Daybreak

Just like every Lok Sabha election in the last 72 years, millions of people will vote for a new government over the next couple of weeks.  

But there is one thing that really sets this election apart. Never before have political parties actively used Generative Artificial IntelIigence at this scale. It is a turning point in India’s electoral evolution. 

Some AI startups in India have been developing hyper-personalised voter experiences for political parties. This comes at a time when Gen AI tools like deepfakes have become very sophisticated — to the point where even experts often  struggle to tell what is real and what is not. 

In the run-up to the election, when you are being bombarded with political content, videos and images, this can be very dangerous. Yet, there are barely any rules in place to regulate the use of this technology during the election process. 

What does this mean for the world’s largest democracy? 

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.

In January, the RBI, more or less killed Paytm Payments Bank. But Paytm Bank was the backbone of its loan business, the same business that helped it recover from its post-IPO bloodbath.

Now, Paytm’s lending partners, on whom its loan business is dependent, are spooked  They dont know if they should continue working with Paytm. Meanwhile, Paytm is doing its best to save what it can but Paytm Payment Bank is currently in limbo. Last week, Survinder Chawla, the MD and CEO of Paytm Payments bank also put in his papers. 

So far, we don't know what is going to happen but there’s one thing we know for sure: Paytm is doing everything it can to separate itself from Paytm bank, which was once an integral part of its business.

Tune in.

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.

**Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an investor in The Ken

Phone calls from Bajaj Finance offering loans are almost inescapable and lately, the non-bank has faced quite a backlash for it. But telecalling has been an enduring sales channel for the company which boasts of a loan book worth $28 billion. And despite the massive size of its loan book, it’s been growing at 30% for years. Now this rate is seeing a dip through.

Bajaj needs to maintain a 26-27% growth rate. Meanwhile, shifting its loan sourcing to its digital assets is going to take a while.

So those pesky calls are unlikely to stop anytime soon.

In this episode, we take a closer look at this Bajaj Finance’s annoying but successful system of tele-calling.

**This is a repeat episode since April 11 was a public holiday

It's been over a year since the govt launched Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The idea was to build the world largest e-commerce platform to check the monopoly of giants like Amazon and Flipkart. From ride-sharing and food delivery, to groceries, the platform can be used to buy and sell anything.

The platform is close to hitting the 50 million transactions mark now. And what stands out about it is its fascinating pricing strategy that makes ordering food on it as much as 45% cheaper than a Swiggy or a Zomato. Could ONDC make the two food delivery giants redundant?

While there is no easy  answer to the question, what made us more curious was this: Do we want ONDC to win? And if it does then what could be the consequences?

Tune in to find out.

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.

Lat week, the struggling edtech giant Byju's laid off another 500 of its employees. This came along with a salary delay of three consecutive months. In his email to employees two months ago, Raveendran had written, “I have been moving mountains for months to make payroll, and this time, the struggle was even bigger to ensure that you receive what you rightfully deserve."

With the latest round of layoffs though, the employee count at Byju’s has gone down from 15000 at the end of last year to around 13,000 now. This is the same company whose founder would boast about how Byju's was the largest startup employer in the country with a headcount of 55,000. The Ken had investigated what all of this means for Byju’s employees last year and we understood how they got the worst end of the stick. They told us they had been fired arbitrarily without any notice. In fact, some were being forced to resign.

Even this time, according to reports by The Economic Times, they were laid off without any notice. And like that wasn't enough, we also learnt companies have specifically been telling recruiters to avoid hiring Byju’s employees.

Tune in.

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.

In January this year, Tata Digital's BigBasket announced its rebranding for slotted delivery service to “Supersaver”, promising to deliver products in under two hours. Back when Tata had acquired the BigBasket at a reported valuation of $2 billion in mid-2021, the company was loss-making. 

But for those at BigBasket, it was an opportunity to shift their focus back to the company’s core business: doorstep grocery delivery.

While it was a bit too late when Tata realised its new acquisition was left out from the quick commerce game, there was one game that BigBasket seemed to be clearly winning.

Tune in to find out.

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.

The government of India launched Digiyatra, a contactless, facial-recognition-based passenger-entry system, in December 2023. The idea was for those who sign up on the platform to avoid the tedious process of getting their ID and flight tickets checked by  CISF personnel at airports.

But lately, stories of passengers being forced to sign up for the app are surfacing on social media. Just this week, there were reports of Digiyatra forcing users to move to a new app without notice. Meanwhile, airlines, which are important stakeholders to make the entire endeavour successful are unable to see any benefits for themselves.

Airports though see it as a great opportunity. In fact, multiple sources close to the implementation of Digiyatra told The Ken that the whole idea of Digiyatra came from airports themselves.

What’s in it for them?

Tune in.

The entire logic of buying online instead of going to a store rests on e-commerce companies making it easy to return stuff. What if it doesnt fit me? What if it is damaged? Just ask for a return and someone comes to your doorstep and picks it up.

However, as it turns out, e-commerce companies hate returns because reverse logistics are a costly affair for them. 

Now, the likes of Ajio and Myntra are changing their return policies. Some are even blocking some customer accounts.  But are customers ready to give it up yet?

Tune in.

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.

Earlier this week, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared Manipal group chief Ranjan Pai's investment in online pharmacy PharmEasy. So far Pharmeasy, once the highest-valued Indian healthcare startup, has raised Rs 3,500 crore through a rights issue. But it raised this money at a 90 per cent discount to its peak valuation. 

From $5.6 billion to $500 million!

All because it had to take another debt to pay off its previous debt. The second time though, interest rates were not zero.

What’s happened?

Tune in.

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.

Beyond the nostalgia associated with meals on trains, quite often, there are also horror stories. In fact, even a recent Parliament Panel report pointed out how food quality on Indian trains is compromised. The IRCTC (The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) has been trying to figure out how to make food a more enjoyable experience on trains and more importantly, a solid source of revenue. 

A decade ago, IRCTC launched its e-catering services. It now has a network of nearly 500 restaurant partners and close to 20 food aggregators. Catering makes up for more than 40% of IRCTC’s revenue every year. And its seems it will only go up because in the last few months, IRCTC has also tied up with two of the country’s food delivery giants, Zomato and Swiggy.

But while IRCTC has big dreams of catering to the 20 million passengers who take the train everyday, delivering food on trains is a logistical nightmare.

Tune in.

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