Daily Pulse India: TRAI Raps Facebook, Now Baidu Wants More of India, And So Does Walmart!

The startup bug bites again! With Alibaba deepening its relationship with India, can Baidu be far behind? The Chinese internet search giant has said it is in talks with Indian startups Zomato, BookMyShow and Big Basket for investment. So while, e-commerce is its focus, the company appears to have kept away from the high value marketplaces and zeroed in on niche players. Restaurant reviews and food ordering, movie ticketing, online groceries are still growing and the three companies are firmly on top of the game in these business. It hasn’t commented on how much it plans to invest. But, amid all the talk of VC money drying up, it looks like strategic players still want a piece of Indian startups.

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Guess who else is shopping online? Walmart, that’s who! The US retail giant is entering yet another of its arch rival Amazon’s focus markets. Walmart is reportedly talking to Amazon rivals Flipkart, Snapdeal and Shopclues (the latest e-commerce star on the block) for online partnerships. Walmart’s plans to set up shop in India were scuttled, no thanks to ambiguous laws and a strong mom-and-pop store lobby, and its presence in India continues to be mostly a B2B play. It has been opening retail outlets slowly, but needs to scale up, if it wants to utilize the Indian opportunity completely. Amazon meanwhile has given its India office a “blank check” to grow its local business amid stiff competition from the same companies that Walmart is talking to.

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PayTM is taking a leaf from investor Alibaba’s book and launching a travel service. Alibaba spun off all its travel business into a separate portal called Alitrip, which harnessed its strong online presence in travel. PayTM could even tie up with Alitrip for international travel deals. The online travel space in India has three main players – Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip and Yatra. Makemytrip is reportedly partnering with Flipkart and Ctrip is also an investor in it. But, all the three are strong players so PayTM will have a tough task ahead if travel is its next target.

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Airtel is out of two markets in Africa - Burkina Faso, and Sierra Leone, which have been bought by Orange. This is its first exit from the continent, where it has been struggling to turn a profit even after five years of operations. Airtel entered Africa in 2010 when it acquired Zain Telecom, but the operations there have been a drag on its books. It appears that Airtel underestimated the complexity of the market and the investment required to grow the business there. While the company has denied plans to exit Africa completely, it also wants out of two more markets – Chad and Congo Brazzaville. This sale has reportedly earned Airtel $800-$900 million, which will go towards repayment of its $10 billion debt.

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Some cheer for farmers. The Indian government will launch a crop insurance scheme next year to protect them from crop damage and bad rains (which has plagued them for three straight years and pushed thousands of debt-ridden farmers to suicide) This will weigh on government finances, but will help in three big state elections due this year.

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TRAI is miffed at Facebook. The telecom regulator is doubting Facebook’s claim that 11 million members have supported its Free Basics service, which is currently under fire from net neutrality activists. According to TRAI, it has received 1.35 million mails in support of Free Basics, merely a tenth of what Facebook claims.

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Meanwhile, all you Maggi lovers, your troubles are far from over. The Supreme Court is seeking more tests on the quality of your favourite noodles before it can affirm the clean chit given to it by the Bombay High Court.

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Cover Image: Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (R) chairs a pre-budget meeting with leading economists in New Delhi. Yes, it's that grim a task.

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