Procurement through GeM crosses Rs 2 lakh cr in 2022-23
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted the role of GeM as a digital tool in the public and national interest…reports Asian Lite News
Procurement of goods and services from government portal Government e Marketplace(GeM) has crossed the Rs 2 lakh crore mark in the financial year 2022-2023.
Terming it a remarkable achievement, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted the role of GeM as a digital tool in the public and national interest.
GeM is a symbol of the speed with which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the country forward through modern technology, said the Minister.
“I am confident that GeM will grow faster, the future is very bright. I would like to appeal to more and more vendors to join GeM so that they too get a chance to participate in the government’s procurement process,” he said.
After the GeM portal was launched, business worth about Rs 400 crore was done, and in the second year, GeM did business of about Rs 5,800 crore. The business through GeM has grown from around Rs 35,000 crore two years ago and tripled last year to Rs 1,06,000, the Minister informed. Growing to Rs 2 lakh crore in five years shows that this experiment of the Prime Minister has been successful, he further stated.
The Minister also mentioned that India has crossed total exports of 750 billion dollars for the financial year 2022-23 and the final figure is expected to cross 765 billion dollars.
The G20 Trade and Investment Working Group Meeting, held in Mumbai recently, also saw positive discussions, he informed.
The Union Minister expressed that India has got the Presidency of the G-20 under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, and it is a great opportunity to showcase the achievements of the rapidly developing ‘New India’ to the world.
Speaking about the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 released in the national capital on Friday, he said that this has been welcomed by industry and trade bodies.
A sense of stability is reflected in the foreign trade policy, he added.
GeM, an online platform for public procurement in India, was launched on August 9, 2016 with the objective of creating an inclusive, efficient, and transparent platform for the buyers and sellers to carry out procurement activities in a fair and competitive manner.
Bard was released for the public on March 21 but failed to garner the attention won by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot…reports Asian Lite News
After facing criticism about his ChatGPT rival called Bard, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said that the company will soon release more capable AI models.
Bard was released for the public on March 21 but failed to garner the attention won by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot.
“We clearly have more capable models. Pretty soon, we will be upgrading Bard to some of our more capable Pathways Language Model (PaLM) models, which will bring more capabilities; be it in reasoning, coding, it can answer maths questions better,” Pichai said during The New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast.
“So you will see progress over the course of next week,” Pichai added.
Pichai said that part of the reason for Bard’s limited capabilities was a sense of caution within Google.
“To me, it was important to not put out a more capable model before we can fully make sure we can handle it well,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
Pichai confirmed he was talking with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin about the work.
He also raised concerns that development of AI is currently moving too fast and “perhaps poses a threat to society”.
“This is going to need a lot of debate, no-one knows all the answers,” said Pichai.
Google has denied reports that it is copying Microsoft-owned OpenAI’s ChatGPT to train its AI chatbot called Bard.
A report in The Information claimed that OpenAI’s success “has forced the two AI research teams within Google’s parent, Alphabet, to overcome years of intense rivalry to work together”.
According to the report, citing sources, software engineers at Google’s Brain AI group are working with employees at DeepMind, which is a sibling company within Alphabet to develop software to compete with OpenAI.
However, a Google spokesperson told The Verge that “Bard is not trained on any data from ShareGPT or ChatGPT”.
Bard, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, is based on a large language model (LLM), specifically a lightweight and optimised version of LaMDA, which the tech giant said will be updated with newer, more capable models in the future.
Garcia said the other area where the company is using AI is in its high-end portfolio like copier printers for predictive maintenance etc….reports Asian Lite News
As the world embraces generative AI across the spectrum, PC and printer major HP Inc too feels that the age of AI has begun and technologies like ChatGPT can definitively solve most of the challenges that their customers are facing today.
HP already uses AI in solving customers’ issues across the domain, like ‘Instant Ink’ that automatically delivers ink and paper to customers before they run out of printing supplies.
“AI also helps our customers about where our distribution and shipment centres are, in order to ensure a seamless delivery of our devices,” Xavier Garcia, Global Head and General Manager, Office Print Hardware at HP, said.
Garcia said the other area where the company is using AI is in its high-end portfolio like copier printers for predictive maintenance etc.
