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JLR sets up charging infra at retail outlets as it prepares to launch I-Pace later this month
Jaguar Land Rover India on Wednesday said it has set up charging infrastructure across 22 retail outlets in the country as it prepares to launch its all-electric SUV, Jaguar I-PACE, later this month. Twenty two retail outlets across 19 cities are now EV ready in terms of infrastructure, as well as sales and after-sales support, the company said in a statement.
The charging infrastructure has been set up in metro cities and key urban hubs across the country, it added.
NEW DELHI - India is ready to offer incentives to ensure Tesla Inc's cost of production would be less than in China if the carmaker commits to making its electric vehicles in the south Asian country, transport minister Nitin Gadkari told Reuters.
Gadkari's pitch comes weeks after billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla registered a company in India in a step towards entering the country, possibly as soon as mid-2021. Sources familiar with the matter have said Tesla plans to start by importing and selling its Model 3 electric sedan in India.
"Rather than assembling (the cars) in India they should make the entire product in the country by hiring local vendors. Then we can give higher concessions," Gadkari said in an interview, without giving details of what incentives would be on offer.
The government will make sure the production cost for Tesla will be the lowest when compared with the world, even China, when they start manufacturing their cars in India. We will assure that," he said.
India wants to boost local manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs), batteries and other components to cut costly imports and curb pollution in its major cities.
This comes amid a global race by carmakers to jump-start EV production as countries work towards cutting carbon emissions.
But India faces a big challenge to win a production commitment from Tesla, which did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment about its plans in the country.
India's fledgling EV market accounted for just 5,000 out of a total 2.4 million cars sold in the country last year as negligible charging infrastructure and the high cost of EVs deterred buyers.
In contrast, China, where Tesla already makes cars, sold 1.25 million new energy passenger vehicles, including EVs, in 2020 out of total sales of 20 million, and accounted for more than a third of Tesla's global sales.
India also doesn't have a comprehensive EV policy like China, the world's biggest auto market, which mandates companies to invest in the sector.
Gadkari said that as well as being a big market, India could be an export hub, especially with about 80% of components for lithium-ion batteries being made locally now.
"I think it's a win-win situation for Tesla," Gadkari said, adding he also wanted to engage with Tesla about building an ultra high-speed hyperloop between Delhi and Mumbai.
India is drawing up a production-linked incentive scheme for auto and auto component makers as well as for setting up advanced battery manufacturing units, but the details are yet to be finalised.
Switching to cleaner sources of energy and reducing vehicle pollution are seen as essential for India to meet its Paris Accord climate commitments.
India last year introduced tougher emission rules for carmakers to bring them up to international standards. It is now looking at tightening fuel efficiency rules from April 2022, which industry executives say may compel some automakers to add electric or hybrid vehicles to their portfolios.
Battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry says it needs longer to make the transition.
Gadkari said he was not directly responsible for making the decision on whether to delay, but was confident India would meet its Paris treaty commitments without disrupting economic growth.
"Development and environment will go hand in hand. We will take some time but we will soon reach the international standard norms," he said.
NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea Limited said that it has acquired spectrum in the 5 circles which will further help it to enhance 4G coverage and capacity, enabling superior digital experience for its customers.
In a statement, the telco said that the Indian telecom sector is well positioned to drive the Digital India agenda with sufficient spectrum availability and adequate number of market players. "...we used the recently concluded spectrum auction to optimise spectrum holding to create further efficiencies in a few circles.
"Vodafone Idea entered the auction holding the largest quantum of spectrum with a very small fraction, which was administratively allocated and used for GSM services, coming up for renewal," it said in a statement.
In the next few years, the industry is readying to deploy 5G technology with India specific use cases. "We are hopeful that a larger quantum of spectrum in globally harmonised bands, will be made available for all operators in the future as well as it would be at fair prices that allows operators to have the ability to rapidly roll out networks."
Bharti Airtel said that it has acquired 355.45 MHz spectrum across sub GHz, mid band and 2300 MHz bands for Rs 18,699 crores in the latest spectrum auction which ended earlier in the day.
Reliance Jio is expected to be the largest bidder - putting in around Rs55,000 crore - in the spectrum auction and renew its airwaves in the 800 Mhz which it shared with Reliance Communications and were up for renewal.
The first-of-a-kind offering provides a fixed hospitalisation cover of up to Rs 1,000 for a period of 24 hours of hospitalisation and Rs 2,000 of cover for ICU-related expenses from ABHI for any kind of ailments including COVID-19, according to an official statemenr.
Vi said the Hospicare bundled health insurance proposition can be availed by customers who recharge with price points of Rs. 51 and Rs. 301.
