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- 🤖 The Free AI Trap
Good morning. It’s a new day - let’s go after it 💪
Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bite-sized summaries
🧑🍳 What else is cookin’?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Big AI has discovered its next big playground - India - and it’s giving away the good stuff for free.
Over the past few months, AI giants have been dangling their premium tools like candy. Airtel teamed up with Perplexity to hand out a year of its Pro version (worth ₹17,000), Jio partnered with Google to offer 18 months of Gemini Pro (worth ₹35,000), and OpenAI joined in with its own free premium plan. The pitch? “Democratising access.” The reality? A well-worn tech tactic: hook users with freebies, then lock them in when the bills arrive.
It’s the same playbook that Jio used with free data and quick commerce firms used with 10-minute deliveries — create a habit first, monetize later. But the question is whether Indians, most of whom already have access to free AI tools, will see enough value to eventually pay.
There’s another motive at play. India isn’t just a market, it’s a massive data goldmine — hundreds of millions of users generating rich, multilingual data perfect for training AI models. With China’s market locked down, India is the next frontier.
Critics warn this could repeat a familiar story: foreign platforms dominate early, local innovation lags behind. Just as India’s Google is Google and India’s WhatsApp is WhatsApp, its AI future could soon be foreign-built too.
The freebies may feel empowering today. Tomorrow, they could decide who really owns India’s AI future.
Read more: Economic Times
IPO
The buzz around Lenskart’s much-awaited IPO debut just went out of focus. The eyewear giant’s grey market premium (GMP) — once as high as ₹108, hinting at a 25% listing gain — has now crashed to zero, wiping out all pre-listing excitement ahead of Monday’s debut.
Despite a blockbuster ₹7,278 crore IPO that drew bids worth nearly ₹1 lakh crore and was subscribed 28 times, the mood has cooled sharply. The culprit? Valuation worries. At ₹402 a share, Lenskart is priced at over 50x FY25 EV/EBITDA, far richer than peers like Trent or Nykaa.
Ambit Capital poured more cold water on expectations with a “Sell” rating and a ₹337 target price, calling out “stretched valuations and modest returns.” Even though revenues jumped 32.5% to ₹6,653 crore in FY25, much of its ₹297 crore profit came from a one-time gain on its Owndays acquisition — pushing real margins below 2%.
Analysts say the long-term story still holds promise: India’s eyewear market remains massively underpenetrated, and Lenskart’s omnichannel play gives it a solid edge. But for now, the IPO frenzy seems to have lost its shine. Monday’s listing could prove whether investors still see Lenskart as a clear buy — or just another case of blurred vision.
Read more: Economic Times
GENERAL OVERVIEW
🗞️ Bite-sized summaries
🏘️ Home prices keep climbing - Housing prices across India’s top metros rose 7–19% year-on-year in July–September 2025, led by Delhi-NCR (19%), Bengaluru (15%), and Hyderabad (13%), according to PropTiger.com. The surge is driven by premium housing demand, higher input costs, and limited ready-to-move inventory. Despite a 1% dip in home sales volume, the total transaction value jumped 14% to ₹1.52 lakh crore, signaling a shift toward luxury housing. Developers launched 91,807 new units, with Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad accounting for nearly 60% of new supply. Experts say India’s urban housing market is becoming more aspirational and resilient, fuelled by tech growth and lifestyle-focused buyers.
🇮🇳 Salesforce doubles down on India - Salesforce plans to ramp up investments and hiring in India, calling the country its second-largest market after the U.S. The cloud and CRM giant now operates across six Indian cities, with $1 billion in annual revenue and a 13,000-strong workforce, up fivefold since 2020. Executive VP Arun Kumar Parameswaran said India’s deep talent pool drives the company’s growth and innovation. Salesforce expects global revenues to top $41 billion in FY26. South Asia CEO Arundhati Bhattacharya highlighted BFSI, retail, manufacturing, and healthcare as key growth engines, while reaffirming Salesforce’s commitment to ethical AI and data privacy as adoption accelerates across Indian enterprises.
HEADLINES
🧑🍳 What else is cookin’?
What’s happening in India (and around the world 🌍️)
U.S. government shutdown: Senate leaders signalled a deal may be taking shape to end the 40-day federal shutdown, though no guarantee yet.
Super Typhoon Typhoon Fung‑wong made landfall in northern Philippines with ~115 mph winds, prompting evacuations of over one million people and at least two deaths.
The SEBI issued a public advisory warning investors about risks associated with “digital gold” (e-gold) investment platforms.
A new analysis shows climate change is accelerating faster than expected, raising urgency ahead of the upcoming COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil.
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