In this episode, we talk about the global trade war that stopped before it started. First, we talk about US President Donald Trump's decision to reverse the "reciprocal tariffs" on almost every country in the world, except one. Next, we talk about why India had little choice but to offer concession after concession to the US. Finally, we unpack the long term and short term impact of the tariffs on the Indian economy. Check out the newsletters and podcasts mentioned in this episode: The latest ed...
Apr 11, 2025•15 min•Ep. 465
One of the largest deals to acquire a D2C brand took place in January this year. India’s largest manufacturer of consumer good, Hindustan Unilever acquired the skincare company Minimalist, a 90% shareholding for nearly Rs 3000 crores. Homegrown startup beauty brands have been on a roll in India. Scores and scores of new age skincare brands have cropped up since the pandemic and all of them harp on the science of it. And their whole appeal is transparency. Transparency about the ingredients that ...
Apr 10, 2025•11 min•Ep. 464
Indian family businesses contribute more than two-thirds to India’s GDP. 70 per cent. That’s amongst the highest in the world. And that number is expected to go up to as much as 85 per cent in the next 20 years. Yet, today a lot of these companies are at a crossroads. You see, many of them have realised that they can’t just carry on as they always have. Business as usual isn’t going to work anymore. Think of brands like Medimix, or Baidyanath syrups. Iconic names for sure, but they are increasin...
Apr 09, 2025•12 min•Ep. 463
For a while now, the new kids on the block in India’s $750 billion mutual fund industry have been trying to really shake things up. The likes of Navi, Zerodha and Groww have been dreaming of a big disruption. And a couple years ago, they thought they had found the answer to their prayers. A playbook that would catapult their growth. They were convinced passive investing is the future. They had good reason to believe so. Last year, passive funds won the big game in the US, where—for the first tim...
Apr 08, 2025•14 min•Ep. 462
Despite the recent upheaval in clean tech efforts, governments around the world are investing billions into green hydrogen. Analysts are calling it the missing piece in the clean energy puzzle, especially for industries that can’t run just on batteries or solar power. But the future of green hydrogen may not be decided in Silicon Valley or Europe or even China. It might come from a factory just outside Bengaluru where a little-known American startup called Ohmium is building sleek, modular machi...
Apr 06, 2025•10 min•Ep. 461
As fitness studios exploded across Indian cities after the Covid pandemic, Cult.fit rose to prominence on the back of its fun, accessible classes that appealed to sedentary urbanites. Meanwhile, doctors noticed a sharp rise in workout-related injuries. Majority of those injured fell in the "most vulnerable" 35-45 age bracket. What's going on? The Ken reporter DVLS Pranathi explains. Tune in. Question for listeners: Whose responsibility is it to make sure you don’t suffer from any injuries when y...
Apr 03, 2025•13 min•Ep. 460
India's biggest quick-commerce apps, Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy, have become prime real estate not just for regular FMCG brands but also for financial services, stock-trading apps, and even real-money gaming platforms. The top three players are already making Rs 3 to 3,500 crore rupees in annual ad revenue. And that, dear listeners, is about half of what Amazon India made from ads in FY24, despite having way more users. In today’s episode, host Snigdha Sharma speaks to The Ken reporter Gaurav Ba...
Apr 02, 2025•17 min•Ep. 459
Back in January, when China’s Deepseek R1 model stunned the world with its performance and low training cost, India was thinking only one thing – how do we beat it? How do we become a global AI superpower? But when it comes to the AI race, India has been stuck at the starting line for quite a while now. Its approach has largely been to throw things at the wall in the hope that something eventually sticks. Now, Deepseek has really amped up the pressure. India’s electronics and IT ministry, or Mei...
Apr 02, 2025•13 min•Ep. 458
On January 29 of this year, Denta Water and Infra Solutions – a company that specialises in groundwater recharging projects – listed on the bourses. Three weeks later, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, or BWSSB, issued a set of guidelines to address what has become pretty much inevitable every summer in the city – a full blown water crisis. Now, those may seem like two completely random developments to you. But actually, there is a connection there. Because today, both the BWSSB and...
Apr 01, 2025•16 min•Ep. 457
In this episode we fill you in on three standout stories from the past week. First, we talk about the unravelling of Blusmart, India's first EV ride hailing platform; Next, the private banking and wealth management boom in India; And finally how India’s ad agencies got raided over alleged price-fixing three days before country’s biggest marketing event, the IPL. Check out the stories and podcasts mentioned in this episode: Everyone’s looking for a private banker. Have you seen one? An IPL Whodun...
