Aviation authority reviews block time for select domestic flights
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has advised airlines to use realistic block timings for flights. For this it has “considered” a flight time of 185 minutes for a flight between Delhi and Kochi and 130 minutes for a flight between Delhi and Mumbai. For a Delhi-Patna flight the DGCA has “considered” a new block time of 95 minutes. On all three routes this is five minutes more than the earlier block times. The block time for flights from Delhi to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru remains as before, officials said. This follows a DGCA review of the block time that domestic airlines can show in their time tables for their flights. Block time is calculated from the time that an aircraft pushes back from the departing gate till the time the captain switches off the aircraft engines after parking at the arriving gate. “Domestic air passenger traffic has grown, airports have become slot constrained and one has to consider seasonal wind patterns while taking a view on the block timings for various routes,” a senior DGCA official said. Officials clarified that a 130-minute block time between Delhi and Mumbai does not necessarily mean that a flight will be completed in that time as the aircraft may have to wait for a few more minutes to actually get on the ground if the airport is facing congestion.
Smart cities need clear legal & jurisdictional framework for private investment: Eckart Wuerzner, Mayor of Heidelberg
Smart cities in India have a big potential to attract private investment from contracting companies if the government formulates a clear legal and jurisdictional framework, according to Eckart Wuerzner, Mayor of the City of Heidelberg in Germany. “If India formulates a proper framework, there will be a lot of foreign and domestic companies willing to put their money in contracting business in smart cities,” Wuerzner told ETRealty.com on the sidelines of the 28th Wilhelm von Pochhammmer Memorial Lecture organised by Federation of Indo-German Socities in India in collaboration with Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung and India International Centre. “Smart cities need private money and contracting is a big concept that can be utilized in India,” he said, adding, “It’s not always subsidy, but a clever marketing instrument to make companies invest.” The government also should give subsidies and implementation strategies to companies, according to him. Citing the example of Heidelberg, which is an ideal smart city, Wuerzner said the government can easily frame their fair deal contracts under the Indian law and implement it. “Technical potential is there in India already, but it is not being utilised at present,” he said. The mayor of the City of Heidelberg also insisted on increasing the citizen participation in smart cities. Citing the example of Germany, Wuerzner said citizens should be made accountable for basic things like waste or traffic management by making the services expensive for the defaulters and subsidising the ones who follow the rules properly. “This is a push and pull approach, which might not go well with the citizens initially, but will be merged in the system with time,” he said, adding, “Impulse programmes for citizens to help them partner in the strategy also can help in better implementation of plans.” The mayor also highlighted the need of sustainable city planning in big cities like Delhi or Mumbai, planning residential, shopping, economic business areas, etc, together. “If this is planned together, this reduced the traffic in the city,” he said. He insisted that smart cities should promote vertical development and need high density areas with concentration of citizens. “A system like SAP or any other system can easily run in such high density cities, leading to proper monitoring and implementation of plans.” The government, both at the state and local body levels, have to play a major part for the success of the smart cities, according to Wuerzner. Legalized strategy plan, annual or by-annual reports and self commitment of political leaders of both state and local bodies should be the major pillars of growth. “Government should be best practice example. Initiatives such as electrical buses, bikes for employees, are some of the measures that the government should take on its end,” he said. Wuerzner also highlighted the need to Empower the urban local bodies with experts. “If you don’t have them, the link is missing,” he said. Germany has recently partnered with India to develop Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore as smart cities. “Most important thing that Germany can bring into India is developing a vision, clear implementation plan, controlling system to implement and a time frame,” said Wuerzner.
