The food-delivery race split in two
June-quarter numbers showed Eternal, Zomato’s parent, still holding over 58% of India’s food-delivery market by value, while Swiggy’s monthly transacting users grew 27.2% to 23.5 million (Business Standard). One is adding customers faster; the other keeps the larger, more profitable half. For a decade the fight was about who delivered more orders. It has quietly become about who makes money on the orders they already have, and for the brands selling through both apps, the leverage is consolidating into fewer hands.
Emami sold 15% more and earned 16% less
Emami reported first-quarter revenue up 15% to Rs 1,039 crore, its strongest domestic run in several quarters, even as profit after tax fell 16% (Investing.com). Input-cost inflation, a softer international business and a normalising tax rate did the pulling. The maker of Navratna and BoroPlus is the season in miniature: volumes are back, helped by a better rural mood, but raw materials climbed at the same time, and price hikes can only cover so much before the shopper pushes back.
The RBI held rates and raised its growth call
The Monetary Policy Committee kept the repo rate at 5.25% on August 5, its third straight hold, and stayed neutral (Forbes India). In the same breath it raised the FY27 growth forecast to 6.7%. A steady rate keeps home and vehicle EMIs where they are; the growth upgrade is the line that matters for anyone selling to the Indian consumer. A pause this deep into the year, paired with a better growth number, reads as a quiet vote of confidence in the second half.
Home-and-living D2C pulled fresh growth money
Home-and-living marketplace Vaaree raised Rs 65 crore in a Series A, one of the week’s larger consumer rounds (StartupTalky). It landed in a market where Indian startups raised $7.4 billion in the first half of 2026, a figure lifted heavily by a single CRED-Meta deal. The money is flowing, but it is pooling: marquee late-stage rounds take the bulk while smaller cheques stay thin. Home and living is one of the few consumer categories where a higher-ticket buy still routes through standard e-commerce, not the ten-minute shelf.
MG put its most expensive EVs on a 50-unit leash
JSW MG launched limited Couture editions of the M9 luxury van and the Cyberster electric roadster on August 3, each capped at 50 units (Autocar India). The cars sit at the top of India’s price ladder, and the scarcity is the point; fifty units is a marketing figure rather than a volume one. India’s mass EV story is still a two-wheeler and small-car story built on running-cost maths. A capped luxury edition is the opposite move, trading volume for image to pull the brand upmarket.
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