News Roundup: 11 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [6 April – 11 April]

Flipkart, this week announced a tie up with the one of the unions of Mumbai Dabbawalas for last mile delivery of the products ordered through the portal. The company also announced the launch of on-demand logistics service.

Lets have a look at the important developments of the week

Foodpanda became target of a bug which allowed people order free food

Rocket Internet backed FoodPanda had a bug in their system which resulted in IIIT hostel students to place orders worth INR 6 lakhs. This bug was reported by a startup called Brthe. When foodpanda got to know about this, it first shutdown its operations in Hyderabad and later, it limited the shut down to the Gachibowli area where IIIT Hyderabad is located.

Uber Launched Auto booking service, UberAuto

Going beyond its elite image, this week Uber started UberAUTO in Delhi which allows customers to book an auto. The organisation said it’s “a cash-only service for now,” and the fares will be calculated using existing transport regulations. Meanwhile, competitors Ola, had launched auto booking service last year in November, and have over 40,000 autos currently on their platform with 5000 autos alone in Delhi.

Indian Govt. Will not ban Ola, Uber

The govt. has ruled out banning cab-hailing apps including ola and Uber. But further added that will be imposing conditions to make their operations safer. The transport ministry, headed by Nitin Gadkari, is likely to issue an advisory within the next three weeks to all states which will clearly state that these services have to be regulated under the Motor Vehicles Act but there is no case for banning them. The government wants to promote IT-based taxi companies.

Entrepreneurship Evangelist Prajakt Raut Launches Applyifi

Entrepreneurship evangelist and startup mentor Prajakt Raut launched his new venture Applyifi.com, a private platform for startups and early-stage companies to create a comprehensive and elegant online investor pitch deck and get funded.

Myntra To Shut Web Platform On May 1

Online fashion and lifestyle ecommerce player, Myntra, moving ahead on its way to become a mobile-app-based retailer is planning to shutdown its web platform on May 1. Myntra had launched its mobile app in May last year, and has seen an exponential rise in shoppers using its apps on all the platforms be it Android, iOS or Windows.

Quikr To Launch QuikrHomes.com For Real Estate Listings

Online classifieds listing portal Quikr.com plans to launch QuikrHomes.com, a website devoted only to real estate, in the next four to six weeks. The website, consisting of listing for homes, plots and commercial spaces, will aim to cater the $2.5 Bn worth of real estate transactions that are already taking place through quikr.com.

GSF Founder Rajesh Sawhney launched Innerchef

GSF founder, Rajesh Sawhney with four others launched a new venture InnerChef, an online food discovery and delivery platform.

Yes Bank Partnered With Twitter, Users To Receive Tweets via SMS

Yes Bank entered into a partnership with Twitter to help it’s interested customers receive tweets via SMS. Customers, after they have given a missed call to 011-3008-0888, will receive bank’s tweets on news, events and offers through SMS. The step will help bring non-twitter users a step closer to the updates from their banks.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Launched Internet Based Messaging App

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm launched its messaging app named Jio Chat for both iOS and Android mobiles.The app, similar to whatsapp, apart from sending short messages, allows voice and video calling facilities. The messages can be delivered to an unregistered user in an SMS format, but with an SMS cost to the receiver.

Paytm Sets marketing budget of INR 500 Cr. for the year

Paytm, mobile commerce platform, announced the launch of their new brand campaign on IPL. Through this brand film, Paytm aims to reinforce their position as the leader in the mobile commerce space. The outlay for this marketing campaign is in the range of Rs 50 crores, where Paytm is an associate sponsor on Sony and is also the official partner of Mumbai Indians.

Lets have a look at other developments from the startup ecosystem:

Startup Village To Launch Digital Resource Platform

Technology incubator Startup Village announced its plans to launch a digital knowledge resource platform by July to offer mentorship and entrepreneurial advice. The platform has been developed using in-house resources.

Xiaomi Ended Exclusivity Deal With Flipkart

Chinese Tech Giant Xiaomi, ending its exclusivity with Flipkart, tied up with Snapdeal and Amazon.in for selling its products through their platform. Recently, Xiaomi also entered into a partnership with The Mobile Store to sell it’s products through the offline stores as well.

BigBasket To Collaborate With Neighbourhood Stores For Urgent Product Delivery

Online grocery retailer, BigBasket announced its plans of collaborating with neighbourhood stores to deliver products in less than 60 mins. The retailer will partner with about 1800 local stores in the cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune. Over 400 items have been shortlisted as essentials and have been included in the 60mins delivery scheme.As per the arrangement, the store staff will take care of the deliveries, while BigBasket will provide the technology for inventory management.