Mar 28, 2025•14 min•Ep. 456
In January this year, nearly every single employee of the OG E-grocer Big Basket received an email from their CEO, Hari Menon. It was supposed to be a rallying cry. The Tata-owned e-grocery giant had finally—after much hemming and hawing—embraced quick commerce. For a long time, Bigbasket didn’t care much for quick commerce. Menon himself dismissed it in April 2023 as unnecessary and “thrust upon” consumers. But now the Tata board has had enough. Quick commerce isn’t just a fad anymore, it is th...
Mar 26, 2025•19 min•Ep. 455
Phonepe is all set to debut in the public market in the second half of FY26. That perhaps seems like the natural next step for the fintech giant. After all, it commands nearly half of the market share in UPI transactions today. Between 2020 and now, it has gone from catering to one in five Indians to one in three. And yet, the path to its IPO isn’t quite as simple as you would think. In fact, it’s a tough road ahead for the company. And that’s precisely because of the one thing Phonepe is best k...
Mar 26, 2025•12 min•Ep. 454
Every two years, SBI Cards, India’s only listed credit card company, valued at $9 billion, appoints a new CEO. This time, it's going to be Salila Pande, a career banker who has been with SBI for over 30 years. On the 1st of April, she will take the reigns from her predecessor, Abhijit Chakravorty. However, it is going to be a tough few years for her. And the reason is like an open secret amongst SBI Cards executives. They just don’t get along with any of their CEOs in general. Tune in to find ou...
Mar 25, 2025•12 min•Ep. 453
Remember that time in 2022 when India’s top digital payments companies Phonepe, Paytm*, and Bharatpe were in a no-holds-barred turf war? Looking back, it seemed like there was news almost every other day about some tiff between the three market leaders. In fact, former managing director of Bharatpe, Ashneer Grover, has spoken on record about “street fights” between companies’ employees over QR codes. A little more than two years later, there’s only calm. QR code scuffles are over. No one is beat...
Mar 23, 2025•10 min•Ep. 452
In this episode we fill you in on three standout stories from the past week. First, why the fight between every Indian’s favourite namkeen brands Haldiram’s and Bikaji just got spicier; second, the controversy around Urban company’s newest pet project; and finally, the latest from Two by Two where our colleagues Rohin and Praveen discuss what the fourth wave of tech exports from India will look like. Check out the stories and podcasts mentioned in this episode: The latest edition of Long and Sho...
Mar 21, 2025•16 min•Ep. 451
Pharma is slow, complicated and tangled in regulatory approvals and compliances. But, consumer healthcare is fast moving, has far fewer rules and enjoys better margins. Under the umbrella of consumer healthcare you will find a plethora of categories and products – all of which claim to improve some aspect of health or well being. Think supplements, or over the counter medications like Crocin or Sanofi’s own Allegra, even things like protein bars. These are products that you can toss into your sh...
Mar 20, 2025•17 min•Ep. 450
About three years ago, the government decided that it wanted India to become a global powerhouse in cell manufacturing. So it went ahead and dangled a very juicy carrot for companies to produce batteries locally. It promised over Rs 18,000 crore in subsidies for anybody who would help it make its battery dreams come true by the end of this decade. Cut to now, three years later, and those dreams are very quickly losing charge. You see, by now the government should have technically already disburs...
Mar 19, 2025•13 min•Ep. 449
Private schools across the country are going through quite a crisis right now. Just last month, The Ken reporter Atul Krishna saw this play out first hand at a budget private school called Blossoms in Bangalore. During a visit to its campus, he learnt that its once packed classrooms are now thinning down year after year. From 1,5000 students about five years ago, the count is less than half od that now. And unfortunately, the school’s principal Shashi Kumar predicts that that number will only dr...
Mar 18, 2025•10 min•Ep. 448
IV drip therapy has gone from being a fad among celebrities like the Kardashians, to becoming the wellness treatment for the uber rich. There is a growing consumer interest in quick, customisable wellness solutions and plush clinics across the country are cashing in on it. Whether you are looking to treat a hangover, get glowing skin, lose weight or simply optimise your overall well being – there is an IV infusion for you. The catch, of course, is that these treatments can cost anywhere from Rs ...
Mar 17, 2025•14 min•Ep. 393
In this episode we fill you in on some of the biggest business and tech stories from The Ken newsroom. We will talk about Reliance and Airtel’s latest deal with Space X’s Starlink Internet; how Dhan, the stock broking underdog, is defying all odds; and finally, we discuss the market for treating farmed animals humanely. Stay tuned Check out the stories and podcasts we mentioned in this episode: Dhan is the stock-broking underdog that Chryscapital and Hornbill are after. But why? How big is the m...
