Daybreak

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...

Not long ago, Suhail Sameer, former BharatPe CEO had said UPI will do to credit what the likes of companies like BharatPe did to debit a few years back. India has more than 960 million debit cards in the country and only about 85 million credit cards.   But conditions in the credit market are headed towards a disruption because of UPI and there’s one area of the whole credit ecosystem where it is...

More than 70% of fraudulent banking transfers in India are KYC-linked scams. A senior official at the Financial Intelligence Unit, a national agency responsible for analysing data on suspect financial transactions informed The Ken that KYC frauds amount to over Rs 900 crore ($108 million) per year. One such fraudster who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity said, ““KYC is an easy trick to pul...

Have you noticed how easy it has become to get loans? Whether you want to buy a whole house or you want to buy a pair of shoes, you can take an EMI for whatever you want. And of course, in India, an aspirational country, this means we finally have a way to attain the standard of living we have dreamed of. In the year that ended in March 2023 household debt saw its second-highest surge since indepe...

Swiggy has always been proud of the culture of innovation that it has fostered over the years for its employees. In fact, it is this very approach that helped it achieve the coveted unicorn status. But with the IPO scheduled for this year and its pursuit to profitability, innovation is no longer being encouraged. It has become way more challenging for newer projects to take off.  And though it is...

From shadow-banning, content flagging, suspension and even account deletion, content creators are grappling with a variety of censorship methods on social media platforms—all in the name of maintaining community guidelines. But with social media platforms relying more and more on AI and machine-learning tools identify and remove violating content, even content aimed at creating sexual, social, and...

After the pandemic years, Kota’s coaching industry saw an unprecedented boom. Money was pouring in from everywhere–from edtechs to investors. In the last five years, Kota saw about 2 lakh engineering and medical aspirants, on average, arrive from across the country. Kota runs on stiff competition not just among the students but also among the scores of institutes that host and prep them. But since...

As we know, Paytm* is in deep trouble but you know what they say about one man’s loss? It is another man’s gain. When the RBI  killed  Paytm Payments Bank’s services, it also meant it could not to accept deposits or top-ups in its customer accounts, including wallets and Fastag. Fastag is India’s electronic toll-collection system. Its basically a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology-en...

A few years ago, Blinkit, the grocery delivery platform that was formerly known as Grofers, was on the verge of dying. It was the first year of the pandemic and the demand for quick commerce was at its peak. Grofers wanted to join the bandwagon but it didnt have the money. A year later in June 2021, it got its shot in the arm with a $120 Mn infusion from Zomato. Next thing we knew, Grofers had bec...

On Friday, Google removed a bunch of popular apps like Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com,Naukri.com  and even some dating apps like Truly Madly and Quack Quack from its Playstore. The tech giant said it was because these apps were not compliant with its billing policy. The impact was immediately felt in the stock market. For example, shares of Info Edge that owns Naukri and 99 acres fell 3% on Saturday...

Tata Motors' EV subsidiary, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), is prepping for a potential IPO in the next year or so. It wants to raise $1-2 billion. In the first half of 2023, Tata Motors dominated 75% of the passenger EV market share in India despite relentless competition from the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra and other newer rivals.  The auto-maker's revenue for FY23 stood a...

It was National Protein Day in India on February 27. The government initiative is meant to increase awareness about the importance of protein in India, a country where eight out of every ten of people don't meet their daily protein requirement. According to the ICMR every individual should consume at least 48 grams of protein everyday.  But after the pandemic, people are actively looking to includ...

2024 is going to be the hottest month on record. Weather watchers have described the rise in new heat records around the world as “insane”, “total madness” and “climatic history rewritten” India is also witnessing a surge in the demand for electricity in general. and the crisis is at its peak in the summers. As incomes rise and populations grow, especially in the world’s hotter regions, the use of...

Advertisements on the food-delivery giant Swiggy are only growing in number and variety— from banners and icons to full-blown video ads. If you're wondering what id going on, it's all a part of Swiggy's preparation for its upcoming IPO. It needs to boost its revenue and ads are a great way to make more money with every order. But while Swiggy is doubling down on its four year old advertising busin...

India’s nutraceutical market is estimated  to be worth $4-5 billion and the government expects it to be worth almost five times more in the next two years. As important as it is to monitor the rapidly growing market, regulations have not really kept up. In a post-pandemic world where preventive healthcare has become all the rage, a dangerous situation is being created. Health supplement makers are...

Bengaluru is best known for two things: great weather and terrible traffic. The Silcon Valley of India is the sixth slowest city in the world! How come no one has come up with some innovative tech-based solutions? Actually, they have.  But you’ll be surprised to know that one the key reasons why the city's traffic troubles never end is because the focus has mostly been only on tech driven efforts....