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Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Daybreak

Business news is complex and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. Every day of the week, from Monday to Friday, Daybreak tells one business story that’s significant, simple and powerful. Hosted from The Ken’s newsroom by Snigdha Sharma and Rachel Varghese, Daybreak relies on years of original reporting and analysis by some of India’s most experienced and talented business journalists.

news business news

All Episodes

14:25

The US is ready to pay for NSFW Hindi audio content,...

Daybreak ·

2024/04/23

When you think of the average unicorn-status startup, PocketFM — a homegrown audio streaming platform — is somewhat of an anomaly. Its main claim to fame? Very dramatic, borderline NSFW Hindi fiction audio series’. Its content can best be described as ‘masala’ entertainment. And yet, millions of listeners tune in every day to listen to stories like ‘I love you monster’, or ‘Karan Arjun reloaded’, or ‘Millionaire Ghar Jamaai’. While all this may not be your cup of tea, it has really worked

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10:39

Why Uber can't be green without its fleet partners

Daybreak ·

2024/04/22

In the last few years, companies like Everest that manage cab fleets have become the silent battalion in Uber’s army of cabs. In fact, 90% of Everest’s fleet is with Uber.This, of course, has helped Everest grow its revenues and both seem to have found their relationship to be mutually beneficial. Everest gets to run its assets on a high demand platform. And for Uber, it become so much easier to manage its cars. So Uber is deepening its ties with Everest, especially with Uber Green in mind

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10:00

RBI's policy shift will crush Visa-Mastercard's rule....

Daybreak ·

2024/04/19

Last month, the Reserve Bank of India directed credit card issuers or banks to not sign exclusive contracts with card networks, like Visa and Mastercard, that restrict them from using other networks. The RBI did this because it said consumers deserve to have the freedom of choice. This new rule will be effective from early September and it will change the credit card game as we know it.For starters, the American card network giants Visa and Mastercard who together have been dominating 90%

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13:53

Why it's a bad time for Campus to be India's top...

Daybreak ·

2024/04/17

In 2021, Campus Activewear took away the top spot in India's athleisure-footwear market from Puma, thanks to its affordable and trendy sneaker offerings. And by May 2022, it became a publicly listed company. Within a span of five months after its listing, its valuation shot up to a staggering US$2.2 billion.However, two years later now, its market capitalisation has nosedived to under US$890. The reason is a combination of factors including the slow down in demand and also, an

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13:24

Is there room for deep fakes in democracy? AI...

Daybreak ·

2024/04/16

Just like every Lok Sabha election in the last 72 years, millions of people will vote for a new government over the next couple of weeks. But there is one thing that really sets this election apart. Never before have political parties actively used Generative Artificial IntelIigence at this scale. It is a turning point in India’s electoral evolution. Some AI startups in India have been developing hyper-personalised voter experiences for political parties. This comes at a time when Gen AI

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11:41

Paytm has a message for its lending partners and RBI

Daybreak ·

2024/04/15

In January, the RBI, more or less killed Paytm Payments Bank. But Paytm Bank was the backbone of its loan business, the same business that helped it recover from its post-IPO bloodbath.Now, Paytm’s lending partners, on whom its loan business is dependent, are spooked They dont know if they should continue working with Paytm. Meanwhile, Paytm is doing its best to save what it can but Paytm Payment Bank is currently in limbo. Last week, Survinder Chawla, the MD and CEO of Paytm Payments bank

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12:18

"Hello, I’m calling from Bajaj Finance. Do you want a...

Daybreak ·

2024/04/12

Phone calls from Bajaj Finance offering loans are almost inescapable and lately, the non-bank has faced quite a backlash for it. But telecalling has been an enduring sales channel for the company which boasts of a loan book worth $28 billion. And despite the massive size of its loan book, it’s been growing at 30% for years. Now this rate is seeing a dip through.Bajaj needs to maintain a 26-27% growth rate. Meanwhile, shifting its loan sourcing to its digital assets is going to take a

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16:06

A year and nearly 50 million transactions later, do...

Daybreak ·

2024/04/10

It's been over a year since the govt launched Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The idea was to build the world largest e-commerce platform to check the monopoly of giants like Amazon and Flipkart. From ride-sharing and food delivery, to groceries, the platform can be used to buy and sell anything.The platform is close to hitting the 50 million transactions mark now. And what stands out about it is its fascinating pricing strategy that makes ordering food on it as much as 45%

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10:18

What happens to Byju's employees after they're laid off?

