A case of mistaken identities happened in the country’s capital city last week when transport authorities started issuing challans to e-commerce and food delivery executives over a ban on bike taxis by the state government. But there were layers to this development that we explored through our stories during the week.
What happened? Over the course of the last week, e-commerce and food delivery executives were being penalised amid confusion, following the Delhi government’s recent public notice banning use of two-wheelers as taxis. Food delivery and quick-commerce platform Swiggy said that their delivery partners are being issued challans – an official document issued to a motor vehicle driver who violates traffic rules – despite the government notification being applicable only for bike taxi service providers.
What did the public notice say? The notice issued by the Delhi government last week warned bike taxi operators such as Rapido, Ola and Uber to not ply on Delhi roads as it violates the motor vehicle laws. It added that these companies could be fined up to Rs 1 lakh, as the use of bikes for commercial purposes violated the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
Why were those delivering food penalised? Interestingly, a top Delhi transport department official told us that cases where food delivery workers were being issued challans, they “might have been doubling up as bike taxis, which is not legal”. An executive with a food-tech company also alluded to the possibility of their workers “double-hatting”, or delivery partners working in multiple roles simultaneously.
Why are delivery partners double-hatting? Operating as bike-taxis and delivering food are complementary professions in nature for drivers. The lean hours of food delivery are actually peak hours for ride-hailing. This gives drivers the chance to earn more money from being in the gig-industry. Bengaluru-based Swiggy is even an investor in bike-taxi company Rapido, though the company has clarified that the investment is not strategic in nature.
How can this be resolved? Ashish Kundra, principal secretary and commissioner, transport department, Delhi told ET that the state government will ask food ordering and e-commerce companies to instruct delivery partners to not use their two-wheelers as bike taxis. However, companies believe it is difficult for platforms to ensure this does not happen. “These are gig workers, and by nature of this job, we cannot keep a tab or investigate what they do when they are not delivering for us,” the executive cited above said.
What next? The ban on bike taxis has been imposed with a backdrop of an aggregator policy that the Delhi government has been working on for over a year. Following the public notice, Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot had said that companies could apply for a new licence under the proposed policy. “Aggregator policy for two-wheeler, three-wheeler and four-wheeler is in its final stage and will be rolled out soon helping them to apply for grant of license under the new scheme,” he had said on microblogging platform Twitter. According to a draft of the policy, bike-taxis will be legal in the capital if it is an electric vehicle.
ETtech Interviews
Exclusive: Sequoia’s Shailendra Singh on corporate governance, VC accountability, frothy valuations and more: It has been a tumultuous year for Sequoia Capital India. Silicon Valley’s famed venture capital (VC) fund, an early backer of some of the most influential technology companies such as Apple, Google and WhatsApp, finds itself fielding questions on its role as a long-standing investor in local startups, after portfolio firms BharatPe, Zilingo, Trell, and GoMechanic showed lapses in corporate governance. Amid this, Sequoia announced a massive $2.85 billion fund for India and Southeast Asia (SEA) in June last year.
Shailendra Singh, managing director at Sequoia Capital India and SEA, spoke to us on how the fund has been affected by the constant scrutiny, what it’s doing to address the governance issues, and its investing strategy in the current climate after having raised a huge pool of capital.
India a ‘bright spot’ while the world is in turmoil, says SAP CEO Christian Klein: India is “a winner” and “a bright spot” in a world that is in turmoil according to Christian Klein, the chief executive officer of SAP SE. The German software giant aims to double its investments in India over the next five years.
Tech spending is a mixed bag, says Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari: Technology spending is a mixed bag, and some softness from the inflationary and geopolitical concerns globally is also spreading to India, said Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari.There is, however, enough headroom to grow in India since many firms are digitizing their operations, he added.
Caution, conservative client outlook behind Capgemini’s muted guidance, says CEO Ashwin Yardi: A general sense of caution and a conservative outlook among clients are behind Capgemini’s muted revenue growth guidance for 2023 despite coming off its strongest year in 2022, its India chief executive said.
ETtech Scoops
SoftBank, Ant Group discuss Paytm secondary sale to reduce holding in payments firm: Large investors in One 97 Communications, which operates digital payments major Paytm, including Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank and China’s Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, have discussed selling shares in the company through a secondary stock deal, multiple people in the know of the matter said.
Exclusive | Zomato asks for higher commission charges; restaurants are upset: Zomato has approached a number of restaurant chains seeking a 2-6% increase in commissions, amid widening losses, pressures on profitability and a drop in delivery numbers in its food delivery business, people directly aware of the development said.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son likely to visit India; with govt officials, founders lined up: SoftBank Corporation founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son is expected to visit India next week after more than four years, people familiar with his plans said.
Exclusive | Used-car dealers flag issues as new rules kick in from April: Platforms selling second-hand vehicles have flagged certain provisions of the amendments to the central motor vehicle rules that could potentially impact businesses of larger platforms. The amendments were notified in December to bring used-vehicle dealers under the regulatory ambit.
ET Ecommerce Index
We’ve launched three indices – ET Ecommerce, ET Ecommerce Profitable, and ET Ecommerce Non-Profitable – to track the performance of recently listed tech firms. Here’s how they’ve fared so far.
Startup Corner
Fintechs Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay eye advertising revenues from brands: Fintech and payments platforms including Paytm, Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay are increasingly gaining traction among direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands as an advertising destination and customer acquisition engines, industry executives told ET.
Nexus Venture Partners closes its largest ever fund at $700 million: Nexus Venture Partners said on Wednesday that it had closed its largest fund at $700 million. One of the older India-dedicated funds, Nexus has aggressively backed India’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) story, with several new-age unicorns from the segment in its portfolio.
Upskilling startups are bullish even as K-12, test prep face hardships: Upskilling startup founders told ET that they are expecting to clock a strong rate of growth in the ongoing year even as a funding crunch has set in the broader edtech sector. The current flurry of layoffs across technology companies is causing many employees to consider going back to school or taking up courses in management, data sciences and digital marketing, making them turn towards upskilling businesses.
Corporate India skilling staff on war footing to stay ahead: In-house platforms/institutes, facilitated trainings, gamification, group and individual coaching, self-paced learning offerings, tie-ups with skilling platforms and leading engineering colleges and B-schools are among the many options on offer by companies to upskill and reskill employees in areas spanning everything from digital and sustainability to people management, and leadership.
IT & Tech policy
New govt platform to process complaints against social media companies: A tech platform was created by the government to handle user complaints about social media. Complaints made to Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) will be automatically sorted and sent to three subcommittees.
Indian IT, BPM firms see high demand for AI chatbot pilots: Companies like Tech Mahindra, Genpact and Fractal Analytics see high interest in the usage of generative AI for content generation in areas of customer support. India can create a differentiated offering in this space with its huge workforce, said executives.
Parliamentary standing committee has approved data protection bill: Ashwini Vaishnaw: The parliamentary standing committee has given its go-ahead to the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, which will now be introduced in the upcoming second half of the budget session of Parliament, electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.
ETtech Done Deals
EV cab company Evera raises $7 million: Delhi-based all-electric cab service company Evera raised $7 million from investors led by Germany’s IEG Investment Banking Group.
Prop-tech startup NoBroker raises $5 million: NoBroker, a prop-tech real estate startup, raised $5 million in funding from Google to expand its services business NoBrokerhood.
Healthtech startup SigTuple raises Rs 34.5 crore in funding: Healthcare startup SigTuple raised Rs 34.5 crore in funding led by existing investors Endiya Partners and Accel, with participation from a few strategic leaders from the healthcare sector.
(Graphics & illustrations by Rahul Awasthi)
