With the digital streaming rights to IPL gone and the recent losses it posted, India's undisputed OTT leader is trying to figure out a new strategy to stay on top of the game.

As other OTT platforms around the world are consciously choosing to spend less on original programming, Disney+Hotstar is doing the opposite in India.

But is it enough to make up for the 30 million viewers it would get on average every day when the IPL was on?

Tune in to find out.

India’s patent office decided to reject pharma giant Johnson &Johnson’s appeal to extend the patent for a life-saving TB medicine called bedaquiline which is used to treat those with drug resistant infections. 

But for a long time before this, Johnson & Johnson was enjoying a monopoly in India. Generic manufacturers could not make this life-saving medicine. The Indian government too, at the time, had decided to protect the pharma giant.

Not just that, Johnson & Johnson was also conveniently projecting itself as a charitable organisation through its health programmes.

What does the Indian govt’s decision mean for TB patients in India now?

If you had to compare all the online payment methods available to us, digital wallets like Paytm have gone through the roughest of waters.  From being the life-saver during demonetisation to being left behind by UPI, digital wallets haven't had it easy.

But last week, UPI parent NPCI released a circular about the use of digital wallets that brought a ray of hope albeit after a bit of confusion. It had to do with certain charges being levied on transactions over Rs 2,000.

How could it work as a shot in the arm digital wallets and who is actually going to pay these new charges?

Diclaimer:
*Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken.
*The Ken has been part of multiple programmes initiated by GPay parent Google for news organisations globally, including, most recently, its 2022 APAC Innovation Challenge.

With the IPL set to begin today, a few days ago Jio announced a move that many say could be the next big disruption. The Reliance Group, which has the digital rights of the event, is streaming the games for free on its OTT platform, JioCinema.

The main goal is to get people to switch the traditional way of viewing cricket, especially IPL, from TV to digital streaming.

So on 27 March, Jio launched its most affordable fixed broadband plan yet. The plan offers unlimited data at 10 Mbps for Rs 198 per month. Before this, Jio was giving fixed broadband customers 30 Mbps bandwidth for Rs 399 a month. 

Will the new broadband plan get enough viewers to switch to digital streaming? 

Tune in.

The Indian government has set an ambitious goal with the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program for mobile-phone manufacturing. By 2026, it aims to push the country's annual exports to a whopping $300 billion.

The idea is to boost large-scale manufacturing and to support domestic phone makers to become globally competitive.  

But of the six companies that made the cut to claim the scheme's incentives, only two are Indian.

Why is “Make in India” attracting more foreign phone makers than Indian ones?

Tune in to find out.

 2023 has been declared the International Year of Millets after India, the largest producer of millets in the world, moved a resolution in the UN General Assembly.

The Prime Minister himself has been promoting the use of millets as a staple through various channels like Mann Ki Baat and the Global Millets Conference that was recently held in the national capital.

But making what were once called 'coarse grains' as the next big food trend is riddled with challenges and will take more than declaring 2023 the year of millets.

Tune in.

After buying the digital rights for IPL for an eye-popping amount last year, Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema wants to change the way Indians watch cricket. It wants to replace TV viewing with online streaming.

In order to pull it off, it came up with an almost disruptive move. It decided to make IPL streaming free

While viewership is expected to hit half a billion and ad impressions to quadruple after this, advertisers are skeptical about a host of unknown factors.

What are they?

Tune in to find out.

The Indian Met Dept has predicted that 2023, especially between March to May, is going to be unusually hot for most parts of India. Air conditioners and electric fans account for nearly one fifth of the total electricity used in buildings around the world today.

Naturally, electricity bills have skyrocketed and it's only going to get worse.

Meanwhile, a fascinating technology has emerged that can save 30 to 40% in energy consumption but it's not being adopted as fast as it should be. Energy transitions are proving to be much more difficult than a smartphone upgrade.

Tune in

Last week, Season 2 of one of the country’s most popular reality TV shows, Shark Tank India, came to an end. The show has given rise to a significant demand for startup investing.

Investors are able to put in as little as Rs 5000 via online fundraising platforms like Tyke Invest and Infubiz. They offer investments in startups through Community Subscription Offer Plans. 

But these fundraising campaigns are not subject to securities laws and  investors in these instruments do not have any shareholder rights under the Companies Act, 2013.

This is creating a high-risk environment for small-time retail investors.

Tune in.

A few months ago, a whistleblower alleged that some of the top EV makers in India were misusing the FAME subsidy. The government began an investigation and withheld the subsidy for multiple EV manufacturers.

Ever since, news stories have been reporting how the sale of EVs in India has declining and the FAME subsidy is under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

But the government is only trying to correct a past mistake. The impact of the subsidy on the rising penetration of EVs in the country can't be ignored. In fact, the criticism of FAME could actually end up hurting the EV sector in the long run.

Tune in.