COVID Vaccine – Dutch Uncles

The Survival and Revival of Fintech

Anju Nambiar — Sat, 29 May 2021 05:50:30 +0000

The Fintech or the finance industry as a whole is going through a technological revolution and surprisingly Covid-19 has contributed to it. Survival does not look too bleak for Fintech even amidst the dangerous second wave currently ensuing. The adoption of Digital Banking has exploded since the outbreak last year and it’s been a blessing for the Fintech sector.

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Digital lending has been on the rise which will be the single biggest hope for recovery for the entire fintech sector.

How fintech can survive the second wave

Deploy biometric recognition for security

Money laundering has been on the rise and malicious entities have increased their activity. As a financial business, get your hands on advanced security technologies and deploy biometric recognition to secure payments. Consumers are ready to pay additional monthly fees if the financial institution is offering biometric security.

Capitalise on demand for cashless, convenient digital payments

There is high demand for cashless and convenient digital payments, mainly owing to the hygiene factor. To survive and survive well during these times, fintech firms need to capitalise on this demand.

Team up with technology partners

During the pandemic, you need to drive operational efficiencies. Team up with partners for resources that you can use to align new systems with your business goals. Obtain key technology solutions like Integrated CRMs, cloud-based storage solutions, business management platforms from technology partners.

Deviate your services for Covid relief

Follow in the footsteps of a number of Indian fintech start-ups, as a survival strategy. Facilitate vaccine search and registration, assist in volunteering efforts, and organise vaccination drives specially for your field service executives.

Become a Fintech lender

Consumers need quick borrowing to overcome unprecedented pandemic-induced circumstances. Become a fintech lender and offer instant financing solutions to meet this demand.

Financial management apps are trending

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware about the importance of financial management. Apps providing finance management are trending, have become popular and are seeing increased usage during the many lockdowns. Come up with app ideas for finance management as a survival strategy.

How fintech can revive post the second wave

Transform the client experience

A personal finance revolution is underway which completely transformed digital banking post pandemic. Habits and behaviours around finance usage and management have changed. To align with this revolution, focus on transforming the client experience.

Provide financial services for MSME’s

Disburse loans for MSMEs who will be very much in need of working capital and financing. Small merchants will need quick, convenient, small loans post the second wave and lockdowns. Business uncertainty is looming large among small businesses who were abruptly forced to halt production and recovery efforts following the first wave. However, you need to keep in mind that MSMEs will also be the worst impacted borrowers.

Provide Insurances and Personal Loans

Once the recovery phase starts for the second wave, consumer demand will be high for insurance and personal loans. The healthcare sector will show high demand for credit post lockdowns. Come up with health insurance products to cater to this demand.

Volume for Fintech enquiries won’t be impacted – Tap into the demand.

Even though the credit demand across various industries will see a significant dip, the enquiry volume for fintech products and services will remain unchanged. Tap into the demand and come up with sales and marketing strategies to convert enquiries into customers.

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Model

The demand for BNPL financial services is high and will continue to increase post the lockdown. This is mainly because consumers are suffering from financial instability and disruptions in income continuity. Adopt the popular BNPL model in your financial services since it’s a golden opportunity to revive and recover from disruptions faster.

Vaccinations and the Fintech industry

Become a digital vaccination enabler through your touchpoints

If your fintech platform has physical touchpoints like local retail outlets and small ‘kirana’ shops, leverage these touchpoints as well as your platform to facilitate vaccination registrations. This is especially important if your touchpoints are in remote, densely populated areas with less tech savvy people. Leverage your distribution network and the people trained in your platform at the touchpoints to get people registered and scheduled for vaccinations.

Incentivize vaccination among your merchant-partners

Similar to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, offer incentives to your retail merchants to entice them to get vaccinated. Increase awareness regarding the need for vaccinations by offering special cashback programs, discounts and scratch cards when merchants submit proof of successful vaccinations.

Dispel vaccine related myths.

Create a registration help centre for rural communities to remove hurdles in vaccine registration among impoverished citizens. Create awareness among citizens who fall prey to myths and vaccine related fears by answering FAQs and thus helping increase registration counts in small towns and villages.

Assist vaccination schedules for the eligible population

A majority of the vaccine eligible population is unable to schedule appointments either due to technical glitches, lack of transparency, or due to vaccine shortages. You can help improve the number of vaccine appointments being scheduled and thus avoid vaccine wastage by becoming a digital bridge. Open appointment scheduling on your platform or instant alerts when slots open for consumers in their vicinity.

