When the govt of India came up with the budget, taxpayers were given 2 options: move to the new tax regime or continue with the old one. The tax rates in the new regime were clearly lower.But despite this, most chose to stick to the old regime. Even with comparatively higher tax rates the old tax regime has remained popular amongst Indian taxpayers.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

It was Dominoes that made delivery under 30 minutes a thing. Before Swiggy and Zomato came along, Domino’s was more or less the only place you could order in from. It showed Indians that pizza could be cheap and also enjoyed in our own houses.  Jubilant, the company that runs the Dominos franchisee in India has nearly 3/4ths of the pizza market share which is also why it is among the first to be affected down by the slowdown in consumption. Jubilant’s shares have grown up by just under 3% in the past year. But its rivals—Westlife, Devyani, and RBA—have seen their value rise by a much bigger margin.The Ken spoke to around 60 Domino’s customers and nearly half of them told us they have cut back on ordering from Dominos, because of the meagre toppings, other options, and of course, the shift to gourmet pizzas.But are smaller pizza chains the really the only rivals Domino's is faced with right now?Tune in.

Byju’s financials for the Financial year 2022, are finally out. Almost 2 years late.And unsurprisingly, it doesn't paint a very pretty picture.The edtech giant posted a consolidated loss of more than 8000 crore rupees on an operating revenue of around 5000 crores. And that’s not all…its valuation has dipped from about 22 billion dollars in the last funding round to less than a billion now.Its quite the fall.Now the cash strapped company is desperately looking to raise $100 million via a rights issue as a lifeline but unfortunately everyone its gone to has outright said no.And it is unlikely that it may work out in the future unless Byju’s submits its audited financials for FY 2023.It missed its own Dec 2023 deadline for filing it. Also, the sword of the 1.2 billion dollar term loan is still hanging over its heard.Let’s catch up with the major developments so far.

Happy Republic Day, dear listeners.Today is a public holiday but if you're still tuning in, here is an older episode of Daybreak you might like:All the twists and turns in the journey of startups have been well-documented since VC funding began drying up over the past year or so. In the first half of 2022,  Indian startups received more than $17 billion dollars. But a year later in 2023. they just got a little over $5 billion.What’s we’ve barely heard about, though, is what is happening to the funders of these startups and their foot soldiers—the VC analysts. With the slowdown, the day-to-day responsibilities of these analysts have changed and so has their approach towards dealmaking. Tune in to find out.

From giving an extra month for “good-faith” negotiations a little over two years ago, to accusing Zee of breach of contract…the Sony Zee merger deal has seen its fair share ups and downs. It was supposed to be the country’s biggest entertainment merger worth $10 billion—two media behemoths were coming together. Now though, the deal is buried six feet under. On Monday, Sony officially released a statement announcing the termination of the agreement. The next day, Punit Goenka, Zee’s CEO, was seen attending the Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya where he told media: “I believe this to be a sign from the Lord. I resolve to move ahead positively and work towards strengthening Bharat’s pioneering M&E Company, for all its stakeholders."  Sony, meanwhile, not only ended the deal, it also sought $10 million in damages on account of alleged breaches by ZEE. And to make matters worse, Zee shares have fallen by over 30 percentHow did things get here and what's next?Tune in**CORRECTION The host mistakenly said Sony is seeking $10 million dollars in damages on account of alleged breaches by ZEE instead of $90 million. The error is regrettedDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

The prime minister will be inaugurating the newly constructed Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh today. It's quite the event. In fact, PVR INOX, has even collaborated with a news channel to broadcast the ceremony live in more than 150+ cinemas in more than 70 cities across India. The who’s who of business, from Adani, Ambani, Tata, to Bollywood celebrities and sports stars like Tendulkar and Kohli are expected to attend the inauguration.I dont think we have ever seen anything like this before and neither has the stock market.The state govt of Uttar Pradesh has set aside about $10 billion for a decade-long redevelopment plan of the town. Ever since, it's almost like a gold rush amongst investors for stocks in big or small companies associated with Ayodhya. From Taj Hotels and IRCTC to Praveg, a small luxury tent company–some in the stock market believe these companies are in all set to become some of the biggest beneficiaries of this Ayodhya gold rush.But experts are warning investors against this kind of blind faith. According to them, buying into event-related market swings does not make for a sound long-term investment strategy.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

It was 20 years ago when doctors first used the help of a robot in India to carry out a complicated heart surgery at Fortis Escorts, New Delhi. Ever since, more than 100,000 robot assisted surgeries have been performed in the country. Patients are embracing these type of surgeries now than never before and why wouldnt they?Who wouldn't want a less painful procedure, a shorter hospital stay, and most importantly lesser cuts?But they cost more than 3 or 4 times than normal surgeries. And it was only in 2019, that the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) asked health insurance providers to cover modern treatments, including robotic surgeries. And even after that, insurers are not keen on to covering them because they are expensive and the pricing is unregulated.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

Have you noticed how easy it has become to get loans? Whether you want to buy a whole house or you want to buy a pair of shoes, you can take an EMI for whatever you want.And of course, in India, an aspirational country, this means we finally have a way to attain the standard of living we have dreamed of. In the year that ended in March 2023 household debt saw its second-highest surge since independence. It now makes up almost 6% of the country’s GDP. But as indebtedness is rising, so are cases of harassment by recovery agents. In fact, now, it's come to a point where it is giving rise to a unique type of mental health crisis–unique enough for mental health professionals to take up courses on the basics of banking and finance.Tune in.Also listen to: How Mahindra Finance dealt with the RBI curb on recovering loans via third party agentsDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

More than 100 Indian startups wrote to TRAI a couple of months ago urging it to maintain its unwavering support for net neutrality principles. This a tug of war began between tech companies including OTT platforms on one side and telecom companies on the other, began years ago.Telecom and internet service providers believe that content and tech companies should pay them for disproportionate traffic. But tech and content companies argue that this would violate the principles of net neutrality.Tune in to find out about this battle between telcos and content companies and how it affects net neutrality. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

Earlier this week, India’s biggest winemaker, Sula, saw its share price reach historic high. The winemaker controls more than half of the market share of India's domestic wine industry. When it went for an IPO at the end of  2022, it was successfully subscribed by almost two and a half times.So you might think the jump in the share price makes sense. Afterall, Sula dominates the wine market in India. But you see, India is not a wine drinking country in general. The share of wine in the country's total alcohol consumption is minuscule.Turns out, the global brokerage CLSA saying Sula could rise 50% in the next year sent its shares soaring. But this was not because Sula Indians suddenly have become wine drinkers or because Sula has entered the new market.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

Paytm*, the fintech giant that was last valued at $16 billion would've never been able to get where it is now without its field agents. Field agents are to fintech payments companies, what delivery partners are to Zomato, Swiggy: their backbone.Out of the 70,000 odd fintech field agents in India, Paytm has about 35000 of these  all around the country. The fintech giant boasts of nearly 40 million registered offline merchants now thanks to the work of its agents.But things are changing now. It's become very challenging for them to onboard new merchants, especially in urban areas, where there are barely any businesses left to tap. As for rural areas, which have a bigger share of untapped merchants, fintechs think its too expensive. Plus the growing competition amongst fintechs has made merchant loyalty difficult to maintain.The market has become saturated and of course, who could be feeling the most pressure but these agents.But what do fintechs expect them to do? Tune in.(*Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken)Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

2023 turned out to be a landmark year for UPI (Unified Payments Interface) with the number of transactions crossing the 100-billion mark for the first time, according to the latest data released by the NCPI. The month of December alone saw more than 12 billion transactions. These numbers are testament to how UPI has revolutionized the way we use money. As of now, there are more than 300 million users in India are using UPI to freely carry out their financial transactions with each other.  But did you know that your bank can block your account without a warning or any explanation based on your UPI transactions? And what's worst, you could even come under the radar of law enforcement authorities like the cyber crime police. Anyone who unknowingly makes a transaction, directly or indirectly, with a fraudster can be considered suspicious by authorities.  Meanwhile, banks and law enforcement agencies still haven't managed to figure out a standard operating procedure in dealing with such matters. This had led them to adopt a ‘block first, ask questions later’ approach that's been making the lives of innocent victims of financial crimes even harder.  Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.   

Ever since it started, Rapido, the bike taxi company has consciously stayed away from venturing into the cab business. It was happy to stay in the bike taxi lane and beat Ola and Uber there even though that it managed to do it at the expense of customer safety.Now, though, eight years later, Rapido has finally launched its own cab hailing service. Over the last six months or so, it ran a pilot project in Hyderabad and ended up with almost a 25% share of the city’s cab hailing market so last month, it decided to launch in two more cities, New Delhi and Bangalore.What makes it different from Ola and Uber is that instead of commissions, it wants its driver partners to pay a subscription. Right now, Rapido only charges a subscription fee in Hyderabad, and drivers in the other two cities can use the platform for free for another few months. The idea is to disrupt the market by making it a more economic deal for cab drivers whose earnings from Ola and Uber have been on a free fall since the last few years.But disruption comes at a cost.Tune inAlso listen to: Is Rapido trading passenger safety for growth?Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

In 2023, more than 70 million new users downloaded the online shopping app Myntra. India’s leading fashion e-retailer owned by Flipkart has been on quite the discount giving spree lately. And we are not just talking about the year end and festive discounts. Since July, Myntra has 22 sales days every month. Its biggest rival, Reliance owned Ajio has no more than 14.So you might think, Myntra must be raking in some crazy numbers in sales right?Not quite.From onboarding hundreds of sellers a month to regular strategic changes, Myntra is trying it all. And its sales growth is still slumping. A former business executive told The Ken, “the past 15 months have been bad for Myntra.” In fact, Myntra’s net loss jumped over 30% in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. It posted a net loss of nearly 800 crore rupees.What is going on?Tune in.Listen to Anant Narayan talking about his stint as Myntra's CEO and more on First Principles hereDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

For the last week of December, we are taking you back to some of the most popular Daybreak episodes of 2023. We'll be back with regular programming from January 3, 2024.For a people who were quite averse to the whole concept of credit, Indians really seem to be developing a new found love for the piece of plastic and banks have been happy to ride the wave.But lately they’ve been left quite baffled because they are being being beaten at their own game. A growing community of people are constantly finding hacks to take advantage of the loopholes in credit-card reward systems. For some of them , in fact, it’s going so well that they’ve turned their secret operations into lucrative businesses. Turns out they can make more money from it than their 9 to 5 jobs.Meanwhile banks have realised they are being taken for a ride so some have taken extra security measures to keep such tricksters at bay.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

For the last week of December, we are taking you back to some of the most popular Daybreak episodes of 2023. We'll be back with regular programming from January 3, 2024.For the longest time public sector banks, as we know them, have been very reluctant about study abroad loans. And it was for good reason. They’ve suffered greatly because of education loans going bad.Meanwhile, its a whole different story that was going on with non-banks. Study abroad loans accounted for about US$4 billion in the year ended March 2023. These were almost fully funded by non-banks like Credila and Avanse Financial. Their staregy was simple—sanction collateral-free as fast as possible. Over time they gained experience and most importantly, years worth of data.Guess who is using all that data and experience gathered by non-banks to offer overseas education loans now?The banks!Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

More than a year after the communication minister Ashwini Vaishnav had introduced a the draft version to the public, on Thursday, the Rajya Sabha passed the new Telecom Bill. Many hopes were pinned on it considering it was meant to replace the three archaic laws that had been governing India’s telecom sector. The journey until here, however, was far from smooth. The draft version of the bill had left the industry divided and it actually received a record 900 comments. After many revisions, the bill has been passed. And while it enables structural changes that will empower telecom users and simplify complicated processes such as licensing, it also raises a some serious concerns.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Two years ago, Sony’s India unit, Sony Pictures Networks, announced a merger with rival Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. It was supposed to be the country’s biggest entertainment deal.  The combined entity would own more than 70 TV channels, two video streaming services and two film studios. Ever since, Sony Liv’s subscriber base grew from 18 million to over 33 million.With good original stories and unique non-fiction shows, alongside a strong partnerships strategy, Sony has been able to close the gap on market leaders such as Hotstar. Zee meanwhile has a formidable arsenal of regional content.The combined strengths of the two platforms, Sony and Zee, could turn out to be a serious threat to other OTT giants. But much to their relief, as temporary as it maybe, the merger may not happen after all. Because Sony it is yet to agree to Zee’s 21st Dec merger deadline extension request.Tune in.Also in this episode: X's EU troubles continue Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

