Manvi Singh, a marketing executive in her early 20s, commutes over 20 kilometers to her office on the outskirts of Delhi every day. Until six months ago, this commute would take an hour and 15 minutes and include four switchovers: an auto rickshaw to the metro station, a train for half the distance, and a transfer to another line before catching another auto for the final stretch.

“Where I live, the metro is almost nine to 10 kilometers away,” she explains. “Plus, the traffic is terrible on the entire route from my house to the office.”

Lately, Singh has found a solution to this exhausting daily ordeal: Uber Shuttle, a shared bus service that allows users to book seats through the ride-hailing company’s app. 

Singh now travels in an air-conditioned bus that picks her up near her house and drops her off at the office. Although the bus is only marginally cheaper and faster than her earlier commute, Singh says, it’s significantly more comfortable, less crowded, and safer.

Uber Shuttle was developed by the San Francisco–based company’s tech teams in Bengaluru and Hyderabad in 2019 as a service that complements public transportation and helps fill transit gaps. The offering was first piloted in Cairo. For the service, Uber partners with private fleet operators who run buses on set lines and schedules, operating in a manner somewhat similar to how Uber collaborates with individual drivers for its cab services.

A “passion project” for Uber’s president of India and South Asia, Prabhjeet Singh, Shuttle is currently available in Delhi and Kolkata. The company is now looking to launch Uber Shuttle in new cities: It is currently running pilots in Hyderabad and Mumbai and has applied for regulatory approvals in India’s tech hub Bengaluru, Uber’s Singh told Rest of World.

“There are so many large employers in Bengaluru who can make use of these shuttle services,” Ashish Verma, a professor of transportation systems engineering at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru and convenor of the institute’s Sustainable Transportation Lab. “They are shared services, so all the benefits of a public transport system that we generally understand — whether it is space economy, reduction in emissions per passenger carried, or energy consumed per passenger carried — would also apply to these shuttle services.”  

Besides India, Uber Shuttle has been rolled out to more than 20 cities worldwide, including New York City, Miami, Mexico City, and Cairo. Since its launch, Uber Shuttle has completed nearly 30 million trips globally, according to the company. This year, the company partnered with the organizers of some sporting events and concerts in the U.S. to provide bus shuttles for attendees.

Uber did not share details on the commission it charges bus operators for this service. “We are not commenting on financial details related to the offering,” a company spokesperson told Rest of World.

Much of Uber’s expansion and growth in India and South Asia is led by division president Singh, who has spearheaded operations since 2020 and moved from Delhi to Bengaluru in 2022. His leadership was particularly tested during the Covid-19 pandemic, which Singh described as “one of the toughest phases” of his career.

“Suddenly, we had earners who couldn’t access their livelihood opportunities,” Singh told Rest of World. “There were certain riders, particularly in emergency services, who wanted to travel but didn’t have options available. Internally, it was a period where the business had to reset in a material way. Then, as the pandemic receded, [the question became] how do you win back the confidence of drivers and riders so that they start coming back and know that Uber is safe to use?”

Singh sees Shuttle as a way to rebuild trust among drivers and commuters.

Indian cities rank among the worst in terms of traffic congestion. Calling a service like Shuttle “very important,” Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras and an expert in sustainable mobility, told Rest of World that India’s traffic problem is a direct threat to India’s stated goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.

“Both in the morning and evening, home to office and office to home, it is taking two hours. Two hours of your time every day is spent on transport — this is not India’s future,” Jhunjhunwala said. “I think innovative India … [would] require very innovative solutions for transport and mobility solutions, particularly for urban transport.”

Uber Shuttle is operational on 300 routes in Delhi, the company said. The growth in Delhi is partially thanks to the company’s collaboration with the municipal government. In September, Uber became the first ride-hailing aggregator to receive a license under the Delhi Motor Vehicles Licensing of Aggregator (Premium Buses) Scheme, 2023. As part of the announcement, former Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot drove a Shuttle bus himself.

Uber hopes to get similar support from the Karnataka government as it eyes launch into the southern state’s capital, Bengaluru. “This requires a regulatory handshake,” Singh said. “So we are in constant dialogue. And I’m hoping that the Karnataka government is also open to ideas, taking inspiration from Delhi on this.”

While the service is an improvement from her previous commute, Manvi Singh says it isn’t perfect. Sometimes buses bypass pickup points entirely. One time, she was stranded in Noida because a vehicle ran out of fuel. Singh rates her experience with Uber Shuttle as a “60–40” toss-up.

