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,...
Apr 19, 2023•11 min•Ep. 56
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 even...
Apr 17, 2023•13 min•Ep. 55
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 blame...
Apr 13, 2023•10 min•Ep. 54
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 whil...
Apr 12, 2023•12 min•Ep. 53
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 ...
Apr 10, 2023•11 min•Ep. 52
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.
Apr 07, 2023•12 min•Ep. 51
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 conven...
Apr 05, 2023•11 min•Ep. 50
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 sh...
Apr 03, 2023•10 min•Ep. 49
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 p...
Mar 31, 2023•12 min•Ep. 48
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 o...
Mar 29, 2023•12 min•Ep. 47
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 declarin...
Mar 27, 2023•12 min•Ep. 46
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 free While 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....
Mar 24, 2023•13 min•Ep. 45
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 tran...
Mar 22, 2023•10 min•Ep. 44
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 shareholde...
Mar 20, 2023•11 min•Ep. 43
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 countr...
Mar 17, 2023•11 min•Ep. 42
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
Mar 15, 2023•11 min•Ep. 41
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 p...
Mar 13, 2023•11 min•Ep. 40
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.
Mar 10, 2023•11 min•Ep. 39
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.
Mar 08, 2023•12 min•Ep. 38
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 wit...
Mar 06, 2023•11 min•Ep. 37
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 t...
Mar 03, 2023•13 min•Ep. 36
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. Tu...
Mar 01, 2023•15 min•Ep. 35
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 compe...
Feb 27, 2023•12 min•Ep. 34
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 thi...
Feb 24, 2023•13 min•Ep. 33
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 w...
Feb 22, 2023•11 min•Ep. 32
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.
Feb 20, 2023•11 min•Ep. 31
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.
Feb 17, 2023•12 min•Ep. 30
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.
Feb 15, 2023•12 min•Ep. 29
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.
Feb 13, 2023•12 min•Ep. 28
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).
Feb 10, 2023•10 min•Ep. 27
