Daybreak

This week, on Tuesday, India announced a sweeping overhaul of how it calculates GDP, fixing a measurement system the IMF had flagged as outdated just last November. It includes a new base year, better price data, and a wider net to count the informal economy. The number seems to be getting closer to reality.But that raises a harder question. For a country that has built its global identity around being the world's fastest growing major economy, what happens when the arithmetic changes? And does any of it actually reach 1.4 billion people?Host Snigdha Sharma explores.Tune in.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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 next frontier of AI isn't in your phone. It's supposed to be around your neck, on your face, in your ear and out in the world with you. Tech companies have spent billions on that pitch. The generation they were counting on to buy it coined the term "hammerbait" instead. Today: the wearable AI moment, what it gets wrong, and the one version of this technology that might actually be worth wanting.Tune in.Read Song's review of Friend here. I didn't start reading a tech review expecting a truly heartwarming take on real friendships, but it works.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.

China's stock market has delivered strong returns over the past year and a half. It has outperformed the US, which has long been the preferred global market for Indian investors. Even now, Chinese valuations appear relatively reasonable.But Indian investors face limited access. Only two mutual fund schemes currently accept fresh investments in Chinese stocks.Even if more options open up, experts advise restraint. The rally is tempting but experts warn investors from getting carried away.Tune in.Got a tip? If you have a lead for a great story that The Ken can pursue, please send it to tips@the-ken.com or share it through this form. To find out more about how to do this securely, read our blog post about sharing tips with The Ken.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.

Hosur built India's EV industry. Now it's running out of room — and a city many haven't heard of (mainly because it used to be Aurangabad) is quietly filling the gap.Sambhajinagar doesn't have Silicon Valley-style VC money or flashy government announcements. But what it does have is something harder to manufacture: a generational automotive ecosystem of factory owners, built over decades, now scaling up for an electric future.Toyota noticed. And Ather. And JSW. This is the story of how a small city in Maharashtra became the surprising centre of India's next industrial bet.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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 hosted the world's biggest AI summit this week — 100+ nations, $200 billion in commitments, and enough billionaire handshakes to fill a highlight reel. But beneath the spectacle lies a sharper question: when will it be India's turn to build AI, instead of just buying into it? Snigdha breaks down the gap between infrastructure ambition and intelligence sovereignty. In other news, Mark Zuckerberg walked into a US courtroom as Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat face a landmark trial. The allegation? That teen addiction wasn't an unfortunate byproduct of the way social media works — it was built into the product. Rachel explains why this case could change everything.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

Big Tech is preparing to spend $650 billion on AI infrastructure this year, a figure that rivals national economies. The focus is agentic AI, systems designed not just to generate answers but to execute tasks independently.The vision is software that can read your messages, access your calendar, contact your friends, move money and complete transactions without step by step supervision. In effect, technology that can act in the world on your behalf.To function, these systems require sweeping access to personal and corporate data. Critics warn this amounts to asking users to “put your brain in a jar.”What exactly is being built and who bears the risk?If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

Anthropic just set up in Bangalore, announcing partnerships across health, education, and government. The "ethical AI" company is positioning itself as the responsible alternative to OpenAI.But the Wall Street Journal revealed the US military used Claude to help capture Venezuela's former president—violating Anthropic's own guidelines prohibiting violence and surveillance.Now the US government wants Anthropic to drop those restrictions entirely. The company is caught between its founding principles and its home government's demands, which brings up questions about data sovereignty into focus. Host Rachel Varghese digs in. *The host mistakenly says NCPI instead of NPCIListen to my episode on Claude Cowork and the "SaaSpocalypse" here. Listen to Snigdha's episode on why ChatGPT is cheapest in India here. If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

Over the past six months, Blinkit has been making a structural shift that most customers would never notice. For years, its fresh fruits and vegetables were sourced by Hyperpure, its own parent company Eternal's business-to-business arm that also supplies restaurants. As Blinkit grew into Eternal's primary revenue driver, Hyperpure grew with it. In FY25, more than 60% of Hyperpure's revenue came from Blinkit.Then Blinkit decided to source its own inventory.Hyperpure's revenue more than halved in two quarters. It is now separating its books and rebuilding around restaurants.What does the split mean?If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

