Snapdeal to expand payment by credit, debit cards on delivery

E-Commerce major Snapdeal will allow its users across 200 cities to pay through their credit and debit cards when they opt for pay-on-delivery option.

"The solution has been developed in partnership with GoJavas. Now customers can select the pay by card on delivery option, just like they would for COD. We are rolling this out in 120 cities," Snapdeal vice-president operations Ashish Chitravanshi told PTI.

In the next few months, the facility will be available to customers across 200 cities, he added.

The service is already available across metros and cities like Agra, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Aligarh, Bareilly, Chandigarh, Darjeeling, Gorakhpur, Hisar, Kanyakumari and Ooty.

"Many times, customers complained about lack of change or not having enough cash handy, asking the delivery boys to come at a later time. We expect this facility to help them in this regard," he said.

Though he declined to comment on the volume of shipment the company handles on an average, its co-founder and COO Rohit Bansal said the company is looking at a 10X growth in the next 2-3 years, which will translate into delivery of about 80-100 million packages a month.  SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya with Kunal Bahl, CEO, Snapdeal signing an MOU in Kolkata on May 21. (PTI photo)
Snapdeal had also said it will invest $150-200 million (about Rs 940-1,250 crore) by March next year on expanding its delivery operations as the competition in the booming Indian eCommerce market heats up.

In March, it acquired a minority stake in logistics firm GoJavas.

Under the service, GoJavas will equip its delivery staff to carry POS (transaction) machines to allow users to pay using their credit and debit cards.    

Sale of electronic cigarettes labeled illegal in Maharashtra

Sale of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) containing nicotine has been officially labeled 'illegal' in Maharashtra.

To rein in the rampant use of the battery operated device which is currently available everywhere from departmental stores to paan shops, the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued show-cause notices to its importers, distributors and dealers for selling the product without mandatory permission from Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) which is in direct contravention of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and makes the trade illegal.

"As per Rule 122 (E) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Rule 1945, every new drug product should be sold in the country with the prior approval of the DCGI. However, import, distribution and sale of e-cigarettes containing nicotine are not approved. Since e-cigarettes are being sold in market without permission, this is contravention of section 18 (b) and 18 (C) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act. Hence, its sale is illegal," state FDA commissioner Harshadeep Kamble told TOI.

He added that importing, manufacturing, selling and distributing e-cigarettes without permission from DCGI and licence from state FDA is illegal and may result in imprisonment of three to five years. Mumbai alone has 23 importers and sellers of e-cigarettes who were issued notices by the FDA on Saturday.

Nicotine is approved for use in de-addiction based chewing gums and lozenges containing less than 2 milligrams of the ingredient. In e-cigarettes, the nicotine levels are very high.

"Permission to sale lozenges, gums containing nicotine less than 2mg are already given by the DCGI. Nicotine products above 2mg are sold only with prescriptions from registered medical practitioners," Kamble said.

The sale of e-cigarettes containing nicotine is on the rise and it is being sold as an alternative to the original cigarettes and mostly marketed to college students.

"Considering that e-cigarettes are addictive and their ill effects on the health of the younger generation especially college students, FDA Maharashtra has decided to curb the illegal trade," Kamble said

As per the Drugs and Cosmetics Act there are certain set of rules and regulations for manufacturing of various drugs and such quality control does not exist for e-cigarettes. Therefore, the quality of e-cigarettes cannot to be ascertained. Smoking of e-cigarettes also leads to addiction and it affects the health badly. There have been demands from various social quarters, NGOs and doctors that e-cigarettes should be banned.

FDA has appealed to the public that smoking of cigarettes, e-cigarettes and products containing tobacco lead to addiction and is very harmful to the health therefore they should refrain from use of such substances to lead a healthy life.

Rs 63k crore chip unit projects hit roadblock

Two critical projects for setting up semiconductor wafer plants, being pushed by the government, have run into rough weather on account of "several deficiencies", as pointed out by a high-level official committee. The projects — by consortiums led by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and HSMC Technologies India Pvt Ltd — involved an investment of over Rs 63,000 crore.

The development may act as a roadblock in the government's plans to kick-off large-scale manufacturing of electronics in the country, including that of mobile phones. Although the two fab units, were cleared by the Congress-led UPA government in February 2014, the Narendra Modi administration too has been pushing for local manufacturing of chips and electronics, given the high level of imports. Electronics and chip making are integral part of the government's ambitious 'Make in India' project.

The official-level panel has, however, found the detailed project reports (DPRs) submitted by the two consortiums "non-satisfactory", said sources familiar with the development. "The two consortia have not been able to fulfill the conditions required to begin the projects," an official source told TOI. "They are yet to submit some 'other documents', which are considered essential to demonstrate their commitment to the projects."

