Blog

An office centre is being built in Delhi that will become a hub for Russian business in India

The opening of the Russian Business Centre in Delhi was announced by Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Sber has been operating in India for over 15 years; the bank already has offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, as well as its own IT hub in Bangalore. SberIndia operates as a full-fledged local bank, providing a comprehensive range of services for corporate clients and developing infrastructure for cooperation between Russian and Indian companies.

Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank:

“The development of relations between Russia and India, particularly in industrial cooperation, financial interaction, logistics, and technological partnership, is increasing the need for Russian companies to have a physical presence in India. The Russian Business Centre is not just an office building, but a key location for the Russian business community in India. Its residents will include both companies already operating in India and those just preparing to enter this market.”

The National Capital Territory of Delhi remains one of the key commercial real estate markets in India. The Centre is being built in one of Delhi’s most convenient business clusters in terms of infrastructure and logistics. Against the backdrop of an acute shortage of modern Class A office complexes in central Delhi, interest from tenants is very high.

In the first quarter of 2026, the total volume of office space lease transactions in India’s eight largest cities reached a record 2.8 million sq. m, of which 400,000 sq. m were in the National Capital Territory of Delhi — a 95% increase compared to the first quarter of 2025, according to a report by consultants. Investment interest today is focused on residential complexes, office space, warehouses, logistics centres, and data centres.

The project will become a flagship platform showcasing advanced technologies, digital services, and innovative solutions from the Sber ecosystem. Sber will offer residents of the new business centre a range of financial instruments for operating in India and business support services, including legal, tax, and audit support, as well as credit products.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is a unique event in the world of economics and business. SPIEF has been held since 1997, and since 2006 has been held under the patronage and with the participation of the President of Russia. Over the years, the Forum has become a leading global platform for business representatives to communicate and discuss key economic issues facing Russia, emerging markets, and the world as a whole. The XXIX St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is taking place from June 3 to 6, 2026. In its 185th anniversary year, Sber is the GigaPartner of SPIEF.

For decades, FMCG marketing operated on a relatively stable bargain. Television built salience, modern trade negotiated shelf visibility, general trade drove distribution, and digital added targeting, performance and younger consumers. The consumer journey was long enough for brands to separate awareness from consideration, and consideration from purchase.

Quick commerce compresses that journey into minutes.

That compression is not merely a delivery innovation. It is a media innovation. It changes where brands are discovered, how demand is created, and how quickly consumer intent can be converted into revenue. The most important shelf in India is no longer only in a kirana, supermarket aisle, or e-commerce search result. Increasingly, it sits inside a consumer’s phone, at the exact moment when the consumer has both intent and urgency.

The numbers explain why this shift is no longer optional. India’s quick commerce gross order value is estimated by CareEdge at around ₹64,000 crore in FY25 and projected to reach nearly ₹2 lakh crore by FY28. CareEdge also notes that platforms are now moving from pure hypergrowth to monetisation through advertising, subscriptions, private labels and tech-led optimisation. In its revenue-profile estimate, ads and brand boosts already account for 9–11% of quick-commerce revenue.

This is why FMCG companies need to stop treating quick-commerce advertising as a performance add-on. It is now becoming a core leg of the marketing mix.

The first reason is proximity to purchase. Traditional advertising creates demand somewhere upstream. Retail media captures it downstream. Quick commerce collapses both into one system: the consumer sees, searches, compares, adds and buys in one high-intent environment. This is especially powerful for categories with replenishment behaviour — beverages, snacks, personal care, baby care, pet care, household essentials, OTC wellness and impulse-led food.

The second reason is speed of feedback. FMCG has historically suffered from slow loops. A campaign runs, sales data arrives later, distribution gaps surface even later, and the brand team acts after the window has passed.

Quick-commerce platforms allow brands to see demand by city, time band, SKU, occasion and micro-market with far greater immediacy.

Zepto is a strong example of this shift. With 100+ brand collaborations, Zepto is no longer functioning only as a high-speed fulfilment platform. It is increasingly becoming a retail-media and consumer-intelligence environment for brands. Through Zepto Atom, brands can track impressions, conversions, share of voice, retention and hyperlocal consumer behaviour in near real time. Public reporting has also noted that Atom’s Persona module saw more than 1,500 brands engage during trial and over 40,000 hours of usage since launch.

That matters because FMCG companies have historically relied on delayed proxies: panel data, distributor feedback, retail audits, campaign reports and broad regional sales movements. Quick commerce gives them something sharper — a live view of consumer demand at the level of category, city, SKU, search term and even neighbourhood.

The third reason is that the advertising pool itself is moving. WPP Media’s TYNY forecast estimates India’s total ad market at ₹2,01,891 crore in 2026, with retail media emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments. Separate reporting on the December 2025 TYNY forecast put retail media advertising in India at ₹24,280 crore in 2025 and ₹30,360 crore in 2026, implying a 15% share of total ad revenue by 2026.

