Daybreak

It took Bajaj Finance over 15 years to become the most valued NBFC in the country. And then came along Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFSL) and took the no. 2 position in a span of just two months. It is currently valued at more than $17 billion.

Its all set to take the top space. Currently, the company is on a serious hiring spree and it seems to have taken a particular liking to former ICICI Bank employees for its key executive roles. After all, a lot of its future success will depend on the team it builds.

But this is not the first time Reliance has tried its hands in the finance sector. The last time it did, things didn't really take off. What's different this time?

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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

When the govt of India came up with the budget, taxpayers were given 2 options: move to the new tax regime or continue with the old one. The tax rates in the new regime were clearly lower.

But despite this, most chose to stick to the old regime. Even with comparatively higher tax rates the old tax regime has remained popular amongst Indian taxpayers.

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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 was Dominoes that made delivery under 30 minutes a thing. Before Swiggy and Zomato came along, Domino’s was more or less the only place you could order in from. It showed Indians that pizza could be cheap and also enjoyed in our own houses.  

Jubilant, the company that runs the Dominos franchisee in India has nearly 3/4ths of the pizza market share which is also why it is among the first to be affected down by the slowdown in consumption. 

Jubilant’s shares have grown up by just under 3% in the past year. But its rivals—Westlife, Devyani, and RBA—have seen their value rise by a much bigger margin.

The Ken spoke to around 60 Domino’s customers and nearly half of them told us they have cut back on ordering from Dominos, because of the meagre toppings, other options, and of course, the shift to gourmet pizzas.

But are smaller pizza chains the really the only rivals Domino's is faced with right now?

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Byju’s financials for the Financial year 2022, are finally out. Almost 2 years late.

And unsurprisingly, it doesn't paint a very pretty picture.

The edtech giant posted a consolidated loss of more than 8000 crore rupees on an operating revenue of around 5000 crores.

 And that’s not all…its valuation has dipped from about 22 billion dollars in the last funding round to less than a billion now.

Its quite the fall.

Now the cash strapped company is desperately looking to raise $100 million via a rights issue as a lifeline but unfortunately everyone its gone to has outright said no.

And it is unlikely that it may work out in the future unless Byju’s submits its audited financials for FY 2023.

It missed its own Dec 2023 deadline for filing it. 

Also, the sword of the 1.2 billion dollar term loan is still hanging over its heard.

Let’s catch up with the major developments so far.

Happy Republic Day, dear listeners.

Today is a public holiday but if you're still tuning in, here is an older episode of Daybreak you might like:

All the twists and turns in the journey of startups have been well-documented since VC funding began drying up over the past year or so. In the first half of 2022,  Indian startups received more than $17 billion dollars. But a year later in 2023. they just got a little over $5 billion.

What’s we’ve barely heard about, though, is what is happening to the funders of these startups and their foot soldiers—the VC analysts. With the slowdown, the day-to-day responsibilities of these analysts have changed and so has their approach towards dealmaking. 

Tune in to find out.

From giving an extra month for “good-faith” negotiations a little over two years ago, to accusing Zee of breach of contract…the Sony Zee merger deal has seen its fair share ups and downs. It was supposed to be the country’s biggest entertainment merger worth $10 billion—two media behemoths were coming together.

Now though, the deal is buried six feet under. On Monday, Sony officially released a statement announcing the termination of the agreement. The next day, Punit Goenka, Zee’s CEO, was seen attending the Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya where he told media: “I believe this to be a sign from the Lord. I resolve to move ahead positively and work towards strengthening Bharat’s pioneering M&E Company, for all its stakeholders." 

Sony, meanwhile, not only ended the deal, it also sought $10 million in damages on account of alleged breaches by ZEE. And to make matters worse, Zee shares have fallen by over 30 percent

How did things get here and what's next?

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**CORRECTION The host mistakenly said Sony is seeking $10 million dollars in damages on account of alleged breaches by ZEE instead of $90 million. The error is regretted

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 prime minister will be inaugurating the newly constructed Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh today. It's quite the event. In fact, PVR INOX, has even collaborated with a news channel to broadcast the ceremony live in more than 150+ cinemas in more than 70 cities across India. The who’s who of business, from Adani, Ambani, Tata, to Bollywood celebrities and sports stars like Tendulkar and Kohli are expected to attend the inauguration.

I dont think we have ever seen anything like this before and neither has the stock market.

The state govt of Uttar Pradesh has set aside about $10 billion for a decade-long redevelopment plan of the town. Ever since, it's almost like a gold rush amongst investors for stocks in big or small companies associated with Ayodhya. From Taj Hotels and IRCTC to Praveg, a small luxury tent company–some in the stock market believe these companies are in all set to become some of the biggest beneficiaries of this Ayodhya gold rush.

But experts are warning investors against this kind of blind faith. According to them, buying into event-related market swings does not make for a sound long-term investment strategy.

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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 was 20 years ago when doctors first used the help of a robot in India to carry out a complicated heart surgery at Fortis Escorts, New Delhi. Ever since, more than 100,000 robot assisted surgeries have been performed in the country. Patients are embracing these type of surgeries now than never before and why wouldnt they?

Who wouldn't want a less painful procedure, a shorter hospital stay, and most importantly lesser cuts?

But they cost more than 3 or 4 times than normal surgeries. And it was only in 2019, that the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) asked health insurance providers to cover modern treatments, including robotic surgeries. 

And even after that, insurers are not keen on to covering them because they are expensive and the pricing is unregulated.

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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.   

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.   

More than 100 Indian startups wrote to TRAI a couple of months ago urging it to maintain its unwavering support for net neutrality principles. This a tug of war began between tech companies including OTT platforms on one side and telecom companies on the other, began years ago.

Telecom and internet service providers believe that content and tech companies should pay them for disproportionate traffic. But tech and content companies argue that this would violate the principles of net neutrality.

Tune in to find out about this battle between telcos and content companies and how it affects net neutrality.

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.