India's kiranas see increase in income amid second wave

Propelled by India's push towards digitisation coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic that has accelerated this shift, an increasing number of kiranas are going digital. 

And this has not just resulted in kiranas onboarding the payment apps, but has also led to a rise in their incomes. 

Homegrown ecommerce marketplace Flipkart says that small retailers on its network, such as general stores, tailor shops, and more, registered a 30 percent rise in average monthly delivery incomes in 2020.

Last year, Flipkart-owned PhonePe said it would enable digital payments for over 25 million small merchants across India by offering them end-to-end control of the payment process.

With this rapid penetration of digital payments, kiranas are now going contactless. This doesn't just enable kiranas to receive digital orders from consumers and make digital payments, but also digitises handling stock and the supply chain, fulfilments, and getting loans sanctioned.

According to projections, 12 million small retailers are taking the digital plunge due to giants like Paytm, PhonePe, Reliance, and Facebook.

This opens up various opportunities for startups such as Ahmedabad-based Easy Pay whose Paisa Nikal app connects both small stores and their consumers through banking services. With its Aadhar-enabled payment system and value-added services, the startup creates additional revenue for the kirana stores in the form of banking commission.

Read all about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.

Here are some useful tools to help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.

You can also share a tribute to COVID-19 warriors, saviours, and survivors here.

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News & Updates

• Flipkart has said the kirana partners or small retailers on its network have registered 30 percent rise in average monthly delivery incomes in 2020. Its kirana programme has onboard mom-and-pop stores, including general stores, tailor shops, etc., to deliver shipments and create new revenue channels for themselves.

• Bharat Biotech said it plans to produce an additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine 'Covaxin' at its subsidiary's Gujarat facility, taking the overall production volume of the vaccine to about 1 billion dosages per annum.

• The Karnataka government will resume the COVID-19 vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 years age group from Saturday. The frontline warriors will be the first to receive the jabs, followed by other eligible groups on the list.

• Twitter will start rolling out its verification application process soon, after which approved user accounts can sport the 'blue verified badge'. It had paused its public verification programme a few years ago.  

• HYBE EDU, the education arm of HYBE Corporation, has launched a Korean language learning pack ‘Learn! KOREAN with TinyTAN.’ It collaborated with Korean AI startup Neosapience to launch the study package to help those who want to learn an easier level of Korean. 

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“We are seeing a tectonic shift and message-based ordering is the norm. Small stores can benefit from this development.”

— Raghu Ravinutala, Co-founder and CEO, Yellow Messenger

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