Arvind's Newsletter

1.Game in the sky: Will Musk's Starlink disrupt India's broadband universe? Surajeet Das Gupta, Business Standard

Will the entry of Elon Musk’s Starlink disrupt India’s broadband universe dominated by telcos? That question has kept analysts busy after Starlink, a fully-owned subsidiary of SpaceX —majority owned by Musk — got the go-ahead from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) last week to start its satellite broadband service in the country.

For starters, Musk seems to be taking cautious steps, having waited three years for the Starlink application to get through. After a prolonged war of words between telcos led by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel on one side and foreign players led by Musk on the other, the two sides have teamed up now.    

Recently, both Jio and Airtel signed up with SpaceX for distribution of Starlink in India. Quite a switch from the days of  clash —domestic players favoured auction of spectrum and the foreign companies sought administered allocation of airwaves. Airtel had shifted its stance from backing administered allocation of spectrum to supporting auction. 

That will reduce Starlink’s cost of  setting up a distribution system from the scratch. In fact, in many countries, telcos have entered such tieups after initial resistance. Through such ventures with Starlink, Telstra in Australia offers services in remote areas, KDDI in Japan, and Roger Communications in Canada. Read on

2.Despite losing market share, why BigBasket is still a good bet: Economic Times

For long, BigBasket was the unquestioned leader in India’s online grocery market. Four years ago, it was more than twice as large as its nearest competitor. Be it the resourceful e-commerce marketplace giants Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart or the venture capital darling Grofers, nobody could unseat BigBasket from its numero uno position. 

In 2021, at 450,000 daily orders, 20 million users, USD1 billion GMV (gross merchandise value) and 34% share of a crowded market, BigBasket, almost profitable, looked like a sure-footed market leader marching its way to bourses under the new parent, the Tata Group.

Cut to 2025: Much of online grocery has been shifted to instant delivery championed by Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart. BigBasket has been relegated to a distant fourth in terms of order numbers in instant delivery. The long-drawn transition to quick commerce amid its younger rivals’ rapid and capital-intensive expansion cost BigBasket dearly. 

Despite the tough three years, BigBakset holds steady. A few things are still going for the firm.

1. It may still be the largest online grocery player by revenue. BigBasket in FY24 clocked INR10,000 crore in revenue. It owns inventory. It targeted INR12,500 revenue crore for FY25. If it met its target, it would still be double the size of quick commerce market leader Blinkit in terms of revenue.

2. When speed and reach become comparable among all quick commerce players, sourcing, selection and supply chain would begin to matter more. BigBasket can play to strength there. The sourcing strength in fruits and vegetables could help the company make better margins.

3. Despite the quick commerce upheaval, BigBasket’s fundamentals remain stable. While operating in a highly competitive and cash guzzling instant-delivery business, it maintains an Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margin of -9. The company targets to be profitable in the next six months.

3.How fact-checker Mohammed Zubair turned India’s Chief of Information War during Op Sindoor night

Zubair’s heroic effort on the frontlines of Pakistan’s disinformation war is being showered with praise. This is new for a journalist who is perennially in the Right wing’s line of fire. Reports Antara Baruah in The Print. With thanks to Founding Fuel Publishing.

“On X, Zubair also shared a list of Pakistan accounts masquerading as Indian Armed Forces personnel. One such account is named Admiral Arun Prakash, whose bio reads: Former naval-person. Now naval-gazer. “India is in my blood,” another bio reads.

A third verified account describes itself as a proud Indian and “Congress supporter”. Hamid Mir has “amplified” the fake news shared by this propaganda account.

4.Donald Trump speaks to Saudi forum after agreeing $600bn AI and defence deal (falls short of $1 trillion target in deals): Financial Times

Donald Trump hailed the US’s relationship with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, just hours after the White House unveiled $600bn worth of defence and artificial intelligence deals with the kingdom. 

The US president on Tuesday lauded the kingdom and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as he began the first leg of his dealmaking, three-nation tour of the oil-rich Gulf.

