The King of ecommerce Shows the Way
This refers to your cover story on online business (The Juggernaut, July 16). It was a perspicacious study of the amazing business force of Amazon India. In the fast-developing e-business, Amazon has been continuously positioning itself in a cozy trail, focusing on the customer-centric strategies of big basket, economic viability, lightning delivery and reliability through a large bouquet of purchasing options. Its "Customer is King" principle has made Jeff Bezos the king of the castle of e-commerce citadels globally, and enabled him to ride herd on competitors in India. Its signature services have gone beyond bookish and theoretical management outlook by framing its business policies to suit different segments on virtual platform. Its investments are quite astonishing for all, including customers, for its achievement of ensuring quality services. The average app usage time of Flipkart pales in comparison with daily active users of Amazon. Amazon's e-tailing model is shaped by structural features, which are conspicuous by their absence in Flipkart. Flipkart's recent launch of Metronaut with fashion labels of Symbol and Myx is also a late-comer as Amazon has already established online penetration with multiple private-label pushes. In the present e-commerce market in India, Amazon has taken the lead much ahead of others, commercially dictating terms with its pioneering services.
B. Rajasekaran, Bangalore
Farm Loan Waiver Is Only a Short-term Solution
This refers to your feature on agriculture reforms (The Farm Puzzle, July 16). Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka put together have waived farm loans worth `1,35,000 crore in recent months. These states are setting a very wrong precedent. Not long back, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had said that if such a waiver were done, it would disrupt the credit discipline amongst the farmers across the country, as they will also expect their loans to be waived. And they will stop paying. So, government needs to think beyond farm loan waivers, as that is only a short-term solution to the problem. Access to technology must reach small farmers also, so that agriculture remains a viable and sustainable profession.
Bal Govind, Noida
GST Implementation Is Not an Easy Task
This refers to your interaction with GST Network Chairman Navin Kumar ("We were working against a moving target", July 16). No doubt the tax structure is a good measure, but its implementation is not an easy task. It has high tax rates for most commodities and differential rates for the same commodity. There should be one single rate for all the commodities and services. It may even lead to inspector raj again. There should be no tax on food articles at all levels.
Mahesh Kapasi, New Delhi
Jobs on Automation Mode
This refers to your article on automation (Going, Going, Gone, June 18). It has brought out the subject at right time by touching all the angles from industrial perspective with clear statistics. It is quite alarming that four out of 10 jobs will be lost globally due to automation by 2021. And by 2030, we will have more youth, ahead of China and Japan. So, we have to read the government plan to raise the GDP contribution from manufacturing - from 14 per cent to 25 per cent, through the Make-in-India initiatives. But in the light of automation, will it be possible to have a positive indicator, even if the sector grows by contributing 25 per cent of the GDP as planned? With the core points highlighted byAndreas Wolf of Bosch, the automation-replaced jobs can be absorbed. But are we really prepared for that? Only time will tell.
Venugopalan Chullery, Kannur
Send all your comments to: editor.bt@intoday.com