Did you know about it -Blood

Electronics!!
In 2016, Intel's Entire Supply Chain Will Be Conflict-Free. Buying electronics
used to help fund war in Africa. Now big tech companies like Intel are working to
make sure their money isnt used for destruction.
Seven years ago, if you bought a new iPhone or a laptop, you were probably also
inadvertently supporting warlords and mass rapists in the Democratic Republic of
Congo. The country has some of the world's largest deposits of many of the tiny
bits of metal, like tin and tungsten that make up electronics and they often came
from mines whose profits were used to fund the country's ongoing, devastating
civil war. Luckily, that's starting to change.
This year, Intel expects its entire supply chain to be conflict-free. Its taken time:
the company first set the goal in 2009, and with a massive list of suppliers, it was
an overwhelming challenge at first. "We said, we don't want to support conflict,
period," says Carolyn Duran, a director at Intel who oversees supply chain
sustainability. "How to do that? Nothing was determined."
It started with its own factories, and worked with a handful of other electronic
manufacturers to figure out a way to track materials. Metals mined in Africa
might first end up in China or Russia, and before companies like Intel started
asking questions, it was hardor impossibleto say where the metals had
originated or whether the proceeds had ended up in the hands of warlords.

Now, nonprofits work with the government to audit mines, and when a mine gets
a "green" or good rating, the material that's shipped out ends up in labelled bags
that can be tracked to smelting plants around the world. While it isn't a fool proof
process, after auditing the mines themselves, Intel believes it works.
"Without owning the mines ourselves we can't be sure 100%, all the time, every
day, but if we waited for that we'd never be sourcing from the region at all, and
that's not what our intent was," says Duran. "We want to maintain a presence in
the region, source responsibly, and help the people on the ground."
Since Intel and other manufacturers began the program, the profits from mines
have started flowing to miners themselves rather than to war. In the last study of
three of the major materialstungsten, tantalum, and tina non-profit called the
Enough Project found that the amount of money going to conflict had dropped
65%, and it continues to fall.
For tantalum, a blue-grey mineral used in most electronics, almost the entire
supply chain is now conflict-free. "There are literally a handful of smelters that

aren't there [in terms of verifying that they get material only from conflict-free
mines]," Duran says. "And once you hit that inflection point, it's better for the
smelters to be in than out. They're actually the outliers now if they're the one or
two in the world that aren't going in, it becomes a problem for them from a
business perspective."

There are still challenges. Gold, for example, comes out of the ground in chunks
that are more pure, which makes it easier to smuggle, since you can just slip a
small amount in your pocket and then change it for money. For now, that means
Intel has to buy gold from other parts of the world, or recycled gold, in order to
know that the materials are responsibly sourced. But it's also still working on a
process to help the Democratic Republic of Congo track its own supply. Just
stopping buying from the country isn't that great a solution either: Duran points
out that mining is one of the country's only legitimate sources of income, and an
important step in development.
Making sure that every supplier meets standards is also an ongoing challengeif
Intel gets a new supplier, or buys a new company, the process starts again. But
the company is now nearly at a point where it can say everything it makes is
conflict-free.
Two years ago, it took the first major step, and announced that its
microprocessors were conflict-free, something that helped inspire other
manufacturers.
"That helped other companies say 'Hey, yeah, this can be done,'" says Duran.
"We had more industries working together and that gave us more traction than
Intel working on its own. Some of these smelters are very small parts of our
supply chain. But when you have 10 or 20 companies, or two or three industries
all setting those same expectations, then it becomes a real solid business case
for those smelters and those suppliers to come along and join with us."
The company wants to help the whole global supply chain for these materials
not just its ownbecome conflict-free. "If every smelter in the world stood up
and demonstrated they were sourcing responsibly, there would be no path for
the illegitimate materials to go," she says. "You can put up the walls around our
own supply chain and say as long as ours is good we're good, but that's not
really fixing the fundamental problem. It takes all of us to really fix the problem
on the ground."

((Source - http://www.fastcoexist.com/3055066/change-generation/in-2016intels-entire-supply-chain-will-be-conflict-free?
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Hyderabad-based TruckSumo
aims to Uberise intra-city
logistics space
Every person who has to shift houses nervously watches the movers like a hawk,
hoping they dont break anything that is expensive or sentimental. What can
only be more stressful than packing all your temporal possessions into neat little
boxes, is finding someone trustworthy to transport them to your new home.
Three friends imagined it to be done in a few simple steps, just like booking a
cab or ordering your groceries.
Hyderabad-based TruckSumo was set up by Nithin Baalay, Arun Rao and
Abhishek Bajpai to organise the intra-city transportation problem. The startup is
an aggregator of mini-trucks and connects businesses having local logistics
needs in real-time with service providers who can fulfill those needs. The trio
want to rewire the intra-city logistics sector with their venture.
They decided to create a marketplace with standardised pricing and hassle-free
experience backed by solid technology. The marketplace has both the business
that has an on-demand requirement for transportation, and the mini-truck ownercum-driver, who is an entrepreneur himself, ready to go that extra mile.

