The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Thursday issued notices over the petition filed by e-commerce major Amazon, challenging a recent order passed by the fair trade regulator CCI that suspended the over-two-year-old approval for its deal with Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL). The appellate tribunal has directed the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and FCPL to file their reply in next 10 days and Amazon to file a rejoinder over it. It has directed to list the matter on February 2, for next hearing.
A top management leadership team from SoftBank has been coming to India in the last few days to meet the founders of start-ups and other investors, signalling the country's emergence as a pivotal market for the global investment giant. Based on current estimates, India accounts for nearly 10 per cent ($20 billion) of SoftBank's invested assets under management (AUM) globally. That makes the country its third largest market after the US and China.
TVS Motor Company has been one of the best-performing two-wheeler stocks in the current financial year (FY24), enriching investors with gains of 24 per cent. Among listed two-wheeler stocks, only Hero MotoCorp has done better in this period. New launches, market share gains, steady margins and expectations that its performance will continue in FY24 are expected to support TVS Motor's stock.
Better than expected performance in June quarter of the 2023-24 financial year (Q1FY24) and a robust outlook led to 1.2 per cent gain in Titan Company stock on Friday (July 7). The firm reported 20 per cent growth in revenues, aided by double-digit rise in its major consumer segments. Jewellery, its largest segment, accounting for about 90 per cent of its sales, stood out with a growth of 21 per cent over the year ago quarter.
E-commerce company Amazon plans to lay off around 1,000 employees in India as part of its biggest retrenchment exercise across the globe, according to sources. The company has announced the elimination of over 18,000 roles across the globe due to uncertain economic conditions. "The decision to eliminate 18,000 job roles across the globe will impact about 1,000 employees in India," the source said.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has reserved its order on Amazon's plea challenging the decision of regulator CCI to suspend approval for the e-commerce major's deal with Future Coupons. In December last year, Competition Commission of India (CCI) suspended the approval given by it in 2019 for Amazon's deal to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL). The regulator had said that Amazon suppressed information while seeking clearances for the transaction back then and also slapped a fine of Rs 202 crore on the company.
'The second generation of migrant labourers is not enthusiastic about continuing in this field.' 'The parents of the next generation do not wish their children to be part of this trade.'
The recent equity market weakness has sobered up investor mood, but the coming festive season is keeping analysts upbeat on stocks related to the consumption basket. Among the lot, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, and consumer electronics segments are expected to do well over the next few months, and investors should thus selectively take bets in these pockets, analysts suggest. "We expect good volume growth for the FMCG sector during the festive season with some improvement in rural demand.
Walmart-owned Flipkart on Wednesday said it has set up a new fulfilment centre (warehouse) in West Bengal, its second-largest in the state, that will help in creating nearly 3,500 direct jobs. Spread across an area of over 2.2 lakh sq ft, the new facility in Dankuni will cater to the needs of Flipkart and Myntra customers in the region and bolster the e-commerce major's efforts to ramps up supply chain infrastructure in the eastern part of the country. The facility will also help thousands of sellers offer a wider selection and enable faster deliveries of customer orders within the region and neighbouring states while also helping create national market access, according to a statement.
US retail giant Walmart has said it is "open to an IPO" for its Indian e-commerce arm Flipkart but there is "no specific timeline" for the share sale. Both Flipkart and payment app PhonePe continue to do well, Walmart International president and CEO Judith McKenna said while speaking at the DB Access Global Consumer Conference on June 7. "We always made it clear from the day we made the acquisition or the investment, that we would be open to an IPO," said McKenna. However, she noted that there is no specific timeline for the IPO.
Out of all the reported digital payment frauds in India, over half (55 per cent) were United Payments Interface (UPI)-related, a new report released on Tuesday revealed. Another 18 per cent are card related, 12 per cent are related to internet banking and nine per cent are from phishing calls. Most of the UPI-related frauds, however, have a low ticket size.
