Corona lockdown: UP to allow e-commerce firms to make doorstep delivery

According to UP additional chief secretary (home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi, local authorities would issue passes on demand to e-commerce companies.

“E-commerce companies have been advised to contact the respective district authorities for the resolution of their grievances and issuance of passes,” he told the media here this evening.

Besides, the government has decided to allow unrestricted movement of trucks across the state to ensure that the supply chain of various commodities is not impeded. However, there is complete prohibition on the movement of people aboard such people, he warned.

He said the government was taking all steps to preempt any shortage of food items, including fruits, vegetables, food grain and flour during the lockdown period. “Nearly 1,090 community kitchens are functioning in the state and they have distributed about 380,000 food packets to the poor.”

Besides, almost 2 million litres of milk were supplied in UP through more than 12,200 vans. Around 16,200 provision stores and 2,067 medical shops have been allowed to function to cater the consumers, he added.

“The state has made provision of 11,311 motorised vans and 24,015 hand carts for the doorstep delivery of fruits and vegetables in the state,” Awasthi informed.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: Govt says lockdown working, no community outbreak

Meanwhile, the state has supplied 50,000 tonnes of wheat to the different flour mills operating to overcome the supply constraints in wake of the lockdown and panic buying in the market.

So far, 88 positive coronavirus cases have been identified in UP, of which 14 had been discharged after treatment, while the remaining patients, who are said to be normal, are convalescing in different hospitals without requiring intensive care unit (ICU) support.

Yogi AdityanathYogi Adityanath has written letter to his counterparts in 18 states, including Delhi, Kerala etc, urging them to arrange for the proper food and stay of the UP origin migrant labourers.

A total of 2,430 samples have so far been sent for testing, of which 2,305 samples turned out to be negative. The state has a three-tier medical protocol to deal with coronavirus comprising community health centres, district hospitals and super specialty hospitals at the local/block, district and state levels respectively.

So far, UP Police have registered 5,516 first information reports (FIR) under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for defying the lockdown orders pertaining to the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

Besides, 40 cases were registered under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) against 58 persons. More than 20 FIRs were filed under charges of black marketing and hoarding across the state.

Meanwhile, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has written letter to his counterparts in 18 states, including Delhi, Kerala etc, urging them to arrange for the proper food and stay of the UP origin migrant labourers during the ongoing lockdown period. The state has already deployed nodal officers for these state

Covid-19: E-commerce firms in a fix over definition of essential goods

While delivery of essential items by e-commerce firms was exempted from the 21-day coronavirus (COVID-19)-induced lockdown called by the prime minister on Tuesday, online retailers are struggling with the distinction between essential and non-essential goods.

This caused them to face challenges on Wednesday, with many facing forced lockdown of warehouses and restrictions on deliveries, leading to a temporary shutdown of operations.

Paytm Mall told Business Standard that it was unclear whether clothing or home items qualified as essentials. Srinivas Mothey, senior vice-president of Paytm Mall, said that they had prioritised items like masks, sanitizers, ayurvedic supplements, immunity boosters, electronics and home items. “It is unclear whether clothing or home items qualify as essential items. A lot of professionals are working from home, and they need electronics for their productivity. Does this qualify as essential?”

Amazon has disabled shipments for lower priority products and is using logistics capacity to deliver critical products like household staples, packaged food, healthcare, hygiene, personal safety products.

Grofers has shortlisted essentials based on consumer demand. “We are prioritising high demand essentials such as atta, dal, canned food, ready-to-cook food, spices,” said Albinder Dhindsa, CEO and co-founder of Grofers. The firm has seen an 80 per cent surge in orders compared to last week.

Meanwhile, a multinational retail giant is busy reaching out to state governments to sift out essential and non-essential goods at its stores. “We are separating essential and non-essential goods on our application to cater to our members. However, our team is talking to state governments to get a specific definition of essentials,” an official said.

The guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday after the lockdown was announced exempted e-commerce deliveries of essential items “including food, pharmaceuticals and medical equipments”.

The lack of clarity over definition led to a breakdown on Wednesday, which was settled with the intervention of central authorities. Grofers’ warehouse in Faridabad was closed by local law enforcement on Wednesday, which was reopened after intervention by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

Bigbasket sent out a message to customers that deliveries could not be processed because of restrictions imposed by local authorities on movement of goods.

Eventually state governments reached out to warehouses and stores to collaborate for doorstep delivery of groceries. “Before the lockdown announcement, authorities were forcing shutdown of warehouses and stores, but things have turned around now. The authorities are reaching out to collaborate with us to carry out home deliveries of essentials,” said a senior executive of a large retail chain.

E-commerce players have also worked out flexible policies for sellers to cater to the demand.

Paytm Mall, for instance, has removed late processing charges, increased service level agreements and given flexibility to process orders in 10 days. “We are also supporting them with moving products to our courier partner fulfillment centres, which will help smaller merchants,” said Mothey.

Grofers said that it was in constant touch with manufacturing partners and supply chain to ensure that they were aligned and making quick arrangements in case there are momentary gaps. “We are also keeping a persistent check on how things are progressing and have put a plan for allocation basis demand to act faster in favour of our customers.”

21-day lockdown: E-commerce firms set to resume work after police assurance

The Delhi police issued a statement saying they were proactively engaging with e-commerce portals and were issuing passes to ensure agents were able to commute seamlessly and deliver essential goods to residents during the 21-day lockdown. The Bengaluru police, too, came out with guidelines for issuing curfew passes.

Following this, Flipkart Chief Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said, “We have been assured of the safe and smooth passage of our supply chain and delivery executives by local law enforcement authorities and are resuming our grocery and essentials services later today (Wednesday).”

E-commerce policy: Govt seeks to establish regulator, tighten controls

India wants to set up an e-commerce regulator and force companies such as Amazon to swiftly turn over information sought by authorities as part of a new policy being drafted, two sources familiar with the plan told Reuters. The new policy will be India's latest effort to tighten control over e-commerce and is likely to raise compliance worries for top firms such as Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart that are already battling stricter foreign investment rules since last year.

It comes at a time when the importance of such companies is growing as the coronavirus pandemic shuts down movement of people and causes a surge in online activity.

The newly-created regulator will be empowered to seek any information from companies to enforce the new policy and even other Indian laws aimed at protecting consumers or ensuring fair competition on e-commerce, the sources said.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus: E-commerce gets a boost as customers prefer to stay indoor

The regulator will also have powers to impose penalties if the companies fail to comply with such information requests or regulations, they said. The sources are aware of the ongoing deliberations around the policy but declined to be named as the discussions are private. India's trade ministry, which is drafting the policy, did not respond to a request for comment.

While the rules are being designed for e-commerce companies, they are also likely to apply to social media platforms such as Facebook Inc, whose revenue is linked to advertising and other means of monetisation of users' data, the sources said.

The policy will also mandate an e-commerce company to supply within 72 hours information sought by law enforcement agencies, one of the sources added. It was not immediately clear what types of information can be requested by such agencies.

ALSO READ: Online private labels may grow 1.6 times faster than e-commerce platforms

The government has had consultations on the proposed policy with several tech companies in recent months, the second source said, without naming any company.

Amazon, Flipkart and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The policy is still being drafted and could go through further changes.

ALSO READ: Retail 2.0: Focus on data, tech, innovation, to take on e-commerce giants

Even before the fillip to e-commerce provided by the coronavirus pandemic, India was seen as one of the world's fastest growing e-commerce markets. E-commerce revenue this year is expected to reach $120 billion, triple its size in 2017, according to India Brand Equity Foundation.

The government has also been working on various policies to more strictly regulate data storage by technology companies. For e-commerce, the new regulator will likely define categories of e-commerce data that would have to be stored locally within India, the sources said.