This article is adapted from Rest of World’s recent feature: The math tutor and the missing $533 million

Named for its founder, Byju Raveendran, the learning app Byju’s (sometimes stylized as BYJU’s) was once one of the best known brands in India. The company was a pioneer in the field of educational technology, in a country with a massive appetite for education solutions. By 2017, big-name investors like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative had vaulted Byju’s into the upper echelons of global edtech companies, sparking a worldwide acquisitions spree. At its peak in 2022, the company was valued at about $22 billion, with roughly 60,000 employees and millions of paying users. Today, its founder says it’s “worth zero.” 

How did Byju’s start?

Byju Raveendran was born in 1980 in Azhikode, a small village in Kerala, the state with the highest literacy rate in India. Raveendran’s parents were teachers at the school he attended. His father taught physics and his mother taught math. 

As a kid, Raveendran loved math — and he said his seventh-grade math teacher once even asked him to lead the class while she was away. “Otherwise I was an introvert,” Raveendran said. “But the moment I started teaching math, I saw the value that I was giving.” 

Raveendran studied mechanical engineering at a nearby college. On a visit to Bengaluru in 2003, some friends asked if he’d coach them for an entrance test for the elite Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), whose MBAs are highly prized in the international job market. Eventually, the lessons moved to a classroom at a local college, Raveendran said. “Once I started doing that — and it was free, this is not business, I was doing it for fun — they started bringing their friends.” 

These in-person “math shows” quickly expanded. Raveendran says he rented an auditorium with a seating capacity of 1,200 and began charging 1,000 rupees per ticket — around $20 at the time — to cover rentals. As word spread of Raveendran’s abilities and his students’ success, demand rose. Raveendran rented sports stadiums that could seat up to 25,000 students.   

As smartphones and broadband internet became ubiquitous, ​​Raveendran began recording his lectures on video. In 2011, he founded the company Think and Learn, whose goal was to create instructional content that would appeal to students of all ages. In August 2015, the company launched the Byju’s learning app, which combined recorded lectures with virtual demonstrations, animations, and games. Within months, millions of Indians had downloaded the app. Within a year, Byju’s had acquired some 300,000 paying subscribers. 

Why did Byju’s go bankrupt?

As investors lined up, Raveendran wanted Byju’s to become a global edtech giant. Starting in July of 2017, the company began a string of acquisitions with TutorVista, an online company used mainly by students in the United States.

Demand for Byju’siByju’sA leading edtech firm, Byju’s was founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath and is headquartered in Bengaluru.READ MORE remote learning content soared when the Covid-19 pandemic shut classrooms in 2020. But the increase in downloads masked serious business troubles. Byju’s 2021 earnings report made it evident that the business had not been profitable for some time. The company had lost a staggering amount of roughly $550 million in the previous year. 

In the absence of real growth in profits, Byju’s became dependent on new rounds of fundraising. In March 2022, it announced it had raised a total of $800 million via a personal contribution from Raveendran and new funding from three investment companies, bringing the company to a reported valuation of $22 billion. 

The missing $533 million and a hedge fund inside an IHOP

In November 2021, the company had raised $1.2 billion in a “term loan B” from lenders in the United States. Byju’s defaulted on the loan. In March 2023, the lenders removed the leader of Byju’s U.S. subsidiary, Alpha Inc, and appointed a new director. In February 2024, Alpha filed for bankruptcy. Lenders sued Byju’s parent company, Think and Learn, in a bankruptcy court. 

Plaintiffs alleged that $533 million of the $1.2 billion loan had been siphoned to ​​Camshaft Capital Fund, a hedge fund once registered at the address of an International House of Pancakes restaurant in Miami. Camshaft was run by a 23-year-old with seemingly no relevant educational or professional experience, who’d purportedly spent part of the funds on a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, and a Rolls-Royce. In February 2025, the court validated the allegation that Alpha Inc had fraudulently transferred funds from the $1.2 billion loan to Camshaft, essentially engaging in theft. 

Things were starting to unravel in India as well. In July 2024, insolvency proceedings were initiated against Byju’s in India after the country’s National Company Law Tribunal admitted a lawsuit over unpaid dues from its sponsorship of the Indian cricket team. Tens of thousands of employees were let go in successive rounds of layoffs. At a press briefing in October 2024, Raveendran lamented that the legal troubles and investor exits had all but destroyed the company. “It’s worth zero,” he declared. 

Where is Byju Raveendran now? 

Today Raveendran lives in a mansion in Dubai. Speaking to Rest of World in January, Raveendran insisted the allegations of theft are baseless. He said Byju’s troubles had simply resulted from “trying to grow too soon, too fast,” and described himself as a victim of a conspiracy by U.S. lenders. Raveendran says he expects to regain control of his company. Barring that, he could simply start a new one: “The moment I start teaching, I’m sure I will fill stadiums again.”

