Karnataka’s bike taxi ban has thrown Bangalore’s commute into chaos.
Since June 16, services like Rapido, Ola, and Uber Moto have been off the roads, thanks to a High Court-backed state ban.
But for thousands of gig workers and commuters, bike taxis were more than a convenience, they were a lifeline. As protests intensify and surge pricing spikes, this episode unpacks the policy deadlock, the Centre’s new guidelines, and why even women commuters are asking for the ban to be lifted.
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Rare-earth magnets, made from elements like neodymium and praseodymium, are essential to EV motors. But nearly all of them come from China. And since April, not a single shipment has arrived. Maruti Suzuki has already slashed production. TVS and Bajaj are counting down to a July deadline. Others, like Mahindra and Omega Seiki, saw this coming and started building workarounds.
This isn’t just a supply chain issue. It’s a geopolitical move. China controls over 90% of rare-earth processing and has tightened export rules, stalling approvals to countries like India. Now, even importing magnets requires a bureaucratic maze of guarantees, embassy sign-offs, and unanswered emails.
How are Indian EV makers are coping?
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Post-pandemic, retail giants like Reliance and Aditya Birla Fashion were ready to bounce back and they weren’t being very subtle about it. Reliance Retail for instance opened nearly 6000 stores across fashion, groceries, electronics just in FY22 and FY23. But the retail dream of a booming post-Covid shopping spree that companies had sold themselves never really happened. Soon these companies had to hit rewind. Thousands of jobs were gone and hundreds of stores had to be closed down.
Turns out, India’s fashion retail scene is scrambling for a reset.
But what exactly went wrong? Why did giants like Reliance, Aditya Birla, and Shoppers Stop stumble? And what’s the new playbook they’re following to survive?
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Everybody wants to invest, but not everyone knows how. There just aren’t many who can point investors in the right direction.
Registered investment advisors, or RIAs—either individuals or corporates licensed by the stock-market regulator—are an endangered species in India. While the country had about 192 million demat accounts as of March 2025, there were only about 941 advisors. That’s one advisor for over 200,000 investors. Pressure much?
You’d think the problem goes away if there were more Sebi-registered advisors. If only. In fact, the number of registered advisors in India has been declining over the past few years. Just in 2020, there were over 1,500 of them. The drop was largely attributable to the regulator.
Meanwhile, fintechs like ET Money and Value Research are attempting to plug this gap by offering investors automated advice for direct investment. But it's far from a done deal.
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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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here
Over the last four years, Croma has found itself in a curious spot. On paper, it’s Tata Digital’s crown jewel—contributing over half of its revenue and crossing ₹18,000 crore in sales last year. But behind the scenes, it’s also become Tata Digital’s favourite testing ground.
From sudden team transfers — like its entire marketing team being moved to Tata Digital overnight — to shifting strategies, Croma has borne the brunt of Tata’s endless experimentation. The result? Cracks in its business model, ballooning losses, but also one big silver lining: a 20 million-strong customer base that could be its ticket to a turnaround.
The real opportunity lies in tapping that customer base. But the catch? No one seems to know how to make that happen.
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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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here
While Prada walks the ramp in Kolhapuris, here in India, Bata, the brand that once defined middle-class respectability, can barely find its footing. Bata which was once a household name, a back-to-school essential, a symbol of quality without fuss, is now finding itself squeezed. Too expensive for the value-hunting Zudio crowd and not fancy enough for the Birkenstock and Crocs-wearing folks.
Which is why Sandeep Kataria’s recent resignation as global CEO feels like a full circle moment. After all, it was under his leadership that Bata tried to pivot from utility to aspiration. But was it ever really able to shake off its image as the brand of the “everyman”? And more importantly, should it have even tried?
Here’s the deeper question: What do we, the Indian middle class, aspire to anymore? Is luxury about heritage and craftsmanship? Or just a European label and a five-digit price tag?
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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.
Category managers have shifted from routine e-commerce roles to powerful decision-makers in quick commerce. They now manage the limited shelf space in dark stores and decide which products get visibility on platforms like Instamart, Zepto, and Blinkit.
Naturally, brands are aggressively courting them, with over 30,000 requests every month for just 150 slots. From hosting parties to taking them out for drinks, brands are pulling out all the stops.
Meanwhile, category managers are urging brands to invest more in ads and marketing to stay competitive.
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*This episode was first published on Dec 19, 2024
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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here
Turns out, in India’s healthcare industry, prevention isn’t just better than cure—it’s also far more investable.
The new buzzword making the rounds? Health assurance. Not insurance—assurance.
