Make India Competitive Again

By 
Seetharaman G

The audio edition of The Ken’s Make India Competitive Again newsletter. Every Wednesday, our editors and reporters read the latest edition and chronicle what India is doing, will do, and should do—to not just survive but thrive in the chaos unleashed by Donald Trump.

Spotify Apple Podcasts Youtube

Make India Competitive Again

By 
Seetharaman G

The audio edition of The Ken’s Make India Competitive Again newsletter. Every Wednesday, our editors and reporters read the latest edition and chronicle what India is doing, will do, and should do—to not just survive but thrive in the chaos unleashed by Donald Trump.

Spotify Apple Podcasts Youtube
08 Dec, 25

Digital fraud is a human problem. There’s no app for that

The real fix is behavioural change, stronger onboarding, and mission-mode education
Episode 34 / 9 min
01 Dec, 25

India’s new labour rules expose the overtime glitch

The Centre’s code shortchanges both full-time employees and gig workers, but the solution to beat it also lies in the code

Episode 33 / 10 min
24 Nov, 25

Can a PE firm not be greedy? A US firm’s India IPO offers a clue

Tenneco Clean Air proves that conservative pricing can still spark a strong listing

Episode 32 /
17 Nov, 25

Indian VCs’ newfound love for deep tech: A step change or in lockstep?

A $12 billion investment saga for the ages, starting soon from New Delhi

Episode 31 / 9 min
10 Nov, 25

Fewer cases, longer wait: India’s antitrust cops must fix this math

The Competition Commission’s slowdown comes just as the AI economy demands quicker oversight

Episode 30 / 12 min
03 Nov, 25

India’s first data-centre IPO shows what to fix before India can scale AI

Laws, land, and liquidity can fund Sify’s rise. But until the grid holds, India’s AI story will keep rebooting

Episode 29 / 13 min
27 Oct, 25

What 1,500 responses from The Ken’s readers reveal about ChatGPT in schools

GenAI is for the staff room, not the classroom

Episode 28 / 10 min
13 Oct, 25

States confuse cheap with sustainable in battery-storage gold rush

A race to forget important lessons from solar and wind

Episode 27 / 8 min
06 Oct, 25

Breaking India’s semicon future out of the simulator and into the real world

Spearheaded by equipment maker Lam Research and IISc, the Indian Semiconductor Mission’s skilling project offers little hands-on experience to participants

Episode 26 / 8 min
29 Sep, 25

China’s new pharma API war, and lessons from its last strike

The PLI scheme isn’t enough to counter China’s strategy to undercut India’s active pharmaceutical ingredient producers
Episode 25 / 18 min
22 Sep, 25

When will the RBI allow payments banks to grow up?

These institutions have little space to expand and little opportunity to level up

Episode 24 / 10 min
15 Sep, 25

Cracking open the Reliance, Adani opportunity for India’s small businesses

Despite decades of effort, too many of India’s MSMEs remain reliant on casual supply networks and word-of-mouth connections. But operations like Ahmedabad-based Magma are starting to weld together sturdier pipelines

Episode 23 / 7 min
08 Sep, 25

India has a ‘full-stack’ semicon dream, but only half the links it needs to achieve it

The deeply international nature of the semiconductor value chain means keeping supply and technological chokepoints free from disruption is critical for success—and attracting much-needed capital
Episode 22 / 13 min
01 Sep, 25

From BS6 to E20—India learnt the wrong lessons. Here’s how to course correct

The month-long uproar over E20 petrol shows managing one jump is no assurance of nailing another. But there’s still much India can do to make it

Episode 21 / 12 min
25 Aug, 25

IPO-bound Nephroplus built resilience in India. It’s now using it to win overseas

Vikram Vuppula's highly exportable playbook has many things to teach Indian healthcare

Episode 20 / 8 min
18 Aug, 25

Tejas Networks’ diving share price is a Mayday signal. Is DoT’s antenna working?

