Make India Competitive Again

The Ken

The audio edition of The Ken’s Make India Competitive Again newsletter, spearheaded by Seetharaman G. Every Wednesday, our editors and reporters read the latest edition and chronicle what India is doing, will do, and should do—to not just survive but thrive in the chaos unleashed by Donald Trump.

Last refreshed: August 22nd, 2025 at 7:49 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

India’s financial inclusion project is titanic. KYC could be the iceberg that sinks it

Long queues formed outside bank branches across India in 2014 and 2015, with a range of people opening their bank account for the first time. These were farmers, day labourers, homemakers—Indians who had largely been neglected by the formal banking system until then. This moment was part of the Indian government’s Jan Dhan Yojana Scheme, which enabled people to open zero-balance bank accounts at no cost. By the end of 2015, when the initiative ended, 250 million accounts had been opened. Jan Dha...

Jun 30, 2025•11 min•Ep. 12

Starlink found a partner in Airtel Africa. In India, it found paperwork

Starlink can keep internet service going in Ukraine during wartime. It can move hardware into the Amazon Rainforest. The company can overcome all sorts of challenges to bring its high-speed satellite internet connection all over the world, but red tape has kept it from going live in India for three years. The Department of Telecommunications gave Starlink a GMPCS licence—that’s a Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite licence—in early June, but there’s one snag. The Telecom Regulator...

Jun 22, 2025•10 min•Ep. 11

What they don’t teach you about M&As in B-school

2024 was a record-breaking year for mergers and acquisitions in India, and the government seems to want to speed up the frenzy. One of the proposals put forward by the finance minister was an overhaul of M&A regulations. She wants to introduce fast-track mergers for a range of companies, including unlisted firms and fellow subsidiaries. But lethargy isn’t really the biggest problem afflicting Indian M&As. In fact, forcing these deals to move faster may worsen other fundamental problems. ...

Jun 17, 2025•11 min•Ep. 9

Don’t talk R&D, please, we are Indian industry

If you were to think about the world’s most technologically advanced economies, a few nations come to mind. The United States has Silicon Valley as its cradle of innovation, China’s scientists and researchers develop state-of-the-art IP every day, and Japan remains a global leader in robotics, especially industrial automation. India doesn’t register in that cluster. A few figures show us present conditions in more detail. Thirty years ago, India spent 0.6% of its GDP on R&D. In 2025, it’s at...

Jun 08, 2025•11 min•Ep. 10

India’s wi-fi rebellion comes for Airtel-Reliance Jio’s turf

Wi-fi is a miracle. Not because it lets you go online wherever it’s offered, but because there’s no bureaucratic headache whenever users connect to a network. This is only possible because of what’s called “unlicensed spectrum” that governments leave open. In India, more is about to be added to it. Call it the first real systemic reform for wi-fi in the country. The plan is hardly new. It’s rooted in a roadmap developed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in 2023. And it’s an outcome th...

Jun 01, 2025•14 min•Ep. 8

The World Chip Design League is heating up. India isn’t even on the points table

There are plenty of reasons for India’s semiconductor companies to win. The US is seeking to dial back its reliance on China’s tech providers, shaking up global supply chains. Since one-fifth of global semiconductor-design talent is located in India, the country should be coming out on top. But that isn’t how the shakeup is unfolding. Some projects like those of Murugappa Group, Micromax, and Tata Electronics are chugging along, but there are hardly any internationally noteworthy players. Here’s...

May 25, 2025•8 min•Ep. 6

Introducing Make India Competitive Again

Apr 15, 2025•55 sec

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