FLIPKART OR FLOPKART?

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Norma Bradley
5 years ago
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1 FLIPKART OR FLOPKART? On 6th October, 2014, Flipkart announced The Big Billion Day sale as one of the biggest ever since it was launched as a full fledged E-Commerce portal and claimed that it was the giant sale ever in the history of E-Commerce in India. However, the sale sprung a host of surprises for the rush of online shoppers most of whom were left disappointed as the servers crashed from the moment the sale was kicked-off early morning on Monday. There was huge disappointment and a sense of being cheated and the social media was agog with stories of dropped orders the new found name, "Flopkart". People eagerly waited for the sale, however on D-day a lot of customers found that the prices of most of the products were suddenly raised substantially from its regular price and then discounted which may be higher than the regular prices. A lot of customers complained that Flipkart raised 60%- 70% costs on all products few days before the sale, so on the day of the sale, they can claim to have offered supreme deals which they felt was cheating consumers. Flipkart ended up with lot of backlash on social media sites as its system continued to change prices of products during the day. Sachin Bansal, however claimed the Big Billion Day was a unprecedented successful online event for the company, with the site registering a billion hits and Flipkart touched $100 million in gross merchandising value in just 10 hours on 6th October, Bansal admitted errors with a few products and few customers. These he attributed to mistakes on Sunday night while uploading prices of products and promised to rectify the

2 problem. It was not intentional at all. We are sorry for that, he said, adding that the Flipkart team had burnt the midnight oil ahead of the sale. Despite the backlash, there was optimism about the future of the e-commerce sector. Experts said that the Flipkart sale and the Diwali bonanza from Amazon and Snapdeal, which happened around the same time, will help change the habits of the Indian consumer used to thronging bazaars and malls during the festival season. This looks like a transformational move for ecommerce in India, a tipping point, said Arvind Singhal, CEO of retail consultancy Technopak. - Sources: By: Ms. Monisha D costa Data Breaches rise as cybercriminals continue to outwit it Security breaches rise again this year, costing an average of $415,000, as security pros fail to keep pace with cybercrime innovation. Online criminals remain at least one step ahead of many IT groups, according to this year's "U.S. State of Cybercrime Survey," conducted annually by CSO magazine, the Secret Service, the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Deterrence and detection are both falling short of their goals: The 500 survey respondents faced an average of 135 security incidents last year, and 34 percent say that number was up compared to the previous year. Just one-third of respondents could estimate losses from their breaches; among those who could, the breaches cost $415,000, on average. Legal liabilities and lawsuits after breaches add to the costs. Part of the problem is that only 38 percent of companies have established a way to prioritize their security investments to focus on actual risks and the repercussions they bring. "You'll often see organizations spend to secure [against] the current big threat but not focus on building a sustainable security program," says John Pescatore, a director at the SANS Institute, a security training organization.

3 Better employee training decreases the costs associated with security problems, the survey finds. Companies without security training for new hires reported that their average annual financial losses related to cyber security incidents totaled $683,000, while those with training programs say they lost an average of $162,000 on security breaches. Companies typically don't share information about security problems with each other, but some are starting to, through Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISAC). In ISACs for the defense, retail, electricity, financial services and other industries, member companies share best practices and pass on warnings and advice when attacks occur. Sources: CLEANLINESS IS GODLINESS By: Mr. Prashant Kokane We often hear that Charity begins at home. Taking this further, I would like to point out that any good deed should always begin at home, i.e. from ourselves, our family, our houses, our schools or colleges, our society or area we live in and finally our nation, as a whole. Only if we adopt any good thoughts at a personal level, can we see its results culminating into a grand success. And that is precisely what our honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has visualised while introducing the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. We seldom find our houses littered with dirt and garbage, but can we say the same about our streets or our parks or any other public places that we visit on a regular basis? We do not think twice before sliding down the window panes of our fancy cars and throwing out the empty packets of chips that we just consumed or some pieces of paper that we were scribbling on. We do not give a glance before spitting out chewing gum or paan or water while walking on the roads? Do we do the same at our homes, eat something and throw the leftovers right there where we were sitting? Do we spit water or paan on the walls of our house? In short, DO WE LITTER OUR HOMES? I guess, the answer is NO. So, it proves that our goal of Cleanliness for our homes is very clear in our minds. Now, we need to take it one step further and set the same goal for our streets, our colleges/schools, our parks and any other public places that we visit. The

