Today's Briefing

Swiggy Instamart has quietly added electronics, premium skincare, and fashion accessories to its dark store inventory in six metro cities. An iPhone 16 can now arrive at your doorstep in under 15 minutes — the same time it takes Flipkart to process your order.

The economics are counterintuitive at first glance. Dark store real estate costs ₹60-80/sq ft in metros, making high-value low-volume inventory a smart play. A single iPhone sale can match the margin of 200 grocery orders.

Blinkit has been testing similar moves with electronics pilots in Delhi-NCR, while Zepto is reportedly in talks with premium beauty brands for exclusive quick-commerce launches.

SEBI's latest consultation paper takes direct aim at the booming finfluencer ecosystem. Under the proposed rules, any SEBI-registered entity — brokers, mutual fund houses, portfolio managers — would be barred from commercial arrangements with unregistered influencers.

Platforms like Zerodha, Groww, and Angel One may need to rethink their entire affiliate marketing strategy. Industry estimates suggest finfluencers drove 15-20% of new demat account openings in FY25.

Infosys has laid off approximately 1,200 freshers from its 2024 campus cohort — the largest single round of fresher terminations since 2013. Affected employees were primarily in support and testing roles that clients are increasingly automating.

Across India's top five IT firms, fresher hiring volumes have dropped 35% compared to FY23 levels, even as lateral hiring for AI/ML specialists has surged. The traditional IT pyramid — built on cheap abundant fresher talent — is being compressed from the bottom.

After years of aggressive cash burn, Meesho has crossed the profitability threshold. Q3 FY26 showed a net profit of ₹12 crore on revenue of ₹1,840 crore — modest, but symbolically significant for a company burning ₹300 crore a quarter just two years ago.

The turnaround: logistics cost optimization through regional warehouses, a seller advertising platform now generating 18% of revenue, and ruthless unit economics discipline that saw Meesho exit four unprofitable categories entirely.

FII outflows have totalled ₹12,400 crore in February's first two weeks, adding to ₹78,000 crore pulled out over four months. The rupee has breached 86.5/$ with RBI reportedly intervening to prevent a sharper slide.

The trigger is global: stronger-than-expected US jobs data has pushed back Fed rate cut expectations to Q3 2026. For India, this means continued capital flight to dollar assets and pressure on the current account deficit.

Google has announced Gemini Nano will now run on entry-level Android phones in India. Samsung Galaxy A15 and Xiaomi Redmi Note 14 users get AI-powered text summarization, smart reply, and live call translation in Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali.

With 400 million smartphone users on sub-₹15,000 devices, Google sees on-device AI as the lever to deepen engagement and keep users within the Google ecosystem as Apple Intelligence heats up at the premium end.

India's co-living market has crossed $1.5 billion, with Tier 2 and 3 cities contributing nearly 40% of new bed additions. Stanza Living alone added 12,000 beds in non-metro cities this year, up from 3,000 in 2023.

Demand drivers: an explosion of coaching institutes drawing students to smaller cities, and growth of gig/remote work creating transient professionals who want flexible housing without long leases.