“We are using AI to delight our customers and ChatGPT-like technologies can only make our job easier on servicing our customers in a better and efficient way. We have billions of data points from our customers which can help AI models derive the rightAkind of knowledge to improve their experiences,” the global HP executive elaborated.
The company feels that the world has now entered into the age of AI.
According to HP CEO Enrique Lores, AI technology is only going to accelerate in the coming years.
“AI offers very exciting opportunities for us to create new product categories. Many of our PCs are using AI to do preventive maintenance, to offer a better experience to our customers,” he said during the company’s company’s flagship ‘HP Amplify Partner Conference 2023’ here.
The AI-powered technologies at the company remove noises around you when you are in a video conference.
“We see a tremendous opportunity in AI to improve productivity. We look at core processes to see how we can make our employees, our teams more effective and more productive by using the AI in their day-to-day work,” Lores informed.
For Garcia, AI is the background technology that supports all of the company’s initiatives on the front of sustainability, hybrid work and security of their devices.
Even AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su, in an interaction with Lores at the event, said that AI is currently the biggest mega trend in the world of technology with ChatGPT now capturing our imaginations.
She said that it is just amazing how generative AI has captured everyone’s imagination and AI will help us unlock great experiences for our customers over the next four or five years.
Lores added that the evolution of technology in the form of generative AI is certainly going to help us accelerate the overall performance as a company.
When a chat is locked, it can only be accessed using the user’s fingerprint or passcode, making it almost impossible for anyone else to open the chat….reports Asian Lite News
Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new “Lock chat” feature for Android beta which will allow users to lock chats and keep them hidden.
This new feature will improve the users’ privacy as it will help users to lock their most private chats within the chat’s contact or group info, reports WABetaInfo.
When a chat is locked, it can only be accessed using the user’s fingerprint or passcode, making it almost impossible for anyone else to open the chat.
Also, if someone attempts to access the user’s phone and fails to provide the needed authentication, they will be asked to clear the chat to open it.
This feature also helps to keep media private by making sure that photos and videos sent in a locked chat are not automatically saved to the device’s gallery.
The ability to lock chats is currently under development and is expected to be released in a future update of the application, the report said.
Meanwhile, on Friday, it was reported that the messaging platform was rolling out a new text editor experience to some beta testers on Android beta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Indian smartphone export is likely to have crossed USD 10 billion (over Rs 82,000 crore) in the just-ended financial year 2023, according to the new industry data. Apple’s ‘Make in India’ smartphones now constitute 50 per cent of total exports, followed by Samsung with 40 per cent of mobile exports and other smartphone players constituting the remaining 10 per cent of the export share.
India is going strong in its electronics manufacturing sector and making a mark globally. Smartphone manufacturing is something the government is very keenly focussing on. The Telecom industry is on the government’s priority list.
Indian smartphone export is likely to have crossed USD 10 billion (over Rs 82,000 crore) in the just-ended financial year 2023, according to the new industry data. The data has been released by the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) showed that Apple’s ‘Make in India’ smartphones now constitute 50 per cent of total exports, followed by Samsung with 40 per cent of mobile exports and other smartphone players constituting the remaining 10 per cent export share.
India is now being preferred by Global manufacturing giants. Recently, Samsung opened the world’s largest phone manufacturing unit in India. Other major global giants like Apple have moved significant units in the country too. Global enterprises like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Lava have also set up their bases and expanded operationally in India.
“The mobile phone industry will cross $40 billion manufacturing output and 25 per cent exports at $10 billion is a stellar performance,” stated Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman of ICEA.
Smartphone exports from India have doubled from a corresponding period from last fiscal year, driven by production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes.
The top five global destinations India currently exports mobile phones to are the UAE, the US, the Netherlands, the UK and Italy, according to the ICEA data. India has more than 260 units manufacturing mobile phones and accessories now, with only two units operational in 2014. Thus, India has come a long way in the mobile manufacturing sector. This is one industry where the ‘Make in India’ drive has worked on the ground, reported NewsonAir.
The country has witnessed a splendid growth rate in mobile phone manufacturing, charting a global success story. In Budget 2023, it was revealed that mobile phone production in the country increased from 5.8 crore units valued at about Rs 18,900 crore in 2014-15 to 31 crore units valued at over Rs 2,75,000 crore in the last financial year. With this, the custom duty of 2.5 per cent on the import of certain parts and inputs like camera lens were waived off in this Budget. The relief has been extended to further reduce input costs, deepen value addition, promote export competitiveness and boost domestic manufacturing.
