30, Westlife Foodworld, which operates McDonald's outlets in the South and West, reported an 88 per cent drop in net profit. While net sales remained flat, its same-store sales growth (SSSG) fell by 6.7 per cent, impacted by "subdued in-store business, although the off-premise segment saw positive same-store sales", the company said.
'As the city grows, so do its fire incidents.'
According to the revised policy, guests should not be permitted to drink alcohol unless served by the cabin crew and that the cabin crew be attentive to identifying guests that might be consuming their own alcohol.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday stayed the recent guidelines prohibiting hotels and restaurants from levying service charge automatically on food bills. Justice Yashwant Varma, while dealing with petitions by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Associations of India challenging the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)'s July 4 guidelines, said the issue requires consideration and directed the authorities to file their reply. "The matter requires consideration. Consequently, until the next date of listing the directions as contained in para 7 of the impugned guideline of July 4, 2022 shall remain stayed," the court ordered.
The National Restaurant Association of India has written an advisory to its members against Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner discount programmes saying these are against the interest of restaurant owners. The advisory alleges that 'middlemen' Zomato and Swiggy are making money at the cost of restaurants, who sign up to be on the Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner programmes by making them compulsorily offer discounts and also pay commission fee on every transaction on these platforms. "Zomato Pay and Swiggy Diner both operate broadly on the same construct -- no cost/subscription fee to the customer to participate; restaurants must compulsorily offer a discount in the range of 15-40 per cent to be part of the program," NRAI wrote to its members.
Competition Commission on Monday ordered a detailed probe against food delivery platforms, Zomato and Swiggy, for alleged unfair business practices with respect to their dealings with restaurant partners. The order has come on a complaint filed by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). The watchdog's probe arm -- Director General (DG) -- will investigate the case.
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.
Exporters on Thursday demanded fiscal incentives, tweaking in customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost exports and create jobs. In a pre-budget virtual meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports' competitiveness and the sector requires more support. "Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country...We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units which provide additional employment in the export sector," the exporter's body said.
The government on Monday asked online food business operators like Swiggy and Zomato to submit a proposal within 15 days on improving their consumer grievance redressal mechanism amid rising complaints from customers. The department of consumer affairs directed e-commerce FBOs "to transparently show consumers the breakup of all charges included in the order amount such as delivery charges, packaging charges, taxes, surge pricing etc." According to an official statement, "The Department of Consumer Affairs has directed major e-commerce Food Business Operators (FBOs) to furnish the current framework as well as a proposal on improving the consumer grievance redressal mechanism within 15 days."
Alleging "anti-competitive practices" by Zomato and Swiggy, restaurant industry body National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Monday said it has approached fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a detailed probe against the food aggregators. Keeping the interests of restaurants in mind, NRAI on July 1 had filed information with the CCI, it said in a statement. The main issues highlighted by the association in the submission are bundling of services, data masking, and exorbitant commission charged, price parity agreements, deep discounting, including forcing restaurant partners to give discounts to maintain appropriate listing, exclusivity of listed restaurants, and violation of platform neutrality, vertical integration, and lack of transparency on the food ordering platforms.
"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.
Zomato said late on Friday that it was pushing the implementation of the new food quality policy to May 3 from April 18.
Food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy reported a nationwide outage on Wednesday. Both the platforms witnessed technical glitches and were unresponsive for almost an hour. Downdetector, a platform that collects status reports from a series of sources, recorded about 3,619 reports of outage against Zomato at 2:05 PM and about 771 reports of outage against Swiggy at around 2:21 PM. According to the sources, the outage was caused by Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud-services platform, which runs both platforms. Though Swiggy and Zomato are working now, some customers reported that the issue has not been solved completely and they are not able to place orders and there are payment related issues.
When the sun rises in 2022, the Indian hospitality industry will be waking up with prayers for survival, desperately looking forward to some form of support from the government as revival from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic of the last two years will be an arduous journey. Just as the industry was beginning to see a flickering light at the end of a long tunnel towards the end of 2021, the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus and subsequent extension of suspension of scheduled international passenger flights till January 31, 2022, has come as a dampener to those who were looking to have some business in the winter season. With inbound tourist arrivals unlikely amidst the pandemic, the industry wants the government to incentivise domestic travels with income tax benefits for a limited period so as to help the hospitality and tourism sector get up again by tapping the pent up demand for holidays, within the country.
FMCG analysts say inflationary pressure forcing consumers to stinge on non-core products.
'The government is not ready to talk to us. They have their own agenda.'
'We were taking the Starbucks experience from the store to the home.'
The hospitality and tourism sector is among the worst hit because of the pandemic, and is unlikely to recover any time soon as people continue to be cautious of going out in a crowded places.
Zomato and Swiggy
The plan is to start with 20-25 per cent capacity by early next month as part of Unlock 5.0, before moving to 50 and then 100 per cent.
A third of the total restaurant market in India - valued at Rs 4.25 trillion - could be wiped out in the current financial year, since many players have simply been unable to sustain operations in the absence of customers.
Delhi Police ask for 45 documents for opening a restaurant, only 19 for a gun: Survey
'Business will be 20% of what it was before the lockdown.'
The company, which has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons, maintains that it was forced to rationalise the staff strength as improvements in technology resulted in certain redundancies in customer, merchant and delivery partner support teams.
'Loss of property can be compensated but loss of lives cannot be,' says the well known restaurateur.
PepsiCo has tie-ups with KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Burger King, and Subway in India, while Coca-Cola has a partnership with McDonald's only
Security around high streets in the national capital, such as Connaught Place and Khan Market, has been stepped up following the 16-hour hostage crisis at Sydney's Lindt Chocolate Caf earlier this week. The terrorist attack on a Peshawar school, killing nearly 145, has intensified the checks at many restaurants, cafes and popular hangouts.
'This is almost like demonetisation and is overwhelming,' says a bar-owner.
'You can have a bath in just one bucket of water.' 'When you are brushing your teeth, remember to turn off the tap.' 'You don't have to wash your car every day.'
A sub-group has been formed to amend rules that govern safety standards at eating establishments
The cloud kitchen market in India will hit $1.05 billion by 2023. Just 13% of the total market has been utilised so far.
Faced with a clutter of coffee houses and cafes that also serve the brew, the chain that has 119 stores in seven cities in India is looking at ways to differentiate its brand from the rest.
Tata Cha cafes hope to create a feel of a roadside tea cart, casual college canteens, old Irani cafs and even the chai joints encountered on journeys through the Indian countryside.
The Indian-American was one of the real sheroes at the awards.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances