Verghese Kurien

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dr. Verghese Kurien

26 November 1921
Calicut, Madras Presidency, British
Born
India
(now Kozhikode, Kerala)
9 September 2012 (aged 90)
Died
Nadiad, Gujarat, India
Nationality
Indian
Other names "Milkman of India"
Ethnicity
Nasrani
College of Engineering, Guindy
Alma mater
Michigan State University
Founder of Amul Ex-Chairman
Occupation GCMMF, NDDB, Institute of Rural
Management Anand
Widely acclaimed as the "Father of
Known for
the White revolution" in India[1]
Religion
None (Atheism)
Spouse(s)
Molly
Children
Nirmala Kurien
World Food Prize (1989)
Padma Vibhushan (1999)
Awards
Padma Bhushan (1966)
Padma Shri (1965)
Ramon Magsaysay Award (1963)
Verghese Kurien (26 November 1921 9 September 2012) was a renowned Indian
social entrepreneur and is best known as the "Father of the White Revolution",[2] for his
'billion-litre idea' (Operation Flood) the world's largest agricultural development
programme.[3] This transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world's largest
milk producer, surpassing the United States of America in 1998,[4] with about 17 percent
of global output in 201011, which in 30 years doubled the milk available to every
person.[5] Dairy farming became India's largest self-sustaining industry.[6] He made the
country self-sufficient in edible oils too later on,[7] taking the powerful and entrenched oil
supplying lobby head-on.
He founded around 30 institutions of excellence (like AMUL, GCMMF, IRMA, NDDB)
which are owned, managed by farmers and run by professionals. As the founding
chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Kurien was
responsible for the creation and success of the Amul brand of dairy products. A key
achievement at Amul was the invention[8] of milk powder processed from buffalo milk[9]

(abundant in India), as opposed to that made from cow-milk, in the then major milk
producing nations. This led Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to appoint him the
founder-chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965, to replicate
Amul's "Anand model" nationwide.[3] He is regarded as one of the greatest proponents of
the cooperative movement in the world, his work having lifted millions out of poverty in
India, and outside.

Contents

1 Early life and education

2 Career
3 Personal life, family and beliefs
4 Film and its use in enlarging the movement
5 Books
6 Prestigious awards and distinguished honours
7 References
8 External links
o 8.1 Official
o 8.2 Others

Early life and education

Kurien was born on 26 November 1921 at Calicut (now Kozhikode, Kerala) into a Syrian
Christian family[10][11] His father was a civil surgeon in Cochin, Kerala.
He graduated in Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940 and then obtained his
Bachelors in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy[12]
affiliated to University of Madras. After completing his degree, he joined the Tata Steel
Technical Institute, Jamshedpur from where he graduated in 1946. Subsequently, he went
to the United States on a Government of India scholarship to earn a Master of Science in
Mechanical Engineering (Distinction) from Michigan State University in 1948.[13][14][15]

Career
Kurien arrived back from the United States to India after his master's degree, and was
quickly deputed to the Government of India's experimental creamery, at Anand in
Gujarat's Kheda district by the government and rather half-heartedly served out his bond
period against the scholarship given by them. He arrived at Anand on Friday 13 May
1949 and started the work assigned to him the very same day. He had already made up his
mind to quit mid-way, but was persuaded to stay back at Anand[16] by Tribhuvandas Patel
(who would later share the Magsaysay with him) who had brought together Kheda's
farmers as a cooperative union to process and sell their milk, a pioneering concept at the
time.[17]