A few days ago Karthik Ayyar, the founder of an IIT Madras-incubated company that developed India’s first indigenous mobile operating system, BharOS, said his company is considering providing this technology for routers. BharOS is being launched as an alternative at a time when the tech giants like Google are under the scanner for anti-trust practices in India.However, this is not the first time India is trying to develop an indigenous operating system, both for mobile and computer devices.The failure of the OS projects in the past may hold some important lessons for anyone making a future attempt.Tune in for the details.Also in this episode: Jeff Bezos’ dream for the future of humanity.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Google has been facing fines totalling billions of dollars for abusing its dominance not just in the Indian market but around the world. So the antitrust investigations launched against it in India last year didn't really come as a surprise for the tech giant. The Competition Commission of India found Google guilty in two antitrust cases and asked it to pay close to $300 million in fines. More than half of this penalty was for exploiting its dominant position in the market for Android, which happens to power 97% of smartphones in India.  Google did manage to get a breather in June this year when the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) quashed some key directives from the CCI. Google then approached the Supreme Court of India for the second time asking for all of CCI's directives to be withdrawn. While the case is still ongoing, Google lost a major anti-trust case in the US on Monday against Fortnite creator, Epic Games.Experts believe this could the outcome of the anti-trust investigation in India.Tune in.P.S New Segment on Epic vs Google starts at 8:17. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

More than 70% of fraudulent banking transfers in India are KYC-linked scams. A senior official at the Financial Intelligence Unit, a national agency responsible for analysing data on suspect financial transactions informed The Ken that KYC frauds amount to over Rs 900 crore ($108 million) per year.One such fraudster who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity said, "“KYC is an easy trick to pull off. People have heard about banks freezing accounts due to non-compliance with KYC norms. So they get convinced, particularly those in smaller towns and cities.” In a span four years, this fraudster's gang has stolen nearly Rs 50 lakh. But the whole point of banks carrying out the elaborate KYC process is to protect their customers from fraud. How is then that this very process accounts for nearly two-thirds of fraudulent banking transfers in India? Tune in.P.S Look out for our brand new segment in which we talk about Grok, Elon Musk's very own problem child.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

On Thursday last week,  the Telecom Minister of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw, declared during a press briefing that mobile phone manufacturing worth $50 billion will take place in India in the current financial year. He also said that the total exports from the category will reach $15 billion.A significant portion of this growth has to do with what the govt did three years ago. It launched a PLI scheme that aimed to make India the hub of mobile phone manufacturing. The idea was to boost large-scale manufacturing and to support domestic phone makers to become globally competitive.But of the six companies that made the cut to claim the scheme’s incentives, only two are Indian.Why is “Make in India” attracting more foreign phone makers than Indian ones?Also, there's a surprise for you at the end of the episode.Tune in!Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Recently, there was a study conducted by Hirepro called No résumés Please” where the firm went through 4 million CVs. They found nearly 85% of candidates were lying or exaggerating on their CVs in 2023.Employers and hiring managers are having a tough time dealing with it. Another study found that around 40% of HR professionals actually think using AI during the hiring process is a dealbreaker. And turns out, it's not very hard for recruiters to tell the difference between a CV written by the applicant and an AI-generated one.Should you stop using AI tools to write your CV then?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Foodtech giant, Swiggy, wants to raise more than $1 billion through its public offering that is scheduled for mid-2024. For this it is going by its last funding round’s valuation of nearly $ 11 billion. But why now? Because it is watching its biggest rival Zomato’s stock price finally recover this year with back-to-back profitable quarters. Earlier this year, Swiggy CEO announced in a blog post that Swiggy’s food delivery business has finally turned profitable after 9 years of its inception. And by March next year, the company as a whole aims to become profitable. But the company suffered losses with more than $ 500 million in FY 2023.How does it plan to become profitable by March 2024?Tune in to find out.RecommendationDay Zero: ISB welcomed a large batch last year. Now the scramble is on to get them all jobsDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

On Dec 1, 2023, Tata Consumer Products, Tata’s FMCG arm, announced a new CFO, Ashish Goenka. This hiring comes at a very interesting time because just about a month ago Tata Consumer Products or TCP approved the merger of 3 of its wholly owned subsidiaries—NourishCo Beverages, Tata SmartFoodz, and Tata Consumer Soulfull. Lately, the company has been on quite a roll. Its been launching out a whole bunch of new products by the dozens. And most importantly, its financials are looking quite good. In the September quarter, it reported a net profit of more than 350 crore rupees.But for the longest time, despite being a giant steel-to-software conglomerate, Tata’s consumer goods game was nowhere close to India's top FMCG companies. In fact, before 2019, it more or less stuck to selling just the essentials.But now its shares have more than tripled. How is the company managing things at this speed? Tune in to find out.RecommendationHow Tata Consumer’s Sunil D’Souza put product launches on steroids Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Nearly a 100 million cards are in circulation in India as of now, a 12% year-on-year rise. This rise has a lot to do with the benefits customers get: tempting cash back deals and reward points that you can collect and redeem for anything from flight tickets to staycations at luxury resorts.Cashbacks though are pretty straightforward whereas availing reward points requires a lot of effort compared to cashbacks. And between the two, there’s one that banks actually don’t like.Tune in to find out.RecommendationCredit-card whizzes outsmart banks at their own game  Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The State Bank of India controls the biggest chunk of India's debit card market:. It also had the largest network of ATMs and CRMs (Cash Recycling Machines) spread across the country.  And ATM withdrawals make up more than 80% of annual debit transactions so SBI seems to be clearly winning. But being the market leader of debit cards in India is actually turning out to be a problem for the public lender. Debit cards might be ahead of credit cards in terms of circulation but they are dying a slow death in the Indian market. In fact, a lot of industry experts agree that debit cards, in their current physical form, may actually become obsolete in the coming decade. So by being the biggest player in this market that is fading away, SBI is also taking the largest beating from its decline. But instead of cutting its losses, SBI is still doggedly trying to save this dying product. Why?Tune in to find out.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Tech platforms like Google, Meta, or even e-marketplaces such as Olx are increasingly becoming hotbeds of online advertising scams in India. People have been losing anything from a few thousands to even a few crore rupees to cyber crime syndicates who have  proficient, tech-savvy members.The amount of money consumers have reported losing to fraud that originated on social-media platforms has skyrocketed since 2017. Last year alone, people reported losing more than $1.2 billion to fraud that started on social media.What are big techs like Google and Meta doing to prevent these crimes? Is it enough?Tune in to find out.FREE READEngineering grads haven't struggled this hard for a job in a decade Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In November 2021, *Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications went public with a $2.4 billion IPO. What followed was a bloodbath for the fintech giant. In a span of a year after the IPO, Paytm’s stock lost 75% of its market value. No other large IPO in the last decade had seen such a bad fall in stock value within the first year of listing.But last year, in a dramatic turnaround, Paytm saw its stock value go up by 90%. What could've Paytm possibly done to bring about this crazy turnaround?It was personal loans. They’re the reason Paytm saw a more than 60%  jump in  revenue in the year ended March 2023. But now, Paytm can't rely on it anymore.Tune in to find out why.*Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The KenDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.  

On Monday, Physics Wallah fired over 100 of its employees and also announced it was going to hire more than a thousand more in the coming months. India's only profitable edtech unicorn is on a relentless expansion spree. So much so that its investors want it to slow down.From establishing itself as the leader of NEET-JEE test preparation, Physics Wallah (PW) wants to dip its toes in a bunch of other areas—from banking and defence to civil services now. Not to forget short-term skilling courses and even tie-ups with schools.Despite this hyper growth phase coming after PW became the only profitable edtech unicorn in the last financial year, cracks are appearing on its armour now.Tune in.Recommended reads:Physicswallah vs the popstarDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories. 

Varun Alagh, the CEO and co-founder the skincare company, Mamaearth, likes to think of his brand as an outlier. Just a day after Mamaearth’s parent company went public, on October 31, Alagh told The Economic Times that the company’s IPO was not going to meet the same fate as other new-age startups in the recent past. The public market has been quite hostile lately and investors are especially steering clear of digital companies and startups. But despite this Mamaearth went ahead with its plan and became the first D2C brand to go public. Unfortunately though its shares have been falling ever since.What happened to Mamaearth is not isolated. It is the beginning of the end of the D2C gold rush.Tune in to hear all about it.Also listen to: Why retail investors showed little interest in Mamaearth's IPOFree Read: 1 to 1000: The high-stakes hunt for India’s next top product designersDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

More than 160 million people in five states will be deciding their political future this month in India. Out of them, two states, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, are set to go to poll today. In any democracy, the run up to the elections is a very sensitive period where misinformation can spread like wildfire. Take what happened recently in Madhya Pradesh for example. A video of the BJP CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan went viral where he can be heard saying that his party will lose the election this time because people are really angry with the BJP. Turns out, it was a fake video. Just imagine the potential of such fake content going viral with AI and deep fakes. It is a scary thought.So what is the government latest stance on dispelling fake news and misinformation especially during election time?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

PVR INOX posted a blockbuster quarter with triple the revenue from a year ago. Nearly 50 million Indians flocked PVR INOX theaters in the September quarter. A huge part of it is of course thanks to this year's big releases like Barbie, Oppenheimer, Gadar 2, and not to forget, the record-breaking performance of Shahrukh Khan’s Jawan. Just last Sunday, Salman Khan’s much-awaited Diwali release Tiger 3 also hit the big screen. However, even though PVR INOX successfully crossed pre-pandemic revenues in the September quarter, there was one very important metric that it failed turn around: occupancy levels. So to solve the issue, it came up with a first-of-its-kind subscription plan called Passport. It allows movie-goers to watch 10 movies a month for Rs 699 only.But it turned out too good to be true. "Terms and conditions apply."Tune in to find out more.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Since last year, the edtech giant is facing the wrath of a group of creditors who had given it a $1.2 billion loan. They wanted it to immediately repay part of the loan.On Friday, a Delaware judge in the US concluded that the lenders had properly cited the default on loan when taking over control of a unit of Byju’s. Basically Byju’s lost the case. What could’ve triggered this lack of confidence amongst the creditors of the Edtech giant?FREE READJob hunt was once a skill test. Now, it’s a patience test tooTune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Last Friday Apple reported the sixth straight record quarterly revenue from iPhone sales in India. Its FY2023 revenue from the country now stands at almost $6 billion. In fact, analysts say that by the end of this year, especially with the festive season around, it is very close to hitting $10 billion. Apple’s share in India’s smartphone market is now estimated to have touched 6%. CEO Tim Cook while speaking about Apple's performance called the Indian market extraordinary.But for over a decade since it launched in India, Apple's growth was sluggish to the point of being stagnant.What brought about this turnaround?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

It has taken Swiggy almost ten years and a whole lot of strategically planned moves to become the indispensable app that it is for us today.But decisive moment for the delivery giant came three years ago in 2020 with the pandemic. Swiggy’s core food delivery business took quite the hit . It had no choice but to adapt quickly and branch out. It decided to build on its delivery experience and launched Instamart for groceries and Swiggy Genie for intra-city couriers.The company is now valued at just under $8 billion dollars and has seen its revenue double to almost $600 million in the year ended March 2022. Putting itself on the fast lane to growth while delivering  convenience to the urban consumer has really worked out for the company. Or at least so it seems.Because in doing all of this, Swiggy might have forgotten the most important part of the equation- its 350,000 delivery partners.Tune in.Recommended background read:How Zomato, Swiggy, and Co can refill their delivery-rider tankDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