With the fashion world blurring the lines between innovation, technology and reality, shopping is all set to be revolutionised.
Reliance Industries' (RIL's) retail arm, Reliance Retail, is now valued at nearly twice the amount of its decades-old and lucrative oil-to-chemical (O2C) division. Bernstein's latest report on the conglomerate projects a valuation of $112 billion for its retail business, dwarfing the $57 billion valuation of its O2C division. In addition, the research firm valued Jio Platforms, the company's telecom arm, at $77 billion and the renewable energy business at $17 billion.
The GST Council in its meeting next week is likely to consider a proposal for making changes in the monthly tax payment form -- GSTR-3B, which would include auto-population of outward supplies from sales return and non-editable tax payment table, officials said. The move would help curb the menace of fake billing, whereby sellers would show higher sales in GSTR-1 to enable purchasers to claim input tax credit (ITC), but report suppressed sales in GSTR-3B to lower GST liability. Currently, GSTR-3B of a taxpayer includes auto drafted input tax credit (ITC) statements based on inward and outward B2B supplies and also red flags any mismatch between GSTR-1 and 3B.
With over 80 million Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users, Amazon Pay, the payments business of e-commerce giant Amazon, has been growing at 40-50 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), said Mahendra Nerurkar, chief executive officer (CEO) and vice-president (V-P), Amazon Pay India. "Leveraging just the micro peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on UPI is not a business model. "While we have enabled those features, we do not chase monthly active users based on this.
The stock of consumer goods major Emami has corrected nearly 3.5 per cent since its 52-week high of Rs 546.25. On August 29, the stock closed at Rs 521.90 on the BSE. After underperforming the Nifty FMCG index for a long time, the stock is now doing a catch up and surged over 13 per cent in the past one month.
On Saturday, an online marijuana sale racket was busted by Bhind police in Madhya Pradesh, leading to the arrest of two persons and seizure of 20 kilograms of the contraband, according to an official. The accused were operating the racket through a leading e-commerce firm, which received two-thirds of the profits generated, as per the official.
"India is the best market right now in the world with the digital initiatives the government has implemented
FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, which operates online beauty e-commerce platform Nykaa, on Monday said it has fixed a price band of Rs 1,085-1,125 per share for its initial public offer (IPO) that opens for subscription later this week. The IPO will open for subscription on October 28 and conclude on November 1. IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 630 crore (fresh issue) and an offer for sale of up to 41,972,660 equity shares being offered by the selling shareholders (offer for sale or OFS), a statement said.
JM Financial, Axis Bank, and Bank of America have been roped in as the bankers to run the mandate, say sources.
The proposed e-commerce rule book issued recently by the ministry of consumer affairs does not mention foreign companies or foreign direct investment (FDI) at any place, unlike most other government guidelines for the sector so far. That is a heartening development since the latest proposals could be fine-tuned as e-commerce policy.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday rejected Amazon's plea challenging the decision of fair trade regulator CCI to suspend the approval for the e-commerce major's deal with Future Coupons. A two-member bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Ashok Kumar Mishra, upheld the findings of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and directed it to pay the penalty of Rs 200 crore imposed on Amazon by the fair trade regulator within 45 days from Monday. "This appellate tribunal is in complete agreement" with the CCI, the two-member bench said.
Bootstrapping has put Nithin Kamath of Zerodha in a position where he can trifle with talk about valuation, points out Suveen Sinha.
Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee - that launched in India only in December 2021 - has decided to close operations in the country. The official reason given by Shopee, which is controlled by NYSE-listed Sea Ltd, is changing global sentiments. In a statement, it said, "In view of the global market uncertainties, we have decided to close risks of our early-stage Shopee India initiative." The e-commerce platform has been hit by growing opposition from trade associations led by Praveen Khandelwal as well as homegrown social commerce start-ups.
Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra on Thursday ordered registration of an First Information Report against officials of Amazon over the suicide of a youth who allegedly obtained poisonous sulphas tablets through the e-commerce site.