4 point is that we have already begun our Charity at our homes but it should not end there. Because our cities and our nation are our extended homes.we always try to point out that our country does not look as clean as the clean and beautiful, scenic countries that we often see in our glamorous movies. Whom do we blame for that? Our government. But have we ever given a thought about adopting some basic hygiene and cleanliness rules while using public property or places? Now, I guess its high time we start thinking in this direction. Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Campaign Clean India) is a national level campaign by the Government of India covering 4041 statutory towns to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country. This campaign was announced on August 15, 2014 and officially launched on October 2, 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took a broom and cleaned a road. The campaign is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and three million government employees and schools and college students of India participated in this event. The mission was started as a branching tree with each of the nine personalities nominated by Narendra Modi to in turn nominate nine other people and so on. The personalities nominated by our honourable Prime Minister himself are: Amitabh Bachchan Anil Ambani Sachin Tendulkar Salman Khan Priyanka Chopra Baba Ramdev Kamal Hassan Mridula Sinha Shashi Tharoor The team of TV series Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah This campaign aims to accomplish the vision of 'Clean India' by October 2, 2019, 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and is expected to cost over crore. Today, our government is willing to support us in making our country a cleaner and safer place to live in. So should we not co-operate and do our bit to give a proactive support to the government? Keeping our Prime Minister s vision and dream for a Clean India in mind, let us take a pledge to keep our surroundings clean and free from filth, dirt, garbage and germs. Clean India Green India Healthy India Sources: By: Mrs. Liily Chwda

INDUSTRY STALWARTS Cyrus P Mistry, 45, is the sixth Group Chairman.

He has been a director of the company since 2006 Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited, a graduate in

1960's, turning what was then a $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company into the $ 7 billion Revenue IT,

The overall Wipro group revenues are $ 8 billion.

Services, a leading global IT solutions and consulting firm with consolidated revenues of US $13.

During his tenure as the chief executive since October 2009, the company has grown at a compounded annual rate

5 INDUSTRY STALWARTS Cyrus P Mistry, 45, is the sixth Group Chairman. He was appointed as the Chairman of the Tata Sons board in December He has been a director of the company since 2006 Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited, a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA has been at the helm of Wipro Limited since the late 1960's, turning what was then a $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company into the $ 7 billion Revenue IT, BPO and R&D Services organization with a presence in 60 countries, that it is today. The overall Wipro group revenues are $ 8 billion. Natarajan Chandrasekaran is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT solutions and consulting firm with consolidated revenues of US $13.4 billion for year ended March 31, During his tenure as the chief executive since October 2009, the company has grown at a compounded annual rate of 21 per cent. Jamshyd N. Godrej is the Chairman and Managing Director of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited, the holding company of the Godrej group. Godrej and Boyce has diverse businesses ranging from refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, office and home furniture, security equipment for banks (such as safes, strong room doors, bank lockers, etc.)

Adi Godrej is the Chairman of the Godrej Group and several entities that are part of one of

These include Indian companies like Godrej Industries, Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej

Nadir Godrej is the Managing Director of Godrej Industries and Chairman of Godrej Agrovet.

, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

His elder daughter Ashni is a director of Future Ideas, the group's innovation and incubation

6 Adi Godrej is the Chairman of the Godrej Group and several entities that are part of one of India s leading conglomerates. These include Indian companies like Godrej Industries, Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej Properties as well as international companies such as Keyline Brands U.K and Rapidol South Africa. He is also the Chairman of The Board of Trustees of the Dadabhai Naoroji Memorial Prize Fund. Nadir Godrej is the Managing Director of Godrej Industries and Chairman of Godrej Agrovet. He is also a Director of numerous firms including Godrej & Boyce Co. Ltd., Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. Kishore Biyani is an Indian businessman and the CEO of Future Group. His elder daughter Ashni is a director of Future Ideas, the group's innovation and incubation cell. The group has businesses in the retailing, insurance, logistics and media industries. Kumar Mangalam Birla, 46, is the Chairman of the US $40 billion multinational Aditya Birla Group, which operates in 36 countries across six continents. 50 per cent of its revenues flow from its operations outside India. By: Mrs. Renita Vazirani

Gaming. Everyone s a. Gamer!

Gaming. Everyone s a. Gamer! Gaming Everyone s a Gamer! The gaming industry in India is growing at a CAGR of over 70 per cent and is expected to touch the half-a-billion-dollar mark in just two years, says Dipta Joshi. 50 Gaming is