Conclusion

The Fintech industry has seen tremendous growth during the pandemic. The industry is seeing decent demand throughout the first and second waves. Digital lending has been on the rise which will be the single biggest hope for recovery for the entire fintech sector. Revival does not look bleak in the remotest and avenues for survival are many in fintech.

SMEs are most impacted in business due to the second wave, and Fintech can become a saving grace for the small business community to survive. Fintech companies can help the start-up community with customized financial products which they cannot get from traditional financial institutions. And this will create a win-win situation for both of them post covid.

The post The Survival and Revival of Fintech appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

The Survival and Revival of Agritech

Anju Nambiar — Fri, 28 May 2021 03:35:04 +0000

It’s a great time for Agritech start-ups although the second wave of Covid-19 is raging on. In fact, the industry is suffering from minimal impact compared to other industries and there is high hope for quick revival from any and all business impact.

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Agritech as an industry is untouched by the pandemic for the simple reason being that food is a basic necessity for everyone, despite the circumstances.

Tips for survival of Agritech in the second wave of Covid-19

Be bold

Go forward with expansion plans despite the second wave of the pandemic. Since Agriculture companies come under the purview of essential commodities, chances are you will face limited hurdles and business impact.

Increase your international footprint

As a survival strategy, Agritech start-ups must focus on increasing their footprint. If domestic footprints are hard to achieve, it’s better to focus on growing your international footprint while India recovers from the second wave.

Identify opportunities in impoverished regions abroad

Farmers abroad, especially in impoverished geographical locales are no doubt faced with similar challenges like farmers back in India. Expand to these international geographies until the second wave abates in India. Thus, you can utilise this time successfully for equating your international footprints with your domestic footprint.

Target hyper-local consumers

Make a repository of direct local consumers and kirana shops in your vicinity. If your Agritech start-up is procuring fresh produce, target these customers. During lockdowns, people will be ready to purchase fresh, healthy produce. This is a good way to improvise and survive the pandemic.

Facilitate access through technology

The fact remains that the pandemic has had a significant impact even on Agritech supply chains. Crop harvests have taken a hit since stock sales have slowed down due to transportation restrictions. In this scenario, your Agri-tech start-up can facilitate access for sales and procurement through technology solutions.

Hydroponic Farming

Hydroponic farming is your key to surviving the pandemic as an agri-tech start-up since it’s a hot trend right now. The need for nutritious, homegrown, fresh, chemical free vegetables was felt right from the first wave of Covid-19. Invest in high-tech urban hydroponic systems. (For the uninitiated, Hydroponics is a soilless vertical farming method usually carried out on rooftops and indoor areas). Venture into Hydroponics since its driven by technologies like AI and Data Analytics which reduces cost of production and opens doors for quick scaling.

Innovations are the key to success in the second wave

The FMCG sector is bubbling with opportunities even in the midst of Covid. Come up with innovations to capitalise on these opportunities since innovations are the key to succeeding through the second wave.

Align food distribution strategy with lockdown consumption trends

Agritech as an industry is untouched by the pandemic for the simple reason being that food is a basic necessity for everyone, despite the circumstances. Tweak your food distribution strategy to align it with the lockdown consumption trends.

How Agritech can revive post Covid-19

Plan physical meetings during lockdown

Save in-person contacts to post the second wave. Plan your meetings during the lockdown period, so that you can revive quicker post covid. Plan out your meetings with producers, and farmers. Also, create a roadmap on your logistics. Once lockdowns lift, you can be on your road to recovery, undertake physical travel, meet farmers, and build supply chain links.

Build efficient and sustainable food systems

The aftermath of the second wave is no doubt an opportunity for Agri-tech start-ups to build an efficient and sustainable food system through technology solutions. There’s no better way to revive faster post Covid-19.

Capitalize on rural smartphone penetration

The smartphone penetration which has gone deep into the bowels of rural India combined with high digital adoption is a boon for Agritech start-ups. It will make revival much quicker because you can provide tech-based solutions to resolve the problems of the agricultural community. Since they are already very much digitally savvy, deploying these technology solutions won’t be a challenge.

Vaccination and Agritech in India

People-first industry responsible for vaccinations

Agritech is one unique industry which can achieve a lot in vaccinating people. The farming community makes up for a major chunk of the Indian population. During these trying times, you can take measures as a ‘people-first’ industry to make arrangements for stakeholders.

