Swiggy’s earnings call last week struck a familiar refrain.

“We are not going to buy growth,” said Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy’s founder and CEO. “Instead, our focus for the next few quarters is going to be to increase [Instamart’s] contribution margin to zero first, while maintaining the growth proposition.”

The contribution margin is basically what’s left from an order after paying the direct costs of fulfilling it—which, for Instamart, has been negative for far too long. Put simply, Majety is saying that the........

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