Daybreak

What happens when a woman writes the cheques in venture capital?

In India fewer than 5% of VC partners are women and Archana Jahagirdar, founder of Rukam Capital, is part of that rare group. Since 2019, she has backed Sleepy Owl, Burger Singh, Pilgrim and Beco—bets that reveal how India’s middle class eats, shops and aspires.

In this episode Archana talks to host Snigdha Sharma about why copying Silicon Valley often fails here, how VCs shape culture, what she looks for in founders, and why consumer trust can be the ultimate advantage.

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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.

Blinkit now controls more than half of India’s quick commerce market, a sector long thought too competitive, too crowded, and too expensive for anyone to dominate.

From its ever-expanding network of dark stores that powers its 10-minute deliveries to the recent, bold pivot toward an inventory-led model, Blinkit’s rise is built on a mix of speed, scale, and risk.

But rapid expansion also brings higher costs and greater exposure. Has Blinkit created a sustainable advantage, or has it built a fragile empire that could be tested soon?

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Vinfast, Vietnam’s ambitious electric vehicle maker, is making its last-ditch global play in India after racking up billions in losses in the US and Europe. But its strategy is unlike anything the market has seen before. Instead of competing with giants like Tata and Mahindra in big metros with flashy showrooms, Vinfast is starting in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities like Coimbatore and Shimla—using car workshops as sales hubs.

It’s betting on a country that is invested in EV adoption, rising middle class families who value range over power, and robust charging grid. The question is whether this unconventional approach will help it carve a space in India’s crowded EV market, or mark another costly failure.

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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 decades, every Amazon meeting began in silence with employees reading six-page memos that shaped the company’s biggest innovations like Prime and Alexa. Jeff Bezos banned PowerPoint in 2004 to build a culture of truth-seeking through crisp writing and messy discussions.

Now, that tradition faces disruption as internal AI tools like Amazon Q and Cedric draft, summarise and analyse documents in minutes. Some employees are embracing the speed while others fear a loss of originality and rigour.

Is AI strengthening Amazon’s culture or quietly dismantling the practice that once defined its success?

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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.

IRMA was never just another B-school. Born out of Verghese Kurien’s (the father of Operation Flood movement) mind, it built a one-of-a-kind management program for rural India—training managers for cooperatives, NGOs, and grassroots institutions, far away from the IIM playbook.

Now, Delhi has other plans. An Act of Parliament is folding IRMA into a vast new central university, the "Tribhuvan" Sahkari University, with hundreds of affiliates. On paper, it’s about scaling cooperative education nationwide. But the shift is sparking anxiety over placements, faculty, and whether Kurien’s vision will survive in a system built for size.

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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 millionaire households have jumped 90% in just four years, and a gold rush for wealth managers has begun. Firms like Nuvama, Kotak, and 360 One are in a race for high-net-worth clients—deploying relationship managers, slashing rates, and dangling exotic products to stay ahead.

But the old playbook of generous distribution fees is colliding with a new reality. Today’s wealthy are savvier, fee-sensitive, and increasingly leaning on advisory-first models or even building in-house family offices. That’s left pure-play firms in a difficult spot, even as VC-backed challengers chase growth at all costs.

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P.S. Are you a manager, recruiter or founder who has been part of a hiring process in the last year? Rahel from 90,000 Hours  wants to hear from you. Take our survey.

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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.

Gold has hit record highs: $3,702.95 an ounce globally and ₹110,666 per 10 grams in India, up over 40% this year. But inflation seems to be easing, and there’s no immediate threat of war. What could be behind the surge?

Experts point to central banks around the world buying gold, expectations of U.S. rate cuts weakening the dollar, and Indian households holding onto their gold, limiting supply. The rally matters for India because it pushes up imports and puts pressure on the rupee, which hit a record low of 88 against a dollar this year.

What does gold’s rise tell us about global money and India’s economy.

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P.S. Are you a manager, recruiter or founder who has been part of a hiring process in the last year? Rahel from 90,000 Hours  wants to hear from you. 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.

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.

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*Disclosure: The writer comes from a family that previously owned a school acquired partially by International Schools Partnership (ISP)

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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 stockbroker, Groww, is chasing an ambitious IPO. But behind the headlines, its core broking business is under stress. Its clients are leaving, regulations are squeezing revenues, and profits are wobbling.

To keep its $7–8 billion valuation intact, Groww is making big moves. It's acquiring loss-making wealth-tech startup Fisdom for $150 million and launching “W,” a new unit for the rich.

Wealth management is the trend everyone wants in on, but can Groww really pull it off? Or is this just optics ahead of the IPO?

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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.

Most SaaS companies have accepted the “cloud and AI tax” , the cost they pay to Amazon, Google, and Microsoft for storage and processing data. But Zoho is refusing to play along. Famous for its frugality, Zoho is now building its own AI models and data centers to keep costs down for the small and medium enterprises that make up most of its clientele.

While rivals lean heavily on third-party clouds, Zoho has bet on a homegrown LLM—Zia—to power its products and stay affordable. But the strategy comes with risks, because building AI from scratch demands huge capital and relentless innovation.

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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.