India’s mobile exports were close to ‘zero’ in 2015 and reached a mark of Rs 27,000 crore in 2019-20. The real game-changer has been the PLI Scheme.
According to IT Ministry, mobile phone manufacturing saw a 66 per cent rise to Rs 45,000 crore within the first year of the roll-out of the scheme in April 2020.
“Due to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, India is currently one of the fastest-growing mobile phone manufacturers in the world and has emerged as the second-largest manufacturer of mobile handsets in the world in volume terms,” India’s IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said earlier.
Exclusive feature by columnist Riccha Grrover for Asian Lite International
The world of Interflora with an unfeigned passion for flowers and a rich, 99-year-long legacy in luxury flower gifting, they are the World’s largest and most experienced award-winning floral gifting and decor brand.
With time, Interflora has revolutionized the floral landscape of luxury gifting, weddings and events through signature flower bouquets, unmatched quality, and sheer exquisiteness in show-stopping floral collections. With a network of over 58,000 florists across the globe, and a presence in 150+ countries, they have managed to build a clientele that trusts them when it comes to creating unforgettable floral experiences.
Of Legacy & Lasting Impressions
Originating in America in 1923, with its headquarters in the UK, the brand started off by taking flower delivery orders via telegram. Apart from being ahead of their times; they adhere to international global standards and keep up with fashion seasons to create an exquisite appeal.
For about a hundred years now, Interflora has been delighted to successfully navigate the intersection between fashion and florals, to combine top-end design and flower quality and leave a lasting impression on its recipients.
It’s only been 5 years since they have entered the Indian terrain(2017), and yet, they have gained prominence like no other!
Interflora brings together handcrafted experiences and state of the art technology. With a keen focus on design and quality, Interflora India in particular, has built an in-house team of over 180 internationally-trained designers across 100 dark stores, and a network of over 200 farmers along with a robust logistics team that ensures fresh, handcrafted flowers are delivered right on time across 25+ cities in the country.
Every day, thousands of people count on them to convey their heartfelt messages along with their flowers that are curated to perfection by their in-house team of internationally trained designers. They report a returning customer rate of 25% and 350 average orders daily.
With collaborations with the likes of celebrated floral designers like Preston Bailey, Jeff Letham, Tomas De Bruyne, Karen Tran, Neil Wittekar and more with us, they live up to the promise of turning their patron’s floral dreams and vision into reality!
Iconic Milestones
Known globally as ‘The Flower Experts’, Interflora has designed and executed iconic floral décor for some of the biggest weddings and high-end luxury events in India. These have included decor for the likes of Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra, Karan Johar and more. Interflora works closely with clients to create a vision that will leave a lasting impression in their memory as well as their guests.
While their hand-delivered artisan arrangements and handcrafted floral decor continues to be their pride, they are delighted to venture into enabling clientele with more. At Interflora, they believe flowers are a lifestyle – whether it’s because of their vivid colors or their charming fragrance, there’s too much beauty and goodness in their petals to limit their use. Thus, as an extension of their brand, Interflora now houses a beautiful range of floral perfumes, teas, diffusers, candles and chocolates too. In this way, they hope that their valued patrons can enjoy life’s beauty with a touch of floral luxury!
Meet Anuja Joshi, Founder at Interflora, India
Anuja Joshi, an educationist turned entrepreneur has always been a go-getter! From setting up and running an IB school in Pune, Maharashtra, to heading a large, successful gifting solutions company, she has successfully worn many hats.
As Anuja traveled across the globe for work, she came across Interflora, a luxurious floral gifting brand, which sowed the seed of a new business venture. Identifying a huge gap in the floral gifting and luxury décor landscape in India,
Spearheading the India chapter for the legacy brand since then, she has been at the forefront of changing the way India experiences premium floral gifting & has conceptualized and produced floral décor for some of the largest weddings and social events for the Jindals, Gucci, Dior, Sonam Babbani, House Of Misu, Anamika Khanna, Ali Fazal & Richa Chadha and many more; filling the gap in the market for luxury floral solutions.
