Coke Studio Bharat needs to succeed -- because of its music, nothing else, asserts Sandeep Goyal.
E-commerce giant Amazon on Thursday announced a $250 million (about Rs 1,873 crore) fund that will focus on digitising small and medium businesses, and driving innovation in the areas of agri-tech and health-tech in India. "Small and medium sized businesses are often the engine and the lifeblood of economies and I think it's true in India as well. "And we are very passionate about trying to enable acceleration of SMBs in fuelling innovation and the economy in India," Amazon Web Services CEO Andrew Jassy said.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police has initiated the process to procure over 8,000 bullet-resistant (BR) jackets of protection levels 5 and 6 for its personnel involved in counter-terrorism and security operations, official sources said.
Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran on Thursday said the group's recently launched super app Neu is on an open architecture and it will host non-group brands as well. The Tatas finally launched its super app Tata Neu on April 7, after piloting it for months, but the group chairman claimed there was no delay in the commercial launch. Stating that the app has received an overwhelming response in the past seven days of going live, Chandrasekaran said the app is on an open architecture and will host products and services from non-Tata group companies.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) on Thursday directed e-commerce entities to sell specified ayurveda, siddha and unani drugs only after customers upload valid medical prescriptions from registered doctors on the platforms.
Sony India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) have agreed to sell three Hindi channels--Big Magic, Zee Action and Zee Classic--to address anti-competition concerns arising out of their proposed merger. The broadcasters submitted their proposal to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which gave a conditional approval on October 4. On Wednesday, the CCI made public its detailed 58-page order, specifying the channels that would be dropped.
Private labels remain big business for e-commerce marketplaces. They comprise almost 15 per cent of the total business of such firms.
The splendid rock figures around Cappadocia and the silent, eternal ruins of Ephesus made a trip to Turkey even more memorable.
He asked to focus on the 'vocal for local' mantra during the 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebrations.
Later in the day, Flipkart condemned the attack and said it has blacklisted the seller from its platform and is extending all support to the probe agencies.
The background work of creating a suitable digital architecture of a website also remains unfinished as it has been a challenge to shortlist technology partners.
In comparison, Flipkart India, the marketplace unit of the country's largest e-commerce marketplace, posted a 750% growth in losses to Rs 20.6 billion.
Key drivers of profitability for Zomato has not witnessed remarkable growth, the management believes the venture will turn profitable in the long term.
'India has a lot of potential, not just in commercial aspects, but also in hiring of people and sourcing of products.'
'If you are ready to stomach the loss, you may invest 3-5 per cent of your portfolio in crypto assets.' 'Of this, 80-90 per cent should be in Bitcoin.'
Figuring out the nuances in the NFT market will mean opening and examining multiple new cans of worms.
Cash registers are ringing more frequently at hotels and resorts with the return of the big fat Indian wedding after a two-year hiatus. This comes even as the small and intimate ceremonies - which became popular during the pandemic - are also set to keep those employed in the hospitality sector on their toes. As many as 2.5 million marriages are expected to get solemnised during the wedding season that gets underway from next week and stretches on till April, according to industry estimates.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail on Thursday told the government that complex legal structures have been used by some firms to bypass the country's e-commerce rules which from the very beginning do not allow foreign capital in the inventory-based model. At a meeting called by the commerce ministry on allegations that foreign online retailers created complex structures to bypass foreign investment rules and damage small traders, Amazon urged the government not to issue any clarification until investigations into its business practices had been concluded, sources said. At the meeting, Reliance Retail's representatives said the Indian e-commerce policy does not allow foreign capital in the inventory-based model and foreign investment is allowed only in pure technical infrastructure/ platform that facilitates the meeting of buyer with sellers.
Amazon on Wednesday filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court seeking clarifications on the scope of Enforcement Directorate's (ED) investigations into alleged foreign exchange violations by the company, according to sources. Last month, Amazon had said it was in receipt of summons by the ED in connection with its deal with the Future Group. According to sources, Amazon in its filing said the ED is expanding the scope of its investigations by seeking privileged and confidential legal advice it received in ordinary course of business since it started marketplace operations and that such requests aren't related to the agency's probe into the Future-Amazon deal.
Amazon India has decided to shut down 'Amazon Distribution', according to sources. This follows its recent decision to shut its food delivery and edtech offerings. The moves are part of the annual operating planning review process amid global macroeconomic uncertainty. The e-commerce giant is looking to focus on its core businesses, sources said.
SoftBank-backed internet commerce firm Meesho has downsized its grocery vertical Meesho SuperStore (formerly Farmiso) in an attempt to drive efficiency. The Bengaluru-based firm did not reveal the number of laid-off employees. However, the company officials said that about 150 employees have been laid off.
The initiative is being undertaken by the government of Karnataka, considered one of the leaders in the technology space. Currently, India doesn't have such a platform and, globally, there are very few privately-run platforms.
Photo-messaging app Snapchat on Wednesday said its monthly user base has reached 100 million in the country, and the company will continue to anchor its efforts towards growing and providing more resources to its community of Indian creators. Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, virtually hosted the second edition of 'Snap in India'. At the event, Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel announced the milestone of reaching 100 million Snapchatters monthly in India.
