fortnightly newsletter of the opep club, IIM Raipur.

1. opep@iimraipur.ac.in Volume:5 Issue: 1 Date: 15Th Sep-2016 Opepiimraipur.blogspot.in
Mandatory safety features in cars from
next year
From October next year, all cars will have the mandatory
feature of "manual override", a device that enables a person
to open the door with or without electrical power. The
decision was made considering the increasing number of
cases where occupants were trapped inside cars due to
failure in the central locking system. Similarly, all new
models will have "vehicle reverse gear sensor system",
which helps the driver detect any object behind the car "
Two more features will be mandatory in all cars - a seatbelt
alert and a warning that goes off when the speedometer
needle crosses 80 kmph.
Snapdeal undertakes major brand
overhaul; unveils new logo
Snapdeal has undertaken a massive brand identity
overhaul . It comes at a crucial point when it has slipped
down the pecking order in the country's booming
ecommerce sector, having been overtaken by Amazon
and Flipkart. For rebranding the company has hired
London-based Design Studio, which undertook a
similar exercise for online home rentals venture
Airbnb.
Walmart Goes All in On eCommerce
with Jet.com Acquisition
Walmart acquired ecommerce platform provider
Jet.com for $3.3 billion. Why the deal? In the last fiscal
year, Walmart's ecommerce sales in the US were just 14
billion compared to $63.7 billion at Amazon. Also its
YOY growth was just 8%, compared to Amazon's 28%
US sales growth. About Jet.com- Just about 18 months
old as a company, Jet.com's achieved Gross
Merchandise Value (GMV) of $1 billion within a year
of operations.It also provides marketplace service to
China’s Alibaba.
Snapdeal Says Invested $300 Million in
Supply Chain, Logistics in Last 1.5 Years
E-commerce major Snapdeal has pumped in $300 million
(about Rs. 1,990 crores) over the last 18 months to
strengthen its supply chain
DHL Leading the Charge to Bring Smart
Glasses in Warehouse Management
DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, has customer
Ricoh and wearable computing solutions expert Ubimax to
implement ‘vision picking’ in warehousing operations.
Staff was guided through the warehouse by graphics
displayed on the smart glass to speed up the picking
process and reduce errors. The pilot project resulted in a 25
percent efficiency increase during the picking process. The
trial was performed along with partners Google, Vuzix and
Ubimax and is now expanding the program across different
industry sectors on a global basis.

2. `
Hanjin Bankruptcy Causes Global
Logistics Turmoil, and Ends Mirage that
Struggling Container Line Won't Go
Under
South Korea's Hanjin Shipping, the world's seventh
largest container carrier, filed for bankruptcy, causing
panic in global shipping. Hanjin plans to file for court
protection this week in about 10 countries, including the
US, Canada, Germany and the UK, and later expand that
to 43 jurisdictions to protect its ships and other assets
from being seized by creditors. This shatters the
complacency that major carriers are immune to failure
and can stomach prolonged years of low rates and
financial losses
VW and JAC joint venture for EVs in
China
Volkswagen AG and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co.
(JAC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) in order to achieve long-term cooperation in the
joint development of all-electric vehicles in China-the
world’s most advanced all-electric vehicle market.
SSG Capital acquires 40% in Future
Supply Chain
Private equity firm SSG Capital Management has picked
up a 40% stake in Kishore Biyani-promoted Future
Supply Chain Solutions from existing investors for Rs
580 crore. Future Retail still owns a 57% stake in the
company, which has been valued at Rs 1,450 crore. For
the year ended March 2015, Future Supply Chain made a
profit of Rs 25 crore on revenues of Rs 408 crore.
Railways introduces surge pricing for
Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains
Modelled on the dynamic fare system in aviation sector,
the flexi-fare system has been introduced on an
experimental basis in Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi
trains . The government is aiming at raking in Rs 500
crore more during the current financial year from the
new scheme.
Startup Corner:-Crofarm secures $1.5
million in seed round; to expand supply
chain network to 10 cities this year
Agritech venture Crofarm has raised seed funding of
$1.5 million from Mukul Singhal and Rohit Jain, former
principals at SAIF Partners. Crofarm has a network of
over 10,000 farmers from whom it procures produce
directly and delivers to various organized retail players
such as Big Bazaar, Reliance Retail, Grofers, Big
Basket, METRO Cash & Carry and Food Works.With
Crofarm, farmers are able to earn upto 25% more than
when they sell to the Mandis
Lenskart Raises Rs. 400 Crores From
IFC, Ratan Tata, Others
The company will use the Series D funding to strengthen
its supply chain and lens manufacturing capabilities as
well as for expanding its presence to 400 cities in three
years.
India's Niki chatbot features in
Facebook's global messenger
Niki chatbot has been featured in Facebook's
global messenger bot success story. Chatbots are
interactive platform where once can order, pay bills, book
tickets by sending a text message just like WhatsApp and
Hike