Infosys To Reduce Bench Strength And Focus On Automation, Says Vishal Sikka

In a major decision which can change equations for the automobile industry in India, Flipkart has decided to go full throttle on selling 2-wheelers via their online commerce portal.

If reports are to be believed, then Flipkart aims to capture 2% of this market by December end, which means that around 3 lakh units of 2-wheelers can be sold only on Flipkart.

Last year, 1.5 crore units of two-wheelers were sold in India, which was an increase of 1.2% compared to 2014.

As per statements issued by Flipkart, it seems that they will target both 4 wheeler and 2 wheeler; and the process will begin with bikes and scooters.

Adarsh Menon, vice-president, electronics and automobiles, at Flipkart said, “We have piloted both four-wheelers and two-wheelers. We have been there with four wheelers and going live with two-wheelers. The size of the market is large for both. But, to begin with, two-wheelers is the logical first step because the customer base for that segment is much more. Ultimately, we will sell four-wheelers and we will sell them this year itself.”

Last year in December, Flipkart officially started selling bikes and cars online, via a pilot project. In November 2015, Snapdeal had launched their exclusive ‘Snapdeal Motors’ for targeting this niche, highly profitable industry.

Automobiles Are Selling Online!

After groceries and food delivery, the sale of automobiles have been a huge hit in India.

For instance, Flipkart started selling car-accessories last April, and till date, they have witnessed an increase of 600% in sales. Such is the anticipation, that Flipkart and Mahindra decided to open online booking of their new KUV100 on Flipkart.

The trend already started way back in 2013, when Snapdeal decided to sell Hero’s new electric bike online.

Interestingly, in 2014, we had reported how 2-wheelers attracted maximum attention of ecommerce buyers during Diwali, and sale of bikes and scooters witnessed all time high records.

Kawasaki and TVS have already tied-up with Flipkart to sell their 2 wheelers via online platform.

Here is how you buy automobiles from Flipkart

How to buy vehicle from FLipkart

Is This A GMV Centric Strategy?

The current ecommerce war is all about increasing the GMV or Gross Merchandise Value of portals which increases their valuation, and their funding prospect.

As per observation by LiveMint, Flipkart has decided to increase their GMV by going after the 2-wheeler market, after focusing heavily on furniture, electronics and home care products, which are typically large priced products.

In case it’s a GMV centric move, then it can raise some alarm bells for offline retailers, who invest considerable amount of money in maintaining and optimizing their showrooms with expensive employees and infrastructure. But the question also remains: Who will provide after-sale service of these online bought vehicles? Will Flipkart delve into automobile servicing as well?

We will keep you updated as more details come in.

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Google Docs Now Supports Voice. Bye-bye Keyboard!

It has been a while since Google Docs was updated with any new cool feature. Many of us use Google Docs for real-time collaboration purposes but Google wants to change that. The big G wants us to use Google Docs for taking notes and capturing our thoughts. Keeping that in mind, it has now enabled Google Docs with voice support.

Starting today, you will be able to write whatever you want in Google Docs without even typing a single word. Yes, you can keep your keyboard aside and dictate whatever you want to write to Google Docs.

“We launched Voice typing in Docs to help you capture ideas, compose a letter, or even write the next great novel—all without touching your keyboard,” said Google in a blog post.

Besides typing, you can also format and edit your documents with voice on Google Docs now.

It is also very easy to get started with this new ‘Voice’ functionality in Google Docs. When you are using Google Docs using Chrome web browser, just go to ‘Tools’ and select ‘Voice typing’. Now, click on the ‘microphone icon’ that appears on the left side and you’re all set.

You can use various voice commands related to text selection, editing and formatting, insert and edit tables, navigating, and resume voice typing from a particular position.

To check the full list of commands just say ‘Voice commands help’ and you’ll see all the supported voice commands.

“Say what comes to mind—then start editing and formatting with commands like ‘copy’, ‘insert table’, and ‘highlight’,” the blog post mentioned.

Google Docs only support a limited number of commands at the moment, and my experience was not as interactive as it should have been. However, it did recognize my Indian accent without any error, which is impressive. As far as the overall experience is concerned, it will get better with various optimisations over time.

It is always better to dictate whatever is in your mind to somebody. Isn’t it?

Try out the voice functionality in Google Docs today and let us know.

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Govt Announces Digital Market Place For Farmers; Wants To Revolutionize Agriculture Using #DigitalIndia

Imagine a digital marketplace for farmers, using which any farmer in any corner of the country can instantly sell their agri-products to any buyer, there by controlling the price and profits.

This is no more a fiction, as PM Modi is all set to revolutionize agriculture in India, by linking it with Digital India mission, and thereby enabling a platform which will empower our farmers.

