🛵 Swiggy’s growth spree

Good morning and happy Friyay. Hope you have a lovely weekend when it arrives.

Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 🛵 Swiggy’s growth spree

• 🧑‍⚕️ Trump tariffs may hit US healthcare where it hurts most: the wallet

• Bite-sized summaries

  • 💲Microsoft just entered the $4 trillion club

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

MARKETS

🇮🇳 India

• Stocks declined. Markets opened sharply lower after a US tariff announcement and remained volatile. Most sectors, including metals, pharma, and financials, ended in the red, while FMCG stocks like Hindustan Unilever outperformed. Broader indices also closed lower.

🌍️ International

• US stocks ended lower as early gains evaporated. Tech earnings were mixed: Microsoft and Meta rose, but semiconductor stocks dragged on the market. Investors turned cautious ahead of new tariff deadlines and Friday’s jobs report.

QUICK COMMERCE

🛵 Swiggy’s growth spree

Swiggy just dropped its Q1 FY26 results - and it's a classic tech startup cocktail: booming revenue, ballooning losses, and a bold bet on the future.

Let’s unpack the headline:

• Swiggy’s revenue jumped 54% year-on-year to ₹4,961 crore.

• That’s serious growth, driven by food delivery, Instamart (its quick commerce arm), and a rising logistics play.

• But there’s a catch: net losses more than doubled to ₹1,197 crore.

• Why? Because scale isn’t cheap.

The cost of convenience is stacking up. Swiggy spent ₹1,313 crore on delivery logistics and another ₹1,036 crore on ads and promotions. Toss in rising employee costs and platform innovation experiments, and you’ve got total expenses jumping 60% to ₹6,244 crore. That’s how you end up with a negative EBITDA margin, even with a soaring topline.

What’s working?

• Traditional food delivery. It brought in ₹1,799 crore and actually posted a ₹202 crore segment profit.

• But the Instamart-led quick commerce business continues to burn - bringing in ₹806 crore while losing ₹797 crore.

So, what’s the big picture? Swiggy is transitioning from a pure-play food delivery app into a full-stack convenience platform. Think groceries, logistics, events, and experimental verticals. The bet? Lock in users and build a lifestyle ecosystem before competition catches up.

The broader implication: we’re watching Indian consumer tech grow up. Profitability is still a distant goal, but Swiggy’s making a clear play for market dominance. For investors and users alike, this is a long game - and the tab’s still open.

Read more: Economic Times

TARIFFS

 🧑‍⚕️ Trump tariffs may hit US healthcare where it hurts most: the wallet

Starting August 1, the US will slap a 25% tariff — plus a mystery penalty — on all Indian imports. President Trump says it’s payback for India’s deals with Russia. But the ripple effects could land right in American hospitals and pharmacies.

India supplies nearly half of the US’s generic drugs. It’s not just a trading partner — it’s a pillar of affordable healthcare. Experts warn that the new tariffs could hike drug prices, delay treatments, and strain already-bloated healthcare budgets in the US. Back in India, pharma companies may see profits shrink and R&D slow to a crawl.

The medical devices sector sees a silver lining, though. If Indian goods are taxed at 25% and Chinese goods go back up to 50%, India may gain export ground — as long as it can compete with lower-cost producers like Vietnam and Indonesia. But that’s a big "if," especially with FDA regulatory costs and a 6% duty disadvantage to overcome.

Industry voices are calling the move short-sighted and economically risky. With bilateral trade talks still ongoing, there’s hope this tariff war will be short-lived. But for now, the headlines point to uncertainty — and potentially pricier prescriptions.

The takeaway? When geopolitics meets healthcare supply chains, no one wins — not even the world’s biggest economy.

Read more: Economic Times

GENERAL OVERVIEW

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

💲Microsoft just entered the $4 trillion club - On July 31, 2025, shares surged after a blowout quarterly report - revenue jumped 18% to $76.4 billion, net income climbed 24%, and Azure’s annualized revenue crossed $75 billion for the first time. The stock rose roughly 7% at the open, trading around $539 per share, pushing Microsoft’s market cap past $4 trillion making it only the second public company ever to do so, after Nvidia.

The news helped push the Nasdaq and S&P 500 to record highs, with Meta also rallying 11–12% on strong AI-driven ad performance. The market’s love affair with the so-called “AI trinity” of Microsoft, Nvidia, and Meta continues to grow.

As the AI wave lifts all boats, investors are now watching Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta as potential candidates to join the $4 trillion club assuming their artificial intelligence bets keep paying off.

HEADLINES

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• Construction of 5.3-km road connecting Dwarka Expressway to Manesar to begin soon.

• Steel industry has few players as most struggle to survive: Tata Steel MD TV Narendran.

• Pharma major Eli Lilly claims its weight loss drug reduces cardiovascular risks in Type 2 diabetes patients.