Organise covid response groups

For instance, you can organise Covid response groups and helplines for farmers. You can also tie up with healthcare providers to make services available for them in remote areas.

Arrange vaccination camps

You could also set up isolation centres, hospitals, and most importantly vaccination camps for stakeholders like farmers and suppliers.

Conclusion

The number of deals that were occurring on a yearly basis in the Agritech industry was tremendous up until 2019. The number of successful funding rounds have no doubt declined due to the first and second waves of Covid-19 in India.

However, the progress of the Industry is still positive compared to some of the other hard-hit sectors. It’s safe to say that Agritech has strong survival opportunities and will come out of the pandemic untouched.

In terms of revival strategies, start-ups that have suffered disruptions can bounce back by working around the restrictions through technology offerings and farmer focused solutions. The rate of technology adoption among the farming community has never been as high as it is now. Start-ups tapping into this need can expect to bag investments easily.

The post The Survival and Revival of Agritech appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

The Survival and Revival of the Retail Sector

Aakash Sharma — Mon, 24 May 2021 03:35:04 +0000

With the collapse of Indian health and economic infrastructure in 2021, the only hope for survival and revival of the country is an accelerated vaccination effort against COVID-19. Only a joint effort between the central government and Indian states, along with the contributions from the civil and business society at a large scale, would help India to come out of the pandemic crisis faster. That, in turn, will help in the survival and revival of the economy and create jobs in a post-pandemic world.

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The disruptions that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought barely need any explanation. While similar to other countries, the economic contraction that India has witnessed is unlike any in scale.

The only flicker of hope for revival and survival in these unpredictable times is the outlook that a vaccine drive will inoculate enough Indians to curb the virus’s spread in the closely packed, almost 1.4 billion people-big nation.

Apart from the elected government, which has till now been an underperformer in its COVID response, there is a massive responsibility on the corporate world and companies of all sizes to advocate for mass vaccination. This entails leveraging the forces of hospitals, doctors and attendants. There is also a crucial role of digital technology like effective online vaccine registration and immunisation certificates using QR coded details.

Survival and Revival of India’s Retail Sector: Pandemic Induced Transformation

It is imperative to look into all businesses that need a recovery path in a post-pandemic, primarily vaccinated nation. Here, we look into the vast Indian retail industry, which is the second-largest employer in India and provides a livelihood for a large segment of the population.

To put things in perspective, small and medium-sized retail firms in India employ about 400-450 million people and undertake a monthly business of about $70 billion. With e-commerce augmenting in India, growing at a 40% CAGR, enterprises have been on a reinvention spree with the channelling of new retail supply chains.

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E-retailers have given rise to a new generation of consumers driven by choice, convenience and discounts.

Fighting the pandemic while satisfying customer demands needs a fundamental understanding of customer value and a rethink of traditional retail supply chains not designed to handle large assortment at low cost.

Tips for Revival and Survival of India’s Retail Businesses

You Should Shift to New Channels

Rapid changes and increase in online, mobile, and social trade transactions have surged in 2020 and 2021 with changing customers shopping habits. The current 2020-21 rates of online commerce growth of 25-30% have already touched the 2025’s projections in India. MSMEs and the millions of small retail businesses in India must move to mobile-friendly solutions like apps and websites for their survival and revival.

Large retail businesses like Big Bazaar, Reliance and e-commerce players like Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal must embrace the workplace vaccine policy to ensure a return to standard and growth of the country’s retail segment. Their newfound focus on connecting India’s vast sector of unorganised Kirana and other small retail stores will also find new life as more vaccines are injected, and businesses return to normal functioning.

Revival through Essential Items

The very meaning of product distribution and categories has changed during this pandemic. The change in basic product definition and requirement has triggered a complete overhaul of the supply chain, demand planning, inventory optimisation, and replenishment cycles.

Businesses, both existing and new start-ups, must capture this opportunity to launch themselves with caution and fill the new gaps in the supply chain by pushing their ideas, products and services. For funding support, they can avail numerous state start-up benefits as well as the aid from the recent $125 million Start-up India Seed Fund for start-ups and incubators.

