Demand for high-end living is on the rise and Nobroker's subscription plan just doesn't cut it anymore. So it introduced a new postpaid plan to entice wealthy property owners. Funnily enough, the way it works is pretty much how traditional brokers earn their brokerage. This goes against the basic premise with which Nobroker was started almost a decade ago. So why has Nobroker switched up its strategy? And why is it going down the road it was so fundamentally against? Tune in to find out. 

When it entered the quick commerce scene for the first time in 2021, Zepto was a disruptor. Now, it is the third largest company in the market after Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart. Recently, it secured its biggest funding ever at a US$3.6 billion valuation, mainly from its existing investors.Venture Intelligence, a data provider told The Ken that the US$660 million funding is largest bet made by VCs in Indian startups this year. And now, The Ken's sources say that Zepto is planning to raise another round from “top-tier global VCs” at a US$5 billion valuation.What did Zepto do to get all this attention from investors?Tune in.Also listen to:Daybreak: Why we date, marry, or breakup with Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, Zepto & BigBasketTFTY: How to get people to listen to you when you have no authority or title?

Four years, 15 cohorts, and roughly 1,500 students later, Stoa School has shut down. The poster child for alternative business-school education in India is no longer accepting new students. What went wrong? And what does it mean for India's altMBAs?  Tune in to find out. P.S. While you are here, check out the latest episode of The Ken's careers podcast The First Two Years, where host Akshaya Chandrasekaran delves into how to build trust with colleagues who don't trust you. 

The pandemic, as brutal as it was, forced a lot of businesses to double down on convenience and accessibility. Whether it was your online education or quick deliveries or at home blood tests. Just to be able to skip that dreaded visit to a hospital or a diagnostic centre meant so much to most people.Accredited labs popped up all over promising to come right to your doorstep and collect your samples from the comfort of your home and that too for super affordable prices. Healthians, a testing lab startup has seen bookings triple since the pre-pandemic era. Now, the company handles 12,500–13,000 bookings daily, with nearly 75% of its business coming from home collections.But while home tests are gaining popularity, whether you can trust them 100% is still under question. Phlebotomists and runners hold the keys to a sample’s fate and accuracy. 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.

On June 3, about 200 employees of the American management consulting firm Bain and Company’s India division received a rather ominous calendar invite. They each would have a 10-minute meeting with HR. But no one, other than the heads of the regional offices and the head of HR, knew what the meeting was about. During the meeting, they were all told they were being laid off. The layoffs took the consulting community by surprise, because it just wasn’t a very ‘Bain’ thing to do. What's going on? Tune in to find out. P.S. While you are here, check out the latest episode of our careers podcast The First Two Years, where host Akshaya Chandrasekaran delves into how to build trust with colleagues who don't trust you.

Nothing about Nykaa is strictly its own anymore. Back when it went public, it had no real rivals in the beauty space. But since then, things have changed. Last year, India’s largest retailer, Reliance Retail, officially entered the beauty space. It launched an omnichannel beauty retail platform called TiraReliance isn’t playing around. In the last year, it has made one thing clear: it wants to completely shake up the country’s  beauty segment. But even the Reliance legacy to back it up, Tira’s success in this space isn’t a given. 

More than a decade has passed since Starbucks came to India. But the world’d biggest coffee chain has been struggling to achieve profitability. In the latest financials,  the company saw its slowest sales growth in India since the pandemic.So far, Starbucks has managed to open around 400 outlets across the country. Meanwhile, Third Wave, a much smaller specialty coffee startup that started around eight years ago, already has more than 100 stores around the country. Its new CEO Rajat Luthra recently announced that that chain plans to open 50 new outlets in existing markets. Third Wave has more than doubled its operating revenue in the last financial year. In the year before that, it saw its revenue grew more than fourfold. It raised $35 million in a funding round led by private equity firm Creaegis in September last year.How far can a startup like Third Wave go against a a 50 year-old global coffee powerhouse with the backing of Tata?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.