Patrick McGee’s new book, Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company, is out this week, just as the U.S. and China agreed to lower tariff levels for 90 days, with levies on Chinese imports dropping to 30% from up to 145%. 

Apple, the world’s second-most valuable company, is caught between the U.S., its home country, and China, its primary manufacturing base. Over the past few years, Apple has set up more production lines in Vietnam and India, and Chief Executive Tim Cook recently said most iPhones sold in the U.S. would be made in India. The company has also pledged to buy chips from TSMC’s Arizona plant and to make servers in Texas starting next year. 

Yet McGee, who reported on Apple for the Financial Times, argues that the company is still far from withdrawing from China. The company has invested billions of dollars in talent and equipment in China, and the country’s authoritarian government now has more influence over Apple’s fate than any other country, he writes. As China and the U.S. held their closely watched trade talks, McGee spoke to Rest of World about where Apple stands. 

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is the main thrust of your book? 

My argument is essentially that Apple is playing the role of Prometheus handing the Chinese the gift of fire. Apple’s influence on China exceeds that of the Marshall Plan’s impact on Europe after World War II. 

Apple acknowledges that it’s trained 28 million workers in China since 2008. It’s greater than the labor force of California. And the figure is a decade old, but they were investing $55 billion a year in China.

The Achilles heel of the company is that everything is made in China … [and] we were not putting enough attention on it.

Apple has been expanding its manufacturing presence in countries like India and Vietnam. Do you think Apple is on its way to reduce its reliance on China? 

I think Apple wants the perception that they are moving a lot to India, that they are responding to what Donald Trump is asking for. And they want the reality of continuing to build as much as they can out of China because its capabilities there are second to none.

If next year you buy an iPhone and it says “Made in India” on the box, that phone will not be any less dependent on the China-centric supply chain than any other iPhone you have ever purchased.

If for some reason something hits the fan in China, no iPhones will be made in India because all of the sub-assembly, and the years of work leading up to it, is still all taking place in China.

Why is Apple so slow on diversifying out of China? Is the company worried about anything happening to its supply chains there? 

One is that China can make it really difficult for them. Are they going to more publicly move things to India? And say “yep, we are rounding down our investments in China?” 

I quote someone saying that they need to walk out of China, but they can’t run. If they run, they risk the ire of Beijing as well as the Chinese consumers. But if they go too slowly, then they remain stuck in China. So they have to find this perfect pace to exit because they can’t become the poster child of de-risking from China. 

I have got sourcing that Apple has told China, “OK, more stuff is going to India, but the supply chain is becoming more and more Chinese.” The rise of the “red supply chain,” which includes companies like BYD, [electronics firm] Luxshare, [acoustic parts maker] Goertek, and [semiconductor company] Wingtech, is of geopolitical importance.

Can Apple replicate its powerful supplier network in China elsewhere? 

I wouldn’t say never, but I’m not optimistic. I think China was a once-in-a-century partner that operated at a level of investment, of speed, of political quickness that it’s going to be really difficult for any other country to replicate.

Things are moving to India, just way more slowly than anybody seems to understand. Apple started with zero phones made in China in 2007. By the end of the year, they had made 3 or 4 million. And by 2014, they were building about 200 million phones. 

A decade later [2017], the first phones were made in India. And by 2024, about 25 million phones were made in India. At best, the diversification to India has happened at one-tenth the speed that happened in China a decade earlier. 

Why Vietnam is so proficient at manufacturing is that they are close enough to China to be able to get all the materials and components. But if something blew up in China, again, you wouldn’t be like, Oh well, thank God for doing this in Vietnam. Because in that scenario, Vietnam would be as exposed to China as anybody else is.

You write that the supply chains Apple cultivated have also benefited China’s homegrown tech giants. Apple is now losing market share to Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi; are the Chinese tech industry and consumers ready to live without Apple? 

The reason why Beijing at the moment would not take any action against Apple is because they learn so much from them. For instance, the Vision Pro headset is all being assembled by Luxshare. So you can imagine it’s a bunch of Ph.D.s from Apple teaching them how to do it.

I don’t know that iPhone share is going to fall apart anytime soon, just because there are so many other reasons why, if you’re in that ecosystem, you stick with it. But consumer loyalty is less explicit in China. So many of the applications that they use are not from the app store, but the WeChat universe. And Chinese customers have reasons for supporting a national champion. 

As China and the U.S. negotiate tariffs and trade now, can Beijing use Apple as a bargaining chip? 

The way you phrased the question is already really revealing, right? You didn’t ask, can Washington use Apple as a bargaining chip?

That’s a crazy thing to say, that it’s America’s most iconic company and it’s a bargaining chip of Beijing’s. Yeah, I mean, you’re totally right. Beijing clearly has more of a hold on Apple’s day-to-day operations than Washington does.