India’s Food and Beverage (F&B) industry has transformed from a fragmented, need-driven sector into one of the world’s fastest-growing consumer markets. This growth has been propelled by rising incomes, urbanization, foreign direct investment reforms, and government-backed initiatives such as the PM-FME scheme, Mega Food Parks, and Production-linked Incentives. India’s agricultural abundance provides a strong raw material base, supporting both domestic demand and export potential, while also contributing to national priorities such as food safety and rural development. Evolving consumer preferences for health, wellness, and convenience, alongside global trends in sustainability, digital transformation, and clean-label products are reshaping the sector. However, India lags behind global benchmarks in areas such as large-scale automation, sustainable packaging, and advanced nutrition, creating clear gaps and opportunities for innovation. Key innovation areas include ingredient innovation (sugar, salt, and fat reduction, plant-based, or upcycled ingredients), non-thermal or fermentation-based processing innovations, sustainable and intelligent packaging, and digital adoption in the supply chain. Despite its momentum, the industry faces challenges such as high price sensitivity, fragmented supply chains, and taste loyalty. Everest Group proposes a roadmap emphasizing scalable, health-driven innovation balanced with affordability, strategic collaborations between corporates and startups, government-backed incubation, and digital-first supply chains. The future of India’s F&B industry is envisioned as smart, safe, personalized, and globally competitive, positioning India as a major force in the global food economy.

Enterprise R&D functions generate vast volumes of data and insights, yet much of this knowledge is lost or underutilized due to fragmented systems, undocumented insights, and employee turnover. Traditional systems, such as Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN) and collaboration platforms, are inherently passive. They archive information but do not support its reuse or inform real-time decision-making. The challenge is not merely storing knowledge but enabling it to be dynamically accessed and applied at the point of need. This is where Systems of Execution (SoE) come into play. SoE are intelligent, integrated platforms that combine structured and unstructured data, apply AI to understand context, and autonomously execute decisions within scientific workflows. Fueled by agentic AI, SoE act as real-time knowledge orchestrators, detecting patterns, interpreting context, selecting tools, and initiating actions to accelerate experimentation and innovation. Rather than revisiting old errors or revalidating known findings, R&D teams can now leverage institutional knowledge seamlessly. This Viewpoint explores SoE’s transformative impact in R&D and the organizational readiness needed to harness their full potential.

The talent market has evolved rapidly following the pandemic, impacting every industry. The consumer brands and retail industry which was already grappling with issues such as talent scarcity and skill gaps, a weak Employee Value Proposition (EVP), and limited talent diversity had to face newer challenges when the pandemic struck. However, the Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) industry demonstrated strong resilience during this period of global disruption. It rapidly evolved to become more dynamic and reliable and significantly more agile in driving and shaping clients’ next-generation talent needs. This evolution paved the way for the future of RPO – RPO 4.0. This report examines RPO 4.0 and its key levers to address talent acquisition-related challenges. Scope Industry: consumer brands and retail Domain: RPO Geography: global Contents In this report, we look at: Talent- and talent acquisition-related challenges facing the consumer brands and retail industry The role of RPO and its evolution RPO 4.0’s value proposition and its key levers Key levers to address talent acquisition-related challenges Membership(s) Recruitment Sourcing and Vendor Management