Bullets

Seven years after scooping up Electrosteel Steels for ₹5,320 Cr., Vedanta is facing heat over what was supposed to be a textbook turnaround.

• US-based Viceroy Research claims ESL posted ₹817 Cr. in operating losses in FY25 and is burning cash.

• The report flags missing environmental approvals and ₹2,858 Cr. pending land-related liabilities.

• ESL allegedly built its plant 6 km off-site and booked forest fines as assets.

• Vedanta denies it all, citing rising revenue and a doubling of EBITDA.

Is ESL really reviving, or just repackaging the wreckage?

India's open e-commerce network, ONDC, is planning a ₹100–150 Cr. push to revive steadily declining food delivery orders.

• After retail orders fell from 65 lakh in October to 41 lakh in May, ONDC may reintroduce customer incentives.

• Magicpin, Paytm, Waayu, and Ola Consumer could use funds to offer discounts.

• Zomato and Swiggy charge up to 25% per order; ONDC stays near 10–11%.

• Food delivery market is expected to jump from $8 billion (2023) to $21 billion by 2028.

Are discounts enough to fix ONDC's delivery delays?

In a rare move, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran personally briefed the Tata Trusts board (something never done under Ratan Tata's leadership).

• The Trusts own 66% of Tata Sons, but usually hears updates through nominees.

• This time, they got a full two-hour walkthrough of key bets: semiconductors, EVs, Air India, and the Tata app universe.

• Tata has invested ₹1.84 L Cr. in these areas and is now adding ₹30,000 Cr. more.

• The Air India crash response was also discussed in detail.

Is this just transparency, or a quiet power shift?

After years of delays, Oyo is preparing to go public in early 2026 with improved numbers and global scale.

• The hospitality startup posted ₹623 Cr. profit in FY25, compared to a ₹3,823 Cr. loss in FY21.

• Revenue rose 20%, bookings jumped 54%, and its hotel count grew from 13,000 to 23,000.

• Oyo earns 75% of its income from abroad, helped by a US acquisition worth ~₹4,500 Cr.

• It aims for a $6–7 billion IPO valuation, down from its $10 billion peak

Has Oyo traded speed for stability, and will investors bite?

WhatsApp is reshaping how businesses talk to customers and how telcos make money.

• From 15 July, WhatsApp voice calling for businesses goes public after early adopters like Thomas Cook shifted 14% of toll-free calls in just 10 days.

• Redcliffe Labs says 5–10% of IVR calls have already moved to WhatsApp; wait times are down 25%.

• For firms using AI, call costs dropped from ₹15/min to ₹6–7, and could fall further.

• India’s ₹98,562.5 Cr. voice revenue market is shrinking, and telcos are sounding the alarm.

Will WhatsApp become India’s new call centre?

India’s skies are getting crowded, and Airbus is gearing up to meet the demand.

• IndiGo may soon place a fresh order for 40 more Airbus A350s, on top of 60 already confirmed.

• Each A350-900 costs around ₹2,641.1 Cr. and can fly up to 18,000 km non-stop.

• These planes will begin arriving from mid-2027

• IndiGo has ordered 1,400 aircraft in total, including 500 A320-family jets in a record 2023 deal.

• Airbus also plans to raise its India sourcing by 43%.

Will India become Airbus’s next big growth engine?

Amazon's Prime Day sale starts on 9 July and will run for four full days for the first time since its 2015 launch.

• Deals will drop every 5 minutes; Gen Z (ages 18–24) gets 5% cashback and discounted Prime at ₹7.49/month (vs ₹14.99 for others).

• Tariffs could raise prices, but Amazon hasn't confirmed the impact on discounts.

• Adobe predicts that shoppers will spend $23.8 billion online from 8-11 July, up 28.4% from the same period last year.

• Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are holding overlapping sales.

With rising costs and cautious buyers, are mega-sales still worth the hype?

• Shein has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong after a stalled attempt in London (where IPO fundraising is at a 30-year low).

• The hurdle? Regulators in the UK and China can't agree on how to describe the company's ties to Xinjiang (an area under global scrutiny for alleged human rights abuses).

• Shein's profit fell 40% to ₹8,368 Cr. in 2024, despite ₹3.18 lakh Cr. in sales.

• UK's FCA raised supply chain concerns; China's CSRC rejected London's disclosure terms.

As Shein pushes ahead, fast fashion questions linger: Why did India let it re-enter?

Mobile operators are eyeing another round of price hikes by year-end. But this time, it may not hit everyone equally.

• India added 74 L active users in May, the biggest jump in over two years.

• Jio led the surge with 55 L new users, and Airtel followed with 13 L.

• July's hike raised base plans by up to 23%; new hikes may target mid and high-end users.

• Expect tiered pricing, less data, more packs, and more choices.

Is affordable connectivity slowly turning into a premium service, or is this something bigger, like Jio's record-breaking IPO?

India's top cloud kitchen player seems to be cleaning the house before going public.

• Rebel Foods may sell its 57% stake in chocolate brand Smoor, which posted a ₹19 Cr. loss in FY24 despite revenue rising to ₹149 Cr.

• Its offices in Gurugram and Bengaluru have shut, with teams moving to Mumbai for "faster decision-making".

• The company, which owns Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, saw losses fall 42% to ₹378 Cr. while revenue hit ₹1,420 Cr. in FY24.

Rival Curefoods has already filed IPO papers. Are India's cloud kitchens finally growing or just reshuffling the plate?

