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2 months ago | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |Seema Singh |Rohin Dharmakumar |hari krishna
Back in 2016, the government launched a scheme called UDAN. It stands for Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik, which roughly translates to every ordinary citizen will fly. This was a scheme that promised affordable, hassle free air travel to tier-2, 3 and 4 cities across the country. But eight years later, flying in and out of smaller towns and cities could not be more cumbersome. Direct flights are rare, and cancellations and delays are constant. So, that prompts the question – where did Udan go wrong?
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2 months ago | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |Suprita Anupam |Aakriti Bhalla |Rohin Dharmakumar
One of the largest deals to acquire a D2C brand took place last week. India’s largest manufacturer of consumer good, Hindustan Unilever acquired the skincare company Minimalist, a 90% shareholding for nearly 3000 crore rupees. Homegrown startup beauty brands have been on a roll in India. Scores and scores of new age skincare brands have cropped up since the pandemic and all of them harp on the science of it. And their whole appeal is transparency.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |hari krishna |Archishma Iyer |Anand Kalyanaraman
Property prices across Indian cities have gone through the roof, up by nearly 30% in the last two years. This along with ever increasing rent and general cost of living has made planning for the future quite challenging for those in their 20s and 30s. So has the idea of home ownership changed among the younger generations, like in many Western countries where more and more people are choosing to rent rather than buy? Or are we still attached to the idea of owning a home?
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |Aakriti Bhalla |Rounak Kumar Gunjan |Rohin Dharmakumar
A bunch of startups are not entering the booming Indian e-bus ecosystem and becoming overnight successes. Just take the case of EKA mobility. Before 2023, EKA was barely a company. It was more the R&D wing of Pinnacle Industries, which is a major manufacturer of seating and interiors for legacy automakers like Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland. But when the government launched the PM E-Drive subsidy back in September, everything changed for Eka Mobility.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |Rohin Dharmakumar |Praveen Gopal Krishnan |Olina Banerji
Last week, Ola Electric’s shares saw a three-day slump after the Central Consumer Protection Authority asked the company for more documents for its investigation against it post receiving thousands of consumer complaints. But shares going up and down is regular stuff right? Not for Ola Electric. The company went public in August 2024 at a debut price of Rs 76 becoming the only startup that went public at a lower price.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |hari krishna |Gaurav Bagur |Rounak Kumar Gunjan
A couple years ago, quick commerce platforms were the place to be for up and coming brands across the country. Just a little sliver of real estate on a rapid delivery app was enough to put them on the map. But now, many of these brands are very quickly realising that success on a Blinkit or a Zepto is a double edged sword. With it comes high commissions, marketing fees, and the constant pressure to never run out of inventory. Some brands have now had enough. How did it get here?
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |hari krishna |Gaurav Bagur |Rounak Kumar Gunjan
Hurun India began curating rich lists a decade ago. Now, it has moved up ahead of ranking giants like Bloomberg and Forbes with 17 lists so far. It has a Global 500 list, similar to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. In fact, at this point, it’s safe to say that it has replaced Forbes as the most trusted choice for bankers and wealth managers. Hurun has managed to turn showing it off into a cultural trend despite the fact that wealth is often wrapped in secrecy in a country like India.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |Praveen Gopal Krishnan |Olina Banerji |Sudeshna Ray
2024 was the year of the 10-minute delivery. We think we didn’t need it but the likes of Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and Blinkit proved us wrong. While other companies were struggling to find funding, these quick-commerce companies were raising billions of dollars and reporting double-digit, sometimes even triple-digit annual growth rates. In December, Zomato’s quick-commerce subsidiary, Blinkit made a strategic move in the rapidly growing quick food delivery market space.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |hari krishna |Anand Kalyanaraman |Aakriti Bhalla
Welcome to the big fat sustainable Indian wedding! Over the last few years, sustainability has become a big buzz word in the wedding industry. Multiple wedding planners told Daybreak that couples are now increasingly asking for more ‘sustainable’ alternatives while planning their big day — from offsetting the carbon footprint of the event, to setting up compost pits in the middle of their wedding venues. This growing environmental consciousness makes sense.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
the-ken.com | Rahel Philipose |Rounak Kumar Gunjan |Anand Kalyanaraman |Aakriti Bhalla
At the end of 2024, Indigo, India’s largest airline, was voted as the airline of the year by Centre for Aviation (CAPA) at the 2024 Global Aviation Awards for Excellence. And then just a couple of weeks later, the airline was in for a rude shock when a survey by a German consumer-rights group ranked it among the worst 10 airlines in the world. Indigo, of course, refuted the findings of the survey and cast doubts on the credibility of the agency that released it.