Revival and Survival Hope: Sharp Economic Growth Predictions

After facing a downward financial and economic turn for multiple quarters now, the economic trends are bound to have a V-shaped recovery from the pitfalls in the sales cycle and logistics gridlock. While the GDP contraction has been a disaster for millions of businesses, healing is inevitable for most of them, if not all, as soon as the vaccination reaches its threshold.

The RBI and many private analysis firms predict positive growth for the Indian economy by the end of 2021. A growing vaccine manufacturing line by companies like the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech backs this hope.

Migrating Online and Shifting Marketplace

The ability to adapt, seamlessly integrate, and sell anywhere with a seamless connection has never been more apparent than it came to shine in the past one and a half years. E-retail and e-commerce are decisively pegged as the accelerator of the retail sector’s growth.

Big players are throwing their weight behind the digital way to grow themselves while bringing small businesses and retail SMEs to the forefront with hyperlocal services like Flipkart Plus, Amazon Local Stores, Dunzo, The New Shop and many others. As the digital overhaul bolsters, the marketplace for all retail businesses, both small and large, will widen, and the opportunities will increase simultaneously.

Survival in Pandemic and Revival in a Post-pandemic World

Regardless of the scenario, several truths are starting to become straightforward for retailers as they look ahead to survive the challenges in a post-COVID-19 world. Undoubtedly, companies further down on the path of digital business transformation along with a self-vaccination plan will be better equipped to handle this disruption.

Digital Revenue Growth

In the coming months, retailers will need to focus on accelerating digital sales as shoppers stay at home and use online channels to meet their day-to-day needs. This puts extra pressure on the supply chain and contributes to the situation that retailers are already anticipating.

Data and Algorithms (AI/ML) in Supply Chain

The COVID crisis is also an opportunity to delve into the flexibility and strengths of retailers. A recent B2B e-commerce market survey found that many of the challenges faced by retailers in an interconnected space are related to the supply chain. Delays in products, problems with consumer confidence and insufficient stocks are the main challenges for retailers.

Businesses can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) solutions in:

Invoicing
Consumer Behaviour Prediction
Inventory Management
Online Ordering, and
Checkout Services

This can help retailers of small and medium sizes to overcome challenges. Tech start-ups in this segment can further simplify solutions to benefit even the remotest retail businesses in both urban and rural India using mobile apps and simple scanning tools like QR codes, among many others.

Clearly, COVID-19 has redefined all the old normal and has set a new normal for the times to come. In a nutshell, the retailers who will survive through the COVID-19 crisis are the ones who try to look at the current situation more as an opportunity and start driving on the road to recovery with precautions and plans in mind.

By leveraging data technology to accelerate digital channel innovation and enhancing supply chain and warehouse capabilities, retailers can develop strategies to address future business challenges while transforming their organisation for the future.

The post The Survival and Revival of the Retail Sector appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Can the Government Control COVID Vaccine Prices via the DPCO?

Smruthi Krishnan — Sat, 01 May 2021 05:35:04 +0000

As the pandemic continues to rage on in India, with cases spiking up and reaching new peaks, vaccinations have become a necessity for survival. With millions of people spending loads of money in search of oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and medications, the healthcare system is on the edge of an apocalypse. If vaccine prices are too high, consumers may not go for it. Health insurance payers may not allow reimbursement and physicians won’t prescribe it.

How Governments regulate drug prices via DPCO?

Governments can regulate drug pricing to ensure affordability and accessibility. They initiate price control policies that make drugs cheaper and easily accessible to everyone which is necessary for a country where most of the citizens cannot afford medications.

For instance, consider the price ceiling policy in India which was placed more than two decades ago. This led to India having one of the lowest drug prices in the world. Prices of essential drugs are regulated by the Indian central government under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

1997, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority was set up to revise prices of drugs, enforce the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) and monitor the prices of drugs. The Drugs Prices Control Order, 1995 is an order issued by the Government of India under Sec. 3 of Essential Commodities Act, 1955 to regulate the prices of drugs. The Order provides the list of price controlled drugs, procedures for fixation of prices of drugs, method of implementation of prices and penalties for contravention of provisions. Today, the DPCO lists 851 drug formulations whose prices can be capped based on certain dosages.

The ceiling price is set as the average price for all brands selling a particular drug with more than 1 percent of the market share. If the price of a drug is below the ceiling price, it can be raised only after a year. Patented drugs or fixed-dose combination drugs are exempted from this policy.

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The Drugs Prices Control Order, 1995 is an order issued by the Government of India under Sec. 3 of Essential Commodities Act, 1955 to regulate the prices of drugs.

