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Today’s top tech news: Drones are saving Indian cities, soft skills could save young engineers and plugging the fuel leak will save Chandrayaan 2

<ul><li>The Delhi High Court and the Western Railways in India are planning to use drones to monitor water clogged and flood prone areas in Delhi and Mumbai. </li><li>Young professional today may have technical skills but lack soft skills like strategic thinking and negotiation techniques are in demand by employers. </li><li><keyword id="414120" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chandrayaan-2">Chandrayaan 2</keyword> was reportedly delayed due to a leak in its fuel tank but could still take off within the month of July. </li><li>Jim Carrey in The Shining and Sylvestor Stallone in Terminator 2 videos puts a light tone on the very serious threat of <keyword id="7873801" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="deepfake-technology">deepfake technology</keyword>. </li><li>The Chinese ecommerce site, Alibaba.com, is focusing on gems and jewellery a growth driver in the Indian market.</li></ul>This is Tech Insider’s daily dose of <keyword id="35609" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="tech-news">tech news</keyword> — everything that’s happening in tech that you need to know about today from Business Insider and its partner publications:

<ul><li>In an interview with Business Insider India, Denny Wang, Regional Director, Global B2B Business South Asia, <keyword id="302749" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Alibaba">Alibaba</keyword>.com spoke about what’s driving their India business. </li><li><keyword id="163406" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Alibaba-com">Alibaba.com</keyword> has been in India since 2008 and over the years has identified the gems and jewellery sector as one of its focus areas.</li><li>In India, Alibaba has over 6 million users and 15,000 merchants.</li></ul>Alibaba.com has not seen an explosive growth in its B2B business in India, unlike in China. It is exhibiting a slow and steady growth instead. The Chinese giant has six million members on its platform. And, the group’s India vertical has identified gems and jewellery, textiles and apparel, beauty and personal care, home and garden and agriculture as the top five categories of trade business. In fact, gems and jewellery is one of the verticals that Alibaba.com has identified as the most ‘in demand’ segment. “We’ve come to find an increasing demand amongst our buyer base for Indian gems and jewellery from various regions, especially Hong Kong, UAE and the USA,” said Denny Wang, Regional Director, Global B2B Business South Asia, Alibaba.com. The Indian Gems and Jewellery (G&amp;J) sector is one of the largest in the world and is home to over 300,000 gems and jewellery players. “Looking at the huge potential that exists within the country, we’ve identified the gems and jewellery export as a strong growth segment for India and we plan to focus on building a large merchant base on the platform from this cluster,” said Wang. Chinese entrepreneur and billionaire <keyword id="424838" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jack-Ma">Jack Ma</keyword> who hit a jackpot with Alibaba.com, made a rather silent entry into India in 2008. Ever since, it has brought as many as 15,000 SMEs onto its platform. Globally, Alibaba has 10 million active buyers spread across 190 countries. “Our focus has always been on encouraging entrepreneurship and small businesses in China which has made us a force to reckon with and now we are bringing our expertise with Chinese and global markets to India,” said Wang. Alibaba.com in India is leveraging its channel partner network, which supports them in customer outreach, onboarding and customer service. One of the biggest challenges Indian SMEs face is the training required in onboarding digital growth and Alibaba.com brings its global insights to India there as well. “To train our merchant base, we also organize training programs and workshops across key markets. These programs not only inform our merchant base about the platform’s proposition but also give them insights into the industry, buyer trends and at the same time, enables them to leverage digital economy to take their businesses to global audiences,” said Wang. Recently, one of Alibaba’s competitors – IndiaMart in India went public. Wang believes there is still a big opportunity to capture the Indian market. “India is in a nascent stage in terms of fully adopting to the power of digital commerce and that is exactly what we at Alibaba.com are here to enable the country’s SMEs and MSMEs with,” he said.

