The new restrictions on online sale of drugs will make doorstep delivery of medicines difficult, according to an industry body which represents various e-pharmacy startups. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) expressed concerns over the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s (MoHFW) circular issued on March 26. The notification lays down these conditions: […]

Facebook on Monday pledged $100 million in financing and advertising spending to support news organizations, including local publishers in the United States, reeling from pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic. News publishers, especially print media, have taken the brunt as many advertisers pulled their marketing budgets to rein in costs because of virus-related uncertainty. Vatican’s […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi The government’s recent notification regulating telemedicine amid the Covid-19 pandemic has given a boost to the business of healthtech startups operating in the segment, despite certain restrictions imposed on prescribing medicines to first-time patients. mfine, 1MG, and Practo expect more hospitals and doctors to line up to teleconsult on the platforms, as […]

Mother Dairy, one of India’s leading dairy companies, has written to major food e-commerce players, including BigBasket, Milkbasket and Supr Daily, to operate as a team to maintain a smooth supply of milk. Senior executives at Mother Dairy said the dairy giant is ready to increase production and use the distribution network of the online […]

The 21-day lockdown will lead to a loss of at least $1 billion in gross sales as India’s largest online retail platforms like Amazon and Flipkart stop selling non-essentials till at least the middle of next month, based on current government directives. What’s of further concern is that the online retail players are expected to […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Owing to the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases across the country, state governments and large municipalities are coming up with strict surveillance mechanisms to ensure that those quarantined adhere to the norms, and stay at home. Health surveillance in this context seems to be taking multiple forms — a mixture of human […]

Consumers of mobile and home broadband services, especially those in urban areas, have seen their network speeds slow down by around 20% because of a surge in consumption of up to 30% on an average, especially of videos. This is expected to get worse, with speeds likely to slow by another 25-30%, as internet usage […]

Food and grocery retailers and e-grocers have started to utilise available manpower resources of other e-commerce ventures to augment their last-mile delivery, to tide over an acute shortage of workers. Some e-grocers have also agreed to pick and deliver orders from local kiranas and supermarkets to customers, three industry executives said. Leading national and local […]

The National Restaurant Association of India ( NRAI) has written an open letter to landlords in the foods and beverages space requesting them to waive rents up to June or until the time the lockdown continues, whichever is later. “While this shutdown may continue for a month or two, we will take many more months […]

Sanjana Hira, a graduate student at Ashoka University in Sonipat, has been attending online classes from her Gurgaon home ever since educational institutions across India closed down campuses to contain the spread of coronavirus. “While many of our lectures are being held online through video-conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Hangouts, some professors prefer uploading […]