Daybreak

For years, Vodafone Idea (Vi) kept losing subscribers. Since February, that’s stopped, and the company is now pushing hard with unlimited data, family plans and stacked offers, even roping in Shah Rukh Khan. Its losses are shrinking, AGR dues are falling and margins are at a decade high. But Airtel and Jio are still growing far faster, and Vi’s market share keeps slipping. In this episode, we look at what’s changed on the ground, the ₹45,000 crore capex plan still awaiting funding, and whether Vi can hold on to the customers it’s winning.

Netflix paid 175 crore for the Hindi version of a single blockbuster. For a season of Roadies, the college-favourite reality show, it reportedly paid 18 and even agreed to share it with rival JioHotstar, something you wouldn't expect a platform built on exclusivity to do.

Today, on our first video episode of Daybreak, we look at the platform that made its name on shows like Sacred Games and Lust Stories ended up here. The answer runs through the family living room, a growing fear of offending someone, and how often you open the app. The question is: is the pivot working? And, what does it cost?

Credits:

Host: Rachel Varghese
Journalist: Debanjali Biswas
Direction: Rajiv CN
Video Producer: Rajiv CN

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.

Getting into a top American university has become a mountain of research papers, social projects and competitions. And wealthy Indian families are now starting the climb when kids are 14.

In this episode, host Rachel Varghese reads out Vishnu Prakash's piece from The Ken's newsletter, Make India Competitive Again: "How to 'manufacture' an Ivy League applicant".

It looks at why premium consultancies more than Rs. 5 lakh a year are booming, even as Indian departures abroad fall, what an anxious parent's money actually buys, and who really does the work behind a student's "personal profile".

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.

JioStar has taken JioHotstar to the UK, Canada, Singapore and the Middle East. It's chasing roughly 37 million Indians living abroad, and their taste for content from back home.

But frustrated by geolocked content and a lack of accessibility for regional content, many of those viewers have turned to less legal options. One of them is an unlicensed box that can cost as little $10 a month, and come with 5000 channels and access to the libraries of major OTT players.

We spoke to eight households about what they watch, why streaming rights and shared logins make things complicated, what the box offers that apps don't, and if what JioHotstar is offering instead can match up to it.

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.

Investors are calling India's home-services market quick commerce's next big moment. Instahelp, Snabbit, and Pronto are betting big on it. They're sending trained workers to your door in under 10 minutes, at prices cheaper than a coffee. Orders, naturally, are in the millions.

But the difference is that quick commerce eventually figured out how to make money. Here, on the other hand, 82% of consumers have already said they won't pay more than Rs 200 an hour.

And on every order placed today, the market leader is losing twice what it earns.

So who exactly is this boom working for?

Tune in.

*This episode was originally published on 29th April 2026

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.

Airtel Money is now trading in London, valued at about $7 billion. The African mobile-money company made $373 million in profit last financial year. It is based on a simple model. Depositing cash is free. Customers pay mainly when they take money out as cash, and sometimes when they send it.

In markets where most adults have no bank account, those fees add up. Bharti Airtel's Indian business, Airtel Payments Bank, takes a roughly similar cut. But it only made $12 million. Most of this difference comes down to UPI, which moves money in India for free.

Now Airtel Money's own markets are building their versions of UPI. What happens to its toll on cash?

Also listen to: Why your Diwali shopping is more important than implementing MDR on UPI

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.

Reliance has a lot to celebrate. The bidding for Jio IPO closed on Friday, more than 20 times subscribed, and with India's biggest valuation ever; the shares will list on Wednesday.

But the Ambani empire is bigger than just Jio, and not every member of the conglomerate is getting attention.

Take Ajio, which is heading into the competition of festive season with falling traffic, trimmed marketing and discounts, and big brands focusing more on Myntra.

The new CEO of digital business, including Ajio, is Sandeep Karwa. He has the right experience, but executives told The Ken that the investment necessary hasn't arrived yet, and Reliance's control on decisions and payments limit his freedom.

In this read aloud of Nuha Bubere's newsletter edition of Trade Tricks by host Rachel Varghese, we look at whether Karwa can turn Ajio around.

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.

Less than 1% of Indians get tested for cancer, and with full body scans costing as much as Rs 25,000, it's not surprising.

Dognosis, a Bengaluru startup, has a solution. It trains dogs to sniff out cancer early, runs their responses through a Bayesian model, and compares the results with patient history to assign a score. The co-founder eventually plans to have just 15 dogs screen 2,50,000 patients in a year. The company's first service, Breatheeasy, will launch early next year, and is being called a "triaging" tool.

But experts wonder if animals can scale like this, and if dog noses could actually be the cheap, non-invasive screening that India needs.

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.

On 14 October, the Cabinet approved selling nearly 61% of IDBI Bank to the Canadian firm Fairfax for nearly ₹53,000 crore. Once completed, it will be the largest FDI in India’s financial sector.

But IDBI was rescued with public money, largely through LIC. Now LIC stands to get back roughly what it put in. The government and LIC who will now hold roughly a third are set to hand over management control to Fairfax.

IDBI employees, meanwhile, are planning a hunger strike against the sale. Was ₹81 a share fair? And what does the public get in return?

Tune in.

This episode is edited by Arnav Prakash

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.

Around mid-September, shops in parts of Ghaziabad started putting up signs: carry cash, because UPI wouldn’t be accepted.

They were protesting a new 0.4% merchant fee on UPI payments above 2,000 rupees, which was due to start on October 15.

Two days before that, NPCI, the body that runs UPI, put it on hold until after Diwali. On this episode, we look at what the fee is, where the money would go, why shoppers aren’t supposed to pay it, and whether that will stay the case once the festive season ends.

This episode is edited by Arnav Prakash

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 October last year, a ship owned by Adani Ports slowed to less than one knot near Malta. It held that position for over seven days, directly above the cables linking Malta to Sicily. It was no accident.

India’s largest private port operator has quietly built a fleet of more than a hundred vessels across 12 countries. Their job is servicing the world’s offshore energy infrastructure. The business grew 134% in a single year.

Ports made Adani rich. But there are only so many ports you can build.

What the conglomerate does next may depend on waters far from any dock.

Tune in.

*This episode was originally published on 14th July

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.

Air India's recent losses nearly doubled to 22,000 cr rs, and Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran keeps showing up at its Delhi Headquarters.

Singapore Airlines, which owns over 25%, is inclined to put in more cash, but in return, it wants more control over operations, costs, safety and training.

And it's already changing the way pilots, engineers and cabin crew work.

Meanwhile, Air India's troubles lie somewhat out of its hands. Pakistan's airspace closure hit it the hardest, and compounding its now longer routes for certain flights are soaring fuel prices. There's also delayed deliveries of new aircrafts. And of course, the reputational damage from 2025 Ahmedabad crash.

Singapore Airlines' is definitely the best chance for the company's turnaround.

Tune in.

This episode is edited by Arnav Prakash

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 Daybreak x Two by Two crossover, host Snigdha Sharna turns the tables on Praveen Gopal Krishnan to look beyond individual companies and industries, and at the bigger patterns connecting them.

From duopolies under attack and startups struggling to justify their valuations, to the rules regulators are rewriting, AI’s impact on jobs, and how Indians are changing the way they live, we explore what these stories reveal about where Indian business is headed.

Which old assumptions are breaking down? Who stands to win or lose? And what should we be watching next?

As The Ken's Two by Two wraps up its second season, we connect the dots and look ahead to Season 3.

On October 12, government data showed India’s food inflation rose to 7.7% in September, led by onion prices that more than doubled from a year earlier.
Back in May, onion growers in Nashik wore garlands of onions and tried to block the Mumbai–Agra highway because prices had fallen to ₹4 to ₹6 a kilo. The government says India grew almost as many onions as the year before, and it kept a stockpile for exactly this kind of spike. Prices rose anyway, and rural households are feeling it most.

Why is it so hard to keep India’s kitchen affordable?

Tune in.

India’s LPG success story runs on a two-day buffer, March 15, 2026, 11 minutes. Listen

India solved the wrong oil problem first, 31 Jul 2026, Listen

The great Indian sugar trap: how a decade of surplus left India with nothing to spare , 28 Aug 2026, Listen

This episode is edited by Arnav Prakash

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.