If you’ve been watching the ICC Cricket World Cup, youve definitely seen the PhonePe one too many times. The payments giant paid Rs 150 crore to get these advertising rights. It is the biggest UPI payments company in the country with a 49% of the market share.  But why is a payments giant selling insurance and why health insurance to be specific?You see, as big as the PhonePe might be, and even with a giant like Walmart behind it, profit margins in the the payments business are pretty slim. And with a possible IPO in the works, PhonePe had no choice but to diversify and so it did.It launched its insurance vertical in 2020. However, three years have passed now and PhonePe’s insurance business has contributed just 1% to the company’s consolidated revenue for FY2023.And yet PhonePe continues to pour money into it, mainly on health insurance part. Is it a conscious choice or is it because it has no choice?Tune in.FREE READ for 24 hours:How an Indian IVF chain became a global giantDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Yesterday, November 2, 2023, was the final day of Mamaearth-parent Honasa Consumer's IPO. The digital-first D2C sailed through with the price band fixed at Rs 308-324 per share.With this, Mamaearth has become the first digital-first D2C company to take the public route. It is also the first unicorn company to do so it the last 18 months. From 2020 to 2022, Honasa saw its revenues double every yea and in 2022 it also became profitable. Compared to other established beauty and personal care brands, it also stands out because of how "aggressively" it has been launching new products or SKUs. This year, it's already shown a 25 crore rupees profit. If we go by these metrics alone, things looked quite promising for Mamaearth.But its public issue was oversubscribed by 7.61X on the last day. And this was only because of the huge demand from qualified institutional buyers (QIBs). Retail buyers seemed quite uninterested in Mamaearth's IPO. Why?Tune in to find out.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Vivo, the Chinese smartphone maker, was in the news earlier this month for arrests of its associates after it faced ED raids last year.Despite this, Vivo became no.1  in India’s smartphone market, even ahead of Samsung and Xiaomi in the quarter ended June.What’s more, unlike Xiaomi, which saw a sharp decline in its market share after raids in 2021, Vivo is still going strong.But it can’t celebrate the victory just yet. Why?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s was one of the most significant events in the history of human society. It still left the burden of birth control largely on women.Now, however, things are changing. The demand for male contraceptives is on the rise. Last week, in a major breakthrough, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) finished clinical trials for the world's first injectable male contraceptive. The trial proved that it is safe and highly effective without any serious side effects.But why have big pharmaceutical companies not paid enough attention to the research on male contraceptives for all these years?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Delivery partners who work for Swiggy or Zomato are paid per order. The fee which includes variables like base fee, surcharge, etc, depends on how many kilometres they’ve travelled from pickup to delivery destination. These payments though, are never consistent and gig workers, who make our lives so convenient, struggle with earning a stable income. So when Zomato says on their bill under the delivery partner fee, ‘fully goes to them for their time and effort,’ we appreciate it thinking the money we’ve paid has gone to the delivery partner.Except, it doesn’t.Tune in.FREE READThe pandemic couldn’t kill Bookmyshow, but it definitely changed its faceRecommendationCustomers love convenience. Swiggy wants profits. What about delivery partners?Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

According to latest numbers, Ola Electric, the leader of two-wheeler EVs in India, is losing market share—from 40 per cent in July to just 29 per cent in September. Bajaj Auto, meanwhile, has gained the most market share. It started with just a 4% share in April and now it has gone up to 11%. Ola Electric maybe doing much better with more than 250,000 scooters sold so far but the discontent regarding its after sales services is getting louder. Bajaj, on the other hand, has had a more sustainable growth trajectory and it has a lot to do with its service first approach. Plus, there’s one more thing that Bajaj has going for it that Ola Electric doesn't—the power of nostalgia. In 2020, it brought out its iconic Chetak scooter out of an early retirement in an all-new, high-tech, electric avatar.How far can nostalgia and focus on service take Bajaj in the two-wheeler EV market?Tune in.(With script inputs from Diksha Munjal)RecommendationCharging up the Chetak: Bajaj’s path to new mobility Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Two days ago, on Tuesday, India’s most famous edtech was in the news again. Byju’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ajay Goyal quit the edtech barely  6 months after joining. It had taken Byju’s 16 months to find Goyal after its previous CFO PV Rao quit in December 2021 .Goyal was hired only in April this year and had a tough task cut out for him: to help improve the company’s financial compliance is what Byju’s has been in a lot of trouble for. Goyal was to finalize the FY22 accounts and and issue the audited accounts as soon as possible. A little more than a week ago, we also heard news that Byju’s was expected to file the long-awaited financial results for FY22 later that week. But more than 10 days later there is no sign of the financials. Instead the edtech’s CFO who was incharge of getting those financials out has quit. Thankfully though, in its statement, Byju's said that Goyal will complete work on Byju’s audited FY 22 financial statement before leaving, which means, that the FYY 22 financials will be out sooner than later. So in today's episode we take you back to the edtech's botched up FY 2021 financials so you know what to look out for in the next one.Tune in.Free ReadKota’s Rs 6,000 cr coaching business may never be the same againRecommended listeningWTFinancials is going on at Byju's?Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

On October 14, a Saturday, Disney Hotstar set a world record: it saw the highest number of simultaneous viewers tune in for any format of cricket ever. The ICC World Cup match between India and Pakistan was streaming and it drew in 35 million viewers.A week later, on Sunday, it broke that record too with the India-New Zealand match when 43 million viewers tuned in. The timing of this couldn't be better for the OTT giant which lost 21 million subscribers since last year when it lost the rights to IPL. Ever since Disney Hotstar executives in India were on a mission to prove to their California headquarters that its OTT business in India could be turned around. But just a day later after hitting 43 million viewers, on October 23, Bloomberg reported Walt Disney may sell a controlling stake in the Disney Star business to Reliance Industries. While nothing about the deal is final yet, it does make one wonder about the timing of it all.What is in this deal for Reliance and more importantly is it enough for Disney to hold on to Hotstar for now?Tune in to find out.RecommendationDisney+ Hotstar’s last danceDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

It's going to be a year since the Reserve Bank of India launched its very own Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDC. In fact, just a few days ago, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, who has been leading India’s transition into digital payments while speaking at an IMF event touted CBDC, popularly known as the e-rupee, as the currency of the future.Banks, and tech experts have said that it is an innovation that can drive financial inclusion, help digitise India’s economy, and simplify cross-border trade. After the launch, the RBI's aim was to hit 1 million retail CBDC transactions per day by December 2023.But now, just a little more than a month away from the deadline, CBDC is lagging far behind its goal with just 10,000–18,000 retail transactions a day.Is the e-rupee ready to be the currency of the future yet?Free ReadNo funds. No ads. Indian short-video creators face a new reality RecommendationCan India’s digital currency still be another UPI?Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

With increased competition within the country, the world leader of Ayurveda brands, Dabur, is looking to acquire and expand. It wants to change its story and focus on a new target consumer.  Just last year in October, it acquired a 51% stake in Badshah Masala, one of the country’s leading spices companies.  But how is the over-hundred years old company planning to reinvent?  Tune in. RecommendationDabur seeks Gen Z approval to shed boomer imageDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) is becoming popular in India because it offers short-term financing options, financial flexibility, affordability, and smaller credit lines. In fact, the BNPL market expected to reach $35–40 billion by 2026 from $3.5–4 billion in 2021.But unlike credit cards, BNPL services lack security and many customers are left vulnerable to vishing (voice phising) scams. Most of them are via Olamoney and Mobikwik ZIP. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of cybercrimes in India are now online and vishing scams account for 5.3% of such crimes. To make matters worse, there is little recourse for defrauded BNPL customers because proper consumer-protection guidelines are not in place.  And even though they were scammed, many of them are being forced to clear their dues for transactions they never made.Tune in.RecommendationFirst Principles Ep.27: Lalit Keshre of Groww on being far-sighted, intuitive and absolutely obsessed with your customer🎧Spotify🎧AppleDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

In March this year, the world's largest coffeehouse chain, Starbucks, finally crossed the Rs 1,000-crore rupee revenue mark in India for the first time. So far, it has 350 outlets in India. Now, carrying a cup of Starbucks around has almost become like a lifestyle statement.In many ways, Starbucks entered the Indian market with a huge advantage because India's undisputed coffee leader, Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), was already declining at the time.But while Starbucks is looking at the bigger picture and hasn't managed to become profitable yet, an Indian coffee startup, Third Wave, has entered the scene and is giving the global coffee giant a run for its money.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

Beets are a superfood today. Tomorrow it’ll be lemons. The internet is rife with misinformation especially about food and health related stuff. There are hundreds of influencers on your feed telling you what’s good for you.But who’s telling you what’s bad and what doesn’t work?  Maybe a keto diet worked for your friend but not for you. Take Dr Cyriac Abby Philips who goes by The Liver Doc on X or Twitter. Recently, he claimed there is no point in taking multivitamins.He is a de-influencer and there are many like him who work towards breaking down myths. Often they’re faced with legal action and threats, yet most of them continue their work.But what is really fuelling de-influencers?Tune in.RecommendationThe wild finfluencer party is finally coming to an endDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

The NITI Aayog was created in 2015 to replace the decades-old Planning Commission. The idea was to adopt a more bottom-up approach to make India competitive in today's global economy. With CEO Amitabh Kant as the leader, the think tank progressed to become a thriving, open, and empowering space for public policy experts, including those from non-government backgrounds. But ever since Kant's stint ended at the think tank in 2022, the walls between the leadership and non-govt employees at the think tank are getting thicker. From what appears, NITI Aayog is going back to the top down approach, quite like the Planning Commission back in the day.This is making its non-govt employees quite unhappy. In fact 4 out of every 10 of them have quit this year.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

Losing IPL rights last year to Jio and then dropping HBO content has cost Disney+ Hotstar at least 21 million subscribers in just a year.The streaming giant though, decided that IPL or no IPL cricket is going to be its biggest customer acquisition funnel in 2023. And it looks like they are holding on to that strategy. The Asia Cup was streamed for free on Disney Hotstar. Now, the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup is on and it's  available on Disney Hotstar too. The OTT giant is offering free live streaming of the event to its mobile users.But a lot of the new survival strategy, put together by the Disney Hotstar's head honchos, depends on how India does in the tournament.Tune in.Free Read:What airports really want to do with DigiyatraAlso listen to:Disney leaves Jio the keys to the kingdom

Licious, the online meat delivery platform, was India’s first direct to consumer company or D2C that achieved the unicorn status.  It was valued at $1.4 billion two years ago and it had enough money to grow to Rs 100 crore of revenue per month, but its revenue has remained flat from the last two years.Licious follows the premium pricing strategy. Its products are priced higher price than the average market but its customer base is ready to pay that extra amount because of the quality Licious delivers. But Licious is not being able to expand its user base to the larger meat eating population because of this very premium pricing strategy.But it needs to deliver on a growth rate worthy of its billion dollar plus valuation.Tune in.RecommendationWhy India won’t see a $100 billion internet company anytime soonDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

It took Bajaj Finance over 15 years to become the most valued NBFC in the country. And then came along Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) and took the no. 2 position in a span of just two months. It is currently valued at more than $17 billion.Its all set to take the top space. Currently, the company is on a serious hiring spree and it seems to have taken a particular liking to former ICICI Bank employees for its key executive roles. After all, a lot of its future success will depend on the team it builds.But this is not the first time Reliance has tried its hands in the finance sector. The last time it did, things didn't really take off. What's different this time?Tune in.Free ReadA job with McKinsey, Bain, or BCG trumps everything. Or it used toDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories 

What makes Dunzo unique is that one could never imagine a company its size to have the kind of influence it does.In 2022, a $200 million funding from Reliance Retail sent the quick-commerce startup flying high. It began expanding its dark stores and even ran advertisements in IPL.But the IPL led boom did not last long. The same year, the number and volume of orders began to decline. Dunzo was forced to recalibrate its focus and rethink its strategy.Tune in!Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories

After the pandemic years, Kota’s coaching industry saw an unprecedented boom. Money was pouring in from everywhere–from edtechs to investors. In the last five years, Kota saw about 2 lakh engineering and medical aspirants, on average, arrive from across the country. Kota runs on stiff competition not just among the students but also among the scores of institutes that host and prep them. But since the past four months, Kota’s reputation has been on the line. Student admissions have dropped, with coaching-centre owners pegging it to be at least 20%. While it is partially because of the rising number of student suicides, it is not the only reason why Kota may be one result away from losing its star position in the coaching business.Tune in.RecommendationKota’s Rs 6,000 cr coaching business may never be the same againDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

