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Good morning. While everyone is talking about OpenAI’s Spring Update, we want to bring your attention to the return of Nokia’s iconic 3210 classic.

• TikTok ❌ 

• Instagram ❌ 

• 5G ❌ 

• Snake ✅ 

• News ✅ 

• Weather ✅ 

• YouTube shorts ✅ (slightly defeats the purpose, but we’ll let it slide)

The key: reconnect with reality ✅ 

- Ruchrngd Sharma & Shatakshi Sharma

📊 Markets

🇮🇳 India

• Markets recovered in intraday trade on Monday, with gains in Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, TCS, and Axis Bank. However, losses were seen in Tata Motors, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Titan, and Nestle India. The BSE MidCap index gained 0.36%, while the BSE SmallCap fell 0.23%. The Nifty Auto and PSU Bank indices slipped over 1 per cent each, while the Nifty Pharma rose 1.77 per cent.

🌍️ International

• Stock futures steadied as Wall Street anticipated inflation reports. Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 futures saw minor losses. Rising inflation expectations were reported by the New York Federal Reserve. Indices are near highs due to optimism from Federal Reserve Chair Powell's comments on no immediate rate hike despite inflation. However, divergent economic views risk investors expecting rate cuts before downturns.

🤖 Bharti Airtel teams up with Google

Bharti Airtel recently announced an extensive collaboration with Google Cloud to provide cloud and GenAI solutions to businesses within India.

Their goal? To meet the demands of the growing Indian public cloud services market, which is projected to reach ₹1.5 lakh Cr ($17.8B) by 2027, as per IDC.

Here are some deal points: 

• As part of this collaboration, Airtel will utilise Google Cloud's GenAI capabilities to enhance customer experiences across its mobile, broadband, and digital television services.

• These capabilities will be extended to Airtel's business-to-business customers in India and worldwide.

• The companies will provide a suite of advanced cloud solutions from Google Cloud to expedite cloud adoption and modernisation for Airtel's customers.

• In exchange, Airtel will offer various cloud-managed services to its expansive customer base, including over 2,000 large enterprises and one million emerging businesses.

• In addition, Airtel and Google Cloud will develop AI/ML solutions using Airtel's extensive data sets.

These solutions will incorporate technologies in location intelligence, voice analytics, and market analytics, providing advanced capabilities such as predictive modelling, consumer behaviour forecasting, and contextual advertising.

What’s next? To help with this effort, Airtel has established a managed services centre in Pune to bolster its cloud solutions business, housing over 300 specialists trained in Google Cloud services.

Overall: Leveraging their customer base and Google Cloud's technologies, Airtel aims to deliver custom cloud and GenAI solutions to Indian enterprises.

This partnership, complete with a dedicated service centre and an emphasis on innovation, empowers businesses to harness cloud computing and AI, facilitating growth and efficiency within India's dynamic digital landscape.

Read more: Business Standard

🚢 Shipping Ports

India has been developing part of the Chabahar port on Iran's southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman for some time.

Why? To transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asian countries, bypassing the Pakistani ports of Karachi and Gwadar.

However, U.S. sanctions on Iran have hindered the development of the port.

But now, after years of effort, India is expecting to secure a "long-term arrangement" for managing the strategically significant Chabahar port, according to Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.

• Jaishankar said that this long-term arrangement would enable larger investments in the port.

• He also noted that Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is likely to witness the signing of a "crucial contract" during his visit, which would ensure a long-term lease of the port to India.

Overall: Reports suggest that the contract will likely last ten years and give India management control over part of the Chabahar port.

Plus, this long-term arrangement with Iran would strengthen India's presence in the region and facilitate smoother trade and connectivity with key partners.

Read more: Reuters

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

😺 Roaring Kitty meows back to life - Shares of GameStop soared in Monday's trading session, fuelled by the return of "Roaring Kitty" - the account behind the company's infamous Reddit-driven surge in 2020. Roaring Kitty's first post on X since 2021, depicting a "locking in" meme, has been viewed over 10.5 million times and reignited excitement around the "meme stock" trade. While risky given GameStop's volatile stock movements, the rally signals real money investors like institutional traders are now paying attention to meme sentiment indicators alongside fundamentals. GameStop's surge revives memories of the 2021 meme stock frenzy and highlights how self-aware speculation has become an enduring feature of today's markets.

🤖 OpenAI’s exciting announcements - OpenAI launched GPT-4o, a faster and cheaper version of the AI model powering its chatbot ChatGPT. The updated model combines text, audio and vision capabilities into a single system allowing more seamless and real-time interactions. GPT-4o can handle speech-to-speech translation, respond to voice commands with audio outputs, recall past conversations, and search the web - features previously limited to paid subscribers. With AI models rapidly advancing across companies, the release aims to help OpenAI maintain its lead in the generative AI space while providing a more immersive, human-like conversational experience.

🛫 Air India - Vistara merger almost complete - The merger between Air India and Vistara is progressing ahead of schedule, with plans to integrate over 7,000 employees starting in June this year. Most regulatory approvals have been secured, including nods from competition watchdogs in India and Singapore, while the final order from the National Company Law Tribunal is awaited. With operational harmonisation proceeding smoothly, including an integrated pilot upgrade sequence, the merged entity aims to finalise the consolidation by the end of 2024, creating a full-service carrier under Air India and a low-cost airline through Air India Express.

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• Japanese firm CEO relocates to Bengaluru to understand the culture, says 'World needs Indian leadership.'

• Zomato's FY24 net profit rose to ₹175 crore, with revenue up by 73.2% YoY.

• Canara Bank officer caught abusing junior employees over targets, says, "I don't care about your family"

• Infosys and Formula E strike a new partnership to enable next-gen fan experiences powered by AI and digital innovations.

• Lok Sabha Elections: Phase 4 sees over 66% voting; record 38% turnout in Srinagar.

• 4.8%: Indian retail inflation hits 11-month low.

• Melinda French Gates resigns as Gates Foundation co-chair, 3 years after divorce

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• The match between GT and KKR was abandoned due to rain. No change in the IPL leaderboard.

• Tabu bags a coveted role in the Max prequel series: “Dune: Prophecy.”

• At Cannes, Indian filmmakers show there is more than just Bollywood.

• Aston Villa and Liverpool draw 3-3 in the Premier League.

• Fitness tracker, Whoop, signs Cristian Ronaldo as an investor and global ambassador.