He would brook no meddling from the political class or bureaucrats sitting in the capital
cities, letting it be known upfront,[18] though he, and his mentor and colleague,
Tribhuvandas Patel were backed by the few enlightened political leaders and bureaucrats
of the early Independence days who saw merit in their pioneering cooperative model.
Tribhuvandas Patel's sincere and earnest efforts inspired Kurien to dedicate himself to the
challenging task before them, so much so, that when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
was to visit Anand later to inaugurate Amul's plant,[19] he embraced Kurien for his
groundbreaking work. Meanwhile, Kurien's buddy and dairy expert H. M. Dalaya,
invented[8] the process of making skim milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo
milk[9] instead of from cow milk. This was the reason Amul would compete successfully
and well against Nestle which only used cow milk to make them. In India, buffalo milk is
the main raw material unlike Europe where cow milk is abundant. The Amul pattern of
cooperatives became so successful, that in 1965 Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri,
created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the program
nationwide citing Kurien's "extraordinary and dynamic leadership" upon naming him
chairman.
As the 'Amul dairy experiment' was replicated in Gujarat's districts in the neighbourhood
of Anand, Kurien set all of them up under GCMMF in 1973 to sell the combined produce
of the dairies under a single Amul brand. Today GCMMF sells Amul products not only in
India but also overseas. He quit the post of GCMMF chairman in 2006 following
disagreement with the GCMMF management.[20][21]
When the National Dairy Development Board expanded the scope of Operation Flood to
cover the entire country in its Phase 2 program in 1979: Kurien founded the Institute of
Rural Management Anand (IRMA).Kurien, played a key role in many other
organisations, like chairing the Viksit Bharat Foundation, a body set up by the President
of India. Kurien was mentioned by the Ashoka Foundation as one of the eminent present
Day Social Entrepreneurs. Kurien's life story is chronicled in his memoir I Too Had a
Dream.[22] Interestingly Kurien, the person who revolutionised the availability of milk in
India did not drink milk himself.[23] Nevertheless, the work of Kurien & his team in India
took India from a milk importer to a milk & milk-products exporting nation within the
span of two decades.

Personal life, family and beliefs

Verghese married Molly and they had one daughter Nirmala Kurien and a grandson,
Siddharth.[24] He was an atheist.[25] Verghese Kurien died on 9 September 2012 after a
brief spell of illness in Nadiad, near Anand in Gujarat, India. He was 90. His wife Molly
died on 14 December 2012 in Mumbai after a brief illness.[26]

Film and its use in enlarging the movement

Veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal, then an advertising executive with Lintas

Advertising, produced Manthan (the churning of the 'milk ocean'), a story set in the
cooperative milk movement in India. Not able to finance it, Benegal was helped by
Kurien who hit upon an idea of getting each of his half a million member farmers to
contribute a token two rupees for the making of the movie. Upon its release, truckloads of
farmers came to see "their" film, making it a success at the box office. Manthan hit a
chord with the audience immediately when it was shown in Gujarat in 1976, which
impressed distributors to release it before audiences, nationwide. It was critically
acclaimed and went on to win national awards the following year and was later shown on
television to the public.
The movie's success gave Kurien another idea. Like shown in the film, a vet, a milk
technician and a fodder specialist who could explain the value of cross-breeding of milch
cattle would tour other parts of the country along with the film's prints, to woo farmers
there to create cooperatives of their own.[27]
UNDP would use the movie to start similar cooperatives in Latin America.[28]

Books

Kurien, Verghese (2005) I Too Had a Dream. APH Publishing Corp. ISBN
9788174364074.
Kurien, Verghese (1997) An Unfinished Dream. Tata-McGraw-Hill. ISBN
9780074622148.
The Man Who Made The Elephant Dance Audio Autobiography of Dr. Kurien
in the voice of Tom Alter with Audio Foreword by Ratan Tata, in his own voice
ISBN 9789382299240
Verghese Kurien: The Man with the Billion Litre idea (2013) Amar Chitra Katha.
ISBN 9789350853863.

Prestigious awards and distinguished honours

Year
Name of Award or Honor
1999 Padma Vibhushan
1993 International Person of the Year Award
1991 Distinguished Alumni Award
1989 World Food Prize
1986 Wateler Peace Prize Award
1986 Krushi Ratna Award
1966 Padma Bhushan
1965 Padma Shri
1963 Ramon Magsaysay Award

Awarding Organization
Government of India
World Dairy Expo
Michigan State University.
World Food Prize, USA.
Carnegie Foundation, The Netherlands.
Government of India.
Government of India.
Government of India.
Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation.