All the twists and turns in the journey of startups have been well-documented since VC funding began drying up over the past year or so. In the first half of 2022,  Indian startups received more than $17 billion dollars. But a year later in 2023. they just got a little over $5 billion.What’s we’ve barely heard about, though, is what is happening to the funders of these startups and their foot soldiers—the VC analysts. With the slowdown, the day-to-day responsibilities of these analysts have changed and so has their approach towards dealmaking. Tune in to find out.Recommendation What VC analysts do when there are few deals to makeDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

From the time it was the number one indian telecom company to braving the whole phase when Jio came around and disrupted the whole space. Its been a long, brutal competition for Airtel and Gopal Vittal has managed to bring Airtel back to health.Meanwhile, he's spent years on finding and grooming the right talent to create the next generation of leaders at the telco giant. And now Airtel is undergoing a major reshuffle. As you would expect, it’s creating a sense of both excitement and stress.Tune in.RecommendationThe camel is inside the tentDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

For a people who were quite averse to the whole concept of credit, Indians really seem to be developing a new found love for the piece of plastic and banks have been happy to ride the wave. But lately they've been left quite baffled because they are being being beaten at their own game. A growing community of people are constantly finding hacks to take advantage of the loopholes in credit-card reward systems. For some of them , in fact, it's going so well that they’ve turned their secret operations into lucrative businesses. Turns out they can make more money from it than their 9 to 5 jobs.Meanwhile banks have realised they are being taken for a ride so some have taken extra security measures to keep such tricksters at bay.**Correction: The credit for this story was mistakenly attributed to Gaurav Noronha whereas the actual writer is Rounak Kumar Gunjan. We apologise for the errorRecommendationCredit-card whizzes outsmart banks at their own gameDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

From content flagging, suspension, shadow-banning and even account deletion, content creators are grappling with a variety of censorship methods on social media platforms—all in the name of maintaining community guidelines.But with social media platforms relying more and more on AI and machine-learning tools identify and remove violating content, even content aimed at creating sexual, social, and political awareness ends up being taken down.  And sex-ed and news content creators on platforms like Instagram and Youtube are seeing their reach, discoverability, and income take a hit.Tune in.RecommendationYoutube, Instagram creators got likes and shares. Now, some only get restrictionsFREE READDisney+ Hotstar is done with premiumisationDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

For almost two decades, India was a stagnant market for one of the leading tech companies of the world. But in 2021, things changed and Apple’s sales graph in India began to rise upwards.By 2022, Apple sole over 7 million iPhones in the country. And then in April, Apple CEO Tim Cook inaugurated India’s first Apple retail store in Mumbai. But compared to markets like the US and China, Apple’s numbers in India are far from substantial.Yet, the company is looking to give Its Indian customers a premium experience, even if the sales don’t yet justify it.Tune in. Free Read:India’s maternity law needs to stop being an outlierDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

For the longest time public sector banks, as we know them, have been very reluctant about study abroad loans. And it was for good reason. They've suffered greatly because of education loans going bad. Meanwhile, its a whole different story that was going on with non-banks. Study abroad loans accounted for about US$4 billion in the year ended March 2023. These were almost fully funded by non-banks like Credila and Avanse Financial. Their staregy was simple—sanction collateral-free as fast as possible. Over time they gained experience and most importantly, years worth of data.Guess who is using all that data and experience gathered by non-banks to offer overseas education loans now?The banks!Tune in.RecommendationWho will fund your study abroad? Banks want to be an option nowDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The government of India launched Digiyatra, a contactless, facial-recognition-based passenger-entry system, in December last year. The idea is for those who sign up on the platform to avoid the tedious process of getting their ID and flight tickets checked by  CISF personnel at airports.But lately, stories of passengers being forced to sign up for the app are surfacing on social media. Meanwhile, airlines, which are important stakeholders to make the entire endeavour successful are unable to see any benefits for themselves. Airports though see it as a great opportunity. In fact, multiple sources close to the implementation of Digiyatra told The Ken that the whole idea of Digiyatra came from airports themselves.What's in it for them?Tune in.RecommendationWhat airports really want to do with DigiyatraDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

For the longest time, consulting at the “Big 3” strategy consulting firms—McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Co.—is not only one the most sought-after careers but also one of the highest-paying jobs.Five years ago, 30% of graduates from the top IITs with bachelors degrees chose consulting. For those from the IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Kolkata, 35% of graduates chose a consulting job at one of these companies.But ever since 2022, something’s changed. The Ken spoke to four placement coordinators of IITs and IIMs and they told us that these jobs, especially at the entry level, are not as popular anymore.Why?Tune in to find out.Recommendation  A job with McKinsey, Bain, or BCG trumps everything. Or it used toFree ReadHow brands decide what your favourite snack tastes likeDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Lately, India's bike taxi leader, Rapido, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. With numerous complaints of sexual harassment, theft, and even impersonation, the startup has been reckless with the safety of its customers, epecially women.Despite these incidents, Rapido still enjoys a 60% share of the bike-taxi market in India. It clocks in as many as 750,000 rides every single day and yet, the level of scrutiny it deploys for the drivers on its platform is close to non-existent.What’s is the bike-taxi not fixing these issues? Tune in to find out.Free ReadHow Domino’s defied the might of Zomato and SwiggyDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Airlines in India, from Indigo to Akasa, are on a spree to expand their fleet. Around a thousand more aircrafts will be flying the Indian skies in the coming few years.Usually, each aircraft usually requires a crew of at least ten or more pilots. This means we will need close to 10,000 pilots. But we already have 10,000 pilots waiting to be hired.The problem is no airline wants to hire them.Why?Tune in to find out.RecommendationAirlines want pilots. Pilots want jobs. Why are thousands unemployed?

Last month, Unacademy did something very unsusal. It introduced a new policy, restricting how much its educators can engage online. Ever since, Unacademy has either suspended or sent show cause notices to at least 50-60 of its teachers.But Unacademy relied on its teachers to bring in students. It wanted them to be popular so it encouraged its teachers to work on methods to hack social media. It made them its sales force.What made it make this U-turn and restrict the personal social media accounts of teachers? Many think the Karan Sangwan incident must've something to do with it but there is much more to it than what meets the eye.Tune in.RecommendationUnacademy stifles tutors after giving them free reinDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Between 2018 to 2021, incidents related to breach of cybersecurity in the auto industry rose by 228%. In the next few years, this number is only expected to get worse.In India though, it is not much of a concern yet due to the low penetration of EVs so far. But it won't remain that way for long without proper safeguards in place.The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023 is a step in the right direction, but it has a long way to go.Tune in.RecommendationOla Electric woke up and chose violenceDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

A few months ago, multiple Hotstar executives had told The Ken the same thing. “IPL or no IPL, cricket is going to be the platform’s most important customer-acquisition funnel this year.” It seems Disney Star is holding on to that strategy. The Asia Cup is going to be streamed for free on Disney Hotstar from today onwards.Even after losing the IPL's digital streaming rights, Disney+Hotstar is the leader of the Indian OTT space in terms of subscriber numbers. But OTT is a complex business and just having the largest subscriber base is not really enough, at least not in India.In fact, Disney has been on quite the downturn in India. And the way its headed, it almost seems like its making space for Jio to come take its crown.Tune in.Free ReadProject Manager is dead. Long live the Product Manager Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The mattress industry in India this year is valued at around $2.5 billion and growing at a CAGR of 10%. Up to 9 million mattresses are sold in the country every year. Among the top brands in the mattress market is Sleepwell, owned by Sheela Foam, the largest manufacturer of Polyurethane Foams (PU) in Asia Pacific. Despite having a fourth of the market share and conditions ripe for innovating and growing, the company had been in a limbo of sorts.Until last month, when it announced it was acquiring a 95% stake in Kurl-On, another popular mattress maker.What's in this deal for Sleepwell?Tune in.RecommendationUp all night: Capitalising on India’s big sleep gapDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Over the course of a year or so, we’ve seen how one by one, the chances of Byju's survival have been narrowing down. However, there’s one thing that could possibly save it from falling apart: Aakash, the offline coaching chain that Byju’s had acquired in 2021 for a staggering $950 million. Now, with its IPO upcoming in mid-2024, the struggling edtech giant has a lot riding on Aakash's success.But Byju’s is turning out to become quite the troublesome partner for Aakash, no thanks to its aggressive sales tactics. These selling hacks are driving a wedge between the two teams on the ground and the plans to integrate have been put on hold.Tune in.RecommendationAakash’s sales force has no love lost for Byju’s Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

For the longest time, despite being a giant steel-to-software conglomerate, Tata’s consumer goods game was nowhere close to India's top FMCG companies.Ever since 2019 though, when it decided to merge Tata Chemicals and Tata Beverages as Tata Consumer Products Ltd, the FMCG arm has been on a roll. In the recent financial year alone, it introduced more than 30 new products.Meanwhile, Tata Consumer’s shares have more than tripled. The Nifty FMCG index also almost doubled. What changed?Tune in to find out.RecommendationHow Tata Consumer’s Sunil D’Souza put product launches on steroids Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Last week, the edtech unicorn Unacademy fired Karan Sangwan, a law teacher for asking students to vote for educated candidates during elections in one of his video tutorials on YouTube. According to the edtech, Sangwan had breached the code of conduct by sharing his 'personal opinion.'While this case is of a slightly different nature pertaining to one individual, Unacademy's relationship with its educators in general hasn't been great either.With dwindling sales and a funding crunch, edtechs like Unacademy have made tutors their new sales force. Teachers are being forced to make viral content to meet targets but for many, it is too much to handle.Tune in.RecommendationThe product-market-fit hole in Unacademy’s SaaS offering, CohesiveDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

A March 2022 report from the World Health Organization said that over 17% of households in India incur catastrophic health expenditures every year. And it results in the impoverishment of around 55 million people. Anyway, it's just about 37% of the population that actually has any form of health insurance. In such circumstances, if the rate at which a health insurance company denies claims begins to rise, it is a matter of concern. Star Health, one of India's leading health insurers, had the highest number of claims outstanding among the standalone health insurance companies for the year ended March 2022. Aggrieved customers have been running from pillar to post for payouts, turning to social media and consumer courts for respite.And yet, Star Health's new business is still growing and its retail policy renewal rate remained unaffected.Tune in.Recommendation:IPO-bound Digit trusts its tech to sell health insurance, but consumers don’t yet Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Reliance controls just 3% of India’s retail market. You might think it's a tiny share. But 80% of the retail industry is unorganised. And overall, the retail sector in our country is worth nearly 900 billion dollars. So to control even 3% of it is a big deal.But it is refining and petrochemicals that is the Reliance's biggest business. Why is it then that since the last three years, Reliance Retail is being made to headline the conglomerate's annual report?Tune in.Free Read:Lenskart’s CEO and chief people officer Peyush Bansal has a people problemDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Beets are a superfood today. Tomorrow it'll be lemons. The internet is rife with misinformation especially about food and health related stuff. There are hundreds of influencers on your feed telling you what’s good for you. But who’s telling you what’s bad and what doesn't work?  Maybe a keto diet worked for your friend but not for you. Take Dr Cyriac Abby Philips who goes by The Liver Doc on Twitter. Recently, he claimed there is no point in taking multivitamins.He is a de-influencer and there are many like him who work towards breaking down myths. Often they're faced with legal action and threats, yet most of them continue their work.But what is really fuelling de-influencers?Tune in.RecommendationThe wild finfluencer party is finally coming to an endDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