India's traditional PC market, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations declined by 11.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q3CY22 (Jul-Sep) after 8 consecutive quarters of growth despite strong shipments of 3.9 million units, according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. All segments declined except the government, which grew by 91.5 per cent YoY on the back of government orders, leading to strong growth in the third consecutive quarter. While the desktop and workstation categories grew by 23.4 per cent and 17.6 per cent YoY respectively, the notebook category declined by 19.5 per cent YoY.
Fresh capital will help Flipkart further grow its e-commerce marketplace in India as the world's second-largest internet market begins to recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
Future Retail's (FRL's) independent directors have written a second letter to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), stating American e-commerce major Amazon never intended to invest in Future Coupons (FCPL) and the representations made by the US e-commerce player were completely opposite and contradictory to their own internal correspondences as submitted before courts. The directors also wrote to CCI that Amazon has obtained approval by making deliberate misrepresentations. By actively misleading the CCI and the regulator, it has to revoke the approval granted for Amazon's investment in FCPL.
The order follows a complaint filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh which accused the e-commerce firms of anti-competitive practices like preferential listing, exclusive tie-ups and private labels.
Automakers Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Kia reported robust growth in their vehicle dispatches in the domestic market for August buoyed by festive demand and easing of semiconductor shortage woes. Other manufacturers like Hyundai, Toyota and Skoda also reported growth in wholesales in August as compared with the same month last year. The country's largest automaker Maruti Suzuki India said its domestic passenger vehicle dispatches increased by 30 per cent to 134,166 units in August as compared with 103,187 units in the year-ago month.
Welcome to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) - digital constructs authenticated using an abstract mathematical application. An NFT is a unique token added to some digital construct and registered on a blockchain with details of ownership. The construct itself might be free (it often is) but the NFT along with the construct is worth "more". The NFT market didn't exist until 2017 when "cryptokitties", or virtual cats, became available with NFTs. The market is now worth around $350 million. Speculators believe it is likely to be worth much more in future.
He said the country needs to have "zero tolerance" for corruption in the administrative ecosystem and this would work for the idea of a developed India.
Initially, private buyers will be able to make bulk purchases on Government e-marketplace, it will subsequently be broadened to small-ticket buying as well.
The consumer buying patterns and preferences have changed significantly with categories like health and pharma, FMCG and agriculture seeing a surge and exponential growth along with the rising number of first-time online shoppers.
Making a stellar debut, shares of FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which runs the online marketplace for beauty and wellness products Nykaa, closed with a huge premium of over 96 per cent against the issue price of Rs 1,125 on Wednesday. The stock debuted at Rs 2,001 apiece, reflecting a jump of 77.86 per cent on the BSE. Then, the scrip zoomed 99.83 per cent to Rs 2,248.10 during the day before closing at Rs 2,206.70.
The number of times public sector undertakings (PSUs) have held conference calls with investors, their capital management, and debt financing are among the parameters that the Centre will use to judge their performance for the first time, a senior official in the know said. The government will evaluate PSUs for FY22 based on new parameters that were finalised by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) in consultation with the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) last year, the official said. The government had included more conditions in the memorandum of understandings (MoUs) - used to set annual targets - that public sector enterprises sign with the DPE every year. These included a consistent dividend policy, which seeks to transfer dividends by PSUs every quarter; and market capitalisation or share price improvement over the sectoral index on an annual average basis for listed companies.
In December last year, Amazon invested over Rs 1,700 crore into its payments and wholesale business units in India, while in October it had infused over Rs 4,400 crore (more than USD 600 million) in its various units in India, including marketplace and food retail. Bezos last visited India in 2014 when he presented Amazon's Indian unit with a giant cheque for USD 2 billion. Since then, Amazon has pledged a further USD 3.5 billion to expand in the country and the USD 1 billion investment announced on Wednesday would take the total committed investment to USD 6.5 billion.
The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will revamp its banking application (app) YONO and position it as a complete digital bank (DB) under a new rubric 'Only YONO' for enhancing customer experience and ease of use. The bank plans to bring in a consultant to help draw up the project plan, keeping in mind business goals for the next five years. With 54 million monthly active users (MAUs), SBI YONO has seen growth of over 35 per cent in MAUs in 2021.
After 100% FDI, DIPP has put a condition an e-commerce entity will not be permitted more than 25% of sales through its marketplace from one vendor or their group companies
Tech giant Alphabet on Monday launched a privacy feature on its app marketplace Google Play Store that will require developers to give people more information about how apps collect, share and secure users' data. Users will start seeing the data safety section in Google Play on Tuesday, and developers are required to complete this section for their apps by July 20. As app developers update their functionality or change their data handling practices, they will show the latest in the apps' data safety section.
USISPF slammed government's move and alleged that the amendments announced were without any consultation and are akin to changing rules in the middle of the game.
Demonetisation and Agniveer reveal the two mindsets India has become. In both these government schemes, one sees a desire to play the country like an orchestra anchored by conductor/conductors, argues Shyam G Menon.
