In Brief: Startups, VCs oppose Jio-Facebook deal; Piyush Goyal pushes self reliance

A number of consumer internet startups and venture capital investors plans to file a plea with the Competition Commission of India to oppose Facebook’s investment in RIL-owned telecom unit Jio Platform, citing concerns of data sharing and misuse, Mint reported, citing sources. The report said Naspers Ventures was likely one of those expected to approach CCI. Naspers, the report said, denied the same. Separately, a spokesperson for the Cape Town based investor told TechCircle in email that it "strongly and outrightly denied these allegations". The appeal is yet to be filed before the anti-trust regulator even as the Facebook-Jio deal is currently pending approval. On April 22, Jio announced Facebook’s $5.7 billion (Rs  43,574 crore) investment for a 9.99% stake in the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom major. 

Commerce minister Goyal seeks self-reliance solutions from industry

Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal said that it is “anguishing” to note that India imports several routine items such as furniture, toys and shoes despite having the technical prowess and skilled manpower to manufacture them locally. Goyal, in a virtual meeting with trade bodies and the industry, urged them to develop sustainable, out-of-the-box ideas in line with the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat plan, a statement said. On Tuesday, trade body CAIT released a list of 500 categories of products imported from China and urged Indian celebrities to stop endorsing Chinese brands, as per media reports.

HCL Tech to roll out new marketing platform by July

Noida-based  HCL Technologies (HCL) on Friday said that it will launch a marketing platform to help enterprises to set goals, deliver real-time self services and inform customers on digital channels. Called the Unica V12.1, the platform will be rolled out to customers by July, who can define and start meeting their marketing goals within 30 days, a statement said.

NetApp partners with tech-based logistics firm Ingram Micro

Cloud data services company NetApp has tied up with Ingram Micro, a technology and supply chain services firm. The latter will deploy NetApp’s cloud solutions in its logistics platform to boost sales and expand to tier-2 cities, as well as deliver increased access to NetApp’s suite of offerings across segments, a statement said.

This article has been modified from the original to reflect Naspers Ventures' statement with respect to a Mint report cited in the article on the Reliance-Jio Facebook deal.