Tech startups helping retailers lure customers to stores
You walk down a shopping street and your smartphone starts to buzz the Zara top you looked up the other day is available in your size and black colour with a 10% discount, at a store 500 metres away. Sounds like a shopping genie coming alive? It’s your smartphone doing the trick, helping brick-and-mortar retailers know your shopping pattern and preferences. A bunch of tech startups are helping them do it. Sensing the need for technology integration to stand a chance in competing with their online counterparts, offline retail stores are increasingly turning to partner with startups who provide such solutions. InteractionOne provides what it calls a proximity discovery platform that enables stores to talk to smartphones via beacons. A small piece of hardware that uses Bluetooth connection to communicate with digital devices, beacon helps in presence detection and pushes messages to user’s smartphone through an app. The app, called Mobmerry uses machine-learning algorithm to grasp user’s likes and preferences over time through their browsing patterns while also letting them add products to their wish list. Add location tracking to it and the next time the user is near a store, a notification on their phone pops up. Once the user enters the store, beacons mounted in the store detect the user’s presence and credits the user with walk-in points. “Retailers have started to see traction and are more willing to integrate technology in their stores,” said Krishna Prasad, cofounder of InteractionOne that piloted its first project based on IoT in Bengaluru on a high-end shopping street with 80 showrooms. For retailers, beacons inside the store also track the time that consumers spend looking at products, thus defining hot zones in the store. “If integrated with point of sale, it can also help merchants understand their customer’s pocket size, how frequently they shop and their buying patterns,” Prasad said. The company is now integrating its solution across the city and is in talks with 400 merchants to sign up with them in the next three months. In the battle of bricks versus clicks, the ecommerce players have always had an edge with consumer-facing technology driving traffic to their websites. Brickand-mortar retailers are now entering the tech space to woo consumers back to the showrooms. Experiential Design Lab is building interactive solutions for brand engagement. Its solution for retail stores includes an interactive digital experience for a user who walks into their store. The startup has also developed solutions for Asian Paints where consumers can walk into a store, select finishes and view them real-time on their home walls through virtualisation.
How startups are getting the corner store online
The next wave of e-commerce in India will be driven by millions of small merchants taking their businesses online. A host of startups is helping retailers get a web presence, build their brand and make more money Atul Tater has been selling his apparel on Flipkart and Amazon for six months, and sees about ten garments take off every day. He pays 25-30% commission per sale to the marketplaces. Three months ago, Singapore-based e-commerce company Shopmatic approached Tater to build a website for his brand, Reevolution. He signed up quickly since it came for Rs 1,400 a month and included a Facebook page shop, an inventory management tool and a payment gateway. “If I had set out to start my own dynamic website, it would have cost upwards of Rs 50,000,” says Tater. Though he’ll continue to sell on the marketplaces the idea of not having to shell out 30% commission comes as a relief to the Noida-based businessman. For small merchants like Tater, the cost of setting up a website, managing inventory and logistics and establishing a payment gateway can be intimidating. And that’s where e-commerce companies are stepping in. The opportunity to take small businesses online is seen as the next big e-commerce wave. Search giant Google started its ‘India Get Your Business Online’ project in 2011 to do the same, but didn’t succeed. However, startups that have come later have figured out that an online identity without dynamic inventory management and payment gateway is not a recipe for success. These startups provide complete solutions to take brick-and-mortar retailers online. Early-stage investor Blume Ventures has four investments in the space — Snapbizz, Zopper, NowFloats and Instamojo. Its founder and managing partner Karthik Reddy says he is very bullish on such startups. The top 10 funded startups in the domain have raised upwards of $60 million in the last few years, according to startups ecosystem tracking platform Tracxn. In China, there are 40 million small businesses, but only 12 million have an online presence. In India, the numbers are far worse — of the 60 million small businesses, only a million are online. “It is not a question of either being on a marketplace or having one’s own website. A seller needs to have a presence across the range of platforms where the customer comes. Large marketplaces don’t cater to micro merchants and in many cases the demand is local,” says Reddy, adding that discovery is also an issue for small merchants on big marketplaces. For most sellers, the idea is not to miss a single lead that comes their way. Yet, they do not want the trouble of building and managing an e-commerce store. Shopmatic co-founder and CEO Anurag Avula says his platform takes away all these pain points. For instance, making changes to inventory or uploading photos is a matter of drag-and-drop. “We take care of design, look, user interface, user experience. The customization is at a high level; even the font will be according to the theme of that particular seller,” he says. Hyderabad-based NowFloats, which not only gets small businesses online but also drives traffic to the websites, has drawn in more than two lakh sellers since it was started in 2011 by Jasminder Singh Gulati, Ronak Kumar Samantray, Nitin Jain and Neeraj Sabharwal. “A web identity alone does not solve the problem. You need to provide a personalized solution,” says Samantray. Inspired by an artificial intelligence-based global web design platform, Grid.io, NowFloats has automated the process of how a website should look. “That is the going to be the differentiator in the long run,” he says, adding that the company has sales teams in 17 states and a few African countries. In a mobile-first country like India, the players are also taking these business to the app platform. Kraftly, which raised $8 million last month, has more than 15,000 shops listed on its platform.It is targeting small seller communities and home-entrepreneurs in categories such as apparel, accessories, home, crafts, and other eclectic products. Bengaluru-based Goodbox is a chat-based assistant to buy goods and services from 1,500 local merchants on an app. It also lets customers make payments online. These platforms also help the merchants with data analytics, search engine optimization, email campaigns and buying ads on Google. Most of the startups are run as a software as a service (SaaS) businesses. Infosys co-founder and chairman of Axilor accelera chairman of Axilor accelerator Kris Gopalakrishnan, an investor in one such platform, Sellerworx, says the huge opportunity has resulted in plethora of different models and all kinds of experiments. “Even as mainstream e-commerce flourishes in the country, an own channel is always attractive for a brand to drive more sales,” he says. “Despite the presence of so many players, consolidation is some time away. Only a few will emerge big and successful,” he adds.
