Intermission

On 12 August 2026, N Chandrasekaran, the TCS intern who became the first non-Parsi chairman of Tata Sons, said he was done. He wouldn't seek another term.

Five weeks later, the board brought him back. On 17 September, it voted to reappoint him for five more years, starting in February 2027.

Noel Tata's Tata Trusts, the majority shareholder, calls the vote illegal. Tata Sons says it followed the rules. Shareholders still have to approve it at an AGM due by 31 December, and this could end up in court.

That chair matters because of the company that produced him.

From 2000 to 2026, TCS supplied close to 80% of Tata Sons' dividend and buyback income, roughly Rs 2.7 lakh crore. That money has paid for almost every big Tata bet you can name, from Air India to semiconductors.

TCS was never meant to be this. It began in 1962 as an in-house unit to centralise the group's data processing, and Tata companies refused to hand over the work. To survive, it had to navigate the License Raj, when computers were taxed like toasters, and a 1978 attempt by its own parent to fold it into a joint venture with Burroughs. Along the way, it stumbled into the model that built India's IT industry: build in India, deliver to the world.

Its tools helped build institutions like the National Stock Exchange. It worked through hundreds of millions of lines of Y2K code. And it turned small-town graduates into a global professional class.

Now AI, a $100,000 H-1B fee, and the rise of GCCs are threatening the pyramid TCS was built on.

This is the story of two small communities, the Tamil Brahmins and the Parsis, and the company that built India’s IT export industry and bankrolled the Tatas. Now it has to save itself. Tune in!

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Credits: 

Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G

Director: Vijay Subramaniam

Video Producer: Vishnu S 

Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN

Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra

Art Direction: Kavipriya OG

Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath

Production Agency: Nesara Films

Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap

DoP: Subash KP

Animation:⁠⁠ Karthik N

Video Editing Team: Sunil S Bharadwaj, Prajwal

Colourist: Akhil Raj

Graphic Design and Styleframes: Anusha Sarah

On-Set Production: Veeresh and team

Production Coordination: Chaitanya and Kevin Raj

Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team

Spot Edit: Girish

Set Design: Saanvi Joshi, Thejaswini

Promotions: Pranav Pate, Adhavan RK

Writer (Microsite): Brady Ng

Editor: Sumit Chakraborty

Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

'Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat

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About Intermission: 

Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1. 

Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken.

About The Ken: 

The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more. 

ITC is the great paradox of Indian business: a tobacco company that spent decades trying to become something other than a tobacco company, and pulled it off.

Getting there meant surviving a tax demand five times its net worth, the arrest of two former chairmen, and a long, bruising war with BAT for control of the company.

It meant winning at atta when even Hindustan Unilever couldn't, rewiring how India's farmers sell their crops, and building it all without a founder or a family at the helm.

Today ITC turns over roughly ₹80,000 crore, owns a ₹9,000 crore brand in Aashirvaad alone, and counts the Indian government as its single largest shareholder. Among them, LIC, which insures the lives of the very smokers keeping ITC's profits alight.

This is the story of how a colonial cigarette company became one of India's most valuable — and most unlikely — conglomerates. Tune in!

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We also have an interactive companion page to explore the history of ITC with reading lists, infographics and source notes: https://the-ken.com/intermission/the-fmcg-company-in-a-cigarette-pack-itc/

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Credits: Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G

Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao

Director: Vijay Subramaniam

Video Producer: Vishnu S

Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN

Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra

Art Direction: Kavipriya OG

Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath

Production Agency: Nesara Films

Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap

DoP: Subash KP

Animation:⁠⁠ Karthik N

Video Editing Team: Spandan Joshi, Prajwal

Colourist: Akhil Raj

Graphic Design and Styleframes: Anusha Sarah

On-Set Production: Veeresh and team

Production Coordination: Kevin Raj

Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team

Spot Edit: Girish

Set Design: Saanvi Joshi, Thejaswini

Promotions: Pranav Pate, Adhavan RK

Writer (Microsite): Brady Ng

Editor: Sumit Chakraborty

Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar'

Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat

----------

About Intermission: Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1.

Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken.

About The Ken: The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more.

Stream a video, send a message, call a loved one. For nearly 474 million Indians, that connection runs through Bharti Airtel.
Over three decades, the company has made it through price wars, near-bankruptcy, a botched overseas acquisition, and two incursions from Reliance.

