Flipkart says compliant with FDI rules; Tencent, Paytm may invest in MX Player

Flipkart chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy said that the Walmart-backed e-commerce platform was compliant with the foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines laid down in Press Note 2, which came into effect in February. Krishnamurthy added that the company was ready for an audit on compliance as mandated by the Press Note 2, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The announcement comes weeks after minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal called for a meeting of CEOs of all major e-commerce companies operating in India on compliance with Press Note 2. 

Press Note 2 states that FDI is allowed only in pure marketplace models of e-commerce and not in inventory-based models. It also states that if more than 25% of sales on a marketplace are from a single vendor, then the inventory of the vendor will be deemed as controlled by the marketplace, a violation of the provisions. 

MX Player

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings and digital payments firm Paytm are in talks to invest up to $100 million (about Rs 688.7 crore at current exchange rate) in Times Internet-backed over-the-top (OTT) platform MX Player, said Bloomberg. 

In January, The Economic Times had said that Paytm is entering the crowded OTT space with video partnerships, in the wallet firm’s second attempt at content.

E-cigarettes 

The central health ministry is mulling banning Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and e-cigarettes, identifying them as drugs. According to a report in Mint, ministry officials said that these imported unlicensed products were being sold online without any regulation. The report said that close to 460 e-cigarette brands were available in India with multiple configurations and flavours numbering at 7,700 variants.

In August, the health ministry had issued an advisory to restrict advertisement of ENDS as they were not approved under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

The ministry of electronics and information technology had also banned online intermediaries from promoting content which threatens public safety and health including consumption of cigarettes, alcohol and ENDS as part of its draft intermediaries guidelines released in December 2018.