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Good morning. Trade will be back in the headlines next week, with commerce minister Piyush Goyal visiting Washington for further talks on the bilateral trade agreement. US President Donald Trump’s statement yesterday that he is unhappy with Apple manufacturing in India will not help make things easier for Goyal. Not a dull day in 2025, that much is certain.
In today’s newsletter: making it to the managerial level is a big challenge for Indian women. But first, what is it that we love to have but hate to pay for? Twenty-minute deliveries.
A long wait
For India’s Swiggy and Eternal (formerly Zomato), the quick-commerce business is proving to be too sweet to spit and too bitter to swallow. Financial results posted last week show that Swiggy nearly doubled its losses and Eternal’s profits fell by 77 per cent in the last quarter. Revenue, on the other hand, rose 45 and 64 per cent respectively.
There is no denying the fact that quick commerce has excited investors and customers alike. When it began, getting groceries delivered in less than 20 minutes seemed like a ludicrous marketing gimmick, but today, few urban Indians go more than a week without using such conveniences. In the past four years, the three big players — Eternal’s Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zepto — have seen the numbers of orders and the array of products multiply many times over.
Quick commerce’s success has not only changed consumer behaviour, but also altered the retail landscape in India. Consumer majors such as Hindustan Unilever, Nestlé and Parle, which are seeing a significant chunk of their ecommerce business shifting to this new channel, are making both front- and back-end adjustments to cater to this market. Nestlé India, for example, customises packaging and promotions for quick commerce, which now makes up nearly half of its ecommerce business, its chair Suresh Narayanan told me.
Despite its proven convenience and early success, however, quick commerce continues to be a “burn-it-till-you-make-it” game. It’s a long road to profitability. Apart from capital investments in warehouses, operational profits are also challenging with customers reluctant to pay higher delivery fees. HSBC estimates that for the market to grow to $30bn in size, quick commerce platforms will need to have 60mn users ordering twice a week at a delivery fee of Rs20-25.
Instamart, Blinkit and Zepto are, in a way, victims of their own success. Their services are a hit, and customers love them as long as they don’t have to pay much for them, leaving the three in an unenviable position of eternally having to outspend one another. Once the discounts dry up or the product range starts shrinking, India’s famously value-conscious consumers will start giving up on the convenience of getting things delivered at their doorsteps and find a way back to wherever they can find cheaper products.
How many times a week do you order from a quick commerce platform? Hit reply or write to me at indiabrief@ft.com
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Women in the workplace
India has been emphasising the dynamism of its young labour pool as one of its economy’s big advantages. But those benefits risk getting cancelled out when half of its workforce — women — are still prevented from contributing to their full potential.
Indian workplaces are difficult for women to navigate right from the start of their careers, according to new research from McKinsey. Even though nearly half the students enrolled in universities are female, women make up only a third of entry level jobs in the private sector. After that, things take a further turn for the worse, with men more than twice as likely to get promoted as women. This stagnation, added to the burden of caring for a family and raising children, results in a further chunk of them leaving the workforce. It’s no wonder that less than a quarter of managers are women, and less than a fifth are in the C-suite. While these numbers vary between industries, the trend is largely the same.
Company policies can make all the difference. Most organisations have baseline policies that ensure the safety and security of employees, which are necessary but do not move the needle on women’s advancement in the workplace. Organisations need to have policies that go beyond these to “neutralise” disadvantages for women, said Vivek Pandit, senior partner at McKinsey. These include policies that focus on mentorship or address structural barriers, for example providing flexible hours for staff that need to care for families.
While McKinsey’s report focused on the private sector, the situation is much the same in the rest of the economy. The International Labour Organization pegs female participation in the workforce in India at 33 per cent. India’s social structure is loaded against working women. This usually means that as families climb up the economic ladder, women tend to work less. This has to change. If India’s goal is to become an economic powerhouse, it cannot do so while continuing to deny half the population easy access to the workplace.
Women readers, do you have a mentor who has changed your life? Hit reply or write to me at indiabrief@ft.com
Go figure
The government has approved a joint venture between HCL Technologies and Foxconn to set up a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Jewar in Uttar Pradesh, hailing it as a major step in strengthening the mobile phone manufacturing ecosystem in the country. Here is a snapshot.
Read, hear, watch
In the latest from the live music for geriatrics (myself included) trend that seems to be having a moment, rock and roll band Guns N’ Roses is playing in Mumbai tomorrow. Gates open at 3pm (10pm bedtime, I guess) and some tickets were still available when I checked yesterday.
The Indian Premier League, which was suspended because of escalated geopolitical tensions with Pakistan, will also resume tomorrow. The play-offs are not far away. Do you have any predictions? Email us at indiabrief@ft.com
Buzzer round
What connects the Swiss watch Tag Heuer, French cognac Hennessey and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty?
Send your answer to indiabrief@ft.com and check Tuesday’s newsletter to see if you were the first one to get it right.
Quick answer
On Tuesday, we asked: Are the worst of Trump’s disruptions over? Here are the results. Nearly 75 per cent of you, correctly, said they are not. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have bothered asking this.
Thank you for reading. India Business Briefing is edited by Tee Zhuo. Please send feedback, suggestions (and gossip) to indiabrief@ft.com.