Daybreak

In November, Decathlon began piloting two-hour deliveries across 10 Indian cities.It's a surprising move for a company that just swung into losses—and it raises a question the rest of the sector is watching closely: can the economics of fashion quick-commerce actually work?More than 50 million dollars has flowed into the space in 18 months. At least one startup has already shut down. The problem isn't speed. It's frequency, inventory, and unit economics that refuse to close.Tune in.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at [email protected] with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Karnataka keeps talking about decentralizing tech beyond Bengaluru. Its neighbors are actually doing it.Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh are building tech cities from scratch—tier-2 clusters with land banks, fast-track approvals, and statutory bodies with real power. Major companies are choosing Visakhapatnam and Tirupati over Bengaluru now.The difference? Decision-making authority. Karnataka's development body is stuck in a promotional role while other states hand their institutions the teeth to actually execute. One state makes announcements. The others are laying fiber, clearing land, and signing deals.Southern India's tech map is being redrawn. Just not by the state that started it all.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at [email protected] with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Two days ago, the United States said it would cut tariffs on Indian goods to 18%, down from levels that had gone as high as 50%. Markets reacted fast. Stocks rose. The rupee strengthened. The first feeling was relief. It sounded like the trade fight with Washington and Donald Trump was easing.Then more details emerged. U.S. officials said India would commit to buying over $500 billion worth of American goods. They also said U.S. tariffs would stay at 18%, while India would allow zero tariffs on some American products.That relief started to feel more layered.Just days earlier, India had signed the “mother of all trade deals” with Europe.So why did India still move on this U.S. deal, now and on these terms?Host Snigdha Sharma dives in.Listen to our previous episode on the India-EU trade deal here: The 'mother of all trade deals' promises cheaper imports. Prices are another storyIf you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at [email protected] with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our YouTube channel here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Amazon fired 16,000 workers last month. Oracle is set to cut up to 30,000 more.Tech layoffs have increasingly been attributed to AI. But Oxford Economics found something strange: there's no macroeconomic data showing AI is actually replacing jobs or boosting productivity. In fact, output per worker is slowing, not accelerating.So what's really happening? Host Rachel Varghese breaks it down.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In December, India’s top agricultural research body sent a letter to 74 universities with a clear message: natural farming is now a subject of national importance. Campuses are responding fast, planning new courses to train students for a sector under pressure. Export markets want cleaner food because consumers are paying closer attention to what they eat. In response, agri-input companies are adjusting their products.But Indian agriculture still runs largely on chemical inputs. Farmers face real risks during transition, research gaps remain, and jobs for graduates are still uncertain.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

ChatGPT butchers Punjabi with spelling errors and Bollywood-style Hindi bleeding through. Hindi bots trained on newspapers miss dialects like Awadhi and Bhojpuri entirely, while Tamil AI ignores the rich variations between Kongu and Madurai speech.Sure, Gurugram collected ₹200 crore in taxes using Hindi AI calls, but that's because Hindi dominates datasets. Most other languages remain stuck in translation hell. Private companies optimize for speed over nuance, government corpora like Bhashini sit underused, and multimodal data that captures tone and emotion is too expensive to build.The result? AI is flattening India's 780 languages into sanitized, standardized versions that erase the very dialects it claims to serve.Read the newsletter here. Find the Duolingo article here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

This week, Goa said it is actively considering a ban on social media for children under 16, inspired by Australia’s new law. Andhra Pradesh has also set up a panel to examine whether similar restrictions could work there. The push reflects rising anxiety around teen mental health, cyberbullying, and exposure to harmful online content. Supporters argue platforms are unsafe by design and impossible to regulate through guardrails alone. Critics question whether bans can keep up with technology or address deeper social issues. In this episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rachel Varghese step back from the rhetoric to ask what a ban would actually mean for children, parents, and platforms. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