After a delay of almost a year Ola Electric finally released its financials this week. The company was valued at $5 billion last year and so far it has raised nearly $800 million from investors, including Softbank. With a 40% market share, it is the leader of the two-wheeler EV market in India. It has already sold over 250,000 vehicles.Ola Electric has set up 600 experience centres around the country where people can go take test rides. But the company only has 200 service centres. Its lack of focus towards after-sales servicing is upsetting customers. Plus, the financials point towards a 4X loss in FY 2022.Meanwhile, its competitors like Ather and Bajaj are strategically going for a service-first policy.Tune in.RecommendationWhy $3 billion set aside for India’s EV makers is sitting idleDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Known for its high-end EV models, earlier this year, Tesla went on a cost-cutting spree. Six months ago, though, the EV maker was on the verge of shutting down its office in India. But last week, the company took up a sprawling office space in Pune on a five-year-long lease. And last month, it was reported that Tesla plans to set up a factory in India with a yearly capacity of 5 lakh EV units. Now, at a time when there is a general fall in EV prices, it is admittedly chasing growth—even if it comes at the cost of profitability.In fact, the starting price range of Tesla models in India could be as low as US$24,000. It looks like the EV-making global giant is picking up cues from the reigning giant of India's passenger EV market—Tata Motors.Tune in to find out how.RecommendationWhy Tesla is surely watching Tata, BYDDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The voice of the gig worker is getting louder, and it's coming to a point where neither delivery companies nor the government can afford to ignore it for much longer.Last month, the Rajasthan government came up with a new law that aims to establish a welfare board and a dedicated social security fund for platform-based gig workers in the state. One could say the new law sets a precedent for gig workers across the country.However, that is so only if you take it at face value.Once you look beyond the headlines and go through the technicalities of the law, it doesn't paint as rosy a picture for the aggrieved gig workers.Tune in to find out more.RecommendationGig-worker strikes are just the tip of the iceberg, unionisation lies beneathIndia's first law to protect gig workers is surprisingly good news for their employersDoes the delivery-partner fee you pay 'fully go to them for their time and effort'? NopeDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

UPI or the Unified Payments Interface has revolutionised the way we use money. So much so that we don't think twice about freely accept financial connections with strangers. Since its launch seven years ago, 300 million users in India are on the UPI platform freely carrying out financial transactions.But did you know that your bank can block your account without a warning or any explanation? And what's worst, you could even come under the radar of law enforcement authorities like the cyber crime police. Anyone who unknowingly makes a transaction, directly or indirectly, with a fraudster can be considered suspicious by authorities.Meanwhile, banks and law enforcement agencies are yet to figure out a standard operating procedure in dealing with such matters. This had led them to adopt a ‘block first, ask questions later’ approach that's been making the lives of innocent victims even harder.Tune in to find out more.RecommendationOn the UPI social network, who do you ‘know’? And who do ‘they know’?Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Once upon a time, not too long ago actually, Byju's was the world’s most valuable edtech. Now, though, it's in a big mess. And that’s putting it mildly.However, Byju’s employees got the worst end of the stick because of all the company has been going through. The Ken spoke to employees who told us they were fired arbitrarily without notice. In fact, they said they are being forced to resign.And like that wasn't enough to deal with, some companies have specifically told recruiters not to look at Byju’s employees.Tune in to find out why.Recommendation: Indian lenders cut off Byju’s air supply by not lending to its usersThe seven things you need to know about Byju’s FY21 financialsDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Last month, the global tech giant Microsoft India saw its revenue hit $3 billion, much closer to its $5 billion target by 2025. A Mumbai based sales leader told The Ken that in 2022, Microsoft India grew twice the growth of Microsoft globally.Behind the company's success was Anant Maheshwari who had been leading it for the last seven years. Described as an aggressive salesman and hard taskmaster, while he took the Microsoft India to new heights, his leadership style left a section of employees feeling dejected.What was going on inside the walls of the tech giant?Tune in to find out.RecommendationThe ChatGPT effect: Microsoft gaining momentum in cloud race against Amazon and Google by Pratap Vikram SinghDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Nine years ago, Urban Company (then UrbanClap) disrupted the market and eventually went on to become Asia's largest home services marketplace. Last year, the US$2 billion company was ranked as one of the top-rated platforms for gig workers in Fairwork India Ratings.But just a year later now, Urban Company partners are are protesting nationwide against the platform's arbitrary and unfair policies. Meanwhile, customers are growing increasingly unhappy with the services. The company is also grappling with losses and has been cutting costs to achieve profitability. But the rising anger from both ends, customers and partners, is coming in its way and managing both is getting quite difficult.Tune in.RecommendationUrban Company is caught between angry customers and angrier partners Urban Co’s three-way balancing act in search of profitabilityDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The fintech sector has been buzzing after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permitted credit lines on UPI a few months ago. From what we know so far, banks are likely to gain the most out of it.But a credit line-backed UPI product will also change how customers use credit. While they might continue to choose credit cards for high-value purchases, for smaller purchases like groceries and clothes, they could very well start looking at the new product. The whole rewards system which had been helping issuers draw huge numbers of credit-card users, is going to change with it. In fact, it may even come to and end.Tune in.RecommendationThe Indian credit market is ripe for disruption againFree airport lounge access helped sell more credit cards. Now its come to bite banksDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In the first half of this year, from January to June, Tata Motors had 3/4th of the passenger EV market share despite relentless competition from the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra and other newer rivals.Its revenue for FY23 stood at almost $8 billion. The not-so-secret secret behind this success Tata Motors' its Xpres-T EV sedan—the go-to for cab companies and fleet operators that are looking to switch to greener alternatives. Xpres-T could easily to capture the cab market except Tata Motors maybe deliberately downplaying this bit of its success so far. Tune into find out why.Recommended reading:Why $3 billion set aside for India’s EV makers is sitting idle Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Yesterday, Netflix announced that it will be starting password sharing restrictions in India. The OTT giant will only allow users on the same internet connection to access a particular account. Anybody who is not a part of what its calling "Netflix Household" will not be able to access  content.While move did not come as a surprise since Netflix has already implemented it in many countries like the USA already, that it is using the same strategy in India, a market it has been struggling with for a while, is interesting.Will this new move help Netflix get more subscribers in India?Tune in.RecommendationsNetflix’s last growth marketSpotify adopts Indian habits to avoid the ‘Netflix problem’Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Pharmeasy, once the highest-valued Indian healthcare startup, is planning to raise money in a new round of funding at a 90% markdown from its previous valuation.From $5.6 billion to $500 million. All because Pharmeasy had to take another debt to pay off its previous debt. The second time though, interest rates were not zero. What's going on?Tune in.RecommendationByju’s is looking like a hedge fundThe tail of acquisitions wagging India’s funding dogDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

From Rs 400 per piece in 2019, the shares of Reliance Retail, went up to Rs 4000 by 2021 in the unlisted market. Reliance Retail is India’s largest operator of supermarkets, apparel outlets, and electronics stores. And its shares were the hottest cake in the grey market for a while.Many investors expected it go go for a public listing until a little more than a week ago when Mukesh Ambani threw in a surprise. The company said it would effectively cancel the holdings of its minority investors and offer them Rs 1,362 per share. Basically, Reliance Retail had cancelled its shares held by minority investors leaving them shocked and confused.What made the company take this decision? And what should retail investors learn from this?  Tune in.RecommendationWhy investors are buying what Reliance Retail is sellingDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Delivery partners who work for Swiggy or Zomato are paid per order. The fee which includes variables like base fee, surcharge, etc, depends on how many kilometers they’ve travelled from pickup to delivery destination. These payments though, are never consistent and gig workers, who make our lives so convenient, struggle with earning a stable income. So when Zomato says on their bill under the delivery partner fee, 'fully goes to them for their time and effort,' we appreciate it thinking the money we've paid has gone to the delivery partner.Except, it doesn't.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Ad scams in India using tech platforms like Google, Meta, or even e-marketplaces such as Olx are becoming increasingly common and dangerously creative. People have been losing anything from a few thousands to even a few crore rupees to cyber crime syndicates who have  proficient, tech-savvy members.The amount of money consumers have reported losing to fraud that originated on social-media platforms has skyrocketed since 2017. Last year alone, people reported losing more than $1.2 billion to fraud that started on social media.What are the likes of Google and Meta doing to prevent these crimes? Is it enough?Tune in.RecommendationOn Google and Facebook’s watch, cybercrime syndicates flourish by Pratap Vikram SinghDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

For many years, finfluencers have been enjoying an almost no-holds barred party in the Indian market since they operate outside Sebi's regulatory ambit. While there is no doubt about the importance of their role in combating India's rampant financial illiteracy, many often give advice that is generic, underplaying risks, and overplaying returns. After reviewing several complaints, two weeks ago, Sebi Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch was asked about Sebi's views on regulating influencers once again. This time she did put India's financial influencers on notice. A SEBI circular seems to be on its way and finfluencers have good reason to be worried.Tune in.RecommendationSebi’s Madhabi Puri Buch and the art of keeping market players on tenterhooksDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Credit card companies, in their rush to sell more and more cards use a whole gamut of attractive offers—the most popular one being free access to airport lounges. Thanks to this and the sharp rise in domestic air travellers, last year, airport lounges saw of football of over 8.5 million people.What was once an exclusive service became a top-selling feature, even for non-premium cards issued by banks. Lounge access became overused and an expensive bill to foot for credit card issuers. Earlier last month, Axis Bank, the country’s fourth-largest credit-card issuer, revised its lounge policy. But retracting the freebie altogether is not a risk banks can afford to take.What are they doing then?Tune in.Recommendation:Credit-card issuers can’t bank on their most profitable users Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Since November 2022, when Paytm shares dropped to an all-time low, the fintech giant has been on a steady recovery path. If all goes well, its share price may cross Rs 1000 soon.But what's even more interesting is the sharp jump in its loan distributions in FY23. In the March quarter of the same year, Paytm distributed nearly 12 million loans worth over 1.5 billion dollars.And last Friday, Paytm’s parent company even announced a partnership with Shriram Finance, an NBFC that's known for its deep understanding of risk and more importantly, its collections capabilities.  What's driving this prolific growth and how is Paytm growing its loan business in the post-FLDG era?Tune in.**Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken  RecommendationPaytm’s results hint at a turnaround. But loan-collection hacks drive it by Gaurav Noronha, Arundhati RamanathanPaytm IPO tells, and tells a lot, but doesn’t show by Arundhati RamanathanDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

On Thursday, Kotak Institutional Equities, released a note and turns out, Zomato managed to maintain its lead over Swiggy with a 55% market share in the year 2022. Swiggy is at 45%.Swiggy and Zomato have been constantly win the bigger share in India’s $5 billion food delivery market. But it was Swiggy that had the portion share just three years ago. Inherently, both the food delivery companies are quite different from each other. And it is this difference that's been giving Zomato an edge lately.Recommended reading:Why Swiggy is building a Shopify for local brandsDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories. 

ICICI's stock has tripled since 2018—the year when ICICI’s current CEO Sandeep Bakhshi took over. Loans and deposits are growing strong, margins are healthy, and investors can’t seem to get enough of the blue-chip company. Bakshi joined at a time when the bank was reeling from the after-effects of his predecessor Chanda Kochchar's controversial exit.The bank was experiencing a high rate of attrition and employees needed reassurance and stability. Bakshi gave them just that. He revamped the bank's HR policy, bringing about a democratisation with decisions like the standardisation of appraisals and tenure-based promotions.All these moves made him quite the favourite amongst many current and even former employees.  But it has also led to the creation of a faction of young disgruntled high-performers who feel they are not incentivised enough. And they are resigning. Tune in.Recommendation:At ICICI Bank, Sandeep Bakhshi’s people-first strategy costs top people by Rounak Kumar GunjanDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

For decades, the 60 year old BITS Pilani, one of the most prestigious science and engineering institutions in the country, has been second to India's crown jewels–the IITs.Now, the institute is on a mission under the leadership of its Group Vice Chancellor, V Ramgopal Rao. A syllabus revamp after a decade, a US$100M endowment fund from alumni, 10% of faculty from industry, allowing a year off for startups—BITS has taken some major leapsIt wants to be on the top with the IITs.Tune in.Recommended reading: BITS Pilani is tired of playing second fiddle to IITs by Alifiya KhanDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.  

