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Good morning. If you're feeling the Monday Blues, take comfort in knowing that you're not feeling as low as those who forgot Mother's Day over the weekend.

You have a whole year to do better.

- Ruchrngd Sharma & Shatakshi Sharma

📊 Markets

🇮🇳 India

• Sensex and Nifty rose, driven by market heavyweights Reliance Industries, ITC, and Bharti Airtel, and positive global cues. Power Grid, NTPC, JSW Steel, and Asian Paints led contributions, while Tata Consultancy Services, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Infosys lagged. Asian and European markets gained, and Brent crude rose to USD 84.22 a barrel.

🌍️ International

• Friday saw minor gains in the S&P 500 and Dow Jones, while Nasdaq stayed steady. An inflation expectation rise trimmed early gains. However, stocks rebounded from April's downturn due to anticipated Federal Reserve rate cuts. Treasury yields increased slightly, gold rose nearly 3% this week, and copper continued its 7-week rise.

💐 A Mother’s Day to remember

Mother's Day turned out to be a blockbuster for major food delivery and quick commerce platforms in India, like Zomato, Swiggy Instamart, and Blinkit.

Demand for gift items like flowers, chocolates, handbags, and more exceeded the peaks seen on major events like New Year's Eve.

Here’s the TL;DR:

• Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal revealed Mother's Day order volumes were "much higher" than New Year's Eve for the first time. 

• Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa shared that sales of handbags, smartwatches, jewellery, and fresh flower bouquets saw massive spikes compared to occasions like Valentine's Day.

• Over at Swiggy Instamart, CEO Phani Kishan reported they were on track for their highest-ever orders, beating out not just New Year's Eve but also V-Day and Holi this year.

• The most popular Mother's Day orders varied by city - roses topped the charts in Bangalore and Mumbai, while Delhi preferred chocolates and Hyderabad gifted plants.

Why is this important? 

• The impressive numbers showcase how Mother's Day has evolved into a major commercial opportunity for e-commerce firms to drive sales of gifting items. 

• With well-timed offerings and seamless quick commerce logistics, Zomato and Swiggy were able to facilitate celebrations and capture demand across metros.

Overall: As consumer behaviour evolves, industry leaders will likely double down on such occasions and opportunities in the coming years. Mother's Day 2024 may have set a new benchmark for peak sales events in the on-demand economy.

Read more: Economic Times

🧑‍🌾 Farming AI

The Uttar Pradesh government is teaming up with the agriculture sector to amplify agri startups and incorporate AI into farming methods.

Their objective? To strengthen the rural economy and foster "smart farming."

Here’s their strategy:

• Their main initiative is the 'Krishi Bharat' global farmers' summit in November 2024, which is being organised in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). This four-day event in Lucknow will welcome farmer delegations and agri experts from various countries, including the US, Germany, Brazil, Italy, and Kenya.

• The summit aspires to be the equivalent of the UP Global Investors Summit held in 2023, which attracted over ₹40T in investment proposals. The event will accommodate agri startups, foreign companies, and venture capitalists interested in India's agriculture value chain.

• Besides showcasing innovations, the UP government intends to promote knowledge exchange by sending progressive local farmers overseas to learn from best practices. They will also arrange "agri tourism" field trips for foreign delegates.

Overall: UP, with 85% of its land under cultivation, is a major agriculture producer but falls short in yields and food processing. The government plans to address policy issues and upgrade technology, including AI applications, to increase farm earnings and cut waste.

These steps indicate UP's commitment to revolutionising its agricultural ecosystem in the forthcoming years through startups, international partnerships, and advanced technologies like AI.

Read more: Business Standard

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

🏦 India’s version of JP Morgan? - Raamdeo Agrawal, Chairman of Motilal Oswal, predicts a surge in India's financial markets over the next decade. He believes India's savings will grow from around $10-12T in the last 25 years to $100-150T in the next 25 years, reaching $5-6T per year within 10-12 years. This massive growth in savings will lead to the birth of financial giants in India comparable to Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan. Agrawal sees the financial services sector, including asset management companies, brokerages, wealth managers, and intermediaries, as a major multi-year investment theme benefiting from rising equity penetration and the shift from fixed income to equity investments.

🤖 Hanooman - 3AI Holding Limited and SML India have unveiled Hanooman, a new multilingual generative AI platform designed specifically for the Indian market. Hanooman supports 98 global languages including 12 Indian languages, aiming to make AI accessible to the 80% of Indians who don't use English. The AI system can handle tasks from casual conversations to professional advice across sectors like healthcare, finance, and education. The companies plan to introduce a premium subscription model later and are targeting 200 million Indian users in the first year through strategic partnerships with technology firms, the Government of Telangana, and by leveraging Yotta's GPU cloud infrastructure.

💾 Softbank pivots to AI chips - SoftBank's Vision Fund is selling off or writing down billions of dollars worth of its publicly-listed holdings as founder Masayoshi Son shifts focus away from venture capital deals toward strategic investments in artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The Vision Fund has seen its U.S.-listed portfolio shrink by nearly $29B since late 2021 through stake sales in companies like Coupang, DoorDash, and Grab as well as declining share prices. Son is exploring ambitious new projects like bankrolling a $100B chip venture to compete with Nvidia in supplying AI semiconductors.

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

What’s happening in India (and around the world 🌍️)

• Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal snaps ties with Microsoft Azure in stand against Western tech.

• FMCG companies to see muted demand in June quarter, recovery likely in H2.

• China surpasses the US to become India’s biggest trading partner.

• Hero MotoCorp commences deliveries of VIDA V1 electric scooter.

• Mahindra & Mahindra partners with MSDE to skill women to become drone pilots.

• Zeta launches software stack for UPI credit line.

• Groww moves domicile from US to Bengaluru, CEO says 'We're now completely based in India.'

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• IPL weekend roundup:

  • GT won by 35 runs against CSK;

  • KKR won by 18 runs against MI;

  • CSK won by 5 wickets against RR;

  • RCB won by 47 runs against DC; and

  • No changes in the top 3 since last week: KKR leads, RR and CSK follow in second and third place respectively. IPL leaderboard here.

• Kylian Mbappe announces his departure from Paris Saint-Germain.

• Novak Djokovic suffers Rome Open elimination falling to Alejandro Tabilo in a 6-2, 6-3 defeat.

• Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao's Mr And Mrs Mahi trailer is out.

• Srikanth Review: aided by Rajkummar Rao's skilful performance and exceptional support from Jyothika and Sharad Kelkar, this biopic hits the mark - example review.

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a thrilling addition to the series - example review.