Gorav Singh Chhillar
Naperville, US·Editor and Lead Writer, The Reader's Voice
Specialises in: Business, Technology, Energy
Community Writing
Articles by Gorav Singh Chhillar
30 articles
BusinessThe Back Office Became the Brain
Charles Schwab has opened a new office in Hyderabad, staffed for technology, engineering and operations rather than another call center. India's back-office is transforming into its own brainpower center.
TechnologyA "Made in India" Chip Can Start Outside India
India now has semiconductor plants producing commercially. That sentence may suggest India is making computer chips from scratch. Sometimes it is not, and that says a lot about how the supply chain really works.
EnergyYour Roof Is Becoming a Power Plant
For most of its existence, electricity has been a one-way street. Rooftop solar turns the consumer into a producer, with more than 50 lakh Indian homes now generating their own power under PM Surya Ghar.
BusinessThe Hardest Part of an EV Charger Is Getting Someone to Use It
Installing an EV charger seems like an easy business, until the waiting begins. An electric vehicle charger only makes money when a car is attached to it, and utilisation determines everything.
EconomicsIndia Wants the World to Pay in Rupees
India relaxed trade-policy rules so exports paid for in rupees enjoy the same benefits as those in foreign currencies. It is settlement administration, but one that rests on who bears the currency risk.
FintechThe Digital Rupee Can Be Money With Instructions
Cash does not care what you buy. India's digital rupee can be different: cash that knows the terms and conditions under which it can be spent, now piloted for food-subsidy payments.
Creator EconomyIndia Has 4.12 Million Creators. Most Are Not Businesses Yet
India does not have a shortage of influencers. It has a shortage of influencers who earn repeatedly. The creator economy has solved discoverability long before it has solved monetization.
Labour EconomicsYour Delivery App Is Becoming Part of the Welfare State
A Swiggy rider, an Uber driver, an Urban Company professional: all earning through an app, none with traditional employment linkages. India is trying to build social security around non-integrated employment.
TechnologyONDC Is Trying to Break the Marketplace Apart
Amazon bundles discovery, delivery, payment and support into one company. India's Open Network for Digital Commerce wants to make Amazon optional. Think email, not marketplace.
Real EstateCoworking Companies Sell the Right Not to Commit
A traditional office lease is a bet on the future. Flex-space operators sell uncertainty, or at least the ability to avoid it, and India's flex-office market just posted a record half-year.
Consumer EconomicsFree Delivery Is Designed to Make You Spend More
Your cart has ₹799 worth of goods. Then a message appears: Add ₹201 more to unlock Free Delivery. Delivery costs ₹80. So you add a ₹250 product. The website congratulates you for saving ₹80. You just paid ₹250 to save ₹80. That sounds irrational, doesn't it? And that's probably the point, one of the best techniques in e-commerce.
BusinessRestaurants Now Pay to Be Found
Open a food-delivery app and search for biryani. There may be hundreds of options available. You will likely shortlist fewer than a dozen. That makes the first page incredibly valuable. Restaurants used to compete on food, location, pricing and word of mouth. On a food-delivery platform, they compete on a different front - inside an algorithm. The app not only delivers their food, but also the road on which their restaurant lies. And the best addresses on that road can be bought.
BankingYour Salary Is Raw Material for the Bank
Your employer deposits ₹80,000 in your salary account. You think of it as cash to spend. The bank thinks of it as funding. Banks need money to make loans, buy securities and to fund their balance sheets. A salary account is valuable not only because the bank can eventually sell you a credit card. Your monthly salary is a steady supply of one of the most important inputs for a bank: deposits.
InvestingA SIP Is Recurring Revenue for the Mutual Fund Industry
You are making a systematic investment plan (SIP) of ₹5,000 every month. For you, it may be a step towards disciplined investing. For the mutual fund industry, it is an invaluable recurring inflow. Because your money is systematically invested, barring an active decision to the contrary, it makes SIPs a great tool to not only build financial discipline but also generate a steady income for asset managers.
