News Roundup: 7 Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [17-22 Nov]

There were a number of important activities that took place this week, one of the major announcement came from Uber which launched its low cost cab service UberGo in the country.

Here are few of the important news from the week:

Flipkart sends empty boxes thrice to the customer

This week Flipkart came into spotlight once again. A customer namely Adarsh Anandan decided to video record the entire process from the delivery to the opening of the product after he was fooled by Flipkart twice.

Rocket Internet Backed Tripda Launched its Indian operations

Rocket Internet backed Tripda, an online ride sharing marketplace that connects people who need a ride to drivers who have empty seats in their cars, marked its entry in India. The startup will be focusing on cities including Delhi, Mumbai/Pune and Bangalore operationally; but anyone outside these cities can use the service as well.

Uber Launched UberGo

Uber has launched its low cost cab booking service UberGo in India. It has a base fare of INR 40, further priced at INR 12/Km (Delhi) and Re.1 per minute.

Amazon And Flipkart Looks To Tap Into IRCTC’s Database

Both Amazon and homegrown Flipkart are in talks to sell their merchandise through IRCTC’s portal. “Tie-ups with portals like Flipkart, Amazon etc are in the process under which these portals would like to sell their merchandise through IRCTC’s portal, it being one of the largest ecommerce sites in the entire Asia-Pacific region,” said Sandip Dutta, public relations manager at IRCTC.

Now Ola Allows you to book autos

Ola has introduced a new feature which will allow its customers to book the nearest auto on demand. The service is currently available in Bangalore and is expected to be rolled out in other cities soon.

Reliance Enters Into Grocery ecommerce

Reliance Retail Ltd. announced the launch of its online store for groceries – reliancefreshdirect.com. BigBasket, MyGrahak are few other players in this space.

12 Startups Raised more than INR 1000 Cr.

This week 12 startups raised more than INR 1000 Cr. (this is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amount), with Housing.com alone raising $100 Mn from SoftBank and others.

Few other developments of the week include:

BigSop Founders Arrested

An ecommerce website named Bigsop.Com, recently duped a number of people by using an ICICI Bank payment gateway and advertising on its pop-ups saying, ‘You are the lucky internet winner of iPhones for Rs. 599.’ After making the payment, the customers failed to receive any products. The website founders were arrested by the police.

IndiaHomes Enters Into A JV With UK Based Unesta

Real estate advisory company IndiaHomes entered into a JV with UK based Unesta, a specialist property consultancy. Unesta.com, powered by IndiaHomes will be launching online portal to serve the NRI buyers who are interested to invest in Indian properties.

Times Internet announced strategic partnership with Electus Digital

Times Internet (TIL) added another partnership to its Times Global Partners (TGP) portfolio by inking a deal with Electus Digital, the digital creative and distribution arm of Electus. The strategic partnership for India includes Electus Digital websites CollegeHumor.com, Dorkly.com and WatchLOUD.com. The alliance was brokered by TGP, who will be responsible for growth and monetization of the three Electus Digital websites sites in India as part of the deal.