In Brief: Swiggy, Zomato orders go down; Walmart execs cry foul over layoffs

Indian food delivery majors Zomato and Swiggy continue to see an estimated 5-6% drop in their order volume since late 2019, Economic Times reported citing an anonymous food-tech sector analyst Monday.

The two of the last remaining players in the country's online food delivery market have adopted a cost streamlining mode at a time when deep discounting continues to badger profitability plans. Swiggy fines as much as 50% of the order value for cancellations of food orders on its platform, TechCircle independently verified.

Freshly laid-off Walmart India executives have written a letter to the company's United States headquarters at Bentonville, seeking cognizance of the downsizing, the Economic Times reported. The ex-employees have called the job cuts unfair and unrelated to performance. The retailer giant will likely send a team from its compliance and ethics department to visit India for an investigation, the report added citing a company statement.

In an added trouble to Club Factory's bleak-looking plans to grow in India, the online Chinese e-commerce company has now been accused of selling Schedule H drugs on its platform without medical prescription.

The Food and Drug Control Administration in Gujarat has been asked to investigate the drug license of a local retailer, one of Club Factory's partner merchants, as per a Times of India report citing a letter issued at the regulator's Mumbai headquarters. The license was reportedly not furnished with the billing invoice.