Green shipping for ecommerce; TCS profit falls amid trade tensions

Hello,

India’s new motto: carpe diem.

The government is moving quickly to capitalise on the brief reprieve from aggressive US tariffs as it begins work on the first phase of a trade deal with the US, intending to reach two-way trade worth $500 billion by 2030.

Companies are also making moves to shore up their balance sheets. Apple chartered cargo flights to ferry 600 tonnes of iPhones, as many as 1.5 million units, to the US from India, in what would be the first sneak peek into the tech giant’s strategy to navigate tariffs.

This is especially prudent considering its reliance on imports from China, its main manufacturing hub, which is subject to President Donald Trump’s highest tariff rate.

BYJU’S, too, is in hot water. 

BYJU’S Alpha, a unit created by the embattled edtech firm, has filed a lawsuit in a US court alleging that the edtech firm’s co-founders and advisor misappropriated over half a billion dollars in loan proceeds.

ICYMI: A mouse watching The Matrix may have helped scientists create the largest functional map of a brain to date. 

Reality is simply electrical signals in the brain, as they say. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Sustainable shipping for ecommerce
• TCS profit falls amid trade tensions
• Transforming education via leadership

Here’s your trivia for today: What were Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe inspired by?

Logistics

Sustainable shipping for ecommerce

Launched in 2017, Terrago provides end-to-end logistics solutions in multi-modal transport, warehousing, and last-mile delivery through electric vehicles.

It operates in three verticals—last-mile logistics; online cloud-based services through its e-marketplace Logixmile.com; and middle-mile operations, which offer multimodal services across the country. 

Key takeaways:

• Having begun with middle-mile services, the company then expanded its services to sustainable logistics to attain net-zero carbon emissions.
• Its carbonless EV service is currently present in Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, where it offers its services to companies including Amazon, Flipkart, and BigBasket. 
• Terrago plans to expand it to eight cities, including Kanpur, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Pune, and Kolkata. It further plans to expand to 12 more cities over the next few years.

Startup: Tessell

Amount: $60M

Round: Series B

Startup: Eloelo

Amount: $13.5M

Round: Series B

Startup: Xindus

Amount: $10M

Round: Pre-Series A

Technology 

TCS profit falls amid trade tensions

The net profit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) dipped by 1.68% for the fourth quarter of FY25, primarily due to global trade tensions. India’s largest technology services exporter flagged short-term challenges while being optimistic about better growth prospects for FY26.

Key takeaways:

• TCS reported a net profit of Rs 12,224 crore for the January-March 2025 quarter, compared with Rs 12,434 crore posted in the similar period a year ago.
• The company said it has registered a total contract value of $12.2 billion for the fourth quarter of FY25—the second highest in its history. However, this does not necessarily present a positive outlook for the future.
• As for the wider Indian IT services sector, brokerage house HSBC Securities and Capital Markets said, “We continue to factor in mid-single-digit USD growth for the sector over the medium to long term, led by 2-3% market growth and the rest through market share gains.”

Inspiration

Transforming education via leadership

Saumya Aggarwal and Subhankar Paul, two passionate educators driven by a shared vision to deliver transformative education across India, co-founded The Unifly Collective in Delhi in 2018.

The initiative, according to the founders, is committed to transforming schools into stimulating learning environments for under-resourced communities. It builds the leadership capacity of principals and students so that their voice, values, and goals shape education at the grassroots.

Take the lead:

• The Unifly Collective has been actively working in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune. The organisation currently has a team of 28 members. 
• It collaborates with affordable private schools (charging less than Rs 2,000 per month) and government schools to foster holistic learning experiences for students. 
• So far, the NGO has reached over 1,50,000 schools through state partnerships, impacting over 10 million students and training over 130 school leaders directly. 

News & updates

• Reprieve: The European Union will pause its first countermeasures against US tariffs after President Donald Trump temporarily lowered the hefty duties less than a day after imposing them on dozens of countries, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
• Luxury giant: Prada SpA agreed to buy Versace for about $1.38 billion in cash, strengthening its position as Italy’s largest fashion group by adding one of the luxury industry’s best-known brands and bringing Versace back to Italian ownership.
• Optimism: Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing boosted its annual earnings forecast despite tariff uncertainties looming large, expecting another year of record profit as first-half revenue continued to grow in North America, Europe, and other markets.

What were Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings inspired by?

Answer: Quenya, the “High Elvish” language, is inspired by Finnish, and Sindarin, the “Grey Elvish” language, is influenced by Welsh. 

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