The Ken

Delivering sharp, original, insightful, analytical journalism about business and start-ups across India since 2016.

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Phones. TVs. Refrigerators. Homes. Hair transplants. MRI machines.

Bajaj Finance has lent for all of them — and somewhere along the way, became bigger than the business it was once a footnote to.

Episode 2 of Intermission → May 11.

[Priyal Mahtta @mahtta_priyal]

For Ashish and Pranav, the co-founders of Optimist, the initial few conversations weren't about a product, but about a problem — energy efficiency. Enter: an AC designed for Indian summers, easier on the pocket.
But that is only half the battle.
I write for @TheKenWeb

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Read in today's The Collection: https://t.co/fbPQSgn4mv

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

India’s AI ambitions force a new game for IT services

One company’s many reinventions mirror an industry facing its biggest technological shift in decades

[Praveen Gopal Krishnan @peegeekay]

In this week's episode of Two by Two:

Where are Emergent's users?

w/@thepmfguy and @sumanthr

[kashvi @kashviibansal]

Optimist's AC has a 6.05 ISEER rating, the highest among 5-star 1.4–1.5T split ACs on Amazon. Priyal's story explores how the energy-efficient AC startup prioritised engineering and services before expanding its retail presence.

Read the story here: https://t.co/AxESaovC1c

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

@rajn_sharma @satishwe Hey Raj, let us look into this and get back to your email today.

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Read in today's story: https://t.co/YG5gxbCdg9

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Optimist wants to reinvent the AC. Daikin and LG don’t need to

The energy-efficient AC startup prioritised engineering and services before expanding its retail presence. But slow and steady brand building has a cost

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Spotify: https://t.co/rsjLWj94ac 

Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/eOsEksQ7Z1

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Why Big Tech is tokenmaxxed out

Leaderboards, exploding budgets, and a metric that stopped measuring productivity the moment it became a target

Listen on today's Daybreak:

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

The story of how Jio Financial Services was born is nothing short of a magic trick.

In Rohin's words, it was like a 1,600-pound gorilla emerging from the mist!

Episode 2 of Intermission covers this in the larger story of how Bajaj Finance got built: https://t.co/cRAo9gBTuz

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

India built a Rs 50,000 crore MSME fund to fight VCs’ tech bias. It still became a tech backer

Of the 750 companies the fund has invested in, 7 of 10 are tech-heavy—defying the fund’s intention of backing traditional manufacturers

Read in today's story https://t.co/dm4V24u1Fr

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

When a bonus is not really a bonus

A misnomer, bonuses declared by companies like LIC and Reliance Industries are neither free nor a reward, just shareholders’ own money, handed back to them as shares

Read in today's Ka-Ching!: https://t.co/ipTo77F2Sx

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Where are Emergent’s users?

Invisible users generating extraordinary revenue

Listen on today's Two by Two: https://t.co/7UnkNWbGqC

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Listen on Spotify: https://t.co/yUNdW5baSu

Or Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/xvvR8YdLky

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Google is now Andhra Pradesh's first private electricity company. You'll be paying for that

Andhra Pradesh handed Google its own electricity licence to attract data centres. The state grid will be picking up the tab

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Lossfunk is the third space for Indian AI, beyond industry and academia

A look into the making of a ‘cosy home’ for ‘independent researchers’

Listen on today's Zero Shot: https://t.co/J7BuffVLIN

[Sakshi Sadashiv @sakshi_sadashiv]

Across the country, people are recording themselves cooking, cleaning, folding clothes and moving through their homes, earning ₹250-300 a task from data-collection companies…
1/4

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Tesla and Figure AI are building robots to act like humans. Indian workers are teaching them how...

…for a few hundred rupees. It may be a Faustian bargain, once again

Read in today's story: https://t.co/ktegI2rEWN

[The Ken @TheKenWeb]

Stock-market investors go all out on an energy-hungry India

And they don’t care what the electricity source is

Read in today's Long and Short: https://t.co/GBpB3nS8su