The Money Trap; Quick commerce drives Swiggy’s growth in Q2

Hello,

How much should a CEO earn?

That’s the question plaguing Tesla as CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package was rejected a second time by a judge. Earlier, another judge had ruled that Musk individually “controlled Tesla” and dictated the terms of his compensation to a board that didn’t fairly negotiate.

Many at Intel would also be pondering the same after Pat Gelsinger was forced to resign as CEO over his failure to turn around the iconic chipmaker now no longer a part of the Dow. He will receive $10 million in severance pay, which is just a drop in the ocean as his yearly compensation totalled $16.7 billion. 

In India, too, the disparity between CEO and employee compensation continues to expand, especially in the IT sector. Former Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte’s compensation was $20 million—1,702 times the median remuneration of Rs 9.8 lakh in FY24.

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy had famously said a fair CEO remuneration should be 25-40 times that of the lowest level employee. 

Some now are coming around to the idea of capping CEO pay. The majority of workers in the UK agreed chief executive pay should be set as a multiple of workers’ low or average earnings, according to a poll by the High Pay Centre.

After all, not everyone can be Deepinder Goyal. The Zomato CEO decided to forego his salary till March 31, 2026. This means that he won't be taking home any remuneration for five years.

Meanwhile, the company approved the allotment of 47.75 crore equity shares under multiple ESOP schemes to an employee welfare trust. Its share capital will now increase from Rs 917.28 crore to 965.03 crore.

In other news, PlayStation has turned 30. Here’s a look at its journey as a CD add-on to ushering video games into a new era.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• The Money Trap with Alok Sama
• Quick commerce drives Swiggy’s growth in Q2
• Towards social inclusion in farming

Here’s your trivia for today: The blue whale has the largest heart in the animal kingdom. How much does the organ weigh?

Interview

Understanding The Money Trap with Alok Sama

SoftBank Group International's former President and CFO Alok Sama has orchestrated some of Masayoshi Son's most ambitious deals at SoftBank—including the $32-billion acquisition of Arm Holdings and the $59-billion Sprint-T-Mobile merger. 

He now finds himself contemplating what lies beyond the balance sheets. “There's a period in your life when it's all about accumulating wealth,” he tells YourStory's Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma, “but at some stage, you're supposed to go beyond that. That's what I mean by the money trap.”

Success:

• In his memoir The Money Trap, Sama talks about how success can become a gilded cage.
• The trap, Sama suggests, lies not in the pursuit of prosperity but in mistaking it for life's ultimate purpose.
• Sama elaborates on his philosophical framework, drawing from Hindu scripture despite his atheist stance. He describes the traditional life stages, where one moves from student to householder, accumulating wealth. "But at some stage," says Sama, "you're supposed to go beyond that, and I find this idea of going beyond that—fairly embedded in our philosophy—kind of being lost completely."

<Funding Alert>

Startup: Agrileaf 

Amount: Rs 16 Cr

Round: Growth

Startup: GoodLives 

Amount: Rs 1.1 Cr

Round: Pre-Seed

Startup: Bumboo

Amount: Undisclosed

Round: Angel

Foodtech

Quick commerce drives Swiggy’s growth in Q2

Food delivery and quick commerce player Swiggy posted a 30% YoY increase in its operating revenue in Q2 FY25, driven by quick commerce growth and profitability in the core food delivery business.

Key takeaways:

• The company’s operating revenue increased to Rs 3,601.4 crore during the July-September 2024 quarter, up from Rs 2,763.3 crore earned in the corresponding quarter in the previous year, according to an exchange filing. 
• Doubling down on its quick commerce efforts, Swiggy’s Instamart plans to double its dark store count by the end of the financial year from 523 stores in March 2024. It has already increased the number of dark stores to 609 during Q2.
• In related news, Swiggy said it will invest Rs 1,600 crore in its material subsidiary Scootsy Logistics Private Limited by way of subscription to its rights issue.

Social impact

Towards social inclusion in farming

Disability rights activist Pavan Muntha has worked towards a broader push for social reform. 

In 2011, he relocated to a Dalit-majority village in Andhra Pradesh, where he began experimenting with sustainable farming practices. His goal was not only to address the agricultural crisis—exacerbated by monocropping and heavy use of chemicals—but also to empower marginalised Dalit and tribal communities, including those with disabilities.

Together:

• Muntha tried to ease farmers’ problems by promoting the adoption of natural farming. Inspired by the work of agriculturist Subhash Palekar, he used techniques such as using cow dung and urine for fertilisation, line sowing, and multi-cropping to promote biodiversity. 
• His efforts culminated in a landmark three-day workshop in Visakhapatnam in 2015, which brought together over 8,000 farmers and policymakers. 
• By including disabled individuals in agricultural practices, Muntha envisions an inclusive future where marginalised groups can achieve economic independence, self-sufficiency, and dignity. 

News & updates

• Clean flying: Most of the world's airlines are not doing enough to switch to sustainable jet fuel, according to a study by the Brussels-based advocacy group Transport and Environment, which also found too little investment by oil producers in the transition.
• Market cap: SpaceX is reportedly considering plans to sell existing shares at a price that could value billionaire Elon Musk's space firm at roughly $350 billion. That would be a significant premium to a previously mulled valuation of $255 billion, Bloomberg reported.
• Lawsuit: Thousands of UK businesses could receive payouts if a legal claim filed against tech giant Microsoft is successful. Regulation expert Dr Maria Luisa Stasi is alleging the tech giant overcharged companies for its Window Server software, used in cloud computing. She is seeking compensation of over £1 billion on behalf of UK businesses.

The blue whale has the largest heart in the animal kingdom. How much does the organ weigh?

Answer: 180 kg.

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