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BENGALURU  (Reuters) -  Amazon. com Inc said on Friday it will launch an online pharmacy in India that will serve the city of Bengaluru, the latest move by the e-commerce giant to widen its reach in a key growth market. The service, " Amazon  Pharmacy", will offer both over-the-counter and prescription-based drugs, basic health devices and traditional Indian herbal medicines, the company said in a statement, without giving a timeline for the launch. The move comes amid increasing competition in India with rivals Walmart-owned Flipkart, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's upstart online grocery service JioMart and a range of other smaller players. Last month, the company decided to open 10 new warehouses in India and start offering auto insurance.  Amazon  had also secured clearance for alcohol delivery in one Indian state, Reuters reported in June. India is yet to finalize regulations for online drug sales, or e-pharmacies, but the growth of several online ...

Amazon Pantry, the company’s daily essentials store for Prime members, is back online and is accepting orders in a few cities after temporarily shutting down last week due to the lockdown. It is now serviceable in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune for select pincodes. Pantry offers essentials including food, beverages, household supplies, health and beauty products at discounted rates. “We are prioritising deliveries of existing orders. Deliveries of new orders could take 7-10 days,” said the e-commerce company. Amazon Pantry was delivering essentials in over 100 cities across India before suspending services temporarily when the country entered the 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. Read complete Article

The roll-out of Disney Plus, the streaming platform from Disney, in India through Hotstar has been put on hold, the company said on Friday. Some of the Disney Plus content, including Star Wars series "The Mandalorian", that became available to Hotstar users ahead of the streaming service's launch in India on March 29, is no longer available on the app. "We recently announced that Disney+ would launch in India through the Hotstar service in conjunction with beginning of the Indian Premier League cricket season. Given the delay of the season, we have made the decision to briefly pause the roll-out of Disney+ and will announce a new revised premiere date for the service soon", Uday Shankar, President - The Walt Disney Company APAC and Chairman, Star & Disney India, said in a statement. Though he did not specify, the IPL season was put on hold due to coronavirus scare , which has led to cancellations and delay in events, movies and film festivals...

Tier-II and tier-III cities are driving big business for e-commerce firms — Flipkart and Amazon — for the ongoing festival season. Walmart-owned Flipkart on Monday night said tier-II and tier-III cities ushered in the festive cheer for the firm during the second day of its flagship event ‘The Big Billion Days’ 2019. Electronics category witnessed growth of over 70 per cent from tier-II cities, with a 100 per cent increase in women shoppers from smaller towns. “We witnessed the growing appetite of tier II and III cities for mobiles, large appliances and consumer electronics,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart. “As consumers from these cities upgrade, they are coming at par with the metros showcasing unique needs and spending patterns across these categories,” added Krishnamurthy. Affordability constructs were a big hit. There was over 2X adoption in the ‘product exchange’ construct for mobiles and laptops, according to Flipkart. Within laptops, key segments like gaming ...

At least two Pentagon employees were offered jobs at Amazon.com Inc. while working on the Defense Department’s $10 billion cloud contract, a lawsuit filed by Oracle Corp. alleges. The amended complaint, made public on Tuesday, claims Deap Ubhi, a former employee at a high-level Defense Department technology unit, helped design the cloud contract in a way that was favorable to Amazon even after receiving “significant” job and bonus offers from the e-commerce giant. Oracle’s latest court action comes weeks after the Pentagon announced it had eliminated Oracle and International Business Machines Corp. from the bidding because they didn’t meet the minimum criteria, leaving Amazon and Microsoft Corp. as the last remaining competitors. The Pentagon, which announced the Jedi competition in March of last year, doesn’t expect to award the contract before July 19. Ubhi, who had worked at Ama zon before joining the government, helped craft the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or...

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) how Google's mobile payment app, GPay, was facilitating financial transactions without the requisite authorisation from it. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani posed the query to RBI while hearing a PIL which claimed that GPay was acting as a payments system provider in violation of the Payments and Settlements Act as it has no valid authorisation from the central bank of the country to carry out such functions. The court issued notice to RBI and Google India seeking their stand on the issue raised in the plea by Abhijit Mishra, who has contended that GPay does not figure in RBI's list of authorised 'payment systems operators' released by the central bank on March 20, 2019. Read Complete Article

A $2.5 billion spending spree involving more than two dozen deals provides some insight into how Mukesh Ambani is piecing together a strategy to take on Amazon.com Inc. in India. Asia’s richest man is sharpening his focus on e-commerce with a string of tiny acquisitions and stake purchases to face the world’s largest online retailer, after shaking up India’s telecommunications industry with cheap data and free calls. The acquisitions represent a new strategy for Ambani’s Reliance Group, whose founder -- his father Dhirubhai Ambani -- built a petrochemicals business and the world’s largest oil-refining complex from scratch. It’s a clear pivot toward consumer offerings in a country that’s becoming a battleground for giants such as Amazon.com and Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart Online Services Pvt. “ The deals may be tiny, but it’s more likely that they are putting together a team of talented people by acquisitions, who can then be invested in to build out larger platform products,...

