December 08, 2025

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THE TRAGIC DIVIDE

“Modiji, I want to go back home.” The cry cut through the crowd that had gathered in Churachand -pur on September 13 to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was visiting Manipur 28 months after the state was wracked by ethnic violence in May 2023, which left 258 dead, 62,000 displaced and 4,786 hous-es burned. The voice belonged to 40-year-old Hoitim -neng Haokip, mother of two school-going children and a Kuki from Loibol Khunou village in Kangpokpi, standing outside the Sangai relief camp in Churachan -dpur. But it was a question R.K. Bilasana, 48, a Meitei from the border town of Moreh, had for the prime minister as well. Bilasana's life is now in limbo, as a refugee at the Thonju Kendra relief camp in Imphal.PM Modi's long-awaited visit lasted barely half a day, and ended with announcements of development packages worth Rs 8,500 crore. There was no word on reconciliation or re-habilitation. “After the PM left, Bilasana's anger boiled over: “Come and see how we are living if you really care for Manipur, prime minister. Your four-hour trip was salt on our wounds.”If Hoitimneng and Bilasana were hoping for a salve for their wounds from Mohan Bhagwat, head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, who visited Manipur on November 20, there was disappointment again. Bhagwat's visit was officially tied to the RSS's centenary celebrations and car-ried immense political weight. But it did little to assuage the anxieties of the nearly 58,000 displaced people still living in 351 camps across the state. Manipur remains under President's rule, its future unce- rtain. Peace prevails, but one orchestrated by security forces. An invisible line cleaves the state into distinct enclaves—the Imphal Valley now a Meitei zone, and sections of the sur-rounding hills inhabited by the Kuki-Zos—separated by buffer zones guarded by central forces, each inaccessible to the other. This means Kukis in Churachandpur can no longer travel to Imphal airport, barely 60 km away. Instead, they have to endure 10-hour journeys along broken roads to Aizawl, 300 km away, to fly anywhere. Meiteis, too, find their movement restricted—their routes blocked in Kuki-Zo-controlled areas.What was once a multi-ethnic mosaic has hardened into two hostile territories, where crossing into the other's domain

RIDING THE IPO BOOM

WHEN BOURSES CLOSED ON NOVEMBER 18, PHYSICSWALLAH'S STOCK closed 42.4 per cent above its offer price, an emphatic market endorsement for an edtech company on its debut. For Alakh Pandey, who had grown the venture from a YouTube channel into a sprawling hybrid learning network with co-founder Prateek Maheshwari's support, it felt like vindication. As it was for a sector that many had written off post the boom years of the COVID-19 pandemicBut PhysicsWallah was just one of five new-age technology firms that collectively sought to raise Rs 23,190 crore in the flurry of IPOs (initial public offering) in the past two and a half months. Urban Company kicked off the season in September, Lenskart followed in late October, and November saw Groww, Pine Labs and PhysicsWallah enter the markets in a single week. Across the lot, oversubscription was strong and listing-day performance broadly upbeatThis when the start-up pipeline had thinned for much of the past three years. The exuberance of 2021-- when several tech unicorns rushed to the market--had given way to a sobering correction. Many newly listed firms struggled to hold their issue prices, most notably Paytm, whose shares remain over 40 per cent below their offer price. In this backdrop, the success of this new crop has signalled renewed investor conviction in India's maturing start-up ecosystem. All five have shared a common pitch to the markets, positioning themselves not as speculative bets, but as disciplined, scaled-up businesses ready for the scrutiny that comes with public ownership, especially as the nature of their valuations remains open to question at a time of global uncertainty. HOW THE FIVE STACK UP ounded in 2014, Urban Company has spent years building a Ffull-stack marketplace for home services--beauty, wellness, cleaning and repairs. It looked to raise Rs 1,900 crore through the IPO, with the proceeds earmarked for technology development, cloud infrastructure and marketing. With revenue of Rs 1,144 crore in FY25 and a rare net profit of Rs 240 crore, it offered public investors one thing start-ups have historically struggled to show: profitabilityEyewear company Lenskart's Rs 7,278 crore issue was also backed by a clear expansion agenda--new stores, technology upgrades and strategic acquisitions. With over 2,800 stores worldwide and the highest volume of prescription eyeglasses sold in India in FY25, the company founded in 2008 has evolved into a mainstream eyewear retailer, while still relying on technology to keep its operations sharpRiding the momentum of India's retail investing surge, Groww's parent, Billionbrains Garage Ventures, raised Rs 6,632 crore. The platform--which lets users invest and trade across stocks, derivatives, bonds and mutual funds-- has expanded rapidly, growing transacting users at a CAGR of more than 57 per cent since FY22 to reach 18 million by June 2025. It now plans to deploy the proceeds towards cloud infrastructure, brand-building, marketing and fresh capital for its subsidiaries.