The People Shaping India's Tomorrow
A new age, technology enabled editorial platform covering the people, brands, companies and initiatives shaping business, culture and contemporary India.
India 2030 Leadership Conclave
The 10th edition: a flagship gathering honouring the leaders, brands and initiatives building tomorrow's India.
What Matters Now
Blue Tokai: How Indian Coffee Became a Premium Habit
Page Industries: The Business Behind Jockey India
Anand Deshpande: The Long Game Behind Persistent
Forest Essentials: How Ayurveda Became Luxury
PWM Specials
India's Quiet Business Builders Beyond Unicorns
Not every consequential Indian business is a unicorn. Profitability, resilience and long-term value deserve a place in the national conversation.
BookMyShow and India's Concert Boom: The Big Business
Concerts are becoming more than a night out. They are reshaping travel, city economies and how a generation chooses to spend.
AI Is Being Renamed ‘Super Intelligence’. The Name May Matter More Than You Think.
The United States has begun replacing Artificial Intelligence with Super Intelligence in federal language. But superintelligence already has a distinct meaning in technology. The change opens a much bigger question about how names shape what society expects from AI.
The World Came to Delhi. India Is Becoming the Centre of the New Global Order
The BRICS Summit brought Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and leaders from across the emerging world to New Delhi. The summit itself mattered, but so did what it revealed: India is growing rapidly, becoming easier to build and do business in, and gaining the economic and diplomatic gravity to sit closer to the centre of world affairs.
10 Powerful Women Shaping India's Future
This Independence Day, People Who Matter looks at ten women, from Ananya Birla to Roshni Nadar Malhotra, whose current work continues to shape India's business and cultural landscape.
10 Sports Personalities Redefining India's Sporting Story
This Independence Day, People Who Matter looks at ten sports personalities, from Jasprit Bumrah to Virat Kohli, whose current seasons and business ventures continue to define Indian sport.
People Who Matter
Anand Deshpande: The Long Game Behind Persistent
Persistent Systems grew from a difficult early software venture into a global engineering company. Its founder offers a case study in patient ambition.
Sridhar Vembu: Building Global Tech From Rural India
The Zoho co-founder challenges the idea that world-class technology companies must be built in big cities.
Radhakishan Damani Built DMart Without the Hype. Why Does His Retail Formula Still Work?
Excerpt As DMart expands beyond 500 stores, its founder’s quiet philosophy faces a louder, faster and increasingly digital retail market.
Anup Bagchi Is Leaving ICICI Life to Lead HDFC Bank. Why India’s Biggest Bank Chose an Outsider
Anup Bagchi will become HDFC Bank’s first outsider CEO. His appointment from the ICICI ecosystem reveals what India’s largest private sector bank may be looking for after merger, scrutiny and a difficult transition.
Vijay Deverakonda Is Building Unhype. Why Are Celebrities Becoming Founders Instead of Endorsers?
Unhype is the latest example of a bigger shift in Indian celebrity culture. Stars are no longer satisfied with renting their fame to brands. Increasingly, they want equity, creative influence and a place on the cap table.
The Man Tata Wasn’t Ready to Let Go: N. Chandrasekaran’s Long Game
N. Chandrasekaran spent nearly four decades inside Tata and was preparing to leave. Then the Tata Sons board asked him to stay. His reversal says as much about the unfinished transformation of the group as it does about the man leading it.
Companies That Matter
Page Industries: The Business Behind Jockey India
The Jockey story in India is as much about manufacturing, retail and distribution as it is about an internationally recognised label.
Havells India: How an Electrical Brand Earned Trust
From electrical products to household recognition, Havells shows how distribution, quality and patient brand-building reinforce one another.
DailyObjects Started With Phone Cases. Can It Build India’s Next Global Lifestyle Business?
A fresh funding round gives the Gurugram company room to expand. The bigger challenge is turning useful accessories into a brand people deliberately choose.
boAt Is Putting Gemini Inside Its Devices. Can an Indian Audio Brand Become an AI Brand?
boAt’s Crest AI brings Google Gemini into select audio devices. The move shows how Indian consumer electronics brands are trying to move beyond affordable hardware and compete through software, services and AI.
CMF Is Becoming an Indian Smartphone Brand. Can India Finally Build a Global Phone Brand?
CMF is moving towards majority Indian ownership and deeper local engineering. Its transformation reveals the next challenge for India's electronics industry: moving from making global phones to building global phone brands.
From Dholera to the World: Tata’s Chip Ambition Just Found an Important Global Customer
Tata Electronics has signed a strategic manufacturing partnership with Nexperia across Dholera and Jagiroad. The deal matters because India’s semiconductor push is beginning to acquire something more valuable than factory announcements: global customers.
Brands That Matter
Blue Tokai: How Indian Coffee Became a Premium Habit
A specialty roaster helped make Indian-grown coffee part of a new urban ritual. The harder question is how to sustain that promise at scale.
Forest Essentials: How Ayurveda Became Luxury
Mira Kulkarni built a premium beauty identity around Indian ingredients, rituals and craftsmanship. The challenge now is scaling without dilution.
The Whole Truth: Can Transparency Transform Packaged Food?
Shashank Mehta built a food brand around showing consumers what is inside the pack. The harder test is making that promise work at scale.
