From Xiaomi's new playbook to life in Russia despite the war: Our top stories of the week

Clockwise: Muralikrishnan B, president Xiaomi India; QR codes of digital payment, Prashant Jain, Founder, 3P Investment Managers Pvt Ltd; a rider performs a scooter flip in Russia

1) Changing the playbook

A decade ago, whenever Xiaomi launched its smartphones or devices from Redmi, they were picked up by consumers in a matter of seconds. The company understood the power of ecommerce in 2014 when every other brand was still playing the offline game. “The first four-five years were like Midas touch for us,” recalls Muralikrishnan B, who joined the Chinese brand as the chief operating officer in 2018 and four years later was elevated to president in July 2022. At one point, the Chinese phone maker had cornered a 31 percent market share because of its strong roster of budget phones for the masses. But every fairy tale reaches a low point. In the first quarter of 2024, Xiaomi registered only a 19 percent market share. This budget warrior wants to get the top spot once again. It is changing its entire playbook for it. Here's how.

2) Temper your expectations

Prashant Jain has extensive experience in how markets work as a former chief investment officer of HDFC AMC. So when experts like these speak, one must listen. He believes that equity returns of the past three to four years must not be extrapolated, and expectations of future returns must be modest and realistic as there isn’t room for market multiples to move up substantially. The CIO and fund manager at 3P Investment Managers sounds caution when watching the exceedingly great performance of the market. This might be a good option just to hedge the performances in the short term, but investors are better off avoiding it for the long term because they always end up eroding value. Read and gather some wisdom from the words of Don Bradman of the Indian mutual fund industry.

3) D2C Kingmaker

Early-stage investor Kanwaljit Singh is credited with scaling up dozens of new-age consumer startups over the past seven years. With unconventional strategies, the 'Kingmaker', as Singh is fondly called, bucked the trend, and bet on digital brands to redefine the D2C landscape in the country. The founder and managing partner of Fireside Ventures says, "There was a way to disrupt how brands were built. But there was no real knowledge on the ground on how to do it. My conviction was that we can build great brands, establish playbooks to help these companies succeed, and demonstrate that an early-stage fund can be built around this theme." Tune in to this episode of Pathbreakers to understand how trends shape consumer behaviour, the tool kit for building sustainable brands, the finer nuances of investing in D2C businesses, and more.

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1) Better days for deep tech

In the new episode of Forbes India Tech Conversations, Rajan Anandan, a managing director at the venture capital firm Peak XV Partners, talks about how India's deep tech ecosystem is today, where the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector was ten years ago. He believes we will soon see big, deep science and engineering-based global companies emerge from India. Anandan, who also leads Peak XV's Surge accelerator program for early-stage startups, also talks about why there's never been a better time to start in deep tech in India and why deep tech enterprises need foundational support and patience from investors.

2) Small towns and digital payments wave

Kearney India and Amazon Pay India's latest report titled 'How Urban India Pays' reveals that 90 percent of respondents favour digital payments for online purchases, and only half extend the same preference to brick-and-mortar stores. As of FY24, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) continues to be the most popular, with a 68 percent market share of retail digital payments in India, valued at $3.6 trillion. Aadhaar-enabled payments systems (AePS), BHIM, IMPS and others constitute 23 percent, followed by credit cards with 6 percent and debit cards with just 2 percent. It appears that there's still more ground to cover when it comes to digital payments. Small towns might be a great key to unlocking that potential. Here are the other predictions from the study.

3) From budget beauty to a luxe Lanka

These days, Sri Lanka, India's southern neighbour, features in the headlines because of poor performance at the recently concluded T20 World Cup or because of Men in Blue's upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, in which Gautam Gambhir's skills as a national coach will be tested. It is also featured in the headlines for trying to settle its internal politics to more peaceful conclusions. There are more massive efforts going on when it comes to bringing its economy back on track. One support seems to come from the tourism sector. Sri Lanka is shedding its budget destination garbs (at least in the eyes of Indian tourists) and showing off the new colours of the opulence of new properties, the splendour of its beautiful beaches, and the abundance of cultural and culinary experience on offer.

4) Russia, despite the war

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Russia for his first state visit after being elected to office for the third term. It was a calculated move against the backdrop of Russia's war with Ukraine, India's need to access defence technology, cheap crude oil, and strengthen ties to hedge security against China. Reaction from the West was predictable. But if we remove this game of perceptions, there's a country that is still functioning daily, beginning to thrive again, celebrating festivals, and continuing with its daily routine. Despite sanctions issued by some of the world's most powerful economies over the Ukraine war, Russia's economy grew by 3.6 percent in 2023. Life goes on for the Russian people, a hardy race, as their history - and these photos - will attest.