Mar 13, 2025•17 min•Ep. 446
If there’s one thing urban Indians love to do, it is delegate. Today there’s all manner of apps for anything even vaguely resembling a chore. Need someone to deep clean your house? Or a stand-in for the driver that called in sick? Well, there’s an app for it. The Ken’s deputy editor Seetharaman G recently pointed out how all of this is possible only because of an ever-growing army of gig workers constantly whizzing around cities and towns across India for wages that are abysmally low. In many wa...
Mar 12, 2025•11 min•Ep. 445
When the Bengaluru-based Cloud kitchen operator Curefoods went ahead and acquired the distribution rights for the American donut and coffee brand Krispy Kreme in December last year, a lot of people were naturally quite surprised. Given the company’s roots in the fitness startup Cult fit, you would assume that it would be in Curefood’s best interest to promote all things “healthy”. Even its flagship brand up until now, Eatfit, is popular on delivery platforms for its healthy, clean food options. ...
Mar 11, 2025•12 min•Ep. 444
After years of being associated with powerful politicians and menacing goons thanks to Bollywood films, SUVs are now undergoing a makeover. At car dealerships across the country, they are now being positioned as the ultimate family car — a fortress that can keep your loved ones safe on treacherous Indian roads. The word on the street, according to multiple sales executives and industry insiders, is that Indian carmakers are deliberately positioning these vehicles as rolling citadels. And it's wo...
Mar 11, 2025•12 min•Ep. 443
When the much-awaited Swiggy IPO took place in November last year, many HNIs make put in their money into the company. Some made smaller investments of more than Rs 2 lakh and the others who bought stocks for over Rs 10 lakh. But they weren’t buying stocks because they believed in the real value or long-term potential of these shares. They bought them because they assumed someone else will buy them at an even higher price. The Ken reporter Suprita spoke to a VP of a Bengaluru-based unicorn. They...
Mar 09, 2025•10 min•Ep. 442
In this episode we fill you in on some of the biggest business and tech stories from The Ken newsroom. We’ll talk about the latest development in the Byjus story; how Reliance’s Campa is taking on the Coke-Pepsi duopoly; and finally, the battle between YouTube and streaming companies to be the next television. Stay tuned. Check out the stories and podcasts we mentioned in this episode: The latest edition of Ed Set Go Pepsi’s biggest bottler is pouring more cola to fight Reliance’s Campa Two by T...
Mar 06, 2025•12 min•Ep. 441
This year the JSW MG Windsor became the highest selling electric car in India. It recently even managed to outperform Tata’s most popular offerings like the Nexon and Punch EV. It recorded total sales of over 10,000 units in a single quarter, beating all the models from Tata, Mahindra, and Hyundai. The obvious question here is – what did MG do differently? And the answer is simple – by doing for EVs what Reliance did for cell phones in the early 2000s. Tune in Daybreak is produced from the newsr...
Mar 06, 2025•13 min•Ep. 440
Over the past few years, public universities here in India have been stuck in a rather difficult position. For decades, they were almost entirely dependent on state funding to keep the lights on. But now the state funding has steadily been drying up. So now, they have no choice but to fend for themselves. But legacy institutes like IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and IIT Delhi have found a workaround. They are all taking a page out of the Ivy league playbook and setting up their own endowment funds. In t...
Mar 05, 2025•11 min•Ep. 439
Up until recently, for most enterprises the default choice ended up being ChatGPT maker Open AI's models. That was mainly since for a long time there were no serious alternatives. Then, in came Deepseek R1. It proved that other models could compete and even win against OpenAi, that too at a fraction of its price. So now its the one that’s nudging enterprises to think twice before paying OpenAi for its services. And as a byproduct of that, over the last few months, the entire AI ecosystem has bee...
Mar 04, 2025•12 min•Ep. 438
Young independent doctors in India are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Take F M, a 32-year-old psychiatrist who has a clinic in South Mumbai. She’s spent a third of her life slogging through medical schools and internships to finally earn her super-specialised degree. But two years into her private practice in a posh South Mumbai area, she wonders if being a doctor is really worth it. Nearly 50% of the total medical seats in India are in private and deemed medical colleges, which don’t co...
Mar 03, 2025•11 min•Ep. 437
In this episode we fill you in on some of the biggest business and tech stories from around the world. We’ll talk about US President Donald Trump’s trade war threat and what it means for India and why Meta is suddenly doubling down on its Indian market. Finally we will take you through some of our favourite offerings from The Ken’s newsroom this week. Check out the stories and podcasts we mentioned in this episode: Netradyne made a $1.3B business out of surveilling drivers. Now, it must focus on...
Feb 28, 2025•19 min•Ep. 436
