Daybreak

It was National Protein Day in India on February 27. The government initiative is meant to increase awareness about the importance of protein in India, a country where eight out of every ten of people don't meet their daily protein requirement. According to the ICMR every individual should consume at least 48 grams of protein everyday. 

But after the pandemic, people are actively looking to include protein rich foods in their diet. And that’s where Amul wants to come in. 

The behemoth wants to use a key dairy byproduct—whey—to sell protein to a population that needs more of it

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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

2024 is going to be the hottest month on record. Weather watchers have described the rise in new heat records around the world as “insane”, “total madness” and “climatic history rewritten”

India is also witnessing a surge in the demand for electricity in general. and the crisis is at its peak in the summers. As incomes rise and populations grow, especially in the world’s hotter regions, the use of air conditioners is becoming increasingly common. An estimated 10 million ACs were sold in India alone last year. 

Naturally, electricity bills have skyrocketed and it's only going to get worse. We’ve already been warned that the growing demand for ACs is one of the most “critical blind spots” in the energy debate. 

Meanwhile, a fascinating technology has emerged that can save 30 to 40% in energy consumption but it is struggling in the Indian market.

Tune in to find out why.

Advertisements on the food-delivery giant Swiggy are only growing in number and variety— from banners and icons to full-blown video ads. If you're wondering what id going on, it's all a part of Swiggy's preparation for its upcoming IPO. It needs to boost its revenue and ads are a great way to make more money with every order.

But while Swiggy is doubling down on its four year old advertising business to boost its topline, its restaurant partners are crying foul.

Tune in to 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

India’s nutraceutical market is estimated  to be worth $4-5 billion and the government expects it to be worth almost five times more in the next two years. As important as it is to monitor the rapidly growing market, regulations have not really kept up. In a post-pandemic world where preventive healthcare has become all the rage, a dangerous situation is being created. Health supplement makers are flouting RDA guidelines and consumers have been paying little attention.

Now, the health ministry of India is planning to move nutraceuticals from under the ambit of FSSAI, the food regulator to CDSCO, the drugs regulator. According to reports, the Ministry has also proposed forming a committee chaired by the Secretary of Health to address overlapping concerns between Nutraceuticals and Drugs. 

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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

Bengaluru is best known for two things: great weather and terrible traffic. The Silcon Valley of India is the sixth slowest city in the world! How come no one has come up with some innovative tech-based solutions?

Actually, they have.  But you’ll be surprised to know that one the key reasons why the city's traffic troubles never end is because the focus has mostly been only on tech driven efforts.

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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

While most startups were facing a reckoning earlier last year with mass layoffs, Licious, the meat delivery platform, was sitting proud, unaffected. Both the founders, Hanjura and Gupta, were giving interviews talking about how their company had made no job cuts and how they did not want that kind of bad karma. It became the anomaly in a market that was seeing a bloodbath that going on all around.

But to be honest, the  strategy of not laying off, didnt really help Licious. In fact, it saw some of its top talent at leadership positions leave the company.

And now, as it turns out, it may not be all good karma for Licious founders after all.  The company has laid off 80 of its employees as a part of what its calling an operational reset. 

What’s going on? 

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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

The Reserve Bank of India has barred Paytm from continuing all its banking services via Paytm Payments Bank after February 29. It's been operational since 2017 and its services include current and savings accounts, fixed deposits with partner banks, and balance in wallets, UPI, and FASTag, among other services.

The RBI has basically said it cannot take any more deposits or conduct credit transactions. This also means no top-ups on any customers accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, and cards for paying road tolls. And this means, Paytm has three challenges it needs to win…and all of it by the end of this month. First, it needs to figure out a nodal banking partner where it will hold fund on behalf of its customers. Then, it needs to untangle its business from Paytm Payments Bank. And finally, it needs to do all of this without losing its existing customers.

Each of these is more important than the other.

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Season 3 of one of the country’s most popular reality TV shows, Shark Tank India, premiered on January 22, 2024. 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.

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The results for the latest quarter for Freshworks are out and the US-based Saas company has beaten Wall Street estimates. It posted a revenue of nearly $600 million for FY 2023. Its losses, meanwhile, have narrowed by over 40%.

Just a year ago, the story was slightly different. In the same quarter in 2023, the company saw a decline in its net dollar retention rate. Even though the free cash flow was healthy and the revenue climbed 20%, it looked like the comapny was struggling to retain its customers.

Now of course, things have changed and this turnaround is all thanks to the rising demand for FreshWorks' AI-powered customer support and IT services products.

But there’s more to it. And it has to do with the company’s employee-first approach.

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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

It wont be a stretch to say that the Meftal Spas is life-changing for those who suffer from dysmenorrhea. The medicine which is a combination mefenamic acid and dicyclomine was launched more than 40 years ago by Blue Cross Labs, an Indian pharma company. Meftal Spas enjoys the lion’s share of the market at nearly 90%.

But at the end of November last year, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, issued a  drug safety alert  on mefenamic acid—one of the two main components of Meftal Spas.

Soon after, many regular users started avoiding the medicine and some hospitals even stopped prescribing it. In fact, pharmacies saw a marked drop in Meftal Spas sales .

But media reports were misleading. While the advisory was about mefenamic acid, many media houses reported that the advisory was about Meftal Spas. And that is not all, many health professionals are questioning the govt advisory itself.

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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