New transfer protocol to simplify transactions for online wallet companies
Online wallet companies Paytm, Mobikwik and FreeCharge aim to integrate their services with the new electronic fund transfer protocol launched by the National Payments Corporation of India, in a move aimed at ensuring their business is not rendered superfluous by this new platform. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which comes into effect Monday, is a single interface across all National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) systems, allowing customers to instantaneously transfer funds across different banks with the use of a single identification and password. Multiple bank accounts can be linked to a single mobile banking application and money can be both received and requested through the same interface. This could weaken the case for consumers having to store money in multiple electronic wallets to pay for services such as cab rides, movie tickets or utility bills. The digital wallet companies say UPI will make it easier for consumers to load cash onto the wallet and at the same time, do not expect the move to impact their business, especially in the short term. “UPI will bring easier and cost effective methods to load money in Paytm,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO, Paytm. UPI is a layer of architecture built on top of standards like the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platform, which enables transactions using unique identification and mobile phone number without sharing any other bank details. The ease-of-use this technology offers is expected to transform the way Indians make digital payments. So much so, that India’s top online retailer Flipkart, recently acquired UPIbased payments company PhonePe earlier this month. Announcing the acquisition, Binny Bansal, CEO of Flipkart, said slow adoption of digital payments has been one of the biggest hurdles for mass adoption of online shopping in India. “UPI has the potential of transforming the entire payments ecosystem in the country,” Bansal said in a statement. UPI also eliminates the need to exchange sensitive information such as bank account numbers, and entering numerous account/card details and multi-level intervention, during a financial transaction. Wallet companies expect this simplified interface to offer clear benefits for them to build new services. “As UPI comes into being we are confident that on the rails of UPI, we will be able to enable a faster and more secure transaction across merchants,” said Govind Rajan, CEO of FreeCharge. Experts, however, argue that once widely accepted across the banking sector, UPI could potentially challenge the business model of mobile wallets including PayTm, FreeCharge and Mobikwik, which have flourished because of the convenience they offer. Vivek Belgavi, leader, financial service technology, PwC India, is of the view that a lot of mobile wallet players were trying to make the process easy, an advantage which will go away. “This is why all the wallet companies have moved on to focus on use case story (acquiring merchants) and making life easier,” he said . Wallet companies disagree. “In the short term, UPI has no negative impact on wallets, and if anything, it will make loading money easier,” said Bipin Preet Singh, CEO, Mobikwik. Typically, the widespread use of a new payment instrument happens when everyone in the ecosystem adopts it, especially the consumer. As in the case of credit cards where Visa and Mastercard franchises were pushed through partnerships with banks.
