Daybreak

Like much of the world, India is heavily reliant on China for its rare earth supplies. In FY25 alone, we imported 870 tonnes of rare earth magnets, worth over ₹300 crore. China controls about 60–70% of global rare earth production and around 90% of the world’s refining capacity. 

Decades ago, while other countries hesitated over environmental and social costs, China made a ruthless, calculated bet — sacrifice land, people, and air to dominate the rare earths future.

Now we are in that future and China has thrown a spanner in the works. It has imposed fresh restrictions on magnet exports, threatening to bring India’s EV ambitions to a grinding halt.

Indian importers are caught in a bureaucratic maze. Chinese suppliers now demand end-use declarations. That kicks off a long certification process — multiple approvals from Indian authorities, and even sign-off from the Chinese embassy in Delhi.

And after all that, final clearance must come from China’s commerce ministry. That’s the bottleneck. Several Indian auto component makers have jumped through every hoop — yet they’re still waiting.

So, where does that leave us?

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Protein is having a moment in India. Once reserved for gym-goers and bodybuilders, it’s now showing up in everyday foods like idli, rotis, chips, lassi, even kulfi. And consumers are buying in.

Behind this craze is a $1.5 billion strategy that’s reshaping how India eats. Food brands saw a gap in a country where nearly two out of three households are protein deficient. And they turned it into a goldmine. Now, protein is everywhere, and the market is only getting bigger.

But here’s the twist: while the labels scream '50g protein' and 'fuel for champions,' reality is far more complicated. Many of these products include additives, sugar, and misleading serving sizes. Some even contain toxic substances. Meanwhile, your body can’t store excess protein—it just turns it into fat.

So is this really a health revolution? Or just clever packaging?

Tell us what you thought of this episode. You can text us your feedback 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.

Want to attend The Ken's next event on health, fitness and wellness? Buy tickets here. Here's your chance to help us shape the conversation: https://theken.typeform.com/to/bZhqWl2g

Indian finserv is no koi pond. It's a shark tank. And now, some of the biggest sharks in the tank – payment aggregators like Phonepe, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm – are all narrowing in on the aggregator of aggregators, Juspay. 

In this episode, we go behind the scenes of one of the biggest fintech standoffs of the year. On one side are the aggregators, who power payments for millions of online merchants. And on the other side is “aggregator of aggregators” Juspay, who’s worked as an extension of merchants’ payments teams, helping them coordinate payments across aggregators, for over a decade. 

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Check out our latest episode featuring Soumya Rajan, founder and CEO of Waterfield Advisors, India’s largest multi-family office and wealth advisory firm.

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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here

Of the 5,000 graduates offered jobs in 2022—the majority of whose joining was delayed by two years—755 have been laid off so far for failing to clear tests.

The assessments this time were tougher than usual, said five trainees and ex-employees The Ken spoke to. The threshold for passing was raised from 50% to 65%. On top of this, new material was added, and the number of questions was increased.

Then again, the times are changing. India’s IT-services industry has been a driver of economic growth for over two decades, contributing 7% to the country’s GDP and employing over 5 million people in FY24. But over the last three years, growth has stagnated—the ongoing tariff uncertainties being just the latest setback. But the real existential threat in this scenario is AI. 

The pressure is already on. Clients want quicker turnarounds on smaller budgets. Companies, in turn, have found the perfect patsy: pre-trained freshers, compelled to jump into projects from the get-go.

Tune in. 

Check out our latest episode featuring Soumya Rajan, founder and CEO of Waterfield Advisors, India’s largest multi-family office and wealth advisory firm.

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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here

Tesla’s story in India has been more like a stalled engine than a roaring electric debut—despite years of headlines, high-level meetings, and hopeful tweets. While the Indian government did slash import duties on premium EVs from a staggering 110% to a friendlier 15%, it wasn’t enough. Because for Tesla, this isn't just about taxes. It is about suppliers, standards, scale, and most importantly, timing. But India wants Tesla.

Prime ministers have courted the company. Officials have tweaked policies. Showrooms are being prepped. And yet, eight years after the Model 3 opened bookings in India, those cool-looking cars are nowhere to be seen on our roads. In fact, buyers have been canceling and Tesla’s India leadership is quitting. 

What is going on?

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**Correction: The host mistakenly referred to Hyundai Ioniq car model as Iconiq. The error is regretted.

P.S The Ken’s podcast team is hiring! Here’s what we’re looking for.