Daybreak ·

2024/04/08

Lat week, the struggling edtech giant Byju's laid off another 500 of its employees. This came along with a salary delay of three consecutive months. In his email to employees two months ago, Raveendran had written, “I have been moving mountains for months to make payroll, and this time, the struggle was even bigger to ensure that you receive what you rightfully deserve."With the latest round of layoffs though, the employee count at Byju’s has gone down from 15000 at the end of last year to

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11:54

How Bigbasket wasted its first-mover advantage

Daybreak ·

2024/04/05

In January this year, Tata Digital's BigBasket announced its rebranding for slotted delivery service to “Supersaver”, promising to deliver products in under two hours. Back when Tata had acquired the BigBasket at a reported valuation of $2 billion in mid-2021, the company was loss-making. But for those at BigBasket, it was an opportunity to shift their focus back to the company’s core business: doorstep grocery delivery.While it was a bit too late when Tata realised its new acquisition was

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10:34

Were you forced to sign up on DigiYatra? If yes,...

Daybreak ·

2024/04/03

The government of India launched Digiyatra, a contactless, facial-recognition-based passenger-entry system, in December 2023. The idea was for those who sign up on the platform to avoid the tedious process of getting their ID and flight tickets checked by CISF personnel at airports.But lately, stories of passengers being forced to sign up for the app are surfacing on social media. Just this week, there were reports of Digiyatra forcing users to move to a new app without notice. Meanwhile,

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10:07

Online shopping is no fun without free returns. But...

Daybreak ·

2024/04/01

The entire logic of buying online instead of going to a store rests on e-commerce companies making it easy to return stuff. What if it doesnt fit me? What if it is damaged? Just ask for a return and someone comes to your doorstep and picks it up. However, as it turns out, e-commerce companies hate returns because reverse logistics are a costly affair for them. Now, the likes of Ajio and Myntra are changing their return policies. Some are even blocking some customer accounts. But are

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12:25

What happened to Pharmeasy?

Daybreak ·

2024/03/29

Earlier this week, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared Manipal group chief Ranjan Pai's investment in online pharmacy PharmEasy. So far Pharmeasy, once the highest-valued Indian healthcare startup, has raised Rs 3,500 crore through a rights issue. But it raised this money at a 90 per cent discount to its peak valuation. From $5.6 billion to $500 million!All because it had to take another debt to pay off its previous debt. The second time though, interest rates were not

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11:31

Can Swiggy and Zomato save train meals?

Daybreak ·

2024/03/27

Beyond the nostalgia associated with meals on trains, quite often, there are also horror stories. In fact, even a recent Parliament Panel report pointed out how food quality on Indian trains is compromised. The IRCTC (The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) has been trying to figure out how to make food a more enjoyable experience on trains and more importantly, a solid source of revenue. A decade ago, IRCTC launched its e-catering services. It now has a network of nearly 500

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9:42

How UPI will disrupt the credit card ecosystem

Daybreak ·

2024/03/22

Not long ago, Suhail Sameer, former BharatPe CEO had said UPI will do to credit what the likes of companies like BharatPe did to debit a few years back. India has more than 960 million debit cards in the country and only about 85 million credit cards. But conditions in the credit market are headed towards a disruption because of UPI and there’s one area of the whole credit ecosystem where it is undeniably going to change the game. In fact, we could go out on a limb to say that credit via

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8:38

What a cyber criminal told us about KYC frauds

Daybreak ·

2024/03/19

More than 70% of fraudulent banking transfers in India are KYC-linked scams. A senior official at the Financial Intelligence Unit, a national agency responsible for analysing data on suspect financial transactions informed The Ken that KYC frauds amount to over Rs 900 crore ($108 million) per year.One such fraudster who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity said, ““KYC is an easy trick to pull off. People have heard about banks freezing accounts due to non-compliance with KYC norms. So

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12:39

Why mental health professionals are taking up courses...

Daybreak ·

2024/03/18

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

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10:00

The run-up to the IPO is changing Swiggy as we know it

Daybreak ·

2024/03/15

Swiggy has always been proud of the culture of innovation that it has fostered over the years for its employees. In fact, it is this very approach that helped it achieve the coveted unicorn status.But with the IPO scheduled for this year and its pursuit to profitability, innovation is no longer being encouraged. It has become way more challenging for newer projects to take off. And though it is natural for a company that is growing bigger to become more risk-averse, for Swiggy, this means a

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10:40

Why YouTube, Instagram creators pay the price for...

Daybreak ·

2024/03/13

From shadow-banning, content flagging, suspension and even account deletion, content creators are grappling with a variety of censorship methods on social media platforms—all in the name of maintaining community guidelines.But with social media platforms relying more and more on AI and machine-learning tools identify and remove violating content, even content aimed at creating sexual, social, and political awareness ends up being taken down. And sex-ed and news content creators on

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11:08

Why Kota's coaching-centre-capital tag is under threat

Daybreak ·

2024/03/11

After the pandemic years, Kota’s coaching industry saw an unprecedented boom. Money was pouring in from everywhere–from edtechs to investors. In the last five years, Kota saw about 2 lakh engineering and medical aspirants, on average, arrive from across the country.Kota runs on stiff competition not just among the students but also among the scores of institutes that host and prep them. But since the past four months, Kota’s reputation has been on the line. Student admissions have dropped,

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