One quick thing: Accenture proposes new campus in Andhra Pradesh, eyes adding 12,000 jobs

In today’s newsletter: 

• Quick commerce firms struggle for prime dark store sites
• GST cut fattens festive ad budgets for influencers
• Is Wipro key to solving Bengaluru's traffic woes?

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In the race for 10-minute deliveries, it’s the landlords and labour that hold the stopwatch.

In Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, quick commerce companies are struggling to find space to open a dark store. 

• While incumbents are struggling to find new spots for expansion, the new ones are getting priced out because they’re late to the party
  

The problem is especially highlighted in prime areas like Indiranagar in Bengaluru. 

“In areas like Indiranagar, we are struggling to get a store, since a lot of quick commerce firms are now bidding for the same locations,” a top quick commerce executive told us. 

Eternal-owned Blinkit and Swiggy also shared similar sentiments in their earnings calls earlier.

The simple and early promise of 10-minute deliveries is now running into the brick-and-mortar realities of urban real estate and worker shortages, too. 

• There is a monthly churn of 15–25% among dark store staff and over 30% attrition for delivery workers, as per TeamLease estimates 

For horizontal quick commerce firms, competition is intensifying as new vertical players like Firstclub, Slikk, and others enter the field, vying for the same real estate and labour expertise.

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More reels, more deals, more ka-ching — influencers are getting busy this Navratri and Diwali, as the GST cut gives brands more cash to spend.

Lower taxes are freeing up brand budgets, and influencers are reaping the rewards.

• GST 2.0 has increased ad budgets by 15-20% this festive season

Auto, consumer durables, and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are loosening their purse strings.

• Influencer marketing spends are expected to touch around Rs 700 crore this festive season

Creators with 100,000–500,000 followers, a.k.a micro influencers, are charging the most with a 20% uptick in fees.

• Micro creators are dominating festive brand outreach, accounting for more than half of all brand contacts

More brands are preferring regional creators, with requests rising 40–45% this year.

VLCC, Ferns & Petals, e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart and quick commerce players such as Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart are among the highest spenders.

• E-commerce platforms alone are spending 15–25% more this festive season

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Outer Ring Road (ORR) has long been Bengaluru’s tech artery and its biggest choke point. With office returns in full swing, traffic on the stretch has surged nearly 45% year-on-year.

• Now, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has made an appeal: asking IT giant Wipro to open its campus gates to ease congestion near Iblur junction

Siddaramaiah has written to Wipro founder-chairman Azim Premji, asking the company to consider allowing limited vehicular movement through its Sarjapur Road campus.

• The chief minister added that the plan would be subject to mutually agreed security and operational terms

According to preliminary assessments by traffic and mobility experts, diverting vehicles through Wipro’s campus could reduce congestion by nearly 30% during peak hours.

• ORR is Bengaluru’s busiest tech corridor, home to dozens of major campuses

• Peak-hour traffic has hampered mobility, productivity, and quality of life, Siddaramaiah said

• The government argues the move could make the city “more efficient and livable”

This push comes after BlackBuck CEO Rajesh Yabaji’s social media post on ORR’s poor condition went viral, sparking outrage. 

• The CM responded with a high-level meeting, inspections by senior officials and appeals to tech majors for support

Imagine using Aadhaar seamlessly alongside Europe’s digital identity wallet — that’s one of the ideas on the table as the EU and India map out a new tech partnership.

• The strategy lays out plans for cooperation on AI safety, cross-border data flows, and digital IDs, while also extending to supercomputing and space technologies

Find out more

• Nvidia will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply it with data centre chips, the companies said, marking a tie-up between two of the highest-profile players in the global artificial intelligence race.
  
  
• Huawei unveiled a three-year plan at its Huawei Connect conference to challenge Nvidia through brute force, networking strengths, and state support.

What if Silicon Valley isn’t just innovating, but quietly rewriting the rules of democracy?

• In Taming Silicon Valley, Gary Marcus delivers a sharp, urgent manifesto on how Big Tech exploits us, why AI could magnify the risks, and what we must do

A must-read for anyone who wants AI to empower humanity, not endanger it. Check it out

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