Quick commerce is a meaningful part of that retail-media shift. Datum Intelligence estimates advertising revenue for Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart will rise from about ₹3,000 crore in 2025 to ₹4,900 crore in 2026, making quick commerce one of the fastest-growing retail-media sub-segments in India. The same estimate places Amazon and Flipkart’s combined 2026 ad revenue at ₹19,000–20,000 crore, while food-delivery platforms

Zomato and Swiggy are expected to grow ad revenue from ₹2,500 crore in 2025 by 20–25% in 2026.

The international evidence points in the same direction. Amazon’s advertising revenue crossed $68 billion in 2025, while Walmart’s global ad business reached $6.4 billion, growing sharply as retail media became central to its broader commerce flywheel. Instacart’s advertising and other revenue reached $294 million in Q4 2025 alone, with the company describing ads as a resilient and diversified revenue stream.

The implication for FMCG is clear: the marketing mix is moving from a funnel to a loop.

In the old model, media built awareness, distribution created availability, and trade schemes drove conversion. In the new model, the platform does all three simultaneously. A sponsored placement creates visibility, instant availability enables conversion, and the resulting data improves the next media decision. The brand does not just buy reach. It buys a closed-loop demand system.

This does not mean FMCG brands should abandon mass media. In a country as large and diverse as India, television, outdoor, creator marketing and broad digital video will continue to build memory structures. But quick commerce changes the role of these media. Mass media will increasingly create cultural demand; quick-commerce media will harvest, measure and compound it.

For FMCG brands, the winners will be the companies that reorganise around this reality. They will create quick-commerce-specific SKUs, daypart-led bundles, occasion-based search strategies, city-level media plans and rapid testing calendars. They will treat platform search share like shelf share. They will track out-of-stock as a media failure, not only a supply-chain failure. They will plan launches with quick commerce in the room from day zero.

And platforms like Zepto are becoming central to this transition because they sit at the intersection of media, commerce, data and fulfilment. A brand can advertise, sell, measure, learn and optimise within the same ecosystem.

The risk for FMCG is not that quick commerce becomes too expensive. The risk is that it becomes too important to enter late.

Working with mouse models, research led by the University of Michigan has revealed previously hidden biology of how touch-sensitive hairs create itching sensations. This fundamental discovery opens new avenues to better understand and potentially address human health conditions characterized by persistent itchiness. 

“Itch is one of the major symptoms in most chronic skin inflammation patients,” said Bo Duan, associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. “What we’ve discovered is a pathway that we believe plays a very important role for both acute and chronic itch sensation.”

The team discovered a previously unrecognized class of hairs in mice, known as vellus-like hairs, and a specialized population of touch-sensitive neurons that connect to them. As their name suggests, these hairs are similar to the fine, short, light-colored vellus hairs found on humans, though we more commonly refer to them as peach fuzz.

The work, supported in part by funding from the National Institutes of Health, was published in the journal Neuron. For one set of experiments, the team worked with mice that had chronic skin inflammation, which is known as eczema in humans. Mice that expressed these neurons scratched normally, as one would expect. But, for mice that lacked those neurons or in which the neurons were inactive, the itching response was greatly reduced.While there are a number of ways to help soothe chemical itch caused by things like mosquito bites and poison ivy, those treatments are ineffective against itch caused by skin inflammation, Duan said. This study suggests treatments that target the “mechanical itch” pathway could be more successful.

“We need a new pathway to target if we want to treat chronic itch,” Duan said. “And our research suggests that this population of neurons could be a target in the future. We have ongoing projects looking at this.”

Although the team can’t run experiments to directly identify the same or related pathways in humans, the researchers are already building the case with other forms of evidence. For starters, humans do possess genes required to make these touch-sensitive neurons. 

The team also discovered proteins in mice that help transmit the itch signal from hairs to the spinal cord via the specialized neurons. Human neurons grown in cultures respond to the same proteins, the team found.

“Our study indicates that humans may have this same kind of mechanism to transmit mechanical itch,” Duan said. “It also reveals that the body has a dedicated system for this type of sensation.”

A real head-scratcher

It’s one of Duan’s favorite science demonstrations, one that he gave while interviewing for his job and one that he still shows to students joining his lab.

First, you take a tissue and roll one of its corners into a long, fine point. Then take that point and, ever so gently, stroke at the hairs around your lips. Not the thicker, darker hairs, which are called terminal hairs, but the thin, light vellus hairs. If you graze one just right, that peach fuzz will make you itch.

“Humans and animals experience this kind of itch, but no one knew the molecular and cellular mechanisms behind it,” Duan said. The new study identifies the sensory pathway that links specialized hairs to itch and, together with earlier research from Duan and his teammates, helps explain how these signals are transmitted through the nervous system.It was more than a century ago that scientists first noted that the vellus-like hairs of mice, which are especially concentrated behind their ears, beneath their lips and at the base of their paws, were “special.” Yet these hairs have remained largely understudied in sensory science, Duan said.Because of that, there really weren’t any standard procedures to test whether and how mice responded to mechanical itch. That meant Duan and his colleagues had to develop their own methods.”A mouse can’t say that it’s itchy,” Duan said. “But it will scratch.”For the new study, the team mechanically stimulated itch in mice using a small loop of thread and stroking the animal’s vellus-like hairs. Once they identified the neurons that gave rise to the itching response, the researchers could then make those neurons sensitive to blue light. Shining light on a mouse’s skin and observing it scratch in the same way it did with mechanical stimulation helped confirm the specific neurons’ role in itch.

