The Ken

In the middle of her pitch to get me to switch to Vodafone Idea (Vi) as a postpaid subscriber, a sales representative in West Delhi paused. And changed tack. “Did you know that even SRK has joined us now?” she asked, flashing the Shah Rukh Khan trump card she’d been carrying the whole time. After spending years fronting campaigns for Vi’s two biggest rivals, the Bollywood superstar had finally crossed over to Vi’s side. And that, the sales representative believed, had to count for something.

Good Morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%], You are on a free plan. Your subscription has expired. Upgrade now to unlock premium newsletters, top feature stories, exclusive podcasts, and more. You are reading our subscriber-only newsletter Ka-Ching!—a weekly commentary on fintech and personal finance Every day at 3:20 p.m., India opens its gates to a casino, one that, in a mere 10-minute window, manages to dwarf the largest ones in Las Vegas.

What does a Rs 8 lakh donation get you at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay as an alumnus? A hostel room named after you, for as long as the building stands. Your name is displayed on a coloured marker outside the room you are sponsoring. “Rm. 701, Jayadev Kulkarni”, reads one such marker. And for those who can’t afford the price upfront, instalment-based payment options are available as well.

The story behind the numbers and motivations driving India's stock market Subscribe here Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%], You are reading our Premium subscriber-only newsletter Long and Short—a weekly commentary on India’s capital markets Enter your email address to receive a daily curation of our latest newsletters, stories, and podcasts. For the first time, more passenger vehicles were sold on clean fuels than on petrol.

It took The Ken three days, a high-end laptop, and little money to build a voice-transcription AI agent on India’s state-funded large language model BharatGen. BharatGen is one of 12 companies that the government is backing to develop a “sovereign” AI ecosystem. But it is one of only two chasing frontier capabilities. The other is Sarvam.

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As the crowds began to leave British rock band Coldplay’s concert in Mumbai last year, the crew had four hours to dismantle the production.

What India is doing, will do, and should do—to not just survive but thrive in the chaos unleashed by Trump Subscribe here Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%], You are reading our Premium subscriber-only newsletter Make India Competitive Again—a weekly look at how India can thrive in a stormy global economy. Enter your email address to receive a daily curation of our latest newsletters, stories, and podcasts.

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On 29 August, I almost attended India’s first peptide party. What was originally meant to be 50 guests in a venue in Bengaluru that was “NOT a Hospital”, per the invite, was cancelled one day before the event when the regulator, Karnataka Food Safety and Drug Administration, started asking questions. In the lead-up to it, the party had quickly become the talk of the town.