• India’s aviation regulator is questioning Air India Express over serious safety oversights.

• In March, the DGCA found the airline hadn't replaced faulty Airbus A320 engine parts flagged by EU safety authorities.

• Internal records may have been tampered with to falsely show compliance using AMOS software.

• Aircraft VT-ATD, which flies to Dubai and Muscat, was directly affected.

• Parent company Air India also received a warning for overdue escape slide checks on other planes.

The airline claims corrective steps are now in place, but is Air India moving too fast on safety?

Kotak Mahindra Bank's decade-old move is now one of its biggest wins.

• In 2014, Kotak bought a 15% stake in MCX for ₹459 Cr., paying ₹600/share.

• On 3 July 2025, MCX stock touched ₹9,002.50, turning that into ₹6,886 Cr.

• MCX posted ₹560 Cr. profit in FY25, with revenue up 59% year-on-year.

• It's now the world's largest commodity options exchange by volume.

• Crude Oil and Natural Gas options rank one globally; Gold and Silver at 2

This is why long-term investments are so important.

When you scan a UPI code at a shop, the money may go through your app. But it mostly lands in the same few banks.

• 60% of merchant UPI payments go to just 4 banks: Yes Bank, HDFC and ICICI, and Axis.

• Yes Bank gets the biggest share at 40%, mostly through PhonePe and ex-Paytm merchants.

• It now handles 31.8 Cr. payments every day.

• SBI leads on customer payments but gets far less on the merchant side.

• Banks charge fintechs small fees to manage these merchant accounts.

If just a few banks handle most UPI money, is that still a level playing field?

India’s logistics giant is steering away from its Meesho dependence and mapping new terrain in B2B and freight.

• Despite Meesho moving 50% of deliveries in-house, Delhivery posted ₹162 Cr. in profit.

• PTL (Part-Truck Load) business grew 25% to ₹1,889 Cr., flipping a ₹46 Cr. loss into ₹101 Cr. profit.

• Ecom Express buyout is expected to add scale and improve margins.

• Daily parcel growth is flat, but freight volumes and yields are rising steadily.

• Tech-backed truck loading and rate renegotiations are driving profits in freight.

Is Delhivery finally becoming less e-commerce and more economy?

Reliance has relaunched Campa Cola, pricing it at just ₹10 per bottle in some states.

• In response, both Pepsi and Coca-Cola were forced to cut prices.

• Campa is expanding fast in smaller towns, where low prices matter most.

• This puts pressure on Varun Beverages (Pepsi's biggest bottler in India), which still reported 25% revenue growth in 2024 but saw its stock fall 29%.

• Despite strong profits, investors worry about rising competition and thinner margins.

Is Reliance about to do to colas what Jio did to telecom?

Indian startups are swapping pitch decks for prospectuses as they turn to stock markets for growth capital.

• 12 new-age firms to raise over ₹18,000 Cr. via IPOs in 2025.

• Meesho tops the list with a ₹4,250 Cr. issue, followed by PhysicsWallah at ₹4,000 Cr.

• Groww, Pine Labs, Urban Company, and boAt, among others, line up smaller offers.

• Many are using SEBI's confidential route to test the waters quietly.

• The move reflects growing investor interest and a maturing startup ecosystem.

Are retail investors ready to back the next wave of tech-first businesses?

The bike-taxi app is quietly testing a food delivery service, "Ownly" in Bengaluru this July.

• Pilot starts in Koramangala, HSR, and Sarjapur; 10-city rollout planned by July 2025.

• Rapido wants restaurants to offer sub-₹150 dishes and avoid steep packaging fees.

• It may share customer data with eateries, something Zomato and Swiggy haven't done.

• Commission rates to stay low at 8–15% (vs 16–30% by rivals), but analysts warn the pricing may not be sustainable long-term

Can Rapido rewrite food delivery rules, or will it get eaten alive?

Tata Digital is reshuffling its deck after struggling to make a mark.

• CEOs Puneet Chhatwal (Indian Hotels) and Sunil D'Souza (Tata Consumer) join the board to add consumer expertise.

• Ex-CEO Naveen Tahilyani quit in May, just a year into the role, with no replacement in sight yet. 

• Tata Neu contributes <10% of BigBasket & 1mg sales despite 14 Cr. users

• FY24 GMV: ₹37,355 Cr.; 'Flash' 10-min delivery now being tested

Can Tata take on Blinkit, Instamart, and Zepto with just a boardroom reboot?

Creators like Kusha Kapila (Underneat), Nitibha Kaul (AltK Beauty), and Sunny Chopra (Ksunch) are launching their own brands.

• They're tapping into tight-knit follower communities of 10 L to 1 Cr., competing with celebrity brands like Kay Beauty and Hyphen.

• Influencer marketing in India is projected to reach ₹3,375 Cr. by 2026 (EY).

• Global social media ad spend hit $247.3 billion in 2024, making it the top advertising channel.

Could creator brands evolve into a new breed of social startups built on trust, not just tech?

• Viral posts have exposed dirty dark stores, confusing bills, and hidden charges on Zepto.

• CEO Aadit Palicha says fixes are coming soon, but store hygiene issues have already led to a brief shutdown in Dharavi.

• App downloads dropped 75% since January, and user numbers are slipping (Sensor Tower).

• Zepto recently added just 22 new stores, far behind rivals Blinkit (98) and Instamart (118).

• It's now chasing $700 million in funding to stay competitive and raise its game.

Can Zepto win trust while juggling growth, profits, and public pressure?