Daybreak

Half of the world’s electric cars are on China’s roads, thanks to a wave of smart incentives for both consumers and manufacturers, such as tax breaks and purchase subsidies. The payoff is tangible: the smog that once shrouded some major cities has lifted, and road noise has dropped significantly.

But it brought unexpected costs and challenges that nobody saw coming.

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Don't forget to send us your recommendation for this Thursday’s Unwind segment. The theme is “your favourite opening line from a book or film.” Send them to us on WhatsApp as a voice note or as a text message. The number is +9189711-08379.

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 few years ago, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy had set a target of 40% growth across all categories for Flipkart. But in 2023, it was still stuck at 20%. So the company is now on a mission. It wants to push growth, gain market share, and turn a profit.

So in January 2024, Flipkart's top execs along with the CEO came together for a meeting to outline a roadmap for 2024. Krishnamurthy wanted Flipkart to introduce a loyalty programme for top spenders, give out more incentives to ensure customer loyalty, push up transaction numbers and average order sizes, and also focus on brands.

In the same meeting he also admitted that the company had faced quite a few hurdles the previous year but he was sure they’d make a comeback and hit profitability before the IPO.

But here’s the thing, prepping for an IPO often has long term effects on a company’s culture. And the cracks are already beginning to appear inside Flipkart.

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**This episode was first published on 6 May, 2024

Meet Shaik Salauddin, a 38-year-old cab driver from Hyderabad, who is fighting for the rights of eight million gig workers from across the country.

While India's gig economy is burgeoning, the workers on whose backs it is built barely enjoy any rights or legal protections. Salauddin realised this early on and in 2019, after five years of relentless pursuit, the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) was born. With over 25,000 members working for aggregators like Uber, Amazon, and Zomato, through IFAT, Salauddin is redefining the way we look at trade unions. To begin with, the union has no political affiliations. Instead, Salauddin encourages all of its members to understand power structures and approach the right people to drive change.

Thanks to his efforts, two states, Karnataka and Rajasthan, have introduced legislations to protect the rights of gig workers. Others like Kerala are working on their own.

In this episode, hosts Snigdha and Rahel speak to Salauddin himself and to Prof. Vinoj Abraham from Labour Economics at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram to understand the significance of Salauddin's work and why it is important to protect gig workers. 

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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.

A special shout out to Hari Krishna, from the Two by Two team, who kindly agreed to dub parts of this episode. Thank you, Hari!

Fill in Akshaya's Happiness Survey here

For nearly two decades, Abhishek Ganguly worked as the managing director of Puma, the German athleisure brand in India. In that period alone, the brand’s revenue shot up from Rs 20 crore to close to Rs 4,000 crore. Under Ganguly, Puma even managed to beat its longtime rival Adidas to become a market leader. 

In 2023, Ganguly decided to quit and start his own venture called Agilitas Sports with two of his colleagues from Puma, Atul Bajaj and Amit Prabhu. Within a year, Ganguly’s company has managed to rack up more than Rs 700 crore in revenue. 

The way Ganguly and his co-founders got to this point is interesting. Instead of doing the obvious thing and launching their own sneaker brand, Ganguly did something quite odd. Something, that even the biggest sportswear brands in the world – Nike, Reebok, Adidas – have never even attempted. 

Last September, Agilitas bought India’s largest sportswear contract manufacturer, Mochiko shoes. This is the company that manufactures shoes for international brands like Adidas, Puma, New Balance, Skechers, Reebok, Asics, Crocs, Decathlon  – the works. Ganguly’s logic behind owning the factory is simple – he wants whole  pie and not just a slice of the margin. 

He told The Ken's DVLS Pranathi that having the additional manufacturer’s margin in a price-sensitive market like India is worth its weight in gold. But there is a reason giants like Puma and Adidas don’t go down this road—taking care of manufacturing in-house is a logistical nightmare. That’s why most brands outsource to companies that are equipped to do it, like Mochiko. 

But Agilitas is dead set on bringing the entire operation in-house. It’s convinced it can work and has also managed to convince VCs that there is merit in controlling both manufacturing and distributing. 

Investors are betting on the Ganguly-Bajaj-Prabhu trio to pull off another Puma-sized victory. 

But will the other shoe drop? 

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**The host mistakenly said a decade instead of two decades when referring to Abhishek Ganguly's stint at Puma. The error is regretted.

Fill in Akshaya's Happiness Survey here

DAYBREAK UNWIND RECCOMENDATIONS FOR COMFORT FOOD SPOTS

Rahel: Kappa Chakka Kandhari, Bangalore,
           Unnamed food truck at Utorda Beach, South Goa

Snigdha: Alu Dum from Bari's tuck shop near Loreto Convent, Darjeeling
                Thukpa at Kunga's, near Planter's Club, Darjeeling
                 Ghee Podi Dosa from Umesh Refreshments, Indiranagar, Bangalore

Satyam: Litti Chokha, Jai Mata Di Food Stall, HSR Layout, Bangalore

Shayanika: Dosa and Puliyogare Rice at 3 Trees Cafe, Upper Dharamkot, Dharamsala

Rahul: Egg fried rice at Tenzin Kitchen, Koramangala

Akshaya: Okonomoyaki and fried tofu sushi at Dahlia, Chennai

Back when it was launched in 2020, Bajaj Finsev Health had a clear plan: it wanted to provide a complete healthcare package to its consumers. 

