'A weak monsoon always spells disaster. But it's too early to have a pessimistic view.'
Despite declining by three percentage points in 2022-23 (FY23) compared to FY19, Odisha's unemployment rate remains higher than the average in India.
Online travel portals are flooded with flight and train bookings, hotels teeming with requests for accommodation, and spiritual merchandise on e-commerce platforms is selling like hotcakes. As the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22 draws near, Indians across the country are putting their travelling boots on as the temple frenzy catches on. India's largest travel technology (traveltech) platform MakeMyTrip (MMT) has witnessed a substantial four-fold increase in bookings for Ayodhya compared to the previous year.
There are conflicting views on Delhivery. The logistics player's results for the July-September quarter (Q2FY24) are being interpreted as good by some analysts and disappointing by others. As India's largest listed logistics player, the company stands to benefit from the formalisation across the mostly unorganised logistics space. Delhivery provides solutions to 23,113 customers, including e-commerce marketplaces, direct-to-consumer e-tailers, and enterprises across verticals.
Layoffs, corporate restructuring, governance and most importantly profitability: The 14 Indian startups that plan IPOs this year are pulling out all the stops to ensure successful market debuts.
Food delivery major Swiggy has received approval from its shareholders for a $1.25 billion initial public offering (IPO), according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies sourced by Tofler. The Bengaluru-based firm plans to raise as much as Rs 3,750 crore (around $450 million) via a fresh issue and up to Rs 6,664 crore (around $800 million) through an offer-for-sale (OFS) component, the filings stated.
Investors shunned shares of Bajaj Finance on Friday, a day after the non-banking financial company (NBFC) reported a sharp contraction in its net interest margin (NIM) for the March quarter of the financial year 2023-24 (Q4FY24). The losses accounted for a fifth of the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex's 609-point loss. Most brokerages have tamed their earnings expectations for the next couple of quarters, after the management said it expected the pressure on NIMs to continue in the near term.
Leading up to Valentine's Day on February 14, quick-commerce platforms like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart have witnessed a phenomenal uptick in the sales of products related to the occasion, such as roses and chocolates. Meanwhile, e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart have gone live with their respective Valentine's Day sale events, offering generous discounts on products. Sales of chocolates and roses on Zomato-owned Blinkit shattered previous records at the beginning of this year's Valentine's Day week, on February 7, which is celebrated as Rose Day.
Five firms, including ACC Ltd, HDFC Asset Management Company and FSN E-Commerce Ventures that runs Nykaa, will be dropped from Nifty Next 50 index from September 29. NSE Indices Ltd, an arm of the National Stock Exchange, on Thursday said that Indus Towers and Page Industries will also be dropped from the index. Punjab National Bank, Trent, Sriram Finance, TVS Motor Company, and Zydus Lifesciences will be included in the Nifty Next 50 index, NSE Indices said in a statement.
The government will soon come out with guidelines for social media influencers, making it mandatory for them to declare their association with the product they endorse, sources said.
It is being suggested that apps, such as WhatsApp and Telegram, should share their APIs with each other to ensure there is interoperability, just as it exists across email services.
Online retail is increasing market share rapidly.
E-commerce player Meesho, backed by marquee investors like SoftBank Group and Meta Platforms, will look at an initial public offering (IPO) only in 2025, and till then, its focus will be on generating profits after tax and not just on being Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)-positive, top sources in the company told Business Standard in New Delhi. In a clear shift of strategy, the company, which has reduced its cash burn by 85 per cent, is now looking to trim its annual revenue growth target to 40 per cent from the 100-plus per cent earlier. The sources, however, said even this level of growth was far higher than that of most e-commerce companies.
In the April-June quarter (Q1) of 2023-24 (FY24), growth in sales of FSN E-Commerce Ventures (the parent company of Nykaa) decelerated to 24 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), and 9 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q), compared with 34 per cent in the previous quarter, due to a decline in the beauty & personal care (BPC) and fashion division's gross merchandise value (GMV). But Nykaa claimed it gained market share in both divisions. The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) margin of 5.2 per cent expanded 120 basis points (bps) from a year earlier.
When it comes to electric cars, the electric dream is turning out to be a six-letter word starting with f, ending with y, and having antas in between, notes Suveen Sinha.
Shares of Avenue Supermarts, which owns and operates the DMart stores, hit a two-year high of Rs 4,710.15 as they surged nearly 6 per cent on the BSE in Thursday's (April 4) intraday trade after reporting strong revenue growth in the January-March quarter (Q4) of the previous financial year (FY24). DMart, in the Q4FY24 pre-quarter update, said the company reported 20 per cent growth in standalone revenue from operations at Rs 12,393 crore, as against Rs 10,337 crore in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022-23 (FY23), driven by a 7 per cent growth in revenue per store and a robust 13 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase in store additions. In Q3 of 2021-22, the company reported revenue of Rs 8,606 crore and in Q3 of 2020-21, it posted revenue of Rs 7,303 crore.
Sharma was booked for raping the 19-year-old woman on Friday after finding her alone in her apartment in Supertech Ecovillage Society in Noida Extension, where he had gone to deliver an order, the police said.
'It is necessary to have a person at the top who can make strict decisions without hesitation. Modiji has done that.'