The deals unveiled on Tuesday included a commitment by Saudi Arabia’s new state-owned AI company, Humain, to build AI infrastructure in the kingdom using several “hundred thousands” of Nvidia’s most advanced chips over the next five years.

That would make it one of the biggest AI chip orders by a state company, underlining the scale of Prince Mohammed’s ambitions to position Saudi Arabia as a global AI hub and boosting Nvidia’s desire to build “sovereign AI” infrastructure around the world.

5.Chinese commentators hailed the tariff breakthrough with Washington as a victory for Beijing, while US experts questioned President Donald Trump’s objectives.

Ever since Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, China remained defiant, vowing to “fight to the end” and refusing to lower duties unilaterally. Ultimately, “the US backed down,” a Trivium China analyst said, making China “confident that they have leverage over the US.”

For Washington, the climbdown blunts several of Trump’s stated goals, like using duties to fund tax cuts, analysts said. The “two big losers,” Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal argued, are those who had hoped “for a Trump-led economic catastrophe” and those who thought his duties were part of a “brilliant, strategic plan” to rectify the US’ global economic standing.

6.AI Startup Perplexity’s Valuation Surges to $14 Billion in New Funding Round

Perplexity, the artificial intelligence search engine, is finalising a funding round that would value the start-up at $14bn, a $5bn jump from the valuation it secured six months ago, as it capitalises on a hot market for AI investments.

The $500mn round is being led by venture capital firm Accel, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. It would be Perplexity’s fifth funding round in less than 18 months.

Perplexity, which aims to break Google’s two-decade dominance of the search market, is among a new generation of AI start-ups that have attracted intense interest from investors.

7.Eli Lilly's Zepbound beat Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy in a big weight loss drug study

Weight loss drug Zepbound outperforms rival Wegovy in first head-to-head clinical trial, with Zepbound averaging about 20% drop in weight over 72 weeks compared to just under 14% with Wegovy.

8.Why Apple can’t just quit China

Patrick McGee, author of the new book Apple in China, on the too-close-to-break relationship between the world’s second-most valuable company and its biggest geopolitical rival.

Apple, the world’s second-most valuable company, is caught between the U.S., its home country, and China, its primary manufacturing base. Over the past few years, Apple has set up more production lines in Vietnam and India, and Chief Executive Tim Cook recently said most iPhones sold in the U.S. would be made in India. The company has also pledged to buy chips from TSMC’s Arizona plant and to make servers in Texas starting next year. 

Yet McGee, who reported on Apple for the Financial Times, argues that the company is still far from withdrawing from China. The company has invested billions of dollars in talent and equipment in China, and the country’s authoritarian government now has more influence over Apple’s fate than any other country, he writes. As China and the U.S. held their closely watched trade talks, McGee spoke to Rest of World about where Apple stands. 

9.How curiosity rewires the brain for change

Curiosity is often treated as a personality quirk — something childlike and playful, maybe even optional. But neuroscience paints a different picture. When we’re curious, the brain’s dopaminergic system — the same one that lights up when we anticipate a reward — kicks into gear. Simply put, curiosity makes us feel good about the prospect of discovering something new.

It also helps us learn more efficiently, enhancing hippocampal activity and boosting our capacity to form and retain new memories. Studies show that when people are curious about a topic, they not only remember the specific information they were interested in but also retain unrelated material better.

Perhaps most importantly, curiosity promotes neuro-plasticity, the brain’s ability to rewire itself in response to new experiences. This makes it an ideal cognitive state for those inevitable moments of change when we need to break established neural patterns and form new connections.

10.Ex-marine tops Everest after 8,000-mile triathlon

A former Royal Marine has reached the summit of Mount Everest after swimming, cycling and running more than 8,000 miles.

Mitch Hutchcraft started by swimming the English Channel on 15 September and the 240-day challenge concluded when he topped the world's highest mountain on Sunday.

His team said it was the world's longest ever ascent of Everest from sea to summit.