Apart from the DPR, the Letter of Intent (LoI) issued to the two consortia had asked them to furnish additional documents related to incorporation of a special-purpose vehicle (SPV), injection of 25% of the equity funding by the promoters in the Phase I, providing proof of legal possession of adequate and suitable land, and furnishing performance guarantee agreements with the government. The two consortia have not complied with these additional requirements.

Jaiprakash Associates had partnered American giant IBM and Tower Semiconductor Ltd of Israel for its project which was to come up near the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh at a cost of over Rs 34,000 crore. HSMC Technologies had partnered ST Microelectronics and Silterra Malaysia for the Rs 29,000 crore project, which was to come up in Gujarat.

The sources said the two consortia have not been able to provide a response to the queries raised by the government. The Jaiprakash Associates-led group has sought certain changes in the terms and conditions of the LoI, while the HSMC Technologies consortium has requested that they may be given time till the end of July to respond to the government's queries. The last date for submission of the documents as well as a response to the queries was till March 31, 2015.

Establishment of fab manufacturing units is seen as a pre-requisite for having a full-fledged electronics production set-up in the country. These will have a big impact on the development of electronics system design and manufacturing eco-system. Also, their local production is seen as crucial in order to stimulate the flow of capital and technology, create employment opportunities, help higher value addition in the electronic products manufacturing and reduce dependence on imports.

A delay in these two projects could be a blow to government's 'Make in India initiative that banks on promotion of local manufacturing of components.

The government had offered many incentives to encourage companies to enter fab manufacturing business. These included a 25% subsidy on capital expenditure and tax reimbursement as admissible under Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) Policy. It also allowed an exemption of basic customs duty for non-covered capital items as well as 200% deduction on expenditure on R&D. The incentives also promised an interest-free loan of approximately Rs 5,124 crore.

As per government projections, the proposed FAB units were to create direct employment of about 22,000 and indirect employment of about 1 lakh.

A single message can crash your iPhone

Apple's iMessage platform has been subject of a new bug that shuts down your entire iPhone after receiving a particular message.

The message, whose second half is in Arabic, can send your phone into a reboot no matter what task it is performing -- it's proved very frustrating for some users and it's not certain what the long term effects are.

Here's the fix: head into your Settings app, then the Notifications tab, Messages and then switch off the slider called "show on local screen and under "alert style when unlocked" choose "none".

It's a pretty simple fix but it means if you're sent any more pesky iMessages you're not going to be sent into the reboot again.  Over and over
We contacted Apple for some comment on the matter and the response suggested Apple can't see the problem on their end, but that's apparently not the case for many people who have taken to the internet to confirm the bug,.

Hundreds of forum users are reporting the issue. JoeyTheBoey on Reddit said, "I have an un jailbroken iPhone 6 and it resprings my phone, but only if I'm not in the messages app, then it will show the message notification badge when I get back in."

Jjc123cj on Reddit said, "Don't test this on your iPhone 6! I sent it to myself and now my messaging app crashes when I try to open it ):"

Apple News on Twitter has spoken to Apple's senior engineers who admitted they know there is a problem and said that they are hard at work trying to fix it. 

Uber’s run rate in India touches Rs 400 crore

Taxi hailing app Uber's run rate of gross transactions in India is close to Rs 400 crore now, and estimates made on the basis of figures sourced from Paytm—Uber's sole payment channel in the country — indicate that this run rate will cross Rs 1,000 crore by the end of this year.

Run rate is the annualization of the last month's revenue, and is a measure that fast growing transaction-based startups use. Sources in Paytm that TOI spoke with said the taxi sector contributes around 5% of the gross merchandize value (GMV) of the transactions on the company's platform, and that Uber accounts for 80% of the taxi sector transaction value. Paytm on Tuesday announced that the digital wallet's annualized GMV run rate has crossed $1.5 billion (around Rs 9,450 crore). A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that Uber would account for about Rs 400 crore of that.

Paytm sources also said the taxi segment was one of the fastest growing segments for the company, and was expected to grow to 10% of the GMV by the end of 2015. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has been maintaining that the Noida-based firm will hit $4 billion in GMV by the end of the year. Uber was Paytm's first taxi customer, but it has since signed on several more —Savaari, Bookmycab, MegaCabs. On Tuesday, it also signed on TaxiForSure. So Uber's share in Paytm's taxi collections could drop from the 80% now. But even if it drops to just 40%, its run rate of gross transactions will cross Rs 1,000 crore by the end of the calendar year. For cab aggregators, transaction value is not the same as revenue. Aggregators get 20% or less of the collections, with drivers getting the rest. That would mean Uber's revenue is less than Rs 80 crore.

Asked about the run rate of gross transaction value, Uber's communications lead for South Asia Karun Arya said, "We don't ever share this type of data externally. All I can tell you is that the figure you have is grossly inaccurate."