At the Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, almost a week ago, Apple made a very important announcement. It launched what it calls 'Apple Intelligence', which is basically an umbrella term for all of the new generative AI features that will be available on certain models of the iPhone, iPad and Macbook. It was a revolutionary announcement because with it, Apple has finally entered the Gen AI race. What took it so long? 'Daybreak' hosts Snigdha and Rahel speak to The Ken co-founder Rohin Dharmakumar in this special episode. P.S while you are here, check out the latest episode of our early careers podcast 'The First Two Years', aka TFTY. In it, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran talks about how to fight for your next promotion. 

The newest battle ground between Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jim is financial services. Airtel already has two thriving ventures. The first is the seven-year-old Airtel Payments Bank which happens to be one of the three profitable payments banks in India. And the second is new financial entity called  Airtel Finance which is mainly aimed at Reliance Jio’s fintech disruptor, Jio Financial Services. The one year old Airtel Finance has already serviced loans worth $300 million. It seems do be doing pretty well. In fact, just last month, in an earnings call, the Airtel boss, Gopal Vittal talked about how Airtel Finance was shaping up really well. He said It served 400,000 car and loan products in FY24.The story is similar with Airtel Payments Bank. It registered its highest-ever annual revenue of more than $250 million in FY24 and also grew its deposits by 50% from the year-ago levels. The bank has been adding nearly a million new customers every month.But all of this comes at a time when India’s other fintechs are struggling with profitability.Apart from the fact that Jio is still leading, there is one more thing that sets the two of them apart from each other. Jio Financial Services’ focus is to lend to B2B players and engage in asset-management services. Airtel, meanwhile, is taking a different path. The company is using the oldest tool it has—SIM cards—to partner with lenders for consumer-centric products like loans and credit cards.But why SIM cards? The answer lies in the Airtels nearly thirty year old distribution network.Tune in.

Bluestone and Caratlane set out with the same dream. They both wanted to sell everyday fine jewellery online. This was a pretty alien concept in a country like ours, where gold and diamonds are seen more as an asset rather than just an accessory. And for a lot of people, buying gold and diamonds online is completely out of the question, even today. But both these companies were committed to the idea that there was space for fine jewellery online. And turns out they were right. Today, pretty much any major jeweller you can think of is selling their jewellery online. But somewhere along the way, they went on completely different trajectories. 

AI algorithms for cancer screening are being developed around the world. Most medical professionals will agree that there is tremendous potential here. If developed properly, AI can potentially detect various cancers at very early stages – which would make it easier to treat cancer and possibly even increase chances of survival. But all of that is great in theory. In reality, the general consensus amongst the medical community is that AI-led cancer screening just isn’t there yet. When it comes to screening, accuracy is everything. And There’s a long way for this technology to go before it is able to detect cases of cancer with close to perfect accuracy. 

Last week, Foxtale, an Indian D2C skincare company secured an $18 million funding in its series B round. Meanwhile, news also broke that the Deepika Padukone-led 82°E is planning to raise around $6 million from new and existing investors. Scores of new age skincare and beauty brands have cropped up since the pandemic and all of them harp on the science of skincare and their whole appeal is transparency.Among them one brand stands out: Minimalist. It is an active ingredients based skincare company that sells products named after the ingredients like niacianamide, retinol, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, etc. It launched around the end of 2020, and within a span of eight months, it built a 1000 crore rupees business. But for years, legacy brands like Ponds and Loreal have been selling products with similar ingredients. The only difference was they either didn't launch them in India or they kept the ingredient names hidden away in tiny fonts at the back of the bottles.Minimalist came around and changed that. And now, seeing the success of brands like Minimalist, legacy brands are rethinking their strategy.Tune in.Also listen to: Daybreak Special: Why aren't we scared of chemicals in our skincare anymore?

There is something really concerning happening to India’s 200-million strong workforce. Nearly half of them, who are above the age of 45, have reached a point in their careers where they may have to retire much earlier than they planned. Against their will.In a nutshell, the usual career span that would last anything between 40 to 50 years even has been slashed by half almost….. to just 20 or 25 years. But this isn’t something that a lot of 40 and 50 year olds are taking lying down. They are figuring out ways to hack the system so they can stay “forever employable”. And in the process, conventional career trajectories are starting to change. Like one 38-year-old CXO put it, “Growth—be it in a profession or in life—is not equivalent to moving up a single, well-defined ladder.” Daybreak hosts Snigdha and Rahel speak to The Ken reporter Vanita Bhatnagar about these new career trends. Tune in.