It means what it sounds like. Unlike traditional insurance, which kicks in after you fall sick, health assurance is about keeping you healthy to begin with.
A Pune-based startup called Loop Health was the first to introduce India to a variant of the same concept.
It positions itself as a corporate broker, not an insurer. So it doesn’t underwrite risk, but instead sells third-party insurance products to HR heads and bundles its own health perks alongside.
The assurance model has helped this seven-year-old startup grow rapidly.
Loop is dreaming big. It’s done being the middleman. Now, it wants to go full stack. But between regulatory hurdles and skepticism from the insurance and broking circles, its success isn’t assured.
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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 rise and fall of Pharmeasy is well documented. Once the poster child of the e-pharmacy boom, it reached a dizzying valuation of 5.6 bn USD at its very peak. But unfortunately, as we all know now, it didn’t last.
Today the company is worth just 450 million USD – which, is a 90 per cent drop. From aggressive acquisitions to regulatory hurdles, and a failed IPO, Pharmeasy’s journey has been a cautionary tale of overreach.
But the brains behind the operation – Siddharth Shah – isn’t done yet.
He’s back at it again with a new venture. Except this time, Shah has taken on the role of investor – while the founder spotlight is on his wife, Arpi Mehta. Their latest bet? MakeO – a startup that wants to bring invisible aligners, at-home cosmetic dentistry and dermatology treatments to your doorstep.
But despite its irresistible promise – convenience repackaged as medical-grade innovation – MakeO seems to be struggling to take off.
Turns out, MakeO is drawing quite heavily from the Pharmeasy playbook.
Will it end the same way?
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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.
Tata Electronics is assembling iPhones in Karnataka, aiming to become a key player in Apple’s global supply chain.
In this episode, we look at how the company is scaling by adding factories, hiring thousands of workers, and investing heavily in automation.
But it’s also facing high attrition, rising debt, and pressure to meet Apple’s strict standards.
Can Tata turn its manufacturing push into a long-term win?
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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 episode, we turn the spotlight on one of the most powerful yet elusive figures in Indian e-commerce: Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the everywhere-all-the-time CEO of Flipkart. Flipkart, backed by Walmart, was once India’s great e-commerce hope. But lately, the tides have been turning.
Walmart is flying high, outperforming Amazon globally, dominating grocery delivery, and raking in ad dollars with a valuation that’s outshining even Apple. But six years after buying Flipkart, Walmart’s patience is wearing thin. Profits still remain elusive. And Krishnamurthy who has been recognised as a wartime CEO is starting to look more like a general losing his command. Flipkart’s getting squeezed from every side. Meesho, the social commerce platform, has captured the small cities. Amazon still owns the metros. And in the quick-commerce madness, it's all about Zepto, Blinkit, Instamart. Flipkart’s barely in the game. Now some of this chaos is kind of self-inflicted. For example, Flipkart’s foray into travel with the Cleartrip acquisition.
Senior leaders are leaving, morale is shaken, and few inside the company believe the endgame is anywhere in sight. The Ken reporter Nuha Bubere went behind the scenes and the pressure was palpable.
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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.
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For the longest time, getting accepted to Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley startup accelerator was like getting a golden ticket for your startup. It was suddenly on the map not just in India but in Silicon Valley, too.
For Indian founders who made it, the story of success began with a journey west. Set up in Delaware, impress YC, and get some of that Silicon Valley shine. But what happens when that dream starts looking more like a detour than a destination?Earlier this week, the online market place Meesho, once a poster child from the YC pipeline, announced it will pay nearly 300 million $ million in taxes just to bring its business back to India.
Why? Because that’s where the real opportunity is now. With an IPO in the works, Meesho is doing what many Indian startups are now considering: the reverse flip. And Meesho isnt the only one. Fintech unicorn Razorpay, another Y combinator baby, wants an Indian IPO in the next two years. Its expected to pay as much as $150 million to redomicile its business to India.
But if the endgame is an Indian IPO, why take the expensive U.S. route in the first place? Is the YC badge still worth it?
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In a recent, 10-page note recapping its investing journey, Info Edge (India) founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani proudly, and justifiably, called Zomato and Policybazaar “breakout successes”, “winners”, and “outliers”.
A few days earlier, Zomato, now renamed Eternal, had released its sobering financials for the three months ended March.
So what’s Infoedge doing about it? Apart from its own businesses – spanning recruitment, real estate, matrimony and education – it owns roughly 12.5% each of Eternal and PB Fintech, the parent of insurance marketplace Policybazaar, and has not sold a single share in either since they started trading.
The reason is simple and it was stated in its shareholders letter. It wants to be strategic and not opportunistic about existing businesses because it sees itself as a long term investor and not some trader.