Jack Ma's Alibaba.com says Indian gems and jewellery are selling like hot cakes across the world

After State Bank of India's move to <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword> MSME sellers attached with Snapdeal's online market place, <keyword id="6653" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="ICICI-bank">ICICI Bank</keyword> becomes the first bank in India to partner with <keyword id="163406" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Alibaba-com">Alibaba.com</keyword> for their online trade facilitation centre. Indian micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSME) who are members of Alibaba.com will also get access to ICICI Bank's other banking facilities such as cash management, <keyword id="6368276" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Foreign-exchange">foreign exchange</keyword>, bank guarantees and cross-border remittances. 
 "This collaboration underlines our commitment to providing users with banking solutions that simplify their lives. We believe this access to quick and integrated banking will enable Indian entrepreneurs to propel their business on the global platform," ICICI Bank Executive Director <keyword id="128186" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajiv-Sabharwal">Rajiv Sabharwal</keyword> was quoted as saying in a press statement. 

	Banks are exploring this segment with e-commerce space growing thick and fast to meet the aspirations of the next generation customers and small businesses. 
 

	"With trade facilitation center, Alibaba.com expects to offer access to various financing, credit and logistics services provided by ICICI Bank for our Indian customers," said Bhushan Patil, channels director with Alibaba.com in India. "We have also worked to sweeten this proposition by enabling Alibaba.com's members in India to enjoy better rates and discounts on ICICI Bank's products and services."

	 
	 
	(image credits: nextshopin.blogspot)

ICICI-Alibaba deal to ease trade finance for India-based sellers

Is <keyword id="2364818" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="E-commerce-3-0">e-commerce 3.0</keyword> only about business tweaks? Almost all experts will tell you that the new format of <keyword id="35621" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-commerce">e-commerce</keyword> is on its way, but nobody is quite sure what it is like. Some pinpoint it as online shopping, largely influenced by social media parameters, while others are betting big on the mobile impact. No doubt these are crucial indicators, but they only provide you a partial glimpse into the business-to-consumer (B2C) part of it. However, we need to take a more incisive look at the fast-evolving strategic context of e-commerce, which is throwing up some surprising trends that may affect the industry in the long run. Let us take a look at the recent happenings in the Indian e-commerce space to identify the most prominent trends and what they signify. 
	 
	 
	 
	1. Calibrated aggression for survival: That’s exactly what the much-anticipated cash-and-stock deal between <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and <keyword id="319719" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Myntra">Myntra</keyword> has taught us. Competition has been ironed out by strategic <keyword id="42411" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Merger">merger</keyword> in order to survive against global giants like <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword>. Flipkart is not new to the game but co-founders Sachin and <keyword id="6364080" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Binny-Bansal">Binny Bansal</keyword> have not gone the LetsBuy way this time, for pretty predictable reasons (for your recap, Letsbuy.com was the electronics e-tailer that was acquired by Flipkart in February 2012 and shut down in May that year). 
	 Before the acquisition, the Myntra brand was way ahead of Flipkart as the <keyword id="2364834" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Biggest-India-fashion-e-tailer">biggest India fashion e-tailer</keyword>. While Flipkart required size to survive against the likes of Amazon, the bigger margins enjoyed by fashion e-tailing was an added icing to the cake (after all, fashion is expected to be the largest category in e-commerce over the next five years). So this time around, it was a calibrated aggression on Flipkart’s part and the merger, along with the much-talked-about <keyword id="2364826" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Management-autonomy">management autonomy</keyword> enjoyed by <keyword id="705865" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mukesh-Bansal">Mukesh Bansal</keyword>’s Myntra, will continue to work for two specific reasons. 
	 One is local competition, not only from <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>, which is promoted by Berlin-based <keyword id="1965711" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rocket-Internet-GmbH">Rocket Internet GmbH</keyword> (a venture arm of the deep-pocketed Samwer brothers), but also from <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>.com, quite a veteran in the marketplace model. It is too early to assume that Jabong has missed the bus in stamping its dominance in the <keyword id="902070" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-com">e-com</keyword> space and the same applies to Snapdeal, which has recently raised $100 million and could be opting for an IPO in the next 18-24 months. Moreover, if India eases its <keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword> policy further and allows <keyword id="2364830" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Foreign-e-commerce-companies">foreign e-commerce companies</keyword> to sell their products directly to Indian consumers (as of now, only marketplaces are allowed to do this), <keyword id="2364831" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Home-grown-e-commerce-firms">home-grown e-commerce firms</keyword> will require maximum <keyword id="573045" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Customer-loyalty">customer loyalty</keyword> to stay in business and the likes of Myntra will play a key role in ensuring enhanced <keyword id="485911" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="brand-loyalty">brand loyalty</keyword>.
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	The way ahead: Similar mergers may happen soon and we may see some monopolistic polarisation in the e-commerce space. If branding and management autonomy can be retained in the same way it had been done in the <keyword id="2196490" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart-Myntra-deal">Flipkart-Myntra deal</keyword>, a Snapdeal-Jabong deal may very well be a possibility. On the other hand, Amazon may come up with a similar offer for Snapdeal (we don’t rule out <keyword id="161767" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="eBay-India">eBay India</keyword> either) and once again, we may witness the emergence of an e-commerce mega power in India. Also, in most of these deals, unequals could be gunning for merger-of-equals status, thus complicating the merger and acquisition operations. Ultimately, the <keyword id="2364839" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Entry-barrier">entry barrier</keyword> will be too high for small or niche e-commerce sites and staying profitable will become a tough proposition. 
	 