This week, India and the European Union signed a sweeping trade deal that cuts or removes tariffs on over 90% of goods traded between them. The headlines quickly focused on what might get cheaper, from wine and cheese to cars and chocolates. But trade deals do not change prices overnight. Tariff cuts roll out over time and work their way through importers, distributors, taxes, and markets before they ever reach consumers. In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at what past trade deals show about everything between a trade deal being signed and actual prices changing for a consumer.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Every winter, Delhi chokes. Masks become mandatory, air purifiers work overtime, and life somehow goes on. But beyond the health crisis lies an economic catastrophe most people ignore—until now.Gita Gopinath's recent warning at Davos sparked controversy, but the numbers don't lie: pollution is costing India 1.67 million lives and nearly 3% of GDP annually. Meanwhile, China turned its pollution crisis around in just a few years with ruthless accountability.India has the knowledge and technology. What it lacks is political will. And every year of delay continues to put lives at risk and pushes the $5 trillion economy dream away. Host Rachel Varghese explores what exactly is at stake.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India’s new data protection law is reshaping how companies talk to customers on WhatsApp. Messages that once felt routine now carry legal weight and are tied to consent, security, and user rights. Since the Digital Personal Data Protection Act became operational, businesses have begun reworking how they collect and manage personal data. That shift has created a fast-growing market for compliance tools, drawing startups and established firms into the same space. As companies rush to avoid heavy penalties, disagreements are emerging over who should manage consent and how independent they need to be. The bigger question is how much control users will really have over their data.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

When your insurance card suddenly stops working, it is not just a glitch. It is the symptom of a deeper crisis in Indian healthcare.Hospitals say insurers have failed to update reimbursement rates despite medical inflation. Insurers say hospitals are inflating bills and resisting standardization.Millions of policyholders are caught between them, forced to pay out of pocket for care they thought was covered.How did India’s healthcare system end up in this deadlock. And who really decides what your treatment is worth?Tune in.*This episode was originally published on November 4th, 2025Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

When a public electric bus breaks down in India, three agencies get notified. None of them can actually fix it. The buses don't belong to the cities that run them. The contracts sit with central agencies. The warranties belong to manufacturers. When a four-year-old bus stalls because its battery management system glitched, the city logs a complaint, calculates a fine for the manufacturers, and takes the bus off the route. Commuters are left slim pickings. And India's about to deploy thousands more using the same model.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India is building data centres at unprecedented speed to support cloud services, AI, and digital growth. At the same time, cities across the country are struggling with water shortages and repeated contamination of drinking-water supplies. A new United Nations report describes this condition as water bankruptcy. It is the stage where water systems continue to function, but only by drawing down reserves that cannot recover fast enough.In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at how India’s data centre push fits into that reality, drawing lessons from cities abroad where similar tensions have already surfaced.So as India builds for a digital future, the question is simple: who decides how much water that future can afford?

Sam Altman called ads a "last resort" in late 2024. That day has arrived. OpenAI just announced ChatGPT is running ads—personalised ones based on your conversations. The company spent $8 billion in 2025 alone with zero profit, and an essay predicted they'll burn through cash by 2027. Meanwhile, Google's Gemini is betting on staying ad-free, preserving user trust while ChatGPT strains it. Host Rachel Varghese breaks down the enshittification playbook, why OpenAI's "code red" memo signals desperation, and whether ads can actually save a company hemorrhaging billions.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India has become one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, powered by scale, assembly lines, and global contracts. But much of the design, components, and technology still sit elsewhere. In this episode, we look at why the government is now backing electronics components, what India’s EMS firms built first, and what they postponed. As India pushes deeper into the supply chain, the question shifts from volume to ownership. What does it take to move from assembling electronics to truly building them? Also, how did China get it right?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

For over a decade, Indian startups have chosen to be incorporated in Delaware and Singapore when raising venture capital. Now India wants to change that with Gift City—a financial enclave designed to compete globally. But can it? We explore why founders still choose Delaware's speed and legal certainty, what Gift City offers to funds but not startups, and the structural gaps that need fixing.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

