India, July 19 -- "I was in denial of the idea of quick commerce. Back then, if you had asked 100 people whether they wanted groceries in 10 minutes, most of them would've said no," Hari Menon, the cofounder of BigBasket, wrote on LinkedIn last month, as he announced his departure after leading the Tata-backed online grocery marketplace for 15 years.

When Menon wrote this post, the online delivery giant was already undergoing a strategic overhaul - one that it had not seen before. Within weeks of Menon's exit, reports emerged that Tata Digital wanted BigBasket to nearly halve its operating footprint, from 76 cities to around 40 profitable markets, to move towards sustainable profitability.

The company has denied claims of scaling down. ...