Archives for August 2020

The announcement comes at a time when the online pharma sector in the country is seeing a rush of investments from homegrown, overseas funds and is also witnessing mergers and acquisitions. 

BENGALURU: Mukesh Ambani’s  Reliance Industries Limited will now take on Amazon in the online pharmacy space by acquiring Chennai-based startup NetMeds. 

The 100% acquisition of NetMeds is being done by the retail arm Reliance Retail Venture Limited (RRVL), which will also pick up a 60 percent majority equity stake in the parent company Vitalic Health Limited for Rs 620 crore, RIL said in a statement. This translates into a valuation of over Rs 1,000 crore for the company. 

The announcement comes at a time when the online pharma sector in the country is seeing a rush of investments from homegrown, overseas funds and is also witnessing mergers and acquisitions. 

The country’s largest e-tailer Amazon last week announced that it has launched its e-pharmacy vertical and will be selling prescription medicines in Bengaluru along with the non-prescriptional and conventional Ayurvedic/unani drugs. 

Rival Flipkart is also reportedly in talks with various stakeholders in the health tech space to venture into the segment. 

For Reliance, the acquisition of NetMeds will strengthen its e-commerce capabilities especially after the launch of JioMart, which is now delivering across 200 cities in the country and will soon expand to the other pincodes. 

“This investment is aligned with our commitment to provide digital access for everyone in India. The addition of Netmeds enhances Reliance Retail’s ability to provide good quality and affordable healthcare products and services, and also broadens its digital commerce proposition to include most daily essential needs of consumers. We are impressed by Netmeds’ journey to build a nationwide digital franchise in such a short time and are confident of accelerating it with our investment and partnership,” Isha Ambani, Director, RRVL said in a statement.

NetMeds’ parent entity Vitalic was founded in 2015 with its various subsidiaries Tresara Health Private Limited, Netmeds Market Place Limited and Dadha Pharma Distribution Pvt Limited. The major promoters of Vitalic Pradeep Dadha and family ventured into the online pharma business after being involved in the wholesale, retail and manufacturing pharma sector in South India for over a century. 

“It is indeed a proud moment for Netmeds to join the Reliance family and to work together with them to make quality healthcare affordable and accessible to every Indian. With the combined strength of the group’s digital, retail and tech platforms, we will strive to create more value for everyone in the ecosystem, while providing a superior Omni Channel experience to consumers,” Dadha said in a statement.

With a fleet of over 18,000 buses and nearly one lakh workforce, MSRTC is one of the biggest state road transport corporations in the county.

MUMBAI: Inter-district bus services of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) resumed on Thursday morning after a gap of almost five months, officials said.

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday permitted the state-owned undertaking to re-start inter-district bus operations, which were stopped in March after the enforcement of lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.

On Thursday, the first bus from Mumbai Central depot, where the MSRTC headquarters is located, left around 8.30 am for Chiplun in Ratnagiri district with six passengers boarding at the starting point, a transport corporation official said.

More passengers were expected at Dadar and other stops, he said.

Bus services from various depots in Mumbai and other parts of state are planned later in the day on some selected medium and long-distance routes, sources in the MSRTC said.

While allowing the inter-district MSRTC bus services to resume, the state government did away with the condition of e-pass, which was earlier compulsory for passengers in view of the lockdown.

The MSRTC said it will be mandatory for passengers to maintain COVID-19 prevention protocols, like wearing masks and adhering to the social distancing guidelines.

Earlier, the transport corporation resumed inter-district services from May 22 and also ran special buses to ferry migrants to the state borders.

It was also operating special services for passengers in the Konkan belt ahead of the Ganesh festival, which will begin on Saturday.

With a fleet of over 18,000 buses and nearly one lakh workforce, MSRTC is one of the biggest state road transport corporations in the county.

The crucial indicator from these states also signals that the epidemic is far from being over in spite of the very high incidence of the infectious disease already.

