Earlier this month, Niti Aayog, the Indian government’s think tank, held a high-level meeting, with the secretaries of all stakeholder ministries—including the Ministry of Health—present. The agenda was simple. Boost the local manufacturing of medical devices—currently a $10 billion market. India’s medical devices market is the fourth largest in Asia—after Japan, China and South Korea—and … Read more
On 22 August, Amazon gained a yard on its peers in the grocery race in India. It launched Amazon Fresh, a hyperlocal grocery distribution chain which delivers over 5,000 items—including fruits, meat and dairy—within two hours. After rolling out the service in rival Flipkart’s home turf of Bengaluru, Amazon is now closer to cracking the … Read more
August saw two major milestones for diagnosing and curing extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR TB—the most drug-resistant of TB strains. On 14 August, the US drug regulator approved a new drug—Pretomanid—only the third new antibiotic developed to fight TB in over half a century. It’s a ray of hope for some 2,700 people living with … Read more
Aakash Chaudhry is in a dilemma. His 30-year-old coaching institute needs a revamp. But there’s no roadmap for what he needs to do. We’re sitting across a giant U-shaped table from Chaudhry, at the headquarters of Aakash Education Services Limited (AESL) in Delhi. As Chaudhry, the company’s chief executive officer, walks us through a presentation … Read more
In Chengalpattu, about 70 km from the southern Indian city of Chennai, is a cluster of buildings spread over 100 acres. These house manufacturing lines, quality-control lines and other units, all set up to manufacture vaccines. This is the Integrated Vaccine Complex (IVC)—the Indian government’s one-stop solution to be self-reliant in producing vaccines to feed … Read more
On 25 September, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was felicitated with the Global Goalkeeper Award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). On the surface, it was recognition for the PM’s Swacch Bharat Abhiyan scheme—a programme that sought to eliminate the practice of open defecation. But there was a lot more riding on this … Read more
Odds are, you and Bill Gates don’t have the same idea of what constitutes charity. No, not just in terms of the obvious discrepancy in your respective means. But in how you define charity. To most of us, it’s about the simple act of giving. Gates, however, believes in philanthrocapitalism. Not so much giving but … Read more
If you were looking for the antithesis to OYO, the controversial $10 billion giant, then RedDoorz would be it. Both are budget hotel aggregators with India-born CEOs—Ritesh Agarwal and Amit Saberwal, respectively. The similarities, however, end there. While OYO has aggressively expanded across the globe with the backing of VC giant SoftBank’s bottomless pockets, RedDoorz … Read more