Zomato, the food delivery giant is all set to infuse more than $35 million into Blinkit. But not too long ago, Blinkit, the grocery delivery platform that was formerly known as Grofers, was on the verge of dying. It was the first year of the pandemic and the demand for quick commerce was at its peak. Grofers wanted to join the bandwagon but it didnt have the money.A year later in June 2021, it got its shot in the arm with a $120 Mn infusion from Zomato. A year later, in 2022, Zomato decided to go all the way in and acquired Blinkit for nearly $600 million. It was not been all smooth sailing even after that.But somehow, Blinkit has managed to crack the quick commerce market and become a leader.  How?Tune in.*This episode was first published on March 6, 2024Daybreak 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 29-year-old Deepa delivered a healthy baby boy six months ago, she thought her health insurance would cover her hospital expenses. But unfortunately, it barely covered 1/3rd of the Rs 1 lakh bill. So she ended up using her corporate health insurance that offered a higher limit. And this isn’t a one off. The Ken spoke to 13 women from six different cities who delivered babies in the last couple of years. Most of them had experiences just like Deepa. Seven of them said they got their maternity expenses covered by corporate health insurance, either their own or their spouses. And that’s despite having their own personal health cover in place. Luckily for Deepa and the seven women we spoke to, they had some form of corporate health insurance in place. But in a country like ours, that’s a luxury. Only about 200 million out of the 1.4 billion citizens of this country have access to it. That’s pretty abysmal. In this episode, we delve into what health insurers have against pregnancies. Tune In. 

When e-commerce giant Flipkart acquired online travel aggregator (OTA) Cleartrip back in 2021, the hope was that it would be able to turn things around. Cleartrip had hit rock bottom. And in many ways the only way from there on was up. But things haven’t quite played out as Flipkart and Cleartrip had hoped. One big reason is that Cleartrip under Flipkart may have veered too far away from what makes an OTA an OTA — the OG tried-and-tested strategies that made us keep going back to old school travel agents back in the day.Tune In. 

Last year,  Indians collectively drank nearly 600 million litres of energy drinks. This was almost 30X more than 2018. Among all the go to drinks in India, lately energy drinks have become super popular. People seem to clearly be attracted to their appeal as stimulants.And what’s crazy is that these drinks have become an alternative to chai at tea stalls for office goers. And even for daily wage workers who have to work in this insane heat, they are often a cheaper meal replacement. For the more privileged, they’re also cocktail mixers at parties. As of 2023, PepsiCo's Sting had 90% of the market share in energy drinks in terms of volume. It's been doing so well that Varun Beverages, the company that bottles and distributes for PepsiCo in India, became the hottest FMCG stock in the country. Its saw its share price rise by more than 1000% per cent in the last five to six years.But the ones driving this growth are the country’s youth, who are often unaware of the contents of the drink and the heath risks that come along with it.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.

Desi dating apps are vying for parental approval. And their strategy seems to be working. A couple months ago, Agrima Srivastava, a 29-year-old media professional from Lucknow, had an awkward conversation with her mother. She wanted to know if Agrima had ever heard of Indian dating apps, Aisle and Better Half. That was the first time Agrima had an open conversation with her mother about her love life. She told her that she was on dating apps, but homegrown ones like Aisle and Better half, were "just too serious". Funnily enough, the very reason Agrima was hesitant to get on an Indian dating app is why her mom approved of it. And Agrima's mom isn't alone. Many Indian dating apps have positioned themselves as the perfect stop gap between casual dating and marriage. It allows people the autonomy to choose their own partner without their parents getting involved, while also connecting them with a pool of potential partners from similar communities and upbringings. It's like parent-approved dating. How do they work? And do Indian dating app users need them? We speak to Chandni Gaglani, the head of Aisle and three dating app users to find out. Tune in. P.S. while you are here, why don't you check out The Ken's early careers podcast, The First Two Years. You can listen to it here. 

