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PODCAST

Two by Two (Private)

The Two by Two podcast is a premium business podcast from The Ken that investigates, discusses and breaks down the most important business stories around you. Hosted from The Ken"s newsroom by business journalists Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Two by Two will feature guests and experts from across the industry and academia to talk about issues no one else is talking about.

business business news

All Episodes

66:02

Are HUL's best days behind it?

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/04/15

What happened to the company that once understood India better than anyone else? For decades Hindustan Unilever has dominated kitchen pantries and bathroom cabinets across the country: Surf Excel in the laundry, Brooke Bond in the kitchen, Clinic Plus in the bathroom. It was the undisputed gold standard of brand building in this country. Well, until it wasn’t. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago, a journalist shared a chart from an HSBC report on social media.The chart listed some of

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64:05

Can NPCI’s BHIM take on the giants it created?

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/04/09

"Of course BHIM is giving crazy cashbacks. That's where I pay my bills."That's not a BHIM fan but a product head at a competing UPI app.After demonetisation hit in 2016, India desperately needed a way to go cashless overnight. UPI existed but barely anyone was using it. Banks were dragging their feet and private players were too small and too few. So, NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) built an entire payments app in weeks and put the Prime Minister behind it. BHIM clocked 10

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69:39

Is IPL too big to fail? Sharda Ugra answers

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/04/02

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56:59

Rapido broke the Uber-Ola duopoly. Can it now break...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/03/26

Last week, Rapido launched Ownly, its zero commission food delivery app and went straight for Swiggy and Zomato's throat.This is the same company that dismantled the Uber-Ola duopoly with just a simpler model, cheaper rides, and a very different idea of what India actually needs.Their weapon this time is zero commission. They're betting on restaurants that are fed up, customers who want cheaper food, and a rider fleet that's already in place.So we got Kunal Khattar, the investor who backed

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67:41

The Middle East war will cost India. How much and for...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/03/19

Every great Indian enterprise has a story worth telling in full.With The Intermission, The Ken's flagship long-form podcast, hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Seetharaman G do exactly that—tracing the origins, turning points, and defining strategies of the companies that shaped modern India. Built on exhaustive research and proprietary interviews, each episode unfolds as a richly reported narrative. Stay tuned!Last year, when Trump's tariffs blindsided the world, we called Mohit Satyanand. He

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62:50

Healthify swallowed its disruptors. But can it digest...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/03/12

Most businesses die quietly. They miss a wave, lose relevance and fade out.Healthify nearly got hit by two in quick succession. First, AI that could do what took the company years to build. Then, a drug which meant you didn't need the discipline anymore.So Rahel Philipose and Praveen Gopal Krishnan asked Tushar Vashisht, Healthify's co-founder and CEO, the uncomfortable question directly: if anyone can build an AI coach and a drug can kill your appetite, what exactly are you selling?This

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59:02

Did Gen Z hand consumer brands a blueprint to beat...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/03/05

"They are not disloyal. They are unforgiving."Sector by sector, a new generation of brands is doing the same thing by ignoring millennials entirely and going straight for Gen Z. Zepto did it to Blinkit. Snabbit is doing it to Urban Company. The thesis is simple: Gen Z has no loyalty to the old guard, so steal them first and use them as a wedge to crack the rest of the market open.But is that actually true? And if you do win them, can you hold them?Our guest Adarsh Menon has put Fireside

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79:39

What Peak XV's partner exodus says about VC economics

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/02/26

Quick question: Would you give someone your money for ten years if they promised you'd get back roughly what an FD would give you? And they'd also take 2% of your money every single year, no matter what happens, plus 20% of any profits at the end.You'd laugh them out of the room, right? Well, that's venture capital.Peak XV lost three of its partners. Ashish Agarwal who backed Groww, Ishan Mittal who invested in Razorpay and Tejasvi Sharma who bet on Cred. These guys crushed it and they

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58:25

What a global investor really thinks about India's...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/02/19

If you are in your 20s or 30s in India right now, things probably feel a little weird. The headlines say the country is a rocket ship, but your reality might be hiring freezes and stagnant salaries.To understand why, we sat down with someone who actually moves the money. Since the 1990s, Rohit Chopra, portfolio manager/analyst at Lazard Asset Management, has managed billions of dollars across emerging markets: from Brazil to Korea to China and India. He doesn't look at the Indian market

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78:10

Ranking TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL: Who thrives and who...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/02/12

Out of TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, and Wipro, who is best positioned to win as the rules of IT change?In this episode of Two by Two, hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rahel Philipose ask this simple question. The industry expert guests rank the companies from most to least likely to thrive, unpacking what is really happening behind the scenes. Moves are explained through a chess analogy that makes the dynamics even clear (bonus insights on Cognizant). The conversation breaks down leadership

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80:24

Who is the entry-level software engineer now?