BusinessAn Airport Is a Shopping Mall With Runways
You arrive three hours before your flight departs. You have already paid for the ticket. Yet before boarding you may buy a coffee, a meal, perfume, parking, lounge access or a last-minute gift. The airport can profit from nearly all of these. This helps make modern airport economics fascinating, and frequently surprising Airplanes create the traffic, but passengers create the marketplace.
InfrastructureFASTag Turned the Tollbooth Into a Payments Network
A toll plaza used to be a cash counter. Stop. Lower the window. Hand over cash. Wait for change. Collect receipt. Move. FASTag turned that into a few seconds. That's a convenience. At a national scale, it represents something more. India's highways have transitioned thousands of toll plazas from being standalone cash counters to nodes in a digital payments network.
Consumer Finance"No-Cost EMI" Still Has a Cost
A phone costs ₹60,000. Below the price is a more appealing number: ₹5,000 per month. No-cost EMI. The phone did not become cheaper. The timing changed. That difference is large enough to turn an impossible purchase today into twelve smaller decisions about tomorrow. "No-cost" financing can truly eliminate stated interest for the customer in some cases. It cannot eliminate the economics of lending. Someone is financing the purchase.
Sports BusinessAn IPL Team Does Not Need to Win the IPL to Make Money
There is an obvious way to evaluate an IPL team. Look at the points table. Businesses have a different metric. Revenue. Sponsorships. Media rights. Tickets. Franchise value. It has an intriguing implication for sport: a team can have a disappointing season on the field and a successful one off it. Why? Because the IPL has an economic model in which it sells its sport product intensively.
TechnologyMobile Data Became Cheap Because the Network Is Expensive
Thirty gigabytes of mobile data is an insane amount. Indian consumers can get it in relatively cheap plans. It's almost contradictory. If everyone is using more and more data every year, why does every additional gigabyte feel so cheap? Because telecom is an industry with very strange economics. The network infrastructure requires an insane amount of money to build, but once it's built, the marginal cost of every additional gigabyte is close to zero.
MarketsA First-Day IPO Jump Means the Company Sold Too Cheaply
A company launches an IPO at ₹500 per share. Trading begins. By the end of the day, it closes at ₹650. Investors cheer at the 30% listing gain. But the company may well be disappointed. It sold yesterday for ₹500 what the market is now willing to pay ₹650 for. The ₹150 windfall went to whomever got shares at the IPO price.
BusinessThe Shelf Has Become an Auction
Open an app for quick commerce, scroll down to toothpaste. Several brands show up right away.
Consumer FinanceYour Cashback Begins With a Fee You Never See
You pay ₹1,000 with a credit card. Almost immediately, you receive a message on your phone: you have received a cashback of ₹20.
HealthcareYour Blood Test Is a Logistics Business
A phlebotomist arrives at your home at 7 am. A tiny tube of blood is labeled, placed in a bag, and taken away.
BusinessThe Airline’s Most Valuable Product Never Leaves the Ground
A customer buys groceries with an airline credit card. There is no flight, no bag checked, no aircraft taking off.
HealthcareThe Same Medicine Has Ten Prices
A doctor writes down the name of a drug. The chemist gets one strip of a wall full of hundreds of brightly coloured boxes.
BusinessThe Popcorn Is Not a Side Business
You buy a cinema ticket for ₹300. At the concession counter, a tub of popcorn and a soft drink may well cost even more than the seat.
Consumer EconomicsThe Subscription Company Profits When You Forget It Exists
You have subscribed to a streaming service for a TV series. The series ends.
EconomicsYour Wedding Gold Enters India’s Trade Deficit
A family purchases gold jewellery for a wedding. The necklace may represent tradition, security, status and a store of wealth passed between generations.
FintechUPI Has Removed the Fee, Not the Cost
You scan a QR code and pay ₹20 for tea. The shopkeeper gets the money in a matter of seconds.
TechnologyIndia’s AI Race Is Really a Race for GPUs
Artificial intelligence looks to be housed within a screen. A user inputs a question and, moments later, receives a reply.