The team mix

Although the stakes were high, we felt it was a huge opportunity. And in the
new age where businesses are going customer-centric and on-demand, we
wanted to apply the same to logistics and give customers a brand new
experience of moving goods, says 30-year-old Nithin.

Arun is an engineer by education and marketer by profession. He has led the

sales teams at Google across US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand markets.
He brings in extensive startup operations experience to the field.
Abhishek has done his Masters in Electrical Engineering at San Jose State
University, US. He was previously running the family business that owns 16
warehouses and, therefore, has deep experience in third-party logistics and
transportation.
Nithin has a Masters in Computer Science from Columbia University, US. He has
been an entrepreneur, CTO at BuyThePrice.com, a Naspers-funded e-commerce
company, Managing Director at India.com, and has worked in the US for the
World Media Group.

The workings of the product

TruckSumos biggest USP is that it takes 45 seconds to make a booking and 45
minutes to get a complete transportation solution at your doorstep. The
company claims they are 40 per cent cheaper than other alternatives available in
the market.
Quite similar to the Uber app, the TruckSumos customer-facing app is in Beta
mode now and will launch in the PlayStore in the coming month. Most orders
come via phone and the interactive voice responsive (IVR) technology helps the
startup automate a lot of processes.
We work with anyone who wants to move goods from point A to point B, be it an
individual or a small business or a large one. You can avail our services at the
touch of a button. We are also working with some of the most trusted and
biggest brands in India for their logistics needs, says Nithin. On the driver front,
the team says it has the ability to run TruckSumo efficiently using a basic phone
or a smart one. The vehicles are fitted with a GPS device.

Testing the market

We got our operations right during our test launch. We then went ahead and
built a solid tech product from all the feedback and learnings, says Nithin.
TruckSumo went live in March 2015 in Hyderabad and operated on stealth mode
right after. It expanded to Bengaluru two months later. TruckSumo plans to be
operational in six cities this year.
Our dream is to put a TruckSumo-powered device in all SMEs to enable access
to these services at the touch of a button, adds Nithin.
TruckSumo is a YourStory TechSparks Top 30 2015 finalist, IBM SmartCamp 2016
Top 15 finalist and Aditya Birla BizLabs finalist.

The team is bootstrapped and is looking for funding. They are experimenting
with a bunch of features like part-load aggregation of orders, bike aggregation,
order broadcasting, reverse auction model, long-distance and larger fleet
vehicles, plugging into bigger ERPs, integration with eCommerce websites to
provide real-time quotes and tracking. Nithin says they are currently doing
17,000 orders in a month and have onboarded 900 customers.

YourStory take
It is no surprise that several players are looking to Uber-ise the intra-city ondemand logistics segment. Roadway logistics is a $150 -billion industry in India,
of which $30 billion is from last-mile delivery.
If you look at its urban split, the market size is estimated to be around $10-12
billion. Many believe that if aggregators can solve urban commute problems, the
same model could be used to solve the overload of trucks and unorganised intracity logistics.
The other players in the space include ThePorter, Shipr and Blowhorn. Blowhorn
raised seed funding from Unitus. TheKarrier raised Rs 1.5 crore from Sol Primero
in May 2015. The market, however, is in its nascent stages and is yet to pick up.
((Source - http://yourstory.com/2016/01/trucksumo/))

Logistics to be the game

changer for
E-commerce in 2016
E-commerce has seen an unprecedented rise in business in the past year, with
Paytm joining Flipkart and Snapdeal in the eight-member unicorn club. A report
by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2015 stated that the e-commerce market in
India will be worth $220 billion by 2025. Yet, e-commerce is beyond just sales
and GMV numbers. Speed of delivery is as important as the product quality for a
customer. It would not be wrong to say that logistics could be the defining factor
for success of e-commerce companies in retaining their customers.
At present, the countrys logistics industry is worth $300 billion, according to the
Logistics Market in India 2015-2020 by market researcher Novonous. In fact, the
report states, Indian logistics market itself is estimated to grow at a CAGR
of 12.17 per cent by 2020. Innovations are very important in this sector, as the
demand is always for more reach and faster shipping at lower costs. Yet, the
companies will need to invest in automation, while utilising existing resources
well.