The grievance redressal mechanism of many big e-commerce players is not up to the mark as the number of complaints received by the National Consumer Helpline has risen sharply over the last four years, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said on Thursday. Addressing an event organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI), Singh said the number of complaints registered on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) has gone up to 90,000 in November compared to 40,000 in the same month last year. "Four years back, the number of complaints pertaining to e-commerce transactions was 8 per cent of the total complaints.
'Merchandise plays a key role in creating buzz about a specific party.'
'Given the inherent volatility, investors should take at least a three to five-year view.'
The government on Friday announced it will release onion from its buffer stock in the targeted regions with immediate effect to ensure prices remain under check till the new crop arrives from October onward. The government is exploring multiple options for disposal of onion: e-auction, e-commerce as well as through states at discounted rates via retail outlets of their consumer cooperatives and corporations, it said. The government has currently maintained 3 lakh tonnes of onion under the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) to meet any exigencies, if rates go up significantly during the lean supply season.
Kinetic on Wednesday relaunched the iconic two-wheeler Luna in an electric avatar, addressing the demand for affordable electric vehicles (EVs), more than two decades after its initial introduction. e-Luna will be available at an introductory ex-showroom price of Rs 69,990, as announced by Sulajja Firodia Motwani, founder and chief executive officer of Kinetic Green, after Union Road Minister Nitin Gadkari launched the vehicle. Motwani pointed out that the current top 10 electric two-wheelers in the country are priced between Rs 1.05 lakh and Rs 1.49 lakh, making them a "luxury" that is not "practical and accessible" for most people in India.
The blast at The Rameshwaram Caf has caused distress and concern among the startup and information technology (IT) community, raising questions related to safety and security. Approximately 10 people were reportedly injured in a low-intensity bomb blast at The Rameshwaram Caf, a popular restaurant in Bengaluru's Brookfield. The surrounding area is a major hub for the Indian technology (tech) industry, housing many startups and top IT companies such as IBM, SAP, Accenture, International Tech Park Bangalore, and Prestige Technostar.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh on e-commerce major Amazon for selling pressure cookers that did not meet quality standards. The CCPA also directed Amazon to notify the consumers of all these 2,265 pressure cookers sold through its platform, recall the products and reimburse the prices to buyers, the Department of Consumer Affairs said in a statement.
Investors are increasingly turning optimistic about shares of new-age companies. From broad-based 'sell' calls, analysts are giving thumbs up to Zomato, Paytm, and FSN e-Commerce Ventures-owned Nykaa as these companies have shifted focus to sustainable profits. The shares of Zomato hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 126 apiece on the BSE on November 7, having rallied 15.4 per cent in one week.
Virtual trial room is a new concept e-commerce players in India are looking at seriously. Using a web-camera, users are able to click pictures of themselves and then click on a product, which is then fitted on to their bodies. This helps see how it looks on them. Players such as Zovi.com, Lenskart.com and Kingschest.com have introduced this feature. Myntra.com will do so in two months.
Real and digital world will converge to sell products and services.
The government on Thursday said 18,600 toys have been seized in the last one month from major retail stores, including those of Hamleys and Archies, at airports and malls across India for lack of BIS quality mark and use of fake licences. Meanwhile, consumer protection regulator CCPA has also issued notices to three major e-commerce players -- Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal -- for alleged violation of toys quality control order, it said. Since January 1, 2021, the government has made it mandatory for toys to conform with safety norms specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a national standard setting body.
The Bengaluru-based quick-commerce application (app) Zepto is making big strides. According to Sensor Tower data, it surpassed JioMart in November, securing the second position among grocery apps in terms of monthly usage. This shift, identified by BofA Global Research, closely monitoring key segments of the app business, has pushed JioMart to third place in the grocery space.
E-commerce major Amazon will host Prime Day - its annual sale event - in India on July 15-16. The company will launch over 45,000 products from over 400 Indian and global brands. The announcement of the Prime Day event in India comes at a time when 900 workers at Amazon UK plan to strike for three days (July 11-13).
According to the Morcha, the demands which Delhi Chalo has been called include: MSP should be guaranteed as per C2+50 percent formula and, as promised, a law should be made to guarantee it; all the farmers should be made debt free, and all agricultural loan must be waived.
The show-cause notice dated February 8 by DCGI V G Somani cited a Delhi high court order dated December 12, 2018, which prohibits online sales of medicines without a licence.
'India has a lot of potential, not just in commercial aspects, but also in hiring of people and sourcing of products.'
The Centre must bring an "all-encompassing" policy to protect the interests of the consumers as well as offline traders and small traders, he said, underlining that the proposed consumer protection e-commerce rules are "inadequate" to address the issue. The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) is an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
At the heart of Paytm's slide lies the abject failure of its Super App strategy, notes Indrajit Gupta.
'What has happened at Byju's is no surprise to anyone.'
However, the government's draft policy on e-commerce companies has forced consumer companies to also adapt to the changes. For Dabur India, e-commerce channel continues to be a key driver of growth in urban India. The contribution of online sales to its entire portfolio is at six per cent compared to 1.5 per cent before the pandemic.
The government on Monday extended till July 21 the deadline for public comments on proposed amendments to the Consumer Protection (e-commerce) Rules, 2020. Earlier, the last date for public comments on the draft e-commerce rules was July 6. "It has now been decided to extend the timeline for receipt of comments/ suggestions on the draft e-commerce rules. "Views/ comments/ suggestions on the proposed amendments may be sent by July 21, 2021," a government notice said.