The thing is, not everyone is on the same page.
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Indians are hungry for luxury watches. Just in 2024, even as exports of Swiss watches declined globally, they surged 25 per cent in India.
Interestingly, the player winning in this fast-growing market is not a legacy business house like Tata or Reliance, rather it is little-know Chandigarh-based retailer, Ethos.
What sets it apart is the strong relationships it has built with ultra-luxury watch makers over the decades. How does it do it?
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Dream Sports, the company behind Dream11, just bought a piece of Cricbuzz from Times Internet for $50 million. It also bought a stake in Willow TV, a cricket broadcaster in the U.S.
As you probably know, Dream11’s core business is fantasy sports. But no thanks to new taxes and regulatory friction, their business isn’t looking so good lately. Revenue projections are down, growth is slowing, and they haven’t raised fresh money since 2021.
Cricbuzz, meanwhile, has hundreds of millions of monthly visits. That too mostly young users which is exactly the kind of crowd Dream11 wants to tap in to. And Willow TV brings in the U.S. diaspora just when cricket is having its moment in the US, driven largely by South Asian immigrants. The country even hosted the T20 World Cup last year. Together, the two open the doors for Dream Sports to expand, engage, and maybe also survive.
But here’s the real kicker. Dream Sports only bought a minority stake. Why play small in a high-stakes game? And who’s actually the real winner in all of this?
Tune in to find out.
For nearly a decade, Swiggy and Zomato have fed our hunger and dominated prime real estate on our phone screens, leaving very little room for any serious challengers.
Most who tried to break in got their fingers burnt before they even got started. But now, a new player has decided to throw its hat into the ring.
This is a player that has some experience taking on titans, though the last time around it was in a completely different space. Rapido – the Bangalore-based startup that quietly muscled its way into India’s ride-hailing market – is all set to launch its own a food delivery platform called 'Ownly'.
Sure, Rapido’s mission of zero commission, equal pricing in offline and online, and meals as low as ₹150 looks compelling,
but the real question is: how will Rapido make money?
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The luggage industry seems to have undergone quite a makeover in the last few years. Back in the day, VIP and Safari were synonymous with the plain black and grey suitcases. But now, luggage is as important as the clothes you wear–it’s part of the whole airport look.
Startups like Mokobara, Nasher Miles, Assembly, and Uppercase have turned luggage into an aspirational lifestyle product with smart social-media marketing and a vibrant aesthetic.
Also, important to note is that travel changed after Covid pandemic. The duration of trips has shortened, but the frequency of general travel has increased from once every three months to once every 45 days.The suitcase now has to fit in with the instagram aesthetic so it has gone from being functional to a style statement. As of now, VC-backed, new-age luggage brands only have a tiny slice of the market.
But that slice has been growing quickly, and that’s enough to get the old guard nervous.
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**This episode was first published on Feb 3, 2025
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.
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Last month, The Ken set out on a quest to understand how deep AI’s roots have grown in Indian companies. We asked India’s employees across industries and experience levels the extent to which they were using AI tools on a day to day and how it had changed workplace dynamics for them.
Nearly 500 people took our survey. Nine out of 10 of them said they had begun using AI tools, even if it meant paying for them out of their own pocket.
Once we got a sense of how employees were feeling about AI, we turned the lens on some of India’s biggest companies. What were they doing to help their employees keep up?
Turns out that’s something the likes of Razorpay, Phonepe, Cars24, Homelane and Zerodha are actively working towards.
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The Indian wealth-management industry is booming and everyone wants a piece of the action. But here’s the twist: as the industry explodes, the people managing all that wealth have become the real prize.
In a business that caters not just to the top 1%, but the top 0.01% of India’s elite, having the best wealth managers on your roster isn’t just important—it’s everything.
And one four-year-old upstart got that memo early. Neo Group has been on an aggressive hiring spree, planning to add at least 70 new wealth managers this financial year.
But why are we talking about a relatively small, young firm and its recruitment plans?
Because the strategy is working. Big time.
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Elon Musk’s Starlink is just months away from launching in India. Amazon’s Kuiper will follow in 2026. The satcom green light is finally here — the regulator’s long-awaited guidelines are out, and the Department of Telecom has drawn up its strict new rulebook. Surprisingly, the satellite players aren’t blinking. Even more surprising? After years of resistance, Jio and Airtel have suddenly struck deals with Starlink.
But here’s the twist: behind the scenes, neither telco seems eager to actually sell Starlink terminals. So why the sudden handshake? And what’s really going on under all this satellite sparkle?
Tune in to find out how India’s broadband future is being reshaped.
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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.