The IP-driven telecom gear maker’s market cap has more than halved since October. What are investors fleeing from?

Episode 19 / 7 min
11 Aug, 25

Free code can build India’s AI fortune

The narrative that India must build the next GPT-5 or Gemini-X to compete in AI misses the real lever

Episode 18 / 19 min
04 Aug, 25

PM Internship Scheme—another shaky start to another shaky skilling programme

Very low acceptance rates indicate the scheme is suffering from a fundamental mismatch between who it’s meant to skill and how much the programme costs

Episode 17 / 10 min
28 Jul, 25

India’s puzzling fix for the civil-service-job obsession

It speaks to the perilous state of employment in the country

Episode 16 / 8 min
21 Jul, 25

The hidden costs of superstar family businesses

Reliance, Tata, Bharti, Adani, Birla… Bid Indian family business groups are only getting bigger. But who is keeping an eye on the consequences?

Episode 15 / 12 min
14 Jul, 25

GIC, IRDAI want a healthcare regulator. But who can regulate better than the consumer?

As healthcare prices soar and claim settlements bite, insurers think a unified healthcare regulator can bring things under control. It might, but only if it goes beyond just pricing

Episode 14 / 8 min
07 Jul, 25

Cut the burn, not corners—why old-school logistics is still winning quietly

India’s logistics sector will no doubt continue to grow, but it may be time for scale-obsessed startups to think about profits too

Episode 13 /
30 Jun, 25

India’s financial inclusion project is titanic. KYC could be the iceberg that sinks it

Millions of Jan Dhan bank accounts are starting to become due for re-KYC. A significant portion may not pass the test
Episode 12 / 11 min
23 Jun, 25

Starlink found a partner in Airtel Africa. In India, it found paperwork

A partnership in Africa gives Starlink scale, licences, and legitimacy. It’s stuck navigating regulation, pricing, and politics in India… mostly alone

Episode 11 /
16 Jun, 25

Don’t talk R&D, please, we are Indian industry

For 30 years, the country’s R&D spends have stayed at roughly 0.6% of GDP, one of the world’s lowest. Credit for this poor show goes to corporate India
Episode 10 / 11 min
09 Jun, 25

What they don’t teach you about M&As in B-school

Lethargy isn’t really the biggest problem afflicting Indian M&As. In fact, forcing these deals to move faster may worsen other fundamental problems
Episode 9 / 12 min
02 Jun, 25

India’s wi-fi rebellion comes for Airtel-Reliance Jio’s turf

A dusty spectrum band, a forgotten Trai PDF, and the war to uncouple the internet from telcos

Episode 08 / 14 min
26 May, 25

The elusive women powering India’s economy

The oddities of official data present a narrative rosier than reality

Episode 07 / 8 min
19 May, 25

The World Chip Design League is heating up. India isn’t even on the points table

The country is only waking up to what its nascent chip-design ecosystem needs the most—more money

Episode 06 / 9 min
12 May, 25

India’s AI Mission needed many heroes. It settled for one—Sarvam

Sarvam is using its newfound status to raise up to $100 million in fresh venture funding
Episode 05 / 11 min
05 May, 25

100 mn diabetics. Still no country for insulin

As pharma giants retreat from insulin, Biocon-Eris rises—and India faces a humbling self-reliance test
Episode 04 / 9 min
28 Apr, 25

Bharat Shining: India’s farms are its biggest trade weapon

In the decade leading up to FY24, India’s farm exports more than doubled to over $48 billion
Episode 03 / 7 min
21 Apr, 25

Stop hating on China. Embrace it

Consultants and industry executives say it may not be long before tie-ups with Chinese firms become inevitable
Episode 02 / 11 min
16 Apr, 25

‘Make in India’ is a tariff-war sticker job

Let’s face it: Chinese manufacturers are true survivors. They survived Trump’s first presidential term—and now thrive.So, what’s really in store for India?
Episode 01 / 9 min