Thinker. Educationist. Entrepreneur
IIT Delhi '93. Secular liberal
NTSE scholar
I love my India
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Nov 15 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
If you are an Indian
and/or an Infosys shareholder
Read this -
Infosys was this close 🤌 to getting a large stake in a firm that now is the AI bellwether globally.
OpenAI.
In 2015, then Infy CEO Vishal Sikka was about to make a huge investment in an unknown firm (OpenAI) because he saw the massive potential in what it was about to achieve (ChatGPT and more).
Then just as suddenly, Vishal Sikka was thrown out of Infosys by its promoters (Nilekani, Murthy and co.) in a strange manner.
They didn't even bother to assess OpenAI.
Continued doing what they did all along - dull, boring, backend support work for the world.
And with it, the opportunity of an Indian company to own a large share in a foundational AI model was lost. And so was lost value worth billions. Soon maybe hundreds of billions.
Begs the question - why did they commit this harakiri?
Satya Nadella of Microsoft didn't. He invested. He saw what Vishal Sikka too had.
Meanwhile, Murthy still believes value is created by working 70 hrs per week. No doubt!
Poor Infy shareholders. Victims of strategic myopia.
#OpenAI #VishalSikka #NandanNilekani #NarayanaMurthy #AI
Had Vishal Sikka continued, and could have invested $500 m back then (he had large plans), that stake alone may have been worth tens of billions of dollars today for Infosys! In addition to becoming a firm with a solid eye on future.
All lost.
Jul 23 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
After 2024 General Elections, and after today's Budget
11. Crony capitalists - ✅ 12. Abdul ki choodi tight karni hi hai - ✅ 13. Modi ji se mohabbat karte hain bhai - ✅
#UnionBudget2024 #IndianEconomy
#IndianPolitics
Apr 24 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Wealth Redistribution
Five Facts
1⃣ The first-ever middle class of India was created in the 1950s, 60s and 70s due to the PSU employment, built by the socialist governments of the day. Their kids are now at the forefront of abusing socialism, and any proactive policies to help the poor. Many of those folks are now full-time WhatsApp Unkils.
2⃣ The massive wealth transfer that has happened after 1991 till date (33 years) from the bottom rungs of Indian social pyramid to top 10%, is unprecedented. This is neoliberalism's direct fallout. Documentation exists.
(same trouble in US too)
3⃣ Every time a crony capitalist bags another airport, another port, another jungle and another big company at low prices, it's wealth transfer happening before our eyes. Every time the NPAs were written off, and NCLT settlements happened at throw-away haircuts, that was wealth transfer on a giant scale.
4⃣ A middle class person paying extortionate taxes on fuel and highway tolls is an involuntary participant in wealth transfer to the super-rich (who control the corporates of India that control those roads and refineries, and even the government!). Ask yourself - if cheap crude was sourced from Russia after 2022, why did pump prices not reduce substantially for you and me? Why did refineries (including private ones) made a killing exporting refined petro products to Europe? Was that not wealth transfer to the top chaps? [micro-gains that could come to you and me went in a macro way to the Seths of India]
The next time you pay that extortionate toll at that shiny new highway, made from your own taxes, ask - "Why this toll at all"?
5⃣ No middle class person need worry about any inheritance tax, or any "wealth transfer scheme" at all, because frankly, all of us are quite "unwealthy". In fact, anyone not having wealth upwards of Rs.100 crores (a rough figure) does not even matter. But the way we are being whacked by taxes, with poor returns, while the corporates make hay by way of lower taxes, is worth watching. If any inheritance tax is ever brought, the super-rich will remain super-rich even after that.
Since the 1980s, the world has turned upside down. The top 1% elite now literally own everything, even as middle class folks like me and you slog and some of us hyperventilate to protect those 1% elite. Pointless.
Ask for a debate. A well-informed one. And let right policies be made. Do not fall prey to nonsensical fear-mongering by media controlled by that very 1%.
Ask yourself
Who owns the government via funding?
Who bought those electoral bonds?
Who owns the Godi Media?
--------
Who holds the wealth in India?
(Total population = 140 cr)
1⃣Top 1% -- holds 40.1% of total wealth
Top 10% -- holds 65% of total wealth
So 14 crore people hold wealth equal to 126 crores (which hold just 35%)!
2⃣Bottom 50% -- holds 6.4% of total wealth
(a life of permanent slavery, almost)
3⃣ Middle 40% -- holds just 28.6%
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ELECTORAL BONDS SCAM
The Government tried its best to scuttle the Electoral Bonds final details disclosure (i.e. unique numbers) and the Supreme Court said "nothing doing". Give everything immediately. Wonderful and precise.
Deadline for all pending details - 5 pm, Thursday
ECI to upload it - Friday.
#ElectoralBondScam #ElectoralBondsCase
-----
Corporates are spooked, and want unique nos. to not be disclosed at any cost, as then - QUID PRO QUO can be established fairly quickly. Yes, that's the real fear, not "privacy of donation", because anyway max donations have gone to BJP only.
#ElectoralBondScam #ElectoralBondsCase
Mar 26, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
STATE OF INDIAN MEDIA
(1/5)
The Rahul Gandhi episode has brought 5 truths of Indian media out in the open. Here they are
TRUTH 1.
Mainstream media is completely captured by rich industrialists now. Journalists /anchors are just paid hitmen, waiting to run down Modi opponents.
(2/5)
TRUTH 2.
Modi supporters are perfectly happy with his not taking any press meets.
"Who takes a press meet? If you are working hard, why do you need a press meet?"
"Who has the faltu time to take press meets?"
The whole idea of media and accountability is destroyed.