AI is learning healthcare from systems that are stretched and uneven. In this episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rachel Varghese discuss what tools like ChatGPT Health and Claude for Healthcare could mean in India. We talk about how people already use AI to understand symptoms and reports, how hospitals deal with data and paperwork, and how bias and privacy shape these tools. Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India’s soda shelves have changed almost overnight. Coke and Pepsi now sell zero-sugar versions of their drinks at prices as low as 10 rupees. The move came after Reliance launched Campa Cola with its own budget zero-sugar option. Now, they are taking over in big cities and small towns alike.But what looks like a health trend is really a business strategy. What is really inside those bottles? And what does it mean for consumers?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Four months after India's nationwide ban on online gambling ads, Meta platforms were still running them—140 in December alone. A Reuters investigation into leaked internal documents reveals this isn't an oversight. Meta made specific calculations about how much enforcement it could afford, and governments worldwide are hitting the same wall. From Malaysia to the Philippines, removal requests pile up while the ads keep running. What happens when a platform decides compliance is negotiable? Host Rachel Varghese digs in.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Investing extra money can be confusing, no matter how big or small the amount. What works for someone with Rs 1 crore is very different from what suits someone with Rs 1 lakh or Rs 10 lakh. Experts say everyone should first take care of basic needs before investing.There are many simple, logical, and even unconventional ways to invest. Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India's Fund of Funds for Startups 1.0 is winding down this March—but it's falling short of its goals. Of the ₹10,000 crore mandate, only ₹6,500 crore has been disbursed, and just ₹3,200 crore has actually reached startups. Meanwhile, FFS 2.0 remains stuck in limbo with no guidelines released yet. Despite catalyzing India's startup boom—from 3,000 startups in 2016 to over 200,000 today—the program faces criticism over cheap terms for fund managers, delays, and transparency issues. As the government prepares FFS 2.0, fixing these operational inefficiencies will be crucial.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In this episode we fill you in on four standout stories from the past week.First, a quick look at how the Venezuela crisis is benefiting Reliance and ONGC;Next, why the quick fashion promise stands on shaky ground;Third, how AI has been filling up Indian shopping carts; And finally, why the discourse about Grok AI is starting to sound a little lopsided. Tune in.Read The Ken's story on quick fashion here.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

10-minute delivery has quickly gone from novelty to expectation.In this episode, through conversations with delivery workers and the gig workers’ union leader, host Snigdha Sharma argues how the 10-minute delivery model intensifies existing problems in gig work.Is it is a promise we really need to be kept for us? Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Apollo 24/7 has bled money for five years. But its loyalty program, Apollo Circle, might be the cure. For 299 rupees yearly, members get free teleconsultations, priority access, and discounts—locking them into Apollo's ecosystem of hospitals, pharmacies, and diagnostics. The strategy is working: average orders doubled, losses shrank, and Apollo Health Co turned profitable. Now the company wants Circle to drive breakeven next year while funneling customers away from neighborhood clinics into its high-margin private labels and hospital services. It's a playbook borrowed from Amazon—and Apollo's betting everything on it.Tune in.Listen to the latest 90,000 hours episode here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India wants to generate 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047. As of now, it produces less than 9 GW. For decades, nuclear energy in India was built, owned, and run only by the state. That is now changing. In December, Parliament passed the Shanti Bill, opening the sector to private players. And an American nuclear company, Holtec International, wants to build 200 small modular reactors across India, mostly close to industrial hubs. Supporters say smaller reactors can be built faster and closer to demand but critics warn about regulation, safety, and accountability. Tune in.Are you a founder or hiring manager? We want to hear your best curveball interview questions. Take our survey.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India's largest airline crisis made headlines for weeks. Last month, Indigo cancelled nearly 4,000 flights over 10 days, forcing the government to cut 10% of its schedules until March. The culprit? A severe pilot shortage that the airline had two years to prepare for.While Air India doubled its pilot strength ahead of new flight duty rules, Indigo ended up with fewer pilots than before. The airline's response has been less than encouraging. Cut leaves, slash night allowances, and even telling unhappy pilots "where else will you go?"With India needing 30,000 new pilots over the next 15 years, IndiGo's treatment of its crew is coming back to haunt it. And the monopoly mindset that fueled its growth may now be its biggest liability.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

