Amazon to invest 1 billion USD in India:
Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos announced USD 1 billion over Rs 7,000 crore investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online and committed to exporting USD 10 billion worth of India-made goods by 2025. The online retail giant committed USD 5.5 billion investments in India - Amazon`s most important market outside of the US and a key growth driver.
Amazon - India
The long-term partner of India and actions speak louder than words. Amazon will invest an incremental USD 1 billion to digitize micro and small businesses across India, helping them reach more customers than ever before. This initiative will use Amazon`s global footprint to create USD 10 billion in India exports by 2025,. The millions of more people into the future success of India and, at the same time, expose the world to the Make in India products that represent India`s rich, diverse culture. The company previously said it expected e-commerce exports from India to reach USD 5 billion by 2023 under its global selling program.
SMBhav summit
The SMBhav summit - an Amazon India gathering for small and medium businesses. The Competition Commission of India initiated a formal investigation into alleged deep discounts, preferential listing, and exclusionary tactics adopted by Amazon and Flipkart, and small store owners demonstrating on the streets against online retailers driving them out of business by offering discounted products sharply. The Confederation of All India Traders, an association of about seven crore brick-and-mortar retailers, has said it will protest across 300 cities during his visit.
The government tightened rules for e-commerce marketplaces with foreign investment. These rules barred such platforms from offering products of sellers in which they hold a stake and banned exclusive marketing arrangements among other clauses. Amazon is pumping millions of dollars across various operations like a marketplace, payments, infrastructure, and supply chain management as well as marketing and promotion as it looks to strengthen its position in the fledgling Indian e-commerce market. Amazon invested over Rs 1,700 crore into its payments and commercial business units in India, while in October it had infused over Rs 4,400 crore (more than USD 600 million) in its various groups in India, including marketplace and food retail. Bezos last visited India in 2014 when he presented Amazon`s Indian unit with a giant cheque for USD 2 billion. Amazon has pledged a further USD 3.5 billion to expand in the country, and the USD 1 billion investment announced Wednesday would take the total committed investment to USD 6.5 billion. The USD 1 billion investment would be to digitize 10 million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and traders across India, including manufacturers, resellers, local offline shops, and brands. Amazon will establish 100 Digital Haats in cities and villages throughout India. More than 5,50,000 sellers on the Amazon India marketplace, and more than 60,000 Indian manufacturers and brands are exporting them Make in India products to customers worldwide on Amazon.
Microsoft vows to be carbon negative by 2030:
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond Washington.Microsoft announced that it would become carbon negative by the year 2030. The announcement made in the form of its increased efforts to combat climate change. The company announced that it vows to eliminate all the carbon emissions created by the company since its inception in 1975. Microsoft announced its investment of $1 billion in a climate innovation fund for technology for carbon capture and removal.
RBI asks issuers to provide facility to switch on, off cards to prevent frauds:
Reserve Bank of India has asked banks and other card-issuing companies to provide facility to customers to switch on and off their debit or credit cards, a move aimed at enhancing security for digital transactions.
The RBI said that at the time of issue or re-issue, all cards (physical and virtual) should be enabled for use only at contact based points of usage ATMs and Point of Sale (PoS) devices within India.
The central Bank said issuers should provide cardholders a facility for enabling card not present (domestic and international) transactions, card present (international) transactions and contactless transactions.
It said, the channels should include mobile application, internet banking, automated teller machines, or interactive voice response.
The RBI further said that for existing cards, issuers may take a decision, based on their risk perception, whether to disable the card not present (domestic and international) transactions, card present (international) transactions and contactless transaction rights.