And it did that by happily playing a supporting role in India’s booming healthcare industry. 

Here's what Bajaj Finserv Health does. It is essentially a health management platform. So it facilitates things like doctor consultations and health checkups to its 400-odd corporate clients. Simple enough. 

But four years later, the company’s vision has evolved. They want to take things to the next level. It’s clearly sick of playing a supporting role. So it has decided to step into the spotlight. The first step was to acquire 22-year-old Vidal Healthcare, which is a third party administrator.

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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.

PS. While you're here, here's the happiness survey for the season finale of The First Two Years. 

Subway, the globally popular sandwich-eatery chain, is now grappling with sweeping changes in India—and not for the better. For one, the world’s largest quick-service restaurant (QSR) brand is moving away from the franchise model it has operated under for the past 25 years. In doing so, it’s also shedding the very thing that made it popular in the first place: choice.

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Don't forget to send us your recommendation for this Thursday’s Unwind segment. The theme is “comfort food at your fav spot in the city.” Send them to us on WhatsApp as a voice note or as a text message. The number is +9189711-08379.

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.

Last month, a Twitter post a Bengaluru-based IT professional about getting a laptop delivered from Flipkart went viral on social. The reason? Flipkart’s quick delivery arm called Minutes that went live in select cities had delivered it to him at a Starbucks cafe in 13 minutes.

But Minutes is Flipkart’s third attempt at quick delivery. And the real test is actually around the corner when the Big Billion Days sale goes live at the end of this month. During the sale, daily order volumes usually go up by nearly 140%, which makes delivery delays unavoidable. Flipkart’s delivery partners who work with its logistics and supply-chain arm, Ekart Logistics, are stretched thin. And now its going to get even more challenging because Flipkart is going use the same delivery personnel for Minutes.

Not only is Ekart going to help Flipkart with quick delivery, it is also supposed to be helping it manage its dark stores. Can Flipkart finally strike the right balance between its e commerce and quick commerce business?

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Don't forget to send us your recommendation for this Thursday’s Unwind segment. The theme is “comfort food at your fav spot in the city.” Send them to us on WhatsApp as a voice note or as a text message. The number is +9189711-08379.

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.

Back in the late 2000s when Byju's was founded, it was best known for teaching students how to 'hack' competitive examinations like the CAT. They taught students how to work backwards from the answer and use a bunch of shortcuts to get the highest score possible. The art of 'hacking' examinations was something that the company's founder, Byju Raveendran, was the master of. Or at least that's how the Byju's origin story goes. 

It all started back in the early 2000s when Byju, an engineer from a small town in Kerala, began helping his friends with the CAT exam. Every time he would sit for the exam, he’d score in the 100th percentile. This was when he sharpened his ability to teach-the-test. The lore spread and Byju's was created. By 2022, its valuation hit $22 billion. The company was on a dream run.

The real trouble began when Byju’s began applying this hack method to its growth with unrealistic sales targets and billions of dollars in loans. 

Fast forward to now, on Sept 17 2024, the Supreme Court of India is going to hear a plea against the NCLAT's stay on insolvency proceedings against Byju’s. 

In this episode, we dive into the Byjus saga. How did it get here? And who is to blame? Hosts Snigdha and Rahel speak to Olina Banerji, who covers education for The Ken. Subscribe to her newsletter, Ed Set Go. 

If you've been wondering what The Ken is all about and why our subscribers love us, here is your chance to find out. Check out our special 30-day trial curated just for you

The real-estate market of Delhi-NCR is an anomaly. The Ken spoke to a bunch of potential homebuyers who are looking for premium apartments with budgets of up to 2.5 crore rupees.  Real-estate experts are telling them to give up on their dreams. Lately, the national capital has been facing an acute supply crunch of new housing projects, especially in the mid-premium segment (80 lakh to 2 crore rupees) depending on the city.   Delhi NCR has witnessed the sharpest fall in inventory in this segment in the last few years.   

Real-estate prices in turn have shot up far beyond the reach of most buyers. But it’s not like demand for housing has gone down because of these sky high prices.  People are still buying tens of thousands of these mid-premium houses in and around Delhi.   

So the obvious question then is: why aren’t more residential housing units being built? 

From listeners:
Praveen: Partner (2007)
Sravan: The Intern
Anish: Lord of the Rings trilogy

From hosts:
Snigdha: The Perfect Couple

Rahel: Call Me Bae

Daybreak is now on WhatsApp at +918971108379. For next Thursday's Unwind, send us your recommendations to us as texts or voice notes. The theme is "comfort food from your favourite spot in town."

India's tuition republic came into the picture to fill the gaps in the education system. First and foremost: they promise to get you into the college of your dreams. That simple but powerful promise has made this a Rs 58,000 crore industry. 

But there is a flip side to this. It puts traditional schools in a rather precarious position. Students start trickling out of the system after class 10. Their parents transfer them to junior colleges or schools with integrated coaching models so they can focus on cracking competitive exams. 

One school has had enough of this. It's tackling attrition by taking on these coaching centres directly. The first step? Hiring 200 IITians. 

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If you've been wondering what The Ken is all about and why our subscribers love us, here is your chance to find out. Check out our special 30-day trial curated just for you.

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