YourStory takes a look at how e-commerce majors have built a solid ground for
advancement in logistics in 2016, and how this year will pan out for Indian ecommerce in terms of logistics.

Lessons from 2015

It would suffice to say that 2015 was the year of logistics for e-commerce in
India, with many startups coming up in the space, and investments flowing into
them. Online marketplaces such as Snapdeal, Flipkart, and Paytm came up with
innovative strategies in logistics and supply chain management, backed by
ample investment.
Following the most significant trend in 2015, Snapdeal took the hyperlocal route
and launched Snapdeal instant to allow delivery of packages to customers
within an hour of placing the order. Having received a whopping $500 million in
funding in 2015, Snapdeal also launched four-hour delivery, card-on-delivery,
and 90-minutes reverse pickups. At present, the company is fulfilling 60 per cent
of its orders from its own fulfilment centres, as compared to the seven per cent
at the start of 2015.
Amazon added eight new fulfillment centres this year, increasing their storage
capacity to nearly five million cubic feet across all 21 centres in India. Amazon
claims that this is the largest storage capacity and warehouse infrastructure in
India in the e-commerce industry.

Investing in better data analytics and forecasting customer demands was the
mantra for the e-commerce players looking to cut down cost of deliveries.
Flipkart tied up with partner stores that act as alternative delivery channels, so
that customers can pick up their shipments at their convenience. By bringing
together core capabilities of IoT, devices, data and automation, we have started
implementing the automation technology to pick and move packages to
designated picking station, among several other applications that make
warehouse processes quicker and smoother, said a spokesperson from Ekart,
the logistics arm of Flipkart.
Local networking for faster deliveries also gained momentum in 2015. Paytm
launched a two-hour delivery model for mobile phones, similar to Snapdeals
Omni-channel strategy. E-fulfilment centres and return processing centres have
also aided Paytms growth in 2015. Renu Satti, Vice President, Paytm, said:
Increasing the reach of our delivery network by partnering with local delivery
companies was another focus area [in 2015]. Going forward in 2016, a lot of
focus will be on strengthening city local delivery network and setting base for
local fulfillment.
Shopclues claims that its logistics initiatives have ensured better delivery service
level agreements (SLA). Vishal Sharma, Vice President, Operations, said: We
have invested and developed technology that integrates with 90 per cent of our
third-party logistics partners to ensure faster tracking and information flow
between merchants and customers. This has resulted in faster shipping,
integrated tracking and real-time updates on deliveries both in the forward as
well as returns.

Vehicle tracking crucial in e-commerce

Since the logistics market is highly unorganised in India, under-utilisation of
resources is not surprising. Increasing adoption of technology in operations is
essential to keep up customer satisfaction. Ashish Chitravanshi, Vice President,
Operations, said that Snapdeal has been building strategic technology solutions
that are leveraged by its third-party logistics partners to improve tracking of
shipments. Amazon added that fast, reliable and resourceful internet
connectivity across devices will help us use technology better for vehicle
tracking.
Vehicle tracking plays a significant role in providing necessary control and
effective route planning for faster delivery. In September 2015, Paytm invested in
logistics solutions provider Loginext to exploit tech ecosystem for supply chain.
Flipkart benefited by its investment in Blackbuck in capturing data on vehicular
movement and utilisation, and utilising the data for better planning. The
efficiency improvement on information gathering and orchestration is a primary
focus area for us in the next year as well, the Ekart spokesperson said.
Technological developments in logistics have surely surpassed manual methods
in connecting sellers, third-party logistics partners and customers. It has also
made possible card on delivery, electronic proof of delivery etc., for these
players. Logistics solutions provider Loginextwhich caters to Paytm, Myntra and

Amazon among otherseven provides heat maps for giving information on those
areas where maximum delays are happening.
Manish Porwal, Business Development Manager at LogiNext, said: We are also
working with cold chain logistics service providers for delivering perishables. Our
scheduler takes input from the system about the products being transported and
accordingly schedules the deliveries. Also, the temperature and other settings
required for a particular product could be set via our app used by delivery boys.
Shopclues strategy is to work with third-party logistics partners which have
enabled vehicle tracking or working toward adding on this function. However,
infrastructural improvements are essential for seamless tracking, said Vishal of
Shopclues. Vehicle tracking in India is primarily dependent on the mobile
infrastructure available. Inadequate coverage across the country affects tracking
of vehicles, he added.
((Source - http://yourstory.com/2016/01/commerce-logistics-2016/))