GJ Town India

eCommerce operators across t he globe having business in India!   EL India is not discriminatory: US   The U.S. administration had announced initiation of investigation under section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act, 1974 against the taxation on digital services adopted or under consideration by countries, including the Equalisation Levy applied by India. Other counties under investigation include Italy, Turkey, and United Kingdom.   With respect to India, the focus of the investigation was on the 2% Equalisation Levy (EL) levied by India on e-commerce supply of services. The U.S. investigation included whether the EL discriminated against the U.S. companies, was applied retrospectively, and diverged from U.S or international tax norms due to its applicability on entities not resident in India. In this regard, the U.S. requested for consultations, and India submitted its comments to the USTR on 15 July 2020, participated in the bilateral consultation held on 5 Nov 2020, em...

To bring New Year cheer to over 40 million visitors   9 lakh styles from over 3000 brands on offer for the biggest year-end fashion carnival  Geared to handle 9 lakh concurrent users and 20,000 orders per minute at peak 200 brands across 1600 stores to help drive the sale as part of omnichannel integration   The most awaited fashion event in the country, Myntra’s End of Reason Sale (EORS) is set to go live on December 20. Shoppers can look forward to choosing from 9 lakh styles, presented by over 3000 brands while shopping in the biggest edition of the fashion bonanza to date.   The 13th edition of EORS will be held from 20 to 24 December, and is slated to cater to over 4 million unique customers during the course of the 5-day sale. The biggest-ever edition of the mega fashion event is also set to witness a massive uptick in demand, at 4X over BAU and 1.5X over the last winter edition, with close 50% of the contribution coming from tier 2-3 markets.  The f...

GJEPC expecting a comprehensive e-commerce policy   GJEPC represents to DPIIT, MOC & I for a revamped  E-Commerce Policy to equip small players in the G&J sector   85% MSMEs spread across 390 Gem &  Jewellery clusters to benefit from the Policy   Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), in the past few years, has been actively pursuing projects and policies that could lead to a manifold increase in India’s outbound gem and jewellery trade.   Aligning with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of making the smallest of towns and villages active participants in the country’s export efforts, the Council undertook a Herculean data-driven approach to identify areas that are actively engaged in the manufacture of gems and jewellery (GJ).  Taking the cue from PM’s vision, in 2019, the GJEPC commissioned the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) to evaluate these key industry characteristics, its compet...

  Alleged contraventions in e-commerce under scanner!   Representations alleging violations of extant laws by e-commerce companies have been received. In this regard, representations received are being examined by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and certain alleged contraventions under the FDI Policy, are also being investigated against certain e-commerce retail companies under provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 by the Directorate of Enforcement.   Further, several complaints against e-commerce entities, including related associate/holding companies etc, which are operating as marketplace platforms, online sellers/service providers, search engines service providers operating in different verticals etc, regarding anti-competitive behavior, are being looked into by Competition Commission of India.  In order to provide clarity to the extant FDI Policy on e-commerce, DPIIT had issued Press Note 2 of 2018 on 26.12.2018....

eCommerce in Asia by Sotheby’s and Jing on March 29 Sotheby’s and Jing Daily bring together global thought leaders in the luxury industry for The Future of luxury: eCommerce in Asia, a conference held in Hong Kong. Expert speakers from LVMH, Équité, Tencent, Azoya International, McKinsey, Farfetch and others, addressed on various topics. Key focus remained on the area of, 1: How to win, serve and retain digitally savvy luxury consumers, 2: The top risk luxury brands are making online, 3: China’s soaring cross-border eCommerce market, Challenges Artificial Intelligence will raising for luxury brands! Contemporary artist Daniel Arsham will also lead a special keynote session on the collaboration between luxury marketers and cultural content providers. “Asia has long been a driver of the luxury markets and understanding buyer behavior and the opportunity in the region is critical for future growth,” commented Laurence Nicolas, Sotheby’s Global Managing Director, Jewel...

Kisna, one of the largest distributors of jewellery in India, retail brand of Hari Krishna Exports, launched a user-friendly eCommerce portal on occasion of Valentine’s Day caters connectivity to its customers, retailers and distributors under one platform. The newly designed platform is a part of the brand’s overall approach to build a greater online presence. The brand aims to enhance the e-commerce ecosystem by facilitating online purchasing with faster and more secured services to its consumers. The organisation is going digital with the collaboration of more than 3,000 existing retailers and distributors of Kisna across India. The new website has robust design and is built by keeping the customer in mind. With a simple navigation, the site gives users a wide array of options to choose with helpful sizing guides, shipping information and fresh consumer content. Speaking at the launch, Shri Ghanshyam Dholakia, Founder and Managing Director, Hari Krishna Group sa...

Effective from 01 February, 2019 Recently department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, under the ministry of Commerce & Industry, attempted review of policy on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in e-commerce to provide clarity to FDI policy on e-commerce sector. They reviewed Para 5.2.15.2 of the Consolidated FDI Policy Circular 2017 will now read as under:   5.2.15.2.1 Subject to provisions of FDI Policy, e-commerce entities would engage only in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce and not in Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce. 5.2.15.2.2 Definitions: i)    E-commerce: E-commerce means buying and selling of goods and services including digital products over digital & electronic network. ii)   E-commerce entity: E-commerce entity means a company incorporated under the Companies Act 1956 or the Companies Act 2013 or a foreign company covered under section 2 (42) of the Companies Act, 2013 or an office, branch or agency in...

It grew 17% to a volume of USD 38.5bn in 2018-19 As per the Economic Survey 2017-18, the electronic commerce (e-commerce) market in India is estimated at USD 33 billion, with a 19.1 percent growth rate in 2016-17. As per the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Strategic Review 2018, in the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector in India, the Indian e-commerce market was USD 33 billion in 2017-18 and reached USD 38.5 billion, growing at a rate of about 17% in the financial year 2018-19.   As per extant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, FDI up to 100% is permitted under automatic route in companies engaged in e-commerce provided that such company engaged only in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce. Further, 100% FDI under automatic route is permitted in marketplace model of e-commerce but FDI is not permitted in inventory based model of e-commerce. Moreover, an entity is permitted to undertake r...