NEW DELHI:  Considerably high Covid-19 testing positivity rates (TPR) in Maharashtra, Telangana and Delhi have raised concerns that the disease is silently spreading through the population at a much more alarming rate than acknowledged by the governments, and these states are yet to reach optimal testing rates to contain the contagion. 

The crucial indicator from these states also signals that the epidemic is far from being over in spite of the very high incidence of the infectious disease already. According to the government figures, the seven-day average TPR for Telangana — at 19 per cent — is the highest in the country. It means that 19 of every 100 people being tested for the infection have been found positive over the past week.

This rate is 18.2 for Maharashtra and 16.1 for Delhi — the two other states that have seen a very high disease burden. This indicator for all other states, on the other hand, is well below 10 per cent, while the country’s overall TPR is less than 9.

Epidemiologist Dr Jammi N Rao, who has worked with the ICMR-Hyderabad in the past, said: “The reasons could be either there are a greater number of cases in the community so that, all other things being equal, more tests are correctly identifying the greater number of cases or more of the tests are now being done on people with obvious symptoms of Covid-19.” 

Sources said that the proposal for travel bubble for business, official and medical travel was discussed along with the Rohingya issues.

NEW DELHI:  Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday reached Dhaka for a two-day visit to Bangladesh which is aimed at enhancing ties with the neighbouring country. The foreign secretary is likely to meet Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to deliver a ‘special message’ from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is Shringla’s second visit to Bangladesh within five months. He had last visited Bangladesh in March.

According to local media reports, Hasina is likely to meet Shringla at her official residence after which the foreign secretary will hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Masud Bin Momen and Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.

The visit is being seen as New Delhi’s attempt to check  Dhaka’s growing proximity to Beijing in the aftermath of the June 15 violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. India, as a retaliatory measure, had banned 59 Chinese apps citing security concerns. Later, China had responded by exempting import duty on around 100 Bangladeshi products.

The trip is also being perceived as a reconciliatory measure after reports of a tiff between the Bangladesh government and the Indian High Commissioner and the alleged questions over the ‘quality’ of the 10 Indian locomotives given to Bangladesh. Recently, India had described its relationship with Bangladesh as “exceptionally close”. 

The COVID-19 tally in the country rises to 27,67,274 including 6,76,514 active cases, 20,37,871 discharged/migrated & 52,889 deaths.

With 64,531 people testing positive in a day, India’s COVID-19 tally increased to 27,67,273 on Wednesday, while the recoveries crossed the 20-lakh mark pushing the recovery rate to 73.64 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll climbed to 52,889 with 1,092 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The Centre on Tuesday cautioned against pinning too much hope on the Covid-19 vaccines, saying everyone wants them to succeed but there is no guarantee, they will. At a press briefing on the outbreak management, Dr V K Paul, member (health), Niti Aayog, who also heads the National Expert Group on Covid- 19 Vaccine Administration, said “it won’t be appropriate to assume any vaccine under trial will emerge as successful”.

Now, as per a report published in a financial daily, the Tata Group has already started due diligence and could submit it close to the official deadline at the end of this month. 

NEW DELHI:  In what may come as a relief to the Government of India, the Tata Group is likely to make a formal bid for debt-laden national carrier Air India by the end of the month, according to reports. The government has been trying to divest its stake in the loss-making carrier since last year, with a new divestment process for the firm initiated on January 27. 

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has extended the deadline for the submission of initial bids a couple of times. In June, the Centre extended the deadline to submit an EoI (expression of interest) till August 31 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, as per a report published in a financial daily, the Tata Group has already started due diligence and could submit it close to the official deadline at the end of this month. At present, the Tata Group runs two airlines in India—the premium Vistara and budget carrier AirAsia India—in partnership with foreign carriers.

While there have been multiple reports that Tata may merge its stake in AirAsia and Air India into a single entity, the Group hasn’t confirm on the speculations yet. Tata is already said to have engaged top legal firms and consultants to seek their opinion before making a formal bid for Air India, but many experts believe the privatisation process could be time consuming.