☕️ Zepto Cafe

Good morning and Happy Friday. You know the drill 💪🍞 ➡️ 😴 🥾 

- Ruchirr Sharma & Shatakshi Sharmaa  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 📱 India’s Digital Push

• ☕️ Zepto Cafe

• 🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

  • 🧑‍🌾 Is India too reliant on China?

  • 🤖 Is AGI near?

• 🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

• 🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

MARKETS

🇮🇳 India

• Indian stock markets closed mixed. Defensive sectors like FMCG and pharmaceuticals performed well, while foreign institutions were net sellers. The market remained cautious ahead of key U.S. and domestic inflation data.

🌍️ International

• Stocks closed mixed. Market was boosted by a benign U.S. inflation report and strong performance in big tech stocks, with Broadcom, Tesla, and Nvidia leading gains. The chances of a Fed rate cut next week rose to 95%.

TRADE

📱 India’s Digital Push

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is charting a bold course for India's future, spotlighting digital transformation as the cornerstone of its journey to becoming an economic superpower. Addressing the Smart India Hackathon 2024, he identified key sectors like content creation and gaming as pivotal to driving growth in a digitally empowered economy.

A centerpiece of this vision is the newly introduced "One Nation One Subscription" initiative, designed to arm India’s youth with resources to compete on the global stage. "Our aim is for the youth to compete with the world's best," PM Modi stated. "They should not feel left behind." This initiative reflects the government’s commitment to fostering talent and nurturing confidence among young Indians.

Further underscoring this focus on youth, the Prime Minister reiterated his Independence Day pledge to engage one lakh young individuals in politics, transcending barriers of background. To support this, he unveiled the Vikist Bharat Young Leaders' Dialogue, an initiative inviting innovative thinkers to share development ideas at a prestigious global event on January 12–13, 2025.

PM Modi also encouraged hackathon participants to expand their horizons, tackling challenges with global impact. “Think big, act global,” he urged, signaling a paradigm shift toward a forward-looking, digitally savvy India.

Overall: This comprehensive digital push ties into the government’s broader mission: building a skilled, innovative, and globally competitive generation capable of leading India into a new era of economic and technological leadership.

Read more: Economic Times

QUICK COMMERCE

☕️ Zepto Cafe

Zepto is accelerating its quick commerce journey with the launch of a standalone app for its 10-minute food delivery service, Zepto Cafe. Announcing the launch on social media, CEO Aadit Palicha embraced a fast-paced approach, stating, “The app may not be perfect on Day 1, but it's worth launching quickly.”

The move comes as Zepto Cafe experiences rapid growth, opening over 100 new outlets each month and processing more than 30,000 daily orders. With its sights set on achieving an annualized revenue run rate (ARR) of ₹1,000 crore in the next financial year, the company is betting big on the growing demand for hyper-convenient food delivery.

This bold step places Zepto squarely in the middle of a fiercely competitive market. Rivals like Swiggy and Bengaluru-based Swish are also scaling their 10-minute delivery services. Swiggy’s Bolt has expanded to over 400 cities, while Swish utilizes cloud kitchens to deliver an array of snacks, meals, and beverages.

Zepto’s ambitions are bolstered by a recent $350 million funding round led by Motilal Oswal’s Private Wealth division, reflecting strong investor confidence in the startup’s aggressive growth strategy.

Overall: As competition intensifies, Zepto’s standalone app aims to streamline and enhance the Zepto Cafe experience, offering quick access to coffee, croissants, and more. With India’s appetite for convenience on the rise, Zepto is positioning itself as a leader in the fast-evolving quick food delivery landscape.

Read more: Economic Times

GENERAL OVERVIEW

🗞️ Bite-sized summaries

🧑‍🌾 Is India too reliant on China? - India faces an acute shortage of DAP fertiliser, underscoring its heavy reliance on imports, particularly from China, which has reduced exports due to rising domestic demand. Adding to the crisis, the Israel-Hamas conflict has disrupted critical shipping routes, driving up costs. Between May and October 2024, DAP prices soared from $515 to $642 per tonne. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana grapple with inflated prices and limited availability, jeopardizing wheat sowing. Despite government efforts to promote alternative fertilisers and provide subsidies, DAP's essential phosphorus content makes it difficult to replace. Experts emphasize the need to scale up domestic production to reduce dependency on volatile global markets, which threaten food security. Meanwhile, a reduced subsidy budget has further strained supply chains, making fertilisers less affordable for farmers.

🤖 Is AGI near? - Google’s quantum chip, Willow, represents a groundbreaking leap in computing, capable of solving problems in minutes that would take supercomputers 10 septillion years. Praised by tech leaders like Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk, it also raises serious concerns about cybersecurity, particularly its implications for encryption and financial systems. While Willow's 105 qubits fall far short of the 13 million required to crack Bitcoin, the chip underscores quantum computing’s transformative potential in fields like drug discovery and AI. Critics argue that practical applications are still years away, but nations like India are accelerating R&D and policy efforts to address the risks posed by quantum technology. Willow also revives the ambitious vision of aligning quantum computing with artificial general intelligence (AGI).

HEADLINES

🧑‍🍳 What else is cookin’?

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

• ONDC cuts financial incentives for network participants ahead of levying network fee.

• Swiggy shares fall over 4% as IPO lock-in expiry ends for 6.5 crore shares.

• Indian leather exporters need to take advantage of India-UAE trade pact to push exports.

• BMW, UNICEF join hands to empower children in rural India.

• Amazon’s online car ‘dealership’ with Hyundai is now live.

CULTURE

🍿 Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

• Smriti Mandhana breaks a record as she becomes the first women's cricketer to score four ODI centuries in a calendar year 🏆️ 

• Indian Street Premier League (ISPL) Season 2 Auction ends with a bang as Abhishek Dalhor becomes most expensive pick.