Peach fuzz and peach fuzz-like hairs grow in higher numbers near human and mice mouths and ears, Duan said. This suggests they may have evolved as a warning system for mammals to alert them when pests or parasites are trying to get in.

But human bodies are covered in vellus hair (with some notable exceptions like the palms of our hands) and you may wonder why we’re not constantly scratching if we’re coated with such sensitive touch receptors. Another one of Duan’s earlier projects studying itch in mice could also explain that: Within the spinal cord, there are “gating” circuits at work that essentially block the mechanical itch signal unless it’s activated in a particular way.

Chandigarh, June 06: Odisha has been recognised as one of India’s leading performers in the implementation of the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, securing the top position among states in the medium consumer base category at the prestigious PM Surya Ghar Excellence Awards.

The recognition follows Odisha‘s outstanding performance during the nationwide “Month of Solar“ campaign held in May 2026. The achievement is a result of the collaborative efforts of the Government of Odisha and the Tata Power-led Odisha DISCOMs. Operating as joint ventures with the state government, these DISCOMs serve as the nodal agencies for implementing the rooftop solar programme across Odisha.

Odisha earned national recognition across key implementation parameters, demonstrating excellence in consumer outreach, project execution, and operational efficiency:

• 1st Rank – Highest Number of Consumer Applications under PM Surya Ghar
• 1st Rank – Maximum Rooftop Solar Installations Commissioned
• 1st Rank – Highest Number of DISCOM Technical Inspections Conducted
• 3rd Rank – Maximum Vendor Registrations, strengthening the state’s solar ecosystem

 As of June 2026, Odisha has recorded remarkable progress under the PM Surya Ghar initiative. The rapid adoption of rooftop solar is helping households reduce dependence on conventional grid power while enabling significant savings on monthly electricity expenses.

The impact of the programme extends beyond clean energy generation. Thousands of households across Odisha are witnessing substantial reductions in their electricity bills, with many consumers reporting near-zero monthly power expenses.

In Western Odisha alone, nearly 11,000 households have received nearly zero bills through rooftop solar adoption. The resulting savings are being channelled towards essential household priorities, including education, healthcare, mobility, and long-term financial security.

The success of Odisha‘s rooftop solar programme highlights the state’s commitment to accelerating clean energy adoption, strengthening energy self-reliance, and advancing India’s renewable energy goals.

With continued support from the Government of Odisha, Tata Power-led Odisha DISCOMs, implementation partners, and consumers, the state is creating a scalable model for sustainable energy transition; one that combines environmental responsibility with tangible socio-economic benefits for citizens.

The recognition at the PM Surya Ghar Excellence Awards reinforces Odisha‘s position as a frontrunner in India’s clean energy transformation and underscores its vision of building a greener, more energy-secure future for all.

Bhubaneswar, June 6: In a significant step towards aligning skill development with global trade opportunities, the World Skill Centre (WSC), Bhubaneswar and the World Trade Centre (WTC), Bhubaneswar today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the World Skill Centre campus.

The MoU was formalised during a ceremonial event held at the 15th Floor Lecture Hall of the World Skill Centre, in the presence of senior leadership, dignitaries, and industry representatives. The programme included addresses by institutional leaders followed by the formal exchange and signing of the MoU, marking the beginning of a strategic partnership between the two institutions.

The collaboration aims to create a strong convergence between skill development and global trade ecosystems by integrating international industry linkages into training programmes and enhancing global employability of skilled youth. This partnership is expected to play a pivotal role in positioning Odisha as a hub for globally competitive talent.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. A. Rajyalaxmi, Regional Director, World Trade Centre Bhubaneswar, highlighted the importance of skilled human capital in today’s interconnected global economy. She emphasised that the collaboration would facilitate international exposure, industry engagement, and access to global markets for emerging talent.

The World Trade Centre Bhubaneswar, an accredited member of the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA), is committed to promoting international trade, investment, and business linkages. Through its global network, it enables enterprises and institutions to connect with international markets and opportunities.

The World Skill Centre, established under the Government of Odisha, is recognised as one of India’s leading institutions in advanced skill development. With state-of-the-art infrastructure and a strong focus on industry-aligned training, WSC continues to bridge the gap between industry requirements and workforce capabilities.

Under the scope of this MoU, both institutions will collaborate on initiatives such as facilitating international internships and apprenticeships, developing export-oriented skill modules, enabling joint certification programmes, and promoting global placement opportunities. The partnership will also support knowledge-sharing platforms, industry interactions, and exposure to international trade ecosystems.