Mahindra And Ola Sign A Deal, Indian Railways Wants To Try Out “Surge Pricing” And Other News

A win-win deal? Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra has signed a deal with Uber rival Ola to sell cars and maintain them for the cab hire company. The deal will earn Mahindra $400 million over two years and boost Ola’s fleet size by 40,000 cars. Ola’s drivers will also get cheap financing and insurance from Mahindra. There were reports a few months ago that Mahindra was talking to Uber and Ola, and Chairman Anand Mahindra left the door open for a tie-up with Uber when he said this arrangement was not exclusive. Anand Mahindra saw the signs coming a year ago when he said:

"Today, one lives in a world where the Olas and Ubers of the world are stating that a person doesn't need to own a car, for them transportation is commodity. It changes the way one sells."

On the other hand, Ola needs all the support it can get, now that rival Uber has decided to focus all its firepower on the Indian market. A letter to Uber’s investors highlights how Uber’s departure from China through the deal with Didi has left it free to chase Indian consumers. This is really no surprise as India is Uber’s biggest market outside the US and the company has in the past changed the way it operates in India to keep up with the specific needs of the Indian market.

Jio 4G: If Reliance Industries thought that the government will step in to force older telcos to co-operate over interconnection issues, it was disappointed. The department of telecommunications has asked Reliance to take this fight to the telecom regulator TRAI. Moreover, it reminded Reliance, that interconnection is decided by “mutual agreement between the two parties.” Reliance, as a newcomer, needs more points of interconnection, from the incumbent networks, which they are unwilling to give, saying it will affect their own service. That they are miffed with Jio’s rock-bottom prices that will put pressure on their own business, may be another reason. Now TRAI has called all parties to discuss this bitter feud. And the battle rages on.

Surge Tatkal? The Indian Railways has taken a leaf from Uber and Ola and is introducing “surge pricing” for premium trains such as Rajdhani and Shatabdi. According to this report, ticket prices will go up by 10 percent for every 10 percent sold. This will go up on an experimental basis from tomorrow.

Food prices: The seesawing in cereal prices is sure to be giving the government sleepless nights. When a hot summer and two poor monsoon sent pulse prices sky high, the government had to resort to imports to soothe consumer worries. Now, the reverse has happened and with the onset of the harvest season, prices are beginning to bottom out. The government is stepping in once more to support prices by setting a floor at which its agencies will buy.

The Hyper Local story: Amazon is apparently in funding talks with food delivery company Swiggy, but no one’s talking yet. This ties in with Amazon’s hyperlocal focus, and Swiggy does seem to be among the better performing food delivery apps. It will be interesting to see how this synergy develops.

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