Our Correspondent
Mumbai, March 28, 2026

As the Indian Premier League (IPL) season got underway, Swiggy reported a 31 per cent surge in dine out bookings compared with the opening day of the previous season, a testimony of how cricket continues to drive India’s appetite for dining out.

Restaurants offering live screenings saw a 22.4 per cent rise in bookings for the 7 pm slot when the match began, with Bengaluru recording a 21 per cent surge in reservations and collective savings of ₹96 lakh through Swiggy Dineout. Mumbai followed the next day with savings of more than ₹63 lakh as the cricket fever shifted to western part of the country, Swiggy said in a statement.

The highest individual spend came in from Bengaluru, where a customer shelled out ₹1.19 lakh on the opening night, while group bookings rose sharply with one party of 30 marking the largest single reservation. Casual dining restaurants drew the highest numbers, but pubs and lounges saw the fastest growth, cementing their place as cricket hotspots.

In March, the festive calendar added momentum. During Navratri between March 19 and 27, Swiggy recorded a 25 per cent growth in orders compared with April 2025, with demand peaking on March 22 at 8:06 pm when 4,800 orders were placed in a single minute. Sabudana Khichdi emerged as the fasting favourite with 222 orders every hour, followed by Sabudana Vada and the traditional Vrat Thali.

Bengaluru, Delhi and Gurgaon led the metros, while Bareilly, Bhopal and Dehradun topped emerging markets. One Delhi customer spent ₹11,980 on a lavish Navratri spread of thalis and masala chaas, underscoring how digital platforms have become central to family feasts.

Eid al-Fitr on March 21 was dominated by biryani, with more than 200 orders placed every minute nationwide. Gulab Jamun and Choco Lava Cake added sweetness to the celebrations, with gulab jamun alone clocking 11 orders per minute. A Noida customer placed the country’s largest Eid order worth ₹38,165, while in Mumbai a single biryani order for 15 people cost ₹15,866.

Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi saw the highest volumes, but cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Surat and Mangaluru also registered strong activity, while Shillong, Agartala and Dibrugarh led smaller markets.

Between February 28 and March 8, during the time of Holi, Swiggy delivered 5,764 specials across 1,381 long-distance trains, with samosa, lassi and pyaaz kachori forming the festive trinity. Jaipur stood out with every eighth order being a Holi special, while the Kerala Express alone accounted for 780 deliveries, showing how the celebration stretched across regions. A record single order of 122 items was ordered aboard Indore–Amritsar Express.

By A Staff Writer
Kochi, March 31, 2026

A missing lorry of KitKat chocolates has been the theme of memes across the world, and the internet is flooded with jokes as if the painting of the Mona Lisa had been stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. Kerala is sliding into the meme wave, making a marketing genius like Willy Wonka blush, with cheeky references to the KitKat saga and its famous tagline, ‘Have a Break…’.

The Kerala State Tourism Department (KSTD) issued an ‘official statement’ declaring that none of the missing KitKats have reached its pristine shores or backwaters. However, it also offered aspiring tourists looking for a proper break an assurance: “We’ve got you covered.”

This is not the first time Kerala has cashed in with Amul‑like memes. In June 2025, when the British Navy’s F‑35B Lightning II made an emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, the tourism department cleverly turned the incident into a campaign stating, “Safe for flying and safer for holidaying.” The campaign drew international attention and was hailed as a masterstroke in opportunistic marketing.

Posters have now begun appearing with slogans such as “Don’t chase trucks, chase sunsets” and “Our breaks are sweeter than chocolate.” Social media handles are flooded with playful imagery of houseboats carrying giant KitKat bars, while witty captions remind travellers that the only break worth having is in Kerala.

Global majors also rushed to add their own flavour of humour to the saga. Microsoft was among the first to respond with a tongue‑in‑cheek remark: “Looks like someone pressed Ctrl+X on 12 tonnes of KitKat.” The tech giant turned the chocolate heist into a keyboard gag.

KFC offered comfort in KitKat’s time of trouble: “Thoughts and condolences to KitKat. If you need comfort food, we’ve got buckets,” it said, adding that a bucket of chicken might be the only cure for the missing break.

Domino’s UK also blended humour with product promotion: “We would like to share our thoughts and condolences with KitKat following their recent sad news. On a completely unrelated note, we’re pleased to announce we’ll now be selling a new KitKat pizza.”

For the brands, a stolen lorry of chocolate has become a golden ticket for brand engagement, or in industry parlance, ‘opportunistic marketing’.

By Our Bureau
March 31, 2026

Nazara Technologies, Indian gaming and sports media firm, said it plans to raise ₹500 crore ($60.3 million) through a preferential issue of warrants to fund strategic acquisitions.

The Mumbai-based listed gaming firm will issue warrants at ₹260 per share, a 11.9% premium to its closing price of ₹232.35 on Monday, the company said in a statement.

“This fresh capital, combined with our acquisition strategy, positions Nazara to build globally scalable, AI-enabled gaming businesses,” Nitish Mittersain, Joint Managing Director and CEO of Nazara, said.

The fundraising round will include participation from Riambel Capital PCC, S Gupta Family Investments, and the company’s own promoter group, Plutus Investment and Holding Private Limited.

Nazara said it intends to use the capital to accelerate growth across its business verticals and support recent deal-making, including the acquisitions of gaming companies Bluetile and BestPlay. The fund-raising plan is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Nazara’s portfolio includes popular titles such as World Cricket Championship and Animal Jam, as well as the sports media platform Sportskeeda. The company has been aggressively expanding its global footprint through IP acquisition and publishing.

This latest capital infusion follows a string of significant mid-market deals in 2025, including the acquisition of UK-based PC publisher Curve Games and the takeover of the Smaaash entertainment chain, as the firm seeks to transition from a mobile-centric publisher into a global platform with integrated AI capabilities and a presence across PC and console gaming.

The company has historically pursued an aggressive “house of brands” strategy, acquiring majority stakes in established entities such as e-sports firm Nodwin Gaming and the preschool learning platform Kiddopia while allowing them to operate with high degrees of autonomy.

Nazara, founded in 1999 by Nitish Mittersain, originally navigated the early internet era as a mobile value-added services provider before pivoting into a diversified gaming conglomerate that now generates the majority of its revenue from international markets including North America and the Middle East.