India's quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry is showing early signs of demand recovery, but Macquarie highlights rising costs and intensifying competition from food-delivery aggregators as reasons for its cautiousness. According to Macquarie, post-fourth-quarter trends indicate a gradual improvement in dine-in demand across restaurant chains. Within the sector, Macquarie remains most constructive on franchise operators Devyani International, Sapphire Foods and Westlife Foodworld. However, the recovery remains uneven and is being overshadowed by inflationary pressures and the growing dominance of delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy. The brokerage said same-store sales growth across the listed QSR universe is tracking broadly in line with or slightly ahead of fourth-quarter levels. However, restaurant brands continue to trail delivery aggregators in growth, highlighting a structural shift in consumer behaviour. To counter this trend, restaurant operators have increa...
Food packets, mountains of garbage, clothes strewn about, broken furniture and layers of dust was what social workers found when former techie Anup Kumar Nair opened the door of his Navi Mumbai home. Apart from the delivery persons that used to get him food, this was the rare instance that he chose to open his door to anyone in the last three years. Grieving the loss of his parents and brother, Mr Nair had isolated himself and had remained locked in his house since 2022. Social workers from the Social and Evangelical Association for Love (SEAL) reached the 55-year-old's house to find him in an unkempt condition, his hair overgrown and matted and with an infection that had turned the skin on his legs black. He would sleep on a chair in the living room and the bed was damaged beyond repair, visuals of his apartment showed. Mountains of dust and garbage was found in the man's Navi Mumbai home. Mr Nair lost both his parents in the last six years, while his brother died by su...