When a new brand launches, the biggest challenge is not always creating a great product. It is getting people to trust the brand enough to buy it. You may have a beautiful website, excellent products and a compelling story. But if nobody knows your brand, spending heavily on Meta or...
From 16 telecom companies to a handful. From many airlines to two giants. From hundreds of choices to “Which one of these two?” Something strange is happening in India. We are building one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, creating unicorns, launching satellites, building highways, expanding airports and becoming a global...
If you have ever driven through Bengaluru, chances are you have used the famous NICE Road. Every day, thousands of commuters pay tolls without realizing something extraordinary—this is not a government-built road. It is one of India’s largest privately developed road projects. For many Bengaluru residents, it is surprising to...
A famous brand can disappear. Your money can disappear with it. “If a company is famous, it must be safe.” Millions of Indian investors believed this. They invested in companies that dominated television advertisements, cricket sponsorships, airports, education, telecom, aviation and banking. Some were worth billions. Some were India’s largest...
The day I entered the handloom industry, I expected to learn about fabrics, looms, yarn counts, dyes, and weaving techniques. Instead, I learned something far more disturbing. The biggest problem wasn’t weaving. It was trust. Every product seemed to carry a beautiful story. “Handmade.” “Artisan-made.” “Natural.” “Eco-friendly.” “Traditional.” But when...
Every successful business you admire today has one thing in common that nobody talks about. It survived long enough. People celebrate billion-dollar valuations, successful IPOs, and founders on magazine covers. What they don’t see are the thousands of days when those founders questioned everything. The unpaid bills. The sleepless nights....
For years, Indians have proudly pointed to Silicon Valley and said, “Look at who is running the world’s biggest technology companies.” And they have a point. Today, some of the most influential technology companies on Earth are led by people of Indian origin. Sundar Pichai – Google and Alphabet Satya...
Ashwini Vaishnaw recently told a room full of startups that India will move from a “services nation” to a “product nation” on the back of chip making. The government now backs 24 fabless design startups and wants 50. He is right that design is where India’s real edge lies. We...
Some people are born into purpose. I was not. I had to fail my way into it. I grew up in Kollam, Kerala, watching my grandfather run a textile business. I didn’t study his ledgers. I didn’t analyse his margins. I just watched him — the way he spoke to...
There is a quiet anxiety spreading across office floors, open-plan cubicles, and LinkedIn feeds. People are watching AI eat through tasks they spent years mastering — writing, coding, analysis, customer support, financial modelling — and they are telling themselves, “I’ll be fine. My role is different.” Most of them are...