Indian Railways To Bring New Schemes For Attracting Ecommerce Platforms

Indian Railways announced its plans of bringing in new schemes for attracting ecommerce platforms to transport their parcels. Railway believes that it can reduce the transportation charges significantly compared to those incurred while transporting via roads. The move is expected to increase the earnings of the railways.

Citrus Adds Lend A Hand Feature

Citrus Cash App has launched a new “Lend A Hand” feature. The current version is a wallet app that allows users to ‘Send Money’ to friends and family, ‘Request Money’ when they need it and Split Bills with friends after fun outings.

Lifestyle International To Venture Into Ecommerce

Landmark Group’s Lifestyle International is venturing into ecommerce by launching its website by the first half of the next year for all three formats that it operates in India- Lifestyle, Home Centre and Max. Other competitors in this space have either already launched their eretailing websites or are in the process of getting online soon.

Amazon Set Up Warehouse In Hyderabad

US based ecommerce Giant Amazon’s Indian leg, in its biggest infrastructure related investment, has set up a fulfillment centre at Hyderabad . The FC, to be operational from next month, is a facility spread over 280,000 sq ft and will help the company deliver products faster, at the same time also increasing its storage capacity.

Flipkart To Add Grocery Items To Its List Of Offerings

Homegrown Ecommerce platform Flipkart might soon begin to sell grocery items as well, and that too by the second half of this year. Flipkart began its journey in 2007 as a bookstore and today it offers products in various categories like electronics, apparels, personal care and jewellery besides other products.

BVR Mohan Reddy Joined as Nasscom’s Chairman Of Executive Council

Cyient founder and Executive Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy joined Nasscom on 9 April as Chairman of the Executive Council (its governing body) for 2015-16, to replace Cognizant India Executive Vice Chairman R Chandrasekaran. The Executive Council also elected Tech Mahindra CEO and MD CP Gurnani as Nasscom Vice Chairman for 2015-16.

Amazon Opened Machine Learning Service To All AWS Users

Amazon Web Services announced the launch of Amazon Machine Learning, a tool aimed at helping developers use historical data in detecting problematic transactions, preventing customer churn, and also in improving customer support.The new service, integrated with other AWS services, will allow developers to work with data already stored on their Amazon Cloud.

Uber Partnered With SPI Cinemas, Chennai

Uber and SPI Cinemas partnered to provide users with a better movie watching experience in Chennai. The app which comes as a result of the partnership, allows users to Book tickets, Request an Uber Cab.

Amazon And GreenDust Partnered For BuyBack Program

Amazon.in partnered with GreenDust.com to organise a buy back program for used large appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators & air conditioners in select cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon,  Hyderabad, Lucknow and Mumbai. Consumers need to log into Amazon’s website, get their product evaluated using GreenDust’s rate calculator, and sell it. Amazon will arrange the pick-up of the product and pay the customer in cash at that time.

Lead Angels Launched Hyderabad Chapter Lead Angels

2013 founded Lead Angels Network launched its Hyderabad Chapter Lead Angels, an alumni focused angel network. The Network ,founded by three IIT Bombay Alumni, has chapters in Mumbai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad and has till date funded 5 companies, including two startups by alumni of IIT Bombay and Delhi respectively.

ThinkVidya Rebranded To Urbanpro, Added Four New Categories

Online Education Marketplace ThinkVidya rebranded itself to UrbanPro, an online marketplace that now connects professionals and consumers across a variety of fields like interior designing, event management,  photography and health and wellness services. The service is currently available in all major cities across the country.

YuppTV App Launched On VIZIO Smart TVs

Internet TV provider YuppTV announced the launch of its application with US’ smart TV company VIZIO. The launch of YuppTV app on VIZIO Smart TVs will bring to its users, over 200 channels in 12 South Asian languages available worldwide, as Live TV, and ten days of Catch-up TV and unlimited movies in different genres. YuppTV application on VIZIO Smart TVs will be available for customers in U.S., Canada & Mexico region.

Ola to create 50,000 women driver-entrepreneurs

With its aim to create over 50k women driver entrepreneurs, Ola Signed MoU with Empower Pragati and Automotive Skills Development Council for training, skill development and empowerment of women drivers on its platform.

Shopclues Ties up with Dharavimarket.com

Online marketplace, ShopClues.com has started listing the works of craftsmen and artisans living in Mumbai’s Dharavi on its platform under a tie-up with Dharavimarket.com.

Checkout the funding galore of the week.