Amazon India is hosting a four-day sale on smartphones and is offering discounts, exchange offers, no cost equated monthly instalment (EMI) schemes, and cashback on EMI transactions from an SBI bank credit card. Named Amazon fab phone fest, the sale is currently live and would continue till March 28. Here are some of the deals and offers on smartphones: OnePlus 6T This midrange flagship smartphone from Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus, priced at Rs 37,999 for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, is eligible for Rs 2,000 additional exchange value, meaning you can trade your old smartphone for the OnePlus 6T and get Rs 2,000 additional discount on the exchange. For example, if you want to trade the Nokia 7 Plus for the OnePlus 6T, you will get an exchange discount of Rs 5,100 (Rs 3,100 phone exchange price plus Rs 2,000 additional exchange value). iPhone X This Apple’s ten-year anniversary edition is available at a discounted price of Rs 73,999, down from its original listed price...

One of the first among the third-generation Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to achieve 100 per cent placement, IIM-Nagpur saw consulting firms lead the final placement process, making 37 per cent of the 56 offers. IIM-Nagpur has placed all of its third batch of 55 students enrolled in its flagship Post Graduate Program in Management (PGP 2017-19). The B-school saw over 40 recruiters, including several first-timers, making offers during the process. Firms from sectors such as analytics, e-commerce, FMCD , IT and manufacturing, were the next in line. Together, these sectors recruited over 70 per cent of the batch. Consulting firms, such as Deloitte, led placements, apart from other prominent recruiters like MuSigma, Berger Paints, VGuard, Schi-ndler, Sutherland Global, GroupM, Decimal Point Anal-ytics, ValueLabs, JK Techno - soft, FSS Global, and Aspect Ratio Data. Start-ups such as Moglix, Build Supply, Fortigo, Jigserv Digital also made multiple offers at the campus...

Amazon India is hosting a three-day sale on smartphones in which the e-commerce platform is offering discounts, bank offers, exchange offers, and no cost equated monthly instalment options on smartphones across various brands. Named the Amazon fab phones fest, the sale is currently live and will continue until March 7. Here are some of the deals to check out: OnePlus 6T This flagship smartphone from the stable of Chinese maker OnePlus is eligible for Rs 2,000 extra exchange value as a part of exchange offer. The phone is also eligible for no cost EMI, and the e-commerce portal is offering additional Rs 2,000 off on EMI orders and Rs 1,500 off on non-EMI orders on Kotak cards – subject to terms and conditions. iPhone X The last year flagship from Cupertino, US-based technology giant Apple is available at a discounted price of Rs 74,999, down 18 per cent from its listed price of Rs 91,900. The phone is eligible for no cost EMI, valid only on HDFC bank credit cards and Baj...

Business Standard : FLIPKART MOBILE BONANZA SALE DETAILS Domestic e-commerce platform Flipkart is currently hosting a four-day sale of smartphones where the portal is offering deals and discounts on mobile phones from the stable of Asus, Samsung, Xiaomi, Apple, Realme, Honor, Nokia, etc. During the sale, the online shopping platform is also offering 10 per cent instant discount on SBI credit cards, subject to terms and conditions. Here are the deals on smartphones: REALME 2 PRO The midrange smartphone from the stable of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Realme is currently available with Rs 1,000 instant off on prepaid payments, bringing down the effective cost of 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant to Rs 12,990. The phone is also eligible for 10 per cent instant discount on SBI credit cards. Read the phone’s review here BS XIAOMI REDMI NOTE 6 PRO The recently launched Redmi Note 6 Pro smartphone with dual camera module on the back and front is currently available on the...

Asus, the brand well known for its Republic of Gamers series and the FX series of laptops for dedicated gaming introduces the TUF series to offer relatively affordable gaming for entry-level players and ROG G703 for the serious gamers in India. While both the laptops are well-built and packed for gaming on the go, let us look at some of the features: ASUS TUF FX504: An affordable performer in the gaming segment The FX504 sports a 15.6-inch full HD LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate and comes in a plastic body with a brushed-aluminium look, which is built on the lines of Asus's “quad bladed” three-dimensional design. It is identical to the higher-range ROG series of laptops. The laptop features a red back-lit membrane keyboard, which is rated for up to 20 million key presses according to Asus. The laptop felt comfortable for casual to hardcore gaming. The touchpad, on the other hand, felt sufficient for gameplay and carried out the windows 10 gestures easily. In m...

Chinese smartphone manufacturers OnePlus and Honor are gearing up to launch their flagship smartphone – the OnePlus 6 and Honor 10 – in India this week. While the OnePlus 6 is set to be unveiled on May 17 and go on sale starting May 21, exclusively on Amazon, the Honor 10 would be unveiled on May 15 and go on sale starting May 16 on Flipkart. Both the smartphones would compete in the mid-range flagship segment. Here are a few things that you need to know about the OnePlus 6 and Honor 10 smartphones: OnePlus 6 screen The OnePlus has used a 5.5-inch fullHD screen in most of its smartphones, except the OnePlus 5T, which has a 6-inch screen due to an 18:9 aspect ratio screen. The OnePlus 6, based on recent leak by Amazon Germany, is expected to have a 6.28-inch screen with fullHD+ resolution. As confirmed by the company’s co-founder earlier, the screen would sport a notch on top. OnePlus 6 design The OnePlus 6 will make a departure from the current trend of an alum...

