Daybreak

The launch of Chinese video content platform Tiktok in 2017 changed the social media landscape forever. The short video format became all the rage. Despite TikTok being banned in 2020, the format stayed and a range of Indian short-video apps came up. Content creators from small towns and cities joined such platforms and for many it became a dependable source of income. Some were making as much as...

The initial public offering ((IPO) of Mankind Pharma Ltd opened for subscription on 25th April and closed just yesterday. The pharma major is reportedly eyeing a valuation of over $6.7 billion. But in recent years, the Indian stock market has not been very kind to pharmas that have been listed. Since 2010, 17 of them have had IPOs, but four have delisted. Of the remaining, half are trading below t...

In February this year, Vodafone Idea gave away a 33% stake to the Indian government and the government converted a part of its dues into equity. Many analysts though think even this cannot save the sinking telco. Because the company still owes the government $23 billion and banks $1.5 billion. And it also needs $6 billion for an all-India network upgrade to roll out 5G. Vodafone Idea has too much...

Ever since they came up a little less than a decade ago, e-pharmacies have been fighting a constant battle. On one hand there is the severe pushback from traditional pharmacy lobbies and on the other, the lack of a regulatory mechanism. It was only in 2017 that the government officially acknowledged their existence. It was a small win, but a win nonetheless. But the draft e-pharmacy rules that the...

In 2020, Google invested $4.5 billion  in Reliance's Jio Platforms for a 7.7% equity. The flagship product of this alliance was a budget friendly 4G smartphone priced at Rs 6500 called JioPhone Next. The idea was to make the internet more accessible to millions of more Indians. When it was launched, the telco was expected to sell at least 20 million devices in a year. But so far, it has sold only...

The Blinkit delivery workers' strike that began last week has brought the spotlight back on the delivery personnel crisis in India. Just last year in July, Swiggy’s delivery partners in Bangalore too had gone on strike. Their issues range from wages to the lack of basic employee benefits. With an IPO scheduled for 2024 and its 1000 plus crore rupee investment in the bike-taxi company Rapido, the s...

BookMyShow has its share of testing times since its birth back in 1998. The last one came as the pandemic and brought the platform down to its knees. Year-on-year revenues fell to one seventh in FY21 and it had to cut down its employee size from over 1500 to just a little over 500. To everyone's surprise, however, BookMyShow managed to not only survive but also recover quite swiftly. But now, the...

After its listing, investors were almost bullish about Nykaa shares. And for good reason. The company has been a pioneer in normalising buying beauty and cosmetic products online. It showed profitability that the other listed tech companies were nowhere close to. So in 2018, it decided to venture into fashion. But things have been a bit shaky since last year. A week ago, Nykaa gave its investors a...

Phone calls from Bajaj Finance offering loans are almost inescapable and lately, the non-bank has been facing 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-...

According to a survey by S&P, more than 75 per cent of Indian adults do not understand basic financial concepts. The gap is more when it comes to women. 80%.    So the rise of financial influencers who simplify complex financial jargon and provide investment advice is not really surprising. But often, they underplay risks  and overplay returns, and try to ride the market waves. In fact, SEBI,...

With the digital streaming rights to IPL gone and the recent losses it posted, India's undisputed OTT leader is trying to figure out a new strategy to stay on top of the game. As other OTT platforms around the world are consciously choosing to spend less on original programming, Disney+Hotstar is doing the opposite in India. But is it enough to make up for the 30 million viewers it would get on av...

India’s patent office decided to reject pharma giant Johnson &Johnson’s appeal to extend the patent for a life-saving TB medicine called bedaquiline which is used to treat those with drug resistant infections.  But for a long time before this, Johnson & Johnson was enjoying a monopoly in India. Generic manufacturers could not make this life-saving medicine. The Indian government too, at th...

If you had to compare all the online payment methods available to us, digital wallets like Paytm have gone through the roughest of waters.  From being the life-saver during demonetisation to being left behind by UPI, digital wallets haven't had it easy. But last week, UPI parent NPCI released a circular about the use of digital wallets that brought a ray of hope albeit after a bit of confusion. It...

With the IPL set to begin today, a few days ago Jio announced a move that many say could be the next big disruption. The Reliance Group, which has the digital rights of the event, is streaming the games for free on its OTT platform, JioCinema. The main goal is to get people to switch the traditional way of viewing cricket, especially IPL, from TV to digital streaming. So on 27 March, Jio launched...

The Indian government has set an ambitious goal with the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program for mobile-phone manufacturing. By 2026, it aims to push the country's annual exports to a whopping $300 billion. The idea is to boost large-scale manufacturing and to support domestic phone makers to become globally competitive.   But of the six companies that made the cut to claim the scheme's ince...

 2023 has been declared the International Year of Millets after India, the largest producer of millets in the world, moved a resolution in the UN General Assembly. The Prime Minister himself has been promoting the use of millets as a staple through various channels like Mann Ki Baat and the Global Millets Conference that was recently held in the national capital. But making what were once called '...

After buying the digital rights for IPL for an eye-popping amount last year, Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema wants to change the way Indians watch cricket. It wants to replace TV viewing with online streaming. In order to pull it off, it came up with an almost disruptive move. It decided to make IPL streaming free While viewership is expected to hit half a billion and ad impressions to quadruple after t...

The Indian Met Dept has predicted that 2023, especially between March to May, is going to be unusually hot for most parts of India. Air conditioners and electric fans account for nearly one fifth of the total electricity used in buildings around the world today. Naturally, electricity bills have skyrocketed and it's only going to get worse. Meanwhile, a fascinating technology has emerged that can...

Last week, Season 2 of one of the country’s most popular reality TV shows, Shark Tank India, came to an end. The show has given rise to a significant demand for startup investing. Investors are able to put in as little as Rs 5000 via online fundraising platforms like Tyke Invest and Infubiz. They offer investments in startups through Community Subscription Offer Plans.  But these fundraising campa...

A few months ago, a whistleblower alleged that some of the top EV makers in India were misusing the FAME subsidy. The government began an investigation and withheld the subsidy for multiple EV manufacturers. Ever since, news stories have been reporting how the sale of EVs in India has declining and the FAME subsidy is under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. But the government is only trying...

For credit card issuers, 'revolvers' are the most profitable customers. They are users who carry over a balance from one month to another instead of paying the entire due amount. These users pay as much as 40% interest per annum by revolving and help the credit card issuer make obscene amounts of profits. But lately, dues from ‘revolvers’ have been falling. There is a shift in their behaviour patt...

With summer around the corner this year, the Indian government is scrambling to make sure the country does not face power outages. But as this demand for power rises, the country is also working on increasing its green energy capacity. In fact, India is turning out to be one of the fastest to increase its renewable energy capacity.  The transition to green energy is not just about how electricity...

ITC's stock had been lagging for years. Many institutional investors stayed away from ITC because the company's shares are considered sin stocks.  The company, meanwhile, has avoided acknowledging the importance of cigarettes, its mainstay business, in its communications. But over the last year, the ITC stock has made a dramatic comeback. Suddenly, investors can't get enough of the company. What c...

The fourth draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is all set to be presented in the Parliament during the ongoing Budget session.  While it makes a strong case for creating laws to prevent the personal information of citizens from being harvested and exploited, the Bill is playing blind to two Important factors.  This in turn could end up creating a crony-capitalist economy where an in...

The introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s was one of the most significant events in the history of human society. But it still left the burden of birth control largely on women. Now, however, things are changing. The demand for male contraceptives is on the rise. But why have large pharmaceutical companies not paid enough attention to the research on male contraceptives for all these...