Starting April, major non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), including Avanse Financial Services, Aditya Birla Finance, and Fullerton India, which lend to Byju’s’ customers, suspended loans for the edtech. These play an important role in allowing Byju's to make its sales to its customers via zero-interest EMIs. With sales slowing down, the edtech desperately needs these financing options because its one year courses range from anything between Rs 20,000 to Rs 1.4 lakh. Not all its customers can afford to pay it all in one go. This is why Byju’s tied up with these NBFCs in the first place. But now that the non-banks have left the building, what is the ailing giant doing to survive?Tune in.Recommendations: Byju’s has one escape route  Indian lenders cut off Byju’s air supply by not lending to its usersDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

On Thursday evening news broke that Deloitte, the biggest audit firm in the world, has resigned as Byju's statutory auditor. This couldn't come at a worse time for the edtech giant. Just hours before this, three of its key board members also tendered their resignations over differences with the company's founder. It was in September last year when, after a long delay that raised many eyebrows, Byju’s had finally released its financials for the year 2021. The delay was because Deloitte was not satisfied with what Byju’s was presenting to them as a fair picture of their accounts. It gave it an "adverse opinion."Months have passed since and there is still no sign of Byju's financials for FY2022. Worst still, the company's own projection of a Rs 10,000 crore revenue for the same year seems to be incorrect.Tune in. Recommendations: The seven things you need to know about Byju’s FY21 financials WTFinancials is going on at Byju's? Byju’s is looking like a hedge fund  Indian lenders cut off Byju’s air supply by not lending to its usersDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Despite being called ‘the pharmacy of the world,’ time and again, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has received criticism for substandard quality. Last year, the deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan were allegedly linked to cough syrups manufactured in India.Yesterday, the WHO flagged seven more Indian-made cough syrups for containing toxic chemicals. Why does Indian Pharma still struggle with quality control?Tune in to find out.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

When Tata acquired the e-grocer, BigBasket, at a reported valuation of $2 billion in mid-2021, the company was loss-making. For those at BigBasket, it was an opportunity to shift their focus back to the company’s core business: doorstep grocery delivery.    While it was a bit too late when Tata realised its new acquisition was left out from the quick commerce game, there is one game that BigBasket seems to be clearly winning.Tune in to find out.Recommended reading: Torn between growing competition and Tatas’ ambitions, $3.2B BigBasket is at a crossroadsDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The Indian Railways exclusively provides travellers a 10 lakh rupees worth insurance cover on booking train tickets online for less than half a rupee. Despite this, a large majority of Indian travellers are not covered by any form of travel insurance.Just a little more than 30 crore lives were covered by general and health insurers for domestic travel, according to the annual report of India’s insurance regulator IRDAI. Why?Tune inDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Over the years, the more health conscious we became, the more cooking oil-markers pushed different variations of words associated with 'health' in their branding. But they've been burying the caveat in the fine print. For example, Adani Wilmar’s refined soybean oil goes by the brand name ‘Fortune Soya Health’ in bold letters on the front of the pack. But if you turn the pouch around, you'll notice at the back, in small tiny letters, it reads: “The word ‘health’ is only a brand name and does not represent the product's true nature.” Tune in to find out how cooking oils brands available in the Indian market have been knowingly misleading consumers and how bad refined oils can be for you health. Recommended reading: Fortune Vivo oil meets its inevitable sticky endDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In the last few years post-pandemic, fleet-management companies like Everest have become the silent battalion in Uber's army of cabs. In fact, 90% of Everest's fleet is with Uber.This, of course, has helped Everest grow its revenues by 150X. Both seem to have found their relationship to be mutually beneficial. Everest gets to run its assets on a high demand platform. And for Uber, it become so much easier to manage its cars. No need to deal with hiring and training drivers.Now, Uber is deepening its ties with Everest, especially since it wants to roll out EVs. But as Uber gives more control to the fleet management company, the basics of the ride hailing business could change forever.Recommended reading: Blusmart wants ride-hailing glory by saying no to Uber, Ola’s scaleDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Just two years ago, quick commerce became all the rage. Now, it's slowly becoming a relic of the pandemic. The biggest names in the business have been tumbling over in the past few months. They've either been shutting down their quick delivery businesses or they're rolling back the number of their dark stores.Meanwhile, Zepto, one of the leading quick delivery platforms that made ten minute deliveries a thing, is among the first in the Indian quick-commerce space that hasn’t had layoffs or store closures in recent times. Nor has it pivoted to new verticals. In fact, its founder Aadit Palicha who spoke to The Ken told us he sees no reason to turn away from delivering groceries in minutes.Tune in.Recommended reading: Zepto is looking for a chairDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Last week, edtech giant Byju's saw its valuation come crumbling down from $22 billion to $8 billion. And June 5, 2023 happened to be the last day for the company to pay off a $40 million instalment on its highest unrated loan.This is, of course, only a part of Byju's problems which range from bad press to a growth slump and a lot more. To say that Byju's is in a precarious position right now would be an understatement. The question to ask is: will it sink or swim?There is one tiny glimmer of hope.Tune in to find out.Recommended reading: Byju’s is looking like a hedge fund  Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

With the advent of plastic in the 1980s, the once-flourishing jute industry of India saw a slow demise. But lately, the tables seemed to have turned.Countries are implementing more stringent ESG rules forcing global retailers like Ikea, Walmart, Tesco, etc to look for alternatives to plastic bags. India being the largest producer of jute is suddenly in focus. More than $120 million worth of jute bags were exported in the last financial year alone.However, neighbouring Bangladesh, also one of the leading producers of jute is quickly catching up.Tune in to find out more.Recommended reading: Walmart and Ikea are why a British-era industry is back in vogueDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

When the govt launched Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the idea was to build the world largest e-commerce platform to check the monopoly of giants like Amazon and Flipkart. You could think of ONDC as the UPI of e-commerce. From ride-sharing and food delivery, to groceries, the platform can be used to buy and sell anything. Lately, ONDC has been doing some interesting things with pricing. For example, someone ordered food on it for a price that was 45% lower than Swiggy. This, obviously, got thinking. Could ONDC kill the likes of Swiggy and Zomato and others?While there is no exact answer to that because of a bunch of factors, what made us more curious was this: Do we want ONDC to win? And if it does then what could be the consequences?Tune in to find out.Recommended reading: Why everyone wants a piece of India’s open e-commerce platform  Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The government of India launched a $3 billion dollar production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for automobiles to boost manufacturing, especially EV manufacturing, within India in 2022.It was a win-win for both—EV makers had been eagerly waiting for beneficial subsidies and the government could use it to push domestic private investments and create jobs in the sector. But more than a year has passed and the funds remain untouched. Not a single company selected under the scheme has qualified for the incentives, let alone received them. Tune in to find out what's going on.Recommended reading: Rajiv Bajaj has the last sigh on EV subsidiesDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform.Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

For almost two decades, India was a stagnant market for one of the leading tech companies of the world. But in 2021, things changed and Apple's sales graph in India began to rise upwards.By 2022, Apple sole over 7 million iPhones in the country. And then in April, Apple CEO Tim Cook inaugurated India’s first Apple retail store in Mumbai. But compared to markets like the US and China, Apple's numbers in India are far from substantial. Yet, the company is looking to give Its Indian customers a premium experience, even if the sales don’t yet justify it. Tune in.Recommended reading: Indians’ love for the iPhone is stronger than ever. But Apple retailers are not happy Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform.Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

A year and a half ago, Sony’s India unit—Sony Pictures Networks—announced a merger with rival Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. Ever since, Sony Liv's subscriber base grew from 18 million to over 33 million. With good original stories and unique non-fiction shows, alongside a strong partnerships strategy, Sony has been able to close the gap on market leaders such as Hotstar. Zee meanwhile has a formidable arsenal of regional content.The combined strengths of the two platforms, Sony and Zee, now threaten to change the pecking order of the country's OTT sectorTune in.

Not long ago, being a fintech company in India meant having a promising future. Because people would always needed to make payments which is why it was assumed that building better products around these needs would ensure good business.But it was not how things panned out. And the story of Instamojo, a promising fintech company is testament to that.After 11 years of being in the business, it has decided it does not want to be a payments company anymore. 

In 2016, Jio invested more than $50 billion to roll out a 4G network across India. The move disrupted the telco sector leaving Airtel down at the second place. The other rivals didn't make itThe telecom sector was left in the hands of a duopoly. Now, there is a new war between these two giants and it is over home broadband.In fact, the crown they’re fighting for is to be the go-to service provider for not just broadband but the whole works—a complete suite of entertainment, gaming, and home-surveillance services. What are they up against and how are they prepping to win?Tune in.Recommended reading: Jio, Airtel brace for another epic price war. And it’s not for mobile usersDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

From amazing salary hikes and other perks being served on a silver platter just a year or two ago to now, when companies are using salary benchmarks to figure out whether they have overvalued employees—the startup ecosystem in India is going through a churn.In fact, as many as a quarter of startup professionals might be what HR and hiring professionals are terming as 'unhireables' at this point.Former overvalued startups that had gone on hiring sprees are now doing all they can to correct their mistakes while employees are resisting, waiting for things to settle with fingers crossed.Tune in.Recommended reading: India’s startup workplaces confront the rise of the ‘unhireables’Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform.Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

What makes Dunzo unique is that one could never imagine a company its size to have the kind of influence it does.In 2022,  a $200 million funding  from Reliance Retail sent the quick-commerce startup flying high. It began expanding its dark stores and even ran advertisements in IPL.But the IPL led boom did not last long. The same year, the number and volume of orders began to decline.Dunzo was forced to recalibrate its focus and rethink its strategy. Tune in!Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

India's youngest detect unicorn is on a relentless expansion spree. So much so that its investors want it to slow down.From establishing itself as the leader of NEET-JEE test preparation, Physics Wallah (PW) wants to dip its toes in a bunch of other areas—from banking and defence to civil services now. Not to forget short-term skilling courses and even tie-ups with schools.Despite this hyper growth phase coming after PW became the only profitable edtech unicorn in the last financial year, cracks are appearing on its armour now.Tune in.Recommended reads:India’s youngest edtech unicorn Physics Wallah is making an audacious gamblePhysicswallah vs the popstarDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories. 

Last year in October, the Karnataka government banned Ola and Uber autorickshaws after they were caught overcharging. A month later a new app was launched and it was almost antithesis of Ola and Uber. It charged zero commission from drivers and no cancellation or surge charges from riders. Plus, the government supported it by saying it would be listed on its e-commerce behemoth, ONDC.Yet, eight months later, Namma Yatri is not growing as much as expected in terms of registered drivers and users. Tune in to find out more.Recommended reading: Your Namma Yatri auto driver may still be on Uber, OlaAlso, listen to: Gaurav Munjal of Unacademy on being confrontational, paranoid and transparentDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.  

Freshworks, one of the most successful SaaS companies that was listed on Nasdaq in 2021, wanted to hit $1 billion in annualised revenue by 2023. What made it stand out was also its employee-first approach.That it took the company just 5 years to climb from $1 million in ARR in 2010 hit $100 million indicated that the target could've been achieved. but it's 2023, and Freshworks is only halfway towards the goal.How is the company planning to pursue its profit goals?Tune in to fine out.Recommended reading: How Freshworks is going from being a ‘people-first’ to a ‘profits-first’ companySubscribe to The Ken for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

The pandemic worsened the nursing crisis in India. If 35 nurses were required for every 10,000 people, India only has 25. Exploitative work conditions and poor pay are making nurses migrate in huge numbers to other countries for better jobs. It is an exodus.The government on its part its trying to solve the crisis by building more nursing colleges. But this is akin to a doctor treating the symptom instead of the disease.Tune in to find out why.

India’s nutraceutical market is estimated  to be worth $4-5 billion and the government expects it to be worth almost five times more in the next two years. As important as it is to monitor the rapidly growing market, regulations have not really kept up.And in a post-Covid world where preventive healthcare has become all the rage, a dangerous situation is being created. Health supplement makers are flouting RDA guidelines and consumers have been paying little attention.Tune in to find out why you need to read the fine print before you buy your next dose of multivitamin gummies.Recommended reading: How healthy are health supplements? India’s food regulator wants to find outDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.  

Last week, a full search and seizure operation was carried out by the Enforcement Directorate on three offices of edtech giant Byju's. The $22 billion startup is being investigated under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.The move comes at a terrible time for Byju's since it is already struggling with a long list of troubles including a potential debt crisis. The company still hasn't filed its financials for FY 2022.In this episode, not only do we look back at Byju’s missteps, we also go over what it did right, and how it still did not matter.Tune in.Recommended reading: The seven things you need to know about Byju’s FY21 financialsSubscribe to The Ken for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.

