There is a general sense of reluctance when it comes to electronic payments in the plains of offline retail in India. Merchants aren’t interested in accepting them, banks aren’t interested in convincing any other than the biggest merchants to accept card payments and most users are not interested in using digital payments for most things. … Read more
UPDATE: On 7 March, the government officially announced a 15% import subsidy on lithium. The Ken had earlier reported a 5% subsidy rate, as told to us by a senior official in the know of FAME-II policy discussions. 2019 will be the year of the perfect electric storm. This is the year that India might … Read more
Could I have seen the adverts? “You could have, you could have,” says Hitesh Chawla. What are those brands, if you could name them? In his dimly lit glass cabin on the third floor of a mall in Gurugram, Chawla, co-founder of SilverPush, a company which sells technology solutions to target consumers with ads across … Read more
Despite being the second-largest smartphone market in the world—not to mention the fastest growing—India has very few checks and balances in place to control telecom equipment quality. This has resulted in everything from mobile phone batteries heating up or outright exploding. Radiation emissions being above prescribed limits. And the very real threat of data theft … Read more
P hasn’t been able to walk properly and has suffered from tremors for over 12 years. He is shown getting a shot, and seconds later, he’s seen doing push-ups. Mumbai-based Nanavati Hospital’s video on its antidote to Parkinson’s Disease, uploaded earlier this month, seems too good to be true. In fact, neurologists all over the … Read more
Always a skinny girl, Swati (name changed), a 25-year-old biochemist, started putting on weight in her early twenties. Chalking it down to a slowing metabolism, she didn’t think much of it. Until she missed her period. And missed it again in the following months. After visiting her gynaecologist and undergoing an ultrasound exam, Swati was … Read more
Today, the Supreme Court of India will decide on a matter that has a bearing on all current and future labouring mothers in India, a country that sees 26 million births each year. It will decide whether one southern Indian company should be given sole responsibility for manufacturing and supplying oxytocin for all of India’s … Read more
The first time around, payments banks—the country’s central bank’s biggest experiment in creating a half-bank half-payment entity—bombed. In the short two-year history of payments banks, everything that could possibly go wrong for them did. Crippling rules from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Check. Companies backing out. Check. Regulatory flip-flops on know-your-customer (KYC) norms. Check. … Read more
It’s now or never. Indian pharma has watched from the sidelines as e-pharmacies like 1mg and Medlife have swooped in, tossed distribution channels out, and increasingly become the direct link between pharma companies and patients. They hold patient data and monetise for behaviour; which, in pharma terms, is a bit of a superpower. It’s now … Read more
Elections rouse emotions. Especially one where 900 million people will vote to elect their leaders this month. That, to an extent, explains the timing and the ensuing chest-thumping after India demonstrated its ability to destroy targets in space by shooting down one of its own satellites late last month. It, however, doesn’t explain this under-the-radar … Read more