Business & Finance

Move over Amazon, there’s a new game in town

Mukesh Ambani

In a battle of epic proportions, its Asia’s richest man being pitted against the world’s richest man. Yes! You heard right. Its Mukesh Ambani v/s Jeff Bezos, but on Ambani’s turf, India. Now, before you get your odds in place for a boxing match, ill have you know that this battle will be fought on the retail front.

Reliance Retail, India’s largest retail chain, both by revenue and the number of stores is planning to up its game and give market leader Amazon a good run for its money. The grocery to apparel brand retailer is said to employ a 4 pronged approach to connect India’s 30 million small retailers with consumers. First off, it plans to connect neighbourhood marts to its almost 10,000 stores thereby offering economies of scale in the form of common inventory management, billing and tax platforms, payment terminals and better sourcing power. Reliance’s telecom arm, Jio is expected to play a big part as they will help connect shops in villages and semirural towns because it has managed to penetrate the rural market due to the low price of internet and mobile data. Also, because Indians are consuming tremendous hours of video on Jio streaming platforms, it can aid in promoting private label brands. Finally, with Mukesh Ambani’s ability to sway policy decisions in any business he enters into and his reach in politics, Reliance Retail is said to benefit in a big way.

Reliance Retail has also jumped 95 spots on Deloitte’s Global Powers of Retailing 2019 list, to reach the 94th spot, buoyed on the back of rapidly increasing revenues. All these facts and figures point to only one thing; Reliance is on its way up and it seems to be an unstoppable force.

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Over 50% funds national parties received in 2017-18 came from ‘unknown’ sources: ADR

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New Delhi | More than 50 per cent of the funds national parties received during the financial year 2017-18 came from “unknown” sources that included donations through electoral bonds and voluntary contributions, according to election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The ADR Wednesday released the findings of an analysis of six national parties’ IT returns and donation statements filed with the Election Commission.

According to it, the total income of BJP, Congress, CPI, BSP, TMC, and NCP in 2017-18 was Rs 1293.05 crore.

The income of these parties from “unknown” sources was Rs 689.44 crore, which is 53 per cent of their total income.

The BJP alone declared Rs 553.38 crore as its income from unknown sources, which is 80 per cent of the total income of the national parties from such sources.

Out of the Rs 689.44 crore, the share from electoral bonds was Rs 215 crore or 31 per cent, the report said.

The parties received Rs 354.22 crore or more than 51 per cent of the fund from unknown sources through voluntary contributions (below Rs 20,000), it said, adding the total income from other miscellaneous unknown sources was Rs 4.5 crore.

Thirty-six per cent of their income or Rs 467.13 crore from “known” donors, whose details were available from contribution reports submitted to the Election Commission.

They got Rs 136.48 crore from other known sources, such as from the sale of assets and publications, membership fees, bank interest, and party levy, the report said.

According to donation reports (containing details of donations above Rs 20,000), only Rs 16.80 lakh was given in cash to the national parties.

The CPI(M), which is also a national party, was not included in the analysis as its “schedules or annexures were unavailable for the financial year 2017-18”.

At present, political parties are not required to declare the names of individuals and organisations giving less than Rs. 20,000 nor of those who donate via electoral bonds.

While the national parties were brought under the Right to Information Act by the CIC ruling in June 2013, they have still not complied with the decision.

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