Hey, Ram. Thank you for reading the piece. I'd love to know more about your experience and perspectives. Let's connect?

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Thanks, Prateek :)

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey, thanks Ravi :)

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Hardik, less than 1% utilisation signals frivolous, non-serious borrowing behaviour, per a couple of industry executives.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Akshay, the comparison is just for new launches specific to that quarter. We're trying to understand the trend in terms of cost metric. Hope this clears things?

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Ravi, thanks for reading the story. The comparison is only for new launches specific to that quarter.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Suchir, the company claims that the data is not passed till a user consents to it. Here's how it works: Airtel, like all other telecom operators in the country, has location, demographic, online habit, etc, data of all its subscribers. But they are stored in the form of signals, operated through machine learning. None of this data is attributable to any individual and there is no human intervention in this process, claimed a senior Airtel executive. To mark out cohorts, the machine categories these signals on the basis of credit worthiness based on their SIM card recharge habits, among other attributes. Once these categories are formed, the relevant set of groups are sent push notifications or SMSes asking if they’re interested in a particular loan or credit card etc. If a user consents, then they are taken to the Airtel Thanks app where they fill out forms. Only after this process, the user’s information is passed onto the lending partner.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Srikanth, the company claims that the data is passed on only after a user consents to it.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Ateesh, thank you for reading the story in such details :) Airtel, like all other telecom operators in the country, has location, demographic, online habit, etc, data of all its subscribers. But they are stored in the form of signals, operated through machine learning. None of this data is attributable to any individual and there is no human intervention in this process, claimed a senior Airtel executive.To mark out cohorts, the machine categories these signals on the basis of credit worthiness based on their SIM card recharge habits, among other attributes. Once these categories are formed, the relevant set of groups are sent push notifications or SMSes asking if they’re interested in a particular loan or credit card etc. If a user consents, then they are taken to the Airtel Thanks app where they fill out forms. Only after this process, the user’s information is passed onto the lending partner.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

In the context of whatever we've written, it is "permitted", Arpan. But I understand your concern. Whether it must be encouraged, is something we can debate on :)

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Dev, we had a specific question in this direction. Our source told us that Airtel is not selling user data. It is meant for internal consumption.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey thanks for the kind words, Abhishek. Glad you liked the story

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Prateek, thank you for reading the story. HDFC saw a similar trend in 2018-19 when one of their credit cards offered 33% cashback on purchase of gold. Users bought gold on e-commerce websites and sold it to jewellers at a discount of nearly 5-6%. In return, they received hefty cashbacks and paid their credit card dues back using the cash earned from jewellers. Gold purchase does not come with cashbacks or rewards anymore :)

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Shweta, thank you for reading the story. The intent was to keep the headline intriguing. I'm not sure if it's negative when a CEO is able to fix a bank by doing the usual :)

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hey Nishanth, Hi Anupam, thank you for those insights. I'll use them to improve on future stories. And yes, we'll revisit this piece in a year.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Abhidnya, thank you reading the article. We've written that farmers haven't received payments in full since 2020. Timing of payments, in this case, is a product of supply. This is how it works: Say on a Monday, 10 farmers in Bilai receive SMSes from the company that says they are supposed to supply their cane on Wednesday. On an average, farmers need 4-5 such dates to complete their supply cycle. Payments when released will begin with crediting the 10 farmers only for their supply for Wednesday. In most cases farmers have received payments for a couple of dates but the larger portion remains pending.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer

Hi Rajeev, thank you reading the piece. I'll try and make future articles further interesting for those not highly interested in the basics of bankruptcy courts. We've spoken to several farmers across the state to understand that indeed growing wheat and other crops has become difficult after cattle has been let loose. There are cases where farmers are having to guard their fields even at night to protect them from bovine. There have also been several road accidents in rural areas because of this. And guess what, after September last year, farmers In Uttar Pradesh are not allowed to use barbed wires to protect their fields.

Rounak Kumar Gunjan The Ken, Staff Writer