🛒 Small-town sales

Good morning and Happy Friday. Have a great weekend when it arrives 🫡 

Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 🤖 India’s AI startups are climbing the vertical ladder

• 🛒 India’s festive sales are going small-town big

• 🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

  • 📈 JPMorgan may cut India, China weight in key EM Bond Index

  • 🤑 The leader in payments

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

🤖 India’s AI startups are climbing the vertical ladder

General-purpose AI is no longer the moat.

The next gold rush is vertical - and Indian startups are in pole position.

According to a new report by AI accelerator Upekkha, global spending on vertical AI (read: domain-specific solutions for industries like finance, healthcare, and logistics) is set to grow from $5 billion today to $47 billion by 2030. And Indian startups are uniquely equipped to ride that wave.

Why?

• For starters, India’s two-decade head start in IT services has created a deep talent pool - over 100,000 engineers who get how American enterprises operate and also understand Indian execution realities.

• This cross-border fluency is a rare and powerful edge.

Plus, Indian founders are building these vertical AI platforms at a fraction of Silicon Valley’s cost, with a go-to-market mindset already wired for scale. Think Bay Area brains meets Bengaluru budgets.

As AI adoption picks up globally and compute costs drop, companies are finally seeing the value in automating end-to-end workflows tailored to specific industries. That’s where vertical AI shines—solving real, unsexy, workflow problems instead of chasing chatbot hype.

The big picture - India isn’t just a back office anymore. It’s becoming the launchpad for a new generation of AI companies that aren’t trying to be the next OpenAI—but rather the first great AI-for-finance, AI-for-logistics, or AI-for-energy company. The $10 billion AI outcome won’t be one-size-fits-all. It’ll be vertical—and Indian startups are already on the climb.

Read more: Economic Times

HOLIDAYS

🛒 India’s festive sales are going small-town big

India’s ecommerce giants are making a big bet on small towns this festive season.

• With sales in metros plateauing and inflation pinching urban wallets, platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho are shifting gears to tier-2, -3, and even -4 cities.

  • Think Surat, Madurai, Dehradun, and Puri - places once overlooked, now poised to drive growth during the July-to-December shopping blitz.

• Amazon alone is adding 30+ delivery stations in cities like Panchkula, Mohali, and Howrah to tap rising demand for jewellery, electronics, and apparel.

• Meesho Mall is tying up with FMCG giants like HUL and Tata Consumer to offer daily-use essentials.

• And Nykaa is going hyperlocal - partnering with regional influencers and dishing out 50% festive discounts to win over new beauty buyers.

What’s fueling this push? 

• A mix of rising disposable incomes, better internet access, and a smartphone boom.

• A report by Anarock Property Consultants predicts that by 2030, small cities and towns will account for 65% of India’s online shopping - up from 35% now.

Even premium smartphones are seeing a small-town surge: over 70% of demand came from non-metro cities last year, according to Counterpoint Research.

Overall - Festive season 2025 isn’t just about Diwali deals in Delhi or Mumbai anymore. It’s about smartphones in Siliguri, ACs in Ajmer, and lipsticks in Ludhiana. With tier-1 markets hitting saturation, India’s ecommerce future is getting decidedly grassroots.

Read more: Economic Times

GENERAL OVERVIEW

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

📈 JPMorgan may cut India, China weight in key EM Bond Index - JPMorgan is considering reducing the country cap in its GBI-EM Global Diversified Index from 10% to 8.5%, which could lower the weight of China and India while boosting smaller emerging markets. The move aims to diversify exposure and raise the index’s average yield by increasing representation of higher-yielding, riskier markets. The index, tracked by over $200 billion in funds, plays a major role in shaping global investment flows. If adopted, countries like Brazil, South Africa, and Colombia could gain, while top issuers like India, China, Indonesia, and Mexico would see reduced weight. No final decision has been made yet.

🤑 The leader in payments - India now leads the world in fast payments, thanks to the rapid growth of UPI, according to an IMF note. Since its 2016 launch, UPI has become the largest retail fast payment system by volume, processing over 18 billion transactions monthly. The system’s interoperability has driven digital payment adoption and reduced reliance on cash, as seen in declining ATM withdrawals. The IMF highlights that such platforms can significantly boost financial inclusion. It also urges policymakers to ensure continued openness and competition in the ecosystem as private players grow, warning against monopolistic risks that could hinder innovation and accessibility.

HEADLINES

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• White House accuses Powell of mismanaging Federal Reserve, citing headquarters renovation.

• Space startup Varda raises $187 million in funding to make drugs in orbit.

• How Jane Street co-founder landed in a coup controvesy.

• It's official. Indian immigrants do make US richer.