Amazon vs Flipkart: India’s Festive Sale War Is No Longer Just About Discounts
Amazon and Flipkart’s 2026 festive sales reveal a larger battle over Indian shopping habits, fast delivery, AI discovery and what a discount really means.
AJIO Chose Ahaan Panday. Is Bollywood’s New Generation Becoming More Valuable Than Its Biggest Stars?
AJIO has chosen Ahaan Panday for its 2026 festive campaign. His rise after Saiyaara shows why brands increasingly value cultural momentum, youth relevance and discovery over decades of established fame.
Why Air India Chose 15-Year-Old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to Tell Its New India Story
Air India could have chosen an established sporting icon. Instead it chose 15 year old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. The decision reveals how the airline wants its own transformation to be seen alongside a younger, more ambitious India.
Initiatives That Matter
IIT Kanpur: Can Research Become Global Businesses?
A new innovation school creates an opportunity to test whether research, entrepreneurial training and patient capital can work together.
Punjab’s PEHEL Wants Rural Women to Build Businesses. What Happens After the Loan?
The initiative pairs credit with practical business support. Its early results are promising, but the true measure will be whether women can build lasting incomes.
India Is Getting Older. Max India and ISB Want to Rethink How the Country Cares for Its Seniors
Max India Foundation and ISB have launched SCALE to build evidence around senior care. The initiative arrives as India faces a demographic shift that will reshape healthcare, finance, technology, work and family life.
The Beauty Industry Has a Waste Problem. L’Oréal Is Asking Startups to Help Fix It.
L’Oréal has selected 13 companies for the second cohort of its €100 million sustainability accelerator, including two Indian innovators. The bigger story is how a global beauty group is looking outside its own laboratories for solutions to waste, water use and circular manufacturing.
Why Microsoft's AI Bet On India Goes Beyond Technology
Microsoft's AI skilling initiative seeks to bridge opportunity gaps by bringing AI education to underserved regions and equipping millions of Indians for the future of work.
How Nuvoco's Swasth Bharat Initiative Is Bringing Healthcare To India's Last Mile
In many villages, reaching a doctor can mean travelling long distances and losing a day's wages. Nuvoco is attempting to change that through mobile healthcare services and investments in healthcare infrastructure around its manufacturing locations.
What’s moving in India right now
Headlines from Indian business publications, aggregated automatically and linked to the original reporting. These are not People Who Matter stories; each link opens the publisher’s site.
Ambani tops Forbes' global billionaire gainers list with $7 bn wealth jump as Reliance shares soar
Mukesh Ambani has become the largest wealth gainer globally, adding USD 6 billion to his fortune. Reliance Industries shares surged 11.6 percent after a…
Who is Darius Khambata? Harvard alumnus exits Tata Trusts, says September 17 events sullied Tata Sons' reputation
Senior advocate Darius Khambata will reportedly not seek another term as a trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust. In a letter to Noel…
IndiGo CEO William Walsh takes aim at airport monopolies as record fuel costs bite
Seeking lower taxes and airport fees to protect aviation growth, Walsh warned that rising monopoly tariffs and record jet fuel prices are squeezing airline…
BARC shutdown threat puts 1,500 jobs at risk: Why are TV broadcasters planning layoffs and job cuts? What led to this?
TV boadcaster-led job cuts are expected to become more visible after Diwali, with networks likely to begin implementing cost-cutting measures.
Darius Khambata does not seek re-appointment on Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust as his term ends
Senior advocate Darius J Khambata has declined reappointment as a trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, citing concerns over trustee…
Japanese online service company GMO apologizes for security breaches and promises compensation
Japanese online service company GMO apologizes for security breaches and promises compensation
India’s small companies need to see AI as more than an artificial promise
India MSME news: India's micro, small and medium enterprises are exploring the adoption of artificial intelligence to enhance productivity. AI is expected to…
Microsoft employee's '0% lifestyle' workday video sparks debate: How different is reality from perk-filled image?
A Microsoft employee’s work-focused ‘day in my life’ video sparks debate online, contrasting with clips showing office perks. While some welcomed the…
SC rebuke in Vedanta dispute exposes gaps in India’s fast-track arbitration push
The apex court's sharp criticism of the Centre over a 22-year-old Ravva oilfield dispute highlights how state-led litigation and enforcement delays continue to…
Yuvraj Singh launches supplement brand Protocol 32, TheLiverDoc calls it ‘in very bad faith’, 'business of bad science'
Hepatologist Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips criticized former cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s new supplement venture, Protocol 32, alleging that its ingredients pose health…
ET Product of the Year Awards 2026: Categories recognising products driving market impact
The Economic Times Product of the Year Awards 2026 celebrate cutting-edge innovations that make a substantial difference in the market and attract customer…
Beyond funding: Why every startup founder needs an insurance plan
From personal term insurance to keyman and employee cover, here's how insurance solutions can help entrepreneurs protect their families, businesses, and teams.…
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More Updates
India's Quiet Business Builders Beyond Unicorns
Blue Tokai: How Indian Coffee Became a Premium Habit
Page Industries: The Business Behind Jockey India
Anand Deshpande: The Long Game Behind Persistent