Vi Hospicare features:
Particulars
Details
Daily cash benefit
Rs 1,000 per day
ICU treatment coverage period
Rs 2,000 per day for ICU treatment. Insurance cover extends by 28 days on every successive recharge of Rs Rs 51 / Rs 301
Age group
18 to 55 years
Limit per hospitalisation
10 days per event
Limit per policy year
30 days per year
Deductible
1 day
First 30 days waiting period
Applicable
Waiting period for accident cases
Not applicable
Two-year waiting period for specific ailments
Not applicable
Pre-existing diseases waiting period
Not applicable
Source: Official company release
It should be noted that the Rs 51 recharge provides a health benefit of Rs 1,000 per day and 500 free SMSes with a validity of 28 days.
The Rs 301 plan offers a health benefit of rs 1,000 per day along with unlimited calls with 1.5GB data per day and 2GB extra data with 100 free SMS per day. It comes with a validity of 28 days.
“Health and Wellness is a prime focus area at Vi, and with this partnership, we have taken a significant step ahead that will help ease the financial burden of unexpected hospitalization for our users. I am sure this simplistic offering, with no hidden costs, and powerful benefits, will be immensely beneficial for our prepaid customers across different social strata,” said Avneesh Khosla, CMO, Vi.
“Vi Hospicare will serve as an easily accessible simplified health insurance cover that offers hospitalization benefits for necessary treatment with hassle-free claims. The partnership with Vi will provide the necessary reach and penetration to reinforce our commitment towards extending prudent health insurance solutions to customers across diverse economic backgrounds,” commented Mayank Bathwal, CEO, Aditya Birla Health Insurance on the partnership.
ABHI Health coverage is applicable for all hospitals including registered government hospitals, allopathy / AYUSH hospitals. Vi customers can claim the benefit by just showing a scanned copy of the discharge certificate and basic verification.
The vaccination drive for Covid-19 has begun in India to beat the disease but there’s another battle that needs to be fought -- misinformation and online scams. Fake websites, apps along with rampant unverified information floating online has become a problem. Not to forget the countless ‘alternate cures’ for Covid-19. Also, there may be some confusion around how to register for the vaccine online. Here are 8 things to be careful about while registering for Covid-19 vaccine online.
You can only register for the vaccine online on the CoWIN website
You can only register for Covid-19 vaccine online on the CoWIN website--http://cowin.gov.in. There’s no CoWIN mobile app for vaccine registration. The CoWIN app on Google Play Store is for administrators only and not for citizens.
Do not download any mobile app for Covid-19 vaccine
Apart from Aarogya Setu, there’s no other official mobile app that is meant for Covid-19 related help or information. Do not download any app that sounds similar to CoWin for vaccine registration or any other details. There’s no separate app for Covid-19 vaccine registration and you can only get registered on the CoWIN website--http://cowin.gov.in.
Do not believe messages or emails that claim to provide ‘priority tokens’ for money
The entire registration for Covid-19 vaccination is digitally maintained and everyone has to register through the official CoWin website only. Do not believe anyone or any message that claims to help you get a token on a particular date or place for some extra money or promise some other kind of ‘backdoor entry’.
Everybody cannot get the vaccine immediately and there are certain eligibility criterias
Starting March 1, all citizens that are aged, or will attain the age of, 60 years or more as on 1st January 2022 are eligible to register, in addition to all such citizens that are aged, or will attain the age of, 45 years to 59 years as on 1st January 2022, and have any of the specified 20 comorbidities.
Only these 7 ID proofs are accepted for vaccine registration online
Only these 7 Photo Identity Documents can be used by citizens for availing of online registration–Aadhar Card/Letter, Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), Passport, Driving License, PAN Card, NPR Smart Card and Pension Document with photograph.
Four people can register with a common phone number but separate ID proofs are required
With one mobile number, a person can register as many as four people. However, all those registered on one mobile number will have nothing in common except the mobile number. The Photo ID Card Number for each such beneficiary must be different.
There is an official list of private hospitals designated for vaccine delivery available online
A list of all private hospitals as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Health Authority can be accessed at:
Covid-19 vaccine is free at government facilities. At private facilities, the cost cannot be above Rs 250
All vaccines provided to people at ‘Government Health Facilities’ are entirely free of cost, while Private Facilities cannot charge people above Rs 250 per person per dose (Rs 150/- for vaccines and Rs 100/- as operational charges).
A bruising battle for supremacy between two of the world’s richest men is hogging the limelight, but the silent changes in India’s retail landscape deserve equal attention.