Naveen Jain
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Naveen Jain

Business Executive, Entrepreneur

6 September 1959 (age 55)
IIT Roorkee
Alma mater
XLRI
Occupation CEO of inome
Known for Founder and former CEO of Infospace
Website
http://www.naveenjain.com/
Born

Naveen K. Jain (born 6 September 1959) is a business executive and entrepreneur. He is

the founder and former of CEO of InfoSpace, founder and CEO of inome (originally
called Intelius), and founder and Chairman of Moon Express.[1] When Infospace stock
was at its heights during the dot-com boom, Jain briefly became a billionaire, appearing
on Forbes' list of the "400 Richest Americans" for 2000.[2][3]

Contents

1 Background
2 Professional background

2.1 Early professional life

2.2 Microsoft and MSN
2.3 InfoSpace
2.4 Intelius
2.4.1 inome
2.4.2 TalentWise
o 2.5 Moon Express
o 2.6 World Innovation Institute
3 Notable rulings
4 Recognition
5 Board memberships
6 Family
7 References
8 External links
o
o
o
o

Background
Jain grew up in villages throughout Uttar Pradesh, as well as in cities such as New Delhi.
Later he moved to Roorkee, where in 1979 he earned an engineering degree from the
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and then moved to Jamshedpur, where in 1982
he earned his MBA at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources.[4][5]

Professional background
Early professional life
Jain left India in 1983 after being accepted to Burroughs via a business-exchange
program to explore the emerging U.S. high-technology market. He worked at companies
that included Convergent Technologies and Tandon Computer Corporation.[4][5][6][7]

Microsoft and MSN

In 1989, Jain joined Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, working in the capacity of
Program Manager. He initially began working on OS/2 and then moved on to several of
Microsoft's flagship products, including MS-DOS, Windows NT, and Windows 95. Jain
is listed on three patents from his time with Microsoft.[8] He later moved to the
development of the Microsoft Network. Jain left Microsoft in 1996 to form InfoSpace.[6]

InfoSpace
Jain founded InfoSpace in March 1996 and served as Chief Executive Officer until 2000.
InfoSpace provides metasearch and private-label Internet search services for consumers
and businesses. While CEO, Jain's personal worth rose from almost one billion dollars in
1999[9] to USD$2.2 billion in 2000 when, at the height of the dot-com bubble, he was
ranked 121 on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans.[10][11] He resumed the role of CEO in

2001,[12] but was forced out by InfoSpace's board as chairman and CEO in December
2002.[13] In April 2003, he resigned from the InfoSpace board.[14]

Intelius
In 2003, Jain co-founded Intelius, a Bellevue, Washington-based Web security firm.[4][15]
The company has been subject to significant criticism and lawsuits relating to their
marketing practices.[16][17][18]

inome
In 2012 Intelius and its holdings were restructured. The corporate umbrella was named
"inome".[19]

TalentWise
TalentWise is a May 2013 spin-off from inome where Jain serves on the board.[20]

Moon Express
In August 2010,[21] Jain co-founded Moon Express,[22][23] a privately funded company that
aims to build and launch a robotic spacecraft to the moon.[24][25][26]

World Innovation Institute

Jain is the founder of The World Innovation Institute.[27][28]