A mutual fund executive told our colleague something shocking: "SIPs are a problem." Part of the shock came from the fact that it  was coming from someone in an industry that was basically built on "SIP sahi hai."Now a new research paper backs up that controversial take—and the findings contradict what millions of Indian investors have been told about systematic investment plans.Turns out the marketing narrative around SIPs has some serious gaps. The math tells a different story. And with small-cap SIP assets exploding 6.5x since 2019, the stakes have never been higher.So when are SIPs actually appropriate?Tune in.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

On February 12, 2026, Adani Power formed Adani Atomic Energy Ltd, a new unit to generate, transmit, and distribute nuclear power. This follows the SHANTI Bill opening India's nuclear sector to private firms. Both Adani Power and Tata Power, coal giants with long-life thermal plants, now lead the shift.Coal powers 74% of India's grid today. These firms profit big from it. So what happens when they control nuclear's pace too? Snigdha explores the conflict.In other news, top AI researchers have been quitting the big AI labs. Anthropic's Mrinank Sharma left over value clashes (X letter) and OpenAI's Zoe Hitzig resigned through an NYT op-ed, warning ads exploit chatbot user confessions for manipulation. Rachel breaks down how firms chase cash to scale and skip safety guardrails.Listen to our episode on AI taking over jobs here. And, here's another one we did on the previous exodus of AI talent.  Read Zoe Hitzig's opinion piece on NYT here. If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

On February 10, 2026, reports said nearly 100 NDTV employees were put on performance improvement plans, often seen as a prelude to layoffs. This comes after the Adani Group acquired NDTV in December 2022 for about ₹600 crore, followed by several high profile exits. A similar moment unfolded at Jeff Bezos-owned The Washington Post last week where hundreds were laid off and multiple sections and bureaus shut. Both Adani and Bezos run highly profitable core businesses. News is not one of them. So why invest heavily in an industry known for low margins? Host Snigdha Sharma explores.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

In early February, Indian IT stocks crashed 6% in a single day—the worst selloff in six years. ₹2 lakh crore vanished. Wall Street lost $300 billion.The trigger? Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, an AI agent that can organize files, parse spreadsheets, and write reports autonomously. For the first time, AI doesn't just assist—it executes entire workflows with minimal supervision. Investors panicked, and experts coined the term "SaaSpocalypse." But is this really the end of software companies, or are we watching an overreaction? Today, host Rachel Varghese unpacks both sides.Tune in.Listen to our episode on Deloitte's AI blunder here. If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

PhonePe is heading to the public markets as India's largest UPI player. On 21 January, the company made its IPO papers public, setting up one of the most closely watched fintech listings in years. PhonePe dominates transaction volumes, but it is listing after Paytm, whose 2021 IPO reshaped how investors value payments companies. Since then, Paytm's stock has fallen sharply from its debut even as its business has evolved. PhonePe is seeking a valuation premium while still reporting losses and facing pressure on some revenue streams. As investors weigh scale against profitability, one question looms. Will Paytm's market memory still decide PhonePe's IPO price?Tune in.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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. 

In November, Decathlon began piloting two-hour deliveries across 10 Indian cities.It's a surprising move for a company that just swung into losses—and it raises a question the rest of the sector is watching closely: can the economics of fashion quick-commerce actually work?More than 50 million dollars has flowed into the space in 18 months. At least one startup has already shut down. The problem isn't speed. It's frequency, inventory, and unit economics that refuse to close.Tune in.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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. 

Karnataka keeps talking about decentralizing tech beyond Bengaluru. Its neighbors are actually doing it.Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh are building tech cities from scratch—tier-2 clusters with land banks, fast-track approvals, and statutory bodies with real power. Major companies are choosing Visakhapatnam and Tirupati over Bengaluru now.The difference? Decision-making authority. Karnataka's development body is stuck in a promotional role while other states hand their institutions the teeth to actually execute. One state makes announcements. The others are laying fiber, clearing land, and signing deals.Southern India's tech map is being redrawn. Just not by the state that started it all.If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here.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.

