Make India Competitive Again

India’s logistics sector is hotter than ever. There are mergers and acquisitions, market debuts, startup energy, and investor attention. In the last five years, startups in this space have attracted more than $4 billion in investor money.D2C e-commerce and quick commerce have catapulted firms such as Delhivery, Ecom Express, Blackbuck, Xpressbees, Shiprocket, and Shadowfax into the limelight. All of them promise tech-first logistics, national networks, and lightning-fast shipments.Delhivery was the first of the pack to go public in 2022. Others are following suit. Shadowfax filed confidential IPO papers with Sebi in June, and Shiprocket has also filed a confidential draft red herring prospectus. Meanwhile, Xpressbees is said to have begun its IPO preparations by appointing investment banks like JP Morgan and Barclays.The optimism is palpable, but what’s missing are signs of sustainable profitability.The Ken reporter Suprita Anupam has the story, as read by Brady Ng.Read this edition as a newsletter: https://the-ken.com/newsletter/make-india-competitive-again/cut-the-burn-not-corners-why-old-school-logistics-is-still-winning-quietly/ Subscribe to the Make India Competitive Again newsletter: https://the-ken.com/newsletters/make-india-competitive-again/ Download our app and subscribe to The Ken to access our latest releases: iOS: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/the-ken/id1282944688  If you are a student who wants to participate in The Ken's case build competition, or if you simply want to read the case, you can do that here: https://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/ 

Long queues formed outside bank branches across India in 2014 and 2015, with a range of people opening their bank account for the first time. These were farmers, day labourers, homemakers—Indians who had largely been neglected by the formal banking system until then.This moment was part of the Indian government’s Jan Dhan Yojana Scheme, which enabled people to open zero-balance bank accounts at no cost. By the end of 2015, when the initiative ended, 250 million accounts had been opened.Jan Dhan Yojana was a success, so much so that the State Bank of India reported in 2021 that the country had surpassed China in financial inclusion metrics.Now, many of the bank accounts opened under the scheme are up for re-verification KYC (know-your-customer) procedures. Even though the process is straightforward—a check of listed documents such as one’s Aadhaar or PAN—many account owners can’t complete it. Besides, banks have little incentive to keep the accounts active.The situation on the ground is at odds with the intention of bringing more of India’s population into the formal banking system. Sarthak Gupta unpacks the contradiction in this edition of Make India Competitive Again, as read by Snigdha Sharma.  If you are a student who wants to participate in The Ken's case build competition, or if you simply want to read the case, you can do that here: https://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/ 

Starlink can keep internet service going in Ukraine during wartime. It can move hardware into the Amazon Rainforest. The company can overcome all sorts of challenges to bring its high-speed satellite internet connection all over the world, but red tape has kept it from going live in India for three years.The Department of Telecommunications gave Starlink a GMPCS licence—that’s a Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite licence—in early June, but there’s one snag. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or Trai, has capped satellite spectrum licences at five years, with a possible two-year extension. Starlink wants 20. On top of that, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service still needs to clear a checklist of requirements: spectrum allocation timelines, clearance from IN-SPACe (the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre), testing windows. And then there’s spectrum assignment, approvals for ground stations, and terminal certifications. The list goes on.That means Starlink is still many months away from rolling out commercial service in India.Compare this with the company’s progress elsewhere. Starlink inked a distribution and integration partnership with Airtel Africa in May. It secured commercial licences in nine countries within weeks, with five more sets of approvals under process. It cleared that much ground in the time it took to get once licence in India.The Ken’s head of editorial desk Sumit Chakraborty dived into the details in this week’s edition of Make India Competitive Again, as read by Deputy Editor Seetharaman G.*Read this edition as a newsletter: https://the-ken.com/newsletter/make-india-competitive-again/starlink-found-a-partner-in-airtel-africa-in-india-it-found-paperwork/Subscribe to the Make India Competitive Again newsletter: https://the-ken.com/newsletters/make-india-competitive-again/  If you are a student who wants to participate in The Ken's case build competition, or if you simply want to read the case, you can do that here: https://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/ 

2024 was a record-breaking year for mergers and acquisitions in India, and the government seems to want to speed up the frenzy.One of the proposals put forward by the finance minister was an overhaul of M&A regulations. She wants to introduce fast-track mergers for a range of companies, including unlisted firms and fellow subsidiaries.But lethargy isn’t really the biggest problem afflicting Indian M&As. In fact, forcing these deals to move faster may worsen other fundamental problems. There are recent examples that show us how this can play out, such as Jet Airways’ failed revival under the Jalan Kalrock consortium.Meanwhile, there are other incentive structures that can ensure M&As deliver great results.Raghav Maggo explains what India’s M&A landscape needs in this week’s edition of Make India Competitive Again, as read by Brady Ng.Subscribe to the Make India Competitive Again newsletter: https://the-ken.com/newsletters/make-india-competitive-again/Download our app and subscribe to The Ken to access our latest releases:iOS: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/the-ken/id1282944688Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ken.core&hl=en&gl=US&pli=1Or subscribe to The Ken Premium on Apple Podcasts to access our latest releases: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/make-india-competitive-again-premium/id1810672381 If you are a student who wants to participate in The Ken's case build competition, or if you simply want to read the case, you can do that here: https://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/ 

The audio edition of The Ken’s Make India Competitive Again newsletter, spearheaded by Seetharaman G. 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.