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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here

In this special episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose are joined by Soumya Rajan, founder and CEO of Waterfield Advisors, India’s largest multi-family office and wealth advisory firm. The conversation begins with a simple but important question: what does financial empowerment actually mean for women with wealth?

Over her decades in the world of wealth management, Soumya began noticing a consistent blind spot—traditional financial systems weren’t designed with women’s realities in mind. Even wealth advisory firms, she found, were falling short. That led her to launch HERitage, a specialized arm within Waterfield, focused on serving the financial needs of women more intentionally and effectively.

Soumya explains a framework she developed called T.O.U.C.H to outline how women tend to invest differently from men: they trade less, invest with clear goals, prioritize sustainability, and are more conscious and diversified in their approach. These patterns aren’t just preferences, they reflect a fundamentally different way of thinking about money.

The episode also draws on insights from Waterfield’s Women of Wealth survey, which looked at the investment behaviors of over 100 high-net-worth Indian women. The findings challenge a lot of conventional thinking: women are deliberate and strategic investors, but they still face barriers when it comes to financial literacy, access, and decision-making power.

Soumya also talks about how women in India are creating wealth—whether through inheritance, entrepreneurship, or leadership roles in corporate India—and how they’re using that wealth not just for security, but for impact. The conversation touches on growing trends in philanthropy, interest in global markets, and the rise of “passion investments” in areas like art, wellness, and legacy building.

Tune in

Soumya recommends —
TV Show: Lioness
Book: The Outsiders

Tell us what you thought of this episode. You can text us your feedback on WhatsApp at +918971108379. You can also write to us at [email protected]

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.

Electric two-wheeler maker, Ather Energy, listed on the bourses on earlier in May, but its IPO was subscribed just 1.4X—a modest showing for a company once seen as a premium EV pioneer. The lukewarm response reflected investor fatigue, sparked by Ola Electric’s volatile stock performance, the Blusmart funding controversy, and global supply chain headwinds. Despite a strong product portfolio and a reputation for in-house innovation, Ather faces an increasingly crowded market and mounting pressure to scale.

IPO proceeds will fund a new manufacturing plant in Maharashtra, expanded R&D, and marketing—moves aimed at boosting capacity and competitiveness.

Yet, with subsidies shrinking and profitability still out of reach, Ather’s long-term success hinges on its ability to grow sustainably, reduce costs, and prove it’s more than just another EV startup riding a fading wave.

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P.S The Ken’s podcast team is hiring! Here’s what we’re looking for.

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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here

Pyng, launched on 15 April, is quite a departure from Swiggy’s core food-focused business. The service marketplace, uncharted territory for Swiggy, is offering services of “verified professionals” (think therapists, chartered accountants, and even energy healers).

 No, it’s not a modified version of Urban Company. At least, not yet. For one, the latter offers standardised services comprising blue collar workers.

But why exactly is Swiggy, a company with a market capitalisation of over Rs 80,000 crore, diversifying its business?

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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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here

Have a question for The Ken's next event on health, fitness and wellness? Here's your chance to help us shape the conversation: https://theken.typeform.com/to/bZhqWl2g

The landscape is pretty bleak. In the race to produce more Ivy League-worthy students, Indian schools are selectively opting to teach IB. Teachers, in turn, find themselves shifting between the Cambridge and IB syllabi, often trying out things they aren’t trained for. Students and parents, meanwhile, are running in circles trying to find an able tutor after spending Rs 5–20 lakh on their child’s education. It helps no one that there are just a handful of dedicated, IB-trained teachers in the whole of India who can help students with the demanding curriculum.

Enter Sparkl Edventure.

With Sparkl, the former CEO of Aakash Institute is betting on these schools' inadequacies and our obsession with private tutoring. 

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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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here

Have a question for The Ken's next event on health, fitness and wellness? Here's your chance to help us shape the conversation: https://theken.typeform.com/to/bZhqWl2g

When Rohan, a 35-year-old software engineer, signed up for a Rs 1 trial on a learning app called Seekho, he thought he had nothing to lose. He cancelled the subscription within weeks but money was still being deducted from his account months later. 

UPI Autopay, the rising star of India’s subscription economy is quietly letting apps to keep charging users long after they think they've cancelled.

From overlooked SMS alerts to sneaky terms hidden in fine print, we find out how widespread this problem really is and why so many users are only waking up to it now.

Tune in.

P.S The Ken’s podcast team is hiring! Here’s what we’re looking for.

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.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here