New Delhi, June 24 -- Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg has lately been reaching for his cheque book to solve strategic problems. Confronted with mounting competition in AI, for instance, Meta spent billions on talent. It recruited high-profile researchers, founders and entire teams from startups such as Dreamer, Maltbook and Scale AI (whose co-founder Alexandr Wang was asked to lead its quest for super-intelligence).

Now, Zuckerberg appears to have taken a similar playbook to WhatsApp. As reported, it has invested $900 million in Indian fintech startup Cred for a minority stake and asked its founder Kunal Shah to lead the chat platform globally.

India is central to Meta's growth story. The US company's apps-WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and T...