Home-grown e-commerce major Flipkart seems to have removed the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus from its portal before the start of the smartphones’ official sale on March 16. The flagship smartphones were first announced a day before the Mobile World Congress and unveiled in India on March 6. The pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ began in India through Samsung online stores soon after the international unveiling at the MWC. However, Samsung’s partner for online sales, Airtel online store and Flipkart, had started taking pre-orders after the official launch on March 6. Starting March 6, Flipkart not only started taking the pre-orders but also listed the two smartphones as bundled with offers like Rs 5,000 additional discount on exchange, cashback of Rs 6,000 for HDFC credit and debit card holders and no-cost equated monthly instalments removing the interest component from EMIs paid to banks on the purchase of devices using a credit card. The ...

The unnamed product that home-grown e-commerce major Flipkart has been promoting as a banner on its website, it appears, is a battery-centric smartphone from the stable of Samsung that will be coming soon to the India market. The banner does not reveal any detail about the product or its manufacturer except saying, along with the hashtag #GoBeyond, that it is a “new kid on the block coming soon to India”. A deeper look at the source code of the banner page, however, reveals it is a Samsung smartphone that Flipkart is promoting. Even the product landing page does not give much information about the make or model of the upcoming smartphone. But the features have been detailed along with the rear view of the smartphone – showing curved sides, camera, LED flash, volume rocker buttons and power key. According to the features on the Flipkart landing page, the upcoming smartphone will sport a better battery, supported with quick-charging technology, and enhanced screen for immersiv...

E-commerce firm  Snapdeal  founders Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal and existing investor Nexus Venture Partners have together infused Rs 113 crore into the company ahead of its potential sale to larger rival Flipkart. Both Bansal and Bahl have invested Rs 8.45 crore each, while Nexus Venture Partners has invested Rs 96.2 crore into Snapdeal, company said in its filings with the Registrar of Companies on Monday. It isn't clear why the investment was made or what it could mean, but was approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the company held on March 10. The founders, along with Nexus, were offered 17,410 Series J1 preference shares for their investments, said the disclosure which comes at a time when Flipkart has begun doing due diligence to acquire the firm. Softbank, the largest investor in Snapdeal, has pushed for the company's sale to Flipkart for which the latter signed a term sheet last week. The Japanese investor had written off a $1 billion in losses from Sn...

The plot only gets thicker from here, as even after multiple rounds of talks, Softbank has not been able to convince the early-stage investors in Gurgaon-based  Snapdeal   for a sale which would help the Japanese major exit from the company.  According to four sources privy to the developments, while early-stage investors in  Snapdeal – Kalaari Capital  and Nexus Venture Partners – are confident of the company's present business plan and want it to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the next two years, Softbank   wants to immediately sell its stake and hedge its bets in other e-commerce ventures, something which has caused a major rift between the two parties. Also, according to sources, while Softbank is trying to sell its stake in Snapdeal, where it is the biggest shareholder and has invested close to a billion dollars, it has also assured the e-commerce company of giving close to $200 ...

Alibaba buys back less than 1% stake held by Reliance Cap in the e-commerce company for $41 million China’s top e-commerce player and lead investor in  Paytm , Alibaba, has bought a marginal stake held by Reliance Capital for $41 million. While the deal has meant a 27-fold return for the Anil Ambani-led firm, it has lifted the valuation of One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, to an estimated $5 billion at a time when the e-commerce universe is facing severe markdowns.     Reliance Capital had acquired less than one per cent stake in One97 Communications for $1.51 million in 2009.   With this, the Paytm group has risen to the second position in the e-commerce valuation pecking order, if only companies with Indian founders are counted. Flipkart, whose valuation had risen to more than $15 billion a year ago, has gone through several markdowns. The latest markdown by Morgan Stanl...

Valentine’s Day 2017  is here and it gives you numerous reasons to go out of your way to buttress your love for that ‘special one’. With a smartphone in hand today you can do so without fretting a lot. Thanks to these handy applications that help you sort your V-Day prep smoothly, there’s no need to hassle even if you have left your planning to the last minute! For those looking for some superfluous Valentine’s comfort this year, here are ten of the best Android apps for Valentine’s Day 2017.  1. UrbanClap - Want to regale your date by strumming a melody on the guitar but don’t know how to? Or tickle her taste buds with a gourmet meal? Worry not as Urban Clap gets you everything on demand at your doorstep- from a talented guitarist to a seasoned chef.  2. Kraftly – A C2C Ecommerce platform for Homeprenuers, sellers and Womenpreneurs brings to you “Giftree” which is a collection of handpicked products for ‘Him and Her’. The wide range of product offers gi...