Online mktplaces’ cashbacks distort level-playing field: RAI
Retailers Association of India (RAI) has said that cashback or the money-back guarantee offers made by marketplace e-commerce players should be treated as influencing the selling price. In a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RAI said with the objective of ensuring a level playing field for all channels of retail in India, the ministry should come out with certain clarifications so that there is no violation in the implementation of the spirit of the policy. It said that since the guidelines forbid marketplaces from participating in pricing directly or indirectly, all discounts, coupons, vouchers be offered by the individual seller. “These should not be issued by the marketplace. Thus, a basket level discount/cash back would have to be restricted to the basket/order of each seller and not at a consolidated level,” it said. “Cashback/money back guarantee offered by a marketplace should be considered tantamount to influencing selling price,” the association added. It also said that consolidated orders covering multiple sellers should not be permitted. “Considering that no seller should be having more that 25 per cent share on the market place, the marketplace must file monthly disclosure with relevant (Enforcement Directorate) authority, giving details,” it added. RAI also said that a full seller profile, including tax registration details, contact numbers, PAN numbers should be available on the online platform and accessible to consumer. “Marketplaces be made responsible for vetting the genuineness of sellers listed on the platform and the authenticity of their contact details to protect consumer interest in cases where the products turn our faulty/fraudulent,” it added.
Investors not keen on e-commerce start-ups
Youngsters hoping to find investors to fund their start-up ideas like linking the local grocer online or selling vegetables through a smart phone may end up being disappointed. With start-up ideas on a boom, majority of the concepts which the investors are coming across are related to e-commerce. Being mainly run of the mill type, investors in the venture capital segment are not too keen to park their funds in e-commerce start-ups, said experts at ‘Runaway to success’, a mentorship camp organized by Lufthansa and The Indus Entrepreneur (TIE) on Sunday. “Like start-ups mushrooming in big numbers, there has been a spurt in the number of angel funds also. Such funds invest in a concept on one-time basis to be later taken over by early stage investor and venture capitals. In today’s scenario, start-ups may find an angel investor, but not many in the later stage to carry forward the business,” said experts. Seemant Shrivastava of Attentio Corporate Services, which is into funding business, says everybody is taking the beaten track. Entrepreneurs are wanting to replicate the success of Amazon or Flipkart in smaller towns. Such ideas may have been relevant around 5-7 years ago. The players who started early have already established themselves with little scope for new entrants now. It has been around a year that the investors have become tight-fisted. “Chances of start-ups getting angel funds are higher because of the surge in the number of such funds in last three years. As against 500 angel funds over three years ago, there are 10,000 at present. Huge money from smaller towns is also flowing into angel funds,” said Anil Joshi of Unicron India Ventures. “Earlier, there were limited city-specific angle funds like those for Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. In last couple of years, angle funds for cities like Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, Patna, Kochi and many more have emerged,” he said. “Angel funds have to park smaller amounts and as it is only on a one-time basis, so funding ideas may not be a constraint. However, for the business to grow, funds have to come from early stage inventors or venture capitals which have become rather selective,” he said. Joshi also agreed that there was a general reluctance to investing in e-commerce ideas. Though product-specific e-commerce start-ups still have a better scope than those dealing in a whole range of items, he said. Harish Taori, managing partner of Singapore-based ThinKuvate, said liquidity is a problem in the industry. With e-commerce ventures being capital intensive, less investment is likely to be attracted. Though investors are also keen to fund tech-based ideas like Internet of things or other smart devices. In a nutshell * Glut of ideas on e-commerce * Majority are similar * Investors not too keen as there is little scope for new e-commerce player * Number of angel funds have also grown manifold * This makes availability of initial capital easy
Centre releases Rs.12, 230 Crore to States for MGNREGA
Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Birender Singh said that the Ministry of Rural Development has released a central share of Rs. 12,230 Crore to the States in connection with the implementation of its flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The Minister also underlined that this fund release will take care of the pending wage liability of the States for the previous Financial Year (2015-16) and help the States to run the Programme during the new Financial Year (2016-17). He reiterated that the Government is committed to ensuring flow of adequate resources for fulfilling the programme objectives. The Ministry has also decided to maintain 60:40 wage-material ratio at the District level now to ensure creation of good quality assets in the rural areas. Rebutting the reports published in a section of media that there are arrears of wages of over Rs. 8000 crore under MGNREGA for the 2015-2016 financial year, Shri