Two days ago, the United States said it would cut tariffs on Indian goods to 18%, down from levels that had gone as high as 50%. Markets reacted fast. Stocks rose. The rupee strengthened. The first feeling was relief. It sounded like the trade fight with Washington and Donald Trump was easing.Then more details emerged. U.S. officials said India would commit to buying over $500 billion worth of American goods. They also said U.S. tariffs would stay at 18%, while India would allow zero tariffs on some American products.That relief started to feel more layered.Just days earlier, India had signed the “mother of all trade deals” with Europe.So why did India still move on this U.S. deal, now and on these terms?Host Snigdha Sharma dives in.Listen to our previous episode on the India-EU trade deal here: The 'mother of all trade deals' promises cheaper imports. Prices are another storyIf you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our YouTube channel here. 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.

Amazon fired 16,000 workers last month. Oracle is set to cut up to 30,000 more.Tech layoffs have increasingly been attributed to AI. But Oxford Economics found something strange: there's no macroeconomic data showing AI is actually replacing jobs or boosting productivity. In fact, output per worker is slowing, not accelerating.So what's really happening? Host Rachel Varghese breaks it down.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.

In December, India's top agricultural research body sent a letter to 74 universities with a clear message: natural farming is now a subject of national importance. Campuses are responding fast, planning new courses to train students for a sector under pressure. Export markets want cleaner food because consumers are paying closer attention to what they eat. In response, agri-input companies are adjusting their products.But Indian agriculture still runs largely on chemical inputs. Farmers face real risks during transition, research gaps remain, and jobs for graduates are still uncertain.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, and analytical business stories.

ChatGPT butchers Punjabi with spelling errors and Bollywood-style Hindi bleeding through. Hindi bots trained on newspapers miss dialects like Awadhi and Bhojpuri entirely, while Tamil AI ignores the rich variations between Kongu and Madurai speech.Sure, Gurugram collected ₹200 crore in taxes using Hindi AI calls, but that's because Hindi dominates datasets. Most other languages remain stuck in translation hell. Private companies optimize for speed over nuance, government corpora like Bhashini sit underused, and multimodal data that captures tone and emotion is too expensive to build.The result? AI is flattening India's 780 languages into sanitized, standardized versions that erase the very dialects it claims to serve.Read the newsletter here. Find the Duolingo article here.  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.

This week, Goa said it is actively considering a ban on social media for children under 16, inspired by Australia's new law. Andhra Pradesh has also set up a panel to examine whether similar restrictions could work there. The push reflects rising anxiety around teen mental health, cyberbullying, and exposure to harmful online content. Supporters argue platforms are unsafe by design and impossible to regulate through guardrails alone. Critics question whether bans can keep up with technology or address deeper social issues. In this episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rachel Varghese step back from the rhetoric to ask what a ban would actually mean for children, parents, and platforms. 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.

This week, India and the European Union signed a sweeping trade deal that cuts or removes tariffs on over 90% of goods traded between them. The headlines quickly focused on what might get cheaper, from wine and cheese to cars and chocolates. But trade deals do not change prices overnight. Tariff cuts roll out over time and work their way through importers, distributors, taxes, and markets before they ever reach consumers. In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at what past trade deals show about everything between a trade deal being signed and actual prices changing for a consumer.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, and analytical business stories.

Every winter, Delhi chokes. Masks become mandatory, air purifiers work overtime, and life somehow goes on. But beyond the health crisis lies an economic catastrophe most people ignore—until now.Gita Gopinath's recent warning at Davos sparked controversy, but the numbers don't lie: pollution is costing India 1.67 million lives and nearly 3% of GDP annually. Meanwhile, China turned its pollution crisis around in just a few years with ruthless accountability.India has the knowledge and technology. What it lacks is political will. And every year of delay continues to put lives at risk and pushes the $5 trillion economy dream away. Host Rachel Varghese explores what exactly is at stake.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, and analytical business stories.

India's new data protection law is reshaping how companies talk to customers on WhatsApp. Messages that once felt routine now carry legal weight and are tied to consent, security, and user rights. Since the Digital Personal Data Protection Act became operational, businesses have begun reworking how they collect and manage personal data. That shift has created a fast-growing market for compliance tools, drawing startups and established firms into the same space. As companies rush to avoid heavy penalties, disagreements are emerging over who should manage consent and how independent they need to be. The bigger question is how much control users will really have over their data.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, and analytical business stories.