Notable rulings
In May 2002, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman made a landmark $247 million ruling
in favor of Thomas Dreiling, a small shareholder of InfoSpace who brought a lawsuit
against InfoSpace as well as then CEO Jain. The judge ruled, Jain had bought InfoSpace
stock within 6 months of selling the stock (short swing) . Language in documents
prepared by J.P. Morgan Securities incorrectly put control of stock granted to Jain's
children's trust funds in 1998 and 1999 in the Jains' account without the Jains' knowledge.
The judge ruled that Jain had in essence "purchased" the stock for nothing while Jain had
sold the $202 Million of stock within six months of this event that caused the stock to be
considered a purchase. Jain argued that he didn't intend to take control of the trusts and
blamed J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., among others, for the mistake.[29][30]
While the cases were in appeal, attorneys at the Securities and Exchange Commission
sided with Jain and urged the appeals court to reverse the ruling. Attorneys representing
InfoSpace shareholders agreed to settle the case, fearing the weight of the SEC brief
could result in a complete reversal of their ruling during the appeal process. In late 2004,

InfoSpace reached a settlement agreement resolving the numerous related lawsuits,

including the Dreiling v. Jain, et al. Section 16(b) (short swing) case which was pending
on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Insurance
carriers finally settled the case in March 2009.[31][32][33]
Following the settlement, Jain unsuccessfully sued his stock management company and
lawyers. The Supreme Court in March 2009 refused to hear an appeal from Jain of the
decision against him from the Washington state Court of Appeals.[33][34]
In early March 2003, InfoSpace sued Jain for allegedly violating noncompete agreements
in his role at newly founded Intelius. In an interview after the suit was filed, Jain said the
lawsuit was without merit and was a retaliation for Jain's whistle-blowing.[13] The court
found in favor of Jain citing no evidence to support InfoSpace's claim.[35][36]

Recognition
In 1999, Jain was awarded the Emerging Entrepreneur Award Winner for the Pacific
Northwest Region by Ernst & Young.[37][38]
On April 25, 2011, The Times Group awarded Jain the "Light of India Business
Leadership Award" for "visionary entrepreneurship".[4][39]
In December 2011, Jain received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Red Herring
Global 2011 Conference.[40]

Board memberships
In 1999, Jain served on the board of directors of Freei,[41] aka FreeInternet.com, which
was an online service provider.[42][43]
In June 2011, Jain was elected to the board of directors of Singularity University.[4][44]
Jain is a trustee of xprize foundation and co-chairs the education and global development
initiative of the X Prize Foundation.[4][45][46][47]

Family
Jain is married and lives in Medina, Washington.[2] He has three children, Ankur, Priyanka
and Neil.[47][48]
Ankur Jain graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May 2011, and is working
on a business venture that will connect entrepreneurs with innovative technologies with
established businesses in foreign markets.[49]

Laxmanrao Kirloskar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laxmanrao Kirloskar
Born
Occupation
Spouse(s)
Children

June 20, 1869

India
Founder, Kirloskar Group
Radhabai Kirloskar
Shantanurao Laxmanrao Kirloskar
Rajaram Kirloskar
/ Prabhakar Kirloskar
Ravi Kirloskar

Laxmanrao Kashinath Kirloskar (Marathi: ) (1869-1956)

was an Indian businessman. He was the founder of the Kirloskar Group. He was born on
20 June 1869, in a small village, Gurlahosur in Belgaum District.
Laxmanrao was fond of two things: mechanical objects and painting. Against his fathers
wish and with financial support from his eldest brother Ramuanna, Laxmanrao joined J J
School of Art in Bombay in 1885. Unfortunately, he had to quit after 2 years as he was
found to be partially color-blind. He gave up painting but continued to study mechanical
drawing at the institute. This skill came handy and lead him to a position of Assistant
Teacher of Mechanical Drawing at Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI) on a salary
of Rs. 45 per month. Sometime in early 1890s Laxmanrao started bicycle dealership he
would buy bicycles in Bombay and send them to his brother Ramuanna in Belgaum
where he would sell them. For a cycle of Rs. 700 to 1000 Ramuanna would also charge
Rs. 15 for teaching how to ride.[1]
His first venture - a small bicycle repair shop at Belgaum. The road on which he started
the shop, is today named as Kirloskar Road. Strongly believing that agricultural
implements must fit the milieu they are used in, he manufactured iron ploughs, the first
Kirloskar products.
He established a small unit in the former Aurangabad State for production of Chaffcutters and manufacture of iron ploughs. In the early days, Kirloskar had to meet with
opposition from farmers who believed that iron ploughs were poison to the land and
make it useless. Superstitious farmers were extremely hard to convince and Laxmanrao
Kirloskar took two years to sell his first iron ploughs. Laxmanrao Kirloskar could not