Can DPCO regulate COVID Vaccine Prices?

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a national crisis and certain areas of the Drugs Control Act can be leveraged to deal with the situation. Different manufacturers are quoting different prices which leads to the question whether vaccine prices can be regulated by the DPCO?

Regulation through DPCO is not applicable for patented drugs or fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs which is why the price of the antiviral drug remdesivir used to treat serious cases of COVID-19 cannot be regulated by the government. Globally, the American biotechnology firm Gilead Sciences owns the patent for the drug and other companies have taken a licence from Gilead to manufacture remdesivir.

However, amendments can be proposed to bring vaccines or drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19 under the DPCO policy. It is necessary the government ensures free or atleast much lower, capped and equitable prices to ensure accessibility to citizens who otherwise cannot afford the vaccine. During a national crisis like this, where the country is on the blink of collapsing, the government must take all steps to protect its citizens and keep them healthy.

Other Legal Provisions Suggested

THE PATENTS ACT, 1970 was mentioned by the Supreme Court which can help the government regulate the pricing of the vaccine. Section 100 of the Patents Act gives the central government the power to authorise any pharmaceutical company to use the invention for the “purposes of the government”. This will help the government to license the patents of the vaccine to speed up manufacturing and ensure equitable pricing.

On the other hand, THE EPIDEMIC DISEASES ACT, 1897 proves to be a huge weapon for the government in dealing with the pandemic. It gives the government the power to take special measures and prescribe regulations as to dangerous epidemic disease.

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How the Partnership of a Gaming Platform and Healthcare Service Provider Looks Like?

Aakash Sharma — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 10:35:04 +0000

Market sharing strategies are the cornerstone of future development and expansion strategies for businesses. They help companies understand the competitive landscape, reduce costs, improve business performance, and increase sales. Companies that raise brand awareness and targeted customer segments in emerging markets are often open to cross-industry collaboration.

E-Sports and Healthcare Collaboration: More than Welfare

E-Sports Company Mobile Premier League (MPL) and NxtGen Infinite Datacenter recently announced that they would be joining a growing list of companies to cover the cost of vaccination to their employees and co-dependents.

MPL has announced that it will conduct a comprehensive vaccination campaign for all Indian employees and their relatives. The company is already partnering with healthcare providers. It plans to commence the drive as soon as the necessary government protocols and regulations for the general public’s vaccination are announced.

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Flipkart, the e-commerce giant, will bear the immunization costs of all Flipkart and Myntra employees.

Healthcare Expansion is becoming a Priority

When entering emerging markets, such as India’s fast-growing IT industry, healthcare companies need to consider the following points:

Identify suitable markets and industries with adequate growth potential and potential.

Develop new marketing channels and optimize communication content that resonates with customers in emerging markets.

Create connections and partnerships with national and local companies through mergers and acquisitions to improve service quality.

Determine effective pricing strategies and ensure that plant capacity is used optimally to increase investment and profitability.

Positive Intervention of MPL in the Vaccine Healthcare Process

The immunization activities employed by MPL will not only cover the costs. They will also include the entire process, including pre-vaccination medical advice, vaccination plans, and the doctor’s vaccination follow-up.

The vaccination campaign is the voluntary participation of employees and their families. More than 2,000 people, who are integrated with the program, will benefit from the drive.

Other Big Companies Are Also Joining the List of Covering Employee Vaccination Drives

Several companies, including Flipkart, Infosys, Accenture, Capgemini, Reliance Industries, TVS Motor Company, ReNew Power, Mindtree and Sify Technologies, have also agreed to cover the cost of vaccines for their employees and families.

Flipkart, the e-commerce giant, will bear the immunization costs of all Flipkart and Myntra employees. Flipkart said in a statement to employees that its next phase of the vaccination campaign would cover all employees and existing priority groups.

What’s in it for you?

As IT companies collaborate with the healthcare sector to support the COVID-19 vaccination process, it is clear that cross-sector partnerships are an essential factor in developing new business prospects. Indeed, this approach can also be seen as a go-to-market strategy as it provides active input for product and service design and thus attracts a diverse customer base.

In the healthcare industry, understanding the challenges and risks of technology adoption is imperative. Along with that, having a deep understanding of the healthcare market’s competitive landscape is essential to improve efficiency and drive growth. New companies entering this industry need to consider these key factors.

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