This episode revisits one of The Ken's most consequential stories from 2025. When journalist Anand Kalyanaramn started investigating unusual patterns in India's options market, he uncovered alleged manipulation on a massive scale. Someone was controlling market movements to guarantee profits—making billions while regular traders lost everything. SEBI identified Jane Street as the culprit; and the firm is appealing the allegation. Today, Anand explains how the alleged scheme worked, why India was vulnerable, and what this landmark case means for the future of fair markets.*The host mistakenly says that SEBI began investigating Jane Street in 2025. While the interim order was issued in July 2025, the investigation itself began in 2024.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Teaching at India’s public universities no longer offers the certainty it once did. Permanent jobs have become scarce, while short term contracts have quietly filled the gap. Many teachers are now hired semester by semester, paid per lecture, and required to reapply for their jobs again and again. This shift has reshaped academic careers and changed how universities function day to day. What caused this shift? And what does it say about the future of higher education and university teaching as a career choice?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Property prices across Indian cities have gone through the roof, up by nearly 30% in the last two years. This along with ever increasing rent and general cost of living has made planning for the future quite challenging for those in their 20s and 30s. So has the idea of home ownership changed among the younger generations, like in many Western countries where more and more people are choosing to rent rather than buy? Or are we still attached to the idea of owning a home?And what’s behind these record-breaking property prices anyway?Tune in to find out.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

This episode is a look back at four Daybreak, The Ken stories that stayed with us in 2025.After three years of making the show, a few episodes each year stand out because they captured something shifting beneath the surface. These four did exactly that.Host and producer Snigdha Sharma revisits a conversation feat. Waterfield Advisor's Soumya Rajan about why even India’s wealthiest women still fight for financial control, how China’s rare earth dominance exposed the fragility of India’s EV push, the global silver crunch that linked AI, clean energy, and everyday prices, and India's AI future.Tune in.

Private equity is reshaping India’s schools. A relaxed New Education Policy and rising demand for international curricula have opened the doors for global operators to buy up chains across the country.The promise is scale, better infrastructure, and tighter governance. But the reality looks a little different—lean budgets, shrinking salary hikes, and a growing focus on cost-cutting. And the fallout? Increasing staff attrition, decreasing academic quality, and schools trading their founder-led ethos for a standardised model.Tune in.*Disclosure: The writer comes from a family that previously owned a school acquired partially by International Schools Partnership (ISP)**This episode was originally published on September 16th 2025Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

AI is changing how people learn languages and India is where the shift is showing up first. Duolingo has scale here but very little conversion. At the same time AI tools now offer practice, feedback, and even conversation for free, while Indian platforms focus on jobs, exams, and real outcomes. In this episode, we look at how language learning is being reshaped in India, why translation is no longer the whole story, and what Duolingo is really defending. Tune in.

From the very public Ambani family feud to the private struggles of the Raymond family, the transfer of wealth and power has often been messy.With over 850,000 millionaires in India, and many of them looking to transition their wealth in the next decade, there's a growing, yet largely unaddressed market for a specific type of expert: the succession coach.Part mediator, part therapist, part strategist—they do more than just advise. They keep dynasties from tearing themselves apart.Tune in.*This episode was originally published on September 1st 2025.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In this episode, we bring you two reported stories from The Ken's newsroom that stayed with us this year. The first, reported by Nuha Bubere, looks at Flipkart at a moment of pressure and at how its CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy is running the company as competition intensifies and expectations remain high. In the second, Atul Krishna tells us about India’s decision to allow foreign universities to set up campuses in the country, and what that shift says about the state of higher education and public capacity. You can find more of our best work from 2025 at the-ken.com.

