From the struggles of Indian students to IPL still charming sponsors, our top stories of the week

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1) Shattered dreams

India’s youth is aspirational. They are always looking to excel, grow, and create a better lifestyle. In their efforts to pocket these achievements, pursuing higher education overseas has become an important stepping stone for many. The hope is global job opportunities, better pay, and a brighter future. The number of Indian students enrolled in foreign higher education institutions is expected to reach 20 lakh by 2025, up from the 7.7 lakh students who studied overseas in 2023, as per ICEF Monitor. But this presumed sure-shot path to success has recently been riddled with deep potholes. Here's a look at why Indian students are struggling to enter these job markets.

2) Rolling in with style

Sangeet Agrawal has stints with Urban Ladder, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Flipkart on his resume. But the entrepreneur inside him couldn’t wait to explore. Obsessed with the idea of creating a travel product that would have magical appeal in design and quality, he soon found a somewhat reluctant partner in crime to start his travel product brand. Navin Parwal was happy in his job and was not enthused about the idea. Yet he still agreed to explore the idea. Brand Mokobara was born. It has become one of the 'It' accessories to flaunt while zooming through the country or overseas. The duo is now trying to disrupt the staid travel and luggage industry with their bold and flamboyant design play. Can Mokobara change the rules of the game with its radical fashion statement?

3) To win the techade

Apart from the need to strengthen the public health infrastructure, the Covid-19 pandemic also highlighted how the world depends on semiconductor chips. Disruption in the supply chain management of these chips due to the pandemic had a massive economic impact worldwide. Currently, most of the world’s chips are designed in the US and manufactured in Asia. The most sought-after advanced silicon chips are made in Taiwan and South Korea. All eyes are on this industry because these chips will drive the next wave of tech revolutions like AI, data centres, smartphones, and high-performance computing. All the big economies would like to be self-reliant, which has begun the race to set up chip fabrication plants. India is also one of such countries. But where is India in the race right now? Let's take stock.

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1) Sluggish and silent

There was much fanfare when 5G technology was introduced in India. Regulators, government, and infrastructure providers were forcing telecom companies to hasten the availability of the 5G network. Assuming a 30 percent rise in 5G customers in the first quarter of 2024, we would still be looking at approximately 175 million pure 5G subscribers of 1,164 million total subscribers, an approximate 15 percent market share. The small number indicates that customers are not adapting to the new tech as fast as telecom companies would like. This miraculous 5G story is becoming less compelling with each passing day. What went wrong that the expansion is so sluggish? Let's find out some answers.

2) Importance of teamwork

In this techade, the world is changing how it functions every six months. New technology, climate change, geopolitical tensions, and economic upheavals make the world volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, asynchronous, and diverse. However, the traditional team models are still prevalent in the corporate world. Challenges are more complex than ever, and that's why this model is no longer sustainable when developments of the last decade, notably the pandemic, have sped up some trends already underway, according to Henrik Bresman, Associate professor of organisational behaviour at INSEAD. Read about his solutions to combine internal focus with external outreach so that organisations can drive innovation and growth.

3) Why the disappointment?

From an investor's perspective, what are the best companies in the last 30 years? Let us start: Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Infosys and HDFC Bank. A pretty good list, isn’t it? Why do we consider them in the Hall of Fame of the great companies of the world? Answer: Great management, vision, execution, amazing products, innovation, and so on. Their long-term stock market returns have handily beaten the respective benchmarks over time. So what's happening with the new-age companies that appear on the bourses with a big bang but fizzle out quickly, leaving public investors disappointed? Here's an argument, looking into the roles of VCs in the process, that explains why the stock market Hall of Fame is devoid of new-age companies.

4) Charm of IPL

Valuations in multi-crore deals are no longer just the preserve of the corporate boardroom. Every sports team of the modern era is generating statistics that would once seem incredible. Consider that the Indian Premier League has become a decacorn, valued at over $10 billion. Where do these numbers come from, and how does one make sense of these extraordinary numbers? RISE Worldwide, an independent sports, lifestyle and Entertainment company, has stitched team partnerships worth around Rs 300 crore for IPL 2024, including five front-of-jersey deals considered premium real estate on a team kit. Nikhil Bardia, the head of RISE Worldwide, in an episode of Sports UnLtd, took us through the fascinating world of sports marketing and shared what it takes to manage celebrity cricketers in the age of social media.