☕ AI has spoken

Good morning, Indian grocery startups are luring urban customers with the promise of under-10-minute deliveries, heating up concerns about road safety as bike riders scramble to meet tight deadlines. 

“Ten minutes is very sharp. If there was a (road safety) regulator, it would have said this can't be a company's unique selling point,” said a former road secretary, Vijay Chhibber, to Reuters. 

🛒 We say do it the old fashioned way - walk to the local grocery store and pick up your supplies. 

It'll keep a biker out of danger, make retail real estate profitable, and also justify the money you spent on that long forgotten fitness tracker. 

😷↔1 metre↔😷

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xRE ESSENTIALS

Gurugram Led NCR Office Absorption In 2021

We were looking at office absorption reports and guess what? Gurugram is a hot favourite among companies looking to expand or setup their offices. 

Got Some Numbers?

Sample this. Demand for office space in Delhi NCR grew 50% YoY in 2021, and Gurugram signed the most leases, accounting for 64% of all signatures, per Colliers.

In all, a total of 6.3 million sq. ft. of office space was absorbed across NCR in 2021, with startups - leased over 1 million sq. ft. - and tech firms signing the most amount of leases.

The need for quality is driving occupiers' real estate strategy and Noida Expressway, Golf Course Extension Road and DLF Cybercity drove the bulk of leasing activity as they looked for better-quality buildings.

But, But, But...

When Haryana introduced its local hiring quota for corporates in the state, word on the street was Gurugram would lose out to Noida as a preferred office destination.

However, only Delhi NCR can claim significant office absorption numbers in North India, as other major cities in this region are not preferred office markets yet. Also, the hub-and-spoke model has not been successful due to the mindset of the workforce still choosing to move to major metros, per the report.

With that as a background and the availability of high quality office spaces, Gurugram remains one of India's most sought after office destinations. 

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Time Travel Is Free

Long before Gurugram became a corporate destination, young trees could be seen growing around a newly constructed India Gate - the epicentre of the present day capital of our country. 

🔖  Designed by Edwin Lutyens, the principal planner of New Delhi, India Gate's cornerstone was laid in 1921 by the duke of Connaught, the third son of Queen Victoria. 

Construction of the All-India War Memorial, as it was originally known, continued through 1931, the year of the formal dedication of New Delhi as the capital of India. 

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RETAIL

Amazon Goes Brick-And-Mortar

Amazon recently announced its plan to open the brand's first brick-and-mortar retail fashion store later this year in sunny Glendale, California.

The store, called Amazon Style (a combination of the brand name and the concept of style) will feature some techy upgrades to old-school physical retail. 

🛒 Customers can send items to a fitting room via the Amazon Shopping app. 

🛒 QR codes on items can be scanned to see additional sizes, colours, and ratings.

🛒 Fitting rooms will offer new recommendations based on what customers want to try on. 

Rather than being a larger version of AmazonBasics, Amazon Style plans to “meet every budget and price point”—with offerings ranging from USD5 socks to USD500 shirts.

On the real estate side, the store will be about 2,787 sq. m. (30,000 sq. ft.) in size. 

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METAVERSE

Virtual Land Grab To Continue, Says AI

In a true WTF moment last year, a virtual plot of land on a high street located inside the hard drive of a server, sold for millions of dollars. 

But according to Artificial Intelligence (AI), 2021's mad rush for virtual land is likely just a start.

Some Background

NWO is an AI startup that tracks millions of texts from news articles, social media platforms Twitter and Reddit, and Google Search, among other places, in order to predict broader emerging trends.

So far:

✅ Its AI foresaw millions of retail traders driving massive gains in meme stock companies like GameStop a year ago, and

✅ It predicted troubles for Chinese real estate giant Evergrande.

Zooming In

Now, the same AI foresees real estate sales in metaverses like Decentraland and the Sandbox - where plots have sold for millions of dollars - will probably continue at a brisk pace before peaking in May 2022, and interest in virtual land will remain high thereafter.

You Don't Need AI To Know This

📌 Per experts, the metaverse represents a USD1 trillion market opportunity, and over USD100 million has already been spent on virtual land plots.

📌 Companies like Tokens.com are already renting out space in Decentraland for major events, like the first-ever metaverse Fashion Week - where folks can buy the latest fashion trends for their look-alike avatars - as well as the first virtual Australian Open.

What's Next?

🎙 "As people gain trust in these platforms and the fact that the future is here, I predict that we will only see [virtual land sales] go up," said Julia Myers of NWO. 

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HDFC Capital has raised USD1.8 billion for its third affordable housing fund from investors, led by a unit of sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), per Reuters

The fund will:

🚀 Provide long-term finance to develop about 280 million sq. ft. of affordable housing projects across India, and 

🚀 Invest in affordable housing-related technology companies.

Have a good day ahead. 💚

☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai

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