Buried deep in Amazon's app is a partnership with Orange Health Labs for at-home diagnostics—it's third healthcare experiment in India after pharmacy and telemedicine. The strategy? Target existing customers with zero advertising spend, keeping the bet low-risk while competitors like Bigbasket and Blinkit capture other categories. With its U.S. healthcare playbook built on insurance infrastructure that doesn't exist in India, Amazon is playing a cautious waiting game. The question: is this genuine ambition or just a way to keep a foot in the door?Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Traditional case competitions are boring theater—companies toss out fake problems, students present cookie-cutter solutions nobody uses. The Ken flipped the script. It revealed something interesting: no company is safe anymore. Students attacked more than a 100 incumbents—from McKinsey to temple economies—and built working prototypes showing exactly how they'd do it. The insight? AI hasn't just lowered the cost of building to near-zero; it's fundamentally changed who can be a disruptor. Even established companies know this. Some volunteered as targets, desperate to understand how the next generation thinks. When anyone can build anything, disruption isn't a question of if—it's already happening.Check out the solutions here: https://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/submissions/Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The consumer-robotics graveyard is littered with well-funded American startups. Moxie, Jibo, Anki—all raised millions, then collapsed under cloud costs and thin margins. Enter Miko, a Mumbai company selling AI companions to American kids. With Indian manufacturing cutting costs to one-fifth of US production and subscriptions driving recurring revenue, Miko has advantages its rivals never had. Yet it's still losing money—120 crore rupees last year. Now, as the company hits 500,000 units in annual sales, it's reaching the exact scale where others stumbled. Can Miko's India edge break the robotics curse, or will it become just another cautionary tale?Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Uttar Pradesh now makes more than half the smartphones produced in India. Big electronics companies have set up factories in and around Noida. A place once known for small industries is suddenly part of a global supply chain.In this episode, we look at how that happened. What changed after the pandemic. Why policy, infrastructure and geography mattered. And why almost all this growth is packed into a small belt near Delhi.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India has the engineers, the users, and the ambition to be an AI superpower. But as OpenAI floods the market at ₹399/month, Google invests $15 billion, and global giants harvest Indian data, a critical question emerges: Will India settle for being the world's largest AI user, or can it become a builder that matters?From DeepSeek's $6M shock to the race for AI sovereignty, we connect the dots on India's AI moment—and what could be next.Tune in. Episodes mentioned: Deepseek: Spotify | Apple | Youtube ChatGPT 399 Plan: Spotify | Apple | YoutubeIndia's Sovereign AI: Spotify | Apple | YoutubeDeloitte's AI blunder: Spotify | Apple | YoutubeAI Browsers: Spotify | Apple | YoutubeWhy AI minds are refusing big bucks: Spotify | Apple | YoutubeCall Centres are being rewritten by AI: Spotify | Apple | YoutubeWrite to us with your thoughts at [email protected]! Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The Indian government is losing patience with consumer-tech platforms using dark patterns or manipulative design tricks.In late May 2024, Consumer Affairs Minister, Pralhad Joshi, gathered the country’s biggest internet companies, Amazon, Google, Zomato, Ola Electric, etc to give them an ultimatum: clean up your user interfaces by September 5 or face the consequences.From hidden fees on Amazon to guilt-inducing pop-ups on Indigo, these tactics push users into spending more money, sharing more data, or giving up more control, often without realising it. And they’re deeply baked into how these companies grow, making them hard to remove without hurting the bottom line.Tune in.**This episode was first published on 11 August, 2025Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Youtube launched Shopping in India in October 2024, and within a year, 40% of eligible creators adopted it. The platform is betting on high-intent audiences who research before buying—unlike Instagram's impulse-driven model. By building shopping infrastructure in-house and partnering with Flipkart and Myntra, Youtube offers creators high commissions.The shift is democratizing income for micro-creators, while affiliate GMV exploded from Rs 10 crore to Rs 300 crore in two years. Youtube isn't trying to beat Instagram at its game—it's doubling down on what it does best.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

In this episode we fill you in on three standout stories from the past week. First, a deeper look at this year's latest Wealth Inequality Report; Next, what the Netflix-Paramount fight for Warner Brothers means for Indian players; And finally, why and how Indigo has started to behave.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Lenskart is now a public company, and its first real market test just arrived. The shares fell a little over 3% on December 8 as the shareholder lock-in expired, putting the company back in the news and making it a good moment to revisit how it got here. Lenskart ended FY25 with a ₹297 crore in profit and nearly 40 % of that now comes from its 656 stores outside India. That global reach is unusual for an Indian consumer brand, especially when others like Zomato and Ola struggled overseas.The company’s steady expansion strategy has leaned on selective acquisitions, investments and joint ventures. And its real strength is a vertically integrated supply chain that keeps prices tight, speeds up product launches and maintains consistency across markets. With the stock settling into life post-listing, today, we look back at what built Lenskart’s momentum.**This episode was first published on Aug 25, 2025Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

