💳️ New UPI in the arena

Good morning. Mid-week through the week, keep it going 💪 

Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•  💳️ New UPI in the arena

•  🤖 AI meets sustainability in India

• 🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

  • 📈 A positive IPO

  • 📜 Indian Patents

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

• 🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

MARKETS

🇮🇳 India

• Indian equities ended nearly flat after a volatile session, with IT stocks leading gains while metal and pharma sectors lagged. Reliance Industries was the top gainer among Sensex constituents, rising 2.26%, while broader indices like the Nifty MidCap100 and SmallCap100 also posted modest gains.

🌍️ International

• US stocks extended their winning streak for a sixth consecutive session, buoyed by optimism over progress in trade talks and strong corporate earnings. Investors focused on upcoming tech earnings and potential tariff relief, while after-hours trading saw notable declines in Snap and Starbucks following disappointing results.

EV

 💳️ New UPI in the arena

India’s UPI space, long dominated by PhonePe and Google Pay, is seeing a fresh wave of challengers - Super.Money, Navi, Cred, and even government-backed BHIM—quietly carving out market share with aggressive cashback offers and innovative service bundles.

According to NPCI data, these new entrants have nearly doubled their collective share from 2.3% in October 2024 to 4% by March 2025, signaling a shift in the digital payments landscape. While still small compared to PhonePe’s 47% and Google Pay’s 35%, their rise is noteworthy in a market with over 200 million active users and daily transaction volumes crossing 550 million.

These apps are going beyond basic payments. Navi is embedding UPI into its lending products, Cred is expanding bill payments and loans, while Super.Money is linking payments to Flipkart’s ecommerce engine. UPI, for them, is a user acquisition tool - designed to feed broader, revenue-generating fintech services.

The key weapon? Incentives. Super.Money offers up to 5% cashback on every UPI transaction. Navi has bundled payments with “rewarding” experiences like buy-now-pay-later. Even BHIM has budgeted cashbacks to reach the next 100–150 million users.

But this growth is expensive. With the government slashing UPI subsidies to ₹1,500 crore and limiting them to small merchants, fintechs can’t rely on external support. Experts warn that UPI doesn’t generate direct revenue; it only makes sense if companies can cross-sell high-margin services.

Meanwhile, Paytm has maintained a modest 6.5–7% share but is shifting focus to merchant payments amid tighter financial constraints. Industry insiders also note that some of the recent UPI surge—March clocked 18.3 billion transactions—is tied to gaming and betting activity during IPL season, a space where newer apps have seen traction.

Overall: The NPCI is encouraging competition, but with high burn rates and market saturation, it remains to be seen whether these emerging players can sustain growth—or if the giants will strike back.

Read more: Economic Times

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 🤖 AI meets sustainability in India

Indian business leaders are rapidly embracing artificial intelligence (AI) not just for efficiency, but as a tool for driving sustainability—and they’re outpacing global peers in doing so. According to Autodesk’s latest State of Design & Make report, over 50% of Indian companies are already using AI to achieve environmentally responsible outcomes, well above the global average of 39%.

This momentum reflects a deeper shift: sustainability is no longer viewed as a compliance obligation but as a strategic growth driver. A striking 86% of Indian executives believe sustainability initiatives could add more than 5% to their annual revenue. Among digitally mature firms, these efforts are also seen as key to attracting and retaining talent.

Optimism about AI runs high in India. Nearly 80% of business leaders believe AI will enhance their industry—a sentiment stronger than in most global regions. Yet, 61% also acknowledge AI’s potential to disrupt their sector, underlining the need for adaptability and responsible deployment.

However, the path forward isn’t without hurdles. A severe talent shortage threatens to slow progress. Two-thirds of Indian leaders report that a lack of skilled professionals is limiting innovation, and nearly 70% struggle to find candidates with the technical skills needed to work effectively with AI. In some cases, companies have even let go of employees whose skills couldn’t keep pace with evolving demands.

To close this gap, 78% of businesses plan to ramp up investments in digital skills training over the next three years. The top hiring priority? AI fluency.

Overall: While trust in AI remains relatively strong, confidence in companies’ ability to make the right decisions with the technology has dipped slightly—from 85% to 81% since last year—mirroring broader regional concerns about the disruptive power of AI.

Still, with nearly 80% of Indian firms set to increase their AI investments, the commitment to long-term innovation is clear. The challenge now lies in building the talent and trust needed to turn that vision into reality.

Read more: Economic Times

GENERAL OVERVIEW

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

📈 A positive IPO - Ather Energy’s IPO opened on April 28, 2025, with 16% of its 53 million shares subscribed on the first day. Retail investors subscribed 0.63 times, non-institutional investors 0.16 times, and qualified institutional buyers bid for just 5,060 shares. However, the employee portion saw 1.78 times subscription. The IPO includes a fresh issue of ₹2,626 crore and an offer for sale of 11 million shares, closing on April 30. Ather raised ₹1,340 crore from anchor investors like SBI and ADIA. Early backers like Tiger Global may earn up to 8.3x returns. Over 1,300 employees may benefit from ₹530 crore in ESOP value.

📜 Indian Patents - The U.S. has once again placed India on its 'Priority Watch List' in the 2025 Special 301 report, citing ongoing concerns over weak enforcement and protection of intellectual property (IP) rights. Key issues include long patent processing times, vague interpretations of the Indian Patents Act, and the risk of patent revocations. Despite India's efforts to improve IP awareness and systems, enforcement remains inadequate. High customs duties on IP-intensive goods also drew criticism. India is one of eight countries on the list, alongside China and Russia. The U.S. plans to continue engagement through its IP working group under the Trade Policy Forum.

HEADLINES

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• YouTube appoints Gunjan Soni as new India managing director.

• Electronics parts PLI draws in Dixon, Tatas, Foxconn and others.

• Extreme monsoon from global warming may lead to dip in sea fish catch.

• India's growth outlook at risk from trade tensions and geopolitical risks: Finance Ministry.

• Urban Company founders sell Rs 780 crore worth of shares through multiple pre-IPO secondary deals.

CULTURE

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• Deepika Padukone joins Shah Rukh Khan's King.

• Family Man 3 Actor Rohit Basfore dies in a drowning accident.

• IPL 2025: 

  • KKR beat DC by 14 runs. Leaderboard here.