While speaking at a rally in Madhya Pradesh, PM Modi said, “We are setting up a National Agriculture Market, a virtual and digital platform, in the coming days,”

This unique virtual marketplace will be launched on April 14th, on Ambedkar Jayanti.

As per studies conducted by Reuters, 94% of farmers in India are dependent on fellow farmers for information related with price of crops (which is often biased), sellers’ information while only 4% rely on TV/Radio while 3% depend on Govt. appointed officers.

However, with the rapid, exponential expansion of mobiles and Internet pan-India, Government is now laying the foundation of a Digital based support system, and this is the best thing to have happened to Indian farmers.

Considering that middlemen take away 47% of the price of rice, 25% of the price of groundnuts and 60% of the price of the potatoes, the new Digital Marketplace will be a blessing for our farmers.

As per reports emerging, Government has allocated a massive budget of Rs 200 crore for creating one of its kind National Agriculture Market online trading portal, which will connect 585 mandis all over the country.

In that speech, PM Modi said that Government is aiming to double farmers’ income by 2022, which would be 75th year of Indian independence.

Steps To Assist Farmers

Besides, Government has also announced the approval of ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’, which will greatly benefit the farmers in selling and procuring crops by introducing a unique insurance scheme. For instance, a premium of 2% of the sum insured will be charged from farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops, which means that in case monsoon fails, the farmer will be able to absorb the loss. (More details here)

As per studies, farmer suicides are mainly driven by failure of crop production due to less rain, and this insurance scheme would be taking this issue heads-on.

PM said, “We have covered entire anticipated farm income under the scheme. Even in case a farmer fails to till his fields due to drought-like conditions, he will be compensated to a certain extent,”

14 crore farmers would be covered under this scheme.

PM also stressed on the need to introduce more technology into farming, for making the industry more productive; and also called for startups for introducing solutions in this sector.

Do you think entrepreneurs can contribute to the success of farming by launching startups in this sector? Has Indian entrepreneurs contributed much to farming despite the hype of startups and easy funding? Do share your views by commenting right here.

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Google Revamps Desktop Search, Now No Ads On The Right Side

Googling has become a way of our lives. Google is one of the most used websites that we access tens of times in a day. Many of you might also not like several text ads that appear on the Google Search results page on the right side. Well, this is about to change soon.

Google is about to roll out major updates to its desktop search page and will do away with the right-side ads. Presently, when you fire a query on Google Search, you will be presented 3 ads above the search results, and 8 ads on the right side as shown in screenshot below.

current google desktop search results page

Google is about to replace these right side ads with 4 ads above the search results (it limited to 3 ads currently) and/or a few ads below the search results. Many sources have reported that Google has already rolled out the new Desktop Search update in their region.

Google Search Page New Update

Google Is Looking For More Advertiser Revenue

Google has seen in a decline in its ads revenue recently, and that’s why they want the advertisers to bid aggressively for the 4 ad slots above the search results instead of 8 ads on the right side. This will results in increased cost-per-click (CPC) for the advertisers and hence will increase Google’s ad revenue.

Google mentions that this new layout is in testing for a quite some time now, with very few people seeing it in action. The company also mentions that this layout is tweaked for “highly commercial queries” where the users will get much more relevant results which in turn would lead to better campaigns for the advertisers.

“We’ve been testing this layout for a long time, so some people might see it on a very small number of commercial queries. We’ll continue to make tweaks, but this is designed for highly commercial queries where the layout is able to provide more relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers,” said Google’s official statement.

Google also confirmed that this change is rolling out to all Google websites in local languages around the globe. However, this no ads on the right comes with 2 exceptions:

Google will still continue to show Product Listing Ad (PLA) Boxes which appear either above or to the right of the search results.
Ads will still be shown in the knowledge panel.
Google mentions that this new update brings the Google Desktop Search much closer to the mobile search which is what Google has been trying to do since the past couple of years.

Since I was unable to check the new update in action on either Google.com or Google.co.in, I tried Google.co.uk and I was greeted with new search results update. Check out the screenshot below and witness the future of Google’s Desktop Search results.

Internet

Snapdeal, India’s 2nd Most Valued Startup, Is Indirectly Firing 200 Employees? Ugly Truths Emerge..

Controversies are refusing to abandon Snapdeal, which is India’s 2nd most valued startup after recently raising $200 million at a valuation of $6.5-7 billion.

After facing major embarrassment over losing a case involving a promise of delivering iPhone for Rs 68 and Aamir Khan fiasco, it is now the dreaded pink slip controversy which is bringing Snapdeal into the limelight, all for wrong reasons.

As per reports emerging, Snapdeal has created a scenario wherein 200 odd customer care executives would be forced to resign from the company in coming days.

