Flipkart warns new FDI rules for e-commerce, will cause 'significant customer disruption'

Agencies
January 30, 2019

New Delhi, Jan 30: Walmart Inc’s online retailer Flipkart has told the government the company faces the risk of “significant customer disruption” if the implementation of new curbs for e-commerce is not delayed by six months, a source told news agency.

India’s new foreign investment restrictions will, from February 1, bar e-commerce companies from selling products from firms in which they have an equity interest and also ban them from reaching deals with sellers to only sell on one platform.

In a letter to India’s industries department earlier this month, Flipkart Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy said the rules required the company to assess “all elements” of its business operations, according to a person privy to the communication.

“Redesigning numerous elements of our technology systems to ensure that we can validate and evidence our compliance, in such a compressed period of time, has caused us to divert significant resources,” Krishnamurthy wrote in the letter. The new curbs were only announced on December 26.

He also said the regulations could cause “significant customer disruption” if the deadline for compliance wasn’t extended. He asked for a six-month delay.

The contents of Flipkart’s letter have not been previously reported. Flipkart declined to comment.

Officials have said the government is unlikely to change the policy’s implementation date. The industries department declined to comment for this article.

The policy move has jolted Walmart, which last year invested $16 billion in Flipkart in its biggest ever deal, and Amazon, which has committed $5.5 billion in India investments.

Industry sources have said the new policy would raise compliance costs and force Amazon and Flipkart to review their business arrangements in the country.

Flipkart and Amazon have both started working on approaching thousands of sellers on their platforms to ensure the companies comply with the regulations, three sources aware of the matter said, even as they seek a deadline extension.

For Flipkart, the process would take five-to-six months, said one of the sources, who told Reuters: “the company is right now focusing on working with sellers (for compliance), all rest is on the back burner”.

Unfair marketplace?

India’s small traders had complained that large e-commerce companies used their control over inventory from their affiliates to create an unfair marketplace that allowed them to offer deep discounts on some products. Such arrangements would be barred under the new policy.

Amazon told Reuters last week it had written to the government to seek an extension of four months. With more than 400,000 sellers and “hundreds of thousands of transactions” daily, Amazon said it needed the time to understand the policy.

Flipkart, in its letter, said the group has more than 80,000 employees and contractors and the number of shipments and packages which move daily were between 500,000 and 600,000.

The new policy “imposes several new conditions, which we believe could potentially have undesirable impacts on the continued growth of e-commerce in India”, Krishnamurthy wrote.

The company added that it wanted to work with the federal government to promote “pro-growth policies” which can help develop the e-commerce sector. Before the policy change, Morgan Stanley estimated India’s e-commerce market would grow 30 percent a year to $200 billion in the 10 years up to 2027.

The US government has been concerned and earlier this month told Indian officials to protect Walmart and Amazon’s investments in the country, citing “good relations” between the two countries, Reuters reported on Thursday.

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News Network
March 12,2020

Geneva, Mar 12: For the global economy, virus repercussions were profound, with increasing concerns of wealth- and job-wrecking recessions. U.S. stocks wiped out more than all the gains from a huge rally a day earlier as Wall Street continued to reel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,464 points, bringing it 20% below its record set last month and putting it in what Wall Street calls a “bear market.” The broader S&P 500 is just 1 percentage point away from falling into bear territory and bringing to an end one of the greatest runs in Wall Street’s history.

WHO officials said they thought long and hard about labeling the crisis a pandemic — defined as sustained outbreaks in multiple regions of the world.

The risk of employing the term, Ryan said, is “if people use it as an excuse to give up.” But the benefit is “potentially of galvanizing the world to fight.”

Underscoring the mounting challenge: soaring numbers in the U.S. and Europe’s status as the new epicenter of the pandemic. While Italy exceeds 12,000 cases and the United States has topped 1,300, China reported a record low of just 15 new cases Thursday and three-fourths of its infected patients have recovered.

China’s totals of 80,793 cases and 3,169 deaths are a shrinking portion of the world’s more than 126,000 infections and 4,600 deaths.

“If you want to be blunt, Europe is the new China,” said Robert Redfield, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With 12,462 cases and 827 deaths, Italy said all shops and businesses except pharmacies and grocery stores would be closed beginning Thursday and designated billions in financial relief to cushion economic shocks in its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving crisis that silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St. Peter’s Square.

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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: The Delhi High Court Thursday asked the Delhi Police to file status report on a plea by Jamia Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar, who was arrested under the anti-terror law --UAPA -- seeking bail in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in February.

Zargar, M Phil student of Jamia Millia Islamia University, is more than four months pregnant.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued notice to the police and asked it to file a status report on the bail plea.

The high court listed the matter for further hearing on June 22.

Zargar, who was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on April 10, has challenged the June 4 order of the trial court denying her bail in the case.

The trial court, in its order, had said “when you choose to play with embers, you cannot blame the wind to have carried the spark a bit too far and spread the fire.”

It had said that during the course of investigation a larger conspiracy was discernible and if there was prima evidence of conspiracy, acts and statements made by any one of the conspirators, it is admissible against all.

The court had said that even if there was no direct act of violence attributable to the accused (Zargar), she cannot shy away from her liability under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

However, the trial court had asked the concerned jail superintendent to provide adequate medical aid and the assistance to Zargar.

The police had earlier claimed that Zargar allegedly blocked a road near Jaffrabad metro station during the anti-CAA protests and instigated people that led to the riots in the area.

It further claimed that she was allegedly part of the “premediated conspiracy” to incite communal riots in northeast Delhi in February.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and scores injured.

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News Network
March 26,2020

Srinagar, Mar 25: A 65-year-old man hailing from Hyderpora area of the city died on Thursday, becoming the first fatality in Jammu and Kashmir due to coronavirus.
"As we share the sad news of our first #Covid19 fatality, my heart goes out to the family of the deceased. We stand with you and share your grief," Mayor of Srinagar Junaid Azim Mattu tweeted.
Government spokesperson Rohit Kansal also confirmed the death via Twitter.
"First death due to Coronavirus- 65 years old Male from Hyderpora Srinagar. Four of his contacts also tested positive yesterday," Kansal said.
Four people had tested positive for coronavirus in J-K on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 11.
Authorities in Kashmir have expressed apprehensions that the cases could be more than reported in the Valley as a significant number of people appeared to have concealed their travel history.
As per a government bulletin on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir, as many as 5,124 travellers and people who came in contact with suspected and positive cases have been put under surveillance.

Among them 3,061 are in home quarantine (including facilities operated by the government), 80 in hospital quarantine and 1,477 in home surveillance.
Restrictions on movement imposed in Kashmir to prevent the spread of coronavirus were tightened on Wednesday.

 

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