Daybreak

Not long ago, Suhail Sameer, former BharatPe CEO had said UPI will do to credit what the likes of companies like BharatPe did to debit a few years back. India has more than 960 million debit cards in the country and only about 85 million credit cards.  

But conditions in the credit market are headed towards a disruption because of UPI and there’s one area of the whole credit ecosystem where it is undeniably going to change the game.  In fact, we could go out on a limb to say that credit via UPI could even end it.  

Tune in to find out.

More than 70% of fraudulent banking transfers in India are KYC-linked scams. A senior official at the Financial Intelligence Unit, a national agency responsible for analysing data on suspect financial transactions informed The Ken that KYC frauds amount to over Rs 900 crore ($108 million) per year.

One such fraudster who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity said, ““KYC is an easy trick to pull off. People have heard about banks freezing accounts due to non-compliance with KYC norms. So they get convinced, particularly those in smaller towns and cities.” In a span four years, this fraudster’s gang has stolen nearly Rs 50 lakh.

But the whole point of banks carrying out the elaborate KYC process is to protect their customers from fraud. How is then that this very process accounts for nearly two-thirds of fraudulent banking transfers in India?

Tune in.

Have you noticed how easy it has become to get loans? Whether you want to buy a whole house or you want to buy a pair of shoes, you can take an EMI for whatever you want.

And of course, in India, an aspirational country, this means we finally have a way to attain the standard of living we have dreamed of. In the year that ended in March 2023 household debt saw its second-highest surge since independence. It now makes up almost 6% of the country’s GDP. 

But as indebtedness is rising, so are cases of harassment by recovery agents. In fact, now, it's come to a point where it is giving rise to a unique type of mental health crisis–unique enough for mental health professionals to take up courses on the basics of banking and finance.

Tune in.

Also listen to: How Mahindra Finance dealt with the RBI curb on recovering loans via third party agents

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.   

Swiggy has always been proud of the culture of innovation that it has fostered over the years for its employees. In fact, it is this very approach that helped it achieve the coveted unicorn status.

But with the IPO scheduled for this year and its pursuit to profitability, innovation is no longer being encouraged. It has become way more challenging for newer projects to take off. 

And though it is natural for a company that is growing bigger to become more risk-averse, for Swiggy, this means a cultural shift that could change its very nature.

Tune in.

From shadow-banning, content flagging, suspension and even account deletion, content creators are grappling with a variety of censorship methods on social media platforms—all in the name of maintaining community guidelines.

But with social media platforms relying more and more on AI and machine-learning tools identify and remove violating content, even content aimed at creating sexual, social, and political awareness ends up being taken down. 

And sex-ed and news content creators on platforms like Instagram and Youtube are seeing their reach, discoverability, and income take a hit.

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, analytical business stories.

After the pandemic years, Kota’s coaching industry saw an unprecedented boom. Money was pouring in from everywhere–from edtechs to investors. In the last five years, Kota saw about 2 lakh engineering and medical aspirants, on average, arrive from across the country.

Kota runs on stiff competition not just among the students but also among the scores of institutes that host and prep them. But since the past four months, Kota’s reputation has been on the line. Student admissions have dropped, with coaching-centre owners pegging it to be at least 20%.

The rising number of student suicides are one reason, of course. But there is more to why Kota may be one result away from losing its star position in the coaching business.

Tune in.

As we know, Paytm* is in deep trouble but you know what they say about one man’s loss? It is another man’s gain.

When the RBI  killed  Paytm Payments Bank’s services, it also meant it could not to accept deposits or top-ups in its customer accounts, including wallets and Fastag. Fastag is India’s electronic toll-collection system. Its basically a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology-enabled card that is fixed on a car’s windscreen. It helps in making toll payments directly from the customer’s bank account or wallet…like Paytm wallet

Now Paytm happened to account for over a quarter of 82 million Fastags in India and with this RBI directive, nearly 20 million of these Fastags will be leaving the Paytm ecosystem. And of course, there is someone who wants to cash in on it.

It is a 4 year old car services platform called Park+. And here’s the twist in the tale. Park+ was founded by Amit Lakhotia who was formerly at Paytm and he helped the company set up its payments business.

Tune in

Also listen to: What will Paytm do now?

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

A few years ago, Blinkit, the grocery delivery platform that was formerly known as Grofers, was on the verge of dying. It was the first year of the pandemic and the demand for quick commerce was at its peak. Grofers wanted to join the bandwagon but it didnt have the money.

A year later in June 2021, it got its shot in the arm with a $120 Mn infusion from Zomato. Next thing we knew, Grofers had become Blinkit and also a unicorn company. And then in 2022, Zomato decided to go all the way in and acquired Blinkit for nearly 600 millions dollars. 

However, it was not been all smooth sailing after that.

But somehow, Blinkit has managed to crack the quick commerce market and now, Blinkit is leading in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV). It currently boasts of close to a 40% share.  

How?

Tune in.

On Friday, Google removed a bunch of popular apps like Bharat Matrimony, Shaadi.com,Naukri.com  and even some dating apps like Truly Madly and Quack Quack from its Playstore. The tech giant said it was because these apps were not compliant with its billing policy.

The impact was immediately felt in the stock market. For example, shares of Info Edge that owns Naukri and 99 acres fell 3% on Saturday 

These apps were scrambling and somehow at the end of the day, the government intervened and we heard news that they have been reinstated.

The tech giant wanted to enforce its new billing policy. Google said in a blogpost on Friday that out of the developers using Google Play, only ten Indian developers did not to pay for the services and how allowing a few to receive different treatment creates an unfair environment and disadvantages other apps and games.

Now while all this comes after a Supreme Court ruling that had earlier refused to stop Google from removing non compliant apps from the Playstore, here’s the irony: Google itself has been found guilty of adopting anti-competitive or monopolistic practices in India.

Tune in.

Tata Motors' EV subsidiary, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), is prepping for a potential IPO in the next year or so. It wants to raise $1-2 billion. In the first half of 2023, Tata Motors dominated 75% of the passenger EV market share in India despite relentless competition from the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra and other newer rivals. 

The auto-maker's revenue for FY23 stood at almost $8 billion. The not-so-secret secret behind this success Tata Motors' its Xpres-T EV sedan—the go-to for cab companies and fleet operators that are looking to switch to greener alternatives.

Xpres-T could easily to capture the cab market except Tata Motors maybe deliberately downplaying this bit of its success so far.

Tune into find out why.

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.