There’s a wrinkle in plans made by Asia’s richest man to take on Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc on his home turf in India: his telecom and retail businesses can’t share data.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., has outlined how he will marry the might of his group’s 9,900-plus retail stores and 280-million strong telecom user base to bolster his e-commerce venture.

In what appears to be Amazon's effort in increasing gender diversity among directors, the technology giant on Monday appointed former PepsiCo chief executive officer (CEO) Indra Nooyi to its board. According to the company's regulatory filing, Nooyi will also join the audit committee of the board, reported Reuters.

"On February 25, 2019, the Board of Directors of Amazon.com, Inc. (the “Company”) elected Indra K Nooyi as a director of the company, and also appointed her to the audit committee of the board," Amazon wrote in an 8-K SEC regulatory filing.

The stir caused by the revised FDI guidelines in Indian e-commerce seems to have settled down now, at least for Amazon. In a little over three weeks since the government kicked in revised norms on February 1, Amazon has brought back all of its products that it had delisted from its marketplace platform Amazon Seller Services.

Amazon had 180 million products listed on its marketplace portal as on January 17, a day after it sought an extension of the February 1 deadline by four months.

But increasingly, Amazon sells its own products, including private-label goods, that compete with the offerings of independent merchants on its platform. A recent paper by economists Feng Zhu and Qihong Liu observed Amazon’s behavior over time, and found that it tends to introduce products in niches that smaller merchants did the work of discovering by finding out what consumers like.

It’s been a rough few weeks for the world’s wealthiest man. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos announced his divorce. He became engulfed in a tabloid scandal complete with blackmail allegations. And, on Thursday, his company abruptly scrapped plans to invest $2.5 billion and hire 25,000 people for a giant new office in New York City.

Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it has signed an agreement to buy eero, a startup company that makes home routers, to help customers better connect smart home devices.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of “blackmail” after it threatened to publish intimate photographs sent by the billionaire to his mistress if he did not cease an investigation into the newspaper’s alleged links with Saudi Arabia.

It comes after the tabloid last month reported Bezos was in a relationship with former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez — having accessed private text messages.

Amazon.com and Walmart’s plans to dominate India’s online retail landscape have been ambushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political priorities heading into a tightening election. The vote, likely to be held in or around May, has increased the influence of local retailers that lobbied for growth-crimping curbs on the US giants. On cue, India this month rolled out constraints on foreign e-commerce players, including Jeff Bezos-led Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, which together control 70% of its online shopping.

Amazon is working with brands across sectors to enable them to build skills on its Alexa platform. From daily news updates to smart-home integrations, banking services, food ordering and cab hailing, Alexa has been equipped with more than 10,000 skills, as the service expands in India.

US-based corporations Amazon and Walmart, which owns 77% stake in India’s largest online retailer Flipkart, together lost over $50 billion in market capitalisation on Friday after the government’s updated e-commerce policy came into effect. Both companies have made big bets on the Indian retail market - with Amazon committing $5 billion here while Walmart spent $16 billion last year to buy a controlling stake in Flipkart.

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