ETtech Unwrapped: Confusion, chaos, and disruption in wake of Delhi’s bike taxi ban

Hi, Pranav here in New Delhi. A case of mistaken identities happened in the country’s capital city last week when transport authorities started issuing challans to e-commerce and food delivery executives . But there were layers to this development that we explored through our stories during the week.

Over the course of the last week, e-commerce and food delivery executives were being penalised amid confusion, following the Delhi government’s recent public notice banning use of two-wheelers as taxis. Food delivery and quick-commerce platform – an official document issued to a motor vehicle driver who violates traffic rules – despite the government notification being applicable only for bike taxi service providers. The notice issued by the Delhi government last week warned bike taxi operators such as Rapido, Ola and Uber to not ply on Delhi roads as it violates the motor vehicle laws.

It added that these companies could be fined up to Rs 1 lakh, as the use of bikes for commercial purposes violated the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Interestingly, a top Delhi transport department official told us that cases where food delivery workers were being issued challans, they “might have been doubling up as bike taxis, which is not legal”. An executive with a food-tech company also alluded to the possibility of their workers “double-hatting”, or delivery partners working in multiple roles simultaneously.

Operating as bike-taxis and delivering food are complementary professions in nature for drivers. The lean hours of food delivery are actually peak hours for ride-hailing. This gives drivers the chance to earn more money from being in the gig-industry.

Bengaluru-based Swiggy is even an investor in bike-taxi company Rapido, though the company has clarified that the investment is not strategic in nature. Ashish Kundra, principal secretary and commissioner, transport department, Delhi told ET that the . However, companies believe it is difficult for platforms to ensure this does not happen.

“These are gig workers, and by nature of this job, we cannot keep a tab or investigate what they do when they are not delivering for us,” the executive cited above said. The ban on bike taxis has been imposed with a backdrop of an aggregator policy that the Delhi government has been working on for over a year. Following the public notice, Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot had said that companies could apply for a new licence under the proposed policy.

“Aggregator policy for two-wheeler, three-wheeler and four-wheeler is in its final stage and will be rolled out soon helping them to apply for grant of license under the new scheme,” he had said on microblogging platform Twitter. According to a draft of the policy, bike-taxis will be legal in the capital if it is an electric vehicle. It has been a tumultuous year for Sequoia Capital India.

Silicon Valley’s famed venture capital (VC) fund, an early backer of some of the most influential technology companies such as Apple, Google and WhatsApp, finds itself fielding questions on its role as a long-standing investor in local startups, after portfolio firms BharatPe, Zilingo, Trell, and GoMechanic showed lapses in corporate governance. Amid this, Sequoia announced a massive $2. 85 billion fund for India and Southeast Asia (SEA) in June last year.

Shailendra Singh, managing director at Sequoia Capital India and SEA, spoke to us on how the fund has been affected by the constant scrutiny, what it’s doing to address the governance issues, and its investing strategy in the current climate after having raised a huge pool of capital. India is “a winner” and “a bright spot” in a world that is in turmoil according to Christian Klein, the chief executive officer of SAP SE. The German software giant aims to double its investments in India over the next five years.

Technology spending is a mixed bag, and some softness from the inflationary and geopolitical concerns globally is also spreading to India, said Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari. There is, however, enough headroom to grow in India since many firms are digitizing their operations, he added. A general sense of caution and a conservative outlook among clients are behind Capgemini’s muted revenue growth guidance for 2023 despite coming off its strongest year in 2022, its India chief executive said.

Large investors in One 97 Communications, which operates digital payments major Paytm, including Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank and China’s Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, through a secondary stock deal, multiple people in the know of the matter said. Zomato has approached a number of restaurant chains , amid widening losses, pressures on profitability and a drop in delivery numbers in its food delivery business, people directly aware of the development said. SoftBank Corporation founder and chief executive after more than four years, people familiar with his plans said.

Platforms selling second-hand vehicles have flagged certain provisions of the amendments to the central . The amendments were notified in December to bring used-vehicle dealers under the regulatory ambit. We’ve launched three indices – ET Ecommerce, ET Ecommerce Profitable, and ET Ecommerce Non-Profitable – to track the performance of recently listed tech firms.

Here’s how they’ve fared so far. Fintech and payments platforms including Paytm, Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay are and customer acquisition engines, industry executives told ET. Nexus Venture Partners said on Wednesday that One of the older India-dedicated funds, Nexus has aggressively backed India’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) story, with several new-age unicorns from the segment in its portfolio.

Upskilling startup founders told ET that they are expecting to clock a strong rate of growth in the ongoing year even as a funding crunch has set in the broader edtech sector. The current flurry of layoffs across technology companies is causing many employees to consider going back to school or taking up courses in management, data sciences and digital marketing, . In-house platforms/institutes, facilitated trainings, gamification, group and individual coaching, self-paced learning offerings, tie-ups with skilling platforms and leading engineering colleges and B-schools are among the many options in areas spanning everything from digital and sustainability to people management, and leadership.

A tech platform was . Complaints made to Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) will be automatically sorted and sent to three subcommittees. Companies like Tech Mahindra, Genpact and Fractal Analytics in areas of customer support.

India can create a differentiated offering in this space with its huge workforce, said executives. The parliamentary standing committee , which will now be introduced in the upcoming second half of the budget session of Parliament, electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday. Delhi-based all-electric cab service company led by Germany’s IEG Investment Banking Group.

NoBroker, a prop-tech real estate startup, to expand its services business NoBrokerhood. Healthcare startup led by existing investors Endiya Partners and Accel, with participation from a few strategic leaders from the healthcare sector. .