Daybreak

For decades, the 60 year old BITS Pilani, one of the most prestigious science and engineering institutions in the country, has been second to India's crown jewels–the IITs. Now, the institute is on a mission under the leadership of its Group Vice Chancellor, V Ramgopal Rao. A syllabus revamp after a decade, a US$100M endowment fund from alumni, 10% of faculty from industry, allowing a year off for...

Starting April, major non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), including Avanse Financial Services, Aditya Birla Finance, and Fullerton India, which lend to Byju’s’ customers, suspended loans for the edtech. These play an important role in allowing Byju's to make its sales to its customers via zero-interest EMIs.  With sales slowing down, the edtech desperately needs these financing options becaus...

On Thursday evening news broke that Deloitte, the biggest audit firm in the world, has resigned as Byju's statutory auditor. This couldn't come at a worse time for the edtech giant. Just hours before this, three of its key board members also tendered their resignations over differences with the company's founder.  It was in September last year when, after a long delay that raised many eyebrows, By...

Despite being called ‘the pharmacy of the world,’ time and again, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has received criticism for substandard quality. Last year, the deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan were allegedly linked to cough syrups manufactured in India. Yesterday, the WHO flagged seven more Indian-made cough syrups for containing toxic chemicals.  Why does Indian Pharma still strugg...

When Tata acquired the e-grocer, BigBasket, at a reported valuation of $2 billion in mid-2021, the company was loss-making. For those at BigBasket, it was an opportunity to shift their focus back to the company’s core business: doorstep grocery delivery.    While it was a bit too late when Tata realised its new acquisition was left out from the quick commerce game, there is one game that BigBasket...

The Indian Railways exclusively provides travellers a 10 lakh rupees worth insurance cover on booking train tickets online for less than half a rupee. Despite this, a large majority of Indian travellers are not covered by any form of travel insurance. Just a little more than 30 crore lives were covered by general and health insurers for domestic travel, according to the annual report of India’s in...

Over the years, the more health conscious we became, the more cooking oil-markers pushed different variations of words associated with 'health' in their branding. But they've been burying the caveat in the fine print. For example, Adani Wilmar’s refined soybean oil goes by the brand name ‘Fortune Soya Health’ in bold letters on the front of the pack. But if you turn the pouch around, you'll notice...

In the last few years post-pandemic, fleet-management companies like Everest 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 by 150X. 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 mu...

Just two years ago, quick commerce became all the rage. Now, it's slowly becoming a relic of the pandemic. The biggest names in the business have been tumbling over in the past few months. They've either been shutting down their quick delivery businesses or they're rolling back the number of their dark stores. Meanwhile, Zepto, one of the leading quick delivery platforms that made ten minute deliv...

Last week, edtech giant Byju's saw its valuation come crumbling down from $22 billion to $8 billion. And June 5, 2023 happened to be the last day for the company to pay off a $40 million instalment on its highest unrated loan. This is, of course, only a part of Byju's problems which range from bad press to a growth slump and a lot more. To say that Byju's is in a precarious position right now woul...

With the advent of plastic in the 1980s, the once-flourishing jute industry of India saw a slow demise. But lately, the tables seemed to have turned. Countries are implementing more stringent ESG rules forcing global retailers like Ikea, Walmart, Tesco, etc to look for alternatives to plastic bags. India being the largest producer of jute is suddenly in focus. More than $120 million worth of jute...

When 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. You could think of ONDC as the UPI of e-commerce. From ride-sharing and food delivery, to groceries, the platform can be used to buy and sell anything. Lately, ONDC has been doing some interesting things with pricing....

The government of India launched a $3 billion dollar production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for automobiles to boost manufacturing, especially EV manufacturing, within India in 2022. It was a win-win for both—EV makers had been eagerly waiting for beneficial subsidies and the government could use it to push domestic private investments and create jobs in the sector. But more than a year has pass...

For almost two decades, India was a stagnant market for one of the leading tech companies of the world. But in 2021, things changed and Apple's sales graph in India began to rise upwards. By 2022, Apple sole over 7 million iPhones in the country. And then in April, Apple CEO Tim Cook inaugurated India’s first Apple retail store in Mumbai. But compared to markets like the US and China, Apple's numb...

A year and a half ago, Sony’s India unit—Sony Pictures Networks—announced a merger with rival Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. Ever since, Sony Liv's subscriber base grew from 18 million to over 33 million.  With good original stories and unique non-fiction shows, alongside a strong partnerships strategy, Sony has been able to close the gap on market leaders such as Hotstar. Zee meanwhile has a...

Not long ago, being a fintech company in India meant having a promising future. Because people would always needed to make payments which is why it was assumed that building better products around these needs would ensure good business. But it was not how things panned out. And the story of Instamojo, a promising fintech company is testament to that. After 11 years of being in the business, it has...

In 2016, Jio invested more than $50 billion to roll out a 4G network across India. The move disrupted the telco sector leaving Airtel down at the second place. The other rivals didn't make it The telecom sector was left in the hands of a duopoly. Now, there is a new war between these two giants and it is over home broadband. In fact, the crown they’re fighting for is to be the go-to service provid...

From amazing salary hikes and other perks being served on a silver platter just a year or two ago to now, when companies are using salary benchmarks to figure out whether they have overvalued employees—the startup ecosystem in India is going through a churn. In fact, as many as a quarter of startup professionals might be what HR and hiring professionals are terming as 'unhireables' at this point....

What makes Dunzo unique is that one could never imagine a company its size to have the kind of influence it does. In 2022,  a $200 million funding  from Reliance Retail sent the quick-commerce startup flying high. It began expanding its dark stores and even ran advertisements in IPL. But the IPL led boom did not last long. The same year, the number and volume of orders began to decline. Dunzo was...

India's youngest detect unicorn is on a relentless expansion spree. So much so that its investors want it to slow down. From establishing itself as the leader of NEET-JEE test preparation, Physics Wallah (PW) wants to dip its toes in a bunch of other areas—from banking and defence to civil services now. Not to forget short-term skilling courses and even tie-ups with schools. Despite this hyper gro...

Last year in October, the Karnataka government banned Ola and Uber autorickshaws after they were caught overcharging. A month later a new app was launched and it was almost antithesis of Ola and Uber. It charged zero commission from drivers and no cancellation or surge charges from riders. Plus, the government supported it by saying it would be listed on its e-commerce behemoth, ONDC. Yet, eight m...

Freshworks, one of the most successful SaaS companies that was listed on Nasdaq in 2021, wanted to hit $1 billion in annualised revenue by 2023. What made it stand out was also its employee-first approach. That it took the company just 5 years to climb from $1 million in ARR in 2010 hit $100 million indicated that the target could've been achieved. but it's 2023, and Freshworks is only halfway tow...

The pandemic worsened the nursing crisis in India. If 35 nurses were required for every 10,000 people, India only has 25.  Exploitative work conditions and poor pay are making nurses migrate in huge numbers to other countries for better jobs. It is an exodus. The government on its part its trying to solve the crisis by building more nursing colleges. But this is akin to a doctor treating the sympt...

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. And in a post-Covid world where preventive healthcare has become all the rage, a dangerous situation is being created. Health supplement makers a...

Last week, a full search and seizure operation was carried out by the Enforcement Directorate on three offices of edtech giant Byju's. The $22 billion startup is being investigated under the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The move comes at a terrible time for Byju's since it is already struggling with a long list of troubles including a potential debt crisis. The company still hasn't filed its f...