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Good morning. Tennis legend Roger Federer delivered an inspiring and viral graduation speech at Dartmouth University, drawing parallels between the graduates' transitions and his own recent retirement from professional tennis.

He shared three key "tennis lessons" for life - that "effortless" is a myth requiring hard work, to move on from setbacks as "it's only a point," and that life is bigger than any single endeavour.

His speech resonated for its authentic advice about overcoming doubts, negative energy, and the uncertainty of major life changes.

Feddy post retirement continues to keep winning.

You can watch the full speech here 🎾 🏃‍♂️ 

- Ruchrngd Sharma & Shatakshi Sharma  

🧵 In today’s issue:

• 📊 Markets recap

• 🏭️ Fab plants

• 📈 Indian GDP

• 🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

  • Deepika Padukone x Business

  • Another round of layoffs

  • Apple teams up with OpenAI

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’? (quick links)

• 🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

📊 Markets

🇮🇳 India

• Indian markets ended a three-day win streak on Monday due to losses in IT stocks and key shares such as HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, and Bajaj Finance. Despite record highs, Sensex and Nifty closed down. Top laggards included Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and Wipro. However, midcap, smallcap, and Nifty Media indices gained.

🌍️ International

• U.S. futures fell as investors await key inflation data and the Fed meeting. Rate cut expectations decreased after a strong jobs report. Attention is on May's CPI and Wednesday's Fed meeting, with stable rates expected. Other data including the PPI and consumer sentiment are due this week. Tech stock Nvidia felt pressure post-split, while Southwest Airlines rose on reports of activist investor interest.

🏭️ Fab plants

Zoho Corp., the Chennai-based software company, has applied for a license to build a compound semiconductor fabrication plant (fab) in India. 

Here’s the TL;DR: 

• The company has earmarked $200M for this project, which could attract a net investment of around $600M. 

• Zoho plans to involve a technology partner, likely Scotland-headquartered Clas-SiC, for licensing the technology to manufacture Silicon carbide (SiC) chips in Tamil Nadu.

Why now? 

• SiC chips are used in various industrial applications, including electric vehicles (EVs). 

• This semiconductor initiative is likely linked to Zoho's earlier plans to invest in advanced chemistry cells – the core component of batteries used in electronics and EVs. 

• The Indian government's semiconductor and display manufacturing program provides fiscal support of up to 50% of the capital expenditure for compound semiconductor fabrications.

Apart from venturing into semiconductors, Zoho has also announced a revamp of its primary revenue source, Zoho CRM, amid slower growth in the key US market. The updates include AI-powered CRM analytics and support for businesses to use open-source AI models. Zoho aims to undercut established enterprise tech companies like ServiceNow and Salesforce with its new CRM for Everyone suite.

Overall: While Zoho is integrating AI into its CRM suite, it prefers contextual integration rather than a broad-based approach. 

The company is working on developing its own AI security models to ramp up data security and allow customers to refine and create their own models, ensuring complete data privacy.

Read more: Mint

📈 Indian GDP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP campaigned on India's impressive economic growth in the recent national elections. 

However, the BJP's weaker-than-expected performance, winning 240 seats, has now been attributed to a new reason - high unemployment and inflation rates.

Here’s the tea: 

• Despite India's GDP growth hitting 8.4% in the last financial year, nearly half of the population is still employed in the unproductive agricultural sector. 

• Youth unemployment remains alarmingly high at around 10 times the adult rate. 

• Experts believe Modi's third term will require an ambitious economic agenda that will uplift the poorer sections and create jobs beyond building infrastructure.

What’s happening? 

• While the "Make in India" drive aimed to boost manufacturing, it has largely failed to create jobs for the agriculture workforce due to a focus on less labour-intensive sectors like electronics. 

• Plus, the lack of major reforms in land and labour laws has also hindered manufacturing investments.

Overall: The BJP's reliance on coalition partners could now help push through such reforms that benefit all voters. However, experts argue that sustainable growth hinges more on improving human capital and education levels to equip the workforce for India's growing services sectors.

Economists say reviving private investment holds the key. Excessive central planning has created policy risks that deter investments. 

Their solve? A coalition setup with more checks and balances could help address such issues and create conducive conditions for private investments to drive economic growth and job creation.

Read more: Aljazeera

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

🕴️ Deepika Padukone x Business - Deepika Padukone's DTC personal care startup 82°E, co-founded with Jigar Shah, aims to raise Rs 50 Cr (around $6M) from new and existing investors like Ka Enterprises. The Mumbai-based brand offers skincare products for men and women, previously raising $7.5 million from investors like DSG Consumer Partners and Ideo Ventures. This fresh funding will fuel expansion in India's booming $30 billion beauty market, which is seeing a rise of celebrity-led brands like Padukone's 82°E as well as offerings from other Bollywood stars like Anushka Sharma's Nush. The startup posted Rs 10.4 crore revenue in FY23, its first full fiscal year.

💳️ Another round of layoffs - Paytm has laid off an undisclosed number of employees as part of a restructuring process following significant challenges like the Reserve Bank of India's ban on Paytm Payments Bank services. While not revealing the exact count, Paytm is providing outplacement support and collaborating with over 30 hiring companies to facilitate immediate job transitions. The layoffs come after Paytm's sales workforce dropped by around 3,500 in the March 2024 quarter due to the RBI's prohibition on accepting deposits, credit transactions, or top-ups. Paytm stated it will continue investing in technology and financial services while ensuring fairness by disbursing due bonuses amid streamlining operations and enhancing cost efficiencies.

🍎 Apple teams up with OpenAI - Apple announced a major partnership with OpenAI to integrate the powerful ChatGPT language model into its devices and software ecosystem. At its annual developer conference, Apple unveiled "Apple Intelligence" - a suite of generative AI features powered by its large language models as well as ChatGPT. These include an enhanced Siri assistant with more natural conversation abilities by tapping into ChatGPT's language skills. Apple emphasized its AI efforts will prioritize user privacy by running the AI models locally on devices and its servers rather than sending data to the cloud. The moves aim to help Apple catch up to rivals like Google and Microsoft in offering advanced AI capabilities.

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• India is not really China yet, economist says.

• A big decision for Boeing’s next C.E.O.: Is it time for a new plane?

• PwC asks for silence from departing staff in programme of UK job cuts.

• India oil minister Hardeep Puri reappointed in new Modi cabinet.

• UK PM Rishi Sunak: I have not considered resigning.

• 'Unfortunate': Air India Express union on chargesheet against cabin crew.

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• T20 World Cup - South Africa beats Bangladesh by 4 runs.

• Jannik Sinner says a "new chapter is starting" in his career after he became the first Italian to top the world rankings in tennis.

• Roger Federer shines during his Dartmouth commencement speech.

• Kalki 1898 AD, featuring a stellar cast including Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Hassan and Disha Patani, has released its trailer. Read the reviews here.