Domino’s aims to ramp up online business share to 50%

While food-search startups such as Zomato and Foodpanda are rushing to establish themselves as tech companies, the largest foreign-food chain in India, Domino's Pizza, might give them tough competition. The American restaurant chain has been investing heavily in technology here and currently around 30% of its business, around Rs 250 crore, comes from online, up from 16% last year. What's more, the company is aiming to ramp up the contribution from its online business to 50%, which will allow it to reduce telecom and manpower costs at its stores.

"The biggest competition for us is food tech startups like Zomato and Foodpanda. They have managed to increase the reach of many restaurants," said Harneet Singh Rajpal, senior VP (marketing) at Domino's Pizza India.

The pizza maker wants a large slice of social media too. While in the US, it is in talks to launch a Twitter store, in India it will roll out a Facebook store that will allow 6.5 million of its fans to order food directly from Facebook without being directed to a parent website. "At present, if you have to order on Facebook you will be taken to the Domino's e-commerce page. But the idea is why take someone away, when somebody on that platform is already engaging with you," said Rajpal. "In the future, we will try Twitter too."

At present, home-delivery is just 18% of the entire food services market in the country, while the rest is dine-in. In contrast, Domino's business is equally split between both. Rajpal said Domino's goal is to convert its home-delivery orders into online orders because data shows consumers not only order more online, they order more frequently too. "Online, the consumer can look at the whole menu and see the total bill size. This helps him make correct choices, which is sometimes not possible over the phone," said Rajpal.

Domino's digital marketing spends have increased significantly over the last two years, from around 5% to 25%. Its budget for social media, within digital, has risen to around 22% from under 5% three years ago. On the flipside, increased digital spends have helped the pizza chain optimize returns on marketing investments and trim down discounting spends. "Earlier, whenever we didn't get good sales, we thought sending out discount coupons will get us more orders. But now we know better. For instance, during snacking time, a customer who is hungry and orders a subway is not even looking for a discount," said Rajpal.

Domino's India has gathered data of around 20 million consumers and bucketed it into 570 categories, based on parameters of consumer behaviour. "I know the buckets I need to be investing in to drive business. Around 20% of my customers give me 80% of my business. So, on the day I launch a new pizza, it makes more sense for me to go to only those two million people with the new product instead of sending discount coupons to everybody around the country," said Rajpal. "There's a program which runs all the data across 900 restaurants, across the 570 customer profiles and would create targeted marketing programs for each set of consumers. So, today, when we do our direct marketing it is actually one on one."

Free Wi-fi in Delhi: Access to be on limited data usage basis

The Aam Aadmi Party government has decided to provide free Wi-Fi internet to city residents on the basis of limited data usage instead of setting a time limit.

Government plans to make free Wi-Fi functional by February of next year. Free Wi-Fi in Delhi was among the prominent pre-poll promises made by AAP.

According to a senior official, government will release Expression of Interest (EOI) for the project by the end of this month followed by Request for Proposal (RfP) in June with the work to be awarded by July.

Around 150 companies from around the world have expressed interest in the project, the official said.

Senior officials said that website browsing, social media websites (Facebook/Twitter), e-mail and Whatsapp and other basic services will remain free while a user will have to pay for watching videos, video chat and downloading content.

"We will work on ensuring a minimum speed of 512Kbps to each user to make it a better experience. We will be very strict on user experience and uninterrupted service," said the parliamentary secretary to minister of IT, Adarsh Shastri.

The government is considering fixing the data usage to 50MB per day but a call is yet to be taken in that regard.

"We will not fix a time but will restrict bandwidth. Internet will be charged on the basis of data usage per day. Once the data limit is exhausted, users can avail the service by paying for extra usage. Every day the system will be reset," Shastri said.The Information Technology department is in the process of identifying 1,000 places along with the Ground Water Survey and Development Agency (GSDA) for setting up hotspots in the first phase of implementation. Officials said they have also studied the existing system in place in cities like Stockholm, Barcelona, Shanghai and Singapore.

"International projects were state-sponsored models but ours is dynamic so the government can get revenue from the services," Shastri said.

Talking about the revenue model, Shastri said, "This will be a first-of-its-kind project to be tested on such a large scale. In Delhi, there are around 2 crore wireless devices which can access Internet. If at any point, 25-30 per cent people access Internet, it means approximately 50 lakh users.
 "At present, Shanghai has the largest model which caters to 4.5 lakh people. But with 50 lakh users, we have large avenues for monetisation. We can also categorise the content being accessed, etc, which provides a big scope for targeted advertising," said Shastri.

The government plans to set-up 50,000-80,000 hotspots across Delhi as part of the free Wi-Fi endeavour.

"Delhi is spread across an 1,463sqkm area, we will cover markets, parks, metro stations and high density areas. We will cover 60 per cent of Delhi. 

"Residential areas, green belts, farm belts and rural belts will not be covered.

"As it is a public Wi-FI, it will be available only at public places. An access point (AP) covers a 50sqm area, so multiple APs will be installed in one area," added Shastri.