Back in January, when China’s Deepseek R1 model stunned the world with its performance and low training cost, India was thinking only one thing – how do we beat it? How do we become a global AI superpower? 

But when it comes to the AI race, India has been stuck at the starting line for quite a while now. Its approach has largely been to throw things at the wall in the hope that something eventually sticks. 

Now, Deepseek  has really amped up the pressure. India’s electronics and IT ministry, or Meity, has swung into action. It has been announcing housekeeping steps for the country’s year-old AI mission at a speed that can match the language model advances hitting the headlines. 

But in the process, the actual goal of the mission has become more incoherent than ever. 

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.

On January 29 of this year, Denta Water and Infra Solutions – a company that specialises in groundwater recharging projects – listed on the bourses. 

Three weeks later, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage  Board, or BWSSB, issued a set of guidelines to address what has become pretty much inevitable every summer in the city – a full blown water crisis. 

Now, those may seem like two completely random developments to you. But actually, there is a connection there. Because today, both the BWSSB and Denta Water have a vested interest in solving Bangalore’s water crisis. But one has had more luck than the other. 

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, we talk about the unravelling of Blusmart, India's first EV ride hailing platform; 

Next, the private banking and wealth management boom in India; 

And finally how India’s ad agencies got raided over alleged price-fixing three days before country’s biggest marketing event, the IPL.

Check out the stories and podcasts mentioned in this episode: 

Everyone’s looking for a private banker. Have you seen one?

An IPL Whodunit 

In January this year, nearly every single employee of the OG E-grocer Big Basket received an email from their CEO, Hari Menon. It was supposed to be a rallying cry. The Tata-owned e-grocery giant had finally—after much hemming and hawing—embraced quick commerce.

For a long time, Bigbasket didn’t care much for quick commerce. Menon himself dismissed it in April 2023 as unnecessary and “thrust upon” consumers.

But now the Tata board has had enough. Quick commerce isn’t just a fad anymore, it is the industry. Which is why, the pressure is on for Big Basket to make up for lost time and get back on the right track. And that’s going to take a whole lot more than just an email. 

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.

 Phonepe is all set to debut in the public market in the second half of FY26. That perhaps seems like the natural next step for the fintech giant. After all, it commands nearly half of the market share in UPI transactions today. 

Between 2020 and now, it has gone from catering to one in five Indians to one in three. And yet, the path to its IPO isn’t quite as simple as you would think. In fact, it’s a tough road ahead for the company. 

And that’s precisely because of the one thing Phonepe is best known for – payments. You see, as much as 96% of Phonepe’s topline in the last financial year was thanks to Phonepe’s payment business. 

You’re probably wondering what’s wrong with that. After all, payments were what put Phonepe on the map. Fair point. But the thing is, being over reliant on payments could hurt Phonepe. 

Think about it. If anything about the payments business were to go south, it would be almost impossible for Phonepe to pivot in time. Which is why the key is to diversify. And it’s not like Phonepe hasn’t tried. Five years ago it launched its own financial services arm – Phonepe insurance. 

But unfortunately, today, there still isn’t much to brag about.

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 two years, SBI Cards, India’s only listed credit card company, valued at $9 billion, appoints a new CEO. This time, it's going to be Salila Pande, a career banker who has been with SBI for over 30 years. On the 1st of April, she will take the reigns from her predecessor, Abhijit Chakravorty.

However, it is going to be a tough few years for her. And the reason is like an open secret amongst SBI Cards executives.

They just don’t get along with any of their CEOs in general.

Tune in to find out why.

Tell us what you thought of this episode on WhatsApp at +918971108379

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.

Remember that time in 2022 when India’s top digital payments companies Phonepe, Paytm*, and Bharatpe were in a no-holds-barred turf war? Looking back, it seemed like there was news almost every other day about some tiff between the three market leaders. In fact, former managing director of Bharatpe, Ashneer Grover, has spoken on record about “street fights” between companies’ employees over QR codes. 

A little more than two years later, there’s only calm. QR code scuffles are over. No one is beating each other up. 

Both the peer-to-merchant and peer-to-peer payments space have settled down into a tripartite peace. Phonepe, Google Pay, and Paytm—in order of market share—are the clear leaders. This raises some interesting questions: How many UPI apps do you have on your phone? And do you have a favourite one? We may have multiple, but only one of them is ever really used. No amount of cashbacks or fancy user experiences make people want to switch to something else. 

Is it brand loyalty that is preventing users from churning out of old platforms and into new ones? A former Paytm executive told The Ken, “There is zero brand loyalty for UPI payments apps…” 

Well then, what is happening?

*Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken
*This episode was first published on December 30, 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.

In this episode we fill you in on three standout stories from the past week. 

First, why the fight between every Indian’s favourite namkeen brands Haldiram’s and Bikaji just got spicier; 

second, the controversy around Urban company’s newest pet project;

and finally, the latest from Two by Two where our colleagues Rohin and Praveen discuss what the fourth wave of tech exports from India will look like.

Check out the stories and podcasts mentioned in this episode:

The latest edition of Long and Short
Why India's biggest employer of women gig workers refuses to listen to its own workforce
Two by Two: Ultrahuman and Kuku FM have broken out

The Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets. 

Pharma is slow, complicated and tangled in regulatory approvals and compliances. But, consumer healthcare is fast moving, has far fewer rules and enjoys better margins. Under the umbrella of consumer healthcare you will find a plethora of categories and products – all of which claim to improve some aspect of health or well being. Think supplements, or over the counter medications like Crocin or Sanofi’s own Allegra, even things like protein bars. 

These are products that you can toss into your shopping cart and purchase without the hassle of a prescription. 

Last year, Sanofi India decided to demerge its consumer arm and list it as a separate entity – Sanofi Consumer Healthcare. Sanofi even gave it a shiny new label: FMCH, or fast-moving consumer healthcare. And this approach seems to be working out well for the French company. Sanofi Consumer Healthcare has been picking up some of the slack. By Q1 of 2024, it was already contributing 30 per cent of Sanofi SA’s total sales and -40 per cent of its operating profit. 

But Sanofi didn’t invent this move. Zydus Lifesciences figured it out back in 2008 when it created Zydus Wellness, the entity behind Sugarfree and Glucon-D. And after that, we saw giants like GSK and Johnson & Johnson follow suit. But here’s the thing about Sanofi. Unlike Zydus, which clearly separates its pharma and consumer-health businesses, Sanofi blurs the line. A lot of its pharmaceutical products are being recategorized and sold as consumer care.

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.

The Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets. 

About three years ago, the government decided that it wanted India to become a global powerhouse in cell manufacturing. So it went ahead and dangled a very juicy carrot for companies to produce batteries locally. It promised over Rs 18,000 crore in subsidies for anybody who would help it make its battery dreams come true by the end of this decade. 

Cut to now, three years later, and those dreams are very quickly losing charge. You see, by now the government should have technically already disbursed Rs 2,700 crore to beneficiaries. 

But in reality, not even 1 per cent of that has reached any of them. Merely Rs 24 crore has been spent by the government this far, and most of it has gone towards paperwork, site visits and tender process. That's it. What's going on? 

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.

The Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets.