Daybreak

After years of being associated with powerful politicians and menacing goons thanks to Bollywood films, SUVs are now undergoing a makeover. At car dealerships across the country, they are now being positioned as the ultimate family car —  a fortress that can keep your loved ones safe on treacherous Indian roads. The word on the street, according to multiple sales executives and industry insiders, is that Indian carmakers are deliberately positioning these  vehicles as rolling citadels. And it's working. SUVs are now outshining hatchbacks in annual sales. But this love for SUVs among buyers is like the inexplicable craze around skinny jeans—no one likes them except the manufacturers and the ones in them. Simply put, more SUVs on the road mean more worry for everyone else.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.The Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets. 

When the much-awaited Swiggy IPO took place in November last year, many HNIs make put in their money into the company. Some made smaller investments of more than Rs 2 lakh and the others who bought stocks for over Rs 10 lakh. But they weren’t buying stocks because they believed in the real value or long-term potential of these shares. They bought them because they assumed someone else will buy them at an even higher price. The Ken reporter Suprita spoke to a VP of a Bengaluru-based unicorn. They told him that they just though they were getting a good deal at a discounted price. They even sold off some of their SIPs and even their Zomato shares. When many HNIs buy unlisted stocks before a company's IPO, they drive up the stock price. But once the pool of these HNI buyers dries up, the bubble bursts.It is the theory of greater fools and it played out during Swiggy's IPO when  brokers pitched Swiggy shares as a piece of India’s hottest food-delivery and oldest quick-commerce giant, that too at a discount.But a discount to what?Because Swiggy’s market capitalisation is right now stands at under $9 billion as compared to its listing valuation of $13 billion. So what happens to HNIs like the unicorn VP who bought Swiggy shares before its IPO?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.The Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets. 

In this episode we fill you in on some of the biggest business and tech stories from The Ken newsroom. We’ll talk about the latest development in the Byjus story; how Reliance’s Campa is taking on the Coke-Pepsi duopoly; and finally, the battle between YouTube and streaming companies to be the next television.Stay tuned. Check out the stories and podcasts we mentioned in this episode: The latest edition of Ed Set GoPepsi’s biggest bottler is pouring more cola to fight Reliance’s CampaTwo by TwoThe Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets. 

This year the JSW MG Windsor became the highest selling electric car in India. It recently even managed to outperform Tata’s most popular offerings like the Nexon and Punch EV. It recorded total sales of over 10,000 units in a single quarter, beating all the models from Tata, Mahindra, and Hyundai.The obvious question here is – what did MG do differently? And the answer is simple – by doing for EVs what Reliance did for cell phones in the early 2000s. Tune inDaybreak 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 few years, public universities here in India have been stuck in a rather difficult position. For decades, they were almost entirely dependent on state funding to keep the lights on.But now the state funding has steadily been drying up. So now, they have no choice but to fend for themselves. But legacy institutes like IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and IIT Delhi have found a workaround. They are all taking a page out of the Ivy league playbook and setting up their own endowment funds. In this episode we delve into what that means and why it isn't as easy as it may sound. Stay tuned. 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.

Up until recently, for most enterprises the default choice ended up being ChatGPT maker Open AI's models. That was mainly since for a long time there were no serious alternatives. Then, in came Deepseek R1. It proved that other models could compete and even win against OpenAi, that too at a fraction of its price. So now its the one that’s nudging enterprises to think twice before paying OpenAi for its services. And as a byproduct of that, over the last few months, the entire AI ecosystem has been moving from the one size fits all approach to picking the best tools for the job. Basically that means getting multiple models to work together. There is a huge opportunity here. Not for consumer-AI startups that were once dominating funding charts, but instead for LLMops businesses. These are companies that glue together large language models or LLMs and optimise hardware and software to speed up computation processes. In the near future, these companies could potentially grow faster than ever before. 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.The Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click here to buy your tickets. 

Young independent doctors in India face daunting challenges as they transition from their intense training to running private practices. Financial burdens from expensive medical degrees, with costs soaring between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore, weigh heavily on them. They also grapple with fierce competition from corporate healthcare chains and the pressure to maintain a social media presence. Personal stories, like that of a struggling psychiatrist in Mumbai, reveal the harsh realities of building a patient base in a rapidly evolving medical landscape.

Delve into the economic chess game as Trump’s tariffs create ripples in India’s trade landscape. Discover how the tariff disparities could challenge India’s economic balance. Meanwhile, Meta doubles down on its Indian market, aiming to boost its tech presence. Explore fascinating tech innovations, like Netodyne's push for driver safety and Tesla's autopilot features in China. Lastly, witness the fierce rivalry between food delivery giants Swiggy and Zomato, and learn how Airtel is employing AI to tackle spam calls.

Discover how Wooden Street surged ahead in the Indian furniture market amid the pandemic, quadrupling its revenue in just two years. Learn about their unique 'Goldilocks zone' customization strategy that taps into the DIY home improvement trend. Explore the challenges faced by major players like IKEA in adapting to new consumer preferences. The podcast also highlights Wooden Street's successful global investments and its plans for expansion in a rapidly evolving industry.

WeWork's narrative takes a fascinating turn in India, thriving where its global counterpart has stumbled. The focus shifts from lavish frills to essential, managed office spaces, appealing to a broader clientele. Unlike the startup-centric model that faltered elsewhere, WeWork India caters to diverse needs, setting itself apart in a competitive landscape. Meanwhile, the rivalry with Office highlights innovative pricing strategies and revenue growth, suggesting a necessary evolution for WeWork to stay relevant.