It has been a tough couple of years for India’s Chartered accountants. This was and to some extent still is one of the most sought after jobs in the country. But lately, the amount of risk involved in their work has been amped up considerably. And as a result, CAs have been resigning left, right and centre. The reason this is happening is because the auditing industry has been undergoing a major shake-up. And behind this shakeup is a relatively new, independent audit regulator called the NFRA, or the National Finance Reporting Authority. The NFRA has set all sorts of records in the last two years. Since 2022, it has debarred 78 auditors and imposed close to Rs 20 crore in penalties. Tune in. 

According to a survey by S&P, more than 75% of Indian adults do not understand basic financial concepts. The gap is 5% more when it comes to women.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.

Since 2021, Toyota and Maruti have been engaged in somewhat of a marriage of convenience. The terms were pretty simple. Toyota would share its hybrid technology with Maruti Suzuki. In exchange, Toyota would get to re-enter the pocket-friendly segment. So what this meant was that the non-premium Toyota cars sold were actually built by Maruti. And the fully hybrid cars sold under the Maruti label were built by Toyota. This arrangement has worked well for both companies for multiple reasons. The biggest of which is the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles in India in the recent past. But in the process, EV makers seem to be losing big time. Tune in.P.S. While you are here, why don't you check out the latest episode of The First Two Years, The Ken's early careers podcast. It's a good one! Akshaya talks about how to network without seeming desperate. Check it out here. 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.

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, airport lounges saw of footfall of over 8 million people in 2022.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.Now, one after the other, major banks are revising their lounge policy. But retracting the freebie altogether is not a risk banks can afford to take.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.

In today’s special Friday episode, The Ken’s Praveen Gopal Krishnan (aka PGK) joins hosts Snigdha and Rahel to talk about India’s complicated relationship with 10 minute delivery apps. They talk about how these apps are shaping our economy and society at large, and more importantly how we, as users, are shaping them.Why do we pick a particular app, what makes us switch to another one and what makes us abandon them all together?PGK asked his readers just that in a recent survey he carried out in his weekly newsletter, The Nutgraf. You can check it out here.You can also check out the Bangalore floods edition Snigdha mentioned, here.Listen to Kabir Biswas talk about Dunzo and the quick delivery business on First Principles.If you're curious about the time everyone except Zepto assumed quick commerce was dying, click here.P.S Tell us what you thought of this episode. a) Was the subject interesting enough for you? b) Did you enjoy the conversation? You can write to us at [email protected] 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.

At the time of demonetisation, the country was desperately seeking an alternative to cash. And a payments regulator called NPCI or the National Payments Corporation of India, was our unexpected knight in shining armour. The NPCI managed to launch UPI at just the right time. This was a revolutionary, once in a generation product that really put the NPCI on the map. Over the years, UPI also became a huge political asset for the Central Government. That’s evident from the fact that political leaders, including the PM, have made it a point to repeatedly endorse UPI. But nearly two general elections later, the pressure is on for the NPCI to come up with a new product, the next UPI. And the NPCI is really feeling the pressure. 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.

New-age D2C mattress brands like Wakefit and The Sleep Company have successfully made orthopaedic mattresses into a mass product. They are changing the landscape of the mattress market in India with their innovative science and tech based approach and clever marketing techniques. Wakefit, for example, literally offers a “sleep internship" where all you have to do is "sleep for 9 hours everyday for a hundred days and earn up to 10 lakh rupees."It's come to a point where even older and bigger mattress makers have had to adapt these changes and start selling these orthopedic mattresses.But is this really about the science or more about the selling?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 couple months ago, Xiaomi released a new product – the SU7. This wasn’t a smartphone, or any other gadget that you would have otherwise associated with the Chinese company. The SU7 is actually Xiaomi’s first-ever Electric Vehicle. Now, this is a major milestone for Xiaomi. It has become the first smartphone maker to successfully launch an EV. Funnily enough, this is something that many smartphone makers  and technology companies – from Apple to Samsung – have tried to do but failed at. Until now. But what do smartphone makers have to do with EVs?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.By the way, have you listened to The Ken's early careers podcast, The First Two Years? In the latest episode, the show's host Akshaya Chandrasekaran talks about how to navigate work friendships. You can check it out here. 