The launch of Chinese video content platform Tiktok in 2017 changed the social media landscape forever. The short video format became all the rage. Despite TikTok being banned in 2020, the format stayed and a range of Indian short-video apps came up.Content creators from small towns and cities joined such platforms and for many it became a dependable source of income. Some were making as much as Rs 1 lakh a month.But now, with advertisers slashing their budgets, platforms such as Moj and Josh are ending their exclusive deals with content-creators.What seemed like a viable career option for thousands across the country is no longer the same.Tune in.

The initial public offering ((IPO) of Mankind Pharma Ltd opened for subscription on 25th April and closed just yesterday. The pharma major is reportedly eyeing a valuation of over $6.7 billion.But in recent years, the Indian stock market has not been very kind to pharmas that have been listed. Since 2010, 17 of them have had IPOs, but four have delisted. Of the remaining, half are trading below their listing price.Amidst this and the current economic state that is making many postpone their IPOs, Mankind still went ahead with its plan. Why?Tune in to find out. 

In February this year, Vodafone Idea gave away a 33% stake to the Indian government and the government converted a part of its dues into equity. Many analysts though think even this cannot save the sinking telco.Because the company still owes the government $23 billion and banks $1.5 billion. And it also needs $6 billion for an all-India network upgrade to roll out 5G.Vodafone Idea has too much to deal with—a towering mountain of debt, a ruthless giant of a rival, and the merger with Idea that turned out to be a bad decision.  In today's episode, we look at the possible outcomes of how the saga of the struggling telco could end.Tune in.

Ever since they came up a little less than a decade ago, e-pharmacies have been fighting a constant battle. On one hand there is the severe pushback from traditional pharmacy lobbies and on the other, the lack of a regulatory mechanism.It was only in 2017 that the government officially acknowledged their existence. It was a small win, but a win nonetheless. But the draft e-pharmacy rules that the government came up with a year later were never notified.Despite this, e-pharmacies continued operating and their importance was only highlighted further during the pandemic.But in February this year, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) sent show-cause notices to 20 e-pharmacies. These included Tata 1mg, Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance Retail-owned NetMeds, MediBuddy, Practo and Apollo.However, e-pharmacies are here to stay.Tune in to find out more

In 2020, Google invested $4.5 billion  in Reliance's Jio Platforms for a 7.7% equity. The flagship product of this alliance was a budget friendly 4G smartphone priced at Rs 6500 called JioPhone Next. The idea was to make the internet more accessible to millions of more Indians.When it was launched, the telco was expected to sell at least 20 million devices in a year. But so far, it has sold only 2 million.A tech giant and a telco giant coming together to make a pocket-friendly smartphone--the plan sounded perfect. What could've gone wrong?Tune in to find out.

The Blinkit delivery workers' strike that began last week has brought the spotlight back on the delivery personnel crisis in India. Just last year in July, Swiggy’s delivery partners in Bangalore too had gone on strike. Their issues range from wages to the lack of basic employee benefits.With an IPO scheduled for 2024 and its 1000 plus crore rupee investment in the bike-taxi company Rapido, the stakes were high for the food delivery platform. It had to find a solution and it had to be soon. So, it came up with a plan.It gave its delivery personnel the option to double as bike-taxis during non-peak hours. This was to incentivise them for doing more work in a day and also retain them during peak hours. But can a food delivery rider deliver meals and also ferry people? Tune in to find out.(Edit note: Earlier, we mistakenly said Swiggy's investment in Rapido was 100 crore rupees instead of 1000 crore rupees. The error is deeply regretted)

BookMyShow has its share of testing times since its birth back in 1998. The last one came as the pandemic and brought the platform down to its knees. Year-on-year revenues fell to one seventh in FY21 and it had to cut down its employee size from over 1500 to just a little over 500.To everyone's surprise, however, BookMyShow managed to not only survive but also recover quite swiftly.But now, the company wants to become more than just a movie ticket-selling platform. It want to win the live events game. Tune in!

After its listing, investors were almost bullish about Nykaa shares. And for good reason. The company has been a pioneer in normalising buying beauty and cosmetic products online. It showed profitability that the other listed tech companies were nowhere close to.So in 2018, it decided to venture into fashion.But things have been a bit shaky since last year. A week ago, Nykaa gave its investors a “revenue update” for the last quarter and it did not paint a very pretty picture. The company blamed the pullback in discretionary spending for the subdued growth in its fashion business.This, however, is not the first time fashion has been the source of concern for the beauty and personal care e-commerce giant.Was Nykaa's foray into fashion worth the risk?Tune in to find out. 

Phone calls from Bajaj Finance offering loans are almost inescapable and lately, the non-bank has been facing quite a backlash for it.But telecalling has been an enduring sales channel for the company which boasts of a loan book worth $28 billion. And despite the massive size of its loan book, it's been growing at 30% for years. Now this rate is seeing a dip through.Bajaj needs to maintain a 26-27% growth rate. Meanwhile, shifting its loan sourcing to its digital assets is going to take a while.So those pesky calls are unlikely to stop anytime soon.In this episode, we take a closer look at this Bajaj Finance's annoying but successful system of tele-calling.

According to a survey by S&P, more than 75 per cent of Indian adults do not understand basic financial concepts. The gap is more when it comes to women. 80%.   So the rise of financial influencers who simplify complex financial jargon and provide investment advice is not really surprising. But often, they underplay risks  and overplay returns, and try to ride the market waves.In fact, SEBI, the market capital regulator, has been receiving many complaints and is working on creating a framework of strict guidelines to bring them under its control.But reining these 'finfluencers' in is a bit of a catch-22 situation.Tune in.

With the digital streaming rights to IPL gone and the recent losses it posted, India's undisputed OTT leader is trying to figure out a new strategy to stay on top of the game.As other OTT platforms around the world are consciously choosing to spend less on original programming, Disney+Hotstar is doing the opposite in India.But is it enough to make up for the 30 million viewers it would get on average every day when the IPL was on?Tune in to find out.

India’s patent office decided to reject pharma giant Johnson &Johnson’s appeal to extend the patent for a life-saving TB medicine called bedaquiline which is used to treat those with drug resistant infections. But for a long time before this, Johnson & Johnson was enjoying a monopoly in India. Generic manufacturers could not make this life-saving medicine. The Indian government too, at the time, had decided to protect the pharma giant.Not just that, Johnson & Johnson was also conveniently projecting itself as a charitable organisation through its health programmes.What does the Indian govt’s decision mean for TB patients in India now?

If you had to compare all the online payment methods available to us, digital wallets like Paytm have gone through the roughest of waters.  From being the life-saver during demonetisation to being left behind by UPI, digital wallets haven't had it easy. But last week, UPI parent NPCI released a circular about the use of digital wallets that brought a ray of hope albeit after a bit of confusion. It had to do with certain charges being levied on transactions over Rs 2,000.How could it work as a shot in the arm digital wallets and who is actually going to pay these new charges?Diclaimer:*Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken.*The Ken has been part of multiple programmes initiated by GPay parent Google for news organisations globally, including, most recently, its 2022 APAC Innovation Challenge.

With the IPL set to begin today, a few days ago Jio announced a move that many say could be the next big disruption. The Reliance Group, which has the digital rights of the event, is streaming the games for free on its OTT platform, JioCinema.The main goal is to get people to switch the traditional way of viewing cricket, especially IPL, from TV to digital streaming.So on 27 March, Jio launched its most affordable fixed broadband plan yet. The plan offers unlimited data at 10 Mbps for Rs 198 per month. Before this, Jio was giving fixed broadband customers 30 Mbps bandwidth for Rs 399 a month. Will the new broadband plan get enough viewers to switch to digital streaming? Tune in.

The Indian government has set an ambitious goal with the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program for mobile-phone manufacturing. By 2026, it aims to push the country's annual exports to a whopping $300 billion.The idea is to boost large-scale manufacturing and to support domestic phone makers to become globally competitive.  But of the six companies that made the cut to claim the scheme's incentives, only two are Indian.Why is “Make in India” attracting more foreign phone makers than Indian ones?Tune in to find out.

 2023 has been declared the International Year of Millets after India, the largest producer of millets in the world, moved a resolution in the UN General Assembly.The Prime Minister himself has been promoting the use of millets as a staple through various channels like Mann Ki Baat and the Global Millets Conference that was recently held in the national capital.But making what were once called 'coarse grains' as the next big food trend is riddled with challenges and will take more than declaring 2023 the year of millets.Tune in.

After buying the digital rights for IPL for an eye-popping amount last year, Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema wants to change the way Indians watch cricket. It wants to replace TV viewing with online streaming.In order to pull it off, it came up with an almost disruptive move. It decided to make IPL streaming freeWhile viewership is expected to hit half a billion and ad impressions to quadruple after this, advertisers are skeptical about a host of unknown factors.What are they?Tune in to find out.

The Indian Met Dept has predicted that 2023, especially between March to May, is going to be unusually hot for most parts of India. Air conditioners and electric fans account for nearly one fifth of the total electricity used in buildings around the world today.Naturally, electricity bills have skyrocketed and it's only going to get worse.Meanwhile, a fascinating technology has emerged that can save 30 to 40% in energy consumption but it's not being adopted as fast as it should be. Energy transitions are proving to be much more difficult than a smartphone upgrade.Tune in

Last week, Season 2 of one of the country’s most popular reality TV shows, Shark Tank India, came to an end. The show has given rise to a significant demand for startup investing.Investors are able to put in as little as Rs 5000 via online fundraising platforms like Tyke Invest and Infubiz. They offer investments in startups through Community Subscription Offer Plans. But these fundraising campaigns are not subject to securities laws and  investors in these instruments do not have any shareholder rights under the Companies Act, 2013.This is creating a high-risk environment for small-time retail investors.Tune in.

A few months ago, a whistleblower alleged that some of the top EV makers in India were misusing the FAME subsidy. The government began an investigation and withheld the subsidy for multiple EV manufacturers.Ever since, news stories have been reporting how the sale of EVs in India has declining and the FAME subsidy is under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.But the government is only trying to correct a past mistake. The impact of the subsidy on the rising penetration of EVs in the country can't be ignored. In fact, the criticism of FAME could actually end up hurting the EV sector in the long run.Tune in. 

For credit card issuers, 'revolvers' are the most profitable customers. They are users who carry over a balance from one month to another instead of paying the entire due amount.These users pay as much as 40% interest per annum by revolving and help the credit card issuer make obscene amounts of profits.But lately, dues from ‘revolvers’ have been falling. There is a shift in their behaviour pattern.Tune in to find out why

With summer around the corner this year, the Indian government is scrambling to make sure the country does not face power outages.But as this demand for power rises, the country is also working on increasing its green energy capacity. In fact, India is turning out to be one of the fastest to increase its renewable energy capacity. The transition to green energy is not just about how electricity is produced, it is also about how it is consumed. India emerged as the biggest market for corporate power-purchase agreements  (PPAs) in Asia-Pacific for the second year in a row.This trend has the state-run discoms or power distribution companies seriously worried. 

ITC's stock had been lagging for years. Many institutional investors stayed away from ITC because the company's shares are considered sin stocks. The company, meanwhile, has avoided acknowledging the importance of cigarettes, its mainstay business, in its communications.But over the last year, the ITC stock has made a dramatic comeback. Suddenly, investors can't get enough of the company.What changed?Tune in to find out.

The fourth draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is all set to be presented in the Parliament during the ongoing Budget session. While it makes a strong case for creating laws to prevent the personal information of citizens from being harvested and exploited, the Bill is playing blind to two Important factors. This in turn could end up creating a crony-capitalist economy where an individual's freedom of choice is put at risk.Tune in.

The introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s was one of the most significant events in the history of human society. But it still left the burden of birth control largely on women.Now, however, things are changing. The demand for male contraceptives is on the rise. But why have large pharmaceutical companies not paid enough attention to the research on male contraceptives for all these years?Tune in.P.S We apologise for the delay in the release of today's episode. We were faced with technical difficulties.