When your insurance card suddenly stops working, it is not just a glitch. It is the symptom of a deeper crisis in Indian healthcare.Hospitals say insurers have failed to update reimbursement rates despite medical inflation. Insurers say hospitals are inflating bills and resisting standardization.Millions of policyholders are caught between them, forced to pay out of pocket for care they thought was covered.How did India's healthcare system end up in this deadlock. And who really decides what your treatment is worth?Tune in.*This episode was originally published on November 4th, 2025Daybreak 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 a public electric bus breaks down in India, three agencies get notified. None of them can actually fix it. The buses don't belong to the cities that run them. The contracts sit with central agencies. The warranties belong to manufacturers. When a four-year-old bus stalls because its battery management system glitched, the city logs a complaint, calculates a fine for the manufacturers, and takes the bus off the route. Commuters are left slim pickings. And India's about to deploy thousands more using the same model.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 is building data centres at unprecedented speed to support cloud services, AI, and digital growth. At the same time, cities across the country are struggling with water shortages and repeated contamination of drinking-water supplies. A new United Nations report describes this condition as water bankruptcy. It is the stage where water systems continue to function, but only by drawing down reserves that cannot recover fast enough.In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at how India's data centre push fits into that reality, drawing lessons from cities abroad where similar tensions have already surfaced.So as India builds for a digital future, the question is simple: who decides how much water that future can afford?

Sam Altman called ads a "last resort" in late 2024. That day has arrived. OpenAI just announced ChatGPT is running ads—personalised ones based on your conversations. The company spent $8 billion in 2025 alone with zero profit, and an essay predicted they'll burn through cash by 2027. Meanwhile, Google's Gemini is betting on staying ad-free, preserving user trust while ChatGPT strains it. Host Rachel Varghese breaks down the enshittification playbook, why OpenAI's "code red" memo signals desperation, and whether ads can actually save a company hemorrhaging billions.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, and analytical business stories.

India has become one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers, powered by scale, assembly lines, and global contracts. But much of the design, components, and technology still sit elsewhere. In this episode, we look at why the government is now backing electronics components, what India's EMS firms built first, and what they postponed. As India pushes deeper into the supply chain, the question shifts from volume to ownership. What does it take to move from assembling electronics to truly building them? Also, how did China get it right?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, and analytical business stories.

For over a decade, Indian startups have chosen to be incorporated in Delaware and Singapore when raising venture capital. Now India wants to change that with Gift City—a financial enclave designed to compete globally. But can it? We explore why founders still choose Delaware's speed and legal certainty, what Gift City offers to funds but not startups, and the structural gaps that need fixing.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, and analytical business stories.

AI is learning healthcare from systems that are stretched and uneven. In this episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rachel Varghese discuss what tools like ChatGPT Health and Claude for Healthcare could mean in India. We talk about how people already use AI to understand symptoms and reports, how hospitals deal with data and paperwork, and how bias and privacy shape these tools. 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, and analytical business stories.

India's soda shelves have changed almost overnight. Coke and Pepsi now sell zero-sugar versions of their drinks at prices as low as 10 rupees. The move came after Reliance launched Campa Cola with its own budget zero-sugar option. Now, they are taking over in big cities and small towns alike.But what looks like a health trend is really a business strategy.   What is really inside those bottles? And what does it mean for consumers?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, and analytical business stories.

Four months after India's nationwide ban on online gambling ads, Meta platforms were still running them—140 in December alone. A Reuters investigation into leaked internal documents reveals this isn't an oversight. Meta made specific calculations about how much enforcement it could afford, and governments worldwide are hitting the same wall. From Malaysia to the Philippines, removal requests pile up while the ads keep running. What happens when a platform decides compliance is negotiable? Host Rachel Varghese digs in.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, and analytical business stories.

Investing extra money can be confusing, no matter how big or small the amount. What works for someone with Rs 1 crore is very different from what suits someone with Rs 1 lakh or Rs 10 lakh. Experts say everyone should first take care of basic needs before investing.There are many simple, logical, and even unconventional ways to invest. 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, and analytical business stories.

