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Why Blaming Gen Z Is a Lazy Diagnosis
Marketing and management conversations often turn complex ideas into neat labels, and segmenting people into categories is a favourite tactic. We now have labels like aspirational, digital native, purpose-driven, urban millennial, and so on. It makes managers sound knowledgeable and helps create neat stories – and even neater PowerPoint slides. These classifications can make sense Continue reading
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Devyani and Sapphire – merging to survive?
Desi cuisine strikes back Some years ago, foreign-branded quick-service restaurants (QSRs) were hot favourites among investors, including institutions. The hypothesis was simple: Under-penetration, a growing middle class, and proven international brands. Initially, the hypothesis appeared to play out – and these companies expanded rapidly, opening hundreds of outlets across India. However, in recent years, same-store Continue reading
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Indian of the Year 2025
Awards or titles are usually controversial. Only one wins, while all the others are unhappy. Take Donald Trump, still upset about not getting the Nobel prize despite “stopping” several wars. So much so, that he abducted a President. But this article is not about Mr. Trump, despite his best efforts. This is about a strong, Continue reading
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An inflection point for e-commerce and quick-commerce
Quick commerce redefined Indian retail in 2025. Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto delivered explosive growth, pushing incumbents like Flipkart and Amazon to (reluctantly?) launch rival formats. Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto all doubled revenues in FY25, with momentum continuing through 2025. In a single quarter (Q2FY26), Blinkit delivered a net order value of ₹11,679 crores, up 137% Continue reading
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Ten Predictions for 2026
Most (all?) predictions are useless, but they’re fun to make – so why not join the party? Here’s my list, in no particular order of importance. Trump will continue to create mayhem, while getting richer: This is a given. Stealing oil tankers, arbitrary tariffs and sanctions, fights with institutions and friends will no longer be Continue reading
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India’s New Labour Codes – 2: Wage & Benefit Uniformity
When “wages” finally mean wages — and everyone gets counted Last week, we discussed how the simplification of labour laws benefits employers. But simplification is not a one-sided gift. Employees, too, stand to gain — and in some cases, quite substantially. Overlapping definitions and rules not only increased compliance costs, but employees often did not Continue reading
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India’s New Labour Codes: A Once-in-three-Generations Cleanup
From 29 tangled laws to 4 clear codes — why simplification matters India’s new labour codes were finally (finally!) made effective, only six years after being enacted. Some are touting this as the biggest reform since GST, maybe even bigger. Like GST, it impacts every enterprise or business; but it also directly impacts every employee. Continue reading
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Opportunities in disorganized industries
Why fragmented, unorganized sectors often produce the biggest long-term winners One of the challenges of doing business in India is the intensity of price competition. No matter what your price is, someone will under-cut you – often, by a large margin. Almost every product or service has innumerable competitors, many from the loosely defined “unorganized” Continue reading
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Investor or speculator: Know thyself
At dinner tables and WhatsApp groups in India, everyone is suddenly an investor. It doesn’t matter whether they’re flipping IPOs, or day-trading, or punting on F&O, or buying and holding. If you ask them what they do, the answer will be, “I am investing”. Nobody says “I’m speculating”, just like nobody says “I’m on a Continue reading
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The curious case of India’s quality control orders
How India’s QCO spree became a master-class in shooting ourselves in the foot Several years ago, a group of important policy makers and officials sat down to discuss how to boost domestic production and curtail imports. Some bright spark provided a (seemingly) magic solution – the use of “Quality Control Orders” (QCOs). Under a QCO, Continue reading
