Daybreak

Six months after launch, Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro is already India’s second-biggest pharma brand, ahead of antacid Pan and just behind antibiotic Augmentin. Days later, Eli Lilly announced a $1 billion investment and a new Hyderabad hub.

The timing is no accident: India has one of the world’s largest obese and diabetic populations, Ozempic’s patent expires in 2026, and local pharma giants are gearing up with cheap GLP-1 generics.

In this episode of Daybreak, host Rachel Varghese unpacks how this landscape presents both an opportunity and a challenge for Eli Lilly.

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 Deloitte refunded part of the A$439,000 it was paid by the Australian government for a report riddled with AI-generated errors, it seemed like the perfect moment to slow down. 

Instead, the firm doubled down and announced a global rollout of Anthropic’s Claude to nearly half a million employees. That decision captures the strange new logic shaping the Big 4 consulting companies. PwC, EY, KPMG, and Deloitte are no longer just using AI, they are performing it.

Audit and tax work has slowed, regulation is tightening, and growth now depends on signalling technological boldness. In this new credibility economy, hesitation looks worse than failure. A mistake is no longer a crisis; it has become proof that you are early. 

But as every firm rushes to prove its AI edge, sameness is setting in, and the next real differentiator may not be accuracy at all.

What could it be then?

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Founded by the Patel brothers, Vini Cosmetics built Fogg into the country’s top deodorant brand with its no-gas formula, and high-margin pitch. In 2021, global giant KKR swooped in with a $600 million deal, valuing Vini at $1.2 billion—the biggest private equity play in Indian FMCG.

But the partnership never clicked. The founders refused to fully step back, while KKR struggled with the quirks of a brand-led business in a market it didn’t quite understand. Advertising budgets were slashed, rivals like Denver surged ahead, and new launches flopped.

Today, Vini is still profitable, but its margins are shrinking, and Fogg’s dominance is fading. And even as the founders return fully into the picture, it's future looks foggy at 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.

Even as markets wobble and trading volumes shrink, one online broker has raced ahead. Dhan, a four-year-old broking startup, managed to grow rapidly, post profits, and raise $120 million at a $1.2 billion valuation—all in the middle of a market correction.

In this episode, we look at Dhan’s journey from a niche platform for power traders to one of India’s newest unicorns.

What's making investors so bullish on Dhan when the rest of the industry is slowing down?

Tune in.

Correction note: In this episode, the host mistakenly referred to Dhan’s raise as $120 billion; the correct figure is $120 million, led by Hornbill Capital, valuing the company at around $1.2 billion.

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.

Humantic AI is changing up IT services sales. Founded by serial AI entrepreneur Amarpreet Kalkat, the 24-person startup has built what it calls “buyer-first intelligence”—using AI to decode a client’s personality, communication style, and preferences from public data. 

Humantic wants to give sellers an instant human edge in billion-dollar deals. But challenges loom. Enterprise buyers are wary of bloated sales stacks, and Humantic will have to prove it’s more than just another disposable add-on in a sector already crowded with AI promises.

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 stepping into the public markets with a $15 billion IPO. For Walmart, which has pumped billions into the payments firm, this is both a chance to cash in and a test of its India strategy.

Unlike Paytm’s disastrous, hype-heavy listing in 2021, Phonepe is going in with steadier financials, fewer regulatory scrapes, and the scale to back its story. Yet, the timing isn’t without risk: subsidies are shrinking, UPI share caps are on the horizon, and investor appetite has cooled since 2021. Host Rachel Varghese explores what's in store.

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 packaged-food bigwigs ignored spices for a long time. Not anymore.

Since 2020, everyone from ITC to Tata Consumer Products, from Dabur to Wipro, has been scrambling to cement their place in this essential corner of the Indian kitchen. They’ve pounced on spice brands, sometimes paying top dollar for them, all while their investors cheered them on. In fact, the stocks of Tata Consumer and ITC have both outperformed the S&P BSE FMCG index over the last five years.

Turns out, this was all the vindication that Norwegian conglomerate Orkla needed to go public

But this isn’t just another public listing. It’s the opening salvo in what industry insiders are calling the “great spice wars”. And here’s where it gets even spicier: though the category offers some of the highest margins in FMCG products—with pure spices commanding 30–35% gross margins and blended spices going up to 60%—they come with their own unique challenges.

Tune in.

*This episode was originally published on July 22nd 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.

It takes 150 crocus flowers to make just one gram of saffron. For comparison, a spice like cumin, gets you hundreds of kilos per acre whereas saffron yields barely two.

Despite getting a prestigious GI tag from the Indian government and even a National Mission dedicated to its revival, Kashmir’s saffron production has plummeted:from 8 tonnes in 2011 to just 2.7 tonnes in 2024.

So what’s going wrong? And can India learn something from Iran, which currently dominates 90% of the global saffron market?

Reporters Mehroob Mushtaq and Numan Bhat, traveled deep into saffron country, met the farmers, walked the fields, and came back with a story that’s rich in detail, visuals, and hard truths.

Tune in.

*This episode was originally published on July 21st 2025.

Compete in India’s first and only case-build competition.

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.

Compete in India's first and only case competition.

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.

Swiggy, once the dominant force in India’s quick-commerce market, is now struggling to keep pace. Since its IPO, Instamart’s share has slipped to about 25%, well behind Blinkit’s commanding over 50%. 

To engineer a turnaround, CEO Sriharsha Majety is driving sweeping changes at the company—fuelled by a wave of ex-Flipkart hires, including Amitesh Jha as Instamart’s new chief. The shake-up marks a cultural pivot from Swiggy’s meticulous “doc culture” to a harder-edged “move fast, fail fast” ethos. 

But with Blinkit and Zepto racing ahead, whether this reset can restore Swiggy’s edge or leave it further behind in the quick-commerce race remains to be seen.

Compete in India's first and only case competition.

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.