Being a visionary, Anuja has ensured that the company is powered by a seamless backend set up that ensures international standards of design, quality, right on time deliveries, while minimizing wastage, which makes them a unique category player unlike any other.
Under her able leadership, the business has grown by volumes, and Anuja has truly revolutionized the way patrons look at making memorable, tasteful statements.
As a responsible, conscious business owner, she is also focused on growing the sustainable practices at Interflora India across waste management & reduction, repurposing of flowers and reducing dependency on imports via educating local growers as well as setting up cold chain solutions.
HP led the Indian PC (excluding tablets) market, with more than 30 per cent market share in both Q4 and full-year 2022….reports Asian Lite News
Despite a steep fall in the fourth quarter of 2022, last year was a successful one for the Indian PC market (desktops, notebooks and tablets), with shipments up 5 per cent to reach 19.6 million units, a new report has said.
While notebook shipments fell by 7 per cent to 11 million units, desktop and tablet shipments increased significantly by 37 per cent and 21 per cent to 3.2 million and 5.4 million units respectively, in 2022, reports market research firm Canalys.
HP led the Indian PC (excluding tablets) market, with more than 30 per cent market share in both Q4 and full-year 2022.
Lenovo took the second place but suffered a large shipment decline of 31 per cent in Q4 of 2022.
However, the total 2022 shipments for Lenovo were up by 3 per cent on 2021, with its commercial business gaining traction.
Dell and Acer took third and fourth place respectively, while Apple secured the final spot in the top five in Q4 2022, overtaking Asus.
Apple surpassed Samsung in Q4 2022 to take the lead in the Indian tablet market, said the report.
“Indian consumers spent on devices in the first half of 2022, but demand quickly tailed off, leading to a weak holiday season for vendors and retailers,” said analyst Ashweej Aithal.
Looking ahead, Canalys anticipates that PC and tablet shipments in India will fall by 6 per cent in 2023, to 18 million units.
This represents a smaller drop than for the global market, which is expected to contract by 9 per cent.
While weakness in the global economy this year will affect India, GDP growth forecasts for the country remain relatively positive compared to other major markets.
“Education will be an important segment for PCs and tablets in India this year and beyond,” said Aithal.
China's e-commerce and courier service prove to be important in epidemic prevention
The CAIT has strongly pitched for six basic fundamentals needed for e-commerce policy and the rules under the Consumer Protection Act…reports Asian Lite News
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has demanded an empowered Regulatory Authority to monitor and regulate the e-commerce trade in the country.
The CAIT has strongly pitched for six basic fundamentals needed for e-commerce policy and the rules under the Consumer Protection Act.
In a communication sent to Union Commerce & Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal, the CAIT said six fundamentals are necessary for a robust growth of e-commerce which include transparent operations of e-commerce platforms; easy accessibility and adequate grievance redressal by e-commerce entities; non- discriminatory access of marketplace platforms to all stakeholders of the value-chain; avoidance of conflict of interest between marketplace platforms; sellers and various service providers on the platform and formation of an empowered Regulatory Authority to monitor and regulate the e-commerce trade in India.
CAIT President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that mandatory registration of e-commerce entities conducting business through any e-mode will lay the substantial foundation of a well defined eco-system and the extent of e-commerce landscape can easily be gauged with the registration process and shall protect consumers from rogue/fraudulent e-commerce companies. Transparency should be the hallmark of any business activity and every e-commerce marketplace must therefore act in a transparent manner with respect to all stakeholders, namely — the customer, sellers, logistics partners and payment gateways.
They said that it must be ensured that consumers can reach out to senior grievance redressal officers of the marketplace entities to resolve their concerns and therefore provision of Grievance Officer, Nodal Officer & Compliance Officer is laudable.
The CAIT further opined that it is extremely important for an e-commerce marketplace platform to act as a neutral platform for third party sellers where every such seller has a non-discriminatory access in the context of Logistics service provider, payment gateway system and each seller must have a non-discriminatory access to every customer and every customer must have such access to every seller on the platform.
The traders’ body suggested that to avoid any conflict of interest, the e-commerce marketplace or its related entities should not act as a seller on such marketplace platforms.
“At present many E-commerce Marketplace entities are creating economic disruption by surreptitiously carrying on inventory e-commerce activities on their marketplace platform. The E-commerce Marketplace entities themselves become sellers on the platform by misusing loopholes and are virtually carrying out Multi Brand Retail Trade (MBRT) and also they are even selling goods below the cost to capture market share thereby creating enormous financial strain on small retailers who have no option but to shut shop,” it said.
The trade leaders said that the e-commerce policy and the rules will put an end to the subsidies being extended to controlled sellers by offering huge discounts to them in a differentiated manner. Similarly, the use of affiliated payment service providers to lure consumers and influence them to buy from these controlled trading companies, by giving discounts on payment service charges, would come to an end.
HP Inc is already manufacturing multiple PC products, including laptops in India, as part of the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative….writes Nishant Arora
As supply chain disruptions continue to haunt tech companies globally, PC and printer major, HP Inc is bullish on manufacturing its next-gen range of products locally in India, to address the domestic market in a much better and efficient way, the company’s CEO Enrique Lores has emphasised.
Lores said that India is a key market for HP where growth continues to happen and the company continues to see more opportunities going forward.
“We will increase our manufacturing footprint in India to cater well to the domestic demand. Eventually, we see India manufacturing to help us better serve the rest of the world,” Lores said during the company’s flagship ‘HP Amplify Partner Conference 2023’ here.
HP Inc is already manufacturing multiple PC products, including laptops in India, as part of the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.
The company manufactures multiple models of laptops, desktop towers, mini desktops at the Flex facility in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
HP is also manufacturing display monitors in the country.
The company led the Indian PC (excluding tablets) market with more than 30 per cent market share in both Q4 and full-year 2022, according to latest data from global market research firm Canalys.
The company is currently manufacturing a wide range of laptops in India, with products such as HP EliteBooks, HP ProBooks and HP G8 series notebooks.
It has also expanded its locally-manufactured commercial desktops by adding various models of desktop mini towers (MT), mini desktops (DM), small form factor (SFF) desktops and a range of All-in-One PCs.
These products have both Intel and AMD processor options and cater to a wide range of customer segments.
HP partnered with supply chain and manufacturing solutions provider Flex to manufacture commercial desktops in the country from August 2020.
According to Lores, India offers a massive opportunity for the company.
“We will continue to invest in India which has always been one of the primary markets for us globally,” the HP CEO told IANS.
The PC and printer major is expanding its portfolio in manufacturing across multiple products within India in order to make sure that it plays a meaningful role in building the country as a global manufacturing hub.
The company has been working with the central and state governments in the mission to empower the lives of millions of citizens and enhance the community’s quality of life.
According to Lores, as large enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India and elsewhere hit the refresh button in the post-pandemic times, digital transformation has entered top gear.
The adoption to digital technologies is something not limited to large corporations only as more and more SMBs are on the path to realise their digital dreams and embrace state-of-the-art, secure workplaces, he had told IANS in an earlier interaction.
(Nishant Arora can be reached at nishant.a@ians.in)
Realme bumps up India hiring, Madhav to still look after India strategy
The company is also firming up its Indian management…reports Asian Lite News
As realme’s Madhav Sheth accepts the new role of VP for Business and Corporate Strategy (Global), he would still look after the India market which is strategically important for the global technology brand, the company said on Tuesday.
realme told IANS that Madhav’s international background and global vision will definitely provide forward-looking strategic guidance for realme’s development in the global market.
“The Indian market is strategically important for realme and Madhav will still look after India. Madhav will live in India and travel abroad according to the work arrangements,” said a company spokesperson
The company is also firming up its Indian management.
Nisar Naikoo and Dipesh Punamiya have been assigned the responsibility of independently managing the India Business.
While Naikoo has been promoted to Offline sales director realme for the smartphone business, Punamiya has been appointed as the Sales Director of IOT business.
They will oversee the day-to-day operations of the business in India, making decisions regarding sales, marketing, and customer relations.
“Overall, the collaborative approach will ensure that the India Business is managed effectively and efficiently and that the company’s goals are achieved through a coordinated effort between the India team and the global team,” realme told IANS.
As always, we will create more local employment positions and bring good products to users, it added.
In a tweet last week, Sheth had said: “Exciting news! I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve accepted a new role as VP for Business and Corporate Strategy (Global). Excited to take this opportunity and contribute to the company’s success.”
Sheth has been at the forefront of creating consumer products with trendsetting technologies, features and designs in India.