Indians have really been warming up to credit cards lately. More than a 100 million credit cards are in circulation in India as of now. And this rise has a lot to do with the benefits customers get: cash back deals and reward points that you can collect and redeem for anything from flight tickets to stays at fancy resorts.But between the two, cashbacks are a more straightforward method of making the most of your credit card. Availing reward points, on the other hand, requires a combination of skill and patience. And between the two, there’s one that banks actually don’t like.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.

In this week's Daybreak Special episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose speak to The Ken's Shivani Verma about her investigation into Pharmeasy's dubious business practices. The once IPO-bound company is under the scanner for its 'unethical' ways of upselling alternative medicines and supplements. Everyone – from Pharmeasy's own pharmacists, to the doctors who call behalf of the company to validate a customer's prescription – are under pressure to sell these supplements. The saga began with Pharmeasy’s 2021  acquisition of Bengaluru-based e-pharmacy Medlife, where former executives noted a similar trend of upselling alternatives and supplements.  This comes amid ballooning losses and immense pressure from investors to show profitability. So what's the deal? Why is Pharmeasy going down this route? 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.P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now :)

Thanks to Swiggy and Blinkit, it’s gotten to a point where getting everything – from your groceries to a literal water cooler – delivered to your doorstep within minutes has become pretty routine. Something we expect. But there is so much going on behind the scenes to make that delivery possible. Like one executive told The Ken, it’s a combination of solid logistics and precise inventory management.Pulling that off with just groceries that you can easily throw into a carrier and strap on to a bike is one thing. But then you go and add things like water coolers, mixer grinders, even iPhones to the mix. It sounds like a logistical nightmare. But it’s a nightmare that quick commerce apps like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto have dived headfirst into. They are becoming everything stores, almost like ‘mini Amazons’. And with that, the very nature of quick commerce is changing. 

If you were flying sometime last month, you may have noticed, staff from Digiyatra, the contactless, biometric entry system at airports, were repeating the same thing over and over again to passengers at the entrance: “The old app is discontinued, please download the new app.” Passengers were only given this information at the airport. None of them received any notifications or SMSes.Apart from inconveniencing passengers, this also sent  alarm bells ringing among some of them. Because, think about it. Usually you're asked to update an app, not delete it and download a new one, right?Anyway, most attributed it to some kind of a tech upgrade, which was also what Digiyatra Foundation (DYF), the company that runs the app said. Apparently, it was a part of their plan to expand to a larger user base.But you know what? That’s not the real reason. Behind it all, is a scam.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.P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now :)

No other payment aggregator has been able to pull off what Phonepe has in less than a year. Its nearly 50 per cent market share is obviously a huge draw for new merchants. And in the last couple years, its been able to onboard some pretty big names like Bharti Airtel and IRCTC. But the bigger the client, the more ruthless their demands. At the end of the day, they are only loyal to the aggregator that promises them the lowest prices and highest success rates. So how does PhonePe make sure that it stays on top? And where does that leave everyone else? Tune in.Correction: The host mistakenly referred to NPCI as NCPI towards the end of this episode. We apologise for the error.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.P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now :)

The lure of appearing on the popular reality show on national television is so strong that even startups that already have been funded by VCs and institutional investors want to get on Shark Tank. In fact, investors themselves are asking their founders to go on the show.Money or funding is not the goal for these startups. It's the marketing opportunity they want.But Sony, the producer of the Shark Tank is trying its best to make sure that the show doesn't lose its real purpose: to be an investment platform.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.P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now:)

Contrary to its name, the US-based skincare brand 'The Ordinary' pulled off something pretty extraordinary when it was launched in 2016. From the beginning, it was all about transparency. It veered away from fancy packaging, instead opting for simple labels that list out all of the main ingredients, or 'actives', that were used to make the product.And just like that, the brand managed to demystify active ingredients for everyone!This kicked off somewhat of a skincare revolution around the world, including in India. Today, anyone who understands skincare knows what active ingredients are and which one is best suited for their skin. Suddenly, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, AHAs and BHAs are all part of common parlance.But it took more than just 'The Ordinary effect' to get here.Daybreak co-hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose speak to Shamika Haldipurkar, the founder of premium skincare brand d'you, and Vasudha Rai, former beauty editor of Harper's Bazaar and skincare content creator, to unpack this change in perception.If you have already listened to this episode, please give us your feedback here.Correction: The host mistakenly referred to The Ordinary as a US-based company instead of Canada. The error is regretted.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.P.S. Starting this week, Daybreak episodes drop daily :)

CP Plus, one of the most popular CCTV camera-makers in India, gets 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 growing surveillance tech market, both these companies enjoy more than a 50% market share. And bringing them under control is turning out to be complicated for the government.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.

