Reliance Industries has been raking in large deals when corporations are struggling to survive - all with a bigger plan in mind, which can even propel Mukesh Ambani into the trillionaire club

At Amazon's event for small businesses, SMBhav, in New Delhi, Kishore Biyani offered the audience some valuable perspective

Grofers has been more successful in the North Indian belt, all the way from Jaipur to Kolkata. What explains the turnaround and success in the North?

Investors continue to be bullish on the online grocery space as the next vertical story of Indian e-tailing, after electronics and fashion.

How can Walmart correct the wobble in India's best known start-up?

Flipkart Pvt Ltd, which has made its second entry in the segment after a failed attempt with Nearby, aims to make a difference by launching an extensive supply chain, bringing in its own label, giving every day discounts, etc.

Kishore Biyani says in terms of the e-commerce space, the e-commerce market is still too small in India. \"If you look at the non-CDIT (consumer durables and IT or electronics and mobile phones), it is hardly Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 crore. So, in that sense, it's a very small business,\" says the Future Group CEO.

If the world's largest retailer Walmart indeed ends up buying a majority in Indian e-tailer Flipkart at valuations that has been doing the rounds, it could change the e-commerce landscape in the country in many ways.

A new breed of marketing and distribution companies is using tech to connect brands with villages.

Eyebrows were raised last December when it was widely speculated that Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce firm, was going to invest big time in BigBasket, the hyperlocal grocery delivery company. There was even news of it seeking approval of the Competition Commission of India.

Amazon India, last week, announced a 44,000 sq.ft. digital imaging studio in Gurgaon. Called BLINK, it is the third in the world - after New York and London - and would churn out images for fashion products on its site.

Amazon's rapid rise and marketshare gains are making the competition run helter-skelter. Amazon's rise, in fact, coincided with the fall of Snapdeal, India's third-largest marketplace in an e-tailing industry worth $16 billion.

Start-ups go for drastic cost cuts as fund raising gets tougher.

Indian startups seem to be going through a rough patch. Unlike two years ago, when startups were flush with funds, the investors in 2016 have grown wary about startups and their sky-high valuations.

The investment momentum in Indian start-ups rocketed over the past five years. PE activity in 2015 touched an all-time high - investments totalled 1,049, over 600 of them in start-ups. The stars of Indian e-commerce became super stars.

With the growth of hyper local commerce on the web, the link between online discovery and physical commerce are becoming stronger, even as integrated marketing stays put.

Online grocery is hot. Hundreds of players have jumped in. Several hundred million dollars were invested in 2015 alone. But it has also been a graveyard for start-ups.

Kishore Biyani is now embarking on an ambitious omni-channel strategy that he hopes will allow him to fight his online rivals better.

The reborn Future group is banking on two big breaks from the past: one, it will depend heavily on white-label FMCG to offer the cheapest and best groceries in its shops. Second, to allow customers to shop from anywhere and take deliveries anywhere as well.