🥐 Food Rescue

Good morning. Fun fact - The UN Population Division forecasts that India will remain the world's most populous country in 2100, with a population of ~1.533B 🧑‍🍼 📈 

- Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 🥐 Food Rescue

• 🤖 India is an AI hub

• 🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

  • 🥥 Coconut vendor vs quick commerce

  • 🇺🇸 Birla Group continues investing in the US

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

• 🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

MARKETS

🇮🇳 India

• Indian equity indices ended marginally lower last Friday. The market decline was attributed to profit-booking in select stocks and global uncertainties. Key losers included Trent, Coal India, and Asian Paints. However, gains in M&M, Titan, and Tech Mahindra helped limit the overall market losses.

🌍️ International

• Green across board following Donald Trump's presidential victory.

FOOD SAFETY

🥐 Food Rescue

Zomato’s latest feature, Food Rescue, tackles food waste head-on by offering users discounted prices on cancelled orders.

Here’s what it does:

• With over 400,000 monthly cancellations, Food Rescue aims to prevent unnecessary waste while providing customers with affordable meal options.

• When an order is cancelled, users within a 3 km radius of the delivery partner receive a limited-time notification, allowing them to purchase the meal in its original packaging.

• To ensure quality, perishable items like ice creams and smoothies are excluded from this program.

The initiative also offers economic benefits, as proceeds are shared with original customers (when paid online) and restaurant partners, while delivery partners receive compensation for their trips.

 Food Rescue builds on Zomato’s recent features, including brand packs for restaurant discounts, a priority delivery option, and a pay-later feature, enhancing user experience across the platform.

Overall: These innovations are paying off financially, with Zomato reporting a 68% year-on-year increase in revenue, reaching ₹4,799 crore, alongside a profit of ₹176 crore.

With Food Rescue, Zomato addresses food waste and supports its partners and delivery personnel, aligning with consumers’ growing demand for sustainable practices. As awareness of food waste rises, features like Food Rescue could play a pivotal role in shaping the future of food delivery.

Read more: Economic Times

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

🤖 India is an AI hub

Morgan Stanley is actively seeking collaborations with Indian startups to boost its AI capabilities, recognising India as an emerging hub for AI innovation.

Here’s the TL;DR:

• In a recent interview, Sal Cucchiara, the bank’s Chief Information Officer for Wealth & Investment Management Technology, highlighted the impressive growth of Indian startups, noting how they have matured from simply developing solutions to effectively pitching them.

• The bank is engaging with promising startups identified during its annual CTO Innovation Summit, aiming to form early-stage partnerships that refine and bring innovative solutions to market.

• With over 8,000 tech professionals in India, Morgan Stanley taps into a significant talent pool through its global capability centres in Mumbai and Bengaluru, which together house about a third of its 24,000 technologists.

• Despite industry concerns about AI-induced job cuts, Cucchiara emphasised the rising demand for talent, with the bank anticipating a 10% growth in its technology team this year to meet global delivery needs.

Morgan Stanley has also introduced two notable AI tools—Assistant and Debrief—in collaboration with OpenAI.

• Assistant, launched in September 2023, helps financial advisors by streamlining tasks and accessing over 100,000 research reports, cutting administrative calls by 40%.

• Debrief aids in meeting documentation by taking notes, summarizing discussions, and transcribing conversations for storage in the firm’s client relationship management system.

While Morgan Stanley plans to expand its AI offerings, the current focus is on internal applications to improve operational efficiency in the highly regulated financial services sector.

Overall: With total client assets now exceeding $7.5 trillion, Morgan Stanley's strategic use of AI enhances productivity and strengthens its competitive position in the financial landscape.

The bank’s initiatives reflect India’s growing prominence as an AI hub and underscore its commitment to leveraging local talent and innovation to drive technological advancement.

Read more: Economic Times

GENERAL OVERVIEW

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

🥥 Coconut vendor vs quick commerce - A coconut vendor in Bengaluru has gained attention with a cheeky ad comparing his prices to those of popular quick-commerce platforms like Zepto, Blinkit, and BigBasket. While these apps charge Rs 70-80 per coconut, the vendor offers it for Rs 55. The ad, which went viral, sparked debate about price versus convenience. Some praised the vendor for his ingenuity, while others defended the higher-priced delivery services, valuing the convenience of home delivery. The conversation reflects ongoing discussions around the growing impact of quick-commerce in India, highlighting both community connection and the trade-off between cost and convenience.

🇺🇸 Birla Group continues investing in the US - Aditya Birla Group is planning to expand its investments in the U.S., encouraged by President Trump’s positive stance toward India and his pro-industry policies, according to Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. Current projects include a recycling and rolling plant in Alabama, set to open in the next fiscal year, and a $50 million manufacturing and R&D center in Texas. Birla expressed optimism based on Trump’s prior support for India and strong ties with Prime Minister Modi. The company remains focused on growth in the U.S., particularly in metals and chemicals, while continuing its turnaround efforts with Vodafone.

HEADLINES

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• Trump’s win cemented it: New media is leaving the Old Guard behind.

• FBI investigates racist text messages sent to black people across the US.

• Justice Department brings criminal charges in Iranian murder-for-hire plan targeting Donald Trump.

• Indian soldiers engaged in deadly gun battles with Kashmir rebels.

• Designated terrorist Arsh Dalla arrested by Canadian police after shooting incident, say sources.

CULTURE

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• Ram Charan and Kiara Advani’s Game Changer teaser out now.

• The Grammy nominations have been announced, and Beyoncé leads the way with 11 nods for her country album Cowboy Carter. This brings her total Grammy nominations to 99, setting a new record for the most nominations in Grammy history—11 ahead of her husband, Jay-Z.

• Zendaya and Anne Hathaway join Tom Holland in Christopher Nolan's new movie.

• Premier League: Arsenal draw Chelsea 1-1.