Daybreak

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'...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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 b...

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...

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 tha...

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 wo...

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...

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...

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’,...

In the last few years, companies like Everest that manage cab fleets have become the silent battalion in Uber’s army of cabs. In fact, 90% of Everest’s fleet is with Uber. This, of course, has helped Everest grow its revenues and both seem to have found their relationship to be mutually beneficial. Everest gets to run its assets on a high demand platform. And for Uber, it become so much easier to...

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India directed credit card issuers or banks to not sign exclusive contracts with card networks, like Visa and Mastercard, that restrict them from using other networks. The RBI did this because it said consumers deserve to have the freedom of choice.  This new rule will be effective from early September and it will change the credit card game as we know it. For start...

In 2021, Campus Activewear took away the top spot in India's athleisure-footwear market from Puma, thanks to its affordable and trendy sneaker offerings. And by May 2022, it became a publicly listed company. Within a span of five months after its listing, its valuation shot up to a staggering US$2.2 billion. However, two years later now, its market capitalisation has nosedived to under US$890. The...

Just like every Lok Sabha election in the last 72 years, millions of people will vote for a new government over the next couple of weeks.   But there is one thing that really sets this election apart. Never before have political parties actively used Generative Artificial IntelIigence at this scale. It is a turning point in India’s electoral evolution.  Some AI startups in India have been developi...

In January, the RBI, more or less killed Paytm Payments Bank. But Paytm Bank was the backbone of its loan business, the same business that helped it recover from its post-IPO bloodbath. Now, Paytm’s lending partners, on whom its loan business is dependent, are spooked  They dont know if they should continue working with Paytm. Meanwhile, Paytm is doing its best to save what it can but Paytm Paymen...

Phone calls from Bajaj Finance offering loans are almost inescapable and lately, the non-bank has faced 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% gr...

It's been over a year since the govt launched Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The idea was to build the world largest e-commerce platform to check the monopoly of giants like Amazon and Flipkart. From ride-sharing and food delivery, to groceries, the platform can be used to buy and sell anything. The platform is close to hitting the 50 million transactions mark now. And what stands out a...

Lat week, the struggling edtech giant Byju's laid off another 500 of its employees. This came along with a salary delay of three consecutive months. In his email to employees two months ago, Raveendran had written, “I have been moving mountains for months to make payroll, and this time, the struggle was even bigger to ensure that you receive what you rightfully deserve." With the latest round of l...

In January this year, Tata Digital's BigBasket announced its rebranding for slotted delivery service to “Supersaver”, promising to deliver products in under two hours. Back when Tata had acquired the BigBasket at a reported valuation of $2 billion in mid-2021, the company was loss-making.  But for those at BigBasket, it was an opportunity to shift their focus back to the company’s core business: d...

The government of India launched Digiyatra, a contactless, facial-recognition-based passenger-entry system, in December 2023. The idea was for those who sign up on the platform to avoid the tedious process of getting their ID and flight tickets checked by  CISF personnel at airports. But lately, stories of passengers being forced to sign up for the app are surfacing on social media. Just this week...

The entire logic of buying online instead of going to a store rests on e-commerce companies making it easy to return stuff. What if it doesnt fit me? What if it is damaged? Just ask for a return and someone comes to your doorstep and picks it up. However, as it turns out, e-commerce companies hate returns because reverse logistics are a costly affair for them.  Now, the likes of Ajio and Myntra ar...

Earlier this week, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared Manipal group chief Ranjan Pai's investment in online pharmacy PharmEasy. So far Pharmeasy, once the highest-valued Indian healthcare startup, has raised Rs 3,500 crore through a rights issue. But it raised this money at a 90 per cent discount to its peak valuation.  From $5.6 billion to $500 million! All because it had to take a...

Beyond the nostalgia associated with meals on trains, quite often, there are also horror stories. In fact, even a recent Parliament Panel report pointed out how food quality on Indian trains is compromised. The IRCTC (The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) has been trying to figure out how to make food a more enjoyable experience on trains and more importantly, a solid source of rev...