On June 23, 2026, India cheered the news of Mumbaikar Kunal Shah being appointed as the global head of WhatsApp. In the same week, international banker Ashok Vaswani announced his decision to step down as CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank by the end of the year, choosing not to seek re-appointment upon completion of his current three-year term. The two developments could not have been more contrasting.

“I wonder how long we will be able to continue this community taxi service”, said Sher Singh Choudhary, Chairman of the Dharmaveer Anand Dighe Taxi Stand located outside Hiranandani Estate, a sprawling township in Thane, a city adjacent to Mumbai. Around 20 taxi drivers currently operate from Hiranandani Estate, providing on-call taxi service to the residents. However, their business has been dwindling, amid competition from lower-priced ride-hailing platforms and rising operational challenges.

How  Companies are Monetising the Customer Beyond the Price Tag. Inflation is globally a very sensitive issue for consumers. As a result, businesses have figured out ingenious ways of charging consumers more without always increasing the prices of their products or services. The consumer economy globally is steadily moving from conventional price inflation to stealth inflation and, increasingly, to an extraction model, in which companies seek to extract more value from the same customer. The issue isn't that companies monetise customers more aggressively. The problem begins when the additional monetisation exceeds the customer's perception of additional value.