	 
	 
	2. SME focus for marketplace growth: A couple of days ago, Flipkart announced tie-ups with two SME (small and medium enterprise) promotion bodies and signed MoUs with the Federation of Indian Micro and <keyword id="6375845" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Small-and-medium-enterprises">Small and Medium Enterprises</keyword> (<keyword id="174192" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="FISME">FISME</keyword>) and the National Centre for Design and Product Development (<keyword id="2348217" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="NCDPD">NCDPD</keyword>). With this move, the Bangalore firm expects to create a powerful affiliation with 50,000 SMEs and artisans by helping them with data analytics, marketing and customer acquisition. The company is also holding talks with several <keyword id="533862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Manufacturing-clusters">manufacturing clusters</keyword> in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat in a bid to attract more sellers on board and thus ensure strong growth for its marketplace model. 
	 
	As of now, Flipkart has about 3,000 sellers on board, mostly SMEs, and offers 15 million products across 70-plus categories. The company aims to grow the seller base to 12,000 by the end of the current fiscal, according to Economic Times. Myntra, too, has about 100 sellers on board and plans to increase this number to 1,000 by fiscal-end. However, this is too paltry a number, compared to the largest Chinese <keyword id="2049184" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="E-commerce-marketplace">e-commerce marketplace</keyword> <keyword id="302749" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Alibaba">Alibaba</keyword>.com that has about 20 lakh SMEs on board, but has less than 20,000 in India. 
	 As for other key players in India, here are some mindboggling numbers according to media reports. Snapdeal currently features about 500 categories, 100,000 sellers and more than 5 million products (excluding books and movies); eBay has 1.1 million product listings at any given point <keyword id="54921" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="spread">spread</keyword> across 2,000 categories and 45,000 sellers on board while Amazon has 15 million products from 5,000 sellers across 24 categories. Amazon has already opened two Fufillment Centers in India, enabling home-grown SMEs to get a scalable and robust national platform. Sellers opting for FBA (<keyword id="2023087" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fulfillment-by-Amazon">Fulfillment By Amazon</keyword>) send their products to these ‘fulfillment centers’ and once an order is placed, Amazon packs and ships the order.
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	The way ahead: Right now, no one can possibly predict whether the death of the inventory-led e-commerce model is imminent. But one thing is pretty certain – e-commerce businesses need as many products and categories as possible to enhance customer engagement. However, that won’t be possible without growing their marketplaces and bringing on board a huge number of sellers. Hence, the <keyword id="2364811" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SME-focus">SME focus</keyword> and <keyword id="6630005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="private-labels">private labels</keyword> are going to dominate e-commerce 3.0. 
	 
	 
	 
	3. VAS for better customer loyalty: In spite of a Mumbai firm delivering pizza on an experimental basis, civil/commercial drones à la <keyword id="2364850" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon-Prime-Air-drones">Amazon Prime Air drones</keyword> are still not a reality in India (neither they are commercially ready in the US). However, Amazon, eBay, Flipkart and Snapdeal are trying their best to ensure ‘fastest possible’ delivery in the country. While <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> offers same-day and guaranteed one-day delivery, eBay is testing a 9-hour delivery model in Mumbai. 
	 Only recently, Flipkart has launched its annual subscription service called <keyword id="2230132" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart-First">Flipkart First</keyword>, offering a number of benefits including <keyword id="1591575" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="free-shipping">free shipping</keyword> for any purchase, free in-a-day guaranteed delivery, <keyword id="2364858" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Discounted-same-day-delivery">discounted same-day delivery</keyword>, 24×7 <keyword id="2364859" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Priority-customer-service">priority customer service</keyword> and more. This is similar to the lucrative logistics part of Amazon’s Prime subscription (currently not available in India), but Amazon offers a bigger service bouquet for its Prime subscribers, including access to songs, movies, TV shows and books. Flipkart, or any other Indian e-tailer for that matter, is yet to launch such extensive customer engagement programme, but the bait has been thrown by Flipkart and to some extent, by Snapdeal, which also offers free same-day delivery in certain regions and hopes to expand this service next year. 
	 
