Daybreak

The Ken

Business news is complex and overwhelming.

  • 10 minutes 25 seconds
    The super consultants saving India’s elite from themselves

    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.

    25 December 2025, 3:33 am
  • 17 minutes 17 seconds
    The Ken: Stories that shaped 2025

    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.

    23 December 2025, 8:30 pm
  • 13 minutes 7 seconds
    Orange is the new healthcare bet Amazon won't commit to

    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.

    22 December 2025, 8:30 pm
  • 22 minutes 37 seconds
    The disruption playbook is now open source

    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.

    22 December 2025, 1:45 am
  • 13 minutes 10 seconds
    Indian robotic-toys maker Miko is running where Silicon Valley ones stumbled

    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.

    19 December 2025, 7:32 am
  • 12 minutes 48 seconds
    Why Uttar Pradesh's industrial success stops at Noida

    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.

    17 December 2025, 8:30 pm
  • 13 minutes 9 seconds
    How India became the world's biggest AI lab, and not an architect

    India has the engineers, the users, and the ambition to be an AI superpower. 

    But as OpenAI floods the market at ₹399/month, Google invests $15 billion, and global giants harvest Indian data, a critical question emerges: Will India settle for being the world's largest AI user, or can it become a builder that matters?

    From DeepSeek's $6M shock to the race for AI sovereignty, we connect the dots on India's AI moment—and what could be next.

    Tune in. 

    Episodes mentioned: 

    1. Deepseek: Spotify | Apple | Youtube 
    2. ChatGPT 399 Plan: Spotify | Apple | Youtube
    3. India's Sovereign AI: Spotify | Apple | Youtube
    4. Deloitte's AI blunder: Spotify | Apple | Youtube
    5. AI Browsers: Spotify | Apple | Youtube
    6. Why AI minds are refusing big bucks: Spotify | Apple | Youtube
    7. Call Centres are being rewritten by AI: Spotify | Apple | Youtube

    Write to us with your thoughts at [email protected]

    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.

    16 December 2025, 11:48 pm
  • 11 minutes 17 seconds
    Ever bought a Rs 999 item for Rs 199? Why apps can’t stop using dark patterns

    The Indian government is losing patience with consumer-tech platforms using dark patterns or manipulative design tricks.

    In late May 2024, Consumer Affairs Minister, Pralhad Joshi, gathered the country’s biggest internet companies, Amazon, Google, Zomato, Ola Electric, etc to give them an ultimatum: clean up your user interfaces by September 5 or face the consequences.

    From hidden fees on Amazon to guilt-inducing pop-ups on Indigo, these tactics push users into spending more money, sharing more data, or giving up more control, often without realising it.

    And they’re deeply baked into how these companies grow, making them hard to remove without hurting the bottom line.

    Tune in.

    **This episode was first published on 11 August, 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.

    16 December 2025, 12:55 am
  • 14 minutes 38 seconds
    How Youtube is challenging Instagram's social commerce dominance

    Youtube launched Shopping in India in October 2024, and within a year, 40% of eligible creators adopted it. The platform is betting on high-intent audiences who research before buying—unlike Instagram's impulse-driven model.

    By building shopping infrastructure in-house and partnering with Flipkart and Myntra, Youtube offers creators high commissions.

    The shift is democratizing income for micro-creators, while affiliate GMV exploded from Rs 10 crore to Rs 300 crore in two years.
    Youtube isn't trying to beat Instagram at its game—it's doubling down on what it does best.

    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.

    14 December 2025, 8:30 pm
  • 16 minutes 5 seconds
    Netflix-Paramount, Indigo, and why monopolies should go out of style

    In this episode we fill you in on three standout stories from the past week.

    First, a deeper look at this year's latest Wealth Inequality Report;

    Next, what the Netflix-Paramount fight for Warner Brothers means for Indian players;

    And finally, why and how Indigo has started to behave.

    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.

    11 December 2025, 8:30 pm
  • 9 minutes 37 seconds
    Lenskart succeeded where Zomato, Ola stumbled

    Lenskart is now a public company, and its first real market test just arrived. The shares fell a little over 3% on December 8 as the shareholder lock-in expired, putting the company back in the news and making it a good moment to revisit how it got here. 

    Lenskart ended FY25 with a ₹297 crore in profit and nearly 40 % of that now comes from its 656 stores outside India. That global reach is unusual for an Indian consumer brand, especially when others like Zomato and Ola struggled overseas.

    The company’s steady expansion strategy has leaned on selective acquisitions, investments and joint ventures. And its real strength is a vertically integrated supply chain that keeps prices tight, speeds up product launches and maintains consistency across markets.

    With the stock settling into life post-listing, today, we look back at what built Lenskart’s momentum.

    **This episode was first published on Aug 25, 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.

    10 December 2025, 8:30 pm
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