find a suitable place for his workshop ; help from the Ruler of Aundh who offered him a
place and arranging loan of seventeen thousand Indian rupees. 1910 Laxmanrao started
his factory in an arid waste land by the side of a renown railway station, named Kundal
Road. The factory now known as famous Kirloskar Industries and the station called as
Kirloskarvadi. Laxmanrao Kirloskar was not only an industrialist but also a great social
reformer. When blind orthodoxy was rampant in rural area, he advocated the removal of
untouchability. He banned untouchability in the township that he had established at
Kirloskarvadi. He believed in social reform and tristed in the goodness of man. He
employed ex-convicts as night watchman.[2]
He had read about industrial townships in Europe and America where the owners of
industries had built communities for the employees. His dream was to build his own
industry and community for his employees; he realized this dream with Kirloskarwadi, a
place where he started the Kirloskar Brothers Limited factory in 1910.
Laxmanrao was married to Radhabhai Kirloskar and had four children, Shantanu
Kirloskar, Rajaram kirloskar, Prabhakar kirloskar, Ravindra (Ravi) kirloskar.
Government of India - Indian Postal department issued a postal stamp for Laxmanrao
kirloskar on 20 / June/ 1969 marking 100 years of birth anniversary.[3]

Flipkart
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Flipkart

The Online Megastore

Type
Private
Industry
Internet
Founded
5 September 2007
Founder
Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal
Headquarters
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Area served
India
Sachin Bansal
Key people
Binny Bansal
Amod Malviya
E-commerce
Services
(Online shopping)
US$ 1 billion (gross
Revenue
merchandise 2013-14)[1]
Total assets
$12 billion(Dec,2014)[1]
Number of
15,000 (2014)[2]
employees
Subsidiaries
Myntra
Website
Flipkart.com
Flipkart is an Indian E-Commerce company established in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and
Binny Bansal. It operates exclusively in India, with headquarters at Bangalore,
Karnataka. Flipkart has launched its own product range under the name "DigiFlip" with
products including tablets, USBs, and laptop bags. Flipkart has also launched its own
range of personal healthcare and home appliances under the brand "Citron".[3][4][5]
In May 2014, Flipkart received $210 million from DST Global and in July it raised $1
billion led by existing investors Tiger Global and South Africa's media group Naspers.
Flipkart's last fundraising round in December had pegged its valuation at $12 billion.[2]

Contents

1 History
o 1.1 Acquisitions

2 Finance
3 Flyte Digital Music Store
4 Exclusive Product Launches
5 In-house Products
6 Criticism
7 Awards and recognition
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

History
Flipkart (Company) was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both
alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. They had been working for
Amazon.com previously. The business was formally incorporated as a company in
October 2008 as Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd.[6] During its initial years, Flipkart
focused only on books, and soon as it expanded, it started offering other products like
electronic goods, air conditioners, air coolers, stationery supplies and life style products
and e-books. The first product sold by them was the book Leaving Microsoft To Change
The World, bought by VVK Chandra from Andhra Pradesh.[7][8][9] Flipkart now employs
more than 15000 people.[10] Flipkart allows payment methods such as cash on delivery,
credit or debit card transactions, net banking, e-gift voucher and card swipe on delivery.
[11]

Acquisitions

2010: WeRead, a social book discovery tool.[12]