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/02/05

Software engineering as we knew it is over and the entry-level job has vanished. So what do you tell someone graduating today?This question splits even the experts. Arnav Gupta, Engineering Manager at Meta and co-founder of Coding Blocks, argues the knowledge must compress. He says that the future belongs to those who adapt fast and embrace the AI tools. Meanwhile Abhay Saraf, Director at Bushel Technologies and ex-Microsoft, pushes back hard. He believes you cannot build a calculator and

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66:58

PhonePe dominates payments but loses money. Now what?

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/01/29

PhonePe leads nearly half of India's UPI transactions, but as it gears up for a $1.3 billion IPO, a tough question looms: can a company built to defend its lead ever learn to make real profit?In this episode, Rohin Dharmakumar argues that PhonePe's dominance might actually be a strategic trap. With zero-margin transactions and shifting regulations, the next ten years cannot look like the last. To win, PhonePe must decide whether it's willing to risk its crown to become a bold market

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81:02

With Noice, Swiggy picks the 3rd path in quick commerce

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/01/22

Swiggy has launched Noice, a private label brand that's popping up across categories on Instamart. But is this a genuine brand-building play or just another experiment destined for Swiggy's product graveyard?In this episode, co-hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar are joined by Sandeep Nair, co-founder of brand strategy consultancy David & Who and former Swiggy marketing director, and Mrunmayi Oke, SVP of Strategy at Zilo and former head of business at Dunzo. Together,

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72:40

Can Urban Company avoid BigBasket’s fate?

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/01/15

Urban Company has spent years building trust as the go-to platform for home services. But a new generation of founders is now using the Zepto playbook to target its most profitable segments. On Two by Two this week, Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar are joined by Arpit Agarwal, a partner at Blume Ventures.The conversation explores the wedge strategy: how specialized startups like Snabbit and Dazzl are driving deep into specific categories like household help and beauty services

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74:20

Will Flipkart become PhonePe before PhonePe becomes...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/01/12

Welcome to the first episode of The Ken’s brand new premium business podcast: Two by Two!In this episode, hosts Rohin Dharmakumar, CEO of The Ken and Praveen Gopal Krishnan, COO of The Ken, sit down with Professor R. Srinivasan and Srikanth Rajagopalan to discuss Flipkart and Phonepe – both owned by the American giant Walmart – are stepping over each other’s toes in an effort to create more avenues. Why? Of course, to bring in revenue and strengthen their bottom lines. Flipkart is trying to

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71:04

How can restaurants scale sustainably?

Two by Two (Private) ·

2026/01/08

Running a successful restaurant is hard. Scaling one without losing what made it special is even harder.This week on Two by Two, hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar talk to two people who are deep in that fight: Sameer Seth, founder and CEO of Hunger Inc. Hospitality (The Bombay Canteen, O Pedro, Veronica's, Papa's, Bombay Sweet Shop), and Karan Kapur, Executive Director of K Hospitality Group (Copper Chimney, Bombay Brasserie, The Irish House).The conversation starts with

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54:44

2025 Year-end special

Two by Two (Private) ·

2025/12/25

2025 is done. Forty-eight episodes. Hundreds of guests. Endless banter between Rohin and Praveen.This year, Two by Two covered stories from Bengaluru to the world including business, tech, and everything in between. We didn't just stick to the usual. We asked about people, trends, and the things others weren't paying attention to. We brought on guests who didn't rehearse their answers and tried to make sense of things as they happened.Some episodes turned out to be prescient. Some were

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54:55

60 seconds for every 2025 episode

Two by Two (Private) ·

2025/12/18

As we try to wind down this year, Rohin and Praveen do something they’ve never done before: go through every single episode they recorded this year. All 48 of them. In 60 minutes.The rules were simple. Each host had 10 points to build their personal top 10 list for the year. No take-backs, and no pre-discussion. It was a completely live, vibe-based recording where they figured it out as they went.What follows is a rapid-fire sprint through the year. From Amazon India’s struggles to the

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70:51

QIP, IPO, Bubble. Why Swiggy, Zepto, and Blinkit see...

Two by Two (Private) ·

2025/12/11

Swiggy just raised a billion dollars in its IPO last year. Now it needs another ₹10,000 crores. That's not a great sign.On Two by Two this week, hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar try to make sense of the chaos in India's quick commerce space. Joining them are Ashwin Mehta, head of research at Ambit Capital, and Anand Kalyanaraman, finance editor at The Ken.Here's what happened: Zepto suddenly dropped all fees, forcing Swiggy to scramble and match. Blinkit's CEO is out there

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67:17

The bro-ification of business and tech podcasts

Two by Two (Private) ·

2025/12/04

"When you called me yesterday, I came up with eight different reasons to say no to you."That's Kosturi Ghosh, partner at Tri-Legal, explaining why she almost didn't show up for this podcast. It's a revealing admission and one that gets to the heart of why business and tech podcasts have such a lopsided gender problem.This week on Two by Two, hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar do something uncomfortable: they examine their own track record. Joined by Kosturi and Swapnika Nag,

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88 results

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