India hosted the world's biggest AI summit this week — 100+ nations, $200 billion in commitments, and enough billionaire handshakes to fill a highlight reel.
But beneath the spectacle lies a sharper question: when will it be India’s turn to build AI, instead of just buying into it? Snigdha breaks down the gap between infrastructure ambition and intelligence sovereignty.

In other news, Mark Zuckerberg walked into a US courtroom as Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat face a landmark trial.
The allegation? That teen addiction wasn't an unfortunate byproduct of the way social media works — it was built into the product. Rachel explains why this case could change everything.

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.

Big Tech is preparing to spend $650 billion on AI infrastructure this year, a figure that rivals national economies. The focus is agentic AI, systems designed not just to generate answers but to execute tasks independently.

The vision is software that can read your messages, access your calendar, contact your friends, move money and complete transactions without step by step supervision. In effect, technology that can act in the world on your behalf.

To function, these systems require sweeping access to personal and corporate data. Critics warn this amounts to asking users to “put your brain in a jar.”

What exactly is being built and who bears the risk?

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.

Anthropic just set up in Bangalore, announcing partnerships across health, education, and government. The "ethical AI" company is positioning itself as the responsible alternative to OpenAI.

But the Wall Street Journal revealed the US military used Claude to help capture Venezuela's former president—violating Anthropic's own guidelines prohibiting violence and surveillance.

Now the US government wants Anthropic to drop those restrictions entirely. The company is caught between its founding principles and its home government's demands, which brings up questions about data sovereignty into focus. Host Rachel Varghese digs in.

*The host mistakenly says NCPI instead of NPCI

Listen to my episode on Claude Cowork and the "SaaSpocalypse" here.

Listen to Snigdha's episode on why ChatGPT is cheapest in India here.

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.

Over the past six months, Blinkit has been making a structural shift that most customers would never notice. For years, its fresh fruits and vegetables were sourced by Hyperpure, its own parent company Eternal’s business-to-business arm that also supplies restaurants. As Blinkit grew into Eternal’s primary revenue driver, Hyperpure grew with it. In FY25, more than 60% of Hyperpure’s revenue came from Blinkit.

Then Blinkit decided to source its own inventory.

Hyperpure’s revenue more than halved in two quarters. It is now separating its books and rebuilding around restaurants.

What does the split mean?

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.

A mutual fund executive told our colleague something shocking: "SIPs are a problem." 

Part of the shock came from the fact that it  was coming from someone in an industry that was basically built on "SIP sahi hai."

Now a new research paper backs up that controversial take—and the findings contradict what millions of Indian investors have been told about systematic investment plans.

Turns out the marketing narrative around SIPs has some serious gaps. The math tells a different story. And with small-cap SIP assets exploding 6.5x since 2019, the stakes have never been higher.

So when are SIPs actually appropriate?

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.

On February 12, 2026, Adani Power formed Adani Atomic Energy Ltd, a new unit to generate, transmit, and distribute nuclear power. This follows the SHANTI Bill opening India's nuclear sector to private firms. Both Adani Power and Tata Power, coal giants with long-life thermal plants, now lead the shift.

Coal powers 74% of India's grid today. These firms profit big from it. So what happens when they control nuclear's pace too? Snigdha explores the conflict.

In other news, top AI researchers have been quitting the big AI labs. Anthropic's Mrinank Sharma left over value clashes (X letter) and OpenAI's Zoe Hitzig resigned through an NYT op-ed, warning ads exploit chatbot user confessions for manipulation. Rachel breaks down how firms chase cash to scale and skip safety guardrails.

Listen to our episode on AI taking over jobs here. And, here's another one we did on the previous exodus of AI talent. 

Read Zoe Hitzig's opinion piece on NYT here. 

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.

On February 10, 2026, reports said nearly 100 NDTV employees were put on performance improvement plans, often seen as a prelude to layoffs. This comes after the Adani Group acquired NDTV in December 2022 for about ₹600 crore, followed by several high profile exits. A similar moment unfolded at Jeff Bezos-owned The Washington Post last week where hundreds were laid off and multiple sections and bureaus shut.

Both Adani and Bezos run highly profitable core businesses. News is not one of them.

So why invest heavily in an industry known for low margins? Host Snigdha Sharma explores.

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.

In early February, Indian IT stocks crashed 6% in a single day—the worst selloff in six years. ₹2 lakh crore vanished. Wall Street lost $300 billion.

The trigger? Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, an AI agent that can organize files, parse spreadsheets, and write reports autonomously. For the first time, AI doesn't just assist—it executes entire workflows with minimal supervision.

Investors panicked, and experts coined the term "SaaSpocalypse." But is this really the end of software companies, or are we watching an overreaction?

Today, host Rachel Varghese unpacks both sides.

Tune in.

Listen to our episode on Deloitte's AI blunder here.

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.

PhonePe is heading to the public markets as India’s largest UPI player. On 21 January, the company made its IPO papers public, setting up one of the most closely watched fintech listings in years. PhonePe dominates transaction volumes, but it is listing after Paytm, whose 2021 IPO reshaped how investors value payments companies. Since then, Paytm’s stock has fallen sharply from its debut even as its business has evolved.

PhonePe is seeking a valuation premium while still reporting losses and facing pressure on some revenue streams. As investors weigh scale against profitability, one question looms.

Will Paytm's market memory still decide PhonePe’s IPO price?

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.

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.