A few days ago Meesho closed the first tranche of its $600 million funding round by securing $275 million. The e-commerce unicorn has impressed investors lately thanks to its sustainded operating growth and the reduction in its monthly burn rate.Over time, the platform has built a kind of dominance in India’s smaller cities and towns that become the envy of its competitors —all thanks to its super affordable unbranded products.But now, Meesho wants to boost its profits. For it, it's relying on something that’s a bit out of character for it. It is betting big on Meesho Mall, a space dedicated to legacy and D2C brands.But with small-businesses and unbranded products embedded in to its very DNA, is Meesho ready to take the big brands route?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.

You may be surprised by how often bank lockers are robbed. According to Finance Ministry data, close to Rs 200 crore has been stolen from locker facilities in the last three years alone. This is pretty disconcerting, especially considering that for the longest time the bank locker has been considered the safest place to store your most precious valuables. It also doesn’t help that every aspect of locker management in banks – from actually opening your locker, to eventually closing it – is extremely complicated. The Supreme Court recognised this. In 2021, it passed an order that was meant to make lockers more secure. After that, the RBI issued a new set of guidelines on locker management. But three years later, experts say the RBI guidelines are protecting banks more than customers. So, the question is: Is your locker really the best place to store your valuables?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 Gaurav Munjal started Unacademy, the edtech unicorn, he hated the offline coaching business. Edtech companies have tried to stay away from offline because of a number of reasons like low profit margins and huge capital. But with the edtech downturn, Gaurav Munjal, finally admitted to the press that he’d been wrong and had overestimated the online business. This came at a time when Unacademy's online business was free falling. So the edtech  shifted focus to its offline coaching network which now makes up 50% of its business. From celeb endorsements to massive discounts on its fee, the edtech is doing everything it can to counter its rivals like Allen and Aakash Institute.Unacademy is changing its very DNA but experts are raising questions about the long-term sustainability of the business. 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.

When it comes to debit cards and ATM networks, no one can beat the State Bank of India. But being the market leader of debit cards in India is actually turning out to be a problem for the public lender. With Indians becoming more open to credit cards and UPI swamping the market, debit cards are dying a slow death. In fact, a lot of industry experts agree that debit cards, in their current physical form, may actually become obsolete in the coming decade. And 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 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.P.S. -- Tell us your stories of great friendships at work here!

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.For example, the company's toothpaste brand Dabur Herb'l Charcoal recently collaborated with Disney for its Star Wars franchise and hired Darth Vader as its chief innovative officer. Just last year in October, it also acquired a 51% stake in Badshah Masala, one of the country’s leading spices companies.  But why is the over-hundred years old established company trying so hard to change its narrative?  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.

Aditya Birla Fashion is arguably one of India's most complex listed retailers. It has dozens of really diverse fashion brands and retail formats under it. On one hand it has high-end luxury labels like Sabyasachi and Tarun Tahiliani, and on the other, it also owns the retail chain Pantaloons and labels like Allen Solly, and Louis Phillip — names that we all know because they are accessible to most people. Now, you would think this we-have-something-for-everyone strategy must be working out great for Aditya Birla Fashion, right?Turns out, that’s not quite true. In fact, it's having this opposite effect. Experts in the industry say it’s almost like the company has an identity crisis.What's going on at Aditya Birla Fashion? 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.

A few years ago, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy had set a target of 40% growth across all categories for Flipkart. But in 2023, it was still stuck at 20%. So the company is now on a mission. It wants to push growth, gain market share, and turn a profit.So in January this year, Flipkarts top execs along with the CEO came together for a meeting to outline a roadmap for 2024. Krishnamurthy wanted Flipkart to introduce a loyalty programme for top spenders, give out more incentives to ensure customer loyalty, push up transaction numbers and average order sizes, and also focus on brands.In the same meeting he also admitted that the company had faced quite a few hurdles the previous year but he was sure they’d make a comeback and hit profitability before the IPO.But here’s the thing, prepping for an IPO often has long term effects on a company’s culture. And the cracks are already beginning to appear inside Flipkart.Tune in.Also listen to: What Swiggy's IPO prep means for its employeesDaybreak 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.

