Ecommerce major Flipkart is now partnering with local stores to offer its users an offline experience of the product which they would like to order from the online platform.

These ‘buy zones’ are physical stores that have similar products that Flipkart sells on the online platform.

Prior to officially announcing these stores, Flipkart had run a pilot project in Hyderabad.

This idea of coming close to the customers via offline stores has been a success for companies operating in the grocery delivery space.

With all these players launching or tying up with offline stores, it can be predicted that having an offline presence as well is becoming a new trend in the online grocery segment. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581773407.7407696/Try-Offline,-Buy-Online:-Flipkart-Adopts-New-Model-To-Boost-Sales?ref=audio_experience

Effective payroll operation and management is a key business administration activity and one that’s important to get right from day one.

Ultimately, payroll is the method by which your employees and other contributors are paid what they’re due regularly and in the right amounts.

Errors in payroll and missing expected payment dates can cause disruption, expense and possibly a hit to the morale of the workforce.

Do use the right payroll softwareUsing the right tools for the job is important anywhere in business, of course, and this applies especially in payroll.

Don’t solely rely on the techWhile modern payroll software from a respected vendor will take the strain of regular payroll admin, it’s important to manually check all transactions are accurate on a regular basis. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581771608.0008614/Payroll-Dos-and-Don’ts-For-Your-Business?ref=audio_experience

However, the branded content would not be as transparent as political adsGlobal social media Facebook has decided to allow US-based politicians to run branded content on social networking platforms, besides political ads.

Branded content is sponsored content, for which the advertiser directly pays the content creators.

The branded content tool allows the content creators to clearly tag the post they have been paid for a “paid partnership”.

To use Facebook’s branded content tool, all political campaigns and groups must be authorised as “political advertisers” using the social networking platform’s ID verification processes.

While Twitter has chosen to block political ads and Google has chosen to limit the targeting of political ads, we are choosing to expand transparency and give more controls to people when it comes to political ads,” Facebook said, in a blog post. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581769806.708068/Facebook-Allows-‘Paid-Partnerships’-For-Political-Campaigns?ref=audio_experience

Far from disrupting traditional retail, e-commerce companies in India continue in their efforts to replicate it.

Flipkart is partnering with local stores offering its customers a “touch and feel” experience before they make the purchase on its platform.

“Our pilot project was successful in Hyderabad with mobiles where we partnered with local kirana stores for a touch and feel experience.

Flipkart already uses kirana stores as delivery outposts in smaller cities — it has partnered with 27,000 stores in 700 cities which help in last-mile delivery.

As such, e-commerce companies are now looking to integrate and partner with local stores in any way they can. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581768006.6335733/Flipkart-Is-Partnering-With-Local-Stores-To-Give-Customers-A-“Touch-And-Feel”-Experience-Before-Purchase?ref=audio_experience

To extend the benefit of such improvement to employees, BookMyShow has made new amendments to its Stock Appreciation Right (SAR) scheme in a meeting on February 12, 2020.

In simple words, a stock appreciation right is a form of bonus compensation given to employees that is equal to the appreciation of company stock over an established time period.

Similar to employee stock options (ESOPs), SARs are beneficial to the employee when company stock prices rise.

The differentiation of SAR is that employees do not have to pay the exercise price, but receive the sum of the increase in stock or cash.

Bookmyshow generated INR 619 Cr in FY19 as compared to INR 406 Cr in FY18. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581766313.53742/BookMyShow-Increases-Benefits-For-Employees-With-Stock-Appreciation-Rights?ref=audio_experience

In fact, the Indian government is emphasising on the sale of only electric vehicles by 2030, or having a larger percentage of EVs on the road by then.

In the last two years, more than one million electric vehicles (EVs) hit the road in India.

Here’s a list of electric vehicle startups which are supporting India’s drive for a greener future.

The electric vehicle startup has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government as a part of its new EV policy.

Tork MotorsPune-based Tork Motors showcased its first product September 2016, which was touted as India’s first electric motorcycle. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581764406.585837/7-startups-propelling-India’s-drive-to-a-greener-future-with-electric-vehicles?ref=audio_experience

“With the onslaught of food delivery startups, people began to expect the food to be delivered on demand.

Also, their choice of food depends a lot on what they feel like eating today.”Now gearing to grow“The size of the unorganised food delivery segment in India is valued at $80 billion.

The GMV of the organised food delivery sector is around $1.5 billion.

It is looking to capitalise on its subscription business and also expand its geographical footprint in Bengaluru.

Interestingly, they also have plans to bring back the on-demand food delivery service. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581762605.7853196/6-years-of-experiments-and-pivots-later,-this-homemade-food-delivery-startup-is-gearing-up-for-growth?ref=audio_experience

The joint venture between telecom companies Vodafone and Idea — Vodafone Idea is now on the verge of filing for bankruptcy and winding up the business.

The news comes after the Supreme Court, on Friday (February 14), pulled up Vodafone Idea for failing to clear the dues.

As of now, Vodafone Idea owes the department of telecommunications (DoT) more than INR 40K Cr in dues related to adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

Besides Vodafone Idea, other telecom operators which were to pay these AGR dues include Bharti Airtel and Tata.

Another way, by which Vodafone Idea can prevent itself from shutting down the operations is that if the government changes the definition of AGR, retrospectively. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581760806.9117742/Vodafone-Idea-Going-Bankrupt-Amid-Non-payment-Of-AGR-Dues?ref=audio_experience

Social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and others will reportedly have to reveal the identities of its users if the Indian government asks them to.

With the policy in place, social media platforms operating in India will have to reveal the identity of the users the government has asked for.

The government has also defined “unlawful content” to make the social media guidelines more concrete.

Under the updated petition, Rubin sought verification of social media platforms using any “government approved or authorized identities”.

The social media guidelines are expected to be announced this month. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581759007.2281878/New-Govt-Guidelines-May-Ask-For-Social-Media-Users’-Identity?ref=audio_experience

In Jaipur and its neighbouring districts in Northwest India, a 300-year-old tradition is dying a slow, gradual death.

As trade and commerce flourished in India, this art of block printing found more acceptance in the country among both artisans and aficionados of hand-printed textiles.

From Rs 50,000 to Rs 50 lakh – the growthIn its seven-year-long journey, Chhapa has built quite a presence among the digital-first consumers.

Its workshop is located in the Pink City since that’s where most of the block printing artisans are based.

Bootstrapped with a total of 50,000, it clocked Rs 20 lakh in 2018, and in 2019, this figure rose to Rs 47 lakh. | To read full story, visit https://startuparound.com/read/1581757205.9888504/This-home-grown-startup-revived-a-300-year-old-tradition-to-churn-Rs-50-lakh-in-revenue?ref=audio_experience