India's Atal Incubation Centres promised to be the backbone of government innovation. With 500 crore rupees in initial funding and support from Niti Aayog, these 72 centres were supposed to nurture startups with grants, mentors, and infrastructure.Nearly a decade later, the results are sobering. Of 3,500 incubated startups, fewer than 5% have raised external capital. Most centres lack basic websites or outcome metrics. No external audits. No unicorns.Now the government wants to double down—allocating 2,750 crore rupees to expand the ecosystem. But nobody seems to care if the existing network actually works.Tune in.

Yesterday, the Economic Times reported that JioStar has told the ICC it wants to exit its India media rights deal for cricket events, even with two years still left in the cycle. The company also doubled its provisions for expected losses suggesting the rights may cost more to deliver than they can earn back. It all started in late 2024 when Jio came in and flipped the script by streaming cricket tournaments for free and leaning towards a more ad-heavy model. For viewers, it felt like progress. But now with the drop in ad spending from online money gaming platforms after new regulations, Jio is feeling the squeeze.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Manoj Kumar Tiwari had a tough job: transform the Tata Institute of Social Sciences into something that looks more like a management school. In his two year term? Mission accomplished.TISS now uses the same entrance exam as IIMs. It's hiring faculty from business schools instead of NGOs. Management courses are in, social science programs are struggling to fill seats. Over 100 staff were laid off in 2024.This isn't just about TISS. It's part of a larger pattern where institutions like JNU and IRMA are sacrificing arts and humanities for what the "market" wants. The government's 2020 education policy is pushing universities toward self-sufficiency—which means more management, and less social work.Tune in.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

IndiGo had one of its worst weeks ever with hundreds of flights cancelled across major airports. New pilot rest rules kicked in on November 1, 2025 and the airline’s tight schedules and lean crew planning could not absorb the change. Thousands of passengers were stranded. What really happened and why did India’s biggest airline struggled so suddenly? In this episode, we look at what this means for the country’s fast growing aviation system. Because when one rule change can bring the busiest carrier to a halt the bigger question is how close to the edge we are flying?Tune in.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two on The bro-ification of business and tech podcasts here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Physicswallah grew with almost no funding kept most of its ownership and built a huge following around its founder Alakh Pandey. Then it shifted gears and started buying companies expanding offline and spending more to grow faster. The numbers changed the risks changed and the company itself changed. Investors still showed up for the IPO but the real question is what comes next.What happens when a company built on frugality and founder energy suddenly tries to scale like a giant?Take this survey to share your best AI project.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

The Indian government quietly mandated that all smartphones sold in the country must come pre-installed with Sanchar Saathi, a state-owned cybersecurity app that users cannot delete or disable.The app tracks lost phones and blocks stolen devices. But it requires deep permissions. It can read messages, access phone data, make calls, and view photos. Privacy advocates warn these permissions could be expanded overnight to scan for banned apps, flag VPN use, or monitor SMS patterns.The directive was sent secretly to manufacturers like Apple and Samsung, giving them 90 days to comply. Apple has already indicated it won't follow the mandate, citing privacy concerns.Only a handful of countries have tried similar measures—Russia, China, and North Korea, which puts India in uncomfortable company. Host Rachel Varghese digs into what's going on.Tune in.Take this survey to share your best AI prompt.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Zepto is getting cheaper and everyone has noticed. But the real story is what the company is trying to fix behind the scenes. Aadit Palicha wants Zepto to feel like Dmart for quick commerce: lower prices, better availability, and more value each time you open the app. But this shift comes with big questions. The company is burning more cash. Competitors are calling it out. Senior leaders are leaving. And the IPO clock is ticking. Today, we look at why Zepto is changing its strategy now and what it means for the next year.Tune in.Take this survey to share your best AI prompt.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.