Even though EV sales just make up a fifth of the Tata Motors’s overall sales, the automobile-maker is still the reigning giant of India's growing EV ecosystem. It is also leading the cab industry’s shift to EVs.Over the next 3 to 5 years, it has promised to sell at least 50, 000 EV four wheelers to cab companies. Based on the deal made over a year ago, half of them are meant for Uber. But it's been over a year since the deal with Uber and only 4000 Tata EVs are up and running in Uber's fleet?Did Tata Motors make a miscaculation? 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.

Nearly half of India’s 200 million workforce that is over the age of 45 suddenly has the sword of an involuntary retirement hanging over their heads. These are loyal employees from sectors like pharma, retail, manufacturing, and banking who are dealing with shorter career spans but for whom retirement is not a voluntary choice.Those aged between 40-60 years are facing long periods of joblessness after quitting or losing a job. But finding a job has become increasingly difficult for them and it is leading to a lot of stress and financial issues. In a nutshell, their career span has shortened from more than 40 years to just 20 or 25 years. Why is this happening?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.

In the last decade or so, French retailer Decathlon has managed to completely change how most of us shop for anything sports and fitness related. It replaced mom and pop sports stores by becoming a one-stop shops for all things sports and fitness related. Cult.Fit wants to pull off just that with the help of its in-house athleisure and fitness equipment brand, Cult.sport.But it doesn’t help that it’s been a pretty rocky ride for Cult.Sport this far. The brand hasn’t really taken off the way Cult had hoped. So with its heart set on an IPO, is Cult’s retail project a good idea? Or could it just end up being a distraction?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 people switching to Electric Vehicles (EVs) is not just great for our environment, it's great for hackers too. As EVs become more popular, hackers are constantly looking for opportunities to exploit the widening network of digitally connected vehicles. Between 2018 to 2021, incidents related to breach of cybersecurity in the auto industry rose by more than 200%. And it is only going to get worse in the coming years.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 is not enough.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.

A damning investigative report about Swiggy recently revealed how the foodtech giant has been depriving its delivery workers of their health insurance coverage if their ratings fall. It comes at a time when the company is prepping to make its stock market debut to raise more than a billion dollars. Earlier this week, Swiggy  also got the official green flag for the IPO from its shareholders.But so far, only its food delivery business is profitable. So now, the company is running on overdrive to hit profitability before it goes public. And Swiggy employees are bearing the brunt. 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.

A few weeks ago, retail chemists got together to draw BJP's president JP Nadda's attention to the dangers of e-pharmacies. AICOD urged BJP to promise to include this ban in their election manifesto, along with a ban on discount advertising. They said e-pharmacies should be done away with nationwide to protect public health and prevent drug abuse among the youth.However, this isn't the first time that offline chemists have approached the government to express their woes against e-pharmacies. In fact, they have been lobbying so hard for that the government was forced to shelf the much-required policy on the online sale of drugs saying the matter was "sensitive."But e-pharmacies aren't taking this lying down either. What can bring an end to this long-drawn battle?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.

When you think of the average unicorn-status startup, PocketFM — a homegrown audio streaming platform — is somewhat of an anomaly. Its main claim to fame? Very dramatic, borderline NSFW Hindi fiction audio series’. Its content can best be described as ‘masala’ entertainment. And yet, millions of listeners tune in every day to listen to stories like ‘I love you monster’, or ‘Karan Arjun reloaded’, or ‘Millionaire Ghar Jamaai’. While all this may not be your cup of tea, it has really worked for PocketFM. So much so that the company is now just inches away from a $1 billion valuation. Ever since it was launched in 2018, PocketFM has taken some pretty risky business decisions. Like in late 2021, when it decided to enter the US market. But even though most of its big, bold bets paid off overseas, there is one thing PocketFM has been struggling to do. And you’ll surprised to hear this: Despite such an enviable user base, and investors buzzing around it, in India, PocketFM is struggling to get users to actually pay for its content.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.