“Mile har cheez zaruri.” Everything essential, right here.

That was the promise on the signs inside India’s first 7-Eleven, which opened in Mumbai five years ago, with India’s biggest retailer behind it.

This September, the last 31 stores shut. In its last full financial year, the chain lost nearly ₹90 crore on just ₹92 crore of revenue. Analysts point to local competition like kiranas and quick commerce.

But no one from the companies themselves have offered an explanation for why the stores are closing. Still, this is a chain that thrives next to corner shops in other countries. So what was missing here? Host Rachel Varghese explores.

This episode is edited by Arnav Prakash

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 morning, a senior official in Mysuru’s city corporation swerves past the same potholes on his way to the office responsible for fixing them. Over three years, the money Mysuru gets from the state for everyday civic upkeep has fallen from Rs 25 crore to Rs 3 crore, leaving little for repairs.

Just outside Bengaluru, Karnataka is borrowing heavily to build an Rs 18,000-crore AI city in Bidadi, backed by a state guarantee, before a single company has signed up to move in. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are chasing similar projects as their own local bodies struggle for funds.

In this read aloud of Mrunmayee Kulkarni’s newsletter edition by host Snigdha Sharma, we ask why states are betting big on new cities when the ones people already live in are grappling with crumbling infrastructure and lack of funds.

This episode is edited by Arnav Prakash

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 India, even the phantom of the censor board is enough to make filmmakers rewrite scenese at the very last minute, including those making shows for streaming platforms the board doesn't cover.

A startup from Bengaluru called Neuralgarage says it has a fix. It's AI solution changes a line according to the way in which actor's lips move.

In this piece, Shiveka Bakshi looks at how it works, why well-known production houses are using it, and what it says about the film industry today.

This is a read aloud of a newsletter edition of Trade Tricks, by Rachel Varghese on Daybreak by The Ken.

📖 Read the full story on The Ken: Bollywood wants to offend nobody. AI is happy to help

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.

What happens when India's top institutes start treating reunions as fundraisers?

The Ken's Santhom and Mutasim, both from IITs themselves, write about how one batch of alumni pledged Rs. 100 crores for a single idea, and look at the system growing around this kind of philanthropy like x-bankers that run development foundations, non-profit partners set in California taking donations in dollars.

The result is that some alumni feel that donation floors are taking the sentiment out of reunions, making them feel less about the connection between students and campuses and more like manicured events. Host Rachel Varghese sits down with both reporters to explore what has changed with universities doubling down on this model, whether it will last and what both reporters are likely to do once their own 25th reunion comes around.

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This episode was edited by Arnav Prakash

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 October 3, Jack Dorsey's Bitchat disappeared from Apple's App Store in India after the IT ministry demanded its removal. It vanished from Google Play too. Bitchat lets phones pass messages over Bluetooth, with no internet needed. That made it a lifeline in July, when the government switched off mobile internet around Delhi's Jantar Mantar during student protests. In one week, India accounted for 85% of the app's global downloads.

Even an order to pull its code off GitHub didn't stop it spreading.

So the government went after the app stores.

In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at the technology protesters reach for when the internet goes dark, and how governments are learning to keep up.

Tune in.

Also listen to:

Delhi built a ‘safe’ surveillance city. It can now locate anyone in seconds

This episode was edited by Arnav Prakash

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 the NBA complained about Micheal Jordan's black and red shoes, Nike turned the complaint into an ad, and sneakers ended up becoming a symbol of style and rebellion.

In India, sneaker culture took longer to arrive. But last year, more than 200 people lined up outside a store in Bangalore for a limited edition shoe from Comet, a homegrown brand.

And Nike could use that kind of enthusiasm right now. Its revenue fell 4% last quarter, and its losing ground in China, a major market, to local players. Which is why, its new Bangalore campus sounded like a bet on Indian sneaker heads. But other communications suggest that it's a "capability center", another back office, and this is after Nike has pulled away from India before.

So, today we ask: is Nike fighting for the market that Comet, Gully Labs and Ten x You are carving out for themselves? And if it was, what would it take for it to win?

This episode was edited by Arnav Prakash

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.