Each time, it weathered the crisis and came back stronger. Investors who held on through every crisis have been rewarded with returns that match the best businesses in India. 

But the forces that shaped Airtel — regulation, technology, and competition — have never stopped moving. Jio is back, this time with a $110 billion bet on AI and data centres. The hyperscalers are customers today and competitors tomorrow. And the telecom industry is shifting from minutes to bytes to tokens. 

At the centre of it all is Sunil Bharti Mittal, a founder who operates with the intensity of someone still trying to prove himself, even after building a company worth more than $100 billion. He turns 70 in 2027. He wants to raise his family's stake in Airtel from 40% to 51% — a Rs 1 lakh crore buyback he believes can be funded through dividends and share repurchases over three to four years.

The question that now hangs over Airtel is what happens to it when Mittal is no longer at its core.

Airtel has survived every version of telecom so far. But it hasn't fully solved its three-body problem yet.
Where does it go from here?

We also have an interactive webpage to explore the history of Airtel Finance with reading lists, infographics and source notes: https://the-ken.com/intermission/the-unkillable-network-bharti-airtel/

You can also watch the episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_dONpkY7-U

Corrections

In the interest of accuracy, this section documents any factual errors made during the episode, along with the correct information.

• Light speed — Rohin said light travels at 200,000 km/s. The correct figure is roughly 300,000 km/s.
• Gopal Vittal's age — Rohin said Gopal Vittal was in his 30s when he became CEO of Airtel. He was actually in his 40s. Seetha corrects this at 4:14:30.

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Credits:
Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G
Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao
Director: Vijay Subramaniam
Video Producer: Vishnu S
Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN
Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra
Art Direction: Kavipriya OG
Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath
Production Agency: Nesara Films
Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap
DoP: Subash KP
Animation:⁠⁠ Karthik N
Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Jayesh Sahu
Colourist: Akhil Raj
Graphic Design and Styleframes: Anusha Sarah
On-Set Production: Veeresh and team
Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team
Spot Edit: Girish
Set Design: Saanvi Joshi, Thejaswini
Promotions: Pranav Pate, Adhavan RK
Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng
Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar
'Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat
----------
About Intermission:
Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1.
Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken.

About The Ken:
The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more.
Follow The Ken on socials:
Instagram:   / theken_web 
LinkedIn:   / the-ken 
Twitter: https://x.com/thekenweb/

Sell a Bajaj scooter, finance their EMIs. For years, that was the entire purpose of Bajaj Auto Finance. 

But consumers in India wanted much more. 

They outfitted their homes with new television sets, refrigerators, and washing machines. They wanted iPhones, hair transplants, fitness equipment and more.

Lending for those hinted at a much larger opportunity. And the Bajaj group seized it. 

Bajaj Auto Finance became Bajaj Finance. A legacy auto-financing arm went on to create India’s consumer credit infrastructure, shaping how millions buy things. 

Today, Bajaj Finance manages a loan book of over Rs 5 lakh crore, serves more than 119 million customers, and is valued roughly Rs 6 lakh crore. It is twice as large as Bajaj Auto, the parent company it was spun out of.

This is the story of how that happened. Tune in!

Our team has built an interactive webpage for Bajaj Finance. It’s a research guide to this episode. Check it out here: https://the-ken.com/intermission/a-bank-in-all-but-name-bajaj-finance/

Additional material: 

Saurabh Mukerjea’s analysis of Bajaj Finance

The Harvard Business case study on Bajaj Finance

Inside Bajaj Finance’s aggressive call-to-sell-loan strategy 

Credits for chapter images: 

Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Group, Business Today/Bajaj Group, Fortune/Bajaj Group and Wikipedia.

Credits: 

Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G

Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao 

Director: Vijay Subramaniam, 

Video Producer: Vishnu S

Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN

Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra

Art Direction: Kavipriya OG

Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath

Production Agency: Nesara Films

Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap

DoP: Subash KP

Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N

Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Tejas Kulkarni, Jayesh Sahu

Colourist: Akhil Raj

Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah

On-Set Production: Chaitanya, Veeresh and team

Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team

Spot Edit: Girish

Set Design: Saanvi, Thejaswini

Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK

Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng

Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

'Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat

About Intermission: 

Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1. 

Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken.

About The Ken: 

The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more. 

Follow The Ken on socials: 

Instagram: instagram.com/theken_web  

LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/company/the-ken

Twitter: https://x.com/thekenweb/

This is Part 2 of Intermission's episode on Asian Paints. We'd urge you to listen to Part 1 first to get a full picture of the company's early history and main bets. 

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Asian Paints was founded in 1942 by four young Gujaratis in a Bombay garage. Today, it controls more than half of India's paint market. 

This is the story of how that happened. 

The company was among the first to tap into the rural market, become a technology company before most people understood what that meant, crack the supply chain, and bring about a new era of Indian advertising.

Now, Asian Paints is being met with renewed competition and aggression from Birla Opus, JSW Dulux and Berger Paints. Understanding why this market is so hard to take requires understanding of how it was built.

—

We also have an interactive webpage exploring Asian Paints' history with reading lists, infographics, and source notes: the-ken.com/intermission.

—

The full episode runs 6 hours and is split into two parts on podcast platforms.

—

About Intermission: Intermission, produced by The Ken, dives deep into the histories of iconic Indian companies. Intermission was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our season sponsor. Disclosure: Rainmatter Foundation is an investor in The Ken's parent company.

—

About The Ken:The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, startups and healthcare across India and Southeast Asia. Since our inception, we’ve published thousands of stories that have been widely discussed, debated and referenced.  Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more.
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Follow us on our socials:
Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/theken_web/⁠⁠⁠⁠
LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ken/⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/thekenweb⁠⁠⁠⁠
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We would also like to thank Anupam Gupta, the writer of "The Rise of Asian Paints: Champaklal Choksey, a Doyen of the Indian Paints Industry" (Penguin India, 2024). You can buy the book here: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-rise-of-asian-paints/

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Credits

Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G

Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao 

Video Producers: Vijay Subramaniam, Vishnu S, Rajiv CN

Audio Engineer: Rajiv CN

Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra

Art Direction: Kavipriya OG

Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath

Production Agency: Nesara Films

Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap

DoP: Subash KP

Editing and Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N

Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah

Colorist: Pranav Bhat

Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Himanshi, Jayesh Sahu

On-Set Production: Veeresh, Chaitanya and team

Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team

Set Design: Hritika, Saanvi, Thejaswini

Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK

Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng

Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

Asian Paints was founded in 1942 by four young Gujaratis in a Bombay garage. Today, it controls more than half of India's paint market. 

This is the story of how that happened. 

The company was among the first to tap into the rural market, become a technology company before most people understood what that meant, crack the supply chain, and bring about a new era of Indian advertising.

Now, Asian Paints is being met with renewed competition and aggression from Birla Opus, JSW Dulux and Berger Paints. Understanding why this market is so hard to take requires understanding of how it was built.

—

We also have an interactive webpage exploring Asian Paints' history with reading lists, infographics, and source notes: the-ken.com/intermission.

—

The full episode runs 6 hours and is split into two parts on podcast platforms.

—

About Intermission: Intermission, produced by The Ken, dives deep into the histories of iconic Indian companies. 

Intermission was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our season sponsor. Disclosure: Rainmatter Foundation is an investor in The Ken's parent company.

—

About The Ken:The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform — reporting on business, technology, startups and healthcare across India and Southeast Asia. Since our inception, we’ve published thousands of stories that have been widely discussed, debated and referenced.  Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more.—

Follow us on our socials:Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/theken_web/⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ken/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/thekenweb⁠⁠⁠⁠—

We would also like to thank Anupam Gupta, the writer of "The Rise of Asian Paints: Champaklal Choksey, a Doyen of the Indian Paints Industry" (Penguin India, 2024). You can buy the book here: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-rise-of-asian-paints/

—

Credits

Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G

Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao 

Video Producers: Vijay Subramaniam, Vishnu S, Rajiv CN

Audio Engineer: Rajiv CN

Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra

Art Direction: Kavipriya OG

Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath

Production Agency: Nesara Films

Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap

DoP: Subash KP

Editing and Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N

Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah

Colorist: Pranav Bhat

Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Himanshi, Jayesh Sahu

On-Set Production: Veeresh, Chaitanya and team

Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team

Set Design: Hritika, Saanvi, Thejaswini

Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK

Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng

Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar