One quick thing: Rubrik ramps up India presence with new Bengaluru office 

In today’s newsletter:

• Swiggy's Snacc attack in 15 min food delivery
• What to expect from Q3FY25 IT earnings
• IT Min assures child data privacy in DPDP

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Next time you need to order food on Swiggy, you can look beyond just the main app…for a quicker meal

Food tech major Swiggy has just launched a new app called Snacc, we found out.  

• It’s a dedicated app that will deliver breakfast items, coffee, bakes, cold beverages, eggs and protein in 10-15 minutes  

What’s the biggie?

• Swiggy has so far followed a superapp approach but has now shown willingness to have a hybrid model where the superbrands strategy will coexist with its core app

Snacc is currently live only in certain areas of Bengaluru and will be scaled to other regions over the coming months, we were told. 

• It rivals Blinkit’s Bistro, Zepto Cafe and Accel-backed Swish in a red-hot market which is only getting more intense 

While Snacc’s delivery timelines are the same as Bolt, the two offerings are not to be confused. 

• Snacc sells products from one centralised location, while Bolt collects orders from nearby restaurants and delivers it to customers

It’s almost impossible that we report on Swiggy and there’s no update from Zomato or vice versa.

• Gurugram-based Zomato reentered the 10-15 minute food delivery space by offering rapid services in certain areas
  
  
• This is Zomato’s second attempt at offering quick food deliveries, after Zomato Instant, its pilot project in 2022, which did not take off
  

Dive deeper

"When the chips are down, strategy takes the wheel."

India’s IT sector is bracing for mixed earnings in Q3FY25 as seasonal challenges, weak discretionary spending, and margin pressures weigh on performance.

• Leading the pack, TCS is set to announce its results on January 11
  
  
• Tier-I IT companies are likely to report revenue growth of 0-5.5%, with HCLTech expected to outperform due to strong software sales

Mid-cap firms could show better growth, driven by deal ramp-ups in healthcare and other verticals, despite macroeconomic uncertainties.

Analysts will focus on management commentaries for insights into growth drivers and recovery trends.

• Discretionary spending remains subdued as clients prioritise cost-saving projects over transformations, though BFSI and healthcare show signs of revival
  
  
• Margins are expected to benefit from wage hike delays and operational efficiencies, while seasonal furloughs play spoilsport

This quarter's commentaries will also provide a glimse of how clients’ budget would shape up for FY26 budgets.

Despite near-term challenges, analysts see long-term opportunities for Indian IT firms in client-centric verticals like BFSI.

• Recovery in discretionary spending and a favourable USD/INR exchange rate could support margin expansion in the coming quarters

Dig deeper

When IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was asked how the consent manager mechanism in the draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules works, he took a hands-on approach.

• With a blue marker, he sketched a diagram on a whiteboard—reminiscent of the “Match the Column” exercises primary school students solve 

On January 7, Vaishnaw responded to a range of questions from journalists about the DPDP Rules, which were released for public consultation on January 3. 

• As one industry insider noted, the rules introduce 'pragmatic provisions' addressing sensitive issues like the processing of children's data

Vaishnaw assured that the token created for verification necessary for processing of children's data, would be destroyed after a single use. 

“The tokens will be temporary and limited to one transaction after which it will be destroyed automatically,” the minister said.

Sources told us that existing identification systems, like the Apaar ID and state-level family IDs, could be used by the industry for verification purposes.

• Meanwhile, Vaishnaw reiterated that this verification process has not been attempted anywhere else, and that the government will continue to “refine it” based on the learnings

Another key issue that came up during the interaction was regarding the restriction that the government has put on, what they term as, Significant Data Fiduciaries, when it came to transfer of certain, specific, personal data. 

• The minister said that these restrictions would be sectoral

Also read: DPDP rules: Big Tech must verify algorithms and keep specific personal data within India

“That is why we created a mechanism of a committee so that if a sector wants to put a restriction then that can be thoroughly examined and it can be discussed with the stakeholders and then notified," he said.

• Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion in a deal that would value it at $60 billion, more than triple its valuation from a year ago.
  
  
• Apple is facing fresh calls to withdraw its controversial AI feature that has generated inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones.

Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath revealed a surprising statistic: 

• Mumbai and Ahmedabad account for 80% of equity delivery trades, with Gujaratis driving this trend. 

Despite making up just 8% of total registered investors, Gujaratis continue to shape the stock market landscape, even outpacing other regions in IPO participation. 

Find out more

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