	The way ahead: Some experts feel that e-com businesses will soon curtail services like <keyword id="1972252" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Express-delivery">express delivery</keyword> and free shipping in order to generate more cash. High transportation costs and other logistics issues have been cited as the main culprits. But keeping in mind that <keyword id="758541" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon-Prime">Amazon Prime</keyword> works more as a <keyword id="1426078" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="loyalty-programme">loyalty programme</keyword> and less as a revenue-churner, fixing fickle customer loyalty may lie in developing these services. Now that Flipkart is going to market <keyword id="2364868" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Affordable-tablets">affordable tablets</keyword> under its <keyword id="2338688" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="DigiFlip">DigiFlip</keyword> label, the Indian e-commerce giant can very well experiment with some Prime-like services and craft user experience based on ‘All things Flipkart’ just as Amazon does with its affordable <keyword id="785825" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kindle-Fire">Kindle Fire</keyword>. If that happens and other companies follow suit, e-commerce 3.0 in India will evolve into an inclusive and exciting user experience. For now, let us wait and watch. 
	 
	Images: Thinkstock/Getty Images

Life After
Flipkart-Myntra Deal: Will These 3 Trends Rule E-commerce In India?

<keyword id="6356826" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="environment">Environment</keyword> Minister of India today said popular websites like <keyword id="6381424" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Quikr">Quikr</keyword>, <keyword id="6360657" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="OLX">Olx</keyword>, Ebay, Amazon and Youtube are involved in trade of rare animals and their body parts. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said online smuggling of rare animals and their parts are being monitored by the state and central governments as part of combating cyber crime. He also said "Several websites are seen advertising sale of rare animals and their parts". 
 He furnished a list of 106 such websites collated by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB). The 106 websites include prominent names like quikr.com, olx.in, alibaba.com, eBay.com, youtube.com, amazon.com, shopping.rediff.com, petsmart.com and <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">snapdeal</keyword>.com. Dave said several steps have been taken to prevent such illegal activities which include utilising services of cyber crime specialists on contractual basis to carry out regular cyber patrolling to detect posts and offers on such portals. He said if any such offer is detected, details are retrieved of the suspect and information is passed on to relevant enforcement agencies for legal action. 
 
A meeting of representatives from online trade portals was convened in May this year to discuss issues pertaining to online wildlife trade, sensitise them about it and discuss modalities to assist WCCB in case of such detections. Dave said during training and sensitisation programmes conducted by WCCB, the issue of illegal online wildlife trade is being highlighted so that officials involved in the enforcement are abreast of such trends. A wildlife body had recently alleged that a prominent website was selling wildlife specimens, including sea horses and alligator heads, protected under the country's laws. 
 
Wildlife SOS had claimed the website was offering an array of wildlife trophies, including alligator heads, preserved snakes, butterflies, starfish, rare beetles and seahorses, besides hunting manuals and devices.

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Today’s top tech news: Drones are saving Indian cities, soft skills could save young engineers and plugging the fuel leak will save Chandrayaan 2

Today’s top tech news: Drones are saving Indian cities, soft skills could save young engineers and plugging the fuel leak will save Chandrayaan 2

Prabhjote Gill

Jack Ma's Alibaba.com says Indian gems and jewellery are selling like hot cakes across the world

Sanchita Dash

ICICI-Alibaba deal to ease trade finance for India-based sellers

BI India Bureau

Life After Flipkart-Myntra Deal: Will These 3 Trends Rule E-commerce In India?

Sanghamitra Mandal

Amazon, Quikr, Ebay, Snapdeal involved in wildlife trade: Govt

PTI

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