Tech unites against foreign foes; Did Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal bury the hatchet?
(AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

Tech unites against foreign foes; Did Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal bury the hatchet?

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India’s top e-commerce firms are ganging up against their overseas rivals. Flipkart, Ola, MakeMyTrip and Quikr plan to launch a NASSCOM-like lobby group, called Indiatech.org, to persuade the government to design favourable policies for domestic internet companies. Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal, one of the loudest voices against so-called “capital dumping,” and an unnamed retired bureaucrat will serve as chairman and CEO, respectively. Internet entrepreneurs have been clamouring for a level playing field against aggressively discounted pricing by deep-pocketed rivals such as Uber and Amazon. The lobbyists believe India could annually lose $10 billion in FDI if local tech companies fail.

Your favourite neighbourhood paan shop may no longer stock cola and candy. The Union Ministry of Health and Family has debarred tobacconists from stocking products that may attract the attention of children. The ministry wants to develop a mechanism by which small tobacco retailers will need local authorities’ nod if they wish to sell consumer products. Companies such as Parle and Britannia expect a hit on sales as these shops account for 8% to 10% of industry revenue. “In India, they are 2.5 million, or about a quarter of the country’s store universe, and the impact will be huge but we can’t quantify unless it is close to implementation,” said B Krishna Rao, category head at Parle Products.

India's biggest telecom rivals — Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio — are talking partnership. Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and Bharti Airtel boss Sunil Bharti Mittal referred to each other as “friends” and promised to join forces around artificial intelligence and robotics at a recent industry conference. This bonhomie is in sharp contrast to the bitterness between the two corporate doyens, who have locked horns on many telecom-related issues over the last decade. Just recently, Bharti Airtel came down heavily against the telecom regulator’s decision to cut interconnection usage charges — the cost of making calls across networks — as a decision that benefits only one operator (read Reliance Jio.)

India wants to brand its home-grown cotton to fetch premium prices for overseas exports. The idea is to give an identity to locally produced cotton and fight perceptions around quality by labeling or barcoding it. “We will see ‘Indian cotton’ soon on the lines of Egyptian and US cotton,” said Ujwal Lahoti, chairman of Texprocil. India also wants to create a policy for contract cotton farming under the revised Technology Mission on Cotton (TMC), a government project started in 2008 to boost the industry. Textiles Commissioner Kavita Gupta has held meetings with traders, ginners, textile mills and garment manufacturers to understand how the quality and production of cotton can be improved under the new TMC.

California may go gasless. The richest US state by GDP may follow in India’s footsteps by banning combustion engine vehicles to reach its goals for cleaner air. The move would have significant ramifications for the automobile industry: The Golden State sees more than 2 million new passenger vehicles registered each year — India now stands at 3 million — meaning that big carmakers like General Motors would need to shift their production to focus more on electric vehicles and away from gas- and diesel-powered cars. India, China, France and the UK have all promised to electrify all vehicles on their roads, with target dates between 2030 and 2040. Now the question is which country will win the race to produce all these electric vehicles and their charging infrastructure.

Idea of the Day: Technology helps employees work faster and more efficiently, but today’s reliance on tech may cause more harm than good. The key, says best-selling author Eric Termuende, is balance.

“The time we save by not having that face-to-face conversation is costing relationships, friendships, and even basic understanding of who we’re working with.”

What do you think? Share your thoughts on today’s stories in the comments.

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Pandit Rajkant Shastri

I am pandit Rajkant mishra , I believe in the welfare of the world.

7 年

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Rausha Jha

[email protected] || Entrepreneur || Frontend Developer

7 年

Must control on number of vechiles . government have to make the rules for buying accordingly no of members in family.

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The electrifying motor will be best solution of air pollution..

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To improve on electric powered engines bycicles,motorcycles, autorickshaws vehicles are easy to put on Indian roads. Like we can sometime laugh to see NANO running like a toy. What more India can do without safety is unlimited.

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