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In today’s newsletter:

• TCS bags Rs 15,000-cr BSNL deal 
• Shein's India comeback could boost e-comm: Delhivery CEO
• Swiggy Instamart expands menu with Instacafe 

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After more than eight months of speculation, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has finally confirmed securing a deal worth over Rs 15,000 crore from government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for the nationwide deployment of a 4G network.  

• This deal will provide a significant boost to India's largest software exporter, especially as its major markets, the US and Europe, are experiencing a slowdown

BSNL had issued Advance Purchase Orders (APO) to both TCS and state-run ITI for this project.

A consortium led by TCS won the deal, which also includes Tata Group's telecom gear-making company, Tejas Networks, and C-DOT.

• Tejas Networks will be responsible for manufacturing and servicing the Radio Access Networks (RAN) equipment and hardware required for the project

This marks TCS' third major deal in 2023, including:

• A $723-million deal with the UK-based Phoenix Group
  
  
• Multiple deals worth $1 billion from British retailer Marks and Spencer

Indian IT companies have a long history of operating government-owned population-scale platforms; however, their performance has not always been up to the mark due to various reasons. In contrast, TCS has emerged as an outlier among its peers, achieving better success in this regard.

• While the BSNL deal is expected to bring good revenue for TCS, there are concerns that it may be margin dilutive due to the involvement of numerous participants
  
  
• TCS sees Indian governmental projects as a training ground to improve its understanding of population-scale projects and to replicate their success in other countries
  
  
• It is worth noting that profit margins are not the sole priority for such deals, as they are likely to be lower 

TCS already runs India's Passport Seva programme, the Indian Railways’ IRCTC site, and India Post’s digital projects. However, despite these significant projects, the Indian market contributes around 5% to the overall revenue of the company.

Go deeper

A rising tide lifts all boats. This is the maxim that the e-commerce sector is banking on.

Chinese e-commerce company Shein is making a comeback to India at a time when the industry is experiencing a slowdown. Delhivery CEO Sahil Barua believes that Shein's return has the potential to revitalise the e-commerce sector in the country.

• After growing at over 35% for a few years, e-commerce expansion slowed to 22% last year
  

Delhivery predicts that the annual growth for e-commerce will be in the 15-20% range in the next few years.

“I think category spending by any single large player is like a high tide which lifts all boats. And so when Shein comes in, category spending hopefully comes in. Because of that, I think other e-commerce companies also stand to benefit,” said Barua.

The Delhivery chief also said that the increased focus on profitability in the e-commerce sector is a good thing for the company, as it can gain market share by making its logistics services more affordable.

He also pointed out that Delhivery's drop in revenues was due to the exit of the Chinese e-commerce company Shopee from India last year.

“There's no point driving fast if you don't know where you're going. In our case, we have four sequential quarters of margin improvement, I think it's quite clear as to how the margin improvement will continue. And now turning on the growth tap for us is not going to be very hard,” he added.

You know how many of us end up grabbing snacks during our grocery runs in supermarkets? Well, Swiggy is trying to replicate that experience digitally.

Swiggy's Instamart arm is piloting Instacafe, a cafe-like division in select areas of Bengaluru and Hyderabad. 

• Instacafe currently offers pre-made snacks such as puffs, toasties, baos, cold coffee, and more, which can be added alongside grocery orders on Instamart
  
  
• Swiggy's Instacafe play is similar to what Zepto has been running through Zepto Cafe since April last year 

E-grocery is a business with thin margins, especially when quick-commerce companies engage in it. So, as companies strive to encourage customers to purchase more, they are also exploring newer categories.

• In the past, other players like Zomato and Ola tried running similar projects but eventually shut down those divisions

While Zepto Cafe has a more elaborate and standardised menu, Swiggy Instacafe relies on dark store managers to fulfill orders on Instacafe.

• Zepto Cafe has partnered with companies like Chaayos, while Instacafe has mainly been selling unbranded food items at the moment

Find out more

AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google's Bard have taken the world by storm. These extraordinary models have the ability to compose poems, write code, and even ‘pen’ novels. But what lies beneath their extraordinary capabilities?

It all comes down to large language models or LLMs, an AI model designed to comprehend natural language. By processing and generating text, LLMs enable a wide range of tasks, including language translation, summarisation, and question-answering.

At the heart of LLMs lies their parameters—their accumulated knowledge. More parameters mean more accuracy as the model gains access to an abundance of contextual information.  

Curious to know more about how these models work and how they are trained? Read our explainer

Today, we celebrate the 13th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, a significant event in cryptocurrency history. It commemorates the first documented Bitcoin transaction for a real-life product. 

On this day in 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer, made history by purchasing two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 BTC, which was worth approximately $41 at the time.

Bitcoin Pizza Day is celebrated by enthusiasts around the world by sharing pizza. (Picture credit: DALL.E)

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned against extending Ethereum's consensus beyond its core functions of block validation and network security.
  
  
• The crypto community is being urged to stay alert despite a significant decrease in crypto hacks during Q1 2023. Experts believe this reduction is likely temporary rather than a lasting pattern.

Hold onto your seats, as the gripping crime thriller Drishyam gears up for yet another international adaptation! 

Following its success in multiple Indian languages, this nail-biting film is now headed for a South Korean remake, marking its second international iteration after the Chinese version, Sheep Without a Shepherd.

The original Malayalam film, directed by Jeetu Joseph and starring Mohanlal, achieved great success. It was remade in several languages: Kannada as Drishya, Telugu as Drushyam, Tamil as Papanasam, and Hindi as Drishyam.

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