In fact, such is the heat generated that Delhi Government has asked its Labor Ministry to enquire into this incident. Hundreds of Snapdeal customer care executives protested outside their Gurgaon office, shouting “We want justice”.

Firing or Performance Improvement Plan?

In an official statement, Snapdeal has said, “The PIP process is expected to cover about 200 team members. As part of the on-going performance management and development programme, some team members at our contact centre have been offered a performance improvement plan (PIP)”

Now, this alleged Performance Improvement Plan also called PIP in BPO or IT industry is sort of a final warning for the employees. The message is clear: Either perform as per the company’s expectations or get fired.

The issue here is, Snapdeal has imposed such a strict PIP that employees are aware that they will be fired in the next 30 days. And such impossible PIP is all that is forcing the employees to protest and to complain against the management.

Impossible Expectations?

As per the employees, Snapdeal has asked the customer care executives to achieve 85% score in customer service rating, else they will face termination. Now, the existing employees are aware that achieving a customer satisfaction score of more than 65% is almost impossible at Snapdeal, as this has been the record till now.

How will the employees boost the ratings to 85%, that too in a single month?

As per a report, one employee has alleged that most of the products sold at Snapdeal are counterfeit; hence achieving 85% customer satisfaction is not possible. (we condemn this claim, as Snapdeal is India’s 2nd most valued startup, and not ‘every’ product can be a counterfeit!)

In the videos shared on social media, employees are asking why Snapdeal hired so recklessly, when they didn’t had any future projections and plans?

Several employees among these 200 who have been issued PIP have already resigned, looking for other jobs, while the rest are protesting against the harsh demands, and have launched campaigns to stop this.

Snapdeal has also issued a statement to ET, wherein they have said, “There have been no firings or layoffs at Snapdeal. Some employees at our Contact Centre, who were not meeting the required performance parameters have been offered a Performance Improvement Plan, which offers such employees 30 days to improve their performance. “

Last year, Snapdeal reported loss of Rs 1319 crore with a revenue of Rs 938 crore.

We will keep you updated as more details come in.

If you are a Snapdeal employee, then do share the truth right here. You can also email us directly; we will keep all information confidential.

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IAMAI Warns That Failure To Bring GST Will Destroy Ecommerce Sector in India – Will GST Pass This Budget Session?

Rs 1 lakh crore worth of Indian ecommerce sector faces extinction in India, if the proposed Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST Bill) is not passed in the Lok Sabha this year. This warning has been issued by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), three days before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will announce the Union Budget 2016-17 in Parliament.

Subho Roy, President of IAMAI has said, “Right now we have 5-6 states troubling the industry, if the GST doesn’t get passed in the Parliament, we will have all issues with all 28-29 states,”

GST Bill is the ‘One Nation One Tax’ proposal, which will replace several layers of taxes which an entrepreneur needs to pay in-order to do business across India. By implementing the GST bill, the whole tax structure can simplify, greater transparency can come in and overall, business sector will improve.

This historical GST Bill has been passed in Rajya Sabha, but is struck in Lok Sabha, where Congress and other opposition parties are demanding some amendments. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already said, that he “hopes” Congress is able to find the advantages of GST Bill, and let it pass.

Glimpse of Troubles Without GST

Without GST, conducting intra-state business is close to walking on fire.

For instance, in UP, ecommerce portals have stopped delivering products which are priced more than Rs 5000, which is bleeding ecommerce sector as 40-50% of orders originate from Tier 2/3 cities.

PayTm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has clearly said on this hard situation, “We have force ourselves to stop delivery in UP, at the end everybody loses,”

Meanwhile in Uttrakhand, Govt. has imposed a ridiculous tax of 10% on ecommerce transactions, which is creating an unfair advantage for local traders.

Last year, Jabong, Flipkart and others were fined Rs 54 crore for tax evasion in Kerala, and this fine came out only because huge confusion exists related to tax structure for ecommerce firms.

The same tax issue erupted in Karnataka as well, where Amazon was fined by Tax authorities as there are no clean cut guidelines. The issue was resolved when Karnataka Govt. intervened, and asked the tax men to go easy.

IAMAI has clearly said that only GST can help the ecommerce industry to become mainstream in India; else, the industry will die.

In a statement, IAMAI said, “GST will help the digital industry business model flourish by providing uniformity in tax rates and regulations across the country. This will help doing business in India easier, allow free-play to market dynamics and allow deeper penetration of these services,”

PM Modi had promised that GST Bill shall be passed by April, 2016 as the focus is on promoting business and entrepreneurship. We hope that a common referendum is held by various political parties, and GST Bill is passed in this budget session.

We will keep you updated as more details come in.

Related: Assocham says GST is the Brahamastra for Indian GDP

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