A senior trade ministry official told Reuters discussions were being held on how e-commerce data should be regulated under the policy, referring to it as a "complex subject".

E-tailers asked to reduce single-use plastic, develop sustainable packaging

The commerce and industry ministry has advised e-commerce companies to gradually slash single-use plastic in packaging of products being sold through their platforms, in line with the government's commitment to reduce use of such material, an official said.

The companies have also been advised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to develop sustainable packaging material which will contribute to reducing India's plastic footprint globally.

E-commerce companies have been asked for discarding plastic used in packaging, which accounts for more than 40 per cent of non-fibre plastic, according to the official.

"With an earnest ambition to stop consumption of single use plastic, these companies are being advised to consider gradually curtailing use of single-use plastic in packaging products being sold through their e-commerce platform," the official said.

When asked about the issue, Amazon spokesperson said the company is committed to a sustainable supply chain that leverages technology to build solutions that optimise the use of packaging material, reduce waste and create eco-friendly packaging.

"We have been relentlessly working on reducing single-use plastic in our supply chain. Today, less than 7 per cent of our packaging material consists of single use plastic and we are working towards eliminating usage of them completely in our buildings in India by June 2020," the spokesperson said.

Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart, said that some of the focus areas for the company is usage of electric vehicles in logistics, waste management and efficient packaging, including reduction of single use plastic.

"Earlier this year, we announced and outlined our vision of eliminating single-use plastic in our packaging by March 2021...As of 1st August, we have already achieved a 25 per cent reduction in usage of single-use plastics through various initiatives across our packaging value chain, and we are aggressively moving towards 100 per cent recycled plastic consumption in our supply chain by March 2021," he said.

Creating alternatives for single-use plastic packaging is one of the significant steps we have taken towards fulfilling our commitment to creating a sustainable ecosystem, he added.

The direction by the DPIIT assumes significance as the government is taking steps to cut down consumption of single-use plastic.

The DPIIT is taking and planning series of such steps under the Plastic Waste Free-Swachhata Hi Seva Campaign - 2019.

It has also asked the cement plants to recycle plastic waste. Letters has been sent to chief secretaries of states regarding collection of plastic waste at industrial parks in their states/UTs for collection of plastic waste across their respective areas and to focus on plastic waste management on a sustained and continous basis.

A communication has also been sent to CEOs/heads of 57 industrial estates under the DPIIT to participate in this campaign, ensure collection and transportation of collected plastic waste to nearest designated urban local bodies.

Similarly, industry and traders associations have been asked to sensitise all their members to participate in the campaign and to make India free from single use plastic.

Amazon Great Indian Festival sale: Deals on budget phones from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, Nokia, Vivo, LG, and more

E-commerce platform Amazon India is offering discounts, deals, exchange offers, bank offers, zero-interest equated monthly instalment schemes, etc, on a wide number of products, including smartphone, as part of its ongoing festive-season sale. The Amazon Great Indian Festival sale started on September 29 and will continue until October 4. In the sale, the e-commerce platform is offering up to 10 per cent instant discount on SBI cards and credit-card EMI transactions, free one-year screen replacement in partnership with Acko, besides exchange offers and besides interest-free EMIs on smartphones.

Here is a look at some of the best deals on budget smartphones:

Samsung Galaxy M30 (3GB/32GB)

Samsung Galaxy M30This budget smartphone from South Korean electronics major Samsung is available at a discounted price of Rs 9,999, which is nine per cent lower than its prevailing retail price of Rs 11,000. The phone has a 6.4-inch fullHD+ screen with infinity-U-shaped notch on the top. Powered by Exynos 7904 mobile processor, the phone boasts a 5,000 mAh battery and 15W fast charge support. It has a triple-camera set-up on the back featuring a 13-megapixel primary sensor mated with 5MP ultra-wide sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. On the front the phone has a 16MP shooter for selfies.