The ongoing digital transformation of the corner kirana stores, tens of millions of shops catering to 1.3 billion consumers, will matter for everyone from Unilever NV and Procter & Gamble Co. to State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender. It will also be important to Amazon.com Inc. boss Jeff Bezos and Reliance Industries Ltd. Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
The two billionaires are circling each other over an Indian retailer in crisis. The founder of Future Group took Bezos’s money, but sold his debt-laden business to Ambani when the pressure from the pandemic became too much. Amazon is in India’s courts to scuttle the $3.4 billion sale, which could end up making Reliance’s dominance over the consumer economy unshakeable.
Away from this high-profile fight for the ordinary Indian’s wallet, a different contest is shaping up for control of what goes on shop shelves. Reaching small stores in a country of more than 660,000 villages and 8,000 cities and towns has traditionally been an uphill struggle for brands. Even Unilever, which has been in India for almost a century, can barely tap 15% of all retailers directly. It needs wholesalers to boost that reach to 80%-plus, according to investment research and asset management company Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
The wholesalers rely on their knowledge of (and trust in) retailers in their vicinity. But these relationship-oriented networks are small and expensive. Throwing them wide open with digitization is the big opportunity. Leading the charge is Udaan, a startup that in five years has taken 80% of the business-to-business e-commerce market, delivering goods it stocks in 200 warehouses nationwide to more than 1.7 million retail stores in 900 cities every day.
Suppliers receive their cash on time after Udaan takes their products. Retailers get credit they would have otherwise obtained at high interest rates from wholesalers. Everything happens on a smartphone app, which helps small shopkeepers build a history of reliability in payments. Banks and financiersgain the confidence to lend the required working capital, and brands get less convoluted access. From manufacturers and millers to farmers, pharmacists, hotels, restaurants and grocers, the platform has 3 million registered buyers and sellers.
As Vaibhav Gupta, one of Udaan’s three co-founders, says, “We’ve solved the problem of trust on the internet.” The firm is backed, among others, by Lightspeed Venture Partners, an early investor in Snap Inc., and Yuri Milner’s DST Global. It’s one of India’s fastest-growing unicorns, as startups valued at $1 billion or more are known.
Sujeet Kumar, another co-founder, credits some of the success to the 2017 goods-and-services tax. With multiple rates and high compliance costs, GST is a cumbersome consumption tax, but it’s uniform across India. Warehousing decisions that used to be driven by a confusing smorgasbord of local levies are now guided by efficiency.
Mobile internet is undoubtedly the centerpiece. Ambani entered the Indian telecom industry with his 4G network in 2016 and crunched expensive data prices to where they’re the cheapest in the world. The average kirana owner has a smartphone now, and isn’t shy about using it. With a little training, lack of education isn’t a barrier to reshaping sclerotic business practices.
Disruption doesn’t mean aping the West. Kumar and Gupta were part of the team that built Flipkart as India’s answer to Amazon and left it two years before Walmart Inc. bought the e-commerce site for$16 billion. Amod Malviya, their third partner, was Flipkart’s chief technology officer. At Udaan, though, the founders haven’t copied a global template.
That’s because none exists. While affluent e-commerce consumers may have preferences similar to their Western counterparts, the vast majority of price-conscious customers buy everyday items in tiny quantities. “Kitchens and refrigerators are small, and the median buyer of shoes pays 200 rupees ($3),” Gupta says. Since mobile commerce arrived in India before connected desktop computers became a thing, even bigger-ticket purchasing decisions don’t start with elaborate online searches.
Udaan was built for the India its founders grew up in. Kumar arrived at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi from Bhabua, the main town of a dirt-poor district in the penurious eastern state of Bihar (annual per capita income: $630). The distance between Bhabua and Udaan in Bangalore isn’t measured in kilometers or miles, but in decades of progress that mobile internet is trying to squeeze into years. As a supply chain specialist, Kumar isn’t looking to fundamentally alter behavior. He’s simply removing inefficiencies to speed up the flow of capital. This is crucial for retailers who work on 10% to 12% margins, half of what their peers in the West make.
The business-to-consumer side of retail is both deeply political and booby-trapped with regulatory minefields. New Delhi’s noose around foreign-owned e-commerce — Amazon as well as Walmart-Flipkart — istightening as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pursues a more nationalist economic agenda. Ambani has a clear edge, but Bezos is far from giving up. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant recently announced a plan tomanufacture its Fire TV Stick devices locally, lending support to Modi’s Make in India campaign.
Will the kirana become collateral damage in the tycoons’ war? Perhaps not. Even by the end of this decade, when India’s retail market grows to $2 trillion, tripling from when the data revolution was just kicking in, small shops will command a 65% share, in Bernstein’s estimates. However, a little under half of their trade will have gone digital by then.
Startups like Udaan will modernize the back-end. In doing so, they’ll raise the value of the prize that Ambani and Bezos are vying for — by the storefront.
