Zerodha

Today on The Daily Brief: - This story breaks down how India’s airport industry works behind the scenes — from privatization and revenue models to the challenges of balancing high costs, regulation, and profitability. It explains why airports look world-class but still struggle financially, and how policy shifts like hybrid-till and per-passenger fees shape what passengers ultimately pay. - This story explains the business of credit rating agencies — how they assess borrowers, earn revenue, and influence financial markets. It highlights their dependence on trust, their conflicts of interest, why a few players dominate the industry, and why ratings hold so much power in India’s growing credit market.

Today on the Daily Brief: 1. Wakefit is shifting from an online mattress startup to a full home-solutions brand, rapidly expanding stores, manufacturing, and logistics. As it heads for an IPO, is it still D2C or now an asset-heavy retailer? 2. Transformers are in global shortage just as India’s power demand and renewables surge. Aging grids, raw-material delays, and soaring orders are reshaping the industry. We explain how transformers work and why India is at a turning point.

We've made charts on Kite app easier to navigate and analyze, with a quick launcher, in-chart search, faster switching, and more. Here’s what’s new👇

Today on The Daily Brief: - This story explains how the global memory chip industry — dominated by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — is trying to reinvent itself in the AI era. It breaks down how DRAM, NAND, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) work, why this business is brutally cyclical, and whether AI demand can truly end the industry’s historic boom-and-bust pattern. It also highlights the risks, from overcapacity to geopolitics, that could derail this current supercycle. - This story looks beyond quarterly numbers to understand the real trends shaping Aavas, Aadhar Housing, and Aptus. It explains why all three lenders have pulled back their earlier high growth expectations, how extended monsoons and sector slowdowns affected disbursements, and why falling borrowing costs gave a temporary boost to margins. It also highlights that while core business remains steady, the tone has clearly shifted from optimism to caution.

Today on The Daily Brief: - India’s major value retailers — Vishal Mega Mart, V-Mart, and V2 — just posted an exceptionally strong quarter. With festival demand arriving early, aggressive store expansions, and rising interest from price-sensitive consumers, these companies saw rapid sales growth. But each brand is on a very different path: Vishal leads with steady profits, V-Mart is recovering from losses, and V2 is scaling at breakneck speed. The story also explores the industry’s challenges — from competition with giants like Zudio and Yousta, to understanding how India’s low-income consumers shop. - SEBI has uncovered serious irregularities at DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations, a small listed drone company. The regulator found misleading announcements, inflated revenues, undisclosed related-party transactions, and misuse of IPO funds. Many of the company’s claimed orders and exports couldn’t be verified, revealing a pattern of deceptive practices that helped early investors exit at high prices. SEBI has now barred the company and its promoters from the markets and imposed monetary penalties.

It's been 10 years since we went zero brokerage on stocks, ETFs, and more. Back in 2015, if you had asked whether Zerodha would keep brokerage on investing at zero in 2025, I would've probably said no. The backstory of how we decided to go zero is a bit funny. K( Kailash Nadh) and I were sitting at Bengaluru airport on our way to Kochi, talking about the need to change Zerodha's image of being meant only for traders. We had just launched Kite. We did some back-of-the-envelope math to calculate the revenue we were letting go of, and we decided to make investing free on November 30, 2015, on a whim. We published this post (link in comments) on December 1st, and the rest is history. Zerodha customers have saved thousands of crores in brokerage because of this. By the way, Zerodha = Zero + rodha (barriers in Sanskrit), not zero + brokerage. We charged a brokerage fee for investing with Zerodha for the first five years. 😀

Today on The Daily Brief: - This story looks at how IHCL, Chalet Hotels and Lemon Tree handled the weak monsoon quarter, where travel drops and revenues dip. It explains how each company used this slow period—renovations, expansions and new brand launches—to prepare for higher pricing and stronger performance in the winter season. - This story breaks down Morgan Stanley’s analysis of how American companies have allocated capital across M&A, capex, intangibles, R&D and shareholder returns over the past five decades. It highlights why most acquisitions fail, why intangibles dominate modern investment, and how these patterns reveal which companies are truly good capital allocators.

Did you know that nearly 30% of term life insurance applications get rejected? Most people worry about claim rejections, but the real surprise is that almost 1 in 3 applications does not make it past the underwriting stage. This infographic by Ditto Insurance breaks down the most common rejection reasons and what you can do to avoid them.

Today on The Daily Brief: - We’ll explore how Foxconn, Quanta and Wistron quietly shifted from making iPhones and laptops to building most of the world’s AI servers. The story looks at what goes into an AI server, how these companies pivoted into this complex industry, and what this transformation means for the global AI supply chain and its risks. - We’ll look into whether India’s massive rise as a smartphone manufacturing hub is truly creating value. The story breaks down the debate around real exports, domestic value addition, job creation, and whether schemes like the PLI are helping India climb the global value chain — or simply funding low-end assembly.

Today on The Daily Brief: - India’s amusement parks may look fun, but behind the scenes they’re costly, seasonal, and tough to scale. This story explains why building parks like Disneyland is nearly impossible here — from massive capex and imported rides to price-sensitive consumers and unpredictable weather. It also looks at Wonderla and Imagicaa to show why the Indian amusement park business remains a challenging, low-margin industry. - India’s economic data rises and dips with the seasons — from year-end spikes in March to monsoon slowdowns and festive booms. Based on RBI’s latest research, this story breaks down how weather, festivals, and financial cycles create predictable patterns in inflation, GDP, production, and consumption, helping you read economic indicators more accurately.