Singh said, in fact, the year 2015-16 has registered expenditure under MGNREGA to the tune of Rs. 41,371 crore, which is the highest expenditure under the programme since its inception. Out of this expenditure Rs.30,139 crore has gone towards payment of wages. This has allowed for the highest employment generation over the past three years and the best achievement on key parameters over the last three years such as works taken up, women participation (55%) and 95% of payments through electronic fund management system. The Minister further emphasized that the Ministry of Rural Development has brought large scale reforms in the implementation of the programme in such a manner that it is oriented more towards combating the agrarian distress and meet the demand for work in drought affected areas creating durable & income generating assets mostly linked to augmentation of irrigation potential. In the year 2015-16, states were asked to provide employment where needed, particularly drought affected areas, with the assurance of making required resources available. The Ministry expanded the entitlement from 100 to 150 days of work to households in drought affected regions of ten states. 20.48 Lakh households in these regions have availed this opportunity and completed more than 100 days of work. At the national level 44 Lakh households have completed 100 days. To further bring down the delay in payment of wages, the Ministry in line with the Cabinet decision has introduced National electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) in the current financial year. In 2016-17, as part of their Labour Budget, the States have proposed to construct 8.82 lakh farm ponds and 10.39 lakh organic compost pits to boost the agriculture sector. The States have also proposed to construct 33 lakh Individual House Hold Latrines (IHHL) as part of Swachh Bharat Mission and 63,000 Anganwadi centre buildings to strengthen rural infrastructure. The road map for 2016-17 will focus on accelerating the momentum gained in employment generation while further strengthening the monitoring system.
Delhi-Meerut Expressway stretch may get Cabinet nod in 15 days
To ease traffic congestion in the national capital, the Cabinet is likely to give its nod to widening of the crucial UP Gate to Dasna stretch of the Rs 7,566-crore Delhi-Meerut Expressway in a fortnight. “The proposal for widening of 19.28 km UP Gate to Dasna stretch of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway is likely to get Cabinet nod in another fortnight,” a source privy to the development said. The other two stretches – Akshardham temple to UP Gate and Dasna to Hapur have already been approved by the Cabinet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31, 2015 had unveiled a plaque to mark the laying of the foundation stone of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway to be built at a cost of Rs 7,566 crore that includes construction of 28-km long 14 lane Delhi-Dasna section. The National Highway will show a way to freedom from pollution, he had said. Earlier Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the project will reduce the distance between the national capital and Meerut to 40-45 minutes from 3 hours at present. The expressway will give a big thrust to development in western Uttar Pradesh and will make travel to cities like Dehradun, Moradabad and Bareilly much faster, he has said. The Delhi-Meerut Expressway would be an access controlled highway and 31 traffic signals have been removed from the stretch. While, the work on Delhi-Dasna section would cost of Rs 2,869 crore, the construction of 46 km long six-lane Dasna-Meerut section of the expressway will cost Rs 3,575 crore. Besides, six-laning of 22 km long Dasna-Hapur section of NH 24 will cost Rs 1,122 crore.
Government proposes to build green underpasses for new national highways
The roads ministry has proposed to construct 25 leafy underpasses for animal movement as part of 10 national highways that pass through forests and wildlife sanctuaries in order to ensure environmental clearance for the projects. The measures will add to the cost of construction, but that isn’t a worry since these will reduce the impact on the natural habitat of animals, a senior National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official said. These proposed highways would pass through sanctuaries such as the Madhav National Park near Gwalior; Chambal and the corridors connecting the Kanha and Pench tiger reserves; Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand and dense forests of Assam. Cost of construction for these nearly 1,900 km of highways is estimated to be about Rs 20,000 crore. The cave-like, concrete underpasses that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed will be layered with natural soil so that they resemble the natural habitat of the animals. The underpasses will be fitted with CCTV cameras to monitor the movement of animals. According to a senior ministry official, these structures will be constructed so biodiversity is untouched. Stretches passing through green corridors will have fencing to prevent vehicles from entering the core zone. Speed of vehicles will be restricted to 40 km an hour. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and National Tiger Conservation Authority have prepared draft guidelines for mitigation of impact of linear projects in forest ranges. For instance, height of underpasses has been suggested to be a minimum of six metres to help elephants. The government is working with the WII to implement these. “Animals have a set pattern and route of movement according to which special paths underneath the elevated road stretch would be made,” the NHAI official said. State wildlife boards will also be drafted into the projects.