business
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Diwali Fireworks and FDI
While complaining to a friend about writer’s block (side effect of an overdose of Diwali sweets?), he suggested I look at the recent Emirates NBD acquisition of RBL Bank. This deal is significant for several reasons. It’s the first time we’re seeing a majority stake sale in a listed Indian bank. The investment amount is Continue reading
-
The needless search for certainty
Humans don’t like uncertainty. And nowhere is this more evident than in economic or business forecasts. Our analysts and economists cater to this need, with a great degree of apparent precision and accuracy. These forecasts further reinforce our belief that such things can actually be predicted. Consider these statements: Sure. As long as no pandemics, Continue reading
-
Have we moved the valuation goalposts?
Investing’s golden rule is simple: buy cheap! Every investment guru has said this — sometimes in books, sometimes on Twitter, sometimes while sipping Cherry Coke. In other words: buy cheap. Easy, right? Then why do we keep forgetting this the moment the market turns green? I admit – judging valuations is not easy, given the Continue reading
-
Is the distribution moat drying up?
Investing history has it that Warren Buffet popularised the usage of the word “moat” to simplify or explain the idea of a company’s competitive advantage. The width or impregnability of the moat is what makes businesses more durable. And in today’s investing literature, “moat” is almost de rigueur. Every broker, analyst or their cousin trying Continue reading
