Daybreak

iPhone 17 components have started arriving at Foxconn’s plant in Tamil Nadu. It signals Apple’s quiet but serious shift toward next-gen production in India, potentially starting as early as August. 

But as India is stepping into a more central role in Apple’s global supply chain, Foxconn is being forced to pull hundreds of Chinese engineers out of India. These are people who helped set up and run these complex manufacturing lines. The move has raised eyebrows with many interpreting it as Beijing’s geopolitical pushback against Apple’s China-plus-one strategy.

Here’s the twist: what if this squeeze isn’t a setback, but a necessary shock? Could China’s pressure may actually accelerate India’s path to manufacturing independence?

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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.

CIBIL or Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd is one of only four credit information providers in the country that is licensed by the RBI. It is considered the oldest and the most reliable. It essentially calculates your credit score, a three digit number between 300 and 900, and provides it to banks so they can judge your creditworthiness. Usually, anything over 700 is considered good. 

But this whole process is anything but straightforward. In fact, it is shrouded in mystery. Each of these bureaus typically have their own algorithm to compute your credit score. And they are all somewhat similar. But nobody–not the borrowers and not even the banks–fully understand how these credit information providers, like Cibil, actually rate finances. 

In this episode, we try to demystify these credit bureaus and their mystery calculations that decide our fate.

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*This episode was first published on February 6, 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.

On June 23, Ola Electric’s stock crashed to an all-time low of ₹43. 

This week, the stock staged a brief rebound, jumping nearly 20% in a single session. But at ₹47, it’s still trading far below its IPO price of ₹76 and more than 70% off its post-listing peak.

On an earnings call, founder Bhavish Aggarwal insisted the company was on track. With rising margins and tighter cost control, he said, Ola would hit EBITDA break-even at 25,000 units a month.

But a closer look at Ola’s financials tells a very different story.

For FY25:
— Revenue dropped nearly 10%
— Losses ballooned over 40%, to ₹2,300 crore
— And cash flow from operations? Deeply negative at ₹2,391 crore—nearly 4x worse than the year before

In today’s episode, we unpack the growing gap between narrative and numbers at Ola Electric and ask: can Bhavish really steer this ship to safety?

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Welcome to the world of AI trainers.

A growing army of freelancers is quietly shaping the way large language models think.

Hired by companies like Turing, Mercor, and Deccan AI, these trainers are tasked with finding blind spots in models built by OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and Google—and fixing them.

The goal? Fewer hallucinations. Smarter, more coherent responses. A model that feels just a little more… human.

It’s a noble endeavour. But also a billable one.

And as this new line of white-collar gig work takes off, India is fast becoming its beating heart.

But behind the hype lies a murkier story.

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Until recently, the prospect of an IIM offering a standalone undergraduate degree seemed unlikely. Traditionally known for their elite postgraduate programs, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have long been synonymous with MBA excellence. That image is now undergoing a significant shift.

IIM Sirmaur is among the many who have introduced a bachelor’s program. IIM Kozhikode and IIM Sambalpur have followed suit. IIM Bangalore and IIM Lucknow are also preparing to launch similar courses. After decades of focusing solely on postgraduate education, the IIMs are moving into new academic territory.

What’s driving this transformation? And why now?

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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.

Just last year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sat across from Mukesh Ambani at the company’s first-ever AI summit in India.

Dressed in his trademark black leather jacket, Huang addressed a packed room of tech founders, policymakers, and academics. He made a bold prediction: India, long known for exporting software, will soon be exporting AI.

But this wasn’t just another keynote. It was a power play.

At the same event, Nvidia and Reliance announced a major partnership to build AI infrastructure in India -- everything from data centers to foundational models. And Reliance wasn’t alone. Nvidia also inked deals with Infosys, Tata, Tech Mahindra, and Flipkart.

This episode dives into why Nvidia is betting big on India, how that fits into India’s own messy AI ambitions, and what’s really at stake when a $4 trillion company becomes a country’s AI backbone.

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*Correction: In the episode, it was mentioned that TCS has 50,000 AI-trained engineers. We’d like to clarify that the accurate figure is that over 1,14,000 TCS associates have been trained in higher-order AI skills. 

47 million Indians just lost their life insurance coverage. But not one of the country’s biggest insurers seem bothered.

In this episode, we look at the silent collapse of credit-linked life insurance—policies that were once bundled with microloans and quietly protected millions of low-income borrowers. But now, that model is breaking down.

Blame mounting defaults, shaky microfinance lending, and a post-pandemic spike in death claims. As lenders pull back and insurers retreat, entire communities are being pushed out of the safety net—with barely a ripple in the headlines.

Why the regulator won’t step in and what persistent high mortality means for the future of group insurance?

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To apply to The Ken’s podcast team, click 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.

Private credit is having a moment in India. Hardly a week goes by without a blockbuster deal. Whether it’s Deutsche Bank’s $3.4 billion debt package, KKR’s $600 million loan to Manipal, or a fresh round of financing for Shapoorji Pallonji.

But beneath the surface, pressure is building.

As interest rates fall and competition heats up, yields are tightening. Banks, once sidelined, are eyeing a comeback. They are realising they should once again lend to companies they gave up to non-bank lenders first when their own bad loans shot up to over 11% in the year ended March 2017, and now increasingly to private-credit funds.

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After swearing off startups post a $300 million exit, Karan Bajaj is back with Complement 1, a healthtech venture offering personalised coaching for cancer patients. But this isn’t just a pivot, it’s a whole new playbook.

This time, it’s personal: Bajaj’s mother had cancer, and he says this is the product he wishes she had.

Built for the American market, Complement 1 is taking a B2B route, targeting insurers, employers, and cancer centres. But early traction has been tough. Unlike edtech, healthcare demands more than just hustle. We look at whether Bajaj’s old playbook still works in a world where good intentions must meet rigorous standards and sustainable business models.

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Ajio was supposed to be Reliance Retail’s e-commerce success story. While other digital bets like Jiomart, Dunzo, and Urban Ladder struggled to find their footing, Ajio surged ahead powered by aggressive discounts, brand partnerships, and the deep pockets of India’s largest retailer.

But behind the scenes, the momentum was already beginning to crack.

Today, we go inside the fashion platform’s sharp pivot. Over the past year, Ajio has gone through major leadership reshuffles, mass layoffs, and shifting strategies—from launching ultra-fast delivery to pushing premium fashion, only to walk parts of it back. 

And as profitability pressure mounts from the top, teams are left scrambling to do more with less.

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