E-commerce companies managed to beat the odds by adopting a flexible approach in terms of transforming their business models and leveraging emerging technologies. They had to constantly align their objectives with evolving customer needs. With companies hiring thousands of temporary workers, expanding to smaller cities, and launching new products, e-commerce giants gird up to celebrate the peak festival season without Covid restrictions after a three-year time-out.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Car deliveries during the nine-day period saw sharp year-on-year (double-digit increase for most automobile companies.
Nearly 665 million Indians or 45 per cent of the rural population did not have access to the internet as of 2023. Difficulty in understanding internet procedures, insufficient awareness of its benefits, and a lack of interest have emerged as the top reasons for a gap in internet penetration in rural India, according to a joint report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar. "The proficiency of English in rural India is very low. While we have content in Hindi, the internet is English-heavy.
India's smartphone shipment grew by 11.5 per cent in the first quarter of calendar year (CY) 2024 on a year-on-year basis to 34 million units. This is the third consecutive quarter of growth in shipments, International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker said.
The first tranche of sovereign gold bond for 2022-23 will open for subscription for five days from June 20, the Reserve Bank of India said on Thursday.
Clock 11% growth in the first 11 months of 2022.
Retailer bodies to demand govt action against I-Day sales offers, threaten legal action for breach of FDI rules.
The searches were carried out on June 14-15 at 10 premises in Prayagraj, Lucknow and Delhi, the agency said in a statement.
Dealers say that the full-year outlook remains negative with a projected contraction in retail sales of 15-35 per cent across segments, save tractors, which look set to clock a positive annual growth.
Two types of deductibles are associated with auto insurance -- compulsory and voluntary.
'We are looking at the next target which is to be a $1 billion ARR firm in the next 4-5 years.'
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
Indian firms selling SAAS products have got a bonanza as companies meet, manage and sell remotely. The top five firms - Zoho, Freshworks HighRadius, Druva, and Icertis - account for 33 per cent of the market share. Chennai, India's SAAS centre, alone generates $1 billion in annual revenue. Yuvraj Malik explains how these companies are planning their next phase of growth.
People in the know said plans were afoot to begin the sale of all food grains through online, with a major quantity through auctions that would be later extended to other commodities.
'Just the amount of work which is there just to become more and more successful in banking. For this to happen you need to have leaders who understand technology.'
The muted expectation of dealers come at a time when vehicle manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra and others reported a double-digit fall in wholesale dispatches to dealerships in July and August.
Factors like high fuel prices, higher insurance cost and firm interest rates kept buyers away, especially in case of passenger vehicles.
Private equity investments in Indian companies grew 38 per cent to $62.2 billion last year, with inflows into Reliance Industries' telecom and retail ventures contributing nearly 40 per cent of the total value of the deals, a report said on Wednesday. Barring investments into Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail, the total deal value was down by 20 per cent over 2019 as the volume of large deals of more than $100 million dipped by a fourth, as per the report by Bain & Company and India Venture Capital Association. Overall investment activity remained muted from March to May last year due to COVID-led uncertainties and investor confidence recovered strongly in the second half to pre-COVID levels with late-stage and buyout deals witnessing increased traction, it said.
With Onam and Raksha Bandhan just around the corner, the festival season is ready to kick off in full swing. As people embrace the celebratory spirit, companies anticipate a surge in sales this year. Consumer durables firms are expecting strong growth of 40-50 per cent in the premium segment during the upcoming season. Appliance makers also foresee increased demand for cooling appliances - refrigerators and air conditioners - which were impacted by unseasonal rainfall.
The Rs 1.5-trillion-a-year industry has ended the year with a 30 per cent fall in sales because after a steady recovery in the festive season, multiple factors dashed its hopes of revival at the end of the year.
While two-wheeler sales are down 15 per cent year-on-year, passenger vehicles sales are lower by 5-7 per cent.
Most consumers are going for token buying of lesser value and are waiting for price correction for purchase of wedding jewellery.
Auto sales have been declining for 13 straight months as a broader slowdown in the economy has crippled demand across the country.
The minister also exempted components from taxes to encourage domestic manufacturing of these devices.
It is important to have the necessary documents on hand to verify the information in the form.
Vehicle retail sales in the country rose 57 per cent during the Navratri festival this year, clocking a record sales of nearly 5.4 lakh units, Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations said on Monday. Total vehicle retail sales between September 26 and October 5, 2022, stood at 539,227 units compared to 342,459 units sold during Navratri last year, FADA said in a statement. The sales registered this year were also a record, bettering the previous best of 4,66,128 units in Navratri of 2019, it added.
Analysts tracking Apple said the India results were glimpses of what the company could achieve in emerging markets with a right pricing strategy for its products and local manufacturing.
Even as the returns of mutual fund (MF) schemes have improved considerably in the past three months, addition of new investors has remained in the slow lane for the MF industry. According to industry data, during the first six months of CY 2023, MFs onboarded only 1.6 million new unique investors, in stark contrast to the 4.7 million investors added during the same period last CY and the 2.4 million in 2021. It is noteworthy, however, that the current additions for this year have doubled in comparison to the figure of 800,000 seen in 2020.
'The rising cost of construction, the cost of doing business, high compliance, and inflation/interest rates going up have already reduced returns to single digits.'
Mutual funds recorded Rs 7,600 crore net inflows into active equity schemes in July even as redemptions surged to a 30-month high of Rs 30,400 crore owing to profit booking, reveals data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). Equity net inflows were 13 per cent lower compared to the preceding month's tally. The inflows were supported by a strong flow from retail investors through the systematic investment plan (SIP) route.
The net inflows into active equity mutual fund (MF) schemes registered more than a twofold month-on-month rise in August, crossing Rs 20,000 crore, the highest in five months. This rise in net inflows was boosted by an 18 per cent growth in gross investments, driven by a record Rs 15,800 crore inflow through the systematic investment plan (SIP) route and Rs 5,000 crore collected by seven new fund offers (NFOs) in the active equity space, reveals data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi). Moreover, redemptions moderated in August, declining by 19 per cent to Rs 24,580 crore, after staying elevated in the previous three months owing to profit booking.
The ED said its investigation also revealed that from 2019 to 2022, the sale of 'unaccounted illicit' liquor was almost 30-40 per cent of the total liquor sale in the state.
While the RBI's guidelines aim to streamline the loan closure process, borrowers must remain proactive.
Assume Voot, JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar are merged into one entertainment app, and you have a streaming service with more than 233 million unique visitors. That is a reach just under half of India's largest streaming app: YouTube. 'This level of consolidation does not exist even in the US.'
Overall slowdown in the economy and growing volumes of unbranded generic medicines in the domestic market are behind poor sales.
India's mutual fund (MF) industry had barely any retail footprint when it completed 50 years in 2013. MFs had Rs 7 trillion in assets under management (AUM) in March 2013, of which around Rs 5 trillion was in institution-focused debt funds. By comparison, bank deposits in the country stood at Rs 67.5 trillion around the same time.
Chai Sahay, an artificial intelligence-based mobile app, will be primarily used to issue advisory, disseminate information related to various schemes of the board for the sector as well as provide real-time weather updates, says Avishek Rakshit.
Inflow in equity mutual funds halved to Rs 3,240 crore in May, declining for the second consecutive month, primarily due to profit booking by investors amid rising market. However, this was also the 27th consecutive month of inflow in the equity class, which was primarily driven by fund infusion in small-cap and mid-cap categories, data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed on Friday. Overall, the 42-player mutual fund industry continues to see inflow and attracted Rs 57,420 crore, on contributions from debt-oriented schemes.
New regulatory rules, softer freight rates and a liquidity crunch at non-bank lenders are among the reasons.
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