In this week’s wrapup, we discuss whether PLI alone is enough to induce domestic manufacturing, how exam paper leaks became an industry, the Manipal Health IPO, Air India’s hard luck, and whether Coforge can build an AI giant through acquisitions.

With that out of the way, let’s look back at what we wrote this week.

Is PLI alone enough to induce manufacturing?

Governments around the world are spending billions to bring manufacturing back home. India is no different. Through schemes like PLI, higher import duties, and local sourcing rules, it is trying to persuade companies to build everything from semiconductors to batteries and solar equipment within the country.

At first glance, it might seem like subsidies are doing all the heavy lifting. But that's only part of the story.

Because while protection can help industries find their footing, keeping them sheltered for too long can make them dependent on government support instead of global competitiveness.

So, can India use today's policy support to build manufacturing champions that can eventually stand on their own, or will subsidies become an end rather than a means?

Read our Monday story to find out.

How exam paper leaks became an industry

Every year, millions of students in India compete for a few thousand coveted medical college seats that can, in effect, secure their future with low-cost education and a lifetime of opportunities. Miss out, and the same degree could cost lakhs or even crores of rupees.

This scarcity has fuelled an underground industry worth crores of rupees — the exam paper leak industry. Over the last couple of months, its consequences have spilled onto the streets, with students protesting across Delhi, Mumbai, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Kolkata and several other cities against an education system plagued by paper leaks and policies they believe encourage corruption. The protests eventually led to the country’s Education Minister stepping down, while the government proposed stronger laws to crack down on organised exam malpractice.

But if you think this story is just about cheating in exams, think again. It’s also about whether laws are actually enforced after they’re passed by Parliament.

We covered this and more in Tuesday’s newsletter. You can read it here.

The Manipal Health IPO Explained

India's healthcare industry is expanding rapidly. More people have health insurance, incomes are rising, and organised hospital chains are steadily replacing smaller standalone hospitals. Riding this wave is Manipal Hospitals, which has grown into the country's largest hospital network by bed capacity and is now heading to the public markets with one of India's biggest healthcare IPOs.

But can Manipal convert its industry-leading scale into consistent shareholder returns?

Read our full story to find out.

Air India’s hard luck

When the Tata Group bought back Air India in 2022, it promised to revive the airline in just five years.

Since then, it has rebranded the carrier, ordered hundreds of new aircraft, merged its airlines, upgraded technology, and tripled its domestic market share. Yet losses have surged. And just a few days ago, we heard the Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran say that turning Air India around could take as long as a decade.

So what’s holding Air India back despite one of India’s most ambitious corporate revival plans?

We unpack the real reasons in Thursday’s newsletter. Read it here.

Can coforge build an AI giant through acquisitions?

For decades, India's IT industry followed a simple formula. Hire more engineers, win more projects, and grow revenues by billing more hours to clients. That model helped create giants like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro.

But as software development becomes more automated, simply adding more engineers may no longer be enough. And that's where Coforge is taking a very different approach.

Instead of trying to win customers one account at a time, it's spending billions of dollars acquiring companies that already have deep, long-standing client relationships.

But can Coforge prove that buying customer relationships is a good growth strategy or is it taking on far more risk than the AI era demands?

Read yesterday’s story to find out.

Finshots Weekly Quiz v2.0 🧠

Hey folks! As you probably already know, the Finshots Weekly Quiz has a new avatar. If you missed out, don’t worry. Click here to check out the rules and start participating in the quiz today to stand a chance of making it to this month’s leaderboard, and maybe even winning some merch!

But for now, it’s time to announce the top scorers of our previous weekly quiz. There were a whole bunch of you who participated, and many of you ended up with the same scores. So we’re calling you Bulls, Bears, Unicorns, Blue Chips, and Rising Stars. Here’s how the leaderboard looks right now:

As you can see, we have eight top scorers fighting for the merch. But unfortunately, there’s just one merch box to be won every month.

So to break the tie, we’ll be sending a tie-breaker question to all the “Bulls” via email. Keep an eye on your inbox! The one who gets it right the fastest wins the exclusive Finshots merch for July 2026, and we’ll reveal the winner’s name next week.

And to the rest of you whose names made it to the leaderboard, congratulations! You may not have won the merch this time, but you showed up consistently and earned a spot on Finshots’ weekly leaderboard. That’s pretty cool.

So don’t lose hope. Hit the reset button this month and keep answering all the weekly quizzes. Who knows? You might just be the winner this time around.

Click on this link to take this week’s quiz, which is open till 12 noon, Friday, 7th of August, 2026. The more answers you get right, the better your chances of appearing on the Finshots Weekly Quiz leaderboard. We’ll publish it every Saturday in the Weekly Wrapup. And the winner will be announced in the first week of September.

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