Realme U1 (3GB/64GB)

Realme U1This phone is available at a discounted price of Rs 8,999, which is 25 per cent lower than its prevailing market retail price of Rs 11,999.

As for the specifications, the phone has a 6.3-inch fullHD+ screen with teardrop notch on top, MediaTek Helio P70 mobile processor, 3,500 mAh battery, dual camera set-up on the back with 13MP primary sensor and 2MP depth sensor, and a 25MP selfie camera on the front.

LG W30 (3GB/32GB)

LG W30This smartphone is available at a discounted price of Rs 7,999, which is 27 per cent lower than its prevailing retail price of Rs 10,999. Launched earlier this year, the phone has a 6.26-inch HD+ resolution screen with teardrop shaped notch on the top. Powered by MediaTek Helio P22 mobile processor, 4,000 mAh battery and Android Pie operating system, the phone comes with triple camera set-up on the back featuring a 12MP primary sensor, 13MP ultra-wide and a 2MP depth sensor.

Xiaomi Redmi 7

Redmi 7This smartphone is available at a discounted price of Rs 5,999, which is 40 per cent lower than its prevailing retail price of Rs 9,999. The phone has a 6.26-inch screen of HD+ resolution. It is powered by Qualcomm 632 system-on-chip, paired with up to 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage. Powered by 4,000 mAh battery, the phone has dual camera set-up on the back featuring 12MP primary sensor mated with 2MP depth sensor. On the front, the phone has an 8MP selfie camera.

Nokia 6.1 Plus (6GB/64GB)

Nokia 6.1 PlusThis smartphone is available at a discounted price of Rs 9,999, which is 51 per cent lower than its prevailing market retail price of Rs 20,499. The phone has a 5.8-inch fullHD+ screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 mobile processor, 3,060 mAh battery, 16MP + 5MP dual camera set-up on the back, and 16MP front camera.

Viability woes cloud sustainable packaging initiative of e-commerce firms

E-commerce stakeholders are increasingly recognising the need to make sustainable packaging viable for small businesses that supply products to these platforms, in order to achieve targets. This comes at a time when the government and individual retailers look for options to curb the use of single-use plastic.

The biggest consumers of single-use plastic continue to be across retail, e-commerce, hospitality, FMCG, and food delivery networks. Ahead of the sales season, firms are gearing up to reduce visibility of plastic (especially single-use). Apparel packaging contributes to a major chunk of this consumption for e-commerce platforms.

Akhil Saxena, vice-president (customer fulfillment), Amazon India, said that even though the company has taken a number of initiatives — including offering to deliver products in the seller’s original packaging — reducing single-use plastic requires long-term efforts.

“Through deeper engagement with larger sellers on the platform, we have enabled delivery in the seller’s own packaging (across select categories) to reduce additional plastic. However, ensuring that the sellers themselves use more sustainable material will take more time,” said Saxena.

He also said the e-commerce giant is ensuring the packaging material for warehouses and fulfillment centres are supplied by manufacturers from nearby towns and villages, to reduce the carbon footprint.

Earlier in the week, Amazon India announced its commitment to eliminate single-use plastic from its packaging by June 2020.

The company is replacing plastic dunnage material such as air pillows and bubble wraps, with recyclable ‘paper cushions’ across its fulfilment centers in India to protect the products that are in transit.

This solution has already been launched in select fulfilment centers (FC) and will be extended across all FCs of Amazon in the country by the end of the year.

India’s plastic industry recorded an annual revenue of Rs 3.5 trillion in FY19.

According to a recent Bloomberg report, globally Amazon.com’s greenhouse gas emission last year was more than many of its competitors across retail, technology, and logistics sectors, though it was below that of rival Walmart.

Walmart-owned company Flipkart outlined its vision to eliminate single-use plastic, claiming that as of August 1, 2019, it had achieved 25 per cent reduction through various initiatives across its packaging value chain.