CP Plus, a CCTV camera brand, procures 80% of its supplies for its parent company Aditya Infotech Ltd (AIL) from the Chinese security-equipment manufacturer Dahua Technology.   Dahua and Hikvision, another Chinese surveillance-tech firm, are facing sanctions in the UK, US, Australia, and other countries, for their connection to the Chinese government.But in India’s growing CCTV market, which is said to be worth Rs.5000 crores, both these companies are flourishing. Bringing them under control is turning out to be a huge policy challenge for the government.Tune in.

In 2015, the current government set an ambitious target. It said we would have 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022 and 40% of it would come from rooftop solars or RTS. Back then, the country’s solar capacity was just 3.7 GW.   But as of October 2022, this capacity rose to only a little over 60 GW. The main reason for this is the slow adoption of RTS. High transaction costs and lack of data about the long-term performance of RTS make it difficult to access loans for small-scale solar installations.Tune in to find out more.

Years ago, a tug of war began between tech companies including OTT platforms and telecom companies.Telecom and internet service providers believe that content and tech companies should pay them for disproportionate traffic. But tech and content companies argue that this would violate the principles of net neutrality.The debate has now reached India and telecom regulator TRAI is expected releasing a consultation paper on the matter soon.Will content companies like Google, Netflix have to compensate telcos in India?Tune in.

Hotstar has remained the undisputed OTT leader in India boasting of half of India's 90 million paid OTT subscribers. A part of this success has come via the IPL streaming rights and from bundling with telecom and DTH service providers like Jio and Airtel. But last year, Jio's Viacom 18 won the digital streaming rights of IPL, the largest cricket tournament in the world. Not just that Reliance's Jio also dropped Disney+Hotstar from most of its streaming bundles.Why did Reliance choose to end this partnership and what does it mean for Disney+Hotstar?Tune in to find out. 

From February 26, the Union Health Ministry will organise a two-day 'Chintan Shivir'  to explore ways to build trust on Indian drugs, cosmetics and medical devices.Despite being called 'the pharmacy of the world,' time and again, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has received criticism for substandard quality. The most recent such incident was when the deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan were allegedly linked to cough syrups manufactured in India.Why does Indian Pharma still struggle with quality control?Tune in to find out.

With its phenomenal success, UPI has changed the way Indians interact with money. Now, the NPCI along with other fintech platforms are making efforts to launch UPI for international use.But the government needs to ensure UPI remains secure and reliable as it expands beyond the country's borders.Note: In the previous version of this episode, the host mistakenly referred to NPCI as NCPI. The error is regretted and has been corrected.

A few days ago, Zomato announced that it was withdrawing its services from 225 cities in India on account of "not so encouraging" performance.Last week, the food tech giant also reported its financial results for the last quarter of 2022. It saw its losses soar 5X to nearly 350 crore rupees.The volume of orders also declined during this period. But in these numbers there also lies hidden a glimmer of hope for the company.Tune in.

With increased competition within the country, the over-hundred years old Ayurvedic brand, Dabur, is looking to acquire and expand. It wants to change its story.Just last year in October, it acquired a 51% stake in Badshah Masala, one of the country's leading spices companies.But why does the world leader of Ayurveda brands need to reinvent itself?Tune in.

Whether it is to decide where to eat or what to buy, online reviews play important role. But fake reviews are turning out to be quite a menace.To bring them under control, the Indian government released a set of guidelines for e-commerce platforms.But they forgot to mention an important point.Tune in to find out.

Lately, Indians have been spending increased amounts of money on travelling to foreign countries. In the month of November last year, Indian travellers spent 1 billion dollars abroad. The government and even regulator RBI took notice of the new trend.And now, in the Union Budget 2023, a new tax has been added to overseas spending through the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LTS).

Britannia's market share has consistently been inching up over the last decade or so. And its shares have doubled in value in the past five years. Apart from biscuits, the company also wants to crack the dairy business. But in the year ended March 2022, the biscuit giant’s revenue was nearly $1.7 billion and out of it only $60 million came from dairy. Despite this, the biscuit giant has grand plans to expand its dairy business.Tune in to find out more

With a dipping market share and no leader in India, many in the industry say Google Pay is losing its agility in the country.  While the reasons range from slow roll-out of new features to overlooking merchants, one has played a big role in Google Pay's current position.  And it has a lot to do with the relationship it shares with its banking partners.  Tune in

Even with comparatively higher tax rates the old tax regime has remained popular amongst Indian taxpayers.  The government, in the new budget, announced changes to incentivise the new  regime.  However, what will suit taxpayers still depends a lot on whether they find the changes attractive enough.   Tune in.

In the last three quarters, the revenues of India's largest telco have been seeing a steady slowdown. A Rajasthan government's free-smartphones-for-women project came along just in time and won Reliance Jio managed to bag 60% of the contract value.But now Jio is waiting, fingers crossed, for the new budget with reports of the government shelving the project.If the project does come through, what would it mean for Reliance Jio?Tune in to find out.

From moment Nykaa went public on the stock exchanges in 2021, it became an investors’ favourite.Its stock had listed at an 80% premium to its issue price of Rs 2,001 per share on the BSE. Its parent company FSN e-Commerce Ventures hit a valuation of 1 lakh crore rupees. And founder Falguni Nayar’s net worth tripled and turned her into a billionaire.  But lately, things have not been going so well for the fashion e-retailer. Its shares have been on a free fall.Tune in to find out why.

BharOS is being launched at a time when the tech giant Google is under the government's scrutiny for adopting anti-competitive practices as the market leader in India.But this is not the first time India is trying to develop an indigenous operating system, both for mobile and computer devices. The failure of the OS projects in the past may hold some important lessons for anyone making a future attempt.Tune in for the details.

The edtech industry in India is facing a host of challenges from all directions, from a decline in funding to the emergence of formidable competition.One that stands out, however, is the allegation of mis-selling and fraudulent loans. According to the Advertising Standards Council of India, 33% of the complaints filed with it in FY21-22 were related to the education sector. And one of the reasons for this is the overly aggressive sales playbook. Byju's mastered it so successfully that many of its its peers followed suit.But now with the government expressing concerns over these allegations, edtechs including Byju's need to rethink their sales pitch. Tune in for the details.

Despite winning the 'pharmacy of the world,' two out of five cancer patients in India have to borrow money and sell their assets to get treatment. The price of many innovative patented oncology drugs in India are as high as in developed countries making them inaccessible for a large section of patients.Where are Indian cancer patients turning to for cheaper cancer medicines?Tune in to find out.

Unclaimed funds at the government-run Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) are  likely to have risen to Rs 50,000 crore ($6 billion) by now. But for an average investor, the settlement process is almost designed to discourage investors from claiming what's theirs.Now, after the Supreme Court took notice post the filing of a petition, the IEPF Authority has asked all stakeholders for suggestions to make the entire process more efficient.Tune in to find out why an average Indian investor finds it so difficult to recover their money from the IEPF.

For Mahindra Finance, the RBI directive against it couldn't have come at a worse time. The rural financier had barely recovered from the effects of the lockdown since it had higher bad loans than its rivals. Add to that the dent on its reputation.How did the NBFC deal with the RBI's restriction on using third party agents for repossession? Tune in to find out.

With the funding crunch and slow growth, edtechs like Unacademy and Vedantu are giving teachers monthly targets to sell online courses to students.Not meeting sales targets is reason enough for edtechs to fire teachers as part of cost-cutting exercises. Tune in to find out how teachers are being forced to become the new sales force in some edtech companies.

In May 2020, McDonald's decided to launch the McSpicy Fried Chicken in the southern states of India where majority of the population consumes meat.Two year later, the shares of McDonald’s India franchisee, Westlife Foodworld, shot up by 40%.Tune in to find out how fried chicken was one of the key drivers behind the fast-food chain becoming a the top-choice among public-market investors.

Last year, the CCI found Google guilty in two of the four antitrust cases against the tech giant. In one of the cases that involves Google's dominance in the Android OS market, the CCI has asked it to pay a fine of $161 million dollars.Google approached the NCLAT contesting CCI's order, asking the tribunal to squash it but NCLAT declined. Now, Google has moved the country's top court.What is the Android OS case all about?Tune in to find out.

PVR, the country’s largest multiplex chain, made up for the pandemic-induced revenue loss by raising the prices of tickets and food and beverages.But it saw its occupancy fall to the lowest levels in a decade even after movie theatres reopened at full capacity.What is keeping India's theatres empty?Tune in to find out.

ZestMoney, the BNPL platform, is in the final stages of being acquired by online-payments giant PhonePe. But ZestMoney has been unable to get enough scale online. Even after going offline, it failed to manage risks. It saw its losses shoot up by 3X in the last financial year.PhonePe, meanwhile, has ambitions to expand by venturing into lending.Can ZestMoney's loss be PhonePe's gain?Tune in to find out.

The packaged-food market is rapidly growing in India and along with it so is the edible oil market. It was estimated to be worth nearly Rs 2 lakh crores by the the end of March 2021. Meanwhile, oil companies have been using the media and sneaky branding techniques for decades to tell consumers that their products are healthy.But are they?Tune in to find out.

After 23 years of business in India, Sula has grown to become the giant that dominates the Indian wine market.Last month, the wine-maker decided to go public through an IPO. The money, however, went straight to some of the investors who cashed out.And on Dec 22, when it listed on the stock exchanges, Sula’s stock opened flat and fell into discount. What does the IPO mean for Sula's public-market shareholders then?Tune in to find outWith inputs from Aayush Agarwal

While the Indian telecom sector is expected to grow by 12.5 billion dollars every three years, the rate of attrition in the industry is at a six quarter high. But the nature of the exodus is slightly different at Bharti Airtel, the country’s second largest telco.Its regional CEOs who helped it fight the big war against Jio are leaving the company.Tune in to find out why.

70% of Metro AG’s business in India is made of kirana or mom and pop stores.But despite being Metro’s core customer base in India, kirana stores are actually turning out to be the straw that's breaking the German retailer’s back. Tune in to find out why.With inputs from Aayush Agarwal

The looming threat of a recession, rising interest rates, and the RBI’s new guidelines for digital lending are proving to be a roadblock for buy now, pay later (BNPL) platforms.But many new startups are using this as an opportunity to push consumers away from the more credit-centric models that encourage impulse buying towards a new, planning-based purchase model called save-now, buy-later (SNBL).How does it work?Tune in to find out.

India's most valuable startup breached the loan terms, including a September deadline for filing its results for FY 2022.Byju's filings for the previous financial year, too, were delayed by one and a half years. And their last audit report does not paint a pretty picture of the company's financials for FY 2021.Tune in to find out what is causing this lack of confidence amongst the creditors of the edtech giantWith inputs from Gaurav Tyagi

More than 70% of the cigarettes that are sold in India are sold in loose and yet, no alarm bells went ringing in the tobacco industry when a ban on the sale of loose cigarettes was announced. Will the ban even succeed in pushing down cigarette sales?Tune in.With inputs from Ayush Agarwal

It’s been two weeks  since the RBI launched a pilot version of the e rupee. But many things are still up in the air about it, including concerns about the anonymity of transactions and if it will hold against one of the largest digital payment systems in the world.Tune in.For more read: How will the e-rupee beat UPI?

The draft telecom Bill introduced by Communication Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in September this year had a lot of hopes pinned on it. The telecom sector in India is governed by archaic laws. One of them even goes as far back as 1885. But the draft bill left the industry divided.Why? And what are the changes that the government might be forced to introduce to the new bill?Tune in to find out.For more on this, read this report by Pratap Vikram Singh: 900 comments on draft telecom Bill may force communications ministry to make three key U-turnsAlso, listen to this brand new episode of First Principles with NoBroker's Amit Agarwal

In the year that ended in March 2022, Apple saw its India revenue shoot up to an all-time high by 45%. But for the longest time Apple's growth in India was sluggish.What's making Apple's fortunes in India turn around so drastically?Tune in to find out.For more on this, read this report by Soumyajit Saha: Indians’ love for the iPhone is stronger than ever. But Apple retailers are not happy

More than 53 lakh NDTV shares were tendered when Adani's open offer ended on Monday. But many of NDTV’s public shareholders sold their shares to Adani Enterprises at a price lower than the current market rate. Why? Tune in to find out.Also, read this edition of Ka-Ching by Anand Kalyanaraman: The puzzling case of NDTV investors selling shares below market price.