One quick thing: TCS and C-DAC partner to develop India's sovereign cloud ecosystem for AI-enabled innovations

In today’s newsletter: 

• Instamart at an all time high, says Sriharsha Majety
• Urban Company IPO subscribed 103 times on final day
• Apple’s India supplier base nearly doubles

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All-time highs, highest assortment, climbing user base and more upbeat is how Swiggy describes Instamart now.

Swiggy’s Instamart, the second-largest player in the space, is in its best shape ever. The focus has helped the company grow its market share, group CEO Sriharsha Majety told us in an interview. 

“All the signals that we're seeing are overwhelmingly positive. Our service is at an all-time high. Our assortment is at an all-time high – that has definitely strengthened our market position.”

Swiggy has also executed better as it now looks to take on Amazon and Flipkart, apart from competing with Blinkit, Zepto, BigBasket and others. 

• Swiggy will launch Quick India Movement (QIM), its flagship sale event that will replicate what the e-commerce majors run 

The sale is more for product discovery and customer awareness, and for shifting customers from e-commerce to quick commerce.

“With QIM, we will plant the quick commerce flag and show that we are here,” Amitesh Jha, CEO, Instamart, said in an interview with us. 

Instamart is also looking to increase the share of non-grocery spends on the platform. 

• It has already grown the share of non-grocery items, as a percentage of gross order value (GOV), from 7% last year to 18.5% now

Dig deeper

From plumbing to planning, Urban Company’s service game just got a blockbuster subscription.

Investors queued like it was peak festival season.

• IPO drew bids for a whopping 1,160 crore shares against 10.67 crore on offer

QIBs dominated the show with 140x subscription, the highest tally.

• Retail investors too dialled in with 39.25x demand, while non-institutional investors garnered 74x subscription 

Early confidence provided a solid foundation for the issue.

• The company secured Rs 854 crore from anchor investors ahead of the frenzy

• Shares were priced in a Rs 98–103 band, drawing wide participation

Valuation at the upper end brushed past Rs 14,790 crore.

Fresh funds are set to do the heavy lifting.

• The new issue of Rs 472 crore will go into tech, cloud, leases, and marketing

• Selling shareholders like Accel, Elevation, and Bessemer booked partial exits

Investors are clearly betting that UC can service more than just homes—this time, it’s market expectations.

Dig deeper

Apple has nearly doubled the number of its India-linked suppliers in five years. But the big-ticket components still come from abroad.

In 2018, only eight of Apple’s 191 suppliers had operations in India. By 2023, that number had nearly doubled to 14 out of 187. 

• This includes big names like Foxconn, Wistron, and Salcomp, along with newer entrants Tata Electronics, Pegatron, and Jabil

Industry watchers say the real count could be closer to 35–40 if you include smaller assembly partners feeding into Apple’s production chain.

• Meanwhile, China alone accounts for 157 of 470 supplier sites

India's role remains largely confined to final assembly and "self-assembly items" such as batteries, chargers, cables, packaging, and smaller mechanical parts.

• The big-ticket items like displays and camera modules are still imported as complete units

India’s current domestic value addition (DVA) is about 20%. New Delhi wants that figure to rise to 30–40%.

India's supplier share has crept up from 1% in 2019 to 3% in 2023. The government is pushing for deeper localisation through the ECMS 2.0 scheme, which could unlock approvals for display and camera module production.

• Experts say that could meaningfully raise India’s value addition, narrowing the gap with China

Find out more

Mollywood’s first superwoman is here! Lokah has exploded at the Box Office, stealing thunder from the industry’s biggest stars.

• The superhero film has surpassed the overseas business of Mohanlal's Thudarum 

A hint of Dulquer Salmaan, a glimpse of Tovino Thomas and the audience can't keep calm for the upcoming films of the 5-part franchise.

More on Mollywood’s Marvel moment

• Microsoft and OpenAI said they have signed a non-binding deal for new relationship terms that would allow the ChatGPT parent to proceed to restructure itself into a for-profit company.
  
  
• The CEOs of OpenAI and Nvidia are set to announce billions of dollars in UK data centre investments during their visit next week, coinciding with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip.

Rajni fever is about to hit your screens!

Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie drops on Amazon Prime Video, bringing back Thalaivar in a fiery Tamil action thriller.

• Rajinikanth plays Deva, a former union leader pulled into investigating his estranged friend’s death.

And if that’s not enough, dive into Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building, where Arconia’s sleuthing trio face another chilling case. Watch it on Jio Hotstar

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