A day after the world’s richest person Jeff Bezos announced fresh USD 1 billion investment in India, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said his firm Amazon was not doing a favour to the country by the investments and questioned how the online retailing major could incur such “big” losses but for its predatory pricing. Goyal, who has not yet given Bezos an audience, said e-commerce companies have to follow Indian rules in letter and spirit and not find loopholes to make a back-door entry into multi-brand retail segment.

Publication: ET Retail

Date: January 16, 2020

India has one of the world’s largest working-age population, but finding the right talent is a massive struggle.Nearly two-thirds of the respondents in a Twitter survey by Vijay Anand, CEO and founder of The Startup Centre in Chennai—known as “The Startup Guy” on the microblogging site—said they believe India has a shortage of talent to build world-class startups. Much of Anand’s follower list comprises of Indian startup ecosystem players from founders to venture capitalists.

Publication: Quartz

Date: January 14, 2020

E-commerce major Amazon has pumped over Rs 1,700 crore into its payments and wholesale business units in India, signalling opportunity that the US giant sees in the country. Amazon Pay India has received Rs 1,355 crore from Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon.com.incs.Limited, while Amazon Wholesale (India) allotted shares worth about Rs 360 crore to Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon.com.incs.Limited, regulatory documents filed with the corporate affairs ministry showed.

Publication: Financial Express

Date: January 14, 2020

The Competition Commission of India has recently released its Market Study On E-Commerce In India report. At the centre of the debate are new-age digital markets. These two-sided platforms may share attributes with traditional businesses, but have altered the interplay of market forces. Multi-sided platforms such as Amazon, Zomato, MakeMyTrip, and Uber have acquired the ability to pass on benefits to consumers as they entice a huge network of suppliers to their platforms.

Publication: Mint

Date: January 14, 2020

Global furniture giant IKEA said Wednesday that it is recalling India-made Troligtvis travel mugs due to health concerns related to chemicals in the products. The decision came amid worries that the mugs that have been sold since last year may migrate levels of dibutyl phthalate exceeding the recommended limits. IKEA’s Korea unit said that all customers who have bought the cups can get full refunds regardless of whether they have receipts. “We took the global recall measure so as to secure the safety of customers, first and foremost,” IKEA Korea said.

Publication: Yonhap News Agency

Date: January 15, 2020

Another brand has followed Nike’s lead and severed its official selling ties with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Chic, low-cost furniture designer Ikea will no longer directly supply the e-commerce platform with inventory. Although Ikea goods will still be available at the site through third-party vendors that have stock from a wholesale supplier, the move will measurably mute the exposure of the Ikea brand on Amazon. Ikea hasn’t yet explained its reason for the decision, though it’s not a stretch to broadly suggest it just wasn’t worth maintaining the relationship.

Publication: Nasdaq

Date: January 14, 2020

To bring in more investments in data storage infrastructure, the government has asked for suggestions from technology giants and e-commerce companies. The recommendations will be considered for national e-commerce policy. At a meeting with companies and industry associations on Monday (January 13), the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) asked Amazon, Microsoft and Wipro to compile challenges and possible solutions for data storage and submit them in two weeks.

Publication: Inc42

Date: January 15, 2020