India's Fund of Funds for Startups 1.0 is winding down this March—but it's falling short of its goals. Of the ₹10,000 crore mandate, only ₹6,500 crore has been disbursed, and just ₹3,200 crore has actually reached startups. Meanwhile, FFS 2.0 remains stuck in limbo with no guidelines released yet. Despite catalyzing India's startup boom—from 3,000 startups in 2016 to over 200,000 today—the program faces criticism over cheap terms for fund managers, delays, and transparency issues. As the government prepares FFS 2.0, fixing these operational inefficiencies will be crucial.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, and analytical business stories.

In this episode we fill you in on four standout stories from the past week.First, a quick look at how the Venezuela crisis is benefiting Reliance and ONGC;Next, why the quick fashion promise stands on shaky ground;Third, how AI has been filling up Indian shopping carts; And finally, why the discourse about Grok AI is starting to sound a little lopsided. Tune in.Read The Ken's story on quick fashion here.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.

10-minute delivery has quickly gone from novelty to expectation.In this episode, through conversations with delivery workers and the gig workers' union leader, host Snigdha Sharma argues how the 10-minute delivery model intensifies existing problems in gig work.Is it is a promise we really need to be kept for us? 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, and analytical business stories.

Apollo 24/7 has bled money for five years. But its loyalty program, Apollo Circle, might be the cure. For 299 rupees yearly, members get free teleconsultations, priority access, and discounts—locking them into Apollo's ecosystem of hospitals, pharmacies, and diagnostics. The strategy is working: average orders doubled, losses shrank, and Apollo Health Co turned profitable. Now the company wants Circle to drive breakeven next year while funneling customers away from neighborhood clinics into its high-margin private labels and hospital services. It's a playbook borrowed from Amazon—and Apollo's betting everything on it.Tune in.Listen to the latest 90,000 hours episode here. 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 wants to generate 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047. As of now, it produces less than 9 GW. For decades, nuclear energy in India was built, owned, and run only by the state. That is now changing. In December, Parliament passed the Shanti Bill, opening the sector to private players. And an American nuclear company, Holtec International, wants to build 200 small modular reactors across India, mostly close to industrial hubs. Supporters say smaller reactors can be built faster and closer to demand but critics warn about regulation, safety, and accountability. Tune in.Are you a founder or hiring manager? We want to hear your best curveball interview questions. Take our survey.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 largest airline crisis made headlines for weeks. Last month, Indigo  cancelled nearly 4,000 flights over 10 days, forcing the government to cut 10% of its schedules until March. The culprit? A severe pilot shortage that the airline had two years to prepare for.While Air India doubled its pilot strength ahead of new flight duty rules, Indigo ended up with fewer pilots than before. The airline's response has been less than encouraging. Cut leaves, slash night allowances, and even telling unhappy pilots "where else will you go?"With India needing 30,000 new pilots over the next 15 years, IndiGo's treatment of its crew is coming back to haunt it. And the monopoly mindset that fueled its growth may now be its biggest liability.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.

This episode revisits one of The Ken's most consequential stories from 2025. When journalist Anand Kalyanaramn started investigating unusual patterns in India's options market, he uncovered alleged manipulation on a massive scale. Someone was controlling market movements to guarantee profits—making billions while regular traders lost everything. SEBI identified Jane Street as the culprit; and the firm is appealing the allegation. Today, Anand explains how the alleged scheme worked, why India was vulnerable, and what this landmark case means for the future of fair markets.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.

Teaching at India's public universities no longer offers the certainty it once did. Permanent jobs have become scarce, while short term contracts have quietly filled the gap. Many teachers are now hired semester by semester, paid per lecture, and required to reapply for their jobs again and again. This shift has reshaped academic careers and changed how universities function day to day. What caused this shift? And what does it say about the future of higher education and university teaching as a career choice?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, and analytical business stories.

Property prices across Indian cities have gone through the roof, up by nearly 30% in the last two years. This along with ever increasing rent and general cost of living has made planning for the future quite challenging for those in their 20s and 30s. So has the idea of home ownership changed among the younger generations, like in many Western countries where more and more people are choosing to rent rather than buy?  Or are we still attached to the idea of owning a home?And what's behind these record-breaking property prices anyway?Tune in to find out.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.

