Newsletter
India’s rare-earth push, Google’s Andhra bet, and Gen Z media company bags funding.
🗓 Morning, folks!
After a slow, rangebound start, markets found their groove on Thursday and ended on a high note.
IT and metal stocks led the rally, with metals climbing nearly 2% as global prices strengthened.
The real spark came from pharma counters, which soared 3-4% after reports confirmed that certain generic drugs were spared from U.S. tariffs, sending a wave of relief through the sector.
Let’s hit it!
💡 Spotlight: India UK forge new ties
India & the UK have deepened their defence and trade ties during UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s first visit to India. The two nations advanced the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) and signed a $468 million deal for UK-made lightweight missiles for the Indian Army.
On his two-day visit to India, Starmer set out to energise the trade pact signed in July, unlocking fresh opportunities between the two countries.
The deal includes tariff cuts on everything from textiles and whisky to cars, paving the way for greater market access and an ambitious $34 billion boost in trade by 2040.
Let’s hit it!
1 Big thing: TCS beats street with strong Q2 show 💰
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) kicked off the Q2FY26 earnings season with numbers that beat street expectations.
By the numbers:
- Net profit: Down 3.8% QoQ at ₹12,075 cr vs ₹12,760 cr
- Revenue: Up 3.7% QoQ at ₹65,799 cr vs ₹63,437 cr
- Margin: at 25.2% vs 24.5%
- $ revenue: up 0.6% QoQ at $7,466 million vs $7,421 million
Most Indian IT firms earn largely from the US and Europe, making dollar revenue a key indicator of global growth, demand, and performance.
Headcount check: TCS trimmed its workforce by about 19,700 employees in Q2, bringing total headcount to 6.13 lakh.
Deal book: The company signed $10 billion worth of contracts, including expanded partnerships with a top global healthcare major, Scandinavian insurer Tryg, and US-based oilfield player Weatherford International.
What’s next: TCS is going all in on AI and cloud. It plans to set up a new business unit to build AI infrastructure and a 1 GW AI data center in India, one of the biggest in the country.
The company also announced the acquisition of ListEngage, a Salesforce specialist, to boost its digital and customer engagement game.
2. India gets a ₹7,350 crore push for rare earth magnets 🧲
The government is set to launch a scheme worth ₹7,350 crore to bolster domestic production for sintered rare earth permanent magnets.
Sintered rare earth permanent magnets have strong magnetic properties, are high in energy and are resistant to demagnetisation which makes them critical for industries like automotives, electric vehicles, medical devices and renewable energy sources.
The why: with this, India wants to promote indigenous production of rare earth minerals and cut down import dependence. India extensively relies on foreign countries for rare earth minerals, with China being a major supplier.
In the year 2023-24 alone, India imported 1,185 tonnes of rare earth minerals, out of which 59% came from China. But amid wobbly relations, India wants to cut down this reliance.
For India, this is a massive opportunity as the country ranks third in critical energy reserves and is reported to have 6.9 million tonnes of untapped rare earth reserves. And initiatives like this can help India become a key supplier in this lucrative market.
3. Google bets $10B on Andhra’s data centre boom 🤝
Google is set to invest $10 billion to establish its largest data centre cluster in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
The deets: the tech giant plans to develop a one-gigawatt mega data centre region, which will become Asia’s largest, once completed. Beyond data centres, the investment includes three high-capacity submarine cables, dedicated cable landing stations, and extensive metro fibre networks.
Why it matters: the project is expected to contribute an average of ₹10,518 crore annually to Andhra Pradesh’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) between 2028 & 2032.
Big picture: Google’s $10 billion investment highlights how global tech giants are racing to build India’s digital backbone. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is also planning one of India’s largest AI data centres with at least 1 gigawatt of capacity.
Even with these challenges, India’s data centre market is growing fast. Right now, the country has about 1.2 gigawatts of capacity, and that’s expected to triple by 2030.
Big players like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure already handle about 30% of the demand, a share likely to grow even more in the coming years.
While we are on investments,
Graphcore is planning to announce a $1.3 billion investment package in India that includes a new research hub.
SoftBank Group-owned Graphcore designs advanced AI chips and computing systems that accelerate machine learning training, inference, and large-scale data processing.
The deets: the company plans to open the research facility in Bengaluru and plans to hire as many as 500 people in the semiconductor space over the next five years.
4. Netweb Tech-Bud join hands to bolster India’s AI infra ⚡️
Netweb Technologies India announced a partnership with Bud Ecosystem (Bud), to jointly develop affordable, localised AI infra solutions. However, its shares slipped nearly 9% following the news.
Netweb Technologies designs & manufactures high-performance computing systems, servers, and AI infrastructure solutions.
Bengaluru-based Bud Ecosystem develops digital tools and platforms that enhance productivity, collaboration, and innovation for businesses and creators.
What’s brewing: under the partnership, Netweb will combine its scalable, high-performance computing systems with Bud’s AI foundry software. Together, they aim to deliver ready-to-deploy AI solutions for sectors such as education, healthcare, retail, agriculture, and small businesses.
They will create AI-in-a-box systems that come with both the hardware and software set up in advance, so people can use powerful AI tools even in places with poor internet or limited tech expertise.
Why it matters: this partnership reflects the growing push to democratise AI, projected to add $967 billion to India’s economy by 2035.
5. Rusk Media gets ₹103 crore to boost expansion📱
Rusk Media has raised ₹103 crore in Series B funding led by IvyCap Ventures with participation from other investors.
Rusk Media is a Gen Z-focused media company that produces content and distributes content across social and video streaming platforms.
Zoom out: India’s Entertainment and Media sector is slated to grow at a rate of 8.3%.This growth is primarily driven by India’s massive millennial and Gen Z population. By capitalising on its young audience demographic, Rusk is well positioned to make the most of this growth spurt and help India expand its share in the global entertainment sector.
6. Stock that kept us interested
1. L&T bags ₹15,000 crore order in Middle East 💰
L&T shares gained after its Hydrocarbon Onshore arm won an order worth ₹15,000 crore to set up a Natural Gas Liquids plant and allied facilities in the Middle East.
The contract will be carried out in partnership with Greece-based CCC (Consolidated Contractors Group) S.A.L.
The deets: under the contract, L&T will look after engineering and procurement while CCC will look after other construction activities. The aim of the project is to process Rich Associated Gas (RAG) and produce products like lean sales gas, ethane, propane, butane etc.
Rich Associated Gas is a natural gas found with crude oil which has high proportions of heavier hydrocarbons. This helps in powering wind turbines and electric engines, serve as petrochemical feedstock, and produce Natural Gas Liquids.
Big picture: the move will help L&T cement itself as a reliable partner in the offshore oil & trading industry.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
💊 Manufacturing push: Lupin will invest $250 million to build a Florida plant producing over 25 key respiratory drugs with R&D and infrastructure expansion.
🚀 Tariff relief: Pharma stocks rose up to 4% on October 9 after reports said Trump’s administration won’t impose tariffs on foreign generic drugs.
And that’s a wrap. Pour yourself an extra one this weekend.
We’ll be back like clockwork on Monday!
Hit that 💚 if you liked this issue.