The e-commerce firm says it is working on various initiatives, including the introduction of eco-friendly paper shreds, replacing poly pouches with recycled paper bags, replacing bubble wraps and airbags with carton waste shredded material and 2 Ply roll, to name a few.

Flipkart has also filed for an EPR (extended producer responsibility) and is targeting 30 per cent collection back in the first year, to begin with. Amazon also launched a similar initiative across the country in September, after piloting it in Maharashtra last year.

The cost of sustainable options such as fabric, jute, wood, and plant-based material continues to be a hurdle for the actual implementation in the lowest rung of the supply chain.

“Six months back, the cost of wooden cutlery was four times that of the plastic cutlery. We have already managed to bring it down by

2.5 times with better demand, and hope to reduce it further. However, the smallest businesses, such as street food vendors, are yet to find it viable enough to come on board,” said Sachin Agrawal, co-founder and chief operating officer of Bizongo — a marketing platform for packaging solutions.

Bizongo’s clients include Myntra, Flipkart, Reliance Retail, Amazon.in, and Agarwal Packers and Movers, among others.

Agrawal said that the startup is working to aggregate re-cyclers and suppliers to ensure a circular economy for materials passing through the platform.

In the pack

E-commerce platforms have been announcing sustainability initiatives ahead of sale season

Cost of recyclable and natural material-based products a deterrent for small scale suppliers

Firms partnering with recycling entities to push agenda further

Tech giants put India plans on hold, seek clarity on e-commerce policies

Global technology majors have put on hold their investment plans for India as they wait for a new government to clear the air around a host of issues such as the e-commerce policy and data protection laws, people in the know said.

Public policy teams of Amazon, Flipkart, Facebook, and TikTok, among others, are planning to meet senior officials of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), finance ministry, and information technology ministry after the formation of the government, to understand its stance.

“A lot of questions remain unanswered. The e-commerce policy talks more about data protection. The changes companies had to make due to the tweaks in the FDI (foreign direct investment) policy are still affecting businesses. We need to understand what exactly the new government would do on these issues,” said a senior public policy advisor to one of the biggest e-commerce companies in India. These companies are concerned about data protection laws, which make it mandatory for them to store all data of Indian users onshore. “The problem is that the government is not even allowing us to process the data offshore. If that stays, it would affect businesses a lot,” added the advisor.

Many companies have also deferred their investment plans. “We need to know what the policies are. There is too much to and fro happening on that front. Till the time we have crystal clear policies, investment might not happen,” said a senior vice-president of a technology firm.

The proposed e-commerce policy, aimed at streamlining and regulating the digital business ecosystem, is expected to dominate the headlines after May 23. The new government will have to navigate through the differences between public and industry opinion regarding the policy that has diverged despite a long stakeholder consultation period.

“While the government has already held detailed discussions with technology companies, law firms, and industry associations over myriad aspects of the policy, only provisions regarding data flows and foreign investment have been incorporated into the policy. We don't know what happened to the other issues such as e-commerce norms, trademark rights, and the extent to which online services will come under the policy hammer," a senior functionary of the Confederation of Indian Industry said.

Meanwhile, civil society bodies and interest groups have also written to DPIIT Secretary Ramesh Abhishek, expressing concerns over the consultation process.

In a letter sent to Abhishek earlier this week, 13 such groups have called for publishing all comments received by the DPIIT as part of the public consultation, to provide an opportunity to all stakeholders to submit counter-comments. The letter reviewed by Business Standard points out this is the norm in other government consultations on policies of public interest.

"Prior public consultations conducted by other government bodies such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have maintained a higher level of transparency by publishing the comments received,” it said. The letter, co-signed by more than 10 academics, has also requested more discussions on issues such as tax, competition issues, intellectual property and intermediary liability.

However, the issue of data management is expected to be most contentious. “The overarching approach to data management, which mis-classifies data as a national asset, deprives individuals of autonomy over and consent for their personal data, a protected right in India,” the Asia Internet Coalition has said, which counts Apple, Facebook, Google and LinkedIn as its members.