On his maiden trip to India, Facebook chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss digital expansion in the country.
Amazon is selling products on its Indian website that are sourced by a joint venture with N.R. Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, an arrangement that could draw regulatory scrutiny on the world’s largest online retailer.
India’s biggest online retailer, Flipkart, took just 10 hours to hit its target of $100 million in gross merchandise value (GMV), or the value of goods sold, on Monday, when it hosted its Big Billion Day sale. The day saw significant offline and online activity by rivals Snapdeal and Amazon’s local operation, confirming that e-commerce wars are the contemporary version of the cola or soap wars.
Putting its war chest to work now will give Amazon—a latecomer behind Indian rivals such as Flipkart Internet Pvt. and Snapdeal.com, which is backed by eBay Inc. —a chance to leapfrog into the lead. Bezos says Amazon will continue to invest heavily in India and other businesses and markets that have significant potential.
Modi met Obama at the White House this week and held talks on strengthening the bilateral ties.
Even as the Reserve Bank of India gears up for its monetary policy review, wholesale inflation has eased for the month of August. WPI rose just 3.74% year-on-year, much lower than economists’ predictions.
It’s been a year since Raghuram Rajan took over the reins at the Reserve Bank of India. Under him, the central bank is trying to overhaul the way banks function in the country.
European Union Ambassador to India spoke to Mint about the much delayed free trade agreement.
Narendra Modi has launched his massive pet project, the Jan Dhan Yojana, which aims to bring the country’s poor into the financial mainstream.
Both of India’s benchmark equity indices have been hitting new lifetime highs. Better-than-expected numbers on the growth front seems to have boosted investor sentiment. Data released on Friday showed that India grew at 5.7% in the first quarter of this fiscal.
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