With a potential for a 10x growth in pre-tax profit from the business over the next decade, retail including e-commerce will be the next growth engine for Reliance Industries Ltd, Goldman Sachs said in a report. After growing 5x over FY16-FY20, RIL's core retail revenue growth has taken a pause in FY21 (April 2020 to March 2021) due to Covid related macro headwinds including lower footfalls. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate run by billionaire Mukesh Ambani used the period to build strong digital capabilities of the retail business while continuing to expand its physical reach.
SoftBank-based e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal has deferred its Rs 1,250 crore IPO, joining the list of startups that have decided to shelve their initial public offering (IPO) plans this year. Snapdeal, which competes with Amazon and Flipkart, filed a request this week with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to withdraw its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) amid a sell-off in tech stocks worldwide. "Considering the prevailing market conditions, the company has decided to withdraw the DRHP. The company may reconsider an IPO in the future, depending on its need for growth capital and market conditions," a Snapdeal spokesperson said.
E-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal have to ensure that the country of origin is displayed on imported products sold on their platforms, the Centre told the Delhi high court on Wednesday.
The government may roll out a new foreign trade policy (FTP) of a shorter term of two-three years in a bid to keep pace with the fast-evolving scenarios in international trade which have been triggered by recent disruptions, such as the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. An FTP is an elaborate policy guideline and strategy to promote the export of goods and services, with a duration of five years usually. The existing policy came into force on April 1, 2015, and was valid for five years, before multiple extensions.
In its latest edition, which will hit the stands on October 3, Panchjanya has carried a cover story that is highly critical of Amazon.
The demand for flexible office space is emerging as India's top short-term portfolio strategy, as 47 per cent of companies want to increase its use over the next 12 months, according to a survey by property consultant CBRE. Flexible office space is a workspace designed to provide employees with a variety of different places and ways to work. These spaces can be easily modified to fit the needs of any new project or role.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday admitted Bank of India's plea to initiate insolvency resolution proceedings against debt-ridden Future Retail Ltd (FRL). The tribunal rejected Amazon's objection to initiating insolvency proceedings against Future Retail. Admitting the lenders' plea, the NCLT appointed Vijay Kumar Iyar as the resolution professional for FRL.
Social media giant Meta has appointed Sandhya Devanathan as the vice president of Meta India, the company said.
With economic problems and job cuts, Hangzhou locals and people in other parts of China are not very pleased about hosting the Asian Games.
The latest cuts come after the company announced earlier this year that it was eliminating some 18,000 positions as part of a major cost-cutting bid at the e-commerce giant. "Given the uncertain economy... and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount," Jassy said in a memo to staff.
This year, festive sales are expected to push up the annual gross merchandise value of e-commerce companies to around $38 billion, a 40 per cent growth over the previous year.
India's e-commerce market is poised to grow by 84 per cent to $111 billion by 2024 on the back of accelerated adoption of digital technologies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by fintech firm FIS said on Wednesday. The report noted that countries, including India, have seen a shift in consumer behaviour caused by COVID-19, and new payment trends are shown to be on the rise. FIS, in its 2021 Global Payments Report, examined current and future payment trends across 41 countries. India's e-commerce market is projected to grow by 84 per cent between now and 2024 to about $111 billion (from about $60 billion in 2020) driven by mobile shopping, which is projected to grow 21 per cent annually over the next four years, the report said.
Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla issued an order excluding the non-essential items from sale by the e-commerce companies from the consolidated revised guidelines, which listed the exemption given to the services and people from the purview of the lockdown.
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 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday extended the card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation deadline by three months to September 30, 2022, in view of various representations received from industry bodies. Card-on-file, or CoF, refers to card information stored by payment gateway and merchants to process future transactions. Tokenisation is the process of replacing actual card details with a unique alternate code called 'Token' - thereby enabling more secure transactions.