In Brief: Govt asks etailers to tag country of origin; Reliance Jio rolls out JioMeet

The department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) has asked ecommerce firms such as Amazon and Flipkart to start mentioning the country of origin for products on their platforms, The Economic Times reported. Etailers have also been asked to rectify old listings as soon as possible. Sellers who do not provide details can be taken off the platform, the report said. The move to tag products comes amid the rising anti-China sentiment in the country. 

Read: Delhi HC seeks response from govt, etailers on the country of origin tag

Reliance Jio rolls out video conferencing platform JioMeet

Reliance Jio has launched video conferencing service JioMeet on Google Play Store, App Store and for desktop users, The Economic Times reported. The video conferencing app will support up to 100 participants at once, the report said. The platform competes with Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft's Teams, among others in this segment.

TikTok CEO writes to IT minister to share India expansion plans

ByteDance owned short video platform TikTok has shared a plan with the Indian government to set up an engineering centre to design and develop products in India, according to a report by the Economic Times. The company has also reiterated its plan to set up a local data centre. TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has reportedly requested for a meeting with the electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to explain the data-sharing practices of the Chinese platform, the report said. TikTok, along with 58 other apps, was banned on Monday. 

Read: TikTok goes offline in India as MeitY orders browsers to block the video-sharing app

Draft ecommerce policy seeks to set up a watchdog

Certain companies that store or mirror data from Indian users overseas will be subject to periodic audits. This would apply to etailers such as Amazon and Flipkart as well as firms such as Facebook, the Economic Times reported.  The new draft ecommerce policy has also proposed setting up a regulator and will also empower the government to review, investigate and take action against any ecommerce activity that threatens the country’s security.

Paytm founder rolls out two new entities for personal investments

Digital payments platform Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and his wife Mridula Parashar have set up two new entities, VSS Investco and VSS Holdings, in early February, Entrackr reported. The entities will reportedly help them carry on the business of an investment company and to invest in and acquire or hold securities, shares or debentures in one or more companies and to sell, purchase or otherwise deal in shares, stocks and bonds.