This episode is a look back at four Daybreak, The Ken stories that stayed with us in 2025.After three years of making the show, a few episodes each year stand out because they captured something shifting beneath the surface. These four did exactly that.Host and producer Snigdha Sharma revisits a conversation feat. Waterfield Advisor's Soumya Rajan about why even India's wealthiest women still fight for financial control, how China's rare earth dominance exposed the fragility of India's EV push, the global silver crunch that linked AI, clean energy, and everyday prices, and India's AI future.Tune in. 

Private equity is reshaping India's schools. A relaxed New Education Policy and rising demand for international curricula have opened the doors for global operators to buy up chains across the country.The promise is scale, better infrastructure, and tighter governance. But the reality looks a little different—lean budgets, shrinking salary hikes, and a growing focus on cost-cutting. And the fallout? Increasing staff attrition, decreasing academic quality, and schools trading their founder-led ethos for a standardised model.Tune in.*Disclosure: The writer comes from a family that previously owned a school acquired partially by International Schools Partnership (ISP)**This episode was originally published on September 16th 2025Daybreak 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.

AI is changing how people learn languages and India is where the shift is showing up first. Duolingo has scale here but very little conversion. At the same time AI tools now offer practice, feedback, and even conversation for free, while Indian platforms focus on jobs, exams, and real outcomes. In this episode, we look at how language learning is being reshaped in India, why translation is no longer the whole story, and what Duolingo is really defending. Tune in.

From the very public Ambani family feud to the private struggles of the Raymond family, the transfer of wealth and power has often been messy.With over 850,000 millionaires in India, and many of them looking to transition their wealth in the next decade, there's a growing, yet largely unaddressed market for a specific type of expert: the succession coach.Part mediator, part therapist, part strategist—they do more than just advise. They keep dynasties from tearing themselves apart.Tune in.*This episode was originally published on September 1st 2025.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.

In this episode, we bring you two reported stories from The Ken's newsroom that stayed with us this year. The first, reported by Nuha Bubere, looks at Flipkart at a moment of pressure and at how its CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy is running the company as competition intensifies and expectations remain high. In the second, Atul Krishna tells us about India's decision to allow foreign universities to set up campuses in the country, and what that shift says about the state of higher education and public capacity. You can find more of our best work from 2025 at the-ken.com.

Buried deep in Amazon's app is a partnership with Orange Health Labs for at-home diagnostics—it's third healthcare experiment in India after pharmacy and telemedicine. The strategy? Target existing customers with zero advertising spend, keeping the bet low-risk while competitors like Bigbasket and Blinkit capture other categories. With its U.S. healthcare playbook built on insurance infrastructure that doesn't exist in India, Amazon is playing a cautious waiting game. The question: is this genuine ambition or just a way to keep a foot in the door?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.

Traditional case competitions are boring theater—companies toss out fake problems, students present cookie-cutter solutions nobody uses. The Ken flipped the script. It revealed something interesting: no company is safe anymore. Students attacked more than a 100 incumbents—from McKinsey to temple economies—and built working prototypes showing exactly how they'd do it. The insight? AI hasn't just lowered the cost of building to near-zero; it's fundamentally changed who can be a disruptor. Even established companies know this. Some volunteered as targets, desperate to understand how the next generation thinks. When anyone can build anything, disruption isn't a question of if—it's already happening.Check out the solutions here: https://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/submissions/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 consumer-robotics graveyard is littered with well-funded American startups. Moxie, Jibo, Anki—all raised millions, then collapsed under cloud costs and thin margins. Enter Miko, a Mumbai company selling AI companions to American kids. With Indian manufacturing cutting costs to one-fifth of US production and subscriptions driving recurring revenue, Miko has advantages its rivals never had. Yet it's still losing money—120 crore rupees last year. Now, as the company hits 500,000 units in annual sales, it's reaching the exact scale where others stumbled. Can Miko's India edge break the robotics curse, or will it become just another cautionary tale?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, and analytical business stories.

Uttar Pradesh now makes more than half the smartphones produced in India. Big electronics companies have set up factories in and around Noida. A place once known for small industries is suddenly part of a global supply chain.In this episode, we look at how that happened. What changed after the pandemic. Why policy, infrastructure and geography mattered. And why almost all this growth is packed into a small belt near Delhi.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, and analytical business stories.