2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.[13]
2011: Chakpak.com, a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and
videos. Flipkart acquired the rights to Chakpak's digital catalogue which includes
40,000 filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart has
categorically said that it will not be involved with the original site and will not use
the brand name.[14]
2012: Letsbuy.com, an Indian e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought the
company for an estimated US$25 million.[15][16] Letsbuy.com was closed down and
all traffic to Letsbuy has been diverted to Flipkart.[17]
2014: Acquired Myntra.com in an estimated INR 2,000 crore deal.[18]

Finance
Initially, the founders had spent 400,000 only for making website to set up the business.
[19]
Flipkart has later raised funding from venture capital funds Accel India (US$1 million
in 2009)[20][21][22] and Tiger Global (US$10 million in 2010 and US$20 million in June
2011).[23][24][25] On 24 August 2012, Flipkart announced the completion of its 4th round of
$150 million funding from MIH (part of Naspers Group) and ICONIQ Capital.[26] The

company announced, on 10 July 2013, that it has raised an additional $200 million from
existing investors including Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital.[27]
Flipkart's reported sales were 40 million in FY 20082009,[28][29] 200 million in FY
20092010[30] and 750 million for FY 20102011.[31] In FY 20112012, Flipkart is set to
cross the 5 billion (US$100 million) mark as Internet usage in the country increases and
people get accustomed to making purchases online.[32] Flipkart projects its sales to reach
10 billion by year 2014. On average, Flipkart sells nearly 10 products per minute[33] and is
aiming at generating a revenue of 50 billion (US$0.81 billion) by 2015.[34]
On November 2012, Flipkart became one of the companies being probed for alleged
violations of FDI regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999[35][36]
Flipkart reported a loss of 281 crore for the FY 2012-13.[37] In July 2013, Flipkart raised
USD 160 million from private equity investors.[38]
In October 2013, it was reported that Flipkart had raised an additional $160 million from
new investors Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management,
Sofina SA and Vulcan Inc. with participation from existing investor Tiger Global.[39][40][41]
On 26 May 2014, Flipkart announced that it has raised $210 million from Yuri Milners
DST Global and its existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers and Iconiq Capital.[42]
In early July 2014, it was also highly speculated that Flipkart was in negotiations to raise
at least $500 million, for a likely listing in the US for 2016.[43]
On 29 July 2014, Flipkart announced that it raised $1 billion[44] from Tiger Global
Management LLC, Accel Partners, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management and a
new investor Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC.[45]
On 6 October 2014, Flipkart sold products worth INR 650Crore in 10 hours in a special
one-day event - "The Big Billion Day", claiming they had created e-commerce history,
but their hard-won reputation for good customer service suffered because of technical
problems, and angry reactions on social media from buyers disappointed with the pricing
and availability of products.[46][47][48] It claimed to sell a whopping 5 lakh mobile handsets,
five-lakh clothes and shoes and 25,000 television sets within hours of opening its
discounted sale at 8 AM.[49] In December 2014, After it received $700 million from
another funding, Flipkart had a market cap of $11 billion or Rs.66000 crore.[50]
On 20 December 2014, Flipkart announced filing application with Singapore based
companies' regulator ACRA to become a public company after raising USD 700 million
for long term strategic investments in India following which its number of investors
exceeded 50. The USD 700 million fund raised by Flipkart added new investors - Baillie
Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar
Investment Authority - on company's board.Its existing investors DST Global, GIC,
ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global also participated in this latest financing round.[51]

Flyte Digital Music Store

In October and November 2011, Flipkart acquired the websites Mime360.com[13] and
Chakpak.com.[14] Later, in February 2012, the company revealed its new Flyte Digital
Music Store.[52] Flyte, a legal music download service in the vein of iTunes and
Amazon.com, offered DRM-free MP3 downloads. But it was shut down on 17 June 2013
as paid song downloads did not get popular in India due to the advent of free music
streaming sites.[53][54]

Exclusive Product Launches

Motorola Mobility, previously owned by Google but then sold to Lenovo, in an exclusive
tie up with Flipkart launched its budget smartphone Moto G in India on 5 February 2014.
[55][56]
This triggered an overwhelming response from online shoppers and more than
20,000 units were sold within hours of launch on Flipkart. After the Moto G successful
debut launch, Flipkart was looking for a long term tie up with Motorola Mobility.[57] The
Moto G success story, led to an another exclusive tie up between Flipkart & Motorola
Mobility, who launched their flagship Android smartphone, the Moto X on 19 March
2014.[58][59] After Moto G and Moto X, Flipkart invited the Moto E, the newest member of
Moto family which is even cheaper than Moto G on 13 May 2014.[60] The sale of highend smartphone Xiaomi Mi3 produced by Xiaomi Tech was launched in India on an
exclusive tie-up with Flipkart. The first batch was sold out within 39 minutes [61] on 22
July 2014, the second in 5 seconds[62] on 29 July 2014. The sale was proceeded on preregistration mode where more than 150 000 buyers booked for the 5 August 2014 sale.
This got sold off in less than 2 seconds.[63] Following this Xiaomi Tech decided to sell
20,000 pieces in the next sale scheduled for 12 August 2014.[64] On September 2, 2014
Flipkart held a flash sale of the budget Android smartphone the Xiaomi Redmi 1S which
was launched in India in July 2014. 40, 000 units priced at Rs 5999 each were sold within
seconds.[65] In the second round of Xiaomi Redmi 1S sale held on Sept 9, 2014, 40,000
units were sold within a span of 4.5 seconds, slightly longer than the first sale, which
lasted just 4.3 seconds.[66] Third round of Redmi 1S sale held on Sept 16, 2014 with again
40,000 units sold in fastest of all 3.4 seconds.[67] In the 4th round of sale of Redmi 1S held
on Sept 23, 2014, Flipkart put more units this time, 60,000 units go out of stock in 5.2
seconds.[68] In the latest Flash sale held on Sept 30, 2014, once again 60,000 units Go out
of stock in 13.9 seconds.[69] Redmi Note in India exclusively through Flipkart. The first
flash sale of 50,000 Redmi Note devices held on December 2, 2014 and all the devices
sold out in mere 6 seconds, just like all the earlier flash sales of Xiaomi held at Flipkart.
[70]

In-house Products

In July 2014 Flipkart launched its own set of tablet, mobile phones & Phablet.
The first among these series of tablet phones was Digiflip Pro XT 712 Tablet.
In July 2014 Flipkart launched its first networking router, under its own brand
name named DigiFlip WR001 300 Mbit/s Wireless N Router.

In September 2014 Flipkart launched its in-house home appliances and personal
healthcare brand Citron. The label includes a wide range of cooking utilities and
grooming products.

Criticism
On 6 October 2014 Flipkart launched Big Billion Day with intention to increase the
popularity by targeting billion sales in 1 day. This even though helped Flipkart achieve
the target led to public outcry and widespread criticism across consumers, competitors
and partners heavily damaging its reputation.
Many users couldn't place the order because the servers were not capable enough to take
the load and was giving random errors to users which led to frustration among customers.
[71]
Many users who placed orders got email saying that the order got cancelled.[72] Most
of the products were sold for price less than cost price and was accused of killing the
competition. Major competitors filed complaints against Flipkart to commerce ministry
claiming that selling products for less than cost price is against the commerce policy of
the country.[73] Ministry said that they will form new trade rules for e retail after this
incident.[74][75]
On 13 September 2014 a Flipkart delivery boy molested a house maid in Hyderabad.[76]
The house maid's employer has been fighting against Flipkart for justice on this issue,
and also for making offline delivery services safe.[77]

Awards and recognition

Co-Founder of Flipkart Sachin Bansal, got Entrepreneur of the Year Award 20122013 from Economic Times, leading Indian Economic Daily[78]
Flipkart.com was awarded Young Turk of the Year at CNBC TV 18's 'India
Business Leader Awards 2012' (IBLA).[79]
Flipkart.com- got Nominated for IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow Awards 2011.
[80]