Daybreak

For credit card issuers, 'revolvers' are the most profitable customers. They are users who carry over a balance from one month to another instead of paying the entire due amount.

These users pay as much as 40% interest per annum by revolving and help the credit card issuer make obscene amounts of profits.

But lately, dues from ‘revolvers’ have been falling. There is a shift in their behaviour pattern.

Tune in to find out why

With summer around the corner this year, the Indian government is scrambling to make sure the country does not face power outages.

But as this demand for power rises, the country is also working on increasing its green energy capacity. In fact, India is turning out to be one of the fastest to increase its renewable energy capacity. 

The transition to green energy is not just about how electricity is produced, it is also about how it is consumed. India emerged as the biggest market for corporate power-purchase agreements  (PPAs) in Asia-Pacific for the second year in a row.

This trend has the state-run discoms or power distribution companies seriously worried. 

ITC's stock had been lagging for years. Many institutional investors stayed away from ITC because the company's shares are considered sin stocks. 

The company, meanwhile, has avoided acknowledging the importance of cigarettes, its mainstay business, in its communications.

But over the last year, the ITC stock has made a dramatic comeback. Suddenly, investors can't get enough of the company.

What changed?

Tune in to find out.

The fourth draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is all set to be presented in the Parliament during the ongoing Budget session.

 While it makes a strong case for creating laws to prevent the personal information of citizens from being harvested and exploited, the Bill is playing blind to two Important factors. 

This in turn could end up creating a crony-capitalist economy where an individual's freedom of choice is put at risk.

Tune in.

The introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s was one of the most significant events in the history of human society. But it still left the burden of birth control largely on women.

Now, however, things are changing. The demand for male contraceptives is on the rise.

But why have large pharmaceutical companies not paid enough attention to the research on male contraceptives for all these years?

Tune in.

P.S We apologise for the delay in the release of today's episode. We were faced with technical difficulties.

CP Plus, a CCTV camera brand, procures 80% of its supplies for its parent company Aditya Infotech Ltd (AIL) from the Chinese security-equipment manufacturer Dahua Technology.   

Dahua and Hikvision, another Chinese surveillance-tech firm, are facing sanctions in the UK, US, Australia, and other countries, for their connection to the Chinese government.

But in India’s growing CCTV market, which is said to be worth Rs.5000 crores, both these companies are flourishing. Bringing them under control is turning out to be a huge policy challenge for the government.

Tune in.

In 2015, the current government set an ambitious target. It said we would have 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022 and 40% of it would come from rooftop solars or RTS. Back then, the country’s solar capacity was just 3.7 GW.   

But as of October 2022, this capacity rose to only a little over 60 GW. 

The main reason for this is the slow adoption of RTS. High transaction costs and lack of data about the long-term performance of RTS make it difficult to access loans for small-scale solar installations.

Tune in to find out more.

Years ago, a tug of war began between tech companies including OTT platforms and telecom companies.

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.

The debate has now reached India and telecom regulator TRAI is expected releasing a consultation paper on the matter soon.

Will content companies like Google, Netflix have to compensate telcos in India?

Tune in.

Hotstar has remained the undisputed OTT leader in India boasting of half of India's 90 million paid OTT subscribers. A part of this success has come via the IPL streaming rights and from bundling with telecom and DTH service providers like Jio and Airtel. 

But last year, Jio's Viacom 18 won the digital streaming rights of IPL, the largest cricket tournament in the world. Not just that Reliance's Jio also dropped Disney+Hotstar from most of its streaming bundles.

Why did Reliance choose to end this partnership and what does it mean for Disney+Hotstar?

Tune in to find out. 

From February 26, the Union Health Ministry will organise a two-day 'Chintan Shivir'  to explore ways to build trust on Indian drugs, cosmetics and medical devices.

Despite being called 'the pharmacy of the world,' time and again, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has received criticism for substandard quality. The most recent such incident was when the deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan were allegedly linked to cough syrups manufactured in India.

Why does Indian Pharma still struggle with quality control?

Tune in to find out.