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Good morning and happy Friyay. Happy Akshaya Tritiya to all those celebrating.

For those unfamiliar, Akshaya Tritiya holds significant value for Hindus and Jains across various regions in India and Nepal.

• It is a day of remembrance for those who are no longer with us.

• It's also an auspicious time for new ventures, marriages, charitable acts, and investments — particularly in gold.

Last year, despite escalating gold prices, India witnessed a 40% surge in gold sales during Akshaya Tritiya. We reckon this year will be no different.

Indians 🤝 Gold

- Ruchrngd Sharma & Shatakshi Sharma

📊 Markets

🇮🇳 India

• The market witnessed a significant decline on Thursday with the broader markets and sectoral indices bleeding while the volatility index (VIX) surged 6%. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers, offloading shares worth ₹6,669.10 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth ₹5,928.81 crore.

🌍️ International

• Stocks rose on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average securing its seventh consecutive day of gains, as stronger-than-expected jobless claims data raised hopes for potential Federal Reserve rate cuts later this year. The jobless claims data, which showed the highest level since August, fueled expectations of future rate cuts by the Fed.

🛺 Uber for Auto

Paytm is diversifying.

The leading Indian fintech platform has introduced an innovative auto-rickshaw booking feature on its app. Leveraging the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Paytm has integrated with Namma Yatri, a Juspay-backed platform that onboards auto drivers to facilitate this service.

What’s going on? 

• The auto-booking option is available under the dedicated ONDC tab on the Paytm app, alongside existing categories like food, groceries, and other shopping services. 

• The feature has gone live for Paytm users in the National Capital Region, Bengaluru, and Chennai, with plans for further expansion.

• While Paytm operates on the buyer side, the actual service is provided by Pai Platforms, formerly known as Paytm Ecommerce and backed by Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Why now? 

• This move taps into the significant mobility segment on ONDC, which contributes higher volumes when compared to e-commerce and deliveries. 

• Namma Yatri, with over 6.3 million registered users and 37.3 million trips completed, has operations across 7 major cities, including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

Overall: By integrating auto bookings, Paytm aims to bolster its super-app offerings and tap into the vast opportunity in India's shared mobility market.

This strategic partnership with ONDC and Namma Yatri allows Paytm to expand its services beyond fintech into transportation, aligning with its vision of providing a comprehensive digital ecosystem.

Read more: Economic Times

🇮🇳 LLMs in finance

In a major development for the financial services industry, Setu, the fintech firm acquired by Pine Labs in 2022, has launched 'Sesame' - a cutting-edge Large Language Model (LLM) tailored specifically for the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sectors. 

Developed in collaboration with the AI research company Sarvam AI, Sesame represents a "ChatGPT Moment" for financial services, according to Setu's co-founder Nikhil Kumar.

What is it? 

• Sesame leverages India's vast digital infrastructure and data ecosystem to power advanced capabilities like improved credit underwriting, fraud detection, loan monitoring, personalised financial advisory, and targeted cross-selling/upselling. 

• Setu and Sarvam have created a domain—and region-specific model by training the LLM on custom data highly relevant to India's BFSI landscape.

"Generative AI represents a dramatic increase in the value derived from compute power," said Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam's co-founder. Setu envisions Sesame empowering BFSI customers to make smarter, faster credit decisions and deliver hyper-personalised financial services across the customer lifecycle.

Overall: Setu, an RBI-licensed account aggregator, closely collaborates with banks, insurers, lenders, and other financial institutions for seamless API integrations.

With Sesame, the company aims to drive innovation in India's rapidly digitising financial sector through powerful AI capabilities.

Read more: Money Control

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

💡 Let there be darkness - India is projecting its biggest power shortage in 14 years for June 2024, with a peak night-time deficit of 14 GW, due to a slump in hydropower generation, delays in new coal plant commissioning, and flat renewable energy output. To address the critical shortfall, the government is deferring plant maintenance, restarting idled coal units, maximising output from existing coal and solar plants, and directing gas and imported coal plants to operate at full capacity, even as it balances long-term renewable energy goals against the urgent need to meet electricity demand.

🥶 Research in the Antarctic - India will formally inform the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) in Kochi later this month about its plans to develop a new research station called Maitri-2 in Antarctica. The existing Maitri station, built around 35 years ago, will be revamped and turned into a summer camp and designated as a monument site. Key agenda items at the ATCM include regulating tourism in Antarctica, strategic planning for sustainable management of Antarctic resources, addressing climate change impacts, and promoting research collaboration.

💰️ Rejoice, ex-FTX users - Collapsed crypto exchange FTX says it has recovered enough assets, estimated between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion, to pay back most of its creditors in full under a proposed reorganisation plan unveiled Tuesday. The plan, which needs court approval, contemplates paying non-governmental creditors 100% of their bankruptcy claims plus interest, totalling about 118% of allowed claims for 98% of creditors. FTX's new CEO John Ray, who took over after the company's implosion in November 2022 following customer withdrawals, said he is pleased to propose a plan to return funds without "costly and protracted litigation" after formerly declaring FTX the biggest mess he had ever encountered.

💰️ Weekly Wirings

Fundraising news from the world of Indian Startups 💸 

• Log analytics startup Parseable raises ₹22.9 Cr ($2.75M) led by Surge and NP-Hard Ventures.

• Data and AI governance platform Atlan raises ₹867 Cr ($105M) in a Series C round.

• Deeptech AI startup Myelin Foundry raises ₹33 Cr ($4M) in funding led by SIDBI Venture Capital.

• Cybersecurity startup Treacle raises ₹4Cr in a pre-seed round.

• Regrip raises ₹16.7 Cr ($2M) in a fresh round led by Qatar-based VC firm, IPV.

• Agritech startup BharatRohan raises ₹19.2 Cr ($2.3M) in funding led by Venture Garage, RevX.

• Foodtech startup Poshn raises ₹50.1 Cr ($6M) in debt and equity led by Prime Venture Partners.

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• Free water, housing, food: Modi's $400bn welfare bet to win Indian elections.

• Gupshup appoints marketing leader Salim Ali as Chief Marketing Officer.

• IRDAI imposes ₹1 crore fine on Go Digit General Insurance.

• Simpl lays off around 100 employees, and eyes profitability by mid-2025.

• LTIMindtree, IBM partners to set up generative AI Centre of Excellence for India.

• Most of Warren Buffett’s wealth was accumulated after age 65. Here’s what that can teach individual investors.

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• RCB won by 60 runs against PBKS; PBKS moved down to number 9 on the scorecard. Latest IPL leaderboard here.

• Justin and Hailey Bieber announced that they are expecting their first child together.

• Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao begin their promotions for their upcoming film Mr. & Mrs. Mahi due to release on 31st May.

• Atalanta sealed their place in the Europa League final with a 4-1 aggregate win over Marseille at the Gewiss Stadium.

• Bayer Leverkusen set the European record with the longest unbeaten run, drawing 2-2 to Roma and entering the Europa League final.